· 2019-03-04 · wanted rahul to step down. mallya, he asserted, has no credibility as he is...
TRANSCRIPT
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Congress president RahulGandhi on Thursday
demanded resignation ofFinance Minister Arun Jaitley,accusing him of “colludingwith the criminal” and allow-ing him to escape from thecountry.
Rahul sought the FM’s res-ignation on the back of a claimmade by his party MP PLPunia that he saw Jaitley andMallya together in the CentralHall of Parliament on March 1,2016, as the duo held an elab-orate 15-20 minute discussion.
On Wednesday, Jaitley hadrubbished Mallya’s claim thathe met Jaitley in Parliamentwhere he had offered to settlehis bank dues. Jaitley said henever gave any appointment toMallya, but the liquor baronaccosted him on one occasionin Parliament and offered tomake some settlement withthe banks, which he (Jaitley)refused to entertain. The FMclaimed there was no furthertalks between them.
The Congress presidentalso attacked the ModiGovernment on the way theCBI lookout circular (LOC)notice against Mallya was dilut-ed, allowing him to leave thecountry.
“Who changed the lookoutnotice for Mr Vijay Mallyafrom ‘detain’ to just ‘inform’? Itcan only be someone who con-trols the CBI,” Rahul tweeted.
After Jaitley’s prompt
rebuttal of Mallya’s claim of thepurported meeting, Puniaspiced up the controversy byinsisting he had seen Jaitley andMallya talking animatedly inthe Central Hall of Parliament,for first few minutes standingand then continuing their dis-cussion sitting face to face.
“On March 3, we heardfrom the media that he(Mallya) fled the country onMarch 2. I have clearly stated
about this in each of my inter-view with the media. There areCCTV cameras, we can all seethat for proof. If I am wrong, Iwill resign from politics,” Puniaclaimed.
Latching on to Punia’sclaim, Rahul challenged Jaitleyto get CCTV footage of March1. “Mr Jaitley is lying, theGovernment is lying on Rafaleand the Government is lying onVijay Mallya. A meeting washeld with Mr Arun Jaitley andVijay Mallya. The logistics ofMr Mallya leaving the countrywere discussed in that meet-ing,” Rahul told reporters.
“Mr Vijay Mallya wasgiven free passage out of thecountry by the FinanceMinister, who has clearly saidthe criminal told him that heis going to run away. Well, whydid you let him run away? Why
did you not stop him? Becauseyou were colluding with him,”he added.
Describing it as an “openand shut case of collusion”, hesaid there was some dealbetween Jaitley and Mallyaand called for the FinanceMinister’s resignation.
Asked whether theCongress would move a priv-ilege motion, he said the partywould do what it could.However, Jaitley has to firstexplain why he did not actwhen told that Mallya wasgoing to “run away to London”,Rahul said.
He also sought to knowwhat transpired at Jaitley’s“extended meeting” with the“gentleman in ParliamentHouse”. The Congress has alsogone on offensive against dilu-tion of the LOC.
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The BJP on Thursdaydefended Union Finance
Minister Arun Jaitley againstallegation of “colluding” withliquor baron Vijay Mallya andasked Congress presidentRahul Gandhi to resign anddisclose his family’s proximitywith the absconding tycoon.
Addressing a Press confer-ence, Union Minister PiyushGoyal said the fugitive busi-nessman is a criminal and hiswords could not be taken seri-ously.
The BJP leader, however,did not answer whether theGovernment would give CCTVfootage for forensic examina-tion to test the claim of theCongress that the said meetingbetween Jaitley and Mallyatook place in the Central hall.
Goyal asked Rahul toresign, claiming that due to hisfamily’s “relations” with Mallya,banks were pressured by theprevious United ProgressiveAlliance (UPA) Government tosanction loans to the fugitivebusinessman, violating allnorms.
“Rahul Gandhi shouldanswer what were the relationsbetween his family and Mallya,”
Goyal said, adding that thenow-defunct KingfisherAirlines was given loansbypassing all norms, laws andregulations. He said Rahul is anoffender and his resignationwill be forced by the people ofIndia. However, it was notclear from what office Goyalwanted Rahul to step down.
Mallya, he asserted, has nocredibility as he is under the“glare of law” and is a criminal.He could not be taken seriously,Goyal said.
Goyal ran a small clip offormer Prime MinisterManmohan Singh stating pri-vate airlines need to be helpedto come out of the financialmess. Goyal alleged that theRBI was pressurised to arrangefor a company-specific loan.The Minister said the ModiGovernment is in the processof recovering the money fromMallya and the Congress “iscreating defence by telling lies.”
The BJP also pointed outthat Manmohan Singh hadtold his officials and gave it inwriting to help Mallya, forwhich the liquor baron hadthanked him profusely.
Through the day, oneafter another several BJPleaders appeared on TV
channels to attack Rahul anddefend Jaitely. Law MinisterRavishankar Prasad insinu-ated that Rahul may haveplayed a role in influencingMallya to implicate Jaitley inhis escape from the country.Prasad said Mallya made thisclaim only af ter R ahulGandhi vis ited Londonrecently.
The BJP also alleged thatboth the Congress and theGandhi family were close tothe fugitive liquor baron.Party spokesperson SambitPatra alleged that it appearedRahul Gandhi owned thenow defunct Kingf isher
Airline by proxy and there are“18 pages worth of evidence”about their links.
“Papers show thatKingfisher Airlines was notowned by Mallya but by theGandhi parivar,” Patra said ata Press conference.
Patra read out from thedocuments to point out thatthe loans to the now defunctairline were restructuredtwice — in 2008 and 2012.
“That he and his motherSonia Gandhi used to getfree business upgrade (inKingfisher flights) is some-thing which is in the publicdomain,” Patra added.
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Security forces gunned downeight terrorists on Thursday
in three separate encounters -two in north Kashmir and onein Jammu region. Twelve secu-rity personnel, including fivejawans of CRPF, four Statepolicemen, and three army per-sonnel, received injuries duringthe operation.
Five terrorists, includingthree infiltrators, were killed intwo separate encounters innorth Kashmir’s Keran sector ofKupwara and Sopore in northKashmir, official sources said.An over-ground worker of apan-Islamic outfit was also heldin Ganderbal district.
Officials said three uniden-tified infiltrators were killed ina fierce gunfight after Armyfoiled a major infiltration bidalong the Line of Control inKeran sector in Kupwara innorth Kashmir on Thursday.
In another incident, twoPakistan’s Jaish-e-Muhammadterrorists were killed in an oper-ation at Checkipora, Sheikhporavillage in Sopore area of northKashmir’s Baramulla district.
In Kakriyal area along theJammu-Srinagar NationalHighway, a three member fiday-een squad, believed to be cadreof Pakistan based Jaish-e-Mohammad terrorist outfit, waseliminated by the joint team ofsecurity forces lead by paracommandos of the Indian army,jawans of the special operationsgroup of state police and CRPFon Thursday.
The 33-hour operationended in the killing of one of thethree surviving terrorists whoopened fire on security forceswhen he came face to face withthem during the combing andsearch operations in thicklyvegetated fields of Kakriyal.
Till the time of filing thereport several teams of bombdisposal squad and otherswere deployed at theencounter site to completelysanitise the area and clear thesame from ‘booby’ traps in theform of planted IED’s or landmines. The local residents,who remained closeted insidetheir homes since early morn-ing also heaved a sigh of reliefafter the operation was calledoff.
The security forcesensured no major collateraldamage was done to the civil-ian houses and managed tocontain these terrorists in iso-lated areas. The educationalinstitutions remained closed inthe area to prevent any unto-ward incident. The traffic onthe national highway alsoremained suspended whileoperation was on in the area.
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High voltage DelhiUniversity Students’ Union
(DUSU) elections witnessed asee-saw battle between theCongress party’s student wingNSUI and RSS-affiliated ABVPfor the post of the president,with one leading the other atdifferent stages of counting.
However, there was a bigdisappointment in store forthe CYSS, the AAP’s studentwing, and AISA who hadjoined hands to defeat theABVP and the NSUI.
Ankiv Basoya of the ABVPbagged the post of DUSU pres-ident by defeating SunnyChillar of the NSUI by marginof about 1,700 votes. Ankiv got20,467 votes. Vice-Presidentpost too was won by ABVP asShakti Singh defeated NSUIrival Leena by more than 8,000votes. Shakti secured 23,046votes, Leena 15,000 votes.
The post of secretary wasbagged by the NSUI as AkashChaudhary defeated his ABVPcounterpart Sudhir Dedha bymargin of about 6,000 votes.The joint secretary post went toABVP’s Jyoti Chaudhary(19,353 votes). He defeated hisrival Saurabh Yadav (14,381)from NSUI by margin ofapproximately 5,000 votes.
Last year, the NSUI hadwon DUSU’s president andvice-president posts, whileABVP had won secretary andjoint secretary posts.
ABVP’s popular face Shakti
Singh proved too formidable forhis opponents as he led by awhopping margin againstNSUI’s Leena from the verybeginning. Political pundits feelthat Shakti — Kshatriya fromthe eastern Uttar Pradesh— wasthe ABVP’s game changer.
High voltage drama wenton throughout the countingwhen members of various stu-dent organisations in poll frayengaged in scuffle over theissue of “faulty” EVMs, whichled to a halt in counting.Counting resumed in theevening. In the initial trends,the NSUI gained an upperhand for the president post,but it lost it subsequent phas-es.
The NSUI claimed thatthey were leading on the postof president and the secretaryafter the six rounds of count-ing when about 6 EVMs brokedown. The NSUI alleged elec-tion panel wanted to set thefaulty EVMs aside and con-tinue the counting to whichthe NSUI staunchly objected.
While the ABVP assertedthere was a certain problemwith only one EVM meant forthe post of secretary.
“We demanded thatcounting should not bestopped just because of oneEVM, whose vote can becounted later on after correc-tion,” said Monica Chaudharyof the ABVP.
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Delhi Chief Minister ArvindKejriwal on Thursday
asserted that Aam Aadmi Party(AAP) Government will suc-ceed in cleaning Yamuna Riverthough it will take time.Kejriwal, who is currently on avisit to South Korea, made theassertion in reply to a tweet thatquestioned the failures of urbanrejuvenation projects in Indiaand stalled plans for YamunaRiver front development.
Kejriwal accused previousGovernments responsible fornot cleaning the Yamuna Riverand their failure in imple-menting the river front devel-opment projects.
“Becoz then, AAP govtwasn’t there. Now, it will hap-pen. As there have been con-crete improvements in otherspheres during AAP govt, wewill work hard on cleaningdrains and Yamuna. It willtake time. Koreans did it in 27
months. But I am confidentthat we will succeed,” he tweet-ed.
During his trip to SouthKorean capital Seoul, Kejriwalvisited Cheonggyecheonstream that was transformedfrom a polluted water body toa popular tourist spot.
“The CheonggyecheonRestoration Project in Seoul,which I myself saw onWednesday at the downtown,was centred on revitalising thestream that had been coveredfor decades by a highway over-pass. The city of Seoul used itsown resources to bring new lifeto the downtown by enhancingthe urban environment. Therestoration of theCheonggyecheon Stream led tothe revitalisation of centralSeoul, unleashing the potentialfor green public space”, he said.
Addressing theInternational Conference onUrban Regeneration at Seol,Kejriwal said, “Delhi is a
vibrant city state and popular-ly known as mini-India, wherepeople of different religions,regions and cultures live hap-pily and contribute to India’s
economy in a major way.Capital cities, the world over,are administratively run dif-ferently and Delhi too has aunique and somewhat complex
administrative structure, whichhowever is a matter of a sepa-rate conversation at some otheroccasion.”
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Prime Minister NarendraModi is likely to celebrate
his 68th birthday in his parlia-mentary constituency ofVaranasi, where he will spendthe day with schoolchildrenand watch a film based on hislife, a district official said hereon Thursday.
Modi is likely to go for atwo-day visit to Varanasi onSeptember 17 and 18. He willalso offer prayers at the famousKashi Vishwanath temple dur-ing his visit and address apublic gathering in Varanasi,the official said.
On his 68th birthday, thePM will watch a 32-minute filmcalled “Chalo Jeete Hain” withschoolchildren and is also like-ly to inaugurate several devel-opment projects worth croresof rupees.
A special cleanliness drivewill be launched and healthcamps will also be organised inthe town, he said.
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Aday after a StateCommission for
Protection of Child Rights(SCPCR) team visited twoashrams and asked for thecancellation of their NOCs,their owner SwamiAnupmanand Giri filed a com-plaint against the chairpersonof the child welfare body UshaNegi at the District Magistrate’soffice on Thursday. He said inthe complaint that she hadforced her entry into theashram premises and tried toextort money from him.However, Negi rubbished thecharge and said that he is des-perate to shield himself from aninquiry into the sordid state ofthings in the two ashramswhere many children are livingin a miserable condition.Notably, following the visit ofthe team, Negi had urged theDM to cancel NOCs of the twoashrams-Hari Om Ashram andShiv Om Ashram-given thepoor facilities being provided tothe children inmates.
Asked to comment on thecomplaint lodged against her,Negi said while talking to The
Pioneer that the team she ledhad dared to enter the premis-es while no officer was ready toenter. She, further, said that theallegation was baseless as theteam had entered the premis-es of both the ashrams alongwith teams of police and media.“Everything was clear. Themotive behind the complaint isto scuttle a probe which wouldexpose things fully,” she said.
She, further, informed thatthe commission had acted afterit had received several com-plaints against the ashramsfrom Uttarakhand StateCommission for Women.“Such complaints cannot stopus from visiting more suchhouses where children are liv-ing.
It is our duty to ensure theyare well cared for and theyenjoy the basic facilities of liv-ing,” Negi said and added thatthe officers who keep turningblind eye to the shabby statethings of the ashrams mustexplain their callousness tothe commission.
Negi said that the com-mission would have the chil-dren living in the ashramsshifted either to Bal Niketan orto Nari Niketan in the comingdays. Presently, 39 children-both girls and boys are living inthe Hari Om Ashram while 14girls aged above 10 years areliving in Shiv Om Ashram.
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In view of the State HighCourt ruling for the welfare
of the bovine family living inthe State, MunicipalCorporation of Dehradun(MCD) suspended a supervisorfor his alleged laidback attituderegarding the stray cattle prob-lem. Informing, a senior vet-erinary officer Dr V Sati saidthat MCD is lacking resourcesto rightly tackle the matter. “Weare crippled with resourcecrunch while the volume of ourwork is mounting,” he said.
As per the information
provided by the officials, about119 cattle are being kept nowin the stray cattle shelter basedin Dehradun, the only one inthe city. There are threehydraulic machines, the officerssaid and added that while oneis new, the other two are 10 to12 years old. They, further, saidthat the staff strength there isinadequate for the cattle res-cuing drive. The city needsmore such shelters for the straycattle to ensure that they areproperly taken care of, theysaid.
Dwelling on the problemsthey are facing, the SeniorVeterinary Officer Dr V Satisaid that they lacked resources.“The vehicles we use are veryold. Besides, the staff shortageis coming in the way of the
work we are entrusted with.We need new vehicles. Also weneed separate staff to beengaged in launching rescuingdrives. Those currently work-ing under the supervisors areworking on contractual basis.Crippled with resource andstaff crunch, we neverthelesstry our best to rescue as manystray cattle as possible. Butthings are indeed tough for us,”he said.
He, further, said, “We havetalked to the MCD officers andtold them about the prob-lems we are facing. We hopethat a new shelter for the straycattle would be set up in thecity. It would lessen our bur-den and things would go onsmoothly if it comes up,” headded.
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At a meeting at Dakshin Kalitemple near Chandi Ghat
here on Thursday, the presidentof All India Akhada ParishadNarendra Giri and the head ofDakshin Kali MandirKailashanand Saraswatidemanded the system of reser-vation be scrapped. They alsosuggested that all the Hindus,irrespective of the caste, shoulduse the word ‘Hindu’ in theplace of surnames, adding thatit would unite the Hindusacross the land. They, further,said that the suggestion wouldbe placed for endorsementduring the congregation of thesaints to be held in Allahabadnext month.
Giri said that theGovernment must stopChristian missionary organi-
sations from proselytising andconverting the tribal/rural peo-ple to Christianity. “This is animperative in view of what ishappening in several parts ofthe country, particularly in thenortheast,” he said.
Calling caste-based reser-vation as the principal imped-iment to the emotional inte-gration of the Hindu nation,Giri said that the time has comewhen it must be done awaywith. “At the same time, theHindus should use ‘Hindu’ atthe end of their names by wayof asserting their religious/cul-tural identity,” he said.
The Akhada chief also saidthat the Government shouldtake a serious note of the ram-pant proselytizing activitiesbeing carried out by theChristian missionaries, partic-ularly in the north-eastern
states. “They are converting thetribal people professingHinduism to Christianity withimpunity. This is a dangeroustrend which must be stoppedwith a heavy hand. TheGovernment must step inimmediately,” Giri said.
Kailashanand Brahmchariexpressed the hope that theRam Mandir would be con-structed at Ayodhya before the2019 general election.
They both pitched forscrapping of Article 370 of theConstitution, dubbing it as thechief inspiration for the fissi-parous movement going on inJammu and Kashmir. Theysaid that no state of the IndianUnion is entitled to a specialstatus. The article is the great-est destabilising factor in therestive northern State, theysaid.
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From working in an NGO onhuman trafficking to
becoming the first woman tocultivate a variety of the valu-able Keeda Jadi (cordycepsmilitaris) in the laboratory inUttarakhand, launching herown enterprise, cultivatingmushrooms and training oth-ers, Divya Rawat has come along way. Also known popu-larly as the mushroom girl ofUttarakhand, Divya has notonly set up an enterprise cul-tivating and marketing mush-rooms but also trains peoplefrom across India in mush-room cultivation as a means ofbecoming economically selfreliant which in turn mitigatesthe migration of people fromthe mountainous regions of theState. Talking to The Pioneer,the 26-year old entrepreneurshared details of her journey sofar after returning to Dehradunfrom Delhi after her educationand a brief stint in an NGO.
She said, “After comple-tion of my post graduate
degree in social work, I start-ed to work in an NGO on theissue of human trafficking.At that time, I saw many peo-ple of Dehradun working forvery low wages in Delhi. Thatmade me think of how to stopmigration of people fromUttarakhand to other placeswhere they work for a pittance.However, the viable means tohold the people back in theirhome State was missing. Iresearched for some time andfound mushroom cultivationto be the most viable activityfor income generation.”
Now hundreds of peopleare connected to her throughher company Soumya FoodsPrivate Limited. She not onlytrains people in mushroomcultivation but also buys theirproduce.
When asked about whyshe chose mushroom and howmany people are connected tothis she said, “While research-ing I found out that while mostvegetables sell for about �8-10per kg providing limited prof-it to the producer, mushroomsells in the range of �80 to
�100 per kg and provides agood profit margin. There aremany people into mushroomcultivation now. About 20people work in our laborato-ry and there are hundreds ofother people who are gettingtrained to grow mushrooms.The number of such people isincreasing consistently.”
The annual income ofDivya’s company is in crores ofrupees per annum. Thoseworking under her earbetween �15,000 to �20,000per month and sometimesmore depending on the quan-tity of mushroom yield. Hercompany Soumya FoodsPrivate Limited not only trainspeople but also assists those inneed to start mushroom cul-tivation.
However, her journey hasnot been easy. Talking aboutdifficulties while establishingthe setup she said, “I facedproblem in convincing myparents about my decisionthough they f inallyagreed.They supported me alot and helped me to start thisset up.
The other problem was themindset of people as beingyoung and with ideas not pop-ular at the time in the main-stream of male dominatedworld, some elements in soci-ety try to drag you down. But,I was determined enough andfinally succeeded.”
In the field of mushroomcultivation for about six years,she now cultivates varioustypes of mushrooms includingbutton, oyster and milkymushrooms though the mostexpensive is Keeda Jadi (cordy-ceps militaris). She said,“Keeda Jadi has a global mar-ket due to its various medici-
nal properties. It is valued atabout �15 lakh per kilo-gramme. In Uttrakhand, themarket is slow in comparisonto other States. It requirespatience and investment butthere is always profit. In thefuture, we are planning tostart a chain of our firm in var-ious States with the head-quarters in Uttarakhand. Thiswill help people to contact usfor buying and selling pur-poses too.”
Divya Rawat has beenawarded for her work atnational as well as State levels.The prestigious Nari ShaktiPuruskar was given to her bythe then President of India,Pranab Mukherjee in 2016.The horticulture departmentof Uttarakhand Governmentpresented the Udyan PanditPuraskar to her. Giving a mes-sage to everyone she said, “Iam an example of reversemigration. Earning well athome is better than the otheroptions. The youth nowadaysare more into earning byshortcuts and no one wants toleave his/her comfort zone.
There is scope in every-thing but shortcuts never helpin the long term. With utmostdedication and hard worknothing is impossible. Oneshould work hard to achievethe goal.”
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The festive spirit on theoccasion of Ganesh
Chaturthi now reigning in the
pilgrimage towns of Haridwarand Rishikesh, the rishiku-mars (students) of Veerpur,Parmarth Niketan have madeeco-friendly clay Ganesha idols.
They say that the mud the idolsare made of would be used fortree plantation when the timecomes for their immersion.
Speaking on the occasion,
the head of Parmarth NiketanSwami Chidanand Saraswatisaid, "The body of Ganeshasymbolises that no creatureon earth is big or small. The lit-tle mouse is the vehicle of theLord and Ganesha has an ele-phant trunk. The message is
clear. All creations of Godmust be respected as they are
emanations of God.A young student cited an
instance from the mythologyrelated to Lord Ganesha
according to which when theLord was asked to take a roundof the earth, he took a roundaround his mother and said hehad wandered around theearth. "It signifies the supremestatus a mother enjoys in theHindu scheme of things. Weshould imbibe lessons from it.Respect for parents is thebedrock of our culture which isenduring through ages becauseof the timeless principles it isbased on,” he said.
Meanwhile, a number ofreligious processions weretaken out by the residents of thetwo cities accompanied withdevotional music singing theglory of the Lord Ganeshabefore the idols were installedat the places where the Godwould be worshipped duringthe 11-day period of the festi-val.
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In order to consolidate its sup-port base in time for the 2019
Lok Sabha elections, theBharatiya Janata Party hasplanned to capitalise on thelegacy of the late former PrimeMinister Atal Bihari Vajpayeewhile also propagating theideals of Mahatma Gandhi andSardar Vallabhbhai Patel alongwith holding shows of themovie Chalo Jeete Haininspired by the childhood ofPrime Minister NarendraModi. From poetry recitation
events and medical camps inslums to 150 kilometre longwalks in all assembly con-stituencies, the BJP will under-take various activities includingShaurya Diwas to mark theanniversary of the surgicalstrikes in Pakistan occupiedKashmir in the comingmonths.
The BJP State presidentAjay Bhatt informed aboutthese planned activities whileaddressing the media followingthe meeting of the State-leveloffice bearers of the party hereon Thursday.
Bhatt informed that tomark one month of Vajpayee’sdemise on September 16,Kavyanjali programme will beheld at the Vidhan Sabha andLok Sabha levels whereinpoems by Vajyapee and abouthim will be recited in homageto him. A day later, theKavyanjali Sewa Saptah will belaunched and observed tillSeptember 25-the birthanniversary of DeendayalUpadhyaya.
As part of this programme,medical camps will be held inslums and the residents willalso be informed about theAyushman Bharat Yojana. Afterthe programme, the movieChalo Jeete Hain– inspired bythe PM’s childhood experi-ences-will be screened in var-ious cities and big villagesacross the State. On September29, the party will observeShaurya Diwas to mark theanniversary of the 2016 surgi-cal strikes carried out by theIndian Army on terror launchpads in P0K.
Ex-servicemen and fami-lies of martyrs will be hon-oured, talks will be held andstatues of martyrs will be gar-landed on the occasion. On
October 2, to commemoratethe 150th Gandhi Jayanti, partyworkers will undertake a fort-night long 150 kilometre walkin each Vidhan Sabha con-stituency raising public aware-ness about the works under-taken by the Government tofulfill Gandhi’s vision of GramSwarajya.
Run for Unity will beorganised on October 31 tomark Sardar Patel’s birthanniversary.
Earlier, while addressingparty leaders and State office
bearers, Bhatt said that the BJPState organisation had beenappreciated at the nationallevel. In the coming Lok Sabhaand local body elections, theparty will achieve a resoundingvictory on the strength of itstaintless leadership and works.
BJP joint general secre-tary (organisation) Shivprakashsaid that the party will securea majority in the coming LokSabha polls. The party willhave to clarify the positionstrongly and clearly to counterthe misconceptions being
spread in the public by theCongress and other oppositionparties, he added.
Chief Minister TrivendraSingh Rawat said that the partyhas the capability and leader-ship to reach every person andvoter in the State ahead of theparliamentary polls. While theparty had secured 55 per centvotes in Uttarakhand in theprevious polls, it will aim for 65per cent votes this time. About60 State level office bearers ofthe party were present in themeeting.
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In an attempt to dent the rivalBharatiya Janata Party’s ex-
servicemen bastion, the StateCongress has decided to hold‘Shaheed Naman programmesin different parts of the State.
Informing the media per-sons about the plan, the Stateco in-charge of Congress,Rajesh Dharmani said onThursday that the party lead-ers would visit the houses ofthe martyrs and meet their
family members during theprogramme.
He said that all the seniorleaders of the party would par-ticipate in the programme dur-ing which the problems of thefamilies of the martyrs wouldbe heard out. Lambasting BJPfor paying just lip services forthe martyrs, the Congressleader reminded the saffronparty’s promise of connectingthe houses of the Kargil warmartyrs with metalled road. “Itis yet to be fulfilled,” he said.
Terming BJP as a pack ofliars, Dharmani said thatCongress is determined to callthe saffron bluff. He said thatthe party leaders and workerswould start an extensive cam-
paign from October 2 duringwhich they would remind thepeople of the false and unful-filled promises dished out bythe Prime Minister NarendraModi.
He said that the party hasstarted a drive to make itsorganisation strong andclaimed that the party wouldmake a clean sweep of all thefive Lok Sabha seats up forgrabs in the State.
He said that the newlynominated district presidentsof the party have been asked toform their district units tohelp the party plunge into theelection mode sans glitch. TheCongress leader, further, saidthat the district and block
level committees would beconstituted by September 25.
Emphasising the need tobuild up robust organisation atthe booth levels, Dharmaniadded that senior party lead-ers should work in coordina-tion to strengthen the party.
Accepting the role of socialmedia in campaigning, he saidthat the party believes in pos-itive things and would notfollow the saffron brigade’smalicious mode of campaign-ing.
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The cracking of whip by Chief Minister TSR in the NH-74 scamwhich resulted in unprecedented suspension of two officers
of elite IAS cadre-Pankaj Kumar Pandey and Chandresh Yadav--has silenced his detractors both within and outside the party.The move came at a time when hackles were being raised with-in the State saffron roost over the lacklustre performance of theGovernment with the attack being trained on the CM. It was clearthat the detractors were being incited by a redoubtable leader-an MP-to go berserk against the CM. Now, the table has beenturned on them as the TRS-helmed Government dared to takeon the mighty IAS lobby through suspension of two senior Babus.The loyalists flaunt the move to buttress the point that CM’s ‘zerotolerance on corruption’ rhetoric is real and not flippancy. Thecrux is that the carping critics are silenced for the time being.
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Unprecedented action against two Babus has shaken theBabudom here out of its wits. Dark clouds are now hang-
ing over the Babudom in the aftermath of the ignominy of sus-pension of the duo. This despite the Babu lobby having tried toarm-twist the CM with telltale threats. However, the punitiveaction on the crème de la crème of the Babus has elated thoselying along the bottom of the bureaucracy. The same is true ofthe promotee IAS officers. The Chote Babus always have a grudgelurking in their minds about the pompous air the higher-upsassume. The suspension and subsequent arrest of sevenProvincial Civil Service (PCS) officers in the same scam as con-trasted with the Government’s connivance with the Bade Babuskept on festering in the mind of the less fortunate members ofthe elite cadre. Now, the group of Chote Babus is happy. Theyare waiting for more while enjoying the impotent rage of the BadeBabus.
