not allow scientists to launch anti-satellite (asat) missile ... maoist hotbed bastar lok sabha seat...

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India on Wednesday achieveda rare feat when its missile

successfully shot down a livesatellite in space, displaying tothe world its anti-satellite mis-sile (A-SAT) capability. Withthis, India has become thefourth country to acquire sucha specialised and moderncapability after the US, Russiaand China.

While the Opposition par-ties have congratulated the sci-entists of the DRDO for thesuccessful test, they accusedPrime Minister NarendraModi of violating model codeof conduct by using the occa-sion to divert attention fromissues troubling the BJP in therun-up to the Lok Sabha polls.

The Prime Ministerannounced the successful testin an unprecedented address tothe nation, saying, “It shows theremarkable dexterity of India’soutstanding scientists and thesuccess of our space pro-gramme.”

He also said, “India cannow defend itself in space, andnot just on land, water, and air,after the success of MissionShakti.”

In his address to the nation,Modi said, “In the journey ofevery nation there are momentsthat bring utmost pride andhave a historic impact on gen-erations to come. One suchmoment is today. India has suc-cessfully tested the Anti-Satellite (ASAT) Missile.”

He, however, clarified thetest was not directed againstany country and the satellitewas a pre-determined targetorbiting at an altitude of 300km adding India does notbreach any international lawsor treaties.

Mission Shakti was aimedat strengthening India’s overallsecurity, he said, adding it was“a highly complex one, con-ducted at extremely high speedwith remarkable precision. Itshows the remarkable dexter-

ity of India’s outstanding sci-entists and the success of ourspace programme,” Modi said.“Shooting down a low earthorbit satellite is a rare achieve-ment for the country,” hesaid.

The “entire effort is indige-nous. India’s stands tall as aspace power. It will make Indiastronger, even more secureand will further peace andharmony,” Modi said.

The Prime Minister hadadvertised his address to thenation on Twitter, calling it animportant message.

“Do watch the address ontelevision, radio or socialmedia,” he said, setting offspeculation across the countryon what the topic was likely tobe. Earlier in the day, theCabinet Committee onSecurity (CCS) had met at thePrime Minister’s residence.

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In a midnight drama in Goa,Chief Minister Pramod

Sawant dropped Deputy ChiefMinister Sudin Dhavalikarafter two of hisMaharashtrawadi GomantakParty (MGP) MLAs joined theruling BJP, leaving him highand dry in the coastal State.Dhavalikar was made theDeputy CM when Sawantbecame Chief Minister afterthe death of then ChiefMinister Manohar Parrikar.

Meanwhile, the GoaForward Party (GFP), a partnerin the State Government, hasexpressed fear about creation of“suspicion among partners”after the two MGP MLAs brokeaway and joined the BJP.

While formingGovernment this month, theBJP had “accommodated” boththe supporting parties’ ChiefMinisterial claimants GFP chiefVijai Sardesai and MGP MLADhavalikar as Deputy ChiefMinisters with BJP’s Sawantappointed as Chief Minister.

BJP president Amit Shahand Union Minister NitinGadkari had then coordinatedthe moves to install Sawant,then Assembly Speaker, as newState CM.

The midnight coup craftedby the BJP saw two of the threeMGP MLAs — ManoharAjgaonkar and Dipak Pawaskar— giving a letter to officiatingSpeaker Michael Lobo, merg-ing their party’s legislative wingwith the BJP.

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Film star Urmila Matondkarjoined the Congress after

meeting party chief RahulGandhi on Wednesday. Theparty made the announcementby tweeting a picture of theactor receiving a bouquet fromRahul. Urmila, 45, is expectedto be chosen as the Congresscandidate for Mumbai NorthLok Sabha constituency.

“I am here because Ibelieve in the ideology of theCongress and what the partystands for. I have not joined theparty for the sake of elections.I am here to stay,” Urmila said.

Later, at a Press conference,Congress chief spokespersonRandeep Surjewala said theactor will help spread theCongress ideology andstrengthen the party.

Urmila said she felt theneed to join the Congress as thefreedom to express was underattack and there are numerous

examples in this regard in thelast five years. She said theCongress participated in thefreedom struggle and it stoodfor freedom.

Urmila lauded the leader-ship of Rahul. She said he is theone who takes everyone alongand such a leader is required intoday’s times.

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Belarusian PresidentAlexander Lukashenko has

fired three officials, includinga governor, for keeping cows inpoor conditions at a local farm.

Video aired by state televi-sion showed Lukashenko, anavid farmer himself, scoldingthe farm managers and thegovernor on a visit to the farmin the northern Mogilev regionon Tuesday.

Lukashenko, who gave asack of potatoes to RussianPresident Vladimir Putin lastyear, compared the conditionsat the farm to those at a Nazideath camp.

The cows were shownwalking in the manure withmud caked on their bodies.

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Prime Minister NarendraModi incurred the wrath of

Opposition parties over theGovernment’s announcementof Mission Shakti onWednesday. While theOpposition leaders congratu-lated the scientists who devel-oped the anti-satellite missile,they took swipe at the PM.

Some of them questioned

the timing of the announce-ment while other wrote to theElection Commission termingModi’s announcement as vio-lation of the model code ofconduct.

However, the EC onWednesday clarified that issuesrelated to national securityand disaster management donot fall under the ambit of themodel code of conduct.

Mocking Modi, Congresschief Rahul wished him a“happy World Theatre Day”,West Bengal Chief MinisterMamata Banerjee and BSPChief Mayawati termed it agross violation of the modelcode of conduct. SamajwadiParty president Akhilesh Yadav

accused Modi of managingfree air time to divert attentionfrom real issues.

Meanwhile, claiming thatthe Government in 2012 didnot allow scientists to launchanti-satellite (ASAT) missiledespite their having capability,the BJP on Wednesday assert-ed that India’s deterrence hasincreased under the “decisiveleadership” of Modi whichwould allow the country tomaintain peace in the region.

Describing Mission Shaktias “monumental step”, seniorBJP leader Arun Jaitley saidfuture wars will be differentand “our preparation is thebiggest safety for us”.

Decrying the Congress

and the TMC’s criticism, hesaid this issue was not relatedto the BJP but to India.

“Scientists had capabilityto build anti-satellite missile adecade ago, then Governmentnever gave permission,” saidthe BJP leader while congrat-ulating Modi whom hedescribed as decisive leaderwho has changed India’sdefence doctrine. Jaitleyaccused the Congress of lyingon the issue.

And as for TMC chief ’scriticism, Jaitley said India’snuclear programme is a con-tinuing programme and can-not be put to halt “if it does notsuit West Bengal ChiefMinister”.

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Twitterati went into a tizzywith funny tweets before

Prime Minister NarendraModi’s address to the nationspeculating whether it wouldbe about Emergency, anothersurgical strike, bringing backDawood Ibrahim or killingMasood Azhar.

As the designated hour ofnoon came and went, jokes onTwitter gathered strength. Astime slowed to a tedious crawl,imagination hurriedly tookwing.

With memories of that

fateful November 8, 2016evening, when Modiannounced the demonetisationof high value currency notesstill afresh, jokes aboutpeople running to theATM and counting cashstarted doing the rounds.

The news of Modi’ssurprise address came fromhis personal Twitter handle at11.23 am. Within minutes, thetweet went viral and in an hourthe tweet had garnered 20,663retweets, 57,674 likes and15,000 comments.

Tweeting in both Hindiand English, Modi said, “I

would be addressing the nationaround 11.45 am - 12 noonwith an important message. Do

watch theaddress ontelevision,

radio orsocial media.”

This twit-ter message

made Twitteraticrazy. The announcementfrom the PM comes a monthafter the Balakot airstrikes inPakistan by the Indian AirForce and days before pollingfor the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.

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The anti-satellite missile (A-SAT) test termed as

“Mission Shakti” was con-ducted by scientists of DefenceResearch and DevelopmentOrganisation (DRDO) fromthe APJ Abdul Kalam Island inOdisha on Wednesday. Anindigenously developedBallistic Missile Defence(BMD) Interceptor Missilesuccessfully engaged an Indianorbiting target satellite at analtitude of 300 km in LowEarth Orbit (LEO) in a “Hit tokill” mode.

The interceptor missilewas a three-stage missile withtwo solid rocket boosters.Tracking data from range sen-sors has confirmed that themission met all its objectives.The entire mission lasted forabout three minutes.

Explaining the signifi-cance of the test, sources saidan A-SAT can neutraliseenemy satellites in space by

blinding them or disrupting itscommunication systemsbesides providing a techno-logical base to intercept anincoming ballistic missile.

Satellites are used fornavigation, communicationsand for guiding their missileweaponry. The ability tobring down an enemy’s mis-sile, therefore, gives a coun-try the capability to cripplecritical infrastructure of theother country, renderingtheir weapons useless, theysaid.

While the US and Russiaconducted these tests in the1960s, China demonstratedits capability in 2007.

In his observation aboutthe test, DRDO chief GSatheesh Reddy said it is areflection of the country’sgrowing capability to developcritical technology and it willact as a good deterrenceadding clearance for the pro-ject was given over two yearsback.

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Chhattisgarh chief electoralofficer Subrat Sahoo on

Wednesday extensivelyreviewed security and otherpreparations at Jagdalpur forMaoist hotbed Bastar LokSabha seat which goes to pollsin the first phase on April 11.

Director general of police(Naxal operation) GirdhariNayak also reviewed the secu-rity arrangement and deploy-ment of security forces there.He directed police officers toensure a peaceful polling inBastar which has track of poll-related violence.

Returning officer and col-lector Bastar Ayyaz Tamboligave a detailed presentation ofthe poll preparedness in theconstituency at the reviewmeeting.

Addressing the officials,CEO Sahoo said, “The target isto hold peaceful election in theNaxal affected region, forwhich all basic necessary

arrangements have to be done.”“Complaints received

through cVIGIL should bedealt at the earliest withintime-limit for which a separatecell can be set up. Ensure allbasic amenities at polling cen-tres, while ramps are beingmade,” he told the officials.

Election observers (gener-al) Ashwani Kumar Yadav andGyaneshwar Tripathi, policeobserver K Padmakar andother officials were also presentat the review meeting.

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The notification for thirdphase of polling in which

seven remaining Lok Sabhaseats of Chhattisgarh will go topolls will be issued onThursday.

The seven seats are:Raipur, Bilaspur, Raigarh,Korba, Janjgir-Champa, Durgand Surguja.

Chhattisgarh will witness athree-phased polling on April11, April 18 and April 23 forone, three and seven seatsrespectively.

According to commu-niqués issued by respectivedistrict electoral officers, theprocess of filing nominationswill commence with theissuance of notification.

The last date of filing nom-ination papers is April 4. Thescrutiny of nomination paperswill be take place on April 5.The candidates can withdraw

their nomination papers byApril 8. The polling is sched-uled on April 23, while thecounting will be held on May23.

District electoral officershave intimated that a singlewidow system has beenarranged for the candidates toprocure the nomination papersin respective ‘collectorates’.

The security depositamount for general candidateis �25,000 while for ScheduledCaste and Scheduled Tribecandidate it is just �12500.

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Ajoint team of CBI and EDwill soon leave for London

to assist local authorities in theextradition case of fugitive dia-mantaire Nirav Modi, wantedin the �14,000 crore PNB cred-it fraud case.

Modi’s bail plea will comefor hearing before a court inLondon on Friday. He is cur-rently undergoing judicial cus-tody.

A Joint Director-level offi-cer each from CBI and ED hasbeen deputed to leave forLondon Modi’s hearing on bailin London.

The ED officer will carrythe latest chargesheet filed bythe agency against Modi’s wifeAmi and the recent attach-ments made by it in the case tobuttress its extradition plea.

The team will also meetvarious officers there, includ-ing those from the CrownProsecution Service (CPS), andbrief them about the chargesand fresh evidence againstModi, his family and others inconnection with the case.

He was spotted living in an

upscale locality in London bythe UK-based newspaper TheTelegraph.

Nirav Modi was laterarrested on the basis of theextradition request of Indiaand an Interpol Red CornerNotice issued against him onthe request of the CBI last year.

Modi was produced beforethe Westminster Magistrates’Court last week, wherein hecontested his extradition toIndia.

The district court inLondon denied bail to Modiand remanded him in custody

till March 29, saying therewere substantial grounds tobelieve that he would fail tosurrender if granted bail.

UK Home Secretary SajidJavid had certified India’s extra-dition request for the fugitivediamantaire earlier this month.This led to the issuance of awarrant against him.

He is suspected to havearrived in London last year andwas able to travel in and out ofBritain at least four times sincehis passport was cancelled bythe Indian authorities inFebruary 2018.

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Taking a swipe at PrimeMinister Narendra Modi,

Congress president RahulGandhi on Wednesday said hisexpression during his address tothe nation betrayed his anxietythat “his time to go has come”.

Addressing a convention ofthe party’s Other BackwardClasses (OBC) department,Rahul said the prime ministerhas realised that the Congresswill now give justice to thepoor. “He (PM) made thecountry wait for 45 minutes forhis announcement, did youlook at his face? He has realisedthat the Congress will now givejustice...Modi is now afraidthat his time to go has come,”he told the gathering at theIndira Gandhi Indoor Stadiumhere, ahead of the April-Mayparliamentary election.

The newly-announcedNYAY (minimum incomeguarantee scheme) wherebythe party promised to give Rs72,000 per year to five crorepoor families in the country tobring them out of poverty, wasjustice, the Congress chief saidand asserted that Modi’spromises were “lies” and thusinjustice.

The Congress presidentalso assured the OBC commu-nity that they would see manymore MPs and MLAs fromamong them as the Congresshad earlier given two OBCChief Ministers to the country.“I am guaranteeing the OBCcommunity that soon they will

be given more space in theCongress party. In the comingdays there will more CMs,more MLAs...This is my guar-antee. I am not Narendra Modi,I don’t lie. I have taken thischallenge to give space to theOBC, dalit, farmers, poor...InCongress,” he said.

Attacking the prime min-ister, Gandhi said he had liedabout giving �15 lakh to peo-ple in the run-up to the 2014election, but the Congresswould give �72,000 as part ofthe proposed income guaran-tee scheme. “We won’t be ableto give �15 lakh, but we won’t

lie. We will give �3.60 lakhcrore in the bank accounts ofthe 20 per cent of the poorestof the country over the next fiveyears,” he said.

He hailed the ability ofpeople belong to the OBC cat-egory to work hard and saidthat they do “kaam ki baat”(talk about work) and not“mann ki baat”, in an apparentdig at the PM’s radio pro-gramme.

“We have written in ourmanifesto that any youth, be itfrom any category, doesn’t needany permission for the firstthree years for starting a busi-ness. We want make in India,not made by Ambani...We wantmake in India, not made byAmbani in France,” he said tak-ing a swipe at the govern-ment’s flagship Make in Indiascheme. “Lakhs of youth seekfinancial help to start a busi-ness, but fail to get it. We can-not accept this. We believeeveryone should get ‘NYAY’,” hesaid.

Rahul has been allegingthat businessman Anil Ambanihas benefitted from the Rafaledeal with French defence firmDassault, an allegation deniedby the industrialist and the gov-ernment.

New Delhi: The CPI(M) haswritten to the EC against theappointment of former BSFDirector General KK Sharma asspecial police observer for theApril-May parliamentary elec-tion in West Bengal andJharkhand, alleging he was pre-sent at an RSS function a yearago. The EC has earlier appoint-ed four special observers, tworetired IRS and two retired IPSofficer, to spearhead its efforts tocheck the abuse of black moneyand illegal inducements to vot-ers and monitor deployment ofsecurity forces in select sensitivestates during the Lok Sabhapolls. Sharma is one of them.

“It has been widely report-ed that the DG, who has nowretired, participated in a two-day event in Kolkata which wasorganised by Seemanta ChetnaManch, part of the RSS-backedSeema Jagran Manch, a panIndia body which aims to instil‘patriotism’ in the border areasacross the country.

“The ECI’s appointment,therefore, is patently questionableand would raise the question of

political partisanship. We would,therefore, urge the commissionto reconsider and rescind thisappointment forthwith,” the let-ter from CPI(M) Polit bureaumember Nilotpal Basu said.

On Tuesday, theTrinamool Congress had raisedsimilar objection to Sharma’sappointment. The CPI(M)has also raised the issue of apurported video clip of TripuraChief Minister Biplab Deballegedly issuing a veiled threatto the opposition parties. “Inthe clip he clearly says that theelections to the two parlia-mentary seats from Tripura willbe different from the past andimplied a threat to the opposi-tion of undermining the nor-mal course. To add emphasis,he underlined that he was notjust speaking in his enthusiasm,but in complete senses.

“This is a clear violation ofmisusing his office to threatenfree, fair and peaceful polls andwould warrant urgent remedi-al measures from the ElectionCommission,” the letter fromthe CPI(M) leader said. PNS

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The Election Commission (EC) hassent a notice to four producers of the

film ‘PM Narendra Modi’ after receivingcomplaints from few other political partiesregarding the intent and timing of themovie. The Congress and Communist

Party of India (Marxist) had complainedto the ECI about the film’s release, claim-ing that it’s being done with political intent.

On March 25, a Congress delegationhad visited the EC to protest against theVivek Oberoi-starrer, alleging that the film’srelease slated just ahead of the com-mencement of Lok Sabha polls is a viola-tion of the model code of conduct.

The Congress delegation, includedRandeep Singh Surjewala, Kapil Sibal, andAbhishek Manu Singhvi, also sought a banon the release of the biopic ahead of polling.

Last week, the EC had sent notices totwo newspapers for publishing posters of‘PM Narendra Modi’ for promotions.

The movie has also got into legal trou-ble as a petition has been filed in theBombay High Court seeking a stay on therelease of the biopic on April 5.

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The Supreme Court onWednesday sentenced

advocate Mathews JNedumpara to three months injail for contempt of court andattempting to “browbeat”judges but suspended the sen-tence after taking note of theunconditional apology ten-dered by him.

The apex court, whichbarred the advocate from prac-tising before it for a year, saidthe jail sentence will be sus-pended only if Nedumparaabides by the undertaking thathe will never attempt to brow-beat judges of the top court andthe Bombay High Court.

A bench of Justices RFNariman and Vineet Saran,meanwhile, issued fresh con-tempt notice to Nedumparaand three others for “scan-dalous allegations” levelledagainst both the judges in a let-ter addressed to the Presidentof India, Chief Justice of IndiaRanjan Gogoi and other judgesof the top court and theBombay High Court.

