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The Union Cabinet chairedby Prime Minister

Narendra Modi on Wednesdayapproved the launch ofAyushman Bharat — NationalHealth Protection Mission.

The Cabinet nod to thepolitically sensitive schemeshowed that the Government

would like to implement it intime to turn into a big plank inthe 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

“The scheme has the ben-efit cover of Rs5 lakh per fam-ily per year. The target benefi-

ciaries of the proposed schemewill be more than 10 crore fam-ilies belonging to poor and vul-nerable population based onSECC database.

“AB-NHPM will subsume

the on-going centrally spon-sored schemes-RashtriyaSwasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY)and the Senior Citizen HealthInsurance Scheme (SCHIS),” anofficial statement read.

The scheme that was high-lighted in the Union Budget asthe world biggest heat carescheme, is aimed at benefitting10 crore poor families by pro-viding coverage of up to Rs 5lakh per family per year for sec-ondary and tertiary care hos-pitalisation. “This will be theworld’s largest Governmentfunded health care programme.Adequate funds will be provid-ed for smooth implementation

of this programme,” Financeminister Arun Jaitley said whilepresenting the Budget for 2018-19, and committing Rs 1,200crore towards the mission.

Through this scheme, theGovernment aims to increasethe benefit cover to nearly 40per cent of the population,mostly the poor and vulnera-ble sections.

The beneficiaries can availbenefits in both public andempanelled private facilities. Tocontrol costs, the paymentsfor treatment will be done onpackage rate (to be defined bythe Government in advance)basis.

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Five unidentified terrorists,three Army soldiers and

two counterinsurgency police-men were killed in a prolongedgun battle in Halmatpura villageof north Kashmir’s Kupwaradistrict on Wednesday. At leastfour security personnel havebeen injured in the gun battlethat triggered off on Tuesday.Sources said the gunfight endedwith heavy casualties but thearea remained under cordon forcombing operation till lastreports came in from the area.

The slain soldiers havebeen identified as MohammadAshraf Rather and NaikRanjeet Singh of 160 battalionTerritorial Army and HavildarZorawar Singh of 3 JAK Rifleswhile two cops of the SpecialOperations Group (SOG) wereidentified as MohammadYousuf Cheche (SPO) andDeepak Pandit. The cops andsoldiers were critically wound-ed in the gunfight and suc-cumbed to their injuries at amedical facility.

At least four security per-sonnel including Sub-Inspector(SI) Harvinder Singh, JavaidAhmad, one soldier and a

paramilitary trooper wereinjured. Sources said the gun-fight erupted on Tuesday withhigh intensity as security forcescordoned off an area followingspecific information on pres-ence of a large group of terror-ists. The gunfight continuedthroughout the night andintensified on Wednesdaymorning resulting into heavycasualties. Four terrorists werekilled in the initial salvo.

Sources said that one sol-dier Rifleman Abdul MajeedBajad of 160 was missing on theencounter site. The Army hasalso pressed drones to track theterrorists. The Army also

rushed reinforcement of 5Bihar and 4 para commandosto the area.

Police chief Shesh PaulVaid said that four bodies ofterrorists were retrieved fromthe encounter site. Police saidhuge cache of arms and ammu-nition and other incriminatingmaterials which include AK-47rifles and grenades were recov-ered from the encounter site.

Police said the encounterwas in progress in the denseforest area. “Owing to the thickvegetation and low visibility thesecurity forces are mopping thearea with due caution,” policesaid.

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Adata analytical firm,Cambridge Analytica

(CA), was in the eye of a stormon Wednesday with the BJPand the Congress accusingeach other availing its servicesfor political purposes by illegal-ly mining private data ofFacebook users. Jumping intothe row, the InformationTechnology Minister warnedFacebook founder and CEOMark Zuckerberg against anyabuse of data of Indians on itsplatform.

Prasad said the Congressfound love for a firm which hasbeen accused of using “sex,sleaze and fake news” to influ-ence elections and asked if theCongress too plans to walk thesame path. He claimed that itwas a case of national securityand maintaining integrity of thedemocratic ethos in India. Theruling party said the CA hasbeen accused of manipulatingpolls in several countries andalso been currently investigat-ed.

The firm was reportedlyhired in the President DonaldTrump’s 2016 election cam-paign and gained access toprivate information on morethan 50 million Facebookusers.

At a Press conference herePrasad warned Facebook ofstringent legal action againstany misuse of data of morethan 200 million Indians on itsplatform. He warned Facebook

founder and CEO MarkZuckerberg against any abuseof data of Indians on its plat-form. “You could be sum-moned here,” he said.

Targeting the Congress, hesaid the number of RahulGandhi’s Twitter followers hadshot up recently and won-dered if it was due to the ser-vices of the firm that heachieved this “fake popularity”.

“Will the Congress now

depend on data manipulationand theft to woo voters?” heasked.

Prime Minister NarendraModi asks BJP leaders toremain digitally and physical-ly connected with the masses,he said, but the Congress seemsto be depending on the digitalmedium to make up for its lackof connect on the ground.

Prasad said media reportshave also said that Cambridge

Analytica is the CongressParty’s ‘Brahmastra’ againstPM Modi! .According to mediareports, now sacked CambridgeAnalytica CEO Alexander Nixhas met several Oppositionleaders to design electoral strat-egy for the UPA in the next LokSabha elections, he said.

The Congress injected atwist in the tale and sought toturn the table by saying that“Cambridge Analytica’s linked

website shows that in 2010 itsservices were used by BJP-JD(U). Citing informationavailable on the website ofOvleno Business Intelligence(OBI) — an Indian affiliate ofCA’s parent company StrategicCommunications Laboratories(SCL) -- Congress charged thatthe firm furnished a con-stituency-wise database to BJPcandidates for State and nation-al elections.

“Cambridge Analytica’slinked website shows that in2010 its services were used byBJP-JD(U). Firm’s Indian partner Ovlene BusinessIntelligence is being run by BJP ally’s MP son. OBI compa-ny’s services were used byRajnath Singh in 2009,” AICCchief spokesman RandeepSurjewala said at a Press con-ference.

The party strongly deniedavailing the services of CA.“Indian National Congress orthe Congress president hasnever used or never hired theservices of a company calledCambridge Analytica. It is afake agenda and white lie beingdished out by Ravi ShankarPrasad,” Surjewala stated.

“BJP’s factory of fake newshas produced one more fakeproduct today. It appears fakestatements, fake press confer-ences and fake agendas havebecome everyday character ofBJP and its ‘lawless’ LawMinister Ravi Shankar Prasad,”Surjewala said.

In a stinging rebuttal toPrasad’s allegations, theCongress spokespersonremarked that the BJP leaderwas blaming others when hewas the captain of a leakingship.

“The country’s IT and LawMinister knows more aboutleaks than anyone else -- be itAadhaar database or callrecords, whichever Ministryhe’s in charge of develops leaks,”Surjewala jibed.

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The Supreme Court onWednesday asked the

Centre what mechanism it hasput in place to prevent exclu-sion of citizens due to Aadhaarbeing mandated for financialservices.

Having heard argumentschallenging Aadhaar schemeand the Aaadhaar (TargetedDelivery of Financial and OtherSubsidies, Benefits andServices) Act 2016 for close toa month-and-a-half, a fivejudge Constitution Benchthrew a volley of questions atAttorney General KKVenugopal who stood up topresent the response from theCentre.

Giving the example of pen-sioners who were denied pen-sion for want of Aadhaar asidentity proof, the Bench said,“There can be a case when aman who is a Government ser-vant prefers to go and stay withhis children in America. Howwill he come and prove hisidentity using Aadhaar. At thesame time he has other alter-nate means to prove his iden-tity. How does pension comeunder Section 7 of the AadhaarAct which deals with service,benefit or subsidy? This is anentitlement of the years givenby a Government employee.”

A-G submitted that theAct was put in place to ensure

the right to food, employmentand housing should be guaran-teed to the poor, needy andunderprivileged citizens whowere deprived of their benefitsunder social welfare schemesrun by central government.

Venugopal said all argu-ments against Aadhaar wereraised by NGOs while no citi-zen who is getting benefitunder the PDS scheme, LPGscheme or such other welfarescheme had come forward tosay that Aadhaar should bewithdrawn. The top law offi-cer argued that the right to lifeof majority population willweigh over the right of few cit-izens demanding protectionof their privacy rights.

The Bench comprisingChief Justice Dipak Misra,Justices AK Sikri, AMKhanwilkar, DY Chandrachud,Ashok Bhushan said, “We willappreciate if the Governmentcomes forward upfront andsays there is a problem offinancial exclusion.

Continued on Page 4

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The Supreme Court onWednesday announced a

big relief for almost 2,800homebuyers of the JaypeeHousing projects who are seek-ing refund of their money afterthe realtor declared bankrupt-cy. The court on Wednesdayordered that buyers seekingrefund need not deposit anymore money with the develop-er. The court also stayed allnotices issued by the JaypeeInfratech Limited (JIL) to thehomebuyers in the past anddirected the holding companyof the firm, JaiprakashAssociates Limited (JAL) todeposit Rs 200 crore by May 10.The matter will be heard nexton April 16.

As on date, the court wasinformed that about 2,800homebuyers have demandedrefund of the principal amountwhich came to the tune of Rs1,300 crore. The Bench head-ed by Chief Justice Dipak Misradirected the Rs 200 crore to bepaid in two installments - Rs100 crore by April 15 andremaining Rs 100 crore byMay 10. This amount will be inaddition to the Rs 550 crorealready deposited by JaiprakashAssociates with the court. Thetotal amount of Rs 750 crorewill then get distributed on apro rata basis among the 2,800homebuyers.

JAL, represented in courtby advocate Anupam Lal Das,

informed the court that almost92 per cent of homebuyerswere willing to get possessionof flats. Das brought a propos-al to court that the companywas willing to complete itsprojects by arranging funds.Once the flats are ready, JALwill purchase the flats from thehomebuyers who are willing totake refund. This way, allhomebuyers will be returnedtheir amount. He said that thecompany is not left with apenny as it has already invest-ed in excess of Rs 1,4161 crorecollected from homebuyers.He urged the court to restrainthe Insolvency ResolutionProfessional (IRP) who havetaken over the management ofJIL for this proposal to roll out.

The Bench said that it haddirected JAL in November 2017that irrespective of the insolven-cy proceeding, the holdingcompany must deposit a sum ofRs 2,000 crore. The court asked

amicus curiae PawanshreeAgarwal to prepare a chart-wiselist of persons in every individ-ual project who seek refund. Heinformed the court that in all,the principal amount of refundwill come to Rs 1,300 crore.

Continued on Page 4

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The Gautam Budh NagarPolice has booked two

teachers and the principal ofthe Ahlcon Public School,Mayur Vihar 1, for sexualharassment, abetment to sui-cide, and criminal intimidationafter a Class IX student com-mitted suicide at her residencein Noida sector 52, late onTuesday night.

The Noida police top brasshave suspended a constable fornot adding sections of thePOCSO Act in the FIR. Familyhas alleged sexual harassmentof their daughter by one of thesubject teachers which led herto take the extreme step.

Following the complaintfiled by the parents of the 15-year-old girl, the Gautam BudhNagar police visited the schoolon Wednesday afternoon.Deputy Chief Minister ManishSisodia on Wednesdayannounced a probe by theeducation department into the

alleged suicide.The Gautam Budh Nagar

police has registered an FIRunder sections 306(Abetmentof suicide), 506 (Punishmentfor criminal intimidation), 354(Assault or criminal force towoman with intent to outrageher modesty) and POCSO Actduring the early hours ofWednesday against the trio- thetwo subject teachers and theschool principal.

In a shocking revelation, anote left behind by the studentin her school notebook saying,

“I am traumatised that I amgoing mad day after day”, hasbeen recovered by the GautamBudh Nagar police team whichvisited the girl’s school onWednesday. The note corrob-orates the claims levelled by thefamily of the student whoended her life owing to over-whelming pressure and allegedmental torture and sexualassault by the two subjectteachers towards the girl.

Gautam Budh Nagar Policeon Wednesday afternoon visit-ed the East Delhi based school,Ahlcon Public School in MayurVihar -1 and questioned thestaff members of the school.The cops questioned 15 peopleincluding the Principal, VicePrincipal, Head Master and thetwo teachers for nearly 3 hoursand 30 minutes. “The schoolauthorities have been asked notto leave the city till the inves-tigation is over,” said a seniorpolice officer.

On Tuesday night, the girlwas found hanging from the

ceiling of her house in Noidasector 52. Police said the mat-ter came to fore when the girl’sparents, who were out for somework, returned home but thegirl did not respond to doorbells. When they forciblyopened the door of her room,she was found hanging.

The family rushed her toKailash Hospital in Noida,where she was declared deadon arrival, police said.Following this, the familymembers of the deceased hadlodged a complaint against theschool and teachers claimingthat their ward was in depres-sion following sexual harass-ment from the two teachersand low marks which she hadobtained in her recently con-cluded final exams.

Rajeev Kumar Singh, Circleofficer 2, (City), said, Noidapolice have collected the CCTVfootages from the school.“Classrooms are not covered bythe cameras installed on schoolpremises.

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The electricity departmenton Wednesday disconnect-

ed power supply to Amarpalisocieties in Sectors 74 and 76for defaulting on payment ofpower bill dues of rs 5 crore.

Explaining about the rea-sons for disconnection, elec-tricity department's superin-tending engineer RK Ranasaid, "There are four power

connections to Amarpali soci-eties in Sectors 74 and 76. Dueto their failure to pay bills forlong, the arrears soared to �5crore. As Amarpali refused topay heed to reminders, wehad no option but to discon-nect power supply.

As the power cut descend-ed darkness on the societies,residence have started protest-ing before Amarpali buildersand electricity department.

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Ayoung researcher fromHaridwar, Ashutosh Singh,

who has been recently givenYoung Scientist Award for theyear 2018 by Uttarakhand StateCouncil for Science andTechnology (UCOST) for hispioneering work on acousticsof Flycatcher bird said, whiletalking to The Pioneer onWednesday, that his presenta-tion was focused on sevenspecies of Flycatcher bird whichare common to both Easternand Western Himalayas andalso on the comparison oftheir genetic and vocalisationdifferences.

He said that he had donehis research on birds under theguidance of Professor DineshBhatt. “I have covered manyStates, including Uttarakhand,Jammu and Kashmir, HimachalPradesh Arunachal Pradesh,Assam and Sikkim while doingmy research on the Himalayanbirds,” the young scientist said.

Over 600 students andassociate professors presented

their research work at UCOSTand close to 50 were awardedfor their works in differentdomains. He was presentedYoung Scientist Award underthe discipline of Biotechnology,Biochemistry andMicrobiology.

Through technique of mistnetting, Ashutosh recorded thesong pattern of the birds andalso took their blood samplesto study the genetic and vocaldifferences. There are 19species of birds out of whichseven species- Ficedula,Muscicapa, Niltava, Cyornis,Eumiyas, Culcicapa,Muscicapella and Rhinomyias-are found in different parts ofthe Himalayas which cameunder his study.

Dinesh Bhatt said that theBioacoustics laboratory devel-oped by the Gurukul KangriVishwavidyalaya is one of veryfew in the country.

“The students are encour-aged here to interest themselvesin the study of songbirds andtheir behavioural changes,” headded.

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Baba Ramdev is now busypreparing an army of

youngsters who wil l bedeclared his successors onRam Navmi, the day he wasinitiated in the realm ofrenunciation many years ago.

They are now beingtrained at a camp in BabaRamdev’s Haridwar-basedashram for the occasion dur-ing which they would declarethat they break free of theshackles of the bonds of theworldly life. It is learnt thatthe number of the young‘Sannyasis’ being consecratedthus for taking the renuncia-tion vow is 85.

The primary requisite forthe initiation is thoroughknowledge and insight intothe hoary Indian scriptures,

particularly the four Vedas. Those close to the Yoga

Guru said that this is the firsttime he would initiate young-sters in the realm of renunci-ation on March 25, the dayhe himself was consecrated torenunciation.

Swami Ramdev says that

after him, these youngSannyasis would be his suc-cessors who would collec-tively shoulder all the respon-sibilities of running theorganisation he built up.

He insists that the call ofthe soul for a life of renunci-ation and service is what mat-

ters and not the class andcreed they belong to.

It is learnt that 35Brahmcharinis and 50Brahmcharis have been cho-sen for the diksha.Preparations are now goingon in full swing. Thatchedhuts have been built overthree acres of land lyingbetween Sant Kutir (Ramdev’shouse) and Patanjali YogPeeth phase 2. The newlyinitiated sannyasis would stayin these huts. A magnificentYajnashala is also being pre-pared in the vicinity. Amongothers the Juna Akhada headSwami Awdheshanand Giriand MahamandaleshwarGursharananand would bepresent when the sacrificialfire would be lit strictly inaccordance with the Vedictraditions.

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In a good news for the people ofUttarakhand, charges for consuming

electricity would be reduced from April1 and with this close to half of the pop-ulation of the State would thus pay less.

The rates under various categorieslike domestic, commercial and indus-trial have been decreased by an averageof 1.37 per cent.

While declaring the new rate (tar-iff ) of electricity on Wednesday,Uttarakhand Electricity RegulatoryCommission (UERC) chairmanSubhash Kumar said that UPCL hadrequested for a tariff hike of about 16.57per cent and the overall tariff hike (con-sidering the hike proposed by other util-ities UJVNL, PTCUL and SLDC) by21.15 per cent. “After analysing all therelevant aspects in the UPCL propos-als, UERC has finally decided to reducethe electricity rate by 1.32 per cent,”Kumar said.

Notably, the number of BPL con-sumers in the State is 3.15 lakh whilethat of the domestic consumers is 18.5lakh and commercial consumers is 1.25lakh. Besides, 24000 farmers are also theconsumers in the State. All of the peo-ple under these categories would ben-efit from the changed tariff structurewith varying degrees.

Kumar announced that there wouldbe no change in tariff for BPL con-

sumers. Further, consumption levelfor BPL category has been increasedfrom the current level of 30 kWh permonth to 60 kWh per month, headded. “Currently, a BPL consumer con-suming 60 units pays �198/month.Now he would pay �115/month,”Kumar said.

“In existing applicability condi-tions, if any BPL consumer’s monthlyconsumption exceeds 30 units he isbilled as per the normal domestic con-sumer. Domestic consumers consum-ing 100 units are currently payingaverage tariff of �3.20/kWh and the tar-iff would remain the same. Hence, thereis no change in tariff for around 50 percent of domestic consumers. Besides,slabs for levying Fixed Charges forDomestic Category have been reducedfrom 6 slabs to 4 slabs,” he said.

“There would be no change in tar-iff for Private Tube Wells Category.Minimum Consumption Guarantee(MCG) across all the categories hasbeen abolished. Continuous SupplySurcharge for industries opting con-tinuous power has been reduced from15 per cent to 10 per cent. Time of Day(TOD) incentive for consumption dur-ing off-peak hours has been increasedfrom 10 per cent to 15 per cent of ener-gy charge.

The off-peak hour rate of power hasbeen made cheaper as compared to therate during the peak hours,” he added.

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Senior superintendent of police Pauri J R Joshi has suspend-ed two sub- inspectors from Kotwali for misbehaving with a

woman and her relatives. The suspended duo is Mukesh Gaiirolaand Om Prakash. C O Pauri Dhan Singh Tomar would investi-gate the matter, Joshi said.

He further said that he has taken the step after the womanfrom village Dobh-Srikot had met him and recounted how theywere humiliated by the duo. “I summoned both the sub- inspec-tors to my office when the woman was present. It became clearto me that the duo was on the wrong side of things. Hence theaction,” he said.

SSP said that his repeated warning to the police personnelagainst misbehaving with the people seemed to have no effecton the duo. “While the force is reaching out to the distressed peo-ple to help them some are maligning the force through their mis-conduct. We would not brook this,” he added.

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District Magistrate PauriSushil Kumar sounded

annoyed over the tardy pace ofwork being done by Swajjal andinstructed the block develop-ment officer, additional devel-opment officer Panchayat andCDS to ensure that the pay-ment for those who con-structed the public Sauchalayasunder Swajjal as part of SwachBharat Mission is cleared byMarch 25. He said this whilemonitoring works done underSwach Bharat Mission (rural))and Namami Gange in Paurion Wednesday.

DM also directed CDS andADO panchayat to completethe geo tagging work within thestipulated time.

He also gave instruction

for withholding the salary ofA D O (panchayat) and CDS ofDuggada block till the paymentof the second instalment of theSauchalaya construction workis cleared.

He asked Swajjal to havegarbage bin and trenchingground set up in the small mar-kets of Paithani, Bajjaro,Tripallisain and Chaubattakhalfor disposal of MSW. Heinsisted that the work of theMamami Gange Project nowunderway in some selected vil-lages is completed by April.

DM was told during themeeting that work on the con-struction of cremation ghatsand bathing ghats is inprogress in Phoolchatti,Devprayag, Srinagar andBilkedar.

Among others present atthe meeting were the chiefdevelopment officer RavneetChimma, assistant projectdirector Sunil Kumar and dis-trict programme officer S KTripathi aside from BDOs,ADOs and panchayat CDS.

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To protest against the State Governmentnot clearing their salaries for the past

one year, the teaching staff of DAV (PG)College would wear black ribbons on theirarms from March 22 to March 26.

They said they would agitate under thebanner of Federation of UttarakhandUniversity Colleges Teacher’s Association(FUUCTA) and Garhwal UniversityTeacher’s Association (GRUTA). Theythreatened to go for an indefinite ceasework from April 4 in case the salariesremain unpaid till then.

When contacted, the principal, DAV(PG) College Devendra Bhasin said thathe was unaware of the development as hewas out of station for the past few days.“Iam facing the same along with others-

teaching and non-teaching staffs- for thepast one year.

There may be some technical prob-lems. I have been informed thoughthrough various sources that the StateGovernment has released salary of onemonth for the college staffs on Wednesday,”he said.

GRUTA general secretary DK Tyagisaid that a meeting was held in the collegecampus on Wednesday during which thedecision to sport black ribbons on thearms for five days from Thursday wastaken.

“The association would boycott worksfor a day on March 27 and if the StateGovernment fails to release their pendingsalaries by April 3, we would go for anindefinite strike from April 4. A meetingwould be held on April 4 and such a deci-

sion might be taken there if the situationremains the same,” he said.

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Managing director of a pri-vate company Priya

Shamra and her partner SudhirChawla who had been arrest-ed from Gurugram in Haryanaon Tuesday in connection withthe �300 crore NH 74 landacquisition and compensationscam were sent to jail onWednesday.

SIT team had brought theduo to Kashipur in UdhamSingh Nagar from Gurugramon Tuesday following whichthey were interrogated by theteam members. Police arereported to have collected someimportant evidences related tothe case following the arrest ofthe duo.

