14 vivacity opp no challenge for bjp: modi · governor anil baijal was stalling it. the government...

CAPSULE

RAJ CUTS FUELPRICE BY `2.5/LJaipur: Rajasthan Chief MinisterVasundhara Raje announced a4% reduction in value-added taxon petrol and diesel on Sunday,which will reduce their prices by`2.5/litre in the State.

ULTRAS SHELF LIFE DOWNIN VALLEY: CRPF CHIEF New Delhi: Back-to-backoperations by security forces inthe Kashmir valley has reducedthe “shelf life” of terrorists andover 360 were killed in less thantwo years, said CRPF DirectorGeneral Rajiv Rai Bhatnagar. P6

NUNS: TOP COPS TRYINGTO SABOTAGE RAPE PROBEKochi: A day after hitting thestreets seeking justice for a nunraped by a Roman CatholicBishop, five nuns on Sundayaccused top police officials oftrying to sabotage the probe intothe case. P7

DEEPAK K UPRETI n NEW DELHI

Dismissing the OppositionMahagathbandhan as a

group without a “charitra”(character) and laden withconfused “niti” (policy) andcorrupt “niyat” (intention),Prime Minister Narendra Modion Sunday declared his partysees “no challenge from any-where” in 2019 and claimedthat none in the Oppositionalliance is ready to acceptCongress leadership.

“Mahagathbandhan kecharitra ka pata nahin, niti ash-pasht aur niyat bhrasht”, he said.

Delivering the closingaddress at the two-day NationalExecutive Meeting of the BJPhere at BR Ambedkar Bhawan,Modi said while the BJP seespower as an instrument ofchange, the Opposition has noobjective and purpose and ithas “failed in the Governmentand also in the role of anOpposition”.

To recall the memory oflate Vajpayee, Modi coined aslogan in the meet: “AjeyaBharat, Atal BJP”.

“We do not see any chal-lenge from anywhere”, Modiaffirmed and challengedOpposition to grill the BJP onits work and ideology and noton the basis of “falsehood andmisinterpretations”. He saidcomparison should be betweenBJP-Government’s “achieve-ments” in 48 months versus 48years of one family (Gandhiparivar).

Hitting out at the Congresspolicies, the PM said theCongress sat on the nationali-sation of banks, mining andcoal to achieve its stated goal of“garibi hatao” and laterreversed this policy in thename of economic reforms.Modi asked party workers to“expose” Congress “disinfor-mation” on the basis of facts intheir hands.

Taking on the Oppositionalliance in the run up to thenext year’s Lok Sabha polls,

Modi said the assorted partiescannot work and see eye to eyebut have been forced to cometogether as “people haveaccepted us, our programmeand the party, and our popu-larity has increased.”

Making light of theCongress and other Oppositionparties joining hands to defeatthe BJP in the 2019 Lok Sabhapolls, Modi said, “Even small-er parties see Congress leader-ship as a burden.” He said thenon-acceptance of the currentCongress leadership is therewithin the Congress party itself.

“We are sure to win thetrust of people as trust deficitagainst the Opposition goes inour favour,” the PM said.

Modi asked BJP workers tostrengthen polling booth man-

agement and improve socialconnectivity with people.“Booth hamari choki hain, usichoki per hamara killa kharahai (polling booth is our mainfoundation on which our forteis standing),” he said.

Union Law Minister RaviShankar Prasad gave details ofthe PM’s speech after curtaincame down on BJP’s highestdecision-making body meet.

BJP president Amit Shah,who also addressed the meet,asked workers to connect with22 crore families in the coun-try and map the entire countryto score big victory in the LokSabha elections. He said Modihas already toured 300 LS con-stituencies, and before 2019poll he would be able to visitthe rest of them.

RAJESH KUMAR n NEW DELHI

Ahigh-level committee, setup by the Ministry of

Urban and Housing Affairs toredress the issues of homebuy-ers and affected parties ofNoida, Greater Noida andYamuna Expressway, has rec-ommended that the develop-ment authorities should comeup with a policy for taking overthe unused land/floor arearatio (FAR) of stuck projectswhere the builders are not tak-ing enough steps to resolve theissue.

While recommending tobring in other developers assubstitutes to complete suchunfinished projects, it suggest-ed the Reserve Bank of India(RBI) to relax its February 12guidelines for the real estateand construction sector andallow banks to consider addi-tional funding to complete theprojects.

The committee set up bythe Uttar Pradesh Governmentunder Union Housing andUrban Affairs Secretary DurgaShankar Mishra has asked theNational BuildingsConstruction Corporation(NBCC) to conduct more sur-vey of stalled projects of devel-opers other than AmrapaliGroup and take up a few viableprojects to complete them.“The authorities shall providetheir full support,” the reportsaid.

It is estimated that 7-8lakh flats had been planned tobe built in Noida and Greater

Noida. The construction ofthese flats started during 2007-15. About three lakh home-buyers are affected due to non-delivery of booked flats inthese stalled projects despitemaking substantial part pay-ment for the same.

“The RBI’s circular ofFebruary 12, 2018 restrictsadditional funding in incom-plete stalled housing projects byclassifying the loans as NPAs.It is therefore recommendedthat RBI should review andissue specific guidelines forthe real estate and constructionsector to enable banks to fundthese stalled or incompleteprojects,” the committee said.

It is further recommendedthat there is no common solu-tion to all stalled projects.Authorities may continue toexplore project wise mitigationplans and implement the samewithin their jurisdiction areas.As an incentive to the home-buyers to encourage registra-tion of properties, it is recom-mended that State of UP mayformulate a policy to permit theaffected homebuyers to get thetitle deed registered at the rateprevailing at the time of thecommitted date of completionof the project by the developer.

Continued on Page 7

PNS n CHENNAI

The AIADMK Governmentin Tamil Nadu on Sunday

decided to recommend to StateGovernor Banwarilal Purohitthe release of all seven life con-victs in the Rajiv Gandhi assas-sination case.

According to FisheriesMinister D Jayakumar, a reso-lution to this effect was adopt-ed at the State Cabinet meetingheld under the leadership ofChief Minister K Palaniswami.

The Cabinet decided torecommend to GovernorPurohit the release of Murugan,Santhan, AG Perarivalan,Jayakumar, Ravichandran,Robert Payas and NaliniSriharan, all serving life impris-

onment.The moves comes days

after the Supreme Court askedthe Tamil Nadu Governor toconsider the mercy petition ofPerarivalan seeking remissionor pardon under Article 161 ofthe Constitution and disposedof the Centre’s petition oppos-ing Tamil Nadu Government’searlier proposal for the releaseof the convicts.

Though the apex court

had asked the Governor to con-sider the plea of Perarivalan,the State Government decidedto recommend setting free allothers also as they had alsopetitioned seeking prematurerelease, Jayakumar said.

The Cabinet resolution willbe sent to the Governor“immediately,” he added.

All the convicts have beenin imprisonment for the last 27years.

Former Prime MinisterRajiv Gandhi was assassinatedon May 21, 1991 atSriperumbudur near here by anLTTE woman suicide bomber,Dhanu, at an election rally.Fourteen others, includingDhanu herself, were also killedin the attack.

STAFF REPORTER n NEW DELHI

Delhiites will get doorstepdelivery of 40 Government

services, including obtaining amarriage certificate, drivinglicence and new water con-nection, from Monday, an offi-cial said. The Aam AadmiParty (AAP) Government hadproposed doorstep delivery ofservices earlier this year andhad alleged that LieutenantGovernor Anil Baijal wasstalling it.

The Government hasclaimed that no residents ofDelhi would have to stand inqueues for the services listedunder the scheme.

Detailed report on P7

PNS n NEW DELHI

At least 20 Opposition par-ties have extended its sup-

port to the Congress-led BharatBandh call on Monday, but sur-prisingly the TrinamoolCongress (TMC) has decidedto skip the call.

Unfazed by the TMCstand, the Congress announcedthat in addition to political par-ties, it has also received supportfrom a number of chambers ofcommerce and traders’ associ-ations.

Petrol and diesel prices setnew records on Sunday.According to the price notifi-cation issued by State fuelretailers, petrol price was raisedby 12 paise a litre and diesel by10 paise per litre on Sunday.Holding the BJP Governmentresponsible for the rise in petroland diesel prices, the Congressalleged the Government kept

on raising excise duty on fueleven as international crude oilprices have come down. Theparty demanded from theCentre that petrol and dieselshould be brought under GST,by which oil prices could drop

by about `15 to `18.Interestingly, the

Samajwadi Party said it wouldcall a demonstration protestacross Uttar Pradesh to protestagainst the Centre over rangeof issues which include cor-

ruption, farmers and students’issues and also the price hike.This way without accepting theleadership of the Congress,the SP has decided to back thecall in its own way.

On the other hand, obvi-ously peeved at Congress’sgrowing camaraderie withCPI(M), the TMC said it isagainst a strike and would takeall measures to ensure that pub-lic services remained func-tional in West Bengal duringthe Bharat Bandh.

The Congress and the NCPtogether had even approachedNDA partner Shiv Sena tosupport the Bharat Bandh, butthe NDA ally did not oblige.However, another regional out-fit, the MaharashtraNavnirman Sena (MNS) decid-ed to support the Oppositioncall for Bharat Bandh onMonday against rising fuelprices.

“We will actively partici-pate in tomorrow’s bandh. Wehave appealed to shopkeepersto keep shops and establish-ments closed. We won’t resortto violence, but we will askpeople to support the bandh,”the party said in a statement.

MNS chief Raj Thackerayacknowledged that fuel pricesare linked to international mar-kets, but said Central and Statetaxes were adding to the com-mon man’s burden.

The Congress on its parthas appealed to party workersto make the bandh violence-free. “We are MahatmaGandhi’s party and we shouldnot associate ourselves with anyviolence,” Congress spokesper-son Ajay Maken said at a mediabriefing. “Between 2014 andnow, excise duty on petrol hasrisen by 211.7 per cent and 433per cent on diesel.

Continued on Page 7

Opp no challenge for BJP: Modi

PM says none in Mahagathbandhan ready to accept Cong leadership, coins ‘Ajeya Bharat, Atal BJP’

Unused land ofstalled projectsmay be seized Panel suggests

ways for relief

to homebuyers in

Noida, Gr Noida

DEEPAK K UPRETI n NEW DELHI

While affirming “NewIndia” by 2022 under the

BJP rule, which it claimed,will be free from poverty, caste,communalism and terrorism,the BJP resolution passed at theNational Executive Meetingon Sunday did not mentionRam Temple and the contro-versial Rafale deal.

“This Government hasvision, passion and imagina-tion, and the works of thisGovernment can be seen. By2022, India will be free of ter-rorism, casteism, communal-ism, and nobody will be home-less,” Union Minister PrakashJavadekar said briefingnewspersons on political reso-lution. The resolution wasmoved by Union HomeMinister Rajnath Singh.

Expressing confidenceabout his party coming back topower in 2019 Lok Sabha polls,BJP president Amit Shah said

his party will rule the countryfor the next 50 years.

“Amit Shah said the partywill win the 2019 electionsbecause of its performance andthen no one can dethrone theBJP for the next 50 years,”senior BJP leader Ravi ShankarPrasad told reporters herequoting the party president atthe national executive meet ofthe party.

Prasad said the projectionis based on the work andachievement of the party-ruledGovernment at the Centre,and not arrogance. “The pol-itics of the county is now pro-gressing towards performanceand hope,” the Minister saidquoting Shah.

He said since NarendraModi became the ChiefMinister of Gujarat in 2001, theparty has never lost an electionand continues to remain inpower in the State because ofthe BJP’s performance.

Continued on Page 7

BJP’s feats to help itrule for 50 yrs: Shah

40 Delhi Govt

services at

doorstep

begin today

TMC to skip Cong-led Bharat Bandh

TN Govt recommends Guvto release Rajiv’s assassins

Prime Minister Narendra Modi addresses the gathering during BJP National Executive meeting in New Delhi on Sunday PTI

Leaders of several Opposition parties hold a torchlight procession during a protestagainst the fuel price hike on the eve of Bharat Bandh in Ranchi on Sunday PTI

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WORLD 12

SWEDEN VOTES AMID ANTI-IMMIGRATION SURGE

OPINION 8

VIOLENCE IN KASHMIR:A LASTING TRAGEDY

SRK ADJUSTS

KAT’S DATES

FOR ‘ZERO’

14 VIVACITY

IPS officer, who consumed

poison, dies in Kanpur

PNS n KANPUR/LUCKNOW

A30-year-old IPS officer,who had reportedly con-

sumed some poisonous sub-stance, died on Sunday atRegency Hospital in Kanpurafter battling for life for fourdays. Surendra Kumar Das, anofficer of the 2014 batch, wasposted as Superintendent ofPolice (East) in the city. A “sui-cide” note recovered from thescene of the incident men-tioned “family issues” as thereason behind the extremestep.

Dr Rajesh Agarwal, asenior doctor at the nursinghome where Das was under-going treatment, had onSaturday said that many organsof the officer’s body had

stopped functioning. He wason life support in the intensivecare unit. “He died duringtreatment Sunday”, said anofficial spokesman, addingChief Minister Yogi Adityanathhas expressed deep condo-lence to the family members ofthe young IPS officer.

Das had spoken to circleofficers on Tuesday night aboutpatrolling. A police official

said: “The (suicide) letter stat-ed that he was doing so (takinghis life) because of family issues.The letter was addressed to hiswife and further stated that heloved her a lot. At the end of theletter, it stated that no one elsewas responsible for it.” At 4 amon Wednesday, his wife, who isa doctor, noticed that his healthhad suddenly deteriorated. Hewas rushed to a governmenthospital from where he wasshifted to a private nursinghome in a serious condition.

Meanwhile, the brother ofdeceased IPS officer SurendraKumar Das held the latter’s wiferesponsible for his untimelydeath. He spoke to electronicchannels at his house in EktaNagar under PGI police station

Continued on Page 7

THE BROTHER OFDECEASED IPS

OFFICER SURENDRAKUMAR DAS HELDTHE LATTER’S WIFERESPONSIBLE FOR

HIS UNTIMELY DEATH

UP bill to restore pre-arrest

bail referred to President

PTI n LUCKNOW

Acrucial bill that will pavethe way for the re-intro-

duction of the provision ofanticipatory bail, which wasrevoked over 40 years ago inUttar Pradesh during theEmergency, has been referredfor presidential assent.

Governor Ram Naik hasreferred the Code of CriminalProcedure (Uttar PradeshAmendment) Bill, 2018, to thePresident, a Raj Bhawan com-munique said Sunday.

The state Assembly had onAugust 30 approved the billthat aims at restoring the pro-vision of anticipatory bail inthe state. The proposed legis-lation will have to be sent to theUnion government for finalapproval, as it proposes

amendments for the state inSection 438 (anticipatory bail)of the CrPC.

“Under the Section 438 ofthe CrPC, imposing condi-tions or riders before suchbail, has been left to the dis-cretion of the court. However,in the UP amendment, wehave made certain ridersmandatory like the accusedwould have to be present forinterrogation wheneverrequired by police, the accusedwill not threaten anyonedirectly or indirectly involvedwith the case and that theaccused will not leave thecountry without the permis-sion of the court,” a Homedepartment official said.

One of the proposedamendments is that it will notbe necessary for the accused to

be present during the hearingfor anticipatory bail. Apartfrom UP and Uttarakhand, allother states have the provisionof anticipatory bail, an officialsaid. “There will be no antici-patory bail in cases where thepunishment is death sentenceand also cases under theGangster’s Act.”

Another amendment isthat the court would have todecide on the application foranticipatory bail within 30days of filling of such an appli-cation. “West Bengal has thisprovision,” the official pointedout.

The provision wasrepealed in UP by then ChiefMinister Hemwati NandanBahuguna in 1976 during theEmergency, to rein in protestsagainst the Congress.

city 02LUCKNOW | MONDAY | SEPTEMBER 10, 2018

PNS n LUCKNOW

Ayear after the Union CivilAviation Ministry gave its

in-principle approval for theJewar international airport inGreater Noida, the mega pro-ject is finally inching closer toreality as farmers of the regionare gradually agreeing to givetheir land for the project.

So far, 2,335 farmers havegiven their consent to give up916 hectares of land for theproposed greenfield airport.This meets approximately 75per cent of the land require-ment for the first phase of theproject.

An official of YamunaExpressway IndustrialDevelopment Authority(YEIDA) said it was now cer-tain that the airport wouldcome up in Jewar itself.

The Union Civil AviationMinistry, a few months afterthe formation of YogiAdityanath government inUttar Pradesh in March 2017,gave its in-principle approvalfor the second airport inNational Capital Region.

The proposal for this air-port was first submitted way

back in 2002 by the Mayawatigovernment but it remainedpending for 15 years. A decadeof this waiting period wasunder the United ProgressiveAlliance rule, as the Centre andthe state government indulgedin political manoeuvres.

Things finally began mov-ing only when the Member ofParliament from GautamBuddha Nagar, MaheshSharma, became the UnionMinister of State for CivilAviation in the Narendra Modigovernment in 2014. the pro-ject reached fruition whenYogi Adityanath took over thereins in UP.

The total land required

for the first phase of the pro-ject is 1,334 hectare, of which116 hectare is governmentland. For the remaining 1,220hectare, the district adminis-tration, as well as local MLADhirendra Singh, have beentrying hard to convince farm-ers about the importance of theproject.

“We have finally accom-plished the Herculean task ofgetting consent for the magicalfigure of 70 per cent landrequired for the project.Confirmation has come from2,335 farmers for 912 hectare,which is almost 75 per cent ofthe total land required for thefirst phase. We are now sure

that Uttar Pradesh will not beleft behind in the develop-ment race,” said DhirendraSingh, adding that not onlywould the airport lift the for-tunes of the region, but itwould also act as a catalyst inimproving the fortunes of thevillagers and farmers of thearea.

Earlier, the Union CivilAviation Ministry had fixedAugust 31 as the deadline forseeking consent of farmers forthe land, and it was later revisedto September 6. However, tillFriday, the total consentsenabled 67 per cent require-ment of land, following whichthe district administrationsought more time.

As per the LandAcquisition and Rehabilitationand Resettlement (LARR) Act,2013, the administration needsto have the consent of at least70 per cent farmers before itcan start acquisition.

The government is offering`2,300 per square metre tolandowners, a job at the pro-posed airport to one memberof each family, a residential plotof 50 per cent size of the onethe farmers currently own and

double the value of their exist-ing home to carry out con-struction of a new one.

The process of acquiringland from the villagers, whichbegan in May this year, hadbeen fraught with difficulties,so much so that even YEIDAofficials had started losinghope, fearing that the projectmight be shifted from UttarPradesh to neighbouringHaryana.

The primary bone of con-tention among the farmers wasthat the state government hadchanged the nomenclature oftheir land from rural to urban,which entitled them to a com-pensation that was roughlyhalf of what they would get ifthe land was classified as rural.

The total land required forthe world class Jewar airportproject is 3,000 hectare. Theairport at Jewar is to be built atan estimated cost of Rs 15,754crore in four phases. However,the timeline of the constructionwill depend on several factorssuch as concessionaire, avail-ability of land, mandatoryclearances, financial closures,connectivity, and utility ser-vices, among others.

Lucknow (PNS): The three teams of doctors sent toBudaun and Bareilly districts have started investigation into thespread of mysterious disease that is killing children. They are hold-ing camps in the affected villages and speeding up co-ordina-tion between the district and the state headquarters.

Government spokesman Awanish Awasthi said in a statementissued here on Sunday that the three teams have galvanised thelocal doctors by organising camps in villages. He said rapid diag-nostic kits were being used to identify the fever and where it wasneeded, fever tracking mechanism had been put to use. Awasthisaid medicines were being distributed free of cost in the affect-ed villages. Following reports of spread of fever in Bareilly andBudaun districts, the government has sent three teams of doc-tors there on the directive of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. Ofthe three teams, two have been sent to Budaun and one to Bareilly.

“The teams are extending help to the district administrationand chief medical officers to effectively control the fever,” the gov-ernment spokesman said. “The teams have established coordi-nation with the district administration and have ensured avail-ability of clean drinking water and cleanliness,” he added.

Awasthi said in case of verification of malaria in a particu-lar house, regular fogging will be done in and around that house.

PNS n LUCKNOW

The opposition parties ledby Congress have gearedup for the ‘Bharat Bandh’

on Monday in protest againstrising prices of petroleumproducts, though theSamajwadi Party and BahujanSamaj Party are yet toannounce their support to thebandh.

All the Left parties,Nationalist Congress Party andother organisations haveannounced their support to the‘Bharat Bandh’ called by theCongress on Monday.

UP Congress president RajBabbar told reporters here onSunday said that BharatiyaJanata Party leaders were notready to hear the problems ofthe people. He said while thecrude oil prices were decreas-ing in the international market,fuel prises were rising in India.

Babbar said the price ofpetrol in Mumbai had crossedthe Rs 85-per litre-mark whilein UP it was above Rs 80 perlitre.

“The BJP, which is holdingits national executive in NewDelhi, is not concerned aboutthis issue as hike in petroleumproducts did not come up inthe meeting,” he said.

Babbar announced that theCongress would observe thebandh in Gandhian way acrossthe state. “We will stagedemonstrations and dharnasbut these will be non-violentand in Gandhian way,” he said.

The UP Congress presidentdid not forget to target theNational Democratic Alliancegovernment over the Rafale air-craft deal.

“The NDA is making allefforts to cover up the scam bytelling lies to the people but nowthe wrongdoing of the NarendraModi government are coming tothe fore,” he said.

He also said that UP ChiefMinister Yogi Adityanath should

step down as he had failed tocheck corruption and crime.

“A mahant is not doing jus-tice to his saffron dress. People

had high hopes from him buthe has failed them. Corruptionis rampant in all departments.Recruitment of teachers has

been marred by scam... Scamshave rocked UP one afteranother,” the UP Congresspresident said.

PNS n LUCKNOW

With all parties unitingagainst Bharatiya Janata

Party and Congress giving acall for ‘Bharat Bandh’ againstrising fuel prices on Monday, asenior minister in the YogiAdityanath government,Shrikant Sharma, said theopposition unity was a farceand asked them to declare whowould lead them in the 2019Lok Sabha election.

“The so-called mahagath-bandhan has no meaning inUttar Pradesh. The oppositionparties should first choose theirleader and tell the people whowill lead the mahagathbandhanin the coming Lok Sabha elec-tions,” Sharma, who is also thegovernment spokesman, told‘The Pioneer’.

Sharma said the BJP had acharismatic leader in NarendraModi under whose leadershipIndia had emerged as a global

power. He said the oppositiondid not have a leader to matchModi. “And if they have any,they should name him,” headded.

Sharma said it was veryeasy to mislead people and thatwas what the opposition partieswere doing.

“The opposition leadersare saying that the BJP govern-ments at the Centre and in thestate have failed to deliver.They are giving sermons aboutsufferings of people. If that istrue, why are they forging analliance?” he asked, addingthat the opposition partieswere talking about maha-gath-bandhan because they knewthat the BJP was invincible.

“Prime Minister NarendraModi and Chief Minister YogiAdityanath have delivered andtheir projects are being appre-ciated by the masses,” he added.

Sharma’s barbs were direct-ed more towards Congress as

he said what could one sayabout a party which celebrat-ed its defeat in Karnataka.“This is a grand old party ofIndia but look at its predica-ment, it has become a non-enti-ty in the politically crucialstates like Uttar Pradesh,” hesaid.

Sharma, who is state PowerMinister, said that the so-calledgrand alliance in UP betweenall the major players likeBahujan Samaj Party,Samajwadi Party and Congresswould have no impact on thepopularity of the BJP.

“We will sweep the polls inUttar Pradesh under the ableleadership of Narendra Modiand Yogi Adityanath. Modiwill be the next Prime Minister.This is for sure,” he declared.

Regarding Akhilesh Yadav,he said the Samajwadi Partynational president was yet tolearn the intricacies of politics.

“In 2017, he entered into analliance with Congress when hewas on a strong footing, andsuffered humiliating defeat.This should have been an expe-rience to learn from for the SPleader but he is still talkingabout going ahead withCongress. This shows his polit-ical immaturity,” he said.

Varanasi (PTI): UttarPradesh minister and SuheldevBharatiya Samaj Party presi-dent Om Prakash Rajbharclaimed on Sunday that theScheduled Castes and ScheduledTribes (Prevention of Atrocities)Act was being “misused” andmany innocent people framed,and said the Supreme Court ver-dict putting safeguards againstarrest under the law was justi-fied. Talking to reporters here,he said the court decision was inthe interest of a large section ofpeople.

The Supreme Court, in itsMarch 20 order on rampantmisuse of the stringent SC, ST

(Prevention of Atrocities) Act,held that there shall be noimmediate arrest on any com-plaint filed under the law. It hadalso passed a slew of directionsand said a public servant can bearrested in cases lodged underthe law only after prior approvalby the competent authority.However, the law was amendedin August to overturn the apexcourt order.

Rajbhar demanded that thegovernment make a re-think onthe matter. He said evenConstitution’s architect BRAmbedkar had advocated foronly punishing the guiltythrough this act.

PNS n LUCKNOW

The state government hasdirected the police offi-

cials to take stern action againstland-grabbers and anti-socialelements disturbing law andorder.

Issuing directives to allIGs, DIGs and district policechiefs on Sunday, PrincipalSecretary (Home) ArvindKumar said with Moharramscheduled on September 21,there was need for extra vigil toensure peace.

He asked the officials tomake proper security arrange-ments for Moharram and keepan eye on anti-social who couldvitiate atmosphere.

The Principal Secretary(Home) pointed out that ananti-land mafia task force hadbeen set up to take promptaction on complaints of grab-

bing of government land andprivate properties in the state.

Kumar asked the officialsto remain alert and take effec-tive action to prevent evenminor incidents, as they couldcreate law and order problem.For this he advised strengthen-ing of the local intelligence .

He said after any incident,senior police officials shouldvisit the spot and ensure actionagainst the guilty so that suchincidents did not recur.

In view of the comingMoharram, Kumar asked theofficials maintain communalharmony at all cost. For this, hesuggested effective police pick-eting and patrolling.

The Principal Secretary(Home) stressed on propertraffic management and trafficdiversions during Moharramso that the citizens did not faceany inconvenience.

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Cong ‘Bharat Bandh’ against

rising fuel prices today

UP Congress president Raj Babbar addressing reporters at party office in Lucknow on Sunday Pioneer

SP to stage separate protest PNS n LUCKNOW

Even when the SamajwadiParty is holding parleys

with the Congress for the pro-posed anti-Bharatiya JanataParty ‘secular’ mahagathband-han for the 2019 Lok Sabhapolls, it has decided to stayaway from the ‘Bharat Bandh’called by the grand old partyagainst rising diesel and petrolprices on Monday.

The SP leadership has,however, directed the partyleaders in districts to stagedharnas at district and tehsillevels on Monday against infla-tion and other issues to drawthe attention of the peopleagainst the anti-people policiesof the BJP governments at theCentre and in Uttar Pradesh.

Earlier, the SP had

announced to hold a meetingof the office-bearers of its dis-trict units in the state capital onMonday. The meeting has beenpostponed.

SP state president NareshUttam, in a circular sent to alldistricts units on Sunday, saidthat party president AkhileshYadav had postponed the dis-trict office-bearers’ meetingon Monday and directed themto organise demonstrations intheir respective areas to high-light the failures of the govern-ment to contain inflation,improve law and order, andredress grievances of students,teachers and farmers, and raiseother people-related issues.

The circular makes nomention of the party’s supportto the Congress call for ‘BharatBandh’ on Monday.

Earlier in the day, SP pres-ident Akhilesh Yadav addressedthe party cadres. He said thatthe Bharatiya Janata Partseemed to be determined toundermine the dignity ofdemocratic institutions of thecountry.

He charged that the BJPgovernment at the Centre andin Uttar Pradesh lacked visionfor development and they hadreverted to their most pre-ferred politics of creating divi-sions in society with the ulti-mate aim of creating commu-nal polarisation for their nar-row political ends.

The SP president alsoraised the demand for thecaste-based census to ensurethe share of each caste in theinstitutions of the state andpower structure of the country.

Opposition unity a farce: Shrikant

Docs investigating

mystery fever in

Budaun, Bareilly

Cops asked to take stern action against land-grabbers

Jewar airport inching closer to reality

“We have finally accomplished theHerculean task of getting consentfor the magical figure of 70 per centland required for the project.Confirmation has come from 2,335farmers for 912 hectare, which isalmost 75 per cent of the total landrequired for the first phase.

— MLA Dhirendra Singh

Rajbhar claims misuse

of SC/ST Act, demands

re-think on govt move

Lucknow (PNS) Nineteenpersons were injured, three ofthem seriously, when a minibus they were travelling incollided with a truck atNichlual area of Maharajganjon Sunday.

The incident took place ataround 11 am on Nichlual-Thothibari road when the minibus was on its way toMaharajganj, they said.

The bus collided head-onwith the truck after the driverlost control over the wheeldue to some mechanical failureand went on the wrong side ofthe road, Superintendent ofPolice RP Singh said.

The injured were rushed tothe hospital, where the condi-tion of the three was serious.

Meanwhile, three womenwere injured in a clash betweentwo groups at the Niyazupuraarea of Muzaffarnagar, policesaid on Sunday.

The clash broke out oversome dispute on Saturdayevening. The women areundergoing treatment at a hos-pital in Muzaffarnagar.

19 injured as mini bus collides with truck

Rains lash parts of UP

Lucknow (PTI): Light to moderate rainfall occurred at iso-lated places across the state in the last 24 hours. According to themeteorological department, rainfall occurred at Bhinga, Varanasi,Kannauj, Meerut, Aligarh, Mathura and Baghpat. Some placesreported thunder showers as well. It said rain or thundershoweris likely at many places over eastern Uttar Pradesh on September11 and September 12. On Saturday, day-time temperatures werebelow normal in Jhansi, Kanpur, Agra divisions.

900 LED TV sets to beinstalled in UP jails

Lucknow (PTI): Prisoners lodged in UttarPradesh jails will soon be able to enjoy pro-grammes on latest LED televisions.

“With a view to providing education andentertainment to prisoners, we are going toinstall LED TVs in 64 jails (out of the total 72jails in UP). The government has sanctioned`3.37 crore to purchase 900 LED TVs,” IGPrisions, PK Mishra told PTI on Sunday.

The tenders for the same have been float-ed and by November 30, the LEDs will beinstalled. As per the plans, a maximum of 30LED TVs will be installed in Lucknow andGautam Buddha Nagar jails each, while BareillyCentral and district jails will get 20 LEDs each.

For Moradabad, Azamgarh, Etawah,Varanasi, Ghaziabad, Meerut, Sitapur and Kherijails 25 LED TVs each will be installed.

The jail authorities said the LED TV sets willbe made available to the prisoners so that they

are able to watch TV together during specifichours when informative shows and programmeswill be shown for entertainment purposes.

In a bid to provide better facilities toinmates, the jail department is also setting upmodular kitchens with latest cooking tools.

Inmates in many jails of the state are nolonger cooking food the traditional way, as mod-ular kitchens have become operational in 25 dis-tricts of UP. Bijnor jail was the first to beequipped with a modern kitchen.

“The jail department has started modularkitchens in 25 districts with an expenditure of`4.71 crore in the first phase”, Mishra said.

Since the time of British rule, food insideprisons was cooked by inmates the traditionalway even in extreme winter or summer, affect-ing the health of prisoners. Due to this, a schemeto modernise jail kitchens was started in thestate, he said.


PIONEER NEWS SERVICE n LUCKNOW

Afierce fire broke out in thechamber of a doctor of

Radio-diagnosis departmentinside the KGMU premises onSunday morning causingpanic among attendants ofpatients. Two fire tenderswere despatched to the sceneto contain the fire. Policeclaimed that the fire broke outdue to shirt-circuit and the

chamber was closed at thetime the incident occurred.

As per reports, someattendants of patients spottedfumes billowing out of thechamber of Dr Anit Pariharand they raised an alarm. Thestaff on duty responded to thecall and they informed thepolice control room. A teamof police and firemen reachedthe place to carry out the fire-dousing exercise.

Luckily, no one sufferedinjury in the incident as powersupply to the room was dis-connected by employees assoon as they noticed the fire.Its severity could be gaugedfrom the fact that entire roomblackened due to smoke.

The employees present onthe duty acted swiftly andpressed seven extinguishers todouse the flames. But the firecould be controlled only after

the fire tender reached thespot after half an hour andstarted sprinkling water insidethe room from the window.The AC remained safe as itwas outside the room. The firekept KGMU officials on theirtoes as all senior doctors, fac-ulty members and staf freached the site and as theygot the news.

The fire was noticed onSunday around 10.45 am.

By the time, the fire wasextinguished, it gutted allproperty including fans, fur-niture and research papers.The room was total lydestroyed and remain smokefilled for more than two hours.Chief medical superintendentDr SN Shankhwar and med-ical superintendent PK Ojharushed to the site and supervised the fire-dousingwork.

Fire breaks out at KGMU department


Amissing security guard wasfound murdered in

Gosainganj police station areaon Sunday morning. To keeptheir slate clean, the policeclaimed that the man died ofdrowning and sent the body forautopsy.

As per reports, SunilMishra alias Nishu (28) ofLawlai villageof Chinhatwent missingafter he lefthis housearound 9 amon Friday. Ashe did notreturn and hisphone was found switched off,the family started searched forhim at all places he used to visitbut could not locate him. Theythen lodged a case with theChinhat police around 10.30pm on Saturday. On Sundaymorning, some residents ofGosainganj spotted a man’sbody floating in Indira Canalnear Habwa culvert andinformed the Gosainganjpolice. An investigation intothe case gained pace when theGosainganj police passed onthe details on the recovery ofman’s body to police stations inthe city, including Chinhat.The Chinhat police shared theinformation with Sunil’s fami-ly. Sunil’s father Suresh KumarMishra identified the bodyafter which the police sent it forautopsy and started the inves-tigation. Giving details, thepolice spokesman said the bodybore no marks of injuries. “Theautopsy report will clear thecause of the death,” the policespokesman said. He ruled outthe possibility of any foul playand said the body seemed twodays old.

Sunil’s kin contested policespokesman’s claim saying theywere not told how Sunilreached Gosainganj. “My sonwas missing since Friday morn-ing. We tried to lodge a reportwith the police on Friday nightbut were denied favour. Wewere asked to search Sunil onour own and were also askedthat he would have gone miss-ing on his own,” Suresh contest-ed. He demanded a threadbareprobe into the case.

