˘9 ˇ 8˘ - the pioneer pakistan slogans. all the three websites ... construction workers who were...

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W ith an aim to free Government land from squatters, the Yogi Government on Tuesday set up an anti- land mafia task force which will identify encroached land in the next two months so that a process to retrieve it could be initiated. In another landmark deci- sion, taken in a Cabinet meet- ing held here, the Uttar Pradesh Government will curtail 15 holidays approved by previous Governments on the birth and death anniversaries of emi- nent personalities. Talking to reporters after the Cabinet meeting, Government spokesman and Power Minister Shrikant Sharma said, “The anti-land mafia task force will work at the State, divisional, district and tehsil level to identify Government land that has been encroached. This force will also initiate the process of free- ing private land from encroach- ers as and when the police get a complaint.” “The construc- tion of religious places on encroached public land will also not be allowed irre- spective of the reli- gion,” he added. The BJP had made a com- mitment to remove encroach- ers from Government land after the Jawahar Bagh incident in Mathura came to light where over 300 acres of land was encroached by squatters. Continued on Page 4 T he official websites of some premier educational insti- tutions, including IIT Delhi, Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) and Delhi University (DU), were hacked on Tuesday and defaced with pro- Pakistan slogans. All the three websites flashed the same message and appear to have been hacked by the same person or a group allegedly based in Pakistan. The hackers smeared the websites in black with posters of the alleged “brutalities” by the ‘Indian forces’ in Kashmir. ‘Pakistan Haxors CREW - PHC’, the group which claimed responsibility for hacking into the two websites, posted a screenshot on their Facebook page, claiming they had hacked several websites, including those of AMU and IIT. Continued on Page 4 A rrested nearly eight and a half years ago in the 2008 Malegaon blasts case, the Bombay High Court on Tuesday granted bail to cancer patient Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur after holding that “it cannot be said there are rea- sonable grounds for believing that accusations made against her are prima facie true” and that the benefit of bail could not be withheld to her if the ATS charges against her were “grave and serious”. Meanwhile, in a separate order, the HC Bench of Justice (Dr) Shalini Phansalkar-Joshi and Justice Ranjit More reject- ed the bail application of Lt Col Prasad Shrikant Purohit, another key accused in the case. While Sadhavi’s family mem- bers welcomed the order, the Jamiat Ulama-e-Maharashtra said it will challenge the order. Continued on Page 4 New Delhi/Mumbai: With strong corporate earnings, upbeat global cues and investors’ buying spree, Dalal Street witnessed a historic stock market rally on Tuesday when Benchmark Nifty closed above the 9,300-mark for the first time, while the Sensex surged 287 points to a three- week high of 29,943.24, a little distance away from 30,000-mark. Rupee also continued its upward trend to log a near 21- month high of 64.26, by surg- ing 18 paise against the US dol- lar on sustained dollar unwind- ing from exporters amid pos- itive global cues. This is the rupee’s highest closing since August 11, 2015, when it had ended at 64.19 against the greenback. PNS Detailed report on P10 T he Central Bureau of Investigation on Tuesday filed a case against its former director Ranjit Sinha under the Prevention of Corruption Act. The former CBI chief is accused of “scuttling” and “influencing” probe into the coal block allocation cases by meeting the high-profile accused persons. Sinha has been charged under Sections 13-2 (criminal misconduct) and Section 13-1 d (abuse of official position and indulging in corruption) of the Prevention of Corruption (PC) Act 1988. If convicted, Sinha may face up to seven years imprisonment. Following the directions of the Supreme Court, the CBI had formed a Special Investigation Team to conduct an investiga- tion into the abuse of authori- ty prima facie committed by Sinha with a view “to scuttling enquiries, investigations, and prosecutions being carried out by the CBI in the coal block allo- cation cases”, said the CBI FIR. Sinha is the second CBI director to be probed by the agency after his predecessor AP Singh. Singh was booked by the premier investigative agency along with meat exporter Moin Qureshi in a money laundering case. Sinha had faced the ignominy of being restrained by the Supreme Court from handling the 2G and coal scam cases when he was heading the CBI. During his two years’ tenure, from 2012 to 2014, the CBI was also called a “caged parrot” by the Supreme Court. “In view of the orders of the Supreme Court dated 23 January 2017 vide which CBI was instructed to conduct an investigation (as a Special Investigating Team) into the abuse of authority prima facie committed by Ranjit Sinha with a view to scuttle enquires, investigations and prosecu- tion,” the FIR said. “During investigations of the Coal Block Allocation cases, certain allegations were levelled about the inappropriate con- duct of then CBI director Ranjit Sinha. The Supreme Court which was looking into all the above matters of the coal block allocations had held that it was completely inappropriate for Ranjit Sinha to have met per- sons accused in the Coal Block Allocation case without the investigating officer being pre- sent or without the investigat- ing team being present. Hence it is necessary to look into the question whether any one or more such meetings of Sinha with accused persons without the investigating officer have had any impact on the investi- gations and subsequent charge sheets or closure reports filed by the CBI,” the FIRl said. Continued on Page 4 D escribing killings of 25 CRPF men by Naxals in Chhattisgarh “a cold-blooded murder” and “an act of cow- ardice and desperation”, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Tuesday said the Government will review the strategy to root out Left Wing Extremism (LWE) and if necessary the Government will revisit it. Speaking to reporters after paying homage to the CRPF personnel killed in Monday’s ambush in Sukma district, the Home Minister said, “I have convened a meeting of States affected by Maoism on May 8. We will review the strategy and if necessary we will revisit it.” He asserted that the Centre and the States would work together to take on the Naxals, who have access to rocket launchers, mortars and AK-47s. “We have accepted it as a challenge,” he said. He directed acting chief of the CRPF and a top officer of the Home Ministry to stay put in Chhattisgarh to ensure coor- dinated “targeted” operations against the Naxals. Saying LWE groups were anti-development and sought to destabilise development in the State, the Home Minister said, “The sacrifice of our brave jawans will not go in vain. The Naxals are frustrated with the development of roads in Bastar region. But they will not succeed in their evil designs.” He expressed surprise that Maoists were using tribals as human shields to target secu- rity personnel. Meanwhile, a senior Home Ministry official on Tuesday ruled out deployment of the Army to tackle the Naxals, notwithstanding reverses being faced by paramilitary and police forces. “It is an internal security issue. There is no question of deploying the army in the anti-Naxal operations,” the official said. Since the Naxal violence is considered as a law and order problem, paramilitary and police forces will continue to deal with the Maoists, even though there have been casu- alties on the part of the secu- rity forces, the official said. The comments of the senior Home Ministry official came in the wake of specula- tion in sections of the media that the Government was con- sidering the option of deploy- ing the Army. The Home Minister, who rushed to Raipur on Tuesday morning, first visited the head- quarters of the 4th battalion of the Chhattisgarh Armed Force in the Mana camp, where a wreath- laying ceremony was held. Continued on Page 4 T he 25 CRPF jawans who were killed in a deadly Naxal ambush in Chhattisgarh’s Sukma, were having lunch when a hail of bullets and grenades hit them fatally. A party of about 36 troops, out of the total 99, came under the first assault after they had ventured out from Burkapal on Monday to sanitise and provide protection to a 5.5-km long road construction work connecting Chitagufa in the said district, officials said. The Maoists squad “very discreetly with the aid of locals” kept tracking the movement of the troops when one party of 36, out of the total three, sat down for launch, the strong squad of Naxals, pos- sessing sophisticated weapons, took them by surprise and rained heavy gun fire, they said. A huge assortment of 22 smart arms, including 13 AK series assault rifles and 5 INSAS rifles, 3,420 live rounds of various rifles, 75 magazines of AK rifles, 31 of INSAS, 67 live UBGL rounds, 22 bullet proof jackets, two binoculars, five wireless sets and a deep search metal detector were also looted by Naxals, they said. While a top CRPF officer said the killed troops had “finished their lunch” and may be were not in an absolute alert mode for the next few minutes, other officials said “some of them were hav- ing their lunch” when the attack was launched around 12:30 pm. While the slain 25 men and about six others who were injured, tried to gather their weapons or take aim at the marauding Naxals, the others on the guard duty mounted an effective retal- iation and saved about 40 civilians and construction workers who were present in the vicinity of the area during the deadly assault that lasted over an hour. Continued on Page 4 New Delhi: Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh has convened a meeting of Naxal- hit State Chief Ministers on May 8 to strategise the anti- Naxal operations. Ten Chief Ministers and top police and civil officials of these States will attend the meeting. CMs of Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Odisha, West Bengal, Bihar, Maharashtra, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh are expected to take part in the crucial meeting. Chief Secretaries and DGP of these States will also attend the meeting along with chiefs of paramilitary forces. PNS T he Delhi Metro network is set to see significant expan- sion as the Public Investment Board (PIB) of the Ministry of Finance has approved two line extension projects worth 1,090 crore. This will enable the extension of the metro line from YMCA Chowk in Faridabad to Ballabhgarh and Najafgarh to Dhansa Border in Delhi. The metro line from YMCA to Ballabhgarh is expected to be completed early next year while work on the Najafgarh to Dhansa Border metro line is yet to start. The Centre could not make the decision public due to the Model Code of Conduct that was in force in Delhi. Top sources said that after PIB approval, the proposals would be brought before the Union Cabinet for approval. The extension project from YMCA to Ballabhgarh, Violet Line, which would cost 580 crore, is set to be com- pleted by 2018. The foundation stone of the metro extension project was laid by then Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda on June 22, 2015 with the aim of improving connec- tivity between Ballabhgarh in Faridabad with Delhi and Noida. This line will have two sta- tions, one at Ballabhgarh itself and another at National Council for Cement and Building Material colony. The total length of the Faridabad- Ballabhgarh line is 3.2 kms. Of the 580 crore required for the project, the Centre would provide 95 crore. The Haryana Government has already allocated its share of the funds for the project. After completion of this stretch, the Violet Line will extend from Kashmere Gate to Ballabhgarh as the Kashmere Gate stretch is expected to be functional by May 2017. The second project approved by PIB for the exten- sion of the metro line from Najafgarh to Dhansa Border, that would be underground, would cost 510 crore and its total length would be 1.2 kms. The Government will take an 300 crore loan from Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) as the Centre and the Delhi Government will contribute 35.65 per cent of the project cost while the rest of the funding will be provid- ed by JICA. This corridor will provide easy access to the commuters residing in Najafgarh, Mitraon, Jharoda Kalan, Kair, Dichaon Kalan, Dindarpur Extn, Baba Haridas Nagar, Chhawla, Roshanpura, Shyam Vihar, Dharmpura, Sai Baba Enclave, Nangli Sakravati, Arjun Park, Roshan Garden, Shiva Enclave, Todarmal Colony, Prem Nagar, New Hira Park, Ajay Park, Nathu Ram Park, Gemini Park, Shiva Enclave and Raghubir Nagar etc. According to sources, the PIB is not happy with the slow progress of Delhi Metro pro- jects in the third phase. RNI Regn. No. CHHENG/2012/42718, Postal Reg. No. - RYP DN/34/2013-2015

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Page 1: ˘9 ˇ 8˘ - The Pioneer Pakistan slogans. All the three websites ... construction workers who were present ... Ten Chief Ministers and top police and

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With an aim to freeGovernment land from

squatters, the YogiGovernment onTuesday set up an anti-land mafia task forcewhich will identifyencroached land in thenext two months sothat a process toretrieve it could be initiated.

In another landmark deci-sion, taken in a Cabinet meet-ing held here, the Uttar PradeshGovernment will curtail 15holidays approved by previousGovernments on the birth anddeath anniversaries of emi-nent personalities.

Talking to reporters afterthe Cabinet meeting,Government spokesman andPower Minister ShrikantSharma said, “The anti-landmafia task force will work at theState, divisional, district andtehsil level to identifyGovernment land that has beenencroached. This force willalso initiate the process of free-ing private land from encroach-ers as and when the police get

a complaint.”“The construc-

tion of religiousplaces onencroached publicland will also notbe allowed irre-spective of the reli-

gion,” he added.The BJP had made a com-

mitment to remove encroach-ers from Government landafter the Jawahar Bagh incidentin Mathura came to light whereover 300 acres of land wasencroached by squatters.

Continued on Page 4

���� 1:63:2�

The official websites of somepremier educational insti-

tutions, including IIT Delhi,Aligarh Muslim University(AMU) and Delhi University(DU), were hacked on Tuesday and defaced with pro-Pakistan slogans.

All the three websitesflashed the same message andappear to have been hacked bythe same person or a groupallegedly based in Pakistan.

The hackers smeared thewebsites in black with postersof the alleged “brutalities” bythe ‘Indian forces’ in Kashmir.

‘Pakistan Haxors CREW -PHC’, the group which claimedresponsibility for hacking intothe two websites, posted ascreenshot on their Facebookpage, claiming they had hackedseveral websites, includingthose of AMU and IIT.

Continued on Page 4

������������ �7�+#

Arrested nearly eight and ahalf years ago in the 2008

Malegaon blasts case, theBombay High Court onTuesday granted bail to cancerpatient Sadhvi Pragya SinghThakur after holding that “itcannot be said there are rea-sonable grounds for believingthat accusations made againsther are prima facie true” andthat the benefit of bail couldnot be withheld to her if theATS charges against her were“grave and serious”.

Meanwhile, in a separateorder, the HC Bench of Justice(Dr) Shalini Phansalkar-Joshiand Justice Ranjit More reject-ed the bail application of Lt ColPrasad Shrikant Purohit,another key accused in the case.While Sadhavi’s family mem-bers welcomed the order, theJamiat Ulama-e-Maharashtrasaid it will challenge the order.

Continued on Page 4

New Delhi/Mumbai: Withstrong corporate earnings,upbeat global cues andinvestors’ buying spree, DalalStreet witnessed a historic stockmarket rally on Tuesday whenBenchmark Nifty closed above the 9,300-mark for thefirst time, while the Sensexsurged 287 points to a three-week high of 29,943.24, a little distance away from30,000-mark.

Rupee also continued itsupward trend to log a near 21-month high of 64.26, by surg-ing 18 paise against the US dol-lar on sustained dollar unwind-ing from exporters amid pos-itive global cues.

This is the rupee’s highestclosing since August 11, 2015,when it had ended at 64.19against the greenback. PNS

Detailed report on P10

���� 1:63:2�

The Central Bureau ofInvestigation on Tuesday

filed a case against its formerdirector Ranjit Sinha under thePrevention of Corruption Act.The former CBI chief isaccused of “scuttling” and“influencing” probe into thecoal block allocation cases bymeeting the high-profileaccused persons.

Sinha has been chargedunder Sections 13-2 (criminalmisconduct) and Section 13-1d (abuse of official position andindulging in corruption) ofthe Prevention of Corruption(PC) Act 1988. If convicted,Sinha may face up to sevenyears imprisonment.

Following the directions ofthe Supreme Court, the CBI had

formed a Special InvestigationTeam to conduct an investiga-tion into the abuse of authori-ty prima facie committed bySinha with a view “to scuttlingenquiries, investigations, andprosecutions being carried outby the CBI in the coal block allo-cation cases”, said the CBI FIR.

Sinha is the second CBIdirector to be probed by theagency after his predecessor APSingh. Singh was booked by the premier investigativeagency along with meat

exporter Moin Qureshi in amoney laundering case.

Sinha had faced theignominy of being restrainedby the Supreme Court fromhandling the 2G and coal scamcases when he was heading theCBI. During his two years’tenure, from 2012 to 2014, theCBI was also called a “cagedparrot” by the Supreme Court.

“In view of the orders ofthe Supreme Court dated 23January 2017 vide which CBIwas instructed to conduct an

investigation (as a SpecialInvestigating Team) into theabuse of authority prima faciecommitted by Ranjit Sinhawith a view to scuttle enquires,investigations and prosecu-tion,” the FIR said.

“During investigations ofthe Coal Block Allocation cases,certain allegations were levelledabout the inappropriate con-duct of then CBI director RanjitSinha. The Supreme Courtwhich was looking into all theabove matters of the coal blockallocations had held that it wascompletely inappropriate forRanjit Sinha to have met per-sons accused in the Coal BlockAllocation case without theinvestigating officer being pre-sent or without the investigat-ing team being present. Henceit is necessary to look into thequestion whether any one ormore such meetings of Sinhawith accused persons withoutthe investigating officer havehad any impact on the investi-gations and subsequent chargesheets or closure reports filed bythe CBI,” the FIRl said.

Continued on Page 4

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Describing killings of 25CRPF men by Naxals in

Chhattisgarh “a cold-bloodedmurder” and “an act of cow-ardice and desperation”, UnionHome Minister Rajnath Singhon Tuesday said the Governmentwill review the strategy to rootout Left Wing Extremism (LWE)and if necessary the Governmentwill revisit it.

Speaking to reporters afterpaying homage to the CRPFpersonnel killed in Monday’sambush in Sukma district, theHome Minister said, “I haveconvened a meeting of Statesaffected by Maoism on May 8.We will review the strategy andif necessary we will revisit it.”

He asserted that the Centreand the States would worktogether to take on the Naxals,who have access to rocketlaunchers, mortars and AK-47s.

“We have accepted it as achallenge,” he said.

He directed acting chief ofthe CRPF and a top officer ofthe Home Ministry to stay putin Chhattisgarh to ensure coor-dinated “targeted” operationsagainst the Naxals.

Saying LWE groups wereanti-development and soughtto destabilise development inthe State, the Home Ministersaid, “The sacrifice of ourbrave jawans will not go in vain.The Naxals are frustrated withthe development of roads inBastar region. But they will notsucceed in their evil designs.”

He expressed surprise thatMaoists were using tribals ashuman shields to target secu-rity personnel.

Meanwhile, a senior HomeMinistry official on Tuesdayruled out deployment of the

Army to tackle the Naxals,notwithstanding reverses beingfaced by paramilitary andpolice forces. “It is an internalsecurity issue. There is noquestion of deploying the armyin the anti-Naxal operations,”the official said.

Since the Naxal violence isconsidered as a law and orderproblem, paramilitary andpolice forces will continue todeal with the Maoists, eventhough there have been casu-alties on the part of the secu-rity forces, the official said.

The comments of thesenior Home Ministry officialcame in the wake of specula-tion in sections of the mediathat the Government was con-sidering the option of deploy-ing the Army.

The Home Minister, whorushed to Raipur on Tuesdaymorning, first visited the head-quarters of the 4th battalion ofthe Chhattisgarh Armed Force inthe Mana camp, where a wreath-laying ceremony was held.

Continued on Page 4

����� 1:63:2�

The 25 CRPF jawans who were killedin a deadly Naxal ambush in

Chhattisgarh’s Sukma, were having lunchwhen a hail of bullets and grenades hitthem fatally.

A party of about 36 troops, out ofthe total 99, came under the first assaultafter they had ventured out fromBurkapal on Monday to sanitise andprovide protection to a 5.5-km long roadconstruction work connecting Chitagufain the said district, officials said.

The Maoists squad “very discreetlywith the aid of locals” kept tracking themovement of the troops when one partyof 36, out of the total three, sat down forlaunch, the strong squad of Naxals, pos-sessing sophisticated weapons, took themby surprise and rained heavy gun fire,they said.

A huge assortment of 22 smartarms, including 13 AK series assault

rifles and 5 INSAS rifles, 3,420 liverounds of various rifles, 75 magazinesof AK rifles, 31 of INSAS, 67 live UBGLrounds, 22 bullet proof jackets, twobinoculars, five wireless sets and adeep search metal detector were alsolooted by Naxals, they said.

While a top CRPF officer said thekilled troops had “finished their lunch”and may be were not in an absolute alertmode for the next few minutes, otherofficials said “some of them were hav-ing their lunch” when the attack waslaunched around 12:30 pm.

While the slain 25 men and aboutsix others who were injured, tried togather their weapons or take aim at themarauding Naxals, the others on theguard duty mounted an effective retal-iation and saved about 40 civilians andconstruction workers who were presentin the vicinity of the area during thedeadly assault that lasted over an hour.

Continued on Page 4

New Delhi: Union HomeMinister Rajnath Singh hasconvened a meeting of Naxal-hit State Chief Ministers onMay 8 to strategise the anti-Naxal operations. Ten ChiefMinisters and top police andcivil officials of these States willattend the meeting.

CMs of Chhattisgarh,Jharkhand, Odisha, WestBengal, Bihar, Maharashtra,Telangana, Uttar Pradesh,Madhya Pradesh and AndhraPradesh are expected to takepart in the crucial meeting.Chief Secretaries and DGP ofthese States will also attend themeeting along with chiefs ofparamilitary forces. PNS

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The Delhi Metro network isset to see significant expan-

sion as the Public InvestmentBoard (PIB) of the Ministry ofFinance has approved two lineextension projects worth�1,090 crore. This will enablethe extension of the metro linefrom YMCA Chowk inFaridabad to Ballabhgarh and Najafgarh to DhansaBorder in Delhi.

The metro line from

YMCA to Ballabhgarh isexpected to be completed earlynext year while work on theNajafgarh to Dhansa Bordermetro line is yet to start. TheCentre could not make thedecision public due to theModel Code of Conduct thatwas in force in Delhi.

