CHENNAITemperature: 270CPrecipitation: 0%Humidity: 94%Wind: 3 Km/hr

NEW DELHI, DEC 31 From January the

central governmentproposes to mobilisepublic support sup-port for naming andshaming non-users oftoilets in rural India.People living in ruralIndia can now direct-ly upload photos ofnon-usage of toiletson social media andon the website of theUnion ministry ofDrinking Water andSanitation. The min-istry on Tuesday saidpeople across the

CONTD. ON PAGE 3

PUNE, DEC 31A fortnight after being

denied Papal audienceon grounds that it couldseverely strain theVatican’s fragile tieswith China, the DalaiLama on Wednesdayurged greater coopera-tion on behalf of theworld’s democracieswith the communistnation.

Stating that barriersbetween nations oughtto be torn down, theexiled spiritual leadersaid India and China“could not do withouteach other.”

“Partnership tiesbetween India andChina should be

strengthened. The twonations must realize

CONTD. ON PAGE 3

HAQSAADDAFIGHT FOR RIGHTThursday, January 01, 2015

Factionalism would be dealt with strictly:Amit Shah to BJP workers

Intex Aqua V2 With 3G Support, Android4.4.2 KitKat Launched at Rs. 3,090

11 beauty hacks every girl shouldknow

NEW DELHI, DEC 31LPG consumers across the

country will from Thursdayget cash subsidy directly intotheir bank accounts so thatthey buy the cooking fuel atmarket price.

Domestic LPG users willget Rs. 568 in the bankaccount the moment they jointhe Direct Benefit TransferScheme for LPG, which hasnow been renamed PAHAL.They will have to use thismoney to buy 14.2-kg refill atthe market price.

Currently, the subsidisedLPG costs Rs. 417 per 14.2-kg cylinder while a market-priced refill costs Rs. 752 inDelhi.

It will be priced higher inother cities depending onlocal taxes.

The ambitious plan,launched by the previous

UPA government in June2013 but abruptly stoppedearlier this year followingcourt orders, has been modi-fied to exclude the require-ment of unique identificationnumber (Aadhaar) for avail-ing the cash subsidy.

“Consumers who wish to

join the scheme will have toeither link their Aadhaar num-ber into their bank accountand their LPG consumernumber or if they do not pos-sess Aadhaar number, theywill have to link their bankaccount directly with their 17

CONTD. ON PAGE 3

LPG consumers to get cashsubsidy in bank A/Cs from today

P8

NEW DELHI, DEC 31Prime Minister Narendra

Modi and actor Rekha, whoboth follow a vegetarian diet,have been crowned ‘hottestvegetarian celebrities’ by ani-mal rights organisation PETAIndia for making plant-based

CONTD. ON PAGE 3

PETA honour for Modiand Rekha

NEW DELHI, DEC 31The Congress on

Wednesday made it clear thatthere was no question of sup-porting the amendments pro-posed by the Government tothe Right to FairCompensation andTransparency in LandAcquisition, Rehabilitation

CONTD. ON PAGE 3

Congress not toback land ordinance

NEW DELHI, DEC 31To send out a signal to for-

eign investors that settlingcommercial disputes in Indiawill no longer be a time-con-suming affair, the governmenthas decided to promulgate anOrdinance to amend theArbitration and Conciliation

CONTD. ON PAGE 3

Ordinance route forquick arbitration reforms

Vol. 1 Issue: 105 Price: Rs.3:00 Reg. No: DELENG/2014/58212 Delhi Edition Pages: 8 Website: www.saaddahaq.in Email: news.saaddahaq@gmail.com

KOLKATA, DEC 31Coming down heavily on the

ordinance to amend the Right toFair Compensation andTransparency in Land Acquisition,Rehabilitation and ResettlementAct, 2013, West Bengal ChiefMinister Mamata Banerjee onTuesday said she would not allowthe Act to be implemented in theState. “It is a challenge that I won’t

CONTD. ON PAGE 3

Won’t allow land ordinance to be imple-mented in Bengal: Mamata Banerjee

NEW DELHI, DEC 31The Army has been directed to

respond appropriately with doublethe force to ceasefire violations onthe border, Defence MinisterManohar Parrikar has said.

“Our response is clear. Don’thesitate; react appropriately with-out holding yourself back. Wewon’t do violations but if we areattacked, react with double the

CONTD. ON PAGE 3

Army won’t brook any ceasefireviolations: Parrikar

NEW DE;HI, DEC 31Boosting the nation’s inland

waterways network will be one ofthe biggest focus areas in 2015,Union Shipping and SurfaceTransport Minister Nitin Gadkarisaid on Tuesday.

“It is my dream to have an inlandwaterways network just like the

CONTD. ON PAGE 3

Gadkari wants foreign invest-ment in waterways

NEW DELHI, DEC 31 To understand the impact of

climate change on water sys-tems, the government hasinvited proposals from knowl-edge institutions like theIndian Institutes ofTechnology (IITs) and theIndian Institute of Science

CONTD. ON PAGE 3

Centre invites studiesof river basins

NEW DELHI, DEC 31Saiyid Hamid, educationist,

reformist, author and thetallest figure in Muslim aca-demia, died on Mondayevening at at Majeedia hospi-tal here. He was 94. He is sur-vived by two sons and adaughter.

The namaz-e-janaza will beCONTD. ON PAGE 3

Educationist Saiyid Hamidpasses away

MUMBAI, DEC 31Unhappy at the order of the

special Central Bureau ofInvestigation (CBI) court todischarge BJP president AmitShah in the fake encountercases, Rubabuddin, brother ofone of the victims,Sohrabuddin Sheikh, blamedthe agency for putting up a“weak” case against the

CONTD. ON PAGE 3

Will appeal against verdict,says Sohrabuddin's brother

P6P2

Anti-conversion Bill a possibility, says Rajnath NEW DELHI, DEC 31

Home Minister RajnathSingh has hinted at thepossibility of an Anti-Conversion Bill beingtabled in Parliament, pro-vided a consensus evolvedamong political parties,social and religious organ-izations in the countryagainst the practice of con-version.

Inaugurating a pilgrims’conference at the 82ndSivagiri Pilgrimage atSivagiri near Varkala, thefinal resting place of socialreformer Sree NarayanaGuru inThiruvananthapuram onWednesday, Mr. Singh saidthere would be no need forany conversions, either byforce or by means ofenticement, in this countryif each person followed his

or her own ‘dharma’ orpractices of each person’sreligion.

It was up to the politicalparties, social organiza-tions and religious institu-tions in the country toevolve a consensus on theissue, against conversion,

which could pave the wayfor an Anti-ConversionBill in the Parliament, hesaid.

Citing Sree NarayanaGuru’s teachings on spiri-tual progress being anecessity on par with

CONTD. ON PAGE 3

NEW DELHI, DEC 31The Constitutional amendment Bill that

seeks to scrap the collegium system ofappointing judges to higher judiciary hasreceived Presidential nod. The NationalJudicial Appointments Commission(NJAC) Bill passed by the Parliament inAugust this year has received President’sassent, official sources said.

The new law facilitates the setting up of acommission for appointment of judges,replacing the 20-year-old collegium system,which has been under severe criticism.

It paves the way for the setting up ofNJAC, which will appoint and transferjudges to the Supreme Courts and the 24High Courts. The Bill, 124th amendment tothe Constitution, grants Constitutional

CONTD. ON PAGE 3

NEW DELHI, DEC 31Instructions issued by the

Department ofTelecommunications tointernet service providers inthe country directing themto block 32 websites on dataarchiving, video sharing andsoftware development haveevoked critical reactions onsocial media.

The DoT invoked Section69A (power of blockingpublic access to Internetcontents) of the InformationTechnology Act and theInformation Technology(Procedures and Safeguardsfor Blocking of Access ofInformation by Public)

Rules to issue the directiveon December 16.

“All the Internet ServiceLicenses are accordinglydirected to immediatelyblock the access to aboveURLs,” says the order, list-ing the web addressesincluding that of portals likearchive.org and vimeo.comthat were later unblocked.

A Government source saidthe decision to block the 32websites were taken afterthorough “filtration processbased on a strict regimen”,and there is a proper com-mittee in the Department ofInformation Technology in

CONTD. ON PAGE 3

JAMMU, DEC 31 With positive signs emerg-

ing from the PDP over gov-ernment formation in Jammuand Kashmir, the BJP onWednesday said it is awaitingthe formal initiation of dia-logue with the former.

The BJP reacted after PDPleader Mehbooba Muftidropped hints of her party notbeing averse to joining handswith the saffron party as sheinvoked A.B. Vajpayee andsaid the mandate in the Statewas an “opportunity” forPrime Minister NarendraModi.

“We appreciate MehboobaMufti’s gesture through

CONTD. ON PAGE 3

JAMMU, DEC 31Four Pakistan Rangers

were killed in BSF’sretaliaton after a jawanof the force lost his lifein heavy firing from theother side on a patrol onWednesday along theInternational Border inJammu and Kashmir’sSamba district.

The retaliation whichforced the rangers towave white flags cameon a day when the gov-ernment asked theBorder Security Force toprovide a “suitable andappropriate reply” forany unprovoked firingfrom across the India-Pakistan border.

Wednesday’s firing byPakistan in which one

jawan was also injuredwas the second ceasefireviolation along the IB inthe past 24 hours.

“We have retaliatedeffectively to thePakistan firing, in whichfour Pakistan Rangershave been killed (oppo-site to Regal post) along

the IB in Samba sectorthis evening,” Inspector-General, BSF, JammuFrontier, RakeshSharma said in Jammu.

As Pakistan Rangerssuffered casualties, theywaved white flags ask-ing BSF to stop the

CONTD. ON PAGE 3

4 Pakistan Rangers killed asBSF responds to truce violation

J&K government for-mation: BJP awaits‘formal initiation ofdialogue with PDP’

Judicial AppointmentsCommission Bill getsPresident’s nod

Modi govt blocks 32 websites

Swachh Bharat goes hi-tech, govtto track toilet use with iPads

Dalai Lama for strong Sino-Indian ties Weather Report

DELHITemperature: 170CPrecipitation: 0%Humidity:92%Wind: 0 Km/hr

KOLKATATemperature: 250CPrecipitation: 30%Humidity: 88% Wind: 6 Km/hr

MUMBAITemperature: 300CPrecipitation: 0%Humidity:57%Wind: 6 Km/hr

NEW DELHI | THURSDAY | JAN 01, 2015Delhi News2 SAADDA HAQ

NEW DELHI, DEC 31While local leaders are busy targeting politi-

cal opponents Aam Aadmi Party and theCongress as the Delhi Assembly election drawsnearer, party president Amit Shah minced nowords in reminding faction-ridden Delhi uniton Tuesday that the biggest challenge beforethe party is ‘complacency of the cadre’.

While addressing members of the StateExecutive at Delhi BJP headquarter, Mr. Shahsaid any ‘indiscipline’ will be dealt with strict-ly and there was no scope of any ‘lobbying’within the party, be it for party ticket or other-wise.

“The party workers should give up their wor-ries on distribution of tickets. Only 70 peoplecan get tickets. So all workers and leaders willhave to stay united and ensure victory of thecandidates selected by the party. No infightingin the party will be tolerated and strict actionwill be taken against any indiscipline,” said Mr.Shah.

Factionalism in the Delhi has been one of thebiggest worries of the party over the last fewyears, with the party experimenting with differ-ent leaders at the helm.

The BJP chief, who is also the party’s keyelectoral strategist, emphasized on micro-man-agement at the booth level to conquer Delhi,where the party, according to him, has the bestchance of victory in recent times.

“As part of the micro-planning, workers needto reach out to more polling booths than thosecovered in the Lok Sabha polls. The BJP willnever find such a favourable condition in Delhito form a government. Door-to-door campaign

has been the speciality of the BJP which hasbeen taken up by other parties as well,” Shahsaid. Terming the Narendra Modi government’sdecision to regularise unauthorised colonies inDelhi, the party president said that the BJP gov-ernment has been fulfilling its promises in atime-bound manner.

“The Modi government has won the heart ofpeople across the country, now it is the turn ofDelhi. The opposition parties always target the

functioning of our government, but the resultsof assembly elections in four states are evidentthat the Modi government is performing well,”he said.

The Executive committee was also addressedby BJP general secretary (organization) RamLal, Delhi BJP in-charge Prabhat Jha besidesDelhi BJP president Satish Upadhyay amongothers. The MPs from Delhi were also presentin the meeting.

Factionalism would be dealt with strictly: Amit Shah to BJP workersNEW DELHI, DEC 31

To make adequateaccommodation facility forsenior officials, the UrbanDevelopment Ministry hasenhanced its housing poolin higher categories inDelhi by adding 362 flatsin the categories of TypeV(B) and above.

The Delhi DevelopmentAuthority (DDA) hasrecently handed over atotal of 362 flats at theCommonwealth GamesVillage complex to theDirectorate of Estates, saida senior ministry official.Earlier, DDA had handedover 16 such flats in 2013.

Urban DevelopmentMinister M VenkaiahNaidu has approved ear-marking 100 of these flatsfor allocation to chairper-sons and members of vari-ous tribunals and quasi-judicial bodies. Another178 have been added to theGeneral Pool ResidentialAccommodation, and 50each to Tenure OfficersPool and Tenure Pool.

