the largest circulated english daily in south india ...mohan reddy while tak-ing the battle against...

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deccanchronicle.com, facebook.com/deccannews, twitter.com/deccanchronicle, google.com/+deccanchronicle Vol. 82 No. 233 Established 1938 | 32 PAGES | `4.00

16 SPORTS12 Sindhu begins witha win at Worlds

WORLDUS firms to face Chinesesanctions for F16 jet sale

COUNTER POINT

Max: 31.9OCMin: 20.5OC RH: 63%Rainfall: Nil

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WEATHER

ASTROGUIDEVikari; Dakshinayana Tithi: Sravana Bahula

Shashti till 7.04 amStar: Bharani till 2.33 am (Friday)

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to 4.04 pmRahukalam: 1 pm to 3 pm

HIJRI CALENDARZihajj 20,1440 AH

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THE LARGEST CIRCULATED ENGLISH DAILY IN SOUTH INDIAHYDERABAD I THURSDAY I 22 AUGUST 2019

Muslim youth say Congress,BJP aren’t interested in themKANIZA GARARI &ATHER MOINHYDERABAD, AUG. 21

Different groups of Guja-rat Muslims have approa-ched All India Majlis-e-Itehadul Muslimeen(AIMIM) to set up abranch in Gujarat beforethe municipal elections inFebruary 2020.

Meeting in Delhi andMumbai, various groupspledged political and gro-und support to the AIMIMif it represented them.

The Congress’s margin-alisation after adopting“soft Hindutva” severelyhurt Muslims in Gujarat.“The Congress in Gujaratis scared to stand by ourside. Local leaders havebeen avoiding us. Thiscomatose state of theCongress has left a vacu-um and we want AIMIMto fill it,” Zuber Goplani,vice-president of All IndiaM a j l i s - E - M u s h a v a r a tsaid.

Muslim youth inGujarat realise that nei-ther the BJP nor theCongress are interested inthem.

Abdul Qayum Shaikh ofthe Bazme-Ittehad,Vadodra, said: “We are

finding that a separateidentity for Muslims andother backward classes isneeded. National politicalparties are not givingmarginalised sections therepresentation theydeserve. We are unhappywith how Congress lead-ers keep a distance fromthe community. TheCongress’s real stand oncore issues has emergedin Parliament, while theAIMIM presented thecommunity’s stand in alogical manner and con-vinced not only the com-munity but also thosewho are secular.”

The administration’sbehaviour towards busi-ness and small-scaleindustry has verged onoffensive. “We want ourvoice to be heard in politi-cal circles as the responseof elected councillors andMLAs is cold. MLAs havethrice rejected my admin-istrative request sayingthat Muslims don’t voteBJP,” Sagir AhmedAnsari, of Vadodra, toldthis newspaper.

AIMIM presidentAsaduddin Owaisi, how-ever declined to discussthe party’s expansion inGujarat.

Gujaratis reachout to Owaisis

DC CORRESPONDENTHYDERABAD, AUG. 21

The BJP national leader-ship thinks that it is notwise to open a two-pronged battlefrontssimultaneously in theTelugu states, and there-fore, has decided to con-tinue cordial relations

with Andhra PradeshChief Minister Y.S. JaganMohan Reddy while tak-ing the battle againstTelangana State ChiefMinister K Chandra-shekar Rao to the nextlevel of intensity.

■ Page 5: BJP wooed Jaganwith ISC seat

India mum on Trump reofferVINEETA PANDEY | DCNEW DELHI, AUG. 21

The external affairs min-istry is stoically silentover US President DonaldTrump’s latest offer tomediate in the “complicat-ed” Kashmir situation.Delhi is waiting US Pres-ident Donald Trump andPrime Minister NarendraModi to meet on the side-

lines of the G-7 Summit inBiarritz (France) thisweekend. The two leadersare expected to discuss thesecurity situation in theregion.

Trump on Tuesdaytermed the Kashmir as“explosive” and “compli-cated” and offered to medi-ate between India andPakistan to defuse the ten-sion.

“Kashmir is a very com-plicated place. You haveHindus and you have theMuslims and I wouldn’tsay they get along so great.I will do the best I can tomediate,” Trump told rep-orters at the White House.

India sees such state-ments in a different con-text because the US offi-cially maintains that Kas-hmir is a bilateral issue.

Fugitive PC arrested at homeAfter 24-hrs on the lam, ex-HM is cornered as CBI scales wallsDC CORRESPONDENTSNEW DELHI, AUG. 21

In a major political dramathat played out on Wednes-day evening, CBI and EDofficials arrested formerUnion minister and seniorCongress leader P. Chida-mbaram from his Jorbaghresidence in connectionwith the INX Media moneylaundering case.

Investigators accompa-nied by Delhi policearrived around 8.50 pmafter Chidambaram’s sud-den appearance atCongress headquarters.

The ED and CBI aim toexpand the investigationto probe his granting ofallegedly illegal FIPBclearances to other firmsand receiving kickbacksthrough shell companies.Things might get some-

what tricky for the formerfinance minister as thejailed Indrani Mukerjea,one of the promoters ofINX Media and co-accusedin the money launderingcase, has reportedlyturned approver and given

information aboutChidamabaram’s allegedinvolvement in the case.

Chidambaram was takento the CBI headquartersand is expected to be pro-duced in the court onThursday. The CBI is like-

ly to put him through a liedetection test.

After Chidambaram’sarrest his anticipatorybail petition listed forhearing on Friday inSupreme court becomesinfructuous and he willnow have to apply for reg-ular bail. This bail applica-tion will have to be heardby a trial court.

Jostling through themedia, CBI officials had toscale the walls of Chidam-baram’s house as his staffrefused to open the gates.

The huge team of offi-cials and police took overthe premises and allowedother security personnelin. The CBI then droveinside and later whiskedthe fugitive away around9.45 pm.

■ Report on Page 6

BJP prefers Jaganover KCR in south

SREEPARNACHAKRABARTY | DCNEW DELHI, AUG 21

P. Chidambaram got hisparty’s backing as itdecided to approachother Opposition partiesfor support on the issueof the “witch-hunt” agai-nst the senior MP.

At a meeting held atparty treasurer AhmedPatel’s house at 5 pm, theCongress also decided tomake a spectacle of Chid-ambaram’s arrest by ask-ing DPCC workers tomarch to home ministerAmit Shah’s residence inprotest.

■ Report on Page 6

CONGRESS TOAPPROACHLUKEWARM OPP

P. Chidambaram in CBI custody. — PTI

https://t.me/TowardsTomorrow


Joel Reifman is the newUS Consul General inHyderabad. The succes-sor to former consul gen-eral Ms Katherine Haddatook charge on Wednes-day, and would serve asthe consul for Telangana ,Andhra Pradesh andOdisha.

The American diplomat,Mr Reifman, has servedas the deputy chief ofmission at the USembassy in Dhaka, Bang-ladesh, before takingcharge as consul generalin the city. His assign-ments at the state depart-ment in Washington DCinclude senior liaison inthe bureau of intelligenceand research, and as thedeputy director of theoffice of aviation negotia-tions in the bureau of eco-nomic and businessaffairs.

“The US–India partner-ship is strong, especiallyin this region. We areproud to collaborate withthe people of Telangana,Andhra Pradesh andOdisha on a range ofissues that are important

to both our countriesfrom industry anddefense ties between thetwo countries, to entre-preneurship and womenempowerment. I look for-ward to building on thework of my predecessorsand making continuedprogress together withour fantastic team at theconsulate,” consul gener-al Reifman said.

Before joining the USstate department, consulgeneral Reifman servedas an assistant staff judgeadvocate in the US airforce. He earned his bach-elor of arts degree inEnglish literature fromthe University ofMichigan and a juris doc-torate from the SouthernMethodist University.

PAGE

2CityTHURSDAY | 22 AUGUST 2019 | HYDERABADDECCAN CHRONICLE

Quota RuleSC/ST Commission chairman Yerolla asks universi-ties to implement reservation rule in filling ofvacancies of teaching and non-teaching staff

Use clay Ganeshaidols. `10 lakh has

been granted foreco-friendly idols

— G. Jagadish Reddy Education minister

IN BRIEF

LAND POOLINGIN A FIX AFTER

BACKLASHDC CORRESPONDENTHYDERABAD, AUG. 21

The Land Pooling Scheme(LPS) introduced by theHyderabad Metropolitan Dev-elopment Authority (HMDA)has not yielded good results.

The proposal put forth by themunicipal authority did notattract the interest of farmersor land owners. As a result ofthe increase in land value, theland owners have beendemanding 1,500 square yardsper acre after developmentagainst the 1,000 square yardnorm set by the governmentas per GO No 306 datedDecember 7, 2017.

This unexpected backlashfrom the land owners have putthe municipal authority in afix since it was relying on theLPS to meet its expenditureand major developmental pro-grammes in the city. However,officials said that the issuewould be taken to the notice ofthe state government and itwould be asked to come totheir rescue. On the contrary,officials who were in favour ofthe government said thateverything was “going welland the so-called backlashfrom farmers was false news”.

According to them, the landowners had given oral consentand title verification would bedone in three days and poolingwould be done in a week.

According to highly placedsources in HMDA, the munici-pal authority had decided topool 400 acres in PratapSingaram, 150 aces inChoutuppal, 150 acres inNagaram and 60 acres inBhongir. As per norms, HMDAwould develop plots in 2,800square yards per acre and theremaining area would be usedto provide amenities likeroads, water, electricity andsewerage. After the develop-ment, the original land own-ers would be given 1,000square yards per acre and theremaining would be auctionedby the municipal authority.The expenditure garneredwould be used for taking uplong pending projects andother developmental activitiesin the city. However, thisunexpected demand fromfarmers and land owners haveshaken the municipal authori-ty and forced it to knock on thedoors of the governmenteither to change the GO orconvince the farmers.

HMRL won’t increase coachesMADDY DEEKSHITH | DCHYDERABAD, AUG. 21

It seems Hyderabad MetroRail Limited is in no moodto address public griev-ances.

Despite anticipating 4.5lakh footfalls, the metroauthorities were not inter-ested in increasing coach-es, rather they wouldincrease the frequency.Metro authorities evenclaimed that the currentfootfall of 3.06 lakh wasexpected and to cater tothat demand, they hadincreased the number oftrips to 770.

Officials even stressedthat HMRL would notdeploy additional trains tofacilitate commuters andsaid the very idea of ametro was to transport themaximum number of peo-ple with limited resources.

Though commuters weresubjected to suffocationand congestion in themetro cars, L&T was reluc-tant to increase the num-ber of coaches as per thedemand put forward byHMRL. The Authoritiessaid that situation wouldremain the same eventhough the footfallincreased to 8 lakh by nextyear once operations oncorridor 2 from JBS toMGBS begins.

However, commutershave to bear the bruntdespite paying to thecostliest public transportsystem.

As per the current flow,the commuters travellingin the metro were forced tostand in congested coach-es often making them feelsuffocated. Commutersclaimed during peakhours when there was aheavy rush, it was becom-ing very difficult tobreathe apart from thefact, they entered theirrespective offices withsweaty faces.

While the metro coachescan only accommodate 126passengers sitting and 848passengers standing, cur-rently more than 1000 pas-sengers have been travel-ling in each coach per trip.With the increase of foot-fall from 2.60 lakh inMarch to 3.06 lakh inAugust, the metro authori-ties have enhanced thetrips from 710 to 770.

Sources said that theunderlying war betweenL&T and HMRL has madepassengers face collateraldamage in the world’sbiggest public private

partnership (PPP).However, HMRL offi-

cials, on record, defendL&T saying that theincrease in the number oftrips would certainlyresolve public inconven-ience. They said that theincrease in number ofcoaches just to facilitatecommuters would notmake the project viable.With the HMRL predicting4.5 lakh footfalls byDecember, after the com-mencement of operationsfrom Raidurg (Mindspace)metro station, the patienceof commuters would be

further tested as morethan 1200 passengerswould travel in each coachdespite the increase thefrequency to one minute.

“The very idea of metrosacross the world is totransport the maximumnumber of people withlimited coaches. To caterto the needs of the passen-gers, HMRL has been run-ning 60 additional tripswith four minute frequen-cy and air conditionertemperatures dropping to23 degrees,” says Mr NVSReddy managing directorHMRL. He said that

increasing the number ofcoaches would not beviable for the project andonce the footfall wasincreased to 4.5 lakh by theyear end and 8 lakh bynext year, the frequency ofthe metro would beincreased to 2 minuteswhere a maximum num-ber of people would be car-ried to their destinationscomfortably. When thisnewspaper tried to reachL&T officials over theincrease of coaches tomeet the current andfuture demand, they wereunavailable for comment.

Coaches currently run 770 trips a day; frequency to increase even further

DC CORRESPONDENTVIJAYAWADA, AUG. 21

Telugu Desam national gen-eral secretary Nara Lokesh,like most celebrities andpoliticians, often getstrolled badly on socialmedia by his political rivalsand their supporters. But hemust be fuming over theturn of things Wednesday,when, in a cruel twist fate,brimming with irony, hecame under severe attackfrom his own partymen andpolitical sympathisers.

The Telugu Desam menwere fuming at Lokesh onFacebook, Twitter andother social media plat-forms for his endorsementof the upcoming multilin-gual film ‘Saaho’, starringBahubali fame Prabhas.Such was the fury of the

Telugu Desam against theirown young scion of a leaderthat they abused him by thedreaded sobriquet - ‘pappu’,till now a reference alludedto only his rivals, disparag-ing his alleged lack ofknowledge on public issues.

The saga began when asection of Telugu Desamworkers and membersbelonging to a particulardominant community in thecineaste State gave a call onsocial media to boycottSaaho. They were unhappyover Prabhas, its lead staractor, praising chief minis-ter Y S Jaganmohan Reddy.Though Prabhas gave aclear rider that he did notknow much about politics,in answer to a question onwhether Jagan Reddy couldbe called the ‘AndhraBahubali’,” and said “peo-

ple believe that the statewould progress underJagan’s leadership.”

The TD men, in particularthose of a dominant com-munity, were even moremiffed over comments madeby former BJP union minis-ter Krishnam Raju, who isan uncle of Prabhas, thatTelugu Desam was on theverge of closure. In an inter-view, Krishnam Raju calledTD president NChandrababu Naidu a“dead snake”.

A section of vernacularmedia which reported thesedevelopments recalled howthe TD cadre had alsosought the boycott of a filmof another Tollywood hero,N T Rama Rao Jr, who theyaccused of joining handswith rival parties.

Lokesh took to twitter andrubbished media reports ofTD cadre working against

the film Saaho. Describing the allegations

as “blatant lies”, he saidsuch reports were “a con-spiracy to divide people oncaste lines”. He followed itwith another tweet saying,Saaho is a big budgetextravaganza and he too,like all Prabhas fans, hadbeen looking forward towatch the film. Finally, hegave a call to TD cadre towatch the movie and makeit a blockbuster to call thebluff of those spreading thecanards.

Unexpectedly, all hellbroke loose with the tweet.An irate TD fan club contin-ued to vow to boycott thefilm. They questionedLokesh, asking him hecould ignore the anti-TDPcomments of Prabhas andKrishna Raju, and goingoverboard in giving a call toparty cadre to make Saaho a

huge success.“Lokesh and Balakrishna

are unfit to be in politics.This is hard reality. Themore they keep away fromthe party, better,” said oneB. Ramakrishna.

“Are we so shameless as toforget what Prabhas andKrishnam Raju said aboutus,” said G Dinakar. “Wehave proved our strength inthe past to the cine industryand heroes who speaking insupport of our rivals haveto pay a heavy price,” headded.

Another post on socialmedia with the accountname of Veeru N, said, “It istrue that Lokesh can neversucceed in politics. Henever endorsed movies ofhis own father-in-law(Nandamuri Balakrishna)or brother-in-law (Jr NTR).

It is disheartening to seethis pappu waiting for therelease of a Prabhasmovie.”

Another TDP supporter, VSrinivasa Rao, changed hisstatus to “feeling sad” andaccused Lokesh of reactingunnecessarily, apparentlyunder the influence of “acoterie of thieves aroundyou.” Lokesh was worriedabout people who constitutenot even one per cent of thesociety and hurt sentimentsof TD workers and sympa-thisers, he said.

Some of the TD cadretrolling Lokesh also foundfault with him for not giv-ing a similar call to supportmovies at the time ofrelease of a biopic of TDfounder, late N T Rama Rao,set in two parts, a roledonned by Mr Balakrishna.

TD cadre trolls Lokesh for backing Prabhas’ Saaho

An aerial view of the Metro rail stretch from Cyber Towers to Mindspace junc-tion. However, the trains are not reaching the Mindspace junction as the worksare yet to be completed. Instead, they are reversing half-way. — DC

Despite increasing to 60 trips and frequency of 5 minutes, thecommuters finds no respite.

As of now, number of trips has been increased from 710 to770.

To meet future demand, authorities said only frequencywould be increased to 2 minutes to cater to the needs of 8lakh passengers.

New US envoytakes charge

Joel Reifman

J.S. IFTHEKHAR | DCHYDERABAD, AUG. 21

Every time it rains, a bitof heritage bites the dustin Badshahi Ashoor-khana. The recent down-pour has taken furthertoll on the already dilapi-dated Naqar Khana(drum house) on the east-ern side of the Ashoor-khana. A precariouslydangling beam fell alongwith chunk of rubble theother day.

Protected only in name,this hoary monumentbuilt by the city founder,Muhammed Quli QutbShah, in 1594 is at themercy of the vagaries ofnature. With Muharram,the Shia month of mourn-ing hardly a fortnightaway, the Ashoorkhanacaretaker, Mir Abbas AliMoosvi, is a worried man.

The Badshahi Ashoor-khana sees a lot of foot-falls during Muharrambeginning September 1and the pending repairworks is a matter of con-cern. The run downNaqar Khana is the placefrom where the tradition-al ‘naubat’ used to beplayed. But ever since itsroof collapsed in 2007, thestructure remains out ofbounds. In spite of theclear orders of the HighCourt, the Archaeologyand Museum Departmentis yet to carry out repairs.Meanwhile, a tree sprout-ed on the first floor hasfurther widened the gap-ing hole in the roof.

This is not all. The col-lapsed Langar Khana andthe Abadar Khana on thenorthern side meant fordistributing ‘tabbaruk’and providing drinkingwater to devotees throng-ing the Ashoorkhana,remain in disuse as theauthorities have notrebuilt the structures.Repairs done to the NiyazKhana, mini Ashoor-khana and two sarais in2012 are showing signs ofwear and tear as well.

Even the painting on the

marble plaque at theentrance has disap-peared. Tourists visitingthe monument have diffi-culty reading the infor-mation engraved on it.The threat of intrusionalso remains as the monu-ment has not been fullysecured with fencingafter eviction of theencroachers from theAshoorkhana premises.

Interestingly, there is noregular grant for thisancient edifice whichattracts tourists and pil-grims alike.

The Telangana stategovernment has signedan MoU with the AghaKhan Trust for Culture(AKTC) for repair andrestoration of the dam-aged enamel tile workinside the main Ashoor-khana. Along with it theAKTC is also expected totake up restoration worksof the Naqar Khana.

But that's a long drawn-out process. If the mon-soon gets vigorous therewill be nothing left torepair.

Badshahi beamcollapses after rain

Boundary wall of school collapsesDC CORRESPONDENTHYDERABAD, AUG. 21

The boundary wall ofMoazzam Jahi MarketGirls Primary School thatcollapsed five days agowaits for action by theeducation department andGHMC. The school build-ing is over 80-years-oldand the locals apprehendthat the weakened wallmay pull down the entirestructure if it rains heavi-ly.

The school was estab-lished in 1942 with thename of 'MadarsaTehtaniya Niswaan'. It isan aided school. Theschool provides upper pri-mary and secondary leveleducation in Urdu medi-um to girls.

Mr Mohammed Ahmed,a local activist said onAugust 15 the boundarywall collapsed at night.Fortunately there were noinjuries. "If the authori-ties do not reconstruct thewall, the remaining por-tion can collapse at anytime due to vibration fromvehicles moving on theroad," Mr Ahmed said. Hesaid he has submitted amemorandum to the dis-trict collector and theGHMC commissionerrequesting them to repairor reconstruct the dilapi-dated building.

Thus far, nothing hasbeen done.

POPULAR FRONTCONDEMNSLEADER’S ARRESTDC CORRESPONDENTHYDERABAD, AUG. 21

Popular Front of India(PFI) has condemned thearrest of its leaderMohammed Sajid inNizamabad and allegedthat the Police personnelare harassing theircadre and denied funda-mental rights.

PFI came to existencein 2006 in Kerala is try-ing to emerge as a politi-cal outfit, but it’s underthe radar of securityagencies since its incep-tion and considering toimpose a ban on it.

The party failed toattract the youth havingpolitical ambitions, nowtrying to strengthen itsfoundation through edu-cational and socialworks.

As a part of its agendaPFI is grounding tuitioncentres in selected areaswhere the dropout ratiois higher.

In Nizamabad, PFIplanned to establishthree tuition centres inNizam Colony, PainterColony and Gundaramvillage this month, butbefore it starts activitiesPolice and officials ofthe civic body demol-ished the temporarystructure citing illegalconstruction.

Though the boundary wall of Moazzam Jahi Market Girls Primary School collapsedfive days ago, the education department and GHMC have failed to respond.

POWER | SHUTDOWN10 am to 1 pm: Mudfort, can-tonment, Drivers quarters,Daimond Point Area, Poch-ammanagar, Muthoot finance,Picket.2 pm to 3.30 pm: GymkhanaGardens, Auto Chenoy, PatnyParade Ground, TivoliJunctions, Randd Pump House,Bikri Hotels.2.30 pm to 5.30 pm: AlishanFurniture, Hockey Stadium,Teleexchange, Chandranagar,Feroznagar, JagadishnagarRamalayam, PochammaTemple.

BUSY METRO

The current footfallin the metro is mak-ing passengersexhausted, suffocat-ed and subjected toextreme discomfort.

Underlying wargoing between HMRLand L&T over theincrease of the num-ber of coaches.

With HMRL predict-ing the footfall to beincreased to 4.5 lakhby year end, com-muters will have toface a nightmarethough the frequencywill be increased.

Once the JBS andMGBS corridor iscommenced, the foot-fall will reach 8 lakhper day.

Authorities claimedincrease in number ofcoaches would makethe project unviable.

■ ■ THE BADSHAHIAshoorkhana sees a lotof footfalls duringMuharram beginningSeptember 1 and thepending repair works isa matter of concern.


CityTHURSDAY | 22 AUGUST 2019 | HYDERABADDECCAN CHRONICLE

Why new Secretariat?MLC Ramchander Rao wonders why CMKCR wants a new secretariat as hespends most of the time in his farmhouse

PM Narendra Modimust respond to

President Trump onKashmir.

— Asaduddin OwaisiAIMIM chief

IN BRIEF

Six arrested for dacoity

Hyderabad: In order to cre-ate losses for his estranged

friend, who was doing thebusiness of selling crude oil,a man from Andhra Pradesh

planned a dacoity imperson-ating himself as a vigilanceofficer and looted `9 lakh.The Rachakonda police on

Wednesday arrested theprime accused along with

his five aides and recovered`8.8 lakh cash from them.

On August 8, Shaik ZaheerAhmed, a businessman from

Guntakal received a callfrom a stranger that he

would like to sell Black Oiland asked him to send atanker to the Ghatkesar

area, located on the out-skirts of the city. Three dayslater, Zaheer sent his driver

and clerk with a tanker tothe city with `6 lakh cash to

collect the oil. When thedriver and his aide werewaiting at Yamanmpet X

roads, four persons reachedthe spot in a car.

Impersonating themselvesas Vigilance and

Enforcement officials, theytook the money and fled.

MAN ATTEMPTSTO MURDER RELATIVE DC CORRESPONDENTHYDERABAD, AUG. 21

Depressed that his wife hadpassed away merely sevenmonths after their marriage, aman from the city stabbed hiswife's relative accusing him ofgetting him married to awoman who was ailing. Theaccused was arrested oncharges of attempt to murderand produced before a courtfor judicial remand onWednesday. The incident tookplace at Suleman Nagar inChintalmet of Rajendranagarpolice station limits ofCyberabad police commission-erate.

Mohammed Shoukat, a cardriver in his early 30s, got mar-ried to a woman Rubina (namechanged) about seven monthsago. The woman was reported-ly suffering from Asthma andwas under medication. About20 days ago, Rubina passedaway due to breathing compli-cations. Rajendranagar policesaid that on Tuesday, Shoukat,a resident of Suleman Nagar,saw Shaik Nayum (35) return-ing home from work. Hepicked up an argument withNayum, alleging that he got awrong match for him and thathis marital life had ended withRubina's death.

An enraged Shoukat went tohis house and picked up a pairof scissors. He then went toNayum's house and stabbedhim in the chest and then fledfrom the scene of crime.Nayum's neighbours informedthe police.

No chutti till lost time made up: NITVacations, Saturdays and Sundays will be used to compensate: Officials COREENA SUARES | DCHYDERABAD, AUG. 21

Students of the NationalInstitute of Technology(NIT), Srinagar willhave to forego theirSundays, secondSaturdays and maybehalf of their 3-monthlong winter vacationthat begins fromDecember to Februaryas the University hasofficially announced tocompensate the academ-ic loss which occurredin the past few weeks.The University would beworking on holidays.Twenty days after thestudents were asked tovacate the premises—this came before theabrogation of article

370—the NITManagement for thefirst time, has communi-cated with the studentsthrough an emailinforming them aboutthe academic compensa-tion. Dean of AcademicAffairs, NIT, ProfessorKowsar Majid commu-nicated, “We all knowthat our institute (refer-ring to NIT) is goingthrough a tough phasedue to unavoidable cir-cumstances in theValley. In this toughtime, we try to commu-nicate our hard concernto one another but mostof the time we fail toeven communicate. Weare receiving emails andcalls from students whoare enrolled or yet to be

enrolled or are aspi-rants for admission inany other course. Themanagement feels youranxiety and worry.”

Responding to a spateof queries, the professorhas assured students

that as soon as the offi-cial website is opera-tional, the universitywill clear all queries.“Administration willtake all steps to com-plete your (students)specified course work

and will ensure timelycompletion of thesemester. The time lostwill be compensated byutilising all off days andvacations. We requestall the students to bepositive and hope that

all the difficulties willbe removed.”