Top sources said that afterPIB approval, the proposalswould be brought before theUnion Cabinet for approval.The extension project from

YMCA to Ballabhgarh, VioletLine, which would cost �580 crore, is set to be com-pleted by 2018.

The foundation stone ofthe metro extension projectwas laid by then Haryana ChiefMinister Bhupinder SinghHooda on June 22, 2015 withthe aim of improving connec-tivity between Ballabhgarh

in Faridabad with Delhi

and Noida. This line will have two sta-

tions, one at Ballabhgarh itselfand another at National Councilfor Cement and BuildingMaterial colony. The total lengthof the Faridabad- Ballabhgarhline is 3.2 kms. Of the �580 crorerequired for the project, theCentre would provide �95 crore.The Haryana Government hasalready allocated its share of the

funds for the project. Aftercompletion of this stretch, theViolet Line will extend fromKashmere Gate to Ballabhgarhas the Kashmere Gate stretch isexpected to be functional byMay 2017.

The second projectapproved by PIB for the exten-sion of the metro line fromNajafgarh to Dhansa Border,t h a t

would be underground, wouldcost �510 crore and its totallength would be 1.2 kms.

The Government will takean �300 crore loan from JapanInternational CooperationAgency (JICA) as the Centreand the Delhi Governmentwill contribute 35.65 per centof the project cost while the restof the funding will be provid-ed by JICA.

This corridor will provideeasy access to the commutersresiding in Najafgarh, Mitraon,

Jharoda Kalan, Kair, DichaonKalan, Dindarpur Extn, BabaHaridas Nagar, Chhawla,Roshanpura, Shyam Vihar,Dharmpura, Sai Baba Enclave,Nangli Sakravati, Arjun Park,Roshan Garden, Shiva Enclave,Todarmal Colony, Prem Nagar,New Hira Park, Ajay Park, NathuRam Park, Gemini Park, ShivaEnclave and Raghubir Nagar etc.

According to sources, thePIB is not happy with the slowprogress of Delhi Metro pro-jects in the third phase.

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Suspecting that the outlawsin Chhattisgarh “in des-

peration” want to derail the“positive narrative” of devel-opment of the ModiGovernment and the State dis-pensation, Union Minister MVenkaiah Naidu Tuesday won-dered whether there could bea tacit support from “the socalled human rights activistssilent on mindless acts” of theLeft extremists.

Naidu called for an urgentneed “to build strong publicopinion” against such acts ofviolence and “the so calledhuman rights activists whohave double standards”.

The Union Informationand Broadcasting Minister saidhuman rights groups “don’tuphold similar rights” of secu-rity personnel, their familiesand innocent people.

“I am constrained to infer

that such motivated acts ofmindless violence are beingresorted to with tacit supportfrom the so called humanrights advocates in desperationto derail the positive narrativeemerging from the ongoingefforts by the Central andState Governments to reach thefruits of development to thelast of the poor and to ensurerapid economic development”,said Naidu.

The Minister said whilethe nation was shocked by thekillings and violence, “the socalled sympathisers and pro-ponents of human rights havemaintained baffling silencesince yesterday”.

He said rights activistsraise voice and “react violent-ly” if an extremist or a terror-ist is killed by the police “buttake shelter in silence whenlarge number of Jawans andinnocent people get killed”.

He asked if human rights

are only meant for those whotake to violence in furtheranceof “their outdated ideologies”and not for security personaland common people.

The Minister said the fam-ilies of Jawans killed andinjured while in uniformwould get the highest consid-eration from Central and StateGovernments.

Another Central MinisterPrakash Javadekar also con-demned the killing of 25 CRPFpersonnel by Naxals in Chhatt-isgarh “as an act of cowardice.”

“Since their strength isgetting reduced they are doingsuch things. This is a strategyof cowards. This is a coward-ly attack,” he said.

As many as 25 CRPF per-sonnel were killed and sevenwounded in Chhattisgarh’sSukma district on Monday , inthe deadliest ambush byNaxalites of security forcesthis year.

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The Narendra ModiGovernment is aiming to

achieve an all-time high 273million tonnes of foodgrainproduction in the 2017-18 cropyear beginning July, anticipat-ing good monsoon. This evenas wheat production is set totouch a record 98 milliontonnes (MT) in the ongoing2016-17 crop year ending June,on account of higher yields.

Union AgricultureMinister Radha Mohan Singhsaid that foodgrain productionis estimated to touch a record271.98 million tonnes in thecurrent year (July-June), asper the second estimate of theAgriculture Ministry.

“Foodgrain production tar-get for next year is set at record273 million tonnes. Monsoonis expected to be normal whichwill help achieving the desiredtarget,” Singh said whileaddressing a national eventthat aims to chalk out sowingstrategy for the coming kharifseason. There is sufficient sup-ply of seeds for the forthcom-ing kharif season. For instance,

about 83.46 lakh quintals ofpaddy seeds and 3.75 lakhquintals of tur dal seeds areavailable. Fertiliser require-ment is estimated to be 28.99million tonnes for the season,he added.

In its second estimate, theAgriculture Ministry hadpegged a record wheat outputof 96.64 MT for the currentcrop year (July-June) as againstthe actual output of 92.29 MTlast year. “Taking into accountthe feedback from the StateGovernments and experts, itlooks like wheat output willreach all-time high of 98 MTthis year,” said officials on the

sidelines of an event at VigyanBhawan. The two-day longnational conference is deliber-ating on how to increase food-grain production in the nextyear and implement technolo-gy and new innovations in thefarm sector

“The crop yields are bet-ter this year as weather con-dition during February-March remained favourable.There was no adverse tem-perature variation, whichhelped soi l moisture toremain normal for cropgrowth,” officials said. In viewof the expected record outputon the back of good mon-soon, the Government is aim-ing to procure 30 MT ofwheat at the support price.

At present, the new crop isbeing harvested in full swing.Already, Government agencieslike FCI, have procured morethan 10 MT grains from stateslike Punjab and Haryana. Toensure farmers get better pricefor their produce, theGovernment has restrictedimports by reverting to a cus-toms duty of 10 per cent on thegrain.

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With the fast changingnature of fighting war,

the Joint Doctrine of ArmedForces was released on Tuesdaystressing on the need for syn-ergy amongst the three Servicesnamely Army, IAF and Navyand honing strategy for inter-operability to achieve the polit-ical and military objectives inan effective manner.

The 86-page doctrinereleased by Chairman Chiefs ofStaff Committee and Navy ChiefAdmiral Sunil Lanba also urgedthe three Services to prepare forfighting the future conflicts in allthe five spectrums includingland, air, water, cyber and spaceby pooling resources and train-ing together to operate in aseamless manner.

Moreover, the armed forceswill have to remain opera-tionally current, agile and effi-cient besides utilising scarce

resources in an optimised man-ner to meet the challenge rapid-ly changing character of con-flict, the doctrine said.

The Joint Doctrine willserve as a cornerstone docu-ment for application of MilitaryPower in a synergised mannerand also establish a broadframework of concepts andprinciples to understand

approach to joint planning andconduct of operations across allthe domains of conflict.

The present doctrine isthe second in the series afterthe planners revised the firstJoint Doctrine released in 2007.The new doctrine has includ-ed the lessons learnt over thepast ten years and is alignedwith the doctrines of individ-

ual Services.Taking the strategic sce-

nario into account, the doctrinesaid India will have to havedeterrent capabilities to protectits interests on the Line ofActual Control (LAC) facingChina and Line of Control(LOC) with Pakistan. The doc-ument noted that while con-flicts the world over for gain-

ing territorial control werediminishing, India, however,has to protect its territory as theLAC and LOC are disputed.

The doctrine also notedthat proxy war in Jammu &Kashmir and volatile situationin Af-Pak region is anothermajor challenge for India andfuture strategies will have tofactor these ground realities toprotect its interests.

Radicalisation of youth insome states through socialmedia was another contempo-rary challenge facing nationalsecurity, the document saidadding management of digitalenvironment is priority area.

The Navy chief in theforeword of the doctrine said itis reference for policy makersincluding bureaucrats and mil-itary besides private and pub-lic sector industries. Moreover,the document will form part ofinitial training curriculum ofthe Services, he noted.

���� 1:63:2�

The HRD Ministry is under-taking a rehaul of the current

National Assessment andAccreditation Council (NAAC)accreditation process that willhave a ‘surprise’ element as theinstitutes will not be knowing inadvance about the team visitingthe campus for the assessment.The accommodation and trav-el plans of the peer team’s visitwill also be outsourced to pre-vent any collusion betweenGovernment-institute officials.

This apart, following com-plaints of corruption, an 80 percent weightage has been pro-posed for self-reported dataanalysed through software-based capturing and 20 percent weightage to peer reviewteams. Provisions of penalty forinstitutes submitting “fraudu-lent” information are also like-ly to be introduced and thenumber of parameters may bereduced to make the assess-ment more comprehensive.

“As per the new methodol-ogy in deciding the grade of aninstitute, the peer team assess-ment of institutes will be givenjust 20 per cent weightage insteadof the current 100 per cent.Eighty per cent weightage will begiven to self reported data whichcan be analysed through softwaredriven data capture,” HRDMinister Prakash Javadekar saidwhile inaugurating a nationalconsultation of revised accredi-tation framework.

The NAAC, which accred-its institutes of higher educa-tion in the country, had onMarch 31 suspended the appli-cation process till the gradingsystem undergoes an overhaul.

Javdekar pressed upon theneed for more accreditationagencies. “If we want to reachthe institutes in a time-boundmanner and assess them prop-erly, we need more valuators.Therefore we want to set up at

least three to four more insti-tutes and we should also give amessage to them in this regard,”he said during the consultation.

While the number of para-meters will be reduced to makethe assessment more compre-hensive, a third party verifica-tion of the data captured onlineis also required and provisionsof penalty for those submittingfalse data will also be intro-duced, he said, adding therevised framework focuses onaugmented use of technology,greater objectivity, and trans-parency of the process.

Javadekar referred to therecent advertisements of insti-tutions citing its NAAC ranking,its certifications and assess-ment reports and on its basis thetrend of students in selectinginstitutes for further education.He said now the institutes havealso added up NIRF ranking asa feather in their caps and nowthe students as well as the soci-ety can’t be misguided any moreas the pressure of quality is nowworking.

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Though allowing divorce to aman who was mentally tor-

tured by his wife for 17 years,the Supreme Court has fixed aprice for buying peace with thewoman at �1.50 crore.

Granting divorce to thetortured husband, a Bench ofJustices Adarsh K Goel andDeepak Gupta directed theman Raj Talreja, a resident ofUdaipur, to arrange a sum of�50 lakh to be set apart as per-manent alimony for his wifeKavita and even ordered him toprovide her a residential flatvaluing upto �1 crore.

The order was passed onMonday with a timeframe ofthree months fixed by theCourt for deposit of thealimony. With regard to theresidential flat, the Benchdirected that the wife cancontinue to stay at her presentresidence, owned by themother of the husband. Thecouple has a son who is mar-ried. Both son and daughter-

in-law stay with Kavita in thesame house while the aggriev-ed husband Raj has been stay-ing with his parents in a sep-arate accommodation.Interestingly, the son has beenassisting the father in businessand the latter, in turn, has ful-filled all his paternal obliga-tions by regularly payingmaintenance to his wife.

In these circumstances, theCourt was asked to decide as towhether the conduct of wife inspreading false accusationsagainst husband will amount tocruelty. The Bench said,“Though we have held that theacts of the wife in filing false

complaints against the hus-band amounts to cruelty, weare, however, not oblivious tothe requirements of the wife tohave a decent house where shecan live...some permanentarrangement has to be made forher alimony and residence.”

The apex court said thatcruelty can never be defined“with exactitude” and what it is,will depend upon the factsand circumstances of each case.“Mere filing of complaints isnot cruelty, if there are justifi-able reasons to file the com-plaints. Merely because noaction is taken on the com-plaint or after trial the accusedis acquitted may not be aground to treat such accusa-tions of the wife as cruelty with-in the meaning of the HinduMarriage Act.

“However, if it is found thatthe allegations are patentlyfalse, then there can be nomanner of doubt that the saidconduct of a spouse levellingfalse accusations against theother spouse would be an actof cruelty,” the Bench held.

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Delhi High Court onTuesday asked CBI to file

a status report by July 25 in acomplaint that sister-in-law offormer Finance Minister PChidambaram was wronglygiven a hotel in an auction incollusion with Indian OverseasBank ( IOB) officials. The HCwas acting on petition filed byDr Kathirvel, the former ownerof the Comfort Inn in Tirupur,who had approached CBI toprobe the illegal manner inwhich his hotel was put on auc-tion as part of a conspiracy.

In the petition, Kathirvelsaid his hotel Comfort Inn inTirupur in Tamil Nadu wasworth more than �10 croreagainst which he had taken aloan due of �2.5 crore from theIOB. After payment delay, thebank declared the loan as a Non-Performing Asset (NPA) andannounced the auction of thehotel. After this, Kathirvelapproached Madras High Courtand Debt Recovery Tribunal andpaid �64 lakhs to the IOB toavoid the auction.

Chidambaram was then FinanceMinister at the centre.

After receiving �64 lakhs in2008, the Bank promised can-cellation of auction, claimed theclaimant. According to thecomplaint filed to CBI, theBank cheated him and con-ducted an improper auctionand allotted the hotel toChidambaram’s sister-in-lawPadmini for just �4.5 crores.

Chidambaram wrote to thehotelier that he had nothing todo with the issue and claimedthat he had instructed his wifeNalini to avoid handling thecase of Padmini. Kathrivel alsoproduced in the Court Nalini’saudio transcripts in whichNalini was purportedly heardtelling him to leave the hotel.She even offered him a com-pensation of �2.5 crore, thecomplainant said.

Arguing for Kathirvel,Advocate Yatinder Chaudharysaid this is a clear case of abuseof power by the FinanceMinister’s family. Justice RKGauba asked CBI’s advocate whythe agency has s not acted till dateand directed the agency to sub-mit a status report by July 25.

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Siruthuli, a Tamil Nadu-based NGO, which is spear-

heading people’s movement byengaging in rejuvenating watersources and waste manage-ment in Coimbatore has drawnthe attention of the Centrewhich has asked the StateGovernments to consider repli-cating the green initiative intheir regions.

The Union Water andSanitation Ministry’s move fol-lows Prime Minister Office(PMO) reference to the cam-paign led by green crusaderVanitha Mohan, who is thevice-chairperson of Pricol Ltdand first woman to be electedpresident of the Indian

Chamber of Commerce andIndustry, Coimbatore (ICCIC).

Appreciating the effortsundertaken by her NGO inpromoting green activities, AKSrivastava, Under Secretary(Water) in the Union Waterand Sanitation Ministry haswritten to all the PrincipalSecretaries (Water andSanitation Department) of theStates, to implement the stepsto get due benefits in theirrespective regions.

For ready reference for theStates, the official in his letteralso attached the report ‘Waterconservation efforts for achiev-ing water security’ detailingafforestation, water conserva-tion, removal of agriculturalencroachments among others

undertaken by the NGO alongwith locals in Coimbatore.

Since 2003, “the NGO hascarried out water conservation,desilting of tanks, strengthen-ing of bunds, restoration ofrivers by removing encroach-ment, construction of checkdams, rain water harvestingsystem, afforestation and wastemanagement,” says the letter.

As per the report, as a firststep towards Noyyal riverrestoration, Siruthuli has

removed the agriculturalencroachments to a distance ofabout 33 kilometers from its ori-gin and in association with theGovernment marked bound-ary stones while undertakenrestoration efforts on the fourdistricts through which the riverpasses, namely Coimbatore,Tirupur, Erode and Karur.

The Siruthuli’s afforestationefforts to green the city ofCoimbatore and the sur-rounding areas was inaugurat-

ed by the then President DrAPJ Abdul Kalam.

As per the report, the pro-ject aims to plant 1.5 millionsaplings across Coimbatore, thusrestoring the green cover andincreasing the lung spaces. Massplanting activities, with dripirrigation system are being car-ried out through Public PrivatePartnership model, involvingcorporates, local administra-tion, and Government bodies.

In a unique initiative, theNGO recently adopted the‘Miyawaki’ method of planningwhich promotes quickafforestation with native speciesplanted in proximity. Thismethod is most ideal for areaswith space constraints such asurban locations.

���� 1:63:2�

Prime Minister NarendraModi on Tuesday promised

all possible assistance to Nepalin the conduct of its first pollsto local bodies in 20 years as hereceived a call from hisNepalese counterpart PushpaKamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’.

Modi’s assurance toPrachanda followed on the lat-ter’s request for India’s assis-tance while speaking aboutNepal holding the local elections.

The two Prime Ministersreiterated their commitment toadvance multi-faceted India-Nepal cooperative ties for thebenefit of the two peoples, aPMO statement said.

Modi and Prachanda dis-cussed recent developments inIndia-Nepal relations, includ-ing the recently-concluded“highly successful” State visit ofPresident of Nepal Bidya DeviBhandari here, it said.

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State Governor Balramji DasTandon and Chief Minister

Raman Singh led the State topay rich tributes to the CRPFpersonnel who were martyredin a deadly Maoist attack in

Sukma region of the State atthe premises of 4th Battalionof Chhattisgarh Armed Forcehere on Tuesday.

Earlier, Union HomeMinister Rajnath Singh visit-ed injured CRPF personnelwho were under treatment in

a private hospital, situated atPachpedi Naka road. Hewished them speedy healthrecovery.

During his visit to thehospital Chief MinisterRaman Singh and Union

Minister of Home for StateHansraj Aheer also accompa-nied him.

Later, the Union Ministeralso visited a private hospitalin Mowa and met injuredpersonnel undergoing treat-

ment there and inquired abouttheir well being.

Dr Raman Singh andUnion Home Minister forState Hansraj Aheer accom-panied Union Home Ministerduring the hospital visit.

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The blood bath in Sukma onTuesday which left 25

CRPF personnel martyred hasput forth a question markregarding whether troopersguarding road projects are get-ting sufficient cover throughquick reinforcements to doubletheir fire power for taking onswarming attacks by Maoists inBastar.

Union Home MinisterRajnath Singh on April 16 lastyear had stated that he was sat-isfied with the pace of devel-opment in the insurgency-hitareas of the State.

In the coming years, moredevelopment will be witnessedin such under developed areas,he had stated.

However, the issue remainsstill to be addressed is whiledevelopment is welcome, whythe troopers guarding underconstruction projects in redzones or going on area domi-nation exercises been so vul-nerable to swarming attack byMaoists even earlier in Bastar?

The Home Minister waschairing a high-powered meet-ing here in which ChiefMinister Raman Singh, ChiefSecretary Vivek Dhand,Director General of Police(DGP) AN Upadhyay andother senior officers were pre-sent.

During the meeting hesaid: “Naxalism is really a bigchallenge before democracyand we are committed for find-ing a permanent solution forit.”

He also reviewed the anti-Naxal operations going on ininsurgency hit areas.

Chief Minister RamanSingh during the meetinginformed that for strengthen-ing communication in the inte-rior parts of Bastar, mobile tow-ers are being installed and sofar, a total of 73 towers arealready functioning. Works toset up new towers are underprocess.

“For availing banking facil-ities for villagers living in hin-terlands, various new branch-es are being opened andemphasis is also on expandingpower supply network,” hesaid.

Those villages of red zoneswhere it is not possible to sup-ply power through conven-tional mode; there, solar powersystems are being used, Singhsaid.

The Central Governmenthas decided to upgrade thegovernment multi-specialtyhospital at Jagdalpur in Bastardistrict of Chhattisgarh.

A decision to this effectwas taken in a review meetingof the progress of work in LeftWing Insurgency (LWE) stateschaired by Union HomeMinister Rajnath Singh in NewDelhi on June 24, last year, offi-cials informed.

Other issues such as instal-lation of mobile towers in greyareas, increasing the reach ofnetworks of DD and AIR,improvement in programmes,expansion of railway lines,banking & postal services werealso discussed in detail.

The officials of concernedUnion Ministries and ChiefSecretaries of the seven LWE-affected states participated inthe meeting.

Addressing the meeting,Union Home Minister RajnathSingh stated that progress indevelopment works has pickedup during the last two years,and extended his congratula-tions to the states and the con-cerned central ministries.

He stressed upon the needto build upon this progress fur-ther, and finish the projects inhand at an even quicker pace,so that the people living inthese areas are benefitted andget access to services and facil-ities at par with other parts ofthe country.

The Home Minister alsonoted that deaths due to LWEincidents had declined by 42%in the year 2015 as comparedto the year 2013.

Progress of different pro-jects was thereafter reviewedand discussed with theSecretaries of the CentralMinistries of Railways, RoadTransport and Highways,Environment, Forests &Climate Change, Post,Information & Broadcasting,Communication & IT, Finance,Health & Family Welfare andHuman ResourceDevelopment.

The Chief Secretaries fromthe States of Chhattisgarh,Jharkhand, Bihar, AndhraPradesh, Odisha, Telenganaand Maharashtra also partici-pated.

During the meeting, spe-cial projects such as construc-tion of roads both RRP-I & II,installation of mobile towers,development measures suchas schools with hostel facility,Kendriya Vidyalayas/NavodayaVidyalayas in the worst affect-ed districts were discussedthreadbare.

