daughter maryam and son-in- ... and president of his pakistan muslim league-nawaz (pml-n) shehbaz...

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RSS chief Mohan Bhagwaton Wednesday called for

building a grand Ram Templeat Ayodhya at the earliest anddisapproved of lynching in thename of cow vigilantism. Healso called for mainitainingdemographic balance and sup-ported growing acceptance ofinter-caste marriage in society.

Speaking at the third andfinal day of the RSS mega con-clave, “Bhavishya Ka Bharat —An RSS Perspective”, Bhagwatmade a strong pitch for theconstruction of the RamTemple, which has remainedthe Sangh’s most favored agen-da for years. “It should havehappened by now (the con-struction of Ram Temple atAyodhya). If this happens itwould resolve many issues,including differences betweenHindus and Muslims. It is thequestion of faith of crores ofHindus,” he said.

“As a Sangh worker, head ofthe sangh and as a part of RamJanambhoomi andaloan, I wantthat a grand Ram templeshould be constructed at theearliest at the birthplace ofLord Ram,” he said.

Bhagwat did not approve ofthose involved in lynching inthe name of protecting cowssaying Muslims are also amongthose who run gaushalas.

“Gaushala acchhi chalanewale Musalman bhi hain”,Bhagwat said.

Stating that cow could bethe mainstay of the economy of

small farmers, the RSS headsaid anyone believing that exis-tence of cow is for the benefitof society would not indulge inthe act of lynching.

At the same time, he assert-ed that cow smugglers shouldalso be condemned and talkedabout. “The double-faced dia-logue cannot be allowed,” heaffirmed.

The RSS chief said serviceto cow leads to a definite dilu-tion in criminal instincts.

Touching on variety oftopics during the question-answer session, he called forcontinuing with reservationsfor the SC/ST as provided inthe Constitution and sought apopulation control policywhich should be applicable forall the communities.

Supporting inter-castemarriages, Bhagwat claimedthat maximum examples ofsuch marriages could be foundin the Nagpur organisation.

He did not approve of reli-gious conversions by allure-ment but had no objection tothe conversion on one’s ownwill. In this regard, he gave anexample of a ChitpawanBrahmin in Maharashtra whoturned a devotee of Jesus.

On the SC/ST atrocities(Prevention) Act as passed byParliament, he said it shouldnot be misused against any oneand none should be subjectedto injustice.

Bhagwat said the RSS wasready to offer its “swayamse-vaks” to any other politicalparty other than the BJP if so

asked for.Replying to the written

questions, he said the BJP wasgiven general secretary (organ-ised) since it approached theRSS and identified with “ourideology”.

“Jo mangata hai to detehain, mange ge to denge”, hesaid adding BJP supportedRam Mandir and so in returnreceived the RSS backing.

The RSS leader said duringEmergency, dissident Congressleader Jagjivan Ram and evenMarxists got support from theSangh.

On another question as

why second RSS chief GuruGolwarkar’s “Bunch ofThoughts” sees Muslims as anenemy, Bhagwat said certainthing are time and contextspecific and hasten to add thathis other works should be read.He said Muslims are as muchpart of the country as anybodyelse and maintained that hisorganisation didn’t considerany community as minority.

Asked why in politicsterms like “Shamshan andKabristan” are thrown aroundin poll campaigns, the Sanghhead said this happens whenpolitics becomes an instru-

ment to grab power and notpublic service. The question-naire was apparently referringto Prime Minister NarendraModi’s speech during UttarPradesh Assembly polls in2016.

The RSS chief sought apopulation control policy thatalso takes care of the demo-graphic balance. The RSSleader said it should be applic-able to all communities.

Bhagwat did not favour useof NOTA by voters that, hesaid, only helps in the selectionof the most unsuitable candidate.

�� /4��145"0

The CBI on Wednesday saidit has not received any

information from the UAEauthorities on the extraditionof Christian Michel, the allegedmiddleman in theAgustaWestland helicopterscam, even as the controversialBritish national has reported-ly gone into “hiding”.

CBI sources said theagency was awaiting confir-mation from the Ministry ofExternal Affairs (MEA) onreports about the extradition ofthe middleman following anorder from a Dubai court onSeptember 2.

The CBI was in touch withthe MEA but the latter is yet toreceive an official communi-

cation from the United ArabEmirates (UAE).

Michel’s lawyer AmalAlsubei told an Indian televi-sion news channel that hecould not be found.

“He will be arrested iffound. He is likely to appeal tothe Supreme Court,” Alsubeitold NDTV channel, addingMichel can file his appeal tillOctober 2.

Sources said the UAEauthorities on August 26 askeda Dubai court on the possibil-ity of extraditing a Britishnational to a third country. OnSeptember 2, the court gave itsopinion stating that extraditionis possible depending upon theseverity of crime. The court issaid to have decreed thatMichel can be extradited toIndia. It remains unclear if theDubai court issued an extra-dition order against theEuropean middleman in theabsence of confirmation fromthe CBI.

�� /4��145"0�

The Centre on Wednesdaycame out with an

Ordinance to ban instant tripletalaq, the related legislation ofwhich was blocked by theOpposition parties in its pre-sent form in the Rajya Sabha.

The Union Cabinet chairedby Prime Minister NarendraModi approved the Ordinance,which is in tune with the pend-ing Bill banning triple talaq andcarries provisions like for pro-viding bail during the trial,three years punishment, with-drawal of the case and com-promise creating mechanism infront of a magistrate.

Briefing the media, UnionLaw Minister Ravi ShankarPrasad said this Ordinancewas “compelling necessity” toprotect the rights of Muslimwomen. Under the proposedOrdinance, giving instant tripletalaq will be illegal and void

and will attract a jail term ofthree years for the husband.Seeking to allay fears that theproposed law could be mis-used, the Government hasincluded certain safeguards init such as adding a provision ofbail for the accused beforetrial.

“There was an overpower-ing urgency and a compellingnecessity to bring theOrdinance as the practice con-tinued unabated despite the SCorder last year,” Prasad told aPress conference.

The Law Minister came

down heavily on Congress,saying it is not supporting theBill pending in the Rajya Sabhaunder “vote bank pressures”.

“It is my serious chargethat Sonia Gandhi ji has main-tained silence on the issue. Sheis silent...It has nothing to dowith politics but gender justiceand dignity,” he said. Prasadurged UPA chairperson SoniaGandhi, BSP supremoMayawati and TMC chiefMayawati to support the Bill inthe next session of Parliamentfor the sake of “gender justice,gender equality and gender

dignity”. While the proposed law

makes it a “non-bailable”offence, an accused canapproach a magistrate evenbefore trial to seek bail. In anon-bailable offence, bail can-not be granted by police at thepolice station itself. Prasadsaid a provision has beenadded to allow the magistrateto grant bail “after hearing thewife”.

Officials later said themagistrate would ensure thatbail is granted only after thehusband agrees to grant com-pensation to the wife as pro-vided in the Bill. The quantumof compensation will be decid-ed by the magistrate, as per theBill. The police would lodge anFIR only if approached by thevictim (wife), her blood rela-tions or people who becomeher relatives by virtue of hermarriage. Neighbours and oth-ers cannot lodge a complaintunder the proposed law.

The offence of instanttriple talaq will be “com-poundable”. Now, a magistratecan use his powers to settle thedispute between a husbandand his wife. This will happenonly when the wife approach-es the court.

��"�� 6*��

The brutal killing of a BSFjawan and mutilation of his

body by the Pakistan Rangershas sparked off fresh tensionsalong the International Borderahead of the second anniver-sary of “surgical” strikes.

BSF jawans recovered thebadly mutilated body of themissing jawan along the fenc-ing in Ramgarh sector ofSamba on Tuesday evening.

According to officialsources, the eyes of BSF headconstable, identified asNarendra Kumar, were gougedout, neck was partially slit andthe whole body had marks ofburn injuries, including onchest and arms. Three bulletinjury marks were found on thebody of the martyred jawan.

It is for the first time theBorder Action Team (BAT) ofthe Pakistan Rangers targetedBSF jawans along theInternational Border in therecent years.

Vulnerable patches alongthe International Border havebeen spruced up to preventfresh attacks by the BAT.

According to BSF state-ment, “An area dominationpatrol of the BSF was targetedby the Pakistan Rangers inRamgarh sector around 10.40am on Tuesday morning. TheBSF jawans were engaged in thetask of clearing wild grass toensure clear vision. It is sus-pected the BAT team of thePakistan Rangers ambushedthe BSF patrolling party afterwhich one of the jawans wentmissing. The body of the BSFjawan, injured in the unpro-voked firing, was found aftermassive search operations inthe forward area late onTuesday evening”.

The search operation wasdelayed due to tough posturingby the Pakistan Rangers afterthey refused to participate inthe joint patrol to locate themissing BSF jawan.

�� 0!5*�*,*1

Ousted Pakistan PrimeMinister Nawaz Sharif, his

daughter and son-in-law werereleased from prison onWednesday, hours after a topcourt suspended their sen-tences in a major corruptioncase that jeopardised theirpolitical career.

In a relief to the still-griev-ing Sharif family, a two-judgeBench of the Islamabad HighCourt suspended the jail sen-tences of the embattled formerPrime Minister Sharif, hisdaughter Maryam and son-in-law Muhammad Safdar in theAvenfield corruption case andordered their release.

Sharif ’s younger brotherand president of his PakistanMuslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Shehbaz Sharif and otherparty leaders meet the formerpremier at the high-securityAdiala Prison before he wasreleased, Geo News reported.

Shehbaz, along with partyleaders, met Nawaz in theoffice of the jail superintendent.

Detailed report on P12

�� 7*/8"0

At a time when Naxals’influence has been con-

fined to a few pockets in thebordering areas of Jharkhand,police officers deployed inthese areas are still finding itdifficult to wean villagers fromNaxal ideologies, butGovernment’s developmentalpolicies have instilled hopesinto villagers.

The case in point is Sarju,a village situated 130.5 kmfrom Ranchi, which houseshundreds of villagers who wereonce victims of Naxal attacks.

As Naxalism continues tohaunt these villagers, they arestruggling to come out of trau-ma of extortion and torture,meted out to them by the ram-paging Maoists.

However, development in

these villages, like connectingroads to cities are encouragingvillagers to apply for jobs. Butthere are still fear among somevillagers about the influence ofNaxalism on their childrenand youths. “We want employ-ment opportunities in our vil-lage. If Government createssuch options here, our youthwill not get influence withNaxalism,” said a young joblessbut educated villager.

Sarju village panchayat

head Taramani Devi said withthe fulfillment of basic needs— cooking gas, education totheir wards, electricity con-nections — are some of thereasons for locals lending sup-port to the State Government,however, still lots need to bedone for the development.

Jharkhand Chief MinisterRaghubar said theGovernment has worked onbroad contours of strategy fortackling naxalism. “We haveset up new police stations tocoordinate with Central forces.We have made the surrenderpolicy attractive; we are notjust securing future of sur-render people, but, we alsoprovide reward amount tothem so that they can investmoney. Besides, we have inte-grated security and develop-ment plans,” he said.

�� /4��145"0

The India MeteorologicalDepartment (IMD) has

predicted that the southwestmonsoon will remain tillSeptember end. There is nochance of start of withdrawal ofmonsoon till October 1 due tothe passage of WesternDisturbance and formation ofa potential depression and lowpressure area in Bay of Bengalwhich caused by the erstwhilePacific super typhoonMangkhut.

The official date for thecommencement of withdraw-al of Southwest Monsoon isSeptember 1. Both the systemsare likely to infuse a freshsurge of monsoon.

However, prolonged stay ofmonsoon season might soundas good news, but it comes withsome repercussions also. “Thedelay of withdrawal of mon-soon would further delay theonset of the next season. The

delay would also push for-ward the onset of winters overthe region. And with El Ninoall set to make appearance bythe end of the year, may impacton the upcoming season, whichturn mild due to all these fac-tors,” IMD officials said.

In other words, the latewithdrawal of monsoon is like-ly to impact the onset of nextseason. A private weather fore-caster Skymet also predictedthat monsoon will remain tillSeptember end.

Due to this, to low pressureand depression over the Bay ofBengal, from east to NorthwestIndia, are likely to record mod-erate to heavy showers. A fewareas might see some veryheavy showers as well. Besidesthis, monsoon would alsorevive along the West Coastand Mumbai which has beendry for last many days, wouldonce again witness some spells.

Officials said monsoon isprimarily governed by mon-

soon trough and monsoonsystem like low pressure areaand depression.

The IMD said a prepara-tory cyclonic circulation sentin from the West Pacific liesover the Central Bay and

neighbourhood in anticipa-tion. As a result, rain wouldstart lashing coastal parts ofOdisha, Madhya Pradesh andadjoining Andhra Pradesh bySeptember 20 and 21;Chhattisgarh & Telangana on

20 and 21; over MadhyaPradesh on 21and 22 and overparts of northwest India on 22and 23 and East Rajasthan andNorth India will receive rain-fall on 23 and 24 September.

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It was a series of fortunateepisodes that brought togeth-

er academic visionaries in thesylvan town of Dehra Dun inthe nineteenth and early twen-tieth centuries. Each of these

pioneers set out on a challeng-ing new path which culminat-ed in the establishment ofinstitutions which stand asepitomes of good education.

Whether it is the publicschools like Doon and Welham,an international school likeWoodstock, Christian schools

like St.George’s College andSherwood College or a “schoolon public school lines” like theRashtriya Indian MilitaryCollege (RIMC), all these resi-dential schools have contributedequally in making these hillsand dales of Uttarakhand into“school country”. With rich tra-

ditions and hallowed pasts, allof these schools have producedalumni who have done themproud.

It was at the Welham Boys’Preparatory School in the Doonvalley that Rajiv Gandhi spenthis early school years. FromWelham, he went to The DoonSchool in 1955. AmitabhBachchan, the star of the mil-lennium, grew up at SherwoodCollege, Nainital. SamManekshaw was a Sherwoodiantoo.

Prominent among the aca-demic visionaries who livedand worked in the Doon valleywas Miss Hersilia SusieOliphant, an English lady whosedeath anniversary falls onSeptember 20.The school whichshe founded was Welham Boys’School. Welham was founded in

1937 as a preparatory school forboarding schools in Englandand India with a capital of£1000.

The story of Miss H SOliphant is an extremely inspir-ing saga of a dedicated lady whoworked tirelessly for the causeof education in India for sever-al decades. Born on August 17,1883, she spent her childhoodat Playworth Hall, Retford,Nottinghamshire. There is norecord to establish that she everwent to school or college. In1920, Miss Oliphant arrived inIndia to work as a companionto the Maharani of CoochBehar. Soon, she left CoochBehar and went to work inKanpur and then Delhi. FromDelhi, she came to Dehra Dunand worked at The Doon Schooland Colonel Brown School.

She was resolved to set upa Preparatory School in theDoon valley. In 1936, the ownerof 5, Circular Road, HukumChand informed her that thehouse could be made availablefor the school. The place wasdone up and the first boy to jointhe Welham Boys Prep Schoolin January 1937 was MaqboolHussain Khan. Miss Oliphant’sdream of a residential kinder-garten and prep school forIndian children was finallyrealised. She was then 54 years

old. There were only six boys tobegin with.

Named by Miss H SOliphant after her girlhoodhome, the Welham village inNottinghamshire, this boys’school has indeed come a verylong way from its shelteredexistence as a little prep schoolin the quiet Dalanwala area ofthe Doon valley. It has gonefrom “Strength to Strength”, assays its motto. Founded inJanuary 1937, it kept sending itsboys to other schools like TheDoon School and Mayo Collegeafter Class 5, for many years-till1980. The first Class Ten batchappeared for boards in 1985.

The school is spread over 30acres and has a spectacularview of the Himalayan hills.There are around 500 students.

The School Magazine titled“The Oliphant” is brought outby the student-editors. India’sfirst Chief InformationCommissioner WajahatHabibullah, who studied at theWelham Boys’ School and TheDoon School in the 1950s, saidat one of founder’s day celebra-tions at the Welham BoysSchool, where he was the chiefguest, that after leaving the“familiar “atmosphere of theWelham Boys’ School, when hewent onto The Doon School, he“felt lonely and unhappy” for the

first few weeks. “I stayed atWelham for two years and it waslike home to me. It was a smallschool then.

When I went to The DoonSchool I was quite unhappy asit was a very big school with lotsof students. The atmosphere offellow feeling I was used to atWelham was missing in theDoon School. My most enjoy-able time was spent at Welham.The founder, Miss Oliphant, wasa motherly figure, though sternat times.”

In 1956, Ms Oliphant

donated all her assets to theWelham Boys School whichpresently is administered by adistinguished Board of Trustees.Miss Oliphant fell ill in 1962 andwent back to England where shedied on September 20, 1962.

The academic world of theDoon valley will always remainobliged to this lady’s strongwill and dedication. Her con-tribution to the sphere of schooleducation in the Doon valley isindeed valuable and will alwaysbe cherished by the people ofthe valley.

�� "*701�*7

Despite some resistancefrom the traders, the

team of the MunicipalCorporation and the districtadministration continuedwith its anti-encroachmentdrive in the city area onWednesday. However, atmany places, the localsremoved encroachmentsbefore the demolition squadarrived. On Tuesday, thePWD officials had earmarkedthe encroachments in red cir-cles following which sometraders started to remove theillegal structures on theirown.

The team started its drivealong the stretch fromChandracharya Chowk to theArya Nagar area in Jwalapur.Shops found standing onencroached land were razeddown with JCB machines.The squad was led by themunicipal commissioner LalitNarayan Mishra and SDMManish Kumar.

Tempers frayed as thedemolition drive continued topull down squatters as thosebeing affected by the drivealleged that the team mem-bers paid no heed to theirobjections.

However, acting wisely,the inmates of the CabinetMinister Satpal Maharaj’sPrem Nagar Ashram startedto demolish the identifiedstructures themselves wellbefore the squad arrived. Theashram gate was dismantledand the rubble was removedby the ashram office bearersthemselves.

Speaking to The Pioneeron Wednesday, SDM ManishKumar said, “ The HighCourt-ordered anti-encroach-ment drive on both sides ofJwalapur Road was carriedout today. The people wereasked to free about three feetspace from the main road.Some people removed theencroachments on their own.”

Interestingly, while thedistrict Congress presidentSanjay Agarwal blamed the

PWD officials for makingwrong measurements, heremoved the encroachmentsof his own establishment atArya Nagar Chowk.

However, the office bear-ers of Vyapar Mandal, thetraders’ body, have demand-ed compensation to the tuneof �20 lakh to the traderswhose shops were pulleddown from the distr ictadministration.

The demolition squadfaced resistance from the res-idents of Indira Nagar Bastinear Arya Nagar Chowk.

The members of SanyuktJan Morcha have decided toserve a memorandum to theDistrict Magistrate, demand-ing regularisation of the slumcolonies to keep the demoli-tion squad away from thearea.

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Acase has been registeredabout a girl, hailing from

Pauri Garhwal, being alleged-ly sold off and married to a per-son from Haryana. As per theallegation, the girl was sexual-ly exploited by some personsknown to her husband. Shesomehow escaped from theirclutches and registered a com-plaint against six persons,including two women, at SIID-CUL police station onWednesday.

According to the SIID-CUL police, the 20-year-old girlwas sold for �1.50 lakh andlater married off to a person inHaryana over a month ago.Police sources said that as shehad been staying with her eldersister who is working in a fac-tory in the SIIDCUL industri-al area, her sister had come intocontact with one Sudha and herhusband Sunil who had sug-gested a suitable match for thegirl. Later, she had got marriedto a person from Karnal inHaryana Tejveer Singh. Themediator Sudha had allegedlytaken the amount.

Speaking to The Pioneer, SP

city Mamta Vohra said, “Notjust the girl’s husband but hisrelatives tortured the girl. Thebrother-in-law of the girl alsoallegedly raped her.

When the girl resisted, shewas told about her being soldoff for �1.50 lakh. The girl wasallegedly thrashed. They eventhreatened to kill her. A case

has been registered.Interrogation is on.”

Police, further, said that thegirl had managed to escapefrom her in-laws with the assis-tance of her relatives and cometo Haridwar where she hadnarrated her ordeal to her sis-ter.

Following the complaintbeing lodged, a case has beenregistered under different sec-tions of 373 and 376 of IndianPenal Code, police added.

�� "*701�*7

Amidst the continued chal-lenging business environ-

ment, Bharat Heavy ElectricalsLimited (BHEL) has registeredquantum growth in its prof-itability and order booking infiscal 2017-18, ending the yearwith significant traction ingrowth drivers. This wasannounced by Atul Sobti,chairman and ManagingDirector, BHEL at the 54thAnnual General Meeting of thecompany on Wednesday.

Addressing the sharehold-ers, Sobti said that during theyear, the company achieved aprofit before tax (PBT) of �1,585crore, compared to �628 crore inthe year before, registering asurge of 152%. Net profit (PAT)for the year jumped 63% at �807crore, against �496 crore in theprevious fiscal.

Maintaining the trend oftopline growth for the secondconsecutive year, BHEL hasrecorded a turnover of �27,850crore, as against �7,740 crore inthe previous year.

Consequently, a total divi-dend of 91% has been declaredon the enhanced equity sharecapital post bonus for the year2017-18, maintaining the trackrecord of paying dividends unin-terruptedly since 1976-77.Notably, this is the highest div-idend paid by the company inthe last four years, he added.

CMD said that to movetowards the vision of becoming

a global engineering enterprise,BHEL will continue to focus onGlobalisation, andDiversification to increase busi-ness from non-coal areas, and

further strengthen its Innovationcapabilities.

Several corporate socialresponsibility initiatives in theform of socio-economic andcommunity development pro-grammes undertaken by thecompany are aligned withnational priorities.

BHEL continues to servesociety through its contributionin education, health, skill devel-opment, and improvement inthe living conditions and

hygiene in villages and com-munities spread across the coun-try, Sobti said.

BHEL has been activelyinvolved in the skill developmentinitiatives of the Government ofIndia. During 2017-18, the com-pany provided skill developmentopportunities to more than24,000 individuals under variousschemes like Graduate appren-ticeship, Diploma apprentice-ship, Vocational apprenticeship,Trade apprenticeship, etc. BHELwas recognised as Champion ofChange under the category of‘Best Central Public SectorEnterprises’ by the Ministry ofSkill Development &Entrepreneurship for engagingmaximum number of appren-tices under the Apprentices Act,1961, said Sobti.

The CMD said that BHEL’simmense contribution innation-building endeavoursmakes it the finest example ofsuccessful ‘Make in India’ andthe company is committed andready to take this mission for-ward in building a ‘New India’.

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Basecamp Festival India,being held from October 25

to 28 is a project of the NungshiTashi Foundation (NTF). Itwill include various eventsincluding outdoor activities,adventure films, guest speakers,guided walks, park runs, pho-tography exhibits, children’sactivities and camping. It shallintroduce all attendees to var-

ious aspects of outdoors andunderline the objectives of theOutdoor Leadership School.The first twin sisters in theworld to scale mount Everest,Tashi and Nungshi Malik saidthis while addressing the mediaat the Press Club here onWednesday.

The Malik sisters informedthat Basecamp Festival Indiawill also mark the launch of theOutdoor Leadership School(OLS). It is an experiential

learning school located in thefoothills of Mussoorie, thebrainchild of the twins andtheir father colonel (retd) VSMalik. Existing Governmentmountaineering and adven-ture institutes only impart tech-nical training. OLS is aboutusing outdoors as means tomuch wider and holistic learn-ing and development, theysaid.

The NTF has alreadyadopted three villages-Bhitarli,

Kandriyana and Taliyani Gadand formed Mountain-WomenSelf Help Groups. Throughthese groups, they want topromote mountaineering andadventure sports among girlsand women, preserve and pro-tect local ecology.

The twins stressed thatwomen empowerment is oneissue that is closest to theirhearts. Through the OLS andNTF's combined forces thetwins will work with the nativewomen of the State andempower them to take care oftheir communities and house-holds with confidence.

It should be mentionedhere that among others, UnionMinister of State for HomeAffairs, Kiren Rijiju recentlytweeted, “When two of ourmodern day heroes start apath breaking initiative to makeIndia ‘outdoor nation’ let's say,well done & goodluck@NungshiTashi theirannual adventure event ‘base-camp festival India’ will inspirefellow citizens to adopt healthyand holistic lifestyles.”Participation in the festival is byfree online registration avail-able at the basecamp festivalwebsite.

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�� 14"7*1 /

Though most of the State hasbeen experiencing sunny

conditions for some days now,the rains have not yet endedcompletely. There is a possi-bility of heavy to very heavyrainfall in isolated places inUttarakhand during the com-ing days.

According to informationprovided by the StateMeteorological Centre, cur-rent meteorological analysisand model predictions suggestthat the south-west monsoon islikely to become active fromSeptember 22 onward for thenext three to four days inUttarakhand. Under the influ-ence of this condition light tomoderate rain/thunderstormis very likely to occur at manyplaces on September 22, 23, 24and 25 in the State. Further,heavy rainfall is also likely tooccur at isolated places in

Uttarakhand on September 22and 25.

According to theMeteorological Centre, heavyto very heavy rainfall is likelyto occur at isolated places inUttarakhand on September 23and 24. In view of the heavy tovery heavy rainfall activities,the general public and com-muters especially pilgrims ven-turing in to the mountainousregions of Uttarakhand onSeptember 23-24 must be vig-ilant and take necessary pre-cautionary measures and coop-erate closely with the StateGovernment authorities, theMeteorological Centre hasadvised.

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Ateam of Medical Council ofIndia (MCI) visited the

Government Doon MedicalCollege (GDMC) Hospital onWednesday and inspected theavailable facilities. The MCIteam comprising Dr Mital Patelfrom Jamnagar, Dr G V Thakurfrom Latur and chief coordi-nator of MCI Dr S K Gargarrived in the medical collegefor the inspection.

The team appeared unhap-py at high percentage (32%) ofshortage of faculty membersand observed an overload of 12percent in the Gynaecologicaldepartment of the hospital.The team also found glaring

faults in the construction ofOPD and Operation Theatre (OT).

In the college, the MCIteam pointed out that the spaceof the library was too small.

The principal GDMC, DrPradip Bharati Gupta, said thatthe issues pointed out by theMCI team would be resolved asper the norms by January next.The college would be grantedpermission to give admission tofourth batch of the MBBScourse on the basis of reportsubmitted by the team.

Dr R S Raina, Dr K C Pant,medical superintendent ( MS)Dr K K Tamta and Dr SushilOjha accompanied the teamduring the inspection.

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The State Government andits Ministers faced some

embarrassing moments on thesecond day of the MonsoonSession of the State Assemblyon Wednesday when the Chairpulled up the Government forproviding wrong informationin the House.

The Chair directed theState Government to ensurethat the Government officersfurnish correct informationmeant to be provided to themembers of the Assembly.The Speaker Prem ChandAgarwal passed the orderwhen BJP legislator, SurendraSingh Jeena claimed that theanswer provided by the ForestMinister Harak Singh Rawatthat ‘Pine Resin’ is not kept inthe open in the forest inspec-tion bungalows across theState is wrong.

Flashing a photograph inthe Assembly showing thehighly inflammable PineResin kept in the open atManila inspection bungalow,Jeena claimed that it has beenlying in the open for the pastthree years, leaving the peo-ple living round vulnerable tofire.

A red-faced ForestMinister assured the memberthat he would look into thematter and take appropriateaction if it is found that thedepartment officers have pro-vided wrong information.