Security guard

found murdered,

cops say he died

of drowning


Special Task Force (STF)sleuths nabbed two persons

for printing fake currency andcirculating it among thegullible. The sleuths recovered80 fake notes worth Rs 8,700,336 semi-finished notes in thedenomination of Rs 200 and Rs500, Rs 1,300 in cash, a print-er, a scanner, three mobile setsand six SIM cards and otheritems from them.

Those arrested were iden-tified as Deshraj Yadav ofBarabanki and RamratanSharma of Chinhat. As perreports, the sleuths were askedto bust the gang which was cir-culating notes and printingthem in the locality. A team

worked on the case anddeployed a mole to negotiatewith miscreants for obtainingfake currency. The miscreantsfell into the trap and werenabbed.

Deshraj disclosed that heknew working on Coral soft-ware and so he quit his job ata printing press. He later ropedin Ramratan Sharma in thegang and both started thefraudulent practice. The mis-creant disclosed that he and hisaide used to circulate printednotes through their local linksand they did not stay for a longat a place after executing thecrime. They told the police thatthey tried to print Rs 500 andRs 200 but as they could notprepare a fake note, they looked

for other option. Initial investigation in the

case revealed that the miscre-ants were in the business for thelast one year. They had formeda link with employees workingat petrol filling stations andother public places inBarabanki and other districts.It surfaced that the gang hadcirculated fake currency worthRs 9 lakh in different districtsof UP and those notes consist-ed of small currency like Rs100, Rs 50, Rs 20 and Rs 10only. The miscreants were incontact with petrol filling sta-tion staff Uday Sharma ofBarabanki. The miscreants hadstruck a deal with Uday Sharmaand he was a partner of 60 percent in the profit.

2 persons held by STF for

circulating fake currency

TEACHER ASPIRANTS CANECHARGED

PNS n LUCKNOW

Suffering from depression,a 19-year-old girl wrote a

suicide note on her left palmand then ended her life at herhouse in Gudamba onSunday morning.

As per reports, the girl,identified as Manisha Rawat,was staying at home after shecompleting class IX. Around11 am on Sunday, she hadsome arguments with herfamily members after whichshe locked herself inside aroom and did not open iteven after the family mem-bers kept pleading her.Around 11.30 am, the fam-ily members broke open thedoors and found her hang-ing from the ceiling with adupatta tied around herneck. They brought herdown from the noose andrushed her to a hospitalwhere she was declared“brought dead”.

The police spokesmansaid Manisha had writtenabout her decision to end herlife on her left palm. “Shewrote that she was endingher life on her own andpleaded with the police notto harass her parents andfamily members after herdeath,” the police spokesmanshared the content of thenote on girl’s left palm. Headded the body was sent for

autopsy and the police werecollecting the details andsequence which led to theincident.

In Para, a 20-year-oldgrocery shop owner endedhis life at his house onSunday. Reports said theyouth, identified as AkashYadav of Parsadi Khedalocality of Para, was runninga shop outside the villageand used to stay at a roomconstructed above the shop.On Sunday morning, hisbrother Lalu Yadav went tothe room to wake him up foropening the shop for the day.However, Akash did notrespond to the calls. WhenLalu peeped inside the room,he found Akash hangingfrom the ceiling with a sareetied around his neck.

The police spokesmansaid Akash was unmarriedand was staying all alone atthe house from where he wasrunning the shop. “Thecause behind the suicide isnot known. It seemed thatAkash was in debt andended his life due to this,” hesaid. In Mohanlalganj, 25-year-old Ravi Singh endedhis life at his house. He wasfound hanging on Sundaymorning. Police suspectedthat he ended his life sometime on Saturday night.Further investigations wereon.

Depressed girl

commits suicide

Lucknow (PNS): Theprotesting BTC candidateswere subjected to cane blowsand water canons as the policeforcibly evicted them fromPrimary Education Centre inNishatganj on Sunday after-noon. Several teacher aspi-rants fell unconscious withuse of force. A woman frac-tured her hand and anotherhad a bloody nose.

The protesters were bun-dled into the police van asthey raised slogans against theUP government. The teacheraspirants had also protestedon Saturday and six of themjumped into the Gomti riverto press their demands.

Police action

leaves many

injured



Central Institute ofSubtropical Horticulture

(CISH) is organising a modeltraining course on‘Entrepreneurship developmentthrough market-driven pro-duction and processing of hor-ticultural crops’ fromSeptember 10 to 17 to upgradethe knowledge and improve theskills of state government offi-cials and extension workers.The Directorate of Extension,DAC&FW, sponsors the course

through reputed CentralInstitutes, ICAR institutes andstate agricultural universities inspecialised areas for capacitybuilding of middle-level exten-sion functionaries workingunder agriculture and allieddepartments of states and UTs.

Government officials fromUttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand,Bihar, Madhya Pradesh,Rajasthan and Odisha will par-ticipate in the training. CISHhas invited experts from ICAR,NBRI, IIT-K, agriculture uni-versity and from corporate sec-

tor to deliberate on success sto-ries of horticulture-based entre-preneurship to the governmentofficials. “The officers will beindulging in capacity buildingin hi-tech nursery, protectedcultivation, hydroponics, tissueculture, mushroom produc-tion, orchard based poultryfarming, market driven flowercultivation technology, organ-ic production, inspection andcertification of organic pro-duce, herbal lipstick and gulalproduction, dry flower making,essential oil extraction and per-

fumery, processing of fruitsand vegetables at commercialscale, brand promotion, e-mar-keting and financial assistanceavailable for entrepreneurs,”CISH director Shailendra Rajansaid. The training will mainlyfocus on market-driven pro-duction and processing of hor-ticultural crops and is expect-ed to bring about desirablechanges in the behavior oftrainees and in their skills sothat they perform in a betterway as an important part ofextension machinery.


Birbal Sahni Institute ofPalaeosciences (BSIP) will

be inaugurating its new labwhich can test both ancient andmodern DNAs on Mondayunder its Foundation Day cel-ebrations. Senior scientist(BSIP) Neeraj Rai said in thearea of ancient DNA, it wouldbe one-of-its-kind lab in southAsia.

“As far as the modern DNAtesting is concerned, the lab cancarry out difficult forensic tests.BSIP has already held discus-sions in this regard with policeauthorities. Since we can isolateDNA from very old bones, it iseasy for us to isolate the DNAfor difficult cases such as aburnt bone or a fragment ofbone,” he pointed out.

Referring to ancient DNA,the scientist said they wereworking on several projects.“The relationship of people ofthe Indus Valley to those of theGangetic Plain, and indeed tothe people of modern India aswell as their relationship to thecultures that existed in Asia atthe same time and prior to theirexistence is an open question ofour history. The Harappanhuman remains excavated fromdifferent sites of Haryana andGujarat with its associated pot-tery and burials, provide anincredibly valuable source ofinformation on addressingboth the origins and the demiseof the Indus Valley cultures inIndia. Ancient DNA or theability to isolate genetic mate-rial from these Harappan peri-od, primary burial samples,allows us to anchor these pop-ulation relationships and tobegin to develop a completepicture of movement of peoplein pre-historic India. We pro-pose to perform genetic analy-sis of these Harappan samplesand will co-analyse these withdata obtained from other partof Indian sub-continent con-temporary to Harappa andlater period and modern Indianpopulations,” he elaborated.

MOOT COURTUnity PG and Law College organised

the three-day ‘5th Justice Murtaza HusainMemorial Moot Court Competition’, whichconcluded on Sunday with prize distrib-ution. The topic was ‘Inter-state water dis-putes (Constitutional Law)’. Sastra DeemedUniversity (Thanjawar, Tamil Naidu) wonthe final round and University Institute ofLegal Studies (Chandigarh) was the run-ner-up. The best mooter award went toVivek Kumar from Sharda University(Noida) while the award for best researcherwas given away to Abishek Rodricks fromAmity Law School (Kolkata). The awardfor best memorial was given away to JCCollege of Law (Guntur, Andhra Pradesh).

FRESHERS’ PARTYTechno Group of Institutions organ-

ised a freshers’ party, ‘Tashan 2k18’, towelcome first year students. The campuswas decorated by seniors and teachers.The freshers delivered performances toshowcase their talents in dancing, singingand acting. Ayush Bharti (BCom) wasconferred the ‘Mr Fresher’ title whileShivani (BSc) ‘Miss Fresher’. Rohit(BCom), Tanya (BAJMC) and Yashvika

(BVA) were adjudged ‘Sparks of theevening’.

ANNIVERSARYIn commemoration of the 125th

anniversary of Swami Vivekananda’sepoch-making address at the WorldParliament of Religions held in Chicago onSeptember 11, 1893, Ramakrishna Mathis organising a year-long series of functions

which started with a spiritual retreat onSunday. The programme was initiated bythe monks of Ramakrishna Math withvedic invocation and bhajans, followed byguided meditation conducted by SwamiMuktinathananda. The keynote addresswas delivered by Allahabad High Courtlawyer Ravi Raj Singh. There was also ayouth conference wherein about 300youngsters participated.


District Magistrate and dis-trict election officer

Kaushal Raj Sharma inaugurat-ed the voter ID camp at theSaraswati Apartments,Gomtinagar, on Sunday underthe voter awareness campaignwhich is being carried out forthe special summary poll revi-sion in the state capital.

Speaking on the occasion,the District Magistrate saidthat camps for enlisting newvoters were being carried outacross the country and the aimof this campaign was that if thename of a person was missingfrom the voters’ list then he orshe should get himself or her-self enlisted.

Addressing all the peoplewho had come for the cam-paign, he spoke about theimportance of being a part ofthe electoral process and saidthat it was through the processof voting alone that one could

elect one’s own representativewho would help them in solv-ing their problems. The DMsaid that this was a greatopportunity for them to be apart of the democratic process.He said that those whosenames were in the voters’ listshould vote and those whosenames were not in the voters’list should get themselvesenlisted. He said that thosewho would turn 18 on January1, 2019. should apply throughForm 6 for getting themselvesenlisted in the voters’ list. Hetold the people that they couldspread awareness and encour-age others to come forwardand vote. He said that theyshould also inform the womenof their households, whoremain confined in the house,to come out and vote on thepolling day. He told them thatthey should also take the ini-tiative of bringing the seniorcitizens and the differently-abled people to the polling

booths for voting. He said thatwithin the next 7 to 8 monthsthey had to bring 40 to 50 percent voters on the voters’ list sothat the maximum number ofthem could vote. The DM saidthat this would be a great ser-vice to the nation.

Sharma said that this exer-cise which was being carriedout was not for any politicalparty. “The administrationshoulders the responsibility ofenlisting the voters and thewhole responsibility of electionwas with the ElectionCommission.. The DMexpressed happiness over thefact that the camp at theSaraswati Apartments got anoverwhelming response.

Nearly 500 forms weredistributed at the camp and150 applications made. TheDM directed the officials tocarry out verification of thevoters and proceed with theprocess of making the theEPIC.


Books on thugs are attract-ing the attention of the

readers at the National BookFair which is currently goingon at the Ravindralaya.

SB Mishra from theSahitya Bhandar Publicationssaid that these books on thugswere the Hindi translation ofthe books written by MajorSleeman. “One of these booksis titled ‘Thug Aamir Ali kiDastaan’ on which the movieby the same name and whichstars Aamir Khan is beingmade and the other book istitled ‘Thugs Ki Koot BashaRamasi’ which is on the lan-guage which these thugs used,”said Mishra. He said that these

books had been translated byRajendra Chandrakant Rai.“These books are attracting theattention of the readersbecause there have been sev-eral reports of the new movieof Aamir Khan. We have soldsome copies of these books,” hesaid.

Mishra said that amongthe other new novels whichthey had brought this timewere ‘Aasmani Chadar’ whichhad been written by BhoomikaDwivedi and ‘Gudad Basti’written by Pragya Rohini. “Thefirst one recounts the experi-ence of a young girl living in ahostel and the second one isabout the life in the slum areaand the problems faced by thechildren and the people in

these slums as symbolic ofthose which occur across theglobe,” he said. He said thatamongst the other novels thewell-known author, NasiraSharma, had written ‘DoosriJannat.’ “This is essentially atale about the promises whichare made in the medical worldand the illusion created ofsolving all the problems.”

Amongst the collection ofstories, he pointed out that thenew addition they had was thecollection of short stories bythe Vice-Chancellor of theInternational MahatmaGandhi Institute, GirishwarMishra, ‘Samajh Bujh BanCharana.’ “There are also shortstories’ collection by aHyderabad professor, Laltu,

and a professor from Kerala, AArvindakshan, which is titled‘Jungle Nazdeek Aaa RahaHai.’

However, he admitted thatthe most popular books werethose which were selling for Rs50 which were primarily col-lection of short stories. “Thesebooks being priced at Rs 50always attract the attention ofthe readers,” he said.

The other popular publish-ers at the Book Fair wereRajkamal, Prabhat Prakashan,Osho Darshan, Bhartiya KalaParishad, State as well asCentral Urdu Akademi andmany more. The Book Fair isalso having book launches,seminars, kavi sammelans andmushairas.


The preparations for theGanesh Mahotsav have

paced up with the festivalkicking off from September 13.Bharat Bhushan Gupta fromthe Ganesh Prakatya Samitisaid that they were organisingthe Mahotsav at the JhulelalPark this year and the theme ofthe pandal would be ‘BhooVisarjan’ in keeping with theidea of protecting the environ-ment.

“A huge pandal is beingprepared by the artists fromKolkata and a footfall of over5 lakh people is expected thisyear,” he said. Gupta said thatthe 11-day-long festival wouldbe inaugurated on September13 morning with the moortisthapana, shringar and pujan.He further said that in keepingwith the tradition which theyhad been following for the pastso many years, the devoteescould write letters to LordGanesh from morning tillevening which were then takento Mumbai. Spread on a 16,000square foot area the pandal willhave an 80-foot high water-proofing cover to protect thedevotees from rainfall. “Ashobha yatra will be taken outon September 23 on the con-clusion of the Mahotsav whichwill start from the JhulelalPark and move on theUniversity Road, IT CollegeRoad, Ramakrishna Math,Nazeerganj, Daliganj and final-ly the Jhulelal Vatika where theimmersion would be carriedout through the burial of thestatue,” he added.

For the city denizensGanesh Mahotsav is a much-

awaited event in which theyparticipate with great enthusi-asm. Ganesh Mahotsav is fol-

lowed by the Durga Puja cele-brations making this part of theyear a festive one. “Looking at

the festivities we have alsobegun celebrating the festival atour home,” said a city resident.

Lucknow (PNS): TheLucknow police had issued anadvisory for residents askingthem not to post or forwardany incendiary/provocativewrite-up, photo and video onWhatsApp, Facebook andother social media sites.

A statement issued bythe SSP read that an inflam-matory post or forwarding iton Facebook/WhatsAppmight land one in jail. TheSSP said a case under sections505/153A/295A/ 298 IPCwould be registered againstsuch person for the act. Headded such offenders mightface National Security Act(NSA) too. He advised resi-dents to go through suchcontents and think twicebefore forwarding it.

The group admin hasbeen asked to remove suchparticipants immediatelyafter the issue comes to noticeand inform the local police.The SSP also issued CUGnumber of officers, includingthe PRO media cel l ofLucknow police.


Arestaurant owner andhis staff thrashed aninspector, deployed at

Raj Bhawan, and his friends inVibhuti Khand police stationarea on Saturday night. Thepolice registered a case andstarted the investigation.

As per reports, the inspec-tor, identified as Ajay KumarSingh, along with his friendswent to the restaurant for din-ner and had a minor disputewith the restaurant staff. On thecomplaint of the staff, therestaurant owner reached thescene and allegedly talkedrough with the inspector andhis friends making the inspec-tor feel awkward.

Singh’s retort led to a heat-ed exchange and the restaurantowner and his staff attacked theformer and issued him lifethreat. “I suffered injuries onmy head in the attack while myfriends were also thwacked,”

Singh alleged in the complaint.After Singh called the

police, a team reached theplace. On finding that the inci-dent involved a policeman, thecops swung into action andlodged an FIR under section323/504/506 IPC on Singh’scomplaint.

Vibhuti Khand SHOMathura Rai said the policewere yet to start the investiga-tion into the case. “Probably,Singh was in civvies making therestaurant staff and owner mis-took him for a civilian,” theSHO said. The policespokesman said Singh had notgiven the entire detail in theFIR and so the police were yetto find how the brawl erupted.“It seemed that the brawl brokeout when Singh and his friendswere being served food and theguest complained about theservices,” he opined.

Meanwhile, a securityguard deployed at a high-riseapartment in Vibhuti Khand

was found dead under myste-rious circumstances. Whilethe police claimed that the mandied after consuming excessivealcohol on Saturday night, thefamily suspected foul play anddemanded a probe into thecase. As per reports, RamPrakash Bajpai (54) ofBarabanki was deployed atEldeco Apartment. On Sunday,his family got apprehensivewhen he did not return homeeven after his night shift dutywas over. While a search wason, victim’s son Shiv ShankerBajpai got a call from somesecurity guards and was askedto reach the scene. Later, thepolice also reached the place.The victim was found lying ina drain inside the campus ofthe building. The police sentthe body for autopsy after theidentity of the victim wasascertained. The policespokesman said the body boreno marks of injuries whenwas examined.

Inspector beaten up by

eatery owner, staff

SCHOOLSCAN

CITYBRIEFS

Police advisory

on social

media sites

Ganesh Mahotsav preps in full swing

Bibliophiles attracted by books on thugs!

Visitors browsing books at the National Book Fair underway at Ravindralaya Pioneer

Foundation

Day: BSIP to

inaugurate

new lab

CISH model training course from today

DM opens voter ID camp

PIONEER NEWS SERVICE n ALLAHABAD

The Union Minister forMinority Affairs, Mukhtar

Abbas Naqvi, said here onSunday that the employment-oriented programmes of theCentral Government like HunarHaat had significantly encour-aged and promoted the rich tra-ditional heritage of master arti-sans who had been marginalisedfor a long time.

Inaugurating the HunarHaat at the North Central ZoneCultural Centre (NCZCC),organised by Ministry ofMinority Affairs, Government ofIndia, from September 8 to 16,Naqvi said it had proved success-ful in providing national andinternational markets andemployment opportunities tothe master artisans and crafts-men. Hunar Haat has becomea credible and renowned brandwhere exquisite handicraft andhandloom made by master arti-sans and various delicacies fromacross the country are availableunder one roof.

He said that Hunar Haatwas being organised by theMinistry for Minority Affairs ata number of prominent placesacross the country which hadprovided national and interna-tional markets and opportunitiesto the master artisans and crafts-men. Also master artisans hadbeen provided employment ona large scale through HunarHaat. He said that Hunar Haathad become a credible brand tofulfil Prime Minister, Narendra

Modi’s commitment to ‘Make inIndia,’ ‘Stand up India,’ ‘Start- upIndia.’ During the past one year,Hunar Haat organised in variousparts of the country, has beensuccessful in providing employ-ment and opportunities for it tomore than 1.18 lakh artisans andother people associated withthem. Our target was to provideemployment and employmentopportunities to about five lakhpersons through Hunar Haat, hesaid.

Job-oriented plans promoted

country’s heritage: Naqvi

Union Minister for Minority Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi at the exhibition atNCZCC in Allahabad on Sunday

MACFAIR INTERNATIONALThe second day of Macfair

International-2018, the interna-tional Maths and ComputerFair organised by CityMontessori School

(Mahanagar), was full of excit-ing competitions in which stu-dents from abroad and variousstates of India displayed theirtalents also created a feeling ofworld unity, love and brother-

hood. There were science quiz,speech and power-point pre-sentation competitions. Thestudents also showcased theirsinging and dancing skills inthe cultural evening.

WORLD UNITY SATSANGSpeaking at World Unity

Satsang, organised at CMSGomti Nagar auditorium onSunday, school’sfounder-direc-tor BhartiGandhi calledupon parents toinculcate thefeelings of ‘JaiJagat’ and

‘Vasudhaiv Kutumbkam’ in thetender hearts of children.“These children must be trainedto become leaders of tomorrowto serve humanity with noprejudices of race, colour, casteor creed,” she said. Earlier, stu-dents of Rajendra Nagar(Campus II) presented a cultur-al programme based on spiri-tual values.

Preparations underway at Jhulelal Park

Freshers’ party organised by Techno Group of Institutions

nation 05LUCKNOW | MONDAY | SEPTEMBER 10, 2018

PNS n NEW DELHI

Union Home Ministry hasapproved allotment of `3,000

crore for women safety projects ineight metro cities, including Delhi.The project includes setting up ofwomen police patrol teams, techno-logical installations like panic buttons,smart-LED street lights, transit dor-mitories for women and children,one-stop crisis centres, forensic andcyber crime cells in the selectedmetros under the Women Safe CityProject. It will be implemented inDelhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai,Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Ahmedabadand Lucknow from 2018-19 to 2020-21, a senior Home Ministry officialsaid Sunday.

Safe city proposals amounting to`2,919.55 crore were approved underthe 'Nirbhaya Fund' recently, theofficial said. `663.67 crore has beenearmarked for Delhi, `252 crore forMumbai, `425.06 crore for Chennai,`253 crore for Ahmedabad, `181.32crore for Kolkata, `667 crore forBengaluru, `282.50 crore forHyderabad and `195 crore forLucknow, the official said.

The project takes a comprehen-sive view of women safety, with theStates adopting a mix of solutionsbased on their requirements. It envis-ages deployment of all-women patrolteams such as SHE-teams and well-equipped emergency response vehi-cles called 'Abhayam' vans to ensure

quick and effective response system.The proposed infrastructure

includes development of safe zoneclusters in hot crime zones, smart LEDstreet lighting, CCTV cameras con-nected to modern command andcontrol centres, security enablers inpublic transport, installation of pub-lic panic buttons, provision of toiletsfor women within safe eco-systemsand transit dormitories for women andchildren.

Police stations are planned to beequipped with women help desks andother services such as counsellors.This will make police stations moreaccessible to women for lodgingcomplaints and getting other assis-tance. One-stop crisis centres are alsoplanned along with forensic andcyber crime cells.

An integrated approach has been

followed while designing the physi-cal infrastructure to be added toenhance safety of women and chil-dren in public places and to instil asense of security in them, anotherofficial said. The safe city proposalshave been prepared jointly by therespective police and municipalcommissioners of each city.

The project is being implement-ed in consultations with the ministriesof women and child development,urban development and electronicsand information technology andrespective municipal and police com-missioners. The cost of the projectwould be shared between the CentralGovernment (from Nirbhaya fund)and respective states in the ratio of60:40. In case of Delhi, the home min-istry will allocate an additionalamount of `240.11 crore.

PNS n NEW DELHI

Uttar Pradesh, followed byKerala, topped the list of States

where the maximum number ofcases were registered for gay sexunder Section 377 of the IndianPenal Code (IPC), which waspartly struck down by the SupremeCourt last week.

Altogether, 4,690 cases wereregistered between 2014 and 2016under Section 377, which crimi-nalised sexual activities "against theorder of nature".

According to the NationalCrime Records Bureau (NCRB), asmany as 2,195 gay sex cases wereregistered under Section 377 in2016, 1,347 in 2015 and 1,148 casesin 2014.

Uttar Pradesh topped the listin 2016, with 999 such cases, fol-lowed by Kerala 207.

In Delhi, 183 cases were reg-istered under Section 377 and inMaharashtra 170 such cases wereregistered.

According to the NCRB data,in 2015, the highest number ofcases under Section 377 was reg-istered in Uttar Pradesh at 239.

In 2015, Kerala andMaharashtra registered 159 gay sexcases each, Haryana saw 111 casesand Punjab registered 81 suchcases.

However, among the 1,347cases registered in the country in2015, in 814 cases, the victims werechildren.

Among these 814 cases, 179were in Uttar Pradesh, 142 inKerala, 116 in Maharashtra and 63

in Haryana.Those accused of consensual

gay sex and facing trial or whosepetitions are under review canbreath easy now as the SupremeCourt's September 6 verdict,decriminalising part of Section 377of the IPC, gives them a ray ofhope, Home Ministry officials

said.The five-judge constitution

bench's order has made it clear thatit can be relied upon in all thepending consensual gay sex caseswhether they are at the trial, appel-late or revisional stages, one of theofficials said.

However, in the cases wherethe victims were minors, the reliefis unlikely to come easily.

In the consensual gay sexcases, the apex court judgment isa big victory for the accused as theycan now cite the order and get relieffrom the court, he added.

The trial is expected to becalled off once the Supreme Courtorder is mentioned before a judgehearing such a case where therewere involvements of consensualadults, the official said.

The five-judge constitution

bench, headed by Chief JusticeDipak Misra, had unanimouslyheld that the members of theLesbian, Gay, Bisexual,Transgender and Queer (LGBTQ)community possess the same con-stitutional rights as other citizensof the country.

In its order, the apex court said,"The declaration of the aforesaidreading down of Section 377 shallnot, however, lead to the reopen-ing of any concluded prosecutions,but can certainly be relied upon inall pending matters, whether theyare at the trial, appellate, or revi-sional stages."

It also said Section 377 of theIPC will continue to govern non-consensual sexual acts againstadults and all acts of carnal inter-course against minors, besidesacts of bestiality.

DEEPAK KUMAR JHA n

NEW DELHI

Peeved by the tardy progressof some sectors in the rail-

ways, Prime Minister NarendraModi has directed the Ministryof Railways to "work in a mis-sion mode rather than onincremental progress".

At a meeting with railways,the PMO has finalised and andin some cases advanced thedeadlines of projects like thatof achieving punctuality bynext month end, couple ofthem to be completed by yearend and other important pro-jects like commissioning ofDedicated Freight Corridor(DFC) by March 2019, that isbefore the General Elections.

Sources said that the PrimeMinister, at the backdrop of sev-eral apprehensions regardingBullet Train, also took stock ofthe situation of Indian Railways'ambitious projects like the HighSpeed Mumbai Ahemdabadcorridor and redevelopment of

some of the chosen railway sta-tions which includes one in hishome State Gujarat.

The Prime Minister wasmore concerned about thedelays of passenger trains andhas directed the national trans-porter to put trains on time onthe tracks by October 2018under the railways "MissionRaftar", a project conceivedby PM himself during thetenure of Suresh Prabhu asRailway Minister.

As per the latest report thetrains on Delhi Howrah routeregistered a dismal punctuali-ty performance with North

Central Railways Zone record-ing only 42.11 percent. TheZone accounts for dropping ofthe average punctuality fig-ures of entire railways. The bestpunctuality performance (PP)has been registered by WesternRailway at 999 percent followedby South Central Railways.

While most of the otherZones PP oscillate between 74-79 percent, the Central Railwayand South Eastern Railwayshovers around 86 percent.Northern Railway whichreceives maximum number oftrains with important stationslike New Delhi under its juris-dictions, has faired compared toneighbouring NCR and hasrecorded 62 percent punctual-ity performance (PP).

Sources said that the PMhas also sought details by thismonth end pertaining to theideas and projects deliberatedduring the two Chintan Shivirswhich was attended by thePrime Minister himself.Another significant aspect dis-

cussed by the PMO was ratio-nalizing of the passenger andfreight fares and to generaterevenue from non-fare sectorslike the national transporterproperties like land, stationbuildings etc and for which adeadline for December 2018has been set up.

Railway Ministry sourcessaid following the PMO meet-ing, very soon a decision on thecontroversial flexi fare in pre-mium trains is to be takenwhich might bring a big reliefahead of the festive season torail passengers.

Other issues discussed inthe meeting last month has atimeline till the end of this fis-cal which includes many infra-structure development pro-jects which had a deadline ofJune 2019 and beyond. Sourcessaid that the PM also dis-cussed over restructuring of theRailway Board and to improveupon the legacy of the nation-al transporter.

`3K cr approved for women

safety projects in 8 cities

PNS n NEW DELHI

Former Finance Minister PChidambaram on Sunday

dared the BJP to contradict anofficial data on growth whichhas said the economy clocked10.08 per cent growth in 2006-07 under the UPA rule, thehighest since liberalisation in1991.

The senior Congressleader reacted after BJP pres-ident Amit Shah asked hisparty leaders to challengeChidambaram and othersfrom the Opposition for anopen debate on theGovernment's economic poli-cies based on facts and figures.

Chidambaram said theCongress has already started adata-based debate and has putout the data, including CentralStatistical Organisation (CSO)data on growth during NDA-1, UPA-1, UPA-2 and NDA-2."Does BJP accept CSO data ornot? Let BJP put out datacontradicting CSO data," hesaid.

According to the backseries data on GDP, released bythe Ministry of Statistics andProgramme Implementation(MOSPI) last month, Indianeconomy clocked a 10.08 percent growth rate in 2006-07under the then Prime MinisterManmohan Singh, the highestsince liberalisation of theeconomy in 1991.

The highest ever growthrate since Independence wasrecorded at 10.2 per cent in1988-89 when Rajiv Gandhiwas the Prime Minister, thedata said. The back series dataon GDP has been prepared bythe Committee on Real SectorStatistics, constituted by theNational StatisticalCommission. The report hasbeen released on the website of

the MOSPI.After the data was

released, Chidambaram hadsaid the Congress-led UPA-1and UPA-2 Governmentsdelivered the highest decadalgrowth since theIndependence. The averagegrowth rate under the UPA-1Government was 8.87 percent, during which it also reg-istered double digit growthrate of 10.08 per cent in 2006-07 and under the UPA-2 dis-pensation, it was 7.39 percent, he had said, citing dataon gross domestic product(GDP) released by theStatistics Ministry. The BJP,however, had said the data wasnot official and that it had notbeen accepted by theGovernment yet. Shah hadsaid the Narendra ModiGovernment had performedfar better on the economicfront than the UPA, and askedparty leaders to challengeChidambaram and otherOpposition leaders for an opendebate on the Government'seconomic policies, based onfacts and figures. "Party lead-ers should challengeChidambaram & Co with factsand ask them to come for adebate on the economic poli-cies of the Government,"Defence Minister NirmalaSitharaman said, quotingShah's address at the BJPnational executive meet hereSaturday.

UP tops list of cases registered under 377

According to theNational CrimeRecords Bureau

(NCRB), as many as2,195 gay sex cases

were registeredunder Section 377 in2016, 1,347 in 2015and 1,148 cases in

2014

PTI n NEW DELHI

The Environment Ministry isplanning to make next

year's Ardh Kumbh Mela inAllahabad plastic-free in linewith the country's commit-ment to eliminate single-useplastic, Union Minister HarshVardhan said.

India was the global host of2018 World Environment Day.The theme of this year's editionwas "Beat Plastic Pollution".

"We are intending to have aplastic-free (Ardh) Kumbh nextJanuary. We are starting prepa-rations (for it)," Vardhan said.

He acknowledged thatmaking the Ardh Kumbh plas-tic-free will be an uphill task.

"We are working on mak-ing this (Ardh) Kumbh plastic-

free as it is a very tall order butit is a part of our (government's)dream. We are already workingtowards beating plastic pollu-tion all over the country butimagine a plastic-free Kumbh.It is something we are planningto do next," Vardhan told PTI.

Ardh Kumbh Mela, one ofthe world's largest religiousgatherings, is held every sixyears. It will be held in Januarynext year.

Millions of Hindu pilgrimsstream to Allahabad to bathe inthe holy river Ganga to washaway their sins during the fes-tival. The Government's idea ofa plastic-free Ardh Kumbh waswelcomed by environmentalists.

It is a "fantastic decision"but the success of a policydepends on its implementation.

So if it can be implementedproperly, then nothing like it,environmentalist PadmavatiDwivedi said.

Environment activist,Jagannath Poddar, pointed outthat the move will have to beimplemented strictly.

"The use of plastic hasincreased because public hasbecome lazy. Having a plastic-free Kumbh would requirestrict implementation," he said,stressing that people need touse plastics sensibly.

He recommended findingalternatives to plastic.

Newspaper bags would bean effective alternative for plas-tic bags, banana leaves can beused instead of plastic platesand earthen pots can be usedfor storing liquids, Poddar said.

Work in a mission mode: Modi to Rlys

PTI n NEW DELHI

Prime Minister NarendraModi will inaugurate a stat-

ue of Sardar Patel, described bythe Gujarat Government asthe world's tallest, on the birthanniversary of India's firstHome Minister on October31, Chief Minister Vijay Rupanisaid Sunday.

Talking to reporters on thesidelines of the BJP's nationalexecutive meeting, he said thestatue with a height of 182metres will be a symbol of thecountry's unity and integrity.

It has been called as statueof unity by the GujaratGovernment.

Rupani said the BharatiyaJanata Party (BJP) had collectediron, soil and water from acrossthe country to use them to build

the statue in the state, a decisionannounced by Modi in 2013when he was its Chief Minister.

In an apparent reference tothe issue of Naxalism followingthe arrest of some activists forallegedly collaborating withLeft ultras, Rupani said thestatue will highlight Patel'sworks for the country's unity ata time when a few people areworking to break it.

When Modi had made anannouncement that his gov-ernment would build theworld's tallest statue to com-memorate Patel, opposition par-ties had termed it as "empty talk"but it has now been raised withworld class facilities, he said.

While the Congress hadsidelined Patel, Modi hasbrought him and his works infront of the world, he said.

PM to unveil SardarPatel's statue onOct 31: Rupani

Upcoming Ardh Kumbh to beplastic-free: Harsh Vardhan

Former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's photographs displayed at Dr Ambedkar Bhavan during the BJP’s nationalexecutive meeting in New Delhi on Sunday PTI

Representational picture

ARCHANA JYOTI n NEW DELHI

At a time when they should havebeen enjoying a carefree life,

focusing on studies, playing aroundand making friends, childhood can-cer survivors are battling the strongside-effects that follow the power-ful medication in such cases on theone hand and the social taboo aswell as the consequences of exclu-sion from classes during their treat-ment period, on the other.

Take the case of Ritu Bhalla. Shewas diagnosed with acute lym-phoblastic leukemia (ALL) cancertwice, in 1995 and 2004. While she

has put a brave face fighting the dis-ease, sadly her school failed her.Ritu's school principal didn't allowher to attend the classes as shethought cancer was communicable.Ritu's friends and classmates ignoredher, treating her like untouchable.

Ritu laments that she missedcrucial years of her study because ofher treatment and unsupportivebehaviour of the society.

Same is the travail of Aditya, a 24-year-old who has fought the battlebravely and overcame it because ofthe support of his family and friends.But it came with a price. He missedtwo crucial years of his schooling,thus pushing him behind and even-tually a little far from his dreams.

What Ritu and Aditya reallymeant that the society was dis-criminating them, simply becausethey are diagnosed of cancer.

But undeterred by discrimina-tion, Ritu, Aditya and their counter-parts want to ensure that their ilks do

not go through what they suffered.Under the umbrella of the

Kidscan..Cankids, an NGO workingfor the welfare of such kids, theyhave petitioned the Government toensure their Rights to Education andmake paediatric cancer a childhealth priority in the country.