The Union HomeSecretary Rajiv Mehrishi askedthe Ministries to look into dif-ferent eligibility norms realis-tically and alter them suitably,if need be after getting neces-sary approvals, in view of theextreme necessity.

Jaideep Govind, AdditionalSecretary (LWE) and othersenior officers of Ministry ofHome Affairs were also pre-sent.

Notably, the BastarBattalion of CRPF is being

raised by recruiting 744Scheduled Tribe (ST) youthsfrom four insurgency infesteddistricts of Bastar inChhattisgarh, the Central gov-ernment has informed.

The districts from wherethe tribal youths would berecruited for the new Battalionare -- Bijapur, Dantewada,Narayanpur and Sukma.

The decision to set up aTribal Battalion has been takenwith a view to give moreemployment to the tribal youthkeeping in mind their uniquecharacteristics.

Notably, the ChhattisgarhPolice Housing Corporation(CPHC) is going to play a sig-nificant role in the develop-ment of a new 100 Bed superspecial ity hospital inJagdalpur under the PublicPrivate Partnership (PPP)Model.

The hospital when readywould also meet the medicalneeds of the governmentemployees in Bastar and thepublic at large, officials stated.

In order to develop thehospital, the State governmenthas decided to do it through itsown subsidiary, theChhattisgarh Police HousingCorporation.

Notably, Chhattisgarh isone of the newly formed states,formed in 2000. It had inher-ited a weak infrastructure basein both the physical and socialsectors. It had genuine con-straints like a weak healthinfrastructure and depletedhuman resources for health-care, apart from many of itsareas being affected by LeftWing Extremism. All this com-bined to weak health indicators,officials stated.

Many of the basic deter-minants of health like water,sanitation, and overall health-care supply were also weak.Although there were a lot ofgaps in the state’s healthcaresystem, the political andadministrative leadership ofthe state nevertheless identifiedhealth as one of the prioritiesright from the beginning andthis path has resulted in manyremarkable achievements.

There is a large presence ofsecurity forces in the Bastarregion of the State, which is atthe heart of the LWE problem.There are over 22,000 statepolice personnel in the 8 LWEaffected districts of Bastar and

the neighbouring district ofRajnandgaon.

In addition, there arealmost 45,000 personnelbelonging to the Central ArmedPolice Forces (CAPFs) such asthe CRPF, BSF, ITBP & SSB. Inview of the ongoing anti-LWEoperations which are going onon a continuing basis, there aredaily occurrences of injuries tosecurity personnel.

These can be both minorand major, often requiringimmediate medical attention. Infact, in case of any complica-tions, there is a necessity totransport the injured personnelto Raipur (which is over 300kms away from most incidents)to provide medical care. Often,security personnel lose lives orlimbs as a result of the delay intransit.

Keeping in view the limit-ed medical facilities inJagdalpur, which is the head-quarters of Bastar Division,and the need to provideadvanced and appropriate med-ical care in Jagdalpur itself, theGovernment of Chhattisgarhtook a decision to develop ahospital a 100 Bed hospital inJagdalpur, along with a TraumaCenter, officials stated.

Development of such a 100Bed facility in Jagdalpur willhave multiple benefits. It will notonly cater to the security forces’requirements but also addressthe unmet healthcare needs ofthe local population living inthese areas. The facility to be setup should be equipped to caterto all the secondary level health-care requirements of the popu-lation in vicinity with a specialfocus on curative and rehabili-tative treatments related to acci-dents and trauma cases like bul-let injuries, splinter injuries andinjuries due to explosions andblasts.

This state of art facilityshould also be equipped tocater to special needs of psy-chological and psychiatric careof personnel operating understressed and challenging con-ditions. It is envisaged thatsuch a development initiative inthis conflict affected regionwill not only boost the moraleof security forces deployed insuch areas but shall alsoimprove the condition ofhealthcare of the tribal popu-lation substantially, thus creat-ing a positive environment forpeace.

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Delhi Public School (DPS),Raipur Principal

Raghunath Mukherjee hasonce again been adjudged ‘TheBest Zonal Principal-Chhattisgarh zone’.

The recognition camethrough ‘The AcademicCouncil of Science OlympiadFoundation’, which in its letterof acknowledgement has con-firmed a trophy, a citation anda cash award to the Principal,a DPS Press release informedon Wednesday.

This year the school alsoparticipated in the SportsOlympiad, 1st of its kind ever,only to earn envious positionsand an all-round applause forits initiative of external examdrive in paving way to providea global status to its students.

The pivotal role played byDaljeet Anand, Science facul-ty at DPS Raipur, in gearingstudents for this exam foundsuch a niche in the SOF that hetoo has been awarded a trophy,

a citation and a cash award for‘The Best Zonal Teacher-Chhattisgarh zone.’

The school hails both theseawards as an honour worth thepains. It promises to enthuse,encourage and entrust stu-dents with its dictum of ‘Servicebefore self ’ in very field so thatstudents can foresee and planfor themselves with confidenceand thus hope to reach covet-ed heights in future.

Mukherjee stressed on stu-dents learning by putting onefforts during self study ratherthan sending them to tuition

classes and spoil their naturalabilities. Kids must competewith their own abilities andgauge their progress regularly.Learning and performingshould always be fun filled.

Pro Vice Chairman, BaldeoSingh Bhatia, senior membersof the management committee,Vijay Shah and Pukhraj Jain,Headmistress, R. Bhawani, Sr.Coordinator, Bindu Singh,Admin Head, RajneeshTripathi congratulated thePrincipal and the Sr. Sciencefaculty for adding anotherfeather to their caps.

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The economic and socialupliftment of Chhattisgarh

would be much more pro-nouncing and promising postGST regime as the StateGovernment will continue topromote policies, leading toincrease in its people’s percapita income and consump-tion, Minister for Commerce &Industr ies and PublicEnterprises CommercialTaxes Urban Administrationand Development, AmarAgrawal said.

Addressing an InteractiveSession on ‘CredibleChhattisgarh’ under aegis ofPHD Chamber of Commerceand Industry in New Delhi,the Minister disclosed theState would not insist onhigher compensation packagefrom Centre post GST as itsfocus on increased per capi-ta income coupled with high-

er consumption would auto-matically lead to much high-er revenue generation.

Agrawal also assured theinvestors including the mem-bers of the PHD Chambergathered on the occasion thatthe overall law and order sit-uation in the newly carvedout state is quite peacefulbarring a few districts in theState that are on its peripherywhere Maoists are active andthat intense efforts are on toeliminate threats to law andorder arising from such ele-

ments.“Overall the law and

order situation is completelysatisfactory for the industri-al and economic uplift of theState as a result, Chhattisgarhhas attracted volumes ofinvestments from across thecountry and even beyond itsboundaries in the last 17years and the state wouldmake it that it receives thebest business ranking in termsof implementation of gov-ernment policies from centreand the world bank whenev-

er the ranking on implemen-tation front is announced asin Ease of Doing Business inChhattisgarh, it is already farahead than most of otherbusiness friendly states”, hesaid.

In his welcome remarks,President, PHD Chamber,Gopal Jiwarajka emphasisedthat Chhattisgarh which hasbeen rated as one of the mostadvanced states for industri-alization since its inceptionwill continue to establish milestones that would be emulat-ed by the remaining states.

Among others who spokeon the occasion comprisedChairman, CSIDC, ChhaganLal Mundra; Director,Department of Commerce &Industries, Chhattisgarh,Kartikeya Goel; Chairmanand Co-Chairman,Chhatt isgarh StateCommittee, PHD Chamber,Veenu Jain and ShashankRastogi including its SecretaryGeneral, Saurabh Sanyal.

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Atotal of 940 weavers havebeen benefited under the

Village Industries Department’sIntegrated HandloomDevelopment Programme inthe State during 2016-17, officials informed.

Rural Industry DepartmentOfficials informed that thisscheme was started for devel-opment of handloom weaversof the State, under which finan-cially weak weavers of ruralareas are divided into groups of20 and are provided weavingtraining of four months so as tomake them more employable.

For making designs as perthe market demands, weaversare provided two-months ofskill improvement training.Weavers who do not have theirown looms are provided �25,000 for loom and �3000 forother necessary equipment.Moreover, Weavers cooperativesocieties are provided financialaid of �20 lakh each for infra-structure development.

A total of 8,500 personswere provided employmentunder the Prime MinisterEmployment GenerationProgramme (PMEGP) inChhattisgarh during the pasteight years, officials stated.

According to ChhattisgarhKhadi and Village IndustriesBoard, the PMEGP during thefinancial year 2015-16 as onDecember 2015 had providedfund of �17.56 crore to 830 cot-tage industry units for com-mencing their works.

In turn, these units haveprovided employment to 948persons.The PMEGP is a pro-gramme sponsored by CentralKhadi and Village IndustriesCommission.

Under this scheme, for set-ting up of cottage industry,projects costing upto �25 lakhis sanctioned. For beneficiariesof general category marginmoney of 25 per cent is pro-vided by the Board, while for

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beneficiaries belonging to thefemale category, ST, SC andOBC class, 35 per cent marginmoney is provided as grant,officers said.

The loan availed from thebank has to be returned over aperiod of seven years, they

said. Mainly Poha Mill, mini

rice mill, crusher plant, lackproduction, bamboo and caneproduction center, pottery busi-ness, pulses mill, flour mill,soap industry, incense sticks,candle industry, carpenter

works, ironsmith, hosiery, pro-duction of utensils from brass-copper-brass, aluminum uten-sil, iron furniture productionunit and others are financedunder the programme.

As many as 119 cottageindustry units were establishedin Chhattisgarh involving anestimated cost of �1.78 croreunder Prime MinisterEmployment GenerationProgramme (PMEGP) during2015-16, officials stated. Theproject in Chhattisgarh is beingrun by Chhattisgarh Khadi andGramodhyog Board. Notably,Chhattisgarh had 7,586 personsinvolved in manufacture ofKhadi products as on March 31,2015, officials stated.

Page 4: ˘9 ˇ 8˘ - The Pioneer Pakistan slogans. All the three websites ... construction workers who were present ... Ten Chief Ministers and top police and

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The Indian Railways haveissued a new policy called

“Long Term Tariff Contract”(LTTC) to provide stability andcertainty in the logistic opera-tions both for the Railwaysand its freight customers.

Under the scheme, the cus-tomers would enter into a long-term contract with the Railwaysoffering assured traffic to theRailways, and, in turn, theywould get assurance of certaintyin supply of rakes and tariffrates as well as freight rebate.

In view of this, a meetingwas organised by the EastCoast Railway on Monday at

the Rail Sadan here with rep-resentatives of ports, industriesand other customers, presidedover by ECoR GeneralManager Umesh Singh.

The ECoR would offer theindustries dedicated wagonsduring the peak season with anobjective to provide stabilityand certainty in the logisticssector. The various industriesspelt out their annual plans foryear 2017-18 and made variouscommitments regarding pro-duction and rail despatches.

ECoR Additional GeneralManager Rajiv Sharma, ChiefCommercial Manager BPSwain and other senior officerswere present.

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Is Chief Minister NaveenPatnaik’s and his BJD’s road

back to the BJP is round-about?

Though the BJD has allalong been claiming to main-tain equidistance from theCongress and the BJP andPatnaik holds his cards closeto his chest on aMahaghatbandhan of theregional satraps, the visit ofthe CM to the house of for-mer Prime Minister and BJPpatriarch Atal Bihari Vajpayeein New Delhi, who is ailingand unable to speak, hasfuelled speculations if theformer ally is blinking for areunion with the BJP.

The BJD has discardedthat Patnaik’s visit has any-thing to do with a truce withthe BJP. But the BJP saidPatnaik is indebted toVajpayee as he and his BJDbasked in the former PM’sglow and it was because of acoalition with the BJP that theBJD came to power in Odishain 2000.

Senior BJP leader PratapSarangi said the BJD was likea moon without its own glowwhile the BJP, like sun, brightened it up in the initialdays when the BJD was bornand none knew NaveenPatnaik. Pradeep Purohit of

the BJP said while BijuPatnaik had not brought hisson Naveen to politics, it wasVajpayee who had declaredNaveen as the CM choice ofthe BJP-BJD coalition inOdisha.

Now, the question is whydid Patnaik choose to call onVajpayee at this time whenlong 8 years have passed sincethe former PM has suffered abrain stroke in 2009?

The BJP has had a spec-tacular success in the recent-ly held ZP poll in Odisha.Ever since, the party has takenthe role as the principalOpposition in the State andhas been making efforts onwar footing to wrest power in2019 Assembly election.

In the National Executivemeet at Bhubaneswar, theentire BJP, not just the Stateunit, has clearly focused on itstarget over Odisha. Though Patnaik is not one towear his heart on his sleeve, he is certainly worriedabout the surging BJP as athreat, especially after thepanchayat poll. His initia-tives to keep his flock togeth-er and change his personalstyle of work are a pointer tothis.

Two important develop-ments took place after the BJPmega meet. One, the BJDorganised the Biju deathanniversary and the other,West Bengal CM MamataBanerjee visited Patnaik andthe two leaders held parleysfor a few minutes. But before

meeting Patnaik, Banerjeeblasted the BJP for playingdivisive politics and calledupon all regional parties tounite.

During the Biju deathanniversary, the BJD made ahype of the Biju legacy andalso used it as a platform tocounter the charges of the BJPover nonperformance of theBJD Government.

The BJD rubbished thestatistics of the BJP overpoverty rate in Odisha andfailure in providing the min-imum amenities. Though stilla fence sitter, Patnaik whilemeeting Banerjee gave aveiled indication of a processunderway to unite an anti-BJPforce in the country.

By visit ing Vajpayee,Patnaik has no doubt gone todig the history by remindingof the honeymoon daysbetween the BJP and the BJD.

After a prolonged periodof hectic calculations, Patnaikmay have found the proposedanti-BJP front to be ‘unrealist ic’ given the contradictions among theregional parties like the BSPand the Left with the SP andthe TMC, the BJD, theAIADMK, the TRS leaningtowards the BJP with the RJDand the JD having a Congressleaning.

It could also be that theBJD supremo might find sucha front to be too weak to con-tain the Modi-led mightyBJP’s progress and stand as analternative to the NDA.

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From Page 1What has surprised mul-

tiple security officials whomPTI talked to, is the fact thatthe Maoists are understoodto have used few under-bar-rel grenade launchers(UBGL), a smart and sophis-ticated weapon used by secu-rity forces, to inflict fatalcasualties on the troops bylobbing grenades in quicksuccession.

“It is very likely thatthese UBGLs were lootedfrom security forces only.That could be as recent as theincident where 12 CRPF menwere killed in Sukma onMarch 11,” a senior officersaid.

He that whi le noImprovised Explosive Device(IEDs) was used in theambush, the favour iteweapon for inflicting damageon security forces, whatclaimed the lives in thebiggest Naxal ambush of thecountry in the last threeyears was heavy usage ofgun fire and grenades.

Off icials said as thetroops of the 74th battalionof the CRPF that came underattack, and few other similarcontingents have been goingout on the same track forsome time and hence therewas a possibility that their“presence was being tracked,marked and trai led” byMaoist cadres.

“Our men have told usthat the villagers were mak-ing movements close tothem. Villagers were alsotaken as shields by Naxalsand that restricted our firefor some time,” the officersaid.

At present the troopswere securing a culvert thatis being constructed on theroad and it would have takenabout four-five months moreto complete this task, theofficer said.

The area where the dead-ly blood bath took place isconsidered the strongholdof south Bastar DivisionalCommittee of the Naxalsheaded by Maoist comman-der Raghu and is under theJagargunda Area Committeeled by another red ultra PapaRao.

Off ic ia ls said, “It i sbeyond doubt” that theassault will have been led bythe 1st battalion of the NaxalPeople’s Liberation GuerrillaArmy (PLGA) led by Naxalcommander Hidma who issaid to be active in the areaat present in view of theTactical Couter OffenciveCampaign (TCOC) under-taken by Naxals during sum-mer months to assert theirinfluence in the area.

From Page 1Though the Delhi Police

and officials of the two insti-tutions said they were unawareof the websites being hacked,many users said they cameacross “Pakistani propaganda”material when they triedaccessing the websites.

Those using Androidphones continued experiencinga hacked IIT-Delhi website tilllate evening while AMU web-site was hacked across plat-forms. The Delhi Universitywebsite, however, returned tonormal within a matter ofminutes.

The poster by hackers’group posted on top of the IITDelhi website’s main page read:“Greetings Government ofIndia and the people of India.”It talked about alleged “killingand rape of Kashmiri people bythe Indian soldiers”.

“Take your murderers andrapists back home,” the postsaid. The hackers also sharedtwo videos of alleged policebrutality in Kashmir. “Just hereto deliver my message to theGovernment and the people ofIndia...Security Is Just AnIllusion. Pakistan Zindabad,”the post read.

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From Page 1Talking to mediapersons

outside the court, Sadhvi’sbrother-in-law Bhagwan Jhasaid his family would celebratethe court’s order. “Finally, wehave won. For nine years shewas in jail without evidence.Now we will celebrate thecourt’s order nationwide,” hesaid. “We are going to chal-lenge the High Court’s order inthe Supreme Court,” GulzarAzmi, Secretary of Legal Aiddepartment of the JamiatUlama-e-Maharashtra, said.

Jamiat had on behalf ofvictims of blast intervenedand opposed bail applicationsSadhvi and Col Prohit.

Regarding Col Purohit,then a military Intelligenceofficial, the Bench said, afterholding that the charges

against him were “serious andgrave one, inviting even pun-ishment of death or lifeimprisonment” and that it didnot find him entitled for bail.

“… in our consideredopinion, if both the reports ofATS and NationalInvestigation Agency (NIA)are considered conjointly, sofar as the appellant is con-cerned, it cannot be said thereare reasonable grounds forbelieving that accusation madeagainst her are prima facietrue. Once it is held so, thenthe benefit of bail cannot bewithheld to the Appellant,even if the offences allegedagainst her by ATS are graveand serious one,” a HC Benchnoted, while granting bail toSadhvi.

The HC Bench also took

cognisance of the fact thatSadhvi was suffering frombreast cancer and that shehad become infirm and couldnot even walk without sup-port. The court, however,noted that an Ayurvedic hos-pital, in which she was beingtreated, could not properlytreat her cancer. Sadhvi and LtCol Purohit were two of the 11people charge-sheeted by theATS on January 20, 2009 inconnection with 2008Malegaon blasts. It may berecalled that an improvisedexplosive kept under the seatof a LML Freedom motor-bicycle had exploded betweenBhikku Chowk and AnjumanChowk, near Noorani Masjidon the night of September 29,2008, leaving six people deadand injuring 101 others.

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From Page 1“In our manifesto we

promised to set up an anti-landmafia task force and we havefulfilled that promise,” Sharmasaid.

At the State level, the taskforce will be headed by theChief Secretary, at the divi-sional level by theCommissioner, at the districtlevel by the District Magistratesand at the Tehsil level by theSub-Divisional Magistrates.

A portal,jansunvai.up.nic.in. has alsobeen launched in which landgrabbing complaints can beregistered by the public.

“The Cabinet has giventwo months to the task force toidentify Government land thathas been encroached becausegenerally no one lodges com-plaints about encroachment ofGovernment land. In case ofprivate land, people can lodgea complaint with the police.After proper verification ofcomplete facts and figures,action would be taken againstencroachers. The task forcewill also identify the officials

who helped people encroachGovernment land,” he said andadded that police have alsobeen asked to prepare a list offamous land grabbers whowork in connivance with offi-cials.

Sharma refused to divulgewhether the Government hasset a time frame to free allGovernment land from squat-ters.

The Cabinet has alsodecided that no one will beallowed to usurp land in thename of religion. “The con-struction of religious places,temples, mosques or mazars onencroached public land will notbe allowed,” he said.

Principal SecretaryRevenue Arvind Kumar saidthat the Supreme Court in itsorder in 2009 had asked theGovernment not to allowencroachment of land in thename of religious places. In2010 a detailed Governmentorder was issued by the HomeDepartment. “The Cabinet hasreiterated that the court’s ordershould be implemented in let-ter and in spirit,” he said.

Briefing reporters aboutthe UP Government’s decisionto curtail 15 holidays, Sharmasaid that during the birth anddeath anniversaries of emi-nent personalities, all schoolsand colleges will have an hour-long function educating stu-dents about the achievementsof these personalities.

The holidays that havebeen curtailed under theNegotiable Instruments Actare, Karpoori Thakur’s birthanniversary (Jan 24), MahrishiKashyap avum Maharaj GuhaJayanti (April 5), Cheti Chand(March 29), Urs of KhwajaMoinuddin Chisti (April 14),Chandrashekhar Jayanti (April17), Parshuram Jayanti (April28), Loknayak MaharanaPratap Jayanti (May 9),Jumatul Vida, VishwakarmaPuja (Sept 17), MaharajaAgrasen Jayanti (Sept 21),Maharishi Valmiki Jayanti(Oct 5), Chhat Puja (Oct 26),Sardar Vallabhbhi Patel andAcharya Narendra Dev Jayanti(October 31), Eid-e-Milad andChaudhary Charan SinghJayanti (Dec 23).

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To avoid rush in regulartrains, the Railways have

decided to run a pair of specialtrains between Somnath inGujrat to Puri via Ahmadabad,Nagpur, Raipur, Rayagada andVizianagaram, connecting tworeligious destinations.

