) ˆ ˙ˆ ˆ # ˝ ˆ #ˆ &˘ · 2019-12-28 · mig-27 for its yeoman service to the nation....

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The Centre and States areheaded for a major con-

frontation on the implementa-tion of the National PopulationRegister (NPR). After MamataBanerjee-led West Bengal andLeft-led Kerala Governmentsrefused to implement the NPRapproved by the Union Cabinetlast week, the Congress- ruledStates too are set to reject it inits existing format.

Launching a fresh offensiveagainst the Modi Government,former Congress chief RahulGandhi likened the NPR andthe National Register ofCitizens (NRC) to demoneti-sation, and said these exercis-es are a “tax” on the poor, whowill suffer the same way theydid after the note ban inNovember 2016.

A senior Congress leadertold The Pioneer that the party-led State Governments wouldnot implement the NPR sinceit seeks to extract details sim-ilar to the NRC. The Congressleadership has questioned thevery motive of the Governmentto seek details like declarationof “date and place of birth ofboth parents” for the first timein the NPR forms. Sourcessaid party has asked its ChiefMinisters to reject the NPR.

The CongressGovernments in States havealready criticised the contro-versial CAA and NRC that ledto mass mobilisation andprotests across the countryduring the last fortnight.

A formal announcement islikely to be made when theparty conducts flag marchesacross the country for its “SaveIndia, Save Constitution” onSaturday coinciding with the

grand old party’s foundationday. Then Minister of State forHome in the UPA GovernmentAjay Maken on Friday chargedthe Centre with working on theNRC across the country in thegarb of the NPR.

Home Minister Amit Shahhas clarified that there is nolink between the NPR and theNRC. “NPR is register of pop-ulation, NRC is register of cit-izens. There is no link between

the two and the two have dif-ferent processes,” Shah said inan interview with a newsagency early this week.

Maken sought to buttressthe point by citing that the NPRforms are seeking informationlike mobile numbers of allfamily members and drivinglicence details which had notbeen sought when the NPR waslast conducted in the 2010-11by the UPA Government.

Maken also rejected theGovernment’s contention thatthese details were to be sharedvoluntarily and not mandato-rily. “The NPR forms have anambiguous ‘if available’ clause.Anybody who does not sharethese details would run the riskof his citizenship being deemeddoubtful,” Maken explained toThe Pioneer.

Asserting that the NRChas always been on the BJP’sagenda, Maken pointed outthat way back in 2003 when theNDA was in power it hadbrought out an amendment inthe Citizenship Act seeking tomake registration of every cit-izen compulsory.

“When the Congress cameto power in 2004, there was apilot project carried out in aunion territory with a smallpopulation of 3.1 million. Wejunked it, though the BJP hadsought to implement it acrossthe country, as it was found thatless than half of the residentscould produce valid docu-ments.

Most of them were poorwho had no means to be inpossession of documentaryproof of citizenship,” theCongress leader pointed out.

In the last NPR, data wascollected on 15 criteria. Thistime data on 21 points will becollected.

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Severe cold wave conditionscontinued unabated in sev-

eral parts of north and centralIndia on Friday with Delhibreaking a 22-year-old record.The minimum temperature wasrecorded at 4.2 degrees Celsius,three notches below normal inDelhi. The India MeteorologicalDepartment (IMD) predictssome relief in the region fromDecember 31 onwards.

Severe cold wave conditionshave been recorded for 14 con-tinuous days so far, surpassing13 continuous days in 1997.According to the IMD, fromDecember 29-30, the winddirection will change fromnorthwesterly to easterly, whichis likely to reduce cold wave.

In its daily weather report,the IMD said due to the per-sistence of cold northwesterlywinds in the lower levels overnorthwest India and otherfavourable meteorological con-ditions, “cold day to severe coldday conditions” are very likelyover many pockets of Punjab,Haryana, Chandigarh, Delhi,north Rajasthan and UttarPradesh for the next two days.

North-East and centralIndia has been reeling under aspell of severe cold wavw con-ditions over the last week. The

IMD also predicted snowfall inmiddle and high hills fromDecember 31 to January 2.

The IMD said a fresh west-ern disturbance is very likely toaffect the western Himalayanregion from December 30night onwards and this willbring rain and thunderstorm inisolated pockets of north,northwest and central India.

“Dense fog at isolatedpockets is also very likely overPunjab, Haryana, Chandigarh,Delhi, north Rajasthan andUttar Pradesh during next

three days and over northMadhya Pradesh, Bihar,Jharkhand, sub-HimalayanWest Bengal,

Sikkim and Odisha duringnext two days and over north-eastern India during next 4-5days and abate thereafter,” itsaid.

Under the western distur-bance, major parts of northwestand central India are likely toexperience fairly widespreadrainfall accompanied with hail-storm at isolated places duringDecember 31-January 1, it said.

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The country’s commercial cap-ital on Friday witnessed two

massive rallies at two historicvenues — August Kranti Maidanand Azad Maidan — in favour ofand against the CitizenshipAmendment Act (CAA) respec-tively. With the BJP putting up animpressive show of strength in sup-port of the CAA and the JointAction Committee (JAC) for SocialJustice staging a numerically effec-tive protest against the law.

With no let-up in the protestsagainst the CAA and the NationalRegister for Citizens (NRC), theBJP — operating under the ban-ner of “Samvidhan SanmanManch” — held a large rally insupport of the CAA at the AugustKranti Maidan on a day when theJAC for Social Justice — a body ofactivists, students and socialgroups — flexed its musclesagainst the CAA and the NRC inAzad Maidan.

Friday’s was the third protestorganised by various bodies

against the CAA and the NRC inthe metropolis in the last fortnight,while the BJP-affiliated organisa-tions have organised so far two ral-lies — including the one held onFriday — in support of the CAA.

Though the protest organisedby JAC for Social Justice was notof the mammoth scale as the oneheld at the August Kranti Maidanon August 19 when severalBollywood celebrities had turnedup, Friday’s rally at Azad Maidendrew a large number of peoplefrom various sections of society.

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Just after Friday namaz, thenational Capital witnessed

multiple peaceful protestsagainst the CitizenshipAmendment Act (CAA).Scores of people gathered at JorBagh, Jama Masjid, UttarPradesh Bhawan and JamiaMillia Islamia (JMI) to marktheir protest.

Meanwhile, to maintainlaw and order situation in thecity, the Delhi Police on Fridaymorning imposed Section 144at Seelampur, sub-divisions ofConnaught Place in New Delhi district and at severallocations in south-east, northand south districts.

Police also carried out flagmarch at north-east Delhi’s

Seelampur, Jafrabad, Welcomeand Mustafabad areas whichhad witnessed violence onDecember 17.

Adequate police force fromadjoining districts and 15 com-panies of paramilitary forceswere deployed in the north-eastdistrict. The Delhi Police alsoused drones to keep a vigil onthe situation.

“We have been conductingflag march in the northeast dis-trict along with the members of‘Aman Committee’ to ensurethat law and order remains incontrol.

We have also been appeal-ing to the people to help policemaintain peace,” said VedPrakash Surya, the DeputyCommissioner of Police(DCP), north-east.

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The Mig-27 fighter jets,which played a crucial role

during the 1999 Kargil War, bidadieu to the Indian Air Forceon Friday after 35 years ofactive service. These jets“Bahadur” flew their last sor-tie at Jodhpur airbase beforegetting decommissioned.

Air Marshal SK Ghotia,Chief of South WesternCommand, who was present atthe event, said, the plane hasbeen at the frontline andproved its worth in the KargilWar. Jodhpur airbase had thesquadron of seven MiG-27sand they participated in thefinal fly-past there.

The IAF also tweeted apoem on the emotional eventand said it salutes the mightyMiG-27 for its yeoman serviceto the nation.

#AdieuMiG27 Her targets

met. Her promises kept. And all her duties done, On she goes. All haloed and pretty. Into the setting sun. IAF spokesperson Anupam

Banerjee, who flew missions inMIG-27 during the Kargil War,described the moment as veryemotional.

The last fleet of the MiG-27 was escort-landed by theSukhoi Su-30, followed by thetraditional water cannon salute,officials said. To mark this his-toric occasion, a team of SuryaKiran aircraft put on an airshow with an acrobatic displayin various formations.

These swing wing Mig-27jets played an important role

strafing high-altitude targetson mountain sides during theKargil War.

These helped the Army toclimb these heights as thePakistanis till then were dom-inating. In fact, the IAF lost oneMIG-27 during those missionswhen Flight Lieutenant KNachiketa, who was flying onejet, had to eject after his engine

failed after a hit by ground fire.He was captured by thePakistanis and returned to Indiasome days later.

After being inducted, asmany as 165 MiG-27s wereassembled at HindustanAeronautics Limited (HAL)with a small number signifi-cantly upgraded jets enteringservice from 2006 onwards. Itis these jets which were decom-missioned. Older variants ofthe MiG-27, including theMiG-23 have already stoppedoperating.

The MIG-27 weighingabout 20 tonnes performedexceptionally well at low alti-tudes and carried out gun,bomb and missile attacks.

The GsH-6-30 gun of thejet remains the most powerfulcannon ever installed on anIAF fighter, capable of spewingout a whopping 4,000-6,000rounds per minute.

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Amid tight security arrangements, withdrones keeping an eye from the sky,

the Friday prayers passed off peacefully inUttar Pradesh with no untoward incidentreported from anywhere after last week’santi-Citizenship (Amendment) Actprotests that left 19 dead.

“The entire State was peaceful,” UttarPradesh Director General of Police OPSingh told reporters in Lucknow.

The State was placed under a thicksecurity cover with deployment of centralparamilitary forces in sensitive areas.

As a precautionary measure, Internetservices which were resumed after nearlya week, were suspended again in over 20of the 75 UP districts, including Ghaziabad,

Bulandshahr, Meerut, Muzaffarnagar,Shamli and Agra to check rumour-mon-gering, officials said.

Drones were also used to keep a vigil,particularly in areas where violence hadbroken out last week after Friday prayers.Protesters had hurled stones at policemenand set vehicles on fire. Reports fromMoradabad, Amroha and Hathras districtssaid the juma namaz was offered at vari-ous mosques and the congregations dis-persed peacefully.

In Lucknow, a heavy deployment ofparamilitary force personnel was seen out-side the historic Tiley Wali Masjid in theOld City area.

In Ajmer, a large number of Muslims,including khadims of the Ajmer dargah,took out a protest march and burnt aneffigy of Deewan Zainul Abedin Ali Khan,the spiritual head of the dargah, accusinghim of misleading Muslims on the issue ofthe amended Citizenship Act.

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Former Congress PresidentRahul Gandhi on Friday

attacked the policies of theCentral Government and saidthat unity in diversity is ourstrength, and the strength ofthe country will increase byuniting all.

He said "making brothersfight against each other cannotbenefit the country." Gandhiwas speaking at the inaugura-tion ceremony of the three-dayNational Tribal Dance Festivalhere.

He said: "Without takingeveryone together, every reli-gion, every caste, tribal, Dalit,or backward, the country'seconomy cannot run. Until allthe people of this country areunited, until everyone's voice isheard in the Assembly and in

the Lok Sabha, nothing can bedone about unemployment orabout the economy." Rahulraised questions about the cur-rent economic situation and therelief given to a select few: "Theeconomy is run by the peasants,labourers, the poor and thetribals.

If all the money is given to10-15 people, demonetisationis done, wrong GST is imple-mented, then employmentcannot be created in India,economy cannot run."Appreciating the initiativestaken by the Chhattisgarh gov-ernment, Rahul Gandhi said:"Here farmers, youth, tribals,women are being heard and aretaking the state forward."

"Together, everyone is tak-ing this state forward. It makesa difference, violence hasreduced here, the economy

here is overtaking other States.This difference is visible,because nothing can be madeby disintegrating, the countrycannot benefit by makingbrothers fight each other."

Describing the NationalTribal Festival as a symbol ofunity in diversity, RahulGandhi said: "Tribals havecome here from different partsof the country.

They will display their cul-ture and art here, unity will beseen in diversity."

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Army Chief General BipinRawat said here on Friday

the Indian armed forces haveutmost respect for humanrights laws and are extremelysecular and their driving ethosare "Insaniyat"( Humanity) and"Sharafat"( Decency).

Making these observationswhile addressing the officers ofthe National Human RightsCommission(NHRC) on thetopic "Preserving HumanRights in times of War andPrisioners of War," he also saidthe armed forces are disci-plined and not only ensure pro-tection of human rights of ourown people but also of adver-saries and deal with the pris-oners of war as per the GenevaConventions.

Rawat had on Thursdayfound himself in the thick of acontroversy after his remark onthe arson and violence againstthe Citizenship AmendmentAct (CAA) invited criticismfrom political parties.

While stressing that thearmed forces follow"Insaniyat"( Humanity) and"Sharafat"( Decency), he, how-ever said the challenge is thechanging war fare tactics withthe advent of technology.Unlike the attack by any armed

forces, the terror attacks remainunaccountable in internation-al law. Hence, the counter ter-rorism and anti insurgencyoperations have to be dealt ina manner of winning the heartsof the people by identifying andalienating the insurgentsamong them without collater-al damage, which becomesvery challenging and difficult.

General Rawat said that theArmy Head Quarters had cre-ated a human rights cell in1993, which now is beingupgraded to the level of aDirectorate to be headed by anAdditional Director General.This will also have police per-sonnel to address the com-plaints of human rights viola-tions against the armed forcesand facilitate related enquiries.

Moreover, a new initiativehas been taken in October thisyear by recruiting womenJawans in Military Police Force.He said that the Army takesalong with it several police per-sonnel in search operations,but keeping in view the con-cerns of women during suchoperations, the army has nowdecided to deploy its ladyJawans of its Military PoliceForce also.

Rawat said keeping in viewthe provisions of human rightslaw and importance of the

protection of human rights,now a court of enquiry is beingheld after every anti- insur-gency operation and all recordsare maintained related to suchoperations.

Referring to the ArmedForce Special Powers Act(AFSPA), the Army Chief saidthat the Act gives almost thesame powers to the Army,which are also exercised byPolice and CRPF in connectionwith search and enquiry oper-ations.

However, over the years thearmy itself has diluted its appli-cation in its own way under theten commandments issued bythe Chief of Army Staff, whichare to be strictly adhered byevery soldier, and particularlythose deployed for operationsin anti- insurgency areas.

The Supreme Court guide-lines on this are also beingstrictly followed by soldiers,who are all given special train-ing before their deployment incounter insurgency andcounter terrorism operations.

Earlier, NHRC MemberJustice PC Pant gave an insightinto various laws protectinghuman rights. He also men-tioned about some of the fun-damental rights, which are notgiven to the armed forces inline of their duty.

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Ahead of the DelhiAssembly polls, the mantra

for the Centre is slum-specificwelfare measures for thenational Capital. After its ini-tiative to regularise 1,731 unau-thorised colonies, the HUAMinistry has lined up a plan tobuild 2 lakh houses under thePradhan Mantri Awas Yojana(PMAY-Urban) in the slums ofDelhi in Kalkakji Extension,Dilshad Garden, Ashok Vihar,Kathputli Colony among oth-ers.

The move is targeted at 10lakh beneficiaries from theslums, which are a major vote-bank for the AAP. The BJP-ruled Centre's focus is thus onsuch clusters both to makeinroads into the ruling dis-pensation's stronghold as alsoto negate the impact of its var-ious freebie schemes. The min-istry also announced that thetotal number of houses beingfunded under the scheme to 1.3crore under the housing for allscheme.

