˘ˇˇ ˆ · malay de, principal secretary health rajiv sinha, state dgp ... made to attack a...

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The junior doctors of WestBengal on Monday called

off their week-long strike fol-lowing a “fruitful discussion”with Chief Minister MamataBanerjee, who accepted alltheir demands, including strin-gent action against perpetratorsof crimes against on-dutymedicos.

“We are satisfied with thetalks being held in an extreme-ly cordial atmosphere,” saidone of the 31 delegates of doc-tors from all over Bengal whowere escorted by a Governmentvehicle to the State secretariatNabanna, where the ChiefMinister met them for morethan an hour and a half.

“This discussion was veryfruitful as both the sides reci-procated to each other’s viewsin a very positive manner,” theChief Minister said, adding, shewas “grateful to the doctors asthey responded to my call fordiscussion and came all the wayto Nabanna. The talks withthem were constructive and Ihope the doctors will go backand announce their withdraw-al of strike as we have accept-ed all their demands.”

Drawing a loud applausefrom the doctors’ delegation,the Chief Minister further said,“These are like our children. Itis their right to make justifieddemands and the Governmentwill always stand by them,including in their times of dis-tress, as they are serving thesociety against all odds.”

Hours later the doctorsformally told reporters at NilRatan Sarkar Medical Collegeand Hospital (NRSMCH) thatthey are ending the strike and“will join our work as soon aspossible,” adding “we are nowconvinced that the ChiefMinister will take action if anydoctor is assaulted in future.”

One of their representativesiterated, “No doctor or nobodyfrom any profession can be

assaulted physically or verbal-ly. We assume after our con-versation with the ChiefMinister that the State willhave zero tolerance againstassault on doctors. This has tobe remembered by the entirepopulation not only of Bengalbut the entire country. If thereis violence then that will comewith consequences. The ChiefMinister has told us that therewill be stringent legal action

against the assaulters.”In a remarkable display of

diplomatic skills, Mamataturned the situation in herfavour yielding to the doctors’demand for a live coverage ofher meeting with them. Thedoctors initially wanted her tovisit the epicentre of the move-ment at the NRS MedicalCollege and Hospital but sub-sequently conceded to theChief Minister’s conditions that

the meeting be held atNabanna. The doctors, how-ever, said they would go to thesecretariat only if the meetingwas shown live on television.

Her stance was a climb-down from her Thursday’sposition when she told a largegathering of striking doctors atthe SSKM Hospital to joinduty in four hours or face con-sequences.

She subsequently held outthreats of invoking EssentialServices Maintenance Act(ESMA) and cited how theState Governments of Gujarat,Rajasthan, Haryana, J&K, andTamil Nadu had taken strin-gent actions against strikingdoctors.

Fresh from an unimpres-sive show in the parliamentaryelections and under pressurefrom all quarters to stand bythe doctors, Mamata invitedthe doctors to a meeting whereshe was accompanied amongothers by Minister of State forHealth ChandrimaBhattacharya, Chief SecretaryMalay De, Principal SecretaryHealth Rajiv Sinha, State DGPVirendra, KolkataCommissioner of Police AnujSharma and others.

Deliberating on the 12-point demand of the doctorsthe CM said the Governmentwould forward allow only twopersons to go inside theEmergency enclosure, tightensecurity network, make a pro-vision for public relation offi-cials to handle the patients’party more effectively.

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The sinister design of terror-ists to enact the February 14

like Pulwama terror attack onMonday evening in Arihal areaof Pulwama by triggering anIED blast on a patrol party of44 Rashtriya Rifles was foiledand damage minimised due tothe alertness of the securityforces and the troops travellingin the hardened ALS (a fortifiedtruck).

However, in another inci-dent earlier, an Army Majorwas martyred and a terroristkilled, while another officer andtwo troopers were injured onMonday in an encounterbetween security forces and theultras in Jammu & Kashmir’sAnantnag district, officialssaid. An intelligence reportabout terrorists’ attempt touse an IED blast on a Armyconvoy in South Kashmir dis-tricts and subsequent alertnessobiviated the crisis.

Terrorists had used a sim-ilar strategy while targeting aCRPF convoy on the Jammu-Srinagar National Highway onFebruary 14 in which 40 para-

military troopers were killed. The area, where Army

vehicle was targeted by the ter-rorists was roughly 25 kmsaway from the site of thePulwama terror attack. AMinistry of Defencespokesperson in Srinagarclaimed a “failed” attempt wasmade to attack a mobile vehi-cle patrol in the general area ofArihal in Pulwama. He said,“All troops are safe with minorinjuries”.

Police spokesperson inSrinagar said, “Six Armymenhave sustained injuries in theterror incident while two civil-ians also sustained injuries

due to powerful explosion”.“The entire area has been cor-doned off and search in thearea is going on,” he added.

In another anti-terroristoperation, a Major of theIndian Army on Mondayattained martyrdom in Baduraarea of Anantnag while oneterrorist, believed to be a for-eign national, was neutralisedduring the day-long opera-tion.

Police spokeperson inSrinagar said, “During a searchand cordon operation by thejoint forces at Badura in Achabalarea of Anantnag, terrorist firedon the search party.”

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Having taken cognizance ofthe attack on a policeman

by a Sikh tempo driver with asword and his subsequentthrashing by police personnel onSunday evening, the UnionHome Ministry on Mondaysought a report from the DelhiPolice on the issue after a videoof the incident went viral.

With the issue snowballinginto a major political row, theDelhi Police has suspendedthree policemen posted withMukherjee Nagar police stationin northwest Delhi for “unpro-fessional behaviour” and initi-ated a probe.

Union Minister of State forHome G Kishan Reddy said hespoke to Delhi PoliceCommissioner Amulya Patnaikand asked him to take imme-diate action.

“BJP delegation led byShri@rpsinghkhalsa ji called onme today regarding the inci-dent under Mukherjee NagarPolice station in New Delhi, Ispoke to CP Delhi, instructedfor immediate action and tosubmit a detailed report,”Reddy tweeted.

Police said the altercationtook place after a Gramin Sewatempo driver’s vehicle collidedwith a police van. Eight policepersonnel were injured in thescuffle, police said. In one ofthe videos, the tempo driveridentified as Sarbjeet Singh,with sword in hand, was seenchasing policemen. In anothervideo, cops were seen thrash-ing the driver after overpow-ering him.

An ACP-rank officer couldbe seen being chased by pro-testers. He had gone there topacify the mob.

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The week in the nationalCapital started on a pleas-

ant note with cloudy sky andmoderate wind. Cloud cover,gusty winds and intermittentrain protected Delhi from thesweltering heat, with the weath-erman predicting the temper-atures will remain below nor-mal for another three-four days.

Drizzle in some parts of theCapital and its adjoining areasbrought mercury down withmaximum temperature beingrecorded at 36.3 degrees Celsiuswhile minimum stood at 28.

According to the IndiaMetrological Department(IMD)’s Delhi region weatherwing forecast, more rain andthunderstorm activities areexpected on June 18, 19, 20.

“A cyclonic circulation ispersisting over Haryana andadjoining areas. Also, thehumid wind from the ArabianSea is increasing moisture overthe northern plains, includingDelhi. This moisture incursion

from the Arabian Sea is expect-ed to continue for the next twoto three days. Thus, we expectscattered rain and thunder-shower activities to continueover Delhi and NCR until June19,” Skymet, a private weatherforecast agency, said.

In the past 48 hours, rainhas been witnessed in isolatedpockets of Delhi and adjoiningareas of Noida, Gurugram,Faridabad, and Ghaziabad. TheSafdarjung observatory saidthe city received 0.6mm rain-fall during the past 24 hours.The humidity recorded at 8.30am was 54 per cent. On Sunday,the maximum temperature set-tled at 36.3 degrees Celsius andthe minimum at 28.02 degreesCelsius.

On Monday, the maximumtemperature at Safdarjungobservatory was recorded 33degrees Celsius and minimum27. At Palam observatory themaximum temperature wasrecorded 32 degrees Celsius andminimum 28.

The heatwave is not yet

over in Delhi as from June 23onwards temperature willincrease again, said weatherexperts. The maximum tem-

perature for June 23 has beenforecast 41 degrees Celsius bythe IMD. This summer, Delhi-NCR witnessed spell of severe

heatwave for prolonged period.In fact, on June 10, the mercurysoared to 48 degrees, the high-est in Delhi’s history.

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As the medical fraternity’snationwide strike hit

healthcare services and leftpatients and their relativeshigh and dry across States, theSupreme Court on Mondaysaid it will hear on Tuesday aplea seeking safety and securi-ty of doctors in Governmenthospitals in the country.

The Indian MedicalAssociation (IMA), the apexbody of medical practitioners,had called for a three-daynationwide strike in protestagainst the assault on doctorsin West Bengal allegedly by therelatives of a patient who diedon June 10 at NRS MedicalCollege Hospital in Kolkata.

A large number of patientsand their relatives, caughtunaware of the strike, were seenwaiting outside various hospi-tals, appealing to authorities forhelp. In many Governmentand private hospitals across thecountry, out-patient depart-ments (OPDs) remained closedand scheduled surgeries werepostponed. However, emer-gency services remained oper-ational.

Amid protests, HealthMinister Harsh Vardhan onMonday said the UnionGovernment will “revisit” theissue of drafting a Central lawregarding the safety of medicos

at healthcare facilities.For its part, a vacation

Bench of Justices DeepakGupta and Surya Kant of theSC agreed to list the matter forTuesday after the counsel forthe petitioner, advocate AlakhAlok Srivastava, sought urgenthearing.

The petition has alsosought directions to the UnionMinistries of home affairs andhealth and the West BengalGovernment to deputeGovernment-appointed secu-

rity personnel at all State-runhospitals to ensure safety andsecurity of doctors.

Due to the protests, health-care services have been badlydisrupted and many people aredying because of absence ofdoctors, the plea said.

It also sought directions tothe Bengal Government totake the strictest legal andpenal action against those whoassaulted junior doctors atNRS Medical College Hospitalin Kolkata.

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Senior BJP leader and formerUnion Health Minister Jagat

Prakash Nadda was onMonday appointed the workingpresident of the BJP with AmitShah to continue as the partychief until December by whenAssembly polls in Maharastra,Haryana and Jharkhand areslated for completion.

Sixty-year-old Nadda isexpected to become the full-fledged BJP president over-seeing the 11-crore-strongparty after Shah completes hisextended tenure in January2020.

The announcement wasmade after the BJPParliamentary Board, the

party’s highest decision-makingbody, met here at its head-quarters with Prime MinisterNarendra Modi, Shah andHome Minister Rajnath Singh,among others, in attendance.

Shah, who is saddled withthe heavy responsibility ofMinistry of Home Affairs,would ensure continuity andsee the party through the threeAssembly polls.

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Despite respite in northernStates, including Punjab

and Haryana, from heatwave,Bihar continues to reel undera searing heatwave which hasswept most parts of the State,killing around 180 people inthe State.

The prevailing situationhas prompted the NitishKumar Government to orderclosure of academic activities inall schools till June 22, officialssaid on Monday.

Though the MeTDepartment on Monday saidrain and thunderstorm havebrought down the mercuryand there will be no heatwaveconditions this week in north-ern States, including Punjab

and Haryana, an alert has beenissued by the BiharGovernment in the wake of therising death toll.

People have been advisedto take care while steppingoutside. The administration inGaya, Aurangabad and Nawadadistricts has imposed Section144 of the CrPC to force thepublic to stay indoors so thatthey don’t fall victim to thekiller heatwave.

Even works under theMahatma Gandhi National

Rural Employment GuaranteeAct (MGNREGA) have beenstopped after 10.30 am.

The Gaya district admin-istration has banned any cul-tural programme or gatheringin open spaces, between 11 amand 4 pm.

Majority of heatwavedeaths have been reportedfrom Aurangabad, Gaya andNawada districts, where tem-peratures hovered around 45degrees Celsius for the pastthree weeks.

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Ever since the creation ofUttarakhand State in 2000

when Dehradun was madethe provisional capital city,the environment of the city haschanged drastically.

Those who have been liv-ing in Dehradun for manydecades lament the changesthat have taken place in the citydue to a combination ofincreased population pressureon the resources andunplanned developments thathave led to a reduction in thegreenery and an increase incrowding and cemented struc-tures.

Krishnakant Pande whohas been living here for 49years reminisces the time whenthe temperature in the valleyused to be pleasant throughoutthe year. “Back in those days,we rarely used to switch onfans.

It is disappointing to wit-ness that these days peoplehave become so materialisticthat the once famousDehradun Basmati rice andlitchi orchards have nearlyvanished as people have under-taken construction in the greenspaces and farmlands,” he says.

Another resident ManojVohra who has spent 52 yearsin the city says, “Most of our

childhood memories seem tobe fading day by day as the cityis losing its original gems. Theonce famous tea estates havenow become mostly barrenland due to lack of waterresources and proper mainte-nance.

Rispana and Bindal riversare also in terrible state.” “A lot

of tourist influx in the city,courtesy of nearby hill stationslike Mussoorie and Dhanaultican be considered a con-tributing factor in the deteri-oration of surrounding forestsalong with the environmentand aesthetics of the city,”opines 84 year old Sant Pyariwho has spent her whole life in

the city. She further adds,“Ever since Uttarakhand wasformed, the government hasbeen causing havoc in the cityin the name of development.”

Even the air in the cityonce famous for its greeneryand clean environment hasdeteriorated in quality withincreasing number of vehicles

and decreasing greenery caus-ing a rise in the level of pollu-tion. Public transport vehicleslike the Vikrams and city busesrun on outdated and less effi-cient engines which also con-tribute to the air pollution.

Another local residentKaruna Malhotra says, “Thewater isn’t as clean as it used to

be. The stark example of thiscan be seen in the condition ofstreams and rivers in the city.”

It is almost impossible forthose who have not lived forlong in Dehradun to imaginehow the city was beforeunplanned developmentdestroyed the environmentand character of this place.

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Six persons died when the carthey were travelling in fell

down a gorge at Banpur bendnear Tyuni.

According to the policethe car was going from Banpurto Tyuni market at the time ofaccident.

Police are still trying toascertain the cause of acci-dent.The deceased have beenidentified as Central Industrial

Security Force (CISF) subinspector Pawan Negi (32)who was driving the car, hiswife Rashmi Negi (26), hisdaughter Ishika (4), SumanTomar (33), her son AaravTomar (5) and Murtu Devi(72).

information about themishap, Dehradun SeniorSuperintendent of Police (SSP)Nivedita Kukreti said, “Sixpersons including two minorsand one CISF sub-inspectorwere killed in a road accidentin Tyuni on Monday.

We are investigating aboutthe cause of mishap. The bod-ies have been pulled out fromthe gorge and the familieswere informed.”

Station Officer (SO)Tyuni, SL Bharti said, “At10:30 AM we got the infor-mation about an accident nearBanpur Bend. We reached

there for rescuing but all sixwere found dead on the spot.It is hard to tell the exact causeof the accident. The roadshere are bit narrow, but thereis no eye witness of the acci-dent.”

According to the infor-mation provided by police, theaccident happened at about9:30 in the morning.

SI Negi was on holidayand they all were planning tovisit a temple.

Near Banpur bend he isbelieved to have lost control ofthe car causing it to drop intoa 500 metre deep gorge.

With the help of localspolice team and a team fromrevenue department extractedthe bodies out of the gorge.

After completing the for-malities of post-mortem thebodies were handed over tothe families.

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The main means of publictransport in Dehradun are

city buses and Vikram tempos.However, the operation of boththese means of public transportis marred by various anomalies.

For example, those travel-ling regularly on the city busesplying between Jolly Grant andDehradun State that variousregulations are blatantly vio-lated by the operators.

These city buses are fre-quently overloaded, the con-ductor doesn’t provide the pas-sengers with tickets and boththe drivers and conducts do notwear uniforms as required bythe law.

When one of the conduc-tors was asked about the tick-ets and uniform, he said “Weare not given any uniforms towear by the bus owners, so wedon’t know about it.

Further, we are not pro-vided any ticket machine togive tickets to the passengers.At the end of the day, the busowners simply ask us about themoney earned during the day,”the conductor added.

One of the factors respon-sible for continued violation ofrules on the city buses is thereluctance of commuters toquestion the violations. The

commuters state that sincethey travel regularly in the citybuses they don’t wish to quar-rel over these issues for a tick-et costing �40.

They believe that even ifthey demand that the rules be

followed, it will make no dif-ference.

When asked about this, thecity bus union president VijayVardhan Dandriyal said, “TheRegional Transport Officecharges a fine of �500 for not

giving tickets to the passengers,�1,000 for not wearing theuniform and even for over-loading the fine has increasedfrom �500 to �1,000 per pas-senger.

As far as the uniforms are

concerned, we are still workingon this issue because we don’thave permanent drivers as ofnow.

The bus tends to get over-crowded mainly during peakhours,” he said.

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At seven petrol stationsacross the city from

Wednesday, 20-second videomessage will be broadcast onthe LED screens.

The proposal was initiat-ed by private petroleum com-panies, which will be com-bining a five minute videofrom different sectors includ-ing the 20 second visual mes-sage from traffic departmentand broadcast them on loop.

Dehradun SeniorSuperintendent of Police (SSP)Nivedita Kukreti said, “Themessage will basically showour route plans which wemake two or three days inadvance before a rally or roadshow and diversion routemaps.

This is basically for theawareness of the citizens. Aproposal was sent to us by pri-vate petroleum companies onwhich the SP traffic had ameeting with them to workout the details.”

Superintendent of Police(traffic) Prakash ChandraArya said, “Indian Oil andHindustan PetroleumCorporation limited came upwith the proposal.

At seven petrol stationsfour of Indian Oil and three ofHPCL at Saharanpur Road,Chakrata Road, East CanalRoad, Jakhan, GMS Road,

Patelnagar and SahastradharaRoad a 20 second messagefrom traffic department will

be displayed on the LEDscreens.

It will include our diver-

sion schemes, our awarenessmessages regarding drink anddriving, rash driving and

using phone while driving. Itis basically for public aware-ness.”

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Following the orders ofSuperintendent of Police

(traffic) Prakash ChandraArya, parking on the side of theroad adjoining police head-quarters has been banned foreveryone. Due to this many ofthe police personnel and staffworking in PHQ were seencomplaining and parking theirvehicles outside Saint Joseph’sAcademy (SJA) even thoughno-parking boards wereinstalled earlier by the police onthis stretch of the road.

SP Arya said, “The orderswere issued to ensure smoothtraffic outside PHQ. If policepersonnel will not uphold thelaw and set an example thenwhat can be expected fromcommon citizens.”

When asked about the pri-mary problem of parking thatis faced when the SJA is openhe said, “We have planned tospeak with school authoritiesagain so that they get at leasttwo-wheeler riders to parkinside their campus.

For four wheelers we willmake one lane on the road forparticular time periods. The

vehicles which arrive early willbe parked there while the restof the vehicles will be parkedat the parking area near thesecretariat.”

Complaining about thenew arrangement a police per-sonnel on the condition ofanonymity said, “The plan isnot feasible. In fact, PHQ cam-

pus does not have the space tohold these many vehicles.

We used to park inside thewhite line. Penalty should beimposed on those who parkoutside the white line and cre-ate traffic disruption.”

According to the officialsources this order has comeinto place after some senior

officers had to face traffic dis-ruption at the gates of PHQitself.

It is also important tomention that on the other sideof road the residents haveobjected to the orders statingthat there is no other place fortheir guests to park except atthe gates of their homes.

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Aday after a worker died inan accident while cleaning

a soak pit in National Institutefor the Empowerment ofPersons with Visual Disabilities(NIEPVD), Dehradun mayorSunil Uniyal ‘Gama’ stated thatevery department and the indi-vidual is responsible for takingtheir duty seriously so that suchan incident is not repeated.

Talking to the media onMonday he said, “The incidentis very heartbreaking. It isimportant that everyone notonly officials from any depart-ment but the citizens of the cityalso take their duty seriously sothat such an incident is notrepeated.

Same is the case with clean-liness; it is the duty of every sin-gle person to keep the cityclean.”

It has been observed thatvarious roads in the city havedamaged patches due to thelaying of sewage lines or otherworks. Such patches on roadsbecome dangerous potholes inthe monsoon season.

When asked about it fromthe mayor said, “The issue is inour notice and all the patcheson the road, especially formedafter the laying of sewage lineswill be covered before the rainyseason.”

It is also important tomention that in the secondboard meeting a proposal waspassed for granting Rs two lakhto each councillor for the roadpatchwork. However, due to thelack of Junior Engineers (JE’s)no fund has been passed so far.

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As a proposal was passed togrant Rs 20 lakh to each

councillor for constructionworks in their wards, MayorSunil Uniyal ‘Gama’ onMonday stated that tender forworks on 50 proposals from 50wards will be floated in the nextcouple of days.

Talking about it he said,“We have a shortage of employ-ees especially Junior Engineers(JE’s) which was why it tooklong to check the proposals.

However, the work hasbeen almost done and nearly 50proposals from 50 wards are tobe floated from in the comingdays.” When asked about theproposals from remaining 50

wards he said, “We held ameeting recently and it wasdecided that the pending pro-posals of the remaining 50wards will be cleared in thecoming week.

We are trying to clear workin some of the wards before themonsoon season.” Councillorsfrom various wards, however,stated that about 20 days are leftfor the onset of the monsoonseason and the tenders haven’tbeen floated yet.

They also said that as themonsoon the season is close,the Municipal Corporation ofDehradun (MCD) has alsofailed to do proper cleaning ofthe drains in the city. This willagain result in water logging inthis rainy season.

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The Tanakpur-Bageshwarrail line should be approved

in the current financial year,requested CM Trivendra SinghRawat while meeting the UnionRailway minister Piyush Goyal.He also requested that a specialtrain be started between Delhiand Haldwani, a Shatabdi orJan Shatabdi train be startedbetween Dehradun andKathgodam and that theRailway ministry fund theremaining works in theRoorkee-Deoband project.

Rawat said that the pro-posed Tanakpur-Bageshwar railline is an important proposedproject. Currently, the rail net-work is present till Tanakpurbut this is not the case withBageshwar and Pithoragarhdistricts in Kumaon which arecompletely mountainous. Theproposed Tanakpur-Bageshwarrail project is very important toexpedite social and economicdevelopment, develop touristdestinations and fully utiliselocal resources. As Uttarakhandalso shares borders with Chinaand Nepal, this project wouldalso be strategically impor-tant. Stating this, Rawatrequested Goyal to grantapproval to the Tanakpur-Bageshwar project in the cur-rent financial year. He alsoinformed Goyal that there is nodirect train service in themorning or afternoon betweenDehradun and Kathgodamwhich is the last railway stationin Kumaon region. There is

considerable movement oftourists and other travelersbetween Dehradun andKumaon but due to lack oftrain in the morning, theyhave to wait till the evening.Hence, in public interest eithera Shatabdi or Jan Shatabditrain should be started imme-diately between Dehradun andHaldwani/Kathgodam between

5 and 6 AM. Considering thenumber of travelers, the num-ber of trains between Delhi andHaldwani is quite less. A spe-cial train should be startedbetween Delhi and Haldwani,which would also benefit thetourists. Rawat said that in2018, the Railway ministryhad ascertained the cost ofRoorkee-Deoband project at Rs

791.39 crore and an agree-ment was reached for the min-istry and state governmentsharing the cost in 50:50 ratio.This 27.45 kilometre long pro-ject would include 94 hectareand 70 hectare area of UttarPradesh and Uttarakhandrespectively. Construction ofthis project would save the timeof travelers and make traffic

convenient. Uttarakhand hasmade Rs 240 crore contributionto the project so far. Rawatrequested Goyal that consid-ering the limited financialresources of the State, the con-tribution made so far should beconsidered adequate and thatthe ministry should finance theremaining cost of the project.

