012 ˛˝’( %) 7-8 $%%/&a˝7a&,5 7$8--.˚ ($-/-7 -56$ . 7 5a(6$’& … to turn into a...

16
I n a shocking incident, decomposed dead bodies of five members of a family were recovered by police from a one-bed room house of the Kulda Coalmines under the Hemgiri police station in Sundargarh district on Monday afternoon. Senior police offi- cials including Sundargarh SP Pinak Mishra reached the spot and started investigation. Sources said locals of the residential colony of the Kulda Coalmines, a unit of the Mahanadi Coalfields Ltd (MCL), informed the police in morning that foul smell was coming from the closed house. A police team, which visited the spot, broke open the main door of the house. The deceased were identi- fied as Ramayan Prasad Sharma (50), his wife Milli (43), son Rabindra (19), elder daughter Sanju (16) and younger daughter Anju (11). Ramayan Prasad, a native of Uttar Pradesh, was working as a labour contractor in the mines. Neighbours said they had not seen the family mem- bers coming out since Friday last. SP Pinak Mishra said, “Since, all doors of the house were locked from inside, the possibility of a murder is very remote in this case. During preliminary investigation, we have located a kerosene-driven generator, due to which we suspect it to be a case of asphyxia (choking of breath due to smoke). For that reason, we are seeking help of an elec- trical engineer. A team of doc- tors would conduct post- mortem.” Mishra also did not rule out the possibility of a suicidal pact of the family. This could only be ascertained in post- mortem report, he added. T he low pressure area over the Bay of Bengal is likely to turn into a depression dur- ing the next 24 hours resulting in heavy rains in the State, said Regional Office of Indian Metrological Department (IMD) on Monday. “The associated upper air cyclonic circulation extends up to 7.6 km above mean sea level and the system is likely to inten- sify into a depression during the next 24 hours,” IMD Regional Director Sarat Sahu said. Stating that rain and thun- dershower are likely to occur at most places in the State, Sahu warned that heavy to very heavy rainfall at a few places with extremely heavy rainfall at one or two places in the dis- tricts of south Odisha and heavy to very heavy rainfall at one or two places in the dis- tricts of north Odisha during the next 24 hours. Besides, Cautionary Signal- III has been hoisted at three ports in the State and fisher- men advised not to venture into the sea. Sahu advised fish- ermen not to venture into the sea due to rough to very rough condition of the ocean, adding that strong gusty surface wind from north-easterly direction with speed reaching 45-55 kmph, gusting to 65 kmph is likely to prevail along and off Odisha coast. T he two-member team of the Wildlife Institute of India (WII), which visited sheep-killing sites of Niali and Bhanjanagar, on Monday, said wolves, hyenas and jackals are killing rams and lambs at dif- ferent places. “We feel that nocturnal animals like wolves, hyenas and jackals are killing sheep different places,” team memer Dr Salvador Lyngdoh told reporters. Notably, Lyngdoh and his associate Sougata Sadhukhan visited villages under Niali block in Cuttack district and villages under Bhanjanagar block in Ganjam district and conducted on-the-spot study. They held discussions with PCCF (Wildlife) SS Srivastava and Additional PCCF PK Mohan before and after their visits. On the reason behind mass killing of sheep, they said the killer animals might be train- ing their cubs on how to hunt preys. They felt that consump- tion of soft tissues and viscer- al parts as well as preference of sheep over goats or calves of cattle was normal. Srivastava said farmers, whose sheep have been killed, would be compensated by the Government. “We had sent a proposal to the Government suggesting amending laws to pay compensation to affected farmers. The Government has agreed to it,” said he. D espite the river water lev- els receding, the flood sit- uation continued to be grim in Kalyansinghpur block in Rayagada district on Mondaydue to heavy downpour on the Niyamagiri Hills adjacent to Kalyansinghpur. Though for a brief period the waters receded in the Nagavali and Kalyani rivers, they swelled again due to con- tinuous rain disrupting com- munication to the block head- quarters of Kalyansinghpur. Around 10,000 people were seriously affected in ten gram panchayats of the block. As the communication to the highly-affected villages of Budaguda, Majhiguda, Jilunda, Palama and Kalyansinghpur GPs and habitations namely Bada Brahman Sahi, Sana Brahman Sahi, Kampa Sahi, Paika Sahi, Sai Nagar in the block headquarters is disrupted, relief materials are yet to reach by road. Students of residential schools have taken shelter on the first floor. The residents of five villages are trapped due to a collapse of a bridge at Bandalpash in Kashipur block which is adjacent to Kalahandi district. Though there are four ways to reach Kalyan Singhpur, only one road was partially open, that is Sikarpai-Budaguda road, which is covered with mud due to flood remnants. Water was flowing over the Rayagada- Visakhapatnam road at Seskhal. Many villages of Rayagada block namely Gururajuguda, Gosein Kantua, Brahman Halua in Bairagi Halua GP, Ganganpeta, Amplevalsa in Kerada GP, Kandha Maligaon river bank in K.Maligaon GP, Turihansa of Jemadeipentha, Jagannathpur of Pitamahal GP and Jagili St, part of Bhakurguda of Katapeta GP are badly affected. The Koranala bridge connecting Bainaguda with Gudari NAC is also broken and many villages of Karlaghati, Khariguda, Madhubana and Pendili are cut off. The district administration has swung into swift action in combating this sudden unwant- ed situation and a 24X7 sur- veillance team is in place under the direct supervision of the District Collector Guha Punam Tapas Kumar. Airdropping of dry food stuff by helicopters began on Monday in spite of incessant rain in Kalyansinghpur. Around seven hundred vil- lagers have been shifted from the affected villages of Rayagada block, kept in nearby schools and provided with cooked food. The feeding programme will continue for a week. Collector has declared closure of all schools for seven days in Kalyansinghpur and Rayagada blocks. ODRAF and Fire Brigade teams along with CRPF have rescued many villagers who were stranded either on a tree or on rooftops surrounded by torrential rivers. Nevertheless, the relief amount, especially in Kalyansinghpur block is just pit- tance, said a trader of Hataseskhal J Dasu Kumar. Restoring electricity is the need of the hour and so also supply of safe drinking water, he added. “There is every possibility of an epidemic which is a recur- ring phenomenon in Kalyansinghpur block, espe- cially gastro-enteritis. As the local hospital is extremely ill- equipped, extra staffing and upgrading of the hospital is needed”, said a local tribal leader Akshey Pidisika. The telephone services need also be restored soon. Similarly, the situation in Kalahandi district was till grim. Thuamul Rampur block is the worst-affected. Vehicular communication between Junagarh and Dharmagarh, Bhawanipatna, Nabarangpur is hit as water in Hati river has crossed bridge level due to incessant rain in upper catchment and release of surplus water from the reservoir. Similarly, communication between Gunupur and Thuamul Rampur was severe- ly affected as water crossed the bridge level on Nagabali river. Several roads were washed away at different places bring- ing vehicular traffic to a grind- ing halt. Trees were uprooted at many places and several vil- lages were inundated. A heavy downpour on Sunday caused waterlog- ging in several areas of the city bringing life to a grinding halt. Water entered into the homes in many areas giving sleepless nights to the residents. The areas like Kanika Chhack, Meria Bazaar, Alisha Bazaar, Badambadi, Hazari Lane, Khatbin Sahi, Odia Bazaar, Jhola Sahi, Seminary Chhack , Pithapur, Bidanasi, Deula Sahi were the worst- affected. Even the residence of the district Collector was waterlogged. The excess water remained stagnant for hours compounding the woes of the residents. Vehicular communica- tions were disrupted and the motorists had a tough time in reaching their destinations. Many people had to wade through knee deep water and at many places their vehicles developed technical glitches. The overflowing drains also added to the misery. A resident of Hazari Lane, Sushil Kumar Sharma, said the rains which started around 9 am, inundated our homes within half an hour. Many of our household accessories were damaged. We had to go without food and our family had to spend sleepless nights as the waste of drains entered our house. But till Monday afternoon neither any CMC officials nor the local corporator turned up to inquire about the problem leave alone solve them.” Some residents said as work for the JICA project is still incomplete and many places have been dug up, the people faced lot of difficul- ties. Some of them fell into the uncovered pits and were injured. They said they face the same problem during the monsoons every year and the authorities continue to dish out false assurance repeatedly. So, it is Bhagwan Bharosa for them. U rban Development Minister and senior BJP leader Muppavarapu Venkaiah Naidu was on Monday nomi- nated as the vice-presidential candidate of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) with BJP Parliamentary Board officially announcing his name “with full consensus”. Naidu, who faces Oppo- sition candidate Gopalkrishna Gandhi, will file his nomination for election to Vice-President post on Tuesday morning. BJP president Amit Shah announced the decision of the Parliamentary Board. “Many names were considered but the final consensus reached on Naidu, one of the senior most leaders in the country with 25 years of Parliamentary experi- ence,” he said. Considering that the elect- ed Vice-President is also Chairman of Upper House, who will be tasked to run the proceeding there, Naidu seemed to fit the bill. The Modi Government is set to introduce and seek passage of several important legislations through the Rajya Sabha. Naidu’s elevation as Vice- President would leave Urban Development and I&B Ministries unmanned. This apart, Parliamentary Board and Rajya Sabha (Naidu is elected from Rajasthan) will have one vacancy each. Known for his good com- mand over English and Hindi, the NDA Vice-President can- didate was recently praised by Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his knowledge about the national Capital. “Naiduji knows Delhi as much as Vijaywada,” the Prime Minister had said about him. Praising Naidu, Shah said Naidu stepped into public life in 1970 and played key role as a member of ‘Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP)’ in the Jaiprakash movement. Naidu has held important post of general secretary in the party and was two-term national BJP president first being from 2002-2004. He succeeded Jana Krishnamurthy as the nation- al BJP president in 2002 and was elected unopposed for a full three-year term. After the defeat of the BJP-led NDA in the 2004 general elections, he resigned from his post on October 18, 2004 and was suc- ceeded by LK Advani. He was the Union Cabinet Minister for Rural Development in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee Government. Naidu was born at Chavatapalem in the Nellore district of Andhra Pradesh on July 1, 1949. He completed schooling from VR High School, Nellore, and pursued his bachelor’s degree in politics and diplomatic studies from VR College. Later, he acquired a bachelor’s degree in law with a specialisation in internation- al law from Andhra University College of Law, Visakhapatnam. Continued on Page 4 R uling National Democratic Alliance nominee Ram Nath Kovind, a former Rajya Sabha member from Uttar Pradesh and an ex-Bihar Governor, is all set to be the next President of India after the poll process ended on Monday. The way the numbers stack up, Kovind has a clear advantage over Opposition candidate Meira Kumar a former Lok Sabha Speaker. Instances of cross-voting have been reported in five States, including Gujarat, UP, Haryana, Punjab and Tripura during the presidential polls as MPs and MLAs in the country made a beeline to polling stations to choose the 14th President of the nation. The total voting per- centage is expected to be 98 to 99 per cent which is the high- est voter turnout in presidential polls. Significantly, Legislators in UP, West Bengal and Bihar showed keen enthusiasm in choosing the next President. The term of President Pranab Mukherjee expires on July 24 and a new President has to take over by July 25. The ruling BJP exuded confidence that Kovind would Continued on Page 4

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Page 1: 012 ˛˝’( %) 7-8 $%%/&A˝7A&,5 7$8--.˚ ($-/-7 -56$ . 7 5A(6$’& … to turn into a depression dur- ... conducted on-the-spot study. They held discussions with PCCF (Wildlife)

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In a shocking incident,decomposed dead bodies of

five members of a family wererecovered by police from aone-bed room house of theKulda Coalmines under theHemgiri police station inSundargarh district on Mondayafternoon. Senior police offi-cials including Sundargarh SPPinak Mishra reached the spotand started investigation.

Sources said locals of theresidential colony of the KuldaCoalmines, a unit of theMahanadi Coalfields Ltd(MCL), informed the police inmorning that foul smell wascoming from the closed house.A police team, which visitedthe spot, broke open the maindoor of the house.

The deceased were identi-fied as Ramayan PrasadSharma (50), his wife Milli (43),son Rabindra (19), elderdaughter Sanju (16) andyounger daughter Anju (11).

Ramayan Prasad, a nativeof Uttar Pradesh, was workingas a labour contractor in themines. Neighbours said theyhad not seen the family mem-

bers coming out since Fridaylast.

SP Pinak Mishra said,“Since, all doors of the housewere locked from inside, thepossibility of a murder is veryremote in this case. Duringpreliminary investigation, wehave located a kerosene-drivengenerator, due to which wesuspect it to be a case of

asphyxia (choking of breathdue to smoke). For that reason,we are seeking help of an elec-trical engineer. A team of doc-tors would conduct post-mortem.”

Mishra also did not ruleout the possibility of a suicidalpact of the family. This couldonly be ascertained in post-mortem report, he added.

���� �6(�$7-58$&

The low pressure area overthe Bay of Bengal is likely

to turn into a depression dur-ing the next 24 hours resultingin heavy rains in the State, saidRegional Office of IndianMetrological Department(IMD) on Monday.

“The associated upper aircyclonic circulation extends upto 7.6 km above mean sea leveland the system is likely to inten-sify into a depression during thenext 24 hours,” IMD RegionalDirector Sarat Sahu said.

Stating that rain and thun-dershower are likely to occur atmost places in the State, Sahuwarned that heavy to veryheavy rainfall at a few placeswith extremely heavy rainfall atone or two places in the dis-tricts of south Odisha andheavy to very heavy rainfall atone or two places in the dis-tricts of north Odisha duringthe next 24 hours.

Besides, Cautionary Signal-III has been hoisted at threeports in the State and fisher-men advised not to ventureinto the sea. Sahu advised fish-ermen not to venture into thesea due to rough to very roughcondition of the ocean, addingthat strong gusty surface windfrom north-easterly directionwith speed reaching 45-55kmph, gusting to 65 kmph islikely to prevail along and offOdisha coast.

���� �6(�$7-58$&

The two-member team ofthe Wildlife Institute of

India (WII), which visitedsheep-killing sites of Niali andBhanjanagar, on Monday, saidwolves, hyenas and jackals arekilling rams and lambs at dif-ferent places.

“We feel that nocturnalanimals like wolves, hyenasand jackals are killing sheepdifferent places,” team memerDr Salvador Lyngdoh toldreporters.

Notably, Lyngdoh and hisassociate Sougata Sadhukhanvisited villages under Nialiblock in Cuttack district and

villages under Bhanjanagarblock in Ganjam district andconducted on-the-spot study.They held discussions withPCCF (Wildlife) SS Srivastavaand Additional PCCF PKMohan before and after theirvisits.

On the reason behind masskilling of sheep, they said thekiller animals might be train-ing their cubs on how to huntpreys. They felt that consump-

tion of soft tissues and viscer-al parts as well as preference ofsheep over goats or calves ofcattle was normal.

Srivastava said farmers,whose sheep have been killed,would be compensated by theGovernment. “We had sent aproposal to the Governmentsuggesting amending laws topay compensation to affectedfarmers. The Government hasagreed to it,” said he.

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Despite the river water lev-els receding, the flood sit-

uation continued to be grim inKalyansinghpur block inRayagada district onMondaydue to heavy downpouron the Niyamagiri Hills adjacentto Kalyansinghpur.

Though for a brief periodthe waters receded in theNagavali and Kalyani rivers,they swelled again due to con-tinuous rain disrupting com-munication to the block head-quarters of Kalyansinghpur.Around 10,000 people wereseriously affected in ten grampanchayats of the block.

As the communication tothe highly-affected villages ofBudaguda, Majhiguda, Jilunda,Palama and KalyansinghpurGPs and habitations namelyBada Brahman Sahi, SanaBrahman Sahi, Kampa Sahi,Paika Sahi, Sai Nagar in theblock headquarters is disrupted,relief materials are yet to reachby road. Students of residentialschools have taken shelter onthe first floor. The residents offive villages are trapped due toa collapse of a bridge atBandalpash in Kashipur blockwhich is adjacent to Kalahandidistrict.

Though there are four ways

to reach Kalyan Singhpur, onlyone road was partially open, thatis Sikarpai-Budaguda road,which is covered with mud dueto flood remnants. Water wasflowing over the Rayagada-Visakhapatnam road at Seskhal.Many villages of Rayagada blocknamely Gururajuguda, GoseinKantua, Brahman Halua inBairagi Halua GP, Ganganpeta,Amplevalsa in Kerada GP,Kandha Maligaon river bank inK.Maligaon GP, Turihansa ofJemadeipentha, Jagannathpurof Pitamahal GP and Jagili St,part of Bhakurguda of KatapetaGP are badly affected. TheKoranala bridge connectingBainaguda with Gudari NAC isalso broken and many villagesof Karlaghati, Khariguda,Madhubana and Pendili arecut off.

The district administrationhas swung into swift action incombating this sudden unwant-

ed situation and a 24X7 sur-veillance team is in place underthe direct supervision of theDistrict Collector Guha PunamTapas Kumar. Airdropping ofdry food stuff by helicoptersbegan on Monday in spite ofincessant rain inKalyansinghpur.

Around seven hundred vil-lagers have been shifted fromthe affected villages of Rayagadablock, kept in nearby schoolsand provided with cooked food.The feeding programme willcontinue for a week. Collectorhas declared closure of allschools for seven days inKalyansinghpur and Rayagadablocks. ODRAF and FireBrigade teams along with CRPFhave rescued many villagerswho were stranded either on atree or on rooftops surroundedby torrential rivers.

Nevertheless, the reliefamount, especially in

Kalyansinghpur block is just pit-tance, said a trader ofHataseskhal J Dasu Kumar.Restoring electricity is the needof the hour and so also supplyof safe drinking water, he added.

“There is every possibilityof an epidemic which is a recur-ring phenomenon inKalyansinghpur block, espe-cially gastro-enteritis. As thelocal hospital is extremely ill-equipped, extra staffing andupgrading of the hospital isneeded”, said a local triballeader Akshey Pidisika. Thetelephone services need alsobe restored soon.

Similarly, the situation inKalahandi district was tillgrim. Thuamul Rampur blockis the worst-affected.Vehicular communicationbetween Junagarh andDharmagarh, Bhawanipatna,Nabarangpur is hit as water inHati river has crossed bridge

level due to incessant rain inupper catchment and releaseof surplus water from thereservoir.

Similarly, communication

between Gunupur andThuamul Rampur was severe-ly affected as water crossed thebridge level on Nagabali river.

Several roads were washed

away at different places bring-ing vehicular traffic to a grind-ing halt. Trees were uprootedat many places and several vil-lages were inundated.

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Aheavy downpour onSunday caused waterlog-

ging in several areas of the citybringing life to a grindinghalt. Water entered into thehomes in many areas givingsleepless nights to the residents.

The areas like KanikaChhack, Meria Bazaar, AlishaBazaar, Badambadi, HazariLane, Khatbin Sahi, OdiaBazaar, Jhola Sahi, SeminaryChhack , Pithapur, Bidanasi,Deula Sahi were the worst-affected. Even the residenceof the district Collector waswaterlogged. The excesswater remained stagnant forhours compounding the woesof the residents.

Vehicular communica-tions were disrupted and themotorists had a tough time inreaching their destinations.Many people had to wade

through knee deep water andat many places their vehiclesdeveloped technical glitches.The overflowing drains alsoadded to the misery.

A resident of HazariLane, Sushil Kumar Sharma,said the rains which startedaround 9 am, inundated ourhomes within half an hour.Many of our householdaccessories were damaged.We had to go without foodand our family had to spendsleepless nights as the wasteof drains entered our house.But till Monday afternoonneither any CMC officials

nor the local corporatorturned up to inquire aboutthe problem leave alone solvethem.”

Some residents said aswork for the JICA project isstill incomplete and manyplaces have been dug up, thepeople faced lot of difficul-ties. Some of them fell intothe uncovered pits and wereinjured. They said they facethe same problem during themonsoons every year andthe authorities continue todish out false assurancerepeatedly. So, it is BhagwanBharosa for them.

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Urban DevelopmentMinister and senior BJP

leader Muppavarapu VenkaiahNaidu was on Monday nomi-nated as the vice-presidentialcandidate of the NationalDemocratic Alliance (NDA)with BJP Parliamentary Boardofficially announcing his name“with full consensus”.

Naidu, who faces Oppo-sition candidate GopalkrishnaGandhi, will file his nominationfor election to Vice-Presidentpost on Tuesday morning.

BJP president Amit Shahannounced the decision of theParliamentary Board. “Manynames were considered butthe final consensus reached onNaidu, one of the senior mostleaders in the country with 25years of Parliamentary experi-ence,” he said.

Considering that the elect-ed Vice-President is alsoChairman of Upper House,who will be tasked to run theproceeding there, Naiduseemed to fit the bill. TheModi Government is set tointroduce and seek passage of

several important legislationsthrough the Rajya Sabha.

Naidu’s elevation as Vice-President would leave UrbanDevelopment and I&BMinistries unmanned. Thisapart, Parliamentary Board

and Rajya Sabha (Naidu iselected from Rajasthan) willhave one vacancy each.

Known for his good com-mand over English and Hindi,the NDA Vice-President can-didate was recently praised by

Prime Minister Narendra Modifor his knowledge about thenational Capital. “Naidujiknows Delhi as much asVijaywada,” the Prime Ministerhad said about him.

Praising Naidu, Shah said

Naidu stepped into public lifein 1970 and played key role asa member of ‘Akhil BharatiyaVidyarthi Parishad (ABVP)’

in the Jaiprakash movement.Naidu has held important postof general secretary in theparty and was two-termnational BJP president firstbeing from 2002-2004.

He succeeded JanaKrishnamurthy as the nation-al BJP president in 2002 andwas elected unopposed for afull three-year term. After thedefeat of the BJP-led NDA inthe 2004 general elections, heresigned from his post onOctober 18, 2004 and was suc-ceeded by LK Advani. He wasthe Union Cabinet Minister forRural Development in the AtalBihari Vajpayee Government.

Naidu was born atChavatapalem in the Nelloredistrict of Andhra Pradesh onJuly 1, 1949. He completedschooling from VR HighSchool, Nellore, and pursuedhis bachelor’s degree in politicsand diplomatic studies fromVR College. Later, he acquireda bachelor’s degree in law witha specialisation in internation-al law from Andhra University College of Law,Visakhapatnam.

Continued on Page 4

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Ruling National DemocraticAlliance nominee Ram

Nath Kovind, a former RajyaSabha member from UttarPradesh and an ex-BiharGovernor, is all set to be thenext President of India after thepoll process ended on Monday.The way the numbers stack up,Kovind has a clear advantageover Opposition candidateMeira Kumar a former LokSabha Speaker.

Instances of cross-votinghave been reported in five States,including Gujarat, UP, Haryana,Punjab and Tripura during thepresidential polls as MPs andMLAs in the country made abeeline to polling stations tochoose the 14th President of thenation. The total voting per-centage is expected to be 98 to99 per cent which is the high-est voter turnout in presidentialpolls. Significantly, Legislators inUP, West Bengal and Biharshowed keen enthusiasm inchoosing the next President.

The term of PresidentPranab Mukherjee expires onJuly 24 and a new President hasto take over by July 25.

The ruling BJP exudedconfidence that Kovind would

Continued on Page 4

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Ominous portends do flashfor Odisha as the State in

incidences of diabetes, hyper-tension (high blood pressure)and common cancer is figuredin the top-5 States in the coun-try in the year 2016.

While Odisha finishednumber 3 among major Statesin incidences of diabetes, inblood pressure (BP), the Statewas at number 4 in the coun-try. Odisha figured at 5th slotin the country in number ofdiagnosed common cancer(oral, cervical and breast)patients.

According to the dataavailable under the NationalProgramme for Preventionand Control of Cancer,Diabetes, CardiovascularDiseases and Stroke (NPCD-CS), Odisha with a diabetesincidence of 18 per cent andhigh-BP incidence of 19 percent had piped progressiveStates l ike Gujarat,Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu,Karnataka and most BIMARUStates like Madhya Pradesh,Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand,Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan.

Data reveals when underNPCDCS, a high of 4.17 lakh

persons in the State attendedthe NCD clinics for screeningof non communicable dis-eases like diabetes, blood pres-sure, cancer and heart disease,around 74,000 were screenedwith diabetes and over 82,560with high blood pressure. Atotal of over 1,717 attendees inState were diagnosed of havingbeen affected by common can-cer. Over 2,000 in State werediagnosed with cardiovasculardiseases last year.

District wise data revealssome surprising revelations.It’s not big cities l ikeBhubaneswar or Cuttack butKeonjhar, State’s mining hub,which reported the maximumcases of high BP, that too, inrural areas. Kendrapada andMayurbhanj followed in theincidences of high BP in theState. Other districts recording

higher BP incidences areNayagarh, Dhenkanal andKalahandi.

Notably, Mayurbhanj hadtopped the State in deathsdue to heart ailments or hyper-tension for the last few years,reveals the State hospitals data;whereas Kendrapada,Nayagarh, Dhenkanal andKalahandi were among thehigh burden districts due toheart ailments for the sameperiod.

However, when it comes todiabetes, Sambalpur districthas reported the maximumcases with high sugar level.But Khordha district tops theState with most cases. Sourcesinformed that Khordha dis-trict has the maximum ruralpopulace affected by diabetesin the State followed bySambalpur and Kandhamal.Cuttack also figured in the

high-burden list in Odisha,revealed the data. Thoughproportionately more maleare affected by diabetes thanfemale, Keonjhar andJharsuguda are two excep-tions noticed in the State.About half-a-dozen districtsin State have diabetes affect-ed population more than theState average.

Among cancer patients,cervical cancer took the high-er burden in the State lastyear. Mostly, rural womenare diagnosed with cervicalcancer than their urban coun-terparts, data reveals.

Most men in State areaffected by oral cancer, cour-tesy tobacco chewing. Breastcancer cases are fewer com-parably. On the whole,women cancer patients out-numbered men last year.

Significant to mentionhere is, according to the can-cer incidence data availablewith the Indian Council ofMedical Research (ICMR),women cancer patients inOdisha totalled to over 53 percent of total cancer casesagainst 47 per cent men forlast few years. In contrast, theaverage of women cancerpatients in the eastern regionis around 51 per cent.