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Drunkenness is nothing but voluntary madness’ goes an oldsaying but one can be sure that there is no madness but a
definite method in the State Cabinet’s decision to reduce the annu-al license fee of the Bar of Uttaranchal Press Club. In a gestureto keep the friends of media fraternity in good humour, the cab-inet decided to reduce the license fees for the Bar from existing�3 lakh to �1.5 lakh. With crucial elections of Lok Sabha slatednext year, it remains to be seen whether the journalists wouldreturn the favour bestowed on their press club or convenientlyforget the largesse.
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Earlier, while talking to the media, Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat said that all intrud-ers in Uttarakhand, whether Bangladeshi or Rohingya will be identified and removed. He
also cited the strategic importance of Uttarakhand. Regarding the National Highway 74 scam,he said that investigation is underway in the scam. A fair probe will be conducted against thosesuspected of being behind the scam, irrespective of their standing as the State is not pursuinga pick and choose policy. About the reported incursions by the Chinese Army in the Barahotiarea of Chamoli district, the CM said that no official information regarding this had been receivedyet. Stating that this is a matter under the purview of the Central Government, he added thatthe security forces and the State are alert.
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Dehradun:Virtually accept-ing that there are differencesamong the top leaders of theState party, the Congress coin-charge of UttarakhandRajesh Dharmani made itclear to all that picture of for-mer Chief Minister HarishRawat should find a place inthe banners of the party.
Pointing to the bannerpasted behind him havingpictures of the State partychief Pritam Singh and IndiraHridayesh, Dharmani saidthat picture of Harish Rawatshould also be there. He saidthat a party would form coor-dination committees at thedistrict and the State levels forbetter functioning of the partyin the State.
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The Special Tiger ProtectionForce (STPF) has become
active in Corbett tiger reserve.Conducting patrolling in thetiger reserve, about 80 person-nel comprising the force alsoidentified suspicious aspectsthey came across. The officialsinformed that the STPF willfocus especially on the Corbettborder with Uttar Pradeshwhich is about 100 kilometreslong.
The STPF teams will patrolabout 10 to 15 kilometre area ineach range of Corbett every day.The STPF team is equipped withtwo drones, two metal detectors,three sniffer dogs, .315 borerifles, Government issue andlicensed revolvers and otherequipment. Official sources statethat the force has been accord-ed special training for its tasks.
The force will especially
guard the 100 kilometre south-ern boundary of Corbett. Teamsof the STPF personnel willpatrol about 10 to 15 kilometreseach in various ranges of Corbetton a daily basis.
In addition to this, theteams will also be involved inraids conducted outside in coor-dination with the SpecialOperation Group (SOG). The 80personnel in the STPF havebeen divided in to variousteams.The teams will patrolDhela, Bijrani, Jhirna, Kalagarhand other areas of Corbett. Aspecial team has also beenformed to conduct raids alongwith the SOG, informed offi-cials.
It will be recalled that whilehearing on a public interest lit-igation during August, the HighCourt had asked the StateGovernment as to when theSTPF would start functioningeffectively.
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The dengue threat continu-ing to loom over Dehradun
and its nearby areas, 20 newcases of the disease have beenreported by the district healthauthorities of Dehradun. TheChief Medical Officer (CMO)of Dehradun, Dr S K Guptasaid that none of the casesfound positive in the EnzymeLinked Immunosorbent Assay(ELISA) test are fromDehradun city. He said thatseven cases of the disease havebeen reported from Rishikeshtown of the district and the rest13 cases are from Haridwar andTehri Garhwal districts. Withseven new cases on the day, thenumber of dengue cases inDehradun district this season
has mounted to 20. The denguehas, however, taken a form ofoutbreak in Rishikesh andadjoining Chauda Bigha areafalling in Tehri district.
The district vector-bornediseases officer Subhash Joshisaid that the people shouldensure that the breeding placesof mosquitoes inside theirhouses and their vicinity aredestroyed. He said that Aedesmosquitoes-the vector ofdengue- are capable to laytheir eggs in one spoonful ofwater so the pots, vases, waterbottles and coolers must bedecanted. The officer addedthat the Aedes mosquito bitesduring day time and, thus, it isadvisable that everyone shouldwear full sleeve clothes toreduce exposure of their bodyfor the mosquito to bite.
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The Pacific Asia TravelAssociation (PATA) Travel
Mart will be organised inRishikesh during February2019. The UttarakhandTourism and Culture MinisterSatpal Maharaj formallyannounced this while briefingthe media at the PATA TravelMart at Langkawi in Malaysia.The formal announcement wasmade in the presence of PATAchief executive officer MarioHardy.
During the programme,the Uttarakhand TourismMinister also met theMalaysian Deputy PrimeMinister Wan Azizah WanIsmail. Maharaj also invitedtravel and tour operators fromvarious countries to visitUttarakhand for the Investors’Summit 2018 in October andthe PATA Travel Mart to beheld in February next year.
Addressing the investors,travel and tourism industryrepresentatives at the mediabriefing, Maharaj spoke aboutthe pristine natural beauty ofUttarakhand along with theconsiderable scope for reli-gious and adventure tourism.
He also invited them to investin other spheres like hospital-ity, ropeways and wellness.Addressing the media, he saidthat Uttarakhand has all that isneeded for tourism.
He also informed about theChar Dham Yatra, homestays,international Yoga festival, raft-ing and paragliding.
During his visit toMalaysia, the Minister alsomet a number of investors andinvited them to the Investors’
Summit to be held at Dehradunin October this year. Maharajis heading a four-member del-egation representingUttarakhand in the PATATravel Mart programme atLangkawi.
The focus of his visit is toinvite investors especially fromSouth East Asia to theInvestors’ Summit this yearand PATA Travel Mart pro-gramme next year in the State.
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The process to replace oldCT scan machine in the
Government Doon MedicalCollege (GDMC) has started.The principal of GDMC, DrPradeep Bharati Gupta saidthat tenders for purchase ofnew CT scan machine hadbeen floated recently. He saidthat four companies haveshown interest to install themachine in the medical collegehospital.
In the pre-bid meetingheld on Thursday, the repre-sentatives of Philips, Siemens,Toshiba and WIPRO partici-pated. The principal, further,said that the new machinewould be much improvedfrom the present one and thepatients would be benefitedfrom it.
The existing CT scanmachine GDMC hospital hasbecome obsolete due to whichit has become prone to con-stant breakdowns. The hospi-tal authorities inform that themachine is designed to con-duct only 4.5 lakh scans but
more than 12 scans have beendone on it till date.
The machine was installedin the erstwhile Doon hospi-tal in the year 2004. The man-ufacturer of the machine‘Siemens International’ alsoholds the maintenance con-tract of the machine.
The hospital authoritieshave now floated tenders topurchase an ultra modern 128slice CT scan machine. Theteam of the Medical Council ofIndia (MCI) in its visit to thehospital had also pointed thatthe CT scan machine of thehospital is old and do not con-fers to the norms prescribedfor a medical college.
The repeated disruption inthe CT scan machine ensureswindfall for the private centers
These private centrescharge �4000- 5000 for CTscan while in Doon hospitalthe fee is only �1500.Moreover the hospital con-ducts free CT for the BPLpatients and those coveredunder the MukjyamtriSwasthya Bima Yojna (MSBY).
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Chief Minister TrivendraSingh Rawat reiterated the
commitment of hisGovernment to develop indus-trial infrastructure inUttarakhand during his recentmeeting with the representa-tives of Kumaon-GarhwalChamber of Commerce andIndustries ( KGCCI) and theSIIDCUL Worker WelfareAssociation.
In the meeting, the CMinformed that the Governmenthas appointed 32 doctorsrecently to provide health facil-ities to the workers and theirfamilies in the industrial areas
of Udham Singh Nagar district.On the suggestion to make
rent and transfer process ofindustrial plots simple andduty free, the CM directed theofficials present there to lookinto the matter.
He invited suggestionsfrom the industrial represen-tatives in connection with theclosure of the VAT arrearsfrom the year 1988 till financialyear 2016-17. The CM alsoinstructed the officials to exam-ine the suggestion to removerice from the schedule ofMandi committee. He assuredthat a proposal for amendmentin 10 percent increase in feeunder the Factory Act everyyear would be brought in theCabinet.
The meeting was attendedamong others by the ChiefSecretary Utpal Kumar Singh,principal secretary ManishaPanwar and members of theKGCCI and SIIDCUL WorkerWelfare Association.
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The Manohar Lal KhattarGovernment in Haryana
will soon constitute FaridabadMetro Development Authority(FMDA) on the pattern ofGurugram Metro DevelopmentAuthority (GMDA) to providebasic infrastructure facilities tothe people residing inFaridabad.
Addressing a news con-ference here to highlightachievements and future plansof Town & Country PlanningDepartment here, ChiefMinister Manohar Lal saidthat since Faridabad is the sec-ond largest city of the stateafter Gurugram, it has beendecided to constitute FMDAto make available all infra-structure facilities to the peo-ple and also address their
problems.The State Government had
constituted the GMDA onAugust 12, 2017 thus fulfilledthe long pending demand ofthe people, he said.
He also announced that thegovernment has allowed theconstruction of four-storey res-idential buildings in the state,the registration of which will beopened from September 13onward.
He said that HaryanaBuilding Code – 2017 has beenframed in order to removevariations and bring uniformi-ty in building bye-laws adopt-ed by different developmentagencies.
The Chief Minister alsoannounced to constitute anAppellate Tribunal to hear thecomplaints of allottees againstthe decision of Haryana Real
Estate Regulatory Authority(HRERA). The office of theAppellate Tribunal would be set
up at Karnal, he said.He said that the State
Government has set up
Haryana Real Estate RegulatoryAuthority (HRERA) to redressthe grievances of allotees.
Though geographically,Haryana is comparatively asmall state, we have set up twoseparate Authorities- one atGurugram to exclusively dealwith the cases of Gurugramand the second one atPanchkula to deal with thecases of rest of Haryana,Manohar Lal said.
The Chief Minister saidthat HRERA has so far received842 complaints out of which209 complaints have alreadybeen disposed off. Remainingcomplaints would also beredressed soon, he asserted.
He further said that with aview to inject transparency inthe allotment of sites for petrolpumps and CNG filling sta-tions, the Haryana
Government has decided toallot such sites through auctionprocess.
The petrol pumps andCNG filling stations sites wouldbe allotted only to the petrole-um companies on lease. Theallotment of the sites wouldstart from next month and thepetroleum company offeringhighest bid money would beallotted the sites, he added.
Apart from this, heannounced that the HaryanaShehari Vikas Pradhikaran(HSVP) plans to float nine sec-tors including a defence sectorexclusively for defence per-sonnel in the state during thecurrent financial year.
This would be in threesectors in Mahendergarh (sec-
tor-9A, 10, 11-Part) and oneeach in Bhiwani (23 Part-II),Yamuna Nagar (sector-24),Dabwali (sector-10), Taoru(sector-7) and Pinjore (sector-27). Apart from this, a defencesector exclusively for defencepersonnel is likely to be float-ed at Jhajjar, he said.
He informed that theHSVP has a plan to float 30,470plots in 47 residential sectorsacross the state and a schedulein this regard will be issuedsoon. At present, 9500 acre landvaluing Rs 18,000 crore is avail-able with the HSVP, he saidwhile answering a query.
The Chief Minister alsoannounced to rename themetro stations falling inHaryana segment on
Bahadurgarh to MundkaMetro line and metro stationson the Mujesar (YMCAChowk) to Ballabhgarh metrocorridor.
Among the stations fallingin Haryana segment onBahadurgarh to MundkaMetro line, the MIE MetroStation has been renamed asPandit Shree Ram SharmaMetro Station, Bus StandMetro Station as BahadurgarhCity Metro Station and CityPark Metro Station as Brig.Hoshiar Singh Metro Station.
Similarly, NCB ColonyMetro Station has beenrenamed as Sant Surdas (Sihi)Metro Station and BallabhgarhMetro Station as Raja NaharSingh Metro Station.
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Taking umbrage at the rejec-tion of Punjab police’s pro-
posal to purchase newarmoured luxury Sedan for theformer Punjab Chief MinisterParkash Singh Badal and SADpresident Sukhbir Badal, theShiromani Akali Dal (SAD) onThursday lambasted PunjabGovernment, especially theFinance Minister ManpreetBadal , for “compromising” the security of senior Punjableaders.
“The security cover is pro-vided in consideration of threatperception to individuals andManpreet has vetoed the pro-posal caring too hoots for thesecurity concerns,” said SADspokesman Mahesh InderSingh Grewal.
He accused Manpreet of“playing petty politics” with thelives of those who had dedi-cated every bit of their life forthe state and also happen to behis mentor and blood relations.
Notably, Punjab police hadmooted the proposal to replaceageing Toyota Land Cruiser inthe security fleet of Badal andSukhbir. Besides, the policealso sought new bullet proofvehicles for former ministerBikram Singh Majithia as thesevehicles had outlived theirutility and can no more beused for sensitive securityoperations.
“Throwing all security
concerns to winds, Manpreetrejected the proposal on theground of that Badals andMajithias are the richest peo-ple and can afford bullet proofvehicles and should notdepend on the StateGovernment. Besides,Manpreet argued that the stateis in bad fiscal health and is onausterity drive,” pointedGrewal.
Lambasting Manpreet’s“preposterous and fallacious”argument, Grewal said thatsome Congress men have beenprovided Z-category for gen-erations keeping in view oftheir security perception andSAD or its government neverquestioned the spending ontheir security.
Moreover, Grewal pointedout that if the economic pros-perity of an individual is guid-ing principle for deployingsecurity to threatened person-alities, then Chief MinisterCapt Amarinder Singh orManpreet himself too arestinking rich and shouldimmediately make their per-sonal security arrangements.
“But Ironically, Manpreethimself had sanctioned fundslast year to upgrade the fleet ofAmarinder Singh comprisingRange Rover, Innovas andGypsies...Strangely, when thiswas pointed to Manpreet, hehad sheepish acknowledgedsaying that only CM’s fleet wasupgraded,” said Grewal.
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Moga Additional DeputyCommissioner’s com-
plaint to the Punjab StateElection Commissionerregarding three CongressMLAs threatening him hascreated a storm in the statepolit ical circles aheadSeptember 19 elections toPanchayati Raj Institutions.
All along alleging “misuseof office machinery” by theCongress, both the AamAadmi Party (AAP) and theShiromani Akali Dal (SAD)have trained their guns on theruling party. They havedemanded registration ofcases against three Congresslegislators for threateningMoga ADC Jagwinder SinghGrewal and for obstructing agovernment official from per-forming his legitimate officialduties.
Grewal has alleged thatdistrict’s three Congress MLAs— Dr Harjot Kamal of Moga,Darshan Singh Brar ofBaghapurana, and KakaSukhjit Singh Lohgarh ofDharamkot — had threat-ened him for “not rejectingthe nomination papers ofsome candidates of the oppo-sition parties”.
He had also alleged thatduring the scrutiny of thenomination papers, the MLAshad stormed into his officealong with hundreds of theirsupporters, due to which hehad to run away from there tosave his life.
Grewal also alleged thatsenior Youth Congress leaderKamaljit Singh Brar alsostopped his vehicle on the way
to office and threatened him.The ADC had submitted
a formal complaint with thepoll panel, which had alsoenhanced his security.
Taking serious note, SADspokesman and former min-ister Daljit Singh Cheema saidthat the developments amplyvindicated SAD’s accusation oflarge scale rejection of itsnominees across the state.
“What is revealed is justtip of iceberg. This has hap-pened all over the state andthe Congress MLAs and otherleaders had persuaded, cajoledand threatened the officials toobey their dictates to reject thepotential winning candidatesin their areas. In fact, major-ity of officials submitted todictates while a few did resistand at least one Grewal daredto expose the nefariousdesigns of the Congress,” saidCheema.
He said that the party hadalready provided details of 249aspirants whose nominationwere wrongly rejected by thereturning officers without anyrhyme or reason at behest ofCongressmen bossing aroundwho have reduced the pollprocess to a mere mockery.
Cheema said that not onlythe poll process has been viti-ated but the incident is reflec-tive of failure of the law and
order machinery. “If thereturning officers are vulner-able to the threats from rulingparty’s goons, how can oneexpect free and fair electionsin the state,” he asked.
Urging the SEC to probethe incident immediately andtake prompt actions againstdefaulting legislators and tillthen order to extern themfrom the state till completionof poll process. This wouldprove deterrent and re-estab-lish the credibility of theCommission which has beenseriously eroded followingarbitrary large scale nomina-tions.
Meanwhile, AAP’s stateco-president Dr Balbir Singhand the Leader of Oppositionin Vidhan Sabha Harpal SinghCheema have also demandedregistration of case againstCongress legislators and theleaders who threaten theADC.
Besides, AAP alsodemanded videography of theentire polling process acrossthe state besides deploymentof central security forces at allsensitive polling booths.
They also condemned thethreatening and intimidatingof ADC for forcefully can-celling the nominations ofAAP and independent candi-dates.
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Pitching for green, eco-friendly, energy efficient
and earthquake resistantbuildings, Haryana ChiefMinister Manohar Lal onThursday called for adoptingultra-modern technologies likeprefab structures, rainwaterharvesting, green roof top,solar energy to create suchinfrastructure in the country.
The Chief Minister wasaddressing the delegates afterinaugurating two-day ‘6th AllIndia Police HousingConference’ being organizedby Haryana Police HousingCorporation (HPHC) in asso-ciation with Bureau of PoliceResearch and Development(BPR&D), New Delhi inPanchkula near here.
HPHC has, for the firsttime, hosted a national con-ference which was attended byHeads of State Police HousingCorporations, Engineers,Architects, technical and otherexperts.
Manohar Lal, whileaddressing the delegates saidthat land is limited thus wealso need to go towards theconcept of high rise buildingsto provide modern low costquality infrastructure to allincluding police personnel.The eminence deliberations onvarious technical and otheraspects in today’s conferencewould go a long way relatingto create such infrastructure inthe country, he said.
The Chief Minister saidthat State Government is fullycommitted to make Haryana
police as country’s leadingpolice force. All kind of finan-cial assistance and otherresources would be providedto the State Police in thisdirection.
Assistance of Rs 550 crorethrough HUDCO has beensanctioned for construction ofabout 3000 houses for policepersonnel, he added.
Apart from implementa-tion of uniform building code,a provision of e-auction ofcommercial sites, subsidy onsolar system and approval ofbuilding plan within five-dayshad been made. In addition,water harvesting system hasbeen made mandatory in largesize plots of Haryana ShahriVikas Pradhikaran, the ChiefMinister said.
Describing police as the
face of the government,Manohar Lal said that theirperformance depicts thebehavior and working style ofany organization.
He said that a number ofdecisions have been taken tosupport and encourage policepersonnel to deliver bettersuch as a weekly off, openingof 29 women police stations,enhancement of ex-gratiafrom Rs10 lakh to Rs30 lakh.Besides, transparent recruit-ment process had been adopt-ed in police recruitment.About 4500 constables havealready been recruited where-as process had been initiatedto recruit 5000 more, headded.
Director General of Police,BS Sandhu said that HPHChas been working to provide a
better living and working con-ditions to the members ofpolice force.
Recalling his five yearstenure in HPHC, he said thatthe Corporation has spentRs1600 crore during last sixyears whereas merely Rs 800crore were spent from year1990 to 2012. The presentgovernment has provided Rs550 crore to the corporation toundertake construction works.
An ultra-modern officebuilding of Commissioner ofPolice had been built with Rs35 crore in Gurugram. We areproviding all kinds of facilitiesin new police lines. Also, 22Police Public Schools havebeen opened in all police lineswhere about 16000 studentsare getting quality education,he added.
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Punjab Power MinisterGurpreet Singh Kangar
on Thursday issued direc-tions to the State power util-ity, Punjab State power cor-poration Limited (PSPCL) toexpedite the proceedings ofdisciplinary cases to bringthe guilty to the book.
At the same time, theMinister has directed to handover the punishment to thoseguilty commensurate withseverity of misconduct andirregularities. That was not all,he has also asked the PSPCLauthorities to follow up withthe police authorities at thehighest level to get FIRs reg-istered in pending cases andaccelerate investigation inFIRs already registered toexpose culprits and their mis-deeds to take the matter to itslogical conclusion.
The directions wereissued in the wake of a latestmulti-crore fraud in thepower utility, that was report-ed recently, involving anamount of Rs 5.32 crores,against Rs 250 crores asreported in the press, out ofwhich Rs 3.65 crores standrecovered.
The reports stated thatPSPCL suffers a loss of Rs 250crore for meter tempering, inpast five years in differentcities.
Taking note, the Ministersought a report into the mat-ter, according to which, cer-
tain unscrupulous officials ofsub-divisions at Patiala,Malerkotla, Nabha, Sangrur,Barnala and Ludhiana, inconnivance with some con-sumers, made reversal entriesin the billing account in thecomputerized billing system.
The Minister said thatPSPCL has been invariablyvigorously following up anycase of fraud that comes tolight and invariably police isasked to register FIR and inaddition departmental pro-ceedings are initiated againsterrant officials, along with allout efforts to recover theamount of loss.
“The case of bill reversalof West, Model Town divisionPatiala surfaced in 2016 andbased on preliminary inquiry,PSPCL suspended nine offi-cials including one SDOfound to be prima facieinvolved. Moreover, CE(South Zone) wrote to Policeauthorities on September 12,2016, to register an FIR andalso ask IT wing of PunjabPolice to conduct thoroughprobe in all SAP towns,” hesaid.
He pointed that the mat-ter was initially investigated byPunjab Police’s Cyber CrimeCell and the same had finallyregistered FIR on July 19,2017 against delinquent offi-cers or officials.
He said that a total of Rs532.37 lakhs fraud was com-mitted at eight offices, out ofwhich an amount of Rs 364.66
lakhs has been recovered tilldate.
“Full recoveries have beenmade for frauds committed atWest Division, Patiala,Sherpur 1 Sub Division andSunder Nagar 1&2, Ludhiana,and an amount of Rs threecrore against total amount ofRs 3.72 crore has already beenrecovered at Sahnewal SubDivision, Ludhiana,” he said.
PSPCL chairman-cum-managing director BaldevSingh Sran said that some ofthe possible reasons of fraudsor irregularities in SAP havebeen highlighted by investi-gation agencies.
“Special audit of all rever-sal entries is being carried out.As follow up, instructionshave been circulated to stopsingle step alteration of entryor transaction in SAP system,certain transfer codes havebeen disabled; and like banks,two-stage customer relation-ship management (CRM)process has been implement-ed in which cashier on dailybasis will initiate reversalprocess and concernedRA/SDO will approve,” hesaid.
Sran said that for reversalof any debit entry, RA will ini-tiate reversal process and con-cerned SDO will approve.Moreover, on transfer, officersor officials have to forgo theright of access to domain thatwas under their charge andacquire new rights as pertheir new posting, he said.
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Just about three days beforethe expiry of deadline set up
by Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)leader HS Phoolka for step-ping down as an MLA in casethe former Chief MinisterParkash Singh Badal was not
booked in sacrilege and relat-ed firing cases, the advocate-turned-politician on Thursdayrefused to go ahead with hisdecision.
Phoolka adjourned thedecision making process tillSeptember 20 when the peti-tion filed in the sacrilege mat-ter by Punjab’s three former
cops, seeking quashing ofJustice Ranjit SinghCommission, would be takenup for the next hearing by thePunjab and Haryana HighCourt.
High Court on Thursdaystayed further proceedingsagainst the former SeniorSuperintendents of PoliceCharanjit Singh and RaghbirSingh Sandhu, along with thethen Station House Officer ofBajakhana police stationAmarjit Singh “in pursuanceof recommendations made byJustice Ranjit SinghCommission”.
Using the High Court caseas a ground for not goingahead with his decision, AAPMLA Phoolka said that noth-ing much could be done bythe Government now as thecase is now under the judicialscanner.
At the same time, Phoolka
used the development tooagain launch an attack on thegovernment. He said that thecase was not defended prop-erly by the governmentlawyers.
Phoolka’s assertions comesat a time when the High Courthas given the state of Punjabtime till September 20 torespond to the legal issuesraised in the petition filed bytwo former SSPs and an ex-SHO.
After the Justice RanjitSingh Commission report intoall the sacrilege cases andrelated firing incidents wastabled in Punjab Vidhan Sabhaand thoroughly discussed,Phoolka demanded registra-tion of cases against Badal andthe then Director General ofPolice (DGP) Sumedh SinghSaini for allegedly ordering fir-ing on peaceful protesters thatkilled two.
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Haryana Chief MinisterManohar Lal on
Thursday said that the StateGovernment has not renewedthe licence for a commercialcolony on the controversialland, sold by Robert Vadraowned Skylight Hospitalityto DLF.
Responding to a ques-tion on the issue, the ChiefMinister said that as thelicense of Skylight HospitalityCompany has not beenrenewed, it deems to havelapsed.
The Chief Minister wastalking to the mediapersonshere. Recently, Haryana Policehad booked UPA chairpersonSonia Gandhi's son-in-lawRobert Vadra and former stateChief Minister BhupinderSingh Hooda for alleged irreg-ularities over the controversialland deal in Gurugram.
According to the FIR,Robert Vadra's firm SkylightHospitality Pvt Ltd purchased3.5 acre of land in Gurugram'sSector 83 from OnkareshwarProperties for Rs 7.50 crore in2008, when Hooda was theChief Minister and also heldthe portfolio of the Town andCounty PlanningDepartment.
Later, Skylight Hospitalitysold this land to DLF at a priceof Rs 58 crore, after procuringa commercial licence for thedevelopment of the colonywith the influence of Hooda.
Taking a dig at theCongress over registration ofcases in land scams in thestate, Manohar Lal said thatthe present State Governmenthas taken effective steps forkeeping a check on corruption
in change of land use (CLU)cases which was prevailing inthe previous government.
“The State Governmenthas prepared a new Policy onNovember 10, 2017 underwhich applications are invit-ed from the applicants andlicense and CLU is giventhrough open auction andtoo in limited numbers,” hesaid.
He said that there wasrampant corruption inissuance of CLU during theprevious government.
The previous ChiefMinister had taken away allthe powers to issue CLU andlicense of colonies which werevested with Director, Townand Country PlanningDepartment. But we have notonly scrapped such ordersbut also given back the pow-ers to the Director Town andCountry Planning,” he said.
On being asked about thenon-payment of pending duesby Kingdom of Dreams(KoD,) Gurugram, the ChiefMinister said that notice hasbeen issued to the KoD for thepayment of earlier dues. "Wehave given time to KoD andif it still fails to make the out-standing payment, actionwould be taken accordingly,he said.
About recovery ofExternal DevelopmentCharges (EDC), he said thatmore than Rs 13000 cr waspending when we came topower in 2014. Till now, wehave recovered around Rs6512 crore and also framing apolicy to recover the rest ofEDC, he said.
Replying to a questionrelated to pending land com-pensation or liabilities related
to farmers, Manohar Lal saidthat in 2014, around Rs 20500cr was pending with aroundRs 10000 cr enhancementamount. We have given theentire compensation and nowenhancement amount ispending which has nowincreased to over RS 14000 cr,he added.
On CM’s announcementsrelated to the Department, hesaid that 73 announcementswere made out of which 39have been implemented andrest are in process.
When asked whetherdecision related to policychanges in HUDA are taken atcabinet level, the ChiefMinister said that HUDA is anautonomous body with aBoard chaired by me. There isno need to take cabinetapproval in decisions relatedto policies, he added.
On the issue of develop-ment of unauthorised coloniesand make available affordableplots to people, he said thatthe government would grantlicenses for construction ofaffordable houses on 5 to 15acres of land under DeepDayal Jan Awas Yojana.
The Chief Minister saidthat 1,534 licenses were grant-ed in the tenure of previousgovernment, of which maxi-mum were granted after 2002.However, the present StateGovernment has, during lastfour years, given 175 licens-es including 107 licenses forcolonies falling under DeenDayal Jan Awas Yojana and 68other licenses, he added.
In reply to a questionrelated to KMP Expressway,the Chief Minister said that aseparate authority will be con-stituted for it.
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Prime Minister NarendraModi on Thursday exhort-
ed party workers to follow themantra of 'Mera Booth SabseMazboot' to ensure victory inthe next general elections.