They presented a resolution on'Right to Education' to theGovernment at the 10th AnnualNational Childhood CancerExcellence Awards Program heldhere by the Kidcan Konnect Group.

The petition was framed andsigned by children, all cancer sur-vivors following brain-stormingsession at the two-days 4th NationalConference at the British Schoolhere recently which was the culmi-nation of a year-long discussion onthe issue with the beneficiaries inmajor metros.

"Education and schools are anintegral part of every child's life, butwhy children suffering with cancer

and other chronic diseases have toforgo not just their schooling, butalso social gatherings and publicoutings," Ritu, who is in her teensquestions and rightfully so.

Poonam Bagai, a colon cancersurvivor and founder President ofCanKids…KidsCan explains""Childhood cancer is devastatingto growth and development inchildren, and devastating to theirfamilies and friends. Many child-hood cancer survivors suffer fromlife-long damage to their organs,mental health and more.

"Education is their right andschools should be sensitised towardstheir needs. Also, there is a need toprevent late effects." She also stressedon child centric treatment in all thehospitals for which her NGO hasstarted focusing upon recently.

Childhood cancer, also known aspaediatric cancer, is a tumour thatdevelops in children between the ageszero to 15 years. It sometimes affects

children between age 15 to 19 years.Dr Rachna Seth from the

Paediatrics Department at AIIMSagreed saying that doctors too canimpress upon the schools toemphathise with such kids. Dr Sethalso stressed on early detection andtreatment of the disease to bringdown the survival rate.

It is not only children, but theirparents too go through the anxiousand anguish time. "They go throughthe stress of decisions on medica-tions and treatments as well as deci-sions on time of work for themselvesand time off school for the child, andworst, trying to explain to a childwhat is happening to them," saidSonia Sekhri, board member of theNGO who had lost her son Kabir tothe deadly disease a few years ago.

Harsh Kumar, CEO of theorganisation dwelled in detail aboutvarious activities that his organiza-tion is undertaking to educate peo-ple on early diagnosis and treatment

of the disease. "Awareness is important. We are

working in over 50 cancer centersin 18 cities and 14 States which treatmore than 18000 new cases ofchildhood cancer each year.

"In addition, we have 4 Homeaway from Homes (HAHs) in Delhi,Trivandrum Kolkata and Chennai,special school for children with can-cer in Mumbai, in a PPP withMCGM, and 10 bedded PediatricPalliative Care Center in Delhi," headded. The organisation on Sundayat the event also launched a SurvivorPassport Website — whereindetailed health profile of ChildhoodCancer Survivors will be created forfuture purpose.

On the occasion, 12 excellenceawards were given to exceptionalchildhood cancer survivors includ-ing Dibyanshu Kumar MonuKumar,Taranum Parveen, Uttkarsh,Aditya Rathore, Pinky Talan, NehaSaini, PriyeshTalal, NaziaAnjum for

National Academic ExcellenceAward and to Shreya, Titiksha andSara Fatima for Creative ExcellenceAwards.

These patients havealso to battle socialtaboo and otherdiscriminations

p Annually, 300,000 kids across theworld are diagnosed with cancer, ofwhich 90,000 of them are likely todie.

p Most childhood cancers aretreatable, provided prompt andeffective treatment is accessible.

p Around 40-50,000 new childhoodcancer cases occur each year inIndia, but 70% die largely due tounawareness, late detection anddiagnosis, inadequate facilities, highcost of treatment and absence ofsupportive care.

p The most common types ofpaediatric cancers include acuteLymphoblastic Leukemia or bloodcancer, brain tumours, cancer of thekidney and Retinoblastoma or eyetumours.

Childhood cancer survivors facing a life of agony ahead

PC dares BJP tocontradict data ongrowth under UPA

LUCKNOW | MONDAY | SEPTEMBER 10, 2018 nation 06

OMER FAROOQ n HYDERABAD

It is now almost certain thatthe Assembly elections in

Telangana State will be held byNovember-December. In aclear pointer towards this theElection Commission of Indiahas advanced the process ofelectoral rolls revision.

Against the earlier date ofJanuary 1, 2019 to complete theprocess now it will be compet-ed by October 4. As per the newschedule the draft roll be filed onSeptember 10, claims and objec-tions to be relieved by September25 and claims and objections tobe disposed of by October 4. Thfinal electoral rolls would be pub-lished on October 10.

The Election Commissionhas permitted the State ChiefElectoral Officer to conduct thepolls with the data of revisionso far. This has raised theheckles of the main oppositionCongress. Chairman of stateCongress election committee

M Shashidhar Reddy has ques-tioned how the election com-mission can ignore the revisionof electoral rolls and conductthe elections.

KCR was trying to influ-ence the Election Commissionso the elections were held as perhis wishes, he alleged.

Meanwhile the Electionauthoeities have started mak-ing other arrangements andensuring the availability of theelectronic voting machines.

The Election Commissionhas asked the BharatElectronics Ltd. Bangalore tosend 52,100 ballot units, 40,700control units and 40,000 voterverified paper audit trail units(VVPATS) to Telangana.


Even before the electionprocess begins formally the

ruling Telangana RashtraSamiti has started experiencinginternal dissensions and manyleaders were queuing up to quitthe party and join theCongress.

MLA Konda Surekha fromWarangal her husband KondaMurli, MLC, former MP fromAdilabad Ramesh Rathore, pre-sent Rajya Sabha member DSrinivas from Nizamabad, andanother MLC Bhoopati Reddyare in the list of leaders whoappear to be heading towardsCongress.Former Minister NandishwarGoud has resigned from theBJP and he is also all set to joinCongress and will contest fromPatancheru constituency.

Another Former MinisterRatnakar Rao and his sonNarasing Rao fromKarimnagar have quit TRS andjoined Congress on Sunday.Significantly they belong to

Velama caste of KCR. While most of them were

unhappy over the issue of tick-et denial, Rajya Sabha memberD Srinivas was unhappy overallegations of anti-party activ-ities by other TRS leaders.

Sources say he has madeup his mind to quit the TRSand return to Congress fold.He along with many of his fol-lowers likely to join theCongress during the visit ofCongress general secretaryGhulam Nani Azad onSeptember12. Azad was slatedto address a meeting of minori-ties in Sangareddy town.

Konda Surekha, a fire-brand woman was fuming asher name did not find a place

in the first list of TRS candidates.

He termed it “an insult toa backward class woman”. Shealso expressed unhappinesswith the Chief Minister KChandrashekhar Rao for notincluding a single woman inhis cabinet over the Kat fouryears.

Many other leases of TRSwere also keeping their fingerscrossed. One of them wasHyderabad Mayor B RamMohan who was aspirant ofparty ticket from Uppal inHyderabad. But party gaveticket to another person.

Danam Nagendar whorecently quit Congress to joinTRS wanted a ticket fromKhairatabad in Hyderabad butparty has not named anybodyso far.

Uppal and Khairatabad areamong the five seats presentlyheld by the BJP. There arespeculations that KCR wantedto field weak candidates inthese constituencies as part ofan indirect tie up with the BJP.


Aweek has passed since thedaring heist at the Nizams’

Museum in Hyderabad inwhich two thieves burgled theplace in Purani Haveli palacein old Hyderabad and van-ished with two priceless

antiques of gold.As many as 15 teams of

Hyderabad police were contin-uing their search for the gold tif-fin box and a cold tea cupbelonging to the last NizamMira Osman Ali Khan. Expertsput the value at `50 crore.

Police officials associatedwith the investigation say thatthey could not make muchprogress as the only clue theycould find was a blurry footagefrom a CCTV camera outsidethe museum. “The probe is nowfocused on a particular modelof pulsar motor cycle which theperpetrators of the crime rode”,a police official said. Only sil-ver lining was that very fewpeople have reportedly boughtthat model of the bike and as itwas without a registration plateit could be a newly purchasedvehicle. Police could not findany record of complaint oftheft of any such bike.

Two youth entered themuseum on the first floor ofthe building from another adja-cent building through ventila-tor on the intervening night ofSunday and Monday last andtook away the valuable. Thefinger prints lifted from thescene by the clues team werealso not much of a help.

KESTUR VASUKI n BENGALURU

The meandering roads sur-rounding hectares of coffee

plantations in the hills ofKodagu in the Western Ghatsin Karnataka is struggling toovercome the disaster whichstruck the Karnataka’s smallestbut richest district.

The August 17 rain furywhich left 21 people dead andthousands homeless has beenstill haunting this heaven onearth. However the place is fullof theories about why this landof coffee has been struck by thedevastating rain and landslidesas consequences of unmindfulof expansion in the name ofdevelopment. The river Cauverytakes birth here linking twoStates, Karnataka and TamilNadu as a perennial source ofliving of two major cultures.

Even as this place is limp-ing back to normalcy geologistsare warning of occurrence ofmore slides and blames part-ly this tragedy as a manmadedisaster. Talking to The PioneerProfessor H Gangadhar Bhat, ageologist from Mangaluru uni-versity who is studying thegeological aspects of it by usingremote sensing data says thistragedy was bound to happenas people have over exploited

land and added to it 700 mmof rain fall with high intensi-ty as main reason.

He said “Soil is saturatedalong with the deep slopes. Weare using remote sensing dataand studying this aspects. Wehave the topographical map ofthe district and we are doingthe map of the area after thedestruction. The anthro-pogenic activities, vehicularmovement and natural activ-ities are responsible for thisdisaster. Percolation tanks,home stays resorts who dugpercolation tanks are alsoresponsible. Here Soil is veryloose and it will collapse anytime. I anticipate moredestruction and there is athreat of further destruction.We have to reduce anthro-pogenic activities”, he added.

He said this is a warningand must take precautionarymeasures and vacate people inthe hills. “There is no linkbetween earth quake and thisdisaster” , he pointed out.

Many environmentalistsand activists say the unmind-ful of expansion of plantationsand overcrowding populationhas partly led to this disaster.According to Ganesh ofSomawarapete the expansionbeyond a limit of the planta-

tions is one of the reasons forthe landslides which struckthis beautiful land. This dis-trict has more than 3000 reg-istered and un registeredhome stays has over crowdedthis eco sensitive zone affect-ing the tranquility of the hills.The quarrying , sand miningcutting of huge trees, destruc-tion of reserve forest andencroachment of forest haveadded to this un mindful ofdestruction. The activists havestarted a green movement tosave Kodagu the heaven onthis earth.

According to RanjanAppachu a BJP MLA fromSomawarpete 2000 kms of roadhas been destroyed and needsthousands of crores to rehabili-tate the displaced population. Hesays more than 3000 hectares ofcoffee plantations have beenburied in the rain fury. Kodaguwhich produces more than 30percent of the Country’s coffeeis devastated and shocked at thedestruction. The land slide andthe rain fury have left more than21 dead and thousands home-less. This tine district inKarnataka has a population of5.6 laks and one of the richestdistricts in the state. A centralteam is visiting Kodagu onMonday to asses the damage.

NAYAN DAVE n GANDHINAGAR

ARajkot-based ComputerData Scientist and

Machine Learning researcherassociated with GujaratTechnological University(GTU) has developed an algo-rithm using machine learningand big data technology tosolve the complex problem ofevacuation planning duringdisasters like hurricanes andtropical storms attacking citiesand towns all around the world.

For her invention, Dr.Alpana Upadhyay has beeninvited to be a member of dif-ferent international journalsbased in USA, Australia,Singapore, India and HongKong. Not only that, she hadbeen invited as an expertspeaker and to chair the ses-sion in international confer-ences to be held in Italy,Rome and Tokyo, Japan totalk about her invention.

The head of MCA depart-ment in Sunshine College ofRajkot has named her inven-

tion as ‘Escape the Hurry’.Though the invention Alpanawith her team memberMaulin Raval attempted toaddress comprehensive trafficnetwork optimisation prob-lem, comprising of an inde-pendent queue forecastingmodel, prioritisation, net-work reduction and optimisation.

“This algorithm optimizesthe system and proposes evac-uation schedule with 98.7 percent accuracy,” claims Dr.Upadhyay while talking toThe Pioneer. According toher the purpose of her inven-

tion was to develop and testa well-planned and compre-hensive evacuation mecha-nism suitable for a rural orurban area of any size underdisaster-threat.

The model is intrinsicallystructured to make an intelligentshelter/evacuation decision, pre-pare optimized evacuationschedule to minimize evacua-tion times, and select shortestroute for successful execution ofthe significant life-savingprocess, she claims adding thatthis robotic system and engi-neered mechanism has a poten-tial to change the way peopleevacuate globally.

It has the potential to savea lot of time, effort and lives ofmillions of evacuees and helpcity planners, disaster man-agers and evacuees to worktogether and cooperate duringthe disaster event. This wouldhelp city and ruralGovernment avoid commonsituations like road networkblockages and high costs ofevacuation.

Netas queuing up to

join Cong, quit TRS

EC advances electoralrolls revision for earlyTelangana elections

Kodagu: The disaster & after

Week after,

no headway

in Nizam

antiques theft

Rajkot-based data scientist developsalgorithm to solve evacuation problems

PTI n NEW DELHI

Back-to-back operations bysecurity forces in the

Kashmir valley has reduced the“shelf life” of terrorists and over360 were killed in less than twoyears, CRPF Director General(DG) Rajiv Rai Bhatnagar hassaid.

In an interview to PTI, hesaid as figures show an increasein the number of local youthsjoining terror groups in the val-ley, security forces are reachingout to young men through allpossible ways to stop themfrom taking up arms.

Bhatnagar said keeping inmind the security challenges, theCRPF has “increased the pro-tection level” of its troops oper-ating in Jammu & Kashmir byinducting full-body protectors,bullet proof vehicles and specialarmoured ‘interception vehicles’to enable personnel to operate inlife threatening situations.

“The terrorists in Jammuand Kashmir... Some of themare from outside and there arealso the misguided youth(locals) who join terror groups.It is quite a mix. The numbersgo up and down but if you were

to look at the length, the timefor which terrorists survive inJ&K, then the signal is veryclear that it (terrorist recruit-ment) is having no impact.

“The shelf life of terrorists,the time frame to survive, isvery short. So, even if thenumbers (of joining terrorranks) may be large, they maybe more, but the consequenceis limited,” he said when askedif recruitment of local Kashmiriyouths by terror groups is ris-ing and a cause of concern.

The chief of the country’slargest paramilitary force saidthe youth was being drawn intoit (terror ranks) as “there was alittle bit of glamourisation”, butthey have to understand that itwill not get them any result.

“It is only a matter of time.We have made a lot of efforts(to wean them away) and havealso asked them to surrender,and a lot of them have comeback. They have to understandthat taking up the gun servesno purpose,” he said.

The CRPF chief, on youthstaking up arms, also said,“Obviously this is somethingthat we have to prevent andtake appropriate steps so that

the youth does not take to mil-itancy and those who havedone so, come back.”

“The official numbers showan increase in recruitment.However, with the increase in thenumber of neutralisations theoverall picture is better,” he said.

Bhatnagar acknowledgedthat the forces were taking it asa challenge to ensure that a lotof effort is taken to see thatrecruitment of youths for ter-ror acts goes down.

Good governance, trans-parency in official dealings andan all-round exercise is on togain confidence of the publicand the youth in Jammu andKashmir and the valley, he said.

The chief of the CentralReserve Police Force (CRPF),which has over 60 battalionsdeployed in the Kashmir valley(over 60,000 personnel), saidhis force, the state police andthe Army are operating in“very good synergy”.

The forces now have anedge or to say the upper handin the terrorism scenario in thevalley, Bhatnagar said.

“We have worked as oneunit. That has given us a lot ofsuccess. This year 142 terrorists

have been neutralised. If youlook at last year’s figures, it wasmore than 220 terrorists whowere killed.

There is excellent coordi-nation between security forcesand they have the upper hand.

“Their (terrorists’) notablecommanders have been neu-tralised. Fidayeen attacks oncamps have been effectivelyrebuffed. We have denied themany success in terms of campattacks also,” the DG said.

He said the law and ordersituation in the valley is not likeany other theatre in the coun-try as there is a “guerrilla hit-and-run like tactic” used here.

“We are, hence, workingvery closely with the Jammu andKashmir Police,” Bhatnagar said.

“Our drills, our equipmentas well as our schemes are work-ing well and we are able tocounter efforts to disrupt theoperations through stone pelting.

“It is in only on very rareoccasions that the stone peltershave managed to disrupt theoperations that is too when it hasbeen sudden exchange and thepreparation has not been there.That has been the only time thatthe terrorists have managed to

get away,” the DG said.He also spoke about better

equipping his personnel to com-bat the security challenge in thestate, specifically in the valley.

“We have gone in for betterprotection, full body protectorsfor our people, use of less lethalweaponry so that there is less col-lateral damage and the numberof casualties and serious injurieson our side and the public is less.

“The collateral damage hasbeen fairly minimised,” the DGunderlined. When asked aboutthe use of much-debated pelletguns and the damage renderedby them on locals, Bhatnagarsaid while these ammunitionare not being discarded, its useis part of a well laid out stan-dard operating procedure.

“The sequence in which weuse force is well laid out. We fireand disperse them (protestors)by using tear smoke and otherallied irritant kind of non-lethalgases... “So our first effort is todisperse them by making aproper bandobast. Also, wehave a large number of plasticbullets that are used,” he said.

Pellet guns, the CRPF chiefsaid, is used where we find thatit is required to disperse the mob.

‘Shelf life’ of ultras reduced in J&K, over 360 killed in 2 yrs’

National Security Adviser (NSA) Ajit Doval and his family at Mahabodhi Temple in Bodh Gaya on Sunday PTI

Ahmedabad: Firebrand Patidaragitation spearhead HardikPatel is likely to break his fastin a day or two following theadvice of veteran political leaderand former Janata Dal (United)president Sharad Yadav, accord-ing to sources close to Patel.

Yadav, besides DMK stal-wart A. Raja, was among thosewho called on fasting Patel in thehospital on Saturday. On theinsistence of Yadav, the 25-year-old Patel started taking waterwhich he had stopped sinceThursday evening after the dead-line for the ultimatum issued bythe Patidar Anamat AndolanSamiti (PAAS) to initiate talksexpired without any responsefrom the Gujarat Government.

Patel has demanded debtwaiver for the farmers, reser-vation benefits to the Patels andrelease of his PAAS co-con-venor Alpesh Kathiriya beingheld under sedition charges.

Saturday was the 15th dayof his indefinite fast whichstarted on August 25 at his res-idence after the Governmentrefused him permission for avenue to stage his public protest.

After meeting Hardik Patel,Yadav told reporters that hehad advised him to give up fastand recover his health to “stay

fit for a long drawn battle”against the BJP Governmentsin the State and at the Centre.

He advised him there was nomeaning losing health by fastingwhen the farmers required aleader like him to stand up andfight for their cause. He claimedthat Hardik promised him toconsider his suggestion and act

positively. “Today, I offered himwater and he took it, I am suretomorrow he will agree to breakthe fast and resume normal life,”Yadav said.

Meanwhile, the talksbetween a cabinet sub-commit-tee and Naresh Patel, chief of theinfluential religious seat ofPatidars, Khodaldham, and otherPatidar community leadersmediating on behalf of Hardikand the PAAS, which wasexpected to be held on Saturdaywas deferred till Sunday.

Education MinisterBhupendrasinh Chudasama,Energy Minister Saurabh Patel,Revenue Minister Kaushik Pateland Minister of State for HomePradeepsinh Jadeja had beentasked to talk to Naresh Patel onbehalf of the Government tonegotiate on the issues of farmdebt waiver, reservation formu-la and release of Kathiriya.

IANS

Hardik likely to break his indefinite fast soon

Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti (PAAS) leader Hardik Patel discharged from SGVPhospital after recovery, in Ahmedabad on Sunday PTI

PTI n ALLAHABAD

Congress is a “sinking ship ofcorruption” and parties that

decide to ally with it will behumbled at the hustings in theLok Sabha polls, Union MinorityAffairs Minister Mukhtar AbbasNaqvi said Sunday.

On a visit here to inaugurate‘Hunar Haat’, a Minority AffairsMinistry initiative, at the NorthCentral Zone Cultural Centre,Naqvi also took a dig at RahulGandhi’s Kailash-Mansarovaryatra saying the Congress chiefshould keep visiting holy placesso that he gets the strength toface the truth and “stops resort-ing to falsehood”.

“The Congress is a sinkingship of corruption, and allthose who support the partywill sink with it. A primeexample is Uttar Pradesh

where the Samajwadi Partytried its luck. Similarly, inWest Bengal also, theCommunist party was hum-bled at the hustings,” he said.

The minister claimed thatthe BJP would again sweep topower in the Lok Sabha pollsnext year.

“In 2019, with the blessingsof the people of the country, aGovernment led by PrimeMinister Narendra Modi willbe formed, and BJP will winwith a thumping majority.”

He said when the BJP hadcome to power in 2014, theinflation rate was more than 11per cent. Under the guidance ofPrime Minister NarendraModi, it has came down to fourper cent, he added.

Acknowledging that priceshave risen in the recentmonths, the Minister said theCentral Government wouldcontrol and bring it down.

Responding to theCongress’ attack over the Rafaledeal, Naqvi said all those whowere trying to create a contro-versy over the Rafale deal wereunaware of the facts.

Referring to Gandhi’sMansarovar Yatram, Naqvi said,“We wish he (Rahul Gandhi)should visit more religiousplaces so that he gathers thestrength to face the truth andstops resorting to falsehood.”

Congress a sinking shipof corruption, says Naqvi

PTI n VARANASI (UP)

Uttar Pradesh Minister andSuheldev Bharatiya Samaj

Party president Om PrakashRajbhar claimed Sunday thatthe SC and ST (Prevention ofAtrocities) Act was being“misused” and many innocentpeople framed, and said theSupreme Court verdictputting safeguards againstarrest under the law was justified.

Talking to reporters here,he said the court decision wasin the interest of a large sectionof people.

The Supreme Court, in itsMarch 20 order on rampantmisuse of the stringentScheduled Castes andScheduled Tribes (Prevention

of Atrocities) Act, held thatthere shall be no immediatearrest on any complaint filedunder the law.

It had also passed a slew ofdirections and said a publicservant can be arrested in

cases lodged under the lawonly after prior approval by thecompetent authority.

However, the law wasamended in August to overturnthe apex court order.

Rajbhar demanded thatthe government make a re-think on the matter.

The Minister for back-ward classes welfare and dis-abled people development inUttar Pradesh said even theConstitution’s architect B RAmbedkar had advocated foronly punishing the guiltythrough this act.

Taking a dig at the BJP, hesaid when relatives of seniorleaders get framed under thelaw, they will understand howits misuse can lead to the dev-astation of a family.

Rajbhar claims misuse of SC/ST Act,demands re-think on Govt’s move

Talking to reporters

here, he said the court

decision was in the

interest of a large

section of people

WHILE MOST OF THEMWERE UNHAPPY OVER THEISSUE OF TICKET DENIAL,RAJYA SABHA MEMBER

D SRINIVAS WAS UNHAPPYOVER ALLEGATIONS OF

ANTI-PARTY ACTIVITIES BYOTHER TRS LEADERS

Meanwhile, the Electionauthorities have started

making otherarrangements and

ensuring the availabilityof electronic voting

machines

POLICE OFFICIALS ASSOCIATEDWITH THE INVESTIGATION SAYTHAT THEY COULD NOT MAKE

MUCH PROGRESS AS THE ONLYCLUE THEY COULD FIND WAS A

BLURRY FOOTAGE FROM ACCTV OUTSIDE THE MUSEUM

LUCKNOW | MONDAY | SEPTEMBER 10, 2018 nation 07

PNS n KOCHI

Asenior nun of theMalankara Syrian

Orthodox Church was founddead in a well in the compoundof her convent atPathanapuram in Kerala’sKollam district on Sundaymorning. The police registereda case of unnatural death.

The body of Sr CESoosamma (55), a teacher ofphysical science, was found inthe well of the convent attachedto the Mount Tabor Dayara inPathanapuram by 9.30 AM byworkers of the convent. Reportsquoted her fellow-nuns as say-ing Sr Soosamma was sufferingfrom several health problemsand this might have forced tocommit suicide.

Nuns in the convent saidshe had opted to stay in herroom when they had asked herto join the daily prayers at thenearby church early Sundaymorning. The body of thesenior nun was found in thewell by the workers of theconvent in a search they con-ducted after noticing bloodmarks on the protection wall ofthe well.

“There were self-inflictedinjuries on both her hands,”said a police official. “Thewound in the left hand wassevere and deep while that onthe right hand was compara-tively small. More details andthe cause of death will beknown only after the post-mortem which will be done atthe Medical College Hospital inThiruvananthapuram,” said theofficial.

The body was taken out ofthe well by Fire and Rescue per-sonnel Sunday afternoon in thepresence of the police. SrSoosamma, a native of Kalladain Kollam district, had been a

physical science teacher at theMount Tabor School attachedto the Dayara for the past 25years and was to retire fromservice next year.

The Circle Inspector ofpolice in Pathanapuram hasbeen given the charge of prob-ing the nun’s death and theDeputy Superintendent ofPolice, Punalur will oversee theinvestigation. Kollam districtCongress president BinduKrishna termed the incident asshocking while KB GaneshKumar, MLA fromPathanapuram, promised adetailed probe.

Sr Soosamma’s colleaguesin the convent said she hadundergone treatment in at leasttwo hospitals in Pathanamthittadistricts since August 14, theday she had returned to theconvent from her house. Theysaid she had spoken to herbrother late Saturday eveningand had told him that she hadsevere heath problems.

This is not the first time anun’s body was being found ina convent well in Kerala. Thebody of Catholic nun SrAbhaya (19) was found in thewell of her St Pius X Conventin Kottayam on March 27,1992. After many years ofprobe, the CBI came to theconclusion that the nun wasmurdered by two priests andanother nun. The trial in thecase is yet to conclude.

Catholic nun Sr Jyothis(22) was found dead in the wellof her Sacred Heart Convent inKallurutty, Kozhikode onNovember 20, 1998. On August17, 2011, the body of seniornun Sr Mary Ancy (48) wasfound in a water tank in thecompound of her FathimaMatha Convent at Poonkulamnear Kovalam inThiruvananthapuram district.

VR JAYARAJ n KOCHI

Pressure continued to mounton the Kerala Police on

Sunday to arrest Latin CatholicBishop Franco Mulakkal (54)of the Jalandhar Diocese,accused of raping a seniorCatholic nun, with supportpouring in from various quar-ters for the battle being wagedagainst him by the victim andher colleagues in her conventwho have accused the Statepolice chief, DGP LoknathBehera, of shielding the prelateand trying to derail the ongo-ing probe.

At least ten priests fromvarious Christian churches,legal luminaries, political andcultural leaders and activists oforganizations working forreforms in the Church declaredsolidarity with the nuns fight-

ing against the Bishop by reach-ing the venue of their sit-in atKochi’s Marine Drive onSunday, the second day of theirindefinite agitation.

As pressure mounted onhim for taking stern and imme-diate action in the case, DGPBehera expanded the investi-gation team by including twoCircle Inspectors and a SubInspector and issued instruc-tions for completing the probewithin 15 days. A small policeteam headed by K Subhash,DySP, Vaikom, Kottayam, hasbeen probing the case for thepast 75 days.

The DGP took the decisionto speed up the probe amidst

intense protests from the rapevictim’s colleagues at St FrancisMission Home, her convent atKuravilangad in Kottayam dis-trict over the delay in thearrest of the accused and areported move to hand over thecase to the Crime Branch of theState police which is seen as yetanother strategy to delay andderail the probe.

“The DGP and theInspector General (VijaySakare, who is overseeing thecurrent probe) are trying toderail the case,” said one of thefive nuns who are on the warfront for the victim. She saidthey had full trust in the probebeing carried out by the present

team and the two officers incharge of it, DySP Subhash andHari Shankar, Superintendentof Police, Kottayam.

Behera rejected the reportsabout a move from his part forhanding over the probe to theCBI by saying that no suchdecision had been taken. “Ihave not reviewed the case. Itis the Inspector General who ishandling it. He is satisfied withthe (current) probe,” he said,adding that Sakare had report-ed that the probe was pro-gressing in the right direction.

The victim’s charge againstthe Bishop is that he had rapedher at a guest house attached toher convent 13 times between2014 and 2016. The nun hadlodged her complaint with thepolice by June-end and theinvestigation team has alreadyrecorded her statement sixtimes but the only concreteaction they took against therape-accused Bishop was torecord his statement just once.

The nun’s family is expect-ed to file a petition in the HighCourt on Monday seekingorders for immediate arrest ofthe Bishop. The nuns support-

ing the victim said they wouldinitiate legal proceedings againstIndependent Catholic MLA PCGeorge, who had the other daymade some extremely deroga-tory remarks against the victim.

Declaring solidarity withthe agitating nuns at the venueof their protest in Kochi onSunday, Justice (Retired) BKemal Pasha said, “We can seesome kind of give-and-take(arrangement) between thepolice and the rape-accusedBishop. We should note thatthis is happening under (theLDF) Government that came topower on the promise to ensurewomen’s safety.”

Senior priest Fr PaulThelekkat, former spokesman ofthe Syro-Malabar CatholicChurch, said at the protestvenue, “I have come here in thename of a belief. The Churchand all of us should understandthe relevance of the cry of thesenuns.” Fr Thelekkat was the firstCatholic Church personality tocome out in support of the vic-tim and the nuns supporting her.

PT Thomas MLA of theCongress, which like mostother parties in Kerala has

been reticent so far on the issue,lashed out at the LDFGovernment by asking, “Whyis the Government unwilling toarrest the Bishop when he doesnot have any legal protectionthat other ordinary people donot have?”

Meanwhile, the State policechief and the NationalCommission for Women initi-ated steps for action against leg-islator PC George for hisderogatory remarks against thevictim and the nuns support-ing her. DGP Behera issuedinstructions for examining thevideo recording of the Pressmeet in which George madethe remarks to see if a casecould be registered suo moto.

A Delhi report quotedNCW Chairperson RekhaSharma as saying, “I wantaction to be taken againstpeople (like George) so thatother such persons can learna lesson... It is a shame that leg-islators are talking in such lan-guage when they should behelping the victims.” TheNCW chief also instructedthe Kerala DGP to take actionagainst George.

Support grows for nuns’ battle against rapist bishop

‘State policechief trying toderail probe’

PTI

Nun found

dead in Kerala

convent well

PTI n NEW DELHI

The Modi Government willnot allow India to be a “safe

destination” for infiltrators,BJP president Amit Shah saidSunday, asserting that it hasstarted efforts to identify theRohingya people living illegal-ly in the country and willmake arrangements for theirdeportation.

The party’s national execu-tive passed Shah’s statement,which speaks of illegal immi-grants in Assam and other states,on the issue of the NationalRegister of Citizens exercise inthe northeastern State.

He said the NRC process inAssam is necessary for India’ssafety and for preserving thestate’s economic, cultural andpolitical rights.

Lashing out at oppositionparties for their criticism of theBJP on the issue, he said whenin power they had acceptedthat crores of illegal immigrantshave been living in Assam andother states and that theyunderstand the seriousness ofthis problem.

No country in the worldallows infiltrators to live on itsland but opposition parties didnot show courage to stand toprotect the rights of the peopleof Assam and the country due totheir “vote bank politics”, he said.

“They are seen today to bestanding with illegal infiltra-tors,” he said.

Bharatiya Janata Party hasmade it clear that the govern-ment led by Prime MinisterNarendra Modi will not allow

India to be a safe destination forillegal infiltrators, his state-ment said.

“Every infiltrator will beidentified and they will bedeported after being stripped oftheir citizenship. The govern-ment has started a process toidentify Rohingyas in manycities of the country. Appropriatearrangements will be made fortheir deportation,” Shah said.

He also reiterated hisparty’s support to theCitizenship (Amendment) Act,saying minorities such asHindus, Buddhists, Sikhs andChristians living in Pakistan,Bangladesh and Afghanistanshould be given shelter in Indiaif they are persecuted.

Infiltration into Assam hadbegun before Independenceand continued afterwards, theBJP chief said, adding that itcontinued because various gov-ernments did not have the willto tackle the challenge.

A historic agitation wenton between 1979-85 against itand the BJP had supportedtheir demands since its incep-tion in 1980, he said.

The Modi government iscommitted to preserve the inter-ests of the people of Assam andwill ensure that no Indian citi-zen loses his or her citizenship.

Will not allow India tobe safe destination forillegal infiltrators: Shah

IANS n PANAJI

Former Goa Chief MinisterLaxmikant Parsekar, who

faces a Lokayukta probe in con-nection with the `1.44-lakhcrore mining renewal scam, hasstated in his affidavit filed beforethe anti-corruption authoritythat “certain individuals”, whowere involved in the process ofgranting renewals, were “leftout” in the complaint filed by anenvironment foundation.

In response to the affidavit,petitioner Dr. Claude Alvares ofthe Goa Foundation, on Saturdaysaid that Chief Minister

Manohar Parrikar, who was alsoCM when the first six miningleases were granted secondrenewals, would be made partyto the Lokayukta case. Parsekar’saffidavit also claims that the pol-icy under which the controver-sial 88 mining leases wererenewed —when he was noteven the Chief Minister — wasa Cabinet decision and not a per-sonal one, and that too in accor-dance with an order of thePanaji bench of the BombayHigh Court.

“The complaint is actuatedby malice since the com-plainant has selectively and

conveniently left out certainindividuals who were also partof the process while grantingthe second renewal orders,”Parsekar said in his affidavit.

Goa Lokayukta Justice P.K.Misra on Friday cleared thedecks for probing the role ofParsekar and top officials relat-ed to the state mines depart-ment by rejecting preliminaryobjections filed by Parsekar andthe mines department offi-cials, following a complaintfiled by the Goa Foundation.

Parsekar claims that hisname was “cherry-picked” bythe petitioner and has sug-

gested that the policy whichallowed the second renewal ofmining leases was formulatedby a Cabinet headed by his pre-decessor Manohar Parrikar.

“The said policy along withother related developmentsbonafidely were adopted by thegovernment of Goa, while I wasnot even Chief Minister of thestate of Goa, though a Ministerin the Cabinet and not evenMinister of Mines and Geology,all of which were decisions takenand approved by the Cabinet asa whole...” Parsekar said in hisaffidavit. Parsekar succeededParrikar as Goa CM, after

Parrikar was elevated to theUnion Cabinet as DefenceMinister in 2014. After for-mulating the mining renewalpolicy, the Parrikar-led admin-istration had renewed a somemining leases, before the BJPleader’s elevation to the CentralCabinet. The subsequent dis-pensation headed by Parsekarordered the second renewal ofmining leases, based on thedirections of a High Courtorder, according to Parsekar.