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The State Governmentshould be accorded the

right to clear up to five hectareforest land transfer. For projectrelated compensatory afforesta-tion, plantation on degradedforest land should also beallowed. Chief ministerTrivendra Singh Rawat said thiswhile meeting Union ministerof Environment, Forests andClimate Change, PrakashJavadekar in New Delhi onMonday.

Rawat said that swift deci-sions are needed on forestland transfer cases for recon-struction in disaster affectedareas, all-weather road project,PMGSY, rural electrificationand other ambitious schemes.For this, the State should beempowered to clear cases of upto five hectare land. Further,compensatory afforestationshould also be allowed ondegraded forest land for BROroad projects and Central pro-jects. It is mandatory to under-take compensatory plantationon double area of civil land forcentral funded and state gov-ernment projects. However,majority of the state’s area isunder forest cover and civilland is limited, consideringwhich compensatory planta-

tion for all such projectsshould be allowed on degrad-ed forest land. Rawat said thatfrom time to time the State hasrequested the Centre to allowfelling of mature trees above1000 metres altitude. This wasalso recommended by theForest Research Institute aftera scientific study, said Rawat,while requesting the Unionminister to grant permission.

He said that earlier, watercess collected from variousindustrial activities wasdeposited with the CentralGovernment which provided80 per cent of this to the statepollution control board. Thishas been discontinued as aresult of GST Act, stopping anaverage annual income of Rs3.25 crore of the State gov-ernment. The CM also said

that as per CentralGovernment directions, set-ting up of regular air qualitymonitoring stations in fivecities along with environmen-tal data centre and 142 addi-tional stations for air qualitymonitoring, a cost of Rs 20crore is estimated whichshould be provided by theGovernment of India to thestate pollution control board.Rawat further said that theRangers College under theMoEFCC has considerablevacant land which can be usedin the future for the smart cityproject, hosting nationalgames and other events.Considering this, the vacantland of the Rangers Collegeshould be transferred to theState Government, demandedthe CM.

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The High Court has pulled upthe State government for

permission granted to contro-versial South African business-men brothers Ajay and AtulGupta to hold the weddings oftheir sons at ecologically sensi-tive skiing destination Auli nearJoshimath. Hearing on a publicinterest litigation (PIL), thecourt asked how and whogranted permission for the wed-dings to be held at this location.The court has also directed theUttarakhand EnvironmentProtection and PollutionControl Board (UEPPCB) toinspect the site and submit a sta-tus report on Tuesday.

The Gupta brothers areorganising an extravagant wed-ding function at Auli purport-edly at a cost of Rs 200 crore.Hearing the PIL filed by advo-cate Rakshit Joshi, the divisionbench of chief justice RameshRanganathan and justice AlokKumar Verma asked those

holding the marriage whetherthey had deposited Rs fivecrore for cleaning and com-pensating for the damagecaused to the environment.The counsel representing theevent organisers said that theyhad been granted permissionby the municipal council andthat they had deposited a sumof Rs 30 lakh with the government.

The marriage programmeis to be held from June 18 to 22for which a number of tentshave been put up to accom-modate guests apart from ahelipad facilitated at the site.The court remarked that if theamount for cleaning of thevenue is not deposited, approvalto the programme will have tobe reconsidered. Asking thegovernment who accorded per-mission for the event, the courtalso asked whether marriageshad been held at Auli in the pastand whether the helipad wasalready there.

The division bench furtherasked whether Auli is a bugyal(high altitude alpine meadow)and stated that if it is, thiswould constitute contempt ofearlier orders of the high courtprohibiting night stays onbugyals. The UEPPCB has alsobeen directed to inspect the siteand inform the court onTuesday regarding the damagecaused to the environment.

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Former head of theFederation of Hotel and

Restaurant Associations ofIndia and managing director ofShervani Hilltop hotel inNainital, Saeed Shervani saidthat it is vital to establish coor-dination among the hotel asso-ciation of Nainital, local admin-istration and other bodies toensure good facilities and con-venience to tourists arrivinghere. Addressing the mediahere, he said that currently thecondition of roads hasimproved considerably whichhas made travel convenient forthe people. With more peoplepreferring to travel by road, thenumber of tourists and vehiclesreaching Nainital is bound to

rise further in the future.Shervani said that the districtadministration and hotel asso-ciation should also open book-ing counters at the entry pointsof the city so that any touristcoming here without bookingcan do so before entering thecity. While the governmentearns considerable revenuefrom the tourism industry inNainital, many locals also gainemployment. Considering this,the district administration andthe locals will also have to playa role in enhancing the tourismbusiness here. He also stressedon the need for raising aware-ness among both locals and thetourists to ensure that thearrival of tourists does notimpact the environment andbeauty of Nainital negatively.

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Aspell of rainb r o u g h t

much relief fromthe heat inD e h r a d u nthough strongwinds also felledtrees in variousparts of the cityand led to dis-ruption of powersupply in manyareas on Mondayevening. Waterlogging was alsoexperienced ondifferent roads.The StateMeteorologicalCentre has fore-cast the possibility of hail andintense showers at isolated placesespecially in the mountainousregions on Tuesday. Thundersquall is likely to occur at isolated

places especially in the plainsduring the next 36 hours.

According to the meteoro-logical centre, in Dehradun,one or two spells of rain andthunderstorm accompanied bysquall are likely on Tuesday.

The maximum and minimumtemperatures are likely to be 35degree Celsius and 18 degreeCelsius respectively.

On Monday, the maxi-

mum and minimum tempera-tures recorded at various placesof the state were 37 degreeCelsius and 22.7 degree Celsiusrespectively in Dehradun, 35.6degree Celsius and 23.6 degreeCelsius in Pantnagar, 27.6

degree Celsius and 14.9 degreeCelsius in Mukteshwar and 28degree Celsius and 17.4 degreeCelsius respectively in New Tehri.

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Considering the geographi-cal conditions of

Uttarakhand, for solid wastemanagement pro-jects underSwachchh Bharatmission, the gov-ernment of Indiashould approve 90per cent Centralcontribution. Chiefminister TrivendraSingh Rawat madethis request whilemeeting the Unionminister of State( i n d e p e n d e n tcharge) Ministry ofHousing and UrbanAffairs, HardeepSingh Puri in thenational Capital onMonday. He alsosought a one timegrant of Rs 5,000crore from theCentre for theKumbh Mela to beheld in 2021.

Rawat said thatthe Kumbh Mela tobe held in Haridwarduring 2021 isexpected to be visited by about15 crore people from acrossIndia and abroad. For the suc-cessful organisation of this

major event, works have to bedone on a large scale for hous-ing, transport, health, securityand various infrastructuralfacilities. The State Governmenthas started preparations forthis. All permanent and tem-porary works are to be com-pleted by October 2020. Rawatrequested Singh that consider-ing the limited financialresources of the state, theGovernment of India shouldapprove a one time grant of Rs

5,000 crore for the KumbhMela. He said that he had alsorequested the Union Financeminister Nirmala Sitharaman

regarding this.Regarding the Swachchh

Bharat Mission, he informedSingh and the works beingundertaken in Uttarakhand.The mission is especiallyimportant for maintainingcleanliness and beauty of thestate rich in biodiversity andforests. The State Governmentis also undertaking seriousefforts for this with all cities ofthe state being declared opendefecation free (ODF). Rawat

said that for solid waste man-agement projects under themission, only 35 per cent of thetotal project cost is being pro-

vided by the Centre in the formof viability gap funding. Mostof the towns in Uttarakhand arelocated in mountainousregions. Further, the scope forpublic private partnership insolid waste management is alsolimited. Considering this, thecentral contribution in currentand future stages of solid wastemanagement projects needs tobe raised to 90 per cent. Thechief minister also requestedfacilitation of expansion of the

Dehradun airport. The Unionminister of State granted hisapproval in principle to thisrequest.

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Presiding over the secondmeeting of the State’s Rural

Development and MigrationCommission (RDMC), chiefminister Trivendra SinghRawat has directed formationof a committee in the com-mission to coordinate withvarious departments for imple-menting the suggestions madeby RDMC so far. The chiefminister also released thereport prepared by the RDMCon Almora district on the occasion.

The report prepared by thecommission presents a pictureof the status of migration andother aspects in Almora whilealso making recommendationsfor strengthening the socil andeconomic development in thedistrict while mitigating migra-tion. The chief minister saidthat a survey of districts hasbeen done for mitigation ofmigration. An action planshould be prepared for suchdistricts. A well plannedroadmap should be preparedon how to control migrationand how to encourage reversemigration, said the chief min-ister. Rawat said that there isneed to focus on public facil-

ities for stalling migrationfrom the mountainous regions.Detailed study should be con-ducted to ascertain how par-ticular areas can be devel-oped. Special focus should belaid on encouraging home-stays and self help groups,local products along withpackaging and branding oflocal products. Documentaryfilms should also be made onsuccess stories to discouragemigration, he said. Such doc-umentaries should also be

made on tourism, agriculture,horticulture and other impor-tant subjects. Rawat also saidthat suggestions on who to stopmigration and encouragereverse migration should alsobe sought from experts andthose who have done com-mendable works in various sectors.

The RDMC has submittedfour reports so far. It has sub-mitted reports on aspects ofmigrat ion from GramPanchayats, anaylsis and rec-

ommendations on ecotourism and a report on Pauridistrict in addition to theone on Almora released onMonday. The RDMC vicechairman Sharad Singh Negisaid that in order to strength-en social and economicdevelopment and mitigatemigration, deliberations wereheld with experts and locals inthe rural areas of various dis-tricts. Suggestions were alsosought from experts and stu-dents of various universities

and institutions.Meetings were also heldat the state administra-tion level on the subject.He further informedthat in the coming year,the RDMC will preparea report on migrationfrom rural areas andrelated social and eco-nomic aspects ofPithoragarh and Tehridistricts. In addition tothis, the schemes oper-ated by various depart-ments of the StateGovernment will beevaluated to provideuseful suggestions tothe government forreducing migration.Later, talking to media

persons the RDMC vice chair-man said that apart fromreviewing the work done bythe commission in the pastyear and the plans for thefuture, the CM directed for-mation of a committee tofacilitate implementation ofthe suggestions made by thecommission. The RDMCcommittee will draft a depart-mental check list and thenhold meetings with thedepartments to deliberateupon pertinent issues, he said.

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Members of the AkhilBharatiya Anganwadi

Karmchari Sangh (ABAKS)and Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh(BMS) held a protest and sub-mitted a memorandum for theChief Minister Trivendra SinghRawat to district magistrate SAMurugesan on Monday.

Demanding fair wages, thedistrict president of the ABAKSNeena Tomar said that theAnganwadi workers have beenconsistently working in variousgovernment projects andworks. However, they are not

being paid properly which is avery serious issue. Addressingthe media during the protestshe said, “Most of theAnganwadi workers are notgiven proper wages even afterthey work consistently like agovernment employee.

Most of the women work-ers struggle to run their house-holds from the meagre income.It is important that somethingregarding our issue is donesoon.” It is important to men-tion that the Anganwadi work-ers are getting �6,000, miniAnganwadi workers get � 3,550and Anganwadi helper gets

�3,000 a month.In October 2018 the min-

imum wage rule for theAnganwadi was changed inwhich Anganwadi worker wasto receive �7,500, miniAnganwadi worker was toreceive �4,250 and Anganwadihelper was to receive �3,750 permonth. However, no hike insalary was done.

Elaborating this Tomarsaid, “Even after the wageswere raised this is not verymuch and is not given to us.We have given a memorandumfor the chief minister to the dis-trict magistrate.”

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With no sign of end to theprevail ing hosti l ity

between Punjab ChiefMinister Capt AmarinderSingh and his CabinetMinister Navjot Singh Sidhu,the Congress high commandis considering the options ofgiving a “bigger role” to theformer cricketer.

Sidhu, the four-time MPand currently the Minister inPunjab, was the Congress’star campaigner during therecently-concluded Lok Sabhaelections, and a leader whichthe party could not afford tolose in any way, especially atthis point of time.

But on the other side is

the party’s veteran CaptAmarinder, who has defiedthe Modi tsunami across thecountry to secure eight, out ofthe total 13 seats, in Punjab.

Capt Amarinder, whodefeated the BJP stalwartArun Jaitley in his first everelectoral hustings in 2014general elections despitenationwide Modi wave, is cur-rently ruling Punjab enjoyingtwo-third majority in theState.

What exactly theCongress means by “bigger” isyet to be ascertained, but it hasbeen learnt that the party isjuggling between threeoptions.

First, to appoint him asthe state Congress chief as theincumbent Sunil Jakhar has

already submitted his resig-nation after he failed to securehis seat and lost to greenhornSunny Deol in Gurdaspur.

Secondly, there are talks ofappointing Sidhu as thedeputy to the Chief Ministerwhich seems unlikely as theparty high command couldnot afford to challenge CaptAmarinder’s authority byappointing a Deputy ChiefMinister — a post which hehad refused to retain in thefirst place.

After the Congress sweptthe Punjab assembly polls in2017, speculations were rifethat the party would appointSidhu as Deputy ChiefMinister to Capt Amarinder.But, Capt Amarinder hadreportedly refused to have a

post of Deputy Chief Ministerin his Cabinet.

Another alternative thatthe party high command isconsidering is to appointSidhu as one of the four vice-presidents in case the partydecides to replace party pres-ident Rahul Gandhi, who isadamant to step down fromthe coveted post, with four in-charges by grouping the coun-try into four segments.

In case it happens, theparty is considering Sidhu’sname for the northern region.In the recently-concludedelections, Sidhu had addressedseveral rallies in the northernstates, except his home statePunjab, and received tremen-dous response. However, asenior Congress leader, while

taking with The Pioneer “offthe record”, maintained thatgiving Sidhu power which, inany way, would mean buildinga parallel power centre toCapt Amarinder may proveharmful for the party as awhole, where the Congresshas managed to maintain itsstronghold.

Even after 10 days of re-allocation of portfolios doneby Capt Amarinder, Sidhuhas not assumed the charge ofthe Power Department.

Sidhu was divested ofLocal Government andTourism Departments afterthe Chief Minister blamedhim for party’s poor perfor-mance in the urban pockets ashe failed to perform well asthe Minister. Sidhu, on the

other hand, had argued thatthe Congress has won 64 per-cent in the purely urbanassembly segments by win-ning 16 out of 25 seats, and inrural areas, Congress bagged35 out of 63 seats, making it55 percent.

Sidhu, making the re-allo-cation of portfolios as an issueof prestige, has taken the issueright up to the party highcommand, which has report-edly asked the former crick-eter to continue working forthe party.

Despite that, Sidhu hasnot take over his Department.In fact, no effort was beingmade to appease Sidhu by thestate leadership with no leaderor even the Chief Ministercontacting him.

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Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD)would approach the Union

Home Ministry to demandaction against senior Congressleader and Madhya PradeshChief Minister Kamal Nathfor allegedly leading a mobwhich attacked Sikhs duringthe 1984 genocide committedagainst the Sikh community.

Announcing this, the SADpresident Sukhbir Badal onMonday said that a delegationof Delhi Sikh GurdwaraManagement Committee(DSGMC) led by its presidentManjinder Singh Sirsa wouldcall on the Home SecretaryRajiv Gauba on Tuesday andhand over a memorandum inthis regard to him.

“SAD will urge the HomeMinistry to direct the SIT torecord the statements of notedjournalist Sanjay Suri andMuktiar Singh, who are primewitnesses against Kamal Nath,”he said.

Sukhbir said that otherpending issues would also betaken up for resolution. “Wealso stand for formation of aspecial court for day-to-daytrial of all cases of 1984 geno-cide in Delhi so that justice isdelivered in a time boundmanner. A request forappointment of the President ofthe Sri Hazur Sahib, Nanded,

through election by membersof its Board will also be put for-ward to the Home Ministry,” headded.

He said that SAD willalso formally urge for grant ofclemency to Balwant SinghRajoana, main accused informer Chief Minister BeantSingh assassination case, bycommuting his sentence tolife imprisonment, formationof a time-bound committeefor release of “Bandi Singhs”(Sikh political prisoners) andaward of compensation toSikh “Dharmi Fauji” (whoresigned from the forces inprotest against OperationBlue Star).

The party will also urge forcompensation to all JodhpurSikh detainees as only 40 out of365 detainees have been paidcompensation, he said.

Besides, the delegation willurge for giving formal permis-sion for the DSGMC’s NagarKirtan to Nankana Sahib inPakistan on the occasion of550th parkash purv of Sri GuruNanak Dev Ji.

It will also urge for grant ofcitizenship to thousands ofAfghan Sikhs living in Indiabesides urging that Jammu andKashmir Sikhs be given minor-ity status in J&K and immedi-ate redevelopment of PunjabiColony, Mumbai which hasbeen declared as dangerous.

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The All India Instituteof Medical Sciences

(AIIMS) told the DelhiHigh Court on Mondaythat it had terminatedthe over-22-week preg-nancy of a minor rapevictim as continuingwith it would have hada severe impact on the girl’sphysical and mental health. It also told the court that the foe-tus had been preserved forDNA analysis in the rapecase.The submission was madebefore Justice Najmi Waziri,who, thereafter, disposed of theplea moved on behalf of the rapevictim seeking permission tomedically terminate her preg-nancy.

The high court had, onJune 14, asked the AIIMS to setup a medical board to examinewhether it was necessary to endthe pregnancy of the 14-year-oldrape victim and to carry out theprocedure expeditiously, ifrequired.

The court had also direct-ed that a report be placed beforeit about the medical board’sdecision. It had also orderedpreservation of the foetus forDNA analysis in the rape case.

On Monday, advocateAldanish Rein, appearing for the

AIIMS, told the court about thedecision taken by the hospitaland submitted its report.

According to the plea filedby advocates AnweshMadhukar and Anshu Bhanoton behalf of the girl, on June 2,her mother came to know thatshe was pregnant and that shewas raped.

The same day, an FIR waslodged, the petition had saidand added that an ultrasoundtest conducted on June 8 hadrevealed that the girl was preg-nant for 22 weeks.

Thereafter, the girl and herfamily approached the ChildWelfare Commission for helpand the panel advised her toseek permission from the courtfor medical termination of preg-nancy (MTP).

Under the MedicalTermination of Pregnancy Actof 1971, a foetus cannot beaborted if the gestation periodis more than 20 weeks.

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India’s first ‘hydrotherapy poolfor jumbosat’ for the ele-

phants suffering from arthritis,joint pain and foot ailments isin Mathura district of UttarPradesh.

The jumbo pool, situatedis 11-foot-deep and has 21high pressure jet sprays thatcreate water pressure that mas-sage the elephants’ feet andbody and help in increasingblood circulation.

According to an official ofthe Wildlife SOS, “Rescued

elephants from extreme dis-tress, privately owned andhad the cruel history of beingused for begging and somespent a lifetime in captivityand confinement as templeelephants or were being forcedto perform in circuses will begiven therapy treatment”.

“Captive elephants in suchsituations are made to navi-gate environments that theirbody was not built for.Standing on concrete for pro-longed periods becomes aninvitation to the early on-setof arthritis,” said a wildlifeSOS, adding, “Due to lack ofimproper foot care, the toe-nails and cuticles of the ele-phants overgrow and becomemore prone to cracking.

As such, standing andwalking becomes painful forthese long ranging animals.”

Dr. Yaduraj Khadpekar,Senior Wildlife VeterinaryOfficer said, “With each ele-phant rescue, we haveobserved a disturbing pat-tern in captive elephants- theirbodies are weakened due toimproper nutrition, their bod-ies and delicate feet are rid-

dled with wounds and painfulabscesses. Osteoarthritis andfoot issues are common ail-

ments. Water resistance isuseful for muscle strengthen-ing and cardiovascular train-

ing whilst water pressure canreduce oedema and swelling.”Kartick Satyanarayan, the co-

founder and CEO WildlifeSOS said, “The jumbohydrotherapy pool installed at

the Wildlife SOS ElephantHospital is equipped with 21high pressure water jets thatmassage the elephants’ feetand body and help in increas-ing blood circulation.

This is a critically impor-tant component of the treat-ment as it also helps oxygenand vital minerals to reach themuscle tissues.”

In November 2018, Indiabased wildlife conservationcharity Wildlife SOS estab-lished the country’s first andonly fully equipped ElephantHospital in collaboration withUttar Pradesh ForestDepartment. Situated on thebanks of Yamuna River inMathura, the ElephantHospital is located near theWildlife SOS’ ElephantConservation and Care Centre(ECCC), which is home toover 20 rescued elephants.

The hospital is equippedwith state-of-the-art modernfacilities like Wireless DigitalX-Ray, Laser Treatment,Dental X-Ray, Thermal imag-ing and Ultrasonography totreat injured, sick and geriatricelephants.

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Condemning the ‘assault’ ofa Sikh Gramin Sewa tempo

driver by policemen inMukherjee Nagar area onSunday, leaders of variouspolitical parties on Mondayjoined ranks to demand a fairprobe into the incident claim-ing that policemen insulted theman by attacking his turban.

The issue took a politicalturn soon after a purportedvideo of the incident showingthe tempo driver waving his“kirpan” (a small dagger carriedby Sikhs) and chasing police-men before being overpoweredand beaten up by the cops wentviral on the social media trig-gering widespread condemna-tion, leading to a political stormand the suspension of threepolicemen.

Delhi Chief MinsiterArvind Kejriwal on Mondaydemanded that Union HomeMinister Amit Shah andLieutenant Governor Anil Baijaltake strict action against thepolice personnel who allegedlyassaulted a driver in Delhi.Kejriwal, who met the family ofthe man, said the Delhi police’s“brutality” in Mukherjee Nagararea on Sunday was highly con-demnable and unjustified.

“I demand an impartialprobe into the whole incident &strict action against the guilty.Protectors of citizens can’t beallowed to turn into uncon-trolled violent mobsters,” theChief Minister tweeted.

Kejriwal said, “I appeal tothe Home Minister and the L-G to take strict action against

the guilty so that no citizen istreated like this in the future.”

“Incidents of crime haveincreased in Delhi. The homeminister and the L-G need to actstrictly. It was an unfortunateincident. I hope that the guiltypolice personnel will be pun-ished severely,” Kejriwal said.

The incident took place onSunday evening. In a videoposted on social media it can beseen that a man was chasingsome policemen with a sword inhis hand, while the policemenwere seen thrashing him withbatons in another.

Delhi Bharatiya Janata Party(BJP) president Manoj Tiwarisaid there was no place for vio-lence in society, while demand-ing punishment for the guilty.“Violence has no place in anyCivil Society. Mukherjee Nagarincident is sad and con-demnable. Free and fair enquiryshould be done, so that no inno-cent should be punished andguilty should be brought tobook,” he said in a tweet.Delhi

Congress spokespersonJitendra Kochar also demandeda thorough probe into the inci-dent. Mere suspension of theguilty police officials was notenough, he said, while demand-ing that they be removed fromservice.