Addressing a press confer-ence, Union Minister Hardeep

Singh Puri on Friday accusedthe AAP government of tryingto create hurdles in imple-mentation of the PMAY-Urbanin Delhi and said its politicalapproach is based on a "pack oflies". Puri's allegations camethree days after Delhi ChiefMinister Arvind Kejriwallaunched the MukhyamantriAwas Yojana (MMAY) forJhugi Jhopri (JJ) Clusters anddistributed ownership certifi-cates to 65,000 families livingin the city's slum areas. "Ifdevelopment is going to bebased on the nomenclature ofa scheme, you deprive yourown people..." Puri said.

The Delhi Governmenthas created hurdles in everyproject, be it the constructionof Metro Phase-IV or theRegional Rapid Transit System(RRTS), he alleged. Wheneverthere was talk on the con-struction of Metro Phase-IV,the AAP Government tried tocreate hurdles, he said.

"In-situ rehabilitation ofthree JJ clusters at KalkajiExtension, Kathputli Colony(Opposite Shadipur Depot)and Jailorwala Bagh (Ashok

Vihar) will be completed byJune 2020. As many as 7,500two room houses has beencompleted or at advance stage.The construction of 3,024 flatsat Kalkaji Extension is likely tobe completed by May-June,2020 and the eligible benefi-ciaries will be handed over pos-session of these flats.

"Out of 2,800 EWS housesunder construction for JJdwellers of Kathputli Colony,construction of about 500 hous-es is expected to be completedby March, 2020, which wouldbe handed over to the eligiblebeneficiaries of KathputliColony. Another 1,675 hous-es in Jailorwala Bagh (AshokVihar) are also likelyto be com-pleted by December, 2020 forallotment to the beneficiaries ofJJ Dwellers of Jailorwala Bagh,"the Ministry said.

As per the data, there are685 JJ clusters surveyed by theDelhi Urban ShelterImprovement Board (DUSIB)and 85 inlisted clusters in Delhi.Puri alleged that since thePMAY (Urban) was launchedin June 2015, not a single pro-posal has been received from

the AAP Government. TheDelhi Development Authorityis the nodal agency for imple-menting in-situ slum rehabili-tation of JJ Clusters residents onland owned by the DDA andthe Centre, according to theMinistry.

With the approval of of 6.5

lakh houses under PMAY(Urban), taking the total num-ber of houses being fundedunder the scheme to over 1.3crore. Puri said in the nextthree-four months, theMinistry will sanction all the1.12 crore houses, a target setby the Government.

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Days after the poll strategist’spolitical consultancy firm

I-PAC was roped in by the AamAadmi Party (AAP) ahead ofthe Delhi Assembly election,Union Housing and UrbanAffairs Minister Hardeep SinghPuri on Friday said, “Who isPrashant Kishor?” Replying toa question at a Press confer-ence, Puri who is also the co-incharge of the BJP for theDelhi polls, said he did notknow Kishor personally.

“Who is Prashant Kishor?,”he asked, when a question wasput to him about I-PAC being

roped in by the ArvindKejriwal-led AAP ahead of theDelhi polls, slated to be heldearly next year.

When reporters told theMinister that Kishor was apart of Prime MinisterNarendra Modi's campaign inthe 2014 Lok Sabha polls, hesaid, "I was not there duringthat time." "May be I shouldknow, but I do not know him(Kishor)," Puri said on beingtold by reporters that he wasalso part of the BJP-ledNational Democratic Alliance(NDA) — the national vice-president of the Janata Dal(United).

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The National InvestigationAgency (NIA) on Friday

chargesheeted 11 personsincluding six abscondingaccused and four companies inthe case relating to seizure of532 kg of banned drug heroinat Integrated Check Post atAttari in Punjab.

The accused persons andentities have been chargedunder IPC Section relating tocriminal conspiracy besidesrelevant provisions of theNarcotics, Drugs andPsychotropic Substances(NDPS) Act and Unlawful

Activities (Prevention) Act. The NIA filed the

chargesheet before the NIASpecial Court, Mohali, Punjab.

The chargehseeted accusedinclude Tariq Ahmad Lone,Jasbir Singh, Nirbhail Singh,Sandeep Kaur, Ajay Gupta,Ranjit Singh, Iqbal Singh,Farookh Lone, Sahil, ShoaibNoor and Amir Noor underSections 120-B IPC, NDPS Actand UA(P) Act.

The charge-sheeted com-panies include KanishkEnterprises Pvt. Ltd., GuptaFast Forwarders Pvt. Ltd.,Global Vision Impex andAimex General Trading

Company. The case relates to seizure

of 532 Kg. of Heroin and 52 Kg.of mixed narcotics on June 29this year at Attari ICP underprovisions of Custom Act, 1962and attendant sections ofNDPS Act besides interceptionof two persons — GurpinderSingh, an Amritsar based trad-er and Tariq Ahmed Lonefrom Handwara, Jammu &Kashmir.

"The involvement of aninternational drug racket basedin Pakistan as well as inAfghanistan has come to light.This is a case of narco-terror-ism, having national and inter-

national implications with evi-dence of generation of fundsthrough the proceeds of sale ofnarcotics smuggled fromacross the international bor-der," the NIA said in a state-ment.

Investigation has estab-lished that the above accusedformed a terrorist gang to bring many consignments of narcotics to India, the agencysaid.

During the investigationsearches were conducted atvarious places in Punjab andvarious incriminating docu-ments including bank accountdetails, electronic and digital

devices, ammunitions anddetails of Hawala transactionswere seized.

The investigation has beenable to establish an interna-tional conspiracy in whichnationals of Afghanistan,Pakistan and Indian nationalsbelonging to Punjab, Jammuand Kashmir and Delhi hascome to light so far. A vastnetwork of Hawala and otherinformal channels has beenused to smuggle narcoticsinto India through the legiti-mate trade route betweenIndia and Pakistan in the garbof import of rock salt, theagency added.

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Retail onion prices on Fridayremained higher at up to

�150 per kg even as the import-ed supplies have started arriv-ing to boost the domestic avail-ability and check prices.

According to theDepartment of ConsumerAffairs, in metros, retail price ofonion was ruling at �120 a kgKolkata, at �102 a kg in Delhiand Mumbai and at �80 a kg inChennai. In most cities, onionprices were ruling at �100 a kg.In Itanagar, the onion was at�150 a kg. The prices willremain high till January endnext year. Only a substantialincrease in domestic arrivals ofthe crop can help significantlyease onion prices in the localmarkets where average whole-sale prices are still ruling at �60-70 a kg, traders said.

Sources in the departmentsaid that imported onions havestarted arriving. "About 1,160tonne has reached India.Additional 10,560 tonne ofshipments are expected toarrive in the next 3-4 days. Theimported onion is being sold at

�65-80 a kg across the country.Both red and yellow onionshave been imported fromTurkey, Egypt and Afghanistan.While Turkey has bannedonion exports due to risingprices.

State-owned MMTC,which is importing the keykitchen staple on behalf of theGovernment, has contracted49,500 tonne of onion so far.Some shipments will arrivenext month. Onion prices haveshot up sharply due to esti-mated 25 per cent fall in kharifproduction of 2019-20 cropyear (July-June) compared tothe previous year because of latemonsoon and eventual excess

rains in the major producingStates.

The prices have failed tocool down despite severalGovernment measures in thelast few weeks. TheGovernment has alreadybanned export of onion,imposed stock limits on tradersand is also supplying bufferstock at a cheaper rate. Tradersand experts are of the view thatonion prices will continue toremain firm till January whenlate kharif crop will start hittingthe market.

The country had lastimported 1,987 tonne of onionin 2015-16 when prices hadshot up significantly.

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The ceremony to hand over thebaton of the Chairman of the

Chiefs of Staff Committee (CoSC) wascancelled at the last minute on Friday.

In the pre-scheduled ceremonyChairman CoSC Army Chief GenBipin Rawat was to hand over the batonto Navy Chief Admiral KarambirSingh, the second senior.

The CoSC comprises chiefs of theArmy, the Navy and the Air Force andthe senior-most member is appointedits chairperson.

There was indication that the cer-emony has been cancelled as theGovernment is going to appoint thecountry's first Chief of Defence Staff(CDS) in the next couple of days. TheCDS will also act as the permanentchairman of the CoSC.

The ceremony to hand over the baton of chairman of COSC was scheduled as Gen Rawat is due for retirement from service onDecember 31. It is widely expected thatGen Rawat will be appointed as India'sfirst CDS once he demits office of theArmy Chief.

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Seeking to counter theOpposition's campaign on citi-

zenship issues, the BJP is likely toorganise a national-level conferencein January to reach out to Muslims.

Senior BJP leader andMinority Affairs Minister MukhtarAbbas Naqvi on Friday held ameeting, which was attended byNational Commission forMinorities chairman GhayorulHasan Rizvi and some key MuslimBJP leaders, to chalk out a strate-gy in this regard.

Sources said BJP leaderGhayorul Hasan Rizvi and theparty's minority morcha presi-dent Abdul Rasheed Ansari alsoattended the meeting.

The idea is to "demolish mis-information campaign" being car-ried out by some political partieson the new citizenship law, NRCand NPR, they said adding theparty has launched a nationwidecampaign to create awareness overthese issues.

A national-level conferencewill be organised in the first weekof January to inform Muslimsabout the key aspects of theseissues and "how the opposition isspreading confusion", they said.

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The BJP on Friday dubbed Congressleader Rahul Gandhi as the "liar of the

year" after he claimed that the NationalPopulation Register is a "tax" on the poor.His comments have "embarrassed" peo-ple and his Congress party, senior BJPleader and Union Minister PrakashJavadekar said.

Javadekar also accused the Congressof trying to fan instability in the countrybut asserted that people are with the gov-ernment on the new citizenship law andNPR. The NPR does not involve any mon-

etary transaction and its data is used toidentify the poor so that government wel-fare schemes could reach the targeted peo-ple, he said.

A similar exercise was undertaken in2010 as well, he said.

"When Rahul Gandhi was Congresspresident, he would say anything andspeak lie all the time. Now he is no longerpresident but continues to speak lies. Ifthere were a category of the liar of the year,he would be its recipient. His commentsused to embarrass his family. His lies nowembarrass his party and entire country,"Javadekar told reporters.

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Jagiroad (Assam): AssamChief Minister SarbanandaSonowal on Friday said theindigenous people of the State,whose interests are protectedby the Assam Accord, will benot be affected by granting ofIndian citizenship to a “smallnumber” of persecuted people.

Sonowal, while addressingBJP's 'Peace and ProgressMarch' in Morigaon district ofAssam which was also attend-ed by leaders of its alliancepartners AGP and BPF, saidthe state government is com-mitted to protecting the landrights, culture and language ofthe indigenous people.

"Congress could not pro-vide security to the small num-ber of people who fled theircountry due to religious per-secution. Now, they are beinggiven an opportunity to getIndian citizenship by applying

under the Citizenship(Amendment) Act, 2019.

"These people will nothave any negative impact onthe indigenous people. Do notget misled by the misinforma-tion being spread that the BJP-led government will bring inforeigners and settle them onthe surplus lands in villagesand tea gardens," Sonowalsaid.

Noting that only a negli-gible number of foreignerswill get Indian citizenshipunder the Act, he said the BJPgovernments at the Centreand the state will ensure thatthe interests of the indige-nous people are protectedunder Clause 6 of the AssamAccord.

Sonowal said the Clauseprovides constitutional, leg-islative and administrative safe-guards for protecting, pre-

serving and promoting thecultural, social and linguisticidentity and heritage of theAssamese people.

He said the BJP neverworked against the interests ofthe Assamese people and theparty had even supported thesix- year-long anti-foreignersAssam Movement.

The state government willalso reach out to the people todispel their misunderstand-ings about CAA, he said.

Sonowal accused theCongress of settling "lakhs offoreigners" in Assam during itsrule and wondered why therewere no movements againstforeigners then like what thestate is witnessing now.

Protests against the Act,mainly spearheaded by studentbodies AASU and AJYCP, arecontinuing across theBrahmaputra Valley. PTI

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Panaji: Any attack on "Indianspirit" can damage the age-oldsecular fabric of the country,Archbishop of Goa Filipe NeriFerrao said on Friday.

He was addressing theannual civic reception on theoccasion of Christmas here.Chief Minister Pramod Sawantand several ministers were pre-sent on the occasion.

Though the Archbishop didnot refer to any political issue, hisremarks came amid the ragingcontroversy over the amendedCitizenship Act.

Anything that vitiates thegenuinely "Indian spirit" candamage the "centuries-old sec-ular fabric of our nation," he said.

"Sometimes, it (attack onIndian spirit) causes distur-bances and flare-ups that canmar the peace and the tranquil-ity among its citizens," theArchbishop said. PTI

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RAIPUR | SATURDAY | DECEMBER 28, 2019chhattisgarh 03

Glimpses of NationalTribal Dance Fest 2019

STAFF REPORTER n RAIPUR

Former Congress presidentand MP Rahul Gandhi, wear-

ing traditional tribal head gear,shook a leg with ‘DandamiMadia’ dancers with “mandhar”in his hands as he inauguratedthe three-day National TribalFestival, 2019 at Science Collegeground, Raipur on Friday.

Chief Minister BhupeshBaghel, Chhattisgarh stateCongress president MohanMarkam and ministers werealso part of the dance troupe.

During the inauguralsession, a procession of all par-ticipating teams was taken outwith participants dancing tothe rhythm of their respectivetraditional beat.

Arunachal Pradesh troupepresented the traditional ritualdance form followed by artistesfrom Ladakh presenting flowerdance. Karnataka troupepresented Sugli dance form

followed by colourful presenta-tion by a team from Belarus.

It was during performanceof ‘Dandami Madia’ dance,chief guest Rahul Gandhi and

other dignitaries, comprisingmainly cabinet ministers,joined the team of dancers.

Troupes from 23 states,three union territories, and

Bangladesh, Sri Lanka,Thailand, Uganda, Maldivesand Belarus are participatingin the biggest ever culturalextravaganza in the state.

Rahul shakes leg with‘Dandami Madia’ dancers

STAFF REPORTER nRAIPUR

Chief Minister BhupeshBaghel on Friday said

that his government wasmaking consistent efforts topreserve the tribal art, cul-ture, tradition and heritage.

“Unity in diversity is ourstrength and identity,” Baghelsaid while presiding over theinaugural function of theNational Tribal Dance Festivalin the state capital, Raipur.

He said Congress leaderRahul Gandhi had told himthat a government should bepeople's government, where

every citizen should feelincluded and acknowledged.

“Under the guidance ofSonia Gandhi and RahulGandhi, our government iswiping the tears of every sec-tion of society. We have wonthe trust of farmers as wehave returned the lands totribal people of Lohandiguda.Haat-Bazaar Clinic has beenstarted for their healthcare.As a result of our govern-ment's efforts, peace and har-mony have been establishedin Chhattisgarh,” the ChiefMinister claimed.

In the presence RahulGandhi, Chief Minister

pledged to reduce the povertyrate in Dantewada district tobelow national average.Presently, in Dantewada dis-trict, 60% people are belowpoverty line, whereas nation-al average is 22%.

Chief Minister and hiscabinet colleagues took thepledge to reduce this percent-age to below 22% in fouryears, so that Dantewada dis-trict could get rid of the tag ofmost backward district.

Chief Minister said thatthe state government hastaken several initiatives topreserve the rich cultural tra-ditions of Devgudi, Ghotul.

“We have confidence in ourConstitution. We are deter-mined to provide tribal peo-ple, backward, poor peopleand women their constitu-tional rights,” he said.