The Somnath-Puri Special

Train would leave Somnath at7.20 am on every Saturdaybetween May 13, 2017 and July1, 2017 and would reach Puri at10.05 am on every Mondayduring the period.

In the return direction, thespecial train would leave Puri at7.45 pm on every Wednesdaybetween May 17 and July 15,2017 and would reach atSomnath at 9 pm every Friday.

This train will have oneAC-2 Tier Coach, two AC-3Tier Coaches, eight SleeperClass Coaches, four SecondClass Seating and two Guard-cum- Luggage Vans.

It would have stoppages at

Veraval, Keshod, Junagadh,Jetalsar, Virpur, Gondal, Bhakti Nagar, Rajkot,Wankaner, Surendra Nagar,Ahmedabad, Nadiad, Annand,Vadodara, Bharuch, Surat, Nandurbar, Amalner,Jalgaon, Bhusaval, Malkapur,Shegaon, Akola, Badnera,Wardha, Nagpur, Gondia, Raj Nandgaon, Durg, Raipur, Mahasamund, KhariarRoad, Kantabanji, Titlagarh,Kesinga, Rayagada,Vizianagaram, Ichhapuram,Brahmapur, Balugaon, andKhurda Road betweenSomnath and Puri from boththe directions.

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Train services got hitbetween Howrah and

Tatanagar section of SouthEastern Railway (SER) forabout three hours on Tuesdaymorning following a publicagitation at Barkola betweenDhalbhumgarh and Kokpararailway stations, about 80 Kmsaway from steel city.

Local villagers, demandinga passenger halt at Barkola,squatted on tracks at around7am, affecting the running ofboth passenger and goodstrain in Up and Down lines.The protesters withdrew theiragitation at 10 am after anassurance from railway offi-cials of Kharagpur railwaydivision.

The Howrah-bound SteelSuperfast Express which leftTatanagar railway station on itsscheduled departure at 6.15pm got stuck up at Ghatshiladue to the agitation. Thetrain remain halted for aboutthree hours before it pro-ceeded on its journey at 10am when the agitation waswithdrawn. The trainreached Howrah at around1.30 pm.

“We had no choice but topersuade the protestors. The

trains got delayed and pas-sengers had to suffer,” said anofficial.

Similarly, the Howrah-Barbil Janshatabdi Expressand Howrah-Titlagarh IspatSuperfast Express got latewhen the trains reachedTatanagar railway station.The Janshatabdi Expressreached Tatanagar one hourbehind its schedule arrivaltime. The train is supposedto arrive at Tatanagar at 9.40am but because of the agita-tion it came here at 10.40 pm.

The Tit lagarh-boundIspat Superfast Expressreached Tatanagar railwaystation at 11 am, half-an-hour behind its schedule.The Jhargram-DhanbadMEMU Passenger gotdelayed by about three hourswhen it reached Tatanagarrailway station. The sched-uled arrival of that passengertrain at Tatanagar is 7.55 ambut today the train reachedhere at around 10.50 am.

The Kharagpur-AsansolPassenger which runs viaTatanagar got delayed byabout two-and-half hours.Instead of 8.30 am, which isits schedule arrival time, theAsansol bound train camehere at 10.50 am.

�����"���)0����42�,�� �,-����*��,��,*1�5(�(�.�"�*++Haridwar: Bharat HeavyElectricals Limited’s (BHEL)largest ever export order worth�10,000 crore (US$1.5 billion)for setting up 1,320 MW(2x660 MW) Maitree SuperThermal Power Project inBangladesh has taken off fol-

lowing the notice to proceedissued by the developer.

Notably, BHEL is India’slargest manufacturer of powergeneration equipment with aformidable installed base ofover 1,70,000 MW of powerplant equipment globally.

Page 5: ˘9 ˇ 8˘ - The Pioneer Pakistan slogans. All the three websites ... construction workers who were present ... Ten Chief Ministers and top police and

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Nuclear-armed North Koreaon Tuesday marked a mil-

itary anniversary with a massiveconventional firing drill, Seoulsaid, as a US guided-missilesubmarine docked in SouthKorea amid tensions over Pyon-gyang’s weapons ambitions.

Speculation had mountedthat the North could carry out asixth nuclear test or another mis-sile launch to mark 85 years sincethe founding of its army.

But no such event - whichusually happens in the morn-ing - had taken place by mid-afternoon, and instead Seoul’sdefence ministry saidPyongyang was conducting a“massive fire drill” in the east-ern port city of Wonsan.

The South’s Yonhap newsagency cited a governmentsource as saying the exercise wasthe North’s “largest ever” and

presumed to have been overseenby leader Kim Jong-Un.

Washington has sent theaircraft carrier USS CarlVinson to the Korean penin-sula, where it is expected toarrive - after a derision-pro-voking delay - later this week.

Confusion had cloudedthe carrier’s whereabouts ear-lier this month after US officialsindicated it was sailing towardsNorth Korea when in fact it washeading south.

The vessel will take part injoint naval drills with theSouth’s forces to “demonstrateSeoul and Washington’s strongdetermination to punish NorthKorean provocations”, theSouth Korean Navy said in astatement.

They will take place in theEast Sea, the South’s name forthe Sea of Japan, it said, and thetwo allies will also begin jointnaval exercises in the West Sea

— what it calls the Yellow Sea— today “in relation to the cur-rent security situation”.

The nuclear-powered US

submarine USS Michigan alsomade a port call at Busan in theSouth today in another show offorce, while US navy destroy-

ers carried out separate jointexercises with Japanese andSouth Korean vessels.

President Donald Trumphas said the US was sending an“armada” to the Korean penin-sula, including submarines.

According to the US Navy’sSubmarine Force Pacific web-site, the USS Michigan carriesmore than 150 Tomahawkcruise missiles. They are capa-ble of precision strikes againstthe North’s nuclear facilities, butthe South Korean Navy calledthe visit “routine” and said thesubmarine would not take partin any joint exercises.

North Korea has ambi-tions to build a nuclear-tippedmissile capable of reaching theUS mainland. Tensions havesoared in recent months as itcarried out a string of missiletests that sparked tit-for-tatsabre-rattling between it andWashington.

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Aman in Phuket filmedhimself killing his child

and then himself on FacebookLive, Thai police said onTuesday, the latest example ofthe social network’s live-streaming function being usedto broadcast grisly crimes.

Officers on the southernresort island said they werealerted to the video by friendsof the man and rushed to anabandoned hotel near theinternational airport onMonday afternoon.

“They had already died

when I arrived there,” LieutenantJullaus Suvannin, one of the firston the scene, told AFP, addinga smartphone was foundpropped up against a wall.

Police said they believedthe man had previously arguedwith the mother of the mur-dered child, an 11-month girl.The man had hung himself andhis daughter, they said.

Channel 3 televisionbroadcast footage of the child’sdistraught mother, flanked byrelatives, picking up both herdaughter’s body and the man’scorpse from the local hospitalon Tuesday.

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The EU has hardened itsposition on Brexit talks

ahead of a key summit, mak-ing new demands on financialservices, immigration andBritain’s exit bill, a documentshowed on Tuesday.

The leaders of the other 27countries will stress that Britainwill be liable for costs for at leasta year after it leaves in 2019,according to the draft negoti-ating guidelines seen by AFP.

They insist that Britain’shuge finance industry mustalso stick to EU rules if it wantseasy access to European Unionmarkets.

And Britain should giveEU citizens permanent resi-dency after living there forfive years, they say, in a chal-

lenge for the British govern-ment which has vowed to limitimmigration.

European diplomats agreedthe changes on Monday at ameeting with the bloc’s chiefBrexit negotiator MichelBarnier, ahead of Saturday’sBrussels summit where EUleaders will approve “red lines”for two years of tough negoti-ations.

The leaders are alsoexpected to have a “widerdebate on Brexit and theupcoming talks” at the summit,a European source told AFP.

The EU’s language hasnotably toughened from EUPresident Donald Tusk’s firstdraft, issued two days afterBritish Prime Minister TheresaMay triggered the divorceprocess on March 29.

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Taliban mil itants onTuesday targeted a mini

bus with a remote-controlledbomb in Pakistan’s restivenorthwest tribal region,killing at least 14 peopleincluding four women andtwo children.

The improvised explosivedevice (IED) blast targetedthe van in Kontara village incentral Kurram Agency.

Jamaatul Ahrar, a splintergroup of the outlawed Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, claimedresponsibility for the attack.

Fourteen people, includingfour women and two children,were killed in the blast, officialssaid. Thirteen people wereinjured in the explosion. Theinjured were shifted to a near-by hospital. The military’s mediawing, Inter Services PublicRelations, said a special Mi-17helicopter has been sent toKurram Agency headquartersParachinar to bring the injuredto Peshawar for treatment.

Security personnel rushedto the blast site and cordonedoff the entire area. A search operation was alsoconducted.

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Prime Minister BenjaminNetanyahu on Tuesday

cancelled talks with GermanForeign Minister SigmarGabriel after the visitingdiplomat declined to call offmeetings with rights groupscritical of Israel’s Government,an official said.

The Israeli official, speak-ing on condition of anonymi-ty, confirmed the meetingwas cancelled after Gabrieldecided to go ahead withtalks with Israeli rights groupsBreaking The Silence andB’Tselem.

Breaking The Silenceseeks to document allegedIsraeli military abuses in thePalestinian territories, while

B’Tselem has worked on arange of issues and has strong-ly opposed Israeli settlementbuilding.

Cancelling the meetingbetween Netanyahu andGabriel was a rare step, but inline with the current right-wing Israeli Government’sstance against groups it accus-es of having political agendas.

Gabriel earlier told jour-nalists in Ramallah, where heheld talks with PalestinianPrime Minister RamiHamdallah, that he had stillhoped to meet Netanyahuand the rights groups.

He had also told Germanpublic television station ZDFthat a decision to cancel themeeting would be “extremelyregrettable”.

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Queen Elizabeth II has removed an antiquegong framed with ivory from an Indian

artifacts exhibition held on her SandringhamEstate to avoid angering conservationists.

The 91-year-old monarch’s estate in the EastAnglia region of England houses the museumwhich holds a special exhibition annually. Thisyear the theme of the exhibition is India to markthe ‘UK-India Year of Culture 2017’ and 70years of Indian independence.

Among the exhibits on display are itemspresented to the Queen and the British royalfamily over the years, many of them by Indianroyalty during the Raj. The gong was present-ed to the Queen’s great grandfather George Vduring a state visit to India in 1911.

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China has banned dozens ofIslamic names like

‘Saddam’ and ‘Jihad’ for babiesbelonging to the restiveMuslim-majority Xinjiangprovince, in a move that wouldprevent children from gettingaccess to education and gov-ernment benefits, a leadingrights group said on Tuesday.

Xinjiang authorities haverecently banned dozens ofnames with religious conno-tations common to Muslimsaround the world on the basisthat they could “exaggeratereligious fervour,” the HumanRights Watch (HRW) said.

Islam, Quran, Mecca,Jihad, Imam, Saddam, Hajj,and Medina are among dozens

of baby names banned underruling Chinese CommunistParty’s “Naming Rules ForEthnic Minorities,” an officialwas quoted as saying by RadioFree Asia.

Children with bannednames will not be able toobtain a “hukou,” or house-hold registration, essentialfor accessing public school and other social ser-vices, it said.

The new measures are partof China’s fight against terror-ism in this troubled region,home to 10 million MuslimUyghur ethnic minority.

This is the latest in a slewof new regulations restrictingreligious freedom in the nameof countering “religiousextremism,” the HRW said.

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Turkish warplanes killedmore than 20 Kurdish

fighters on Tuesday in strikesin Syria and Iraq, where theKurds are key players in thebattle against the ISIS group.

Turkey said it had carriedout the strikes in northeasternSyria and northern Iraqagainst “terrorist havens” andvowed to continue actionagainst groups it links to theoutlawed Kurdistan’s Workers’Party (PKK).

In northeastern Syriastrikes targeting the KurdishPeople’s Protection Units(YPG) — who are leading the offensive against ISIS

stronghold Raqa — killed atleast 18 people.

In northern Iraq theykilled six peshmerga fightersfrom the autonomousKurdish Government, usual-ly allied with Ankara, in anapparent accident.

The peshmerga said thestrike was “unacceptable” butblamed PKK-affiliated militiawho were the apparent targets.

The strikes underlinedthe complexities of the bat-tlefields in Iraq and Syria,where twin US-backed offen-sives are seeking to dislodgeISIS jehadis from their lastmajor urban strongholds.

They could also exacerbatetensions between Ankara and

its NATO ally Washington,which sees the Kurds as one ofthe most effective fightingforces against IS.

Turkey’s army said itlaunched the strikes “in orderto destroy terrorist havens tar-geting our country”.

“The operations will con-tinue to be carried out from now with the samedetermination until the verylast terrorist is neutralised,”the army said.

The bombardment innortheastern Syria saw Turkishplanes carry out “dozens ofsimultaneous air strikes” onYPG positions overnight,including a media centre, amonitoring group said.

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Washington: US PresidentDonald Trump on Tuesdaymade a very, very long dis-tance call, from his OvalOffice to the InternationalSpace Station, to congratulatePeggy Whitson who brokethe record for most days inspace by a US astronaut. Hespoke with Whitson, com-mander of the InternationalSpace Station, and fellowastronaut Jack Fischer.

When Trump askedWhitson “what we are learn-ing from space”, she explainedto him some of the challengesof living on the ISS.

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Aruling ChineseCommunist Party news-

paper is warning North Koreaagainst conducting anothernuclear test, saying that wouldlikely propel events past the“point of no return.”

In an editorial on Tuesday,the Global Times says the pre-vious day’s phone conversationbetween Presidents DonaldTrump and Xi Jinping of Chinashowed the two countries werein close communication overthe tensions.

It says China hopes for apeaceful outcome, but thatBeijing has “very limited influ-ence on the entire situation.”

It says: “The game of chick-en between Washington andPyongyang has come to abreaking point.” The paper is

known for its often stridentlynationalistic views.

It says if North Korea car-ries out a sixth nuclear test asexpected, “it is more likelythan ever that the situation willcross the point of no return. Allstakeholders will bear the con-

sequences, with Pyongyangsure to suffer the greatest loss-es.” As a traditional ally andNorth Korea’s chief source oftrade, food and fuel aid, Chinahas come under intense pres-sure to use its influence to dis-suade Pyongyang from addi-tional Nuclear tests and missilelaunches.

However, Beijing is intense-ly wary of any measures thatmight cause the collapse ofNorth Korean leader Kim JongUn’s hard-line communistregime, fearing that could leadto a wave of refugees and aPyongyang government behold-en to Washington and Seoul.

US envoy for North KoreaJoseph Yun says he and hiscounterparts from Japan and South Korea agreed tocoordinate “all actions” onNorth Korea.

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The US on Monday imposed “sweep-ing sanctions” on Syrian government

officials in response to the suspected Saringas attack on civilians earlier this month.At a White House briefing, US treasurysecretary Steven Mnuchin announcedsanctioning 271 employees of Syria’sScientific Studies and Research Centre, theSyrian government agency responsible fordeveloping and producing non- conven-tional weapons and means to deliver them.

Mnuchin said the treasury has tar-geted these 271 employees because theyhave expertise in chemistry and relatedfields or have worked in support of chem-

ical weapons programs since at least 2012.“Today’s action, less than three weeksafter the attack on Khan Shaykhun, is oneof the largest ever executed by OFACOffice of Foreign Asset Control).

In a single action, we are more thandoubling the number of individuals andentities sanctioned since the start of theSyrian conflict pursuant to Syria-relat-ed executive orders,” Mnuchin said. Thesweeping sanctions, he said, are intend-ed to hold the Assad regime and thosewho support it directly or indirectlyaccountable for their blatant violationsof the Chemical Weapons Conventionand UN Security Council Resolution21118.

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Page 6: ˘9 ˇ 8˘ - The Pioneer Pakistan slogans. All the three websites ... construction workers who were present ... Ten Chief Ministers and top police and

As the convenor of anuninterrupted India-Pakistan track II con-ference since 2003,even as we were explor-

ing at Dubai, ways and means ofreviving the dialogue process, I gota rude shock when Pakistanannounced the death sentence toretired Indian naval officer,Kulbhushan Jadhav, alias HusainMubarak Patel with two passports.The owner of a media house attend-ing the conference called it a newlow in India-Pakistan relations.Lately, India seems to have lost themoral high ground on combatingterrorism by what some people arecalling as ‘Doval-isation’.

Seeking moral equivalencewith India, even moderate Pakistaniinterlocutors are regularly citinginstances of the slow trial ofSamjhauta Express blasts, collusionbetween Indian and Afghan secu-rity agencies for cross-border terror-ism in Pakistan and the Modi dec-larations of political and moral sup-port for Pakistan-occupied Kashmirand Balochistan. They quoteNational Security Advisor AjitDoval’s statement, albeit before hebecame a security czar that “if therewas another Mumbai, there wouldbe no Balochistan” with Pakistan.Former Defence Minister ManoharParrikar is also a celebrity for hiscomments like, “To catch a terror-ist, use a terrorist”; “going toPakistan is like going to hell”, andre-thinking India’s No First Usenuclear doctrine. This narrative hasallowed Pakistan to shift the focusfrom being the perpetrator of ter-rorism to a victim of terrorismemanating from India. Regrettably,all that India has really done is themodest surgical strikes whichPakistanis uniformly deny.

On the other hand, a memberof the Azad Jammu & Kashmir(AJK) Assembly attending the con-ference accused the Indian Army oftargeting a civilian bus and anambulance in the Neelam valleyafter Uri and Nagrota. I do hope weare causing sufficient pain andpolitical dividend to deserve theDoval-isation label.

A former General and InteriorMinister of Pakistan at Dubai, said:“India is perceived as a hegemon,arrogant and state-sponsor of ter-rorism, determined to destabiliseand isolate Pakistan as well as toblock the China Pakistan EconomicCorridor.” Though every allegationis countered, the moot point is: Hasit been strategically worth India’swhile doing what Pakistan is alleg-ing? Or are most of these, False Flagoperations? The blame game isunending, the trust gap widening,

even at civilised Track II meetingssuch as ours.

What went unnoticed duringthe Dubai dialogue was the quietdisappearance of a retired Pakistaniofficer, Lt Col Mohammad HabibZahir, along the India-Nepal bor-der, notorious as a trading point forspies, soothsayers and terrorists.Zahir was ostensibly involved in thecapture of Kulbhushan Jadhav in alandmark Inter-Services Intelligence(ISI) operation which has madePakistani charges of Indian espi-onage and terrorism stick domes-tically. Rawalpindi has been able tosell the canard that it was India andnot Pakistan which was the region-al villain in sponsoring terrorism.

The alleged abduction of Zahirin early April was a classic revengeoperation masterminded byResearch &Analysis Wing(R&AW). According to a PakistaniBrigadier, he was lured to Nepal viaOman, evidently for a UN job. Hismilitary colleagues are incensedwith his ‘greedy behaviour’ whichlanded him in the R&AW trap.Feeling vulnerable, retired IndianGenerals are now loath to travel toNepal or the Gulf region. Theanti-India sentiment in Pakistan,and among the establishment inparticular, is very high.

The visit of Bangladesh’s PrimeMinister Sheikh Hasina to New

Delhi around the same time as thedisappearance of Zahir and picturesof Prime Ministers Narendra Modiand Hasina sitting against the back-drop of the legendary 1971 surren-der ceremony at Dacca going viralin Pakistan, is another blow toIndian-Pakistan bilateral relations.

On Track II discourse, mattershave not got out of hand, which isthe case at Track 1. Despite India’svaliant attempts, Pakistan is not iso-lated. In fact, it has a new ally inRussia, besides the indelible andenduring strategic bonding withChina. Even US National SecurityAdvisor Lt Gen HR McMaster, inhis first meeting with PakistaniGenerals this month, deliveredonly the mildest of rebukes, coun-selling the use of diplomacy notproxies, and not being selective oncountering terrorism.

The constant problem is of thediarchy of Governments in Pakistan— Rawalpindi and Islamabad —which adversely impacts bilateralrelations. No way has been foundworking around the Pakistan mil-itary, though informal military-to-military dialogues have long triedto overcome this hurdle. It seemsneither the Generals in Pakistan northe Government in India are inter-ested in high level military contacts.

The most recently crafted two-strand Comprehensive Bilateral

Dialogue — NSA and ForeignSecretary — which is yet to breakthe ice, has the potential of blossom-ing into an outcome-yielding path.It has one snag though. On theIndian side, it has a policeman, nota soldier, as the NSA. I have neverunderstood why the Indian rulingpolitical class has not selected aGeneral or Admiral and insteadpersisted with a diplomat or anintelligence chief for the post. ThePakistan NSA, Lt Gen NasserJanjua, would bond better andfamously with, for example, LtGen HS Panag, a recently retiredKashmir Army Commander, orAdmiral Arun Prakash or anyother military officer. US PresidentDonald Trump has seven retiredGenerals and Admirals on hisNational Security Staff.

It is time Prime MinisterNarendra Modi, who is frequentlyinvoking the good work of theArmy, tried out a military man ashis NSA, even though a Chief ofDefence Staff is yet to be appoint-ed. The military has been system-atically enfeebled by the lack offinance, and against which fear andsuspicion has been engineered bythe bureaucracy. The military is stillportrayed as a threat. So much for nationalism!

