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W ith an eye on the forth- coming Lok Sabha elections, Finance Minister Piyush Goyal on Friday offered a bouquet of relief to farmers, taxpayers, unor- ganised sector work- ers, and real estate developers. In the process, he slipped on the fiscal deficit target, raising concerns from various rating and bro- kerage agen- cies. The thrust of the Budget is on wooing both urban and rural voters who rejected the BJP in the recent Assembly elections of Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan. By making a big pop- ulist push, the Government has also tried to prepare a narrative that could be used to silence the Opposition and help the BJP in convincing the voters that the promise of “achchhe din” may become a reality if Prime Minister Narendra Modi gets a second term in office. As expected the Government has kept its focus on large chunk of voting com- munity — farmers, taxpayers, and housing sectors that pro- vides employment to millions of laborers. The promise of pension to workers of unor- ganised sectors is also seen as major decision that could be turned into a “catch line” to woo the poor. The Budget exempted peo- ple with an earning of up to 5 lakh from payment of income tax and offered an annual cash dole-out of 6,000 to small farmers while unveiling a scheme to provide a monthly pension of 3,000 to workers in the unorganised sector. While Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the Interim Budget was merely a “trailer” of what will guide India towards prosperity after the Lok Sabha polls, Congress president Rahul Gandhi said that the Government was giv- ing 17 a day to farmers after “destroying” their lives in last five years. The sops offered by the Government will undoubtedly help it in the elections, but their implementation will be an arduous exercise. In a country with no reliable job data in the unorganised sector, how the beneficiates will be identified is a million dollar question. For example, whether a rickshaw-puller earns 15,000 or 20,000 a month is not eas- ily verifiable. In most cases, the Government may not have any option but to either go by self claim or determine an earnings estimate in various sectors. Similarly, the identifica- tion of farmers with up to two hectare holding is also not going to be an easy exercise. Family members may bring down the landholding to avail of the benefits, affecting the farm earning. The stock market gave the Budget the thumbs up with consumption, agriculture, and auto stocks stealing the show, but banking stocks remained depressed with the announce- ment that farm income support scheme will result in the Government breaching its 3.3 per cent fiscal deficit target from the current year. The populist measure will have far reaching impact on the Government fiscal consolida- tion target. For the next fiscal also, Goyal pegged the fiscal deficit at 3.4 per cent of the GDP, up from fiscal consoli- dation roadmap of bringing it down to 3.1 per cent in 2019- 20 and 3 per cent in 2020-21. “We would have main- tained fiscal deficit at 3.3 per cent for the year 2018-19 and taken further steps to consoli- date fiscal deficit in the year 2019-20. However, considering the need for income support to farmers, we have provided 20,000 crore in 2018-19 RE (Revised Estimate) and 75,000 crore in 2019-20. If we exclude this, the fiscal deficit would have been less than 3.3 per cent for 2018-19 and less than 3.1 per cent for the year 2019-20,” he said. With farming communi- ty up in arms against the Government, Goyal announced an direct income support scheme for 12 crore small and marginal farmers by providing 6,000 in their bank accounts in three equal installments in a year. This is estimated to cost 75,000 crore annually to the Government. I n what could provide social security cover to 10 crore labourers, the Union Budget on Friday announced a new scheme to provide unorganised workers with up to 15,000 monthly income an assured pension of 3,000 per month after 60 years of age. Presenting the Interim Budget in the Lok Sabha, Finance Minister Piyush Goyal said, “Half of India’s GDP comes from the sweat and toil of 42 crore workers in the unorganised sector working as street vendors, rickshaw pullers, construction workers... And in numerous other simi- lar occupations. Domestic workers are also engaged in big numbers. We must provide them comprehensive social security coverage for their old age”. Through the Budget, the Government proposed to launch a mega pension yojana namely ‘Pradhan Mantri Shram-Yogi Maandhan’ (PMSYM) for the unorganised sector workers with monthly income up to 15,000, he said. The pension scheme will provide the informal sector workers an assured monthly pension of 3,000 from the age of 60 years on a monthly con- tribution of a small affordable amount during their working age, he said. According to the scheme, an unorganised sector work- er joining the pension scheme at the age of 29 years will have to contribute only 100 per month till the age of 60 years. The scheme provides that an informal sector worker join- ing the scheme at 18 years will have to contribute 55 per month. The Government will deposit equal matching share in the pension account of the worker every month. P iyush Goyal delivered the his first budget in the Lok Sabha, and while it was an interim budget, it was that in all but name. With sops and allocations increasing, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s hand was all over this budget. Even with recalculated figures that display some growth, evi- dence of that growth is hard to come by. While the govern- ment might have disowned the joblessness statistics, it is dif- ficult for all but those wearing saf- fron-tinted glasses to see jobs being created. While there is some historical evidence to show that consumer demand plateaus or even declines in pre-election years, Narendra Modi’s failure to deliver on his promise of 2014 is mind-bog- gling. While there are some positives, particularly with aggressive infrastructure build- ing of roadways, railways and ports, growth in manufactur- ing and services have been non-existent and this has iron- ically exacerbated the agricul- tural crisis with farmers find- ing other options closed to them. The terrific self-goal that Modi scored with demoneti- sation is still taking its toll on the Indian economy but was a result of the anti-intellectual- ism that this government seems to pride itself on. But Narendra Modi was elected on the promise of changing India, delivering growth and jobs that the allegedly corrupt UPA had failed to deliver. He came to power promising to break the hold of Delhi’s power-bro- kers and middlemen and but only now, months before elec- tions are these networks being attacked. But most important- ly, Modi had promised to mod- ernise India, and on that front he failed, possibly because he was taken aback at the ‘suit-boot’ jibe that Rahul Gandhi attacked him with, but after ‘that’ suit, much of India began to wonder what sort of man they had elected. Sure, Modi does not deserve some of the flak he has faced from malcontent socialists and the award-wapisi brigade are a group of people who fail to recognise irony. But Modi has failed on the economic front, and even though he did finally deliver a Goods and Services Tax (GST) he allowed the tax bureaucracy to kill efficiency gains with paperwork. The tax officers of this govern- ment have been economic terrorists happily attacking promoters and stifling jobs growth no matter what the PR spin from the Government. I n a move to provide an assured income to the small and marginal farmers, the Modi Government on Friday announced a slew of measures, including direct income sup- port of 6,000 per year. Presenting the Interim Budget for 2019-20, acting Finance Minister Piyush Goyal said under the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM- KISAN), 6,000 annual sup- port will be provided to farm- ers with land holding of two hectare or five acre. The new scheme will be implemented from December 1, 2018 and the amount will be paid in three installments of 2000 (every four months) through direct benefit transfer. As many as 12 crore small and marginal farmers are expected to benefit from the scheme. Farmers who are sowing rabi crops during the ongoing rabi season will be benefitted from the scheme. About 20,000 crore extra has been provided for the scheme in the revised estimate for the current fiscal. The Finance Minister said, “This initiative will benefit 12 crore small and marginal farm- ers, at an estimated cost of 75,000 crore.” The Finance Minister said, “This programme will be fund- ed by the Government of India. The programme would be made effective from December 1, 2018 and the first installment for the period up to March 31, 2019 would be paid during this year itself.” Union Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh hailed the Budget and termed its historic one for farmers. The assured income sup- port is seen as an attempt to assuage the farming commu- nity’s discontent ahead of the general elections. The direct cash transfer was one of the highly anticipated and talked about schemes in the interim Budget 2019. R ating agencies led by Crisil have raised concerns over the curtailed capital spending to cap fiscal deficit at 3.5 per cent for FY18, and have warned the higher target for next fiscal will delay the fiscal consolida- tion process by three years. “It is the productive spend- ing in the economy that has seen a compromise, making way for revenue spending,” Crisil said in a note on Friday. Meanwhile, it’s peer Icra termed the “sharp rise” in rev- enue deficit a “concern”. Terming the inability to meet fiscal deficit target for four consecutive years as a big “credit negative” for the sover- eign, global rating agency Moody’s doubted if the coun- try will meet even the 3.4 per- cent fiscal gap target for FY20. C hief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Friday termed the Interim Union Budget as “disappointing” and said Odisha would be hit with 26,342 crore due to low receipts compared to recom- mendation of the 14 th Finance Commission. “The 14 th Finance Commission recommended total transfer of 1,84,070 crore to Odisha during the award period (2015-20). However, based on the actual receipts for 2015-18, revised estimates for 2018-19 and Budget Estimates for 2019-20, the State is going to receive only 1,57,828 crore. Thus, the State will be hit with a shortfall of 26,342 crore,” said Chief Minister in his Budget reaction. He expressed deep disap- pointment saying the National Social Security Scheme i.e. old- age pension and other pen- sions, have not been revised at all. The State is covering 48 lakh beneficiaries with 500 per month while Centre is giv- ing 200 per month for 20 lakh beneficiaries only, he said. “I am also disappointed with the allocation for ST and SC welfare both in infrastruc- ture and education. We have been requesting to restore the Scholarship Funds for SC stu- dents which have not been done. The allocation for MGN- REGS is lower than the alloca- tion in the revised estimate. This will adversely affect time- ly wage payments,” he said. The Budget allocations on rural connectivity, rural hous- ing and drinking water have been reduced or have remained at previous level. This is not encouraging, he said. However, Patnaik wel- comed the Income Tax benefits planned for middle and lower income groups and direct ben- efit transfer proposed for small and marginal famers on lines of his Government’s KALlA scheme. He, however, said farmers would have been benefitted more if the quantum of assis- tance was equal or more than the KALIA Scheme i.e. 10,000 per year. He said there there is nothing for landless poor, sharecroppers and farmers in distress. Commenting that some initiatives taken towards the MSME sector are encouraging, he said they would not suffice to meet the needs of employ- ment generation in the country.