On March 12, the top courthad held him guilty of con-tempt for taking the name of

noted jurist Fali S Nariman, thefather of Justice RF Nariman, toallege that sons and daughtersof judges were given priority inawarding ‘senior advocate’ des-ignation and had said that hehas attempted to browbeat thecourts.

It had issued notice to thelawyer on the punishment to beimposed on him for commit-ting contempt of court and hadsought his response within twoweeks.

The issue of contempt had

cropped up when the benchwas hearing a petition filed byan organisation, NationalLawyers Campaign for JudicialTransparency and Reforms,which was represented byNedumpara during the hear-ing.

In its order on Wednesday,the bench said: “We sentenceMathews J Nedumpara to threemonth imprisonment in jailwhich is suspended only ifMathews J Nedumpara, infuture, continues to abide by

the undertaking/affidavit(given by him).

“Mathews J Nedumpara isotherwise barred from prac-tising as an advocate before theSupreme Court for a period ofone year.”

The court said the freshcontempt case be placed beforethe CJI for constituting anappropriate bench to hear thematter as “serious allegations”have been levelled against boththe judges of the present bench.

The bench noted in its

verdict that Nedumpara hastendered an unconditionalapology to the court by way ofan affidavit given by him.

During the arguments onpoint of punishment to beimposed on Nedumpara,Justice Nariman said: “Are you(Nedumpara) aware that I havea daughter who is a practisinglawyer and she is not allowedto enter this court? Are youaware that Justice U U Lalit’s(sitting apex court judge) fatheris a lawyer?”

When Nedumpara said hehad raised an issue-based mat-ter in the plea filed by hisorganisation, Justice Narimansaid, “The issue is not FaliNariman but about relativespractising as advocate beforejudges. Justice Lalit’s issue wasnot mentioned and this showsit is not issue based.”

When the matter wasargued in the morning session,Nedumpara told the benchthat he has sought transfer ofthe case to another bench andhe will also file an applicationseeking recall of the March 12order holding him guilty ofcontempt of court.

However, the benchreferred to a letter written by a

Mumbai-based bar body tothe President of India, the CJIand other judges and toldNedumpara that “one very verydisturbing thing has takenplace”.

“They (bar body) haveattacked us (both the judges) inthe most scurrilous fashion,”Justice Nariman said.

The bench toldNedumpara that it appeared asif he and the bar body were“acting in tandem” and have“embarked upon the task todestroy the superior judiciaryof the country”.

He later sought a pass overon the ground that his lawyerwas on his way to the courtafter which the bench saidthat it would hear the matter at2 PM today itself.

When the bench assem-bled at 2 PM in the post-lunchsession, the counsel appearingfor Nedumpara referred to theprocedure of contempt of courtand said no charges wereframed in the matter.

However, the bench said,“Having held Nedumpara guiltyof contempt of court, can otherbench deal with the issue ofpunishment? Today, the issue isonly about punishment.”

New Delhi: The Election Commissionhas said it is eaxmining whether theGovernment has the right to invoke"national security" on Prime MinisterNarendra Modi's address to the nation onMission Shakti which has triggered theOpposition charge of model code of conduct.

In a statement the ElectionCommission said, "The matter related tothe address of the Prime Minister to thenation on electronic media today after-noon (March 27) has been brought to thenotice of the Election Commission ofIndia. The Commission has directed acommittee of officers to examine the mat-ter immediately in the light of model codeof conduct." Dr Sandeep Saxsena, DeputyElection Commissioner (DEC) of theMCC division, will head the committeeto examine PM Modi's speech. PNS

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The Election Commission islearnt to have issued a

show cause notice to theRailways and Civil Aviationministries over the use of PrimeMinister Narendra Modi’s pic-tures on rail tickets and AirIndia boarding passes as primafacie it violates the model codeof conduct.

The code came into forceon March 10 when the pollbody announced the schedulefor the Lok Sabha polls begin-ning April 11.

Sources in the poll panelsaid prima facie the railwaysand Air India have violated themodel code of conduct, andreferred to clause VII of thecode which states that “issue ofadvertisement at the cost ofpublic exchequer ... Regardingachievements with a view tofurthering the prospects of the

party in power shall be scrupu-lously avoided”.

In a complaint to the EC,the Trinamool Congress hadrecently claimed that the“...Railway tickets issued bythe Indian Railways containachievements of the party inpower at the Centre (BJP) withregard to Pradhan Mantri AwasYojana and photographs ofPrime Minister Narendra Modiwhich is being displayed at thecost of public exchequer andobviously to influence minds ofthe voters.”

The display of photographwas part of an Urban

Development Ministry adver-tisement campaign.

A portion of the back sideof tickets is often used foradvertising. The railways hadlast week decided to withdrawthe tickets carrying the pho-tographs of the PM, sources inthe ministry said.

Nearly one lakh such tick-ets were printed and a few wereremaining in the lot. The min-istry is likely to reiterate thesame position to EC, they said.

The railways had said all its17 zones have been directedagainst using the tickets carry-ing the picture of the prime

minister. A boarding pass issued by

Air India had pictures of PMModi and Gujarat ChiefMinister Vijay Rupani. Theairline had said the passes fea-turing the photographs, whichwere third-party advertise-ments, would be withdrawn ifthey were found to be in vio-lation of the Model Code ofConduct.

Former Punjab DGPShashi Kant on Monday tweet-ed a photograph of his board-ing pass issued at the NewDelhi airport, questioning howpictures of the two leaderscould be on it.

An Air India spokespersonearlier said the boarding pass-es seemed to be the ones print-ed during the Vibrant GujaratSummit held in January andthe photographs were part ofthe advertisement from ‘thirdparties’.

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Prime Minister NarendraModi is trying to create fear

psychosis in the minds of vot-ers through warmongering,CPI leader D Raja saidWednesday, alleging that hisannouncement on ‘MissionShakti’ showed his “desperationand panic”.

“He has politicised theachievements of the scientists,taken credit for it and usedpublic broadcasting to do so.This is definitely a violation ofthe model code of conduct (forthe Lok Sabha elections). TheEC should take action imme-diately.

“Also, he is trying to createa fear psychosis in the minds ofthe people ahead of the elec-

tions and is (resorting to) war-mongering. This shows thatthey are desperate and panicky,”Raja said.

However, sources in theElection Commission have saidthat issues related to national

security and disaster manage-ment do not fall under theambit of the model code ofconduct.

India shot down one of itssatellites in space onWednesday with an anti-satel-lite missile to demonstrate thiscomplex capability, PrimeMinister Narendra Modiannounced, making it only thefourth country to have usedsuch a weapon.

Declaring India has estab-lished itself as a global spacepower after the success of theoperation ‘Mission Shakti’,Modi said the missile hit a livesatellite flying in a Low EarthOrbit after it traversed a dis-tance of almost 300 km fromearth within three minutes ofits launch.

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chhattisgarh 03RAIPUR | THURSDAY | MARCH 28, 2019

STAFF REPORTER nRAIPUR

The South EasternCoalfields Limited

(SECL) became the firstcompany in India to crosscoal production of 150 mil-lion tonnes in a financialyear.

It attained the feat dur-ing the financial year 2018-19, a SECL press releasesaid.

While achieving theannual coal productionrecord, the company createdseveral new records on day-to-day basis under the lead-ership of its CMD A PPanda, the press release said.

On March 10, the SECL

created a record of high-est single day coal pro-duction by mining6,30,000 tonnes of thecombustible hard rock .Two days later, it broke itsown record by producing6,37,000 tonnes of coal ina single day.

Again on March 18,the SECL created a newproduction record byproducing 6,66,000tonnes of coal in singleday. This was the highestsingle day coal produc-tion in Coal IndiaLimited.

The wave did not stophere. On March 25 theSECL broke all previousrecords by producing744654 tonnes of coal in a

single day. This was the high-est ever single day coal pro-duction since the inceptionof the SECL.

The company also faredwell at area level. On March12, Dipka area achieved thehighest ever single day coalproduction of 1,45,421tonnes. On March 19 theSECL’s Gevra Mine achieveda single day coal productionof 2,05,795 tonnes, whichwas the highest single daycoal production for any mineunder Coal India Limitedduring the current financialYear. On March 19, Gevradespatched 1,68,087.31tonnes of coal, which is thehighest ever despatched byany mine in Coal IndiaLimited.

During 2017-18 fiscal,the SECL produced 144.7MT of coal, thus making itthe largest coal producingsubsidiary of Coal IndiaLimited. The SECL crossedthis coal production figure of144.7 MT on March 10 itself.

The company attributesthe achievement to the hardwork and commitment of itsemployees who made allefforts to meet the annualproduction target.

Panda while congratulat-ing the team-SECL and allits stake holders for theachievement, lauded compa-ny’s culture of hard work,team spirit, commitment andability of the organisation tostick to job even during diffi-cult times.

SECL creates new record, produces 150MT coal in 1 FY

STAFF REPORTER nRAIPUR

The BJP on Wednesdaytook serious exception to

Congress president RahulGandhi and TrinamoolCongress chief MamataBanerjee’s comments againstPrime Minister NarendraModi, whom they accused oftrying to "take the credit" ofthe achievement of space sci-entists in shooting down alive satellite.

In a broadcast to thenation on television, radioand social media, Modiannounced that India haddemonstrated anti-satellitemissile capability by shootingdown a live satellite anddescribed it as a rare achieve-ment that puts the country inan exclusive club of spacesuper powers.

But the way PM made theunprecedented broadcast didnot go well with the opposi-tion parties who remindedthe government that the'ASAT' programme was initi-ated during the Congress-ledUPA rule.

Taking a dig at Modi,Rahul Gandhi wished him"happy World Theatre Day"after his address to thenation.

West Bengal chief minis-ter termed the announce-ment as “yet another limitless

drama and publicity monger-ing by Modi.”

Commenting on Gandhiand Banerjee’s remarks, BJPleader and former ministerAjay Chandrakar said: “Indiahas become the fourth coun-try in the world to have thecapacity to target a satellite inspace. The (country’s) leader-ship should be appreciatedfor taking the initiative.”

He said the Oppositionleaders were not ready to givecredit to the government forthe feat.

“Instead they aredemeaning the post of thePrime Minister by makingbaseless comments,”Chandrakar claimed whileaddressing media.

The BJP leader also criti-cised Congress party’s basicminimum income guarantee

scheme, saying RahulGandhi had earlier under-mined the poverty by dub-bing it a “state of mind.

“Now by offering to payRs 72000 annually to poorpeople what is he trying toprove?” Chandrakar asked.

The BJP leader furtheraccused the Congress gov-ernment in the state of goingback on its poll promise ofimposing prohibition.

Citing recent pre-pollraids conducted againstliquor shops at the behest ofthe Election Commission forovercharging, the BJP leadersaid the actions were initiatedafter his party raised theissue.

The raids further vindi-cated the BJP’s stand onliquor sale in the state, hesaid.

BJP lambasts Rahul, Mamata for taking dig at PMSTAFF REPORTER nRAIPUR

Congress on Wednesdaytook strong exception to

BJP leader and formerChhattisgarh minister AjayChandrakar’s criticism to theNyuntam Aay Yojana(NYAY).

In a statement,Congress’s state general sec-retary and chairman com-munication wing ShaileshNitin Trivedi said the BJPwas in jittery since theannouncement of NYAY byCongress president RahulGandhi.

He said the BJP was crit-icising the scheme that pro-posed to make direct cashtransfer of Rs 72,000 annual-ly in the account of poorest

of the poor because the “socalled nationalist party is asympathiser of capitalists.”

“Basically the BJP isagainst the interest of poorfarmers, labourers, smallshop owners and hand cartpullers who were supposedto be benefitted by thescheme,” he claimed.

By announcing thescheme, the Congress presi-dent had won the hearts ofthe poor people and that’swhy the BJP was making

such statements to “hidetheir fear of shameful defeatin the upcoming generalelections”, the Congressleaders aid.

Only because of thisanti-poor mentality the BJPwas rooted out from thestate and was restricted toonly 15 seats in 90-memberstate assembly, Trivediadded.

He also refuted thecharges of Chandrakar thatCongress was transportingliquor in government vehi-cles for distribution by itscandidate ahead of elections.

“People of the state arewitnessing everything,” hesaid, adding the Congresswould win all the 11 LokSabha seats in the state.

BJP’s objection to NYAY reflectsits anti-poor mindset: Congress

STAFF REPORTER n RAIPUR

Five persons were arrested fromRamsagar Para locality of the

state capital for allegedly betting onIPL cricket match held on Tuesdaynight.

Additional superintendent ofpolice (city) Prafull Thakur said thearrest were made after policereceived a tip-off about an onlinebetting racket being run fromRamsagar Para locality during IPlcricket matches.

“Following which we conduct-ed a raid at a flat in the locality andarrested the five," the officer said.

The ASP identified the five asMohan Somani, AnkurKhandelwal, Jai Khandelwal,Ashwani Sharma and Vivek Bisen.The accused were operating the hi-tech betting racket.

Cash worth Rs 53 Lakh, sixtymobile phones hi-tech holders usedfor betting were recovered from thespot, he added.

Cases have been registeredunder relevant sections against the

accused, the ASP said adding thatfurther probe was underway.

Five punters arrestedfor cricket betting


Raipur Police on Wednesday served noticeto former chief minister Raman Singh’s

son-in-law Punit Gupta to appear before GolBazar police station within three days in con-nection with a multi-crore scam, rejectingGupta’s plea for 20 days time.

Gupta had sought more time to appearbefore the police on health ground.

An FIR was earlier lodged against Gupta ata police station in Raipur for allegedly misap-propriating Rs 50 crore misusing his positionas a superintendent of DK Super-SpecialtyHospital.

The complaint was lodged by presentsuperintendent of the hospital K.K. Sahare.

In his complaint, Sahare alleged that large-scale irregularities took place when Gupta wasthe superintendent of the hospital fromDecember 2015 to October 2018.

He alleged that Gupta misused his influ-

ence and bypassed rules to appoint doctors andother staff, and also misused governmentfunds to buy redundant machines that hadnothing to do with treatment of patients.

Gupta has been charged under sections420 (cheating), 467 (forgery of valuable securi-ty), 468 (forgery for the purpose of cheating)and 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the IndianPenal Code.

Punit Gupta askedto appear beforepolice within 3 days


Laying of new railway tracksbetween Bhanupratappur

and Kevti under Durg-Dallirajhara section of theRaipur division of South EastCentral Railway has been com-pleted.

The new line was inspectedby SE circle commissioner ofRailway safety, Kolkata, A K Raion Wednesday.

The line would be madeoperation after getting a nodfrom Rai, railway sources said.

Rai along with other mem-bers of the inspection team con-ducted the safety assessment bytraveling to Kevti fromBhanupratappur in a motor-window trolley.

He also inspected the majorbridges constructed on theroute. On return, the trial run of110 km speed was also conduct-ed from Kevti to

Bhanupratappur.Chhattisgarh government,

Steel Authority of India Limited,NMDC and Rail Vikas NigamLimited are jointly laying the235 kilometers of railway lineunder Dallirajhara-Raoghat-Jagdalpur project. In first phaseunder Raipur Railway Division,a target has been set to lay newrailway line of 95 kilometers

from Dallirajhara-Raoghat t.Under this, a 34 km railway linehas been laid from Dallirajharato Bhanupratappur. The nextexpansion of 8.2 kilometersfrom Bhanupratappur to Kevtihas also been completed.

Raipur DRM KaushalKishore and other senior offi-cials were also present duringthe inspection.


Chhattisgarh BJP lodged acomplaint on Wednesday

with the Election Commissionof India against Congress’s can-didate from Korba JyotsnaMahant for allegedly addressinga press conference at the officialresidence of the assembly speak-er Charan Das Mahant, violatingmodel code of conduct. In itscomplaint, the party stated thaton March 26, Jyotsna Mahantaddressed a press conference, forwhich officially invite was sentout to journalists, at official resi-dence of her husband, who is theassembly speaker.

As speaker is a constitution-al post, such political eventshould not have taken placethere after the election modelcode of conduct came intoeffect.

“It’s a violation of modelcode and also a criminal andillegal act and it denies equalopportunity to all, the BJPalleged. The complaint lodged

by the BJP’s state legal cell fur-ther demanded action againstJyotsna Mahant by declaring her

candidature as invalid. It alsodemanded action against herhusband as well as Congress

spokesperson Ghansyam RajuTiwari for extending the invita-tion for violation of poll code.

Trial run on new Bhanupratappur-Kevtirailway line completed

BJP lodges complaint against Cong’s Jyotsna Mahant

Nominations of 44candidates validRAIPUR: After scrutiny of nomina-tion papers for second phase of LokSabha Polls on Wednesday, a total of 51candidates now remained in the frayfor the two phases of polling in thestate’s four Lok Sabha seats. A total of10 nomination papers have beenrejected. In second phase, nominationpapers of 44 candidates from threeseats were found to be valid whilenominations of seven candidates forthe one seat where polling will be heldin the first phase were okayed.

Chhattisgarh chief electoral officerSubrat Sahoo said, “For the Bastar LokSabha seat that will go to poll on firstphase, nominations of seven candi-dates were approved. For second phasenomination papers of 19 candidates inRajnandgaon, 14 in Mahasamund and11 in Kanker were found to be valid.”

In second phase for three LS seats,total of 54 candidates had filed 98nomination papers. After scrutiny,nominations of 10 candidates wererejected-- 5 in Rajnandgaon, 4 inMahasamund and 1 in Kanker.

The CEO said for the first phase ofpolling, candidates can withdraw nom-ination on March 28 while for the sec-ond phase the last date of withdrawal isMarch 29.

RAIPUR: The ruling Congress on Wednesdaytermed the BJP’s allegation of violation of electionmodel code of conduct (MCC) against its candidatefrom Korba Lok Sabha constituency JyotsnaMahant as “politically motivated.”

The BJP said the congress candidate violated theMCC by addressing a press conference at the officialresidence of her husband Charan Das Mahant, whois the speaker of the state legislative assembly.

Taking objection to the allegation, the Congressclaimed Jyotsna addressed the press conferencebefore filing her nominations.

In a statement Congress spokesperson SushilAnand Shukla refuting the BJP charges as “baseless”,said that at the time of addressing the media at herhusband’s official residence she was not officially acandidate and hence the question of violation of the

MCC did not arise.The spokesperson said it was the right of the

wife to reside in her husband’s residence and there-fore it could not be regarded as violation of theMCC.