The latest acquisition bythe Directorate of Estatescomprises 248 Type-V(B)three-bedroom flats, 82Type-VI(B) four-bedroomflats and 32 Type-VII five-bedroom flats.

DDA had handed overnine four-bedroom andseven five-bedroom flats in2013.

According to the official,

DDA handed over these378 flats towards the costof land provided by theministry for the CWGVillage.

There is a total of 61,523houses in various cate-gories ranging from Type Ito Type VIII, and double-and single-suit hostelaccommodation availablein the national capital.

362 Games Village flats givenfor officials' accommodation

NEW DELHI, DEC 31Inmates lodged in Tihar

Jail will soon get theirown bank accounts underthe Pradhan Mantri JanDhan Yojna.

“Around 3,000-4,000inmates in the jail, includ-ing convicts and under tri-als who have been lodgedfor a long time, will havetheir own bank accountssoon,” said a Tihar jailofficial. The bank officialswill initially start with allAadhar Card holders as itwould be easy to completethe formalities with them.

Once the inmates gettheir bank accounts, thewages that they earn byworking in the jail facto-ries will be deposited inthe accounts.

Tihar inmates to get accountsunder Jan Dhan Yojna

NEW DELHI, DEC 31In a reflection on the functioning

of government agencies, the PublicWorks Department has finally ini-tiated action on a National GreenTribunal order to democratisepavements around trees andremove signboards almost twoyears after the Tribunal had direct-ed it to act “forthwith”.

The PWD on Saturday, 20months after the NGT order, visit-ed Prabhupada Marg in PunjabiMarg and removed concrete andtiles from around the trees on thestretch and replaced the same withsoil. Here again, it was not theagency acting on its own, but onthe request of environmentalistAditya Prasad, who had moved theNGT against concretisation aroundtrees. The agency also removedboards nailed on trees, but stoppedshort of prosecuting people, shop-keepers, etc., whose boards were

fixed on the trees, in keeping withthe NGT order.

A Bench of NGT headed by

Chairperson Justice SwatanterKumar had on April 23, 2013,directed that concrete surrounding

within one metre of trees beremoved forthwith. It had alsodirected that all signboards, adver-tisements and electric wires alsobe removed from the trees.

The order was passed on a peti-tion filed by Aditya Prasad, high-lighting how trees die or fall instorms as the thick layer of con-crete around them leaves no spacefor water to percolate to the roots.

However, it was only onDecember 27 that Mr. Prasadrequested the PWD to implementthe order. “I requested the PWD toat least start implementing theNGT order. The Department actedon it and carried out the work on astretch in Punjabi Bagh,” said MrPrasad.

He shared how shopkeepersthere tried to reason with the PWDteam by arguments such as “treeshave a nervous system so whyremove their boards”.

Nearly 2 years later, PWD wakes up to NGT order

NEW DELHI, DEC 31“Regulation” and “deconges-

tion” were the keywords to haveemerged from the field of urbantransport, while alternative, publicand commercial modes of trans-portation dominated discourse per-taining to it during the year thatwent by.

Even as Delhi’s total road lengthremained the same, its vehicularpopulation, according to govern-ment statistics, registered anincrease of 5.19 lakh. This pushesthe total number of vehicles regis-tered in Delhi from 77.74 lakh till2012-13 to 82.93 lakh till 2013-14.The National Green Tribunal cameto the government’s rescue in theform of a 14-point order,announced in late November. Itincluded suggestions like hiking ofparking rates, congestion tax todissuade use of personal vehiclesgiven their effect on emission lev-els and total ban on vehicles olderthan 15 years from plying.

Delhi’s burgeoning private cabscene, exemplified by popularityof app-based cab and radio taxiservices like Ola and Mega, wassomething the Delhiites had cometo rely on. However, after thelegality of battery-operated e-rick-shaws reached the High Court,Delhi was jolted by the rape of a27-year-old by an Uber taxi driverearlier this month.

The rape exposed the lacunae inlicensing and issuance of permitsto cab drivers, and brought loop-holes in police verification proce-dures to the fore.

The Transport Departmentcracked down on all such serviceproviders and formulated morestringent guidelines to govern theiroperations. This was followed by aban on taxi aggregator services inmany cities in the country beforethe government finally came outwith the required modifications inthe laws of the land.

Major modifications made to theRadio Taxi Scheme, 2006, follow-ing a ban on Uber allowed aggre-

gators of taxis as well as entitiesoperating through web-based appsto operate, subject to conditionsstipulated under the MV and theInformation Technology Acts. Thestep also ostensibly aimed at open-ing up the sector to what a sourcedescribed as “groups of indigenousdrivers, competitive services andmore employment opportunities”by relaxation of cab fleets sizesfrom 500 to 200 cars.

The Delhi Metro registeredrecord ridership during the year —especially during this year’s instal-ment of the India InternationalTrade Fair. It seemingly becamethe preferred mode of public trans-port in Delhi, even as the latter’susage of the Delhi TransportCorporation (DTC) buses plum-meted by nearly 3.3 lakh com-muters per day.

The extension of the metro’s

Heritage Line saw extension of theViolet Line to Mandi House,which was instrumental in decon-gesting stations like Rajiv Chowkand Central Secretariat. The metroalso began running trial runsbetween Mandi House and ITOstations in December.

Meanwhile, the DTC flagged offits service to Kathmandu andmoved forward with a proposal toadd over 1,300 buses to its fleet oflow-floor buses, install CCTVsand GPS devices, and attempted tobecome more gender-inclusive bycommencing an apprenticeshipprogramme for women drivers.

After operations of e-rickshawswere banned by the Delhi HighCourt, the government in mid-December came out with a list of236 arterial stretches that willremain off-limits for the battery-operated vehicles.

An announcement to this effectwas made by the TransportDepartment through a notificationissued under Section 115 of theMotor Vehicle Act. While theSection imposes restrictions ontheir movement, it simultaneouslyallows them to legally ply in a fewselected pockets “subject to excep-tions and conditions”.

The Traffic Police began dedi-cated drives against vehicular con-gestion in and around popular citymarkets in a phased manner on adaily basis as opposed to penalaction only over the weekend.Moreover, technology came to theaid of the Traffic Police with e-challaning enabling instant prose-cution, the induction of speedinterceptors to rein-in the Capital’sspeed demons as well as Segwayscooters to enable better patrollingof congested areas.

Capital's urban transport shifts gears in 2014

NEW DELHI, DEC 31The Delhi Police on Tuesday reunited 23

missing children living in different childrenhomes in the Capital with their parents as apart of their special drive — “Milap”.

The Delhi Police launched this drive twoweeks ago and have so far reunited 26 chil-dren with their families. Under this drive,Crime Branch officials check the back-ground of each and every child in childrenhomes and try to locate their families basedon the clues provided by the children.Talking about the success of the drive, Jointcommissioner of Police (Crime) RavindraYadav said: “These children were taken intoconfidence and after compassionate persua-sive conversation they revealed clues abouttheir native places.

On the basis of the minor clues and detailsprovided by them, their parents were con-tacted either through telephone or via localpolice stations.” The children had come toDelhi either after being rebuked by theirelders or in search of a job. The parents whowere reunited with their children thankedthe police.

Simplified building by-lawsin Delhi readyNEW DELHI, DEC 31

Soon buildings in Delhi will need tomake provisions for children, senior citi-zens and differently-abled with equal con-cern for environment while residents willbe spared the tough time interpreting thebuilding by-laws and getting sanctionswith the government all set to notify itssimplified version.

Urban Development MinisterM.Venkaiah Naidu on Tuesday directedthe DDA to notify these by-laws at theearliest. The new version of the by-lawswill enable the residents of Delhi inobtaining sanctions in an easy and timebound manner. Some new provisions havealso been made to address emerging chal-lenges like green construction and waterconservation and management. Under thesimplified bye-laws, plots of over 2,000sq.mt will be subject to a single WindowClearance mechanism. Small residentialplots of size up to 100 sq.mt have beenexempted from sanction procedures.

23 missing children reunited with family

NEW DELHI, DEC 31 The Delhi High Court has granted a stay

on felling of trees during widening of amajor road by the Delhi Public WorksDepartment in Vasant Kunj here. Theinterim order was passed on a writ petitionalleging that the Appellate Authority onpreservation of trees had not afforded suf-ficient hearing to the local residents.

Justice Vibhu Bakhru directed petitionerBindu Kapurea to appear before theAuthority, which will grant her a fair hear-ing. After taking note of her submissionswith regard to trees that can be saved, theAuthority will pass a reasoned order unin-fluenced by any previous order.

The Court had directed last week that notrees be felled during the widening of theroad from Andheria Modh to FortisHospital red light till the Authority hasconsidered contentions and suggestionsmade by Ms. Kapurea.

The Authority functions under the DelhiPreservation of Trees Act, 1994. The casewill come up in Court for further hearingon January 6.

The National Green Tribunal had earlierdisposed of the matter and asked Ms.Kapurea to approach the Court with hergrievance that she had not been affordedsufficient hearing by the Authority. Shestated in the Court that she did not opposethe widening of the road in question, butpointed out that there may be instanceswhere trees in certain sections could besaved and may not be interfering with theroad widening project.

High Court stays felling of trees in Vasant Kunj

Continuation 3

LPG consumers...digit LPG Id,” an official statement said.PAHAL or ‘Pratyaksh Hanstantarit Labh’

was rolled out in 54 districts from November15 and will extend to rest of the country fromJanuary 1.

Under the scheme, LPG consumers will getcash subsidy to buy twelve 14.2-kg cylindersor 34 five-kg refills.

Cash equivalent to the difference betweenthe current subsidised rate and the marketprice is transferred to the bank account of aconsumer the moment he or she makes thefirst booking for a cylinder after joining thescheme. The moment a consumer takesdelivery of the cylinder, another advancecash subsidy is transferred to the bankaccount.

J&K government...media. We await formal initiation of dia-

logue,” BJP leader Ram Madhav told PTI.The BJP leadership has been in talks with

lower-rung PDP leaders for government for-mation after the polls threw a fractured ver-dict with the PDP emerging as the singlelargest party with 28 seats in the 87-memberAssembly closely followed by the BJP with25 seats.

While PDP got a majority of seats in theKashmir region, the BJP got most of its seatsfrom the Jammu region and there is stalemateover the next government.

BJP sources said Ms. Mufti’s remarks willhelp in ending the confusion in J&K to takethe State forward on the path of developmentby providing a stable government.

Ms. Mufti earlier met Governor N.N.Vohra and held talks with him over herparty’s preferences on formation of the gov-ernment.

She said whatever formation is firmed up,it should respect the mandate of the peopleand have the principle of “reconciliation”,adding that “till that is not taken along, form-ing any government will be useless”.

Ms. Mufti said the mandate was a “chal-lenge and opportunity” for national leader-ship, be it the NDA or the Congress.

“For NDA government, it is a big responsi-bility… for Modi, it is a big responsibility.Jammu and Kashmir has been the biggestchallenge for any PM right from Nehru tilldate,” she said.

She also invoked the former PrimeMinister saying, “It is not possible tillVajpayeeji’s political process is taken for-ward” and noted that he had started a politi-cal process and dialogue with Hurriyat aswell as Pakistan.

Referring to Mr. Modi’s “dream” of devel-opment and addressing the problem of unem-ployment, the PDP leader said there cannotbe “development till there is peace on theground”.

4 Pakistan Rangers...firing so that they can lift the bodies of its

dead men, he said.“Honouring their request we stopped the

firing and allowed them to come to the bor-der line and lift the bodies,” he said adding,“firing along the border line has nowstopped“.

In the morning, Pakistan Rangers targetteda BSF patrol party by resorting to firingalong the IB in Samba district.

There was heavy firing by Pakistan on apatrolling party of BSF along the IB inSuchtegarh forward belt in Samba sector, Mr.Sharam said.

In the heavy firing, one BSF jawan waskilled, the IG said, adding that the BSFtroops were on routine patrol when they wereattacked.

The deceased jawan has been identified asConstable Sri Ram Gowria, the IG said.Another jawan suffered minor injuries,reports said.

Mr. Sharma, who has rushed to the spot andsupervising the operation, said BSF troopstook positions, gave a befitting reply. Therewere also reports of firing in other areas inKathua and Samba district.

Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh askedthe BSF to give a befitting reply when theparamilitary force’s Director-General D.K.Pathak briefed him about the prevailing situ-ation in Jammu frontier.

“The Home Minister asked the DG, BSF toprovide a suitable and appropriate reply forany such unprovoked firing,” an officialstatement released in Delhi said.

Mr. Pathak gave a detailed presentation tothe Home Minister about the ceasefire viola-tions by Pakistan Rangers in the Samba sec-tor.

Earlier in the day, Defence MinisterManohar Parrikar said the Indian securityforces should not hold back in the face of fir-ing and must retaliate with “double theforce“.

Underlining that the the number of cease-fire violations across the LoC have reducedas compared to last year, Mr. Parrikar, how-ever, noted that the violations have increasedacross the IB.

Asked what has been his direction to thesecurity forces, Parrikar, who was interactingwith defence journalists last night, said, “Our(NDA government) response is don’t hesi-tate. React appropriately without holdingyourself back“.