Addressing party workersof five Lok Sabha constituenciesvia the NaMo app, Modi saidthe BJP's biggest strength is itsworkers. Their hard work hasensured the party's historicsuccess and progress in a shortspan of four years, he main-tained adding the party's suc-cess was due to its workers andtheir grip over their respectivepolling booths.
Modi also asserted thatthe wind is blowing in the BJP'sfavour and Opposition partiesare clutching at each to with-stand its force.
"Mera Booth SabseMazboot (my polling booth, thestrongest)...This is the onlymantra and this is our strength,"he said in the video interaction.
Replying to a question onOpposition parties stitchingan alliance for the 2019 polls,Modi assured the party work-ers that the BJP will win again."... The wind is blowing infavour of BJP, even strongerthan 2014. That's why
Opposition parties are clutch-ing each other's hands to savethemselves from being blownaway," he said.
The Prime Minister alsourged party workers to con-tinuously interact with voters oftheir respective constituenciesand ensure that at least 20 fam-ilies and youth are workingwith the party in every pollingbooth.
He was addressing workersfrom Jaipur (Rural), Nawada,Ghaziabad, Hazaribagh andArunachal West.
Modi, who was nominatedthe BJP's prime ministerialcandidate this day in 2013, saidonly in the BJP can an ordinary
party worker can become itsleader. He also asserted thatsomeone else can also take hisplace tomorrow.
Lashing out at theCongress, the Prime Ministersaid it is, unlike the BJP, a onefamily party. He said he felt pityfor dedicated workers of theOpposition party.
"Many capable and com-mitted workers of the Congresswere sacrificed for interests ofthe family," he said. TheOpposition is resorting to liesin its campaign but today peo-ple in the country are awakewhile opposition is not ready tocome out of its slumber, thePrime Minister said.
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Intensifying its attack on the ModiGovernment over the Rafale deal, the
Congress on Thursday accused DefenceMinister Nirmala Sitharaman of "lying" again"about the number of the France-built jets anddemanded her and Prime Minister NarendraModi to submit to a Joint ParliamentaryCommittee (JPC) probe.
"Defence Minister is caught lying again onthe number of fighter aircraft required byIndian Air Force (IAF)," Congress spokesper-son Randeep Singh Surjewala told the media."Her claim that IAF does not have the infra-structure like parking place, maintenancefacility to fly 126 fighter aircraft is preposter-ous and goes against the grain of national secu-rity requirements," he said.
He said Modi's decision to "arbitrarily"reduce requirement of 126 fighter aircraft to36 was "unexplainable".
His remarks were in reference toSitharaman's interview to a national dailywherein she has said that the "Governmentchose to procure only 36 Rafale fighter aircraftfrom France in 2015, instead of the 126 beingnegotiated by the previous Government, asinfrastructure and other technical require-ments of the IAF do not allow greater induc-tion".
Dismissing Sitharaman's argument as"obnoxious" the Congress leader asked: "Canthe government and IAF not create parkingspace/maintenance facility in 6-8 years peri-od during which the aircraft will be delivered?
"Can creation of parking space/mainte-nance facility be a ground for compromisingair superiority and national security?"
Surjewala also held Sitharaman "guilty" ofnot disclosing the fact that mandatory 'FastTrack Procedure' for affecting 'emergency pur-
chase' was never followed by Modi at the timeof announcement of purchase of 36 Rafale on10th April, 2015".
"She has also failed to point out that nosuch 'emergency purchase' was approvedeither by the then Defence Minister ManoharParrikar or Cabinet Committee on Security.How does she now explain the fact that despitethe 'emergency purchase' in April 2015, aircraftwill not be delivered up to the year 2022 andthat also without 'India specific enhance-ments'," said the Congress leader.
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The apex consumer com-mission has directed the
Indian postal service to pay�24.8 lakh to two brotherstowards the maturity value ofthe small-savings scheme cer-tificates bought for them bytheir late father but were lost.
In two separate but com-mon orders, the NationalConsumer Dispute RedressalCommission (NCDRC) saidthat since there were noclaimants for the amount, thepost office could not haveappropriated the entire amountforever due to non-submissionof the certificates.
NCDRC rejected theappeal of the post office againstthe decisions of the OdishaState Consumer DisputeRedressal Commission and adistrict forum which haddirected payment of theamounts to the two brothers —Jambu Kumar Jain andChhagan Lal Jain, sons of LateRama Chandra Jain.
The postal department wasnot paying the maturity valuewithout submission of the cer-tificates.According to the
brothers' plea in the State com-mission and the district forum,their father had purchased 692Indira Vikas Patras (IVP) in thename of his sons, daughtersand others from the Head PostOffice, Bolangir.
Out of the 692, 88 IVPswere in favour of Jambu Kumarwhereas 160 were in favour ofChhagan Lal, the plea had saidand added that all of the 692IVPs were lost and it wasreported to the local police sta-tion in June, 2001.
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The Supreme Court on Thursday dis-missed a petition seeking a direction to
the Centre not to proceed with the recom-mendation of the apex court Collegium onthe appointment of a lawyer as a judge ofthe Allahabad High Court.
A bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misraand Justice D Y Chandrachud said there was"no merit" in the plea which was also "notjusticiable".
"The Collegium has submitted its rec-ommendation. It is a constitutional process.In the midst of a constitutional process, thispetition is not maintainable," the bench toldadvocate Asok Pande, who has filed theplea.
When Pande claimed that there wereallegations against the lawyer whose namehas been recommended by the Collegiumand an FIR was also lodged against him andsome others, the bench said "you have saidin your petition that the FIR has beenquashed".
"There is no merit in the petition. It isnot justiciable," the bench said while dis-missing the plea.
The petitioner had sought a directionto the Union Ministry of Law not to pro-ceed to appoint the lawyer as a judge of theAllahabad High Court in compliance of theCollegium's recommendation last month.
He had also sought quashing of the rec-ommendation besides a probe by either theCBI or a special investigation team (SIT)
into the FIR lodged at Allahabad under var-ious sections of the Indian Penal Code,including cheating and forgery.
He alleged in the plea that between 2002to 2007, an agricultural institute had filed24 writ petitions before the Allahabad HighCourt and five pleas before the apex courtin the name of dead and non-existent per-sons.
The plea claimed that the high courthad ordered its registrar to lodge an FIR inthe case in which the lawyer, whose namehas been recommended by the Collegium,was also named. It alleged that before theFIR was lodged, the lawyer's name was rec-ommended for appointment as judge in thehigh court but it was not processed later.
The petition said that the lawyer hadfiled a plea in the high court seeking quash-ing of the FIR against him, which wasallowed by the court.
After quashing of the FIR against him,the apex court Collegium recommended hisname for appointment as a judge in the highcourt on the ground that the state of UttarPradesh has not challenged the orderquashing lodging of the case, the plea hasclaimed.
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The Centre on Thursday saidit did not deny permission
to West Bengal Chief MinisterMamata Banerjee to visitChicago on the 125th anniver-sary of Swami Vivekananda'shistoric speech.
"We did not receive anyrequest for clarification regard-ing the visit of MamataBanerjee to Chicago for anyevent. Reports about the denialof permission are, therefore, nottrue," External Affairs MinistrySpokesman Raveesh Kumarsaid in response to mediaqueries.
Banerjee had on Tuesdayalleged that "evil forces" threat-ened the Ramakrishna Mission,forcing it to cancel her trip toChicago.
"I think some evil forceshad hatched a conspiracy. Theydid not want RamakrishnaMission to organise the pro-gramme there. They also did-n't want us, people of Bengal, toattend it. It pained me and sad-dened me a lot," Banerjee saidwhile speaking at theRamakrishna Mission's global
headquarters Belur Math inHowrah district.
The Ramakrishna Missionhad invited Banerjee to be thechief guest at the event whichwas to be held on August 26 atthe Art Institute of Chicago.
Banerjee had to call off herscheduled trip after the organ-isers wrote to her that the eventhad been cancelled due to"unforeseen difficulties" and"demise of a monk".
Refuting the claim made byMEA, TMC spokespersonDerek O'Brien accused theBJP/RSS of pressurizing theRamakrishna Mission to call offthe programme.
"It is common knowledgethat the BJP-RSS wanted onlyone major programme to beheld in Chicago and that wouldbe under the banner of theGlobal Hindu Congress ( WorldHindu Foundation ) and thisprogramme would be attendedby Mohan Bhagwat. To ensurethis happened, intense pressurewas mounted on VivekanandaVedanta Mission in Chicago tocancel the programme forwhich Mamata Banerjee hadconfirmed," O'Brien ssaid.
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The negotiations for pro-curement of 126 Rafale jets
under the UPA Governmentfell through as State-run HALdid not have the required capa-bility to produce the jets inIndia in collaboration withFrench company DassaultAviation, Defence MinisterNirmala Sitharaman saidThursday.
Sitharaman also said thatan unprecedented interven-tion in 2013 by then DefenceMinister A K Antony when thecost negotiation committeewas giving final touches to thedeal put the final nail in the cof-fin.
After rounds of negotia-tions with HindustanAeronautics Ltd (HAL),Dassault Aviation felt that thecost of the Rafale jets willescalate significantly if theywere to be produced in India,she said during an interactionwith PTI editors and reportersat the agency's headquartershere.
"Dassault could notprogress in the negotiationswith HAL because if the aircraftwere to be produced in India,a guarantee for the product tobe produced was to be given. Itis a big ticket item and the IAFwould want the guarantee forthe jets. HAL was in no posi-tion to give the guarantee," shesaid.
Sitharaman said theweapon systems, avionics andother key add-ons to the Rafaleaircraft, expected to be deliv-ered beginning September2019, will be "much superior"than that negotiated by the
UPA, and her Government isgetting the planes for 9 per centcheaper than what was earlieragreed upon.
The previous UPAGovernment started negotiat-ing in 2012 with FrenchDassault Aviation to buy 126Medium Multi-Role CombatAircraft (MMRCA).
The plan was for DassaultAviation to supply 18 Rafale jetsin fly-away condition while108 aircraft were to be manu-factured in India by the com-pany along with HAL. Howeverthe deal could not be sealed.
The Congress has demand-ed answers from theGovernment on why HAL wasnot involved in the new deal.
Sitharaman said the UPAdeal collapsed as HAL did nothave the capability to produce108 aircraft in India.
"Even during negotiationwith HAL, Dassault felt that thecost with which the HAL willproduce will be far higher thanthe aircraft produced in France.That was the reality," she said.
The Defence Minister saidthe then Government couldhave come forward andpumped in resources into HAL,
but they did not.She said she has no inten-
tion of undermining HAL, but"why could not the thenDefence Minister say that wewill pump in all the requiredresources into the HAL. Hecould have done it. That wasnot done," Sitharaman said,adding that the currentGovernment was initiatingsteps to strengthen the State-run aerospace company.
In 2016, the ModiGovernment signed aGovernment-to-Governmentdeal with France for purchaseof 36 Rafale jets at a cost of�58,000 crore. The Congresshas been alleging irregularitiesin the deal.
Rebutting charges of cor-ruption in the deal, the DefenceMinister also asserted that peo-ple of the country have put aclosure on the issue as theyhave trust in Prime MinisterNarendra Modi.
"There is a trust in thePrime Minister. He is not goingto be corrupt. So with all this,I think mentally, people ofIndia have reached a closure onit, saying there is no corruptionhere," she said.
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India is mulling a proposal forthe creation of an
International Convention forCyber Crimes Cooperationwhich can help in simplifyingprocedures for Letters Rogatory(judicial requests) and act as aninformal mechanism for shar-ing information relating topending investigation.
The proposal is being joint-ly considered by the UnionHome Ministry, NationalSecurity Council Secretariat(NSCS) and the IntelligenceBureau amid inordinate delaysin prosecution of cases, espe-cially related to cyber crimesand financial frauds, as theservers used for communica-tion and for commission ofcrimes are often located inforeign shores.
Letters Rogatory is a formalrequest sent by a court of lawto the counterpart of foreigncountry to seek details of anaccused entity or individual orevidence relating to an ongoingcase.
The Government is alsoplanning to improve multi-jurisdictional coordination byappointing nodal officers atvarious levels and online plat-forms for cooperation.
A collaboration mecha-nism with stakeholders forfacilitating exchange of infor-mation on threats, trends, shar-ing expertise and internation-
al cooperation is also beingworked out for real-time inputson the goings on inside thedark net.
The Centre is further plan-ning harmonisation of laws,procedures and data retentionperiods and address issuesrelating to admissibility of evi-dence collected under MLATthrough formulation of laws.To boost the cyber infrastruc-ture, development of physicalinfrastructure and specialisedcyber forensic laboratories anddedicated cyber research unitsare being planned by theCentre.
A cyber awareness cam-paign for improving digital lit-eracy of citizens is also beingconsidered by the Government.The Centre will consult variousstakeholders including lawenforcement agencies relatingto cyber crimes and the StateGovernments. The Centre willalso seek to create a NationalCyber Crime InvestigatingAgency for investigation of allimportant cyber crime caseshaving inter-State and inter-national ramifications. Inaddition to this, theGovernment is considering aproposal to create CyberFusion Centres, a collaborationcentre for various agencies,academia and private sectoragencies besides investigatingagencies at the national andState level for developingauthoritative intelligence.
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The Supreme Court onThursday directed all States
to frame rules to allow selling ofuninsured vehicles involved inaccidents to pay compensationto the victims.
The prevalent rules do notallow selling of the uninsuredvehicles making it difficult to paythe compensation for the vic-tims. The top court directed thatthe rules should be framedwithin 12 weeks by all the statesin accordance with those cur-rently in force in Delhi.
If the rules currently exist-ing in Delhi are enforced acrossthe country, then it would makedriving of uninsured vehicledifficult as owners would run therisk of seizure of vehicle in caseof accident and being sold to paythe compensation for the victim.
Seven States — Jammu &Kashmir, Chattisgarh, Bihar,Punjab, Jharkhand, Puducherryand Lakshdeep — told the apexcourt that they have initiated theprocess of incorporating suchrules. Haryana said it has a sim-ilar rule, while Madhya Pradeshhas raised certain objections tothe rules for compensation.Delhi informed that it alreadyhas such rules in place.
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Against the backdrop of the hor-rific sexual abuse cases at the
shelter homes in Bihar and UttarPradesh, the Union Social Justiceand Empowerment Ministry hascalled for setting up local projectcommittees comprising parentsof inmates among others in the dis-tricts where residential homes arebeing run under its aegis.
The move aims to ensure safe-ty of the inmates at the residentialhomes being run under schemesnamely Samarth and Gharaundaand Vikaas. These programmes areoperating under the National Trustfor the Welfare of Persons withAutism, Cerebral Palsy, MentalRetardation and MultipleDisabilties Act of 1999. TheNational Trust is an autonomousbody under the Social, Justice andEmpowerment Ministry.
An official in the Ministry saidthat the members will includeparents of five inmates, three localdoctors and lawyers and three col-lege or school teachers in theregion where centres are set up.They will hold monthly meetingand submit a report to theMinistry, said the sources. In manyinstances, children of poor fami-lies, who cannot afford to look afterthem, stay in the shelter homes.
They said that the move fol-
lows an audit report by the TataInstitute of Social Sciences' (TISS)which found that sexual abuse ofvarying forms and degree of inten-sity was prevalent in almost allshelter homes in Bihar.
"The panel will keep a tab onthe functioning of these Centresrun under the National Trust Act,"the official added.
However, shortage of fundsand poor response from the stake-holders has failed the beneficia-ries: both the schemes have poorcoverage when compared to alarge number of people from thepoor sector needing such benefits.For instance, under theGharaunda scheme, 50 projectshave been sanctioned in which atotal number of 993 inmates ben-efitted. Just 14 projects have beenapproved in 2017-18 and �4 crorereleased.
The Gharaunda scheme aimsto provide an assured home andminimum quality of care servicesthroughout the life of the personswith Autism, Cerebral Palsy, men-tal retardation and multiple dis-abilities as mandated in theNational Trust Act. Also, ade-quate and quality care servicewith acceptable living standardsincluding provision of basic med-ical care from professional doctorsbesides vocational activities areprovided. Each centre has intake
capacity for 20 PwDs.Similarly, Samarth is a respite
care residential scheme aims toprovide respite home for orphansor abandoned, families in crisis andalso PwDs under the NationalTrust Act. Under the scheme, 45projects have been sanctioned inwhich a total 1102 beneficiariesbenefitted. In 2017-18, just 11projects got approval. TheGovernment has provided �3.05crore for the year.
Vikaas is yet another pro-gramme providing day-care facil-ities for the PwDs above 10 yearsof age. It offers day-care facilitiesincluding vocational skills. Underthe scheme, 124 projects havebeen sanctioens in which 3157beneficiaries. In 2017-18, 17 pro-jects were sanctioned. The bene-ficiaries list is too dismal, if onegoes by the number of persons suf-fering with intellectual disabilitiesin the country. Most of them arefrom the marginalized section,needing the help from the State.
The 2011 Census data esti-mates that only 2.21 percent of theIndian population has a disability— including 1.5 million peoplewith intellectual disabilities and amere 722,826 people with psy-chosocial disabilities. However,the Health Ministry claims thatover 6-7 percent of the populationhas psychosocial disabilities alone.
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The Trinamool Congress willnot allow the BJP to stir up
a ‘National Register of Citizens’crisis in Bengal, a senior partyleader and a Minister said onThursday saying the saffronoutfit was planning to provokesentiments throughout the bor-der districts so as to polarisevote before the next year’s gen-eral elections.
“There are reports that theBJP is going to engage theirpracharaks (campaigners) inthe border districts to incite thepeople into demanding anNRC in Bengal. But we willthwart the dirty move at anycost,” the senior Minister fromKolkata said.
According to sources theBJP was planning to launch acampaign in all the borderingdistricts from September 15onwards. “We want to make thepeople aware about the effectsof infiltration in Bengal par-ticularly in the border dis-tricts,” a State BJP leader saidadding “the local Bengali pop-
ulation was being deprived ofhundreds of crores of rupees onaccount of feeding the illegalinfiltrators from Bangladesh.”
According to sources theBJP was targeting the non-Muslim refugees fromBangladesh to further theircampaign. About 20,000 partymen, mostly refugees with pre-2011 Left leaning would beemployed by the party to carryout the NRC campaign.
“Our leaders have repeat-edly made it clear that they willnot tolerate Bangladeshis inIndia,” a State BJP leader saidadding the party however wascompletely sympathetictowards those refugees (readthe Hindus) who had beenforced out of Bangladesh.
“The people who havebeen forced to flee that coun-try will be considered sympa-thetically. But those who haveinfiltrated India with eithercriminal motive or to claim ashare of our economy will bethrown out of this country. Forthis we will demand NRC inBengal,” the leader said adding
his party will “prepare the peo-ple’s minds for the purpose.”
When asked as to whetherthe party would consider filingany PIL to suit its end theleader would not comment.
On the other hand theTrinamool leadership attackedthe BJP for trying to polarizethe electorate before the elec-tions. “It is before the electionsthat the NRC issue has come totheir mind. Bengal is notAssam from where they are try-ing to expel the Bengali-speak-ing population. We will fightagainst the BJP both here andin Assam,” the TMC ministersaid adding Chief MinisterMamata Banerjee might go tothe north-eastern State to cam-paign during the polls.
“Our leader MamataBanerjee has already warned thecommunal parties against rak-ing up the NRC issue in Bengal.She has vowed to thwart anyattempt to communalise Bengalin the name of NRC. We will notallow any such mischievousactivities in our State,” the leaderquoting the Chief Minister said.
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Union Minister of State forHome Kiren Rijiju on
Thursday urged security forcesin the Northeastern States tohave a seamless coordinationand intelligence sharing to ensurebetter security of the region.
The Union Minister saidthis speaking at the 25thConference of DGPs, IGPs andHeads of the Central PoliceOrganisations (CPO) ofNortheastern region. The twoday conference started atItanagar today.
Rijiju complemented theforces for successfully han-dling the complex issues overthe years leading to improvedsecurity scenario in the regionand said that the issue of secu-
rity and policing in northeast-ern states are unique due toregion’s geographical proxim-ity with other foreign neigh-bours like China, Myanmar,Bangladesh and Bhutan.
“Due to its geographicalsituation and exposure to inter-national border, the region hasto deal with not only internalbut external problem,” Rijjusaid while lauding the roleplayed by state police of north-eastern states and the consistentsupport by Central PoliceForces for maintaining law andorder situation in the region.
“ C o o r d i n a t i o n ,Cooperation and flawlessIntelligence sharing are crucialaspects for security. The secu-rity situation in northeasternstates have improved signifi-cantly in last four and half
years,” he said adding that thelevel of violence and causalityfigures in the region have comedown by more than 50 percent.
Mentioning the impor-tance of coordination andcooperation among northeast-ern states, the Union Ministersaid that though there are 8political units in Northeast butthey can work as one unit as faras security is concerned.
The Minister alsoannounced that the AssamRifles Academy at Diphu(Karbi Anglong, Assam) hasbeen identified for specializedtraining of the northeast policein counter insurgency opera-tions and NIA has been con-ducting training modules fornorth east police for investiga-tions of terror related cases.
Speaking on the occasion,
Arunachal Pradesh ChiefMinister, Pema Khandu urgedthe police chiefs to take stepsto ensure regular informal talksamong senior police officers ofinter- state border districts todeal with the concerns of peo-ple of border areas.
The DG, Police ofArunachal Pradesh, S. B. KSingh and Additional Director,Intelligence Bureau, A K Mishraalso spoke on this occasion.
The two day conference ofpolice and intelligence officers is being attended by the DG, police and seniorpolice officers from North EastStates, senior officers fromCentral Police Organisationand Intelligence Bureau. TheWest Bengal police depart-ment is also taking part in theconference.
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The prospects of a BJP-AIADMK poll alliance took
yet another setback onThursday as Thampi Durai, theDeputy Speaker of the LokSabha who is also a seniorAIADMK leader lambasted theHindutva party for its efforts tosaffronise Tamil Nadu.
Speaking to reporters atKarur on Thursday , Duraicame down on the BJP usingthe harshest of words. “TamilNadu is the land of RamasamyNaicker, C N Annadurai, M GRamachandran andJayalalithaa. This is theDravidian Land where there isno place for caste, religion andcommunalism. The BJP is try-ing to disrupt the Dravidianheritage and culture. We willnever allow the BJP to set itsfoot in Tamil Nadu,” said Durai.
The AIADMK leader hadlambasted the BJP last Fridayfor its alleged connivance withthe DMK in ordering CBIraids on the residences of TamilNadu health minister VijayaBhaskar and the State PoliceChief T K Rajendran in con-
nection with the Gutkha scam.Durai had alleged that the Narendra ModiGovernment had ordered theCBI raids on September 5 tohelp the DMK because Alagiri,the estranged brother ofDEMK chief M K Stalin washolding a rally at Chennai onthe same day.
"The CBI raids were heldon that day itself only to divertthe attention of the generalpublic from the rally staged byAlagiri,” Durai had charged andasked the BJP to prove itsfidelity in its ties with theAIADMK.
Thursday’s outburst byDurai assumes significance asthe AIADMK launched itscampaign for theThirupparankundram by-poll
on the same day. Seven minis-ters in the EdappadiPalaniswamy overnmentundertook a bicycle rally in theconstituency with the declara-tion that no other parties wouldget back their security depositin the by-poll.
The election Commissionof India is yet to announce the poll schedule and the par-ties have not named the can-didates.
Durai’s tirades over thelast few months against the BJPhave put the party’s leaders ina dilemma. “We are underinstruction from not to react tothe statements made by theAIADMK and the DMK how-soever provocative they maybe,” said a senior BJP leader inTamil Nadu.
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The findings by TholTirumavalavan, president
of the Viduthalai ChiruthaikalKatchi (VCK), a Dalit fringeoutfit, that religious conversionto Islam offers the Dalits self-respect and economic inde-pendence has put the Hinduforces in the State on theirguards. Experts in PopulationStudies rejectedTirumavalavan’s argumentswhile Hindu activists term it asan effort to encourage moreDalits in the State to get con-verted to Islam or Christianity.
Arjun Sampath, leader ofHindu Makkal Katchi, whohad a providential escape fromthe knives of Islamic terroristsrecently, had submitted a mem-orandum to GovernorBanwarilal Purohit and ViceChancellor of ManonmaniamSundaranar University atTirunelveli stating that thePhD thesis submitted byTirumavalavan is a travesty oftruth and facts.
Tirumavalavan claims hehas brought to light the reasonsbehind the mass conversion ofDalits of Meenakshipuram in
Tirunelveli to Islam in 1981. Heargued during the viva voce ofhis Ph D thesis held recentlythat the Dalits were discrimi-nated against and oppressed allover the State. When a Dalityouth of Meenakshipuram fellin love with a girl belonging tothe upper caste, relations of thegirl stood up against theromance. The youth elopedwith the girl to neighbouringKerala and got married withher.
When the couple returnedto the village, the girl’s relationsthrashed the youth and hisfamily members. This forcedthe 180 Dalit families in the vil-lage embrace Islam to escapefrom the persecution“unleashed by caste Hindus”,says Thirumavalavan.
The VCK leader claimedthat the Dalits who got con-verted to Islam in 1981 pros-pered economically and social-ly. “The religious conversion of1981 has given the Dalits theeconomic independence andself-respect,” claimsTirumavalavan in the thesistitled “Mass ReligiousConversion atMeenakshipuram: a victimo-logical analysis.”
Leaders of Hindu outfitsare suspicious of the objectiveof Tirumavalavan’s studies.“This is an open invitation andencouragement to the Dalits toget convert to Islam,” saidSampath.
Dr Jatinder K Bajaj,demography scientist at theCentre for Policy Studies, is ofthe view that the findings andconclusion of Tirumavalavan’sfindings do not stand the testof scrutiny. “Individually one oftwo members of the commu-nity might have been benefit-ed because of conversion. Butmajority of them continue to bepoor and helpless. Why theleaders of Islam and Christiancommunities insist that theDalits among them need reser-vation?” asked Dr Bajaj.
Sampath who is a frequentvisitor to Meeakshipurampointed out that there are twokinds of Islam in the village.“The Dalits who were con-verted to Islam are known asNavi Muslims and are yet to getacceptance in the Islamic com-munity. Some of the familieshad to reconvert followingtheir failure to get suitablematches for their daughters,”said Sampath.
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Amid bickering in theCongress in Karnataka
casting a cloud on its coalitionGovernment with the JD(S),BJP chief Amit Shah has askedthe saffron party State unit “notto create any confusion” andinstead stick to playing the roleof the Opposition sincerely.
Rejecting charges byCongress leaders that the BJPwas trying to topple the coali-tion Government, the party'sKarnataka unit chief BSYeddyurappa said "there is noneed to doubt our motives."
BJP MLAs have beeninstructed not to give state-ments on the current politicaldevelopments pertaining toturmoil in the Congress, hesaid.
"BJP national presidentAmit Shah, with whom I spoketoday, has instructed us not tocreate any confusion.
We should not give anystatements about the politicaldevelopments taking place inthe State.
Instead, we should stick to
playing the role of oppositionsincerely," Yeddyurappa added.
Shah's advice to the partyunit comes amid allegationsthat BJP was trying to takeadvantage of the internal tus-sle in the Congress and poachon its MLAs to unseat theGovernment.
Some senior congress lead-ers have blamed the BJP for therecent discontent in their party.
The Jarkiholi brothers—municipal administration min-ister Ramesh and his MLAbrother Satish—are locked in aturf war with another ministerDK Shivakumar, casting ashadow over the coalitionGovernment.
The siblings are upset overShivakumar allegedly tryingto challenge their supremacy inBelagavi district through MLALaxmi Hebbalkar.
The tussle has spilled intothe open with the brothersassertion about the support ofeight MLAs and that they werein touch with the BJP fuellingspeculation about the stabilityof the H D KumaraswamyGovernment.
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MIM chief AsaduddinOwaisi on Thursday
claimed the RSS representsHindu nationalism and said hewould never accept any invi-tation from it to participate inany event held by it.
The Hyderabad Lok SabhaMP was reacting the invitationbeing extended by RSS to var-ious leaders for a three-day lec-ture series of RSS chief MohanBhagwat, scheduled to be heldin New Delhi next week.
The RSS has indicated thatit would invite Congress pres-ident Rahul Gandhi, CPI(M)general secretary SitaramYechury and the leaders of allthe political outfits of differentideologies besides religiousleaders, sportspersons, mediapersonalities and ambassadorsof more than 60 countries.