The Dubai dialogue recog-nised that present conditions werenot conducive for reviving the dia-logue process that has been stalledwith the longest interruption of fourand a half years. Still, both sides feltthat core concerns of Kashmir andterrorism be addressed swiftly,especially when the situation in theSrinagar valley was slipping out ofcontrol. In absence of any politicalengagement and outreach withstakeholders and youth, the contin-uing over-dependence on the mil-itary is bound to be counter produc-tive. On Kashmir, the Four-pointMusharraf formula once refinedand rebranded, could constitute theframework of a solution. On terror-ism, finger-pointing has become thenew normal.

A Panamagate weakenedNawaz Sharif and on an all-timehigh, Modi will be together inKazakhstan in early June as fullmembers of the ShanghaiCooperation Organisation. A dealon a swap of Jadhav for Zahir couldbecome the ice breaker. Remember,Modi invited Sharif for his swear-ing in, dropped in at Lahore forSharif ’s grand daughter’s weddingand called him before his heartoperation in London. Will Modipull out a rabbit in Astana?

(The writer is a retired MajorGeneral of the Indian Army, and astrategic affairs expert)=

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Sir — This refers to the article,“The city of Questions and FewAnswers” (April 22) by AshokMalik. The writer has rightlylamented about the multiplicity ofmunicipal corporations in thecapital city which overlap oneanother in functions and develop-ment. With 1,500sq km of area,Delhi has to elect seven MPs, 70MLAs for an Assembly and 272corporators for three corporations— in north, south and east.

Each Member of Parliamentgets five crore rupees MPLADfund for development and an MLAgets four crore rupees every year forthe same. A corporator, on the otherhand gets �25-60 lakh each, whichvaries according to the situation ofthe party. The results of thesefunds is not visible on the ground.

There is consequential overlap-ping, and other complexities ariseas a result. The writer has rightlycalled for the abolition of at least onesurplus body, which also includesthe cantonment board and NewDelhi municipal committee. Ifthese decisions are taken, they willcheck corruption, multiplicity andoverlapping. The idea needs to beseriously examined.

PN SaxenaVia email

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Sir — One must concede that theAll India Anna Dravida MunnetraKazhagam has proved to be morefaithful to its symbol than to itsgeneral secretary. Even die-hardcommunists have, at times, beenotherwise. If VK Sasikala engi-neered a split, the ElectionCommission of India (ECI), in onestroke, piloted the party to desper-ately explore unification.

Hopefully, now, both theparty and Tamil Nadu will ben-efit. The nation would be betterserved if the ECI were to keepparty symbols in the freezerwhenever there is a clash ofopinions between different fac-tions. And in this, none should bean exception — be it theCongress, the BJP, the TrinamoolCongress or any other party.

We would have then seen notonly sobering re-alignment in theleadership but also ideology with-in each of them. The SamajwadiParty must be ruing the day the ECI,instead of locking up the cycle fora while, decided to release it to oneof them. After all, UttarPradeshdeserved to benefit as much as per-haps Tamil Nadu may. The ECImust be wiser by now.

R Narayanan Ghaziabad

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Sir — This refers to the editor-ial, “Pruning the VIP culture”(April 21). Kudos to PrimeMinister Narendra Modi for hisdecision to shake up India’sprivileged VIP culture, mostnotably symbolised by flashingred beacon lights on top ofvehicles. The UnionGovernment has indeed given asurprise by going a step ahead toput the ban on all dignitaries,which includes the PrimeMinister and the President.

The red beacon, or the laalbatti, had come to signify influ-ence and privilege. Motor vehi-cles carrying ‘high dignitaries’specif ied by the UnionGovernment and their counter-parts specified by the StateGovernments may be fitted withred lights, but the red lights withor without flasher can be usedonly when the specified highdignitary is on duty. It is alsotime that the Supreme Courtpasses an order to remove polit-ical flags, political leaders pho-tos from the cars.

Vinod C DixitAhmedabad

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Can the two factions of theAll India Anna DravidaMunnetra Kazhagam

(AIADMK) re-unite and con-tinue to be relevant in TamilNadu? Almost 75 days after thesplit in the party, the AIADMKAmma (led by Chief MinisterEdappadi K Palaniswami) andthe AIADMK Puratchi ThalaiviAmma (led by former ChiefMinister O Panneerselvam)have set up committees formerger talks. Even if the merg-er takes place after hard nego-tiations, can the party survive tillthe next election?

The unity move came afterboth the groups realised thatunited they win and dividedthey sink. The EPS factionfound that the Sasikala clan wasbecoming a liability. Peoplewere fed up after the IncomeTax raided AIADMK MinisterVijaya Baskar’s house. To top itall, the Sasikala group wasbribing the voters for the RK

Nagar by-election, which hasnow been countermanded.

The future is uncertainbecause the Panneerselvam fac-tion asserted that the merger cantake place only after the EPS fac-tion dumps both the aunt and thenephew. Fearing that, Sasikala’snephew Dinakaran might stakeclaim for his chair, EPS is only tooglad to go along. Interestingly,neither Sasikala nor Dinakaranhad put up any resistance aboutthe ouster. Perhaps they treat thisas a strategic retreat rather thanpolitical oblivion.

Tamil Nadu is going througha political churning after thedeath of J Jayalalithaa inDecember last year. She is part-ly responsible for the present stateof affairs as she had neithergroomed nor named anyone asher successor. Her mentor, MGRamachandran too did the same,but Jayalalithaa, who claimed hislegacy, was a charismatic leader.

Even though the party split

after MGR’s death in 1987, andhis wife VN Janaki took over, theJayalalithaa faction emerged vic-torious, winning 27 seats in the1989 polls while Janaki won justtwo. Jayalalithaa had understoodthat to win the polls she neededto mobilise the anti-DravidaMunnetra Kazhagam (DMK)votes. Seeing the ground reality,Janaki left politics and Jayalalithaawas able to unite the two factions.

This year the party has splitagain. But the situation is differ-ent. For one thing, there is nocharismatic leader in theAIADMK in whose name theparty can win the next electionsand Panneerselvam is notJayalalithaa. Jayalalithaa’s com-panion Sasikala’s bid to takeover the party failed afterPanneerselvam revolted andthe court verdict sent her to jailfor four years.

Money is with Sasikala, whois in jail and her plan to rule theparty from the prison, through

Dinakaran has failed. Dinakaranallegedly attempted to bribe theElection Commission of Indiaofficials to secure the two leavessymbol of the AIADMK.

The unity move came as anopportunity as well as a dilem-ma for both the factions. Thoughthey may get Cabinet berths,there is apprehension that theymay be swamped by the EPSgroup. Also, the OPS factionwould like to have some clarityabout the ouster of the Sasikalaclan. After all, his revolt is againstSasikala. As for EPS, this was anopportunity to get out of theclutches of the Sasikala clan.

Second, once the Sasikalaissue is settled, the question thenwould be: Who will be the ChiefMinister? Should the presentChief Minister EPS continue orthe dethroned Chief MinisterOPS get back his chair? This istricky and needs to be decided.

Third, the Assembly has astrong Opposition led by the

DMK, unlike the 1989 scenario,where the Opposition strengthwas negligible. Moreover,although the DMK patriarch MKarunanidhi is out of action, hisson MK Stalin, who is now theworking president of the party,has been active in taking on theGovernment. Though there areother Opposition leaders toowho can make noise.

Fourth, neitherPanneerselvam norPalaniswami has proved hisgov-ernance capabilities. For instance,a delegation of farmers had beencamping in Delhi for almost 40days now, seeking relief for theirparched fields. The StateGovernment did little to mitigatetheir sufferings. Panneerselvamdid show some enterprise to con-tain the Jallikattu agitation, but itwas with support from theCentre. He did not show any ini-tiative when he was the ChiefMinister thrice before.

Fifth, neither OPS nor EPS

can provide the kind of leader-ship needed to satisfy the partycadres. It will be difficult for theAIADMK to attract workers orvoters with the aspirations of theyoung people changing.

Sixth, whoever is the ChiefMinister, he has to be on the rightside of the Centre in view of thefragility of the party. OPS is saidto have good relationship withDelhi and EPS is also trying tocultivate the BJP. While the BJPclaims that it has no role in theunification of the AIADMK, it isclear that the BJP would like todeal with a united AIADMKminus Sasikala clan. The BJPwould like to have the support ofthe AIADMK in the Rajya Sabhawhere the party is in a minorityfor legislative measures and alsofor the upcoming presidentialelection, where the BJP-led NDAneeds about 25,000 votes.

(The writer is a senior polit-ical commentator and syndicat-ed columnist)

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Manufacturing consensus,even by means of rein-venting tradition, is noeasy enterprise, espe-cially when it entails

bringing together people from differ-ent communities and backgroundsinto one fold. But for the two risingAsian giants — India and China — itseems to be the central objective at pre-sent. While the Chinese leadership hasvisualised its nationalist aspirationsunder the notions of the China dream(Zhongguo meng) and the GreatRejuvenation of the Chinese nation(Zhonghua minzu weida fuxing), theIndian dream of reconstructing a newIndia (bhavya bharat) is still takingshape. As the two countries embark onthe realisation of their respective his-toric missions, resonances from the pastare tremendously striking.

To begin with, the ModiGovernment’s initiatives to transformIndia and reclaim its traditionalgrandeur seem to draw heavily on thecustoms of the Indus valley civilisation.For instance, the new smart cities ini-tiative appears to be aimed at achiev-ing the same level of urban planning asseen during the Indus valley civilisation.Narendra Modi’s obsession with toiletsand the Swachch Bharat Abhiyan res-onate a good deal of the acclaimeddrainage/sanitation systems and theelaborate communal baths of theBronze age civilisation. The drive fordemonetisation, a reform which stillremains not properly understood andhas been the victim of much controver-sy, seems to be putting in place a soci-ety with low concentration of wealth aswas the case in ancient India.

Even the norms of administrationseem to change in favour of the tradi-tional practice of the temple-priestadministration as the preferred modeof governance and distributing socialwelfare, as was the case with the tem-ple-granaries distribution network ofancient India. This is evident in theappointment of Yogi Adityanath as theChief Minister of Uttar Pradesh.

Developing accountability frame-work through this mix of religion andadministration remained steeped inantiquity. The hand of history alsobecame evident in India’s increasingtrade ties with Bahrain (Dilmun), thefirst historically recorded maritimetrade route in the world, and Oman(Magan) in the Arabia.

The parallels are even more strik-ing when we consider the case of China.The cradle of civilisation seems to beshifting to the central provinces ofShaanxi (the birth place of the SilkRoad) and around the Huang He Riveras in ancient China. Its forays into con-struction of monumental architectureare shaping up in the proposals ofbuilding the Xiongan New Area (XNA)in Hebei Province as a new capital/sub-capital. With its One Belt One Road ini-tiative, China has set the ball rolling fortrade routes to connect it with Egyptand Arabia through Xinjiang viaCentral Asia.

The peacock now flies west to theByzantine. The country that inventedthe gunpowder is back to being the

biggest military power in recent times,endorsing a military strategy of ‘deter-rence by threat’.

Of course, a kung fu panda mayone day dump the peacock’s nucleararsenal and weapons into the SouthChina Sea and establish world peace,but that time is not yet. The inventorof the compass, paper-making andprinting is back to having the largestnumber of patents on inventions andIPRs registered on its name. Andeven in the sphere of religion, therevival of Confucius, and the empha-sis on filial piety have returned to hauntthe ideological and cultural campaignsof the present.

Both, India and China seem to beat a critical stage of technological andcultural development that heralds a tec-tonic shift, China being the manufac-turing factory of the world already andIndia catching up with its Make in Indiacampaign. In fact, India has been thebiggest beneficiary of an unconstrainedgrowth story escaping from the gaze ofthe West, while China has been brac-ing the heat of containment by the USand its allies.

And though much ado has beenmade about China’s growing imperial-ist ambitions, it deserves some credit forfitting in the shoe as the US retreats,especially because there is a huge dif-ference between China’s approach toAfrica (which was interestingly also thesource of material prosperity of theBronze Age civilisations) and othernations and the imperialism of theWest; at the time when the Britishcolonised India it was still largelyrenowned for its wealth and splendour

— ‘the golden bird’, which the Britishruthlessly exploited, and so was the casewith China before its ‘century of humil-iation’ at the hands of the barbarians,but Africa is far from a prosperouscountry at the moment. Meanwhile, theUS with its rising sectarian violenceseems headed towards being reducedto the few sects of inter-fighting tribesthat it had traditionally been.

In this change of the world orderand revitalisations of nations, thequestion that arises now is not justwhether this is the breakdown of theUS hegemony and the institutions ithelped to proliferate, but whether thisis the breakdown of the entireWestphalian model of nation-statebased on the idea of sovereignty andrespecting boundaries entailing ‘goodfences make good neighbours’, whichhas engendered nothing but con-flicts and internecine warfare wit-nessed in the two world wars over the350 years of its existence, a third onebeing desperately avoided.

With the rise of China and India,the return of the Egyptian andBabylonian civilisations, along with theWestern peripheries of Meso Americaand South America (which combine tomake the six great ancient civilisations)it seems history is coming full circle tothe return of the civilisation, albeit ina highly modernised and digitisedform of megalopolises abetted bychanging technology or rather theadvent of space age civilisations.

Even more overwhelming is theissue whether we are learning from his-tory and using the past to serve the pre-sent or is history itself at play? Has the

‘wheel of history’ indeed come full cir-cle over the last 4,000 years? If indeedit has, is this the victory of the civili-sation paradigm, which reigned stead-fast for more than 3,500 years over thenation-state paradigm which couldbarely last 350 years?

As far as China and India are con-cerned, the two need to concede that,if China has the mandate of heaven torule the world, then India’s glorious tra-ditions in science, technology and cul-ture have also existed as old as time. Thetwo have to learn to co-exist by accom-modating each other’s interests if theywish to live side-by-side as good neigh-bours for another 4,000 years.

Threatening a military interventionwould not procure for China what itseeks from India and upping the anteas far as Chinese Achilles’ heels in Tibet,Taiwan and Xinjiang are concernedwould not obtain for India what itdesires. The two have much to gainfrom mending the wall the ‘civilised’way — a challenge they will face repeat-edly sharing borders with each other.

The return to civilisation would ina sense then forebode the renegotiationof China’s frontiers by granting genuineautonomy to its restive frontiersthrough a system of tributes and tradeand the return of the expatriates fromthe Tibetan (especially the Dalai Lama)and Xinjiang communities back to theirhomeland and a true opportunity forIndia to resolve its Pakistan dilemma.Let’s drop the savagery and becomecivilised again!

(The writer is author of China’sDiscursive Nationalism: Contending inSofter Realms)

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The call for Tamil Nadubandh given by the pro-

posed Rainbow Alliance to beled by the DMK evoked mixedreaction on Tuesday with mostshops and business establish-ments in the State downing theshutters.

Though there were nountoward incidents anywherein Tamil Nadu, MK Stalin, theworking president of the DMK,claimed that the bandh wastotal and a ‘big success’. Stalinand some of his senior col-leagues were detained by thepolice at Thiruvarur wherethey staged a demonstrationviolating the prohibitoryorders.

Elsewhere in the State, nor-mal life was affected to a cer-tain extent as taxis and cabskept off the roads. But train andbus services remained unaf-fected which reduced the inten-sity of the general strike.

The bandh was to expresssolidarity with the farmers in

the State who, according to theDMK leaders are facing severecrisis.

The DMK was joined by itstrusted allies like the Congress,the Islamist and Dalit outfits.Parties like the CPI(M), theCPI and the VCK which arestruggling for survival in theState too had expressed theirsolidarity with the DMK andthe farmers as a prelude to theirjoining the Rainbow Alliance.

But the farmers led byPonnuchami Ayyakkanu, whowere staging a demonstrationat New Delhi’s Jantar Mantarfor the last 40 days returned toChennai on Tuesday morning.Ayyakkannu claimed that theUnion Government had givenhim an assurance that theirdemands would be met soon.

“If the Government fails tokeep its promise, we will returnto New Delhi after May 25 andlaunch an agitation till we die,”Ayyakkannu told reporters atChennai.

Interestingly, the wrath ofthe DMK and the Left partieswere against the Narendra

Modi-led Government at theCentre. They blamed theUnion Government for thecrisis faced by the farmers.

Stalin made use of theopportunity to whip-up anti-Hindi feelings against theUnion Government. “Even as

the farmers are committingsuicides in Tamil Nadu, theCentre is busy enforcing andimposing Hindi all over the

country much is against the willof the people. We would likethe Government to rememberwhat happened in the 1960swhen it tried to impose Hindion non-Hindi speaking States,”said Stalin.

Meanwhile, former ChiefMinister O Panneerselvam saidon Tuesday that talks for themerger of the two factions ofthe AIADMK have made someprogress. Sources in the OPSfaction said that the directivefrom the Centre was to keepthe Sasikala family away fromthe party as well as theGovernment.

Meanwhile, the DelhiPolice has tightened the noosearound TTV Dinakaran, theAIADMK deputy general sec-retary and nephew of Sasikalain connection with the caseregistered against conmanSukesh Chandrasekhar forattempting to bribe the ElectionCommission officials for get-ting the ‘Two Leaves’ symbolwhich has been frozen by theEC following dispute betweenthe two factions of the party.

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Aday after the ChiefMinister K Chandrasekhar

Rao met the Prime MinisterNarendra Modi seekingCenter’s nod to 12 per centquota for backward Muslims,the main Opposition Congressdemanded to know the detailsof the discussions between thetwo leaders.

Mohammed Ali Shabbir,Leader of the Opposition,urged the Chief Minister tocome out with the details ofPrime Minister Modi’sresponse to his request onMuslim quota.

“I want to know from theChief Minister the basis of hisassertion that 12 per cent quotafor the backward Muslims waspossible,” he said. He pointedout that in Prime Minister’sown State Gujarat, the HighCourt had struck down the 10per cent quota for the Patelcommunity.

Mohammed Ali Shabbirwas reacting to the reportsfrom New Delhi about thehour-long meeting betweenKCR and the Prime Ministeron Monday.

The reports quotingsources said that KCR urgedthe Prime Minister to accord anearly approval to the TelanganaState Reservation Act 2017which increased the reservationfor the backward Muslims from4 to 12 per cent and for theScheduled Tribes from 8 to 10per cent. The Bill was passed

recently by a special session ofthe State legislature.

According to the report,KCR also demanded that Statesshould get the powers to decidethe reservation quota for vari-ous sections keeping in viewthe social composition whichvary from State to State.

Chief Minister explained tothe Prime Minister reasonsbehind the decision to increasethe quota for the backwardMuslims. “This is not on thebasis of religion but on the basisof economic and educationalbackwardness of Muslims,”sources quoted KCR tellingthe Prime Minister.

However, nothing wasknown about the response ofPrime Minister to his demand.The meeting assumes signifi-cance in view of the fact thatthe BJP was vociferous inopposing the quota for theMuslims. Telangana BJP lead-ership has already launched amovement against the legisla-tion and was demanding scrap-ping the quota for Muslimsaltogether.

Sources said that the ideaof simultaneous polls for theLok Sabha and all the StateAssembly also came up duringthe discussion. KCR support-ed the idea of the PrimeMinister Modi and said thatTelangana was ready to acceptit. But it was unlikely to makeany major difference as theState had simultaneous polls in2014 and will have the nextpolls in 2019 simultaneously.

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Political heat would soar fur-ther in the poll-bound

Gujarat on its 58th FoundationDay to be celebrated on May 1as on one hand Gujarat ChiefMinister Vijay Rupani will bebusy with the State-level func-tion at Ahmedabad and on theother hand All India CongressCommittee (AICC) vice-pres-ident will address a huge rallyin tribal dominated Dediya-pada in South Gujarat.

Former Gujarat ChiefMinister Narendra Modi hadset a new trend to hold State-level functions on RepublicDay, Gujarat Day andIndependence Day at differentdistricts rather than holding itat the State capital Gandhinagarsince 2005. Going with the newtradition, Rupani Governmenthas kept this year’s Gujarat Daycelebrations at Ahmedabad.

On the day, Gujarat CMwould dedicate projects worth�101 crore to the people ofAhmedabad district in a seriesof functions. He and hisCabinet colleagues would notonly project his Government’sachievements but also CentralGovernment’s feat during thelast three years.

Since 2017 is the electionyear in the State, politicalremarks from BJP leaders andMinisters are expected duringthe functions on Gujarat Day,especially when the top leaderof the rival party will also becamping in the State on thesame day. There would be atug-of-war between the twomajor parties to draw attentionof the people in order to winmaximum seats in the upcom-ing Assembly polls.

Strategically, RahulGandhi’s visit has been kept onthe Gujarat Day in the tribal

dominated area when the entireState Government machinerywould be busy in Ahmedabadto make the state level functionsuccessful.

“Gujarat Pradesh CongressCommittee had initiated amonth-long drive to educatetribals on their rights. To markthe conclusion of this cam-paign, Rahul Gandhi willaddress a mega rally at Dedi-apada in Narmada District,”said Manish Doshi, spokesmanof Gujarat Congress.