He said that if there are any ceasefire vio-lations, the Indian forces should retaliate“with double the force” and if there is anattack on Army posts, the terrorists need to

be neutralised.The Minister stressed that the Indian forces

don’t violate ceasefire agreement but onlyrespond to violations by Pakistani troops.

On Tuesday, Pakistan troops had resortedto firing on forward posts along the LoC inPallanwala sector of Jammu district andSepoy Amarjeet Singh was injured in the fir-ing.

Pakistani troops had on Sunday violatedthe ceasefire twice along the border in Arniaforward belt of Jammu and Hiranagar belt ofKathua district.

On December 25, Pakistan Rangersindulged in unprovoked small arms firing inforward areas in Pansar border out post(BoP) belt of Hiranagar sub-sector in Kathuadistrict.

On December 24, Pakistani troops hadfired mortar shells and small arms targetingthe same areas.

Over 550 incidents of ceasefire violationsby Pakistan took place this year, the highestsince the truce came into force in 2003, withthe India-Pakista border witnessing the worstsuch escalation during August-October peri-od which left 13 people dead and thousandsdisplaced.

Anti-conversion Bill ...material progress, Mr. Singh said the Guru

had pressed for a developmental model thatfocussed on both material and spiritualprogress.

“We too believe in a similar model,” hesaid, stating that efforts were on to developIndia not just as an economic super power,but as a spiritual super power as well, withthe ultimate aim being ‘restoring’ India’sposition as the ‘jagathguru’, the Guru of thewhole world.

Swachh Bharat ...country will be mobilized to check and ver-

ify the use of toilets in the rural areas and canpost photos or upload data through mobilephones, tablets or I-Pads.

Official sources said often toilets are builtbut not used, people store rice or tie goatsinside them. Such incidents can be pho-tographed and uploaded so action can betaken. People can use social media likeFacebook to highlight non use of toilets andefforts were on to make changes in the min-istry website for this purpose.

An official release said Nationwide RealTime Monitoring of use of toilets will belaunched from the New Year though exactdetails are awaited. The monitoring systemwill give a big push to the Swachh BharatMission, which aims at attaining a 100 percent Open Defecation Free India by 2019,said the release. Earlier, the monitoring wasdone only on the construction of toilets, butnow the actual use of toilets will be ascer-tained on a sustained basis.

Additionally, the ministry is beingstrengthened with 24 additional staff mem-bers including two Joint Secretaries, fourDirectors and their subordinate staff foreffective implementation and monitoring ofSwachh Bharat goals. An Expert Committeewill also be set up to examine innovativetechnologies for toilets and solid and liquidwaste management. A national telephonehelpline will also be installed for Rural WaterSupply and Sanitation.

Under real time monitoring, there will be aprovision for uploading progress under theSwachh Bharat Mission in the rural areas“with names of individual beneficiaries, andphotos of toilets constructed and coordinatesof the toilets,” the statement said.

The Census 2011 has reported that sanita-tion coverage in rural India is 32.70 per centtaking into consideration the increased popu-lation. There is an increase of 2.96 crorehouseholds in rural areas as compared to cen-sus 2001 which are using toilets. TheNational Sample Survey Organisation(NSSO) -2012 report has estimated that 40.6per cent of rural households have sanitationfacilities. As per Baseline Survey Report2013, 40.35 per cent households have toilets.

After the launch of Swachh Bharat Mission(Rural) on October 2, 5,03,142 individualhousehold latrines have been constructed.

Modi govt...place to whet complaints.

In this particular case, sources said, therehas been "instances" of recruitment ofMaharashtra youths to the ISIS in Iraq. Theban came on the basis of a request by theState Anti-Terrorism Squad and a compre-hensive reconnaissance done. They saidshow cause notices were issued to these web-sites under question, and only five or six hadreplied.

One of the websites, pastebin.com had onDecember 26 tweeted that its URL had beenblocked by the Indian government. “Pastebinis still blocked in India. We are getting manyreports about this. The Indian governmenthas blocked us, and right now there is littlewe can do about it. It has happened in thepast, and we got unblocked after some time.For now we recommend using a free proxyservice if you are based in India. in India,”said its Facebook post the same day.

A senior Telecom Ministry official said:“Several web addresses have since beenunblocked after verification”. ByWednesday, a dozen websites had beenunblocked.

Stating that web contents are often blockedfor objectionable/communally inflammatorycontents, a Union Home Ministry officialsaid: “They are blocked either on courtorders and on the direct request of security

agencies, which also approach the agenciesconcerned for the same through the HomeMinistry. In the recent past, websites postingISIS propaganda material have been a causeof concern for us. The archiving sites, whichare used to migrate and store such objection-able data, have also to be examined,” he said.

Internet Archive on Wednesday tweeted:“We've received many complaints from peo-ple in India who can't accesshttp://archive.org.”

Shocked over the government directive,many in the social media criticised theaction. “Some flop movie must have askedCourt for a John Doe to prevent piracy of theflop movie,” said one in Twitter, while anoth-er said: “more like shutting the freewaybecause someone doesn't like the color of acar”.

Another Twitter user expressed apprehen-sion that if the government had really issuedsuch an order, more such decisions were inthe pipeline.

Dalai Lama ...they are interdependent,” he said, while

give a public talk on ‘Secular Ethics’ organ-ized by the city’s Chanakya Mandal Pariwarhere.

Days after he was denied audience by PopeFrancis, the Dalai Lama, in interviews andstatements to the foreign press, had batted forChinese President Xi Jinping remarking thathardliners within the Chinese CommunistParty were holding the President back fromgranting autonomy to Tibet.

The Dalai Lama however skirted any spe-cific references to Tibet’s autonomy in hisaddress, merely saying that he was “a humbleindividual.” “I am not as important a personas is made out to be,” he said, urging forgreater tolerance and harmony amongnations in an age of turmoil. The Dalai Lamawill give another public talk in Nashik dis-trict on January 3 organized by Indo-TibetanMangal Maitri Sangh.

PETA honour...foods more popular than ever in 2014.This year’s competition named ‘PETA

India’s hottest vegetarian celebrities’ wastougher than ever — but no one was moredeserving than Mr. Modi and Ms. Rekha forthe title, the organisation said in a release.

The two winners beat out a strong group ofcompetitors, including actors AmitabhBachchan, Kangana Ranaut, Hema Malini,Shahid Kapoor, Vidya Balan, R Madhavanand Vidyut Jammwal, it said.

Congress not to ...and Resettlement Act, 2013.Pointing out that the BJP had ``unequivo-

cally supported’’ the enactment of the Actjust a year-and-a-half ago when the UPAGovernment steered it through Parliamentafter three years of consultations, Congressspokesman Abhishek Singhvi said the ordi-nance being promulgated would in variousways bring back the 1894 law which hadbeen found wanting by the entire politicalclass and the Supreme Court.

``What remains resembles the 1894 landacquisition law enacted by the British andwould be akin to Hamlet without the Princeof Denmark,’’

Mr. Singhvi said in a detailed briefing onthe party’s position on the ordinance. Theordinance, according to the Congress, relax-es the requirements of consent and socialimpact assessment survey for five specifiedareas – thereby bringing back coercion inland acquisition – and eases acquisition ofmulti-crop land.

Asked about the Government’s claims thatseveral Congress chief ministers, too, hadwanted changes in the Act, Mr. Singhvi coun-tered: ``Let them tell us which person saidwhat. There is a lot of difference betweenwhat they say and what is being made out.Tweaking the law in public interest to makeit more implementable is one thing, but thisordinance is proposing far more substantivechanges and taking us back to 1894.’’

The Congress on Wednesday made it clearthat there was no question of supporting theamendments proposed by the Government tothe Right to Fair Compensation andTransparency in Land Acquisition,Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013.

Pointing out that the BJP had ``unequivo-cally supported’’ the enactment of the Actjust a year-and-a-half ago when the UPAGovernment steered it through Parliamentafter three years of consultations, Congressspokesman Abhishek Singhvi said the ordi-nance being promulgated would in variousways bring back the 1894 law which hadbeen found wanting by the entire politicalclass and the Supreme Court.

``What remains resembles the 1894 landacquisition law enacted by the British andwould be akin to Hamlet without the Princeof Denmark,’’

Ordinance route ...Act, 1996. The Ordinance is aimed at mak-

ing it mandatory for commercial disputes tobe settled within nine months and also put-ting a cap on fee of arbitrator. The Centre hassent it to President Pranab Mukherjee for hisassent. The proposed amendments stipulatethat the presiding officer of a commercialdispute will have to clear the case within ninemonths, reported agencies quoting anunnamed official. The arbitrator will be freeto seek an extension from the High Court.But in case of further delays, the High Courtwill be free to debar the arbitrator from tak-ing up fresh cases for a certain period.

The Union government had to take the

Ordinance route to amend the Arbitration andConciliation Act, 1996, as it wanted thereforms to be put in place at the earliest, anofficial said.

“Most of the recommendations of the LawCommission have been accepted. Whilesome have been incorporated in the lawitself, some of the recommendations will beused while framing rules,” the official wasquoted as saying.

Centre invites...(IISc), Bangalore to undertake studies on

20 major river basins in the country. This isone of the steps under the National WaterMission which is one of the eight prioritymissions under the National Action Plan onClimate Change (NAPCC).

Official sources told reporters on Tuesdaythat these institutions would study impactsusing downscaled global climate models.The studies are expected to be commissionedshortly and will take between six months totwo years for completion. Six IITs and theIISc will be involved in the project whichwill provide valuable inputs to policy deci-sions and adaptation measures. This is thefirst time that such studies will be undertak-en on a large-scale with downscaled modelswhich will be relevant for local regions, hesaid.

According to the NAPCC, 2008, govern-ment expenditure on adaptation to climatevariability exceeds 2.6 per cent of the GDP.The technical document says that many partsof India are water stressed and the country islikely to be water scarce by 2050. There is adecline in total run off for all rivers project-ed, except for Narmada and Tapti.

Most of India’s eight national missions areadaptation centric and the National WaterMission has five goals, official sources said.The Mission has already set up a comprehen-sive data base called the Water ResourcesInformation System, in partnership with theNational Remote Sensing Agency which isupdated every six months.

The Mission is focusing on capacity build-ing right down to local self-governmentswhich is an ongoing exercise and has anMoU with the National Institute of RuralDevelopment and other agencies for this pur-pose.

As part of adaptation it has focused atten-tion on critical areas like depleting groundwater and is undertaking aquifer mapping,and flood management with a focus awayfrom structural measures like buildingembankments and instead working withcommunities for preparedness.

Two pilot projects with technical assistancefrom Asian Development Bank in the BurhiGandak basin in Bihar and Brahmani inOrissa will lead to a master plan on preven-tive action in flood-prone areas, using bestpractices and providing value additions.

With the aim of increasing water use effi-ciency by 20 per cent across all sectors, thegovernment is developing a National Bureauof Water Use Efficiency which is in theadvanced state of being set up on the lines ofthe Bureau of Energy Efficiency. Amongother things it will set national standards onwater appliances and also focus on efficienttechnology and best practices.

While the Water Mission has taken severalsteps, there are several challenges. In 2012, astudy said the mission should be led by inter-disciplinary experts, which is not how theMinistry is currently set up.

Educationist Saiyid ...offered on Tuesday after afternoon (zuhar)

prayers at Jamiaia Hamdard and burial willtake place at Panjpeeran graveyard atNizamuddin Dargah.

This Chancellor of Jamia HamdardUniversity, ex-chancellor Jamia MilliaIslamia and former Vice Chancellor AligarhMuslim University was admitted to hospitalfollowing illness on December 19.

Mr. Hamid was the last surviving ICS offi-cer in India. He was recently conferred SirRoss Masood Lifetime Achievement Award2014 for Excellence in Leadership,Education, Community and Public Serviceby the Vice President of India, who is also anex-vice chancellor of AMU.

Mr. Hamid was one of the members of thehigh level committee headed by JusticeRajendra Sacchar which was appointed bythe Prime Minister in 2005.

After retiring from a long and distin-guished career in civil services, he wasappointed Vice-Chancellor of his alma materAligarh Muslim University.

He later succeeded Hakeem AbdulHameed, founder of Hamdard Dawakhana(now Hamdard (Wakf) Laboratories) as theChancellor of Hamdard University in Delhi.Mr. Hamid has many books to his credit,including two novels and three plays and sev-eral short stories.

Will appeal...accused. “The CBI is sold. Now we have

no faith in the agency,” he told presspersonsoutside the court on Tuesday here inMumbai. “They deliberately made out aweak case against Mr. Shah to ensure that heis not indicted,” he alleged.

Rubabuddin now plans to challenge theorder in the Bombay High Court. “I am goingto appeal against the court’s order in the HighCourt and if need be, also knock on the doorsof the Supreme Court for justice,” he said.

Counsel for Mr. Shah welcomed the order,saying they stood vindicated by the court.“The court asserted our contention that thecase against Mr. Shah was politically moti-vated. We had from the very beginning

claimed that Mr. Shah had no role to play inthe case and that he was wrongly framed,”S.V. Raju, counsel, said.

Judicial Appointments ...status to the NJAC and its composition

which will be headed by the Chief Justice ofIndia.