Owaisi said RSS stood forHindu nationalism. "It is anorganisation which believe inIndian nationalism. I willnever do this stupidity andmistake of what PranabMukherjee did...," he told
reporters here.He was referring to the par-
ticipation of the former presi-dent in an RSS event at Nagpurin June last, which had thentriggered a controversy withsenior Congress leaders oppos-ing it. "I cannot speak forCongress president and I canspeak only for myself.I wouldnever even in my thoughtprocess think for a secondabout such an invitation," hesaid when asked about his reac-tion to Gandhi being invited.
Owaisi attacked the Centreover rising fuel prices, sayingPrime Minister Narendra Modihas created enough darkness byensuring that the price price ofpetrol and diesel go beyondcommon mans means.
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The Uttar PradeshGovernment has decided
to release Bhim Army chiefChandrashekhar who isdetained under the NationalSecurity Act (NSA) in con-nection with the 2017Saharanpur violence.
Chandrashekhar alsoknown as Ravan, 30, wasarrested in June 2017 in con-nection with the May 5 clash-es in which one person waskilled and 16 others wereinjured at Shabbirpur village inSaharanpur.
On November 2, 2017, theAllahabad High Court hadgranted bail toChandrashekhar. However, aday before his release, he wasbooked under the NSA, thus
preventing his release.Under the NSA, he was to
be detained till November ."After going through the rep-resentation ofChandrashekhar's mother, ithas been decided to release himearly. He had to be in jail tillNovember 1," a spokespersonof the Home Department saidhere Thursday.
The NSA was invoked againstChandrashekhar and five oth-ers in the case. While threepeople were released earlier,Chandrashekhar, Sonu andShiv Kumar are still in jail.
Sonu and Shiv Kumar willalso be released early, thespokesman said, adding thatthe district magistrate ofSaharanpur has been directed"to release them".
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Signalling growing strainbetween The coalition part-
ners, Janajati Morcha, the rul-ing BJP's tribal wing in Tripura,on Thursday demandedimmediate severing of ties withthe Indigenous Peoples Front ofTripura (IPFT). BharatiyaJanata Party (BJP) state JanajatiMorcha president SanjoyDebbarma said IPFT was cre-ating "chaos" across the stateover different issues.
Development works of thestate government have been hitdue to their activities. We havedemanded Chief MinisterBiplab Kumar Deb to removethem from the ministry andsevere all ties with them,Debbarma told PTI.
He said the chief ministergave them a patient hearingand said the agreement withIPFT was finalised by BJP'scentral leadership and theywould be consulted regardingthe demand.
BJP and IPFT jointlysecured 44 seats in the 60-member state assembly in theFebruary 18 elections andformed government, ending25 years of CPI(M)-led LeftFront rule in the north easternstate. BJP secured 36 seats i.E.More than the majority mark.
IPFT, which emerged vic-torious in 8 seats, was laterallotted two berths in the statecabinet.
Differences between theBJP and its regional partnerIPFT surfaced in the run up to
panchayat by-polls, with aseries of clashes reportedbetween the workers of the rul-ing allies over submission ofnominations. The by-polls areslated for September 30.
When contacted, BJP statevice president and JanajatiMorcha leader RampadaJamatia accused IPFT sup-porters of attacking his houseat Killa in Gomati districtWednesday. He also allegedthat the house of MLA ofGolaghati constituency inSipahijala district, BirchandraDebbarma was also attacked byIPFT supporters.
Debbarma had filed a com-plaint and an FIR was lodged.IPFT supporters held attackson his family to force him towithdraw the FIR.
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The driver of a low-floor buswas dismissed from service
on Thursday after a video ofhim thrashing a minor girl, sus-pected to be a pickpocket, sur-faced on messaging mobileapplication WhatsApp, offi-cials said.
"The driver thrashed thegirl in the bus. After a videosurfaced, we identified himand the decision to terminatehim was taken. The termina-tion orders will be issuedtomorrow,” Suresh Kumar Ola,MD of Jaipur City TransportServices Ltd, which runs thelow-floor buses in the city,told PTI.
One of the passengers inthe bus shot a video of the inci-dent and circulated it onWhatsApp, prompting theauthorities to take actionagainst the accused driverHetram.
Kumar Ola said the buswas part of the 9A series,which operates on Tonk Road. The incident occurred nearNarain Singh Circle, and thebus conductor was not involvedin the thrashing, he said.
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The Lord Ayyappa shrine atSabarimala would open for
the five-day customary puja onSeptember 16 during theMalayalam month 'Kanni' andrestrictions imposed on devo-tees visiting it following the del-uge last month have been lift-ed, officials said Thursday.
However, private vehicles,including two-wheelers ofdevotees, would be allowedonly up to the Nilackal base sta-tion. A Kerala State RoadTransport Bus would transportthem to Pampa at the foothillsto enable their trekking to thehill shrine.
The floodwaters hadwashed away virtually all pil-grimfacilities on the banks ofthe Pampa river and theTravancore Devaswom Board(TDB) that manages the shrinehad imposed restrictions ondevotees visiting the temple forthe Onam festival season lastmonth.
The temple will remainopen till September 21.
After a high-level meetingto review the post-flood situa-tion at Pampa, TDB presidentM Padmakumar said the TataProjects Ltd has agreed to takeup the reconstruction work.
"Ayappa devotees can gothe shrine for worship duringthe Kanni month puja," hesaid.
The TDB and TataProjects would take all neces-sary steps to put in place nec-essary facilities for devoteesduring the three-month-longannual pilgrimage seasonbeginning on November 17, hesaid.
The TDB had recently con-structed a temporary footbridge'Ayyappa Sethu,' across thePampa by placing stones andsand bags. The 'Pampa-Trivenibridge-over-river', which gotsubmerged in the floods, wasalso restored to some extent.
During the rain mayhem,the Pampa overran its banks atseveral places, submergingmany shops, damaging build-ings, flooding pathways anduprooting electricity posts.
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BSP president Mayawati’sremarks holding the pre-
vious UPA Government andthe BJP equally responsiblefor the steep hike in fuelprices has ruffled many a feath-er in the Congress rank andfile whose leaders feel it willonce again raise a questionmark on attempts at strikingOpposition unity ahead of the2019 Lok Sabha polls.
The BSP chief ’s views onfuel price hike came a day afterher party stayed away from the“Bharat bandh” call given bythe Congress on the issue.
“These remarks, at a timewhen the need for unity amongOpposition parties is beingfelt clearly among all partners,could send a wrong signalboth to the public and the rul-ing party which is alreadydoubting our strength,” aCongress insider said Thursdayrequesting anonymity.
“Party workers are nothappy with the BSP president’sobservations and they are very
sceptical about her intentions,”he said, adding the Centralparty leadership surely needs totake note of it.
A senior Congress leadersaid her views on the topicneeds to be viewed as her bar-gaining tactics for more seats inthe Assembly polls inRajasthan, Madhya Pradeshand Chhattisgarh.
“By doing so, she is sort oftrying to gain upper hand innegotiations for the Assembly seats in theseStates...It is, however, for theCentral leadership to under-stand that we should weigh ouroptions and potential beforeentering into any alliance,” hestressed.
“Although the foundationof the intricacies of the alliance for the Lok Sabhapolls will be set much before inthe Assembly polls in theseStates, the party needs to beclear that its negotiations onseat sharing should not be atthe cost of the party and its
workers as Congress is thestronger party in these States,”he said.
Speaking on the fuel price hike, Mayawati has stated both the NDA and theUPA had disregarded the interest of the farmers and thepoor.
The previous UnitedProgressive Alliance (UPA)regime had brought fuel out ofgovernment control and theruling National DemocraticAlliance (NDA) continuedwith the policy, she had said, adding that after coming to power in 2014, theNDA had deregulated diesel,which had hurt the interest ofthe poor.
Mayawati’s statement islargely being viewed in thepolitical circles as a dent inOpposition unity against theBJP ahead of the 2019 LokSabha polls.
She had also criticised inci-dents of violence in some statesduring the protest, saying herparty had always desisted fromsuch acts.
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If Hyderabad has historic andmagnificent Mecca Masjid
can Andhra Pradesh capitalAmaravati afford not to haveone? AP Chief Minister NChandrababu Naidu thinks theunder-construction capitalshould also have one.
At a review meeting withthe officials of Capital RegionDevelopment Authority atUndavalli, the Chief Ministerannounced that a gloriousmosque of international stan-dards will be built in Amarvatiwhich will be a wonderfultourist attraction. “The mosquewill be built on an area of 10acres under the supervision ofthe State Waqf Board”, he said.“There should be a mosque in
the architectural style of MeccaMasjid (of Hyderabad) and itshould become a major touristattraction”, he said.
Naidu made the remarkswhile reviewing the progress ofvarious projects in the capitalregion.
Historical significanceThough Guntur, Nellore,
Vijaywada, Rajahmundry andVisakhapatanam have someancient mosques but none ofthem could match the grandeurand historic significance ofMecca Masjid and several othermosques in Hyderabad.
Mecca Masjid, whichdraws its name from Mecca,the holiest place in Islam, wasbuilt in Qutub Shahi era ofHyderabad. Its foundationstone was laid by Qutub Shahi
king Mohammed Quli around1616 AD century and wascompleted in 1687 whenMoghul emeror Aurangzeb hasoccupied the Golkonda king-dom by defeating the QutubShahis. Though not complete-ly built in accordance with theoriginal plans Mecca Masjidremains one of the biggestmosques in India.
Chandrababu Naidu’smeeting with the officials alsodecided to allocate 3.5 acres ofland to Murli Fortune group in
the capital region for building ahealth and recreating resortwith an investment of �40 crore.
The meeting also okayedthe proposal to create a mari-na along the banks of riverKrishna by the Coastal MarinaPrivate Ltd and allotted 8 acresof land. Apart from other facil-ities it will have a jetty where60 boats can be anchored. Theproject was expected to becompleted in six months at acost of Rs 15 crore. The gov-ernment has also decided toallot 5 acres for the construc-tion of a convention centerunder PPP model by VarunHospitality Ltd.
CRDA commissioner ChSridhar said that in the admin-istrative city the secretariatand the departmental head-quarter buildings will be readyby January 15, 2021. AS part ofthese there will be four groundplus storied towers estimated tocost �932.46 crore. The GADtower where the office of theChief Minister will be locatedwill have 49 stories. It will bebuilt at a cost of �554.06 crore.
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Aspate of cases against itsleaders have the
Opposition Congress leaderscry foul against the TelanganaRashtra Samiti Governmentin the State. Party leaders havealleged that the caretakerGovernment was resorting tothe vendetta politics by reviv-ing old cases or by framing itsleaders in false case.
It started with the arrest offormer MLA JayaprakashReddy alias Jagga Reddy. Thenpolice issued notice to anoth-er senior leader A RevanthReddy and now a case underSC/ST Prevention of AtrocitiesAct against another formerCongress leader SrisailamGoud.
While Jagga Reddy wasarrested in connection with aold human trafficking case,the police has issued a notice toA Revanth Reddy in connec-tion with the case of allegedirregularities in Jubilee HillsHousing Society. In the latestdevelopment Jagadgiri policestation has booked a caseagainst Srisailam Goud on thecomplaint of a tribal RameshNaik. Naik has alleged that theformer MLA had insulted himpublicly in the name of his casteidentity.
A case of cheating andthreatening a business partnerwas also booked against anoth-er former Congress legislatorGandra Venkatramanna Reddyby Warangal police.
Jagga Reddy, an influentialleader of Sangareddy districtwas arrested on Monday last byHyderabad police on charges ofPassport forgery and humantrafficking. Deputy commis-sioner of police, north zone BSumathi said that the JaggaReddy, a MLA of opposition
TRS at the time had securedpassport for himself, his wifeand two other members of hisfamily in 2004.
But affixing the photos ofthree other persons on thepassport of his family membershe secured US visas for them aswell as himself. ‘By claimingthat they were his family mem-bers he accompanied them tothe US and helped them intravelling abroad”, Sumathisaid. Jagga Reddy will be takeninto police custody on Fridayfor questioning.
Another case was likely tobe filed against him inSangareddy as some farmershave complained that JaggaReddy had grabbed their landsin Ameenpur and Nagulapallyvillages.
Even before the Congresscould recover from this shock,senior leader A Revanth Reddyreceived a notice from JubileeHills police station asking himto appear before the police forquestioning within 15 days inconnection with the allegedirregularities in a HousingSociety.
Police said it received acomplaint of forgery and cheat-ing against Revanth Reddyfrom a lawyer S Rama Rao. Thecase was ten years old.
Revanth Reddy who was asenior leader of TDP before
joining Congress is already anaccused in cash for vote scamin the State.
The arrest of Jagga Reddyand the notice to RevanthReddy has also evoked a sharpreaction from the Congressleaders.
State Congress president NUttam Kumar Reddy said thatall the cases were the results ofa conspiracy by the ruling TRSleaders to defame Congressleaders ahead of the comingassembly elections. “KCR inconnivance with some policeofficials was selectively target-ing the Congress leaders andworkers”, he said vowing to payback TRS by its own coin in thedays to come.
Uttam alleged that KCRand another Minister T HarishRao were the real culprits in thehuman trafficking case as theyhad given recommendationletters to those aspiring to go tothe US in the case.
Former union minister SJaipal Reddy said, “these are nothing but politicallymotivated cases. KCR is misusing official machinery”,he said.
In his reaction RevanthReddy said, “Chief Ministerwas trying to target the politi-cians of Reddy communityand project them in a negativelight”.
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Five terrorists, includingthree infiltrators, were killed
in two separate encounters inNorth Kashmir’s Keran sectorof Kupwara and Sopore innorth Kashmir, official sourcessaid. An over-ground worker ofa pan-Islamic outfit was alsoheld in Ganderbal district.
Officials said three uniden-tified infiltrators were killed ina fierce gunfight after the Armyfoiled a major Infiltration bidalong the Line of Control(LoC) in Keran sector of fron-tier district Kupwara in northKashmiron Thursday.
Army sources said that thebodies of armed ultras werelying close to the LoC and thecounter-infiltration operationwas going on in the sector.
In another incident, twoPakistani Jaish-e-Muhammadterrorists were killed in anoperation at Checkipora,Sheikhpora village in Soporearea of north Kashmir’sBaramulla district.
A police spokesman identi-fied the slain ultras as Ali aliasAthar and Zia-ur-Rehman. Hesaid Ali was one of the impor-tant commanders of JeM andmastermind behind the SoporeImprovised Explosive Device(IED) blast in which four police-men were killed. Security sourcessaid a brief gunfight broke outlate on Wednesday night follow-ing the launch of cordon andsearch operation in theArampora area. They said laterthere was a lull for several hoursas militants reportedly moved tosome nearby house.
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Athree-member fidayeensquad, believed to be cadre
of Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM), was elimi-nated by the joint team ofsecurity forces led by paracommandos of the IndianArmy, jawans of the specialoperations group (SOG) ofState police and Central ReservePolice Force (CRPF) in Kakriyalarea along the Jammu-SrinagarNational Highway on Thursday.
A total number of 12 secu-rity personnel including fivejawans of CRPF, four Statepolicemen and three Armypersonnel received injuriesduring the operation, policesaid. A sub-divisional policeofficer was among thoseinjured in the operation. Hiscondition was stated to be sta-ble. Two para commandos also
received gun shot injurieswhile neutralising the thirdterrorist in the last leg of thecounter.
Emerging out of his safehideout the lone terroristopened fire on these com-mandos when he came face toface with them during thecombing and search opera-tions in thickly vegetated fieldsof Kakriyal. In the fierce gunfight the commandos elimi-nated him successfully endingthe 33 hour long chase insearch of these terrorists.
Till the time of filing the
report several teams of bombdisposal squad and others weredeployed at the encounter siteto completely sanitise the areaand clear the same from‘booby’ traps in the form ofplanted IED’s or land mines.
The local residents, whoremained closeted inside theirhomes since early morningalso heaved a sigh of relief afterthe operation was called off.
The security forces ensuredno major collateral damagewas done to the civilian hous-es and managed to containthese terrorists in isolated areas.
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Discontent in rulingTelangana Rashtra Samiti
(TRS) over distribution of tick-ets for Assembly elections is ris-ing by the day and the tusslebetween rivals took an uglyturn in at least in one con-stituency and many otherswere threatening to upsetparty’s applecart in many otherconstituencies.
In Chennur AssemblyConstituency of Mancherialdistrict where sitting MLANallala Odellu was denied tick-et and a member of Lok SabhaBalka Sumar was nominated byTRS one infuriated party work-ers set himself on fire andinjured many others. The inci-dent occurred during the visitto Balka Suman to the con-stituency. Suman alleged thatthe person had tried to harmhim by throwing kerosene onhim before setting himselfablaze.
R Ghattaiah, reported to bea supporter of Odellu pouredkerosene and set himself ablaze.He recived 80 pc burns while16 others including policeinspector Bhukya Narayan anda photographer Anees werealso injured as kerosene thrownby him fell on them.
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Toll in Jagtial bus disaster hasmounted to 62 with one
more injured succumbing toinjuries in Karimnagar hospitalon Thursday, police said. This isthe biggest loss of life ever in aroad accident in the State.
Local Minister E Rajinderand MP Vinod Kumar visitedthe family of the person whodied on Thursday and announ-ced financial assistance. A bus ofTelangana State road transportcorporation overturned and fellinto a gorge on Ghat road on Tu-esday when it was coming fromKondagattu temple to Jagatiyaltown. The over crowded bus waspacked with the pilgrims.Meanwhile an eerie silencedescended on the villages fromwhere most of the victims hailedeven as the ten day long GaneshChaturthi festival was beingcelebrated with gaiety elsewhere.The residents of worst affectedShanivarpeta, who lost 15 oftheir near and dear ones, werein deep shock and mourning.There was no celebration in thevillage on Thursday.
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str
ateg
y������
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Leth
al d
ose
%�������&������9�0���������������
�������������4��&���������������������
Ano
ther
‘int
eres
ting’
two
wee
ks...
ww
w.d
aily
pio
nee
r.co
m
&0&8 �*
.(9�&
0%%.'
/
The p
ast w
eek
has
been
mom
ento
us. T
heSu
prem
e Cou
rt ex
amin
ed th
e con
stitu
tion-
al va
lidity
of Se
ctio
n 37
7 of t
he In
dian
Pena
lCo
de, a
n arc
haic
law th
at co
ntin
ued f
or lo
nger
than
it sho
uld h
ave,
and h
eld th
at ac
tions
betw
een
con-
sent
ing a
dults
are o
utsid
e the
ambi
t of t
his p
enal
prov
ision
. By i
ts de
cisio
n, th
e Sup
rem
e Cou
rt ga
vea f
resh
leas
e of li
fe to
mill
ions
of In
dian
s who
had
to su
ffer d
ue to
the s
tigm
a, th
e fea
r and
the a
buse
of b
eing c
lassif
ied as
crim
inals
for n
othi
ng o
ther
than
the r
ight t
o lov
e a fe
llow
hum
an be
ing.
Whi
leth
is fo
rtnig
ht w
as on
e to c
elebr
ate in
one r
espe
ct,
in o
ther
it w
as an
othe
r wee
k of
com
men
ts fro
mth
e Cen
tre th
at ca
n at
best
be ca
lled
amus
ing a
ndat
wor
st be
cons
ider
ed w
orris
ome.
Nat
iona
l Com
miss
ion
for
Men
:Thi
s pa
stwe
ek, H
arin
aray
an R
ajbha
r, th
e Bha
ratiy
a Jan
ata
Party
MP
from
Utta
r Pra
desh
said
, “Th
ere
is a
natio
nal c
omm
issio
n fo
r wom
en. B
ut, th
ere i
s no
such
com
miss
ion
for m
en. M
en ar
e com
mitt
ing
suici
de o
n be
ing
hara
ssed
by
wom
en, a
nd fa
lseca
ses a
re b
eing
lodg
ed ag
ainst
men
.” Th
is is
not
the f
irst t
ime t
hat R
ajbha
r has
disc
usse
d hi
s pas
-sio
n fo
r a ‘p
urus
haa
yog’.
In fa
ct, h
e bro
ught
the
issue
up in
the m
onth
of A
ugus
t as w
ell in
the L
okSa
bha
wher
e it
caus
ed m
uch
amus
emen
t an
dlau
ghte
r. W
hile
the s
ugge
stion
may
seem
laug
h-ab
le, th
e fac
t tha
t the
Mem
ber o
f Par
liam
ent f
rom
Balli
a is
abso
lutel
y un
awar
e ab
out t
he st
atus o
fwo
men
in In
dia i
s far
from
laug
habl
e. Th
e sta
tis-
tics o
n cr
imes
again
st wo
men
is u
sefu
l to
exam
-in
e bec
ause
it is
a fa
ir in
dica
tor o
f whe
re w
omen
stand
com
pare
d to
men
in In
dian
socie
ty. N
ot to
ruin
the s
urpr
ise fo
r Rajb
har b
ut th
e sta
tistic
s are
dam
ning
and
do
not
aid h
is ar
gum
ent
for
aN
atio
nal C
omm
issio
n fo
r Men
.In
this
rega
rd, t
he r
epor
t pub
lishe
d by
the
Nat
iona
l Crim
e Re
cord
s Bur
eau
in 2
016
is ill
u-m
inat
ing.
As p
er th
is re
port,
the
rate
of c
rimes
again
st wo
men
, i.e.
crim
es p
er 1
lakh
wom
en w
asup
from
41.7
in 20
12 to
55.2
in 20
16. F
urth
erm
ore,
it is
tellin
g th
at a
majo
rity
of th
e cr
imes
aga
inst
wom
en is
usu
ally
by p
eopl
e wh
o ar
e kn
own
toth
em be
caus
e of w
hich
wom
en ar
e in
any c
ase h
es-
itant
abo
ut f
iling
crim
inal
case
s ag
ainst
their
abus
ers o
r are
coax
ed ou
t of it
by th
e fam
ily of
the
vict
im. W
hat m
ay b
e of i
nter
est t
o Rajb
har,
how-
ever
, is
that
des
pite
incid
ence
of c
rime
again
stwo
men
, the
con
vict
ion
rate
for
crim
es a
gain
stwo
men
in 20
16 at
18.9
per c
ent is
at its
lowe
st sin
ce20
07. T
his i
s esp
ecial
ly di
scou
ragi
ng as
even
if a
wom
an d
oes h
ave t
he co
urag
e to
repo
rt a c
rime,
she,
howe
ver,
has
to w
ithdr
aw t
he c
ompl
aint
(whi
ch is
com
mon
in ca
ses o
f cru
elty b
y hus
band
sor
relat
ives,
wher
e the
par
ties a
gree
to a
divo
rce,
subj
ect t
o the
with
draw
al of
the c
ompl
aint).
The
reis
often
a sti
gma t
hat is
asso
ciated
with
the w
oman
by so
ciety
for n
o fau
lt of
her
own
.In
any
eve
nt, i
f the
arg
umen
t is
that
som
ewo
men
are e
xplo
iting
the l
egal
proc
ess t
o pun
ishm
en, t
hen
as th
e con
vict
ion
rate
s see
m to
show
,th
e leg
al sy
stem
doe
s app
ear t
o ta
ke in
to ac
coun
tsu
ch c
ases
as w
ell b
ecau
se th
e bu
rden
whi
ch is
requ
ired
to b
e disc
harg
ed b
y the
accu
ser i
s fair
lyhi
gh.
Furth
erm
ore,
the
argu
men
t ag
ains
t a
‘puru
shaa
yog’
is no
t tha
t the
re ar
e no c
ases
whe
reth
ere h
ave b
een
bogu
s cas
es fi
led ag
ainst
men
for
crim
es ag
ainst
wom
en. In
fact
, the a
rgum
ent i
s as
follo
ws: F
irstly
, in In
dia t
oday
, due
to a
cultu
re o
fvi
ctim
blam
ing,
the
odds
are
sta
cked
aga
inst
awo
man
who
decid
es to
appr
oach
the l
egal
syste
mfo
r a re
med
y fro
m th
e sta
rt. S
econ
dly,
Indi
a lik
ean
y oth
er co
untry
does
not
have
an un
limite
d sup
-pl
y of f
unds
or re
sour
ces.
Ther
efore
, as a
resp
on-
sible
dem
ocra
cy, it
mus
t dec
ide t
o all
ocate
fund
san
d pe
rson
nel
towa
rds
its m
ost
urge
nt a
ndim
med
iate c
ause
s. So
, whi
le it
may
be i
mpo
rtant
to be
cong
niza
nt of
such
isola
ted in
stanc
es of
abus
e,th
e cur
rent
state
of w
omen
is fa
r wor
se th
an th
atof
men
and,
ther
efore
, mor
e foc
us, a
ttent
ion
and
reso
urce
s are
requ
ired
to en
sure
that
wom
en ar
esu
bjec
t to
a jus
t sys
tem
.R
aghu
ram
R
ajan
re
spon
sibl
e fo
r lo
w gr
owth
:As y
ou m
ay h
ave n
otice
d, In
dia h
as
not y
et se
en an
y ‘acch
e din’
and t
he st
ate of
the e
con-
omy p
rove
s as m
uch.
In th
is re
gard
whi
le ta
lkin
gab
out t
he lo
w len
ding
rate
s and
hes
itanc
y in
the
econ
omy,
Rajiv
Kum
ar, v
ice c
hairm
an o
f NIT
IAa
yog,
said
, “Th
e ne
w m
echa
nism
s in
stitu
ted
[und
er th
e pr
evio
us R
BI G
over
nor’s
regi
me]
toid
entif
y str
esse
d or
non
-per
form
ing
asse
ts an
dth
ese c
ontin
uous
ly co
ntin
ued
to g
row
up w
hich
is wh
y th
e ba
nkin
g se
ctor
stop
ped
givi
ng cr
edit
to th
e ind
ustry
.”Su
ch c
omm
ents,
unf
ortu
natel
y, fo
llow
the
sam
e irr
espo
nsib
le po
licy
of th
e Gov
ernm
ent t
obl
ame e
very
one o
ther
than
itse
lf fo
r the
ills o
f the
econ
omy,
inclu
ding
the r
ising
fuel
price
s, th
e spe
c-ta
cular
fall o
f the
rupe
e, th
e low
empl
oym
ent r
atean
d th
e low
rate
of g
rowt
h. T
here
are,
howe
ver,
two
issue
s with
this
mes
sage
. Firs
t tha
t it l
ays t
hebl
ame o
n th
e foo
t of a
pol
icy th
at p
laces
emph
a-sis
on a
clean
-up o
f non
-per
form
ing a
ssets
that
had
accu
mul
ated
with
ban
ks a
nd ig
nore
s th
at t
his
clean
-up p
roce
ss is
nec
essa
ry fo
r any
econ
omy t
ogr
ow si
nce i
t sho
ws w
hat t
he tr
ue st
ate o
f ban
k-in
g in
the c
ount
ry is
.Th
e Mod
i Gov
ernm
ent,
howe
ver,
obvi
ously
favor
s obf
usca
tion
when
reali
ty d
oes n
ot su
it th
eG
over
nmen
t and
gran
dios
e ove
rsta
tem
ent w
hen
the d
ata
is m
ildly
in fa
vour
of t
he G
over
nmen
t.An
insta
nce o
f thi
s was
the c
hang
e in
the b
ase y
ear
to c
alcul
ate G
DP
data
whi
ch m
ade
the
Mod
iG
over
nmen
t loo
k acc
epta
ble.
How
ever
, wha
t the
BJP
did n
ot co
ntem
plate
was
that
by us
ing t
he sa
me
stand
ard,
the p
erfo
rman
ce of
the U
PA d
urin
g its
tenu
re lo
oks f
ar b
etter
than
any
grow
th cl
ocke
dby
the M
odi G
over
nmen
t.Th
e sec
ond
issue
with
this
mes
sage
is th
at it
cont
inue
s with
the n
arra
tive t
hat I
ndia’
s low
rate
of gr
owth
has
been
caus
ed du
e to e
xter
nal fa
ctor
sra
ther
tha
n du
e to
the
inc
ompe
tenc
e of
the
Gov
ernm
ent.
This
can
be se
en w
hen
argu
men
tsag
ainst
high
fuel
price
s are
bro
ught
aga
inst
the
Gov
ernm
ent o
r the
falli
ng ru
pee.