The investigating officer ofthe case is learnt to have fileda petition for police remand ofduo in the district court,Nainital on Wednesday. Thecourt is expected to hear thepetition on Thursday.

Police sources said thatthe investigating officer of theSIT probing the NH 74 landcompensation scam had lodgedan FIR against Sharma andChawla for forgery under var-ious sections.

Duo had allegedly forgeddocuments to secure a com-pensation of �23 crore from theNational Highways Authorityof India (NHAI). After rejec-tion of their applications by theHigh Court, the Nainital dis-trict and session judgeKumkum Rani had issued non-bailable warrants against theduo. Police had subsequentlyattached their properties andsealed their offices.

Police said that they hadkept their mobile phones onsurveillance for the past fewmonths. However, they arelearnt to have changed mobilenumbers while being on therun. They were finally arrest-ed from outside a commercialmall in Gurugram, Haryana,police said.

On Wednesday, police con-

ducted medical examination ofthe duo at Udham Singh Nagardistrict hospital before theywere produced in the court.They were later remanded on14- day judicial custody.

Notably, the StateGovernment had handed overthe case to SIT after an FIR waslodged regarding the multi-crore land acquisition scam,dubbed as a super scam of thestate.

SIT has already collectedevidences related to the caseafter questioning officers andemployees of the departmentsconcerned.

Sources said that severalofficers and officials appearedbefore the SIT in the past andtheir statements related to theaforesaid scam were recordedby the SIT officers.

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Astring of awards would bepresented to some people

in recognition of their contri-bution in several fields, includ-ing media, during the two-day28th Umesh Dobhal Memorialfunction to be held at Ranikhetfrom March 24. The pro-gramme is being hosted joint-ly by the Umesh DobhalMemorial Trust and RanikhetUmesh Dobhal Samiti.

General secretary UmeshDobhal Memorial Trust LMohan said that the Lt General(retired) Mohan Bhandari fromRanikhet would receive theUmesh Dobhal MemorialAward for his contribution forin the field of literature andwork for the society. RajendraRawat ‘Rajju’ Jan SarokarSamman would be bestowedon the social worker BrijendraSingh Bisht from Champawatfor his lead in the constructionof the road connectingPushpnagar near Lohaghat tohis village through collective

sharamdan, Mohan said.“When the administrationchose to remain apatheticRawat took up the Herculeantask of laying the road whileinvolving others in sharamdan,”he said. Girish Tiwari GirdaJan Kavi Samman would begiven to Mahesh Punitha, ateacher based in Pithoragarhdistrict, for his contribution inthe field of poetry. “In addition,there media persons who havegiven voice to the peoplethrough print and electronicmedia would be felicitated,”Mohan said.

He further said that thenames of the six persons to bespecially felicitated have beendecided at a meeting of UmeshDobhal Memorial Trust held inPauri.

“Besides, two students whohave showed brilliance despitebeing from extremely poorfamilies would be givenPratibha awards named afterAnurudh Joshi and Deepa Joshiduring this year’s programme,”Mohan said.

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�Lt General (retired) Mohan Bhandari from Ranikhetwould receive the Umesh Dobhal Memorial Award forhis contribution in the field of literature.

�Rajendra Rawat 'Rajju' Jan Sarokar Samman would bebestowed on the social worker Brijendra Singh Bisht fromChampawat. Girish Tiwari Girda Jan Kavi Samman wouldbe given to Mahesh Punitha.

�Besides, two students who have showed brilliancedespite being from extremely poor families would be givenPratibha awards named after Anurudh Joshi and DeepaJoshi during this year’s programme.

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The emotive issue ofGairsain continued to rock

the Budget session of theUttarakhand Assembly on sec-ond consecutive day onWednesday.

In a dramatic move, theCongress MLAs marched tothe State Assembly from theresidence of the Leader ofOpposition, Indira Hridayesh.On way to the Assembly, theCongress leaders shouted slo-gans demanding immediatedeclaration of Gairsain as per-manent capital of the State.

The leader of oppositionIndira Hridayesh said that, theBJP Government should clearits stand on Gairsain.

The Congress leaderPritam Singh accused the BJPof doing nothing on Gairsain.He said that it was theCongress government whichset up a road map for Gairsainand it is very unfortunate thatthe BJP government is blamingthe Congress.

The march of the CongressMLAs prompted some of theBJP MLAs to counter them byvociferous slogan shouting.The Dwarahat MLA MaheshNegi, Rudrapur MLARajkumar Thukral and LaksarMLA Sanjay Gupta were mostvocal among the lot.

These BJP MLAs accusedthe Congress of adopting dou-ble standards on Gairsain andtrying to take political mileagefrom the issue of Gairsain.

Heated arguments wereexchanged between theCongress and BJP MLAs at theentry of the Vidhan Sabha. Assoon as the Assembly was con-

vened for the day, the CongressMLAs and the IndependentMLA from Dhanolti, PritamPanwar were on their toes anddemanded discussion onGairsain.

The leader of OppositionIndira Hridayesh proposedwork adjournment under sec-tion 131 under which there isa provision of voting at end ofthe discussion, however theplea was rejected by the speak-er Prem Chand Agarwal.

The speaker later alloweddiscussion under section 58.Initiating discussion, theLeader of Opposition IndiraHridayesh demanded the gov-

ernment to clear its stand onGairsain.

Many MLAs from bothCongress and BJP participated

in the discussions. In his replythe parliamentary affairsMinister Prakash Pant saidthat the State Government hasinitiated a process to solvemany unsolved issues in nextfour years. He said that theState Government is workingin a system manner and devel-oping facilities at Gairsain.

Not satisfied by the reply ofthe Minister the CongressMLAs staged a walk out.

Meanwhile outside theAssembly the protesters con-tinued their agitation.

At Gairsain the effigy ofthe Government was burnedby the agitators.

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The State Government hasdecided to review the Slum

Regularisation Act 2016. Whilereplying to a question by BJPMLA Khajan Das, the UrbanDevelopment Minister MadanKaushik said in the House onWednesday that as there arepractical problems in theimplementation, the Act wouldbe reviewed soon.

He said that there are 582slums in 63 municipal bodiesin the state. Khajan Das saidthat not even a single owner-ship was provided to slumdwellers under the new act.

In another disclosure, theEmployment minister HarakSingh accepted that the gov-ernment has no Employmentpolicy.

In reply to a questionraised by Deshraj Karnwal, theminister assured that theGovernment would soon bring

in the employment policy. The Minister said that the

State Government has taken atarget to provide skill develop-ment training to one lakhyouth till the year 2020.

In reply to a question theminister said that governmenthas no plan to open any newIndustrial Training Institute(ITI) in the state.

He said that the State has127 ITIs and the government

has taken a target to provideinfrastructure and other facil-ities in the existing institutes innext two years.

In response to a questionraised by the BJP MLA RituKhanduri Kumar, the forestMinister Harak Singh Rawatsaid that the state has 71 per-cent of its area under forests.On the issue of the monkeysand wild boars affecting theagriculture and local villages,the Minister said that the StateGovernment has sent a pro-posal to the union governmentfor permission to kill wildboars.

He said that theGovernment is taking the helpof local people in maintainingthe fire lines in the forests of thestate. In response to a questionby independent Pritam SinghPanwar, Harak Singh said thata total of 151838 trained and739303 untrained unemployedyoungsters in Uttarakhand.

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The much touted Transfer Act for the State Governmentemployees came into existence from Wednesday as the

State Assembly passed it after the Governor’s consent. A total of 12 Acts came into existence on the day whichincluded Uttarakhand Residential University (amendment)Act, Uttarakhand Shop and Establishment Act,Uttarakhand Sarai Act, Uttar Pradesh Zamindari abolitionAct 1959 (amendment) act, Uttarakhand AyurvedaUniversity ( amendment) Act and Sardar Bhagwan SinghUniversity Act. In addition to them, a total of 12 Bills weretabled in the House on the day which included theUttarakhand excise Act 2018 (amendment) andUttarakhand Bovine Breeding Act 2018.

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The Income Tax department in Uttarakhandexpects to meet its target of �11,000 crore

tax collection in the current financial year. Inaddition to this, the department has alsoworked on its target of widening the tax base byincreasing the number of assessees by about onelakh compared to the previous year.

The State’s chief commissioner of income taxPramod Kumar Gupta said this while address-ing media persons here on Wednesday.

Gupta said, “At present we have already col-lected �10,300 crore in tax and expect to col-lect a total of �11,000 crore by the end of thisfiscal. As often stated by the prime minister andfinance minister, our main priorities are toincrease revenue collection through income taxand to widen the tax base.

On April 1, 2017, the total number ofassessees in Uttarakhand was 5,17,940. With1,03,881 new assessees this number has nowincreased to 6,21,821 in the state.

We have been working on facilitating a non-adversarial and alert tax regime.

As part of this we undertook 22 surveys inthe current financial year which resulted in dis-closures amounting to �33.61 crore,” heinformed.

Gupta further said that since demonetisa-tion, the department had received 3255 piecesof information regarding transactions of which414 pertained to amounts of � one crore andabove, 600 pertained to those amounting to �50lakh plus while the remaining amounted tobetween �2.5 lakh to �50 lakh each.

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Snowfall in higherreaches and

rain/hail in the plainsover the past 24 hourshave brought the tem-perature down by afew degrees across thestate on Wednesday.

In Dehradun, the denizens woke up to a rain-drenchedmorning and an accompanying chill in the air. It rained inter-mittently till the evening. The weather officials said thatDehradun has recorded 10 mm rainfall till 5.30 pm onWednesday. The maximum temperature dipped by 6 degreeCelsius thanks to the rain. However, there would be no morerain/snow for the rest of March, said the Met officials.

The students and the officer goers though inconveniencedby the rain reached their destinations either wrapped underrain coats or by taking shelter under the umbrellas. Thoughthere would be not much rain on Thursday the sky wouldremain overcast for most part of the day, said the Met offi-cials.

The maximum temperature in the state capital dippedby six degrees while the minimum rose by three degreeCelsius. While the maximum temperature settled at 21.7degree Celsius the minimum hovered at 16.2 degree Celsiusin the city on the day.

Uttarakhand meteorological centre director Bikram Singhsaid that rain was reported from both Garhwal and Kumaondivisions of the state while snowfall was reported from placesat altitudes of 4000 metres and above on Wednesday.

“Things are likely to improve in Dehradun on Thursday.However, rain-bearing clouds would be there,” he said. Themaximum and minimum temperatures are likely to be around28 degree Celsius and 14 degree Celsius respectively in thecity on Thursday.

The weather forecast for Uttarakhand on Thursday ispartly to generally cloudy sky with possibility of very lightto light rain/thunder showers at isolated places especially inUttarkashi, Chamoli and Pithoragarh districts.

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The International Day ofForests was marked at var-

ious institutions with differentactivities on Wednesday.Governor Krishan Kant Paulplanted a sapling of theHimalayan Cypress at RajBhawan. Concerted efforts areneeded to maximise tree plan-tation to increase forest cover,he stressed.

At the Forest ResearchInstitute (FRI), an exhibitionwas held to demonstrate tech-nologies developed by the insti-tute.

A forestry chaupal wasalso organised to facilitate shar-ing of forestry related information between the scientists

and common people. Speaking on the occasion,

FRI director Savita said thatforestry chaupal is an openplatform where farmers, stu-dents and other visitors mayinteract with forestry profes-sionals.

The Uttarakhand ScienceEducation and Research Centre(USERC) organised a seminaron the occasion.

Speaking at the seminarscientist Subhash Nautiyalinformed the gathering aboutforest land conservation, pro-tection of biodiversity, ecolog-ical services and other aspects.USERC director Durgesh Pantalso expressed his views on theoccasion.

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Dehradun Mahanagar CityBus Service Federation

president Vijay Vardhanaccused the city police ofharassing the owners of thepassenger carrying vehicles byindiscriminately slapping chal-lans on count of overloading.

He said on Wednesdaythat he had sought informationabout the GO by which the citypolice can slap challan on pas-senger carrying vehicles from

the State Government. “As farour knowledge goes, no GOhas been released regarding thesame by the state governmentso far. This means that the traf-fic police and the City PatrolUnit are slapping challans sansany sanction of law,” he said.

He further said that theywere disturbed over the policeslapping more by way of penal-ties on the public carryingvehicles than on the heavyvehicles for overloading. “Thisis unjust,” he added.

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Giving a much-needed pushto various welfare schemes,

including the Centrally-spon-sored schemes, the PunjabGovernment on Wednesdayreleased �1221 crore to clearvarious pending paymentswhile assuring that paucity offunds will not be allowed toobstruct development.

At the same time, the ChiefMinister Capt AmarinderSingh has also directed allDepartments to mobilize ade-quate resources through pru-dent fiscal management toensure clearance of pendingpayments on priority.

Retirement benefits hadbeen cleared till December 31,2017, with the release of�413.77 crore, while �43.73

crore had been releasedtowards reimbursement ofmedical Bills up to March 20,2018, said a spokespersonadding that all payments ofGPF advances amounting to�147.49 crore of existingemployees had been cleared upto December 31, 2017.

Besides, the StateGovernment has also clearedpending bills of rent, POL,electricity, office expenses etcworth �119.38 crore tillDecember 31, 2017, while �69crore has been cleared underAshirwad Scheme up toDecember 31, 2017.

Similarly, �46.98 crore hasbeen paid under NABARD forthe execution of various ongo-ing development schemesacross the state till March 20,2018, while �40 crore and�22.23 crore had been releasedfor strengthening or develop-ment of infrastructure in thePolice Department and the

Judiciary respectively.Funds to the tune of �5.53

crore had been released forvideo conferencing in courtsand �7.34 crore for projectsbeing undertaken by the WorldBank and Asian DevelopmentBank.

Payment of honorariumworth �6.57 crore had alsobeen made to the Nambardarsup to March 20, 2018, thespokesman said.

Under centrally-sponsoredschemes, �52.62 crore had beenreleased for Central Road Fund(CRF), besides �50 crore eachfor Atal Mission forRejuvenation and UrbanTransformation (AMRUT) andPradhan Mantri Gram SadakYojna (PMGSY), �32.64 croreunder National Health Mission(NHM), �25 crore for NationalEducation Mission (NEM),and �16.53 crore for IntegratedChild Development Services(ICDS).

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The Haryana Governmenthas approved 31 posts for

digital investigation, trainingand analysis centre, a highlyspecialised unit of HaryanaPolice at Gurugram, to imparttraining courses to police offi-cials to enhance their skills incyber crimes and other relatedmatter.

The approval of these 31posts involves an expenditureof over �1.33 crore, said aspokesman of HomeDepartment.

He said that DigitalInvestigation, Training andAnalysis Centre (DITAC) atGurugram is a highly special-ized unit of Haryana Policewhich has completed its onesuccessful year.

During this period, this labhas conducted many trainingcourses for the police officialsto enhance their skills in cybercrimes and other related mat-ter.

Apart from this, it hasprocessed more than 60 impor-tant cases received from thevarious districts and otherinvestigation agencies of thestate. In these cases, dataextraction of more than 150

mobile phones of various com-panies having pattern lock,pin lock and other challenginghurdles has been done suc-cessfully, he added.

The spokesman said thatSocial Media Monitoring Cellof DITAC has performed verywell by tracking objectionablecontents during Jat agitation,Dera Sacha Sauda agitationand other day to day law andorder situations.

He further said that inDera issue, official twitter andfacebook account of GurmeetRam Rahim were got sus-pended within no time by thiscell.

The Centre has gained itspopularity in other States of thecountry and representativesfrom various police or intelli-

gence wings of other States andPara Military Forces have vis-ited this centre.

The posts approved includ-ed one Deputy Superintendentof Police (DSP), threeInspectors, one Sub Inspector(SI), one Assistant SubInspector (ASI), nine HeadConstable (HC) and tenConstables alongwith oneoffice assistant, one clerk andfour class-IV employees.

While the DSP would bethe in-charge of DITAC, oneInspector of Police each wouldwork as In-charge of SocialMedia Monitoring Lab, In-charge of Cyber Forensic Laband In-charge of Training Lab.

The sub inspector wouldbe in-charge of server of thiscell, added he.

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From Page 1We need to know what

steps are being taken by theGovernment to fix it. Nobody isgoing to come to the Court com-plaining about it.” It cited anoth-er example of a person sufferingfrom Alzheimer syndrome ordementia. “Where does such aperson go to get Aadhaar. Theseare not aberrations. They aregenuine persons who earn theirpension or other services. To saythere is no exclusion is not tocastigate anyone but what is themechanism you have to dealwith these situations,” the Benchasked A-G. Venugopal said the

Government is open to reformthe law and as and when situa-tions arise, remedy will beworked out. He cited the exam-ple of NRIs and persons ofIndian origin being exemptedfrom making Aadhaar card.The Bench also asked him aboutthe need to collect and store dataof the entire population whenthe purpose of unique identifi-cation for every citizen can beachieved even by storing it in achip to be made available to eachcitizen. This experiment is work-ing in Singapore, the Bench said.The arguments will continue onThursday.

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From Page 1Senior advocate Parag

Tripathi who appeared for IRPargued that JAL has no roleafter the bankruptcy proceed-ings have been initiated.Meanwhile, the homebuyersseeking possession of flats sub-mitted to court that their causemay also be looked into.

The Bench said, “Peoplewho want refund have noavenue to go to. We knowabout your problem. People

who seek their money must getit back.”

The court told JAL thatstrict action will be takenagainst Directors of the com-pany if the payment is notmade.

When the company saidthat an additional burden of Rs200 crore will stall its ongoingprojects, the Bench rebuffed,“We are concerned with 2,800people. You can’t sit over theirmoney.”

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With the proceedings inParliament being washed

out for the 13th consecutiveday on Wednesday, politicalsources from the ruling andOpposition side said that thesession may be called off pre-maturely next week muchahead of the scheduled April 6.

Both the sides are holdingeach other responsible for thelogjam and the repeatedrequest by the Lok SabhaSpeaker Sumitra Mahajan andRajya Sabha Chairman MVenakiah Naidu seeking mem-bers’ cooperation in smoothrunning of the Parliament.

Breaking from conven-tions when usually Housewas adjourned for few min-utes and then resumed in aday over the disruptions,Naidu has taken to stringentnorms and within seconds headjourns the House for theentire day in recent past. Apeeved Naidu cancelled adinner which was to be host-ed by him on Wednesdaywhere the invitees includedPresident Ram Nath Kovindand Prime Minister NarendraModi.

Naidu on Wednesday saidhe was willing to allow mem-bers to raise issues from theirseat and asked them not toshout slogans. “What is hap-pening. Are we so helpless. Goback to your respective seatsand raise issues,” said theChairman.

Asking if the MPs wantedimages of disruption to beseen by the nation, he said, “Is

this Parliament or somethingelse?” “I am sorry this is not theway,” he said before adjourningthe proceedings for the day.

While the Rajya Sabha wasadjourned without transact-ing any business barely fourminutes after it assembled, theLok Sabha was adjourned tillnoon and thereafter for the daydue to the protests by partiesfrom Andhra Pradesh, TamilNadu and Telangana.

Leader of the Oppositionand senior Congress leaderGhulam Nabi Azad sought adiscussion on the atrocitiesagainst the SCs and STs as wellas on the statement of ExternalAffairs Minister Sushma Swarajon the killing of 39 abductedIndians in Iraq. He said theHouse should debate the state-ment Swaraj made last year andwhat she stated in the House.

Chairman M VenkaiahNaidu asked him to give prop-er notice for the same andasked the members to allow theHouse to function.

Both the Lok Sabha andthe Rajya Sabha have not trans-acted any substantial business

since the Budget session ofParliament resumed on March5, barring the passage of thebudget by the Lower Housewithout any debate.

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Congress on Wednesdayexpressed serious concern

over the Supreme Courtjudgement that diluted provi-sions related to immediatearrest in the SC/ST Act anddemanded a review of thesame or an amendment in thelaw.

Top Congress leadersasked the Government to clar-ify its stand on the issue,claiming there was a "sense ofinsecurity" among Dalits andother oppressed classes afterthe apex court verdict. Whileparty MP Kumari Selja allegedthat the development is aresult of the BJP-RSS policy, asthey are "conspiring to endreservation", Chief Whip ofCongress in Lok Sabha,Jyotiraditya Scindia, said theBJP and RSS want to endreservation and neither thePrime Minister nor anyMinister in the Governmenthas so far given any clarifica-tion in the issue.

"There is serious concernover yesterday's decision ofthe Supreme Court. If it is notreviewed, it will be very unfor-tunate. There is a feeling oninsecurity among the SC/STs

and other oppressed classes.We feel there should be areview of this decision whichwill be in national interest,"Congress senior spokespersonAnand Sharma said joined bysenior party leaders, AhmedPatel , Raj Babbar amongstother party leaders.

"Why is the Governmentsi lent on this issue.

Government should clarifyits stand and should presentits version before the SupremeCourt through the AttorneyGeneral. If the Governmentremains silent, it means thatthe Government supports thedecision," Sharma said.

AICC Congressspokesman Randeep Sujewalasaid the Centre and the

Maharashtra Government,which were a party on theissue in the case, did not pre-sent their case properly. Healleged that there was a rise inthe number of cases of atroc-ities against dalits and otheroppressed in society. He saideither this verdict should bereviewed or a fresh amend-ment be made in the Act.

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The Association ofDemocratic Reforms

(ADR) in its report revealedthat 18 candidates of 64 can-didates contesting 58 RajyaSabha polls have declared crim-inal cases against themselves.Of them, eight have seriouscriminal cases against them-

selves such as kidnapping,attempt to murder and robbery.According to report, out of the63 candidates, 55 are crorepatis.The average assets of 63 can-didates are �122.13 crores.Mahendra Prasad of JD (U) isthe richest candidate havingassets worth �4078.40 crores(including immovable assetsworth �40,43,48,19,318), fol-lowed by Jaya AmitabhBachchan from SP, havingassets of worth �1001 crore.

The ADR report says that

among the lowest assets,Achyutananda Samananta ofBJD is top in the list of amongthe lowest assets have onlyworth �4.96 lakhs.

"A total of 41(65%) candi-dates have declared liabilitiesout of which the candidate withthe highest liabilities is JayaAmitabh Bachchan contestingfrom Uttar Pradesh with

�105.64 crores of liabilities,"according to the ADR report.

There are 13 candidateswho have declared total annu-al income of more than �1crore. There are six candidateswho have not declared theirassets. There are seven candi-dates, who have declared theireducational qualification to bebetween 10th and 12th , while55 (87%) candidates havedeclared having an education-al qualification of graduate orabove.," the report said.

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The Army has implementeda permanent policy for

recruitment of porters whoform the logistical backbonefor troops deployed on theLine of Control (LoC) facingPakistan and Line of ActualControl (LAC) with China.Till now, the porters werehired on ad hoc basis andsalaries also varied withoutbenefits. The new policy pro-vides fixed wages, workinghours and provision of medicalassistance and insurance coverin case of injury or death.