As many as 16 of the 29 states have ratifiedthe Bill. Besides the CJI, the judiciary wouldbe represented by two senior judges of theSupreme Court. Two eminent personalitiesand the Law Minister will be the other mem-bers of the body.

Won’t allow ...allow them to implement it here. They

(Centre) will have to do it on my dead body,”she said addressing a rally at Kharagpur inPaschim Medinipur district.

Ms Banerjee, who catapulted to politicalprominence after her protest movementsagainst forcible land acquisition in Singurand Nandigram, said that the amendmentempowers the Centre to forcibly occupy landat gun point.

“The Narendra Modi government hasbrought in more difficult times than theemergency,” Ms Banerjee said, directing herparty supporters to protest this ‘black’ ordi-nance by symbolically burning copies of thedocument.

At the public gathering, she said she hadmade the CPI(M) bite the dust and wouldravage the BJP in a similar manner.

The new amendment empowers theGovernment to acquire land without consult-ing the farmer in certain categories. TheGovernment may not consider the nature offertility of the land, which was mandatoryunder the Act.

Warning against anti-party activities“We will not accept any anti-party activity.

If the party is not there, the individual isnone-existent,” Ms Banerjee said.

Gadkari wants...national highways… We will try to attract

foreign investment in inland waterways,” hetold journalists here.

The first step, he said, would be to developthe Varanasi-Haldia project for which theWorld Bank sanctioned Rs. 4,200 crore. Theproject on the Ganga would later be extend-ed to Allahabad.

Mr. Gadkari said that increasing road safe-ty was a continuing priority. The road trans-port and safety Bill was expected to bepassed by Parliament next year; thereafter,minimum safety standards for all vehicleswould be announced. “Some time by themiddle of next year, minimum safety stan-dards for all car models, economy or luxury,would be notified,” Surface TransportSecretary Vijay Chhibber told The Hindu.

Adherence to the minimum standards,which would be in line with the U.N. guide-lines, would be voluntary for automobilecompanies for the first year, after which theywould be made mandatory, he said.

Beyond the minimum standards, carmakerscould offer star-rated models with enhancedsafety features for a higher price.

The norms would require vehicles to passcrash tests with “no fatality” at 56 km/hour.

Army won’t ...force,” he said late on Tuesday evening.He made the comments in response to a

question on the ceasefire violation along theLine of Control in the Pallanwala sector ofJammu district on Tuesday in which an Armyjawan was injured.Defence Procurement

Stating that the Defence AcquisitionCouncil has in the last few months cleareddeals worth 78,000 crore of which 65,000crore is under 'Make in India’, Mr. Parrikarsaid, “We are extensively reviewing theDefence Procurement Procedure (DPP)”.

The Defence Ministry, he said, is alsopreparing guidelines on allowing consultantsin defence deals.

“Representatives or consultants fromdefence firms are already allowed. There is aclause in the DPP but the problem is it is notclearly defined", Mr. Parrikar stated.

"Changes will be made to the DPP, repre-sentatives will be allowed but commission,or percentage of profit for the deals will notbe allowed. The representatives have to beregistered with the ministry and remunera-tion shall be declared by the company," hesaid. A draft of the changed policy is readyand a final draft will be ready in the next fewdays and the process completed in 45 days.

Companies blacklisted earlier can beallowed conditionally based on merit andnecessity and mentioned the case of Tatratrucks in which Bharat Electronics Limited(BEL) had been allowed to procure sparesfrom the parent company.Border infrastructure

Mr. Parrikar said the country was usingout-dated technologies in road building in theborder areas and there was a need to get lat-est technologies. The Border RoadsOrganisation (BRO) was jointly under theDefence and Surface Transport ministrieswhich was hampering work.

The Defence Ministry is working outmodalities to free BRO from SurfaceTransport Ministry and bring under its con-trol.

Negotiations with Dassault of France forthe purchase of 126 fighter aircraft were pro-gressing and the French was sending anempowered person to sort out the differenceson cost negotiations, Mr. Parrikar remarked.

From Page 1NEW DELHI | THURSDAY | JAN 01, 2015SAADDA HAQ

Editorial4 NEW DELHI | THURSDAY | JAN 01, 2015SAADDA HAQ

By promulgating ordinances within days of the win-ter session of Parliament coming to a close, theNarendra Modi government has shown that it is not

averse to repeating what his party would have considered aconstitutional impropriety, had it been done by a Congressgovernment. The power to issue ordinances is normally tobe exercised to bring in urgent legislative measures whenParliament is in recess. It is not one to be resorted to mere-ly because the government of the day lacks a majority in theUpper House or is unable to break a deadlock in Parliament.However, it is seen that inefficient floor management, fearof facing a House in which the incumbent party does nothave a majority, and a reluctance to make pragmatic con-cessions across the floor in the interest of sticking to its leg-islative agenda are the main reasons for prolonged dead-locks. It is a situation rich in irony as the BJP had oftenquestioned the United Progressive Alliance government’spromulgation of ordinances in close proximity to a parlia-mentary session. As in the case of the impasse in the RajyaSabha that occasioned the ordinances recently issued tomake legislative changes in the coal and insurance sectors,logjams are often the result of the government’s aversion toresolving issues raised by the Opposition. The BharatiyaJanata Party’s justification for exercising the President’slegislative power is that it had to avoid any further delay inthe e-auction of coal blocks; and that raising the cap on for-eign direct investment in insurance from 26 per cent to 49brooked no further delay. And it has now approved yetanother ordinance to amend the land acquisition law whenthere appears to be no urgent need to do so. On the flip side,it is a fact that the combined opposition, which outnumbersthe ruling party and its allies in the Rajya Sabha, was deter-mined to stall the proceedings until the demand that thePrime Minister himself make a statement on the ongoing‘reconversion’ drive organised by affiliates of the SanghParivar was met. Mr. Modi could have intervened at leastonce to clear the air on allegations that his government wasconniving at the controversial ghar vapsi programmesacross the country. For a government committed to undoingthe ‘policy paralysis’ of the previous regime and revitalis-ing economic reforms and good governance, his regime hasshown notable reluctance to rein in fringe Hindutva ele-ments that do not seem to care for the government’s growthand development objectives. Finance Minister ArunJaitley’s claim that the promulgation of the ordinances sig-nify the government’s commitment to reform is question-able. An easier way to demonstrate its commitment toreform would have been to create conditions conducive togetting the Bills passed in the House

Impropriety of ordinanceThursday | January 01, 2015

SAADDA HAQ

BY JAIRAM RAMESH AND MUHAMMAD KHAN

On Monday, the BharatiyaJanata Party governmentcleared the proposed ordi-

nance to amend the Right to FairCompensation and Transparency inLand Acquisition, Rehabilitation andResettlement Act 2013. This amend-ment, insofar as has been madeknown to the public, creates a sepa-rate category of projects which shallbe “fast tracked.” The items coveredunder this category include industrialcorridors, defence and defence pro-duction, rural infrastructure includingelectrification, housing for the poorincluding affordable housing, andinfrastructure projects including proj-ects taken up under Public-PrivatePartnership (PPP) mode.

The immediate and likely impact ofthis amendment is that land can nowbe acquired for these projects withouthaving to exhaust the pre-acquisitionprocesses that had been put in place,namely the Social Impact Assessment(SIA) and the determination of priorinformed consent from affected fami-lies. A cursory analysis of this amend-ment shows why the same is not justproblematic but is also a serious stepbackward.

Reason behind pre-acquisitionsteps

First, there is a reason why the con-sent and SIA process had been hard-coded into the DNA of the law.Acquisition had become a tool for theuse of brutal force by the state.Acquisition was almost always force-ful, leading invariably to riots andprotests (often violent in nature). Byrequiring the state to seek the consentof 70 to 80 per cent of the affectedfamilies, the law empowered thosewho were to be directly impactedagainst the arbitrary exercise of the

power by the state. For the first timein the history of independent Indiawas the citizenry given a say in howthe state would deal with their land.Now with this one step, the BJP hasreturned us to the days of the Britishenacted law where our citizensenjoyed no say in their development.

Second, the unamended law wasenacted after unprecedented nation-wide consultations which took placeover two years. Two all-party meet-ings were convened. The Bill wassubject to 12 hour debates in bothHouses in which over 60 memberstook part. Two key amendments sug-gested by Ms. Sushma Swaraj andMr. Arun Jaitley were also accepted(These related to providing for leaseas an option and the share of an orig-inal owner in case his land was subse-quently acquired). The BJP unam-biguously supported the law inParliament and even expressed sup-port for these very provisions it nowseeks to exclude. In this context, thissharp ‘U-turn’ becomes all the moresurprising.

Infrastructure projects

Third, under the unamended Act,the only exemptions to the consentand the SIA clause were the 13 lawsgiven in the Fourth Schedule to theAct itself. Mindful of the fact thatsome projects were of greater nation-al importance than others, the framers

had already created this separate classof projects which included acquisi-tion for the purposes of railways,national highways, atomic energy,electricity, etc. Acquisition fordefence and national security hadalso been protected under the urgencyclause. And even these 13 laws had tobe amended within one year, i.e. byDecember 31, 2014 to ensure thatcompensation, rehabilitation andresettlement clauses were brought ona par with the new law (vide section105 of the unamended law). Withregard to this particular amendment,the government is attempting to makea virtue out of a necessity prescribedby their predecessors.

Fourth, crafting a set of categorieswhich includes vague items such asinfrastructure projects (including PPPprojects) solely for the purpose of

exempting them from consentrequires enormous application ofmind. The exemptions given in theunamended law were the result ofsustained public consultation. In thecase of the ordinance, exemptionshave been created without any expla-nation as to why these activities or

sectors are being placed in a class oftheir own. Such lawmaking practicesveer dangerously close to arbitrari-ness in administrative decision-mak-ing.

Importance of a safeguard

Supporters of the amendment willundoubtedly argue that the law doesnot dilute the provisions of compen-sation, rehabilitation and resettlementbut instead only makes the processfor acquiring the land easier.

What they fail to realise is the gapbetween the bargaining power of thestate and the lowest common denom-inator is a very wide chasm.

The SIA process gave these people(often farmers) the right to negotiatefairer rates of compensation while

determining if the project was truly inthe public interest. It had alsoremoved the scope for the subjectiveuse of discretion by the Collector andother representatives of the govern-ment.

Now, with the SIA process beingwaived, the Collector can once againdetermine what constitutes a publicpurpose and how soon can land beacquired. It was this uncheckedauthority that was at the heart of themultiple abuses of the law chronicledover the last 70 years. Discretion hadbeen replaced by verifiable systemsand processes to check capriciousdecision-making. Now, this safeguardstands eroded.

The SIA was designed to ensurethat no acquisition in excess of thebare minimum requirement tookplace. This was an important objec-tive as most acquisitions were charac-terised by excess zeal on the part ofthe state. More land was alwaysacquired than was needed for theproject in question. Without SIA, thepossibility of arbitrary diversionsonce again becomes a reality.

No restrictions

Also, the new law didn’t introducethe concepts of rehabilitation andresettlement. It merely put in place aprocess that ensured compliance andenforcement. The Supreme Court ofIndia had already mandated rehabili-tation and resettlement even beforethe new law was enacted. There waseven a national policy that existed onthe subject but violations remainedrampant. The SIA was created to pro-vide a framework that would ensureits implementation.

Another fear is that this new ordi-nance will effectively undo theimplicit limits that had been placed

on the acquisition of agricultural ormulti-crop land by the unamendedAct (done to ensure continued foodsecurity for our citizens). However,the amendments seem to allow suchacquisitions without restrictions. Thisgives rise to worrying questions as towho is the natural constituency of theparty in power.

The government should haveinstead used this opportunity tostrengthen the legal regime governingland titles in States where it is now inpower (since land is primarily a statesubject). Knowledge asymmetry andan active land mafia lead to the pur-chase of land being a risky proposi-tion (and hence making acquisitionmore attractive). It is a pity that thegovernment did not take this opportu-nity given that it is in power in boththe Centre and in key States whereacquisition is a burning issue(Maharashtra, Haryana, Rajasthanand Madhya Pradesh). The amend-ments will only disempower gramsabhas.

In the name of economic reformsand development, the governmenthas taken a significant step backwardin India’s march to land justice. Anordinance pushed through in thismanner violates all democratic normsand is the shape of things to come inthe Modi sarkar. Given this cloak-and-dagger approach becoming thenorm for lawmaking in our country,we can only hope that in this era ofacronym-anchored governance,‘Modi’ does not come to stand for‘Murder of Democratic India’.

(Jairam Ramesh is a Member ofParliament, Rajya Sabha, and

Muhammad Khan is an advocate.)

Fencing the farmer out

Our team will publish yourthoughts send us your articles at

news.saaddahaq@gmail.com

BY UDAY ABHYANKAR

The latest marathonnegotiations on climatechange recently fin-

ished in Lima, Peru. Many out-side observers feel that the cen-trepiece of Lima, the IntendedNationally DeterminedContributions (INDCs), neitherto be reviewed nor externallymonitored, are too weak tohave any real impact on climatechange.

Despite this, the Indian dele-gation expressed satisfactionover the result. So has the U.S,which is understandable sincelittle is really being asked of itin terms of commitments. Butwhat is India seeking?