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All but one of the 147 MLAsof Odisha cast their votes

in the State Assembly onMonday to elect the 14thPresident of India. The votingprocess began at 10 am andcontinued till 5 pm.

Subal Sahu of the Congresscould not exercise his franchisedue to indisposition.

Chief Minister NaveenPatnaik, other Ministers,Leader of OppositionNarasingha Mishra and RajyaSabha member (Independent)AV Swamy exercised their fran-chise.

Narasingha Mishra wasthe first to cast his vote fol-

lowed by Deputy Leader of theCongress Legislature PartyChiranjib Biswal and otherCongress MLAs. The Congress

members voted for UPA can-didate Meira Kumar, saidMishra.

Agriculture Minister

Damodar Rout said he votedfor Kovind as the BJD hasextended its support to theNDA nominee.

The Chief Minister saidon Facebook, “It was a plea-sure participating in thedemocratic process of thePresidential election. I wishthe next President of ourcountry every success and anaccomplished tenure in safe-guarding the Constitutionalvalues for the people of thenation.”

After the voting, the bal-lot boxes were flown to NewDelhi to be stored inParliament. The votes wouldbe counted and results wouldbe announced on July 20.

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Let me make it clear at theoutset that this article has

nothing to do with politics orsycophancy. As a trainer onpersonality development, it’s byreflex that I start analysing thepersonalities of people in pub-lic life. Our Prime MinisterNarendra Modi weaves a newmagic every day, not only inIndia but also globally as hemeets world leaders with poiseand sophistication. After alight-ing from an international flight,he walks into public meetings,official meetings with his for-eign counterparts without stop-ping for even a short rest whilewe lesser mortals have jetlagsand a day goes in trying toacclimatise to the surround-

ings, Modiji is continuously inpublic contact, be it ‘Mann kiBaat’ or visiting different Statesor countries.

Yes, I have heard that hehas a team which does thehomework for him. But it is hewho has to deliver, travelnationally and internationallyadjusting to different culturesand lifestyles. One day he is inOdisha and the next day hecould be in the United States.He cuts across all barriers oflanguage and space when heconnects with people. I don’tthink I can compare him withany of Indian leaders or eveninternational ones. BarrakObama comes close as a com-parison point in terms of ener-gy, but he was much youngerand had more exposure to pol-itics at an younger age as alsobelonged to the most devel-oped country in the world. Asfar as our leaders, maybe I cancompare with Indira Gandhi,but again she was groomed byPandit Nehru at a very youngage and belonged to a familywith international exposure.Even then keeping in mind thetechnology of those times, onecan say that she had less expo-sure nationally and globally.

Her presence was charismatic.Modiji comes from the grass-roots and the masses.

Modiji an enigmaIt’s indeed a mystery as to

where he derives this kind ofenergy that is taking him aheadand ahead. There are manyconjunctions like ‘powersteroid’, blessings of the divinemother Ambaji, yoga or and hisexperiences as a ‘Parivrajak’.Modiji happens to be a seniorcitizen now. It’s said that whenleaders acquire power, thatacts as a steroid to keep going.Power, be it political or anyother form, gives a big timehigh to the person and increas-es his energy levels. It’s like amultiplier effect. When peoplewho suddenly lose elections orlose the power in any otherway, immediately their per-sonalities change; the charismagoes; and sometimes, they fallill too. It is immediately reflect-ed on their faces. Having divinegrace is a must whatever reli-gion or cult one may belongtoo. And yoga is certainly anenergy booster if understood inthe right sense. It has becomea fad in India and is used as aphysical exercise and not as it

should be seen as a unitingforce between the body and themind. I am sure Modiji hasgone deep into it. The mostimportant experience whichmust have helped him is that ofa Parivrajak where a personleaves home and travels to allthe nooks and corners of acountry gathering experienceand lives like an ascetic. Again,I understand that he spentover a decade as a Parivrajakcovering the entire India. Alongwith leading a dispassionatelife, he must have felt the pulseof true India and its problems.No other experience or degreecan compare with this. Behindhis success it could be a com-bination of all the above-men-

tioned factors.

Self-madeEmerging from the mass-

es, the way he has carved out aspace for himself in globalaffairs is not an easy job. As cit-izens when we watch him onTV, it may seem like a piece ofcake, but it’s a lot of hard workwhile one is dealing with topleaders across cultures.Everything matters, from ahandshake to a smile. I am surewe could classify Modiji into an‘Á’ personality, ambitious andaggressive, while surprisinglyhe maintains his cool at alltimes. He is perfect and apt inhis dressing style, body lan-guage and voice intonationand has emerged as a nation-alist leader going all the way toprotect the interest of India.

There is a lot to learn fromModiji in whichever sphere oflife one belongs to as how tokeep our feet on the groundwhile keeping our head high.Nationalistic fervour is also tobe emphasised.

(Dr Pati is a teacher and atarot reader based inBhubaneswar. [email protected])

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The High Court of Orissavide its interim order has

categorically directed that thereshall be stay of operation ofannexure-III series and annex-ure-IV series in writ petition(WP) (c) number-9521 of 2017and stipulated that if a peti-tioner is found to be liable topay the dues in future, the saiddues shall be deposited as andwhen directed by the court.

The court in another writpetition WP(c) number-10292of 2017 also directed that thereshall be stay of operation ofannexure-III series and annex-ure-VII, VIII and IX subject to

the same condition as of theearlier petition.

It therefore goes withoutsaying that the annexure stayedby the HC in both the writ peti-tions are the executive orders,letters, circulars and notifica-tions, all of which facilitatedintroduction and operation ofthe e-Registration system inOdisha that invariably meansthat until and unless the stay isvacated or court passes anorder adjudicating the e-Registration system to be law-ful, the citizens of the State shallnot be deprived of their legit-imate and constitutional rightsto register their documents asper the existing provisions andin the manner provided under

the Registration Act, 1908.It is clearly understood

therefore that, the present e-Registration system has beenmanaged to be operated with-out amendment to theRegistration Act of 1908 andtherefore, it was incumbentupon the court to stay opera-tion of the entire e-Registrationsystem, including the usercharges payable therefore.

In this connection, this isvery pertinent to mention herethat one Biswanath Panda ofPuri town and Santosh KumarBehera of Badakanjia village inSatyabadi area of Puri districtrespectively had filed theWP(c) number-10, 292 of 2017and W.P(c) number-9, 521 of

2017 being aggrieved by thedecisions of the concernedRegistering Officers who hadoutright rejected their prayersto register their respective doc-uments as per the statutorymanual process under theRegistration Act.

It remains to be seen howsoon good sense prevails onthe State Government man-darins to restore the originaland the lawful process of reg-istration. It is also a matter ofgrave concern that the over 30lakh of documents alreadyprocessed through the e-Registration system having nosanction of law are deemedunregistered as per Section 50read with Sections 60 and 49

of the Registration Act.“It is an admitted fact and

a general perception that awhopping sum of �20 lakhcrore approximately involvedin the transactions of docu-ments through the abominablee-Registration system in shapeof consideration amount,stamp duty, registration feesand user charges and appro-priated by the Private ServiceProvider Company (IL andFS) shall go waste unless thedocuments are duly registeredagain by the concernedRegistering Officers as per theAct,” said advocate and notedsocial worker Binay NrusinghaMohapatra of Puri.

In this connection, this is

to be mentioned here that thematter relates to the fraud actof the State Governmentauthorities who in connivancewith a private company ‘IL andFS’ have managed to continuea purely private and commer-cial electronic registration pro-ject since January 4, 2010 in thename of “e-Dharani” having nosanction of law.

More pertinent is the com-pany has been declared taint-ed in Madhya Pradesh ,Rajasthan and Nagaland sofar. Intellectuals wonder, howthe State Government hasextended its patronage tosuch a company whose activ-ities have proved questionableall over the country.

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Bhubaneswar: The scheduledhearing in the casting couchcase against actor TatwaPrakash Sathpathy alias PapuPompom could not be heldon Monday as none of thewitnesses turned up in court.

“The Special Protectionof Children from SexualOffences (POSCO) court hadissued summons to four wit-nesses. As none of themturned up, hearing of thetrial has been adjourned toanother date,” Papu’s lawyerDebasnan Mishra said.

Four persons includingthe ‘victim’ minor girl, her

parents and the Child WelfareCommittee (CWC) member,who had levelled the allega-tions against the actor, hadbeen directed to appearbefore the court for the hear-ing.

Papu is accused ofexploiting the minor girl afterluring her on the plea of giv-ing her a break in movies. Thegirl levelled allegation againstthe actor in June 2016.

Papu was charged underdifferent Sections of IPC andthe POCSO Act. He wasarrested from an apartment inPuri on June 30, 2016. PNS

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Bhubaneswar: The OdishaState Government Employees’Coordination Committeewould hold a massive rallywith a slogan ‘Rajdhani Chala’here on August 9 to press forimplementation of the 7th PayCommission report for pay-ment of salary to allGovernment employees.

The State executive of thecommittee met under chair-manship of president AkhayKumar Mishra here on Sundaytook a decision in this regardwhile many functionariesalleged that the State

Government is betrayingemployees by delaying imple-mentation of the 7th PayCommission recommenda-tions.

Among others, NarottamParthasarathi, SudarshanPradhan, Nirmal Das,Jagannath Patnaik, SanjayKumar Mallick, Pabitra KumarPatra, Laxmidhar Panda,Hrushikesh Nayak,Madhusudan Behera,Sadananda Behera andRajlaxmi Jena were present.Anjana Sen delivered a vote ofthanks. PNS

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The Bhubaneswar MunicipalCorporation (BMC) had an

emergency meeting on Mondayin which BMC CommissionerDr Krishan Kumar took stock ofthe flood situation and reviewedthe ongoing work by the 12 sec-tor officers.

In the meeting, theCommissioner stressed thatthe 12 sector officers wouldtake local meetings with thegrassroots level staff and filereports to face the urban flood-ing situation and have a com-plete strategy to ward off thesituation in future.

Saying that the responsi-bility now will be fixed on thesector officers, he asked theofficers concerned to get on thejob and work for the institu-tional framework buildingprocess so that in future, in caseof water-logging or urbanflooding or any such naturalcalamity, a proper procedure toface such situation would be inplace.

While asking for deploy-ment of 20 pump sets foremergency requirement, theCommissioner also called for

identification of all chokingpoints and drainage issues forimmediate redressal andstressed immediate action bythe enforcement branch of theBMC and the BDA to redressthe drainage problem.

The Control Roomreceived 36 calls till the filingof report on Monday.Bhubaneswar has been divid-ed into 12 sectors and one eachOAS officer is in charge. Theofficers from BMC and BDAare working in teams to addressthe emerging situation.Coordination meetings with allline departments have beenheld regularly held. Thisincludes Public WorksDepartment, Public HealthEngineering Organisation,Odisha Water Supply andSewerage Board, CentralElectricity Supply Utility, etc.The Engineering Division ofthe BMC has made 13 squads.They are available for taking upany temporary measure toensure discharge of water. Allsanitation agencies and work-ers are in field in shifts and theyare ensuring constant cleanli-ness and garbage removal fromdrains to remove chocking.

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The C ommissioneratepolice on Sunday night

conducted a raid on a rent-ed house at Sivani Nagar inthe Gada Mahavir area on theoutskirts of the city and bust-ed a sex racket.

The Lingaraj police alongwith a QAT during the raidarrested a customer and awoman, who was alleged tobe the kingpin of the racket.Three sex workers were res-cued during the raid.

The arrestee person wasidentified as Tapas Patnaik(39) of Hirapur ChausathiJogini area under theBalianta PS.

The arrested woman,who was operating the sexracket, was identified as Sonialias Sonali Prusti (37) ofJajpur Road.

Police seized two bikes,five mobile phones, cash andfew objectionable items dur-ing the raid. Later, the sexworkers were sent to a shortstay home in Jaanla aftermedical examination.

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Your name is a vibrationassociated with a number.

Do you know that each alpha-bet of your name has a certainvalue? We can calculate yourname’s number by adding thenumbers of each letter andonce the numbers have beenadded then we can know whichsingle planet rules your name

and what the effects of yourname will have on your life anddestiny.

Name numerology is basedon understanding the qualitiesfound in an analysis of yournames. These qualities can beconstructive or destructive,balanced or unbalanced. Thename we use affects everyaspect of our lives.

Changing your name is acritically important decisionbecause changing your namechanges your personal andpublic energy. Therefore, itchanges your life.

Don’t you think it ratherunusual that many celebritieshave modified their names?This is to attract luck andgood fortune.

There are some celebritieswho went in for a name change:

Actor Anand Suryavanshichanged his name toSiddhaanth Suryavanshirecently. According to himthings have been changing forthe better ever since both onthe professional as well as per-sonal front.

Karanvir Bohra changedhis name from Manoj toKaranvir in 2006. His newname adds up to good number.

Ridhyma M Tiwaare hasnow changed the spelling of hername to Ridhyma M Tiwaarefor better prospects. She feelsmore in sync with the universewith the change.

ShagunAjmani alsochanged her name on theadvice of a numerologist inDecember 2014. She was orig-inally named GarimaAjmani.Actor Raqesh Bapat replaced K

with Q in his first name in2010. He has also added hisfather’s name Padmakar andnow calls himself RaqeshPadmakar Bapat. He believesthat the change has benefitedhim on both occasions.

Maharashtra CM AshokChavan added Rao to his namebut it didn’t quite work for him.Ashok Rao Chavan adds up tofour (Uranus) which couldinvite controversies. Bad luck ofMaharashtra CM AshokChavan began when he addedRao as his middle name. It’s nota correct decision to changeyour name without any con-sultation.

(Bissht is a tarot reader anda numerologist, M-917065561883 E-mail address:[email protected])

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The Odisha Government hasurged the Union

Government to speed upissuance of the Digital MobileRadios (DMR) licence for oper-ation of its Early WarningDissemination System (EWDS)project.

Chief Secretary AP Padhihas written a letter to the UnionGovernment for providingDMR licence and clearance foroperation of wireless link, net-work and frequency allocationfor EWDS projects.

Padhi has written to UnionSecretary Telecommunications,Aruna Sundarajan, to expeditethe matter for facilitatingissuance of the DMR licence.

“The delay in issue of licenceand clearance for the DMRCommunication System willlead to delay in implementationof the project and increase thevulnerability of the people of

Odisha during impendingflood/cyclone,” said SpecialRelief CommissionerBishnupada Sethi.

Sethi is also approaching theUnion Government in thisregard as the DMRCommunication System is high-ly essential for a State, which isfacing repeated disasters timeand again.

Earlier in November lastyear, the State Government hadbrought to the notice of theMinistry of Home Affairs(MHA) and the Department ofTelecommunications (DoT)seeking issuance of the DMRlicence and clearance.

It was in April this year thatthe MHA and the DoT officials

sat for a meeting to sort out theproblems arising due to theissuance of such licence.

In the meeting, it was decid-ed that the DoT will expedite theissue of licence to Odisha inrespect to DMR through admin-istrative assignment.

However, the licence andclearances are yet to be receivedby the State Government. So theChief Secretary has written tothe DoT again requesting tospeed up the procedure of grant-ing licence / clearance for theproject. In order to effectivelycommunicate early warningabout impending disasters to thepeople of Odisha, the StateGovernment is implementingthis project that will be coveringthe State headquarters and asmany as 22 blocks in six coastaldistricts under the Governmentof India sponsored NationalCyclone Risk Mitigation Project(NCRMP).

The project, inter alia, cov-ers installation of DMR com-munication system at district,block and shelter levels andactivation of 122 alert sirens.

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The Paradip SakshyarataSamiti (PSS) has of late

been focusing on ensuring safedrinking water to prevent pos-sible outbreak of waterbornediseases in the slums duringthis rainy season since avail-ability of clean drinking wateris one of the major problemsfaced by those living in theslums of Paradip.

The PSS has distributed 65water filters manufactured bythe CIPET among the BPLfamilies and tribal people of

Mundapda in Loknath Colony.Paradip Ladies’ Club presidentSubhalaxmi Roy donated thewater filters at a function onSunday.

Paradip MunicipalityCouncillor Sarojini Sarangi,PPT Secretary UR Mohan Rajuand Senior Assistant SecretaryP Tudu and PSS volunteerswere present on the occasion.PSS project coordinator AshokMohapatra coordinated theevent. The PSS would alsodonate more water filters to theremaining colonies during nextfunctions.

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Amultilingual poem recita-tion programme,

‘YourQuote Open Mic’ washeld here on Sunday. At least 25young talents from variousparts of the city participated inthe programme.

The programme beganwith recitation of AnupAgarwal’s poem Hindistan marraha hai. Budding talents likeTaniya Dey, Saswati Rath,Aryaman Pandey, Malay

Mohanty, Nirupriya Panda andothers recited poems.

An e-magazine, ‘ExaVaganza’ was launched in thepresence its editor-in-chiefSailesh Mishra.

The programme was coor-dinated by Arunima Gupta,Sailesh Mishra and SabyasachiKundu of the YourQuotemobile application users.

YourQuote is a mobileapplication that helps the bud-ding writer to show their writ-ing creativity.

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Food Supplies and ConsumerWelfare Minister Surjya

Narayan Patro’s reported adviseto farmers, who have not gotprice for their paddy sold in2016-17, has been stifflyopposed by the Odisha ChashiSuraksha Abhiyan, Ganjambranch.

“Recently, farmers metMinister Patro and urged himto pay paddy dues.Disappointingly, the Ministertold them to go to court to getback dues. This is like addingsalt to the wound,” lamentedRushikulay Rayat Mahasabhasecretary Simanchal Nayak andAbhiyan leader K Dillip KumarMohapatra in a statement.

They wanted to know thejustification behind theMinister’s statement when he isdemanding before the Union

Government to raise paddyMSP to �2,930 per quintal andfarmers struggling to get duesfor paddy they had sold at�1,470 per quintal one andhalf-a-year back.

According to them, somefarmers of Kanachhai villageunder Ganjam district’s Polsarablock had sold a total of 725quintal of paddy to the OmRice Mills but they not got thecost despite approaching thedistrict Collector.

“Despite an inquiry con-ducted by the ChhatrapurAssistant Supply Officerrevealed that paddy was pro-cured and payment delayed,the concerned farmers have notgot their dues for the last 18months. Rather the farmershave been issued accused offorging. Supply departmentofficers and the mill owner havemisappropriated lakhs of rupeesand are frightening farmers,”alleged Abhiyan convenor andBJP leader Rabi Rath.

He demanded that a high-level inquiry been conductedinto the matter at the earliest.

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The Brahmapur MunicipalCorporation (BMC) began

an awareness drive here onMonday to make people knowabout the proposed ShresthaBrahmapur Abhiyan, to belaunched onJuly 23, for spread-ing messages of keeping cityclean and green under theSwachh Bharat campaign.

The BMC authorities havedecided to create awarenessamong the students of differentschools in the first phase.

During the last week, offi-cials visited four schools andtaught students on environ-mental science showing differ-ent environmental movies.

Continuing the drive, BMCCommissioner Nikhil PawanKalyan and other officials vis-ited the KC Public School, theSaint Vinciant Convent Schooland the Court Peta High Schooland sensitised students aboutvarious environmental issues.

A movie “Poorna” directedby Rahul Bose was showed tothe students.

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Former Finance MinisterPrafulla Chandra Ghadai

has thanked Chief MinisterNaveen Patnaik for taking upthe issue of Neelachal IspatNigam Limited (NINL) plantat Kalinganagar with theCentre for capital infusioninto the unit to keep it oper-ational.

Ghadai said former CMBiju Patnaik, who hadacquired NINL facility at Re1 in 1994, wanted to make ita three-million tonne plant.However, due to the carelessattitude of the Metals and

Minerals TradingCorporation (MMTC), aCentral public sector unitand one of the three promot-ers, the plant is passingthrough serious conditionsat present.

Ghadai, while praisingChief Minister Patnaik forurging Union Commerce andIndustry Minister NirmalaSitharaman to ask the MMTCto pay Rs 149 crore as its shareof equity as stipulated bybankers as a part of refi-nancing of the project loan,said the delay by the CentralPSU was aggravating thefinancial conditions of theunit.

“While Tata Steel, VisaSteel, Jinal and Mesco arerunning with profits, what ailsNINL plant?” questionedGhadai.

Chief Minister Patnaikon July 11 had urged the

Union Minister to instruct theMMTC to provide addition-al equity support for the sur-vival of the Neelachal IspatNigam Limited (NINL).

It may be mentioned herethat the NINL integrated steelplant is jointly promoted byMMTC and two State PSUssuch as the Odisha MiningCorporation (OMC) and theIPICOL.

The joint venture needsinfusion of an additionalequity of Rs 300 crore toovercome the acute financialcrisis. The State Governmenthas already accorded itsapproval for infusion of equi-ty of Rs 80 crore in last twoyears as pro-rata share by theOMC.

Equity of 49.78 per cent ofthe NINL is held by theMMTC, while the State PSUstogether hold 27.61 per centof its equity.

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The municipal authoritieshave failed to check the

menace of stray cattle on roads,leading to regular traffic jams,especially during peak hourshere.

As if unauthorizedencroachment of pedestrianwalkways was not enough, thepresence of stray cattle on theroads often poses a problem forcommuters as there is hardlyany road here that is free ofstray cattle. The problem com-plicates during the rainy seasonas the roads become slipperybecause of filth caused by thesecattle. As there is no service inplace to catch cattle, thereseems to be no end to the woesof the commuters.

“There are frequent com-plaints of locals getting injuredin attacks by bulls and to takestringent action against thecattle owners who leave theircattle to move freely on publicroads, but the municipalauthority never gives any heedto the complaint,” alleged MunaPadhy, a denizen of Bhaluguda.

Besides, as the municipalsanitation workers care little forthe collection of garbage fromthe market, garbage dumpscontinue to rot and emit a foulsmell. The organic dumps notonly attract flies but also turninto a breeding ground formosquitoes. The drains and thesurrounding areas adjacent toGlipatana, Sontosi Nagar, OldBus Stand and Bhanja Chowkare only a few examples of poorsanitation of the civic body.

Reports reveal that themunicipality spends Rs 7. 30lakh per month for sanitation,but it seems only in pen and

paper. The municipal author-ities have never conducted anysurprise check to bring the con-tractors to book.

There is a public percep-tion that all the grants thatcome from the Ministry ofUrban DevelopmentDepartment of both the Stateand the Centre under sanita-tion and urbanization devel-opment programme to themunicipality should be releasedonly after high power teamsinspect sanitation of differentwards including functionalityof drains, said many intellec-tuals here.

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Villagers of Lupurisnga inSubarnapur district moved

in a rally covering face withblack clothes here on Mondaydemanding compensation forthe family of a woman who gotpregnancy despite a family plan-ning operation and subsequentlydied after giving birth to a child.

According to sources,Bilasini Mishra, wife of SadasibaMishra of Lupursinga villageunder Sonepur block, hadundergone a family planningoperation in 2016 after a deliv-ery. But she conceived again. Shegave birth to a child when shehad gone to the bathroom fol-lowing a labour pain on Friday.

Family members soonrushed Bilasini and her newbornchild to the DistrictHeadquarters Hospital. She wasbleeding profusely then. Shewas given treatment after 45minutes of her arrival and con-

sequently she died, alleged fam-ily members. However, the childis in good condition, they said.Bilasini’s family members andvillagers didn’t take the bodydemanding compensation forthe family. The body remainedin the hospital from8am to 4 pm.

Meanwhile, people led byLachhipur Sarpanch PurnimaDas held a silent rally andmoved to the Collectorate. Later,

the district Collector gave�10,000 from the Red Crossfund and �2,000 for cremationunder the Harischandra Yojana.

He too assured to provide ahouse to the family under theMo Kudia Scheme.

CDMO Dr Sobha ChandraMeher said she was in a dangercondition while she came to thehospital and immediate treat-ment given to her.

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Sundargarh: A constable ofSundargarh district was arrest-ed and forwarded to court bythe K Balang police on Mondayafternoon allegedly for kid-napping his lover (a minorgirl), raping her and forcing herto commit suicide.

Accused Ismail Munda(30), a native of Ghusirposh vil-lage under Lahunipara policestation of Sundargarh district,an APR constable and who wasin charge of security of BoneiMLA Laxman Munda wasstaying with a minor girl (16)of Sankhaposh village under KBolang police station area.

On July 14, both Ismail andthe minor girl had allegedlyquarrelled over some issue.On July 15, Ismail after comingfrom his duty had noticed hisdoor locked from inside andthe girl was hanging from ceil-ing.

After receiving the news ofdeath of the girl, his father andother members of the familyhad on Sunday morning lodgeda complaint, alleging kidnap-ping, rape and murder of thegirl by Ismail.

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The Odisha chapter of theFederation of National

Postal Organisation (FNPO)held its tenth joint biennialconference here.

Manoranjan Sarangi, circlesecretary of NationalAssociation of PostalEmployees, National Union ofPostal Employees (NAPE),Krushna Chandra Chinnara,Superintendent of CuttackSouth Division, SarbeswarMishra, Superintendent ofCuttack North Division,

Bishnu Charan Parida, formercircle secretary of NAPE,Gajendra Prasad Kar, ASPO ofCuttack South Division,Goutam Das, circle secretary ofNUGDS joined as gests anddiscussed several problemsfaced by them in their servicematter.

They said that by dis-cussing with the top officialstheir problems would be sort-ed out soon. Reception com-mittee members ManoranjanSwain, Kailash Sethy andRamesh Swain coordinated themeeting.

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The uncertainty over foun-dation stone-laying of a

second bridge over riverBrahmani is over now withtiming for the same fixed at10am on July 21.

The date and time werefixed at a preparedness meet-ing held at the Union RoadTransport Minister NitinGadkari’s office at New Delhion Monday. The meeting wasattended by Union Ministers,Jual Oram and DharmendraPradhan.