The website of NIT-Srinagar is down, so isits Facebook page andInstagram account.Around 130 Telugu stu-dents have returnedhome after the instituteasked them to vacate thepremises. Asked if thestudents are willing togo back to the Universitygiven the reports ofunrest, an NIT officialMr Ratna Sagar said,“None from Telanganahave backed out, stu-dents are waiting forclasses to resume.”Meanwhile, those whoreturned to the state arein touch with theirfriends in Jammu butnot in Kashmir.

AAI TEAM VISITS AIRPORTSITE IN ADILABADDC CORRESPONDENT HYDERABAD, AUG. 21

People in Adilabad are hopeful aboutthe plans to set up an airport inAdilabad town as a team of theAirport Authority of India (AAI) hasbeen seen inspecting the proposed sitefor an airstrip on Wednesday.

Political leaders of all the major par-ties have been trying to take credit forthe new development and have begunblaming each other for the delay intaking up the project.

But people from Adilabad are of theopinion that the elected representa-tives of all parties should try theirbest to get an airport sanctioned forAdilabad, by leaving aside their per-sonal egos and politics.

Insurance firmto pay `3L fine DURGA PRASADSUNKU | DCHYDERABAD, AUG. 21

The HyderabadConsumer DisputesRedressal Forumdirected the NationalInsurance CompanyLimited to pay a fineof `3 lakh for defi-ciency in their serv-ices. The insurancecompany had avoid-ed processing theclaim though thecomplainant hadsubmitted therequired documents,the Forum said.

Mr Amitra SudanKar obtained a poli-cy from the NationalInsurance CompanyLimited, in the nameof his entire family,including his motherBelu Kar. As hismother was suffer-ing from pneumonia,he admitted her toApollo GleneaglesHospital, Kolkata,and shelled out `2lakh for treatment.Subsequently, thecomplainant submit-ted all the originaldocuments for get-ting the claim as perthe agreement.

The opposite partyacknowledged thereceipt of the docu-ments filed by him.

However, theydelayed stating thatthe complainant didnot produce the doc-uments to the insur-ance company, thepetitioner said.Later, the insurancecompany dismissedthe claim. Mr Karthen filed a petitionwith the HyderabadConsumer DisputesRedressal Forumseeking justice.However, theNational InsuranceCompany Limitedcontented that as thecomplainant failed tofurnish the requireddocuments, the pro-cessing of the claimof the complainantwas pending.

The Forum pointedout that though thecomplainant submit-ted all the docu-ments, the companystill did not processthe claim submittedby him. The Forumstated that there wasdeficiency in serviceon the part of theinsurance companyin providing insur-ance services to thecomplainant. So, hewas entitled for com-pensation. Moreover,the evidence statedthat he suffered men-tal agony.

UNREST IN KASHMIR VALLEY■ THE DEAN of Academic Affairs has assured students thatas soon as the official website is operational the universitywill clear all queries.

■ AROUND 130 Telugu stu-dents have returned homeafter the institute askedthem to vacate the premises.

■ THE WEBSITE of NIT-Srinagar is down, so is it'sFacebook page andInstagram account.

KANIZA GARARI | DCHYDERABAD, AUG. 21

When you go for measure-ment of blood pressure andit is high in a single read-ing, do not believe it.Termed as ‘white-coat’hypertension' which is dueto anxiety created at thedoctor's clinic, this condi-tion was found to be misdi-agnosed in 42 per cent ofthe 18,000 people surveyedin four years in India. InTelangana, the misdiagno-sis was found to be as highas 36 percent. The reasonfor ‘white-coat’ hyperten-sion' is because those gener-al physicians or cardiolo-gists who take one readingand prescribe medicineshave not updated them-selves with the guidelinesof American HeartAssociation.

The guidelines state thathypertension must not bemeasured once but at leastfour different times duringthe day. The medicines forhypertension are not to be

prescribed till there is chartof 7-day reading which is atdifferent times at work andhome.

The study was undertakenin 355 cities in 15 states of

the country and it wasfound that Telanganaranked third in the numberof states where this type ofhypertension was misdiag-nosed. Rajasthan topped thestate in misdiagnosis whichwas as high as 42.5 per cent.

Dr Viraj Suvarna, of ErisLife Sciences explained,“One of the reasons foundin the survey for misdiag-nosis, is the use of mercurysphygmomano meter whichhas not been calibratedfrom time to time. In ourcontinuous medical pro-grams with doctors we havefound that of the 100 doc-tors only 2 of them followedthe schedule of regular cal-ibration. Faulty devicegives faulty results and itleads to misdiagnosis andwrong treatments.”

Reluctance of the patientsto come regularly to the

clinic for multiple readingsis also another reason whydoctors were found to pre-scribe medicines. Thosewho were not willing to buya digital device to checkblood pressure at home wasalso one of the reasons whythey were misdiagnosed.

The analysis has foundthat 40 per cent of theIndians had high bloodpressure in the evening andnot during the morning.These new findings in theIndian population areshowing that there are dis-tinct patterns when bloodpressure goes up. Hencemedications are to be basedon this cycle stated Dr SunilKapoor, senior cardiologistat Apollo Hospitals who iscollecting data on these dif-ferent patterns beingnoticed in blood pressuremeasurements.

36 pc BP tests in TS wrong: StudyMeasure hypertension 4 times a day, not once, say new guidelinesAVOID | TENSION

Medak OrdnanceFactory joins stir DC CORRESPONDENT HYDERABAD, AUG. 21

Medak OrdnanceFactory has joined theband of 41 factories ofOrdnance FactoryBoard comprising 80,000workers, in a call for amonth-long strikeagainst the corporatisa-tion of the factoryBoard.

This comes after thefactory's request not tocorporatise the Board,was turned down.Meanwhile OrdnanceFactory Board is deter-mined to make the movein order to have opera-tional freedom, autono-my in decision making,enhance productivityand to explore theexport potential of itsproducts.

The month long strikein response to the callgiven by the three recog-nised defence federa-tions, began on Monday.Naresh Kumar, unionmember OFB said, “Wedemand that the ord-nance factories mustremain governmentdepartments and shouldnot be converted as pub-lic sector establish-ments. It should contin-ue to function as adepartmental organisa-tion such as the Indian

Railways, ISRO and theDepartment of AtomicEnergy.”

The members are fear-ing that their pensions,health schemes andother provisions likethe defence canteensmay get affected.

“The Centre has notconsulted us before tak-ing this step. Allemployees are againstmaking the OFB into apublic sector enter-prise,” added P. J Reddy,union member,Ordnance FactoryBoard.

Giving no indicationthat the governmentmight call the strike off,Saurabh Kumar of theOrdnance FactoryBoard said, “The policyof corporatisation ofordnance factories byGovernment of India isaimed at providinggreater flexibility inday-to-day functioning,increased operationalfreedom and autonomyin decision making,leading to enhancedproductivity. This willenable the ordnance fac-tories in the country torespond faster to thefuturistic needs of thearmed forces and pro-vide an impetus to theexport potential of itsproducts.”

PARCEL TO CMHAD INDUSTRIALWASTE: OFFICIALJAYENDRACHAITHANYA T. | DCHYDERABAD, AUG. 21

The unusual smell emit-ting from parcelsbooked as ‘gifts’ thatwere to be delivered toChief Minister K.Chandrasekhar Rao,DGP M. MahendarReddy and other politi-cos and bureaucratscompelled the postalstaff to open them onlyto see that bottles con-taining water mixedwith industrial waste.

On Friday evening, thepostal department offi-cials say, a person hadbrought 62 parcels witha “From” address asprofessors of OsmaniaUniversity and “To”addresses as CM K.Chandrasekhar Rao,DGP M MahendarReddy, TRS party work-ing president K.T. RamaRao, and other TRS min-isters and leadersincluding K. Kavitha, T.Harish Rao, and severalbureaucrats.

The man informed thepostal staff that theparcels were ‘gifts’ forthe dignitaries from OU.As the time for intake ofparcels was concludedon that day, the personwas asked to visit backon Saturday for billingand paid `7,000 accord-ing to the weight of theparcels. On Monday,when the staff was shift-ing the parcels to thedispatch point, theysensed a foul smell emit-ting from the parcelsand alerted their higherups, who, after openingone of the parcels,found a bottle contain-ing black coloured liq-uid that seemed to be achemical and alertedthe police.Secunderabad HeadPost Office Senior PostMaster PV RamanaReddy said: “As the postoffice used to receivestudy material on sever-al occasions for dis-patch from the OU, thestaff thought that the‘gifts’ would also befrom OU for the digni-taries. The parcels alsocontained a three-pageletter. The OU adminis-tration denied bookingany parcels.

GHMC has constructed a wooden bridge depicting the culture of adivasis atLakdikapul under the junction beautification programme. —S.SURENDER REDDY

Beautification plan

● Telangana is thethird highest statein the countrywhere there is mis-diagnosis of highblood pressure.

● The average age-group of people whowere identified with high blood pressure inthe country was 42 years but in Telanganait was found to be 38 years.

● There were a total of 15 states and 355cities in the country whose participantswere taken up for a four-year long study.

PETITION IN SCAGAINST INTERBOARD RESULTS DC CORRESPONDENTHYDERABAD, AUG. 21

A petition has been filedbefore the SupremeCourt against theIntermediate resultsfiasco. The petition wasfiled by Balala HakkulaSangham, an NGO urg-ing the court to directthe state government topay compensation to thefamilies of students whocommitted suicide afterthe results of the examwere announced in April2019.

The petitioner alsosought action againstthe concerned InterBoard authorities formaking errors in declar-ing the results withoutproper verification.

Earlier, the petitionerhad approached theHigh Court ofTelangana, on the samegrounds, including re-evaluation of the answersheets of nine lakh Interstudents who hadappeared for the interexams.

But, the High Courtobserved that there wasno grave error on thepart of the state govern-ment and the InterBoard in the valuation ofthe answer sheets of theinter students and indeclaring the results.

■ THOSE WHO returned have been able to communicatewith their friends in Jammu but not in Kashmir.


CityTHURSDAY | 22 AUGUST 2019 | HYDERABADDECCAN CHRONICLE

Blue Colts DGP M. Mahender Reddy unveils standardoperating procedure for use of vehicles byBlue Colts to achieve uniformity in service

Ready to pay moneyfor the furniture taken

from office. Hadwritten to AP govt— Kodela Siva Prasada Rao

TD leader

IN BRIEF

19-YR-OLDBLACKMAILED

WOMAN, IN JAIL

BOY FALLS INTOMANHOLE IN

TAPPACHABUTRADC CORRESPONDENTHYDERABAD AUG. 21

A one-and-a-half-year-old boyaccidentally fell into a man-hole in Tappachabutra onWednesday evening and sus-tained injuries; he was res-cued by a passerby whorushed to the Nilofer Hospital.

According to Tappachabutrapolice inspector G.SantoshKumar, the victim was identi-fied as Diskshat. At around 4pm the boy accidentally fellinto an open manhole nearGBS function hall in MahavirYadav Nagar underTappachabutra police stationlimits.

The boy was rushed toNilofer Hospital. His presentcondition has been reportedas serious. TheTappachabutra police havebooked a case and furtherinvestigation is underway.


A 19-year-old student from areputed business school in thecity has landed in prison forcollecting naked pictures ofhis female classmate andthreatening to send the pic-tures to her parents. Theaccused had even compelledthe victim to send her nakedpictures from the bathroom ofa movie theatre after which hethreatened her further to actaccording to his interests, saidthe police.

The victim, 19, a city residentand a student of the businessschool located at Shankarpally,lodged a complaint against herclassmate MohammedRayanuddin, 19, a native ofNizamabad who resided in thecollege hostel, alleging harass-ment.

Rayanuddin had forced thegirl to be friends with him andthreatened to kill her if shefailed to be intimate with him.The boy reportedly took selfieswith her in intimate positionsand forced her to go out withhim for movies and dinnersasking her to act according tohis interests.

“The accused threatened tosend the pictures to her par-ents if she failed to do as heordered. Some days ago, whenthe girl was at a movie theatrealong with her parents, hecompelled her to go to the bath-room and send naked pictures.Fearing Rayanuddin's threat,the girl had sent him the pic-tures through WhatsApp. Hestarted blackmailing her evenmore after the episode,” saidthe Rachakonda cyber crimepolice. Based on the girl’s com-plaint, a case was bookedagainst the boy under sections354 (D), 506 and 509 of IPC andalso under section 67 A of ITAct. Rayanuddin was arrestedand produced before a courtfor judicial remand onWednesday, said the police.

Nowhera wants to paydepositors if released

4 nabbed in murder bidDC CORRESPONDENTHYDERABAD, AUG. 21

Four people were arrest-ed by Chandrayanguttapolice in an attempt tomurder case on Tuesday.

The accused have beenidentified as Abdul Aziz,20, Omer Bin Hasan, 19,Ali Bin HussainJaidi,19, and Adnan BinShafi, 23. Abdul Azizhad fallen in love with agirl who resided inShalibanda area.

The accused used tovisit the area looking forthe girl. The victimIIyas Ahmed who livedin the same area warnedthe accused not to visitthe area. Subsequentlythe girl filed a complaintagainst the accused aswell.

The accused were furi-

ous with IIyas Ahmedand waited for an oppor-tunity to take revengeon him. On August 14,when the victim IIyasAhmed along with hisfriend Syed Ali were atthe Falaknuma Railwaybridge, the accusedaccosted him.

M.A. Rasheed Assist-ant Commissioner ofpolice, Falaknuma said,“The accused chasedthem and caught themat Noori Palace. The vic-tim’s friend Syed Ali,fearing for his life,escaped from the spot.

The accused took thevictim to Peelidargagraveyard and thrashedhim. They then tookhim to Mallapur areaand further thrashedhim, following whichthe victim sustainedsevere head injury andfell unconscious. Assu-ming that the victimhad died, the accusedfled from the spot.”

When the victim cameto a conscious state, hewent home and latercame to the police sta-tion and informed thecops about the assault.The Chandrayanguttapolice booked a case ofattempt to murder andstarted an investiga-tion. On Tuesday, thecops nabbed all the fouraccused involved in theattempt-to-murder case.

PETITION FILEDAGAINST SISHUVIHAR OVER DEATHSDC CORRESPONDENTHYDERABAD AUG. 21

A petition was filedagainst the state-runShishu Vihar, SR Nagar inthe State Human RightsCommission (SHRC) alleg-ing that the negligence ofthe staff and officials ofShishu Vihar was thecause for the death ofthree children in a span ofone month.

Raising concerns overthe deaths of three chil-dren, a newborn, 4-year-old Nithya and 9-month-old Sathya Sri in the lastmonth and another 17days-old-baby who died onTuesday (August 20).Achyuta Rao, president ofBalala Hakula Sanghamwho filed the petition stat-ed, “The children weretaken in an auto rickshawinstead of calling for anambulance; this clearlyshows the negligence ofthe officials.”

He further requested theSHRC to direct the princi-pal secretary, women andchild welfare departmentto enquire and initiateaction against the officialsresponsible for this cal-lous behaviour.

3 STUDENTSFOUND IN BADAPAHAD

MAN ARRESTEDFOR CHEATING,RAPING WOMANDC CORRESPONDENTHYDERABAD, AUG. 21

A 30-year-old man fromthe city was arrested byNeredmet police oncharges of rape and alsocheating his girlfriend.The accused, who metthe victim during hisClass X board examina-tions, continued thefriendship and promisedto marry her, said thepolice.

The victim, 30, a resi-dent of Neredmet hadmet one G. Srikanth ofOld Safilguda in 2009,when she was attendingClass X board examina-tions at a school in thecity. They becamefriends and both kept intouch by talking over thephone and meeting per-sonally.

Seven years later,Srikanth reportedly pro-posed to her and sheaccepted. Since then,their intimacy devel-oped and Srikanth, whoworks in a private firmin the city, used to alsotake the woman’s salaryfor his expenses. A yearago, he went to thewoman's house andraped her, and promisedto marry her soon.However, he postponedthe marriage and avoid-ed the woman. Realisingthat she was cheated, thevictim lodged a com-plaint with the police.

Neredmet inspector A.Narsimha Swamy saidthat a case was bookedagainst the accusedSrikanth on charges ofrape and cheating andhe was arrested andremanded to the judicialcustody on Wednesday.

State police had no jurisdiction to probe her: CounselDC CORRESPONDENTHYDERABAD, AUG. 21

The Heera Group ofCompanies’ Chair-person, Nowhera Shaik,on Wednesday appealedto the High Court torelease her from prisonso that she could pay thedues to the depositors ofthe Heera Group andsaid that she was readyto pay to the last penny.

Explaining that shehad never thought ofcheating the depositors,Ms Nowhera, throughher counsel, made a sub-mission to the court thatshe would pay the duesto the depositors, withinthree months after herrelease from prison.

Justice Ghandikota SriDevi was dealing withthe three petitions by theNowhera and Heera GoldExim private Ltd, statingthat the state police hadno jurisdiction to investi-gate and to take her intocustody, as the CentralGovernment agency

Serious FraudInvestigation Office wascarrying out the investi-gation under the rules ofthe Companies Act.

Ms Nowhera Shaikcomplained that she wasintentionally detained injail by the Telanganapolice since October 15,2018 by slapping severalcases on her, one afteranother for the sameoffence with differentcomplaints at variousplaces.

Mr P. Venugopal, seniorcounsel representing theNowhera and HeeraGroup, submitted thathis client was ready to

give an undertaking thatshe would keep herpromise to pay the dueswithin three months,failing which the courtcould take action under‘contempt of court’.

The counsel told thecourt that it was politicalvendetta against hisclient to keep her in jail,as she had started a newpolitical party. He addedthat several complaintswere lodged against herin various police stationssince August 2018, justprior to the elections inthe state and the statepolice had taken her incustody in October.

Further, he submittedthat the complaints weremade only after theSerious FraudInvestigation Office(SFIO) started the inves-tigation into the allega-tions under theCompanies Act for notpaying dividends to thedepositors.

He also submitted thatas the Muslim Law doesnot allow taking an inter-est, the Company hadcollected deposits in theform of units and forevery unit there was alock-in period in whichthe depositors could notwithdraw the money.

As the SFIO had startedthe investigation againstthe company for not pay-ing dividends, the statepolice and state machin-ery had no role to play inthe issue, the counselconcluded. This matterwas adjourned to August28, for the submission ofthe contention of thecomplainants, the statepolice and SFIO.

The Hyderabad police put up boards displaying the new penalties which cameinto force with the approval of the amended Motor Vehicle Act. — DC

Burns a hole


After the Supreme Courtupholding the verdict ofthe erstwhile AP HighCourt wherein it wasdirected that FIRs be reg-istered against cops inencounter killings, theTelangana High Courton Wednesday directedthe Magistrate ofYellandu Court inKhammam district torecord the statements offour eyewitnesses in theencounter killing ofLinganna, Commanderof CPI(ML) NewDemocracy.

The Division BenchComprising ChiefJustice RaghavendraSingh Chauhan andJustice ShameemAkhter, was dealing witha PIL alleging that it wasa fake encounter andseeking directions thatcases be registeredunder section 302 IPC onthe Police party which

participated in thealleged fake encounter.

The list of eyewitness-es was furnished by MrVerose Raghunath, thecounsel for the petition-er Gaddam Lakshman,on being directed by thecourt during the lasthearing.

The court wanted toascertain the informa-tion whether the deceas-ed was lifted by thepolice parties or he waskilled in the encounter.

As per Counsel, MrDalasari Sammiah (nowin judicial custody inWarangal sub jail)Ramaswamy, Yelliah andSingaiah were agricul-turists and were resi-dents of Rallagadda vil-lage and they were eyewitnesses.

He added that theywere not coming forwardto make statements onthe encounter due to fearas many cases had beenregistered against themby the Police and there

was danger to their life,if they uttered anythingabout the fake encounter.

The court directed thePrincipal Secretary ofthe Telangana StateHome Department toprovide Security to theeyewitnesses and it alsodirected the JudicialMagistrate to recordtheir statements undersection 164 CriminalProcedure Code andsuch statements shouldbe submitted to the HighCourt by August 28, 2019.

The PIL has been fur-ther adjourned to August30, 2019 for further adju-dication.

The Bench observedthat if it found that theencounter was fake, thenit would direct the Stategovernment to follow theguidelines promulgatedin the Supreme Court onfake encounters.

However, after thecourt passed these direc-tions at the post-noonsession of the court, Mr

J. Ramachandra Raomade a special mentionbefore the Bench at theend of the post-noon ses-sion, pleading that theorder of the court bemodified, stating thatMr. Raghunath had mis-led the court regardingthe three eyewitnesses(except DalasariSammaiah), as they wererelated to PunnamLingaiah, the deceasedNaxal who was killed inthe alleged fakeencounter.

But Chief JusticeChauhan, while refusingto modify its order, ques-tioned the AAG as to whydid he had maintainedsilence regarding theeyewitnesses as the casewas listed three times.

Further, the Courtquestioned as to why theState was so concernedon the aspect, when theCourt had directed theMagistrate to record thestatements of the foureyewitnesses.

Initiate probe, says HCMagistrate to record witness statementsFAKE | ENCOUNTER

■ ■ THE ACCUSEDwere furious withAhmed and waited foran opportunity to takerevenge on him.

■ ■ Rayanuddin had forcedthe girl to be friends withhim and threatened to killher if she failed to be intimate with him.

MEMORIAL SERVICEPrecious in the sight of the Lord is thedeath of his saints Psalms 116:15

Late RENIGUNTALA EZRA (Retd.Osmania University)

Thanks Giving Meeting on 24.08.2019(Saturday) at 10:00 am at his residence,Bhargavi Residence, Road No 15, Laneof Sai Baba Temple, P.S.Rao Nagar,Dammaiguda Road.

Followed by Fellowship Lunch Inserted by: Wife and Family Members

Ph No: 9381165842, 8885878329

(S/1920/D00748)

IN MEMORIAM

The Late RAI SAHIBSADRUDDIN H. JAVERI

‘Somewhere beyond right andwrong there is a garden I shallmeet you there..’ --- Rumi

Rai Sahiba Scheherazade(Sherry) Rikhye Javeri and

Aalim Javeri(A/1920/D00047)

16th DAY CEREMONY

M. VITTAL RAODOB: 20.10.1944 DOD: 7.08.2019Ceremony will be held on22.08.2019 at our ResidenceMathura Nagar Colony, Neredmet‘X’ Road at 7:30 p.m. onwards.

Inserted by: Family MembersPh. No.# 9502741483, 7995408707

(S/1920/D00747)

3rd DEATH ANNIVERSARY“I have heard your prayers, I have seenyour tears.” II Kings 20:5

SUNDURI VANAJAD/o Sunduri Victor Das and Padmini (Late)Your fervent prayers, hope, faith inGod remain in our hearts foreverVANAJA. We Miss You

Only Son: JeremiahSisters: Sujji & Pammu

Brothers: Clement Babu & Chanti9948956394

(S/1920/D00746)

1st DEATH ANNIVERSARY“I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.”

Psalm 23:6

E. GEORGE(Retired IDL Employee)

Born: 09-04-1944Promoted to Glory 22-08-2018

Prayer Service at residence 5-9-930,Gunfoundry, Abids, Hyd-500001 at 7.00 p.m.

Inserted by: Wife, Sons,Daughters-in-law and Grand Children.

Tel: 23210503/ 6301253625(B/1920/D00079)

1st DEATH ANNIVERSARY“May your SOUL Rest in peace.”

Late VARANASI LEELADOB: 01-07-1943 DOD: 02-09-2018“Your memories remain in our hearts forever.”

Inserted by: Varanasi Ajay Kumar,M. Srinivas, V. Srinivas Kumar &

Family MembersAddress: H.No. 16-73/2, Sri Krishna Nagar,Sai Baba Temple Road, Opp. Steel BigBazar, Dilshuk Nagar, Hyderabad.

OBITUARY

Mr. SULTAN SALEEMS/o. Late Mohammed Abdul Raheem

We are sad to inform the demise of Mr.Sultan Saleem resident of Garden Towersexpired today 21-8-2019 at 4.00 p.m.Namaz-e-Janaza will be performed today22-8-2019 after Zohar Prayer in Jame-Masjid Qadariya, First-Lancer. Burial willtake place in graveyard at Dargah Bade-pa, First-Lancer, Hyd.

Inserted by: Ashfaq AhmedCell: 9701906532, 9908069009

(CA-2937)

DC CORRESPONDENTNIZAMABAD, AUG. 21

The three students whohad gone missing fromBodhan were found inBadapahad shrine onWednesday.

Goutham Reddy, SaiPrathyush Reddy andAbdul Sharooq, all SSCstudents of the MathrusriHigh School in Bodhanhad gone missing onTuesday. The school man-agement informed the par-ents about the missingstudents.

Mr P. Venugopal, senior counselrepresenting the Nowhera and HeeraGroup, submitted that his client wasready to give an undertaking that shewould keep her promise to pay thedues within three months, failing whichthe court could take action under‘contempt of court’.


PoliticsTHURSDAY | 22 AUGUST 2019 | HYDERABADDECCAN CHRONICLE

Career Chronicle

Home stayMinister Ch. Malla Reddy urges Unionminister Santosh Gangwar to clear pending proposals and support the state

Haritha Haram inCharminar and

Secunderabad will betaken up shortly

— Bonthu RammohanHyderabad Mayor

IN BRIEF

TELANGANABAGS 1ST PLACEIN SOLAR POWER DC CORRESPONDENTHYDERABAD, AUG. 21

Telangana state has baggedfirst place in consumer experi-ence and overall second mostconducive states for solarRooftop Project (SRP) imple-mentation.

In a statement, TelanganaState Southern Power Distr-ibution Company chairmanand MD G. Raghuma Reddy onWednesday said that Telan-gana has also secured highestscore for consumer experi-ence.

He said that the state RooftopSolar attractiveness Index(SARAL) was launched onWednesday at the reviewPlanning and Monitoring(RPM) meeting in Delhi byUnion minister of state forpower R.K. Singh.

He said that SARAL Indexevaluates Indian states basedon their attractiveness forrooftop solar project develop-ment. Karnataka leads theIndex with a score of 78.8 fol-lowed closely by Telangana at72.2 and Gujarat at 67.9 respec-tively. Mr Reddy said out of aCentral government’s target of100 GW for solar by March2022, grid connected rooftopcontributes 40 GW.

GANGWAR: TS ISFAR BEHIND INDEVELOPMENT


Minister of state for labourand employment (independentcharge) Santosh Gangwar onWednesday took a jab on ChiefMinister K. ChandrasekharRao alleging that Telangana isfar behind other states interms of development.

