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The flexi-fare scheme introducedby railways in select trains has

triggered a price war between thenational air carrier and the nation-al transporter. A day after the AirIndia announced its spot faresscheme to lure AC-II railway trav-ellers, the Indian Railways onSunday countered it saying its farestructure still remains low whencompared to air fares between cer-tain destinations.

Last month, the Air Indiaoffered fares between Delhi andMumbai close to the second ACClass of Rajdhani trains. But whatsent the Indian Railways into a tizzywere the national carrier’s latestadvertisements in national dailies,titled “India udo dil khol ke,”claiming that “Now Air India spotfares cheaper than Rajdhani flexifares”. The AI’s ads seek to cash inon a hefty rise in train fare after theRailways introduced the surge pric-ing for Rajdhani and Shatabdis.

At a hurriedly convened Pressconference, Railway Board Member(Traffic) Md Jamshed gave adetailed presentation citing exam-ples to buttress its point that despiteflexi-fare system, rail fare is stillmuch cheaper than that of flight.Jamshed said, for instance, on theDelhi-Mumbai sector, Rajdhanifare stands between �2,870 and�4,104 for AC-II while air fare forMonday was in the range of �2,813and �13,746. Rail transport wouldstill emerge the best when comparedto road or air, asserted Jamshed.Sources said that Rail MinisterSuresh Prabhu had expressed dis-appointment with Rail Board offi-

cials for not effectively counteringthe criticism of surge pricing.

Defending the flexi-fare system,Jamshed said, “Our flexi-fare sys-tem has got a good response asthere has been about 30 per centbooking in the last two days itself.”

He further said the Railwaysearned �84 lakh and �81 lakhmore on September 9 and 10respectively from the flexi-fare sys-tem. He said the passenger revenuetarget for the current fiscal is�51,000 crore as against �45,000crore in the last fiscal, an increaseof �6,000 crore for 2016-17.

The Railways has introducedthe flexi-fare system in Rajdhani,Shatadbi and Duronto trains fromSeptember 9, aiming to rake up�500 crore more during the currentfinancial year. There are a total of42 Rajdhani, 46 Shatabdi, and 54Duronto trains.

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On the eve of Eid-ul-Azhathat falls on Tuesday, there

is anger in the air in Jammu & Kashmir as peoplefeel that everyone is sufferingdue to the actions of a small minority that has kept theState on the boil for the last two months.

“We are all suffering due tothe selfish actions of a few misguided elements who arenot allowing peace and nor-malcy to return to the State,”said a resident on condition ofanonymity.

Earlier, a week before Eid,the authorities in Kashmirdeclared Residency Road lead-ing to Srinagar’s business hubLal Chowk, out of bounds forpassenger vehicles due to themad rush of shoppers.However, Eid-ul-Azha is going to be a low-key affair inKashmir this year.

This time around, the roadremains blocked by razor wires,with gun-wielding policemenand paramilitary forces guard-ing every corner.

The shops are shut and shoppers are nowhere to be seen.

Continued on Page 4

Nagpur: Yoga guru Ramdev-owned Patanjali group is all setto explore international mar-kets with its FMCG productsand may also enter Pakistanand Afghanistan in future.

Ramdev said Patanjali willalso venture into garments areaand a ‘swadeshi jeans’ will belaunched by end of the year orearly next year.

“We have already set up ourunits in Nepal and Bangladeshand our products have reachedthe Middle East and becamepopular in some of the coun-tries, including Saudi Arabia,”Baba Ramdev told reporters.

“We should be concentrat-ing in poor countries as theprofits from those countrieswill be utilised for developmentwork there itself.

“The entry to Pakistan andAfghanistan will mostlydepend on the prevailing polit-ical situation, and if the situa-tion is politically conducive,units will be set up there,” hesaid. Ramdev added their com-pany products are reachingright up to Canada.

Patanjali has alreadyentered Azerbaijan which has90 per cent Muslim population,he said claiming that a topindustrialist there has showninterest in his products.

Continued on Page 4

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Nearly 7,000 road projectstaken up under the

Pradhan Mantri Gramin SadakYojana (PMGSY) are pendingfor more than four years in sev-eral States. Interestingly, thescheduled period for comple-tion of projects under the flag-ship scheme is one year.

Irked at such apathy, theCentre has now decided to makethe States pay for undue delays.The defaulter States may have topay the spill-over liabilities ofincomplete projects pending formore than four years.

In a recent letter, the UnionRural Development Ministryhas also asked them to give thedetails of the pending projectswhich have been held up dueto litigation/non-availability offorest clearances.

The PMGSY, a time-boundprogramme, aims to provideall-weather road connectivityto all eligible unconnectedhabitations as per the core net-work in the rural areas. All

costs of projects undertakenunder the rural road construction scheme are borneby the Centre.

According to the data avail-able with the Union Rural

Development Ministry, as onMarch 31, 2016, as many as23,517 road works in the ruralareas are in various stages ofcompletion. At least 6,772 ofthese road projects are fouryears old.

While Rajasthan have thehighest number of works pend-ing for last four years, Bihar andOdisha follow respectively with823 and 785 such road projects.

Upset over the StateGovernments poor perfor-mance, the Union RuralDevelopment Ministry has alsodirected the commissioner/sec-retary to speed up the execu-tion of projects.

As per data, as on March31, 2016, of the 1,37,398 sanc-tioned works , 52,326 havebeen completed within thesaid period.

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Jammu: At least three heavily-armed Lashkar-e-Tayyeba(LeT) fidayeen were neutralisedby a joint team of securityforces during a 12-hour-longoperation near the Army’sPoonch Brigade headquarterson Sunday evening. Onepoliceman was martyred inthe gunbattle.

Detailed report on P6

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Detailed report on P6

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Keeping its Budget promise,Railways is all set to run an

intercity Humsafar trains betweenimportant cities. The first Humsafaris likely to be introduced betweenNew Delhi and Gorakhpur nextmonth. However, the journey inthis exclusive AC-III tier coaches islikely to come at a higher slab thanthe normal existing fare ofPremium AC trains like Rajdhani,Shatabdi, Duronto or AC-IIISpecials on some routes.

Sources in the Railway Ministrysaid that the fare will be 20 per centhigher in Humsafar, which meansDelhi-Gorakhpur AC-III will be

pegged at around �1,400 against theexisting �1,125 in GorakhdhamExpress between the two destinations.Later on, Humsafar will be launchedas overnight inter-city service onhigh-demand routes and some of thedestinations have been identified.

Railway Minister Suresh Prabhuduring presentation of the RailBudget 2016-17 had announcedHumsafar Train, a special class ser-vice comprising only AC-III tiercoaches. “It would be a special classtrain for inter-city overnight journeywith many additional facilities whichare otherwise not available in nor-mal AC-III tier coaches,” said asenior Railway Ministry official.

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Months after the gala eventby Sri Sri Ravi Shankar’s

Art of Living on the banks ofthe Yamuna, the controversyregarding the damage it did tothe floodplain of the riverrefuses to die down.

However, it is not the firsttime that such a hue and cryhas been made over damage tothe Yamuna floodplains. Fromconstruction of AkshardhamTemple to CommonwealthGames Village, and fromencroachment of the flood-plains by individuals to their“systematic destruction” byallocating land to big buildersfor construction of huge com-plexes, the issue of damage tothe floodplains of Yamuna, aswell as Hindon, has been innews for years. Yet little hasbeen done to even protect theriver, let alone reviving it.

Experts feel the rampantconstruction on the floodplainsof the Yamuna poses a gravethreat not only to the survivalof the river, but also to the cityas due to significantly reducedflood-carrying capacity of theriver, a major flood could causeserious damage in near future.

Ravi Monga of YamunaMuktikaran Abhiyaan, who hasbeen actively campaigning forsurvival of the Yamuna, said,“The matter is very simple, butwe make it complicated. InIndia, we have monsoons,which means that unlikeEuropean countries, we receivemost of the water in just one toone-and-a-half month duringthe monsoons. This is the peri-od when all the rivers of thecountry overflow and the size ofthe river expands to over eightto nine times of its original size.”

However, the embank-ments and numerous con-structions on the floodplains,especially within the 22 kmstretch through urban Delhi,have already constricted theriver zone to a very narrowspace, and at many points, thechannel f lows along theembankment and hence, hasno floodplain left.

“Without the floodplains,the water received during themonsoons will not stop and itwill not seep into the ground.By encroaching into the flood-plains, not only we are killingthe rivers, but we are also cre-ating an alarming situationwhere the river will not be ableto carry the excess water that itmay receive in case of an exces-sive rainfall,” Monga added.

The data on floods in Delhishows the city has experiencedfloods at least once everydecade since 1947. Accordingto a report “Restoration andConservation of River Yamuna”submitted to the National

Green Tribunal, the 1978-floodwith water level reaching 207.4m at old railway bridge hadinundated areas as far as ModelTown and Mukherjee Nagar.

“It is important to recallhere that following the 1978flood in Delhi, the YamunaStanding Committee (YSC) ofthe Central Water Commission(CWC), in its 37th meeting(May 1979) had decided that “...

the minimum spacing betweenfuture embankments on thebanks of the Yamuna should be5 km and the embankmentshould be aligned at a minimum distance of at least600 m from the active riveredge at the time of constructionof embankments.”,” the reporthad noted.

“Unfortunately, this deci-sion has not been followed and

today, the maximum distancebetween the two embankmentsof the Yamuna is less than 2km, and hence the floodwatercarrying capacity of the riverhas been greatly compromised,”the report added.

Environmentalist VikrantTongad shared that the condi-tion of the Hindon floodplainsis no different. “There is unin-hibited construction under-

way on the floodplains witharound 20 lakh people living inthe land that earlier accom-modated just eight villages.While there are immediateeffects of this leading to pollu-tion of the river, dumping ofdebris and extraction ofgroundwater, but in the long run, there is also a threatto the people residing in theseareas,” he said.

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Two wrongs don’t make aright. Environmentalists in

the national Capital have divid-ed opinions on the reasons forthe poor state of the Yamunafloodplains. While some blamethe gala event organised by theArt of Living earlier this year foradding to the damage, othersbelieve the onus falls mainly onthe authorities for turning ablind eye to the unauthorisedconstructions and activitiesaround the riverbed.

Some environmentalistshave said it is necessary tounderstand the kind of activi-ties taking place on floodplainareas while others said apartfrom agricultural activities,

constructions, soil compres-sions or diverting river chan-nels purposely will disturb theriver’s flow cycle.

“One cannot conclude thescale of devastation with latestactivities. Rivers like theYamuna and the Hindon arebeing destroyed by policy mak-ers and urban planners. Therewas a time when world tradedevelopment was 25 per centwithout disturbing the channelsof river, however, now it is bare-ly one per cent,” said GopalKrishna, environmentalist.

This year, in March, spiri-tual guru Sri Sri Ravi Shankarhad organised a World CulturalFestival on the Yamua flood-plain which was criticised byenvironmentalists.

When AOL spokespersonsaid no construction like fly-overs or buildings have beenmade and no harm to vegeta-tion has been done for theevent, an activist from “YamunaJiye Abhiyan” reacted by sayingtwo wrongs cannot make oneright. “Whatever constructionhas been done on the floodplainis wrong for the flow of the river.Our actions will always remainagainst any sort of activitieswhich is harmful for floodplainareas,” said an activist on the

condition of anonymity.Ecologists have viewed that

the installations of pontoonbridge during the event havephysically damaged theYamuna. “We have the exam-ple of the Hindon where theriver flow has been diverted forconstruction projects,” said theecologist.

“There was a time whenwinged birds used to come fornesting in the Hindon andYamuna. The existence of smallpounds, vegetation, insects, birdsare directly related with humansas the co-existence of insects andbirds will help in agriculture,”said an ecologist, working onnorth wetlands of India.

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The Delhi Police has regis-tered a case against AAP

MLA Somnath Bharti on thecomplaint of the Chief SecurityOfficer of AIIMS for allegedlyinciting a crowd to damage thehospital’s fence and misbehav-ing with hospital’s security per-sonnel on Saturday. Bhartihowever, denied the charges.Meanwhile, reacting to thedevelopment, Bharti who rep-resents Malviya Nagar assem-bly seat, tweeted, “AIIMS islying. They have been denyinglegitimate access to GautamNagar residents.

The chief security officer ofAIIMS gave a written com-plaint on September 9 statingthat “Bharti provoked the mobto damage the fence of the hos-pital with JCB at Gautam NagarNallah road in order to giveaccess to unauthorised personsinside AIIMS property andalso misbehaved with securitypersonnel” around 9.45 am onFriday, said additional DeputyCommissioner of police NupurPrasad.

The medical examinationof six security personnel wasdone and a case under IPC

Sections 147 (punishment forrioting), 148 (rioting, armedwith deadly weapon), 186(obstructing public servant indischarge of his public func-tions), 353 (assault or use ofcriminal force to deter a pub-lic servant from discharge of hisduty) and 3/4 Prevention ofDamage to Public PropertyAct has been registered at HauzKhas Police Station, added thepolice officer.

AIIMS even refused toPWD meetings.”Wherevercommon man will be troubledI will go. The allegation thatresidents dismantled the wall isa blatant lie. I will fight incourt”, Bharti said. However,AIIMS authorities could not beimmediately reached out tocomment on the issue.

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Homebuyers of Amarpali HeartBeat on Sunday staged demon-

stration against Amrapali Groupand Noida authority for delay in con-structions of flats in Sector-107,Noida. The harried buyers also raisedslogans against Chief Minister ofUttar Pradesh Akhilesh Yadav andblamed the authority officials forbeing in league with the builders.

These buyers of Amrapali HeartBeat apartments claimed that all liti-gation on the land was resolved by theAllahabad High Court on July11 andthe Supreme Court on August 3, 2016.

However, the builder reported-ly told to buyers that they first needapproval for the construction fromthe Noida authority too. As, theyapprove, they would be able to startwork and will provide possession innext two years.

Notably, 1,800 homebuyers haveinvested in this project and assertedthat construction is stalled from2014 while they (buyers) had alreadypaid 70-90 per cent of the total costof the flats to the builder.

One of the buyers said that onemonth has passed after the positivedisposal of the case but there is no signof construction being started at the site.

“At the time when the matter wasin court , builders used to convey tous that construction will resume

immediately once the matter wasresolved in the court,” said PuneetParasar one of the buyers. Even, AnilSharma the Chairman, Amrapaligroup has given official statementsclaiming to resume construction innext fifteen days,” Parasar added.

“Earlier, builder had promised tostart work within two months but nowthey are seeking approval from theNoida authority. They are claiming thatproject completion can take two years,”said Akhil Sulekha, another buyer.

“The project could be complet-ed within few months of construction.We are demanding the completion ofthe project by the first quarter of 2017but the Builder remains unresponsiveto the demands of buyers.. Left withother options, the buyers have decid-ed to continue our protest on groundand on twitter both. We are also look-ing at strong legal action againstbuilders if our consumer rights arenot protected by them,” said Vaibhavjain another buyer.

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While Delhiites are busy celebratingGanesh Chaturthi with great fer-

vour and chants of Ganpati Bappa, envi-ronmentalists across the nationalCapital have raised concern about theissue of idol immersion in the Yamunaduring Ganpati Visarjan.

Gopal Krishna said the linkbetween religious festivals and envi-ronmental pollution has been ignoredand our “Vedas” say different on this.“The fundamental concept of the Vedicera is the concept of the panchbhootas— the five elements of nature — earth,water, air, fire and space. The panchb-hootas are to be revered, not to be pol-luted. Upanishads, Puranas, Sutras andits other sacred texts underline it,” saidKrishna.

What is the need to pollute river-water when our Vedas warn not to pol-lute them, asked the ecologist.Atharvaveda has warned not to dirtyand add toxic substances into waterbodies as it may lead to spread of dis-eases “he who dirties or spoils ponds,lakes, rivers, etc., or cause smell near res-idential areas is liable to chastisement,Krishna added.

“Moreover,Yajurveda says, do notpoison water and do not harm or cut thetrees and do not disturb the sky and donot poison the atmosphere. However,pop chemical which is being used topaint the idol is noxious,” he added.

“The religious leaders fail to com-municate the need to preserve envi-ronment and water bodies. The unques-tioning obedience to religious traditionhas made people unscientific in approach especially in matters related to religion,” said the ecologist.

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Citing delay in several key Governmentprojects and schemes, Health, Transport

and PWD Minister Satyendar Jain hasdirected Head of Departments (HODs) ofhis Departments to take decision on ‘shad-ow or part’ files even as the original files aresubmitted to the Lieutenant GovernorNajeeb Jung”s office for review.

The direction of the Minister may fur-ther aggravate the highly tenuous rela-tionship between the Aam Aadmi Party(AAP) Government with the L-G.

The AAP Government said it decidedto take decision on shadow files as variousimportant projects are being “derailed” asoriginal files are submitted to the L-G office.

In his order to heads of his depart-ments, Jain, who has charge of key depart-ments — Health, Power, PWD, Industries,Transport, Urban Development and Home,said there should be “no delay” in execut-ing the ongoing projects and works due tolack of decision on the “pretext” that con-cerned files are submitted to the L-G office.

It may recalled that Jung had orderedall HODs to send those files where his priorapproval was required, but not taken by theKejriwal Government following HC orderwhich ruled that the L-G was the “admin-istrative” head of national Capital.

Subsequently, Jung had constituted athree-member panel to examine around

400 files containing “infirmities and irreg-ularities” in taking decisions by the AAPGovernment.

In the order, the Minister said it isnoticed that the decision making processin respect of many important issues per-taining to his departments has come to“virtual halt” in the recent days on the pre-text that original files related to the sub-ject is under submission to the L-G officefor ex post facto approval/information ofdecisions taken earlier.

“As such a practice is derailing theimplementation/ commissioning of impor-tant works/projects and is detrimental tothe public interest.

“It is hereby directed that the con-cerned HODs shall ensure that the ongo-ing projects/works are not delayed for lackof decision on such pretext (due to filessubmitted to L-G office) and that appro-priate action be initiated on the shadowfiles/part files, as the case may be, forappropriate action,” Jain said.

He, however, asked officers not to takedecision in respect of such cases where thereis specific directions from the L-G office thatthe ongoing work is to stopped with imme-diate effect. Shadow files are the copies oforiginal and related part files. The L-G ishaving a long-running battle with the AAPGovernment on a range of issues.

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Asection of senior DelhiCongress leaders on

Sunday requested Union HomeMinister Rajnath Singh to takestrict action against AAP leaderAshutosh for bringing disre-pute to the country by com-paring the acts of MahatmaGandhi and former PrimeMinister Pt Jawaharlal Nehruwith that of former DelhiMinister Sandeep Kumar, whowas removed from the Cabinetand from the AAP after his CDshowing him in a compromis-ing position became public.

These leaders are said tohave held a 15-minute oddmeeting with the Home Ministerwithout seeking any prior per-mission from either AICC gen-eral secretary in-charge of DelhiPC Chacko or Delhi Congresspresident Ajay Maken.

Asked what action theparty was going to take againstthe leader who met the HomeMinister, a senior Congressleader said that the matter willsoon be discussed with theparty leadership. “Though theissues these leaders have raisedare very important, we stillneed to tell our local leadersthat they should first discusssuch matters with the state unitbefore proceeding further.”

On the other hand, a localleader who too was part of thedelegation which met Singhsaid they had done nothingwrong by raising the criticalissue which had created a badimage of the country. “Whyshould we take permission forlodging our protest againstthose who were tarnishing theimage of Mahatma Gandhiand Pt Nehru.”

Among the local leaderswho met Singh were formerMP Sandeep Dikshit, formercity ministers YoganandShastri, Ramakant Goswami,Mangat Ram Singhal and for-mer Delhi Women Congresshead Onika Mehrotra.

Earlier, the party leadershiphad taken a strong exceptionwhen some leaders -Shastri,Goswami, Singhal and formerMLAs Mateen Ahmed andAsif Mohd Khan - had metLieutenant-Governor NajeebJung and had demanded dis-missal of the AAP Governmentin Delhi for its failure to pro-vide relief to people during

recent water logging in the city. But these leaders were

warned by Chacko not to takeany such delegation withoutseeking prior approval of theparty leadership.

The matter was discussedat meeting which among oth-ers was attended by Chacko,Maken, former MPs SajjanKumar and Mahabal Mishra.

All the 14 block presidentsand party candidates who hadcontested in 21 Assembly con-stituencies, whose MLAs areunder the scanner of the EC fortaking up the job of parliamen-tary secretaries in the AAPGovernment were also present.

The meeting, which wascalled to discuss the party’sstrategy for the municipal elec-tions next year and the possi-bility of bye-elections in 21Assembly seats in case thePresident expels their legisla-tors for holding office of prof-it as parliamentary secretaries,had deliberated at length on thememorandum submitted bythese leaders to the L-G.

Chacko had made it clearthat action would be takenagainst leaders who were try-ing to run a parallel organisa-tion. He had reportedly told theparty leaders to speak in onevoice on all sensitive issues.

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Aman who had managed to escape from thepolice custody in 2014, has been arrested from

Mumbai, along with his two brothers who hadhelped him flee, the Delhi Police said on Sunday.

Gaurav Sethi, who was declared a proclaimedoffender (PO) in two cases, was arrested along withVikram and Manish Sethi, who had allegedly helpedhim escape from police custody in July, 2014, theysaid. Gaurav had produced two Punjabi films in2008 and 2011 and used to run casinos in Goa, SriLanka and Nepal.

He was wanted in connection with 13 cases, outof which 12 are of cheating and forgery. He wasarrested in 2014 in a cheating case and while beingescorted to Tihar Jail, Manish and Vikram helpedhim escape. “After his escape, the trio went toChandigarh. From there they went to Mumbai andwere living under fictitious identities. He (Gaurav)again started giving loans to people on high inter-est,” Joint Commissioner of Police, Crime,Ravindra Singh Yadav said.

“The trio could not be arrested as they kept chang-ing their location and identities,” said Yadav, addingon the basis of a specific information, the three broth-ers were arrested from Mumbai where they were resid-ing with their families under fictitious identity.

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The Delhi Government onSunday organised the first

school management commit-tees (SMC) meeting which isaimed at bridging the gapbetween the parents andGovernment schools. The SMCmeeting comes close on theheels of the mega PTM that washeld a few weeks back.

The sabha was organisedfor management committees ofGovernment schools in theBurari Assembly constituency.Members from 15 schoolsattended the event held atRajkiya Pratibha VikasVidyalaya, Civil Lines here toshare their grievances with theGovernment officials.

Deputy Chief MinisterManish Sisodia was presentduring the event where the par-ents spoke about the problemsfaced by them.

“The concept of the SMCsabha was to provide a platformto parent and SMC members tovoice their issues with theschools to officials concerned,in order to ensure effective andspeedy resolution,” according toan official release.

Speaking at the event,

Sisodia said, “The Governmentis very keen on involving par-ents and the community inschool administration. SMCsare playing a very constructiverole in improving the conditionof government schools today.”

Sisodia, who sought tighterdeadlines for completion ofwork and pulled up the officialswho were found to be lax,would personally follow-up allcommitments made by officialsto ensure that the works getcompleted on time.

During the event, when aparent complained of poor grainquality in Mid-Day meals,Sisodia enquired about it andgave the contractor a week’s timeto improve food quality, failingwhich the contractor would bepenalised and replaced.

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Taking cue from AAPmohalla clinics, the BJP-

ruled South civic agency hasdecided to set up 40 wardclinics in various wards to pro-vide treatment facilities of com-mon diseases, preventive con-sultancy and common tests.

The first such ward levelcomprehensive dispensary wascommissioned at VillageHumayunpur at Safdarjungward on Sunday.

Speaking on the occasionBJP MP Meenakshi Lekhiappreciated the efforts of theSDMC in making primaryhealth service effective andreliable. She expressed hopethat this will go a long way indecongesting crowd of patientsin hospitals and help in pro-viding a better health networkin the colonies itself.

She asked the Municipalhealth officer to keep a watchon the functioning of the dis-pensary so that its futurerequirement in respect of moremedicines and medical staffcould be met immediately.Lekhi said this clinic will pro-vide health services to the res-idents of Humayunpur,Krishan Nagar, Arjun Nagarand Safdarjung Enclave at stonethrough distance.

Chairman, SDMC StandingCommittee, Shailender SinghMonti stated that the SDMC hasidentified around 70 unutilisedor underutilised premises fortransforming them intoadvanced, comprehensive andupgraded dispensaries whereinfree allopathic and ayurvedic,medicines and preventive con-sultancy will be provided by thesenior medical officers apartfrom conducting tests of bloodsugar and blood sugar.

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Now, poor patients sufferingfrom renal and urological

disorders don’t have to wait forone year to get surgeries doneand would not shell out money,as Safdarjung Hospital is all setto start the new Super special-ty renal and uro-oncology blockwith 50 beds, 4 operation the-aters (OT) with Roboticssurgery facility (OT).

A senior doctor said PrimeMinister Narendra Modi islikely to inaugurate the newbuilding with the launch of theDepartment being part ofCentral Government’s project.