Finding the StateGovernment grappling withthe aftermath of the humili-ation in the hands of a rulingparty lawmaker, theOpposition Congress mem-bers latched on to it withalacrity and tore into theGovernment for misinform-ing the Assembly.

They also cited previouscases of wrong informationprovided by the officials. Theleader of the Opposition,Indira Hridayesh said thatthe Chair should intervene onthe very serious matter and

issue direction to the StateGovernment. The Speakeradmitted that the matter isserious and directed the StateGovernment that the answersshould be corrected when

required. He at the same time

directed the StateGovernment to ensure thatcorrect information is pro-vided in the House.

The Chair passed similarorder to the Government laterin the day when the issue ofdemolition drive was raisedby the Congress members.The Speaker directed the

Government to respect theorder of Uttarakhand HighCourt and at the same timesee to it that the peopleaffected by the drive are notleft with much hardships.

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In a role reversal, members ofthe Treasury benches put the

Ministers on the hot seat bydarting pointed and well-thought-out questions whilethe Opposition lawmakerschose to amuse themselves bythe visible discomfiture of theGovernment.

The ruling party lawmak-ers made the Ministers baffledas they flung questions on awide range of issues from seatreservation for ScheduledCastes (SC), Scheduled Tribes(ST) and Other BackwardCastes (OBC) in the urbanlocal bodies (UPB) to soundpollution, pending cases of

compensation in the human-wild life conflict and fellingof Pine trees. Compoundingthe woes of the nonplussedMinisters, the ruling partymembers refrained from rush-ing to the rescue of the trou-bled Government when theOpposition members corneredthe Government on the emo-tive and electorally importantissue of demolition drive.

BJP member DeshrajKaranwal asked theGovernment to clarify on thematter of the reservation sta-tus to SC, ST and OBC in theurban local bodies. TheUrban Development MinisterMadan Kaushik said that thereser vat ion is providedaccording to the relevant actand things are decided bytaking into account the cri-teria of population of thesesections. The member, how-

ever, looked far from satisfiedby the ‘evasive’ reply. Withtwo other BJP lawmakersChandan Ram Das andSuresh Rathore supportinghim, he demanded theGovernment to increase thequantum of reservations tothe SC, ST and OBC in ULBs.Chandan Ram Das lookedagitated on the matter atsome point of time, prompt-ing the Opposition membersto ask him to stand up andmarch to the well of theHouse by way of registeringhis protest.

The Congress membersrushed to the well of theHouse to make the agitatedBJP MLA to follow suit.However, Chandan Ram Dasstood his ground and refusedto toe the Congress line. Butwhat happened was enoughto leave the ministers on

edge.Similar embarrassing situ-

ation for the Government cameup when BJP legislator fromSalt, Surendra Singh Jeena trig-gered sensation by claimingthat officers are providingwrong information to theMinisters, something whichleft the Forest Minister HarakSingh Rawat puzzled.

Senior BJP memberMunna Singh Chauhan toreinto the Forest Minister HarakSingh Rawat on the report ofForest Research Institute (FRI)on Pine forests.

Inspired by the treasurybench throwing a dare to itsown Government to rise up tothe occasion, a BJP MLA washeard saying to the Congresslegislators jestingly that they areacting as the real Opposition,a role which the Congresslawmakers are incapable of.

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The issue of UttarakhandHigh Court-ordered demo-

lition drive rocked the StateAssembly on Wednesday withthe Opposition Congress mem-bers attacking the StateGovernment for razing downhouses of thousands of people.

As soon as the Houseassembled on the day, seniorCongress leader Pritam Singhdemanded discussion undersection 310 on the very impor-tant issue. He said that thou-sands of people have become

homeless thanks to the demo-lition drive. Angry CongressMLAs stormed into the well ofthe House and protested vocif-erously against the UrbanDevelopment Minister MadanKaushik’s statement that thedemolition being conductedon the order of the court shouldnot be a matter of discussion inthe House. The Speaker PremChand Agarwal later ruled thatthe discussion under section 58would be held on the issue.

In the post-lunch session,the Leader of Opposition IndiraHridayesh launched a scathingattack on the Government andheld it responsible for a situa-tion where homes of people inDehradun, Haridwar and

Rudrapur are being demol-ished ruthlessly. She said thatthe Government should havefound a way to save these peo-ple on the same line it steppedin to save the slum dwellers.

Participating in the dis-cussion, Congress MLAPritam Singh said that inDehradun and other areas,the officers are using oldmaps of 1904 and 1938 todemolish houses in whichpeople have been dwelling formany years.

He said that such demo-lition drive is unparalleledand demanded theGovernment to bring in anordinance to prevent housesof a large number of people

from being razed down in thename of the drive. CongressMLA Govind Singh Kunjwalechoed the same sentimentand said that the StateGovernment is acting in a dic-tatorial manner on the sensi-tive matter.

In his reply, the UrbanDevelopment Minister MadanKaushik said that the StateGovernment had movedSupreme Court against theorder of the Uttarakhand HighCourt. But the apex court hadrefused to intervene on theorder, he added. He, however,assured in the same breath thatthe demolition drive wouldremain confined to the majorroads only.

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The noise pollution hasassumed dangerous propo-

sitions in Dehradun, disclosedthe State Forest andEnvironment Minister HarakSingh Rawat in response to aquestion in the State Assemblyon Wednesday.

He said that the level ofnoise in Clock Tower and CMIChowk area of Dehradun hascrossed 70 decibel limit whichis dangerously high. Rawatadded that the sound level is

around 58 decibels inHaldwani city.

He, further, said that thesound levels are within per-missible limits in Pauri,Almora and Chakrata.

The Minister said that theacceptable limit of noise pol-lution in the residential areasis 55 decibel while in theindustrial areas the limit is 65decibel. Rawat said that thedepartment has slapped penal-ties on 2420 people for usingsirens, multi-toned horns andpressure horns in the year2017-18.

In a lighter vein, theMinister, who himself isknown for his high-pitchedvolubility in the Assembly,requested the members to tonedown to ensure that the deci-bel level is tolerable.

Putting in a supplementaryquestion, Vikasnagar MLAMunna Singh Chauhan askedthe Minister to clarify whetherthere is any regulation to con-trol noise pollution emanatingfrom the religious ceremoniesand festivals to which theMinister replied in the nega-tive.

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The UttarakhandAssembly passed a

unanimous resolutionfor granting status of‘Rashtra Mata’ to Cow.The Minister of Statefor Animal HusbandryRekha Arya placed theresolution in theAssembly in the post-lunch session on theday.

By adopting theresolution, theUttarakhand Assemblyrequested the UnionGovernment to declareCow as Rasthra Mata.

Participating in thedebate on the issue, the

Leader of theO p p o s i t i o nIndira Hridayesh

said that on one hand,the Government isdemanding Cow to beelevated as the motherof nation and on theother hand, the Cowsare being found roam-ing on the streets,uncared for.

The Congress MLAPritam Singh said thatthe Governmentshould also ensure pro-tection of Cows.

The House laterunanimously adoptedthe resolution.

Besides, the Housepassed the UttarakhandMolasses Control Billand Uttarakhand CourtFees Amendment Acton the day.

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Ut t a r a k h a n dGovernment is

planning to increasethe compensationamount in the casesof human-wild lifeconflict where ani-mals attack humansand cattle. This assur-ance was given by theForest Minister HarakSingh Rawat in theState Assembly onWednesday. He saidthat the Governmentis contemplating toraise the compensa-tion amount for deathcaused by wild animalattacks from the pre-sent �3 lakh to�5lakh. Similarincrease in compen-sation in various cat-egories of disabilities

to humans caused byanimal attacks andcompensation in lossto the livestock wouldbe done, the ministerassured the House.

In response to aquestion byIndependent MLAPritam Singh Panwar,Rawat said that a totalof 79 persons havelost their lives while442 have been leftinjured by the attacksof wild animals inthe state from January1, 2017 till date.Similarly, a loss of11794 domestic ani-mals has occurred inthe correspondingperiod, he informed.The Minister alsoinformed the Housethat a budget of Rs 6crore has been setaside for grant ofcompensation fromwild animal attacks.

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Eight children being made toserve liquor and food in

roadside vends in Selaqui areawere rescued in a raid con-ducted by departmental offi-cials along with StateCommission for Protection ofChild Rights (SCPCR) memberand members of a voluntaryorganisation. However, aftertheir rescue SCPCR memberSeema Dora and BachpanBachao Andolan memberSandeep Pant said that theauthorities have booked a caseunder child labour act but notunder the bonded labour Act.Dora stressed that the author-ities should register a caseunder the bonded labour act inorder to ensure justice andrehabilitation of the rescuedchildren.

Talking to The Pioneer,Pant said that while booking acase under the child labour actis valid, it is also important toregister a case under theBonded Labour System(Abolition) Act. Pant said, “Theeight children rescued were allaged under 14 years and werebeing paid �100 a day whichamounts to �3,000 per monthwhereas the minimum wage forunskilled labour is �6,500 permonth.

There are four SupremeCourt judgments and the Actwhich states that those notbeing paid the minimum wagesare bonded labourers. The chil-dren rescued were being madeto work from 9 to 11 and alsobeing abused. Registering acase under the bonded labouract will help facilitate theirrehabilitation in addition tomaking them eligible for min-imum �20,000 to maximum �3 lakh compensation.”

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Prime Minister NarendraModi has failed to meet the

expectations which made manyvote him to office, said PravinTogadia, the international headof the Antarrashtriya HinduParishad. He was addressing agathering as part of theOctober 21 Ayodhya Koochprogramme here onWednesday.

Criticising Modi and theBharatiya Janata Party, he saidthat those who had been elect-ed with the hope that the Ramtemple would be constructed at

the lord’s birthplace in Ayodhyahad abandoned the issue.

They had been voted toaddress issues including cowprotection but had turned outto be detrimental to the cows.The BJP has forgotten the sac-rifice of Shyama PrasadMukherjee. “When it comes tothe SC-ST Act, Modi says thatthe parliament and not thecourt will take the decision butwhen it comes to the RamMandir, he says that the court,not the parliament will take adecision. The BJP ledGovernment has completedfour years at the Centre but no

provision or plan has beenmade for construction of theRam temple.

It appears as if the templeis not part of the BJP’s agendaany more. The BJP worked for‘Congress-Mukt’ Bharat butended up creating ‘Congress-Yukt’ BJP which is why its ide-ology too appears to be like thatof the Congress,” he said.

While also criticising thegovernment for rising inflation,he, further, alleged that like theRam temple, the removal ofsection 370 and 35 A too hadbeen excluded from the BJP’sagenda.

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The ceremonial idols of god-desses Nanda and Sunanda

were immersed in the Nainilake after a colourful processionin Nainital on Wednesday. Thismarked the conclusion of the115th Nanda Devi Mahotsav.

Devotees participated withenthusiasm in the procession

taken out on the occasion.Various cultural aspects includ-ing folk dances, people dressedup in costumes as deities andother beings, displays by mem-bers of Akhadas and tableauxwere part of the procession.

Earlier, with the help of SriRam Sevak Sabha, a specialworship of goddess Bhagwatiwas held at the Naina Devi

temple during the morning.After Devi Bhog at 12 PM, acolourful procession of god-desses Nanda and Sunandastarted from the shrine.

After passing through themarket area, the processionreached the Pashan Devi tem-ple near where the devoteesemotionally bid farewell to theceremonial idols of the god-

desses by immersing them inthe Naini lake.

Adequate number of policepersonnel had also beendeployed in order to ensuresecurity on the occasion.Troupes of folk dancers fromvarious parts of Kumaon regionand local musical bands alsoperformed during the proces-sion.

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Pithoragarh's Naini SainiAirport is being readied to

receive the first flight as part ofthe regular air service slated tostart early next month. PrimeMinister Narendra Modi isslated to inaugurate theDehradun-Pithoragarh air ser-vice as part of Ude Desh kaAam Nagrik (UDAN) schemeon October 7.

The work is being doneunder the supervision of theAirports Authority of India

(AAI) which has deputed 12expert engineers in the pres-ence of Pantnagar airport direc-tor SK Singh.

He informed that the nec-essary arrangements at the air-port are complete. Flight infor-mation system and an X-raymachine costing �1.5 crorehave been installed. Lightingsystem on the runway is alsobeing given the final touches.Singh, further, said that theworks are expected to be com-pleted by September 30.

It will be recalled that withforest and environmental clear-ance being graned to opera-tions from Pithoragarh air-port, all arrangements weremade for provision of equip-ment and human resource.The State chief secretary UtpalKumar Singh recently held ameeting with officials of AAI

and Directorate General ofCivil Aviation to review allarrangements.

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Under the Swachchhta hiSewa campaign from

September 15 to October 2,on September 22, a cleanli-ness campaign will be held atal l rai lway stat ions inUttarakhand as part of theRailway Swachchhta Diwas.On September 25, under theSwachchh Bharat Mission,under “Swachchhagrahi SeSwachchhagrahi–Ek SeAnek”, the Swachhgrahis (vol-unteers) will make the peopleaware about cleanliness in thevillage panchayats and will

also participate in cleanlinesswork.

For the purpose of publicawareness under the“Internat ional MahatmaGandhi Sammelan” day onSeptember 29, seminars relat-ed to cleanliness will beorganised in the districts.

On the occasion of GandhiJayanti on October 2, the

“Swachchh Bharat Diwas”will be organised at the dis-trict and state level. In thedistrict, solid and liquid wastemanagement works will bestarted at any selected villagepanchayat at the GramPanchayat level.

On the same day, work ofplantation, water resourceconservation and cleanlinessof water sources, stream andnullahs will also be done inthe village panchayats.

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The teachers of theGovernment schools now

cannot be engaged by theadministration in duties otherthan teaching. Teachers, how-ever, can be engaged in census-related work and disaster reliefoperations.

In an order issued, the secre-tary education Bhupinder

Kaur Aulakh has directed allthe District Magistrates that theteachers should not be engagedin activities other than teach-ing.

She has cited the provisionsof Right to Education ( RTE) inthis matter.

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An amicus curiae is a friendof the court: someone

who is not a party to a caseand may or may not have beensolicited by a party and whoassists a court by offeringinformation, expertise orinsight that has a bearing onthe issues in a particular case.He is typically presented in the

form of a brief.Eminent lawyer of India

Gopal Subramanium has beenappointed the amicus curiae bythe Supreme Court after a PILwas filed by social worker ofOdisha Mrinalini Padhi seekingrelief from the torture inflictedby a sizeable number of unrulyJagannath Temple servitors andtheir business associates whohave lately turned intolerably ill-behaved and vulgar with thesole motive of extracting moneyfrom devotees by intimidationand guile. The Supreme Courttook strong note of the gravesituation and ordered the PuriDistrict Judge to make a thor-ough inquiry into the matterand put up discreet as well asjudicious recommendations tothe apex court within a fort-night. The Puri judge did asplendid job within the short-

est time and placed his recom-mendations based on twelvecritical findings, one of whichwas to have the hereditaryrights of servitors abolished,which incidentally is a mostpopular demand for decades.The Supreme Court found therecommendations perfectly log-ical and passed an interimorder to have them imple-mented instantly, which sent achill up the spines of the rogueservitors who do not have anyknowledge of right and wrongor even the ABCs of age-old rit-uals or even the basics killsrequired, yet pose as the ones atthe service of the deities. Rattledbadly by the court’s directions,a section of servitors, close tosome local politicians and withsome money in pocket, hasmindlessly alleged that themove is part of a larger con-

spiracy hatched by powerfulnon-Odia officers in the StateGovernment.

The District Judge ShriAmbuja Mohan Das had sug-gested, among the twelvestrong points, introduction ofa queue system for hassle-freedarshan, a complete ban onacceptance of Dakshina (offer-tory) by servitors and identitycards and a strict dress code forservitors and all other func-tionaries. Hygiene and sanita-tion issues too were to beresolved by the temple admin-istration. The suggestions alsoincluded an absolute control of

the shrine kitchen by the tem-ple administration for fair pric-ing of Mahaprasad, registrationof guides with temple officeand a complete ban on the useof Thalis and pitchers by servi-tors to receive offerings withthe sole view to leaving thedevotees safe and immune toinvasive approach by rogueservitors to make money ille-gally or by intimidation. Ahigh-definition CCTV systemtoo has to be in place to keepwatch over the behaviour ofrogues in the temple premises.The Supreme Court had askedthe temple administration totake action without delay.

Significantly, the JusticeBK Patra Commission of 1977had also recommended aboli-tion of hereditary priesthoodand the offertory system. But

the recommendations couldnot be implemented due to acasual attitude of theGovernment then mainlybecause the servitors were notso vile or virulent.

The temple administrationhas been asked to upload acopy of the District Judge’sreport on the website of thetemple administration so as tomake the recommendationspopularly known. The copywas also hosted on the websitesof the Supreme Court and theMinistry of Culture for twoweeks.

Unfortunately, the Gajapati

king and he Shankaracharya ofPuri have not agreed to the pro-posal of allowing devotees fromall religions as the divine nameof the Lord suggests, Lord ofthe Universe encompassingevery living creature as dearand fit to enter the temple.

The top court had specifi-cally directed the OdishaGovernment to study the man-agement schemes of otherimportant shrines such asVaishno Devi in Jammu andKashmir, Somnath Temple inGujarat, Golden Temple inPunjab, Tirupati Temple inAndhra Pradesh andDharamsthala Temple inKarnataka.

Quite in the past between1859 and 1897, the Puri templemanagement had turned shod-dy for several unavoidable cir-

cumstances. The BritishGovernment had to step in tointervene. But unlike today, thegeneral public and Hindu reli-gious leaders did not keep quietabout the difficult situationthen. People across Odisha agi-tated for immediate restorationof peace and order in the tem-ple management. The regionalPress was then led by ‘UtkalDipika’ to exert pressure on theGovernment to rush in andmake the temple premises adivinely serene and devotee-friendly environment. The occa-sional discord or confusionamong insiders was forgotten bythe Odia society, which cametogether to ensure the templewas considered the best shrinein the world. Legendary lawyerand maker of Odisha,Madhusudan Das fought toothand nail against the Britishadministration when it over-stepped its jurisdiction in thetemple affairs. Around thattime, the Gajapati king was nomore and the brave queenSuryamani Patadei, with anadopted minor son, had han-dled all problems with helpfrom Madhusudan Das. Today,with a much bigger number ofpeople and incredible infor-mation technology in hand,most people, particularlyyouths, have no sensitivity torise to the occasion and raise avoice against rogue servitorswho are a thousand times bet-ter off financially and status wisethan they were only thirty yearsago due to want of so many

facilities and in the absence ofequity in getting wages for ser-vices offered to the deities.

The Puri District Judgehas created history by solvinga most contentious problem ail-ing the temple for over thirty-odd years ever since the servi-tors attained visibility due totelevision broadcast and count-less other publicity initiativesby the temple earning sub-stantial amounts of money andgoods through the Hundi sys-tem and more.

Gopal Subramanium waschosen by the Supreme Courtto be the amicus curiae for avery valid reason. The friend ofthe court is fantastically versedwith the fundamental tenets ofHindu religion and all itsnuances. He has read anddigested most of the popularand esoteric scriptures availablein the society. His primary jobis to make sure the DistrictJudge has truly done a mag-nificent job. It is learnt fromreliable sources that he willmeet the Shankaracharya andthe Gajapati king for ideas andresponses. But as everyoneknows, the Shankaracharya iskind of a Hindu fundamental-ist who does not believeunorthodox Hindus are true tothe religion. Hence, his aggres-sive opposition to the ISKCONdevotees who are practicallymore Hindu than most of thecrowd. Besides, it is literallyimpossible to describe anorthodox Hindu as there is noknown set of parameters or

symptoms to identify one. TheGajapati king of today is anoble soul without guts or grit.He does not want to raise anycontroversies by spelling outsome hardcore truths about theuniversal faith called the‘Sanatana Dharma’.

So, he might play safe bykeeping quiet; and theShankaracharya may in all prob-ability confuse the ‘Friend of theCourt’ with archaic and obsoleteexamples of practices which aregrossly non-secular in spirit.

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Aformer woman employeeof the Air Odisha on

Wednesday alleged that she wasraped by the airline’s CEOSantosh Pani.

She lodged a complaintagainst him with the Khandagiripolice seeking justice.As per thecomplaint, Pani raped her twicetwo months after her joining theAir Odisha as a security super-visor in July 2018.The com-plainant, who currently workswith the Air Deccan, is a residentof Kolkata.

“On August 10, Pani offeredme a lift to drop me home andforcefully entered my house andraped me. He again raped me onAugust 12. On August 13, Iresigned from the company andwent back to Kolkata,” she said.

However, Pani refuted theallegation, saying the woman wassacked for having rifts with

other staffs of the company fre-quently. “Many staffs of thecompany had even filed com-plaints against her at theKhandagiri police station. Sheeven approached me to sackother staffs. As I did not accepther request, she has brought suchallegation against me to takerevenge.” Notably, Pani was ear-lier arrested in April 2017 on thebasis of a non-bailable warrant(NBW) issued against him by alocal court.

Earlier in June 2016, he hadbeen arrested for allegedly dup-ing Sandeep Ray, son of BJPMLA Dilip Ray, of �40 lakh.

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Biramitrapur IndependentMLA George Tirkey and

Mahanadi Bachao Andolanconvenor Sudarshan Das onWednesday joined theCongress at New Delhi in thepresence of All IndiaCongress Committee (AICC)president Rahul Gandhi.

Welcoming Tirkey andDas to the party, PradeshCongress Committee (PCC)president Niranjan Patnaiksaid this would strengthen theparty further.

“Tirkey is a senior triballeader with thousands of sup-porters. Similarly, Das alongwith four other members ofthe organisat ion joinedCongress today. We heartilywelcome them to the party,”said Patnaik.

He further said theCongress is ready to wel-

come to the party all like-minded people who want towork for the interest ofOdisha.

On being asked if Tirkeywould contest as Congresscandidate from theSundargarh Lok Sabha seat in2019, Patnaik said the partywould take a decision in thisregard at appropriate time.

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All over India, the week ofKaryanjali is celebrated

from September 17 to 25 toprovide free service to peoplein need throughout the weekmainly by raising awarenessand treating patients for free.

A free dental checkup andoral cancer screening andawareness camp was organisedby the SOA University, Dentalwing at Salia Sahi’s Birsa

Munda Club of BhubaneswarNorth on September 19. Morethan 150 people were screenedfor cancer and other debilitat-ing oral diseases.

The programme was coor-dinated by Dr Aiswarya Biswal,vice-president of State BJPMahila Morcha. BJPspokesperson Dilip Mohantyand BJP Bhubaneswar districtpresident Hari Khuntia werealso present along with AnangaBikram Biswal, Susant Sabatand Binay Rout.

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Chief Minister NaveenPattnaik on Wednesday

appointed internationally-acclaimed sand artist PadmaSri Sudarsan Pattnaik as thenew president of the OdishaLalit Kala Akademi.

A notification in thisregard was issued from theChief Minister’s Office.

The post was lying vacantafter noted sculptor Padma

Vibhushan RaghunathMohapatra resigned from it fol-

lowing his nomina-tion to Rajya Sabhain July this year.

Sand sculptorPattnaik will start acampaign on thePuri sea beach toattract touristsahead of the OdishaHockey Men’sWorld Cup to beheld here in

Bhubaneswar from November28 to December 16.

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JAGATSINGHPUR: Businesstycoon Mahimananda Mishraon Wednesday surrenderedbefore the Judicial MagistrateFirst Class (JMFC) Court atKujang in connection with theMahendra Swain murder case.He was then sent to jail.

Mishra surrendered afterthe Supreme Court on Tuesdayrejected the bail granted to himby the Orissa High Court. Theapex court had also ordered totake him into custody.

Mishra, who is managingdirector of Orissa StevedoresLimited (OSL), had been arrest-ed from Thailand for allegedlymasterminding the murder ofSwain, a top executive ofHyderabad-based stevedoringcompany Seaways Shipping andLogistics Limited (SSLL), onOctober 26, 2016 in Paradip.

Earlier on July 16, 2018 theHigh Court had granted con-ditional bail to Mishra in thePress Chowk bomb hurlingand Paradip Tarinigada firingcases. PNS

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The State Governmentincurred a total of loan of

1,350.48 crore and distributedit among the four power dis-tribution companies (discoms),Nesco, Southco, Wesco andCesu. While the total loan out-standing with interest on thesecompanies is now �2,908.55crore, they have repaid � 78.77crore only.

Energy Minister SushantSingh informed this in theState Assembly in response toa question of MLA Dillip Rayon Wednesday.

According to information,the Nesco owed �393.78 croreand Wesco �407.93 crore to theState Government by March31, 2018 while Cesu had torepay �1797.29 crore andSouthco �309.55 crore byMarch 31, 2017.

In a related question of

MLA Ranendra Pratap Swain,the Minister informed thatthe licences of Southco, Nescoand Wesco, which were run bythe Reliance Infra, have beencancelled by the OdishaElectricity RegulatoryCommission (OERC) and the

Appellate Tribunal andSupreme Court have upheldthe OERC decision.

While the Southco owespower dues of �43.52 crore,Nesco �18.70 crore and Wesco�103.94 crore to Gridco, theMinister informed.

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Atotal of 29 incidents ofmisbehaviour and sexual

harassment with girls in hostelsand residential schools, run byprivate organisations and theSC and ST DevelopmentDepartment, have been report-ed in the Sate during the lastthree years since 2015.

SC and ST Development,Minority Communities andBackward Classes WelfareMinister Ramesh ChandraMajhi informed this in theState Assembly in response toa question of Congress MLABhujabal Majhi on Wednesday.

The Minister furtherinformed that schoolteachersand other staffs committed thealleged offences. Out of 29incidents, a girl committedsuicide and died. As many as 26accused have been arrested,and disciplinary action hasbeen taken against them, theMinister said.

While the highest numberof 12 girls in Mayurbhanj dis-trict were subjected to misbe-haviour/sexual harassment,eight gils in Rayagada, three inKoraput, two each in Jajpur andMalkangiri and one each inKeonjhar and Gajapati districtfaced such plights. While a girlin Malkangiri district com-mitted suicide a girl in Koraputdistrict delivered a baby,according to information.

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In a freak accident, twowomen were electrocuted

after they came in contactwith a live electric wire intheir house at Unit-IX underthe Saheed Nagar police sta-t ion in the city onWednesday.

The deceased women wereidentified as sister-in-laws. Theduo was rushed to the CapitalHospital, where the doctorsdeclared them brought dead.

Sources said they werebusy in their householdchores when they accidental-ly came in touch with the liveelectric wire.

Police sent the bodies forpostmortem and launched aprobe into the incident.

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The Odisha ParentAssociations’ Forum held a

rally and demonstration in theLower PMG here onWednesday demanding theState Government’s controlover the private English medi-um schools that are fleecing thestudents in the name of quali-ty education.

The forum alleged thatwhile the standards of StateGovernment and Governmentaided schools have fallen, con-scious parents are admittingtheir students in private Englishmedium schools with the hopeof quality education. But their

hopes are belied as the Englishmedium schools are imposinghefty fees by way of hikingthem arbitrarily without con-centrating on quality education.The agitators said that otherStates like Gujarat,

Maharashtra,P u n j a b ,T r i p u r a ,Karnataka andKerala etc haveimplementedlaws to regu-late theseschools, but sofar, in Odishathese schoolsare going rud-derless. They

demanded immediate inter-vention of the Governmentand steps to regulate theseschools.

While Dr Gagan BihariRout presided, among others,Sanjukta Panigrahi spoke.