Meanwhile, a delegation ofDelhi Sikh GurdwaraManagement Committee’s(DSGMC) led by its presidentManjinder Singh Sirsa called onDelhi Commissioner of Police(CP) on Sunday and demand-ed an enquiry in connectionofan alleged assault on driver of amini taxi at Mukherjee Nagar

area of north Delhi. Sirsa said that the CP has

assured them that a criminalcase will be registered against allthose police personnel whowere involved in mercilesslybeating Sikh auto driver SarbjitSingh and his minor son.

He said that the ShiromaniAkali Dal (SAD) presidentSukhbir Singh Badal is himselfmonitoring the case and haddirected the delegation to takeup matter with the CP. The vic-tim Sarbjit Singh, GeneralSecretary Harmeet Singh Kalka,Senior vice president Bibi RanjitKaur, Junior vice president Kulwant Singh Bathand others were also part of thedelegation. Sirsa said that theDSGMC and the SAD will takeevery step needed to ensure thatSarbjit Singh and his minorson get justice. He said that therewill be no compromise on thesecurity of the Sikhs in thewhole nation and we are active-ly working on this angle.

According to the police,three personnel have been sus-pended for their “unprofession-al conduct” in handling thematter and legal action would betaken on the basis of an inquiry,which would be conducted byDeputy Commissioner of Police(Northwest) Vijayanta Arya andtwo other senior officers.

According to a senior policeofficer, the accident between a‘Gramin Sewa’ tempo and thepolice vehicle led to an argumentbetween them that soon turnedviolent. The tempo driverallegedly attacked the policepersonnel with a sword andalso drove dangerously.

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The Haryana VigilanceBureau department will

soon set up a dedicatedInformation Technology (IT)cell at their Sector-43 StateVigilance Bureau office inGurugram and Faridabad dis-tricts. A proposal has been sentto the state government. As ofnow, the department has onlyone IT cell in Bureau head-quarters at Panchkula.

Offering greater resultsagainst corruption cases andconducting speedy inquiriesthe Department of state vigi-lance is gearing up to set up ITcells in Gurugram andFaridabad districts under its

ambit.“The decision to consti-tute independent vigilance cellsis part of a bid to enhance theefficiency and transparency inthe department. We need ded-icated cells with adequate pow-ers to crack down on corrup-tion and nepotism,” a seniorofficial said on requestinganonymity.

Moreover, one of the mainadvantages of the IT cell is that the work on the complaints related to the tech-nology and petitions regardingdifferent departmental irregu-larities will be tackle easily andspeedy.Sources said Officers forheading the vigilance IT cellswill be appointed after securingthe approval of the stateGovernment. A special officer

in the rank of the Inspector willbe appointed to head the cells inthe department. Adequate sup-port staff too will be providedfor the smooth functioning ofthe cells. The functioning of thecells will be monitored by thesenior Vigilance officer.

“The decision to constitutethe cells gains significance in thewake of a string of allegationsand cases that have come upagainst various governmentoffices. The new system offersscope for the public to directlyfile complaints against corrup-tion and the cell will tab onthese complaints so that animmediately taken up for probeand, the cases will not bedragged on for years,” the offi-cer said.

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Having returned to powerwith a bigger mandate,

Prime Minister Narendra Modion Monday sought to reach outto the Opposition parties on thefirst day of Parliament’s mon-soon session saying they neednot “bother about their num-bers” as their every word is“valuable” to the Government.

“When we come toParliament, we should forget‘paksh’ (treasury) and ‘vipaksh’(Opposition) and instead thinkabout issues with a ‘nishpaksh’(impartial) spirit and work inthe larger interest of the nation,”he told the media outsideParliament before the com-mencement of the first sessionof the 17th Lok Sabha.

Inside the House, many ofthe newly-elected memberswere seen in colourful and saf-fron attire, traditional shawlsand headgears even as twoUnion Ministers from Bengalwere greeted with chants of JaiShri Ram when they were calledto take oath as Lok Sabha mem-bers.

Outlining the importance ofan active Opposition in a par-liamentary democracy, Modisaid he hoped the Oppositionwill speak actively and partici-pate in House proceedings. “Iam hopeful that this session willbe productive,” he maintained.

“The role of an Oppositionand an active Opposition isimportant perquisite in a par-liamentary democracy. TheOpposition need not bother

about their numbers. I hopethey speak actively and partic-ipate in House proceedings.Their every word, every feelingis valuable to us,” he said evenas he urged all MPs to beimpartial in the House andaddress issues related to the larg-er interest of the nation.

Talking about the newlyconstituted Lok Sabha, Modisaid it is historic in variousterms as maximum number ofwomen MPs have been electedto the lower house since theIndependence. Modi said asthis is the first session with newmembers, there will be a flow ofnew energy and a new enthusi-asm will be reflected in theHouse to realise the aspira-tions of the people.

He said his Governmentworked on the principle of‘sabka sath, sabka vikas’ (withall, development for all) duringhis first term and peoplereposed their faith in it for a sec-ond time. As a result, aGovernment has been reelect-

ed with a clear majority afterseveral decades, he said

Later, Prime MinisterNarendra Modi, who is also theleader of the House, took oathas Member amid thumping ofdesks by the ruling NDA MPSand slogans such as ‘Modi Modi’and “Bharat Mata ki Jai.

The panel of presiding offi-cers — K Suresh, BrijbhushanSharan Singh and B Mehtab —took oath as Members after thePrime Minister. DefenceMinister Rajnath Singh, HomeMinister Amit Shah, Transportand Highways Minister NitinGadkari, and Chemical andFertilisers Minister DVSadanand Gowda also took

oath.Union Minister Smriti

Irani, who defeated CongressPresident Rahul Gandhi inAmethi, received the longestapplause when she took oath.Rahul, who was missing fromthe House in the first phase,took oath in the second half.

When Union MinistersBabul Supriyo and DebashreeChoudhury, who are from WestBengal, were called to take oaththey were greeted by fellowBJP MPs with “Jai Shri Ram”slogans apparently as a dig atWest Bengal Chief MinisterMamata Banerjee who hadobjected to uttering the sloganduring some incidents.

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PNS: Prime Minister NarendraModi and Home Minister AmitShah were in their trademarkKurta, Pyjama and half-sleevejacket, Union MinistersPrahlad Joshi, Giriraj Singh andGK Reddy sported saffronattire or half jacket. Bihar MPsGopal Jee Thakur and AshokKumar Yadav came in traditional Maithil attire andheadgear, while most of theAssam MPs donned the tradi-tional Assamese ‘gamocha’, con-sidered a symbol of the State’sculture.

YSR Congress MPs fromAndhra Pradesh sported the

‘Angavastram’ dotted with pic-ture of party president andChief Minister YS Jagan MohanReddy. BJP’s Bhopal MP PragyaSingh Thakur was seen in hertrademark saffron robe whileUnion Minister Arjun RamMeghwal wore the traditionalRajasthani saffron and greenheadgear as part of the dress.

Film star Sunny Deol, whowas elected to Lok Sabha fromGurdashpur in Punjab, came inshirt and trouser and was seensitting in the second last row.Arunachal Pradesh MP TapirGao wore the traditional blueArunachali jacket.

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Responding to the PM’s call,the Congress on Monday

alleged that the ModiGovernment used Parliamentas a “rubber stamp” during itsprevious tenure and hoped thistrend is reversed and key Billsare not pushed without legisla-tive scrutiny using “brutemajority”.

“Legislation through ordi-nance is a very unhealthy prac-tice in a democracy. It shouldonly be used in extreme caseswhere there is an emergency

requirement otherwise the dueprocesses of lawmaking must tobe followed by the Governmentin office,” senior Congressleader Anand Sharma said.

“We will now wait for thePrime Minister’s assurance inthis regard and whether thepractice that was followed in thelast five years is reversed,because in the last five yearswhat we have seen is disrespectto Parliament, where the billswere brought by the govern-ment and because of its brutemajority in the Lok Sabha,Parliament was treated as a rub-

ber stamp,” he said.Most of the bills were not

sent to the standing committeefor legislative scrutiny which isimportant for any law to bemade, Sharma said. Congresshopes that now this practice willbe honoured and dependenceof ordinance and pushingthrough the bills without scruti-ny will not be repeated by theGovernment, he said.

Earlier in the day, address-ing the media outside parlia-ment before the commence-ment of the first session of the17th Lok Sabha, Modi said,

“When we come to Parliament,we should forget ‘paksh’ (trea-sury) and ‘vipaksh’(Opposition). We should thinkabout issues with a ‘nishpaksh’(impartial) spirit and work inthe larger interest of the nation.”

“The role of an oppositionand an active opposition isimportant perquisite in a par-liamentary democracy. Theopposition need not botherabout their numbers. I hopethey speak actively and partic-ipate in House proceed-ings...Their every word...Everyfeeling is valuable to us,” he said.

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BJP MP from Bhopal SadhviPragya Singh Thakur’s oath

taking on Monday created acontroversy after CongressMPs objected to her adding herspiritual Guru’s name alongwith her name. Amid protests,Thakur said that it was her fullname and she had mentionedthat she had already men-tioned her full name in theform she had filled for oath tak-ing.

The mention of SwamiPurna ChetnanandAvdheshanand Giri as suffix toher name Sadhvi Pragya SinghThakur evoked sharp reactionfrom the Opposition mem-bers who said that such a thingwas not permitted. She insist-ed that the suffix was part ofher full name, resulting in anuproar from Opposition andslogan shouting in her favourfrom the ruling benches.

The Pro tem SpeakerVirendra Kumar sought toknow from the Lok SabhaSecretary General, the fullname. Amid noise and objec-tions, Kumar ruled that only

the name written in her elec-tion certificate issued by thereturning officer would go onrecord. BJP MPs accused theCongress MPs of unnecessar-ily targeting the Bhopal MP.

Thakur took oath inSanskrit and ended it with‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’ slogan.Later, BJP members continuedto raise ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’ slo-gans.

After Ganjendra UmaraoSingh Patel (BJP) completed hisoath with ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’,NK Premchandran (RSP)urged the Pro-tem Speaker tomaintain the prescribed formatof the oath. The Pro tem speak-er ruled that the membersstick to the format provided.After this, the members of BJPstarted adding ‘Bharat Mata KiJai’ after end of every oath.

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With the death toll crossingthe 100 mark due to

Acute Encephalitis Syndrome(AES), a case has been filedagainst Union Health MinisterDr Harsh Vardhan and BiharHealth Minister MangalPandey in Muzaffarpur ChiefJudicial Magistrate’s (CJM)court for not creating aware-ness about the deadly disease.The plea by the social activistTamanna Hashmi will be heardon June 24.

Harsh Vardhan, who hadvisited the district on Sunday toreview the situation in thehospitals there, has denied anynegligence saying teams werestationed in Muzaffarpur fromthe very first day and wereworking too. Meanwhile, avideo surfaced wherein Pandeyis seen asking for latest score ofthe India-Pakistan cricketmatch during the State HealthDepartment meeting over theAES deaths on June 16 addingto the prevailing anger amongthe people against theGovernment.

According to official data,85 children have died in SriKrishna Medical College andHospital (SKMCH), while 17have lost their lives in Kejriwalhospital in the city in the pastfortnight. Most of the casualtiesaffected by the Syndrome arebetween the age group of 1-10.

AES is a viral disease,which causes mild flu-likesymptoms such as high fever,convulsions, and headaches.According to reports, morethan 290 children are stilladmitted in the ICU of the Sri

Krishna Medical College. The Centre has announced

plans to set up five virologicallabs in different districts in theState. The location of the dis-trict can be decided in consul-tation with the StateGovernment and can be fund-ed through NHM, said HarshVardhan in a statement here.

A high-level central teamhas been sent to Muzaffarpurto set up a state-of-the-artmulti-disciplinary researchcentre in the wake of the chil-dren death due to suspectedencephalitis.

In one of the decisionstaken during his visit toMuzaffarpur, the UnionMinister has instructed to setup a 100-bedded paediatricICU at SKMCH by the StateGovernment. Also, in theadjoining districts, 10 beddedpaediatric ICUs will be set upwith support from the Centre,so that such cases can be givenbetter and exclusive treatmentand there is no unnecessaryload on the facilities availableat SKMCH.

Emphasising the need forearly detection and treatmentof hypoglycemia cases, HarshVardhan said that a dedicatedteam of doctors should beplaced in endemic PHCs withrequired facilities at least for 3to 4 months before and duringonset of disease and they maybe incentivised under NHMappropriately.

As for present, the con-cerned PHCs and CHCsshould take prompt correctivemeasures for hypoglycaemia atthe facility itself to utilize thegolden hour, he added.

Harsh Vardhan also saidthat Ministry of Earth Sciencewill be requested to upgrade itsIMD observatory facility forimproved monitoring of cli-mate related parameters such astemperature humidity, rain-fall, heat waves, etc., and shareit with the State Governmentand NCDC for better pre-paredness and management ofAES.

“The central governmentwill provide all possible helpincluding financial to the stateto control the situation, provideproper treatment and developinfrastructure needed for it,”Health Minister said.

Social activist TamannaHashmi in his petition hasalleged that Harsh Vardhanand Mangal Pandey failed tofulfill their duties to control theoutbreak of AES, while bothhad done nothing to createawareness and sensitise peoplein the affected areas despite thefact that AES had been killingchildren for years.

Hashmi said that he hasfiled the case against theaccused, Harsh Vardhan andMangal Pandey, under 323,308 and 504 of the IndianPenal Code (IPC).

“Large number of childrendied due to negligence and lackof infrastructure to give themtimely proper treatment”, hesaid.

The National HumanRights Commission (NHRC)too has issued notices to theUnion Health Ministry and theBihar government over reportsof increasing deaths of childrendue to the deadly disease, asenior official said.

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The probe to find out thecause leading to the AN-32

plane crash may get delayed asits black box or flight datarecorder is damaged. The blackbox was brought from the crashsite three days back and theinvestigators are trying toretrieve the data from the instru-ment. Meanwhile, operation isin full swing to recover the mor-tal remains of all the 13 onboard. Scores of helicopters areflying sorties for this purpose.

It is feared that the plane hita mountain top leading to thecrash. However, the data from

the black box and the court ofinquiry will establish the causeof the mishap, sources said hereon Monday. As regards thedamage caused to the blackbox, they said the HindustanAeronautics Limited(HAL) helpwill be sought for retrieving thedata or may be sent to someother agency. It was also learntthat Eastern Command chief AirMarshal R K Mathur’s scheduledvisit to Bangladesh was post-poned as he is supervising thesalvage operations.

The plane had gone missing

on June 3 while on a flight fromJorhat in Assam for Mechukaadvanced landing ground inArunachal Pradesh and thewreckage was spotted eight dayslater near the landing ground ata height of 12,000 feet amidstdense jungles atop a steep ridge.Teams of IAF, Army and civil-ian mountaineers trekked inthe rugged terrain to reach thespot to recover the black box andlook for any survivors.

Given the nature of terrainand inclement weather, thesearch operation is facing amajor challenge for the moun-taineering team and the IAF hasdeployed more than eight heli-copters for retrieval of mortalremains, sources said. They alsosaid more than 200 sorties werecarried out since the search andrescue effort commenced onJune 3 over an area of 1,000sq.km. The debris of the ill-fated

plane was finally spotted by aMI-17 helicopter in Lipo.

There are more than 100AN-32 twin-engine turbo proptransport planes with the IAF.These Russian origin planeswere inducted in the mid 1980s.After a crash in 2009 nearMechuka killing all 13 passen-gers, a contract was inked for400 million dollars with Ukrainefor upgrade. So far, 50 planeshave been retrofitted. However,the plane which crashed onJune 3 was non-upgraded.

Mechuka advanced landingground located at an altitude of6,000 feet is the lifeline fortroops deployed on the Line ofActual Control(LAC) facingChina in Arunachal Pradesh.The planes and helicopters ferrypersonnel, food and ammuni-tion from Mechuka which isabout 30kms from the LAC asthe crow flies.

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New Delhi: The SupremeCourt on Monday asked theCentre to file its response on abatch of pleas of over twodozen trainee IAS and IPS offi-cers of the 2018 batch, who havesought parity in the govern-ment’s cadre allocation schemewith 20 of their colleagues,who were granted relief by thetop court last month.

The Supreme Court had,on May 17, granted relief to 20trainee IAS and IPS officers,who had challenged the gov-ernment’s cadre allocationprocess for the 2018 batch, byasking the Centre to accom-modate them by increasingone post each in the statecadres of their preference this

year. After the May 17 order,now two sets of 2018-batchtrainee IAS and IPS officershave moved the apex court —one group of 20 candidates haschallenged the Delhi HighCourt verdict that had quashedthe entire cadre allocationprocess and the other group offive officers has filed a fresh writpetition seeking parity with 20of their colleagues.

Several other trainee IASand IPS officers have alsosought impleadment in thesetwo petitions.

A vacation bench of justicesDeepak Gupta and Surya Kantsaid prima facie it did notagree with the High Court’sview. PTI

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The CBI has booked aMilitary Engineering

Service (MES) engineer fortaking bribe from the employ-ee of an air conditioning plantmaintenance contractor atArmy Command inUdhampur.

Complainant KuldeepKumar alleged in his com-plaint, now part of the FIR, thatJunior Engineer MohammadKhursheed Ansari posted atGarrison Engineer (Utility0,MES, Udhampur allegedly tookbribe of �4,000 per monthfrom his salary of Rs 10,000 permonth.

Kumar was working onbehalf of contractor Manjeet atthe AC plant of the ArmyCommand in Udhampurunder the supervision ofAnsari.

The CBI has bookedAnsari for alleged corruptionunder Jammu and KashmirPrevention of Corruption Act.

Ansari had allegedly threat-

ened Kumar that he will beremoved from service if hedoes not pay the bribe and willbe murdered if he disclosed itto anyone. Ansari allegedlytook the bribe amount of �4,000per month for the last fivemonths, according to the FIR.

In his complaint, Kumarsaid that his wife remains illand he has two children andunable to run his family withhis meager income and thebribe amount being taken byAnsari is leading to immensefinancial hardship.

The complainant also stat-ed that he never wanted to paythe bribe to Ansari but con-tinued doing so due to notbeing highly educated and wasunaware of the legal remediesavailable. He lodged the com-plaint after coming to know ofthe CBI.

The CBI conducted a dis-creet enquiry following a com-plaint from Kumar and the ver-ification by the agency revealedthe allegations to be true andgenuine, added the FIR.

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Madhya Pradesh ChiefMinister Kamal Nath has

met Home Minister Amit Shahseeking over �800 crore as cen-tral grant to check crime againstwomen and children in his Statemore effectively. In his meetingwith the Union Home Ministeron Sunday, the Chief Ministeralso sought for more funds forthe police infrastructure fromthe central schemes.

Nath, who took over as thechief minister in December, hasalso written a letter to the homeminister in this regard. In the let-ter, he drew the home minister’sattention towards one of the sen-

sitive issues of the crime againstwomen and children.

“Considering the sensitiv-ity of this issue, the state gov-ernment is proposing a projectfor comprehensive set up ofinvestigating officers/legal advi-sors/prosecutors and counsel-lors apart from DNA labora-tories and mobile forensicteams exclusively for dealingwith the crime against womenand children. The Budget out-lay required is �880 crore,”Nath said.

He requested the homeminister to support this initia-tive as “this will help in dealingwith one of the most sensitiveissues in the state”.

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Friedrich Engels had said that one ofthe principal outcomes of the pro-letarian revolution would be thewithering away of the State. InIndia, post-2019, the State has

emerged stronger than ever before and it isthe communist parties which are actuallywithering away. While much of the focus afterthe recent Lok Sabha election has been on thedisastrous performance of the Congress, thereal big story is the declining fortunes of thetwo communist parties in India.

The Left parties had a decent presence inseveral States in the early decades after inde-pendence. The undivided Communist Partyof India (CPI) won 16 seats in the first LokSabha election in 1951-52. It rose to 29 seatsin 1962 and got around nine per cent of thevotes polled. After the party split, the CPI andthe Communist Party of India (Marxist)-CPI(M) bagged 42 seats in 1967 but their voteshare hovered around nine per cent. Thistrend continued for three decades. The twoparties put up their best performance in 2004when they together secured 53 seats in the LokSabha, although their vote share had droppedto around seven per cent. Thereafter, their for-tunes crashed. In 2014, the two partiescould win just 10 seats and their national voteshare dropped to just four per cent. This timearound, they are well below the danger markhaving secured just five seats and about twoper cent of the national vote.

The decline of the two communist par-ties and their fellow travellers in the LeftFront can be traced to the loss of popular-ity in their strongholds in West Bengal andTripura and their fluctuating fortunes inKerala. The Left’s fall is most noticeable inWest Bengal where its vote share hascrashed from 50.70 per cent and 32 seats in2004 to 6.28 per cent and zero seats in 2019.

While most political parties around theworld, including communist parties, re-invent themselves to stay afloat and win pop-ular support, the CPI and the CPI(M) havestubbornly stuck to the theories and slogansthat defined them decades ago. Their ideasabout the working class and organisedlabour and about the capitalist-proletariatbinary remain unchanged, even though theworld has moved on.

This writer found examples of this dur-ing the Lok Sabha poll in West Bengal, whereduring the road shows, CPI(M) cadres keptchanting “Inquilab Zindabad” while wavingtheir red hammer and sickle flags. Which rev-olution were they talking about in this day andage when the market economy rules the roost?The best example of how these two partiesare completely out of sync with today’s real-ity is their refusal to acknowledge the advan-tages accruing to the poorest of the poorthrough many innovative schemes like thePradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana, the PradhanMantri Ujjwala Yojana, Pradhan Mantri JanDhan Yojana and the direct benefit transferscheme. Mudra is an innovative programmelaunched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi

to kindle the entrepreneurialspirit among poorer sections ofsociety and to bring about a dra-matic shift in their social and eco-nomic conditions.

Under the scheme, theGovernment provides loans toindividuals from poorer sec-tions of society to establish theirown businesses and pursueentrepreneurship. The idea is to“fund the unfunded.” They getloans ranging from �50,000 to�10 lakh. These small entrepre-neurs and businessmen in turnemploy five to 10 people to runtheir enterprise — be it a smalleatery, a bakery, a garment orleather-goods-making microunit or a tea stall. These Mudrabeneficiaries can be found allover the country and the pro-gramme has the potential tobring about noticeable change inthe living conditions of theunder-privileged classes. Thiswriter met many beneficiariesduring travels in several Statesrecently. Available data on theMudra scheme is indeed heart-ening. Women entrepreneursare the major beneficiaries ofMudra loans across sectors andconstitute 70 per cent of thosewho have taken advantage of thisscheme. Early this year, theGovernment announced that ithad disbursed loans amountingto �7.23 lakh crore.

Under the Ujjwala pro-gramme, the Government pro-

vides free cooking gas connectionto families below the poverty line.Thus far, over 70 million fami-lies have benefited from it.Another such scheme with far-reaching impact is the aim tobuild homes for the poor and toi-lets in every home. Thoughsome of these schemes were ini-tiated by previous Governments,their implementation was slug-gish in the absence of motivationand commitment. Delivery ofthese schemes has picked up paceafter Modi became the PrimeMinister in 2014.

All these schemes are aimedat ensuring the dignity of womenand children, improving theirliving environment and healthand offering them incentives tobetter the quality of lives. Onewould have thought that pro-grammes of this kind would behailed by the communists, butthat has not happened. Thespokespersons of these two par-ties have been consistently run-ning down the Mudra Yojanaand all other schemes meantexclusively to better the lives ofthe poorer classes, simplybecause they were launched byPrime Minister Modi and he isthe driving force to ensure theircompletion within the shortestpossible time. The electionresults show that this kind ofnegativity has not gone downwell with the people.

