nearby scissuesbailablewarrant … . bengaluru . hyderabad . madurai . noida . visakhapatnam ....

CMYK

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Pronouncing its judgment inthe high-profile Maruti viol-ence case following unrestin the company’s Manesarplant, which resulted in thedeath of Human Resourcesmanager Awanish KumarDev, in 2012, a local court onFriday convicted 31 of the148 accused workers and ac-quitted 117 others.

Thirteen of those con-victed, including 12 formeroffice-bearers of the work-ers’ union, were held guiltyof murder, attempt tomurder, destruction of evid-ence and criminalconspiracy.

The verdict comes morethan four years after Devwas killed and around 90 ex-ecutives were injured duringviolence at the plant on July18, 2012.

Reading out the 508-pagejudgment to the crowdedcourtroom, additional dis-trict and sessions judge R.P.Goyal said 31 of the accusedwere found guilty undervarious charges and the re-maining 117 were being ac-quitted. While 13 were con-

victed of murder, attempt tomurder, destruction of evid-ence, mischief by fire andcriminal conspiracy, amongother charges, the other 18were held guilty of voluntar-ily causing hurt, tresspass,unlawful assembly andwrongful restraint.

In police custodyAll the 31 accused weretaken into police custodyafter the verdict. Sixty-sixworkers are absconding inthe case. The court has fixed

March 17 to decide on thequantum of sentence.

Defence counsel andsenior advocate VrindaGrover said the fact that 117workers were acquitted bythe court unequivocally de-molished the foundation ofthe prosecution case. “Eight-een workers have been con-victed only for grievous hurtand trespass, and 13 workershave been convicted ofmurder,” she said.

31 convicted in 2012 Marutiviolence case, 117 acquittedLabour unrest at Manesar plant led to death of HR manager

Ashok Kumar

GURUGRAM

Free at last:Workers celebrate after their acquittal in theMaruti Suzuki factory violence case on Friday. SANDEEP SAXENA

CONTINUED ON � PAGE 8

A seven-judge Bench, com-prising the seniormostjudges of the SupremeCourt, issued a bailable war-rant against sitting CalcuttaHC judge C.S. Karnan to se-cure his presence in the Su-preme Court on March 31 ina suo motu contempt caseagainst him for denigratingthe judicial institution.

The Bench, led by ChiefJustice of India J.S. Khehar,on Friday directed the Dir-ector General of Police, WestBengal, to personally servethe warrant on JusticeKarnan. Justices Misra, J.Chelameswar, Ranjan Gogoi,Madan B. Lokur, P.C. Ghoseand Kurian Joseph are theothers on the Bench.

Later, addressing a pressconference at his residencein Kolkata, Justice Karnansaid that “it is [the SupremeCourt’s order] a motivated,ridiculous and illegal order.”He urged the President to“recall the bailable warrant”and directed Secretaries-

General of both Houses ofParliament to place the factsbefore the Speaker for athorough probe.

‘Targeted for being SC’He alleged that he was beingtargeted by the SupremeCourt because he belongs toa Scheduled Caste com-munity. Justice Karnan alsodirected the Central Bureau

of Investigation to initiate aprobe against the seven Su-preme Court judges, includ-ing Chief Justice Khehar.

In a letter to the PrimeMinister, Justice Karnan hadallegedly accused several sit-ting and retired High Courtand Supreme Court judges ofcorruption.

Chief Justice Khehar in-formed Attorney-General

Mukul Rohatgi that JusticeKarnan had sent a fax mes-sage to the Supreme CourtRegistry on March 8, seekinga meeting with the CJI andother Supreme Court judges.

In its order issuing thewarrant, the Bench said thisfax message did not qualifyas a response to the con-tempt notice issued to him.

The Bench said that des-pite almost a month beinggiven to him, Justice Karnandid not deem it necessary toenter appearance personallyor through a counsel beforethe Supreme Court in re-sponse to the contempt no-tice.

“The letter dated March 8,2017, cannot be treated as aresponse by Justice C.S.Karnan. In view of the aboveposition in the matter, weseek the presence of JusticeC.S. Karnan by issuing bail-able warrant with the sum of₹10,000 in the nature of apersonal bond to the satis-faction of the arresting of-ficer,” the Bench ordered.

SC issues bailable warrantagainst Justice C.S. KarnanCalcutta High Court judge calls it a motivated, ridiculous and illegal order

Krishnadas Rajagopal

Soumya Das

New Delhi/Kolkata


Few students inVadamarachchi, part of SriLanka’s northern peninsula,had heard of Visual Basicuntil Sebastian Selvanayagistarted offering a course in itat her modest computercentre.

“Even basic programminglanguages haven’t come toour village in a big way,” shesaid, entering a small roomin her home, where fivedesktop computers are kept.

As her office assistantswitched one of the systemson, Ms. Selvanayagi satdown and quickly typed thepassword with her toes.That is how she has beentyping for more than 20years now — placing thekeyboard under the table —after she lost both her armsin intense shelling in 1990.She was around 15 then, andpreparing to take her O-level(class X) examination.

LTTE steps in“The LTTE took completecare of me after that. Istayed with them and didprogramming and dataentry work. That becamemy world,” Ms. Selvanayagi,42, said.

She pursued computerscience at the Open

University and upgraded herskills. “I got my educationbecause the LTTE andothers supported me.Education has value onlywhen it is shared – that iswhat I am doing now,” shesaid.

A pile of books, with titleslike ‘Visual Basic’, ‘DTPCourse Kit’ and‘Programming in C - aprimer’ sat on a woodenstool in her living room.

“I got them from India;that was one good thing thatcame out of that trip,” shelaughed.

In 2012, three years afterthe war ended, she went toChennai to try outprosthetic limbs. “Theywere uncomfortable anddidn’t seem suitable for use

in a humid climate like ours.Moreover, they wereexpensive.”

Ms. Selvanayagi nowmanages her tasks withfull-time help from acaretaker and her guardians— her father’s friends — whohave been caring for hersince his passing.

Work from homeEvery evening a group ofstudents comes for theclasses, as part of theNational VocationalQualification programme ofthe government. Initially,Ms. Selvanayagi taught thecourse at a local school, butnoticed some colleagues’discomfort at her turningthe pages of books using herfeet.

“I suppose they thought itwas disrespectful, but to meit is just a reflex.”

Later, governmentofficials let her work fromher home in Vetrilaikenivillage in VadamarachchiEast, an area that appearsuntouched by theinfrastructure developmentin post-war Jaffna, 30 kmaway.

“I am determined to workand fend for myself. I don’tlook back. I don’t judge theTigers politically. My loyaltyto them is very personal.”

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Life, on her own two feetSelvanayagi lost her arms in Sri Lanka’s war 27 years ago

Meera Srinivasan

JAFFNA

Selvanayagi teachescomputing. MEERA SRINIVASAN

V.M. Sudheeran steps

down as president of

Congress in Kerala

page 5

Rajeev Chandrashekhar

withdraws Bill declaring

Pakistan terror sponsor

page 8

South Korean court

upholds impeachment

of Park Geun-hye

page 10

Foot injury rules

Mitchell Starc out

of the current series

page 13

Snowed in: The Kashmir Valley, including Srinagar, received fresh snowfall on Friday. The snowfall started at night. There were intermittent spells of snow andrain during the day. Srinagar’s day temperature was recorded at 3.6 degrees Celsius, 10 degrees below the normal. NISSAR AHMAD (SEE ALSO PAGE 4)

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White morning

India’s first lunar probe,Chandrayaan-1, which wasconsidered lost, is still orbit-ing the moon, NASA scient-ists have found by using anew ground-based radartechnique.

The ISRO lost communic-ation with Chandrayaan-1 onAugust 29, 2009, almost ayear after it was launched onOctober 22, 2008.

Now, scientists at NASA’sJet Propulsion Laboratory( JPL) in California have loc-ated the spacecraft still circ-ling some 200 km above thelunar surface. “We havebeen able to detect NASA’sLunar Reconnaissance Or-biter (LRO) and the IndianSpace Research Organisa-

tion’s Chandrayaan-1 inlunar orbit with a ground-based radar,” said MarinaBrozovic, a radar scientist atJPL and principal investig-

ator for the test project.“Finding LRO was relat-

ively easy, as we were work-ing with the mission’s navig-ators and had precise orbitdata... Finding Chandray-aan-1 required a bit more de-tective work because the lastcontact with the spacecraftwas in August of 2009,” saidBrozovic. Chandrayaan-1 isvery small and cuboid inshape, about 1.5 metres inlength on each side. Al-though the interplanetaryradar has been used to ob-serve small asteroids severalmillion miles from the earth,researchers were not certainthat an object of this sizecould be detected as faraway as the moon.

Ground-based radar technique helps to spot the spacecraft

Press Trust of India

WASHINGTON

This ile photo showsChandrayaan-1 gettingready for launch. ISRO

‘Lost’ Chandrayaan-1 foundorbiting Moon by NASA


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Live coverage

For live coverage and analysesof the Assembly electionresults, visit thehindu.comDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD

Mother Dairy hiked milkprices by up to ₹3 in Delhi-NCR from Saturday, citingrise in raw milk purchaseprice.

The last time MotherDairy had increased itsprices for poly packs was inJuly 2016 and for token milkin May 2014.

Mother Dairy’s toned milk(1000 ml) will now be avail-able for ₹38 instead ₹36, onelitre of full cream milk will

cost ₹52 instead of ₹49 andhalf litre will cost ₹26 insteadof ₹25.

The price of full creampremium milk has been in-creased from ₹51 to ₹54 perlitre and from ₹26 to ₹27 forhalf litre.

The price of one litretoned milk has been in-creased to ₹42 from ₹39 andthat of half litre poly packshas been increased to ₹21from ₹20.

Double toned milk (onelitre) will be available for ₹38

instead of ₹35 and half litrewill be available for ₹19 in-stead of ₹18. The price of halflitre skimmed milk has beenincreased from ₹16 to ₹17.

‘Rawmilk prices high’“The last consumer price re-vision in Delhi-NCR for polypack milk was taken in July2016. Since then the con-sumer milk prices have beenretained despite significantincrease in raw milk pur-chase prices,” a MotherDairy spokesperson said.

“The milk prices, which ina normal year comes downduring winter months, havegone up substantially. It isimportant to note thatMother Dairy has increasedits farm prices by about ₹2.5-₹3/kg over July and com-pared to last year the pricesare up by ₹ 5-₹6/kg,” he said.

The spokesperson said theconsumer price of tokenmilk was last revised in May2014. The company is nowincreasing its prices by Rs2/litre.

“As a responsible organiz-ation, Mother Dairy has al-ways attempted to strike aright balance between theconsumers’ interest and themilk producers’ interest. Thecompany believes in givingcompetitive and remunerat-ive price to the farmer to en-sure sustainability of dairy-ing and availability of safemilk for consumers,” he said.

Mother Dairy’s milk pricesin Mumbai, Chennai and UP(East) will also be increasedfrom March 11.

Company cites signiicant rise in procurement rates; last hike took place in July 2016

Staff Reporter

New Delhi

Mother Dairy hikes milk prices by up to ₹3

In what will probably be thefirst such attempt, the Statesof Odisha, West Bengal, Ch-hattisgarh and Jharkhandhave decided to conduct asynchronised elephantcensus between May 9 and12. The four States togetherhave the maximum numberof human-elephant conflict-prone regions in India.

A decision to this effectwas taken by senior ForestDepartment officials of thefour States during a regional

workshop on Friday.The States will conduct

the census based on anidentical set of rules — using

the direct and indirect count-ing methods. The dates havebeen chosen specifically asthe sighting of elephants is

expected to be easier on thenight of May 10 — a full moonnight.

The direct countingmethod is based on sightingof elephants while the indir-ect method uses the ‘dungdecay’ formula, in which thethe analysis of elephant dungis used to estimate the popu-lation. The second methodhas already been used byKarnataka and Tamil Nadu.

As per the 2015 census,Odisha has 1,954 elephantswhile Jharkhand, Chhattis-garh and West Bengal had

approximately 700, 275 and130 elephants, respectively.

“Earlier, field officialswere deputed inside a forestarea for direct counting. Itwas expected that the entirearea would be covered. But,that is not possible becauseof many reasons. As a result,the population was underes-timated in some places whileduplication was reportedelsewhere,” said S. S. Srivast-ava, Principal Chief Conser-vator of Forests of Odisha.

A simultaneous censuswill eliminate these factors.

Four States come together for elephant censusOdisha, Bengal, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand have maximum number of human-elephant conlict

Satyasundar Barik

Bhubaneswar

Fresh count: Census scheduled for May 10, a full moon day.

NEARBY

Two PoK boys handedover to PakWagah

Two teenage boys fromPoK, against whom the NIAdropped charges ofconspiracy in the Uri terrorstrike, were on Fridayreunited with their familiesat the Wagah border afterspending nearly sixmonths in detention.NORTH � PAGE 2

Charge sheet iledagainst SupriyoKOLKATA

The Kolkata police have ileda charge sheet against UnionMinister Babul Supriyo in acourt here on the basis of acomplaint iled by TrinamoolCongress MLAMahuaMitra.MsMitra, whowas earlierassociated with the Congress,had lodged a complaintagainst Mr. Supriyo inJanuary.

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Delhi Weather

Delhi City

Safdarjang

Palam

max

26

26

27

min

15

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15

© Copyright Skymet Weather 2017

All rights reserved.

Delhi Palam Today24ºC City could witness a spellof rain towards early morning,leading to pleasant day.

Delhi Palam Tomorrow25ºC Morning will be pleasantover the city, while day will bebright and sunny.

DELHI Timings

Saturday, March 11

RISE 06:35 SET 18:27

RISE 17:22 SET 05:42

Sunday, March 12

RISE 06:34 SET 18:28

RISE 18:19 SET 06:21

Monday, March 13

RISE 06:33 SET 18:28

RISE 19:15 SET 06:59

Akhilesh has concededdefeat: RijijuGHAZIABAD

Union Minister Kiren Rijiju onFriday took a dig at UttarPradesh Chief MinisterAkhilesh Yadav, saying hishints at tying up with the BSPif the poll results throw up ahung Assembly is like“conceding defeat” evenbefore the counting. - PTI

IN BRIEF

Two injured in U.P.cracker blastKANPUR

Two persons were on Fridayinjured when a crackerdumped in a heap of garbageon the campus of a medicalcollege here exploded, thepolice said.The explosion occurred atShankar Vidhyarthi MedicalCollege in the morning whenworkers were collectinggarbage on the campus. - PTI

JE held for allegedlytaking bribeJAMMU

A junior engineer workingwith the Block DevelopmentOfficer of Ramnagar tehsil inUdhampur district wasarrested on Friday forallegedly accepting a bribe of₹14,000, the State VigilanceOrganisation said.- PTI

By-elections to the DholpurAssembly constituency inRajasthan and the BhoranjAssembly constituency in Hi-machal Pradesh will be heldon April 9.

According to the ElectionCommission’s announce-ment, notification for the by-polls will be issued on March14 and nominations will beaccepted till March 21.Counting of votes will takeplace on April 13.

While the Dholpur seatfell vacant three months agofollowing the disqualificationof Bahujan Samaj Party MLAB.L. Kushwah upon his con-viction in a murder case, by-poll in Bhoranj has been ne-cessitated because of thedeath of senior BharatiyaJanata Party MLA IshwarDass Dhiman.

Matter of prestigeThe Dholpur by-election willbe a matter of prestige forthe ruling BJP and the Op-position Congress as its res-

ult will be treated as a reflec-tion of people's opinion onthe BJP government’s per-formance during the lastthree years.

Dholpur happens to bethe home turf of Chief Minis-ter Vasundhara Raje as shewas married to HemantSingh of the town’s erstwhileruling family.

Ever since the Assemblyseat fell vacant, Ministersholding different portfolioshave been visiting the dis-trict to review the progress

of welfare schemes and or-ganising public hearings toresolve people’s grievances.

Significantly, the BJP hassince inducted Mr. Kush-wah’s wife Shobharani intothe party.

There is speculation thatshe may be fielded as theparty's candidate, eventhough former legislatorsAbdul Sagir Khan andJaswant Singh Gujjar areamong the strong con-tenders for the ticket.

While the BSP may find itdifficult to retain theDholpur seat in the absenceof an “acceptable face”, theCongress will be projectingthe by-poll as a virtual semi-final for the 2018 Assemblyelections. Victory in the by-election will hold out a clearmessage that the people ofthe State are unhappy withthe BJP and the Stategovernment.

The Congress is yet toidentify a strong candidatewith the right caste creden-tials. District Congress pres-ident Ashok Sharma hasemerged as a strong con-

tender as he is the son offormer MLA BanwarilalSharma, who was defeatedby Mr. Kushwah with a mar-gin of 9,000 votes in the2013 Assembly polls.

Mr. Kushwah's member-ship of the State Assemblywas terminated after he wasconvicted and sentenced tolife imprisonment onDecember 8 last year in a2012 case of “honourkilling”. He was chargedwith getting a man, whom hesuspected to be in a relation-ship with his sister,murdered through a con-tract killer.

Ticket for Dhiman’s son?In Bhoranj, the BJP is likelyto field the son of Mr. Dhi-man from this reserved con-stituency and the Congress isstill uncertain about its can-didate. Mr. Dhiman had rep-resented Bhoranj, which wasearlier called Mewa, sixtimes in a row. He was twicethe Education Minister of theState in the previous BJP gov-ernments of 1998-2003 and2007-2012.

Assembly by-elections inRajasthan, H.P. on April 9Bhoranj poll has been necessitated because of the death of BJP MLA Dhiman

Dholpur seat fell vacantfollowing disqualiication ofBSP MLA B.L. Kushwah

THE HINDU

Mohammed Iqbal

Yogendra Singh Tanwar

JAIPUR/SHIMLA

Snapshot: Students take a selie after celebrating Holi at Guru Nanak Dev University in Amritsar on Friday. AFP

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Date with colours

The Allahabad High Courton Thursday set aside the Ut-tar Pradesh government’s or-der in which it had waivedabout ₹2000 crore of in-terest amount which thesugar mills owed to farmersdue to delayed payment of

cane arrears. The court or-der came in response to apetition filed by farmer-act-ivist V.M. Singh challengingthe waiver of interestamount which the mill own-ers were supposed to pay tothe farmers for the years2012-13, 2013-14 and 2014-15.

Sugar mill owners are sup-

tion to pay interest for delayin payment of cane price tothe farmers as they incurredlosses allegedly due to re-duction in the price of sugar.The State government,through an order in Oct.2016, further waived over₹700 crore for interest pay-ment.

posed to pay interest oncane arrears to the farmersin case of delay in payment.

The interest amount for2012-13 and 2013-14 of over₹1,300 crore was waived bythe State government onMay 22, 2015, by acceptingthe request of mill ownersthat they were not in a posi-

HC sets aside ₹2000waiver to sugar millsMohammad Ali

Meerut0DISCLAIMER: Readers are requested toverify and make appropriate enquiries tosatisfy themselves about the veracity ofan advertisement before responding toany published in this newspaper. Kasturi& Sons Limited, the Publisher & Owner ofthis newspaper, does not vouch for theauthenticity of any advertisement or ad-vertiser or for any of the advertiser’sproducts and/or services. In no event canthe Owner, Publisher, Printer, Editor, Dir-ector/s, Employees of this newspaper/company be held responsible/liable inany manner whatsoever for any claimsand/or damages for advertisements inthis newspaper.

The Congress on Friday hin-ted at jointly contesting theupcoming by-polls to theSrinagar and Anantnag LokSabha constituencies withthe National Conference.

J&K Pradesh CongressCommittee ( JKPCC) presid-ent G. A. Mir, who held ameeting in Jammu on Fri-day, said: “The feeling onthe ground, which was re-flected during our feedbackwith the people, was thatboth the Congress and theNC should contest the pollstogether. This will encour-age people to come out andvote as they are unhappywith the PDP-BJP alliance inthe State for its failure to de-liver on its promises.”

However, Mr. Mir wasquick to add: “Such a de-cision will be taken by theparty high command (inNew Delhi)”.

Expressing concern overthe deteriorating law and or-der situation in the Valley,Mr. Mir said: “It’s the prerog-ative of the State and theCentre to create a peaceful

atmosphere.”Meanwhile, the Congress

top leaders, including re-cently inducted TariqHameed Karra, formerMember of Parliament fromSrinagar, passed a resolutionafter the meeting.

“The resolution author-ises the party high com-mand to decide about theseat adjustment for the up-coming Srinagar and Anant-nag Lok Sabha elections,”said Mr. Mir.

NC in nomoodSenior NC leader

Muhammad Akbar Lone,however, has given a coldshoulder to the Congress

plan. “I do not think the NCis ready for any seat adjust-ment in the Valley. I wouldsuggest to the Congress toback our candidates anddon’t field anyone,” said Mr.Lone.

By-polls to the two parlia-mentary seats of Anantnag,vacant since June 2016 whenMehbooba Mufti, then Mem-ber Parliament (MP) Anant-nag, took over as J&K ChiefMinister, and Srinagar, va-cated by Mr. Karra afterresigning the PDP as MP inSeptember 2016, are sched-uled for April 12 and 9respectively.

NC files complaintMeanwhile, the NC on Fri-day filed a complaint withthe Election Commission ofIndia over “official instruc-tions issued by the ChiefMinister's Office for somehigh-profile appointmentsbeing made to various Pub-lic Sector Enterprises”.

“This is brazen violationof the model code after theissuance of the electoral no-tification ,” said NC provin-cial chief Nasir AslamWani.

Elections for Srinagar and Anantnag seats on April 9 and 12

Peerzada Ashiq

Srinagar

J&K Congress chief G.A. Mir

Cong for pre-poll alliancewith NC for LS by-polls

Two teenage boys from PoK,against whom the NIAdropped charges of conspir-acy in the Uri terror strike,were on Friday reunitedwith their families at theWagah border after spendingnearly six months indetention.

Faisal Hussain Awan andAhsan Khursheed had beenhanded over to the Jammu-based 16 Corps of the armythis week after the probeagency came to the conclu-sion that the two had strayedinto the Indian side after atiff with their parents due tothe pressure of studies.

Border Security Forcehanded Awan and Khur-sheed to the PakistanRangers at the Wagah bor-der, where their familymembers were present togreet them.

‘Extremely happy’“I am extremely happy tosee my son among us. I amthankful to the governmentsof Pakistan and India for thesafe release of my son,”Awan’s father told reportersat the Wagah border.

He said the families of

both the boys had sufferedextreme mental pain afterthey were arrested in India.

“The boys crossed over tothe Indian side from Kash-mir by mistake. Both govern-ments must evolve somemechanism to deal withsuch cases on humanitariangrounds,” he said.

Awan’s brother AbdulMustafa said Awan will nowgo back to his school andcontinue studies. “At timeswe had lost hope to seeAwan among us. We arethankful to God, both gov-ernments and the media,” hesaid.

The Army’s unit at Uri haddetained the boys and ques-tioned them at length afterthe September 18 attack onits camp in which 19 person-nel were killed.

The NIA had said that theevidence collected in theform of statements, tech-nical analysis of their mobilephones, seized GPS devicesand other circumstantialevidence collected by theNIA “did not reveal any link-age of the suspects with theUri attackers“.

‘Acted as guides’The Army had detained thetwo on September 23, barelydays after the terror strike,and claimed that the twohad allegedly acted as guidesof the four terrorists whocarried out the attack on theUri garrison in NorthKashmir.

On September 18 last year,four heavily armed militantshad stormed the Uri armybase camp, killing 19 soldiersand injuring a few others.

The NIA had taken overthe investigation in the casefrom the state police.

The two youths were ar-rested by the BSF and theArmy in a joint operation.

Two PoK boys held after Uriattack handed over to PakArmy had arrested them but NIA dropped the chargesPRess trust of India

Lahore/Wagah

Faisal Hussain Awan andAhsan Khursheed werehanded over to Pakistan atthe Attari-Wagah border onFriday. PTI

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NOIDA/DELHI THE HINDU

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NORTH


THE HINDU NOIDA/DELHI

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CMYK

A ND-ND

EAST

Bahrain honours sandartist Sudarsan PattnaikBHUBANESWAR

Noted sand artist SudarsanPattnaik has been felicitatedby Bahrain for hiscontribution in arts andculture. Mr. Pattnaik washonoured by Bahrain’sMinister of Education MajidBin Ali Al Nuaimi on Thrsdayfor sharing his experienceand skills with the teachersof that country.PTI

IN BRIEF

Manipur official killed inaccidentAIZAWL

The field publicity officer ofManipur was among the twopersons killed and anotherwas injured when the car theywere travelling in fell into aditch near Thenzawl inSerchhip district on Friday,police said. The car rolleddown to a gorge killing theofficer, posted in Aizawl and awoman employee on thespot. The mother of thewoman employee wasseriously injured, they said. PTI

Assam will stop cowsmuggling: MinisterGUWAHATI

The Assam government willstop smuggling of cows toBangladesh from the State,Parliamentary Affairs MinisterChandra Mohan Patowarytold the Assembly on Friday.“Let me assure the Housethat we’ll not allow cows tobe smuggled to Bangladesh.It will be stopped,”he said. PTI

Assam Chief Minister Sarba-nanda Sonowal has lashedout at his Tripura counter-part Manik Sarkar for the al-leged rise in corruption,crime, employment andpoverty in the State.

Mr. Sonowal along withBJP general secretary RamMadhav was addressing awell-attended rally here onFriday. The rally was calledto protest against themurder of a local triballeader of the BJP at Gand-dachara in Dhalai districtlast month.

He said the NortheastStates should work like afamily by installing BJP gov-ernments to ensure steadfastdevelopment and progresswith support from the NDAgovernment at the Centre.

The rally saw some lead-ers from the oppositionparties joining the BJP, in-cluding former MinisterSurajit Datta who held theposts of president of theCongress and the TrinamoolCongress. Mr. Datta recentlyresigned from the TMC fol-

lowing a feud with senioroffice-bearers.

Funds embezzledIn their speeches, Mr.Sonowal and Mr. Madhav ex-pressed hope that the BJPwould win the 2018 As-sembly elections in Tripura.Both claimed that the CPI(M)embezzled funds allocatedby the Union government.

Mr. Madhav said the partywould probe the assets andfunds of the CPI(M) if it wasvoted to power in Tripura.According to him, the CPI(M) has amassed assets

worth Rs 5000 crorethrough illegal means.