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Cuttack District MagistrateAr vind Agar wal on

Wednesday assured AthagarhPress Club (APC) members torun city buses betweenCuttack and Athagarh soon.APC members had been stag-ing a dharna demanding City Bus ser vice sinceSeptember 7. An APC team including clubpresident Dinesh Das andmembers Sailendra Pattnaik,Shankarsan Mohanty,Jagadananda Tripathy, BijayaKumar Nayak and others metthe DM at his office and putforth their demand. The DMassured private buses toAthagarh within a week and

new City Buses within amonth or two.

The team also met STACommissioner Sanjeeb Pandaand ADM Harish ChandraNayak and got posit iveresponse from them for busservices.

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Aleprosy identification anderadication programme

would be intensified in thehigh and less prone and farflung inaccessible areas inthe State. About 36,162ASHAs, 6,240 health workers,1,090 health supervisors,1,381 medical officers and 291officers would be engaged inthe drive.

In a State level workshophere, Health and FamilyWelfare Secretar y PKMeherda has asked theCDMOs and DPMs to workfor successful implementa-tion of the programme.

The Government has seta target to make Odisha lep-rosy-free by 2020 and beforethat to reduce the leprosyaffected persons to less thanone in every 10 lakh popula-tion by October 2, 2019.

According to sources, aleprosy eradication pro-gramme has been launched inthe State since 1983 and alldistricts have been coveredunder it in phases. However,still, the numbers of leprosy-hit in the State in 2014-15,2015-16, 2016-17 and 2017-18 are 8,004, 10,175, 10,045,and 9,576 respectively.

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The Nilgiri police onWednesday busted an

inter-State idol and antiquelifters’ racket and arrested sevenpersons, including three ofNew Delhi and one of Haryana.

The arrestees were identifiedas Kuanarjit Singh (52), NareshKumar (29), Raj Kumar (39) of

New Delhi, Raj Kumar (37) ofHaryana, Dipak Behera (40) ofDhenkanal district, ManmathMalik (55) of Baleswar districtand Omkarnath Bramhacharialias Hanuman Baba ofKendrapara district.

Sources said that they werecaught by the villagers in thefoothill of the Devanagiri hill ofNilgiri on Sunday night and werethrashed by the locals assumingthem as child lifters while theywere moving suspiciously in thearea at around 11 pm.

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Continuing with its attack onthe Modi Government, the

Congress on Wednesday sub-mitted a memorandum to theComptroller and AuditorGeneral (CAG) over allegedirregularities in the Rafalefighter jet deal and maintainedthat the auditor watchdog com-mitted to take a look into thematter.

The Congress has steppedup the attack on theGovernment over the Rafaledeal and is seeking to make ita major poll issue ahead ofAssembly elections in some keystates later this year and theparliamentary election in 2019.

A delegation of party lead-ers led by senior party memberGhulam Nabi Azad called onCAG chief Rajiv Mehrishi andhanded over a memorandum,accusing the Government ofcausing loss to the publicexchequer and endangeringnational security by bypassingstate-run HindustanAeronautics Limited (HAL) infavour of some businessman“friends” for offset contract.

The delegation also includ-ed Ahmed Patel, Ghulam NabiAzad, Anand Sharma, JairamRamesh, Randeep Surjewalaand Mukul Wasnik.

Sharma said the party hasgiven a detailed memoran-

dum, along with enclosures on“irregularities” and “acts ofomission and commission” bythe Government in the fighterjet deal. “We expect the CAGwill prepare a report soon andpresent it before Parliament,” hesaid.

Congress alleged that thefresh deal for Rafale fighter jetswas inked by the NarendraModi dispensation at a costmuch higher than what wasnegotiated by the previousGovernment led by it.

“The CAG pointed out thatit is his constitutional and fun-damental duty to audit all suchpurchases, procedures, award ofcontract and the CAG saidthat they are already examiningthe entire Rafale deal. They are

examining the papers, they areexamining the payments made,and they are examining theprocedure and its violation.They assured that they will lookat all the documents that wehave brought in public domainand that they will very soon besubmitting a report toParliament after examining allthe contentions raised by theCongress party,” Congress chiefspokesperson RandeepSurjewala told reporters.

“The Government isbound to disclose the price of36 aircraft to scrutiny by theCAG, in accordance with lawand there has to be a similardisclosure to the PublicAccounts Committee (PAC),Chief Vigilance Commission

(CVC), and ParliamentaryStanding Committee onDefence,” he said.

In its memorandum, theCongress alleged violation ofthe mandatory provisions of theDefence ProcurementProcedure in the “unilateral”purchase of 36 Rafale jets fromDassault Aviation and that pub-lic exchequer lost �41,000 croredue to the purchase. The partysaid while the previous UPAGovernment was buying Rafalejets for �526 crore a piece, therate fixed by the Modi dispen-sation was �1,670 crore.

“We request the CAG toundertake its constitutionalduty by conducting a timebound special and forensicaudit by examining the recordthreadbare, so that the truth istold to the people of India in acomprehensive and transparentmanner affixing the responsi-bility of the ModiGovernment,” the Congressmemorandum said.

The party earlier demand-ed a probe by a joint parlia-mentary committee (JPC) intothe alleged irregularities in thedeal. The Government hasrejected any kind of JPC orCAG probe into the deal, saying an inquiry cannot be setup only to satisfy the ego of an“ill-informed” leader of the Opposition party who“repeats lies”.

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The Government onWednesday not only reject-

ed the Congress’ demand for aprobe into the Rafale fighter jetdeal, saying an enquiry cannot beset up only to satisfy the ego ofan “ill-informed” leader of theOpposition party who “repeatslies”, but also targeted formerDefence Minister AK Antony.

“I don’t think JPC or CAGenquiry is set up to satisfy the egoof an ill-informed leader whorepeats lies with alarming regu-larity,” Law Minister RaviShankar Prasad told reporters, inan apparent attack on Congresspresident Rahul Gandhi.

Prasad said that Antony hasa lot to answer for keeping thepublic-sector HindustanAeronautics Limited (HAL),which was to be offset partner ofthe French maker of Rafale jets,in the lurch despite being inoffice for eight years.

His response came afterCongress leaders met theComptroller and AuditorGeneral (CAG) seeking a probeinto alleged irregularities in the

Rafale fighter jet deal and forleaving HAL out of the offsetcontract and transfer of tech-nology. The Congress has alsobeen demanding a joint parlia-mentary committee (JPC) probeinto the matter.

Prasad said Antony was theDefence Minister when the off-set rule was framed, as incum-bent Defence Minister NirmalaSitharaman has already articu-lated.

Under India’s offset policy,foreign defence entities are man-dated to spend at least 30 per centof the total contract value inIndia through procurement ofcomponents or setting up ofresearch and development facil-

ities. “He was the Minister wholeft HAL in lurch, as far as thejoint operations is concerned. MrAntony has a lot to answer,” hesaid.

“What has struck me moreis that Mr Antony, who wasDefence Minister for eight yearsduring which nothing could bedone for modernisation andempowerment of Indian forces,(making statement on the issue),”he said.

Prasad also said that IndianAir Force badly needs planes asthe old planes are causing repeat-ed accidents. “Should theCongress at least rise to the occa-sion for the sake of country’s safe-ty and security,” he said.

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The BJP and Congressengaged in a political spat

soon after the Centre cleared anOrdinance making the practiceof triple talaq a punishableoffence. While BJP presidentAmit Shah termed it a historicmoment and said it is also a mat-ter of introspection and guilt forpolitical parties which forcedMuslim women to suffer due tovote bank politics, the Congressaccused the Modi Governmentof treating the issue of instanttriple talaq “more as a politicalfootball than a matter of justiceto Muslim women”.

Hailing Prime MinisterNarendra Modi for theCabinet’s nod to the ordi-nance, Shah said in tweetsthat the decision will allowMuslim women to live withdignity in society. Targetingopposition parties such as theCongress, he said, “This ordi-nance is also a matter of guilt

and introspection for them asthey forced Muslims women tosuffer from this bad practicefor decades due to their votebank politics.”

Congress’ chief spokesper-son Randeep Surjewala said theGovernment has not accededto the Congress request formaking a provision for attach-ing the property of those notproviding compensation to theaffected women and childrenafter giving them divorce.

Surjewala said instant tripletalaq was “an illegal, unconsti-

tutional and inhuman practice”that was quashed by theSupreme Court. After theSupreme Court quashed thepractice, it has become a law.

“For us, triple talaq hasalways been a human issuerelated to women rights andextending justice to them,” hesaid, adding that this is the rea-son why Congress leaders andlawyers such as SalmanKhurshid and Manish Tiwarirepresented the affectedwomen before the SupremeCourt in the case. However, the

Modi Government is treatingthe issue more as a politicalfootball than a matter of justiceto Muslim women,” he alleged.

“When triple talaq has beenquashed, the next issue now isof providing justice to Muslimwomen. They should have theright to allowance from theproperty of their husband tolook after themselves and theirchildren. The property of thosemen who are unable to providethis compensation, should beattached. But the Modi gov-ernment is avoiding this.

“They do not want justicebe given to Muslim women,Modiji does not want thatMuslim women get allowanceand our amendment that prop-erty should be attached was notaccepted by the government,”Surjewala said at AICC briefing.

Surjewala said theCongress had objected that if aman is jailed, how will womenget allowance and how can carebe ensured to their children.

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India accounted for 27 per centof the 10 million people who

developed tuberculosis in 2017,the highest among the top 30 highTB burden countries in the world,according to the latest report bythe World Health Organisation.Globally, the report said, the bestestimate is that 10 million peopledeveloped TB disease in 2017. Ofthese, 5.8 million are men, 3.2 mil-lion women and one million chil-dren.

What’s worst for India wasthat it was home to almost half ofthe world’s cases which were resis-tant to TB drugs at 24 percent fol-lowed by China (13 percent), andRussia (10 percent), as per the2018 edition of the GlobalTuberculosis Report, released hererecently.

The report, which provides acomprehensive and up-to-date

assessment of the TB epidemicand progress in the response atglobal, regional and country lev-els, however, noted that estimatesof TB incidence and mortality forIndia are interim, pending resultsfrom the national TB prevalencesurvey planned for 2019/2020.

The Worldwide contractedTB that was resistant to rifampicin,“the most effective first-line drug.”Of this number, 82 percent hadmultidrug-resistant TB. And of theMDR-TB cases, 8.5 percent wereextensively drug resistant, or unre-sponsive to four anti-TB drugsnamely Rifampicin, isoniazid, anyof the fluoroquinolone antibi-otics, and at least one of the threeinjectable second-line drugs.

There were cases in all coun-tries and age groups, but overall90 per cent were adults, and nineper cent were people living withHIV.

Of the global total, two-thirds

were in eight countries alone —India 27 per cent; China nine percent; Indonesia eight per cent; thePhilippines six per cent; Pakistanfive per cent; Nigeria four per cent;Bangladesh four per cent andSouth Africa three per cent.

The TB number has beenincreasing since 2013, mainly dueto increased reporting of detect-ed cases by the private sector inIndia, following the introductionof a national policy of mandato-ry notification in 2012 and therollout of a nationwide web-basedand case-based reporting system(called ‘Nikshay’) that facilitatesreporting of detected cases by careproviders in the public and privatesectors.

India accounted for 32 percent of global TB deaths amongHIV-negative people, and for 27per cent of the combined total TBdeaths in HIV-negative and HIV-positive people.

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Eight years after it wasfirst conceived, the work

on the mega exhibition andconvention centre — IndiaInternational Convention &Expo Centre (IICC) — willfinally commence fromThursday. Prime MinisterNarendra Modi will lay thefoundation stone of thestate-of-the-art conventioncentre in Dwarka on thelines of the ones inShanghai, Hong Kong andSingapore for hosting exhi-bitions, trade fairs and sum-mits of international stan-dards.

The project is plannedover an area of 221.37 acres(over 90 hectares or 10.7lakh square km) in Sector25, Dwarka, at an estimatedcost of Rs.25,703 crores. It isconnected through DwarkaExpressway and Urban

Extension Road II and isabout 11 kms from the DelhiInternational Airport. Theproject was first mooted in2010 but was stuck due todelay in transfer of landfrom DDA.

IICC at Dwarka will bean integrated complex withfacilities like exhibition halls,convention centre, openexhibition spaces, mixed usecommercial spaces like starhotels (5, 4 and 3 star),

retail services and high-endoffices. The convention cen-tre can accommodate 11,000persons, 5 exhibition halls,1-kilometre long foyer,multi-purpose arena withretractable roof.

It will be developed intwo phases. Phase-I and IIwil l be completed byDecember 2019 andDecember 2024, respective-ly. Officials associated withthe project said the firstphase, comprising conven-tion centre with a seatingcapacity of 10,000 guests,two exhibition halls spreadover 80,000 square metrearea and a foyer, would beready by October 2019 andwill be constructed as non-public-private partnership(PPP) component. The sec-ond phase, comprising theremaining exhibition areawill be ready by 2025 andfacilities such as hotels, retail

space and offices will becompleted on a public-pri-vate partnership (PPP)mode, it said.

The driving factorbehind the project is also topromote schemes like Makein India, tourism, trade andcommerce, exports, busi-ness tourism etc. Accordingto estimations, the govern-ment expects IICC Dwarkawill generate an annualdemand for at least 100large international anddomestic events. It expectsto receive around 10 millionannual visitors by 2019-20and 23 million after the sec-ond phase in 2025.

According to officials,the country boasts of a fewbig convention centres suchas the one in Pragati Maidanand the Bombay Conventionand Exhibition Centre, buta world-class centre is lack-ing. The IICC Dwarka will

be looking to fill in thisspace.

The construction willbe in line with green build-ing principles and IndianGreen Building Council(IGBC) Platinum ratingstandards.

IICC complex will havea dedicated undergroundMetro station which will bean extension of the airporthigh speed metro corridorand is being constructed byDelhi Metro.

The Airport Express lineof the Delhi Metro RailCorporation is being con-sidered for extension fromDwarka Sector 21 to theECC complex. It is pro-posed that the complex willhave a dedicated stationalong with three entry/exitpoints within the complexand the line’s constructioncould be completed by assoon as December 2019.

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Keeping an eye on the forth-coming Assembly polls in

Madhya Pradesh, the CabinetCommittee on Economic Affairs(CCEA) on Wednesday approved a205.5-km new line connectingBudni to Indore (Mangaliyagaon) inthe State. The total estimated costof the project is �3,261 crore whichwill provide connectivity to varioustowns and villages like Nasrullganj,Khategoan and Kannod where thereis no rail connectivity at present.

“The main purpose of this pro-ject is development of backwardarea and reduction in travel timefrom Indore to Jabalpur as well asfrom Indore to Mumbai andtowards southern side also, as thiswill reduce distance by 68 km com-pared to the present available route

via Bhopal,” railway ministry said ina statement.

“It will provide better transportfacilities for public and industries inthis area. It will also help to pro-vide/generate employment oppor-tunities in the project area. The pro-ject will generate direct employmentduring construction for about 49.32lakh man-days,” the statement said.

The proposed line will take offfrom the existing yard of Budni andwill connect at Mangaliyagaon, theexisting station of Western Railwaynear Indore. Ten new crossing sta-tions and seven new halt stations areproposed to be constructed enroute.

The new line will serve Sehore,Dewas and Indore districts andwill provide direct link from Budnito Indore bypassing the congestedroute of Bhopal-Itarsi including

Ghat sect ion from Budni toBerkheda. It will also be beneficialfor the defence forces which hasthree premier institutes in Indore.

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New Delhi: The CabinetCommittee on Economic Affairson Wednesday approved therevised cost estimate of a projectto improve the safety of 198 damsacross the country. The revisedcost has now been pegged at�3,466 crore. Originally, the totalcost of the project was �2,100crore with State component of�1,968 crore and central compo-nent of �132 crore.

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New Delhi: Afghan PresidentAshraf Ghani on Wednesdayassured Prime MinisterNarendra Modi that hisGovernment would do every-thing possible to secure therelease of seven engineersabducted by Taliban in therestive northern Baghlanprovince in May, officialsources said.

During extensive talks withModi, Ghani also conveyed tohim that the AfghanGovernment is enhancingsecurity for Sikhs inAfghanistan in the wake ofkilling of 13 people of thecommunity in a suicide bomb-ing in July, the sources said.

They said Ghani’s responseon both the issues came afterModi raised them.

Seven Indian engineerswere kidnapped in Baghlanprovince on May 6, and Modi,in the talks, conveyed his con-cerns over them to Ghani.

In the talks, the decision by

India and China to initiatejoint projects in Afghanistanwas also deliberated upon.

The sources said a Sino-India integrated training pro-gramme for Afghan diplomatswill kickstart next month inDelhi. The diplomats will firsttrain in Delhi and then willleave for Beijing.

Ghani was here on a day-long working visit.

Giving an overview of thesecurity scenario inAfghanistan, Ghani alsoapprised Modi about Talibanattack on southeastern city of

Ghazni and increasing pres-ence of ISIS in the country. Onthe Ghazni attack, he saidinvolvement of Pakistaninational has emerged, thesources said. PTI

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An inter-Ministerialteam, headed by a

special secretary of theHome Ministry, will visitKerala for five days begin-ning Thursday to assessthe damage caused by therecent devastating floods.

The move comes afterthe Kerala Governmentsent a detailed memoran-dum seeking �4,700-croreas compensation for thedamage occurred due torains and floods, consid-ered to be worst in a cen-tury.

The inter-ministerialteam, headed by SpecialSecretary B R Sharma,will visit Kerala fromSeptember 20 to 24, a

Home Ministry officialsaid.

At least 488 peoplehave died in Kerala due tothe rains and floods thismonsoon, which hit 14districts of the State. TheKerala Government mem-orandum comprisesdetails about the loss ofhuman life, properties,infrastructure and crops.

In case of any naturalcalamity beyond the cop-ing capacity of a state, thestate Government sub-mits a detailed memo-randum indicating sec-tor-wise details of damageand requirement of fundsfor relief operations ofimmediate nature.Accordingly, the KeralaGovernment sent the

memorandum, the officialsaid.

According to theexisting guidelines, theInter-Ministerial CentralTeam (IMCT) will visit thestate for on-the-spotassessment of damage andadditional requirement offunds.

The IMCT report willbe considered by the sub-committee of nationalexecutive committee (SC-NEC) headed by theUnion home secretary inconformity with thenorms and then by a high-level committee, chairedby the Home Minister forapproving the quantum ofadditional assistance fromthe National DisasterRelief Fund (NDRF),

another official said.The financial mecha-

nism to meet the rescueand relief expenditureduring any notified disas-ter event is governed byguidelines on the StateDisaster Relief Fund(SDRF) and the NDRF,the official said.

On August 21, theCentral Government hadreleased �600 crore toflood-hit Kerala aspromised by PrimeMinister Narendra Modi(�500 crore) and HomeMinister Rajnath Singh(�100 crore) during theirvisits to the State. This wasin addition to �562.45crore already made avail-able in the State DisasterRelief Fund of Kerala.

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Expecting reverses in theHindi belt which account-

ed for about 160 out of 190seats in 2014 the BJP is takingBengal “very seriously” interms of 2019 general elections.Consequently party presidentAmit Shah has decided to per-sonally navigate the poll vesselin the run up to the 2019 LokSabha elections, insiders say.

Accordingly Shah hasplanned 42 “war rooms” for allthe 42 parliamentary con-stituencies led by seasoned“trans-Bengal” party organis-ers. The “war room” is also like-ly to be enriched by somemanagement experts whowould in tandem with the sea-soned ‘imported’ organiserstrain the general workers to goabout election campaigning,sources said.

Says BN Chakrabarty asephologist: “The waning LeftFront which got 15 percentvotes in the Panchayat polls isnot likely to improve its tallybeyond 18 percent in the gen-eral elections. Add to itCongress’ committed 8-10 per-cent vote.

“The Trinamool Congresson the other hand is likely toget solid 28-30 percent Muslimvotes. Besides it has its own 15percent general votes includingthe standard 5-7 percent votegained through rigging. Takinginto account 2 percent vote forthe Independents and smallergroups the BJP is unlikely topoll more than 30-32 percentvotes which will not win themthe elections.”

Suman Mukherjee a polit-ical analyst backs this view say-ing “even in its worst day theLeft will poll 17 percent vote.If the BJP cannot pull it downto 7-8 percent it has no chanceof winning Bengal.”

Though Shah has fixed atarget of 22 seats for the BengalBJP, Mukherjee is unwilling tobet even on its two sittingMPs Babul Supriyo and SSAhluwalia. “The situation issuch that they also might losetheir seats,” he says adding, theBJP has to do something extra-ordinary to win this elections.

“In any case till Amit Shahis there you do not know whatis going to happen because hedoes something more thanpolitics to win votes. This time

round Bengal will have toremain on high alert aboutsome extra-political things likeriots etc that can polarize votesin one go,” said another expert.

According to sources thewar room strategists will reportdirectly to Shah in Delhi andnot the State leaders to ensurethat there is no sabotage.“Plainly speaking the State BJPleaders will have no say in theelectoral strategy. They willonly give their advice to theparty top brass.”

The war-room strategists:making a lethal blend of someexpert RSS veterans and man-agement experts will send theirreports to Shah and ArvindMenon who would after mon-itoring and scrutinizing reportswill make out the final strategy.

Apart from a dedicated“war-room” tactic the BJP isalso planning to host a meet-ing of the minority leaders “inorder to alleviate the false fearin their mind.” Such meetingsis planned not to garnerMuslim votes to BJP side but todrive a wedge in that so thatsome of them are retained bythe Left and the Congress,insiders said.

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The Bombay High Court onWednesday issued notices

to the Election Commission ofIndia (EC), Maharashtra StateElection Commission (M-SEC)and two public sectorElectronic Voting Machine(EVM) manufacturing com-panies and others in a publicinterest litigation seeking inves-tigations into the supply anduse of EVMs manufactured bythe two State-run companiesand a stay on the use of themachines pending the probe.

A HC bench of Justice S.S.Kemkar and Justice S.V. Kotwalordered issuance of notices tothe EC, M-SEC, ElectronicsCorporation of India Ltd(ECIL) and Bharat ElectronicsLtd (BEL) and others to filetheir say, while hearing a pub-lic interest litigation filed RTIactivist by Manoranjan S Roy.

The others who wereserved notices are the UnionHome Ministry, ITDepartment and MaharashtraGovernment.

The HC bench directed theAdditional Solicitor-Generalof India and state Advocate-General to appear at the nexthearing to be held after twoweeks.

In a petition filed on behalfof Roy in March this year,counsels S P Chaudhari P

Pawar and Santosh Saroj hasurged the high court for settingup of a Special InvestigationTeam (SIT) into the supply ofEVMs by the two companies.He has also rooted for a stay onthe use of EVMs pending thecompletion of the investiga-tions.

Among other things, thepetitioners urged the high courtto order seizure of all theEVMs in circulation acrossthe country and take theminto its possession, pending theinvestigations.

In his petition, Roybrought to the attention of thecourt about the manner inwhich a large number of EVMsand Voter Verified Paper Audit

Trail (VVPATs) were beingordered by the EC and variousSECs and that there were hugecontradictions in the figures oforders and supplies made bythe two manufacturers.

Roy has based his petitionbased on the information hereceived from the parties con-cerned under the RTI Act.

Roy told the court thataccording to informationreceived by him under RTI Act,the Bengaluru-based BEL haddespatched large quantities ofelectronic voting machines by‘hand-delivery’ and ‘by post’ tovarious unidentified recipients.

Quoting the RTI replies,Roy stated that BEL hadinformed him that it had

despatched 820 balloting units(BUs) of the machines in bulkpackaging, and on two occa-sions in April (2017) it sent 245(VVPAT) machines ‘By Hand’,to certain recipients and desti-nations.

Roy said that on both theoccasions, BEL did not state towhom the consignments ofBUs were ‘posted’ or fromwhere the entire lot of the‘hand-delivered’ VVPATs orig-inated and whether they werereceived safely by the intendedrecipients.

Roy said that for the entirelot of 820 BUs sent throughIndia Posts, there were onlynine Docket Nos. assigned forthe total consignment, whichcomprises two boxes with 50BUs each and one box eachwith 60, 70, 80, 90, 100, 110 and210 BUs.

“This is misleading as eachbox has a specific size depend-ing on the dimensions of theBUs. The BEL’s reply shows theentire consignment was post-ed in only nine boxes, thoughthe Indian Posts does notaccept — nor is equipped tohandle — such huge parcels,”the petitioner said.

Roy said that BEL had toldhim that on April 6 and April10, 2017, that it deliveredVVPATs in three parcels -- 65,70 and 110, respectively -- ‘ByHand’ and ‘urgent delivery’ to

avoid the regular logistics route.Alluding to several dis-

crepancies that he had noticedin the “indiscriminate” ordersand deliveries of EVMs madeby the two state-run compa-nies, Roy said that between1989-1990 to 2015-2016, BELhad supplied 125,149 EVMs toKarnataka, 169,975 to Bihar,159,900 to Uttar Pradesh,140,500 to Tamil Nadu, 87,325to Andhra Pradesh, 50,850 toGujarat, 50,050 to Rajasthan,23,000 to Jharkhand, 10,000 toDelhi, 3,000 to Manipur and2,000 to Sikkim.

Surprisingly, BEL also sup-plied 500 EVMs toChandigarh, which is the onlycity to get its own machines.Normally, the EVMs go to therespective states from wherethey are distributed.

In his petition, Roydemanded that as to why theBEL and the ElectionCommission of India had useddifferent yardstick in the sup-ply of EVMs to Chandigarh.

Alluding to the supply ofVVPATs to various states, thepetitioner said that he hadreceived information statingthat BEL had during 2013-14supplied the highest number ofVVPATs — 2,455 — toKarnataka, followed by 2,275 toBihar, 2,140 to Gujarat, 1,500 toMizoram, 1,475 to Tamil Nadu,130 to Delhi and 25 to EC.

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Ace Hyderabadi Tennis starSania Mirza, who is often

targeted by the right wing trollsonline for her marriage toPakistani cricketer Shoaib Malikhas signed out of social mediafor a few days in view of themuch awaited and high tensionIndia-Pakistan clash in AsiaCup being played in Dubai.

In a clear indication that shewanted to avoid getting suckedinto any fresh online contro-versy or become a target oftrolling Sania Mirza tweetedthat she was signing out for afew days. Sania is an advancestage of pregnancy.

She wrote on her twitter han-dle @MirzaSania, ‘soo less than24 hrs to go for this match, safeto sign out of social media for afew days since the amount ofnonsense thts gonna b said herecan make a ‘regular’ person sick,let alone a pregnant one Laterguys! Knock yourselves out! Butremember – ITS ONLY ACRICKET MATCH! Toodles!”.

Many times in the past theright wing trolls including theleaders of the ruling BJP hadquestioned her patriotism andloyalty to India citing her mar-riage to Shoaib Malik.

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Controversies created by itsown leaders have marred

the prospects of the BJP mak-ing any impact in Tamil Nadupolitics, which has been leftrudderless by the demises ofAIADMK supremo Jayalalithaaand chief of the DMK, MKarunanidhi.

H Raja, the national secre-tary of the BJP, faces series oflitigations in the Madras HighCourt for his reported out-bursts against the police andthe judiciary, made during lastweek’s Vinayaka Chathurthifestival.

Tamil Nadu advocate gen-eral Vijay Narayan on Tuesdayissued a show cause notice toRaja asking why statutory con-sent should not be granted toa lawyer to initiate criminalcontempt of court proceedingsfor his recent “scandalous”comments against judiciary.