Meanwhile, speaking toreporters, Alavres, whose peti-tions in the Supreme Court ofIndia in the recent past have led

to complete suspension of Goa’sillegal mining operations ontwo occasions in the past sixyears, said that Parrikar wouldalso be made party to the allegedcomplaint filed before theLokayukta. “Parsekar has nowfiled an affidavit, which statesvery clearly that he is not fullyresponsible for approving those88 leases. That it was a decisiontaken by Parrikar when he wasthe Chief Minister and thereforethe investigation should alsoinclude him. We are now mak-ing an application to makeParrikar, though he is ill, also aparty,” Alvares said.

‘Certain individuals’ left out in mining scam probe’

UNUSED LAND...“Many projects are almost

complete but cannot be handedover to the homebuyers becauseof same minor pending con-struction works. At this stage theinvestor or financer do not putin their money as there is noclarity on return of their invest-ed money. Therefore in absenceof last mile funding projects getstuck. This adversely affects thehome buyers. The committeerecommended that the last milefunding of projects may be per-mitted. For this the concept of“Last-In First-Out (LIFO) modelwhere the investor who puts inhis money at the last stage tocomplete the stalled projectsexits, first should be permitted.There is a need for a proper pol-icy, which may give imple-mentable solution in terms ofcompletion of stalled projectsunder the jurisdiction of allthree authorities i.e. Noida,Greater Noida and YamunaExpressway Authority. It is rec-ommended that in order toresolve the long-pending issue ofstalled projects and to help thehomebuyers, the ProjectSettlement Policy (PSP) may bereintroduced by the UPGovernment with certain mod-ifications including terms suchas: For Zero Period Policy, incase project had been stalled fora stay order from anycourt/NGT order or Authorityhad delayed possession/leasedeed execution or in case theland had not beenacquired/resumed by theAuthority at the time of han-

dover or in case actual con-struction on the site could notbe started by the allottee due tothe absence of any approachroad whatsoever to the plot, theaffected period may be declaredas a ‘zero period’ by theAuthority concerned. To securethe interest of homebuyers andto avoid multiple sale of anyproperty, the “agreement to sale”deeds may be registered in theoffice of concerned ‘sub registrar’.The committee recommendsthat the registration fee of “agree-ment to sale” may be kept verylow or nominal, in order toencourage stakeholders to getregistration of “agreement tosale”.

BJP’S FEATS...Responding to a question

Javadekar, said the Ram Templewas not discussed or mentionedin the resolution and same wasthe case with the Rafale deal.“There was no need for it.People who are making the cor-ruption allegation need tounderstand that there was nomiddleman in the deal. Therewas no Quattrocchi in it,”Javadekar said, referring to themiddleman of the infamousBofors deal. The BJP said theOpposition’s hope to defeat thesaffron party was a “daydream”.It said a lot of development workhas been done in the past fouryears, and a “New India” will byformed by 2022. “ThisGovernment has vision, passion

and imagination, and the worksof this Government can be seen.By 2022, India will be free of ter-rorism, casteism, communalismand nobody will be homeless,”it said. Taking on theOpposition, the party in its res-olution said it has no agenda orpolicy, or strategy. “TheOpposition is frustrated and ithas neither leader nor policy andits sole agenda is to stop PrimeMinister Narendra Modi,”Javadekar said. He said Modi isstill a very popular leader in thecountry and even after fouryears in power, Modi’s approvalrating is more than 70 per cent.

TMC TO SKIP...The excise duty on petrol

was `9.2 per litre in 2014 andit has gone up to `19.48 perlitre. Similarly, the excise dutyon diesel was `3.46 per litreand today it stands at `15.33per litre,” Maken said.

Hitting out at the BJP forattacking the Congress with‘make in India, breaking India’barb, Maken alleged theGovernment has stalled theMake in India initiative as 109Rafale jets could have beenmanufactured at HindustanAeronautics Limited, a PSU.He also said the Governmenthas not yielded to theOpposition’s demand for aJoint ParliamentaryCommittee probe into thealleged irregularities in theRafale deal.

IPS OFFICER...area after Surendra's bodyreached there on Sundayevening. Identified as NarendraDas, he alleged that Surendra’swife Dr Raveena forced him totake the extreme step. “She wasunsympathetic to us and forcedSurendra to distance himselffrom us,” he said. The familymembers, including thedeceased IPS officer’s mother,fainted as the body reached thehouse. Narendra added thatSurendra got married to Raveenain 2017. "Surendra had told methat he wanted to take divorceonly three months after themarriage citing that his wife wasincompatible," Narendraclaimed. He told newsmen thatthey might consider lodging acase against Raveena for abet-ment to suicide. Surendra wasthe youngest of the four siblingsand a promising child sincebirth. He completed High Schoolfrom Jawahar NavodayaVidyalaya, Ballia, in 2004, thencompleted Intermediate inLucknow. “In 2004, we came toLucknow after my father RamChandra Das retired as a captainin the Army,” Narendra said.Later, Surendra cracked the IITand pursued BTech inElectronics from IIT-Kharagpurand got the first job in Coal Indiain Madhya Pradesh. In 2010, hequit the job and began prepar-ing for the UPSC. PGI SHO RNRai said that they did not get anycomplaint. “If they register anycomplaint, the police will initi-ate an action accordingly,” hesaid.


In a suspected case of drunk-en driving, a 23-year-old man

drove his car on a footpath inwest Delhi’s Rajouri Garden,killing two men and injuringtwo others in the early hours ofSunday, police said. The driver,Devesh, who works in a soft-ware firm and is son of a WestDelhi businessman, was arrest-ed from the spot. Police said themedical examination of Deveshshowed that he was in an ine-briated condition and was dri-ving at a high speed.

He lost control of hisHonda Civic car and ended updriving it over the footpath nearRajouri Garden flyover wherefour men were sleeping, saidpolice, adding that two of themdied while two others weregrievously injured.

“At about 4.30 am RajouriGarden police station receiveda Police Control Room (PCR)call regarding the accident. On

reaching the location, thepolicemen found two individ-uals, Noora (50) and Shukladead and Ram Singh (55) andManoj (35) severely injured.

They were immediatelysent to ESI Hospital where twopersons were declared broughtdead,” Deputy Commissioner ofPolice (West District) MonikaBhardwaj stated. “The injuredRam Singh, who was fit forstatement, told police that he,

along with his three colleagues,was sleeping on the footpath infront of ESI hospital. When hegot up to smoke at about4.30am, a Honda Civic Car dri-ven by one Devesh (23) son ofRamesh Lal Kumar, a busi-nessman of Paschim Vihar inWest Delhi. The driver appar-ently lost control and crushedthem in which two of his col-leagues died and two sustaininjuries,” the DCP said.


Andhra Pradesh andTelangana politics is set to

witness a major change as bit-ter rivals TDP and Congress areinching closer towards a tie-up.Telugu Desam Party presidentand Andhra Pradesh ChiefMinister N ChandrababuNaidu set up a five-membercommittee on Sunday toexplore the options. The com-mittee will be headed by StateTDP president L Ramanna.

Naidu spent second busyday in Hyderabad and held dis-cussions with the TelanganaTDP leaders. Apart from theissue of alliance with theCongress in TelanganaAssembly elections, the meet-ing also discussed how manyand which Assembly seats theparty should contest.

Naidu also constituted a 10-member committee headed bysenior leader RavulaChandrasekhar Reddy to pre-pare a manifesto and also acampaign committee. Naidu,who arrived here on Saturday,has publicly not committedhimself to alliance with anyparty. Addressing the Stateexecutive committee of theTDP on Saturday evening, hesaid it is a State issue and theState unit will take a call on theissue of alliance.

But party sources saidNaidu has given his nod to theidea of alliance with theCongress to effectively counterthe ruling Telangana RashtraSamiti and left the nitty-gritty

to the State leaders to give amessage that the alliance will beconfined to Telangana.

“I leave it to the party lead-ers here to take a collective deci-sion on the issue keeping inmind the best interest of theparty and the State,” he saidassuring his full cooperation.

Significantly in his addressto the State executive, the BJPand NDA were the main butt ofhis attacks and did not targetthe ruling TRS. He allegedPrime Minister Narendra Moditried to create a rift betweenhim and his Telangana coun-terpart K Chandrasekhar Raoby his remarks during thedebate in Parliament on the no-confidence motion. Naidu wasunder pressure from the partyleaders in Andhra Pradesh notto tie up with the Congress asit may harm the party’s interestgiven the public perceptionthat the Congress was respon-sible for the bifurcation of theState. Meanwhile, AndhraDeputy Chief Minister NChinnarajappa said the decisionof alliance with the Congresshad nothing to do with AndhraPradesh and the decision will betaken by Telangana leaderskeeping in view the local cir-cumstances. The TDP, formedin 1982 by reigning superstar ofTelugu films NT Rama Rao onthe plank of regionalism, Telugupride and anti-Congressism, ispresently in power in truncat-ed Andhra Pradesh while inTelangana it was third majorparty with 14.7 per cent popu-lar vote it polled in 2014.

Trader’s drunk son ploughsinto sleeping men, kills 2

Naidu forms team to

assess feasibility of

TDP-Congress ties

A policeman investigates the ill-fated car at the accident site Pioneer photo


The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)Government's ambitious

doorstep delivery of 40Government services, includingobtaining a marriage certificate,driving license and new waterconnection, will be rolled out onMonday by Chief MinisterArvind Kejriwal, an official said.The AAP Government had pro-posed doorstep delivery of ser-vices earlier this year and hadalleged that Lieutenant GovernorAnil Baijal was stalling it.

However, a five-judgeConstitution Bench had onJuly 4 laid down broad para-meters for governance of thenational Capital, paving theway for the Government toproceed with the scheme."Doorstep delivery of services.A revolution in governance. Abig blow to corruption. Superconvenience for people.Happening for the first timeanywhere in the world. Startsfrom 10th Sept (sic)," Kejriwalhad tweeted last month.

The Government hasclaimed that no citizen of Delhi

would have to stand in queuesfor the services listed under thescheme. According to the plan,the Delhi Government will pro-vide 40 services such as castecertificate, driving licence, at thedoorstep of people in the firstphase. The services will be pro-vided for an extra fee of Rs 50.

In July, the Governmenthad approved AdministrativeReforms proposal to give thework to a company, which willbe an intermediary agency, toexecute the project in the

national capital. According tothe plan, Mobile Sahayaks(facilitators) will be hiredthrough the agency that wouldset up call centres.

Various certificates such ascaste, new water connection,income, driving licence, rationcard, domicile, marriage regis-tration, duplicate RC andchange of address in RC, amongothers, will be covered underthe scheme. If a person wantsto apply for driving licence, heor she would have to call a des-ignated call centre and give thedetails. Thereafter, the agencywould assign a Mobile Sahayak,who will visit the applicant's res-idence and get the requireddetails and documents. Theapplicant will have to visit theMotor Licensing Office (MLO)once for a driving test.

In November last year,Deputy Chief Minister ManishSisodia had said Mobile Sahayakwould be equipped with allnecessary equipment such asbiometric devices and a camera,adding that for doorstep deliv-ery of services, the applicantwould be charged a nominal fee.

40 services at your doorstep

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

J

alaluddin Haqqani, the 71-year-old Islamic militant, who first fought in the

Soviet jihad in the 1908s and founded one of the world’s most notorious

terror organisations, is now dead. His family-run transnational jihadi organ-

isation, known as the Haqqani Network, had provided support and sustenance

to the groups such as Al Qaeda, Taliban and Lashkar-e-Tayyeba for decades.

Born in the Paktia Province of Afghanistan, Haqqani rose to notoriety dur-

ing the 1980s as a guerilla fighter against the Soviet rule in Afghanistan.

Mujahedeen fighters, that were backed by the United States, were provided

with logistical and financial support in their ‘holy’ fight against the Soviet Union.

One US Congressman went to the extent of praising Haqqani as man who

was “goodness personified”. After the withdrawal of the Soviet Union from

Afghanistan, foreign funding was sharply abated, and Haqqani, who had served

as the top commander for Hezb-e-Islami Gulbuddin Khalis (HiK), established

and began to run a number of profitable madrassas in Afghanistan and

Pakistan’s bordering tribal areas.

When the Taliban came to power in 1994, he was quick to form an alliance

with the group, ceding power to Mullah Omar and setting up the Haqqani

Network’s new base in north Waziristan, Pakistan. The Taliban, impressed with

his military prowess, named him Minister of Borders and Tribal Affairs — a

role that suited Haqqani’s expertise perfectly as well as further emboldened

his position.

While the Taliban provided ideological guidance to the militant Islamists,

Haqqani provided the military manpower. The network raised funds through

kidnappings, extortion, taxing and smuggling of weapons and drugs across

the border, enriching themselves during the lawless years of the Taliban rule

in Afghanistan. By building strategic ties with the Taliban and the Al Qaeda,

it expanded its operational capabilities to a number of Provinces in

Afghanistan — setting up a number of bases across eastern and southern

Afghanistan and occupying key territory outside Kabul. Later, Haqqani also

partnered with the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, expanding his network’s

operational reach to the northern areas of Afghanistan. Through brokered deals

with large and small militant groups, he developed a large area of influence

across the Durand Line. The Haqqani’s jihad business set the ground infra-

structure for a complex criminal-political nexus, the source of South Asian jihad.

With the US invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, Haqqani refused to side with

his past allies, the United States. He refused to surrender the Taliban and Al

Qaeda leadership. As the US troops entered Afghanistan and thousands of

militants fled across the border to Pakistan, Haqqani provided the leadership

with protection and safe-havens. With dismal governance in Pakistan’s tribal

areas, this was fairly easy. Haqqani was able to lure and recruit poor, displaced

and disenfranchised young men to fight in the war, helping in fuelling the fight

against the US troops. This made him the Taliban’s most reliable ally. They

actively required the Haqqani network of safe-havens, camps of trained fight-

ers, and supply of weapons to fight the US. His good relationship with local

insurgent groups helped in the movement of militants and weapons across

the border, fueling what has now been a 17-year-long war.

The Haqqani Network has been the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) pre-

ferred insurgent group when it comes to Pakistani ‘establishment’ plans for

Afghanistan. Its territorial control over the Afghan south-east is a much-desired

‘strategic depth’ that Pakistan seeks vis-à-vis India. The group continues to

enjoy significant influence and support of members of the Pakistani military,

often acting as ‘peace brokers’, helping the Government negotiate with other

militant groups in the region.

Today, the Haqqanis operate as a semi-autonomous group from the Taliban.

The group’s legacy is one of launching large-scale, high-target attacks in Kabul

and elsewhere, using suicide bombers, vehicles and large improvised explo-

sive devices (IEDs). The attacks on the Serena Hotel in 2008, Intercontinental

Hotel and US Embassy in 2011, have all been attributed to the work of the

Haqqani Network. Jalaluddin’s insistence on publicising the attacks was to gen-

erate media exposure that casts doubt on the ability of Western powers to

provide stability and security.

Today, the group, which has been operating under the leadership of

Jalaluddin’s son Sirajuddin for the past decade, has been able to maintain its

role as one of the most significant political and military actor on the battle-

field. The diversity of the Haqqani’s business operations, its partnerships with

transnational terrorist networks and its illicit fund raising techniques, have made

the group network central to the Afghan conflict. Jalaluddin Haqqani is now

declared dead but the infrastructure that he put in place over the past three

decades is still intact and very much alive.

(The writer is a Junior Fellow at the Observer Research Foundation, New

Delhi)

Areport by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), which claimedthat the Delhi Metro is one of the most unaffordable forms of public trans-port system in the world has created a ruckus. Delhi Metro Rail Corporation

(DMRC) has come down heavily on the NGO and termed the report “mislead-ing”. Let us examine some figures. According to figures, in June 2016 its aver-age daily ridership was more than 27 lakh people. This figure was expected tosee a steep rise to up to 39 lakh once the third phase of the Delhi Metro wasfunctional by the end of the same year. Subsequent to the fare hike in May 2017,the average daily ridership fell to about 25 lakh. Consequent to the second hikein October of the same year, ridership fell to 24.2 lakh. Ridership of 22.71 lakh,23.01 lakh and 22.18 lakh were recorded in the months of December 2017 andJanuary and February 2018 respectively. More recent figures, for last month,showed that daily ridership had again touched the 28 lakh-mark. All of this wouldsuffice to conclude that while Delhi Metro ridership did indeed dip due to thefare hike, it has revived after a brief period because it is the only safe, reliable,quick and relatively affordable mode of public transport in the Capital. At the sametime, it is also a fact that DMRC has definitely failed to meet the daily ridershipof 39 lakh target it had set itself, owing in the main to the rise in fares.

Two fare hikes in quick succession in 2017, which it is fair to point out cameonly after eight years of no hikes, did however make a dent in commuters' pock-ets. But there is a cost for efficiency and the CSE's accusations seem akin toasking for a free lunch. The Metro is now an integral part of almost all citiesaround the world and Delhi is no different. Non-extortionate but reasonable faresare essential for its survival and maintenance. A comparison of fares betweenDelhi and London, Hong Kong, Berlin or Shanghai will reveal that the minimumfare cost of the Delhi metro is substantially less than in the other mega cities. Itis to the Delhi Metro's credit that it has become the lifeline for dilliwallahs. Itis also the safest as well as the most convenient mode of travel. Its operationhas provided a huge fillip to economic activity too. Having said that, Delhi Metromust always strive to live up to its users' expectations and maintain that gold-en mean between financial sustainability and affordability.

The optics were brilliant. And they should warm the hearts of all progressiveforces — provided they take a minute to keep aside their vicious bias againstthe current regime — looking for at least symbolic manifestations of the

struggle for gender equity. Two diminutive, in physical stature only, Indian womenleaders, professionals in their own right in their earlier avatars, who have madetheir way up by dint of sheer hard work and merit who hold the top jobs at theForeign and Defence Ministries of the world's largest democracy hosting theirmore conventional, white, male counterparts from the US, the world's oldestdemocracy, at the Indo-US 2+2 dialogue that concluded in New Delhi last weekwas an aspect of the terms of engagement between the two strategic partnersthat has not been highlighted enough. It was indeed a brilliant visual and welldone, Sushma Swaraj and Nirmala Sitharaman, take a bow. But the optics shouldnot be allowed to overshadow the substantive gains of this engagement betweenNew Delhi and Washington.

First, is the language used for the articulation of Indian concerns in the USstatement at the conclusion of the meet to condemn Pakistan-sponsored ter-rorism. This included using the phrase “territory under Pakistan's control”, asopposed to the usual formulation of Pakistani territory, in what is widely believedto be describing Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) which hosts launch padsfor Kashmiri Islamist tanzeems including the one utilised by terrorists who car-ried out the Uri attack and was the region the Indian surgical strikes targeted.Also, Islamabad was slammed by Washington for the use of “terror proxies”as an instrument of state policy, a phrase that New Delhi has consistently favoured.Secondly, the signing of the new defence agreement between the two sidestermed the Communications Compatibility and Security Arrangement (COM-CASA) promises to open a new chapter in military-to-military operations whichis vital to put muscle into the strategic partnership. It is important to underlinethat this agreement was delayed in the main thanks to the entrenched anti-Americalobby in the Indian establishment which, especially after the election of DonaldJ Trump as US President, had let its aesthetic and/or ideological biases dis-tract from the single-minded pursuit of our national interest. In simple terms,Trump maybe whatever he is for the American and European liberals, leftistsand Islamic countries but his policies have been very good for India regard-less of blimps such as the threat of sanctions over Iranian oil imports and Russianmissiles which are matters for hard-nosed backroom negotiation and accom-modation and do not take away from the clear messaging and actions of hisadministration against the Islamist-socialist-liberal alliance that suits the Indianinterest. COMCASA means that the vast region from the US West Coast to theIndian Ocean is in play for bilateral, quadrilateral and multilateral military engage-ments and intelligence-sharing between both nations. Thirdly, the overarchingimpact of this deepening of Indo-US strategic ties will, if it is assiduously nur-tured and differences are sorted out calmly on the basis of reciprocity as andwhen they arise, ensure that we have skin in the game in the larger strategicgame which is unfolding to contain China's hegemonistic ambitions. Of course,New Delhi must simultaneously engage with Beijing and work to furthering bothcountries' economic interests but the syncing of polices between two majordemocracies, one a superpower and the other an emerging regional power withambitions of being a world power, is likely to have multi-faceted resonance whichno world capital including Beijing can ignore.

Three strikes…

…And we are in! Indo-US 2+2 dialogue has

achieved three important outcomes

Metro life

Labelling Delhi Metro as unaffordable is unfair but it must strike

a balance between financial sustainability and affordability

Violence in Kashmir: A lasting tragedywww.dailypioneer.com

P A P E R W I T H P A S S I O N

Recent incidents in Jammu & Kashmir vizthe killing of four policemen in Shopian dis-trict and the abduction of 11 family mem-

bers of six policemen from some villages andtowns of four districts of south Kashmir by ter-rorists have shocked the nation. Such instancesof targeted attacks on policemen’s kin were rarebefore.

Incidents like these are considered to be a ployof terrorists to demoralise our security forces andprevent local residents from supporting thecounter-terrorism campaign of the Army as wellas the Jammu & Kashmir Police. Killings of policeofficers and their informers have taken place ear-lier too but present incidents are considered a tac-tic used by terrorists to put pressure on the author-ities after our security forces conducted multipleraids and arrested many relatives of some terror-ists in the area a few days earlier. Incidents like thesewere also witnessed in 2016, when a local militant,Burhan Wani, was killed.In an incident reported on

August 29, militants fired indiscriminately upon apolice party at Shopian’s Arhama. In the latest inci-dent of August 30, terrorists barged into the homesof police personnel in Pulwama, Anantnag andKulgam districts in south Kashmir and kidnappedtheir family members. Those kidnapped includedbrothers of a policeman posted in Srinagar and theson of another policeman who worked as a cookat the police training centre. In her appeal to theterrorists, the mother requested to show mercy toher son. A video uploaded on social media show-ing the family and relatives pleading for the child’srelease went viral. All of those who were kidnappedwere freed later with a message from HizbulMujahideen leader Riyaz Naikoo that they resort-ed to the act in retaliation to the actions of the Army,Special Operations Group, and Jammu & KashmirPolice targeting homes of their members.Apparently, Naikoo’s father had been picked up bypolice after the killing of four local policemen inan ambush near Shopian as he was suspected of hav-ing provided shelter to the killers.

The kidnapping incidents underline severalhard realities the Kashmir Valley has been facingsince its accession to India 70 years ago on October26, 1947. The question now is: Why are innocentpeople being targeted? They are local inhabitantsand a part of the local cultural milieu. But in theeyes of the terrorists, they are probably guilty ofblasphemy because they are working under a sys-tem controlled and run by the ‘kaffirs’.

The new Governor of Jammu & Kashmir,

Satya Pal Malik, the first politician appointed tothe gubernatorial post in five decades, expressedhis willingness to reach out to the people to strikea better relationship and win people’s confidence.Discussions on development and grievances of thepeople with their representatives are his priori-ties. Immediately after taking over, as a first step,he cleared one of the crucial complaints of theMLAs by ordering disbursements from their LocalArea Development scheme that remained sus-pended for long.

Malik said, “People of Kashmir have to feel theyare not inferior in any manner. And while doingthis, I want to bring in a system where there is nocasteism, no favours and no sifarish (recommen-dation). I want to totally do away with sifarish. WhatI want to do is create a corridor of faith.” He alsodecided to increase the number of safe residencesfor policemen and ordered that compensation forfamilies of policemen killed in action to be at parwith CRPF and the Army.

This is not for the first time that somebody inauthority has given such assurances or made suchfriendly gestures. Such assurances were given ear-lier too and action had been taken to the extent pos-sible but it yielded no results. This change in theValley has not come overnight. The process of rad-icalisation started in 1931 after a young SheikhAbdullah came out of the Aligarh MuslimUniversity. He came to the Valley and started histirade against ruler Maharaja Hari Singh from amosque. Secularists like Jawaharlal Nehru saw

Sheikh Abdullah’s revolt against the Maharaja as awar against feudalism. In fact, for Sheikh Abdullahand his followers, it was a fight by good Muslimsagainst kaffirs.

Today, there is no Maharaja and the State isruled under a democratic system. But Islamic fun-damentalism continues. The latest victims of so-called jihad are poor Muslims who have chosento work for the Indian nation but are dubbed asagents of the kaffir. The immediate fallout of theaccession of Jammu & Kashmir to India was thetransfer of political power from Jammu toKashmir. Since then, top ministerial posts, suchas the Chief Minister, Home Minister, FinanceMinister et al have been the privilege of KashmiriMuslims. They are also major beneficiaries of jobsin Government and semi-Government offices.Delhi not only facilitated this transfer to appeasethe Muslim community but also granted the Statea special status through Articles 370 and 35A.

Article 370 drove the State away from thepolitical and Constitutional organisation of Indiaand empowered it to have a separate Constitutionand a separate flag. It also empowered the Stateto exercise all powers, including the power of tax-ation. Article 35A barred all the non-permanentresidents from exercising any citizenship right inthe State and deprived the daughters of the Stateof their natural right to marry persons of theirchoice from other parts of the country. Jammu& Kashmir is also the most privileged State in thecountry in terms of financial benefits it gets from

the Centre.It may be noted here that only one per cent

of the country’s people live in the State but it got10 per cent of all Central grants between 2001-2016. On the other hand, Uttar Pradesh, whichhas 13 per cent of the country’s population,received only 8.2 per cent of Central grant dur-ing the same period. While the per capitaCentral assistance to the border State during thisperiod was as high as ̀ 91,300 per person, in UttarPradesh, it was a paltry `4,300 per person. Also,during the same period, Jammu & Kashmir got`1.14 lakh crore in grants, which is more than 25per cent of the Central funds granted to 11 spe-cial category States.

Unrest in the Valley has nothing to do withunemployment, development or regional aspi-rations. Many residents in the State occasionallyraise Islamic State flags, shout slogans in favourof Pakistan or pelt stones at the Army personnelwhen they are busy chasing or eliminating the ter-rorists. Obviously, they are not seeking jobs anddevelopment — their motivation is somethingelse. They are fired by an Islamic zeal or Islamictheology which divides the world into believersand non-believers. And in their understandingof Islam, non-believers have no right to exist andbelievers have a divine duty either to turn kaffirsinto believers or eliminate them. That is the real-ity of Kashmir.

(The writer is a political commentator and a for-mer BJP Rajya Sabha MP)

AN EQUITABLE SOCIETY

Sir — This refers to the editorial,“Change for good” (September 7). TheSupreme Court’s ruling, decriminalis-ing homosexuality, is undoubtedly anappreciable and enthusiastic step. TheGovernment monumentally failed tojudge the sentiments of the LGBTIQcommunity that eagerly awaitedlegalised status of their demand.

This brings up a few prominentquestions: Are the queers not Indiannationals? Why did the Governmenttake lackadaisical interest to containtheir problem? This because Parliament

failed make amendments to Section377. The apex court had to intervene topreserve public interest and scrappedthe irrelevant Section to alleviate theirgloom and despondency.

But the top court’s ruling may notbe enough to end their problem. Socialsanction or recognition is absolutelymandatory for national acceptability.

Last but not the least, a legal actioncan only be successful if there is socialchange and progress. A law holds noground unless society progresses withtime. However, it is well hoped the thatthe LGBTIQ community will face noimpediment thereafter for public

approval and acknowledgement. It is ahallmark ruling indeed.

Nimai Charan SwainBhubaneswar

BOLD DECISION

Sir — Driven by the hope thatTelangana Chief Minister KChandrashekar Rao’s charisma wouldgive the Telangana Rashtra Samithi(TRS) a second spell in power and prob-ably the urge to avoid simultaneous LokSabha and State elections, the TelanganaGovernment has recommended disso-lution of the Assembly months beforeits term was to end in May-June next

year. TRS supremo rose to power in2014 on the crest of his popularity as thepolitical face of the Telangana statehoodagitation. Continuing good work, theTRS has built a strong political anddevelopmental narrative. Its politics asa party built solely on Telangana iden-tity has little competition. The party hasbenefited from Telangana inheriting arevenue generating metropolis likeHyderabad.

Chandrashekar Rao’s efforts toconstitute a federal front proved anon-starter owing to his insistence tokeep the Congress out of such a frontsince the latter is his main challenger in

Telangana. Luckily for him, the lack ofa popular leader to counter him andinternal divisions among various Stateleaders are trouble spots for theCongress. As time ticks, the Congressis also debating how to get its political-social-organisational-electoral planksoff the ground and present itself as acredible alternative, with some sectionsseeking projection of a leader of S JaipalReddy’s stature to counter Rao.

JS AcharyaHyderabad

Send your feedback to: [email protected]

It’s worrisome that even though

Jalaluddin Haqqani, the leader of

the Haqqani Network, is now

dead, the infrastructure that he

put in place is very much alive

I thank my friend Imran Khan. They

(Pakistan) will open the Kartarpur corridor

on Guru Nanak’s 550th birth anniversary.

— Punjab Minister

NAVJOT SINGH SIDHU

Navjot Sidhu is a Congress leader and his

statement thanking Pakistan is an indication

of what the Congress feels about Pakistan.

—BJP spokesman

SYED SHAHNAWAZ HUSSAIN

POINTCOUNTERPOINT

uality of education andsuitability of its productsdetermine the efficacy,pace of progress anddevelopment in various

sectors of growth and advancement.While none can doubt the sinceri-ty of initiatives, plans and pro-grammes that are launched fromtime-to-time to bring improve-ment, these are often impeded bycertain practices that have gainedground over the years, thanks to theentry of unscrupulous elements inthe sector of education.

A couple of decades ago, real-ising the gravity of damage causedby copying in mass examinations,the Uttar Pradesh Government hadissued a nakal virodhi Ordinance. Ithad its impact. However, it wasrepealed by the successiveGovernment, which was, in factknown to be soft towards the exam-inees. The malpractice has grown togigantic proportions, particularly inStates like Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.

Sadly enough, practices likemass copying in examinations, mak-ing degrees available for considera-tion, fixing up examination sectorsand the like, have not only ruined thelives of millions of young studentsbut also contributed to a decline ofcredibility of certificates/diplomasand degrees awarded by most of theinstitutions in these States.Improvement in the quality of edu-cation and its products in these twoStates is indeed a daunting task.

News reports showed a dip ofover nine lakh examinees in UttarPradesh board examinations for2018-19. Normally, these numbersincrease every year with growingpopulation. This unexpected andsignificant decrease in those aspir-ing to clear board exams deserve aserious analysis as it dampens aspi-rations of the young and damagesthe demographic dividend of India.

One is reminded of what hap-pened during the 2017-18 UttarPradesh Board exams. Around 10lakh students, though registered,dropped out of examinations ofclass X and XII. The pass percent-age was 75.16 in high school and

72.43 in intermediate. Failure, thatlasts a lifetime and consequentdemoralisation, was the fate of atleast 27 lakh students in a singleyear in one State. Is it not a num-ber that must make the entirenation sit up and think?

On the very first day of exams(2018-19), it was reported thataround 1.8 lakh examinees abstainedfrom appearing for the exams. Itincluded 1.27 lakh of class XII stu-dents. Numbers kept on increasing.The newly-formed StateGovernment had put in place strictpreventive measures to confront thenakal mafia and it made a difference.

The moot point is: The nakalmafia did not acquire “strength,power and credibility” amongstthe masses on its own. The obviousinference was its collusion withpoliticians and bureaucrats. It isencouraging that this year saw a fallin the purchase of certificates of suc-cess. A dip in the number of exam-inees of around a million speaksvolumes about how our educationsystem works.

Who can forget visuals of masscopying in board examinationsfrom Bihar’s Vaishali? Or theVyapam scam of Madhya Pradesha couple of years ago? It is widelybelieved that scandalous practicesto get entry into medical collegesand even in recruitment to StateGovernment jobs continueunchecked. All those who couldpurchase entry, walked into theprecincts of much-sought aftermedical colleges.

Generations of young soulshave suffered injustice at the handsof elders, people in position ofpower, and politicians. This wastageof young manpower is not confinedto Uttar Pradesh and Bihar only. Itextends its operations to most partsof the country. The original nakalmafia nexus now extends to sever-al other sectors dealing with theyouth and their future. Coachinginstitutions have indulged in priorleakage of question papers to ensuresuccess in professional entrancetests. These groups have createdlinks even with public service com-missions, teacher recruitment com-missions and one often comesacross instances of youngsters beingcheated by unscrupulous elements,some of whom may be highly edu-cated and well-positioned.

Absence of social consciousnessand awareness, that has led to anirreparable damage to the young

generation, poses a great challengeto the education system of the coun-try as well. If a reduction in thenumber of examinees in UttarPradesh is any indication, it is nottough to imagine how millions ofyouth are victims of this unscrupu-lous exploitation.

It is indeed very stressful to behappy about the much-hyped‘demographic dividend’ that awaitsthe young of India in the ageingsocieties abroad. The situation isaccentuated by several revealing fac-tors that include 10 lakh vacantposts of teachers in Governmentschools, upsurge of private teachereducation institutions, uncontrol-lable high fees charged by publicschools that indulge in rampantcommercialisation that leads toloss of credibility of Governmentschools.

The way India is treating itsyouth poses a serious question: Arewe really giving them their due?One would like to immediately addthat there are no issues with around30 per cent of children and youngpersons who are lucky to get edu-cation of ‘acceptable level’ in privateprestigious schools and a small per-centage of Government schools.One is inclined to infer that the

remaining 70 per cent is fated to geteducation that is of little help in set-tling down in a creative and con-tributing life.

Countries with strong educa-tional systems are fully conscious ofthe pace of change all around, andthe need to prepare their youngergenerations for a highly competitiveworld. This obviously cannot beachieved in an environment high-ly polluted by practices like copy-ing, bribing State functionaries toget into jobs and having degrees andcertificates without acquiring ade-quate knowledge, skills and value.

While India needs to combat theprevailing malpractices in educationsystem on its own, it will do no harmto look around, observe as to howeducation has improved globally.India, too, like other educationally-advanced nations must put intopractice the adage that investmentin education pays the highestreturns. No nation can remain slowand reticent on this count.

Renowned columnist, ThomasFriedman, in his latest book, ThankYou for Being Late: An Optimist’sGuide to Thriving in the Age ofAccelerations, attempts to compre-hend the pace of unprecedentedchanges taking place all around, and

has called the present times as an“age of accelerations”. Even if Indiais late in certain aspects of improve-ment, it must invigorate the systemwith new ideas and initiatives.Even in tough conditions, youngIndians have excelled practically inevery field — ICT, space sciencesand practically every promising areathat could change the world for bet-ter. The horizon of quality educa-tion, presently available roughlyonly to one-third of the students,needs to be extended to all, and fast.