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With an eye on the forth-coming Lok Sabha

elections, Finance MinisterPiyush Goyal on Friday

offered a bouquet of relief tofarmers, taxpayers, unor-

ganised sector work-ers, and real estatedevelopers. In theprocess, he slippedon the fiscaldeficit target,raising concernsfrom variousrating and bro-kerage agen-cies.

The thrustof the Budget ison wooing

both urban andrural voters who

rejected the BJP inthe recent Assembly

elections of MadhyaPradesh, Chhattisgarh

and Rajasthan. Bymaking a big pop-ulist push, the

Government has also tried toprepare a narrative that couldbe used to silence theOpposition and help the BJP inconvincing the voters that thepromise of “achchhe din” maybecome a reality if PrimeMinister Narendra Modi gets asecond term in office.

As expected theGovernment has kept its focuson large chunk of voting com-munity — farmers, taxpayers,and housing sectors that pro-vides employment to millionsof laborers. The promise ofpension to workers of unor-ganised sectors is also seen asmajor decision that could beturned into a “catch line” towoo the poor.

The Budget exempted peo-ple with an earning of up to �5lakh from payment of incometax and offered an annual cashdole-out of �6,000 to smallfarmers while unveiling ascheme to provide a monthlypension of �3,000 to workers inthe unorganised sector.

While Prime Minister

Narendra Modi said theInterim Budget was merely a“trailer” of what will guideIndia towards prosperity afterthe Lok Sabha polls, Congresspresident Rahul Gandhi saidthat the Government was giv-ing �17 a day to farmers after“destroying” their lives in lastfive years.

The sops offered by theGovernment will undoubtedlyhelp it in the elections, but theirimplementation will be anarduous exercise. In a countrywith no reliable job data in theunorganised sector, how thebeneficiates will be identified isa million dollar question.

For example, whether arickshaw-puller earns �15,000or �20,000 a month is not eas-ily verifiable. In most cases, theGovernment may not have anyoption but to either go by selfclaim or determine an earningsestimate in various sectors.

Similarly, the identifica-tion of farmers with up to twohectare holding is also notgoing to be an easy exercise.

Family members may bringdown the landholding to availof the benefits, affecting thefarm earning.

The stock market gave theBudget the thumbs up withconsumption, agriculture, andauto stocks stealing the show,but banking stocks remaineddepressed with the announce-ment that farm income support

scheme will result in theGovernment breaching its 3.3per cent fiscal deficit targetfrom the current year.

The populist measure willhave far reaching impact on theGovernment fiscal consolida-tion target. For the next fiscalalso, Goyal pegged the fiscaldeficit at 3.4 per cent of theGDP, up from fiscal consoli-

dation roadmap of bringing itdown to 3.1 per cent in 2019-20 and 3 per cent in 2020-21.

“We would have main-tained fiscal deficit at 3.3 percent for the year 2018-19 andtaken further steps to consoli-date fiscal deficit in the year2019-20. However, consideringthe need for income support tofarmers, we have provided�20,000 crore in 2018-19 RE(Revised Estimate) and �75,000crore in 2019-20. If we excludethis, the fiscal deficit wouldhave been less than 3.3 per centfor 2018-19 and less than 3.1per cent for the year 2019-20,”he said.

With farming communi-ty up in arms against theGovernment, Goyalannounced an direct incomesupport scheme for 12 croresmall and marginal farmersby providing �6,000 in theirbank accounts in three equalinstallments in a year. This isestimated to cost �75,000crore annual ly to theGovernment.

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In what could provide socialsecurity cover to 10 crore

labourers, the Union Budget onFriday announced a newscheme to provide unorganisedworkers with up to �15,000monthly income an assuredpension of �3,000 per monthafter 60 years of age.

Presenting the InterimBudget in the Lok Sabha,Finance Minister Piyush Goyalsaid, “Half of India’s GDPcomes from the sweat and toilof 42 crore workers in theunorganised sector working as

street vendors, rickshawpullers, construction workers...And in numerous other simi-lar occupations. Domesticworkers are also engaged in bignumbers. We must providethem comprehensive socialsecurity coverage for their oldage”.