The Congress spokesperson further said ifaddressing press conferences in official resi-dence was violation of the MCC, then the BJPbigwigs Raman Singh, Vikram Usendi andDharamlal Kaushik were doing so repeatedly.

Fearing a certain defeat, the BJP was levelingsuch allegation which was baseless and politicallymotivated, Shukla added.

Speaker is a constitutional post and by levelingsuch baseless allegation the BJP had defamed thepost, he said, adding the party should immediatelyapologise and rectify its mistake.

Poll code violation charge againstJyotsna politically motivated: Cong

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Congress president RahulGandhi will visit Haryana

on March 29 to join party’s‘Parivartan Yatra’ to give much-needed impetus toCongressmen, as the stateparty unit is battling faction-alism and infighting.

Looking to strengthenparty’s position in ensuingLok Sabha polls, the seniorparty leaders of HaryanaCongress had on Tuesdayembarked on a six-day‘Parivartan Yatra’ in a special-ly designed bus to firm upinternal unity and showcase itacross the state.

The show of unity,designed to achieve two keytasks including ending fac-tionalism in the party andensuring maximum connec-tivity with the people across

Haryana ahead of the pollingday on May12, will now bejoined by party presidentRahul Gandhi.

The Gandhi scion willhold a roadshow on March 29in Karnal, which is represent-ed by Chief Minister ManoharLal in the State Assembly. Thevery idea of holding the road-show in CM’s home turf Karnalis to challenge the ruling BJPhead-on.

As part of energizingCongress workers in the statewhere assembly elections arealso scheduled to be held laterthis year, Rahul will addresspublic meetings at Jagadhri(Anaj Mandi) in Yamunanagar,Ladwa (Anaj Mandi) inKurukshetra, Karnal (ITIchowk). His roadshow willbegin from Jagadhri and con-clude at Karnal on Friday.

This will be RahulGandhi’s first visit to Haryana

after taking over as the presi-dent of the Congress inDecember 2017.

His visit assumes signifi-cance as he will be reaching outto the voters of three LokSabha seats including Ambala,Kurukshetra and Karnal,which was won by BJP in the2014 general elections.

Congress’ main rival—BJP—will field new faces fromKurukshetra and Karnal thistime while Ambala BJP MPRattan Lal Kataria is likely toget party’s ticket again.

In Congress, two-time for-mer MP Naveen Jindal is fron-trunner for a party’s ticketfrom Kurkshetra, Rajya SabhaMP Kumari Selja from Ambalawhile former Speaker andGanaur MLA Kuldeep Sharmahas sought a ticket for his sonfrom Karnal seat.

The voting to 10 LokSabha seats in Haryana will be

held in a single phase on May12.

The Chief MinisterManohar Lal has already beenholding roadshows in variousparts of Haryana to connectwith the voters.

“Congress chief RahulGandhi will address publicmeetings and hold roadshowfrom Jagadhri to Karnal dur-ing his one day visit to Haryanaon March 29, the fourth day ofongoing ‘Parivartan Yatra’ ofHaryana Congress,” said stateCongress secretary PankajPunia, while talking to ThePioneer.

On the fourth day of‘Parivartan Yatra’, the nighthalt is scheduled at Karnal, hesaid. The yatra which began onMarch 26 from Gurugram willconclude at Faridabad onMarch 31. To end the faction-alism in Haryana Congressunit, Ghulam Nabi Azad, who

is the Congress general secre-tary in charge of Haryana,had recently given a strongmessage to senior party lead-ers to fight a united war todefeat the BJP and that ticketswill be refused to those who donot toe the party line.

It is no secret that stateparty president Ashok Tanwar,a dalit leader, and former ChiefMinister Bhupinder SinghHooda, an upper caste Jat, donot see eye to eye on most mat-ters and have been at logger-heads since 2014 polls.

However, both the leadersseem to have set aside their dif-ferences, at least for now andwere seen sharing a seat dur-ing Congress ‘Parivartan Yatra’on the first day.

Apart from the two fac-tions headed by Tanwar andHooda in Haryana Congressunit, senior party leadersincluding Kumari Selja,

Randeep Surjewala, KuldeepBishnoi, Kiran Choudhry alsohead other factions within theparty.

While Congress legisla-ture party leader KiranChoudhry, Rohtak MPDeepender Singh Hooda,Rajya Sabha MP Selja Kumari,former minister Ajay Yadav,former Assembly SpeakerKuldeep Sharma were amongthe leaders who are on boardduring the bus yatra, KuldeepBishnoi and RandeepSurjewala have stayed awayfrom the party’s yatra.

Notably, the Congresscould retain only one LokSabha seat out of 10 in LokSabha polls 2014. In assemblypolls held later that year, theparty was reduced to 15 seatsonly. The number of CongressMLAs had later increased to 17after Kuldeep Bishnoi’s HJC’smerger in the party in 2016.

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Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD)on Wednesday announced to

launch an agitation in case theCongress-led PunjabGovernment did not release Rs500 crore due to the state’s SCstudents on account of Post-Matric scholarship scheme byMarch 31.

The party also demandedaction against the state FinanceMinister Manpreet Badal andthe state Welfare of SCs and BCsMinister Sadhu SinghDharamsot “for compromisingthe dignity of SC students whowere being humiliated by bothGovernment and PrivateCollege managements for fail-ing to deposit the tuition feewhich was the responsibility ofthe State government underthe central scheme”.

Party MLA Pawan KumarTinu said that the Congressgovernment diverted Rs 270crore received in February thisyear for the SC scholarshipscheme from the CentralGovernment, and there was abacklog of around Rs 250 crorein distribution of this scholar-ship taking the total amountdue to students to more than Rs500 crore.

Tinu said that even as stu-dents were not being giventheir scholarship, the CongressGovernment had allowed col-lege managements to chargethem admission fee which wasnot applicable to SC studentsearlier during SAD-BJP tenure.“While enrolment of SC stu-

dents has dropped from threelakh to two lakh during the lastone year, it is likely to drop evenfurther due these new mea-sures,” he said.

“It seems the Congress gov-ernment does not want SC stu-dents to pursue higher studiesand become eligible for theGhar Ghar Naukari schemewhich is anyway on paper only”,he added.

He pointed that the man-agement of GovernmentMohindra College, Patiala, hadput up a notice asking all SC stu-dents to deposit their scholar-ship fee or they would not beissued roll numbers, and thesame notices had been issued bymany private colleges also. “Thesituation has become such thatprivate college managementsare not giving degrees to stu-dents whose scholarship feehas not been paid by the gov-ernment,” he said.

The SAD will now take upthis cause and take it to its log-ical conclusion, said Tinu whiledeclaring that in case theCongress Government did notrelease the scholarship by March31, we would start an intensiveagitation to ensure SC studentsare not denied their rights.

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Expressing its deep anguishover the failure of the pre-

ceding governments in Punjabto take on the rising incidentsof deaths due to farm distress

and the youths dying of drugoverdose, the Aam AadmiParty (AAP) on Wednesdaycastigated the “sleepy” gov-ernments for confounding theproblem.

“If official figures are to bebelieved, Punjab is passingthrough a critical phase with

the overstressed farmers,already in debt trap, beingshoved into taking the extremestep due to government’s apa-thetic attitude, peddling rosydreams of a complete loanwaiver, only to backtrack on the

promise, leaving the hassledfarmers to fend for themselves,”said AAP MLAs — KultarSingh Sandhwan (Kotkapura)and Prof Baljinder Kaur(Talwandi Sabo).

Sandhwan, also AAP’s stateunit Kisan wing chief, saidthat the government should,

taking a cue from the DelhiGovernment, should imple-ment the recommendations ofSwaminathan Commission toaddress the farm distress.

They said that the govern-ment in the saddle, like the pre-vious Akali Dal government,had failed on all fronts, be itcreating enough job opportu-nities under the ‘Ghar GharNaukari’, addressing the issuesand concerns of farmers,stamping out the menace ofdrugs, which had proved to bea mere ‘jumla’ as nothing cameabout out of the narrative.

Speaking about the drugsmenace, Sandhwan accusedthe former SAD-BJP govern-ment of shoving the youthinto drugs by offering a pro-tective cover to the drug lords.“It is the Akali Dal governmentwhich introduced the cult of‘mafia raj’ in the state. Even the

ruling Congress governmenthas done nothing,” he added.

Prof Baljinder Kaur saidthat the galloping pace at whichdeaths due to drug overdose bythe youths were taking placehad sounded a clarion for thedeaf dispensation. “What ismore worrying is that the drugshas spread its fangs over theyounger girls both in the urbanand rural pockets of the statefor which the governmentswere to be held solely respon-sible,” she added while citing arecent example of a 13-year-oldgirl from Rama Mandi inBathinda district who wasallegedly shoved into drugs byher seniors.

She said that the situationwas for more alarming in theborder districts of Gurdaspur,Ferozepur and Tarn Taran,where three youths had recent-ly died of drug overdose.

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Holding cards close totheir chest, both the Congressand Shiromani Akali Dal(SAD) are waiting for eachother to “show”.

Biding one’s time, both thetraditional political rivals havebeen waiting for the other toannounce their candidates forMay 19 elections, especially forthe crucial seats of Bathinda,Amritsar, and Ferozepur.

As the SAD is planning tofield party president SukhbirBadal from Ferozepur and hisUnion Minister wife HarsimratBadal from Bathinda, theCongress party maintainedthat they would wait for theparty to make the formalannouncement before declar-ing their candidates for theseat.

On the other hand, SAD iswaiting for the Congress tomake the first move in declar-ing its candidates leavingoptions open for itself.

“We are waiting for them

to declare their candidates...Wewill see whom they field fromBathinda and other seats,”Punjab Congress presidentSunil Jakhar told The Pioneerwhen asked about the party’scandidates from the crucialseats.

Among the frontrunnersfor the Congress ticket fromBathinda, the party is mullingto field the state FinanceMinister Manpreet SinghBadal, who had, in the recentpast, had expressed his desireto contest elections against hissister-in-law Harsimrat Badal.

Bathinda has also wit-nessed a fight within the Badalfamily in 2014 elections, inwhich Harsimrat defeated herestranged brother-in-law, by anarrow margin. And consid-ering the diminishing win-ning margins from 1,20,948votes in 2009 Lok Sabha elec-tions to 19,395 votes in 2014,SAD is now mulling to shiftHarsimrat to the neighbouringFerozepur which is seen as asafer bet this time.

Congress candidates fromFerozepur and Bathinda willdepend on the Akali Dal’smove to shift Harsimrat toFerozepur from Bathinda —which has been the epicentreof anti-sacrilege protestsagainst the Badals, or Sukhbirmay himself decide to throwhis hat in the electoral ringfrom Ferozepur retainingBathinda for Harsimrat.

For Bathinda seat, thename of Nirvan Singh, theChief Minister CaptAmarinder Singh’s grandson,was also doing the rounds.With Capt Amarinder talkingin terms of hanging his bootssooner, he may decide to intro-duce his daughter Jai InderKaur’s younger son Nirvan ashis political heir.

Hailing from the Rai Sikhcommunity holding sway overthe Ferozepur seat, SAD rebeland sitting MP Sher SinghGhubaya has already startedhis campaign after joining theCongress recently.

AT the same time, the

state Cabinet Minister RanaGurmit Singh Sodhi is alsostaking claim over the partyticket. Now with Sukhbirexpected to enter the poll fray,the situation would change,and party would go in for aparty heavyweight against SADpresident.

Jakhar, at the same time,made clear his intentions of“not” contesting fromFerozepur, the seat he lost in2014 elections against the thenSAD candidate, Sher SinghGhubaya. “I accepted the vot-ers’ verdict...I have no com-plaints against anyone. Sukhbirmay have ego, but I don’t, andI respectfully accept verdict ofFerozepur’s voters,” he said,while adding that he wouldcontest from where his partyleadership would ask him t,whether it is Ferozepur orGurdaspur or anywhere else.

For Amritsar seat, theparty is considering to field thecricketer-turned-politician andthe state Cabinet MinisterNavjot Singh Sidhu in case the

BJP comes up with a strongcandidate just like it fieldedBJP stalwart Arun Jaitley in2014 elections. To counter it,the Congress had fielded CaptAmarinder Singh.

Even as the time for cam-paigning is running out withlittle patience, both are look-ing at each other to cut thefirst turf, leaving the aspirantsanxious.

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Amritsar: SAD presidentSukhbir Badal on Wednesdaysaid that all reports regardingparty candidates from differ-ent constituencies are merespeculations and the party isyet to decide the names.

Talking about his candi-dature from Ferozepur seat,Sukhbir said that the party hasyet not decided. “Whateverdecision the party takes,whether I should contest ornot, will be acceptable to me.I am already fighting from thefront being party president,”he said.

Sukhbir, who paid obei-

sance at the Golden Temple inAmritsar along with hisUnion Minister wifeHarsimrat Kaur Badal, said that the final decisionregarding the Lok Sabha seats’candidates will be out soonafter the party undergo analy-sis and decide over the same.

“The opposition is tryingto strategise against SAD-BJP,” he said. Taking a dig overthe SAD (Taksali), Sukhbirsaid that the party has intro-duced all the new faces whichis absolutely opposite to itscharacter of being Taksali.

PTI

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Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)on Wednesday appealed

to the visiting National GreenTribunal (NGT) team notonly to give sermons to thefarmers over stubble burningin Punjab but also bring boththe Union and StateGovernments on board toshow what they had done inthis regard.

“AAP is not in favour ofburning crop residue as theexercise posed a potentialdanger to the living and non-living organisms, including,besides humans, plants, water,air, animals and insects, etal...But the farmers do it outcompulsion as they have tobear an additional financialburden of Rs 1000 per acre toclear the residue to enablehim to sow the next seasonalcrop,” said AAP MLA and theLeader of Opposition inVidhan Sabha Harpal SinghCheema.

Cheema said that the has-sled farmer, who was alreadyhead over heels in debt, had

been left with no finances tomeet the expenses on dispos-ing of the crop residue, whichwas the fallout of anti-farmerpolicies of the subsequentgovernments in the State.

He demanded that theUnion and State governmentsshould come to the rescue ofpoor farmers and allow spe-cial bonus or subsidy to suf-fice enough to dispose of thestubble without spendingadditional money.

Cheema added that the governments should set uphigh-tech project to generatepower out of the stubble inthe state.

Expressing his satisfac-tion over marginally tacklingthe menace, Cheema said thatthe government should notclaim the credit for this effortsince the farmers had done itby driving hole in their pock-ets.

Cheema urged the visitingNGT team to ask the respec-tive government what theyhad done to check the men-ace of stubble burning in thestate.

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Bhopal: Calling the Pulwama attack an intelligence failure, for-mer Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Digvijaya Singh said, hereon Wednesday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had no expla-nation for it and his party was instead busy inciting Hindu-Muslim tensions.

Singh, Congress candidate from Bhopal, was addressing partyrepresentatives using Shakti app.

"The Pulwama martyrs' families are asking why weren't theyairlifted when the government had alert of an attack. The PrimeMinister hasn't given them an answer. This is the biggest proofof an intelligence failure," he said.

"The international media is asking questions, but the gov-ernment has no reply. The only strategy the BJP has now is tocreate tension between the Hindus and Muslims," the formerChief Minister said.

According to Singh, communal polarisation had been theBJP's strategy since 1990. In 1947 during Partition, the BhopalNawab stopped Muslims from leaving the country. The city sawits first riot in the aftermath of the Babri Masjid demolition in1992. IANS

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New Delhi: Muslim women fromdifferent parts of the country onWednesday gathered in the nation-al capital urging the "secular" polit-ical parties in the country to add intheir manifesto the need to have alaw against mob lynching.

The women, who launched adetailed 39-point manifesto alsodemanded that Muslim Women(Protection of Rights on Marriage)Ordinance, 2019 must be scrapped.

They also asked for 33 per centreservations for women to increasetheir political representation in the

Parliament. They also wanted anincrease budgetary allocations forgirls and women-related interven-tions.

The women from at least 10states, under the banner of 'BebaakCollective' (voice of Fearless) cametogether to release the manifesto list-ing their demands related to genderequality, minority safeguard andcitizenship rights.

Among the women was alsoKhalida, wife of Umar Khan, whowas allegedly lynched in 2017 inAlwar, months after dairy farmer

Pehlu Khan was lynched in thearea.

The manifesto demanded for-mulation of a diversity index across

public and private sectors to deter-mine the extent of under-represen-tation of Muslims, 10 per cent reser-vation to Muslims in higher educa-tion and government jobs and a gen-der-just law in Muslim Personal Law.

They also demanded monetarybenefits for single women, intro-duction of a communal violence billto bring perpetrators to justice andredrafting of Surrogacy (Regulation)Bill, 2016.

"All anti-conversion laws shouldbe scrapped," it added.

IANS

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New Delhi: The Delhi HighCourt on Wednesday dis-missed a plea challenging theDelhi government's decisioninstructing schools to prescribeonly NCERT, SCERT andCBSE books.

Justice C. Hari Shankarrejected the plea filed byFederation of EducationalPublishers in India challengingDelhi government's circularinstructed schools to prescribeonly NCERT, SCERT andCBSE books.

"It does appear piquantthat the torch-bearers, for thesupposed interests of the stu-dents, in this case, are neitherthe students, nor their parents,nor even the schools whowould be required to complywith the impugned circular, butan association of private pub-lishers of textbooks," the courtsaid.

"The challenge to theimpugned stipulation, in thecircular dated November 29,2018 is, therefore, repelled," thecourt said.

"This court endorses themandate, reflected in the saidstipulation, to the effect that, inrespect of subjects, for whichtextbooks have been prescribedby the CBSE, and published bythe NCERT/SCERT/CBSE, thesaid prescription shall scrupu-lously be followed by all schoolssubject to the control of theDirectorate of Education(DoE)," the court said.

"The syllabi and textbooks,prescribed by the CBSE, shallconstitute the basis of impart-ing of education, as well as eval-uation, of all schools students,from Classes I to X."

On November 29, 2018,

the Directorate of Education,Delhi Government issued acircular primarily addressingthe concern of school children,in primary and secondaryschools, having to carry schoolbags which were excessivelyheavy, thereby causing detri-ment to their health and well-being.

The circular stipulatedmaximum weight of schoolbags to be carried by childrenin various classes from Class Ito Class X. It also directed tofollow the textbooks prescribedby the State Council ofEducational Research &Training (SCERT), the NationalCouncil for EducationalResearch & Training (NCERT)and the Central Board ofSecondary Education(CBSE).