Speaking to reporters , MrGangwar said, “ChiefMinister K. ChandrasekharRao should walk shoulder-to-shoulder with other states indevelopment. The Telanganagovernment has ignoredAyushman Bharat which isvery beneficial for the publicand it should be immediatelystarted.”

He said the BJP is going tocelebrate Liberation Day on 17September as sacrifice of themartyrs must be rememberedand respected.

Mr Gangwar shared that hehas been informed that theChief Minister is mostly at hisfarmhouse, not the secretariatand still he wishes to build anew secretariat for Vastu.

Not leaving a chance, BJPleader N.V.S.S. Prabhakarcame forward and raised aquestion about about corrup-tion in local administration.

PPAS CANCELLEDAFTER SPEAKING

TO MODI: YSRCDC CORRESPONDENTVIJAYAWADA, AUG. 21

YSRC Parliamentary partyleader and Rajya Sabha mem-ber, V. Vijaya Sai Reddy onWednesday said that the stategovernment has decided tocancel renewable energy PPAsand Polavaram project tendersafter consulting PrimeMinister Narendra Modi andBJP chief Amit Shah.

Talking to reporters in NewDelhi after meeting UnionRailways minister PiyushGoyal, Mr Reddy said thatmany of the Jagan MohanReddy government’s decisionsare being taken in consulta-tion with Modi and Shah duo.

Mr Reddy’s commentsgained significance in thebackdrop of Union ministersof power and Jal Shakthi find-ing fault with the state’s deci-sions and urging it to takeback them. Mr Reddy met MrGoyal urged him not toremove Waltair division fromthe newly formed railway zonewith Vizag as headquarters.


The BJP national leader-ship thinks that it is notwise to open a two-pronged battlefronts simu-ltaneously in the Telugustates, and therefore, hasdecided to continue cor-dial relations with AndhraPradesh Chief MinisterY.S. Jagan Mohan Reddywhile taking the battleagainst Telangana ChiefMinister K. Chandra-shekar Rao to the nextlevel of intensity.

The BJP national leader-ship seems to have madeup its mind on the issue;that when it comes tochoosing between the two,Mr Rao and Mr Reddy, theYSRC party chief is amore reliable ally. Theappointment of Mr Reddyas a member of standingcommittee of inter-statecouncil (ISC) is a strong

indication of thisapproach. Mr Reddy is theonly representative onthis committee from thesouth of India, of which,Union home ministerAmit Shah is chairman.

Compared to the APChief Minister, if it cameto choosing an experi-enced leader, the Telang-ana CM is far more experi-enced in both politics andadministrative aspects.However, Prime MinisterNarendra Modi’s choiceon the matter is a clearindication of BJP’s think-ing — befriend JaganMohan Reddy while fight-ing Chandrashekar Rao.

The standing committeeof inter-state council is abody that pragmaticresolves and strengthensthe idea of cooperativefederalism by dealing withinter-state disputes andsuggest ways and meas-ures to resolve them. The

standing committee con-sists of three other chiefministers besides MrReddy — Naveen Patnaik(Odisha), AmarendarSingh (Punjab) and NitishKumar (Bihar); none ofthem being BJP chief min-isters, though Mr Kumaris an NDA leader.

Interestingly, when itcomes to the dynamics ofthe BJP’s relationshipwith Telugu chieftans, inthe previous term, PrimeMinister Modi and Telan-gana Chief Minister hasvery cordial relations. Butafter retaining power for asecond term, both MrModi at the Centre and MrRao in his state found anew strain developing bet-ween these two, a yawninggap widening by the day.

The reason for the birthof mistrust, and lost cama-raderie, perhaps lies in thestrategy adopted and theconduct of Mr Rao during

the Lok Sabha elections,wherein he proposed aFederal Front against boththe BJP and the Congress.

He intensified politicalactivity aimed at prevent-ing Mr Modi from becom-ing the Prime Minister bymeeting chief ministersand prominent leaders ofregional parties in differ-ent parts of the country.

During the election cam-paign too, Mr Rao madeserious allegations andseverely criticised MrModi.

In the previous term, theTelangana boss enjoyed agood rapport with MrModi and other seniorleaders in the BJP, even asthe BJP stifled if not arm-twisted its own ally,Andhra Pradesh ChiefMinister N. ChandrababuNaidu.

Mr Naidu was made towait for over a one year forgetting an appointment

with the Prime Minister,even as Mr Rao got severalmeetings during the sametime.

Now the affinities havechanged. Mr Modi’s choiceof a friend in the Telugustates is not chief ministerof Telangana but theleader of the neighbour-ing Andhra Pradesh.

The political view of theBJP, opine analysts andexperts, has to do morewith political calculationsand compulsions overmerely the personal chem-istry, and it souring.

Calculations are thatover Andhra Pradesh, theBJP fancies its chances ofstrengthening its partyand taking on the strongruling party in Telangana,to fill the vaccum beingcreated wherein the oppo-sition party, the Congress,is getting weaker each day,marked by desertions ofleaders and cadre.


Chief Minister K. Chand-rashekhar Rao on Wedn-esday took all 33 districtcollectors of the state fora field visit to demon-strate the forest revivalprogramme being imple-mented in his constituen-cy of Gajwel.

While holding a reviewafter the field visit, MrRao asked the district col-lectors to prepare a planfor the revival of theforests in their respectivedistricts.

He said that socialforestry helped to reducetemperatures in the resi-dential areas, adding thatforest development wouldbring in a change in theatmosphere and helpbring in more rains andenable biodiversity.

He was personally dem-onstrating to the collec-tors on the forest revivalprogramme being imple-mented at Singayapalli,Nentur, and KomatiBanda under the GajwelAssembly segment.

He told the collectorsthat at the time ofTelangana formation, theentire forest area aroundthe above three villageswas almost like a desertand with a view to revivethe forestlands, a compre-hensive plan was pre-pared and implemented.

Stating that the revivalworks begun three yearsago were showing results

now, he explained that theentire area of around1,200 acres had become alush green forest and asmany as 27 varieties offruit-bearing trees werebeing grown in the forestarea, and had become like“monkey food courts”.

He asked the collectorsto take this success storyas an inspiration and pre-pare plans for revival offorests in their respectivedistricts.

Principal Chief Conser-vator of Forests R.Shobha and additionalPCCF Mr R.M. Dobrialexplained to the collec-tors that using the root-stock in the forests, treeswere grown in a naturalway and deep trencheswere dug around the for-est area for better protec-tion.

They said that thiswould also prevent ani-mals from going out ofthe forest area and com-ing inside the forests.

DC CORRESPONDENT HYDERABAD, AUG. 21

The state government haslavishly spent `1.66 crorefor the presentation ofmementos to guests, whoattended the inaugura-tion of its `80,000 croreKaleshwaram Lift Irriga-tion Project.

On June 21, Chief Min-ister K. ChandrasekharRao had inaugurated theKaleshwaram Project inthe presence of Telang-ana Governor E.S.L. Nar-asimhan, MaharashtraChief Minister DevendraFadnavis and AP ChiefMinister Y.S. JaganMohan Reddy.

To felicitate the guests,the state government hadplaced orders for 10 silverfiligrees for presenting tochief guests during the

inauguration ceremony.Accordingly, SIFKA

generated a cost estimateof `1.66 crore for manu-facturing silver filigreemementos with 180-kg sil-ver and submitted to thesame to the Karimnagardistrict collector. SIFKAhad also made a requestfor an advance paymentof `83.43 lakh.

The state governmenthas issued GO Rt No 2175dated August 20, 2019sanctioning the release of`83.43 lakh advance pay-ment.

As requested SIFKA hasmanufactured 10 silverfiligrees, which the Tela-ngana Chief Ministerpresented to Governor,Chief Ministers of APand Maharashtra andother VIPs who werepresent at the function.


Reacting on the ongoingcontroversy regardingthe viability and desir-ability of the AndhraPradesh capital city ofAmravati, Union minis-ter of state for homeaffairs G. Kishan Reddysaid on Wednesday thatthe Central governmentwould not take any deci-sion on the changing ofAP capital as it is not inits purview.

Speaking to the mediaon Wednesday, MrReddy said that hethought subject doesnot come underpurview of the Central

government, and therewas a need for a debateamongst the people ofAndhra Pradesh over it.

He was reacting in ref-erence to a statement aday prior by AP munici-pal minister Botsa Saty-anarayana who said, “Ifeel that the Sivarama-krishnan committeereport is correct, whenit felt and opined thatAmaravati was not safeas a capital.”

Mr Satyanarayanahad also said that therewas a need to debate onthe Sivaramakrishnancommittee reportagain.

He said that while con-struction costs `1 lakh

in normal areas, it wasdouble in for one inAmaravati. This meanspublic money gets mis-used. In Amaravati, sev-eral places get sub-merged once it rains,and therefore to miti-gate this risk, the Stategovernment has to dignew canals and con-struct new dams.

Mr Satyanarayana’sstatement has generat-ed much heat in politi-cal circles.

A debate has beentriggered by the state-ment started on thisissue and if it impliesthe government washaving a rethink on thecapital issue.


Telangana Congress MLCT. Jeevan Reddy said onWednesday that ChiefMinister K. Chandra-sekhar Rao has acceptedthat his administration inthe state was riddled withcorruption.

Speaking to media per-sons on Wednesday, MrJeevan Reddy said thatthe comments made bythe Chief Minister at thecollectors meet shows thathe had realised the actualsituation with respect tocorruption in his adminis-tration.

He said Mr Rao did notachieve anything exceptopening the doors for cor-ruption in the state.

The Congress leaderargued that when theChief Minister claims theproposed revenue lawwould eradicate corrup-tion, it would mean thathe is admitting to the cor-ruption in the state.

Talking about control-ling corruption, Mr Reddysaid the collectors shouldcontrol revenue officialsand the CM should keep atab on the collectors.

He alleged that MissionBhagiratha was designedto gain commission.While he was happy thatthe BJP is talking aboutthe government’s corrup-tion, he asked the BJP toact.


As the Telangana HighCourt rapped the stategovernment for filing anaffidavit which failed toprove that whether ithad complied with themunicipal law in com-pleting pre-poll processto conduct elections tourban local bodies, thestate government onWednesday filed an addi-tional affidavit beforethe court with the rele-vant evidence.

Mr Arvind Kumar, theprincipal secretary ofthe municipal depart-ment, submitted thatthe state governmenthas completed the pre-poll process, except forsetting apart seats forSTs, SCs, BCs, women,and general in elections,finalization of wardreservations by the dis-trict collectors and fina-lisation of reservationfor the offices of mayorsand chairperson.

He submitted that allactivities including deli-mitation of municipali-ties into wards, Wardwise publication of vot-ers list, ward wise publi-cation of ST, SC, BC, andwomen Voters, final pub-lication of polling sta-tions, procurement, anddistribution of electionmaterial, were complet-ed according to the rulesprescribed.


TRS MLA Chennama-neni Ramesh virtuallyshot himself in the footby challenging before adivision bench of theTelangana High Court,an order earlier passedby a single judge whichhad rolled back the issueof his Indian citizenshipfor a review to the UnionHome Ministry.

In fact, CJ JusticeRaghavendra SinghChauhan asked Mr.Ramesh, “Why have youfiled this appeal despitewinning the same beforea single judge. Are youstill aggrieved by yoursuccess?” The divisionbench which includedthe CJ and Mr JusticeShameem Akhtar wassurprised at the appealpetition, as Mr Rameshhad actually got somerelief with the singleJudge order, which hadset aside the decision ofthe Union ministryagainst his citizenship.

The MLA withdrew hispetition as the divisionbench was not inclinedto interfere with the sin-gle judge order.

The ministry had ruledin 2017 that Mr Rameshwas not an Indian citi-zen. Aggrieved by that,he had approached theHC and the single judgedirected the Centre toexamine the review.

STATE FILESNEW AFFIDAVITON CIVIC POLLS

MLA WITHDRAWSHIS PETITION ON CITIZENSHIP

Former chief minister and Telugu Desam president N. Chandrababu Naiduinteracts with a farmer in flood-affect areas of Guntur district on Wednesdayas Guntur MP Galla Jayadev looks on. — DC

Fate of Amaravati isn’t inCentre’s purview: Kishan

KCR admits to corruptionin his government: Jeevan

Officials get tipson forest revival

TS spent `1.6 crfor 10 mementos

Jagan friend, KCR enemy for BJPBJP’s national leadership adopts different tactics in two Telugu states

CORRUPTION IN STATEThe Congress leader argued that whenthe Chief Minister claims the proposedrevenue law would eradicate corruption,it would mean that he is admitting to thecorruption in the state.

While he was happythat the BJP is talking

about the govern-ment’s corruption, he

asked the BJP to actinstead of confining

itself to a war ofwords.

He alleged thatMissionBhagiratha wasdesigned to gaincommission andofficials are nowbeing madescapegoats.

■ The Chief Ministershowed district col-lectors how forestwas revived atSingayapalli, Nentur,and Komati Bandaunder the GajwelAssembly segment.

■ He asked the col-lectors to revive for-est areas in theirdistricts.


Telangana Congress pres-ident N. Uttam KumarReddy on Wednesday reit-erated that the Congresswas the only alternativeto the TRS and that therewas no scope for the BJP’sgrowth in Telangana.

Mr Reddy also expressedconfidence that theCongress would bounceback to power in 2023Assembly elections.

Addressing the

Congress workers meet-ing on Wednesday atDevarakonda, Mr Reddysaid that the BJP govern-ment did nothing forTelangana in the last fiveyears.

He said that the BJP didnot fulfil the promisesmade with Telangana bythe Congress governmentin the AP ReorganisationAct like establishment ofa Railway Coach Factoryin Khazipet, Steel Plant inBayyaram or TribalUniversity.

No scope for BJP’sgrowth in TS: Cong


NationTHURSDAY | 22 AUGUST 2019 | HYDERABADDECCAN CHRONICLE

Probe timeMNS chief Raj Thackeray willappear before the ED on Thursdayregarding a probe into IL&FS scam

The governmentdecisions indicate

the country is in a grip of recession

— Akhilesh Yadav

Samajwadi Party chief

IN BRIEF

Twitter servicefaces outage

New Delhi: Social mediaplatform Twitter on

Wednesday faced outage inIndia for about an hour.

Several Twitter users com-plained about the platform

not working at around 8 pmon Wednesday. Website

Down Detector, which moni-tors service outage of vari-

ous platformS, recorded2,764 complaints about the

outage. A Twitterspokesperson said, “Some

people in India briefly expe-rienced issues accessing

Twitter due to an issueimpacting Android. We have

resolved the problem andthe service is running again.”

Rlys not to useplastic from Oct. 2

New Delhi: Taking a cuefrom Prime MinisterNarendra Modi who

appealed to the nation toshun single-use plastic dur-

ing his Independence Dayspeech, Railways has decid-ed to stop its use across the

network, a statement fromthe national transporter said

Wednesday.All vendors and staff across

Indian Railways are to beencouraged to use reusablebags to reduce plastic foot-

print. A pledge will beadministered to cut use ofplastics on October 2, the

statement said.

ASSAM TO ADD200 TRIBUNALSFOR NRC CASES

MANOJ ANAND | DCGUWAHATI, AUG. 21

In what may be called anattempt to tackle the heavyrush of cases in the foreign-ers’ tribunals after the publi-cation of the final NRC list onAugust 31, the Gauhati highcourt has announced theselection of 221 retired offi-cials who will be adjudicatingcitizenship cases in the addi-tional 200 foreigners’ tri-bunals.

Any individual who does notmake it to the NRC will beimmediately referred to theforeigners’ tribunals by thepolice. There are already 100such tribunals set up in phas-es since 2005 in Assam todetermine the citizenship sta-tus of those referred to them.The government has set a tar-get of 1,000 such tribunals.

Former MP CM Babulal Gaur deadRABINDRA NATH CHOUDHURY| DCBHOPAL, AUG. 21

Former chief minister ofMadhya Pradesh Babulal Gaurpassed away here on Wednesdaymorning at the age of 89.

He is survived by his twodaughters, a daughter-in-lawwho is a sitting BJP MLA, andgrand children.

The veteran leader, who was

the first MP leader to have wonAssembly elections ten times ina row, was admitted in a privatehospital here on August 7 afterhe complained of respiratoryproblems and put on ventilator.

He died of cardiac arrest, doc-tors attending him in the hospi-tal announced.

His last rites were conductedhere in the afternoon with statehonours.

The state government has

announced three-day mourningon the occasion.

Born on June 2, 1930 in the vil-lage of Naugeer underPratapgarh district in UttarPradesh, late Gaur had servedas chief minister of MP inAugust, 23, 2004- November 29,2005.

He was a prominent leader ofJan Sangh, the previous entityof BJP, and founding member ofBharatiya Mazdoor Sangh.

Varthaman startsflying MiG 21

New Delhi: WingCommander AbhinandanVarthaman, the IAF pilot

who became the face of atense military confrontationbetween India and Pakistanin February, has started fly-

ing MiG 21 jet again.Varthaman returned to the

fighter cockpit, nearly sixmonths after sustaining

injuries while ejecting from afighter plane during an aerial

combat between India andPakistan on February 27.

“He has started flying,” saida military official. At present,

Varthaman is serving at anIAF base in Rajasthan. The36-year-old IAF pilot wascaptured by the Pakistani

Army on February 27.

PC - Power Crumbled,fugitive former-FM held“Chidambaram Chor Hai” shouts onlooker, thrashedDC CORRESPONDENTSNEW DELHI, AUG. 21

In a major politicaldrama that played outon Wednesday evening,CBI and ED officialsarrested former Unionminister and seniorCongress leader P.Chidambaram from hisJorbagh residence inconnection with the INXMedia money launder-ing case.

As the CBI tookChidambaram into cus-tody, sloganeeringCongress workersarrived and a scufflebroke out. An unidenti-fied person shouted“Chidambaram chorhain”, and was thrashedby Congress workers.Police rescued him fromthe mob.

Earlier, around 8 pm,Chidambaram dramati-cally entered the AICCto issue a statementclaiming he was“aghast” to hear that he“was accused of hidingfrom the law.”

Desperate to put up adefence, Chidambaramclaimed that neither henor any of his familymembers have beencharged by the investi-gating agencies of “anyoffense.”

Refuting charges thathe had gone under-ground, Chidambaramclaimed he was “work-ing with lawyers to pre-pare his bail petition.”

Suggesting he shouldhave been given areprieve till his bail peti-tion that was rejected bythe High Court came upat the Supreme Court onFriday, Chidambaram

said: “Until Friday andbeyond, let’s hope thelamp of liberty willshine bright and illumi-nate the whole country.”

From a prepared state-ment he claimed: “I willrespect law even ifapplied with an unequalhand by probe agen-cies.” He took no ques-tions.

Chidambaram accom-panied by Congresslegal brains Kapil Sibaland Abhishek ManuSinghvi left for hisJorbagh residence.Chidambaram was

inside for nearly 50 min-utes where he wasgrilled by at least sixCBI officials.

Both Abhishek ManuSinghvi and Kapil Sibalwere with him till hewas taken into custody.

After he was takenaway, his son KartiChidambaram inChennai maintainedthat the “drama and spectacle beingenacted by the agenciesis to simply sensation-alise and satisfy thevoyeuristic pleasure ofsome.”

Cong, other parties back PC

CBI books NDTVpromoters againDC CORRESPONDENTNEW DELHI, AUG. 21

The CBI has bookedNDTV promotersPrannoy Roy, his wifeRadhika Roy and oth-ers in a new case forthe alleged violationof foreign directinvestment rules.This is the secondFIR against NDTV asthe CBI is alreadyprobing a case of thealleged bank loandefault against thecompany.

Besides the Roys,the agency registeredan FIR against thenCEO VikramadityaChandra as well asunidentified govern-ment officials oncharges of criminalconspiracy, cheatingand corruption,sources in the agencysaid. The agencysleuths also conduct-ed searches atChandra’s premiseson Wednesday.

“It is alleged that

these transactionsare sham transac-tions and aforemen-tioned funds areinvested by unknownpublic servantsthrough NDTV Ltdand later launderedback to India throughmultiple layers ofcomplex transactionsand shell companies”said the agency.

Under the CBI scan-ner are mainly twotransactions pertain-ing to investments —NDTV Networks Plc(NNPLC) and NDTVNet-works BV.

DC CORRESPONDENTNEW DELHI, AUG. 21

P. Chidambaram got hisparty’s backing as itdecided to approachother Opposition par-ties for support on theissue of the “witch-hunt” against the seniorMP.

Sources said Congressworkers had been askedto assemble at AICCheadquarters and out-side Mr Chidambaram’sresidence the momentthe Supreme Courtrefused to hear the caseon Wednesday.

The strategy was fur-ther discussed at theevening meeting whichwas attended by apartfrom Mr Patel, CongressGeneral Secretary(Organisation) K CVenugopal, GhulamNabi Azad, and the legalteam Kapil Sibal, VivekTankha and others.

A senior leader toldthis newspaper that theparty decided to speakwith other Oppositionparties at a protest meetagainst the detention ofpolitical leaders ofJammu and Kashmir onThursday.

The protest meetwould be the first afterthe disastrous perform-ance of the Oppositionparties at the hustingsin the recent Lok Sabhapolls. The Congress iskeen to turn this into anevent of nationwide sol-idarity withChidambaram. No partyexcept the DMK ofTamil Nadu had comeout in support. DMKchief M.K. Stalin said:“As regards this issue, Ihave clearly learnt thatthese (actions) are hap-pening due to politicalvendetta”.

DISABLEDMINOR RAPEDBY GRANDDADAKSHAYA KUMARSAHOO | DCBHUBANESWAR, AUG. 21

A differently-abledminor girl was allegedlyraped by a relative at heruncle’s place inNayagarh police limits.Shockingly, the accusedhappens to be her dis-tant grandfather.

The matter reportedlycame to the fore onWednesday after a com-plaint was lodged by herfamily members at thelocal police station.

The police registered acase and initiated aninvestigation into theincident.

A manhunt waslaunched to nab theaccused who is reported-ly absconding after com-mitting the crime.

On Tuesday, a six-year-old girl was allegedlyraped by her uncle inNiladriVihar area underC h a n d r a s e k h a r p u rPolice limits of theSmart City ofBhubaneswar.

Prannoy Roy

MAY 15, 2017CBI registers FIR,alleging irregularitiesin FIPB clearance toINX Media for receiv-ing overseas funds tothe tune of `305 cr. in2007 when Chidam-baram was the finance minister.JUNE 16Foreigner RegionalRegistration Officerand the Bureau ofImmigration, whichcomes under the homeministry, issues a look-out circular againstKarti Chidambaram.AUGUST 10Madras HC stays theLOCs issued againstKarti Chidambaram.AUGUST 14SC stays Madras HCorder staying LOCissued against KartiChidamabaram.OCTOBER 9Karti seeks SC’S nodto travel to Britain toget his daughteradmitted to an univer-sity. NOVEMBER 20SC allows KartiChidambaram to visitBritain for daughter'sadmission.OCTOBER 11, 2018ED attaches assetsworth `54 cr. of KartiChidambaram in India,UK and Spain in con-nection with the INXMedia money-launder-ing case. JULY 11, 2019Jailed IndraniMukerjea turnsapprover in the caseand accepts the condi-tions put on her beforea judge.AUGUST 20Delhi HC rejectsChidambaram’s bailapplications.AUGUST 21CBI arrests P.Chidambaram.

TIMELINE

I will respect law even if appliedwith an unequal hand by probeagencies

Until Friday and beyond, let’shope the lamp of liberty will shine brightand illuminate the whole country

I should have been given a reprieve tillmy bail petition, rejected by the HighCourt, came up at the Supreme Court

— P. CHIDAMBARAM, Former finance minister before his arrest


NationTHURSDAY | 22 AUGUST 2019 | HYDERABADDECCAN CHRONICLE

France visitDefence minister Rajnath Singh, IAF chief B.S. Dhanoa to visit France to receive first Indian Rafale fighter plane

It is the wish of all people of Bihar

that Tejashwi should lead the RJD

— Vijay Prakash Yadav,

RJD leader

IN BRIEF

FIR filed againstMukul for bribe

DC CORRESPONDENTKOLKATA, AUG. 21

Senior BJP leader Mukul Royhas landed in fresh troubleafter he was booked in an

FIR on cheating charges forallegedly taking around `70

lakh as bribe throu-gh hisaides from a man, assuringhim to get a berth in a rail-

way panel.To thwart arrest, he movedthe Calcutta high court for

anticipatory bail onWednesday following thearrest of one of his aides

Baban Ghosh, a BJP labourwing leader, from Patuli.

Mr Baban, the BJP labourcell general secretary, was

caught late on Tuesdaynight in the case which was

initiated at the Sarsunapolice station under Section

420 (cheating) and 120B(criminal conspiracy) among

other charges of the IPC.

Odisha man cutsleg of son-in-law

DC CORRESPONDENTBOUDH (ODISHA), AUG. 21

A man from Dunguriguda vil-lage under Kantamala policelimits in Odisha’s Boudh dis-

trict allegedly severed theleg of his son-in-law for mar-

rying his daughter againsthis wishes. The accused

Sashi Mahalika attacked hisson-in-law Sourabh Dandiafrom Barapada village withan axe while the latter was

returning from the localAnganwadi centre after

dropping his wife. The mat-ter came to fore on

Wednesday after a com-plaint was lodged by the

father of the victim,Chitrasen at the Kantamala

police station in this regard.Reportedly, Sourabh was

having love affair withSashi’s daughter since pasttwo years and he tied knot

with her recently after elop-ing from the house. However,

Sashi did not approve thewedding and was furious at

the couple for marryingagainst his wishes.

Cong old-timersto take on Sidda

Clashes as cops, forces setout to make arrests in Valley

‘China obstructing ONGCwork in South China Sea’

Religion reason behindJ&K issue, says TrumpWashington, Aug. 21: USPresident Donald Trumphas said that he would dis-cuss with Prime MinisterNarendra Modi the situationin Kashmir and help easethe Indo-Pak tensions whenthey meet at the G7 Summitin France this weekend.

New Delhi has made itclear to the US that Kashmiris a bilateral issue betweenIndia and Pakistan andthere was no role for a thirdparty.

“Frankly, it’s a very explo-sive situation. I spoke toPrime Minister Khan yester-day and also with PrimeMinister Modi. They’re bothfriends of mine. They’regreat people. They’re greatpeople, and they love theircountry,” Trump said.

Trump said that the sub-continent is having “thesetalks for hundreds (sic) ofyears, even under different

names,” he said, apparentlyreferring to the breakdownof bilateral talks betweenIndia and Pakistan. He alsosaid religion was one of themain reasons for uneasy tiesbetween India and Pakistan.