Rourkela MLA Dilip Ray,who had been demanding forthe bridge for long, expressed

his satisfaction over the deci-sion. He said the longstandingdemand of the people ofRourkela and Sundargarhwould be fulfilled with com-mencement and completionof the bridge. He thanked gen-eral people and various organ-isations for their continued

pursuance.Estimated to be built at a

cost of �1,700 crore, the projectwould be completed in threephases. The first phase willcomprise a 4-lane road fromBiramitrapur to BNR bridgeand a six-lane to Brahmanibridge to come up at �582

crore. The second phase wouldcomprise the stretch from theBNR Bridge to Rajmaundra tobe built at an estimated cost of�510 crore. The third and finalphase of the project wouldextend from Rajmundra toBrakot with an estimated costof �605 crore.

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Delhi University’sAnthropology Professor

Soumendra Mohan Patnaikhas been appointed as the newVice-Chancellor (VC) of theUtkal University here.

A notification in thisregard was issued by the Officeof Governor and Chancellor ofuniversities SC Jamir onMonday. Patnaik will take overcharge from incumbent VCProf Ashok Kumar Das, whoseterm has, meanwhile, expired.

Notably, Prof Patnaik hasbeen teaching SocialAnthropology for the last 24years. He is currently Presidentof the Indian AnthropologicalAssociation.

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As many as eight teachers’unions of the State have

joined hands and formed aunited forum pledging to takeforward the fight against BlockGrant. They represent thou-sands of schools from prima-ry, high school to higher sec-ondary, colleges of 622 and 488ranks, Sanskrit tolls andMadrasas. There are around50,000 teachers and employeesin these institutions.

Holding a meeting here onMonday, the leaders of theeight teachers’ bodies slammedthe State Government for notabolishing the Block Grantsystem and implementing theGrant-In-Aid (GIA). They saidthat despite long years of agi-tation and all modes of protests,the State Government hasremained adamant on the issueand has doled out false promis-es over the last 17 years.Though the teachers are fromvarious types of institutions,they have a common goal, that

is, abolition of Block Grant.The union leaders felt the

need for a united fight to bestronger. Though there arespecific demands of each cat-egory of teachers, yet theysought to fight for the biggergoal of abolition of BlockGrant.

Around 662 rank collegeunion president Golak Nayaksaid the Government hasimplemented the Block Grantpolicy in 2004 by discontinu-ing the GIA policies of 1994and before.

Under the Block Grantsystem, the suffering of theemployees of schools and col-leges is not addressed. TheGrant is highly exploitativeand deprives the beneficiariesof their legitimate dues. Due tothe apathy of the Government,thousands of educational insti-tutions are now in a miserablestate, said Nayak

“The new way of fightingfor our cause would make usstronger and united under oneroof,” he maintained.

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The NDA Government hasbetrayed the farmers by

not fixing the minimum sup-port price (MSP) of paddy asper the SwaminathanCommittee report, said AamAadmi Party (AAP) seniorleader Sanjay Singh at aKrushak Adhikar Samabeshheld here on Monday.

Singh severely criticisedthe Naveen Patnaik and theNDA Governments for their

apathetic attitude towards thefarmers.

Besides Singh, AAPnational leader KhemchandJagirdar also criticised the anti-farmer policy of the NDAGovernment and said, “Wewill intensify our protests forthe sake of farmers in theState.” Among others, AAPState convenor NishikantMahapatra, secretary NandlalSingh, Ajay Das, Binay Tiwari,Anand Samal and SanjuktaMishra were present.

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From Page 1He was a `swayamsevak`

in the Rashtriya SwayamsevakSangh and joined ABVP dur-ing his college days. He waselected as the president of thestudents’ union of colleges-affiliated to the AndhraUniversity. He came into spot-light for his prominent role inthe ̀ Jai Andhra Movement` of1972. While Kakani VenkataRatnam led the movementfrom Vijayawada, Naidu tookactive part in the agitation inNellore, until it was called offa year later.

Both as a student leaderand political figure, Naidugained prominence as a goodorator.

His oratory skills and polit-ical activism propelled hispolitical career and he waselected as an MLA to theAndhra Pradesh LegislativeAssembly twice from Udayagiri

constituency in Nellore districtin 1978 and 1983.

He was elected as a mem-ber of the Rajya Sabha fromKarnataka in 1998. He hassince been re-elected twice in2004 and 2010 from Karnatakaand currently a member fromRajasthan. He served as theparty spokesperson from 1996to 2000, bringing to the job hispanache for quirky allitera-tions and similes. Unlike mostpoliticians from southernIndia, Naidu made an effort tomaster Hindi, going on toaddress public rallies in north-ern India. Following the his-toric victory of the BJP in the2014 general elections, he hassworn in as the Minister forUrban Development andParliamentary Affairs on 26May 2014. Naidu later shedportfolio of ParliamentaryAffairs and instead given keyI&B Ministry.

From Page 1win with a “comfortable”

margin, while the Oppositionsaid its joint pick Meira Kumarwas the best choice in the“clash of ideologies”. “Kovindji will win (the election) witha respectable and comfortablemargin,” Union Minister MVenkaiah Naidu told reportersahead of the polling.

If elected, Kovind will bethe second Dalit President ofIndia after KR Narayananwho was the first from thecommunity to hold the post.

According to Lok SabhaSecretary General AnoopMishra, who is also theReturning Officer, total 714MPs voted in Parliament.

The total voting percent-age is expected to be 98 to 99per cent which is the highestvoter turnout in presidentialpolls. At least ten States havewitnessed 100 per cent voting.“Arunachal Pradesh,Chhattisgarh, Assam, Gujarat,

Bihar, Haryana, HimachalPradesh, Jharkhand,Nagaland, Uttarakhand andPuducherry have recorded100 per cent voting. InParliament House, the votingpercentage was 99 per cent”,Mishra said.

He said while the sanc-tioned strength of the LokSabha and the Rajya Sabha is776, 771 MPs were eligible tocast their votes. There aretwo vacancies each in the LokSabha and the Rajya Sabha,while one BJP MP ChediPaswan does not have votingrights. The TMC’s Tapas Pal,the BJD’s Ram ChandraHansdak and AmbumaniRamadoss of the PMK did notcast their votes.

“In Delhi, 717 MPs wereto cast their ballot but only714 exercised their franchise.Fifty-four MPs had soughtpermissions to cast their votein State capitals. These includ-ed Goa Chief Minister

Manohar Parrikar, his UPcounterpart Adityanath, hisdeputy Keshav Prasad Mauryaand Union minister UmaBharti,” he said.

Mishra also said thatexcept for Andhra Pradesh,Jammu & Kashmir, Manipurand Tripura, data has beenreceived from all other Stateswhich indicates that the vot-ing was “close to 100 percent”

The BJP and allies havenearly 63 per cent of the votewhile the Congress-ledOpposition has a little over 35per cent. Independents andother smaller parties, whohave not made their choiceknown, have two per cent.The NDA is hoping to get over70 per cent votes. Voting washeld in 32 polling stations --one in Parliament HouseRoom No 62 and rest one eachin State Legislat iveAssemblies.

Meanwhile the reports of

cross-voting in several Statesincluding Gujarat, UP,Haryana, Punjab and Tripuramay play a spoilsport thanksto factionalism in theOpposition camp.

Polling to choose the suc-cessor of Mukherjee, startedsimultaneously in Parliamentin the national Capital andState Assemblies at 10 am. Asvoting picked up, many MPs,including women members,were seen queuing up inParliament House outside thepolling booth in Room No 62for voting, that closed at 5 pm.

Prime Minister NarendraModi and BJP chief AmitShah were among the first tocast their votes in Parliament.Modi, clad in a beige coloursleeveless jacket over a whitekurta-pyjama, reached theParliament premises early tovote on Monday, also the firstday of the over three-weekMonsoon Session ofParliament.

Before casting his vote, thePrime Minister addressed themedia, saying the MonsoonSession, which began onMonday, brings ‘hope’. “Likethe Monsoon brings hope,this session also brings thesame spirit of hope,” Modisaid. “This session gives thecountry an opportunity toelect the President and theVice-President,” he added.

Shah, who is an MLAfrom Gujarat, was allowed tocast his vote in Parliament.Congress president SoniaGandhi and her son Rahulalso voted.

The presidential electionhas once again divided theSamajwadi Party patriarchMulayam Singh Yadav and hisson Akhilesh Yadav, with thefather-son duo voting for sep-arate candidates. TeamMulayam has supported theNDA candidate whileAkhilesh supported theOpposition candidate.

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As ceasefire violations on theLine of Control (LoC) in

Jammu & Kashmir increased inthe last few days, India onMonday told Pakistan that itreserves the right to retaliate“appropriately”. Conveying thisstern message during theDirector General MilitaryOperations (DGMO) talks,India also “emphatically” saidthe Pakistan Army was aidinginfiltration of terrorists fromacross the LoC impacting peace and tranquility and inter-nal security.

On Monday, a nine-year-old girl and an Army jawanwere killed in ceasefire viola-tions by Pakistan along theLoC. The girl, identified asSaida of Balakote, was killed inPoonch, the Army jawan waskilled in Rajouri district.

The DGMO-level talkswere sought by Pakistan.Maintaining that it was sincerein maintaining peace on theLoC, Indian DGMO Lt GeneralAK Bhatt told his Pakistanicounterpart, Major GeneralSahir Shamshad Mirza, on thehotline that Pakistan shouldalso reciprocate.

Giving details of the ten-minute unscheduled talks, offi-cials said the request was madeby Pakistan on Sunday at 8.30pm and the talks took place onMonday at 10.30 am. Pakistansought the talks claiming thatfour Pakistan soldiers werekilled in cross-border firing bythe Indian Army last week inthe area opposite Keran sector.

The two DGMOs talk toeach other on the hotline oncea week on Tuesday as part ofconfidence building measure.Pakistan had sought a similar

unscheduled dialogue on June5 this year after the IndianArmy retaliated to ceasefireviolations by Pakistan whichclaimed its civilians were killedin firing. However, India hadrefuted the claim.

Two Indian soldiers werekilled in sniper fire in Keran sec-tor last week by the PakistanArmy and India retaliated. ThePakistan DGMO raised the issueof targeting his troops resultingin the death of four soldiers andone civilian in AthmuqamSector of Pakistan-occupiedKashmir (PoK) opposite Keransector, Kupwara district.

The Pakistan Army said ina Press release, “DGMOPakistan notified Pakistan’sdemarche to Indian DGMO toprotest deliberate targeting ofPakistan Army’s vehicle result-ing into shahadat (martyrdom)of four soldiers besides injur-ing one soldier and a civilianpasserby.

The Pakistan DGMOemphasised the importance ofcontrolling tactical actions ofunder command troops, sincethese indiscretions can poten-tially spiral major stand-offs.Such acts have the potential toescalate which then will beextremely detrimental to peaceand stability. “While we don’twant to go down the pathwhere we start choking eachother’s supply lines; however,any such recurrence will invokemore strong and effective mea-sures from Pakistan’s side,”the Pakistan DGMOsaid.

Bhatt clarified thatthe Indian Army didnot target any one inparticular and openedfire in response toPakistani firing in thesame sector killingtwo Indian soldiers.The four Pakistanisoldiers travelling inthe vehicle were reportedly

killed near the Neeulm River inPoK after it was hit by Indianfiring.

The Indian DGMO alsosaid all ceasefire violationswere initiated by PakistanArmy and the Indian Armyonly responded “appropriately”to them. Apart from these, fir-ing by Indian troops was initi-ated against armed intruderswhen attempting to infiltratefrom close proximity ofPakistani Army posts along theLoC.

He also put across“emphatically” that the trend ofinfiltration along the LoC con-tinued with active support ofPakistan forward posts impact-ing peace and tranquility alongthe LoC and also the internalsecurity situation. “This wasevident from continuedattempts of sniping and tar-geting of our troops undertak-en through cross border actionsduly supported by PakistaniArmy troops,” officials said.

The LoC has become hotwith more than 240 ceasefireviolations by Pakistan fromJanuary to July first week thisyear. Moreover, 103 terroristswere killed in the same periodon the LoC and in the hinter-land in anti-terror operations.

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The ‘Make-in-India’ initiativelaunched by the

Government of India toencourage national, as well asmultinational companies tomanufacture their products inIndia has received big supportfrom the Reserve Bank of Indiaalso as it came out with a freshtender for currency securityfeatures, mandating that thesupplier set up the manufac-turing unit in the countrywithin two years and gradual-ly increase the local content.

The RBI cancelled two ten-ders issued earlier for supply ofsecurity features and fibre forcurrency notes in order toincorporate ‘Make in India’ asan essential requirement. Thebid document is for supply ofdifferent types of securitythreads, colour-shifting ink,foil patch, security fibre, paper-based taggant, ink based tag-gant, advanced watermark andmicro perforation.

“The bidder may note thattheir acceptance of ‘Make inIndia’...is a mandatory require-ment for considering the bid-der eligible,” the RBI said whileinviting pre-qualification bidsfor supply of security featuresfor Indian banknotes.

As per the latest tenderdocument for security featuresfor banknotes, the successfulbidder will be required to set upthe “manufacturing facility” in

India within two years from thedate of signing of contract andincrease the local content in aplanned manner from the third year.

It will also have to increasethe domestic value addition to35 per cent in the third year, 40per cent in the fourth year

and 50 per cent or more in thefifth year.

“The bidder may set up hismanufacturing unit in Indiathrough a subsidiary or underlicence or through transfer oftechnology to any local manu-facturer permitted by the pur-chaser,” said the pre-qualifica-tion bid document.

The local suppliers areexempted from experience andpast performance criteria, andaverage annual turnoverrequirement.

Further, the documentsaid, operations of the bidder inPakistan or China, if any,“should be suitably firewalledfrom the contract/operationswith India”. Bidder will have togive undertaking that noPakistani national or person ofPakistani origin would beengaged by the company forthe project. Also, the companyshould not post an employeewho worked in India opera-tions in Pakistan or China.

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A47-year-old man, alongwith his son, was arrested

on Monday from Mangolpurifor running a private “compa-ny” which hired professionalsnatchers in the nationalCapital for the past few months.

Also, police busted the gang.

As the main accused, NandKishor, involved in cases ofdrug supply, Arms Act, robberyand house theft for the last 25years was aging, he hiredsnatchers to earn quick money,investigators told The Pioneer.

Police said Kishor and hisson Subash (22) were arrestedfrom on July 15 at 1.15 pm and54 mobile phones, 11 laptops and Rs 2 lakh in cash

were recovered from their possession.

“The accused used to dis-tribute pamphlets. Once thesuspected snatcher got in touchwith the accused, he wasinstructed to steal mobilephones. A total of 25 snatcherswere part of the gang run by theaccused. These snatchers, whooperated in groups of five to sixmen, were mainly drug addictsand used to target women andpeople in crowded markets andbuses. These snatchers used toget a fifty-fifty share in thebooty they stole. Kishor used topay them even on lean days. Hisson was also involved in day-to-day processing of managing thegang,” said officials.

Police investigators said inthe group the main snatcher

was nicknamed “machine”.MN Tiwari, Deputy

Commissioner of Police(Outer), said, “During interro-gation, the accused disclosedthat they used to buy the stolenmobile phones and laptopsfrom small pick-picketers andthen further sold these receivedstolen property on higherprices to make good money.They said they did so as tomake good money and live a prosperous

life.”However, after rise in the

spate of snatching incidents inOuter Delhi, Special Staff ofOuter district was on high alert.A team was formed tasked tocarry out anti snatching driveand crack the cases. And it wasduring the investigation thatpolice came to know about thefather-son duo gang.

“On July 15, sleuths of theSpecial Staff were tipped offthat one Kishor, who is

involved in buying and sellingof stolen mobile phones willcome to L-block in Mangolpuriin a Swift Dzire car.Accordingly, a team underInspector Sukhbir Malik wasconstituted and a trap was laidnear L-Block, Mangolpuri. Afew minutes later, two men car-rying bags in their hands in awhite Swift car came. The teamapprehended them,” said thesenior police officer.

Initially, the two tried tomislead police. But on sus-tained interrogation, they brokedown and confessed to theirinvolvement in running asnatching company. Police saidthey are trying to ascertain theidentity of the snatchers andefforts are on to nab othermembers of the gang.

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After the Congress workers forced Madhur Bhandarkar to can-cel the promotional events for Indu Sarkar in Pune and Nagpur

a day earlier, the Maharashtra Government on Monday accord-ed security cover to the filmmaker to ensure against any untowardincident in the run-up to the release of his film which is sched-uled to hit the screens on July 28.

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Prime Minister NarendraModi on Monday hoped

the "growing stronger togeth-er" spirit of the GST will bringenthusiasm to the MonsoonSession of Parliament and polit-ical parties will engage in highstandard of debate and providevalue addition. Modi said thepassage of the GST showed thegood that can be achievedwhen all political parties, allGovernments come togetherand work for the nation.

Talking to media, Modisaid whenever political partiesand Government take decisionskeeping in mind national inter-est, it shows their commitmenttowards the larger public good.

"Today the MonsoonSession begins. After summer,the advent of rain brings in afresh pleasant smell in the soil.Similarly, the Monsoon Sessionwill bring in a new spirit afterthe successful implementationof the Goods and Services Tax(GST). It has been proved suc-cessfully with the implemen-tation of GST. The GST spiritis about growing strongertogether. I hope the same GSTspirit prevails in this session,"he hoped.

"It is my firm belief that theMonsoon session will providean opportunity to all politicalparties and MPs to enter intohigh standard of debate and toprovide value addition for tak-

ing major decisions in largernational interest," he toldreporters here.

The PM said since theMonsoon session falls in one ofthe most significant period ofthe country, so naturally, peo-ple's attention, like always, willbe focused more on this ses-sion. "As the Monsoon sessionof Parliament gets underway,we salute our farmers whohave been ensuring food secu-rity for the country with theirhard work. This session beginsby remembering those farm-ers," he said."This session isvery significant. On August 15,we will complete seven decadesof our Independence. OnAugust 9, which comes in themidst of the session, the QuitIndia Movement turns 75years," he added.

Later, Modi walked up tosenior opposition leaders in theLok Sabha to greet them as theHouse met on the opening dayof the monsoon session whilevoting was underway for thekeenly- contested presidentialelection in the parliament com-plex.

Just before the proceedings

began, Modi, External AffairsMinister Sushma Swaraj andParliamentary Affairs MinisterAnanth Kumar exchangedpleasantries with leaders inthe opposition benches includ-ing Congress president SoniaGandhi, Samajwadi Partyleader Mulayam Singh Yadavand National Conferenceleader Farooq Abdullah.

Abdullah took oath as LokSabha member after winning theSrinagar bypoll recently. IndianUnion Muslim League leader PK Kunhalikutty from Keralaalso took oath. Proceedings ofthe Lok Sabha were adjournedfor the day after paying tributesto sitting member VinodKhanna, Union Minister AnilDave.Speaker Sumitra Mahajan,while making the obituary ref-erences, also condemned the ter-rorist attack on Amarnath pil-grims and described it as a"cowardly" act.

Rajya Sabha was alsoadjourned for the day as a markof respect to departed sittingmembers - Forest andEnvironment Minister AnilMadhav Dave and MP PalvaiGovardhan Reddy.

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NDA's Vice-President nom-inee M Venkaiah Naidu's

repartees are famous and areoften greeted with a smile andguffaws by most of thosecrowding around him at anypoint. His rhyming retorts inLok Sabha, Rajya Sabha, atPress conferences, post-con-ferences and public rallies havealways evoked hearty laughterfrom the listeners and provid-ed much-needed relief to thosewanting to unwind after a hec-tic day.

The latest was when the'Rashtrapati nominee' was tobe announced by the NDAand Naidu was asked whetherhe was the chosen one. "I nei-ther want to becomeRashtrapati (President), nordo I want to become `Up-rashtrapati` (Vice-President).I am happy being Usha's pati(wife Usha's husband)," Naiduquipped when questioned byreporters. Well, Naidu, itseemed had no choice, whenPrime Minister Narendra

Modi told him to be ready "toaccept higher responsibility" ofVice-President on Mondaymorning.

Naidu's one-liners havelightened the tense atmos-phere in Rajya Sabha and LokSabha and eased heaviness inboth the Houses.

At the high-charged debateon the division of AndhraPradesh in Parliament in 2013with the ruling UPA providing"no clarity" on the split ofresources, Naidu alleged mis-handling by the CongressGovernment saying "first pro-

vide than divide".But vintage Naidu is

known for this hard hitting andwitty retorts on the politicalopponents .

Speaking in the Lok Sabhain 2015, a year after Congresslost General Election andAssembly polls, Naidu advisedRahul Gandhi (though with-out naming him), "Self-intro-spect if you can do it here andif you can't, then go somewherefar and do it." Rahul was onwhat his party had described as"a leave of absence" for twoweeks, to pour over theCongress's future .

Ahead of the ModiGovernment's completion ofone year in office, when Rahulgave a 'zero' to the NDAGovernment's performance,Naidu took him on saying,"Zeros can't find Heroes."

On one occasion, hederided Communist Party ofIndia (CPI) as "consumerprice index".

During the whirlwind pub-lic meetings of BJP's PrimeMinisterial candidate NarendraModi in 2014, Naidu explained

the 'new trend" set by the BJPin organizing public meetingssaying, "We don't believe in thefour Bs, so we started charging�5 (�. 10 in Tamil Nadu) frompeople who attend these meet-ings."

The four Bs, he said, wereBus, Biryani, Bottle and Bhatta(the money given to themobilised crowd)!

Many of his jibes and acer-bic sarcasms were directed atthe mercurial CongressGeneral Secretary DigvijaySingh. "He is now the in-charge of AP. It has to be seenwhether he will discharge hisduties or the Congress opts fora recharge to make him work."

"A book on his repartees isin the offing," said one of hisaides. It remains to be seenwhether the BJP leader fromthe 'United Andhra Pradesh`would continue with his witeven after the elevation asVice-President. The augustoffice has, this time, `goodchance` of adding a dash oflight humour, though within`some protocol'.

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Australia's Minister forForeign Affairs, Julie

Bishop, will be in New Delhifrom July 18-19, to hold talkswith her Indian counterpartSushma Swaraj. Defence andeducation will remain focusareas for discussions as the twosides will explore partnershipin these key areas. It is expect-ed Sushma will take up India'sconcerns over Australia's newvisa policy that is likely to hitIndians most.

Terming India as a signif-icant economic and tradingpartner, Bishop said duringher trip she will explore oppor-tunities for Australia in theeducation sector and in devel-oping innovative partnershipsin the business sector.

"In India, I will meet PrimeMinister Narendra Modi andjoin Minister of External AffairsSushma Swaraj for our bilater-al Foreign Ministers' Framework

Dialogue. We will discuss ourshared interests in a stable Indo-Pacific, our deepening defenceand security relationship, andhow we can boost trade and eco-nomic ties," Bishop said in a pre-departure statement. Besides, theminister will deliver her secondIndo-Pacific Oration in NewDelhi, outlining how Australiaand India can work together tobuild peace and prosperity, andto maintain a rules-based orderin the region.

Australia's HighCommissioner to India,Harinder Sidhu, said the visitplaces emphasis on India as oneof Australia's top economicand security partners. "We arecommitted to exploring ways toexpand our engagement evenfurther," Sidhu said on Monday.

Bishop is also scheduled tomeet union Defense andFinance Minister Arun Jaitleyand union Minister for HumanResource Development PrakashJavadekar. She will also sign the

International Solar Alliance."Our countries have a

dynamic and growing knowl-edge partnership, flourishingpeople-to-people links andconverging political, econom-ic and strategic interests. Andthere is scope for us to do muchmore together," Sidhu added.

From New Delhi, Bishopwill travel to Sri Lanka. "In SriLanka, I will meet PresidentMaithripala Sirisena, PrimeMinister Ranil Wickremesinghe,Sri Lankan Foreign MinisterRavi Karunanayake and otherministers to discuss securitycooperation and explore neweconomic opportunities in sci-ence, resources and energy.President Sirisena and I willannounce Australian assistanceto combat dengue fever in SriLanka and discuss progress onthe implementation of SriLanka's reconciliation process,which is critical to its long-termsecurity and prosperity," Bishopsaid.

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Adelegation of MPs fromAndhra Pradesh's

Opposition YSRCP onMonday asked the ElectionCommission to "derecognise"the State's ruling Telugu DesamParty for allegedly violatingprovisions of the Constitutionand election laws.

YSR Congress Party MPsmet Chief ElectionCommissioner Achal KumarJoti and alleged that ChiefMinister N ChandrababuNaidu had made an "undemo-cratic" speech in Nandyalaconstituency and threatened towithdraw welfare schemes ifpeople did not vote for him,party leader Y V Subba Reddysaid. The constituency is sched-uled to hold a by-election fol-lowing the death of TDP MLABhuma Nagi Reddy.

"In the speech in Nandyalaconstituency on 22 June, ChiefMinister Naidu had told peo-ple not to use roads and foregopensions if they were not will-ing to vote for him," Lok SabhaMP Y V Subba Reddy wrote ina letter.

The delegation also sub-mitted newspaper clippingsand CDs to back its allegations."Nandyala constituency isabout to face a by-election.Even before the notification,TDP was indulging in luringpeople by spending moneylavishly," Reddy said.

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It has taken more than twoyears for the country's pre-

mier health institution AIIMSin the National Capital torealise that setting up a researchfacility for a contagious diseaselike TB and geriatric care in thesame building does not augerwell for the visiting elderlypatients who are vulnerable toall kinds of diseases.

Now, following objectionfrom the Union HealthMinistry, it has tweaked theproposal wherein 'non-haz-ardous' facilities will come upat the building that will major-ly house the National Instituteof Ageing.

The issue has pegged backthe AIIMS, Delhi, project bytwo years. In contrast, the con-struction of building for thesame purpose in Chennai onthe Madras Medical College(MMC) premises is moving ata fast pace to be completed bythe year-end. The institute willfunction under the MMC.

Union Finance MinisterArun Jaitely in his maidenbudget in 2014 had announcedfunds for setting up the twoNational Institutes for Ageingin Delhi and Chennai in thefield of geriatric care in thecountry: aiming better healthcare delivery for old people,training of health professionalsand research activities alongwith 200 bedded in-patientservices and 15 seats for post-graduate course in geriatricmedicine.

"Earlier a proposal tohouse certain communicabledisease treatment andadvanced research facilities inthe same building had beenmoved by the AIIMS, Delhi.This matter remained underconsideration for some time,However, it was not agreedupon in the interest of healthsafety of geriatric patients. Thiswas the cause for delay," said asenior official from the HealthMinistry.