There are many other factors

which have rendered the twocommunist parties unpopular.The first of these is their approachto secularism. The two partieshave moved far away from theShah Bano days when SomnathChatterjee, Saifuddin Choudhuryand several others took on theMuslim clergy and stronglyopposed the Rajiv GandhiGovernment’s decision to bringin a law to prevent Muslimwomen from taking benefit of acivil law and a Supreme Courtjudgement providing mainte-nance to divorced women. Thatwas in 1986. However, over thelast three decades, the Left hasbecome the standard-bearer ofthe pseudo-secular brigade,become hostile to the Hindumajority in the country and ispretending as if radical Islam isnot an issue at all. The mostrecent example of its contemptfor Hindu sentiment is the wayit handled the Sabarimala issueand encouraged individuals toderide Hindus, their customs andway of life. Where will they gofrom here? Will they do what theBritish Labour Party did somedecades ago and change the waythey think and work? If theyagain turn left, it’s a dead-end. Ifthey turn right, they will cease tobe left! Where are they headed?The nation wants to know.

(The writer is an author spe-cialising in democracy studies.Views expressed are personal)

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Sir — This refers to the editor-ial, “Needed, a healing touch”(June 15). Opposition leaders ofdifferent parties, including WestBengal Chief Minister MamataBanerjee, have always been unit-ed on various aspects in agitat-ing against the ruling BharatiyaJanata Party (BJP). All thoseleaders have maintained a curi-ous silence over the lawful agi-tation by doctors of Governmenthospitals in Bengal, whichaffected healthcare services inother parts of the country aswell, with doctors standing unit-ed with their counterparts inWest Bengal.

Leaders of other politicalparties should have exhibitedtheir loyalty to national andpublic interest by going toKolkata to persuade Banerjee tomend her ways and help inending the strike byGovernment doctors earlier. Sheshould take strict action againstthose guilty of beating doctors inGovernment hospitals. It ispraiseworthy that Union HealthMinister Harsh Vardhan made ahumble appeal to Banerjee toensure an immediate end to the

strike of doctors in Governmenthospitals of West Bengal byaccepting their genuinedemands.

Madhu Agrawal New Delhi

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Sir — The proposed extraditionBill in Hong Kong has become

controversial, creating panic andforcing people from all walks oflife to come out on the streets toprotest. Nearly two million peo-ple have taken part in a massprotest. It is clear that most peo-ple in Hong Kong fear this pro-posed law as it is a matter of his-torical conflict between Chinaand Hong Kong. The Bill itselfwas ill-conceived, flawed andopen to abuse. Had it got a

green signal, any resident oreven outsiders passing throughHong Kong would have beenextradited to mainland China onmere suspicion of seriouscrimes. Hong Kong is but anexample of boldness in the faceof power. It will remain in a cycleof protests unless fears and con-cerns of protesters are addressed.

P SenthilVia email

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Sir — Former Andhra PradeshChief Minister ChandrababuNaidu had locked horns withPrime Minister Narendra Modion the issue of special status tohis State. Now new AndhraPradesh Chief MinisterJaganmohan Reddy is toeinghis predecessor’s line. Odishaand Bihar, too, are in the queuedemanding special status.Special status will ensure that 90per cent of the Central funds forState projects, routed throughthe National DevelopmentCouncil under the PlanningCommission, will be given asgrants. The Special status pitch,if considered by the Centre,will lead to other States demand-ing the same.

Competitive federalism willbe a non-starter if States keepdemanding Central largesse.Instead, they must focus onimplementing wider reformsand more equitable investmentthroughout the State.

KV SeetharamaiahHassan

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It was indeed very encouraging that on thevery first day of his taking over the chargeof the Indian education system, the new

Human Resource Development Ministerreleased the much-awaited draft of the NewEducation Policy (draft NEP-19). In a welcomemove, the draft — both in English and Hindi— was promptly put on the Ministry’s website.This is an outcome of nation-wide consulta-tions that extended over three-and-a-halfyears. It must be appreciated across the boardthat the MHRD has again invited inputs thatpeople, institutions, organisations, expertsand others may like to submit after goingthrough the draft. The MHRD shall be con-sidering these before the final policy isannounced. The draft report clearly indicateshow relevant it has become in the globalisedworld to ensure active dynamism in educationpolicy formulation to ensure it remains rele-vant to absorb challenges that are emergingbefore nations at an unprecedented pace.

The deliberations — before and after thefinalisation of the policy — shall invariablymake references to the earlier education poli-cies, particularly those of 1968, 1986 and 1992.The contents of these earlier reports — at leastin academic and professional circles — shallbe scrutinised in the context of what was pro-posed and to what extent it was really achievedin actual implementation. Chapter five of thedraft NEP-19 on “teachers” begins with theobjective: “Ensure that all students at all lev-els of school education are taught by passion-ate, motivated, highly qualified, professional-ly trained and well-equipped teachers.” Indeed,this is a very well thought out comprehensivepolicy statement that encompasses everyaspect of what a child, community or societycould expect from a teacher.

It will be relevant to recall the initial state-ment of the National Policy on Education of1986/92 (NPE 86/92): “The status of theteacher reflects the socio-cultural ethos of thesociety. It is said that no people can rise abovethe level of its teachers. The Government andcommunity should endeavour to create con-ditions, which will help motivate and inspireteachers on constructive and creative lines.Teachers should have freedom to innovate, todevelop appropriate methods of communica-tion and activities relevant to the needs andcapabilities of and the concerns of the com-munity.” The NPE-86/92 made a very strongstatement that “the system of teacher educa-tion will be overhauled.” It went ahead to rec-ommend the reorganisation of the methods ofrecruitment of teachers to ensure “merit, objec-tivity and conformity with spatial and func-tional requirements.” One was privy to thedeliberations of the 1992 policy revision andformulation and it was agreed upon that therewas no need to make any changes in what wasalready stated in the NPE-86 on teachers andteacher education.

Practically, all that was envisaged in ear-lier policies finds a place again in the new draft,which has comprehensively captured theteacher-education scenario as it exists today.It has given indications for formulating a well-

thought out plan of action in preparation ofteachers, who are supposed to be “passionate,motivated and well qualified, and well trainedin content, pedagogy and practice.” The NPE-92 had assured overhauling of the system ofteacher education and in pursuance of thesame, several schemes were launched by theUnion Government. One of these was theenactment of the National Council for TeacherEducation (NCTE) Act and also the formula-tion of a scheme of restructuring and revital-ising teacher education.

Let us take up NCTE first. It was the ful-fillment of demand of senior and sincereteacher educators for over 20 years to createa regulatory body for teacher education insti-tutions as they were not satisfied with the man-ner universities were handling recognition andregulation of teacher education institutions.There were serious concerns about the restruc-turing and renewal of programmes, contentand pedagogy, which had become out of date.It was inadequate and unable to respond tofast-changing scenarios in school educationwith the advent of computers, internet and uni-versalisation of the accessibility of theInformation and Communication Technology.The demand for the creation of a statutoryNCTE was also accentuated by the mushroom-ing of correspondence courses that were ini-tiated by some universities to clear the back-log of large number of untrained teachers inschools. State Governments had begun tosqueeze the grants to universities, some bril-liant minds converted correspondence cours-es into degree-awarding resource generatingadventures. Every policy implementer in edu-cation must comprehend that the decline in thequality of teacher education began mainlybecause of gross misuse of the distance edu-cation mode by university dons, vice chancel-lors and the University Grants Commission(UGC). The UGC was granting “yearly” per-mission to continue the BeD courses throughcorrespondence, without in any way assessingthe quality of courses and products. The NCTEbecame functional around 1994-95 and in spiteof serious hurdles, could discipline the truantuniversities. Things changed within five-six

years, the NCTE decided to sail along with thetide, the number of private BeD colleges mush-roomed and today it is touching 20,000. It willbe a tough task to create a regulatory mecha-nism that will enjoy credibility among theaspiring teachers. Comprehension of ‘Why theNCTE; or other regulatory bodies could notattain and maintain credibility’ will determinethe fate of the success or otherwise of the pro-posed mechanism that separates funding,standard setting, regulation and accreditation.

Education policy-makers were knowl-edgeable enough to include in the NPE-86 that:“Teachers form the very heart of the educa-tion process — all teachers will have academ-ic and professional support within a motivat-ing environment and culture.” Towards this, theGovernment of India offered extensive finan-cial and professional support to StateGovernments to re-energise their teachereducation institutions. The scheme of estab-lishing a District Institute of Education andTraining (DIET) had the potential to transformthe very face of school education in India. Ithad all the potential to create a vibrant pro-fessional community of teachers. However,most State Governments did not make regu-lar appointments to academic positions evenagainst posts for which the Union Governmentprovided full financial support. They preferredto bring in people on deputation.

Similar was the fate of colleges of TeacherEducation and Institutes of Advanced Studiesin education. These and similar schemeswere revisited — and redesigned — a coupleof times but the originally expected vibrancyalways evaded actual implementation. Whenprivate entrepreneurs witness Governmentinstitutions being ignored and neglected — noregular recruitments and no promotions—they follow the suit, appoint staff only on paperand manage inspections following the well-established — though unstated — practices.The result in over 92 per cent of the privateinstitutions “do not even attempt to providea good education; instead many are function-ing as commercial shops.” And hundreds ofthousands of young people with BeD degreesfrom such institutions are either already in the

system or are ready to enter it. When theTeachers Eligibility Tests were conductedduring the initial years, those who could clearit ranged from one to seven per cent.

But there is a ray of hope. The objectivesof teacher preparation could indeed beachieved effectively if everyone learns sincere-ly and seriously from the success of the pastand more than that from the failures encoun-tered so far. One wonders how long teachersin sarkari schools shall continue to be assignednon-teaching functions by district administra-tions in spite of repeated recommendations notto do so and even court judgments being insupport of it. Is it not cruel to children in a two-teacher school if both teachers are sent out formonths together for census, cattle-head count-ing, vaccination or elections being held ratherregularly? States have shunned their respon-sibility for decades together by not appoint-ing regular teachers. One simply hopes thatofficial hypocrisy will vanish in future and rec-ommendations made (once again) regardingteacher recruitment will sincerely be imple-mented within a time-frame. The Indianteacher education system still has — thoughin a small proportion — dedicated institutionsand academics who are convinced that they arelucky enough to get an opportunity to prepareteachers for tomorrow. Thus, they are makingthe future of India. Let them be identified,given the responsibility, inspire and encour-age others to become partners in building newIndia. India can learn a lot from how Japan —a highly demoralised nation after World WarII — could achieve an unprecedented trans-formation through its teachers: Known for pro-ducing worst products in 50s, the best of theproducts now come from Japan. Yes, teachersdid it. It was the teacher community that con-vinced young impressionable children thatanything they do must be for the welfare oftheir country. That they owe it to Japan to workhard, never waste time and equip them con-tinuously to perform better. India has the expe-rience. It can achieve a real change after thenew education policy is formally announced.

(The writer is the Indian Representative onthe Executive Board of UNESCO)

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The Indian healthcare sector,mostly comprising Governmenthospitals, saves more lives,

relieves more pain and suffering withavailable resources (India’s health-care GDP percentage is 2.5 in contrastto 11.2 in Europe and 17.9 in NorthAmerica) than any other country inthe world. Yet, the sector has becomea public punching bag. Care-relatedwork has metamorphosed into anotion of seva, allowing room to cur-tail the rights of health workers(skilled and unskilled like the ASHAworkers and the like) and their resis-tance is being labelled as “immoral.”

As per Joan Tronto’s theorisationof “care ethics”, it is an approach topersonal, social, moral and political life

that starts from the reality that allhuman beings need and receive careand also give care to others. Care rela-tionships among humans are part ofwhat mark us as human beings; we arealways inter-dependent. In today’scontext, we can argue that care workin India has been normalised as “vol-untary.” A moral tone has been givento the highest skillful worker and theunskilled care-giver all alike.

In recent times, health and alliedpolicies have resulted in a majorrestructuring of the healthcare sys-tem. However, the structural transfor-mation most visible to us is the “pri-vatisation” of healthcare, coupledwith hardline nationalist language. Ifwe trace history, we will see thatchanges during the first few decadesafter independence were at least at thelevel of planning and there was somecommitment to public health. But bythe 1990s, health investments were atthe lowest and public-private partner-ships took over.

Fundamental deficiencies of thecountry maintain status quo, whichare the lack of provision for safe drink-ing water, sanitation, basic medical

care along with lack of civic sense andethical behaviour in “care receivers.”This is a reflection of the lack of atten-tion to the state of healthcare in acountry that touches millions of livesin the corridors of an over populat-ed Government hospital, resulting inoutbursts and breakdown of thehealth ecosystem at the grassroot levelas well as in tertiary care centres. Thisunsettles the morale of healthcare pro-fessionals, who invest a whole decadeor more acquiring degrees and expe-rience and in the process, losing thelarger picture of the society theybelong to. Incidents of assaults onhealth practitioners demoralise themand degrade the noble profession ofmedical care giving.

It is understood that such intoler-ant behaviour is not seen in other pro-fessions like the police, who also dealwith agitated people or one’s over-whelmed with emotions. This is sim-ply because people are aware of thedire consequences of misbehavingwith the trained individual who isequipped with arms and trained inlegal affairs. Can the Government pro-vide the doctors’ community with sim-

ilar training? Can our policy-makersmandate a physical fitness training,push a law and create a legal cell forfrontline medical staff? The otheroption, of course, is to provide ahealthy environment in Governmenthospitals in spite of overcrowding sothat doctors (and healthcare providers)can apply their minds to the best oftheir capability instead of stayingalert, anticipating assaults and threatsfrom a care-seeker from among thecrowd that encircles him/her waitingaround his/her table, jostling andpushing one another as they wait fortheir turn for treatment.

The social aspect of the state ofaffairs hindering medical care deliverycalls for a public health approacharound the perspective that provisionof basic needs is the key to good health.And it includes sanitation, safe drink-ing water, right to treatment, securityfor care providers and mandatory goodcivic sense among care receivers at thehospital interface. A healthy workingclimate allows a practitioner to re-com-mit to caring, continue the profession’stradition of arguing the dignity of peo-ple and shape the social climate with-

in which they practise. A healthcareprovider can become a powerful advo-cate for a climate of caring because ofunique perspectives. A lack of it maylead to a collapse of healthcare services,pushing many to the death hole orcomplicate the state of diseases, lead-ing to prolonged sufferings.

Social movements have alsofuelled new problems, namely de-per-sonalisation of the patients and viola-tion of the right to self-determination,as witnessed in the disability rightsmovement, AIDS movement, queermovement and campaign againstclinical trials among others. De-per-sonalisation is reflected in all spheresof healthcare and in the context ofGovernment hospitals — with corri-dors and doctors’ chambers chokingwith patients — there is hardly a cul-ture of courtesy and social grace. Inthese over-populated set-ups, the firstcasualty is basic human empathy —all we get is brusqueness, negligenceof ‘good’ manners or the right words,disregard for bed-side manner, whichto a patient means bringing him/herhope and comfort to his/her recum-bent or expiring patient. The much-

needed bed-side manner is nothingbut a sneering jibe in today’s state ofhealthcare system where every patientis eagerly awaiting his turn and com-peting with one another for the doc-tor’s attention when they are com-pelled to complete/accomplish care-giving with optimal use of time andexchange of words.

Patients argue that healthcareproviders fail to recognise that illnessand disability are states charged withpersonal meaning. Instead of commu-nicating with patients, they oftenestablish distance that diminishesthem. They withhold information ina manner that precludes hope, usealoof manners and misuse powers.These discourage patients. Patientsappreciate the care-provider to valueinteractive reasoning and therebyenact a climate of caring. It is impor-tant to realise that we are all receiversas well as givers of care, acted upon aswell as agents. This is a difficult posi-tion to understand politically, butstrength and human cooperation canarise only from our recognition of ourmutual interdependence.

(The writer is a pathologist)

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Private sector lender ICICIBank on Monday

approached the NationalCompany Law AppellateTribunal (NCLAT), seeking adirection to NCLT Allahabadto hear urgently its insolvencypetition against JaiprakashAssociates Ltd (JAL) and passthe order without any further delay.

In its plea before the appel-late tribunal, ICICI Bank sub-mitted that there has been noprogress in its insolvency peti-tion filed against JAL, whichwas filed in September last year.The bank alleged that Jaypeegroup’s flagship firm is delay-ing admission of the insolven-cy plea by approaching sever-al judicial forums.

ICICI Bank also said thathearing before the Allahabadbench of National CompanyLaw Tribunal (NCLT) wasadjourned almost 12 timesfrom September 10, 2018, toMay 27, 2019, and suchadjournments were “unfairlydelaying” the resolutionprocess.

Hearing the matter, a sin-gle-member NCLAT bench ofJustice Bansi Lal Bhat directedto list ICICI Bank’s plea on July1 for hearing.

JAL owes around �1,296crore and the bank hadapproached NCLT to recover

the dues by filing an insolven-cy plea against the companyunder section 7 of theInsolvency & Bankruptcy Code(IBC).

However, JAL challengedthe ICICI Bank petition beforethe Allahabad High Court butthe same was rejected. Later,JAL moved Supreme Court,which too refused to stay theapplication.

“However, despite this,there is no development in thismatter,” said ICICI Bank coun-sel on Monday.

“We want direction toNCLT to expedite the matter,”the counsel said, alleging thatthe proceedings before NCLTare being played into the handsof the JAL promoters.

In its petition, ICICI Bankhas requested the appellate tri-bunal to “direct NCLT,

Allahabad Bench to hear the(matter) ... On an urgent andday-to-day basis and pass finalorder of disposal .. .Expeditiously and without anyfurther delay.”

ICICI Bank also allegedthat JAL is delaying the insol-vency resolution process byapproaching several judicialforums “only to prolong anddelay the admission of theInsolvency Application”.

“It is submitted that theRespondent (JAL) has beendeliberately abusing insolvencyresolution process by approach-ing different forums to stay orset aside the InsolvencyApplication,” it added.

JAL was in the RBI’s sec-ond list of 26 defaulters, againstwhich banking sector regula-tor had directed to initiateinsolvency process.

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Financial stability has emergedas a key consideration for

monetary policy formulation inthe post-2008 financial crisisworld beyond the imperatives ofinflation and growth, ReserveBank Governor Shaktikanta Dassaid Monday.

A healthy financial sector isa pre-requisite to improve growthprospects, he said, and expressedconfidence that the end of polit-ical uncertainty with the recentpolls and continuation of eco-nomic reforms may lead to areversal of the current weak-nesses.

The comments come amid aslew of troubles plaguing theNBFCs which account for a fifthof the credit market.

The central bank is taking a“fresh look” at shadow bankingregulation and supervision, andis also monitoring the activitiesof large NBFCs with a view toensure financial stability, Dassaid.

He said while a “delicate bal-ance” is necessary between infla-tion and growth in setting themonetary policy in a flexibleinflation targeting frameworklike the one we adopted since thepast two years, financial stabili-ty is also important in the presentcontext.

“Financial stability hasemerged as another key consid-eration for monetary policy,though the jury is still out as towhether it should be added as an

explicit objective of monetarypolicy,” Das told a group ofsenior IAS officers at the LalBahadur Shastri NationalAcademy of Administration inMussoorie.

“The fact remains thatthough the focus of monetarypolicy is mainly inflation andgrowth, the underlying theme hasalways been financial stability,” hestressed.

The RBI will focus on effec-tive communication and coor-dination to “achieve broadermacroeconomic objectives ofprice stability, growth and finan-cial stability,” he said, adding ahealthy financial sector is a mustto “reinvigorate” the sagginggrowth by improving invest-ment climate.

Das said the Reserve Bank hasaccorded high policy attention toreform both banking and non-banking sectors, and exuded con-fidence that the new NPA guide-lines will “sustain the improve-ments in credit culture.”

On the crisis-hit NBFC sec-tor, he said RBI has issued draftguidelines for liquidity frame-work and is “taking a fresh lookat their regulatory and supervi-sory framework”.

“It is our endeavour to have anoptimal level of regulation andsupervision so that NBFCs arefinancially resilient and robust,” hesaid, and reiterated that RBI will nothesitate to take any step to main-tain financial stability.

The governor also said anumber of steps were taken to

improve commercial viability ofurban co-operative banks like aproposal to establish an umbrel-la organisation and a centralisedfraud registry for them and gov-ernance reforms.

“We are also encouragingvoluntary merger and consoli-dation in the sector to helpreduce operating costs, diversifyrisks and economise on capital,”he added.

Pointing to the 2013 tapertantrum experience, he said mar-ket volatilities in emerging mar-kets could have been avoidedthrough clear advance commu-nication on calibrated with-drawal of monetary policyaccommodation.

Das said even after morethan a decade since the globalfinancial crisis and six years afterthe taper tantrum, the “globaleconomy is still not on a stablegrowth path.”

“India has continued toexhibit robust growth driven byconsumption and investmentdemand in recent past. However,we have seen a loss of speed sincethe second half of FY19 as somedrivers of growth, notably invest-ment and exports, slowed down,”he said, adding activity in agri-culture and manufacturing mod-erated sharply.

It is expected that the end ofpolitical uncertainty associatedwith an election season and con-tinuation of economic reformswould lead to a reversal of thecurrent weaknesses in some ofthe indicators in our economy.

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Shares of Jet Airways plunged18 per cent on Monday as

stock exchanges last weekdecided to impose restrictionson its trading from June 28.

The scrip tanked 16.76 percent to close at �68.30 on theBSE. During the day, it plum-meted 19.56 per cent to hit amulti-year low of �66.

At the NSE, shares plunged18 per cent to close at � 66.95.

On the traded volumefront, 26 lakh shares were trad-ed on the BSE and over twocrore shares on the NSE duringthe day.

In 11 trading days sinceMay 30, the scrip tumbled54.72 per cent from �150.85 onthe BSE. The company’s mar-ket valuation has fallen by

�937.13 crore in these 11 trad-ing days.

Stock exchanges willimpose restrictions on tradingin Jet Airways shares fromJune 28 as part of preventivesurveillance measures to curbexcessive volatility, according toa circular issued last week.

The cash-starved airlinesuspended operations in April.

In a circular onWednesday, the NSE saidshares of the company wouldbe shifted from “RollingSegment to Trade for TradeSegment, wherein the settle-ment in the scrip will take placeon gross basis with 100 per centupfront margin and 5 per centprice band”.

There are restrictions intrading of shares that are underTrade for Trade Segment.

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State Bank ofI n d i a - l e d

consortium ofl e n d e r sMonday decid-ed to send thegrounded JetAirways to theN a t i o n a lCompany Law of Tribunal(NCLT) as they have not yetreceived any concrete propos-al for the airline.

The decision was takenafter a meeting of the lenders.

“After due deliberations,the lenders have decided to seekresolution for Jet Airways underthe bankruptcy code since onlya conditional bid was received,”SBI said in a statement.

The statement further saidthe move was necessitated asthe prospective investor wantssome Sebi exemption deal thedeal which can be worked outbetter under the IBC.

The bank said lenders havebeen taking efforts to find a res-olution for the grounded car-rier outside IBC but now havedecided to seek a resolutionwithin the IBC.

It can be noted that on June10, two operational creditors-

-Shaman Wheels and GaggarEnterprises — had moved theNCLT seeking bankruptcy pro-ceedings against the airlineand on June 13 the tribunal,which is yet to admit the peti-tions put off the matter for fur-ther hearing to June 20.