He said crime against wo-men in Tripura was on therise and investigation incrime incidents was doneonly after the intervention ofthe courts.

The CPI(M) was engagedin the politics of terror andmurders, he alleged.

Arunachal Pradesh ChiefMinister Pema Khandu andAssam Minister and con-venor of the NortheastDemocratic Alliance Hi-manta Biswa Sarma did notattend the rally.

Sonowal lashes out at Tripuragovt for 'all-round failure'Former Minister Surajit Datta joins Bharatiya Janata Party

Syed Sajjad Ali

Agartala

Making a point: Sarbananda Sonowal addressing a rally inAgartala on Friday. ABHISEK SAHA

The Kolkata police have fileda charge sheet against UnionMinister Babul Supriyo in acourt here on the basis of acomplaint filed by Trin-amool Congress [TMC] MLAMahua Mitra.

Ms Mitra, who was earlierassociated with the Con-gress, had lodged a com-plaint against Mr. Supriyo inJanuary.

The complaintIn her complaint at the Ali-pore police station in southKolkata, Ms. Mitra had al-leged that the BJP lawmakerhad used words intended to“insult her modesty” duringa live television show.

She alleged that Mr.Supriyo had tried to makefun of her name by linking itto ‘Mahua’, a local drinkavailable mainly in the forestareas, during a live show onJanuary 3.

On the basis of her com-plaint, a case was earlier re-

gistered against Mr. Supriyofor allegedly insulting themodesty of a woman.

TV footage“We filed a charge sheetagainst the MP at the Aliporecourt here on Thursday.

He had been summonedthrice but he did not turn

up,” a senior police officertold the news agency PTI.The police has also submit-ted TV footage of the pro-gramme in which the re-marks were purportedlymade, the officer said.

The Union Ministercouldnot be reached for hiscomments.

Charge sheet iledagainst SupriyoTrinamool MLA had lodged a complaint against Minister

Union Minister Babul Supriyo could not be reached for hiscomments. FILE PHOTO

Special Correspondent

Kolkata

Proving that lack of visioncan hardly be a hindrance inthe quest for knowledge,visually impaired Lipsa RaniSahu was the proudrecipient of a gold medal atthe 21st Convocation ofBerhampur University hereon Friday.

Lipsa, who topped in theM.A. Odia course, waspresent along with hermother, Tripura Choudhury,for the ceremony at thejam-packed auditorium. “Mymother seems to have toiledat par with me for mysuccess in studies,” she said

Ms. Choudhury, ahousewife, spent at leastseven hours every day onher daughter’s studies. Lipsais unable to read or takenotes. She tries toremember everything thather mother reads out to her.“Due to Lipsa, myknowledge of everything,including that of Odialanguage and literature, hasincreased many fold,” saidMs. Choudhury.

Asked how despite herblindness she fared betterthan other students, Lipsasaid: “I think because of mylack of vision, my

concentration is quite high,which at times is low inpeople with vision becauseof distractions”.

Writes poetryTo add wing to herimaginations, she has alsostarted writing poetry inOdia. Most of them arescribbled on paper, whichno one except her mothercan decipher.

Head of the OdiaDepartment at BerhampurUniversity, Debi PrasannaPatnaik, was all praises forLipsa. “Lipsa has astonishingconcentration,determination, commitmentand talent. I am proud tohave encountered andguided such a uniquestudent in my life,” Prof.

Patnaik said.She was the most regular

student of her department.During the weekly seminars,she was the most activeparticipant and most of thetime she came up withcritical queries, which otherstudents do not think about,Prof. Patnaik added.

Lipsa aims to take upteaching as a profession.After completing her post-graduation in Odia fromBerhampur University, shehas now got enrolled for aB.Ed course at KhallikoteUniversity.

She hails from a middleclass family from Duravillage on the outskirts ofBerhampur. Her fatherDamodar Sahu is a retiredgovernment servant and her

younger brother is pursuingB.Tech.

Retina problemBorn in 1994, Lipsadeveloped serious problemsin her retinas when she wasonly 11 months old. One ofher eyes had to be removed,and with time vision in herother eye also got reduced tozero. Interestingly, she hasnever studied in any specialschool for the blind anddoes not know the Braillescript.

Her education tillgraduation was in Phulbaniof Kandhamal district,where his father served.After his father’s retirement,the family settled down attheir home in Dura. TillClass IX, she was writing herown answer using herlimited vision. She took theClass X examination with thehelp of a writer. “But whenher writer from Class IXcould not understandLipsa’s dictation in themathematics paper, she hadto write it down in big letterson sheets of paper, whichwas copied by the writer,”said Ms Choudhury.

She scored 90% in herClass X mathematicsexamination.

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Loss of sight no hindrance for this girlShe topped in M.A. Odia and got gold medal at Berhampur University convocation

Proud moment: Lipsa Rani Sahu with her mother. LININAGARAJ

PANDA

Sib Kumar Das

BERHAMPUR:

Arunachal Pradesh FinanceMinister Chowna Mein onFriday presented a ₹285-crore deficit budget for the2017-18 fiscal with majorthrust on women empower-ment, infrastructure devel-opment and law and order.

Tabling the budget in theAssembly, Mr. Mein said:“The Gross State DomesticProduct (GSDP) was estim-ated to be ₹21,414 crore in2016-17.

The share of central taxeshave grown from the actualreceipt of ₹7075.58 crore in2015-16 to ₹ 8388.3 crore inthe revised estimates of2016-17.”

Tax revenue“The State’s own tax rev-enue in the revised estim-ates of 2016-17 is ₹ 650.63crore as against the actualreceipt of ₹535.07 crore in2015-16, growing at 21.59 percent,” he said.

“The non-tax revenue re-ceipt in the revised estim-ates of 2016-17 is estimatedat ₹506.79 crore as againstan actual collection of₹392.12 crore in 2015-16,showing a growth of 29 percent,” he said.

In the budget estimate of2017-18, the State was pro-jecting a revenue receipt of₹14,599 crore and a capitalreceipt of ₹ 1,436.75 crore.

“This is an increase ofover 15 per cent from the

budget estimates of 2016-17.Our share of central taxeshas been pegged at₹9,306.34 crore. We haveprojected the state’s owntax revenue at ₹742.94 croreand the non-tax revenue for2017-18 at ₹ 536.29 crore,”the Minister said.

Referring to the reformsin governance as proposedin the budget, Mr. Mein saidthe trinity of JanDhan,Aadhar and Mobile wouldbe used for delivery of cit-izen services and moving to-wards a cashless and paper-less economy.

E-Office would be madefunctional along with com-puterisation of treasuriesand a Chief Minister’s dash-board on an electronic plat-form to track progress ofkey products would be cre-ated, he said.

IT initiatives“For IT initiatives, thebudget proposes an alloca-tion of ₹15 crore under theDigital Arunachal scheme,”Mr. Mein said.

“The government will rollout a new industrial policyand will develop industrialestates in the foothill dis-tricts for which a budgetaryallocation of Rs 15 crore hasbeen proposed,” he said,adding an amount of₹10crore has been proposed fordeveloping a food park atTippi in West Kamengdistrict

₹285 cr deicit budgettabled in ArunachalThrust on empowerment of womenPress Trust of India

Itanagar

A policeman gave a tip-offand his son was arrestedwith 25 bottles of IndiaMade Foreign Liquor inDarbhanga district.

Additional Superintend-ent of Police DilnawazAhmed on Friday said thatASI Prabhat Shankar in-formed the police abouthis son carrying smuggledliquor following which hewas arrested.

Shankar’s son was carry-ing 25 IMFL bottles bearingmark of Haryana in hisvehicle and was caughtwhen the police checkedhis vehicle at a place underUniversity police stationhere on Thursday night.

The accused Indrajit Ku-mar has been sent to jailunder new Excise Act ofthe State where prohibitionwas imposed in April lastyear.

The ASI is posted atAshok Paper Mill policestation of Darbhangadistrict.

The police havelaunched an intense driveacross Bihar for liquorsmuggling in view of Holi.

Policemangets son heldwith liquorPress Trust of India

Darbhanga

Trinamool Congress leaderand former West Bengalpower minister ManishGupta was on Friday elec-ted as a Rajya Sabhamember.

After declaring the re-tired bureaucrat as electeduncontested, Secretary tothe West Bengal LegislativeAssembly Jayanta Koleyhanded over the certificateto Mr. Gupta.

Mr. Gupta’s term asmember in the UpperHouse would continue tillApril 2020.

He was elected to theRajya Sabha to fill up thevacancy created after theresignation of actor—turned—politician MithunChakraborty, who was alsoelected to the Rajya Sabhaas a Trinamool Congresscandidate.

Manish Guptaelected toRajya Sabha

Press Trust of India

Kolkata

An all-party delegationfrom Assam Assembly onFriday visited the troubledSilapathar town where anoffice of the AASU was ran-sacked by an organisationearlier this week.

The nine-member deleg-ation consulted variousgroups, political parties,citizens and AASU officialsand reached a consensuswith others on five pointsto bring back normalcy inthe troubled town.

Assemblyteam visitsSilapatharPress Trust of India

Guwahati

The Orissa High Court onFriday took up a petitionfiled by a BJP Zilla Parishadmember challenging theState government’s recentamendment to the OdishaZilla Parishad Election Rulesof 1994.

A Division Bench headedby Chief Justice VineetSaran, however, after pre-liminary hearings ad-journed the matter. Itwill beheard again on March 15.

Advocate-General S. P.Mishra opposed the petitionsaying the amendment wasmade to ensure transpar-ency and prevent cross-vot-ing in the elections for theposts of presidents and vice-presidents of ZillaParishads.

Sukhlal Munda, an elec-ted ZP member of Sundar-garh, had approached theHigh Court challenging theWednesday’s amendment

brought in by the PanchatiRaj Department stating thatamendments cannot bemade midway when theprocess of elections hadalready begun.

New clauseThe new clause, which hasbeen incorporated in theRules, provides for appoint-ment of agents by everypolitical party and the elec-tion officer will allow the au-thorised agents to verify thevote cast by the electedmember of their respectiveparties as is being done dur-ing Rajya Sabha elections.

The Bharatiya JanataParty had earlier allegedthat the amendment wasbrought in a hurry as theruling BJD was apprehensivethat its elected Zilla Par-ishad members may notvote for the party nomineesfor the posts of presidentsand vice-presidents of thedistrict councils.

Odisha ZP electionrules challenged‘Changes can’t be when poll process is on’

Pradip Kumar Das

CUTTACK




NATION

MPs for more power todistrict councils of tribalsNEW DELHI

Cutting across party lines,Lok Sabha members on Fridaypitched for more financialand administrative powersfor the autonomous districtcouncils (ADCs) to ensureoverall development of tribalregions, most of which are inthe Northeast.“The Centre needs to have are-look at the functioning ofthe ADCs and find outwhether they are meetingthe aspirations of the peopleof tribal areas,” said AdhirRanjan Chowdhury. PTI

IN BRIEF

MBA student falls offterrace in sleep, diesHYDERABAD

An MBA student died after hefell off from the open terraceof a five-storey building inTarnaka on Friday, the policesaid.“The incident happened ataround 6 a.m., when MohakAgarwal, 25, and his friendswere sleeping on the openterrace,” said the police,adding that he died on thespot.Mohak was the native of RaeBareli in Uttar Pradesh. PTI

Dalit woman relievesherself in field, thrashedMUZAFFARNAGAR

A 25-year-old Dalit womanwas allegedly beaten up by afarmer for relieving herself inhis sugarcane field in Bhensvillage here, the police saidon Friday.The woman had come toattend a wedding in the area.Members of the communityblocked the Delhi-Dehradunhighway near the village,demanding the arrest of thefarmer, Circle Officer HariRam said.The accused has been takeninto custody and a probeinitiated, police added. PTI

While convicting three per-sons in the 2007 Ajmer dar-gah blast case, the NationalInvestigation Agency (NIA)special court here gave cre-dence to the charge-sheetsstating that Bhavesh Patelhad planted two bombs in-side the 13th century shrineand Devendra Gupta tookpart in hatching the conspir-acy for bombing by arran-ging mobile SIM cards.

Tiffin carrierBhavesh, a resident ofBharuch district in Gujarat,travelled to Ajmer and kept atiffin carrier containing thebomb just outside the tombof Khwaja MoinuddinChishti, where the devoteeswere breaking their Ramzanfast.

He kept another bag con-taining a bomb elsewhere onthe dargah premises but itdid not explode and wasrecovered.

Devendra, a native ofAjmer, was the first personarrested by sleuths of the Ra-jasthan Anti-TerrorismSquad (ATS) in 2010. He wasaccused of obtaining several

SIM cards on forged namesand identity cards. Two SIMcards were found in the un-attended bag left byBhavesh. Devendra workedfor the RSS in Jharkhand andMadhya Pradesh.

The court convictedBhavesh, Devendra andSunil Joshi, who wasmurdered in December2007, under various sectionsof the Indian Penal Code forcriminal conspiracy and un-der the Explosive Substances

Act, 1908, and the UnlawfulActivities Prevention Act,1967. Since the court is yet topronounce its order on sen-tence to the convicts, itsjudgment will be delivered infull on March 16. Specialjudge Dinesh Gupta had onWednesday read out the por-tions of the verdict dealingwith convictions and acquit-tals.

Defence lawyer B.S.Chouhan, who representedtwo of the seven accused

who were acquitted, said hisclients’ case was strong be-cause the evidence submit-ted against them was “con-cocted and legallyuntenable.”

The ATS, which probedinto the case before it washanded over to NIA, hadclaimed in the court that theexplosives used and themodus operandi adopted inthe blasts in the Ajmer dar-gah and Hyderabad’s MeccaMasjid were identical.

Samjhauta Express blastsSwami Aseemanand, whowas allegedly involved in theMecca Masjid and theSamjhauta Express blastscases, was made an accusedin the dargah case as well.

Despite his acquittal in theAjmer case, he is not likely tobe released from jail as he isfacing trial as the main con-spirator in the two othercases. In a sensational claim,he had confessed about theinvolvement of Right-wingHindutva groups in bomb-ings at various places for tak-ing revenge against Muslimsin a statement made before aMetropolitan Magistrate inDelhi.

NIA charge sheet helpedcrack Ajmer blast caseSpecial court yet to pronounce quantum of sentence for the three convicts

Conspirator:Devendra Gupta, a convict in the Ajmer bombblast case, at a Jaipur court onWednesday. FILE PHOTO: PTI

Mohammed Iqbal

Jaipur

After a long break, populartourist resorts in HimachalPradesh on Friday got freshsnow, pushing down themercury by several notches.

Hoteliers, however,cheered in the hope thattourists will converge inlarge numbers during thethree-day weekend thatends with Holi on Monday.

Picturesque sceneTourist spots near Shimla,the honeymooners’ paradiseKufri, Fagu, Narkanda andChail experienced moderatesnowfall, turning the hill sta-tions even more pictur-esque. Likewise, Manali andits nearby Solang ski slopesand Kalpa, 250 km fromShimla, also saw heavyspells of snow, the weather-

man said.“High altitude areas of La-

haul-Spiti, Kullu, Kinnaur,Chamba, Sirmaur andShimla districts have beenexperiencing moderatesnowfall since Tuesday,” aMet official said.

Lower areas in the State,including Dharamsala,Palampur, Solan, Nahan,Bilaspur, Una, Hamirpurand Mandi towns, receivedmoderate to heavy rains,bringing a considerable fallin temperature. The Met de-partment’s forecast saidwestern disturbances, stormsystems originating in theCaspian Sea and movingacross the Afghanistan-Pakistan region, would re-main active till Sunday.

There was also snowfall inthe Kashmir Valley, includ-ing the capital Srinagar, asthe Jammu-Srinagar national

highway remained closeddue to slippery and bad roadconditions. A fresh layer ofsnow draped the Valley andSrinagar as snowfall, whichstarted in the night, accumu-lated by the morning.

Dip in temperatureThere was intermittentsnowfall and rain during theday, too, bringing down thetemperature across the Val-ley. Srinagar’s day temperat-ure was recorded at 3.6 de-gree Celsius, 10 degreesbelow normal.

Srinagar meteorologicaldepartment director SonamLotus said: “Inclementweather will prevail tillMarch 11. From March 16 on-wards the Valley may againreceive rain or snowfall.Light snow may occur dur-ing the next 24 hours in Srin-agar again.”

White wash: People at the snow-covered ridge after fresh snowfall in Shimla on Friday. PTI

Fresh spell of snow in Himachaland Kashmir cheers touristsHoteliers hope for more bookings during 3-day weekendSpecial Correspondent

IANS

Shimla/Srinagar

A day after the Jammu &Kashmir Police took the helpof the wife and son of an al-leged militant to persuadehim to surrender during anencounter, the State DirectorGeneral of Police said on Fri-day that such humane ges-tures should not be miscon-strued as “weakness”.

S. P. Vaid, who had re-cently warned militantsagainst targeting the familiesof policemen, said, “Such ahumane approach shouldnot be misconstrued asweakness. I will ensure thewelfare of every personnel inmy force and such incidentswill be dealt with an ironhand. On Thursday, my boys

called the wife and son of amilitant during an en-counter. They stood in frontof her as she appealed herhusband to surrender. Wewanted to ensure that noth-ing happened to the womanor her son. My boys stoodbetween them and the bul-lets,” he told PTI.

He said the militants were

feeling the heat for the pasttwo months as they were be-ing “tracked and trapped”.

Option to surrenderHe added that militants werebeing given the option to sur-render and those who fell inline were taken to jail, butthose who didn’t facedconsequences.

‘Humane approach not sign of weakness’J&K DGP said this after cops took help of a militant’s wife to get him to surrenderPress Trust of India

Jammu




CMYK

A ND-ND

NATION

A unique model of heart at-tack care has brought downthe time taken respond tocardiac episodes from 900minutes to 170 minutes inTamil Nadu.

The landmark study, re-duces the symptom-to-doortime by effective, early andrapid reperfusion — restor-ing blood flow throughblocked arteries, typicalafter a heart attack.

The year long study hasbeen funded by the IndianCouncil of Medical Reseach(ICMR) and the results werepublished online on Wed-nesday in the latest issue ofthe Journal of the AmericanMedical Association ( JAMA,Cardiology).

Primary PCITraditionally, a heart attackis treated by two strategiesof re-perfusion. If a patientarrives at a hospitalequipped with a cathet-erisation laboratory or ‘cathlab’, a procedure known asPrimary PCI is performed —an urgent balloon an-gioplasty.

The patient is then‘Thrombolysed’ — treated todissolve clots in blood ves-sels, improve blood flow,

and prevent damage to tis-sues and organs before be-ing discharged.

In the new model, STEMIIndia, a not-for-profit organ-isation, set up by Dr.Thomas Alexander of KovaiMedical Central and Hos-pital (KMCH) Coimbatore,and Dr. Ajit Mullasari ofMadras Medical Mission inChennai, use the pharmacoinvasive strategy, which canbe administered in anysmall hospital or even in theambulance.

Manpower deficit“Any heart attack treatmentprogramme should con-sider the huge manpowerand infrastructure deficien-cies that exist in India.Blindly following the Amer-ican or European systemwould not be feasible in thiscountry,” said Dr Alexander,an interventional cardiolo-gist.

The Classic STEMI Indiamodel has a hub hospital,where a cath lab is availableand primary PCI is done forpatients directly presentedat these hospitals.

These are linked to peri-pheral spoke hospitals,where thrombolysis is donefollowing which the patientis shifted within three to 24hours to the hub hospital

for invasive treatment.Data was collected from

the four hub hospitals and35 spoke hospitals, beforeand after the implementa-tion of the heart attack pro-gramme. The pre-imple-mentation data collectionwas for an average period of15 weeks and the post im-plementation period of 32weeks.

A total of 2,420 consecut-ive patients presenting withheart attack (898 pre- and1,522 post-implementationphases, respectively) wereenrolled between August2012 and June 2014.

As a result of the study,there was a steep increasein the rural poor using Be-low-Poverty-Line (BPL) in-surance schemes to accessthe STEMI system.

The numbers went upfrom 0 % to 60%. Further,the STEMI model resultedin an absolute mortality re-duction of 3.4%, said the re-searchers. Investigators ofthe study are meeting withState governments to scaleup the model in other partsof the country. “We arestarting with States thathave a basic ambulance ser-vice and a State governmentrun insurance programme,”said Dr S. Meenakshi of theICMR.

The newmodel uses a pharmaco invasive strategy


New Delhi

TNmodel drastically reducesresponse time in heart attack care

When historymoved onwheels

1. The 18th century armoury atSrirangapatna railway station at its originalsite before the translocation.2. Experts from PSL-Wolfe Private Limitedprepare for the translocation by arrangingthe uniied jacking system by using jacks,iron poles, rollers and other material.3. The area around the structure beingexcavated ahead of the shifting.4. The structure beingmoved.5. An inside view of the armoury.6. The inal resting place of themonumentafter translocation 100metres away fromthe original site.

PHOTOS: M.A. SRIRAM, B. MAHADEVA, K. BHAGYA PRAKASH.

1

2

3

456

The relocation of TipuSultan’s armoury atSrirangapatna wascompleted on Friday.This is the irst time theRailways has moved amonument in one pieceto a new site.

Delays in granting environ-mental clearance (EC) toprojects fell in 2015 afterconsistently rising between2011 and 2014, according toa report tabled in Parliamentby the Comptroller and Aud-itor General (CAG). India’spublic accounts watchdogalso found that 62 projectsexamined by it had “irregu-larities” in the way theygarnered public consent.

Of 2,898 projects — span-ning coal mining, industry,non-coal mining, construc-tion, infrastructure and rivervalley and hydro electricproject— granted ECbetween 2011 and 2015 (untilJuly), the CAG chose 208from across the country andanalysed them to check ifthey were cleared within theprescribed 105 days. Nearly90% of them were delayedwith a project, on average,getting delayed by 86 days in2011 and spiking to 316 days— or almost a year — in 2014.

Though the average delayfor seven months of 2015had reduced to 238 days, italso saw some projectsdelayed by as many as 1002days.

2013 was a tumultuousyear in the EnvironmentMinistry with the then Envir-onment Minister, JayanthiNatarajan, accused of delay-ing environmental clearanceto major projects, suddenlyquitting her post. In January2015, Ms Natarajan told TheHindu that she got “specificrequests” from Congressvice-president Rahul Gandhiregarding clearance for cer-tain projects.

Reasons for delayAfter the NDA governmentcame to power, Environ-ment Minister PrakashJavadekar introduced a pro-vision, whereby project de-velopers could submit theirapplications online. In areply to the CAG, the Envir-onment Ministry said reas-ons for delay were in moving

documents from the CentralRegistry sections to the im-pact assessment divisions,opening specific files forsubmitting to the MemberSecretary concerned, insuf-ficient skilled hands, a glutof projects for clearancebetween 2011-2014, and in-sufficient information andclarification from projectdevelopers.

Sixty two of the 216 pro-jects scrutinised had prob-lems with the way they con-ducted their publicconsultation process that in-volves discussing the impactof project with villagers orresidents. For instance, theCAG notes, in a coal mine ex-pansion project of M/S JindalSteel and Power Limited inChattisgarh, there was a 318-day delay in completing theconsultation proceedings.

Projects clearedfaster in 2015: CAG‘62 had irregularities in the way they got public consent’

Taking stock: 2015 also saw some projects delayed by asmany as 1,002 days. MANOB CHOWDHURY

Jacob Koshy

NEW DELHI

Kerala Pradesh CongressCommittee (KPCC) presid-ent V.M. Sudheeran has quithis post citing health reas-ons. He submitted his resig-nation to AICC president So-nia Gandhi on Friday.

In a surprising and dra-matic decision announced ata press conference here, Mr.Sudheeran said he was sub-mitting his resignation as itwas difficult for him to per-form his duties with com-mitment following a fall hehad in Kozhikode recently.

Doctors had advised himtotal rest and extensive med-ical treatment. He felt it wasnot appropriate for him tocontinue in office at an im-portant juncture. The party,he said, was being confron-ted with newer issues thatrequired the constant inter-vention of the KPCCpresident.

Mr. Sudheeran main-tained that his resignationdid not have anything to dowith the party’s internal is-sues. His personal incon-veniences should not in anyway affect the party sincethe presence of the KPCCpresident was crucial, he

said. Later, Mr. Sudheeran,talking to The Hindu, said hecould have taken leave andhanded over temporarycharge to someone else.“But this does not go wellwith my conscience.”

He did not discuss hisresignation with other partyleaders since he wanted hisdecision to be independent.

He thanked Ms. Gandhiand party vice-presidentRahul Gandhi for bestowingon him the task of headingthe party in the State, not toforget CWC member A.K.Antony, AICC general secret-

ary Mukul Wasnik and AICCsecretary Deepak Babria.

‘Very unfortunate’Mr. Sudheeran’s sudden de-cision took Congress leadersin the State by surprise. Mr.Antony said the resignationwas “very unfortunate.”“This is certainly a big lossfor the Kerala Congress,” hetold reporters in Delhi.

Opposition leader in theState Assembly RameshChennithala said the de-cision was “totallyunexpected.”

(With inputs from PTI)

Cites health reasons, says he needs rest


Thiruvananthapuram

Surprisemove: KPCC president V.M. Sudheeran with Congressleaders in Thiruvananthapuram. S. GOPAKUMAR

Sudheeran quits asKerala Congress chief

Vismaya, the 12-year-old daughterof a victim of the CPI(M)-RSS mur-derous conflicts in Kerala’s Kannurdistrict, has done a GurmeharKaur. She has followed the ex-ample of the 20-year-old studentof Delhi University who uploadedon social media a video clipping inwhich she criticised the ABVP forcampus violence.

Vismaya has uploaded a videoclipping which says: “They (theCPI-M) killed not only my dad butmy dreams and future also.” Theclipping, in which the girl displaysa series of placards, has beenshared and propagated by onlinecampaigners of the Sangh Parivar.

Content in HindiThe placards are all in Hindi, obvi-ously for the consumption of Hindi

speakers in other States. In one ofthe slides, Vismaya says: “Theymurdered my father just becausehe was a supporter of the RSS-BJP.”Another slide says she had wantedto become an IPS officer and servethe country. Yet another slide saysshe sees only a dark future.

Vismaya’s father Suresh waskilled in January in Kannur dis-trict. The attackers had stormedhis home and hacked him todeath. The Sangh Parivar has al-leged that CPI(M) activists killedSuresh.