Through the Budget, theGovernment proposed tolaunch a mega pension yojananamely ‘Pradhan MantriShram-Yogi Maandhan’(PMSYM) for the unorganisedsector workers with monthlyincome up to �15,000, he said.

The pension scheme will

provide the informal sectorworkers an assured monthly

pension of �3,000 from the ageof 60 years on a monthly con-

tribution of a small affordableamount during their workingage, he said.

According to the scheme,an unorganised sector work-er joining the pension schemeat the age of 29 years will have to contribute only �100per month till the age of 60years.

The scheme provides thatan informal sector worker join-ing the scheme at 18 years willhave to contribute �55 permonth. The Government willdeposit equal matching share inthe pension account of theworker every month.

"����������

Piyush Goyal delivered thehis first budget in the Lok

Sabha, and while it was aninterim budget, it was that inall but name. With sops andallocations increasing, PrimeMinister Narendra Modi’shand was all over this budget.Even with recalculated figuresthat display some growth, evi-dence of that growth is hard tocome by. While the govern-ment might have disownedthe joblessnessstatistics, it is dif-ficult for all butthose wearing saf-fron-tinted glasses to see jobsbeing created. While there issome historical evidence toshow that consumer demandplateaus or even declines inpre-election years, NarendraModi’s failure to deliver on hispromise of 2014 is mind-bog-gling. While there are somepositives, particularly withaggressive infrastructure build-ing of roadways, railways andports, growth in manufactur-ing and services have beennon-existent and this has iron-ically exacerbated the agricul-tural crisis with farmers find-ing other options closed tothem.

The terrific self-goal thatModi scored with demoneti-sation is still taking its toll onthe Indian economy but was aresult of the anti-intellectual-

ism that this governmentseems to pride itself on. ButNarendra Modi was elected onthe promise of changing India,delivering growth and jobsthat the allegedly corrupt UPAhad failed to deliver. He cameto power promising to breakthe hold of Delhi’s power-bro-kers and middlemen and butonly now, months before elec-tions are these networks beingattacked. But most important-ly, Modi had promised to mod-ernise India, and on that front

he failed, possiblybecause he wastaken aback at the‘suit-boot’ jibe that

Rahul Gandhi attacked himwith, but after ‘that’ suit, muchof India began to wonder whatsort of man they had elected.Sure, Modi does not deservesome of the flak he has facedfrom malcontent socialists andthe award-wapisi brigade are agroup of people who fail torecognise irony.

But Modi has failed onthe economic front, and eventhough he did finally delivera Goods and Services Tax(GST) he allowed the taxbureaucracy to kill efficiencygains with paperwork. Thetax officers of this govern-ment have been economicterrorists happily attackingpromoters and stifling jobsgrowth no matter what thePR spin from theGovernment.

��# ��"������ ��������

In a move to provide anassured income to the small

and marginal farmers, theModi Government on Fridayannounced a slew of measures,including direct income sup-port of �6,000 per year.

Presenting the InterimBudget for 2019-20, actingFinance Minister Piyush Goyalsaid under the Pradhan MantriKisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN), �6,000 annual sup-port will be provided to farm-ers with land holding of twohectare or five acre.

The new scheme will beimplemented from December1, 2018 and the amount will bepaid in three installments of�2000 (every four months)through direct benefit transfer.As many as 12 crore small andmarginal farmers are expectedto benefit from the scheme.Farmers who are sowing rabicrops during the ongoing rabiseason will be benefitted fromthe scheme. About �20,000

crore extra has been providedfor the scheme in the revisedestimate for the current fiscal.

The Finance Minister said,“This initiative will benefit 12crore small and marginal farm-ers, at an estimated cost of�75,000 crore.”

The Finance Minister said,“This programme will be fund-ed by the Government of India.The programme would bemade effective from December1, 2018 and the first installmentfor the period up to March 31,2019 would be paid during thisyear itself.”

Union AgricultureMinister Radha Mohan Singhhailed the Budget and termedits historic one for farmers.

The assured income sup-port is seen as an attempt toassuage the farming commu-nity’s discontent ahead of thegeneral elections. The directcash transfer was one of thehighly anticipated and talkedabout schemes in the interimBudget 2019.

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Rating agencies led by Crisilhave raised concerns over

the curtailed capital spendingto cap fiscal deficit at 3.5 percent for FY18, and have warnedthe higher target for next fiscalwill delay the fiscal consolida-tion process by three years.

“It is the productive spend-ing in the economy that hasseen a compromise, making

way for revenue spending,”Crisil said in a note on Friday.

Meanwhile, it’s peer Icratermed the “sharp rise” in rev-enue deficit a “concern”.

Terming the inability tomeet fiscal deficit target forfour consecutive years as a big“credit negative” for the sover-eign, global rating agencyMoody’s doubted if the coun-try will meet even the 3.4 per-cent fiscal gap target for FY20.

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Chief Minister NaveenPatnaik on Friday termed

the Interim Union Budget as“disappointing” and saidOdisha would be hit with�26,342 crore due to lowreceipts compared to recom-mendation of the 14 th FinanceCommission.

“The 14 th FinanceCommission recommendedtotal transfer of �1,84,070 croreto Odisha during the awardperiod (2015-20). However,based on the actual receipts for2015-18, revised estimates for2018-19 and Budget Estimatesfor 2019-20, the State is going

to receive only �1,57,828 crore.Thus, the State will be hit witha shortfall of �26,342 crore,”said Chief Minister in hisBudget reaction.

He expressed deep disap-pointment saying the NationalSocial Security Scheme i.e. old-

age pension and other pen-sions, have not been revised atall. The State is covering 48lakh beneficiaries with �500per month while Centre is giv-ing �200 per month for 20 lakhbeneficiaries only, he said.

“I am also disappointedwith the allocation for ST andSC welfare both in infrastruc-ture and education. We havebeen requesting to restore theScholarship Funds for SC stu-dents which have not beendone. The allocation for MGN-REGS is lower than the alloca-tion in the revised estimate.This will adversely affect time-ly wage payments,” he said.

The Budget allocations onrural connectivity, rural hous-ing and drinking water havebeen reduced or have remainedat previous level. This is not

encouraging, he said.However, Patnaik wel-

comed the Income Tax benefitsplanned for middle and lowerincome groups and direct ben-efit transfer proposed for smalland marginal famers on lines ofhis Government’s KALlAscheme.

He, however, said farmerswould have been benefittedmore if the quantum of assis-tance was equal or more thanthe KALIA Scheme i.e. �10,000per year. He said there there isnothing for landless poor,sharecroppers and farmers indistress.

Commenting that someinitiatives taken towards theMSME sector are encouraging,he said they would not sufficeto meet the needs of employ-ment generation in the country.

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The Utkal Chamber ofCommerce & Industry

(UCCI) stated that the UnionInterim Budget presented byacting Finance Minister PiyushGoyal in Parliament on Fridaywas, “as anticipated, a populistbudget” ahead of general elec-tions.