The petitioner Federationof Educational Publishers inIndia said that circular was"arbitrary" and without any"scientific study".

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British MPs will onWednesday hold votes on

various Brexit options even asPrime Minister Theresa Maycomes under pressure toannounce a departure plan toget support for her unpopulardivorce deal.

Three years after a refer-endum in which Britain votedto leave the European Union,the country is gripped bypainful uncertainty over how— or even whether — it shouldput an end to its 46-year mem-bership. May’s deal negotiatedwith Brussels has already beenvoted down overwhelmingly byparliament twice but the gov-ernment is widely expected topresent it for a third time onThursday to ensure an orderlyBrexit.

EU leaders said Britaincould leave the EU on May 22if the deal is adopted this week,or face a potential no-dealBrexit as early as April 12.

In a bid to find Brexitalternatives, lawmakers tookthe unprecedented step onMonday of seizing control ofWednesday’s parliamentary

business.MPs will hold a series of

“indicative votes” — indicatingtheir preferences on a piece ofpaper — for different Brexitoutcomes, although May is notlegally-bound to follow theirinstructions.

The proposals put forwardso include a customs unionwith the EU, remaining in the

single market, holding a secondreferendum or stopping Brexitby revoking Article 50 — theformal notification for depar-ture. The alternatives that willactually be voted on will beselected by speaker JohnBercow on Wednesday andvoting will take place at around1900 GMT with the resultsexpected at around 2100 GMT.

Time has been set asidenext Monday to try and whit-tle down the most popularoptions to a final plan.

Parliament’s unprecedent-ed power-grab was spearhead-ed by arch-EU MPs, who wantto either reverse Brexit or pre-serve much closer economicties with the remaining 27States.

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Strasbourg: European CouncilPresident Donald Tusk urgedEU lawmakers Wednesday toremain open to a long post-ponement of Brexit whileBritain rethinks its position,urging them not to “betray”the UK’s pro-Europe voters.

“I said that we should beopen to a long extension if theUK wishes to rethink its Brexitstrategy, which would of coursemean the UK’s participation inthe European Parliament elec-tions,” Tusk said.

“And then there were voic-es saying that this would beharmful or inconvenient tosome of you. Let me be clear,such thinking is unaccept-able,” he told the StrasbourgAssembly. At last week’sEuropean summit, EU leadersagreed to delay the day ofBritain’s departure from the

bloc by three weeks until April12, while Prime MinisterTheresa May struggles to rat-ify a withdrawal treaty.

But many on the continent-- most vocally France’sPresident Emmanuel Macron-- oppose a longer extension,concerned it would disrupt theEuropean Parliament electionsthat start on May 23.

If Britain is still an EUmember on that date, it wouldhave to take part in the vote,and wrangling over Brexitwould continue to disrupt theEuropean political agenda formonths or years to come.

Tusk, who stressed he wasexpressing his personal view,urged the European parliamentto keep faith with those Britishvoters still hoping for a longerdelay or even the reversal of theBrexit decision. AFP

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South African President CyrilRamaphosa’s son Andile

admitted on Wednesday hewas paid $1,40,000 by a com-pany facing extensive corrup-tion allegations, an admissionthat could embarrass his fatherahead of polls.

President Ramaphosa hassought, ahead of elections onMay 8, to de-toxify the rulingAfrican National Congresswhich has been embroiled innumerous graft scandals sincecoming to power in 1994.

“It was a severe oversighton our part,” Andile told theNews24 site of a $16,000-a-month deal his companysigned with the Bosasa groupin December 2017.

Bosasa, which is nowAfrican Global Operations,was a conglomerate involved inbidding for and running lucra-tive Government contracts.

Several suspects includingthe company’s former chiefoperating officer AngeloAgrizzi appeared at theSpecialised CommercialCrimes Court Wednesday overthe alleged theft of $120 millionfrom contracts with the prisonsservice. The case was post-poned to July.

“It is clear now with thebenefit of hindsight that ourdue diligence was insufficientin retrospect of my father’s rolegoing into the Presidency,”Andile Ramaphosa toldNews24.

His company, Blue CraneCapital, was contracted to pro-vide advice on more than 20public and private sector con-tracts in Uganda and Kenya.

There is no suggestionAndile Ramaphosa or his com-pany were involved in thealleged corruption at the cen-tre of the ongoing criminalcase.

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The US Supreme Court over-turned Tuesday a ruling

ordering Sudan to pay damagesto the families of 17 servicemenkilled in the 2000 bombing ofthe USS Cole in Yemen.

The high court ruled onprocedural grounds: under reg-ulations related to the prosecu-tion of foreign states, it said theSudanese government shouldhave been served the complaintin Khartoum instead of via itsembassy in Washington.

“In cases with sensitivediplomatic implications, therule of law demands adherenceto strict rules,” the justices saidin an 8-1 ruling.

On October 12, 2000, arubber boat loaded with explo-sives blew up as it rounded thebow of the guided-missiledestroyer, which had just pulledinto Aden, Yemen, for a refu-eling stop.

Beijing: China on Wednesdaysacked former Interpol chiefMeng Hongwei from all hisofficial positions and expelledhim from the rulingCommunist Party, accusinghim of corruption, serious dis-ciplinary violations andencouraging his wife who issettled abroad to campaignagainst his detention.

Meng, 65, who was once arising political star among offi-cialdom of the CommunistParty of China (CPC), held thepowerful post of vice-minister ofpublic security before beingappointed as China’s first officialto head the Interpol — a glob-al organisation that facilitatesworldwide police cooperation.

He was expelled from theCPC and removed from officefor serious disciplinary viola-tions and suspected graft crimes,the Party’s disciplinary watchdogand national supervisory com-mission announced, state-runChina Daily reported. PTI

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Pakistan said on Wednesdaythat it was against the mil-

itarisation of outer space andtook a swipe at India’sannouncement of shootingdown a live satellite with a mis-sile — a rare achievement thatputs the country in an exclusiveclub of space super powers.

Prime Minister NarendraModi earlier announced thatIndia successfully test-fired ananti-satellite missile by shoot-ing down a live satellite.

The test makes India thefourth country in the worldafter the US, Russia and Chinato acquire the strategic capa-bility to shoot down enemysatellites.

“Space is the common her-itage of mankind and everynation has the responsibility toavoid actions which can lead tothe militarisation of this arena,”Foreign Office spokespersonMohammad Faisal said.

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Pakistan on Wednesdaysought “more informa-

tion/evidence” from India onthe involvement of the Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) in the dead-ly Pulwama terror attack andthe presence of camps of theUN-proscribed terror outfit.

Indian HighCommissioner Ajay Bisariawas called to the ForeignMinistry by Foreign SecretaryTehmina Janjua and the “pre-liminary findings” on the“Pulwama incident” wereshared with him, the ForeignOffice said, referring the dead-ly terror attack as an “incident”.

India handed over thedossier to the Acting HighCommissioner of Pakistan inNew Delhi on February 27 withspecific details of JeM’s com-plicity in the Pulwama attackthat killed 40 CRPF personnelon February 14 and the pres-ence of JeM terror camps andits leadership in Pakistan.

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China on Wednesday react-ed guardedly to India’s

anti-satellite missile test andexpressed hope that all coun-tries will uphold peace andtranquillity in the outer space.

Prime Minister NarendraModi on Wednesdayannounced that India success-fully test-fired an anti-satellitemissile by shooting down a livesatellite, describing it as a rareachievement that puts thecountry in an exclusive club ofspace super powers.

The test makes India thefourth country in the worldafter the US, Russia and Chinato acquire the strategic capa-bility to shoot down enemysatellites.

The Chinese ForeignMinistry, in a written responseto a question from PTI on Indiasuccessfully test-firing an anti-satellite missile, said: “We havenoticed reports and hope thateach country will uphold peaceand tranquillity in outer space”.

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Washington: US Secretary ofState Mike Pompeo has toldPakistan that it must "deliveroutcomes" to build confidenceand trust between the twocountries, the StateDepartment has said.

State Department DeputySpokesperson Robert Palladinosaid this when asked about therecent remarks by Secretary ofState Mike Pompeo in which heidentified Pakistan's nuclearproliferation as the third topsecurity concern for the US.

"The secretary (of StatePompeo) has emphasised theneed (for Pakistan) to deliveroutcomes and to build confi-dence and trust between ourtwo nations and we do want tosee a prosperous Pakistan thatcontributes positively towardsregional stability and security,"Palladino told reporters onTuesday at his biweekly newsconference. PTI

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On January 28, 1964, The NewYork Times reported: “Generalde Gaulle’s Government broketoday with the United States(US) policy of isolating com-

munist China and announced the establish-ment of diplomatic relations with Peking.”The US newspaper added: “France’s recog-nition of the communist regime was thefirst by any major power since the KoreanWar began nearly 14 years ago.” The USdeeply regretted the French move at a timethe Chinese communists were “promotingaggression and subversion.” So as FrenchPresident Emmanuel Macron and his wifeBrigitte Macron received the Chinesepresidential couple for an intimate dinnerat Beaulieu-sur-Mer, a resort on theRiviera, the stakes have changed. Chinanow has the upper hand.

In 1964, former French PresidentCharles de Gaulle had affirmed: “La Chineest un grand pays” (China is a big country)but today it has become power No 2 on theplanet after the US and Xi Jinping plans todethrone America with his own dream.Fifty-five years later, the same New YorkTimes reported the arrival of the ChinesePresident: “The Promenade des Anglais [inNice] — the palm-lined beachside avenuethat is the city’s premier attraction — wasclosed to traffic all weekend.” This neverhappened before.

In March last year, Xi made news whenhe was given a life-long term as Presidentof China. The international Press thenmainly noted the Emperor-for-life aspect,forgetting that Xi wanted to transformChina into the No 1 world power. A yearlater, partly due to Twitter attacks from USPresident Donald Trump, Xi is not so self-assured and an economic crisis, loominglarge over China, has weakened the MiddleKingdom. Officially, its growth was only 6.5per cent in 2018, the slowest pace since thedepths of the global financial crisis in 2009.Bloomberg noted: “Tariffs on Chineseexports to the US imposed by PresidentTrump are starting to pinch the country’sfactories.”

Xiang Songzuo, a professor at theRenmin University School of Finance,wrote that China’s GDP growth would onlybe 1.67 per cent and not 6.5 per cent in2018. According to the website Chinascope,Xiang also warned that “nowadays, Chinesehave become addicted to playing with debtand high leverage financing. This is actu-ally a mirage and will collapse soon.”

L’Affaire Huawei has been a turningpoint for the Western views on the MiddleKingdom; the telecom equipment compa-ny has been at the centre of media atten-tion for the wrong reasons; US officialscharged the company with stealing technol-ogy from T-Mobile, one of its business part-ners and wanting to impose its own stan-dards for the 5G, the latest generation ofcellular mobile communications. This is the

background of Xi’s visit toItaly, Monaco and France.

Chinese strategists wereaware that Italy is the weakestlink in the Europe Union (EU)and while more and morecountries realise that the Beltand Road Initiative (BRI), sodear to Xi, is not offering freemeals but often plunges thebeneficiary nations into deepdebts, Beijing managed to finda European “client.”

On March 23, Xinhuareported that Xi and ItalianPrime Minister GiuseppeConte jointly “elevated theChina-Italy relations into anew era”. A Memorandum ofUnderstanding to advance theconstruction of the Belt andRoad was signed. In a diplo-matic jargon, the Chinese newsagency said that “the two coun-tries have continuously deep-ened their communication andcooperation in various fields,which helped each other’ssocial and economic develop-ment.”

Xi urged the two sides toaccelerate negotiations on aChina-EU investment agree-ment, enhance synergy of theBRI and the EU’s developmentstrategies. Conte answered theChinese President: “Italy isglad to seize the historic oppor-tunity in joining the Belt andRoad construction.”

Other European countrieswere not amused, though Xiassured Italy that the BRIwould be a two-way road forinvestment and trade. GermanForeign Minister Heiko Maas

told Welt am Sonntag newspa-per: “In a world with giants likeChina, Russia or our partnersin the US, we can only surviveif we are united as the EU…and if some countries believethat they can do clever businesswith the Chinese, then they willbe surprised when they wakeup and find themselves depen-dent.”

The EU’s German budgetcommissioner, GuentherOettinger, told the Funke news-paper group that Europeshould ensure it retains itsautonomy and sovereigntywhen dealing with China.

French President Macronforcefully asserted that thetime of European naivety overChina was over: “For manyyears, we had an uncoordinat-ed approach and China tookadvantage of our divisions,” hesaid. He called for stricter ruleson Chinese investments in theEU; German ChancellorAngela Merkel expressed sim-ilar views.

French Finance MinisterJean-Yves Le Drian remarkedthat “Silk Road cooperationmust go in both directions”.

The French Press quotedthe Sri Lankan experience as“the dark side of the new SilkRoad.” It mentioned the port ofHambantota and how in themid-2000s Colombo agreed“to entrust Beijing with theconstruction of an ex-nihiloport in the town ofHambantota, in the south ofthe island. It is not yet a ques-tion of the Silk Road …but all

the ingredients were there.”Like for the China-

Pakistan Economic Corridor,Chinese funds, engineers andworkers would build the infra-structure in partnership, sup-posedly becoming a ‘win-win’venture. But Sri Lanka, likeMalaysia and many other coun-tries, has now discovered thatit was in fact a lose-lose oper-ation, with the new assetsbecoming Chinese as soon asthe client state is unable torefund the ‘loans’.

Xi probably did not con-vince Macron, Angela Merkeland European CommissionPresident Jean-Claude Juncker(the latter two joined Macronin Paris to meet the ChinesePresident) of Beijing’s bonafide,despite the Chinese President’senigmatic words: “In politics,we should not only build astrong ‘dam’ of mutual trust,but also a ‘lighthouse’ of ideal.”

However, at the end of hisvisit, Xi left a small present forthe European firm Airbus, a$35 billion jet deal, whichincluded 290 A320-series nar-row-body planes and 10 A350wide-bodies. President Macronobserved that Xi’s official visitwas an “excellent signal” of thestrength and reliability of rela-tions between China andFrance. He added that the twocountries are ready to build a“strong Euro-Chinese partner-ship, based on clear, strict andambitious rules” …minusnaivety. Will it work?

(The writer is an expert onIndia-China relations)

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Sir — This refers to the editori-al, “Vote guarantee scheme”(March 27). One fails to under-stand how the Congress will gen-erate funds for the said mass pro-gramme. And what about cor-ruption or pilferage of money?The fact is that a huge chunk ofour population is still poor with-out even a nutritious square meala day. The gap between the richand the poor is widening everyday while the wealth of politiciansacross the spectrum multipliesevery five years. Political partiesshould be advised and warned bythe judiciary not to misuse tax-payer money, especially duringelection time. Sops only end upmaking people lazy. Instead, themoney can be put to use forindustrialisation and creating theinfrastructure that will give jobsto our unemployed youth.

Sravana RamachandranChennai

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Sir — The Election Commission(EC) is striving to make pollingaccessible to physically chal-

lenged voters. Among other ini-tiatives, the EC has ensured iden-tification of such voters and pro-viding them with free pick-up anddrop facility. Apart from this, theelectoral body is also making ade-quate arrangements to providewheelchairs at polling boothsand has requested volunteers tochip in with additional wheel-chairs if the numbers fall short.Further, the EC can look at

arranging mobile polling boothsfor the exclusive use of physical-ly challenged voters.

Varun DambalBengaluru

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Sir — This refers to the editori-al, “India firm on terror” (March25). The Union Government has

taken a firm decision to ban theseparatist outfits in Jammu andKashmir. This move is laudable.The Pulwama terror attack fur-ther provided ample scope andopportunity to the Government.It allowed the Army freedom toeliminate terrorists across theborder.

However, it is not understoodwhy similar retaliatory steps werenot taken during the 2008

Mumbai attacks. The thenCongress-led Government wasrattled and frightened. It darednot retaliate even though theinternational community wouldhave overtly or covertly extend-ed unstinting support to us.

Nimai Charan SwainBhubaneswar

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Sir — This refers to the editorial,“Vote guarantee scheme” (March27). It looks Congress chief RahulGandhi has proceeded to give afresh coat of paint to theCongress’s decades-old ‘GareebiHatao’ slogan less than threeweeks before the general election.Whether ‘Nyuntam Aay Yojana’ orthe minimum income scheme canbe the ‘final assault on poverty’, asRahul Gandhi thundered on TV,one would not know till all its con-tours are revealed. Till then hischallenge should be on how toshift gear from a negative cam-paign against Modi to a positiveone for his affirmative agenda.

J AkshayBengaluru

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After several years of deliberations andcounters, the Ministry ofEnvironment, Forest and ClimateChange has finally decided to drafta fresh legislation to replace the colo-

nial Indian Forest Act, 1927. In doing so, it seeksto reflect the changed needs and aspirations ofthe country while negotiating the challenges offorest and environment conservation, originaldwellers and development imperatives.

Truth be told, the colonial law has little rel-evance considering the British framed it with theexpress purpose of harnessing natural resourcesfor the Empire’s needs. The imperial rulersrealised the potential of scientific forestry man-agement practices that could help the colonialadministration in procuring timber for revenue,developing the track infrastructure of the IndianRailways and other needs. The British Raj, there-fore, established the Imperial Forest Departmentunder Dietrich Brandis, a trained forester, in1864.

Brandis held a vision of conserving forestcatchments so that they could help in soil andmoisture conservation that in turn helped agri-cultural practices. In 1884, he laid down a pol-icy subordinating forestry to agriculture with theintention of protecting farm communities fromrepeated famines which would have a cascadingsocial and economic cost. The first forest act wasthus drafted in 1878 and with the formal open-ing of a dedicated college at Dehradun, forestry,as a full-fledged science, started taking roots inIndia. To mirror the changes of an evolved under-standing and assessment, a new Forest Act wasenacted in 1927, which is the law-enforcing bookon forests in India today (many States framedtheir own laws exactly on the pattern of this Act)until the Forest Conservation Act, 1980, WildlifeProtection Act, 1972, and the Scheduled Tribesand Other Traditional Forest Dwellers(Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006, cameinto force.

In the early 1990s, the Central Governmentfelt the need for a new law, considering there wasa need for a joint forest management policy inthe face of increasing plundering of forests by thetimber mafia. Existing and codified punitive mea-sures were archaic and clearly not sufficient. Thiswriter was a member of two committees that wereentrusted with the task of revising the Act, butafter preparing a voluminous draft, it was foundto be too unwieldy for implementation.Ultimately, it was decided to propose an increasein fine and compensation as also the duration ofimprisonment for those committing offences byamending certain provisions in the Act.