This policy has comeabout following a SupremeCourt directive last year askingthe Army to frame a formalrecruitment and service rulepolicy for porters. The Armyannually hires 10,000 to 12,000porters on temporary basisfor a period of five to sixmonths for NorthernCommand alone responsiblefor guarding the LOC inJammu and Kashmir and LACin Ladakh. The number ofporters in Eastern Command,which takes care of LAC, issomewhat less than NorthernCommand, officials said here

on Wednesday. Porters ferry rations and

ammunition for troops inrugged and tough terrain apartfrom clearing snow from roadsand army posts, they saidadding the porters form anintegral part of the Army foroperational preparedness andefficiency.

Giving details of the policy,they said the NorthernCommand alone spends morethan �240 crores in terms ofwages and other expenses forporters. Moreover, the fundsspent by the Army for this pur-pose helps in sustaining the local

economy in inaccessible areas.The porters are hired

through district labour officeof State Governments for aperiod of six months from Mayto December end before snowmakes it difficult to work inharsh climate. Earlier, thewages were not stipulated andthere were no benefits likemedical and insurance cover.

Now, the porters are enti-tled to �18,000 per monthand they work for six days aweek, officials said addingnational holidays are treated aspaid holiday. Moreover, themaximum load to be carried

by the porters is fixed at 20 kgs.All male citizens of Indiabesides domicile of Nepal andBhutan in the age bracket 18-50 years are eligible for the postof seasonal porters.

Porters are now also enti-tled to benefits like medicalfacilities during period ofengagement and insurancecover under Prime MinisterJeevan Jyoti BimaYojana(PMJJBY). Moreover,they can now access canteenservices of the Army with alimit of �1,000 per month. Thecanteens provide susbsidisedrations and other items.

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The Delhi High Court onWednesday issued a notice

to former telecom Minister ARaja, DMK MP Kanimozhiand others on the appeal filedCBI and ED against the trialcourt judgment in 2G scamcases.

Justice S P Garg alsoordered for status quo would bemaintained with regard to �223crore worth properties attachedby the ED in the Prevention ofMoney Laundering Act(PMLA) case.

The Court directed all theacquitted persons to respondwithin two weeks, by postingthe case for next hearing onMay 25. Appearing for CBI andED, the Special PublicProsecutor Tushar Mehtaargued that the trail courtjudgments were totally erredand the trial judge failed tonotice on the concrete proofprovided by the agencies. Healso said the trial court failedto take note on the many state-ments of many crucial wit-nesses.

Both agencies in their

appeal contested the trial courtjudgment by arguing that theSpecial Judge OP Saini "total-ly erred" and "took casualapproach" in looking into the

concrete evidences of violationof telecom guidelines and �200crore money trails to DMK runKalaignar TV from accusedtelecom company owners.

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The Estimates Committeeof Parliament has directed

Home Ministry to implementmodernisation, purchase oflatest equipment, stress man-agement for personnel in theParamilitary forces. The reportsubmitted by the Committeeheaded by veteran MP MurliManohar Joshi also recom-mended for clarity in theConstitutional provisions onthe use of Central paramilitaryforces in States during emer-gency situations.

“The Committee haveexpressed its concern over theStates being heavily depen-dent on the Central ArmedPolice Forces (CAPF) andemphasised that there is a needfor for clarity about the kind ofsituations and the state ofaffairs under which the UnionGovernment would spareCAPFs to help the States. TheCommittee have recommend-ed that consultations be under-taking with the States to arriveat a broad consensus in thematter,” recommended theEstimates Committee.

“The committee is of theconsidered view that providinggood quality food to CAPFs per-sonnel is not only necessary tokeep them healthy and fit but

also for boosting their morale.The committee, therefore, rec-ommended that a mechanism beput in place for testing food itemssupplied to CAPFs at the sourceof supply itself, whereby it is test-ed and certified in respect of

nutritional values, hygiene andlabelled as fit for consumption,"said Joshi, addressing media onWednesday here.

The Committee also rec-ommended for enhancing bud-getary allocations for the forces.

The Report submitted to theParliament said that whileGovernment is not allocatingfunds as promised and on theother hand the forces are notable to utilize fully the fundsallotted to them. It also saidthat 74% of outlay goes in pay-ment salaries which "leave lit-tle outlay for equipments andcapacity augmentation."

Joshi said that the reportalso stressed for implementa-tion of stress managementtechniques and psychologicalexpertise to distress the jawansand officials. He said that mostof them are away from familiesand facing lot of stress and thisshould be changed.

The Committee also rec-ommended for the implemen-tation of cyber security team inthe Central Paramilitary forces.

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Congress president Rahul Gandhi onthe second day of his election cam-

paign on Wednesday continued histirade against BJP and Prime MinisterNarendra Modi in Malnad area ofKarnataka. In Chikkamagaluru Rahulbecame emotional as the place gavepolitical rebirth to his grandmother latePrime Minister Indira Gandhi anddirectly blamed Prime Minister Modi forhelping his industrial friend get the deal.

He said, “The PM himself visitedFrance and helped his industrialistfriend through the deal. There he doesnot see corruption. Modi comes hereand speaks about corruption. Hespeaks from the stage, where the for-mer CM (without namingYeddyurappa), who had been to jail forcorruption sits with him.”

“I won’t ever give the promise of �15lakh to voters. This is the land of truth.But, whatever I promise with regard tofarmers, health, education, I will defi-nitely fulfil them when I get a chance,”he said in Sringeri.

“China has entered Doklam. Theyare making roads, helipads, airports. ButPM does not speak a word. He speaksabout all other things, but when it comesto employment, farmer crisis, Doklam,he remains silent,” he attacked Modi.

Rahukl Gandhi is visiting Karnatakafor the third time in a span of just onemonth covering many districts which is

crucial for the ruling congress. His elec-tion tour this time is crucial for the partyas they are testing the electoral politicsafter giving a separate religion statuesand minority tag to powerful Lingayatcommunity. After chief MinsterSiddaramaiah’s master stroke to counterBJP which is banking on Lingayat votessince its existence, Rahul is banking onLingayat votes to consolidate himself inKarnataka to retain power. The separate

religion tag to this powerful dominantcommunity with a population of over 19per cent has evoked mixed response andit might lead to many communitiesacross the country demanding the sametag to delink from Hinduism which isopposed by RSS and other right wingorganisations.

Congress chief predicted that thenon performing BJP government at theCentre led by Prime Minister NarendraModi will be swept away in the 2019 LokSabha polls.

Addressing a rally as part of partry's'Jana Adesha' Yatra covering Coastaland Malnad regions, Gandhi said thatModi had duped the people of thecountry with his 'bundle of lies' and hascompleted four years of rule withoutany notable achievement and theremaining year would also see that hewould not be able to achieve anythingbig.

He said unlike his predecessors,including former Prime Minister A BVajpayee and Indira Gandhi who wereempathetic and kind to people and tookthe country forward without boastingtheir performance, Modi and the BJPwas spreading hatred among the peo-ple . He claimed that Modi was claim-ing sole responsibility for the progressof the country.

He was confident that the Congresswould bounce back to power with theoverwhelming support of the people andassured that his party would take steps

to improve the life of the people andensure greater employment opportuni-ties.

“Modi said for 70 years nothing hap-pened in India. It means your parents;working class did not do anything forthe country.”

“Modi believes nothing happenedbefore he came to the office. I have seenmany PMs... I have listened to Vajpayee.Never has he said nothing happened inthe country before his tenure.”

“Modi believes nothing happenedbefore he came to the office. India’s PMcan succeed only he has empathy atheart. Without empathy, love, respect,nobody can lead the country.”

“When I went to Sringeri Mutt, Icame to know children are taught aboutreligion there. I later interacted withthem. During the interaction I wantedto know from students what the foun-dation of religion is. A 14 year old boysaid ‘religion is nothing but truth.’ A 14year old boy understands what is reli-gion, but not PM Narendra Modi.”

The Congress president’s grand-mother and former Prime MinisterIndira Gandhi visited the Mutt in1978. She took the blessings of the thenseer Chandrashekhar Bharathi Swamybefore contesting the Chikkamagalurubyelection.

Rajiv Gandhi had also visited theMutt. A Sanskrit study centre set up bythe Peetha in Sringeri has been namedafter Rajiv Gandhi.

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Opposition Congress partyhas demanded that the

Telangana Rashtra SamitiGovernment should immedi-ately implement the decisionto increase the reservationquota for the Muslim minor-ity and the scheduled tribesfrom the coming academicyear instead of waiting for thenod of the CentralGovernment.

Leader of Opposition inthe State Legislative CouncilMohammed Ali Shabbir ques-tioned the sincerity of ChiefMinister K ChandrasekharRao on the issue of increasingthe quota for the backwardsections of Muslims from 4 percent to 12 per cent. “TRS ischeating the people ofTelangana in the name ofreservation”, he said whileaddressing a Press conferenceon Wednesday.

Ali Shabbir alleged thatthe TRS members werestalling the proceedings ofParliament at the behest ofNarendra Modi and AmitShah and playing the game onbehalf of BJP to avoid the no

confidence motion along withAIADMK.

“The reservation Billmeant to increase minoritiesreservation from 4 per cent to12 per cent and reservation toSTs’ from 6 per cent to 10 percent was passed in TelanganaAssembly & Council in theMonth of April – 2017. Insteadof implementing the reserva-tion KCR sent the Bill to theCentre for the approval of thereservation which is the delay-ing tactics of TRSGovernment”, he said.

He wanted the StateGovernment to come clean onthe correspondence with theCentre on the issue of reser-vation. He wanted to knowwhy the State Governmentdid not reply to the letters

from the Ministry of Personnelseeking clarifications despitefour reminders.

He termed TRS slogan of“One Country OneReservation” in the Parliamentas rubbish and practicallyimpossible as every State wasimplementing reservation tothe different communities asper the local demands.

Balram Naik, formerUnion Minister, said TRS wascheating the minorities andSTs knowingly that ST popu-lation was only 9.08 per centin the State, the Governmentrecommended for 10 per centreservations. SimilarlyBackward ClassesCommission had recom-mended 10 per centReservation to Minoritieswhere as TRS Govt announced12 per cent reservation.

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Jammu & Kashmir ChiefMinister Mehbooba Mufti

on Tuesday suffered a majorjolt after BJP Cabinet Ministersequivocally blocked her ‘uni-lateral’ move to push refur-bished Rehabilitation policyfor terrorists during theCabinet meeting.

Soon after the ChiefMinister, also holding thecharge of State Home depart-ment, circulated the draft pro-posal of new Rehabilitationpolicy for terrorists for Cabinetapproval senior BJP Ministersled by Deputy Chief MinisterProf Nirmal Singh opposed theproposal.

It is learnt Mehbooba Muftihad proposed to hike the exist-ing amount of fixed deposithanded over to a surrenderedterrorist from �1.5 to �6 lakhs.As per the proposal every sur-

rendered terrorist was sup-posed to receive a fixed depositwith a lock in period of 10 yearswhile an interest amount of�4,000 would be credited intohis account every month. Thedraft of the policy had also pro-posed substantial hike in cashfor handing over arms, ammu-nition and explosives.

While questioning the logicbehind increasing the existingamount paid to a surrenderedterrorist in the form of fixeddeposit other BJP CabinetMinisters also opposed the movetooth and nail forcing the ChiefMinister to defer the move.

During the CabinetMeeting some of the PDPCabinet Ministers also triedtheir level best to convince theiralliance partners that the StateHome Department had draft-ed the proposal only after get-ting a nod from the UnionHome Minister Rajnath Singh

to draft a new Rehabilitationpolicy for surrendered terror-ists in the State.

A senior BJP CabinetMinister told The Pioneer, " weare not against theRehabilitation policy but atthe same time we cannot agreeto the proposal of paying moremoney to a surrendered ter-rorist than kith and kin of thosewho fall victims to bullets ofthese terrorists".

Deputy Chief Minister DrNirmal Singh when contactedtold The Pioneer," after the pro-posal of Rehabilitation policyfor terrorists came up for dis-cussion during the Cabinetmeeting we requested the ChiefMinister to defer the proposal".

Dr Singh said beforeapproving such policies wemust study centres' view pointon such sensitive matters as itpertains to matters of nation-al security.

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The Kerala Government onWednesday declared jack-

fruit – Chakka in Malayalam –as the official fruit of the State.

The declaration was madein the State Assembly byAgriculture Minister VS SunilKumar. The proposal for mak-ing ‘Chakka’ the official fruit wasput forward by the Departmentof Agriculture and the formali-ties for the declaration werecompleted after Chief MinisterPinarayi Vijayan cleared it.

One of the main reasonsbehind the declaration of jack-fruit, the largest edible fruitavailable in the State, is the factthat it is a highly nutritious foodavailable in plenty in the State.The declaration was also the firststep towards popularizingChakka under the “KeralaJackfruit” brand in markets inthe country and abroad, SunilKumar said.

He had earlier said thatChakka was being made the offi-cial fruit of the State as part ofa collective effort to increase itsproduction and sales. The gov-ernment expects that jackfruit,by presenting it as an exclusiveKerala brand, can bring in rev-enue to the tune of �15,000 crorethrough its sale and that of thevalue-added products derivedfrom it.

Kerala is producing 32 crorejackfruits, most probably theonly fruit produced without theuse of fertilizers and pesticides,every year and more than 30 per

cent of it is getting wastedbecause of the lack of propermarketing methods. TheGovernment expects to bring ina positive change to this and topave way for making jackfruit aregular agricultural item.

The Department ofAgriculture has already starteda jackfruit research center atAmbalavayal in Wayanad dis-trict, a region where jackfruitsare produced in abundance.The department has been orga-nizing Chakka Mahotsavam(Jackfruit Fair) regularly for thepast several years.

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The BJP-led MaharashtraGovernment’s proposal to

include the Mahim Nature Park(MNP) in the DharaviRedevelopment Project (DRP)has run into rough weather, withthe ruling Shiv Sena joiningenvironmentalists in opposingthe Devendra Fadnavis dispen-sation’s move to “convert thelong big stretch of green landinto a concrete jungle”.

Amid “Save MNP” cam-paign launched by environ-mental activists appealing topeople to rush emails to theState-run Mumbai MetropolitanDevelopment Authority(MMRDA) opposing the inclu-sion of MNP land in the DRP,five Shiv Sena ministers and thechief whip of the party submit-ted a memorandum to ChiefMinister Devendra Fadnavislate on Tuesday night, demand-ing the government to drop itscontroversial proposal.

The five Sena ministers andthe party’s chief whip who haverooted strongly for the with-drawal of the notification issuedby the state government onFebruary 28, 2018 to includeMNP into sector 5 of Dharaviredevelopment are: SubhashDesai, Diwakar Raote, RamdasKadam, Deepak Sawant, EknathShinde and Sunil Prabhu.

The State-run SlumRehabilitation Authority (SRA)has proposed that the MNP beincluded in the DharaviRedevelopment Project. Theland on which the MNP standsis owned by the MMRDA.

Spread over 41 hectares,the MNP is home to 85 speciesof butterflies, 154 species ofbirds, 32 reptiles and 200 treespecies. It is located on theperiphery of the Mahim Creek,which supports a lush evergreenmangrove forest. Thrown opento public way back in 1992, theMNP attracts more than 150,000visitors in a year. A portion of thePark was declared a protectedforest in 1991.

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First time in the history ofGujarat Legislative

Assembly discussion and vot-ing on the no-trust motionmoved by the Opposition partyagainst the Speaker might beconducted on Thursday.

Congress had submittedno-trust motion againstSpeaker Rajendra Trivedi onFebruary 28th after its MLAswere suspended by the Speakerfor creating ruckus inside theHouse over the issue of GST onpetroleum products.

Sources in the GujaratAssembly said that in the agen-da for the Thursday’s businessinside the House, no-trustmotion listed. Now it would beup to the Opposition Party tobring it in discussion or not. Ifthere wouldn’t be last minute

change, Speaker Trivedi wouldhave to go through litmus test,said a Congress MLA request-ing anonymity.

The Opposition partyblamed Trivedi for his ‘biasapproach’ in conducting the

House proceedings. Leader ofOpposition Paresh Dhananiraised a point of order duringquestion hour saying thatdespite mandatory 14 dayswere passed since Congress hadsubmitted no-trust motionagainst the Speaker and yet itwasn’t listed in the business ofthe House.

Even Chief Minister VijayRupani said in the House thatissues could be resolved byholding meeting between therepresentatives of both the par-ties. In the past no-confidencemotions were moved againstvarious Speakers but never

came for discussions in theHouse, said Rupani.

After CM’s insistencemeeting had taken placebetween the senior leaders ofCongress and BJP but com-promise on various issuescouldn’t be worked out.Ultimately Congress decided togo ahead with its move of no-confidence motion against theSpeaker.

In fact BJP Governmenturged the Congress party notto go for no-trust motion.Congress on the other handput a condition of revokingsuspension of its three MLAs— Pratap Dudhat, AmarishDer and Baldev Thakor.Speaker Trivedi suspendedDudhat and Amarish for threeyears and Thakor for one yearafter they not only misbe-haved in the House but alsoattacked on BJP MLA onMarch 14.

Rejecting Dhanani’s point

of order Speaker Trivediremained firm on his decisionover the suspension of threeCongress MLAs and denied torevoke his decision. He assuredthe Opposition party that 14days were passed afterCongress moved the motionand as per the rule of the Houseit would come in the House fordiscussion in next seven days.“There is no point of raisingany doubt on me. I will act asper the provision and act of theGujarat Legislative Assembly,”said Trivedi.

Even outside the Houseleaders of BJP and Congressheld a meeting to resolve theissue but all their efforts wentin vain. Going by the strengthof MLAs, in the 182-memberHouse, Congress has 77 MLAsagainst ruling BJP’s 99. It meansthe in the voting no-trustmotion would not stand unlessat least 23 BJP MLAs voteagainst their party’s whip.

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Atotal number of 219 sur-rendered terrorists have

been benefitted underRehabilitation policy of 2004 inthe last 14 years.

According to officialsources an equal number of 220cases have been rejected by thehigh level panel while only 1case is under process.

The highest number ofcases of surrendered terroristswere submitted in Doda out ofwhich 85 were finalised and 40were rejected. In Kashmir val-ley Kupwara district figured ontop of the list where 65 cases ofsurrendered terrorists came tolight out of which 25 werefinalised while 45 were rejected.

From the border belt ofRajouri and Poonch 21 caseswere submitted while only 13were finalised.

In Kashmir after Kupwarahighest number of 62 cases ofsurrendered terrorists were

reported from Baramulla. Hereonly 6 cases were finalisedwhile 56 were rejected. InKathua 2 cases were submittedand 2 were finalised.

In Kishtwar out of 24 cases20 were finalsied while 4 wererejected. In Anantnag out of 11cases 7 were finalised while 4were rejected. In sensitive areasof Kashmir valley the highlevel committee rejected major-ity of cases. From Srinagar outof 8 cases not a single one wasapproved by the panel while inSopore out of 12 9 were reject-ed and 3 were finalised.

In Kulgam both the caseswere rejected while inBandipora out of 28 only 5 werefinalised and 22 were rejectedwhile 1 is still under process. InBudgam out of 7 cases 1 wasfinalised and 6 were rejected, inHandwara out of 15 only 5 werefinalised and 10 were rejectedwhile 3 were rejected and only1 was finalised out of 4 casesfrom Pulwama.

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Bengal Chief Minister MamataBanerjee may meet Hasin

Jehan, the estranged wife ofIndian fast bowler MuhammadShami, sources in the ChiefMinister’s office said. Banerjeecould be meeting Jehan at theState Assembly.

The Chief Minister’sresponse comes in the wake ofa petition she left at her Kalighatresidence on Monday expressinga desire to meet her.

Jehan has slapped charges ofadultery, domestic violence andrape against the star cricketer andhis family members to whichShami has said that his wife was

conducting herself at the instanceof someone else. “I know her fullwell. She is not of that kind andis not speaking on her own.Rather she is speaking at thebehest of someone else who isperhaps interested in extortingcash,” the bowler is known tohave said. A senior official saidthat she had been asked to meetthe Chief Minister at theAssembly on March 23 alongwith her lawyer or anybodyfrom her family and none else.

Based on Jehan’s complaintsthe police had slapped a numberof charges against Shami andsenior officers had interrogatedsome of his relatives in UPwhere he originally belongs to.

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In a bizarre case, a spinsterlodged in District Jail,

Farukkabad since August lastyear, became pregnant.Shocked with the develop-ment, the local administrationas well as jail officials wereprobing the incident and haveregistered a case against a‘Baba’ as the inmate alleged thatshe was raped after which sheconceived.

A senior jail official saidthat action will be taken as jailofficials despite regular check-ups did not inform about thepregnancy to the authroitieseven as the woman inmatewas eight month pregnant.

As per reports, Sangeeta(name changed) of HaiwatpurGhadiya hamlet in Farukkabadwas arrested after she brutallyhacked her brother to death on

August 29 last year. The policeregistered a case the same dayand arrested her. She has beenlodged in the jail ever since andwas not given bail.

Sources said that the newsof her pregnancy was exposedwhen a joint team of DistrictJudge, District Magistrate andSSP made a surprise inspectionof the prison. Learning of herpregnancy, the District Judgeasked the jail administration toprobe as tow how an undertri-al became pregnant in jail.Subsequently, the inmate wasshifted to a hospital for check-up.

In the meantime, StationHouse Officer of Kotwali policestation Sanjeev Singh Rathore,Mahila police station in-chargeVinita Sarthi and a womanconstable visited the hospital onTuesday evening and quizzedthe inmate. The pregnant pris-

oner gave a clean chit to jailofficials and inmates lodged inthe jail.

She revealed that she hadgone to Panchal Ghat to take adip in Ganga river where shefainted. She claimed that aBaba identified as `GirjaShankar’ assured to cure herand took her into thicketswhere he raped her and laterfled. The inmate said that amonth later she noticed thatshe had conceived.

Circle Officer ofFarukkaabad City, SharadChandra Sharma said thatthey took the inmate’s disclo-sure in writing and registereda case of rape against the Babaand trying to track down theaccused. He said that thepolice visited Panchal Ghat butfailed to get any clue about theBaba. Investigations are on inthis regard.

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The CPI(M), which had justa few days ago led a massive

farmers’ stir in Maharashtra, isall set to launch a politicaloffensive at Thalipparamba inKerala’s Kannur district fordefeating the ongoing farmers’agitation at nearby Keezhatturagainst the acquisition of paddyfields for a national highwaybypass amidst concerns thatthe alleged anti-farmer stand ofthe party and the LDFGovernment may lead to a sit-uation akin to that of Singur andNandigram.