It will be the firstGovernment run hospital toprovide Robotics surgery andadvanced laparoscopic radicalprostatectomy surgeries free ofcost. These surgeries cost Rs 10-20 lakhs at a private hospitalswhereas patients get free surg-eries done at Safdarjung hospi-tal. Dr Anup Kumar, who headsthe department of Urology andrenal transplant at SafdarjungHospital, told The Pioneer, “Thenew block will have 50 beds with4 OTs that will run six days a

week. Of which, two OTs are ofrenal transplant providing stateof art infrastructure and instru-ments. One separate OT for ded-icated for robotics surgeries.This is how poor patients will getoptimum treatment free of cost.”

The new block likely tostart within two months willalso have 300 beds in its privateward with separate OTs sothat general population will notbe affected. The department isrecruiting 10 new senior fac-ulties, said Dr Kumar.

“With the start of the newblock, we can decrease the wait-ing list and operation will bemore frequent and once therobotics would be started, wecan perform twice the numberof surgeries in a day, than we aredoing today in Uro-oncology,”added Dr Kumar. Presently, thehospital has a waiting list for

more than 100patients who needkidney transplant.

The departmenthas 20 beds and allof them are alwaysfull because of thewaiting list which isone year right now.Cancer drugs

required for bladder and prostatecancer would be provided free ofcost to the patients. “The depart-ment has a Tumor Board (agroup of health experts) to dis-cuss the advanced and difficultcases, which is rarely seen in theGovernment hospital, said DrKumar, who is the GeneralSecretary of the Tumor Boardand nodal officer for the cancer.

As of now, the departmentis doing two renal transplantsin a month and till date it hasconducted 50 transplantsincluding the complex ones.“The department is soon goingto start the laparoscopic donorsurgeries, ABO incompatiblesurgeries and the robotics trans-plant,” said director at depart-ment of Urology and renaltransplant adding that the 10beds 1CU have been set up forthe renal transplant patients.

New Delhi: A whopping �43 lakhin cash, 283 mobile phones and 79laptops were among the belongingsleft behind by commuters whiletravelling in the Delhi Metro tillAugust this year, according to therail network’s ‘lost and found’ data.

The recovery of cash forgottenand later restored to the traveller,as per data accessed by PTI, is oneof the largest in the last few years.For the entirety of last year, thecorresponding figure was onlyover �18.80 lakh.

As per data prepared by CISF,the security force tasked to securethe Metro network, a total of�43,18,155 in forgotten cash wasrecovered by its personnel apartfrom foreign currency worth over�26,000 and bank cheques/draftsworth over �40.85 lakh.

Besides that, 79 laptops, 23pieces of gold ornaments, 283laptops, 63 watches, nine camerasand as many tablet phones wererecovered from the Delhi Metro

from January to August this year.“These are cases of lost and

found in the Delhi Metro. Suchcases occur at some station or the

other almost every day. The CentralIndustrial Security Force is taskedwith the security duties in the DelhiMetro Rail Corporation and after

recovering these items and scan-ning them from the point of viewthreats, the force hands them overto the station controller.

“In most cases, the person whoforgets his belonging comes backand the cash and other stuff ishanded back to the bonafideowner after due verification,” asenior official said. The compar-ative figures for last year’s recov-eries of foreign currency and bankinstruments stood at �16,000 and�1.93 lakh respectively.

During the 12-month period,108 laptops, 26 pieces of ornaments,37 cameras, 60 watches, 313 mobilephones, 14 tablet phones and half-a-dozen I-Pods were left and foundat various Metro stations.

The Delhi Metro network hasover 150 operational stations run-ning across Delhi, Ghaziabad,Gurgaon and Faridabad. An estimated 26 lakh people use it to travel to their destination every day. PTI

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The Aam Aadmi Party(AAP) has come out in

support of Okhla MLAAmanatullah Khan and reject-ed his resignation which hesubmitted on Saturday aftersexual harassment charges werelevelled against him by his sis-ter-in-law.

Deputy Chief MinisterManish Sisodia termed the con-troversy surrounding Khan as his“family’s internal dispute” whichis being given “political colour”.

While briefing the mediaon Sunday, Sisodia claimed theparty has conducted an inter-nal probe about allegationsagainst the MLA but theyfound “no wrongdoing” onpart of Khan and said the lat-ter is being targeted as he isunearthing land scams in Waqfboard involving “influential”people. Sisodia also came downheavily on the media for car-rying news against AAP lead-ers without “checking facts”.

“We checked facts in Khanmatter as in other cases. It is hisfamily’s internal matter. The dis-pute is within his brother-in-law’sfamily. It is being said Khan’sbrother-in-law and the latter’swife had divorced. Khan is noteven communicating with them,”Sisodia told reporters here.

“Family’s internal matter isbeing given political colour. Heis being dragged in the matterbecause he has been unearthingWaqf land scams with honesty.Those who understand aboutWaqf issues are aware howinfluential people have grabbedWaqf lands. Khan is stoppingthese scams and hence, is beingtargeted.

“He had given resignationin pain. His family issue wasbeing dragged. He sent out avery emotional letter to us. Butour probe as not found any-thing. I spoke to the ChiefMinister (Arvind Kejriwal) andalso other leaders and we have

decided to not accept his res-ignation,” Sisodia said.

The Deputy Chief Ministersaid that no other party takesaction against its leaders asswift as AAP if found at faultand added it will stand by itsleaders if they are not involvedin any wrong-doing.

Sisodia especially targetedthe Delhi Police, dubbing it as“Modiji’s police”, saying thecops have scanner installed intheir mind and have been“picking up” AAP men at theinstance of allegation without“verifying truth”.

Delhi Minister Kapil Mishraand AAP’s Delhi unit convenerDilip Pandey accompaniedSisodia during the briefing.

Khan had tendered his res-ignation from Delhi WaqfBoard chairman and HajCommittee on Saturday, claim-ing that he was being “framedin false cases”. He had alsooffered to resign as MLA andPolitical Affairs Committee(PAC) member to the party.

To a question, Sisodia saidthe AAP is “most committed”tokeep the party clean unlikeother political outfits and

claimed the party is being wel-comed in other parts of thecountry like Goa and Punjab fortaking action against its leadersand Ministers if found at fault.

“We knew before cominginto politics that these (politicalopponents) people will conspire(against us), that they will rattleafter we will set afire their Lanka.They will defame, attack us.

“Let Modiji’s police, mediado their own jobs, we will doour job. Modi ji maybe boss forsomeone, our boss... It is thepublic for whom we will keepworking,” Sisodia said.

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A7-year-old girl was alleged-ly sexually assaulted by

her piano teacher is South-eastDelhi’s Kalkaji. Police said thegirl was being sexually assault-ed for the past two months butthe girl told her father about iton Saturday after which a caseunder sections of rape andPOCSO Act was registeredand the accused was arrested.

According to a seniorpolice official, the accused hasbeen identified as 47-year-oldRavi Kumar, who stays in

Kalkaji and used to teach Pianoto the girl for the last two years.

“The girl was being sexual-ly assaulted for two months.Initially she could not under-stand but later felt something waswrong. She had even told herfather at times that she did noteven want to go to her piano classbut since her father did not knowwhat was going on he made hergo,” said the police official.

Finally on Saturday, the girlmustered up the courage andconfided in her mother whoapprised the girl’s father aboutthe same. The news shocked

the girl’s dad, who immediate-ly went to the Kalkaji police sta-tion and complained.

A police team immediate-ly reached the house of theaccused and arrested him.

Meanwhile, the girl wastaken to a nearby hospital andthe medical examination ofthe girl confirmed rape.

“We have registered a caseunder sections of rape andPOCSO act and arrested theaccused and sent him to judi-cial custody. Further investi-gation in the matter is on,” saidthe official.

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Angul (Odisha): The womanwho had allegedly drowned herthree minor sons in a wellbefore attempting suicide, wasarrested from Gurujang villagein Odisha's Angul district onSunday, the police said.

The woman, identified asSoubhagini Behera, who hadfled after being rescued fromthe well on Saturday, wascaught from a temple where shewas hiding, Inspector In-chargeof Kishorenagar Police Station,I Kerketta said.

Behera had attempted sui-cide after allegedly pushinginto the well the three boys,aged around 6, 4 and 2 years,the police said.

While fire brigade person-nel rescued the woman fromthe well after being informedby villagers, the three childrencould not be saved, they saidadding, the woman ran awayshortly after being pulled out.

The woman was now beinginterrogated by the police toascertain the circumstancesunder which she had taken theextreme step, they said.

Her husband, who was thesole breadwinner of the fami-ly, was now lodged in jail afterbeing arrested for some offenceand the woman was apparent-ly finding it difficult to man-age the family, the villagerssaid. PTI

Kathmandu: Nepal PrimeMinister Prachanda has said hewill not sign any controversialdeal with India during his visitthis week but would lay a"strong foundation" for mutu-al trust after bilateral ties wentthrough "some bitter experi-ence" over Madhesi stir duringhis predecessor's tenure.

The Maoist chief, whobecame Nepal's premier forthe second time on August 4taking the reign of the countryfrom the pro-China KP Oli,said he was taking the four-dayvisit starting from September 15as a "challenging opportunity."

"I am confident that thevisit (to India) would not onlynormalise the relations thatwent through some bitter expe-rience in the recent past, butalso build a strong foundationfor mutual trust," he told theInternational Relations andLabour Committee of theParliament on Saturday.

Later at an interaction onIndo-Nepal ties organised byNepal Institute of InternationalRelations, Prachanda said hewould like to urge all to let him"take risk as a leader".

"A leader should have theprivilege to take risk," the 61-year-old new Prime Ministersaid, adding that he would notsign any controversial dealwith India during the visit.

"I urge all the people in thecountry not to dictate me andlet me take risk in favour of ournational interest."

Soon after he took over,Prachanda sent special envoys toIndia and China in a bid toimprove ties with both countries.

He accused OliGovernment of creating a riftbetween people from the hillsand the plains. "The countrycannot be prosperous withoutstrengthening national unity,"he said.

Prachanda has said dis-agreements with the Madhesipeople — inhabitants of thesouthern plains who sharestrong cultural and familybonds with Indians — over thefederal boundaries in the newConstitution would be sortedout by mid-October.

Nepal's ties with India hadstrained after a months-long

border blockade last year by theethnic minority protesters overthe new Constitution, whichthey claim is discriminatory totheir interest.

The Oli Governmentaccused India of imposing an"unofficial blockade" on thelandlocked nation to supportthe Madhesi demand of morepolitical representation.

Prachanda, whose firststint as Nepal's premier from2008 to 2009 came to an enddue to disagreement with themilitary over his attempt tosack the Army chief, has threemajor tasks cut out for him:concluding the peace process,implementing the newConstitution and improvingrelations with India, accordingto leading Nepalese daily TheKathmandu Post.

He has long been floatingthe idea of tripartite coopera-tion between China-Nepal-India and he believes it couldfulfil Nepali people's aspirationsof change and prosperity.

Another major area offocus for his Governmentwould be ensure reconstructionof Nepal following the devas-tating earthquake in April lastyear. Earthquake victims havecomplained that the �2,00,000aid announced by the previousGovernment was insufficient toreconstruct their homes. PTI

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New York: BJP leaderSubramanian Swamy has beenhonoured with 'Tamil Ratna'award by a body of Tamil dias-pora here for fighting corrup-tion and working for moretransparency in the function-ing of the Government.

The America TamilSangam awarded the 'TamilRatna' to the senior BJP leaderand Rajya Sabha MP, who iscurrently on a visit to the US.

The Sangam's presidentPrakash Swamy highlightedthe BJP leader's contribution tofighting corruption and work-ing for more transparency andaccountability in the function-ing of the Government, a state-ment issued by the organisationsaid here on Saturday.

The statement quoted theBJP leader as saying that Indiais "again wielding considerableclout in the world arena andprojecting the message that itcan be governed in the mosttransparent manner."

Previous Tamil Ratnaawardees include Oscar-win-ning composer AR Rahmanand movie director BharathiRaja. PTI

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New Delhi: Amidst continu-ing unrest in Kashmir Valley,Home Minister Rajnath Singhon Sunday reviewed the situ-ation in Jammu & Kashmir,where a policeman and fourmilitants were killed in twoseparate incidents.

Singh reviewed the situa-tion in the State with NationalSecurity Advisor Ajit Doval,Union Home Secretary RajivMehrishi and other top offi-cials during an hour-longmeeting, official sources said.

The officials gave a brief-ing on the prevailing situationin Kashmir Valley as well asalong the border and the stepstaken to restore normalcy inthe State, the sources said.

Unrest started in theValley following the killing ofHizbul Mujahideen militantBurhan Wani on July 8. So far76 people have lost their livesin the turmoil that has beencontinuing for the last 65days.

A policeman was killedand two others, including anofficer, were injured as secu-rity forces engaged in twinencounters with four terroristswho are holed up at twoplaces near the under-con-struction Mini Secretariat inPoonch town of the State.

Meanwhile, the Armyfoiled three infiltration bidsalong the Line of Control inNaugam, Tangdhar and Gurezsectors of Kashmir, killingfour militants. PTI

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From Page 1Punjab and Manipur have

performed well with just oneeach road project pending forthe last four years. There arejust eight and six road projectsrespectively in Mizoram andGujarat, which are still in thecompletion stage.

Sources said that theseStates have huge pendencyworks exceeding their executioncapacity which is based on theindex on expenditure, mainte-nance and quality inspection.

However, the States in theline of fire have blamed con-straints in execution of PMGSYscheme to inadequate institu-tional capacity, limited con-tracting capacity, non-avail-ability of land and sufficientqualified technical personnel,limited working season,adverse climatic conditions.

Non-availability of land,non clearance in respect of theland falling in forest areas andlaw and order problems havebeen cited as among other rea-sons for the inordinate delays.

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Gurgaon: Union Minister forRoad Transport Nitin Gadkarion Sunday said a new accesscontrol highway would be con-structed between Delhi andJaipur which would reduce thetravel time between the cities tojust two hours.

The 270-km distance takesover six hours by road now.

The Minister also said an"intelligent transport" system —with CCTV cameras installedto monitor the traffic rule vio-lators — would be put in placeon NH-8.

Speaking after laying thefoundation stone for improve-ment work on three junctionson NH-8, at an estimated costof �1,005 crore, Gadkari saidthe work would be completedin 15 months instead of theoriginally planned 30.

Referring to the new Delhi-Jaipur access control highway,Gadkari said the project wouldcost �16,000 crore and work onit will be started in January,2017. The land acquisitionprocess for the new highwaywould be started soon.

On plans to ensure seamlesstraffic flow on NH-8, he saidwork on the flyover at IMTManesar Chowk would be com-pleted soon. He said four under-passes and as many flyovers

would be constructed to makethe traffic movement seamless.

Gadkari said work on theDwarka Expressway had com-menced and it would be com-pleted soon.

Chief Minister ManoharLal Khattar urged him to get the1.75-km stretch of this express-way, which falls in Delhi area,done quickly. Gadkari said thejunction near Ambience Mallwould also be improved.

In addition, he assured tostart construction work on theManesar-Gurgaon bye-pass innear future. The pilot project ofMetrino System between DhaulaKuan in Delhi and Manesar hadbeen cleared and work would bestarted soon, he said.

Gurgaon MP and UnionPlanning, Urban Development,Housing and PovertyAlleviation Minister, RaoInderjeet Singh demandedwaiving of the toll charges forthe residents of Gurgaon atKherki Daula Toll Plaza on thepattern of Gujarat. PTI

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From Page 1CCTV, GPS-based pas-

senger information system,fire and smoke detection andsuppression system andmobile, laptop charging pointsin every berth are some of thefeatures on Humsafar trains.Besides, Humsafar coacheswill have improved aestheticswith new interior and exteri-or colour scheme presenting afuturistic look with the use ofvinyl sheets similar toMaharaja Express coaches. Itwill also have integrated Brailledisplays.

The official refused toreveal the fare structure, say-ing that “the fare structure hasnot been firmed up yet and isbeing worked out”. “However

it has been estimated to be 20per cent more than existingAC-III slab on the route,” headded.

Earlier this year, a similartrain — Mahamaya — withexclusive features was launchedby Prime Minister NarendraModi between New Delhi toVaransi. The model rakesmodified as Make In Indiascheme with bio-toilets, con-trolled discharged water tap,odour control system,ergonomically designed lad-ders, LED indicators etc, how-ever, was damaged by the pas-sengers during the first few runitself.

The Railways also intro-duced Gaitmaan Expressbetween New Delhi and Agra

at a higher rate slab than theexisting Shatabdi fare. Anotherhigh-priced superfast modeltrains named Tejas is on theanvil.

The Railways is also con-sidering introducing Spanishmake Talgo trains having max-imum speed of 150 km perhour on some metro routes. Itcompleted its f inal trialbetween Delhi and. “The lightweight Talgo train covered thedistance between Delhi andMumbai in 11 hours 42 min-utes in its final trial,” RailwayBoard Member (Traffic) MohdJamshed said at a Press con-ference. Currently, the super-fast Rajdhani Express traintakes around 16 hours betweenNew Delhi and Mumbai.

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From Page 1As per the new system,

passengers will be shelling outbetween 10 and 50 per centmore under the surge pricingsystem.

Air India CMD AshwaniLohani has been a top rankingrailway officer who has beenappointed by the Centre totransform the fortune of thesick Air India. Lohani’s effortshave begun to yield result as theAI has come already startedmaking an operational profit.Lohani was considered to beone of the topmost contendersfor the Chairman RailwayBoard early this June.

When asked on the “rail-air-fare-war”, Lohani declinedto comment, saying both theorganisation are huge and haveto offer customers the best ofservices at an affordable price.

Chairman Railway BoardAK Mital said that Flexi-farehad been introduced on anexperimental basis for II AC,III AC and Chair Car only forthree months as of now. TheFlexi-fare system had beenintroduced in only 142 trainsout of total 12,000 passengertrains, he added.

On a question as whatfacility would be provided topassengers purchasing tickets ata maximum surged price,Jamshed said the Railwayswould introduce loyalty pointsfor frequent passengersthrough which they may begiven Executive Lounge facili-ty, concierge services, etc at freeof cost.

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Pune: A 45-year-old manallegedly hacked his mother,wife and two daughters todeath in Sangli district of west-ern Maharashtra in the weehours of Sunday and later sur-rendered himself before police.

The deceased were identi-fied as Sushila Irkar (60), herdaughter-in-law SindhubaiIrkar (40) and Sindhubai'sdaughters Rupali (19) andRani (16), all residents of a vil-lage in Jat tehsil of Sangli,police said.

"The accused, Bharat Irkar,took all four victims to theirfarms in the wee hours of thepretext of some work andallegedly hacked them to death

with sharp weapons. He latersurrendered himself at thepolice station," inspectorattached to Jat police station,said.

"We are still investigatingthe motive behind the murder.However, prima facie, it seemsthat there was some disputewithin the family," he added.

The accused has two sons— aged 14 and 11— the offi-cer said, adding,

"But they survived as theyhad gone to their relatives'place to study since there wereno electricity in their house onFriday night."

Further investigation intothe case is on. PTI

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New Delhi: A Delhi University girl student on Sunday chasedand caught two snatchers who tried to make off with her bagin east Delhi's Anand Vihar area, police said.

Nikita, 18, a first-year student of Institute of Home Scienceand Economics at Hauz Khas, was heading towardsKarkardooma Metro station on her scooty when the duo rid-ing a motorcycle snatched her bag and sped away around 7 am.

"The girl fell down but later gathered courage and chasedthe snatchers on her scooty. She finally caught up with the duowhen they hit a car," a police spokesperson said.

"A passerby helped Nikita catch the duo who had sustainedinjuries after hitting the car. Nikita also suffered inury in herleg," he added. Police arrived on the spot following a PCR calland took the injured to hospital. Nikita's bag was recovered fromthe snatchers. PTI

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New Delhi: Central policeorganisations like IB, CBI andNIA are among 32 Governmententities which are yet to imple-ment e-office project.

Besides them, eight para-military forces including CentralIndustrial Security Force (CISF)and National Security Guard(NSG) are also among theorganisations which have not yetimplemented the project aimedat digitisation of their work.

A presentation on the sta-tus of implementation of e-office project was made by theDepartment of AdministrativeReforms and Public Grievances(DARPG) at a conference on e-governance on Thursday. Theevent was attended by Ministerof State in Prime Minister'sOffice Jitendra Singh, seniorbureaucrats and 172 newlyinducted IAS officers wheredetails of status of e-governanceor computerisation of officesunder all Ministries were given.

The e-office project is oneof the Mission Mode Projectsunder the National e-Governance Plan. The project

is being implemented by theDepartment of AdministrativeReform and Public Grievancesof India (DARPG) to improveefficiency in Governmentprocesses and service deliverymechanisms.

Among the 32 Governmentorganisations which are yet toimplement e-office are eightcentral police organisations —Intelligence Bureau (IB), CentralBureau of Investigation (CBI),National Investigation Agency(NIA), Bureau of Police Research& Development, National CrimeRecords Bureau, SardarVallabhbhai Patel National PoliceAcademy, Hyderabad, NorthEastern Police Academy,Shillong, and National Instituteof Criminology & ForensicScience.

Seven central armed policeforces, CISF, NSG, Assam Rifles,Border Security Force (BSF),Central Reserve Police Force(CRPF), Indo Tibetan BorderPolice (ITBP) and SashastraSeema Bal (SSB) have also notimplemented the e-office, as perthe presentation. PTI

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Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi who oftenshoots down his opponents in the Supreme

Court with his imposingbaritone voice met hismatch last week. In thefierce legal battlebetween the DelhiGovernment andthe Centre on whocontrols theCapital, senior advocate Gopal Subramaniumput it across the A-G saying, “There is no pointin having a vociferous voice. But the point hasto be vociferous.” Subramanium was repre-senting the Delhi Government.

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India may berejoicing

over thegold and

bronze medalclinched by Mariyappan Thangavelu andVarun Singh Bhati in high jump event at theRio Paralympics. But the Paralympics rightsactivists stand disappointed as not a singleIndian television networks, includingDoordarshan, had come forward to pick up thetelecast rights for this global event. Thisdespite the fact that India has the highest num-ber of disabilities in the world and also has thelargest contingent of 19 members in theolympics. According to them, the Ministry ofInformation & Broadcasting should havetaken effective steps for the telecast of RioParalympics 2016 on Doordarshan. However,spurred by the success of the Indian athletesin Rio, Sony has come forward to show at leastthe Paralympics highlights, if not live, throughits two sports channels SIX and ESPN.

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After Defence Ministry recently set up theArmy Welfare Fund for Battle Casualties,

a Pune-based childless couple in their late 70spledged their property and huge sums of moneyto it after their death. Letters seeking details ofthe scheme have flooded the offices of DefenceMinister Manohar Parrikar and some othersenior officers. The fund was set up to givefinancial assistance to those personnel injuredor killed in action. The Ministry is now try-ing to get income tax exemption for this fundwhich collected more than �30 lakhs in last onemonth through public donations.

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Big brother CPI(M) is sulking over CPI’s stu-dent wing leader Kanhaiya Kumar’s jibe

against Prakash Karat. Recently, Kanhaiyablamed Karat in Kolkata for describing the BJPGovernment in an article “as an authoritarian-

ism and not fascism”. Attacking Karat, the JNUstudent leader said, “Uncle, it is time for you togo to New York and take rest...” Grapevine hasit that CPI(M) leaders have complained to theCPI biggies against the young comrade.

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Left leaders are totallyclueless about the

recent hobnobbingbetween BJP leaderSubramanian Swamyand Nepal PrimeMinister and Maoistleader Prachanda. Onlast Wednesday, Swamymet Prachanda. Thetwo eladers had met inFebruary too. The Nepal PM is coming to Indiafor a three-day trip starting September 15.While Indian diplomats are tight-lipped, Leftleaders wonder about the developing chemistrybetween the ideologically opposite leaders.

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The Inspector General (Communication andWorks) CRPF Directorate, Piyush Anand,

recently shot off a letter to Director General ofCPWD Abhya Sinha, complaining against chiefengineers and executive engineers of the con-struction agency. Anand has alleged that evenafter sanction was accorded to the CPWD forprojects related to his department, work wasyet to be started after a lapse of 6-7 months.He also rued that the engineers were not pro-viding details of mandatory information relat-ed to pre-works and post works to his officersassociated with the projects.

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The flexi-fare system introduced in premi-um trains has now become a war of “per-

ception” between lot the railway high ups at RailBhawan and AIR India chief Ashwani Lohani.It started when Lohani introduced schemes forattracting Rajdhani-bound passengers to AirIndia flights last month. With railway boardunder pressure to generate revenue for thenational transporter, it introduced the con-troversial flexi-fare scheme. Rail Bhawan cor-ridors are abuzz with gossips that Lohani mightbe trying to settle the score with bosses in theRail Bhavan who sabotaged his prospects ofbecoming the Chairman of the Rail Board. RailMember (Traffic) Md Jamshed, who is thearchitect of the flexi scheme, was also one ofthe top contender for the post of the CRB.