Kannur, considered the strong-hold of the CPI(M) and which cur-rently has the largest number ofRSS units in Kerala, has seen fre-quent violent clashes between thetwo organisations. Many, mostlyhailing from working-class back-grounds, have lost their lives in tit-for-tat murders.

Kannur 12-year-old girl doesa Gurmehar, posts video

Vismaya says CPI(M) killed her father

Seeking answers: Vismaya with a placard. SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

KOZHIKODE

The Sangli police has arres-ted two more persons inconnection with theMhaisal illicit abortionracket, taking the numberof those arrested to nine.

The racket, allegedlyrun by a fake homeopath,Dr. Babasaheb Khidrapure,was busted last week bythe police. The two arres-ted, identified as YaseenTehsildar and SatgondaPatil, are believed to be theagents who ferried preg-nant women to the arres-ted doctor. They werepicked up from Karnatakaand Shirol Taluk inKolhapur district.

The racket was busted inMhaisal village on March 5after 19 aborted femalefoetuses were discoveredin a sewer next toKhidrapure’s private clinic.

The death of a 26-year-old lady, Swati Jamdadeblew the lid off the crime.

The police have invokedthe MTP Act against the ac-cused, includingKhidrapure , homeopathShrihari Ghodke, RameshDevagirikar, Sunil Khedkar,Khidrapure’s help KanchanRoje, Umesh Salunkhe,and Praveen Jamdade, hus-band of the deceasedwoman.

Abortionracket: Twomore heldShoumojit Banerjee

Pune

‘Will mull conductingNEET in Urdu’NEW DELHI

The Centre on Fridayinformed the Supreme Courtthat it is open to thesuggestion of conductingNEET, a single windowentrance test for admissionsto MBBS and BDS courses, inUrdu medium also from nextacademic year.The Bench granted time tillMarch 22 to the Centre andothers including the MedicalCouncil of India (MCI), theDental Council of India (DCI)and the Central Board ofSecondary Education (CBSE)for filing their responses inthe case.

Food poisoning case:Accused still at largeTUMAKURU

More than 24 hours after thedeath of three students, dueto suspected food poisoning,at Vidya Varidhi InternationalSchool at Huliyar onThursday, the police are yetto trace the managementmembers. President of theschool and former BJP MLAKiran Kumar and his wifeKavitha Kiran Kumar, who areaccused number one and tworespectively, are absconding.

IN BRIEF




CMYK

A ND-ND

EDITORIAL

The enhancement of paid maternity leave for wo-

men in the organised sector to 26weeks from 12 is

a progressive step, one that should lead to closer

scrutiny of the diiculties faced by unorganised work-

erswho fall beyond the scope of anyworthwhile labour

welfare measures. It is wholly welcome that such a be-

neit is being introducedwith an amendment to theMa-

ternity Beneit Act, 1961, in line with several expert re-

commendations including that of the World Health

Organisation, which recommends exclusive breast-

feeding of children for the irst 24 weeks. Giving some

beneits to adoptive mothers and women who get chil-

dren using embryo transfers as well signals India is in

step with social changes. Positive though it is, the

amended law is expected to cover only 1.8 million wo-

men, a small subset of women in the workforce. For

many poor millions in the unorganised sector, the only

support available is a small conditional cash beneit of

₹6,000 during pregnancy and lactation ofered under

the Maternity Beneit Programme. The reported move

to restrict even this meagre beneit to the irst child for

budgetary reasons is retrograde and must be given up.

If, as Labour Minister Bandaru Dattatreya has said, the

Centre is giving organised sector women workers a

humble gift, why has the damage done through the

Budget not been reversed?

Providing beneits for women and children is a soci-

etal responsibility which can be funded in a large coun-

try through a combination of general taxation and con-

tributory payments from those who have the means.

Health care should be treated as a right and deliveries

handled without cost to women; the income guaran-

tees during the 26-week period can be ensured through

a universal social insurance system. Such a policy

would harmonise the varying maternity beneit provi-

sions found in diferent laws that govern labour at

present. There would also be no discrimination against

women in recruitment by employers who currently

have to factor in beneit payments. Conversely, women

would not sufer loss of income simply because they

cannot remain in employment after childbirth. Benei-

ciaries covered by the latest amendment must be pro-

tected from discrimination through clear provisions.

Mandating creche facilities to help womenworkers un-

der the changed law is a forward-looking move, but it

will work well only with a good oversight mechanism.

Women’s empowerment can be achieved through uni-

versal initiatives, not by imposing conditionalities to

avail beneits. Access to welfare support has become

evenmore critical as workersmigrate frequently due to

economic changes. The twin imperatives are, there-

fore, to createmore jobs forwomen in a diversiied eco-

nomy, and to provide social opportunity through ma-

ternal and child welfaremeasures.

Partial coverLonger maternity leave is welcome, but must

be extended to the unorganised sector

The loss of Mosul is perhaps the biggest military

setback for the Islamic State. Iraq’s second largest

city,Mosulwas the jewel of the IS’smilitary gains,

a place where its leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi declared

his ‘Caliphate’ in June 2014. In less than three years, the

IS’s territory has shrunk. It once controlled huge

swathes in central and eastern Syria and north-western

Iraq, but its inluence is now limited to some pockets,

through sustained military operations in which several

actors such as Kurdish and Shia militias, Iraqi and Syr-

ian armies and the U.S. and Russian air forces were in-

volved. A few weeks ago, the IS lost the ancient city of

Palmyra to the Syrian army. And now, it’s been practic-

ally defeated in Mosul. Iraqi troops have already cap-

tured theMosul airport andmajor administrative build-

ings, and liberated population centres.What remains is

isolated resistance by small groups of jihadists. It was a

prolonged campaign. Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-

Abadi ordered theMosul ofensive inOctober 2016, and

the troops, backedbyKurdishPeshmerga andShiamili-

tias on the ground and U.S. air power in the sky, moved

inch by inch. They irst liberated easternMosul, the left

bank of the Tigris that divides the city into two, and

thenmoved to the west, the IS’s power centre.

The defeat in Mosul does not mean that the threat

from the IS is over. The group still has presence in some

pockets in Iraq and in at least two major cities in Syria,

Raqqa and suburbs of Deir ez-Zor. Even if the group

loses its territories, it could transform itself into a state-

less jihadist group like al-Qaeda and continue to target

civilians in the region and beyond. But still, the larger

argument is that without territories, the IS couldn’t

claim to be a ‘Caliphate’. It will be driven away from cit-

ies to deserts andmountains,wrecking its conventional

military capabilities. In the short run, themilitary oper-

ations to liberate territories from the IS in Syria and Iraq

should continue; in the longer run, the respective gov-

ernments should adopt a more comprehensive ap-

proach to deal with the asymmetric threats the group

will pose. In Iraq, for example, the IS’s eventual defeat

depends on how the government addresses Shia-Sunni

tensions. PrimeMinister al-Abadi appears to be clear on

his preferences. Unlike his predecessorwhose Shia sec-

tarian policies drove the Sunni population to revolt

against Baghdad, a resentment which the IS exploited

for popular support, Mr. al-Abadi tried to reach out to

the Sunnis and promised to heal the sectarian wounds.

After the military victory in Mosul, he has to make sure

that the Sunnis are treated as equal citizens and share

power equitably. This may not happen overnight given

the deep sectarian divisions. But Mr. al-Abadi should at

least begin a process that would erase the suspicions

among Sunnis about the government. Else, IS-like out-

its will continue to channelise support and regroup.

After MosulAs the IS sufers serious reverses, Baghdad

must wage a political ight as well

These are by nomeans the bestof times. Most nations acrossthe globe are today facing

problems of varying magnitude.The real danger, however, is a per-nicious trend in favour of autocracyand trampling on democratic sens-ibilities—even in countriesdeemedto be democratic. Chaos is badenough, but the reckless disregardfor democratic norms and beha-viour is leading to a serious break-down in constitutional proprieties.

One need not be in today’s U.S.under President Donald Trump tosavour how topsy-turvy the worldhas become. Tampering with com-mon verities that usually deinedemocratic norms has become apractice in many countries.“Reasoned discussion and debate”(to quote our Hon’ble President)and ‘objective truth’ are becomingcasualties today. What we witnessin place of ‘free thought’ is the riseof ‘alternative facts’. In the seconddecade of the 21st century, ‘fakenews’ and ‘post-truth’ have be-come not merely the principlecharacteristic but also the deiningaspect of politics in many situ-ations. Few countries remain insu-lated from this pernicious trend.Politics in Tamil Nadu today is alag-bearer in this respect. ‘Or-wellian logic’ is the new norm inthe State.

It would be unfair to single outTamil Nadu or believe that it is theonlyplace in the country that iswit-nessing the gloriication of ‘post-truth’. Events in the University ofHyderabad a couple of years ago in-volving the ‘martyrdom’ of RohithVemula triggered an avalanche ofboth ‘post-truth’ and ‘alternativefacts’. More recently, the coverageof events in Jawaharlal Nehru Uni-

versity and Delhi University hasagain demonstrated the extent towhich ‘alternative facts’ and ‘fakenews’ dominate the spectrum ofnews. The kind of ‘bald’ truth theworld was previously accustomedto is no longer to be seen. The new‘art of the possible’ is built on theediice of ‘alternative facts’.

A coterie in chargeThe rest of India may strongly con-demn the train of events in TamilNadu since the demise of formerChief Minister Jayalalithaa, but it isthe people of Tamil Nadu — andthose committed to democracyand democratic traditions — thathave themost to fear. The State cur-rently confronts a highly anachron-istic situation, in which a ‘cabal’wields power. Unwittingly or other-wise, social media has become akind of accessory to their deeplylaid plans. Exploiting, via socialmedia, the emotional distress ofvast segments of the masses inTamil Nadu yet to come to termswith the demise of their ‘Revolu-tionary Leader’, the cabal hassought to consolidate its position.

Politics in Tamil Nadu today epi-tomises ‘post-delusion’ antics. Thisis obscuring the objective reality,viz., that of ‘remote control’ by aperson currently in jail (followingthe verdict of the Supreme Court)and the exercise of power by un-elected individuals.

Notwithstanding comparisonsdrawn with what previously took

place in Bihar in the 1990s, whenLalu Prasad was forced to stepdown in the wake of his convictionin the fodder scam and his wife in-stalled as Chief Minister, the situ-ation in Tamil Nadu is diferent andmore dangerous. Remote controlunder any set of circumstances inany instance is untenable andintolerable.

What makes the present situ-ation even more unacceptable isthe lawed logic that long and closeassociation of a ‘diferent kind’ im-parts a kind of divine right to stepinto the shoes, and don themantle,of the mentor. This is in contraven-tion of all democratic principles,and a travesty of democracy.

Aggravating this situation is thatthe coterie representing the new‘power elite’ comprises a narrowalliance of caste interests, superim-posed on to which is family controlover the levers of power. It means,in essence, the deconstruction ofthe ‘Administrative State’, makingit subservient to a family-cum-castecombine. These are dangerousportents. If perpetuated, it wouldonly drive another nail in the coinof democratic politics in thecountry.

Topsy-turvy eventsIf the irst task of any democracy isto create a ‘just’ majority, then thepresentdispensation inTamilNaduhas further denigrated itself, andperpetuated a hoax on the Consti-tution by contriving the myth of a

‘pre-existing majority’. This in it-self is worrying. Making mattersworse is that while according to theConstitution, a Chief Minister islawfully created through due pro-cess, nothing of the kind hashappened here. The system ofchecks and balances itself smacksof aweb ofmutually compromisinginterests.Whatwe arewitnessing isa ‘palace coup’, rather than an in-stance of ‘passing the torch’ (in theJohn F. Kennedymould).

The sequence of events conirmsthis. Jayalalithaa passed away onDecember 5. Exactly two monthslater to the day — on February 5,2017 — her associate, V.K. Sasikala,is elected leader of the LegislatureParty Leader by AIADMK MLAs.The incumbent Chief Minister, O.Panneerselvam, is compelled tostep down, and thereafter forced toresign as CM. Two days later, whilestill the acting Chief Minister, he re-volts alleging that he had beenforced to resign. On February 14,the Supreme Court inds Ms.Sasikala guilty in a disproportion-ate assets case and awards her a jailsentence. Immediately thereafter,and without even the pretence ofholding a formal party meeting,she expels Mr. Panneerselvam andnames Edappadi K. Palaniswami asthe leader of the Legislative Party.She also reinducts two of her closefamily members (who had previ-ously beenexpelledby Jayalalithaa)into the party and gives them keypositions. On February 18, the fac-tion led by Mr. Palaniswami wins aso-called ‘trust vote’ in the TamilNadu Assembly.

Lacking legitimacyThe battle lines between the rivalAIADMK factions are clearly drawnas of now. The faction led by Ms.Sasikala has the support of a largernumber of the MLAs, but thishardly invests the faction with anylegitimacy. Many of the crucial is-sues pertinent to a democratictransfer of power remain to be ad-dressed. Lacking in legitimacy andburdened by legacy issues, the pro-

Sasikala faction has convinced it-self that the wisdom of one indi-vidual is superior to that of the col-lective wisdom of the partylegislators, as also the party hier-archy — let alone the electorate.The group’s decision to endorsewithout any demur Ms. Sasikala’sdecision to appoint her previouslyexpelled relatives to key positionsin the party is symptomatic of this.

It could be inferred, given thecurrent make-up of the majorityfaction, that those in charge wouldbemost unwilling to allow any con-trary points of view to prevail, oremerge, in determining the futurecourse of the group. It aims to becompletely ‘knowledge-proof’,limiting itself to tamperingwith thesystem and confronting the bur-eaucracy. If the Internet is turningout to be largest ungoverned space,it will only be a question of time be-fore the Sasikala dispensationseeks to operate in a similar void.

The future of the State thus ap-pears to be in jeopardy. Those whovalue democracy must recognisethat a takeover of this kind by asmall cabal poses a grave threat todemocracy. This has far greater sig-niicance than the question as towho actually occupies the ChiefMinister’s chair in Fort St. George.

Our Constitution does not con-tain a provision for the ‘right of re-call’ in the event of an apparent dis-connect between the voters andthose whom they voted in as theirrepresentatives. This makes thepresent situation all themore prob-lematic, for if scepticism — of theactions or steps taken by a legis-lature controlled by a cabal —in-tensiies, it could lead to a lash-point. It is important for those whohave ‘grabbed’ power — and areconident that they could hold onto it — to heed Sadhguru Jaggi Vas-udev’s warning: “Conidencewithout clarity is a disaster.”

M.K. Narayanan is a former NationalSecurity Adviser and former Governor ofWest Bengal

Post-truths in Tamil NaduCrucial issues about a democratic transfer of power are still to be addressed in the State

m.k. narayanan

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Fringe elements ailiated withthe Bharatiya Janata Party(BJP) have been in the news

ever since the party came to power.Activists who pretend to be associ-ated with the Trinamool Congressin West Bengal and the SamajwadiParty in Uttar Pradesh too have hadtheir day in the news.

There are two widely held ex-planations for such activism. First,the “fringe” is encouraged by theparty as a strategy to appeal tomoreextreme elements within the partyand to polarise politics. Second,and more speciic to the right wing,some believe that these individuals’provocative actions and remarksare indicative of the government’stacit support for Hindutva prin-ciples. Since the party can alwaysuse plausible deniability to distanceitself from the actions of the fringeelements, both explanations areplausible.

There are two other reasons. Theirst, we believe, is that this beha-viour is symptomatic of the tend-ency of lower-level politicians andoften evenbureaucrats to indulge inactions thatwouldhelp themwin fa-vour among their political superi-ors. Take the case of some ABVP

leaders who have been involved inpushing a virulent nationalistagenda. Their actions have servedto embarrass the BJP and the Cent-ral government.

There are also local politicianswho have misperceived favourableresponses or miscalculated the im-pacts of their actions. Rabble-rousers, from Yogi Adityanath toSakshi Maharaj, have consistentlyundermined the government’s de-velopment agenda and even embar-rassed the government by makinginlammatory remarks centred onreligion. In our view, this resultsfrom a systemic problem with ourpolitics — that career advancementof individuals in political partiesand the bureaucracy is determinedlargely by random criteria, often onthewhims of their politicalmasters.

Lack of democracyIn India, unless one hails from awell-established political dynastyor has a great amount of inancialresources, he or she would ind itextremely diicult to move up thepolitical ladder. Research by Ra-jkamal Singh and Rahul Vermashows that almost two-thirds of As-sembly constituencies in Uttar Pra-desh in the 2017 election were con-tested by families that have long

been a part of electoral politics.There is a complete absence of in-ner-party democracy at the locallevel. Thus, lower-level politicianshave two options to increase thelikelihoodof their political advance-ment. One is a ‘push’ strategy, byconsistently doing good work onthe ground and hoping that theparty recognises their work. How-ever the randomness in criteria forpolitical advancement, attributablein large part to the absence of partydemocracy and a deeply en-trenched system of dynastic polit-ics,means this strategy isunlikely towork verywell. The fact that partiesdo not have well-established partyorganisations at the local level elev-ates the randomness of advance-ment within their ranks.

An easier way still is to try andwin favour directly with their polit-icalmasters, who rarely followwell-

established processes to determinepolitical promotions. This strategywould rest on the assumption thatpolitical bosses, if impressed withthe individuals, would ‘pull’ themup through the party ranks. How-ever, since most parties in India arehighly centralised, access to theparty high command is extremelyrestricted. In order for them to getnoticed by those in higher ranks,they need to create some sort ofnoise or disturbance, and this ofteninds expression in the formof coer-cion and crime.

No sense of involvementSecond, current social science re-search shows that an individual’ssense of responsibility is linked tothe organisational characteristicswithin which they work. The hier-archical nature of Indian partiesmeans this lower rung simply doesnot feel the same level of responsib-ility towards the larger goal set bythe party. This is buttressed by thefailure of parties to cultivate a senseof ownership for local politicians inthe larger issues facing the nation.This leaves individuals at the locallevel with virtually no sense of re-sponsibility towards many of thepolicy decisions a governmenttakes and they are left to interpret

the party’s core concerns the waythey wish.

In order to deal with this efect-ively, oneoption forpolitical partieswould be to comedownon these in-dividuals with a heavy hand. This isdiicult in a democracy. A betterand more sustainable option is toreduce the randomness in politicaladvancement at the local level. Thiscan be done by introducing reformsthat strengthen inner-party demo-cracy during selection of candid-ates for diferent roles. Such re-forms are bound to face resistancefrom a system very set in its ways,and require bold leadership to pushthrough. An instance was whenRahul Gandhi introduced primary-style elections in a few constituen-cies before the 2014 election.

Over thepast fewyears, India haswitnessed too many discomfortingactions and events on behalf of itspolitical class. It is imperative thatpolitical parties take steps to alterthe incentive structure of the sys-tem and give local politicians a lar-ger stake in larger issues of the day.

Pradeep Chhibber teaches PoliticalScience at the University of California,Berkeley. Harsh Shah is an alumnus of theUniversity of California, Berkeley. Theviews expressed are personal

Is noise the only way to get noticed?Why political parties must give local politicians a bigger stake in larger issues of the day

Pradeep Chhibber & Harsh Shah

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Elections 2017The Election Commission,and the Central and Stategovernments deserve richpraise for enabling apeaceful election process inive States. There werehardly any incidents ofeither violence orintimidation (Editorial —“Voting with our feet”,March 10).It is a Herculean task toconduct elections in thecountry. The robust turnout—with exceptions here andthere — is a clear signal tothe rest of the world that theIndian voter can never bealienated from voting.Though there is the brightside to the exercise in termsof increasedwomen’sturnout, there is alsoconcern that those in themetros are quite apathetic.However, India is stillnumber one inmaking anyelection processpurposeful, meaningful andsuccessful, therebywatering the roots ofdemocracy.J.P. Reddy,

Nalgonda, Telangana

■ The point that the gendergap is fast reducing is quiteastonishing. It is alsoironical that women aremaking a decision to choosethe representatives at thelocal, State and nationallevels but are unablemostof the time to express andexercise their choices andwith such autonomy in theirown homes.Jashandeep Kaur Ahluwalia,

Khanna, Punjab

■ A rise in the percentage ofvoters can be linked to threefactors: the credibility andthe eiciency of theElection Commission inconducting elections; thefreedom of voters inselecting their candidatewithout fear; and thegrowing interest of theyoung generation in being apart of the system.However, as the “quantity”of voting goes up, the“quality” of candidates isgoing down in terms ofintegrity. Irrespective of theparty they belong to, manyhave a history of crime, arebeneiciaries of dynastic

succession and have littletrack record of publicservice. This limits thechoice of the electorate, asincreasing use of the NOTAoption will show. The highparticipation of people inthe elections shouldenergise the governmentand all political parties toreform the process so thatonly the best candidates arein the fray.Y.G. Chouksey,

Pune

■ What was the need to giveimportance to exit pollresults by various agencieswhen the results will beannounced on Saturday?Andwhy have the report onthe front page?R. Solairaj,

Chennai

Age of uncertaintyIt’s not the irst time in thehistory of mankind that theworld order is changing(“Stability in the time ofchange”, March 10). But thedegree of this change iscertainly the largest one theworld has ever seen.

Leaders of the nations havean important job beforethem: to lead the worldcollectively. Instead ofdestruction, constructionshould be the aim ofnational policies. Thebillions of dollars ofinvestment spent onweapons of destruction isnothing but preparing forour own destruction. It’shigh timewe understandthat national boundaries areartiicial.Humanity all over the worldhas the same basic needwhile every world languagehas at least one tale with themoral “strength lies inunity”.Whenwill we realisethis?Kiran Babasaheb Ransing,

NewDelhi

Reclaiming spacesThe late Chief Minister andformer AIADMK party headJayalalithaa was convictedin the disproportionateassets case. Legally,ethically andmorally, theTamil Nadu governmentshould desist from namingany government scheme or

project after her. Years ago,when State TransportCorporation buses began tosport the names of politicalleaders, poets andlitterateurs, the governmentof the daymade the wisedecision to stop the practiceto avoid controversy. It wasa bold and sellessmove.However the AIADMKappears to be on shakyground andwill try not torock the boat by doing awaywith Jayalalithaa-namedschemes till a clear situationemerges.The writer’s wish of doingawaywith the names ofpolitical leaders in publicspaces is not going to berealised any time soon(“Making a clean break”,March 10).V. Subramanian,

Chennai

Europe’s bordersThe decision of theEuropean Court of Justice togive its members thediscretion to either approveor reject asylum to refugeesis an indication that thecourt too has been swept up

in the anti-immigrationdebate (Editorial — “Opengates”, March 10). Theverdict is bound to be a shotin the arm for Europeanleaders such as ViktorOrban of Hungary whoseresponse to the refugeecrisis has been to build wallswith its neighbours. Theruling will in all likelihoodhave an efect on voters inthe Netherlands, Franceand Germanywho vote thisyear.While Brexit may haveunleashed anti-immigration, theunravelling of the EuropeanUnionmay be hastened bythe European Court ofJustice whichmay haveunwittingly played into thehands of Eurosceptics.Prima facie, the judgment ofthe court does seemrational but this willdeinitely bemisused byEurosceptic parties whowant their countries to havea homogenous culture likein the Renaissance era.Akshay Viswanathan,

Thiruvananthapuram

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On December 16, 1971, the India-Pakistan war ended with the liberationof Bangladesh. The war was short — ithad raged for all of 13 days — but Indiahad mobilised its entire land forces, in-cluding a secretive unit of soldiers fromthe Special Frontier Force (SFF), agroup raised for trans-Himalayan com-bat. Some of the SFF recruits were notIndians. They were from Tibet and hadcome into India on forced exile, inwaves and participated in the groundbattles and the combing operations thatfollowed with minimal knowledge ofSouth Asian languages and the peoplethey encountered. They had hoped thatafter the war India would send themhome to fight the Chinese forces inTibet as a reward — but that was not tobe.

Dhondup Palden, now in his 80s, aresident of Lama Camp in Tezu, Ar-unachal Pradesh, was one of theTibetans who despite their Buddhistfaith took up arms. Sitting at the porchof his home-on-stilts that is painted blueand decorated with Buddhist prayerflags, he reminisces about the war andhow he had ventured into unfamiliarterritory. “We killed many enemies inthat war. For 15 days, we moved acrossthe country rounding up Pakistani sol-diers and pro-Pakistan agents.” The warstood out as it was the first time that theTibetans, a mountain people, had to ne-gotiate with the riverine landscape ofBangladesh. “We walked on muddy ri-verbeds, and went from village to villagelooking for enemies. The experiencewas unusual for us Tibetan soldiers,” hesays.

The war of 1971 was not the firstDhondup and his compatriots in LamaCamp experienced. Their war began 20years earlier in the 1950s, when theyfought a guerrilla battle against theChinese forces in Tibet supported byweapons and trainers from the U.S.Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) whichwanted to dislodge China from Tibet.

As we catch up with Dhondup, he issoaking in the celebrations of Losar, theTibetan New Year which began in thelast week of February. Losar to theTibetans means crushed corn which issprinkled on guests and meant for aus-picious occasions, good food, drinksand a time to recollect the past. His kit-chen is stocked with savouries anddrinks. This is the Year of the Firebirdwhich, like the phoenix, stands for re-surrection and the burning away ofwasteful deeds. Keeping with the spiritof the new year, Dhondup wants to re-live the war of his youth.

“We had inadequate weapons andammunition but we wanted to fight theChinese who forced us to build roadsand bridges,” he says in a mix of Hindiand Tibetan that was interpreted by hisson Tsering. The guerrillas fought with.303 rifles of World War II vintage, re-ceiving better weapons only in the laterphase.

Dhondup and five other veterans arethe remaining few from the hundreds ofunknown foot soldiers of a liberationwar, unlamented and unsung. Theseformer soldiers were of fighting age; inexile now, time is ticking away. Manyhave passed away. One of their com-rades, who rose to run a movie theatrein the neighbourhood, passed awayearlier this year. They were the pioneersof a resistance movement that took toviolence before the Dalai Lama weanedthem away to non-violent means.

Enter the CIADhondup was a member of the onlymodern insurgent group of Tibet, theDhokham Chushi Gangdruk (DCG). TheDCG was formed on June 16, 1958 inTibet by a charismatic nobleman, An-drup Gonpo Tashi. For some time thegroup carried out ambushes against theChinese forces as Beijing tried to consol-idate its gains in Tibet. Dhondup, thenin his twenties, was one of the early re-cruits in this movement and was trainedin sabotage and the use of arms.