He said that now the issueis being sorted out and a 'non-health hazardous' facility willoccupy some additional floorsof the building.

The need for setting upthe Centre for Excellence forelders has been constantlyfelt as there is no specialisa-tion in geriatric medicinesavailable in the country. Theseinstitutes will also involve indeveloping enhanced evidenceof elderly through research in

geriatrics and gerontologyunder the NationalProgramme for Health Care ofthe Elderly (NPHCE) pro-gramme which envisagesestablishing geriatric wards,rehabilitation centres and geri-atric clinics at various levels ofthe district health care deliv-ery system.

By 2020, India will havearound 12 million elderly per-sons with difficulty in accom-plishing activities of daily liv-ing (ADLs), estimates a UnitedNations Population Fund(UNFPA) report. There willalso be a surge of chronic ill-nesses, the most commonamong those being arthritis,hypertension, diabetes, asth-ma, heart disease, depressionand alzheimer's disease. The"India Ageing Report 2017"released by UNFPA recentlypredicts the number to be17.8 million by 2030 and 37.9million by 2050.

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The Centre is not inclined togrant any more grace peri-

od for depositing the scrapped�500 and �1,000 notes, sayingthe very object of demonetisa-tion and elimination of blackmoney would be defeated iffurther window was given.

"The very object of demon-etisation and elimination ofblack money will be defeated ifa window is opened for a fur-ther period as the persons inpossession of the specifiedbank notes (scrapped notes of�1,000 and �500) will have hadsufficient time and opportuni-ty to carefully plan the reasonsand excuses for not depositingthe SBNs within the permittedperiod -- before December 30,2016," stated the Ministry ofFinance in a fresh affidavitfiled a day before the hearingin the matter on Tuesday.

Stating another reason fornot allowing any more personsto deposit old demonetizedcurrency notes, the Centre sub-mitted, "Any number of bena-mi transactions and user prox-ies for the purpose of produc-ing and depositing scrappedbank notes would then arisewhich the departments wouldhave great difficulty in decidingany genuine case from thenumerous bogus ones."

The Centre was respondingto the July 4 directive asking itto consider granting a windowto those who have not been ableto exchange the scrapped notesfor genuine reasons.

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The Centre on Monday toldthe Supreme Court that an

Oversight Committee to mon-itor the affairs of the MedicalCouncil of India (MCI) hasbeen constituted, the names ofwhich will be revealed to theCourt on Tuesday.

The new Committee thatwill consist of five memberswill replace the previousOversight Committee headedby former Chief Justice ofIndia (CJI) RM Lodha.Opposing the continuationof Justice Lodha panel, theCentre mounted an attack bypointing to the wrong com-mitted by it in grantingapproval to medical colleges.The Lodha panel, also com-prising eminent doctor ShivSareen and ex-CAG VinodRai, was constituted on ordersof the Supreme Court on May

2, 2016 and was to functionfor a one-year period unlessthe Centre brings in an alter-nate mechanism to replace it.

Not wishing to enter intothe debate surrounding theLodha panel, a five-judgebench dealing with a bunch ofpetitions filed by medical col-leges, said, "You are firing shotsat yourself." The bench, head-ed by CJI JS Khehar toldSolicitor General Ranjit Kumarthat the decisions of theOversight Committee were tobind the MCI and not theCentre. It was always open toCentre to appoint an alternateCommittee by which the termof Lodha Committee wouldautomatically come to a close,the bench added.

The bench, also compris-ing Justices J Chelameswar,RK Agar wal, DYChandrachud and S AbdulNazeer said, "If the govern-

ment constitutes theCommittee, then its fine orelse we will have to do it." TheCourt was hearing a bunch ofpetitions by medical collegesdemanding continuation ofLodha panel due to the pauci-ty of time to seek approval forthe next academic session.Arguing for colleges, senioradvocates Kapil Sibal andMukul Rohatgi submitted thatthe Lodha panel comprisedindependent members, Anypanel replacing it should haveeminent and independent per-sons, they added.

S-G assured the Court thatthe Government will suggestnames to the Court on Tuesday.It earlier suggested having apanel headed by DirectorGeneral, Health Services andother government servants tooversee MCI but the collegesfelt they would virtually imposeGovernment's view.

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The Madhya Pradeshpolice's role in investigat-

ing a crime involving cow vig-ilantes leading to their acquit-tal came under scrutiny by theSupreme Court after it dis-covered that the video footagethat caught the accused killinga man for alleged cow slaugh-ter was not produced as evi-dence. What was more shock-ing was the fact that the policedid not send the compact disccontaining the video footagefor authentication to a foren-sic lab.

The matter came to lightafter a social activist AnuragModi highlighted the flaws inthe investigation and pointedfingers on the police's con-nivance as the list of 12 accusedcharged with rioting and mur-der contained the son of a BJPlegislator.

The Bench of Chief Justiceof India (CJI) JS Khehar andJustice DY Chandrachud, whohad summoned the officersinvestigating the case to Court,said, "You (police) are hand inglove with the accused,Because they belong to thepolitical party ruling in the

state, you let them go." TheCourt further asked the policeofficials why the CD was notsent for forensic probe towhich they replied that thesame will now be sent to theforensic lab.

Counsel for petitionerPyoli Swatija pointed out howin one of the 12 cases, nineaccused were acquitted, thebench wished to know whetherthe CD was produced as evi-dence in the concerned Courtand whether its non-produc-tion became a ground foracquittal. The matter will betaken up after two weeks.

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RSS ideologue and DelhiUniversity professor

Rakesh Sinha has beenbooked under non-bailableSections of the IPC byKolkata Police for allegedlyinciting communal hatredthrough social media posts. Sinha has termed thisa 'strong-arm tactic' to silencehim from criticizing the Mamata BanerjeeGovernment over communal violence inBashirhat.

The case was filed onJuly 12 on a complaint by acouple o that t Sinha tried toincite communal flare up inthe already disturbed Statethrough his social mediaposts.

In a twitter post, Sinhahad posted a picture with hismother offering prayers atthe Mahakal Temple inUjjain on July 9. Accordingto Kolkata lawyer BrajeshJha, who is representingSinha, one Manoj KumarSingh filed the complaintagainst him, calling his post"provocative" that can lead tocommunal tension andriots."We are moving foranticipatory bail and alsoplanning to sue the com-plainant," Jha said. "

"The FIR has been filedwithout any evidence orannexure, Mamata is trying tointimidate democratic secu-lar voice from even outsideBengal . She and her party areperturbed to find researchbased , logical attack on hercommunal policy and politics.Since my foundation has pub-lished three research baseddocuments on society, econ-omy and culture of Bengaland I have been vocal in TVdiscussions against her mis-rule, she is bent upon to takerevenge.

" How come photo ofperforming pooja along withmy 85-year-old mother inMahakaleshwar temple inUjain is a threat to commu-nal harmony of Bengal? Forthat matter, how can a photoof sarasanghchalak Mohanbhagwat ji releasing the bookon Narendra Modi causethreat to Bengal's society?Sinhga asked.

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In an apparent bid to use India-China stand off and stir up an anti-

NDA opinion in the Centre to herown political advantage, MamataBanerjee on Monday accused NewDelhi of “neglecting” the chicken’sneck area in Siliguri-Darjeelingalarmingly close to China and saidher party would definitely raise theissue alongside other matters likehasty implementation of GST,demonetization etc, in the MonsoonSession of Parliament.

Earlier in the State Assembly theBengal Chief Minister who held ameeting with her party MPs in thesidelines of the presidential electionsstopped short of conceding defeat inthe Presidential polls. She said though“we will respect the winning candi-date (apparently Ramnath Kovind

fielded by the NDA) because hewould be our President, we havegiven a ‘protest vote’ against the BJP’shighhandedness that became mani-fest in the areas like hasty imple-mentation of GST, goondaism in thename of Gauraksha, Notebandi thathas ruined the Indian economy andof course its turning a blind eye onthe burning Darjeeling crisis.”

The Chief Minister who had nolove lost for the Narendra ModiGovernment particularly in the wakeof sustained CBI and ED grilling ofher party MPs in Narada and Sharadacases reportedly told her MPs to goballistic against the Government forlooking right through Darjeelingcrisis.

She wondered “what the IB andRAW were doing all these years whena foreign country was trying to cre-ate disturbance in Darjeeling. They

have their eyes on Sikkim too. Wehave reports that adjacent to thePashupati Gate of Nepal 400 schoolshave been set up where Chinese isbeing taught. Why the Centre did nottake any action. What was RAW andIB doing?” she asked alleging theCentre was “ignoring the chicken’sneck area of Darjeeling-Siliguri.”

Everyone knew the strategicimportance of Siliguri — which fallsin Darjeeling district — but “theGovernment is ignoring it” she saidadding “despite our repeated requeststhe Government did not send cen-tral forces in Darjeeling to contain theunrest their knowing full well thatforeign hands were at play in theregion.”

On presidential polls a bellicoseBanerjee said the reason behind herparty’s voting against the NDA can-didate was “we wanted to register our

vote of protest against the high-handed central government whichdid not build up consensus and alsochose to ignore the opposition opin-ion on major issues like Notebandiand GST.”

The way the saffron brigadehad unleashed the band of cow vig-ilantes was fast becoming a threat forthe Indian secular fabric she saidadding the in the presidential elec-tions the opposition had managedunmask some forces which swear bysecularism.

“Some parties sided with theNDA otherwise the result would havebeen different. We ask these partiesto still reconsider their lines becausethe presidential election has given agolden opportunity to let the secu-lar anti-BJP forces unite. If these par-ties don’t do it now they will owe ananswer to the history.”

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In the first presidential elec-tion is being held at

Amaravati, the NDA candi-date Ram Nath Kovind hassecured a total value of 27,865from 175 Andhra Pradeshlegislators in Monday’s polling.Each legislator is having avote value of 159.

All the 175 MLAs in theAP Assembly, including thoseof YSRCP, had earlier pledgedtheir support to NDA’s presi-dential candidate Ram NathKovind when he visited toTelugu States.

Telugu Desam PartyNational President and ChiefMinister of Andhra Pradesh

Nara Chandra Babu Naiduwas the first to cast his votefollowed by AP LegislatureAssembly Speaker KodelaShivaprasad, Ministers andTDP, BJP legislators. TheOpposition Party Leader ofYSRCP YS Jagan MohanReddy has cast his vote alongwith his party MLAs.

In Andhra PradeshAssembly, The TDP is having124 MLAs, it’s ally BJP 4MLAs and YSRCP 46 MLAs.The voting was conducted inthe Committee Hall of theFunctional Assembly Building.

The Andhra PradeshCongress has none eitherMLAs or the Lok Sabha MPs.It’s having four Rajya Sabhamember only.

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Altogether 124 MLAs andthree MPs have cast their

vote in Assam on Monday toelect the 14th President of India.While 124 MLAs cast theirvotes here at the Central Hall ofAssam Legislative Assembly,two other MLAs including for-mer Assam Chief MinisterTarun Gogoi and Kamal ShingNarzary have stated to have casttheir votes in New Delhi.

The three Lok Sabhamembers, who have cast theirvotes here, are BadruddinAjmal, Sirajuddin Ajmal andRadheshyam Biswas. Thepolling began at 10 am andended at 5 pm.

“It is only a formality now.People of the country knowsthat NDA’s candidate RamNath Kovind is going to be thecountry’s next President. I amvery happy that the country isgoing to get such an honest and

dedicated person as the nextPresident,” said Assam ChiefMinister Sarbananda Sonowalwhile casting his vote today.

Principal Secretary to theAssam Legislative Assembly,Mrigendra Kumar Deka said

that the ballot box have beensealed after the poll is over andkept in the strong room. Thesame will be sent to NewDelhi on Tuesday.

The BJP led ruling alliancein Assam, including the AsomGana Parishad (AGP) and theBodoland Peoples’ Front (BPF)are likely to support Kovindwhile the Opposition Congressand All India UnitedDemocratic Front (AIUDF) ledby Moulana Badaruddin Ajmalare likely to support MeiraKumar. Principal Secretary tothe Assam Legislative Assembly,Mrigendra Kumar Deka earli-er said that the vote value forone MLA in Assam is 116, thevote value for each MP is 706.

While the BJP has 61 leg-islators in Assam Assembly, itsallies AGP and BPF has 14 and12 legislators. While theCongress has 26 legislators, theAIUDF has 13 numbers of leg-islators in the house.

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As anticipated KarnatakaGovernment on Monday

has transferred two top prisonofficials DGP (Prisons) HNSathyanarayana Rao and DIG(Prisons) D Roopa, who hadbrought him under a cloud ofbribery allegations, were shift-ed with immediate effect.

The State Government in anotification said AdditionalDirector General of Police,Anti-Corruption Bureau, NSMegharikh has been trans-ferred with immediate effectand posted as Additional DGP,Prisons, in place of Rao. TheGovernment has also trans-ferred Parappanna Agraharacentral high-security prisoncontroversial chief superinten-dent Krishnakumar.

Prison DIG Roopa hasmade allegations against hersuperior officer HNS Rao forallegedly providing specialtreatment to AIADMK(Amma) leader VK Sasikalaand other “erroneous” practicesin Bengaluru central prison hasbeen transffered and posted asInspector General of Policeand Commissioner for Trafficand Road Safety. However, thenotification does not specifythe post for Rao and who willreplace Roopa. Rao will beretiring by the end of thismonth.

In a report submitted onJuly 12 to Rao, who was DGP(Prisons) then, Roopa asDeputy Inspector of General(Prisons) had said there was “atalk” that �2 crore hadexchanged hands to give pref-erential treatment for Sasikalaand there were allegationsagainst him also. She had alsosaid that a special kitchen wasfunctioning in the jail forSasikala in violation of prisonrules. Rao had rubbished thecharge against him by Roopa,terming it “absolutely false,baseless and wild”, and said hewould take legal recourseagainst his junior.

As the open spat betweenthe two officers became a major

political embarrassment to rul-ing Congress Government ledby Chief MinisterSiddaramaiah had ordered ahigh-level probe by a retiredIAS officer Vinayakumar intothe alleged irregularities at thecentral prison and warned of“strict action” if anyone wasfound involved in wrong doing.

As the transfers of theseofficials has snowballed into amajor political controversy theChief Minister secretariatissued a statement justifying thetransfers. It said “In its unre-lenting pursuit of truth and jus-tice, the Government ofKarnataka has made consistentefforts to inquire into and actstrictly upon cases of seriousirregularities, in the larger pub-lic interest”.

“In order to maintain thesanctity of the inquiry processand safeguard it from furtherinterference, the Governmenthas asked the DGP (Prisons)H N Sathyanarayana Rao toproceed on leave, while DIG(Prisons) D Roopa has beentransferred as DeputyInspector General of Policeand Commissioner for Trafficand Road Safety, Bengaluru”.“The Government is commit-ted to allow the inquiry to pro-ceed unhinged: so that evi-dence based truth emerges,following which necessary andstrict action will be taken tobring the guilty to book”,according to a press release bythe Chief Minister’s Secretariat.

However opposition BJPhas demanded a judicialinquiry on the entire episodeand blamed Chief Minister forfailure of law and order in theState.

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Marxist Chief MinisterPinarayi Vijayan and

Congress’ Opposition LeaderRamesh Chennithala wereamong the 138 Kerala MLAswho cast their votes in the StateAssembly on Monday to elect the14th President of the country.There were a total of 139 votesfor the presidential election fromthe 140-member State Assembly.

One vote was missing asthe Vengara seat is lying vacantafter Muslim League leaderPK Kunhalikutty resigned asMLA from there following hiselection to the Lok Sabha fromMalappuram in the by-electionheld on April 12. Former ChiefMinisters Oommen Chandyand VS Achuthanandan wereamong the early voters.

Of the 139 votes, 138 wereexpected to go into the kitty ofOpposition candidate MeiraKumar as both the main fronts,

CPI(M)-led ruling LDF andCongress-led UDF, had alreadyannounced their decision tovote for her. Only one vote —of lone BJP MLA O Rajagopal— was to favour NDA candi-date Ram Nath Kovind whosecrowning, however, is a fore-gone conclusion.

Former Minister KMMani, chairman of the KeralaCongress (M), a former UDFconstituent and presently sit-ting as a separate bloc in theAssembly, had the other daymade it clear that his party’s sixlegislators would vote for

Kumar. Seven-time legislatorand former KC(M) leader PCGeorge also had announcedthat he would vote for Kumar.

One MLA, MuslimLeague’s Parakkal Abdullafrom Kuttiadi, had soughtpermission to cast his vote inChennai as he was there fortreatment. The value of onevote from Kerala was 152. The29 lawmakers from Kerala inParliament — 20 in the LokSabha and nine in the RajyaSabha — cast their votes in thePresident election in Delhi.

The UDF’s election agent,former Minister Thiruvan-choor Radhakrishnan, was thefirst MLA to vote while MarxistChief Minister Pinarayi Vijayanwas the sixth. CPI(M)’s KJMaxi from Kochi was the lastMLA to vote. Meira Kumar,during her visit to Kerala ascandidate earlier, had met alltop leaders of the Left and theCongress-led alliance

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Of 182 MLAs in Gujarat, 180voted for the presidential

poll on Monday as BJP’s nation-al president Amit Shah cast hisvote in Delhi and the only leg-islature of JD(U) Chhotu Vasavarefrained from casting his vote.

The ruling BJP has 122 leg-islators in the State Assembly,Congress has 57, NCP has twoand JD (U) one. All the 26

Parliamentarians to Lok Sabhafrom the state are from BJP,while nine of the 11 Rajya Sabhamembers from the state alsocome from BJP. The remainingtwo belong to Congress.

While legislators cast theirvotes in Gandhinagar, MPs fromthe state exercised their franchisein Delhi. Among those whoreached early in the morning tocast vote include Gujarat ChiefMinister Vijay Rupani, former

chief minister Anandiben Patel,Deputy Chief Minister NitinPatel and Leader of Oppositionin the state AssemblyShankersinh Vaghela.

Even Gujarat Congress in-charge and legislator fromRajasthan, Ashok Gehlot, casthis vote in Gandhinagar.

Meanwhile, rebel BJP MLANalin Kotadia, announced thathe had not voted for NDA can-didate Ramnath Kovind to reg-

ister his protest against the“atrocities” committed on thePatel community.

“I will not tell you whom Ivoted for, but I want to say thatI have not given my vote toKovind. I voted against the BJPto register my protest against theatrocities committed by policeon the Patidars in 2015,” he saidafter casting his vote outsideSwarnim Sankul -2 buildingsituated in the state secretariat

complex. Kotadia was expelledfrom the BJP recently.

The BJP on its part has beenclaiming that Kotadia was in factelected to state legislature on aGujarat Parivartan Party ticketand not BJP. Interestingly theparty founded by former GujaratCM Keshubhai Patel mergedwith the BJP ahead of the LokSabha polls in 2014. HenceKotadia too came into saffronfold.

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Cross voting by SamajwadiParty MLA Shivpal Singh

Yadav was the highlight ofpresidential polls in UttarPradesh in which 402 of thetotal 403 MLAs exercised theirfranchise till 5 pm on Mondayevening.

Chief Minister YogiAdityanath was among thefirst to vote in the presidentialpolls at the Assembly premis-es on Monday and several BJPMLAs reached Tilak Hall - thevenue of polling, before theprocess got started at 10 am.Long queues of legislatorscould be seen at the venue ofpolling.

After casting his vote ataround 10.15 am, Yogi said, “It’sa matter of pride for UP that aperson from the state will take

over as the President of Indiafor the first time. I thank PrimeMinister Narendra Modi andBJP president Amit Shah forselecting Ramnath Kovind forthe office of President.’’

Yogi is an MP from

Gorakhpur and was yet tovacate the Lok Sabha seat andget membership of theAssembly. Two other MPs,Union minister Uma Bharatiand Deputy Chief Ministerand state BJP chief KeshavPrasad Maurya, both MPs, alsovoted in Lucknow. Uma Bhartiis an MP from Jhansi andMaurya from Phoolpur.

In view of the recent recov-ery of explosive material frominside the Assembly hall, secu-rity agencies had thrown anunprecedented security ring inand around Assembly buildingand commandos were deployedat Tilak Hall.

The Election Commissionhad sent two poll observersfrom Delhi. Official said thatbarring one Samajwadi PartyMLA Abrar Ahmed, all 402MLAs cast their vote.

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Shivpal Yadav, the warringuncle of Samajwadi Party

chief Akhilesh Yadav hit backwith vengeance by publicallyvoting against the party linein the Presidential poll onMonday. Akhilesh had uncer-emoniously sacked ShivpalYadav from the Cabinet inOctober 2016.

Shivpal not only gloatedbefore the media that he hadvoted for the NDA’s presi-dential candidate anddescribed him as a personwith `secular credentials’, healso posted his ̀ adventure’ onthe Facebook.

“Yes, I have voted forRamnath Kovind. I havevoted as per the directions ofNetaji (Mulayam Singh Yadav). All my life I have done whatwas told to me by Netaji.Most of the SP MLAs havevoted for Kovind,’’ claimedShivpal after casting his vote.

Yadav was accompaniedby two Independent MLAs -Vijay Mishra and AmanMani Tripathi, who werecamp followers of Shivpal butwere denied tickets byAkhilesh Yadav in the lastAssembly elections.

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Gujarat Chief Minister VijayRupani will kick-start

‘Shramik Annapurna Yojana’(Labour Meal Scheme) for con-struction workers on Tuesday.

Under the scheme con-struction workers will gethealthy and nutritious food atan affordable rate of �10 permeal. Workers involvedmasonary works will get bene-fit of the scheme.

Initially the scheme will beimplemented in five majorcities including Ahmedabad,Rajkot, Surat, Vadodara and thestate capital Gandhinagar.

‘’After considering theproblem to prepare meal earlyin the morning, StateGovernment adopted a sensi-tive approach to give workershealthy meal in the morning atKadia Nakas (a place wheremasions gathered early in themorning to get daily work),said a communiqué of StateLabour and Employmentdepartment, adding thatalready 83 sites of Kadia Nakashave been identified in thesecities where more than 5 lakhworkers will get benefit of the

scheme instantly.The Gujarat Government

has earmarked �50 crore for thescheme. As number of labour-ers working in construction sec-tor would increase, the alloca-tion for the scheme too will beenhanced. The StateGovernment will add morecities in near future under thescheme.

To get benefit of thescheme, workers will have toregister themselves and afterthat process they would getidentity cards. After paying�10 on specially preparedbooths for the schemes at KadiaNaka sites during 7 am to 11 amthey need to produce theiridentity cards and they will gethealthy and nutritious food.

Typical Gujarati vegetarianfood including Roti, Thepla,mix vegetable subji, cereals,rice, pickle, green chilly in aplatter. They will get ‘Sukhadi’— a Gujarati sweet once in aweek. According to StateLabour Minister Dilip Thakor,every meal is costing �29 butlabourers will have to pay only�10 and rest of the cost will beborne by the StateGovernment.

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Ateam of from UP Assemblyled by Speaker Hriday

Narain Dikshit will visit Gujaratand Maharashtra Assemblies tostudy the security system there.The team would also studysecurity systems in Parliamentand other State Assemblies formaking necessary changes andupgradation in security of theUttar Pradesh Assembly.

Speaker Hriday NarainDikshit said in Lucknow on

Monday,. “It has becomeimperative to take tough stepsfollowing the recovery of explo-sives from inside the Assemblyhall on July 12.’’

Dikshit said the teamwould study security system inParliament building and otherState Assemblies and whatev-er relevant was found would beimplemented in the StateAssembly building. He saidthat the decision taken after therecovery of explosive on July 12was being implemented.

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An army jawan was mar-tyred while another minor

girl became victim of heavymortar shelling initiated bythe Pakistan army since earlymorning in both the frontierdistricts of Rajouri and Poonchon Monday.

More than 5000 local res-idents living in the forwardareas of Rajori were affectedby the intense shelling oncivilian areas while over onedozen schools were closeddown as precautionary mea-sure to ensure safety of schoolchildren.

The district authoritiesfaced tough times whileescorting 120 students, heldup in Govt School atPanjgrain, to safety.

At both the places theIndian Army retaliated, trig-gering heavy exchanges.

A Jammu based Defencespokesman said, "the PakistanArmy initiated unprovoked fir-ing on Indian Army posts inRajouri sector and Poonch dis-trict around 0730 hours. TheIndian Army retaliated strong-ly and effectively".

In the fire exchange, NaikMuddasar Ahmed was griev-ously injured when mortarshells landed on his bunker, thespokesman said, adding that he

was evacuated to the MI roomwhere he succumbed to injuries.

According to DrMehmood Choudhary, DeputyMedical Superintendent ofRajouri district hospital, thearmy jawan had received fatalinjury on his right leg. DrChoudhary said, the armyjawan died because of excessivebleeding. His muscles, majorblood vessels were ruptureddue to impact of the blast

The 37-year-old jawan,who hailed from Duchoo vil-lage, is survived by his wifeShaheena Muddasar and twochildren.

Pakistan also shelled mor-tars on civilian areas in Balakote,Manjakote and Behrooti belts,a police officer said. In the fir-ing and shelling, 8-year-oldSajida Houser was killed atBehrooti, the officer said.

Since July 1, four armyjawans have been martyred

while three civilians were killedin repeated incidents of cease-fire violations by PakistanArmy along the LoC.

Meanwhile, weekly crossLoC carvan-e-Aman (Peacebus) also remained suspendedfor the second consecutive weekin the wake of escalation of ten-sion along the line of control.

Tanveer Ahmad,Custodian at Trade Facilitationcentre, Poonch told ThePioneer, the peace bus serviceremained suspended for thesecond week in succession asPak army refused to throwopen the gates to allow the pas-sengers from POK to enterRawalakote via Chakan-da-bagh. Official sources said, 85POK passengers are strandedin Poonch while 2 Indian pas-sengers are stranded in POK.

Deputy Development com-missioner, Rajouri Dr ShahidIqbal Choudhary who coordi-

nated relief efforts in a state-ment said, "Heavy mortalshelling was reported in for-ward areas of Tehsil Manjakotein Rajouri at 8.30 a.m.He saidestimated population of 4500-5000 in villages of Panjgrain,Rajdhani and Naika amongothers was affected.