Let’s look at the situation.India is a warm and primarilysubtropical country where agri-culture and drinking waterdepend on the monsoons.Northern India depends onriver systems which are sus-tained by melting Himalayanglaciers. The country has along coastline. It is also regu-larly exposed to extremeweather events — floods,droughts and hurricanes — andsuffers from the presence ofmosquitoes and other vectorsthat can carry infectious dis-eases.

Global warming leads tochanges in weather patternsthat could make the monsoonsmore erratic and extremeweather events more likely.With glaciers melting morerapidly, there will be morefloods followed by waterscarcity. Rising sea levels due

to warming will threaten ourcoastal cities and low-lying vil-lages. Higher temperaturescould reduce yields of somemajor crops while bringing intropical diseases that have notbeen endemic in the country sofar. Rising emissions, especial-ly in urban areas, have wors-ened pollution and made the airin many Indian citiesunhealthy.

More vulnerable

India is far more vulnerableto global warming than devel-oped countries which are locat-ed in cooler temperate zones.So, it needs strong collectiveinternational action to limit cli-mate change and global warm-ing more than these countriesdo. Making the economy moreenergy-efficient, which willreduce carbon emissions, is inthe country’s own interest.Even the energy-guzzling U.S.produces four times more GDPper unit carbon dioxide emis-sions than India does — manyenergy-efficient EU countriesproduce six times more. If‘Make in India’ productsrequire four times as much car-bon-based energy, can they beinternationally competitive?Moreover, unless India reducescarbon intensity, its rapidlygrowing imported oil and coalrequirements will weigh heavi-ly on external payments, andpollution in cities will worsen.But if it improves carbon effi-ciency to current U.S. levels,the GDP could grow four timeswithout an increase in COemissions.

There is now growing recog-nition of this and there are seri-ous plans to reduce the carbonintensity of Indian production,construction as well as energyconsumption through moreenergy-efficient vehicles.Progress is being made. Butwouldn’t it be logical to lever-age domestic actions we needto take in our own interests topromote commitments bymajor emitting countries,accountable within an interna-tional agreement?

Against this background,what issues have we empha-sised on in the climate changenegotiations? The key oneshave been equity and historicalresponsibility of the developedcountries; hence Common butDifferentiated Responsibilities(CBDR), financial aid andgreen technologies to develop-ing countries for mitigation andadaptation to climate change.Recently India called for adap-tation to be given the same pri-ority as mitigation. On equity ithas argued that developedcountries, which are responsi-ble for most of the additionalCO in the atmosphere follow-ing the industrial revolution,should provide the solution.But developed countries likethe U.S. stress that the develop-ing countries of today —China, India, Brazil and others— are responsible for morethan 50 per cent of global COemissions. Unless a collectiveeffort is made, CO emissionscannot be reduced sufficientlyto limit global warming to 2degree Celsius — the tempera-ture that the Intergovernmental

Panel on Climate Change, theglobal body that tracks the sci-ence of climate change, hassaid is the threshold whichcould trigger dangerous effects.

Regarding financial aid andconcessional technology trans-fer, does giving high priority tothem really make much sensein terms of India’s interests?Following a decision of theAtal Bihari Vajpayee govern-ment, India rejected develop-ment aid from most donorcountries for over a decade. Dowe seek aid from them now?

On technology, most greentechnology is owned by privatecorporations. Budgets in devel-oped countries are under pres-sure and there is not going to bemuch additional money for cli-mate aid. Whatever is availableto lease or purchase green tech-nology, or for mitigation andadaptation, will go to Africanand other Least DevelopedCountries and Small IslandStates. India should welcomereceiving aid but at the sametime cannot expect to get muchclimate aid. Sub-SaharanAfrican countries, smallerLatin American and Caribbeancountries, and Small IslandStates are more concernedabout their future in a world oferratic weather and rising seasthan they are about historicalresponsibility.

Moreover they know thattheir emissions are small, andlittle will be asked of them, andthat their limited financialrequirements are likely to besubstantially covered by a com-bination of additional climate

finance and multilateral aid. SoIndia’s approach that onlydeveloped countries shouldhave binding internationalcommitments does not getmuch resonance; developingcountries are often fragmentedin these negotiations.

Improving energy efficiency

The only significant climate-related financing India hasreceived is through the CleanDevelopment Mechanism(CDM). Under the CDM,Indian entities receive pay-ments from developed countryenterprises for CO reductionsthat the latter can use to meettheir carbon reduction obliga-tions. But this will only work infuture if there is a strong newclimate agreement.

Otherwise the carbon marketwill collapse and our CDMfinancing, which is significant,will dry up. Without Indianleadership, there will be no cli-mate change agreement. Indianeeds to improve its own ener-gy efficiency. It should lever-age this necessity to lead theway to a meaningful interna-tional agreement in Paris. Itspolicy goal should be to reducethe dangers of global warmingfor its people and get financialand other benefits from climatechange agreements through, forexample, an enhanced CDM.Unfortunately India’s currentapproach is achieving neither.Perhaps it is time for somefresh thinking.

(Uday Abhyankar is a formerIndian diplomat and UN offi-

cial.)

India needs to take the lead

In the name of economic reforms and development, thegovernment has taken a significant step backward in

India’s march to land justice. An ordinance pushedthrough in this manner violates all democratic norms andis the shape of things to come in the Modi sarkar. Giventhis cloak-and-dagger approach becoming the norm forlawmaking in our country, we can only hope that in thisera of acronym-anchored governance, ‘Modi’ does not

come to stand for ‘Murder of Democratic India’.

State Watch 5NEW DELHI | THURSDAY | JAN 01, 2015SAADDA HAQ

CHENNAI, DEC 31An accident that resulted

in the loss of many lives,hike in the cost of con-struction material, a con-servative approach to buy-ing property, and delay inhanding over new homeswere some of the majoroccurrences in the con-struction industry inChennai, this year.

The collapse of an 11-storey building inMoulivakkam on June 28shook not just Chennai, butthe housing sector in theentire country, leading tocalls for urgent and sweep-ing reforms on monitoringof construction activity.

The accident causedpanic among those whohad taken loans and invest-ed their savings on flats in

high-rise buildings. “It wasthe biggest dampener inaddition to economic prob-

lems and the political situ-ation,” said Ajit Chordia,president, Chennai region,Confederation of RealEstate Developers’Association of India

(CREDAI).The lull that followed hit

the salaried sections hard

as they were unable tomove into their houses dueto delays in construction,or in getting completioncertificates from theChennai Metropolitan

Development Authority,which tightened monitor-ing.

“The usual growth afteran upswing in the stockmarket did not happen. Wehope 2015 will be differ-ent,” said Arun Kumar,managing director of CasaGrande. While the numberof housing units added tothe city in 2014 was around20,000 — the average peryear in Chennai andextended areas since 2011— the actual absorptionwas much lower.

“Increased governmentspending on infrastructurefollowed by a strong budg-et will push growth,” saidMr. Chordia. Analysts said,in addition to pocketsaround Tambaram andAmbattur, they expected

areas along Outer RingRoad to witness maximumgrowth.

“Governments change,budgets are passed, but thelifestyle of the poorremains the same,” said G.Selva of the CommunistParty of India (Marxist).

Stating that Chennai washome to several lakh work-ers, not just from otherStates but also from back-ward pockets within TamilNadu, he said the Centreand State governments haddone very little.

Long-term policies tolook into the welfare of thissection and recoverencroached propertybelonging to the govern-ment will have to be imple-mented to ensure housingfor the poor, he said.

Realty sector hopes for an upswing in the coming year

BENGALURU, DEC 31Amidst din, the Bruhat Bangalore

Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) council onTuesday passed a resolution urging thegovernment to order a Central Bureau ofInvestigation (CBI) probe to find out howBBMP files, pertaining to Rs. 120 croreworth works sanctioned for theRajarajeshwarinagar zone, found theirway into a private residence in Vyalikaval.The Lokayukta raided the house recentlyand recovered the files.

Council members engaged in a heateddiscussion on the issue.

BBMP Commissioner M.Lakshminarayana has suspended the threeofficials — executive engineer IdayaVendon, assistant engineer Vishwas andfirst-division assistant Shylaja — whowere in the house clearing the files per-taining to the Rs. 120 crore worth ofworks sanctioned for theRajarajeshwarinagar zone.

Councillors from RajarajeshwarinagarG.H. Ramachandra, Lakshmikanth Reddyand Govindaraju (from Congress) madeoblique references to Congress leader andRajarajeshwari Nagar MLA Munirathna,who is also Yeshwantpur councillor, towhom the house allegedly belongs.

Several councillors from the BJP soughtan explanation from Mr.Lakshminarayana. They wanted to knowwho the house that was raided belonged toand who had taken the BBMP files there.When they did not receive a satisfactoryresponse from the Commissioner, council-lors from the RajarajeshwarinagarAssembly constituency staged a snapprotest in the well of the House. They alsoquestioned why Mr. Vendon, who was onleave, was “updating” the files in a privateproperty.

Venkatachalapathy, BBMP’s DeputyCommissioner (Revenue), informed thecouncil that the House was registered inthe name of Manjula. Unconvinced, thecouncillors demanded to know why addi-tional details, such as relationship details(wife of/ daughter of) were not recorded.

The BJP councillors demanded Mr.Munirathna’s membership in the BBMPcouncil and Assembly be cancelled.

When the commotion did not die downdespite repeated appeals, Mayor N.Shantha Kumari adjourned the meeting.

HYDERABAD, , DEC 31More than 52,000 vehicles are

plying on roads in Telangana with-out registration after expiry of thetemporary registration numbers(T/R), though one is expected toget his/her vehicle registered afterpurchase.

Data sourced from the RoadTransport Authority (RTA)showed that there are presently52,205 unregistered vehicles inTS, which were not registeredafter April 1. Of the total, 45,763are two-wheelers, 4,491 tractortrailers, 876 cars and others.

Non-registration of vehicles is inclear violation of RTA rules as avehicle must be registered within30 days after purchase. Beyondthat, a fine will have to be leviedon the driver. Though the percent-age of the unregistered vehicles isminiscule compared to the totalnumber of vehicles in the State,which is more than 70 lakh, non-registration can lead to many com-plications to the owner in caseanything untoward happens, said a

senior RTA official.“For example, after the T/R

expires 30 days after purchase, incase of an accident, the insuranceof the vehicle will be void,” point-ed out the senior RTA official. Thedata from the RTA, which shows

the number of unregistered vehi-cles after 180 days of purchase,will soon help enforcement offi-cers tackle the issue, mentionedthe senior official. “We are plan-ning to work together with policeofficials as well, and very soon

action will be taken against viola-tors,” he said. Another senior offi-cial further explained that it is alsoan important issue for police offi-cers, who can identify a vehicleand its owner easily in case of anaccident.

52,000 unregistered vehicles plying on roads in TS COIMBATORE, DEC 31

The New Year is begin-ning on a dark note for ahelpline that has assistedover 24,000 differentlyabled persons in the Statein the past seven years.One of the major donors iswithdrawing funding fromDecember 31, threateningits operation.

From procedures toapply for benefits underthe State and CentralGovernments schemes andconcessions for employ-ment opportunities in theprivate sector, the helpline,founded here on December30, 2007 by Caliber Trust,provides a wide range ofassistance.

Unlike most helplinesthat have only a landline,Caliber Trust presidentSurya Nagappan says theyalso operate a mobile num-ber to enable those with

hearing and speech disabil-ities to obtain informationthrough SMS.

“In fact, the helpline alsocalls back on missed callsas many differently abledpersons are in dire eco-nomic straits and hence,give missed calls fromtheir friends’ or relativesmobile phones, ” he says.

So far, the helpline hasattended to 22,487 callsand sent SMS to 1,800 per-sons.

It has also sent copies ofGovernment Orders to 276persons.

The helpline incurs amonthly operationalexpenditure of around Rs.20,000.

The organisation steppedup its operations in 2009when it began to receivefunding from a Germanorganisation routedthrough a Coimbatore

organisation. However,this funding is now set tocease from December 31,he says.

This has come at a veryinopportune moment as thehelpline was now planningto expand its operations byshifting to Chennai.

A donor has providedland at Egmore, Chennai,for the purpose.

“The Chennai office willhelp differently abled per-sons approach theGovernment offices andsubmit applications. Weare determined to keep thehelpline running and arenow looking for donors,”adds Mr. Nagappan.

As per the Census data ofthe Office of RegistrarGeneral and CensusCommissioner Tamil had16 lakh differently abledpersons as per the 2001Census.

MANGALURU, DEC 31The year started with communal trouble

and ended with it in certain pockets ofMangaluru Taluk in Dakshina Kannadaforcing the government to call the RapidAction Force (RAF) to the city. Barringthis, peace prevailed in other parts of thedistrict.

If two communities who lived cordiallyfor many years clashed in Ullal in January,peace was disturbed at Ulaibettu on the out-skirts of the city on religious grounds inearly December.

Politically, the BJP retained itsMangaluru Lok Sabha seat for the seventhconsecutive term in the parliamentary elec-tions in May. Nalin Kumar Kateel made itto the Lok Sabha for the second term bydefeating Congress veteran B. JanardhanaPoojary by a margin of 1.43 lakh votes.