“During the struggle, we used basicweapons like the old rifles that fired onebullet at a time,” he says, explaining that

the movement expanded rapidly fromthe Kham region of Tibet despite short-age of weapons and ammunition.

The DCG became known worldwidefor being the secret force of the CIA,which sent trainers and equipment toTibet to support the rebels. Dhonduprecalls how the Americans sent high-fly-ing cargo jets into the Tibetan airspacefor his group that consisted of 600volunteers.

One of the key assignments of theDCG was to guard the Dalai Lama as heplanned to go into India. A little dis-tance away from Dhondup’s Tezu homelives one of the former DCG fighterswho accompanied the Dalai Lama dur-ing that momentous journey. “The jour-ney of 1959 was arduous. Yaks andhorses were used to cross the snowymountain. We ensured safety for theDalai Lama with one group travellingwith him and another providing sup-port at Lhasa,” says Zolpa Sibu, the ex-DCG fighter.

Sibu is nostalgic about his DCG days.“We did not have the best of weapons tofight. Many of our comrades died inbombing and counter-insurgency oper-ations carried out by the Chinese

forces,” he says, recounting that eventhe force’s founder was brought to Indiawith injuries he sustained in a blast. Heremembers how grim the situation inTibet had become. “We were evictedfrom our homes. Families broke up —the Chinese employed women and menseparately for forced labour projectsthat would go on for months. Social andreligious gatherings became impossibleas the police questioned all suchgatherings.”

The DCG put up a strong resistance,but the end was inevitable. Sibu was ar-rested but released after months of de-tention. As was Dhondup. “I was kept inprison for two months and for weeksmy hands were tied up,” he says, show-ing his permanently scarred hands.

The DCG’s fighters decided to escapeinto India through the mountain passesin eastern Arunachal district of UpperDibang Valley and the western districtof Tawang via Bomdila. The journeywas difficult; many perished but thelikes of Dhondup, Sibu and their famil-ies survived the trek.

The war for BangladeshSoon after coming into India, thesefighters were asked to settle in Tezu butwithin a year they had to move as India-China hostilities intensified in the run-up to the 1962 war. As the border dis-tricts of the North East Frontier Agency,as Arunachal Pradesh was then known,were evacuated, the fighters were re-settled in Dibrugarh and Guwahati inAssam. They returned to Tezu after thewar ended, and soon found themselvesrecruited by Indian military officerswho had by now realised their potential

as trained guerrillas and intelligence-gatherers. “The military instructorstested our firing skills, asked us to takephysical fitness tests. Most of us passedthe test and joined the Indian militaryas we were eager to go back to Tibet andfight the Chinese forces again,” saysDhondup.

The fighters boarded a train at Guwa-hati and were taken to Chakrata in Ut-tarakhand (then in Uttar Pradesh)where a rigorous training programmebegan to equip them for special militaryoperations. “We were trained to handlemortar fire, automatic weapons, rocketlaunchers. I was specially recruited intoa team of paratroopers in the SFF,” saysDhondup, explaining that the Tibetanswere expected to go back into theircountry for special operations. As first-generation exiles, the men did not al-ways understand the detailed discus-sions held among Indian military of-ficers, but carried out the assignedduties nevertheless.

Havildar Sangey was also among theex-DCG SFF recruits. He counts himselfas lucky, having been taken as part of athree-member group for a special train-ing programme in Europe. “I eventrained with some American officialsabroad,” he says, reliving his days as aparatrooper.

The hostility between India andPakistan gave the SFF fighters a newchance to test their fighting skills. “Dur-ing the 1971 war, many of our friendsdied fighting,” says Dhondup, recount-ing that the war had left him injured andhe was admitted in the Armed ForcesMedical College, Pune. “Generals and[Prime Minister] Indira Gandhi came to

see us in hospital. We got a transistor ra-dio as reward,” he adds, his eyes light-ing up as he recounts the heady days.

By the time the Bangladesh warended, most of the soldiers had ac-quired family and had young kids athome. But newer assignmentsbeckoned, including reconnaissancemissions in Ladakh and in the high Him-alayas. “We wanted to fight in Tibet be-cause the SFF [training] taught us lotmore than we knew in the DCG days,but that fight never came,” rues Sangey.“We had all the necessary advancedweapons. We would not have left Tibetif we had these weapons and training atthat time.”

Renewed rumble in the eastThe amphitheatre of much of the 1962war, the epic face-offs of yesteryear stilllinger in the air of the Arunachal Him-alayas, especially the mountains fromTezu to Anjaw district which were thescene of the bloodbath of Namti wherean unknown number of Indian andChinese soldiers died.

Having spent their youth in the midstof guerrilla warfare and tectonic polit-ical churn, the elderly denizens of LamaCamp find themselves still engulfed bygeopolitics thanks to the evolving im-portance of the Eastern Himalayas. Inrecent years, the U.S. and India have be-gun to work on salvaging the remains ofaviators who crashed in the mountains

near Tezu during World War II. The dis-covery of a Chinese citizen in the regionin 2010 stirred up matters between In-dia and China. Guang Liang spentmonths in a prison in Arunachal Pra-desh before the Chinese reportedly tookhim back. In addition, barely a dozenkilometres from the neighbourhood ofthese former guerrillas is the brand-neweasternmost airport of India at Tezuwhich can also host heavy bombers andcargo carriers. Recent reports about animpending visit by the Dalai Lama to Ar-unachal Pradesh have again stirred upthe pioneers of DCG.

While the region remains the locus ofpower games, the exploits of the octo-genarians of Lama Camp slowly recedesinto oblivion. In the sunset of their lives,they wish to bequeath their saga of res-istance in Tibet to posterity. “Most of usdid not get a chance to lead a normallife. We were deprived of the educationthat would have trained us to recordand write our experience as soldiers,”says Sibu.

The legacy and the futureIn recent years there have been some at-tempts to recognise their signal contri-bution. The Central Tibetan Administra-tion has set up offices in Delhi andDharamsala for addressing the needs ofthese senior community members. Onthe 50th anniversary of the founding ofDCG in 2008, special commemorativeevents were organised by the Tibetancommunity in India to honour themand recognise the armed struggle thatthey executed against China.

Young Tibetans also drop in once in awhile to seek blessing of these elders.The Tibetan diaspora has also shown in-terest in chronicling the story of DCGand a number of websites provide in-formation about the violent movementwhich faded out with the exile ofTibetans to India. However most of theliterature focusses on the CIA’s role infuelling the war in the Cold War periodand is inadequate in recording the nar-ratives of the men who fought the warnot just for the CIA but also for India.“Our lives were disrupted. At the time ofDCG, we did not foresee our exile andthat is why we did not bother to photo-graph our homes and our struggles,”says Sibu, urging better documentationof the scattered photographs and otherrecords of the movement in Tibet.

Despite their advancing years, theDCG fighters do not receive any addi-tional financial support from the Gov-ernment of India — the SFF gave a com-prehensive settlement package, aone-time lump-sum amount at the timeof retirement.

While the passage of time hasdimmed Dhondup, Sibu and Sangay’shopes of returning to their homeland,the fire still burns. “Even now I dreamof fighting in the streets of Tibet with agun,” says Dhondup. The DCG, incident-ally, still exists in exile, espousing an in-dependent Tibet. Dreams don’t die.

Chronicles from history: The Lama Camp in Tezu, Lohit district of Arunachal Pradesh. RITU RAJ KONWAR

They came, they fought, they stayedIn a camp in Tezu, Arunachal Pradesh,Kallol Bhattacherjeemeets the last of the Tibetan ighters living in exile. They battled the Chinese and later went on to ightfor India in the war to liberate Bangladesh

“The war of 1971 was not the irst Dhondup and his compatriots experienced”. Zolpa Sibu Lama (left) and Adrouk with their certiicates; Dhondup Palden and his wife Sonam at their residence in Lama Camp.

<> Even now I dream of ighting

in the streets of Tibet with

a gun

Dhondup PALDEN

CMYK

A ND-ND




NEWS

FROM PAGE ONE

ter he wrote to the RegistrarGeneral of the SupremeCourt on February 10 aftercontempt notice was issuedagainst him on February 8.Nor did the judge deem itnecessary to file any applic-ation in the criminal con-tempt case against him.

Last month the SupremeCourt issued a contempt ofcourt notice against JusticeKarnan for allegedly degrad-ing the judicial institution.

‘Scurrilous letters’A seven-judge Bench led bythe Chief Justice of India J.S.Khehar heard Mr. AttorneyGeneral Mukul Rohatgi whosaid that Justice Karnanshould face contempt pro-ceedings for his “scurrilous”letters against sitting and re-tired High Court and Su-preme Court judges.

Challenging the contemptnotice Justice Karnan al-leged that the notice was is-sued against him because hebelongs to the SC com-munity. In the “writ order”issued by him he arguedthat no contempt proceed-ings can be initiated againsta sitting High Court judge.

Justice Karnan argued,“no contempt either civil orcriminal can be initiatedagainst a sitting High CourtJudge under Sections 2 (c),12 and 14 of the Contempt ofCourts Act or under Article20 of the Constitution of In-dia.” As for the SupremeCourt asking him to appearbefore it on March 31, heJustice Karnan hinted thathe will not appear before itas he had not done anythingillegal.

During the hearing in theSupreme Court, Mr. Rohatgisubmitted that there are re-ports that an order has beenpassed by Justice Karnan ad-mitting a petition filed by alawyer in the Calcutta HCseeking enquiry into the al-legations in the suicide noteof former Arunachal Pra-desh Chief Minister KalikhoPul. The August 2016 note ofPul had made corruption al-legations against sitting Su-preme Court and HC judges.

In the said order, Mr. Ro-hatgi submitted that JusticeKarnan had agreed with thepetitioner-lawyer that theseven-judge Bench’s de-cision to strip him of judicialand administrative powersin the light of the contemptproceedings was void.

Mr. Rohatgi submittedthat he had enquired withthe Registrar of the CalcuttaHC, who though confirmingreports about the existenceof such an order neverthe-less denied seeing it.

The AG said the order inquestion remains unsigned.

Chief Justice Khehar atone point dismissed such re-ports of an order by JusticeKarnan as a “prank.”

In the last hearing onFebruary 13, the SupremeCourt had briefly toyed withthe option of issuing a bail-able warrant against JusticeKarnan, but chose to waitfor another three weeks forthe judge to explain his defi-ance of a judicial directionto be present in court.

The seven-judge Benchsaid that Justice Karnan hadnot indicated a reason forhis non-appearance in a let-

Bailable warrantagainst Justice Karnan

Maruti company, said 31convictions was a hugenumber for a riots case andthe stand of the Maruti com-pany was vindicated withthe judgment. Saying thatthe decision on appeal inthe higher court would betaken after reading the fulljudgement, Mr. Pahwa saida large number of accusedwere acquitted as they hadchanged their appearanceand could not be identified.

To prevent untoward in-cidents, the district adminis-tration has invoked Section144 near the Maruti plantsand the district court tillMarch 15.

“What is important to un-derstand is that these 13 arethe office-bearers of theunion. They have been im-plicated and managementwitnesses have deposedagainst them because theystand for rights of workers,”said Ms. Grover, appearingfor the defence.

Defence counsel MonuKuhar said Ms. Grover, whowas appearing pro bono inthe case along with senioradvocates Rebecca John andR.S. Cheema, had lentstrength to the legal fight ofthe workers.

Senior advocate VikasPahwa, who represented

31 convicted in 2012Maruti violence case

Unrest takes its toll: A 2012 photo of the burnt downreception oice at theMaruti Udyog’s Manesar facility. AFP

The Rajya Sabha passed theThe Enemy Property(Amendment and Validation)Bill, 2016 on Friday, in thesixth attempt after ordin-ances were passed to keepthe Bill alive, following fierceobjections by the Oppositionparties.

As the government intro-duced the Bill for considera-tion in the Rajya Sabha, theentire Opposition walkedout. The government’s de-termination to pass the Billwas evident as 10 Union Min-isters were present in theHouse to ensure that it waspassed.

Home Minister RajnathSingh, who was supposed toreply to the debate on theBill, did not say much ob-serving that the Leader ofthe House Arun Jaitley hadalready explained it in detail.

The 49-year-old law wasamended to guard against

claims of succession or trans-fer of properties left bypeople who migrated toPakistan and China.

Defer it, says OppositionThe Bill, which amends theEnemy Property Act, 1968,was passed by the RajyaSabha despite the Oppositiondemanding deferring of thedebate on the draft legisla-tion for a threadbare deliber-ation next week.

The measure was passedby the Lok Sabha in Marchlast year. After this, the RajyaSabha had sent it to a selectcommittee, following whoserecommendations, the gov-ernment had moved a num-ber of amendments to it.

After the amended Billwas passed by the RajyaSabha, it was returned to theLok Sabha for final passagejust before it was adjournedfor the day.

Earlier when the Bill wastaken up in the Upper

House, Congress leaderJairam Ramesh said “manysenior members includingthe Leader of the Oppositionare not present in the Housefor a variety of reasons.Therefore the Bill should betaken up for discussion onthe next working day.” Hisviews were echoed by other

members including Javed AliKhan (SP) and SukhenduShekhar Roy (AITC). How-ever, the government tookup the Bill for discussion andlater got it passed by a voicevote after the entire Opposi-tion, angered over the gov-ernment’s insistence, walkedout of the House.

Explaining the urgency toget the Bill passed, Mr. Jaitleysaid the ordinance effectingthe amendments in the Actwould lapse on March 14 andthis was a security issue also.

Elaborating on the meas-ure, he said it was a principlethat the government shouldnot allow commercial in-terests or properties of anenemy country or its cit-izens. Mr. Jaitley said theright of the enemy propertyshould vest in the govern-ment of India and not in theheirs of the citizens of the en-emy countries.

Union Ministers present inthe House were ManoharParrikar, J.P. Nadda, M. Ven-kaiah Naidu, Suresh Prabhu,Piyush Goyal, PrakashJavadekar, Ananth Kumarand Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi.

The amendments pro-posed include that once anenemy property is vested inthe Custodian, it shall con-tinue to be vested in him as

enemy property irrespectiveof whether the enemy, en-emy subject or enemy firmhas ceased to be an enemydue to reasons such as death.

No transfer allowedThe new Bill ensures that thelaw of succession does notapply to enemy property;that there cannot be transferof any property vested in theCustodian by an enemy orenemy subject or enemyfirm and that the Custodianshall preserve the enemyproperty till it is disposed ofin accordance with the Act.

The amendments areaimed at plugging the loop-holes in the Act to ensurethat the enemy propertiesthat have been vested in theCustodian remain so and donot revert to the enemy sub-ject or firm.

The Bill also prohibits civilcourts and other authoritiesfrom entertaining disputesrelated to enemy property.

Enemy Property Bill passed amid walkoutGovernment of India should have right over such assets and not the heirs of citizens of enemy countries, says Jaitley

Determined efort: FinanceMinister Arun Jaitley speaks in theRajya Sabha in NewDelhi on Friday. PTI/ TV GRAB


New Delhi

The government told RajyaSabha on Friday that declar-ing Pakistan a “terror state”could have “diplomatic aswell as other far-reachingconsequences.”

Independent Member ofParliament RajeevChandrasekhar, who is alsothe Vice-Chairman of theBJP’s Kerala unit, hadmoved ‘The Declaration ofCountries as Sponsor of Ter-rorism Bill, 2016’ to create alegal, economic and travelsanctions regime for citizensof countries which promoteterror.

The Bill came up for dis-cussion on February 3, theend of the first half of theBudget session and then itcame up for discussionagain on Friday.

The Hindu had reportedon February 21 that Centrewas set to oppose the Bill asit would jeopardise interna-tional relations under theGeneva Convention.

On Friday, Minister ofState for Home HansrajGangaram Ahir told RajyaSabha, “The governmenthas taken many steps todeal with terror. The exist-ing laws already have suffi-cient provisions for dealingwith citizens of a terrorist

country. To declare a coun-try as a terrorist state canhave diplomatic as well asother far-reaching con-sequences. Before doing soa detailed study is required.Therefore I request Mr.Chandrasekhar to withdrawthe bill.”

MP finds supportMr. Chandrasekhar thenwithdrew the Bill, whichwas, however, supported bymany other members.

Nominated member andnoted lawyer K.T.S. Tulsisaid, “I am not opposed tothe Bill but I have mydoubts. We need to examinethe practical utility of de-claring Pakistan a terrorstate.” Congress memberAbhishek Manu Singhvi sug-gested some changes in theBill, saying some actionablepoints should be included.

We can’t declare Pak.a terror state: Centre

Independent member withdraws Bill


New Delhi

Rajeev Chandrasekhar

Members of the CPI(M) andthe CPI raised the issue of“attacks on the freedom ofexpression and thought” onprime campuses like JNUand University of Delhi, dur-ing the zero hour in the Ra-jya Sabha.

“All these universitieshave been established bylaw enacted by us, by thisaugust House. So, we have adirect bearing on what ishappening in these univer-sities. In the name ofHindutva nationalism, theyare decrying Indian nation-

alism, and that is somethingwe cannot allow,” CPI(M)general secretary SitaramYechury said amid interrup-tions. “Organisations are tak-ing upon themselves theright to decide who is wrongand who is right and whohas violated the law.”

CPI leader D. Raja alsonoted the “increasing attackon academic freedom, free-dom of thought, freedom ofexpression, freedom of cre-ation” in universities.

“Who has given them theauthority to decide you arenationalist or I am national-ist, you are unpatriotic or I

am unpatriotic? This is adangerous trend,” he said.

Admission policyHitting out at a new JNU ad-mission policy, Mr. Raja said:“JNU is tense and studentsare fighting against the newadmission policy. It will ad-versely impact the entry ofstudents from ScheduledCastes, STs, OBCs andminority communities.” Hewas referring to reports thatmarks of the viva wouldcount in drawing merit listsfor M.Phil entrance exams,with written exam marks be-ing just qualifying in nature.

‘Who has given them power to decide who is patriotic?’

Left parties lag risingattacks on campuses


NEW DELHI

The rebel AIADMK membersin both Houses of Parlia-ment demanded a probe bya Central agency into the cir-cumstances surrounding thedeath of former Tamil NaduChief Minister Jayalalithaa.

In the Lok Sabha, pro-ceedings were adjourned for

several minutes following aprotest by about half adozen AIADMK members,who gathered in the Well de-manding a probe. Theywalked out after the Speakerturned down the request.

Carrying placards, threeAIADMK members in the Ra-jya Sabha also went into thewell and returned to their

seats after Deputy ChairmanP.J. Kurien allowed them toraise the issue during zerohour.

V. Maitreyan demandedthat the Central governmentorder a probe either by theCBI or by a SIT, or a judicialinquiry into the death of Jay-alalithaa, amid disruptionsfrom other party members.

Rebel AIADMKMPs demandprobe into Jayalalithaa’s deathSpecial Correspondent

NEW DELHI

For the Indian military, thedisaster of 1962 did not endwith the humiliation byChina in the war. In a stra-tegic blunder thereafter, thegovernment decided not todevelop its infrastructurealong the China border. Ittook more than four dec-ades for the decision to bereversed.

In 2007, the governmentdecided to aggressively de-velop infrastructure alongthe border with China, in alate and desperate measureto catch up. A CAG reporttabled in Parliament on Fri-day, however, has burst themyth about the ambitiouscatch up, painting a pictureof targets not met and hugecost escalations.

Of the 61 India-China Bor-der Roads scheduled to becompleted by 2012, only 22had been completed as lateas March 2016 with massivecost overruns.

“All 61 India China BorderRoads (ICBR) included inBorder Roads DevelopmentBoard (BRDB) programmewere planned to be com-pleted by 2012. However,only 15 roads had been com-pleted by 2012. Out of thebalance 46 roads, only 7roads were completed byMarch 2016, extending thePlanned Date of Completion(PDC) of balance roads up tothe year 2021,” the CAG re-port said.

This means 22 roads or36% had only been com-pleted up to March 2016 des-pite incurring an expendit-ure of ₹4536 crore or 98%against the estimated cost of₹4644 crore for 61 ICBRs,the report observed.

Shoddy jobFurther, the CAG selected 24roads for the audit of whichonly four roads had beencompleted by March 2012and two roads betweenMarch 2012 and March 2016.

The report also noted “nu-merous instances” of de-fective construction ofroads.

In the aftermath of thebrief but bloody borderwar with China in 1962, In-dia had maintained a policyto not build border roadsreasoning that they couldbe used by the Chineseforces to make quick in-roads. However the policywas reversed by a high levelChina Study Group and theGovernment had identifiedthe construction of 73 stra-tegically important roads toimprove connectivity.

Of these, the 61 roadshaving a length of 3409.27km were entrusted to theBorder Roads Organisation(BRO) to be completed by2012 and the balance 12roads were entrusted toother agencies like CentralPublic Works Department,NBCC and State PublicWorks Departments amongothers.

Slow progress in roadsalong China border: CAGOf the proposed 61 projects, only 22 were completed by 2016

Dinakar Peri

New Delhi

The Supreme Court on Fri-day refused to order a Spe-cial Investigation Team(SIT) probe against journal-ists who allegedly took pay-offs and favours fromItalian firm Agusta West-land and its parent com-pany Finmeccanica to pub-lish reports in favour of themulti-crore Agusta West-land VVIP chopper deal.

A Bench of JusticesDipak Misra, A.M. Khan-wilkar and Mohan M.Shantanagoudar said thatordering such a blanket in-vestigation into the func-tioning of the mediawithout any concrete evid-ence would be an “attack”on free speech.

“Media has been givenan independent status inour democratic polity. This[petition] amounts to an at-tack on the media,” JusticeMisra remarked orally inthe hearing.

The court, however, saidthat investigative agencieswere free to conduct aprobe against certain indi-viduals and proceedagainst them as per law.

The Bench was hearinga petition filed by notedjournalist and author HariJaisingh that the top courtshould intervene in the on-going investigation of theCBI and the EnforcementDirectorate and direct thetwo agencies to submit astatus report on whetherthe media played a role ininfluencing the deal for adozen VVIP helicopters.

Agusta: SCrefuses toorder probeLegal Correspondent

New Delhi

Reliance Jio and Paytmhave apologised for their“inadvertent mistake” ofusing Prime Minister Nar-endra Modi’s photographin their respective advert-isements without priorpermission, Parliamentwas informed on Friday.

The Department of Con-sumer Affairs sought clari-fication from Paytm andReliance Jio regarding useof the photograph of thePrime Minister in their re-spective full page advert-isements contravening the‘prior permission’ stipula-tion in such cases under‘The Emblems and Names(Prevention of ImproperUse) Act, 1950’, Minister ofState for Consumer Affairs,Food & Public DistributionC.R. Chaudhary said in awritten reply to the RajyaSabha.

“Paytm and Reliance Jiohave apologised for theirinadvertent mistake,” theMinister added.

Additionally, Parliamentwas informed that basedon a request from the De-partment of Consumer Af-fairs, Ministry of Informa-tion and Broadcasting hasissued an advisory to printmedium to check whethersuch ads had prior permis-sion.

RelianceJio, PaytmapologiseSpecial Correspondent

New Delhi

To find a spacecraft380,000 km away, JPL’steam used the 70-metre an-tenna at NASA’s GoldstoneDeep Space Communica-tions Complex in Californiato send out a powerful beamof microwaves towards themoon. Then the radarechoes bounced back fromlunar orbit were received bythe 100-metre Green BankTelescope in West Virginia.

Finding a derelict space-craft at lunar distance thathas not been tracked foryears is tricky because themoon is riddled with mas-cons (regions with higher-than-average gravitationalpull) that can dramaticallyaffect a spacecraft’s orbitover time, and even cause itto have crashed into themoon.

JPL’s orbital calculationsindicated that Chandray-aan-1 is still circling some200 km above the lunar sur-face, but it was generallyconsidered “lost.” However,the radar team utilised thefact that this spacecraft is inthe polar orbit around themoon, so it would alwayscross above the lunar poles

on each orbit.On July 2 last year, the

team pointed Goldstone andGreen Bank at a location 160km above the moon’s northpole and waited to seewhether the lost spacecraftcrossed the radar beam.Chandrayaan-1 was pre-dicted to complete one orbitaround the moon every twohours and eight minutes.Something that had a radarsignature of a small space-craft did cross the beamtwice during four hours ofobservations, and the tim-ings between detectionsmatched the time it wouldtake Chandrayaan-1 to com-plete one orbit and return tothe same position above themoon’s pole.

The team used data fromthe return signal to estimateits velocity and the distanceto the target. This informa-tion was then used to up-date the orbital predictionsfor Chandrayaan-1.

Chandrayaan operatedfor 312 days, as against theintended two years, but themission achieved 95 percent of its planned object-ives.

‘Lost’ Chandrayaan-1orbiting Moon: NASA

A London-bound Air Indiaaircraft from Ahmedabadhad to be escorted by fighterjets on Friday after it lostcontact with the Air TrafficControl while flying overHungary.

The Dreamliner Boeing787-800 with 231 passengersand 18 crew members lostcontact with the ATC due to“frequency fluctuation”, anAI spokesperson said.

The aircraft, which tookoff from the Sardar Vallab-hbhai International Airportin Ahmedabad at 7 a.m.,landed safely at London’sHeathrow Airport at 11.05a.m. local time, the spokes-person said.

This is the second suchincident in one month. OnFebruary 16, Jet Airwaysflight 9W-118 from Mumbailost communication withthe Germany’s ATC on itsway to London.

AI plane loses contact,escorted by ighter jetsPress Trust of India

New Delhi

At least 13 deaths have beenreported due to swine flu(H1N1) virus since the begin-ning of the year in westernMaharashtra, according tomedical authorities.

Health officials said Punerecorded six deaths sinceJanuary this year, Solapurrecorded three, Aurangabadtwo and Nashik andKolhapur one each.

More than 50 cases havebeen recorded across the re-gion, including the northernpart of the State and Marath-wada. More than half casesare said to be from Pune.

At least six patients detec-ted are in a ‘critical’ condi-tion and have been put onventilator at different cityhospitals.

In Kolhapur district, theadministration has set up

emergency cells at primaryhealth centres (PHCs) after a45-year-old patient in Karvirtehsil succumbed to thevirus.