Raja has been a keenlymonitored “object” in theradar of the non-BJP parties inTamil Nadu. The BJP leaderkept them in good humourwith his “foot in the mouth”statements. There was a furoramong the Dravidians in theState last year when Rajaexhorted the BJP cadre to pulldown all statues of E VRamasamy Naicker, founder ofthe Dravida Kazhakam. The

DMK chief Stalin had demand-ed Raja’s arrest under theNational Security Act for thisstatement.

This time Raja has com-pany in the form of TamilissaiSounderarajan, the president ofthe Tamil Nadu BJP. Politicalcommentators as well as hercolleagues in the party areunanimous in their view thatthe lady has become a liabilityfor the party having failed tomake any inroads in TamilNadu despite a number offavourable factors. “She is atotal failure ,” said a seniorleader in Tamil Nadu BJP.

On Monday ,Sounderarajan and a tiff withan auto rickshaw driver whenthe latter challenged her overthe ever increasing fuel prices.Taken aback by media reportsabout the spar, she called on theauto driver Kathir and made ita media event. Kathir whospoke to media on Wednesdaysaid that his opinion about theBJP remained unchanged. “Hervisit caused a dent on mypocket as I could not go towork,” Kathir told reporters.

“Though there is enoughspace in Tamil Nadu’s politicallandscape for another partyand leader, the BJP is not goingto make an impact because ofpoor leadership,” said a nation-al level activist of the party.“Show me one person from theState leadership who is capable

of inspiring the cadre,” said thisleader who did not want hisname to be quoted. He alsopointed out that party cadrewere disappointed over intensefactionalism in the State unit.

“The BJP in Tamil Nadu isin Intensive Care Unit andsurvives on the life support sys-tem provided by the Centre.There is no possibility of theparty winning a single seat inthe upcoming Lok Sabha elec-tions,” said GovindarajanSatyamurthy, veteran scribeapolitical commentator.

There are reports ion ver-nacular media that the nation-al leadership of the BJP is pin-ning their hopes on Rajnikanth,the superstar of Tamil films toturn around the fortunes of theparty. Rajnikanth (68) haddeclared on the new year evethat he would launch a politi-cal outfit and fight the elec-tions. But even after ninemonths, there is no sign of thesuperstar’s political party com-ing alive.

The question being askedis whether it is possible forRajnikanth to launch a party,appoint grass root level lead-ers and cadre to monitor allpolling booths in the State andfind out 39 candidates to befielded from the State. The elec-tion is just seven months awayand there has been no wordfrom Rajnikanth during the lastthree months.

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With the aim to timelyredress people’s

grievances, Chief Minister YogiAdityanath has asked officials to strengthen the Janhit Guarantee Adhiniyam(citizen’s charter) so that the complaints are resolvedwithin the prescribed timeframe.

In a communication toadditional chief secretaries,principal secretaries and sec-retaries, the CM said onWednesday that a time-bounddashboard be created in eachdepartment to monitor theredressal of complaints.

“These dashboards should have details about totalcomplaints received, how manyof them have been resolved,and in what time.

They should also markdefaulters after the lapse of stip-ulated time. These depart-mental dashboards should beintegrated with the dashboard at the ChiefMinister’s secretariat so that theprogress can be monitored atthe CM’s office too,” Yogi saidin his order.

He also asked the officersto give publicity to the Jan SewaKendras, e-district, Nivesh por-tals so that people may lodgetheir complaints and inquireabout them online.

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Rolling out strict austerity mea-sures, the Uttar Pradesh

Government has asked its officersto curtail expenses on foreign vis-its, fly in economy class and avoidholding lunch or dinner meetingsin five-star hotels.

An 18-point order to thiseffect was issued by Chief SecretaryAnup Chandra Pandey. The orderdirects officials to slash expenseson office stationery, furniture andupholstery.

It says that just because an offi-cial concerned has been replaced,it does not mean there should benew furniture or upholstery for the

new officer. The order specifically men-

tions that official visits should bekept to a minimum unless theseare important and essential.

Besides, the order says, babusshould travel in economy class ifthey have to take flights for officialvisits.

Official lunch and dinnershould not be held in five-starhotels. In exceptional cases, per-mission of the Chief Secretaryshould be obtained.

The five-page order says it isimportant to cut down adminis-trative expenses to make optimumuse of Government funds andresources for development work.

It may be noted that during thelast decade, the work culture haschanged considerably in view ofcomputerisation and even work-load has come down in certain sec-tors. Many posts have becomeredundant and employees on thoseposts are being utilised in otherareas in the best possible manner,the order points out.

The order clearly mentionsthat no new posts should be sanc-tioned except in medical and policedepartments. In cases of emer-gency, the tasks may be outsourcedand done on contract basis, itadded. The order also says that incase of vacancies in class four andsimilar posts of drivers, gardeners,

plumbers, electricians and lift-men, there should be no regularappointment. These tasks shouldbe outsourced with the approval ofthe Finance department.

The order states that no postsshould be created to assist thoseholding temporary posts of advi-sor or chairman of any depart-ment. These posts may be out-sourced.

Various schemes run by thegovernment should be reviewed atregular intervals and those foundno longer useful, should bescrapped. Besides, travellingallowance, dearness allowance,house rent allowance, city com-pensatory allowance, leave travel

allowance and medical reim-bursement should be paid to thestaff of Central or state govern-ment funded projects at sanc-tioned rates only.

The order says no new officebuilding or residential complexshould be constructed

except in newly-created divi-sions or districts. It adds that bar-ring security-related requirements,no new vehicle should be pur-chased and in case the existingvehicles are unfit for use, taxisshould be hired for administrativework with the permission of theFinance department alone andonly registered taxis be hired andnot private vehicles.

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Clearing the decks for theconstruction of the inter-

national greenfield airport atJewar, farmers of the GreaterNoida and adjoining areas metChief Minister Yogi Adityanathand handed him agreement let-ters, allowing the Governmentto acquire the land for the air-port.

A delegation of the farm-ers from Greater Noida met theCM at his official residence onWednesday and said thatmajority of them were ready toallow the Government toacquire land after paying therequired compensation.

The CM told the delega-tion that the farmers hadalways played a key role in thedevelopment of the state andtheir contribution in the con-struction of the internationalgreenfield airport at Jewarwould be written in golden let-ters.

“On the part of the gov-ernment, we will ensure thatthe farmers get the compensa-tion as agreed and in casethere is rehabilitation, the farm-ers will also get the rehabilita-tion package,” Yogi said.

The farmers’ delegationwas led by ruling party law-maker from Jewar, DhirendraSingh Rohi. This meeting will

be a shot in the arm of the gov-ernment as a section of farm-ers had staged protests, sayingthey would not give their landto the Government for con-struction of Jewar airportbecause they were not gettingcompensation.

The Opposition partieshad tried to make it a big issue,saying the Government was notserious in the construction ofairport at Jewar.

The protests had startedafter the detailed project report(DPR) and techno-economicsfeasibility report (TEFR) ofthis project was prepared. Thesaid report was prepared byPricewaterhouseCoopers.

As per this report, 1,441hectare land spread over eightvillages will be acquired. Theproposed airport will be builton PPP (public-private part-nership) model at a cost of�15,754 crore. The Gover-nment has already earmarked�130 crore for land acquisition.

The proposed airport willhave two runways and willhave a capacity to handle 70million passengers annually.

Yamuna ExpresswayIndustrial DevelopmentAuthority Chairman PrabhatKumar and SP Goyal, thePrincipal Secretary to ChiefMinister, were present on thisoccasion.

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The Uttar PradeshGovernment has again

announced to launch a drivefor making the roads pothole-free.

By October 15 next, all thepotholes will be repaired, byNovember 30 all roads dam-aged during the monsoon sea-son will be repaired andrestored and all pending roadprojects will be completed byDecember 31.

The Yogi AdityanathGovernment had launched asimilar drive in March 2017soon after the

Bharatiya Janata Partycame to power, under which allroads, including national high-way, were targeted to be madepothole-free by the end of June15. The deadline was extendedseveral times but the drivemet with limited success due toresource constraints.

The total length of roadsconstructed and maintainedby different agencies of the stategovernment is 71,454 km. Theagencies are Public WorksDepartment, National HighwayDivision of PWD, UP RajyaKrishi Utpadan MandiParishad, Rural DevelopmentDepartment, Cane Departmentand Irrigation Department.

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The controversial decision ofthe Jammu & Kashmir

Government to hold municipaland panchayat polls took aninteresting twist on Tuesdaywith the Congress party’s reluc-tant decision to plunge into thefray. While the two regionalmainstream parties — theNational Conference (NC) andPeople’s Democratic Party(PDP) — have decided to stayaway from the polls, theCongress decision to partici-pate has changed the groundsituation though the securityconcerns remain a major issuefor the smooth conduct of theelections.

The Congress was delayingto reveal its cards and a sectionof its leadership was convincedthat the polls would not be helddue to security situation inKashmir Valley, especially inthe southern decisions.However, after the StateElection Commission (SEC)decided to hold the polls, the

Congress said that it wouldcontest to keep the “communalforces” away.

Addressing a PressConference here, Jammu andKashmir Pradesh Congresschief Gulam Ahmad Mir saidthe party will not stay awayfrom the elections to “keep theground open for the commu-nal forces but we will fight withfull might.”

Mir urged GovernorAdministration to providesecurity to contesting candi-dates and peaceful atmosphereneeded to be created for thesmooth conduct of polls.

The NC and PDP havedecided to boycott the electionsas they have asked the CentralGovernment to clear its standon the issue of Article 35-A andtake steps for its protection.

Mir said that Congressbeing a responsible secularforce will not give safe passageto BJP. “In case we do notcounter BJP-RSS, we wouldalso be perceived as dual andopportunistic,” Mir said adding

the Congress wants the elec-tions to be free and fair. “If atsome point of time, the partyfeels that elections are notbeing conducted in a fair man-ner, then the party after assess-ing the situation will have nohesitation to take a call.”

The mainstream regionalparties who announced to boy-cott the upcoming Municipaland Panchayat polls in thestate, Wednesday said that theparticipation of Congress in theelections won’t harm their partyat the gross root level.

On Monday, the

Communist Party of India(CPI) also decided against par-ticipating in view the prevail-ing situation in the valley. StateSecretary CPI(M) GhulamNabi Malik said that despite themajority of mainstream polit-ical parties in Jammu andKashmir deciding not to par-ticipate in these polls, theannouncement of the electionschedule shows the “arroganceof the BJP-led CentralGovernment”.

The PDP and NC havedescribed the Congress deci-sion as the party’s own that

would have no bearing ontheir decision to stay awa

The PDP chief spokesper-son Rafi Ahmad Mir said theirparty has thoughtfully decidedto stay away from the polls.

“The decision to stay awayfrom the polls was aimed atrespecting the sentiments ofpeople, therefore the partici-pation of Congress and BJP inthe polls won’t harm PDP at thegross root level,” Ahmad said.

The NC General Secretaryand legislator Ali MuhammadSagar said that his party hasnothing to do with other par-ties but the party is stayingaway from the polls to securethe rights and special status ofpeople living in the state.

Meanwhile, the securityagencies are chalking out aproper roadmap for security inthe upcoming Municipal andPanchayat polls in Kashmir.

A day after Panchayat pollswere announced severalattempts were made to setablaze Panchayat Ghars at fivedifferent places in south

Kashmir’s Pulwama andShopian district since Monday.

The Joint ResistanceLeadership (JRL) of separatistSyed Ali Geelani, MirwaizUmar Farooq and Yasin Malikwhile rejecting any electoralprocess “as a substitute to rightto self-determination” reiterat-ed its appeal to the people ofKashmir to observe a completeelection boycott to the upcom-ing municipal and local bodies’elections in the Jammu andKashmir. A prominent militantorganization HizbulMujahideen has already issueda threat warning to use sul-phuric and hydrochloric acidagainst all contestants and thevoters.

State Election Commissionon Sunday announced ninephase Panchayat elections inover 35 thousand Panchayatconstituencies beginningNovember 17 in the State.Similarly, the four phaseMunicipal polls have beenscheduled next month begin-ning October 8.

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The triple talaq Ordinanceapproved by the Union

Cabinet on Wednesday evokedmixed response from theMuslim organisations, with theBharatiya Muslim MahilaAndolan (BMMA) welcomingthe legislation as a “much-awaited” decision and twoother Muslim organisations —All India Sunni Jamiatul Ulemaand Raza Academy — termingit as against “all constitutionalnorms and the orders of theSupreme Court”.

Describing the triple talaqordinance making the practiceof instant divorce a punishableoffence as “a much-awaitedand a much-wanted legislation”,the BMMA said: “We arethankful to the central gov-ernment for heeding to thevoice of Muslim women whodemanded the above amend-ments.”

“We urge all political par-ties to recognise, acknowledgeand extend their support to thedemands of Muslim women.For too long they have beendiscriminated against and facedinsecurity and fear in their life,fear of instant divorce,polygamy, underage marriageand deprivation of inheritancerights,” the BMMA said, in astatement issued here.

Maintaining that it waspertinent now for all politicalparties to realise that Muslimwomen had the knowledge of

their constitutional rights aswell as of their rights in theQuran, the BMMA stated:“This ordinance is the firstimportant legislation andBMMA is going to continue topush for a comprehensive cod-ification of Muslim family lawwhere gender-just provisionspertaining to age of marriage,mehr, consent, polygamy,halala, muta, maintenance andinheritance are also legislatedupon”.

“The Hindu Code Billcame in 1955 and as the largestminority we are lagging behinda good 60 years. It is time thata Muslim Code Bill or aMuslim Family Law is passedso that all other issues comewithin the ambit of law,” theBMMA added.

However, in a joint state-ment issued here, All IndiaSunni Jamiatul Ulema (AISJU)and Raza Academy describedthe triple talaq ban ordinanceas “illegal”. “The BJP Govern-ment’s ordinance to ban tripletalaq is against all constitutionalnorms and against the orders ofthe Supreme Court The tripletalaq ordinance amounts toContempt of Court,” the twoorganisations said.

“This bill was passed inLok sabha since the NDA hada majority and then was placedbefore Rajya sabha. But theGovernment couldn’t get thebill passed here and it was twicerejected in Rajya Sabha, “thetwo Muslim organisations said.

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Irrespective of partyline,Gujarat lawmakers on

Wednesday unanimouslypassed a Bill proposing hike ofalmost 65 per cent in their ownsalaries.

The 182 legislators includ-ing that of Ministers, Speakerand Deputy Speaker of theState Assembly would get at

least �45,000 hike per monthwith effect from December 22,2017.

With approval to TheGujarat Salaries andAllowances of Members,Speaker and Dy Speaker ofGujarat Assembly, Ministersand Leader of Opposition Laws(amendment) Bill, 2018, themonthly salary of MLAs will goup from �70727 to �1.16 Lakh.

In the case of Ministers,Speaker, My Speaker andLeader of Opposition, salarywill increase from �86000 to�1.32 Lakh.

The Bill was introducedin the House by Minister ofState for ParliamentaryAffairs Pradipsinh Jadeja onthe second and last day ofmonsoon session. Instantlywithout any opposition itwas passed by all the MLAspresent in the House.

With this �six crore areaswill be given to MLAs withretrospective effect.

Moreover, the new salary struc-ture will put an extra burden of�10 crore annually on the stateexchequer.

“Since 2005 salaries ofGujarat MLAs were notrevised. In most of the otherStates salaries of lawmakersrevised time to time,” saidjadeja’s adding that even afterthis hike salaries of GujaratMLAs would remain muchlower than states likeUttarakhand, Jharkhand andMaharashtra where lawmakersare getting monthly remuner-ation of �2.50 Lakh, 2.13 Lakhand �2.25 Lakh respectively.

Accordingly to him MLAsof West Bengal, Odisha andTamilnadu are taking lessersalaries compared to revisedsalaries of Gujarat lawmakers.

In the 182-membersGujarat Assembly there are 99members of ruling BJP, 77 ofmain Opposition Congressparty, one NCP MLA and threeindependent MLAs.

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Aprominent Muslim leaderin India has termed the

fresh Ordinance criminalisingtriple or instant talaq a “viola-tion of the right to equalityenshrined in the Constitution”and an attempt by theNarendra Modi Government totorture the Muslims in India.

M a j l i s - e - I t t e h a d u lMuslimeen president and MPAsaduddin Owaisi reacting tothe Ordinance issued onWednesday told a media con-ference in Hyderabad that theOrdinance will not do justice toMuslim women but furtheraggravate their condition.

“In Islam marriage is a civilcontract. It is wrong to applypenal provisions on it. This isbad in law and bad inConstitution”, he said.

He appealed to the Muslim Personal Law Board tochallenge it in the SupremeCourt. “I am sure that it will be challenged as there arestrong legal grounds to do so”,he said.

Pointing out the glaringdiscrepancy and discriminationin the ordinance he said that ifa Muslim man give instantdivorce to his wife the ordi-nance provides for three yearsimprisonment but in case of aman from any other commu-nity for the same act he will bepunished with only one yearimprisonment under anotherlaw. “This is against the rightto equality under the funda-mental rights guaranteed in theConstitution”, he said.

Moreover if rash driving

results in death the punishmentwas only for two years and herethe imprisonment was threeyears, he said.

Owaisi contended that theSupreme Court had neverasked the Government to bringa penal provision against theinstant Talaq but had declaredit invalid saying that even anybody pronounces the tripletalaq the marriage will remainun-dissolved.

Pointing out that under theordinance a man who pro-nounces instant Talaq will haveto undergo imprisonment aswell as pay the maintenance tothe woman. “Why I am sayingis that this is even bigger injustice to woman is thatwhile he remains in jail forthree years the woman willremain stuck in the marriage.Do you think even after theman comes out of prison theycan live together peacefully”,Owaisi asked.

The MP from Hyderabadexpressed apprehensions thatthe Ordinance will be misusedto arrest Muslim men andimprisonment.

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The Nashik police onWednesday arrested two

teachers from a leading localcollege for allegedly demand-ing sexual favours to give goodmarks to a girl student. Actingon a complaint lodged by afemale HSC student from LVHiray College at Nashik, thepolice arrested two teachersPravin D Suryawanshi andSachin N Sonawane, who hadbeen working at the college forseveral years.

In her complaint, the vic-tim stated that two teachershad demanded sex from her forgiving her marks enough topass the 12th standard exami-nation in which she had failed.She also alleged that two teach-ers, apart from molesting her,had been harassing for morethan three years from January1 2015 to September 18, 2018.

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Even as Nalgonda districtpolice have cracked the so

called “honor killing” case andarrested seven people includinga hired killer from BiharSubhash Kumar alias Sharma,father of the victim has saidthat he and other family mem-bers were facing threat to theirlives from the powerful peoplebehind the killing of his son.

Nalgonda district superin-tendent of police AV Ranganathtold a Press conference that thepolice have arrested SubhashSharma from Jagatsinghpur inBihar where he was hidingafter committing the day lightmurder of Pranay Kumar.

It may be recalled that 24year old Pranay, a Dalit youth,who had married an uppercaste girl Amruthavarishini washacked to death in Miryalagudatown on Friday last.

Others who were arrestedinclude Amrutha’s father TMaruti Rao, his brother SravanKumar, his driver Samudrala

Siva, friend Abdul Kareem andtwo other notorious criminalsAsghar Ali and Abdul Bari.

Ranganath said that thefather had given a contract toAsghar Ali and Abdul Bari tokill Pranay to avenge “humili-ation” caused by him marryinghis daughter.

Both Asghar Ali and AbdulBari were accused in the mur-der of former Gujrat HomeMinister Haren Pandya but werelater acquitted. They also hadrecord of many other criminalcases and served terms in prison.During one such imprisonmentAbdul Bari had met SantoshSharma of Bihar who was serv-ing jail term in a case of dacoityand the two struck friendship.

Maruti Rao, a rich busi-nessman who was also in landgrabbing and settlement ofdisputes, had also come intouch with Abdul Bari whenthe latter had kidnapped him ina land dispute case. The twohad later turned friends.

According to the policeinvestigation when Maruti Rao

offered them a huge contract inJune last to kill Pranay Bari andAsghar Ali tried to get it donethrough a Hyderabad basedgang. However the attemptwas aborted when the gangmembers turned up in a drunkcondition. Later Bari thought ofSantosh and hired his services.

The SP said that after tak-ing up the assignment Santoshmade many trips to Hyderabadand Miryalaguda and it was infifth attempt that he managedto kill Pranay.

Police said that whenMaruti Rao came to knowfrom his wife that Pranay andhis pregnant wife will be visit-ing a private hospital inMiryalaguda on September 14for checkup he alerted thegang. While Santosh waitedoutside the hospital, Bari keptan eye from a distance. WhenPranay came out at 130 pmwith his wife and mother, Baripointed towards him andSantosh attacked him frombehind with a matchet killinghim on the spot.

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Repa

irin

g ba

nks

Goa

gam

e>��$��2��&��?��2��

��=@$&��

Thirt

y m

inut

es in

Sal

isbu

ry a

nd tw

o Ru

ssia

nsw

ww

.dai

lyp

ion

eer.

com

��

�=

#�)

-!0

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��

-".

#��

� ��(��!��%��2�� $��&��

��

Salisb

ury i

s a n

ice o

ld E

nglis

h to

wn

with

a fin

e cat

hedr

al, on

ly an

hou

r and

a ha

lffro

m L

ondo

n by

train

, but

it d

oesn

’t see

man

y Rus

sian

tour

ists i

n wi

nter

time.

It’sno

t as

col

d as

Mos

cow,

but

Rus

sians

tend

to p

refe

r Med

iterr

anea

n de

stina

tions

for

holid

ay b

reak

s in

ear

ly M

arch

— u

nles

s, of

cour

se, t

hey

are p

lann

ing

to k

ill so

meb

ody.

The

pers

on o

f int

eres

t in

Salis

bury

was

Serg

ei S

krip

al,

a fo

rmer

mem

ber

of t

heRu

ssia

n m

ilita

ry i

ntel

ligen

ce s

ervi

ce,

who

star

ted

selli

ng in

form

atio

n to

the

Briti

sh in

the

mid

-199

0s a

nd w

as c

augh

t and

jaile

d by

the

Russ

ians

in 2

004.

He

was

par

done

d an

dal

low

ed to

go

to B

ritai

n as

par

t of a

spy

swap

betw

een

Wes

tern

cou

ntrie

s an

d Ru

ssia

in

2010

, and

he

settl

ed in

Sal

isbur

y.O

n M

arch

4 th

is ye

ar, S

krip

al an

d hi

s dau

gh-

ter,

who

were

visit

ing f

rom

Mos

cow,

wer

e fou

ndse

mi-c

onsc

ious

on

a be

nch

in t

he s

treet

in

Salis

bury

and

take

n to

a h

ospi

tal.

They

spen

dwe

eks i

n in

tens

ive c

are,

and

it w

as d

eter

min

edth

at t

hey

had

been

poi

sone

d by

nov

ichok

, aSo

viet

-era

ner

ve a

gent

that

falls

into

the

cate

-go

ry o

f ban

ned

chem

ical

wea

pons

.A

pol

icem

an w

ho w

ent t

o Sk

ripal

’s ho

use

was a

lso st

ruck

dow

n by

the p

oiso

n, w

hich

had

been

spra

yed

on th

e han

dle o

f the

fron

t doo

r,bu

t he

als

o re

cove

red

even

tual

ly.

Thre

em

onth

s lat

er a

Nin

a Ric

ci p

erfu

me b

ottle

that

cont

aine

d le

ftove

r, no

vich

ok w

as fo

und

in a

char

ity b

in in

Sal

isbur

y, an

d a

wom

an w

hosp

raye

d it

on h

er w

rists

die

d.Br

itain

accu

sed

Russ

ia o

f sen

ding

assa

ssin

sto

kill

Skr

ipal

and

of u

sing

a ba

nned

wea

pon.

It ha

d no

har

d pr

oof b

eyon

d th

e nov

icho

k, b

utSk

ripal

was

stil

l help

ing

Wes

tern

inte

llige

nce

agen

cies

to u

nder

stand

Rus

sian

train

ing

and

tech

niqu

es, s

o M

osco

w h

ad a

mot

ive.

Man

y pe

ople

poi

nted

out

tha

t it

wou

ldha

ve b

een

fool

ish fo

r Mos

cow

to ch

oose

such

a com

plica

ted

met

hod

and

risk

expo

sure

. Why

wou

ldn’

t it j

ust h

ire a

non-

Russ

ian

hitm

an to

do th

e job

? But

Mos

cow

has

don

e thi

s sor

t of

thin

g be

fore

: Ru

ssia

n ag

ents

, ex

otic

sub

-st

ance

s, th

e lo

t.A

lexan

der

Litv

inen

ko, a

mem

ber

of t

heFe

dera

l Sec

urity

Ser

vice

, got

into

trou

ble a

fter

his

inve

stiga

tion

into

link

s be

twee

n Ru

ssia

nm

afia

gro

ups a

nd h

is ow

n or

gani

satio

n m

ade

him

unp

opul

ar w

ith V

ladi

mir

Putin

, the

FSB

’s

head

. Litv

inen

ko fl

ed R

ussia

for

Brita

in a

fter

Putin

took

ove

r the

pre

siden

cy in

200

0.Li

tvin

enko

rem

aine

d a

hars

h cr

itic

ofPu

tin, a

nd in

2006

, Dm

itry K

ovtu

n an

d A

ndre

iLu

govo

y, bo

th fo

rmer

FSB

agen

ts, w

ere s

ent t

oLo

ndon

to k

ill h

im. C

CTV

imag

es sh

owed

the

kille

rs w

ith L

itvin

enko

at

a Lo

ndon

hot

elw

here

they

dos

ed h

is te

a with

a tin

y am

ount

of

polo

nium

-210

, a h

ighl

y to

xic r

adio

activ

e su

b-sta

nce

that

wou

ld n

ot n

orm

ally

be

spot

ted

beca

use i

t doe

s not

emit

gam

ma

rays

.Th

at w

as a

reas

onab

ly co

mpe

tent

oper

atio

n,ex

pose

d on

ly b

y ba

d lu

ck. T

he 2

018

oper

atio

nwa

s diff

eren

t. CC

TV im

ages

, rele

ased

onl

y las

twe

ek, s

howe

d Ru

slan

Bosh

irov

and

Alex

ande

rPe

trov,

two

30-s

omet

hing

Rus

sian

‘fitn

ess t

rain

-er

s’, m

akin

g a

brief

trip

to S

alisb

ury

on M

arch

3, p

resu

mab

ly to

do

a rec

onna

issan

ce, a

nd b

ack

to th

e tow

n on

the 4

th to

do

the d

irty

deed

.Bu

t the

n it

got w

eird

. Put

in p

ublic

ly u

rged

the

two

men

to g

o on

TV,

and

last

week

they

appe

ared

on

RT, a

Rus

sian

inte

rnat

iona

l new

sch

anne

l, to

expl

ain

thei

r brie

f trip

(whi

ch ga

veth

em o

nly

54 h

ours

in E

ngla

nd).

“Our

frien

ds h

ad b

een

sugg

estin

g for

a lo

ngtim

e th

at w

e vi

sit th

is wo

nder

ful t

own,”

sai

dPe

trov.

They

espe

cial

ly w

ante

d to

see S

alisb

ury

Cath

edra

l, said

Bos

hiro

v: “It

’s fam

ous f

or it

s 123

-m

etre

spire

, it’s f

amou

s for

its c

lock

....” B

ut th

eylo

oked

like

hea

vies

from

Cen

tral C

astin

g, an

dno

t at

all

like

cloc

k-to

wer

ent

husi

asts

.