The party will hold a rally inThalipparamba and a march toKeezhattur on Saturday as partof the campaign in the contextof the growing support for theagitation of the farmers, who callthemselves as Vayalkilikal (FarmBirds), from across the State. Thefarmers’ stir has already becomea huge embarrassment for theMarxists and the LDFGovernment.

CPI(M) sources said thatthousands of workers and sym-pathizers drawn from all theunits under the party’sThalipparamba area committeewould take part in the “resis-tance movement” as “Sentinelsof the Land”. A march would betaken out from Thalipparambato the paddy fields of Keezhatturwhere a shed would be put upfor the agitation.

Keezhattur has been wit-nessing a stiff farmers’ stiragainst the acquisition of paddyland for the bypass by theNational Highway Authority ofIndia (NHAI) for the past sev-eral months and it had reacheda flashpoint last week with theagitators threatening to immo-late themselves in the paddy fieldand the police arresting about 50of them including women.

The police-farmers faceoffwas followed by the torching byCPI(M) activists of the shed theagitators had erected in thepaddy field allegedly. TheCPI(M) leadership says thatmost of the farmers inKeezhattur have agreed to handover their paddy lands for the

bypass and only a few of them,“backed by extremists”, are con-tinuing with the agitation.

The CPI(M)’s politicaloffensive against Vayalkilikal isto take place on Saturday justwhen they are scheduled tolaunch on Sunday the thirdphase of their agitation onSunday with the participation ofrights groups, environmentalists,victims of similar land acquisi-tions, people with anti-CPI(M)stand and other like-mindedpeople from across the State.

“A total of 60 farmers maybe losing paddy land inKeezhattur for the bypass and 56of them have already agreed tothe acquisition. If that is so, whoare these people opposing theacquisition?” asked CPI(M)’sState secretariat member MVGovindan who will be leadingSaturday’s rally atThalipparamba.

The plan for a counter-agi-tation and Govindan’s state-ment came a day after MarxistChief Minister Pinarayi Vijayandeclared in the State Assemblythat the NH bypass would beconstructed through theKeezhattur paddy lands despitethe protests and Public WorksMinister G Sudhakaran alleged,“The protestors are notVayalkilikal but they are farmvultures.”.

The Government and theCPI(M) are of the view thatdevelopment projects could notbe abandoned or altered justbecause of objections from“small groups” of people sup-ported by “Maoists and religiousextremists”. “If the highway can-not come through land, can it bepaved through the skies?” askedGovindan.

“The CPI(M) leaders arespreading lies. Why are they soadamant that the bypass will beconstructed through the onlypaddy field remaining in entireThalipparamba Municipalitywhen alternate alignment pos-sibilities are available, especial-ly when the CPI(M) is a partythat has taken a pledge to pro-tect paddy lands and wetlands?”asked farmers’ leader SureshKeezhattur.

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Attack on yet another statueof Dravida Kazhakam

founder EV Ramasamy Naickeron Tuesday led to widespreadretaliation against Hindu leadersand their establishments alleged-ly by Dravida Kazhakam activistsin Tamil Nadu.

Statue of Naicker, addressedas Periyar in reverence, cameunder attack in Pudukottai dis-trict on Tuesday night. S SenthilKumar, a CRPF head constablewho was in an inebriated con-dition damaged the head ofNaicker’s concrete statue.Though Senthil Kumar wasarrested and the damaged stat-ue was repaired, the Dravidaactivists went on a rampage.Early Wednesday morning,some unidentified persons threwpetrol bombs at the house of CR Nandakumar, Coimbatore dis-trict chief of the BJP.

The bombs damaged theInnova car parked in front of hishouse. “Though the bomb explo-sion led to a massive fire, fami-ly members and neighbourswere alert and put it off. Hadthere been a delay, vehiclesparked in the neighbouringcompound and other houses toowould have been burnt,”Nandakumar told The Pioneer.

He said the attack seems tobe the handiwork of the DravidaKazhakam, DMK, Islamic out-fits and the Lefts. “Coimbatorehas been seeing attacks on Hinduactivists for some time now.Sasikumar, the State spokesper-son of Hindu Munnani wasmurdered last year by Islamic ter-

rorists. Though the police havearrested four persons in con-nection with the murder, theirfamily members are not allow-ing the police to investigate theirresidences,” said Nandakumar.

On Tuesday, the Salembranch of the Sree Sankara Muttcame under attack by theDravida Viduthalai Kazhakam.The Police arrested three activistsof the DVK for damaging theSankara Mutt properties. A for-mer intelligence official said theattacks were the fall out of thedesecration of the Naicker stat-ue. Interestingly, a senior policeofficial told this newspaper thathe does not believe in the alle-gations that the Hindutwa forceswere behind the attack onNaicker statues. "They do nothave the guts to do so. In spiteof many Hindu activists gettingmurdered in the State, therewere no retaliatory murdersand that iself speaks a lot," saidthe officer.

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Three top leaders of Bihar,including Chief Minister

Nitish Kumar, are among 11MLCs who will complete theirterm in the State LegislativeCouncil in first week of Mayfor which election is likely tobe held next month. Otherleaders are Deputy CM SushilKumar Modi and former CMRabri Devi.

Of the 11 members retir-ing five belongs to JD(U), fourto BJP and one to RJD. But onthe basis of the strength ofthese parties in the Assemblythe ruling JD(U) and BJP willlose two and one seat respec-tively while RJD can win fourseats against its one memberretiring while Congress canwin one seat. This will be firstbiennial election to theCouncil after Assembly polls in

2015 in which RJD emergednumber one with 80 seats fol-lowed by JD(U) with 71 andBJP 53 seats.

Nitish and Modi for thirdconsecutive term and Rabri forsecond term are set to return tothe Upper House. Of the elevenseats two are already vacantwhich fell vacant earlier. Onewa due to disqualification ofNarendra Singh of JD(U) whohad sided with Jitan RamManjhi but now returned toJD(U) and anoher due todemise of BJP’s SatyendraKushwaha. Singh is expected tobe renominated by Nitish.

Other members complet-ing their six years tenure areHealth Minister MangalPandey and Lal Babu Prasad ofBJP, and JD(U)’s Sanjay Singh,Upendra Prasad, ChandeshwarPrasad Chandravanshi andRajkishore Kushwaha.

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Telangana Chief Minister KChandrasekhar Rao rejected

the criticism of the BJP that hisGovernment had landed theState in debt trap and made acounter attack on the NarendraModi Government at the Centrefor the huge borrowings.

Defending the borrowingsby the Telangana GovernmentKCR told the State Assembly onWednesday that the economicgrowth rate of the State was thehighest in the country and theState revenue had grown by22%. “It is ridiculous to say thata developed State like Telanganawas getting into debt trap”, he

said. His remarks on the discus-sion on the Budget came in thebackdrop of the Opposition par-ties criticism that the State’s debtburden had almost doubled overthe last four years.

He demanded that theCentre should extend the help-ing hand to the States which wereprogressing fast.

“The debt of the countrystands at �82 lakh crore and theModi Government alone hasborrowed �24 lakh crore”, he saidpointing out that last year alonethe Centre had borrowed �6.24lakh crore. “Can we call this bor-rowing a deficit”, he questionedand advised the Opposition tocriticise the Government only if

it defaults on the repayment. Stressing that the State’s debt

was only 21% of the GDP, KCRsaid that all the States borrowmoney for the developmentalprograms. He asked the BJPmembers whether all the 21States ruled by the BJP were notresorting to the borrowings.

KCR said that the most ofthe spending by the State Govtwas on the creation of infra-structure. “During the Congressrule of 2004-2014 only �1.2lakh crore was spent on creationof infrastructure in 23 districtswhile the present Governmenthas spent �1.17 lakh croretowards the capital expenditurein three years”, he said.

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Suburban train services onthe Central Railway ground to

a halt in north-central and north-eastern Mumbai for nearly threeand a half hours on Tuesdaymorning affecting 4.5 millioncommuters, after “300 to 400”railway apprentices resorted to aviolent “rail roko” agitationbetween Dadar and Matungarailway stations, demanding jobs.

The protesters indulged inintense stone throwing at policepersonnel who resorted to lathi-charge to quell the rioting mobs.Eleven police constables wereinjured in the stone-throwingindulged in by the agitators.

The agitating railwayapprentices took the CentralRailway authorities by sur-prise, as they squatted on thetracks at 7.15 am and blockedtrains for the next three and ahalf hours on both Up anddown directions between theDadar and Matunga railwaystations in north-centralMumbai.

Soon after the police per-sonnel tried to remove thesquatting students from the rail-way tracks, the agitators hurledstones at them. However, thepolice managed to remove thesquatting railway apprenticesfrom the railway tracks ataround 10.30 am. The serviceswere restored on the affectedtrack at around 10.45 am.

Apart from bringing to astandstill the suburban trainservices on the Central Railway,the flash agitation by the railwayapprentices also affected themovement of the long-distancetrain services.

Given that the railwayapprentices had resorted to “railroko” during morning peak

hours, lakhs of office-goers werestranded at many places enroute to south Mumbai where amajority of government offices,private firms and business estab-lishments exist. In all, 45 lakhcommuters travel by the mainsuburban line of the CentralRailway every day.

With the Central Railwaycancelling a large number ofsuburban trains and the WesternRailway not being able to copewith the crowds of commuterscoming from the CentralRailway, there were traffic jamson roads linking Mumbai withthe mainland and the EasternExpress and Western ExpressHighways which provide vehic-ular access to south Mumbai.

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The Bengal Marxists havenow decided to invoke a

dose of ‘oblique Divinity’ intheir much-cherished class-struggle. The tactic is to stemthe rot in their ranks andstrategy: Countering the saf-fron upsurge.

In an apparent bid tocounter BJP and TrinamoolCongress’ planned Ram rallieson the Ram Navami Day theCPI(M) has planned a Ram-Rahim yatra on March 24, theday preceding the Hindu fes-tival.

Though the State CPI(M)leadership is keeping the mat-ter a hushed secret insidesources say the party wouldtake out a Ram-Rahim rally “topromote mutual tolerance inthe society,” and stop polari-sation ahead of the ensuingpanchayat elections.

State Left Front chairmanand CPI(M) politburo memberBiman Bose is likely to lead theprocession in Siuri town ofBirbhum district where thesaffron outfits last year sur-prised the critics by taking outa huge armed-processionjoined by more than 20,000people.

“There is a clever design bythe Sangh Parivar to triggercommunal tension in the soci-ety and divide the voters aheadof the elections. Equally cun-ning Trinamool Congress istrying wrest the initiative fromthe BJP-RSS with its own rallyon the Ram Navami Day.There move is dangerousbecause it may divide the soci-ety vertically. So we havedecided the Ram-Rahim yatraon the preceding day to pro-mote communal harmonyamong the people,” said aCPI(M) leader refusing to benamed.

On whether the State sec-retariat was in the know of theplans he said the Marxistsalways relied on what theycalled “tactic and strategy”adding Biman Bose wouldtake part in the rally.

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From solar power to defence deals,Asia-Pacific security to the possibil-ity of France replacing Russia asIndia’s all-weather ally at a timewhen Moscow seems recalibrating

its position in a fluid geostrategic environ-ment in which some see a new global bi-polarity emerging with the US and Chinaforming the poles, New Delhi has engagedwith Paris at an apt juncture. Prime MinisterNarendra Modi pulled out all the stops inensuring President Emmanuel Macron’srecently concluded four-day visit to India,which had a hectic and by all accounts veryproductive itinerary, went off well. Indeed,even as you read, the navies of India andFrance are engaged in a joint bilateral exer-cise — Varuna-18 — in the Arabian Sea offthe Goa coast which aims to enhance oper-ational synchronicities.

Yet, the whole is not in the sum of theseparts but dependent on the X Factor, as itwere, which is the forging of a state-to stateideological and values-based relationshipreflecting the affinity between the Indic andFrench civilisational ethos. This is a consum-mation devoutly to be wished as a counter-vailing force to the narrative of the global triadof multiculturalists, mullahs and Marxistswhich threatens to reduce contemporary nar-ratives on individual (especially women’s)rights, personal liberty, the agency of nation-alism, the role of the nation-state, issues ofsecurity related to terror and/or migration andcultural particularities into a communitari-an discourse. Worse still, it is a narrative whichchampions membership of fundamentallyilliberal groups and denies, by implicationand/or directly, the notion of both an Indianand a French exceptionalism.

India has a similar affinity with Israelgiven the notion of an exceptionalism thatruns through all three civilizational culturesand a common danger to all of thememanates from an ideological architecture thathas enabled the arming, quite literally, of theenemies of the nation-state in general and theabovementioned nation-states in particular.The good news is that our engagement withthe State of Israel has acquired some depthand is in the process of acquiring thebreadth that would make for a lastingalliance, credit for which much go first to PVNarasimha Rao and his team of strategicthinkers in the early 1990s who had the moralcourage and intellectual nous to grapple withthe changing contours of a post-Cold Warworld and the, till then under-theorized, rad-icalization of the ‘Muslim World’ despite thosefrom within the fold who tried then andhaven’t, one eye on domestic politics, givenup trying even now, to undermine them.Similarly, credit is due to Prime Minister AtalBihari Vajpayee and President Jacques Chiracwho started the process of a deep engagementbetween India and France as defined strate-gic partners in 1998.

India’s French connection is still far fromhaving been explored to its fullest potential,though, in part at least due to the languageissue. Now the French establishment hasalways been as keen as mustard to spreadglobally the “language of freedom”, as it were,but in Macron it seems to have found a nuts-and-bolts man who has a plan — “plot”,according to the Brit tabloids, god bless them— to bring this to fruition. Speaking a cou-ple of days ago, the French Presidentannounced an allocation of millions ofeuros to double the number of teachers andstudents learning French in schools world-wide, begin a sustained push in Africa to pro-mote the language across the continent so itis not limited only to the former Frenchcolonies there and, post-Brexit, increase itsuse as the preferred language of communi-cation in the European Union in place ofEnglish. Macron’s description of this effort asa “new moment in history”, however, has notgone down terribly well in the Francophoneworld especially in Africa where allegationsof a colonial hangover and French meddlingslip easily off the tongue, which is why thePresident asserted that France saw itself mere-ly as “a country among others” in theFrench-speaking world.

Macron, who unlike previous Frenchpresidents loves to speak English at summitsand regularly uses English slogans such as“start-up nation” and “make our planetgreat again”, makes no apologies for regular-ly speaking English, saying it has become aninternational language of business. But he iter-ates that speaking French is also a way to high-light French “values”. Therein lies the rub.

For India, which has an English-advan-

tage in the modern world albeit the languagespoken nowadays is more Queenie Singh’sthan the Queen’s (but that’s just this writerbeing a youngish fogey and aesthete), the pro-motion of French isn’t what excites us. Equally,we should waste neither time nor resourceson the promotion of Hindi globally — allthree languages are, as the chips have fallenin world history, merely functional outsidenational borders though some more than oth-ers. (They are rightly cherished at home, ofcourse, and lovers of each of these languagesshould always be encouraged to pursuethem.) If anything, our emphasis should beto ensure that Sanskrit, along with Latin andHebrew, are promoted as global languages ofantiquity which enable access to pre-medievalprimary sources and help us understand ourcultural origins warts, glories and all.

The X Factor in our French connectionis not, and very unlikely to be in the foresee-able future, a common language and we cansafely elide Anglo-French competitivenessaround which should be the lingua franca ofthe world. It is the ideas conveyed by the lan-guage, which it is fallacious to assume are lostin translation, which are of immediateimport.

Professor Bhiku Parekh’s seminal workon the cultural particularity of liberal democ-racy is now widely accepted as historically evi-dent and the Indian approximation of thesame is today a work in progress. But thenotion that individual rights can never betrumped by group rights, the imperative ofgender equity and an uncompromisingadherence to personal liberty all premised ona uniquely inclusive civilizational impulsewithin an Indic cultural context that India

ought to attempt to institutionalise via stateinstrumentalities will gain immeasurablyfrom a deepening of strategic, security andcultural ties with France.

Within this rubric, practicalities such asan Indo-French outreach in Africa makesa lot of sense given our weaknesses andstrengths on that continent are broadly com-plimentary. Apart from gaining strategicdepth including enhancing our energysecurity, such a move would provide a fil-lip to economic growth/capacity-building inindividual African nation-states while boost-ing investment opportunities/growth forIndia and France as well as serve to counterthe aggressive push over the past decade byan increasingly authoritarian China inAfrica. Leveraging the French connectionto deepen both economic and security tieswith the EU, and Paris understands our con-cerns better than most in Europe, must bethe other area of focus. Bilaterally, the skyis the limit if the Indo-French entente cor-diale is actively transformed into a multi-faceted strategic partnership given the cul-tural affinity of our respective liberal, inclu-sive and secular heritages though both Indiaand France, as nations, arrived at them viavery different routes. In fact, it is these veryvalues which are under attack from commu-nitarian ideologies.

Nearly three centuries after the CarnaticWars were fought on the Indian peninsula bythe then dominant colonial powers for con-trol over the sub-continent, a conflation ofideas and interests between New Delhi andParis has come to pass.

(The writer is Consulting Editor, ThePioneer)

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Sir — This refers to the editorial,“Plastic humans” (March 17).Plastics have evolved to becomethe ‘backbone’ of economic devel-opment and permeate everyaspect of our life today — all dueto the incomparable ease of theiruse. However, the havoc this ‘ease’is wrecking on the planet andhuman health is enormous.

It is common knowledge thatplastic is made up of Bisphenol-A, a toxic chemical that is anendocrine disrupting agent, whichcan leach out when plastic bottlesare boiled. It is not only water thatplastic packaging contaminates(through microplastic pollution,as mentioned in the editorial), butalso medicines, as per a 2016 studyby All India Institute of Hygiene& Public Health, Kolkata.

Plastics are graded on a scaleof seven, according to their recy-clability and safety. The index,enclosed in triangle symbol, isfound beneath every plastic bot-tle. The indices two, four and fivecorresponding to High DensityPolyethylene, low density polyeth-ylene and polypropylene respec-tively, are considered to be safer.

On the other hand, marinecreatures and stray foraging cat-tle are falling prey to plasticgarbage. What then constitutes asolution to all of this? Ban is oftendisapproved by citing the speciousargument of “don’t kill economicgrowth, let plastic remain until aworthy substitute is found”.Secondly, bio-plastics. Two orthree genuine brands exist, butwho can incentivise and enforcetheir use?

The change, meanwhile, can

be effected by consumer himself,if he/she can possess the self-dis-cipline to carry cloth bags and usereusable metal containers formilk, water.

CV Krishna ManojHyderabad

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Sir — Of late, we find judges of theHigh Courts and also the SupremeCourt recusing themselves fromcases before them, most of thetime when the final judgment hasto be delivered, without assigningany reason whatsoever for doingso. Most of the time, we find thishappens in sensitive cases involv-ing senior political leaders. Judgesto the High Courts and apexcourt are appointed after carefulanalysis of their past performancein the judiciary, their credibilityand honesty.

It is also expected that they gothrough the cases presented beforethem with absolute care and deliv-er judgements in an impartialmanner within the framework oflaws and Indian Constitution.This being the case, judges recus-ing themselves from cases beforethem and seeking transfer ofthem to other peer judges/bench-es is unjustified. This is more sowhen we find no conflict of inter-est in those cases handled by thosejudges. Does it mean that they arescared of such political bigwigs ordon’t want to antagonise the politi-cians and others with muscle andmoney power?

Tharcius S FernandoChennai

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The world observed TheInternational Day of Forests onMarch 21, 2018 as ordained by

a resolution of the United NationsGeneral Assembly on November 28,2012. Since 2012, the commemorationday has enabled celebration of forestsand provided a platform to raiseawareness for the importance of alltypes of woodlands and trees, andexplore the ways in which they sustainand protect us.

Forests and trees store carbon,which helps mitigate the impacts of cli-mate change in and around urbanareas. Trees also improve the local cli-mate, helping to save energy used forair conditioning by 20-50 per cent.Studies have shown that in the urbanareas, the strategic placement of trees

can cool the air by up to eight degreesCelsius, reducing air conditioningneeds by 30 per cent. Urban tree canopyalso acts as excellent air filters, remov-ing harmful pollutants from the air andfine particulates besides reducing noisepollution, as they shield homes fromnearby roads and industrial areas.

The wood sourced from urbantrees and planted forests on the out-skirts of cities provides renewableenergy for cooking and heating, whichreduces pressures on natural forests andour reliance on fossil fuels. Additionally,forests in and around urban areas helpfilter and regulate water, contributingto high-quality freshwater supplies forhundreds of millions of people. Forestsalso protect watersheds and preventflooding as they store water in theirbranches and soil. In fact, well-managedforests and trees in and around citiesprovide habitats, food and protectionfor many plants and animals, helpingto maintain and increase biodiversity.

Forests in cities and surroundingareas generate tourism, create jobs,encourage city beautificationschemes, building dynamic, energetic

and prosperous green economies.Urban green spaces, includingforests, encourage active and healthylifestyles, improve mental health, pre-vent disease, and provide a place forpeople to socialise.

But in spire of such positive fea-tures the forests of today are besiegedby various challenges and hurdlesthat pose a threat to the very exis-tence of our forest cover.

Various studies and State of ForestReports discovered that many times theagriculture sector emerged as a chal-lenge from unexpected quarter for our

forest cover. As more and more land iscontinuously cleared of forests to makeway for cultivable agricultural land, theefforts to ensure food security are cost-ing our environment dearly. Accordingto estimates, there is a direct increasein greenhouse gas emissions by 10 percent due to deforestation. There is anurgent need to integrate forests andagriculture in such a manner that foodproduction is not achieved at the costof green cover.

The good news for Indiaemerged in the latest State of ForestsReport 2017. According to the find-

ings of the report produced by theForest Survey of India and based onsatellite images, India’s forest coveris, by and large stable. With a heart-ening forest report and nearly 21 percent of the country covered byforests as on date — the going seemsto be good for forests in India, butthat may not be true in reality as thereport itself is based on remotesensing mapping and is unable toprovide deep insights into the integri-ty of the green areas. The Ministryof Environment in its audit of vari-ous regions has calculated a cumu-lative loss of forests in Mizoram,Nagaland and Arunachal of nearly1,200 sq km. The impact of such aterrible loss must be seen against thebackdrop of the North-East repre-senting a global biodiversity hotspot.

In addition to this, there are alsoreports of considerable forest coverloss in Maharashtra. To offset thisloss, there is an urgent need to mod-ify the environmental policy andmake efforts to raise the forest coverto at least 33 per cent of the geo-graphical area from the current

21per cent. This policy level initia-tive will yield positive dividends.