Interestingly, Gujarat BJPtoo had organised a 15-daylong ‘Trial DevelopmentMarch’ under the leadership ofthe State BJP president JituVaghani. Besides, PM too madeit a point to address a huge rallyin tribal dominated Tapi dis-trict on April 17 during hisvisit to his home State.

Tribal belt of Gujarat rightfrom Sabarkantha in NorthGujarat up to Maharashtraborder in South Gujarat includ-ing parts of Central Gujarat ispolitically important as it com-prises nearly 15 per cent of theState’s population and wouldimpact more than 50Constituencies.

6��������� 89'�

Kerala’s Marxist ChiefMinister Pinarayi Vijayan

on Tuesday gave strong indi-cations that his party colleagueand Power Minister MM Mani,presently in the eye of a polit-ical storm over his allegedobscene remarks against thewoman tea estate workers ofMunnar, is unlikely to resign orto be expelled from theCPI(M)-led LDF Cabinet evenas the Marxist party reported-ly came to the conclusion thatdisciplinary action wasrequired against him.

Mani came under intensecriticism at a meeting of theCPI(M)’s State secretariat, inwhich he is a member, lateTuesday evening. The Ministertold newsmen after the meet-ing that he would abide by anydecision the party took againsthim. Sources said several lead-ers including State secretaryKodiyeri Balakrishnan camedown heavily on Mani for his

dirty remarks.A final decision on the

organizational action to betaken against Mani could betaken at the meeting of theCPI(M)’s State committee onWednesday while sources saidthe action against him wasunlikely to be stringent.However, the Opposition andthose protesting against Mani’sremarks said organizationalaction was not sufficient in thematter.

Earlier in the day, the ChiefMinister effectively declaredtotal support for Mani in theState Assembly amidst nosyprotests from the Opposition.He said Mani committed nowrong and the media wasresponsible for the controver-sy. Mani himself claimed in theAssembly that he had notinsulted any woman throughhis controversial speech theother day.

“Mani is a village personand his rustic style would nat-urally come up in his speech-es. What is happening here isan effort to make politicalmileage by exaggerating some-thing like that,” Pinarayi saidwhile replying to the

Opposition’s notice for anadjournment motion over theissue of the alleged dirtyremarks Mani had madeagainst Munnar’s woman work-ers.

The Congress-ledOpposition UDF said that itwould intensify its protestsinside the Assembly as well asoutside till Mani resigned orwas expelled from the Cabinet.“He is a disgrace to culturalKerala,” said Opposition leaderRamesh Chennithala. TheUDF will hold protest demon-strations in all the 140Assembly constituencies in theState on Wednesday.

Some dirty remarks made

by Mani in a recent speechabout the legendary agitationheld in Munnar in 2015 byPenpilai Orumai (Women’sUnity), a forum of woman teaworkers, demanding higherwages and bonus had trig-gered State-wide protests. Theforum’s leaders started anindefinite stir in Munnarimmediately demanding hisresignation and apology.

After the statements ofPinarayi and Mani in theAssembly on Tuesday, theOrumai intensified its agitationwith two of its leaders, GomathyAugustine and Kausalya, start-ing an indefinite protest fast. “Ifit is rustic style, will he speak inthe same style about his chil-dren? Will he speak in that styleabout CPI(M) families?” askedGomathy.

While criticizing someaspects of the recent anti-encroachment drive ofRevenue Department officialsin Munnar in his controversialspeech, Mani said, “Manythings had happened duringthe Penpilai Orumai (struggle).Boozing and other dirty thingshad taken place there. The‘programme’ was in the near-

by forest. We know all that.”Functionaries of several

political parties including UDFconstituents, BJP and AAPreached Munnar on Tuesday todeclare solidarity with theprotesting Penpilai Orumaimembers. AAP leader andenvironmentalist CRNeelakantan started an indef-inite fast in Munnar in supportof the Orumai workers.

Mani claimed in theAssembly that he had notinsulted anyone. “I had notmentioned the name of anywoman. Even the word womanwas not used in my speech…I am an ordinary person, bornand brought up amidst planta-tion workers. I can’t speak thelanguage of professors andscholars,” he said.

The Opposition members,who had arrived in theAssembly with placards andbanners featuring slogansagainst Mani, created pande-monium by shouting slogansagainst him and the LDFGovernment and encirclingthe Speaker’s podium forcinghim to first adjourn the Housefor 45 minutes and then for theday in the morning itself.

���� 27'8196

There is a bad news forGovernment employees

and students as the YogiGovernment has decided tocurtail 15 holidays which wereannounced by the previousGovernments on the birth anddeath anniversaries of emi-nent personalities. The StateCabinet which met in Lucknowon Tuesday took the decision.

State spokesperson and UPPower Minister ShrikantSharma while briefing aboutthe decisions said that duringbirth and death anniversaries ofeminent personalities, allschools and colleges will havean hour-long function educat-ing students about the achieve-ments of these personalities.

“We have also asked edu-cational institutions to holdsimilar programmes duringthe birth and death anniver-saries of freedom fighters andother persons who contributedto the country,” he said. TheMinister clarified thatGovernment offices will alsoremain open on those days.

“The departments can alsohold seminars and similarfunctions for an hour or so butmore or less it will be normalworking hour for the offices,”he said.

Uttar Pradesh is notorious

for having public holidays inGovernment institutions.Governments offices and edu-cational institutions remainclosed for over 100 days. Theseholidays include 48 gazettedholidays which comprise birthanniversary of 23 great per-sonalities including GuruGovind Singh, KarpooriThakur, Maharishi Kashyap,Chetti Chand, Lord Mahavir,Md Hazrat Ali and MahatamaGandhi. Government schoolsremain closed for over 60 daysin winter and summer vaca-tions while Government offi-cers get 17 restricted holidays.

The holidays which havebeen curtailed under Negoti-able Instruments Act are:Karpoori Thakur’s birthanniversay (Jan 24), MahrishiKashyap avum Maharaj GuhaJayanti (April 5), Cheti Chand(March 29), Urs of KhwajaMoinuddin Chisti (April 14),Chandrashekhar Jayanti (April17), Parshuram Jayanti (April28), Loknayak MaharanaPratap Jayanti (May 9), JumatulVida, Vishwakarma Puja (Sept17), Maharaja Agrasen Jayanti(Sept 21), Maharshi ValmikiJayanti (Oct 5), Chhatt Puja(Oct 26), Sardar VallabhbhiPatel and Acharya NarendraDev Jayanti (October 31), Eid-e-Milad, Chaudhry CharanSingh Jayanti (Dec 23).

�� � 27'8196

After electoral rout, nowsenior Bahujan Samaj

Party leaders NaseemudinSiddiqui, Ram Achal Rajbharand Mewa Lal Gautam werelikely to face more trouble fortheir alleged objectionableremarks against Swati Singh(now a Minister in YogiAdityanath Government) andher minor daughter duringtheir party’s protest againstutterances made againstMayawati by Singh’s husbandDayashankar Singh.

With the change of guardin UP, the same LucknowPolice which had earlier pushedthe probe under the carpetclaiming not to have found anyobjectionable comments bySiddiqui in the CD handedover to them for probe, are nowplanning to chargesheet theBSP leader under various sec-tions of Protection of Childrenfrom Sexual Offenses Act.

Sources said that LucknowPolice had served notices toSiddiqui and other BSP leadersasking them to record theirclarifications into allegationsthat they hurled abuses againstSwati Singh and her minordaughter. Once these leadersrecord their statements, theLucknow Police is likely tosubmit a chargesheet under rel-evant sections of POCSO Act,which ultimately would lead tothe arrest of Siddiqui and hisparty colleagues.

During SP regime, whileDayashamkar Singh was arrest-ed for using profane languageagainst Mayawati, Sidddiquiand his partymates got awaydespite using derogatory insin-uations against Swati Singh andher daughter. The top brass ofLucknow Police surprisinglychose to give a clean chit toSiddiqui and his colleagues.

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Aday after Jammu &Kashmir Chief Minister

Mehbooba Mufti held separatemeetings with Prime MinisterNarendra Modi and HomeMinister Rajnath Singh in NewDelhi, the counter-insurgencygrid in the embattled Statewas on Tuesday geared up totake effective measures to curbyouth unrest in Kashmir valleyand incidents of communalhatred in Jammu.

Mufti chaired a crucialmeeting of Unified CommandHeadquarters (UHQ) here toreview the emerging securitysituation in the State. In themeeting, the Chief Ministerasked the security forces to acthumanely while dealing withthe law and order situationsand make strides to engagewith the embittered young-sters. She asked the Army andParamilitary Forces to work inclose coordination with localpolice.

“The collateral damagesshould be prevented at any costduring encounters or law and

order situations. The SpecialOperating Procedures shouldbe followed strictly while han-dling the situations,” Mehboobatold the meeting.

Topmost State and provin-cial level officers of the Army,security and intelligence agen-cies and the civil administra-tion took part in the meeting.

Established in early 1990’s,the Chief Minister-led UHQ isthe highest body to take syn-ergised anti-insurgency initia-tives in the region.

Sources said the top secu-rity officers including the com-mander of Srinagar-based XVCorps, who is also ChiefMinister’s security advisor, wereof the view that stone peltinghas emerged as a ‘greater chal-lenge’ in the emerging situationin Kashmir.

Sources said thatMehbooba asked the securityforces to avoid counterinsur-gency operations where appre-hensions of collateral damagewere higher. This was said inthe backdrop of DarbughChadoora encounter wherethree protesters were killed

while they were allegedlyattempting to help a holed upmilitant to escape.

In reference to recent inci-dents of communal hatred inJammu region, Mehbooba saidculprits should be brought tojustice if found involved inharassing a community or sec-tion of society in the name ofa social cause.

An official spokesman saidthat Chief Minister directed thesecurity agencies to exerciserestraint while dealing with‘provocative situations’.

“The youth unfortunatelycaught in the cycle of misin-formation and violence areour own who ought to be wonover with a healing touch,” shetold the meeting asking thesecurity agencies to prioritise‘youth engagement’ rather thanviewing it as a routine law andorder issue.

She said the parents ofyouth must be taken into con-fidence as and when there issome complaint about anyyouth and in no way should thefamily be held accountable forthe deeds of the said youth.

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Even as the ChattisgarhGovernment and the secu-

rity forces in the State were try-ing to recover from the shockof Maoist’s attack in Sukmaleaving 25 personnel of theCentral Reserve Police Forcedead, police in Andhra Pradeshhas gone on a high alert onState’s borders with Odisha.

The police and theGreyhound Forces havelaunched combing operationsin the forest areas and were alsosearching all the vehicles mov-ing from Visakhatapatanamtowards Odisha border.

Elected representativeshave also been warned againstentering the remote areas ortravelling without prior infor-mation to the police. Patrollingwas also intensified in the inte-rior areas like Sileru andDokarai in Visakhapatanamdistrict.

The State Director Generalof Police K Sambasvia Raoduring a recent visit to

Visakhapatanam had said thatthere was a warning of possi-ble attack by the Maoists.Within three days’ of his state-ment, the CPI Maoist carriedout a massive and well orga-nized guerilla attack on theCRPF jawans.

The intelligence agencies

have warned that after therecent encounter at Ramagudaon AP-Odisha border killing alarge number of Maoist leadersand cadres, there was a possi-bility of a revenge attack by theleft wing extremists. Reportshad indicated that following theencounter many leaders andcadres of Maoists had gatheredand regrouped in Chattisgarh.

In view of the warningsand the increasing activities ofthe Maoists, the authoritieshad stopped the road layingworks in the remote areas toavoid any loss of life or prop-erty.

Intelligence agencies in APestimate that 350 to 400Maoists might have participat-ed in Tuesday’s attack on CRPFmen and they were likely tocross in to Andhra region. Asthey have also taken away alarge number of weapons andthe explosives from the CRPF,the intelligence agencies havealso warned that Maoists maycarry out more such attacks inthe days to come.

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Hyderabad police were onthe lookout for an Army

Major after his wife died undersuspicious circumstances ather home in Bollarum militaryarea.

The news of death ofSandhya Singh, an RJ with alocal FM radio station, came tolight when her relatives fromGhaziabad in Uttar Pradeshapproached Hyderabad policeexpressing suspicion that thewoman was murdered.

Though Sandhya Singhdied a week ago neither herhusband nor anyone inBollarum military area inHyderabad had lodged a com-plaint with the police and per-formed her last rites. Now theBollarum police haveapproached the Defenceauthorities seeking permissionto conduct an enquiry andalso question her husband

Major Vishal Vaibhav. Howeverthe Defence authorities haveexpressed their inability to doso on the ground that MajorVaibhav was unwell and wasundergoing treatment at a mil-itary hospital for heart ail-ment.

Sandhya who was workingas RJ with Radio Charminar, alocal FM station had lastattended her duty a week ago.Earlier on April 16 she hadhosted a Sufi night in BanjaraHills area and on Mondaycame to office for a shortwhile.Her colleague Abdul Samadsaid that she appeareddepressed on that day. Earlier,she had told her female col-leagues that she was fed up withher life. The Radio staff alsocame to know about her sus-picious death only after her sis-ter lodged a complain with thepolice. Till then all efforts bythe radio staff to contact herhad failed.

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An Indian driver, working inRiyadh, Saudi Arabia died

under suspicious circumstancesdue to serious burn injuries andhis family back in Hyderabadhas alleged that he was burnt todeath by her Saudi employers.

The new of the death of 26-year-old Mohammed AbdulSamad resident of Zehra Nagarin Banjara Hills area ofHyderabad came as a big shockto the family as they wereunder the impression that hewas undergoing treatment in aRiyadh hospital and recovering.

The fact that he had suc-cumbed to his injuries on April18 reached the family onTuesday when a city basedpolitical activist received amessage from the Indianembassy officials in Riyadh

and he in turn informed thefamily.

Amjadullah Khan Khalid,a former corporator of MajlisBachao Tehreek and VijayaReddy, a corporator of rulingTelangana Rashtra Samiti vis-ited the house of the deceasedand met his mother AsgariBegum and brother MohdAbdul Qayum.

According to the familyAbdul Samad had gone toSaudi Arabia on November19, 2015 to work as a driverwith a family but for the lastfew months he was complain-ing of torture by her womanemployer and other familymember.

“He last spoke to us onMarch 28 and told us that hewas not paid salary for the lastsix month. The on March 31,we were informed by the

employer that he was admittedto King Abdul Aziz Hospitalwith 75 per cent burns,” saidAbdul Qayum.

Since then the family wasfrantically trying to contactAbdul Samad and the employ-er to find out his condition.

Meanwhile, AmjadullahKhan took up the issue with theExternal Affairs MinisterSushma Swaraj, State Ministerfor NRI affairs K Taraka RamaRao and the IndianAmbassador to Saudi ArabiaAhmed Javed.

When the officials fromIndian Embassy visited thehospital on Monday, they cameto know that Abdul Samad haddied on April 18 itself but theSaudi authorities as well as theemployer had kept the IndianEmbassy in dark.

According to the Indian

Embassy officials in SaudiArabia Abdul Samad sufferedburn injuries after he had analtercation with a male mem-ber of the employer’s family.

The shocked family ofAbdul Samad has appealed tothe External Affairs Minister toorder a thorough probe into thecircumstances that led to hisdeath and help in bringing thebody back to Hyderabad.

The horrifying incidenthas come to light close on theheels of another shockingreport of a Hyderabadi womanSalma Begum being sold to aSaudi Kafeel for �3 lakh andwas facing a lot of harassmentand torture at the hands of theKafeel. The matter came tolight when Salma Begum senta recorded audio message toher daughter Sameena pleadingto be rescued.

Gandhinagar: In order to pre-vent schools from chargingexorbitant fees, GujaratGovernment on Tuesdayannounced rules for primary,secondary and higher sec-ondary schools.

In the recently concludedsession of the Assembly, theState Government had passedthe Gujarat Self-FinancedSchools (Regulation of Fees)Bill, 2017, fixing the fees forprimary schools at �15,000per annum, �25,000 annuallyfor secondary and �27,000 perannum for higher secondary.The new fee structure would beadhered to by schools offeringGujarat State Education Boardcurriculum, CBSE, ICSE andInternational Baccalaureateboards. PNS

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President Pranab Mukherjeeon Tuesday said that glob-

al changes are both complexand unpredictable and Indiahas to galvanise its demo-graphic strength to capitaliseon opportunities in the glob-alised market.

Mukherjee, who was pre-siding over the Goa University’s29th annual convocation cere-mony, was also conferred anhonorary doctorate in literatureby the University, for which thePresident expressed ‘gratitudeand deep appreciation’.

“India is presently at avery challenging phase of itssocio-economic transition. Weare in the midst of globalchanges that are both complexand unpredictable. Indianexpertise and talent has muchdemand worldwide. Theprospects in a liberal econom-ic environment are immense.Yet, to take advantage of theunfolding opportunities in aglobalised market, we have togalvanize our demographicstrength,” Mukherjee said.

In his speech Mukherjeealso underscored the impor-tance of education of women.

“It is important that youngwomen particularly thosebelonging to marginal sectionsgain increased access to theportals of colleges and univer-sities. Women’s empowermentthrough education will have apositive impact on our futuregeneration. It is rightly said thatif we educate a man, we educatean individual but if we educatea women, we educate an entirefamily,” Mukherjee said.

The President also under-lined the role of skill-trainingin order to prepare them for thechallenging roles in the globaleconomic community.

“They have to be inculcat-ed with the aptitude to thinkahead. For, lot of ideas capableof making an impact transmitsfaster than ever before today,”Mukherjee said.

The President also calledfor greater collaborationbetween the Universities andeducational institutions andother stakeholders in the econ-omy as well Government.“Universities, no doubt, have totake the lead in this regard. Butthis is a task that can hardly beaccomplished by the publicinstitutions alone. It will requirea new paradigm of partnershipbetween the various stake-holders,” he said.

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Carrying to Bengal hisexperimental social engi-

neering — physically minglingwith the masses — that recent-ly swept hisparty to power inUttar Pradesh, BJP nationalpresident Amit Shah onTuesday said the saffron outfitwill win largest number ofseats from the State in 2019general polls and finally uprootthe Mamata Banerjee Gover-nment in 2021.

Launching a scathingattack on the TrinamoolGovernment he said, “Peoplebrought Mamata Banerjee topower to get rid of the com-munist misrule but she perpe-trated a rule even worse thanthe one given by the LeftFront.”

The Trinamool Congresshad unleashed a reign of terror,violence and corruption high-lighted by syndicate and fakecurrency rackets, he said.

Shah said the TrinamoolCongress was trying to scareaway the BJP workers usingviolence but more they spreadthe muck of violence the big-ger the lotus will bloom,adding, the TrinamoolGovernment is not allowing theCentral Schemes to percolate tothe grassroots level in a bid tothwart the movement ofNarendra Modi’s chariot ofdevelopment.

“But more they try toimpede the developmentprocess the more the BJP willgain support from the people,”Shah said.

Earlier, in a symbolic moveShah began his day’s campaignby visiting the humble house-

holds at Dakshin Katiajote vil-lage in Naxalbari near Siliguri,the birth place of ultra Leftistmovement saying “Let peaceprevail in a land that saw vio-lent ultra-Leftist movementdecades ago.”

Sitting on the floor, he hadmeal at the house of one RajuMahali. The meal comprisedrice, moong dal, potol bhaja(parwal fry), squash curry withsalad and papad, all served onbanana leaf.

“He is one of our tallestleaders. Overwhelmed! Cannotimagine in my wildest dream ofhaving lunch with him. This ishis greatness which has movedthe people around. ThoughCPI(M) leaders sometime dolike this, Mamata Didi nevershared meals with us like that,”

a woman worker said adding,“ We will bet our lives to bringthe BJP to power in Bengal.”

Drawing a huge applausefrom the packed audience atIndoor Stadium in Siliguri theBJP president said.

“There is no industry inBengal as all have fled. The onlyone that thrives in this State isthe bomb-making industry.Bombs boom in State ofRabindra Sangeet,” he thun-dered asking the people toback the BJP as “You have test-ed, Congress, CPI(M) andTrinamool all of who havefailed and so it is time to bringthe BJP which is the largestparty in the world with 11 croremembers.”

He said 60 per cent of thevoters back the BJP and 70 percent of India was ruled by theparty.

“The reason behind this isthat in three years PrimeMinister Narendra Modi hastransformed the country to afastest growing economy bybringing about some revolu-tionary reforms -- the merg-ing of the railway budget withgeneral budget, the demoneti-sation to bring out blackmoney, bringing benami lawsto fight corruption are to namea few,” he said.

Shah, who will onWednesday carry forward hismeet the people programme byinteracting with the grassrootspeople at Chetla in SouthKolkata’s Bhawanipore con-stituency of Mamata Banerjee,called upon the people ofBengal to let the Lotus bloomin the State and help BJP tomake India the greatest nationof the world.

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Samajwadi Party presidentAkhilesh Yadav targeted

Chief Minister Yogi Adityanathsaying that the law and ordersituation was never so bad inthe State since independence.

The former Chief Ministersaid that the saffron brigade hasunleashed a reign of terroracross the State and the copswere being beaten up insidepolice stations and even IPSofficers were being targeted.