In 2016, the State had re-corded 82 cases and 25deaths due to the virus.

Dr. Kanchan Jagtap, JointDirector, State Health De-partment, said, “Among[the cases recorded lastyear], 41 cases and ninedeaths were recordedbetween January and Febru-ary. Despite a slight increasein the H1N1 toll this year inthe same time period, this isthe normal seasonal trans-mission pattern of the virus.Although people need totake precautionary meas-ures.” Scientists from thecity-based National Instituteof Virology said there hasbeen no change in the ge-netic make-up of the virus.

Swine lu claims 13 lives,over 50 cases recordedMore than half cases from PuneShoumojit Banerjee

Pune

CMYK




NEWS

Manjeev Singh Puri isnew envoy to NepalNEW DELHI

Senior diplomat ManjeevSingh Puri was on Fridayappointed as India’s newenvoy to Nepal. Mr. Puri, a1982-batch IFS officer, iscurrently India’s Ambassadorto the EU, Belgium andLuxembourg. PTI

IN BRIEF

Lalu trashes exit pollsgiving edge to BJP in U.P.PATNA

RJD president Lalu Prasad onFriday rubbished the exitpolls which gave an edge tothe BJP in Uttar Pradesh andsaid the prediction would fallflat the way it did in Biharelections.“In Uttar Pradesh, theSamajwadi Party-Congresswould emerge victorious,” Mr.Prasad told reporters.

Repoll held in 28Manipur boothsIMPHAL

Repolling was held in 28polling stations across fourdistricts of Manipur on Fridayamidst tight security. Pollingin Ukul, Tengnoupal,Kangpokpi and Senapatidistricts was held during thesecond phase of theAssembly polls on March 8.The repoll was orderedfollowing electoralmalpractices in thesepolling booths. PTI

With the two main exit pollsshowing contrasting resultsand even political expertsunwilling to commit them-selves on what has emergedas the most fiercely con-tested Assembly polls in Ma-nipur in the past few dec-ades, people and politiciansin the northeastern State arewaiting with bated breath forSaturday’s results.

A day before the resultsfor the 2017 Assembly pollson Friday, an uncanny si-lence prevailed over the

central party offices of theCongress and the BJP, thetwo prominent politicalforces in the State.

In Imphal’s B.T. Road isCongress Bhawan Manipur,where about a dozenvehicles were parked andmany party workers hadgathered. President of theManipur Pradesh CongressCommittee T.N. Haokip wasglued to the exit poll resultson television in his officewith three other party work-ers. “We are expecting towin 35 seats in the 60-mem-ber Assembly,” Mr. Haokip

said. When asked aboutChief Minister Okram IbobiSingh’s expectations of 40seats, the State Congresspresident said, “He is stillsaying 40.”

“You know, a small familyis easy to manage,” the Con-gress leader said in the con-text of winning fewer seats,claiming additionally that,“The elections this timewere no normal elections.”

A chart on votes polled infavour of each party for allthe 60 seats is ready beforehim. “This is our prepara-tion for tomorrow. As results

will start to come in, we willfill in the blanks on whichparty got how many votes inevery constituency,” he said,pointing at a “polled resultsheet”.

Less than one kilometreaway is the BJP’s office, loc-ated next to the Raj Bhavanin the Nityaipat Chuthekarea of the city. Here, thevehicles were fewer but alarge number of armed para-military personnel could beseen. A board kept at the en-trance to the hall points to ameeting of all BJP countingagents on Thursday. “Tomor-

row, most of our candidatesfrom the valley will be there.We hope to start celebra-tions as early as possible,”the BJP’s State General Sec-retary N. Nimbus Singh said.

Hints at allianceThe BJP’s largely single-storey party office was set upin 2012. “The Modi wave andanti-incumbency will see theparty through…. If we fallshort of some seats, we canstill manage,” the BJP leadersaid, hinting at the possibil-ity of an alliance with smal-ler parties.

An uncanny silence prevails over the central party oices of the Congress and the BJP in the State

Shiv Sahay Singh

IMPHAL

Manipur awaits results with bated breath

The anxiety among thepolitical parties in Punjabhas only grown, after sev-eral exit polls published onFriday saw a tough contestbetween the Congress andthe Aam Aadmi Party, whilepredicting a huge defeat forthe Shiromani Akali Dal-BJPcombine in the State.

Political analysts believethe equations changed withthe entry of the AAP, whichwas able to set the electoralagenda and emerged as akey challenger to the rulingSAD-BJP alliance and theCongress.

“Close contests alwayscreate a flutter among can-didates and parties and thisis true in Punjab as well thistime, thanks to the AAP –which was able to shift thebipolar party contest pat-tern since the 1997 electionsin the State and turned itinto a serious triangularfight,” Ashutosh Kumar, Pro-fessor of Political Science atPunjab University, told TheHindu.

Third forcePunjab politics have tradi-tionally been dominated bythe two political parties, theruling Akali-BJP combineand the Congress. However,in the 2014 parliamentaryelections, the AAP won 4out of 13 seats in Punjab, es-tablishing itself as the thirdforce in the State politics.

Prof. Ashutosh points outthat while the current elec-tions are vital for the Con-gress and the AAP — the rul-ing Akali-BJP combine hasleast at stake. “If the AAPwins in Punjab it can set anexample and project Punjabas a model State of its workto move ahead nationally.For the Congress, it wouldbe their third defeat,” hesaid.

“The Akalis have least atstake but yes, if they losebadly, then they will havesomething to worry becausegradually internal bickeringcould start and SukhbirSingh Badal’s leadershipcould be challenged fromwithin the party,” he added.

The Election Commis-sion, meanwhile, has com-pleted all arrangementsacross the State for thecounting of votes on Sat-urday.

Punjab Chief Electoral Of-ficer V.K. Singh said that forthe 117 Assembly constituen-cies 54 counting centreshave been established at 27locations.

Exit poll trends worryparties in Punjab

AAP’s entry a game changer: Analysts

Vikas Vasudeva

Chandigarh

Sukhbir Singh Badal

Men in white kurta-pyja-mas and women in white-and-red coloured sarisgathered around ChiefMinister Harish Rawat athis residence on Fridayevening as Mr. Rawat andhis wife Renuka Rawatplayed with colour anddanced to songs of Holi aday before the counting ofvotes in Uttarakhand.

Earlier on Friday, Mr.Rawat, the Congress’ chiefministerial candidate, ap-peared relaxed and confid-ent as he received ‘bestwishes’ from well-wishersfor Saturday’s results at hisoffice.

“I have been receivingphone calls from my well-wishers, telling me not toworry and that they arewith me. I told them thatI’m not worried…my fate issealed in the ballot box,”Mr. Rawat said to TheHindu.

At the Bharatiya JanataParty office, however, withits candidates away in theirrespective constituencies,there was no election-re-lated hustle-bustle to beseen.

Speaking to The Hinduover the telephone fromRanikhet, the seat in theKumaon region fromwhere he contested as theBJP candidate, Ut-tarakhand BJP presidentAjay Bhatt said that partymembers were “confidentabout the victory”.

BJP, Cong.conident inUttarakhandKavita Upadhyay

DEHRADUN

Set for D-Day: Security guards keep vigil as EVMs arrive at Bal Bhavan, Panaji, on the eve of counting of the Assembly electionvotes on Friday. VIJAY SONEJI

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Countdown begins

The Centre on Friday said itwould contest any legal chal-lenge against the SpecifiedBank Notes (Cessation of Liab-ilities) Ordinance and had nointention to buckle under pres-sure to extend the period of de-posit of demonetised notes.

Responding to pleasAppearing before a Bench ledby Chief Justice of India J.S.Khehar, Attorney-GeneralMukul Rohatgi said the posses-sion of old ₹500 and ₹1000notes was already a crime.

Mr. Rohatgi was respondingto petitions filed by individuals

and companies questioningwhy the government and theReserve Bank of India wentback on its promise to extendthe date of deposit of demonet-

ised notes to March 31,2017. The petitions conten-ded that the SpecifiedBank Notes (Cessation ofLiabilities) Ordinance pro-mulgated on December 13,2016 penalised those whodeposit demonetisedmoney after December 31,2016.

The petitioners said thePrime Minister’s speechon November 8, 2016 an-nouncing the demonetisa-tion scheme and the sub-sequent Reserve Bank ofIndia notification on thesame night had both as-sured that citizens wouldbe able to deposit demon-

etised notes beyond thecut-off date of December31, 2016 till March 31, 2017in case they were caughtin a genuine predicamentand were unable to do soby December 31, 2016.

The petitions high-lighted that despite the ex-plicit postulation that thefinal date of deposit wouldbe extended till March 31,2017, “no individual wasallowed to deposit afterDecember 31, 2016”.

“I am ready to arguethis case even today. Letus argue on this issue,” At-torney-General Rohatgisubmitted.

Will contest any legal challenge against ordinance, says Attorney-General

Legal Correspondent

NEW DELHI

‘Won’t extend time for deposit of old notes’

Possession of demonetisednotes is a crime.

A day after the exit poll pro-jections and a day before thepoll outcome, the holy cityof Varanasi on Friday hadjust one question: whowould play Holi, the festivalof colour, this time?

Benaras or Varanasi isfamous for its signature Holiplayed with rang aur bhang,mun aur mijaj (colour andcannabis, mood and mind-set). The city is also well-known for its love of politics.Its people love to discuss and

debate issues. They can ana-lyse anything from DonaldTrump’s “American First”policy to Prime Minister Nar-endra Modi’s three-day all-out campaign in the city.

It was just 7.30 a.m. butinside the dark room that isPappu’s famous tea shop atAssi Chowk, not less than 25people were sitting oncreaky wooden benches atyellow formica topped tableswhile some sat on benchesby the roadside and yet oth-ers stood around to join theintense political discussion

on the Assembly poll resultsscheduled for Saturday.

Political hub“It’s been a regular affair…everyday they makesomeone a new chief minis-ter and dethrone others; byevening they even come tothe exact number of seats foreach party and by late night,they would sign off saying,this time its been a realtough contest to predict,”Manoj Kumar, son of the age-ing owner Pappu, told TheHindu.

“If you frequent Pappu’stea shop, you don’t have toread newspapers or watchTVs for news… it’s all beingexplained here in detail,”said local Congress leaderSatyendra Sharma. Ajay Ku-mar Tripathi, representativeof local BJP MLA RavindraJaiswal echoed this.

But has Chief MinisterAkhilesh Yadav becomeshaky after the exit poll pro-jections to announce a pos-sible alliance with the BSP?

“Arre, these exit poll pro-jection by media wallas are

all just bunkum… you tell medid they prove right in Biharin 2015?...,” said AwadheshNarayan Singh, a middle-aged patron.

Few kilometers away atthe Vishwanath temple in-side the Benaras Hindu Uni-versity and every nook andcranny of Godowlia chowk,the busiest and most well-known thoroughfare of thissacred city, the narrative hadsame tone and tenor: agogwith different voices, diverseviewpoints, calculations andarithmetic.

Every man a pundit in political VaranasiOn the eve of Assembly poll results, the temple city teems with opinions, verdicts and expert analyses

Amarnath Tewary

Varanasi

EC poll data to be openfor access from SundayNEW DELHI

The Election Commission, forthe first time, will providepublic access to analyticsthrough interactivedashboards comprisingcomparative data onAssembly elections held inthe five States. Thedownloadable data will beavailable online on Sunday.

Uttar Pradesh Chief MinisterAkhilesh Yadav’s hint that hisSamajwadi Party (SP) wasnot averse to considering apost-poll arrangement withthe Bahujan Samaj Party(BSP) in the event of a hungAssembly in the State hasthrown open the possibilityof a political re-alignment inthe State.

If Mr. Yadav’s remarks inresponse to questions by theBBC were guarded, so werethe BSP supremo Mayawati’swhen asked to respond to hisovertures.

She simply said her partywould get enough seats toform the next government —she did not reject the ideaout of hand.

This has surprised manyas in the past, Ms. Mayawatihas tied up with the Bhar-atiya Janata Party (BJP) on

more than one occasion. Butthe sense that is emergingnow is that Ms. Mayawati, fa-cing a battle of survival, mayhave other ideas now.

Dalit-Muslim platformIn the general elections of2014, her party got less than20% of the votes and failed towin even a single seat in U.P.,with some of her Dalit andmuch of her most BackwardCaste support base movingto the BJP.

In the current polls, sheembarked on a new experi-ment — to create a Dalit-Muslim platform, giving over100 seats to members of theminority community.

To tie up with the BJP,therefore, would be to com-mit hara-kiri as one of thereasons why the SP-Congresscombine was the first choiceof the Muslims in this elec-tions was the fact that she

had shared power with theBJP in the past.

Indeed, while this mayrule out her joining handswith the BJP this time, hernot being in power could

make her Dalit base vulner-able again.

In that context, she mayprefer a tie-up with Mr. Ya-dav rather than sit in the Op-position.

Of course, the SamajwadiParty and the BSP, wouldhave to set aside the bitter-ness of the past first: in 1993,the SP and the BSP contestedthe Assembly polls in undi-

vided Uttar Pradesh to-gether, won 176 seats andformed the government un-der Mulayam Singh Yadavwith outside support of thethen Janata Dal and the Con-gress.

Bitter pastHowever, in 1995, Ms. May-awati withdrew her supportand the Mulayam Singh gov-ernment was reduced to aminority. Angry SP legislat-ors and supporters descen-ded on the guest house onMirabai Marg in Lucknowwhere Ms. Mayawati wasstaying and assaulted her,bringing to an end that rela-tionship.

But today, Mr. MulayamSingh no longer holds thereins; it is his son who doesand he calls the BSP leader‘bua’ or aunt.

Clearly, it will not be aneasy alliance to forge, but if it

is a battle of survival for Ms.Mayawati, Mr. Akhilesh Ya-dav also faces the prospect ofhis party splitting, with onefaction going with uncleShivpal Yadav, if he fails toform a government.

For the Congress, bringingthe two parties together willbe of paramount importanceas it could form the kernel ofan Opposition formation na-tionally that can take on themight of the BJP in 2018.

In the first press confer-ence that Congress vice pres-ident Rahul Gandhi ad-dressed with Mr. Yadav, hehad said that while the BJP’sideology was dangerous forIndia, the BSP’s was not.

Indeed, even if the BJPgets a majority or is closeenough to be able to form agovernment, these electionresults could force the SPand BSP to join forces in theOpposition.

All eyes on SP and BSP supremos as big day arrivesBoth parties are internally at tricky crossroads; an alliance, even if problematic, may be the only way out if BJP wins a big chunk of seatsSmita Gupta

NEW DELHI

Disagreeing with the exitpoll results that claimedBJP’s victory in Uttar Pra-desh, Congress vice-pres-ident Rahul Gandhi said onFriday that the SamajwadiParty-Congress alliancewould win in the State.

He also recalled thatpollsters’ predictions hadfailed in Bihar during theAssembly elections there,adding that the same

would happen on Saturdayafter the results.

“We will win in UttarPradesh. Exit polls projec-tions in Bihar were wrong.We will talk on March 11,”he said outside Parliament.

“I’m not giving anyopinion on the opinionpolls,” Mr. Gandhi said.

In another develop-ment, the Congress on Fri-day said it was open topost-poll alliance.

“It is obvious that

neither politics nor naturepermits a vacuum. In sucha situation, not a singlevoter or party would wantelections after elections.Therefore, in that situationthe most easily availablehandshake which will en-sure a certain amount ofcontinuity in governancewithout a vacuum will beattempted,” Congressspokesman AbhishekSinghvi said here.

(With PTI inputs)

Cong. open to post-poll tie-upSpecial Correspondent

NEW DELHI

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Kazakhstan leader signslaw limiting his powersASTANA

Kazakhstan’s autocraticPresident NursultanNazarbayev on Friday signedoff on constitutional changeslimiting the powers of hisoffice, the presdential pressservice said. He is, however,expected to retain supremeauthority. AFP

ELSEWHERE

Russians among 7 dead inIstanbul helicopter crashISTANBUL

Seven people, including fourRussians, were killed when aprivately-owned helicoptercrashed in Istanbul afterhitting a television tower onFriday. The local mediaspeculated that foggyweather may have caused thecrash. Two pilots and fivepassengers were on board theSikorsky S-76 helicopter. AFP

Buhari returns afterweeks on medical leaveABUJA

Nigerian PresidentMuhammadu Buhari returnedto the country on Friday aftera medical leave of a monthand a half that raisedquestions about his healthand some calls for hisreplacement, but he madeclear that whatever was ailinghim was not yet over. Mr.Buhari said he hadn’t been sosick in decades. AP

Malaysia police confirmidentity of Kim Jong-namKUALA LUMPUR

Malaysia’s police chief onFriday confirmed that theman assassinated at KualaLumpur’s international airportlast month was Kim Jong-nam, half-brother of NorthKorea's leader Kim Jong-un.Inspector General Khalid AbuBakar, however, declined togive details of how the body’sidentity was confirmed “forthe security of witnesses”. AFP

South Korea’s ConstitutionalCourt removed PresidentPark Geun-hye from officeon Friday over a graft scan-dal involving the country’sconglomerates at a time ofrising tensions with NorthKorea and China.

The ruling sparkedprotests from hundreds ofher supporters, two ofwhom were killed in clasheswith the police outside thecourt.

Ms. Park becomes SouthKorea’s first democraticallyelected leader to be forcedout of office, cappingmonths of paralysis and tur-moil over a corruption scan-dal that also landed the headof the Samsung conglomer-ate in jail.

A snap presidential elec-tion will be held within 60days.

Ms. Park did not appear incourt and a spokesman saidshe would not be makingany comment nor would sheleave the presidential BlueHouse residence on Friday.

“For now, Park is not leav-ing the Blue House today,”

Blue House spokesman KimDong Jo told Reuters.

‘Constitution violated’Ms. Park was stripped of herpowers after Parliamentvoted to impeach her buthas remained in the Presid-ent’s official compound.

The court’s acting chiefjudge, Lee Jung-mi, said Ms.Park had violated the consti-tution and law “throughouther term”, and despite theobjections of Parliament andthe media, she had con-cealed the truth and crackeddown on critics.

Ms. Park has steadfastlydenied any wrongdoing.

The ruling to uphold Par-liament’s December 9 vote toimpeach her marks a dra-matic fall from grace ofSouth Korea’s first womanpresident and daughter ofCold War military dictator

Park Chung-hee, both ofwhose parents wereassassinated.

Ms. Park, 65, no longerhas immunity as President,and could now face criminalcharges over bribery, extor-tion and abuse of power inconnection with allegationsof conspiring with herfriend, Choi Soon-sil.

Political realignmentPrime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn was appointed actingPresident and will remain inthat post until the election.He called on Ms. Park’s sup-porters and opponents toput their differences aside toprevent deeper division. “Itis time to accept, and closethe conflict and confronta-tion we have suffered,” hesaid in a televised speech.

A liberal presidential can-didate, Moon Jae-in, is lead-ing in opinion polls to suc-ceed Ms. Park, with 32% inone released on Friday. Mr.Hwang, who has not saidwhether he will seek thepresidency, leads amongconservatives, none ofwhom has more than single-digit poll ratings.

S. Korean President ousted by courtRuling caps months of paralysis and turmoil over corruption scandal involving Park Geun-hye

Fall from grace: Anti-government protesters carry a mock prison containing a cutout of SouthKorea’s President Park Geun-hye, whomay now face criminal charges, in Seoul on Friday. AFP

Reuters

Seoul

China has inducted J-20stealth fighters in its ar-senal, marking a solid incre-mental step in the transitionof its air force to the nextlevel.

Video footage on CCTVChannel 7 on Fridayshowed the indution of thefighter jets in the People’sLiberation Army Air Force(PLAAF), along with theY-20 transport planes andH-6K bombers, which arealready part of the coun-try’s military aviation as-sets.

The Y-20 planes, induc-ted last year, are essentialfor force projection as theycan carry heavy loads ofpersonnel and equipment,possibly China’s Type 99series tanks and troop carri-ers over long distances. TheJ-20 stealth fighters are de-signed to compete withother fifth generationfighter jets, such as the F-22Raptor of the United Statesand the Russian PAK-FA.

However, the South ChinaMorning Post quoted Macau-based military observer Ant-ony Wong Dong as sayingthat it is likely that only asmall number of J-20 jetshave been produced on ac-count of engine problems.

“Technical and produc-tion problem of WS-15 en-gines, which were in theJ-20, are not solved,” saidMr. Wong. “The J-20 has notyet entered mass produc-tion progress, and now justa few limited aircraft areable to serve in the airforce, similar to the Y-20.”

Navy developmentChina is also focusing on thedevelopment of its Navy,though its offensive punchis still limited by the pres-ence of only one aircraft

carrier, which is mainlyused for training purposes.

Xinhua quoted WangHuayong, deputy politicalcommissar of the EasternTheatre Command, as say-ing that China’s increasingNaval power does not poseany threat. “Our entireforces are for defence pur-poses,” he observed. “Theaircraft carrier is still intraining and trial stage. Themarines remain weak, andthe number and quality oflong-distance vessels do notmeet expectations.”

In advanced stageNevertheless, China’s indi-genous aircraft carrier,which would be the secondin its inventory, is in an ad-vanced stage of construc-tion. The second carrier willhave a displacement of50,000 tonnes, and will flyJ-15 fighters and other air-craft from its deck, a De-fence Ministry spokesper-son had earlier said.

In an effort to transitionto a more technology in-tensive military, China willslash its Army reserves,while increasing reservesfor the other services,Sheng Bin, chief of the Na-tional Defence MobilisationDepartment of the CentralMilitary Commission, saidon the sidelines of an ongo-ing parliamentary session.

China inducts J-20stealth ightersOnly a few jets likely to have beenproduced because of engine problems

Atul Aneja

BEIJING

A ile photo of the J-20 jet,which will help China’s airforce reach the next level.

Pakistan’s Parliament has fi-nally passed the much-awaited landmark bill to reg-ulate marriages of minorityHindus in the country.

Pakistan’s Hindus are setto get an exclusive personallaw to regulate marriagesafter the National Assemblyunanimously adopted theHindu Marriage Bill, 2017, onThursday.

The law was passed after alengthy process ofenactment.

The National Assemblypassed the bill in Septemberlast year but had to pass it

again as its version of the billwas changed by the Senate,when it adopted the law inFebruary.

As per rules, the same textshould be passed by the twoHouses of the Parliament be-fore it is sent to the Presidentfor his signature and promul-gation for implementation.

Television channel DawnNews reported that the Sen-ate included an amendmentto the draft approved by theNational Assembly inSeptember. The final text ap-proved by both Houses in-cludes the ‘Shadi Parath’ — adocument similar to‘Nikahnama’ in Islam.

The ‘Shadi Parath’ will berequired to be signed by apandit and will be registeredwith the relevant govern-ment department. The docu-ment has eight columnsstarting with the date of mar-riage and followed by thename of the union council,tehsil, town and district.

The document hascolumns for the particularsof the bridegroom — hisname and father’s name,date of birth, date and placewhere the marriage is solem-nised, temporary address,etc. Similar details are re-quired for the bride, exceptfor one. Her mother’s name

must also to be mentioned inthe document.

Military courtsMeanwhile, the governmenton Friday introduced a con-stitutional amendment bill inParliament to revive the con-troversial special militarycourts for trying “hardcore”militants.

Apart from changessought in the constitution toset up such courts, anotherbill was presented to seekamendment in the army lawto enable military to regulatethese courts.

Law Minister Zahid Hamidmoved both the bills in the

National Assembly. RadioPakistan reported that theMinister said on the occasionthat in 2015, the Parliamentpassed two bills, includingTwenty-first (Amendment)Bill, and The Pakistan Army(Amendment) Bill, to set upmilitary courts to hear thecases of hardcore criminals.He said positive results werereceived through thesesteps.

The Minister said thecountry was still goingthrough extraordinary cir-cumstances and facing manychallenges. Therefore, it wasnecessary for these meas-ures to continue, he added.

Pakistan Parliament passes landmark Hindu Marriage BillPress Trust of India

Islamabad

The Japanese and U.S.navies are conducting jointexercises in the East ChinaSea as tension intensifies inthe region following NorthKorea’s missile tests, localmedia reported on Friday.

The two sides launchedthe drill earlier this week,involving Japanese destroy-ers and a U.S. Navy carrierstrike group, the SankeiShimbun daily and KyodoNews said, quoting un-named Japanese and U.S.government sources.

The Sankei said the drillwas aimed at issuing awarning against nuclear-armed North Korea.

But is added the exercisewas also meant to displaythe joint Japan-U.S. milit-ary presence in the EastChina Sea, where Japanand China are locked in along-running dispute overuninhabited islets.

In Japan they are knownas the Senkakus, whileChina claims then as theDiaoyus.

Japan, U.S.conductNavy drillsAgence France-Presse

Tokyo

A two-day Commonwealthtrade summit concluded onFriday as Ministers fromacross the bloc committed toboosting intra-Common-wealth trade in the face ofthe growing clamour for pro-tectionism globally. India,meanwhile, announced asummit on trade amongstCommonwealth SMEs (Smalland medium-sized enter-prises) in May.

The meeting of SMEsfrom across the Common-wealth, an initiative of theCommonwealth Secretariat,and the Ministry of Com-merce, will take place inNew Delhi, CommonwealthSecretary Rita A. Teotia tolddelegates at the summit.

The meeting, it is hoped,will provide an opportunityfor policy makers and busi-nesses to continue discus-sions on boosting trade inthis area.

The two-day meeting in-

volved round-table discus-sions that brought busi-nesses and politicians fromaround 35 Commonwealthmember states together inwhat was the first meeting oftrade ministers from theCommonwealth in the past12 years.

‘Important moment’“This was an incredibly im-portant moment for us withall regions across the Com-monwealth being represen-ted. There is huge agree-ment across the boardbetween national statesabout what we need to do toadvance economies…butalso what we need to do toadvance trade, which isglobally at its lowest levelsince the Second WorldWar,” said Baroness Scot-land, Secretary General ofthe Commonwealth. “Thereis a huge opportunity be-cause we represent about2.4 billion people.”

One of the ideas being

considered is that of a Com-monwealth ambassador,who will be commissionedto identify tangible ways inwhich trade among Com-monwealth nations could bepromoted and raised toaround $1 trillion.

The role would lie withinthe Commonwealth Enter-prise and Investment Coun-cil, headed by Lord Marland,who also hopes that a “Com-monwealth Accord” isachievable.