The UCCI analysed theBudget provisions after viewingthe Finance Minister’s speech

on television. Leading mem-bers of the chamber, includingits president RameshMahapatra, made a detailedreview of the Budget proposals.

The chamber describedthe Budget as “populist” obvi-ously because most of its pro-posals are aimed at welfare ofvarious sections of peoplewith the BJP-led CentralGovernment keeping an eyeto the fast-approaching elec-tions.

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Fame India magazine for thesecond consecutive time

adjudged Baleswar MPRabindra Kumar Jena as bestParliamentarian. He wasadjudged one among the best25 Parliamentarians of India,through an online survey.

He emerged top in'Shaandaar' category for whichthe survey was conducted. Jenareceived the award fromMinister of State, MSMEGiriraj Singh in New Delhi.

It may be noted Jena alsowas adjudged one of bestParliamentarians last year tooby the same magazine.

Jena’s name figured alongwith others while a survey wasconducted taking into accountvarious factors including pub-

lic relations, personality, iden-tity, working style, impact onpeople, social responsibilityand vision etc.

Besides the performance ofa law maker in the Parliament,he was adjudged on the basis ofattendance, raising questionsand moving Private Bills, etc.

Jena participated in asmany 341 debates and askedabout 500 questions, besidesfull attendance in Parliament.Further, the magazine men-tioned that Jena was active inhis constituency and did a lotof work for the people mainlyin the rural patches adoptingholistic approach for povertyelevation, plantation, fluoridefree drinking water andenhancement of agricultureproduction, etc.

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While entry of GajapatiMaharajas into politics

and their winning in electionsare not new, a report ofYuvarani Kalyani Devi, greatgranddaughter of MaharajaKrushna Chandra Gajapati,joining politics has made com-mon people happy here.

Notably, Maharaja KCGajapati was the first PrimeMinister of Odisha andGajapati district has beenformed in his name.

It is being discussed thatthe Kalyani Devi has showninterest to enter politics, espe-cially for development of theParalkahemundi Assembly.Discussions started after a“Bandhumilan” (get-together),called by her, was held at theManikaswari Temple here.People from different walks oflife such as senior citizens,

political leaders, journalistsetc. attended.

After the “BandhuMilana”,her close associates have saidthat the political entry ofKalyani Devi would beannounced soon. After thebuzz, the BJP and the BJD havenow come forward to accepther into their fold to make theirrespective party stronger inthe Paralakhemundi con-stituency.

Even as Yuvarani had beenvisiting Paralkahemundi forthe last two years, yet she hadnever seen attending to com-mon people. The buzz after theBandhumilan has fueled enthu-siastic discussion among peo-

ple now.Notably, former

BJD district presidentBasanta Das has aclose relationship withthe Mahraja family forlong and now he is anadvisor to KalyaniDevi. Hence, it wouldnot be surprising ifKalyani Devi joins theBJD.

It may be notedthat that GopinathGajapati, grandson of

KC Gajapati, had wonBerhampur MP seat twice onCongress tickets from 1989 to1996. Later, he joined the BJPand then switched over to theBJD. Now, the StateGovernment is bearing all themedical expenses of MaharajaGopinath Gajapati, who isundergoing treatment in a hos-pital. Hence, Yuvarani KalyaniDevi joining the BJD can’t beruled out. It is also being dis-cussed that she might join theBJP as the saffron party hasgood relationship with theMaharaja family.

However, Kalyani Devi hasnot yet declared about her anyproposal to join politics.

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With elections looming,Odisha farmers are set to

harvest a double bonanza as thebiggest giveaway by the UnionInterim Budget 2019-20 is thePM-KISAN (PM KisanSamman Nidhi) and the StateGovernment’s recently-launched KALIA scheme.

While the BJD Governmentclaims its KALIA as a betterscheme than PM-KISAN, smalland marginal farmers of theState are to benefit with a dou-ble bonanza with the KALIAgiving Rs 10,000 per farmerfamily and PM-KISAN ensur-ing direct transfer of Rs 6,000 toa farmer family owning belowtwo hectares of land. As per the2010-11 farm census, a whop-ping 80 per cent of farm house-holds in Odisha own less thanone hectare of land and anoth-er 14 per cent have land betweenone to two hectares.

However, the interest sub-vention of around 5 per cent forfarmers ravaged by natural dis-asters in the State during theirentire rescheduled period wouldgive a much-needed support to

distressed farmers. This interestsubvention scheme, PM-KISANand PMSYM (PM Shram-YogiMaandhan) are biggest take-away for Odisha in the Budget2019-20. The PMSYM is set tobenefit over 1.5 crore unorgan-ised workers in Odisha havingan income of below Rs15,000/month as with mere Rs100/month contribution from29 to 60 years of age, they coulddraw an assured pension of Rs

3000/month post 60-years age.Experts see it as universalisationof pension in the country.

Besides farmers andlabourers, Odisha would alsowitness an increase of around15 per cent in net proceeds oftaxes and duties as devolutionfrom the Centre in 2019-20 asa whole. The State wouldreceive Rs 39, 206.59 crore in2019-20 vis-a-vs of Rs34,037.20 crore in 2018-19 and

Rs 31,272 crore in 2017-18,respectively. Additionally, theState would receive at leastanother over Rs 170 crore fromservice tax in 2019-20.

As per the Union InterimBudget 2019-20, in line with theFinance Commission guide-lines, Odisha would see a jumpin revenue flow from theCentre. The State would get anadditional around Rs 5,170crore via distribution of net cen-tre proceeds of taxes and duties.And with this, the State wouldsee net tax and duties transferfrom the Centre in 2019-20 ataround Rs 39, 400 crore.

After posting an over 173-per cent rise in net proceedsdevolved under Central GST(CGST) in 2018-19, Fiscal2019-20 would see around 21-per cent rise over the 2018-19CGST devolutions to Odisha.The amount the State project-ed to receive under headCentral GST in 2019-20 wouldbe Rs 11,865.86 crore vis-a-vis

Rs 9,800.98 crore in 2018-19.When it comes to major

schemes like ‘Core of core’,‘Core’ and ‘Central schemes’,it’s a mixed bag for Odisha.The State would see moreCentral funds for schemeslike PMFBY and interest sub-sidy on short-term credit forfarmers. The biggest jump ofover 51 per cent has beeneffected for ‘Core’ scheme likeNational Livelihood MissionAjeevika, which saw an alloca-tion of Rs 9,524 crore in 2019-20 vis-a-vis Rs 6,294 crore in2018-19. Similarly, thePradhan Mantri Gram SadakYojana has seen a hike of over22 per cent to touch Rs 19,000crore in 2019-20. The PMKrishi Sinchai Yojana has seena hike of over 15 per cent togive a boost to the State’spending irrigation projects.Overall, the Green Revolutionsaw a hike of around 7 per centto touch Rs 12,612 crore in2019-20.

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FICCI Odisha StateCounci l chairman

Subhrakant Panda said theUnion Interim Budget 2019-20 would put more money inthe hand of the middle classand also include a minimumincome guarantee for farm-ers.