Asto
nish
ingly
,as
per
this
Gov
ernm
ent,
dem
onet
izatio
n, w
hich
mus
t cou
nt as
one o
f the
bigg
est e
cono
mic
blun
-de
rs in
the w
orld
, play
ed n
o ro
le in
the e
cono
m-
ic slo
wdow
n of
the
cou
ntry
. It’s
com
plet
elyig
nore
d by
the
Gov
ernm
ent t
hat t
he m
ove
cost
Indi
a 1.5
per c
ent o
f GD
P or
that
in th
e firs
t fou
rm
onth
s 1.5
mill
ion
jobs
wer
e los
t dur
ing j
ust t
hefir
st fo
ur m
onth
s of 2
017
and
left t
he u
norg
an-
ised s
ecto
r, whi
ch pr
imar
ily op
erate
s on
cash
, ree
l-in
g fro
m th
e mov
e. As
a re
ader
, I w
ould
reco
m-
men
d you
cons
ider
this
to be
your
bim
onth
ly re
cap
of th
e stra
nge t
ime o
ur co
untry
is go
ing t
hrou
gh,
wher
e any
form
of in
tellec
tuali
sm is
equa
ted w
ithan
ti-na
tiona
lism
. Whi
le I h
ope t
his r
ecap
did p
ro-
vide
som
e ent
erta
inm
ent,
I thi
nk it
is im
porta
ntto
reco
gnise
that
som
e of t
he lu
dicr
ous c
omm
ents
by B
JP le
ader
s tha
t I m
entio
n fro
m ti
me t
o tim
ear
e onl
y the
ones
that
they
say o
ut lo
ud af
ter p
re-
sum
ably
filte
ring
them
. One
can,
how
ever
, onl
yim
agin
e and
trul
y fea
r wha
t tho
ught
s do n
ot p
ass
thro
ugh
this
very
por
ous f
ilter
.(T
he w
riter
is Jh
arkh
and
PCC
presi
dent
, for
-m
er M
P an
d IP
S offi
cer.
View
s are
per
sona
l)
����
����
�
Sir
— T
his
refe
rs to
the
edito
rial,
“In
Den
ial” (
Sept
embe
r 13)
. The
re ca
n be
no
doub
t abo
ut V
irat K
ohli’s
skill
s as a
bats-
man
and
his
work
eth
ics b
ut th
e bu
cksto
ps w
ith h
im a
s th
e ca
ptain
of
the
Indi
an c
ricke
t tea
m. H
is cla
im th
at h
iste
am is
the b
est t
ourin
g In
dian
team
inlas
t 10-
15 ye
ars,
that
too a
fter 1
-4 sc
ore-
line i
n th
e fiv
e-Te
st se
ries,
defie
s log
ic.
To w
alk
the
talk
, Ko
hli
has
toin
trosp
ect h
is lea
ders
hip
and
decis
ion-
mak
ing
skill
s —
cho
osin
g to
pla
y a
spin
ner o
ver a
seam
er in
clou
dy co
n-di
tions
in L
ondo
n, an
d A
shw
in p
lay-
ing
in fo
urth
Tes
t des
pite
offi
e be
ing
in cl
ear d
iscom
fort
phys
ical
ly an
d op
t-in
g H
anum
a Vih
ari o
ver t
riple
cent
u-rio
n K
arun
Nai
r, ar
e ju
st fe
w o
f the
blun
ders
com
mitt
ed b
y hi
m.
Kohl
i and
Rav
i Sha
stri
cann
ot b
ein
den
ial,
tryi
ng to
pai
nt a
rosy
pic
-tu
re a
fter a
disa
stro
us to
ur.
Bal G
ovin
dN
oida
��
����
��
���
Si
r — T
his r
efer
s to
the e
dito
rial,
“Life
mea
ns L
ife”
(Sep
tem
ber
12).
Had
itbe
en th
e ass
assin
atio
n of
mem
bers
of
any
othe
r po
litic
al p
arty
in
Tam
ilN
adu,
wou
ld t
he T
amil
Nad
uG
over
nmen
t hav
e so
ught
pre
mat
ure
rele
ase o
f the
conv
icts
serv
ing l
ife se
n-te
nce?
Whi
le th
e gr
acef
ulne
ss o
f the
Gan
dhi
fam
ily i
n co
ndon
ing
the
actio
n of
the
ass
assin
s sh
ould
be
wel
com
ed, f
rom
the
poin
t of v
iew
of
the
coun
try,
in
gene
ral,
and
the
Con
gres
s in
part
icul
ar, t
he as
sass
ina-
tion
of fo
rmer
Prim
e M
inist
er R
ajiv
Gan
dhi w
as a
n irr
epar
able
loss
. Th
e fa
ct t
he c
onvi
cts
have
bee
nla
ngui
shin
g in
jail
for l
ong
is no
jus-
tific
atio
n to
seek
thei
r ear
ly re
leas
e, as
they
hav
e be
en c
omm
uted
to s
uffe
r
life
sent
ence
. Th
e con
vict
s are
now
at th
e mer
cyof
the
Sta
te G
over
nor
Banw
arila
lPu
rohi
t as h
e hol
ds th
e key
. One
hop
esth
at th
e Gov
erno
r Pur
ohit
wei
ghs t
hepr
os a
nd c
ons
befo
re h
e ta
kes
any
deci
sion.
In a
ny e
vent
, the
dec
ision
take
n sh
ould
not
set a
s a p
rece
dent
. VS
Jaya
ram
an
Che
nnai
���
�
��Si
r — T
his r
efer
s to
the e
dito
rial,
“Life
mea
ns l
ife”
(Sep
tem
ber
12).
Prim
eM
inist
er R
ajiv
Gan
dhi’s
assa
ssin
ator
s
alre
ady
rece
ived
gen
erou
s cle
men
cy.
The
Supr
eme
Cou
rt h
ad,
in 2
014,
redu
ced
thei
r ca
pita
l pun
ishm
ent t
olif
elon
g im
priso
nmen
t. A
ny f
urth
erre
miss
ion
mus
t be
out o
f que
stio
n.
The
killi
ng o
f a
Prim
e M
inist
erw
as a
rare
st-of
-rar
e cas
e. Th
ere s
houl
dab
solu
tely
be n
o qu
estio
n of
par
don-
ing
and
rele
ase
of th
e co
nvic
ts. A
nysu
ch re
ques
t has
onl
y po
litic
al ra
mi-
ficat
ions
and
wou
ld b
e utte
rly il
lega
l.Sh
ubha
mVi
a em
ail
����������������$� �9
��**�
;)*�
= ��
��;?
@9+
�(��
9�
0���4�(��������������������
%������������&�
�����������������������
������������(�������������
�������������������
Given
Mall
ya’s
alleg
ation
s tha
t he m
et the
Finan
ce M
iniste
r befo
re le
aving
India
, Jait
leysh
ould
step d
own f
rom
his po
st.—
Cong
ress
pres
ident
RAHU
L GAN
DHI
The U
PA flo
uted n
orms
to gi
ve a
swee
t dea
l toKin
gfish
er Ai
rline
s. Ho
w mu
ch sh
are d
oes t
heCo
ngre
ss ha
ve in
the g
ood t
imes
of M
allya
?—
BJP s
poke
sper
son
SAMB
IT PA
TRA
�%�8��5��.�-�%�8��
Congr
ess p
resid
ent R
ahul
Gan
dhi’s
feebl
e atte
mpt
todr
aw
equi
vale
nce
betw
een
the
Mus
limBr
othe
rhoo
d an
d RS
Sca
used
asto
nish
men
t am
ong
thos
efa
mili
ar w
ith th
e RSS
and
thos
e who
have
a n
atio
nal
pers
pect
ive.
Alter
nativ
ely, th
ose p
rofes
sing a
com
-m
unist
and/
or M
aoist
ideo
logy
and
prac
titio
ners
of op
portu
nisti
c pol
itics
were
pre
dict
ably
elate
d. N
eithe
r of
thes
e re
spon
ses
was
unan
ticip
ated
.H
owev
er, it
mus
t not
be as
sum
ed th
atG
andh
i lac
ks a
ware
ness
abo
ut t
hem
ayhe
m Is
lamist
s ter
roris
ts in
flict
onth
e civ
ilise
d wo
rld. N
eithe
r doe
s thi
sm
ean
that
he is
una
ware
of th
e soc
ialwo
rk th
e RSS
carr
ies ou
t thr
ough
its
affil
iated
org
anisa
tions
, not
to m
en-
tion
the g
rowi
ng ap
peal
and
supp
ort
the
Sang
h is
rece
ivin
g fro
m so
ciety
at la
rge.
Why
, the
n, w
ould
he m
ake
such
a pr
epos
tero
us al
legat
ion?
Q
uite
sim
ply,
his p
oliti
cal a
dvi-
sors
hav
e su
ccee
ded
in c
onvi
ncin
ghi
m th
at cr
iticis
ing t
he R
SS w
ill yi
eldpo
litica
l div
iden
ds, th
at ba
seles
s and
prov
ocat
ive
state
men
ts wi
ll co
m-
pens
ate f
or th
e lac
k of
grou
nd w
ork
which
is re
quire
d to l
ift th
e gra
nd ol
dpa
rty fr
om it
s pol
itica
l nad
ir. H
ence
,he
has
obv
ious
ly be
en s
choo
led to
rend
er th
ese s
tatem
ents
in a
dram
at-ic
man
ner
with
out
both
erin
g to
chec
k the
ir ve
racit
y. W
hen
one s
uch
state
men
t was
lega
lly ch
allen
ged
bya s
waya
mse
vak,
the C
ongr
ess p
resi-
dent
was
see
n av
oidi
ng h
is da
te in
cour
t.
In re
ality,
the S
angh
is en
gage
din
the w
ork o
f con
nect
ing a
nd bi
nd-
ing
Bhar
atiy
a soc
iety
with
the e
ver-
lastin
g th
read
of s
pirit
ualit
y an
d an
inte
gral
and
holis
tic v
iew o
f life
. To
equa
te th
is in
clusiv
e Bha
ratiy
a view
of lif
e with
the M
uslim
Bro
ther
hood
is an
affro
nt to
our g
reat
civi
lisat
ion-
al he
ritag
e and
hist
ory.
If on
e was
tovie
w Isl
amist
ideo
logy
in pr
actic
e, th
ewo
rd “b
roth
erho
od” i
tself i
s ina
ppro
-pr
iate
. In
fa
ct,
the
Mus
limBr
othe
rhoo
d wh
ich h
e cho
se to
cite
as an
exam
ple,
view
s not
onl
y no
n-M
uslim
s as b
eyon
d the
pale
but e
ven
Mus
lims o
utsid
e the
Salaf
i/Sun
ni fo
ldas
outsi
de th
eir id
eolo
gical
com
mun
ean
d th
erefo
re n
ot ‘t
rue’
Mus
lims.
Sept
embe
r 11
was
the
125
than
nive
rsar
y of
Swa
mi V
ivek
anan
d’sCh
icago
addr
ess t
o the
Par
liam
ent o
fW
orld
Reli
gion
s. In
tha
t hi
storic
addr
ess,
he pr
esen
ted to
a wo
rld au
di-
ence
the
inc
lusiv
e wo
rldvi
ew o
fH
indu
cultu
re. T
his w
as n
ot m
erely
an ex
ercis
e in
intel
lectu
alism
, but
one
wher
e th
e str
ings
of t
he h
eart
were
play
ing a
uniq
ue tu
ne fo
r an
audi
ence
unfam
iliar w
ith th
e Hin
du vi
ew of
life
but r
espo
nsiv
e to
the m
usic
in th
ose
since
re w
ords
. Swa
mi V
ivek
anan
dabe
gan
his
addr
ess
with
“M
yAm
erica
n Br
othe
rs an
d Sist
ers…
”, an
ende
arm
ent w
hich
was
rece
ived w
itha s
tand
ing
ovat
ion
that
laste
d a f
ewm
inut
es.
He s
aid: “
I am
pro
ud to
belo
ngto
a r
eligi
on w
hich
has
taug
ht th
ewo
rld b
oth
toler
ance
and
uni
vers
alac
cept
ance
. We
belie
ve n
ot o
nly
inun
ivers
al to
lerat
ion
but w
e acc
ept a
llre
ligio
ns as
true
. I am
prou
d to b
elong
to a
nat
ion
which
has
shelt
ered
the
pers
ecut
ed a
nd re
fuge
es o
f all
reli-
gion
s and
all
natio
ns o
f the
ear
th. I
am p
roud
to te
ll yo
u th
at w
e ha
vega
ther
ed in
our
bos
om th
e pu
rest
rem
nant
of t
he Is
raeli
tes,
who
cam
eto
Sou
ther
n In
dia
and
took
refu
gewi
th us
in th
e ver
y yea
r in
which
their
holy
tem
ple w
as sh
atte
red
to p
ieces
by R
oman
tyra
nny.
I am
pro
ud to
belo
ng to
the r
eligio
n wh
ich ha
s she
l-ter
ed an
d is s
till fo
sterin
g the
rem
nant
of t
he g
rand
Zor
oastr
ian n
atio
n.Se
ctar
ianism
, big
otry
, and
its h
orri-
ble d
esce
ndan
t, fan
aticis
m, h
ave l
ong
poss
esse
d th
is be
autif
ul ea
rth. T
hey
have
fille
d th
e ea
rth w
ith v
iolen
ce,
dren
ched
it
ofte
n an
d of
ten
with
hum
an bl
ood,
des
troye
d civ
ilisa
tion
and
sent
who
le na
tions
to d
espa
ir.H
ad it
not
bee
n fo
r th
ese
horr
ible
dem
ons,
hum
an so
ciety
wou
ld be
far
mor
e adv
ance
d th
an it
is n
ow.”
Dr B
him
Rao
Am
bedk
ar ha
s also
draw
n a d
istin
ctio
n wi
th th
e Isla
mic
view
of
the
world
. I
n hi
s bo
ok“T
houg
hts
on P
akist
an”
he s
ays:
"Islam
is a
close
corp
orat
ion
and
the
disti
nctio
n th
at i
t m
akes
bet
ween
Mus
lims a
nd n
on-M
uslim
s is a
very
real,
very
pos
itive
and
(a) v
ery a
lien-
ating
disti
nctio
n. T
he br
othe
rhoo
d of
Islam
is n
ot th
e un
iver
sal b
roth
er-
hood
of m
an. I
t is
brot
herh
ood
ofM
uslim
s for
Mus
lims o
nly.
Ther
e is
a fra
terni
ty bu
t its
bene
fit is
conf
ined
to th
ose w
ithin
that
corp
orat
ion.
For
thos
e who
are
out
side t
he co
rpor
a-tio
n, th
ere i
s not
hing
but
cont
empt
and
enm
ity.”
The M
uslim
Bro
ther
hood
wan
tsto
impo
se Sh
aria
Law
ever
ywhe
re; th
eRS
S sta
nds f
or a
Hin
du R
asht
ra th
atis
base
d on
the i
deal
of sp
read
ing u
ni-
vers
al ac
cept
ance
as p
ropa
gate
d by
Vive
kana
nd. S
o, ho
w ca
n th
e fun
da-
men
talis
t Isl
amist
ide
olog
y of
the
Mus
lim B
roth
erho
od b
e eq
uate
dwi
th th
e Un
iver
sal B
roth
erho
od o
fSw
ami V
ivek
anan
da. F
urth
er, w
hydo
es R
ahul
Gan
dhi fe
el co
mpe
lled t
osp
eak
ill o
f an
orga
nisa
tion
that
fol-
lows
the p
rece
pts o
f uni
vers
al br
oth-
erho
od an
d is
focu
sed
on or
gani
sing
socie
ty?
A se
nior
com
men
tato
r sa
id to
me a
few
year
s ago
that
the C
ongr
ess
has b
een
redu
ced
to a
party
des
per-
ately
tryi
ng to
com
e to p
ower
by an
ym
eans
and i
s out
sour
cing i
ts in
tellec
-tu
al ac
tivity
to th
e Com
mun
ists.
Ever
since
the C
ongr
ess o
utso
urce
d its
ide-
olog
ical a
rgum
ents
to th
e com
rade
s,it h
as al
lied i
tself w
ith in
toler
ance
and
has
oppo
sed
natio
nal
view
s an
dac
tiviti
es.
Befo
re I
ndep
ende
nce,
the
Cong
ress
was
an
open
plat
form
;am
ong
its m
embe
rs w
ere
Hin
duM
ahas
abha
mem
bers
, sup
porte
rs of
revo
lutio
narie
s, th
ose w
ith a
radi
cal
appr
oach
(Ga
ram
Dal
)an
d als
oth
ose f
avou
ring a
mod
erate
appr
oach
(Nar
am D
al).
Ther
e wa
s sp
ace
for
ever
yone
. Whe
n th
is pl
atfo
rm f
orna
tiona
l lib
erat
ion
starte
d ta
king
the s
hape
of a
pol
itica
l par
ty it
wen
tfro
m b
eing
a lar
ge te
nt o
f ide
as to
aco
rpor
atio
n wh
ich pr
actic
ed al
ienat-
ing a
nd ex
cludi
ng th
ose w
ith d
iffer
-en
t view
s. It
was,
howe
ver,
a gra
dual
prog
ress
ion.
Eve
n af
ter
1947
ther
ewa
s spa
ce fo
r div
erse
view
poin
ts; if
Pand
it Ja
waha
rlal
Neh
ru w
as a
nar
dent
criti
c of t
he R
SS, S
arda
r Pat
elin
vite
d sw
ayam
seva
ks t
o jo
in t
heCo
ngre
ss p
arty.
In 1
962,
durin
g th
e
Indo
-Chi
na w
ar,
even
a s
tride
ntcr
itic o
f the
Sang
h su
ch as
Neh
ru w
asso
impr
esse
d by t
he se
lfles
s ser
vice o
fth
e RSS
that
he i
nvite
d th
e org
anisa
-tio
n to
par
ticip
ate
in th
e Re
publ
icD
ay P
arad
e; ev
en a
t sh
ort
notic
e,3,
000
sway
amse
vaks
par
ticip
ated
with
prid
e in
the p
arad
e.D
urin
g th
e 196
5 Pa
kista
n in
va-
sion,
Lal
Baha
dur S
hastr
i call
ed fo
ra
mee
ting
with
pro
min
ent n
atio
nal
leade
rs, i
nclu
ding
the
sec
ond
RSS
Chief
Gur
uji G
olwa
lkar
, goi
ng so
far
as to
arra
nge h
is tra
nspo
rt to
Delh
i.D
urin
g th
is m
eetin
g, a
com
mun
istlea
der r
epea
tedly
aske
d Sha
stri: W
hat
was “
your
Arm
y” d
oing
whe
n In
dia
was i
nvad
ed? A
gita
ted
by th
is sta
nce
espe
cially
at
such
a c
ritica
l tim
e,G
olwa
lkar
inte
rven
ed an
d as
ked
the
gent
leman
why
he
coul
dn’t
just
say
“our
arm
y”? D
id h
e not
belo
ng to
the
sam
e cou
ntry
? Th
is tra
ditio
n of
dial
ogue
(sam
-va
ad)
cont
inue
d til
l th
e 19
70s.
Subs
eque
ntly,
the i
nflu
ence
of c
om-
mun
ist id
eolo
gy st
arted
gain
ing t
rac-
tion
in th
e Co
ngre
ss (a
t a ti
me
the
com
mun
ists t
hem
selve
s had
‘pur
ged’
them
selve
s of
their
nat
iona
list e
le-m
ents
who
had
long
sin
ce b
een
deno
unce
d as
‘rig
htist
s’) a
nd t
hein
toler
ance
and
“oth
erne
ss” in
spire
dby
Sta
linist
idea
ls be
gan
rear
ing
itsug
ly he
ad. C
onfro
ntat
iona
l lang
uage
and
an ‘u
s ve
rsus
the
m’ d
iscou
rse
starte
d do
min
atin
g. Ap
art f
rom
the
BJP,
mos
t poli
tical
parti
es re
flect
com
-m
unist
influ
ence
in th
eir in
telle
ctu-
al ce
lls in
vary
ing d
egre
es. F
or sh
ort-
sight
ed p
oliti
cal g
ains t
here
is a
ten-
denc
y to s
ide w
ith at
tempt
s (in
spire
dby
lefti
st id
eolo
gy)
of b
reak
ing
or
weak
enin
g the
uni
ty of
the p
eopl
e of
the
coun
try a
nd a
t the
sam
e tim
eop
posin
g na
tiona
l ide
as a
nd fo
rces
.Th
is en
erva
ting
influ
ence
ove
r th
epa
st few
deca
des h
as le
ft th
e Con
gres
sin
a str
ange
cond
ition
, alm
ost a
s if it
sbo
dy is
but
a sh
ell th
at is
now
occ
u-pi
ed b
y a
Mao
ist s
oul.
This
is no
tm
erely
an ob
serv
ation
, it is
born
e out
by t
he d
ispla
ys o
f su
ppor
t th
eCo
ngre
ss r
outin
ely e
xpre
sses
for
Mao
ist pr
otes
ts. Is
it no
t alar
min
g tha
tCo
ngre
ss le
ader
s sta
nd in
solid
arity
with
tho
se w
ho r
aised
slo
gans
of
“Bha
rat t
ere t
ukde
hon
ge, I
nsha
llah,
Insh
allah
”, “B
hara
t ki b
arba
di ta
k jun
gra
hegi”
or “A
fzal G
uru
hum
shar
min
-da
hai
, ter
e qa
til z
inda
hai”
? Af
zal
Guru
was
the m
aster
min
d beh
ind t
heter
roris
t atta
ck on
the p
arlia
men
t and
was
sen
tenc
ed t
o de
ath
by t
heSu
prem
e Cou
rt.
Whe
n th
e Co
ngre
ss s
uppo
rtsth
ose
inst
igat
ing
cast
e vi
olen
ceun
derm
inin
g an
d vi
olat
ing
the
Cons
titut
ion,
one i
s com
pelle
d to f
eel
it is
its M
aoist
soul
whi
ch g
uide
s its
actio
ns. T
he in
filtra
tion
of di
srup
tive
Urba
n M
aoist
s int
o m
ainstr
eam
life
and
their
influ
ence
has
onl
y rec
ent-
ly co
me
to li
ght a
nd w
hen
a m
ain-
strea
m pa
rty lik
e the
Con
gres
s whi
chha
s he
ld p
ower
for
so m
any
year
ssu
ppor
ts th
eir d
estru
ctiv
e des
igns
itis
not a
n oc
casio
n to
be su
rpris
ed bu
tsa
dden
ed.
Des
pite
ideo
logic
al di
ffere
nces
, itis
impo
rtant
to
conc
ede
that
the
Cong
ress
of t
he p
ast n
ever
spok
e in
the t
erm
s use
d by
their
curr
ent l
ead-
ers o
r alig
ned
with
disr
uptiv
e for
ces
that
und
erm
ined
the
cou
ntry
and
natio
nal i
nter
est.
It is
deep
ly wo
rry-
ing t
o see
the o
ldes
t pol
itica
l par
ty in
the c
ount
ry, o
ne th
at en
joys
supp
ort
acro
ss th
e cou
ntry
, sta
nd w
ith su
chan
ti-na
tiona
l elem
ents.
As a
resu
lt, th
eCo
ngre
ss is
erod
ing i
ts su
ppor
t bas
e.A
bout
125
yea
rs a
go S
wam
iVi
veka
nand
a cr
osse
d th
e oc
eans
topl
ant t
he fla
g of B
hara
tiya c
ivilis
ation
-al
and
cultu
ral v
alues
in a
fore
ign
land.
Tod
ay, a
pol
iticia
n fro
m t
hesa
me
coun
try,
trave
ls ab
road
and
equa
tes In
dian
cultu
ral e
thos
with
the
Mus
lim B
roth
erho
od.
This
is an
insu
lt to
Bha
ratiy
a civ
ilisa
tiona
l val-
ues a
nd cu
lture
.In
a de
moc
racy
it is
but e
xpec
t-ed
that
ther
e wi
ll be
diff
eren
ces
inop
inio
n an
d id
eolo
gies
but
it
isim
pera
tive t
o rise
abov
e the
se d
iffer
-en
ces f
or th
e goo
d of
the n
atio
n. It
ison
ly wh
en t
his
unity
sup
erse
des
polit
icswi
ll the
coun
try fi
nd so
lutio
nsto
the p
robl
ems t
hat a
il us
.(T
he w
riter
is S
ah S
arka
ryav
ah,
RSS)
.:�
./�
:� 0.,:0
�:?�
==$
0/0/,
:'/D
;<�0
Shoul
d in
divi
dual
s bet
wee
n ag
es 1
5 to
18
year
s be
ca
lled
child
ren?
Inte
rnat
iona
lly, t
hose
bet
ween
10 to
19ye
ars h
ave
been
def
ined
as a
dole
scen
ts by
UN
FPA
and
WH
O; a
s you
ths i
f bet
ween
15to
24
(UN
, ILO
); an
d a
s yo
ung
peop
le if
betw
een
10 t
o 24
(U
NFP
A).
Furt
her,
UN
ICEF
and
UN
CRC
cons
ider
s eve
ryon
eun
der 1
8 ye
ars o
f age
as ch
ildre
n. In
Indi
a,th
e def
initi
on o
f who
cons
titut
es a
child
iscr
ucia
l bec
ause
it is
use
d to
inclu
de an
d/or
exclu
de t
hem
fro
m p
rivile
ges,
right
s an
den
title
men
ts m
anda
ted
unde
r pre
sent
leg-
islat
ions
gov
erni
ng ch
ild ri
ghts.
U
nder
the
cou
ntry
’s am
ende
d Ch
ildLa
bour
(Pro
hibi
ion
and
Regu
latio
ns) A
ct,
thos
e belo
w 14
year
s are
def
ined
as ch
ildre
nan
d th
ose
abov
e (1
5 to
19)
as a
dole
scen
ts.D
oes t
his m
atte
r? Y
es, m
ost e
mph
atica
lly so
.O
ne o
f the
big
gest
impa
ct fo
r th
ose
now
class
ified
as a
dole
scen
ts is
the l
oss o
f the
irrig
ht to
edu
catio
n. T
he R
ight
to F
ree
and
Com
pulso
ry E
duca
tion
Act (
RTE)
app
lies
only
to ch
ildre
n in
6 to
14
year
age
gro
up.
Sinc
e la
bour
law
s do
not
con
sider
thos
e in
15 to
18 ye
ar ag
e gro
up as
child
ren,
educ
atio
n is
no lo
nger
com
pulso
ry fo
r the
m.
On
the c
ontra
ry, t
hey a
re p
erm
itted
to w
ork
in ‘n
on-h
azar
dous
’ act
iviti
es, s
uch
as d
omes
-tic
wor
k, w
orki
ng in
dha
bas,
carp
et w
eav-
ing,
aga
rbat
tian
d za
ri m
akin
g fa
ctor
ies.
Stat
istic
ally,
Indi
a cur
rent
ly h
as 10
0 mill
ion
child
ren
aged
bet
wee
n 15
to 18
year
s. O
ver
the
next
10
year
s, a
stag
gerin
g on
e bi
llion
will
pas
s tho
ugh
this
age g
roup
. The
impl
i-ca
tion
of th
em m
issin
g ou
t on
one o
f the
irba
sic ri
ghts
is hu
ge co
nsid
erin
g onl
y one
inev
ery t
wo ch
ildre
n in
this
age g
roup
is st
udy-
ing a
nd on
ly on
e in
ever
y thr
ee sc
hool
-goi
ngch
ildre
n fin
ish C
lass
XI.
Aro
und
4.1
mil-
lion
are w
orki
ng an
d stu
dyin
g. A
nd, t
hat 3
8m
illio
n ar
e wor
king
in h
azar
dous
occ
upa-
tions
, is e
noug
h re
ason
to re
thin
k po
licie
san
d law
s tha
t dep
rive t
hese
child
ren
of th
eirch
ildho
od.
Alth
ough
rat
es o
f ch
ild m
arria
ge f
orgi
rls u
nder
15 ar
e dro
ppin
g, th
e rat
e of g
irls
mar
ryin
g bet
ween
15 an
d 18
has
incr
ease
d.A
201
8 re
port
by
Child
Rig
hts
and
You
(CRY
) rev
eals
that
9.2
mill
ion
in th
is ag
e
grou
p ar
e mar
ried.