The accord is a standardof rules — based on theshared experiences, rulesand regulations — that couldbe subscribed to, and which,Lord Marland added, wouldhelp SMEs looking to enternew markets.

The trade meeting hasgained increased signific-ance as the United Kingdomseeks to increase its tradelinks beyond the EuropeanUnion, while India also looksat the Commonwealth withrenewed focus.

Commonwealth Ministerscommit to boosting tradeA special envoy may be appointed to explore opportunities

Vidya Ram

London

Iran’s top leader criticisedthe pace of national eco-nomic growth on Thursdayin what appeared to be a re-buke of the President, whohad forecast prosperoustimes after the 2015 accordthat lifted international sanc-tions in exchange for nuclearlimits.

The critical comments byAyatollah Ali Khameneicame two months beforeelections in which PresidentHassan Rouhani is expectedto seek a second term. Thecomments suggested sometension between them as thevote draws nearer.

“We receive complaintsfrom people,” Mr. Khameneisaid in the remarks reportedon state television, as trans-lated by Reuters. “Peopleshould feel improvements

regarding creation of jobsand manufacturing. It is notthe case now.”

It is not yet clear who mayrun against Mr. Rouhani, amoderate cleric. While he issaid to enjoy a long-standingrelationship with Mr.Khamenei, the president isnot well liked by some otherhard-line conservative ele-ments of Iran’s political hier-

archy. In the 2013 elections,Mr. Rouhani won against afield of comparatively con-servative rivals, partly on hispledge to negotiate an end tothe international sanctionsimposed on Iran over its nuc-lear activities, which had leftthe country economicallyweakened and isolated.

An agreement betweenIran and major worldpowers, most notably theUnited States, ended manyof those sanctions in January2016 in return for Iran’s veri-fiable commitments topeaceful nuclear work.

Muted investmentYet, while Mr. Rouhani hasreceived credit for thatachievement, Iran’s eco-nomy has not flourished ashoped. Moreover, foreign in-vestment in the country re-mains muted and tenuous,

leaving Mr. Rouhani poten-tially vulnerable to conser-vative critics who say hecompromised Iran’s nuclearautonomy without any clearbenefit. Mr. Rouhani and hisassociates have counteredthat Iran has improved eco-nomically compared withthe era of his predecessor,Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.They also say many foreigncompanies remain reluctantto invest in Iran because ofnon-nuclear related sanc-tions by the United States,part of the long history of an-imosity between the twocountries.

Economists also havepartly attributed Iran’s per-sistent economic weaknessto reliance on sales of oil —its most important export —in a heavily glutted marketthat has left prices de-pressed. NYT

Khamenei rebukes RouhaniAs presidential polls near, Iran’s top leader criticises pace of economic growth

Rick Gladstone

New York

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei

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NIFTY 50

PRICE CHANGE

ACC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1400.00. . . . . . . -1.95

Adani Ports . . . . . . . . . . . . . 298.80. . . . . . . -2.10

Ambuja Cements . . . . 229.05. . . . . . . . . 1.90

Asian Paints . . . . . . . . . . . . 1030.25. . . . . . . -0.85

Aurobindo Pharma . 652.50. . . . . . . -5.65

Axis Bank . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 515.90. . . . . . . -0.50

Bajaj Auto . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2864.55. . . . . . . -6.15

Bank of Baroda . . . . . . . 159.00. . . . . . . -0.45

Bharti Airtel . . . . . . . . . . . 364.90. . . . . . . . . 4.70

BHEL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158.10. . . . . . . . . 0.60

Bosch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22761.15. . . . .732.65

BPCL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 623.35. . . . . . . -8.65

Cipla. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 589.10. . . . . . . -0.10

Coal India . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 316.30. . . . . . . -1.80

Dr Reddys Lab . . . . . . . . 2715.85. . . . . . .11.00

Eicher Motors . . . . . . . . . 23356.55. . . . . -40.40

GAIL (India) . . . . . . . . . . . . 378.25. . . . . . . -1.00

Grasim Ind . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 999.05. . . . . -10.45

HCL Tech. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 846.35. . . . . . . . . 2.00

HDFC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1373.80. . . . . . . . . 2.30

HDFC Bank. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1400.10. . . . . . . . . 5.90

Hero MotoCorp. . . . . . . 3311.05. . . . . . .22.05

Hindalco . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187.60. . . . . . . -1.60

Hind Unilever . . . . . . . . . 875.20. . . . . . . . . 4.90

ICICI Bank . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 270.55. . . . . . . -2.95

Idea Cellular . . . . . . . . . . . 104.25. . . . . . . . . 0.30

IndusInd Bank . . . . . . . . 1335.75. . . . . . . . . 9.45

Bharti Infratel . . . . . . . . 308.45. . . . . . . . . 3.30

Infosys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1021.85. . . . . . .10.30

ITC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263.45. . . . . . . -1.50

Kotak Bank . . . . . . . . . . . . . 828.90. . . . . . . . . 3.45

L&T . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1491.60. . . . . . .14.70

Lupin. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1447.10. . . . . . . -6.35

M&M . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1302.75. . . . . . . -1.20

Maurti Suzuki . . . . . . . . . 5955.60. . . . . . . -8.80

NTPC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157.10. . . . . . . -1.20

ONGC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191.60. . . . . . . . . 1.95

PowerGrid Corp . . . . . . 192.55. . . . . . . -1.90

Reliance Ind. . . . . . . . . . . . 1281.65. . . . . . . -5.10

State Bank . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272.05. . . . . . . -1.20

Sun Pharma . . . . . . . . . . . . 682.95. . . . . . . -2.20

Tata Motors . . . . . . . . . . . . 469.10. . . . . . . . . 1.50

Tata Motors DVR . . . . 279.90. . . . . . . . . 0.80

Tata Power . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81.95. . . . . . . -0.25

Tata Steel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 467.75. . . . . . . -1.70

TCS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2542.25. . . . . . .22.50

Tech Mahindra . . . . . . . . 475.80. . . . . -13.15

UltraTech Cement . . 3852.45. . . . . . .29.60

Wipro . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 487.05. . . . . . . . . 2.55

YES Bank. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1481.35. . . . . . .16.10

Zee Entertainment . 514.80. . . . . . . -2.60

EXCHANGE RATESIndicative direct rates in rupees a unit except yen at4 p.m. on March 10

CURRENCY TT BUY TT SELL

US Dollar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . 66.40. . . . . . . 66.72

Euro . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . 70.42. . . . . . . 70.76

British Pound. . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . 80.66. . . . . . . 81.05

Japanese Yen (100) . . .. . 57.53. . . . . . . 57.81

Chinese Yuan . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . .9.60. . . . . . . . . 9.65

Swiss Franc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . 65.56. . . . . . . 65.88

Singapore Dollar . . . . . . . .. . 46.79. . . . . . . 47.04

Canadian Dollar . . . . . . . . . .. . 49.20. . . . . . . 49.44

Malaysian Ringitt . . . . . . .. . 14.91. . . . . . . 14.99

Source:Indian Bank

BULLION RATES CHENNAI

March 10 rates in rupees with previous rates inparentheses

Retail Silver (1g). . . . . . . . . . 43.40. . . . (44.20)

22 ct gold (1 g) . .. . . . . . . . . . 2,740. . . . (2,759)

market watch

10-03-2017 %

CHANGE

Sensex dddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddd 28,946 dddd0.05

US Dollar dddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddd66.71 dddd0.00

Goldddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddd 28,850 dd -1.36

Brent oil ddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddd52.15 dddd0.34

Tata Motors, as part of theturnaround strategy of itspassenger vehicles business,has signed a Memorandumof Understanding (MoU)with Volkswagen Group andSkoda for a long-term part-nership and to explore stra-tegic alliance opportunitiesfor joint development ofproducts in India.

The agreement wassigned by GuenterButschek, CEO & MD of TataMotors, Matthias Mueller,CEO of Volkswagen AG andBernhard Maier, CEO ofSkoda Auto at Geneva.

The MoU spells out thescope and objectives toreach an agreement on themodalities and terms of along-term cooperation inidentified areas of partner-ship.

Skoda Auto will take thelead on behalf of the Volk-swagen Group to drive for-ward work towards develop-ment of vehicle concepts inthe economy segment, ac-cording to a joint statementby the companies.

Announcing the alliance,Guenter Butschek, CEO &MD of Tata Motors said, “Westrongly believe that boththe companies, by workingtogether, can leverage fromeach other’s strengths tocreate synergies and de-

velop smart, innovativesolutions for the Indian andoverseas market.

‘FutuReady’“This is in alignment withTata Motors’ efforts to makeitself ‘FutuReady’ by embra-cing new technologies, fos-tering higher platform effi-ciency and offeringsolutions that connect withthe aspirations of ourcustomers.”

Bernhard Maier, CEO ofŠkoda Auto said: “Togetherwith Tata, we will be spe-cifying the concrete oppor-tunities for collaborationover the coming months.”

Tata Motors and SkodaAuto will detail out the guid-ing principles and terms ofco-operation in the next fewmonths.

After completion of defin-itive agreements, the twocompanies will start jointdevelopment work and jointvalue-chain activities.

Based on joint work, TataMotors would introduceproducts in the Indian mar-ket, starting calendar year2019.

Tata Motors also has ajoint venture with Fiat Auto-mobiles and both compan-ies jointly manufacture Tataand Fiat cars as well as en-gines and transmission sys-tems at the Ranjangaonplant near Pune.

To explore joint product development

In tandem: Tata Motors will unveil products that have beenjointly developed starting 2019. GETTY IMAGES/ISTOCKPHOTO


MUMBAI

Tata signs pact withVolkswagen, Skoda

The Comptroller and Aud-itor General (CAG) on Fridaydismissed Air India’s claimsof recording operationalprofits for the first time in adecade in 2015-16.

The auditor observed thatthe national carrier had sig-nificantly understated itslosses in the previous fewyears.

While Air India reportedan operational profit of ₹105crore in 2015-16, the CAGsaid the airline’s standaloneoperational loss stood at₹321.40 crore, instead.

Provisions ignored“Air India said that they hadmade an operational profitlast year,” H. Pradeep Rao,Deputy Comptroller andAuditor General told report-ers here. “But based on ob-servations made by statutoryauditors and subsequentchecks conducted by us,they (Air India) have not

made certain provisionswhich they should havemade based on standard ac-counting procedures thatresulted in under-reportingof losses.”

Air India also made “un-derstatement of losses” tothe tune of ₹1,455 crore in2012-13, ₹2,966 crore in 2013-14 and ₹1,992 crore in 2014-

15, CAG said in its audit re-port on Turnaround Planand Financial RestructuringPlan of loss-making nationalcarrier Air India.

During his IndependenceDay speech last year, PrimeMinister Narendra Modi hadsaid that Air India had “suc-ceeded” in turning aroundthe operations of the “no-

torious” national carrier intoan “operational profit-mak-ing” company in the lastyear.

Air India is surviving on abailout package approved bythe Union government in2011.

According to the turn-around plan, the Centre hasto infuse equity of ₹42,182crore in the national carriertill 2031-32. However, theCAG recommended reducingthe equity infusion to Air In-dia since the airline reducedits aircraft loans through saleof aircraft.

“As the equity committedby Government was specificto repayment of GoI guaran-teed aircraft loans, futureequity releases need to beadjusted for the reduction inthe loan component arisingout of sale of five aircraft andconsequent repayment ofloan pertaining to them,” ac-cording to the CAG report.

The Civil Aviation Ministryhas agreed to taper the

equity sum in the comingyears, the report noted.

The CAG noted that theairline failed to generate rev-enues as per its turnaroundplan and also couldn’tachieve other targets relatedto monetisation, staff costs,aircraft maintenance and in-terest charges. The airlinealso fell short in maintainingits operational performancetargets in terms of on-timeperformance, passenger loadfactor and network yields,the CAG observed.

The CAG report also saidthat Air India sold five Boe-ing 777-200 Long Range air-craft to Etihad Airways “at aprice significantly lower thanthe indicative market priceof $86 to $92 million per air-craft.”

Further, Air India received$328 million for compensa-tion for delay in induction ofthe Boeing 787-800 aircraftalthough it had lodged an ini-tial claim of $710 millionagainst Boeing.

‘AI made operational loss, not proit’National carrier had signiicantly understated losses in the previous few years, says CAGSpecial Correspondent

NEW DELHI

Lesser support: As AI has cut debt through sale of aircraft,planned equity infusionmay be lower. GETTY IMAGES/ISTOCKPHOTO

The Centre has incurred arevenue loss of almost₹3,000 crore either due totax deduction at source(TDS) not being collected, orbeing collected and not be-ing deposited by the as-sessee in the period FY13 toFY15, according to a reportby the Comptroller andAuditor General (CAG).

“Audit examinations re-vealed that… 128 cases werenoticed where the AssessingOfficer allowed the ex-penditure in contraventionof the provisions there un-der even though tax deduc-ted at source was not deduc-ted or deducted but notdeposited before the duedate of filing of return on

such payments,” the CAG re-port released on Fridaysaid. “The mistakes in 155cases resulted in short levyof tax of ₹2,026.42 crore.”

In addition, the CAG re-port found that in 168 cases,the Assessing Officer failedto impose interest on de-faulting tax deductorsamounting to ₹902.16 crorefor failure to deduct TDS ordeducting less TDS underthe relevant sections of theIncome Tax Act.

There were also a total of654 cases where penaltieswere not imposed againsttax deductors on account ofnon–deduction/collection oftax at source and where taxwas deducted at source butnot deposited within duedate respectively.


NEW DELHI

Centre incurs loss of₹3,000 crore on TDS: CAG

Net direct tax collections upto February grew 10.7% ascompared with the sameperiod of the previous finan-cial year, while net indirecttax collections increased22.2% during the sameperiod.

“The direct tax collec-tions up to February 2017continue to show a steadygrowth trend,” according toa government statement.“The collection net of re-funds stands at ₹6.17 lakhcrore, which is 10.7 % morethan the net collections forthe corresponding periodlast year. This collection is72.9 % of the total Budget Es-timates for direct taxes forfinancial year 2016-17.”

During February 2017, netindirect tax collections grew8.4%, with customs, centralexcise and service tax collec-tions growing 10.9%, 7.4%and 7.6%, respectively. Thiswas slower than the 16.9%growth in net indirect collec-tions in January 2017, whencustoms, central excise andservice tax collections grewwas 10.1%, 26.3% and 9.4%,respectively.

‘Reflecting slowdown’“In the earlier part of theyear, it was customs collec-tions that grew at a slowerrate,” D.K. Srivastava, ChiefPolicy Advisor at EY Indiasaid. “Now, domestic indir-ect taxes (excise duty andservice tax) are also reflect-ing the slowdown in the eco-nomy. This implies a poorperformance in Q4 broughton largely by demonetisa-

tion, since January and Feb-ruary are already capturedin the data.”

Within direct tax, corpor-ate tax collections grew11.9% while personal incometax collections grew 20.8%.However, after accountingfor refunds, these growthrates stand at 2.6% and19.5%.

The tax department is-sued refunds worth ₹1.48lakh crore over the April2016 to February 2017period, which is 40.2%higher than the refunds is-sued during the correspond-ing period last year.

“For direct taxes, this isslightly lower than what theyhad estimated and it is morebecause of the underper-formance of the corporateincome tax,” Mr. Srivastavasaid. “And this is because ofthe slowdown of the eco-nomy. On the slowdown, itstarted even before demon-etisation. There was an in-

vestment contraction in Q1and Q2 and after demonet-isation, it was consumptioncontraction.”

“The figures for indirecttax collections (central ex-cise, service tax and cus-toms) up to February 2017show that net revenue col-lections are at ₹7.72 lakhcrore, which is 22.2% morethan the net collections forthe corresponding periodlast year,” the official state-ment said. “Till February2017, about 90.9% of the Re-vised Estimates (RE) of indir-ect taxes for financial year2016-17 has been achieved.”

Within indirect taxes, netcentral excise collectionsstood at ₹3.45 lakh croreduring the April 2016-Febru-ary 2017 period comparedwith the ₹2.53 lakh crore col-lected during the corres-ponding period of the previ-ous financial year, whichamounts to a growth of36.2%.

Indirect tax collections rise 22.2% over the same period


NEW DELHI

Return to sender: Refunds grew 40% to ₹1.48 lakh crore inthe April 2016-February 2017 period. GETTY IMAGES/ISTOCKPHOTO

Direct tax receipts climb 10.7%

Telecom Regulatory Au-thority of India recommen-ded setting up an ‘Office ofTelecom Ombudsman,’with powers to levy penal-ties on telecom service pro-viders, for resolution ofcomplaints and grievancesof consumers.

“There is a need for anindependent and appropri-ately empowered structureto be created for resolutionof grievances of telecomconsumers... an Office ofTelecom Ombudsmanneeds to be established.”

TRAI mootstelecomombudsmanSpecial Correspondent

NEW DELHI

The Central Board of DirectTaxes is considering makingPAN mandatory as a re-quirement for allotting TaxDeduction Account Num-bers (TAN) to companiesthat deduct tax at source,according to a report by theComptroller and AuditorGeneral (CAG).

The Department is con-sidering tightening the KYCnorms for TAN issuance inlight of the CAG’s discoverythat the procedure for allot-ting TAN does not requireany documents as proof ofidentity or address, noteven a PAN. More than onelakh notices amounting to atotal demand of ₹4,180crore were not addresseddue to inadequate informa-tion about the assessee.

“For issue of TAN, applic-ation is made in Form 49Band submitted to TIN-FC.However, no documents asproof of identity and ad-dress are required to be at-tached while submitting theForm 49B,” the CAG said inits report released on Fri-day.

“Even PAN field pre-scribed in the Form 49B isnot required to be filled in

mandatorily.”“Audit noticed that, dur-

ing FYs 2012-13 to 2014-15,1.08 lakh crore notices wereissued by AO under differentCIT charges to non-filers/stop filers out of which5,068 notices were receivedback as ‘un-served’ on ac-count of inadequacies in‘KYC’ details,” the reportadded.

This inability to deliverthe notices to the correct ad-dresses resulted in the taxdepartment being unable torecover a demand of ₹4,180crore raised in the period2007-08 to 2011-12.

The CBDT had in Decem-ber 2016 agreed to considermaking PAN mandatory forthe issuance of TAN, accord-ing to the CAG report.

PANmay be mademandatory for TAN

As of now, address proof is not needed


NEW DELHI

The I-T department maytighten KYC norms.

GETTY IMAGES/ISTOCKPHOTO

The country’s industrialproduction grew 2.7% year-on-year in January despitethe shock effect of demonet-isation, according to CentralStatistics Office data re-leased on Friday.

The growth was partlydue to the base effect as out-put had shrunk 1.59% inJanuary 2016. The perform-ance was better than the0.38% contraction inDecember 2016, but laggedthe 5.65% growth posted inNovember 2016.

The manufacturing sec-tor, accounting for a littleover 75% of the total Indexof Industrial Production(IIP), grew 2.3% in January,up from a contraction of (-)2.94% in January 2016 and(-) 1.97% in December 2016but slower than November’s5.47% pace. Pankaj Patel,President of the industrybody FICCI, said: “The man-ufacturing growth, thoughpositive in January, remainsfragile and a cause for con-cern. The sector may see arevival in the comingmonths as a result of meas-ures taken in the budget andother areas. What is import-ant is that the reform mo-

mentum is continued...which is important to boostinvestor confidence andstimulate investments.”

Mining sector recorded a5.3% growth in January,compared with 1.54% inJanuary 2016 and 5.24% inDecember 2016. Electricityproduction registered a3.9% growth in January,lower than 6.56% in January2016 and 6.28% in Decem-ber 2016. Capital goods out-put — a crucial pointer to in-vestment demand in theeconomy — rose 10.7% froma low base of a contractionof (-) 21.55% in January 2016as well as from (-) 3.01% inDecember 2016. Consumergoods output contracted (-)1% in January indicatingweak consumer demand.Consumer durables outputgrew 2.9%.

Industrial productiongrew 2.7% in January

Output rose from a low baseSpecial Correspondent

NEW DELHI

Manufacturing grew 2.3%.GETTY IMAGES/ISTOCKPHOTO




BUSINESS

IN BRIEF

Germany’s KfW, EESL inenergy eiciency pactNEW DELHI

The German DevelopmentBank (KfW) and EnergyEiciency Services Limited(EESL) signed a loanagreement for €200 millionto enhance energy eiciencyin India. EESL will invest thefunds in energy eiciency inhouseholds, buildings, streetlighting, water supply,agriculture and industry. KfWalso signed a funding deal of€500,000 with the IndianRenewable EnergyDevelopment Agencytomaintain solar projects.

ITAT airms ₹10,247 cr.capital gains tax on CairnNEW DELHI

Tax tribunal ITAT has upheldlevy of Rs 10,247 crorecapital gains tax on UK’sCairn Energy Plc but has heldthat interest cannot becharged on it as the demandwas raised usingretrospective tax legislation.ITAT, in an order dated March9, 2017, held that CairnEnergy was liable to pay thetax on share transfer it didthrough an internalreorganisation of its Indiabusiness in 2006. PTI

B.P. Kanungo to replaceGandhi as RBI Dy. Gov.NEW DELHI

B.P. Kanungo was on Fridayappointed Deputy GovernorReserve Bank of India (RBI)for three years. TheAppointments Committee ofCabinet (ACC) has approvedhis appointment to the postwith efect from the date oftaking over the charge on orafter April 3, an order issuedby the Personnel Ministrysaid. He has been appointedin place of R. Gandhi, it said.Mr. Kanungo was in Marchlast year appointed asExecutive Director in thecentral bank. PTI

The recent board room tusslesat India’s Tata Group and In-fosys make for an interestingcase study for B–schools. Inan e-mail interview, Kavil

Ramachandran, Professorand executive director of theThomas Schmidheiny Centrefor Family Enterprise at theIndian School of Business saidboard members should spendquality time to address issuesof major stakeholders. EditedExcerpts:

Your views on the recentboard-room issues at Tataand Infosys?

■ It is unfortunate thatgroups and companies re-spected for their values andcorporate governance prac-tices are under a cloud, per-ceived or real. This is partic-ularly so when their leadersare some of the wisest cor-porate leaders in the countrywho are capable and have ac-cess to the decision makersto discuss and facilitate anycorrective mechanisms, ifany, quietly but firmly, usingplatforms other than the me-dia, which in any case, is nota problem solving platform.

Howdo you see the issues

in both the firms?

■ The issues are not exactlythe same or do not appear tobe so. To me the Tata casehas two fundamental issues:one, of questioning or re-versing the decisions of theerstwhile chairman who con-tinues to wield power as thecontroller of the sharehold-ing trusts, and two, lack ofclear board processes to ad-dress the issues logically andtransparently. There doesn’tseem to have been an agreedformula at the board level foraddressing situations thatwould involve reversal of de-cisions or even changing de-cision criteria between eco-nomic and social. In theInfosys case, the so-calledfounder “felt” that the estab-lished values were not fol-lowed in certain decisions.

What are the similaritiesyou see?

■ There are two similarities Ican see. One, the “over re-sponsibility” feeling offounders with long years ofactive association with thefirm, and their preparednessto do anything to get theirview across or push withtheir views as the only right

thing to do. In both cases,they tended to underminethe freedom and capabilitiesof the people who were sit-ting on the board. Two, inboth cases, they used “val-ues” as the premise to argue.Given that Murthy holds aninsignificant per cent ofshares, the extent to whichhe can actually influence anydecision of the board is lim-

ited. He must be feeling con-tended that he could tell theworld that he is the cus-todian of the “values” of In-fosys! However, at the end ofthe day, both TATA and In-fosys are losers in severalways, which is sad.

Can these issues be seenas failure of corporategovernance?

■ I don’t think there is anyfailure of corporate gov-ernance in Infosys. Theboard decisions and pro-cesses seem to be well estab-lished. Yes, in the case ofTata, there is a strong case ofbreakdown of corporate gov-ernance led by Ratan Tatamanaging a coup.

What are the lessons to belearned from theseepisodes?

■ Board members shouldhave open discussion on theprocesses for addressinggrievances of major stake-holders. New leadership ap-pointments should includeclarity on the extent ofpowers delegated to thechairman.

Board members shouldhave sufficient time (or num-ber of days) devoted to thematters of the boards onwhich they agree to be mem-bers. At present, that is nothappening in most cases.Some of the comments of theInfosys board membersseem to raise such questions.One good global example isHILTI, where non-executiveboard members shouldspend about 25 days a yearfor the company!

‘The Tata and Infosys brands are losers’In the case of Tata, there is a strong case of breakdown of corporate governance

Sanjay Vijayakumar

CHENNAI

<> They tended to undermine the freedom and

capabilities of the people sitting on the board

INTERVIEW | KAVIL RAMACHANDRAN

Businessman Vijay Mallyahas hit back at banks, askingwhy he was denied an op-portunity to make a one-time settlement — an optiongiven to many borrowers de-faulting on their loans.

In a series of tweets, Mr.Mallya, who is currently inthe U.K., said he had obeyedorders of every single courtbut that the government‘seems bent upon holding

me guilty without fair trial’.“Public sector banks havepolices for one-time settle-ment. Hundreds of borrow-ers have settled. Why this bedenied to us?” he tweeted.

Mr. Mallya, declared a wil-ful defaulter by banks includ-ing State Bank of India, hadunsuccessfully offered theconsortium of lenders an ini-tial settlement of ₹4,000crore, out of Kingfisher Air-lines’ total dues of about₹9,000 crore.

Finance Minister ArunJaitley told the Lok Sabha onFriday that the relevant pro-secuting agencies were re-sorting to all remedies avail-able to them under the law,both for the deportation andthe extradition of those try-ing to avoid the system.

“In my visit two weeksago to the U.K., I also had anopportunity to discuss thesevery cases with my counter-parts in the U.K.,” Mr. Jaitleytold Members of Parliament.

Mallya queries denial of settlementKingisher Airlines’ dues to banks total about ₹9,000 croreSPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

MUMBAI

The initial public offer (IPO)of Avenue Supermarts Ltd.,which operates supermar-kets under the brand nameD Mart, has been subscribed104.48 times. The public is-sue closed for subscriptionon Friday.