The likely increase in dis-cretionary spending augurswell for the economy andindustry at large.

“Overall, the Budgetaddresses key sectors of theeconomy and the need of lessprivileged while laying out avision for the future,” he said,adding that it is a “progressiveBudget”.

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The Interim Budget 2019-20introduced in Parliament is

a betrayal for the unemployedyouths and farmers, saidSamajwadi Party State presid-ednt Rabi Behera.

The Modi Government,which made a promise to pro-vide two crore jobs and raisethe MSPs of farm products, hasjust given � 6,000 to farmers.Rather, the KALIA scheme ofthe Odisha Government is abetter option for the farmers,said Behera. The Budget has amade a provision of � 750 crorefor animal husbandry, but nostep has been taken for an MSPfor a litre of milk, he added.

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Pradesh CongressCommittee president

Nijanjan Patnaik termed theUnion Budget as an ‘electionjumla’ and said the Budgetindicates that AICC presidentRahul Gandhi’s ‘minimumincome guarantee’ promise hasrattled the Narendra ModiGovernment.

“The Modi Government’sfear of upcoming general elec-tions is clearly visible in theBudget. After neglecting mid-dle class people for the last fouryears, the Government is nowtrying to fool them when elec-tions are approaching,” allegedPatnaik in a reaction to theInterim Budget. Patnaik saidthe BJP Government has beenbaffled by the election resultsin three States. Moreover,immediate implementation ofpromises made by theCongress has created panicamongst the Prime Ministerand his party colleagues, hesaid.

The fear of Congress presi-dent’s promise is being reflectedin the interim budget, where theFinance Minister has proposedto give Rs 3,000 to the unorgan-ised workers aged 60 and abovewith a monthly contribution ofRs 100 only. He wanted to knowthat why the Government hadnot made this provision duringthe last four years.

He said demonetizationand GST have compelledthousands of small and cot-tage industries to close theirunits permanently and thisalso destroyed lakhs of jobs inthe countr y. Has theGovernment done anything tohelp them, wanted to knowPatnaik.

He said why theGovernment didn’t increasenontaxable income to Rs 8lakh when it has made a 10-percent reservation for unreservedfamilies having maximumincome of Rs 8 lakh per annum.There is no provision forwomen and unemployedyouths in Budget, he said.

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Congress leader and formerRajya Sabha member

Rama Chandra Khuntiadubbed the Union Budget aswishing long life to people atdeathbeds and termed it aspolitically-motivated. Khuntiasaid that while the NDAGovernment has failed to ful-fil the promises to the farmersand people made in last fiveyears, providing assurances tothe people of the country justtwo months before the gener-al elections is ridiculous.

He said that on the otherhand, if the promise given byAICC president Rahul Gandhiof minimum income guaranteeis executed, there would be noneed of different promises.

The provisions presentedin the Union Budget are hollowcompared to the RahulGandhi’s promise of minimumincome guarantee, he added.

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The Utkal Sammilani,Cuttack district on Friday

said the Interim Budget of theUnion Government is meant toattract voters as elections areahead. “Provisions have beenmade to attract farmers, mid-dle class people and workerstowards the ruling party. Smalland poor farmers will get assis-tance of Rs 6,000 per year and12 crore farmers will benefit.Similarly attempts have beenmade to make middle classpeople and workers by raisingnontaxable income to Rs 5lakh and making a pensionscheme,” said Sammilani dis-trict president Dr Rabi RanjanSahoo in his reaction to theBudget.

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BJP leaders led by State pres-ident Basant Panda on

Thursday met the StateInformation Commissioner(SIC) and submitted an appli-cation under the Right toInformation Act seekingdetailed data relating to use ofchit fund corpus fund created

by the State Government topay out deposits to smallinvestors.

“ F i v eyears havepassed sincethe corpusfund createdby the StateGovernment.We want tok n o wwhether chitf u n di n v e s t o r shave been

paid from the fund. If they havenot been paid, then why,” want-ed to know the team.

The leaders alleged theState Government has alwaysprovided false data relating tothe ponzi scam and betrayedinvestors. Among others, partyvice-president SameerMohanty, State secretary DillipMallick, spokesperson DillipMohanty, Bhubaneswar zillapresident HarekrushnaKhuntia, State executive mem-ber Jagannath Pradhan,Krushak Morcha vice-presi-dent Maheshwar Sahu andgeneral secretary Surath Biswalwere president.

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The Economic OffencesWing (EOW) of the State

Crime Branch on Fridayarrested a real estate companyemployee, SoumendraNarayan Dalabehera, on thecharge of defrauding cus-tomers. Dalabehera, a native ofSarankul in Nayagarh district,is accused of executing saledeeds for Z-Infra in capacity of

general manager of the com-pany. The Z-Infra collected Rs12 crore in the guise of provid-ing houses and plots frommany customers and alleged-ly cheated them. Dalabeheraexecuted several agreementswith potential customers andwas also instrumental in pur-suing customers to buy plotsfrom Z-Infra. He has beenbooked under different sec-tions of the IPC and the OPIDAct.

Earlier, the EOW hasarrested the MD and directorsof Z-Infra in connection withthe fraud.

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Apparently being inspired byOdisha’s popular Krushak

Assistance for Livelihood andIncome Augmentation (KALIA)scheme, Finance MinisterPiyush Goyal in his UnionBudget presented in Parliamenton Friday announced � 6,000-per annum direct cash transferto bank accounts in three instal-ments to farmers owning lessthan two hectares of land.

Under the Pradhan MantriKisan Samman Nidhi scheme,the move ahead of the generalelections is meant to benefit 12crore farmers in the country. Itseems the Centre has seriouslyreviewed the benefits of KALIA

scheme launched by ChiefMinister Naveen Patnaik inOdisha last month. Under thescheme, a fund of � 25,000 isbeing transferred to eligiblefarmers’ bank accounts in phas-es. A total of 12.45 lakh farmersincluding small, marginal andlandless and sharecroppers inthe State received � 5,000 eachon January 25 in first phase.

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After order of theEndowment Commissioner

entitling the Gurudwara AratiSahib to practise its three ritu-als in the Bauli mutt of Puri,Mahant Satyanarayan Das andhis disciples are in a state of fear.Mahant Das, who is presentlyheading the Udasin cult in Baulimutt, feared of his rights after theorder stated that the rituals of

Lord Patipaban statue and SriGuru Granth, the holy book ofSikh cult, to go in the mutt.

Das said that in orderingboth the cults to fix time tablefor performance of rituals, theendowment has really pushedthe centuries’ old mutt for adirect fight between the Udasinand Sikh cults, which is dan-gerous. There was no bar againstthe Sikhs to enter and performrites in the mutt earlier.

Suspecting the order avendetta to end the rituals ofPatitapaban, Mahant Das saidhe has informed all his branch-es operating in the country at

nearly 600 locations includingthree in the State.