Abo
ut 3
.4 m
illio
n gi
rlsar
e m
othe
rs a
nd o
ver
400,
000
of m
arrie
dgi
rls h
ave t
hree
or m
ore c
hild
ren,
pro
babl
ybe
caus
e onl
y 15
per
cent
of t
hem
use
con-
trac
eptiv
es.
Thei
r in
abili
ty t
o ne
gotia
tefa
mily
pla
nnin
g co
uld
be li
nked
to th
e fac
tth
at o
ne in
ever
y fiv
e girl
s rep
orte
d vi
olen
ceby
thei
r hus
band
s.H
ow ca
n th
is be
chan
ged?
CRY
says
one
way
is to
unt
angl
e th
e m
ultip
le de
finiti
ons
that
con
strai
n th
em f
rom
ass
ertin
g th
eir
right
s. Vu
lner
abili
ties o
f thi
s age
gro
up ar
eof
ten ov
erlo
oked
and
cons
eque
ntly,
man
y fall
thro
ugh
the
crac
ks. A
noth
er w
ay to
mak
eth
eir tr
ansit
ion
from
child
hood
to ad
ulth
ood
joyf
ul a
nd a
spira
tiona
l is
to s
ee t
hem
as
child
esce
nts
and
pay
atte
ntio
n to
this
age
grou
p. C
RY’s r
epor
t, ‘C
hild
esce
nts i
n In
dia:
We
Are
Chi
ldre
n To
o’, d
etai
ls co
mpr
ehen
-siv
ely t
he d
iscrim
inat
ion
and
depr
ivat
ion
face
d by
the 1
5 to
18
age g
roup
and
stres
s-es
they
mig
ht h
ave s
een
as ch
ildre
n to
o.It
poin
ts ou
t sev
eral
impo
rtan
t gap
s in
child
pro
tect
ion
stem
min
g fro
m m
ultip
lelay
ers
of f
unct
iona
ries,
legal
sys
tem
s an
din
stitu
tiona
l sup
port
mec
hani
sms t
hat n
ei-
ther
inte
ract
with
eac
h ot
her n
or c
onsid
erth
e “n
eeds
of
the
child
as
supr
eme”.
For
exam
ple,
preg
nant
unm
arrie
d gi
rls in
this
age
grou
p fa
ce s
ocia
l tab
oos
as w
ell a
s ac
tion
unde
r th
e Pr
otec
tion
of C
hild
ren
agai
nst
Sexu
al O
ffenc
e (P
OCS
O)
Act.
This
isbe
caus
e un
der
this
Act,
sexu
al a
ctiv
ityun
der t
he ag
e of 1
8 is a
n of
fence
and
requ
ires
man
dato
ry le
gal r
epor
ting.
It h
as al
so m
ade
it di
fficu
lt fo
r the
m to
acc
ess s
afe a
bort
ion
serv
ices
sinc
e the
Act
also
mak
es it
man
da-
tory
for m
edica
l fac
ilitie
s to r
epor
t suc
h ca
ses
as se
xual
abus
e. Fu
rthe
r, G
over
nmen
t pro
-gr
amm
es, l
ike
the
Jana
ni S
urak
sha
Yoja
naan
d Ja
nani
Shi
shu
Sura
ksha
Kar
yakr
am,
which
pro
vide
free
insti
tutio
nal d
elive
ry an
tena
tal a
nd p
ost n
atal
care
, are
only
for w
omen
abov
e the
age o
f 19.
Con
sider
ing 7
6 per
cent
of g
irls a
ged
10-1
9 ar
e m
arrie
d in
Indi
a, a
sizea
ble p
ropo
rtio
n of
them
bec
ome m
oth-
ers b
efor
e the
y tur
n 18
. Why
shou
ld th
ey b
ede
nied
thes
e ben
efits
?W
hile
ther
e is
a la
ck o
f disa
ggre
gate
dan
d de
taile
d da
ta o
n ca
tego
ries o
f chi
ldre
nin
nee
d of
car
e an
d pr
otec
tion,
an
impo
r-ta
nt a
rea
that
nee
ds c
once
rted
and
urg
ent
atte
ntio
n is
to ch
ildre
n in
area
s of c
onfli
ct.
In N
axal-
affec
ted
Stat
es, p
reve
ntin
g chi
ldre
nfro
m b
eing
recr
uite
d to
arm
ed c
onfli
ct b
yM
aoist
s/ot
her
outfi
ts an
d be
ing
initi
ated
thro
ugh
the b
al sa
ngha
s, yo
ung c
adre
s of t
hein
surg
ents
need
sens
itivi
ty a
nd a
n un
der-
stan
ding
of t
he g
roun
d sit
uatio
n.A
way
to p
reve
nt th
em fr
om fa
lling
inth
is tr
ap i
s to
rev
ive
the
Bal
Band
husc
hem
e. In
trodu
ced
in D
ecem
ber 2
010
byth
e Nat
iona
l Com
miss
ion
for P
rote
ctio
n of
Child
ren
(NCP
CR),
with
supp
ort f
rom
the
Prim
e Min
ister
’s Nat
iona
l Reli
ef F
und
in fi
veSt
ates
of
And
hra
Prad
esh,
Ass
am, B
ihar
,Ch
hatti
sgar
h an
d M
ahar
asht
ra,
the
Bal
Band
hu p
rogr
amm
e aim
ed to
pro
tect
chil-
dren
’s rig
hts i
n ar
eas o
f civ
il un
rest
with
the
help
of b
al ba
ndhu
s or c
hild
def
ende
rs ch
o-se
n fro
m th
e com
mun
ity. T
he re
sult
of th
isth
ree-
year
pro
gram
me p
ilote
d in
nin
e dis-
trict
s in
five S
tate
s im
pact
ed by
inte
rnal
con-
flict
was
rem
arka
ble.
Bal B
andh
us, w
ho w
ere
aged
bet
ween
18-3
0, w
orke
d clo
sely
with
the c
omm
unity
and
were
able
to fo
rm g
roup
s of b
al m
itras
(frie
nds o
f the
child
) as w
ell as
mah
ila sa
n-ga
than
s (wo
men
’s gro
ups)
to h
elp th
em re
ach
out t
o th
e co
mm
unity
to ta
lk to
par
ents
aswe
ll as
pan
chay
at le
ader
s lik
e the
sarp
anch
,m
ukhi
a an
d w
ard
mem
bers
. It w
as th
is co
l-lec
tive o
f peo
ple f
rom
the c
omm
unity
who
were
able
to p
ersu
ade p
aren
ts to
allo
w th
eir
child
ren
to s
tudy
and
not
be
push
ed in
towo
rk to
add
to th
e mea
gre i
ncom
e of f
am-
ilies
that
had
four
or fi
ve m
outh
s to
feed
and
just
one
earn
ing
mem
ber.
The
y we
re a
ble
to ta
lk an
d ev
en p
ull u
p he
adm
aste
rs w
hen
scho
ols d
idn’t
func
tion
prop
erly
or u
nifo
rmm
oney
was
not
dist
ribut
ed to
the s
tude
nts.
Bal b
andh
us w
ere a
ble c
ut th
roug
h co
r-ru
ptio
n an
d re
d ta
pe to
get
stu
dent
s in
tosc
hool
s with
out p
ayin
g an
adm
issio
n fe
e or
proc
ure t
rans
fer c
ertif
icat
es w
ithou
t hav
ing
to b
ribe
teac
hers
. The
y go
t the
com
mun
i-ty
to w
rite
lette
rs to
the
muk
hia
for a
llot-
men
t of l
and
for b
uild
ing s
choo
l. It w
as th
eywh
o wa
tched
over
the m
id-d
ay m
eals
so th
atra
tion
stock
s wer
e not
siph
oned
off.
Ba
l ban
dhus
were
able
to st
op ch
ild m
ar-
riage
s and
ensu
re ca
ste an
d co
mm
unity
bar
-rie
rs w
ere o
verc
ome w
ith co
mm
unity
cele-
brat
ion
of W
omen
’s D
ay, I
nter
natio
nal D
ayag
ains
t Ch
ild L
abou
r an
d In
depe
nden
ceD
ay. M
assiv
e ral
lies a
nd m
arch
es w
ere h
eldpe
riodi
cally
to cr
eate
awar
enes
s abo
ut ch
ildrig
hts a
nd se
ek p
ublic
supp
ort a
gain
st ch
ildla
bour
. Th
is d
eter
min
ed b
and
of B
alBa
ndhu
s wer
e abl
e to
cons
truct
ively
enga
gech
ildre
n an
d sto
p th
eir re
crui
tmen
t int
o ba
lsa
ngha
sor
child
cad
res
of th
e N
axal
s an
dan
ti-na
tiona
l for
ces.
In th
e pre
sent
scen
ario
,ch
ildes
cent
s nee
d a
true
frie
nd. I
t’s ti
me t
obr
ing
them
bac
k th
e bal
ban
dhus
.(T
he w
riter
is a
seni
or jo
urna
list)
Child
ren
need
bal
ban
dhus
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lera
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ppos
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The m
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od’s
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n Co
untr
y’ as
the
Kera
la To
urism
’s fa
mou
s tag
line d
escr
ibes
the s
outh
ern
Stat
e. A
fter b
eing
batte
red
by th
e hea
vies
t rai
nfall
in a
100
year
s for
the m
onth
of A
ugus
t whi
ch le
d to
mas
sive
flood
s, Se
ptem
ber h
as se
en a
huge
shor
tfall
in ra
inlea
ding
to ev
en th
e Per
iyar
rive
r wat
er-le
vel g
oing
dow
n ala
rmin
gly
and
wells
dry
ing
up in
par
ts of
Kera
la. If
anyo
ne w
as lo
okin
g fo
r pro
of o
f ext
rem
ewe
athe
r eve
nts,
they
nee
d lo
ok n
o fu
rther
.
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Petrol price on Thursdaytouched the �81 per litre
mark in Delhi while dieselrates crossed �73 as the potentcombination of a depreciatingrupee and rising crude oil ratescontinued to push fuel priceshigher.
After a day’s lull, theupward march of fuel pricesresumed on Thursday withpetrol price being hiked by 13paise per litre and diesel by 11paise, according to a pricenotification of state-owned oilmarketing companies.
Petrol price in Delhiclimbed to �81 per litre whilediesel inched up to an all-timehigh of �73.08.
Delhi has the cheapest fuelrates among all metros andmost state capitals because of
lower taxes. Mumbai has thehighest sales tax or VAT.
In Mumbai, a litre of petrolnow costs �88.39 and diesel ispriced at �77.58 per litre.
Mumbai has the highestrate of VAT or sales tax in thecountry. According to oil com-panies, refinery gate price ofpetrol, without considering anycentral or state tax and dealer’scommission, is �40.49 per litre.The same for diesel is �44.32.
Retail rates are arrived atafter adding excise duty, whichis charged by the CentralGovernment, commission paid
to petrol pumps dealers andVAT, charged by the state gov-ernments.
Dealer’s commission onpetrol currently is �3.34 perlitre and that on diesel is �2.52.
While crude oil rates flirt-ed with the $80 per barrelmark, the rupee has plungedagainst the dollar. The combi-nation of the two makesimports costlier. Domesticretail prices are benchmarkedto international rates of the fuel.Since mid-August, petrol pricehas risen by �3.92 a litre anddiesel by �4.31.
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In v e s t o rw e a l t h
surged over�12 lakh croreso far during2018-19 fiscaldriven byrobust stockmarket senti-ment duringwhich the BSEbenchmark index soared morethan 14 per cent.
Since March 28 this year(stock markets were closed onMarch 29 and 30th for a localholiday), the 30-share Sensexhas gained 4,749.28 points, or14.40 per cent, to 37,717.96 ason September 12.
The key index touched itslifetime high of 38,989.65 onAugust 29, this year.
Led by rally in stocks, themarket capitalisation of BSE-listed companies jumped�12,01,444 crore to�1,54,26,441 crore as on
September 12.Stock exchanges are closed
on Thursday for “GaneshChaturthi”.
A number of initial publicoffers and subsequent listing ofstocks also helped the marketvaluation rise.
In April, the BSE Sensexgained 5.72 per cent, in May itrose by 0.41 per cent, in Junethe 30-share index went up by0.55 per cent, in July it surged6.64 per cent, in August itjumped 3 per cent, while inSeptember so far it has lost 1.55per cent.
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Walmart-backed Flipkartis expanding the furni-
ture category on its platformwith the introduction of newsub-brand ‘Pure Wood’ as itlooks to compete aggressivelyagainst not just its arch-rivalAmazon but also IKEA in theIndian market.
Flipkart has partnered withsolid wood furniture makers incities like Jaipur and Jodhpur inRajasthan for Pure Wood,which would be under its pri-vate label ‘Perfect Homes’. Thecollection named Amer,Mehrangarh, Nahargarh,Taragarh and Jaisalmer will bepriced between �5,000-70,000.
E-commerce companiesfocus on private labels becausethey offer higher margins andenable better control of inven-tory.
“If you see the furnituremarket in India, it is about $15billion in size. And yet, 90 percent of it is unorganised. Of the10 per cent that is organised,online players take up only 10-15 per cent, so there is a hugescope of growth,” FlipkartSenior Director (Private Labels)Shivani Suri said.
She added that estimates
(internal and industry) suggestthat online channels willaccount for 25-30 per cent ofthe organised furniture marketby 2020.
While she declined to com-ment on revenue targets, Surisaid Pure Wood and PerfectHomes would contribute sig-nificantly to the topline fromthe furniture category.
“Furniture is a difficultcategory. It’s not just aboutoffering the ‘touch and feel’experience, customers are look-ing for quality, durability andaffordability. Using consumerinsights from our platform,we are getting top designs inquality products at affordableprices for the customer,” shesaid.
Asked about competitionfrom Swedish giant IKEA,which recently launched itsstore in Hyderabad, Suri point-ed out that the opportunity inthe Indian market is huge.
“I don’t want to comment
on competition, I’m sure theyhave their own strategy inplace. We are focussed onbringing an expansive range tocustomers, quality productsthat are affordable, accessibleacross India with a great servicepromise,” she said.
IKEA set up its first storein India last month and hasplans to open 25 stores by 2025.It is also looking to enter the e-commerce segment by nextyear, besides exploring smallformat stores as part of itsexpansion plans in the country.
Within the online catego-ry, Flipkart competes with itsAmerican rival Amazon aswell as players like UrbanLadder and Pepperfry.
The launch of the newrange also comes ahead ofFlipkart’s Big Billion Days salethat is slated for next month.
Suri said furniture underPerfect Homes are availablewith FurniSure - a certificationto assure customers of thequality and durability of theproducts.
The certification, sheclaimed, is offered after a rig-orous test process conductedthrough NABL-accredited test-ing laboratories, includingIntratek, MTS, BV, and SGS.
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: �� ���:���� ������,������ ����������������� ���������"������ ������ �����������:�� �������� �������1���� ��������������:������M�: �� ��1��������������� ���������,������ �"���������%����� �����!�� ��.���� �FE������M�: ����������� ����G��: �� ���:���� ������,������������������� ������,���;��� �������������������� ��� ���� ���������� ��� �������%= ���<��������� ����:�����N��"��=������������1�����:��� �1�����#� ��� �M���������:� �������M�1����������<#.)�����.������������# �� ���.����� ��,��� ��������: �$ ��������� �������������������,��%�������� ������������������� ����������%�$�������� ���������� ���������������������"����������������������������� ������%$����������������������������������<���� �� ����������������� ����������� �����������,�����:�������� �����!����# ����������������������,�������������������� �"�������������,���%
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With an aim to deepen thecommodity derivatives
market, regulator Sebi’s boardis likely to approve a propos-al to allow trading in this seg-ment by foreign entities withexposure to the Indian physi-
cal commodity market.Such foreign entities may
be allowed to hedge their expo-sures with derivatives tradingin all commodities traded onIndian exchanges, barring thesensitive commodities.
The board of Securities andExchange Board of India (Sebi)may approve a proposal in thisregard in its meeting schedulednext week, officials said.
Under the proposal, foreignentities, having actual exposureto Indian physical commoditymarkets, may be termedEligible Foreign Entities (EFEs).
A detailed set of norms foreligibility criteria, disclosureand KYC requirements, code ofconduct and safeguards againstany unwanted price fluctuationshas also been proposed. Thedirect participation of foreignentities having actual expo-sure to commodities is expect-ed to make Indian commodityderivatives market more broad-based, vibrant, deep and effi-cient. Further, it will also add tothe depth and liquidity in thefar-month contracts.
The regulator, in May,came out out with consultationpaper for allowing trading inthe commodity derivativesmarket by EFEs and hadsought comments from all the
stakeholders in this regard. The proposal followed rec-
ommendation from the regu-lator’s Commodity DerivativesAdvisory Committee (CDAC)for allowing in this market thehedge funds (category III alter-native investment funds), port-folio management service(PMS) firms, mutual funds anddirect participation of foreignparticipants having exposure tocommodities in the first phase.
In the second phase,CDAC proposed to allowbanks, insurers, foreign port-folio investors and pensionfunds in the commodity deriv-atives market.
Last year, Sebi had issuedconsultation papers for allow-ing mutual funds, portfoliomanagers and hedge funds,among others.
According to the proposal,such EFE should not be anIndian resident but may be aNon-Resident Indian (NRI),provided that such NRI isengaged in physical commod-ity trading businesses withIndia. The minimum networthrequirement for such EFEshould be USD 500,000 andthis limit may be graduallyreviewed based on experienceof EFE participation in themarket.
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Voltas Limited - AC Brand andArçelik, a home appliances
maker (part of the Koç Group),entered into the Indian con-sumer durables market onThursday with the launch oftheir brand – Voltas Beko. Thenew company, Voltbek HomeAppliances Private Limited , anequal partnership joint venture,has introduced a wide range ofhome appliances which includeRefrigerators, Washing Machines,Microwaves, and Dishwashers.
Voltbek plans to launchover 100 SKUs over the next 3months including 44 SKUs ofRefrigerators, 40 SKUs ofWashing Machines, 12 SKUs ofMicrowaves/Ovens and 7 SKUsof Dishwashers. Voltas Bekohas positioned itself as ‘Partnersof Everyday Happiness’ withthe consumer benefit of‘Nutrition, Preservation forRefrigerators and CleaningEfficiency for WashingMachines’. The brand aims toprovide its consumers withstate of the art innovative prod-ucts leveraging Voltas’ brand &distribution strength coupledwith Arçelik’s global expertisein product development.
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The Government is deter-mined to keep fiscal deficit
within the budgeted level of 3.3per cent of GDP as the coun-try cannot afford to have a twindeficit problem, a top officialsaid.
The official said a depre-ciating rupee and high crudeimport bill would definitely putpressure on the country’s cur-rent account deficit (CAD),and a fiscal slippage at thisjuncture would lead to a twindeficit.
Ruling out any excise dutycut on petrol and diesel, theofficial said the dependence onoil as a source of tax revenuehas to be brought down andthis can only happen when theshare of non-oil tax to GDPgoes up.
“India will maintain thefiscal deficit target as we are aconsumption driven economyand tax revenues are alsoincreasing. We are determinedto do that. We will not cutexpenditure as it would have
adverse impact on growth,”the official said.
He said cutting expendi-ture is the easiest way to trimfiscal deficit. “If we cut �1 lakhcrore in expenditure, it wouldlower fiscal deficit to 2.9 percent. But then growth will beimpacted,” the official said.
The government has tar-geted 3.3 per cent fiscal deficitfor the current financial yearending March 2019.
The Government’s financeshave shown improvement inJuly with fiscal deficit at 86.5per cent of the Budget Estimate(BE), mainly on account ofhigher revenue collection, asper official data.
The deficit was at 92.4 percent of BE at July-end of the lastfinancial year.
“Income tax revenues aremoving in right direction, GSTmop up is also recovering andif we keep expenditure withincontrol,we are confident tomaintain the fiscal deficit sit-uation. We don’t want twindeficit problem,” the officialsaid.
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Home-grown mobile makerJivi Mobiles has forayed
into the smartphone space withinitial offerings in the pricerange of �5,000 and �7,000.
It plans to invest �100crore to build its manufactur-ing facility for smartphones.Until now, the company hasbeen making feature phonesonly.
Presently, Jivi assemblesfeature phones in Delhi. Thesmartphone manufacturingfacility is expected to becomeoperational in six months’ time.Banking on a 10-15% month-to-month growth, Jivi has tar-geted to double its turnover to�650-700 crore this fiscal, from�350 crore in 2017-18.
The company is focusingon tier 2 and 3 cities to achieveits sales growth target. It has astrong presence across northernand eastern parts of the coun-try and is now expanding tosouthern and western regions.
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Baba Ramdev’s PatanjaliAyurved on Thursday
announced its foray into thedairy segment by launchingmilk and milk-based products,including curd and cheese, tar-geting sales worth �1,000 crorefrom the segment.
Besides, Patanjali had alsoventured into frozen vegetablesegment and has introducedproducts such as sweet corn,pea and potato fingers.
“We are aiming to have abusiness of �1,000 crore nextfiscal. This fiscal, we wouldhave a business of �500 crore,”said Baba Ramdev whileaddressing a conference.
The Haridwar-based firmhas established a network ofaround 56,000 retailers.
We are targeting 10 lakhlitre of daily sales, Ramdevadded.
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Seoul: US Army soldiers sta-tioned at a garrison in SouthKorea undertook a 24-hourrucksack march that stretched9.11 miles in memory of thevictims of the September 11terror attacks in the US in 2001.
The Eighth Annual USArmy Garrison HumphreysMemorial Ruck March, whichbegan on Tuesday morning tocoincide with the anniversarydate, ended on Wednesdaymorning.
The march was led by304th Expeditionary SignalBattalion, 1st Signal Brigade.Each team stepped off at des-ignated times throughout theday to complete the 9.11-milejourney, which ended onSeptember 12, according tothe US Army GarrisonHumphreys.
The US Army Garrison-Humphreys (CampHumphreys), is an Americanarmy garrison located nearAnjeong-ri and Pyeongtaekmetropolitan areas in SouthKorea, about 70 kms fromSeoul. PTI
Washington: The United Stateswill not tolerate any form of for-eign interference in its elec-tions, President Donald Trumpsaid Wednesday after signing anexecutive order that initiatesactions, including sanctions,against foreign entities whomeddle or even attempt to inter-fere in American polls.
“Today, I took action toprotect the integrity of the UnitedStates electoral system by sign-ing an executive order to ensurethat we can swiftly identify andpunish any foreign interferencein our elections. As I have madeclear, the United States will nottolerate any form of foreignmeddling in our elections,”Trump said in a statement afterhe signed the executive order.
The executive order requiresthe intelligence community andother agencies to assess theextent of any foreign interferenceafter every United States election.If the US determines that any for-eign meddling has occurred,the executive order ensures aquick, forceful, and proportion-ate response, he said. PTI
Beirut: A UN Commission onWednesday called on rebelgroups in Syria’s Idlib provinceto leave urban areas to protectcivilians from any loomingregime assault.
The proposal comes afterthe United Nations’ peace envoyfor Syria, Staffan de Mistura, lastweek suggested a deadline be setfor fighters in Idlib to pull backfrom its cities.
UN agencies and relieforganisations have warnedrepeatedly that any major assaulton the province of Idlib, whichborders Turkey, could spark oneof the worst humanitarian dis-asters of Syria’s seven-year war.
On Wednesday, the UNCommission of Inquiry on Syriacalled for jihadists and opposi-tion fighters to leave the mostdensely populated areas in theregion where some three millionpeople live.
“Most of those terroristgroups and other armed groups,they are in the cities. Perhaps onewonderful scenario is: leave thecities,” commission chief PauloPinheiro said.
Hany Magally, a fellow panelmember, said: “Shouldn’t thearmed groups move out andspare the civilian population?”Idlib and adjacent areas arelargely controlled by HayatTahrir al-Sham, an alliance ledby Al-Qaeda’s former Syrianaffiliate, as well as rival rebels.HTS controls the provincialcapital Idlib city.
The northwestern regionhas seen its population almostdouble with the arrival of Syriansdisplaced from other parts of thecountry, many of whom alreadydepend on aid. AFP
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Hundreds of people attend-ed the funeral prayers of
Begum Kulsoom Nawaz - thewife of former Prime MinisterNawaz Sharif - at a Londonmosque Thursday, as legal for-malities were completed to takeher body to Pakistan for burial.
The funeral prayers atLondon’s Regent Park mosque,which is separate from anotherone to take place in LahoreFriday, were attended by hersons Hassan and Hussain, broth-er-in-law Shehbaz Sharif, formerministers Chaudhry Nisar andIshaq Dar among others.
Hundreds of local Pakistanisturned up at the mosque toattend the funeral. They chant-ed slogans of ‘we salute to themother of democracy’.
Kulsoom died Tuesday in aLondon hospital after a long bat-tle with cancer. She was 68. Shewould be buried on Friday in theJati Umra Lahore residence ofthe Sharif family. She will be laidto rest near the graves of herfather-in-law Mian Sharif andbrother-in-law Abbas Sharif.
Her body will be flownback to Pakistan Thursday nighton a Pakistan InternationalAirlines (PIA) flight scheduledto depart from HeathrowAirport for Lahore.
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South African workers sackedfor singing allegedly offensive
anti-apartheid struggle songsduring a strike should not havebeen dismissed, the country’stop court ruled on Thursday.
Duncanmec, which makesrefuse-handling equipment,fired nine workers whoembarked on an illegal strike in2013 and sang what the com-pany deemed a racist song.
The disputed song includ-ed the lyrics: “climb on top ofthe rooftop and shout that mymother is rejoicing when we hitthe boers (white Afrikaners)”.
The company went to theConstitutional Court seeking tohave its decision to sack theworkers upheld after a longlegal battle. It argued that polit-ical protest songs had no placein the modern workplace.
It said because the songwas sung in front of managersin a disrespectful and aggres-sive way and that it ought to beconsidered racist conduct orhate speech.
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Myanmar’s Aung San SuuKyi on Thursday robustly
defended the jailing of twoReuters journalists who werereporting on the Rohingya cri-sis, as she hit back at global crit-icism ofa trialw i d e l yseen asa nattemptto muz-zle thef r e epress.
Thecountry’s de facto leaderacknowledged that the brutalcrackdown on the Muslimminority -- which the UnitedNations has cast as “geno-cide” -- could have been “han-dled better”, but insisted thetwo reporters had been treat-ed fairly.
“They were not jailedbecause they were journalists”but because “the court has decid-ed that they had broken theOfficial Secrets Act”, she said.
Wa Lone, 32, and Kyaw SoeOo, 28, were each imprisonedfor seven years last week forbreaching the country’s hard-line Official Secrets Act whilereporting on atrocities com-mitted during the militarycrackdown in Rakhine state.
Suu Kyi, once garlanded asa global rights champion, hascome under intense pressure touse her moral authority insideMyanmar to defend the pair.
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The death toll has risen to 11with another 44 people
hospitalized after a manallegedly drove an SUV delib-erately into a crowd in centralChina before jumping out andattacking victims with a daggerand shovel, local authoritiessaid Thursday.
The Hengyang city gov-ernment said the suspect in thecase had previous convictionsfor crimes including drug traf-ficking, theft and assault and,acting alone, had sought to “getrevenge on society.”
That appeared to rule outterrorism, although vehicleshave previously been used inattacks blamed on militantMuslim separatists from theUighur ethnic minority group.
Police identified the sus-pect as 54-year-old YangZanyun from Hengyang’sHengdong county in the large-ly agricultural province ofHunan.
Tuesday night’s attack hap-pened in a public square whereChinese typically gather todance in groups or enjoy thecool evening breezes. The SUVapparently appeared withoutwarning, jumping the curbbefore plowing into the crowd.China has experienced violentattacks in public places inrecent years, including bomb-ings and arson of buses andbuildings.
Occasionally, the attacksare attributed to militant sep-aratists, though such incidents
have become less common inrecent years amid a stiflingsecurity crackdown.
In 2013, an SUV plowedthrough a crowd in front of
Beijing’s Forbidden City beforecrashing and catching fire,killing five, including the vehi-cle’s three occupants. Policeblamed the attack on Uighurextremists inspired by jihadiideology.
More commonly though,the motivation is identified asmental illness, alienation fromsociety or a desire to settlescores.