“A lot has to do with reli-gion. Religion is a complicat-ed subject,” he said.

“You have the Hindus. Andyou have the Muslims. Iwouldn’t say they get alongso great. That’s what youhave right now,” he said.

— PTI

VINEETA PANDEY | DCNEW DELHI, AUG. 21

A fresh stand-off betweenChina and Vietnam in theSouth China Sea (SCS)has the potential to dis-turb the equationbetween Beijing and NewDelhi.

Vietnam has alertedIndia about the presenceof two Chinese CoastGuard ships in itsExclusive Economic Zone(EEZ) in SCS whereONGC Videsh is engagedin oil exploration at Block06.1. Vietnam has claimedthat Chinese soldiershave asked ONGC Videshto stop work at the Block.

“The Chinese CoastGuards came to the Blockon August 13 and madeannouncement throughspeakers asking for the

work to stop. They(Chinese) thought theprotest will be minimumfrom our side. But this bla-tant violation has beenbrought to the notice ofIndia. As of now ONGCcontinues to be presentthere and work has notstopped.

We have also sent ourCoast Guard ships whereONGC Videsh is working.We will resolutely andpersistently protect inter-ests of Vietnam andONGC if they are physi-

cally stopped from work-ing in the oil field,” aVietnamese diplomaticsource told this newspa-per on Wednesday.

While the two neigh-bours were recentlyengaged in a month-longstand-off from July 3, theChinese never venturedto the area where ONGCVidesh is engaged in oilexploration, aVietnamese source said.

However, the sourceadded, that on August 13,the Chinese were backagain in Vietnam’s EEZwith 20 ships, out ofwhich, two are on a dailybasis hanging aroundBlock 06.1 and asking theIndian company to stopwork.

ONGC has two oil fieldsin Vietnam EEZ — Block06.1 and Block 0-5.

RAJNATH OKAYSTOTAL REVAMPOF ARMY HQDC CORRESPONDENTNEW DELHI, AUG. 21

Defence ministerRajnath Singh hasapproved reorganisationof Army headquartersunder which a specialhuman rights sectionheaded by a major gener-al will be set up.

The section will bereporting directly to ViceChief of Army Staff(VCOAS). It will be thenodal point to examineany human rights viola-tion reports. A police offi-cer of the rank of SSP orSP will be taken on depu-tation to help the cell ininvestigation of thecases.

In past security forceshave been accused ofhuman rights violationsin Jammu and Kashmir(J&K) and Northeastwhere they have beenfighting militants.However, security forceshave denied most ofthese allegations.

Defence minister hasalso approved setting upof a separate vigilancecell under Army chief,which will also have rep-resentation from Navyand Indian Air Force.

Currently, the vigilancefunction for the Chief ofArmy Staff (COAS) isthrough multiple agen-cies and there is no singlepoint interface.

As per the decision,Additional DirectorGeneral (Vigilance) willbe placed directly underthe COAS for this pur-pose. It will have threeColonel-level officers(one each from IndianArmy, Indian Air Forceand Indian Navy). Thiswill be done within theexisting posts.

The restructuring ofthe Headquarters whichwill result in shifting of20 per cent (206 officers)of the young officersposted in the nationalcapital back to units andfield formations.

YUSUF JAMEEL | DCSRINAGAR, AUG. 21

Irate crowds of youthsfought pitched ding-dongbattles with the securityforces in the Telbal area onthe outskirts of Srinagarthroughout Tuesday night,leaving several peopleinjured. Clashes took placein at least two other placesin the Valley which result-ed in injuries to two morepersons.

Witnesses said onWednesday that the troublebegan in the Telbal areawhen the J&K police, assist-ed by the Central armedpolice forces, arrived in thearea to make arrests. Thelocal residents resisted it,triggering the clashes. Thesecurity forces fired tear-gas canisters and reported-ly fired rifles over the headsof the stone-pelting mobs.As the clashes were on,some locals used mosque

loudspeakers to broadcastpro-freedom slogans, thewitnesses said.

Two more persons wereinjured when the securityforces fired pellet shotgunsto disperse the protestersand stone-pelting mobs inSrinagar’s Fatah Kadal andsouthern Anantnag earlyWednesday, police sourcessaid.

DIG V.K. Birdi, whenasked about these incidentsat the daily press briefing,said they were minor ones.He said: “In a few pockets ofthe Valley, there were strayincidents of stone-pelting.Otherwise, the rest of the

area behaved normally.” Hesaid the situation is beingmonitored closely and“decisions on the mainte-nance of law and order arebeing taken accordingly”.

On the incident in Telbal,he said: “There was somelaw and order incidentthere. We dealt with it asper the law. We will let youknow about the rest of it.”

He said the overall situa-tion in the Valley remainedpeaceful and in areas whererelaxation of restrictionsimposed under Section144CrPc was given onWednesday had “behavednormally”.

Government spokesper-son Syed Sehrish Asgarsaid the Jammu divisionwas also peaceful onWednesday. “No law andorder situation has beenreported in Jammu region.There were almost norestrictions in any districtof the region,” she said.

Move comes after Sonia takes over reinsDC CORRESPONDENTBENGALURU, AUG. 21

While there are rum-blings in the ruling BJPover Cabinet formation,the relatively ‘quiet’Congress state unit islikely to see a battle soonbetween its old guardand the Siddaramaiahcamp over the post ofOpposition leaders inboth Houses of the statelegislature.

Party sources say thatever since Sonia Gandhireturned as president ofthe All India CongressCommittee, the old guardhas been trying hard totake control of the partyand corner the positions,which went to loyalists offormer chief minister,Siddaramaiah under for-mer Congress president,Rahul Gandhi.

The old guard made upof Dr G. Parameshwar,K.H. Muniyappa, M.Veerappa Moily, H.K.Patil and a few othersseems to be rallyingaround senior leader, M.Mallikarjun Kharge whois a confidante of MrsGandhi.

On the other side of thefence, with MrSiddaramaiah areCongress leaders likeK.J. George and KrishnaByre Gowda.

It does seem likechange is in the air as MrSiddaramaiah, who wasunder the impressionthat he would be madethe opposition leader byvirtue of being the CLPleader immediately afterthe BJP came to power instate, received a mildshock when the partyhigh command decidedto put the decision onhold.

According to sources,Mr Siddaramaiah’s strat-egy was to become the

Opposition leader in theassembly and eventuallyemerge as the chief min-isterial candidate in thenext Assembly elections,but the old guard sawthrough it and worked inDelhi to stall his appoint-ment.

Mr Siddaramaiah isnow reportedly pushingthe candidature of for-mer Speaker, K.R.Ramesh Kumar or alter-natively that of MrKrishna Byre Gowda forthe post.

SENIOR U.P. MEDICAL STUDENTSTONSURE JUNIORS, PARADE THEMEtawah, UP, Aug. 21: In analleged case of mass rag-ging, several first-year stu-dents of Saifai MedicalUniversity here were madeto parade on the campuswith their heads tonsured.

Even while promising“strict action” on a newschannel, University vice-chancellor Raj Kumarappeared to condone “mild”cases of this kind.

He said ragging at one timeused to be a way of inculcat-ing “sanskar” (tradition ormanners) of the world of

medicine among the stu-dents.

Recalling his own experi-ence as a student, he saidragging in those days wasmuch worse, but the seniorstudents would also care forthe juniors and help themwith their studies.

A purported video clip onsocial media showed stu-dents in white coats walkingin a single file, bowing theirtonsured heads and alsomaking “salaam” gestures.Another clip showed them inrows.

■ ■ Security forces firedteargas and reportedlyfired rifles over theheads of the stone-pelt-ing mobs while localsmade slogans throughmosque loudspeakers.

■ ■ Vietnam has alert-ed India about thepresence of twoChinese Coast Guardships in its ExclusiveEconomic Zone inSouth China Sea.

Donald Trump

DC CORRESPONDENTNEW DELHI, AUG 21

Giving credit to PrimeMinister NarendraModi’s “ever growingpopularity” and BJPnational president AmitShah’s organisationaland management skills,the BJP on Wednesdayclaimed that it hasadded more than 3.78crore new members toits existing strength of11 crore members asmore and more peoplewant to join the saffronparty.

The membership driveof the BJP ended onTuesday and the partyhas claimed that thefinal tally of new mem-bers will cross the fivecrore mark.

Interestingly in J&K,where the Modi govern-ment recently abrogat-ed the Article 370, theBJP has enrolled morethan 3.5 lakh members,including 23,000 fromSrinagar, Anantnag andBaramulla, which usedto witness protestscalled by separatists instate.

3.78 CRORE NEW MEMBERSJOINED PARTY, SAYS BJP


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9NationTHURSDAY | 22 AUGUST 2019 | HYDERABADDECCAN CHRONICLE

Dummy faceBJP MP Subramanian Swamydubs Pak PM Imran Khan ISI’sparrot speaking its language

DC CORRESPONDENT MUMBAI, AUG. 21

A Maharashtra NavnirmanSena (MNS) party workercommitted suicide by set-ting himself ablaze late onTuesday at his residence inKalwa allegedly after beingdistressed over the

Enforcement Directorate’s(ED) notice to MNS chiefRaj Thackeray in connec-tion with IL&FS scam.

The deceased, identified asPravin Chougule (28), hadmentioned about his dis-pleasure over the ED’saction to a friend, which isbeing probed by the police.

Chougule, a driver by pro-fession, was an orphan andconsidered MNS as his family, his friends claimed.

The police said that theyare still looking ascertain-ing whether the incidentwas political in nature. Preliminary probe revealedthat the MNS worker tried

ending his life in 2015 byslashing his wrist and againlater in February this yearby hanging himself.

A month later, in March,he poured kerosene on him-self however he was over-powered in time.

“We are questioning hisfriends and neighbours to

verify the reason and his rel-atives are also in contactwith us,” said Pravin Pawar,additional commissioner ofpolice, Thane.

In his statement releasedon Twitter, Raj Thackeraysaid he was deeply pained.

“I am deeply pained afterlearning about the death of

Pravin Chougule. He tookthe extreme step of immo-lating himself after gettingperturbed by the news ofEnforcement Directoratesending me a notice. Thisshould not have happened.May his soul rest in peace,”the MNS chief, MrThackeray said.

ED summons to Raj; MNS worker commits suicideHouston, Aug. 21:“Howdy, Modi!”, the com-munity event to beaddressed by PrimeMinister Narendra Modihere next month has beensold out with over 50,000people registering for theprogramme, the organis-ers said.

“Howdy”, short for 'Howdo you do?', is a friendlygreeting commonly usedin southwestern UnitedStates.

Over 50,000 people havealready registered for themega community summitin September at a stadi-um in Houston. —PTI

‘HOWDY, MODI’ EVENT IN HOUSTONSOLD OUT, OVER 50,000 REGISTER


The chief justice of India and his Supreme Court may not view thematter of hearing former finance and home minister P.Chidambaram’s plea for protection from arrest as sitting on thehorns of a moral dilemma. The case would ideally be viewed strict-

ly in legal terms, and regardless of how it has been blown up in the politi-cal firmament. Already, the highest judiciary has deviated from what hascome to be viewed as normal in India of the high and mighty being heardinstantly and relief being given to them at once as a matter of right. In fol-lowing the rulebook, the court may have asserted its autonomy in the faceof the influence of powerful politicians, but there is a long way to go beforewe will hear how this sensationalised case of Mr Chidambaram (and hisson) in the INX Media case and other cases is finally ruled upon.

In the forefront of this complex issue is the matter of interim protectionfrom arrest of one of those said to be an accused. In Indian jurisprudence,even an accused has to be viewed as innocent until proven guilty. Variousarms of the executive are tasked with proving guilt; although under thestrictest provisions of the new Prevention of Corruption Act it is theaccused who has to prove his innocence. Bail is a civil right of even themost hardened criminal and may be granted in the normal course save in

exceptional circumstances where theaccused may be seen as capable of “fleeingfrom justice”. Even the reported silence ofthe accused in the face of interrogation isguaranteed as a fundamental right of anindividual. However, there are inferencesto be drawn from silence or the intractabili-ty of the mighty who may consider the lawto be above them.

Why the cases against the former financeminister, accused of financial crimes on aquid pro quo basis — some of which involvehis son who is also a sitting Member ofParliament — are getting even more com-plex is because of the inherent delays in thejustice delivery system. The accused cannotbe held responsible for this. Mr

Chidambaram who was incommunicado for a while, leading even to look-out notices against him, surfaced briefly to lay down a challenge regardingthe INX Media case and left. Considering the circumstances of the cases, itwould be ideal if the top court were to rule that they be fast-tracked so thatverdicts are delivered in a reasonable time frame and not after a couple ofdecades as in the corruption cases involving J. Jayalalithaa.

The only way justice can be rendered in cases of financial skulduggerybehind corruption in high places is if they are presented properly in courtbased on hard evidence and verdicts delivered despite the seeming com-plexity. The courts would also have to ensure that the application of thelaw is the same for all and not subject to any sense of entitlement amongthe powerful, irrespective of whether they are in the ruling party or theOpposition.

22 AUGUST 2019

No matter how ill-conceived New Delhi’s recent move to alter Jammuand Kashmir’s constitutional status earlier this month, it is whollyclear in light of historical, political and legal circumstances inform-

ing the situation in Kashmir that Pakistan has no locus in the regard.As the Narendra Modi government has reiterated numerous times, the

issue is an entirely “internal” matter. This was also acknowledged first byRussia, and now by the US — two permanent members of the UN SC.

After India and Pakistan emerged from Partition as separate countries,the latter signed the Standstill Agreement with Maharaja Hari Singh ofJ&K at the latter’s request. Under this, Pakistan was to make no move toalter J&K’s status. This directly signalled Karachi, then Pakistan’s capi-tal, acknowledging that J&K was outside its jurisdiction. Nothing has hap-pened since then to change this. As such, the announcement on Tuesdaythat Pakistan had decided “in principle” to go the International Court ofJustice on Kashmir is laughable. Besides, the ICJ’s jurisdiction in India’s“internal” matter is non-existent. This places a question mark over theadmissibility of Islamabad’s proposed plea. Evidently, Pakistan’s onlypurpose is anti-India propaganda in order to appease its own citizens and,no less important, to boost the morale of the tiny pro-Pakistan segment inthe Valley that has existed since 1947.

The ICJ should have no difficulty seeing through the game even ifIslamabad chooses to invoke human rights. If human rights can beinvoked by all and sundry, Pakistan should start with other parts of theworld where Muslims live, such as China and the Arab region.

Pak has no case at ICJ

Chidambaram case: Ensurejustice is done, not delayed

The court may haveshown its autonomy in

the face of powerfulpoliticians’ influence, butthere’s a long way to gobefore we see how thissensationalised case of

Mr Chidambaram (and his son) in the INXMedia matter is finally

ruled upon

c m y k c m y k

Knowledge is the conformity of the objectand the intellect

If ever there was a moment for an Islamicreformation, it’s now

AVERROESMIND POWER

IRSHAD MANJI PAGE

10EditTHURSDAY | 22 AUGUST 2019 | HYDERABADDECCAN CHRONICLE

If it hadn’t arrived I’d be dead, butit was hardly welcome: anotherbirthday — 38 years old onAugust 11, but for any pedant

among you, reverse the numeralsand you’ll get it right. Thirty-eightcame to me as I was sparring with ayoung whippersnapper fromNorway recently. I was out of breathand told him that, at 38, I was havingtrouble keeping up. “You’re doingfine for 38,” he said, and thenattacked as if there was no tomor-row, the brute.

What’s that old cliché about beingas old as you feel? I’ve never feltyounger, but I have to stop givingadvice to people. La Rochefoucauldwarned about that: old men giveadvice because they can no longer seta bad example. Ouch! I try to be badat all times but others do not want tobe bad with me. Well, not always, butmost of the time. Oy veh!

I have just finished a book aboutthe Left Bank of Paris and the writ-ers and artists who worked andplayed there, and noticed that, on my

birthday following the two atomicbombs dropped on Japan, the greatAlbert Camus was the only one toexpress revulsion and publish an edi-torial against the savagery of the act.What double standards we hold. Wespeak of Nazi crimes but fail to men-tion the incineration of innocents byus, or the three million Germanwomen raped by the Soviets.

Never mind. We have other prob-lems now, but the hypocrisy persists.And it gives the lie to the nostalgicfantasy of American goodness. UncleSam is the only one to have vapor-ised innocents after literally havingforced Japan to go to war with theembargo he had imposed. And he’sdoing it again now with Iran, squeez-ing the mullahs under orders fromIsrael and Saudi Arabia, two coun-tries with leaders who deserve eachother. Which brings me back toCamus, a man who looked like Bogiebut had a soft inside. It took guts totell the truth and rock the boat in1945, especially as Uncle Sam hadjust saved France’s bacon for the sec-

ond time in 20 years. Nowadays one cannot denounce

anything unless it is Trump, thewhite race, heterosexual men, andthe Catholic Church. A ruthless,unprecedented and spurious cam-paign against the above is relentlessand led by the media and the extremeleft. Oh yes, I almost forgot, the N-word is also verboten. Nationalism isnow equal to Nazism, if you readmendacious sheets like the NewYork Times or watch the news. Thisis what ‘newspeak’ is all about. Goodold George Orwell had it right in hismagnificent opus that I read in 1951in boarding school for the sexbetween Winston and Julia. Takeaway nationalism, love of countryand tradition and one lives a trompel’oeil kind of existence. The kind theleft can easily control and manipu-late. I see that in New York morethan in London. People actuallyspeak softly from the side of theirmouths, as if living under an occupa-tion. Then they pour it all out in pri-vate. The youngsters have it even

worse. One fifth of those under 18 inthe land of the depraved claim thattheir only friend is that demon con-traption they look at all day.

The other irony is that black unem-ployment in America hit a recordlow of 6 per cent but was ignored byblack firebrands in Congress. Blacksin America outperform Sweden,Spain and Italy in gainful employ-ment, yet such is the propagandaagainst Trump by activists that alanding Martian would think we’reback in pre-Civil War days. (As Iwrite news comes in about JeffreyEpstein’s suicide. I’ll bet everything Iown in this world that ‘they’ will hintTrump had him bumped off. Theonly column of mine in 42 years thatwas spiked long ago was aboutEpstein. I called him a raging pae-dophile and an assistant editor gotscared and killed it. I have never laideyes on the ghastly Epstein.)

Poor little Greek boy, I’ve had it.Father Time is a real downer. Mybirthday dinner consisted of oldfriends, none of them as old as me.

Michael Mailer flew over from NewYork, redefining friendship in aswoop. Peter and Lara Livanos,Jeffrey and Lulu Moore, AlikiGoulandris and others gatheredround and the mother of my childrentold a few white lies about her lifewith yours truly. My children wereon their way with their children soeverything was hunky dory exceptfor the fact that my old buddy fromway back, Roman Polanski, couldnot make it. Roman is in Parisputting the finishing touches on hisDreyfus film that will show in Venicein September, so we chatted over thetelephone instead. It was 50 yearsand a day since his pregnant wifewas butchered along with her friendsby the Manson gang, monsterswhose rhetoric reminds me of theleft-wing trash talk of the present.Roman has never looked for sympa-thy and I hope his movie does well.He deserves it.

By arrangement with the Spectator

B’day musings:Left hypocrisy

has persistedsince War era

Who can speak, aboutwhat issues & where!

Does expressingconcern aboutthe health situ-ation any-where in the

world require prior per-mission? An ongoing con-troversy swirling arounda recent editorial (“Fearand uncertainty aroundKashmir’s future”) in theLancet, among the oldestand most prestigiousmedical journals in theworld, on the health situ-ation in Jammu andKashmir compels one topose the question.

The issues at stake gobeyond one editorial, onejournal, one state or evenone country.

It throws up a basicquestion: Who can speak,about what, and where?

The Indian MedicalAssociation (IMA), thecountry’s largest body ofdoctors, in an official let-ter to Dr Richard Horton,the journal’s editor, haslashed out at the Lancetfor its recent opinionpiece on Jammu andKashmir, arguing thatthe journal has no “locusstandi on the issue ofKashmir” and that its edi-torial amounts to “inter-ference into an internalmatter of the Union ofIndia”, and that the jour-nal has reacted to an"internal administrativedecision of theGovernment of Indiaunder the garb of concernfor the health ofKashmiris”.

As someone who hasbeen writing for decadeson health in India and inother developing coun-tries, and who is an occa-sional contributor to theLancet, the controversytook me by surprise. Thisis not the first time thatthe Lancet has looked atgeopolitical conflictsthrough the health lens.

In the past, it hasfocused on the crisis inGaza, Iraq, Syria,Afghanistan, theEuropean migrant crisis,gun violence in theUnited States and manyother such topics.

The Lancet has taken astand on crises around

the world, when healthhas been at risk. It hasalso been very open aboutwhy it believes in takingthe positions it does. In its2014 commentary piece“Gaza: An urgent call toprotect civilian life andhealth”, the Lancet stated:“The role of the doctor isto protect, serve, andspeak up for life. That,too, is the role of a med-ical journal.”

The Lancet is also notthe only publicationwhich has flagged suchconcerns. The BMJ(British MedicalJournal), for example,also carried a report thismonth titled “Kashmircommunications black-out is putting patients atrisk, doctors warn”.

The IMA’s vitriolicreaction to the Lanceteditorial resonates withmany doctors in India.They have been vocal inthe social media.However, not all doctorsagree. Sanjay Nagral, anIndian medical doctor,tweeted: “Many doctorsare outraged by this editfrom Lancet, one of theworld’s respected med-ical journals. Regularreaders know that it hasa long tradition of com-menting on major globalpolitical developments.You could differ withthe view but to questionits mandate revealsignorance.”

I was travelling in areaswith poor connectivitythis past week when Ichanced upon the verbalslugfest between doctorsand health advocates inIndia on the Lancet edito-rial. The Lancet opinionpiece calls the revocationof Article 370 a “contro-versial move” that allowsthe federal governmentin India “greater authori-ty over the state’saffairs”. It flags the find-ings of two reports — oneby the UN high commis-sioner for human rightson human rights viola-tions in J&K, and alsoanother report byMedecins SansFrontieres (Doctors with-out Borders), the Nobel

Prize-winning interna-tional humanitarianmedical NGO, on thestate of mental health inJ&K.

The editorial goes on tostate that “despitedecades of instability,developmental indicatorssuggest that Kashmir isdoing well comparedwith the rest of India”.

It notes that “in the cap-ital city Srinagar, a lock-down has been imple-mented that suspendedcommunications andInternet links, and astrict curfew has beenimposed. The militantpresence raises seriousconcerns for the health,safety, and freedoms ofthe Kashmiri people”,and goes on to raise “seri-ous concerns for thehealth, safety, and free-doms of the Kashmiripeople”.

This brouhaha over aneditorial in a medicaljournal may or may notblow over soon. But it iscritical to understand thecontext in which the heat-ed debate is taking place.

The issue of the “locusstandi” that various doc-tors’ bodies, including theIMA, talk about throw upquestions that go farbeyond the Lancet or itsrecent editorial.

It is also not just aboutthe health situation inJammu and Kashmir.

Non-interference or thenon-intervention rule isa principle of interna-tional law. The under-standing of what consti-tutes “intervention” hasmany grey areas, asexperts have pointed out.But in its essence, it isabout the right of territo-rial sovereignty pos-sessed by each nationthat restricts the abilityof nations to interfere inthe affairs of othernations.

Words like “interfer-ence” are typically partof the vocabulary of gov-ernments. A govern-ment’s remit is a func-

tion of national bound-aries. It reacts when itfeels its sovereignty ischallenged.

But the language andidiom of governments isnot the same as that ofordinary people.

If one believes indemocracy, one has toconcede that ordinarycitizens, anywhere inthe world, have a right toexpress their views onany issue. People inother countries orregions may agree, dis-agree or not pay atten-tion, but one’s right toexpress oneself on atopic is not subject to ter-ritorial boundaries.Those of us who are notpart of the governmentor the state apparatusare not circumscribed bygeography.

Nothing stops anyonein India from expressingconcern about adults orchildren in any part ofthis country as well asthose in Pakistan,Yemen, Syria, China, theSolomon Islands, or anyrich world country

Equally, nothing stopspeople in other regionsfrom commenting onIndia.

The other critical ques-tion is how one viewshealth of a people whichis a critical component ofhuman development.

Can health be reallydelinked from its socialdeterminants? The WorldHealth Organisationdescribes the social deter-minants of health as “theconditions in which peo-ple are born, grow, live,work and age”. It pointsout that “these circum-stances are shaped by thedistribution of money,power and resources atglobal, national and locallevels”.

This is not applicable tojust Jammu andKashmir. It is relevant toevery place.

We have every right toflag our areas of disagree-ment with any point ofview. But if we pride our-selves on being theworld’s most populousdemocracy, should onequestion anyone’s rightto express concern or talkabout an issue?

The writer focuses ondevelopment issues in

India and emergingeconomies. She can be

reached atpatralekha.chatterjee

@gmail.com

The Lancet is also notthe only publication

which has flaggedsuch concerns... TheIMA’s reaction to its

editorial resonateswith many doctors in

India. They have beenvocal in the social

media. However, notall doctors agree.