“The order has given rise toa conflict between Udasin and

Gurudwara.Gurudwara has failed sev-

eral times in its attempts tocontrol the mutt and oust us,”said junior seer Akhaya Das.He said that two turbanedyouths had already been arrest-ed by police in a bike theft casein 2014, who were residing herefor six months. Youths hadattempted to evict them oversword point but failed due tohelp of local people, said Das.

He charged that attemptshave been made even to replacePatipaban statue from the mutt,to establish that it is separatedfrom the Hindu cult.

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Investment in basic infra-structure for school educa-

tion has been considered vitalto build a learning environmentfor mental and ensure physicalgrowth of the children.Developed countries of theworld invest a fair portion oftheir GDP in primary educa-tion. The ten most education-ally developed nations, such asRussia, Canada, Japan, Finland,the USA, South Korea, theUK, New Zealand, Australiaand Israel spend nearly 10 percent of their GDP on educa-tion. The economic success ofmany socialist countries islinked with high literacy andgood educational standard.The countries neglecting pri-mary education still continue tobe poor and backward such assub Saharan Africa, Somaliaand Ethiopia. The subject ofprimary education is in theConcurrent List in India andthe Right To Education (RTE)Act speaks of equal responsi-bilities of the Centre, States andlocal Governments in matter ofeducation.

However, in the context ofOdisha, it is unfortunate thateven after seventy years ofConstitutional governance, wefailed to ensure basic infra-structure for our school wherewe are engaged in shaping thefuture generation. The recent13th annual status of educationreport (ASER) 2018 and datacollected by Orissa PrimaryEducation ProgrammeAuthority reveal the stark real-ities of schools of the State.

The ASER 2018 report onschool facilities in Odisha,based on a sample survey fromall 30 districts covering 812schools, says that about 11 percent schools have no kitchenshed for cooking midday meal(MDM) and 8 per cent schoolhave no facility for drinkingwater and 9 per cent havefacility but no drinking water

available. Even after muchhyped Swacha Bharat cam-paign, toilet facility has notreached to all schools as 3 percent of schools have no toiletfacility. In 22 per cent of schoolstoilets are not useable. About 10per cent of schools have no sep-arate toilet facility for the girls.The report also exposed that 20per cent of schools have nolibrary and 44 per cent schoolshave no electricity connectionand schools having electricityhave irregular availability andmostly classrooms are not con-nected with electricity.

The situation of physicaleducation and sports in schoolsis not so encouraging as 33 percent have no access to play-ground and where playgroundsare available, they are locatedoutside the school premises.One fourth of the schools haveno physical education teacher.More than 80 per cent ofschools have no computer forthe children. So far as theschool management committee(SMC) is concerned, about 5per cent do not have a com-mittee and in many schoolswhere SMCs have been formed,they meet irregularly.

The ASER survey revealsthat more than 15 to 25 percent of children in the agegroup of 6 to 14 years wereenrolled in private schoolsmostly in the districts ofCuttack, Jagatsinghpur,Kendrapada, Khorda,Nayagada andPuri whereas 2 to8 per cent of children in thesame age group were notenrolled in schools in the dis-tricts of Ganjam, Keonjhar,Malkangiri, Nabarangpur,Nuapada and Rayagada. It isreported that in the learninglevel also, less than 20 per centof children in standard threecan read standard two level textin the districts of Koraput,Malkangiri, Nuapada andRayagada.

It is well established out ofthe findings of the report thatthe poor performance in edu-cation has direct link withnon-availability of basic ameni-ties mostly in the interior partsand specially schools with largenumbers of children of mar-ginalized sections of the State.

The continued discrimi-natory education policy by theState Government in form ofexistence of various categoriesof schools without uniformity

has been reinforcing inequali-ty among our children. It hasbeen encouraging disparityand discrimination among chil-dren but ideally educationshould be used as a mechanismto reduce inequality by creat-ing scope of equal opportuni-ty and to promote equity anddignity by adopting commonschool system for all its citizensirrespective of their economicstatus, social identity, casteand gender, and place of birth.There has been no uniformpolicy in the State for employ-ees serving with in the samedepartment having large dif-ferences in salary and serviceconditions.

There are varieties of pri-mary schools in the State runby the Government, semi-Government corporates,NGOs, religious bodies, com-munity and private trustswhich lack uniformity in qual-ity of teaching and availabilitybasic infrastructure.

It is fact that the backwarddistricts having large concen-tration of marginalized sectionstill have a long way to go toensure quality primary educa-tion for its children .The poorperformance of these districtsshows the continued negli-gence of the Central, State andlocal Governments in improv-ing the primary education sys-tem and the peoples represen-tative and civil society actorsworking in these areas have notsufficiently devoted their atten-tion to the issues of educationin order to bring structuralchange in education system .

The future of the childrenfrom marginalized sectionsfrom interior and backwardpockets has been routinelylinked to Ashram schools runby Government and NGOs.These Ashram schools werestarted in Odisha in early for-ties by the initiative ofGandhians to serve a politicalpurpose to integrate the mar-ginalized sections into main-stream Hindu society withactive support of the thenrulers but even after eightyyears the same charityapproach towards educationof marginalised sections hasbeen routinely continuing. It istime to question the very sys-tem and existence of Ashramschools when we have RTE Actthat ensures universal, free andcompulsory education for all.Why this segregation continueseven in more planned way anddoes it really help the margin-alised section in their liberationfrom persistent social subju-

gation, bondages and economicexploitations? Every day wecome across horrific stories ofsuffering of the marginalisedchildren in these Ashramschools but no major changehas taken place in providingthem safety and security byavailability of basic amenitiesand infrastructure. The inmatesare not being supplied with bedand bed sheet, mosquito net,adequate food and other min-imum essential items requiredfor a student. Lack of basicamenities has badly affected thephysical and mental health ofstudents as a result of whichmany of them are forced toleave the hostel. There are alsosexual, moral and physicalexploitations perpetratedagainst them.

While the StateGovernment has been madlyengaged in building hostelsafter hostels for tribal stu-dents with major Central assis-tance but there has been noplan to address their safety,security and dignity issues insocial life. The StateGovernment has closed downabout 200 primary schools,including eight upper prima-ry (UP) schools, on the plea ofnon-availability of students inbackward districts, such asKandhamal, Gajapati, Ganjam,Subarnapur, Rayagada andSundaragarh etc. There wereno students in 37 schools inthese districts. TheGovernment is also in theprocess to disband more suchschools in coming days with aview to bring a drastic reduc-tion in educational expenses.There has been uncontrolleddropout rate with higher per-centage of them among SCsand STs and girl children.Therefore, it must be the firststep of the Government tomake available good schoolbuilding, class room, electric-ity, drinking water, toilet,kitchen, staff room, boundaryand playground for all schools,especially in rural parts andtribal areas. While tribal areashave no schools, theGovernment has been pro-moting private residentialinstitutions with huge grants.Even these schools are carry-ing huge numbers of childrenwithout proper monitoring ofsafety and security. The goodinfrastructure facility will pavethe way for healthy mental andphysical growth of childrenand building a quality learningenvironment.