New Delhi: Two days afterbeleaguered businessman VijayMallya told a Delhi court that hefelt "incapacitated" to travel toIndia despite his "best intentions"as his passport has been revoked,the ED has started working onissuing a third attachment orderworth a few thousandcrore of rupees moreagainst him.

The ED hasalready attached assetsworth �8,041 crore aspart of its criminalprobe against Mallyaand this time the targetedassets would include those onforeign shores.

Officials said while the

Enforcement Directorate has tillnow been effecting seizure ofassets under the stringent pro-visions of the Prevention ofMoney Laundering Act(PMLA), the next edition ofattachments will be carried outunder sections of the Criminal

Procedure Code (CrPC).The agency had got a

proclamation issued by aMumbai court underCrPC against Mallya afterhe skipped multiple sum-monses to depose in itsmoney laundering probe

in the alleged bank loan fraudsworth over �9,000 crore.

With Mallya not joiningED's PMLA probe till now, the

agency, they said, will the thirdset of attachment orders forassets held "directly and indi-rectly" by him, including thoseat overseas locations like SouthAfrica, the UK and others.

It is understood that theagency has already got a dossierprepared in this regard of hisshares in companies and otherbusiness commitments, andan order for attachment ofassets under CrPC would beissued in some time.

While sources did not men-tion the estimated value of theassets that would be attachedunder the fresh order, it isexpected to be worth a few thou-sand crores of rupees. PTI

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As India gets ready to attend theforthcoming 17th Conference of

the Parties (COP17) to the Conventionon International Trade in EndangeredSpecies of Wild Fauna and Flora(CITES) in South Africa later thismonth, the Environment Ministry isworking out options to introduce claus-es of stricter punishment to its existingWildlife Protection Act.

India being a party to CITES, it isobligatory for the country to bring innecessary legislative changes to facili-tate implementation of the provisionsof the Convention.

Further, the country has put for-ward a proposal to transfer Indian pan-golins from Appendix II to AppendixI as the species is subject to increasinglevels of poaching, largely for its meatand scales, both for local use and forillegal international trade.

According to sources in theMinistry, clauses of stricter punish-ments are being contemplated, whichtarget the trade in endangered species.One of the proposals is to increase thepenalties from the existing range of�500-�25,000 to �5,000-�50 lakh forvarious violations under the Wildlife(Protection) Act, 1972. There would beprovisions for imposing a separatepenalty for offences related to huntingin tiger reserves. Though the environ-ment Ministry is yet to come up withformal draft effecting such changes,there are internal discussions within theMinistry keeping in mind the earlier

draft that was prepared three years ago. The idea behind such discussions

is to arrive at a decision for making theexisting law much more stringent sothat it can act as an effective deterrentto poachers and traders of parts of wildanimals, said the sources. The propos-als are also meant for introducing pro-visions for grant of permit for scientif-ic research, allowing certain activitieslike grazing, movement of livestock andbonafide use of drinking and householdwater by local communities in wildlifeareas and protection of hunting rightsof Scheduled Tribe in the UnionTerritory of Andaman & NicobarIslands.

The amendments (if any), in theexisting law will also be meant for pro-hibition on use of animal traps (exceptunder certain circumstances). Further,it will specifically make these provisionsin tune with the CITES so as to con-trol illegal international trade in wildlife.

In a step ahead in this direction,India has put up a proposal for chang-ing the classification status of thespecies of Indian Pangolin. It is present-ly classified as 'Endangered' as per theIUCN Red List. However, the speciesis predicted to decline by 50 per cent over the next two decades based on current rates oftrade and there has been a markeddecline in the population size in thewild and thus calls for a change in clas-sification status.

The sources said India is, unfortu-nately, becoming a major supplier ofpangolin body parts to illegal marketsin China, Vietnam and Thailand.Pangolin meat is a delicacy in SoutheastAsian countries, and their blood isbelieved to have aphrodisiac properties.Their scales are used in traditional ori-ental medicine to cure various diseases,including headaches, asthma and cer-tain cancers.

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Fissures in the Bihar's GrandAlliance are getting visible

after the coalition partnersRashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) andJanata Dal (United) tradedsharp words against each otherover the last two days. While theRJD leaders questioned JD(U)leader Nitish Kumar’s suitabil-ity for the Chief Minister’s postsaying he became the CM dueto circumstances, Kumarresponded by saying he was thepopular choice of the peopleand had their mandate.

On Saturday, RJD’s MohdShahabuddin had said he didnot agree with Kumar’sappointment to the CM’s postbut obeyed the decision of theGrand Alliance. On Sunday,another senior party leaderRaghuvansh Prasad Singh toosaid Lalu Prasad Yadav was thepopular choice for CM post.

"Lalu Prasad is our leaderand we wanted him to be ChiefMinister. When the GrandAlliance was formed, then itsleaders decided that NitishKumar would be their leader. Idid not agree with it butobeyed," Raghuvansh PrasadSingh said. The formerMinister, much like his otherparty colleagues, has been a

critic of Nitish Kumar.Shahabuddin, a gangster-

turned-politician, had calledKumar a "Chief Minister of cir-cumstances and not a massleader", shortly after he wasreleased on bail after spending11 years in jail.

"Nitish ji became Bihar'sCM because of the political sit-uation. It is only because of cir-cumstances/situation he is nowthe State Chief Minister,"Shahabuddin said while addingthat though Kumar is the CMof Bihar, his leader will alwaysbe Lalu Prasad Yadav. Agreeingwith Shahabuddin's statement,Raghuvansh Singh said, "Whatis wrong in it (Shahabuddin'sstatement)? Nitish Kumar hasindeed been a Chief Minister ofcircumstances and not becauseof his own strength and num-bers." Singh also criticised thetough liquor prohibition lawenacted by the BiharGovernment, saying it wasbeing used to defame people.

However, Bihar ChiefMinister Nitish Kumar onSunday termed Shahabuddin'sremarks as "unimportant"adding that he would go by thepeople's mandate and not bywhat someone else says.

"We have not got the man-date to give reactions. You(media persons) too are wast-ing your time and space on this.The whole world knows whatis the mandate of the people ofBihar. Should I go by the peo-ple's mandate or pay attentionto what someone is saying? Wehave not paid attention to suchthings in the past. All thesethings are not important," theBihar CM said.

Shahabuddin, however,maintained that there is nothreat to the JDU-RJD alliancein Bihar. "Whatever I said is mypersonal view and it is nothingto do with the party. If there isany dissent or difference ofopinion, I will discuss it thatwith my party leader," he added.

Earlier, former unionMinister and senior RJD leaderMohammad Taslimuddin hadsaid that Nitish Kumar is not aPM material. "Nitish Kumar isnot PM material. How can aperson run the country whocould not provide sushashan inhis own State which is wit-nessing a spate of killings,"Taslimuddin said. "Kumar isday dreaming of becoming thePrime Minister by launchingnationwide campaign againstliquor but that will not fructi-fy," he added.

Interestingly, Senior BJPleader Sushil Kumar Modi toofor a change supportedShahabuddin's remarks but atthe same time termed hisrelease from jail as a "wellplanned strategy" of the NitishKumar Government.

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Home Minister RajnathSingh will visit Russia and

United States of America nextweek for discussions onHomeland Security and coop-eration in anti-terror opera-tions. The HM is also expect-ed to highlight Pak-sponsoredterrorist activities and its indul-gence in Jammu & Kashmirduring his meeting with Russiaand American counterparts.

Singh’s meeting with Russianand American internal affairsMinisters comes at a time whenPakistan is sending itParliamentarians to various partsof the world to raise the issue ofKashmir. Rajnath’s Russia visitwill be from September 18 to 22where he will have bilateral talkswith Russian Minister forInternal Affairs VladimirKolokoltsev. Issues related toIndo-Russia joint anti-terroroperations including the ISIS areexpected to be discussed.

In Washington Singh willbe on a seven-day visit starting

from September 26 where hewill meet his American coun-terpart Jeh Charles Johnson forthe Indo-US HomelandSecurity Dialogue.

"In both the bilateral visitsto Russia and the US, theHome Minister will highlightPakistan's direct involvement incross border terrorism andgrowing activities of the MiddleEast terror group in India andits neighbourhood," a HomeMinistry official said.

Sources said Singh will haveelaborate discussions with hisRussian and the US counter-parts on how to enhance anti-terror cooperation, especiallychecking the growing activitiesof ISIS and sharing of intelli-gence inputs on real time basis.Cooperation in cyber securityarea, protection of critical infra-structure and installations,countering illicit finance, glob-al supply chain security, megac-ity policing and science andtechnology are also some of thekey issues to be discussed at themeetings to be held in Moscow

and Washington. Other issues tobe discussed in the two visitsinclude extradition of eachother's wanted criminals, liber-alisation of visas etc.

However, at both meetings,India is looking at raising thepitch on the issue of "terrorexport" from Pakistan, andIslamabad's direct support toterrorism in India. Last weekPrime Minister Narendra Modihad raised this issue at the G20,BRICS meet and East AsiaSummit, where he called on theinternational community toisolate and sanction this insti-gator of terrorism.

Modi urged the nations tointensify joint efforts to combatterrorism and sought "coordi-nated actions" by the grouping to"isolate supporters and sponsorsof terror". The Government'stough stance comes amid height-ened tension with Pakistan,which is openly backing mili-tancy in Jammu & Kashmirwhich has been hit by unrest forover two months now.

"The bilateral visits of theHome Minister are part ofIndia's efforts to create globalopinion against Pakistan spon-sored terrorism in India," theofficial said.

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New Delhi: Union HomeMinister Rajnath Singh onSunday met a youth fromJammu & Kashmir who hastopped the examination forassistant commandant inBorder Security Force, sayinghis success story will inspiremany in the State.

Singh said he wasimmensely happy to meetNabel Ahmad Wani, a youngman from Udhampur inJammu & Kashmir, who toppedthe assistant commandantexamination recently.

"The success story ofNabeel shows that youths inJammu & Kashmir have lot ofpotentials and his success willinspire many young boys andgirls in the State," he said.

Wani was accompanied byDirector General of BSF KKSharma when he met the

Home Minister, who alsowished Wani success and brightfuture in life.

The Home Minister alsointroduced Wani to top offi-cials, including NSA Ajit Doval,Union Home Secretary RajivMehrishi and others, who hadcome for a meeting with Singhduring that time. Wani said thathe felt unemployment was thebiggest problem being faced bythe youth which can only besolved by education.

Wani, who is currentlyserving as a junior engineer inUdhampur, said it was hisdream to join the defenceforces and serve the countrywhich has now been fulfilled."The more we get education thebetter and more jobs we willget. We cannot get education bytaking to stones but by holdinga pen," Wani said. PTI

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Alarge majority of people are notaware of what to do in case some-

one is suicidal even though it can beavoided if timely preventive steps aretaken, says a study.

The study which was conducted bythe Delhi-based Cosmos Institute ofMental Health and Behavioural Sciences(CIMBS) in the NCR-Delhi regionnotes that while most of the respondents(91 per cent) were optimistic that sui-cides are preventable, a large majority (71per cent) were not aware of what to doin case someone is suicidal.

It found that 55 per cent of therespondents from the general populationknew someone in their personal, socialor professional circle who had lost theirlife to suicide, while 61 per cent knewof someone who had attempted to do so.

A majority (53 per cent) felt that theyhad been personally impacted by suchincidents of suicide (while 25 per centdenied being impacted, 22 per cent couldnot say yes or no for sure)

"There is a growing need to spreadawareness about suicide prevention.People often do not know what to do ifsomeone is suicidal. Awareness, accessto care and timely action can help go along way in preventing suicides" saidSimple, founder of Nav Sanjeevan whichwas associated with the study.

"The results are alarming. Thishighlights the profound impact that sui-cides have on society at large and needfor awareness building about recognis-ing early signs of suicidal behavior andensuring timely intervention.

"Suicides can be prevented if earlywarning signs are recognised and

timely help is provided. Untreatedmood swings, recent life trauma, sud-den calmness after mood swings, talk-ing about suicide and making prepa-rations to give away possessions maybe red flag signs of potential risk forsuicide.

"If any such signs are noted, familymembers and next of kin must interveneand help the person suffering from sui-cidal ideation find timely help frommental health care experts. Timely inter-vention in the moment of crisis can helpsave their life," said Dr. Sunil Mittal, SeniorConsultant Psychiatrist and Director,consultant psychiatrist at Cosmos Instituteof Mental Health and BehaviouralSciences (CIMBS), New Delhi.

Dr. Shobhana Mittal, consultantpsychiatrist at (CIMBS) said, "the reasonsunderlying suicidal behaviour can bemany and complex. This throws light onthe pressures faced by today's youth andneed for developing adequate copingskills to deal with pressures from outsideas well as from within," she added.

"Most women today balance workand home, and the challenges faced bytoday's woman are many. Suicide hasvarious biological, psychological andsocial factors which come together andcontribute to its manifestation.

"Those underlying factors must beunderstood and dealt with in order toprevent suicide," added Dr. SameerKalani, consultant psychiatrist at CIMBS.

Suicides are among the top threeleading causes of death worldwide, andthe most common cause of death in youthage group in India, with road traffic acci-dents following in second place. Everyyear, approximately one million peopleworldwide lose their life to suicide.

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At least seven police officialincluding a Superintendent

of Police were injured after theywere attacked by a group of sus-pected drug peddlers at Namsaidistrict in Arunachal Pradeshon Saturday night, police saidon Sunday.

Police, however, couldmanage to arrest the drug ped-dler and his son for theirinvolvement in the crime,police added.

Police said that the incidenttook place at Mahadevpur areain the district bordering Assam.The policemen were raidingthe house of a suspected drugpeddler when they came underattack from some people insidethe house.

“While all the seven wereinjured, the condition of an SubInspector and a Havilder, whoreceived inuuries on his head,were stated to be serious andthey have been shifted to theAssam Medical College inDibrugarh district of neigh-bouring Assam,” police saidadding that operations have

been intensified in the area insearch of the culprits.

Namsai districtSuperintendent of Police, CKMein, who led the operation,sustained injuries on his handbut he is stated to be out of danger.

“The police on civil dresslaunched an operation follow-ing specific information aboutthe drug peddler. However,the police team when enteredthe house faced attack suddenlyby the drug peddler and hismen,” said Namsai districtExtra Assistant Commissioner(EAC), HN Dubey.

While four personnelincluding the SI and theHavilder entered the housefirst, the SP, his personal secu-rity officer and their driver

were outside the house as back-up. “The SI was the first personto face the attack first. Whenthe Havildar tried to save him,he also came under the attack,”Dubey said adding that laterthe whole team came underattack but could manage thearrest the peddler and his son.

It may be mentioned herethat drug-abuse and its smug-gling have been a major causeof worry for law enforces incertain districts of ArunachalPradesh including in Namsai,Changlang and Lohit districts.The drug-peddlers smuggleheroin and brown sugarthrough various porous routesfrom Myanmar and are dis-tributed among the users andaddicts through chain of ped-dlers and their agents.

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In connection with the hoochtragedy in a South Gujarat

village which resulted in at least18 deaths over a week’s time,Gujarat Government has decid-ed to set-up a three-memberpanel to probe into it.

The Chief Minister had tointervene after pressure on theState administration began tobuild from locals that the inci-dent of deaths of 18 people inVareli village near Surat beadmitted to be due to con-sumption of spurious liquorsince September 4.

Announcing the panelGujarat Chief Minister, VijayRupani said that the StateGovernment has appointed ahigh-level panel to probe in tothe matter that prima facieappears to have happened due toconsumption of spurious liquor.

“We will not spare anyonefound guilty,” said Rupani,adding that the team wouldvisit the place of incident analongwith forensic report, itwould provide State

Government a complete pic-ture of the real situation.

The committee, compris-ing Additional Director-General of Police VM Pargi,Director of Prohibition &Excise BK Kumar and ForensicScience Laboratory DeputyDirector Dr MS Dahiya, hasbeen asked to submit the reportby Tuesday evening. The bloodsamples and viscera of thedeceased have been sent fortesting at the Regional ForensicScience Laboratory at Surat.

The chief district healthofficer, Dr Megha Mehta, toowas cautious in her diagnosis.“Many of the patients broughtin showed symptoms of vom-

iting and severe breathless-ness, with their pulse ratefalling drastically. Though thevictims showed symptoms ofhaving consumed spuriousliquor, we wanted to be sureabout whether there was somekind of a new virus and so havesent samples to forensic labo-ratory for confirmation,” shesaid. The blood samples of thevictims have also been sent forvirology tests to NationalInstitute of Virology, Pune.

With prohibition in place,the local administration andpolice find it difficult to explainavailability of spurious liquorand any deaths related to itsconsumption. Hence it generally

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On a day when four infil-trators were killed as the

Army foiled three infiltrationbids at three places in northKashmir, at least 170 peoplewere injured during clashesbetween protesters and thesecurity forces in several partsof the Valley on Sunday.

Four unidentified militantswere killed after the Armyfoiled an infiltration bid in thewee hours on Sunday in northKashmir’s Nowgam area alongthe Line of Control (LoC) inHandwara sector of Kupwaradistrict. Defence sources saidtwo more infiltration bids alongthe LoC were foiled in Tangdararea of Kupwara and Gurez sec-tor in Bandipora district.

Meanwhile, with the deathof Javaid Ahmad Dar of centralKashmir’s Wadwan area ofBudgam district who sustainedbullet injuries during protests onAugust 5, the civilian death tollhas mounted to 75 since theunrest began in Valley on July 8.

Normal life remained crip-pled on 65th consecutive day inValley due to separatist spon-sored shutdown and the restric-tions. All shops, business estab-lishments, main markets, pub-lic transport, other businessesand educational institutionsremained closed in KashmirValley.

Mobile internet servicescontinued to remain suspend-ed while incoming calling facil-

ity on prepaid mobile servicesis barred. Train servicesbetween Kashmir’s Baramullatown in the valley and Banihaltown of the Jammu region alsoremained suspended for thepast 65 days. People were seenpurchasing merchandise in LalChowk, civil lines areas andelsewhere in Srinagar city dur-ing separatists’ relaxation hoursin shutdown programme from6 pm onwards on Sunday.

The divisional commis-sioner Kashmir Baseer Khansaid, “no curfew was imposedanywhere in Kashmir”.However, curfew-like restric-tions remained in force in vastold city areas under Nowhatta,

MR Gunj and Khanyar policestations while strict restric-tions under Sec 144 on assem-bly of people continuedthroughout Kashmir. Strictrestrictions had been put inplace in Anantnag town whilecurfew like restrictions wereimplemented in southKashmir’s Kulgam town tothwart “Lal Chowk Anantnagmarch” called by local separatistleadership.

Reports said clashes erupt-ed in the Kareemabad area ofsouth Kashmir’s Pulwama dis-trict in the wee hours aftersecurity forces allegedly raidedhouses. Locals alleged thatafter security forces started

damaging houses and the prop-erty, the locals reacted andclashes ensued. The number ofinjured including women dur-ing clashes was said to bearound 120 while 17 injuredwith bullets, pellets and tear gasshelling were shifted toSrinagar hospitals for advancedtreatment. Police and securityforces have arrested 19 personsin the area including brother ofNasir Pandit, cop turned mil-itant who was killed last year inApril during an encounter withforces.

In Srinagar, a rally wastaken out in old city’s RajouriKadal area. Later, at least 10people were reported injured inthe clashes.

Separatists have asked peo-ple to hold a protest march tothe office of United NationsMilitary Observers Group inIndia and Pakistan(UNMOGIP) in Sonwar local-ity of Srinagar city onSeptember 13, the day Muslimswould be celebrating the holyfestival of Eid ul Azha.Authorities may likely imposecurfew and restrictions acrossKashmir to prevent the march.Sources said authorities couldsuspend broadband Internetfacility on fixed landlines onTuesday. Large prayer gather-ings of people in Srinagar cityand other cities and towns ofthe Valley at Eidgahs areunlikely to be allowed to pre-vent post prayer protests andUN march.

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At least three heavily-armedPakistan-trained militants-

believed to be members of theLashkar-e-Tayyeba’s (LeT) sui-cide squad were neutralised bya joint team of security forcesduring a 12-hour-long opera-tion near the Armys PoonchBrigade headquarters onSunday evening.

One policeman of CIDwing of State police also sacri-ficed his life while five othersincluding two Army jawansand one Sub-Inspector andtwo civilians were injured dur-ing the fierce gun fight.

The fidayeen attack coin-cided with the 15th anniversaryof 9/11 attacks on the UnitedStates and was staged close onthe heels of festival of EID todisturb peace in the region.

Incharge Deputy InspectorGeneral of Police (Rajouri-Poonch) range Johny Williamstold reporters in Poonch,“Three heavily-armed mili-tants were neutralised by ajoint team of security forces tilllate evening”. He said, “Thethree civilians lodged inside thehouse in Allahpir locality ofPoonch town were safelyescorted out of the building bythe security forces”.

“The operation has notbeen called off even after thethree militants were neutralised

by the security forces”.Possibility of presence of moremilitants in the area also can-not be ruled out,official sourcesclaimed.

The joint team of securityforces were still maintaining atight cordon in the area to pre-vent escape of any militantholed up inside the building”,a senior police officer super-vising the operation in Poonchtold The Pioneer.

The security forces whichlaunched the final assault toflush out the fidayeen squadwere anticipating 'booby traps'and decided to carry out thor-ough search and combingoperations in the nearby areasbefore calling off the operationMonday morning.

However, confusion per-sisted from where the group ofheavily armed militantssneaked inside Poonch town. Itwas not clear whether thegroup of militants had man-aged to breach the Line ofControl or were already camp-ing in the area before launch-ing the strike on Armys'Poonch Brigade headquarters.

Ministry of Defencereleased two written statementscarrying two different ver-sions. Senior state police offi-cers maintained silence overthe issue.

In a first handout Defencespokesperson claimed,” A fire

fight between security forcesand terrorists erupted this earlymorning when a JKP patrolencountered terrorists on thefringes of border town ofPoonch. Army units deployedin the area immediately react-ed with quick reaction teams,on receiving the information.After initial brief exchange offire terrorists have taken shel-ter in an isolated house andunder construction MiniSecretariat building . In initialexchange of fire one policejawan was martyred and onereceived injuries. One civilianalso got injured in the firing”.

In the second statementDefence PRO claimed, “in awell coordinated and daringoperation the three terroristswere eliminated by the jointteam of security forces. Thedefence PRO also claimedIndian army and J&K policereceived intelligence inputs ofa heavily armed group of ter-rorist presence in Allah PirMohalla of Poonch town. Thesecurity forces responded swift-ly and cordoned off the affect-ed area where terrorists hadtaken an elderly couple ashostage”.

The police constable mar-tyred in the operation wasidentified as Rajinder Kumarwhile another Sub-Inspectorinjured in the attack was iden-tified as Manzoor Hussain.

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Uttar Pradesh BJP chiefKeshav Prasad Maurya on

Sunday claimed that the votersof the State will follow themantra of “SP saaf, BSP saaf,BJP top” (SP, BSP wiped outand BJP on top) and riding onthe developmental agenda ofPrime Minister NarendraModi, the saffron party willform the Government in theState in 2017.

“The voters of the State willfollow the mantra of ‘SP saaf,BSF saaf, BJP top’ in 2017.People are fed up with theatmosphere of corruption and‘Goonda Raj’ prevailing in theState. The developmental agen-

da of the Modi Governmentwill see the BJP form theGovernment in Uttar Pradeshwith more than 350 MLAs,” heclaimed.

Maurya was talking toreporters before taking part ina convention of BJP’s district-level officials.

“The goons of theSamajwadi Party (SP) entergirls hostels and misbehavewith the inmates there but theChief Minister looks the otherway,” he alleged.

Alleging that State MinisterAzam Khan had “insulted” BRAmbedkar, he said the BJPwould not tolerate this. “TheDalits will give a fitting reply tothe SP,” he claimed.

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Union Minister of State forSocial Justice and

Empowerment RamdasAthawale attacked BSP chiefMayawati saying that if she wasa follower of Dr BR Ambedkar,then why was she not embrac-ing Buddhism. Athawale rep-resents the Republican Party ofIndia (Athawale) which is anally of the NDA.

Visiting Lucknow for thefirst time after becoming aUnion Minister, RamdasAthawale said, “The RPI ismuch older than the BSP andhas an deep connect with thestate. In 1967, it had 16 MLAsin UP and four of its memberswere minister in the

Choudhury Charan SinghGovernment.”

“Mayawati may be a goodadministrator, but she hasalways insulted Dr Ambedkarand never followed her ideol-ogy. She had insulted DrAmbedkar by replacing hisstautes by that of Kanshiramduring her regime,” he alleged.

“If she is sincere and faith-ful to Dr Ambedkar then sheshould convert to Buddhismlike Baba Saheb,” he advised.

Atahwale said that the RPIwould be contesting the com-ing Assembly polls in UP inalliance with the BJP and hasasked for 30 seats. The Unionminister said, “People of UPmade Mayawati Chief Ministerfour times. ��,��9��4��9�� D�� ='

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Santosh Yadav, the firstwoman to climb Mount

Everest twice, on Sundayblamed commercialisation forthe series of deaths which hasplagued mountaineering thisseason and created a bad pub-licity for the adventure sport.