Two civilians were injuredduring shelling. One seriouslyinjured Shah Begum W/OMohd Sharief R/O Panjgrainwas admitted in district hospi-tal while other injured ShariefAhmed was given first aid.Thedistrict administration inRajouri had also notified reliefcentres and deployedAmbulances in forward areasto safely evacuate injured.

The local residents wereissued advisory by the localauthorities to remain indoorsand not to venture out duringintense shelling from across theline of control.

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Ongoing flood situationhas improved in Assam

but over 7 lakh people arecontinued to be affected by thedeluge in 17 districts of theState, the Assam State DisasterManagement Authority(ASDMA) said on Monday.

A total of 1,102 villages in17 districts are still sub-merged by the floodwater onMonday and five more peoplehave died in last 24 hours tak-ing the total death toll to 65across the state in this year’sflood, the ASDMA officialssaid in the flood report issued on Monday.

The officials said thatclose to 19,000 people are stilltaking shelter in 108 reliefcamps set up in different districts.

Assam Chief MinisterSarbananda Sonowal todaydirected the DCs of all dis-tricts to ensure relief materi-

als to all the flood hit peopleand asked them to start work-ing for rebuilding the house offlood hit people as well as theembankments soon after thewater level recedes.

The Chief Ministerreviewed the situation at hisoffice with top officials todayand said that there is also anurgent need to repair andrebuilding the roads and bridgesdamaged by flood so that com-munication infrastructure canbe restored at an early date.

He said that appropriatesteps must be taken by theadministration to prevent dis-eases from spreading and tak-ing epidemic form in floodaffected areas by holdingmedical camps and takingother such measures.“Farmers in the flood affect-ed areas should also be pro-vided quality seeds for culti-vation in coordination withthe Distr ict AgricultureOfficers,” Sonowal directed.

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The proposed 348 km-longPurvanchal Expresway

connecting Lucknow withGhazipur could be the cheap-est Greenfield highway of Indiaas the cost estimated is �39.17crore per km.

CEO of UPEIDA AvnishAwasthi told The Pioneer thatthis cost is likely to come downfurther. “We have already scaleddown the cost from the initialcosting of �42.88 crore perkm, when the project was pro-posed. It was brought down to�40.07 crore per km and aftersome adjustment and now ithas further been reduced to�39.17 crore,” he said.

Awasthi said that tendersordered by the previous gov-ernment have been cancelledby an order on June 7, 2017 andfresh costing of all proposedpackages was done. "Differentproposals of cost cuttings have

been implemented to ensurethat a good expressway couldbe constructed at a cheap rate,"Awasthi said.

Initially, the 353 km-longexpressway connectingLucknow with Ballia was pro-posed by the previous AkhileshYadav Government on April 4,2016. Later it was proposed thatthe expressway would culmi-nate at Haideriya in Ghazipuras Government did not getenvironment clearance. Thus,the length of the road wasreduced to 348 km.

Initially, the cost of the

project was �19437.73 crore ofwhich �12070 crore is for civilwork and the RITES Limitedhad vetted the project. Thecost was revised followingdirectives from Chief MinisterYogi Adityanath to slashunnecessary cost after whichit was brought down to�13349.51 crore.

"Tender allocation willstart after UPEIDA acquires 90per cent of the land as pre-scribed in the law. So far, over60 per cent of the private landhas been procured. Campswere being set up to speed upland acquisition," the CEOUPEIDA said.

One of the new conceptsintroduced in this scheme willbe that UPEIDA will acquiremines so that regular supply ofconstruction material like grav-el and sand could be main-tained. Royalty of these mineswill be directly deposited in thegovernment's bank account.

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With top officials ofNational Investigating

Agency (NIA) yet to issue anyformal order on the recom-mendation of UP Governmentto take up probe into therecovery of explosive in theAssembly, an enquiry initiatedby sleuths of Anti-TerroristsSquad (ATS) has failed tomake any headway due to theabsence of credible evidence.

"No, we have failed to findout any clue with the help ofClose Circuit Televisions(CCTVs) set up inside and out-side the Assembly," disclosed asenior ATD officer.

"The probe so far has madeit clear that the there is no ter-ror angle behind PETN beingfound under the cushion of achair inside Assembly. It isnow confirmed that either itwas the mischief of someemployee or even a lawmakerto create panic or some otherreason and hence the materialwas brought inside the House,"the officer further claimed.

Explaining his theory, theoffcial said, "The manner inwhich PETN was found spreadunder the cushion, it cleared the

air that there was no terror con-spiracy. The plastic explosivewas not found inside any pack-et but was spread on the cornerof the cushion of the seat."

Sources said that after theprobe agency recorded thestatements of SP MLAs fromUnchahar (Rae bareli) ManojPandey and from Kannauj AnilKumar Dohre.

Dohre reportedly roldtheinvestiagtors that he arrivedin Lucknow from Kannauj onthe fateful day, meting someparty leaders before reachiongthe House.

The MLA reportedly saidthat Pandey was already seat-ed before he went to his chair.He also claimed that he did notfeel any substance lying underthe cushion before leaving theseat. Dohre denied having anyknowledge about the substance.

Sources said that now theATS sleuths would record state-ments of other MLAs fromOpposition parties to checkcontradictions.

However, CCTV footageshowed that only Pandey andDohre had occupied that seatunder which the explsoive wasfound. The footages do notindicate as to how and when

the substance was put underthe cushion.

The ATS is also waiting fordetailed report of the sub-stance from Forensic ScienceLaboratory in Hyderbad toconfirm about the ̀ potency' ofthe PETN.

Earlier, IG of ATS AseemArun said that investigation wasunderway to trace out the per-son who kept by explosive butthere were no concrete leads yet.

"Officials in the Assemblyand employees have beenalready quizzed along withAssistant Marshal, Engineers,Security prsonnel with the dogsquad, AC operator and classIV staff," the IG said.

The security personnel alsochecked 23 camera recordings,including 12 in the Assemblypermises, six inside the House,two at the entry and exit gatesfor ruling and oppositionmembers and three cameras ofDoordarshan, which telecastthe live proceedings.

During a mock drill andchecking inside the Assemblypremises, security personnelfound several empty packetsof gutka and tobacco besidesa packet containing 150grams of powder.

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Chief Minister YogiAdityanath congratulated

Union Urban DevelopmentMinister M Vankaiah Naidu forbeing made candidate byNational Democratic Alliancefor the post of Vice-Presidentof India.

“This decision of PrimeMinister Narendra Modi andBJP president Amit Shah is amatter of pride for farmers andworking class,” Yogi said in awritten statement issued inLucknow on Monday.

The CM said that Naiduhas a long public life and hasfulfilled all responsibilities givento him in the Government aswell as in the party. "He is pop-ular among people all acrossIndia and has proved his met-tle as a Union minister. His lovefor Hindi is well known forwhich he has won hearts innorth India," Yogi said.

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In a significant joint opera-tion, the Anti-Terrorist

Squads of Maharashtra andUttar Pradesh police a sus-pected Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT)operative Salim MukimMohammed Khan caught fromthe Mumbai airport in theearly hours of Mumbai.

Acting on a tip off from theUP police, the MaharashtraATS officials arrested SalimMohammad Khan, when at theChhatrapati ShivajiInternational Airport fromUnited Arab Emirates (UAE).After Salim’s arrest, the stateATS officials informed theircounterparts from UP aboutthe development.

A resident of Faizabad inUttar Pradesh, Salim hadallegedly been involved inthe fidayeen attack on theRampur CRPF camp thattook place on January 1, 2008.He was absconding since theincident.

The initial investigations bythe Maharashtra ATS have

revealed that Salim owed alle-giance to LeT.

The Maharashtra ATS ishanding over the custody ofSalim to the UP police whohave registered an offenceunder section 121, 121(A),122, 123 ( sections relatingwaging or attempting to wagea war against the Governmentof India) of Indian Penal Code,read with 3, 7, 25 Arms Actr/w 5, 7(A) ExplosiveSubstance Act, sections 3, 4,5 Explosive Act, and sections5 and 7(A) of the ForeignerRegistration Act.

Salim is the third terroristto have been arrested in con-nection with the 2008 attack ona CRPF camp in Rampur

The investigations haverevealed that Salim hadacquired terror training in aterrorist camp inMuzaffarabad, Pakistan.

A handler for a Pakistan ISIagent Aftab, Salim had pro-vided finances for the terroracts indulged in by the former(Aftab). Aftab had been arrest-ed earlier in Faizabad.

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Of late, Prime Ministers havenot had much to celebrate inthe field of leaving a legacy.Gordon Brown will alwayscarry the responsibility of

having been Chancellor while themachinery of the 2008 recession judderedinto motion and Tony Blair, despite presiding (which is exactly what Blairdid) over a time of prosperity and largely good feeling, has had his time at number 10 tarnished by the folly of the Iraq war.

The most recent person to leave thatprestigious house on Downing Street,David Cameron, must have been able toalmost taste the positivity of his poten-tial legacy at one point. He would be theman who, along with his prudentChancellor, George Osborne, would havebalanced the books, saved the UnitedKingdom by beating back the forces ofScottish Nationalism in the 2014 refer-endum on independence, and keptBritain at the heart of the EuropeanUnion.

While the public had, albeit some-what misplaced, confidence in Cameronand Osborne on the economy, andthough the Scottish referendum didindeed result in a successful ‘no’ vote, theEU vote ruined his hat-trick andCameron’s legacy is that he is the manwho called a referendum that he did notneed to and lost it. Brexit will be forev-er attributed to the hubris of DavidCameron. So what of our current PrimeMinister, Theresa Mary May?

There is mounting doubt that Maywill even last a full-term but, on theunderstanding that she does, she will havedifficulty in achieving anything resem-bling a positive legacy.

Theresa May came into office with aparliamentary majority, all the momen-tum a leader could want, and only aneutered and impotent LabourOpposition and a clutch of boisterousScottish Nationalists standing in herway. The first May term looked as if it waspoised to march, in its signature leopardprint heels, across the fallen oppositionand run roughshod over all before it.

It is now a year on and… Well, thingshave changed and not in a good way forMay and her Tories.

From a majority of 12 seats in theCommons, the Conservatives ended upwith 13 fewer seats and are now only keptin power due to an unpopular deal withthe Democratic Unionist Party, whichcame with a £1 billion ($1.2billion)price tag attached. The sum involved has caused anger in the devolved nationsof the United Kingdom as has the deal itself.

In short, Theresa May has made a

considerable mess. She, like her predeces-sor, did not need to call her Damocleanvote and has suffered the consequencesof misreading the public mood.

In our increasingly cultural andemotion-driven politics, spurred on byBrexit, the Grenfell Tower tragedy, anda spate of awful terrorist murders the UK,the Prime Minister has been aloof andhas come across as dispassionate, tech-nocratic, and robotic.

She has suffered internal criticismand distancing, a racist controversy in herown ranks, and several other problemsthat she could, at the very least, do with-out. That is to say nothing about theimpending Brexit negotiations, intowhich Britain is entering in a weakened,confused, and demoralised state.

In 365 days at the top of theConservative Party and at the top ofGovernment, there has barely been asunny day among them.

As if the problems of external poli-tics and internal frustration were not badenough for the embattled Prime Minister,she faces an opposition in the Commonsthat is much more in tune with the waypolitics is moving.

While their economic policy is at bestfantasy and at worst fiscal and monetaryvandalism, Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Partyseems optimistic, positive, and much

more engaged with the ordinary peoplethat the Tory party makes an election-winning habit of appealing to with theirmessage of personal responsibility, free-dom, and meritocracy.

Corbyn and his team have the‘momentum’ behind them, thanks toappealing to the emerging new politicsand has, to borrow a phrase from May’scharismatic Scottish counterpart, RuthDavidson, their ‘tails up.’

If British politics were a boxingmatch, May would still be the champion,but would be found lying in her cornerwhile her remaining loyal team membersdispassionately wipe her brow as Corbynshuffles around in his corner, punchingthe air and foaming at the mouth for thenext round to begin.

As tempting as it may be for TheresaMay to try to patch herself up and comeout swinging, it seems hard to imaginethat the match is not over for her. Hercredibility is so damaged and public opin-ion continues to drop to such an extentthat her premiership has the feel ofGordon Brown’s about it; lost, belea-guered, and ultimately destined to beknocked out.

If the boff ins in Tor y partyHeadquarters are as clever as we all knowthey are, they should be looking for areboot with a new leader. This will

necessitate another painful leadershipcontest for the Tories, but that part isinevitable; how long they prolong it, withMay in charge, is entirely up to them.

If the Tories can have the bravery tooust May and replace her with a newleader, difficult though that may be, thatcan compete with Jeremy Corbyn and tapinto the new politics, just as MargaretThatcher did in her time, then the partymay just hold on.

For those who distrust Labour andunderstand the dangers of their ideolo-gy, despite what problems they may havewith the Tory party, this must surely bepreferable to the alternative?

Whether the Tories come up with anestablishment figure, a David Davies orLiam Fox, or, which would be much moreentertaining, opt for an outsider, like AlanDuncan or the recently gone-viral JacobRees-Mogg, who can tap into thedemands of contemporary British pub-lic or not will determine how its currentcrop is remembered for years to come.

For Theresa May, on the other hand,it is too late. Her legacy is fixed, it is neg-ative, and it will follow her when sheeventually makes the one decision shewill have made as Prime Minister thatwill be popular, correct, and brave all atonce — to tender her resignation.

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Sir — This refers to the article,“Kashmir valley : From nowhereto nowhere” (July 17) by BalbirPunj. We must condemn with onevoice all cowards and fanatic ele-ments, be they the Islamic State orthe Taliban or the gau-rakshak ter-ror brigades. These regressiveagents masquerading as religiousforces want to pull us back to thedark medieval ages. These cowardsare on the prowl from Una toAmarnath to find soft targets tolynch humanity. Indeed, they wantto replace democracy by mobrule and humanism by cannibal-ism. We should have zero tolerancetowards such intolerant forces.

Sujit DeKolkata

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Sir — This refers to the article,“Kashmir valley : From nowhere tonowhere” (July 17) by Balbir Punj.The recent terror attack onAmarnath pilgrims was aimed atcreating communal tension in thecountry. The terrorists are brain-washed in the name of religion.Unfortunately, terror elements arenow attacking all over the world,without fear of consequences.Globalisation has resulted in theglobalisation of terror attacks too.Condemning militancy or callingthem cowards etc, will not solve theproblem. The root cause of terrormust be eliminated for the safetyof mankind. Education, true reli-gion and social awareness in theright spirit are the need of the hour.

M KumarVia email

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Sir — This refers to the editori-al, “No mediation needed” (July16). Not long ago, China hadasserted that it would not inter-fere in the Kashmir issue. Butnow China has changed its stanceand syas that it wants play a ‘con-structive role’ in the resolution ofdispute. China should not med-dle in India’s affairs. Kashmir isan integral of India. The only dis-pute is with regard to Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir. It shouldreturn to India.

KV Seetharamaiah Hassan

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Sir — This refers to the editorial,“Shastri is back, after all” (July 13).The appointment of Ravi Shastrias the coach of the Indian crick-et team is a fairly reasonabledecision. Ravi Shastri is a compe-tent and forthright person andpossesses sharp cricketingsense.He is bound to play animportant role in shaping Indiancrioket. Having said that, themanner and circumstance inwhich Anil Kumble was made tofeel unwelcome towards the endof his tenure as the coach, leavesmany questions unanswered. Onecan easily infer that Virat Kohliwas the person behind Kumble’sresignation. One can also say thatsuccess has made Kohli arrogantand insensitive.

Devendra KhuranaBhopal

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Nearly after 70 years of indepen-dence, an Indian PrimeMinister had the time to visit an

important ally — Israel. Despite one ofthe early nations to recognise indepen-dent Israel in 1950, IndianGovernments for the next sevendecades were for a clandestine relation-ship with the Jewish nation. This wasdue to the fear that the Israeli ‘suppres-sion’ of Palestine would damage itsMuslim vote bank. India also expect-ed a backlash from Muslim majoritynations such as Saudi Arabia, Egypt,Iraq and others. With a sizeable Muslimpopulation of its own, India did notwant an open tie-up with Israel. Despitethis hidden relationship, Israel support-ed India in the 1971 war againstPakistan, which led to the creation of

Bangladesh out of East Pakistan. It was only in 1992 that Narasimha

Rao established an official diplomaticrelationship with Israel. His pragmat-ic approach cemented Indo-Israelities. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’sGovernment took a giant leap forward.He became the first Indian PrimeMinister to visit Israel recently. This visithas undoubtedly entered the book ofdiplomatic relationships. During histhree-day visit, Modi secured manybeneficial deals for India — fromstrengthening strategic relationship toprocuring defence tools. It was a win-win situation for India. The agreementssigned on the promotion of innovation,research, entrepreneurship, business,industry, agricultural growth, watermanagement and anti-terror strategies,will help India definitely.

There will be a big collaborationbetween Israeli aerospace industriesand Indian companies in the manufac-ture of defence and space equipmentand the sharing of technologies. Makein India can take to new heights in col-laboration with Israeli companies hav-ing cutting edge technology.

From the late nineties, India hasbeen a regular buyer of Israeli surveil-lance drones. The drones, Heron-I,Searcher and Harper, have helped theIndian security forces. India being sur-rounded by security threat in all cor-ners, it is compulsory to learn from aleader. Israel being a ruthless destroy-er of enemy forces and terror elementscan help India to put an end to the terror menace. After Prime MinisterModi’s historic visit, Indian defenceforces can witness the entry of severalIsraeli-made technologically superiorequipment. Already, $4.3 billion worth

of defence deals have been signedbetween the two countries, and morecould follow in the coming years.

If India can separate its securitythreats from appeasement of religiousforces, it can definitely end the terrormenace on its soil. The politics ofminority appeasement must be pushedinto the backyard — or even thegraveyard — in dealing with nationalsecurity issues. Playing politics overnational security has cost India precioustime in the past. If the same politics isallowed to continue, it will be fatal forthe nation.

A joint forum with 30 CEOs fromIndia and Israel was presided by PrimeMinisters Narendra Modi andBenjamin Netanyahu during the visit.The forum urged the recommence-ment of Free Trade Agreement ((FTA),easier registration of business entities,longer-term multiple entry visas, moredirect air connectivity, promotion oftourism and culture between twocountries. It also promised to increasethe bilateral trade from the current $4.5billion to $20 billion in next five years.Easing of doing business in India forIsraeli business groups and Indian busi-ness groups in Israeli can benefit both.When both sides thrash out the microissues — and they should at the earli-est — the peoples of India and Israelwill be the ultimate beneficiaries of thebreakthrough. Agriculture can takeprofitable propositions in India with theIsraeli support. They are the pioneersin converting deserts into fertile land.India can become an exporter of agri-cultural products, technological partsand security gadgets if Israeli supportis taken seriously.

An innovation fund of $40 has

been set up to increase the socio-eco-nomic progress of both nations. Israelbeing the home to the world’s second-largest start-ups, India will benefit large-ly from this agreement. When theworld is witnessing major disruptionsin every field, start-ups play an impor-tant role. India is desperately lookingfor out of box solutions to its perenni-al problems like agriculture, unemploy-ment, urban chaos, rural development,security threats and other major issues.The grand collaboration between Indiaand Israel will thus benefit India in abig way in the long run.

The Israelis have been grateful toIndia for liberating its prominent cityof Haifa, which was under the controlof Turks for 402 years. During theWorld War I, Mysore Lancers capturedHaifa, which is proudly possessed byIsraelis today. In this valorous act, 44Indian soldiers laid down their lives.This one act of Indian sacrifice madethe Israelis to help India in every fieldany time. Now it is up to India to lever-age Israel’s partnership to its advantage.

(The writer is the Dean of NehruMemorial College, Trichy)

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The recent communal vio-lence in West Bengal isonly part of the brew, a lotlies under the surface —the deadly poison brewing

slowly on a low flame. Its a multi-headed hydra and goes by the nameof Jamaat-ul-MujahideenBangladesh (JMB). The JMB and theHarkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami (HUJIB)are two affiliates of Bangladesh’sJMB. According to a report by anIndian national daily in March 2017,2016 witnessed an over threefoldincrease from 2015, in infiltration byterrorists into the border States ofWest Bengal, Assam and Tripura.

The development assumes signif-icance as the National InvestigationAgency (NIA) has found overseas ter-ror links and the direct role of the JMBin the October 2014 Burdwan blast atKhagragarh. The report said approxi-mately 2,010 HUJIB and JMB opera-tives had entered the three States. Whilenearly 720 men made a safe passagethrough the West Bengal border, theremaining 1,290 are suspected to haveentered through Assam and Tripura.

Ajai Sahni, executive director,South Asia Terrorism Portal (SATP),revealed that the HUJIB used to be themost potent threat. It was used by theInter-Services Intelligence (ISI) to tar-get India. In recent times, with HUJIBlosing prominence, the JMB hasemerged as a major threat. The HUJIBwas created with direct aid from Osamabin Laden in 1992. The group has link-ages with Pakistan-based terroristgroups such as Jaish-e-Mohammad(JeM) and Lashkar-e-Tayyeba (LeT).

It also maintains very close linkswith the Pakistan’s ISI. Mufti AbdulHannan, chief of the HUJIB, had spentsix years in the Darul Uloom Deobandmadrassa in Uttar Pradesh. Amongthe first incidents of the HUJIB’s oper-ations in India to come into the lime-light was the August 1999 arrest offour persons at Guwahati in Assam.There have been multiple arrests anddiscovery of the HUJIB and the JMBnetworks. Some of the terrorist inci-dents the HUJIB was involved in are— January 22, 2002, at the AmericanCenter in Kolkata, October 12, 2005suicide bombing at the Special TaskForce office of the Hyderabad Police;HUJIB in collaboration with the JeMand Students’ Islamic Movement ofIndia carried out a terror attack at theSankat Mochan Hanuman Templeand the railway station at Varanasi onMarch 7, 2006; blasts on October 29,2005 in New Delhi in collaborationwith the LeT; December 28, 2005attack at Indian Institute of Science byHUJIB-JeM combined group;February 13, 2010, Pune blast.

Investigators into the July 13,2011, Mumbai blasts, which killed 26people, suspected the role of theHUJIB. Indian agencies believed thatthe suspected mastermind of theblasts, Abdullah Khan of the IndianMujahideen (IM), was hiding inBangladesh, under protection ofHUJIB. Another key link between theHUJIB and the IM was identified asJalaluddin Mullah alias Babu Bhai, aresident of South 24 Parganas district

of the State of West Bengal.A July 12, 2011, media report had

noted that a dossier prepared by theIntelligence Bureau (IB) indicated anincrease in HUJIB activities in therecent past, after a significant declinesince 2008. There had been a spurt inrecruitment, with at least 150 youthsfrom West Bengal going ‘missing’. It alsoindicated that these sleeper cells wouldfirst be set up in North India and laterwould expand into the South.

Two persons were killed andanother injured in a bomb explosionin a rented house at Khagragarh,under Burdwan Police Station, WestBengal, on October 2, 2014.Subsequently, it was revealed thatthese individuals and others presentin the house believed to be membersof JMB were engaged in preparationof bombs, ammunition/arms, main-taining hideouts and organising ter-rorist training camps in pursuance ofa larger conspiracy to organise terror-ist attacks in different parts of Indiaand Bangladesh.

The NIA took over the investiga-tion of the blast case on October 10,2014. Since then it has filed four sup-plementary chargesheets naming 30persons as accused. At least five ofthem were Bangladeshis. Of the 30accused persons, 20 have been arrest-ed, another 10 are still absconding.Sohail, accused in the Khagragarh caseand the Dhaka cafe attack, July 2016case and the top explosives specialistof the JMB was arrested recently inBangladesh. It is worth noting thatZakir Naik was banned in India onlyafter Bangladesh banned him after lastyear’s Dhaka cafe terror attack.

JMB had established organisation-al bases at certain districts of WestBengal viz Nadia, Burdwan,Murshidabad and Birbhum as well asin Sahebganj district of Jharkhand.These bases were used for organis-ing radicalisation programmes, organ-isational meetings, fund collectionmeetings, hideouts for cadres andtheir families, etc. A network of ter-rorist training camps at selectedmadrassas and other hideouts werein operation where selected youthswere indoctrinated into the violentjihadi ideology as well as training forviolent actions through use of explo-sives and firearms. The evidence hasestablished that starting from theyear 2008, several Indian citizensbecame regular members of the JMB.

The Trinamool Congress (TMC)has very often been accused of patro-nising the politics of religious funda-mentalism. Biman Bose of the LeftFront had said that the TMC wasshielding Islamic fundamentalistswho have been rejected byBangladesh. “When Bangladesh policeoperate in Satkhira and Jamaat-e-Islami cadres have to flee, they getshelter from the Trinamul Member ofParliament (MP) in Basirhat,” BimanBose had alleged. Bose also made anallegation against Ahmed Hassan,aka Imran, the Pakistani citizen whobecame MP for TMC and said that hewas close to the Jamaat and was a cor-respondent of the Jamaat newspaper,Daily Naya Diganta. He said that thiswas an attempt being made to disrupta drive undertaken by Sheikh Hasina,Prime Minister of Bangladesh.

Sheikh Fazlul Karim Selim, a

Bangladeshi member of parliamentand a member of the standing com-mittee of Bangladesh Awami Leagueparty too had raised the same issue in2014. He made a request to the WestBengal Chief Minister, MamataBanerjee to hand over the JMB terror-ists who had taken shelter in India.Selim had urged India not to harbourthese terrorists, who he said fled to theneighbouring country during thejoint forces’ operation in Satkhira.

When Delwar Hossain Sayeedi ofJamaat-e-Islami party of Bangladeshwas handed the death sentence for warcrimes in Bangladesh Liberationwar, 1971, India witnessed a pro-warcriminal rally. This wasn’t just any rallybut one attended by more than onelakh people in the heart of Kolkatacity. Similar rallies continued with thewar crime trials of many Jamaat lead-ers which had been unprecedented inIndia. The rally was actively backed byJamaat-e-Islami Hind, based in India.