‘Nek

ultu

rny’

(unc

ultu

red)

, as t

he R

ussia

ns sa

y.W

hy d

id t

hey

only

spe

nd 3

0 m

inut

es in

Salis

bury

the f

irst t

ime?

“It w

as co

ld.” (

It w

as 10

degr

ees C

war

mer

than

Mos

cow.

) Why

did

they

take

ano

ther

trai

n do

wn

to S

alisb

ury

the

next

day?

“We

real

ly w

ante

d to

see

Old

Sar

um a

ndth

e ca

thed

ral.”

(Old

Sar

um is

an

Iron-

Age

hill

fort

near

Salis

bury

that

was

clos

ed on

Mar

ch 4)

. A

nd o

n M

arch

4 on

e of t

he C

CTV

cam

eras

pick

ed th

em u

p clo

se to

Skrip

al’s h

ouse

and

far

from

the c

athe

dral

or a

ny o

ther

tour

ist at

trac-

tions

. Is R

ussia

deli

bera

tely

trol

ling

the B

ritish

Gov

ernm

ent t

o sh

ow it

s co

ntem

pt?

Prob

ably

not,

beca

use

it ha

s trie

d ve

ry h

ard

to d

istan

ceits

elf f

rom

the

crim

e in

oth

er i

nter

natio

nal

venu

es. D

id P

utin

’s reg

ime p

ut th

ose t

wo h

igh-

ly im

plau

sible

‘tour

ists’

on R

T be

caus

e it f

orgo

tth

at d

iffer

ent s

tand

ards

of t

ruth

pre

vail

else-

whe

re? M

aybe

.Bu

t the

like

liest

answ

er is

that

thes

e clu

m-

sy an

d se

lf-de

feat

ing

actio

ns ar

e ind

icat

ors o

fho

w f

ar t

he r

ot i

n th

e re

gim

e ha

s go

ne.

Elem

ents

of th

e sys

tem

, lik

e the

Arm

ed F

orce

s(w

hich

hav

e per

form

ed w

ell i

n Sy

ria)

, ret

ain

thei

r effi

cien

cy an

d di

scip

line,

but c

orru

ptio

nan

d in

com

pete

nce

rule

els

ewhe

re.

The

Salis

bury

deb

acle

wou

ld n

ot h

ave

happ

ened

18 y

ears

ago

, whe

n Pu

tin’s

reig

n w

as n

ew. I

tsu

gges

ts th

at th

e re

gim

e is

a lo

t clo

ser t

o its

end

than

its b

egin

ning

. (T

he w

riter

is a

n in

depe

nden

t jou

rnal

ist)

��

��

��

��

��

��Si

r —

Afte

r cr

icke

ter-

turn

ed-p

oliti

-ci

an

Imra

n K

han

took

ove

r as

the

Prim

e M

inist

er o

f Pak

istan

, one

had

hope

d th

at In

dia a

nd P

akist

an w

ill se

ea

swift

cha

nge

in th

eir b

ilate

ral r

ela-

tions

hips

. How

ever

, Pak

istan

is in

agr

ip o

f fin

anci

al d

iffic

ultie

s and

with

Prim

e Min

ister

Nar

endr

a Mod

i nea

r-in

g th

e en

d of

his

term

nex

t yea

r, it

appe

ars t

hat b

oth

Indi

a and

Pak

istan

are f

indi

ng it

diff

icul

t to

upgr

ade t

heir

rela

tions

hips

. Fo

r rel

atio

ns to

impr

ove

betw

een

the

two

coun

trie

s, bo

th s

ides

sho

uld

take

a so

lid st

and

inste

ad o

f acc

usin

gon

e an

othe

r. Th

ere

is sti

ll en

ough

room

for

both

the

coun

trie

s to

striv

efo

r an

eco

nom

ic p

artn

ersh

ip t

hat

isbe

nefic

ial t

o bo

th. D

even

dra

Khu

rana

Bh

opal

�

��

��

��

��

�Si

r —

Thi

s re

fers

to

the

edito

rial,

“Sw

achc

h lif

e ple

ase!

” (Se

ptem

ber 1

9).

Five

men

los

t th

eir

lives

fro

m t

oxic

fum

es w

hile

cle

anin

g a

sept

ic ta

nk in

New

Delh

i. The

trag

edy r

ecei

ved

scan

tsp

ace

in t

he m

edia

. May

be

beca

use

peop

le h

ave

beco

me

dese

nsiti

sed

to

wha

t ha

ppen

s to

the

unf

ortu

nate

s.Si

mila

r tra

gedi

es ta

ke p

lace

on

a dai

lyba

sis ac

ross

the c

ount

ry. A

few

days

ago

five m

anua

l sca

veng

ers d

ied

in O

dish

a. Th

is w

eek,

ano

ther

dea

th o

f a

man

ual s

cave

nger

was

repo

rted

from

New

Del

hi.

Cle

arly,

the

san

itatio

nca

mpa

ign

hype

d up

as a

gam

e-ch

ang-

er h

as n

ot ch

ange

d th

e gro

und

real

ities

and

has n

ot p

reve

nted

the o

ccur

renc

eof

suc

h tr

aged

ies

in t

he N

atio

nal

Capi

tal a

nd el

sew

here

. The

law

agai

nst

empl

oyin

g pe

ople

for c

lean

ing

sew

ers

and

sept

ic ta

nks i

s mor

e ho

nour

ed in

the b

reac

h th

an in

the o

bser

vanc

e. M

uch

of th

e cle

anin

g is

still

done

man

ually

. The

intro

duct

ion

of m

ech-

anise

d cle

anin

g ha

s not

yet h

appe

ned.

Clea

rly, t

he S

wac

hch

Bhar

at A

bhiy

anha

s not

ach

ieve

d an

y sig

nific

ant l

evel

of su

cces

s. As

mor

e and

mor

e toi

lets a

reco

nstr

ucte

d w

ithou

t pr

oper

disp

osal

syste

ms,

the

prob

lem

is b

ound

to g

etwo

rse.

The l

ack o

f pol

itica

l will

is at

trib-

uted

to th

e fac

t tha

t the

scav

enge

rs h

ail

from

the l

ower

ord

ers.

The a

bom

inat

ion

of m

anua

l sca

v-en

ging

per

sists

in o

ur la

nd b

ecau

se it

is co

nsid

ered

oka

y for

the l

ower

caste

sto

do

it as

a ‘

sacr

ed d

uty’.

Ind

ia’s

trage

dy is

that

it th

rows

up

leade

rs w

hobe

lieve

tha

t m

anua

l sc

aven

ging

is

a

‘spiri

tual

act

ivity

’ an

d no

t a

livel

i-ho

od. F

or a

chan

ge, w

hy sh

ould

n’t th

eup

per c

aste

s try

to d

o it?

The

caste

angl

eis

for

real

, or

else

, it w

ould

not

hav

ebe

en p

ecul

iar t

o In

dia.

The s

adde

st p

art i

s tha

t the

pol

it-ic

al el

ites a

ccep

t tha

t the

live

s of D

alits

are

expe

ndab

le.

The

emer

genc

e of

New

Ind

ia i

s no

t po

ssib

le w

ithou

tel

imin

atin

g m

anua

l sca

veng

ing

in it

sen

tiret

y.G

Dav

id M

ilton

Mar

utha

ncod

e��$

*-..-<,.'=�'&--<>

?��*+$'��

2��

��

��

��

��

��)��

��

��

��

��

��?��

��&��

We h

ave g

iven a

detai

led m

emor

andu

m. W

e hop

ethe

CAG

will

look i

nto th

e matt

er an

d spe

ed up

the in

vesti

gatio

n pro

cess

into

the R

afale

deal.

—Co

ngre

ss le

ader

ANAN

D SH

ARM

A

I don

’t thi

nk J

PC or

CAG

inqu

iry is

set u

p jus

t to

satis

fy the

ego o

f an i

ll-info

rmed

lead

er of

anOp

posit

ion pa

rty w

ho re

peats

lies.

—Un

ion M

iniste

rRA

VI SH

ANKA

R PR

ASAD

��!"��

6�

9.�4��!"��

on Au

gust

31,

the

Sta

teA

dmin

istra

tive

Cou

ncil

(SA

C),

led

by

new

ly-

appo

inte

d Ja

mm

u &

Kas

hmir

Gov

erno

r Sat

yaPa

l M

alik

ann

ounc

ed t

hat

elec

-tio

ns to

urb

an lo

cal b

odie

s (U

LB)

will

be

held

in fo

ur p

hase

s in

the

firs

t w

eek

of O

ctob

er,

whi

lePa

ncha

yat e

lect

ions

wou

ld b

e con

-du

cted

in

eigh

t ph

ases

— f

rom

Nov

embe

r 8 to

Dec

embe

r 4, 2

018.

The S

AC re

ques

ted

the c

hief

elec

-to

ral o

ffice

r to

fine-

tune

the d

ates

acco

rdin

gly

in v

iew

of t

he te

rror

-ist

thre

ats t

o th

e St

ate.

The

SAC

also

ann

ounc

ed a

gran

t of

one

mon

th e

xtra

sal

ary

and

insu

ranc

e to

pol

ling

offic

ers,

cons

ider

ing

thre

ats f

rom

terr

orist

outf

its.

Sim

ulta

neou

sly,

the

Gov

ernm

ent w

ill al

so ed

ucat

e the

vote

rs a

bout

the

sig

nific

ance

of

loca

l bod

y (L

B) e

lect

ions

as

sev-

eral

im

port

ant

deci

sions

can

be

take

n by

them

inst

ead

of w

aitin

gfo

r th

e St

ate

Gov

ernm

ent.

The

loca

l bod

ies c

an al

so u

tilise

fund

ssa

nctio

ned

by C

entr

al a

nd S

tate

Gov

ernm

ents

. Th

e la

st U

LB e

lect

ions

wer

ehe

ld in

200

5 af

ter 2

3 ye

ars,

whi

lePa

ncha

yat

elec

tions

wer

e co

n-du

cted

in

2011

. Th

e Pa

ncha

yat

elect

ions

coul

d no

t be h

eld in

201

6du

e to

secu

rity

reas

ons a

s the

sit-

uatio

n be

cam

e te

nse

afte

r th

eki

lling

of H

izbu

l Muj

ahid

een

com

-m

ande

r Bur

han

Wan

i. In

the

201

1 Pa

ncha

yat

polls

,m

ore

than

4,1

45 s

arpa

nche

san

d29

,000

pan

ches

wer

e el

ecte

d an

dth

e po

lling

was

mor

e th

an 8

0 pe

rce

nt.

In t

he c

urre

nt e

lect

ions

,th

ere

are

78 m

unic

ipal

cor

pora

-tio

ns,

coun

cils

and

com

mitt

ees

and

4,49

0 pa

ncha

yats

and

35,

096

panc

h w

ards

. A

naly

sts

feel

tha

t th

e fir

stel

ectio

ns sh

ould

be h

eld

in p

eace

-fu

l are

as li

ke L

eh, L

adak

h, Ja

mm

uan

d th

e ar

eas

abut

ting

Kas

hmir,

then

in ce

ntra

l Kas

hmir,

and

last

-ly,

it

shou

ld b

e he

ld i

n so

uth

Kas

hmir,

whi

ch is

the s

tron

ghol

dof

terr

orist

s. Se

curit

y pe

rson

nel

men

tion

that

resid

ents

of so

uth

Kash

mir

are

aver

se to

elec

tions

and

hav

e an

ti-G

over

nmen

t sen

timen

ts. H

ence

, it

is e

xpec

ted

that

the

re w

ill b

em

ore

viol

ence

in s

outh

Kas

hmir

and

vote

r tur

nout

will

be

less

. It

was

dec

ided

that

ele

ctro

nic

votin

g mac

hine

s (EV

Ms)

wou

ld b

eus

ed in

ULB

ele

ctio

ns, w

hile

the

Panc

haya

t ele

ctio

ns w

ould

be c

on-

duct

ed t

hrou

gh b

allo

t pa

pers

.In

itial

ly, th

e pan

ches

wer

e ele

ctin

gth

e sa

rpan

ches

, bu

t th

is t

ime,

sarp

ache

sto

o w

ould

be

elec

ted

dire

ctly.

Eac

h vo

ter

will

cas

t tw

ovo

tes —

one

for t

he p

anch

and

the

othe

r for

the

sarp

anch

. Th

e th

ree

fore

mos

t te

rror

istor

gani

sati

ons,

inc

ludi

ng t

heLa

shka

r-e-

Tayy

eba,

H

izbu

lM

ujah

idee

n an

d Ja

ish-

e-M

oham

med

, joi

ntly

war

ned

the

cand

idat

es,

lead

ers

of p

oliti

cal

part

ies a

nd th

e mas

ses n

ot to

par

-tic

ipat

e in

the e

lect

ions

. The

se te

r-ro

rist o

utfit

s hav

e di

ffere

nt a

reas

of o

pera

tions

and

have

num

erou

sdi

ffer

ence

s. B

ut a

s th

e In

ter

Serv

ices

Inte

llige

nce (

ISI)

is d

eter

-m

ined

to

sabo

tage

the

pol

ls, i

tin

stru

cted

the

se o

utfit

s to

wor

kjo

intly

to d

isrup

t the

fort

hcom

ing

elec

tions

. Pos

ters

thre

aten

ing

the

villa

gers

of

dire

con

sequ

ence

s if

they

par

ticip

ate

in t

he e

lect

ions

also

app

eare

d in

the

villa

ges.

Riya

z N

aiko

o, p

rese

nt C

hief

Com

man

der

of

Hiz

bul

Muj

ahid

een,

caut

ione

d th

roug

h an

11-m

inut

e aud

io th

at “p

eopl

e who

wan

t to

part

icip

ate i

n po

lls sh

ould

keep

thei

r shr

oud

read

y.” H

e al

sow

arne

d: “

We

have

alre

ady

stor

edhy

droc

hlor

ide a

cid

and

sulp

huric

acid

. Th

ey s

houl

d be

rea

dy f

orco

nseq

uenc

es.”

The

inte

llige

nce

agen

cies

hav

e also

caut

ione

d th

atPa

kist

an-s

pons

ored

terr

orist

out

-fit

s w

ill le

ave

no s

tone

unt

urne

dto

disr

upt t

he p

olls.

Sy

ed A

li Sh

ah G

eela

ni, c

hair-

man

of t

he H

urriy

at C

onfe

renc

e,al

so ap

peal

ed to

the p

eopl

e to

boy-

cott

the

impe

ndin

g lo

cal

body

elec

tions

. M

ains

trea

m p

oliti

cal

part

ies,

exce

pt th

e Bha

ratiy

a Jan

ata

Part

y (B

JP),

have

also

stat

ed th

atit

is no

t th

e rig

ht t

ime

for

elec

-ti

ons.

Pre

side

nt o

f N

atio

nal

Con

fere

nce,

Faro

oq A

bdul

lah

and

Peop

le’s

Dem

ocra

tic P

arty

chi

efM

ehbo

oba M

ufti,

also

anno

unce

dto

boy

cott

the

for

thco

min

gPa

ncha

yat a

nd U

LB el

ectio

ns u

ntil

Cen

tral

and

Sta

te G

over

nmen

tsen

sure

con

tinua

tion

of A

rtic

le35

A in

the

Stat

e.

Lead

ers

of p

oliti

cal

part

ies

men

tione

d th

at ca

ndid

ates

for t

heel

ectio

ns w

ould

be

like

“sitt

ing

duck

s”, a

nd in

dist

urbe

d ar

eas,

itw

ould

be

diffi

cult

to fi

nd c

andi

-da

tes w

ho w

ould

be w

illin

g to

con-

test

ele

ctio

ns.

In t

he l

ast

four

year

s, 16

sarp

anch

esan

d pa

nche

sw

ere

kille

d by

ter

roris

ts. H

ence

,se

vera

l lea

ders

may

also

avoi

d co

n-te

stin

g th

e el

ectio

ns.

Uni

on D

efen

ce M

inis

ter

Nirm

ala

Sith

aram

an a

nd A

rmy

Chi

ef G

ener

al B

ipin

Raw

at m

etG

over

nor

Mal

ik i

n Sr

inag

ar o

nSe

ptem

ber 2

and

disc

usse

d in

ter-

nal a

s w

ell a

s ex

tern

al s

ituat

ion,

whi

ch i

nclu

ded

infil

trat

ion

byPa

kist

ani

terr

orist

s an

d se

curit

ysit

uatio

n in

vie

w o

f the

fort

hcom

-in

g lo

cal b

ody e

lect

ions

. The

y also

disc

usse

d m

atte

rs ab

out r

oad

con-

nect

ivity

, whi

ch is

impo

rtan

t for

the

elec

tions

. Se

curit

y for

ces a

re aw

are o

f the

grou

nd si

tuat

ion

and

are

mak

ing

a com

preh

ensiv

e arr

ange

men

t for

the c

ondu

ct o

f pea

cefu

l ele

ctio

ns.

Also

, 237

com

pani

es o

f the

Cen

tral

Arm

ed P

olic

e Fo

rce

(CA

PF),

depl

oyed

for

Am

arna

th Y

atra

,w

ere

inst

ruct

ed to

rem

ain

in th

ePr

ovin

ce ti

ll th

e lo

cal b

ody

polls

are

over

. Va

riou

s G

over

nmen

t ag

en-

cies

are

also

con

tact

ing

seve

ral

NG

Os a

nd p

rom

inen

t pub

lic fi

g-ur

es to

conv

ince

the m

asse

s to

par-

ticip

ate i

n fo

rthc

omin

g el

ectio

ns.

Secu

rity a

genc

ies m

entio

n th

atth

ere w

ill b

e eno

ugh

secu

rity

per-

sonn

el in

the

Stat

e, e

spec

ially

intr

oubl

ed a

reas

, but

it is

not

feas

i-bl

e to

pro

vide

sec

urity

to a

ll th

eca

ndid

ates

. M

eanw

hile

, te

rror

ists

hav

ein

tens

ified

atta

cks

on s

ecur

itype

rson

nel,

espe

cial

ly p

olic

e pe

r-so

nnel

. Re

cent

ly, o

utla

ws

kille

dth

ree o

ff-du

ty p

olic

e per

sonn

el o

nEi

d. I

n an

unp

rece

dent

ed m

ove,

the

terr

orist

s ki

dnap

ped

fam

ilym

embe

rs o

f pol

ice p

erso

nnel

who

wer

e la

ter r

elea

sed.

Fo

r the

terr

orist

s, fa

mily

mem

-be

rs o

f pol

ice

pers

onne

l are

eas

yta

rget

s. Te

rror

ists s

uspe

ct th

at th

elo

cal p

olic

e are

pro

vidi

ng p

inpo

int

inte

llige

nce

to th

e se

curit

y fo

rces

and,

hen

ce, t

hey

are a

ble t

o ex

ter-

min

ate

mor

e te

rror

ists n

ow.

The s

ecur

ity fo

rces

anni

hila

t-ed

ove

r 200

terr

orist

s in

2017

and

142

terr

orist

s in

last

eigh

t mon

ths.

Acc

ordi

ng t

o D

irect

or G

ener

al

Cen

tral

Res

erve

Pol

ice

Forc

e(C

RPF)

, R

ajiv

Rai

Bha

tnag

ar,

alth

ough

mor

e loc

al K

ashm

iris a

rejo

inin

g te

rror

ist

orga

nisa

tions

,th

e she

lf-lif

e of t

erro

rists

has

con-

sider

ably

redu

ced

—th

e nu

mbe

rof

terr

orist

s is a

lso re

duci

ng.

Besid

es ti

ghte

ning

of s

ecur

ity,

the G

over

nmen

t, go

od-in

tent

ione

dN

GO

s and

pol

itica

l lea

ders

shou

ldal

so t

ry t

o m

ake

a co

nduc

ive

atm

osph

ere f

or su

cces

sfull

polli

ng.

They

shou

ld tr

y to

win

conf

iden

ceof

the

mas

ses.

besid

es, t

here

are

seve

ral i

ncom

plet

e pro

ject

s in

the

Stat

e th

at n

eeds

to b

e co

mpl

eted

.D

ue a

ttent

ion

mus

t be

giv

en t

oot

her

part

s as

wel

l, pa

rtic

ular

lyJa

mm

u, L

eh a

nd L

adak

h ar

eas.

Th

e N

atio

nal

Inte

llige

nce

Age

ncy

(NIA

) re

cent

ly a

rres

ted

Syed

Shak

eel Y

ousu

f, so

n of

Hizb

ulM

ujah

idee

n ch

ief

Syed

Sala

hudd

in, i

n co

nnec

tion

of te

r-ro

r fun

ding

. The

secu

rity a

genc

ies

shou

ld ex

pose

sepa

ratis

t lea

ders

asth

ey in

stig

ate t

he yo

uth

to p

artic

-ip

ate

in st

one-

pelti

ng a

nd te

rror

-ist

act

iviti

es.

Inte

llige

nce

repo

rts

sugg

est

that

the I

SI is

tryi

ng h

ard

to in

fil-

trat

e te

rror

ists

as s

ecur

ity fo

rces

have

suc

cess

fully

ext

erm

inat

ed a

larg

e nu

mbe

r of

ter

roris

ts.

The

Paki

stan

Arm

y m

ay i

ncre

ase

cros

s-bo

rder

vio

latio

ns a

nd m

ayal

so i

nstr

uct

the

Bord

er A

ctio

nTe

am (B

AT) t

o ta

ke ac

tion

agai

nst

Indi

an se

curit

y fo

rces

. Unt

rain

edK

ashm

iri y

outh

are

eas

ily k

illed

and

thei

r fam

ilies

bec

ome h

ostil

eto

the

ter

roris

ts.

As

the

NIA

is

tigh

teni

ng i

ts g

rip

on t

erro

rfin

anci

ng, t

erro

rists

are c

ompe

lled

to lo

ot b

anks

and

snat

ch w

eapo

nsfr

om se

curit

y fo

rces

. A

naly

sts cl

aim

that

extra

secu

-rit

y pr

ecau

tions

sho

uld

be ta

ken

beca

use i

f loc

al b

ody

elec

tions

are

cond

ucte

d su

cces

sful

ly, it

will

be

cons

true

d as

a d

efea

t of t

erro

rist

orga

nisa

tion

s,

sece

ssio

nist

el

emen

ts a

nd p

oliti

cal

part

ies.

Vote

r tur

nout

is m

ost c

ruci

al as

itw

ill a

lso p

ave

way

for

the

fort

h-co

min

g 20

19 G

ener

al E

lect

ion.

Secu

rity

forc

es m

ust

be v

igila

ntan

d tr

y to

cond

uct l

ocal

bod

y elec

-tio

ns p

eace

fully

. If e

xecu

ted

with

-ou

t any

dist

urba

nce,

it w

ill b

e a b

igvi

ctor

y of d

emoc

racy

and

defe

at o

fte

rror

ist a

nd se

para

tist e

lem

ents

. (T

he w

riter

is

a m

embe

r of

Uni

ted

Serv

ices

Insti

tute

of I

ndia

and

Insti

tute

for

Def

ence

Stu

dies

and

Anal

ysis.

Vie

ws e

xpre

ssed

are

pers

onal

)

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From

man

grov

e for

ests

to co

ral r

eefs

onth

e co

ast t

o pe

atlan

ds to

floo

dplai

nsin

land,

wet

land

s play

a cr

ucia

l rol

e in

the

fight

aga

inst

clim

ate

chan

ge a

nd h

elpm

ake u

rban

area

s mor

e sus

tain

able.

As c

oun-

trie

s ar

e in

crea

singl

y w

orki

ng h

ard

toim

plem

ent

the

Paris

Agr

eem

ent,

to k

eep

glob

al te

mpe

ratu

res w

ell b

elow

two

degr

eeCe

lsius

and

as cl

ose a

s pos

sible

to 1.

5°C,

wet

-lan

ds ar

e qui

ckly

emer

ging

as th

e onl

y rob

ust

mec

hani

sm, e

spec

ially

in u

rban

and

coas

tal

area

s to

not o

nly

relia

bly

store

car

bon,

but

also

act

as

an e

ffect

ive

barr

ier

to t

heun

avoi

dabl

e im

pact

s of c

limat

e cha

nge.

How

ever

, wet

lands

acro

ss th

e wor

ld ar

ege

tting

dim

inish

ed m

ainl

y du

e to

pol

icy

para

lysis

and

subv

ersio

n of

land

use

and

this

does

not

bod

e well

for t

he fi

ght a

gain

st cli

-m

ate

chan

ge. C

urre

ntly,

mor

e th

an 6

4 pe

rce

nt o

f the

wor

ld’s

wet

land

s hav

e bee

n lo

stsin

ce 1

990,

and

as w

etla

nds a

re d

estro

yed,

mor

e car

bon

is re

lease

d in

to th

e atm

osph

ere,

ther

eby

cont

ribut

ing

to a

glo

bal t

empe

ra-

ture

rise

. With

hal

f of t

he w

orld

’s po

pula

-tio

n no

w li

ving

in u

rban

are

as, w

ith th

isnu

mbe

r se

t to

incr

ease

to 6

6 pe

r ce

nt b

y20

50, t

here

is a

n in

crea

sing

tend

ency

to

encr

oach

on

wet

land

s to

build

and

dev

el-op

infr

astr

uctu

re.

As h

uman

ity p

rogr

esse

s and

pro

sper

s,w

e se

em to

be

inte

nt o

n sc

orin

g se

lf-go

als

as fa

r as e

nviro

nmen

t is c

once

rned

. Not

hing

else

can

exp

lain

the

und

erm

inin

g of

the

heal

thy

wet

land

sys

tem

that

has

mul

tiple

bene

fits.

Inta

ct w

etla

nds a

re th

e firs

t lin

e of

defe

nce a

gain

st flo

odin

g in

urba

n ar

eas,

act-

ing

as la

rge

spon

ges t

hat a

bsor

b flo

odw

a-te

rs.

Coa

stal

citi

es,

man

grov

es a

nd s

alt-

mar

shes

wor

k as

the

best

natu

ral d

efen

ceag

ainst

storm

surg

es an

d re

storin

g the

sam

eca

n co

ntrib

ute

effe

ctiv

ely

tow

ards

the

rem

oval

of c

arbo

n fro

m at

mos

pher

e.

Acco

rdin

g to

a st

udy

publ

ished

in th

ejo

urna

l, ‘F

ront

iers

in

Ecol

ogy

and

the

Envi

ronm

ent’,

com

pare

d to

the

car

bon

sequ

estr

atio

n po

tent

ial o

f mar

ine

ecos

ys-

tem

s of

cor

al r

eefs

and

kelp

bed

s, m

an-

grov

es, s

alt m

arsh

es an

d se

a gra

ss m

eado

ws

have

the

grea

test

impa

ct in

mea

ning

fully

slowi

ng d

own

the p

roce

ss of

clim

ate c

hang

e.Th

e stu

dy co

nclu

des b

y ter

min

g coa

stal w

et-

land

s as t

he b

est o

f the

mar

ine e

cosy

stem

sto

figh

t clim

ate c

hang

e. Bu

t the

se ve

ry as

sets

to fi

ght c

limat

e ch

ange

are

on

the

decli

nean

d ar

e in

urg

ent n

eed

of re

stora

tion,

this

wou

ld s

urely

hav

e ste

mm

ing

impa

ct o

nde

terio

ratin

g en

viro

nmen

t by

firstl

y cu

rb-

ing t

he em

issio

ns an

d se

cond

ly co

nser

ving

the

ecol

ogic

al b

iodi

vers

ity o

f the

regi

on.