Data from the NationalStock Exchange (NSE)showed that the offer re-ceived bids for 463.62 croreshares, as against 4.44 croreshares on offer in the priceband of ₹295 to ₹299. Thehuge demand on the finalday of the offering can begauged from the fact thatthe IPO was subscribed lessthan six times till Thursday,the penultimate day of theissue. The issue that openedfor subscription on March 8,intends to raise a total of₹1,870 crore. The companyplans to use the issue pro-ceeds for various purposesincluding repayment ofdebt.

While the companyopened its first store inMumbai in 2002, as on Janu-ary 31, it had a total of 118stores located across 45 cit-ies in India. The companyhas presence in Maha-rashtra (59), Gujarat (27),

Telangana (13), Karnataka(7), Andhra Pradesh (4) andMadhya Pradesh (3). It has astore each in Chhattisgarh,Daman, Rajasthan and NCR.

Interestingly, brokerageshave been bullish on the of-fering based on factors likestrong margins and growthin stores and business.

IIFL, in its IPO note, saidthat the company had be-come one of the largest andmost profitable food & gro-cery retailers and its busi-ness model is such that it isable to offer low prices to at-tract more customers.

“Optimum usage of re-sources, efficient rackingsystem and store ownershipled to significant long-termcompetitive advantage onthe back of stringent controlover fixed costs per store.”

The company’s businessmodel had resulted in a rev-enue CAGR of 40% and PATCAGR of 52% over FY12–16with an operating margin of7.7% in FY16, it added, whilerecommending investorssubscribe to the offer.

Yes Securities, the broker-age arm of Yes Bank, saidthat listing gains could notbe ruled out in the IPO giventhe high goodwill attachedto the promoter group.

D-Mart owner’s IPOgets bid 104 times

Proceeds to be used to repay debts

SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

MUMBAI

Sales of passenger vehicles(PVs) in the country rose 9%last month with the impactof demonetisation waning,raising hopes of double-digitgrowth in the segment inthis financial year.

“We are seeing steadygrowth across all segmentsof the industry,” SIAM Dir-ector General Vishnu Ma-thur told The Hindu. “How-ever, two-wheelers are still

in the negative, we expect itto return to positive growthin the next 2-3 months. Theimpact of demonetisation,whatever we saw for 2-3months, is rapidly fadingaway.”

As per SIAM data, PVsales, including cars, utilityvehicles and vans, grew to2.55 lakh units in February.While car sales rose close to5% to 1.73 lakh units, utilityvehicles grew 21.8% to65,877 units.

Passenger vehicle salesclimb 9%, spur optimism

Yuthika Bhargava

NEW DELHI

CMYK




SPORT

Did Team Australia start theunsportsmanlike practice ofconsulting the dressing roomfor Decision Review System(DRS) without the knowledgeof Cricket Australia (CA)? It’sanybody’s guess.

It’s highly unlikely that CAwould have assented to sucha transgression, especially bycaptain Steve Smith, one ofthe brightest batsmen in theworld and winner of ICCawards.

In the circumstances,would Smith and anotherbatsman, like Peter Hand-scomb, seek direction fromAustralia’s video analyst, oneamong the three at the venueto get live feed of the match(the other two being thematch referee Chris Broadand the Indian team videoanalyst), without the know-ledge of the support staffthat includes DarrenLehmann (head coach),Graeme Hick (batting coach),David Saker (bowling coach),Greg Blewett (fielding coach)and a few more.

Proximity to analystOfficials familiar with ar-rangements around thedressing room zone (or theplayers and match officialsarea) say the head coach,usually, sits next to the videoanalyst who gets the feed onhis computer. So it’s easy tosend signals in about 10 or 15seconds.

It’s not known if CA CEOJames Sutherland had to con-fide anything — as to who isresponsible for the offendingact that took place atBengaluru — to his BCCIcounterpart Rahul Johriwhen they met on Thursdayto thrash out differences anddecided to “focus” on theTests at Ranchi and Dharam-shala.

A BCCI official said thatCA should investigate the in-cident.

The player DRS says: “Ifthe umpires believe that thecaptain or batsman has re-ceived direct or indirect in-put emanating other thanfrom the players on the field,then they may at their discre-tion decline the request for aPlayer Review.

“In particular, signalsfrom the dressing roommustnot be given.”

Smith’s admissionThe BCCI’s decision to firsturge the ICC to take cognis-ance of the event was basedon Smith admitting that hehad asked for the dressingroom guidance after beingdeclared leg before by um-pire Nigel Llong and that he

had suffered a “brain fade”at that point.

What got the goat of theIndian team, captain ViratKohli and the team manage-ment was that neither Llongand fellow on-field umpireRichard Illingworth norBroad decide to take seriousnote of the sequence ofevents in which Smith andHandscomb were involvedand report it to the ICC.

Reason for complaintThe decision to lodge a com-plaint with the ICC was takenin consultation with theCommittee of Administrators(CoA) after the ICC issued anofficial statement that nocharges had been laidagainst any player under theICC Code of Conduct, spe-cifically in relation to Steve

Smith and Virat Kohli.“The Indian team felt that

the umpires, match-refereeand the ICC refused to takenote of the incident and actupon it and hence it was de-cided to lodge an officialcomplaint.

They did not want anyplayer to be victimised, butfelt aggrieved that the matchofficials did not do theirduty,” said a BCCI officialclosely involved with all theaction that took place onThursday.

Sources revealed that atleast one among the four inthe CoA wanted restraintfrom all sides, but thingswere set into motion to bringan end to the prevailing ‘badblood’ situation followingSutherland’s visit to the BCCIoffice.

Was CA in the know ofthe unsporting act?Not known if Sutherland had to conide anything to Johri

G. Viswanath

MUMBAI

de Villiers back ontop of ODI rankingsDUBAI

A.B. de Villiers has regainedthe top spot in the latest ICCrankings for ODI batsmenafter leading the list ofrun-scorers in the recentseries against New Zealandwhich his side won 3-2. Thestar South African batsman ison 875 points, four pointsahead of David Warner and23 clear of Virat Kohli in therankings released on Friday.ANI

IN BRIEF

Australia’s hopes of victoryin the bitterly-fought seriesagainst India suffered asevere blow on Friday whenpace spearhead MitchellStarc had to head homewith a stress fracture to hisright foot.

Team physio DavidBeakley said Starc felt painin his right foot during Aus-tralia’s 75-run defeat in thethe second Test inBengaluru which has failedto subside since the matchended on Tuesday.

“We made the decision toscan his foot in Bengaluruthis morning and unfortu-nately it has revealed astress fracture,” Beakleysaid in a Cricket Australiastatement.

Starc, who is also one ofthe world’s leading all-rounders, would “returnhome to Australia to starthis rehabilitation” andtherefore “be unavailablefor the remainder” of thefour-match series, Beakleyadded.

Replacement soonSelectors would name a re-placement “in due course”,the statement said.

The 27-year-old Starc isthe second Australian to beruled out of the seriesbetween the world’s toptwo sides after MitchellMarsh had to return homefollowing a deterioration ofa long-running shoulderinjury.

Starc has been hamperedby injuries during his careerbut he has emerged as a keyplayer for his side in allformats of the game and isranked in the world’s top 10in both Test and ODIcricket. He was also namedrecently in the InternationalCricket Council’s Test teamof the year (ICC).

Ahead of the series, In-dian captain Virat Kohlisingled out Starc as the tour-ists’ dangerman, saying he“is a world-class bowler”.

“He has learnt the art ofreverse swing and bowlingwith the old ball as well. It’samazing to see, the way hehas developed his skills,”Kohli added.

Starc has suffered a num-ber of injury setbacks dur-ing his career, including inSeptember when hesuffered a leg wound which

required 30 stitches by col-liding with training equip-ment during a practicesession.

He also spent six monthson the sidelines after frac-turing his foot in the his-toric day-night Test in Ad-elaide against New Zealandin November 2015, beforethen undergoing ankle sur-gery. He returned to play astarring role on Australia’stour of Sri Lanka, where hetook 24 wickets at an aver-age of 15.16.

To return home to start his rehabilitation

Starc out of India serieswith foot fracture

Agence France-Presse

NEW DELHI

Big blow:Mitchell Starc’s campaign has been cut short. AFP

Trevor Hohns confirmed asAussie chief selectorSYDNEY

Trevor Hohns was named asthe chairman of Australia’scricket selectors on Fridayafter steadying the ship ascaretaker chief following astring of defeats last year.Hohns, who took over ascaretaker chairman when RodMarsh quit following anembarrassing home seriesdefeat to South Africa, joinsGreg Chappell, Mark Waughand coach Darren Lehmannon the four-man panel. AFP

Former West Indies cap-tain Richie Richardson willbe the match referee forthe remaining two India-Australia Tests to be playedat Ranchi (March 16 to20)and Dharamshala (March25 to 29).

Ian Gould (England) andChris Gaffaney (New Zeal-and) will be the on-fieldumpires at Ranchi withNigel Llong as the TV um-pire. Marais Erasmus(South Africa) and Gouldwill be the on-field um-pires with Gaffaney as theTV umpire atDharamshala.

A day before the first

day of the Ranchi Test,Richardson will have somework to impress upon thetwo captains Virat Kohliand Steve Smith to main-tain and play in the spiritof the game, following theBengaluru incident in-volving Smith.

A joint statement issuedby BCCI and CA has saidthat “the two captains willmeet prior to the RanchiTest and commit to leadtheir teams by exampleand play the rest of theseries, in the right spirit,demonstrating that theplayers from both teamsare true ambassadors fortheir respective coun-tries.’’

Match referee Richardsontomeet both captainsSpecial Correspondent

MUMBAI

Richie RichardsonFILE PHOTO

Opener Soumya Sarkarscored his second half-cen-tury of the match asBangladesh kept its fainthopes of saving the first Testagainst Sri Lanka here onFriday.

Set a daunting target of457 for victory, Bangladeshreached 67 for no loss beforebad light brought an earlyend to the fourth day withthe visitors still needing 393for an improbable win onthe final day.

Leading the chargeSoumya, who made 71 in thefirst innings, led the chargewith an unbeaten 53 whilehis opening partner TamimIqbal took the unusual roleof an anchor and was battingon 13 at stumps.

The day’s play ended 14

overs early as thick cloudshovered over the ground,much to the frustration ofthe hosts who were desper-ate to hammer home theiradvantage by clinching awicket in the final session.

The umpires called offplay after Asela Gunaratneconceded three runs off his

first ball that was declared arare back-foot no ball, leav-ing him with the rare figuresof 0-0-3-0. Sri Lanka de-clared its second innings at274 for six just five overs intothe session, after Upul Thar-anga hit his third Test cen-tury and second againstBangladesh.

Weather may hold the key on the inal day


Galle

Big ask for Bangladesh

His returns, particularly atthe international level,hardly do justice to the im-mense potential in him.Some careers are perplex-ing.

Dinesh Karthik had agon-ised over missed opportunit-ies. Now the ghosts from thepast are buried as he eyes fu-ture with a refreshed mind-set. “I dream of playing forIndia again,” says the 31-year-old Tamil Nadu cricketer.

Interestingly, he is notlooking at the wicketkeeper-batsman position alone. “Ihave done enough to be con-sidered a specialist batsmanfor the country too. For In-dia, I have batted from No. 1to 7.”

Shot-selection has beenthe key to Dinesh Karthik’sre-emergence as agame-changer.

“My core game has im-proved with belief, planning,and execution. My defencewas always good, it is justthat I am building my in-nings in a better manner

now, picking the rightstrokes,” he said.

A short-statured power-house of a batsman, particu-larly strong square of thewicket, Karthik, gauging theconditions and the attack,patiently builds a platformthese days before launchinginto bowlers.

Top performerHis recent run for TamilNadu in the Vijay Hazareone-day competition sawhim top the averages in theleague phase with an aston-ishing 99.25. Karthik batted

from the right hander bet-ter,” he said.

Karthik has been aroundfor a long time — he playedhis maiden First Class matchin 2002-03 and made hisTest debut in 2004.

He had his moments suchas producing a brave 63 asopener against an incisiveSouth African pace attackthat included, Steyn, Ntiniand Pollock in the CapeTown Test of 2007. Then hemade 91, again as opener, atthe expense of an English at-tack spearheaded by JamesAnderson, at the Oval thesame year.

Behind the stumps,Karthik displayed flashes ofbrilliance if not consistency.

Although his primary jobis to make runs and keepwickets, Karthik has now puthis hand up for a specialistbatting slot in the Indianteam.

Often explosive with thewillow, he has now learnt totemper his aggression. Thisquick-footed batsman is bat-ting with both solidity andflair.

No. 4 for the State, made 397runs at a strike-rate of 115.07.

Earlier, Karthik caught theeye in the Ranji Trophy with704 runs at 54.15. In a seasonwhere he also played his100th Ranji match for TamilNadu, Karthik made runs ontesting wickets, in tough situ-ations, absorbing pressure.

Beneficial timeTime spent with the street-smart Mumbai all-rounderAbhishek Nayar proved be-neficial for Karthik.

“We talked a lot aboutpreparation, on mindset,about doing the sameroutine again and again,things you do off the field,and ticking all the boxes.”

The 31-year-old Karthik isalso giving importance to his’keeping. “I have been train-ing under former India’keeper Sameer Dighe,” herevealed.

There were times in thepast when he struggledwhile ’keeping to left-armand leg-spinners.

“Now, I am able to ’keepto the ball spinning away

Dinesh Karthik stakes claim for India slotSays he’s done enough to be considered a specialist batsman

S. Dinakar

Chennai

Dinesh Karthik.BISWARANJAN ROUT

Sri Lanka — 1st innings: 494.

Bangladesh — 1st innings: 312.

Sri Lanka — 2nd innings: D.Karunaratne c Mahmudullah bTaskin 32, U. Tharanga b Me-hedi 115, Kusal Mendis c Taskinb Shakib 19, D. Chandimal (notout) 50, A. Gunaratne b Shakib0, N. Dickwella c Liton b Me-hedi 15, D. Perera c Liton bMustafizur 33; Extras: (b-2,lb-1, w-6, nb-1): 10; Total (forsix wkts decl. in 69 overs): 274.

Fall of wickets: 1-69, 2-134, 3-

198, 4-199, 5-222, 6-274.

Bangladesh bowling: Roy 7-0-34-0, Mehedi 20-1-77-2,Mustafizur 9-4-24-1, Shakib25-2-104-2, Taskin 8-0-32-1.

Bangladesh — 2nd innings:Tamim Iqbal (batting) 13, Sou-mya Sarkar (batting)53; Extras(nb-1): 1; Total: (for no loss in 15overs): 67.

Sri Lanka bowling: Lakmal 6-3-8-0, Perera 5-0-24-0, Herath4-0-32-0, Gunaratne 0-0-3-0.

SCOREBOARD SRI LANKA V BANGLADESH FIRST TEST

Sri Lanka vs Bangladesh:1st Test: TEN 3 & TEN 1 HD,9.30 a.m.I-League: TEN 2, 4.30 p.m. &7 p.m.Badminton: All-Englandchampionships, STAR Sports2 & HD 2, 5.30 p.m.

TV PICKS

Olympic silver medallistP.V. Sindhu failed to over-come World No. 1 and topseed Tai Tzu Ying ofChinese Taipei andcrashed out of the All Eng-land badminton Champi-onship with a straight-game loss in the quarterfi-nals of the Super Seriespremier event here on Fri-day.

Also exiting was SainaNehwal, seeded No. 8, whogave the No. 3 seed Sung JiHyun of Korea a tough fightbefore bowing out 22-20,22-20.

World No. 5 Sindhu,who had beaten Tai Tzu enroute to her Rio Games sil-ver, was erratic andcouldn’t break the defenceof the Chinese Taipei shut-tler, who won 21-14, 21-10 in34 minutes at the Barclay-card Arena.

Saina andSindhu exitPress Trust of India

Birmingham

CMYK

A ND-ND




SPORT

DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD

The Upanishads teach the disciple to observe and appreci-ate the external world so that one goes beyond it to look forthe creator. The priority of Brahman the creator to theworld is brought out by the statement that Existence or Be-ing alone was in the beginning. “This wonderful thing, thiswhole thing that we see and we can conceive is Pure Exist-ence,” says Uddalaka to Svetaketu in the Chandogya Upan-ishad.

Drawing from this statement, Vidyaranya makes it clearthat Brahman alone exists always, irrespective of whethercreation exists or not. The acharya clears many doubts andexplains this truth using simple logic and reasoning in Pan-chadasi, pointed out Sri Goda Venkateswara Sastrigal in adiscourse. From his exposition, it is clear that being wellversed in Vedanta and also a keen observer of all that is inthe world, he is endowed with the wisdom to cull what is ne-cessary and ignore the unwanted. Brahman is seen in theprocess of creating an entirely sensory world which is an as-sortment, blend and combination of the senses and gunas.Basically the five elements, space or sky (Akasa), air, fire,water and earth, constitute the world. Each of these ele-ments has special qualities, sabda, sound, sparsa, touch,roopa, form, rasa, taste and gandha, fragrance, respectively.The five senses of knowledge enable one to cognise the ob-jects of the outside world. Their presence is subtle and canbe inferred from their functions which are possible by thefive organs of action, the ears, the skin, the eyes, the tongueand the nose by which one is able to hear, touch, see, tasteand smell. More important is the powerful internal organ,mind, which dictates the thought, word and deed of an indi-vidual. Vedanta teaches how to harness all these facultiesthat generally tend to move outwards to realise the eternalTruth of Brahman and the Self.

FAITH

The world and its Maker

Woods skips Palmer event,rehab continuesORLANDO

Tiger Woods will miss nextweek’s Arnold PalmerInvitational in Florida as hecontinues back rehabilitation,he announced on Thursday.The news comes a monthbefore the Augusta Masters.The 14-times Major championWoods, who has hardlyplayed since a major backsurgery in 2015, gave noindication on when he mightreturn to competition. REUTERS

Guptill to undergorehabilitation programmeWELLINGTON

New Zealand opener MartinGuptill will undergo a six-week-long strength andconditioning rehabilitationprogramme before returningto the field. Guptill sufferedhamstring strains to bothlegs during the 2016-17summer and, followingmedical consultation, willmiss the remainder of theNew Zealand domesticseason and the beginning ofthe 10th edition of the IndianPremier League (IPL). ANI

IN BRIEF

Djokovic is hungryINDIAN WELLS

Novak Djokovic, even after his2016 Australian Open victorymore than a year ago,indicated he could feel theyoung players keen to musclein on the game’s ‘Big Four’,coming. He told reportersthat wolves running up thehill are hungrier than the wolfat the top. “I guess I’m one ofthe wolves going up now, andI’m hungry,” Djokovic said onThursday. AFP

Glenn Maxwellto lead KXIPNEW DELHI

Australian all-rounder GlennMaxwell on Friday replacedIndian batsman Murali Vijayas Kings XI Punjab captainahead of the upcoming IndianPremier League (IPL),beginning April 5. The IPLfranchise made theannouncement on socialmedia. PTI

Goel meets athletes forWinter GamesNEW DELHI

A strong Indian contingent of90 athletes, 23 coaches, andthree other officials, boundfor the World Winter Gamesin Ramsau, Austria, fromMarch 14 to 25, has been fullyfunded by the union sportsministry.In a send-off function onFriday, Krishan Pal Gurjar, theUnion Sports Minister VijayGoel stated that thegovernment was spendingabout ₹1.5 crore on thecontingent.Goel also wished the athletesto do well.

BENGALURU: Anantara, who hasbeenwell prepared, is expected toscore in the F.K. Irani MemorialTrophy (1,400m), the featureevent of the races to be held hereon Saturday (March 11).False rails (width about 7.5m from1,600m to the winning post) willbe in position.

1 ARDENT KNIGHT TROPHY (Div.II), (1,200m),maiden 3-y-o only,

(Terms), 1-45 p.m.: 1. Aleef (3) K.Mukesh 55, 2. Apalachee (7) P. Tre-vor 55, 3. Kvasir (2) Srinath 55, 4.Limato (11) P.P. Dhebe 55, 5. MasterOfWar (9) P.S. Chouhan 55, 6. RumRunner (8) I. Chisty 55, 7. Piccola(10) Suraj Narredu 53.5, 8. PrincessRumela (1) A. Sandesh 53.5, 9. Pur-ity (4) S. John 53.5, 10. Smile OfPeace (6) Khurshad Alam 53.5 and11. Zip Code (5) Vinod Shinde 53.5.1. RUM RUNNER, 2. APALACHEE, 3.

KVASIR

2 MEKEDATU PLATE (1,400m),rated 00 to 20, 2-15: 1. Air Dan-

cer (4) Shobhan 60, 2. Skybound(12) A. Imran Khan 59, 3. SlightlyBlonde (2) Darshan 58.5, 4. Cap-tain Calm (10) A. Ramu 57.5, 5. Re-semblance (1) K. Mukesh 57.5, 6.MissWonder (6) M. Kumar 56.5, 7.Fioroloco (8) Irvan Singh 55.5, 8.Claire (3) Kiran Naidu 54.5, 9.Dontworrymonday (7) Sahanawaz54, 10. Apollo Creed (9) Adarsh 52,11. Brindani (5) B. Nayak 52 and 12.Braveheart (11) P.P. Dhebe 51.5.1. SKYBOUND, 2. CAPTAIN CALM, 3.

SLIGHTLY BLONDE

3 ARDENT KNIGHT TROPHY (Div.I), (1,200m),maiden 3-y-o only,

(Terms), 2-45: 1. Afrikaner (1) P.Trevor 55, 2. Automatic (5) SurajNarredu 55, 3. Brooklyn Supreme(2) P.P. Dhebe 55, 4. Casey (6) S.John 55, 5. Dont Dilly Dally (7)Jagadeesh 55, 6. Amberlino (10) R.Marshall 53.5, 7. Astrild (4) IrvanSingh 53.5, 8. Glittering Gold (3) K.Mukesh 53.5, 9. Mansuetude (8) I.Chisty 53.5, 10. Regal Realm (11)Sahanawaz 53.5 and 11. Rosebrook(9) KhurshadAlam53.5.1. AUTOMATIC, 2. DONT DILLY

DALLY, 3. AFRIKANER

4 ICEBREAKER PLATE (Div. II),(1,400m), rated 15 to 35, 5-y-o &

over, 3-15: 1. Blazing Faith (3) P. Tre-vor 60, 2. Dancing Princess (1) P.S.Chouhan 58.5, 3. Surnaturel (4)Ashok Kumar 58, 4. Cannes (10)Suraj Narredu 57.5, 5. RomanticHaven (2) S. John 56.5, 6. AtlanticCity (9) A. Ramu 55, 7. Emancipa-tion (6) I. Chisty 55, 8. Helios (11)Sahanawaz 55, 9. Repsol (5) M. Ku-mar 54.5, 10. Sudha (8) Adarsh 52and 11. Kiraathaka (7) P.P. Dhebe51.5.1. BLAZING FAITH, 2. EMANCIPA-

TION, 3. KIRAATHAKA

5 KARWAR PLATE (1,200m),rated 15 to 35, 3-45: 1. Harley

Quinn (2) T.M. Prashanth 60, 2.New Era (11) Md. Akram 59.5, 3.Country’s Bloom (1) A. ImranKhan

59, 4. Kasauli (6) P.P. Dhebe 57.5, 5.Noble Emperor (4) M. Kumar 56.5,6. Tudor Prince (9) S. Babu 56.5, 7.Brunesco (—) (—) 55.5, 8. SidiBamba (5) K. Mukesh 55.5, 9. Hid-den Deal (8) Irvan Singh 55, 10.Nijlon (7) Nazerul Alam 55, 11. Vis-ion Of The Sky (10) Sahanawaz 5and 12. Rock Steady (3) KhurshadAlam54.5.1. KASAULI, 2. COUNTRY’S BLOOM,

3. ROCK STEADY

6 F.K. IRANI MEMORIAL TROPHY

(1,400m), rated 60 & above, 4-15: 1. Baracchus (3) A. Sandesh 61,2. Russian Link (11) A. Imran Khan56.5, 3. Rafa (1) P.S. Chouhan 55.5,4. Taqdeer Ka Badshah (4)Sahanawaz 55.5, 5. Bonfire (5) K.Mukesh 55, 6. Areca Wonder (2)Jagadeesh 54, 7. Amazing Redd (12)Irvan Singh 53, 8. Anantara (8) I.Chisty 52.5, 9. Zucchero (9) Janard-han P 52, 10. Emidio (6) P.P. Dhebe51.5, 11. Emperador (7) P. Trevor51.5 and 12. Splendid Splasher (10)P. Surya 51.1. ANANTARA, 2. SPLENDID

SPLASHER, 3. RAFA

7 BHAGAMANDALA PLATE

(1,800m), rated 45 to 65, 4-45:1. Escala (3) Suraj Narredu 60, 2.Back Of Beyond (5) P. Trevor 59.5,3. Sagrada (1) A. Ramu 59, 4. Exem-plar (6) S. John 57.5, 5. LegacyDream (2) Srinath 57, 6. Masada (7)Rayan Ahmed 56.5, 7. Fresh Start(4) A. Imran Khan 56, 8. Czar Rule

(9) R. Manish 55.5 and 9. Balian (8)A. Sandesh 55.1. LEGACY DREAM, 2. ESCALA, 3.

BACKOF BEYOND

8 ICEBREAKER PLATE (Div. I),(1,400m), rated 15 to 35, 5-y-o &

over, 5-15: 1. Just Fabulous (3) S.John60, 2. Artorius (1) A. Velu 59.5,3. Tea Wid Me (11) P.S. Chouhan59.5, 4. All Thats Nice (2) RayanAhmed 59, 5. Amazing Desire (6)Suraj Narredu 58.5, 6. PerfectQueen (10) M. Kumar 58.5, 7.Princeazeem (5) P. Trevor 58, 8.Brunaldo (7) Anjar Alam 58, 9.Summer Star (4) A. Ramu 57.5, 10.Karod Pati (9) Srinath 56.5 and 11.Secret Prayer (8) Sahanawaz 54.5.1. PRINCEAZEEM, 2. AMAZING DE-

SIRE, 3. TEAWIDME

9 TUNGABHADRA PLATE

(1,600m), rated 30 to 50, 5-45:1. Frenemee (4) Rayan Ahmed 60,2. GoldenDiamond (1) RajeshBabu59.5, 3. Tuscano (3) A. Imran Khan57.5, 4. Love Is Life (5) PraveenShinde 56.5, 5. Super Strong (2)Kiran Naidu 56, 6. Sands Of Time(6) M. Prabhakaran 55.5, 7. TurfTactics (9) Irvan Singh 55, 8.Fractals (10) P. Surya 54.5, 9. OnlyPrince (8) Suraj Narredu 54 and 10.Attractive Bay (7) Sahanawaz 51.1. FRACTALS, 2. ONLY PRINCE, 3.