In order to achieve growth in greencover, the Government must focus onsome critical aspects. Efforts must bemade to reduce overgrazing, as it is amajor factor that is responsible for seri-ous damage to forests. India possessesa livestock population of over 412 mil-lion of which 270 million are bovineanimals and about one-tenth of thesegraze in the forests leading to erosionof forest integrity. Additionally, largetracts of vegetal cover are destroyedevery year by forest fires. Forest fires inIndia are most destructive in dry sea-sons. Insufficiency of properly trainedpersonnel is a big handicap in contain-ing them and the authorities must takesuitable action so that the preciousforests are preserved.

Forests are the buffer against dete-riorating ecological conditions andare in fact the insurance for our envi-ronment. The premium must be placedon conserving our green acres beforeclimate change impacts us directly.

(The writer is an environmentaljournalist)

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Examination stress is a peculiarphenomenon, a temporal andsensory experience perceived in

peculiar situations by the focusedgroup through the senses rather thanby thought or intuition that defiessocio-psychological descriptions andexplanations. Yet it torments the stu-dents, particularly the younger ones.All examinations, for many, turn outto be stressful. The stress is acuter inunknown environs, viz., the boardexams which the students often iden-tify with the unpredictable factors.

Interestingly, it does not relate toone’s level or extent of preparedness.Those who are less prepared or ill-prepared experience it for the obvi-ous reasons, but the well-preparedand toppers too are stressed for theapprehension of the little bit theymight have skipped or how muchthey can really recall while writingtheir answers. Some feel stressed forsecuring enough marks to clear theexams while others are anxious abouttheir scope of excelling the peers andstill others for not letting down theparents who pin high hopes on theirwards. In a lighter vein, one isreminded here of the famous quotefrom Charles Caleb Colton:“Examinations are formidable evenfor the best prepared, for the great-

est fool may ask more than the wis-est man can answer.”

Students, to begin with, need tounderstand that the stress is indis-putably a negative factor that onlyaffects their performance and beingworried is no sign or indication ofone's earnestness or sincerity towardsstudies. It can be as harmful as beingcareless and jeopardize their focusand retention.

Parents and teachers both havea critical role in this regard — to puttheir wards and students on a courseof normal life and comportment,especially in ensuring proper sleep,diet and relaxation. It is common tofind parents often expressing con-cern that their kids are taking ‘board’exams. This concern multiplies manytimes when it is noticed by the stu-dents in the parents’ utterings,behaviour or change in daily life rou-tine. The only way parents can helpthem is by providing companionshipand any other activity which innormal times puts the child at ease.

It is everyone’s concern to save thekids from this phenomenon of exam-ination stress. The approach maybegin from the parents who areadvised to refrain from putting per-formance-related pressure and expec-tations before and during examina-tions. In fact, our education system issuch that the score or grade relatedperformance have different connota-tions in different scenarios. Andmost of these can be addressed with-out unduly expanding one’s capabil-ity. Parents should try to impressupon their wards that education is ameans for acquiring knowledge and

once you attain sound knowledge, itis good for your capabilities to facelife and all its challenges in any formor situation. There should never beany stress in acquiring knowledge andthe resultant competence. If the focusis changed from clearing exams toenhancing one’s knowledge, we maydecisively counter the spectre ofexam stress.

One may observe that the schoolencourages students to proceed on‘preparation leave’ once the syllabusis over. In my view, this is the mostcrucial time that the teachers shouldspend with their students. Besides,usual counselling about the time-management during examinations,they should share with them theapproach they themselves adoptwhile evaluating the answer sheets —what they look for in the answersheets, how they discern for award-ing scores for a particular answer toa question.

A teacher’s experience as anevaluator is the most important tipthat may prepare students in the artof writing scoring answers. Thisapplies to almost all subjects. Havingspent an academic year with stu-dents, the teacher is in the best posi-tion to know about the students whoare more susceptible to exam stress.To put it plainly, a teacher has toassume the role of a parent for thesake of negotiating this psychologi-cal quagmire.

The examiners/paper setters toohave their task cut out to help assuagethe exam-related stress by preparingquestion papers that focus on assess-ing the knowledge and ability of a stu-

dent and not his level of ignorance.Absolute shockers need to be avoid-ed.

One may recall CBSE’s Class XSocial Studies question paper wayback in 2006, in which one questionasked the students to identify thephoto of a lesser known monument(tomb) reproduced from the NCERTtextbook. Hardly anybody was pre-pared for such a question. Irrespectiveof the marks assigned for a particu-lar ‘tough’ question, it triggers thestress of what students perceive asunpredictable. The process does notend here. It gets carried on to theupcoming batches of board examina-tions who start looking for ‘unpre-dictable’ and uncommon factors thatmay emerge in the question paper.This puts doubts in the mind of stu-dents about the comprehensiveness oftheir preparation or the lack of it.

Having said this, it becomesimperative for the parents and teach-ers to take complete charge of theresponsibility of reducing stress aris-ing out of exams. Parents can ensurethat there are fewer distractionswhile the preparations are on andmore nutritional diet is provided tothe child.

One simple solution is to be beavailable for the child most of the timeand ensure that all negativities areweaned off, so much so, even thesmall tiffs in the house. Since, theexam results or the degree stay for alifetime with the student, it is betterto make them more knowledgeableand achievers in life.

(The writer is vice president,Communications, Amity Group)

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NEW DELHI: Stocks found firmer groundfor the second straight session on Wednesday,with the benchmark Sensex reclaiming thekey 33,000-mark, ahead of US FederalReserve's policy meet outcome.

Persistent capital inflows by foreignfunds and covering-up of short positions byspeculators influenced trading sentimenthere, brokers said.

The BSE Sensex spurted 139 points toclose at 33,136.18, while the broader NSENifty rose 30 points to 10,155.25.

Telecom stocks were the session's biggestgainers, with Bharti Airtel emerging on topin the Sensex pack.

After a strong opening, the BSE 30-shareSensex hit a high of 33,354.93, before clos-ing at 33,136.18, up 139.42 points, or 0.42 percent. It had gained 73.64 points in the pre-vious session.

The 50-share Nifty scaled a high of10,227.30 intra-day but succumbed to prof-it-booking to finish at 10,155.25, still up 30.90points, or 0.31 per cent.

“Participants are keen to get cues on futurerate hike trajectory of US Fed, while hawkishpace of tightening might add volatility in themarket. If the outcome of FOMC will be in-line with expectation without any underliningcaveats, we could have a relief rally in the short-term,” said Vinod Nair, Head of Research,Geojit Financial Services. PNS

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The US has decided to slapanti-dumping duty on stain-

less steel flanges imported fromIndia and China after it found inits preliminary probe that boththe countries provided subsidiesto the exporters.

President Donald Trumphad earlier this month imposedheavy tariffs on imported steeland aluminium which he saidwere necessary to boost the USindustry suffering from ‘unfair’business practices, a move thathas sparked fears of a globaltrade war.

The Department ofCommerce has found thatexporters from China andIndia have sold stainless steelflanges in the US at 257.11 percent and 18.10 to 145.25 percent less than fair value, respec-tively, according to an officialstatement issued on Tuesday.

Following this decision,the commerce department willinstruct the US Customs andBorder Protection (USCBP) tocollect cash deposits fromimporters of the stainless steelflanges from China and India,based on these preliminaryrates, it said.

In 2016, imports of stainlesssteel flanges from China andIndia were valued at an esti-mated $16.3 million and $32.1million, respectively.

The preliminary investiga-tion was launched by theDepartment on the petition bythe Coalition of AmericanFlange Producers, includingCore Pipe Products Inc. (CarolStream, IL) and Maass FlangeCorporation (Houston).

“The United States will notsit back and watch as ourdomestic businesses aredestroyed by unfair foreigngovernment subsidies anddumping,” US Commerce

Secretary Wilbur Ross said.“This Administration is

taking fair and transparentaction on behalf of Americanindustry to defend businessesand workers while we contin-ue reviewing the facts related tothis decision,” he said.

The enforcement of the UStrade law is a prime focus of theTrump administration.

From January 20, 2017,through March 20, 2018, thecommerce department has initi-ated 102 anti-dumping and coun-tervailing duty investigations – a96 per cent increase from January20, 2016 through March 20,2017, the statement said.

The anti-dumping lawprovides the US businessesand workers with an interna-tionally accepted mechanismto seek relief from the harm-ful effects of unfair pricing ofimports into the US.

Department of Commercecurrently maintains 428 anti-dumping and countervailingduty orders which providerelief to American companiesand industries impacted byunfair trade, it said.

Department of Commerceis scheduled to announce thefinal determinations in theseinvestigations on or about June5, 2018, it added.

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The Securities and Exchange Board ofIndia (SEBI) plans to bring in addi-

tional disclosure requirements for listedcorporates undergoing insolvency resolu-tion process as well as amend norms per-taining to minimum public shareholdingnorms and other provisions for such enti-ties, a senior official said.

The proposal comes at a time whenthere are increasing number of cases com-ing up under the Insolvency andBankruptcy Code (IBC) as enti-ties look to address issues ofstressed assets in a time-boundmanner.

The regulator is planningto come out with a discussion paper oncompliance with SEBI norms by listedcompanies undergoing insolvency reso-lution process. The proposal is likely to bediscussed by SEBI’s board during its meet-ing on March 28, the official said.

Amendments are being proposed forcertain SEBI norms on the basis of threestages of Corporate Insolvency ResolutionProcess — pre, ongoing and post CIRPstages. Listed companies under CIRP arelikely to be subject to various disclosurerequirements. Such entities would have todisclose about filing of application for ini-tiation of CIRP as well as when creditors ini-tiate the process and amount of default men-

tioned in the application.Besides, the entities would be asked to

disclose details about the number of bidsreceived by the insolvency resolution pro-fessional, filing of resolution plan as well asapproval of the plan by the NationalCompany Law Tribunal (NCLT), amongothers. Currently, there are no specific dis-closure requirements related to CIRP inListing Obligations and DisclosureRequirements (LODR) Regulations.

In case the minimum public share-holding falls below 25 per cent ina company after CIRP, SEBI islooking at providing that entity aperiod of two years to complywith the requirement.

Listed companies arerequired to have at least 25 per cent mini-mum public shareholding and underSecurities Contracts (Regulation) Rules, one-year time is provided to ensure compliance.

The official noted that the regulator pro-poses to extend exemptions that are avail-able to scheme of arrangement also to com-panies undergoing insolvency process.

Currently, there are certain exemp-tions in terms of compliance for schemesof arrangements involving listed firmsthat are duly approved by a court or tri-bunal. Certain relaxations are also beingplanned with regard to re-classificationof promoters and delisting regulationsfor such companies.

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In a move to make availability of dailyuse fuel for the consumers, even in

far-flung areas, state-owned Indian OilCorporation (IOC) has launched onWednesday its dream project ‘home-delivery of diesel’ on a pilot basis inPune and plans to expand its doorstepdelivery to other parts of the countryin near future, according to itsChairman Sanjiv Singh.

Besides, two other public sector fuelretailers, Hindustan Petroleum CorpLtd (HPCL) and Bharat Petroleum CorpLtd (BPCL) will follow it soon.

The country’s biggest oil companyhas mounted a diesel dispenser, similarto the one seen at petrol pumps, on amidsized truck along with a storage tankfor delivering the fuel at customers’doorsteps in Pune.

“We are the first company to have

started doorstep delivery after receivingclearance from the Petroleum andExplosives Safety Organisation (PESO),”he said.

The doorstep delivery has beenlaunched on a pilot basis in Pune andit would be expanded to other citiesbased on the response it gets during thethree-month trial period, he said,adding that the same on petrol toowould be started soon.

Initially, the company is targeting ‘sta-

tic customers’ like shopping malls andcommercial establishments that usediesel in gensets for producing electric-ity, and transport companies with largediesel consumption.

“Doorstep delivery is not a substitutefor sale through retail outlets (petrolpumps). It is meant to serve consumers,say a farm harvester, for whom it does-n't make sense to travel to a petrol pumpjust to refuel,” he said.

Like IOC, other two state-owned fuelretailers, Hindustan Petroleum CorpLtd (HPCL) and Bharat Petroleum CorpLtd (BPCL) too have got PESO approvalfor a trial run of doorstep diesel delivery.They will be given different geographiesfor the trial run. Depending on theresponse, the trial run will be extendedto other cities.

“We have to develop a businessmodel for doorstep delivery,” Singhsaid adding mobile dispenser for

door delivery of fuel can be used inareas where there is no petrol pumpin a radius of 5-km.

Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhanhad in April last year stated that the gov-ernment was looking at options to homedeliver petrol and diesel to cut queues atfuel stations and give consumers anoption. But, for home delivery of fuel, aclearance from PESO is required as bothpetrol and diesel are highly inflammablefuels and require adequate safety pre-cautions. So far, PESO has given approvalfor doorstep delivery of diesel only on atrial basis.

India currently has 61,983 petrolpumps with state-owned firms operating90 per cent of them. The country con-sumed 194.6 million tonnes of fuel in2016-17, nearly 40 per cent of which wasdiesel. Diesel consumption in 2016-17was 76 million tonnes, while petrol was23.8 million tonnes.

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In what could further delay the res-olution of Essar Steel that owes over�45,000 crore to lenders, the SBI-

led consortium of creditors onWednesday rejected the bids byNumetal, an SPV floated by Russianlender VTB Bank and Rewant Ruia,and ArcelorMittal, finding them inel-igible under the IBC laws that debarrelated parties from bidding.

The decision to reject both the bidswas taken at a meeting of the commit-tee of creditors (CoC) of Essar Steel hereon Wednesday, a banking source said,adding however, they have voted toallow a second round of bidding for thenearly crippled 10-million tonne-assetat Hazira in Gujarat.

“Numetal and ArcelorMittal werefound to be ineligible under Section 29A of the amended IBC. They did not fallunder the satisfactory criterion that thedefaulting promoters' link should not bethere or connected persons should notbe there in the new company that is bid-ding,” a banking source said here.

Numetal and ArcelorMittal werethe only two bidders for Essar Steelwhich owes the banks over �45,000crore. These companies have put uptheir bids on February 12 but havesince been battling with each otheramidst questions about their very eli-gibility to bid.

Even though the Luxembourg-based ArcelorMittal has teamed up withNippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corpto bid for Essar Steel, it has beenfound ineligible for its joint venturewith Uttam Galva, which is at theNCLT awaiting resolution now, andNumetal's bid was done in by the factthat one of the promoters of the spe-cial purpose vehicle is Rewant Ruia,the son of an Essar Group promoterRavi Ruia, one of the original pro-moters of Essar Steel.

Bankers, however said if thesecompanies delinked their connection

from the promoters or standardisetheir loans they can bid again in the sec-ond round of bidding.

The lenders have set an April 2deadline for the second round of bid-ding for Essar Steel that owes over�45,000 crore to over 30 banks andother creditors. But this is unlikely toyield the desired results as biggies likeTata Steel, the Anil Aggrawal-ledVedanta and JSW Steel have report-edly decided against bidding forEssar Steel.

The shareholders of the Mauritius-based Numetal, a special purpose vehi-cle that focuses on steel and infra spacealong with manufacturing, are VTBCapital, the PE arm of the Russian state-owned lender VTB Bank and AuroraTrusts in which Rewant Ruia is a ben-eficiary and owns 25 per cent.

The other promoters include theRussian steel and engineering majorTyazhPromExports (TPE) and IndoInternational, a Dubai-based metalstrading firm promoted by an NRI. VTBCapital owns majority in Numetal.

Bids of these firms were evaluated

by resolution professional Satish KumarGupta, along with risk advisory GrantThornton and law firm CyrilAmarchand Mangaldas.

The rejection comes a day afterNumetal moved the AhmedabadNCLT seeking to declare its eligibili-ty, as it apprehended that all the fullfacts it submitted to the RP were notassessed properly.

Earlier in the day, Numetal in astatement had said it had filed anapplication the Ahemdabad bench ofNCLT to declare its elegibility as it“apprehends that full facts submittedby it for eligibility to submit a reso-lution plan have not been appropri-ately assessed by the RP.”

An industry observer said follow-ing the rejection of its bid, Numetal mayask Rewant Ruia to exit the firm,something that the company was any-way ready to do.

“If public perception is a challengebecause of the presence of Rewant Ruiain Numetal or his minority investmentin the company, we are ready to changethat,” Antoine Chemali, a senior advi-

sor at Numetal Mauritius, had said lastweek.

“We've already spoken to Rewantand are ready to do whatever it takes usto win the Essar Steel bid. We, the restof the shareholders, are ready to buy outhis minority stake from Numetal,”Chemali added.

But he was quick to point out thatRewant did not have any say in themanagement of Numetal or enjoyed aboard position. And an Essar Groupofficial also said that Rewant hadresigned from the Essar Steel way backin 2012, and thus in no way was relat-ed to the Essar Steel promoters now.

It can be noted that both Numetaland ArcelorMittal had threatened tochallenge NCLT and RP in highercourts if their bids were rejected, forc-ing government to recently hint thatit was amenable to make morechanges to Section 29 of the IBC Actto redefine “connected/related parties”to exclude only original promoterswho are defaulters from bidding foran asset that has gone to kaput andwent to the bankruptcy court.

The move is to distinguishbetween the promoters of defaultingcompanies that don't have a man-agerial role from those who also man-age the stressed assets.

As per media repor ts , theCorporate Affairs Ministry is con-sidering two amendments to changethe definition of “connected people”as per the IBC Code. Now, a promoteror investor in a defaulter is not eligi-ble to participate in the auction ofstressed assets referred to NCLT.

As per the IBC code, bids shouldbe presented to the committee ofcreditors at least a month before thedeadline, which in the case of EssarSteel is April 29.

The Mittals have also reported-ly offered to pay 50 per cent of itsdues to lenders so that it becomeseligible to bid, something the newSection 29 A allows.

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Making a case for more concretesteps to strengthen internal con-trol system in PSU banks, S&P

Global Ratings on Wednesday said thebanking sector could witness a turn aroundin fiscal 2019-20.

The recent �13,000-crore fraud at thePunjab National Bank (PNB) highlights theinherent weaknesses in the governance andtransparency standards in the Indianbanking system, especially among publicsector banks, it said.

In a report titled ‘Will the global eco-nomic recovery lift banks in major emerg-ing markets’, S&P said government hastaken steps by splitting the post ofChairman and Managing Director butmore concrete steps would be needed toreform the banks and strengthen theirinternal control systems.

“We expect the strengthened legalframework to accelerate recovery rates onlyin the next credit cycle. As banks clean uptheir balance sheets and provide for theseweak loans, we expect the public sectorbanking to report losses for another year.

“The large proposed recapitalisation ofthe public sector banking will help the

banks make large haircuts on delinquentloans while still meeting the regulatorycapital requirements. We expect a turn-around in the performance of India’sbanking sector in fiscal 2020,” it said.

Observing that the Indian PSU banksare saddled with 13-15 per cent of weakloans, though the reported non-perform-

ing assets (NPAs) are at 10.2 per cent as ofSeptember 2017, the US-based agency saidit expects Indian banks to accelerate badloan recognition of the weak loans in thenext few quarters. The resolution of theseNPLs will gain momentum in fiscal 2018under the new bankruptcy code.

“Fiscal 2019, akin to fiscal 2018, will bethe year of rise in provisioning,” it said. S&Psaid it expects GDP growth in India to riseto 7.6 per cent in fiscal 2019 and 7.8 percent in fiscal 2020 from 6.8 per cent ratein fiscal 2018.

“The fading impact of demonetisationand GST implementation hurdles andcontinuing global recovery provide the stim-uli to the country’s trade and GDP growth,”the report said.

The banking sector’s performance willget a boost from economic expansion andwe believe its deep protracted credit downcycle is nearing, with a turnaround by fis-cal 2020. In addition, government’s andRBI’s significant steps are aiding the recov-ery, it added.

The government plans to inject a mas-sive �2.1 lakh crore ($32 billion) into pub-lic-sector banks to help them meet regula-tory capital levels after they clocked heavylosses in the recent quarter.

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Regulator SEBI is consider-ing a new set of norms for

auditors and other third-partyfiduciaries in the securitiesmarket under which defaulterswill face stringent penalactions, including ban onissuance of audit or valuationreports and disgorgement ofunlawful gains and their fees.

The proposed moveassumes significance as therole of auditors and valuers hascome under scanner in a num-ber of high-profile cases suchas the Satyam and Kingfisherfrauds, as also the PNB scam,WhatsApp leak and the Fortismatter in the recent past.

SEBI is looking to enhancethe regulatory oversight tocheck such frauds in futurewith the new regulations forfiduciaries in the securitiesmarkets, which will requireadditional disclosure require-ments and greater scrutiny offinancial statements by audi-tors and other third partyentities, a senior official said.

The Securities andExchange Board of India(SEBI) has prepared a draftconsultation paper for theproposed regulations, which isexpected to be placed beforeits board at its next meeting onMarch 28, sources said.

The final regulationswould be put in place aftertaking into account commentsfrom all stakeholders on theconsultation paper. Askedabout the rationale behind anew set of norms, a senior offi-cial said investor confidence isfundamental to the successfuloperation of securities marketand it depends on investorshaving credible and reliablefinancial information whenmaking decisions about capi-tal allocation.

“One of the prime objec-tives of SEBI is to ensure thatthere should be full, timelyand accurate disclosure offinancial results and otherinformation that is material toinvestors' decision,” he said,while pointing to alleged laps-es at various levels in cases likeWhatsApp leak of financialresults, the PNB scam and thematters concerning Fortis andSatyam-PwC.

The official explained thatthe information which hasgone through various third-party fiduciaries such as audi-tors, merchant bankers, ratingagencies, cost accountants andvaluers are often considered as‘basis of most of the invest-ment and financial decisions

of the investors’, and theseentities are seen as ‘principalgatekeepers or consciencekeepers’ and there must not beany lack of efforts in flagginglapses or potential risks.

While entities such asmerchant bankers, ratingagencies, custodians, deben-ture trustees and registrar topublic issues are registeredwith the capital markets reg-ulator under specific regula-tions, some other fiduciarieslike practising charteredaccountants and company sec-retaries, cost accountants, val-uers and monitoring agenciesare not registered with SEBI.

To fill this gap, a high-levelpanel on corporate gover-nance, headed by eminentbanker Uday Kotak, had alsosuggested that SEBI shouldhave clear powers to actagainst auditors and otherthird-party fiduciaries withstatutory duties in case offrauds as well as gross negli-gence.

Taking into considerationthis recommendation, SEBIis planning this consultationpaper, proposing a frameworkspecifying obligations of suchfiduciaries, fiduciary firmsand the concerned partners, asalso the possible penal actionsthat can be taken againstdefaulters.

The proposed regulationsseek to regulate the activitiesof fiduciaries when theyundertake any assignmentunder securities laws inrespect of any listed or to-be-listed company, intermediaryor investors, sources said.