The tribunal asked theseparties to serve legal notices tothe grounded Jet Airways.

The airline, which wasgrounded on April 17, owes�8.74 crore to Shaman Wheelsand �53 lakh to Gaggar.

Jet Airways owes morethan �8,000 crore to a consor-tium of banks led by the StateBank of India, which now runthe airline, while it has a muchlarger debt pile by way of accu-mulated losses to the tune of�13,000 crore and vendor duesof over �10,000 crore andsalary dues of over �3,000crore.

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Oil cartel OPEC memberUAE has assured India of

uninterrupted supply of oiland LPG despite disruptions inthe Strait of Hormuz, OilMinister Dharmendra Pradhansaid Monday.

India is 83 per cent depen-dent on imports to meet its oilneeds and is reliant on nationslike the UAE to meet half of itscooking gas (LPG) needs.

Pradhan in Twitter postssaid he held telephonic dis-cussions with UAE Ministerand Abu Dhabi National OilCompany (ADNOC) GroupCEOP Sultan Ahmed Al Jaberover tensions in the Gulf regionfollowing attacks on two oiltankers last week.

“Expressed concern at thesupply disruptions in the Straitof Hormuz. Dr. Jaber assuredme of oil and LPG supplies toIndia despite the disruptions,”he tweeted.

The attacks on oil tankerslast week raised concerns oversupplies through the Strait ofHormuz that is the conduit fora fifth of the world’s oil.

“Spoke to UAE Minister of

State and Group CEO@AdnocGroup H.E. Dr. SultanAhmed Al Jaber and discussedways to collaborate and worktogether to strengthen ourhydrocarbon engagement,”Pradhan said.

During the telephonic call,he also discussed UAE’s leadrole in ongoing India’s strategicpetroleum reserves pro-gramme.

The UAE has hired stor-ages in the underground stor-ages India has built as insur-ance against supply disrup-tions.

Pradhan said he also spoketo OPEC Secretary-GeneralMohammed Barkindo on

Monday.“SG Barkindo reaf-

firmed India as an impor-tant partner for OPECand expressed keen inter-est to further strengthenthe India-OPEC partner-ship,” he said.

Pradhan has beenmaking calls to leaders ofoil-rich nations ever sincethe BJP came back topower and he was reap-pointed petroleum min-ister.

“Reviewed current devel-opments in oil markets andongoing supply disruptions.Expressed concern over sig-nificant oil price volatility andresulting challenges to Indianconsumers,” he said on his dis-cussions with OPEC SecretaryGeneral.

India, he said, “will con-tinue to work with OPECmembership on responsibleoil pricing, which is the bestinterests of both producersand consumers.”

Also, it was decided towork towards an early con-vening of the 4th India-OPEChigh-level institutional dia-logue, he added.

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Electric vehicle makers’ bodySMEV Monday called for

imposition of ‘green cess’ onpolluting vehicles besides seek-ing putting of EVs in prioritylending sector to acceleratecreation of a robust ecosystem.

In its Budget wish list, theSociety of Manufacturers ofElectric Vehicles (SMEV) alsoasked the government for adedicated allocation for ‘cleanair’ campaign, which could beintegrated under the SwachhBharat Mission.

“We strongly advocate theimposition of a notional greencess on the polluting vehiclesand use it to accelerate electricmobility,” SMEV DirectorGeneral Sohinder Gill said ina statement.

He further said funds gen-erated from such a cess canhelp reduce burden on theGovernment exchequer.

“This fund could beutilised in the frontloading ofincentives to customers andbring electric two-wheelersprices down to the level ofpetrol two-wheelers,” Gill said.

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Fitch on Monday cut India’sgrowth forecast for the cur-

rent fiscal for a second time ina row to 6.6 per cent as manu-facturing and agriculture sec-tors showed signs of slowingdown over the past year.

The global rating agencyhad earlier in March loweredthe growth estimate for 2019-20 to 6.8 per cent, from 7 percent projected earlier, on weakmomentum of the economy.

The cut in growth forecastcomes ahead of the presenta-tion of the Union Budget onJuly 5.

Indian economy grew at itsslowest pace in five years at 6.8per cent in 2018-19. In theJanuary-March quarter, thegrowth slumped to a five-yearlow of 5.8 per cent. Followingthis India lost the fastest grow-ing economy tag to China,which grew at 6.4 per cent inthe same quarter.

“We see growth forFY2019-2020 printing at 6.6 percent, before stepping up to 7.1per cent in FY 2020-2021 and7.0 per cent in FY 2021-2022,”Fitch Ratings said in its latestGlobal Economic Outlook.

RBI has projected a growthrate of 7 per cent for the cur-

rent fiscal. India’s GDP growth

declined for the fourth con-secutive quarter in January-March, with the economyexpanding by 5.8 per cent,down from a cyclical high of8.1 per cent in the Marchquarter of 2018.

“This is the lowest growthoutturn in five years. The slow-down over the past year hasbeen driven by steadily coolingactivity in the manufacturingsector and, to a lesser extent,agriculture. Weaker momen-tum has been mainly domesti-cally driven, though exportgrowth has also faltered morerecently,” Fitch said.

It said the Reserve Bankhas cut interest rates by 0.25 percent in its June meeting - thethird cut so far this year- in theface of weak growth momen-tum and contained inflation.

“We expect another 25basis point cut later in 2019,which will push the policyrepo rate down to 5.50 per cent.Monetary and regulatory eas-ing from the RBI, along with arecovery in portfolio inflows,should support a recovery incredit to the private sector andreverse the drag from the neg-ative credit impulse,” Fitchadded.

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Patna: Six more children died inBihar’s Muzaffarpur district onMonday, taking the toll due tosuspected Acute EncephalitisSyndrome (AES) to 103 andprompting the state govern-ment to announce a slew ofmeasures to tackle the situation.

According to a releaseissued by the district adminis-tration, 18 deaths were report-ed from the Kejriwal hospitaland 85 from the Sri KrishnaMedical College and Hospital(SKMCH), where Union HealthMinister Harsh Vardhan hadvisited the patients on Sundayand assured their families of allpossible help from the Centre.

While doctors have main-tained that the deaths occurreddue to AES, State officialsclaimed that most of the victims,below the age of 10, have dieddue to hypoglycemia — a con-dition caused by low level ofblood sugar, electrolyte imbal-ance due to high temperatureand extreme humidity.

On Monday, five more chil-dren died at the SKMCH andone at the Kejriwal hospital,while the condition of 12patients at the two hospitals wasstated to be serious, the releasesaid.

Union Health MinisterHarsh Vardhan reviewed the sit-uation at a high-level meeting inNew Delhi, which was attended

by senior officers of the HealthMinistry, Indian Council ofMedical Research and theAIIMS.

Vardhan directed anotherhigh-level team to immediatelyvisit the district and undertakenecessary groundwork for thesetting up of a state-of-the-artmultidisciplinary research cen-tre, according to a statement.

The National Human RightsCommission (NHRC) sentnotices to the Union HealthMinistry and the Bihar

Government over the deaths. Itobserved that despite reportedmeasures taken by theGovernment agencies, deaths ofchildren in such large numberindicated a possible flaw in theimplementation of vaccinationand awareness programmes.

Chief Secretary DeepakKumar said no clear cause ofdeaths could be ascertained sofar and indicated that one of thereasons could be that no rainfall,even pre-monsoon rain,occurred in the district this

year.The chief secretary said the

Government had also decided tosend a team to each household,where children died due to sus-pected AES cases, in order tofind out their social and eco-nomic background,

The purpose, he said, was tofind out whether the deaths hadany link with the background ofthe deceased families.

The official was speaking toreporters after a meeting chairedby Chief Minister Nitish Kumar

on deaths from suspected AEScases and people dying due toheatwave.

The State Governmentwould bear the cost of treatmentof the affected children andreimburse the people reachinghospital by private vehicles ifthey do not get the ambulancefacility, which is free, the officialsaid.

The chief secretary statedthat all the primary health cen-tres (PHC) had been activated,adding that the units wereequipped with administeringsaline and glucose.

He emphasised on the needto create awareness to preventthe disease and said childrenshould be given ORS, should notbe made to sleep with an emptystomach and reach the PHC assoon as possible.

The chief secretary, howev-er, claimed that the percentageof deaths vis-a-vis the numberof admissions of children inhospitals had declined to 26 percent this year, which he said was35-36 per cent in earlier.

He added that the IndiaMeteorological Departmenthad said the heatwave condi-tions would continue for thenext two days in various partsof the State. The departmenthas forecast rainfall and thun-derstorm on Wednesday inparts of the State. PTI

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Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh ChiefMinister Yogi Adityanath onMonday directed officials ofthe Basic and SecondaryEducation Department to nothold files for more than threedays otherwise strict action willbe initiated against them.

He asked the officials toform ‘Shiksha Seva Ayog’ forrecruitment of teachers.

Adityanath was holding areview meeting with the officialsof the state’s Basic and SecondaryEducation Department.

“If any file stays for morethan three days in the depart-ments, strict action will be takenagainst the officer concerned,” hetold the officials, reprimandingthem for the delay in providingtextbooks, bags and uniforms tochildren.

According to an officialrelease, the chief minister saidthat selection to the post of prin-

cipal should be done under theUttar Pradesh Public ServiceCommission and ‘Shiksha SevaAyog’ should be formed tomaintain transparency in therecruitment process.

During the meeting, hedirected the officials to takemeasures to improve the quali-ty of education in schools andasked them to conduct surprisevisits at the educational institu-tions.

Adityanath also emphasisedon installing solar panels inschools and asked principals towork under the KayakalpScheme.

He also asked them to linkAkshay Patra of Lucknow andMathura with Aadhaar cardsunder the mid-day meal scheme.

According to the officialrelease, instructions have alsobeen issued to upgrade theKasturba Gandhi Balika

Vidyalaya up to secondary leveland to check the quality of milkwhich is distributed once aweek in the schools.

Adityanath said teachers inthe state should be awarded andthe criteria for honouring themfixed.

He added that ‘BasicShiksha Adhikaris’ (BSAs), whoare serving at one place formany years, should be trans-ferred.

The Chief Minister hasasked the officials to visit theschools and communicate withthe principals, teachers andemployees twice in a year.

Deputy Chief MinisterDinesh Sharma, Minister ofState for Basic Education andChild Development AnupamaJaiswal and UP Chief SecretaryAnup Chandra Pandey werealso present in the meeting. PTI

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Thrissur (Ker): A State-runAkademi on Monday rejectedthe Left Government’s advice toreview its decision to honour acartoon, depicting BishopFranco Mullakal as a roosterand alluding to the rape chargeagainst him, saying the jury’sdecision was final andAkademi would stand by it.

The decision was takenunanimously at the executivecommittee and the generalcouncil of the KeralaLalithakala Akedmi Akademi,which met at its headquartershere.

An autonomous culturalorganisation of the govern-ment,the Akademi also turneddown the criticism that the car-toon,titled ‘ViswasamRakshathi’ (protection of faith)drawn by K K Subhash ofChengalam, had hurt the sen-timents of the Christian com-munity.

“We have unanimouslydecided not to intervene intothe decision of the expert jurywhich had selected the cartoonfor the award.

Their decision is final andwe will not make any change init,” Akademi chairman NemomPushaparaj told PTI.

“Last time, the award wasgiven to a cartoon criticisingChief Minister Pinarayi

Vijayan. We had never attempt-ed to change that decisionalso,” he said.

The cartoon ‘ViswasamRakshathi’ had appeared in aMalayalam magazine last yearafter Mullakal was accused ofrape by a nun.

Showing Mullakal as arooster, it also has a pinkcoloured lingerie in the crosier(staff), carried by a bishop as asymbol of the pastoral office,while a group of nuns is shownfleeing.

Pushparaj, however, madeit clear that no religious sym-bol was shown in a poor lightin the award-winning cartoon.

“What had been depictedin the cartoon was the symbolof power and not any Christiansymbol.

When the staff is carried bya person, whom we candescribe even as an anti-social,it is just a symbol ofpower.. there is no need toattach any holiness to it,” hesaid.

Two members of theakademi’s general councilbelonged to the same churchdenomination, which hadraised objection to the cartoonand they were also of the opin-ion that there was no need toreview the jury’s decision, hesaid. PTI

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Aizawl: After the proposeddeportation of over 200Myanmarese refugees fromMizoram were deferred twodays ago, the administrationhas taken up fresh initiative torepatriate them, State HomeMinister Lalchamliana saidMonday.

A total of 219 Myanmareserefugees belonging to 54 fami-lies are staying in four villages ofsouthernmost Mizoram’sLawngtlai district sinceNovember 2017.

“The Centre instructed us todeport the foreigners who werein Lawngtlai district’sHmawngbuchhuah village andeven use force if necessary,” theminister said. Lalchamliana saididentification of the refugees wasbeing conducted again as the fig-ures given by the Lawngtlai dis-trict administration and theAssam Rifles authorities didnot tally. Inspector General ofPolice John Neihlaia told PTIthat the government took firmstand on the issue of foreignersentering the state illegally andthat stringent action would betaken against illegal immigrants.

The district administrationon Saturday deferred the pro-posed repatriation of the refugeesto Myanmar on ‘humanitarianground’, Lawngtlai district offi-cials said. PTI

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Pathankot: The special court,which convicted six people inthe murder case of an 8-year-old nomadic girl in Kathua inJammu region, has termed thecrime “devilish and monstrous”committed in the most “shame-ful, inhumane and barbaricmanner” for which “poetic jus-tice” needs to be done to its per-petrators.

District and sessions courthere, hearing the matter on thedirection of the Supreme Court,convicted six people on June 10in the case which includedSanji Ram, dismissed police-man Deepak Khajuria andParvesh Kumar, who have beensentenced to life in jail.

“Heaven and hell are nogeographical locations, ourthoughts, actions and charactercreate the situation of heaven orhell for us,” judge Dr TejwinderSingh wrote in the beginning ofhis 432-page judgment, a copyof which is with PTI.

He said it was needless tosay the commission of this“devilish and monstrous crimehas sent shockwaves across thesociety and the actual guiltyneeds to be brought under thesword of justice.”

He also observed the crimecommitted against the minor is“shameful, inhumane and bar-baric” but said the evidencebrought on record has to betested on a “touchstone in orderto find out the real culprits, sothat no innocent person iscrushed under the wheels in anunjust manner.”

After hearing prosecutionlawyers, comprising S S Basra,J K Chopra, Harminder Singhand Bhupinder Singh, as also abattery of 57 defence lawyers,the judge said, “There is noth-ing on record which couldshow that there is a false impli-cation (as contended by defencelawyers) of accused persons inthis case”. PTI

+��(�� !�� =��(��,� �� ,��!�� Saharanpur (UP): A man was

arrested on Monday forallegedly abducting and sellinga five-year-old boy to a couplefor �20,000 in Uttar Pradesh’sShaharanpur district, policesaid.

The boy, however, was res-cued within an hour and Rs19,000 cash recovered from theaccused, they said.

Senior Superintendent of

Police (SSP) Dinesh Kumar Psaid, the accused, Praveen, is arelative of the boy. The boy’sparents worked as labourers.

The child’s parents wereout on work when Praveenalong with his wife Renu cameto their house in Saloni villageof Sarsava area here and tookSaurabh to nearby Sultanpurvillage, he said.

Praveen then sold the boy

to the couple. The couple hadthree girls, the officer said.

As the child’s parentsreported the matter to thepolice, Praveen was ques-tioned. He later confessed tothe crime.

The accused was taken toSultanpur village where thepolice rescued the boy, but thecouple who had bought thechild managed to flee. PTI

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Mumbai: The Mumbai Policeon Monday opposed the bailplea of three women doctors,arrested for allegedly abettingthe suicide of a junior colleague,saying recording of statementsof eye witnesses was underway.

The Mumbai crime branch,probing the suicide of PayalTadvi, filed its reply to the bailplea before special Judge P BJadhav on Monday.

The police said that sinceTadvi belonged to a ScheduledTribe, the three accused doctorstortured her mentally, raggedher and forced her to commitsuicide.

The accused were abscond-ing for about five days after theincident and during this peri-od, they planned on how totackle police interrogation, theysaid.

Stressing that they were

awaiting the forensic report ofthe mobile phones of theaccused as well as the victim,the police said that if theaccused were released on bail,they will hamper the probe.

The accused-- HemaAhuja, Bhakti Meher andAnkita Khandelwal, attached tothe BYL Nair hospital here,were arrested on May 29 andare currently in judicial custody.

They have been chargedunder relevant sections of theIPC, the MaharashtraProhibition of Ragging Act aswell as the Scheduled Castesand Scheduled Tribes(Prevention of Atrocities) Act.

Meanwhile, the prosecutionmoved an adjournment appli-cation saying it was not in theirhand to arrange the equipmentrequired for video-recording ofthe court’s proceedings. PTI

��4��8��3��*��&�� Jaipur: Amid the ongoing cele-

bration of Mahatma Gandhi’s150th birth anniversary, ChiefMinister Ashok Gehlot onMonday urged youths to imbibeGandhian values of truth, non-violence, peace and simplicity intheir lives.

He also called upon them tospread these values around them.

Addressing the concludingsession of 10-day National UnityCamp here in which youthsfrom different states had come toparticipate, Gehlot said the cel-ebrations of Mahatma Gandhi’sbirth anniversary would contin-ue for a year even after October2 this year.

Mohandas KaramchandGandhi was born on October 2,1869 at Porbandar in Gujarat.

Gehlot also urged youthsattending the National UnityCamp here to carry the spirit ofthe country’s unity and integri-ty to their respective states andimpress it upon the peoplearound them. PTI

Aizawl: The proposed meetingof the Joint Monitoring Group(JMG) on Bru repatriation tobe held in Delhi on Tuesdaywas postponed on the requestof the Mizoram Bru DisplacedPeople’s Forum (MBDPF) lead-ers, a senior State Homedepartment official said hereon Monday.

The JMG comprised oftop officials of the Ministry ofHome Affairs, senior Homedepartment officials of bothMizoram and Tripura govern-ments and leaders of theMBDPF, the official said.

The JMG meeting wascalled to deliberate on the pre-paredness of the stake-holdersfor the repatriation process.

The official said theMBDPF said that they wouldnot be able to attend the meet-ing due to ill-health of theirleaders and the time for hold-ing the next meeting was yet tobe scheduled.

Meanwhile, the Mizoramgovernment has alreadyannounced its proposal tocommence the ninth and final

round of repatriation of Brusfrom October and that theprocess should be completedbefore December this year.

Preparations are in fullswing from May 28, the dayafter the election process forParliamentary polls was overby holding a meeting of thedistrict core committee on Brurepatriation at the border townof Kolasib, followed by a meet-ing at Mizoram-Tripura-Bangladesh border Mamittown and later at Bangladeshborder Lunglei town.

“The repatriated Bruswould be resettled within theAssembly constituencies wherethey had resided in 1997,before the exodus in accor-dance with the guidelines ofthe repatriation,” the officialsaid.

While 4,185 Bru familieswere proposed to be resettledin Mamit district, 822 Brufamilies would be resettled in10 villages in Kolasib district,371 families would be resettledin south Mizoram’s Lungleidistrict. PTI

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Ahmedabad: A man inGujarat’s Valsad district hasbeen booked for allegedly giv-ing triple talaq, prohibited bylaw, to his wife through aWhatsApp message, police saidon Monday.

An official identified theaccused as Jailun Javed Kalia(27) and said he has sent thedivorce message to his fatherJaved Kalia a few days ago.

“The victim, a 25-year-oldwoman now residing with herparents in Umargam town inValsad, filed a complaint onSunday. Jailun, a resident ofSanjan, works in a shippingfirm and is currently abroad,”said Inspector PM Parmar ofUmargam police station.

“Upon getting the divorcemessage from his son, JavedKalia took a print-out andapproached a cleric to for-malise the separation,” he said.

The couple were marriedfour years ago and have a three-year-old son, he said, addingthat the victim has complainedthat she was tortured in hermarital house. PTI

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The heat seems to have no intentionof backing off. When the mornings

are humid and the afternoons aredownright drenching, it’s easy to standin front of your wardrobe and wonderwhat ensemble to don without beingsubsumed by sweat. So how can youfind that elusive dress, which is bothstylish as well as comfortable?

��%�� $“If you have not updated your

wardrobe yet, it is time,” suggestsdesigner Gautam Gupta. “Do away withheavy and dark apparel and dress inlight and bright colours,” he says.Gautam apprises us that the first pref-erence is always to wear somethingcomfortable. While people might thinkthat wearing minimum amount ofclothes might be the best way to go butchoosing the right fabric is a betterstrategy rather than exposing toomuch of skin.

For those who have to be kitted outin formal wear, it is a challenge to findthe perfect business outfit. DesignerRahul Mishra feels that work wearshould be professional, stylish andadaptable to all climates. He prioritis-es comfort over adopting any fashiontrends. “Feeling comfortable is a prior-ity and therefore wearing lighter fab-rics like cottons and linens in creamsand khakis is a good option. Due towarm weather, one should wear some-thing that lets you move freely and atthe same time makes you look glam-orous and fresh,” he says.

��$��%��Gautam bets on linen fabric. He

believes that it is the quintessential sum-mer wear for a good reason. It is light-weight, breathable and dries quickly.“With linen, one may be tempted to gofor a cut sleeves shirt or loose pants.Some more crucial fabrics are cotton,modal, georgette and even chiffon. Oneshould opt for comfort silhouettesinstead of fitted ones. For adding style,one can play with fabrics of disparatecolours or with stitching textures suchas pin tucks or layering,” he says.

The Assamese designer fromToronto, Tara Bhuyan, says, “Peoplemust try to beat the heat by using moreorganic fabrics like Eri (Ahimsa silk cot-ton blend), khadi, chikan and pureChanderi. They are just perfect.”Recently, the National Award-win-ning filmmaker, Rima Das turnedshowstopper for Bhuyan’s recent eventWoven Dreams of Assam in Gurugram.

To figure out which material is themost breathable, Gautam advises finethreads, loose weaves and naturalfibres which prevent trapping air andsweat against the skin. To figure outwhich fabrics have a loose weave, pulla small section taut. Densely woven cot-ton won’t have a lot of stretch while aloose weave will stretch more.

2��%��$��People mostly prefer to wear

white dresses as the colour reflectslight. Designer Reynu Taandonapprises us that she prefers a lighterpalette, especially whites. “It’s betterto wear a white dress in order to keepthe body temperature cool and nor-mal. A white linen kaftan or aChanderi top with a multi-colourwork are the perfect options to lookcool and trendy. Poly fabrics and skin-fitted jeans are difficult to wear dur-ing the searing heat,” advises Reynu.The colours which, according to her,have a great deal of spirit and ener-gy include ivory, white, beige, mus-tard and gold. However, she pointsout, “One should prioritise materialsthat are lightweight and breathable.”

��%��While talking about her prefer-

ence for colours, Tara recommendspastels in stripes and polka dots. Shesays that pastels and a sorbet palettein tie-dye work very well in summers,be it for formal or casual wear. Shefurther explains, “One can pair up awhite linen trousers with a pastelstripe shirt. A polka dotted tee withsome bohemian accessories can becarried off well by everyone for a styl-ish yet casual look. The idea is to wearbreathable fabric, which is also afford-able, yet popular.”