Dimensions for forest conservation havechanged in the past 15 years, primarily due to ashift in the focus from timber-oriented forestryto people-centric forest management practices.A fresh approach was required following theenactment of the Forest Rights Act, 2006, whichhad to factor in emerging challenges likeencroachers, illegal poachers and mafia besideshrinkage, degradation and change of the forestcover itself due to climate change. Now let us dis-cuss some of the silent features of the new draftAct. It must be accepted that the colonial ForestAct was the most people-friendly from among

imperial edicts. It had a provisionunder Section 28 to create villageforests, which is akin to the present-dayjoint forest management and the com-munity forestry concept. Further, underSection 80, the Government can joint-ly manage any forest or wasteland withanybody’s support.

The old Act laid emphasis on theconsolidation of forests and at the sametime had left the door open for people’sinvolvement in deciding the extent ofthe Government forest land and thewillingness to jointly manage any for-est with anyone who is willing to do so.The new Act improves on this byexpanding the chapter on village forestsand giving them legal backing. Thisindeed is very crucial in the present-dayscenario. The draft policy documentalso talks about degraded land and howit can be improved by undertakingafforestation activities using public-pri-vate partnership models.

The new draft Act aims to ensuresmooth sailing for those people, whoare dependent on the forests for theirlivelihood as also for capacity-building.Section 2 clearly defines forest land andproduce, community, owner, localbody, non-timber forest produce andshifting cultivation. This will helppeople exempt themselves from thetransit regulatory regime for peddlingtheir defined forest and horticultureproduce. Section 4 will help in quicksettlement of rights on forests by a des-ignated officer. The new Act makes itexplicitly clear under Section 5 thatexcept under the Forest Rights Act,2006, no pattas can be given to anyone.It also acknowledges the harmony

between forest management and trib-al life and makes provisions for ade-quate compensation for tribal land.

In the draft Act, the role of GramSabhas has been codified and it seeksto make provisions for other stakehold-ers, too, like people cooperatives/bod-ies, tribals and other Ministry officials,who will now be holistically includedin forest management. One of theimportant features in the new Act isunder Section 22(A) that recognises aprocedure for recording individualand community rights — a very pro-gressive and laudable venture.

The new Act seeks to deal firmlywith emerging challenges, be it of tim-ber mafia, poachers or any other anti-social elements. It rightfully empowersthe forest officials and other law enforc-ing representatives to deal with sucherrants. According to global reports,India tops the list in losing forest offi-cials to forest crime syndicates. The newdraft provisions must, therefore, becomplemented by enhancing infra-structure for the forest personnel, at parwith the police.

However, in India, corruption is abig problem, even among forest staff,and self-proclaimed tribal well-wishersemerge with assistance from vestedinterests to derail any reform. Some ofthem have already started a campaignto criticise the provisions in the newdraft Act that empower field forest offi-cers. By raking up the issue of forestbureaucracy, they want to confuse ourpolicy-makers. Stringent provisionsare needed to deal with organised crim-inal activities, along with a people-cen-tric approach in governance. India

cannot meet climate change and otherinternational commitments to sustain-able goals and aim to enhance tree coverwithout a viable and strong legal backup. As it is, India is a water-stressedcountry. Unless forests in the catch-ments and elsewhere are saved, the sit-uation will worsen. According to sta-tistics by the Central Ground WaterBoard, 70 per cent of India’s districtssuffer from shortage of ground water.The situation is turning acute year afteryear. Many rivers and their tributariesare drying up and many Indian villagesand cities are facing shortage of drink-ing water. Water riots have broken outin many places.

It would be anybody’s guess as towhat will happen to our agriculture inthe next few years if steps are not takento recharge the aquifers, protect ourforests, manage our rural landscape andtackle climate change on a war-footing.Social media as well as intellectualsmust realise that the good work of alarge number of unsung foresters innation-building should be recognised.In fact, it should be expanded with theprovisions of the new Act to cater to thelivelihood of the villagers situated infringe forests.

Further, State Governments mustcome up with positive suggestions onthe draft Act early without getting influ-enced by naysayers. Simultaneously theEnvironment Ministry should wrap updeliberatons on it in a timely manner.This is the best they can do to accom-modate aspirations of forest-dependentpeople and save our green cover.

(The writer is a retired civil servant)

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The spectre of water shortagelooming large over India isnot new. In fact, this crisis has

become a stark reality, especiallyduring gruelling summer months.As the municipal water systemstruggles to keep pace with the ever-growing urban demand,the beleaguered ground water tablein rural areas is increasingly unableto cater to an average farmer’s irri-gation needs. In the cities, waterriots and buying up tankers are fair-ly common occurrences.

This has had a telling impact onagricultural productivity and con-sequently, food security. Further, thewater availability scenario in ruralareas has assumed grim proportions

due to a fall in levels in the tradi-tional hand-dug wells such as bao-lis.

As India prepares for yet anoth-er summer, it is not surprising thatmany citizens have already madepreparations to face the attendanthardships. Thanks to climatechange, rains have been playing tru-ant and have shown irregular pat-terns for a long while now. This sce-nario is resulting in a cumulativeimpact on the availability of wateracross major Indian cities that arereeling under the impact of scarcenatural resources besides having todeal with an immense load ofmigratory population. These con-ditions have made living in someIndian cities such as Bengalurualmost unbearable.

Where has India gone wrong?Clearly, climate change has becomea reality for nations across theworld but some countries are han-dling its consequences much betterthan India. There are some aspectsthat are unique to India such as ahuge population problem, whichweakens our fight against climate

change. Since population and otherassociated issues cannot be wishedaway, India must find ways to over-come the challenges posed by scarcenatural resources and manage themfor consumption. How we achievethis basically depends on how wellwe observe the goings on in othercountries around the world.

Singapore is an apt example ofhow a nation can beat the odds ofwater crisis to become self-reliant.It emerged from being a water-scarce developing nation to a worldleader in water management prac-tices in just a few decades. Since itsindependence in 1965, one of themain concerns for the Governmentwas to provide clean water to grow-ing domestic and non-domesticsectors. In 1965, Singapore wasdependent on Johor, a state insouthern Malaysia, for waterresources under two agreements:One signed in 1961 and the otherin 1962.

In view of this dependence,long-term security of water becamean essential consideration for thecity-state. As a result, it developed

and executed plans to enhancewater security and self-sufficiency.Innovations covered aspects of pol-icy, planning, management, institu-tional development, finances, tech-nology and most recently, societalbehaviour. The main reason forSingapore’s success in managing itswater resources was a parallelemphasis on supply and demandmanagement, including conven-tional and non-conventionalsources of water — reused waterand desalinated water.

Singapore’s entire water cycle ismanaged by the Public UtilitiesBoard (PUB) that collects, treatsand reuses water on an extensivescale — a step that very few coun-tries have taken. The supply ofwater has further been expanded byreducing water that’s unaccountedfor, which is defined as actualwater loss due to leaks, plus appar-ent water losses arising from meterinaccuracies. Also, Singapore doesnot have illegal connections and allwater connections are metered.The unaccounted for water hasdecreased from about 9.5 per cent

in 1990 to about five per cent inrecent years, one of the lowestrates in the world.

Water conservation is encour-aged in the domestic sector andmandated in the non-domestic sec-tor, too. These include efficiencymeasures, both engineering solu-tions and human behaviour, such asappliances within PUB’s efficiencyratings. The ability of the nation toachieve these feats can be attributedto Government support, long-termplanning and realisation that cleanand reliable water resources areessential for overall socio-develop-ment.

Following the policy paradigmof ‘think ahead, think again andthink across’, Singapore has lookedfor every opportunity to collect,treat, reuse and produce the neces-sary water resources not only at pre-sent but in a horizon that spans sev-eral decades. The city-state’s waterresources planning, governanceand practices hold lessons for everyother developed and developing cityand country.

Indian conditions are apt for

emulating the Singapore model.For a successful simulation, concen-trated efforts have to be made toensure that free water sops for thesake of political mileage are discon-tinued forthwith.

India must also consider thepollution of its remaining freshwater bodies and rivers from urbanand industrial pollution. Unlessthis is done, we are in the processof worsening an already difficultposition. Stress has to be laid onensuring that water wastage is con-tained during supply. Additionallyit is also crucial that the wastewatertreatment facilities are not onlyramped up with growing require-ments but the STPs are also ade-quately functioning. India hasample resources if only they aremanaged well. The responsibility toeffectively and optimally utilisethese resources lies with each oneof us under the guidance of theGovernment. If this translates intoreality, water scarcity will be athing of the past for India.

(The writer is an environmentaljournalist)

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The Chidambaram familyhas succeeded in buying

silence from Congress leaderSudarshana Nachiappan, whohad revolted against the HighCommand’s decision to nom-inate Karti Chidambaram asthe party candidate fromSivaganga parliamentary con-stituency.

In a hurriedly convenedpress meet at Karaikudi lateTuesday evening, Nachiappan,a strong contender for the seat,shook hands with Karti anddeclared that he would work forthe success of the latter. “Ourultimate dream of makingRahul Gandhi the PrimeMinister of the country wouldmaterialise only if Karti winsfrom here. Moreover, Karti ismy loveable brother and thereis no issue between us,” saidNachiappan while speaking toreporters at the Congress officein Karaikudi. He also recitedverses from the scriptures todrive home his stance that hewas not after power or wealth.

The Congress leadershiphad deputed AICC secretary

Sanjay Dutt to Karaikudi to sortout the issue. Tuesday morningsaw a series of phone callsbetween various Congressleaders in the State andNachiappan. The rebel leadercame down from his intransi-gent stance after he got a callfrom Chidambaram, said asenior Congress leader in theState. Following some plainspeaking by Chidambaram,who was once the HomeMinister of the country,Nachiappan rushed to the partyoffice, shook hands with Kartiand offered peace.

But Karti, who had forfeit-ed his security in the 2014 LokSabha election from the sameconstituency may have to sweatit out this time as theChidambarams are no more

that popular in the region,according to a former Congressleader in Sivaganga. “If theAIADMK led front succeeds inmobilising the Mukkulathoorcommunity votes in favour ofH Raja, the BJP nominee, itwould be a tough task for Kart,”said Arunagrinathan, formerSeva Dal chief of the district.

Meanwhile, Chidambaramgot another success in the runup to the election as RajaKannappan, the AIADMKleader who had contestedagainst him in the 2009 electionfrom the same constituencydeclaring that he would active-ly campaign for Karti. TheAIADMK leader who lost nar-rowly to Chidambaram in the2009 election had filed a peti-tion in Madras High Courtchallenging the latter’s electionwhich is in the final stage ofhearing.

Raja Kannappan’s argu-ment was that the data entryoperators employed in thecounting station by the thenDMK government entered thevotes polled by him in theaccount of Chidambaram andvice versa. J Jayalalithaa, thethen Leader of the Opposition

herself wrote to the ChiefElection Commissioner statingthat Chidambaram’s win was byfraudulent means and notbased on the votes cast by theelectorate.

Jayalalithaa said in the let-ter that 3400 votes polled byKannappan from 11 pollingstations were entered in favourof Chidambaram and 1617votes polled by the later wereentered in favour of theAIADMK candidate. She saidthis was done by the DEOs atthe behest of the then DMKgovernment and no action wastaken against the operatorswho indulged in such graveoffences.

The court is all set toexamine Pankaj Kumar Bansal,the then Returning Officer onApril 22.On Monday, whenthe matter came up for hearing, the new judge PushpaSathyanarayana issued a sternwarning to all concerned andsaid that the case should not beprolonged further. Kannappan,who crossed over to the DMKrecently following denial ofseat to him by the AIADMKhas said that he would notwithdraw the cases.

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Lucknow: BJP MP Anshul Verma joined theSamajwadi Party on Wednesday after he was deniedticket by the Bharatiya Janata Party for the LokSabha polls.

"I have joined the SP without any conditions.My fault for denial of ticket might be that I hadraised voice against distribution of liquor in a tem-ple premises at a conference of the Pasi commu-nity, to which I belong," Verma said.

"I was hurt by this and had also written to ChiefMinister Yogi Adityanath," Verma told reporters atthe SP headquarters in presence of party supremoAkhilesh Yadav.

Verma said his other fault might be that he didnot prefix the word 'chowkidar' to his name inTwitter profile.

He was denied ticket by the BJP for the LokSabha elections and the party has fielded Jai PrakashRawat from the Hardoi seat, held by Verma.

Addressing media persons later, Yadav attackedboth the Congress and the BJP saying that there wasno difference between the two parties.

"In the past 30 to 40 years, see how other coun-tries have developed. The Congress is also respon-sible in taking country backward and for povertyand unemployment," he said.

He also alleged that "injustice" was being metedout to SP leader Azam Khan. PTI

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Panaji: Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant will beinducting former MGP MLA Dipak Pawaskar, whohas merged the legislative wing of the party withthe BJP, into the State Cabinet at 11.30 pm onWednesday, a senior official said.

The swearing-in ceremony will be held at theRaj Bhavan where Governor Mridula Sinha willadminister oath to Pawaskar, a senior Governmentofficial told PTI.

The swearing-in was scheduled to be held inthe morning, but could not take place as Sinha wasin New Delhi.

"The Governor has cut short her Delhi trip andwould be arriving in the evening to administer oath,"the official said.

Pawaskar and another MaharahstrawadiGomantak Party (MGP) MLA Manohar Ajgaonkarmerged the legislature wing of the party with theBJP in the early hours of Wednesday.

The MGP is now left with only one MLA —Sudin Dhavalikar — after the split.

Dhavalikar, who was the Deputy Chief Minister,was dropped from the Cabinet after the early morn-ing developments. Pawaskar is the first-time MLAwho represents Sanvordem constituency in SouthGoa district. During the wee hours of Wednesday,Ajgaonkar and Pawaskar gave a letter to officiat-ing Speaker Michael Lobo, merging their party's leg-islative wing with the BJP. PTI

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Amethi (UP): Campaigning in herbrother Rahul Gandhi's parliamentaryconstituency, Congress general secre-tary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra onWednesday asked party workers toreach out to the villages and exposewhat she called was the BJP's "jumle-bazi" or empty rhetoric.

Priyanka Gandhi, who arrivedhere via Lucknow to hold a dialoguewith the booth level presidents as partof the party's 'humara booth, humaragaurav' campaign, remained closetedwith representatives of Amethi foraround two hours at the A H InterCollege in Musafirkhana.

This marked the beginning of thesecond phase of her election campaignin Uttar Pradesh.

Clad in a blue cotton sari, micro-phone in her hand, the Congressleader took centre stage among localleaders, taking feedback from them.The Amethi constituency has longremained a Congress stronghold.

In the interactive session, PriyankaGandhi told workers to reach out tovillages in order to respond to theBharatiya Janata Party's 'jumlebazi' and"expose the reality before the people".

Party workers who attended themeeting, later said, Priyanka Gandhipatiently heard ways to effectivelyreach out to the party's booth level.

Till we take the failures of the gov-ernment to the people, they will notcome to know the reality of this gov-ernment, she told workers.

The Congress general secretary in-charge of eastern districts said peopleand Amethi have suffered a lot becauseof demonetisation, stray cattle men-ace, stopping MNREGS and snatchingof a food park and the Indian Instituteof Information Technology.

She said it was during the Congress'rule the country achieved expertise inmanufacturing matchboxes to missiles,whereas Prime Minister NarendraModi was merely undertaking foreigntrips even as farmers faced immenseproblems and were not even gettingproper return for their produce.

She accused Modi of not fulfillinghis "promise" of depositing �15 lakheach into every Indian's account. Shesaid the Congress party does what itsays, pointing out that farm loans werewaived soon after the RajasthanGovernment was formed. PTI

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Tiruvarur (TN): Six peoplewere killed and three injured inan explosion on Wednesday ata firecracker unit atMannargudi, about 28 kmfrom here, a fire and rescueofficial said

The explosion was trig-gered when the workers werehandling raw materials to makecrackers in the unit, he said.

The owner of the unit wasamong the deceased.

The explosion was so pow-erful that the building thathoused the unit collapsed andportions of it were flattened, hesaid, adding there was noblaze.

"While four of them wereflung outside under the impactof the explosion, two gottrapped under the rubble andall of them died," a rescueofficial told PTI.

Several teams of fire andrescue personnel from hereand nearby areas were pressedinto service to rescue the vic-tims and clear the rubble.

The two seriously injuredworkers were admitted to anearby Government medicalcollege hospital, while the otherman was discharged after treat-ment, he said. PTI

Lucknow: The BJP appears tohave kept the caste factor inmind while picking candi-dates which will help it reachits "target" of 74 seats fromUttar Pradesh in the LokSabha elections.

Of the total 80 seats in thestate, the Bharatiya JanataParty has so far declared 61candidates, with the Brahminsgetting the most nominations,followed closely by backwardcommunities and the Dalits.

Fifteen seats have beenallotted to Brahmins, 14 tobackward community lead-ers, 13 to Dalits, 10 toKshatriyas, four Jats, twoGurjars and one each toVaishya, Parsi and Bhumiharcastes, said party leaders.

But the party claimed caste

was not taken into account."Our party does not

believe in caste politics. Thetickets are given consideringwinnability and local factors.All aspects are being takeninto account before declara-tion of tickets by the partyleadership," a senior BJP leadertold PTI.

"If you go through the BJPlist, it will be seen that theparty has taken minimumrisk in ticket distribution.Seats where sitting MPs havebeen dropped, the new can-didates are of the same caste,"said senior journalist andpolitical analyst HemantTiwari.

"The BJP has applied (the)tested social engineering for-mula and it's major thrust in

this election seems to be onthe non-Yadav OBCs, non-Jatav SCs and upper castesespecially Brahmins andKshatriyas due to ChiefMinister Yogi Adityanath," hesaid.

The National DemocraticAlliance won 73 seats (71 forBJP and 2 for Apna Dal) in2014 polls in UP. The BJP iskeen on maintaining its win-ning spree here and its leadershave been given a target of "74plus seats" this time.

The Rashtriya Lok Dal,which has found space in theSamajwadi Party and BahujanSamaj Party's tie-up for UttarPradesh, is eyeing Muslim,OBC and SC votes, analystssaid.

This time, the BJP has

given tickets to seven sittingMLAs including three minis-ters.