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Asecond bridge over theMahanadi in Sambalpur

town was inaugurated by ChiefMinister Naveen Patnaik onFriday by walking on the bridgeand waving hands at people.

The bridge was construct-ed at an expenditure of Rs117.72 crore. The Sambalpurtown will now directly connectwith Chiplima, Charpur andGosala and will reduce thedistance to Bargarh by about 15km.

Besides, the Chief Ministerinaugurated 18 projects which

included the first ropeway ofwestern Odisha connectingJawahar Garden of Hirakud to

Gandhi Minar top of theHirakud Dam. The main pro-jects include the administrative

building of the DistrictHeadquarters Hospital, 300-bed ladies hostel of the

Gangadhar Meher JuniorCollege and a 300-bed ladieshostel of the Veer Surendra SaiMedical Science and Research(VIMSAR), Burla.

He also laid foundation-stones of a slew of projects.

He announced sanctioningof five new projects forSambalpur. The projects are Rs10-crore bridge at Balibandhi,Rs 15-crore four-laning of theNational Highway at Durgapali,Rs 40-crore four-laning of theZilla School -Naxapali road andRs 20-crore bridge overMaltijore on Sambalpur-Gunderpur road.

Patnaik handed over acheque of Rs 2 crore to the dis-trict Collector for develop-ment of the Veer Surendra SaiStadium.

Patnaik also addressed arally of over 30,000 volunteersof the Biju Yuva Vahini (BYV)and lauded their role during the

recent natural calamity in theState. BYV chief Arup Patnaiksaid about 2.5 lakh youthshave joined the Vahini, whichis one of the largest such organ-isations of the world.

As many as 76 persons,including BJP leaderJayanarayan Mishra, formerSambalpur MunicipalityChairman Girish Patel andformer BJP district presidentNauri Nayak, were detained bypolice before the ChiefMinister’s visit.

A team of the SambalpurBar Association led by itspresident Brijendriya Pradhanmet the CM and submitted amemorandum requesting himto depute a high power dele-gation to New Delhi to pursuewith the Union Law Ministryabout their demand of estab-lishment of a permanent HighCourt Bench in westernOdisha.

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The SBI is considered as themost customer-friendly

bank, but not for the residentsof Tarbha. The town bustleswith business activities and anumber of adjacent townsdepend upon the banking ser-vice. Customers face harassed asthe draft printing machine does-n’t work. As a result, the cus-tomers are going 30 km away toSonepur headquarters town.

The passbook printingmachine is also not working

some time. So the customers arenot able to update their pass-books or get new passbooks.

Though the SBI hasopened two ATM counters inthe town here, they remain outof order and no cash is avail-able in most of the time.

Customers also face harassed asat times both the counters arefound closed. The retired ser-vice personnel also depend onthe SBI for their pension.Locals demand that the high-er officials take immediatesteps to sort out the problems.

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Mathura Hati of Urle (WardNo-10) in Binka NAC is

leading a wretched life despiteseveral welfare schemes of theGovernment meant to improvethe living conditions of theinfirm and poor.

Mathura is unable to walkproperly. Having fracturedfemur, she is not able to affordthe cost of the treatment of herdisease and crawls her way to

nearby areas where she begs toeke out a living.

For some days, the womanis forced to go to bed in emptystomach when people aroundthem refuse to be generous.Mathura does not remember

how many times she hascrawled all the way to Binkablock office for a house.

Though she has met almostall the NAC and Block officials,assurance is all that she hasreceived so far.

“I have prayed before thePRI members for a house, butto no avail,” she told.

When contacted, BinkaNAC EO said, “We are notaware of Mathura’s case.However, we will definitely dosomething for her.”

Meanwhile, activist SruajanKumar Panda demanded thatMathura Hati should get ahouse under Pradhan MantriAwas Yojana and benefit of 35kg rice under NFSA. The dis-trict administration shouldimmediately take some neces-sary action on the matter, headded.

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Stunned by last month’s ques-tion paper leak incident,

the Board of SecondaryEducation (BSE), Odisha hasdecided to conduct the OdishaTeachers Eligibility Test(OTET) online henceforth.This was announced by BSEPresident Jahan Ara Begumhere on Friday.

“The OTET, which areheld twice in a year, willhenceforth be conductedonline,” she said, adding thatthe test that was cancelled inJanuary this year due to thequestion paper leak wouldnow be held in April aftercompletion of theMatriculation examination.

The OTET was introducedin the year 2012 to identify theeligible teachers.

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BJP national president AmitShah would arrive here on

Saturday to attend the party’sST Morcha national conventionon February 2 and 3 in Puri,informed a party release. Shahwould arrive in afternoon andthen leave for Puri. He wouldvisit the Shreemandir on theday and later in the eveningwould have meetings with theparty workers. On Sunday,Shah would address the con-vention on ‘Adivasi Adhikar’.Lakhs of Adivasis would attendthe meeting and oppose theanti-tribal policies of the StateGovernment.

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Brahmagiri’s two-time MLAand former Minister Sanjay

Dasburma faced the criticismof his electorate recently in aunique way.

A signboard enlisting aslew of questions to Dasburmawas found standing at Bijipurvillage near the Puri-SatpadaNational Highway.

The villagers on the sign-board have sought to knowabout the promises the MLAhad made during the 2014election.

Sources said, though thevillagers had cast their votes infavour of Dasburma, trustinghis promises, not a singlepromise was fulfilled so far. Thevillagers sought replies fromDasburma asking seven ques-

tions listing one by one on aflex board near the NH.

The villagers said thatDasburma had promised ahigh school, a drinking waterproject, a multi-purposecyclone shelter, allotment ofland for a permanentAnganawadi center and pan-chayat tag to Bijipur. But noneof the promises has yet beenfulfilled, alleged the villagers.

Meanwhile, sources alsosaid that the signboard is an actof the opponents of Dasburma.It is also said that the villagerswere persuaded by the MLA’sopponents to put the sign-board.

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The family of deceasedalbum artist Simran is

apprehending a threat to theirlives as some unidentified per-sons are following her father inher home town at Jharsuguda.

Her mother, Rani Devi hasalso informed the matter topolice at Jharsuguda andsought help. It might be men-tioned here that Simran fam-ily hail from Bihar but arepresently residing inJharsuguda. On the other hand,the two day remand of herboyfriend Yug Suna has endedand he has been again sent backto judicial custody.

Notably, Simran wasfound dead near the oldMahanadi bridge near Burla.At the first phase, police andeven common people sus-pected it to be a case of suicide.

But later on during investiga-tion and also after getting thepost mortem report, police isnow of the opinion that it wasa murder and many peopleincluding two girls wereinvolved in the incident. ButBurla police is yet to confirmall these.

“During the remand peri-od, we have collected manyinformation from Yug, theprime accused of the case andthe husband of Simran. Wewould verify the authenticity ofhis statement. We would alsointerrogate persons whosenames Yug has mentioned dur-ing the course of investigation,”

said Burla police station ManasRanjan Pradhan.