These obligations for fidu-ciaries in securities marketwould be in addition to theirobligations under the respec-tive laws.

Under the proposednorms, these fiduciaries willhave to ‘render high stan-dards or service, exercise duecare, skill and diligence’ inissuance of due diligence, val-uation, compliance or auditcertificates. They will alsoneed to ensure that all suchcertificates and audit reportsare ‘true in all material respect’.Besides, they will need to dis-close any conflict of interestand restrain from taking up anyassignment that may have adirect or indirect interest withpossibility of impairing anindependent professionaljudgement.

The new norms would alsorestrain the fiduciaries fromsigning or issuing any certifi-cate without disclosing thematerial discrepancy, if any,

while they would have to reportany material violation of secu-rities law by the client to theaudit committee of the listedcompanies or to the compli-ance officer in case of otherentities. Under the new regu-lations, SEBI would have pow-ers to issue warning, launchadjudication proceedings andinitiate prosecution against thefiduciaries for any default.

Besides, SEBI can order

disgorgement of wrongfulgains, including the feesearned, with an interest of 12per cent per annum from thedate of default; ban the fidu-ciary from issuing any certifi-cate or report; and refer thecase to the Institute ofCompany Secretaries of India(ICSI) or the Institute ofChartered Accountants of India(ICAI), or any other authorityfor appropriate action.

NEW DELHI: State-ownedBank of India on Wednesdaysaid it has closed down itsoperations of representativeoffice in Yangoon (Myanmar)from mid-January.

“The Ministry of Planningand Finance, Directorate ofInvestment and CompanyAdministration, Myanmar hasallowed to terminate/close ourYangoon Representative Office(Myanmar) with effect fromJanuary 19, 2018,” the banksaid in a regulatory filing.

Public sector banks (PSBs),as per the agenda approved inthe Manthan programme inNovember last year, were askedto examine all their 216 over-seas operations as part of cleanand responsible banking ini-tiative.

As many as 35 overseasbranches of state-owned banksare said to have closed downsince. The closing down ofoverseas operations assumessignificance in the present con-text in the backdrop of jewellerNirav Modi and his uncleMehul Choksi of GitanjaliGems misused the foreignoffice facility in the nearly Rs13,000 crore fraud at PNB bypresenting fake Letters ofUndertakings (LOUs) to over-seas banks. PTI

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Political faultlines have splita parliamentary committee

looking into demonetisation,with more than half of itsmembers belonging to the rul-ing BJP and its allies moving adissenting note terming as“politically motivated” thedraft report of the panel head-ed by Congress leader MVeerappa Moily.

Sources said as many as 16members belonging to BJP andallies in the StandingCommittee on Finance havereservations over the tone and

tenor of the draft report.The committee has 31

members, including ChairmanMoily. Sources said a meetingof the panel was called onMarch 19 to adopt the reportso that it could be tabled in theongoing Budget Session ofParliament.

However, 10 BJP mem-bers and 6 belonging to alliedparties objected to the contentof the draft, which amongother things described themove of scrapping of old �500and �1,000 notes by the gov-ernment in November 2016 asill-conceived.

The draft also criticisesfrequent changes in rules andregulations regarding imple-mentation of demonetisation.The draft was not adopted,sources said.

Sources said as the num-ber of dissenting membersexceeds 50 per cent, therecould be difficulties in accept-ing the draft report.

The dissent note, signed byseveral BJP members, hasdescribed demonetisation asthe ‘mother of all reforms’, whichhelped in reducing corruption,checking blackmoney and terrorfunding, among others.

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Commerce Ministry is developing a nationalrubber policy to address various issues con-

cerning the sector with a view to boostshipment and productivity, UnionMinister Suresh Prabhu has said.

“This policy is necessary becausethere are so many challenges the sectoris facing. We want to make sure that allissues are addressed through this pol-icy. We have already had one meetingon this,” the Commerce Minister said.He said the aim of the proposed policy would beto boost export and production of rubber, ‘keep-ing in mind farmers' interests’. A task force com-prising representatives of state and central gov-ernments has been constituted for suggesting short

term-solutions and long-term strategies to addressthe issues, he added. Major issues related to thesector include minimum support price for nat-ural rubber, restriction on import, minimum

import price, categorisation of naturalrubber as an agricultural product, importof cup lumps, safeguard duty andincrease in budget allocation to RubberBoard.

Import of natural rubber is allowedonly through sea ports of Chennai andJawaharlal Nehru Port at Nhava Sheva,Mumbai. There are around 13.2 lakh

rubber small holdings in the country, out of whicharound 9 lakh are in Kerala. Consumption of nat-ural rubber has increased from 9.95 lakh tonnein 2015-16 to 10.45 lakh tonne in 2016-17 main-ly due to rise in demand from auto tyre sector.

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Members of clearing cor-porations in commodi-

ty derivatives segment need tohave a minimum liquid net-worth of `50 lakh, SEBI saidon Wednesday. Tweaking therisk management norms forcommodity derivatives seg-ment, the regulator also saidcommodity derivativesexchanges should complywith provisions related toacceptance of Fixed DepositReceipts (FDRs) by clearingcorporations.

The norms related tominimum liquid networthand Base Minimum Capital(BMC) requirements applic-able for clearing members incommodity derivatives aredifferent from that applicablefor clearing members in equi-ty derivatives and currencyderivatives.

In a circular, SEBI said ithas been decided to alignnorms related to BMC andliquid networth. Now, ‘mem-bers of clearing corporationsin commodity derivatives seg-ment shall maintain a mini-mum liquid networth of atleast �50 lakh at all points oftime and shall not have anyBMC requirement.

Liquid networth refers to

a clearing member’s liquidassets after adjusting forapplicable margins.

According to the regula-tor, initial margins, ELM,additional margins or anyother margins as may bespecified by SEBI from timeto time can be deducted fromthe liquid assets of a clearingmember to arrive at liquidnetworth of a member.

In July 2016, a circularwas issued on acceptance ofFDRs by clearing corpora-tions. Commodity derivativesexchanges shall also complywith the provisions of that cir-cular within three monthsfrom the date of this circular.

‘Thus, trading/ clearingmembers of commodityderivatives exchanges, whohave deposited their ownFDRs or FDRs of associatebanks, shall replace such col-lateral with other eligible col-lateral as per extant norms,within a period of threemonths,’ the latest circularsaid.

Further, commodityderivatives exchanges havebeen asked to comply withprovisions of a circular, issuedin January this year, pertain-ing to margin provisions forintra-day crystallised losseswithin three months.

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The death toll from an insur-gent mortar assault on a

Damascus market has risen to44, State media said onWednesday, making it one ofthe deadliest attacks in thecapital since the start of Syria’sseven-year civil war.

The Britain-based SyrianObservatory for Human Rightsput the death toll from yester-day’s attack at 43, including 11pro-government fighters.

Videos of the aftermathposted online showed scenes ofchaos, with people screamingand bodies and mannequinsstrewn across the ground.

The Government blamedthe attack on rebels in theeastern Ghouta suburbs, whereSyrian troops backed byRussian warplanes have been

waging a major offensive overthe past month that has killedhundreds of people.

Hospital directorMohammed Haitham al-Husseini told Al-Ikhbariya TVthat 35 others were wounded inthe mortar attack, with six inintensive care. He said most ofthe casualties were women andchildren.

Witnesses told state-runTV that the mortar fell duringrush hour in the popular mar-ket on the eve of Mother’s Day,celebrated in the Middle Eastwith the start of spring.

A child said he was outshopping with his family forMother’s Day when they hearda huge explosion.

“Everyone started running,and people were going into nar-row streets to give first aid toothers,” the child said.

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Amid the ongoing probe intoRussia’s alleged interference

in the 2016 US election, a newcontroversy has erupted withPresident Donald Trump con-gratulating his Russian counter-part Vladimir Putin on his re-election, despite “warnings” fromhis national security advisers notto do so.

“I had a call with PresidentPutin and congratulated him onthe victory -- his electoral victo-ry,” he told reporters on Tuesday,adding: “The call had to do, also,with the fact that we will prob-ably get together in the not-too-

distant future so that we can dis-cuss arms, we can discuss thearms race.”

“We had a very good call,and I suspect that we’ll probablybe meeting in the not-too-distantfuture to discuss the arms race,which is getting out of control,but we will never allow anybodyto have anything even close towhat we have. And also to dis-cuss Ukraine and Syria andNorth Korea and various otherthings,” Trump said.

Later in the day, TheWashington Post, citing offi-cials familiar with the call, report-ed that Trump did not follow“specific warnings from hisnational security advisers”, set out

in briefing materials in all-cap-ital letters, stating: “DO NOTCONGRATULATE”.

While there was no tweetfrom Trump himself on thesubject, CNN cited a source assaying that the president was“infuriated” over the leak to themedia that he had been direct-ly instructed not to congratulatethe Russian leader.

Trump’s congratulatorywords also provoked fellow-Republican John McCain,known for his hawkish stance onMoscow, to put out a sharply crit-ical statement against Trump.

“An American presidentdoes not lead the free world bycongratulating dictators on win-

ning sham elections,” SenatorMcCain said, adding: “And bydoing so with Vladimir Putin,President Trump insulted everyRussian citizen who was deniedthe right to vote in a free and fairelection to determine their coun-try’s future, including the count-less Russian patriots who haverisked so much to protest andresist Putin’s regime.”

Senate Majority LeaderMitch McConnell commentedthat Trump can “call whomeverhe chooses,” but added that call-ing Putin “wouldn’t have beenhigh on my list”. Yet anotherRepublican, Senator Marco, saidhe doesn’t agree with Trumpcongratulating Putin.

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With the annual filing sea-son for H-IB work visas

beginning on April 2, the USCitizenship and ImmigrationServices (USCIS) hasannounced a temporary sus-pension of premium processingall H-1B petitions for the newAmerican fiscal year, begin-ning October 1.

“This suspension is expect-ed to last until September 10,” theUSCIS said, clarifying that dur-ing this time, it would continueto accept premium processingrequests for those visa petitionsthat are not subject to the 2019cap.

The United States issues85,000 H-1B visas annually, with20,000 of them reserved for for-eign students graduating with

Master’s and other higherdegrees from American univer-sities.

While the processing of H-1B petitions in the normal coursecould take several months, thepremium processing facility isdone within a matter of 15 daysor so, but it costs a petitioner anadditional fee of $1,225.

The USCIS, faced with abacklog of long-pending peti-tions, has taken the stand that thetemporary suspension of pre-mium processing for new peti-tions will help it reduce the over-all H-1B processing time and pri-oritise adjudication of H-1Bextension of status cases.

Over the years, Indiantechies have received the bulk ofH-1B visas, with some estimatesputting it at close to 70 per centof the total.

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An Islamic State suicidebomber killed at least 29

people in Kabul who were cel-ebrating the Persian New Yearon Wednesday, according toAfghan Government officials.

Nasrat Rahimi, the deputyspokesman for the Ministry ofInterior, initially said that a sui-cide bomber on foot detonat-ed his explosives in front of theAli Abad Hospital, in the Kart-e Sakhi area of Kabul, killing 26and wounding 18. Later, WahidMajrooh, the spokesman forthe Ministry of Public Health,put the death toll at 29, with 52wounded, TOLONews report-ed.

There were reports thatthe bomber had tried but failedto reach an even bigger crowdcelebrating Nawroz, in front ofa nearby Shia shrine in Kart-eSakhi.

The Islamic State claimedresponsibility for the bombing,according to a report on its

website, Amaq, as monitoredby the SITE Intelligence Group.

The group's local affiliatehas repeatedly targeted Shiitesin the Afghan capital over thepast year, most recently onMarch 9, when 10 people werekilled in a suicide bombing ata Shiite mosque complex.

The Nowroz celebration,however, drew many peoplefrom other ethnic groups, whowere among the victims aswell, according to a reporterwho recounted seeing numer-ous children and womenamong the dead and wounded.

"Most of the wounded wereinitially taken to three hospitalsin Istiqlal, Aliabad and Ibn-e-Sina, located near the explosionsite. After providing basic treat-ment, the wounded have been

transferred to other specialisedones," Health Ministryspokesperson WahidullahMajroh said.

President Ashraf Ghanicondemned the attack andexpressed his condolences tothe families of the victims.

The shrine had beenattacked before. At least 14 peo-ple were killed in October2016 as Shias prepared for areligious day of mourning dur-ing the festival of Ashura. Abombing in 2011 killed at least59 people.

There were a string of sim-ilar attacks in the Afghan cap-ital this year, with the largestattack carried out at the end ofJanuary when the Taliban det-onated an ambulance full ofexplosives in the central districtof Kabul, killing over 100 peo-ple.

Kabul authorities over-hauled the security plan of thecity after the attack, establish-ing a new system to preventlarge-scale terror strikes.

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New York: A suspect in a waveof bombing attacks in Texascapital city of Austin killedhimself inside his car with anexplosive device on Wednesdayas authorities closed in onhim, police said.

Since the bombings start-ed on March 2, investigatorshunted for clues, calling theattacks the work of a “serialbomber” who kept changinghis tactics. The bombings killedtwo people and left Austin ter-

rorized with fear for 19 days,CNN reported.

The police and the FederalBureau of Investigation (FBI)tracked the suspect, a 24-year-old white male to a hotel park-ing lot in Round Rock, Texas,north of Austin, where theyfound him inside his vehicle,said Interim Austin Police chiefBrian Manley.

As police waited for tacti-cal units to arrive before engag-ing the suspect, he left the hotel

in the vehicle. SWATapproached the vehicle andthe suspect detonated a bomb,killing himself and injuring aSWAT member.

Investigators had broad-ened their efforts after a pack-age exploded at a FedEx sort-ing centre near San Antonio onTuesday and a second unex-ploded bomb was discoveredthe same day at another FedExfacility near Austin.

IANS

Yangon: Myanmar President U.Htin Kyaw has resigned, it wasannounced on Wednesday.First Vice President U. MyintSwe will serve as actingPresident until Parliamentelects a new President,

The announcement wasmade by U. Zaw Htay,Director-General of thePresident’s Office, Xinhua newsagency reported.

According to theConstitution, the presidentialvacancy must be filled withinseven days.

Kyaw has cited health issuesto resign. Htay added that Kyaw,who underwent medical treat-ment in Singapore in January,insisted on quitting. IANS

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Lagos: A group of schoolgirlskidnapped in Nigeria by terrorgroup Boko Haram werereleased and returned to theirhometown of Dapchi, theNigerian Governmentannounced on Wednesday.

Boko Haram militantsabducted 110 girls from theGovernment Girls Science andTechnical College in northeastNigeria in late February. It wasnot clear how many of the girlshad returned.

Presidential spokesmanGarba Shehu told CNN that thereleased girls were being takento safety. “I can confirm thatthe Dapchi girls have beenreleased but I do not know howmany they are right now. Thedetails are sketchy for now.”

The secretary of the

school’s parents’ association,Kachalla Bukar, said the girlswere seen entering Dapchi inthe morning. He said he sawaround 50 girls.

“The girls said BokoHaram dropped them about 20km into Dapchi town and toldthem to find their way,” he said.“I saw about 50 of them but Ihaven’t seen Aisha, my daugh-ter ... parents are rejoicinghere, but we can see they havesuffered.”

Parents were heading to thetown’s Secretariat for a headcount and confirmation ofnumbers, Bukar said.

The girls were taken fromtheir school on February 19 bya group of militants who hadattacked the town of Dapchi.

IANS

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Jerusalem:The Israeli military on Wednesday acknowledged itsinvolvement in airstrikes that demolished a suspected nuclearfacility in Syria 11 years ago.

Israel said the air raid in the eastern Deir-al-Zour region in2007 had removed “an emerging existential threat to Israel andthe entire region”. It said the reactor was close to being completed.

Previously, Israel never admitted it was involved in the strikes.On Wednesday, the Israeli censor’s office lifted a long-held pro-hibition on publishing information on the attack, the BBCreported. IANS

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Moscow: The British ambassador will snub ameeting that the Russia foreign ministry calledto explain Moscow’s view on the poisoning ofan ex-double agent in England, the embassy saidon Wednesday. “The ambassador will not beattending the meeting,” Zeenat Khanche,spokeswoman for the British embassy inMoscow, told AFP. Instead, the diplomatic mis-sion considered sending to the meeting an offi-cial at the “working level,” added Khanche.

Baghdad: The AP has found that Iraq has detainedor imprisoned at least 19,000 people accused ofconnections to the Islamic State group or other ter-ror-related offenses, and sentenced more than 3,000of them to death. The mass incarceration and speedof guilty verdicts raise concerns over potential mis-carriages of justice and worries that jailed terror-ists are recruiting within the general prison pop-ulation to build new extremist networks. AP

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Areigning name in the Punjabi film industry whohas donned multiple caps in a short span, Diljit

Dosanjh defines versatility. From a singer to an actortrying his skills at comedy, he has tremendouslycarved a niche for himself in both Punjab cinemaand Bollywood. Be it his signature look in songs likeEl-Seuno, High-end or portraying intense andhumorous characters in films, Dosanjh has the abil-ity to turn everything into gold.

The actor and singer leaves no stone unturnedto seize the audience’s attention even on theBollywood terrain. Diljit was of opinion that his-torical subject should be brought to the screens asnot many individuals are aware of the struggles ofthe freedom fighters. “I have seen many Hollywoodfilms that are based on World Wars but not a sin-gle one of them talks about the sacrifices that ourSikh soldiers have made. This film Rangroot pure-ly projects the hardships and fighting spirit of ourcommunity.”

The fictional character Sajjan Singh Rangrootplayed by Dosanjh is based on a true story aboutthe experiences of Sikh Regiment at Western Frontduring World War I. He will be seen essaying therole of an officer in the British Army who servedon the western front during the WWI againstGermany. “While portraying such character, I did-n’t experience a lot of difficulty as it’s a sober char-acter who came from a village and I am from onetoo. The tough scene, of course was when we shotthe battles.”

Just like the character, the actor is an introvertwho has inhibitions about bringing his family tosocial media platforms. He feels, “I am living a lifewhere anybody can comment about my actions. Ido receive hate mails on my social networking pagesbut I wouldn’t be comfortable if individuals startjudging my family. That’s the only reason I do notupdate any information related to my personal life.”

Though many believe that the film is based onthe biography of Sajjan Singh Rangroot but the pro-tagonist, Dosanjh himself claims the character is fic-tional in nature. “Our film reflects on the enormousnumber of soldiers who had to shift to Punjab.Making this film in the World War scenario was themost challenging part especially given the budgetconstraints. Being well aware of the fact that thereare limited number of theatres in India, it was toughto take this concept forward. But eventually, the film

shaped exactly the way we wanted it to be.”The film mainly focusses on defining the con-

tributions which the Sikh community had made longback. “I consider it to be my first attempt in show-ing the struggles of Indians and especially Sikhs. Iwish more films showcase the history and the con-tributions of various communities.”

Resplendent in an orange traditional attire with

a black signature turban, Dosanjh looks every bitthe actor. But he isn’t bothered by the workload thataccompanies an individual working in two differ-ent mediums — Bollywood and Punjabi cinema. “Ithink in the space one works, talent and hardworkare the key elements that matter in the end. And Ialways try to balance both the industries. He hasshared screen space with eminent Bollywood starslike Kareena Kapoor, Shahid Kapoor, Alia Bhatt inUdta Punjab and Sonakshi Sinha in Welcome to NewYork but he keeps it professional. “I don’t share any-thing more than a cordial relation with Bollywoodstars. I usually don’t party with them but ensurewhatever I do, I do it with focus and dedication.”

Over a period of time, Punjabi cinema has seenan explosive growth worldwide. “Its the platformwhich has carved its own identity worldwide. If Italk about Punjabi artists today, they have made theirindividual identity amongst the masses.”

Appreciating the director Anurag Kashyap,Dosanjh shared, “I was elated when Anurag sharedour film on the social media. He found our film tobe interesting. Such gestures and support from indi-viduals like him and internet-savvy people acrossthe world proves that Punjabi cinema is growing atan unimaginable pace.”

Dosanjh began his career as a singer and thenmoved to acting. When asked, what he finds morechallenging — the life of an actor or a singer, hepromptly said with a smile, “I don’t find anythingas challenging as the life of a human being. Everyday one deals with unpredictable challenges, con-flicts, dilemmas and vulnerabilities. We make mis-takes and learn from it with an urge to be better thanyesterday. This is something I believe drains all myefforts.”

The actor has always selected different genreeach time he makes a foray in the industry. This timetoo the actor has a unique look which includes asignature turban style to traditional Kurta-pajama.“I consider this film significant in providing infor-mation about our history. I also find this unique getup of Sajjan very interesting.” However whenasked what expectation he draws from his interna-tional as well as national audience, he said, “I thinkone cannot pre-assume the success of a film. I dofeel that our film has the required buzz all over theworld but I cannot judge the reactions and expec-tations of the audience from the film.”

Khadi has been a prominent part ofthe collections of veteran design-er Ritu Beri’s for the last two to

three years. Be it conceptualising anddesigning Vichar Vastra, her first khadiline for KVIC to her latest, A Miscellanyin Khadi, her spring/summer 2018 col-lection that presents the organic fabric inan avant-garde avatar. The collection hasindo-western ensembles, a range encom-passing both evening wear with a dose ofglamour and casual wear which are fussfree, easy to wear and yet stylish. At RituBeri Couture, in the serene lanes of SainikFarm the sheer variety is mind blowing.

There was a red short hemlineanarkali with beaded embroidery on theborder and paired with a salwar in thesame hue. An interesting combination offuschia pink and parrot green straightkurti with golden embroidery around theneckline along with a sharara was seen.Though some might find the bright com-bination a bit jarring. The evening wearsection had anarkalis (some with slits)with pajami and sharara and a range ofcolours to opt from — pink, blue, whiteand shades of red. The casual wear wasdemure — Indo-western shirt style kur-tis with side split and embellished withIndian motifs and flower patchwork inwhite, maroon, yellow, orange and black.Some even had a sailor vibe to it withpatches containing Bouy Yatch in a coolblue shade. What weaved these two seg-ments together was the presence ofpockets which we loved! The designerherself was seen sporting the Indo-west-ern shirt style kurti with a side split anda patchwork of her label near the collarwhich she beautifully paired with wide-legged jeans with frayed hems and acce-sorised it with pearl earrings and neck-piece.

�How can Indian designers model aconcept towards tradition?

India needs to model a concepttowards tradition and still be able to caterto what the world demands. Our talent-ed craftsmen, designers and artisansshould stop aping the west and developcorporate houses, establish strong brandidentities by focusing on niche aspects ofIndian culture. A case in point is that ofseveral Japanese designers who haveestablished successful international brandnames while respecting the spirit of theJapanese culture in their design. This hasenabled them to carve out a niche forthemselves in the competitive interna-tional world.