Gangoh MLA PradepChowdhury has been giventicket from Kairana, whileDiler MLA Rajbir Singh hasbeen given ticket fromHathras, Jaidpur MLAUpdendra Rawat has securedticket from Barabanki andBalha MLA Akshaywar LalGaur has been given ticketfrom Bahraich seat.

The three cabinet minis-ters who have been given tick-ets for Lok Sabha polls are -Rita Bhauguna Joshi(Allahabad), SatyadevPachauri (Kanpur) and S PSingh Baghel from Agra.

The party has alsodropped several sitting MPs

keeping in mind local factors.Those dropped include

BJP stalwart Murli ManoharJoshi (Kanpur), PriyankaRawat (Barabanki-SC), AshokDohrey (Etawah-SC), BharatSingh (Ballia), Rajesh Pandey(Kushinagar) and Nepal Singh(Rampur).

The BJP has so far giventickets to eight women, includ-ing Maneka Gandhi, Rita Joshiand Jaya Prada.

Denying any impact of thereported resentment among"dropped" leaders, a BJP leadersaid, "Our cadre is disciplinedand everyone has one objec-tive this time - to makeNarendra Modi PM again. Wewill succeed in our endeavourand defeat casteist forces andcorrupt people." PTI

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Jammu: Retired senior IAS officerVinod Koul, instrumental in the cre-ation of 659 new administrative unitsin Jammu & Kashmir during theOmar Abdullah regime, joined theCongress on Wednesday.

Son of former Congress ministerManohar Nath Koul, a prominentpolitician from south Kashmir, the 62-year-old former bureaucrat joined theparty in the presence of Jammu &Kashmir Pradesh CongressCommittee (JKPCC) chief GulamAhmed Mir.

"I have joined Congress party ata function in Srinagar today. It was ahome coming, in a way, for me as Ibelong to a family connected with theCongress party in Jammu & Kashmir,"Kaul told PTI.

The former relief commissioner ofthe state, Koul said he wanted tostrengthen the secular forces inJammu & Kashmir and continue thelegacy of his father.

"If at all I wanted to join politics,it was only Congress. So, I com-menced the journey following in thefootsteps of my father," Kaul said,adding that his joining the Congresswas a homecoming.

Koul, who attained superannua-tion in 2017, served as administrativesecretary of different departmentsincluding revenue, technical educa-tion, youth services and sports, ani-mal husbandry among others.

As commissioner/secretary of thestate's revenue department, Kaul wasthe brains behind the expansion of theadministrative units to reach thestate's grass-root level under theNational Conference governmentback in 2014. As many as 659 newadministrative units including 46 subdivisions, 135 tehsils, 177 CommunityDevelopment (CD) Blocks and 301Niabats across the State were approvedby the Government.

He was widely appreciated by thestate's political leadership for hisproactive role in gearing up the Statemachinery for relief and rescue worksafter the devastating floods that hitKashmir in 2014.

Koul, who belongs to Vessu ham-let of Anantnag district, was also thearchitect of the �44,000-crore mem-orandum submitted by the NC-Congress regime to the Union gov-ernment for rehabilitation of theflood victims. PTI

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Mumbai: The Bombay HighCourt on Wednesday refusedto stay proceedings before amagistrate court in a 2016criminal defamation case filedby Nusli Wadia against RatanTata and some other directorsof Tata Sons.

A single bench presidedover by Justice MridulaBhatkar refused to extend herMarch 18 order whereby shehad restrained the magistratecourt from hearing the caseuntil Wednesday (March 27).

The court was hearing awrit petition filed by Tataand the other directors seek-ing that the complaint, FIRand the charge sheet filedagainst them in the case bequashed.

While senior advocate

Abhishek Manu Singhvi, whorepresents Tata in the case,sought an extension of suchstay, Justice Bhatkar pointedout that the next hearingbefore the magistrate courtwas in July this year. She saidthe HC will hear the quashingmatter before July and, there-fore, the stay was not neces-sary.

In December 2018, a mag-istrate court in the city hadissued notices to Ratan Tataand other directors of TataSons in the criminal defama-tion case filed by Wadia.

Wadia had filed the casein 2016 after he was voted outof the boards of some TataGroup companies.

Wadia had claimed thatTata and others had made

defamatory statements againsthim after they removed CyrusMistry on October 24, 2016 asthe group chairman of TataSons.

Wadia was on the boardsas an independent director ofgroup companies like theIndian Hotels Company thatruns the Taj group of hotels,TCS, Tata Motors and TataSteel among others.

He was voted out byshareholders at a speciallyconvened general meetingbetween December 2016 andFebruary 2017.

He said he approachedthe magistrate court as he wasnot satisfied with the expla-nation the respondents (Tataand others) had given him fol-lowing his letters to them. PTI

Lucknow: Uttar PradeshGovernor Ram Naik onWednesday lodged a strongobjection over Akhilesh Yadav'stweet calling him a "campaign-er for the BJP", saying the SPchief "disrespected those occu-pying constitutional posts".

A Raj Bhawan statementsaid Naik has written a letter toYadav over his Tuesday's tweet.

Referring to reports in a sec-tion of the media, Naik saidYadav has been quoted as say-ing "Governor and Governmentagencies were campaigning forthe BJP and today itself theGovernor has gone to visit some

people involved in an incidentin Lucknow". Naik said he hadvisited the family of an accidentvictim in the State capital whichhe considers as his duty. TheGovernor said he has not visit-ed any public programme norissued any statement since theannouncement of elections.

"I think that such a talk atelection time is not appropriateand is not expected of you," thegovernor said. The SP presidenthad tweeted on Tuesday: "BJP'selection issues: Opposition andchowkidar. BJP's campaigners:Governor, Government agenciesand media." PTI

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Mumbai: The Bombay HighCourt on Wednesday directedthe dean of JJ Group ofHospitals here to constitute apanel of doctors to assess themental health condition of a20-year-old college student,who has approached the courtseeking to terminate her preg-nancy.

The petitioner is in 23rdweek of pregnancy, which is aresult of a "consensual" rela-tionship.

She approached the highcourt saying though the foetushas no known abnormalitiesand the pregnancy doesn'tpose a threat to her physicalwell being, carrying the preg-

nancy to its full term will bedetrimental to her mentalhealth.

In her petition, filedthrough advocate Neha Philip,the woman submitted opinionsof some private medical prac-titioners affirming she suf-fered from some mental healthproblems and that her mentalcondition was "fragile".

The petitioner claimed shewas also incapable of havinggiven a coherent consent tosuch a relationship.

The Medical Terminationof Pregnancy (MTP) Act pro-hibits termination of preg-nancy beyond 20 weeks.

The Act permits abortion

after consultation with onedoctor up to 12 weeks.Between 12 to 20 weeks, med-ical opinion of two doctors isrequired for termination ofpregnancy.

Beyond the 20-week,exceptions are legally permis-sible only if continuation of thepregnancy poses a threat to themother's health and life.

However, in the recentpast, the Supreme Court andseveral high courts, includingseveral benches of the BombayHigh Court, have taken anexpansive view of the defini-tion of health and risks to thelife of the woman as definedunder the Act. PTI

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Jammu: With the Oppositionaccusing Prime Minister Modiof trying to get electoralmileage by announcing amidthe poll process the successfultesting of India's anti-satellitemissile ability, the BJP onWednesday cautioned politicalparties against playing "politicson the issue".

Terming DRDO scientistsachievement as a "pride" of thenation, BJP national generalsecretary Ram Madhav said "letus not play politics" on theissue.

Modi announcedWednesday that India demon-strated its anti-satellite missilecapability by shooting down alive satellite, and described it a"rare achievement" that puts thecountry in an exclusive club ofspace super powers.

"Let us not play any politics(on the achievement). Thewhole country takes pride inthe achievement of our scien-tists," Madhav told reportershere.

Replying to a question ona reported Congress' claim thatthe country developed thiscapability way back in 2012, theBJP leader said, "If it wasdeveloped in 2012, I don'tknow why it was never tested

or never told to the people.""We have come to know

about it through a successfultesting today, so we give cred-it to our scientists for the greatachievement," he added.

"The BJP congratulates theDefence ResearchDevelopment Organisation sci-entists and the people of thecountry. It is a phenomenalachievement in the spacepower and has filled our heartswith pride. Congratulations toour Government and the PrimeMinister," he said.

The BJP leader said the suc-cessful testing has placed India

in the elite club of major coun-tries in the space technologyand "it is a big achievement forIndia because cyber area isgoing to be future of all conflictsand the challenges the countryis going to face in future.

"Mastering this kind oftechnology is a great relief forthe country and a big achieve-ment," he said.

Congress spokespersonRandeep Singh Surjewala ear-lier had said in tweet that "thebuilding blocks for success" ofanti-satellite programme"were laid during UPA-CongGovt in 2012". PTI

Lucknow : Terming theCongress' minimum incomescheme "Garibi Hatao 2.0",BSP president Mayawati onWednesday backed the BJP'sassessment that it was a "bluff ".

But while taking the dig atthe Congress' pre-poll promise,she also mocked at the BJP,asking it if the ruling party hasthe sole right to poll bluffs andpromises.

"The ruling BJP callingthe Congress slogan of GaribiHatao 2.0 as bluff is true. Butis poll bluff and reneging onpoll promises the sole domainof the BJP?" Mayawati asked ina tweet.

"In fact the BJP & Congressparty are both birds of the samefeather in betraying the inter-ests of the poor, labourers,farmers & others," she added.

Mayawati 's comment

comes days after the Congresspromised a minimum annualwage of �72,000 to 20 per centof the poorest in the countryif it is voted to power.

She cal led Congress 'Nyuntam Aay Yojna (NYAY)"Garibi Hatao 2.0" on thelines of late Indira Gandhi'sslogan of Garibi Hatao duringthe Emergency in the mid-1970s. PTI

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Mamata Banerjee hasoffered to solve the

Kashmir problem, provided shewas called upon to do so, theBengal Chief Minister said onWednesday even as she under-scored the highlights ofTrinamool Congress’ electionmanifesto.

Credited with breaking the

Darjeeling impasse swiftly andsteadily and handling of theMaoist crisis in Jangalmahalareas of her State, Banerjeesaid, “I don’t believe that theKashmir problem cannot besolved. Everything has a solu-tion and Kashmir issue too canbe solved. The only need is toreach out to the people of thatState and talk to them with yourheart,” adding she was ready for

talks with the Kashmiris.“If I am asked to take up the

issue, I will gladly accept thetask. For that, I will have to goto Kashmir. I will reside therefor some period of time whenI reach out to the women folk,mothers, sisters, housewivestaking all into confidence,” theChief Minister said, adding“Kashmir issue needs a bit ofheart for it to be solved.”

Speaking about theDemonetisation issue, Banerjeevouched for an investigationinto the “biggest scam.” She hadalways been vocal againstDemonetisation which, sheclaimed was used as a money-making device for the BJP to

win elections.“We will probe into whether

and how this demonetisationwas used to make black moneywhite and who benefited fromthis step” that made the wholecountry to suffer as the country’seconomy suffered as never

before and crores of people losttheir jobs.

On Goods and ServicesTax, the Chief Minister said ifOpposition parties come topower, they would consider thereviewing of the GST so as tolessen its burden on the people.

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PNS: The party will try to findout “why was demonetisationcarried out? To serve whoseinterests? We want a judicialprobe monitored by a formerSupreme Court judge.”

Again “Our aim is to gen-erate employment for youthsand students. We are proud tosay we have reduced unem-ployment by 40 per cent inBengal.” Besides “every vacantseat for SC/ST/OBCs must befilled.”

The manifesto said “eco-nomic security of farmers andensuring their livelihood mustbe ensured. We will see to itthat farmers do not have to selltheir products at low price.”

It also said that “socialsecurity of the workers in theunorganised sector must betaken care of,” particularly,

“we will lay special emphasison the empowerment ofwomen.”

On the GST it says that“the basic idea behind theGST was initially completelydifferent. But the way theCentral Government imple-mented the GST, it did notbenefit anybody from thesmall business to the generalconsumer. So, the GST will bereviewed so that the public,buyers and small and mediumenterprises benefit from it.”

It also says, “we want 100Days’ Work to be increased to200 days, and their daily wagesto be doubled. This will ensuretheir livelihood and improvetheir quality of life. We will tryto ensure employment anddouble the labourer’s wage.”

To further strengthen the

federal structure, a new modelof Planning Commission willbe established it has saidadding “continuous commu-nication with the States will bemaintained. The PlanningCommission will become thefocal point of development.”

The manifesto seeks tocreate better social infrastruc-ture; we will increase invest-ment in education and healthsectors. Besides laying stresson science, research, econom-ic progress, agriculture, indus-try and service, our focuswoul also be on new invest-ments and holistic develop-ment of the country.” It alsowrites about how the party“will encourage sports and allcultural thoughts for the bet-terment of the people of thenation.”

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Allahabad: The AllahabadHigh Court on Wednesdaystayed the arrest of senior SPleader Azam Khan, his wifeand son in a case of forgeryand cheating to secure two"fake" birth date certificates fortheir son.

A bench of justices ManojMishra and Vivek Verma sus-pended the arrest of Khan, hiswife Nazneem Fatima, a RajyaSabha member and sonAbdullah Azam Khan, anUttar Pradesh MLA on theirpetition seeking quashing ofthe FIR against them.

The bench halted theirarrest till submission of theprobe report by the police.

The case against Khanand his family members had

been lodged at Ganj police sta-tion in Rampur district onJanuary 3 on a complaint by aBJP leader, Akash Saxena.

Saxena had alleged thatKhan and his wife had helpedtheir son secure two fake birthdate certificates — one fromLucknow and another fromRampur through cheating andforgery.

Appearing on behalf of theKhans, their counsel arguedbefore the bench that the FIRwas lodged out of "politicalvendetta with ulteriormotives".

He also contended that asno pecuniary loss or gain wasmade to anybody, no case ofcheating is made out againsthis clients. PTI

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Ahmedabad: Prime MinisterMinister Narendra Modi isunlikely to contest electionfrom Gujarat is spite of thedemands from the BJP's Stateunit, a party leader here hassaid.

Modi had won fromVadodara and Varanasi in 2014and chose to retain the latter.

As BJP president AmitShah will be contesting fromGandhinagar, the chances ofanother national-level leadercontesting from the state arevery slim, a state BP leader saidon the condition of anonymi-ty.

"I do not think that theywill field two national leadersfrom one State. There is nochance of Modi fighting froma seat in Gujarat," the BJPleader said.

State BJP leaders haverequested Modi to contestfrom Gujarat to boost partyworkers' morale, especially inthe aftermath of the 2017Assembly elections when theCongress managed to restrictthe BJP to 99 seats, lowest intwo decades, and increased itsown tally by 16 seats to 77 inthe 182-member LegislativeAssembly. PTI

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Mumbai: Abdul KadirNajmudin Sathak, an allegedaide of Islamic preacher ZakirNaik, on Wednesday deniedthat he helped the controversialtelevangelist with money laun-dering.

Sathak, a jeweller, was arrest-ed Friday under the Preventionof Money Laundering (PMLA).

He is accused of helpingNaik by transferring "funds ofdubious origin from the UAE(United Arab Emirates) to facil-itate production and broadcast-ing of incriminating videos forspreading communal hatred andradicalisation of a particularcommunity".

In his bail plea before specialPMLA judge M S Azmi, filedafter he was sent in judicial cus-tody, Sathak said there was noth-ing to show that he "acquired ordealt with any property" obtainedthrough crime. PTI

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Shillong: Coal mining ban inMeghalaya has become a majorpoll issue in the State with bothChief Minister and NPP pres-ident Conrad K Sangma and hispredecessor Mukul Sangma ofthe Congress harping on theissue.

Conrad K Sangma onWednesday accused MukulSangma of failing to challengethe coal mining ban in the Stateby the National Green Tribunal(NGT) when he was ChiefMinister.

The ban has not onlyaffected livelihood of the peo-

ple but also led to financial lossfor the State, Conrad, alsoNational People's Party (NPP)president, said while addressingelection rallies in South GaroHills district.

The NGT had imposed ablanket ban on mining andtransportation of coal inMeghalaya in 2014, citingunscientific methods andabsence of safety measures.Mukul Sangma was the chiefminister at that time.

An NPP-led coalition,Meghalaya DemocraticAlliance (MDA) which includes

the BJP, ousted the CongressGovernment in the state in theassembly election held early lastyear. "In 2014, the NGT hadbanned coal mining inMeghalaya. I ask MukulSangma why he had failed tochallenge the NGT order in theSupreme Court. In 2018, whenthe MDA came to power, thegovernment had to start fromscratch and now is fighting thecase in the Supreme Court,"Conrad said.

"We have talked to variousstakeholders to resolve the issuefor the greater interest of our

people," said the chief ministerwho has just completed oneyear in office.Conrad said thethen Congress government didnot even respond to a queryfrom the Centre in 2015 regard-ing the exemption of the Mineand Mineral (Development andRegulation) Act fromMeghalaya.

Mukul Sangma, now the Congress candidate for Tura Lok Sabha seat, on the other hand, accused the ruling dispensation of cheatingthe people with sugar-coatedtalks. PTI

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Shares of Jet Airways contin-ued their upward journey on

Wednesday and closed over 3per cent higher after the com-pany set an ‘ambitious’ target offlying 40 additional aircraft bythe end of April.

The stock closed at�277.15, up 2.27 per cent on theBSE. During the day, it gained5.79 per cent to �286.70.

At the NSE, shares went upby 3.21 per cent to close at�279.60. In terms of volume,23.40 lakh shares traded on theBSE, while over 2 crore shareschanged hands on the NSEduring the day.

In the past two days, the

stock has climbed 20 per cent.Jet Airways has informed

the Government that it has 35aircraft in operation and it has setan “ambitious” target of flying 40additional aircraft by the end ofApril, Civil Aviation Secretary PS Kharola said Tuesday.

For the past few weeks, thefull-service carrier has beengrounding its aircraft in tranch-es due to non-payment of dues tolessors, bringing down its oper-ational fleet from 103 to just 35.

Giving up the chairman-ship after more than 26 years,embattled Jet Airways’ founderNaresh Goyal Monday quit asa board member, with thelenders taking control anddeciding to infuse �1,500 crore

immediately into the ailingairline.

Addressing a press confer-ence, Kharola said, “They (JetAirways) were hopeful that byMonday or Tuesday, they willbe able to come to some set-tlement with the lessors. As perthe plan given by Jet, they arehopeful that by the end of nextmonth, they will be able to flyabout 40 more planes.”