Culture MinisterAmarjeet Bhagat proposedvote of thanks on the occasion.

Chief Guest RahulGandhi also released the newcalendar of year 2020 ofChhattisgarh Governmentbased on 'Gandbo NavaChhattisgarh' theme at themain stage of the NationalTribal Dance Festival.

The calendar also haslyrics of the State Song of

Chhattisgarh.On the occasion, Mission

Chief of United Nation inIndia Renta Lok Desalian,former Lok Sabha speakerMeera Kumar, former Unionministers Kantilal Bhuriya,and Bhakt Charandas, severalother dignitaries such as BKHariprasad, PL Puniya,Chandan Yadav, Speaker ofVidhan Sabha Dr CharandasMahant, Deputy SpeakerManoj Mandawi and all thecabinet ministers, MLAs, MPsand folk artistes from variouscountries and the states ofIndia and a large number oflocal citizens were present.

‘Unity in diversity is our strength and identity’

STAFF REPORTER n RAIPUR

Awild elephant that wastrapped in heavy mud at

Kathgora forest division inKorba district of Chhattisgarhdied on Friday, officials said.

As per locals the elephantwas trapped in a marshy filed at

Bankheta para under KulahriaGram Panchayat of Kendai for-est rage in Kathghora forestdivision since Friday.

However, forest officialsclaimed that they got informa-tion about the elephant beingtrapped in mud on Thursdayafternoon following which the

rescue operation was launched.“I have sought a report on

entire incident from CCFBilaspur division and furtheraction will be taken based onthe report,” Principal ChiefConservator of Forest(Wildlife) Atul Shukla said.

Forest officials while out-lining the challenges said thatthey tried entire day to pull outthe elephant. JCB machine wasalso deployed to rescue the ele-phant but due to slippery condi-tions the machine could notfunction.

Also, at the nightfall otherwild elephants too used to comeout to rescue the pachydermtrapped in marsh, thus hamper-ing the rescue operation.

Notably, Kathghora,Dharamjaigarh, Korba andother northern regions ofChhattisgarh are home to morethan 200 wild elephants.

Wild elephant trapped in mud dies


Vice President of IndiaVenkaiah Naidu on

Friday admitted thatIndian economy was fac-ing “some challenges” aseconomic growth hasdeclined in this fiscal year.

There are media com-mentaries questioningIndia’s growth story, but itis not for the first timeIndia has faced such skep-tic comments, he claimed.

Naidu was addressingthe inaugural session of102nd Annual conferenceof Indian EconomicAssociation being hostedby Pt. Ravishankar ShuklaUniversity, Raipur and wasparticipated by scholars,researchers, business lead-ers and wealth creators.

“The conference isbeing organised againstthe backdrop of recent

economic figures. Eachtime, we bounced backwith higher growth rate,”he claimed.

He said a faster eco-nomic growth is indispen-sable to unleash latentpotential of Indian econo-my and to create moreemployment opportuni-ties for realising demo-graphic dividend and

long-term povertyremoval.

Notwithstanding theGDP figures, Indiaremains one of the fastestgrowing bigger economiesof the world. “I must cau-tion that a figure by itselfmay not always reveal thereal story and strength ofthe economy, unless it isplaced in the context of

recent policy initiatives,legislative architecture andinstitutional framework,”Naidu said by listing outgovernment initiatives.

Vice president pointedout as a Nation, the resolveis to make economy a US $5 Trillion economy by2025, double the incomeof farmers by 2022, pro-vide affordable housing toall and connect everyhousehold with 24 hourpower supply and pipeddrinking water by 2022, by75th year of independ-ence.

“These are ambitioustargets, but these servicesshould have been deliv-ered to our people. Thesetargets will need resolutepolicy action, technologyintervention and entrepre-neurship and financialresources”, he pointed outin the context to digitali-zation and other reforms.

Naidu admits economy facingchallenges, but downplays crisis

Need for sustainabledevelopment in C’garhOn Chhattisgarh, he said, State has richmineral deposits with huge potentialfor industrial development. A sizablepopulation is traditionally dependenton forests for which there is a need tostrike a fine balance between environ-ment and development. Unsustainableproduction and consumption mightresult in an irreversible damage to theecosystem. The state has threeMaharatna PSUs namely NTPC, CoalIndia and SAIL and one Nav RatnaPSU NMDC. These PSUs have provid-ed the basis for rapid industrializationof the State, created by Atal ji in year2000, considering the special develop-mental requirements of local popula-tion. Vice President said, “A sizable partof the state has lagged behind due toNaxal violence. While native commu-nities have rightful claim overresources, they also require develop-ment and facilities. It must also berealised that peace is the pre-requisitefor development.”

TS Singhdeoinspects Kankerdistt hospitalKA N K E R : He a lt hand family welfare,medical educationminister T. S.Singhdeo on his visitto Kanker inspectedthe Kanker DistrictHospital on Friday.

He went throughdifferent wards ofhospital and soughtdetails of patients,progress of theirtreatment andfacilities, includinglab tests, available forthem.

He also interactedwith the patients andtheir family membersover the treatmentfacilities and freemedicines providedby the hospital.

Health ministeralso took time tointeract with thehospital employeesand sought details ofarrangements in thehospital.


Indian PostalDepartment on the occa-

sion of maiden NationalTribal Dance Festival 2019has released a specialpostal stamp on Friday.

It was unveiled bystate’s home ministerTamradhwaj Sahu, cul-ture minister AmarjeetBhagat, MLA Mohan

Markam, former Unionminister BhaktCharandas, TelanganaMLA Anusuiya and sen-ior officers of postal andculture department.

Earlier in the morn-ing former Congresspresident Rahul Gandhiinaugurated the festival atScience College ground.Chief Minister BhupeshBaghel presided over theinaugural function.

Special postal stampon NTDF released

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Giving information aboutthe achievements of last

one year, Minister of MineralResources Pradeep Jaiswal hassaid that there has been a sig-nificant increase in mineralrevenue with the implementa-tion of new sand policy in theState.

While talking to mediapersons, Jaiswal said total rev-enue of �1,400 crore have beenreceived from the tenders ofsand auctions in 43 districtsalone. Similarly, in the e-auc-tion, the 364 hectare Bunderdiamond mine in Chhatarpurdistrict has been given on leaseto Aditya Birla Group compa-

ny Messrs Essel Mining andIndustries Limited, Mumbaiat 30.05 per cent higher bid-ding.

The State Government hasrecently submitted a letter ofintent of the Bunder diamondmine to this company. TheState Government will get arevenue of �23 thousand 506crore that is about �600 crorerevenue per year from themine during the entire leaseperiod.

Jaiswal informed thatunder the new sand rule-2019,tenders were issued for theoperation of sand mines for atotal of 43 district groups ofsand available in the state. Itsgovernment reserve price waskept at about Rs 475 crore,

against which a total of � 1,400crore will be received in thefinancial proposals opened foronly 36 districts. On successfulcompletion of the auctionprocess of the main mineral,the State is estimated to getabout �6,331 crore revenue.Financial proposals of morethan 6 times have been receivedfor a few district groups ascompared to the fixed offsetprize. A financial proposal of�217 crore has been receivedagainst � 100 crore in offsetprize for Hoshangabad dis-trict. Under the new policy,tenderers are able to watch theproceedings live online in thesand mines auction.

Prospecting / explorationwork of minerals is being done

by the Department of MineralResources in 8 regions of thestate.

In this, the survey /prospecting work of minerallimestone is in progress inDamoh, Dhar and Satna dis-trict, mineral bauxite, laterite inDindori district and laterite inMandsaur district is in

progress. If the mineral storagein these areas is certified, thenthe auction of mineral blockswill be done by e-auctionprocess as per rules.

MoU has been signed withNMDC, MOIL and MECL forthe exploration and prospect-ing work of available mineralwealth in the State.

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Congress party’s trusted sol-dier is apparently not see-

ing eye-to-eye with the partygenerals. Difference in opinion appears to havecropped up between CaptAmarinder Singh and the partyhigh command.

His absence from the twomajor party events in thenational capital recently isbeing seen as an indicator ofemerging fissures between thepolitical stands of the ChiefMinister and the party’s centralleadership.

Even as everyone in theparty is crooning “all is well”, ithas been learnt that the ChiefMinister is having some dif-ference of opinion with thehigh command over the pro-posed Cabinet reshuffle —while Capt Amarinder is infavour of re-inducting his closeaide and former Minister RanaGurjit Singh, the party highcommand has proposed togive the cricketer-turned-politi-cian Navjot Singh Sidhu his“due”.

Notably, the All IndiaCongress Committee (AICC)has organized ‘Bharat BachaoRally’ on December 14 to high-

light the “divisive and disrup-tive” policies of the BJP gov-ernment. Punjab Congresspresident Sunil Jakhar had alsocalled a meeting of senior lead-ers, including Ministers, legis-lators, among others, to ensurethat Congress activists andsupporters from Punjab “over-whelmingly participate” in therally.

However, Capt Amarinderchose to skip the event citingthat poor weather conditionscould not allow his helicopterto take off. On the other hand,Chief Ministers of otherCongress-ruled states, KamalNath, Ashok Gehlot, BhupeshBaghel, participated in theevent.

In another instance, theAICC staged a silent ‘satya-graha dharna’ at Rajghat onMonday to protest against thepolice brutality during anti-Citizenship Amendment Act(CAA) protests in whichparty’s entire top leadership,including Congress ChiefMinisters — Gehlot, andKamal Nath — participated,but Capt Amarinder was onceagain missing from the scene.

“Chief Minister had aminor eye operation onDecember 20 (Friday), and hewas advised a week’s rest.That was why he did not par-ticipate in the satyagrahadharna on Monday, the ChiefMinister’s close associate told

The Pioneer adding that hewould be resuming his officework by next week.

It has been learnt that theparty command had commu-nicated the Chief Minister toconduct a Cabinet reshuffle,while suggesting that Sidhushould be given a responsi-bility — an idea not acknowl-edged by Capt Amarinder.

On the other hand, thehigh command has indicatedthat it was not in favour ofChief Minister’s decision to re-induct Rana Gurjit in theCabinet as it did not want togive birth to any undue con-troversy.

Notably, Capt Amarinderhad chosen Rana Gurjit as his

Minister when the CongressGovernment took over thestate reign in 2017. But, he hadto resign in January 2018 asthe state Irrigation and PowerMinister after facing allega-tions of his alleged involve-ment in the sand mining auc-tions. Sidhu, who was also theobvious choice among thefirst set to ministers, formal-ly resigned from the StateCabinet in July this year inprotest against the “punish-ment” of changing his port-folio.

The former cricketer tookstrong exception after theChief Minister openly blamedhim for the party’s not-so-good performance in theState’s urban pockets during2019 Lok Sabha elections, andvirtually revolted against theparty. He has been stayingaway from the party events,and official meetings, sincethen.

The party high commandbelieved that sidelining a per-sonality like Sidhu may affectthe party, especially at a timewhen the voice of giving larg-er role to Sidhu is gainingmomentum within the stateparty unit.

Capt Amarinder was

planning to meet the party’sinterim president SoniaGandhi to discuss the Cabinetreshuffle, besides other issues,but the same was cancelledreportedly after the latterturned down the proposal toinduct Rana Gurjit in theCabinet.

“There is nothing likethat! This CAA and NRCissue has put everything onhold.

Entire focus is now on thisissue,” said a senior Congressleader.

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The state meteorologicalcentre has issued a warn-

ing about the likelihood offrost occurring in the moun-tainous regions of the state.People living in mountainswill witness moderate frost inthe morning hours onSaturday.

The skies will remainclear to partly cloudy and dryweather is likely to prevail inthe rest of the state.

According to the statemeteorological centre, shal-low fog is forecast to occur invarious places in the plainsespecially in the areas ofHaridwar and Udham SinghNagar districts.

Apart from these districts,mist/shallow fog is likely tooccur during morning hoursin the state’s provisional cap-ital too with skies remainingclear to partly cloudy. Themaximum and minimumtemperatures are forecast tobe 17 degrees Celsius and fivedegrees Celsius respectively inDehradun on Saturday.

A notable dif ferencebetween maximum and min-imum temperature wasrecorded in Mukteshwar onFriday with the maximum

being 12.6 degrees Celsiusand minimum being -0.7degrees Celsius. Meanwhile,maximum and minimumtemperatures recorded in var-

ious parts of the state on Friday were 18.2degrees Celsius and 6.6degrees Celsius respectively inDehradun, 15.5 degrees

Celsius and 4.1 degreesCelsius in Pantnagar and 13.2degrees Celsius and 0.8degrees Celsius respectively in New Tehri.

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People staying near theTalabira coalmines operat-

ed by a company are now a dis-heartened lot. They are unableto bear with the sorrow seeingthe chopping of the trees infront of them that they havebeen protecting for centuries.

“Nobody listens to ourgrievance. We don’t feel that welive in an independent countryhaving freedom of speech andexpression. Rather police forceswork to shut down our mouthsinstead of giving us justice,” saidSamaru Munda, an octoge-narian man of Talabira area. Allother citizens including theladies are of the similar opin-ion. They also don’t like indis-criminate cutting of trees pre-served for centuries by theefforts of the villagers but notby the forest department.

It is learnt that NLC, aNavratna Company of theGovernment of India, has start-ed its preliminary works forcoal exploration in Talabiranear Khinda, the birth place ofVeer Surendra Sai, the freedomfighter.

“The area covers 972 acresof forest land in two revenuedistricts like Sambalpur andJharsuguda. But NLC has start-ed cleaning works inSambalpur district first withchopping of trees,” the localssaid.

The villagers furtheralleged that they were mostlydependent on the forest prod-ucts all through the year andduring summer season, theirincome increases manifolds.“But we will now lose our per-manent source of livelihood,”said Anandini Munda andRasa Munda (60).

Mining snatched away thelivelihood, they alleged further.

But Tehsildar-in-Charge ofRengali, Susanta Kumar Sahusaid the process for the miningbegan in the year 2006 withPalli Sabha where the peoplegave their consent for miningwith certain terms and condi-tions. But what is the point ofprotesting now,” he added.

In Talabira, they are 265identified encroachers ofGovernment land and inKhinda the number is 114.Further, 72 Hirakud Land

Oustees (HLO) are there inKhinda village and all are enti-tled to get the compensation,said Sub Collector ofSambalpur Anirudha Padhan.

“We organised a meetingon 12 Decemebr with 150 vil-lagers, important personalitiesand the company authoritieswhere suitable compensationhas been fixed for the vil-lagers,” he added.

“Even if the villager haveno patta or document underFRA (Forest Rights Act), butthey have been included to getsuitable compensation," he dis-closed.

But the villagers are not ina mood to leave the villagessince they are emotionallyattached to the area and HLOpeople spent more than 70years after getting displaceddue to the Hirakud Dam pro-ject.

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Jharsuguda is identified as adeveloped district in Odisha

and has already developed inthe field of transport, electrifi-cation sports infrastructureand health services, saidJharsuguda MLA and Healthand Family Welfare MinisterNaba Kishore Das attendingthe 23rd foundation day of BJDat Jharsuguda Kali Mandir rail-way ground here on Thursday.

He said the BJD hasbecome a popular party beingvery close to the public since 23years. The party has become apeople’s party under the lead-ership of Chief MinisterNaveen Patnaik which hastaken Odisha much moreahead.

The Minister also said thatstill many things are yet to bedone in the district and theconcerted effort of Brajrajnagar

and Jharsuguda MLAs arerequired to make the districttop in the State in the field ofdevelopment.

Speaking about healthcare

services, Das stated that dras-tic changes have been made inhealthcare services and nowpatients would no more faceproblems in getting services as

efforts are on the way.