Due to Banerjee’s policies there isan increasing Hindu-Muslim commu-nal tension that didn’t exist before.This year during the Hindu festival ofRath Yatra, the Jamaat tried to inciteriots by talking about 2002 Godhrariots. Bangladesh security thwartedthe attempt. They wanted to triggercross-country riots in India andBangladesh in coordination. It’s timethe Jamaat are hunted down andhanded over to Bangladesh beforethey become economicallyentrenched.

(Sumi Khan is a journalist cover-ing militant groups in Bangladesh.Aveek Sen is an jndependent journal-ist working on cyber security and thegeopolitics of India’s neighbourhood)

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����������Telecom regulatorTrai on Monday said it is setto release in about a week thenew mobile service qualitynorms covering call drops.

Trai also plans to start inAugust the public discussionon the next round of spec-trum auction which will focuson wireless frequencies for 5Gservices as well as the premi-um 700 megahertz band.

“We are almost ready withrevised standards for qualityof ser vice (for mobilephones). It will be issuedwithin a week,” TraiChairman RS Sharma toldthe news agency in an inter-view.

The regulator is also like-ly to come up with stringentparameters for radio-link

time-out technology (RLT)which was allegedly beingused by telecom operators toreduce call drop incidence.

With the help of this tech-nology, a call remains con-nected even if a consumermoves to poor network cov-erage area for which he isbilled.

The Telecom RegulatoryAuthority of India (Trai)expects to float consultationpaper for the next round ofspectrum auction.

“The draft paper is ready.We will hopefully finalise itwithin a fortnight. By thefirst week of August, the con-sultation paper should beout,” Sharma said.

Telecom operators haverequested the Government to

go slow on next round of auc-tion as the sector is in deepfinancial crisis and it will notbe in a position to buy morespectrum for about next twoyears.

“The consultation willbring out issues like shouldwe auction or should we notauction, reserve price etc.These will be asked fromstakeholders and then author-ity will take a view,” Sharmasaid.

In the last auction, held inOctober 2016, theGovernment managed to sellonly 964.80 MHz of spectrumin various bands as against2,354.55 MHz of radiowaveson the block.

Even at the end of thefive-day auction, nearly 60 per

cent of the spectrum hadremained unsold, includingthe premium 700 MHz band,which found no takers whofound it too expensive.

The 700 Mhz band spec-trum which was priced ataround �11,000 crore perMhz. The total value ofradiowaves in this band wasover �4 lakh crore.

On 700 Mhz, Sharmadeclined to make specificcomments on pricing strategy.

“As far as this consultationis concerned, every issue is anopen issue. Now it is a freshconsultation paper. Therefore,we are open on all issuesrelated to timing, pricing,band to auction. All thesethings will be considered,”Sharma said. ���

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��������Looking for appropri-ate and a timely resolution to theongoing probe into the co-loca-tion issue, newly-appointed NSEchief executive Vikram Limayetoday said consultancy EY is like-ly to submit its forensic auditreport on the issue in a month.

On his first day in office asNSE’s managing director andchief executive, Limaye told PTIthat his top priority is to resolvethe co-location issue and toensure that the exchange fullycooperates with the regulator Sebion the same.

The case relates to some bro-kers allegedly getting preferentialaccess through co-location facil-ity, early login and access to the‘dark fibre’-- which can allowthem a split- second faster accessto datafeed of the exchange.Even a split-second faster accesscan yield huge gains for a trad-er.

While NSE has engagedDeloitte for a forensic audit of its

equity derivatives platform, it hasasked EY to carry out a forensicaudit into cash markets and cur-rency derivative platforms of theNSE is still underway.

“There are one or two thingswhich are awaited. One is the EYforensic audit report on curren-cy derivatives and the same oncash markets is likely to be out inthree to four weeks...Resolutionof the co-location issue is my toppriority and our dialogue withSebi in this regard is ongoing,”Limaye told the news agency overthe phone.

“While I can’t give a timelineon when the probes into the mat-ter would be completed as Sebihas its own process, we willensure full cooperation with theregulator so that the issue isappropriately resolved,” he added.

The banker-turned market-man Limaye also said he wouldlike to at the earliest plug any gapsin the exchange’s system andwould work towards strength-

ening the “controls and process-es”.

Earlier in the day he told tele-vision channels that taking NSEpublic through a listing can hap-pen only after the regulatoryissues related to co-location casewas resolved. “Obviously IPO isan important priority for me butthat would happen only once allthe regulatory issues are sortedout first,” he said.

He also noted that it is sig-nificant for the exchange toimprove relationships with all thestakeholders, including the reg-ulators, Government, the mediaand the employees.

“It is also important for NSEto improve stakeholder relation-ships, which means relationshipwith the Government, the regu-lator, clients, the media and cer-tainly the employees. It’s impor-tant to make sure that all stake-holder relationships are betterthan what has been in the past,”he said. ���

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Markets continue to surgeahead as Nifty closed above

the 9,900 level for the first timewhile the Sensex set a fresh lifehigh on Monday on optimismabout corporate earnings.

Most Asian shares ruled firm,picking up cues from strongerthan expected economic growthin China and expectations that theFederal Reserve will tread withcare in tightening its policy, givenlacklustre data, which led to arecord close in the US on Friday.

Investors were optimistic thatblue-chip companies might postencouraging first quarter numbersin coming days. On top of it, mon-soon progress so far has beenabove-normal.

The 30-share Sensex jumpedfurther to set a life-time high of32,131.92, before ending up 54.03points, or 0.17 per cent, at a newrecord 32,074.78. It broke its pre-vious life high of 32,037.38, hit on

July 13. The gauge has lost 16.63points on Friday.

The 50-share index endedabove the 9,900 level for the firsttime by surging 29.60 points, or0.30 per cent, at new peak of9,915.95, surpassing its previousclosing high of 9,891.70 hit on July13.

“Start of Parliament’sMonsoon Session and anticipa-tions of any updates on the bank-ing sector pushed Nifty withinstriking distance of 10,000.Investors look less daunted by psy-chological mark as earnings sea-son has encouraged a stock spe-cific approach,” said Anand James,Chief Market Strategist, GeojitFinancial Services.

Wipro rose the most, up3.12 per cent, ahead of its boardmeeting to discuss buyback ofshares. Infosys firmed up 1.37 percent after the company on Fridayposted better-than-expected earn-ings and maintained 2017-18revenue growth guidance.

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���������� The Reserve Bankhas refrained from releasing itsasset liability figures for theweek ended June 30, which isalso the last day for depositingdefunct currency notes by NRIs.

June 30 is also the last day ofJuly-June financial year followedby the central bank.

This is probably for the firsttime, RBI in its Weekly StatisticalSupplement has not come outwith the figures for week endedJune 30.

“The figures for Friday, June30, 2017 will be published as partof RBI’s Balance Sheet in August2017 in the Annual Report of thebank,” RBI said in its latest sta-tistical supplement.

Instead, the central bank hasgiven figures for the week endedJuly 7.

Last week, RBI GovernorUrjit Patel informed a parlia-mentary standing committeethat the bank was still not in a

position to provide the exactamount of demonetised curren-cy returned to the central bank.

He also said the RBI has cutstaff holidays to complete count-ing of currency notes andordered more machines to expe-dite the process.

The central bank chief saidemployees were working“round-the-clock” except onSundays.

As part of efforts to fightcorruption and black moneymenace, the Government lastyear demonetised old Rs 500and �1,000 currency notes.

As on November 8, 2016,the total amount of currency incirculation was �17.7 lakh crore,which included specified banknotes (SBNs) of �500 and�1,000.

There was a 50-day windowfor exchanging old notes at banksand post offices from November9 to December 30. ���

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China’s GDP grew 6.9 per cent inthe second quarter, above the

government’s target for the year of6.5 per cent, indicating that theworld’s second largest economywould comfortably meet its 2017growth target amid concerns overhigh debt levels.

Xing Zhihong, spokesperson ofChina’s National Bureau of Statistics(NBS), said China’s economy is oper-ating within a reasonable range,maintaining stable, coordinated andsustainable development.

In the second quarter, GDP of

the world’s second largest economyheld steady at 6.9 per cent year onyear, flat from the first quarter.

It is “laying a solid foundationfor achieving the annual target,” hesaid.

The 6.9 per cent growth rate inthe second quarter is faster thanexpected, prompting the financialconsultancy agencies to reviseChina’s growth rate upwards.

Nomura Securities said in areport after today’s data release thatgiven the data, it is raising the fore-cast for the Q3 growth to 6.8 per centfrom the previous 6.6 per cent, andthe annual growth forecast to 6.8 percent from 6.7 per cent.

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��� �����# RelianceIndustries Ltd (RIL) onMonday attained a marketvaluation of over �5 lakhcrore, becoming the secondfirm after TCS to achievethis milestone.

At close of the trade onMonday, the market capi-talisation (m-cap) of RILstood at �5,04,458.09 crore,making it the most valuedcompany in the country.

Shares of the companyrose by 1.33 per cent to set-tle at �1,551.35 on BSE.During the day, it gained1.81 per cent to �1,558.80 -- its multi-year high level.

At NSE, shares of thecompany went up by 1.1 percent to close at �1,551.75.

The company’s marketvaluation advanced by�6,672.09 crore to�5,04,458.09 crore. ���

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Page 11: 012 ˛˝’( %) 7-8 $%%/&A˝7A&,5 7$8--.˚ ($-/-7 -56$ . 7 5A(6$’& … to turn into a depression dur- ... conducted on-the-spot study. They held discussions with PCCF (Wildlife)

Healthians, a leading health diagnostic @home service center, backed byYuvraj Singh, is a mobile app with free access to the smart reports. The

smart report is the brainchild of highly qualified doctors and engineers who haveput together a matrix to understand the risk of future diseases and to expose anylatent ones. The most striking feature in is that for every abnormal parameter,the future course of required action will be recommended. With the sole aim toprovide a holistic health vision, four-point recommendations will be sent,including the most suitable medical specialist to consult and additional tests, ifrequired.

“The ease with which patients will be able to review their existing medicalconditions and the prior knowledge of the latent ones will help patients reachtheir treatment goals much faster and thus, dramatically lower the risks ofserious health complications,” Deepak Sahni, CEO-founder, Healthains, says.

Features: Smart reports; Health tracker enables users to log their basic bodyvitals like Blood pressure, BMI and Sugar levels and can check their vitals historyand trend in accordance to the blood reports; Subscripition & alerts: It allowsperiodic subscription of a particular diagnostic package or tests; Timelyreminders & alerts will be sent to users. One click booking of customised healthtest packages; Uninterrupted tele-consultations with expert doctors; Lifestyle anddietary advice by in house nutritionist; Exclusive offers on health packages onlyfor app users.

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Not all pinks are good for health, afact I discovered as a young girl whocaught conjunctivitis. But grannyhad things in place to make therecovery fast, says ROSHANI DEVI

The dreaded conjunctivitis is inseason, thanks to all the rains andmuck. Back in my days, it used to

be much severe and many would lose their sight due to this painfuleye infection. Here are some things you could try in conjunctionwith the doctor’s prescription:

Dried calendula flowers are magic to most eye inflammation.All you need to do issoak a tsp of dried calen-dula flowers in a cup ofhot water and let themrest for half hour.

After it cools, strainit through a muslin cloth.Wash your eye with thisthrough the day.

Also, use cold com-press to deal with theitchiness and burningsensation.

Put a cold moist eyewad on both the eyes andlet it rest for five minutes.Do not use the same wadfor both eyes or the

infection may spread.My granny used to keep black tea soaked cotton pads for relief.

You could try that too.

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Mineko Kengaku, TatsuyaMurakami, and their colleagues

from Kyoto University's Institute forIntegrated Cell-Material Sciences(iCeMS) have developed a newmethod that modifies the surface ofnanorods, making them more efficientin transporting cancer-killing genesinto cells.

The method involves coating goldnanorods, which produce heat whenexposed to a near-infrared laser, with

the lipids oleate and DOTAP. Thelipids enhance the nanorods' ability tointeract with and penetrate cells.

The team also developed a genecarrier, known as a plasmid vector,which includes a 'heat shock protein'that is activated in response to heat.

This new system ‘provides aunique opportunity for site-directed,light-inducible transgene expression inmammalian cells by a near-infraredlaser, with minimal phototoxicity,’conclude the researchers in their studypublished in the journal ScientificReports.

Why go in for total knee replacementwhen partial knee replacement cansuffice?” asks Prof (Dr) Rajesh

Malhotra, Head of Department,Orthopaedics and a renowned joint replace-ment surgeon at the All India Institute ofMedical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi.

Dr Malhotra was speaking at India’s firstever cadaveric workshop on Fast TrackUnicondylar Knee Replacement Surgeryusing computer navigation, held at theAIIMS trauma centre.

According to Dr Malhotra: “The knee ismade of three compartments — medial com-partment, lateral compartment andpatellofemoral compartment. TheUnicondylar Knee Replacement procedurewas developed to address osteoarthritis thatis specific to medial or the inside compart-ment of the knee. This essentially means thatit leaves the healthy compartments of theknee area preserved while only the unhealthycompartments of the knee are treated.

“Minimum bone resection in this proce-dure leads to less painful recovery and one isable to get back in motion faster. If you haveosteoarthritis in only one compartment ofyour knee, it is advisable to consult yourorthopaedic surgeon if this partial kneereplacement is better for you rather thanundergoing total knee replacement,” he says.

The univation X Unicondylar KneeSystem has an implant design that replicatesthe anatomy of your knee and thus retainsthe natural motion of the knee. It allows thesurgeon to remove only the unhealthy areawhile leaving the healthy bone intact.

“The univation X Unicondylar KneeSystem has an advanced, patented multi-layersurface technology which reduces the releaseof metal ions found in metal based implants.This reduces the surface wear and tear of theimplant and makes it last much longer.Moreover, the implant fixation is muchsecure. The implant design is such that itattaches itself to the bone very firmly, reduc-ing the risk of loosening. The computer navi-gation helps in attaining precision and gapmanagement, which are imperative for thesuccess of knee replacement,” he adds.

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D-,����,���0��+� 0�-,��� Osteopathy is a drug-free, non-invasive manual treatment

that, when coupled with other prevalent therapy systemslike physiotherapy, can help to augment health across all

body systems by manipulating and balancing the musculoskele-tal system. By assessing, diagnosing, treating and preventing a widerange of health issues its aim is to holistically improve the body’snervous, circulatory and lymphatic systems

Chronic muscle and joint pain is increasing in its prevalencevery rapidly across the world and India is not lagging behind .Over the last two decades low back pain has been ranked glob-ally as the number one cause of distress in terms of disability cre-ated in our life spans. Our sedentary lifestyles, technological influ-ence and poor ergonomics are few reasons that is causing mus-culoskeletal problems to surface in an explosive manner in ourlives. The socio-economic stress if allowed to grow slowly will havea bearing on national economy too. Every science has its ownadvantages and its limitations. No matter how good the presentmethods of addressing the growing musculoskeletal distress are,but still there is a lot more desired and osteopathy could surelybe a very useful add on.

Osteopaths believe that these diseases are primarily caused bythe loss of structural integrity or in simpler terms loss of align-ment of joints and bones which lead to pain by compressing nervesand also loss of function. This alignment osteopaths restore bygentle manipulations of the affected joints supplemented by otherimportant therapeutic measures. The osteopathic philosophyembraces the notion that the body is naturally capable of healingitself if the structures are in proper alignment. The practitionerof osteopathy works with the body to enhance this natural abili-ty to self-regulate and self-heal.

Thus the biggest advantage is that it works on the root causeand not just the symptoms or the end results. Pain is a symptomand is like an alarm. We all understand, what can be the consequencesof switching the smoke alarm off especially when the fire is still notunder control. Osteopathic Manual Practitioners palpate by gen-tly yet intentionally touching the tissues or systems under exami-nation. With experience, Osteopathic Manual Practitioners learnto palpate not just superficially, but also very deeply within the body.Sensory information is received through touch receptors in the fin-gertips and palms, as well as through the proprioceptors (motionand position sensors) embedded deep in the joints of the hands,wrists, arms, and even the shoulders and not only they identify theroot cause of many musculoskeletal problems but also treat it.

Osteopathy helps patients of all ages who suffer from all mus-culoskeltal pains, and other disabilities ranging from sports andwork-related injuries to arthritis, headaches, postural problems, sci-atica and many such conditions.

The osteopath’s role is to alleviate pain and improve the patient’smobility in order to make life more comfortable. Many patients havealso found osteopathy helpful for conditions such as digestive issues,circulatory problems, visual problems sleeping problems, hearingdisorders etc.

Osteopathy is quite popular in Canada, USA, Europe andAustralia. For all good reasons now we have the first generation ofOsteopaths in India. The results of this natural medicine are pro-found and most of the musculoskeletal conditions are going to getbetter with a likely much less use of medications.

)�H��How can it help in treating disc collapse? What is the proce-dure if at all?

Misaligned vertebras in the spine create abnormal pressureon the discs and it results in disc bulge which presses the nerveand leads to pain. With Osteopathy we not only find this misalign-ment but with osteopathy adjustments and manual therapy we tryto correct this and this helps the patient. A huge number of patientsare now living pain free. Such alignments not only help in treatingdisc pains but also in spondylosis commonly called as spondylitisand loads of other spinal problems like scoliosis (side curve of thespine), kyphosis (forward bending of spine), spondylolisthesis (slip-ping of vertebra). �Statistics from India giving details of people suffering from thiskind of disease? Are women more vulnerable?

In a research published in Indian journal of Pain in 2016. Overall,the prevalence of low back pain in India is found to be four in every10 adults. Women are more venerable because of both the anatom-ical difference and relatively more lack of exercise and care. Neckpain is becoming equally common these days.�Can it be considered as a lifestyle disease as people are now mov-ing towards static life or desk jobs

Absolutely Life style is a dominant factor with sedentary lifestyle , lack of proper exercise , poor ergonomic conditions all arefractions in this factor. The 4S always add as fuel in fire for the backand neck problems — Stress, Sitting and Smartphones and Screens(TV/computers )�How young it is getting or is it affecting younger children

In last century, this was very rare to be seen in adolescents butever since the tablet screens have replaced the playgrounds the mus-cles which make the spine stay erect are not developing in childrenand this weakness is responsible to even find many teenagers suf-fering from disc and spine dysfunctions.

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Raising a family isn’t always easy.You are busy, and so are yourchildren. There is a lot to do in

little time. But the stakes are high.Today, many kids are overweight orobese. We as parents are responsiblefor what our child eats, but at theyoung grow our control over themdecreases drastically. The best thingto do hence is make sure that our kidsmake healthy choices in their nutri-tional needs by themselves. Thetraining they require for that startsat an exceptionally young age. Yethowever, there are many things thatan average Indian household hasbeen making for generations and thathave to stop. Some of these ageoldtraditions are:�Spoon feeding is a big NO-NO:The first introduction that yourchild receives to solid food should notbe you pushing a spoonful of foodin their face. Mealtimes for most chil-dren include opening their mouthchewing-swallowing and opening itagain, this method is used by parentsto regulate how much and what foodtheir child intakes and is done ingood faith. However a healthieroption would be to lay the food inbefore your child for them to exam-ine and eat, while you keep watch.This will enable the child to form ahabit of knowing and actively takingpart in what they are eating. �Focus on satiety over waste man-agement: All Indian householdshave the concept of not wasting yourfood, and finishing everything onyour plate. Children are taught to dothat since the beginning of their foodeating days. This long standing habitis the one of the leading causes ofchildhood obesity; do not force yourchild to eat after they are full. In mostcases children stop giving heed towhen their stomach is full becausethey are taught to stop eating whenthere plate is empty and not whentheir body is full. Only feed yourchild as much as their stomach cantake, any more and you are pushingunhealthy dietary habits at them. �Nap-times are crucial: Another

long standing tradition that stands inIndian households is of getting upearly in the morning. And withschools starting even for pre schol-ars at 7-8 am getting up early is anecessity. However the completion ofyour child sleep schedule is of theutmost importance. Children fromsix-13 need nine-11 hours a sleep aday, in order for their bodies torelease the right amount of hormonesfor their growth as well as regulato-ry functions. Hence the easiest thingyou can do for your child is promotenaps during the afternoon, in orderfor them to fulfill their sleep quota.�Do NOT promote picky eating:After the age of two a child can eatthe food that is served to everyoneelse in the household, with the obvi-ous exceptions of food with too muchoil, salt or spices in it. It is importanthowever to start feeding your childthe food that everyone else eats, inorder to cultivate the habit of notbeing choosy when it comes to hisfood, as no special food will be madefor him since the time he starts com-prehending social situations. �Change starts with you: A childwill look up to his parents for everyaspect of his well being, and hencehis relationship with food willdepend directly on your relationshipwith food. Hence, it is important tonot promote your likes and dislikesof certain foods to strongly in frontof your child, and encourage them totry and experiment with all flavorsand variety of food. �Be careful of what you say: Parentsshould be careful of their wordingswhen it comes to a child’s mentalityon food habits. “No desert till you eatyour vegetables,” tells the innocentchild that desert is a reward and veg-etable are bad. This mentality willstick with the child into his adult-hood, where again the same emotionwill be passed onto his offspring.Instead of rewarding a child for eat-ing his vegetable parents shouldfind a way to make his vegetableappealing to him from the start, suchas introducing new flavors to him or

finding a way to communicate theimportance of vegetable in a way thatgels with the child. �Do NOT pin emotion to food:Phrases such as “If you finish yourhomework I’ll give you a chocolate”or “Stop crying and I will give you achocolate” enables the child to turnto chocolate in times of distress, orin order to celebrate a victory for therest of his life. If you look aroundthere are many adults that inculcatethis habit to this day. This makes anunhealthy relationship of the childwith sugar and may in extreme sit-uations lead to obesity and diabetes.You need to tell your child that foodis just that, food. Food is a substancerequired for bodily survival not anemotional supplement. �Focus on your meal: Many house-holds have the habit of bonding atdinner through watching TV togeth-

er, as interesting as that is it distractsyou and your child from knowingwhen your body has had enoughfood. Hence, distractions while mealswill lead to overeating. You may alsobe missing a crucial time your fam-ily can bond without such distrac-tions. Making mealtimes a stress freeenvironment will also go a long wayin the child’s nutritional development.� Everything in moderation:Forcing your child to stay away fromunhealthy food, when his peersseem to enjoy fizzy drinks andpizza’s so much will tear apart the lit-tle influence you can have over yourchild steering away from junk food.

The important thing is to let him winsome battles for you to win the war.If he goes to a birthday party, let yourchild have sodas and cake and burg-ers. Let him taste and experienceeverything. The important thing isthat he learns to eat everything inmoderation. Junk food every once ina few days will keep your child's crav-ing for it under control as childrenalways want what is denied to them.So do not deny him junk food, andhe will not make junk food a prior-ity in his palate. �Do NOT micro-manage: Manyschools have a policy of providinglunch to the student’s themselves, inthis case parents tend to get overinfused in their children’s lives, tend-ing to make them feel uncomfortableor conscious of their dietary choic-es. The best thing for parents to dois discuss the healthiest food optionsavailable to their children and theironwards, trust them to make theirown decisions. The same goes forwhat children tend to buy from thepocket money allocated to them,since that is their money they are freeto indulge in street food, or sugarysnacks. The healthiest thing to dowould be to motivate them to saveup for something non-edible andhence promote the habit of saving.

If you have done any of theabove, as undoubtedly many peoplehave, there is no cause to worry.Children’s habits can adhere tochange fairly easily. The importantthing is to promote healthy nutrition-al habits in such a way that it does-n’t seem to be an imposition on yourchild, to which they will not respondwell. “As a parent you are not onlyresponsible for the kind of peopleyour children turn out to be, but alsowhat they eat on a day to day basis,”says celebrity nutritionist and author,Pooja Makhija at the unveiling of hersecond book Eat Delete Junior that isnow available in the market. It alsorevolves around the do’s and don’tsfor parents when it comes to theirchild’s nutrition for a more compre-hensive review of the matter.

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China on Monday said it hadlodged an official protest

with the United States followingthe passage of a defence spend-ing bill that could lead to Ame-rican warships visiting Taiwan.

Beijing has long objected toany military assistance fromWashington to the self-gov-erned island, which it consid-ers a breakaway province.

“China firmly opposes anyforms of official exchange andmilitary contact between the USand Taiwan,” Foreign Ministryspokesman Lu Kang toldreporters at a regular pressbriefing, adding that Beijing hadmade “stern representations”to Washington over the bill.

The National DefenceAuthorisation Act for FiscalYear 2018, passed by the USHouse of RepresentativesFriday, contains a section onTaiwan, which calls onWashington to provide theisland’s military with increasedmilitary training and toencourage it to expand itsdefence spending.

An amendment to the billdirects the Pentagon to submita report to Congress on the fea-sibility of reestablishing portcalls between the US andTaiwanese navies.

The American navystopped such visits to Taiwan in1979, when Washingtonchanged diplomatic recogni-tion from Taipei to Beijing.

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Anew law giving Thailand’sking direct control over

royal assets worth billions ofdollars went into force onMonday, the latest move by anincreasingly assertive monarchto consolidate his power.

King Maha Vajiralo-ngkorn inherited one of theworld’s great fortunes when heascended the throne inOctober fol lowing the death of his father BhumibolAdulyadej who ruled for seven decades.

Thailand’s monarchy isshielded from both criticismand scrutiny by a draconianlese majeste law and does notdeclare its wealth.

But analysts say theChakris are one of the world’swealthiest royal dynasties,with estimates var yingbetween $30-60 billion.

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The United Arab Emirates(UAE) has denied that it

was responsible for an allegedhacking of the Qatari statenews agency and websites ear-lier this year.

According to theWashington Post, US officialsdiscovered last week that UAEministers held a meeting onMay 23 to discuss plans to hackQatari Government news andsocial media sites and postincendiary false quotes attrib-uted to Qatar’s Emir SheikhTamim bin Hamad al-Thani.

The hack, which took placethe following day, precededthe current split in the Gulfbetween Qatar and a coalitionof four countries that weremounting an economic anddiplomatic boycott against it.

The four countries — theUAE, Saudi Arabia, Egypt andBahrain — imposed sanctions

on Qatar on June 5, cuttingdiplomatic and transport tieswith it, after accusing Doha offinancing militant groups.Doha denied the accusations.