Coa

stal w

etla

nds t

ake i

n ca

rbon

qui

ck-

ly an

d ho

ld it

for a

long

tim

e, bu

t if t

hey a

reno

t pro

tect

ed, e

cosy

stem

s cou

ld re

lease

hug

eam

ount

s of

gre

enho

use

gase

s in

to t

heat

mos

pher

e, po

tent

ially

jeo

pard

ising

the

abili

ty o

f the

urb

an h

inte

rland

to h

andl

e ris-

ing e

miss

ions

and

pollu

tion

levels

. One

rea-

son

coas

tal w

etla

nds a

re su

ch a

goo

d to

olto

cut e

miss

ions

is b

ecau

se th

ey’re

fairl

y eas

yto

man

age

and

cons

erve

and

in-tu

rn p

ro-

vide

the b

est c

limat

e cha

nge m

itiga

ting s

er-

vice

s, as

com

pare

d to

oth

er n

atur

al o

ptio

ns,

such

as m

arin

e sys

tem

s, lik

e phy

topl

ankt

on.

Phyt

opla

nkto

n ar

e de

pend

able

and

long

-te

rm ca

rbon

sink

s, bu

t it i

s inc

redi

bly c

hal-

leng

ing t

o cr

eate

a po

licy t

hat m

anag

es b

il-lio

ns o

f m

icro

scop

ic p

hoto

synt

hesis

ing

crea

ture

s fo

und

all

over

the

oce

an.

Com

pare

d to

opt

ions

suc

h as

the

se,

it's

muc

h ea

sier t

o ov

erse

e coa

stal

wet

land

s.

Indi

a, w

ith it

s gro

win

g pol

lutio

n pr

ob-

lems,

can

find

the b

est s

olut

ion

in w

etla

nds

to fi

ght t

he d

ismal

envi

ronm

ent c

ondi

tions

.M

oreo

ver,

with

a 7,

517 k

m co

astli

ne, w

e can

deve

lop,

res

tore

and

enc

oura

ge w

etla

nds

along

the c

oast

that

can

effe

ctiv

ely b

attle

cli-

mat

e cha

nge.

How

ever

, aut

horit

ies s

eem

tose

e the

real

esta

te p

oten

tial o

f the

wet

land

san

d no

t th

e cli

mat

e ch

ange

miti

gatio

npo

tent

ial.

In 2

017,

the

Min

istr

y of

Envi

ronm

ent,

Fore

sts an

d Cl

imat

e Cha

nge

publ

ished

the n

ew w

etlan

ds ru

les u

nder

the

Wet

land

s (C

onse

rvat

ion

& M

anag

emen

t)Ru

les-

2017

.The

se r

epla

ced

earli

er r

ules

datin

g bac

k to

2010

and

in th

e pro

cess

also

did

away

with

the

Nat

iona

l W

etla

nds

Auth

ority

crea

ted

unde

r the

2010

rules

and

conf

erre

d all

regu

lator

y pow

ers o

n th

e Sta

teG

over

nmen

ts. T

hese

rule

s attr

acte

d m

uch

criti

cism

from

env

ironm

enta

lists

and

citi-

zens

alik

e at

that

tim

e.W

hile

the B

JP-le

d G

over

nmen

t ens

ured

that

criti

cal a

spec

ts, su

ch as

com

mer

cial t

axco

llect

ion,

wer

e bei

ng ce

ntra

lised

in o

rder

to im

prov

e tax

colle

ctio

n an

d co

ntro

l eva

-sio

n, w

etla

nds

man

agem

ent

was

han

ded

over

to re

spec

tive S

tate

Gov

ernm

ents

with

blur

red

defin

ition

s of w

hat c

onsti

tute

s a w

et-

land

. T

his

has

enab

led

the

Stat

eG

over

nmen

ts to

qui

ckly

lab

el t

hese

as

waste

land

s tha

t cou

ld b

e dev

elope

d as

land

-fil

ls or

auct

ione

d of

f for

reve

nue t

o re

al es

tate

deve

lope

rs. N

o ot

her c

ultu

red

and

educ

at-

ed c

ount

ry i

n th

e w

orld

cou

ld p

ossib

lyou

tdo

wha

t Ind

ia d

id to

its w

etla

nds;

it is

the p

rove

rbial

self

goal

we al

ways

do

on m

at-

ters

per

tain

ing

to en

viro

nmen

t.Fo

r a

coun

try

battl

ing

drou

ghts

and

flood

s ca

used

by

dest

ruct

ive

land

-use

chan

ge —

say,

by ch

angi

ng ag

ricul

tura

l land

sto

indu

stria

l use

— an

d cli

mat

e cha

nge,

the

feeb

le w

etla

nd re

gulat

ions

can

hav

e di

sas-

trous

con

sequ

ence

s, es

peci

ally

sin

ce o

nly

bad

envi

ronm

enta

l la

ws

are

dilig

ently

enfo

rced

. The

Nat

iona

l Gre

en T

ribun

al in

conj

unct

ion

with

the e

fforts

of t

he Su

prem

eCo

urt a

nd as

sista

nce f

rom

the G

over

nmen

tm

ust c

ome f

orw

ard

with

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ified

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tegy

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inclu

des

effe

ctiv

e im

plem

enta

tion

ofst

rict r

ules

to s

afeg

uard

wet

land

s. O

nly

am

ulti

agen

cy ef

fort

such

as t

hese

can

have

the

desir

ed r

esul

ts an

d pr

even

t w

etla

nds

from

bei

ng m

isapp

ropr

iate

d an

d lea

ding

toth

eir e

vent

ual e

xtin

ctio

n.(T

he w

rite

r is

an

envi

ronm

enta

l jo

urna

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d fo

r w

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esto

ratio

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The rupee on Wednesdayrebounded by 61 paise,

notching up its best single-daygain since March 2017 to closeat 72.37 against the US cur-rency supported by heavy dol-lar selling by banks and weak-ness in the greenback in glob-al markets.

Snapping its two-daydecline, the rupee opened high-er at 72.71 against its recordclosing low of 72.98 on Tuesdayand touched a session high of72.34 in day trade as crude oilprices eased globally.

The rupee closed at 72.37,up by 61 paise or 0.84 per cent— its best single-day gain sinceMarch 14, 2017.

Heavy dollar selling byexporters along with state-runbanks likely on the behalf of theRBI, too boosted the rupee sen-timent, restricting the local unitfrom breaching the 73 level.

The rupee had collapsed toa historic intra-day trading lowof 72.99 on Tuesday beforeclosing at a lifetime low of72.98.

Forex market witnessed asudden revival in sentimenttowards the mid-session aidedby soft global crude prices.Global markets were alsoupbeat after lighter than feared

retaliatory tariffs by China onthe US goods, raising hopesthat the two major economiesare likely to avoid a trade war.China announced a lighter 5-10 per cent tariffs on $60 bil-lion of US products whichanalysts termed as not aspainful as they feared.

The US dollar slipped tonear seven-week low against abasket of currencies. The dol-lar index declined to a low of94.31, just above the two-month low level of 94.30.

International oil pricessteadied as the OPEC andother producers includingRussia meet in Algeria thisweekend to discuss how to allo-cate supply increases withintheir quota framework to off-set the loss of Iranian supply.

Benchmark Brent crudefutures were at $78.93 a barrelin early Asian trading.

Most emerging-marketcurrencies also got some senti-mental relief after China said itwould not retaliate with com-petitive currency devaluations.

The forex and money mar-ket are closed tomorrow onaccount of ‘Muharram’.

The Financial BenchmarksIndia private limited (FBIL)fixed the reference rate for thedollar at 72.6781 and for theeuro at 84.9050.

�� /4��145"0

As the market rout contin-ued for the third straight

session on Wednesday, investorwealth eroded by �3.62 lakhcrore in three trading days.

Market benchmark BSESensex fell further by 169.45points to end at a near two-month low of 37,121.22, extend-ing losses for the third straightsession Wednesday. The indextanked 970 points or more than2.5 per cent since Monday,largely hit by rupee woes andescalating trade tensionsbetween the US and China.

Led by losses in stocks, themarket capitalisation of BSElisted companies eroded by�3,62,357.15 crore to�1,52,73,265 crore since Friday.

Market analysts said thattrade war escalation issuesbetween US and China, increas-ing crude oil prices and depre-ciating rupee against the dollarhave dampened sentiments.

“Despite favourable globalcues and recovery in rupee, the

domestic market continued towitness selling pressure due tohigher oil price and yield,” saidVinod Nair, Head of Research,Geojit Financial Services Ltd.

From the 30-share basket,16 stocks fell, while 14 endedwith gains. Indusind Bank,Maruti Suzuki India, HDFCBank,YES Bank and HDFCwere the worst performers.

Coal India Ltd, ONGC,Tata Steel and Hero MotoCorpled the gainers pack.

At the BSE, 1,704 stocksdeclined, while 968 advancedand 173 remained unchanged.As many as 180 stocks hittheir 52-week low levels on BSEon Wednesday.

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Leading stock exchanges BSEand NSE have received mar-

kets regulator Sebi’s approval tolaunch commodity derivativessegment from October 1.

BSE will enter the seg-ment with non-agriculturecommodities like metals ini-tially followed by agri com-modities subsequently.

The Securities andExchange Board of India (Sebi)last December, announced thatfrom October 2018, the countrywould have a unified exchangeregime wherein stock exchangeswould be allowed to offer trad-ing in commodities derivatives.

In a statement, BSE said ithas received “another feather inits hat by getting Sebi’s approvalto launch commodity deriva-

tives segment from October 1,2018”.

“BSE will begin trading incommodity derivatives withnon-agriculture commoditieslike metals initially, followed byagri commodities subsequent-ly,” it added.

According to the exchange,its commodity derivatives plat-form will help in efficient pricediscovery, reduction in timelines,cost effective, user-friendly,robust risk management systemand wider market penetration.

In a separate circular, NSEtoo informed that it has gotSebi’s clearance for introducingthe commodity derivatives seg-ment from October 1.

Further, NSCCL has alsoreceived clearance from theregulator for carrying out clear-ing and settlement of tradesexecuted in the commodityderivatives segment on NSE.

At present, the exchangesoffer trading in equities, equi-ty derivatives as well as cur-rency derivatives.

Besides, BSE will conductmock trading in live environ-ment for the segment onSaturday. Larger rival NSE hadconducted a similar session onSeptember 1.

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Shriram Life InsuranceCompany has bagged the

3rd Edition of India’s greatestbrands and Leaders for the year2017-18 in recognition of thecontribution of distribution oflife insurance in non-urbanmarkets in India. On behalf ofShriram Life, the awards werereceived by Manoj Jain,Managing Director and ArvindShivhare Executive Director-Direct Channel & RRadhakrishnan, ChiefMarketing Officer, ShriramLife Insurance in an awardsceremony held recently atMumbai in the Pride of theNation Series Awards organ-ised by URS-Asia One maga-zine and URS MediaConsulting – process reviewersPricewaterhouse Coopers PL.

Shriram Life Insurancefocuses on the common cus-tomer segment with over 50% ofits policies sourced from the ruralarea and a significant chunkfrom the tier II and III towns.The company has been engagedspreading the protection net tothe masses, with special focus onfinancial inclusion for the seg-ment that is generally ignored bythe mainstream players.

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State-ownedN B C C

(India) Ltd hassigned an agree-ment withC onstruct ionS k i l lDe velopmentCouncil to train 20,000 youthin the next six months to pro-mote skill development.

“Construction sector is thesecond largest industry interms of manpower employ-ment and the workforcerequirement is around 4 mil-lion people per year to sustainthe current growth rate. Thereis a requirement for continuousskill up gradation and certifi-cation,” NBCC CMD AnoopKumar Mittal said in a state-

ment.Through the association,

NBCC and Construction SkillDevelopment Council of Indiawill work towards empoweringthe youth with relevant skills invarious construction trades tomake them employable as partof the Recognition of PriorLearning (RPL) programme.

The Recognition of PriorLearning will benefit workerslike masons, carpenters,plumbers, electricians, etc.

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Jivi Mobiles on Wednesday entered into Smartphone segmentby launching full view smartphone series. Jivi Mobiles has

launched XTREME Series which will have a full view (18:9) dis-play, Fingerprint sensor and Dual rear camera among the spe-cial features. Xtreme series comes with the tagline ‘Get more thanyou Xpect’ which Jivi mobiles has judiciously justified and haveloaded all those features such as Dual Camera, Face unlock andFinger Print sensor etc. into their phones that are not availableat this range.

�� /4��145"0

Max Life Insurance Co.Ltd, announced that the

company has paid 10,152 indi-vidual death claims amount-ing to �353 crores, thusachieving claims paid ratio of98.26% in FY 17-18. This is afurther increase over FY 16-17, when the company paid97.81% of the total individualdeath claims received. In FY17-18, only 178 death claimswere rejected and at the endof the financial year only 2cases were pending for clo-sure.

As per IRDAI annualreport for FY 2016-17 releasedin Jan’18, Max Life Insurancehas superior individual deathclaims paid ratio during thesaid fiscal year

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Bajaj Finserv, through withlending arm Bajaj Finance

Ltd., has announced collabo-ration with Wochit- a US-Israel based video automationcompany — to meet its ambi-tious goal of making video asthe primary format of stimu-lation across its stakeholdersets. With Wochit’s predictivevideo creation platform anddistribution channels, BajajFinserv will bring stories to life,at scale and speed, cuttingdown video turn-around timeto less than 30 minutes and at1/10th the cost.

Video consumption inIndia has increased 5X between2016 and 2017, with smallercities registering up to 22Xgrowth. In the first-of-its-kindinitiative, Bajaj Finserv willtake its first step towards lever-aging the remarkable growth inonline video consumption.

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The Union Cabinet didnot consider onWednesday the �4,500

crore plan to more than dou-ble the production assistancepaid to sugarcane farmers andtransport subsidy to sugarexporting mills, sources said.

The Cabinet Committeeon Economic Affairs (CCEA)may take up the FoodMinistry’s proposal next week,they added.

The ministry has proposedsharp increase in productionassistance to farmers to �13.88per quintal for 2018-19 mar-keting year (October-September) from �5.5 at present.

The proposal to raise pro-duction assistance and trans-port subsidy of up to �3,000 pertonne to mills for exports offive million tonnes of surplussugar is part of the governmentplan to clear more than �13,500crore dues sugar mills havetowards farmers.

On Tuesday, sources hadsaid the government wouldhave to bear about �4,500 croreon account of these measuresto help sugar mills and canefarmers.

These steps will enablemills to boost sugar export andclear cane arrears, which cur-rently stand at �13,567 crore.Mills in Uttar Pradesh owe themaximum at �9,817 crore to

cane farmers.India’s sugar output is set to

increase further to 35 milliontonnes in the next marketingyear from 32 million tonnes inthis year. The annual domesticdemand stand at 26 milliontonnes. The opening stock ofsugar is estimated at 10 milliontonnes on October 1.

The government has takena slew of measures to bail outcash-starved sugar mills aswell as cane farmers in the lastone year.

First, it doubled the importduty on sugar to 100 per centand then scrapped the exportduty on it. It also made it com-pulsory for millers to export twomillion tonnes of sugar even asthe global prices were low.

In June, the governmenthad announced �8,500 crorepackage for the cash-starvedindustry, which is facing a glut-like situation because of record32 million tonnes of sugar pro-duction in the current 2017-18marketing year ending thismonth. The package includessoft loans of �4,440 crore tomills for creating ethanol capac-ity. It will bear an interest sub-vention of �1,332 crore for this.

The Centre had alsoannounced an assistance of�5.50 per quintal of canecrushed, amounting to �1,540crore, to mills. Around �1,200crore was allocated for the cre-ation of 3 million tonnes buffer

stock of sugar. The minimumselling price of the sweetenerhas been fixed at �29 per kg.

Last week, the governmentapproved an over 25 per centhike in the price of ethanol pro-duced directly from sugarcanejuice for blending in petrol ina bid to cut surplus sugar pro-duction and reduce oil imports.

The CCEA raised the pro-curement price of ethanolderived from 100 per cent sug-arcane juice to �59.13 per litrefrom the current rate of �47.13.

The price for ethanol pro-duced from B-heavy molasses(also called as intermediarymolasses) was hiked to �52.43a litre from the current �47.13but that for ethanol producedfrom C-heavy molasses wasreduced marginally to �43.46from �43.70.

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Meanwhile, the govern-ment on Wednesday approvedan equity infusion of �1,033.54crore by state-owned RCF in afertiliser project at Talcher,Odisha.

This plant is being revivedat a project cost of over �11,500crore by Talcher Fertiliser Ltd,a joint venture firm of GAIL,CIL, RCF and FertiliserCorporation of India Ltd(FCIL). The move will boostdomestic production of urea

and cut import dependence.“The CCEA, chaired by

Prime Minister NarendraModi, has approved the pro-posal of the Department ofFertilisers for equity investmentof �1033.54 crore (+ ) @ 29.67per cent of the total project costfor setting up a coal gasificationbased fertiliser project inTalcher Fertilizer Ltd (TFL) byRashtriya Chemicals &Fertilizers Limited (RCF),” anofficial statement said.

The revival of the Talcherproject will ensure huge invest-ment in the fertiliser sectorfrom the government throughPSUs. This will create jobopportunities and also boostthe economy of the state andthe eastern region. The TFLwas incorporated in November,2015 with shareholding of29.67 per cent of GAIL, RCFand CIL each and 10.99 percent of FCIL to revive theTalcher fertiliser plant.

The JV was formed to setup a coal gasification based fer-tiliser project at Talcher,District Angul, Odisha.

The share of GAIL, CILand RCF in the equity of TFLwill be �1033.54 crore (+ 15 percent) based on the capex of�11,611.48 crore (+ 15 percent) for the coal gasificationbased fertiliser plant. GAILand CIL are both Maharatnapublic sector enterprises andtheir Board is competent toapprove their equity investmentin the joint venture companyTFL, a miniratna company.

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Maruti Suzuki India (MSI) continued itshold on the Indian passenger vehicles

market with its models occupying the firstsix positions in the top ten best selling listin August.

According to data from Society ofIndian Automobile Manufacturers, thecompany’s entry level car Alto topped the list,selling 22,237 units in August. In the samemonth last year, the model was at secondposition selling 21,521 units.

MSI’s compact sedan DZIRE sold 21,990units last month moving down to the sec-ond spot. It had occupied the first positionin the year-ago month with 30,934 units.

At the third position, premium hatch-back Swift from the MSI stable sold 19,115units last month. It was at sixth position inAugust 2017 selling 12,631 units. Coming atfourth position in August this year wasBaleno with 17,713 units, moving down aslot from last year when it sold 17,190 units.

Another hatchback from MSI, Wagon Rretained its fifth position with 13,658 unitsin August. It had sold 13,907 units in thesame month last year. The company’s com-pact SUV Vitara Brezza stood at sixth posi-tion with 13,271 units down from fourthposition last year.

Rival Hyundai’s compact hatchbackGrand i10 occupied the seventh positionwith sale of 11,489 units. The company’s pre-mium hatchback Elite i20 stood at eighthposition with 11,475 units.

Another model from Hyundai stable,Creta occupied the ninth position with saleof 10,394 units. Honda’s compact sedanAmaze stood at tenth position with sales of9,644 units.

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New Delhi (PTI): The governmentwill soon announce import curbs on sev-eral non-essential items, a top FinanceMinistry official said Wednesday whileterming “the 10 per cent depreciation” inthe rupee in the last few weeks as a “tem-porary phenomenon”.

“There are always implications of thedollar and rupee exchange rates ... this 10per cent depreciation in last few weeks thatis a temporary phenomenon,” he said atan event organised by PHD Chamber ofCommerce here.

To a question about when the govern-ment intends to impose import curb onnon-essential goods, he replied, “verysoon.” He, however, did not give any time-frame. Last week, Finance Minister ArunJaitley had announced the government’sdecision to relax norms for raising over-seas borrowing and impose restrictions onthe non-essential imports as part ofefforts to check rising current accountdeficit (CAD) and a falling rupee.

India’s current account deficit deteri-orated to 1.9 per cent of GDP in 2017-18from 0.6 per cent in the previous year andis forecast to rise to around 2.8 per cent inthe current year. The trade deficit expand-ed to USD 80.4 billion in the first fivemonths of the current fiscal year from USD67.3 billion in the year-earlier period. Therupee has logged year-to-date losses of

more than 13 per cent against the strength-ening US dollar after trade concerns andfirming up crude oil prices. It has droppedclose to 6 per cent since August.

Garg exuded confidence that the fis-cal deficit would be maintained as per theBudget announcement despite pressures.“Come what may, oil situation, rupee orwhatever the fiscal deficit will not beallowed to slip from 3.3 per cent, or bet-ter as we go along. I think all the painpoints, all the issues which were earlierthought of as something unknown,whether it’s the MSP (minimum supportprice), all these have now been factoredinto,” he said.

On the price rise, Garg said, 4 per centinflation for a developing economy washealthy, it was not something unhealthyor detrimental for the economy.

The Economic Affairs Secretary alsoexplained that since the dependence of 50per cent of India’s populace is on agri-culture, it needs a transition and therefore,required policy steps.

The government had announced var-ious schemes including Ujjwala Yojana,health protection and rural electrificationwith the intention to bring change in ruralIndia, he said, adding that the governmenthad drawn up a programme for increas-ing the export of agri products from USD30 billion to USD 100 billion.

"?"��:2�� New Delhi (PTI): Hospitality firm

OYO on Wednesday said it had forayedinto the United Kingdom and intended toinvest GBP 40 million (approximately�382.93 crore) for its expansion in thecountry. This is the company’s first mar-

ket beyond Asia, OYO said in a statement.The company plans to invest GBP 40

million into the UK market and looks tolaunch in 10 cities in UK includingManchester, Birmingham, Glasgow andEdinburgh by 2020, it added.

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In a relief to the still-grievingSharif family, a top Pakistani

court suspended onWednesday the jail sentences ofthe embattled former PrimeMinister Nawaz Sharif, hisdaughter and son-in-law in acorruption case and orderedtheir release.

A large number of PakistanMuslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leaders, including Sharif ’sbrother, Shehbaz Sharif werepresent in the courtroom andcheered as the judgment wasannounced.

A two-judge bench of theIslamabad High Court heardthe petitions filed by Sharif, 68,his daughter Maryam and son-in-law Capt (retd) MuhammadSafdar challenging their con-viction related to the purchaseof four luxury flats in Londonthrough corrupt practices.

“The instant writ petitionis allowed and sentence award-ed to the petitioners by theaccountability court shallremain suspended till the finaladjudication of the appeal filedby the petitioner,” reads thejudgment.

The accountability courtjudge Mohammad Bashir had

sentenced the trio on July 6. Sharif, 68, Maryam, 44,

and Safdar, 54, were sentencedto 10 years, seven years and oneyear, respectively, in prisonand fined in the Avenfieldproperties case.

The accused were also dis-qualified to contest elections orto hold public office for a peri-od of 10 years after release.

The ruling comes just aweek after Sharif ’s wife,Kulsoom Nawaz, died fromcancer in London.

The trio were brieflyallowed out of the high-secu-rity Adiala Jail on parole toattend her funeral. Theyreturned to jail on Monday.

The two-judge bench alsoordered the release of the for-mer premier, his daughter andson-in-law from the Adialajail in Rawalpindi.

Sharif, Maryam and Safdarwere also directed to submitbail bonds worth Rs 5,00,000.

Pakistani media reportedthat the verdict would remaina temporary relief for the for-mer prime minister and hisfamily members until the courtgives the final decision ontheir application seeking sus-pension of their conviction inthe Avenfield case.

The Sharif family is nowfacing two more corruptioncases in the accountabilitycourt — Al-Azizia Steel Millsand Flagship Investments — inwhich they are accused ofmoney laundering, tax eva-sion and hiding offshore assets.

The cases against the fam-ily stemmed from PanamaPapers case in April 2016.

In a blow to Pakistan’santi-corruption watchdog, theIslamabad High Court alsodismissed the NationalAccountability Bureau’s requestto first announce a judgmenton the maintainability of thepleas. The bench also imposeda fine on the NAB lawyers ear-lier for using delaying tactics.

The NAB was also pulledup by the Supreme Court onMonday when it rejected itspetition challenging the IHC’sdecision to hear Sharifs’ peti-tions against the Avenfield verdict.

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Washington: President DonaldTrump is flexing his executivepower to declassify secret doc-uments in the Russia investi-gation, an extraordinary movehe says will ensure that “reallybad things” at the FBI areexposed.

But the decision, madeagainst the backdrop ofTrump’s spiraling outrage at thespecial counsel’s Russia inves-tigation, may expose sensitivesources and methods andbrush up against privacy lawprotections, experts say.

The order is likely to fur-ther divide the president fromthe intelligence agencies heoversees and raises new con-cerns that Trump is disclosinggovernment secrets for his ownpolitical gain. Critics of themove say the president has aclear conflict by trying to dis-credit an investigation in whichhe himself is a subject.

“This radical policy choiceis not being made on tradi-tional policy grounds. It’s beingmade on conflicted grounds,”said David Kris, a formerJustice Department nationalsecurity division head. “That’sproblematic.”

The Justice Departmentsays it’s begun complying withthe order, though it’s not clearwhen the documents might be

released. It’s also unclear if themulti-agency review nowunderway might find ways totry to withhold certain infor-mation or limit whatever dam-age, such as outing sources orscaring off would-be ones, thatmay arise from the release.

Trump and Republicansupporters want the records outin hopes they’ll reveal lawenforcement bias in the earlystage of the Russia investigationand prove the probe wasopened without good reason.

Democrats say the mater-ial is too secret for disclosureand object to any meddling inan ongoing investigation.

In a letter Tuesday toDirector of NationalIntelligence Daniel Coats,Deputy Attorney General RodRosenstein and FBI DirectorChristopher Wray, four topDemocrats called Trump’saction “a brazen abuse ofpower.” AP

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North Korea’s Kim Jong Unagreed to make a historic

visit to Seoul soon and close amissile testing site in front ofinternational inspectors at asummit with the South’sPresident Moon Jae-in inPyongyang on Wednesday.

Progress on the key issue ofthe North’s nuclear arsenal waslimited, but the two signed adocument to strengthen tiesbetween the two halves of thedivided peninsula.

Building on a growing rap-prochement, they agreed to

create a facility to hold familyreunions at any time, worktowards joining up road andrail links, and mount a com-bined bid for the 2032Olympics.

The agreement “carries thepeople’s fresh hope and thepeople’s strong, flaming desirefor reunification”, Kim said.

His trip to Seoul would bethe first by a Northern leadersince the end of the 1950-53Korean War, when hostilitiesceased with an armistice ratherthan a peace treaty, leavingthem technically in a state ofwar.

Baghdad: An Iraqi court onWednesday sentenced a promi-nent jihadist described as adeputy of Islamic State groupleader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi todeath on terrorism charges.

“The Karkh criminal courtin Baghdad sentenced to deathby hanging one of the mostprominent leaders of IS, whoserved as a deputy ofBaghdadi,” judicial spokesmanAbdel Sattar Bayraqdar said.

AFP

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Malaysia’s toppled leaderNajib Razak was arrested

Wednesday and will be chargedover allegations that $628 mil-lion linked to state investmentfund 1MDB ended up in hispersonal bank accounts, offi-cials said.

Allegations that Najib andhis cronies looted huge sumsfrom the investment vehiclewere a major factor in theshock defeat of his long-rulingcoalition in elections in May, at

the hands of a reformist allianceheaded by Mahathir Mohamad.