Only such systems will be effec-tive in the future that are consciousof their ever-increasing responsi-bility, and ever-expanding needs andexpectations from every sector ofthe population — right from chil-dren to veterans. The youth are etch-ing to be a part of the change. Theyare the products of educationalexpansion and extension of accessto those who were kept out of whatwas termed as the ‘mainstream’. Forthem, the only ray of hope is edu-cation, about which Gandhiji hadenvisioned in 1922: “But there ishope, if education spreads through-out the country. From that peoplewould develop from their child-hood qualities of pure conduct, godfearing, and love. Swaraj would giveus happiness only when we attainsuccess in the task. OtherwiseIndia becomes the abode for graveinjustice and tyranny of the rulers.”

Should the Indian educationsystem not delve deep into ascer-taining what has gone wrong with-in, and outside, the system of edu-cation? It demands high levels ofprofessional commitment,dynamism and vision on the partof policy-makers and implementers,with inputs from academics andscholars.

We have issues in acceptingdiversity, achieving social cohesionand religious amity as the necessaryingredients in baking life better forall. As Nelson Mandela said: “Thepower of education extends beyondthe development of skills we need foreconomic success. It can contributeto nation building and reconcilia-tion.” The seeds of growth, devel-opment and progress are sown in theprimary schools, where value incul-cation and nurturance must begin inright earnest by abled teachersworking in a conducive environmentfor learning and interaction.

(The writer is the IndianRepresentative on the ExecutiveBoard of UNESCO)

JS RAJPUT

KRITISHAH

BALBIR PUNJ

In 2014, the Narendra Modi-ledGovernment came to power with anobjective of ‘minimum Government,

maximum governance, aimed at showcasingthe country as an investment-friendly des-tination. Thereafter, on various occasions, theGovernment announced measures to boostprivate sector investment in the country. Toits credit, several high-level policy decisions,like the Goods and Services Tax (GST) andInsolvency and Bankruptcy Code wereenacted to improve the business and invest-ment environment. However, the major testfor the Modi-led Government is yet to come.

India is on the cusp of laying the foun-dation stone for the next digital revolution(Industry 4.0). Industry 4.0, synonymouswith the digital economy, is expected to con-tribute one trillion dollar to national outputby 2022-23. Given the undeniable potentialof the digital economy to contribute outsizegrowth, it is incumbent on the Governmentto adopt a delicate, evidence-based approachto put in place an appropriate regulatoryarchitecture that ensures the country reapsfull dividends from Industry 4.0.

However, emergent policy recommen-dations in the past few weeks indicate thatthe Government is handling the nascent dig-ital economy with a 20th century mindset.These include recommendations of theCommittee of Experts, led by Justice (retd)BN Srikrishna, the draft e-commerce ‘poli-cy’ and the draft report of the WorkingGroup on Cloud Computing — the lattertwo, as reported by the media, amply illus-trate the perils of a dated mindset.

For starters, the decision-making processof all the three have remained opaque andhad negligible representation from privateorganisation, let alone investors. Therefore,the final outcome of these groups has beenskewed towards one direction, while ignor-ing the consideration of other stakeholders,in particular investors. For instance, despitehighlighting the economic cost and con-comitant adverse impact on the start-up

ecosystem associated with data localisationin a white paper, the final recommendationof the BN Srikrishna committee endorses thesame. Similar provisions for localisation havefound their way in Cloud computing rec-ommendations as well as the draft e-com-merce policy. It is important to note that stor-age of data in India would not mean accessto that data by local entities. Additionally,such measures can exacerbate cyber-securityrisks by compelling enterprises to invest inincreasing data storage capacity, whileapportioning fewer resources to ensure ade-quate security controls.

Furthermore, voices for protectionism,which are reminiscent of the discourse dur-ing the 1991 reforms, are getting louder.Particularly with respect to the draft e-com-merce policy, a document, which besidesguiding India’s position at the internationaltrade fora, is aimed at promoting the domes-tic e-commerce ecosystem. This policy willimplicate all aspects of the digital economy,and have a key role to play in India’s prepa-ration for the emergent digital revolution.

However, protectionist voices haveargued that the Government should for-mulate different rules for foreign and domes-

tic companies, citing that availability of abun-dant capital with foreign companies could killdomestic entrepreneurship.

India has come a long way from con-sidering investments as a bail out to solveexternal payment crises, to recognising thatinvestments bring with them growth andemployment, and consequently make a sig-nificant contribution to the economy at large.Constant liberalisation of the foreign invest-ment regime in the country is an exampleof this approach.

Nonetheless, while dealing with digitaleconomy, a constant international best prac-tice which is cited by protectionist voices isthat of China. The question to ask is: CanIndia afford to adopt the Chinese approach?Currently, India’s share in global valuechains (GVC) is estimated to be less than twoper cent, while China’s share is in double dig-its. Importantly, China’s peculiar political andeconomic outlook makes its policies inim-itable. For instance, most Chinese players inthe digital economy have been supported bystate-led investments.

Unlike China, India neither has the eco-nomic footprint to deter other countries fromtaking restrictive reciprocal measures, nor areour entrepreneurs and businesses support-ed by public sector finance. On the contrary,foreign capital has played a vital role in pro-viding India’s home-grown digital companieslike, Ola and Paytm, a global stage.Introducing onerous regulatory conditionsand uncertainty could impact the trust of theinvestors in India as a promising and stabledigital market, consequently damaging theimage of the country as an investment-friendly destination.

Therefore, it is important that futurepolicy-making is based on economic con-siderations and on evidence rather thanmyopic political considerations.Additionally, the need of the hour is to takea nuanced approach with respect to poli-cies which are expected to impact India’seconomic aspirations in the coming decade.Given that the 2019 Lok Sabha election arearound the corner, the Modi Governmentwill be under pressure to succumb to var-ious protectionist demands. It should takecare to avoid such pitfalls if it is to reap eco-nomic dividends in its second-term inpower which it projects to win.

(The writer is Partner, Koan AdvisoryGroup)

Overcoming digital divide

JAMMU & KASHMIRGOVERNOR SATYA

PAL MALIK HASEXPRESSED HIS

WILLINGNESS TOREACH OUT TO THE

PEOPLE TO WINTHEIR CONFIDENCE.

THIS IS NOT FOR THEFIRST TIME THAT

SOMEBODY INAUTHORITY HAS

MADE SUCH EFFORTS;THEY HAVE BEEN

TRIED TO THE EXTENTPOSSIBLE BUT TO NO AVAIL

Education system in distress

India’s educational sector is heavily polluted. There is a need to revitalise it. While prevailing malpractices must be

curbed, we must also look around and observe as to how education has improved globally

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Majoritarian morality based on ill-informed bigotry must end

This refers to the article, “Love actual-ly: When we change too” (September8) by Rinku Ghosh. By decriminalising

homosexual and transgender identity andbehaviour, the Supreme Court has putConstitutional rights above moral abso-lutism. Decriminaliasation has opened thedoors for LGBTIQs to come out of the clos-et and lead a life of dignity and fulfilment.

A person's sexual orientation is pre-determined to be amenable to choice orchange. In other words, sexual proclivities,

predilections and preferences cannot behelped. Chief Justice Dipak Misra's quota-tion from Goethe, “I am who I am, so takeme as I am”, said it all. In this day and agewe cannot define morality in narrow reli-gious terms and fulminate against homo-sexuality. Faith-based moralists suffer fromhomophobia and perpetuate the myth thathomosexuality is aberrant, deviant, unnat-ural and sinful, and undermine efforts madeto persuade people to appreciate ‘biologi-cal exuberance’. What currently goes as

‘majoritarian morality' is based on ignoranceand ill-informed bigotry. It has to be repu-diated and replaced with a new morality,based on scientific truths.

Post-verdict, we must perseverewith the campaign to change the mind-set of the majority and integrate theLGBTIQs into the broader population ona par with straights in terms of marriage,adoption and inheritance.

G David MiltonMaruthancode

EVEN IF INDIA ISLATE IN CERTAIN

ASPECTS OFIMPROVEMENT,

IT MUSTINVIGORATE THE

EDUCATIONSYSTEM WITH

NEW IDEAS ANDINITIATIVES

THE PIONEERLUCKNOW | MONDAY | SEPTEMBER 10, 20188

Even before uproar over the Muzaffarpur shelter-home rapecases has settled, media is awash with reports of a squalidproperty in Jammu & Kashmir’s Kathua district. Almost 20children given ‘shelter’ there were rescued by police who saidthe traumatised kids were abused daily. The perverse crueltyof, and official collusion in, child-abuse cases is India’sbiggest scandal. We keep failing our children.

THE PIONEERLUCKNOW | MONDAY | SEPTEMBER 10, 2018 9

50WORDEDIT

COMMENT & ANALYSIS

Save our children

RAGHAVPRIYADARSHI

India’s policies towards digital regulation are inadequate. Future policy-making must be

based on economic considerations and evidence, not on myopic political considerations

The end of a

jihadist lynchpin

The surge in attacks on kin of cops is a careful a ploy by terrorists to put pressure on the authorities. Such incidents underline the harsh realities Jammu & Kashmir has been facing since its accession to India

money 10Postal Dept is now reincarnatingitself. After diversifying its businesswith parcel directorate and paymentsbank, the dept has decided to set upinsurance firm as a special businessunit in two years. The request forproposal to appoint a consultant forsetting up insurance unit will befloated in the coming week

Manoj Sinha, Union Minister of Communication

The consultation process forfinalisation of the National

Financial Reporting Authority (Technical)

Rules with stakeholders is ongoing

PP Chaudhary, Union Ministerof State for Law and Justice

GOVT

FROM

BUZZ

LUCKNOW | MONDAY | SEPTEMBER 10, 2018

PTI n NEW DELHI

Alarmed by a nearly four-foldrise in GST compensation

to states for June-July, theFinance Ministry is crafting astrategy to shore up tax revenuesand engaging with states toidentify issues hindering theircollections.

Finance SecretaryHasmukh Adhia has startedmeeting with GST officers, bothfrom Central and State taxdepartments, in the State capi-tals to understand issues plagu-ing the GST collections.

There has been a spike inthe bi-monthly GST compen-sation paid to the states by theCentre.

The Centre paid `14,930crore to compensate states forrevenue loss incurred in Juneand July, a nearly four-foldjump compared to ̀ 3,899 crorepaid for the months of April andMay.

“A strategy is to be devisedto shore up GST revenues. The

amount of compensation to bepaid to each state varies everymonth and there is no set pat-tern,” an official said.

The reason for increasedcompensation also varied fromstate to state. For instance, inone of the cases, a state saw ahuge outgo on account of VATrefund following a court verdict,the official added.

A discussion to shore uprevenues has already happenedwith four states — Punjab,Himachal Pradesh, Puducherryand Jammu & Kashmir, while adialogue with Bihar andUttarakhand is slated to takeplace later this month.

The official said that one ofthe options being considered isstepping up anti-evasion mea-sures with a focus on top 30 tax-payers, but added that theCentre will ensure that the fixto the problem will not beintrusive on businesses.

“Data analytics will be putto use to examine the profile oftop 30 taxpayers to study theirtax payment pre and post GSTimplementation,” the officialadded.

The Finance Ministry hastargeted monthly GST collec-tions to be ̀ 1 lakh crore for thisfiscal, but the actual mop up has

fallen short of the target monthafter month. The sole exceptionwas the month of April inwhich the numbers exceeded ̀ 1lakh crore.

The collections stood at`94,016 crore in May, `95,610crore in June, `96,483 crore inJuly and `93,960 crore inAugust.

The Centre had agreed tocompensate the states for rev-enue loss on account of GSTimplementation for a period offive years.

The loss of revenue to astate is calculated based on thedifference between the actualrealisation to a state under GSTregime and the tax revenue itwould have got under the oldindirect tax regime after con-sidering a 14 per cent increaseover the base year of 2015-16.

In 2017-18, the Centre hadreleased `41,147 crore to thestates as GST compensation toensure that the revenue of thestates is protected at the level of14 per cent over the base yeartax collection in 2015-16.

The revenue gap of eachstate is coming down since Julyand the average revenue gap ofall states for last financial yearwas around 17 per cent, accord-ing to the Finance Ministry.

FinMin devising strategy

to boost GST revenues

PTI n NEW DELHI

Regulator TRAI has imposedpenalties on major tele-

com operators, includingReliance Jio, Bharti Airtel,Vodafone and Idea Cellular(now merged), for slipping onvarious service quality bench-marks for the March quarter,according to multiple sources.

The fines cover variousparameters and service areas,and all the operators are in theprocess of making the payment,sources told.

About `34 lakh fine hasbeen imposed for March 2018quarter on Reliance Jio, theaggressive player whose offer-ings since 2016 have shaken themarket and triggered a bruis-ing tariff war among operators.

The penalty on the Mukesh

Ambani-led firm is on accountof Trai-defined service qualityparameters, including Point ofInterconnect congestion, acces-sibility of call centres or cus-tomer care, and percentage ofcalls answered by operators(voice to voice) in a set time-frame.

An e-mail sent to RelianceJio seeking its response on thepenalty did not elicit aresponse.

Maintaining its watch onservice quality in the sector, theTelecom Regulatory Authorityof India (Trai) had tightenedthe rules and asked players toabide by its new quality of ser-vice (QoS) benchmarks fromOctober 1, 2017.

The latest assessmentreflects how the operators havefared between January andMarch 2018 on Trai’s new ser-vice quality benchmarks.

Bharti Airtel — which wasthe largest telecom operator inthe country till the merger ofVodafone and Idea Cellularshuffled the pecking order latelast month — has been fined tothe tune of about `11 lakh forthe three months to March, asper sources.

TRAI slaps fines onJio, Airtel, others overservice quality normsTELECOM GIANTSFINED FOR NOTMEETING SERVICEQUALITY NORMSIN MARCHQUARTER

PTI n NEW DELHI

Batting for free flow of dataacross borders, Google

CEO Sundar Pichai has writtento IT Minister Ravi ShankarPrasad saying such a step willencourage global companies tocontribute to India’s digitaleconomy as well as benefitIndian startups that are look-ing at expanding globally.

In a letter dated September5, Pichai said Google shares thevision of creating a truly ‘DigitalIndia’ and that the companyremains firmly committed tobeing part of India’s growthstory. He also thanked Prasad forhis visit to Google’s MountainView campus last month.

“Free flow of data acrossborders — with a focus on userprivacy and security — willencourage startups to innovateand expand globally andencourage global companies tocontribute to India’s digitaleconomy,” he said.

He further said the com-pany’s team in India will be intouch with his office to followup on some of the specific top-ics that were discussed duringtheir meeting.

Google did not respond toe-mailed queries on the matter.

The development comes at

a time when the Governmentis working on a data protectionframework for the country.

In July, a high-level panelheaded by Justice B NSrikrishna had submitted itsrecommendations and the draftbill on data protection toPrasad.

It had suggested steps forsafeguarding personal infor-mation, defining obligations ofdata processors as also rights ofindividuals, and mootingpenalties for violation. Thegovernment has sought publicfeedback on the contours of thedraft Bill by September 30.

The areas covered by therecommendations include con-sent, what comprises personaldata including sensitive per-sonal data, exceptions whichcan be granted, grounds forprocessing data, storage restric-tions for personal data, indi-vidual rights and right to beforgotten. It also imposes con-

ditions on the cross-bordertransfer of personal data.

The draft suggests thatevery data fiduciary in Indiashall ensure the storage of atleast one serving copy of per-sonal data on a server or datacentre located in India. Thegovernment can notify certaincategories of personal data ascritical personal data that wouldhave to be stored in a data cen-tre located within India.

The recommendations,which will have an impactacross sectors especially health-care and financial services,have met with criticism fromvarious quarters.

Recently, industry bodyInternet and MobileAssociation of India (IAMAI)had expressed concern aroundthe bill, saying certain clausesaround data localisation andinformation processing are“restrictive” and will hurtIndian startups. It had alsowarned that other countries,where Indian startups areexpanding to, may retaliate bydemanding reciprocal datalocalisation.

Besides, data localisationalso forces Indian startups tolook for more expensive andinefficient local solutions,IAMAI had said.

Free cross-border data flow tohelp startups: Google CEO

PTI n NEWDELHI

St a t e - r u np o w e r

major NTPC’strading armNVVN willbegin powersupply of 300MW toB a n g l a d e s hfrom midnight Sunday.

“The 300 MW power sup-ply to Bangladesh by theNVVN will commence from00:00 hrs of 10th September2018,” NTPC said in a state-ment.

NTPC Vidyut VyaparNigam Limited (NVVN) is awholly owned subsidiary ofNTPC Limited.

According to the state-ment, NVVN signed a PowerPurchase Agreement (PPA)with Bangladesh PowerDevelopment Board (BPDB)on September 6, 2018 at Dhakafor supply of 300 MW powerfrom Damodar ValleyCorporation (DVC) and backto back agreement has also

been signed with the DVC. The company said the test-

ing of additional 500 MWBaharampur (India) –Bheramara (Bangladesh) HighVoltage Direct Current(HVDC) link has been com-pleted. This will be used to sup-ply power to Bangladesh.

BPDB had invited bids forbuying 500 MW power fromIndian firms under short-term(June, 1 2018 - December 31,2019) and long-term (January1, 2020 - May, 31, 2033) time-frames.

NVVN had emerged asthe successful bidder (L1) forboth short-term and long-termsegments for supply of 300MW power.

NTPC arm to begin 300MW power supply toBangladesh from midnight

PTI n NEW DELHI

Leading exchange NSE hasissued notices to 36 firms,

including banking fraudaccused Mehul Choksi’sGitanjali Gems and debt-ladenABG Shipyard, for not sub-mitting their financial resultsfor the June 2018 quarter with-in the prescribed time limit, theCentral Depository Services(India) Ltd has said.

The firms also includeKwality Ltd, Unitech, AmtekAuto, Electrosteel Steels,Moser-Baer (I) Ltd, SRS, JVLAgro Industries, BharatiDefence and Infrastructureand Shilpi Cable Technologies.

Atlas Cycles (Haryana) Ltd,Surana Corporation, TodaysWriting Instruments, EducompSolutions, Orchid Pharma,Easun Reyrolle, Supreme

Infrastructure India,Panoramic Universal,Diamond Power Infra andNational Steel and AgroIndustries are also among the36 companies.

In a notice, the CDSLinformed investors that the 36firms have not submitted finan-cial results as per Regulation 33of LODR (Listing Obligationsand Disclosure Requirements)norms, within prescribed timelimit for the quarter ended June30, 2018.

“Exchange (NSE) has leviedfines and also issued notices forsuch non-compliances to thecompanies,” it said.

The CDSL noted that thecontinued non-compliance ofsuch regulations may lead tofurther regulatory action on thecompanies which may includesuspension.

NSE issues notices to Gitanjali

Gems, 35 others over June

quarter results: CDSL

PTI n MUMBAI

The Reserve Bank of India(RBI) is likely to conduct an

open market operation (OMO)purchase this week to infuseliquidity into the banking sys-tem, which is further going totighten on account of advancetax payments, say bankers.

The liquidity shortfall inthe banking system at present,according to them, is pegged at`50,000-60,000 crore, onaccount of intervention by theapex bank in the foreignexchange market to curbvolatility in the rupee.

It is set to reduce further ascompanies will have to file theiradvance tax by September 15.

“Nearly `50,000-60,000crore of additional liquidity willgo out of the system due toadvance tax payments. RBI isexpected to pump in liquidityinto the system through OMOsthis week,” a treasurer of a state-run bank said.

Under the OMOs, RBIbuys certain government secu-rities from the market, whichthereby provides liquidity tothe system.

The size of this week’sOMO buyback could be`10,000 crore, the treasurer

said.“When RBI intervenes in

the foreign exchange market,the rupee liquidity is beingsucked out of the system. So tothat extent, the RBI will pumpin liquidity,” said anotherbanker.

The central bank has beenintervening into the foreignexchange market to checkrupee volatility, which toucheda lifetime low of 72.11 againstthe US dollar in the intra-daytrade Thursday. It closed at71.73 Friday, after opening at71.95.

Since April 13, the country’sforeign exchange reserves havedepleted by nearly USD 26 bil-lion due to the RBI’s interventionin the foreign exchange market.

The treasury head of aprivate sector bank said theOMOs will help cool off yieldon 10-year benchmark gov-

ernment security, which is hov-ering above 8 per cent.

The yield on 10-year gov-ernment bond rose on concernsthat country’s current accountdeficit (CAD) would widen asrupee is depreciating and onconcerns inflation may gobeyond the RBI’s comfort zone.

According to Moody’s, thecountry’s CAD will widen to 2.5per cent of the GDP in the cur-rent fiscal year due to higher oilprices that has been accentuat-ed by rupee depreciation.

RBI has projected retail orconsumer price based inflation(CPI) to be at 4.6 per cent inthe second quarter of FY19, 4.8per cent in the second half ofFY19 and 5 per cent in the firstquarter of FY20.

Bankers also expect theapex bank to raise repo rate by25 basis points in the upcom-ing monetary policy review.

RBI may conduct OMO this weekto ease liquidity, say bankers

PTI n SAN FRANCISCO

Expanding its mid-tierofferings for consumers in

the US, Samsung on Sundaylaunched two mid-rangeAndroid devices — theGalaxy “A6” smartphone anda 10.5-inch tablet Galaxy “TabA”.

Single-SIM “Galaxy A6”,priced at $359.99 comes with a5.6-inch super AMOLED“Infinity Display”, 3GBRAMand 32GB internal storage,which is expandable up to400GB.

The smartphone runs onAndroid 8.0 Oreo and is fuelledby a 3000mAh battery, alongwith fingerprint as well asfacial recognition unlock sys-tem.

“The Galaxy ‘A6’ joins theGalaxy J, S and Note series,while ‘Galaxy Tab A’ joins theGalaxy Tab S4 tablet. Thestrengthened mid-tier givesconsumers more flexibility tochoose the phone or tabletthat best fits their needs,” thecompany said in a statementlate on Saturday.

Samsunglaunches twomid-rangedevices in US

PTI n NEW DELHI

With growing importdependence on

cooking oils, theGovernment is likely toannounce a over `10,000crore scheme under whichoilseeds farmers will becompensated if the ratesfall below the minimumsupport price.

The agriculture min-istry has prepared aCabinet note proposing anew mechanism ‘PriceDeficiency Payment’ onthe lines of Madhya PradeshGovernment’s BhavantarBhugtan Yojana (BBY) to pro-tect oilseeds farmers, thesources said.

Under the proposedscheme, the government will payto farmers the differencebetween the MSP and monthlyaverage price of oilseeds quotedin major wholesale markets.

India imports around 14-15 million tonnes of edible oilsannually, which is around 70per cent of the domestic

demand.In the budget this year, the

government had announcedthat it will put in place a fool-proof mechanism to ensureMSP to farmers. It had askedthink-tank to suggest mecha-nism in consultation with theunion agriculture ministry andstates.

“Based on the recommen-dations, the ministry hasmoved a cabinet note propos-ing implementation of the PriceDeficiency Payment (PDP)

scheme only for oilseeds,” thesources said.

However, the states willhave an option to choose eithera PDP or the existing PriceSupport Scheme (PSS). Thenew scheme will be imple-mented for up to 25 per cent ofthe oilseeds production of thestate, they said.

Under the PSS, the centralagencies procure commodi-ties covered under the MSPpolicy when prices fall belowthe MSP.

The FoodCorporation of India(FCI), the government’snodal agency for procure-ment and distribution offoodgrains, already pro-cures wheat and rice atMSP for supply throughration shops and welfareschemes.

The Centre alsoimplements MarketIntervention Scheme(MIS) for procurement ofthose commodities, whichare perishable in natureand are not covered under

the MSP policy.Under the MSP policy, the

government fixes the rates for23 notified crops grown inkharif and rabi seasons.

Madhya Pradesh,Rajasthan and Gujarat aremajor oilseeds growing states inthe country.

Total Oilseeds productionduring 2017-18 is estimated at31.31 million tonnes as against31.28 million tonnes during2016-17, as per the officialdata.

Govt may announce `10K cr schemeto ensure MSP to oilseeds growers

PTI n NEW DELHI

Entrusting the responsibility oflicensing air traffic controllers

with the DGCA would not have“much impact” on the opera-tional structure of the AirportsAuthority of India (AAI),according to a senior official.

As part of complying withthe ICAO norms, the CivilAviation Ministry has decidedthat the DGCA would be issu-ing licensing for air trafficcontrollers.

Currently, the AAI licens-es air traffic controllers as wellas provides air traffic controlservices.

By virtue of having longestablished practices and ade-quately trained and skilledmanpower, the AAI has beencomplying with the ICAO pro-visions pertaining to air trafficservices personnel, AAIChairman GuruprasadMohapatra said.

He also noted that as a reg-ulator the DGCA has full over-sight over the entire aviationfunctions, including that of air

traffic controllers.The Ministry’s decision to

“entrust the responsibility oflicensing of air traffic controllersof the AAI to the DGCA is inline with global best practices. Itwill not have much impact onthe operational structure of theAAI,” Mohapatra added.

The move comes against thebackdrop of India’s score fallingin the latest air safety oversightaudit carried out by the ICAO,the UN aviation watchdog.

The International CivilAviation Organisation (ICAO)carried out the Universal SafetyOversight Audit Programme forIndia in November 2017 andanother team of the watchdogcame in February this year. Theaudit result showed that thecountry’s score declined to 57.44per cent from 65.82 per cent ear-lier, placing India below Pakistan,Nepal and many other nations.

The decline was mainlydue to ratings of air traffic con-trollers being given by theAAI, which is also the providerof air traffic control services,officials said in July.

DGCA licensing air traffic controllersnot to have ‘much impact’ on AAI’soperational structure

PTI n NEW DELHI

Capital markets regulatorSebi may soon summon

ICICI Bank’s on-leave CEOChanda Kochhar and her hus-band with regard to a probeinto alleged regulatory lapseswith regard to his businessdealings, officials said onSunday.

Besides, some other topofficials of the bank, as alsofrom Videocon, which alleged-ly benefitted due to its associ-ation with Kochhar’s husband,are also likely to be called fortheir personal hearings regard-ing charges against them thatmay lead to the bank and itsembattled chief being slappedwith several crores of rupees infines and other penal actionsincluding ban from marketsand directorships.

According to top officials,the multi-agency probe intoICICI Bank and business deal-ings of the Kochhar familywill also be discussed by Sebi’sboard next week as it has beenfelt that coordinated efforts

are required to be taken bySebi, RBI and the Governmentin this case due to its systemicimportance.

The bank and Kochharhave been maintaining therehas been no regulatory viola-tion on their part and that shewas not aware of specific busi-ness dealings of her husband.

The board of Sebi has gotrepresentatives from the financeand corporate affairs ministriesas well as the Reserve Bank,besides its own whole time mem-bers and independent members.

Among others, this case isalready being looked into bythe RBI and the CorporateAffairs Ministry.

The Securities andExchange Board of India (Sebi)had earlier issued show causenotices to ICICI Bank, Kochharand others after its preliminaryexamination favoured initiatingadjudication proceedingsagainst them for alleged viola-tion of listing disclosure normsregarding ‘conflict of interest’ inbusiness dealings of her hus-band with Videocon Group.

Sebi may summon Kochharssoon; board to discusscoordinated efforts with Govt, RBI

It also engaging

with States to

identify issues

OPEN-ENDED

(GROWTH)

ADITYA BIRLA SUN LIFE MF

India Opportunities Fund - Dividend - Direct Plan 42.12

India Opportunities Fund - Dividend - Regular Plan 30.44

India Opportunities Fund - Growth - Direct Plan 169.48

India Opportunities Fund - Growth - Regular Plan 163.49

India Reforms Fund - Dividend - Direct Plan 20.49

India Reforms Fund - Growth - Direct Plan 20.46

India Reforms Fund-DIVIDEND 13.92

India Reforms Fund-GROWTH 19.68

Special Situations Fund - Dividend 17.7727

Special Situations Fund - Dividend - Direct Plan 23.8078

Special Situations Fund - Growth 25.707

Special Situations Fund - Growth - Direct Plan 26.5916

HDFC MUTUAL FUND

Index Fund Sensex Plus Plan-Direct Plan 469.996

Index Fund-Sensex Plus( FV-Rs32.161) 462.5623

Index Fund Sensex Plan-Direct Plan 342.4891

Index FundSensex Plan( FV Rs 32.161) 338.8105

ICICI PRUDENTIAL MUTUAL FUND

Blended Plan A - Dividend 13.5898

Blended Plan A - Direct Plan Bonus 10.9152

Blended Plan A - Growth 22.7587

Blended Plan A-Direct Plan - Dividend 13.6408

Blended Plan A-Direct Plan - Growth 23.0933

KOTAK MAHINDRA MUTUAL FUND

Bluechip Fund - Dividend 35.605

Bluechip Fund - Dividend - Direct 38.705

Bluechip Fund - Growth 237.03

Bluechip Fund - Growth - Direct 251.529

Emerging Equity Scheme - Dividend 24.185

Emerging Equity Scheme - Dividend - Direct 27.97

Emerging Equity Scheme - Growth 39.413

Emerging Equity Scheme - Growth - Direct 42.017

Equity Arbitrage Fund - Bimonthly 20.0717

Equity Arbitrage Fund - Bimonthly Direct 20.2746

Equity Arbitrage Fund - Dividend 10.6968

Equity Arbitrage Fund - Dividend - Direct 10.9957

Equity Arbitrage Fund - Fortnightly - Regular 23.0921

Equity Arbitrage Fund - Growth 25.484

Equity Arbitrage Fund - Growth - Direct 26.2056

Equity Arbitrage Fund -Fortnightly - Direct 23.5669

Equity Opportunities Fund - Dividend 25.686

Equity Opportunities Fund - Dividend - Direct 27.591

Equity Opportunities Fund - Growth 118.529

Equity Opportunities Fund - Growth - Direct 125.853

Equity Savings Fund - Direct - Growth 14.2804

Equity Savings Fund - Direct - Monthly Dividend 11.7741

Equity Savings Fund - Direct - Quarterly Dividend 11.5296

Equity Savings Fund - Regular - Growth 13.9064

Equity Savings Fund - Regular - Monthly Dividend 11.5022

Equity Savings Fund - Regular - Quarterly Dividend 11.4157

Global Emerging Market Fund - Dividend 16.214

Global Emerging Market Fund - Dividend - Direct 17.033

Global Emerging Market Fund - Growth 16.215

Global Emerging Market Fund - Growth - Direct 16.957

India EQ Contra Fund - Dividend 21.696

India EQ Contra Fund - Dividend - Direct 24.018

India EQ Contra Fund - Growth 53.224

India EQ Contra Fund - Growth - Direct 57.191

Infrastructure & Economic Reform Fund - Standard Plan-Dividend 18.44

Infrastructure & Economic Reform Fund - Standard Plan-Growth 20.239

Infrastructure & Economic Reform Fund- Direct Plan- Div Option 21.549

Infrastructure & Economic Reform Fund- Direct Plan- Growth Option 21.797

Small Cap Fund - Dividend 39.072

Small Cap Fund - Dividend - Direct 42.163

Small Cap Fund - Growth 75.664

Small Cap Fund - Growth - Direct 81.108

Standard Multicap Fund - Dividend 25.063

Standard Multicap Fund - Dividend - Direct 26.68

Standard Multicap Fund - Growth 35.143

Standard Multicap Fund - Growth - Direct 37.143

SAHARA MUTUAL FUND

BANKING & FINANCIAL SERVICES FUND- GROWTH - Direct 70.1546

BANKING & FINANCIAL SERVICES FUND- GROWTH OPTION 66.2928

BANKING & FINANCIAL SERVICES FUND-DIVIDEND - Direct 23.865

BANKING & FINANCIAL SERVICES FUND-DIVIDEND OPTION 23.4357

Growth Fund-Dividend 42.7005

Growth Fund-Dividend- Direct 43.4718

Growth Fund-Growth 147.0511

Growth Fund-Growth- Direct 163.7115

Infrastructure Fund FIXED PRICING -Direct-Dividend 20.328

Infrastructure Fund FIXED PRICING OPTION-Direct-Growth 28.4435

Infrastructure Fund FIXED PRICING OPTION-Dividend Option 19.3363

Infrastructure Fund FIXED PRICING OPTION-Growth Option 26.4794

Infrastructure Fund VARIABLE PRICING OPTION-Direct-Div 22.3093

Infrastructure Fund VARIABLE PRICING OPTION-Direct-Growth 31.3187

Infrastructure Fund VARIABLE PRICING OPTION-Dividend Option 22.533

Infrastructure Fund VARIABLE PRICING OPTION-Growth Option 30.6309

Midcap Fund-Auto Payout 80.4688

Midcap Fund-Auto Payout- Direct 85.7607

Midcap Fund-Bonus 80.4688

Midcap Fund-Bonus- Direct 85.7607

Midcap Fund-Dividend -Direct 36.009

Midcap Fund-Dividend Plan 35.4894

Midcap Fund-Growth Option - Direct 85.7607

Midcap Fund-Growth Plan 80.4688

Power & Natural Resources Fund - Dividend Option 18.7092

Power & Natural resources Fund- Growth - Direct 23.5577

Power & Natural resources Fund- Growth Option 21.9355

Power & Natural Resources Fund-Dividend - Direct 16.0357

R.E.A.L Fund - Dividend Option 21.7221

R.E.A.L Fund - Dividend Option- Direct 22.1496

R.E.A.L Fund - Growth Fund 21.7185

R.E.A.L Fund - Growth Fund- Direct 23.8668

Star Value Fund-Dividend - Direct 19.0981

Star Value Fund-Dividend Option 18.7943

Star Value Fund-Growth - Direct 26.1049

Star Value Fund-Growth Option 24.297

Super 20 Fund - Dividend - Direct 16.3573

Super 20 Fund - Dividend Option 21.1363

Super 20 Fund - Growth - Direct 22.9267

Super 20 Fund - Growth Option 21.1568

Wealth Plus Fund-Fixed Pricing Option-Direct-Dividend Option 33.2247

Wealth Plus Fund-Fixed Pricing Option-Direct-Growth 46.8549

Wealth Plus Fund-Fixed Pricing Option-Dividend Option 32.6996

Wealth Plus Fund-Fixed Pricing Option-Growth Option 45.9136

Wealth Plus Fund-Variable Pricing Option-Direct -Dividend 39.212

Wealth Plus Fund-Variable Pricing Option-Direct-Growth 54.6355

Wealth Plus Fund-Variable Pricing Option-Dividend Option 38.6735

Wealth Plus Fund-Variable Pricing Option-Growth Option 53.3429

SBI MUTUAL FUND

MAGNUM NRI FLEXIASSET PLAN-DIVIDEND 30.3025

MAGNUM NRI FLEXIASSET PLAN-GROWTH 30.1918

ONE INDIA FUND - DIV (PREV CLOSE ENDED UPTO 14/01/2010) 10.43

ONE INDIA FUND - GR (PREV CLOSE ENDED UPTO 14/01/2010) 10.43

OPEN-ENDED

(INCOME)

ADITYA BIRLA SUN LIFE MF

Banking & PSU Debt Fund - Direct Plan-Dividend 145.1503

Banking & PSU Debt Fund - Direct Plan-Monthly Dividend 105.8806

Banking & PSU Debt Fund - Direct Plan-Quarterly Dividend 104.6372

Banking & PSU Debt Fund - Regular Plan-Dividend 152.6348

Banking & PSU Debt Fund - Regular Plan-Growth 225.3752

Banking & PSU Debt Fund - Regular Plan-Monthly Dividend 104.4533

Banking & PSU Debt Fund - Regular Plan-Quarterly Dividend 103.337

Banking & PSU Debt Fund - Retail Plan-Growth 338.32

Banking & PSU Debt Fund - Retail Plan-Monthly Dividend 104.3175

Banking & PSU Debt Fund - Retail Plan-Quarterly Dividend 105.9659

Banking & PSU Debt Fund- Direct Plan-Growth 228.6828

Treasury Optimizer Plan - Discipline Advantage Plan - Growth 206.0699

MIP - Direct Plan - Growth 46.7502

MIP - Direct Plan - Monthly Dividend 13.159

MIP - Regular Plan - Growth 45.2074

MIP - Regular Plan - Monthly Dividend 11.7159

MIP II - Saving 5 Plan - Growth - Regular Plan 33.4962

MIP II - Savings 5 Plan - Growth / Payment - Direct Plan 34.4463

MIP II - Savings 5 Plan - Monthly Dividend - Direct Plan 13.7607

MIP II - Savings 5 Plan - Monthly Dividend - Regular Plan 12.9373

Monthly Income - Dividend - Regular Plan 12.5461

Monthly Income - Growth - Direct Plan 69.4224

Monthly Income - Growth - Regular Plan 66.8072

Monthly Income - Quarterly Dividend - Direct Plan 13.0941

Monthly Income - Quarterly Dividend - Regular Plan 12.2686

Monthly Income- Dividend - Direct Plan 13.7624

DHFL PRAMERICA MUTUAL FUND

FIXED MATURITY PLAN - SERIES 47 - DIRECT PLAN -GROWTH 14.096

FIXED MATURITY PLAN - SERIES 47 - REGULAR - GROWTH 13.9784

ICICI PRUDENTIAL MUTUAL FUND

Blended Plan B - Dividend Option - I 15.0425

Blended Plan B - Growth Option - I 23.9631

Blended Plan B - Monthly Dividend Option - I 10.266

Blended Plan B - Daily Dividend Option - I 12.4926

Blended Plan B - Direct Plan - Dividend Option - I 17.7362

Blended Plan B - Direct Plan - Growth Option - I 24.0808

Blended Plan B - Direct Plan - Monthly Dividend Option - I 10.3063

Blended Plan B - Direct Plan - Half Yearly Dividend Option - I 10.0227

Blended Plan B - Direct Plan - Quarterly Dividend Option - I 10.7

Blended Plan B - Half Yearly Dividend Option - I 10.3661

Blended Plan B - option I-Bonus 11.9703

Blended Plan B-Direct Plan - Daily Dividend Option - I 12.032

Child Care Plan Study - Cumulative 69.6122

Child Care Plan Study - Direct Plan- Cumulative 72.4243

Dynamic Bond Fund - Annual Dividend 10.6484

Dynamic Bond Fund - Bonus 19.6984

Dynamic Bond Fund - Daily Dividend 10.0171

Dynamic Bond Fund - Direct Plan - Daily Dividend 10.5669

Dynamic Bond Fund - Direct Plan - Growth 20.425

Dynamic Bond Fund - Direct Plan - Half Yearly Dividend 10.2129

Dynamic Bond Fund - Direct Plan - Monthly Dividend 10.4618

Dynamic Bond Fund - Direct Plan - Annual Dividend 10.6164

Dynamic Bond Fund - Direct Plan - Bonus Option 20.23

Dynamic Bond Fund - Direct Plan - Quarterly Dividend 10.4779

Dynamic Bond Fund - Growth 19.6985

Dynamic Bond Fund - Half Yearly Dividend 10.2388

Dynamic Bond Fund - Monthly Dividend 10.9656

Dynamic Bond Fund - Premium Plus Growth 20.7632

Dynamic Bond Fund - Quarterly Dividend 10.408

Interval Fund - Annual Interval Plan I - Retail Dividend 10.7894

Interval Fund - Annual Interval Plan I - Retail Growth 22.5035

Interval Fund Annual Interval Plan - I - Direct Plan Bonus 12.628

Interval Fund Annual Interval Plan I - Growth 17.983

Interval Fund Annual Interval Plan I - Direct Plan - Dividend N.A.