Speaking at the ChathamHouse forum in London onMonday, UAE Foreign MinisterAnwar Gargash denied theveracity of the claims, theGuardian reported.

He said: “The WashingtonPost story is not true. It is pure-ly wrong. You will see in thenext few days the story will die.”He denied the hack could haveprecipitated the crisis, saying“this issue has been festeringsince 2014”.

Among the false socialmedia posts published duringthe hack were some made inthe name of the Emir of Qatar,in which he appeared to makedisparaging remarks about USPresident Donald Trump,praised Gaza’s Hamas leadersand expressed support for Iran

as an “Islamic power”. The Post gave no further

details of how American intelli-gence had reached its conclusion,but it had previously been allegedthat some of the boycottingcountries could be behind ahack of the Qatar news agency.Doha had previously asked USand British officials to investigatethe source of the hack.

Gargash said the UAEwould not escalate its boycottby asking companies to choosebetween doing business with itor Qatar. But he gave noimpression that the UAE waswilling to abandon the block-ade, the Guardian reported.

Instead, he said the quar-tet intended to put the issue onthe back burner to focus on try-ing to resolve the crises in Libyaand Yemen. Gargash alsodenied reports that the UAEhad threatened FIFA over con-tinuing to allow Qatar to hostthe 2022 World Cup.

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Embattled Pakistan PrimeMinister Nawaz Sharif ’s

legal team on Monday dis-missed as illegal and biased aprobe panel’s final report thatrecommended filing of a graftcase against him and his chil-dren as the Supreme Courtresumed the hearing of thePanamagate graft case.

A six-member JointInvestigation Team (JIT) setup by the Supreme Court toinvestigate charges of moneylaundering against 67-year-old Sharif and his family hadsubmitted the report on July10 to the court.

Khawja Harris on behalf ofSharif filed a response to theJIT report, rejecting its findingsand accusing it of bias and vio-lation of the original mandate.

“The JIT report is not onlyagainst the law but also theconstitution of the countryand its finding are, therefore, of

not legal value,” he said.He also objected to the

documents obtained from theforeign countries, which hesaid was against laws of thecountry.

He asked the court to pro-vide the volume 10 of thereport which was kept confi-dential on JIT’s request.

Harris also urged the courtto reject the JIT report.

Finance Minister Ishaq Daron his behalf separately sub-mitted objections over the JITreport in the Supreme Courtregistrar’s office.

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Asuicide bomber from thePakistani Taliban militant

group on Monday hit a vehiclecarrying paramilitary forcemembers, killing two, includ-ing a major, and injuring tenothers in northwest Pakistan.

The suicide attacker withexplosive-laden motorcycle hitthe Frontier Constabulary (FC)convoy at a traffic signal in

Peshawar’s Hayatabad area,police said.

Two Frontier Corps men,including a major, were killedin the attack, SSP OperationSajjad Khan said.

Ten others, includingpassersby, were injured in theblast near Bagh-e-Naran chowkin Hayatabad.

Two vehicles that were partof the convoy were complete-ly damaged in the blast.

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South Korea on Mondayoffered to hold rare military

talks with the North, aiming toease tensions after Pyongyangtested its first intercontinentalballistic missile. The offer of talks,the first since South Korea elect-ed dovish President Moon Jae-In, came as the Red Cross inSeoul proposed a separate meet-

ing to discuss reunions of fam-ilies separated by the 1950-53Korean War. The South’s defenceministry proposed a meeting tobe held on Friday at the bordertruce village of Panmunjom,while the Red Cross offered tohold talks on August 1 at thesame venue. If the Governmentmeeting goes ahead, it will markthe first official inter-Korea talkssince December 2015. Moon’s

conservative predecessor, ParkGeun-Hye, had refused to en-gage in substantive dialogue wi-th Pyongyang unless the isolat-ed regime made a tangible com-mitment to denuclearisation.

“We make the proposal fora meeting... Aimed at stoppingall hostile activities that escalatemilitary tension along the landborder,” the Defence Ministrysaid in a statement.

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British Prime Minister TheresaMay will seek to reimpose

order on her Ministers after aseries of damaging leaks point-ing to cabinet splits on Brexit, herspokesman said on Monday.

The Conservative leader willuse Tuesday’s regular cabinetmeeting to “remind” colleaguesto keep their discussions privateand urge them to focus on thejob of Government, he said.

Ahead of the resumption ofkey Brexit negotiations inBrussels on Monday, the week-

end newspapers were filledwith stories about warringministers, as well as leaks tar-geting Finance Minister PhilipHammond.

“Cabinet must be able tohold discussions on govern-ment policy in private and theprime minister will be remind-ing her colleagues of that at thecabinet meeting tomorrow,”May’s spokesman said.

“She will just be remindingthem of their responsibilities,”he said, adding that each min-ister’s job is to focus “on deliv-ering for the British public.”

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President Donald Trump’sattorney insisted there was

nothing illegal in the meetingTrump’s eldest son had with aRussian lawyer during lastyear’s presidential campaign.

Donald Trump Jr’s will-ingness to meet with the lawyerin the expectation of receivingincriminating informationabout Democratic candidateHillary Clinton has raised newquestions about possible col-lusion between the Trumpcampaign and Russia.

The information had beendescribed as “part of Russia andits Government’s support forTrump.” The President’s attor-ney, Jay Sekulow, defendedTrump and his son in a seriesof appearances Sunday on fivetelevision networks.

“Nothing in that meeting

that would have taken place,even if it was about the topic ofan opposition research paperfrom a Russian lawyer, is ille-gal or a violation of the law,”Sekulow said on “Fox NewsSunday,” a point he repeatedseveral times. He said the pres-ident did not attend the meet-ing and was not aware of it.

The attorney’s focus onthe law appears aimed at mov-ing beyond the shiftingaccounts of the meeting givenby Trump Jr.

At first, the June 2016 meet-ing was said to be about aRussian adoption program.Then, it was to hear informationabout Clinton. Finally, Trump Jr.Was compelled to release emailsthat revealed he had told anassociate that he would “love”Russia’s help in obtainingincriminating informationabout the Democratic nominee.

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Survivors of the 9/11 terror attackon the World Trade Centre who

were exposed to the dust cloud orsustained physical injuries may be atan increased long-term risk of asth-ma, heart attack and other respira-tory diseases, a study has found.

Researchers at the New York CityDepartment of Health and MentalHygiene in the US examined theassociation between physical injury oracute exposure to the dust cloud on themorning of September 11, 2001, andchronic disease up to 10- 11 years later.

They found that the number oftypes of injuries, such as fractures,head injuries, or sprains, a person sus-

tained on that day was associated withan increased risk of angina or heartattack in a dose-dependent manner.

This means that the risk of hav-ing angina or a heart attack increased

with every additional injury type,researchers said.

They also found that dust expo-sure, post-traumatic stress disorderand being a rescue worker, as well ascurrent smoking were associated witha higher risk of non-neoplastic lungdisease (lung conditions not involvingtumours) other than asthma.

Dust exposure on its own wasassociated with an increased risk ofasthma.

Out of the total number of 8,701people examined, the team foundthat 41 per cent had intense exposureto the dust cloud 10 per cent had asingle injury, two per cent had twotypes of injury and one per cent hadthree or more, researchers said.

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The Kremlin today saidWashington must uncon-

ditionally restore its access todiplomatic compounds in theUnited States ahead of high-level talks on the issue.

Russia is angry thatWashington is still barring itsdiplomats from using two com-pounds in the states of NewYork and Maryland after thenpresident Barack Obama inDecember ordered the ban onaccess in response to suspect-ed Russian meddling in the USelection.

“We consider it absolutelyunacceptable to place condi-tions on the return of diplo-matic property, we considerthat it must be returned with-out any conditions and talking,”Kremlin spokesman DmitryPeskov told journalists.

He spoke as ThomasShannon, the US StateDepartment’s third-in-com-mand, was set to host Russia’sdeputy foreign minister SergeiRyabkov in Washington laterMonday.

Diplomats quoted byRussian news agencies saidthe issue of the residentialcomplexes would be on theiragenda.

The talks betweenShannon and Ryabkov wereearlier scheduled for June butRussia cancelled them, citingnew US sanctions linked to theconflict in Ukraine.

When President VladimirPutin and US counterpartDonald Trump met for the firsttime at the G20 summit inHamburg this month, theKremlin strongman raised thequestion “quite unambiguous-ly,” Peskov said.

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Kabul: Civilian deaths inAfghanistan hit a new high in thefirst half of 2017 with 1,662 killedand more than 3,500 injured, theUnited Nations said on Monday.

Deaths in the capital Kabulaccounted for nearly 20 per centof the toll, according to the rep-ort by the UN Assistance Mis-sion in Afghanistan (UNAMA),which has been documentingcivilian casualties in the war-torncountry since 2009. The major-ity of the victims were killed byanti-Government forces —including the Taliban and inattacks claimed by the Islamic

State, the report said. The first sixmonths of the year has seen a sig-nificant rise in the number ofcivilian lives lost in the attacksinvolving more than one perpe-trator, with 259 killed and 892injured — a 15 per cent increaseon the same period last year.

Many of those deaths hap-pened in a single attack in Kabulin late May when a truck bombexploded during the morningrush hour, killing more than 150people. UNAMA put the civiliandeath toll at 92, saying it was thedeadliest incident to hit thecountry since 2001.

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Eight people were killed onMonday when a female sui-

cide bomber detonated herexplosives at a mosque innortheast Nigeria, in the latestattack in the restive region.

The head of the Bornostate emergency managementagency, Ahmed Satomi, said theblast happened at about 5:30 am(0430 GMT) in the LondonCiki area of Maiduguri, whichhas been at the epicentre ofBoko Haram iolence since 2009.

“She killed eight peopleand injured 15 others. Themosque was being guarded bycivilian JTF (joint task forcemilitia) during prayers,” he said.

“Unknown to them, thegirl was being pursued fromanother part of town by resi-dents who were suspicious ofher movement at the time.

“When she approached themosque, they demanded thatshe stop to be searched but shesuddenly bolted into themosque and set off her bombs.”

Three other female sui-cide bombers were located inMaiduguri at about the sametime, said Satomi. Two werekilled in the Mammanti area asthey tried to cross the ditcharound the city perimeter whileanother set off her explosives inthe suburb of Simari, he added.

It is the second time in aweek that four female suicidebombers have sought to causecarnage in Maiduguri.

Last Monday, at least 19people were killed and 23 oth-ers injured when four womenset off their bombs in theMolai Kolemari area of the city.

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Aprofessed aim of Make inIndia is to give artisans,

craftsmen and weavers encour-agement. And it was with theintention of supporting themthat Tarun Sarda, a high school

graduate held an exhibition,Celebrating Vivaha at AshokaHotel, Chanakyapuri, recently.“The initiative to promote weavers

and artisans under prime ministerNarendra Modi’s Make in Indiatheme will definitely assist andboost talented craftsmen and

weavers by promoting their art on aglobal scale. To take this forward, tal-ented designers showcased their col-lection with us. In our next edition inLudhiana and Mumbai, we are trying

to reach out to more such talented design-ers from other parts of the country,” saysSarda.

There is a reason why the company hasbeen named Vivaha. He explains, “Vivahais a very generic term and the word ‘celebrat-ing’ was added to commemorate the essenceof the former. Celebrating Vivaha was a one-stop destination for everybody who want-ed to purchase jewellery, clothing, make-upand much more under one roof.”

Sarda feels that creating a platform forartists is important. He added, “We have cre-ated a platform for the artists to provide themwith immense exposure and to exhibittheir talent to the maximum number of peo-

ple.”The designs have been made by people

who are young and possess fresh talent sothat there is a lot of variety. “We are goingto smaller cities and will cover 22 of themby 2018,” says Sarda about his future plans.

While designing the garments, therewere some things that were kept in mind. “Ilike to create garments which are timeless.Fashion is not just cyclic, since a lot dependson the wearer’s taste and body type. So, it isthe duty of the designer to make people looktheir best,” says Seema Sharda, a designer.

People who thronged the venue includ-ed regular shoppers as well as those who aregetting married in the near future. Socialactivist Parull Mahaajan and actor cumMember of Parliament, Manoj Tiwari toowere present at the exhibition.

The government is pulling out all stopsto encourage the indutry and Tiwari iterat-ed that “The history of the textile industryis quite renowned and we are constantly try-ing to upgrade it to make things easier forpeople.”

The designers brought forth differentthings. “My brand has a lot of block printsin cotton with different cuts and patterns,”says Shalini, a fashion entrepreneur.

Rich Indian handloom weaves, tradition-al hand-woven drapes were much soughtafter at the exhibition. The three day exhi-bition from July 7th-9th had latest collectionsfor the summer wedding season from anarray of jewellers and designers.

Saturday Saturday, the first number byIndeep Bakshi, proved to be a block-

buster. While the singer cracked manyBollywood hits in between, a new foot-tap-ping Punjabi number is what his fans werewaiting for. And he did not dissapoint withhis new track Badshah te Queen composedby Raftaar, the prominent rapper andsinger of B-town.

Bakshi, earlier an architect, always hada thing for tweaking original music sinceschool. “I observed many random situationsin school and wrote songs on the same.Eventually, when I grew up, I playedaround with the already produced songs,changed and urbanised them because I hadan interest in international music. I evenwrote songs for many rappers for which Ididn’t get credit. Soon, my friends motivat-ed me to come up with my first songSaturday Saturday, which was shot on a Redcamera, which Honey Singh also uses. Andthat is how I embarked on the journey. Thesong was received very well and that madeit possible for me to change my passion intoa profession,” he shares.

Bakshi is promoting Badshah te Queen,in a different manner. He says, “We are pro-moting the song through a concept whichis usually used by international artists likeDJ Khalid and Justin Bieber. They usuallytravel in their tour bus which is covered withposters. This tour bus will travel aroundDelhi, Chandigarh and wherever it is pos-sible for us to promote the song. It will bea promotion and a vacation for the wholecast and crew who have worked for the songvideo.”

Inspiration, for Bakshi comes fromwithin. He says, “I never stick to specificswhen it comes to inspiration. This might bebecause I don’t want to become like some-one else, rather I create my own image inthe industry. I have never followed anyone.”

Nothing great in the world has everbeen accomplished without a great passion.Bakshi holds out a message for people whowant to follow their passion, “A personshould never give up. This is what I did.There are many who ruin their careers inpursuit of their passion. But I made mycareer first as an architect, earned moneyand then invested it in my passion — music.A huge investment is needed for a song toreach out to the audiences. I consider myselfto be the luckiest person as I was able totransform my passion into a profession.”

His famous first song’s revised versionwas featured in the movie, Humpty Sharmaki Dulhania. “I got a call from DharmaProductions to say that they wanted to add

my song in their movie. I neverexpected working under such ahuge banner so initially Ithought it was a prank call.But soon after that I got anofficial mail from Sonymusic and DharmaProductions. I went totheir office inMumbai and I wastold to dub theentire song inHindi, which Ithought woulddestroy the entireflavour. I was gladthat they respected myopinion,” shares thesinger.

The youth today is hookedto Punjabi songs which areplayed everywhere whether it be inthe clubs, cars, among friends andalmost everywhere. “We are blessed tobe Punjabis from Delhi because wedon’t use the traditional language oraccent and it is quite easy for non-Punjabis to understand. Another reasonwhy Punjabi songs are popular is that theyalways bring people to the dance floor irre-spective of the mood you are in. All thecredits for this popularity goes to HoneySingh, who opened the doors for othersingers to grow,” he adds.

The lights dimmed and onecould hear a drumroll in thebackground. The models,

both men and women, in battlefatigues were handed scrolls whichthey passed on to the audience. Thebeginning of the fashion showwhich showcased Shantanu andNikhil’s collection, The Regiment,was exceptional. And more was tofollow. When Navjot Singh Sidhusashayed down the ramp as theshowstopper, the entire Ballroom atThe Imperial erupted in collectiveround of oohs and aahs. The col-lection, which showcased the val-our, virtues, passion and convictionof vintage India, was held in asso-ciation with Swarovski and TheImperial, New Delhi.

There was a reason that thedesigner duo decided on the nameThe Regiment. Nikhil said, “Wewanted to salute our Army men.We were very much in tune withthe heritage and history that wecome from and this leads us to ourtheme The Regiment. It encompass-es discipline, pride and together-ness, which represent our Indianarmed forces.” And there wasanother message embedded in thecollection. He added, “We alsowanted to promote gender equal-ity by producing similar silhouette

for both man and woman.”The collection had everything

— convertible Nehru collars, verti-cal pockets, epaulets, trench coatinspired by bandh galas and longsherwanis teamed with drapes,handcrafted vintage coin buttonsand rustic medallion like bejeweledbroaches with crystals designed byChris Bangle.

Vivek Ramabhadran, vice pres-ident, Asia South Region, SwarovskiProfessional, said the relationshipwith Shantanu and Nikhil is an oldone. “They have been using ourSwarovski crystals for the past five-six years. We wanted to show thatcrystals can be more than just typ-ical embellishments for bridal cou-ture. They can be full-fledged acces-

sories.” Turns out that the designers vis-

ited Austria three months ago,when they were conceptualisingthis collection. They reinventedthe crystal from a historical perspec-tive, trusting it to add character to agarment in a language which is quitecontemporary and international. Theyhave even brought back the efficacyof broaches.

The designers used certain crys-tals which create a patina effect andcontrasts well with the military green.

The couturiers displayed theamalgamation of dark and militarycolours to portray the best ofNehruvian time. Shantanu said, “Wehave always been the anti-thesis ofcolours in India. For our philosophy,the vintage is the best range. This isnot the first time we have shown thedark palette. In the last part of this col-lection, there was a strong doze ofcrystals being used in a very differentavatar. It was more matte and not glit-tery to depict the pride and at the sametime we have almost replicated themedallion field.”

There was a reason why the duonarrowed down on Sidhu as a show-stopper. Shantanu said, “He is astuteand has clarity, be it as a politician ora cricketer. He has brought a sense ofpurpose to the The Regiment.”

Also seen in the audience were,Anurag Thakur ex-BCCI chief andMurli Kartik, the former cricketerturned commentator. The duo’s inter-pretation of a unique gallery like cou-ture space defined a profound graspof bespoke influences with a pursuitto reignite the bravery and the hero-ism of the Nehruvian time. The col-lection left the audience applaudingand praising the visualisation of thetheme.

Shantanu and Nikhil, a covetedname in the design industry elaborat-ed their concept, Nikhil said, “Ourfall/Winter 2017 line is a reiterationof our vision of belonging to some-thing that is bigger than ourselves andits underlying modern India spiritsthat symbolises progressivism and dis-tinctiveness. Dramatic and heroic re-appropriation of male presencethrough female form is the corner-stone of the collection, where femi-nism/masculine, hard/soft,defend/protect is the new dialog.”

The collection evokes an emo-tional connect of unity and orderthrough a regiment of men andwomen that have imbibed the beliefof the Armed forces to defend againsta stereotypical mind set symptomaticof gender inequality as it exists in soci-ety.

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The article, Junk Diseases, and theaccompanying photo published inyesterday’s (Monday, July 17) editionof Vivacity has been wrongly attrib-uted to Dr Kuldeep Singh when itwas written by Dr Sudeep Khanna,who is Senior Consultant(Gastroenterology) at IndraprasthaApollo Hospital, New Delhi. Theerror is regretted.

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Dangling from a string, apuppet has been used

since time immemorial to tella story, communicate with themasses, convey a social mes-sage or even create awarenessabout different issues. The ori-gin of puppetry trickles back toalmost 2,500 years ago.

But with the onslaught oftechnology and newer forms ofentertainment, puppets seem tobe fighting a losing battle. Inorder to keep the traditionalive, MATI (Management ofArt Treasures of India), a non-profit organisation, recentlyput up a show titled Gombe,which presented an array ofspecialised wooden puppets,mostly those sculpted by artistsfrom Karnataka, at ArtKonsult, Hauz Khas Village.

Locally called GaarudiGombe, which means magicaldolls, the Kannada puppetsare hung at the end of a stringand made of wood, wire, clothstuffed with cotton, saw dust orrags. What sets them apart istheir giganticism as they floataround you demi-God like ashuge suspended figurines. Thisprobably has to do with the factthat they are mostly recreatedgods and goddesses, usuallyused as temple embellishments.

Says Neelam Malhotra ofArt Konsult, “These magicalwooden puppets are used inperformances and sometimesfor religious rituals. Madeentirely of wood, they come invarious sizes and usually adorntemple facades, linking corri-dors, stairs or doorways.During various religious festi-vals, these are taken out on achariot as tableaus.”

The team of MATI cura-tors took some time collectingvaried samples from all overthe state. Malhotra shares,“Some of them embodymythological gatekeepers, whoare considered as protectivedeities. Naturally due to theirvery public positioning as gate-keepers or as props in flotillaprocessions, they were sub-jected to a lot of wear and tear.Temple authorities usually junkthe damaged pieces as they donot want ill luck. Till art con-noisseurs or restoration archi-tects buy these from the tem-ple yards.”

At the exhibit, we cameacross a wooden sculpted pup-pet of Shiva in a form which isconsidered auspicious andgood for well-being. As thethird god of the Hindu triad,we generally label him as adestroyer. But this pieceshowed us how he was destruc-ting negative forces of evil,ignorance and death. Brahma,the creator god in the triad, wasused as door jambs, perhaps,metaphorically, holding togeth-er all that is right in the uni-verse.

The dwarpalika (door-keeper) puppets were hand-painted mixed media on woodand in feminine form. But themost beautiful structure wasthat of a mother and child,which was also hand-painted,mixed media on wood, withintricate period details thatbrought alive the life and cus-toms of the time. One figurinedepicted the unconditionalnature of the mother-childrelationship, a little boy cavort-ing in her lap and his brotherprancing around, holding herhand all the while. All the pup-pets had big eyes, with finedetailing of human features andjewellery .

These fragile art workshold a lot of historic value asthey document the customs,policies, conventions, tradi-tions, fashions, habits and pro-fession of a specific periodand community. Malhotra says,“Earlier, the artistes used nat-ural colours but now cheaper,commercial variants havereplaced them. These should bekept away from humidity, rainand harsh lights. These have tobe kept indoors and handledwith care.”

There is clearly not a hugeaudience for such exhibitions.“Artists, historians, curators,writers and people who appre-ciate art and ancient artistryusually walk in,” says Malhotra.But with larger-than-life instal-lations from another time,Malhotra feels we would man-age to get a glimpse of our civil-isational history.

But a caged bird stands on thegrave of dreams

His shadow shouts on a night-mare scream

His wings are clipped and hisfeet are tied

So he opens his throat to sing.

These lines are from Caged Birdby poet Maya Angelou, whowas remembered lovingly by

impassioned members of the AksharaTheatre over the weekend. Angelou’s86-year life span is a dramatic arc ofsurviving as a Black woman inAmerica, from times of oppression,poverty and discrimination to beinghailed as America’s foremost poet.Thespian Jalabala Vaidya took thelead in reading excerpts from herbiography and works, ably support-ed by Kanika Aurora and SunitTandon.

Sharing her views about howMaya Angelou is relevant in theIndian context, Vaidya says, “I thinkMaya Angelou is very relevant to usin India because we do indulge in andexperience racism on a day-todaybasis and sadly I have to admit that.I think she is a shining example ofovercoming discrimination by beinga person of pure character, an excel-lent writer and loving the world. Ithink it is very necessary to love theworld in whatever shape, size andcolour it comes in and that is what wecan learn from Angelou.”

Talking about the lack of accep-tance of Angelou’s works in our aca-demic and social discourse, she says,“I am sorry but I find that there is notenough of her in school and collegecurriculum. I think there should bemuch more appreciation and under-standing of her so that we can

analyse our own emotions andresponses in our cultural context. Idon’t know why again there is racismbehind it. But I hope that the pro-gramme we have done today will helpget her the curriculum of differentplatforms.”

Lending the event a euphonicaura was Vaidya’s grand daughterNisa Shetty, who belted out varioussongs of the legendary Ella Fitzgeraldfrom the 60s. Be it Summertime or herhilarious piece of Stone Cold Dead inthe Market for all the husbands at the

event, the songs added a lively dimen-sion to the tribute. Along with that,Shetty went on to showcase her phe-nomenal voice with Caged Birds andNatural Woman.

The tribute was not just aboutmemories. It was intended to invokethe phenomenal spirit of a personwho beat all odds to stand tall.Imagine a tender girl raped by hermother’s boyfriend overcoming thetrauma to be heard as a distin-guished American poet, memoiristand civil rights activist. She becamea poet and writer after a series ofoccupations as a fry cook, sex work-er, nightclub dancer and performer,cast member of the opera Porgy andBess, coordinator for the SouthernChristian Leadership Conference,and journalist in Egypt and Ghanaduring the decolonisation of Africa.She was an actor, writer, director, andproducer of plays, movies and tele-vision programmes. Angelou stillreflects the boldness of what today’swomen can acquire in their lives.

Kanika Aurora, one of theartistes, brought out a lesser knownbut important aspect of Maya, whichwas that she was a cook too. Cookingher two favourite dishes on stage, shedisplayed how easily women can getinto the shoes of any profession.

These interactive weekend ses-sions at Akshara are indeed a freshbreath in claustrophobic times. AsAngelou summed it up so well, “I dealvery little in facts, facts can obscurethe truth, you can tell so many factsyou never get to the truth, you can tellthe places where, the people who, thetimes when, the reasons why, andnever get to the human truth whichis love and pain and loss and tri-umph.”

Very few people have thecourage to quit their job

and it becomes even harderwhen it’s a highly paid job ofan Industrial AutomationEngineer. A Sreedharan, a 36-year-old engineer, however,decided to go against the flow.“I worked as an engineer foreight years but I was quiteunhappy with it. Finally, tiredof my pathetic condition I decided to quit my job. Afterwhich I decided to start painting. My friends and mysocial circle started appreciating the kind of art I wasdoing,” he said.