People expressed their anguish againstthe recommendations of the K.Kasturirangan Committee in declaring sev-eral villages as ecologically sensitive.Protests against the proposed Nethravathidiversion continued. There was a hue andcry against banning Kambala, and lovers ofthe folk sport heaved a sigh of relief onlyafter the Karnataka High Court allowed it,albeit with certain conditions.Railway hopes

The year, though, had kindled high hopesamong people in the region with regard toRailway infrastructure when D.V.Sadananda Gowda was made the Minister

for Railways. However, this was short-livedwith Mr. Gowda getting a very short tenure.Even within the short period, Mr. Gowdamade earnest efforts to bring the infrastruc-ture on track in the State in general and forthe coastal region in particular. Setting aMarch 2016 deadline for the completion ofBengaluru-Hassan new line, proposal tointroduce one more express train betweenBengaluru and Mangaluru, proposal for apassenger train between Kasaragod andByndoor via Mangaluru, were some of hiscontributions. On the bus transport sector,operators — KSRTC as well as private —continues to be indifferent to passing on thebenefit of reduced diesel price to passengers.Headless MCC

The Mangaluru City Corporation

remained without a regular Commissionerfor six months though the Mayoral elec-tions took place in March after a gap ofmore than a year of conducting the elec-tions to the council of the city corporation.The Mayoral elections were delayed due tolegal issues over reservation.

The city did not see any major infrastruc-ture development projects and highwaywidening works between Talapady andKundapur almost came to a halt.

The flight service between Mangaluruand Kuwait was suspended for some time.Works on constructing parallel taxi-waybegan at the Mangaluru InternationalAirport. Towards the end of the year, Tulu-speaking people came together to celebratethe Vishwa Tuluvere Parba.

A year that began and ended with communal tension

CHENNAI, DEC 31The four day long strike by

unions of State TransportCorporations' (STC) employeeshas been called off.

The decision was taken at ameeting between TransportMinister V. Senthil Balaji andleaders of the unions atSecretariat on Wednesday. Themeeting lasted nearly 45 min-utes.

The government has agreed toconstitute a committee to holdnegotiations on wage revisionwith representatives of theunions. The talks would be heldin the presence of the TransportMinister. The panel wouldinclude managing directors ofall the eight STCs.

The unions' leaders said theirdemand for the withdrawal ofcases against some employees

had also been conceded while agovernment official said thedemand would be considered.

Twelve unions took part in the

meeting and Labour ProgressiveFederation (LPF), CITU and theAnna Thozhirsanga Peravai(ATP) were among them.

Tamil Nadu bus strike called off

Future bleak for differentlyabled helpline as donor pulls out

BBMP files in Vyalikavalhouse: CBI probe sought

HYDERABAD, , DEC 31The Exhibition Society plans

to set up a school for orphans atHuzurabad and a degree col-lege for women at Sircilla inKarimnagar district in the newyear. The Exhibition Societyhas further resolved to adoptthree government high schoolsin the old city – two atGowlipura and one atMoghalpura. Sanitation andother basic facilities would beimproved here, said EatalaRajender, president, ExhibitionSociety, and Minister forFinance.

He told presspersons here onTuesday that Chief Minister K.Chandrasekhar Rao will inau-gurate the 75th All IndiaIndustrial Exhibition and theplatinum jubilee celebrationsof the Exhibition Society onThursday at 5 p.m. He will alsounveil a huge painting depict-ing the evolution and growth ofthe ‘Numaish’ right from itsinception in 1938.Felicitations

The Exhibition Society hasdecided to felicitate six personswho had put up their stalls inthe first Numaish. They areShah Alam Khan (GolcondaCigarettes), Amol Lahoti

(Marwari Printing Press), Dr.A. Narsimha Rao (M/s J.R &Sons), Dhiren RameshChandra (M/s Premji LaljiCo.), Dr. Shamshad Hussain(M/s Haji Qurban Husain &Sons) and S.K. NizamuddinHasan (Deccan Hats Works).This apart, three members ofExhibition Society – Justice A.Seetaram Reddy, A. Ranga Raoand N. Laxmi Naryana — whohave completed 50 years ofservice, would be felicitated.

Mr. Rajender asked theExhibition Society authoritiesto further refine the annualevent in keeping with the ChiefMinister’s obsession with‘reinvention’. It was a matterof pride that the society wascelebrating its platinum jubileein the Telangana State, he saidand urged it to play a crucialrole in achieving the dream of‘Bangaru Telangana’. He hint-ed at the idea of taking back thethree acres land of theExhibition Society given to theCentral WarehousingCorporation and one acre to theState Warehousing Corporationto meet the parking needs.These godowns could be shift-ed elsewhere, Mr. Rajendersaid.

P. Narotham Reddy, hon-orary secretary, ExhibitionSociety, said an ‘ExhibitionApp’ was developed for thebenefit of visitors. They couldeasily download the App andget all the information aboutthe stalls and other things. Asin the past, live video stream-ing of Numaish would be done.People could watch the eventon Internet.

In association with KamineniHospitals, health serviceswould be provided at afford-able rates to visitors.

‘Numaish’ to begin tomorrow

KERIHOLE, ONE OF THE FOUR STREAMS NEAR SAKLESHPUR, THAT WILL BE DIVERTED UNDER

THE CONTROVERSIAL YETTINAHOLE PROJECT.

Harpeet Kaur Sondhi, Vice Chairman, Gurudwara Bangla Sahib, along withothers members wishing Happy New Year to all

NEW DELHI | THURSDAY | JAN 01, 2015SAADDA HAQ

The Windows Phoneapp ecosystem fallswell behind Android

and iOS, and Microsoft isobviously looking at waysto boost it. The companyhas reportedly ordered itsDeveloper Experience (DX)team, a.k.a Developer andPlatform Evangelism(DPE), to lure moreWindows and WindowsPhone app developers. Thefirm is also reportedly plan-ning to give Windows 10native Android app support.

Microsoft in Novemberrevealed it had over 525,000apps in the Windows Storeand Windows Phone Storecombined. To put that inperspective, both GooglePlay and App Store haveover 1.3 million apps.

Microsoft has previouslytaken several stridestowards improving theWindows Phone andWindows app offerings andexperience. The firm hadrecently started accepting'Universal Apps' for its appstores, letting developerscreate an app once and scaleit accordingly as per theplatform and device, insteadof creating separate ver-sions for separate devices.ZDNet's Mary Jo Foley, along-time Microsoft watch-er, claims this is still 'Plan A'in Microsoft's strategy toboost the Windows andWindows Phone appecosystem.

By linking two appsacross the two stores, devel-opers were able to offer the'get once and download forall compatible Windowsdevices' experience, apartfrom being able to link in-app purchases, and bothWindows 8 and Windows8.1 apps. Linked apps alsogive developers the abilityto roam application dataacross form factors, and asingle notification channel.Microsoft has also outlinedconsolidated price tiers andconsistent certification poli-cies between the WindowsStore and Windows PhoneStore.

The DPE/DX team is nowreportedly been ordered toaggressively attract eyeindependent software ven-dors (ISVs), from startupsto more established compa-nies. The team is said to alsobe looking to recruit stu-dents, and also developersnot currently supportingMicrosoft platforms. ISVoutreach teams across thecompany are apparentlyalso being consolidated,apart from plenty of otherreorganisation withinMicrosoft to achieve thesame effect. The outreachteams are reportedly alsolooking to work with ven-ture capital firms to get aninside track on app develop-ment startups, withMicrosoft VenturesAccelerators also beingroped in.

Foley adds thatMicrosoft's 'Plan B' is toenable native support forAndroid apps on itsWindows and WindowsPhone platforms. Sourcesclose to the matter haveadded that it can be a possi-bility in Windows 10, whichwas unveiled this year inSeptember and the con-sumer preview of which isexpected to be unveiled atMicrosoft's January 21event.

Science & Tech6

1. The inert gas which is substituted for nitrogen in theair used by deep sea divers for breathing, isA. Argon B. XenonC. Helium D. Krypton

2. The gases used in different types of welding wouldincludeA. oxygen and hydrogenB. oxygen, hydrogen, acetylene and nitrogenC. oxygen, acetylene and argonD. oxygen and acetylene

3. The property of a substance to absorb moisture fromthe air on exposure is calledA. osmosis B. deliquescenceC. efflorescence D. desiccation

4. In which of the following activities silicon carbide isused?A. Making cement and glassB. Disinfecting water of pondsC. cutting very hard substancesD. Making casts for statues

5. The average salinity of sea water isA. 3% B. 3.5%C. 2.5% D. 2%

QUIZ TIME

Answer: 1(C), 2 (D), 3(B), 4(C), 5(B)

12.00 am Everest 12.30 am Diya aur BaatiHum 01.00 am Ye HaiMohabbatein

01.30 am Saath Nibhaana Saathiya 02.00 am Yeh Rishta Kya Kehlata Hai 02.30 am Veera: Ek Veer Ki Ardaas 03.00 am Tu Mera Hero 03.30 am Iss Pyaar Ko Kya NaamDoon...Ek Baar Phir 04.00 am Saath Nibhaana Saathiya 04.30 am Everest 05.00 am Diya aur Baati Hum 05.30 am Nisha Aur Uske Cousins 06.00 am Iss Pyaar Ko Kya NaamDoon...Ek Baar Phir 06.30 am Ye Hai Mohabbatein 07.00 am Saath Nibhaana Saathiya 07.30 am Veera: Ek Veer Ki Ardaas 08.00 am Mahabharat 08.30 am Suhani Si Ek Ladki 09.00 am Diya aur Baati Hum 09.30 am Ye Hai Mohabbatein 10.00 am Saath Nibhaana Saathiya 10.30 am Tu Mera Hero 11.00 am Veera: Ek Veer Ki Ardaas 11.30 am Iss Pyaar Ko Kya NaamDoon...Ek Baar Phir 12.00 pm Diya aur Baati Hum 12.30 pm Yeh Rishta Kya Kehlata Hai 01.00 pm Ye Hai Mohabbatein 01.30 pm Tu Mera Hero 02.00 pm Everest 02.30 pm Diya aur Baati Hum 03.00 pm Nisha Aur Uske Cousins 03.30 pm Suhani Si Ek Ladki 04.00 pm Saath Nibhaana Saathiya 04.30 pm Tu Mera Hero 05.00 pm Veera: Ek Veer Ki Ardaas 06.00 pm Iss Pyaar Ko Kya NaamDoon...Ek Baar Phir 06.30 pm Suhani Si Ek Ladki 07.00 pm Saath Nibhaana Saathiya 07.30 pm Ye Hai Mohabbatein 08.00 pm Tu Mera Hero 08.30 pm Nisha Aur Uske Cousins 09.00 pm Diya aur Baati Hum 09.30 pm Yeh Rishta Kya Kehlata Hai 10.00 pm Everest 10.30 pm Veera: Ek Veer Ki Ardaas 11.00 pm Ye Hai Mohabbatein 11.30 pm Tu Mera Hero ____________________________

01.11 am Fillers 03.39 am Kisna: The Warrior Poet 06.13 am Aa Dekhen Zara

08.47 am Shaadi Se Pehle 11.30 am Zanjeer 02.20 pm Namastey London 05.12 pm Kambakkht Ishq 08.00 pm God Tussi Great Ho 11.07 pm Terminator 3: Rise of the

Machines _____________________________

12.00 am Teleshopping 02.00 am Jodha Akbar 02.30 am Kumkum Bhagya 03.00 am Aur…Pyaar Ho Gaya 03.30 am Doli Armaano Ki 04.00 am Baba Ramdev Ka Yog 05.00 am Narayan Seva 05.30 am Teleshopping 06.00 am Sant Nirankari Mandal 06.30 am The Faith Show 07.00 am Enjoying Every Day Life 07.30 am Creflo Dollar and TaffiDollar 08.00 am Teleshopping 09.00 am Kumkum Bhagya 09.30 am Bandhan....Sari UmarHume Sang Rehna Hai 10.00 am Maharakshak Aryan 10.30 am Jodha Akbar 11.00 am Doli Armaano Ki 11.30 am Satrangi Sasural 12.00 pm Jamai Raja 12.30 pm Kumkum Bhagya 01.00 pm Jodha Akbar 01.30 pm Bandhan....Sari UmarHume Sang Rehna Hai 02.00 pm Satrangi Sasural 02.30 pm Doli Armaano Ki 03.00 pm Kumkum Bhagya 03.30 pm Maharakshak Aryan 04.00 pm Qubool Hai 04.30 pm Bandhan....Sari UmarHume Sang Rehna Hai 05.00 pm Doli Armaano Ki 05.30 pm Jamai Raja 06.00 pm Kumkum Bhagya 06.30 pm Satrangi Sasural 07.00 pm Bandhan....Sari UmarHume Sang Rehna Hai 07.30 pm Sapne Suhane LadakpanKe 08.00 pm Jodha Akbar 08.30 pm Jamai Raja 09.00 pm Kumkum Bhagya 09.30 pm Qubool Hai 10.00 pm Satrangi Sasural 10.30 pm Doli Armaano Ki