Interval Fund Annual Interval Plan I - Direct Plan - Growth 18.0131

Interval Fund Annual Interval Plan I - Dividend 10.8172

Interval Fund - Annual Interval Plan II - Retail Dividend 11.9883

Interval Fund - Annual Interval Plan II - Retail Growth 22.6497

Interval Fund Annual Interval Plan II - Direct Plan - Growth 23.4449

Interval Fund Annual Interval Plan II - Dividend 11.8549

Interval Fund Annual Interval Plan II - Growth 23.3622

Interval Fund - Annual Interval Plan III - Retail Dividend 11.7874

Interval Fund - Annual Interval Plan III - Retail Growth 21.8977

Interval Fund Annual Interval Plan III - Direct Plan - Growth 17.7978

Interval Fund Annual Interval Plan III - Dividend 10.8352

Interval Fund Annual Interval Plan III - Growth 17.7495

Interval Fund - Annual Interval Plan IV - Retail Dividend 11.6845

Interval Fund - Annual Interval Plan IV - Retail Growth 21.7637

Interval Fund Annual Interval Plan IV - Dividend 11.7708

Interval Fund Annual Interval Plan IV - Direct Plan - Growth 20.4818

Interval Fund Annual Interval Plan IV - Growth 20.4088

Interval Fund - Monthly Interval Plan I - Retail Dividend 10.0016

Interval Fund - Monthly Interval Plan I - Retail Growth 21.1844

Interval Fund Monthly Interval Plan I - Direct Plan - Dividend 10.0692

Interval Fund Monthly Interval Plan I - Direct Plan - Growth 13.4735

Interval Fund Monthly Interval Plan I - Dividend 10.0015

Interval Fund Monthly Interval Plan I - Growth 13.4637

Interval Fund - Quarterly Interval Plan I - Retail Dividend 10.0025

Interval Fund - Quarterly Interval Plan I - Retail Growth 21.9999

Interval Fund Quarterly Interval Plan - 1 Retail Qtrly Div Payout 10.0022

Interval Fund Quarterly Interval Plan 1 - Direct Plan - Growth 17.6211

Interval Fund Quarterly Interval Plan 1 - Direct Plan - Dividend 10.0017

Interval Fund Quarterly Interval Plan 1 - Growth 17.5944

Interval Fund Quarterly Interval Plan 1 - Dividend 10.0017

Interval Fund Quarterly Interval Plan 1 - Direct - Qtrly Div Payout 10.0023

Interval Fund - Quarterly Interval Plan II - Retail Dividend 10.0271

Interval Fund - Quarterly Interval Plan II - Retail Growth 22.0296

Interval Fund II Quarterly Interval - Direct Plan - Growth 20.0513

Interval Fund II Quarterly Interval - Dividend 10.0013

Interval Fund II Quarterly Interval - Growth 19.9985

Interval Fund - Quarterly Interval Plan III - Direct Qtrly Div Payout 10.0085

Interval Fund - Quarterly Interval Plan III - Retail Dividend 10.0083

Interval Fund - Quarterly Interval Plan III - Retail Growth 20.7912

Interval Fund III Quarterly Interval - Direct Plan - Dividend 10.1854

Interval Fund III Quarterly Interval - Direct Plan - Growth 17.5014

Interval Fund III Quarterly Interval - Dividend 10.0061

Interval Fund III Quarterly Interval - Growth 17.4312

Interval Fund - Series VI - Annual Interval Plan - A - Cumulative 13.9619

Interval Fund - Series VI - Annual Interval Plan - A - Direct - Cumulative 13.9796

Interval Fund - Series VI - Annual Interval Plan - A - Direct - Dividend 10.9291

Interval Fund - Series VI - Annual Interval Plan - C - Cumulative 14.9423

Interval Fund - Series VI - Annual Interval Plan - C - Direct - Cumulative 14.9835

Interval Fund - Series VI - Annual Interval Plan - D - Cumulative 14.9023

Interval Fund - Series VI - Annual Interval Plan - D - Direct - Cumulative 14.9454

Interval Fund - Series VI - Annual Interval Plan - D - Direct - Div 10.441

Interval Fund - Series VII - Annual Interval Plan - C - Cumulative 13.774

Interval Fund - Series VII - Annual Interval Plan - C - Direct - Cumulative 13.7979

Interval Fund - Series VII - Annual Interval Plan - C - Dividend 10.8654

Interval Fund II - Quarterly Interval Plan A - Direct - Qtrly Div Payout 10.2479

Interval Fund II - Quarterly Interval Plan A - Retail Dividend 10.0016

Interval Fund II - Quarterly Interval Plan A - Retail Growth 21.1917

Interval Fund II Quarterly Interval Plan A - Qtrly Dividend Payout 10.0015

Interval Fund II Quarterly Interval Plan A - Direct Plan - Dividend 10.0016

Interval Fund II Quarterly Interval Plan A - Direct Plan - Growth 13.6172

Interval Fund II Quarterly Interval Plan A - Dividend 10.0017

Interval Fund II Quarterly Interval Plan A - Growth 13.6425

Interval Fund II Quarterly Interval Plan A - Retail Qtrly Div Payout 10.224

Interval Fund II - Quarterly Interval Plan B - Retail Dividend 10.0124

Interval Fund II - Quarterly Interval Plan B - Retail Growth 20.9682

Interval Fund II Quarterly Interval Plan B - Direct Plan - Dividend 10.0051

Interval Fund II Quarterly Interval Plan B - Direct Plan - Growth 14.1819

Interval Fund II Quarterly Interval Plan B - Dividend 10.0016

Interval Fund II Quarterly Interval Plan B - Growth 14.2363

Interval Fund II Quarterly Interval Plan B - Qtrly Dividend Payout 10.0016

Interval Fund II - Quarterly Interval Plan C - Retail Dividend 10.0038

Interval Fund II - Quarterly Interval Plan C - Retail Growth 22.1759

Interval Fund II Quarterly Interval Plan C - Direct Plan - Dividend 10.0016

Interval Fund II Quarterly Interval Plan C - Direct Plan - Growth 14.0323

Interval Fund II Quarterly Interval Plan C - Direct Plan - Qtrly Div Payout 10.2204

Interval Fund II Quarterly Interval Plan C - Dividend 10.0039

Interval Fund II Quarterly Interval Plan C - Growth 13.9772

Interval Fund II Quarterly Interval Plan C- Instl Qtrly Div Payout 10.2061

Interval Fund II - Quarterly Interval Plan D - Retail Dividend 10.0799

Interval Fund II - Quarterly Interval Plan D - Retail Growth 22.795

Interval Fund II Quarterly Interval Plan D - Direct Plan - Dividend 10.0051

Interval Fund II Quarterly Interval Plan D - Direct Plan - Qtrly Div Payout 10.1535

Interval Fund II Quarterly Interval Plan D - Direct Plan - Growth 17.7073

Interval Fund II Quarterly Interval Plan D - Dividend 10.005

Interval Fund II Quarterly Interval Plan D - Growth 13.469

Interval Fund II Quarterly Interval Plan D - Quarterly Div Payout 10.2309

Interval Fund II - Quarterly Interval Plan F - Retail Dividend 10.0742

Interval Fund II - Quarterly Interval Plan F - Retail Growth 20.25

Interval Fund II Quarterly Interval Plan F - Direct Plan - Dividend 10.0168

Interval Fund II Quarterly Interval Plan F - Direct Plan - Growth 17.7138

Interval Fund II Quarterly Interval Plan F - Direct Plan - Qtrly Div Payout 10.0095

Interval Fund II Quarterly Interval Plan F - Dividend 10.1825

Interval Fund II Quarterly Interval Plan F - Growth 17.716

Interval Fund II Quarterly Interval Plan F Retail Qtrly Div Payout 10.0046

Interval Fund IV - Quarterly Interval Plan B - Retail Dividend 10.0009

Interval Fund IV - Quarterly Interval Plan B - Retail Growth 19.7164

Interval Fund IV Quarterly Interval Plan B - Direct Plan - Dividend 10.001

Interval Fund IV Quarterly Interval Plan B - Direct Plan - Growth 18.1794

Interval Fund IV Quarterly Interval Plan B - Direct Plan - Qtrly Div Payout 10.2084

Interval Fund IV Quarterly Interval Plan B - Growth 18.1012

Interval Fund IV Quarterly Interval Plan B -Dividend 10.1688

Interval Fund Quarterly Interval Plan - II Retail Qtrly Div Payout 10.234

Interval Fund V - Monthly Interval Plan A - Retail Dividend 10.0033

Interval Fund V - Monthly Interval Plan A - Retail Growth 20.0008

Interval Fund V Monthly Interval Plan A - Direct Plan - Dividend 10.0033

Interval Fund V Monthly Interval Plan A - Direct Plan - Growth 13.9183

Interval Fund V Monthly Interval Plan A - Dividend 10.0033

Interval Fund V Monthly Interval Plan A - Growth 13.8735

MIP - Direct Plan - Dividend Half Yearly 13.6318

MIP - Direct Plan - Dividend Monthly 12.7914

MIP - Direct Plan - Dividend Quarterly 13.8562

MIP - Direct Plan - Growth 49.7829

MIP - Direct Plan Bonus 13.7171

MIP - Dividend Half Yearly 12.8248

Multi Asset Allocation Fund-Annual Dividend - Direct 12.891

Multi Asset Allocation Fund-Growth 17.0712

Multi Asset Allocation Fund-Growth - Direct 18.0715

Multi Asset Allocation Fund-Monthly Dividend 14.3128

Multi Asset Allocation Fund-Monthly Dividend - Direct 13.1358

Multi Asset Allocation Fund-Quarterly Dividend 12.3879

Multi Asset Allocation Fund-Quarterly Dividend - Direct 12.9056

MIRAE ASSET MUTUAL FUND

Short Term Bond Fund - Regular - Mly Dividend Option 10.3019

RELIANCE MUTUAL FUND

Interval Fund - II - Series 1 -Direct Plan -Growth Option 12.842

Interval Fund - II - Series 1 -Dividend Option 10

Interval Fund - II - Series 1 -Growth Plan 12.8098

Interval Fund - II - Series 2 - Direct Plan - Div Plan - Div Option 10

Interval Fund - II - Series 2 - Direct - Growth Plan - Growth Option 12.9862

Interval Fund - II - Series 2 - Dividend Plan - Dividend Option 10

Interval Fund - II - Series 2 - Growth Plan - Growth Option 12.7938

Interval Fund - II - Series 3 - Direct Plan - Div Plan - Div Option 10

Interval Fund - II - Series 3 - Direct - Growth Plan - Growth Option 12.8033

Interval Fund - II - Series 3 - Dividend Plan - Dividend Option 10

Interval Fund - II - Series 3 - Growth Plan - Growth Option 12.7519

Interval Fund - II - Series 4-Direct - Growth Plan -Growth Option 13.6322

Interval Fund - II - Series 4-Dividend Plan -Dividend Option 10

Interval Fund - II - Series 4-Growth Plan-Growth Option 13.596

Annual Interval Fund - Series I - Direct - Growth Plan - Growth 18.1548

Interval Fund Annual Interval Fund Series-I -Dividend Option 10.1326

Interval Fund Annual Interval Fund Series-I- Growth Option 18.0627

Interval Fund Annual Interval Fund Series-I-Retail Plan Gr Option 24.3584

Interval Fund Annual Interval Fund Series-I-Retail Plan-Div Option 10.1326

Interval Fund-Monthly Interval Fund-Series-I -Dividend Option 10.0377

Interval Fund-Monthly Interval Fund-Series-I- Growth Option 23.6831

Interval Fund-Monthly Interval Fund-Series-I-Instl Plan-Div Option 10.0377

Monthly Interval Fund - Series I - Direct - Div Plan - Div Payout Option 10.035

Monthly Interval Fund - Series I - Direct - Growth Plan - Growth 23.7855

Interval Fund-Monthly Interval Fund-Series-II -Dividend Option 10.017

Interval Fund-Monthly Interval Fund-Series-II -Growth Option 23.6427

Interval Fund-Monthly Interval Fund-Series-II-Instl Plan-Div Option 10.017

Monthly Interval Fund - Series II - Direct - Div Plan - Div Payout Option 10.0171

Monthly Interval Fund - Series II - Direct Plan Growth Plan - Growth 23.869

Interval Fund-Quarterly Interval Fund Serie-II-Instl Plan -Div Option 10.0304

Interval Fund-Quarterly Interval Fund Series-II-Dividend Option 10.0904

Interval Fund-Quarterly Interval Fund Series-II-Growth Option 24.6344

Quarterly Interval Fund - Series II - Direct - Div Plan - Div Payout Option 10.0754

Quarterly Interval Fund - Series II - Direct - Growth Plan - Growth 24.787

Interval Fund - Qtrly Plan - Series I - Direct - Div Plan - Div Payout Option 10.1476

Interval Fund - Quarterly Plan - Series I - Direct - Growth Plan - Growth 24.2791

Interval Fund-Quarterly Interval Fund-Series-I - Growth Option 24.1447

Interval Fund-Quarterly Interval Fund-Series-I -Dividend Option 10.1439

Interval Fund-Quarterly Interval Fund-Series-I-Instl Plan-Div Option 10.1441

Interval Fund-Quarterly Interval Fund-Series-III- Dividend Option 10.0075

Interval Fund-Quarterly Interval Fund-Series-III- Growth Option 24.1663

Interval Fund-Quarterly Interval Fund-Series-III-Instl Plan-Div Option 10.0075

Interval Fund-Quarterly Interval Fund-Series-III-Instl Plan-Growth Option 17.933

Qtrly Interval Fund - Series III - Direct - Div Plan - Div Payout Option 10

Qtrly Interval Fund - Series III - Direct - Growth Plan - Growth 14.7594

Yearly Interval Fund - Series 1 - Direct - Div Plan - Div Option 10.4151

Yearly Interval Fund - Series 1 - Direct - Growth Plan - Gr Option 15.6087

Yearly Interval Fund - Series 1 - Dividend Plan - Dividend Option 10.4091

Yearly Interval Fund - Series 1 - Growth Plan - Growth Option 15.537

Yearly Interval Fund - Series 2 - Direct Plan - Div Plan - Div Option 10


Yearly Interval Fund - Series 2 - Dividend Plan - Dividend Option 10




Yearly Interval Fund - Series 8 - Direct - Div Plan - Div Option 10







SBI MUTUAL FUND

Magnum Income Plus Fund - Savings Plan (D) 11.1062

Magnum Income Plus Fund - Savings Plan (G) 12.5326

SUNDARAM MUTUAL FUND

Corporate Bond Fund - Direct Plan - Quarterly Dividend Option 14.3577

Corporate Bond Fund Annual Dividend Option 13.1984

BANKING AND PSU DEBT FUND RETAIL MONTHLY DIVIDEND 10.7649

BANKING AND PSU DEBT FUND - Bonus Option 13.8817

BANKING AND PSU DEBT FUND - DIRECT PLAN MONTHLY DIV 10.8711

BANKING AND PSU DEBT FUND - Regular Weekly Dividend 10.9239

BANKING AND PSU DEBT FUND DIRECT BONUS 13.8357

BANKING AND PSU DEBT FUND DIRECT - DIV REINVESTMENT OP 10.0282

BANKING AND PSU DEBT FUND DIRECT - WEEKLY DIV REINVESTMENT OP 10.5656

BANKING AND PSU DEBT FUND REGULAR DAILY REINVESTMENT 10.0278

BANKING AND PSU DEBT FUND REGULAR GROWTH 27.528

BANKING AND PSU DEBT FUND REGULAR MONTHLY DIV RE INVESTMENT 10.862

BANKING AND PSU DEBT FUND Retail - Growth 24.8158

BANKING AND PSU DEBT FUND- Direct Plan - Growth Option 27.6479

Corporate Bond - Direct Plan - Half Yearly Dividend Option 0

Corporate Bond Fund - Direct Plan - Growth Option 24.805

Corporate Bond Fund -Institutional - Quarterly Dividend 0

Corporate Bond Fund Direct Plan - Bonus Option 0

Corporate Bond Fund Direct Plan - Monthly Dividend Option 12.0986

Corporate Bond Fund Institutional - Growth 0

Corporate Bond Fund Institutional - Monthly Dividend 10.5417

Corporate Bond Fund Regular - Annual Dividend 13.0422

Corporate Bond Fund Regular - Growth 24.377

Corporate Bond Fund Regular - Half Yearly Dividend 13.3804

Corporate Bond Fund Regular - Monthly Dividend 11.6575

Corporate Bond Fund Regular - Quarterly Dividend 14.1851

MIP - Dividend Monthly 12.3602

MIP - Dividend Quarterly 13.5226

MIP - Growth 48.1366

JM FINANCIAL MUTUAL FUND

Income Fund - Bonus Option - Principal Units 19.4542

MIP Fund (Direct) - Bonus Option - Principal Units 25.9834

MIP Fund (Direct) - Dividend Option - Annual Dividend 20.9404

MIP Fund (Direct) - Dividend Option - Quarterly Dividend 19.5151

MIP Fund (Direct) - Growth Option 25.7788

MIP Fund (Direct)- Dividend Option - Monthly Dividend 12.6302

MIP Fund - Bonus Option - Principal Units 24.5085

MIP FUND-Annual Dividend 19.4034

MIP FUND-Growth 24.1503

MIP FUND-Monthly Dividend 11.4362

MIP FUND-Quarterly Dividend 18.1976

Short Term Fund (Direct) - Daily Dividend Option 13.718

Short Term Fund (Direct) - Dividend Option 10.5735

Short Term Fund (Direct) - Growth Option 25.3377

KOTAK MAHINDRA MUTUAL FUND

Banking and PSU Debt - Annual Dividend 16.1842

Banking and PSU Debt - Daily Dividend Reinvestment 10.188

Banking and PSU Debt - Direct Daily Dividend Reinvestment 10.2604

Banking and PSU Debt - Growth 39.8932

Banking and PSU Debt - Monthly Dividend 10.4754

Banking and PSU Debt Direct - Annual Dividend 17.1427

Banking and PSU Debt Direct - Growth 40.4865

Banking and PSU Debt Direct - Monthly Dividend 10.5758

Bond - Annual Dividend - Direct 21.9747

Bond - Growth - Direct 49.9106

Bond - Quaterly Dividend - Direct 13.5075

Bond Regular Plan Annual Dividend 29.2654

Bond Regular Plan Bonus Plan 30.696

Bond Regular Plan Bonus Plan - Direct 22.7736

Bond Regular Plan Direct HF dividend 40.4758

Bond Regular Plan Growth 47.7673

Bond Regular Plan Quaterly Dividend 10.6819

Bond-Deposit-Dividend 13.6554

Bond-Deposit-Growth 42.9354

Bond Short Term Plan - Direct Plan - Normal Dividend 10.2236

Bond Short Term Plan-(Dividend) 10.096

Bond Short Term Plan-(Dividend) - Direct 10.9007

Bond Short Term Plan-(Growth) 33.038

Bond Short Term Plan-(Growth) - Direct 34.43

Bond Short Term Plan-(Half Yearly Dividend) 12.0495

Bond Short Term Plan-(Half Yearly Dividend) - Direct 12.2336

Coporate Bond Fund-Retail Plan-Growth Option 2034.9063

Corporate Bond Fund-Direct Plan- Growth Option 2397.5128

Corporate Bond Fund-Direct Plan- Monthly Dividend Option 1103.4388

Corporate Bond Fund-Institutional Plan-Growth Option 2090.4924

Corporate Bond Fund- Regular Plan-Growth Option 2347.5101

Corporate Bond Fund- Regular Plan-Monthly Dividend Option 1049.6292

Corporate Bond Fund- Regular Plan-Quarterly Dividend Option 1066.6837

Corporate Bond Fund- Retail Plan- Monthly Dividend Option 1040.0538

Corporate Bond Fund- Retail Plan- Weekly Dividend Option 1052.3061

Corporate Bond Fund- Retail Plan-Daily Dividend Option 1052.6393

Corporate Bond Fund- Standard Plan-Daily Dividend Option 1052.7994

Corporate Bond Fund- Standard Plan-Weekly Dividend Option 1202.9939

Credit Risk Fund - Annual Dividend 10.5039

Credit Risk Fund - Annual Dividend - Direct 15.4241

Credit Risk Fund - Growth 19.4972

Credit Risk Fund - Growth - Direct 20.5342

Credit Risk Fund - Monthly Dividend 10.3201

Credit Risk Fund - Monthly Dividend - Direct 10.5435

Credit Risk Fund - Quarterly Dividend 10.9056

Credit Risk Fund - Quaterly Direct Dividend - Direct 10.2942

Credit Risk Fund - Weekly Dividend 9.995

Credit Risk Fund - Weekly Dividend - Direct 10.4192

Debt Hybrid - Growth 29.9874

Debt Hybrid - Growth - Direct 31.7869

Debt Hybrid - Monthly Dividend 12.2028

Debt Hybrid - Monthly Dividend - Direct 12.6561

Debt Hybrid - Quarterly Dividend 13.6625

Debt Hybrid - Quarterly Dividend - Direct 14.2939

Dynamic Bond Fund - Daily Dividend - Direct 10.1362

Dynamic Bond Fund - Growth - Direct 23.4341

Dynamic Bond Fund - Quarterly Dividend - Direct 10.8777

Dynamic Bond Fund - Weekly Dividend Direct 12.8673

Dynamic Bond Fund -Regular Plan- Monthly Dividend Option 21.7937

Dynamic Bond Fund Regular Plan Daily Dividend 10.0364

Dynamic Bond Fund Regular Plan Growth 22.643

Dynamic Bond Fund Regular Plan Quarterly Dividend 11.0779

Dynamic Bond Fund Regular Plan Weekly Dividend 10.5335

Dynamic Bond Fund-Direct Plan-Monthly Dividend Option 22.4547

Flexi-Debt - Regular Plan - Dividend 10.7268

Flexi-Debt - Regular Plan - Growth 25.1289

Flexi-Debt- Regular Plan - Daily Dividend 14.3817

Flexi Debt - Regular Plan- Weekly Dividend 10.035

Low Duration - Regular Plan-Weekly Dividend 1014.511

Low Duration Fund - Direct Plan- Monthly Dividend Option 1070.9563

Low Duration Fund - Regular Plan - Normal Dividend 1070.089

Low Duration Fund Direct Plan- Bonus Option 1321.4208

Low Duration Fund- Direct Plan- Growth Option 2260.3889

Low Duration Fund- Direct Plan- Weekly Dividend Option 1199.0349

Low Duration Fund- Regular Plan-Growth Option 2183.4051

Low Duration Fund- Regular Plan-Monthly Dividend Option 1021.9266

Low Duration Fund-Retail Plan-Growth Option 1971.7193

Low Duration Fund-Retail Plan-Monthly Dividend Option 1020.796

Low Duration Fund-Retail Plan-Weekly Dividend Option 1021.1728

Medium Term Fund - Annual Dividend 10.6707

Medium Term Fund - Direct - Annual Dividend 15.268

Medium Term Fund - Direct - Quarterly Dividend 10.7677

Medium Term Fund - Direct Growth 15.2311

Medium Term Fund - Growth 14.6169

Medium Term Fund - Quarterly Dividend 10.7395

Multi Asset Allocation Fund-Annual Dividend 12.0699

Scheme NAV

funds 11LUCKNOW | MONDAY | SEPTEMBER 10, 2018

world 12LUCKNOW | MONDAY | SEPTEMBER 10, 2018

TROTTINGTROTTING

19 KILLED IN SOUTHSUDAN PLANE CRASHJuba: At least 19 people havedied after a commercial aircraftcrashed into a river on Sundaywhile attempting to land at anairport in central South Sudan,an official told the media. Threepeople reportedly survived.

29 KILLED AS ANTI-TALIBANLEADER MOURNED IN AF Kabul: Insurgents killed at least29 Afghan security forces inseparate attacks as manymarked the 17th anniversary ofthe killing of a prominent anti-Taliban leader, officials saidSunday.

IRAN CONFIRM STRIKESON KURD REBELS IN IRAQTehran: Iran’s RevolutionaryGuards confirmed on Sundaythey had launched deadlymissile strikes against Kurdishrebels in northern Iraq theprevious day.

NEPALI PREZ APPOINTSNEW ARMY CHIEFKathmandu: Nepali PresidentBidya Devi Bhandari appointedGeneral Purna Chandra Thapa asthe country’s new Army chief.

84 DEAD IN FIGHTING INYEMEN AFTER TALKS FAILKhokha (Yemen): Clashes andair strikes have left 84 peopledead around Yemen’s Red Seaport city of Hodeida since thecollapse of UN-brokered peacetalks, hospital sources said.

CLIMATE PROTESTS PEAKIN US AS UN TALKS FALTERSan Francisco: Tens ofthousands of people across theglobe, including India, took tothe streets to demand thatgovernments step up action onglobal warming, even as UnitedNations climate talks taskedwith breathing life into the ParisAgreement faltered.

Washington: Donald Trumptried but failed on two separateoccasions to pronounce theword ‘anonymous’ as the USPresident gave a speech slam-ming an unattributed New YorkTimes op-ed that offered adamning evaluation of his pres-idency. The explosive op-ed “IAm Part of the ResistanceInside the TrumpAdministration”, supposedlywritten by a “senior official”,declared that many of the“senior officials in his ownadministration are workingdiligently from within to frus-trate parts of (Trump’s) agen-da and his worst inclinations”.

Speaking to his supporters

in Montana on Thursday,Trump criticised the write-upthat paints a chaotic picture oflife inside the White House.“The latest active resistance isthe op-ed published in thefailing New York Times by ananonymous, really, an anony-mous, gutless coward,” a furi-ous Trump can be heard saying

in the video that has goneviral. But as the presidentattempted to say anonymous,the word came out soundingmore like ‘anon-mous’. Hestopped and decided to haveanother go at the tricky word.

As he struggled to get histongue around the word, itcame out as “anominous gut-less, coward”. The faux pasquickly provoked a huge reac-tion on social media, withsome mistaking him for sayingthe word ‘enormous’ or ‘omi-nous’, a media report said.

The New York Times pub-lished the anonymous opinionpiece about Trump’s presiden-cy on September 5. AP

AP n ANAHEIM, CALIF.

Former President BarackObama said the November

mid-term elections will giveAmericans “a chance to restoresome sanity in our politics,”taking another swipe at his suc-cessor as he raises his profilecampaigning for fellowDemocrats to regain control ofthe House.

Obama didn’t mentionPresident Donald Trump byname during a 20-minutespeech Saturday in the keySouthern California battle-ground of Orange County butthe allusions were clear.

“We’re in a challengingmoment because, when youlook at the arc of American his-tory, there’s always been a pushand pull between those whowant to go forward and those

who want to look back,between those who want todivide and those are seeking tobring people together, betweenthose who promote the politicsof hope and those who exploitthe politics of fear,” he said.

His appearance — one dayafter a strongly worded critiqueof Trump at University ofIllinois at Urbana-Champaign— touched on themes of retire-

ment security, climate changeand education.

“If we don’t step up, thingscan get worse,” the formerpresident told the audience atthe Anaheim ConventionCenter. “In two months, wehave the chance to restoresome sanity to our politics. Wehave the chance to flip theHouse of Representatives andmake sure there are real checksand balances in Washington.”

Obama gave shout-outs toseven Democratic candidatesin competitive House districtsacross California that are con-sidered crucial to the party’sefforts to oust Republicansfrom control. Four of those dis-tricts are at least partly inOrange County, a formerlyreliable GOP bastion that wentfor Hillary Clinton in the 2016presidential election.

AP n BEIJING

China’s trade surplus withthe United States widened

to a record $31 billion inAugust as exports surgeddespite American tariff hikes,potentially adding fuel toPresident Donald Trump’s bat-tle with Beijing over industri-al policy.

Exports to the UnitedStates rose 13.4 per cent to$44.4 billion, ticking up fromJuly’s 13.3 per cent growth,according to customs data.Imports of US goods rose 11.1per cent to $13.3 billion, decel-erating from the previousmonth’s 11.8 per cent.

That could help reignite USdemands that Beijing narrowits trade gap, which has tem-porarily been overshadowed bytheir clash over complaintsChina steals or pressures for-eign companies to hand overtechnology.

The two sides haveimposed 25 per cent tariffs on$50 billion of each other’sgoods. The Trump adminis-tration is deciding whether toextend penalties to another$200 billion list of Chineseimports. Beijing says it willretaliate. With no settlement insight, the spiraling conflictbetween the two biggesteconomies has fed fears it willchill global trade and eco-nomic growth.

The Commerce Ministryexpressed confidence Thursdaythat China can maintain“steady and healthy” econom-ic growth despite the tradepressure.

Islamabad: China and Pakistanpledged on Sunday to jointlypromote the construction ofthe China-Pakistan EconomicCorridor (CPEC) and pushforward the development ofbilateral ties.

The pledges were made asvisiting Chinese StateCouncillor and ForeignMinister Wang Yi met PakistaniPresident Arif Alvi and PrimeMinister Imran Khan inIslamabad separately.

Alvi, who was sworn in asthe President on Sunday,received Wang as his first for-eign guest, Xinhua news agencyreported.

IANS

AP n ATLANTA

Tropical StormFlorence swirled

westward across theAtlantic on Sunday, andforecasters said it willstrengthen into a majorhurricane that could hitthe East Coast towardthe end of the week.

Florence is expectedto become a major hurricaneby Monday, NationalHurricane Centre said. Miami-based centre defines a majorhurricane as one with wind

speed greater than 110 mph.A “rapid intensification”

was expected to begin Sunday.At 5 am EDT, Florence’s max-imum sustained winds were

estimated at 70 mph.The storm was centeredabout 1,235 kms south-east of Bermuda andmoving west at 6 mph. Itis forecast to approachthe southeastern UScoast on Thursday.