“The BJP had made tallclaims on improving law andorder during the elections. Butthe situation is vastly differentafter they came to power. Thesaffron brigade has been tar-geting the police and the peo-ple at will and recent incidentsof violence in Saharanpur,Agra, Aligarh and other placesprove that law and order situ-ation is abysmal,” chargedAkhilesh.

Yadav added, “If a BJP MPcan attack the SSP of Sahar-anpur and his family membersand can go scot free then any-thing can happen in BJP-ruledUP.”

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The Bombay High Court onTuesday held Lt Col Prasad

Shrikant Purohit, then a mili-tary intelligence official andanother key accused inMalegaon blast case, was notentitled to be released on bailon the ground that the chargesagainst him were serious andgrave, inviting a punishment ofdeath or life imprisonment.

Rejecting Col Purohit’s bailapplication, a HC Bench ofJustice (Dr) Shalini Phansalkar-Joshi and Justice Ranjit Morenoted, “Each case depends onits own facts. In the presentcase, the offences chargedagainst Accused are seriousand grave, inviting even pun-ishment of death or life impris-onment. Moreover, the trial isalso likely to be commenced asthe Special Court is alreadyestablished for the said pur-pose, as per the order passed bythe Hon'ble Supreme Court”.

“In our considered opin-ion, therefore, the trial courthas considered and dealt withall these aspects in detail andeffectively while rejecting theappellant’s application for bail,”the Judges observed.

“The discretion exercisedby the trial court, therefore,does not call for any interfer-ence, as, independently also,when we consider the applica-tion of the appellant for bail, wefind that he is not entitled to bereleased on bail. Hence, thisappeal stands dismissed,” theJudges ruled.

It may be recalled that animprovised explosive keptunder the seat of a Hero Hondamotor-bicycle had exploded atMalegaon’s Bhikku Chowk,

near Noorani Masjid on thenight of September 29, 2008,leaving six persons dead andinjuring 101 others.

In its chargesheet filedagainst 11 accused in a specialcourt January 20, 2009,Maharashtra’s Anti TerrorismSquad (ATS) on Tuesdaycharged that the blast master-mind and disgraced Army offi-cial Prasad Purohit, who wasserving as Lt. Colonel in theArmy and was associated withMilitary Intelligence andInterior Terrorism (InsurgencyActivities) when he was arrest-ed on November 8, 2008, hadfloated an organisation in thename of ‘Abhinav Bharat’ onFebruary 9, 2007. The accusedNo.4-Ramesh Upadhyay,accused No.10-Swami Amru-tanand, Sudhakar Dwivedi aliasDayanand Pande and other co-accused, including some of theprosecution witnesses, weremembers of the said organisa-tion. The main objective of thesaid accused persons was to turnIndia into ‘Hindu Rashtra’ calledas ‘Aryavart’.

“They wanted to formGovernment in exile. They weredissatisfied with the Constitu-tion of India and wanted to pre-pare their own Constitution.They had also planned to trainthe persons for ‘guerrilla war’.They had decided to eliminatethe persons opposing theirobject of formation of HinduRashtra,” the ATS had stated inits charge-sheet.

While dismissing ColPurohit’s bail application, the Judges said that the piecesof evidence were sufficient at this stage to make out prima facie case against theappellant.

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With strong corporateearnings, upbeat glob-

al cues and investors’ buyingspree, Dalal Street witnesseda historic stock market rallyon Tuesday when BenchmarkNifty closed above the 9,300-mark for the first time, whilethe Sensex surged 287 pointsto a three-week high of29,943.24, a little distanceaway from 30,000-mark.

The rupee also continuedits upward trend to log a near21-month high of 64.26, bysurging 18 paise against theUS dollar on sustained dollarunwinding from exportersamid positive global cues.This is the rupee’s highestclosing since August 11, 2015,when it had ended at 64.19against the greenback.

Overall forex market sen-timent remained buoyant asFrench election outcomeremoved some of the politi-

cal uncertainties in the nearterm even as global equitieshit multi-year highs.

Though, currency tradersare keeping an eye on eventsin North Korea as a US car-rier group heads for the Seaof Japan.

The incredible bullishsentiment seems to be borneout of a weaker dollar whichalso provided a boost foremerging market currencies,a forex dealer commented.

However, the RBI inter-vened in the market throughstate-run banks in both thespot and the forward marketsto prevent further gains in therupee, he added.

The 50-share Nif tysurged 88.65 points, or 0.96per cent, to reach its new life-time closing high of 9,306.60,surpassing the previousrecord close of 9,265.15 onApril 5.

Intra-day, it rallied to9,309.20, breaking its previ-

ous intra-day record of9,273.90 reached on April 5.

The BSE 30-share Sensexalso rose about 287 points to

end at a three-week high of29,943.24, after shuttlingbetween 29,961.82 and29,780.84. The gauge hadgained 290.54 points onMonday. This is the highestclosing for Sensex since April5, when it had ended on29,974.24.

Market insiders, however,said that a string of strongquarterly earnings, includ-ing from heavyweight RIL,

and appreciat ing rupeezoomed the buying activity.On the other hand, Asianshares also ended higher fol-lowing a relief rally in glob-al equities after centrist can-didate Emmanuel Macronwon the first round of theFrench presidential election.

“Earnings from both pri-vate as well as public sectorfirms have shown encourag-ing signs, lifting bankingstocks, while Nifty’s surge to9,300 gave added vigour tomarket. “Government’s pushin the infra and affordablehousing space has also kepthousing, cement and realtystocks buzzing,” said AnandJames, Chief MarketStrategist, Geojit FinancialServices.

Meanwhile, domesticfunds bought shares worth anet Rs 984.17 crore onMonday, while foreign port-folio investors (FPIs) soldstocks worth a net Rs 279.55

crore, as per provisional datafrom the stock exchanges.Shares of Reliance Industriesrose 1.14 per cent after thecompany on Monday posteda record fourth quarter netprofit of Rs 8,046 crore.

Globally, key indices inChina, Hong Kong, Japan,Singapore, South Korea andTaiwan rose by 0.16 - 1.31per cent. European stockswere trading higher, extend-ing previous day’s gains, asinvestors monitored politicaldevelopments in Franceahead of the EuropeanCentral Bank’s policy meet-ing later in the week. Keyindices in France, Germanyand UK rose by 0.03 - 0.18per cent.

US markets rallied onMonday as concerns overFrance’s potential exit fromthe euro currency bloc eased.The Dow Jones IndustrialAverage jumped 216.13points to close at 20,763.89.

The S&P 500 surged 25.46points to 2,374.15. Backhome, out of the 30-shareSensex pack, 24 scrips endedhigher. Major gainers wereM&M (3.40 per cent), AxisBank (3.40 per cent), BhartiAirtel (3.18 per cent), HeroMotoco (2.93 per cent), AsianPaints (2.40 per cent), HUL(2.13 per cent), ITC (1.79 percent), Power Grid (1.44 percent), Dr Reddy’s (1.43 percent), ICICI Bank (1.43 percent), Bajaj Auto (1.30 percent), HDFC (1.14 per cent)and Reliance (1.14 per cent).

However, TCS fell 0.76per cent, followed by Cipla0.58 per cent, Gail 0.39 percent and NTPC 0.30 per cent.Among BSE sectoral andindustry indices, telecom rose2.62 per cent, FMCG 1.67 percent, realty 1.26 per cent,oil&gas 1.23 per cent, energy1.20 per cent, finance 1.18 percent, auto 1.15 per cent andbankex 1.03 per cent.

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�9��������Telecom regulatorTrai expects to start the con-sultation process for the nextround of spectrum auction inabout a fortnight.

“We expect to issue it(consultation paper on spec-trum price) in about 15 days,”Trai Chairman RS Sharmatold reporters on the sidelinesof FTTH APAC Conferencehere.

He was responding to aquery on when the TelecomRegulatory Authority of India(Trai) will start the consulta-tion process for the nextround of spectrum auction.

The Department ofTelecom (DoT) has soughtTrai’s views on spectrum pricefor various frequencies,including premium airwavesin the 700 MHz band whichremained unsold in the lastauctions in October 2016.

In the last auctions,Government had kept air-waves worth �5.66 lakh crorefor sale.

In the five-day auction,seven telecom companiesmade commitments of�65,789 crore for buying964.80 MHz of spectrum invarious frequency bands.

Bids were received for964.80 MHz of spectrum outof 2,354.55 MHz across sevenbands put on offer. Even at the

end of the auction, nearly 60per cent of the spectrumremained unsold and spec-trum worth �4 lakh crore in700 Mhz band found no tak-ers.

Meanwhile, the industrytoday pitched for holding theauctions late next year orearly 2019 in view of the sec-

tor’s weak financials and thesti l l-nascent equipmentecosystem for the prized 700MHz band.

“The timing of the auc-tion should be later part of2018 or early 2019,” COAIDirector General RajanMathews told the newsagency.

The DoT has also soughtTrai’s views on 5G services.

Sharma said the consul-tation process generally takessix months.

“Generally, it takes sixmonths’ time to complete thewhole process. You can expectrecommendation around thesame time,” Sharma said.

In his speech at the event,Sharma said Trai is propagat-ing sharing of backend infra-structure to achieve goals of‘Digita India’.

“We are of the firm viewthat sharing at the backendwill in no way dilute compe-tition in the front end. Sharingwill be required for smartcities and all the componentsof smart cities,” Sharma said.

He said there is lot of trac-tion in the Government overthe idea to allow cable TVoperators to provide broadbandservices as there are 100 millioncable TV homes covering about40 per cent of total populationin the country. ���

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RBI Governor Urjit Patel hassaid the Indian banking

system could be better off ifsome public sector banks areconsolidated to have fewer buthealthier entities, as it wouldhelp in dealing with the prob-lem of stressed assets.

“As many have pointed out,it is not clear that we need somany public sector banks. Thesystem could be better off if theyare consolidated into fewer buthealthier banks,” Patel said whiledelivering the Kotak FamilyDistinguished Lecture atColumbia University here.

He said since there werecooperative banks and micro-financial institutions to providecommunity-level banking,“some banks can be merged, asa quid pro quo for timelyGovernment technical injec-tion”.

Patel said a challenge thatIndia’s central bank was grap-pling with was the large stressedbanking sector balance sheets.

He noted that a series ofmeasures have been taken in thepast year on resolving the prob-lem of the non-performingassets (NPAs), including com-pletion of a comprehensive assetquality review of the banks.

Patel said in the instance ofthe insolvency and bankruptcy

code, the Reserve Bank of India(RBI) has been preparing active-ly for the next step in an order-ly resolution and this will beundertaken concomitantly withthe resolution of the weakestbank balance sheets under theaegis of a revised prompt cor-rective action framework.

“One of the things that thepublic sector banks need to dois to raise private capital fromthe market and not rely onGovernment largesse,” he said.

Public sector banks have tobe required to share the burdenof recapitalising, Patel said.

This will be a good way torestore some market disciplineand get the banks and theirshareholders to more seriouslycare about management deci-sions, he said.

Patel also said that consol-idation of banks could alsoentail sale of real estate wherebranches are redundant as wellas offering voluntary retire-ment schemes to manage head-count and adding younger, dig-ital-savvy personnel.

“The weaker banks are los-ing market share (and) that is agood thing,” Patel said.

“The stronger banks aregaining market share, which isa good thing, particularly theprivate sector banks. In a way itis working; those who need toshrink are shrinking.

“Lenders who are strongerare gaining more market share.I think there is a nice shift hap-pening and we need to workwith that to resolve this,” hesaid.

Patel said that divestmentin public sector banks wouldhave a positive role for the sec-tor.

“Divestment measureswould improve overall bankingsector health,” he said.

Improved market valua-tions would create an oppor-tune time for the governmentto divest some of the ownershipin the restructured banks andthis would reduce the overallamount that the governmentneeds to inject into them to dealwith the problem of NPAs andstressed assets, he said.

Patel said that across thenation, forces were gatheringcritical mass for the launchingof reforms that will help thecountry achieve a highergrowth.

“The materialisation ofreforms in the form of rolloutof the GST, the institution ofIndian Insolvency andBankruptcy Code and the abo-lition of the Foreign InvestmentPromotion Board should boostinvestor and investment confi-dence,” he said.

Looking ahead, Patel saidIndia’s economic growth was

getting a boost with domesticdrivers and was poised to be 7.4per cent in 2017-18.

“India will remain amongthe fastest growing economies,”he said, adding that its growthacceleration was reflective of itsresilience.

Patel said that inflation wasbelow target, the currentaccount deficit was about oneper cent of GDP and fiscaldeficit was on path of consoli-dation that will take it down tothree per cent by 2018-19.

He noted that recent sharpdecline in inflation was essen-tially the result of supply shocks.

Giving a comprehensiveview of the demonetisationprocess undertaken by theGovernment, Patel said its pos-itive spillover was reflected inhigher financial reintermedia-tion.

The share of low cost cur-rent account and savingsaccount deposits in aggregateddeposits with commercialbanks went up to about 39 percent, which is a four percentageincrease relative to pre-demon-etisation period.

“That is a large number ona large base. Financial reinter-mediation could be one of thebiggest collateral benefits of thisexercise, but time will tell. It’s tooearly to tell but initial statisticsare interesting,” he said.

,��������������!������������"������!����������;�4 ��$�����

�9��������The Income Taxdepartment has issued a �24,646crore tax demand notice toSahara Group’s Aamby ValleyLimited (AVL) after conductinga special audit of the company.

The department, as part ofa special investigation and auditinto the account books of AVL,found that an income of over�48,000 crore for a particularassessment year was allegedlynot reflected in the recordbooks of the firm and hence itraised a fresh tax demand andpenalty amount on it.

A Sahara Groupspokesperson confirmed thedevelopment to the newsagency PTI.

“Yes, the Income TaxDepartment has raised�48,085.79 crores to the incomeof the Aamby Valley Limitedwith a total demand of incometax of �24,646.96 crores on theAamby Valley Limited,” thespokesperson said in a briefstatement.

Officials said the notice wasissued by the taxman in Januarythis year after the special auditof AVL’s income for theAssessment Year 2012-13 foundthat the parent firm had alleged-ly floated a clutch of SpecialPurpose Vehicles whoseincomes were later accountedon the account of AVL as theywere merged with the former indue course of time. ���

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Country’s third largest soft-ware service provider

Wipro on Tuesday announceda marginal rise in net profit forthe March quarter and offereda muted outlook, but sought tocheer investors by announcinga bonus issue and a likely sharebuyback.

Begaluru based firm saidit will issue bonus shares with-in the next two months, amove aimed at encouragingparticipation of smallinvestors, enhancing liquidityand expanding retail share-holder base.

However, market watcherswere disappointed with theoutlook of a flat sequentialgrowth for the June quarter.

This could spell furthertrouble for Indian IT firms asthey face challenging timesahead in the form of visacurbs in their largest market -- the US -- as well as tighten-ing of work permit norms byother nations.

Wipro registered a negli-gible rise in the consolidatedprofit at �2,267 crore for thefourth quarter ended March2017. The total income roseover 5 per cent to �15,033.8crore in the said quarter, com-

pared to the year-ago period.The IT firm attributed the

muted guidance to softness inhealthcare and retail business.Wipro expects revenues fromits IT services - its mainstay -to be in the range of $1,915-1,955 million for the April-June 2017 quarter.

This is almost similar toMarch quarter IT services rev-enue that stood at $1,954.6million. The dollar revenuewas 3.9 per cent higher thanthe year-ago period.

“The guidance that wegive at the beginning of thequarter is what we see. Wehave had certain project can-cellations in our healthcarebusiness which will haveimpact in Q1 (first quarter),”Wipro CFO Jatin Dalal said.

He further said there wassimilar “softness” in the retail

sector.For the full 2016-17,

Wipro’s profit fell nearly 5per cent to �8,518 crore whiletotal income grew 7.4 per centto �57,995 crore compared tothe previous fiscal.

The results wereannounced after the close oftrading hours. Shares of thecompany closed marginallyup at �494.55 on the BSE.

“The fourth quarter of2016-17 results better thanexpected... For the first quar-ter of 2017-18, the companyhas guided for $1,915-1,955million... Which indicates adim outlook for Q1 2017-18,”said Sarabjit Kour Nangra, V-P (Research-IT), AngelBroking.

The conglomerate said itwill offer one bonus share forevery one equity held (includ-

ing American DepositoryShares). It will also exploreshare buyback option aroundJuly.

“...The issuance of bonusshares was not part of theagenda papers for the boardmeeting,” it stated.

Bigger rivals TCS andInfosys have alreadyannounced mega share buy-backs to offer rich returns toshareholders.

Wipro CEO Abidali ZNeemuchwala said the com-pany has stepped up efforts tohire more locals and set updelivery centres in the US toensure continuity of service forclients.

Locals will constitute morethan half of Wipro’s workforcein the US by June, he added.

In the news recently forhanding out pink slips to hun-dreds of employees, Wipromaintained that hiring is goingon as planned on the cam-puses.

The company said it isrecruiting people for newertechnologies as and whenrequired.

Wipro had over 1.65 lakhemployees under the IT ser-vices with voluntary attritionat 16.3 per cent at the end ofMarch.

6����<)������������������������������������������ �9��������The Government on

Tuesday said GST will not leadto inflation and rather makedomestic goods competitivevia-a-vis imported items.

Revenue SecretaryHasmukh Adhia dismissed fearsthat GST implementation willlead to a spurt in prices, sayingthat unlike in other countries,the transition to the new taxregime would be smooth inIndia.

He said several countrieswitnessed inflation followingGST rollout as they had singlepoint taxation system. In thecase of India, there are multiplepoints of taxation and hence thepossibility of sudden spurt ininflation is remote.

“Presently, we are tappingVAT at each stage of supplychain, from manufacturer towholesaler to retailer. Wealready have multiple points tax-ation. Under GST, we are justmerging the taxes of the Centreand states. The inflation whichhappened in other countries wasbecause they shifted from sin-gle point taxation to GST,”Adhia said at the GST Conclavehere.

He said that once the newindirect tax regime is rolled out,the incidence of tax on import-ed goods would be the same ason the locally manufactureditems.

The imported goods, heexplained, will be subject to

Integrated GST (IGST) forwhich credit can be claimed atthe time of sale. IGST is just aninterim tax or a washout taxwhich is equivalent to the GSTrate on a specific product.

In case of locally manu-factured goods, a similar GSTrate will be applicable andhence, there will be no advan-tage for the imported goods.

The Government leviescountervailing duty (CVD)and special additional duty(SAD) on imported goods toprotect domestic manufactur-ers.

“The incidence of tax onimported goods will be equiv-alent to the tax paid by the localindustry. This will strengthendomestic manufacturing andMake in India,” Adhia said.

Goods and services tax(GST), which is proposed to berolled out from July 1, willunify at least 10 different cen-tral and state levies and makeIndia a uniform market forseamless transfer of goods andservices.

Adhia said as many as 71per cent of the existing taxpay-ers have already migrated to theGSTN portal and the CBEC hasasked field offices to organiseawareness camps in towns witha population of 1 lakh or more.

Also, the department willcome out with sector-wiseguidance note for GST imple-mentation. ���

�9��������NITI Aayog mem-ber Bibek Debroy on Tuesdaymade a strong case for taxingagriculture income, an opinioncontrary to the Government’sstated position.

In addition, the member ofthe Government’s top thinktank also suggested that exemp-tions on personal income taxshould be removed to increasetax base from the current about37 million in the country of 1.3billion of people.

“On expanding the base onthe personal income tax side,other than elimination ofexemptions, is to also tax ruralsector, including agricultureincome above certain thresh-old,” Debroy said in a pressconference.

Taxing agriculture incomeis a politically sensitive issueand successive governmentshave refrained from doing so.

As recent at March 22,Finance Minister Arun Jaitleyhad assured Parliament:“Agriculture income is not

taxed and will not be taxed”.When asked what should

be the threshold of imposingincome tax on rural sector,Debroy said it could be decid-ed after taking into account theaverage income of either threeyears or five years.

“I don’t believe in artificialdistinction of rural and urban,so whatever is the threshold onpersonal income side on urbanside, should be the exactlysame on rural side.

“At best what I can dobecause it is an agricultureincome, instead of using agri-culture income for one partic-ular year, what I could do is Iaverage it over three-year peri-od or may over five years peri-od as agriculture income is sub-ject to annual fluctuations,barring that threshold shouldbe the same,” said Debroy, anoted economist.

NITI Aayog had calledreporters for briefing on itsthree-year draft action agendafor accelerating the economy.

NITI Aayog Vice-Chairman Arvind Panagariya,who was present at the pressconference, however refrainedfrom answering questions ontaxation of agriculture income.

In May 2016, the PrimeMinister’s Office had advisedthe NITI Aayog to prepare doc-uments on 15-Year Vision,Seven-Year Strategy and Three-Year Action Agenda. ���

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On a roll after three back-to-back wins, theresurgent Rising Pune Supergiant will facea tough challenge when they take on two-

time champions Kolkata Knight Riders in an IPLencounter here on Wednesday.

After languishing in the bottom-half of the tableinitially, Supergiant notched up three successivewins to grab the fourth place.

On Monday night, Pune eked out a three-runvictory over Mumbai Indians in a thrillingencounter, thanks to some effective bowling by BenStokes and Jaydev Unadkat at the death.