Besides the death of anAustralian woman and a Dutchman in May this year due tofrostbite and altitude sickness,a few Indians also lost theirlives trying to etch their namesin history.

“When I climbed theEverest in 1992, three peoplefell sick. Out of them two died.The lesson I learnt there was ifyou don't follow rules, then

accidents are bound to hap-pen,” Yadav told reporters at anevent here on Sunday.

“The same situation devel-oped in May this year whenthey (the Australian and Dutchclimbers) had left oxygen at thebase camp. I always carriedexcess oxygen with me. Therewere detractors who used to tellme I can do it without oxygen.But I refused to pay heed totheir comments. We cannotattempt something withoutfoolproof precaution andpreparation,” she added.

Yadav feels the ease withwhich mountaineers nowadaysattempt to climb the Everest isnot good for their overall development.

“Today’s situation in

mountaineering is we aredependent on others. When weused to climb, we used to findour own way. Girls don't dothat, but I used to. Now sher-pas act as navigators, but dur-ing our time the case was dif-ferent.”

“There are companies whoplan and decide on the route.When we used to climb, weused to plan the route. How tonegotiate roads, and every-thing was done by us. I used tobrief others, plan contours,” shesaid.

Though not totally run-ning down commercialisationwhich has entered the sport ofmountaineering nowadays,Yadav stressed that it was bestnot to let the basics of climb-

ing be affected.“I’m not running down

commercialisation totally. Butone has to follow the basics ofclimbing.”

“It took us 15 days to reachthe base. Now people availhelicopters and take flights. Weused to practise gradual climb-ing. Sherpas have started open-ing roads since 1996. I am notfond of this,” she said.

“Also the cost of moun-taineering now is much morethan what it used to be. Dreamsof many are shattered. Overall,I feel the charm is lost if every-thing is spoon fed, and chancesof accidents are much more.”

In August, Dinesh andTarakeshwari Rathod said theyhad achieved a lifelong goal by

becoming the first Indian cou-ple to summit of MountEverest. But later, Nepaleseauthorities said the Rathods,both police officers in theIndian State of Maharashtra,had doctored photographs sub-mitted to the Government inapplying for a certificate of asuccessful climb.

The couple were barredfrom climbing Nepal's moun-tains for 10 years.

On the false claims aboutclimbing which are on the rise,Yadav said: “We used to climbat least 7,000 metres to bedeemed fit to meet the basicmark. Now the mark is money.Chances of accidents are morebecause they remain amateurs.”

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CBI may probe the $208 mil-lion Embraer aircraft deal

if any criminality is indicatedin the internal probe alreadyordered, Defence MinisterManohar Parrikar said here onSunday.

He said he has sought areport from DRDO by tomor-row and only after that he couldmake a proper statement on theissue.

“We are investigating thematter. The investigation isgoing on... I am not going togive a knee-jerk reaction,”Parrikar told reporters herewhile responding to questionsover the deal that has run intoa controversy.

“If there is a criminal angle,then we can give it (probe) toCBI. The Defence Ministrycannot investigate criminalangle,” he said when askedwhether the probe would behanded over to CBI.

He said if only proceduralissues are involved, then theDefence Ministry can do aninternal investigation.

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Patna: With six more deaths,the toll in Bihar floods onSunday increased to 228 evenas the flood situation easedwith all major rivers exceptPunpun, Kosi and Kamlabalan,flowing below danger mark.

Three persons each died indistricts of Saran and Begusarai,a Disaster ManagementDepartment statement said.

31.30 lakh people havebeen affected in 1,725 villagesof 12 districts, the release said.

As per the department'srelease, a total of 3.94 lakh peo-ple have been evacuated fromthe 12 flood-affected districts ofBuxar, Bhojpur, Patna, Vaishali,Saran, Begusarai, Samastipur,Lakhisarai, Khagaria, Munger,

Bhagalpur and Katihar.The Government has

deployed 2,537 boats for evac-uation, while national and statedisaster response forces werealready working in the affect-ed districts, it said.

1.98 lakh people have takenshelter in 271 relief camps. Thenumber of camps has gonedown from yesterday's 318. Atotal of 220 camps are beingoperated for cattle affected byflooding. According to thestate water resources depart-ment, Punpun river atSripalpur in Patna, Kosi river atBaltara in Khagaria districtand Kamlabalan in Jhanjharpurdistrict were flowing abovedanger level. ��

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Amid the escalating water rowbetween Karnataka and Tamil

Nadu, the Supreme Court onSunday agreed to hear on Mondayan application filed by Karnatakaseeking a direction to reduce thequantum of water to be releasedfrom Cauvery river to Tamil Nadufrom 15,000 cusecs to 10,000 cusecs.Monday being a holiday, the Benchwill sit only to hear this matter.

The Supreme Court’s decisionto hear the plea came after it wasmentioned before the court’s reg-istry, which consulted Chief JusticeTS Thakur.

In its plea, Karnataka has soughtmodification of the apex court’sSeptember 5 order for release of15,000 cusecs of water for 10 daysas immediate relief to Tamil Nadufarmers. Karnataka’s decision tomove the Supreme Court comesahead of the Cauvery SupervisoryCommittee’s meeting on Monday atNew Delhi, to decide on the quan-tum of the river’s water to bereleased to Tamil Nadu and otherStates.

In the application, Karnatakahas stated that there has been hugepublic pressure and the State police,with great difficulty, have been ableto prevent attempts to damage pub-lic property.

“Even the minimum arrange-

ment mentioned by your lordshipshas caused distress and havoc in theentire southern part of Karnataka,paralysing civil life. The agitation offarmers has been that their dry cropis equalled with that of the farmersin Tamil Nadu. Tamil Nadu’s ricecrop consumes more than twice thewater which is needed for light cropsin Karnataka,” the application said.

The application has stated thatpeople, particularly farmers in thedistricts of Mysuru, Hassan,Mandya and Bengaluru, have beensquatting on the roads and streets,affecting the IT industry inBengaluru which earns revenue asincome-tax, service tax, and foreignexchange to the tune of $60 billionfor the country.

As the Cauvery heat is on Chief

Minister Siddaramaiah had soughtthe intervention of Prime MinisterNarendra Modi to resolve the con-tentious issue by quoting a prece-dent of 1995. He has written a let-ter in this regard and asked for ameeting with the Chief Minister ofTamil Nadu at any given time.

Meanwhile as protests contin-ued in the Cauvery districts onSunday, Karnataka Water ResourcesMinister MB Patil assured the farm-ers the State would release water forirrigation. However he told ThePioneer that the State has full faithin the Cauvery SupervisoryCommittee where they will explainabout the status of farmers andwater crisis in the State. With thelowest rainfall in the last fourdecades, the State Government now

pins all hits hopes on the panel.The State has started releasing

the water to Tamil Nadu onSeptember 7, in accordance with thecourt directive, sources said this wasbeing done with a severe crisis in allfour Cauvery basin reservoirs,together holding 46.79 tmcft asagainst 94 tmcft in a normal year.Of 46.79 tmcft, 28 tmcft is thedrinking water requirement ofBengaluru, Mandya, Mysuru and afew villages, till the onset of thesouthwest monsoon in June.

In another development formerPrime Minister and JDs SupremoHD Deve Gowda, said he was con-templating to present the groundrealities on the poor storage of waterin all four reservoirs in the Cauverybasin and the plight of farmersbefore the Supreme Court.

He was speaking to reporters atthe Krishnaraja Sagar (KRS) reser-voir near Mysuru after conductingan aerial inspection of the reservoir,farm fields in the vicinity andwaterways in the district. He alsosaid that he would present hisobservations on the ground realitiesbefore Prime Minister NarendraModi and Chief MinisterSiddaramaiah.

Meanwhile, Bharatiya JanataParty (BJP) State president BSYeddyurappa extended his supportto the farmers by participating in theongoing Cauvery agitations near SirM Visvesvaraya statue.

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When Karnataka sneezes, TamilNadu gets cold. This is the

ground reality as the two States areengaged in a legal battle for a fewmore drops of Cauvery water. Busservices between Tamil Nadu andKarnataka which have been sus-pended for the last five days due tonear riot situation were partiallyrestored on Sunday. But an uneasycalm prevailing in the border areasis discernible. The legal battle is tomake Karnataka release the quanti-ty of water from Cauvery river toTamil Nadu which has been award-ed by the Cauvery Water DisputeTribunal in 2007.

Karnataka has to release 192 tmcfeet water every year to Tamil Naduas per the verdict of the CWDT. Thetribunal has also set the quantum ofwater to be released by Karnatakaper month in a water year whichbegins in June and ends up in May.But the south west Monsoon isunpredictable and most of the timeKarnataka is left with no water tomeet the terms set by the tribunal.

If Tamil Nadu farmers do notget the stipulated quantum of waterevery month, their crops (Kuruvai,Thaldi and Samba) go bust. “Whatis the use in Karnataka releasing thewater meant for the month of June

in September? The Kuruvai, theshort term crop is dependant on thewater available in the month of Juneitself,” said RV Giri, president,Consortium of Indian FarmersAssociation (CIFA). He said the fivedelta districts of Tamil Nadu has lostthe Kuruvai crop for the fourth con-secutive year due to Karnataka’srefusal to release Cauvery water.

While the riots in Karanatakawere a fall out of the recent SupremeCourt directive to the State to release15,000 cusecs of water to Tamil Nadufor ten days, farmers in Tamil Naduare on a warpath both against theirGovernment and Karnataka. Politicalleaders in Tamil Nadu consider thesituation as a god-sent opportunityto embarrass Chief MinisterJayalalithaa by alleging that it wasdue to her failure that Karnatakarefuses to release Cauvery water.

Muthuvel Karunanidhi, the 93-year-old DMK chief, who has beenout of work since 2011, does notwaste an opportunity to irritateJayalalithaa by issuing statements ona daily basis. Karunanidhi onSaturday asked the Tamil NaduGovernment to convene an all-party meeting to discuss theCauvery issue though he would notattend such meeting. The DMKpresident has no solution to resolvethe imbroglio. The maximum

Jayalalithaa could do is to persuadePrime Minister Modi to constitutethe Cauvery Management Board asdemanded by the CWDT.Karunanidhi himself failed to get theBoard constituted by the then UPAGovernment though he was themost crucial alliance partner of theCongress during 2004 to 2013.

“The only option available beforethe Centre is to make the west flow-ing rivers like Netravati, Herangi andHymavathy flow East and link themwith Cauvery. It is a win-win situa-tion for all stake holders,” saidKattumanarkoil Kannan, generalsecretary, Cauvery Delta FarmersWelfare Association. He also saidKarnataka should resist from theindiscriminate use of the Cauverywater. “Tamil Nadu shuts downMettur Dam in January and the wateris used only for drinking purpose. ButKarnataka uses the Cauvery water ona round the year basis for farmingoperation,” said Kannan.

The only beneficiaries in this“battle royale” between Karnatakaand Tamil Nadu are the leadinglawyers in the Supreme Court whocharge millions even for a day’sappearance. While the two Statesfight it out in the apex court , farm-ers in Tamil Nadu numbering 20million continue suffering for wantof water.

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Stating that India’s diversitywas a matter of “celebration”

and not a “problem” as out-siders consider it to be, RSSchief Mohan Bhagwat onSunday urged the people to cel-ebrate the festivals of all thereligions to “strengthen” theunity of the country.

He said people with “pettyminds” divide the world on thebasis of colour, language etc.And hence, Indians shouldstrive to spread the message of‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam’ (theworld is one family).

He was addressing a gath-ering at the Siddhi Vinayaktemple in Dandiya Bazaarlocality here.

Bhagwat offered a ‘sacredthread’, made of gold, to thedeity at the temple. DefenceMinister Manohar Parrikar wasalso present on the occasion.

“Foreigners often wonderhow Indians live amid such adiversity. Even the Britishbelieved that Indians wouldfight among themselves if thecountry was granted freedom,”he said.

“We consider diversity amatter of celebration ratherthan a problem. Bharat has tospread the message of‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam’,”

said the RSS chief.“People with petty minds

divide the world on the basis ofcolour, language, etc. But, thosewith liberal minds consider theentire world their own,” headded.

“The truth is that you haveto accept all and this acceptanceof all is Bharat’s identity, irre-spective of the faith. We shouldstrive to make the world onefamily,” said Bhagwat.

He said SwamiVivekananda, Lokmanya Tilakand Mahatma Gandhi werenot happy with the educationsystem of those times and hadrevolted against it.

Bhagwat was felicitated onhis 66th birthday in the pres-ence of prominent personalitiesfrom the city, including GujaratMinister of State for SportsRajendra Trivedi and cityMayor Bharat Dangar.

However, the RSS chief toldthe people that he was not infavour of birthday celebrations.

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The UP Police was againexposed on the prepared-

ness front when some miscre-ants attacked the convoy ofUnion Minister of State forHealth and Family WelfareAnurpiya Patel in Pratapgarhon Sunday.

As Patel’s convoyapproached the Raniganjpower house (near Lilha vil-lage), some miscreants attackedthe vehicles and even man-handled Apna Dal MLA fromVishwnathganj segment RKVerma in full public view.

Some of them also threwstones on the Minister’s vehicle creating a scary situation.

In protest, the UnionMinister along with her sup-porters sat on a dharna nearRaniganj power house anddemanded to withdraw onlyafter the arrest of the attackers.

The sit-in by a UnionMinister and her supporterssent the alarm bells ringing forthe Pratapgarh Police. Seniorpolice officials had to strugglehard to mollify the UnionMinister and her supporters toend the stir.

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Focussing on the Dalit-Muslim combine, BSP chief

Mayawati claimed that even ifthe BJP, the Congress and theSamajwadi Party joined hands,they cannot prevent the BSPfrom forming the nextGovernment in UP.

Asserting that Muslimswere safe and secure during thefour BSP regimes, Mayawatiquestioned the secular creden-tials of both the Congress andthe SP saying that the com-munity suffered the most dueto communal riots under theregime of both parties.

The BSP strong womanwas addressing ‘Sarvajan hitaysarvajan sukhay’ rally inSaharanpur on Sunday.

Doubting the impact ofRahul Gandhi's Kisan Yatrafrom Deoria to Delhi, Mayawatipooh poohed the issues offarmers being raised by theCongress vice-president.

Earlier in rallies at Agra,Azamgarh and Allahabad, theBSP chief had spared theCongress and her attack veeredaround the BJP and PrimeMinister Narendra Modi.

To influence Msulims vot-ers, Mayawati delved deep in thehistory of communal strife in

UP right from the days of IndiraGandhi to Rajiv Gandhi, accus-ing the Congress of being the‘root cause of Ayodhya dispute’.

Buttressing her statement,she said, “Congress was at theCentre and UP when locks ofBabri masjid were opened in1986. The mosque was demol-ished in 1992 again whenCongress was at the Centre.The demolition could havebeen prevented by imposingPresidents rule in UP, whichCongress did not.”

Mayawati clarified that hersuccessor in UP would only befrom the Dalit community.``A canard is being spread byOpposition parties that RajyaSabha MP Satish Mishra couldbe the next Chief Minister of

UP. If the BSP gets a chance toform government at the Centrein 2019, I wil move to Delhi butthe CM in UP will be a Dalit.”

“How can Muslims of westUP forget communal riots inMoradabad in 1980, 1987 riotsin Meerut, killings atHashimpura and Maliyana andthe riots in Badaun andMuzaffarnagar. Muslim suf-fered immensely duringtheCongress regime,” saidMayawati.

Targeting the SP, Mayawatisaid, “The SP was also notbehind in engineering riots. Ittook advantage of Ayodhyadispute and did not preventviolence in 1990 whenMulayam Singh was the ChiefMinister.”

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Terming PrimeM i n i s t e r

Narendra Modi as‘ a n t i - f a r m e r ’,Congress vice-pres-ident RahulGandhi said thatpeople have seenhim clicking selfieswith industrialistsbut has anyoneseen him clickingselfies with labour-ers and farmers.

“The PM has no concernfor farmers or labourers. He isfocussed on his industrialistfriends with whom he clicksselfies,” Gandhi said whileinteracting with students of theworld famous Al JamaiatulAshrafia University inAzamgarh which he visted onthe sixth day of his Deoria toDelhi Kisan Yatra.

When Rahul asked the stu-dents, “Modi ji ki kabhi kisanonke saath selfie dekhi hain, maj-door ko gale milte dekha hai”, thestudents roared in unison ‘nahi’.

Gandhi commenced hisyatra on day six by holding aroad show in Alingar chowk ofAzamgarh. Later addressing apublic meeting at Sathyaon inGhazipur he explained in detailabout the purpose of his yatra.Rahul stressed that this Yatrawill change the fortune of thefarmers in UP. He alsopromised to raise the problemsof Anganbari workers and willtry to help them.

However the efforts ofsome activists of UlemaCouncil to wave black flags at

Rahul was foiled when theywere taken into custody atSedhari area of Azamgarh bythe police. The Councilactivists were protesting againstthe Congress role in BatalaHouse incident.

Rahul held a Khat Sabha atMardhsar, Ghazipur where heinformed farmers that theCongress was determined towork for the welfare of farmersunlike Modi governmentwhich ignored them. TermingModi as anti-farmer, Rahulclaimed that the Centre has nomoney to waive off loan ofpoor farmers facing starvationbut on the other hand, it oblig-es Modi’s industrialist friends.

Rahul further said:“Congress will continue to fightfor the farmers and their prob-lems. My party is committed toprotecting the interest of farm-ers and we will ensure they getgood remunerative price oftheir produce.” The Congressleader also reminded peopleabout Modi’s promise of giving�15 lakh to each family if theBJP came to power.

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It is shocking and reprehen-sible that the All IndiaMuslim Personal LawBoard (AIMPLB) hasclaimed that, “Personal laws

cannot be challenged as violativeof Part III of the Constitution.”The claim has been advancedbefore the Supreme Court that isexamining it on the strength of apetition filed by a victim of thesame personal laws — ShayaraBano of Uttarkhand — for justice.

Justifying the Triple Talaqpractice in the Muslim commu-nity, the AIMPLB even went tothe extent of claiming that “want-ing to get rid of a wife”, a husbandfinding it long road to obtain alegal divorce, could resort tomurder or live burning of a wifeas against the Triple Talaq thatoffered a quick way.

Most of the so-called secularliberals are not coming forwardto denounce the Board justbecause it claims to speak in thename of Muslims. Ironically it isMuslim individuals and organi-sations (other than AIMPLB)that have joined the petition tothe apex court to end this ante-diluvian practice which is againstall human rights of both Muslimwomen and men also.

This takes us back to the1980s when the CongressGovernment of Rajiv Gandhisurrendered meekly to the ‘reli-gion in danger’ cries raised by thesame Board and other elementswithin the party. The apex courtdeclared that a divorced Muslimwife had the right to maintenancefrom her husband whatever bethe Muslim personal law.

The denial of personal rightsin Triple Talaq is obvious to any-one except the communally pur-blind. The practice is also unilat-eral, there is no opportunity fordefense for the woman as the manjust says the words three timeswhether it is over three occasionsor in one go and the woman isout. That Muslim clerics andAIMPLB call this a preferredpath to a long drawn legal divorcethrough a court exposes its twist-ed logic — Much more its men-tal makeup that places gender dis-crimination against women as aright of the male.

To insist that man being phys-ically stronger has a right overwoman who is weaker is a denialof the scheme of our Constitutionwhere the weaker citizen is givengreater protection, greater prefer-ence against the stronger one toenable equality a reality. Thelearned constituting the AIM-PLB twisting logic in claiming

because women are physicallyweak they should be further vic-timised by being divorced by menwithout any opportunity fordefending themselves and withouteven the right to maintenance.Can depravity, injustice towardswomen go any deeper?

The legal system in the coun-try based on the Constitutionalinjunction on equal rights tomen and women does not recog-nize any community’s right todeny natural justice to an individ-ual member irrespective of thereligion he or she follows. Anycommunity is free to believe it hasfundament rights over the citizen.But the State apparatus cannotgrant such a right — otherwisekangaroo courts and vigilante-ledlynchings, Khap panchayatsordering murder of couples whorefused to go by the rules set bythe community in regard to mar-riage, the so-called honourkillings, all would be legal.

Triple Talaq and the divorcedwife’s right to maintenance are notissues that can be decided by thecommunity, any community.Naturally these are not minorityversus majority issues, as have

been pointed out by so manywithin the legal profession or out-side. Modern Governments anddemocracies are firmly based onthat principle derived from thepolitical philosophy of Locke.No community whether majori-ty or minority can have a funda-mental right over the citizen.

In the last five decades, suc-cessive Congress Governmentshave done everything to confusethe people on what constitutesfundamental rights under ourConstitution just to build upvote banks thereby condemningcertain large minorities to perma-nent backwardness. That is whythis country has two people andtwo laws, one that is based onmodern principles of genderequality, the other on genderinequality. The AIMPLB goes tothe extent of claiming thatpolygamy as a ‘social need’.

By all tenets of democracyand gender equality, this is non-sense and directly attributed tothe AIMPLB’s stand of genderinequality as basic. If you denygender equality, everything thatsome practice from multiplewives to rape to instant talaq to

child marriage or denial of edu-cation to girls, all are justified.Unfortunately for the Muslimcommunity itself, all these prac-tices are claimed as sacred andsanctioned by their religion.

Consider their opposition toenforcing the minimum age ofmarriage for girls. They say theproposal to raise it to 18 years isagainst their religion and theyclaim the ‘right’ to marry off girlsonce they reach puberty. Evenglobally and on several scientif-ic considerations including healthof women and health of infants,child marriage stands banned. Sotoo polygamy.

Every modern nation pro-motes education of girls in pub-lic institutions. Those who insiston religious objections to this arein the company of the Talibanthat has gone on to shoot Muslimgirls going to schools as hasbeen exposed by the tragic storyof the Pakistani girl who escapedassassination by a hair breadthand has now become the globalsymbol of the equal rights ofwomen through the Nobel Prizegiven to her for her pioneeringwork. The world knows whichare the religious groups evenwithin certain democracies andcountries that follow shari’ahlaw that are unhappy at MalalaYousafzai being honoured withthe Nobel Prize.

The demand for the ‘right’ tomarry off girls at age 10, the oppo-sition to girls’ education in publicinstitutions, the right to polygamyand the insistence on instant talaqwith no maintenance support to thedivorced woman from her formerhusband, are inter-linked.

In the heat generated by theopposition to the apex court’sintervention questioning TripleTalaq and polygamy, it has beenforgotten that the MuslimPersonal Law (Shariat)Application Act 1937 was enact-ed by the British in India at a timewhen the Muslim leaders in thepre-independent India had begunto demand separate constituen-cies. That was the dragon seedthat grew into demand forPakistan. That Pakistan is todaywracked by intra-Muslim vio-lence on the back of claims ofwho is a true Muslim is its owncommendation.

In such a circumstance onlyjudicial intervention upholdingthe Constitution against all odds,provides one small slot of hope.The apex court’s decision could becritical in this choice, far beyondthe immediate issue of TripleTalaq itself.�

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Sir — This refers to the article,“Dealing with the Kashmir issue”(September 8) by HiranmayKarlekar. The article gives a goodanalysis of the present situation inKashmir and suggests for a propersolution. Unless a well-plannedand pragmatic strategy is adoptedby the Government, to stem thenefarious activities of the separatists,violence cannot be eradicated.

The inflow of foreign financialaid and all facilities to the secession-ist must be stopped immediately.Stringent action must be takenagainst such people who insultedthe all-party delegation that recent-ly visited Kashmir. Chief MinisterMehbooba Mufti must be provid-ed all aid to maintain peace andnormalcy in the State.

Karishan MalhotraAmbala Cantt

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Sir — This refers to the editorial,“Focus on Asia-Pacific” (Septembe10). Calling for sanctions againstPakistan, Prime Minister NarendraModi has rightly kick-started a newdiplomatic manoeuvre to cornerand isolate Pakistan. In a maturedand responsible world order, impo-

sition of sanctions is a viable alter-native to war.

By imposing tough economicand other sanctions, one can isolatea nation, while establishing a neg-ative perception about that countryat the same time. It presses the roguestate to have a reasoned dialogue,and help clinging a sort of diplomat-ic deal convenient to both oppos-ing parties.

Rogue states like Pakistan,which harbour terrorist groupsand foment extremist ideologieswithin its borders, are a threat toworld peace. The continuation ofthese practices is affront to the UNcharter, which calls for imposingstrict sanctions against such coun-tries. It’s high for the SecurityCouncil to realise the terror designsof Pakistan and help India in its fightagainst cross-border terrorism.

Gaurav SinghalRewari

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Sir — This refers to the editorial,“Surge in traveller sorrow”(September 10). The IndianRailways’ move to introduce surgepricing on some of its premium,high-speed train services, withfares rising by 10 per cent for every10 per cent tickets sold, must be wel-comed.