Mahathir, 93, in his secondstint as premier after comingout of retirement to take on hisex-protege Najib, has reopenedprobes into 1MDB that wereshut down by the former gov-ernment, and vowed to bringNajib to justice.

Since losing power, Najibhas already been arrested andhit with seven charges relatedto claims he pocketed some $10million from a former unit of1MDB.

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Aformer columnist for statemedia has been jailed for

seven years for “abusive”Facebook posts about Myanmarleader Aung San Suu Kyi, a courtofficial said on Wednesday, thelatest case threatening freeexpression in the country.

Ngar Min Swe was sen-tenced for sedition on Tuesday,Yangon’s Western District Courtspokesman Htay Aung toldAFP.

“He was convicted... Forwriting abusive posts onFacebook against StateCounsellor Aung San Suu Kyi,making people get the wrongimpression of her,” Htay Aungsaid.

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Christine Blasey Ford, theCalifornia professor claim-

ing that US President DonaldTrump’s Supreme Court nom-inee Brett Kavanaugh sexuallyassaulted her nearly 36 yearsago, on Wednesday demandeda “full investigation” by the FBIbefore she attends anyCongressional hearing or“interrogation” into her accu-sations.

Kavanaugh’s nominationplunged into chaos after Ford,51, told ‘The Washington Post’that she was subjected to a sex-ual assault by Kavanaugh, 53,

in high school in the early1980s.

The Supreme Court nom-inee has rejected as “com-pletely false” the sexual assaultallegation, saying he was readyto testify before a Senate com-mittee to “defend my integrity”.

The new developmentappeared to have put in jeop-ardy the September 24Congressional hearing whenboth Ford, clinical psychologyprofessor at Palo AltoUniversity, and JudgeKavanaugh are scheduled totestify before the SenateJudiciary Committee.

9� ��4�� 4"�� %��!�� Los Angeles: An orthopedicsurgeon in California who onceappeared on a dating realityshow and his girlfriend havebeen charged with drugging andsexually assaulting two women,in a case prosecutors suspectmight involve hundreds of othervictims.

Authorities told AFP onTuesday they had receiveddozens of leads in the probe, justhours after a press conferenceheld to try to encourage otherwomen to come forward.

“I am being told by inves-tigators that their phones havebeen very active this after-noon,” said Michelle Van DerLinden, a spokeswoman forOrange County prosecutors.

“People are calling with

additional information and wewill be busy tracking down allthe additional leads.” The sur-geon, Grant WilliamRobicheaux, and his girlfriend,Cerissa Laura Riley, werecharged on Sept 11 with rape aswell as drug and weapons-related offenses in connectionwith two alleged assaults.

Robicheaux — who onceappeared on the Bravo televisionshow “Online Dating Rituals ofthe American Male” — andRiley are due to be arraigned onOctober 25.

Investigators found hun-dreds of videos on Robicheaux’sphone after he was arrested, “invarious states of undress, con-sciousness and being assaulted,”Van Der Linden said. AFP

The Executive Engineer, BuildingDivision South-East (M-421), PWD(GNCTD), Police Colony, Hauz Khas,New Delhi invites on behalf of thePresident of India percentage/ itemrate tender in two bid condition for fol-lowing work(s):-

1. NIT No. 52/South-East(B)M/ NewDelhi/2018-19 (Recall), Name ofWork: A/R & M/O Non ResidentialBuilding under service centre G.B.Pant & Nehru Place, New Delhi dur-ing 2018-19 (SH: Providing labour forday to day maintenance works),Estimated Cost: Rs. 11,10,000/,Earnest Money: Rs. 22,200/- drawnin favour of EE, CBMD M-421, PWD,New Delhi, time of completion of work12 Months, The Last date & time forreceipt of Tenders through e-pro-curement is 27.09.2018 upto 15.00Hours & Tender ID No 2018_PWD_158537_1.

2. NIT No. 64/South-East(B)M/ NewDelhi/2018-19, Name of Work: A/R& M/O Non Residential Building atMeera Bai Institute of Technology,Maharani Bagh, New Delhi during2018-19. (SH: Misc. repairing and ren-ovation work in MBIT, MaharaniBagh, New Delhi), Estimated Cost:Rs. 14,85,866/-, Earnest Money: Rs.29,717/-drawn in favour of EE, CBMDM-421, PWD, New Delhi, time of com-pletion of work 06 Months, The Lastdate & time for receipt of Tendersthrough e- procurement is 27.09.2018upto 15.00 Hours & Tender ID No2018_PWD_158538_1.

Further details of the tender can be had from :http://govtproeurement.delhi.gov.in/nicgep/app

DIP/Shabdarth/1747/18-19

PUBLIC WORKS DEPARTMENTNotice Inviting e-Tender

PUBLIC WORKS DEPARTMENTNOTICE INVITING E-TENDERS

The Executive Engineer, East Road(M-212), PWD, Ramesh Park, Delhi-92 invites on behalf of President ofIndia percentage rate tenders throughe-tendering from (i) approved & eligi-ble contractors of appropriatecivil/composite category of CPWD (ii)Non CPWD contractors such MES,BSNL and other State Govt, depart-ment dealing with buildings and roadand other experienced contractors forthe following works through E-pro-curement solution:-1. (Tender Reference No) NIT No.

32/EE/PWD/East Road (M-212)/2018-19 (Recall), Name of Work:A/R 8s M/O Various Roads Sub-Division East Road-I under PWDDivision East Roads/ (M-212), Delhiduring 2018-19. SH: Providing &Laying RCC pipe for drainage, mak-ing and connecting bell mouth to manhole on Patparganj Road. EstimatedCost: � 18,84,564/-, Earnest Money: � 37,691/-, Period of Completion :30 Days, Tender ID : 2018_PWD_158461_ 1

2. (Tender Reference No) NIT No.45/EE/PWD/East Road (M-212)/2018-19, Name of Work: A/R andM/O to various roads Sub. DivisionEast Road-III under PWD DivisionEast Road /(M-212) during 2018-19.SH:- Repair of Footpath, Protectionwall and drains. Estimated Cost: �27,33,570/-, Earnest Money : �54,671/-, Period of Completion : 45Days, Tender ID :2018_PWD_158464_1

3. (Tender Reference No) NIT No.47/EE/PWD/East Road (M-212)/2018-19, Name of Work: A/R andM/O to various roads Sub. DivisionEast Road-IU under PWD DivisionEast Road /(M-212) during 2018-19.SH:-Removal of FloatingMaterial. Estimated Cost: �25,72,074/-, Earnest Money : �51,441/-, Period of Completion : 180Days, Tender ID :2018_PWD_158465_1

4. (Tender Reference No) NIT No.49 /EE/PWD/East Road (M-212)/2018-19, Name of Work: A/R andM/O to various roads Sub. DivisionEast Road-lI under PWD DivisionEast Road /(M-212) during 2018-19.SH:- Repair of drain, culvert etc. atRoad No. 102, 108, 109, Live StockRoad 8s Kondli Gharoli Road.Estimated Cost: �� 6,53,055/-,Earnest Money : � 73,061/-, Periodof Completion : 60 Days, Tender ID: 2018_PWD�158467_1

5. (Tender Reference No) NIT No.50/EE/PWD/East Road (M-212)/2018-19, Name of Work: A/R andM/O to various roads Sub. DivisionEast Road-II under PWD DivisionEast Road /(M-212) during 2018-19.SH:- Providing Maintenance Vanwith required labour and T 85 P underSection-I 8s II. Estimated Cost: �27,24,318/-, Earnest Money : �54,486/-, Period of Completion : 365Days, Tender ID :2018_PWD_158471_1

Last Date and Time of submissionof tender is: 24.09.2018 (Upto 3.00PM)Tender forms and other details can beobtained from the website: https:/govt-procurement .delhi.gov.in

DIP/Shabdarth/1742/18-19

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The Bangarra dance troupe, Australia’smost prominent orchestra band will be

there and so will the MelbourneInternational Comedy Roadshow withmany more internationally-acclaimed per-formers, artists, comedy lovers, dancers,musicians and all kinds of troupes. TheAustralia Fest 2018 will give a glimpse ofthe country’s culture and arts as it pans outacross 20 Indian cities for 203 days with 75events and 26 projects, from September2018 to March 2019.

The Australian High Commissioner toIndia, Harinder Sidhu, while unveiling thesix-month long festival said, “Children toparents, families and friends — there’ssomething for everyone in this fest.Australia’s culture, creativity and dynamismwill be on display and will feature food, film,art, dance, music, literature, theatre, sportsand much more.”

Sidhu added, “Even though there aremore than 60,000 Indian students studyingin Australia, we still can’t showcase thecountry’s culture to all of them. So if we can’tbring India to Australia, why not bringAustralia to India? And this is what we aredoing—merging nations and developing tiesbetween both the countries, if not political-ly, but culturally.”

Sidhu disclosed that the plan tohave such a large-scale festival “was to

be executed in 2017,” as they had decid-ed that there should be a span of five years

between the festivals and the first was heldin 2012. And there were reasons. While theydid manage to get many of the prominentartists on board, getting them to performwas a long process. As Sidhu revealed,“Bookings for certain performers couldn’tbe made in time. Even for their show thisyear, we had already made the bookingsthree years ago, especially with the Bangarradancers, who follow really strict schedules.”The dancers will be the centrepiece of thefest who will be performing in Bengaluru,Delhi and Mumbai.

MasterChef Australia Gary Mehigan,who will be travelling to the country to cre-ate a fusion of food from the two countries.“Across the world, only Indians are so pas-sionate about food and flavours,” saidMehigan who is also the Ambassador ofAustralia Fest.”

He explained how he has exploredIndian flavours and married them withAustralian food to give it a desi as well asa slightly spicy touch. He said, “When itcomes to cooking and playing with flavours,it is not just north Indian or Punjabi flavoursbut all kinds of Indian spices and innumer-able textures that I like to use. Whether itis vegetables or the breads, the Indian mealshave a lot of variety and tastes. Blendingsuch multiple ingredients could be crazy, butit’s just so delicious and comes togetherbeautifully.”

The launch session was also attendedby renowned Australian author, JohnZubrzycki, whose latest book Jadoowallahs,Jugglers and Jinns: A Magical History of Indiais a cultural, social and political history ofthe streets and stage magic in the country.He said, “I’m particularly excited in beinginvolved in this year’s event with my bookthat examines the influence of India’svibrant magical traditions on popular cul-ture globally.”

Among other great attractions are thefood talks and sessions with MasterChefAustralia judge Gary Mehigan, fusion ofmodern Australian jazz with West Bengalifolk music by The Three Seas, a showcaseof collections by Australian fashion design-ers using Indian handloom textiles atAmazon India Fashion Week, theMelbourne International Comedy FestivalRoadshow featuring some of Australia’s wit-tiest comedians, the best of Australian cin-ema at various film festivals across India,the launch of the Australian OpenInternational BallKids programme in India,and much more.

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Speaking at a promotional event inDelhi, Nawazuddin says, “My char-acter is of a personality who has

been daring and courageous to bring thereality to the fore. While shooting andplaying the character, I felt that eventhough there are certain methods andcraft to portray and bring alive a char-acter, playing a character like Manto isvery difficult. I have tried really hardand you can see through the film thathow honestly his character has beenshowcased.”

Nawazuddin believes that the storyof Manto is very much relevant today.“The stories he wrote in 1940, and theway he looked at the world... Nothingmuch has changed since then as far associety is concerned. His stories are verymuch relevant today. In fact, we wereshocked to see that we haven’t changedmuch, and to see that there hasn’t beenmuch growth as an individual and asociety.”

Manto, co-produced by HP Studios,Fi lmstoc and Viacom18 MotionPictures, which gives a glimpse into thewriter’s life during the tumultuousPartition of the sub continent.

Talking about Partition Nawaz said,“We can’t imagine the agony that mil-lions of people endured during partition.Imagine a person having to leave behind

his home of the past 40-50 years and set-tling down in a new country. We can’teven think the magnitude of thetragedy.”

Since the two countries have somuch in common, Nawazuddin doesn’tagree putting even a temporary ban on

Pakistani talent working in the Hindifilm industry. “Artistes and art has noboundaries,” he asserted.

Manto, who died in 1955 at the ageof 43 in Pakistan, the country to whichhe decided to migrate from his belovedMumbai, penned an impressive body ofwork which touched on genres likewomen, Partition. He churned outabout 22 collections of stories compris-ing a novel, essays, personal sketchesand movie scripts. His work also gainedattention for weaving stories around theordeal of Partition, freedom of expres-sion as well as sexuality. His straightfor-ward writing got him in trouble as hewas charged with obscenity six times forhis short stories, thrice before 1947 andthrice after.

“The film is very personal. It willhaunt people. You will feel a connectwith the story. And the reason behindthat is that every one wants to tell thetruth, but there are many factors andpressures of the society stopping themfrom saying the truth.”

The actor is “proud of this project”.However, in the troubled times that welive in, he is a little unsure of the audi-ence reaction to it.

Since Manto’s writings frequentlytalked about women, the author dis-cussed the issues of pay parity, womenempowerment and #MeToo movement,Nawazuddin hopes for a similar effectin India.

The actor says it is time to givewomen the respect they deserve. “Weneed to introspect about the way wehave treated women for centuries. It istime to change. It is time to look at themfrom a different perspective. We need tounderstand their thoughts, desires andfeelings, and respect them,” said theactor.

The actor, who has made his markin films like Gangs of Wasseypur, TheLunchbox, Liar’s Dice, Badlapur andManjhi: The Mountain Man, will soonbe seen bringing the life of writerSaadat Hasan Manto alive on the bigscreen with Manto, directed by NanditaDas.

The film releases on Friday.

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Love at first sight.’ How many times has one heard the phrase in pop-ular culture as well as in real life? While the concept dates back to

time immemorial, today, when technology plays such a big role in everypart of our lives, has this idea evolved over time? One has seen the tropeplay out so many times in films where two people walking down the streetbump into each other, their eyes meet, sparks fly, and Cupid strikes.Cut to the present, when image after image, glance after glance andpout after pout flood your choices. And display pictures rob the magicof a chance encounter.

So to turn the idea on its head, is falling in love possible when youhaven’t even seen the other person? And it is here that a virtual blinddating series Hear Me, Love Me hosted by actor Shilpa Shetty Kundrareflects exactly what’s on every young Indian mind: Relationships.

A keen fitness enthusiast and now a love guru-cum-life coach of sorts,Shilpa says, “The show really gives women an upper hand because theyare given the choice of three boys, the twist being that they get to seetheir world, hear and know them via this show in just 12 hours. Thenthe girl has to pick one boy without seeing him to go on a date with. It’smore insightful than sightful. I think as ashow it works because who doesn’t lovereality-oriented shows today?”

Love grows over time, believes Shilpa.“People have evolved, mindsets havechanged and so have films and content.The only thing that is constant is changewhich is a welcome development. Love isnot quite an emotion that can be felt auto-matically.”

While Shilpa is ready to be a part offilms again after almost a decade now, tele-vision remains her preference. She wouldonly take on a film if it is very differentfrom mainstream scripts. “If I have to playa character it would have to be age-appro-priate. I don’t want a female-orientedscript, I’m very clear about that. I’m notsomebody who wants to play a college-going character and as everyone knowsfilms are changing now, content is evolv-ing and I want to do something that wouldcater to today’s palate. I’m an avid film watch-er and I want to sign up for something that I would enjoy reacting to.To choose a script now would be a tough nut because I have already playedvarious characters and the only prerequisite is that it would have to bedifferent from what i have done before.”

She added, “I have always steered towards doing things that were trendsetting. Till I don’t get to chew on something that has a different taste, Idon’t enjoy it. It gets very mundane for me. I think I lasted in the indus-try because of this and the fact that I dabbled in different platforms. Asfor now, my preference is television as the onus of giving a superhit filmis not on my shoulders.”

She says that there are many choices but one has to choose the pathyou want to tread on wisely. She says, “If a film doesn’t work where doesthat leave me? I don’t want people to judge me on the basis of my lastfilm, I want people to judge me on the choices that I have made. There’sno excuse for mediocrity for me. If I’m doing something in the healthand wellness sector, I will do it to the best of my ability and it comes outof passion not out of money. I want to be a front runner there and I’mwilling to be judged on whatever I’m doing today so the challenge is tomake right choices.”

Hear Me, Love Me is slated to stream on Amazon Prime Video fromSeptember 28.

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E=+:8�!-".�-��0-*�.!0#"�?�Despite his short tenure of 19 months as

India's second prime minister, LalBahadur Shastri's towering personali-

ty is firmly etched in the memory of the nationeven after half a decade of his untimelydemise. He earned the nation's respect with histough decisions taken during the Indo-Pak warin 1965. His teachings and ideas about highereducation are being carried forward by his sonand the former Union Minister Anil Shastri,who is the Chairman of Lal Bahadur ShastriInstitute of Management, Delhi. Excerpts:

�Please share some of your memories aboutyour father. How was he like?

Shastriji was affectionately called ‘nanhe’when he was young. I remember a story abouthim when he was once canned by his teacherfor not bringing an english reader to class. Sharpin studies, he had copied the textbook after bor-rowing it from a friend since he could not affordit. Shastriji’s education was financially support-ed by one of his mentors, NishkameshwarPrasad Mishra. A man of principles, Shastrijidid not accept this help for free and as com-pensation, tutored Mishraji’s children. Heenrolled in Kashi Vidyapith, Varanasi and grad-uated with a degree in philosophy and ethics.He was an eminent scholar and could speak,read and write in Hindi, English, Sanskrit,Persian and Urdu. Inspired by MahatmaGandhi, he joined the freedom struggle move-ment. Though he went through a lot of diffi-culties and was jailed on several occasions, henever spoke to us about his hardships and nevercomplained. He believed that the past hasalready taught its lessons and there is no pointbrooding over it.

He taught us to be honest and morallyresponsible for our actions. Lala Lajpat Rai, aprominent leader of the Congress party hadformed the Servants of the People Society,which provided financial aid to the poor free-dom fighters. Shastriji used to get �50 as amonthly allowance. Once he asked my moth-er if she was receiving the money on time, towhich my mother responded in the affirmativeand added that she was able to manage thehousehold expenses within �40. Shahstriji wroteto the society asking them to reduce hisallowance to �40 and give the balance to someother needy person. This allowance was a char-ity and not earned by him and thus he never

kept the money with him. These inci-dences have defined his char-

acter and many have learntfrom him over the years.

�What aspects ofyour father inspireyou the most?

Of the manythings about

Shastriji, there arethree prominent

characteristicsthat have

inspired me and I believe that the youth todaycan learn from him. His simplicity was animportant part of his personality. He was neverattracted to the worldly items and materialis-tic things and remained a common man, root-ed to the ground. When he became the PrimeMinister, he continued to wear his simpleclothes and would walk to his office rather thanuse cars. After he joined the office as the PM,he got a good house to live in and I asked himto get the bedroom carpeted. He refused to therequest and retorted, saying, “I am a PrimeMinister of a country where many don't evenhave a roof over their heads.”

His integrity and honesty is rememberedby many. He bought a car for the family by tak-ing a loan of �5000 from the Punjab NationalBank, which was later repaid by my motherfrom her pension after his demise. Despite his

short stature, Shastriji was a man of determi-nation and grit. He felt no inferiority and dealtwith complex issues with a firm hand. It isimportant for a good leader to have a high-risktaking ability and Shastriji took tough decisionsduring his role in the Indo-Pak war which hasearned him respect over the years.

�What were Shastriji's ideas on education andhow has the spectrum changed today?

Shastriji’s concept of education was veryclear. He felt that every student must have thebasic knowledge of science and laid emphasison the importance of higher education. Thiscan be related to today’s need of modern tech-nology. He also felt that parents should onlyguide their children towards possible profes-sional pursuits and not force their line ofthought on them. He also advocated that sincejobs were limited in proportion to the popu-lation of the country, it is important that stu-dents are trained in accordance with employ-ability. Shastriji also emphasised that the gov-ernment should not be the only responsibleparty to impart education. He encouraged theprivate players in education to reach a largernumber of young people and reduce the bur-den on the government education institutes. Hegave the example of the Harvard Universitywhich though was a private player, but rankedthe best in the world. It is unfortunate that todayeducation has become a commercial arm. My

appeal to all such institutes is that edu-cation is a philanthropic work

and institutions shouldrestrict themselves to pro-

moting higher educa-tion. A suggestion tothe government is tomake a percent of theincome of the institutetaxable and allow the

stakeholders to sharethe dividend.

�How is the Lal bahadur Shastri Institute ofManagement in Delhi different from the rest?

We have not deviated from the practices ofShastriji. We are grounded in ethics and do notcompromise on the teaching or the quality ofcourses. We have surrendered managementquota since we do not believe in making moneyfrom education. Today, many institutes aresiphoning off money from government grants,earning money through admissions which Ibelieve is against the philanthropic nature ofeducational institutes. I feel that the moneyreceived by the institute should be ploughedback into the betterment of its facilities. In termsof quality, every faculty needs to be a Ph.D toteach at the Delhi institute. We are alwaysupdated with the latest trends in the corporateworld and revise the syllabus every year toaccommodate new learning modules in accor-dance with the needs of the industry. We alsointroduce new courses as per the requirementof the market. The institute emphasises onimparting entrepreneurial skills. Students whodo not want to relocate to cities according tojobs or have family business are trained to setup their own ventures. Apart from the man-agement education, we run the Lal BahadurShastri Polytechnic institute in Manda, asmall village in Allahabad. This is a very dif-ferent concept and not a ‘me too’ product as itaims to offer higher education in the remotestarea. We have made sure that the students areprovided with state-of-the-art infrastructureand modern facilities.

�There is an increasing sense of cynicism inthe country and instances of intolerance havelately turned violent. How do you respond tothat?

Violent activities are on the rise all acrossthe world and it is important to understand thatregional aspirations are increasing globally. Ourhistory is testimony to the fact that despitemany invasions, India has retained its identi-ty. This is because we have been a civilised soci-ety for centuries. We had structured living, gov-ernance, currency, defense protocols in variousforms and thus have retained our essence.However, the governing bodies over the yearshave not been sensitive or have failed to com-prehend the regional aspirations of the people.The cynicism is a knee-jerk reaction now.Political parties unfortunately tried to under-stand the people of this country while sittingin AC rooms through feedback from special-ists and data collected from remote assets. Thishad led to a disconnect between the govern-ment and the people whereas earlier times theleaders were born from the grassroots and theyunderstood the pulse of the nation. The lead-ers have to empathise with the difficulties ofthe people to gauge the gravity of the situation

�What is your idea of nationalism? How doyou think it can be promoted?

It is important to note that the increasingregional aspirations are not clashing with theintegrity of India as a nation. Different regionsmay demand separate states, but they are proudto be Indian. Nationalism has to be understoodin the right perspective. It is a concept whereone is dedicated and devoted to the cause ofthe nation. Small, day-to-day activities likedirtying the roads or surroundings are againstthe well-being of the country. I believe thatsomeone who is singing the national anthemand unfurling the national flag, but is alsosiphoning off money, is not a nationalist. I feelnationalism is practiced everyday.

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The Union Minister for Railways and Coal Piyush Goyal,believes that unless the infrastructure and fundamentals are

set up, India cannot come up as a sought-after tourist destina-tion. “The present government has been developing facilitieslike ensuring 24 hour power supply, promoting renewable ener-gy forms and improving connectivity by effectively connectingthe remotest destinations. The most important element that willhelp promote tourism in a complete way is the government’scleanliness drive—Swachhta Abhiyan, which will ensure thatIndia becomes a preferred destination for all internationaltourists.” He was speaking at the inauguration of the maidenedition of the India Tourism Mart (ITM 2018) organised betweenSeptember 16 and 18 in Delhi.

Goyal elaborated that no country can attract internation-al tourists until the visitors feel the country is safe and clean.“The efforts we have undertaken in the last four years to bringabout cleanliness is certainly going to be one of the definingfeatures to promote tourism in the nation in a big way,” he said.

He further informed that the government has fast-trackedthe country’s connectivity mission and the effort to connect theremotest parts of India with efficient modes of transport is ongo-

ing. Sharing details about initiatives taken by the Indian rail-ways towards facilitating tourism, Goyal said, “Very recently,we have significantly reduced the pricing of the luxury trainsto encourage more and more tourists to travel in these trainsto see and explore the beauty of our nation. I would like to urgeall to crowd-source ideas and help us with newer initiatives tohelp us to meet the ambitious targets we have set for the tourismindustry.”

The Railway Minister also acknowledged the income mul-tiplier effect in the tourism sector and pointed out that this sec-tor generates a number of employment opportunities in the for-mal and informal sectors and can change the destiny of the coun-try. He commented that the youth of the country can be entre-preneurs, service providers, interpreters and so on in the tourismsector and ascertained that India with its varied features hastremendous potential and India just needs to leverage from it.

�How has tourism fared in the stateso far?

We have recorded a year-on-yeargrowth of 17 per cent in touristarrivals to Gujarat. Last year, werecorded a total of 5.2 crore touristsout of which 10 lakh were interna-tional. Though this amounts to twoper cent of the total tourist numbersand the figures are growing everyyear, we are not happy with the num-bers and are working hard to tap intothe potential of unexplored destina-tions in the state.

�Which tourism circuits is the statepromoting? Are there any upcom-ing projects?

The Statue of Unity, the iconic182 meter landmark dedicated toSardar Vallabhbhai Patel, is our keyconcentration area. The PrimeMinister and the Chief Minister havetaken keen interest to develop theentire area around the statue intoan attraction for tourists. In linewith the 150th birth anniversarycelebrations of Mahatma Gandhi,we are popularising the Gandhicircuit and the Dandi March cir-cuit. For the inbound tourism seg-ment we are focusing on showcas-ing our world heritage cities likeAhmedabad. The city is very well-connected from major airportsand can be added as an extensionto the Golden Triangle circuit.Depending on the interests of thetourists, Gujarat offers nature,culture, heritage, pilgrimage,wildlife, festivals and nichetourism products among others.Experiential tours are in demandand we are creating new itinerariesto cater to this segment. TheRann of Kutch, the white sanddessert, is a unique experience fortourists and many activities areoffered here. There are manyBuddhist sites in Gujarat which arebeing developed for tourists fromEast Asia.

�What is the state doing to improvetourist infrastructure?

Under several schemes of theCentre and the state government, weare focusing on enhancing the way-side amenities, creating facilitationcenters and making sites of touristinterest into smart destinations. We

have also undertaken a cleanlinessdrive across 54 destinations in 33 dis-tricts of the state.

We have a good budget fortourism, almost �450 crore which isbeing judiciously used. Under theState Tourism Policy 2015-20, wehave received applications from

nearly 300 units out of which 120have already been commissioned.Over the last few years, tourism andhospitality sector has attractedinvestments worth �11,000 crore. Weplan to develop basic tourist infra-structure at some unexplored desti-nations in the state to increase itsattractiveness.

�What is the state’s marketingstrategy for tourism?

The demands of the domesticand international tourists are quitedifferent and we are trying to under-stand them. We will focus on mar-ket-specific promotions. Keepingin mind the duration of stay oftourists and their spending capaci-ty, we will offer specific products atinternational tourism marts andother fairs. For the domestic marketthe Tier-II and Tier-III cities are ourmajor focus areas.

�Are there any niche tourismproducts of offer in the state?

We are promoting Gujaratthrough its cuisine, handicrafts andfestivals. We have created videos toacquaint the tourists with the state’svibrant culture. We are also offeringgolf tourism. There are eight golfcourses near Ahmedabad andBaroda. Those who host conferencesand meetings in the state, can spendtheir leisure time at these golf cours-es which also have good accommo-dation facilities.