11.00 pm Jodha Akbar 11.30 pm Jamai Raja _____________________________

12.00 am Comedy Nights with Kapil 01.00 am Telebrands 02.00 am Home Shop 18 05.00 am Iskcon Aarti 05.30 am Jesus Calls Ministry 06.00 am Telebrands 07.00 am Narayan Sewa SansthanTrust 07.30 am Home Shop 18 08.00 am Udann 08.30 am Shastri Sisters 09.00 am Meri Aashiqui Tum Se Hi 09.30 am Comedy Nights with Kapil 11.00 am Sasural Simar Ka 11.30 am Udann 12.00 pm Meri Aashiqui Tum Se Hi 12.30 pm Shastri Sisters 01.00 pm Balika Vadhu - KacchiUmar Ke Pakke Rishte 01.30 pm Sasural Simar Ka 02.00 pm Udann 02.30 pm Meri Aashiqui Tum Se Hi 03.00 pm Sasural Simar Ka 03.30 pm Udann 04.00 pm Bigg Boss : Weekend KaVaar 05.00 pm Comedy Nights with Kapil 06.30 pm Meri Aashiqui Tum Se Hi 07.00 pm Shastri Sisters 07.30 pm Sasural Simar Ka 08.00 pm Balika Vadhu - KacchiUmar Ke Pakke Rishte 08.30 pm Udann 09.00 pm Bigg Boss 10.00 pm Meri Aashiqui Tum Se Hi 10.30 pm Uttaran 11.00 pm Shastri Sisters 11.30 pm Udann _____________________________

12.00 am Best OfSavdhaan India :Mumbai Fights Back 01.00 am Supercops vs

Supervillains... Shapath : MissionMumbai 02.00 am Best of Savdhaan India:India Fights Back 03.00 am Pukaar 04.00 am Supercops vsSupervillains... Shapath : Mission

Mumbai 05.00 am Best Of Savdhaan India :Mumbai Fights Back 06.00 am Best of Savdhaan India:India Fights Back 07.00 am Best of Savdhaan India:India Fights Back : @11 - Crime Alert 07.30 am Mere Rang Mein RangneWali 08.00 am Mahakumbh 08.30 am Comedy Classes 09.00 am Ajeeb Daastaan Hai Ye 09.30 am Pukaar 10.30 am Mere Rang Mein RangneWali 11.00 am Ajeeb Daastaan Hai Ye 11.30 am Mahakumbh 12.00 pm Best of Savdhaan India:India Fights Back (2) 01.00 pm Best of Savdhaan India:India Fights Back (2) 02.00 pm Best of Savdhaan India:India Fights Back (2) 03.00 pm Best of Savdhaan India:India Fights Back (2) 04.00 pm Best of Savdhaan India:India Fights Back (2) 05.00 pm Best of Savdhaan India:India Fights Back (2) 06.00 pm Best of Savdhaan India:India Fights Back : @11 - Crime Alert 06.30 pm Best of Savdhaan India:India Fights Back : @11 - Crime Alert 07.30 pm Mere Rang Mein RangneWali 08.00 pm Mahakumbh 08.30 pm Pukaar 09.30 pm Ajeeb Daastaan Hai Ye 10.00 pm Comedy Classes 10.30 pm Best of Savdhaan India:India Fights Back 11.30 pm Mahakumbh _____________________________

01.15 am YaarGaddar 03.25 am Chhoti Bahu (1994) 05.40 am Do Dooni Chaar 08.05 am Jodi No. 1 10.55 am Chup Chup Ke 02.20 pm Tees Maar Khan 05.05 pm Hera Pheri 08.00 pm Ready 11.05 pm Narsimha: The PowerfulMan

TV Channels Schedule TODAY’S STARARIES What ails you now can be eliminated if you're willing to stand up and say

exactly what needs to be said, Aries. Going with the flow may be an easyroute to follow, but it might not always take you down a path that leads to thefulfillment of your dreams. Be a bit more aggressive about your positiontoday and outwardly project yourself as the true master of your destiny.

TAURUS It takes two to tango, Taurus. Remember that life isn't a one-way street.There needs to be a bit of give and take if you expect others to treat you theway you want to be treated. Don't let people take control when it comes totaking charge of your own life. Others may be emotional and stubborn. Don'twaste your breath with useless drivel. Say something meaningful.

GEMINI It may be hard to resolve anything today, Gemini. It could be that there's an over-whelming resistance making it difficult to act according to plan. Today isn't a goodday to fight. If things don't seem to be going your way, don't push it. Trying tostrong-arm the situation will only aggravate things and make them worse. Youmay need to make some compromises in order to maintain the peace.

CANCER Intense emotions are apt to dominate the scene today, Cancer.Don't do anything halfway. It's time to give it your all or nothing. Youhave the power to cut to the heart of the issue. Don't hesitate. If youmeet opposition, stay strong. There's a valuable lesson to belearned. If you're being true to yourself, you should have no troubleovercoming any obstacle that stands in your path.

LEO There's an overwhelming intensity about the day that mightmake it difficult for you to maintain the peace, Leo. Strong opin-ions and courageous emotions are clashing in a climactic fash-ion. You might find yourself in the middle of conflicting forces ifyou aren't careful. Make sure you take care of yourself and yourneeds before you try to patch up things for everybody else.

VIRGO You may feel extra self-confident today, Virgo, making you more able to say anddo the things you might normally keep inside. Be warned, however, that you're aptto run into some powerful, unexpected opposition. The genius in you wants tocome out and show others what you're made of, but other people may have rea-son to find fault. Don't let others' disapproval hinder your progress.

LIBRA You might find that others' strong opinions dictate today's actions, Libra.The atmosphere is quite intense, so you might want to lay low and letothers have their way. Don't try to put up a fight. Unexpected oppositionmay come out of nowhere and take control. There's a powerful force atwork asking you to do things with more passion than usual.

SCORPIO Create your own reality, Scorpio. It could be that you have the puppet strings inyour hands, but you're too afraid to use them. Don't shy away from responsibil-ity. Take your time and don't lose sight of your goals. The stakes are extra hightoday, and you will find that the slightest movement is magnified several timesover. Be careful how you use your words. They won't be taken lightly

SAGITTARIUSThings that you thought were obvious may not seem quite asclear as you'd like them to be, Sagittarius. Be aware that theremay be some intense opposition to your plans. Take care ofother people and their emotions. You will find that a wall mightsuddenly go up, putting a harsh barrier between you and yourgoals. Consider your heart as well as your head.

CAPRICORN Other people may tend to snap under the emotional pressure of the day,Capricorn, but you're well suited to soar through with flying colors. You're ruled byyour emotions and you have no problem navigating rough waters. Other peoplemay look to you for strength and support. Trust yourself and try not to get lured offcourse by conflicting opinions that don't seem to sit right with you.

AQUARIUS There's a need for decisive action today, Aquarius, and you're the one fitfor the job. Strong wills and forceful opinions will win out. Others aren'tlikely to be easily manipulated. Everyone has a voice and they won't beafraid to use it. Make sure that you speak up on your behalf or your bestinterests may be lost. Stand up for yourself. It's now or never.

PISCES There may be tension and opposition today, Pisces, so be prepared. It could seemlike everyone wants to rattle your cage. Stand strong. There are forceful opinionscrying out to be heard. The more stubborn you are, the harder it will be for impor-tant information to flow freely. Protect your interests by standing your ground, butmake sure you don't step on other people's toes in the process.

Intex Aqua V2 With 3G Support, Android4.4.2 KitKat Launched at Rs. 3,090

Intex has launched a newbudget Android smart-phone called the Aqua

V2, pricing it at Rs. 3,090.

The company has listedthe Intex Aqua V2 on itswebsite; however, there isno official word yet aboutthe availability of the newsmartphone.

The Intex Aqua V2 runsAndroid 4.4.2 KitKat out-of-the-box, and comes withdual-SIM (GSM+GSM)support. It features a 3.5-inch HVGA (320x480 pix-els) display. The smart-phone is powered by a1GHz single coreSpreadtrum (SC7715)processor alongside256MB of RAM. Itincludes 104MB of inbuiltstorage th at is expandablevia microSD card (up to32GB).

The smartphone sports a2-megapixel fixed-focusrear camera with LEDflash, while it also houses a0.3-megapixel front-facing

camera. Connectivityoptions on the Intex AquaV2 include Bluetooth 4.0,Wi-Fi, Micro-USB, GPRS/EDGE, GPS/ A-GPS, and3G. It packs a 1300mAh

battery that is rated to deliv-er up to 6-8 hours of talktime and up to 180 hours ofstandby time.

The Aqua V2 also

includes sensors such asaccelerometer, ambientlight sensor, and proximitysensor. The handset comespreloaded with some appssuch as Intex Zone, Opera

mini, Intex Play, OLX,Intex care, and Flipkartamong others. The smart-phone measures11 6 . 8 x 6 0 . 8 x 1 0 . 6 m m ,weighs 112 grams and willbe available in Black,Brown, and White colours.

Prior to this, Intexlaunched two budgetAndroid smartphones, theAqua R3 and Aqua V3,priced at Rs. 2,570 and Rs.3,260 respectively.

Both the Intex Aqua R3and Intex Aqua V3 smart-phones share a lot of similarspecifications such as a 3.5-inch HVGA (320x480 pix-els) display; a 2-megapixelrear camera, and a 0.3-megapixel front camera.Both the Android 4.4.2KitKat-based smartphonescome with dual-SIM sup-port.

Notably, the Aqua V3features 3G connectivitysupport while the Aqua R3just supports 2G (EDGE)connectivity.

After Celkon,K a r b o n n ,Micromax, and

Xolo, iBall is the latestIndian brand to join theWindows Phone band-wagon with the officiallisting of the Andi 4LPulse.

iBall's first WindowsPhone 8.1 OS-basedsmartphone is now listedon the company's sitewithout pricing and avail-ability details.

Notably, the iBall Andi4L Pulse earlier thismonth was first claimedto be available at Rs.4,899 in the Indian mar-ket according to an estab-lished retailer.

The iBall Andi 4L Pulsea dual-SIM (GSM+GSM)device and the first smart-

phone in the company'slineup to run WindowsPhone 8.1. It features a 4-inch HD (480x800 pixels)TFT display, and is pow-ered by a 1.2GHz quad-core QualcommSnapdragon 200 along-side 512MB of RAM.

The smartphone sportsa 5-megapixel rear cam-era with LED flash andBSI sensor, while it alsohouses a 0.3-megapixelfront-facing camera.There is no word on theinbuilt storage of the Andi4L Pulse; though theretailer had earlier sug-gested 4GB of built-instorage which furthersupports expandable stor-age.

Much like otherWindows Phone devices,the Andi 4L Pulse also

comes preloaded withOneDrive, Xbox,Microsoft Office, andBing search apps. It packsa 1500mAh battery withno word on talk time andstandby time. The iBallAndi 4L Pulse comeswith GPRS/ EDGE, 3G,Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPSand Micro-USB connec-tivity options. The smart-phone is currently listedin Black colour variantonly.

If the retailer turns outto be correct, and iBallofficially launches theAndi 4L Pulse at Rs.4,899, the Andi 4L Pulsewill be arguably India'scheapest smartphone withWindows Phone 8.1 -leaving behind theCelkon Win 400 for Rs.4,979 and the Lava IrisWin1 at Rs. 4,999.

iBall Andi4L Pulse With WindowsPhone 8.1 Goes Official

Microsoft Courting App Developers,Eyeing Android App Support: Report

Sports 7NEW DELHI | THURSDAY | JAN 01, 2015SAADDA HAQ

NEW DELHI, DEC 31Some stellar performances by sea-

soned veterans and promising young-sters continued to raise the bar inOlympic sports but there was heart-break in equal measure when corrup-tion scandals blighted India’sfavourite obsession, cricket, in a see-saw year for the country’s sportsper-sons.

There was the usual administrativewrangling in some sports but all thatwas thrown into the backburner by ahectic schedule which includedCommonwealth and Asian Games.

IPL scandalOn the cricket field, the courtroom

drama surrounding IPL spot-fixingscandal, which made N Srinivasan aBCCI President-in-exile, hoggeddaily headlines, a sad commentary onthe state of a game for which India isa spiritual home and biggest money-spinner as well.

If the scandal left followers of thegame disturbed, they were in for ahuge shock when Mahendra SinghDhoni retired from Test cricket in thelast week of the year.

It was a bolt from the blue giventhat ‘Captain Cool’ hardly droppedany hint of the “strain” of playing allthree formats, which he cited as thereason for bidding adieu to the five-day game.

Olympic medalsOn the brighter side, India found

itself back in the Olympic fold afterthe International Olympic Committeelifted the ban on the IOA in February.This was after the IOA successfullyconducted fresh elections in which NRamachandran took over as thebody’s new President.

Heartwarming tales also emergedfrom the Commonwealth and AsianGames arena where Indian athletescame up with sterling performances.The ones who stood out most notablywere the celebrated wrestling duo ofSushil Kumar and Yogeshwar Dutt,pistol shooter Jitu Rai and boxer M CMary Kom.

The year began with the cricketteam continuing its dismal away runby going down to a lower-rankedNew Zealand in a Test series.

But the IPL razzmatazz a couple ofmonths later ensured that the poorresult was quickly forgotten.However, the spot-fixing and bettingscandal that gripped the glamorousleague was so enormous that theimpact of it is being felt even now.