Subhani

Taki

Patralekha ChatterjeeDev 360

LETTERS

DECCAN CHRONICLE

A.T. JAYANTI T. VENKATESWARLUEditor Printer & Publisher

DECCAN CHRONICLE offices are located at:

Hyderabad: 36, Sarojini Devi Road, Secunderabad - 500 003, Ph: 040-27803930-4; Fax : 040-27805256Vijayawada: No.C-3 & 4 Patamata, Industrial Estate, Auto Nagar, Vijayawada (A.P.), Ph: 0866-2555284/2555287; Telefax: 0866-2555234Visakhapatnam: Survey No.1/3A Beach Road, Near Kailasagiri Ropeway, Sector-9 MVP Colony,Visakhapatnam - 530 017 (A.P), Ph: 0891-2552333/2552334; Fax: 0891-2755285Rajahmundry: Vemagiri, Dhawaleswaram Rd, Rajahmundry, Ph: 0883-2417618/2417208; Telefax: 0883-2417208Anantapur: Thapovan colony, Bangalore By-Pass Road, Anantapur - 515004, Ph: 08554-276903; Fax:08554-276904Karimnagar: Survey No.1341, Vavilalapally Colony, Jagityala Road, Karimnagar - 505 001, Ph: 0878-2228908; Telefax: 0878-2220433Nellore: Survey No.527/2, Burranpur Village, Venkatachalam (M), Chemmudugunta Panchayat, Nellore,Ph: 0861-2348581/82; Telefax: 0861-2348580Chennai: SP-3 Developed Plot, Industrial Estate, Guindy, Chennai - 600 032, Ph: 044-22254747/48/50/51; Advt Fax: 22254765/22254766/42305325Bengaluru: 5th Floor, BMTC Commercial Complex, 80 Feet Road, Koramangala, Bengaluru-560 095 Ph:080-43460500; Fax: 080-22960552. Coimbatore: 77, Vivekananda Road, Ramnagar, Coimbatore - 641 009, Ph : 0422 2231255Kochi: No.3-B, 3rd Floor of DD TRADE TOWER, Kaloor-Kadavanthara Road, Ernakulam, Ph: 0484-4039408Thiruvananthapuram: St Joseph�s Press, TC 15/1040, Cotton Hill, Thycaud (PO), Thiruvananthapuram695 014 Kozhikode: Door No 6/1002 E, First Floor of City Mall, Opp. YMCA, Kannur Road, Kozhikode - 673001, Fax : 0495 4019 018Gram: CHRONICLE Postal registration no: No. H/SD-348/2006-08

KASHMIR SCHOOLSThe reopening of over1,000 primary schools inKashmir is a positive devel-opment. People tooappears to have respondedpositively by sending theirchildren to schools(Kashmir schools reopensome, without students,Aug. 20). The governmentshould slowly win thehearts of people and buildconfidence among them.

D. Manoj KumarSecunderabad

KTR’S CRITICISMIf TRS working president K.T.Rama Rao claims that the BJP hasnot done anything for the better-ment of Hyderabad, I would like toask him what has the TRS done forthe city? The party is responsiblefor bad roads, unending trafficjams, water-logging, garbage. Thecity need not necessarily be aworld-class one as they claim tomake it. It would be enough if offi-cials initiate steps to rectify them.

S. Nageswara RaoHyderabad

REVERSE EFFECTI have observed many times thatmovies ridiculed by film criticSuparna Sharma invariably smashall box office records. Similarly,she has criticised Mission Mangaland Batla House (Oh, these womenfrom Mars, Aug. 18). But both themovies have collected good money.

Sanjay AusekarHyderabad

NEW DELHI, AUGUST 21.

THE demand for a separateTelangana State was revivedby most of th speakers in theresumed debate in the LokSabha today on the situationin the region.

Members from theTelangana region participat-ing in the inconclusive discus-sion spoke with one voice indemanding a separate State.

Mr. Prakash Vir Shastri(Ind- UP) said that it would begood to Telangana if it was se-parated from Andhra Pradesh.

50 YEARS AGO IN

TELANGANA: PLEARENEWED IN LS

Every Monday the best letter of theweek wins `300. Email your letters

to [email protected], [email protected], or faxthem to 27805256. You can also

send them to Editor, DeccanChronicle, 36, Sarojini Devi Road,

Secunderabad-500 003.


Cologne (Germany),Aug. 21: Connecteddevices are challengingconsoles at the world’slargest online gaming fair,as hundreds of thousandsof fans jostle to see top e-sports stars in action andgive feedback that candecide whether a newrelease is a hit or a flop.

The Gamescom fair inCologne, Germany, opensto the general public onWednesday after a seriesof sneak-peek events towhet the appetite of a ris-ing generation of enthusi-asts who spend more timeon gaming than they dowatching TV.

Stars of competitiveonline gaming, known ase-sports, are now makingthe kind of money earnedby professional soccer ortennis players, with U.S.teenager Kyle Giersdorfscooping $3 million at lastmonth’s Fortnite WorldCup.

Organizers say thisyear’s event will focus oncloud-based gaming, amida trend towards using arange of connecteddevices and away fromconsoles such as the SonyPlaystation or MicrosoftXbox. “Cloud gaming is avery important trend —it’s about being able toplay the best, newestgames on practically everydevice because the actualaccount is in the cloud,”said Gamescom’s FelixFalk.

Independent developerswill also be in the spot-light, added Falk. Fanswill get an up-close look attheir heroes demonstrat-ing forthcoming releases,with developers and indus-try analysts observingqueues and interviewingvisitors to assess whichmight turn out to be hits.

“This starts very early,”said Jens Kosche, a devel-

oper at the German unit ofElectronic Arts, which isbehind games such asAnthem and ApexLegends. “We show gamesto select players and they

tell us what they thinkcould be better, and whatthey like. With that feed-back we can develop thegame further.”

There are an estimated

2.6 billion e-gamers world-wide who will spend some$148 billion on games andrelated products this year,according to researchfrom Newzoo cited by

Mirabaud Securities. That figure is forecast to

rise to $174 billion by 2021as e-gaming gains in popu-larity thanks to fastermobile connectivity and

the spread of technologieslike artificial intelligenceand virtual reality. Thatmakes online gaming —and following e-sports proson social networks such as

Amazon’s streaming plat-form Twitch — a lucrativechannel for advertisersand marketers as main-stays like TV stagnate.

— Reuters

PAGE

11TechnomicsTHURSDAY | 22 AUGUST 2019 | HYDERABADDECCAN CHRONICLE

full releaseGoogle Go app was releasedglobally after a limitedrelease earlier this year

SHORT TAKES

Organisers say this year’s event will focus on cloud-based gaming, amid a trend towards using a range of connected devices and away from consoles such as the Sony Playstation or Microsoft Xbox.

UBON LAUNCHESWATERPROOFBT SPEAKER

FB USERS TO GETMORE CONTROL

OVER DATABengaluru, Aug. 21:Facebook said it was tweakingits policies to allow users tosee and control the data thatthe social network gathersfrom their browsing habits onother websites and apps.

The company defines thedata, for example when aclothing website shares infor-mation with Facebook onbrowsing activity of a user, as“Off-Facebook Activity”.

Facebook said in a blog posthere that the tool is beingrolled out in Ireland, SouthKorea and Spain and would beavailable to users across theglobe in the coming months,adding that it expects themove to have some impact onits business.

“We believe this Off-Facebook Activity informa-tion has been pretty valuableto Facebook, enabling it tooffer advertisers the ability toreach consumers that havealready shown some interestin their products or services,”Atlantic Equities analystJames Cordwell said.

The latest action comes asthe company faces severe crit-icism from lawmakers andregulators over its privacypractices. Last month, FBagreed to a record-setting $5billion privacy settlementwith the US FTC.

The social network said if auser clears their Off-FacebookActivity, it would remove theuser’s information from thedata that apps and websiteschoose to send. — Reuters

New Delhi, Aug. 21: In a bidto cater to the growingdemand for Bluetooth speak-ers in the country, consumerelectronics brand Ubon onWednesday launched a water-proof speaker dubbed SP-6550.

According to the company,the wireless is IPX6 certifiedand has Aux connectivity aswell. Priced at `2,999, thespeaker packs a 1,800mAh bat-tery & can play non-stop musicfor up to six hours.

The speaker, which weighsonly 480gms, provides crystalclear sound quality, accordingto the statement.

REALME XT TOSPORT 64MP

QUAD CAMERADC CORRESPONDENTMUMBAI, AUG. 21

Along with releasing theRealme 5 and Realme 5 Pro,the makers behind the phonesalso dropped a little teaser forthe brand’s next big drop inthe Indian smartphone mar-ket, the Realme XT, which willbe the first smartphone in thecountry to sport the 64MPcamera sensor.

The song “Wake me up whenSeptember ends” was playedat the end of the event, whichlikely points to the devicebeing released in earlyOctober, about 40 days fromnow.

The sensor on the camera isSamsung’s new ISOCELLBright GW1 sensor. The phonewill also have a wide anglelens, a macro lens, and a depthsensor.

While the quad cameradesign on the upcomingRealme XT will look like thedesign found on the Realme 5Pro on the back, we thinkthere might be a pop-up cam-era or something of the sortfor the front facing camera, soas to not interrupt the full-screen display.

Cloud gaming takes on consoles

PARTH BAGARIA | DCCOLGONE, AUG. 21

With realistic tactilephysics and a decep-tively simple look,Circuit Superstars,which is a top downracing game, was thesecond game that I gotto play at this year’sGamescom.

The game, which haseasy to understandcontrols, can be quitepunishing as the tracksare filled with tightturns that will spinyour car around. Eventhe shortest of lapsesin concentration canruin the race.

As a result, you needto be constantlyengaged and thatmakes the game a lot offun to play.

There were three carsavailable in the demoand each of them han-dled differently.

After choosing yourvehicle and track, youcan turn degradationon or off.

This basically refersto fuel, tyre wear anddamage. Three metersat the bottom left will let you know their status, and youcan make a pit stop ifthey are severely

impacted. Like thefeatures, which can beturned off completely,assists too can be mod-ified to the gamer’sliking.

I even got to try 4player local co-op withthe development team.After this, they set atrack on infinite lapsand allowed me to tryand beat the recordtime.

I found myself get-ting better over time,but I needed to be fullyconcentrated and mem-orise the track to beatmy own times.

The game, which isdeveloped by OriginalFire Games and pub-lished by Square Enix,is said to come out in2020 on all availableplatforms. In short, thegame seems like a funand challenging way tokill time.

PARTH BAGARIA | DCCOLGONE, AUG. 21

After its debut at E3,Marvel fans were eagerlywaiting for news about thethe upcoming Avengersgame. At Gamescom,Crystal Dynamics togetherwith Square Enix show-cased the story-drivenaction-adventure game andI was among the lucky few,who got to play the game.

The games, which devel-opers emphasise will notfeature an original story,but also focus on savingthe Avengers as we arerebuilding the heroes aspeople.

The game begins on A-Day, where a catastrophecauses massive destruc-tion in San Francisco. TheAvengers are disbanded,scattered and broken; butmust assemble to face anew threat in the form ofan organisation calledAIM.

In the demo, the openingand tutorial of the gamewas fairly linear, but I wastold that the main gamewill consist of open andexpansive areas with tonsof secrets, varied objec-tives and activities.

However, the demo didallow to play all five of thecore heroes — CaptainAmerica, Iron Man, BlackWidow, Hulk and Thor. Infuture, Crystal Dynamicsplans to release other

heroes at no extra cost. All heroes played very

differently in the demo. They all had access to a

variety of moves, bothmelee and ranged. Thorand Iron Man can utilisemore aerial attacks where-as you can just shoot ene-mies with pistols whenplaying as Black Widow.

The battle system com-bines light and heavyattacks with a heavyemphasis on dodging andheroic abilities.

Although I did not get toexperience this in thedemo, I was told that youcan switch loadouts on thefly with the d-pad and haveaccess to different move-sets. Each hero has multi-ple skill trees and unique

gear with perks that makeyour abilities even morepowerful. The combat isnothing inventive butworks well.

I did face some perform-ance issues, but it’s not aconcern at all consideringhow far we are fromlaunch. I had fun playingthe demo, especially Thoras he had the perfect bal-ance of melee and rangedcombat.

The game has a heavyemphasis on story as wellas co-op and gear. The clos-est example I can think ofis Destiny.

All of the content can beplayed solo but only WarZone missions aredesigned with co-op inmind. Both Hero and War

Zone missions will movethe narrative forward insome way but the formerconstitutes the main cam-paign of the game.

I came out of the presen-tation thinking that thegame aims to please alltypes of gamers.

It offers both a singleplayer story driven experi-ence as well as expansiveareas to explore withfriends while beating upenemies and earningexciting loot. I believethat whether the game res-onates with the audiencewill depend upon thestrength of its storytellingand the end game content.Small concerns aside, sofar I’m extremely excitedto see more of it.

Avengers set to assemble again Kill your time withCircuit Superstars

The shorttracks in thegame definitelyhelp, since thegamers can justpick it up and gofor a few lapswithin a coupleof minutes.

NEW NIKON APP FOR FASTER TRANSFERTokyo, Aug. 21: Withimage and video size onthe rise, Nikon, in itsattempt to transfer filesfaster, has unveiled anupdated version of itsSnapBridge app

The new version,which will provide userswith more options forcamera control and

faster image transfers,allows for the downloadof RAW images throughWiFi.

Those with DSLR cam-eras can also use theirsmartphones to adjusttheir camera's focus,aperture, shutter speed,white balance and more.

Pairing a camera with

an iPad or a smartphonecan be a slow and cum-bersome process, espe-cially with Bluetooth orWiFi. Users of older ver-sions of SnapBridgehave complained aboutconnection problemsand lengthy delays whentransferring full-resolu-tion images. — Agencies


Washington, Aug. 21:The US State Departmenton Tuesday approved thesale of 66 F-16 fighters toTaiwan, in a moveexpected to anger China.

Taiwan will get the lat-est version of the Lock-heed Martin-built fighter,the F-16C/D Block 70, inthe $8 billion deal, theState Department said.

Secretary of State MikePompeo said that USPresident Donald Trumphad green-lighted theproposed sale afterCongress was notifiedlast week.

The F-16s “are deeplyconsistent with thearrangements, the histor-ical relationship betweenthe United States andChina,” Pompeo said.

“Our actions are consis-tent with past US policy.We are simply followingthrough on the commit-ments we’ve made to allof the parties.” Taiwan’splan to upgrade its airdefenses comes amidincreasing Chinese mili-tary incursions into itsair space.

A spokesman for theTaiwanese president rel-eased a statement sayingthe jets would “substan-tially enhance our airdefense capabilities tohelp Taiwan’s self-defe-nce and maintain thepeople’s freedom and wel-fare.”

The sale’s approval willhave a key role in “peaceand stability in the Tai-wan Strait and region,especially in the wake ofChina’s frequent militaryactions... in the region inrecent years,” the state-ment said.

Beijing regards Taiwanas a part of China await-ing reunification, but theisland is self-ruled and isa close ally of the US.

In a statement, theDefence Security Coope-ration Agency, whichoversees US foreign mili-tary sales, said Taiwan’spurchase of the F-16s“will not alter the basicmilitary balance in theregion.” “This proposedsale will contribute to therecipient’s capability toprovide for the defense ofits airspace, regionalsecurity, and interoper-ability with the UnitedStates.”

On Monday, China’s for-eign ministry spokesper-

son Geng Shuang said USarms sales to Taiwan“severely violate” agree-ments between Washi-ngton and Beijing and“constitute severe inter-ference in China’s inter-nal affairs.”

The United Statesshould “immediately ca-ncel the planned armssales, and stop sellingweapons and militarycontact with Taiwan,” hesaid. “Otherwise, the USwill have to bear all theconsequences.”

Taiwan already has afleet of old-model F-16spurchased in 1992, whichhave undergone severalcrucial upgrades.

M a n u f a c t u r e rLockheed Martin saysthe newest version, the F-16 Block 70/72, includesmany avionics, weaponsand radar technologiesnot in existence whenearlier models were cre-ated.

It is structurallystronger, the companysays, so that it “can flyand fight to 2070 andbeyond.” — AFP

PAGE

12WorldTHURSDAY | 22 AUGUST 2019 | HYDERABADDECCAN CHRONICLE

Brexit talksBritish PM Boris Johnson visits Berlin to kickoff a marathon of tense talks with EU leadersas the threat of a chaotic no-deal Brexit looms

Freedom ofnavigation through

international waters isa fundamental right

of all states — Scott Morrison

Australian Prime Minister

IN BRIEFTrump delays talkswith Denmark PM

Washington: US PresidentDonald Trump announced onTuesday that he is postpon-ing a planned meeting with

Denmark’s prime ministerdue to her lack of interest inselling Greenland to the US.

“Based on Prime MinisterMette Frederiksen’s com-

ments, that she would haveno interest in discussing thepurchase of Greenland, I willbe postponing our meetingscheduled in two weeks for

another time,” Trump tweet-ed. “The Prime Minister wasable to save a great deal ofexpense and effort for both

the United States andDenmark by being so direct.I thank her for that and look

forward to reschedulingsometime in the future!” the

US president wrote.

Indonesia’s Papuahit by fresh unrest

Manokwari (Indonesia):Indonesia’s Papua was hit by

fresh unrest on Wednesdayas more than 1,000 securitypersonnel were sent to therestive region after violentprotests that saw buildingstorched and street battles

between police and demon-strators. Jakarta has calledfor calm in its easternmostterritory — where an insur-

gency against Indonesianrule has simmered for

decades — following riotstriggered by the detention of

dozens of Papuan studentsat the weekend. On

Wednesday, about 1,000people protested in the

streets of Timika city, wheredemonstrators threw rocks

at police and tried to ripdown a fence surrounding

the local parliament building.The crowd began to disperse

as riot police fired warningshots in the air. There were

also demonstrations inFakfak region.

Don’t dare touchIran oil: US

United Nations: US Secretaryof State Mike Pompeo says

anyone who “touches,” sup-ports or allows an Iranian

tanker carrying crude oil todock risks US sanctions. He

told reporters on Tuesdaythat if an Iranian supertankerthat left Gibraltar on Sunday

again heads to Syria, “we’lltake every action we can

consistent with those sanc-tions to prevent that.” The

Iranian vessel was detainedfor a month for allegedlyattempting to violate EU

sanctions on Syria. Gibraltarauthorities rejected US

attempts to seize the tanker.Pompeo said the US doesn’twant crude oil to go to Syria

because it will be “off-loaded, sold, used by the

Quds force, an organisationthat has killed countless

Americans and people allacross the world.” He said he

believes this rationale “isshared by the entire world.”

US Prez bats forRussia in G-7 group

Washington: US PresidentDonald Trump on Tuesday

said that he would likeRussia to rejoin G-7 ahead ofthe global group of industri-

alised nations summit inFrance this weekend. Duringthe previous Obama admin-istration, Russia was kickedout of the group which was

originally G-8 countries com-prising the US, Canada,France, Germany, Italy,

Japan, United Kingdom andRussia. European Union alsoattends its annual leadership

summits. “I think it's muchmore appropriate to haveRussia in. It should be the

G8, because a lot of thethings we talk about have to

do with Russia, Trump toldreporters in his Oval Office.“So I could certainly see it

being the G-8 again. If some-body would make that

motion, I would certainly bedisposed to think about it

very favourably, he said.Trump said Obama didn't

want Russia in because hegot outsmarted by Putin.

US approves sale of66 F-16s to Taiwan ■China fumes, warns US of ‘severe consequences’

Washington, Aug. 21:A 27-year-old Indian stu-dent has drowned afterjumping off from arecreation spot into theCrater Lake in the USstate of Oregon, authori-ties said.

Sumedh Mannar, jum-ped off the “JumpingRock”, a popular recre-ation spot at the lake onSunday at around 4.40pm (local time) and didnot resurface, MarshaMcCabe, a spokeswomanfor Crater Lake NationalPark, was quoted as say-ing by the Oregoniannewspaper.

McCabe said the cliffMannar, a graduate stu-dent at the Oregon StateUniversity, had jumpedfrom was about 25 feethigh. The cliff was not aprohibited area for ju-mping, she said, addingthat officials have notyet determined exactlywhy he drowned.

In the summers, thesurface of the lakewarms up to about 15ºC,but the average tempera-ture of the lake isaround 3ºC. Swimmingis only allowed in thearea around CleetwoodCove and along the shoreof Wizard Island.

Immediately afterMannar disappeared,people on scene threw alife ring into the water,and Crater Lake hospi-tality staff took a smallboat out to the area tohelp search, she said.

Park staff came to thearea to help with thesearch, but choppywaters and poor visibili-ty conditions made thesearch difficult.

After about threehours of searching andno sign of Mannar, offi-cials called off thesearch and resumed itMonday. Mannar’s bodywas transported toKlamath Falls. — PTI

Riyadh, Aug. 21: SaudiArabia on Tuesday beganimplementing a landmarkreform allowing womenover the age of 21 toreceive passports and trav-el abroad without permis-sion from a male“guardian”, authoritiessaid.

The reform, announcedearlier in August, weakensthe restrictive guardian-ship system that has longbeen a symbol of repres-sion against women.

“The passport depart-ment has started receivingapplications for womenaged 21 and above to issueor renew passports and totravel outside the kingdomwithout permission,” thedepartment said onTwitter.

Women in the kingdom

have long required per-mission from their male“guardians” — husband,father and other male rela-tives — for these tasks, arestriction that drewinternational censure.

The reform comes afterhigh-profile attempts bywomen to escape allegedguardianship abusedespite a string of reformsby Crown PrinceMohammed bin Salman,

including a landmarkdecree last year that over-turned the world's onlyban on women drivers.

In other changesunveiled earlier in August,Saudi women were also

granted the right to offi-cially register childbirth,marriage or divorce and tobe recognised as aguardian to children whoare minors -- same as men.

The reforms were widelycelebrated in the kingdom,but they also drew back-lash from arch-conserva-tives, many of whomshared old video sermonson social media by Saudiclerics advocating guard-ianship laws.

Some also denounced thechange as “unIslamic” ina society that traditionallysees men as protectors ofwomen.

The reform comes as theOPEC petroleum producerreels from low oil pricesand seeks to boost employ-ment opportunities forwomen. — AFP

Saudi eases travel restrictions on women

China hails 3-yearextension to BajwaBeijing, Aug. 21: Chinaon Wednesday welcomedthe extension of PakistanArmy chief General Qa-mar Javed Bajwa’s termfor another three years,saying he is an “oldfriend” of the Chinesegovernment who hasmade “robust contribu-tions to the bilateral rela-tions.

General Bajwa, 58, whowas appointed as theChief of Army Staff byformer prime ministerNawaz Sharif in Nove-mber 2016, was to retire inNovember, but PrimeMinister Imran Khanextended his term foranother three years inview of the “regionalsecurity environment”.

The decision was takenamid fresh tension inIndia-Pakistan relationsand the ongoing Afghanpeace talks between theUS and the Taliban mili-

tants, facilitated byIslamabad.

Asked about the exten-sion of Gen. Bajwa’sterm, Chinese foreignministry spokesmanGeng Shuang said thatthe Pakistan Army chiefhas made robust contri-bution to China andPakistan relations.

We noticed the decisionby the Pakistan govern-ment. Gen. Bajwa is anextraordinary leader ofthe Pakistani army. He isalso an old friend ofChinese government andthe army,” he said.

He has also made robustcontributions to ChinaPakistan relations. Webelieve under his leader-ship, the Pakistan Armywill continue to makecontributions to uphold-ing Pakistan’s sovereign-ty, security interests andregional peace and stabil-ity,” Geng said. — PTI

INDIAN STUDENTJUMPS INTO LAKEIN U.S., DROWNS

US TRAVELLERFORGETS SNAKEAT AIRPORTNewark, Aug. 21: Ayoung girl discoveredsomething slithery at aNew Jersey airport secu-rity checkpoint: a 15-inch-long snake.

T r a n s p o r t a t i o nSecurity Administrationofficials at the NewarkLiberty InternationalAirport said in a releasethat it appears the thin,black snake with a yel-low ring around its neckwas forgotten by a trav-eller on Monday night.

The girl alerted a TSAofficer and a grey check-point bin was placedover the snake that offi-cials said was harmless.

Officials closed thesecurity lane temporari-ly and Port Authoritypolice took the snakeaway.

New Jersey FederalSecurity Director TomCarter said in therelease that Newark hasa robust lost and foundsystem, but that theowner of the snakeshould not call them orexpect to be reunitedwith the reptile. It’sunclear where the snakewas taken.

— AP

No complete withdrawalfrom Afghanistan: Trump Washington, Aug. 21:President Donald Trumphas indicated that the USforces will not completelywithdraw from warn-tornAfghanistan and Americawill have “somebodythere” to make sure thatTaliban does not regaincontrol.

During the presidentialelection campaign in 2016,Trump had pledged towithdraw US troops fromAfghanistan and endAmerica’s longest war.

The Trump administra-tion has intensified itsefforts to seek a negotiat-ed settlement of Amer-ica’s longest war inAfghanistan where the UShas lost over 2,400 soldierssince late 2001, when itinvaded the country afterthe 9/11 terror attacks.

“We will always haveintelligence, and we'llalways have somebodythere,” Trump told repo-rters at his Oval Office onTuesday.

He was responding toquestions on the ongoingpeace talks with theTaliban in Afghanistan.Trump said he would liketo look at various alterna-tives.

“One of the alternativesis going on right now.We’re talking about a plan— I don’t know whether ornot the plan is going to beacceptable to me. Maybe

it's not going to be accept-able to them. But we aretalking. We have goodtalks going, and we'll seewhat happens.This ismore than other Presi-dents have done,” he said.

“We have brought itdown. We are bringingsome of our troops back.But we have to have apresence,” Trump said,ruling out a completewithdrawal of troops fromAfghanistan.

He was asked, “Could webe back to where we werepre-9/11 with the Talibanin complete and total con-trol of Afghanistan?”

“Well, that’s what wehave to watch,” Trumpresponded. And if theTaliban were “reallyright” in what they're say-ing, they would stop thatfrom happening, becausethey could stop that fromhappening very easily.Trump said, right now, theUS is negotiating with theAfghan government andwith the Tali-ban.

“We will see what hap-pens from it, what’s com-ing from it,” he said.

“The Taliban would liketo stop fighting us...They’ve lost a lot. Butwe’ll see what happens,”he said. Afghanistan, hesaid is a tough place.

“The Soviet Unionbecame Russia because ofAfghanistan. That’s whathappened. Very simple.They became Russia beca-use of Afghanistan. Some-body would say, Oh, well,would Russia go in? I said,If they want, let them. Ithink they tried thatbefore, however. Didn’twork out too well,” he toldthe reporters.

Trump said the US islooking at different thingsand options in Afghan-istan. “We’ve been therefor 18 years. It’s ridicu-lous. We have taken itdown a notch. We’re atabout 13,000 people rightnow... We’ll see what hap-pens,” he said. — PTI

US firms in sale faceChinese sanctions Beijing, Aug. 21: Chinasaid on Wednesday that itwill levy sanctionsagainst US companieslinked to a planned $8 bil-lion sale of advanced F-16V fighter jets toTaiwan in a move thathas further strainedSino-American relations.

The US should “imme-diately back away” fromthe arms sale proposal,Chinese foreign ministryspokesman Geng Shuangsaid at a daily briefing.

Geng said China urgesthe US to “stop armssales to and military inte-ractions with Taiwan” orotherwise “bear all theconsequences arisingfrom it.”

“China will take all nec-essary measures to safe-guard its own interests,including imposing sanc-tions on US companiesinvolved in this armssale to Taiwan,” Gengsaid.

However, he did notelaborate on any specificmeasures.

The Trump administra-tion informed Congresslast week that it plans tosell the warplanesdespite repeated warn-ings from China.