A help desk would be madeoperational soon in KaliMandir Road here along with

opening of special offices atBurla and Bhubaneswar toextend assistance to the patientsof the district, he asserted.

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The European Union (EU)and Britain will struggle to

seal an agreement on trade andother aspects of their future tiesafter Brexit next year andshould consider extending thenegotiations beyond 2020, a topEU official said in an interviewpublished on Friday.

The UK is scheduled toleave the EU on January 31. Ifit does, it will be the first timea country leaves the world’sbiggest trading bloc.Negotiations between theremaining members and theBritish Government on futuretrade, fisheries, education andtransport relations can onlybegin after that date and must

conclude by the end of 2020.“I am very concerned

about how little time we have,”European CommissionPresident Ursula von der Leyentold the French business news-paper Les Echos. “It seems tome that, on both sides, weshould seriously considerwhether the negotiations arefeasible in such a short time.”

“I think it would be rea-sonable to take stock in themiddle of the year and if nec-essary, agree on an extension tothe transition period,” von derLeyen said. As the leader of theexecutive commission, von derLeyen heads the EU institutionresponsible for Brexit talks andnegotiating trade deals onbehalf of member countries.

Such trade pacts routinelytake years to complete, andbusinesses fear that the UKcould face a new “no-deal”Brexit scenario at the start of2021 if questions aboutwhether tariff-free trade withthe country’s biggest tradingpartner remain unanswered.

But British Prime MinisterBoris Johnson has insisted hewould not agree to any delays.Johnson who won a solid par-liamentary majority in an elec-tion earlier this month, whichhelped him push a Brexit with-drawal deal through the lowerhouse of Parliament, The Brexitbill contained amendmentsthat bar the British governmentfrom extending the transitionperiod beyond 2020.

Istanbul: A Turkish court onFriday issued jail terms to sixjournalists from an opposi-tion newspaper accused oflinks to the group blamed bythe Government for the 2016failed coup, a lawyer told AFP.

The court in Istanbul sen-tenced journalists from theSozcu daily including colum-nist Emin Colasan and editor-in-chief Metin Yilmaz to prisonterms ranging from two yearsand one month to three yearsand six months on terrorismcharges, their lawyer CelalUlgen said.

The nationalist Sozcu is onoccasion vehemently anti-gov-ernment and its angry frontpages are regarded with suspi-cion even by some liberal Turkscritical of President RecepTayyip Erdogan. It is the secondopposition daily to be targetedafter Cumhuriyet newspaper.

“This is an empty case,”Colasan was quoted by thepaper as telling the court.“There is no evidence or wit-ness against us.” Sozcu con-demned the verdict as a “blackstain”, saying those convictedwere only carrying out theirwork as journalists.

The court also sentencedthe newspaper’s accountant totwo years and one month inprison. It said the case againstits owner Burak Akbay, who isthe subject of a 2017 arrest war-rant but remains abroad, wouldbe treated separately.

Lawyer Ulgen said a high-er court was due to decidewhether to uphold the sen-tences, adding that the jour-nalists were currently free.“There is neither a judicialcontrol or any measure thatrestricts their freedom rightnow,” he said. AFP

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Pakistan’s former militarydictator Gen (retd) Pervez

Musharraf on Friday filed apetition in a court against thespecial court’s verdict convict-ing him of high treason andsentencing him to death,according to media reports.

Last week, the special courtin Islamabad sentenced 76-year-old Musharraf to death inabsentia for high treason fol-lowing a six-year legal case.

The 86 page-long petition,filed by Advocate AzharSiddique in the Lahore HighCourt (LHC) on Friday onMusharraf ’s behalf, named thefederal government and othersas respondents, Dawn Newsreported.

The petition highlightedthat the “judgement containeda mix of anomalies and con-tradictory statements”.

It added that the specialcourt “rapidly and hurriedlywrapped up the trial which wasfar from conclusion”, the report said.

The petition stated thatthe special court “has not takeninto consideration that noactions detrimental to nation-al interest were taken by theapplicant” as “no offence ofhigh treason is made out fromthe evidence presented againsthim (Musharraf) before thespecial court”.

The full bench, chaired byJustice Mazahir Ali AkbarNaqvi, will hear the petition onJanuary 9, 2020.

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More than 235,000 peoplehave fled the Idlib region

over the past two weeks, theUN said on Friday, amidheightened regime and Russianattacks on Syria’s last majoropposition bastion.

The mass displacementbetween 12 and 25 Decemberhas left the violence-plaguedMaaret al-Numan region insouthern Idlib “almost empty”,according to the UN humani-tarian agency OCHA.

AFP correspondents in thearea have seen people fleeing indroves in recent days.

The main highway con-necting southern Idlib to theprovince’s north has beenbustling with pick-up trucksferrying civilians out of theflashpoint region. Since mid-December, Russian-backedregime forces have pressed

with an assault on jihadists insouthern Idlib, despite anAugust ceasefire deal and callsfor a de-escalation from Turkey,France and the United Nations.

The increased air strikescame as Damascus loyalistsadvance on the ground.

They have since December19 seized dozens of towns andvillages from jehadis amidclashes that have killed hun-dreds on both sides. Theadvances have brought themless than four kilometres (twomiles) away from Maaret al-Numan, one of Idlib’s largesturban centres.

According to OCHA,ongoing battles have amplifieddisplacement from the areaand the nearby town ofSaraqeb. “People from Saraqaband its eastern countryside arenow fleeing in anticipation offighting directly affecting theircommunities next,” it said.

Kano: Jehadis aligned to theISIS group have released avideo claiming to show the exe-cution of 11 Christians inrestive northeast Nigeria.

The footage posted onlinelate on Thursday by ISIS-linkedpropaganda arm Amaq showed11 blindfolded men being shotand stabbed by jihadists fromthe Islamic State West AfricanProvince (ISWAP) at an undis-closed location.

“This is a message toChristians all over the world,”said a masked man in the one-minute video.

He claimed the killingswere in reprisal for the death ofISIS chief Abu Bakr al-

Baghdadi and his spokesman.ISIS leader Baghdadi com-

mitted suicide in October toavoid capture during a US spe-cial forces raid on his hideoutin the province of Idlib innorthwest Syria.

In recent months, ISWAPhas intensified its attacks onChristians, security personneland aid staff, setting up road-blocks on highways and con-ducting searches.

The United Nations onTuesday condemned the“increasing practice by armedgroups to set up checkpointstargeting civilians” in thenortheast of Nigeria.

AFP

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Russia’s Defence Minister told PresidentVladimir Putin on Friday the first Avangard

hypersonic missiles had been put into service,in a move hailed as a major coup for Moscow.

Analysts say Russia is the first country to putinto combat service intercontinental ballisticmissiles armed with hypersonic weapons thatPutin said can travel 20 times faster than thespeed of sound. “The first missile regimentequipped with latest strategic missiles with theAvangard hypersonic glide vehicle entered ser-vice at 10 am Moscow time on December 27”,Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu told a meetingin televised remarks.

He congratulated the military on what hesaid was a “landmark event for the country andthe armed forces.” Shoigu reported to Putin whenthe missiles entered service, a defence ministryofficial told AFP.

Defence officials have earlier said that thefirst Avangard regiment was placed in theOrenburg region in the Urals. “This is the firstintercontinental ballistic missile with the hyper-sonic glide vehicle in the world,” Vasily Kashin,a senior research fellow at Moscow’s HigherSchool of Economics, told AFP.

“It’s a major scientific achievement.” Moscowsaid that it showed the Avangard missiles to USarms inspectors in late November in accordancewith the New START treaty, which is due toexpire in 2021.

The missile does not violate the treaty. Putinunveiled the new weapon during his state of thenation address in 2018, saying it would defeatall existing missile defence systems.

He said at the time the missile was highlymanoeuvrable and flew at 20 times the speed of sound.

Senior officials later said the intercontinentalprojectile was considerably faster. Officials saidthe missile during tests reached the speed ofMach 27, or roughly 33,000 kilometres (20,500miles) per hour.

Mach 1 is a unit of measurement equivalentto the speed of sound. In December last year,Deputy Prime Minister Yury Borisov claimed itwas impossible to predict the missile’s move-ments, which meant “missile defence is practi-cally rendered obsolete.”

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Embattled Israeli Prime Minister BenjaminNetanyahu told supporters on Friday he

would win a March general election after scor-ing a landslide victory in the leadership primaryof his right-wing Likud party.

Israel’s longest-serving premier, who facesa corruption indictment as well as a third gen-eral election in 12 months, was expected to beatrival Gideon Saar in the leadership primary.

But the convincing margin of victory — by72.5 to 27.5 percent — strengthens his positionin the party he has dominated for 20 years.Netanyahu, 70, called it a “huge win” andpledged to emerge victorious in the March 2 gen-eral election. “Now is the time to unite and bringa tremendous victory for the Likud and the rightin the election,” Netanyahu told a press confer-ence. “Most of the people support the right andsupport me to lead the Government.”

The outcome of the UnitedNations’ Climate ChangeConference, also known as COP25 (25th United Nations ClimateChange Conference), held in

Madrid from December 2 to 13, has dis-appointed many. It produced a bland, plat-itudinous statement re-emphasising with“serious concern the urgent need toaddress the significant gap between theaggregate effect of Parties’ mitigationefforts in terms of global annual emissionsof greenhouse gases by 2020.” It simulta-neously added that it “stresses the urgencyof enhanced ambition in order to ensurethe highest possible mitigation and adap-tation efforts by all Parties.”

COP 25’s failures were primarily in twoareas. One was its inability to frame rulesgoverning the operations of carbon trad-ing, which owes its origin to the KyotoProtocol of 1997. Deferred to this year bythe last year’s conference, COP 24, it hasbeen shelved for the next climate confer-ence, COP 26, to be held in Glasgow inDecember next year. The second was itsfailure to make any progress towardsachieving meaningful emission cuts.

One must first look at the carbon trad-ing since deliberations over it were sup-posed to be a principal feature of the con-ference even before the latter began. It owesits origin to the Kyoto Protocol, which cameinto force in 2005. Dividing countries intodeveloped and developing ones, and recog-nising that the former were responsible forthe current level of greenhouse gas (GHG)emissions through more than 150 years ofindustrial activity, it mandated that the 37industrialised nations plus the EuropeanUnion cut their emission levels to targetsfor GHG emissions for the first complianceperiod from 2008 to 2012. Developingcountries, numbering 100, and includingIndia and China, were asked to con-tribute by investing in projects designed tolower emissions in their countries.

Developed, industrialised countriesundertook to reduce their annual hydro-carbon emissions by an average of 5.2 percent, representing 29 per cent of theworld’s GHG emissions, by 2012. Allcountries were required to draw up nation-al emission reduction targets, calledNationally Determined Contributions(NDCs), which they had to submit regu-larly to the United Nations FrameworkConvention on Climate Change (UNFC-CC). The protocol laid down that insteadof reducing its own emissions, a pollutingcompany or country could buy carboncredits from another that had reduced itscarbon footprint. Industrialised countriescould do so through the EmissionReduction Purchase Agreement, while aClean Development Mechanism gavedeveloping countries carbon credits in theform of Certified Emission ReductionUnits, which were bought and sold in a sep-

arate market. Equally, insteadof reducing emissions domes-tically, an industrialised country or a company couldoffset its high levels of GHGemissions by investing in greenventures through what theProtocol identified as JointImplementation (JI) projectsand, thereby, earn EmissionReduction Units from the latter.

The question arises: Whatis a carbon credit? It is a per-mit or a certificate, issued by aGovernment or a regulatorybody, allowing a country or anorganisation to burn a certainspecified amount of hydrocar-bon fuel over a specified peri-od. Each carbon credit is val-ued against one tonne of hydro-carbon fuel.

As the commitment peri-od of the Kyoto Protocol endedin December 2012, parties to itmet in Doha, Qatar, andamended it, fixing new emis-sion reduction targets for theperiod 2013 to 2020. The DohaAmendment, as it was called,was, however, never ratifiedand was superseded by theParis Climate Agreement of2015. Article 6 of the ParisClimate Agreement providesfor international cooperationand carbon trading.

Unfortunately, the issue ofcarbon trading has been cloud-

ed by allegations of corruptionand the fundamental claimthat it does not really help inreducing emission levels.Particularly under focus havebeen Joint ImplementationProjects. The rules providethat an industrialised countrymust invest in a project, whichwould not otherwise have comeabout and not in ones that wereto happen anyway. The allega-tion is that the latter has beenthe case in an alarming num-ber of instances.

As early as August 24,2015, a report in The Guardianby Arthur Neslen referred tothe findings of the StockholmEnvironment Institute that theJoint Implementation schemewas so open to abuse thatthree quarters of the allowancesunder it lacked environmentalintegrity. As a result, around600m tonnes of carbon werewrongly emitted under theUNFCCC-administered JointImplementation (JI) scheme.The institute’s paper, whichwas corroborated by UnitedNations officials, and parts ofwhich were published in NatureClimate Change, states that anestimated 80 per cent of JI pro-jects were of low environmen-tal quality. The Guardian dis-patch quotes one of the authorsof the report, VladyslavZhezherin, as saying, “Many of

them didn’t observe therequirements of JI on ‘addition-ality’ as they would probablyhave happened anyway, and Iwould even doubt the physicalexistence of some of these pro-jects.” He was further quoted tohave added, “I would say thatmany of them were fake.”

According to The Guardianreport, Russia and Ukrainewere the two biggest beneficia-ries of the JI system. Not sur-prisingly, JI markets in thetwo countries have receivedparticular attention. TheGuardian report quotes asource with regulatory experi-ence in Ukraine’s JI market assaying that as the 2000sdragged on, JIs increasinglycame to be seen by market par-ticipants as “a corruptionmechanism.”

Clearly, the rules and reg-ulations for carbon tradingneed to be reformed substan-tially to rule out corruption andensure transparency in transac-tions. Matters have been furthercomplicated by the issue ofwhether carbon credits earnedbefore the Paris ClimateConference can be used in theperiod after it came into force.Not surprisingly, the rules con-tinue to be subjects of discus-sion and, judging by theprogress thus far and the inter-ests involved, are unlikely to be

finalised in COP 26. Even ifthese are, the wider question ofwhether the carbon tradingsystem actually helps in reduc-ing emission levels remains,with the critics pointing out thatit primarily helps the develop-ing countries to maintain theirhigh emission levels withoutmaking any significant contri-bution to reducing — or evencontaining — emission levels inthe developing countries.

This once again under-lines the fact that globalwarming can only be mitigat-ed by implementing the ParisClimate Agreement’s goal ofkeeping the global tempera-ture rise this century to wellbelow 2OC above pre-indus-trial levels and to pursueefforts to limit the tempera-ture increase even further to1.5OC. It is also important toachieve the Agreement’s goalof enhancing the ability ofcountries to deal with impactsof climate change.Unfortunately, no progresswas made in these directionsin Madrid and given the atti-tudes of the Trump adminis-tration and leaders like JairBolsonaro, the President ofBrazil, no significant progressis likely in the near future.

(The writer is ConsultantEditor, The Pioneer, and an author)

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Sir — This refers to the editori-al, “Row over NPR” (December27). The faux pas on the AssamNational Register of Citizens(NRC) had the Government errin haste over its subsequent andcontradictory narrative on theNational Population Register(NPR)-NRC. It must be said thatthe Government counted on thismiasma to look for electoralleverage in the upcomingAssembly elections.