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Unlike previous year whenwomen’s wardrobe was full of elegant,feminine and flattering contours,this year, the outfits are movingtowards a simpler approach to dress-

ing. For Rahul, this year has witnesseda lot more individuality in fashion.People are moving towards interna-tional trends while holding onto tra-dition in prints. We are seeing a playof pastels and statement hues becausenobody wants to look similar to lastyear or even another person. So inorder to give it a fun and bold look,he recommends one to go with ahybrid of contemporary silhouettes.

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Additionally, there’s one thingwhich Tara wants to stress upon — theselection of right accessories. She feelsthat the right ones can create multi-ple looks if teamed up with the samegarments. “During summers, theaccessories that work well are nudecream/nude blush open footwear andhandbag teamed up with Eri cottonblend and linen short scarf and a flop-py headgear. Pearl jewellery creates acool yet formal look. With dark bigshades and a bottle of sunscreen, any-one is ready to face 40 degrees or evenmore,” she concludes.

Afive-hour traffic jam in Dalhousie;hotels displaying ‘full’ in red ontravel booking websites; internet

flooded with pictures of tourists spend-ing the night under the open sky; and res-idents left without adequate resources dueto overtourism — incidents like thesehave become commonplace this summeras the temperatures shoot up. But if onethinks about it, even Everest hasn’t beenspared the evils of tourism. Naturally, thehill stations being more accessible are eas-ier prey.

With weather forecasts unable tokeep pace with the rising temperature,people are scrambling to find an escapefrom the scorching heat and sweatymetro rides in the city. And whiletourists flock to the Himalayas and

other hill stations to find refuge,these places have descended into

chaos. While tourists come hereto absorb the serenity of

the place, theybecome

victims of the travel bug. In short, the hilleconomy is stressed and bursting atseams.

� $��#��Nainital can accommodate 2,000

four-wheelers but more than 4,000 vehi-cles are pouring into the city on a dailybasis. To counter this, the police put up“Nainital Houseful” flexi-banners atBhimtal Chauraha, Kathgodam PoliceChowki Crossing and Nariman Square,to discourage tourist arrivals, but to noavail.

Following this, the Nainital admin-istration decided to restrict the entry oftourists in the hill station if the parkinglots are full and only let them in whenthe traffic has cleared out.

Shimla, which has witnessed a 6.2 percent rise in tourist foot-falls over the pastthree years. This yearit has seen the highest

space crunch as tem-peratures hit more than

40 degrees in the sur-rounding areas of

Delhi NCR, Punjab and Haryana.Ravi Kumar, general manager at RS

Sarovar Portico, Palampur, says, “Thewhole of Punjab, Mumbai and Delhi isrushing to Dharamshala to get some relieffrom the heat. However, this has result-ed in massive over-tourism and traffic onthe roads to such an extent that it is tak-ing two hours to travel over seven kilo-metres. And once you reach there, wherewill you put up?”

A major factor that comes to the foreis the affordability of personal con-

veyance, which in turn, leads to thespace crunch. “Earlier, peo-

ple travelled in

buses or trains, but now they haveswitched to their own cars. This leads tocongestion. Parking space is a major chal-lenge. While the Kullu-Manali highwayis getting broadened, the hill station itselfhas no such provision for it,” says SharadSharma, hotelier, Apple CountryGulmarg Resort, Manali.

He adds that since Manali doesn’thave enough parking space, touristshave no choice but to park their vehicleson the road, “This in turn, results in longcars queues which prolongs the hours onthe road. The holidays are turning intoa tedious exercise rather than an enjoy-able one.”

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in pollution level each year calls for aninspection of human-driven globalwarming. Are our brains wired to ignoresustainable development options whichwould halt climatic changes and offersome respite from the choking heat?

Sandeep Sharma, owner of ShiviramaHotel in Bir, Himachal Pradesh, says,“When people flock to the hills in largenumbers, it not only leads to overtourismbut also uneducated tourism. Even whenthey see a place is overbooked, they stillkeep checking the availability of accom-modations rather than wait for somedays. Some even reach here withoutbookings and are fine with spending thenight in the open and littering around.”

Sanjay Austa, owner of the MeenaBagh Resorts, who has two eco-friend-ly resorts in Himachal one each inShimla and Ratnari, says, “The hill sta-tion is choking up because it was builtonly for 30,000 people but there are2,00,000 people living here currently. Andwith tourists adding to the place’s pop-ulation constantly, it has made it difficulteven for its residents.”

2��Along with the tourists, the residents

in Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhandare also saddled with the baggage thatovertourism brings including a pressureon resources.

Prachi Raturi Mishra, a resident ofLandour in Uttarakhand, shares herexperience of acute water shortage in thearea. “Due to overbooked hotels androads, it’s hard for the kids to reach theirschools in the morning. Water is divert-ed to hotels, which leaves the local resi-dents without water. I’ve never seen thishappen,” she says and goes on to add thatin order to save water, the two childrenin the house bathe on alternative days.

Deepak Sharma, owner of Sim SimHotel in Himachal Pradesh, says, “Thesteep rise in the number of tourists is amajor concern. We are booking morethan our capacity and hence, do not haveadequate resources, especially water.The authorities should have plannedtourism in an efficient and systematicmanner.”

Austa further highlights the knee jerkreaction of the authorities and says, “Thegovernment has come up with a band aidmeasure to curb the water scarcity issueby pumping water from a rivulet. Thiscannot be a long term solution or a sus-tainable one as it is depleting water.Rainwater harvesting, which governmentis not enforcing at all, is what needs tobe done. This in turn is leading toresource crunch.” The situation right nowin the hills demands drastic changesrather than the illusion of the same. Is ittime to have a sustainable hill develop-ment policy?

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Actress-director Konkona Sen Sharma says thougha set of niche audience members and filmmakers

are encouraging a new wave of Indian cinema whichbreaks stereotype, in the larger picture, the investmentstill happens for formula films as opposed to alterna-tive narratives.

Konkona said, “Every year there is a handful of goodfilms coming as a ray of hope but the bulk of the moneyis invested in films that are mediocre, which is justupholding the same stereotype. Look, I am not sayingthat people have to like the kind of films I like. Thereare certain films that are made and people consumingthem, producers are making money so it is a matter ofdemand and supply. It is all great. I only have a prob-lem with the fact that a small budget film has to fightfor a number of screens and right show time with thosefilms that are 10 times of its budget.”

She said the audience needs to question itself aboutthe kind of films that they want to watch in a scenariowhere in most cases, box office result is an indicatorof success. “The audience has shown that for them, itis ‘okay’ to make fun of homosexuals, to have item num-bers, to project a woman who is serving the desire ofa man and his agenda. Here the question arises that ifthey even want to watch a different kind of the film.Do they really want choices?” questioned Konkona.

That is why she believes that film appreciationshould be taught to children from the school level todevelop their taste for a variety of global cinema.

After having worked in films like Page 3, Wake UpSid and Talvar, she says she is getting a lot of acting anddirecting offers for the digital medium but not excit-ing offers from Bollywood.

She will next be seen in her Lipstick Under MyBurkha director Alankrita Shrivastava’s Dolly Kitty AurWoh Chamakte Sitare. “I like Alankrita’s work very muchbecause of the kind of scenes she writes as her femalecharacters are usually what we do not get to see in ourcinema. We have shown women the way they areexpected to be seen in the society — responsible, sac-rificing, morally right but in real, they have a colour-ful life,” she said. F#�&�

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Picture this, artist Ram Kumararrives in Paris at the end of 1949.He has a few works with him,

which were done in India. Amongthem is a work titled Twins. The priceof this gouache on paper is �65.Another is called Why Can’t I Get Sleep,which has a romantic reverie about itas you see a young maiden recliningwith a woman who is sitting next to herin companionship, perhaps presidingover the travails of the world. The workbelongs to Olga Bogroff, a gallery per-sona in Paris, who used her home asa gallery for young unknown artists.It was called Galerie Olga Bogroff andthese works today form Grosvenor’sstunning South Asian Modern Artexhibition.

�� $��%�$#��Kumar’s works are a reflection of

an early romance with the figurativeand a study on female studies thatunravel like jewels from the yesteryear.Twins and Why Can’t I Get Sleep aretwo succinct works steeped in histo-ry. This is perhaps the best time to goback in 1993 to Ram Kumar’s wordsas he recalled, “Perhaps every artiststarts with the figurative becausewhen we go to an art school, there isa model and we have to do drawings,learn anatomy and all that. So perhapsit is a very natural thing, along withlandscape, at least for me. The reasonI made these sort of paintings, was thatI was a bit inspired by the left politicsat that time and I was inclined towardsthe tragic side of life. It all started here,becoming more mature in Paris. Andeven if I had not been inspired by pol-

itics, perhaps I would have madethe same kind of paintingsbecause that is a part of mynature some sort of sadness,misery or whatever it is. Also myshort stories are always towardspeople who have suffered.”

�� 2�� Twins has two female figures,

their saris billowing in the breeze,while Why Can’t I Get Sleep hasa reclining young woman with abare midriff, eyes wide open rest-ing in leisure while another sitsnext to her. The division of thespace into a grill and the fore-ground textured with smallstrokes speaks of both simplici-ty and sophistication. In thiscomposition, Kumar creates atableau vivant. This paintingcombines the realism and cultur-al symbolism of a social constructwith the contrast of two complex-

ions — the bronze skin and thefair toned lass, who is unable toget sleep. Indeed it also reflectsa romantic dalliance in the fea-tures that Kumar created with asoftness and feminine aura thatsparks hope, and the subtle playof pensive poise.

The third figurative is anoth-er head turner from 1949. Sorrowhas a number of women with theelongated dark faces and holloweyes. The drapes on these womenare indeed a testimony to mod-ernism and the beauty of weav-ing in a language that was aheadof its time. Even when he creat-ed figurative, Kumar had a deepunderstanding of fluid lines, fer-vour and creating an expressionin his triangular faces that wasunique to its time and place.Kumar was acutely aware of hisurban surroundings and thesense of togetherness in sorrowis the mood that he binds in thishistoric image. It is an insight toboth technique and treatment. Inthis image of women in sorrow,Kumar treats the feminine figureswith a sombre tenderness, invok-ing the idioms of both sympathyand sorrow. It is the mood of thegathering and the grace in sad-ness that transcend their own cir-cumstances.

While looking at these epicearly works one recalls the wordsof India’s greatest abstract guru,the thinker, the critic and thegenius J Swaminathan when hewrote in an essay on Trends in

Indian Modernism, for the LalitKala Contemporary published in1995.

“Ram Kumar, an artist bornand brought up in the atmos-phere of the city middle class,looking into the empty souls ofpeople ground down by thegruelling run of the daily mill,looking into eyes that have losttheir animation, eyes that arewindows opening into noth-ingness, is again a painter whohas relied on his personal visionfor his artistic endeavors, saddrooping figures, rendered withchildlike directness, lingeringlike shadows in gloomy sur-roundings of gaunt and emptystreets and houses.”

And then there is the bril-liant observation of Shyam Lalwho wrote, “As a young artist,Ram Kumar was captivated by orrather obsessed with the humanface because of the ease andintensity with which it registersthe drama of life. The sad, des-perate, lonely, hopeless or lostfaces which fill the canvases ofhis early period render withpathos his view of the humancondition.” This small suitebelonging to Olga Bogroff is thestuff of history, the testament ofIndian contemporary art’s gen-esis in Paris and the connectionof great French ambassadorsand diplomats who played sucha seminal game in the growth ofContemporary Indian art’s mas-ters The Progressives.

Imagination has no restrictions. Who would know this bet-ter than Lewis Carroll? When Alice stepped through the

looking glass one summer afternoon and fell down a rab-bit hole, a tale replete with mystery, magic, twisted poetry,rhymes, confusion and logic came to the fore, where rab-bits could talk and caterpillars would smoke hookah.

As artists Nusrat Ansari and Ainee Farooqui present theclassics — Alice in the Wonderland and Through theLooking Glass — through the art of dastangoi, Nusrat explainshow the duo brought out Alice’s story’s essence through theart form. She says, “Dastangoi has been picking up a lotrecently. It’s written in a way that it naturally brings out theessence of a story. It is such a natural art form that it staysalive within the audience too as much as the performers.”

She says the art form involves a lot of improvisations andvoiceovers, since this time they had kept it very interactiveas well. But how? Nusrat explains with an instance, “WhenAlice has to guess the age of the queen, she tries to transferthe questions to the audience. So this way it is interactive.And it was so good to see that the audience was also active-ly participating in giving the answers and making the guess-es.”

The artist says that such classics remain timeless and ever-relevant, and hence are narrated time and again. Hence, whileCarroll’s classics had been penned in the 19th century, theyremain relevant and ever-engrossing even today.

There are multiple interpretations of a character. Whenit was first presented by dastangos Poonam Girdhani andAnkit Chadha, they had their own interpretation of her, shesays. Chadha had once said that the reason he chose Alice’sstories to begin their work for children is because her adven-tures are tilismi (magical) in nature, and the flavour of fan-tasy is similar to what they find in traditional dastans. Nusratsays, “My understanding and interpretation of Alice is thatshe is a very smart woman and one of those who knows thatthey are smart people. Even though she is being called anescapist and a lonely person, I see her as someone who findsher own way through her struggles, is a dreamer and believ-er, and has vivid ideas and imagination. She is a strong womanwho can find out her ways.”

The dastan, based on Carroll’s classics, starts with Aliceentering the fantasy land and discovering the world throughthe looking glass. After her size changes multiple times, Alicebegins her journey on the chessboard to become a queen.

Talking about how the art form has evolved over theyears, which had lost its charm among the audience in thelate 1920s and brought back to life by Mahmood Farooquiduring 2005. “People were amazed by what they saw andwanted to continue it after that. They saw it as an art formand an engaging form of storytelling.”

This is the first time, she says, that the classic is beingpresented even to the adults when it is mostly labelled as chil-dren’s tales or literature. “We did not just focus on childrenbut kept in mind the adult audience too. And even they wereequally engaged throughout.”

In Manhattan Federal Court, there’s a trialtaking place that has highlighted just how

murky the business of art authentication hasbecome.

After suddenly closing in 2011 in thewake of massive lawsuits, Knoedler Galleryand its former director, Ann Freedman, arecurrently faced with a civil lawsuit by col-lector and Sotheby’s chairman Domenico deSole, who thought he had bought anUS$8.3 million Rothko from the gallery. Itwas actually painted by Pei-Shen Qian, aChinese immigrant living in Queens.

But the collapse of the Knoedler, NewYork’s oldest art gallery, was much more pro-tracted and complex.

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When Michael Knoedler arrived inNew York in 1846, the city had virtually noart dealers to speak of. He sold inexpen-sive prints from Paris. By the turn of the cen-tury, the gallery advanced into the field oforiginal old masters.

But the ongoing court case isn’t the firsttime the gallery has been embroiled in nefar-ious dealings. In 1931, representatives ofKnoedler purchased 21 masterpieces fromRussia’s Hermitage Museum for AndrewMellon in a set of secret sales sanctioned byJoseph Stalin. The works included van Eyck’sAnnunciation and Botticelli’s Adoration of

the Magi, which sold for roughly $900,000.The deal was brokered by Armand Hammer,an American with close business ties to theSoviet Union.

Nor is the recent case their first brushwith forgery. In the 1958 edition of Art NewsAnnual, the gallery took out a full-page adwith a 1948 Matisse that turned out to be afake.

��$�� Soon after Knoedler found itself teeter-

ing on bankruptcy. In 1971, the gallery wassold for $2.5 million – to their old partnerin the Hermitage deals: Armand Hammer.

Hammer appointed his business part-ner Maury Leibovitz to run the operation.Leibovitz, in turn, hired a well-connectedart world figure, Lawrence Rubin, as gallerydirector.

Leibovitz and Rubin reversed flaggingrevenues by switching back to mid-centu-ry and contemporary art.

�� $��%��Armand Hammer died in 1990, and hisgrandson, Michael A Hammer, assumedcontrol of the gallery. When Leibovitzdied in 1992, the gallery’s relationship

with Neiman deteriorated. Then, in 1994,Michael Hammer dismissed Rubin whichcaused an exodus of artists led byRauschenberg.

The gallery needed to find a source of

income. Enter: an obscure Long Island gal-lerist named Glafira Rosales, who represent-ed undiscovered Abstract Expressionistworks belonging to an anonymous “Mr. X.”which he was willing to sell below-marketprices.

In 1993 the estate of RichardDiebenkorn claimed two drawings from hisOcean Park series were fakes. Without theprofits from these sales, however, Knoedlerwould have likely collapsed.

In fact, much of the argument for AnnFreedman’s culpability in the ongoing trialcomes from the unlikely profitability of thesesales. Many had achieved resale values fiveto eight times their purchase price fromRosales.

Yet despite some more red flags —including a Pollock sold in 2002 that theInternational Foundation for Art Research(IFAR) couldn’t find support for the claimedprovenance — Knoedler’s continued to sellworks coming from the collection ofRosales’ mysterious Mr. X.

The full scale of the alleged conspira-cy, however, became apparent only throughtwo concurrent cases.

One was a Robert Motherwell paintingfrom the artist’s Elegy to the Spanish Republicseries sold by Julian Weissman, a formerKnoedler employee.

The Dedalus Foundation (which pub-lishes the authoritative compendium of

Motherwell’s body of work) first wrote in2007 that it would be included in theupcoming edition. However, it wrote backtwo years later to say it would not as thepiece had been tested and found to containmaterials not yet patented at the time thepainting was purported to have been made.

The other case involved another Pollockthat Knoedler sold to hedge fund managerPierre Lagrange with an assurance, appar-ently, that it would be included in the updat-ed edition of Pollock’s catalogue raisonné.In fact, the artist’s authentication board hadbeen disbanded since 1995. When nomajor auction house would accept the paint-ing for sale, Lagrange filed a suit in 2011,and the gallery promptly closed.

The biggest indictment, however,may concern the abstract expressionist artmovement. The current court case sur-rounds a Mark Rothko forgery that ArtBasel founder Ernst Beyeler described as“sublime.” After all, if a Chinese immigrantin Queens could do them all quite con-vincingly, one has to wonder how manyother abstract expressionist fakes havebeen bought and sold.

And if a high-profile gallery was will-ing to sell them, can anyone really trustthe authentication process that’s in place– for abstract expressionist works andbeyond? F��

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Iran will break the uraniumstockpile limit set by Tehran’s

nuclear deal with world pow-ers in the next 10 days, thespokesman for the country’satomic agency said on Mondaywhile also warning that Irancould enrich uranium up to 20per cent — just a step awayfrom weapons-grade levels.

The announcement byBehrouz Kamalvandi, timedfor a meeting of EU foreignministers in Brussels, putsmore pressure on Europe tocome up with new terms forIran’s 2015 nuclear deal.

The deal has steadilyunraveled since the Trumpadministration pulled Americaout of the accord last year andre-imposed tough economicsanctions on Iran, deeply cut-ting into its sale of crude oilabroad and sending its econo-my into freefall. Europe has sofar been unable to offer Iran away around the US sanctions.

The development comes inthe wake of apparent attacks onoil tankers last week in theMideast, assaults thatWashington has blamed onIran. While Iran has deniedbeing involved, it has usedmines in the past against com-mercial traffic around the cru-cial Strait of Hormuz, throughwhich a fifth of the world’scrude oil passes.

Kamalvandi accusedEuropeans of “killing time” asthe clock runs down.

“If this condition contin-ues, there will be no deal”anymore, Kamalvandi said.President Hassan Rouhani,greeting France’s new ambas-sador to Tehran on Monday,similarly warned that time wasrunning out for the deal.

“The current situation isvery critical and France and theother parties to the (deal) stillhave a very limited opportuni-ty to play their historic role forsaving the deal,” Rouhani said,according to his website.

Under terms of the nucleardeal, Iran can keep a stockpile of no more than 300kilograms of low-enriched uranium.

Kamalvandi said that givenIran’s recent decision toquadruple its production oflow-enriched uranium, itwould pass the 300-kilogramlimit on Thursday, July 27.

The United Nationsnuclear watchdog, theInternational Atomic EnergyAgency, said last month thatIran still remained within itsstockpile limits. The Vienna-based agency declined to com-ment Monday on Iran’sannouncement.

Kamalvandi said Iranneeds 5 per cent enrichmentfor its nuclear power plant insouthern Iranian port ofBushehr and it also needs 20per cent enrichment for aTehran research reactor.

The nuclear deal had lim-ited Iran to enriching uraniumonly to 3.67 per cent, which is

enough for power plants andpeaceful purposes.

But after America’s pulloutand escalated sanctions, Tehranset a July 7 deadline for Europeto come up with better termsfor the deal, or it would takeadditional steps away from theaccord, likely meaning it wouldboost enrichment further.

Kamalvandi enforced thatstance, saying that Tehran willincrease uranium enrichmentlevels “based on the country’sneeds.” Enriching a supply ofuranium means boosting itsconcentration of the type ofuranium that can power anuclear reaction.

That type, or isotope, iscalled U-235. Enrichment basically means stripping awayatoms of another isotope, called U-238. Boosting its puri-ty to 20 per cent means remov-ing 22 more unwanted isotopesper atom of U-235, while goingfrom there to 90 per cent puri-ty means removing just fourmore per atom of U-235.Ninety percent is consideredweapons-grade material.

That means going from20 per cent to 90 per cent is arelatively quicker process,something that worries nuclearnonproliferation experts. Iranmaintains its nuclear programis for peaceful purposes.

Iran reached its nucleardeal with world powers in2015, agreeing to limit itsenrichment of uranium inexchange for the lifting of eco-nomic sanctions.

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A22-year-old Pakistani blog-ger and journalist known

for criticising the country’spowerful military and the spyagency ISI was hacked to deathby an unidentified men here,police said on Monday.

Muhammad Bilal Khan,having over 16,000 followers onTwitter, 48,000 on his YouTubechannel and 22,000 onFacebook, was with his uncleEhtesham, when he received aphone call after which a mantook him to the nearby foreston Sunday night, Dawn newsquoted police as saying.

Superintendent of PoliceSaddar Malik Naeem said Khanwas attacked in the G-9/4 areaof Islamabad and was shifted to

a hospital where he succumbedto his injuries. His uncle wasseverely injured and has beenhospitalised, he said.

The suspect used a daggerto kill him, Naeem said, addingthat some people heard gun-shot firing as well.

Apart from being a socialmedia activist, Khan was alsoa freelance journalist.

He hailed from Gilgit-Baltistan and was a Shariahgraduate from the InternationalIslamic University of Islamabad(IIUI), according to ExpressNews.

Soon after his killing,#Justice4MuhammadBilalKhanstarted trending on socialmedia.

Several Twitter users saidthat his criticism of the

Pakistan Army and the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) led tohis killing.

“Pakistani activist andjournalist Mohammad BilalKhan was shot dead last nightin Islamabad. Khan was knownfor his criticism of the all-pow-erful military and its notoriousspy agency,” a man said in atweet.

The deceased’s fatherAbdullah said that his body hadmarks of a sharp tool.

“My son’s only fault wasthat he spoke about theProphet,” he said.

A case was registeredunder various sections includ-ing the Anti Terrorism Act.

The incident has createdfear among people, Khan’sfather said.

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A44-year-old Indian-American IT professional

and his three family members,including two minor sons, havebeen found dead with gunshotwounds inside their home inthe US state of Iowa, authori-ties said Monday.

The bodies ofChandrasekhar Sunkara,Lavanya Sunkara, 41, their 15-year-old and a 10-year-old sonswere found in their home onSaturday morning. Autopsieswere pending to determinethe official causes of death, butpolice said all had gunshotswounds, West Des Moinespolice said in a statement.