The hurricane cen-ter said it was still tooearly to predict its exactpath. But forecasters said

that the risk of “direct impactscontinues to increase” and thata huge coastal area from north-ern Florida to North Carolinashould prepare for a major hit.

AP n LONDON

Former British ForeignSecretary Boris Johnson has

compared Prime MinisterTheresa May’s plan for Brexit toputting the country’s constitu-tion in a “suicide vest” andhanding the detonator to theEuropean Union — remarksthat drew condemnation fromcolleagues on Sunday.

The attack, and Johnson’schoice of metaphor, widenedthe divide in the governingConservative Party over Brexit.

Johnson, a strong support-er of Brexit, quit May’sGovernment in July afterrejecting her proposal for close

economic ties with the blocafter the UK leaves next year.His article in the Mail onSunday ramped up speculationthat he plans to challenge herleadership.

Johnson said May’s plan,which would keep the UKaligned to EU regulations inreturn for free trade in goods,

was a “humiliation” and amount-ed to “agreeing to take EU rules,with no say on those rules.”

He also said that by agree-ing that the UK’s NorthernIreland must effectively remainin a customs union with thebloc in order to avoid a hardborder with EU memberIreland, “we have wrapped asuicide vest around the Britishconstitution — and handedthe detonator” to the EU.

Foreign Office MinisterAlan Duncan tweeted that thecomments marked “one of themost disgusting moments inmodern British politics” andshould be “the political end ofBoris Johnson.”

AP n WASHINGTON

The White House seetheswith intrigue and back-

stabbing as aides hunt for theanonymous Deep (state) Throatamong them. A President feelsbesieged by tormentors — BobWoodward is driving him crazy— so he tends his version of anenemies list, wondering aloudif he should rid himself of hisattorney general or the specialprosecutor or both.

For months, the Trumpadministration and its scandalshave carried whiffs of Watergateand drawn comparisons to thecharacters and crimes of the

Nixon era. But this week, his-tory did not just repeat itself, itclimbed out of the dustbin andreturned in the flesh.

There was John Deanagain, testifying on the Hill,warning anew about a canceron the presidency.

Nearly every element in President Donald Trump’s trouble has a Watergate parallel.

Special prosecutor RobertMueller is leading an indepen-dent investigation sparked by abreak-in at the DemocraticNational Committee, the sametarget that opened theWatergate can of worms,

though this time the burglarywas digital and linked toMoscow, not the Oval Office.

President Richard Nixonfirst ordered his attorney gen-eral, and then the deputy, to firethe Watergate special prosecu-tor; they refused and quit on aconvulsive weekend that gavehistory the Saturday NightMassacre but did not derail theindependent investigation orNixon’s collapse for long.Trump, for his part, fired theacting attorney general as wellas FBI Director James Comey,triggering the Mueller investi-gation that has dogged him formore than a year.

AP n PYONGYANG

North Korea rolled out someof its latest tanks and

marched its best-trained goose-stepping units in a major mil-itary parade on Sunday tomark its 70th anniversary, butheld back its most advancedmissiles and devoted nearly halfof the event to civilian effortsto build the domestic economy.

The strong emphasis onthe economy underscoresleader Kim Jong Un’s new strat-egy of putting economic devel-opment front and center.

Tens of thousands of NorthKoreans waving brightly col-ored plastic bouquets filledPyongyang’s Kim Il SungSquare as the parade began.Residents of Pyongyang, NorthKorea’s capital, trained formonths for the anniversaryand held up the bouquets tospell out words and slogans thatcan be seen from the VIPviewing area.

Kim attended the morningparade but did not address theassembled crowd, whichincluded the head of theChinese parliament and high-level delegations from countries that have friendly tieswith the North.

At the end of the two-hourevent he strolled to the edge ofthe balcony with the Chinesespecial envoy, Li Zhanshu, thethird-ranking member inChina’s ruling CommunistParty. The two held up theirjoined hands to symbolize thecountries’ traditionally closeties, though the absence ofChinese President Xi Jinpingcould indicate Beijing still hassome reservations about Kim’sinitiatives.

Senior statesman KimYong Nam, the head of NorthKorea’s Parliament, set the rel-

atively softer tone for the eventwith an opening speech thatemphasized the economic goalsof the regime, not its nuclearmight. He called on the mili-tary to be ready to work to helpbuild the economy.

After a truncated paradefeaturing tanks and some ofNorth Korea’s biggest artillery,fewer than the usual number ofmissiles and lots of goose-step-ping units from all branches ofthe military, the focus switchedto civilian groups ranging fromnurses to students to construc-tion workers, many with color-ful floats beside them.

The combining of mili-tary and civilian sections is afamiliar North Korean paradeformat. The past two biganniversaries of North Korea’sfounding, in 2008 and 2013,did not feature the KoreanPeople’s Army, only the civildefense units, which are offi-cially called “Worker PeasantRed Guards.”

Although North Koreastages military parades almostevery year, and held one justbefore the Olympics began inSouth Korea in February thisyear, Sunday’s parade came ata particularly sensitive time.

AP n STOCKHOLM

Sweden went to the polls onSunday in a general election

that is expected to be one of themost unpredictable andthrilling races in theScandinavian country fordecades amid heated debate onimmigration.

The election will beSweden’s first since theGovernment in 2015 allowed1,63,000 migrants into thecountry of 10 million. While farless than what Germany tookin that year, it was the most percapita of any European nation.

“This election is a referen-dum about our welfare,” PrimeMinister Stefan Lofven said.“It’s also about decency, abouta decent democracy... and notletting the Sweden Democrats,an extremist party, a racistparty, get any influence in theGovernment.”

About 7.5 million regis-tered voters choose fromalmost 6,300 candidates for a

four-year term in the 349-seatRiksdag, or Parliament. It’shighly unlikely that any single

party will get a majority, or 175seats.

The latest opinion pollconducted by pollster Novusfor public broadcaster SVTsuggested Friday that Lofven’sruling Social Democrats wouldsubstantially lose seats, butstill emerge as the party with the most votes with anestimated 24.9 per cent of ballots.

If realised, it would be ahistorical low for the traditionalleft-wing party, which hasdominated Swedish politics inthe post-World War II era.

The poll showed that thefar-right, anti-immigrationSweden Democrats — led byJimmie Akesson — would get19.1 per cent of the votes inwhat would be a major increasecompared to the 13 per centsupport received in 2014.

The centre-right ModerateParty is set to take to take third

place with 17.7 per cent.With a steady rise in pop-

ularity of the SwedenDemocrats, immigration hasbecome hot topic of election.

The party, rooted in a neo-Nazi movement has worked tosoften its image, has played arole in breaking down long-standing taboos on whatSwedes could say openly aboutimmigration and integrationwithout being shunned asracists.

During a heated debate onFriday evening of party leaders,Akesson caused a stir by blam-ing migrants for the difficultiesthey often have in findingemployment and not adjustingto Sweden.

The broadcaster that airedthe televised debate, SVT, after-ward called his remarksdegrading and against thedemocratic mandate of publicbroadcasting.

Washington: Federal prose-cutors are backtracking ontheir allegation that a Russianwoman accused of working asa secret agent offered to tradesex for access, according to aJustice Department court filing.

Prosecutors had earlieraccused Maria Butina, a gunrights activist in U.S. custody oncharges she worked as a covertagent and tried to establishback-channel lines of commu-nication to the Kremlin, ofoffering to exchange sex for aposition with a special interestorganization.

The salacious allegation,which immediately escalatedthe public interest in the case,was based on a series of textmessages to and from Butinaand other information that pros-ecutors say they had obtained.

But in a new court filing,prosecutors said they misinter-preted the messages. They said“even granting that the govern-ment’s understanding of thisparticular text conversation wasmistaken,” there is other evi-dence to support keeping Butinain custody as the case against hermoves forward in Washington.

Butina was arrested in July,accused of gathering intelli-gence on American officialsand political organisations.Prosecutors say she used hercontacts with the National RifleAssociation and the NationalPrayer Breakfast to develop rela-tionships with US politicians andgather information for Russia.They also say she used her roleas a student at AmericanUniversity in Washington as acover for her activities. AP

Washington: The mysteriouslunar swirls, one of the solarsystem’s most beautiful opticalanomalies, may be a relic of theMoon’s ancient volcanic activ-ity and an internally generatedmagnetic field, scientists said.

Lunar swirls resemblebright, snaky clouds painted onthe Moon’s dark surface. Themost famous, called ReinerGamma, is about 40 miles longand popular with backyardastronomers.

Most lunar swirls sharetheir locations with powerful,localised magnetic fields. Thebright-and-dark patterns mayresult when those magneticfields deflect particles fromthe solar wind and cause someparts of the lunar surface toweather more slowly.

“But the cause of thosemagnetic fields, and thus of theswirls themselves, had longbeen a mystery,” said SoniaTikoo, an assistant professor inRutgers University in the US.

“To solve it, we had to findout what kind of geological fea-ture could produce these mag-netic fields — and why theirmagnetism is so powerful,”said Tikoo, coauthor of thestudy published in the Journalof Geophysical Research:Planets. PTI

Brasilia: A new study hasfound the Brazilian Spix’smacaw parrot has becomeextinct in the wild. The birdachieved onscreen fame as ananimated character in theDisney movie “Rio” as a charm-ing parrot named Blu.

The Spix’s macaw is one ofeight bird species, half of themin Brazil, confirmed extinct orsuspected extinct in the reportfrom BirdLife Internationalpublished on Sunday, reportsCNN. But 60 to 80 Spix’smacaws still live in captivity.

Deforestation is a leadingcause of the Spix’s macaw’s dis-

appearance from its naturalhabitat, according to the report.

For the first time, extinc-tions on the mainland are out-pacing those on islands, it said.

“Ninety per cent of birdextinctions in recent centurieshave been of species onislands,” said Stuart Butchart,BirdLife’s chief scientist and thepaper’s lead author. IANS

San Francisco: Google’s in-house start-up incubator “Area120” has introduced a travelguide website called “TouringBird” that lists tours, attractionsand activities for travellers andtourists in popular travel des-tinations. “Area 120” is a work-shop for the tech giant’s exper-imental products.

So far, the site providesinformation about 20 citiesthat include New Delhi,Prague, Chicago, Amsterdam,Barcelona, Berlin and LasVegas among others and theyplan to increase their coveragein the coming months.

“When you select a desti-nation city, you’ll see popularattractions, suggested tours

and activities along with prices,options for free guided toursand recommendations fromlocals and travel bloggers,”Touring Bird website said in astatement.

The app comes with a“build-your-own package” fea-ture wherein users would beable to customise and comparefiltered offerings by price andpreferences, to find the bestmatch to their plan, along with booking and can-

celling provisions. “We’re a small team that’s

brought together by a commonpassion for travel and improv-ing the overall travel experiencefor others.

“Most of us have a back-ground in building travel prod-ucts at Google, and we’re alldeeply passionate about solvingreal user problems in thisspace,” Touring Bird added.

Users would also be able tobookmark their favourite activ-ities and recommendations —food, destinations, stays andamusements — to a list andshare it with fellow travellers.“Touring Bird” is available inEnglish globally for both desk-top and mobile users. IANS

People cast their votes in Strangnas, Sweden, on Sunday AP

Sweden votes amid anti-immigration surge

Poll comes amid rise in anti-immigration sentiment and waning support for mainstream parties

NKorea holds off on advancedmissiles at anniversary parade

North Korean artillery roll past during a parade AP

GLOBE

Soldiers march in a parade for the 70th anniversary of North Korea’s founding dayin Pyongyang, North Korea, on Sunday AP

China’s trade

surplus with

US hits record

$31 billion

Step up or ‘things can get worse’: Obama to votersPak, China vow to boost CPECconstruction,promote ties

Watergate memories springto life with Trump’s troubles

Boris Johnson’s Brexit ‘suicide

vest’ comment sparks furor

US backtracks on Russian spysuspect offering sex for access

Mysterious ‘lunar swirls’ point toMoon’s volcanic, magnetic past

Google’s new travel guide

website ‘Touring Bird’ is here

Trump fails twice to pronounce word ‘anonymous’Brazilian parrotextinct in wild

Florence expected to become

hurricane, take aim at Southeast

The Indian Railways said that its “Plan Bee”to stop elephants from being hit by speed-

ing trains in the Northeast Frontier Railways(NFR) has been a great success as the num-ber of casualties has gone down drastically.A senior official requesting anonymity saidthat the railways had launched the Plan Beein November last year to

avert the accidents when the elephants try tocross the railway tracks.

Under the Plan Bee, a device that gen-erates the buzz of swarming honey bees wasinstalled at the level crossing near Guwahatistation in Assam.

The device amplifies the buzz of swarm-ing honeybees, which is considered as a nat-ural nemesis of elephants and is audible toelephants 600 metres away and thus helps

them in keeping away from the tracks,” theofficial said. The price of the device is

about `2,000. The official said the idea to

use the buzz of bees came afterthe Divisional Railway Manager(DRM) of Ranigya Station sug-gested that the elephants can bedistracted by some particularsound or frequency when thetrain is passing through the ele-phant corridor.

“The idea was then dis-cussed with the DivisionalForest Officer (DFO) inAssam’s Tezpur, who suggest-ed that certain deterrents likebeehive or amplified honeybee sound can be explored,” headded.

The idea was discussed indetail and then an instrument was

made that generated high, contin-

uous buzzing of honey bees that can gobeyond 300 to 400 metres. The official saidthat the first testing of the device failed as itwas done with a pet elephant. The secondtesting of the device in the Phulbari Tea Estatenear Rangapara in Assam was successful. Thethird testing of the device in front of the for-est officials was also successful, the officialadded.

After the success of the instrument, thefirst device was installed between the Azara-Kamakhya stations in Assam and in its firstmonth about five probable elephant-trainaccidents were averted. The official said thatcurrently about 11 such devices have beeninstalled by the railways in the elephant cor-ridor of the NFR division.

The installation of these devices has alsoresulted in protecting the railway infrastruc-ture in the area.

According to the railway official, besidethis device, the Indian Railways has taken alot of measures to avert elephant mishaps withspeeding trains, including the speed restric-tion between 9 pm to 7 am. At least four ele-phants died after being hit by the Howrah-Mumbai Express in Jharsuguda district ofOdisha in April this year.

Railway Minister Piyush Goyal alsoshared a minute-long video showing thedevice that amplifies the buzz of swarminghoneybees.

-IANS

OATS, WHEAT WARD OFF DIABETES RISK

AI TECHNIQUE USED TO TREAT CANCER PATIENT

The conditions for life on planets entirely covered inwater are more fluid than previously thought, whichopens up the possibility of water worlds beinghabitable, according to a newstudy. The scientificcommunity has largelyassumed that planetscovered in a deep oceanwould not support thecycling of minerals and gasesthat keeps the climate stableon Earth, and thus would notbe friendly to life. But the study, published in TheAstrophysical Journal, found that ocean planets couldstay in the ‘sweet spot’ for habitability much longerthan previously assumed. “This really pushes backagainst the idea you need an Earth clone, that is, aplanet with some land and a shallow ocean,” said leadauthor Edwin Kite, Assistant Professor at University ofChicago.

VEGETARIAN SHARK DISCOVERED

Scientists have identified the world’s first knownomnivorous shark species, which consumes up to 60per cent of seagrass. Experts from the University of California-Irvine andFlorida International University in Miami decided toinvestigate the bonnetheadsharks' dietary habits afterreading reports of themmunching on seagrass.The bonnetheads, one of thesmallest member of the ham-merhead family, are abundantin the shallow waters of the America, where they usual-ly feed on crab, shrimp, snails and bony fish.In the study, five bonnethead sharks were fed on athree-week diet of seagrass and squid. Tests indicatedthat the fish digested the seagrass with enzymes thatbroke down components of the plants, such as starch.

Singaporean researchers have harnessed the power of artificialintelligence (AI) to successfully treat a patient with advancedcancer, completely halting disease progression.The novel CURATE.AI platform,developed by the National Universityof Singapore (NUS), halted theprogression of advanced cancer bycontinuously optimising novel drugcombinations.

In a clinical study, a patientsuffering with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer(MCRPC) was given a novel drug combination consisting ofinvestigational drug ZEN-3694 and enzalutamide approveddrug for prostate cancer.

The team utilised CURATE.AI to continuously identify theoptimal doses of each drug to result in a durable response,allowing the patient to resume a completely normal and activelifestyle.

Ever wondered why some people seem to feel lesspain than others? The answercould lie in mindfulness,targeted in the development ofeffective pain therapies,researchers say.

The findings showed thatpeople with higher dispositionalmindfulness during painfulexperience showed greater deactivation in a brainregion called the posterior cingulate cortex a centralneural node of the default mode network, theyexperienced less pain. Conversely, those with lowermindfulness ratings had greater activation of this partof the brain and also felt more pain.

“Mindfulness is related to being aware of thepresent moment without too much emotionalreaction or judgment,” said lead author Fadel Zeidan,Assistant Professor at the Wake Forest BaptistMedical Centre in North Carolina, US.

LUCKNOW | MONDAY | SEPTEMBER 10, 2018

News reports are full of violent acts, unrest and dishon-esty which are engendering a sense of fear among peo-

ple. There is also an apparent lack of solution to resolve theseincreasing crimes in almost every country across the globe.If newspaper reports are an indication, even the legislativebodies, which are expected to be examples of decorum, decen-cy and civility, have deviated from their well-established highstandards of probity and debate.

The law- enforcing agencies also have been bitterly crit-icised for atrocities on suspects and for their complicity withcriminals. Students who are supposed to be disciplined areoften seen rampaging the campus or indulging in eve-teas-ing in the buses. Of late even some preachers of religion andmorality are involved in unlawful acts.

The lawlessness is not restricted to our country but canbe seen the world over. Some nations support terrorists whoviolate the law and order in another country. Other coun-tries violate the Charter on Human Rights despite being sig-natories while still others attack a country without actuallydeclaring war. Many others willfully prepare weapons formass-killing in another country. Powerful nations, who shouldset an example for others, show scant regard for law espe-cially when it stands in the way of their own narrow inter-ests. Even the heads of states of various nations have beenfound to be corrupt or promiscuous orinvolved in various kinds of scandals.

When an ordinary person findsthat standards of public and privatemorality and observance of law havefallen all around, he or she also feelstempted to take recourse to illegalmeasures. Violation of laws relating toincome tax, sales tax, property tax andso on has become common and vio-lation of other civil or criminal lawshas now become a sign of one’s posi-tion and power in public life. Use ofpolitical influence to defeat the law isnow a way of showing the politicalpatronage one enjoys. Today, there ishardly anyone who does not violate or flout the law in oneway or another. The tendency to disregard law has reachedan all-time high.

To top it all, there is lawlessness also. One is requiredunder the law to print statutory warning on cigarette pack-ets and then one can advertise and sell this poison withoutany fear of law. When one hears of atrocities that are com-mitted all around, one can’t help but ask, “Where is the law?”Under such a scenario, one wonders on whom can the respon-sibility for this sad situation be fixed. But more important,what can be done to make man more law-abiding and peace-ful by nature? The truth is that everyone is responsible to acertain extent for the current state of lawlessness and disor-der because everyone has violated the law at least in thoughtif not in deed. There are many factors which have led to thenear-anarchic state of society including a lack of moral andspiritual education, ignorance about the identity of the self,spread of materialistic values and so on. The remedy now isto include human values in education, have value-based pol-itics and to give importance to the code of conduct for everyprofession.

Most people dismiss morality by saying that it differs fromperson to person but who draws the line between right andwrong? It is possible to dissolve this difference by understand-ing spirituality as it is based on the truth that every humanbeing is intrinsically virtuous and possesses qualities of wis-dom, purity, peace, love and truth. So any act that goes againstthese fundamental qualities amounts to immorality and dis-turbs the social fabric. And so, to cleanse society of crime,there is a need to foster a culture of spirituality. It adds dig-nity to how people look at each other. There is a need to usethe latest technology, media and government channels toempower people to recognise their own goodness so that theyobey laws themselves, and even if some people err, others inthe society respond to the victims’ appeals with greater respon-sibility and humanity. Such a culture would then be able tocreate harmony deep within people where laws cannot reachand promise an inner security that fences and guards can-not provide.

vivacity {mindspace} 13

MINDFULNESS AIDS IN TREATING PAIN

Consuming wholegrains such as a slice of ryebread or a bowl of oat porridge daily can preventthe development of Type-2 diabetes, finds astudy. It made nodifference which type ofwholegrain product orcereal the participantsate: ryebread, oatmeal, ormuesli, they seem tooffer the same protectionagainst Type-2 diabetes. Most important part ishow much wholegrain one eats each day,showed the study led by researchers from theChalmers University of Technology inGothenburg, Sweden. Men with the highestwholegrain intake, at least 50 gm of wholegraineach day, corresponding to a portion of oatmealporridge, and one slice of rye bread, had 34 percent lower risk of diabetes, while women had 22per cent lower risk.

WATER WORLDS COULD SUPPORT LIFE

The passenger boat arrives at thebottom of Veidileysufjordur, ashort inlet with a long name,

to drop off backpackers for a multi-day trek. A weather-beaten groupthat’s completed the trip waits toboard, eager to get back to a part ofIceland where they can reconnectwith the world via Wi-Fi.

By boat, that will take about ahalf-hour. No roads lead to theNordic country’s northernmostpeninsula, a rugged glacial horn thatreaches for the Arctic Circle. Makinga phone call requires walking up amountain for a cell signal so weak,clouds seem capable of blocking it.But internet service soon could bereaching the Hornstrandir NatureReserve, one of the last digital-freefrontiers in what might be theworld’s most-wired nation. The pos-sibility has most hikers, park rangersand summer residents worried thatemail, news and social media willdestroy a way of life that depends onthe absence of all three.

“We see a growing appreciationfor the lack of online connection,”Environment Agency of Icelandranger Vesteinn Runarsson, whopatrols the peninsula’s southern endon his own. “Looking to the future,we want to keep Hornstrandir spe-cial in that way.”

The area has long resisted celltowers, but commercial initiativescould take the decision out ofIcelanders’ hands and pushHornstrandir across the digitaldivide. Companies such as ElonMusk’s SpaceX are racing to deliverhigh-speed internet service to everyinch of the world by putting thou-sands of small satellites into lowEarth orbit. Their success would haveglobal implications, bringing thebenefits and downsides of internetcommunication to places that are offthe grid because of poverty or war,or where internet access is reservedfor the wealthy.

That’s also true for sparsely pop-ulated communities and far-flungdestinations in Canada, Russia,Alaska and elsewhere in the vastArctic region, where broadband ser-vice generally is prohibitively expen-sive. Yet in Iceland, the prospect ofconstant connectivity has called upan old debate on whetherHornstrandir’s wilderness should

stay unwired.Despite or because of its remote-

ness, Iceland ranks first on a UNindex comparing nations by infor-mation technology use, with rough-ly 98 per cent of the population usingthe internet. Among adults, 93 percent report having Facebookaccounts and two-thirds areSnapchat users, according to pollsterMMR.

Many people who live in north-western Iceland or visit as outdoorenthusiasts want Hornstrandir’s 570square kilometers (220square miles), which

accounts for 0.6 percent of Iceland’sland mass, to be declared a “digital-free zone.” The idea hasn’t coa-lesced into a petition or formalcampaign, so what it would requireor prohibit hasn’t been fleshed out.

The last full-time resident of therugged area moved away in 1952 —it never was an easy place to farm —but many descendants have turnedfamily farmsteads into summer get-aways.

Alexander Gudmundsson, whovacations in the home where his

great-grandmother

grew up, doesn’t have to look fardown the family tree to see the effectof digital devices: his teenage daugh-ter refused to come to Hornstrandirthis summer because it would meannot having online access. “But oncethe kids are here, all they do is playoutside,” Gudmundsson said.

Northwest Iceland’s representa-tive in Parliament is less sentimen-tal about the value of isolation.Since her election last year,Halla Signy Kristjansdottirhas urged the Ministry ofTransport to fund cell

towers for the safety of sailors andtravellers whose mobile devices cur-rently are useless in and nearHornstrandir. “I don’t see anythingromantic about lying on the groundwith a broken thigh bone and nocellphone signal,” Kristjansdottirsaid in an interview.

In a written response to the law-maker, Minister of TransportSigurdur Ingi Johannsson noted thathuts along the hiking trails areequipped with radiophones foremergencies. He defended theabsence of digital connectivity inHornstrandir as a factor in “advanc-ing visitor’s experience.” Police andrescue workers have suggested cre-ating an illustrated map that marksthe mountain summits with thestrongest signals.

The Environment Agency ofIceland estimates that 3,000 peopletrek through Hornstrandir everysummer, moving from one fjord tothe next. Some are rewarded withsightings of the Arctic fox, Iceland’sonly native land mammal. The fewstructures — abandoned farm hous-es and a decommissioned US AirForce radar station — were aban-doned decades ago.

Travellers unanimously favouredmaking the reserve a digital-freezone, though their notions of whatthat meant varied. “If phones workedhere, I am sure many people wouldgo as far as carrying battery packs tocharge their devices,” said MikkoRonkkonen, a hiker from Finlandwho had just completed an eight-daytrip.

When Runarsson, who works asa police officer during the winter,wanted to ask the ferry captainabout the next arrival, he took a shortcairn-marked trail to the higherground known locally as TelephoneMountain.

He walked in circles, as if search-ing for something on the ground.“One bar. Two bars,” he murmuredwith his eyes fixed on his phone. Thebars quickly disappeared as themountain shrugged off the faint sig-nal. “Maybe the clouds are interfer-ing,” Runarsson said without a hintof frustration. “No phone calls today,I guess.”

-AP

THE AGE OF

INNOCENCEIn an age where data connectivity is much sought

after, wired Icelanders seek to keep a remotepeninsula digital-free for a virgin tourism experience

There is a need to use the latesttechnology, media and governmentchannels to empower people andrecognise their own goodness so thatthey obey laws themselves. ByRAJYOGI BRAHMAKUMAR NIKUNJ JI

Nemesis turns protectorThe Railways’ ‘PlanBee’, a device thatgenerates the buzz ofswarming honey beesto avert elephantmishaps, is a success

Do not fear failure but rather fear not trying.— Roy T Bennett

SPIRITUAL WAY

TO HARMONY

Love has been explored repeatedly infilms across the world because of how

deep and universal the emotion is. Everyhuman reacts differently to making sto-ries more interesting and novel. In searchof novelty, director Anurag Kashyap,known for dark films, has taken a pageout of Anand L Rai’s book and made aforay into the romantic genre with actorslike Vicky Kaushal, Taapsee Pannu andAbhishek Bachchan in a love triangle,Manmarziyan.

“The emotion of love is constantthrough the ages. There was a time whenholding hands with a partner on thestreets was a taboo but today it’s not.Nobody will judge or stare. This old cou-ple in my building one day told me howhe met his wife. She was his good friend’ssister. ‘When I saw her for the first timeI sent a letter to her dad asking permis-sion to marry her,’ he told me. Back then,you would seek the legit route like or meetchori chupe. My parents, for instance, metonly once before the wedding. And my25-year-old mother moved to Mumbaifrom a small village in Punjab. We mightthink that the emotion of love haschanged but it hasn’t. Be it in the 1950sor now, you get the butterflies when youfall in love. You feel like doing somethingextra. Not just first love but every timelove happens. It is only the identity of lovethat changes,” said Kaushal, who plays abrash and demonstrative lover in the film.

Pannu, on the other hand, believesthat we’re getting closer to reality in termsof portrayals of man-woman relation-ships.

Both are director’s actors, but oneseeks a thread of connection to the char-acter she would play while the other seeksout the uncertain and the uncharted. AsPannu told us, “We have to connect to apart of the character. I’m not a trainedactor who can brilliantly just become adifferent person altogether. I will becomea different person but I need one com-mon thread between me and the charac-ter. Once I find that, I build the charac-ter over that. That one thread I will find,be it as Shabana, Meenal or Aarti. InManmarziyan, I connected to the char-acter because she doesn’t believe in log kyakahenge. She has no inhibition whomshe’s answerable to. There’s this line in thefilm, which I believe in as well, ‘joh logzyada sharm karte hain woh aage jaakesuicide kar lete hain.’ She believes thatthere is one life and it’s short. I can livefor myself or for others during it. But oth-ers aren’t living for her, so why shouldshe? She takes decisions with what she’shappy without bothering about who’slooking or thinking what, which is quiteclose to how I am in real life.”

She said that playing the averageIndian girl is her USP and she plays onit. “I need to understand what will myaudience relate to. We have been makingaspirational movies since generations.There are enough of them. Now, we makesome relatable content. I’m not saying thatthe women playing divas on screen are

in anyway lesser but that’s their forte, thisis mine. I’m an average Indian girl, I rep-resent an average Indian girl and I use thatas my biggest strength and weapon, thatI can be the voice of an average Indiangirl. For me, they are the audience andthey buy the tickets for my films. I chooseto be relatable to them than be aspira-tional,” she added. To do a film, whereshe’s unsure, the director needs to be aMidas. Nothing short of it would con-vince her to take it on otherwise. “I’m adirector’s actor. They have to bring outsomething from me which even I didn’tknow existed,” she added.

However, Kaushal’s take on how he

chooses his characters is wildly different.He calls himself a “greedy actor” whowants to explore and scare himself to thefullest. “I want to jump into territories inwhich I feel I can’t do this. I want to beunsure of the fact that I can do this,” hesaid, adding that the audience wants tobe surprised and see different work, con-ceptually, by treatment or characterwhile 15-20 years ago they preferred see-ing actors in set roles.

His hardest role so far has been forRaman Raghav but he surrendered to thedirector’s vision without having doubts.

“It’s like scuba diving, I am scared of deepwater bodies. If I’m scared of a charac-ter, let me just dive in without doubt. Thedirector will take me there. RamanRaghav was a character to which I could-n’t relate at all. I felt that character wasemotionally, mentally very far away fromme. He was edgy, had a drug problem, hehad an unprotected and unsecuredupbringing. No shade of that was applic-able to me. We were shooting nonstop,the space of that character was claustro-phobic,” he said.

Ask him about how he is in real life

and pat comes the reply that he’s bothClark Kent and Superman. “As a person,I am diametrically opposite, I am veryclose to Deepak in Masaan and Vicky inManmarziyan. Deepak is close to the guyyou’re talking to and Manmarziyan isclose to my alter ego. That character isflamboyant, eccentric and impulsive.You play Punjabi songs he can dance allday. He doesn’t think of consequences,he’s earnest and lives his emotions to thefullest. If he’s happy, angry, jealous or sad,he won’t bind it. He’ll cry like a baby.There’s red and then there’s yellow and no

range between that. He doesn’t under-stand responsibilities and is terrified ofcommitment. There’s two sides of me,there’s a Clark Kent and a Superman. I’mboth. Vicky Sandhu is the Superman, theone you’re talking to right now is ClarkKent,” he said.

Talk to both about stardom and theyseem incredulous about it. While Pannudoesn’t take it seriously, Kaushal is verygrateful to the love he’s been receiving.

“Thank god Abhishek is not sittingnext to me. He hates this fact that I don’ttake it seriously because I still don’t feelthat I am a star. For me the definition ofa star is someone in whose name a moviewould sell. The audience buys tickets justbecause my name is on the poster andthink that it’s worth spending my hardearned money and three hours which willnever come back. When my audience hasthat mentality, then I will be a star. ThenI will shout at the top of my voice that Iam a star. But until then, I have to workfor it,” she said.

For Kaushal, it still hasn’t sunk in.“One day somebody called from the tradeand said you know everybody says you’rean A- lister now. I said, you’re saying thisI don’t know.” He says he’s been workingnon-stop for two years which is why hismovies are coming in like an avalancheand he’s grateful that they are well-loved. “The process of filmmaking is tem-porary but the reaction isn’t. It makes usimmortal as a character and that’s the bestthing,” he said.

Ask them about the pressures ofbeing on social media and they seemunfazed. Unlike older actors who have adifficult relationship with showing aglimpse of their personal selves to theworld, the younger lot takes it in theirstride. “I handle my account myself. Thereis no agency handling it for me. I thinkI’m quite frequent updater of my profileand I visit it frequently. I don’t believe inwhat others would think. It’s my profile,if I don’t tell people what to post you can’ttell me either. So, I let myself free whichis why I can come up with something funto post in the first place. I post about whatI am truly. Otherwise, it would be a deadprofile,” said Pannu. While Kaushal says,it’s all subjective. “Sometimes I’ll justmake a video out of my bedroom andpost it, if I feel that’s right and makingsense. I don’t think a lot about it,” he said.

Pannu will be seen romancing both,Abhishek and Vicky. So, when askedwho’s the more fun co-actor among thetwo, she said both are “boring” and“Ramji types.” “Abhishek is a convention-al prankster. I love his sense of humour.Vicky is the perfect good boy you wantto take home to meet your mom. Nobodyis buzzing with crazy energy or doingsome crazy stuff. Both have a good senseof humour but they’re not naughty or badboys. They’re not edgy,” she said. Askedif she’s a prankster too, she added, “I’mnot a prankster, I’m a little bit of a bully.That’s what I did to Anurag, shameless-ly, every day on the set. I do it even now.”

LUCKNOW | MONDAY | SEPTEMBER 10, 2018vivacity 14

Writer-producerTWINKLE KHANNA akaTina, who was once aBollywood actress,has said that all thefilms which fea-tured her in thelead should bebanned so thatno one canwatch it. Whenasked which film ofhers should nowbe remade, shejokingly said, “Ihaven't given asingle hit in fact. Ithink that all myfilms should bebanned so that noone can watch it.”Twinkle launchedher book PyjamasAre Forgiving onSaturday. She madeher Hindi film debutwith Barsaat in 1995.

Rappers CARDI Band NICKI MINAJwere involved in afight during aparty.A source saidMinaj wasminglingwithguestsand keep-ing to herselfwhen Cardilunged at herand beganshouting. Minaj then contin-ued on with hernight.Cardi wrote on socialmedia, “I've let a lotof s--t slide! I let yousneak diss me, I letyou lie on me,you've threatenedother artistes in theindustry, told themif they work with me you'llstop f***kin with them! I let youtalk big s**t about me.”