Assam, however, has longbeen vehement over the prima-cy of the Assamese ethos in anypolitical prescription. The netresult is a nationwide reaction,with each section interpretingthe same page to its own under-standing. The feverish attemptsat translation by every stake-holder can be toned down, if notbe subdued, only when theSupreme Court gives its rulingon the Citizenship AmendmentAct (CAA). We have seen howa simple referendum over Brexithas tied up a nation with fourcenturies of vintage democracyin knots for three long years.

R Narayanan Navi Mumbai

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Sir — It is really disquieting thatthe Indian Government has shutdown the internet in variousparts of the country in order to

quell the protests against theCitizenship Amendment Act(CAA), with Uttar Pradesh top-ping the list.

This situation is eerily remi-niscent of the blackouts carriedout by the Chinese Government

during the pro-democracyprotests in Hong Kong earlier thisyear. That the current scenario isbeing equated with an authoritar-ian regime is not a healthy sign.

Adrian David Chennai

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Sir — It is heart-warming toknow that former Indian crick-et team skipper Mahendra SinghDhoni has accomplished hisglorious 15 years in internation-al cricket. With an unconven-tional batting technique, new-fangled wicket-keeping expertiseand fearless captaincy, Dhonichanged the face of Indian crick-et and took the team to newheights in the internationalarena. He also became a rolemodel for countless youngstersacross the nation.

Dhoni has always been astrong pillar of the Indian crick-et team. Despite being a smalltown boy, he made it evidentthat nothing can restrain anindividual from achieving great-ness in life if one has a genuinepassion and a strong will to doso. Since he has not played forteam India for the past sixmonths, one hopes that hemakes a sturdy comeback soonin international cricket.

Tushar AnandPatna

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Having missed the first and secondindustrial revolution of the 19th andearly 20th century (courtesy the sub-jugation of India to colonial rulers ofthose times) and even the third tech-

nology-driven revolution (this one was primarilydue to the “protectionist” and “inward-looking”Government policies, which were not conducive toembracing technology), India is at the forefront ofleading the fourth industrial revolution — a digi-tally driven one —with speed and scale.

The digital revolution calls for a shift frommechanical and analogue electronic technology todigital electronics, which began in the late 50s andthe late 1970s with the adoption and proliferationof digital computers and digital record-keeping,which continues till the present day. The last fiveyears have seen massive proliferation of affordablemobile phones, increase in the penetration of theinternet and the explosion of data use from a mere0.2 GB a month to 11 GB. This was possible dueto the mammoth investment in telecom infrastruc-ture, exponential growth of mobile factories with-in the country, expansion of telecom services (withprime focus on data services) and the adoption ofnew technologies, which are many times more effi-cient and cost effective. This was in turn spurredby an enabling policy environment that included“change horses in midstream.” For instance, underthe New Telecom Policy (NTP), 1999, serviceproviders were allowed to switch over to the pay-ment of license fee as a percentage of their annu-al revenue.

Digital infrastructure now forms the bedrockof unprecedented growth of start-ups in sunriseindustries viz, online retail commerce, retail bro-kering, food delivery, ride-hailing, digital aggrega-tion of service providers such as plumbers, clean-ers and painters among others. Consequently, Indiahas now emerged as the third largest start-up ecosys-tems in the world, right behind China and the US.It offers huge scope for generating employment andincome. The success of the Modi Government’s“financial inclusion” programme is predicated onthe use of the Jan Dhan-Aadhaar-mobile phone(JAM) trinity. This platform is used for direct trans-fer of subsidy and other benefits to the beneficia-ry’s account. This scheme has helped save thousandsof crores of rupees by plugging leakages. This, how-ever, would not have been possible in the absenceof a robust digital architecture.

The Government has made effective use of tech-nology to empower the farmers by distributing dig-itally-enabled 140 million soil health cards, whichhave all the information about the nutrient statusof the soil and provides information on what fer-tilisers and other inputs are needed to improve soilhealth and its fertility. The Government alsolaunched the National Agriculture Market (NAM),a pan-India electronic trading portal, for farm pro-duce for the creation of a unified national marketfor agricultural commodities. Payments of wagesunder MGNREGS (Mahatma Gandhi RuralEmployment Guarantee Scheme) are also beingdone through the Aadhaar Payments Bridge (APB)using the Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) model.

The digital architecture has also helped mil-lions of consumers and traders in facilitating easeof payments and business. The Government hasalso given a boost to indigenous digital paymentmechanism. The Bharat Interface for Money-

Unified Payment Interface (BHIMUPI),with over 600 million transactions amonth (January 2019), is the interoper-able backbone that connects all bankswith the consumers.

True, India has seized the opportu-nity and taken the lead in the digital rev-olution. However, given the huge size ofthe nation, vastness in terms of bothdemography and geography, there are mil-lions of people, who still remain uncon-nected and those connected are faced withquality issues. This makes it clear that thereare massive challenges when it comes toenacting the kind of changes that are nec-essary in order to make a digital leap tothe fourth industrial revolution. All stake-holders, including the Government andservice providers, must be prepared toaddress the loopholes.

First, economic growth, whichslowed down to five per cent and 4.5 percent during the first and second quar-ter of the year, needs to be revived andaccelerated to eight per cent in order tofulfil the dream of a $5 trillion econo-my by 2025. A “robust” and “healthy”digital infrastructure will be very crucialto achieve this target. It is equallyimportant to realise the vital goal of dou-bling farmers income.

Second, substantial augmentation ofthe existing infrastructure will be nec-essary for the Modi Government toachieve its ambitious financial inclusionprogramme and at the same time ensur-ing effective implementation of welfareschemes. For instance, under thePradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi(PM-KISAN), which promises to enroll140 million marginal farmers within itsfold, only 70 million have been enrolledso far. The Government has not evenreached the half-way mark yet.

The proposal to pay fertiliser sub-sidy through the DBT system requiresmonumental efforts in terms of collect-

ing farmers’ data viz, land size, cropgrown, soil status and fertiliser use. Allof these need to be put on digital record.There is also a need to create a technol-ogy-driven financial architecture for has-sle-free transfer of money into the ben-eficiary’s account. Unfortunately, theexercise has not even begun.

Third, India needs at least three tofour telecom service providers so as tomaintain delivery of “quality” services at“affordable” price (considering the grow-ing needs, we should be aiming at six).Unfortunately, today, the telecom indus-try is at the brink. One major player,Vodafone-Idea, has already hinted atclosing the shop if the Government doesnot provide relief. There is an urgentneed to pull it back.

The service providers themselvesneed to do a lot. They began well bypledging to avoid predatory tariff cuts.This should be sustained (the regulatorwill have to play a role expected from it;it has not done so far). The Governmentmay provide some relief by way of a cutin Spectrum Usage Charge (SUC) fromexisting eight per cent to say five per centand a reduction in Goods and ServicesTax (GST) as well. However, it must notgo for a complete bailout as that coulddestabilise its budget.

Fourth, while implementing revivalplans for BSNL and MTNL, efforts mustbe made to ensure that they remain self-financed and the impact on the budgetmust remain minimal. This can be doneonly if the sale plan of their land and otherassets is vigorously carried forward.Apart from reaching out to remoteareas, where private firms may not go,their continuation is necessary from“security” and “strategic” perspective.

Fifth, the Government must come outwith a comprehensive policy on “subsi-dising” digital services under its welfareschemes to empower farmers, self-help

groups (SHGs) and village panchayatsamong others. Money should come fromthe State or Central budget and, thus,ensure that the service providers, includ-ing BSNL, are not made to foot the bill.

Sixth, in the process of conductingbusinesses, digital companies generatedata on millions of customers. This hasraised three major concerns viz, protec-tion of data; rights of citizens to priva-cy; and national security. Consideringthat the e-commerce landscape is dom-inated by multinationals such as Amazonand Walmart, concerns are heighteneddue to cross-border movement andsharing of “sensitive” data with third par-ties, including foreign Governments.

The Government has adopted amulti-pronged way to address these con-cerns, which includes the issuance of exec-utive orders (for example, last year, theReserve Bank of India ordered all paymentcompanies to transfer data to India with-in six months); enactment of a law on dataprotection; the roll out of a policy on FDIin e-commerce market place and regula-tions for the conduct of MNCs on theseplatforms. However, care must be takento ensure that our digital initiatives andinnovation, especially, the start-up ecosys-tem, are not haemorrhaged. We also needto remember that if India goes too far ininsisting on “data localisation”, “setting uplocal office” and the “handing over thedata key to regulators”, then this can trig-ger retaliation from the US, the EU coun-tries and others, thus affecting billions ofdollar exports from Indian IT and IT-enabled service companies.

Finally, India needs to carefully devel-op its approach to taxation of digital trans-actions (and how the Government canmake OECD agree to our ideas on thesubject) as in the years to come, this willbe a major source of revenue.

(The writer is a New Delhi-based policy analyst.)

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In 1910, the then US President, WilliamHoward Taft, had claimed that “within fiveyears, cancer will have been removed from

the list of fatal maladies.” More than a cen-tury later, we are yet to understand the intri-cacies of the disease. Cancer refers to a classof disease where previously healthy cells mul-tiply abnormally and spread or “metastasise”to other parts of the body. When thisgrowth impairs the normal functions oforgans or systems, it can lead to death. Canceris not a single disease but a grouping of hun-dreds of diseases, which share common fea-tures. This means that any cure must be spe-cific to the particular sub-class to be effec-tive. This, along with the fact that curing can-cer ultimately means removal of unwantedgrowths of parts of our own body, make itincredibly hard to treat.

Cancer is of particular concern forIndia. There has been a tectonic shift in the

disease burden faced by the country. Vector-borne diseases, such as that of Malaria, havesteadily decreased over the last three decadesbut the incidence of lifestyle diseases, cate-gorised as non-communicable diseases orNCDs, such as diabetes and hypertension, hasincreased manifold in the same period.Increasingly, cancer’s share in NCDs hasincreased in the past few years. The age-stan-dardised rate of cancer is estimated to be 97per 100,000 people. Treatments are prohib-itively expensive and out-of-pocket expen-diture is highest among any ailment, withabout 40 per cent of cancer cases beingfinanced through borrowings, sale of assetsand contributions from family.

In 2014, the ratio of the number of oncol-ogists to the number of cancer patients stoodat 1:2000, a far cry from the 1:100 ratio of highincome nations such as the US. With 11.5lakh new cancer patients being registeredevery year in the country, the healthcare sys-tem is reeling under overburdened workforceand inadequate infrastructure. In 2018 alone,7.8 lakh people succumbed to the disease.Cancer takes time to present itself, whichmeans it is usually diagnosed at an advancedstage. This inevitably means that the diseaseis tougher and more expensive to treat. Earlydiagnosis, coupled with prompt treatment,especially in the case of common cancers suchas breast, cervical and colorectal cancers, per-

haps is the only way forward in ensuring sur-vivability. But diagnostic services for cancerare scant, the procedures tend to be expen-sive and invasive. The problem India faces istwo-fold: We need to diagnose cancer earli-er and do it at a fraction of the cost. ArtificialIntelligence (AI) may just be the answer.

Field image recognition, a sub-part of AI,has the ability to read and point anomalies.Many companies have come forward anddeveloped AI-enabled radiology tools thatpredict cancer at an early stage. Existence ofa high number of digitised images in radi-ology makes it a ripe field for AI exploration.Emergence of algorithms with the capabili-ty of analysing digital images to individualpixel level has opened the possibility of detect-ing features imperceptible to the human eyes.

MIT’s AI lab and Massachusetts GeneralHospital (MGH) have created a new deep-learning model that can predict from a mam-mogram if a patient is likely to develop breastcancer as much as five years in the future.Identifying subtle markers in breast tissuesthat can act as precursors to malignanttumors, years in advance, is a breakthroughthat supports physician’s clinical decision.Niramai Health Analytix, a startup headquar-tered in Bengaluru, has developed an AI-leddiagnostic platform that uses thermal imageprocessing and ML algorithms for reliable andaccurate breast cancer screening.

The tech community has recognised theimpact that AI can have in healthcare withopen source community and medical estab-lishments actively building data-sets to spurinnovation. Detection of lung nodules andtheir classification into benign and malignantgrowths using CT scans formed the problemstatement of 2017 Kaggle Data ScienceBowl, an international competition in the fieldof machine learning. Responses to thisresulted in models with promising accura-cy ranging from 85-90 per cent. AI can alsosuccessfully segment the lung tumors basedon volumes and offer an insight into triag-ing cases for doctors and radiotherapy treat-ment planning. Whether these algorithms canbe deployed on field, after refinement, is aquestion the medical community and theGovernment needs to answer.

AI may, perhaps, already be better thanhuman doctors in a few, very specific tasks.Taking the conversation outside oncology,NTT Data, a Japanese technology firm, part-nered with Deenanath Mangeshkar Hospitaland Research Center in Pune to test the effi-cacy of its AI diagnosis support solution. Themodel was able to detect 56 emphysema cases,a lung condition that causes difficulty breath-ing, while normal diagnosis without AIdetected 17 cases. These AI detected casesshowed signs of mild or moderate levels ofemphysema, which gave early findings to

kickstart early treatment, thereafter enablingtracking of disease progression. In oncolo-gy as well, AI may be able to diagnose patientsearlier and more accurately than doctors can,with the tools they currently have.Applications of AI in oncology go beyondimage recognition as well.

With the healthcare industry increasing-ly adopting the practice of maintaining dig-itized health records, referred to as ElectronicHealth Records (EHR), AI is increasingly har-nessing these digital records using natural lan-guage processing techniques to analyse dataand predict the development of diseases.Marriage of EHR and AI find applications notonly in disease prediction but also in diseasemonitoring, decision-making and drug rec-ommendation. The use of EHR-enabled AI,to provide better services to the patients, isalready underway in India.

As it stands, there is ample evidence toprove that AI will make diagnosis and treat-ment of cancer cheaper, more accurate andaccessible to all. A few start-ups and health-care institutions are well underway at mak-ing this promise a reality. With advances intechnological infrastructure and burgeoningresearch in AI, we can begin to expect pathbreaking changes in oncological care. But lackof clear regulations, quality data and a dis-parate public health system are impedimentsto large-scale deployment of these solutions.

Perhaps the biggest barrier to the injec-tion of these solutions in public health sys-tems lies in proving generalisability and onground efficacy of these applications. SomeAI algorithms make it impossible to re-tracethe steps involved in the algorithm reachinga decision, a problem which is referred to as“black box problem.” This problem might pre-vent us from weeding out biases and canresult in unwitting and malicious problems.Biases may creep in through other mecha-nisms, such as training the AI model on non-representative datasets. Regulations, whichmandate and set parameters for datasets thatAI algorithms are trained on, are required toprevent any such biases. An ecosystem thatsupports infusion of AI into regular practicesneeds to be developed as well. As it stands,public healthcare systems are fragmented andare not interoperable. While a few standardsdo exist, the healthcare industry is yet to adoptthem in a holistic manner. Adoption of indus-try wide standards along with clear mecha-nisms and guidelines for use and certifica-tion of AI and AI-enabled medical deviceswill be necessary in order to make sure AIsolutions for cancer become ubiquitous.

(Eluri has led digital transformation pro-jects in the pharmaceutical industry. Sharmais a software professional. Both are with theInternational Innovation Corps, ChicagoUniversity)

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Mobile Internet facility wasresumed in Ladakh's

Kargil district on Friday butthere is no word on wheninternet services will berestored in Kashmir, wherethe blackout has completed

145 days after the Centre abro-gated provisions of Article 370of the Constitution, officialssaid.

In Kargil, mobile internetservices were restored in viewof complete normalcy return-ing to the district, with nountoward incident taking placeover the past four months, theofficials said.