Earlier this week, the

US State Departmentapproved the sale.

Beijing fiercely opposesall arms sales to Taiwan,which it regards as arenegade province, buthas specifically objectedto advanced fighter jets. Despite a lack of formaldiplomatic ties, US lawrequires Washington toensure Taiwan has themeans to defend itself.

Taiwan is a democrati-cally governed islandthat broke away from theCommunist Party-ruledmainland during a civilwar in 1949.

China also pledgedsanctions against theUnited States in Julywhen the Trump admin-istration said it was con-sidering a $2.2 billionsale of tanks and air mis-siles to Taiwan.

Taiwan leader Tsai Ing-wen thanked the US onTuesday for approvingthe sales.

“These packages reaf-firm the United States’long-standing commit-ment to helping maintainpeace and stability in theTaiwan Strait,” Tsai said.

She also urged China torespect Taiwan's right todefend itself.

— AP

Geneva, Aug. 21: Morethan 2,300 endangeredtigers have been killed andillegally trafficked sincethe turn of the century,according to a report pub-lished on Tuesday, urgingmore action to protect thegiant cats.

With an average of morethan 120 illegally traf-ficked tigers seized eachyear — which amounts toover two each week —since year 2000, conserva-tion group Traffic warnedthere was little sign ofrespite for the species.

Report author KanithaKrishnasamy, who headsTraffic’s Southeast Asiaoperations, said the num-

bers were deeply concern-ing. “It looks like we arelosing this fight,” she said

In 1900, more than100,000 tigers were esti-mated to roam the planet.But that fell to a recordlow of 3,200 globally in2010.

Since then, populationnumbers have inchedupwards, but there arestill estimated to be fewerthan 3,900 tigers left in thewild.

“This pernicious traf-ficking,evidenced by thecontinuously high numberof whole skins, whole ani-mals — both dead andalive — and bones is testa-ment to the ongoing

demand for Tiger parts,”Krishnasamy said.

“The time for talking isover: words must beturned into action to pre-vent further Tiger loss,”

she said in a statement.Traffic, which cam-

paigns to protect endan-gered animals and helpgovernments catch thosewho trade in their parts,

published a new analysislooking at 19-years of tigerseizure data from acrossthe globe. It found that anestimated total equivalentto 2,359 individual tigers

were seized from 2000 to2018 across 32 countriesand territories.

Skins are the single mostfrequently seized tigerpart, with on average 58whole tiger skins seizedeach year, the reportfound, also noting a clearincrease in seizures ofwhole animals, both deadand alive. The study alsohighlighted the growingrole breeding centres playin fuelling the illegal tigertrade, especially inSoutheast Asia. The tigerfarm industry oftenargues the trade in captiveanimals helps to relievethe pressure on wildfelines. — AFP

Over 2,300 tigers killed this century■ Average of 120 illegally trafficked tigers seized each year — 2 per weekFEROCIOUS | FIGURES

The reform weakens restrictive guardianship system,for long a symbol of repression against women.

■ ■ SAUDI WOMEN alsogranted right to regis-ter childbirth, marriageor divorce and berecognised as aguardian to childrenwho are minors —same as men.

■ ■ SOME PEOPLE havedenounced the reformsas “unIslamic” as menwere traditionally seenas protector of women

The Soviet Unionbecame Russia

because of Afghanistan.That’s what happened.Very simple. We’ve beenthere for 18 years. It'sridiculous.

— DONALD TRUMPUS president

■ ■ TAIWAN alreadyhas a fleet of old-model F-16s pur-chased in 1992, whichhave undergone sever-al crucial upgrades.

■ ■ CHINA said it vio-lates agreements withWashington

■ ■ OFFICIALS closedthe security lane tem-porarily and PortAuthority police tookthe snake away.

■ ■ A GIRL ALERTED aTSA officer and a greycheckpoint bin wasplaced over the snakethat officials said washarmless.

LATEST FIGHTERS■ ■ TAIWAN will get thelatest version of the Lock-heed Martin-built fighter,the F-16C/D Block 70/72

■ ■ THE DEAL costs $8 bil-lion

■ ■ LOCKHEED Martin saidthe newest version,includes many avionics,weapons and radar tech-nologies not in existencewhen earlier models werecreated.

■ ■ TAIWAN already has afleet of old-model F-16spurchased in 1992, whichhave undergone severalcrucial upgrades.

■ ■ CHINA said itviolates agree-ments withWashington

■ ■ THE MANUFAC-TURER said it isstructurallystronger so that it“can fly and fightto 2070 andbeyond.”

■ ■ TAIWAN'Supgrade comesamid increasingChinese militaryincursions into itsair space.

■ ■ THE FIGHTERjets are expectedto enhanceTaiwan’s selfdefence

■ ■ CONSERVATION GROUP Traffic warned there waslittle sign of respite for the species.

■ ■ REPORT AUTHOR Kanitha Krishnasamy, said thenumbers were deeply concerning.

■ ■ IN 1900, more than 100,000 tigers were estimated toroam the planet.

■ ■ A RECORD low of 3,200 was recorded globally in 2010

■ ■ SKINS are the most seized part of the tiger

LITTLE SIGN OF RESPITE


THURSDAY | 22 AUGUST 2019 | HYDERABAD

■ Offshore funds of Indian MFs can now invest as FPIs

ASHWIN J PUNNENMUMBAI, AUG. 21

Relaxing the regulatoryframework for foreign port-folio investors (FPIs), themarkets regulator Sebi onWednesday simplified KYCrequirements for them bydoing away with the broad-based eligibility criteriafor FPIs, classifying theminto two categories insteadof three.

This apart, in order todeter insider trading, theSebi announced a newmechanism to rewardinformants with up to Rs 1crore cash for any credibleinside informationthrough a specially set uphotline.

The Sebi board alsoamended regulations con-cerning credit rating agen-cies.

Proposing the new regu-lations for FPIs after theboard meeting here, SebiChairman Ajay Tyagi saidthe registration for themultiple investment man-ager structure would besimplified. It said centralbanks of other countrieswould now be eligible to beFPIs. Besides, FPIs wouldbe permitted to carry outoff-market transfer ofunlisted, illiquid securi-ties.

The Securities andExchange Board of Indiaalso decided to allow off-shore funds of Indianmutual funds (MFs) toinvest as FPIs.

Tyagi said the regulatoris examining the possibili-ty of allowing MFs to joininter-creditor arrange-ments.

The regulator also saidentities established in theInternational FinancialServices Centre (IFSC)would be deemed to have

met the jurisdiction crite-ria for FPIs. This is expect-ed to be a big booster forthe financial centre in theGIFT City.

At Wednesday’s meeting,the Sebi's board approved adetailed set of rules for thenew 'InformantMechanism' under itsProhibition of InsiderTrading (PIT) Regulationsand also proposed a possi-ble amnesty or settlementfor minor wrongdoings inreturn for cooperation inthe probe.

However, the rewardwould only be available toindividuals and corpo-

rates, and professionalslike auditors will not beable to use this route asthey are duty-bound toreport any wrongdoing.

The new mechanism hasbeen prepared after takinginto account the feedbackSebi received on a publicdiscussion paper floated inJune.

Under the proposedamendment to Sebi's PITRegulations, an informantwould need to submit aVoluntary InformationDisclosure Form (VIDF)detailing credible, com-plete and original informa-tion related to an act of

insider trading, includingcommunication of unpub-lished price-sensitive infor-mation or trading in viola-tion of rules that hasoccurred, is occurring or isabout to occur.

It would be mandatory todisclose the source ofinformation and attach anundertaking that it has notbeen sourced from a personemployed with the Sebi orany related regulator.

The Sebi would establishan Office of InformantProtection (OIP), whichwould be responsible forreceipt, registration andprocessing of VIDF.

The informant would begiven a reward if Sebi isable to disgorge at least Rs1 crore of ill-gotten gainsfrom insider trading on thebasis of the information.The reward would be 10 percent of the money collect-ed, subject to a maximumamount of Rs 1 crore.

While an interim rewardof up to Rs 10 lakh can begiven at the time of Sebi'sfinal disgorgement order,the rest would be givenafter the regulator has dis-gorged at least twice theamount of the finalreward.

Under the amnestyclause, Sebi would takeinto account the coopera-tion rendered by aninformant in deciding anyenforcement action or set-tlement application filed byhim or her.

Amid concerns overbanks citing ‘client confi-dentiality’ to resist sharingof information on delayedloan repayments and possi-ble defaults by their bor-rowers, the regulatorwould make it mandatoryfor companies to providethese details to credit rat-ing agencies.

Mumbai, Aug. 21:Resolving the crippledmortgage lender DHFL'sover Rs 90,000 crore debtis "not so easy" andbanks are consideringconverting their out-standing into equity,Union Bank of Indiasaid on Tuesday.

Rajkiran Rai, theManaging Director andChief Executive for thestate-run UBI, which isthe lead-lender to thecrippled housing finan-cier, on Tuesday clari-fied that if the bankstake equity stake in thecompany, it will be for ashort -term, which is tillthey get a suitor.

DHFL owes over Rs45,000 to banks, and therest to other financiersincluding mutual funds,pension funds andinsurers, which are notregulated by RBI.

"It's not a normal reso-lution process. It's afinancial company. Herethe creditors are banks,insurance companies,pension funds andmutual funds. It is not soeasy. In normal resolu-tion, its banks andNBFCs, so this is new tous also," Rai toldreporters on the side-lines of the annualbanking industry eventFibac.

DHFL has become theposter-boy of the NBFCcrisis that afflicted thefinancial sector after theinfra-lender IL&FS wentbelly up last September.

Rai said convertingdebt into equity is "oneof the ideas" on the table.

—PTI

SANGEETHA GCHENNAI, AUG. 21

The slowdown in the econ-omy has reached one ofthe most defensive sec-tors—fast moving con-sumer goods. Leading bis-cuit-maker Parle has onWednesday announcedplans to lay-off as many as10,000 people over the nextone year.Parle employs about one

lakh people, includingdirect and contract work-ers, across 10 company-owned facilities and 125third-party manufactur-ing plants.

“In the past seven toeight months, our salesgrowth has come downfrom 11 to 12 per cent to 2.5per cent. As a natural out-come, we will have to cutour production by 8 to 10per cent and this will see8,000 to 10,000 peoplegoing out of job,” MayankShah, Category Head,Parle Products, toldFinancial Chronicle.

According to him, thecrisis started with theintroduction of GST andbecame acute with thecurrent slowdown.

Under the earlier taxregime, biscuits pricedbelow Rs 100 per kg wereexempted from the exciseduty. Hence, low pricedbiscuits had to pay 14 percent tax, while thosepriced above Rs 100 weretaxed 22 to 24 per cent.Under GST, the rates wererationalised to 18 per cent,thus, taxing the lowerpriced biscuits more by 4per cent and the higherpriced ones less by 4 to 6per cent.

“We made several repre-sentations to the govern-ment, and the governmentalso in-principle agreed toour point that those arti-cles which were exemptedfrom excise duty shouldbe treated accordinglyunder GST. We have beenwaiting for the govern-

ment to take action onthis for the past one-and-a-half years. However noth-ing has happened yet,” hesaid.

Parle had absorbed thehigher taxes and sufferedlosses in the hope that theGST rates will be lowered.Seven to eight monthsback, Parle went for aprice hike in productspriced below Rs 100 perkg.

“We had expected a dipin demand, but what wedid not expect was theslow down. The double-blow saw the demandfalling by 7 to 8 per cent,”added Shah.

Biscuits priced below Rs100 account for 35 per centof Parle’s sales and 25 percent of the total industrysales. These biscuits arelargely consumed by therural markets.

The slowdown has hitthe entire biscuit marketas well, though not to theextent of Parle. Biscuitspriced above Rs 100 toohave witnessed growthcoming down from 18 -20per cent to 8-9 per cent.

Shah is hopeful that thegovernment will takesteps to revive the generaldemand and also thedemand in the low-pricedbiscuits by bringing downthe taxes to 5 per cent.

The lay-off plan inFMCG sector has createdquite a stir across indus-tries. “Automotives start-ed hitting the panic but-ton a few weeks ago. In therecent past, FMCG play-ers have followed thetrend. Soon enough, wewill see white goods, logis-tics, entertainment, hospi-tality and other servicesgetting impacted,” saidAditya Narayan Mishra–Director and CEO of CIELHR Services.

“We see companiesextremely careful inadding new headcountand pursuing develop-ment projects. Candidatecommunity hasn’t yetstarted the panic in alarge-scale. However, itwill be percolating downsoon in the next three-four months unless we seecorrective actions to boostconsumption,” he added.

Fixingweakgrowthhighest priority:MPC

All new BMW 3 Serieslaunched at `41.40L

Sebi eases entry rulesfor foreign investors

Banks mayconvert`45,000-crDHFL debtinto equity

SAKET SUNDRIA, RAJESHKUMAR SINGH & DEBJIT CHAKRABORTYAUG. 21

A global glut in naturalgas is threatening toundermine a $4 billioninvestment by RelianceIndustries aimed at boost-ing profits at the world’slargest oil refining com-plex.

The project made all thesense in the world whenenergy magnate MukeshAmbani’s conglomerateannounced it in 2012: con-vert petroleum coke, orpetcoke, one of the cheap-est and dirtiest refineryby-products, into gas need-ed to power the massiveJamnagar complex onIndia’s west coast. Then ithit about three years ofdelays, and global gas mar-kets crashed amid a grow-ing supplies of liquefied

cargoes from the US,Australia and Russia.

The 10 synthetic gasi-fiers that make up theproject are now finallycommissioned. But theimported LNG they’remeant to displace has fall-en from about $15 per mil-lion British thermal unitsin 2012 to less than $5.

And that price slump hasreduced the project’s via-bility, according to a per-son with knowledge of thecompany’s finances.

Reliance predicted in2014 that the project wouldboost Jamnagar’s refiningmargins by as much as $2a barrel. Now, Mumbai-based brokerage CentrumBroking sees an uplift ofabout $1.30 to $1.50 a bar-rel by the 2021-2022 fiscalyear, according to a July 21report by Analysts ProbalSen and Akshay Mane.

“It’s not the most con-

ducive environment tobring the petcoke projecton stream,” saidSomshankar Sinha, Headof India Equity Researchat Jefferies FinancialGroup. “The LNG surplushas caused prices to fallmuch more than the usualdecline in summermonths,” the Mumbai-based analyst added.Jefferies said it expects afull ramp-up of Reliance’sproject in financial year2021.

The gasifiers, originallyscheduled to begin opera-tions in 2016, are now inthe final stages of beingstabilized and integratedwith other facilities, withan expected increase tofull capacity in March,according to people withknowledge of operations,who asked not to be identi-fied as information isn’tpublic.

Reliance has said theunits are still profitable atcurrent LNG prices and itwill cut down on importsof the fuel when theycome online. “Whenever itcomes, gasification will becost-effective,” Joint ChiefFinancial Officer V.Srikanth said in Mumbailast month.

With the plant still not

fully operational, the com-pany is still importingLNG, recently picking upseveral cargoes for deliv-ery between July andOctober. Meanwhile, it hasalso been selling petcoke,according to a trader whodistributes the product.

Reliance spokesmanTushar Pania didn’trespond to an email seek-ing comment. The compa-ny’s share price fell for asecond day on Wednesday,closing 0.4 per cent lowerat Rs 1,270.80 in Mumbaias the benchmark S&PBSE Sensex ended 0.7 percent lower.

A recovery in LNGprices “should aid eco-nomics for the gasifier,”according to CentrumBroking, even as LNGprices are set to stay lowdue to surging suppliesfrom producers such asthe US shale drillers.

Based on the forwardcurve for Asia’s dominantLNG benchmark for sup-plies in Japan and SouthKorea, the super-chilledgas is priced at between$5.50 and $8 per millionBtu from 2020 to 2023.Prompt LNG prices arepegged at around $4.70 perMMBtu.

Low LNG spot pricescould encourage Relianceto take more spot volumesin the coming quarters,although the companywon’t shift its long-termstrategy away from elimi-nating petcoke residue,said Senthil Kumaran, aSingapore-based analystat industry consultantFGE.

The payoffs fromReliance’s investment ingasifiers, however, “won’tbe as rich as it was origi-nally thought,” he added.

— Bloomberg

RIL’s $4 bn petcoke bet hurt by too much gas

FC BUREAUNEW DELHI, AUG. 21

Echoing Prime MinisterNarendra Modi’s recentassurance to the automo-bile industry on the issueof transition to electricvehicles, a top governmentofficial on Wednesday saidthe Centre has not set anydeadline for change-over.

In a media interview ear-lier this month, Mr Modihad said that India has alarge enough market andbig enough policy space toensure growth of internalcombustion engine (ICE)-based automobiles andelectric vehicles (EV).

“There is no need to spec-ulate about the growth ofeither of the two. We are ina unique situation whereboth ICE and EV-basedautomobiles can co-exist,co-create and learn fromeach other,” he had said.

Now the official has reit-erated the governmentstand on the issue.

The Niti Aayog has sug-gested transition to fullelectric vehicles for three-wheelers by 2023 and two-wheelers with an enginecapacity of less than 150ccby 2025.

Moreover, in June it hadasked conventional two-and three-wheeler makersto suggest within twoweeks concrete steps fortransition towards electricmobility keeping in mind

2025 deadline.However, on Wednesday,

replying to a question onthis, the official said, "Th-ere is no such deadline."

Leading two- and three-wheeler makers hadopposed the proposal, stat-ing that the transition wastotally uncalled for whichwould hurt the industryand trigger job loss. Theyhad called for deliberationswith all stakeholdersbefore the adoption of EVsinstead of imposition ofsuch green vehicles.

Parle may lay-off 10,000as GST, slowdown hurt

‘No deadline for EV transition’ARCHAK SENGUPTA | DCHYDERABAD, AUG. 21

With leases on few of itsoffices coming to an endsoon, Amazon will consoli-date and shift its work-force in Hyderabad, whichforms nearly one-third ofthe total workforce inIndia, into its largest cam-pus building in the world,a top company official saidhere on Wednesday.

Speaking to the mediaafter inauguration of thenew building, Amazon In-dia SVP and Country Man-ager, Amit Agarwal, said,“currently, we have eightbuildings in Hyderabad. Itis natural for us to look tobringing people togetherat one place. We would dothat (consolidation) inphases... We don’t have atimeline set for the build-ing. Our goal is to have

capacity to keep growingin the coming years.”

Currently, Amazonemploys around 60,000 inthe country. Out of it,nearly 20,000, or one inthree Amazon employees,works based out ofHyderabad. The companyhas already shifted nearly4,000 of its employee fromcentres across the city intothe new building.

The new building, locat-ed on a 9.5 acre campus,would be the first to beowned by Amazon outsidethe US. It can accommo-date around 15,000 employ-ees, who will cater to theentire spans of the compa-ny’s global portfolio.

John Schoettler, vice-president (global realestate and facilities),Amazon, who was presentfor the inauguration, saidthe infrastructure has

been designed as perAmazon’s exacting stan-dards to foster inclusionand a sense of belongingamong its staff.

However, when asked ifthe slowdown in economyhas started to affect thecompany’s business inIndia, Mr Aggarwal said,“currently, e-commercecontributes to only threeper cent of the total retailbusiness in the country. Interms of Amazon, we con-tinue to see growth in allaspects. For AmazonPrime, India is one of itsbiggest, where our userbase has nearly doubled.”

The e-commerce giant,which has been very bull-ish on Hyderabad, housesits largest India fulfilmentcentre spread over fourlakh sq ft at the RajivGandhi InternationalAirport.

Amazon opens largest office

quickBITES

INDICATORS %Sensex 37,060.37 -0.72Nifty 50 10,918.70 -0.89S&P 500 2,924.44 +0.82Dollar (`) 71.56 -0.20Pound Sterling (`) 86.87 -0.20Euro (`) 79.45 +0.06Gold (10gm)* (`) 38,820▲50 +0.12Brent crude ($/bbl)* 60.57 +0.90IN 10-Yr bond yield 6.560 -0.018US 10-Yr T-bill yield 1.567 +0.008

* As of 9:30 pm IST

UTI AMC, SBI MFappointed EPFOfund managersThe EPFO approved appoint-ment of UTI AMC and SBIMutual Fund as its fund man-agers for three years. It alsoapproved a proposal for earlyredemption of its investment ofaround Rs 700 crore in bondsof DHFL at its trustees' meet-ing. The proposal to double theminimum monthly pension toRs 2,000 under the EPS, 1995,was deferred, sources said.

Gold hits`38,820; silverjumps `1,140

Gold prices appreciated Rs 50to hit a new high of Rs 38,820per 10 gram at the Delhi bullionmarket on account of buyingfrom jewellers, according tothe All India SarafaAssociation. Silver also soaredby Rs 1,140 to Rs 45,040 perkg on fresh offtake by industri-al units and coin makers.

Maruti Suzukilaunches new XL6MPV at `9.79 lakhMaruti Suzuki India launchedan new multi-purpose vehicleXL6 priced between Rs 9.79lakh and Rs 11.46 (ex-show-room). The new model comeswith 1.5 litre petrol powertrainwith progressive smart hybridsystem paired with lithium-ionbattery. The XL6 will be avail-able in five-speed manual and4-speed automatic transmis-sion options. Manual trims arepriced at Rs 9.79 lakh and Rs10.36 lakh, respectively.

Centre warnsagainst hoardingof onion

Printed & Published by T Venkateswarlu on behalf of DeccanChronicle Holdings Limited, Printed at

Deccan Chronicle Press at DeccanChronicle Holdings Ltd. #563/9/D&9/E,Behind Andhra Bank Pet Basheerbagh,

Kompally, Ranga Reddy Dist. Editor:T.Venkatram Reddy, RNI Reg

No.APENG/2008/24282. © All rightsreserved. Reproduction in whole or in partwithout written permission of The Editor,

Financial Chronicle ® is prohibited.

Overleaf

The Centre warned of strict acti-on against hoarding of onionamid supply disruption fears dueto floods in parts of major grow-ing states of Maharashtra andKarnataka. The Department ofConsumer Affairs reviewed theprice situation of onion during ameeting in New Delhi. It hasalso been decided that cap theretail price of onion at Safal (aMother Dairy outlet) at Rs 23.90per kg (for Grade A variety).

Mukesh Ambani

◗ The crisis started with the introduction ofGST and became acute with the slowdown.◗ Earlier, biscuits priced below Rs 100 perkg were exempted from the excise duty.Hence, low priced biscuits had to pay 14%tax, and the rest 22% to 24%.◗ Under GST, the rates were rationalised to18%, thus, raising the tax by 4%

DOUBLE WHAMMY

Mumbai, Aug. 21: SebiChairman Ajay Tyagisaid various issues needto be examined beforedeciding on mandating 35per cent minimum publicshareholding in listedcompanies, as proposedin the Union Budget.

"There are certainissues that need to be fur-ther examined. We willneed to look at global reg-ulations whether it is

mandated beyond 25 percent anywhere. What isthe right level to be man-dated... What will be theshort-term and long-termimplications for the com-panies and for the mar-ket," he said, adding, "45per cent of listed PSUs asof now don't even meetthe 25 per cent require-ment and they have beengiven time till August2020 to comply.”

Undecided on 35% holding


THURSDAY | 22 AUGUST 2019 | HYDERABAD

MICHAEL GONSALVESPUNE, AUG. 21

BMW, India's secondbiggest German luxury carmaker, on Wednesday intro-duced the all-new seventhgeneration BMW 3 Seriessedan to take on its compa-triot rivals such as marketleader Mercedes Benz,Audi, Jaguar Land Rover,Volvo and Lexus in thefiercely competitive marketin Asia's third biggest econ-omy.

With a starting price ofRs 41.40 lakh and goingupto Rs 47.90 lakh at panIndia showroom, new BMW3 Series will take on theMercedes-Benz C-Class, theAudi A4 and the Jaguar XEin India.

BMW 3 Series sedanpromises to boost sales and

increase the market shareof the Stuttgart-headquar-tered company in the coun-try.

"The all-new BMW 3Series built on a new plat-form will expand our mar-ket with millennial aspira-tional buyers in the coun-try," Rudratej Singh,President and CEO at BMWGroup India, who took overIndia operations fromAugust 1 in his firstmedia interac-tion.

He said everythird luxury carsold in India fromthe BMW stable isthe popular 3 Seriessedan, which is thelargest sellingsports sedan in thecountry.

The locally pro-

duced at its Chennai facto-ry is now available for salesin petrol and diesel vari-ants at its dealership acrossIndia.

"The 3 Series is the heartand soul of BMW. As theultimate sports sedan, forover four decades, it hasbeen the flag bearer of

sheer driving pleasure,"Sigh pointed out.

He said the all-new BMW3 Series, built for the thrilland driven by technology,creates an impeccable har-mony between the driver,the machine and the road.

Based on the same ClusterArchitecture (CLAR) plat-form as the 5 and 7 Series,the new sedan is larger, andyet about 55 kg lighter than

its predecessor.In terms of styling,

the G20 retains thebasic silhouette of theF30 but features plen-ty of tweaks allround. Up front, L-shaped LED daytime runninglights replace the traditional roundones and the kidneygrille is bigger.

SWATI BHATMUMBAI, AUG. 21

Fixing India's weak growthhas become the highest pri-ority while a benign infla-tion outlook has given thecentral bank room to cutrates although transmis-sion remains inadequate,monetary policy committeemeeting minutes showed.

The Reserve Bank ofIndia (RBI) lowered itsbenchmark interest ratesfor a fourth straight meet-ing this month with aslightly bigger than expect-ed cut, underscoring itsworries about the near-fiveyear low economic growthpace.

The six-member mone-tary policy committee(MPC) cut the repo rate byan unconventional 35 basispoints (bps) to 5.40 per cent.

"Given the current andevolving inflation andgrowth scenario at thisjuncture, it can no longerbe a business as usualapproach. The economyneeds a larger push,"Governor Shaktikanta Dassaid in the minutes,released on Wednesday.

Annual retail inflation inJuly was 3.15 per cent,down from an eight-monthhigh of 3.18 per cent inJune and staying below thecentral bank's 4 per centmedium-term target for a12th straight month, rais-ing expectations for a cut inOctober.

Last week, a Reuters pollpredicted the RBI would

ease its benchmark rate by25 basis points again to 5.15per cent at its Octobermeeting, followed by a 15basis point cut in the firstquarter of 2020.

Since February, the RBIhas cut the repo rate by atotal 110 basis points (bps),but most banks have notcome close to following suit.