Chandrasekhar was known

as Chandra. The IowaDepartment of Public Safety(DPS) confirmed that he wasan IT professional employee inthe Technology ServicesBureau for the the depart-ment.

“Our hearts and prayers goout to the family and friends ofthe Sunkaras,” the DPS said ina statement.

Officers with the West DesMoines Police Departmentwere sent at around 10 am OnSaturday to the 900 block of65th Street, where they foundthe bodies.

The police said they alldied of apparent gunshotwounds but an autopsy hasbeen scheduled to determinethe exact cause of death.

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Protesters in Hong Kong leftthe streets, averting possible

clashes Monday after hagglingfor hours with police by movingto areas near the city’s govern-ment headquarters.

The demonstrators whostayed after a massive protestmarch the day before, demand-ing that Chief Executive CarrieLam abandon a proposed extra-dition bill, were seen streamingMonday morning into a spaceoutside Hong Kong’s LegislativeCouncil after police who hadcleared it reopened the area.Their decision to move allowedpolice to reopen streets to traf-fic. The activists have rejected anapology from Lam for her han-dling of the legislation, whichhas stoked fears of expandingcontrol from Beijing in this for-mer British colony.

“We are very angry thatCarrie Lam has not responded

to the demands of all the pro-testers, but now is the time totalk about strategy, and talkabout strategy is to how abouthow to make the whole struggleinto a long-term struggle andnot a day struggle, so if CarrieLam does not respond to the fivedemands by the protesters, peo-ple will come back and thestruggle will continue,” said LeeCheuk-yan, a former legislatorand activist.

Shortly after daybreak, thepolice had asked for cooperationin clearing the road but said theprotesters could stay on thesidewalks.

For a time, the protesters,many in masks and other gearto guard against possible use oftear gas, responded with chants,some kneeling in front of theofficers.

Hundreds were lying or sit-ting on the roads until theyagreed to move to the plaza out-side the government building

and a spacious nearby park.Activists had called on

Hong Kong residents to boycottclasses and work, though it wasunclear how many might heedthat call. Nearly 2 million of thecity’s 7 million people turned outon Sunday, according to esti-mates by protest organizers.

Police said 338,000 werecounted on the designatedprotest route in the “peak peri-od” of the march. A week earli-er as many as 1 million peopledemonstrated to voice theirconcern over Hong Kong’s rela-tions with mainland China inone of the toughest tests of theterritory’s special status sinceBeijing took control in a 1997handover. The scenes were similar to those seen nearly five years earlier, when protest-ers camped for weeks in thestreets to protest rules that pre-vented the direct election of thecity’s chief executive, the toplocal official.

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Hong Kong democracyactivist Joshua Wong

called on the city’s pro-Beijingleader Carrie Lam to resignafter he walked free fromprison on Monday, as historicanti-government protestsrocked the city.

“She is no longer qualifiedto be Hong Kong’s leader,”Wong told reporters. “Shemust take the blame and resign,be held accountable and stepdown.” Wong was sent toprison in May after he lost anattempt to quash a jail sentenceover the huge democracyprotests he helped lead in 2014.

His release comes as HongKong is rocked by historicanti-government protests.

They were initially sparkedby mass public opposition to a

plan to allow extraditions toChina.

But the movement hassince morphed into the latestexpression of public rageagainst both the city’s leadersand Beijing.

Speaking to the media out-side Lai Chi Kok CorrectionalInstitute, 22-year-old Wongcalled on protesters to contin-ue their protests and civil dis-obedience campaign.

“We demand Carrie Lamto step down, completely with-draw the extradition law, andretract the ‘riot’ label,” he said,referring to Lam’s previousterm to describe protestersearlier in the week.

He also condemnedauthorities for firing tear gasand rubber bullets during vio-lent clashes between protestersand police on Wednesday.

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Papua New Guinea will notrenew a contract with an

Australian company providingsecurity at Pacific refugee camps,a senior minister has told AFP,in another setback for the deeplycontroversial policy.

S ingap ore-reg i s tere dPaladin Holdings provides secu-rity and other services at three“transition centres” for refugeesbeing held on Papua NewGuinea’s remote Manus Islandafter trying to get to Australia.

Canberra has turned backthousands of refugees arrivingby sea, instead putting them inoffshore camps where mental ill-ness and suicide attempts arerife. The policy has cost Australiabillions of dollars and earned itinternational opprobrium, butremains a vote winner at home.

Yet the new government inPort Moresby, Papua NewGuinea’s capital, plans to “ter-minate (the) Paladin contract byend of this month” saidImmigration Minister PetrusThomas.

Thomas said hisGovernment had notifiedAustralia’s home affairs depart-ment that it will launch a “trans-parent tender process” thatfocuses on local firms’ partici-pation.

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President Xi Jinping wouldmake his maiden visit to

Pyongyang this week - the firstby a Chinese leader in 14 yearsin a big boost to the NorthKorean leader Kim Jong-un,who is under heavy pressurefrom the US to give up nuclearweapons programme.

Xi will visit DemocraticPeople’s Republic of Korea(DPRK) - the official name forNorth Korea - from June 20 to21, at the invitation of Kim, thespokesperson for theInternational Department ofthe ruling Communist Party ofChina, Hu Zhaoming,announced here.

His visit coincides with the70th anniversary of the estab-lishment of diplomatic tiesbetween the two countries.

Xi’s visit, the first by aChinese leader in 14 years to theinternationally isolated country

reeling under UN sanctions forpursing nuclear weapons pro-gramme, comes ahead of hisproposed meeting with USPresident Donald Trump onthe sidelines of G-20 summitscheduled to be held on June 28-29 in Tokyo.

The last state visit made bya Chinese president to NorthKorea was in 2005 by thenChinese president Hu Jintao atthe invitation of the formerNorth Korean leader Kim Jong-il.Kim, who had two summitmeetings with Trump, is underimmense pressure from the US

president to give up the nuclearprogramme. Their summit atHanoi, Vietnam in Februaryfailed and Trump staved offpressure to agree to lift cripplingUN sanctions.

Kim, who shares close tieswith President Xi, has travelledto China ahead of his proposedmeetings with Trump, prompt-ing the US president Tump toallege that the Chinese Presidentwas negatively influencing theNorth Korean leader fromclinching a deal to give up thenuclear programme. The NorthKorean leader has visited Chinafour times in recent years.

Commenting on Xi’s visit,Chinese strategic experts saidthat making such a significantvisit before the G20 summitshows that China is trying to fur-ther highlight its unique influ-ence to push forward the peaceprocess on the Korean Peninsulanuclear issue.

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Thirty people were killedlate Sunday in a triple sui-

cide bombing in northeastNigeria, emergency servicesreported, in an attack bearingthe hallmarks of the BokoHaram jihadist group.

Three bombers detonatedtheir explosives outside a hallin Konduga, 38 kilometres (24miles) from the Borno statecapital Maiduguri, where foot-ball fans were watching a matchon TV.

“The death toll from theattack has so far increased to30. We have over 40 peopleinjured,” Usman Kachalla, headof operations at the StateEmergency ManagementAgency (SEMA), said onMonday.

An earlier toll from theblasts, the bloodiest in months,gave 17 dead and 17 wounded.

The attack happened

around 9:00 pm (1800 GMT),Ali Hassan, the leader of a self-defence group in the town, said.

The owner of hall pre-vented one of the bombersfrom entering the packedvenue.

“There was a heated argu-ment between the operatorand the bomber who blewhimself up,” Hassan said byphone.

Two other bombers whohad mingled among the crowdat a tea stall nearby also deto-nated their suicide vests.

Hassan said most of the victims were from out-side the soccer viewing centre.“Nine people died on the spot,including the operator, and 48were injured,” Hassansaid.Kachala said the high number of fatalities was because emergencyresponders had been unable to reach the site of the blastquickly.

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A“suspected explosion” nearthe China-North Korean

border caused a small earth-quake on Monday, Chineseseismology authorities said,less than an hour after newsbroke about Chinese PresidentXi Jinping’s upcoming trip toPyongyang.

According to the ChinaEarthquake Networks Center,the 1.3-magnitude earthquakewith a zero-metre depthoccurred at 19:38 pm (1138GMT) in Hunchun city innortheastern Jilin province.

It was unclear what causedthe explosion.

In the past, nuclear tests byPyongyang have causedtremors around the northernborder China shares withNorth Korea.

But the latest incidentoccurred more than 200 kilo-metres (125 miles) fromPunggye-ri, the North’s nuclearsite under Mount Mantap.

Analysts played down thetremor, saying it may havebeen caused by a number offactors.

“Don’t be alarmed just yetfolks,” tweeted Vipin Narang, asecurity studies professor at theMassachusetts Institute ofTechnology. “Mining explo-sions for example can causesmall tremors.” An official atSouth Korea’s meteorologicaladministration said there was“nothing in particular that canbe detected through the seismicwaves”, according to the coun-try’s Yonhap news agency.

In September 2017, a testconducted at North Korea’snuclear site at Punggye-ri trig-gered a 6.3-magnitude earth-quake that was felt acrossChina’s northern border.

Chinese seismologists later con-cluded that Pyongyang’s mainnuclear test site had partiallycollapsed, rendering it unusable,following the massive bombblast -- which the North claimedwas a hydrogen bomb test.

Experts later cast doubt onthat claim, with Jeffrey Lewis ofthe Middlebury Institute ofStrategic Studies commentingthat there was “no evidence”that it was unusable.

In January 2016, Chineseborder residents in northernJilin province were evacuatedfrom buildings after feelingtremors from a North Koreannuclear test.

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Calmness has always been RohitSharma's biggest asset and the bliss

of fatherhood has only enhanced hiscomposed personality, somethingwhich has reflected in his stellar per-formances in the World Cup.

The Indian vice-captain has hit thehigh notes with hundreds againstSouth Africa and Pakistan along witha half-century against Australia.

For him, more than planning andpreparation, it is the "head space" thathas made all the difference.

"I think it's just the space I am inright now. It's a very good phase in mylife. Having a daughter in my life actu-ally has put me in a good space. So,yeah, I think I'm enjoying my cricket,"Rohit said after his match-winning 140off 113 balls against Pakistan here onSunday.

"I think as a team we're heading inthe right direction. For us, it is impor-tant to just keep ticking all the boxes,and I think, as a team, we have donethat most of the time," Virat Kohli'sdeputy echoed his skipper's senti-ments.

In every match so far, Rohit's riskassessment has been immaculate in theinitial phase of the innings.

"The last two days we were here,the pitch was under the covers, and itwas a little soft when we started.When the conditions are like that, itbecomes more of a new ball game andthen the opposition can put pressureif you lose a few wickets," he said.

His captain had termed Rohit'shundred against South Africa as hisbest ODI innings.

So when asked where he wouldrate his match-winning effort againstPakistan, Rohit responded nonchalant-ly."I'm sure if I get 100 in another game,you'll ask me the same question. Wasthis satisfying," he laughed.

"I don't know. It's hard to put anyknock on the top because all thoseknocks you play for your country arevery, very important," he said.

Against Pakistan, Rohit scored 30runs through cuts and 28 through pullshots which included seven fours andthree sixes.

Was he pleasantly surprised thatPakistan bowlers, especially HasanAli and Wahab Riaz, bowled short andwide to him?

"I don't know what happens intheir team meeting, whether it's to bowlup (fuller) or bowl short. The first 10overs, they bowled pretty well. Of

course, we know in England, once youare in, it's very hard for the bowlers tocome back, and there's not enoughroom for error. That is pretty simple,"said the second highest aggregator inthe competition (319 runs) behindAaron Finch (343 runs).

But he did agree that Pakistanbowled to his strength as the inningswent on.

"They did bowl up (fuller) a fairamount, but then, again, as a batsmanyou are ready to just pounce on it whengiven or bowl to your strength. So Ithink it is my strength when someonebowls short to me," he added.

The best response to a questionwas the one with which he signed off.

A Pakistani journalist asked, whatwould be his advice for Pakistan teamwhich is in a crisis situation, he said:"Jab main Pakistan team ka coachbanoonga tab jawab doonga (I willanswer when I become Pakistancoach)".

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Pakistan captain Sarfaraz Ahmed hasreconciled to the fact that they "were

a better team than India in the 90's" andnow the tables have turned.

The soft-spoken Pakistan captainwas literally hounded by his country'smedia with a host of uncomfortablequestions following the team's heavydefeat against India here on Sunday.

Asked if the Indo-Pak rivalry has fiz-zled out over the years, Sarafaraz said:"We are not handling pressure well. Theteam that handles pressure in thesegames win. The Pakistan teams of the90's, used to enjoy upper hand but nowIndia is better than Pakistan. That's whythey win matches."

Prime Minister Imran Khan's advicewas "bat first even if the pitch is damp"but Sarfaraz Khan doggedly defended hisdecision, saying the reason for defeat was"failure in all three departments".

The Pakistan Prime Minister and aniconic World Cup winning captain, in aseries of tweets on the marquee clash,had spoken about the right approach forthe high-pressure game.

"The whole team is not performingwell in all three departments. If you talkabout fielding, even Virat Kohli had saidthat he would have fielded. We haven'tseen the pitch for two days. There wassome moisture and hence I decided onfielding. We won a good toss butdidn't hit the right length," saidSarfaraz.

A defeat against Indiainevitably gives rise to conspiracytheories and the post match mediainteraction was no different.

"Why is it that the players' body lan-guage is so negative?" asked one of thescribes. The manner in which Sarfarazkept his counsel was remarkable.

"May be you guys have seen some-thing in the body language but playersare trying their best. Their has been field-ing lapses. Rohit could have been run-out twice and had we availed thosechances, it could have been a differ-ent result."

Another one asked, "Have all

players been physically and mentally fitto take on India?"

"There are no issues with anyone.Imad Wasim (gastric problem) had anissue but everyone had passed the fitnesstest. Now that we have lost, you can raisethe issue."

The third person's query was aboutwhat happened to agitated MohammedAmir gesticulating to media managerRaza Kitchlew.

"I didn't see anything. May be he wasangry because he was trying to get wick-ets which he didn't get," Sarfaraz rea-soned.

He also clarified on the alleged riftin the dressing room with seniors likeMohammed Hafeez and Shoaib Malikbeing unhappy with his leadership.

"There are no ill-feelings in the dress-ing room. The boys are backing eachother. As far as why I didn't give Hafeezand Shoaib more than an over, it isbecause I felt there was no need for that.The batsmen were set and they went forruns (11 each) in the only over that theybowled."

Although it's a Herculean task for ateam placed ninth among the 10 com-peting nations but he said that theendeavour is to win the remaining fourgames, said Sarfaraz.

"We should try to be positive andthink like, okay we did-

n't play goodcricket but

let's try andwin fourgames inorder tobounceb a c k , "h eadded.

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For his winning smile,petite body structure,young age and rosy

cheeks, Kuldeep Yadav is quitea combative person.

He throws the tempera-ment of a quick at you, albeitwith disarming simplicity. Notsurprising, as he initially aspiredto be and wanted to train forpace bowling but was luckilyspotted by his Kanpur coach asa better physique for spin, an arthe has since perfected.

He does not take thingslying down, is fearless in chal-lenging even the stalwarts of thebat from any part of the worldin any ground of the world withhis flighted deliveries. Ask himwhy he has not been very suc-cessful in taking wickets recent-ly and he is instantly up in vocaldisagreement.

"It's not as if I have not beenperforming. As a bowler my jobis not just to take wickets.Often I am given the responsi-bility of containing the oppo-nent and I have been doing thatjust fine," he said at the OldTrafford after the eventfulmatch against Pakistan wherehis contribution broke the part-nership that was beginning toworry India.

Old Trafford was also theground where this son of a brickkiln owner from Kanpurbowled a beauty to get BabarAzam out at a crucial time.

The ball to Azam turned inthe air, first to deceive the bat-ter to commit on his leg beforemischievously drifting out andthen stealthily but smoothlygliding into the stumps from anarrow gap between the bat andthe pad.

Some decades back, theground had hosted a thenyoung Shane Warne's ball of thecentury as it is called, bowled asit was to an experienced MikeGatting.

Yadav's astonishing deliverywas equally befuddling if not ascelebrated, yet. By all counts, itwas the ball of the tournament.

"Getting Azam out was thebest delivery for me in thistournament. I got him out in theAsia Cup as well. In the rainbreak, I went back and watchedthat delivery. It had drift andturn, so any spinner will love thatdelivery. It's a proper dream

delivery and a proper Test deliv-ery. Deceiving the batsman inthe air and making him committhe mistake. A perfect delivery,"he said in hindsight.

The smile was all theredespite the fact that his place inthe team mostly comes aftermany huddles, ifs and buts. AtOld Trafford too, with overcastconditions, if was being widelyperceived that Yadav would bereplaced by pacer MohammadSami but he retained his place onhis skipper's confidence whichhe buttressed with his twinbreakouts.

After getting Azam, hestruck again in his next over tosend the left-handed Fakharpacking after he dared to playYadav against the spin, only tobe caught at short fine leg.Zaman too was foxed, at 62,breaking whatever effort

Pakistan could have made tostand up to India's 336, or lateras it turned out, 302 in 40 overs.

In the end, Yadav sported ahandsome 2-32 figure with hisleft-arm wrist spinning a win forhis team even as a more lionisedChahal struggled unusually atthe other end.

"Both Azam and Zamanplay spin well. They were rotat-ing the strike and were attack-ing, so it was important to breakthat partnership. Getting Babarout and then another wicket putthem under pressure andaccording to DLS they needed avery high run-rate and that wasa plus point for us," he points outto bring in the relevance of hisachievement into context.

His place in the Indiansquad for the World Cup wasmired in scepticism but he hasdone enough to cement his

position in the squad for sometime to come.

For a disastrous IPL seasonwhich finished for him withgiving away a 27-run last overlast season, many questionedhis place in the World Cup butthe small town spinner hasheld his own with 1-46 againstSouth Africa and a break-through performance againstPakistan.

"Everyone is talking aboutmy rhythm. I don't think I lostmy rhythm. It happens whenyou don't pick wickets but thelast three games I have bowledreally well. In the game againstAustralia, they were strugglingto hit me and that's importantfor any spinner," he said.

Yadav is one of the fewspinners to have a five wickethaul in all formats of the game,a talent under Kohli's eye. Even

vice-captain Rohit Sharma is allpraise for Yadav's efforts andsaid the team always getsaround him to keep his confi-dence up.

"He's our match-winningbowler in the middle overs andtoday you saw how importantthose crucial wickets were. Boththe batsmen were set. Of course,he didn't start the tournament theway he would like to, but for usas a group around him, our jobis to just make sure that he getsthat confidence, he gets thatbacking from the team," Sharmaadded.

Yadav has claimed 90 wick-ets from 47 ODI matches sincehis debut in 2017. That's no meanachievement. Just the beginningfor this containment bowlingwicket-taker with a big heart andbig self-confidence as he under-stands the game quite well.

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Everyone knows how good abatsman Rohit Sharma isbut for me the more impor-

tant innings against Pakistanwas from KL Rahul.

Going into the game, thebiggest question mark about thisIndia team was how they wouldcope without Shikhar Dhawan.

The fact the top three all gotruns, that Sharma and Rahul puton more than a hundred for thefirst wicket and that Virat Kohligot more runs, is huge for Indiagoing forward in the tourna-ment.

Every team that comes upagainst India will know that thetop three are going to be a realdanger and give them the perfectplatform, especially with Rohit'stendency to score big hundreds.

That is now three straightwins against three good teamsand puts India in a great positionto reach the semi-finals.

Prior to this, the one bowlerwho had been a little bit of a con-cern was Kuldeep Yadav, whodidn't seem to have found hisform.

However he was brilliant inthis game, particularly the dis-missal of Babar Azam which wasa sensational delivery.

That leaves India with JaspritBumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar,Yuzvendra Chahal and Kuldeepall bowling well, what more canthey ask for?

It is a little like England, atthe moment everything seems tobe going right and the fansshould be very happy.

This is starting to feel a lit-

tle like the West Indian teams of the1970s, where the opposition wouldstart the game with a psychologi-cal disadvantage. Teams are worriedabout facing India and how theywill cope with them, which imme-diately puts them on the back foot.

In this game I felt that Pakistanmade a mistake bowling first.Traditionally they are not a chasingteam, and we saw how well theyplayed against England battingfirst.

That was a blessing in disguisein many ways and India were ableto take the game away from themwith their batting.

It felt like there was more pres-sure on Pakistan, who had built thisup to be a huge game, whereasIndia and Rohit, in particular, wereable to treat it like any other match.That is vital in an ICC Men'sCricket World Cup. You cannot puttoo much pressure on yourselfbecause of who the opposition is.

The one slight worry wasBhuvneshwar's injury but they havesix days before the next gameagainst Afghanistan so that will givehim the chance to get back fit again.

In the moment it was obvious-ly a blow for India, but in someways it worked out well for them

because it meant we got more of alook at Vijay Shankar.

He did well in his first game ofthe tournament and took hisopportunity, first with the bat andthen later on with the ball.

Shankar's performance increas-es India's options, and as and whenDhawan returns, it will make for aninteresting selection dilemma.

That is a debate for anothertime though, for now India shouldbe very happy with how they haveperformed so far and long may itcontinue.+��"��I�#++�� +�� 7J

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Former pacer Shoaib Akhtarhas slammed Sarfaraz

Ahmed's “brainless captaincy'after Pakistan's humiliating 89-run loss to India.

"I don't understand how cana captain be so brainless, could-n't Sarfaraz think that we don'tchase well. Square of the wick-et is dry, the wicket is not wet.Knowing the fact and yourstrength is not batting it's bowl-ing," Akhtar said on his officialYouTube channel.

Pakistan added one moredefeat to their already dismalrecord in the World Cup againstIndia, taking it to 7-0 in favourof the arch-rivals.

Skipper Sarafraz won thetoss and opted to field firstallowing India to post an impos-ing target of 337 on the back ofa brilliant 140 by opener RohitSharma and half centuries by KLRahul (57) and Virat Kohli(77). According to Akhtar, win-ning the toss was crucial aspectof the game and half the matchwas won had Sarfaraz decidedto bat first.

"Now when you had wonthe toss, you had won half thematch there. But what did youdo? You tried that we should notwin this match. Yet again, brain-less captaincy, utterly stupidmanagement."

Highlighting Pakistan's inability to chase, Akhtar referredto their defeat to India in 1999and the previous game againstAustralia.

"We don't have a history ofchasing. Inzamam, Yusuf, SaeedAnwar, Shahid Afridi all bigbatsmen were playing in thisground in 1999 and we had tomake 227, we weren't able to dothat. So when you got thechance after winning the tossyou should have batted."

The Rawalpindi Expressalso criticised the batsmen for

not making use of the conditionsunlike their Indian counter-parts.

"There was no thinking,one-dimensional players cameto bat, but the toss was very cru-cial to win it and in that even ifPakistan scored 260 they wouldhave done it because the pres-sure is on required run rate. Butwho would tell them?"

"I think it's a very sadden-ing and disheartening perfor-mance by Pakistan team captainand that's why I was saying thatuse your head but he tried to notuse his brain."

Akhtar singled out pacerHasan Ali — who went for 84off his 9 overs — as one of thearchitects of the defeat.

"Yet again, our bowling,Hasan Ali, he can jump onWagah border but when there istime to exert force, do it here. Allthese things look good if youtake 6-7 wickets, you come hereand give 82-84 runs. Whatmindset is this?