They said local religiousleaders have appealed to peo-ple not to misuse the facility.Broadband services werealready functional in Kargil.

Internet services were sus-pended on August 5, the daythe Centre announced nullifi-cation of Article 370 and bifur-cation of Jammu & Kashmirinto two Union Territories —Jammu & Kashmir, andLadakh.

The digital blackout inKashmir completed 145 dayson Friday with no sign ofrestoration of the services innear future.

There is no word on wheninternet services will berestored in the Valley, the offi-cials said.

BJP general secretary RamMadhav on Thursday had saidbroadband internet facilitieswere being restoredin Kashmir in a phased man-

ner."The broadband internet

services are being restored in aphased manner. The facilitieshave been restored to thehotels," he had told reportershere.

He had said the localadministration will restore thebroadband services in moresectors after a security review.

In the Valley, the businesscommunity and students arethe worst sufferers due to theinternet shutdown.

"Almost every paperworkrelated to business is now to bedone online. Although the gov-ernment has set up facilitationcentres at various places, theseare not enough. For example, Ihave to shut my shop for a dayto be able to give GST returns.It is not only cumbersome buthumiliating as well, said FarooqAhmad Khan, a businessman.

Hundreds of students, whoaspire to appear in variouscompetitive examinations, haveto make frequent visits to theinternet kiosks set up in officesof deputy commissioners of various dis-tricts and some educationalinstitutions.

Jammu: BJP leader RamMadhav termed the country-wide protests over the amend-ed Citizenship Act and theensuing violence a "political,communal conspiracy" onFriday and blamed theCongress for it.

He lashed out at the oppo-sition party for raking up theNational Population Register(NPR) issue and said it was the"baby of the UPA".

"It (violence over CAA-NPR) is a political, communalconspiracy. We condemn theopposition and communalforces for it," the national gen-eral secretary of the ruling

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)told reporters here.

He alleged that the currentsituation in the country wasdue to a "misinformation cam-paign" by Opposition partiesand certain communal forces.

"The Congress party isinvolved in the promotion ofviolence in the country,"Madhav said.

Criticising opposition par-ties, particularly the Congress,for targeting police, he said thegrand old party should fight theBJP politically, instead of tar-geting the wings of the gov-ernment, especially thepolice. PTI

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Mobile Internet serviceswere restored in Kargil

district of Ladakh on Fridayafter remaining suspended for145 days in the wake of theCentre abrogating provisions ofArticle 370 of the Constitution,officials said.

The services were restoredin view of complete normalcyreturning to Kargil, with nountoward incident taking placeover the past four months, theofficials said.

They said local religiousleaders have appealed to peo-ple not to misuse the facility.

Broadband services werealready functional in Kargil.

Internet services were sus-pended on August 5, theCentre announced abrogationof Article 370 and bifurcationof the State into the union ter-ritories of Jammu and Kashmir,and Ladakh.

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Former Deputy Mayor of Srinagar Municipal Corporation(SMC) Sheikh Imran was arrested on Friday by the Anti-

Corruption Bureau (ACB) in a case pertaining to alleged mis-appropriation of crores of rupees from the Jammu & KashmirBank.

Imran, who was removed as Deputy Mayor of the SrinagarMunicipal Corporation (SMC) after a no-confidence motionagainst him was carried in the corporation on Thursday, wastaken into custody by the ACB for questioning in connectionwith illegal appropriation of subsidy given to his company forsetting up of a Controlled Atmosphere (CA) store, officialsources said.

According to spokesman of the Anti-Corruption Bureau,"Case FIR 3/2019 was registered by ACB against Shiekh ImranDirector M/S Kehwa Square Pvt. Ltd. Bohri Kadal Srinagar, offi-cers of J&K Bank and other Govt officials, for illegal appro-priation of subsidy with inflated project cost for establishmentof CA storage at Lassipora, Pulwama".

ACB Spokesman said, Kehwa Group got their loan of ��138crores with J&K Bank, restructured for merely an amount of� 78 crores under a well knit conspiracy by Sheikh Imran andpartners of M/S Kehwa Square Pvt. Ltd along-with JK BankOfficials.

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Continuing her relentlessattack on the BJP

Government and taking themovement against CitizenshipAmendment Act to the regionsChief Minister MamataBanerjee on Friday assuredthe people of Bengal that therewould be no CAA or NationalRegister for Citizens till she wasalive.

“There will be no CAA orNRC in Bengal as long as I amalive,” Banerjee told a largeaudience at Naihati in North 24Parganas. Iterating that herGovernment would not construct any detention centre,neither will allow any suchplace to come up in Bengal theChief Minister said “there willbe no detention centre inBengal and no one will have toleave this State till I am there,”and added no one had any rightto take away people’s right tocitizenship.

“Right of citizenship is ourbirth right and no one can takethat away,” the Chief Ministerwho had earlier said that shewas not in the know of her par-ent’s birth places or for thatmatter she was not in the possession of their birth cer-tificates said and asked “whoare they (BJP Government) totake away our citizenship. Weare born Indians. We are thechildren of the soil.”

Attacking the BJP leadersfor trying to divide the Indiansociety in the name of “suchdiscriminatory laws” Banerjeesaid “this is one leadershipthat is systematically planningto divide India for their narrowpolitical purpose. But they willnot succeed in their gameplans as India is united as one.Indian culture unites them.”

On the right of the studentsto protest against alleged anti-people approach of the gov-ernment she asked, “Why can'tstudents protest against a dra-conian law? The Centre is tak-ing action against protestingstudents and is rusticatingthem from universities,” andreminded that she wouldalways take the students’ sides. Banerjee who had beenleading large rallies in Kolkataon Friday took the movementoutside the mega city. TheChief Minister is likely to holdsimilar rallies in Purulia districtand Siliguri in January herparty sources said.

Meanwhile, in first suchmove the Left Front and theCongress on Friday hit the

streets with a massive rallyagainst the CAA and NRCpromising to took out evenlarger processions in days tocome.

In what is being seen as thetwo party’s muscle flexing exer-cise the “impressively big” rallywalked about 3 kilometresshouting slogans against theCAA-NRC and in support ofan all-India general strike onJanuary 8.

“This is the first time wehave come out jointly inKolkata on a big issues andhave been able to unite all theanti-BJP, anti-TMC parties thathave secular credentials,” StatePCC president Somen Mitrasaid adding “in future biggerrallies will be taken out.

The procession comprising20 Left parties and Congresswas jointly led by top CPI(M)leaders like Biman Bose,Suryakanto Mishra andCongress leaders like Mitra,Pradip Bhattacharya and oth-ers.

The BJP too took out amassive rally at Tamluk in EastMidnapore in support of theCAA with State BJP presidentDilip Ghosh attacking theTMC and the Left for “confus-ing the people about the realimport of the law which nevertalks about taking one’s citi-zenship but talks about pro-viding the people with citizen-ship right.”

Kolkata: The Bengal Oppositionparties have questioned the “hiddenagenda” behind the MamataBanerjee Government’s decision toreward senior IPS officer and formerKolkata Police Commissioner RajeevKumar — with alleged role in tam-pering of evidence in Saradha chitfund case — with a posting meantfor the IAS officers.

Kumar a highly qualified IITian(in computer technology) vides a lateevening Government notification onThursday was transferred from thepost of Additional Director Generalof Police to Principal Secretary,Information Technology.

“It is unprecedented that a taint-ed officer who is facing CBI inves-tigation gets a reward posting andelevation from IPS to IAS cadre. Thisis only possible in the regime ofMamata Banerjee,” said seniorCPI(M) leader Sujan Chakrabartywondering why the BJP was silentabout that posting.

Kumar’s case is pending in theSupreme Court where the CBI hasappealed for a permission to arresthim after getting an adverse order inCalcutta High Court which restrict-ed the top cop’s movements betweenhis office and residence.

Kumar was allegedly under-ground for about a month inOctober with the CBI hot in his trail— a development that the opposi-tion dismissed as a hand-in-glovetactic of the BJP and TMCGovernments.

The senior officer who is cur-rently on leave and is reportedly outof country apparently pursuing hispost doctoral degree in mathemat-ics is wanted by the CBI for hisalleged complacency in the multi-crore chit fund case in which a num-ber of vital evidences — like pen dri-ves, dairies of the main accusedSudipto Sen, lap tops etc — werereportedly seized but not exhibited. PNS

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After suffering huge lossesin strong retaliatory firing

late Thursday night in whichat least four Pakistani Armysoldiers lost their lives, twoeach across Kupwara andPoonch sectors, The PakistanArmy on Friday targeted sev-eral forward villages inSunderbani and Nowsherasectors of Rajouri district.

According to groundreports, alert Indian troopsafter noticing suspectedmovement of heavily armed infiltratorsprevented intrusion bid oppositeKupwara sector. In retaliatory firing, atleast two Pakistani soldiers were killedwhile some of their posts, aiding intru-sion bid suffered damages.

The Pakistan Army, also sufferedheavy damages opposite Krishna Ghatisector of Poonch after they resorted touse of heavy calibre weapons to target

Indian positions. At least two Pakistanisoldiers lost their lives in retaliatory fir-ing as their forward posts were direct-ly hit by the Indian Army.

Situation remained tense alongthe line of control in Rajouri district onFriday as the Pakistan Army targetedseveral civilian areas in Sunderbani,Kalal and Nowshera sectors. Accordingto official sources, several structures

were hit during intenseexchange of mortarshelling.

More than one dozenforward villages in the areawere worst hit by randomshelling of mortars, officialsources said.

Defence PRO inJammu, Lt-Col DevenderAnand said, "Pakistan ini-tiated 'unprovoked' cease-fire violation by firing ofsmall arms and shellingwith mortars along LoC inSunderbani around 1.15

p.m". Hours later, Kalal and Nowsherasectors were also targeted by thePakistan army around 6.30 p.m.Defence PRO said, the Indian Armyretaliated befittingly. Large number ofborder residents, braving severe coldwave conditions, remained closetedinside their homes for long hours dueto continuous exchange of firing in thearea.

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The Congress on Fridaycharged the Narendra

Modi Government at theCentre with working on theNational Register for Citizensacross the country in the garbof National Population Register,which received the Cabinetnod earlier this week.

AICC spokesman AjayMaken, who was speaking tonewsmen, sought to buttressthe point by citing that the NPRforms are seeking informa-tions like mobile numbers of allfamily members and drivinglicense details which had notbeen sought when the NPR was

last conducted in the 2010-11by the UPA Government inwhich he was the minister ofstate for home.

Maken also rejected theGovernments contention thatthese details were to be sharedvoluntarily and not mandato-rily. The NPR forms have anambiguous 'if available' clause.Anybody who does not sharethese details would run the riskof his citizenship being deemeddoubtful," he told a press con-ference here.

Asserting that the NRChas always been on the BJPsagenda, Maken pointed outthat way back in 2003 when theNDA was in power it had

brought out an amendment inthe Citizenship Act seeking tomake registration of every cit-izen compulsory.

When we (Congress) cameto power in 2004, there was apilot project being carried outin a union territory with a smallpopulation of 3.1 million. Wejunked it though the BJP hadsought to implement it acrossthe country, as it was found thatless than half of the residentscould produce valid docu-ments. Most of them werepoor who had no means to bein possession of documentaryproof of citizenship, theCongress leader pointed out. PTI

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Aligarh: The AMU Teachers'Association on Friday called fora judicial probe into the clash-es between police and studentsduring a protest against theamended citizenship law lastweek.

The association alsodemanded that "false cases"against Aligarh MuslimUniversity (AMU) students beimmediately withdrawn andguilty police personnel be pun-ished as per the law. Withoutthese it will become difficult torestore normalcy on the insti-tute's campus, the teachers' bodysaid. Hundreds of AligarhMuslim University (AMU) stu-dents protesting against theamended Citizenship Actclashed with police onDecember 15 at a campus gateafter which the universityadminstration announced clo-sure of the institution till January5. After the clash the police hadsaid students broke the policecordon and fought pitched bat-tles with them. But students hadquestioned this version.

"Nothing less than a judicialinquiry" will help in ensuringjustice to the victims of the vio-lent incidents of December 15,the association said in a resolu-tion passed in a meeting of itsexecutive committee onFriday. PTI

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Former Chief Minister andsenior BJP leader Devendra

Fadnavis on Friday slammedthe Shiv Sena-led MaharashtraGovernment for denying per-mission to take out a morchafrom the August Kranti Maidanto Lokmanya Tilak statue atGirgaum Chowpatty in southMumbai in support of theCitizenship Amendment Act(CAA).

Addressing a pro-CAA

rally at the August KrantiMaidan, Fadnavis said: “Wehad sought permission for tak-ing out a peaceful morchafrom the August Kranti Maidanto Lokmanya Tilak statue atGirgaum Chowpatty. But, theState Government denied uspermission. The StateGovernment appears to havelost its senses. The Governmentmay prevent us from taking outa rally, but it cannot prevent usfrom supporting CAA”.

Charging that the

Opposition parties were delib-erately trying to create unrestin the country, Fadnavis said:“The opposition is deliberate-ly trying to create misunder-standing among Indian

Muslims about the Act. Forvote bank politics, oppositionis trying to create unrest”.

Maintaining that the theCAA would not take away thecitizenship of any Indiannational, Fadnavis said:“Pakistan has failed to fulfill theassurance during Partition thatminorities will be protected inboth the countries. Hence, it isour responsibility has to lookafter the persecuted Hindus inPakistan because they are ourpeople".

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The Gujarat High Court on Fridayupheld capital punishment for a

22-year-old man convicted for rapeand murder of a three-year-old girlin Surat in October 2018.

A division bench of Justices BelaTrivedi and A C Rao rejected theappeal filed by Anil Yadav againstthe death penalty awarded by a spe-cial Protection of Children fromSexual Offences (POCSO) Act courtin Surat in July. The StateGovernment had sought confirma-tion of the sentence.

The victim went missing fromher house in Godadara area of Suraton October 14, 2018. Police foundher body a day later from a lockedroom on the ground floor of the

building where she lived.Yadav, who occupied that room,

was missing. A migrant labourerfrom Bihar, he knew the victim andher family. He was arrested from hisvillage in Buxar district of Bihar fivedays after the body was discovered,and charged with raping and mur-dering the girl.

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Following wide anger andresentment all over Tamil

Nadu against conferringhonorary doctorate to thetainted film lyricistVairamuthu by a privateuniversity in Chennai,Rajnath Singh, UnionDefense Minister, who wasto be the chief guest for thefunction cancelled his tripitself to the city scheduledfor Saturday.

Hindu Front, anumbrella organisation fea-turing Sangh Parivar con-stituents had threatened onFriday morning that it wouldstage a black flag demon-stration against the Ministeras well as the university onSaturday.

Later, following assur-ances from the State BJPhead quarters that theMinister had cancelled histrip to Chennai, the Hindu

Front leaders called offthe proposed black flagdemonstration.

Vairamuthu was inthe news last year asmany female film artistescame out in the open aspart of the “Me Too”campaign against himfor his overtures andattempts to sexuallyabuse them offering themchances in films. ThoughVairamuthu had denied anysuch happenings, the num-ber of allegations by artistesincreased which put thenational award winningsong writer in an embar-rassing situation. The nationhad honoured the writerwith Padma Bhushan in2014 for his distinguishedservices in “Literature andEducation”.

Scathing attack camefrom leading playback singerChinmoyi Sripada of Tamilfilm industry who was thefirst victim to come out in

the open as part of theMeToo campaign againstthe lyricist. “The DefenceMinister of India is confer-ring an honorary degree toKavignar Vairamuthunamed by 9 women so farfor having molested

them.Just reiterating — outing

KNOWN molesters doesNO damage to them. InsteadI got banned from working.