‘My films shouldbe banned’

Nicki Minaj’s tiff with Cardi B

Shah Rukh Khan isall set to rock

our senses with hisnever before seenavatar in AanandL Rai’s Zero. Forthose who don’tknow, SRK is setto play a verti-cally challengedindividual andwill reunite withhis Jab Tak HaiJaan leadingladies KatrinaKaif and Anushka Sharma. WhileKatrina has been a part of ShahRukh Khan’s project since a whilenow, she surprised us by joiningSalman Khan’s Bharat at the ‘Nick’of time after Priyanka Choprawalked out of the project. Salmanrecently spoke about how support-ive Shah Rukh has been aboutadjusting his dates with the produc-ers of Bharat. He said that it wasvery sweet of SRK to adjust Kat’sdates for his film. He later revealedthat he will also be a part of Zeroas he is doing a song in the movie.Originally, Salman’s first choice forthe film was Katrina Kaif. In fact hesaid that the producers AtulAgnihotri and his wife Alvira (whoalso is Salman’s sister) were pret-ty insistent on taking Katrina in thefirst place. But he said that since PChad wanted to the do the film, shehad a chat with Ali Abbas Zafar whoshe has worked with before andhence was finalised for the film.With her gone, Kat’s path wascleared and since Salman andShah Rukh Khan are such goodfriends, they sorted out Katrina’sdate situation very amicably.

Narcos: Mexico will premiere on Netflix on November16 and explore the origins of the modern drug war bygoing back to its roots, beginning at a time when theMexican trafficking world was a loose and disorganisedconfederation ofindependent grow-ers and dealers.Witness the rise ofthe GuadalajaraCartel in the 1980sas Félix Gallardo(Diego Luna) takesthe helm, unifyingtraffickers in orderto build an empire.When DEA agentKiki Camarena(Michael Peña)moves his wife andyoung son fromCalifornia toGuadalajara to takeon a new post, hequickly learns thathis assignment willbe more challengingthan he ever couldhave imagined. AsKiki garners intelligence on Félix and becomes moreentangled in his mission, a tragic chain of events unfold,affecting the drug trade and the war against it for yearsto come.

(Narcos: Mexico is produced by Gaumont Televisionfor Netflix.)

Her character in Piku was replete with flawsand imperfections, despite being in thespotlight, actress Deepika Padukone has

incorporated the idea of laying it bare in her reallife as well. Fighting stigma over mental health andcombating depression, sharing her stories withpeople and eventually leading an organisation thatcould reach out people in need, she has made itall possible.

“After what I have been through, I felt if Icould save even one life, my life would be com-plete,” says Deepika, who has fought against peo-ple’s judgements and remarks about her imper-fections while forcing the world, especiallywomen to look beyond those insecurities to lovethemselves.

Anna Chandy, clinical counsellor and psychol-ogist, who had assisted Deepika during her men-tal struggle, says that a large number of womenare a prey of depression yet they are not able torecognise it due to their responsibilities.

She says, “Women are always under stressabout their children and their activities, and theykeep on exhausting themselves especially if theyare working.”

Before talking about how it has impactedDeepika’s life, she asks the assembled people asto how many people know about depression?When only around 20-25 hands from the audi-ence of around 70 persons, raise their hands, sheexclaims that she is shocked.

She says it is important to recognise thedifference between feeling sad anddepressed, “It takes a lot of courage to beupfront and own up to it. In layman’sterm, it is feeling low for a prolongedperiod of time. There is a huge dif-ference between feeling sad andfeeling depressed. Sadness is apassing emotion but when itstays for more than two weeks,it should be checked and in sucha case, one should definitely seekhelp because it could grow intodepression, which is a medicalcondition.”

Deepika, who has recently start-ed her NGO, the Live Love LaughFoundation, believes that there arecertain myths around depressionas a mental condition whichneed to be bursted. “A lot ofus believe that depression isself-inflicted or may be justbad karma. You start question-ing yourself that even if youhave everything in the worldthat you could be contentedwith, why are you depressed?

But these myths need to bursted. It is the need ofthe hour.”

She wants to remind people that “it is a clin-ical condition” and “could happen to anyone, irre-spective of their age or gender.”

India stands among the top lists of depressedcountries in the world. It has impacted and evenclaimed innumerable lives. However, ever won-dered why is it so?

Well, Deepika highlights a few broad points,“Firstly, acceptance of the condition of mentalhealth. One of the biggest issues is that people inIndia call it by loose words such as, ‘madness’ orpaagal, which not only worsens the condition butalso doesn’t allow them to accept that it could bea medical problem.”

Adding to her, Pinky Reddy, national presi-dent of the FICCI Ladies Organisation (FLO), says,“Lack of awareness in people about where to goand get treatment for it is an issue as is the lackof good doctors who could give a proper help andtreatment.”

She also adds, keeping in mind the impact ofsuch an environment on young children,“Teaching the teachers as well as the kids is alsovery important. At a young age, they take men-tal illness as a joke.”

Deepika departs with a message sayingthat since the issue finds its roots deep

within the society, removing the stig-ma around it and accepting it, look-

ing forward to finding a motivationand a reason to live again, is veryimportant.

She says, “Let us be honestto ourselves and the society,accept it with open arms. Beauthentic, live love and laugh.It has been there for a longtime, the change won’t takeplace overnight. Educatingourselves is very impor-

tant. All this will taketime but till then let usalso work on the human

relations, empathy andsympathy towards each

other. Because, as you cansee, human interaction is really

diminishing.”

TAAPSEE PANNU andVICKY KAUSHAL tellASMITA SARKAR abouthow a changing India isdemanding freshercontent every singletime from the industryand their take onhuman relationships

Love in the time of chimera

‘FEELING SAD IS DIFFERENT

FROM BEING DEPRESSED’Actress DEEPIKAPADUKONE getscandid about her battlewith lows, reportsCHAHAK MITTAL

Heidi Klum and Tim Gunn are leaving Project Runwayfor developing a new reality fashion series online,

which will combine content with commerce.Amazon Prime Video on Friday announced the

supermodel and fashion consultant will create a showthat will appeal to a “global audience who are entertainedby competition” and will create a “shoppable experience.”In saying “auf wiedersehen” to Project Runway, Klum saidin a statement the show will always have a special placein her heart after 16 seasons. Gunn said he’s excited tobe part of their next “fashion adventure.” Amazon Studioshead Jennifer Salke says she believes the pair will finda larger audience on the Prime Video runway

W E B B E D

Gunn on Amazon

Narcos link to Mexico

BOTH AREDIRECTOR’S ACTORS,

BUT ONE SEEKS ATHREAD OF

CONNECTION TO THECHARACTER SHE

WOULD PLAY WHILETHE OTHER SEEKS

OUT THE UNCERTAIN

LUCKNOW | MONDAY | SEPTEMBER 10, 2018 sport 15

AP n NEW YORK

Naomi Osaka walked to the net, theexcitement of being a Grand Slam cham-pion mixed with a bit of sadness.

She grew up rooting for Serena Williams,even did a report on her way back in third grade.Her dream was to play her idol at the US Open.

So when she had actually done it, beatingWilliams 6-2, 6-4 on Saturday night to becomethe first Grand Slam singles champion fromJapan, why was it so difficult?

"Because I know that, like, she really want-ed to have the 24th Grand Slam, right?" Osakasaid. "Everyone knows this. It's on the com-mercials, it's everywhere.

"When I step onto the court, I feel like a dif-ferent person, right? I'm not a Serena fan. I'mjust a tennis player playing another tennis play-er. But then when I hugged her at the net ... Ifelt like a little kid again."

Osaka teared up as she was finishing heranswer, still overwhelmed as she juggled the ideaof her winning and Williams losing.

Though her nerves on the tennis court don'tshow it, it was a reminder of just how youthfulthe 20-year-old Osaka is. Not since MariaSharapova was 19 in 2006 has the US Open hada younger women's champion.

The way Williams lost, of course, was whatstood out most in the match. The argumentswith chair umpire Carlos Ramos and the threecode violations - one that gave Osaka a game fora 5-3 lead in the second set when Williams wastrying to rally - will be what was most remem-bered.

But not for Osaka, who claimed to not evenhear the interactions between Williams andRamos. What will stay with her is the hug at thenet afterward, and Williams' kind words dur-ing the trophy presentation, when she asked abooing crowd to focus its intention on Osaka'smoment.

"So for me, I'm always going to rememberthe Serena that I love," Osaka said. "It doesn'tchange anything for me. She was really nice tome, like, at the net and on the podium. I don'treally see what would change."

Osaka was nervous Saturday, making a fewphone calls to her sister in Paris to calm herdown. Even during the match, whenever she wasfaced with a tough spot, she kept telling herselfto try to do what Williams would do.

Williams was certainly impressed."She was so focused," the 36-year-old

Williams said. "I think, you know, whenever Ihad a break point, she came up with some greatserve. Honestly, there's a lot I can learn from herfrom this match. I hope to learn a lot from that."

It was that way throughout the tournamentfor Osaka, who won the second title of her career.She was mostly dominant, dropping only oneset in her seven matches, and she saved 5 of 6break points against Williams after erasing all13 in the semifinals against Madison Keys.

That's the kind of toughness Williams hasso often shown in winning 23 Grand Slam sin-gles titles, one shy of the record. It's one of thethings Osaka always admired about Williams,made her choose her as the topic of that report

years ago."I colored it and everything,"

Osaka said. "I said, 'I want to be likeher.'"

On Saturday, she was better.

THE OFFICIAL RESPONSE"What Serena did on the podium Sunday

showed a great deal of class and sportsmanship.This was Naomi's moment, and Serena want-ed her to be able to enjoy it. That was a classmove from a true champion. What Serena hasaccomplished this year in playing her way backon to the tour is truly amazing.

"She is an inspiration to me, personally, and

a credit to our sport, win or lose. I knowthat she was frustrated about the waythe match played out, but the way shestepped up after the final and gave full

credit to Naomi for a match well-playedspeaks volumes about who she is."

— Katrina Adams, head of the United StatesTennis Association (USTA).

"On the fifth point in the second game ofthe second set between Naomi Osaka andSerena Williams, the chair umpire witnessedcoaching taking place from Williams' coach.Even though her coach has admitted to coach-ing, Williams has made it clear that she did notreceive any coaching. Nevetheless, in accordance

with the rules, Williams was assessed a CodeViolation, resulting in a warning.

"At the completion of the fifth game of thesecond set, Williams was assessed a second codeviolation for racquet abuse, which required apoint penalty.

"At the changeover, at 4-3, Williams wasassessed a third code violation for verbalabuse in the judgment of the umpire, which thenrequired a game penalty.

"The chair umpire's decision was final andnot reviewable by the Tournament Referee orthe Grand Slam Supervisor who were called tothe court at that time." — Official US Openstatement.

"There are matters that need to be lookedinto that took place during the match. Fortonight, it is time to celebrate these two amaz-ing players, both of whom have great integri-ty.

"Naomi is a deserving champion andSerena at all times plays with class and makesus proud." —WTA statement.

OSAKA'S WIN: RARE GOOD NEWSTOKYO: Japan on Sunday hailed Naomi Osaka'sstunning upset against the legendary SerenaWilliams to win the US Open, giving the nationsome rare good news after a summer of dead-ly natural disasters.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe led the praise,taking to Twitter to congratulateOsaka after her 6-2, 6-4 win inNew York.

"Congratulations on your vic-tory at the US Open. The firstJapanese player to win a GrandSlam title. Thank you for givingenergy and inspiration to thewhole of Japan," the premiertweeted.

Fellow tennis star KeiNishikori flooded Twitter withemojis of trophies, thumbs up andJapanese flags, followed by a sim-ple tweet of "proud" alongside aJapanese flag.

And Tsuyoshi Fukui, a formertop Japanese player and now

senior official at the Japanese Tennis Association,said Osaka's performance would help to cheerthe country up after typhoons, floods and earth-quakes dominated the headlines this summer.

Osaka's "tenacious and patient perfor-mance ... Must have been a great show ofencouragement to those Japanese people whosaw damage from such things as typhoons andearthquakes," Fukui told Japanese media.

Meanwhile, NHK took a break from itsround-the-clock coverage of the disaster to turnto happier news.

"Osaka wins women's US Open, becomesfirst Japanese to win Grand Slam," blared thebroadcaster's top headline.

Sports Nippon newspaper said Osaka hadachieved a "complete victory" against an "irri-tated Serena who broke her racket".

The Asahi Shimbun daily said on Twitter itwould be printing an extra edition and dis-tributing it in Tokyo.

AP n NEW YORK

Serena Williams insisted shewas not cheating in the US

Open final on Saturday beforeaccusing the sport which hasmade her a global icon andmulti-millionaire of sexism.

Naomi Osaka won thefinal 6-2, 6-4 to become Japan'sfirst ever Grand Slam singleschampion was overshadowedby the American's angry andtear-filled tirade in the secondset.

It has already been dubbed'The Mother of all Meltdowns'by the New York Daily Post.

The 36-year-old was hand-ed a code violation for coach-ing, a penalty point for racquetabuse and a game penalty forcalling umpire Carlos Ramos a"liar and a thief " and insisting"you owe me an apology".

"He alleged that I wascheating, and I wasn't cheat-ing," Williams told reporterslater.

"I don't use on-courtcoaching (where it's allowed atWTA tour events).

"One thing I love abouttennis is being out there. It's theone time I don't want to hearanyone tell me anything. Youhave to figure out. You have toproblem-solve."

Williams said that hercoach Patrick Mouratoglouhad not been coaching her eventhough the Frenchman toldESPN that he had and that allcoaches do it.

"I just texted Patrick, like,What is he talking about?Because we don't have signals.We have never discussed sig-nals," said Williams.

Williams said the incident

strengthened her belief thatwomen players are treated dif-ferently to their male counter-parts in the sport.

"I've seen other men callother umpires several things.I'm here fighting for women'srights and for women's equal-ity," she claimed.

"For me to say 'thief ' andfor him to take a game, it mademe feel like it was a sexistremark.

"He's never taken a gamefrom a man because they said'thief '. For me it blows my

mind. But I'm going to con-tinue to fight for women."

Williams made referenceto the incident last week whenFrench player Alize Cornetwas warned for removing hershirt on court during a heat-wave. Cornet was accused of"unsportsmanlike behaviour"before tournament chiefs apol-ogised, admitting the umpiremade the wrong decision.

"Cornet should be able totake off her shirt without get-ting a fine. This is outrageous,"said Williams warming to hertheme.

AFP n LONDON

This is the new Spain", hailedthe country's top sports daily

Marca, after Luis Enrique's newdawn began with an affirming 2-1 win over England at Wembleyon Saturday.

Spain dropped to ninth in theFIFA rankings, three places belowEngland, after their World Cupdefeat to Russia but there was lit-tle doubting the more dominantteam in London.

The excellent Saul Niguez,who cancelled out MarcusRashford's opener, was the stand-out performer while RodrigoMoreno's winner brought a rushof Spanish optimism for thefuture under their new coach.

"Luis Enrique has started big,with a victory at Wembley," wroteMadrid daily, Diario AS. "A tri-umph that opens the NationsLeague and closes the nightmareof the World Cup."

His promise was for evolutionnot revolution and Spain deliv-ered, combining possession withspontaneity and precision, thetype of which was so lacking dur-

ing their stilted performances inRussia.

"Spain has not lost the touch(and it should not) but aims to bemuch more versatile," wroteMarca. "The team was more ver-tical and much more aggressivewithout the ball. They used highpressure and England suffered."

Meanwhile in St GallenSwitzerland has clobberedvisiting Iceland 6-0 in the teams'UEFA Nations League opener.

Winger Steven Zuber openedthe scoring for the hosts just 13minutes into the game atKybunpark, while midfielder

Denis Zakaria netted the secondgoal 10 minutes later on Saturday.

After the intermission,Liverpool forward XherdanShaqiri scored the third goal forthe Red Crosses in the 53rdminute.

Switzerland then continued topile on over the final half hour,with striker Haris Seferovic notch-ing the fourth goal in the 67thminute and substitute AlbianAjeti making the score 5-0 fourminutes later. Another substitute,Admir Mehmedi, heaped moremisery on Iceland with one finalgoal in the 82nd minute.

PTI n DHAKA

India produced a dominant display tobeat Maldives 2-0 and book a semifi-

nal spot in the South Asian FootballFederation Cup here on Sunday.

Maiden international goals fromNikhil Poojary (36th minute) and ManvirSingh (45th) helped India defeat Maldivesand finish on top of Group B with sixpoints.

India will play Pakistan in the semi-final on Wednesday.

Nikhil could have scored the open-er in the 11th minute itself but despite get-ting all the power behind his header offa Anirudh Thapa cross, it sailed over theMaldives crossbar.

Nikhil and Lallianzuala Chhangtewere constantly swapping positions on thewings and that stretched the rival defence.

India eventually surged ahead in the36th minute. After playing a one-two withFarukh Choudhary, Nikhil pounced ona loose ball and sent it past the rival sidegoalkeeper Mohamed Faisal.

Manvir doubled the lead at thestroke of half time. Thapa, a bit off-bal-anced with a rival midfielder shadowinghim, managed to essay a gem of a pass forManvir who sidestepped the onrushingFaisal and slotted it home.

Changing over, Nikhil stayed a con-

stant threat to the Maldives defence. Inthe 64th minute, a cross from him downthe right was thwarted by an acrobaticFaisal.

The Indian defenders did not giveMaldives players much space to manoeu-vre. In the 78th minute, an alert Indian

goalkeeper Vishal Kaith was quick tocome off his line outside the box to makea timely clearance.

Kaith's reflexes allowed India tomaintain a clean slate with the lanky cus-todian coming up with a couple of savesin the last five minutes.

India will be playing Pakistan in anofficial match after a gap of five years. Thelast time the two teams had met in an offi-cial match was also in SAFF C’ship inKathmandu in September 2013. Indiahad won 1-0 on that occasion.

KID'S NIGHT: OSAKA WINS TITLE

Naomi beats Serena in summit clash, becomes first Japanese to win Grand Slam

‘I am not a cheat'

What’s on Twitter

"Thank you @serenawilliamstotal class at the speech andyou truly are the goat."

— Sascha Bajin (Naomi’s coach)

"The star of the showhas been once againthe chair umpire.Second time in this USOpen and third time forSerena in a US Open Final.Should they be allowedhave an influence on theresult of a match ? Whendo we decide that thisshould never happen again?"— Patrick Mouratoglou

(Serena’s coach)

"Serena is achampion & doesn'tdeserve it — thesame way that Naomiis a champion & doesn'tdeserve this atmosphere forher first GS title!" — Kristina Mladenovic(French player)

"If it was men's match, thiswouldn't happen like this. Itjust wouldn't."

—Victoria Azarenka

"@espn just showed Serenaand coach while he was"coaching". She wasn't even

looking. Believe what you want." — Mardy Fish (US Player)

"It's all on the umpire ofcourse. I was sad to see thatNaomi was crying like she lost

this final, but she was just playingbetter today.And no doubt Serena isthe greatest champion and GOAT, butthat's rules. It was reallyheartbreaking final." — Elena Vesnina (Russian player)

THE WRONG CALLDate: Sept 7, 2004Opponent: JenniferCapriatiRound: QuarterfinalsChair Umpire: MarianaAlvesResult: Capriati won 2-6, 6-4, 6-4

WHAT HAPPENED: Inthe opening game ofthe third set, Williamshit a backhand thatlanded in - and wasruled in by a line judge - but Alves awarded thepoint to Capriati.The fallout: This mistake was cited later whenelectronic line-calling was introduced to GrandSlam tennis.What Williams said then: "I don't need to see thereplay. I know my shots. Not only was it in, itwasn't even near the line. But I'm not makingexcuses. I didn't lose because of that. I probablyshould have closed her out in the second set."

THE FOOT FAULTDate: September 12, 2009Opponent: Kim ClijstersRound: SemifinalsLine judge: Shino TsurubuchiResult: Clijsters won 6-4, 7-5.What happened: With Williams servingat 5-6, 15-30 in the second set, shefaulted on her first serve. On the secondserve, Tsurubuchi called a foot fault,making it a double-fault. That made thescore 15-40, putting Clijsters one pointfrom victory. Williams went over andshouted and cursed at Tsurubuchi, pointing at her. The linejudge went over to chair umpire Louise Engzell, who assesseda penalty point, because it was Williams' second code violationof the match (she broke her racket when the first set ended).That extra point for Clijsters ended the match.The fallout: Williams was fined a record $82,500 and told shecould be suspended from the US Open and her fine doubled ifshe had another "major offense" at any Grand Slam tournamentover the next two years.What Williams said then: "I've never been in a fight in mywhole life, so I don't know why she would have felt threatened."

‘Always something': Serena’s past episodesSerena Williams' dispute with the chair

umpire during the 2018 US Open finalis the latest issue she's had with match offi-cials at the Grand Slam tournament.

When a reporter asked Williamswhether her mind had flashed back to herinfamous tirade over a foot fault in thefinal at Flushing Meadows nine years ago,

she replied: "I think it's just instantly, justlike, 'Oh, gosh, I don't want to go back to2004.' Forget 2009, you know. It startedway back then. So it's always some-thing."

Here is a brief look back at those otherUS Open episodes involving Williams, whohas won six singles titles in New York —

THE HINDRANCE CALLDate: September 11, 2011Opponent: Sam StosurRound: FinalChair umpire: Eva AsderakiResult: Stosur won 6-2, 6-3What happened: Facing a breakpoint at the start of the secondset, Williams hit a forehand thatshe celebrated with a familiar cryof "Come on!" But she shouted asStosur was still reaching for abackhand. Asderaki ruled the pointwasn't over and so awarded it toStosur, saying Williams hindered her opponent'sability to complete the exchange. Williams got

broken in that game. She directed aseries of insults at Asderaki, whoissued a code violation for verbalabuse.The fallout: Williams was fined$2,000 by the US Open (she won$1.4 million at the tournament). Butthe Grand Slam committee ruled thatwhat she did "did not rise to the levelof a major offense" and so she didn'tface the additional disciplinary actionthat she could have been subject to

after what happened in 2009.What Williams said then: "You're a

hater, and you're just unattractive inside," toAsderaki.

Serena Williams argues withchair umpire Mariana Alves AP

Serena Williams argues withchair umpire Eva Asderaki AP

Serena argues with linejudge over foot fault AP

Spain beat England in WembleyIndia to face Pak in S/F

Chair umpire Carlos Ramos AP

Serena Williams talks with referee Brian Earley during the women's final AP

Serena Williams, left, and Naomi Osaka pose for photos during the trophy ceremony after Osaka defeated Serena in final AP

David de Gea, center left, stops a shot from Harry Kane, center right, during the match AP

Indian player battles for ball against Maldives IFT

Ostrava (PTI): Triple jumperArpinder Singh on Sunday createdhistory by becoming the first Indianto win a medal in the IAAFContinental Cup as he clinched abronze but star javelin throwerNeeraj Chopra finished sixth witha below-par show here. Arpinder,who had won a gold in the AsianGames in Jakarta, cleared a modest16.59m in the first of his three jumpsto be in the four-man semifinals. Hecould only clear a 16.33m jump inhis next attempt to miss out on thetwo-man final jump. Nonetheless,he collected a bronze.

The 25-year-old Arpinder wasrepresenting the Asia-Pacific teamin the meet, held once every fouryears. He had jumped 16.77m inJakarta and has a personal best of17.17m which he recorded in 2014.No Indian has ever won a medal inthe Continental Cup which wasknown as the IAAF World Cupbefore 2010. Two top athletes from

the four regions of Europe,Americas, Africa and Asia-Pacificwere taking part in each of the 36events in men and women sectionstaken together. Reigning Olympicand world champion ChristianTaylor of the United States easilytook the gold with a jump of17.59m, which is one metre morethan the best effort of Arpinder. The28-year-old Taylor beat WorldUniversity Games silver medallistHugues Fabrice Zango of BurkinaFaso, who cleared 17.02m, in thetwo-man final round. Taylor, whowas representing the Americas, hasa personal best of 18.21m.

Arpinder first Indian to win medal in IAAFContinental Cup

LUCKNOW | MONDAY | SEPTEMBER 10, 2018 sport 16

PTI n NEW DELHI

The Committee ofAdministrators (CoA) in all

likelihood will have a discussionwith chief coach Ravi Shastri onIndian team’s below par show inEngland.

India lost the ODI as well asTest series to the hosts and theCoA is expected to assess theteam’s performance after theend of the fifth Test.

‘’There is a CoA meeting inMumbai on September 11.While the main discussion willbe on implementation of newconstitution, the performance ofEngland series will certainlycome up for discussion,’’ asenior BCCI official told PTItoday.

‘’It will be CoA’s call whetherthey want to meet Ravi Shastriin person or seek his feedbackvia written report. At this pointin time, Cricket AdvisoryCommittee (CAC) is non func-tional. Till elections are held, it’sCoA which will be in charge, soit’s only imperative that they willassess the performance’’ headded.

If a meeting happens, thenchairman of selectors MSKPrasad’s opinion will also besought.

There is a convention formore than three decades ofmanager’s report being submit-ted after each and every series(home and away) but usually the

coach never gives any report.However, contrary to popu-

lar belief the manager does nothave the mandate to reviewteam’s performance.

‘’The manager’s report is atemplated one. SunilSubramanium’s duties are pure-ly administrative and it has gotnothing to do with cricketingperformance. It will be purelybased on logistics issues likeaccommodation, choice of food,travelling facilities, practice con-ditions etc. Sunil doesn’t have themandate to write anything else.So cricketing feedback dependson either Shastri, Kohli or MSK,’’the official clarified.

After Greg Chappell’s depar-ture, no Indian coach has sub-mitted performance reviewreport, in writing, to the BCCIafter foreign series.

The convention has beeneither secretary or the presidentmeeting the coach or the captainfor a discussion on the seriesgone by.

However, acting presidentCK Khanna will not be entrust-ed with any such responsibilitywhile acting secretary AmitabhChaudhary’s powers have beencurtailed by the CoA.

It will be interesting to noteif CoA asks for the team physioPatrick Farhart’s report on theinjury status of certain playersduring the ongoing tour whichis likely to conclude in the nextcouple of days.

India need to be mentally strong to win overseas series: GilchristBENGALURU,: India have quality batsmen and bowlers in the teambut need to be mentally stronger to win a Test series abroad,Australian great Adam Gilchrist seemed to suggest on Sunday.

India have lost the ODI series and are battling to save the fifthmatch of the Test series, in which they have already conceded anunassailable lead.

“It is challenging playing overseas. I do believe India have astrong bowling unit and some quality batsmen, including the bestbatsmen in the world, Virat Kohli. They have the potential to winoverseas, perhaps it is just mind more than the body,” he told PTIin an interaction here.

Gilchrist made these remarks when he was asked to commenton India’s performance against England in the ongoing Test series.He was attending an event conducted by global sportswear brandPuma.

Asked about Kohli’s captaincy in the ongoing Test series againstEngland, Gilchrist said he would not make any comment butadmired the Indian captain’s positive attitude.

“What I admire about Virat’s captaincy is his tenacity and theway he drags his team with him just by being positive. Tactically,I cannot comment because I have not watched enough content,except the highlights,” he said.

Gilchrist also said he admires Kohli’s aggression, though somepeople say he goes overboard sometimes.

“Virat is that guy who is passionate about leading his team andthe nation forward. I see positive things about his captaincy andleadership,” he said.

Asked about Kohli’s soured relationship with Australian spec-tators, Gilchrist said the Indian captain has matured since the lasttour where they went under the skin of the Indian players, espe-cially Kohli.

“The Aussie crowd always want to go under the skin of oppo-sition players. Virat has matured to a great deal since that last tour,”he said. India is touring Australia between November and Januarynext, where they will play four Test matches, three T20s and as manyODIs. Perhaps, it would not be advisable for Australians to upsethim because it may boomerang against them as he is world’s bestbatsmen at the moment, Gilchrist said.

“He (Kohli) looks to me a guy who likes challenges when thechips are down. Perhaps, we don’t want to upset him because he isthe best player in the world,” he said.

From Australia’s point of view, they do not want him to scoreheavily as he is currently doing in England, Gilchrist added.

Asked about ICC Cricket World Cup 2019 in England, Gilchristsaid the hosts, Australia, India and Pakistan, are potential teamsto reach semifinals. “England has one of the strongest white ballteam. They will be playing in home conditions. Australia too alsohave good chance, and India has won a tournament there before.And, Pakistan are always the dark horse. they can spring a surpriseor two,” he said.

PTI n LONDON

Alastair Cook displayedhis all-too familiarobduracy and pow-

ered England to a position ofstrength in the fifth Testagainst India, laying thegroundwork for a swansongbefitting a distinguishedcareer. Cook was unbeatenon 46 runs in his last inter-national innings as Englandreached 114 for 2 at stumpson day three at the Oval.

At end of play, he hadput on 52 runs for the thirdwicket with skipper Joe Root(29) as England took a 154-run lead. Post tea, Cook andKeaton Jennings (10) extend-ed their opening partnershipto 27. It wasn’t a frustratingstand yet, but it becamequickly so for India as theywasted both reviews on theopeners within three oversafter the break. On bothoccasions, Ravindra Jadeja(1-36) and keeper RishabhPant convinced skipper ViratKohli to go for the reviews,despite the ball missing theoff-stump. MohammedShami (1-32) then bowledJennings in the 13th over.Cook and Moeen Ali (20)put on 35 runs for the second

wicket and took Englandpast 50 in the 24th over. Thelatter enjoyed a life on 14, asKL Rahul dropped him atsecond slip off Ishant Sharma(0-11). Jadeja did get Alisoon after, bowling himthrough the gate as the ballspun a mile after kicking upfrom the rough.

India had the match ball

changed on two occasionsthereafter, as Cook and Rootplayed out the remainingovers without much ado andbringing up their 50-standoff 80 balls. The scorecrossed 100 in the 38th overas the hosts assumed a com-manding position in thisTest. This was after Jadejascored 86 not out as India

finished their first innings at292 (95 overs), conceding a40-run lead. The left-handerfaced 156 balls and hit 11fours as well as a six, nar-rowing the gap between thetwo teams. Post lunch, Indiatried to extend their inningsas long as possible. IshantSharma (4) though fell in thefourth over after the break,caught behind off Moeen Ali(2-50). At the other end, AdilRashid (1-19) dismissedMohammed Shami (1) whoagain tried to hit out insteadof putting a price on hiswicket. Jasprit Bumrah (0)did just that, and batted out14 deliveries, which allowedJadeja to smash the ballaround. In doing so, he puton 32 runs for the tenth andfinal wicket. Jadeja reachedhis ninth Test half-centuryoff 113 balls, after India hadcrossed 250 in the 84th over.England were so flusteredthat they took the new ballin hope of dismissing the lastwicket quickly. The part-nership, and India’s inningsended through a run-out inthe 95th over as Jadeja fin-ished unbeaten. Earlier,Hanuma Vihari scored ahalf-century on debut asIndia reached 240 for seven

at lunch. Starting fromovernight 174 for six, Vihariand Jadeja looked to bat fortime and dig India out of theprecarious position theyfound themselves in. JamesAnderson (2-54) and StuartBroad (1-50) bowled athreatening first spell, butboth batsmen played watch-fully and with patience.There were a couple edges,though they didn’t go tohand or fell short.

Runs started trickling inas India scored 33 runs in thefirst hour of play. 200 cameup in the 63rd over, with theduo adding 50 runs for theirseventh-wicket partnershipoff 117 balls. Jadeja startedtaking a few more libertieswith his stroke making, whileVihari stayed calm andlooked to score when theopportunity presented itself.

BRIEF SCORES:England 1st innings: 332 India 1st innings: 292 allout in 95 overs (HanumaVihari 56, Ravindra Jadeja 86not out; James Anderson2/30, Moeen Ali 2/50, BenStokes 2/56). England 2nd innings: 114/2in 43 overs (Alastair Cook 46not out, Joe Root 29 not out)

England in driver’s seat at Oval

Ravindra Jadeja celebrates reaching 50 runs during the fifth cricket test matchagainst England at the Oval cricket ground in London on Sunday

CoA may discuss Englandtour with Shastri

RAVI EMERGES WINNERRavi Shankar defeated Mayank Pandey on tie-

breaker to emerge winner of the 5th Shivani CupSunday Open Chess Tournament at Shivani PublicSchool on Sunday. Kuldeep finished third. In theunder-10 category, Ridhiam Nigam took the winnerstrophy while Sanyam Srivastava and AdhyanshSaxena settled for second and third place respectively.In the un der-14 category, Medhansh Saxena liftedthe cup while Rajnandini Singh and AkshantBhatnagar finished second and third respectively.Tejasva Singh bagged the under-16 title, followed byRidhima Nigam and Ravi Narayan Verma on secondand third place. LDCSA president Sudhir Dubey gaveaway the prizes.

DIVYANSH LEAVES FOR CROATIADivyansh Srivastava and Radhapriya Goel of Uttar

Pradesh left for Croatia and Serbia for ITTF PremiumCroatia Open and World Junior Circuit SerbiaOpen respectively on Sunday. The exposure trips,which are part of the TTFI programme will come inhandy for the juniors to compete among the best andand showcase their talent. SQUADS: Junior Boy’s: Manush Shah, RaeganAlbuquerque, Anukram Jain, Deepit R. Patil, Akash Pal andYashansh Malik. Junior Girl’s: Anushka Kutumbale,

Swastika Ghosh, Prapti Sen, Poymantee Baisya, RadhapriyaGoel and Diya Chitale. Sub-Junior Boy’s: Payas Jain, VishwaDeenadayalan, Aadarsh Om Chetri and Divyansh Srivastava.Sub-Junior Girl’s: Anargaya Manjunath, Lakshita Narang,Karruna Gajendran and Kavyashree Baskar. Coaches:Mohammad Ibrahim Khan, Krunal Telang, Subhajit Saha andJyoti Shah.

TRIPLE CROWN FOR GUNGUNGungun Sahu annexed three titles in the 1st

Shivani Cup District Table Tennis Championships atKD Singh “ababu’ Stadium on Sunday. She won thewomen’s, youth girl’s and junior girl’s title to completeher hat-trick of titles. Gautam Dhruvansh bagged themen’s title. UPTTA treasurer NK Lahiry, ShivaniPublic School incharge Punita Mishra gave away theprizes.RESULTS: Men’s: Gautam Dhruvansh bt Adarsh Srivastava11-9, 11-5, 11-7; Womens’: Gungun Sahu bt Saloni Bansal11-6, 11-8, 9-11, 11-6; Youth Boy’s: Satyam Mishra btAkashDwivedi 11-9, 11-6, 11-8; Youth Girl’s: GungunSahubeat Saloni Bansal 11-8, 11-9, 11-6; Junior Boy’s: AdarshSrivastava bt Chinmoy Chakravorty 11-5, 11-8, 11-6;Junior Girl’s: Gungun Sahu bt Saloni Bansal 11-7, 7-11, 11-5, 11-6; Sub-Junior Girl’s: Shreya Singh bt Mahi Mahajan11-6, 11-8, 5-11, 11-6; Cadet Girl’s: Mahi Mahajan btManasvita Yadav 11-6, 5-11, 11-7, 11-8.

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