"Under prevailing cir-

cumstances, the immediatetransmission should beconsidered not so much interms of the bank depositand lending rates but morespecific rates influencingnew investments such ashousing loans, vehicleloans and long term bonds,"said one MPC member,Ravindra Dholakia.

Most members of thecommittee, however, feltrate transmission would befaster in coming weeks andmonths aided by surplusliquidity in the bankingsystem.

The RBI is also looking toget banks to link some newloans to its key policy rateor other external bench-marks, Das said on Monday,as he pushes them to cutrates faster to stimulategrowth.

"While they are givingstylised arguments to justi-fy their recommendations,none of them has made aclear statement on the out-look or possible timelinesfor recovery," said RupaRege Nitsure, ChiefEconomist at L&TFinancial Holdings.

"A lot depends on how

promptly fiscal authoritiesundertake remedial meas-ures."

Finance MinisterNirmala Sitharaman hasrecently held several meet-ings with industry leaders,who have called for stimu-lus measures, including taxrebates, to support con-sumer demand and privateinvestment.

Pami Dua, another mem-ber of the MPC, said whilemonetary policy can impactcyclical factors, it has itslimits when the slowdownis structural in nature.

"Therefore, investment-focused fiscal policy andactive continuation ofstructural reforms areimperative at this junc-ture," Dua said.

The government waslooking into policy issuessuch as exempting foreignportfolio investor trustsfrom recently imposed hightax, deferring a proposal toraise minimum publicshare holding in listed com-panies to 35 per cent from25 per cent and easing ofbanking credit, a sourcetold Reuters on Friday.

— Reuters

Beijing, Aug. 21: A happycouple exchange a kiss forthe camera, the bride in awhite off-the-shoulder dressholding a delicate bouquet,the groom in matchingwhite suit, standing togetheron a green lawn lined withpink blossom.

It looks like the perfect we-dding memory — except it'snot their wedding day. Inste-ad, it is part of a booming in-dustry in China for increas-ingly elaborate pre-weddingphotos, as young couplesspend time and cash liningup glamorous photo shootsto display on their big day.

But for those who can'tafford to travel overseas or toChinese tourist hotspots insearch of suitable backdro-ps, companies like the LoveStory in Rome studio bring a

range of backgrounds, cos-tumes, accessories andthemes together — all with-in one Beijing complex.

"It's really tiring to shootoutside, moving from oneplace to another place. This

wedding shoot center isindoors and it provideseverything you want," saidbride Zhao Tianyou, 25, whohad been shooting since 8amthat morning.

Rows of couples pose for

photographs inside thesprawling complex inBeijing, with settings rang-ing from tropical gardens toautumnal fields, waterfallsto starlit skies.

In one carefully stage-man-aged shot, a bride in a whitedress floats half-submergedin water, drinking a glass ofwine.

"Chinese wedding photog-raphy has become more cus-tomised," said GeneralManager Zhao Rongchang.

"Chinese people used tolove to go on trips for shoot-ing their wedding photos...But now they prefer to shootindoors and prefer a moreprecise photography style."

The value of the weddingindustry in China has beenbooming, with researchgroup ASKCI predicting that

by the end of 2019 its valuewill reach 2.27 trillion yuan.

Zhao says between 50 and60 couples come to their cen-ter every day on a quest forthe perfect snaps.

The enormous building isfull of aisles of clothing andaccessories in every colour,from traditional red Chinesewedding outfits to modernWestern-style white gownsand suits.

An army of helpers takephotographs and managesets, adjust clothing and addaccessories with coupleschanging outfits multipletimes throughout the day.

"I love all the styles they'vedesigned for me," said abride surnamed Wu, aged 26."It's a bit tiring, but I'm veryhappy."

— AFP

Financial

OPENING

PROJECTION FOR TODAYBELL

The domestic marketcontinued to face heavyselling as concerns overa global recession andan escalating US-Chinatrade war spoiledinvestors' sentiment.

The Sensex fell 267.64points or 0.72 per cent tosettle at 37060.37, whilethe Nifty 50 Index fell98.30 points or 0.89 percent to settle at 10918.70.On the BSE, 651 sharesrose and 1,825 shares fell.A total of 150 shares we-re unchanged. The S&PBSE Mid-Cap Index fell1.32 per cent, while theS&P BSE Small-Cap Ind-ex plunged 1.43 per cent.

Technical View

"Index closed a day at10919 with loss of 98points forming bearishcandle for third consecu-tive day. Index still man-aged to close above 10900zone hinting if managedto hold above 10900 Indexcan again be in samerange of 10900-11200 zonefor some more sessionsand any decisive breakbelow 10900 can see sha-rp cuts towards 10800zone. Immediate supportfor the Nifty is comingnear 11865-10800 zoneand resistance is comingnear 10980-11040 zone.The Nifty Bank closed aday at 27719 with loss of263 points, immediate su-pport for the Nifty Bankis coming near 27580-27400 zone and resistanceis coming near 27900-28100 zone," said RohitSingre, Senior TechnicalAnalyst, LKP Securities.

Market View

The Nifty is down for thethird consecutive dayamid negative globalcues. Though domesticcues had rumors of cutin Corporate Tax cut to25 per cent and scrappingof surcharge on tax pay-ments but the sentimentswere largely bearish.

"The Nifty is alreadypoised with negativesentiments as the latestquarterly numbers werenot that good with mostthe Nifty 50 companiesmissing the estimates.The rate cuts have notbeen able to rejoice aswell since the market isconcerned about a slow-down that is shadowingover the global markets.We maintain our bear-ish view with lower tar-gets of 10800 - 10750,"said Mustafa Nadeem,CEO, Epic Research.

"In the domestic mar-kets, investors are pin-ning hopes on any stim-ulus/measures from thegovernment to lift thesentiments. On the glob-al front, investors maytake cues from FOMCminutes which willrelease on Wednesday.Meanwhile, we continueto remain cautious onthe markets in the near-term. We recommendinvestors should utilizethe market correction toaccumulate fundamen-tally strong stocks," AjitMishra Vice President,Research, ReligareBroking said.

— Ashwin J. Punnen

Markets toremaincautious innear-term

Fixing weak growth highestpriority: MPC meet minutes

■RBI underscores worries about near 5-year low economic growth pace

Pre-wedding photo industry booms in China

New Delhi, Aug. 21:The government onWednes-day said it hasinitiated steps to imple-ment provisions of theMotor Vehicles Act 2019,and 63 clauses which donot require framing ofnew rules are likely tobe implemented fromSeptember 1 subject toclearance from the LawMinistry.

Sixty three clauseswhich do not requireframing of new ruleshave been sent to theLaw Ministry for vet-ting, Minister for RoadTransport andHighways Nitin Gadkarisaid here.

"Subject to clearancefrom Law Ministry,these clauses are likelyto be implemented from1st of September," theminister said.

These clauses dealwith penalties, licences,registration andNational TransportPolicy, among others.

Regarding the otherclauses for which ruleshave to be framed,Gadkari said steps forthis have already beeninitiated by the ministry,and rules will be notifiedas and when the dueprocesses are completed.

The minister alsoexpressed happinessthat the Motor VehiclesAct (MVA) 2019 hasbecome a reality, sayingthis will go a long way ingiving the country a safeand corruption free roadtransport system.

He further said theNational TransportPolicy that will bebrought in under theAct will help in develop-ing an efficient, multi-modal transport system.

Gadkari expressedhope that MVA 2019 willhelp curb road accidentsand bring down fatali-ties.

He said the ministry isspending Rs 12,000 croretowards rectification of786 accident black spotsidentified by the NHAI.

In addition, talks areon with the World Bankand Asian DevelopmentBank (ADB) for anotherprogramme worth Rs14,000 crore for rectifica-tion of black spots onnational, state and dis-trict highways.

The minister also ann-ounced that FASTagswill become mandatoryfor all vehicles fromDecember this year.

As many as 52.59 lakhFASTags have beenissued till date.

— PTI

Over 60 MVAclauses totake effectfrom Sept

FC BUREAUMUMBAI, AUG. 21

Mumbai-based SamcoSecurities has launched anew mutual fund invest-ment tool called SmartSIPon its mutual fund invest-ment platform (RankMF)which maximises returnsby allocating month-ly SIP money toequities onlywhen marketconditions aref av o u r a b l eand parks SIPmoney in liq-uid funds oth-erwise inadverse marketconditions, thuso u t p e r f o r m i n greturns provided by tra-ditional systematic invest-ment plan or SIP.

"SmartSIP is a revolution-ary new order type forinvesting in Mutual Fundswhich maximizes returns.It automatically follows therule of Buying Low andSelling High instead of aregular SIP which buysunits even when marketsare high. In a SmartSIP

order, when the marketprices are expensive,money is invested in lowrisk liquid funds and whenthe market prices arecheap, more money isinvested in equity funds,"Samco Securities said.

Jimeet Modi, Founderand CEO, Samco

Securities said, "Inrecent times SIP

has been gain-ing popularityamong mutualf u n di n v e s t o r s ,with thelaunch of

S m a r t S I P ,investors can

give a big boost totheir mutual fund

returns with far lowerrisks, a win-win combina-tion to generate higherabsolute returns than nor-mal SIP." "SmartSIP offersa completely new way ofinvesting for retailinvestors to generate supe-rior returns by buying lowand selling high whichhitherto was only availableto HNIs and InstitutionalInvestors," Modi said.

Samco launches SmartSIPto maximise MF returns

All new BMW 3 Series launched at `41.40L

CHAYUT SETBOONSARNGBANGKOK, AUG. 21

Thai chemicals companyIndorama Ventures hascommitted $1.5 billion ofinvestment in recycling asconsumers become moreaware of the environmentalimpact of single-use plasticand regulators push formore recycling, it said onWednesday.

Indorama's main businessis the production of PETresin, a polymer used tomake plastic bottles andfibres used in products suchas seat belts and tyres.

In the 12 months to June 30the company produced near-ly 5,000 kilo tonnes of PET.

"We are investing $1 billionin recycling over the nextfive years," Chief ExecutiveAloke Lohia told Reuters onWednesday, adding thatinvestment would includegreenfield and brownfieldmergers and acquisitionsfocusing on bottle-to-bottlerecycling.

Indorama has 11 recyclingsites around the world,including plants inThailand, Mexico and

France, and aims to step upits green credentials inresponse to new regulationbeing rolled out by govern-ments as well as changingexpectations from cus-tomers.

In March the EuropeanCommission announced atarget to incorporate 25 percent of recycled plastic inPET bottles by 2025, with atargeted 90 per cent collec-tion rate.

After 2023 Indorama plansto invest an additional $500million by 2025 to help itscustomers to achieve the 25

per cent target, Lohia added.Indian-born Lohia started

Indorama in Thailand in1994 with about 200 employ-ees. The company has sincegrown to employ 18,000 peo-ple across 31 countries.

"There is infrastructure inthe world to recycle PET.The problem lies in the col-lection," he said.

Consultancy Wood Mackenzie Chemicals esti-mates that the collectionrate for PET beverage bot-tles in the European Unionwas about 58 per cent in2017.

About 40 per cent ofIndorama's revenue is fromNorth America and about 30per cent from Europe.

Indorama, which countsCoca-Cola, PepsiCo andNestle among its customers,said it is working withbrand owners and govern-ments to allow more bottle-to-bottle recycling.

The acquisitive companystill has $2.5 billion of unco-mmitted capital for new pro-jects in its other businesses,including olefin, fibres andfeedstocks, Lohia said.

— Reuters

Indorama commits $1.5 bntowards plastic recycling

PAGE

14

—RAVI RANJAN PRASAD

TaMo shares at 17-year lowTata Motors shares fell tolowest levels in 17 yearssince 2002 and closed 9.29per cent down at Rs 112.30.Tata Motors fell 11.51 percent on the BSE intra-dayand touched a new 52week low of Rs 109.55 ondemand slow down wor-ries in China.

According to reportsChina's Geely AutomobileHoldings said that its prof-it fell 40 per cent amid a

sustained downturn in theworld's biggest auto mar-ket leading to analysts andtraders worrying aboutTata Motors China salesgoing ahead. Tata Motorshuge debt along with dom-estic slowdown worst intwo decades is already hu-rting the stock and over-seas sales also facing slow-down worries hit the stockhard on Wednesday, saidanalysts.

CG Power and IndustrialSolutions fell 20 per centfor second consecutiveday after 20 per cent fallon Tuesday as Ministry ofCorporate Affairsordered a probe inalleged financial irregu-larities and unauthorisedtransactions in the com-pany. CG Power closed atRs 11.80 down 20 per centon BSE. The sharp fallimpacted Yes Bank whichhad holding of 12.79 percent as on June 30, 2019 inCG Power. Yes Bank fell8.21 per cent to a new fiveyear low of Rs 65.40 onthe BSE and made a new52 week low of Rs 64.50.Yes Bank had fallen over7 per cent on Tuesdayafter CG Power disclo-sure made to stockexchanges regardingfinancial irregularitiesand unauthorised trans-actions in the company.

STREETbuzz

CG’s 20% slidehits Yes Bank

NBFC major ShriramCity Union Finance hasannounced public issueof secured redeemablenon-convertible deben-tures (NCDs). The issueoffers an effective yield(interest rate) of up to9.85 per cent per annumand will be open fromAugust 21 to September19, with an option ofearly closure or exten-sion. The investmenttenors comprise two,three and five years, withannual and cumulativeoptions for two years andmonthly, annual andcumulative options forthree and five years.

The NCDs have beenrated AA plus by CareRatings and AA by Crisil.The base issue size is Rs100 crore, with an optionto retain over subscrip-tion to the extent of Rs900 crore.

Shriram NCDsto offer 9.85%

Oslo, Aug 21: The man-agers of Norway's sover-eign wealth fund, theworld's biggest, said onWednesday that the fundhad grown in value inthe second quarter,despite volatility gener-ated by global trade ten-sions.

The Bank of Norway,which manages thefund, said in a statementthat "the GovernmentPension Fund Globalreturned 3.0 per cent, or256 billion kroner (25.7billion euros, $28.5 bil-lion) in the second quar-ter of 2019."

"Uncertainty aboutglobal trade and eco-nomic growth dampenedreturns early on, butmarkets rallied towardsthe end of the period,driven partly by theprospect of more expan-sionary monetary policyin developed markets,"said the fund's DeputyCEO, Trond Grande.

The fund — whichmanages the country'soil revenues in order tofinance Norway's gener-ous welfare state whenits oil and gas wells rundry — attained "positiveresults in a volatile mar-ket," the statement said.

— AFP

Norway’swealth fundgains 3%

Mumbai, Aug. 21:Advertising andcommunication majorWPP on Wednesday saidit will invest in two co-location campuses inIndia, as part of its glob-al strategy.

It, however, did notdivulge the quantum ofinvestment for the twocampuses.

The roll-out will com-mence with more than3,800 people moving intoa new Mumbai Campusin late August, while aGurugram Campus willbe set up next year, itsaid in a statement.

In a first for WPP'sIndia offices, the co-loca-tion will bring togethermore than 16 companiesunder one roof, with aspace of 3,80,000 squarefeet over a 10-year lease,it added.

"India represents aregion with immenseopportunities for WPP.We are committed tobuilding furthermomentum for our busi-nesses there, throughour campus invest-ments," WPP ChiefExecutive Officer (CEO)Mark Read said.

WPP plans twoco-locationcampuses

Mumbai, Aug. 21: Theongoing economic slow-down has started hurt-ing corporates as well,with companies report-ing a sharp decline inboth revenue and profitgrowth numbers in theJune quarter, a reportsaid on Wednesday.

India Inc's net salesgrowth for the Junequarter slid to 4.6 percent as against 13.5 percent for the same periodlast year, while the netprofit growth moderatedto 6.6 per cent as com-pared to last year's 24.6per cent.

The findings are basedon an analysis of 2,976companies which havereported their quarterlynumbers by domesticrating agency CareRatings.

"The first quarter ofthe fiscal year 2019-20has been marked by dis-appointing and weakcorporate earningsindicative of the overallslowdown in variousindustries and the econ-omy," it said.

In what can be termedas a silver lining, thebroader economic woesdo not seem to have hadan impact on theorgnaised sector jobs, asthe employee expensesgrowth continued to bestable.

— PTI

India Increports lowerQ1 revenue

Itallocates

monthly SIP moneyto equities only whenmarket conditions arefavourable and parksthe money in liquidfunds otherwise in

adverse condi-tions

UNCONVENTIONAL REMEDY

Given thecurrent andevolving

inflation andgrowth scenarioat this juncture,it can no longerbe a business asusual approach.The economyneeds a largerpush.”

◗ The six-member monetary policy committeecut the repo rate by an unconventional 35 basispoints to 5.40 per cent this month

— Shaktikanta Das, Governor, RBI


THURSDAY | 22 AUGUST 2019 | HYDERABADDECCAN CHRONICLE

SHORT TAKES

He's fast for sure,but in we've beenbrought up facingguys of his pace.

— Tim Paine, Australiacaptain, on not being

intimidated by Jofra Archer

Aussies look tofill Smith void

16 in contentionfor physio’s post

Leeds: Australia captain TimPaine is expecting the “same

old Steve Smith” when the starbatsman eventually returns to

Ashes action.“Steve Smith’s the best player

in the world, he will come backin the next Test, if it’s the next

Test, or the tour game andwe’re expecting him to be the

same old Steve Smith,” saidPaine.

Smith has been ruled out ofThursday’s third Ashes Test at

Headingley after being con-cussed by a Jofra Archer 92

mph bouncer in the drawn sec-ond Test at Lord’s.

Marnus Labuschagne made afine fifty in the second inningsafter being hit flush on his hel-

met grille second ball byArcher. — AFP

Mumbai: The process to pickthe support staff of the Indian

cricket team continued onWednesday when the selectioncommittee interviewed 16 aspi-

rants eyeing the physio’s joband 12 for the position of

strength and conditioningcoach.

The support staff will beappointed for a period of two

years beginning from the seriesagainst South Africa till the end

of the 2021 T20 World Cup tobe held in India. The team is setto get a new physio and trainer

after Patrick Farhat andShankar Basu expressed their

unwillingness to continue. Among those who appeared

for trainer’s post wasRajnikanth, who is associated

with IPL franchise DelhiCapitals. Sudarshan VP, who

was India team’s strength andconditioning coach for a brief

period and was also associatedwith NCy, too was interviewed.

A source said that after theprocess is over, the selection

panel will give their recommen-dations to the CEO, who in turn

will give it to the CoA. — PTI

CricketBouncer BattleAustralia coach Justin Langer has told his side to avoidbeing drawn into a bouncer battle after Steve Smithwas ruled out of the third Ashes Test against England

North Sound (Antigua),Aug. 21: A perfect combi-nation and a winningstart will be foremost onskipper Virat Kohli’smind when India take onWest Indies in their inau-gural World TestChampionship openerhere on Thursday.

A win in the openingTest will be the 27th forKohli as skipper and willput him on even keel withhis predecessorMahendra Singh Dhoni.A century in the game(19th as captain) willplace him on par withRicky Ponting.

On paper, a batting line-up that has Kohli,Cheteshwar Pujara, KLRahul, Rohit Sharma andRishabh Pant in theranks should be termedclear favourites but thisWest Indies team, led byJason Holder, is nopushover. England foundthat out the hard way atthe start of the year whenthey lost a Test series 1-2in some of the most livelypitches on the Caribbeanislands in recent times.One such pacer-friendlywicket was at the SirVivian Richards Stadiumin Antigua where Kohliand his men will be fac-ing the Windies first up.

“People have been talk-ing about Test cricket notbeing relevant or dyingdown. For me, the compe-tition has gone up two-fold the last couple ofyears. It’s up to the play-ers to take the challengeand go for victories,”Kohli said about the inau-gural edition of the WorldTest Championship.

“The games are going tobe much more competi-tive and it brings a lot ofpurpose to the Testmatches you play. It’s theright move and at theabsolute right time,”Kohli said.

The last Test playedhere saw England scoring187 and 132 but that was adifferent time of the year.Nevertheless, Kohli andhead coach Ravi Shastri,who recently got a freshcontract, will be wary ofthe challenge that can beposed by the new ball pairof Kemar Roach andShannon Gabriel along

with Jason Holder bowl-ing his steady seam-upspells.

If there is pace andbounce, Kohli is likely togo with four specialistbowlers in whichRavichandran Ashwinand Kuldeep Yadav willbe fighting for the lonespinner’s slot. The threepacers, in all likelihood,will be Jasprit Bumrah,Ishant Sharma andMohammed Shami.

However, it is the bat-ting combination thatwill be the skipper’s pri-mary worry and if he canget it right, that will beconsidered as a tacticalvictory. In an ideal situa-

tion, if Hardik Pandyawas available, Kohliwould have been temptedto drop one among RohitSharma and AjinkyaRahane but given therecent record of WestIndies in Tests, he mightgo in with an extra bats-man which means bothwill feature in the playingXI.

If a green-top is provid-ed and Kohli still goeswith five bowlers whichincludes Ravindra Jadejaas an all-rounder, it couldwell be a toss-up betweenthe two Mumbaikars. Theother issue will be at thetop of the order as to whowill open with Mayank

Agarwal. The commonlogic says KL Rahul, whois a specialist opener, butHanuma Vihari was sentto do the fire-fighting inAustralia and it would beunfair to not give himanother opportunityagainst a relatively easierpace attack. — PTI

SQUADIndia: Virat Kohli (cap-tain), Mayank Aagrwal, KLRahul, Cheteshwar Pujara,Hanuma Vihari, AjinkyaRahane, Rohit Sharma,Rishabh Pant (wk), KuldepYadav, RavichandranAshwin, Ravindra Jadeja,Ishant Sharma,Mohammed Shami, JaspritBumrah, Umesh Yadav,Bhuvneshwar Kumar,Wriddhiman Saha (wk)West Indies: Jason Holder(c), Kraigg Brathwaite,Darren Bravo, ShamarhBrooks, John Campbell,Roston Chase, RakheemCornwall, Shane Dowrich,Shannon Gabriel, ShimronHetmyer, Shai Hope,Keemo Paul, KemarRoach.

New Delhi, Aug. 21:Former skipper AnilKumble’s ability to boostconfidence of the playersmakes him an ideal candi-date for the role of chair-man of selectors, saidVirender Sehwag, whoalso advocated a hike inremuneration for the job.

Never to mince hiswords, former openerSehwag said BCCI needsto pay more for headingthe selectors’ committee.The current selectionpanel, led by MSK Prasad,has faced a lot of flak forit being a lightweightwith a cumulative experi-ence of 13 Tests.

“I think Anil Kumblecould be the right candi-date for the chairman ofselectors post. He is some-one who has interactedwith Sachin (Tendulkar),Sourav (Ganguly) andRahul (Dravid) as a playerand with youngsters as acoach,” Sehwag said.

“When I made a come-back (Australia series2007-08), captain Kumblecame to my room and saidyou will not be droppedfor the next two series.That’s the kind of confi-dence a player needs,”said Sehwag.

However, Sehwag alsosaid that he doesn’t thinkthat Kumble will agree todo the job right now sincethe chairman gets Rs 1crore per annum. “BCCIneeds to raise bar as faras pay is concerned. Thena lot of players will beinterested,” said Sehwag.

Asked if he would alsobe interested in this post,Sehwag said that he does-n’t like too many restric-tions.

“I write columns,appear on TV and beingselector will mean a lot ofrestrictions. I don’t knowwhether I would like somany restrictions,” the

Nawab of Najafgarh said.Sehwag, who had lost

the race to be India’scoach in 2017 to RaviShastri, said that he didnot apply this time. “In2017, the BCCI secretaryand (late) Dr MV Sridharasked me to apply so Iapplied. This time no oneasked me, so I didn’tapply,” said Sehwag whenasked if he was amusedin the manner Shastriwas re-appointed thecoach.

As the talk veeredtowards playing XI for thefirst Test against WestIndies, Sehwag’s votewent to Rahane if Indiaplayed five bowlers.

“Rahane has been bat-ting at No 4 (No.5) so if itis a case of five bowlers then he should play,”Sehwag reasoned.

— PTI

Make Kumble aselector: Sehwag

IT’S CALYPSO TIME■ Kohli & Co. seek winning start to theirWorld Test Championship campaign

HIGHESTINNINGS TOTALS● India 649-9 decin 149.5 overs atRajkot 2018-19

● Windies 644-8dec in 214 oversat Delhi 1958-59

HIGHEST SCORES

● India 236* SunilGavaskar atChennai 1983-84

● Windies 256Rohan Kanhai atKolkata 1958-59

LOWESTINNINGS TOTALS● India 75 in 30.5overs at Delhi1987-88

● Windies 103 in33.3 overs atKingston 2005-06

BEST BOWLING

● India 9-83 KapilDev atAhmedabad 1983-84

● Windies 9-95Jack Noreiga atPort of Spain1970-71

India’s bowling spearhead Jasprit Bumrah and captain Virat Kohli chill out in abeach ahead of the first Test against West Indies. — Twitter

HEAD-TO-HEADVenue Played WI Ind Draw

won won

In India 47 14 13 20

In West Indies 49 16 7 26

Total 96 30 20 46

The gamesare going to be much

more competitiveand it brings a lot of purpose tothe Test matchesyou play. It's theright move and at the absoluteright time.

— VIRAT KOHLI

LIVE TVIndia vs West Indies

on Sony Ten 1 & 3

@ 7 PM

I think AnilKumblecould be theright

candidate for thechairman ofselectors post.

—VIRENDERSEHWAG

DC CORRESPONDENTHYDERABAD AUG. 21

Top notch performanceswere the order of the day atthe Hyderabad CricketAssociation’s one-dayleague-cum-knockout tour-nament here on Wedensday.G. Shashidhar Reddy,Shreyas Vala and NarendraGoud were the batsmen tochalk up centuries whileRakshann Readdi andKishan were the bowlerswho excelled.

Shashidhar from JaiHanuman hit 133 off 84 ballswith 18 boundaries andthree sixes to his credit.

Rakshann Readdi ofIncome Tax took 6 wicketswhile conceeding 24 runs ina match against VenusCybertech.

In another match, Kishanput up a splenid perform-ance for Balaji Colts, taking5 for 31 against New Blues.

India Cements batsmanShreyas Vala slammed 122off 125 balls with 17 bound-aries and one six.