The BCCI was forced to postponeits AGM owing to adverse observa-tions from the Supreme Court afteran inquiry committee appointed by itcame up with an explosive reportwhich indicted high-profile namessuch as Rajasthan Royals co-ownerRaj Kundra and Chennai Super KingsTeam Principal Gurunath Meiyappan,who also happens to be Srinivasan’sson-in-law.

The frenzy surrounding the IPLscandal was offset by India’s reason-ably good show in theCommonwealth Games in Glasgow.

It was first big event in which theathletes took part after IOA’s suspen-sion was revoked and perhaps it wasthe high of competing under thenational flag once again that thecountry pulled off a creditable fifth-place finish with 64 medals, includ-ing 15 gold.

India managed to clinch a top-10finish in the Asian Games as well,signing off eighth with 57 medals,including 11 gold.

Rohit's recordThere was some good news from

the cricket field as well when RohitSharma broke the record for the high-est individual score in ODIs, againstSri Lanka. Rohit’s epic innings of264 on the hallowed Eden Gardensturf was a stuff of legends.

The year was also the first timesince 1989, when an Indian cricketteam’s list didn’t have SachinTendulkar’s name in it.

It was also the year that probablysaw the end of another gloriousbunch of Indian cricketers, who hadplayed with distinction over the lastdecade.

Sehwag, arguably the biggestimpact player after Tendulkar, proba-bly might not play for India againafter being overlooked from the 30-men probables for the 2015 WorldCup.

Similarly, it looks like the selectorshave ‘shut the door’ for good onYuvraj Singh, Harbhajan Singh,Zaheer Khan and Gautam Gambhir.

Outside India, world cricket wasleft shocked and heartbroken follow-ing the death of Australian batsmanPhillip Hughes.

While Rohit’s innings will alwaysbe remembered, the tragedy that

snatched away Hughes, aged 25 atthe time of his death, will never beforgotten.

But what didn’t change wasMahendra Singh Dhoni’s poor awayrecord as Test captain with India los-ing series in South Africa, NewZealand and England. India also lostthe World T20 finals to Sri Lanka.

The tragic part of India’s seriesdefeat in England, was that it hap-pened after recording a memorablewin at the ‘Home of Cricket’ It wasafter 1986, that an Indian team won aTest match at Lord’s as IshantSharma bounced the Englishmen out.

There was some cheer on the hock-ey field finally. An Asian Games goldmedal after a 16-year hiatus and adirect ticket to the 2016 OlympicGames were some of the high pointsin what was a rare successful year forIndian hockey even though nationalcoach Terry Walsh’s unceremoniousresignation provided a bitter endingto 2014.

Besides the Asian Games goldmedal in Incheon, South Korea, themen’s team registered several othermemorable victories including a his-toric Test series win against worldchampions Australia in their ownbackyard.

But the momentum which Indiagained in the year was lost by theuntimely and poorly handled resigna-tion of Walsh.

After guiding the team to the AsianGames gold, Walsh tendered his res-ignation, demanding an improvementin his pay packet and more decisionmaking powers, most notably inselection of the players.

But despite valiant efforts from hisemployer, the Sports Authority ofIndia and Sports Minister SarbanandaSonowal, SAI could not retain Walsheven though the Australian was eagerto work with the Indian team.

Wrestling heroesOn to the wrestling mat, a long sab-

batical and a rejig in weight cate-gories notwithstanding, Olympicheroes Sushil Kumar and YogeshwarDutt reaffirmed their dominance atthe world stage, which included end-ing a 28-year-gold drought at theAsian Games, even as youngstersshowed the quality of Indianwrestling’s talent reservoir.

Yogeshwar, in fact, ended India’s28-year wait for gold in wrestling atthe Asian Games by bagging the yel-low metal in Incheon, South Korea,in September.

Having shifted from 60kg category,London Olympics bronze-medallistYogeshwar won the gold in the 65kgdivision, while two-time Olympicmedal winner Sushil bagged the sil-ver in 74kg class.

Sushil, who had won a bronze inthe 2008 Beijing Olympics beforebettering his performance with a sil-ver medal at the London Games fouryears later, had always contested in66kg freestyle category.

It turned out to be a watershed yearfor Indian badminton as well with thehome shuttlers clinching no less thaneight individual titles besides break-ing new grounds in team champi-onships, making India a dominantforce at the international stage.

Tennis and BadmintionSaina Nehwal and K Srikanth

clinching titles at China Super SeriesPremier and P V Sindhu bagging fivebronze, including a WorldChampionship medal, besides thehistoric bronze medals at Uber Cupand Asian Games, were the highlightsof the year in which Indian bad-minton achieved unprecedented suc-cess at the global platform.

At the shooting ranges too, Indianscalled the shots but it was ‘PistolKing’ Jitu Rai who truly lived uptothe sobriquet with a stunning display,leaving the other big guns gazing atthe dizzy heights he touched in hisannus mirabilis.

As a whole, India did not set thestage ablaze with their guns at theGlasgow Commonwealth andIncheon Asian Games or the variousWorld Cups and WorldChampionships, but they did justenough to maintain the consistent runthat had begun at the turn of the cen-tury.

The 27-year-old Rai was the stand-out performer by some distancethough well—established names suchas Abhinav Bindra, Gagan Narangand Manavjit Singh Sandhu, amongothers, too excelled on and off. Andso was the younger lot like AyonikaPaul, Apurvi Chandela andMohammad Asab to name a few.

A historic gold at the World Cup, arecord triumph at the GlasgowCommonwealth Games, a silvermedal at the World Championships

that got him a quota place for the2016 Rio Olympics, and then anothergold at the Incheon Asian Games, Raiwas on the centre of podium in someof the world’s toughest internationaltournaments.

In tennis, Sania Mirza grabbed herthird mixed doubles Grand Slam titleand wrapped up her dream seasonwith the year-end finale trophy evenas India’s established male tennisplayers found the going tough.

Sania won the US Open with first-time partner Bruno Soares and nowhas three mixed doubles Grand Slamtrophies in her cabinet which alreadyconsists of Australian Open andFrench Open.

Mahesh Bhupathi seems as good asretired but he along with former starVijay Amritraj created a lot of buzzwith their respective tennis leagues.

Bhupathi brought tennis’ biggeststars, including Roger Federer andNovak Djokovic, to India in a fran-chisee—based league, IPTL, whichwas a great opportunity for fans tosee legendary players in flesh andblood.

Amritraj’s CTL was more India—centric but lacked star appeal despitefeaturing some high—ranked play-ers. CTL had presence of Indian play-ers and someone like RamkumarRamanathan had the opportunity toplay alongside Mikhail Youzhny.

Elsewhere, ace cuiest PankajAdvani added some more sheen tohis golden career by taking his worldtitle count from 8 to 12 in a landmarkyear for himself and the sport.

In the boxing ring, the pugilistscombined to bring home five medals—— four silver and one bronze ——from the Commonwealth Games.

Outside the ring, sparring for powercontinued to cast a shadow on thefuture of the sport. On the brighterside, India were back in theInternational Boxing Association(AIBA) fold after a new body ——Boxing India —— took charge.

DisappointmentHowever, there was disappoint-

ment in chess as five-time worldchampion Viswanathan Anand failedto regain the world title fromNorwegian Magnus Carlsen despitesome creditable performances else-where.

In football, the ‘sleeping giant’woke up to a new dawn with the ISLputting Indian football on the globalmap, but the national team continuedto paint a grim picture, plummetingto its worst-ever rankings of 174th inan eventful year for the sport.

The national team’s prolongeddecline got buried under the intensehype over what turned out to be afairly successful inaugural IndianSuper League, which was graced byformer stars such as Alessandro DelPiero, David Trezeguet, Robert Pires,Marco Materrazi, Luis Garcia andNicolas Anelka, among others.

In athletics, moderate success in theCommonwealth and Asian Gameswas the only high point of a low-pro-file year in which Indian athleticsalso had to deal with the heartbreak-ing story of rising woman runnerDutee Chand being barred from com-petitions for having more male hor-mones than permissible.

For the archers, 2014 was a feelgood year as the arrow shooters, bol-stered by the inclusion of compoundsection at the Incheon Asian Games,had their best ever show — one gold,one silver and two bronze.

All the medals came in the com-pound section, even as the recurvearchers, who had bagged one silverand two bronze at the 2010 AsianGames Guangzhou, drew a blank inIncheon.

Abhishek Verma was the star ofIncheon archery contingent, baggingone team gold and one individual sil-ver.

In weightlifting, along with thenew—found cleaner image, some-thing the Indian WeightliftingFederation (IWF) had been searchingfor years, came a reasonable amountof success on the mat as well, withthe country’s lifters bagging as manyas 12 medals at the CommonwealthGames in Glasgow, Scotland, earlierthis year.

Indian squash, meanwhile, neverhad it better than 2014 as a bagful offirsts, highlighted by a gold each inthe Commonwealth Games and AsianGames, marked a highly successfulyear for the racquet sport.

While the big three —— DipikaPallikal, Joshana Chinappa andSaurav Ghosal —— were alwaysexpected to do the bulk of the job, itwas pleasing to see Harinder PalSandhu emerge from their shadows.

It’s a see-saw year for Indian sports

Bollywood/Fashion8 NEW DELHI | THURSDAY | JAN 01, 2015SAADDA HAQ

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Have a limited shopping budget? Can't have amakeup artist on call like celebrities do? Hereare a few tips to help you look perfect no mat-

ter where you are or how low-budget a month it is..

Get a gel liner from an eye pencilPut the tip of the pencil near a flame for about 30

seconds and let it cool for 15 minutes or so. It willnow give you a thick and intense line, the way any gelliner would.

Setting your lipstickAfter applying lipstick, put a tissue paper over your

lips and apply powder over it. This will set the colourand give you a long lasting effect.

Drying your nailsFill a bowl with cold water. Apply your nail colour

and dip your fingers in the bowl. It speeds up the dry-ing process.

Keeping bobby pins where they belongVery often, bobby pins slide out of your hair.

To stop them from doing so, simply lay a tissuepaper on a table, put the pins on it and spray them withany stiff hold hairspray. This will make them stay onyour hair longer and stop them from sliding out everyother minute.

Greasy Hair Day RescueDry shampoo is the best way to fix greasy hair when

you can't wash your hair. But if for some reason, youcan't find one, then use baby powder as it does exact-ly the same thing. Put some powder on your hairlineand rub it in. It will take the greasiness away and makeyour hair look good.

Make up wipes everywhereIt's impossible to get your hands on make up wipes

everywhere. Simply replace them with baby wipes.They work the same and baby wipes are usually kinderto your skin.

Heatless wavesBraid your hair on both sides really tight and go to

bed. When you wake up, untangle them, spray andscrunch it and you'll be left with perfect beach waves

without using a curling iron.

Mascara to perfectionUse a business card behind your lashes while apply-

ing mascara. It not only straightens out your lashes,but also stops the mascara from smudging on youreyelids.

French manicure yourselfTake the curved end of a band-aid and line it a little

away from the tip of your nails. Now apply your nailcolour and wait till it's dry before you peel the band-aid off. Perfect French manicure at home.

Iron to last longerIf you're using a curling iron to curl your hair, roll

your hair back up and pin it until it cools down. Thismakes your curls last longer. Similarly, when you'restraightening your hair, put a cardboard near your hairroots and hold it in place with a bobby pin.

Take it off once your hair cools down. This stopssweat and wind from making the roots curly or wavyagain.

11 beauty hacks every girl should know

It's all about wearing your Tevar, thisnew year. Arjun Kapoor looked dapperat the initial promotions of the film in

Delhi, in a dhoti salwar and a blue kurta.The actor had been styled by his cousinRhea Kapoor, who will be styling himthrough the period leading up to the film'srelease. The movie is indeed special forthe actor, after all it's his father BoneyKapoor's production, "It's been a dreamcome true for me, I have always wanted towork with my Dad and now that wish hasbeen fulfilled. Also, it has come at theright time since I have some work to talkoff, like Ishaqzaade and 2 States, I cannottell you what an experience it's been forme," he said.

So is it true he had made a 'humblerequest ' that Sonakshi Sinha should becast opposite him?

Sonakshi chirped in, "Come on, every-one wants me."

"Yes, it's true," said Arjun. "But I want-ed her in the film because I had a feelingwe would look good together. It's just thatsometimes you know that these two peo-ple, if they come together, will comple-

ment each other. She has that kind of alook that you want to look after her and it'sa love story on the run and I feel we bothmanaged to get the essence of our charac-ters across," Arjun added.

But will we see you move out of yourcomfort zone, Sonakshi?

"Yes. I am soon going to be doingMurgadoss' women-oriented film andguess what, there's action too," she said.

But who do they feel has the best Tevaramongst their peers?

"I feel Varun Dhawan. He is alwaysready to try new stuff. And Ranveer, hehas full on Tevar. Maybe he should get it anotch down," chuckled Arjun, a goodfriend of Ranveer Singh's.

Sonakshi said that for her, full on Tevarwas Salman Khan. "He is just so cool andDabangg," said the actress about her men-tor. In something of a coincidence, Salmanmentored both actors. Sonakshi said, "Hewas our guide, believing in us when wedidn't, we were both fat. He began ourjourney from fat to fit, told us we could beactors and mentored us, and lo here weare."

Why Arjun Made a 'HumbleRequest' to Cast Sonakshi in Tevar