“We had discussions withJet and we asked them what isthe plan now to bring the(grounded) planes back in thesystem. So, the first thing theyhave assured us is that 35planes are flying and no moreadditional planes will begrounded,” he added.

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Currencyin circu-

lation aspercentageof GDPdeclined byover 1 per-c e n t a g epoints to10.48 percent in thetwo yearsafter demonetisation, a FinanceMinistry official said.

The Government haddemonetised currency notes of500 and 1000 denomination onNovember 8, 2016, to checkblack money.

“In terms of GDP, notes incirculation declined from11.55 per cent as on November8, 2016, to 10.48 per cent as onNovember 8, 2018, reflectingthat it has actually contributedin reducing the currency incirculation,” an official said.This reflects a decline of 1 per-centage point or 100 basispoints.

Post note ban, �15.31 lakhcrore worth demonetised noteswere deposited in banks with-in a stipulated time. This was99.3 per cent of the �15.41 lakhcrore worth of �500 and �1,000notes in circulation onNovember 8, 2016.

One of the objectives ofdemonetisation was to reducecash-economy and encouragedigital mode of payment.

The notes in circulationhad recorded an averagegrowth rate of 14.51 per centyear-on-year since October2014 to October 2016.

As on November 4, 2016,notes in circulation was �17.74lakh crore, which increased to�21.22 lakh crore as on March22, 2019.

According to the financeministry calculation the notesin circulation would havegrown to �24.55 lakh crore byend of March 2019, higher byRs 3 lakh crore than the cur-rent level, if the governmenthad not demonetised curren-cy notes.

With regards to digitaltransactions, the official saidthe volume has increased to210.32 crore in October 2018,from 71.19 crore in October2016.

The value of digital trans-action also increased to �135.97lakh crore in October 2018from �87.68 lakh crore inOctober 2016.

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Amid speculation that hemay be the Finance

Minister if an Oppositionalliance wins the ensuing gen-eral elections, former RBIGovernor Raghuram Rajan hassaid he is willing to return totake an opportunity where hecould be of use.

Rajan, a former ChiefEconomist at the InternationalMonetary Fund who wasdenied a second term asReserve Bank Governor by theBJP-led government, said he is“very happy” where he is, butis open to opportunities.

“I am very happy where Iam. But if there is an opportu-nity to be of use I will alwaysbe there,” he said at the launchof his new book ‘The ThirdPillar’ on Tuesday evening.

Rajan, who is currentlythe Katherine Dusak MillerDistinguished Service Professorof Finance at the University ofChicago’s Booth School ofBusiness in the US, was askedif he would like to return toIndia in public service or evena political role.

Speculation in political cir-cles has been that he may be achoice for Finance Minister ifthe ‘Grand Alliance’ of oppo-sition parties such as TMC,Samajwadi Party, BSP and TDPwere to win the April/Maygeneral elections.

Congress President RahulGandhi had on Tuesday statedthat Rajan was among topeconomists that his party hadconsulted to draft its minimum

income guarantee scheme,Nyuntam Aay Yojana or NYAY.

The scheme assures up to�72,000 a year or �6,000 amonth income to 20 per centof India’s poorest families if theCongress is voted back topower in the Lok Sabha elec-tions next month.

In an interview to CNBCTV18 Tuesday, Rajan said itwas “premature” to discuss if hewas approached by any of theparties to take up a policy-mak-ing position if they were to win.

“I think it is premature tohave this discussion. I reallythink that this is an importantelection for India and I alsothink we need a new set ofreforms. I would be happy topush those ideas and we aretrying to do that more broad-ly to anybody who listens,” hehad said.

Rajan, who is credited withtaking some bold decisions oncleaning up of bank balancesheets as the RBI Governor,when asked what his prioritieswould be if he was the finance

minister of the country, hesaid “I think there areshort-term issues”.

“A number of econo-mists, of which I was one,have put together a set ofpolicy ideas and they areout there for anybody toread. They are comingout in a book but let mesay very quickly that cer-tainly, I would focus onshort-term actions thatcould put a lot of projectsback on track,” he said.

Also, cleaning up thebanks as quickly as possible andset them back on credit growth,and finding two or three keyreforms that could unleashgrowth would be his focus, hesaid.

“Certainly one of them hasto be how we review agriculturein a way that reduces distress.Second would be the issue ofland acquisition. Can we learnfrom the best practices of thestates and find methods thatseem fair and in a sense alsogive states the freedom to pickthe method that works best forthem so that we learn fromeach other’s experiments?

“Land acquisition andbank cleanup, as well as, tryingto find some key policies thatwould revive agriculture - thesewould be top priorities,” hesaid. Rajan was the 23rdGovernor of the Reserve Bankof India between September2013 and September 2016.Between 2003 and 2006, he wasthe Chief Economist andDirector of Research at theIMF.

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Subsidies provided by Indiato its farmers are quite low

as compared to billions ofdollars given by western coun-tries, a top government officialsaid Wednesday.

Commerce SecretaryAnup Wadhawan said Indiaprovides only about $250 perannum per farmer but unfor-tunatley “our subsidies runinto trouble” as they are notstructured properly, so there isa need to learn from othercountries.

Developed countries,including the European Union(EU) and the US, have allegedin the World TradeOrganization (WTO) thatIndia provides huge subsidiesto its farmers. India alwaysmaintains that its farm subsi-dies are well below the WTO’scap of 10 per cent.

The US has also draggedIndia to the WTO’s disputesettlement mechanism overexport subsidies being pro-vided by New Delhi.

“If you look at the kind of

budgetary support whichdeveloped countries provideto their economic agents, thenumbers are mind boggling,”Wadhawan said here at afunction.

In the agriculture sector,he said, the EU and the USprovides huge subsidies butcleverly put those in boxeswhich are WTO compatible.

Citing a joke, he said,cows in the EU get so much ofsubsidy that a cow can beflown around the world inbusiness class twice.

“Our subsidies in agricul-ture for instance are onlyabout $250 per annum perfarmer, compared to billions ofdollars which western coun-tries give,” he said.

Talking about special eco-nomic zones (SEZs), he saidthere is a need to make thesezones as zones of excellence,which should be investorfriendly, having state-of-the-art infrastructure.

“We need to transformour SEZs into that model,” hesaid adding that competitiveeconomic zones are not based

on fiscal incentives but basedon easy regulatory environ-ment and single-window sys-tem.

There is also a need tolook at Chinese model of thesezones which are spread in amuch wider space, Wadhawansaid adding India’s SEZ policydoes not get implementedentirely as envisaged.

“India is not as successfulstory as China and other coun-tries...But India has a relativedecent start. The exports(from SEZs) are about �6 lakhcrore per annum and has cre-ated 2 million direct jobs,” headded.

Speaking at the function,Niti Aayog Chief ExecutiveOfficer Amitabh Kant saidincreasing exports would helpin boosting the country’s eco-nomic growth.

Rather than SEZs, Indianeeds coastal economic zones,he said adding incentivesshould be linked to employ-ment creation.

These zones would have ahuge positive impact on India’seconomic growth, he added.

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Six additional posts of judi-cial and technical members

will be created in the NationalCompany Law AppellateTribunal (NCLAT), with theCabinet approving a proposalon Wednesday.

The tribunal hears appealsagainst rulings of the NationalCompany Law Tribunal (NCLT).The Cabinet on Wednesdaycleared a proposal for creation ofthree additional posts, each forjudicial members and technicalmembers, in the NCLAT,according to an official release.

“The posts will be createdin Level 17 (�2,25,000 - fixed)plus allowances as admissible.The total financial implicationwill be �2,27,82,096 perannum,” it added.

The new posts wouldensure meeting the mandateprovided to NCLAT by theFinance Act, 2017, theCompanies Act, the Insolvencyand Bankruptcy Code, 2016.

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GST anti-profiteeringauthority has found

Kerala-based distributor WinWin Appliances guilty of prof-iteering �32,926 by not pass-ing on GST rate cut benefit tocustomers.

A complaint was filedwith the Kerala StateScreening Committee onAnti-Profiteering against WinWin Appliances for not reduc-ing the price of mixer-grindercommensurate with thereduction of the goods andservices tax (GST) from 28 percent to 12 per cent with effectfrom November 15, 2017.

The respondent, in itsdefence, said he was a dis-tributor of the product whichwas sold under the brandname ‘Butterfly’. It said theproduct was being sold at theprice fixed by the manufac-turer — M/s Butterf ly,Gandhimathi Appliances Ltd.

During the investigation,the Directorate General ofAnti Profiteering found thatWin Win Appliances hadincreased the base price of theproduct when the GST ratewas reduced to 12 per centand hence indulged in profi-teering by not passing on thebenefit of the tax rate cut tocustomers.

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Mandated by the Ministryof Interior, State of Qatar,

Mohammed Khater Ibrahim AlKhater, Ambassador of theState of Qatar to the Republicof India on Wednesday inau-gurated Qatar Visa Center inNew Delhi where Visa appli-cants can enroll their biomet-rics and undergo mandatorymedical test all under one-roof,making the whole Visa processhassle free for the applicants.

Six other visa centers inMumbai, Kochi, Hyderabad,Lucknow, Chennai and Kolkatawill be operational shortly.

Speaking to The Pioneer onworking conditions, safety andsalary issues, Major AddullahKhalifa Al Mohannadi, Directorof Department of Visa SupportServices at the Ministry ofInterior of the State of Qatar,said, “We have a lot of rules andregulations that protect therights of labourers in the Stateof Qater. It is very apparent thatthe State of Qatar has improvedits regulations with regard tolabourers’ issues. And we are

continuously working toimprove the services providedto the workers. This projectitself is a part of many otherprojects that provide safe work-ing environment.”

The move to get work visaapplicants to complete the mostessential and critical part oftheir visa processes in thecountry of origin is aimed atguaranteeing prospectiveemployees their rights in amanner consistent with thebest international standards.

On this occasion, theAmbassador of the State of Qatarto India, Mohammed Khater AlKhater, said, “the State of Qatar,under the wise leadership ofSheikh Tamim bin Hamad AlThani, Emir of the State of Qatar,has witnessed a speedy growthand development over the pastyears and the Indian communi-ty in the State of Qatar has con-tributed significantly in thedevelopment process. The Stateof Qatar protects the rights of theexpatriates and facilitate theirwork procedures while recog-nizing the contribution of theIndian community.”

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Novak Djokovic's pursuitof a record seventh Miami

Open ATP title ended in dra-matic fashion on Tuesday asRoberto Bautista Agut superblyrecovered from a first setdestruction to win 1-6, 7-5, 6-3 and book a place in the quar-ter-finals.

And the top seeds keptfalling as women's world num-ber two Petra Kvitova slumpedto a surprise 7-6 (8/6), 3-6, 6-2 defeat to Australian AshleighBarty.

Bautista Agut, 30, mayhave beaten Djokovic on the

way to winning the title inDoha earlier this year but 15-time Grand Slam championDjokovic started like a train inthis last 16 encounter beforebeing amazingly reined back in.

After just 25 minutes,Djokovic was 5-0 ahead and oncruise control, Bautista Agutseverely struggling to keep theSerbian at bay.

A short rain delay late inthe second set allowed BautistaAgut to regroup, however.

He returned a completelydifferent player and at the endof an absorbing two hours and29 minutes, it was the number22 seed who will now meet

defending champion John Isnerfor a place in the semi-finals.

"He is a solid player but Ishouldn't have lost this match,I had way too many wasted

opportunities," said the worldnumber one, who also failed tomake the latter stages of IndianWells this month.

Big-serving Isner movedinto the last eight with a 7-6(7/5), 7-6 (7/3) triumph overGreat Britain's world number22 Kyle Edmund.

Elsewhere there was a bril-liant win for 18 year-old FelixAuger-Aliassime, theCanadian who came throughqualifying, who beat Georgia'sNikoloz Basilashvili 7-6 (7-4),6-4.

Auger-Aliassime, who isset to become the first playerborn in the 2000s to break intothe top 50 when the rankingsare updated next week, playsBorna Coric after the Croatianbeat Nick Kyrgios 4-6, 6-3, 6-2.

In the women's draw,Barty, who beat Kvitova for thefirst time having gone into theclash 0-4, will play AnettKontaveit for a place inSaturday's final after theEstonian brought an end toHsieh Su-Wei's impressive runwith a 3-6, 6-2, 7-5 victory toreach the last four in SouthFlorida for the first time.

�� /1./�,)

Former champions Anirban Lahiri and SSPChawrasia along with the 2018 Asian

Tour Order of Merit winner ShubhankarSharma go into the 55th Hero Indian Open,starting here on Thursday, as the leading homecontenders.

When it comes to international golfevents, Indians are always considered thetoughest to beat on home soil. Although noneof the four players who are in world's Top-100list are Indians, it is the country'sgolfers who would start asfavourites at the $ 1.75 millionevent.

Indian golfers have alwaysbeen the ones to watch out for atthe tournament. Whether it isexperienced stars like Lahiri orChawrasia or even MukeshKumar, who plays mostly in India,or youngsters like Khalin Joshi andViraj Madappa.

The field of 156 this time hasfour players inside Top-100 — JazzJanewattananond of Thailand (No71), Adrian Otaegui (No 73),Shaun Norris (No 90) and JorgeCampillo (No 93).

The field also boosts of some veryprominent winners this season like Jazz(Singapore Open), David Law (Vic Open),Aaron Rai (Hong Kong Open) and Scott Hend(Maybank Malaysian Championships), besidessome others such as the 2018 Scottish Openwinner Brandon Stone, long-hitting BerndWiesberger, four-time European Tour winner,and Gavin Green, a former Asian Tour No 1.

The depth in the field that includes adozen stars with a world ranking between 100and 150 is expected to spice up the competi-tion here at the DLF Golf and Country Club.

Between them, Lahiri, India's only repre-sentative on the flagship PGA Tour, andChawrasia — they have won the NationalOpen three times 2015 and 2017 and both willbe keen to put their best foot forward.

Lahiri is here on the back of a solid per-formance last week at the Valspar

Championship in Florida, where his lastround 68 was equal best score on a windy andtough Sunday.

Shubhankar was seventh here last yearafter going into Sunday with the lead.

Hend, who broke a near three-yeardrought with the Maybank title last week willalso be competing here. And so is last year'sother top-three finisher Sihwan Kim of theUSA and Maybank Runner-up Nacho Elviraof Spain.

Both Lahiri and Shubhankar feel that "thecourse is playing much better than last

year".Lahiri added: "It looks immac-

ulate. This course is probably in thebest shape that any of us has seenso far. It seems to be the mostplayable compared to all the otheryears we've played.

"The greens are definitely a lotsofter and the grass has settleddown. In the sense of what toexpect this week, it will be a greatgolf course. We'll see how it goesbecause it really changes depend-ing on if the tees are pushed backor pushed forward. That's a big fac-tor here."

Lahiri sounded upbeat about hischances this week.

"I love playing the Indian Open. It's myfifth major. I have happy memories, havingplayed well in this tournament for a numberof years.

"From what I saw during the Pro-Am thismorning, green speed is the one thing I needto get used to quickly. I kept coming up shorttoday and need to recalibrate my puttingspeed. That's about the only adjustment I thinkis needed."

Shubhankar said familiarity with thecourse will be a big plus for him.

"I am obviously a lot more mature this yearand really enjoying my game. I just want to getback into the groove again of playing at mybest again.

"This was my home course for the longesttime and it feels great to be back on familiarground," the 22-year-old said.

�$��Teenage Indian shoot-ing stars Manu Bhaker andSaurabh Chaudhary smashed thequalification world record beforeclinching the 10m air pistol mixedteam Gold in the 12th AsianAirgun Championship inTaoyuan, Taipei on Wednesday.

Their feat came exactly amonth after they won theInternational Shooting SportFederation (ISSF) World Cup

stage Gold in the same event inDelhi.

The 17-year-old Manu and16-year-old Saurabh shot a com-bined score of 784 in the qualifi-cation round, breaking the recordset by Russians VitalinaBatsarashkina and ArtemChernousov at the EuropeanChampionships five days ago.

The Indians then went on towin the five-team final with a score

of 484.8.Hwang Seongeun and Kim

Mose of Korea won the Silver witha score of 481.1 while Wu ChiaYing and Kou Kuan-Ting claimedthe Bronze for the host countrywith a score of 413.3.

A second Indian team com-prising of Anuradha and AbhishekVerma also reached the finals andfinished fourth with a score of372.1. PTI

�� .��

Fabio Quagliarella attributedhis new-found serenity afteryears of a stalker nightmare to

his stunning form as the 36-year-old on Tuesday became the oldestplayer to score for Italy.

The player fromCastellammare di Stabia nearNaples converted two penalties ina crushing 6-0 Euro 2020 qualify-ing win by the Azzurri overLiechtenstein in Parma.

Italy top Group J with sixpoints after also beating Finland 2-0 in Udine on Saturday with goalsfrom youngsters Nicolo Barella, 22,and 19-year-old Moise Kean.

Bosnia threw away a two-goallead to draw 2-2 with Greece andboth are behind Italy on fourpoints followed by Finland onthree.

Serie A top scorer Quagliarellahas earned his recall to RobertoMancini's new-look Italy thanks tohis 21 goals in 28 league games, twomore than Portuguese starCristiano Ronaldo has managed forJuventus.

And he marked his return forthe Azzurri after nearly nine yearsby converting a penalty on 35 min-utes, adding a second, also from thespot, just before the break.

The Sampdoria player at 36years and 54 days becomes the old-est player to score for Italy, overtak-ing Christian Panucci who was 35years and 62 days when he nettedin 2008.

"I don't feel my age, I feel goodand I'm very serene," saidQuagliarella, whose career hadbeen blighted by a stalker whoforced him to leave Naples in2010.

"It's a wonderful evening," saidthe veteran forward after scoringhis ninth goal in 27 caps for Italy.

His first international startwas in March 2007, with his last inJune 2010, before Mancini revivedhis international career.

"Quagliarella deserved thiscall, because he is theCapocannoniere (top scorer) inSerie A this season," said theItaly coach.

"I want to thank myteammates," continuedQuagliarella.

"After the two goals theyencouraged me to get a thirdone too, but it didn't happen.

"I thank Jorginho and Bonuccibecause they're the penalty takersand they told me to kick.

"They said: 'The evening isyours, you kick it'."

Stefano Sensi had headed Italyin front after 17 minutes withMarco Verratti adding a secondafter 32 minutes.

Kean nodded in his secondItaly goal on 69 minutes with

substitute Leonardo Pavoletti,30, who got his first Italystart in the second half toreplace Quagliarella, addinga sixth.