Narendra Goud of theHyderabad Titans too hit acentury. He made a blister-

ing 107 in a 49-ball knockthat contained 10 bound-aries and 7 sixes.Brief scores:A-1 & A-2 DIVISION ONE-DAY

LEAGUE-CUM-KNOCK■ Jai Hanuman 416/9 in 50overs (K Sai Purnanand Rao 41,G Shashidhar Reddy 133 — 84b,18x4, 3x6), N Anirudh Reddy 82,K Sumanth 30, K Rohit Rayudu32, Shravan 45 n.o) bt WMCC 93in 18 overs (Ranganath 3/28, SaiPurnanand Rao 4/22). Points:Jai Hanuman 2, WMCC 0.■ Venus Cybertech 106 in 28overs (Rakshann Readdi 6/24,Raju Yadav 3/49) lost to IncomeTax 107/1 in 39.4 overs BSandeep 63 n.o). Points: Inco-me Tax 2, Venus Cybertech 0.■ India Cements 318/8 in 50overs (Shreyas Vala 122 — 125b,17x4, 1x6, Shaik Nafeez 50, KAryan Krishna 31, Mir Syed Ali37 n.o) bt Mahmood 127/9 in 50overs (Adithya 40 n.o). Points:India Cements 2, Mahmood 0.■ Balaji Colts 211 in 49.2 overs(Nikesh 54, K Pranav 48, MdIsmail 3/40) bt New Blues 160 in3.4 overs (G Vishnuvardhan 58,Kishan 5/31 — 10-3-31-5, Bharat4/36). Points: Balaji Colts 2,New Blues 0.■ Hyderabad Titans 283/4 in 41

overs (T Venu 43, S Rohit Reddy73, Narendra Goud 107 — 49b,10x4,7x6) bt Khammam District147 in 33.4 overs (Shaik Azhar30 n.o, Someshwar 30, Nitin SaiYadav 3/27, Paras Joshi 3/39).Points: Hyderabad Titans 2,Khammam District 0.■ Visaka 145 in 40.2 overs (SaiVihari 81, A Dheeraj Visal 3/36)lost to Rakesh Xi 146/8 in 39.4overs (Ranjeet 33 n.o). Points:Rakesh XI 2, Visaka 0.■ Rohit XI 194 in 48.2 overs(Uday Singh 39, Ali Diamond70, Rathan Teja 6/38) lost toGemini Friends 197/3 in 35.1overs (Thakur Tilak Varma 93n.o, Y Chaitanya Krishna 75).Points: Gemini Friends 2, RohitXI 0■ Zinda Tilismath 195 in 46.4overs (K Krithik Reddy 73, SGanesh 39) bt Team Speed 176

in 43.4 overs (Krithik Reddy 79,S Ganesh 39, Abinesh 4/28).Points: Zinda Tilismath 2, TeamSpeed 0.■ Hyderabad Bottling 318/5 in45 overs (A Sai Pranay 58, PGaurav Reddy 35, A Jayasuriya74, Vinay Goud 71 n.o) bt Postal246/4 in 45 overs (Md AhmedShakeer 30, S Nishant Yadav 70,L Naveen Kumar Chary 98 n.o).Points: Hyderabad Bottling 2,Postal 0.■ Adilabad District 224 in 30overs (V Sravan Kumar 50, AdeSantosh 59, Md Saif Alin 45 n.o,Rohan Ali 36 n.o) bt Crown153/5 in 30 overs (Aman Rao 55,Sameer 48 n.o). Points:Adilabad District 2, Crown 0.■ Concorde 173 in 40.3 overs (YSai Varun 33, T Aaron Paul 59, BSudhakar 3/15, M Suresh 5/27)bt SCRSA 124 in 31.3 overs (TVamshi Krishna 46, Y Sai Varun4/12). Points: Concorde 2,SCRSA 0.■ Manchester 133/7 in 20 overs(K Abhilash 63, Zubair 4/13) lostto Charminar 135/7 in 19 overs(Gopi 42, Sai Prateek 3/22).Points: Charminar 2, Manchester0.■ Secunderabad Nawabs 196/6in 40 overs (Dinesh Mohan 90, YHarish 60, Satish Yadav 3/48) bt

Sri Chakra 167/9 in 40 overs (KVikas Rao 98 n.o, Harsh ThakurSingh 4/34). Points:Secunderabad Nawabs 2, SriChakra 0.■ Budding Star 198 in 34 overs(Rishiket Sisodia 39, NamannAgarwal 3/37, T Ranveer 3/45)bt Future Star 196 in 46.4 overs(Namann Agarwal 43, Kamal 68,Abdullah Quadri 3/26, RishiketSisodia 3/25). Points: BuddingStar 2, Future Star 0.■ Mega City 70 in 32.4 overs (CAbhinav Tej 4/15, A Akash 3/4)lost to MP Colts 71/4 in 13.3overs. Points: MP Colts 2, MegaCity 0.■ Jai Bhagwathi 111 in 49.3 overs(Akash Bhandari 3/25) lost toSBI 112/6 in 18.4 overs (GopalJha 4/53). Points: SBI 2, JaiBhagwathi 0.■ Medak District 139 in 32.1overs (Arfaz Ahmed 58, VishalSingh 4/42) lost to Green Turf140/4 in 37.5 overs (J AkshayKumar 60). Points: Green Turf 2,Medak District 0.■ Baalaji 224/7 in 45 overs(Paras Raj 60, M SiddharthNaidu 74, K Romit Reddy 33,Nishant Anuj 6/44) bt Osmania115 in 29.2 overs (ShravanKumar 4/20). Points: Baalaji 2,Osmania 0.

DC CORRESPONDENTHYDERABAD AUG. 21

Airborne got off to a flyingstart in the first G. M.Sampath Kumar MemorialOpen prize money basket-ball tournament for seniormen and women, being heldat the Secunderabad YMCAcourt.

Tony and Sugan scored 5points each to help their sideto a 14-11 lead in the first

quarter of their matchagainst Loyola. In the sec-ond quarter, Loyola turnedthe game around taking a 28-19 lead leaving Airborne farfrom the point of recovery.

Loyola showed theirsupremacy with lanky Allenscoring at will and hisrebounding was lightning,Sudharshan and Shubankarput out good coordinationand kept the scores moving.

Airborne’s Naresh pene-

trated the rival defence andscored some useful shots.Sugan, who was the top scor-er with 17 points, played wellfor the losing team.

In another match YMGbeat NPA 74-43 (54-31). ChrisVeeresh from YMG put hisbest foot forward with longrange shots which helpedhim score crucial 23 points.His consecutive 3x3 pointersin the first four minutes ofthe match dampened the

spirits of NPA.Pruthvi Reddy, who joined

in at a later stage of thegame, had put up a brilliantshow scoring 25 points forYMG.

The other teams to playwere Sainikpuri BasketballClub who chalked up 50 asthey beat St Patrick’sAcademy whileSanathnagar Playgrounddefeated YMCA Hyderabad48-25.

THE RESULTSLoyola Academy 57(Sudharshan 21, Allen 15,Shubankar 10) bt Airborne 54(Sugan 17, Azim 12, Naresh 10);YMG 74 (Pruthvi Reddy 25, ChrisVeeresh 23) bt NPA 43 (Basha13, Rahul 11); SainikpuriBasketball Club 50 (Nishith 11,Piyush 9) bt St. Patrick’sAcademy 32, Vishnu 10, Raghava6); Sanathnagar Play Ground 48(Jasim Ali 14, Nikhil 9, NaveedKhan 9) bt YMCA Hyderabad 25(Bala 15, Kiran 8).

Shashi, Shreyas, Rakshann on top

Flying start for Airborne in Sampath basketball

Anil Kumble

Sports Authority of Telangna State Chairman AllipuramVenkateshwar Reddy (second from left) along withTandur MLA Pilot Rohit (right) and Ranga Reddy ZPChairman Anitha Reddy (second from right) felicitateShrivalli Rashmikaa after she won the Under-18National Tennis Championship at Madras Cricket Clubin Chennai.

Showry Reddy (from left), MD of Pooja Crafted Homesposes with pistol shooter Esha Singh (third from left)and cricketer Pranavi Chandra (right) after announcingsponsorships for the sportswomen as Esha's fatherSachin (second from left) and V. Chamundeswarnath(second from right), who initiated the three-year deal,are all smiles. Esha and Pranavi will be funded Rs 10lakh per year.

HOCKEY SIDE FOR LANKA EVENTHyderabad, Aug. 21: Following players will representthe Gymkhana Hockey Club that will participate inthe A. J. Wijesinghe Memorial Challenge TrophyInternational Club 7-a-side hockey tournament inMatale, Sri Lanka, from August 23 to 25.

The team: Muppidi Nagaraj (captain), Arvind, R.Mahesh Reddy, Mohammed Mumtaz, YendalaSagar, K.ChinnaAppa Rao, B. Ramakrishna Sathyanarayana,Mahendra Kumawat, Shailender Singh Bundela, A.Ashok Veeru, . J. Balagangadhar Tilak. Coach: B.Kameshwara Rao. Manager: G. Lakhan Raj.

Jaswanth,Appoorwa,Srinivas arechampionsDC CORRESPONDENT HYDERABAD AUG. 21

B. Jaswanth Kumar ofAWASA trounced club-mate Avinash 25-8, 21-07in the sub-junior boyssection to win a doublecrown, having alreadylifted the junior boystitle at the 6th Late VASarma and V. IndirambaMemorial carrom tour-nament held at AnandNagar WelfareAssociation SportsAcademy inKhairatabad here.

In the junior boysfinal, Jaswanth beat SaiEashwar of V-10 25-08,07-25, 25-09.

C. Kartika Varsha ofNASR won the juniorgirls title defeating K.Nandini of AWASA inthe final 18-09, 22-04.

Although, Varshaplayed the women’sfinals she was no matchfor the experience andexposure that Appoorwaof LICI potrayed whiletaking the women’s sin-gles title at 25-13, 15-10.

In the cadet girls final,11-year-old Srivalli of V-10 beat G. Bhargavi ofAWASA 10-04. Earlier,she recorded a blackslam, first such perform-ance in the age group forwhich she was given aspecial prize.

The men’s singles finalbetween K. Srinivas ofIOCL and M. A. Hakeemof BSNL saw tensemoments as the matchstretched to the 9thboard of the third gamebefore the former wonthe tight battle with a 11-25, 25-13, 25-24 scoreline.

Narendra, Kishan also do well at HCA’s one-day league-cum-knockout

Rakshann Shreyas Vala


Men’s and women’s teams win Olympic test event in Tokyo

PAGE

16THURSDAY | 22 AUGUST 2019 | HYDERABADDECCAN CHRONICLE

SHORT TAKESAIFF plans babyfootball leaguesNNeeww DDeellhhii:: From the Kashmir

Valley to the north eastern cor-ner of Lunglei, ‘Baby Leagues’

are mushrooming all acrossIndia with the national football

federation’s backing to catchthem as young as six and laythe foundation for a “better

future” for the sport.Launched in September last

year, Baby Leagues have been ahit in the Kashmir Valley,

Mizoram, Bengal, Tamil Naduand Maharashtra. States like

Gujarat, Kerala, Karnataka andPunjab are also catching up

with the trend.Baby Leagues are organised inseven age groups of Under-6,

Under-7, Under-8, Under-9,Under-10, Under-11 and Under-

12. The number of participatingchildren reached 21,471 last

year itself and it rose to 43,575this year, according to the fig-ures provided by the All India

Football Federation (AIFF).The number of registered teamswas 5,335 last year while 21,130matches were played in all. TheAIFF decided to rechristen the

initiative as ‘Golden BabyLeague’ from this year. — PTI

Mangaonkar issquash champMMuummbbaaii:: Top seeds Mahesh

Mangaonkar and Yash Fadtewere clinical in their perform-

ance as they claimed theMen’sand the U-19 Boys titles,respec-

tively, at the44th MaharashtraState Senior Open Squash

Tournament and the inauguralWestern Slam (Junior) U-19 on

Wednesday.In the Men’s Open final,

Mangaonkar quelled earlynerves which saw him lose the

first game 9-11 before he gotinto his groove to make shortwork ofsecond seed Abhishek

Pradhan, winning 9-11, 11-3, 11-5,11-3.

In the Boy’s U-19 final, theunseededNeel Joshi put

up a strong fight but wentdown to more experienced

Yash Fadte.The Goa lad started strong, tak-

ing the first game 11-5. In thesecond game, Neel pushed

Yash to the limit, beforethe more experienced Yash

wrested back control to takethe second and third games

and secure the U-19 title withan 11-5, 12-10, 11-7 scoreline.

Unseeded Yoshna Singh fromPune had to fight hard andovercome two tie-breakers

before she downed 2ndseedAmira Singh 11-9, 13-11,

5-11, 12-10 and win the U-19title. — PTI

When peoplequestion your

honour, it hurts, ithurts a lot.

— Cristiano Ronaldo, says therape allegation against him was

an attack on his honor and led toone of the worst years of his life

Back outTwo-time world shot put champion DavidStorl says he will miss the track worldchampionships with a back injury

Games

HOCKEY HIGH! Sindhu sails intosecond roundBasel (Switzerland),Aug. 21: Two-time silvermedallist P. V. Sindhu pro-duced a commanding per-formance in her openingmatch at the BWF WorldChampionships here onWednesday.

Sindhu, who had reachedthe finals of IndonesiaOpen last month, looked ingood touch as she con-trolled the rallies and out-smarted Chinese Taipei’sPai Yu Po 21-14, 21-14 in a43-minute contest.

The fifth seeded Indian,who received a bye in theopening round, is likely toface USA’s Beiwen Zhang,seeded ninth, in the pre-quarterfinals.

Sindhu, an Olympic sil-ver medallist, had lost toZhang at the India Openfinals last year.

In the first game, Sindhumoved ahead from 5-5 toslowly create a gap andentered the interval with a11-7 lead.

After the break, Sindhucontinued to surge andgrabbed six game pointswhen Pai made an error in

judgement at the backline.The Indian sealed it with across court return.

Sindhu zoomed to a 6-1lead in the second gamebefore Pai started con-structing the rallies andnarrowed the deficit to 5-7.

Sindhu’s unforced errorsalso made life easy for theTaiwanese girl, whoshowed some great skillsand managed to enter theinterval with a 11-10 leadafter Sindhu found the net.

The Indian, however,changed gears after thebreak, dishing out somegood-looking strokes toeventually enter matchpoint at 20-14 when herrival missed a shuttle atthe backline.

She sealed the match nextwith a precise on-the-linereturn.

Among others, the Indianpairing of JakkapudiMeghana and Poorvisha SRam went down 8-21, 18-21to eighth seeds ShihoTanaka and KoharuYonemoto of Japan in thewomen’s doubles competi-tion. — PTI

Tokyo, Aug. 21: TheIndian men’s as well aswomen’s hockey teamswon the Olympic Testevent here on Wednesday,beating New Zealand 5-0and Japan 2-1 respectively.

In the men’s final, cap-tain Harmanpreet Singh(7th minute) set the ballrolling before ShamsherSingh (18th minute),Nilakanta Sharma (22ndminute), GursahibjitSingh (26th minute) andMandeep Singh (27thminute) scored for India atthe Oi Hockey Stadiumhere.

India had lost 1-2 to NewZealand earlier in roundrobin league-stage.

“We played very well. Wemanaged to score ouropportunities at the startof the game,”Harmanpreet said afterthe triumph.

“I think the final wasalways going to be tough,we lost to New Zealandearlier. But we had beenhaving practice sessionsafter that and worked onour mistakes to wintoday,” he added.

Both teams began thematch on a cautious noteby turning over the ball inthe mid-field. India won apenalty corner in the sev-enth minute, but couldn’tcapitalise on the opportu-nity.

However, skipperHarmanpreet didn’t missout on a re-awarded penal-ty corner. He executed aperfect dragflick to putIndia in the lead.

The Indian team contin-ued to hold possession andput tremendous pressureon the New Zealanddefense as they ended thefirst quarter at 1-0.

Shamsher scored India’ssecond goal through apenalty corner in the 18thminute.

New Zealand managed tomake only two circleentries in the second quar-ter as the Indian teamscored three more goals.

Nilakanta found theback of the net in the 22ndminute before Gursahibjitand Mandeep scored inquick succession.

Vivek Prasad intercept-ed the ball brilliantly toassist a goal forGursahibjit and Mandeepconverted a penalty cor-ner just before the half-time whistle.

After an action-packed

first half, the intensitydropped from both sides.New Zealand tried tomake a few inroads in thethird quarter as they tooka shot in the 37th minutewhich went wide of thepost.

Jarmanpreet Singhsaved a penalty corner inthe next minute as Indiaand New Zealand playedout a goalless quarter butthe former held the lead.

In the last quarter, Indiaensured they stayed in the

lead and didn’t allow NewZealand to break throughtheir defense throughoutthe match. India’s attack-ing approach in the matchpaid off as they walked offthe pitch as winners ofthe competition.

Women rap hosts

The women’s team didwell too, with Navjot Kaurand Lalremsiami leadingthe side to victory.

Navjot Kaur (11thminute) opened the scor-ing to put India ahead butthe lead was neutralisedwithin a minute asMinami Shimizu (12')scored for the hosts.

Lalremsiami (33rdminute) struck the win-ning goal for India.

India dominated the first10 minutes, and finallymanaged to find thebreakthrough whenForward Navjot kept hernerves under pressureand produced a fine finishin front of the goal.

However, the nextminute saw Japan strikeback immediately with awell-crafted field goalwhich was put into theback of the net byShimizu to make it 1-1.

Forward Lalremsiamislotted the ball into theback of the net to make it2-1 for India. — PTI

NNeeww DDeellhhii:: Celebrated Indianboxer M. C. Mary Kom on

Wednesday said proven per-formers should not be made to

undergo selection trials andasserted that she did no wrongby seeking an exemption from

the ones for the world champi-onships.

A controversy broke out overMary’s selection for thewomen’s World Boxing

Championships in Russia afterher competitor in the 51kg cat-

egory, Nikhat Zareen, wasrefused a trial bout. Zareen, in aletter to the Boxing Federationof India (BFI), alleged that shewas stopped from competing

despite having a scheduled trialbout.

Mary Kom, a six-time worldchampion and an Olympic

bronze-medallist, was chosenby the BFI selection panel

based on her gold medal-win-ning performances at the India

Open and a subsequent tourna-ment in Indonesia. — PTI

MARY WANTSNO TRIALS

FOR BIGGIES

Members of the Indian men’s (above) and women’s (below) teams celebrate goals during the finals of the OlympicTest event in Tokyo on Wednesday. While the men defeated New Zealand 5-0, the women beat Japan 2-1.

BADMINTON || WORLDS

BY BBIPINCHANDRACHAUGULE

Very few of us wouldbe aware that Indiamade its debut in

Olympics in August 1920 atthe Antwerp, BelgiumGames. This August marksthe beginning of theCentenary Year celebra-tions of this unique event.

Sadly, India’s sports his-tory shows a differentrecord. It says, “The firstIndian to enter Olympicswas Norman Pritchard,who won two silver medalsat the 1900 Paris Games.”

The Olympic Historianshave a decisive take onthis. They say, “NormanPritchard was neitherIndian nor did he repre-sent India at the ParisGames!” And yes, he surecannot be called Indian atall. Both his parents wereBritish, working and stay-ing in Kolkata along withNorman.

Around 1900, Normanhappened to be in Englandparticipating in AthleticGames there. He came toknow about ParisOlympics and showed upthere. As the norms forentry were not very strin-gent, he got an easy entry.He mentioned his Kolkataaddress in the entry formhence the organiserscalled him an Indianentrant, that’s all. May bebecause of the two silvershe won; the Indian insti-tutes want to own him.

Actually, just after thefirst World War, OlympicOrganisers determined tohold the games in 1920 andawarded them to Antwerpin Belgium, to be held inAugust and September.Soon the news arrived inIndia. Indian sports organ-isers were eager to send anindependent Indian teamto the Games.

They approached indus-trialist Sir Dorabji Tata,who upheld it instantlyand requested the gover-nor of Bombay PresidencySir George Lloyd to help inthe matter. Sir Lloyd wasvery instrumental in get-ting the permissions fromLondon and the ball start-ed rolling. The local organ-isers came together and on8th November, 1919 theIndian OlympicAssociation was formed atthe Deccan Gymkhana inPune. Sir Dorabji Tata waselected its first president.

They had very little timeat hand for the prepara-tions. The first task was toselect athletes of calibre toparticipate. They couldbarely manage to hold theselection tournaments in1920 on April 1st to 8th inMumbai and on 23rd and24th in Pune. Athleteswere invited from both theBritish administratedIndia and from the inde-pendent states.

The final selection wasRandhir (Or Dinkar?)Shinde of Kolhapur forbantamweight freestylewrestling, Kumar Navaleof Mumbai (then Bombay)for featherweight freestylewrestling, Purna ChandraBannerjee of Kolkata(then Calcutta) for shortraces, Sadashiv Datar ofSatara and H. D. Kaikadi ofHubali for marathon and P.D. Chaugule of Belgavi(then Belgaum) for 10,000metres run and marathon.

All of them were knownin their respective fields,but Chaugule was trulyspecial.

That was because froman early age he used to par-ticipate in running tourna-ments ranging from onemile to cross-country andMarathon and had wonseveral of them at variouslevels. In 1919 at 17 years of

age, he had won 27 milescross-country with anunofficial world record.

Many philanthropistsincluding Sir Tata,Lokamanya Tilak and SethWalchand Hirachanddonated large sums for theexpenses of the players.Sir Lloyd arranged fortheir travel & training inEngland prior to theOlympics as well as fortheir stay in Antwerp atthe British Military Rest

Camp. Sohrab Bhoot wasappointed as the managerand Dr. Ali Azhar Fyzee asthe Medical Officer andAdvisor of the team.

The contingent sailed toLondon from Bombay Porton 5th June, 1920 in BritishRMS Mantua. For most,this was their first long seavoyage. They faced prob-lems of food. Not only forthe vegetarians likeChaugule and Datar butfor the non-vegetarians too

there were very few choic-es of food on the ship.There was hardly any pos-sibility of doing their reg-ular work-outs and prac-tice. Some suffered sea-sickness too. The shipreached London on 22ndJune.

Even though fatigued,their training beganimmediately under theBritish coach H. Parry. Asper the Olympic norms,the runners had to prac-

tice wearing shoes andthat was a big hindrance.Most Indian runners wereaccustomed to run bare-foot.

But there was no option,so they practiced withshoes. That gave them shoebites. Still they continuedwith bandages and partici-pated in local tournamentsas well.

That was a great revela-tion to all. Indians excelledin almost every event.Especially, P.D.Chaugulecaught everyone’s eye withhis lightening speed. Buthe had to face some racismthere of getting beaten upand Soda water bottlesbeing thrown at while com-peting. He somehow man-aged to sustain that.

The performance ofIndians in England wasalarming to the world.American news-papershad bold headlines such as‘Hindoo Looms as Darkhorse at OlympicMarathon, our athletesshould keep an eye onChaugule in Antwerp’.

The team arrived inAntwerp on August 10. TheOlympics were inaugurat-ed on August 14, by theBelgian King Albert in arain-shadowed climate.Indian players proudlywalked in the March Pastunder the British Indiaflag.

Events of each playergradually started. But maybe because of long travel,food issues, climatechanges and pressure ofthe big tournament,Bannerjee failed in thequalifying heats of 100 and400 metres and Navale &Shinde bowed out of theirinitial bouts.

Chaugule entered thequalifying heat of 10,000and was running comfort-ably, when around thethird kilometre, a specta-

tor tried to shoot him witha pistol but missed andChaugule had to drop out.He was dejected but themarathon was just afterthree days. His friendsmanaged to prepare himfor the grand event.

The day of marathon,August 22, 1920, dawned.Scheduled at 4.15 pm, itwas to begin and finish atBeerschot stadium. Thedistance this time was42.750 kms, more by 545metres that usual. Wearingshoes, Chaugule and Datarjoined the group of 48acclaimed runners.Kaikadi didn’t show up.The race began but Datardropped out at an earlystage.

Chaugule continued withhis famous rhythm unde-terred as he always was.Till about 15 kilometres hewas doing well. By thenthe route had turned backto the stadium. He had allthe stamina in the worldwith him and was sure tomake it first there.

Suddenly it started driz-zling. He had to slow down.But the water entered hisshoes and through thebandages to the wounds ofbites. That was the finalblow of ill fate. The painsincreased instantly and heslowed down considerably.Other runners startedovertaking him. He some-how managed to keep itgoing and entered the sta-dium.

He was 19th to cross thefinish line but he becamethe first Indian to completean Olympic marathon. Hewas awarded a diploma ofmerit along with a few oth-ers, for finishing theMarathon within 25 percent of the winning time.

Even today, P. D.Chaugule’s feat is unparal-leled and therefore inspira-tional.

Centenary year of India’s Olympic Games debut

India’s 1920 Antwerp Olympics team (sitting, from left) S. V. Datar, H. D. Kaikadi,(standing from left) R. D. Shinde, Sohrab Bhoot, P. C. Bannerjee, Dr AHA Fyzee, K. T.Navale and P. D. Chaugule.

Regd. No. H/SD/509/2018-20Printed and Published by

T. Venkateswarlu on behalf ofDeccan Chronicle Holdings Limited.Printed at Deccan Chronicle Presssituated at Plot No. 9 Alwal Village,

Vallabh Nagar Taluk, MedchalMalkajgiri Dist. Telangana andPublished at 36, S.D. Road,

Secunderabad-3.RNI Registration No. 3081/1957.

Editor: A.T. Jayanti

Washington, Aug. 21:Canadian second seedDenis Shapovalovadvanced at the ATPWinston-Salem Open onTuesday, beating AmericanTennys Sandgren 6-2, 6-4.

Sandgren, ranked 73rd inthe world, was coming offa first-round victory overthree-time Grand Slamchampion Andy Murray,who was playing just hissecond singles match sincethe Australian Open as hebids to return to peak formin the wake of career-threatening hip surgery.

Sandgren battled backfrom 0-3 down in the sec-ond set — going up a serv-ice break beforeShapavolov came throughwith a break in the finalgame to seal the victory.

“It was definitely a greatwin,” said Shapovalov, whohadn’t made it past the sec-ond round of an ATP eventsince Lyon in May and, likePaire, said he hoped astrong performance inWinston-Salem would be a

springboard into the USOpen.

South Korean Lee Duck-hee’s ground-breakingtournament came to anend with a 6-4, 0-6, 3-6 lossto third-seeded HubertHurkacz of Poland.

— Agencies

Shapovalov shinesbright at Salem

Denis Shapovalov ofCanada celebrates a pointduring his match againstTennys Sandgren of USA atthe Winston-Salem Openon Tuesday. — AP


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