The flexi-fare that envisages arevenue of �500 crore, should scareno one, especially those who feelthat a Government enterpriseshould not look for profits, thoughthere is a demand that efficiencyshould be improved. It is an exper-iment. This is not to deny that flexi-fare has its short-term advantages,where late comers will have to paya premium for their 11th hour deci-sions. The move is just an explo-ration of fixing passenger fare. Butthen, surge pricing should bedynamic, which means fares alsofalling during lean times. The rail-ways must also ensure refunds ontime and improved services.

J AkshayaBangalore

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Sir — Kudos to the entire Indiancontingent who participated at RioParalympics, especially MariyappanThangavelu, who created history bywinning a gold medal and VarunBhati who won the bronze medalin high jump. Their performanceand medals are celebration and tri-umph of human spirit.

TS KarthikChennai

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The period of India’s indepen-dence and Kashmir’s accessionto India maybe fogged in mys-

tery but the fact is that no one want-ed Kashmir’s accession to Pakistan.Most preferred independence, butfor different reasons KashimiriPandits favoured the Indian statealbeit on the condition of not losingKashmiri unique identity.

Not even a tint of deviation fromsyncretism they would like as on lineof the rest thinking Kashmiris — sofar, there was not much hype of com-munal programming in the valley.This began and intensified onlywith the blunder of ‘internationalis-ing’ the Kashmir issue by PrimeMinister Jawaharlal Nehru.

Consolidation of a nation likeIndia had to happen through diversemaneuverings on endless impedi-ments — the inclusion of indepen-dent royalties was the most crucialchallenge. Sardar Vallabhbhai Patelsucceeded in making India with animpressive geographical size — hemade the idea of sovereignty a pre-

rogative of the nation. But alas, thisman was neither a sage nor immor-tal — he passed away when inclusionof Kashmir was still in progress, andNehru took charge of the issue.

Though a Kashmiri by birth, hewas hardly a native. Nehru hadpious ideas, which were broader inoutlook but unfortunately the peo-ple with whom he had to deal withon Kashmir-were dishonest. Hadhe relied on the referendum or onhard action against the first attackof Pakistan in 1947, he could haveescaped the unfortunate interna-tionalization of Kashmir as a for-midable dispute. Moreover, shadyand impractical deals with SheikhAbdullah at wrong times, and thedivision of Kashmir sabotagedpeace forever.

Larry Collins and DominiqueLapierre’s interview withMountbatten for their book,Mountbatten and Independent Indiamakes clear the fatal motive. In aconversation with Maharaja HariSingh, Mountbatten said: “The

majority of your populations areMuslim”, but Hari Singh replied, “Idon’t want to accede to Pakistan onany account…. I don’t want to joinIndia either, because, if so (sic), Iwould feel that perhaps which’s notwhat the people of Kashmir want-ed. I want to be independent.”Mountbatten told the authors, “Imust tell you honestly, I wantedKashmir to join Pakistan…(SirCyril) Radcliffe (Chairman of theIndia-Pakistan BoundaryCommission) let us in for an awfullot of trouble by making it possiblefor them to accede to India, byawarding to India a part ofGurdaspur, which facilitated theland link to Jammu and Kashmir.”

In 1971, India facilitated thesecession of Pakistan’s easternprovince (now Bangladesh), whichwas another turning point thataffected any veritable advancementon Kashmir. India’s win provokedPakistan’s humiliated Army andintelligence officials to pursue a pol-icy of creating ‘strategic depth’

against India by seeking Pashtunclients inside Afghanistan for usingthem in Kashmir valley. This thatwas not a squeak but a full-fledgedproxy war directed to Kashmirthrough active channels, includingthose of “communal interference”.

In the 1990s, the same Pakistaniofficials who helped supply theMujahideen during the CIA-ledanti-Soviet jihad in Afghanistanturned to fuelling Islamic insurgencyin Kashmir, which in turn claimedmore than 80,000 lives and led to theexodus of Kashmiri Pandits from thevalley since1989. Throughout the lasttwo and half decades, Pakistan’sintelligence agency, the ISI, trainedand financed militant groups forjihad in Kashmir, even as it settledon the Taliban as its proxy inAfghanistan, which had been abrupt-ly abandoned by the US followingSoviet withdrawal.

Since then, the valley, onceknown for its opulent beauty andpeace, has been forced to host themilitary awkwardly against the the-

oretical democratic ethos of India. It’sindeed an unfortunate truth; thekilling fields of Kashmir supersedethose of Palestine and Tibet.Curfews, raids, and checkpointshave been enforced by nearly7,00,000 Indian soldiers — the val-ley’s staying populations are harsh-ly exposed to extra-judicial executionand torture. India has contained theinsurgency provoked in 1989 but thegrowing disenchantment of the aver-age Kashmiri from endemic militaryoccupation of India is not comfort-ing in any manner.

The demonstrators that fill thestreets of Kashmir’s cities today areoverwhelmingly young and desper-ate, most of them in their teens, andarmed with nothing more thanstones. Yet the spanking goes on,such sneaky approaches must bestopped and the different voicesshould approach our conscience. It’strue that Pakistan has lost its unde-serving war in Kashmir from Indiaand native Kashmiris, so now Indiamust bolster its ties with the aspira-

tions of Kashmiris, like it does withits citizens, atleast notionally.

Looking back on the ‘Chenabmodel’ would be worthwhile forknowing the conflation that dis-turbed the lives of Kashmiri Panditsfrom 1990 onward. This was aimedto partition Kashmir along the riverChenab, was conceived by politicalleaders, mostly from Pakistan, topromote a communal agenda.

“Most of the districts in Jammuand on the left bank of the Chenabare Hindu majority in the state ofJammu and Kashmir while in mostof the districts on the western sideof the Chenab, the Muslims are pre-dominant,” wrote Sartaj Aziz inBetween Dreams and Reality. “Inshort, the River Chenab will formthe separation line between thePakistan and Indian held areas…Since India was no longer will-ing to go back to the concept ofHindu versus Muslim majority,the Chenab formula basically con-verted a communal formula into ageographic formula since most of

the Hindu majority is east ofChenab and Muslim majority dis-tricts are west of Chenab.”

Unfortunately, some partial aimof this guff has come into realitythrough the untamed involvement ofPakistan and India’s own casing ofthe situation in Kashmir from anyconstructive public discourse.

The dispute over Kashmir isnot just a flash-point in the rela-tionship between India andPakistan; it is, equally, the largestquestion-mark on India’s claims tosecularism and democracy.Nationalist passions, politicalimperatives, security concerns andbitter emotions and distrust(including those betweenKashmiris themselves) have under-mined much policy-making andscholarship. Kashmir, today, isknown through the prism of trian-gular political relations: BetweenSrinagar and New Delhi; betweenpoliticians and the public withinKashmir; and between Kashmir’sdifferent regions and identities.

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India has always consideredVietnam as a vital link in its LookEast or Act East policy. Relations

between the two, buttressed by stronghistorical connections, have expand-ed quite impressively in recent years.During the cold war, ideologicalaffinities and colonial experiencesbrought them closer. Post-Cold War,they have found new convergencesand commonalities in a wide range ofareas including trade, investment,economic assistance, counter terror-ism and cooperation in defence, ener-gy and maritime security. The twocountries are scheduled to commem-orate the 45th anniversary of theestablishment of their diplomaticrelations in 2017.

The two-day visit made by India’sPrime Minister Narendra Modi onSeptember 2-3 to Vietnam marks yetanother significant milestone in thegrowing trajectory of the bilateralpartnership. It saw both countriesupgrading their Strategic Partnershipto a Comprehensive StrategicPartnership which would provide a“new direction, momentum and sub-stance” to bilateral engagements. It isimportant to note that India is thethird country next only to Russia andChina to have a comprehensiveStrategic Partnership with Hanoi.Prime Minister Modi has claimed thatthe decision to elevate the level of part-nership “captures the intent and pathof our future cooperation”. It will pro-vide a new “direction, momentum andsubstance to our bilateral cooperation.”

Though the present visit of theIndian Prime Minister happened aftera gap of sixteen years, one should havea clear idea of several positive devel-opments that took place during thatperiod. Both maintained a very friend-ly, robust and mutually beneficialrelations. As early as 2000, a protocolwas signed between the two countriesfor defence cooperation which includ-ed India’s supply of defence equipmentand training to Vietnamese personnel.In 2003 the two countries signed ajoint declaration on ‘the framework forcomprehensive cooperation’. It was fol-lowed by a joint declaration on strate-gic partnership in 2007 that stressedthree major areas: (1) cooperation indefence supplies, joint projects andintelligent exchanges; (2) cooperationin capacity building, technical assis-tance and information sharing for sealane security; and (3) cooperation incombating terrorism.

Around this time when China’sassertive maritime activities rapidlyincreased in the South China Sea area,the bilateral agreement tended toassume greater significance. In 2011,Vietnam was very keen to get India’scooperation in resource developmentin the South China Sea and signed anagreement with New Delhi’s Oil andNatural Gas Corporation. In the faceof China’s open criticism and resis-tance, India first withdrew from theproject. However, after a year it decid-ed to continue the project. Even at thattime India expressed its views strong-ly supporting freedom of navigation

in international waters including theSouth China Sea and freedom ofaccess to resources in accordancewith well recognised principles ofinternational law.

Since the advent of the ModiGovernment in May 2014, both coun-tries have taken several steps tostrengthen their ties. Many dignitariesfrom both countries have exchangedvisits. In August 2014 India’s ExternalAffairs Minister Sushma Swaraj madean official visit to Vietnam and thatwas followed by India’s PresidentPranab Mukherji’s visit in September.India’s National Security AdvisorDoval made a visit to Hanoi too. Thesevisits contributed a great deal incementing their partnership. FromVietnam’s side, its defence ministercame to India in May 2015 and signeda Joint Vision Statement on defencecooperation. It was followed by thevisit of its Prime Minister Nguyen TanDung in October that added furthermomentum to bilateral engagements.

The present visit by Modi has iden-tified three major areas where bilateralrelations will be increasingly focused inthe coming years. First is the prospect ofdefence cooperation assuming greatersalience. Modi has extended a $500 mil-lion line of credit to assist Vietnam toprocure more military hardware fromIndia. Both countries also signed a con-tract for building offshore patrol vesselsby Larsen&Toubro and Vietnam BorderGuards under a $100 million line of cred-it India had earlier agreed to extend toVietnam. In addition, Modi also

announced a grant of $5 million for theconstruction of an Army Software Parkat the Telecommunication University inNha Trang.

Second, both countries realise theneed to add more clout to their presenteconomic engagements. Consideringthe current low volume of their trade,they have decided to put in moreefforts to augment their trade to $15billion by 2020. Modi has also urgedthe Vietnamese private companies totake advantage of the various invest-ment facilities offered by the IndianGovernment under the Make in Indiaprogramme. From his part, theVietnamese prime minister was equal-ly receptive to creating more favourableconditions at home for Indian invest-ment particularly in the energy sector.

Third, in an indirect reference toChina and the recent verdict given bythe UN Arbitral Tribunal, both coun-tries reiterated their firm commitmentto maintaining freedom of ocean nav-igation and over flight , and unimped-ed commerce based on internationallaw. They also called upon all countriesto resolve disputes through dialogueand peaceful means without resortingto force. In recent years, Vietnam hasforged close cooperative relations withJapan and the US who share Hanoi’sconcerns over China’s building artifi-cial islands in the South China Sea.Modi’s visit has served to show India’sposition on the issue as well.

(The writer is a DistinguishedFellow at Observer ResearchFoundation, New Delhi)

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��+�� Dismissing criticismover the Reliance Jio ads featuringPrime Minister Narendra Modi,Telecom Minister Manoj Sinha hassaid there is nothing wrong insomeone fulfiling Prime Minister’sdream to provide digital connec-tivity.

He also said the tariff warunleashed by Reliance Jio by offer-ing free voice calls and data at lowprice is “healthy competition” thatwill ultimately benefit users.

Sinha, 55, who replaced RaviShankar Prasad at the high-profileministry in the last Cabinet reshuf-fle three months ago, also coun-tered charges by COAI, the asso-ciation of incumbent telecomoperators, that sector regulator Traiis biased, saying “show me a deci-sion taken by Trai favouring any-one”.

In an interview to the newsagency PTI, he said the intentionof Prime Minister’s Digital Indiacampaign is to bridge the digitaldivide and use the Internet as agrowth enabler.

“I think when the PrimeMinister launched Digital Indiacampaign, the intention was to endthe digital divide in the country. Ifanyone is giving digital connec-tivity to people on a large scale,then in a way, he is fulfiling thedream of the Prime Minister...Then I do not see any objection,”he said.

He was responding to the crit-icism by political parties, particu-larly the Congress and the AAP,over the Prime Minister featuringin a full-page newspaper adver-tisement issued by Reliance Jioimmediately after billionaireMukesh Ambani announced thelaunch plan at the RIL AGM.

He hit out at the Congress for

“doublespeak”, saying, “I havereceived letters from 10-20 seniorCongress leaders complainingthat Reliance Jio is not gettingpoints of inter-connect (fromother operators) and that imme-diate action should be taken... It isdoublespeak.”

Refusing to be drawn into thedebate on whether or not requi-site permission was taken from thePMO for use of the photograph topromote a commercial service,Sinha said, “It will be better if youask this question to the PrimeMinister... Whether there waspermission or not. I cannot givemy opinion on this.”

On the price war unleashedby Jio, he said: “Healthy competi-tion in the sector is good for con-sumers and as a minister, I feelconsumer is God.” Asked if thisfierce competition triggered byReliance Jio’s entry as healthy ordisruptive, the telecom ministerrecounted the journey the sectorhad made from a point when call

charges were as high as �15-17.“There was a time when call

rates were �15-17... The journeybegan from there and then movedto �1, and now to a point whereit seems it does not require anymoney (free calls),” he said.

On September 1, RelianceIndustries announced that cus-tomers of Reliance Jio - its telecomventure - will get free voice callingand roaming services, bundledwith data access for �19 onwards,making the offering one of the“lowest” globally.

These tariff plans come intoeffect from January 1. Till then, allcustomers will get free access tounlimited voice calls (local andSTD), SMSes and data.

On the ongoing tusslebetween incumbent operatorsand the new entrant over thepoints of inter-connect, he said, “Beit tariffs or points of inter-connect,it comes under the domain of Trai(and not the telecom ministry).”

“It is alright when someone is

testing network whether youshould give inter-connect points ornot... But once the commercial ser-vice is launched, then everyoneshares network with each other. Ithink there are enough rules inplace and Trai will look into it,” theminister said.

Asked about allegations of biasagainst Trai, he said, “Show me anydecision that Trai has taken (withbias). Without any conclusion inplace, it is not appropriate toform an opinion about someone.”

The minister also spoke oftrust being restored amonginvestors with the Modi Government coming to power.

“Before the ModiGovernment, there was a trustdeficit among investors, be itdomestic or foreign investors.Now, that trust has resumed.

Now, people know there willbe a level-playing field. There willbe no injustice and bias againstanyone,” he said.

He listed completion of BharatNet project and bridging the digi-tal divide as the Government’s toppriority. “It (Bharat Net) reaches inrural areas as soon as possible as perGovernment’s top priority,” Sinhasaid.

Bharat Net, formerly knownas the National Optical FibreNetwork, has missed several dead-lines in the past. The governmentnow expects to complete the lay-ing of optical fibre across all 2.5lakh panchayats by 2018. “I don’tknow what happened earlier, butnow the target of the Governmentto complete phase one of layingoptical fibre network in villagepanchayats will be completed byMarch 2017 and I am saying thiswith rigidity and on my respon-sibility,” Sinha said. ��

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The fight between RelianceJio and the existing oper-

ators has become interesting,even if it is on expected lines.Airtel, Vodafone and IdeaCellular, the three largeincumbent telecom operatorsdo not want to give RelianceJio enough Points ofInterconnection (POI). A newoperator can’t launch seamlessservices if the incumbentoperators do not provide itPPOIs.

This is not the first timethat the telecom sector is wit-nessing such a war. Whenevernew telecom operators launchservices, they face opposi-tion from the incumbentplayers. When the privateplayers launched services forthe first time, about 20 yearsago, they faced the same prob-lem with Bharat SancharNigam Ltd (BSNL). TheGovernment-owned telecomoperator created all sort ofproblems in giving POIs tothem.

Later, the same privateplayers became incumbentoperators and they opposedthe entry of CDMA playersReliance Infocomm and TataTeleservices when they want-ed to operate pan-India ser-vices. When the former tele-com minister A. Raja gavenew telecom licences, theincumbent players opposedso vehemently that it result-ed in a spectrum scam thatengulfed the whole sector.

Let me explain what isPOI? Whenever a subscriberof one network (Airtel) makescall to a subscriber of anoth-er network (Vodafone), thecall travels through POI. Allthe networks are linkedthrough POIs.

If the existing operatorsdo not provide enough POIsto Reliance Jio, the sub-scribers of Reliance Jio willnot be able to call subscribersof Airtel, Vodafone and Idea

Cellular. It is clear that ini-tially most of the subscriberswill be at the networks ofincumbent operators. So, itwill be a great inconveniencefor the subscribers of RelianceJio as will not be able to talkto the subscribers of existingmobile Operators.

Reliance Jio aims toacquire 100 million sub-scribers in one year. Even if itis able to achieve its target,about 90 per cent subscriberswill still be with incumbentoperators. So without enoughPOIs, its subscribers will notexperience good quality ofservice.

Reliance Jio has alsosought 12,000 POIs. Theincumbent operators have,however, given it only about1200 POIs. Naturally, thereare frequent call drops whenyou talk to any network out-side Reliance Jio.

Now the big question is -What do the regulations say ifthe incumbent Operators donot provide enough POIs to anew Operator? As per tele-com licence conditions, theincumbent Operators can’tdecline POIs to newOperators. The exist ingOperators know the legalposition very well. So what dothey want to prove by delay-ing POIs?

Reliance Jio has changedthe whole tariff structure inthe sector. It has made voicefree and is charging only fordata. Hence, the incumbentplayers believe that therewould be ‘tsunami’ of incom-ing voice traffic. This willchoke their networks. It is tobe noted that all the networksare facing scarcity of spec-trum. Presently, per minuterealization for an incumbentoperator is 30-40 paise, itwill decline to 22-25 paisewhen Reliance Jio launches itsservices. Moreover, the vol-ume of traffic will be suchthat the quality of services willbe poor and the networksmay collapse altogether.

Does it mean that theincumbent operators wantoverall review of the existingInterconnect Usage Charge(IUC) regime? Whatever thecase be the war has becomeinteresting. Hope the cus-tomers get good quality ofservices at low rates.

(The writer is a SeniorJournalist)

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Vodafone and BSNL, onSunday signed a 2G intra-

circle roaming agreement touse each other’s assets andnetwork strength across thecountry to help reduce calldrops.

“We continue to expandour network across the coun-try with more sites and sharinginfrastructure with other tele-com service providers. Thispartnering with Vodafone willhelp us make our networkcoverage better, especially inurban areas, enabling our cus-tomers to have a better experi-ence of our services,” saidBSNL CMD AnupamShrivastava.

The state-run firm, whichregained its 5th position interms of mobile subscribers inJune, has nearly 1,14,000 sitesacross the country with a widereach in rural areas.

The availability of addi-tional towers is expected tohelp both the companiesaddress the coverage gap, there-by minimise chances of calldrops.

Vodafone India has over

1,37,000 mobile sites across thecountry. The agreement willallow Vodafone to expand its2G network further, especiallyin rural areas, and strengthensBSNL’s network reach in urbanlocalities.

“We made significantinvestments to expand,enhance and upgrade our net-work, making VodafoneSuperNet our best networkever, world-class and future-fit.This partnership with BSNLwill further strengthen thereach of our network, especiallyin the hinterland and sur-rounding rural areas,”Vodafone India MD and CEOSunil Sood said in a statement.

Additionally, the agree-ment will support Vodafone’scoverage plans in Tamil Naduwhere it failed to win back 900Mhz spectrum that it used for2G services in the 2015 auction.

Vodafone India, the fully-owned subsidiary of the UK’sVodafone Group, has opera-tions across India serving over199 million customers.

Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd(BSNL) had a user base of89.54 million at the end ofJune this year. ��

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�� Stringent RBI normsproposed for corporate lendingare expected to nudge bankstowards consumer loans, SBIChairperson ArundhatiBhattacharya has said while reit-erating that there is no bubble inthe retail segment.

The Reserve Bank had lastmonth come out with draft guide-lines on credit to large corporateborrowers asking banks to makeadditional provisions if the loanamount crosses the prescribedlimit.

“The latest norms regardinglending to large corporates makecorporate lending more costlyboth for banks as well as the bor-

rowing companies,” Bhattacharyatold the news agency in an inter-view.

“So, the Reserve Bank itselfis nudging us towards a modelthat is more retail,” she added.

She was quick to add how-ever that State Bank of India hasnot seen any stress and only RBIwould know about the system asa whole.

RBI had on August 25 issuednew guidelines on capping lend-ing to large corporate/relatedparties. With a view to reducingrisks in the system, RBI proposedto limit exposure of a bank to abusiness group to up to 25 percent of its capital, down from the

existing 55 per cent.“The large exposure limit in

respect of each counter-partyand group of connected counter-parties, under normal circum-stances, will be capped at 20 percent and 25 per cent, respective-ly of the eligible capital base,” RBIhas said.

The eligible capital base willbe defined as the tier 1 capital ofthe bank as against capital fundsat present, it added.

The move comes as badloans are on the rise with stressedassets of the system crossing 14.5per cent in the June quarter.

Bhattacharya said SBI’s retailportfolio is behaving quite well

and there are no visible signs ofany increase in stresses in theportfolio.

SBI’s retail segment hasgrown at around 20 per cent lastyear and also in the first quarterof the financial year.

“Today, we have a muchbetter monitoring system so thatanything that we are doing is get-ting monitored on a quarterly/half-yearly basis. Therefore, ifstress starts building up we can seethat very quickly,” the SBIChairperson said.

“But we have not seen that asyet, at least at SBI,” she said, addingthat “I don’t know how it is atother banks but have not heard

anything to that effect”. Recently,Bhattacharya had said that retailloans to GDPin the country areat less than 10 per cent, which isone of the lowest among theemerging markets.

She had said: “I think we havestill a lot of uncovered space inretail segment to grow. The medi-an age in India is 26.5. So, obvi-ously these are people who needthese loans in order to fulfil theirvery many aspirations.

“I think what is being donenow is to fulfil an unmet demand.I don’t think we are in bubble ter-ritory as yet as long as we continueto maintain our good under-writing standards and also get the

help of digital which will enableus to have even better picture.”

Former RBI GovernorRaghuram Rajan had raised con-cerns about lenders, especiallystate-run banks, shunning projectloans and aggressively targetingretail loans.

Bhattacharya said growthnumbers of retail segment whichshe sees at SBI or other peers andNBFCs do not show any majorstresses build-up.

“It is just that it is the roleof the regulator to look at allareas where there is rapidgrowth to ensure that thereisn’t been something wrongthat has been building up. ��

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��+� �� The Centre hasdecided to bar direct sellingcompanies such as Amway,Tupperware and Oriflamefrom charging any entry feefrom agents or compellingthem to buy back unsoldstocks.

That apart, the companieswill have to enter into anagreement with direct sellersor agents, and give full refundor buy-back guarantee forgoods and services sold tothem.

These are part of the newDirect Selling Guidelines,2016 prepared by theConsumer Affairs Ministryand will be notified in a dayor two.

“The new guidelines havebeen finalised and approvedby the Minister.

These are model guide-lines and State Governmentshave been asked to issue asper their needs,” ConsumerAffairs Secretary Hem Pandetold the news agency.

In the proposed guide-lines, the Government hasclearly defined legitimatedirect selling and differenti-ates it from ponzi schemes tohelp investigating agenciesidentify fraudulent players, he

said.Among others, sources

said, the Government hasspecified several conditionsfor setting up of direct sellingbusiness in the country.

“One main condition isthat direct selling companiesshould not charge entry feefrom its members and compelthem to buy back unsoldinventory,” the sources said.

Currently, direct sellersneed to pay registration fee aswell as purchase some prod-ucts for selling. If they fail tosell the products, it imposesburden on them.

As per the proposedguidelines, there should be aproper agreement between

companies and direct sellersor agents. The companies willhave to train direct sellers andmaintain their completedetails, sources said.

At central level ,Consumer Affairs Ministrywill monitor the direct sellingindustry, while the states haveto put in place a regulatorymechanism for the same, theyadded.

The guidelines also talkabout obligation of directseller, relationship betweendirect seller entity and directseller as well as consumerprotection.

The new guidelines havebeen framed as direct sellingindustry is facing problems in

the absence of clear legislationthat defines the regulatoryframework. Meanwhile,Amway denied taking anycharge for entry and exit fromits distributors and complieswith the highest standard ofindustry code of ethics.

“Amway India does notcharge any entry fee and dis-tributors are free to exit any-time and all unsold invento-ries will be re-purchased bythe company,” said AmwayIndia spokesperson.

He further added: “All ofAmway’s products are backedby a generous refund policy,allowing Amway distributorsto ‘try’ the business, or theircustomers to try the product.To extend this commitment tothe consumer and distributorprotection.”