�� Alvaro Morata's

remarkable revival continued onTuesday as he scored twice forSpain in a 2-0 victory over Malta.

After edging past Norway 2-1on Saturday, Morata's double at theTa'Qali stadium gives Spain twowins from two in Euro 2020 qual-ifying and the perfect start inGroup F.

Luis Enrique's side again

showed the inability to convert pos-session into chances that cloudedtheir early exit from last year'sWorld Cup.

But Morata's brace offers roomfor encouragement, the strikerextending his return to form sincehe joined Atletico Madrid on loanfrom Chelsea in January.

He has five goals in six games,his best return since Sept 2017, andhas strengthened his case for aposition that has proved so trou-blesome for Spain in recent years.

"The boss knows how happy Iam to be here and I am grateful tohim," Morata said. "We want toqualify as soon as possible for theEuros so it was important to wintoday."

�� )#0�$#&�!�

Australian Graham Reid isset to be named the Indian

men's hockey team chief coachtill the 2022 World Cup afterthe national federation andthe Sports Authority of Indiagave their go ahead to fill theposition lying vacant for near-ly three months.

Reid's name was finalisedin a meeting between HockeyIndia and SAI officials onTuesday. He was picked over anumber of candidates, includ-ing Jay Stacy, anotherAustralian and a three-timeOlympic medallist.

Reid's name has been for-warded to the Sports Ministryfor a final approval and accord-ing to a source in the ministry,an official announcementwould be made by the end ofthis week.

"Reid's contract is expect-

ed to be till 2022 but as hasbeen case in the past, the NSFwill review his performanceafter every tournament," thesource said.

A veteran of 130 interna-tional matches, Reid was amember of the Australian teamthat won the Silver medal in the1992 Barcelona Olympics. Adisciple of the legendary Ric

Charlesworth, Reid was hisassistant in the Australian teamfor five years before being ele-vated to the top position in2014.

He was Australia's coach atthe 2016 Rio Olympics but quitafter the Kookaburras failed tofinish on the podium.

In 2017, Reid took up thepost of head coach of his for-mer club Amsterdam as well asassistant coach of theNetherlands team. But earlierthis month, he was dismissedas Amsterdam coach followingwhich speculations startedabout him taking up the Indiajob.

Even though Reid wouldbe given a long rope till 2022,a federation source said qual-ifying for next year's TokyoOlympics would be theAustralian's biggest test and hisfuture with India woulddepend on it.

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Striker Mandeep Singhscored a hat-trick as India

outplayed Canada 7-3 to booka summit clash berth in theSultan Azlan Shah Cup hock-ey tournament on Wednesday.

The 24-year-old Mandeepfired in three quick goals (20th,27th and 29th minutes), all ofthem coming in the secondquarter, after Varun Kumarhad given India the lead in the12th minute of the high-scor-ing match.

At the half time, Indiawere 4-0 up in the matchbefore Canada reduced themargin through a strike fromMark Pearson in the 35thminute.

Amit Rohidas (39th),Vivek Prasad (55th) andNilakanta Sharma (58th)struck later to take the game

beyond the reach of theCanadians who scored twolate goals through FinBoothroyd (50th) and JamesWallace (57th).

With the win, India con-tinued their unbeaten run inthe tournament, with threewins and a draw to top theround-robin league table with10 points. They are nowassured of a place in the finalto be played on March 30, witha game in hand.

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Substitute Gabriel Jesusscored twice in the closing

minutes to help Brazil comefrom behind to beat the CzechRepublic 3-1 in a friendly onTuesday.

The Manchester City strik-er first slammed home a crossfrom David Neres who hadsprinted down the left flank fol-lowing a superb pass fromDanilo on 83 minutes.

And then in the 90thminute, Jesus scored on arebound of his own shot aftera series of clinical passes insidethe Czech box.

The Czechs took the lead inthe 37th minute when mid-fielder David Pavelka foundhimself in possession behind aleaky Brazil defence andslammed the ball in pastAlisson.

Roberto Firmino equalisedfour minutes after half-time,picking up a pass aimed atCzech sweeper Marek Suchyinside the box and firing home.

"I'm super happy withGabriel Jesus, I'm glad I gavehim a chance in the secondhalf," said Brazil coach Tite,praising the 72nd-minute sub-stitute for his offensive drive.

Brazil had a lone shot ongoal in the first-half but Czechkeeper Jiri Pavlenka had littletrouble parr ying awayCasemiro's free kick.

In the second period,Philippe Coutinho saw his lowshot cleared by a diving

Pavlenka while substitute Neresfired into the Bremen keeperfrom close range.

"The Czechs were morecreative in the first-half, welacked this aspect," said Tite.

"The first-half was tough, Iwas upset with the passing, butsecond-half substitutionsallowed us to combine better."

�� ;�� MidfielderChristian Pulisic scored earlybut limped off with a quadri-ceps injury on Tuesday as theUnited States remained unbeat-en under coach GreggBerhalter with a 1-1 friendlydraw against Chile.

Pulisic became theyoungest American to score 10international goals when heopened the scoring at BBVACompass Stadium in Houstonin the fourth minute.

Pulisic sprinted onto aneatly played ball from GyasiZardes, racing into the penal-ty area and beating goalkeep-er Gabriel Arias.

At 20 years, 189 days oldPulisic broke the US mark todouble-digit international goalsset by Jozy Altidore, who was20 years, 337 days old when hescored his 10th US goal inOctober 2010.

The lead lasted just fiveminutes as Oscar Opazo knot-ted the score at 1-1 with a left-footed blast in the ninth, com-pleting a sequence that saw USdefenders Omar Gonzalez andMatt Miazga beaten.

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With Jasprit Bumrah "ready androaring" after an injury scare,

Mumbai Indians would fancy theirchances against an erratic RoyalChallengers Bangalore when the twostar-studded teams square off onThursday.

The big sub-plot of the contestwould be the world's best ODI bats-man — Virat Kohli — taking guardagainst the world's best ODI bowler —Bumrah — in a format notorious forits unpredictability.

Bumrah's shoulder injury was acause of concern for the Rohit Sharma-led Mumbai but India's premier pacerseems to have recovered in time to beback in the fold.

Both teams will be eager to regis-ter their first win of this year’s tourna-ment and the onus will be on Kohli andRohit, both of who failed to justify theirreputation in the first game.

Mumbai will also be boosted bythe availability of IPL’s all-time lead-ing wicket taker Lasith Malinga.

The Sri Lankan was on Tuesdayreleased by Sri Lanka Cricket from thedomestic Super Provincial One-Daydomestic tournament, slated fromApril 4 to 11. The SLC had made thetournament a trial for the World Cupsquad selection, prompting Malinga topull out of the IPL's first leg initially.

However, the SLC softened itsstance, reasoning that the fast bowlerwill be bowling to better batsmen inthe IPL.

Mumbai will also heave a sigh ofrelief as Bumrah joined practice onWednesday during which he ran for20 minutes and participated in catch-ing drills. He also took to social

media to state that he is "ready androaring."

Bumrah suffered the shoulderinjury after landing awkwardly duringSunday's contest against DelhiCapitals.

Yuvraj Singh will also be in focusafter the 37-year-old started the sea-

son on a classy note hitting a sublimehalf-century against Delhi Capitals.While Mitchell McClenaghan will beeager to face the challenge of bowlingto Kohli, AB De Villers and hard hit-ting West Indian youngster ShimronHetmyer.

RCB will expect its batsmen to putup a formidable total after they werebundled out for a paltry 70 in 17.1overs against the Chennai Super Kingsin the opening match of the season.With power-hitters like Kohli, AB deVilliers and Shimron Heymeyer in theteam, that should not be an uphill task.

Leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahalwill again be the key man in the RCBbowling attack and will need thesupport of the other bowlers.

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Jofra Archer, one of the most sought-afterbowlers in franchise-based leagues, rates

Indian pacer Jasprit Bumrah as the best T20bowler currently playing in world cricket.

The Barbados-born medium-pacer,who will soon qualify to play for Englandin the international arena after completinga mandatory seven-year residency in thecountry, also placed himself andAfghanistan's Rashid Khan in the list of topthree bowlers in the shortest format.

"I am going to say that I quite likeBumrah. I would include a spinner in thelist and that is Rashid Khan. So it's myself,Bumrah and Rashid, who are three bestbowlers in T20 cricket," Archer, playing forRajasthan Royals in the ongoing IPL said.

Archer, who has 105 wickets from 82T20 games at an economy rate of less than

eight runs per over, feels Bumrah's unusu-al action makes it difficult for batsmen topick him.

"With the new ball, it can go either way,so for all the fast bowlers, it is essential thatyou have an extra edge at the death," saidArcher.

"Even with his action, he bowls york-ers really well. And the key to possessinga potent slower delivery in case of Bumrahis his action. His hands go on all directionsand suddenly you will find it really hardto pick up the slower one," explainedArcher.

Archer has a couple of deceptivebouncers and some good variation of slow-er deliveries but he admitted that the tough-est delivery to execute in a pressure cook-er scenario is the wide Yorker because ofthe margin of error.

"Personally, I don't even like it really

because your margin for error could be awide or a four or if you nail it then a sin-gle. Personally, for me I find it way too hardand try not using it," he said.

Royals have enough firepower to winthe IPL after 11 years, Archer exuded con-fidence despite the fact that England'sWorld Cup hopefuls such as Jos Buttler andBen Stokes will be back in the UK on April25 as per an England and Wales CricketBoard's diktat.

On the personal front, Archer has sethis sights on the 'Purple Cap', meant for thetop wicket-taker in the IPL.

"I just want us to get to the play-offs firstand then worry about getting into the finals.Personally, I will like to get the Purple Cap.I want to score a few runs as well as I did-n't score too many last year. Hopefully, I canturn that round this year and show what Ican do with the bat," the 23-year-old said.

��2,&2�4�

Half centuries from Nitish Ranaand Robin Uthappa, and yet

another blistering knock fromAndre Russell helped KolkataKnight Riders post a massive 218for 4 against Kings XI Punjab intheir IPL match at Eden Gardenson Wednesday.

Russell made full use of areprieve when he was on three tohammer five sixes and three foursin his 17-ball 48 to play a majorrole in KKR posting a big total.

Russell, who hit a sensational19-ball 49 against SunrisersHyderabad, was brilliantly yorkedby Mohammed Shami. But it wasadjudged a no-ball as only threeKXIP fielders were inside the 30-yard-circle against a mandatoryminimum of four.

The Jamaican then hit top gear,smashing Andre Tye for two sixesand two fours. He then went on tohit Shami for three sixes in a rowto take KKR past 200.

Playing his first match after the'Mankading' controversy, KingsXI Punjab skipper RavichandranAshwin found the going toughafter he opted to bowl with SunilNarine unleashing the fury earlyon with a nine-ball 24.

Nitish Rana struck his consec-utive half century, a 34-ball 67while number 3 Robin Uthappawas their top-scorer, remainingunbeaten on a 50-ball 67 (2x6, 6x4)to lend KKR the stability.

Off to a sedate start with 22runs from 21 balls, Rana switchedgear against Ashwin hitting the

India off-spinner for two sixes andcontinued his assault on MandeepSingh in the next over with succes-sive sixes.

Such was Rana's fury that hisnext 41 runs came off just 13 ballsas he along with Uthappa made aspectacular 110-run third wicket

partnership off just 66 balls.Having grabbed the spotlight

in the Tamil Nadu Premier Leagueen route to fetching the joint-high-est bid of �8.4, VarunChakravarthy found IPL a differ-ent ball game when Narinesmashed the debutant for three

sixes and a boundary in his firstover.

But Narine's innings (24 offnine balls) ended when SouthAfrican pacer Hardus Viljoenworked up great pace and bounceto get a top-edge for his debut IPLwicket.

�� )#0�$#&�!�

Dwayne Bravo hasnever understood the

age-related fuss that cropsup everytime ChennaiSuper Kings win a matchbecause for him smartalways trumps fast in anysport.

CSK defeated DelhiCapitals on Tuesday andBravo could barely holdback when the age questionwas thrown at him at thepost-match press confer-ence.

"We are aware of ourage. It's there and you cangoogle it but that's nothing.We are not 60 year-olds, weare 35, 32-year-olds. We arestill young, we look afterour bodies and we have alot of experience," Bravo hitback at the critics.

It's the experience ofhandling crunch situationsthat makes CSK a cut

above the rest with the"best captain in the world"leading the side, said

Bravo, "In any sport, in anytournament, you just can-not beat experience. We

know our weaknesses andwe play smart and we arewell led by the best captainin the world. And he(Dhoni) keeps remindingus that you know we arenot the fastest team, but wecan be the smartest team,"the former West Indiesall-rounder said.

For CSK, it's moreabout situational aware-ness rather than long-drawn tactical planningsaid Bravo.

Asked if there is a strat-egy to bat around Dhoni,he replied: "We don't plan.We don't have team meet-ings. We just turn up andgo with the flow. MS has astyle, and every player hasa style. We just watch thesituation and adapt quick-ly and that's where experi-ence comes in." It was

Bravo's over that changedthe match when he dis-missed Rishabh Pant andColin Ingram in quick suc-cession.

"MS wanted me tobowl a straighter line, ontothe stumps, wicket to wick-et, a lot of seam ups. Sotoday I bowled a lot moreeffort balls than in othergames. Normally, I bowl alot of slower balls, a lot ofvariations, yorkers buttoday the wicket wasn'tsuitable for that type ofdeliveries.

"And again MS stand-ing behind the stumps, heknew exactly what wasrequired and he also knewthat he could count on meat any point in time todeliver for him," theTrinidad and Tobago crick-eter said.

�� )#0�$#&�!

Shikhar Dhawan has to up theante in the Powerplay overs as

it will not be possible for RishabhPant to be the swashbucklereveryday, feels Delhi Capitalscoach Ricky Ponting.

Dhawan's batting has becomea talking point as he didn't scoreat a particularly good pace evenin the opening win against theMumbai Indians.

Asked if he would have likedDhawan to accelerate, Pontingreplied, "Ideally, yes you'd like that.But it obviously wasn't an easywicket either for anyone to go inand strike, especially at the end ofthe PowerPlay." Dhawan's strike-

rate has been less than 115, whichis considered poor in T20 formatas his scores of 43 off 36 balls (MI)and 51 off 47 balls (CSK) wouldindicate.

"There's a certain role that wewant Shikhar to play in this team.Even by his own admission, hewould've liked to score quickertoday but at the 15th over markwe were 118 for 2," Ponting said.

"We struggled to get to 147 soit's the back-end of the inningsthat I am sort of most disappoint-ed in because I think we set up thefront part of the innings prettywell," he added.

It was Pant's dismissal thatbecame the difference between agood and a below-par total. Theformer Australian skipper saidone shouldn't expect the maver-ick keeper-batsman to do the jobeveryday.

"No, we can't expect Rishabh

to play like he did in Mumbai,everyday. No one can do that. Noone can go and get 78 off 20-oddballs in every game. But it wasthere for that to happen today. Itwasn't just Rishabh, (Colin)Ingram had an opportunity aswell. Shreyas (Iyer) had a goodopportunity again today," heexplained.

Ponting said he firmlybelieves that it wasn't poor bowl-ing but batting at the death thatcost them the match.

"At the end of the day, it was-n't the bowling that cost us thegame. We were 20-30 runs shortwith the bat, which has been thedifference in the game," he con-cluded.

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India's Subhankar Dey produced thebiggest upset of the Yonex-Sunrise

India Open so far, knocking out fourthseed Indonesian Tommy Sugiarto, whileformer champions P V Sindhu andKidambi Srikanth also progressed to thesecond round on Wednesday.

Unseeded Subhankar, ranked 44thin the world, eked out a stunning 14-21,22-20, 21-11 triumph over world num-ber 9 Sugiarto to join a group ofIndians, including H S Prannoy, B SaiPraneeth and Sameer Verma, in themen's singles second round.

Earlier, Sindhu, who reached thefinals in the last two editions and wonthe title in 2017, brushed aside fellowIndian Mugdha Agrey 21-8, 21-13 inwomen's singles, while Srikanthrecorded his fourth successivewin over Hong Kong's WongWing Ki Vincent with a 21-16, 18-21, 21-19 triumph in men's singles.

Prannoy also showed good signsof recovering from a gastro-esophagealreflux disease that troubled him last year,notching up a come-from-behind 14-21,21-18,21-14 win over Thailand's eighthseeded Kantaphon Wangcharoen.

Fifth seed Sameer Verma beatDenmark's Rasmus Gemke 21-18, 21-12, while Riya Mookerjee shockedThailand's Phittayaporn Chaiwan 21-17,21-15 to set up a meeting withDenmark's eighth seed Mia Blichfeldt,who knocked out Rita Thaker.

Swiss Open finalist B Sai Praneethrecovered from a first-game reversal tooutwit compatriot Kartikey GulshanKumar 22-24, 21-13, 21-8 to also enterthe second round.

Former champions RatchanokIntanon and Li Xuerui made a goodstart to their respective campaigns. Thefourth-seeded Intanon, who is eyeinga third title at this prestigious event,

comfortably beat India's SaiUttejitha Rao Chukka 21-9,21-6.

London Olympic Goldmedallist Xuerui, the winner of

this tournament in 2012, over-came a tough opponent in NitchaonJindapol with a 21-17, 21-11 win.

Third seed He Bingjiao needed 30minutes to dismiss India's Prashi Joshi21-12, 21-15 and was joined by hercompatriot Chen Xiaoxin following her21-15, 21-11 victory over YuliaYosephin Susanto.

In doubles, sixth seeds Manu Attriand Sumeeth Reddy blew away youngercountrymen Ravi and Lakshay Saroha21-14, 21-7.

Pranaav Jerry Chopra and ShivamSharma, who qualified for the maindraw, made short work of Senthil VelGovindarasu and VembarasanVenkatachalam 21-13, 21-13.

In women's doubles, the pairs ofPooja Dandu-Sanjana Santosh andVenkata Ramya Tulasi Bailupudi-Shivani Santosh Singh made it throughRound 2.

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The condition of Jasprit Bumrah'sinjured shoulder has certainly

improved but there is still no cer-tainty over India's international'sparticipation in Mumbai's matchagainst RCB.

"As we all know, Bumrah was

out there yesterday warming up andtook a few catches. He has recoveredwell today and looks fit," a memberfrom Mumbai Indians' manage-ment told reporters at theChinnaswamy stadium.

"He will be assessed after today's(training) session," the officialadded.

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