India is a real treasure trove of talent,creativity, ideas, passion design, artisans,and craftsmen. It is all about being whowe are but definitely respecting theinfluences of a global presence

�When and how did you decide to cre-ate an exclusive khadi collection?

Every designer needs a playgroundto project one’s state of creativity andrealise a hyperbolic dream. I indulge inKhadi, which is a luxurious fabric hand-woven with hand-spun yarns. A trulyorganic fabric, I launched my brand 25years ago with Khadi and have been rig-orously using it since last 2-3 years. AsKhadi is made with pure cotton or silkyarns, it soothes the skin as it is skinfriendly, making it the choice for me.

Khadi production doesn’t leavebehind any harmful waste — it is thus themost eco-friendly fabric ever. Khadi is

‘green’, ‘sustainable’, ‘eco-friendly’, ‘zerowaste’, ‘bio-degradable’, ‘zero carbonfootprint’. Embrace Khadi today, has beenmy motto as a contribution to our plan-et!

�What are the common myths aboutkhadi that need to be debunked?

khadi is only for the summers: Khadiis called an air-conditioned fabric as it iscool in summers and warm in winters.

khadi is old fashioned and only forpoliticians: Khadi creates a perfect har-mony between tradition and modernity.A versatile fabric, it can be used for bothwestern and Indian ensembles.

khadi is high-maintenance: Khadi caneasily be hand washed and is durable. Justuse a mild detergent to wash and air dry.

khadi is only cotton: Khadi alsocomes in silk and wool blends and thedifference between them is apparent inthe texture.

khadi is coarse and crushes easily:Khadi can be very fine, super soft andcomfortable. It is considered a luxuriousfabric, globally. It crushes not more thanany other cotton fabric and looks remark-ably fresh almost all day.

khadi was made by mahatma gand-hi: Khadi and its existence dates back to12th century. Gandhi ji advocated the useof the fabric to bring a sense of self-reliance and freedom in the country.

khadi is very expensive: Khadi comesin different varieties and many priceranges. It can be very affordable or expen-sive — depending on the quality. Thereis something for every pocket.

khadi is only for day wear: Khadi cancreate a statement even at night, if taste-fully designed and accessorised.

�Among all the aspiring young design-ers, who according to you, has thepotential to make it big?

This elegant fabric, Khadi, has foundits place in the kitty of designers likeRahul Mishra, Neeru Kumar, WendellRodricks and many others who have beenexperimenting with the fabric in manyways. They have been showcasing beau-

tiful and versatile collections in Khadiover years, thus making it moreapproachable.

�Why should more people be encour-aged to adopt handloom and moredesigners should be encouraged toexperiment with it?

To opt for Khadi, therefore, is toemphasise one’s commitment to thespirit of India over appearance, form,character and even over clothing.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi hasmade a fervent appeal to every Indian tobuy khadi and promote the khadi culture,globally. He propagates the concept ofkhadi as a philosophy, he quotedMahatma Gandhi who said, “Khadikewal vastra nahi, ek vichar hai.” (Khadiis not a mere fabric but a serious thought,a concept.)

Khadi, for me, is an effective andpowerful symbol of the futility of ‘west-ern imitation’ and there is a need for arevival of local textiles. This gets me backto the idea of ‘khadi’ as more than just amere cloth. The plus points of Khadi havenever been projected well. We are trying

to spread awareness of its benefitsthrough recently conceived campaigns.

�What are you passionate about apartfrom fashion?

I am inspired by life in general! Ibelieve that every new day comes withnew ideas, aspirations, and dreams.I ama dreamer I enjoy the impossible situa-tion, I put all my effort to bring challengesto reality. My work is greatly influencedby my personal state of mind. I love toexplore new possibilities and work in aninspired mode while mostly designing tosatisfy myself.

My passion and my dreams drove meto become an entrepreneur. I see myselfonly as a creative person. As a creativeperson in business, I follow my ownunique creative ways of nurturing myambition.

�Between 1990 and today, what are thebig changes you’ve witnessed in thefashion scene in india, and what are thechanges you are glad have happened?

The Indian fashion industry hasundergone a tremendous metamorpho-

sis since I joined in 1990. When I start-ed, fashion was only a diversion for thesmall elite. It was not considered seriousbusiness. “Ritual dressing”, was the orderof the day, one dressed up for a weddingor a festival.

The Indian fashion scene is seeinginteresting times. The economy is open-ing up and we are making a mark in theinternational scenario.

The purchasing power of the Indianconsumers has indeed escalated, boost-ed by a healthy economic growth. Forthem, wants have now become necessi-ties. The marketing pitch is furtherenhanced by imagery, events, packagingwhich helps in identification of a realbrand.

Today people are more consciousabout what they wear. They want to looktheir best at all times, which is fantasticfor us designers.

Our designers are constantly show-casing in various fashion capitals of theworld. Indian fashion is spotted on thefashionable ramps of the world and is ahuge source of inspiration globally.

The Indian fashion industry is nowconsidered a serious industry eventhough it is only over 25 years old; wehave achieved a lot in this short time.Thefuture and the growth of the fashionindustry depends on its outreach and pro-fessionalism of the industry and both ofwhich are happening.

�What is that one style rule that youvouch for?

Retaining the traditional element ofour culture, my collections generally hasa modern twist reflecting a global versionof the Indian exoticism. My style is intrin-sically feminine — romantic with flam-boyance. For me, it’s about enhancing awoman’s individuality and persona.

The silhouettes I design are usuallya mix of our rich traditional costumeswith an exclusive and contemporarylook. I enjoy designing clothes that aregrand. I design for the fabulous and glam-orous woman, the Rock n Roll Woman!My mantra, from the very beginning, isessentially an eclectic blend of East andWest.

�You have travelled around the world,is there any particular country thatscores high on the fashion quotient foryou?

Mine is a story of a young Indianfashion designer who dreamt and aspiredto conquer the huge global fashionworld in Paris. My obsession with Parisand the desire to go beyond the usual iswhat ventured me on this crazy journey.The city represents the French Capital’sillustrious past. It also stands for thegrandest there is in the world of luxury.

For me, it all began with FrancoisLesage. Even before I knew him, if a geniepopped out and offered me one wish, itwould be to hear stories of fashion fromthe past, in Lesage’s words.

�One basic fashion trend you swear by?Embroideries are a passion for me. I

believe that they enlighten clothesimmensely. My style is intrinsically fem-inine, romantic with a flamboyant twist.Being an Indian designer, embroiderieshave always been an integral part of mycollections and they have influenced mycollections every season.

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Actress Rani Mukerji, who turned 40 on March 21, says her 22-year journey as a woman in showbiz has been about battling

discriminatory stereotypes constantly.Rani, who is coming back to the big screen with Hichki after

four years, wrote a heartfelt letter for her birthday. Besides herown journey, she highlighted the hiccups that other women actors

face in the industry.“As a woman, I must admit, it has not been an easy jour-

ney. I had to prove myself everyday. Actresses have to provethemselves everyday,” said Rani.

She steered the content to gender disparity in theindustry and wrote about the preconceived notions thatexist.

“A woman has a short career span, a marriedwoman’s equity dies, women are not bankable commodi-ties at the box office, ‘female-centric’ films are hugerisks.

“A married actress who is also a mother is the finalnail in the coffin of her dreams, ambitions and aspira-

tions - these are some of the discriminatory stereotypesthat we have to live with and try to overcome every sin-

gle day.“For a woman, the disparity with a man is huge and glar-

ing in this industry.”Rani also commented how women are always under

the scanner.“We are judged for our looks, dancing skills, height,

voice, acting, how we carry ourselves every time we stepout of the house — we have to be the best and yet weare thought to be extremely dispensable.”

“I have been asking my friends to talk about theirweaknesses and how they overcame them. On my birth-day, I cannot skirt these massive ‘hichkis’ that my fel-low actresses and I have faced/face and will face everyday,” she said.

Her own way to take on “this sexist stereotype” isby coming back to acting after my marriage and moth-

erhood.“I promise you, I will continue working and battling these stereo-

types with all my fellow stunning, beautiful, kind and talented actress-es and hope to see our society and the film industry mature fur-ther,” she said.Rani acknowledged that change is setting in. “I canalready see the changes for the better and it fills me with joy. It makes

my journey, my career meaningful. I want to see many more victo-ries for all of us. It’s about time. I will be back soon — to try and enter-

tain you, to push the envelope again.”��

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The ministries of Agricultureand Farmers’ Welfare andSkil l Development and

Entrepreneurship signed an MoU toconduct skill development trainingprogrammes for agriculture andallied sector, on a regular basis atKrishi Vigyan Kendra (KVKs) onMarch 20. Meanwhile, the skilldevelopment training programmescurrently being run across KVKswill continue.

Minister of Agriculture andFarmers’ Welfare Radha MohanSingh expressed happiness over thesigning of MoU, which he said, willhelp increase cooperation. Also,present on the occasion wereMinisters of State for Agricultureand Farmers’ Welfare ParshottamRupala, Gajendra Singh Shekhawatand Krishna Raj along withMinister of Petroleum and NaturalGas and Skill Development andEntrepreneurship DharmendraPradhan and Minister of State forSkil l Development andEntrepreneurship AnantkumarHegde.

Radha Mohan Singh said hisministry is making fast progress infulfilling Prime Minister’s dream ofKaushal Bharat-Kushal Bharat. “Thegovernment believes that agriculturemust be developed as a privateenterprise so that it attracts moreyouths.” For this, they are workingat four levels — increasing the pro-ductivity, post harvest managementwith fair prices to the farmers fortheir produce, lowering the risk inagriculture and strengthening otheraspects of farmers’ income in hor-ticulture, animal husbandry, bee-keeping, dairying, fisheries et al.

In view of the latest develop-ments in agriculture, several newdimensions in agri-warehousing,

cold chain, supply chain, dairy,poultry, meat, fishery, horticulture,agricultural mechanisation, micro-irrigation, hydroponic and green-houses have emerged for skilled andtrained youths to gain self-employ-ment.

In 2016-17, 203 skill develop-ment programmes comprising 200hours were organised by 100 KVKsand 8 national training institutes,

training 3549 youths was also intro-duced. For this, �3.53 crore wasspent from Rashtriya Krishi VikasYojana (RKVY). In 2017-18, 94training institutes have organised116 skill development training pro-grammes and imparted training to2320 youths.

A provision of �2 crore has beenmade for conducting skill trainingprogrammes in 2017-18 which is

proposed to be increased to �17crore in 2018-19.

The Minister said that due to thelow presence of agro-based indus-tries in rural areas, it is importantto increase the ratio of self-employ-ment to employment by 100 percent. He said, “There is a need tostudy the Skill Gap Analysis inagriculture sector by the AgricultureSkill Council of India (ASCI).”

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Union Minister for Minority Affairs MukhtarAbbas Naqvi offered Chadar on behalf of

Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Sufi SaintHazrat Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti’s shrine atAjmer Sharif on March 19.

In his message, Narendra Modi conveyedgreetings and best wishes to followers of KhwajaMoinuddin Chishti in India and abroad on theoccasion of 806th annual Urs festival. He said,“Peace, unity and harmony is at the core of var-ious philosophies in the country, Sufism is oneof them. When we talk of Sufi Saints in India,Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti appears as a symbolof great spiritual traditions. The service ofhumanity made by Gharib Nawaz will continueto be an inspiration for future generations.”

Prime Minister Modi noted, “On the occa-sion of the annual Urs festival of this great saint,I am offering Chadar and Khiraaj-e-Aqueedat(homage) to Dargah Ajmer Sharif and wish fora harmonious co-existence of our culture.Greetings and best wishes to the followers ofKhawaja Moinuddin Chishti across the world onthe annual Urs.” People from all sections of thesociety welcomed wholeheartedly the Chadar sentby him.

“Terrorism is the biggest enemy of both Islamand the entire humanity. This message is at the

core of principles and teachings of great Sufi SaintKhwaja Moinuddin Chishti. Principles and com-mitment of Khwaja Gharib Nawaz is a strongweapon to defeat those evil elements who are try-ing to weaken human values and disturb peaceand prosperity of the world,” said Naqvi.

He also said that India is an example of socialand communal harmony for the entire world. “Wewill have to strengthen this fabric of social har-mony and unity. The life of Gharib Nawaz inspiresus to strengthen the commitment to communaland social harmony. This unity can defeat theforces, who are engaged in the conspiracy to cre-ate divide and conflict in the society”, he added.

Naqvi believes, “Development of the coun-try and environment of trust” is the only agen-da of the government under the strong leader-ship of Narendra Modi. Our mantra is Sabka Sath,Sabka Vikas. He said that ‘effective commitmentto world peace’ is the message of KhwajaMoinuddin Chishti.

Naqvi also inaugurated 100 toilets complex-es, constructed by Ministry of Minority Affairsnear the Dargah. Zaireen, coming in large num-ber at Dargah, will be benefitted from the facil-ity. He also took stock of various ongoing devel-opment works related to Ajmer Dargah with the officials.

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India’s dependence on importedcoking coal has been the concern

for steel and power sectors. Thecountry’s coking coal importincreased to 43.53 MT from 38.83MT during the period April’ 17 toFebruary’ 18 recording a surge of12.10 per cent with CPLY.

According to m-junction, a lead-ing name in the e-auction space—low ash content coal required forblast and basic oxygen furnace ofsteel plants is thinly available in thecountry.

Moreover, the fluctuating priceof imported coking coal rips theprofit margin of steel industry.Addressing the issue, a one-dayworkshop titled, Coking Coal forIndian Steel Industry: Issues andChallenges was jointly organised bySteel Authority of India Limited andIndian Institute of Metals in Kolkata.

It touched upon the contempo-rary issues and challenges pertain-ing to coking coal in steel industryfor drawing attention of the policymakers of the country.

In the workshop, over 100 par-ticipants of the industry put theirideas for augmenting supplies ofCoking and Metallurgical Coal to

the steel sector by improved coalwashing. It focusses on challenges inmaking quality Coke to suit largecapacity blast furnaces, and also onthe process of development and

blending in Coal and Coke Makingto enhance indigenous coking coalsupply through beneficiation.

N C Jha, ex-chairman (CIL), andadvisor (Coal), SAIL has inaugurat-

ed the workshop and delivered keynote address. Anjani Kumar, coalcontroller, and SK Basak, executivedirector (SAIL-Collieries Division)spoke on the occasion as well.

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Bringing power into the plant and making it ready for dis-tribution to different units of the steel plant as per therequired need is a big step towards commissioning of the

steel plant later this year. It is commendable that the NagarnarSteel Plant team is working in close coordination and synergywith consultants, vendors and contractors is fast movingtowards its goal”, declared Dr N K Nanda, Technical Director,NMDC .

As a precursor to commissioning of the Coke Oven Batteryat its upcoming steel plant at Nagarnar, Dr Nanda switched onpower to the coal handling system and the High Tension (HT)power supply to stacker reclaimer to start commissioning of thecoal route of RMHS package in the presence of Prasant Dash,executive director and project in-charge, Nagarnar Iron and SteelPlant (NISP); senior officials of NISP and MECON; the consul-tancy partner; workers’ representatives and officials fromBHEL’s Industrial Systems Group, Bangalore which is the com-missioning partner for the project.

Baijendra Kumar, CMD, NMDC during his visit to the steelplant last November had exhorted the collective to complete theproject for commissioning by September 2018. Against that back-drop, the charging of the coal handling system gains significancebecause the 3 MTPA capacity Nagarnar Steel Plant is expectedto handle close to 2.5 million tonnes of coking coal annually tofeed its two Coke Ovens. Coking coal is converted to coke forcharging into blast furnace to reduce iron ore to molten steel.NMDC has already placed order for procurement of the first con-signment of coking coal.

NMDC had started the 220KV GIS (Gas Insulated Switch)main receiving sub-station early this month, followed by powersupply to the Sinter Plant. Subsequently, as per schedule, powerwill be stepped down to 33KV and conducted to the 11 sub-sta-tions that will distribute power to different units of the steel plantby the Plant Power Distribution System (PPDS) through over-head cable gallery system.

BHEL’s industrial systems group, Bangalore has engi-neered, supplied, erected and is commissioning the 11 sub-sta-tions for NISP’s PPDS package at a cost of �359 crore.

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South African captain Faf du Plessis onWednesday hit back at his Australiancounterpart Steve Smith's criticism of

the decision to overturn a ban on SouthAfrican fast bowler Kagiso Rabada.

Rabada's punishment of three demer-it points for deliberate physical contactwith Smith in the second Test in PortElizabeth was reduced to one point, over-turning a two-match ban that would haveseen him ruled out of the series.

Smith claimed in an overnight inter-view with Australian journalists that thecontact with Rabada in the second Test inPort Elizabeth had been "a little bit hard-er than it actually looked on the footage".

The Australian captain said he wassurprised he had not been asked his opin-ion before the ruling was made and alsoclaimed that a "line in the sand" had beendrawn regarding physical contact.

"The ICC have set the standard,haven't they? There was clearly contact outin the middle," said Smith.

"I certainly won't be telling mybowlers to go out there and after you takea wicket go and get in their space. I don'tthink that is on and part of the game. Butthe standard has been set."

Du Plessis, though, praised the appealprocess, saying it was good for cricket.

"I don't see a problem with having afair system where a neutral guy sits andlistens to both parties," he said.

"I was there and I said to our peoplethat even if we didn't win the case I wasvery impressed with the judge and how helistened to both sides. He was very fair

with the questions he asked. I think thatprocess is really good."

Du Plessis dismissed Smith's com-ment about not being called to testify,ahead of the third Test in Cape Town with

the series locked at 1-1."He wasn't charged. If he was charged

he probably would (have been) asked. KG(Rabada) was charged, he was defendinghimself and the judge has to decide if he

sees that it was intentional."

F�� GAsked whether he thought Rabada

had made deliberate contact, Smith said:

"It's not my place to make that judgment.It's been handed down now and it is whatit is.

"I said yesterday the contact washarder than it actually looked on the TV,whether it was intentional or not is not forme to decide."

Smith denied there was a deliberateattempt to goad Rabada as had been sug-gested in reports of a pre-tour interviewhe had given in Australia.

"For us it is about playing the game theway we've always played it," he said.

"We'll speak out in the middle, wewon't do anything I guess to antagonisehim into making the sorts of mistakes he'sbeen (making). That's up to him if hewants to make those errors."

Smith said Australia would field anunchanged team for the eighth Test in arow and said both Mitchell Starc andMitchell Marsh had overcome injury con-cerns with a "good hit-out" at practice onTuesday.

Du Plessis said two positions werebeing debated in the South African camp

with a fit-again Temba Bavuma chal-lenging for a batting place ahead ofTheunis de Bruyn and fast bowler MorneMorkel possibly replacing Lungi Ngidi,who had a "toe niggle".

Both captains said they had discussedwith new match referee Andy Pycroftabout the spirit in which the gameshould be played.

F��G�� GAhead of the third cricket Test

against Australia starting at Newlandshere on Thursday, South Africa headcoach Ottis Gibson conceded that thereturn of pace spearhead Kagiso Rabadais a big 'lift' for the hosts.

Rabada was on Monday cleared toplay the remaining two Tests after he wasfound not guilty of the level two chargeof making 'inappropriate and deliberatephysical contact with a player' followingan appeal hearing here.

Gibson said that the No 1-rankedRabada is geared up for the match, anddoes not need any more motivation toperform following a busy week of legalhearings off the field.

"We are very happy that he (Rabada)is allowed to play. We believe that it is theright decision at the end of the day,"Gibson was quoted as saying.

"He has been made aware of his on-field celebrations — I don't want to saybehaviour because he is not a badly-behaved kid, he is just excitable and exu-berant at times.

“When you are playing the bestteam in the world sometimes that willcome out of you.”

�� )+�!)+�+

Going into his first World Cup asBrazil coach, Tite is looking for

some rhythm. It's the one thing, sur-prisingly, he thinks his team is short of.So Tite will use the upcoming friend-lies against World Cup host Russia anddefending champion Germany to finda proper No 10, someone who can playat the heart of the midfield and keep hisorchestra in sync.

"To use a samba concept, I need arhythm-maker," Tite said recently."Even if that player is not in his topform he will be brought in because theteam needs that." Beijing Guoan'sRenato Augusto has been Tite's first-choice No 10 so far but hasn't inspiredmuch confidence that he can lead ateam that is among the favorites to winthe tournament for a sixth time.

�� Once a weakness, the goalkeeping

position is now one of Brazil's mainstrengths. And there is little doubt thatRoma's Alisson will keep his role as theNo 1 for the tournament, after a stel-lar season that has seen him linked witha host of top clubs such as Real Madrid.

But Tite also has Manchester City'sEderson at his disposal, and there's notmuch to separate the two at themoment.

But one doubt remains: who will bethe third goalkeeper in the squad?Corinthians' Cassio had been consid-ered the most likely choice until thesquad list for these two friendlies wasannounced, with Tite giving Valencia'sNeto a first call-up instead.

Neto is currently the goalkeeperwith most saves in the Spanishleague.And there's one common prob-lem with all of those goalkeepers.

Neither of them has any World Cupexperience.

� �� Tite has relied heavily on Augusto,

viewing the midfielder has his voice andeyes on the pitch. But the player has hadsuch an easy time in the Chineseleague that he has a separate fitness pro-gram to stay ready for Brazil games.And his recent sub-par performanceshave forced Tite to think of alternatives.

The most obvious change would beto push Coutinho back to Augusto'sposition, which would also open spacefor Willian in the starting lineup.Besiktas' Anderson Talisca andJuventus' Douglas Costa could also beoptions to Willian. There is also a moredefensive alternative with Fernandinhoreplacing Augusto, which could be use-ful once Brazil has the lead.

If neither of those options proveeffective enough, Tite might decide to

bring in some players he has overlookedrecently, such as Giuliano (Fenerbahce),Lucas Lima (Palmeiras), Diego(Flamengo) or Rodriguinho(Corinthians).

�� Gabriel Jesus' recent injury with

Manchester City and Roberto Firmino'stop form for Liverpool have thrown thestriker position wide open for Brazil.Whichever of the two performs betterduring these two friendlies could havethe upper hand going into the WorldCup.

Jesus only recently returned froma near two-month injury layoff but hada good first half to the season and iswidely seen as Brazil's future No 9. ButFirmino's current form has some won-dering whether the Liverpool playercould still represent the present.

The 26-year-old Firmino is havinghis best season with Liverpool and has

�� ) )()

FIFA has urged Russia to speedup World Cup preparations at

a stadium which needs "a hugeamount of work" to be ready ontime.

With less than three monthsto go until the World Cup, the45,000-seat Samara Arena is theonly one of 12 stadiums whichdoesn't yet have a pitch installed.

The stadium in the VolgaRiver city of Samara was alreadybadly delayed due to a complexroof design, but now cold weath-er in the Russian spring is caus-ing further problems. The pitchcan't be installed until the weath-er warms up.