The US-based direct sell-er has a lso welcomedGovernment’s move to releasea guidelines for the direct sell-ing industry.

“We are happy to notethat the Consumer AffairsMinistry will soon be releas-ing guidelines for directselling industry which hasbeen long standing demandof the direct selling indus-try” he said. ��

7�� "�� +�� Apex indirect tax body CBEC will be renamed as the

Central Board of Indirect Tax (CBIT) once the new national tax frame-work kicks in from April 1 next year, as per the draft dealing in GSTorganisational structure prepared by the Centre.

Headed by a secretary-level officer, CBIT will implement the rules,including exemptions and threshold, to be set by the GST Council,which is chaired by Union Finance Minister and has state finance min-isters as its members.

The Government plans to implement the new indirect tax regimegoods and services tax (GST) from April 1, 2017. GST will subsumecentral excise, service tax and other local levies, including VAT andoctroi.

A revenue department official said the organisational structureof GST is being worked out and CBEC will be renamed.

To give effect to this, the Centre is reworking the compositionof the Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) to make it morecomprehensive.

CBIT will consist of six members, who will look after Customs,policy and IT, central excise and legal issues, training and litigation.

Besides, an additional secretary of the department of revenue,who will be secretary to the GST Council, will be a CBIT memberfor Central GST (CGST) and Integrated GST (IGST) related matters.

Besides, a new legacy commissionerate will be formed for the ini-tial 5 years to handle pending adjudication, audits, legal issues andthe like.

As per the draft blueprint, the entire country will be divided intosix regions -- northern, southern, eastern, western, north-eastern andcentral -- and will be headed by a principal commissioner-level offi-cer.

The regions will then be divided into zones putting certain statestogether and each zone will be headed by a chief commissioner. Everystate will then be divided into smaller chunks termed as GST Rangeso that there are 1,000 assessees in a range.

On the draft GST administrative structure, Nangia & Co Director(indirect taxation) Rajat Mohan said the government is moving ultra-fast to meet the deadline of GST of April 1, 2017.

“The blueprint for laying down the transition of administrativemechanism is out and it would help the officers and bureaucrats nowknow the roles and responsibilities of various positions under the GSTregime. Accountability and answerability of officers are also fixeddepending on their positions and cadre,” Mohan said. ��

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��+� �� SonalikaInternational Tractors plans toenter 10 new countries, includ-ing advanced markets like theUS, Japan and South Korea,this year as it aims to grow itsexports by over 20 per cent inthe current fiscal.

The Punjab-based firm,which currently sells tractors inover 80 international markets,also aims to begin local assem-bly operations in Iran duringthis calender year.

“There are few countrieswhich are already on our radar.We plan to enter ten newcountries this year,” SonalikaInternational TractorsPre s i d e nt - Inte r n at i on a lOperations Gaurav Saxena toldthe news agency.

The company has devel-oped tractors with Stage-IVemission norms and is nowgearing up to enter advancemarkets like the US, Japan andSouth Korea, he added.

When asked how soon thecompany planned to enterthese markets, he said: “Infact, the first set of tractors hasalready been shipped to the USmarket. So we should be start-ing to sell our tractors in the USwithin this year itself.”

The company has tied up

with two partners in the US,catering to North and Southregions of the country.

Sonalika has set a conser-vative target of 1-2 per centmarket share in the US marketin the first year of operations.The tractor market in the US isestimated to be around 2 lakhunits per annum, with major-ity of requirement being for 20-90 HP tractors.

Apart from the US, Saxenasaid the other countries that thecompany is looking to enterthis year include Switzerland,Latvia and Mongolia, apartfrom Japan and South Korea.

On enhancing the compa-ny’s local assembly in globalmarkets, he said Sonalika “willbegin assembly operations inIran with a local partner in thenext 2-3 months”.

“This will be our fifth glob-al assembly operations afterAlgeria, Argentina, Brazil andCameroon,” he said.

For Iran, Saxena said: “Weplan to start with 20 per centof localisation and then scaleit up to 40 per cent in the nextone-and-a-half years. Wewould be able to get subsidyfrom the Iranian governmentif we reach 40 per cent oflocalisation there.” ��

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��+�� State-owned bankslooking forward to the nextround of capital infusion willneed to fulfill a new set of cri-teria, including credit recovery,as the Finance Ministry hasrevised the recapitalisationnorms.

The second tranche of cap-ital allocation for the currentfiscal would be based on costof operations as well as recov-ery and quality of credit on thebasis of risk weighted assets,sources said.

Only those lenders thatfulfil the criteria post thirdquarter (October-December)results of the current fiscal willbe eligible for the secondround of funding, sourcesadded.

The money was allocatedlast fiscal on the twin princi-ples of ensuring 7.5 per centCommon Equity Tier 1 (CET1) at the end of the 2016 and

growth capital to five majorbanks.

The Government in Julyhad announced the first roundof capital infusion of �22,915crore for 13 banks.

“75 per cent of the amount(�22,915 crore)...Is beingreleased now to provide liq-uidity support for lendingoperations as also to enablebanks to raise funds from themarket,” the Finance Ministryhad said in a statement.

“The remaining amount,

to be released later, will belinked to performance withparticular reference to greaterefficiency, growth of both cred-it and deposits and reductionin the cost of operations,” it hadsaid.

The first tranche wasannounced with the objectiveto enhance their lending oper-ations and enable them toraise more money from themarket.

Out of the �22,915 crore,State Bank of India (SBI) wasprovided �7,575 crore fol-lowed by Indian OverseasBank (�3,101 crore) andPunjab National Bank (�2,816crore).

The other lenders, whichhave got commitment of cap-ital infusion are Bank of India(�1,784 crore), Central Bank ofIndia (�1,729 crore), SyndicateBank (�1,034 crore), UCOBank (�1,033 crore), Canara

Bank (�997 crore), UnitedBank of India (�810 crore),Union Bank of India (�721crore), Corporation Bank(�677 crore), Dena Bank (�594crore) and Allahabad Bank(�44 crore).

The capital infusion exer-cise for the current fiscal isbased on an assessment ofneed as per the compoundedannual growth rate (CAGR) ofcredit growth for the last fiveyears, banks’ own projections ofcredit growth and estimates ofthe potential for growth ofeach PSB, it had said.

Finance Minister ArunJaitley in his Budget speech for2016-17 had proposed to allo-cate �25,000 crore towardsrecapitalisation of PSU banks.“If additional capital is requiredby these banks, we will find theresources for doing so. Westand solidly behind theseBanks,” he had said. ��

"��7 �� %� ��Food security of India and

several other major key food pro-ducing countries are threatenedby changing weather patterns dueto warming of the oceans, whichmay well be the “greatest” hiddenchallenge for the present gener-ation, according to a study.

Changes in ocean-focusedatmospheric patterns havedirect implications on foodproduction as the yield is impact-ed. “The consequences for soci-ety of changing weather patternsdue to the warming of the oceansare considerable,” said the reporttitled “Explaining ocean warm-ing: causes, scale, effects and con-sequences”.

The report released by theInternational Union forConservation of Nature (IUCN)said they involve a mix of foodand water factors, and the evo-lution of various types of risk.

Noting that there havealready been changes to precip-itation patterns in a number ofareas of the planet resulting fromlarge-scale atmospheric telecon-nections with ocean warming,the report said there can beincreased rainfall in some mid-latitude and monsoon areas anddecrease over various sub-trop-ical regions.

“Both will have impacts onthe yields of crops over a rangeof important food producingareas such as Australia, NorthAmerica and India,” it said.

The report said there weregood correlations between wheatand maize yields with the NAO(North Atlantic Oscillation) andPDO (Pacific DecadalOscillation), so changes in theseocean-focused atmosphericpatterns have direct implica-tions on food production.

Similarly, increasing tem-peratures tend to reduce maizeyields, if all other factors are heldconstant, it said. “At sea,warming temperatures will causechanges to the abundance andrange of marine species used forfood, leading to implications forboth the billion people whodepend on fish for their princi-pal source of protein and the fish-ing and aquaculture industrieslinked to this harvesting.”

It also warned that thechanges in the ocean are hap-pening between 1.5 and 5 timesfaster than those on land. “Suchrange shifts are potentially irre-versible, with great impacts onecosystems. What this will resultin, decades down the line, is lessclear.

“It is an experiment where,rather than being a casual observ-er in the lab, we have unwitting-ly placed ourselves inside the test-tube,” it said, adding that oceanwarming may well turn out to bethe greatest hidden challenge ofour generation.The report,launched at the just concludedIUCN World ConservationCongress held in Hawaii, saidmore than 93 per cent of theenhanced heating since the 1970sresulting from human activitieshas been absorbed by the ocean,and data show a sustained andaccelerating upward trend inocean warming.

“The scale of ocean warm-ing depicted in the report is trulystaggering: if the same amountof heat that has gone into the top2 km of the ocean between1955 and 2010 had instead goneinto the lower 10 km of theatmosphere, the Earth wouldhave seen a warming of 36°C,”says the report compiled forIUCN by 80 scientists in 12countries.

Major changes caused byocean warming and other stres-sors described in the reportinclude impacts on entire ecosys-tems from polar to tropicalregions, predicted to increasefurther in scale, stretching fromaccessible coasts to the deepocean seabed.

The entire groups of species

such as plankton, jellyfish, fish,turtles and seabirds could be dri-ven by up to 10 degrees of lati-tude towards the Earth’s poles tokeep within reasonable envi-ronmental conditions.

It also spoke about loss ofbreeding grounds for groupssuch as turtles and seabirds,and impacts on the breeding suc-cess of birds and sea mammals;and seasonality shifts by plank-ton, leading to potential mis-match between plankton specieswith fish and other marinewildlife.

As the ocean warms theatmosphere above, and beyond,is being affected by it.

“Developing changes inair-sea interactions are beingseen around the planet, in manycases leading to enhancement orshifting of extreme weather.

This can be mid-latitudestorminess, linked to changes inArctic sea-ice, more severe hur-ricanes or changes to the char-acter of El Niño events or mon-soons, all linked to tropicalocean changes,” it said.

These changes to the ocean,and then atmosphere, are set tocontinue as anthropogenicwarming continues this century.

“More and more changeto the ocean will occur, interms of sea ice cover, stratifica-tion, the global meridional over-turning circulation or theincreased melt water runoff andcalving of icebergs into theocean,” the report said.

The report also describes theinadequacy of current knowl-edge, capabilities and capacity toadequately study ocean warm-ing, and to advise and cope withthe associated challenges. ��

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Britain’s desire to become afree trade leader following

its vote to leave the EU is seenas wishful thinking by experts,who say London’s hands aretied until a formal exit from thebloc.

Prime Minister TheresaMay used this month’s G20summit in China to explorepotential trade deals withAustralia, India, Mexico,Singapore and South Korea.

But international tradeexperts have been quick tohighlight Britain’s lack of expe-rience in such negotiations.

“Currently, legally speak-ing, the UK is part of the EUand therefore is not able to con-clude free trade agreements,”said Hosuk Lee-Makiyama,director of trade policy thinktank, the European Centre for

International PoliticalEconomy.

“For me, it is more anexperience problem becausethe UK has actually not nego-tiated” on such matters since1973 when the country joinedthe European Union, Lee-Makiyama added.

At stake is Britain’s posi-tion as a major world econo-my along with its future eco-

nomic and employmentgrowth.

International trade to andfrom the country each yeartotals hundreds of billions ofpounds, around half of whichis with the European Union.

Brussels and Berlin havelost no time in remindingBritain that while it remainswithin the EU, trade negotia-tions on behalf of all member

states are the sole responsibil-ity of the EuropeanCommission.

May has meanwhile comeup against hurdles outside theEU, with US President BarackObama insisting thatWashington’s priority remainsstriking a free trade deal withBrussels, however unlikely,before tackling any separateagreement with London.

British Foreign SecretaryBoris Johnson on Friday insist-ed at a joint ministerial meet-ing that “Australia is keen to doa free trade deal” and the twocountries would be able to “atleast to sketch out a very pro-ductive deal,” while Britainnegotiates its exit from the EU.

Australian counterpartJulie Bishop said that Brexitopened “many opportunitiesto develop an even closer rela-tionship,” but her trade min-

ster warned earlier this weekthat formal negotiations on adeal must wait until Brexit isconcluded, which could takeyears.

“We are now in a timewhere lawyers don’t matter,”Lee-Makiyama told AFP. “It isabout high politics.”

Tim Oliver of the LondonSchool of Economics stressedthat “there are no friends orspecial relationships in inter-national trade”.

He told AFP: “Some coun-tries will know the UK is keento do deals and vulnerablebecause it has little experienceat negotiating them.”

The Conservative govern-ment has yet to set out itsvision for Brexit following theJune 23 referendum, beyondsaying it would not start for-mal exit negotiations withBrussels until next year. ��

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��+� �� Mexican multi-plex operator Cinepolis plansto invest around �800 crorein India over the next sixyears and targeting to haveup to 600 screens.

The company, whichpresently has 269 screens inIndia, is targeting metromarkets as well as tier II andIII cities for its expansion inIndia.

“We will invest �800crore in the next six years.We invest �2.5 crore perscreen...We will reach 600screens by 2022,” CinepolisIndia Managing DirectorJavier Sotomayor told thenews agency.

Cinepolis, which had lastweek acquired DLF’s DTCinemas, has added over 180screens in last two years.

In terms of revenue, hesaid that the aim is to dou-ble it from the current posi-tion, without disclosing anydetails over both organic aswell as inorganic growthstrategy.

“Cinepolis as one ofthose players which will con-tinue to be in the market ina leading position. We will beone of the top 3 or top 2 play-

ers in the market after 3-4years,” Sotomayor said.

“If I have to go back toSeptember 2014, we hadaround 80 screens. In last 24months, we have reached269 screens. We have grownat a pace of three times in 24months . . . It s tar ted inNovember 2014 with acqui-sition of Fun Cinemas,” hesaid.

The company hadopened its first multiplex inIndia in 2007 and achievedbreak even in 2012.

On footfalls, he said atpresent Cinepolis clocks overthree crore annually and isexpecting it to be aroundeight crore by 2022.

When asked about futureacquisitions, Sotomayor said:“If any other opportunitycomes in future to grow inor-

ganically, we will look at it.If it makes sense... We will gothrough it”.

According to him, infuture the exhibition marketwould consolidate and onlythree to four big playerswould remain in the busi-ness.

“I think the industry willkeep on consolidating. Ibelieve that the regional play-ers or small players will even-tually be interested in exitingand selling to the 3-4 playerswhich are remaining in themarket,” Sotomayor added.

Cinepolis would contin-ue to add screen in metromarkets as well as tier II & IIIcities. “We will continue toexpand in Tier I, II & IIImarkets. I will not agree thatmetros are saturated. Metroshave c inemas but notenough,” he said.

When asked whether itwould adopt a different strat-egy for the price sensitivenon-metro markets ,Sotomayor said: “The strat-egy in tier III places will besame as tier I & II cities. Wewill offer the same productsin tier III as we offer in TierI & II.” ��

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��+�� Honda Motorcycle &Scooter India (HMSI) expectsprices of its products acrossvariants to increase between�400-1,000 when the BharatStage IV (BS IV) emission normscome into effect in 2017.

“We will update all ourmodels in 2017 as per BS IVnorms. With that there will beprice hike also in the range of�400 to �1,000 depending uponon which segment that model isavailable,” Yadvinder SinghGuleria, Senior Vice President,Sales & Marketing, HMSI said.

“The price hike will be morefor motorcycles and less forscooters but overall the rangemay not go beyond �1,000 for BSIV,” he added.

Guleria said the company’sHornet model already has a BSIV compliant engine and the restof the models in line-up will beupgraded to meet the BS IVnorms.

When asked about expecta-tions from the upcoming festiveseason, he said the company is“geared up for a robust sales”.

HMSI’s Gujarat factory,which manufactures only scoot-ers, has reached its peak capac-ity of 12 lakh units by August 31,he added.

“Thanks to our Gujaratfactory, we have stock for 35

days for festive season begin-ning Navratra. We target tosell over 10 lakh scooters andmotorcycles till October 31(April-October),” Guleria said.

The two-wheeler maker iseyeing sales growth of about20-22 per cent this fiscal year.The company has already reg-istered a growth of 21 per centduring April-August 2016-17.

The company is targetingrobust sales on the back ofgood monsoon this season, aswell as payouts to Governmentemployees as per the 7th PayCommission. It will offer�2,000 cash benefit toGovernment employees dur-ing Navratra to attract moresales.

Besides, Guleria said theindustry is likely to grow byabout 16-18 per cent this fis-cal, which is almost five timesof last year’s growth.

“Till August, the industrygrowth has gone up to 16 percent. Definitely, September isgoing to see over 20 per centgrowth for the industry. So itmeans industry is expected togrow by 16-18 per cent, whichis almost five times than lastyear’s growth. This is good forthe overall industry as lastyear’s growth was merely 3 percent,” Guleria said. ��

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��+�� To attract pro-fessionals and corporatesto Nat iona l Pens ionSystem, Governmentshould provide level-play-ing field to NPS in com-parison to superannua-tion funds like EPF whichenjoy EEE tax benefit,regulator PFRDA hassaid.

As on June 30, 2016,there were 12.9 millionsubscribers of NPS andAtal Pension Yojna withassets under managementof �1.32 lakh crore.

C entra l and StateGovernment employeesaccount for 36.6 per centof the total subscribersand 88.6 per cent of AUMunder NPS and APY.C or p orate segmentaccount for only 3.8 percent of the subscriber and8 per cent of AUM.

��+� �� Reliance Jio’sentry and rapid expansionof 4G services by othert e l e c om o p e r at or s a reexpected to drive data traf-fic five-fold on its devicesby the end of this year,Indian tech firm Indus OShas said.

Indus OS, which offersa regional language smart-phone operating systemsaid users are expected toconsume over 1 GB data permonth as data gets cheaper.

“India’s current mobiledata usage is still one-thirdof the global average of 957M B, w h i c h i s s e t t ochange... With Jio’s entry,India is now expected tobreak the 1 GB per monthusage barrier very soon andbe amongst the top 10mobile data consumers in

the world by 2020,” IndusOS said in a statement.

E a r l i e r t h i s m ont h ,Reliance Jio said it willoffer lifetime free voicecalling and zero roamingcharges to its customers.

Also, as part of a ‘wel-come offer’, Jio customerswill get free data servicestill December 31, followingwhich it will offer 10 tariffplans starting at �19 a dayfor occasional users, �149 amonth for low data usersand �4,999 a month forheavy data users.

With data prices fallingto ultra-low levels, the com-pany estimates an immedi-ate five-fold increase ofdata usage by the end of theyear on devices running itsoperating system.

Indus OS is currently

available on smartphonesfrom brands like Micromax,Celkon and Swipe, totallingover 40 smartphone mod-els.

Indus OS, which claimsto be the second most usedoperating system in thecountry after Android, saidits users consume about 956MB of 3G data per month.This is 30 per cent more thanthe Indian average of 735MB of 3G data, it said.

“With more than 90 percent of the Indian populationbeing non-English speaking,the arrival of Reliance Jiotranslates into a big oppor-tunity for Indians to experi-ence the power of the inter-net, and for Indus OS to fur-ther our reach,” Indus OS co-founder and CEO RakeshDeshmukh said. ��

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�� HDFC ErgoGeneral Insurance, whichhas just completed acquisi-t ion of L&T GeneralInsurance to become thethird largest private sectornon-life insurer, has set a tar-get of clocking 45 per centbusiness growth of the com-bined entity this year.

Prior to the acquisition,HDFC Ergo was the fourthlargest player after ICICILombard, Bajaj Allianz andIffco Tokio.

In the financial yearended March 31, 2016,HDFC Ergo had a gross writ-ten premium (GWP) incomeof �3,465 crore, which was agrowth of 45 per cent from�3,257 crore a year ago.

L&T General had closedlast year with a GWP of�483 crore.

HDFC Ergo had said on

Friday that it had got the req-uisite regulatory approvalsfrom the InsuranceRegulatory and DevelopmentAuthority and theCompetition Commission forbuying out L&T General.

A formal merger will hap-pen only after the BombayHigh Court approves it,which is expected over thenext few months.

“Our GWP grew morethan 45 per cent last fiscalyear and we are hopeful ofmaintaining the same growthmomentum this year as welltaking our combined incometo over �5,700 crore,” HDFCErgo executive directorMukesh Kumar told the newsagency.

Kumar has been appoint-ed as the new managingdirector and chief executive ofL&T General Insurance. ��

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Hundreds of family mem-bers and friends read out

the names of the nearly 3,000people, including Indians, whodied in the 9/11 attacks 15 yearsago in a solemn ceremony at amemorial built here on GroundZero as the US commemorat-ed the anniversary of thebiggest terror attack on its soil.

Presidential candidatesDonald Trump and HillaryClinton momentarily pausedtheir bitter rivalry and sepa-rately joined the people at the9/11 memorial in downtownManhattan to honour the 2,977people killed and the thousandsleft injured when al-Qaeda ter-rorists crashed hijacked planesinto the twin towers of theWorld Trade Centre.

Moments of silence wereobserved at precisely the timethe planes struck the twin tow-ers, the Pentagon and the onethat crashed into a field inPennsylvania after its passen-gers overpowered the hijackers.

People carried pictures oftheir loved ones who died inthe attacks and placed flowersand American flags in thenames inscribed into bronzepanels edging the twin reflect-ing pools at the memorial site.

The pools sit within thefootprints where the TwinTowers once stood and thenames of every person whodied in the 2001 attacks as wellas in the 1993 World TradeCentre bombing are inscribedinto the Memorial pools.

Every year at the solemnand emotional ceremony, thosewho were killed in the attacksare remembered by not justtheir families but by hundredsof visitors and tourists whoattend the commemoration.

The memorial is visited bythousands of city residents andtourists daily to offer homage

to those killed in the attacks.A new freedom tower, ‘One

World Trade Centre’, nowstands next to the memorialand a museum has also beenerected that houses relics,including flags and equipmentfrom the time the towers fell.

It tells the stories of thethousands of firefighters, ordi-nary citizens and law-enforce-ment authorities who helpedsave countless lives and toiledday and night to find the sur-vivors in the wreckage.

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Republican Donald Trumpis condemning Hillary

Clinton’s remark that half of hissupporters could be put in a“basket of deplorables” and dis-missing her admission she waswrong, saying the Democrathad committed “the worst mis-take of the political season.”

“For the first time in a longwhile, her true feelings cameout, showing bigotry andhatred for millions ofAmericans,” Trump said in astatement rejecting her effort towalk back her remarks.

“How can she be presidentof our country when she hassuch contempt and disdain forso many great Americans?”

Trump’s statement cameafter Clinton had backed offher disdainful description ofhalf of his supporters. In herinitial remarks Friday night ata private fundraiser in NewYork City, she said, “To just begrossly generalistic, you couldput half of Trump’s supporters

into what I call the basket ofdeplorables. Right? The racist,sexist, homophobic, xenopho-bic, Islamaphobic you name it.”

Her remarks drew enoughcontroversy that by middayon Saturday she tried to refo-cus her criticism squarely onTrump and continued to stressthat she thought many aspectsof his campaign weredeplorable.

“Last night I was ‘grosslygeneralistic’ and that’s never agood idea. I regret saying ‘half ’that was wrong.” She added:“He has built his campaignlargely on prejudice and para-noia and given a national plat-form to hateful views and voic-

es, including by retweetingfringe bigots with a few dozenfollowers and spreading theirmessage to 11 million people.”

In his response, Trumpsaid, “Isn’t it disgraceful thatHillary Clinton makes theworst mistake of the politicalseason and instead of owningup to this grotesque attack onAmerican voters, she tries toturn it around with a patheticrehash of the words and insultsused in her failing campaign?”

Clinton’s initial remarkabout a “basket of deplorables”recalled comments about vot-ers also at private fundraisersthat have tripped up past pres-idential nominees.

Beijing: China and Russia willhold an eight- day joint navalexercise from tomorrow in thecontentious South China Sea,the first drill by any country inthe contested waters since aninternational tribunal rejectedBeijing’s historic claims to theresource-rich sea.

The naval drills, the first byRussia and China in the SouthChina Sea, will be held offsouthern China’s GuangdongProvince, and was reportedlynot close to Beijing’s nine-dashline which was struck down bythe arbitration court in TheHague in July in a case broughtby the Philippines over Beijing’smaritime claims there.

The drills were “routine”and not directed at any othercountries, Chinese Navy said ina statement on Sunday.

Vietnam, Malaysia, Bruneiand Taiwan alongwith thePhilippines, contest China’sclaims over the South ChinaSea. Its historic claims, incor-porated in the contested “ninedash-line”, were struck down bythe arbitration court whichalso upheld Philippines’s claimsto the sections of the sea closeto its coast.

Trade worth more than $5trillion passes through the strategic South China Seaannually.

The US and Japan havesaid that the tribunal’s verdictis legally binding but China’sclaims got a fillip when RussianPresident Vladimir Putinexpressed his backing toBeijing’s stand this month whileattending the G20 summit inHangzhou.