Despite being an engineer by profession,Sreedharan’s creativity came to the fore about threeyears ago. However, prior to that, his imagination andcreativity were restricted to the back pages of collegeregisters and sometimes the notepad he used whileworking. After quitting his job, he began experimentingwith colours. As his artistic senses began to get recog-nised among his social circle, he decided to take a leapof faith. By the time his art developed, he started meet-ing people from the industry.

Initially he didn’t restict himself to any particulargenre. But as time passed, he understood that geometricart is what he loved. “I am able to express myself usinggeometric shapes and patterns. If I’m using a triangle,it represents human entity, the way ancient Indiansused triangle to represent a human entity. Multiple tri-angle crisscrossing is taken as intermingling of twosources of culture or any entity,” shared Sreedharan.Today, Sreedharan has carved a niche for himself inthe world of geometric abstract art.

The depth of his thoughts can be seen in his paint-ings and sketches. You won’t be able to distinguishwhether it’s handmade or printed but when you seeit closely, you can feel the brush strokes and the kindof patience the artist had while making it. “My paint-ings are like my baby. It takes around two-three monthsto complete a single piece. Once I have completed themit feels like they have been born,” said Sreedharan.

He loves experimenting with colours. One can find

the use of bright and contrasting colours in his paint-ings. Said he, “I was never too much into painting norhad I the apt knowledge of colours. A single colour isable to express numerous emotions and that’s what Ilove the most.”

His inspiration comes from his family and he givesthem the credit for his success. “My parents and mywife are my pillars of strength. Even when I left myjob it was my wife who inspired me and was alwaysby my side,” he rounded off.

Renowned Bharatanatyam exponent Malavika Sarukkaihas said that classical dance in the modern era is

becoming infected with mediocrity due to the pres-sures and distractions faced by the new genera-tion, short cuts in teaching and the descent ofdance into entertainment.

In a free flowing conversation with authorSudha Gopalakrishnan at the Art Matters dia-logue series organised by the Raza Foundationhere on Thursday evening, Sarukkai spoke at lengthabout her own journey as an artist, her personaldiscoveries, practice of art and her vision for thefuture.

She decried the creeping mediocrity in all formsof dance, because of the culture of instant gratifi-cation and dancers who are not putting in long-term effort to find themselves as artists.

“Dancers, like musicians, have to align to apitch; they cannot rely solely on external cueson stage. We have to locate the Tambura, thispitch, within us. It needs a lot of focus and hardwork. It bothers me that in dance these days, peo-ple have lost that, they have given up finding this‘sruthi,’ which is why a lot of performances are somediocre,” she said.

Sarukkai, who was awarded the Padma Shri in 2003,said she longs ‘to see younger dancers who are extraordi-nary’ and performances where the audience come out‘moved, and a bit light-headed.’

“My observation is that we see a lot of dance but not‘dance,’ there is no immersion. I'm not interested in mak-ing classical dance entertainment, which is largely what ithas been reduced to today. You have to divert the attentionof the audience to the wisdom and truth around us,” shemaintained.

On the modern teaching methodology for dance, shequipped there were too many quick-fixes and not enoughinspiration.

Gopalakrishnan, who herself is an artist, deftly guid-ed the conversation prompting Sarukkai to provideinsights into her own evolution as a dancer and her per-sonal challenges.

Sarukkai said she moved out of the conventional ‘Nayak-Nayika’ shringara narratives where the hero meets the hero-ine, they part, she longs for him and then he comes backand so forth, to explore deeper emotions such as Bhakti,divinity, freedom and spirituality.

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Never count out Roger Federer.Seems obvious, right? Especiallyafter he won his record-breaking

eighth Wimbledon championship andsecond Grand Slam title of this resurgentseason.

There have been times, though,when folks wondered whether he wasdone winning major tournaments. Hewas getting older. He went 4½ yearswithout such a title. He was surpassedin the rankings by the other membersof tennis' Big 4 as they began accumu-lating Grand Slam trophies - first RafaelNadal, then Novak Djokovic, then AndyMurray.

Even Federer himself began to won-der. He took the last half of 2016 off tolet his surgically repaired left knee healproperly and has returned to the top ofthe game. First, he ended his Slamdrought by winning the AustralianOpen in January. Then, after skipping theFrench Open, he raised his major totalto 19 by winning Wimbledon withouta dropping a set, finishing the fortnightwith a 6-3, 6-1, 6-4 victory over 2014 U.S.Open champion Marin Cilic in Sunday'sfinal.

"Honestly, I'm incredibly surprisedhow well this year is going. How well I'mfeeling, as well. How things are turningout to be on the courts. How I'm man-aging tougher situations. Where my levelof play is on a daily basis. I am surprisedthat it's this good," Federer said. "I knewI could do great again, maybe one day,but not at this level. So I guess you wouldhave laughed, too, if I told you I wasgoing to win two Slams this year. Peoplewouldn't believe me if I said that. I alsodidn't believe that I was going to win twothis year."

Here's what else we learned duringthe 131st edition of Wimbledon:

�&���*��E��� �4Both Djokovic and Murray will

consider taking some time off, the wayFederer did, after their bodies causedthem problems at the All England

Club. Murray, the defending champi-on and No 1 seed, lost in the quar-terfinals while clearly hampered by asore left hip. Djokovic, a three-timechampion and No 2 seed, stoppedplaying in the same round because hisright elbow was too painful. "We bothhad a very long, very tough year, a lotof matches, a lot of emotions, a lot ofthings in play," Djokovic said. "Our

bodies have taken a lot physically."

������������������ �When Serena Williams missed a

Grand Slam tournament, as she didat the French Open and Wimbledonbecause she is pregnant, the wholecomplexion of the event changes.Everyone knows it. All of a sudden,her older sister, Venus, is once again

a title contender at age 37. Venus isthe only woman to have reached atleast the fourth round at each of thepast six majors. She proved that herrun to the Australian Open final(where she lost to Serena) was nofluke by getting to the Wimbledonfinal — her first at the grass-courttournament since 2009. She was theoldest finalist at the All England Clubsince 1994. Like Federer, no sense intrying to write her off.

��'� �F��E���������Venus faded in Saturday's Final,

losing the last nine games againstGarbine Muguruza, who became theonly woman to have won a major titlematch against each Williams sister.Muguruza, who got past Serena in the2016 French Open final, has stampedherself as a fearless, powerful force at23, in position to accumulate big titlesfor years. Another woman who fitsthat description is Jelena Ostapenko,20, who won the French Open lastmonth, then followed that up byreaching Wimbledon's quarterfinals.

��� ���It's still been nearly 14 full years

since an American man won a GrandSlam singles title (Andy Roddick at the2003 US Open), but one of them didget to the semifinals of a major for thefirst time since 2009: Sam Querrey,who upset Murray in the quarterfinals,a year after he upset Djokovic in thethird round. "American tennis isn'tthat bad. I know it kind of gets a badrep. That's just 'cause guys don't winmajors. We've got four guys in the top30, a great group of young guys," saidQuerrey, a 29-year-old fromCalifornia.

"To be in the semis is great.Hopefully myself and the other guysup there can have more weeks like this.Hopefully, you know, American ten-nis will get a little boost from this,maybe, and other guys will gain someconfidence, and we can just have moreand more guys go deeper in Slams."

����� %A7/A7

Roger Federer admitted that he never thought he'dbe a record eight-time Wimbledon champion and

would even have laughed if he was told he'd win twomajors in 2017.

The Swiss star, who will turn 36 in three weeks'time, eased past the mark of seven All England Clubtitles he had shared with Pete Sampras since 2012 witha 6-3, 6-1, 6-4 win over injury-hit Marin Cilic in thefinal on Sunday.

It was 16 years ago when Federer famouslydefeated Sampras at Wimbledon to announce himselfas a star in the making.

However, it wasn't until 2003 that he captured hisfirst All England Club title.

Now he has 19 majors, four clear of closest rivalRafael Nadal on the all-time list.

"I didn't think I was going to be this successful afterbeating Pete here," said Federer who also won a fifthAustralian Open in January.

"I hoped to have a chance maybe one day to be ina Wimbledon final and have a chance to win the tour-nament.

"Winning eight is not something you can ever aimfor. If you do, you must have so much talent and par-ents and the coaches that push you from the age of threeon, who think you're like a project. I was not that kid."

Federer had been written off as a faded force when

he was knocked out of Wimbledon in the semi-finalsby Milos Raonic last year.

He immediately shut down his season to rest a kneeinjury, a decision which meant that for the first timein his professional career he would go through an entirecampaign without adding to his trophy haul.

But his Australian Open triumph led to back-to-back Masters at Indian Wells and Miami before heskipped the clay court season.

A ninth Halle grass court title followed and onSunday his record triumph in south-west London tookhis career trophy collection to a staggering 93.

Sunday's straight-sets cruise meant he was the firstman since Bjorn Borg in 1976 to win the title withoutdropping a set.

He is also the oldest Wimbledon men's champi-on of the modern era.

"I'm incredibly surprised how well this year is going,how well I'm feeling, how I'm managing tougher sit-uations, where my level of play is on a daily basis,"added Federer.

"I am surprised that it's this good. I knew I coulddo great again maybe one day, but not at this level.

"So I guess you would have laughed, too, if I toldyou I was going to win two slams this year. People would-n't believe me if I said that. I also didn't believe that Iwas going to win two this year."

Federer also insisted he fully intends to defend hisWimbledon title in 2018 despite delivering what manyfans fear sounded like a farewell speech to Centre Court.

"We never know what happens," said the Swiss star,who had told the crowd in his victory speech: "I hopeto be back, I hope this wasn't my last match".

He later clarified his remarks, telling reporters:"Honestly, ever since I had the year I had last year, I thinka year ahead of time, you know, with my schedule, fit-ness schedule, tournaments I would like to play."

"So I totally see myself playing here this time nextyear.

"There's never a guarantee, especially not at 35, 36.But the goal is definitely to be here again next year totry and defend."

���� %A7/A7�

Roger Federer's eighthWimbledon title pushed

him back up to No 3 in the ATPrankings on Monday after heended last season at No 16.

And, because he sat out thelast half of 2016, his points willonly continue to accumulate,making a return to No 1 a realpossibility.

Garbine Muguruza's firstchampionship at the AllEngland Club returned her tothe WTA's top 10 at No 5, a riseof 10 spots, while runner-upVenus Williams goes from No11 to No 9.

Karolina Pliskova becamethe 23rd woman to be rankedNo 1, a debut for her that wasguaranteed last week, based onresults at Wimbledon. She had

been No 3, and swaps positionswith former No 1 AngeliqueKerber.

Serena Williams has notcompeted since Januarybecause she is pregnant. By los-ing rankings points she earnedlast year, including a title atWimbledon and runner-upfinish at the French Open, shewent from No 4 to No 15 onMonday. The rankings countpoints from the preceding 52weeks, which is why Pliskova isable to take over at No. 1despite losing in the secondround at the All England Club.

Pliskova, a 25-year-oldfrom the Czech Republic, hasnever won a Grand Slam title— she's not the first player totop the rankings without thatachievement on her resume -although she was the runner-up

to Kerber at last year's USOpen and a semifinalist atRoland Garros last month.

Kerber lost in the firstround at the French Open, thenthe fourth round ofWimbledon. Simona Halephad a chance to be No 1 thisweek but lost to Johanna Kontain the Wimbledon quarterfi-nals. So Halep continues at No2, with Konta going from No 7to No 4.

Andy Murray held onto No1 ahead of No 2 Rafael Nadal.

Novak Djokovic remainedat No 4, while Stan Wawrinkadropped two spots to No 5 aftera first-round exit.

������ ����� �� ���'�� ��Ramkumar Ramanathan

on Monday improved hiscareer-best rank to 168 in sin-

gles following a runner-up fin-ish at Winnetka Challenger inUSA where he earned 48 pointsand resultantly jumped 16places on the ladder.

The 22-year-old fromChennai is now India's bestranked player in the singles, fol-lowed by Yuki Bhambri (212),Prajnesh Gunneswaran (214),N Sriram Balaji (293) andSumit Nagal (306).

In the doubles chart, RohanBopanna dropped a place to 22but Divij Sharan (51) and PuravRaja (52) gained six and fivespots respectively. VeteranLeander Paes also jumped threeplaced to be 59th in the chartbut Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan(98) lost eight places.

In the women's rankings,Sania Mirza was unchanged atnumber seven in the doubles.

����4��������� �� 7-8�/-%6�

Newly appointed DelhiDynamos manager Miguel

Angel Portugal has promised toplay an attractive possession stylefootball for the upcoming fourthseason of Indian Super League.

"I would want my team to playwith as much as possession possi-ble, but it must be effective pos-session," said Miguel, through atranslator, after being unveiled bythe Delhi-based franchise here onMonday. "We wouldn't play pos-session football for the sake of keep-ing possession and wasting time.Purpose should be to unbalanceour opponent and score a goal."

Replacing Italian legendGianluca Zambrotta, who tookDelhi to semi-finals of ISL last sea-son, as Dynamos manager is atough ask. Being aware of that,Miguel prepared by watching I-League matches of the recently con-cluded season and felt footballershere are passionate and needs timeto develop.

"After watching I-leaguematches recently, I found Indianfootballers to be intelligent and playwith lot of passion but football hereis at its nascent stage and has a greatpotential to grow. Since cricket isthe mass popular sport here, we

need to be patient in nurturing it,"said the ex-Real Madrid footballerand youth coach.

He has experience of manag-ing teams in Spain's La Liga -Racing Satander and RealValladolid. "I would love to workfor six-seven years here. But coach-ing is a demanding job as the clubsalways want results. So if things goaccording to plan, I will be work-ing here longer than my currentcontract," explained the 61-year-old

manager, who has signed a yearcontract with the Delhi side.

After Dynamos stuck a tech-nical partnership with Qatar-basedAspire Academy, who is known forits world-renowned sporting facil-ities (including coaching, trainingand sports science), the Delhi-based franchise decided to restarttheir hunt for ISL silverware by let-ting go all their players from lastseason, which included star Indianperformers such as Anas

Edathodika and Milan Singh.Miguel felt it was a necessary stepto start things from scratch.

"It's like a new project. We aregoing to build the team from thescratch and we are going into thedraft (to pick players) with lot ofoptions on the table, which includessome ex-players. Our aim is to winthe title and for that purpose weneed to carefully pick players forevery position," concluded thenew Dynamos manager.

����� ;A6$77-5�(&�

The Indian women's hockey teamsuffered a 0-3 loss to strong oppo-

nents Argentina in their last group stageencounter at the Women's HockeyWorld League Semi Final here.

For World No 3 Argentina, RocioSanchez (2nd minute), Maria Granatto(14th) and Noel Barrionuevo (25th)were the goal-scorer, while India drewa blank.

Argentina were quick to get off theblocks last night scoring as early as thesecond minute of the match. It wasRocio Sanchez who fetched Argentinaan early 1-0 lead.

India's goalkeeper Savita was keptbusy right from the start and unfortu-nately for her this goal came offArgentina's second shot on goal.Though she made a diving effort to savethe first attempt, an unmarked Sanchezwas quick to pick up the rebound andconvert.

Soon after India came close to scor-ing an equalizer when VandanaKatariya assisted by Namita Toppo triedto deflect the ball into the post but itwas blocked away by the Argentinegoalkeeper.

Savita made as many as four savesin the first 15 minutes and one of herbest saves was padding away a fierce-ly struck shot by Julieta Jankunas.

Argentina also won their first PC

in the 6th minute but it was blockedaway by first runner Namita. MariaGranatto scored Argentina's secondgoal in the 14th minute to go into thefirst hooter with a strong 2-0 lead.

India played this quarter sensibly,covering their defence and restrictedArgentina from entering the strikingcircle.

In the 23rd minute India won a PCbut nothing came off the opportunityas Rani's strike was well-saved by theArgentina goalkeeper.

Soon after, in the 25th minuteArgentina was awarded a penaltystroke when Sushila fouled whiledefending a PC awarded to Argentina.The penalty stroke was converted byNoel Barrionuevo.

Argentina began the third quarterwith a comfortable 3-0 lead and con-tinued to put India under pressure.

They won back-to-back PCs in the34th minute but India goalkeeperRajani Etimarpu, who replaced Savitaafter half- time, along with NamitoToppo did well to defend. India cameup with deep defensive tactics to keepArgentina goalless in this quarter.

The final 15 minutes saw theIndian defenders keep the Argentineattackers in check.

Though Rani manufactured a greatshot on goal within the final two min-utes to the hooter, the Argentina goal-keeper denied India a goal.

India will next take on England inthe Quarter-final on Tuesday.

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South Africa cut short Joe Root's hon-eymoon as England captain with anemphatic 340-run win in the second

test on Monday, leveling the four-matchseries and shifting the pressure onto thehome team and its rookie skipper.

South Africa needed little more than 40overs to take all 10 wickets on Day 4 asEngland succumbed at Trent Bridge, all outfor 133 in its second innings facing an almostinsurmountable target of 474.

England only just scraped past 200 inits first innings to go with that second-innings collapse, while South Africa made335 and 343-9 declared.

From the highs of his first test in charge,when England won by 211 runs at Lord'sand he made a magnificent 190, Root nowhas to muster his men for the two remain-ing tests with doubts growing over the make-up of the top three batsmen, a crucial partof the team.

Opener Keaton Jennings and Gary

Ballance, Root's Yorkshire teammate andreportedly his choice to bat at No 3, are yetto make significant scores in this series andSouth Africa's quicks exploited that areaespecially at Trent Bridge.

England was 3-2 in the first innings and28-2 in the second, and never got going withthe bat.

"No, I don't think it (the top three) is aconcern. They just need some runs and tospend some time out in the middle," Rootsaid. "I'm sure if they get the opportunity todo that in the next game they will go on andmake big scores.

"We'll sit down with selection andmake sure we're happy with what we havegoing into the next one."

England has time to ponder the prob-lem, with the third test at the Oval startingin 10 days.

The second test at Nottingham was atale of two captains: While Root learned howquickly things can go wrong as a captain intest cricket, Faf du Plessis' return to leadSouth Africa provided an immediate lift forthe tourists after missing the Lord's defeat

for the birth of his first child.Du Plessis led impressively — tactical-

ly and with a valuable innings of 63 in thesecond innings — to give South Africamomentum heading into the second half ofthe series.

"Faf brings a sense of calmness and hisintellect on the field, there's not many peo-ple who can compare," South Africa spinbowler Keshav Maharaj said.

South Africa's players said they wereprepared for a two-day scrap to win the test.In the end, England didn't last two sessionson the fourth day.

In the first session of the day, Joe Roothad his off stump knocked out the groundas England lost four wickets and slidtoward defeat on Day 4 itself.

England captain Root was bowled byChris Morris for eight — the wicket SouthAfrica really wanted — to leave England 79-4 at lunch and still 395 runs off its impos-ing target of 474.

Morris also removed Alastair Cooksoon before lunch and Vernon Philanderclaimed two early scalps for South Africa,

putting the tourists six wickets away froma series-leveling victory at Trent Bridge.

England's openers survived four nervyovers on Sunday night but couldn't see outthe first two overs on the fourth day, withKeaton Jennings (3) bowled by Philander toput South Africa on top from the beginningof the session.

Morris took the two most importantwickets for South Africa with contrastingdeliveries.

His swinging yorker beat Root and tookout the in-form England skipper's offstump.

Six overs later, Morris produced abouncer that surprised Cook and England'sall-time leading test run-scorer gloved acatch down the legside to wicketkeeperQuinton de Kock.

Chris Morris took two key wickets forSouth Africa before lunch, knocking overRoot's off stump and then bouncing out for-mer skipper Alastair Cook, who top-scoredwith 42. At 79-4 at lunch, England collapsedin an hour after the break, losing its last fivewickets for 11 runs.

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England opener TammyBeaumont says her team's

victory over South Africa in thegroup stage of the Women'sWorld Cup will count for noth-ing whenthe twosides faceeach otherin the firstsemifinal here on Tuesday.

England have won sixgames in a row — including a68-run victory over SouthAfrica — following their open-ing defeat by India. SouthAfrica have won four, lost twoand had one game washed outdue to rain.

But with a place in theLord's final the prize forTuesday's winner, Beaumontsays both teams go into thegame with a clean slate.

"We did beat them in thegroup game, but it is going tobe a clean slate on Tuesday witha lot more to play for and theywill come out hard and try andmake up for that defeat in thegroup stages," she said.

"We have put the loss toIndia behind us and we havegone from strength to strengthas the tournament has pro-gressed.

"There are still a few areasour coach will want us to workon but that is the good thingabout us, we always want tolearn and we always want to getbetter."

Beaumont is the tourna-ment's leading run-scorer with372 runs from her seven

innings but she says thatEngland's main strength is theability for other players to stepup and perform when needed.

"I think the best part of oursquad is that someone differentsteps up every single game.

H e a t h e rKnight wase x c e l l e n tagainst WestIndies with a

really crucial knock and AlexHartley with the ball.

"It is really key that every-one is on song for the semifi-nal. South Africa have a reallygood all round team, they havea team to suit all sorts of pitch-es, they have a lot of pace upfront and then leg-spinners inthe middle and some prettydestructive batters," saidEnglish captain.

Beaumont may be thehighest scoring batter in thetournament so far, but she andEngland will come up againstthe tournament's leading wick-et taker in Dane van Niekerk.

The South Africa captainhas taken 15 wickets in her sixgames so far in the WWC andshe believes the pressure is allon the tournament hosts.

"We are excited, we knowany team that is in the semi-final is going to be tough to beatso we're going to have to bringour very best," said the SouthAfrican skipper.

"I don't think there's anypressure on us at all, I don'tthink most people thought wewould be here. In that sense Iam very proud of the girls, it'sour first semi-final since 2000."

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Kusal Mendis scored a fluenthalf-century to keep Sri

Lanka's hopes of chasing a record388 alive on day four of the one-off Test against Zimbabwe, hereon Monday.

The hosts were 170 for threeat stumps, with Mendis (60) bat-ting alongside Angelo Mathews(17) at Colombo's R PremadasaStadium.

Sri Lanka's highest-ever suc-cessful run chase was againstSouth Africa in 2006, when theyachieved their 352-run target inColombo.

Zimbabwe skipper GraemeCremer dented the hosts with hisleg-spin, claiming the importantwickets of Upul Tharanga (27)and his opposite number DineshChandimal (15).

Opener Dimuth Karunaratnewas bowled by left-arm orthodoxspinner Sean Williams for 49 asthe visitors persisted with an all-spin attack in the 48 overs bowledin the innings so far.

Mendis, who fought off ham-string trouble in the final sessionof play, put together an unbeaten37-run stand with Mathews totake the delicately poised Test intoits final day.

Zimbabwe were earlierbowled out for 377 in the secondsession, with Sikandar Raza (127)top-scoring for the visitors withhis maiden Test century.

Cremer was the last man outfor 48 off left-arm spinnerRangana Herath, who returnedfigures of 6-133 to take his matchtally to 11 wickets.

The Pakistan-born Raza

steered the team's middle andlower order to help his side accu-mulate another 318 runs afterbeing reduced to 59-5 on daythree.

Raza's 144-run partnershipwith Malcolm Waller (68) was thehighlight of the Zimbabwe inningsafter the duo resumed on theovernight score of 252-6.

Zimbabwe are seeking theirfirst-ever Test win against SriLanka, who are looking forredemption under new Test cap-tain Chandimal.

He took over from Mathews,who resigned after calling the one-day series loss a "hard pill to swal-low".

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In-form opener Shikhar Dhawan will replaceinjured Murali Vijay for the three-Test series

in the upcoming India tour of Sri Lanka, aBCCI release confirmed on Monday.

Vijay hasn't fully recovered from thewrist injury he picked during the Test seriesagainst Australia, and has been advised to con-tinue his rehabilitation programme.

"The All-India Senior SelectionCommittee on Monday named ShikharDhawan as the replacement for injured MuraliVijay in the Test team, which is scheduled totravel to Sri Lanka for a three-match Testseries," the Board of Control for Cricket in

India (BCCI) said in a statement."Vijay, who suffered a wrist injury during

Australia's tour of India, has complained ofpain in his right wrist, while playing apreparatory match.

The BCCI medical team has thereforeadvised that Vijay should continue his reha-bilitation programme," it added.

Dhawan, who hasn't featured in thelongest version of the game since the homeTest series against New Zealand lastSeptember, has been in good nick in the short-er format of the game, particularly in the ICCChampions Trophy in England, where heemerged the highest scorer with 338 runs.

He is expected to open the innings with

Lokesh Rahul in the first Test against theislanders despite having Tamil Nadu southpawAbhinav Mukund in the squad as the thirdopener.

The first Test of the three match seriesbegins on July 26.

�G���Virat Kohli (Captain), Shikhar Dhawan,

Lokesh Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujara, AjinkyaRahane (vice-captain), Rohit Sharma,Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja,Wriddhiman Saha (WK), Ishant Sharma,Umesh Yadav, Hardik Pandya, BhuvneshwarKumar, M Shami, Kuldeep Yadav, Abhinav Mukund.

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India's premier off-spinnerRavichandran Ashwin welcomed the

upset ODI series victory scored by min-nows Zimbabwe against hosts Sri Lankaand said such shock results will help crick-et stay healthy.

"With regard to Zimbabwe winningover Sri Lanka, that's how the game goes,anybody can lose, anybody can win.Tomorrow Afghanistan may beat some-one, so that's the way the sport needs to(go). It is very healthy for the game,"Ashwin said on the sidelines of a pro-motional event of small finance bank,

Zimbabwe had defeated Sri Lanka 3-2 in the five match ODI series by winningthe first, fourth and the fifth games.

Ashwin is part of the India squad ledby Virat Kohli which is soon to engageSri Lanka in a full-fledged series com-prising three Tests, five ODIs and a loneT20 in the island nation. The tour com-mences on July 21 with a two-day prac-tice game at Moratuwa prior to the open-ing Test at Galle beginning July 26.

The 30-year-old cricketer was reluc-

tant to comment on the appointment ofnew head coach Ravi Shastri who hasreplaced Anil Kumble.

"I think, the new coach or the newsupport staff, it does not come under myjurisdiction, it is not something I will takea call on.

"I am not being diplomatic, it will beunfair for me to pass a comment on that.Likewise always, the Indian team moveson, India moves on (and) we have to findout in course of time, how it is going,"concluded Ashwin.

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