Yes, I know this doctor-ate is for his prowess in thelanguage which is well estab-lished.

The way he went on,they might as well add a doc-

torate for being a ser-ial molester. Also welldone, SRM. Youcouldn’t have chosen abetter example foryour students on ‘RoleModel’”, wrote thesinger in her socialmedia.

Besides Chinmoyi,many prominent per-

sons including Prof RVaidyanathan of the IndianInstitute of Managementfrom across the countryasked the union minister tokeep off from the convoca-tion ceremony.

TR Parivendhar, MPwho is the chancellor of theUniversity himself was in theeye of a storm followingdisclosure by nearly hun-dred students that they werecheated of � 90 crore by hisuniversity offering seats forMBBS course. He was inChennai Central Prison forthree months and the case isyet to be resolved.

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Panaji: Goa Shiv Sena chiefJitesh Kamat on Fridayexpressed gratitude toGovernor Satya Pal Malik forbeing sensitive towards Goanson the Mahadayi water diver-sion issue.

This is after Malik toldlocal cable channel 'PrudentMedia' that he was with thepeople of Goa in their fight forMahadayi, and attacked theCentre on the river dispute.

Goa and Karnataka arelocked in a battle on Mahadayiriver water sharing and the for-mer has opposed the Centre's

letter on December 24 to theneighbouring state informingthat environment clearancewas not needed for the KalsaBhanduri project on the riverthere.

The governor has beenhere only for two months butis sensitive to the sentiments ofGoans unlike others who claimto represent people of the state,Kamat said in a statement.

He also attacked ChiefMinister Pramod Sawant onthe issue and said the latter wascriticising Goan agitators ratherthan standing with them. PTI

Chennai: The first phase ofpolls to elect councillors, pan-chayat union presidents andward members for the localbodies concluded in TamilNadu on Friday with reports ofstray incidents taking place ina few polling booths. The datesfor the much-awaited pollswere announced by the StateElection Commission early thismonth.

The polls are being heldexcluding the nine districtswhere the delimitation exercisehas to be completed.

The newly formed ninedistricts are Kancheepuram,Chengalput, Vellore,Tirupattur, Ranipet,Villupuram, Kallakurichi,Tirunelveli and Tenkasi.

The second phase wouldbe held on December 30.

According to sources, thereare nearly 1.30 crore voters tocast their vote in first phasewhile another 1.28 crore in thesecond phase. The pollingwhich began at 7 am ended at5 pm.

The counting of voteswould take place on January 2.According to the Tamil NaduState Election Commission,the total number of pollingbooths set up was 49,688 ofwhich 24,680 were covered in phase-I. total number of candidates contest-ing the polls was 2,31,890, theSEC said in a press release. PTI

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Thousands of devoteesthronged the Lord Ayyappa

temple here on Friday for themandala puja which markedthe culmination of the 41-day annual pilgrim season that was peaceful unlikeprotests over women's entrylast year.

Chanting “swamiyesaranam” Ayyappa devoteesthronged the hill-top templeand waited patiently to witnessthe special pujas and ritualsincluding “kalabhaabhishekam” and “kalasaabhishekam”.

The 'mandala puja' washeld under the aegis of the headpriest Kandaru MaheshMohanararu and Melshanti(Chief Priest) A SudheerNamboothiri as pilgrims chant-ed hymns of the Lord in uni-son.

The idol of the LordAyyappa was adorned with'thanka angi,” the sacred gold-en attire, which was broughthere on Thursday evening in aceremonial procession fromthe Sree Parthasarthy temple atAranmula.

Last year, the shrine hadwitnessed frenzied protests bydevotees over the entry ofyoung women after the LDFGovernment decided to imple-ment the September 28 verdictof the Supreme Court allowingwomen of all age groups tooffer prayers.

However, with petitionsagainst the September 28 ver-dict being referred to a largerbench by the apex court, theState Government decided toexercise caution and held thatwomen in the 10-50 age groupwho wish to visit the hill tem-ple should get a “court order”and it would not encourageactivism.

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Union Minister RamdasAthawale said here on

Friday that he disagreed withRSS chief Mohan Bhagwat'sassertion that all 130 crorepeople living in India areHindus.

Speaking in Hyderabad onThursday, Bhagwat had saidthat the RashtriyaSwayamsevak Sangh considersthe entire population of Indiaas Hindu society, irrespective ofpeople's individual religionsand culture.

Athawale, a Dalit leaderwho heads the RepublicanParty of India, a constituent ofthe NDA, told PTI

that he did not agree withBhagwat.

“If it is said that RSS con-siders everyone Indian (insteadof Hindu) and we are all unit-ed, I can understand. Hindusare the majority community,but there are also Buddhists, Muslims,Christians, Jains, Dalits,Backward Classes. All of us areone and united as Indians,” hesaid.

At one time Buddhism wasa dominant religion in manycountries including India, hesaid, adding, “Should we (then)say all of us are Buddhists?”

Coimbatore: A 34-year oldman was on Friday sentencedto death by a special court herefor rape and murder of a seven-year old girl nine months agoon the city outskirts.

The victim's mother hailedthe verdict, saying it should bea deterrent in future to “suchbeasts”.

Judge R Radhika of thespecial court for Protection ofChildren from Sexual OffencesAct (POCSO) cases heldSanthoshkumar guilty undervarious sections of the IndianPenal Code and the POCSOand awarded the capital pun-ishment.

According to prosecution,Santhoshkumar had allegedlyraped and murdered the girl,

daughter of a neighbour of hisgrandmother, at Pannimadaiand dumped the body in agarbage bin on March 25.

Santhoshkumar was arrest-ed on March 31 days after thegirl was found dead with herlimbs tied and the body bear-ing injuries with the incidenttriggering protests by locals.He was thrashed by an angrygroup of public when he wasbrought to the government

hospital here for medical checkup after his arrest.

The trial in the case wasproceeding in the MahilaCourt, which has now beendesignated the POCSO court,and 32 witnesses were exam-ined.

Judge Radhika awardeddeath sentence for murder, lifeimprisonment for rape andseven year imprisonment fordestroying evidence under IPCand POCSO sections.

Passing orders on a petitionby the girl's mother seekingarrest of another person whosealleged involvement in thecrime came to light recentlyafter DNA tests, the judgeordered the police to furtherinvestigate the case. PTI

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Jaipur: Rajasthan ChiefMinister Ashok Gehlot onFriday said the Constitutionguarantees freedom of speechand disagreement should notbe seen as something anti-national.

He said the youth of thecounty was being misleadthrough social media whichwas not good for a healthydemocracy.

“The Constitution hasgiven the freedom of speechand disagreement should notbe seen as something anti-national,” Gehlot said at a pro-gramme here.

“The country today needsto follow the path shown byMahatma Gandhi. It shouldrun as per the spirit of theConstitution so that everyonecan get social and economicjustice,” Gehlot said at a pro-gramme here.

He said youths were beingmisled through social mediawhich was a matter of concern.

Speaking at the meeting ofthe National Federation ofIndian Women at RavindraManch here, Gehlot said hisgovernment has taken severalinitiatives to prevent crimesagainst the women. PTI

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Mumbai: As the GDP growthhas plunged to an over six-yearlow of 4.5 per cent in the secondquarter of the ongoing fiscal,credit expansion may plummetto a six-decade low of 6.5-7 percent in FY20, says a report.

Credit growth was a high13.3 per cent in the previous fis-cal, says rating agency Icra in a report. If the forecastturns out to be true, this will belowest credit growth in as manyas 58 years — credit growthstood at a low 5.4 per cent in FY1962, according to the annualcredit growth data on the RBIwebsite.

It can be noted that GDPgrowth plunged to a 25-quar-ter low of 4.5 per cent in thesecond quarter and to 5 percent in the first quarter andnobody is forecasting betternumbers going ahead.

Even the RBI has massive-ly slashed its growth forecast toa low 5 per cent for the year —down by a massive 240 bpsfrom its February projection of7.4 per cent. PTI

New Delhi: Finance MinisterNirmala Sitharaman onSaturday will hold a meetingwith heads of public sectorbanks to discuss various issuesincluding the recentlyannounced Government mea-sures to prop up the economy,sources said.

The Finance Minister’smeeting with chief executivesand managing directors ofbanks ahead of the UnionBudget assumes significance in

view of the critical role thebanking sector plays in boost-ing consumer demand acrosssectors. Sitharaman is expect-ed to present her secondBudget on February 1, 2020.

According to sources, shewill also review Budgetannouncement on absorptionof Merchant Discount Ratecharges by banks, overdraftfacility to PM Jan Dhan Yojanaaccount holders through RuPaydebit Card. IANS

Mumbai: The country’s foreign exchange reserves increased byUSD 456 million to a fresh lifetime high of USD 454.948 billionin the week to December 20, according to RBI data. In the pre-vious week, the reserves had swelled by USD 1.070 billion to USD454.492 billion.

In the reporting week, the rise in reserves was mainly onaccount of an increase in foreign currency assets, a major com-ponent of the overall reserves, which surged by USD 311 mil-lion to USD 422.732 billion, weekly data released by the ReserveBank on Friday showed.

Expressed in dollar terms, the foreign currency assets includethe effect of appreciation or depreciation of non-US units likethe euro, pound and the yen held in the forex reserves. Duringthe reporting week, gold reserves increased by USD 164 millionto USD 27.132 billion. PTI

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Three loss making PSUBanks — Allahabad Bank,

Indian Overseas Bank andUCO Bank — have got �8,655crore fresh capital infusionfrom the Government.

The Finance Ministry hasapproved infusing fresh capitalamounting to �2,153 crore inthe Allahabad Bank, �2,142crore in the UCO Bank and�4,360 crore in the IndianOverseas Bank via preferentialallotment of shares.

UCO Bank posted a loss of�892 crore in Q2, AllahabadBank a loss of �2,103 crore andIndian Overseas Bank posted�2,254 crore loss in July-

September quarter.All these banks, except the

Allahabad Bank, are currentlyunder the Reserve Bank ofIndia’s prompt corrective action(PCA) framework and theyneed to have net NPA below sixper cent to get out of PCAwhich is a key criterion.

These banks filed separateregulatory filings on their capi-tal infusion. “We wish to informthat the Bank has received vialetter on December 26 a sanctionfrom Government of India forrelease of �4,360 crore towardscontribution of the CentralGovernment in the preferentialallotment of equity shares(Special Securities/Bonds) ofthe Bank during the financial

year 2019-20 as Government’sinvestment,” the IOB said.

“Government of India, videletter on December 26, con-veyed their sanction for releaseof capital of �2,142 croretowards contribution of theCentral Government in thepreferential allotment of equi-ty shares of UCO Bank,” theUCO Bank said.

These infusions are part ofthe �70,000 crore recapitalisa-tion announced in the Budget.

Finance Minister NirmalaSitharaman had first proposeda capital infusion of �70,000crore in public sector banks intwo phases. The Governmenthad so infused �60,314 croreout of this.

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New Delhi: Shares of Allahabad Bank onFriday jumped 8.5 per cent after the lender saidit will get fresh capital infusion from theGovernment in the current financial year.

The scrip climbed 8.17 per cent to close at�19.20 on the BSE. During the day, it zoomed10.98 per cent to �19.70. On the NSE, itadvanced 8.45 per cent to close at �19.25.

In terms of traded volume, 6.47 lakh sharesof the state-owned bank were traded on BSEand over one crore units exchanged hands onthe NSE. The Department of Financial Servicesin a letter on Thursday conveyed the sanctionfor release of the fresh capital infusion fund of�2,153 crore, Allahabad Bank said in a regu-latory filing. PTI

New Delhi: Shares of Indian Overseas Bank(IOB) on Friday advanced 6.5 per cent after thecompany said it will get a capital infusion of�4,360 crore from the government in the currentfinancial year for meeting regulatory requirement.

The scrip zoomed 6.48 per cent to close at�11.99 on the BSE. During the trade, it spurted 14.12per cent to �12.85. On the NSE, it climbed 5.75 prcent to close at �11.95. In August, the FinanceMinistry had announced a capital infusion of �3,800crore in the state-owned lender. This has now beenincreased by �560 crore. “The bank has received videletter dated December 25, 2019 for release of �4,360crore towards contribution of the central govern-ment in the preferential allotment of equity sharesof the bank during 2019-20 as Government’s invest-ment,” IOB said in a BSE filing. PTI

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The rupee depreciated by 4paise to close at a fresh

three-week low of 71.35 againstthe US dollar on Friday, con-tinuing its losing streak for thesixth day in a row amid crudeoil prices hitting three-monthhigh levels.

Forex traders said theUSD/INR spot has been trad-ing in a tight range amid lackof cues. The rupee openedhigher at 71.26 and touched ahigh of 71.19 in morning trade.Later, it lost ground and fell toa low of 71.40 before closing at71.35, the lowest level sinceDecember 4.

On a weekly basis, therupee depreciated by 19 paise.Crude oil prices rose to three-month high levels on positiveUS and Chinese economicdata. Brent futures gained 0.22per cent to trade at USD 68.07per barrel while the West TexasIntermediate was up 24 cents,or 0.4%, at USD 61.92 a barrel.

“The USD/INR spot hasbeen trading in a tight range of71-71.40 amid holiday season,and we expect thin and lack-luster movement to continueeven next week,” said RahulGupta, Head of Research-Currency, Emkay GlobalFinancial Services.

Gupta added “the positivesentiments regarding US-China Phase-One trade dealwill go on until there is anycontradictory news from theUS. 71 will continue to act asa strong support, while 71.40will be a strong resistance.”

Meanwhile, the dollarindex, which gauges the green-back’s strength against a basketof six currencies, fell by 0.36 percent to 97.18. On the domesticmarket front, the 30-share BSESensex ended 411.38 points, or1 per cent, higher at 41,575.14.It hit an intra-day high of41,611.27. Similarly, the broad-er NSE Nifty closed 119.25points, or 0.98 per cent, up at12,245.80.

New Delhi: Intensifying theprotest against deep discountsand disruptive offers by e-commerce majors Amazon andFlipkart, traders on Fridaystaged a day long hunger strikein several parts of the countryunder the aegis of theConfederation of All IndiaTraders (CAIT).

During the protests inabout 500 cities across thecountry, traders also demand-ed government action againstthe e-commerce companiesworking in transport, logistics,travel, home buying, consumerdurables and other segments, astatement from CAIT said.

“We want Indian e-com-merce market free from allglitches, unhealthy and unfairbusiness practices, and till gov-ernment take any action ournational agitation will contin-ue” said Praveen Khandelwal,Secretary General of CAIT.

The traders’ body said theonline platforms are indulgingin preferential seller systemand more than 80 per cent oftheir sales are made by justtheir 10-15 preferred sellers.

IANS

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Jurgen Klopp insisted it is not yet partytime for Liverpool despite tighteningtheir grip on the Premier League title

race with a dominant 4-0 thrashing of sec-ond-placed Leicester to open up a 13-pointlead at the top of the table.

Roberto Firmino scored twice fromTrent Alexander-Arnold crosses either sideof James Milner’s penalty before the bril-liant Alexander-Arnold rounded off thescoring himself.

Liverpool also have a game in handover Leicester and seem destined to final-ly end a 30-year wait to win the title.

“With all the things around us, thebiggest quality of my boys is that we arenot listening really, we are completelyfocused on what we have to do,” Klopp toldAmazon Prime.

“I’m really good at partying my friendswill tell you, but I never wanted to have aparty without a reason.