Peshawar: A senior doctor, whowas in-charge of polio eradica-tion campaign in Pakistan’snorthwest Peshawar city, wasshot dead by two motorcycle-borne Taliban gunmen in thelatest attack on immunisationteams in the country.

Zakaullah Khan wasattacked by the unidentifiedgunmen after he came out of amosque after evening prayerson Saturday.

He was rushed to a hospi-tal where he succumbed to hisinjuries, police said. A factionof the Pakistani Taliban,Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, has claimedresponsibility for the attack.

Anti-polio workers havelong been targeted in the coun-try by Islamist groups, includ-ing the Taliban, which believesthat the polio immunisationdrive is a front for espionage ora conspiracy to steriliseMuslims. In April, at leastseven policemen were shotdead by unidentified gunmenin two separate attacks duringa polio campaign. PTI

Mecca: Saudi Arabia haslaunched Persian-languagetelevision broadcasts from thisyear’s hajj, the informationminister said on Sunday, fol-lowing tensions with Iran overthe annual pilgrimage.

Minister of Informationand Culture Adel al-Turaifisaid the 24-hour satellite chan-nel would cover hajj rituals andprayers from the GrandMosque in Mecca.

“The channel aims tobroadcast the message of thehajj, the eternal meanings ofIslam and to show what is beingprovided by the kingdom” dur-ing the pilgrimage, the SaudiPress Agency quoted Turaifi assaying.

It targets “Persian-languagespeakers, whose number is esti-mated at 130 million all over theworld,” he said. Persian, alsoknow as Farsi, is primarily spo-ken in Iran, Afghanistan andTajikistan. AFP

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Tokyo: Four Chinese vesselssailed into territorial watersaround disputed islands in theEast China Sea, Japan said onSunday, as Tokyo attempts toengage with Beijing to pressNorth Korea over its latestnuclear test.

The four coastguard vesselssailed into waters surroundingthe islands, administered asSenkaku by Japan and claimedas Diaoyu by China, around10:30 am (local time) and leftabout 90 minutes later, theJapan Coast Guard said.

The two countries arelocked in a long-running dis-pute over the uninhabited islets.China regards them as its own,rejecting the view it violatesJapan’s territorial waters.

The latest incident comesat a tense time for the regionafter Pyongyang conducted itsfifth and most powerful nucleartest Friday, to the outrage of itsneighbours and the interna-tional community.

AFP

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Handwritten notes provid-ing the only complete ver-

batim record of how George WBush reacted as he received thenews of the September 11attacks have been made publicfor the first time.

To mark the 15th anniver-sary of the attacks, Bush’s for-mer press secretary AriFleischer has released the sixpages of notes that he made asBush and those around himreacted to the unfolding ter-rorist atrocity. They reveal thatamid the confusion, Bush’simmediate reaction was to seekrevenge against the terrorists.Telephoning his Vice PresidentDick Cheney from Air ForceOne, he said: “We’re going toget the bastards. We’re at war.”

After hanging up thephone, Bush turned to hisaides and said, “When we findout who did this, they’re notgoing to like me as President.Somebody’s going to pay.”

The then US Presidentalso told the aides on board AirForce One, “I can’t wait to findout who did it. “It’s going totake a while and we’re notgoing to have a little slap on thewrist crap.”

The Independent

New York: For six years, Amy Passiak oversaw the distribu-tion of hundreds of objects from the World Trade Centre inNew York, a task she finished days before the 15th anniver-sary of the September 11 attacks.

There was only a knot of people on July 27, in a corner ofthe cargo area at New York’s Kennedy airport, to help with theend of the adventure.

The last pieces from the Twin Towers still stored in Hangar17, which had been exposed to the view of thousands, left underPassiak’s watchful eye. For six years, she coordinated the dis-tribution of almost 2,800 pieces under the control of the site’sowner, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

Among them, there was no individual, personal object: adamaged police car, sunglasses sold at one of the stores in thebuilding, but mostly massive objects, fragments of thedestroyed skyscrapers in lower Manhattan.

AFP

� -!�?��:�-�).//��)� :��8�8()� �-New York: A Sikh subway dri-ver who saved countless lives byreversing a train headed forground zero on 9/11 and a dec-orated Sikh-American army vet-eran are among the several menand women from the commu-nity profiled in an art exhibitionto showcase their perseverancein the face of backlash againstthem after the terror attack.

As the US commemoratesthe 15th anniversary of theSeptember 11 attacks onSunday, the photography exhi-bition ‘Sikh Project’ will run

from September 17-25 here tohighlight the aesthetic of theSikh articles of faith, includingthe turban and beard.

The exhibition is a collab-oration between civil rightsgroup ‘The Sikh Coalition’ andacclaimed British photogra-phers Amit and Naroop.Featuring nearly 40 powerfulportraits of Sikh-Americansof various ages, the exhibitionwill tell the story of the tri-umphs and perseverance ofthe community that has over-come great challenges in the 15

years since the attacks in 2001.Among those featured in

the exhibition are Sat HariSingh, a New York City trainoperator who saved countlesslives on the fateful day of 9/11when he reversed the trainheaded for ground zero, send-ing it in the opposite direction.

It also features renownedSikh-American designer andactor Waris Ahluwalia, whowas not allowed to board aplane from Mexico City inFebruary this year because ofhis turban. PTI

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Washington: Hillary Clintonon Sunday expressed “regret”for calling half of DonaldTrump’s supporters“deplorable” people butpromised to keep fighting “big-otry and racist rhetoric” by herRepublican rival as the presi-dential campaign got shrillerahead of the D-day.

“Last night I was ‘grosslygeneralistic,’ and that’s never agood idea. I regret saying ‘half ’— that was wrong,” Clintonsaid in a statement in which shealso vowed to call out “bigotry”in Trump’s campaign.

The 68-year-old Democraticpresidential nominee hadsparked an uproar on Fridaywhen she described Trump’ssupporters at a fundraiser.

PTI

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Seoul: A defiant North Koreaon Sunday restated its demandfor recognition as a “legitimate”nuclear-armed state, as worldpowers pondered ways to pun-ish Pyongyang for its latest andlargest atomic test.

The North also vowed toincrease its nuclear strike force“in quality and in quantity”, twodays after its fifth test in adecade sparked internationalcondemnation and moves fortougher UN sanctions.

In Japan, a visiting seniorUS envoy said Washingtonand Tokyo were seeking “thestrongest possible” measures inresponse. North Korea insiststhat its missile and nuclear testsare necessary to counter whatit says is a US nuclear threat toits independence.

A statement today from aforeign ministry spokesmanin Pyongyang mockedPresident Barack Obama’s“totally bankrupt” policy on thecountry. “Obama is trying hardto deny the DPRK’s (North

Korea’s) strategic position as alegitimate nuclear weaponsstate but it is as foolish an actas trying to eclipse the sun witha palm,” said the statementquoted by the official KCNAnews agency.

London: Fifty-five people werearrested on Sunday after aneight-hour-long armed protestin the West Midlands region ofEngland where a gang of 20-30 sword-wielding menstormed a Sikh temple, appar-ently opposing a mixed racemarriage between a Sikh and anon-Sikh couple.

Specially trained officersfrom Warwickshire Police arestill believed to be insideGurdwara Sahib in the town ofLeamington Spa to negotiatewith the other men.

Fifty-five people have beenarrested after an eight-hourarmed protest at the Gurdwara,BBC reported. A spokespersonfor Warwickshire Police said:“The report was received at6.47 am after a group ofbetween 20 and 30 men enteredthe temple. This is currentlybeing treated as aggravatedtrespass and at this time webelieve that it is an escalationof an ongoing local dispute.”PTI

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Tokyo: Washington andTokyo are seeking “thestrongest possible” measure tobe taken against North Koreaafter its latest and most pow-erful nuclear test, a top USenvoy said on Sunday.

Sung Kim, the US StateDepartment’s special repre-sentative for North Koreapolicy, also suggested that theUS may launch its own sanc-tions in response to “theprovocative and unacceptablebehaviour by the NorthKoreans.” AFP

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F��#��It was in 2001, when earth-

quake destroyed Kutch, thatAnar Patel went there and

worked for the rehabilitation of thepeople of Talukas. It was then shemet the artisans there, saw theirstruggle to make both ends meetand thought of working for them.That was the beginning ofCraftroots.

Now Craftroots works for25000 artisans of 45 different artforms. An initiative of Gujratbased NGO Gramshree Sanstha’s,Craftroots, attempts to link theoutput of traditional Gujrati arti-sans with the global market. “After working with the artisansfor a year, I realised that local arti-sans suffer due to their inabilityto market their products ”, saidAnar, founder of Craftroots. Anaradded that the artisans wereunaware about the new market-ing trends, demands anddesigns. “Therefore they wouldeither underprice or overpricetheir product”, she explained.

Former Chief Minister ofGujrat, Anandiben Patel, whois also the mentor ofCraftroots, was also presentat the launch. “In 1995 whenGramshree was started, ouraim was to support and

empower artisans byenabling them to gener-ate income, especially

women artisans as theyform 60 per cent of the work

force in this sector”, saidAnandiben. “Now we are happythat we have contributed instrengthening the sector of art andcraft for so many years now”, sheadded.

The multi-level store ofCraftroots in the capital city willgive the opportunity to 45 craftforms from Gujrat to be showcasedand sold. “Craftroots is mainlyworking towards the creation of anencouraging ecosystem for thecrafts with an aim to add value tothe progress of artisans, who are thecarriers of these ancient tradition”,said Anar.

The retail-and-crafts sup-ply store, featureproducts of rarearts like Rogan(decorating fab-rics with thickcastor-oil basedcolours), Namda(a non-woven felt cloth that is pro-duced by matting, condensing andpressing woollen fibres), MataniPachhedi (Kalamkari paintings on

cloth) and Mashru weaving, whichis now practiced by very few.

Passionate about craft and crat-ing community, Anar shared anincident which gave her the confi-dence to take this initiative forward.“In the beginning, it was very dif-ficult to get two artisans of even thesame village on the same platform.

It happened once that two artisansof the same village refused to workwith each other. Slowly we trainedthem and one day I saw that one ofthe artisans was having his lunchand by the time the other was on theplatform selling for both. That wasthe time I thought we can take thisforward”, she smiled.

If the idea of hiding those old faded t-shirtsunder heavy pullovers and sweatshirts is what

excites you about winters, then the millenni-um's first winter is probably not meant for you.With winter round the corner, it's time to takeout the `warm ones' and fight the coming sea-son in the trending combination of style andcomfort.

And this ‘look cool, feel warm’ approachwas seen in the new fall collection of a lead-ing foreign brand, a mall-based specialtyretailer of casual apparel for young girls andguys. The new collection of the youngsterbrand embodies classic basics with pops offashion to create a new effortless look. Thebrand also launched reflex denim for the guys’denim collection, a new colourful collectionthat is made up of stretchy and comfortable fab-ric.

Divided into casual, leisure and partywears, the apparels have combinations that aperson can carry from day-to-day college toparties. The girls fall trends were beautifullycategorised in segments like ‘Campfire Story’,‘Field of Dreams’ and ‘Blue Me Away’.

The collection combined the 70sBohemian spirit with the rugged comfort of

cabins and roadtrips with the girls.Peasant blousesand lace up detailspaired with skinnycargo pants, plaidshirting and fauxsuede. A mix ofrich burgundy’ssaturated teals andindigo friendlyblues mixed withbrighter corals,turquoise andorchid to roundout the colorpalette was the keytrend of the collec-

tion. Americana inspired prints with a bohoflare, darker, richer jewel tones with theimportance still on burgundy and indigofriendly blues were the latest add-ons. Prettyblooms in different prints, layers of plaid bor-rowed from the boys and geo print were alsoseen.

However, the high waist denim flares, fauxfur vests, baby doll dress layered with chunkycardigans with a perfect mix of vintage prepand free spirit, nailed the fall trends.

With comfort remaining the priority, thebrand announced the guys collection withapparels segmented in ‘The Breakfast Club’ and‘Into the Woods’ influenced by school prep witha twist and the great outdoors respectively.

With the assortment of reflex denim beingthe highlight of the collection, the brand offereda varsity colour palette through classic red, blue,golden yellow and burgundy accented byaqua and rich greens, in its fall trends. Rugbyand varsity accents were presented with updat-ed fabrications, colour ways, and wash effects.Colour block and plaid styles were abundantand available in a variety of colours.

The comfortable and casual fabric selec-tions were seen in styles such as fleece and flan-nel. To steal the show, graphics were moreinfluenced by nature, trees, feathers andmountains while global prints became morecolorful and decorative than in previous sea-sons. For those wanting to go casual with anarray of colours, this is the one to go with.

The young and lively Eisha Singh, who was lastseen in Ishq ka rang safed, is now Rani Gayatri

Singh in Ek tha raja ek thi rani. She started her career quite young, when

asked about it, with a smile she yearned, “I was16 when Ishq ka rang safed happened. It was a

good chapter of my life,” she yearned.“During my childhood I used to dream about

becoming an actor when I grow up,” she added.Asked about her co-stars, Sartaj Gill (Raja Rajveer

Singh) and Zaan Khan (Kunwar Jeevan Singh), shereadily said, “Zaan is also from Bhopal and is myBhopali dost, Sartaj is very foodie and he is my foodpartner. We get along well”.

The actor is a class 12 commerce student andfinds it difficult to manage between shoots andstudy, “whenever I get time during or after shoots,I try to get back to my books,” she sheepishlyreplied.

“It was very difficult for me to adjust inMumbai. I did my schooling in Bhopal andMumbai was harsh initially, but now it’s all great.I have been brought up in a big family with lotsof people around me. But in Mumbai, I live with

my mom. I miss my father and little brother somuch here,” she shared signing off.

Ashdeen designed peacocks,pair of sparrows and florals,

all from the rich tradition ofParsi gara, on the Benarasi silkfor Ziba, his latest collection.Done in collaboration withthe heritage textile label Ekaya,Ziba was launched in the cap-

ital city recently. “Parsi embroidery is an

amalgamation of Chinese, IndianPersian and European motifs”, says

the designer on how he gotInspired by it. “This is the first timethat the Parsi embroidery wasblended with Indian craftsmanshipand my challenge was not to com-promise the authenticity of boththe traditions”, he says.

Talking on the Banarasi crafts-manship, Ashdeen says, “There arecertain constraints in weaving, wehave to know its technical aspectsas well. But in embroidery we cando many innovations, and some-times wonders. We can play withthe proportions and even sizes ofthe design.

He used birds in his designas each bird represents some-thing distinct. “The chrysanthe-

mums is flower of autumn, pea-cocks is of beauty and dignity,crane is regarded as the head of thefeathered tribe and represents long

life. I also have used the Chakla-Chakli - a pair of sparrows, motif.The pair predate s Chinese symbol-ism and comes from the ‘contra-dictory birds’ or the bulbuls ofPersian origin”, he says.

The designer says that floralshave been used since in

Zoroastrian mythology, each dayis dedicated to an angel and eachangel is represented in nature by aflower.

Parsi gara comprises of darkbackground with a white embroi-dery, according to him. Andwhat made the launch more gor-

geous was theAakho Garo- FullGara, a collectionof elaborately handcrafted gara saris.Full of exoticChinese patterns-flora and fauna,mixed with archi-tectural patterns,

were embroidered on bright silkswith soft shades of silk floss forthis designer saris. “These sariswere unlike anything woven,printed or embroidered in India”,claims the deigner.

And what about collaboratingwith Ekaya? “It was a right kind ofblend for me. I have been workingwith Ekaya for long time”.

Bharat Shah, Founder ofEkaya collection. says aboutZiba that, “It's an art that the eyecan accept and its a fashion state-ment as well”.

Palak Shah, CEO of Ekaya,was seen flaunting one of the gar-ments from Ashdeen collection atthe launch. While talking about herexperience of wearing one of theZiba garments, Palak says, “It's anamazing. The fabric is really com-fortable and can be worn in allseason. See it's autumn and I amenjoying it”.

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Samsung hasannounced a globalrecall for the GalaxyNote 7 which it intro-duced last month dueto risk of fire fromexploding batteries.Samsung has found anissue with the batterycell used on the phonewhich could cause thebattery to heat upwhile charging andexplode. The companyclaims that only a smallpercentage of thedevices are affected butis offering a replace-ment to all existingowners of the device.Samsung has post-poned the launch ofthe phone in India.

�� 1��Console gamers can rejoice as Sony has final-

ly announced the much awaitedPlayStation 4 Pro now with 4Ksupport and also HDR supportthanks to more powerful internals.Netflix and YouTube support isalso baked in. You would need a4K TV to enjoy the complete ben-efits while on a normal Full HDTV, games should be able to run

just fine but at a betterframe rate. Specsinclude a 8 core CPU,AMD Radeon GPU,8GB RAM and 1TBof onboard storageplus a Bluray drive.

Priced at $399.99the PS 4 Pro will go on sale on November 10. Sony alsoannounced that the PlayStation 4 has been updated to a sleek-er design and will retail for $299.99. Details about the launchin India are still awaited.

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Motorola has intro-duced a G4 Play underthe G series of affordablesmartphones in India.The phone packs decentspecs including a 5-inchdisplay, Dual SIM func-tionality, Snapdragon410 processor, 2GBRAM, 16GB storagewith microSD card slotfor expandable storage,8MP/5MP cameras, FMradio and even a waterrepellent coating. Thereis also support forVoLTE which is beingused for Reliance Jio for voicecalls.

There is a 2800mAh battery with Quick Charge featurewhich promises 5 hours of usage with just 15 minutes ofcharging. Priced at Rs.8999 the G4 Play is currently avail-able on Amazon.in

+�� &��EYou must have been hearing about a term called VoLTE

or Voice over LTE when it comes to phones recently. WhileVoLTE is not a new technology, it is making its way into Indiaas part of the Jio network which is exclusively using the tech-nology for voice calls. Most phones introduced recently inthe market recently do support this feature and it offers a lotof advantages.

Traditionally, when calls were made on mobile phonesover 3G/4G networks, the phone switches to either 3G or 2Gin order to place the call. Due to this, call connection timewas higher and also the quality was not the best. With VoLTE,the phone call is actually placed over the high speed 4G LTEnetwork itself without having to switch down to 3G or 2Gnetworks and hence the term Voice over LTE. Due to this,the connection time is reduced considerably to near instantlevels and also High Definition or HD Voice calls are pos-sible.

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Behind the barbed wire, the white minivan’sbusted windows and crumpled roof hint atits story. But forklifted to this windblown spot

on the John F. Kennedy International Airport tar-mac, between a decommissioned 727 and an air-craft hangar, it's doubtful passing drivers notice itat all.

In the long struggle with the searing memo-ries of 9/11, though, the van’s solitary presence heremarks a small but significant transition point.

Tons of wreckage — twisted steel beams weigh-ing up to 40,000 pounds, chunks of concretesmelling of smoke, a crushed fire engine, a dust-covered airline slipper — were salvaged from theWorld Trade Center site for preservation in theweeks after the 2001 terrorist attacks. Now, 15 yearslater, this van, part of a government agency motorpool likely sheltered from the impact in the park-ing garage beneath the complex, is the very last arti-fact without a resting place.

When the van is claimed, as soon as a fewweeks from now, it will fulfill a pledge that, to movebeyond 9/11 without losing sight of it, New Yorkwould share relics of that terror, along with the talesof sacrifice and fear that come with them.The deci-sion by officials to give away pieces of Trade Centerwreckage has been praised and criticized over theyears. But its impact is undeniable.

More than 2,600 artifacts have gone to 1,585fire and police departments, schools and museums,and other nonprofit organizations in every state andat least eight other countries. Each recipient haspledged to use them in memorials or exhibits hon-oring those killed on 9/11. While some have notfollowed through, the many that have mean it isnow possible to touch a piece of September 11 dur-ing a Roman Catholic Mass in Port St. Lucie,Florida, while standing in the shadows ofColorado's San Juan mountains, or in a park hon-oring animals in Meaford, Ontario.

“They are the relics of the destruction and theyhave the same power in the same way as medievalrelics that have the power of the saints,” said HarrietSenie, a professor of art history at the CityUniversity of New York and author of “Memorialsto Shattered Myths: Vietnam to 9/11.”

“History is a vague concept, but if you have thistangible object that was a part of this historicalevent, it makes it very difficult to deny and it alsomakes it possible to experience it in a very viscer-al way.”

In the days immediately after the attacks, it was-n’t at all clear what would happen to the wreckageof the Trade Center. It's not as if anyone had con-fronted questions of that scale before. There wasno certainty about exactly which artifacts, if any,should be saved.

It all had to go somewhere. That ended upbeing JFK’s Hangar 17, an 80,000-square-foot cav-ern of sheet metal left empty when tenant TowerAir went out of business in 2000.

Officials were uncertain what to do with somuch material, given the emotions intertwinedwith it. A judge determined the artifacts were notevidentiary or personal, and approved donationsto those who promised to care for them. But whereto begin?

“It was piles and piles, probably my height orhigher, of steel beams,” says Amy Passiak, thearchivist hired to catalog the artifacts and managetheir distribution, recalling the first time she walkedinto the hangar in 2010. Passiak, a high schoolsenior in Michigan at the time of the attacks, hadbeen working as an intern at NewYork’s 9/11 muse-um, but says she was still unprepared for the scene.

“I remember going home that day and justbeing exhausted, just from being there a few hours,just being emotionally exhausted and not being ableto comprehend the amount of work that was goingto go into the process. It was like, maybe a year,maybe two years. And here I am, six years later.”

Passiak built a database of every item, cata-loging its size and approximate weight, withdescriptive notes. As word spread that the PortAuthority was giving the material away, requestspoured in. Through August, the Port Authority haddistributed 2,629 artifacts.

Many went to fire departments, local govern-ments and organizations in the NewYork area withdirect ties to the first responders and workers whoperished when the towers fell.

“When those buildings came down, everybodyand everything in its path was either pulverized orvaporized off the face of the earth,” said John Hodgeof the Stephen Siller Tunnels to Towers Foundation,named for his cousin, a New York firefighter killedon 9/11. In late July, the foundation marked thelooming closure of Hangar 17 with a ceremony out-side before hauling away an elevator motor fromthe Trade Center, a piece of the parking structure,and a portion of a broadcast antenna that crownedthe complex.

“That's where the DNA is. Neithermy cousin or anybody else fromSquad 1 was ever found, but it's in thatsteel,” Hodge said.

But for many of the people andgroups that adopted artifacts from theTrade Center, the loss was moreabstract. At least it started off that way.

Heath Satow, a sculptor in south-ern California hired to design a 9/11memorial for the plaza frontingRosemead’s city offices, recalls awk-wardly scanning a digital catalogshowing beams available from theTrade Center. But hundreds of hourscreating the memorial — a 10-footbeam cradled by hands of chrome, thepalms and fingers formed from 2,976interlocking birds representing indi-vidual victims — left a deep impres-sion.

“Every individual was attended to,”said Satow, his voice breaking five yearslater, as he described making the sculp-ture. “I just was totally unprepared forit. But when you spend all that timeseeing it as individuals it will just wreckyou.”

Satow said he purposely posi-tioned the beam at about eye level, sopeople could see, touch and feel it.Others who adopted Trade Center arti-facts used them to similar effect.

Firefighters in Pagosa Springs,Colorado, created a memorial in frontof their station around a small pieceof donated I-beam. Many people in thetown, surrounded by the San Juanmountains and the Southern UteReservation, will never get to NewYorkor Washington D.C., said DavidHartman, who worked to obtain theartifact. But September 11 was his gen-

eration’s Pearl Harbor, and being ableto see and touch the wreckage enablesresidents to reflect on its lessons, hesaid.

At Flour Bluff Junior High Schoolin Corpus Christi, Texas, a piece ofTrade Center steel — one of threereceived by the school district — ishoused in a case near the entrance tothe cafeteria. In September, it is takenout and students from the school's offi-cer training program stand guard.Bruce Chaney, the naval scienceinstructor who applied for the artifacts,brings another, smaller piece to hisclasses.

The artifact is “twisted and some-what burned. It’s not pretty. I'm hop-ing it will make them think as they’regrowing up, that they have to pay atten-tion to their past,” Chaney said.

Most Flour Bluff students hadn’tyet been born in 2001, so the relics arethe closest most will ever get to expe-riencing that day.

But the desire to touch and ownhistory, however distant, has beenaround since long before this genera-tion, said Erika Doss, a professor ofAmerican studies at the University ofNotre Dame and author of “MemorialMania: Public Feeling in America.”

She notes that after AbrahamLincoln was assassinated, millions ofAmericans gathered alongside thetracks as a train carrying his body madeits way to Illinois. People wore mourn-ing bands on their arms. They hungLincoln’s portrait in their homes. Theyflocked to see death masks cast fromhis face. They wanted to see andtouch Lincoln.Artifacts let peoplegrapple with pained memories. But 15

years after September 11, the dispersal of artifactsfrom the Trade Center has not resolved the pub-lic’s conflicted feelings about those events, now setagainst continued fears of terrorism.