Chinese law restricts thesale and possession of firearms,and mass attacks are generallycarried out with knives orhomemade explosives. Many ofthose incidents have occurredat schools, including several in2010 in which nearly 20 chil-dren were killed, prompting aresponse from top governmentofficials and leading manyschools to beef up security.
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Asuper typhoon roaredtoward the Philippines on
Thursday, packing fierce windsand heavy rains that are expect-ed to strike the disaster-pronenation at the weekend beforemoving on to China.
Typhoon Mangkhut, whichhas already blasted through theNorthern Mariana Islands, isspeeding across the Pacific withwinds that can gust as high as 255kilometres (160 miles) per hour.
Authorities said some 10million people in the Philippinesare in the storm’s path, notincluding millions more in heav-ily-populated coastal China.
Thousands began evacuat-ing in seaside areas of thenorthern tip of the mainPhilippine island of Luzon,where the storm is expected tomake landfall early Saturday.
“The pre-emptive evacua-tion is going on in our coastalmunicipalities, the villages thatare prone to storm surge,” localgovernment spokesmanRogelio Sending told AFP. “Weare going to evacuate more.” Anaverage of 20 typhoons andstorms lash the Philippineseach year, killing hundreds ofpeople and leaving millions innear-perpetual poverty.
The country’s deadliest onrecord is Super TyphoonHaiyan, which left more than7,350 people dead or missingacross the central Philippines inNovember 2013.
The state weather service
said Mangkhut will be thestrongest typhoon so far thisyear, with sustained winds of205 kilometers per hour.
The typhoon is expected toboost the intensity of seasonalmonsoon rains that havealready caused widespreadflooding in central Luzon, amainly farming region north ofcapital Manila.
Hong Kong is also inMangkhut’s sights and prepara-tions there were already under-way, though the storm was notexpected to hit until Sunday.
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While most authors almost see it asa right to be on board while their
books are adapted for the silver screen,Kanika Dhillon is different. The screen-play writer and author prefers to keepboth separate. “When I have written abook, I’ve done my bit and told it the wayI want to. And I don’t want to do itsscript. I keep telling everyone to getsomeone else to write the screenplay ifyou want to make a film,” she says sit-ting at a five-star hotel in NCR. She is apart of the promotion team ofManmarziyan, the movie which will seeAbhishek Bachchan after a hiatus of twoyears alongside Vicky Kaushal andTaapsee Pannu exploring the layers ofmodern relationships.
There is a reason behind her quirk.“When adapting a book to a screenplay,you need to know what to cut and getrid of. When I am so involved in thestory I will always have my darlings asI will be attached to this or that and I willnever be able to be objective. I need a dif-ferent voice which is brutal and fresh.Maybe I can be a part of it but I can’t bethe only one doing both the things,” saysKanika who has authored books likeBombay Duck is a Fish (2011), a satireon the Indian film industry, the youngadult superhero novel Shiva and the Riseof the Shadows (2013), and the dramaThe Dance of Durga (2016).
She adds that brevity is the key whilewriting a screenplay. “It is more alive inthe sense that it can constantly evolve tillthe time that it is shot. My process as anauthor once I hand over the book to theeditor is over. But in a film I am on theset and can see the words come alive. Theimpact can change because someone elseis interpreting it. A line could soundgreat in my head but it might sound ter-rible when the actor is actually saying it,”says Kanika who started out as an assis-tant director on the sets of Ra.One.
She is very clear cut that though bothinvolve writing, books and films are verydifferent media in the way that the audi-ence consumes them and also the wayshe writes. “How I am going to approacha book and a film depends on the waythe audience or the reader approachesthe two. Writing a book or a novel is avery personal experience as there is nointerpretation from any director or theteam or costume designer. I get todesign every colour, stroke, paint and thefeel as well as the look of it and presentit to my audience and they can enhanceit further with their own imagination. Itis a very direct medium,” she says.
But the two do meet for Kanika inthe sense that both books and thescreenplays are a factor of the environ-ment that she is in. “These are peoplethat surround me. Perhaps we are thesecharacters that I write about,” she says.For Manmarziyan particularly she felt aneed to bring out a complexity ordichotomy that exists in the society. “Ourculture, stories and lores and our entiresystem of cultural experiences tell us thatlove is everlasting. India goes mad onmarriages. But when I actually experi-enced love, I realised its limits. They canactually disable you. We’ve always seenthat love is empowering, it isn’t. It candestroy you. It is not a divine emotion
nor set in stone as it comes and also goesaway. Then you find it again. But I amnot saying that I don’t believe in it. I doand so do the characters ofManmarziyan, but how do we negotiatelove in today’s day and time? That is whatthe film is about,” she explains.
She says that the film evolved out ofa need to express a love story which wasfree of any kind of judgement and gaveus the perspective about a woman’schoice to fall in love, fall out of it andfickle about it. “I wanted to be honest andhave the freedom to create those char-acters which went beyond the sanitisedones that we see on screen. Love is verymessy and we never get to see that side.It is messy, fickle, selfish and not pureor holier than thou.”
She goes on to add that the film isa contemporary take on today’s gener-ation. “Love has become a curse of thisgeneration because there is dichotomy.There is instant gratification as we haveTinder, multiple sexual partners but atthe same time there is this caveman needfor a life-changing relationship. Earlier,happily ever after was possible as we did-n’t have multiple choices.” So even whenthere is a movie about a girl meets a boyand falls in love, there is a way forwardand certainly a change in its treatmentand content. Kanika says, “Content ischanging as well as the audience. They
have access to such varied and strongcontent. One can’t take the audience forgranted which is good as we have towork harder to get retention and toentertain them. The audience wants tohear different kinds of stories because theexposure levels have changed.”
She believes that societal evolutionand internet accessibility have pushedthematic change in our storylines.“When we have a different kind of expo-sure to technology and your life inter-actions are changing, this will natural-ly impact the way you get entertainmentand the way you consume it. Both mir-ror each other. The influence of internetand technology is huge. And it is find-ing its way in new kinds of storytellingwhich are new and fresh,” she says.
This, she believes, is also reflected inthe kind of heroes that the films throwup. “We create the heroes according tothe needs of the time. The angry youngman of the 70s, who lasted through tothe 80s, was about challenging theestablishment after a nation wentthrough its honeymoon phase, and get-ting your worth and identity justly.Today, the common man is the hero whocan change his destiny on his terms. Sowe have stopped looking out for messi-ahs to save us. We don’t have to look atNRIs or global influences to find hero-ism because we are the country that isleading everywhere now. It has percolat-ed down to the stories that we are telling,”says the scriptwriter author dressed inripped jeans, which invites a lot of leg-pulling from Abhishek who is in thesame room as her.
Kanika’s flair will be seen next inMental Hai Kya starring Kangana Ranautand Rajkummar Rao as well asKedarnath which stars Sarah Ali Khan.She admits that she doesn’t have a dis-ciplined approach to writing. “Before Isit down to type, a lot of it has to be inmy mind. I need to get into the emotion-al zone of writing. There is a lot of prepa-ration involved. If I am writing a lovestory then perhaps I would like to listento a certain kind of music to get into theemotional state to write. People thinkthat it is procrastination, which it is not.I might be thinking about it whileshopping and getting to the point of writ-ing,” she says.
Usually she takes about a year to geta script and screenplay along with thedialogues in place. “I need to have myown independent voice. I can’t do dia-logues independently because I feelscreenplay and dialogues are inter-linked. There is no concept of separat-ing the two. In a year’s time, I can giveyou a wholesome story but then it couldbe faster like the way it happened forMental Hai Kya as I was going throughanxiety. I just wrote it,” she says.
What is also interesting aboutKanika is that she is not even remotelyconnected with the industry. “I alwayswanted to be a writer. My mother is aprofessor and teaches literature inAmritsar. So stories were a part of grow-ing up. And then in Amritsar ourbiggest outing was watching movies. Iloved to see those beautiful storiescome alive. No wonder I landed here,”she ends with a laugh.
Imagine worshipping the earthlyGanesha in the open, in a potted pit
with the heavens above as witness. Andthen when the prayers are done and rit-uals over, the clay form dissolves into theearth and the embedded seeds andgrains sprout as flowering plants. It isknown that divinity stays with you for-ever but when you align your earthly rit-uals with that thought, you get a consci-entious society.
Mukesh Goyal of Kriti Creations inKhan Market has been doing eco-friend-ly Ganeshas for the past three-four years.Their sizes vary from four inches to 30inches and they do not use any kind ofresin. The paints used are eco-friendlytoo.
The idol makers are based out ofCalcutta and Maharashtra and sincethese idols are not baked, they break eas-ily during transport. “About 50 per centof the idols break and this pushes up thecost drastically. However, if we have tosave the environment and secure waterfor the future generations, this is essen-tial.”
Kriti Creations also has pots with aseed inside that can be buried in thehouse or in the colony park. “When theplant grows big many years down theline, the children of the family will lookat it with pride,” adds Goyal.
Since last year, the sales of eco-friendly Ganesha have gone up by20 per cent at this shop. “But thegovernment needs to put a ban onplastic and cement ones for theseare harming the environment.”
������������The beautiful Ganesha
made out of Sikki craft fromDarbhanga, Muzaffarpur andMadhubani district can be picked upfrom Dastkar Haat as well as the CraftsMuseum. Standing at 1.5-2 feet, these arepriced between �2,000-3,000.
Artist Puneet Kaushik, who hasworked with the artisans, says, “This ismade of a grass called Sikki from whichthe craft derives its name. These are dyedin natural colours and with the help of aneedle like tool, it is woven to make thefigures of deities, baskets and more.” Onesuch Ganesha takes up a prominent placein his garden.
����G#����������������Lighting designers Prateek Jain and
Gautam Seth have unveiled a new rangeof collectibles for the festive season with
hand-blown glass. The Ganesha and hisaccessories, including coconut offerings,are for keeps and can be re-used.
� �������� !%Online portals like Snapdeal are fol-
lowing an eco-friendly approach byoffering a choice of terracotta idols,
which are made entirely of clay andhave no paint-based embellish-ments. The idols dissolve in waterwithout leaving any harmfulresidue.
� �������Some children are celebrating
Ganesh Chaturthi by venerating atree dressed as the Lord and not
casting him in any earthly mould.Many Indians have treated trees assacred. How powerful this is today, in theera of climate change.
The commonly-used idols are usual-ly made of Plaster of Paris (PoP) and aredecorated with paints having high leadand mercury content, which are harm-ful for the environment. PoP chokes waterbodies, while the toxic colors make thewater acidic, disturbing the plants andmarine life ecosystem. So stay awayfrom them even if it means scalingdown your celebrations.
Christie’s sale of South AsianModern and Contemporary Arttotaled $8,314,625 with 81per
cent sold by lot and 85 per cent soldby value. The top lot of the sale wasa masterpiece by Tyeb Mehta(1925-2009), Diagonal XV, whichsold for $1,392,500. Other notableresults included Akbar Padamsee’s(B. 1928), Rooftops, which went for$912,500.
Tyeb’s Diagonal belonged to thedistinguished author GurcharanDas. Today, Das has turned hisfocus to the future through philan-thropy. By offering one of the worksfrom his impressive private art col-lection at this auction, Das hopesto raise funds to realise someimportant projects in this direction.
�%#�!���������������'Critic curator and poet Ranjit
Hoskote described Tyeb’s work as,“The diagonal, the fierce weaponby which space could be reorgan-ised and the self could stage its bat-tle with itself was born almost for-tuitously, out of painterly frustra-tion. Having come to an impassein his handling of the relationshipbetween figure, field and colour, in1969, Tyeb suddenly flung a blackslash across one of his paintings:beginning as an improvisatoryresolution to a periodicallyintractable problem, the diagonalbecame a device to activate thepainting, and eventually, a symbolof scission, of that simultaneousseparation and twinning by whichthe self recognises and comes tohealing terms with its own contra-dictions.”
The Christie’s catalogue alsohas Tyeb’s own words, “I was try-ing to work out a way to definespace…to activate a canvas. If Idivided it horizontally and vertical-ly, I merely created a preponder-ance of smaller squares or rectan-gles. But if I cut the canvas with adiagonal, I immediately created a
certain dislocation. I was able todistribute and divide a figure with-in the two created triangles andautomatically disjoint and fragmentit. Yet the diagonal maintained analmost centrifugal unity… in factbecame a pictorial element in
itself.”Having had the privilege of
seeing several works by Tyeb Mehtaover the last 15 years, I am stillamazed by the sophistication andpotency of Mehta’s quintessentialicons — the falling figure, the
trussed bull, the rickshaw puller —every time I encounter them. Theartist seems to freeze these com-pelling moments in his large paint-ings, inviting the viewer to becomepart of them. For me, his paintingsinvoke wonder and devastation inequal measure, as he reveals truthsthat continue to be as relevant anduniversal today as when he creat-ed his paintings,” says NishadAvari, director and head of sales,South Asian Modern andContemporary Art New York.
��"����The second highest bidding
went to the Sanskrit scholar andvoracious reader and thinker AkbarPadamsee, one of the foundingmembers of the Progressives. Amonumental landscape from 1959titled Rooftops, is the first ofPadamsee’s scroll-like paintings ofhis ‘gray period’, significant in itsclear illustration of the artist’s tran-sition to a new method of workingwith paint and a unique way ofvisualising colour, scale and com-
position. Speaking about this, henoted, “[...] in order to overcomethe practical problem of nearness,I discovered this adventurous, newway of composing a picture. It wasnot possible to see the entire paint-ing unless I moved far behind. Asthe angle of our vision is 28°, Iwould conceal the painting andopen it part by part as I went along.It was as if it were unrolling itselfin space. As I started composing inthis way, I found that I had discov-ered a very different kind of com-position.”
A panoramic compositionwith no linear narrative or any def-inite beginning and end, this denselandscape is almost entirely filledby block-like architectural forms,abutting each other on what lookslike a gentle hillside. The perspec-tive Padamsee employs seems toshift from frontal to aerial as thecomposition progresses up thehill, with edifices of various shapesand sizes jostling for space, includ-ing domed Mediterranean towers,red-roofed houses and a few point-ed turrets. As with all his works,
this landscape has no specific geo-graphic or chronological locationor any clear residents. Inspired bya fleeting glimpse of Mumbai’s sky-line from his friend Bal Chhabda’swindow, this carefully orchestrat-ed vista instead suggests the time-less and the infinite. Not only doesRooftops represent a momentouspoint of departure in Padamsee’soeuvre, but it is also a critical med-itation on color, form and move-ment — an examination of the veryact of painting and one that con-tinues to shape and inform theartist’s work even today.
“It was an absolute honour tobe able to handle the sale ofRooftops from 1959, the first ofAkbar Padamsee’s limited series ofmonumental ‘grey paintings’. Forme, this painting is a perfect exam-ple of the eclectic and non-linearapproach to modernism that isembodied in Padamsee’s creativeprocess, which continues to besimultaneously personal and ratio-nal, informed by an ever-growingamalgam of experiences, studiesand instinct,” adds Avari.
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"Before we leave, can I please have onephoto with you?" he asks while takinga camera out of his pocket and hand-ing it to his friend. "Of course," I sayand I start to move nearer to him. Iam typically opposed to random peo-ple taking pictures with me and try todiscourage it as sweetly yet sternly aspossible. However, when the universehas already denied him so much, I can-not conscionably deny him anythingmore. With some eye that hasn't beenblind for the last sixty years, with somefaculty as yet unknown to modern sci-ence, he aligns himself exactly next tome, without laying a single hand on mybody. "Smile" he commands with alaugh, as his mouth widens into a fulltoothed grin which spreads across hisentire face. The camera flashes in oureyes. He doesn't blink, of course."Take one more," he instructs hisfriend. "Just in case."What will he do with this photo of me?He could neither see me sitting in frontof him nor see the camera he removedfrom his pocket nor see the rushingGanga river that flows outside theashram. He can see nothing, as he lostall sight at the age of eight or nine. Yethe sees more than I do. He sees morethan nearly anyone I know.At the age of 19 his mother had triedto kill herself when his father died. Hehad been four at the time, and hismother succeeded only in renderingherself completely deaf, not in actual-ly ending her life. Due to cultural cir-cumstances dictated by severe lack ofeducation and other constraints in ruralSouthern India, his maternal grand-parents decided that the best thing for
his mother would be to live out herremaining years, however many theymight be, sitting on a bed, eating, sleep-ing and chewing pan. "She became ahunchback from bending over all daylong to spit out the pan," he describes."Sixty-six years she lived like that, aforced invalid due to the loss of herhearing." Upon his father's death andmother's deafness he had been sent tolive with his paternal grandparents. "Imade a decision," he explains, "that Iwould become something that I wouldserve the world that I would see evenwithout my eyes."The list of organizations he has initi-ated and headed would put any suc-cessful philanthropist to shame. Anactive Rotarian, president of an NGOdedicated to women's welfare, a leaderin the blind movement in USA andIndia.....He led India's first march forequal rights for the blind, only to belathi-charged by the police whothought the peaceful marchers' caneswere sticks. Grabbed from behind andtossed -- all fifty meager kilograms ofhim -- into a police van, attacked andbeaten along with his fellow conspir-ators, before anyone in uniform real-ized the reason no-one's eyes squeezedshut before the lathi struck their heads.Yet he laughs as he describes it; thereisn't a trace of bitterness or anger, justlessons well learned on the need forproper publicity and education priorto undertaking any further publicprocessions.As he is getting ready to leave he asksme for literature, documents, on ourorganization, on Pujya Swamiji's(Swami Chidanand Saraswati, thespiritual head of Parmarth NiketanAshram in Rishikesh)work. I put a pileof brochures and books into his out-stretched hands, touching his fingersto the spine of each as I explain whatthey all are. "This is a brochure of our
Foundation, this is Pujya Swamiji'sbook on Peace," I tell him, as he gin-gerly fingers each book with the lov-ing and eager attention of a child feel-ing his mother's face for the first time."Unfortunately," I stammer, slightlyembarrassed, "we don't have any bookson tape, although after meeting you Irealize that maybe we should under-take that as well." He smiles. "Oh, don'tworry. I will use these two eyes to readthem. I will find a way."Later in the evening, he is due to leavethe ashram but is determined to havedarshan of Pujya Swamiji first. Hewaits, along with so many others, in thereception area until his name is called.How easy it would have been to leaveon time without waiting for PujyaSwamiji's schedule to free up. For, hecannot see anyway. How easy to offerrespects in his own mind, or throughone of us. But he was adamant. Hewould wait for darshan despite the longjourney ahead of him. I am remind-ed of the story of a great saint ofVrindavan, also blind, who would trav-el by foot each day to Banki Biharimandir. One day in the midst of tor-rential monsoons, he alone braved theflooded alleyways to be present forevening aarti. The priest, looking uponthe sole worshipper that day, asked him,"Swamiji, you of all people, here in thisweather? You could have stayed homeand offered your prayers to the Lordat home, in your own mind. You can-not see the darshan anyway, so therewas no reason for you to come out inthis weather." "Oh, my child," theSwami replied. "I may not be able tosee Him, but surely He can see me."Later, seated in Pujya Swamiji's jyopri(bamboo hut), my new friend bowsdown low to that which is Light to usand yet couldn't have been anythingother than continued darkness for hisnon-seeing eyes. How did he know,
before Pujya Swamiji even spoke,where to bow? How did he know theexact perfect angle at which to lay hishead so it was just in front of PujyaSwamiji's feet? How did his otherwisevacant eyes shine when he lifted hishead? What had been perceived?What is sight? Simply a series of neur-al impulses, connections and infor-mation sent electrically from the reti-na through the optic nerve and ulti-mately to the occipital lobe in the backof the brain? If that's all it were theneveryone who saw the same scenewould encode it and perceive it in thesame way, barring of course any weak-ness or fault in the mechanisms of sen-sation or perception. Then court bat-tles wouldn't be fought with one eyewitness saying the getaway car wasgreen and another swearing it was blue.Clearly our "sight" is so much morethan the encoding of neural stimuli.What is it then? Much research hasbeen done in the field of neuronal per-ception, regarding differing abilities ofthe blind with regard to light, shape,colors, etc. Some are able, even manyyears after losing all function of the reti-na or optic nerve to still "think" in formand imagery, while others seem todescend to a completely formless, col-orless existence relatively shortly.Theories abound regarding the differ-ences being related to damage in dif-ferent areas of the brain, or due to dif-ferent types of personalities or the wayin which each patient "exercises" theabilities they still have. Yet, while science can study the waylight is absorbed, or not absorbed, bythe retina, or the way that form is per-ceived, or not perceived, in the occip-ital lobe, what about that sight whichis so much deeper? What about mynew friend's ability to know where tolay his head or to intuit exactly whereI was standing and to stand perfectly
next to me? What is he seeing througheyes with irises floating about aimlesslylike lily-pads in a clear pond? Is therea mechanism of sight beyond thatwhich we know?Hinduism talks about a third eye, anenergy center (or chakra) located onthe forehead between the eyebrows. Itis said that this eye, when awakened,is the eye of clear vision, the eye whichsees truth amidst untruth, which seeslight amidst darkness, which sees thepath amidst the forest, the eye whichsees the divine in all. Perhaps throughlosing the functioning in his two"normal" eyes, my friend has actuallybeen gifted with heightened func-tioning in the third. It is well docu-mented that losing one sense leads toan increase in ability in the others. So,for example, blind people absolutelyhear and smell better than seeing peo-ple. They are able to differentiatebetween sounds and smells that mostseeing people cannot. However, is itpossible that in addition to havingenhanced functioning in their otherfour senses, blind people -- or at leastthose as spiritually inclined as my newfriend -- also have an easier time see-ing with their third eye? Do we, soheavily and habitually dependent uponwaves and patterns of light and formto see, actually miss that which is beforeus? Do we, even those with peripher-al vision intact, actually succumb to adifferent kind of tunnel-vision byassuming that that which we can "see"is limited to that which falls upon ourretinas? Do we unconsciously filter outthe other sight?Perhaps, in exchange for the pictureand books I gave him, my new friendcould teach me how to see....
(The writer is the president of DivineShakti Foundation, Rishikesh. She leftAmerica in 1996 and settled in Rishikesh.Views expressed here are personal )
"Art, science and religion are butthree different ways of expressing asingle truth," says Sri Ramakrishna
Osho had once said, "Deathbegins with Life". I like to just turnit around and say Life begins withDeath. Death is implied in life,inbuilt; it unfolds as the time comessometimes at young age or moreoften at advanced age. It brings lotof grief to the family especiallywhen it comes to a young person. Itcan cause grief even when it comesat 90 or even later as we saw recent-ly when two celebrated people, for-mer Prime Minister Atal BihariVajpayee and senior journalistKuldeep Nayyar passed away at 93and 95 respectively.
But it seems that death carriesthe seed of life within. The Hindusbelieve in re-incarnation dependingupon one's Karma. Many of the rit-uals after death are aimed at makingthe transition easy for the departedsoul for rebirth. When death hap-pens to someone close or loved
deeply, we usually meditate over italbeit temporarily. Those affecteddirectly like father, mother, wife, sib-lings or a child and the intimatefriends too return to normal activ-ity but with a long shadow of griefthat takes its own time to heal.However encounter with death givesus a deep understanding of life. Thismeditation, therefore, must not stopif one wishes to conquer the fear ofdeath.
Many wise people haveexpressed their thoughts about death,the ultimate certainty of life. I wishto recall some of these reflections bya few illuminated minds.
Rabindranath Tagore in his gen-tle way, tells us how one should bidfarewell to the loved ones:
"I have got my leave. Bid mefarewell my brothers. I bow to youall and take my departure…Thesummons have come and I amready for my journey."
Rumi Jallaluddin reinforces theconcept of energy transformationfrom one living form to anotherform:
"I died as a mineral and becamea plant
I died as a plant and rose to ananimal
I died as an animal and I becamea man
Why Should I fear, When was Iless by dying "
Khalil Gibran sums up his phi-losophy on the close relationship
between life and death:"If you would indeed behold the
spirit of death,Open your heart wide unto the
body of lifeFor life and death are one, even
as the river and the sea are one"
Socrates similarly reaffirmedthe eternal spirit or Atman when hetold Plato and his other disciples,"Catch it if you can".
It was the recent death of AtalBihari Vajpayee, a venerated states-man, a poet and a former Prime
Minister that made me revisit themystique of death. Vajpayee's pass-ing away caused an unexpectednational catharsis. The 93-year-oldBJP stalwart was an eminent politi-cal leader who had remained out ofpublic sight for several years.
Outpouring of immense genuinegrief, therefore, surprised many. Hewas widely respected for his politi-cal acumen but also had the fine sen-sibilities of an acclaimed writer,philosopher and a poet. He haspenned several stirring poems and
several of his poems were resurrectedon TV channels after his death. It issaid that he wrote the much publi-cized poem in a letter to his jour-nalist friend, Dharamvir Bharti,when he was in the US for medicaltreatment in 1998. In this poem, hewrites about his encounter withdeath and almost chides it, claimingsuperior power of life over death:
"Jujhne ka mera irada na tha,mod par milenge iska vaada na tha,
Raasta rok kar khadi ho gyi, yunlaga zindagi se badi ho gayi.
Maut ki umar kya hai? Do palbhi nhi, Zindagi silsila, aaj kal ki nhi.
Mai ji bhar jiya, Mai man semaru, lautkar aunga, kooch se kyudaru?"
The last lines sum up a life welllived when the individual has under-stood the fullness of life, mystery ofdeath and abiding faith in rebirth. Itis true that only a few enlightenedbeings can make such claim with nofear of death.
Vajpayee at another time hadwritten nudging the readers to real-ize that life is short and one shouldnot lose time over trivia:
Do din mile udhaar mein,Ghateke vyapaar mein,
Kshan-kshan ka hisaab joroonya punji sesh lootaoon mai?
Rah kaun si jaaoon mai?(The writer is a Cardiovascular-Thoracic Surgeon from Mumbaipresently attached to RamakrishnaMission Clinic in Dehradun.)
Bharatiya Culture Is Integrated. The f irstcharacteristic of Bharatiya culture is that it looks
upon life as an integrated whole. It has an integratedviewpoint. To think of parts may be proper for aspecialist but it is not useful from the practicalstandpoint. The confusion in the West arises primarilyfrom its tendency to think of life in sections and thento attempt to put them together by patch work. We doadmit that there is diversity and plurality in life butwe have always attempted to discover the unitybehind them. This attempt is thoroughly scientific. Thescientists always attempt to discover order in theapparent disorder in the universe, to find out theprinciples governing the universe and frame practicalrules on the basis of these principles. Chemistsdiscovered that a few elements comprise the entirephysical world. Physicists went one step further andshowed that even these elements consist only of energy.Today we know that the entire universe is only a formof energy. Philosophers are also basically scientists. Thewestern philosophers reached tip to the principle ofduality; Hegel put forward the principle of thesis, anti-thesis and synthesis; Karl Marx used this principle asa basis and presented his analysis of history andeconomics. Darwin considered the principle ofsurvival of the fittest as the sole basis of life. But wein this country saw the basic unity of all life. Even thedualists have believed the nature and spirit to becomplementary to each other than conflicting. Thediversity in life is merely an expression of the internalunity. There is complementary underlying the diversity.The unit of seed finds expression in various form - -the roots, the trunk, the branches, the leaves, theflowers and the fruits of the tree. All these havedifferent forms and colors and even to some extentdifferent properties. Still we recognize their relationof unity with each other through seed.Unity in diversity and the expression of unity in variousforms has remained the central thought of Bharatiyaculture. If this truth is wholeheartedly accepted thenthere will not exist any cause for conflict among variouspowers. Conflict is not a sign of culture of nature: ratherit is a symptom of their degradation. The law of thejungle, "Survival of the Fittest" which the Westdiscovered in recent years was known to ourphilosophers. We have recognized desire, anger etc.among the six lower tendencies of human nature, butwe did not use them as the foundation or the basis ofcivilized life or culture. There are thieves and robbersin the society. It is essential to save ourselves and thesociety from these elements. We cannot consider themas our ideals or standards for human behavior.Survival of the fittest is the law of the jungle. Thecivilizations have developed not on the basis of thislaw but by consideration of how the operation of thislaw will be the least in human life. If we wish toprogress, we have to keep this history of civilizationbefore our minds.