TUSCANO

Day’s best: PRINCEAZEEMDouble:AUTOMATIC—ANANTARA

Jkt: 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9; Tr (i): 1, 2 and 3;(ii): 4, 5 and 6; (iii) 7, 8 and 9.

Anantara for F.K. Irani Memorial Trophy

South Africa —1st innings: 308.New Zealand —1st innings: T.Latham c de Kock b Philander10, J. Raval c Elgar b Maharaj52, K. Williamson c de Kock bRabada 130, R. Taylor (not out)15, H. Nicholls c Amla b Maharaj12, J. Patel c du Plessis b Phil-ander 16, J. Neesham c de Kockb Morkel 7, B-J. Watling b Ma-haraj 50, M. Santner c Maharaj bMorkel 4, N. Wagner c Duminy bMaharaj 32, T. Boult b Maharaj2; Extras: (lb-8, nb-2, w-1) 11;Total (in 114.3 overs): 341.Fall of wickets: 1-15, 2-117, 3-165, 4-184, 5-193, 6-277, 7-297,

8-304, 9-324.

South Africa bowling: Rabada30-7-92-1, Philander 27-11-67-2, Morkel 24-6-62-2, Maha-raj 28.3-7-94-5, Duminy 5-0-18-0.

South Africa —2nd innings: S.Cook c Watling b Boult 0, D. El-gar (batting) 12, H. Amla (bat-ting) 23; Extras: (lb-3): 3. Total:(for one wkt. in 18 overs): 38.

Fall of wicket: 1-0.

New Zealand bowling: Boult 4-2-6-1, Wagner 4-1-8-0, Santner5-2-6-0, Patel 5-2-15-0.

SCOREBOARD NEW ZEALAND VS SOUTH AFRICA, FIRST TEST

Dean Elgar and HashimAmla had given South Africaa slender lead over New Zea-land at the end of the thirdday of the first Test on Fri-day, which was disrupted for30 minutes by a fire alarm atUniversity Oval.

While the umpiresplanned to extend the day’splay for nearly an hour tomake up for the delay, badlight forced New Zealand tobowl its spinners on a Du-nedin pitch that was offeringvariable bounce and turn.

Amla had contributed 23runs and Elgar 12 to SouthAfrica’s 38 for one when thelight was finally deemed in-sufficient, an overall lead offive runs. Stephen Cook wasthe only batsman to fall.

New Zealand had a 33-run

first innings advantage whenit was bowled out for 341after tea.

The host had ground outits lead on the back of cap-

tain Kane Williamson’s 16thTest century (130) and a 13thhalf-century (50) for B-J Wat-ling. Keshav Maharaj tookfive wickets.

Williamson joined injuredteam-mate Ross Taylor insecond place on the all-timelist for Test centuries forNew Zealand behind MartinCrowe, who scored 17.

The host had beenbogged down by SouthAfrica’s bowlers in themiddle session after the Pro-teas took the second newball.

Williamson scores his 16th Test tonKiwi skipper’s century gives the host a 33-run irst innings leadREUTERS

WELLINGTON

Castled: B-J Watling’s citadel is breached by a Keshav Maharajspecial. AFP

Italy’s Paolo Lorenzidowned Robin Haase of theNetherlands to book asecond-round meeting withthird-seeded Swiss StanWawrinka in the ATP/WTABNP Paribas Open onThursday.

Canadian qualifier VasekPospisil defeated Taiwan’sLu Yen-Hsun 6-7(6), 6-4, 6-3to earn a clash with Murray,while France’s JeremyChardy beat Moldovan qual-ifier Radu Albot 7-6(2), 6-2 tobook a meeting with eighth-seeded Austrian DominicThiem.

Meanwhile, former wo-men’s World No. 5 EugenieBouchard’s 2017 strugglescontinued, where she fell inthe first round to Germany’sAnnika Beck. Beck made themost of Bouchard’s errors todispatch the Canadian 3-6,6-2, 6-2.Important results: First round:

Men: Vasek Pospisil bt Lu Yen-Hsun 6-7(6), 6-4, 6-3; AdrianMannarino bt Juan Monaco6-3, 6-7(5), 6-1; KarenKhachanov bt Tommy Robredo6-1, 7-5; Martin Klizan bt Thi-ago Monteiro 7-6(6), 6-3; Fa-bio Fognini bt KonstantinKravchuk 0-6, 7-5, 6-4; PaoloLorenzi bt Robin Haase 6-4,6-3; Alexandr Dolgopolov btViktor Troicki 6-1, 6-4; BjornFratangelo bt Bernard Tomic6-2, 6-2; Jeremy Chardy btRadu Albot 7-6(2), 6-2.Women: Julia Goerges bt AjlaTomljanovic 7-5, 6-2; AnnikaBeck bt Eugenie Bouchard 3-6,6-2, 6-2; Sara Sorribes bt Eka-terina Makarova 6-4, 6-2; PengShuai bt Lesia Tsurenko 6-2,2-6, 7-5; Lucie Safarova bt LaraArruabarrena 6-3, 6-2; JelenaJankovic bt Irina Falconi 6-2,3-6, 6-3; Varvara Lepchenko btYaroslava Shvedova 4-6, 6-2,6-4; Andrea Petkovic bt VaniaKing (USA) 6-0, 2-0 (retired).Doubles: Sania Mirza & BarboraStrycova bt Julia Goerges &Jelena Ostapenko 6-3, 6-4.

Beck packs ofBouchardLorenzi downs Haase to move upAgence France-Presse

Indian Wells

ON COURSE: Annika Beckmade themost of EugenieBouchard’s errors to beat the Canadian. AFP

Reeth Rishya (IOC) beatfourth-ranked Pooja Sahas-rabudhe of ONGC to handIOC a 3-2 victory overONGC and the women’stitle in the Indian Oil PSPBinter-unit table tennis atthe Nehru indoor stadiumhere on Friday.

The results (finals):

Stage II: Men’s team: ONGCbt BPCL 3-0 [G. Sathiyan btSoumyajit Ghosh 11-5, 11-7, 7-11, 11-9; Harmeet Desai btSanil Shetty 11-8, 9-11, 11-9,11-1; A. Amal Raj bt RonitBhanja 11-6, 11-7, 8-11, 11-5].

Women’s team: IOC bt ONGC3-2 [Manika Batra bt PoojaSahasrabudhe 11-7, 11-6, 11-5;Reeth Rishya lost to Madhur-ika Patkar 11-8, 11-6, 12-14, 4-11, 8-11; Krittwika Sinha Roylost to Ankita Das 11-13, 7-11,11-7, 7-11; Manika Batra btMadhurika Patkar 11-8, 8-11,11-2, 13-11; Reeth Rishya btPooja Sahasrabudhe 6-11,11-4, 9-11, 11-4, 11-8].

Reeth givesIOC the titleSports Reporter

CHENNAI

His brilliance on field not-withstanding, experiencedmidfielder Gurbaj Singh con-tinues to be ignored by thoseresponsible for selectionmat-ters in Indianhockey.

The 33-member group ofmen’s probables announcedby Hockey India on Fridayhas once again given Gurbajthe cold-shoulder even as itincluded 11 members fromthe recent World Cup-win-ning junior side.

With chief coach RoelantOltmans preparing for a newfour-year cycle targeting the2018World Cup in India andthe 2020 Tokyo Olympics,the list is expected to formthe core of the Indian team.

Gurbaj, the highest paidIndian in the Hockey IndiaLeague (HIL), had been oneof the few positives for Ran-chi Rays. Even though Olt-mans had stressed on HIL

performances being import-ant for selections, the omis-sion of the 28-year-old clearlyindicates that he continues tobe out of favour despite beingamong the fittest and mostskilful players in the countryat themoment.

Besides Gurbaj, someprominent names are alsoconspicuous by their ab-sence.

The biggest of them is thatof experienced defender V.R.Raghunath, who not only ledUttar Pradesh Wizards to athird-place finish in the HILbut was also part of the lead-ership group in the Nationalside for thepast fewyears.

Raghunath, however, hadapparently indicatedhiswishto take a break after playingnon-stop for the past fewyears, informing Oltmansabout the same and keepinghis options of returningopen.

Incidentally, Oltmanswas

also theUPWcoach.Also missing is midfielder

Devinder Walmiki, whoplayed an important role inKalinga Lancers lifting theHIL title this year, andDanishMujtaba, both part of the In-dian side at theRioOlympics.

While defender BirendraLakra finds a place despitenot being match fit and stillrecovering from his surgerylast year, Amit Rohidas hasbeen rewarded for his rock-solid defending for Lancers.Former captain Sardar Singhand Rupinderpal Singh havemanaged to retain theirplaces despite a below-aver-age outingduring theHIL.

Apart from the AzlanShah, the team would alsoprepare for the HockeyWorld League semifinals inLondon in June.

The National camp wouldbegin in Bengaluru fromMarch 15 to prepare for theAzlan Shah Cup in April, the

first outing for the Indianteam in 2017.

The players would bejoined by new strategy coachHans Streeder and scientificadvisor Scott Conway.

The core group:

Goalkeepers:Akash Chikte, P.R.Sreejesh, Vikas Dahiya, SurajKarkera.

Defenders: Dipsan Tirkey,Pardeep Mor, Birendra Lakra,Kothajit Singh, Surender Kumar,Rupinderpal Singh, Harman-preet Singh, Jasjit Singh Kular,Gurinder Singh, Amit Rohidas.

Midfielders: ChinglensanaSingh, S.K. Uthappa, Sumit, Sat-bir Singh, Sardar Singh, Man-preet Singh, Harjeet Singh,Nilakanta Sharma, Manpreet,Simranjeet Singh.

Forwards: Ramandeep Singh,S.V. Sunil, Talwinder Singh,Mandeep Singh, Affan Yousuf,Nikkin Thimmaiah, GurjantSingh, Akashdeep Singh, LalitUpadhyay.

Gurbaj continues to be ignoredRaghunath andWalmiki missing from the core group

Uthra Ganesan

NEW DELHI

Top seed Prajnesh Gun-neswaran battled pastVishnu Vardhan 7-6(4), 6-4in the semifinals of the$15,000 ITF Futures tennistournament at the BSP ten-nis complex here onFriday.

In the final, Prajneshwill play second seed Sri-ram Balaji who outclassedthe finalist of last week inGuwahati, Sami Reinweinof Germany, for the loss ofthree games.The results:

Singles (semifinals): PrajneshGunneswaran bt Vishnu Vard-han 7-6(4), 6-4; Sriram Balajibt Sami Reinwein (Ger) 6-1,6-2.

Doubles (final): Sriram Balaji& Vishnu Vardhan bt Alexan-der Centenari (US) & Sami Re-inwein (Ger) 6-2, 6-4.

Prajnesh totake onSriram BalajiSports Bureau

BHILAI

The Boxing Federation of In-dia (BFI) has announced a10-member squad for theChemistry Cup interna-tional event to be held inHalle, Germany, from March13 to 18, 2017.

The squad: Amit (49kg),Deepak Singh (52kg), AkshayKumar (56kg), Ankush Dahiya(60kg), M.M. Thomas (64kg),Duryodhan Singh Negi (69kg),Jaideep (75kg), Reyal Puri(81kg), Gaurav Chauhan(91kg), Parveen Kumar(+91kg).

Boxing squad forChemistry CupSpecial Correspondent

Kolkata

Young left-handed wicket-keeper-batsman Agniv Panhas been included in theBengal squad for its VijayHazare Trophy knockoutmatches to be held in Delhi.

Pacer Mohammed Shamihas been named in the side.He will play only if he iscleared by the NCA.

Bengal will play itsquarterfinal match againstMaharashtra on March 15.The squad:

Manoj Tiwary (captain),Shreevats Goswami, SudipChatterjee, AbhimanyuEaswaran, Abhishek Raman,Anustup Majumder, Agniv Pan,Pankaj Shaw, Pragyan Ojha,Aamir Gani, Ashoke Dinda,Sayan Ghosh, Kanishk Seth,Ishan Porel, Mukesh Kumar.

Agniv in Bengal squadSpecial Correspondent

Kolkata

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Thunder dominate SpursOKLAHOMA CITY

Russell Westbrook had his31st triple-double of theseason to help Oklahoma CityThunder beat San AntonioSpurs 102-92 in the NBA onThursday.Other results: Lakers 122 btSuns 110; Traiblazers 114 bt76ers 108 (ot); Clippers 114bt Grizzlies 98; Pistons 106bt Cavaliers 101. AGENCIES

IN BRIEF

Motorsport legend JohnSurtees passes awayLONDON

John Surtees, the only personto win World Championshipin two- and four-wheelerracing, died here on Friday.The 83-year-old Brit wonseven motorcyclechampionships (350cc and500cc categories) beforegoing on to clinch the 1964Formula One WorldChampionship with Ferrari.

England: J. Roy c Holder bJoseph 17, A. Hales c Nurse bJoseph 110, J. Root c C. Brath-waite b Joseph 101, J. Buttler bHolder 7, E. Morgan b Nurse 11,B. Stokes c K. Brathwaite bHolder 34, Moeen Ali c & bJoseph 0, C. Woakes c Bishoo bHolder 13, L. Plunkett run out11, A. Rashid run out 9, S. Finn(not out) 2; Extras (b-1, lb-3,w-8, nb-1) 13; Total (in 50overs): 328.

Fall of wickets: 1-27, 2-219, 3-232, 4-249, 5-263, 6-264, 7-304, 8-304 , 9-317.

West Indies bowling: Holder10-1-41-3, Joseph 10-0-76-4,Bishoo 5-0-44-0, C. Brath-waite 10-0-56-0, Nurse 8-0-57-1, Carter 4-0-28-0, K.Brathwaite 3-0-22-0.

West Indies: K. Powell c Halesb Finn 6, E. Lewis c & b Woakes

0, K. Brathwaite c Hales bWoakes 5, S. Hope c Root bPlunkett 16, J. Mohammed bPlunkett 10, J. Carter c Stokesb Finn 46, J. Holder c Buttler bPlunkett 0, C. Brathwaite lbw bStokes 7, A. Nurse c Plunkett bWoakes 6, D. Bishoo c Roy bRashid 10, A. Joseph (not out)22; Extras (b-4, lb-1, w-9) 14;Total (in 39.2 overs): 142.Fall of wickets: 1-7, 2-8, 3-13,4-32, 5-45, 6-45, 7-75, 8-87,9-113.England bowling: Finn 10-1-35-2, Woakes 8-1-16-3, Stokes7-2-27-1, Plunkett 8-2-27-3,Moeen 5-0-27-0, Rashid1.2-0-5-1.Toss: West Indies.Man-of-the-Match: A. Hales.Man-of-the-Series: C. Woakes.

England won by 186 runs toclinch the series 3-0.

SCOREBOARD WEST INDIES-ENGLAND, THIRD ODI

among those finishing thesecond round before dark-ness forced suspension ofplay for 150 minutes.

Owing to the backlog of66 golfers looking to finishtheir first round, the secondround began concurrently atthe available tees. Once allthe first round cards were in,Horsey topped the heap atsix-under 66. Chowrasia,one-under last evening whenbad light halted play, fin-ished at par and shared the25th spot.

But the second roundpresented contrasting exper-iences for Chowrasia andHorsey. Chowrasia, the onlyplayer to shoot a sub-70 cardthis day, birdied the 11th,14th, 15th, fifth and eighthholes before missing anotherone on the ninth hole. Hereached 14 greens in regula-tion and needed 13 putts —one more than the precedinground — to complete theround for a one-stroke lead.

“My hitting was reallygood and some puttsdropped, that’s why I madefive-under. This is no doubt adifficult course, so I just fo-cused on hitting it straight.

Conservative in his ap-proach, S.S P. Chowrasia be-nefited hugely by sticking todiscipline and eventuallycarded a five-under 67 for aone-stroke lead after thesecond day of the $1.75 mil-lion Hero Indian Open here.

The defending championseemed to be playing on adifferent course as sub-parrounds continued to be at apremium. When severalmore illustrious playersstruggled to find pars, Chow-rasia birdied five times dur-ing his bogey-free display.

As things stand now, with66 players yet to finish theirsecond round, Chowrasia’stwo-round tally of 139 kepthim a stroke ahead of first-round leader David Horseywho went two-over on Fri-day.

Anirban Lahiri, trying tomake amends for his first-round 76, was one-over aftersix holes. Chiragh Kumarand S. Chikkarangappastood at four-over for tworounds. As though thecourse was not toughenough, lightning-forceddelay for the second straightday added to the golfers’woes. But, Chowrasia was

My putter was going welltoday. I made a couple ofputts. A great putt on the fifth(from 25 feet) and the eighth(from 20 feet)... they weretough putts.

“I’m getting used to thecourse, but I’m still learning.Two more days and I’ll try tokeep learning how to play this(course),” said the leader, re-flecting on the round.

Horsey followed his flaw-less 66 with a 74. Though hemoved to seven-under afterfinding a birdie on the fourth,a double bogey on the follow-ing hole pulled him down.Thereafter, a bogey on theeighth, where he four-putted,dented his confidence. On theback-nine, his birdies on the12th and 15th were negated bybogeys on the 13th and 18th.

Talking about the double-bogey on the fifth hole,Horsey said, “It’s tough, yeah.It’s a long, island green. It wasabout 170 today, but I hit it inthe bunker and three-putted.

“Then I four-putted theeighth hole and missed ashort one on nine. So, Iwasted three or four shotsthere on the greens.”

Since many players are yetto finish round two, the thirdround on Saturday will notcommence before 12.30 p.m.

Disciplined approach: S.S.P Chowrasia carded a ive-under 67 on a day when the illustrious playersstruggled for a sub-par round. STUART FRANKLIN/GETTY IMAGES

Chowrasia takes lead66 players yet to inish round two

Rakesh Rao

Gurugram INDIAN OPEN

England’s Alex Hales (110from 107 balls) and Joe Root(101 from 108 balls) struckcenturies as the touristcruised to a series sweepwith a massive 186-run vic-tory over West Indies in thethird and final One-Day In-ternational at the Kensing-ton Oval on Thursday.

England, sent in to bat,amassed 328 in exactly 50overs before restricting theWest Indies to 142 in 39.2overs for its biggest ever winby runs over the Caribbeanside.

Opener Hales and Rootput on 192 for the secondwicket, a record for Englandagainst West Indies, on anuneven pitch.

England sweeps seriesHales and Root score centuriesREUTERS

BARBADOS

Alex Hales. GARETH COPLEY/GETTY IMAGES

The BCCI senior selectioncommittee named B. Apa-rajith as captain withAnkush Bains as his deputyfor the Emerging Cup tour-nament in Dhaka. The ju-nior selection committeechose 25 probables for theunder-19 camp, who willtrain at the NCA.

Team for Emerging Cup: Abhi-manyu Eswaran, Prithvi Shaw,Shubham Gill, B. Aparajith (C),Hanuma Vihari, Virat Singh,Shivam Chowdhary, AnkushBains (vice-captain/wk), RahulChahar, Mayank Dagar, AmirGani, Aswin Crist, K.R. Sashik-anth, Kamalesh Nagarkoti, andKanishk Seth.

NCA under-19 camp prob-ables: Prithvi Shaw, ShubmanGill, Himanshu Rana, Mun

Jose, Riyan Parag, S.Radhakrishnan, Priyam Garg,Mayank Rawat, Salman F.Khan, Harvik Desai, Het Patel,Swapnil Fulpagar, AbhishekSharma, Anukul Roy, KamaleshNagarkoti, Yash Thakur, ShivamMavi, Ishan Porel, VivekanandTiwary, Akash Sen Gupta, Dar-shan Nalkande, Rahul Chahar,Shiva Singh, Harsh Thaygi,Bhagat Varna.

Sports Reporter

Chennai

B. Aparajith.

Aparajith to lead

Bhambri advancesZHUHAI (CHINA)

Yuki Bhambri got pastAgustin Velotti of Argentina6-1, 2-1 when his opponentretired in the $50,000Challenger men’s quarterfinalmatch. Yuki will play top seedEvgeny Donskoy of Russia inthe semifinals.The results: $50,000Challenger men, Zhuhai,China: Quarterfinals: YukiBhambri bt Agustin Velotti(Arg) 6-1, 2-1 (retired).$15,000 ITF women, SharmEl Sheikh, Egypt:Quarterfinals: JuliaWachaczyk (Ger) bt SaiSamihitha 6-0, 6-0.

Europa League favouriteManchester United secureda 1-1 draw on a threadbarepitch at Rostov, while Olym-pique Lyonnais beat ASRoma 4-2 helped by a fineindividual goal from NabilFekir in the last 16, first-legties on Thursday.

The results: Rostov 1(Bukharov 53) drew with ManUnited 1 (Mkhitaryan 35).

Lyon 4 (Diakhaby 8, Tolisso47, Fekir 74, Lacazette 90+2)bt Roma 2 (Salah 20, Fazio 33).

Schalke 1 (Burgstaller 25)drew with Monchengladbach 1(Hofmann 15); Celta Vigo 2(Wass 50, Beauvue 90) btKrasnodar 1 (Claesson 56).

Rostov holds UnitedREUTERS

ZURICH




WEEKEND SPORT

A ND-ND




CMYK

A ND-ND

WEEKEND SPORT

Twelve-year-old Janet Sylvaof Gambia wants to be adoctor when she grows up.She made the statementwith a broad grin one thatsurgeons in New York gaveback to her after removingfrom her mouth one of thelargest tumours they’d everseen.

The 2.7-kg benign tumourwas about the size of a can-taloupe. It prevented Janetfrom eating, and her breath-ing had become so difficultthat doctors were afraid shemight die within a year ifnothing was done.

“It made her a prisoner in

her own body,” said Dr.David Hoffman, a U.S. sur-geon, who became aware ofJanet’s plight last year afterdoctors in Senegal reachedout to international healthgroups for assistance.

She had stopped going toschool and wore a scarfaround her face to hide themassive tumour.

Armen Kasabian, chief ofplastic surgery at NorthShore University Hospital inChicago, led the team inperforming the delicate op-eration, which not only in-volved removing the tu-mour but also rebuildingher jaw by using part of abone from her leg.

The growth in her mouth weighed 2.7 kg

Associated Press

New York

Girl gets smile backafter tumour removal

Ray of hope: Elissa Montanti, left, of the Global Medical ReliefFund, with Janet Sylva, who is recovering from surgery. AP




LIFE

Australia’s Great Barrier Reefis experiencing an unpreced-ented second straight year ofmass coral bleaching, scient-ists said Friday, warningmany species would struggleto fully recover.

The 2,300-km reefsuffered its most severebleaching on record last yeardue to warming sea temper-atures during March andApril.

Bleaching is once againoccurring, the government’sGreat Barrier Reef MarinePark Authority said after anaerial survey off Australia’seastern coast on Thursday.

“Regrettably, the temper-atures have been high on theGreat Barrier Reef this sum-mer as well and unfortu-nately (we) are here to con-firm... a mass coral

bleaching event for thesecond consecutive year,”the Authority’s reef recoverydirector David Wachenfeldsaid.

“And importantly, this isthe first time we’ve ever seenthe Great Barrier Reefbleached two years in se-

quence. We’ve seen heatstress build sinceDecember.”

Widespread impactThe agency said morebleaching was being ob-served in the central part ofthe reef, which last year es-

caped widespread severebleaching. The 2016 bleach-ing was more severe in thenorthern areas of the bio-di-verse site.

The back-to-back occur-rence of widespread bleach-ing also meant there was in-sufficient time for corals tofully recover, Neal Cantinfrom the Australian Instituteof Marine Science said.

“We are seeing a decreasein the stress tolerance ofthese corals,” Mr. Cantin ad-ded in a statement.

“This is the first time theBarrier Reef has not had afew years between bleachingevents to recover.

Bleaching occurs whenabnormal environmentalconditions, such as warmersea temperatures, cause cor-als to expel tiny photosyn-thetic algae, draining themof their colour.

Amass coral bleaching againGreat Barrier Reef threatened by heatwave for second consecutive year


Sydney

No time to recover: Corals drained of colour in the GreatBarrier Reef under threat from climate change. AFP/BIOPIXEL

George A. Olah, whose workwon a Nobel Prize in chem-istry and paved the way formore effective oil refiningand ways of producing lesspolluting forms of gasoline,has died at age 89.

Olah died on Wednesdayat his Beverly Hills home, ac-cording to the University ofSouthern California’s LokerHydrocarbon Research Insti-tute, of which he was thefounding director. No causeof death was provided.

Olah’s research broughthim the 1994 Nobel Prize inchemistry for his ground-breaking study of the un-stable carbon moleculesknown as carbocations.

“Distinguished professor

George Olah was a true le-gend in the field of chem-istry,” USC president C.L.Max Nikias said.

Influencing generations“His pioneering researchfundamentally redefined thefield’s landscape and will in-fluence its scholarly workfor generations to come.”

The Hungarian govern-ment offered its condol-ences for Olah, who fledHungary during a 1950s So-viet crackdown on dissent.

“The country has lost agreat patriot and one of themost outstanding figures ofHungarian scientific life,”said Janos Lazar, chief ofstaff to Prime MinisterViktor Orban.

Olah received the NobelPrize for his work on super-acids, research that led hisobservation of carbocationsan unstable, fleeting chem-ical species that he dis-covered how to stabiliselong enough to study itsproperties. The University ofSouthern California is plan-ning a campus celebrationof his life at a later date.

He won the honour for study of unstable carbon molecules

Associated Press

Los Angeles

George A. Olah

Chemistry Nobel winnerGeorge Olah dies at 89

Mark Zuckerberg onThursday revealed thatFacebook’s first family isgrowing, with a baby sisteron the way for his one-year-old daughter. “We areall better people because ofthe strong women in ourlives — sisters, mothers andfriends,” Mr. Zuckerbergwrote on his Facebookpage. “We can’t wait towelcome our new little oneand do our best to raise an-other strong woman.”

Zuckerbergsexpectingsecond girlAgence France-Presse

San Francisco

Priscilla Chan andMarkZuckerberg. REUTERS

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