Opener Rahul Tripathi's batting has also boost-ed their campaign. The 26-year-old fromMaharashtra came up with scores of 31, 59 and 45in the last three matches.

Former skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni tooshowed his vintage form with a sparkling 61 notout against Sunrisers Hyderabad.

Skipper Steve Smith and Ajinkya Rahane havealso contributed from time to time and ManojTiwary has also played a few useful cameos.

In the bowling department, spinner Imran Tahirhas taken 10 wickets so far to emerge as the team'sbest bowler, while Stokes and Unadkat snapped sixand five wickets respectively so far.

Kolkata, on the other hand, have been prettyconsistent this season and are placed second in thepoints table with two losses and five wins in sevenmatches.

Skipper Gautam Gambhir led from the frontwith two half- centuries in the initial phase andwhen he failed to contribute, Robin Uthappa andManish Pandey have stepped up to do the bulk ofscoring.

In fact, Yusuf Pathan alsoproduced a 39-ball 59 againstDelhi Daredevils to rescue histeam once. So overall, KKRboasts of a formidable battingline-up.

During their last outinghowever, it was the KKRbowlers who produced a fantastic show to bundleout Royal Challengers Bangalore for 49 -- the low-est score in IPL's history.

Chris Woakes has taken 10 wickets in the sevenmatches that he has played, while Nathan Coulter-

Nile has scalped eight after featuring inonly three games for Kolkata. UmeshYadav too has seven wickets from fiveoutings.

Among the spinners, slow left-arm chinamanKuldeep Yadav has taken six wickets in as manymatches for KKR.

SquadKKR: Gautam Gambhir (C), Darren Bravo, Trent

Boult, Piyush Chawla, Nathan Coulter Nile, ColinDe Grandhomme, Rishi Dhawan, Sayan Ghosh,Shaikb-Al-Hasan, Sheldon Jackson, Ishank Jaggi,Kuldeep Yadav, Chris Woakes, Chris Lynn, SunilNarine, Manish Pandey, Yusuf Pathan, AnkitRajpoot, Suryakumar Yadav, Robin Uthappa andUmesh Yadav. RPS: Steve Smith (C), Ajinkya Rahane, MahendraSingh Dhoni (WK), Ashok Dinda, Faf du Plessis,

Mayank Agarwal, Ankit Sharma, Baba Aparajith,Ankush Bains, Rajat Bhatia, Deepak Chahar,Rahul Chahar, Dan Christian, Lockie Ferguson,Imran Tahir, Jaskaran Singh, Usman Khawaja,Saurabh Kumar, Ben Stokes, Washington Sundar,Milind Tandon, Manoj Tiwary, Adam Zampa,Jaydev Unadkat, Ishwar Pandey, Rahul Tripathi,Shardul Thakur.

>9��������� �����������������Kolkata Knight Riders skipper Gautam

Gambhir on Tuesday said it will be a challenge tomaintain the trend they had set in their last IPL out-ing by bowling out Royal Challengers Bangalore fora record lowest 49.

Chasing a modest target of 132, RCB's famedbatting line-up comprising the likes of Virat Kohli,AB de Villiers, Chris Gayle and Kedar Jadhav col-lapsed in no time.

On the eve of their next match against RisingPune Supergiant, Gambhir said it will be a difficulttask to continue in the same vein.

"It's difficult to set the trend, but it's more dif-ficult to maintain it," Gambhir told reporters.

"We have set the trend of intensity what youwant to play with. Now the biggest challenge is howwe can maintain it. That was one phase, now it isup to us.

"We have set the benchmark, now we need tomaintain it. You know one game it's easy to do butnow people will be expecting us to deliver again. Ihope the guys realise that and what I expect fromthe team and myself as well. It has to start from me,"he added.

���� -�7��"#$�

Maria Sharapova's firstopponent after her 15-

month doping suspension saysthe Russian should not havebeen granted a wild card forthe Porsche Grand Prix orupcoming tournaments.

Roberta Vinci,who wil l faceSharapova in ahighly anticipat-ed f irst-roundmatch lateWednesday, does"not agree" withorganisers givingSharapova a freepassage into themain draw oftheir events.

"She is a greatplayer and I havenothing againsther. She paid forher mistakes,"Vinci said onMonday. "She canreturn to play butwithout any wildcards, without anyhelp."

Sharapova's sus-pension for using heart drugmeldonium after it wasbanned at the beginning of2016, ends on Wednesday,just in time to enter the open-ing round of the indoor claytournament she won threetimes in a row from 2012-14.

Vinci joined the likes ofCaroline Wozniacki,Dominika Cibulkova,Agnieszka Radwanska, andAngelique Kerber in speakingout against wild cards forplayers who return from adoping suspension. "I know(Sharapova) is important for

the tennis, for theWTA, for every-thing," Vinci said."She is a great per-son, a great player, agreat champion, butthis is my opinion."

The 36th-ranked Vinci, whoreached a careerhigh 10th a yearago, would try toforget about thewild-card debatewhen stepping oncourt onWednesday.

Vinci expected"a lot of the crowdon Wednesday tobe (cheering) forher. But I don'tknow about theplayers. A lot of

players will agree withme on the wild card."

Vinci lost all four setsand scored only four games intotal during her two previousmatches against Sharapova,but those were played onhard-court, 10 and five yearsago, respectively.

������7�+#

Mumbai Indians off-spinner Harbhajan Singhsaid his captain Rohit Sharma, who has been

fined for showing dissent to the umpire, didn't mis-behave with the official and was only trying to clar-ify rules.

Sharma was at the crease when Mumbai need-ed 17 off the last over to win against Rising PuneSupergiant. After losing Hardik Pandya in the firstball, Sharma hit a six in the second but JaydevUnadkat pushed the third delivery wide after see-ing Sharma shuffle across the stumps.

Realising that the ball was veering away fromthe guideline for wide deliveries, Sharma left italone. However, umpire S Ravi didn't call it a wide.Disappointed with the decision, Sharma walked upto the umpire and protested even as the square-leg umpire A Nand Kishore intervened. He wasfined 50 per cent of his match fee after the inci-dent. "The ball was too far outside, to be honest,but I don't really know whether it was wide or not,"Harbhajan said at the post match conference.

"If both the batsman's leg move, then bowler

should get the margin, but Rohit's one leg hadmoved and as per me it should have been a wide.But we have to move on with the umpire's deci-sion and they played better than us and it was greatgame of cricket.

"He (Rohit) wanted to check what is the rulethen, where he need to stand, he did not shout at

the umpire and asked him why did he not call awide, he was asking where should I stand so thatit is called a wide, if the bowl so outside, the moreyou move, the bowler will get the margin," heexplained.

Harbhajan also differed that because of thatparticular ball, the hosts and specially Sharma lostthe momentum. "I don't know whether momen-tum was lost (because of the wide not being called),Rohit was hitting nicely but unfortunately he endedup hitting the ball straight in the air. That's whathappens, cricket is game, anything can happen,"he said. "Just before that he hit a six and a similarball went up in the air. I don't think momentumwould have lost, at that time (you need to do) asa batter, just see and hit the ball, Rohit was battingon 50 odd, so don't think there were chances tolose the momentum," he added.

Harbhajan, however, admitted that the 19thover of their innings bowled by Englishman BenStokes brought Pune back into contention.

Stokes, the costliest buy of this IPL, conced-ed only 7 runs, and Mumbai eventually lost by threeruns.

����� �7�+#

Rising Pune Supergiant skipper Steve Smith lav-ished praise on Ben Stokes and Jaydev

Unadkat for keeping their cool and bowling theteam to a close win over Mumbai Indians here onMonday night.

Pune ended MI'ssix-match winningstreak with a three-runwin.

"I thought wescrapped really well inthe end. Stoksy in thesecond half was excel-lent, Unadkat got usover the line," Smithsaid at the presentationceremony.

"The dew was not too bad. We thought itwould be worse, we held together, and the wick-et played the same for the 40 overs. It was not atraditional Wankhede wicket.

"160 was probably around par, and tonight wewere able to take wickets in the middle and keepthe pressure on. Unadkat went wide of the creaseand bowled a hard length."

MI captain Rohit Sharma cracked his secondhalf century of the IPL season but could not pre-vent his team fromsuffering a nail-biting defeatat the Wankhede Stadium.

����� �7�+#

He might not be scoring big runs inthe ongoing IPL, but Rising

Pune Supergiant opener AjinkyaRahane is a contented man as longas his contributions are bringingout positive results for his side.

Rahane so far has hit just onefifty (60 off 48 balls) in the ongoingIPL and that too came in the lungopener against Sunrisers Hyderabadon April 5.

Thereafter, Rahane's bat went silentbut the right-hander said he is satisfiedwith his personal form.

"I am happy the way I am batting at themoment. It is important to spend time in themiddle. Right now the way I am middlingand timing the ball, I am really happy. Aslong as we are winning matches I am happybecause that is important," Rahane said atthe post-match press conference onMonday night.

"Switching from Test to T20 format isabout mental adjustment and I did thatcompletely well," he said.

Mumbai needed 17 runs in the lastover for a win but Rsing PuneSupergiant left-arm pacer JaydevUnadkat did just to clinch the encounterin his side's favour.

Asked Rahane about the rationale

behind the final over to Unadkat overShardul Thakur, he said, "After the 19thover, when (Steve) Smith, I and Mahi

bhai (Mahendra Singh Dhoni) werediscussing who should bowl between

Shardul and Jaydev (Unadkat), we pickedup Jaydev. Shardul has good pace and wedidn't want to give batsman the pace inthe last over."

"Jaydev's pace is comparatively less-er than Shardul and his slower ball iseffective. The wicket was also little slowand Rohit (Sharma) was a set batsman,so our point was not to give thempace.

“One side of the ground issmall and one or two shots inthe last over (could have madethe difference). That was theplanning in the last over."

Terming Monday's win andthe one against Royal ChallengersBangalore as big, Rahane said that

each bowler has different stockballs.

"It is not easy to bowl yorkers,everyone has different bowling style.

Ben Strokes' stock ball is the yorker,which you saw in the 19th over. That

over was important for us. Jaydev's(Unadkat) strength is slower ball. Every

bowler has different plan," he signed off.

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With its cushion at the top gone,Real Madrid needs wins.

Another setback in the final roundsof the Spanish league could leave the titlein the hands of Barcelona, which is car-rying all the momentum after the last-minute win against Madrid at theSantiago Bernabeu Stadium over theweekend.

"Our fate is still in our hands,"Madrid coach Zinedine Zidane saidTuesday. "It's still all up to us. We will keepdoing our best to try to win matches. Weare not going to change anything."

Barcelona leads on the head-to-headtiebreaker, but Madrid has a game inhand. Madrid will next face Deportivo LaCoruna on Wednesday. Barcelona has amuch easier game, against last-placeOsasuna at the Camp Nou.

Madrid led 26 of the 33 rounds so far,and was as many as six points ahead ofBarcelona. It had been holding on to athree-point advantage for several weeksuntil finally giving it away with theheart-breaking home loss on Sunday.

"We still only depend on ourselvesand we are going to give everything wehave to win La Liga," Madrid captainSergio Ramos said. "The defeat toBarcelona hurt us because of the situationthat we had before the game, but there isno time to lament. We have to turn thepage and start focusing on the nextmatch."

It will help Madrid's confidence thatit has beaten Deportivo the last seventimes the teams met, including the lastthree league games in La Coruna.Deportivo defeated Barcelona at home lastmonth, but it has won only once in sixgames since then. It is 16th in the 20-teamstandings, eight points clear of the rele-gation zone.

Ramos won't be able to play onWednesday because of the red card hereceived late in the game againstBarcelona. Madrid also won't be able tocount on Gareth Bale, who left Sunday's

game before halftime because of a left calfinjury. Raphael Varane is expected toreplace Ramos, and either Marco Asensioor Francisco "Isco" Alarcon will likely playin Bale's place.

Madrid is trying to win its firstleague trophy since 2012 and avoid itsbiggest title drought in the league sincethe 1980s.

"The pressure remains the same,"

Zidane said. "Our only obligation is togive our best and to try to win everymatch."

Madrid will have to split its attentionbetween the title race and the semifinalsof the Champions League, which will beplayed in the coming weeks. The secondleg against city rival Atletico Madrid willbe played just before the league's second-to-last round.

The team's game in hand is at CeltaVigo and is likely to be played justbefore the final round.

Barcelona, already eliminated fromthe European competition, can fully focuson the Spanish league. The Copa del Reyfinal against Alaves will only be playedafter the league has already finished. "Younever know how that is going to affect theteams," Barcelona coach Luis Enrique said."We can't pay attention to our rival. Wehave to be prepared to play our best foot-ball and win the matches."

He said the victory at the Bernabeulifted the team's morale after a run of dis-appointing results.

"It's obvious that it was important psy-chologically," Luis Enrique said. "It gaveus a boost of confidence going into theend of the season, but we will need to bevery consistent in this final stretch."

���������������������H Real Madrid forward Gareth Bale is

expected to miss the Champions Leaguesemifinals because of a calf muscle injury.

The club said tests on Tuesday con-firmed the extent of the left calf injurythat forced Bale to leave the Spanishleague game against Barcelona on Sundaybefore halftime.

Madrid did not specify how long itexpects Bale to be sidelined, but similarinjuries usually require three to fourweeks of recovery time.

The first leg against city rival AtleticoMadrid in the Champions League semi-finals is next week. The second leg is onMay 10.

Bale was out for nearly three monthsthis season after surgery on his rightankle.

���� 291391

We move on", was the firm message from Spursmanager Mauricio Pochettino after its FA Cup

semifinal defeat."The motivation is always there and we will find

it again because it's our passion to play football," theArgentine said ahead of their clash with Crystal Palace.

After an impressive 2-1 win over Liverpool atAnfield on Sunday, Crystal Palace manager SamAllardyce is looking to preserve his remarkable recordof never being relegated from the Premier League dur-ing his managerial career.

Victory lifted Palace up to 12th place on 38 pointsahead of Wednesday's game.

������6����������Arsenal has slipped to seventh place, seven points

behind fourth-placed Manchester City but has gamesin hand on the sidesabove it. ManagerArsene Wenger wasencouraged by thecharacter his sideshowed to come frombehind to defeatManchester City intheir FA Cup semifi-nal at Wembley onSunday.

"I felt as well thatwhat was questionedwas answered on thepitch," the Frenchmansaid, responding toclaims by critics thatArsenal lacked spirit.

Wenger's sideshould be confident ofthree points, withLeicester having not won a league game against Arsenalsince 1994.

Last season's clash at the Emirates produced latedrama with Danny Welbeck scoring Arsenal's winnerin the fifth minute of stoppage time. Defeat ultimate-ly did not cost Leicester, which went on to be crownedchampion.

�������������6���������Hopes of avoiding relegation look bleak for both

clubs from northeast England, with the teams firmlyentrenched in the bottom two places.

Middlesbrough is without a win in 16 PremierLeague games, a run stretching back to Dec. 17, andappears set for an immediate return to theChampionship. It is not difficult to pinpoint the team'sproblem — it is the league's lowest goal scorers, hav-ing managed just 23 all season.

Steve Agnew's' appointment as interim manager lastmonth after Aitor Karanka's dismissal has brought noupturn in fortunes.

Sunderland, which is three points behindMiddlesbrough but has a game in hand, has lost six ofits last eight matches in the league.

��������6����������Both sides might have expected to be challenging

for the title at this stage of the season, rather than bat-tling it out to secure a top-four finish and a ChampionsLeague place. City is fourth, just one point and one placeabove United.

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After one season in the EnglishChampionship, Newcastle United

secured an immediate return to thePremier League by beating PrestonNorth End 4-1 on Monday.

Under Rafa Benitez, the formerLiverpool manager who won theChampions League during his time atAnfield, Newcastle enjoyed an impres-sive season although two defeats and adraw in its last three league games ledto a few nerves at the north-east club.

One of England's best supportedclubs which regularly attracts crowdsmore than 50,000 for home games,Newcastle sealed promotion with twomatches remaining.

Championship leader Brighton andHove Albion secured one of the twoautomatic promotion places a week ago.Brighton leads Newcastle by four points.

Benitez was unable to saveNewcastle from relegation last seasonafter being appointed for the last 10games, but decided not to activate aclause in his three-year contract allow-ing him to leave if the club was demot-ed.

The former Real Madrid manager,after meetings with owner Mike Ashleyand managing director Lee Charnley,announced his intention to stay in May

and his decision has been vindicated.Despite selling Dutch midfielder

Gini Wijnaldum to Liverpool for areported 25 million pounds followingrelegation, Benitez has acted astutely inthe transfer market.

The signings of striker DwightGayle from Crystal Palace and Scotlandwinger Matt Ritchie from Bournemouth

have paid dividends, with Gayle scoring22 league goals and Ritchie 12.

An awful start to the season whenNewcastle lost its opening two leaguegames was quickly erased with five suc-cessive wins, creating a momentum thatstalled only in the past month, on theverge of promotion. It got there in theend.

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Serena Williams is briefly back at No.1 in the WTA rankings, despite not

playing a match since January - and withplans to take the rest of 2017 off becauseshe is expecting a baby.

Thanks to a calendar quirk, Williamsmoved up one spot Monday from No. 2,swapping places with Angelique Kerber.

The return to No. 1 , which gives the35-year-old American her 317th weekthere, comes less than a week afterWilliams let the world know via Snapchatthat she is pregnant. The baby is due inthe fall, and spokeswoman Kelly BushNovak said Williams will take off the restof this season and intends to return to thetour next year.

Williams confirmed that timetable onInstagram on Monday, when she posteda photo of herself and a note addressedto "My Dearest Baby."

"You gave me the strength I didn'tknow I had. You taught me the truemeaning of serenity and peace. I can'twait to meet you. I can't wait for you tojoin the players box next year. But mostimportantly, I am so happy to share beingnumber one in the world with you.... once

again today," the post reads.Williams closed it with: "from the

world's oldest number one to the world'syoungest number one. -Your Mommy"

The reason Williams was able to sup-plant Kerber for at least a week - and pos-sibly more - is that the women's clay-court tournament that is being played thisweek in Stuttgart, Germany, was playeda week earlier a year ago. So Kerber, atwo-time defending champion at thatevent, lost the rankings points she earnedthere and can't replace them until the endof this year's tournament.

Kerber can reclaim the top rankingby winning two matches in Stuttgart.

� ��� 8 1"-�91B)#�# '#C

Yasir Shah ripped through the toporder of the West Indies second

innings in the final session of anotherlong day to put Pakistan on course for vic-tory at the end of the fourth day of thefirst cricket Test at Sabina Park, here.

After captain Misbah ul Haq becamejust the sixth batsman in Test history tobe left stranded on 99 not out as Pakistanwere dismissed for 407 in their firstinnings, the hosts, trailing by 121 runs,were reduced to 93 for four at stumps yes-terday with Shah taking all four wickets.

They go into the final day needinganother 28 runs to erase the first inningsdeficit with the pair of nightwatchman,Devendra Bishoo and debutant VishaulSingh, expected to be under immensepressure, especially from the rampant leg-spinner, when play gets underway on awearing pitch on the final morning.

Shah struck with his very first deliv-ery, bowling Kraigg Brathwaite with a ballthat skidded through on the openingbatsman.

He quickly added the scalps of new-comer Shimron Hetmayer and ShaiHope before finishing off with theimportant wicket of Kieran Powell, theopener taken at slip by Younis Khan fora well-played 49.

That late drama was in contrast to thepedestrian progress through the first twosessions of the day as Misbah worked histeam into a dominant position despitebeing left one run short of an 11th Test

century.Last man and debutant Mohammad

Abbas was trapped leg- before by RostonChase on the stroke of the tea interval.

In his usual phlegmatic manner,

Misbah ensured Pakistan constructedtheir position of dominance via a suc-cession of partnerships after they resumedon the fourth morning at 201 for four andfacing the threat of the second new ball.

Yet it was a far from a flawless effortas the West Indies extended their seasonof woe in the field, allowing the oppos-ing skipper to escape when he shouldhave first been taken at short-leg by Singh

off Shannon Gabriel and then later on inthe morning session by Alzarri Josephrunning back at mid-off to the bowlingof leg-spinner Bishoo.

It was Bishoo who eventually brokean 88-run sixth-wicket stand betweenMisbah and Sarfraz Ahmed, the wicket-keeper batsman playing in his usualpugnacious manner in getting to 54before he was bowled around his legsattempting a sweep shot just after lunch.

During the course of his innings,Ahmed went past 2,000 runs in his Testcareer.

Misbah achieved a milestone of hisown when he notched his 5,000th Testcareer run before reaching the half-cen-tury mark and began to play an increas-ingly important role through the after-noon session as the West Indies emergedfrom the listless indifference of the firstsession to finally get among the wickets.

Joseph removed Mohammad Amirand Wahab Riaz in quick succession tofinish with three wickets in the innings,the same as fellow opening bowlerGabriel.

When substitute fielder JermaineBlackwood ran out Shah, Misbah was on68 with the score at 373 for nine.

However, Abbas displayed determi-nation and discipline in surviving withhis captain for 45 minutes while Misbahcontrolled most of the strike and edgedtowards the coveted century.

Just one run away, though, he wasdenied when Chase trapped the new-comer in front.

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