"I think his mindset is thathe wants to be a T20 player, thisis his 4th or 5th match forPakistan and see the conditions,neither there is any pace orswing. I'm failing to under-stand what he wants to achieve."

Meanwhile, SachinTendulkar feels Sarfaraz Ahmedwas a "confused" man and histeam lacked "imagination".

"I thought he (Sarfaraz) wasconfused because when Wahab(Riaz) was bowling he had ashort mid-wicket. And whenShadab (Khan) came on tobowl he had a slip forhim,"Tendulkar said.

"In these conditions itbecomes difficult for a leg-spin-ner to grip the ball, especiallywhen he's not getting the rightline and length. That is not theright way to approach a biggame," he added.

"They lacked imagination,lacked out of the box thinking."

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Former skipper WasimAkram led Pakistan's crick-

et community in lambasting theteam for "going down withouta fight" against arch-rivals India.

The 1992 champions werethen restricted to 212 for six in40 overs in 337 run chase whenrain stopped play, paving theway for India's comprehensive89-run win via D/L method.

"The team selection to meis not right and I don't see anyplanning going into this WorldCup," Wasim said.

"Win or lose is part of thegame but not this way we justwent down without a fight."

Under-fire Sarfaraz, howev-er, defended his decision tobowl first but many former stal-warts said it was a poor decisionand reading of the pitch.

"Virat Kohli basically

played mind games by saying hewould have bowled first and wefell into his trap," former Testbatsman Basit Ali said.

He noted that Kohli hadshown himself to be a moreshrewd captain and better plan-ner than Sarfaraz.

Former captainMuhammad Yousuf tooslammed Pakistan's poor show,saying the team's body languagewas not positive.

"When we played againstIndia it was the premium matchfor us and we never wanted tolose but yesterday the body lan-guage of our captain and play-ers was just not positive andenergetic enough," he said.

Yousuf said that everyone

knew that the present Indianteam was a quality side with topclass batsmen and the onlyway to beat them was to bringthem under pressure.

"Two years back the mis-take Kohli made at the toss byallowing Pakistan to bat in thefinal was repeated by Sarfarazyesterday. No matter how gooda batting side a team when youchase in a big match like thisyou always come under pres-sure."

Former Test openerMohsin Khan lamented that theteam lacked self belief againstIndia.

"No matter how strong thisIndian team the fact is our play-ers just didn't display the moti-

vation, energy or heart tobelieve in themselves that wecan win the match," said Khan,a former chief selector and ex-head coach.

"In the past when we did-n't have so many facilities it wasour spirit that won us so manygames against India. Now it isdifferent I see more energyand desire to win on part ofIndian players compared tous."

Former allrounder AbdulRazzaq felt it was the responsi-bility of captain and coach togive a plan to the players andensure they had the game senseand skills to executive them.

"If some player is not skill-ful enough to execute plans heshould be sacked. India lostKumar early on but they didn'tfeel his absence as the otherbowlers knew what their jobwas," he said.

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Vijay Shankar made his pres-ence felt on his World Cup

debut with two crucialPakistani wickets and the TamilNadu all-rounder is backinghimself to play an importantrole in India's campaign.

If someone had told him sixmonths back that his bowlingwould become crucial to India'splans at the quadrennial event,it would not have been a sur-prise for him.

His ‘three dimensional’ability was put to test againstPakistan and he respondedwith wickets of opener Imam ulHaq and rival captain SarfarazAhmed.

“I knew that I was battingwell but my handy bowlingmakes me useful,” Shankar toldreporters during a mixed zoneinteraction.

He got a wicket with hisvery first World Cup deliveryafter Bhuvneshwar Kumar hob-bled off the field due to a ham-string injury.

"I need to keep on improv-ing on all aspects of game andthat's how I look at things, sothat when situation comes I amready to face it. I was alwaysfocused on my preparation,"Shankar said after returningimpressive figures of 2/22 in 5.4overs.

Although he is designatedfor the number four slot in thebatting order, Shankar is nowready to bat at number six orseven since the team manage-ment is expected to promoteHardik Pandya up the order incase top three go on to play till35th over.

"First few innings duringAustralia series, I batted atNos 6 or 7. When playing for

your country, you should beready to adapt yourself to dif-ferent situation," said Shankar,who got a run-a-ball 15 inIndia's 336 for 5.

But getting a wicket off thefirst ball was a "pleasant sur-

prise"."That was a surprise for me

as it's rare for someone to getinjured and I come in asreplacement. Getting a wicketoff first ball is special thing forme.

"It was a great opportunityfor me to make my World Cupdebut against Pakistan as a lot ofpeople would have watched thegame. I just wanted to enjoy themoment as you don't get toexperience this often," he said.

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�How is your back?Drastically improved. I’ve had exten-

sive treatment and medication which havehelped me no end. I’ve had a small hit inthe netsand hopefully be fit to play.�The pitch would have had two days torecover. Does it favour the spinners?

Having watched the game, India-Pakistan, it offered enough for both. Withthe seam it went through and bouncedquite nicely, and then it turned a little bitwith the spinners. We’ve just been out tolook at the wicket. It still hasn’t been likedressed up, prepared and rolled. We’ll havetoday as to what balance of bowling line-up we’ll go with.� Is Alex Hales a name in the discussions?

Again, I’ve not been part of any discus-sions simply because I’ve been firmlyfocused on managing the players andeverything else that’s ongoing. I haven’t spo-ken to Ed Smith since the selection meet-ing. So I don’t know.� Is there any thought to getting every-one in the squad a game before maybeKnockout Stage?

At the moment, there’s not. It’s all aboutqualifying, and if we do get to that periodat some stage we might look into it.�How do you look at India’s perfor-mance, and do you think are yourstrongest opposition?

New Zealand are sliding under theradar. They are extremely strong at themoment, along with India, both have putin performances, no doubt, over the nextweek sore so. We did see BhuvneshwarKumar go down in that last game. No doubtover the next week, there will be moreinjuries and surprises throughout thetournament.It will be how teams respondto that, and the strength that they havewithin their squad of 15 players.�You are the favourites. Do you have tobe careful on the mental preparation forthis match against Afghanistan?

In a couple of games so far w’ve beenhead hot favourites and underlining ourpreparation is the humility and the grati-tude with which we go about things, andthat’s an important part of trying to beatteams like Afghanistan. We went throughthe same process in the warm up game.They are a strong side. I said previous tothe tournament, they will beat teams in thisWorld Cup. They haven’t managed to dothat yet. So that makes today a tougherchallenge.�How wary are you of Rashid Khan?

There are three spinners. It’s probablytheir strongest component as a team. It’s achallenge that we’re going to have to over-come. Pretty much every time we playagainst an Asian team, that’s the case. Youlook over at where they are practising, theyare practising against quicks, and look overat our nets and we’re practising against spin.That’s just a challenge that both sides comeup against.�Did you give any thought maybe ifMoeen comes back?

It’s a reasonable place for everybody toget some form. It seems to be the nicestplace to bat at the moment. But I mean, ifwe manage to qualify, we'll look at playersand how they are going and what sort oftime in the middle or bowling they needto get under their belt for later stages butour first priority at the moment is tryingto get into that top four slot.�How crucial is this match?

This week is a important. We’ve had alot of space in between games, which hasallowed us to come into the games thatwe’ve played extremely fresh. The challengeis going to be how quickly we can bounceback from good results or defeats.

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Struck by a series of injury setbacks,England will look to get the combi-nation right when they take on the

low-ranked but spirited Afghanistan intheir bid get closer to a semi-final berthtoday.

The hosts are struggling with fitnessissues, the latest being captain EoinMorgan having to leave the field with aback spasm during the game against theWest Indies.

Opening batsman Jason Roy was alsoforced off the field during the same match

due to a tight hamstring and has been ruledout of the game today and on Friday(against Sri Lanka).

Himself in doubt for the Afghanistangame, Morgan insisted there is no need tohit the panic button just yet. His fitness willbe monitored over the next 24 hours beforethe final call is take on his participationtoday.

“It is sore. I have had back spasmsbefore and it normally takes a few days tosettle down. It is unclear, we will knowmore in the next 24 hours. You normallyget a good indication the following day,”Morgan said after the victory against West

Indies.In case Morgan isn’t fully fit, vice cap-

tain Jos Buttler is likely to lead the teamwhich boasts of a strong bench strengththat includes the likes of Tom Curran andMoeen Ali.

After suffering a shock loss to Pakistan,England have got their act together,excelling in all three departments and thehosts will want to continue riding on thewinning momentum.

On the other hand, Afghanistan willbe eager to post their first win in the ongo-ing 50-over showpiece.

Playing in their second World Cup, the

bottom-placed Afghanistan lost all four oftheir matches till now to South Africa,Australia, Sri Lanka and New Zealandrespectively.

However, the players from the war-torn nation can take confidence from thefact that they almost pulled off a winagainst Sri Lanka.

The main concern will be batting asAfghanistan are yet to play out 40-plusovers in any of their games.

They made an encouraging startagainst South Africa, with openersHazratullah Zazai and Noor Ali Zadranwatchfully negotiating the early overs but

failed to capitalise on that.The rest of the team couldn't reach

double digits apart from Rashid Khan, whoonce again showed that he is shaping upto be a talented all-rounder.

The conditions, and whether thewicket supports spin, will play a crucial forthe Afghans who rely heavily on theirtweakers Rashid and Mohammad Nabi toget them the breakthroughs.

�>#��England: Eoin Morgan, Moeen Ali, JofraArcher, Jonny Bairstow, Jos Buttler, TomCurran, Liam Dawson, Liam Plunkett, AdilRashid, Joe Root, Jason Roy, Ben Stokes,James Vince, Chris Woakes, Mark Wood.Afghanistan: Gulbadin Naib (c), Noor AliZadran, Hazratullah Zazai, Rahmat Shah(wk), Asghar Afghan, HashmatullahShahidi, Najibullah Zadran, SamiullahShinwari, Mohammad Nabi, Rashid Khan,Dawlat Zadran, Aftab Alam, HamidHassan, Mujeeb ur Rahman, Ikram AliKhil.

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England opener JasonRoy will miss the

hosts’ next two WorldCup matches with a tornleft hamstring, theEngland and WalesCricket Board said onMonday.

Roy, who suffered theinjury while fielding dur-ing England’s win over theWest Indies on Friday,has been ruled out ofTuesday’s group fixtureagainst Afghanistan atOld Trafford and Friday’smatch against Sri Lanka atHeadingley.

Meanwhile, Englandcaptain Eoin Morgan,who suffered a backspasm in the field againstthe West Indies, and likeRoy did not bat in thatmatch, will be assessedahead of the Afghanistanclash and could yet playagainst the tournamentminnows.

“England batsmanJason Roy, who left thefield during West Indies'

innings in the ICCCricket World Cup fixtureon Friday due to left ham-string tightness, under-went an MRI scan onSaturday in London,” an

ECB statement read.“The MRI confirmed

that Roy has suffered ahamstring tear. As a resultof the injury, he will bereassessed on an ongoing

basis this week.“He is set to miss

England's next two match-es in the ICC Cricket WorldCup against Afghanistan(18 June) and Sri Lanka (21June).”

As for Morgan's condi-tion, the ECB said he hadundergone a scan at theweekend and received fur-ther treatment.

“The spasm has settleddown and will be moni-tored over the next 24 hoursahead of England's nextmatch against Afghanistantomorrow (Tuesday) at OldTrafford, Manchester,” thestatement added.

Roy, who suffered ahamstring injury duringEngland’s tour of theCaribbean earlier this year,hit a fifty in their WorldCup opening win overSouth Africa and thenstruck a commanding 153in a victory overBangladesh.

But he fell for just 14during England's surprisegroup loss to Pakistan atTrent Bridge.

Joe Root was promotedto open alongside JonnyBairstow against the WestIndies and the Test skipperresponded with an unbeat-en century.

In the next few years, Afghanistanmust work on their batting if they

are to bridge the gap and improve. Right now, that’s the difference

when you compare them with otherteams in the World Cup.

Batting was always going to bethe main problem for Afghanistan,particularly in English conditions,and we still haven’t seen out 40-plusovers in a game, which makes it verytough to achieve.

It’s hard to be competitive whenthe batting is not clicking. You can’tjust depend on fielding and bowlingall the time, so that’s where theimprovement needs to come.

For me, it all comes down topreparation.

This is a big stage, playing inEngland against the world’s topsides means the level is very high, soyou have to get the preparation justright.

In the last two games, the open-ers Hazratullah Zazai and Noor AliZadran have at least started better,but instead, the collapses have comefurther down the order.

These are not simple issues toresolve as most are technical, butthey are important if Afghanistan areto improve as a cricketing nation.

It’s now about working veryhard on skills and shot selection.Mentally, the focus needs to be justright.

Next up for the team is England,and that’s obviously not going to be

easy. In my opinion, they are the hotfavourites to win the competitionjust ahead of India.

It’s always tough playing Englandin English conditions, so it’s aboutplaying good, respected cricket tocreate a close match.

Beating them here would createhistory, but to do that it’ll take morethan just good bowling.

The conditions, and whetherthe wicket supports spinners, willbe crucial. Equally, Afghanistanmust also work hard and show

passion for the country.If these things happen and every-

one contributes, maybe then we canmake history.

Whatever happens in this WorldCup though, the future is still brightfor Afghanistan. We have lots ofyoung talent, particularly in theU15 and U19 sides.

In Rashid Khan and MohammadNabi, we have talented players whohave played all over the globe andcan be key to our bright future.

Rashid once again showedagainst South Africa that he is a verytalented all-rounder on top of hisspin bowling, which everyonealready knows about.

Don’t forget that we are still newto European conditions. Day by daywe will improve, and next time wewill be better.

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Tackling a lower-rankedFiji should not be prob-

lem for the Indian hockeyteam at the FIH Women’sSeries Finals but chief coachSjoerd Marijne says the jobwill get easier if his side couldimprove its “conversion rate”.

At number nine, India istop ranked side in the tour-nament and has concededjust one goal in two match-es played so far. India beatUruguay 4-1 before blankingPoland 5-0.

A victory against WorldNo 44 Fiji in their last PoolA match will ensure a semi-final place for the RaniRampal-led Indian side onTuesday.

“There is no doubt thatthe team has played well inthe first couple of matches,but we want to be perform-ing at the highest level pos-sible, and I believe that thereis still room for improve-ment. Our conversion ratecan definitely be higher and

if that happens, it will be eas-ier for us to win the match-es,” said Marijne.

“What has impressedme in the first two matcheshas been the fact that wehave created good fieldopportunities, and have alsobeen able to earn morepenalty corners. The team isenjoying themselves on thepitch, and that is good to seeas a coach that your playersare enjoying each other’scompany,” he added.

The 45-year-old

Dutchman said his team isnow gelling well.

“The most importantaspect for me, is to see howthe players enjoy playingtogether, and how they com-bine on and off the field.When you keep trying tocombine on the field, itresults in everybody gettingan opportunity to play andperform as well,” he said.

The chief coach said theteam is focused on winningall the matches and won'ttake any opponent lightly.

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Luis Suarez and EdinsonCavani were on target as

Uruguay thumped 10-manEcuador 4-0 in their openingGroup C match at the CopaAmerica on Sunday.

Nicolas Lodeiro openedthe scoring after just six min-utes before Ecuador full-backJose Quintero was dismissedfor a flailing arm.

With a numerical advan-tage, Uruguay ran riot at theMineirao stadium in BeloHorizonte as Cavani and Suareznetted before the break. Therout was completed 12 minutesfrom time with an Arturo Minaown goal.

“We had chances in thefirst half, we managed to takethem and that gave us thetranquility to manage thegame,” said Cavani, who final-ly scored his first CopaAmerica goal in his fourthparticipation.

“It was an important step.”It was the ideal beginning

for Uruguay in a tough GroupC alongside champions Chileand guests Japan, who meet onMonday in Sao Paulo.

Uruguay were offto a dream start.

Suarez crossedfrom the right andLodeiro proved thecoolest customer inthe Mineirao stadium as hebeat one defender with hischest control, flicked the ballover another and then hit acrisp, low volley into the bot-tom far corner.

Uruguay were rampant andhad the ball in the net soonafterwards only for Cavani tobe given offside in the build-up.

Ecuador brought a physi-cality to the contest that upsetthe Uruguayan players andQuintero was perhaps lucky toescape punishment whencatching Diego Laxalt with anelbow in an aerial challenge.

But moments later, his armmade contact with Lodeiro'sface when challenging foranother header, this time draw-ing blood.

Brazilian refereeAnderson Daronco —whose bulging armmuscles put evenEcuador's strappingplayers to shame — ini-tially showed the full-

back a yellow card but afterconsulting VAR he changedthat to red.

That left Ecuador with amountain to climb.

On 27 minutes, AlexanderDominguez made a brilliantlow save to turn behindCavani's half-volley from 15yards.

Paris Saint-Germain for-ward Cavani was denied againwhen Dominguez stunninglytipped his clever back-flickonto the post one-handed.

But it was third time luckyon 33 minutes as Diego Godinheaded the ball into the dangerarea and Cavani acrobaticallyrasped a bicycle kick fromseven yards past a helplessDominguez, his 47th interna-

tional goal.

�� #�#$#��Nahitan Nandez wasted a

good chance, shooting straightat Dominguez but Suarez putthe game to bed a minutebefore the break, stealing in atthe back post to poke home aflick-on from Martin Caceres.

With the game all but overas a contest, the second half wasa damp squib of an affair.

The fourth came in calami-tous fashion as Gaston Pereirotried to pick out Suarez fromCavani's cross even though hewas only six yards from goal.His header dropped to Ecuadorcenter-half Mina, who inadver-tently volleyed into his owngoal.

“The important thing wasthat the team won and nowwe'll prepare for the nextmatch,” against Japan onThursday, said Suarez, whonotched his 57th goal forUruguay.

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Maria Sharapova said onSunday that she has

“expectations” for herself aheadof her return from a five-monthinjury absence in Mallorca nextweek.

The five-time Grand Slamchampion has not played sincewithdrawing from the StPetersburg event in January tohave surgery on a long-standingshoulder injury.

Sharapova has struggled tofind top form since comingback from a 15-month dopingban in 2017.

“When you go out in a tour-nament, anything can happen,”the 32-year-old former worldnumber one told wtatennis.com.

“You want to go out on thecourt and you want to show thetype of tennis you think you canproduce. I certainly have expec-tations for myself... And I enjoygetting better every day.

“The injuries are very frus-trating... But then the next day,you start feeling better.

“The next day, you get bet-

ter and you get a little more opti-mistic. A few months later, eventhough it's a long process, hereyou are and you're excited tocompete again.”

Sharapova will faceSlovakia’s Viktoria Kuzmova inthe first round of the grass-courtWimbledon warm-up event,and could play three-time GrandSlam title winner AngeliqueKerber in round two.

The Russian star beat for-mer world number one CarolineWozniacki at the AustralianOpen earlier this year, but hasonly reached one major quarter-final since being suspended fortaking meldonium.

Sharapova thinks that, dueto the injury, she was not enjoy-ing her tennis six months ago.

“I’ve been through it before.My shoulder has been trouble-some for a majority of mycareer,” she said.

“In January, I wasn’t reallyenjoying playing because afterevery match I would thinkabout what we would do to helpmy shoulder.

“I wasn’t really thinkingabout being excited about theway I was playing, even thoughthere were some great matchesthat I played in the start of theyear.”

Sharapova has slipped to86th from 29th in the rankingsduring her lay-off.

“I took this time in order tocome back to my first event andfeel like I have a really goodchance at it.

"Being away from the gamefor a few months is always chal-lenging, because you miss a lotof things, but from a shoulderperspective, I’m giving it a real-ly good chance here. Everymatch is going to be a reallygood test.”

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Canadian rising star FelixAuger-Aliassime's wait for a

maiden ATP title was extended onSunday as the teenager was beat-en by Italian Matteo Berrettini inthe Stuttgart final.

The 18-year-old has risen to21st in the world rankings this sea-son, but fell to his third defeat fromas many finals, as Berrettini won6-4, 7-6 (13/11).

The victory in the grass-courtWimbledon warm-up was the30th-ranked Berrettini's third title,after triumphs on clay in Gstaadlast year and Budapest in April.

The Italian won all 50 of hisservice games in Stuttgart, and

didn't face a break point in thefinal.

"On grass, beating these unbe-lievable guys... there were a lot oftough moments," said Berrettini,who did not lose a set during hisrun, ousting second seed KarenKhachanov in the second round.

Auger-Aliassime is one of anumber of Canadian youngstersclimbing through the tennis ranks,including Denis Shapovalov andBianca Andreescu.

He saw five set points comeand go in the second-set tie-break, before the 23-year-oldBerrettini — the first Italian grass-court finalist since Andreas Seppiat Eastbourne in 2011 — took histhird match point.

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West Indies took control oftheir World Cup clashwith Bangladesh as Shai

Hope's 96 and the joint-fastest fiftyof the tournament from ShimronHetmyer inspired an imposing 321-8 at Taunton on Monday.

It seemed Bangladesh captainMashrafe Mortaza might be reward-ed for his decision to bowl first whenthe West Indies were contained toa sedate 94-1 from the first 22 overs.

But the Windies couldn't beheld in check in the second half ofthe innings as Hope laid the foun-dations for his country's fourthhighest World Cup score with a res-olute 121-ball innings.

Hitting around Hope, EvinLewis made 70 from 67 balls beforeHetmyer smashed 50 in 26 balls, fea-turing four fours and three sixes

It was the equal fastest 50 in thisyear's tournament and the thirdquickest by a West Indies batsmanin World Cup history.

Bangladesh will need the secondhighest successful run chase inWorld Cup history to take maxi-mum points.

"The pitch flattened out a bitmore at the end and I was prettypleased with 321," Hope said.

"We've got a bit more pace andheight so hopefully we can extracta bit more."

West Indies opener Chris Gaylewas expected to wreak havoc in thetournament, but the big-hitting 39-year-old has only managed scores of50, 21 and 36.

Once again Gayle looked out ofsorts and he went 12 balls withoutscoring before dangling his batlimply at Mohammad Saifuddin'sseaming delivery on the 13th, with

the edge held low down by wicket-keeper Mushfiqur Rahim.

Lewis kept grinding away andreached his first World Cup fiftyfrom 58 balls.

That was the signal for theopener to step on the gas and he

smashed a six and two fours in quicksuccession

But Lewis paid the price for hissudden aggression when he wascaught off Shakib Al Hasan going forone more blast with the score on122.

Lewis's partnership of 116 withHope was the West Indies' first cen-tury stand of the World Cup.

A towering six from NicholasPooran off Mehidy Hasan Miraz lefta hole in the roof of one of theTaunton stands.

But Pooran, on 25 from 30 balls,perished when he tried to slog-sweep Shakib and miscued toSoumya Sarkar at long-on.

Urgency finally injected into theinnings, Hetmyer followed Pooran'sgung-ho example with a sublime

display of hitting.Blasting boundaries to all parts

of the ground, Hetmyer passed1,000 ODI runs in his 27th innings.

His flamboyant display wascurtailed when he holed out offMustafizur Rahman.

Skipper Jason Holder's 33 from15 balls — including four fours andtwo sixes — filled in admirably forHetmyer to ensure the Windies wentpast 300.

Bangladesh have had the upperhand against the West Indies inrecent meetings, winning six of thelast seven, including all three gamesin the Tri-nation series in Irelandlast month.

Both the West Indies andBangladesh have won one of theirfour group matches, with twodefeats and one no result apiece.

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