“If there is something to celebrate I willtell you, until then we will work.”

Fresh from winning the Club WorldCup for the first time in Qatar on Saturday,Klopp’s men showed no sign of fatiguefrom a congested December schedule asthey outclassed the Foxes from start to fin-ish.

Alexander-Arnold was a constantthreat rampaging forward from right-backand stung Kasper Schmeichel’s palmsinside the first minute before Klopp soonhad his head in his hands when SadioMane somehow spooned Mohamed Salah’sdangerous cross wide.

An opener for the runaway leagueleaders was only a matter of time and dulyarrived just after the half hour mark whenAlexander-Arnold’s cross was headedpowerfully down past Schmeichel.

The Danish goalkeeper had ensuredLeicester’s 3-1 defeat at Manchester Cityon Saturday was not far more comprehen-

sive and needed to be at his best again tokeep the Foxes in the game as he savedone-on-one from Mane moments later.

Two heavy defeats in five days haveproved to be a reality check for Leicester’stitle ambitions with their focus now onmaking sure they hold off a chasing packincluding Chelsea, Tottenham andManchester United to secure a return tothe Champions League.

“It’s important there is a little bit of per-spective,” said Schmeichel. “If you told uswe would be in the position we are at thestart of the season we would have taken it.

“We take this as inspiration, that’s thelevel. Those are probably the two bestteams in the world at the minute and that’sthe level we have to aspire to be.”

Liverpool, by contrast, demonstratedwhy they are Champions League winnersand Premier League champions in waiting.

Klopp’s men finally had the breathing

space they desired via the arm of CaglarSoyuncu as he handled Alexander-Arnold’scorner 20 minutes from time.

Milner had only been on the field amatter of seconds and stroked home thepenalty with his first touch.

Three minutes later, Firmino doubledhis tally of goals and Alexander-Arnoldadded a third assist with a driven low crossthat the Brazilian expertly cush-ioned before slotting into the top cor-ner.

Alexander-Arnold then capped amagnificent performance by blastinglow and hard beyond Schmeichel intothe bottom corner.

The Boxing Day card marks thehalfway point of the Premier League sea-son, but even with half the season to play,Liverpool’s march towards the title looksunstoppable.

“It is theirs to lose,” added Schmeichel.

UTD ROUT MAGPIES��#�� 1�Ole Gunnar Solskjaer urgedManchester United to show some consisten-cy after Anthony Martial’s double and aMason Greenwood rocket sealed a 4-1 winagainst Newcastle.

Solskjaer’s side slumped to an embar-rassing 2-0 defeat at lowly Watford last week-end to raise fresh questions about the United

manager’s ability to inspire his players.When Matty Longstaff put

Newcastle ahead in the first half onThursday, Solskjaer’s critics weresharpening their knives again.

But Martial rode to Solskjaer’s res-cue with the equaliser andGreenwood’s thunderbolt put United

ahead before Marcus Rashford rounded offa first half blitz.

Martial netted again after the intervalas United ended a two-match winless runin the Premier League and moved into sev-

enth place, just four points behind fourthplaced Chelsea in the race to qualify for theChampions League.

“The players bounced back really well.So let’s see how they cope with probablysome praise now and then there’s a game in48 hours against Burnley away,” Solskjaersaid.

“It was a good day for us, we made itcomfortable. Of course you make mistakesbut we had 10 to 15 minutes of everythinggoing right.

“That’s one of the big things from today,the pressing. We need to be pressing highwith a lot of intensity and then the opposi-tion will make mistakes.”

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Doubles specialist coachFlandy Limpele believes that

the men’s pairing of SatwiksairajRankireddy and Chirag Shettycan deliver India’s first doublesmedal at Tokyo Olympics provid-ed they strengthen their defenceand work on overall consistency.

Satwik and Chirag had abreakthrough season as theyclaimed their maiden Super 500title at Thailand Open and fin-ished runners-up at the FrenchOpen Super 750 to grab a career-best ranking of world number 7.

Their stellar show alsoearned them a nomination forthe Most Improved Player of theYear (singles and doubles com-bined) award by the BadmintonWorld Federation.

“They have made goodprogress this year but there arefew things which they need tochange. They have the capabili-ty to win a medal at Olympics butthey need to be more consistent

in terms of shot selection, on-court strategy and have toimprove overall,” Limpele, whowas roped in by the BadmintonAssociation of India (BAI) inMarch said.

“They have good offence buttheir defence is not good. Theirperformance has been up anddown and Olympics is not veryfar now, so they need to work ontheir defence. Also, once theyhave more experience, they willdo well against the top interna-tional pairs,” said the Indonesian.

Limpele also stated that badattitude of the players and lack ofteam work is affecting the growthof doubles in India.

“It has to do something withthe attitude of the players. Itbecomes a problem in doublesbecause it is a team effort. It isnot individual sport, so you needa caring partner, you need totrain and spur together, pusheach other,” he said.

“They need to have the sametarget, need to be on the same

page, if they are not, it is not pos-sible to win tournaments.

“Sometimes they are notreceptive to my ideas, not puttingenough effort, they are thinkingindividually, not as a team.”

Limpele feels a change in themindset of the players can helpIndia rise fast in doubles.

“All countries have differentcultures but as a coach I have myown ideas which I want tochange. The thing is, it is not verydifficult to do that, if they can dothat, doubles will fast develop inIndia.

“As a coach, my job is tochange all that, make a goodteam work, and I will try to dothat, that’s how Satwik andChirag came up. They are mostreceptive to my ideas and so theresults are showing. I’m there tohelp.”

Limpele said things are slow-ly changing and hope he canguide India to its first everOlympic medal in doubles atTokyo next year.

“Before I came here, doublesin India was good but notenough to be in super series level.People used to say single is morefavourite instead of doubles. Sothat is also why doubles is behindsingles in India. But now it’schanging slowly,” he said.

“Indian system is unique,and handling the attitude of theplayers are challenging for me.My contract is until OlympicGames 2020.

So, let’s see how it goes. I dohope I can bring doubles medalfrom Olympics. God willing, I dohope so, hopefully the player arealso willing to work hard for themedal.”

Asked about Indian coaches,Limpele said: “No disrespect tothe Indian coaches but I believeIndia still need time to have aproper coach for Super Serieslevel. But soon it will happen.Japan also didn't have any onebefore but now it has started, ofcourse with the help from foreigncoaches.”

��

Six-time world champion M CMary Kom and Nikhat Zareen

will clash in the 51kg categoryfinals of the women’s boxing trialsfor next year’s Olympic Qualifiersafter claiming unanimous victoriesin their respective first-round boutshere on Friday.

Former junior world championZareen defeated reigning nationalchampion Jyoti Gulia, while multi-ple-time Asian champion MaryKom got the better of Ritu Grewal.The two-day competition will endtoday after the finals.

Despite registering a unani-mous win, the Performance Directorof Indian women’s boxing, RaffaeleBergamasco was not satisfied withMary Kom’s performance.

“She (Mary Kom) won but shewas nowhere near to her best today.I didn’t like her bout. She has toimprove a lot,” he said withoutelaborating further.

Zareen, Mary Kom’s next oppo-nent, said she just can’t wait to takethe ring today.

“I am just waiting for tomor-row’s (Saturday) bout. I am eagerlylooking forward to that bout. I willgive my 100 per cent. There is nopressure on me right on because Iwanted the fight to happen for a longtime and I am excited,” Zareen said

about the much-awaited contest.“I just want to give my best. At

last I got an opportunity to face her(Mary Kom)and I will make surethat it turns out to be a memorablebout.

“I was always looking forwardto this bout. I am well prepared fortomorrow (Saturday). I will makesure that it’s a clean bout tomorrow(Saturday) without any clinchingand wrestling. I will play fairly and

clean and beautiful boxing,” sheadded.

In other trial bouts on Friday,world youth Gold-medallist SakshiChaudhary defeated Asian Silver-winner Manisha Maun in a split 7-3 verdict in the 57kg category,while former national championSimranjit Kaur got the better Pavitraby an unanimous verdict in the 60kgopener.

Former world champion veter-

an L Sarita Devi will be Kaur’s oppo-nent in the final. Sarita got the bet-ter of former youth world champi-on Shashi Chopra 9-1 in her prelim-inary bout.

Former world Silver-medallistSonia Lather will face Sakshi in the57kg final after defeating SoniaChahal 7-3.

In the 75kg category, formerAsian Games Bronze-medallistPooja Rani defeated Indraja 10-0 tomake the finals.

In 69kg, world championshipBonze medallist Lovlina Borgohainbeat Anjali by an unanimous 10-0verdict to set up a clash againstLalita, who defeated Meena Rani 9-1.

In the last bout of the day,Nupur defeated Saweeta 9-1 in the75kg category. She will face PoojaRani in the final round today for aplace in the Olympic Qualifiersbound squad.

The Olympic qualifiers arescheduled to be held in China nextyear from February 3 to 14.

All five categories in women’sboxing are being decided by trialsas none in the 51kg, 57kg, 60kg,69kg, and 75kg divisions managedto make the finals of the worldchampionships.

The two-day trials for men willbe held in Bellary, Karnataka start-ing tomorrow.

��

Russia on Friday formallycontested a four-year ban

from major sporting eventsover doping violations thatPresident Vladimir Putin hascondemned as “unjust,” thehead of its RUSADA anti-doping agency said.

“In accordance withestablished procedure, todaywe have sent a package of doc-uments to the World Anti-Doping Agency,” RUSADAdirector general Yury Ganustold reporters in Moscow.

“The package contains anotice about disagreementwith WADA sanctions.”

Ganus, who has longargued for a major crack-down by Russia against dop-ing cheats, warned that thelegal challenge could backfire,however.

The formal statement ofdisagreement with WADAwill trigger an appeal processagainst the ban at theLausanne-based Court ofArbitration for Sport (CAS).

Ganus, whose rigorous

stance puts him at odds withhis own government andsupervisory board, argues thatMoscow needs to accept thesanctions and own up to itsfaults in order to be able toreform.

He however said he wasobliged to relay the position ofthe supervisory board.

He said he also sent a let-ter to WADA informing theanti-doping agency of his per-sonal stance.

WADA this monthbanned Russia for four yearsfrom major global events,including the 2020 TokyoOlympics and the 2022 WorldCup in Qatar, over manipulat-ed doping data.

Under the sanctions,Russians will still be allowedto compete, but only as neu-trals and if they can demon-strate that they were not partof what WADA believes was astate-sponsored system ofdoping.

Putin has called the sanc-tions politically motivated,indicating a lengthy legal bat-tle loomed.

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Ishant Sharma was a picture of com-mitment while leading the injury-rid-den Delhi attack with an eight-wick-

et match haul to all but ensure an outrightvictory against Hyderabad on the thirdday of the Ranji Trophy group Aencounter at Arun Jaitley stadium onFriday.

Having dismissed Hyderabad for 69in the first innings, Delhi were handi-capped by Pawan Suyal’s injury but thatdidn’t deter Ishant from sending down 19overs, grabbing 4 for 89 in the visitors’total score of 298.

Ishant finished with a match-haul of8 for 108 in 29 overs.

Needing 84 to win, Delhi were 24for no loss in the second innings andare just 60 runs away from fullpoints. If they win by 10 wickets,the team will also walk away witha bonus point.

At a time when the Indianpacers’ workload managementhas become a focal point and topstars only want to bowl a specific num-ber of overs in red-ball games to get intothe groove, the veteran of 96 Test match-es toiled hard, bowled those extra oversand also encouraged young SimarjeetSingh (3/80 in 19.4 overs).

Once Suyal was out of the attack witha groin strain, Ishant had no option butto bowl those extra overs and he startedin earnest, trapping right-hander HimalayAgarwal in-front and then breachingBavanaka Sandeep’s (0) defences.

To give him respite, even Nitish Ranahad to bowl the seam-up stuff. There weretimes, when Ishant pitched it short butwhenever he looked to pitch it up, he wasa handful.

It was opener Tanmay Agarwal (103off 154 balls), who was primarily respon-sible for thwarting Delhi's bid for aninnings victory along with some rear-guard action from Tanay Thyagrajan (34)and Mehedy Hasan (71).

Tanmay and Tanay shared a 93-runstand after Hyderabad were reduced to97 for 6.

Hasan then used the long-handle tohelp Hyderabad avoid follow-on.However, all they could manage in theend was 83-run lead which certainly won’tbe enough.

POREL BAGS THREE��.��1� Bengal speedster Ishan Porelblew away the Andhra middle-order with

his triple strike as Andhra were reducedto 110 for 7 on the third day of group Aencounter.

Only 46 overs of play was possible onthe day due which has effectively robbedBengal a chance to get an outright winwith a day left.

Bengal were all-out for 289 in theirfirst innings and Andhra need to scoreanother 30 to avoid follow-on.

On a breezy winter morning, Andhrahad their backs to the wall with Porel dis-missing skipper Hanuma Vihari (23) andin-form Ricky Bhui (0) off successivedeliveries to finish the day with figuresof 3 for 35. Porel's new ball partner pacepartner Mukesh Kumar accounted for 2for 36 but Andhra rode on Gnaneshwar’sdogged 45 not out off 145 balls to seethrough the day.

SERVICES WIN VS TRIPURA��2� ��.� 1� Diwesh Pathania returnedwith a match haul of eight wickets, whilePoonam Poonia had a hat-trick in his five-for as Services routed Tripura by eightwickets in Elite Group C match.

Pathania claimed 3/27 to returnwith a match-haul of 8 for 63, whilePoonia hogged the limelight with his hat-trick as he ran through the lower-orderen route to his 5/26 to skittle out Tripurafor 84 in their second essay.

Resuming the day on 16 for one with31 runs in arrears, Tripura hardly showedany fight and failed to negotiate the three-seam attack being bundled out in 43.5overs. Chasing a paltry 38, Services losttwo wickets for six runs inside four oversbut opener Abhijit Salvi (23*) & ArunBamal (nine) ensured that there was nomore hiccups taking the team home in11.1 overs.

��

Railways created the biggest upset in this seasonso far, after they defeated domestic giants

Mumbai by 10 wickets within three days in theirElite Group B match at Wankhede stadium.

After bundling out Mumbai for paltry 114 onthe opening day, Railways riding on skipper KarnSharma’s unbeaten 112, grabbed a crucial 152-runfirst innings lead. Then Railways pacer HimanshuSangwan (5-60) took five wickets, as Mumbai werebundled out for 198 in their second essay, after Testspecialist Ajinkya Rahane failed miserably in thesecond innings as well.

For the 41-time domestic champions skipperSuryakumar Yadav (65 off 94 runs) and experiencedAditya Tare (14 off 47 balls) tried to rally theinnings with their 64-run stand before ShardulThakur (21 off 31 balls) along with Akash Parkar(35 not out), ensured that Mumbai avoided aninnings defeat.

With Parkar’s knock, Mumbai could at least seta 47- run target. For Railways, openers Devdhar(27 not out) and Pratham Singh (19 not out) over-hauled the target in the 12th over, with all 10 wick-ets to spare.

The Railways’ win is more special, as 42 overswere lost on the first two days.

Mumbai will next play Karnataka at the BKCground from January 3.

Railways coach Harvinder Singh said his teamhas defeated Mumbai for the first time.

“We are very happy, for the first time in his-tory, Railways have defeated Mumbai. The creditgoes to the boys, who played very well,” saidHarvinder.

Mumbai skipper Suryakumar Yadav saidRailways outclassed them in all the departments.

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) ˆ ˙ˆ ˆ # ˝ ˆ #ˆ &˘ · 2019-12-28 · mig-27 for its yeoman service to the nation....

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