"Obviously we would expectfurther progress than this," FIFA'schief competitions official ColinSmith said on a visit to the arenaWednesday. "We don't yet have apitch, and obviously we need towait for some warmer weatherconditions in order to get this

pitch installed."As of Tuesday, instead of a

field, there was an area coveredwith tarpaulins and snow.Temperatures are forecast to stayslightly below freezing for the restof the week.

"There's a huge amount ofwork still to be done," Smithadded. "From the informationwe've received there's nothingstopping all these areas beingcompleted on time. It justrequires commitment and moremanpower to get it done ontime, and when we talk about ontime, we're talking about thecommissioning date of the end ofApril."

If that date passes, it couldrestrict FIFA's ability to test thestadium with Russian leaguegames and install World Cupequipment. Outside the arena,deep snowdrifts cover much of anarea that is due to be landscapedfor the tournament and will hostsome facilities for fans.

�� )'("'

Spain enters the final stage ofits World Cup preparations

with coach Julen Lopeteguiexperimenting up front.

Lopetegui has called up sev-eral different forwards sincetaking over the national squadand has plenty of options tochoose from before announcingthe final list for Russia in a fewmonths.

It won't be an easy decisionbecause Spain has thrived inattack with a deep stock ofstrikers. The team has outscoredopponents 52-10 in the 16matches played under Lopetegui.

Here's a closer look at thekey issues three months beforethe World Cup:

��Lopetegui has called up

more than 10 strikers since hisarrival, with the most-recentlist including Diego Costa, IagoAspas, Rodrigo and LucasVazquez.

Alvaro Morata, Jose Callejonand Victor "Vitolo" Machin hadbeen regulars in previous listsbut were left out of the impor-tant pre-World Cup friendlies.

Costa hadn't been called upin more than nine monthsbecause he couldn't play withAtletico Madrid until the team'stransfer ban from FIFA ended inJanuary, while Vazquez hadn'tmade Lopetegui's list since lastyear. Aspas has been a regularname in Lopetegui's teams eventhough he hasn't played much asa starter.

Morata was left out of thecurrent list because of physicalproblems but Lopetegui saidthe Chelsea player still has agood chance of making it toRussia.

�� A few attacking midfielders

seem to have their spots securedafter several call-ups underLopetegui, including Isco, MarcoAsensio, Saul Niguez and DavidSilva.

Silva is among the playerswith the most minutes in

Lopetegui's team, along withSergio Busquets and goalkeep-er David De Gea. Silva also hasthe most goals scored underLopetegui with 11, followed byMorata with seven.

� � �� Busquets, Thiago Alcantara,

Jorge "Koke" Resurreccion andAndres Iniesta are practicallyassured of a spot at the WorldCup, which will likely be the lastfor Iniesta.

The 33-year-old Barcelonaplayer has been struggling withhis physical condition in recentmonths and hasn't played regu-larly with the Catalan club.

Busquets will miss thefriendlies against Germany andArgentina because of a fracturedfinger in his foot but is expect-ed to recover in time for thetournament in Russia.

� � �� It will also probably be the

last World Cup for Gerard Pique,who has said he plans to retirefrom the national team afterplaying in Russia.

Sergio Ramos will most like-ly be his teammate in centraldefence, with Jordi Alba andDani Carvajal playing alongsidethem on the flanks.

�� Calls for the return of Iker

Casillas are long gone as De Geacontinues to play in top formand is more than secured as theteam's starter in Russia.

Kepa Arrizabalaga and PepeReina have been included inLopetegui's most-recent listsand are expected to be thereserve goalkeepers.

�� %& �'&��"

What started as a hobby turned out to bea life changer for Prithu Gupta, who

recently bagged his maiden Grand Masternorm in the Gibraltar Masters tournament atthe tender age of 13 years.

The World No 5 in under-14 age catego-ry, Prithu attained his first IM norm in June2017 at Silver Lake Open in Serbia whereashis second moment of glory came a monthlater in at the Golden Prague Chess Festival,where he scored 7/9 and finished as a cham-pion, crossing the 2300 rating barrier andprocuring the coveted Fide-masters title.

In the Gibraltar masters too he started welland was undefeated till the seventh round withan excellent display of consistency and phe-nomenal play.

He eventually lost in the eighth roundonly to come back stronger in the last roundand beat IM Christiansean Johan Sebastian ofNorway to complete the GM norm require-ments which he also considers as the mostmemorable match of his career.

"My most memorable game was againstChristiansean at the Gibraltar masters. SinceI completed my International Masters title winwith that game and also because it helped meto achieve my maiden GM norm. So it'llalways be special to me," he said.

Prithu, who was first introduced to thegame in 2013 when he was nine, has achievedhis International Masters norm with tworounds to spare, which is rare and notewor-thy.

His performance at the Gibraltar Opentook him above 2400 Elo rating levels, whichwas necessary for the International Masters

title.The third youngest Indian to achieve the

IM title after Pragg and Nihal now needs twomore GM norms to become nextGrandmaster of India.

Pragg and Nihal have also achieved thesame feat. And there are often comparisonsbetween the three.

However, Prithu takes all of it in a posi-tive way and tries to draw inspiration fromhis fellow players.

"There's nothing like a competitionbetween us. I take it in a positive way and tryto draw inspiration from both of them," headded.

Prithu was introduced to the game with

the intention to improve concentration andmind development, but was initially notvery hopeful about it. He took it as a hobbyuntil he had entered into tournaments whichcompelled him to take it more seriously.

"Initially I was not very hopeful and tookit as a hobby. But by the beginning of 2016 Istarted taking it seriously because by that timeI was ranked top 20 in India but seeing otherplayers I also wanted to play outside India. Itwas in July 2016 at the Czech tournament thatI did well and that was the time I got moti-vated to put more hard work and improve myresults further."

Prithu is still not sure about taking thesport as a career option for him.

"I think 14 is too early to think about sucha thing. As for now I would like to balancestudies and chess at the same time. I need tothink for a few more years before making acall upon it," he explained.

As for his future plans, Prithu hasn't setany goals because he feels that it will put himunder additional pressure.

"I had too many goals but I would prefernot focusing too much on them and ratherjust work hard and keep on improving by theday because if one thinks too much about theresults and about not being able to achievethose at the right time then it's a terrible feel-ing. I have gone through that before and Idon't want it to happen again. I will just tryto work hard and play as good as possible,"he said.

Prithu believes that it's the right guidance,advice, support and hard work that haveproved to be fruitful for him and has helpedhim to have a constant improvement in hisrankings over the years.

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#��;�� (�� become one of the main leadersof the team after the recentdeparture of Coutinho toBarcelona. Tite seems inclined tokeep Jesus for now, but could tryplaying both strikers at the sametime because of Neymar'sabsence.

��1�� Tite also needs a Plan B with

a more traditional target manwho can be brought off thebench if the team is struggling forgoals. That's why he has broughtin Real Sociedad's William Josefor the first time, hoping that the6-foot-2 striker can replicate theform that has seen him score 18goals this season.

William Jose has a blend ofJesus' ability to hold the ball andFirmino's fluency in playing out-side the box. However, mostBrazilian fans preferred Gremio'sLuan, who was chosen the bestplayer in South America last sea-son.

�� Dani Alves and Marcelo will

start as Brazil's full-backs aslong as they remain fit, but itremains unclear who their back-ups will be.

Corinthians' Fagner will onceagain be tested as a replacementfor Alves on the right, whileJuventus' Alex Sandro will play onthe left in the two friendlies.

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Sympathy, however well-meaning, can attimes add to misery, something that Vijay

Shankar is dealing with as he tries to moveon from a "disheartening" off day that near-ly cost India the Nidahas Trophy final againstBangladesh.

While Dinesh Karthik became the toastof the nation with a last ball six in India's tri-umph over the South Asian rivals, the 27-year-old Shankar was lambasted for his 19-ball-17 that included four successive dot ballsin the 18th over.

"My parents and close friends didn't sayanything as they knew what I was goingthrough. But I get these text messages like'don't worry about what's being said on socialmedia', when I actually want to move on.They perhaps think that's the way to showsympathy but it may not work," the all-rounder said in an interview.

For him, the final was an off-day thatmarred a good tournament in which heturned in decent figures with the ball.

"It was an off-day for me but I am find-ing it difficult to forget. I know I need tomove on. I had a good tournament until thatfinal day," the soft-spoken Shankar said.

The Chennai player was practical whenasked about being pilloried on social media.

"I need to accept that these are thingsthat can happen when you play for India. Thesame social media would have gone berserkhad I won the match all by myself.

"It happened the opposite and I have toaccept all the brickbats. That's also a part ofgrowing up," Shankar replied calmly.

There are times when getting out for aduck in a close encounter allows someoneto go under the radar but Shankar doesn'twant any safe passage while trying to charthis own destiny.

"Had I got out for a second or a thirdball duck, no one would have bothered aboutmy performance. But then would I have likedthat to happen? Certainly not. I would ratheraccept this situation. You just can't think ofsafe options always. You have to accept chal-lenges head on," Shankar said.

But he does accept that it was a missedopportunity to become a hero in a tricky

chase."When everyone was rejoicing after the

final, I was feeling very disheartened at howthings panned out. It was an opportunitygiven to me to become a hero. I should havefinished the match," he said.

"Everyone in the team, including mycaptain (Rohit Sharma) and coach (RaviShastri), told me that it can even happen withthe best and I shouldn't feel bad," he said.

Asked about the mistake that he made,Shankar pointed to his attempts to go for bighits rather than rotating the strike.

"If you take a look at my batting in theSyed Mushtaq Ali or Vijay Hazare Trophy,I don't play so many dot balls. I rotate thestrike but Mustafizur (Rahman) reallybowled well during that over," he said.

While everyone spoke about the dotballs, hardly anyone noticed his boundarybisecting the point and short third man,which made it easy for Karthik to launch afinal assault.

"DK just told me one thing, hold yourshape and hit a boundary. That ball fromSoumya, I was trying to just put bat on ball,"he said.

In the Indian team, opportunities are fewbut Shankar is not worried about the fact thatprimarily he is being seen as Hardik Pandya'scover.

"The selection thing is not my concern.The positive part is that IPL is starting in twoweeks' time and my focus is now to do wellfor Delhi Daredevils," said Shankar.

�� 5 =)"

Whitewashed by Australia in thethree-match ODI rubber, theIndian women cricketers

would be hoping for a reversal of for-tunes when they clash with the samerivals in the lung-opener of the T20 tri-series starting here on Thursday.

England is the third team to figurein the tournament in which all match-es will be played at the Cricket Club ofIndia's Brabourne Stadium.

The Indian women's team wouldtake confidence from their 3-1 winagainst South Africa in the five-matchT20 series held in the Rainbow Nation.

But having surrendered the ODIseries rather tamely to Australia, it willbe an uphill ask for the HarmanpreetKaur-led side to face the same oppo-nents, although the format is different.

With back-to-back half centuries,Smriti Mandhana was the top run get-ter for Indian women during the ODIseries against Australia and she wouldlook to continue her good run.

Among others, the batting woulddepend largely on the experiencedduo of Kaur and Mithali Raj and thetwo players would need to fire bigagainst a strong Australian pace attack.

India women also possess othergood batswomen like VedaKrishnamurthy and all-rounder PoojaVastrakar, who scored a crucial 51 inthe first ODI. Young Mumbai girlJemimah Rodrigues too showed herskills when she scored a racy 42 afterbeing asked to open the innings in thirdODI.

With experienced Jhulun Goswamiback in the mix, the seam attack looksmore or less settled as Shikha Pandeywould look to share the burden aftertaking five wickets during the ODIseries.

The spin department has off-spin-ner Deepti Sharma and leggie PoonamYadav. The two had played a pivotal rolein the team's win in South Africa andif the Aussies are to be restricted, theywill have to be at their best.

On the other hand, the Aussies willbe aiming to continue their form andkeep the winning momentum going.

Their skipper Meg Lanning, whofailed to convert her starts in the ODI

series, would be hungry to get someruns under her belt.

Wicket-keeper Alyssa Healy, whoscored a magnificent 133 in the finalODI at Vadodara, is among runs andposes a big threat to the Indian bowlers.

Left-arm spinner Jess Jonassen toohave proved to be a difficult customerfor the Indians as she picked eight wick-ets during the ODI series. Other spin-ners Amanda-Jade Wellington andAshleigh Gardner too have done welland the hosts will have to carefulagainst them.

� ��INDIA: Harmanpreet Kaur (Captain),Smriti Mandhana (vice-captain), MithaliRaj, Veda Krishnamurthy, JemimahRodrigues, Anuja Patil, Deepti Sharma,Taniya Bhatia (wicket-keeper), PoonamYadav, Ekta Bisht, Jhulan Goswami,Shikha Pandey, Pooja Vastrakar, RumeliDhar, Mona Meshram.

AUSTRALIA: Meg Lanning (c), RachaelHaynes (vc), Nicola Carey, AshleighGardner, Alyssa Healy, Jess Jonassen,Delissa Kimmince, Sophie Molineux,Beth Mooney, Ellyse Perry, MeganSchutt, Naomi Stalenberg, Elyse Villani,Amanda-Jade Wellington.

F � �� GHosts India may not have the

experience but they won't be lacking inintensity during the Twenty20 tri-series against England and Australiastarting here on Thursday, saidwomen's T20 skipper HarmanpreetKaur.

England and Australia have play-ers, who compete in the Women's BigBash League and Harmanpreetdescribes the two sides as good.

"No doubt they (England andAustralia players) have lot of experi-ence, because they have played T20 for-mat. We know we are not as powerful

in our strength as compared to the for-eign players. We are working on itdaily," Harmanpreet said.

"Right now, for us as a team it is alearning process and preparing for theWorld Cup and day by day we are tak-ing the challenges. We know both theteams (Australia and England) aregood in T20 and we will like to givethem a fight," she added.

India were whitewashed byAustralia in the three-match ODIseries at Vadodara and Harmanpreetsaid it was fielding that let them down.

"In the T20 format, there are lot ofareas where we need to improve and abig thing where we are lacking is ourfielding, because if you see the ODIseries, (because of) fielding we havegiven a lot of runs," Harmanpreet toldreporters here.

"In the T20 format, it is a short for-mat, we will give our 100 per cent andgirls are looking confident and we willdo better."

India had thrashed South Africa 3-1 in the five match T20 rubber held inthe Rainbow nation and Harmanpreetsaid the girls were positive in theirapproach and hoped that the teamwould do well.

"When we played T20 in SouthAfrica, everybody enjoyed it becausewe were playing the format after 14-16months. And this is the second seriesand everyone is positive. I know thatwe did not do well in ODIs, butdespite that everyone's approach isgood and we will do better in this tour-nament," she said.

Meanwhile, in a bid to promotewomen's cricket, the BCCI hasannounced that the entry for specta-tors is free for the matches to be heldat Cricket Club of India's BrabourneStadium.

�� Rajeshwari Gayakwad will replace

injured left-arm spinner Ekta Bisht inIndia's squad for the Women's Twenty20 tri-series starting here on Thursday.

"Bisht has been advised rest for 10days after suffering an injury to her leftindex finger during a caught andbowled attempt in the third ODIagainst Australia in Vadodara," a mediarelease said.

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England were guarded overwhether injury-hit Ben

Stokes would bowl against NewZealand when he makes his Testcomeback from suspension onThursday.

Speaking on Wednesday,ahead of the first day-night Testto be held in New Zealand, cap-tain Joe Root said the all-rounder would "play a part" butwould not discuss what role hewould fill.

"There's still stuff that needsto come out of today to be verysure of that," Root said, whenasked whether Stokes, 26, hadrecovered sufficiently from aback strain to bowl normally.

"But I'm quite happy thatBen will play a part in thegame." Stokes, suspendedafter a nightclub incident lastSeptember which left him fac-ing a charge of affray, was sore-ly missed by England in their 4-0 trouncing by Australia in theAshes series.

He returned to interna-tional cricket in the recent lim-ited-overs series against New

Zealand, which England won 3-2, but has been hampered byback stiffness.

Meanwhile, New Zealandcaptain Kane Williamson saidsenior batsman Ross Taylor,who has a Test average of 48.04,had been passed fit after recov-ering from a groin injury andstomach bug.

"He's good to go so that'sgreat news for us," Williamsonsaid.

"Roscoe has played beauti-

fully every time he's walked outto the crease, the calmness at thecrease, the confidence. It'sreflected in how much successhe's had this year. It's importantfor us as a team that he's there."

F�� ?�The clash at Auckland's

Eden Park will be the ninth day-night Test but the first to beplayed in New Zealand.

Williamson described it asa "slightly unique and an excit-

ing opportunity", but was awarethe teams were heading into theunknown.

"There is probably a dangerof over complicating some ofthe finer parts of the pink-ballgame," he said, pointing tovariable characteristics at dif-ferent stages of the ball andtimes of day.

"There's definitely someunknowns. There's a lot of talkabout the evening session andthe condition of the ball in thattime.

"There's heaps of differentstats but there's still unknowns.The sample size of pink-ballcricket is fairly small but it'simportant that you adapt as achange of conditions may hap-pen coming into different stagesof the day."

New Zealand have playedonly one pink-ball Test, whenthey lost the inaugural day-nighter against Australia in2015.

England have played underlights twice in the past year,beating the West Indies atEdgbaston before losing toAustralia in Adelaide.

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They outclassed India in the preceding ODI seriesbut Australia skipper Meg Lanning refused to

underestimate the hosts in the Twenty20 tri-series, say-ing all sides are even in the shortest format.

After thrashing India 3-0 in the ODI series, theAustralians will take on the hosts in the lung-openerof the tri-series, which also includes England.

"India are a very good team in this format, and soare England. So we know that we've got to play real-ly well," Lanning said on the eve of clash against India.

"We've definitely got some confidence in our groupfrom the way we've played (in the ODIs). But we dounderstand that it's a different format and it's very closein T20 internationals," she added.

The Aussie skipper said the series is even and itwould be difficult to say which team is better than theother.

"Even in the ODI series, they (India) were puttingus under the pump. So it's a very even series. Very dif-ficult to say that one team is ahead of the other two,which is great. By the looks of the wicket and the out-field out there, there are going to be plenty of runs outthere," Lanning said.

Asked whether Australia has an advantage over theothers as their players play in Women's Big Bash League(WBBL) Lanning said, "Not sure about that. There havebeen a couple of Indian players over there in the WBBLand they are very dangerous."

The skipper also said that the series was an impor-tant one leading up to the Women's T20 World Cup.

"It's a massive series for us, coming up against twomassive teams, in these conditions as well. We knowwe don't have a lot of cricket between now and theworld cup. So we're really keen to make sure we playvery well in this series. And as a bunch, we are goingto be tested," she said.

Lanning also praised young Indian girls PoojaVastrakar and Mumbai's Jemimah Rodrigues' perfor-mances in the ODI series.

"Rodrigues whacked us around a little bit and madeus nervous. Pooja is a very good bowler and has scoreda lot of runs as well. It's exciting for the game to seeyoung Indians coming through. They are someone tokeep an eye on," said 25-year-old Lanning.

�� 5 =)"

The Decision Review System, alreadyused in the Twenty Internationals,

will be introduced at the upcoming edi-tion of the cash-rich Indian PremierLeague.

"Yes, this idea has been going aroundfor many years," said IPL chairmanRajeev Shukla at a media conference hereon Wednesday, confirming that the TVreplay system will be utilised if a teamchallenges an umpiring decision.

Each team is given one chance toreview an umpiring decision during aT20 innings at the international level.

Shukla was speaking to the mediaafter announcing that the T20 League hasinked a three-year deal with Tata Nexonas its partner, declaring there was "greatsynergy between IPL and Tata Nexon."

Shukla said BCCI was awaiting thereport from the BCCI's anti-corruptionunit head, Neeraj Kumar on allegationsagainst fast bowler Mohammed Shami.

"Our anti corruption unit, headed byNeeraj Kumar, will investigate and giveus a report. We are awaiting it. We areexpecting the report shortly," said Shukla,a former BCCI vice president.

Kumar has been asked to investigateallegations levelled by Shami's wifeHasin Jahan who had claimed that thecricketer had received unaccountedmoney from a Pakistani woman.

The woman in question, Alishba, hasconfirmed that she met Shami in Dubaibut denied that she handed any moneyto Indian fast bowler.

"We are not concerned over his pri-vate matters. As soon as he (Kumar) givesthe report we will decide. The investi-gation is still on. It's Neeraj Kumar's jobto investigate it," he added.

Meanwhile Tata Motors alsoannounced at the media conferencethat the company was looking for "along-term relationship" with IPL.

"The synergy between Tata Nexonand IPL is immense. We are delighted (tobe part of the T20 League)," said TataMotors' Passenger Vehicle BusinessUnit's president, Mayank Pareek.

It was also announced that the play-er with the best strike rate in each IPLgame will be rewarded and a Nexon carwill be awarded to the player with theoverall highest strike-rate in the entiretournament, set to run from April 7 toMay 27.

�� The BCCI has decided that the six

captains of IPL franchises barring MumbaiIndians and Chennai Super Kings, won'tneed to attend the opening ceremonyscheduled on April 7.

It is learnt that all eight captains willdo a special video shoot on April 6 andleave for their respective cities that veryevening itself.

Till last year, the convention was tohave an opening ceremony a day beforethe first match, which captains wouldattend and sign the 'Spirit of Cricket'pledge.

This year it was decided at the IPLGoverning meeting that opening cere-mony would be held in Mumbai on April7 before the first match between MI andCSK.

However the goof up happenedbecause senior IPL officials didn't do theirhomework on the logistical aspect of fourother franchises who have matches nextday.

On April 8, there is a double headerwith Delhi Daredevils taking on Kings XIPunjab in Mohali at 4 pm while RCB willmeet KKR in Kolkata at 8 pm.

"IPL team should have done theirhomework. They are calling GautamGambhir and Ravichandran Ashwin a daybefore an afternoon match. That's absolutelack of homework," a senior BCCI officialsaid.

"Sample this. If Ashwin and Gambhirwould have attended the opening cere-mony, they could only boarded a 9pmflight from Mumbai to Delhi as there areno late evening flights from Mumbai toChandigarh.

"Now from Delhi, they can't take aflight to Chandigarh on Sunday morningbecause the airport would remain close.So either they travel by car during thenight, which is a dangerous propositionor in the morning of the match to play at4 pm. The less said, better it is," the seniorofficial fumed.

Even Virat Kohli (Banglore) andDinesh Karthik (Kolkata ) would havehad to travel a day before the matchalthough they have an evening game(8pm) to play.

When contacted, acting presidentCK Khanna said:"We are aware that thereare some logistical issues that have croppedup. It will be sorted at the earliest. I thinkcaptains will be called a day earlier andtheir portion will be shot and shown dur-ing the opening ceremony."

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