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Dr Ratna Magotra
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India's depleted Davis Cup squad willbank on the consistency of PrajneshGunneswaran to pull the side through
when it takes on a shorn-of-star-powerSerbia in the World Group Play-off tie herefrom Friday.
Recently-crowned US Open cham-pion Novak Djokovic's decision to opt outof the play-offs along with world number33 Filip Krajinovic has raised hopes of anequal contest between the two teams.
Playing away is still an enormous taskfor the Indian team, which has landed herewithout its top singles player Yuki Bhambriand Asian Games men's doubles Goldmedallist Divij Sharan.
But the combined experience of theIndian players in Davis Cup is 43 ties ascompared to just 14 of the line-up in thehome side, something which the visitorswould look to exploit.
In the absence of an injured Yuki, alot would depend on how the left-hand-ed Prajnesh, who won a singles Bronzemedal at the Asian Games, performs.
The 28-year-old won the decidingfifth rubber against rising Chinese starYibing Wu to help India reach the WorldGroup Play-off stage for the fifth straightyear.
Prajnesh has shown the mentalstrength to soak in the pressure and he isconfident going into the tie which will beplayed indoors on clay courts.
"Novak is not playing, so everyone elseis beatable if we play well. It will be toughcertainly. But we have a chance. We needto take the opportunities we get," Prajneshsaid.
Ramkumar Ramanathan, ranked 135,has pulled off some big wins in the last 12months but consistency has always beenhis bane.
In Jakarta, he lost to a player who wasranked below 400.
For Serbia, Dusan Lajovic, whostunned US Open finalist and world No4 Juan Martin del Potro at the MadridMasters, will lead the challenge andRamkumar has beaten the world number56 in the past.
It was in the qualifying event of theCincinnati Masters last year. But Lajovicis on song right now and is enjoying thebest phase of his career.
Laslo Djere, ranked 86, is the secondsingles player for the hosts and he lacksexperience in Davis Cup, having appearedin just two ties before this.
The rest of the three players in theSerbian side — Pedja Krstin (1), NikolaMilojevic (1) and Danilo Petrovic (0) —have played two ties between them.
"Our chances remain the same. AfterNovak pulled out, we believe we have achance," said India's non-playing captainMahesh Bhupathi.
Rohan Bopanna will be the mostexperienced player on the courts with 29ties under his belt.
The 38-year-old will have to use hisexperience to ensure that India get thatdoubles point on Saturday. He and NSriram Balaji played well againstUzbekistan last year.
India have not beaten Serbia since1927 when the hosts were calledYugoslavia and there is a possibility thatthis statistic might change come Sunday.
If that happens, India will enter theWorld Group for the first time since 2011when it had lost to Serbia in the first roundof the elite 16-nation event.
In the last four years, India lost at thesame stage to Serbia (2014), Spain (2015),Czech Republic (2016) and Canada(2017).
�!��!� ����������!����An unpredictable Ramkumar
Ramanathan will open India's campaignagainst fifth seed Serbia with a matchagainst Laslo Djere even as coach ZeeshanAli downplayed Yuki Bhambri's absence
from the side in the World Group Play-off tie, starting Friday.
Djere is ranked higher thanRamkumar at number 86 but he is yet towin a match in Davis Cup. On the otherside, Ramkumar is placed 135 in the worldbut is far more experienced, havingplayed six ties with a 7-5 Win-Lossrecord.
Left-handed Prajnesh Gunneswaran,being the number two singles players fromIndia, will take on Serbia number oneDusan Lajovic, the highest ranked singlesplayer of the tie at number 56.
On Saturday, Rohan Bopanna and NSriram Balaji will take on the home pairof Nikola Milojevic and debutant DaniloPetrovic in the doubles rubber.
The reverse singles will be played onSunday with Ramkumar taking on Lajovicand Prajnesh, ranked 162, locking hornswith Djere.
Ramkumar has played against Lajovicin 2017 and had emerged victorious but
the Serbian is in form of his life as herecently beat US Open finalist JuanMartin Del Potro.
India are without top singles playerYuki, who is nursing an injured knee, butcoach Zeeshan Ali says it should not bean issue.
"Not having Yuki while playing onclay court is not a big setback for us.Looking at the last nine months, Yuki hasplayed one odd or two matches on clay.His ranking is higher than other two play-ers but his game is not suited for clay. Itwould have been great to have him on theteam but it still is not a great setback con-sidering the surface," Zeeshan said.
"The good things is, that people likeRamkumar, Prajnesh and Balaji, they havebeen training in Europe on clay for the lastfew years. It's not a new surface for theseplayers. They are used to playing on clay.Ten years back, we did not have players,who could play on clay but now it is dif-ferent," Zeeshan added.
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The seasoned duo of L Sarita Devi and M CMary Kom were among the six Indian box-
ers to enter the semifinals and be assured of amedal along with a youth pugilist in the 13thInternational Silesian Championship for womenin Gliwice, Poland.
Sarita, a former world champion and AsianGames Bronze-medallist, defeated CzechRepublic's Alena Czechy 5-0 Wednesday nightafter going past Kazakhstan's AizanKhojabekova in the opening round of the 60kgcategory the day before.
She will now square off against anotherKazakh in Karina Ibragimova in the semifinals.
Five-time world champion and OlympicBronze-medallist Mary Kom is yet to set footinside the ring but is through to the semis owingto the small size of the draw in the light fly-weight 48kgcategory.
India's firstand only AsianGames Goldmedal-winningwoman boxeris returning tothe ring aftermissing therecently-con-cluded editionin Jakarta dueto minor fit-ness issues.
A m o n gother Indiansin fray, RituGrewal wonher boutagainst Russia'sSvetlana Rosja4-1 to make the51kg categorysemifinals along with Lovlina Borgohain(69kg). Borgohain got the better of CzechRepublic's Martina Schmoranzova.
Joining them in the last-four stage wereformer Asian youth champion Manisha (54kg)and Pooja Rani (81kg).
Manisha out-punched former world cham-pion Dina Zholaman of Kazakhstan 5-0, whilePooja defeated Ukraine's AnastasiiaChernokolenko in her quarterfinals bout by asplit verdict.
In the youth competition, Jyoti Gulia(51kg) advanced to the medal round with a 5-0 win over Germany's Rafaela Arampatzi.
However, Seema Punia (+81kg), PwilaoBasumatary (64kg) and Shashi Chopra (57kg)lost their respective bouts to bow out of medalcontention.
Seema was beaten by Kazakh LazzatKungeibayeva 5-0, while Basumatary lost by asimilar margin to Poland's Natalia Barbusinska.
Shashi, on the other hand, lost to England'sAnglia Chapmen, also a unanimous verdict.
In the junior competition, Raj Sahiba(70kg) defeated Poland's Barbara Marcinkowska5-0.
In the 75kg category, Neha got the betterof Daria Parada by a similar margin, whileKomal (80kg) had to toil for a 3-2 win overMartyna Jancelewicz.
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Udhayveer Singh, all of 16,shone bright with an indi-
vidual Gold in the juniormen's 25m pistol event afterspearheading India to theteam Gold in the WorldShooting Championships hereon Thursday.
Singh shot a score of 587(291 in precision and 296 inrapid) in the individual com-petition to grab the Goldahead of American HenryLeverett (584) and KoreanLee Jaekyoon (582).
Compatriot VijayveerSidhu finished fourth with ascore of 581, while RajkanwarSingh Sandhu took the 20thspot with a score of 568.
The trio's combined scoreof 1736 fetched the team Goldfor India followed by China,which totalled 1730. TheBronze medal went to TeamKorea, which shot a score of1721.
In the senior competi-tion, Sheeraz Sheikh was thebest-placed Indian at eighthafter day one of themen's skeet qualifi-cation with a score of49.
Angad VirSingh was 69thafter shooting47, whileM a i r a jAhmed (41)was furtherdown at 79th.
T h eIndian team,comprising thetrio, was 16th inthe overall stand-ings with a score of
137.There were no medals for
India in the 25m centre firepistol event with GurpreetSingh managing the 10th spotwith a score of 581, followedby London Olympics Silver-medallist Vijay Kumar.
Kumar tallied 576 to enda disappointing 24th. A spotbehind him wasCommonwealth Games Gold-medallist Anish Bhanwala,who shot the same score buthad lesser inner-10s to hiscredit.
The team signed offfourth with a score of 1733.
India are placed fourth inthe medals tally with nineGold, eight Silver and sevenBronze medals for a total of24, making this their bestperformance in theInternational Shooting SportFederation's showpiece.
The country has managedto clinch two Olympic quota
places from thefirst qualifying
event forTokyo 2020Games.
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Japan's Naomi Osaka has refused to criticiseSerena Williams after her historic US Open vic-
tory was overshadowed by the American's furious rowwith the chair umpire.
The 20-year-old melted hearts when she brokedown sobbing after thrashing her idol 6-2, 6-4 tobecome Japan's first Grand Slam singles championin New York last weekend.
Japanese tennis legend Kimiko Date said it madeher "heart ache" to see Osaka reduced to tears andunable to savour her moment of glory.
But after returning to Japan on Thursday, Osakainsisted there were no hard feelingstowards Williams, who brandedumpire Carlos Ramos a "thief " in anastonishing tantrum triggered by a
code violation for coaching thatculminated in a docked game.
"For me I don't feel sadbecause I wouldn't evenknow what I'm expected tofeel," said Osaka, who hasclimbed from 19th to sev-enth in the new worldrankings.
"I don't think I eventhought about feeling sadbecause there's no experi-ence for me to draw on inany other Grand Slam final,"
she added."I just thought I shouldn't
have any regrets. Overall I feltreally happy and know I accom-plished a lot."
Osaka, who competes atnext week's Pan Pacific Open inTokyo, also revealed her plans tobreak into the top five this year— and win a shiny Gold medalat the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
"I think for this year myimmediate goal would be to get to
Singapore," said Osaka after putting herself firmly incontention to reach the season-ending WTA Finals.
"I want to do well at the Pan Pacific Open andmaybe year-end top five — but I'm not putting pres-sure on myself. For now I'm just sort of riding thewave."
"Of course I'm very excited the Olympics aregoing to be held in Tokyo," added Osaka, who is ofHaitian-Japanese descent and was raised in theUnited States.
"It's every athlete's dream to play in theOlympics, so of course it would be my goal to winGold."
Date, a former world number four, has tippedOsaka to become Japan's first tennis number one.
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Indian football team chief coachStephen Constantine Thursday
made it clear that the SAFF Cup isa platform for talented players toimpress and earn their places in thesquad for the Asian Cup.
The Asian Cup will be heldearly next year in the UAE.
"These boys have a carrot infront of them which is a berth in theAsian Cup squad. They are wellaware of the fact that they need toperform constantly to earn thesame," Constantine said.
With India having secured asummit clash with Maldives in thefinal of the SAFF Suzuki Cup,Constantine said the "final will bea tough one".
"Maldives have shown theirworth in the semi-final againstNepal. A 3-0 win against Nepal wasnot an easy task. Some of their play-ers didn't play against us and theydid some major damage workagainst Nepal," Constantine stated.
"We are expecting a tough gameagainst Maldives. But as I saidbefore, we have come with a strongintent to win the tournament."
Manvir Singh who scored abrace against Pakistan in the semi-final to win his successive MVPAward of the tournament said thefocus has "already shifted to thefinal".
"It was a group of tough guysand the job was never going to bean easy one. But we had the self-belief to churn out the positive resultand eventually, we did," he said.
"Now, we have another majortask in three days and we will needto focus on the final. We are work-ing as a unit and we just need tokeep our heads down and contin-ue the work," the 23-year-old strik-er who is leading the goal-scorers'chart with 3 goals, maintained.
The coach also lavished praise
on the All India Football Federationfor allowing him to work his ownway.
"I would like to thank All IndiaFootball Federation for giving methe freedom to work my own way.Regarding the team's requirement,I have hardly been denied whatev-er I asked for. The credit of rising to96 from 173 in the FIFA rankingsin less than four years caters toeveryone including the excellentbackroom staffs who I work with.
8�G.0�� �����#�� 5����������Gurpreet Singh Sandhu,the first-choice goalkeeper of theIndian football team, says the cur-rent U-16 boys, preparing for theAFC Championship in Malaysia, arebetter than what the current seniorplayers were at their age.
The colts, being coached byBibiano Fernandes, have played 20international friendlies against var-
ious U-16 national teams sinceJanuary 2018 and are presentlygearing up for the AFCChampionship, which kicks off inKuala Lumpur from September 20.
"It's a very positive develop-ment. If we would have that muchexposure what they have beenreceiving at the moment, whoknows things would have beenmuch different. They are very luckyand need to make the most of it,"Gurpreet said.
"But overall, I'm very happy thatthey are getting such opportunitiesand that youth football is beingtaken so seriously. After all, they areour future."
The U-16 boys are playingVietnam, Iran and Indonesia at thegroup stage.
Asked what would be his mes-sage to the team, Gurpreet said, "Iwould like them to be humble andstay united as a team. When you go
in as a team, you can do thingswhich no one can ever imagine. Ihope they win these games andmake us proud. Good luck boys."
When asked to recall hisyounger days, Gurpreet said, "Everysingle day we would learn some-thing new about the game. Therewas hunger to grow and evolve asbetter players. That was the first timewe started to receive good coaching.
"Those were the days where Iwas still wondering I will ever be aprofessional. Those were the dayswhen I connected with the gameand learnt about Indian football atlarge."
Praising the U-16 team, hesaid, "I have watched some of thehighlights of their games. It is clearthat quality wise, these boys aremuch better than what we used tobe at that age. It makes me feel veryproud. Things are changing and Iam pretty positive."
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England manager GarethSouthgate believes Marcus
Rashford should be given time toflourish despite clamour for theManchester United forward to begiven more minutes at club level.
Rashford was one of fewbright sparks for Southgate in therecently concluded first leg ofUEFA Nations League, scoringboth England's goals in a 2-1defeat to Spain and 1-0 victoryover Switzerland in the pastweek.
However, he has struggled tohold down a regular first-team
place under Jose Mourinho atOld Trafford and will be sus-pended for Manchester United'snext three domestic games afterbeing sent off after engaging in aclash at Burnley before the inter-national break.
Southgate, though, used theexample of England captainHarry Kane and CristianoRonaldo to show that at just 20,Rashford has plenty of time onhis side.
"We have to remember thatHarry, at that age, had hardlyplayed anywhere near the samenumber of matches for Spurs,"said Southgate, who guided Three
Lions to recently concludedWorld Cup semis.
"Even with some of the step-overs and things Ronaldo wasdoing at that age he wasn't con-verting them into the number ofgoals.
"So we have to give himtime to develop. He has stillplayed a lot of football, althoughmaybe not continuous starts,and I'm really pleased for himthat he leaves us full of confi-dence."
Southgate has raised con-cerns over the lack of opportu-nities afforded to English playersin the Premier League, making
the pool he has to select fromever shallower.
Yet, he refused to criticise anyof the top six managers, all ofwhom are foreign, for puttingtheir own interests first.
"It's not my business to inter-fere with club managers. Theyhave a difficult job to do and theyhave big squads at the top six,with huge competition for places.
"Jose thinks the world ofMarcus. He's a huge admirer ofhim, but he has got his job to do.There is huge competition forplaces at his club so you canunderstand that."
Ruben Loftus-Cheek is
another of England's squad thatadvanced to the semi-finals of theWorld Cup struggling for min-utes at Chelsea.
The midfielder made hisfirst start of the season againstSwitzerland having previouslyjust come off the bench twice forMaurizio Sarri's men.
"Right now I am at Chelseaand my focus is at Chelsea andlearning at Chelsea," said Loftus-Cheek. "That is in the future andwe will deal with that when itcomes.
"I'm not sure when I amgoing to play. It is just down tome working hard in training."
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India pacer Jasprit Bumrah will look to main-tain his top position in the ICC ODIbowlers ranking during the Asia Cup which
begins here on Saturday."The Asia Cup in the United Arab Emirates
is going to be huge and I'm really looking for-ward to doing my best here," Bumrah said.
"Being at the top of the ICC rankings is amatter of great pride for me. We will be play-ing against some leading players and I know theconditions can be challenging but I'm hopingto be at my best."
Several leading players, including Bumrah,will go into the Asia Cup aiming to consolidatetheir positions in ICC rankings and also use themulti-nation tournament to prepare for nextyear's Cricket World Cup.
While Bumrah, who has a lead of 20 pointsover Afghanistan leg-spinner Rashid Khan, willhope to continue to hold on to his numero unostatus, spinners Kuldeep Yadav (sixth) andYuzvendra Chahal (joint-ninth) too will look toconsolidate position in the top 10.
Pakistan's Hasan Ali is also looking to clawhis way back two spots to number one in thebowlers ranking.
The Asia Cup commences with a matchbetween Bangladesh and Sri Lanka in Dubai onSaturday.
Among batsmen, Pakistan's Babar willalso look to bridge the big gap with Virat Kohli,who is not playing in this tournament.
"We as a team are looking forward to theAsia Cup and I have some extra incentive in myindividual ranking," second-ranked batsmanBabar said.
"I know Virat is way ahead in terms of rat-ing points but this is definitely a chance to con-solidate my position at number two and gainsome valuable ranking points."
Bangladesh's Shakib will also aim to be athis best and show everyone why he is top-rankedamong all-rounders.
Several openers who figure prominently inthe rankings will be seen in action during theAsia Cup, including the India pair of RohitSharma (fourth) and Shikhar Dhawan (ninth),Bangladesh's Tamim Iqbal (12th) and Pakistan'sFakhar Zaman (16th).
With five of the six teams in the Asia Cupto feature in next year's World cup, the likes ofBumrah, Shakib and Babar are excited at theprospect of being pitted against the best of theregion in the September 15-28 tournament in
the United Arab Emirates.Afghanistan, qualifiers Hong Kong, India
and Pakistan get into action later as they try toqualify for the Super Four stage and get moretournament practice with just eight months togo for the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019 in
England and Wales from May 30 to July 14.In the ICC ODI Team Rankings, India are
the top-ranked side in the tournament. They arepresently second with 121 points, six pointsbehind England, while Pakistan are in fifth posi-tion and 104 points.
India, Pakistan and Hong Kong are inGroup A while Afghanistan, Bangladesh and SriLanka form Group B for the preliminary stage.The top two teams from each group will advanceto the Super Fours with the top two sides fromthere making the final.
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Former India captain SunilGavaskar reckons that Virat
Kohli still has a "lot to learn" tacti-cally after their humiliating 1-4defeat against England in the just-concluded five-Test series.
"He (Virat) still has a lot tolearn. Like we saw in South Africaearlier and now in England too,there were instances when rightfield placements or timely bowlingchanges made by him could havemade a big difference. That wasmissing again. It has just been twoyears (he took over four yearsback) since he took over as a cap-tain so at times the lack of experi-ence shows," Gavaskar said..
The 'Little Master', however,played down Kohli's much-publi-cised reaction to a reporter's queryabout whether he agreed withcoach Ravi Shastri on this being thebest travelling team in last 15years.
While the question asked bythe scribe was "justified", Gavaskarfelt may be the timing was wrong.
"That is probably the wrongtime to ask him that question. He(Virat) must have been hurtingfrom the defeat. Maybe the reporterwas perfectly justified in asking thatbut I don't think any skipper wouldhave responded with a "you areright but we are wrong" state-ment," he said.
The legendary opener said that
one shouldn't read too much intothe incident.
"His team was 1-3 down andmaybe he just wanted to end on ahigh. I don't think that we shouldread too much into Virat's reactioneither. It was clear that the skipperwas disappointed with what hadhappened and maybe he respond-ed that way," the 69-year-old said.
He also thought that chiefcoach Shastri's intention was not toinsult the teams of yesteryears butonly to talk up his own boys.
"To be honest, Ravi would havesaid that (best touring team in last15 years) to lift the morale of theteam. I don't think so that he wastrying to rubbish the earlier teams.That wasn't the coach's intention Ibelieve," Gavaskar signed off.
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India's Murali Vijay struck a finecentury in a dream county debut,
guiding Essex to a comfortableeight-wicket victory over
Nottinghamshire in aSpecsavers County ChampionshipDivision One match at Trent BridgeThursday.
Vijay scored exactly 100 from181 balls and shared a second-wicket stand of 204 with TomWestley, who finished with anunbeaten 110. Set 282 to win, thevisitors reached their target justbefore lunch to complete a con-vincing win.
The Chennai-born right-han-der had earlier scored a half-cen-tury in his debut innings.
Vijay's feat matched that ofSouth African Hashim Amla, whoscored 181 against Glamorgan in2009, as the last Essex batsman toscore a century on his countydebut.
The 34-year-old Vijay, whostruggled in the just-concluded Testseries against England before beingdropped from the India squad, waseventually bowled off an insideedge by Samit Patel, with 61required for victory.
This was Essex's fifth victory ofthe championship this season.
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The Indian women's cricket team onThursday held its nerves in
pressure situations to beat SriLanka by seven runs in the secondODI, taking an unassailable 2-0lead in the three-match series.
India also earned two addi-tional points as the match is a partof the ICC Women'sChampionship.
Batting first, India were all outfor 219 in 50 overs on a slow trackwhere young wicketkeeper TanyaBhatia's 68 off 66 balls turned outto be a match-winning knock.
In reply, the visitors bowled outthe hosts for 212 in 48.1 overs withseamer Mansi Joshi taking 3/51 and left-arm spinner Rajeshwari Gayakwad chip-ping in with 2/37.
Earlier, put into bat, the Indiansfailed to get going primarily dueto slow batting from veteranskipper Mithali Raj, who con-sumed 121 balls to score 52 withfour boundaries.
Mithali simply couldn't keepthe scoreboard ticking as shefailed to find the gaps during themiddle overs. Coming to bat inthe fifth over, she was finally dis-missed in the 39th over, afterwhich the Indian innings gainedsome momentum.
It was youngsters Tanya andDayalan Hemlatha (35 off 31balls), who propped up the score-board, taking the team closer to
the 220-run mark.It could have been more
but India lost four wickets inthe final over with part-time
seamer Chamari Atapattu takingthree for 42.
Opener Atapattu (57, 95 balls)and Shashikala Siriwardene (49) added
89 runs for the fourth wicket to keep theislanders afloat.
However, Siriwardene was run-out andMansi took a return catch to dismiss Atapattu,as Sri Lanka were reduced to 134 for five from129 for three.
In the lower order, Damayanthi DeSilva (31 off 19 balls) kept their hopes
alive, hitting two fours and two sixes,while adding 40 runs for the eighthwicket with Kalua Prabodhani (7).
At 205 for seven in 46.3 overs, SriLanka needed 15 runs from 21 deliv-eries with three wickets in hand.
But Gayakwad cleaned upPrabodhani and Mansi got Damayanthi
to edge one to Tanya behind the stumpsto make it 207 for nine.
With only eight required off the lasttwo overs, Mithali asked off-spinner
Deepti Sharma to bowl the penultimateover. Last batter Inoka Ranaweera wasstumped by Bhatia as she went for a wildslog, giving India victory.
# �"���� ��India 219 in 50 overs (Tanya Bhatia 68 off
66 balls, Mithali Raj 52 off 121 balls). Sri Lanka 212 in 48.1 overs (ChamariAtapattu 57, Shashikala Sriwardene 49,Rajeshwari Gayakwad 2/37, Mansi Joshi
3/51). India won by 7 runs.
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Fatigue caught up with India's premier shut-tler P V Sindhu as she was upstaged in
straight games but Kidambi Srikanth enteredquarterfinals of the $ 700,000 Japan Open hereon Thursday.
Sindhu was beaten by China's Gao Fangjiein the women's singles second round, her firstpreliminary exit in almost a year. The Indianwent down fighting 18-21, 19-21 in 55 minutesto the world No 14 Chinese. She had lost in theopening round at the Denmark Open lastOctober.
Former world No 1 Srikanth, however, did-n't break a sweat as he avenged his Asian Gamesloss to Hong Kong's Wong Wing Ki Vincent witha clinical 21-15, 21-14 victory to enter the men'ssingles quarterfinals.
The seventh-seeded Indian, who won aSilver at the Commonwealth Games, will faceKorea's Lee Dong Keun next.
However, it was curtains for the other Indianin the men's draw, HS Prannoy, as he went downto giant-killer Anthony Sinisuka Ginting.
The world No 10 Indonesian defeated for-midable Japanese Kento Momota and Olympicchampion Chen Long at the Asian Games.
Sindhu, who has endured a hectic BWF sea-son reaching five finals including three majorsat CWG, World Championship and AsianGames, seemed mentally drained as errors creptinto her game.
The Indian put up a decent fight as sherecovered from 2-8 down in the opening gamebut squandered a 17-14 lead. She was also 15-20 down in the second game but managed tosave four match points before once again hit-ting the net to hand over the match to Gao.
In doubles, the men's pair of Manu Attri andB Sumeeth Reddy lost 18-21, 21-16, 12-21 toChina's He Jiting and Tan Qiang, while themixed combination of Pranaav Jerry Chopra andN Sikki Reddy lost 16-21, 16-21 to the Malaysian
pair of Chan Peng Soon and Goh Liu Ying inanother match.
In women's singles, Gao relied on her decep-tion to trouble Sindhu early on and took a 8-2lead. But Sindhu slowly got her bearings,reaching the shuttles early and placing them per-fectly.
She put Gao on the wrong foot to narrowthe lead to 8-10 but a weak return going to thenet gave a three-point advantage to the Chinese.
Two unforced errors by Gao brought Sindhuback at 13-13. She grabbed a 17-14 lead but itsoon vaporised with the Indian committing afew errors.
In the second game, Sindhu opened up a 5-0 lead before committing a service error. Gaosoon dominated the rallies and clawed back at7-7 after producing a winner on Sindhu's weakreturn.
Gao continued to dominate the rallies andsoon grabbed five match points at 20-15.Sindhu saved four before hitting the net againto end her campaign here.
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Terming just-retired AlastairCook as the 'mentally toughest
cricketer', English pace great JamesAnderson has said his former skip-per was unflusterable on the pitchwhich helped him become a greatambassador of the game.
Anderson, who recently sur-passed Australian great GlennMcGrath's haul of 563 wickets tobecome the most successful fastbowler in the history of Test crick-et, also said that not counting him-self as one of the most destructivebatsmen made Cook spend longertime at the crease.
"I think Alastair Cook is themost mentally tough cricketer I everplayed with. He accepts that he is notthe most destructive batsman, so hehas to spend more time at the creasein an innings," Anderson told on aStar Sports special - Ace of Pace.
"It is difficult to unsettle him. He
is 'unflusterable'," added the 36-year-old pacer.
Speaking on his greatest influ-ence in the game of cricket,Anderson said: "When I started firstteam cricket, my captain WarrenHegg said don't worry about swingjust try as fast as you can. Thathelped me, picking the right time."
"That experience helped me
later on, when to bowl swing &when to seam. My coach MikeWatkinson taught me how to swingthe ball and that was the biggesthelp. I worked with him very close-ly when I suffered stress fractureand got back to 1st team cricket inLancashire," expressed the pace-man.
Anderson further said that afast bowler needs to be mentally fit-ter than a batsman.
"For a batsman 6 hours on fieldis different than that for a bowler.You can get hot and bothered, it ismore physically demanding. As abowler you have to make a decisionwhat ball you want to bowl," heopined.
Acknowledging his first evermemory on a cricket field, the right-arm quickie said: "My first memo-ry is about being in the stands ofOld Trafford, I was 13-14 years old.Big crowd, I think Yorkshire wasplaying, big game."
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The seasoned Mahendra Singh Dhoniand Rohit Sharma were among the
limited overs specialists who left forDubai on Thursday to take part in the AsiaCup.
To be played in the 50-over format bysix teams, the Asia Cup starts fromSaturday.
All-rounder Kedar Jadhav posted apicture on his Twitter handle of him alongwith Sharma, Dhoni, Yuzvendra Chahaland Kuldeep Yadav.
Jadhav is making a comeback to thenational side post his surgery for a ham-string injury, which he sustained duringthe opening encounter of this year'sIndian Premier League.
"Some of the players have left for theAsia Cup Thursday while the others willjoin them," a BCCI official said.
Chahal and Kuldeep also posted a pic-ture with Dhoni.
India begin their campaign againstminnows Hong Kong on September 18before taking on arch-rivals Pakistan in amarquee clash the next day.
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