�How fruitful was your participa-tion at IMT 2018?

Our participation at the IndiaTravel Mart gave us an opportunityto interact with the foreign tour oper-ators directly to understand theirdemands and requirements. Wehave a lot to offer to the inboundtourists. Many countries have showninterest including the US, UK, Israel,Lithuania and Ukraine among oth-ers.

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Liverpool left it late but showedParis Saint-Germain have plen-ty of work to do if they are to

challenge for a first-ever ChampionsLeague title as Roberto Firminostruck a stoppage time winner in a3-2 victory at Anfield on Tuesday.

Despite the late drama, victorywas well deserved for last season'sfinalists who dominated throughoutand bounced back from blowing a 2-0 first-half lead to take the earlyadvantage in Group C.

Daniel Sturridge and a JamesMilner penalty put the hosts incommand before Thomas Meunierreduced PSG's arrears.

Having kept Kylian Mbappe andthe world's most expensive playerNeymar quiet for almost the entirematch, Liverpool seemed set to paya heavy price for one poor pass byMohamed Salah as Mbappe swepthome seven minutes from time infront of a stunned Klopp.

But Firmino, who started on thebench due to an eye injury sufferedagainst Tottenham on Saturday, hadthe final say as he twisted andturned before firing into the far cor-ner to stretch Liverpool's perfect startto the season to six games.

"You can bring Bobby Firminoon and that helps a lot," said Kloppafter the Brazilian celebrated bycovering his injured left eye. "I lovedhis goal celebration."

PSG crumbled on theirChampions League travels toBarcelona, Bayern Munich and RealMadrid in the past two seasons andtheir ability to challenge for the com-petition under new boss ThomasTuchel was again questioned as theystruggled to contain Liverpool'sgreater speed and power in midfield.

"Never at any point did we loseour confidence. We played withbravery and strength," insistedTuchel.

"But this is Anfield. This is whatLiverpool do and when they pressyou it is difficult."

��"��Up front, Firmino's absence

opened the door for Sturridge tomake his first Champions Leaguestart for the club.

"It is great to contribute to theteam today," said Sturridge. "It is ateam here and everybody is going toadd to the wealth of the club."

The Englishman has been doggedby injury and lack of form duringKlopp's nearly three years in charge,but took his chance on the big stageby powering home a pinpoint curlingcross from Andy Robertson to openthe scoring on the half-hour mark.

"I told him this is the best shape

(you are in) since I know you physi-cally, and you have to use that," saidKlopp. "He played a super game,(scored a) super goal."

Six minutes later, PSG's deficitwas doubled when Juan Bernattripped Georginio Wijnaldum insidethe area and Milner slammed theresulting penalty into the bottom cor-ner.

However, the visitors were hand-ed a lifeline through right-backMeunier, rather than one of theirfamed front three, as the Belgian skil-fully readjusted to volley homeRobertson's miscued clearance.

And then Seven minutes fromtime, Salah's slack pass was inter-cepted and quickly fed into Neymar,

with Van Dijk's tackle on the Brazilianonly rebounding into the path ofMbappe to fire home.

Klopp responded by replacingSalah with Xherdan Shaqiri asLiverpool instantly went in search ofa winner.

Trent Alexander-Arnold's deflect-ed free-kick came back off the wood-work before they finally got theirreward when Firmino powered home.

��"��"�� Former European Cupwinners Red Star Belgrade heldCarlo Ancelotti's Napoli to a cred-itable 0-0 draw Tuesday as theSerbian club made their debut in theChampions League group stage.

Lorenzo Insigne rattled thecrossbar in the first half for Napoli,while Red Star defender Milan Rodicmade a vital goal-line clearance todeny Jose Callejon in the Group Cencounter.

Home goalkeeper Milan Borjanalso produced a sharp stop to keepout an effort from Poland interna-tional Arkadiusz Milik, as Red Starwere restricted to a late attempt fromRichmond Boakye.

"We didn't do much wrong, wecontrolled the game but the finish-ing was lacking," said Ancelotti,who took over at Napoli in the sum-mer.

"It's difficult to play against adefence like that of Red Star. Our for-wards were alone in front of the goal-keeper several times but we didn'thave that bit of luck. I think we couldhave won."

��6��"�� 6� ��6��Atletico Madrid came frombehind to beat Monaco 2-1 in theirChampions League Group A open-er on Tuesday with star strikersDiego Costa and Antoine Griezmanndetonating the fightback.

The visitors had fallen behindagainst the run of play in the 18thminute when winger SamuelGrandsir forced the ball home in agoalmouth scramble after good workfrom Radamel Falcao.

But Costa then ran onto a won-derful flick-on from Griezmann tofire a snap-shot low and hard pastMonaco's onrushing Swiss stopperDiego Benaglio to level the scores onthe half-hour.

Jose Maria Gimenez —remembered for crying onthe pitch when France beatUruguay 2-0 in the World Cupquarter-finals in Russia —then headed home a corner in first-half stoppage-time to take the windout of Monaco's sails at a keymoment.

"It's always difficult to win thefirst match of the Champions Leagueaway from home," said Atleticocoach Diego Simeone.

"Griezmann is growing everygame. He's a decisive player. He didwell in the right moments and hislink-up with Costa was good."

��6��Christian Pulisic celebratedhis 20th birthday in style on Tuesdaywith a lucky late goal as BorussiaDortmund won 1-0 at Club Bruggein the Champions League.

The US international claimed thewinner in fortuitous fashion bycharging down a clearance fromBrugge defender Matej Mitrovicwhich looped over the goalkeeper on85 minutes.

It was a huge slice of good for-tune but one that ended Dortmund's10-match winless streak in theChampions League.

"In the end we won, but there isdefinitely room for improvement,"admitted Dortmund captain MarcoReus. We have to keep workinghard to play better.”

"Currently, we are not playing thekind of football we want to, but weare winning and we'll take that."

While Pulisic spared Dortmund'sblushes in Belgium on his 100thappearance for the club, it was a badnight for Mario Goetze.

�� ,*78453/*

Lionel Messi pictures the Champions League ending with himhoisting the trophy and it began with him scoring a hat-trick

on Tuesday as Barcelona put four goals past PSV Eindhoven.An early kick-off at Camp Nou meant that before most of the

tournament's teams had even named their line-ups, Messi was upand running, his sumptuous free-kick from the edge of the areanestling in the top corner, exactly where it was intended.

Messi would have his second and third before the end, and arecord eighth Champions League treble, but the game wasup by then thanks to a superb strike from the excellentOusmane Dembele.

Only when Barca were three ahead was Samuel Umtitisent off for a second yellow card, meaning he will miss the

trip to Wembley to face Tottenham next month. Even with 10 men,Messi completed his set for a 4-0 win.

Dembele's goal was worthy of deciding any match but this wasMessi's night. After a miserable World Cup trying to retrieve theirretrievable Argentina, Barcelona's now-captain proved his qual-ity again to any doubters that are left.

Four goals already in La Liga, seven overall, neither age norCristiano Ronaldo's exit from Spain appear to have taken the edgeoff.

"Normally if you score a hat-trick you frame it," said Barca coachErnesto Valverde. "But hemakes the extraordinaryroutine."

Even if Messi remainsas good as ever, his teamwill need others to step up.Philippe Coutinho wasimpressive here and, aftera difficult debut campaign,Dembele is finding hisrhythm, and his place.

"Just as there is room for players that pass, there must be oth-ers that can make things happen," Valverde said.

6��"��D��6� ��6�� A stunning Mauro Icardi volley sparked a thrilling late InterMilan comeback as the Italian side beat Tottenham 2-1 on theirreturn to the Champions League after a seven-year absence onTuesday.

Christian Eriksen's deflected strike gave Spurs a 53rd-minutelead at the San Siro, and the visitors looked comfortable for muchof the second half.

But Argentinian striker Icardi hammered home a magnificentvolley in the 86th minute to draw Inter level, and Matias Vecinotook advantage of some slack Tottenham defending at a corner tonod in a dramatic injury-time winner.

"It was a spectacular evening, we did what we needed to do,"said Icardi after his first goal of the season on his CL debut.

"This is exactly what the fans want to see," said Inter coachLuciano Spalletti. Icardi scored a magnificent goal. The team hada great game and really went for it in the end."

�� /4��145"0

Indian football team produced animpressive performance to beat

Pakistan 4-0 in an AFC U-16Women's Championship Qualifiermatch in Ulan Bator, Mongolia, onWednesday.

Avika Singh (22nd minute)opened the scoring for India before thePakistani goalie Ayesha (43rd) con-ceded an own goal just before halftime.

Sunita Munda (82nd) added onewhile skipper Shilky Devi (88th) alsoentered her named in the score sheet.

Following the win, the Indianteam is firmly seated at the top of theGroup B with six points from twomatches.

Sunita, Shilky and Avika com-bined well to wreak havoc in the oppo-sition defence but the Pakistanidefenders soaked the pressure until the22nd minute when Avika notched upthe opening goal for India.

Sunita breezed past the left-backto deliver a low cross for Avika whosewell-timed tap-in earned India thelead.

Pakistan were happy to sit back intheir own half and defend. GoalkeeperAyesha made some fine saves but sheended up conceding a goal in the 43rdminute to hand India a 2-0 lead.

The third goal came in the 82ndminute when Sunita, the architect ofAvika's goal, got her name on the scoresheet. Six minutes later, skipper Shilkylatched on another attack from themiddle and kept her calm to score thefourth goal of the game.

India next play hosts Mongolia onSeptember 21.

�� 3:D3

Japan's Naomi Osaka pulverisedSlovak Dominika Cibulkova 6-2, 6-

1 to reach the Pan Pacific Open quar-ter-finals on Wednesday in her firstmatch since her historic US Open tri-umph.

The 20-year-old, who stunnedSerena Williams to become Japan'sfirst grand slam singles championearlier this month, fired down 10 acesin a fearsome display of wham-bamtennis in Tokyo.

Osaka came out firing andripped a fizzing forehand down theline on the first point, the third seedpowering away to close out the first

set with a pair of thundering aces.A dazed Cibulkova had no

answer to Osaka's firepower as theworld number seven wrapped up acomfortable victory with a ferociouscross-court backhand after just 59minutes.

"I didn't really feel any pressure.It was really difficult because she'ssuch a great player but I just thoughtit was more fun,” she said.

"My serve was really good,"added Japan's latest sporting celebri-ty. I'm just grateful to be able to playhere again."

Earlier, sixth seed GarbineMuguruza was upset by Americanqualifier Alison Riske 6-1, 6-2 in an

abject performance from the Spanishformer world number one, wholooked a shadow of the player whocaptured the 2016 French Openand 2017 Wimbledon titles.

Riske advances to face fourthseed Karolina Pliskova, another play-er to have previously held thewomen's top ranking.

The Czech recovered from a setdown to beat Australia's DariaGavrilova 4-6, 6-4, 6-4 and avengeher opponent's defeat of twin sisterKristyna earlier this week.

But she made hard work of it,trashing a racquet in frustration asshe slipped behind 4-1 in the decid-ing set before clawing her way back.

"The first set was in my handsbut I made some stupid mistakes,"said Pliskova, who ended Gavrilova'sresistance with a clever drop volleyafter two hours and 21 minutes.

"I tried to stay positive and eventhough I broke my racquet I tried tokeep fighting because you alwayshave a chance."

Second seed Caroline Garciaflirted with an early exit as theFrenchwoman overcame Russia'sAnastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-4, 2-6,7-5 to reach the last eight of the pres-tigious Tokyo event, whose list of for-mer champions includes MartinaNavratilova, Steffi Graf, KimikoDate and Martina Hingis.

�� 8"*/2R"3

Indian mixed doubles pairing ofSatwiksairaj Rankireddy and

Ashwini Ponnappa on Wednesdayshocked Commonwealth GamesSilver medallists England's MarcusEllis and Lauren Smith to enter thepre-quarterfinals of the $ 1 millionChina Open here.

World No 25 Satwiksairaj andAshwini, who had lost twice to theEnglish combination in the past, exe-cuted their plan well to notch up a 21-13, 20-22, 21-17 win in a match thatlasted an hour and three minutes.

"It was a good match. We werepretty confident today at crucialmoments. We struck to our plans soit became a little easy in the end,"Satwik said.

Seventh seed K Srikanth, whohad reached the quarterfinals lastweek at Japan Open, too was throughto the pre-quarterfinals after beatingDenmark's Rasmus Gemke 21-9,21-19 to set up a meeting withThailand's Suppanyu Avihingsanon.

However, H S Prannoy lost hisfirst round match against eighthseed Ng Ka Long Angus of HongKong 16-21, 12-21 to make an earlyexit from the tournament.

The men's doubles pair of Satwik

and Chirag Shetty, who had won aSilver at the Commonwealth Games,also lost 19-21, 20-22 to Goh V Shemand Tan Wee Kiong of Malaysia.

CWG Bronze medallistsPonnappa and N Sikki Reddy alsowent down 10-21, 18-21 to Koreancombination of Kim So Yeong andKong Hee Yong in women's doubles.

The mixed doubles match turnedout to be a hard-fought battle rightfrom the start as the Indian andEnglish pair moved together till 4-4.Satwik and Ashwini then reeled offfour points to open up a 8-4 lead.From there on, the duo kept its dis-tance to grab the opening game with-out much ado.

In the second game, Marcus andLauren jumped to a 6-1 lead beforegrabbing a 6 advantage at the break.The Indian pair however slowlyfought its way to level at 20-20 but theEnglish combination produced therequired two points to stay in the con-test.

In the decider, Satwik andAshwin stepped up and surged to a7-1 advantage. The duo led 11-5 atthe breather. After the break, Marcusand Lauren managed to narrow thegap to 13-15 but the Indian duomarched ahead to 18-13 and even-tually sealed the match.

�� /4��145"0

The New Kabaddi Federation ofIndia (NKFI) on Wednesday

launched the Indo InternationalPremier Kabaddi League begin-ning on January 26.

With a winner's cheque of 1.25crore, the league will see over 1000players, both domestic andInternational players, competingas part of eight franchises.

There is a pool of 823 Indianplayers, that includes 271 statelevel players, 137 national andInternational level, 84International registered playerswith NKF. The player draft willtake place on January 5.

The league will feature eightteams in the inaugural editionwith each franchise allowed tohave 2 to 3 Int’l players. The for-mat is one of double round robin,the league stage will consist of 62matches over a period of one anda half months, the top 4 teams willqualify for the playoffs.

Interestingly, the federationalso decided to distribute 20 per-cent of the annual profits from theleague to the participating players.

"We are overwhelmed tolaunch the Indo InternationalPremier Kabaddi League in India.This will be the first league fea-turing the best of Indian andInternational players from acrossthe world," General Secretary,NKF, MV Prasad Babu said.

"The purpose of the league isto give a fair chance to all players,to encourage competition whichwill benefit federations and play-ers. We are providing 20 per centof the profit to players and 50 per-cent to the state federation for thedevelopment of the game."

The selection trial will startfrom October 6 across the coun-try for two months.

The league is a big step for TheNew Kabaddi Federation (NKFI),which was formed in May lastyear. The body is yet to be recog-nised by the International KabaddiFederation, which is under theaegis of Olympic Council of Asia.

At loggers head with AmateurKabaddi Federation of India(AKFI), NKFI had alleged ram-pant malpractices in the selectionprocess of the Indian teams forAsian Games.

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Bhuvneshwar Kumar's tidyseam bowling was comple-mented by Kedar Jadhav's

unconventional off-breaks as Indiaskittled out Pakistan for a modest162 in 43.1 overs in an Asia Groupleague encounter Wednesday.

While chasing the target of 163runs to win , India was batting at 92for 1 in 14.1 overs.

Skipper Rohit Sharma smashed52 runs of 39 balls before getting dis-missed by Shadab Khan.

Earlier, Bhuvneshwar (3/15 in 7overs) provided initial break-throughs, Jadhav, making a come-back to the national team, bowledwith control to return with excep-tional figures of 3 for 23 in 9 oversto break the backbone of thePakistani lower middle-order.

Jasprit Bumrah (2/23 in 7.1overs) and chinaman Kuldeep Yadav(1/37 in 8 overs) also accomplishedtheir task to perfection.

Jadhav's performance is evenmore laudable as he did the job of afrontline spinner after HardikPandya (0/24 in 4.5 overs) wasstretchered off the field due to anacute lower back injury.

This was after young BabarAzam (47) and veteran ShoaibMalik (43) added 82 runs for thethird wicket and looked like takingcontrol of the proceedings.

However, Pakistan suffered abatting collapse losing five wicketsfor 36 runs before Faheem Ashraf(21) and Mohammed Aamir (16)added an invaluable 37 runs for theeighth wicket to take the total past150-run mark.

Put into bat, Pakistan were introuble straight away asBhuvneshwar dealt a twin blowremoving the in-form duo of Imamul Haq (2) and Fakhar Zaman (0) toreduce them to 2 for 3.

Imam charged to a short oflength delivery that climbed onhim and the thickish outside edgewas taken by Dhoni. Zaman, India'stormentor in the Champions Trophy,mistimed a pull-shot and Yuzvendra

Chahal took a well-judged catch.Babar and Malik then resur-

rected the innings with a fine part-nership. The half-volleys on bothsides of the wicket were driven withferocity.

Malik, who is a good player ofspin bowling, gave Kuldeep Yadavthe charge to hit him for a six androtated the strike well.

In fact, Malik was dropped offPandya's bowling, whose agoniesincreased when he had to leave thefield.

Babar failed to read Kuldeep'sgoogly as it clipped his off-bail.From 85 for 2, it soon became 100for five as Pakistan lost wickets in

a heap.Sarfraz Ahmed (6) was dis-

missed by Jadhav as substitute field-er Manish Pandey took a blinder atlong-on.

The Pakistani batsmen found itextremely difficult to read Jadhav'sround arm action as he bowledstraight and wide. Asif Ali wascaught behind and then Malik wasrun-out by a direct throw fromAmbati Rayudu.

Shadab Khan (8) was stumpedby Dhoni as he bacame Yadav's thirdvictim of the match.

Faheem and Aamir did trytheir bit as Pakistan crossed the 150-run mark before Bhuvneshwar andBumrah wrapped up the tail in the44th over.

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Runs weren't exactly flowingfrom his bat before the hun-

dred in the Asia Cup openeragainst Hong Kong, but Indianbatsman Shikhar Dhawan claimsthat he was never out of form.

Dhawan scored 127 againstHong Kong on Tuesday night asIndia won by 26 runs to make awinning start in the tournament.

"It wasn't a question ofform, I was batting well but was-n't getting runs. Great to getruns also," the opener said afternotching up his 14th ODI hun-dred.

Dhawan did not get a sin-gle half century in his last eightinnings, during the Test seriesagainst England. His recentODI form was also all aboutgood starts which he failed toconvert into big knocks.

The win over Hong Kongwas a rather hard-fought win forone of the tournamentfavourites and once again ques-tions were raised about theIndian middle-order's frailties,

which were thoroughly exposedin the recent tour of England aswell.

Dhawan defended his team-mates.

"We have won so manyseries in the last four years andwe have also lost some. We arehumans. The concern shouldnot be such that everythingelse, all the good results are for-gotten," he said.

"Some failures should not

overshadow all the wins. Justlook at (Ambati) Rayudu, he wasso good, and he was playing aftersuch a long time. So, it's good,"he added referring to Rayudu's60-run knock in India's total of285/7.

What Dhawan could notexplain was India letting HongKong put on an opening part-nership of 174 with NizakatKhan (92) and rival skipperAnshuman Rath (73) managing

to frustrate the more fanciedteam.

"We didn't expect for themto score 170-run partnership butthey played well. We could havebeen more consistent in ourbowling but we have to givecredit to their batsmen, theopeners played well. They werecalculative, have to appreciatethat," he said.

"There wasn't much swingor seam in the wicket and ourbowlers were coming after abreak. It takes time to get intothe rhythm as well. Bhuvi(Bhuvneshwar Kumar) wascoming back after a break andShardul (Thakur) hadn't playedmuch in England," he reasoned.

On whether the possibilityof an embarrassing loss everstruck the team management onTuesday, Dhawan said that wasnever the case.

"...We knew that once we getthe top-order, we can comeback into the game. They gavea decent fight. It's always goodto learn from every match," hesaid.

��53/13/

Ben Stokes and Alex Haleswere named in England's

one-day squad to tour Sri Lankaon Wednesday despite beingcharged with bringing cricketinto disrepute.

The pair face a disciplinarypanel hearing in London inDecember following a brawloutside a nightclub in the south-western city of Bristol inSeptember 2017.

Stokes, 27, was last monthcleared of affray following aseven-day trial related to theincident. Hales, 29, was with hisEngland teammate during thealtercation but was not charged.

Warwickshire fast bowlerOlly Stone, 24, has been calledinto the 16-man squad for thefirst time as a replacement forYorkshire's Liam Plunkett.

Plunkett, who is gettingmarried, will be available againfor the last two ODIs of the five-

match series. Stone, who hasstruggled with injury problemsin recent years, has impressedselectors with his consistentperformances this season.

The first ODI takes place inDambulla on October 10.

��"��;��"Eoin Morgan (capt), MoeenAli, Jonny Bairstow, Jos Buttler(wkt), Sam Curran, TomCurran, Liam Dawson, AlexHales, Liam Plunkett, AdilRashid, Joe Root, Jason Roy,Ben Stokes, Olly Stone, ChrisWoakes, Mark Wood.

�� /4��145"0

Agame-changer in his hey-days,South African all-rounder Lance

Klusener foresees India's HardikPandya closing in on someone likeBen Stokes if the team managementcan be "patient" with him for the nexttwo years at least.

"Among current all-rounders inworld cricket, Ben Stokes is right upthere. There are a few who have comeand gone in recent times as well butcertainly, a guy like Pandya, give hima year or two at this level, there is noreason why he can't be one of the bestall-rounders out there," Klusenersaid.

Klusener, who is in the city assenior Delhi team's consultant coachfor the Vijay Hazare Trophy, spokeabout Pandya's all-round abilitieswhich have come under the scannerafter his largely disappointing showin England.

"I think we must be carefulwhile making comparisons.Everybody wants to compare Hardikto the great Kapil Dev. Hardik is hisown cricketer. Of course, he has gotsome learning to do. I guess Hardik'ssuccess will be based on how muchhe is able to learn," Klusener said.

The 1999 World Cup player ofthe tournament said Pandya has afine support system to hone him.

"I think he is in great hands inthat Indian set-up. I think people justneed to be a bit patient more patientwith him. I hope he is allowed togrow and develop," said Klusener.

For someone, who boasts of ahighest score of 174 and bowling fig-ures of 8/64 in Test cricket, Klusenerfeels that it's a seam bowling all-rounder, who makes the difference in

a good team."For me, the glue for any team is

the seam bowling all-rounderbecause it gives you a lot moreoptions. I think India have got theright man. It's just that how hegrows and develops himself. It's easyto criticise but international cricketis tough out there.

"I think Hardik should be givenspace and allowed to grow. He isgoing to be that glue for India for along time," the 47-year-old said.

Klusener is confident that inanother two years, Pandya will beready in the next two years if he canwork on his weaknesses.

Pandya scored 164 runs in eightinnings in England and critics feltthat at times he trusted his defensivetechnique too much.

Klusener thinks that someonewith natural ability to hit the ballshould always try and play his nat-ural game unless he batting withsomeone of Virat Kohli's calibre at theother end.

"His defensive technique needs alittle bit of work but he is a naturalstriker of the ball. That needs to beencouraged. We have seen fasterscoring by Stokes at the bottom of theline-up. That makes a big difference.

"Maybe Hardik needs to have thetechnique to defend when someonelike Virat Kohli is batting at the otherend. I am sure the Indian supportstaff have identified that weakness.The longer he plays, the longer he willbe in that set-up and realise what agreat talent he is," Klusener said.

"And you can only take advan-tage of that great talent, if you giveyourself opportunity to get in (getset). That's one area he needs to paya little bit of attention."

�� :*� /*D*:4�

Jemimah Rodrigues and PoonamYadav produced special perfor-

mances to fire India to a 13-run winover Sri Lanka in the first T20International of the five-match serieshere Wednesday.

Teenager Rodrigues smashed 36off 15 balls in a whirlwind inningsthat saw her becoming the firstIndian woman to hit three sixes in anover.

The 18-year-old alongside wick-etkeeper Taniya Bhatia (46 off 35) andAnuja Patil (36 off 29) powered Indiato 168 for eight in 20 overs.

Sri Lanka made a flying start inthe chase through Yasoda Mendis (32off 12) and Chamari Atapattu (27 off22), racing to 39 in 2.5 overs beforethe former was dismissed byArundhati Reddy.

Sri Lanka remained in the huntuntil leg-spinner Yadav's consistentbreakthroughs took the game awayfrom them as they were 155 all outin 19.3 overs. The 27-year-old fromAgra ended with figures of four for

26 in four overs.Radha Yadav and Harmanpreet

Kaur too chipped in with the ball, tak-ing two wickets each. EshaniLokusuriyage top-scored for SriLanka with 45 off 31 balls but herspirited effort did not prove to beenough in the end.

The second T20 will be played inColombo on Friday.

��6��India: 168/8 in 20 overs (TanyaBhatia 46, Jemimah Rodrigues 36)Sri Lanka: 155/10 (Poonam Yadav4/26)

�� *5 7

Prithvi Shaw, skipper AjinkyaRahane and Shreyas Iyer struck

timely half centuries as Mumbaithrashed Baroda by nine wicketsin both the teams' opening gameof Vijay Hazare Trophy here onWednesday.

The two teams are placed inElite Group A for the National OneDay Championships that kickedoff at multiple venues.

Opting to bat, Baroda werebundled out for a modest 238 in49.5 overs with all-rounder KrunalPandya top-scoring with 85 (8fours and 2 sixes).

Such was the dominance ofMumbai's top order that theychased the target without muchfuss in just 41.3 overs.

Shaw (98), who missed adeserving hundred by a whisker,and Rahane (79 not out) conjureda 137-run first wicket stand.

Rahane, who was struggling inthe Test series in England, wasback among runs.

After Shaw departed, the IndiaTest vice-captain in the companyof Shreyas Iyer (56 not out) madeopposition bowlers toil as the twotook their side home.

While Rahane struck sixboundaries and a six, Shaw lacedhis innings with 12 boundaries and

five sixes.Iyer, who was ignored for the

ongoing Asia Cup, smashed fivefours and two hits over the fence.

Earlier, experienced Mumbaipacer Dhawal Kulkarni returnedwith figures of 4-39 and was ablyaided by Vijay Gohil (2-20).

�)D��!��6��)�Sheldon Jackson struck his

sixth List A hundred, overshad-owing Shivam Mavi's hat-trick onhis Uttar Pradesh debut to guideSaurashtra to a 25-run win in aGroup B match of the Vijay HazareTrophy on Wednesday.

Jackson (107 off 108 balls) andRobin Uthappa (97 off 110) put upa mammoth 194-run openingstand to set the foundation forSaurashtra's 303 for nine in 50overs.

Test specialists CheteshwarPujara (31) and Ravindra Jadeja(14) didn't score too many runs.

Mavi, who ended up leaking73 runs in 10 overs, fought backtowards the end of the innings toremove Chirag Jani, ArpitVasavada and Jaydev Unadkat inthree balls to mark a memorableList A debut.

In the end, Mavi's five-wickethaul was not enough as UttarPradesh fell short of the target toend at 278 all in 49.1 overs.

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