“We just don't know where the events of 9/11have led us,” said Rick Sluder, fire chief inWauseon, Ohio, which obtained a Trade Centerbeam and, together with neighboring departmentsbuilt a memorial at the nearby Fulton CountyFairgrounds.“A lot of people are looking at this as,is this the point of downfall or the point at whichwe rose above the rest, the point of resiliency?”Sluder said. “I don't think that’s been determinedyet.”

There’s little questioning, though, the emotionspeople invest in the artifacts. During the six yearsPassiak spent archiving the relics, the people seek-ing them would often tell her stories of the lossesin their own communities — of firefighters, or sol-diers or others — that connected them, howevertangentially, to 9/11.

In the first years, there were so many artifactsthat she could easily match them with requesters.So when a girl at Cracker Trail ElementarySchool in Sebring, Florida, wrote that she wantedto help her fellow students learn about 9/11, Passiakset aside a children's alarm clock recovered froma store in the Trade Center’s concourse, a burnednotebook, and small piece of steel, 6 inches square.

“I felt like that allowed a full story to be told,”she said.

As the piles of material winnowed, though, itbecame more difficult. Most of the groups seek-ing artifacts wanted pieces they could build a nar-rative around. The biggest artifacts were unwieldy.By early this year, there was little left except railsfrom the commuter train line that ran under thecomplex. Items like police cruisers, whose purposethat day were clear, found takers. But unmarkedvehicles, anonymous but for their place in thewreckage, were initially passed over.

When the Port Authority shuttered the arti-fact program in August and padlocked Hangar 17,officials moved the only remaining artifact — aDodge Caravan with a ripped out red interior —to the tarmac, uncertain of its fate. It, too, is like-ly to go soon, to a group officials will not identi-fy until its application has been approved. Hangar17, itself, may eventually be torn down.

Passiak moved back to Michigan to start a jobat an art museum this month. But many of the peo-ple whose groups received donations of TradeCenter artifacts have stayed in touch with her,extending invitations to visit their memorials, fromCalifornia to Germany.

Some day, the archivist said, she’d like to takea road trip, stopping in cities and towns along theway to see where the artifacts she once cared forhave found homes. She imagines she’ll recognizesome of them, and remember their stories. It willnot matter that the steel, concrete and other relicsare at rest far from lower Manhattan. The mem-ories they hold, she is certain, will not soon fade.

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It is said that information ispower, however in the pre-

sent time , information tech-nology is spreading informa-tion more widely than everbefore in history. But, surpris-ingly our political leadershave spent very little timethinking about how thenature of power has changedand more specifically, abouthow to incorporate the softdimensions into their strate-gies for wielding power.

So what exactly is power?In simple words, it is likeweather. Everyone dependson it and talks about it, butonly few understand it. Thedictionary says that powermeans having the capabilitiesto affect the behaviour of oth-ers to make things happen. Somore specifically, it is the abil-ity to influence the behaviourof others to get the outcomesone wants. Long ago it wassaid that man is a politicalanimal, which meant thatman aspires to rule others.Later, it was also said thatpower corrupts man andabsolute power corrupts himabsolutely. By combiningthese pithy proverbs, one isled to the conclusion that pol-itics, which is the pursuit forpower, exerts a corruptiveinfluence on man. But, howfar is this observation correctand in reference to what ageor what form of governanceis it valid? As per history, inthe middle ages, when ‘all-for-the-self ’ form of monarchywas the order of the day or,later, in the 20th Century,when dictatorship was invogue in some countries,these political dicta could, byand large, be considered astrue. But what about the cur-rent time when democraticgovernments are the order ofthe day? Also, what about theancient time when only thebenign and benevolent formof monarchy was prevalent ?

An impartial study ofhistory, both written and oral,would lead us to the truththat, in the ancient time, pol-itics was not the game ofpower. It had not taken theform of struggle for the leversof authority nor was it a bat-tle of the ballots. It did notderive its existence or validi-ty from the power that comes

out of the barrel of a gun orthe swing of the sword nordid it rest on any social con-tract. Those who ascendedthe throne did not do anycanvassing or manoeuvring,but they had those royalqualities and divine virtues inthem that should be the hall-marks of a king or a rulerwhich should distinguish himfrom the rest.

The crowning of a kingdid not derive its legitimacyfrom his superiority in anymartial art but from thestrength of his unblemishedcharacter, his benevolentqualities, his pleasing natureand his perfect rapport withhis people. But, over a peri-od of time, we have descend-ed steeply from that era whenpower had not gone to theheads of the kings. Today, pol-itics has descended into thequagmire of lust for powerand has got bogged downthere. Just as a stream or ariver, after passing throughvarious stages, becomes dirtyand polluted at the end of itslong journey, so is the casewith politics that has lost thepurity and the principles onits way and now has becomemurky.

Government is imple-menting projects aimed atcleaning the Ganges, has for-mulated rules and has beentaking steps to check furtherpollution of the environment,but who will cleanse politics?,is it really possible? Yes! it canbe done if politicians who arebusy, have a whiff of fresh airand inhale peace by bringingchange in their outlook, atti-tudes, life style and work cul-ture through a powerful systemof values & meditation whichis India’s unique contribution tothe world culture, becauseunless the people in powerchange, there cannot be achange in common people.

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The below-par Test recordof Rohit Sharma is expect-ed to be the focus of dis-

cussion when the selection com-mittee, headed by Sandeep Patil,picks the Indian cricket squadfor the home Test series againstNew Zealand, here on Monday.

Despite Rohit's poor form inthe Tests, he has the confidenceof captain Virat Kohli, whofeels that the ODI specialistshould be given a longer run toprove himself in the Test format.

The star Mumbai batsman,who holds the world record forthe highest score in ODIs, couldnever settle down in the longestformat during his delayed 18-Testcareer that began with a bang —with back-to-back tons againstthe West Indies in 2013 in India.

Considered to be a batsmanwith a wide range of strokes,Rohit has been in and out of theplaying XI since then with con-sistency not his forte in Tests.

In the recent series againstthe West Indies in theCaribbean, he got a chance toplay in two out of four games,one of which was washed out,and he mustered 9 and 41 in thetwo innings in the third Test atGros Islet. How much patiencewill the selectors continue tohave on the talented but under-performing 29-year-old bats-man at the Test level is a matterof conjecture.

Rohit also did not do well inthe first innings of the ongoingDuleep Trophy final in GreaterNoida after being specificallyincluded in one of the teams —India Blue — following hisreturn from the West Indies andthe USA. He made just 30 runson Saturday before throwing hiswicket away.

With quite a few talentedyoungsters like Shreyas Iyer,Manish Pandey and Karun Nairwaiting in the wings, the selectorswill have a tough task at hands.

Another top-order batsmanwho has come under the scan-ner is Cheteshwar Pujara. Hewas dropped for the final Testagainst the West Indies, along

with successful opener in pastTest rubbers -- Murali Vijay --,by the tour management.

Pujara grafted his way to 62runs from two innings, but hassince then answered the selec-tors' queries with back-to-backhundreds in the Duleep Trophyand is likely to be included in thesquad which, more or less,should be the same that touredthe West Indies and won theseries 2-0.

Ravindra Jadeja is anotherplayer who has been asked toplay in the Duleep Trophy aftergetting just one game in the

West Indies, in which he scored22 runs and picked up threewickets at Gros Islet. He wasdropped for the fourth andfinal Port of Spain game, whichgot washed out.

It could be a toss-upbetween him, Chinaman bowlerKuldeep Yadav, who hasgrabbed 13 wickets in twogames for India Red in theongoing Duleep Trophy, andorthodox leggie Amit Mishra.

Mishra played in two out offour Tests in the West Indies, forgrabbing two out of three spin-ners' slots in the squad to sup-

port premier slow bowlerRavichandran Ashwin.

Mohammed Shami, theonly Indian bowler to take morethan 10 wickets against theWindies other than Ashwin,looks a certainty to spearheadthe pace attack along with IshantSharma — the most experiencedbowler in this lot.

Bhuvneshwar Kumar, UmeshYadav and Shardul Thakur werethe others who completed thepace quintet in the West Indies.But with the series being held insub continent conditions, it looksunlikely that all of them will be

a part of the squad. As India havea lengthy spell of Test cricket, 13games in all till the visit by theAustralians in February-March,2017, the selectors may alsodecide to go in for rotating the fastbowling resources. A call-up forsomeone like Varun Aaron, nowtouring Australia with the India'A' squad, does not appear far-fetched at some stage of the sea-son. The others in the squad tothe Windies, including wicket-keeper Wriddhiman Saha, areexpected to be retained againstthe Kiwis who are to start theirtour with a three-Test rubber.

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Watching a domesticgame at a nonde-

script centre in energy sap-ping conditions can be anordeal but a small group ofteenage girls were ready tobeat the heat.

Asmita, Aryanka,Surbhi and Priya haven'tjust come to watch an oth-erwise mundane DuleepTrophy game. They havecome all the way to the inte-riors of the national capitalto support their hero andicon Gautam Gambhir.

Although Gambhir wasout yesterday, that didn'tdeter the 18-year-olds tocarry a 20-feet-long bannerthat read 'Bring backGautam', standing underscorching afternoon sun.

It was learnt that afterwatching the youngstersstanding in this searingheat, Gambhir told ground-staff to provide them withwater bottles. He couldn'thave possibly met them asACU rules wouldn't haveallowed him to interact

with unknown people dur-ing the course of the match.

Gambhir had a greatDuleep Trophy with 320runs at an average of 80 perinnings, enough for thesekids from Shivaji andKamla Nehru College toshow solidarity with theirhero. Incidentally, the ban-ner did attract the attentionof national selectorsVikram Rathour and SabaKarim.

Not to forget chiefcoach Anil Kumble, whowas also present.

"We run a Gambhirfan club. We want him backin Indian team. He hasbeen consistent," saidAsmita, wearing a KKRJersey which was personal-ly gifted to her by Gambhir.

"I had met him once athis residence. Called uphis manager and went tomeet him. It's a personaleffort to show our love. Weare his fans," the studentfrom Shivaji College said.

As they say 'once a fanis always a fan' and they sel-dom believe in logic.

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India's limited overs specialist Suresh Raina could be seen inaction during the 22nd All India J P Atray memorial crick-

et tournament, to be played at multiple venues across the region,from September 15 onwards.

The tournament, being organised under the aegis of PunjabCricket Association (PCA) and recognised by BCCI, would beplayed on league-cum-knock out basis and the teams have beendivided into four pools. Top two teams from each pool willqualify for the quarter-final stage, tournament's convener, VivekAtray told a press con-ference here onSunday.

Atray said in addi-tion to Raina, wicket-k e e p e r - b a t s m a nParthiv Patel, GurkiratMann, Manan Vohra,Manpreet Gony,Siddharth Kaul,Aditya Tare, NathuSingh, Pawan Suyaland Praveen Kumarwill also be taking partin the tournament.

Chander Shekhar,Chairman of Orga-nising Commitee, said16 leading teams suchas Madhya PradeshCricket Association,Baroda CricketAssociation, UPCA,DDCA, HPCA, PCAColts, ONGC Delhi,Air India Delhi andAssam CricketAssociation will befighting it out for tophonours.

He said the venuesinclude IS Bindra PCAstadium in Mohali,which will also hostthe final on September25, Sector 16 cricketstadium inChandigarh and TauDevi Lal cricket stadi-um in Panchkula.

Atray said white SG Test balls will be used for the day-nightfinal while red balls will be used for the day matches, with 31games to be played in all.

He added that winners will get a cash prize of �2 lakh alongwith the trophy and runners up will bag �one lakh.

"All the matches of the tournament, which would be playedbetween September 15-25, will be of 50 overs each innings andwill be played under the BCCI rules," Sushil Kapoor,Organising Secretary of the tournament, said.

Current India stars such as Mahendra Singh Dhoni, ShikharDhawan, Gautam Gambhir and former captain Kapil Dev hadpreviously played in the tournament.

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New Zealand coach MikeHesson is aware of the threat

Ravichandran Ashwin could poseto his batsmen in the upcomingTest series in India and hinted atthe possibility of fielding threespinners depending on the con-ditions.

Hesson is impressed withthe way his team's spinners —Mark Craig, Ish Sodhi andMichell Santner — have evolveddespite playing only 34 Testscombined.

"Seamers if anything mightbowl two-three overs up frontand it's more likely they're goingto have spin at one end to startwith if they're going to play threeof them. And if you've got twoleft-handers against Ashwin atthe top it's going to be a big chal-lenge for us. We have to assess

conditions and pick what wethink is the right mix," Hessonwas quoted as saying bystuff.Co.Nz.

Ahead of one of his toughestassignments, the 41-year-oldpraised his young spin bowlingunit that is expected to play a cru-cial role in India.

"They're a young spin-bowl-ing group. Probably Ish andMitch have found white-ballcricket a little easier than Testcricket," Hesson said. "They'reboth evolving nicely and it'sabout giving them opportunity.

"I've been really pleased withthe way Mark Craig has comeback from last season. He's madea few changes technically and theball seems to be coming out real-ly nicely."

New Zealand will play athree-day tour match againstMumbai in Delhi between

September 16 and 18, before thefirst Test in Kanpur. The secondand third Tests will be played inKolkata and Indore fromSeptember 30 and October 8respectively.

Hesson said wicketkeeper-batsman Luke Ronchi could beone of the contenders for a placein the XI as the side looks for anopening batsman who can com-bat spin.

New Zealand's regular open-ing pair is Martin Guptill andTom Latham.

In the only Test he playedagainst England at Headingleylast year, Ronchi slammed a 70-ball 88.

"It's not your traditional NewZealand opener that you requireover there; you need guys whocan score against spin, find waysto rotate the strike and keep thegame moving," Hesson said.

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Indian bowlers' efforts at making a match of it went invain as Australia A pulled off a three-wicket win in a

tight chase on the fourth and final day of the first four-day Quadrangular A series game at the AB Field here onSunday. Despite a delayed start to the day due to a wetoutfield following heavy rain, the hosts chased down the159-run target set by India A on Saturday.

Opener Cameron Bancroft top scored with anunbeaten 58 off 151 balls to seal the win for Australia.Bancroft knock was laced with half a dozen fours.

Beau Webster returned to the crease today withBancroft, scoring 30 off 87 balls, before being trappedLBW by Varun Aaron.

Play was abandoned on Saturday due to rain withAustralia A requiring 100 runs to secure a victory andsix wickets still in hand. Earlier on day three, the hostsbowled India A out for 156 to end their second inningsjust before the lunch break. Australia's three pace bowlers(David Moody, Chadd Sayers and Daniel Worrall) snaredthree wickets each, with Mitch Swepson grabbing theother to accumulate five for the match.

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Manav Thakkar, Varuni Jaiswal and IshhitaGupta helped India wrest the initiative and

win three singles gold medals, apart from theJunior Boys doubles gold, to lift the saggingmorale of the hosts in ITTF 2016 India Juniorand Cadet Open Table Tennis Championshipshere on Sunday.

India won four gold medals to Taipei's five,including four in team events, to be second inthe medal chart. India also won one silver andfive bronze medals.

Manav, who helped himself to a double gold,defeated Tai Ming-Wei 4-3 in the Junior Boyssingles final playing a percentage game.

In Cadet Girls, Ishita Gutpa defeated HuangYu-Jie 11-9, 6-11, 11-9, 7-11, 11-9 for her maid-en international title and the win was worth morethan the gold she won.

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FC Pune City's new recruitsAugustin Fernandes and Sanju

Pradhan cannot wait to face thechallenges that come their way inthis new, but exciting journeywhich they hope will only endwith a championship title for theirnew club.

"The new coach excited me,working with a new coach and teamhelps us learn more. I am looking for-ward to joining my new team play-ers," Fernandes said.

Starting his youth career withSESA, Goa-born Augustin, in 2011,was drafted by Salgaocar FC. Aftera successful stint he joined AtleticoKolkata in 2015 edition of ISL andin the same year also made his debutwith the national team. Augustincompleted his move to Pune outfitafter having a word with the man-agement about their plans for thecoming season of Indian SuperLeague which will start on Oct 1.

On the other hand, Pradhan,who joined from North East UnitedFC, also shared the same views. "I amvery excited about training withAntonio Habas again. I want to provemyself and for that I am working

hard and preparing myself tobe the type of player he wantssince I have trained with himin the past".

Pradhan has won twoFederation Cups representingEast Bengal, ISL title withAtletico De Kolkata in 2014 and alsowas a part of 2012 Nehru Cup win-ning Indian team. From East Bengalhe shifted base to Dempo and sub-sequently to Salgaocar.

On being questioned about theirtargets for the new season, both play-ers had only one answer in mind. "Iwant to enjoy my time with my newteam players and work hard. I wantto be in the playing eleven and give

in my best to win the league,"Fernandes said.

Pradhan added: "My aimis to do everything that helpsto make FC Pune City cham-pions. As a professional myonly target is to win the

Championship. I plan to work hard-er and give in more this year and thefacilities provided to us will help usperform better."

Both the players also shared theirexpertise on being trained under var-ious coaches. Fernandes said: "Ihave been under different coachesand every coach has his new style.We adjust and learn."

Sharing the view, Pradhan said:

"I have had a great experience and Ifeel privileged to get the opportuni-ty to be able to train with world-classcoaches."

They are also of the opinion thatfootball in India has changed dras-tically in recent years.

"The level of competition hasincreased over the years in India.Indian players are matching foreignplayers by 70 to 80 percent andputting in great effort. I feel Indianplayers are playing well and we canonly get better", said Augustin.

Whereas Pradhan feels that theemergence of ISL has been of greathelp to Indian players. "With thecoming of ISL, the competition levelhas increased tremendously.Competition helps in improvingone's performance and the foreignplayers have played a key role inincreasing the level of competitionamong Indian players," he explained.

On India hosting the FIFAUnder-17 World Cup next year,Fernandes said: "Hosting Under-17World Cup would not only popu-larize the game in India but will alsoimprove the ground maintenanceand facilities would also improve. Wewill see the future stars perform andwe would want more such tourna-ments to be held in India."

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Early in what would become a tight testof a US Open final, Angelique Kerbersprinted forward to somehow reach

a drop shot and scoop a down-the-line win-ner that landed in a corner of the court.

The Arthur Ashe Stadium crowdroared, and Kerber celebrated by raisingher right hand and wagging her index fin-ger in the air, as if to remind opponentKarolina Pliskova — and everyone else —"I'm No 1!" Yes, she is. And a two-timeGrand Slam champion, too.

Kerber won her first US Open title andthe second major trophy of an out-of-nowhere breakthrough season, taking fiveof the last six games to beat a fadingPliskova 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 on Saturday.

"It means a lot to me. When I was akid, I was always dreaming to one day bethe No. 1 player in the world, to win GrandSlams," said the 28-year-old Kerber, whowill move up one spot from No. 2 andreplace Serena Williams atop the WTArankings on Monday. "I mean, all thedreams came true this year."

Never a Grand Slam finalist before2016, Kerber beat Williams for theAustralian Open title in January, then wasthe runner-up to her at Wimbledon in July.Adding the championship at FlushingMeadows was further proof that all of thechanges Kerber has made are paying off.

The better fitness, via extra time in thegym and longer, more intense practice ses-sions; an improved serve and a new will-ingness to attack during points, rather thanmainly counter-punching, via instruc-tion from coach Torben Beltz; a more pos-itive attitude on court, via help from amental coach.

"Of course, now everybody will try tobeat me and have nothing to lose," Kerbersaid. "I will try to take this challenge."

On Saturday, the No 2-seeded Kerbertrailed by a break at 3-1 in the third setbefore coming back against the 10th-seed-ed Pliskova, who hadn't been past the thirdround at a major until this tournament.

"It didn't look good," Beltz saidabout the deficit. "But I think that'salso her strength. Because ... if shesees she still has a chance, she'sgrabbing it and she goes for it."

Kerber is the first womanfrom Germany to win the USOpen — and the first to get toNo 1 — since her idol and men-tor, Steffi Graf, who got in touchvia text message before the final.

It was Pliskova who guaran-teed Kerber's ascension in the rank-ings by beating Williams in the semi-finals, ending her streak of 186 consec-utive weeks at the top, which began inFebruary 2013 and equaled Graf 's mark.

Kerber, who collected $3.5 million inprize money Saturday, lost to Pliskova thelast time they met, just three weeks ago inthe final of a hard-court tournament inCincinnati.

But at the outset of this final, it wasKerber who was in charge. Her defense isexemplary, scrambling along the baselineto put her racket on seemingly every ball,

crouching so low that her knees wouldcome close to scraping the ground.

As she does against most opponents,Kerber would make Pliskova swing two,three, four extra times to try to end a point.And Pliskova was troubled by that in theearly going, making 17 unforced errors inthe first set alone, 14 more than Kerber.By the conclusion of the 2-hour, 7-minutefinal, Pliskova totaled 47 unforced errors,30 more than Kerber.

"With Angie, you cannot wait for mis-takes," Pliskova said. "She doesn't give youanything."

Kerber won the toss and elected toreceive, perhaps for two reasons: Her serveremains the biggest question mark in agame otherwise full of answers, and itmade sense to force Pliskova to deal withan early test of nerves. Either way, the deci-sion worked: Pliskova double-faulted onthe match's first point and got broken fromthe get-go.

But Pliskova hung in there. And afterfrittering away her first four break points,she converted her fifth with a lob-volleywinner that curled over Kerber and alitright by the baseline. Suddenly up 4-3 inthe set, Pliskova turned to her coach up inthe stands and yelled, pumping her fists.

Now it was a match, filled with terrif-ic points, tense moments and plenty ofemotion. Pliskova served out the secondset — the only one dropped by Kerber alltournament — and spiked a ball. Kerbergot broken early in the third and bouncedher racket off the court. Moments later, shetrailed 3-1.

But this was Kerber's turn to showsome mettle, breaking back to 3-all andagain to end it. She dropped on her backafter the last point, then climbed into thestands to begin the celebration with hercoach and others.

"I mean, definitely, I would say nowthat she deserves to be No 1," Pliskova said."And after years (when) Serena was there,I think it's a nice change."

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Barcelona coach Luis Enriquelikely thought that a match

against promoted Alaves wouldbe a good opportunity to givemost of his stars the day off.

The defending La Ligachampions guessed wrong, asAlaves pulled off a stunning 2-1upset at Camp Nou on Saturday.

Not even Lionel Messi, LuisSuarez, and Andres Iniestagoing on for the last half hourcould turn around a result thatleft Real Madrid alone at the topof the table after three rounds.

On a day when Madrid'sCristiano Ronaldo needed justsix minutes to score in his firstmatch of the season, starting a5-2 rout of Osasuna, Barcelonastumbled to a surprise defeat.

It was a day of firsts atCamp Nou.

Paco Alcacer and goalieJasper Cillessen debuted forBarcelona, and Neymar saw hisfirst minutes for the Catalan clubsince returning from a longsummer with Brazil.

Even better for Alaves, itwas a first win in Spain's topflight since its 10-year run in thesecond and third divisions.

Built around a group ofjourneymen brought in thissummer along with new coachMauricio Pellegrino, the mod-est club from the BasqueCountry proved to be disci-plined in defense and craftyenough to get the utmost fromits scarce chances.

"We didn't have our day,"Luis Enrique said. "We wereimprecise, and they scored twogoals on three shots. That is agood summary of the match."

Barcelona appeared to be incontrol until Kiko Femeniacrossed for Deyverson, whomuscled past Javier Mascheranobefore poking the ball underCillessen. Jeremy Mathieu head-ed Barcelona level right afterhalftime, only for Ibai Gomez toput Alaves back in front after apoor clearance by Mascherano.

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Liverpool turned on the style to markthe opening of the new-look Anfield

with an imperious 4-1 rout of PremierLeague champions Leicester.

Roberto Firmino and Sadio Mane putJurgen Klopp's side two goals ahead as theyplayed at home for the first time this sea-son and for the first time since expand-ing Anfield's capacity by 8,500 to 54,000.

Jamie Vardy reduced the deficit to asingle goal after Lucas's mistake. But AdamLallana's fine strike restored Liverpool'stwo-goal advantage and Firmino's lateeffort wrapped up a worrying defeat forLeicester, who have won only one of theirfirst four matches.

After 13 minutes the hosts scored thefirst goal in front of their new stand, withstand-in left-back James Milner makinga superb, in-field pass to Firmino.

The Liverpool forward had only to

advance a few yards but did so effective-ly, scything between Wes Morgan andRobert Huth before drilling a low shot pastthe diving Kasper Schmeichel from 14yards.

On 31 minutes Liverpool doubled theadvantage with the increasingly impres-sive Jordan Henderson carving out thegoal with a defence-splitting pass that sentDaniel Sturridge sprinting away from a sta-tic back four.

��+��+��Diego Costa scored his secondgoal of the game from an overhead kickto earn Chelsea a 2-2 draw at Swansea onSunday, ending the visitors' winning startto the English Premier League season.

Costa's acrobatics in the 81st minutesalvaged a point for Chelsea at LibertyStadium after two defensive blunders ina three-minute span almost gifted Swanseaa victory.

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