But he refuted the report ofnewspaper that Simran wasgangraped before murder.“There is absolutely no symp-tom of rape or gangrape,” saidPradhan .

Police apart, the parentsand particularly the mother ofSimran has also expressed con-cern over the news of gangrapeof her daughter. “Such thingnever happened,” says themother.

“My daughter who was aminor at the time of marriagewas tortured by the in-laws andthe even by her husband Yug.Hence, it is clear cut case ofmurder but never, a gangrape,”she added with request not totarnish the reputation of herdaughter after her death.

Further, the involvement ofa leader of a national politicalparty is also coming to the pic-ture in Simran’s murder. Butpolice is also tightlipped on thismatter too.

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Ayoung woman committedsuicide in the district on

Thursday after her boyfrienduploaded an objectionablevideo of her on social media.

The woman, a resident ofBanatal police station area,died while undergoing treat-ment at a hospital here in theevening after she consumedpoison when the video wentviral.

Sources said the womanwas in love with a youth ofTalcher area. Both used to talkover video calls, during whichshe had showed her privateparts to the youth. The accusedhad captured a clip from thevideo calls and uploaded thesame on social media. Shamedwith this, the woman con-sumed poison.

Meanwhile, her familymembers have lodged a com-plaint against the youth at theBantala police station. Actingon the complaint, the policehave begun an investigationinto the incident and are on thelookout for the accused.

However, on Friday theState MahilaCongress membersheld a demonstra-tion in Bantalademanding arrestof the accusedyouth. The incidenthas triggeredresentment amongthe locals in thearea.

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Taking serious note of a fireincident occurred in the

parking area in front of theBhubaneswar railway stationentrance, the East CoastRailway has ordered a fact-finding inquiry to know theexact cause of the incident.

The inquiry report wouldbe submitted to the DivisionalRailway Manager (DRM),Khurda Road, informed anofficial release.

Senior officers from the

ECoR headquarters andKhurda Road office rushed tothe fire mishap site to takestock of the situation. ECoRAGM Sudhir Kumar visited thesite with other senior officials.He issued some instructions

and asked concerned employ-ees to implement them.

He instructed officials tolook out vagabonds and unde-sirable elements in and aroundrailway premises and not toallow unauthorised parking of

vehicles and two-wheelers.

People shouldbe restricted to loi-ter around theparking area andfines should beimposed on peo-ple for litteringand throwinggarbage. Vigilshould be kept toensure that smok-ers must not throwcigarette/beedi

stubs in dumping areas.The AGM strictly wanted

that garbage cleaning should beintensified and people shouldnot be allowed to create bon-fire and sit around it in railwayareas.

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The Kendriya Vidyalaya(KV) No-4 Bhubaneswar

created a record by receivingthree prizes in the KVSRegional Incentive Award 2018for the Bhubaneswar region forteachers and the Vidyalayahere on Friday.

Chief guest UtkalUniversity of Culture Vice-Chancellor Prof Kamala Kanta

Dash presented the prizes inthe presence of KVSBhubaneswar Regional DeputyCommissioner AVLJ Rao.

Out of the 11 teachers con-ferred upon, PGT (ComputerScience) Manash Ranjan Sahooand PRT Prahallad Mishra ofKendriya Vidyalaya No-4 werehonoured and the school wasawarded with “KVS RegionalIncentive Award 2018” for theBhubaneswar region. Besides,

KV No-4P r i n c i p a lS n e h a s u t aS h a d a n g ireceived thethird positionin “SwachhV i d y a l a y aAward” for theyear 2018.

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Naygarh BJD MLA and for-mer Minister Arun Sahu,

who has been issued sum-mons by the CBI to appearbefore it in connection withthe Seashore chit fund scam,on Friday finally broke hissilence.

Talking to reporters, hesaid, “I don’t know why the CBIhas summoned me after fourand a half years (of the scam).

But I will appear before themand answer all the questionsthey ask me.”

Earlier, the CBI had sum-moned Sahu and another BJDMLA Atanu Sabyasachi Nayakto appear personally on January28 and 29, respectively. But theydidn’t appear either in personor through lawyers.

So, CBI officials onThursday said they wouldagain summon the BJD leaderssoon.

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The number of HIV and TB-affected persons has

declined in Baleswar districtdue to timely intervention aswell as awareness. This wasclaimed by Sub-Collector NiluMohapatra.

Mohapatra, besides stress-ing on counselling and reha-bilitating the HIV affected andextending the benefits undersocial security schemes for theHIV patients, said the officialsworking in the fields shouldensure that they were gettingrice under Annapurna scheme,pension and concession pass inbus and train.

Mohapatra said the trendof declining number of HIVpositive patients began since2014. In 2014 while there were125 positive patients, the figure

slumped to 97 in 2018. 24patients died of HIV while69,871 blood samples weretested the same year.

In the meeting, the staffpointed that there were onlythree technicians in counsellingand testing centres while therewas no earmarked room for thecoordinator.

It was informed that aslump in the number of TBpatients too was witnessed inthe district. The speakersstressed on the awareness anduninterrupted medications forthe patients.

CDMO Bibekananda Das,TB officer Girish Chandra Pati,senior medical officer AnupKumar Ghosh, District LabourOfficer Kuber Behera and dis-trict coordinator, AIDS cell,Rashmita Mohanty were pre-sent.

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Members of the KhordahLawyers’ Association on

Friday began a cease-work agi-tation, demanding arrest of allculprits who hurled bombs atthe house of a lawyer in theJemadei area under the Townpolice station. Some unidenti-fied miscreants hurled bombsat the house of lawyerSatyakam Mahapatra onWednesday night.

Mahapatra and his familymembers were asleep whensome assailants threw twobombs targeting their houseand fled the spot. The intensi-ty of the explosion was sohigh that window panes, doorsand outer walls of the house gotseverely damaged. Though theexact reason behind the bombattack was yet to be ascertained,the Town police rushed to thespot and started a probe intothe incident.

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Hundreds of job aspirantswere left in the lurch after

companies failed to turn up ina job fair organised by a privateorganisation here. The mattercame to light after a policecomplaint was lodged in thisconnection at the Khandagiripolice station on Friday.

Sources said organisation SSGlobal had promised applicantsto organise a three-day job fairwith participation from 300

companies at the BaramundaGround in the city. With hopeto get a job, applicants had reg-istered themselves with SSGlobal by paying Rs 240.Applicants who went through aselection process on January 28at the fair were asked to appearat the venue on January 30,informed sources. However, noone turned up on January 30.

“During the registrationprocess, the agency told us that300 companies would partici-pate in the three-day job fair. Iwas asked to reach the venueon January 30 to appear for aninterview, but no one turned upat the venue,” said a job aspi-rant.

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The Octave 2019, a festival ofart and culture of the north

eastern States, was inaugurat-ed at Puri sea beach by EZCCGouri Basu and north eastDirector Jitul Sonawal.

The Eastern Zonal CulturalCentre (EZCC), Kolkata underthe Union Ministry of Culturein collaboration with theDepartment of Odia, Literatureand Culture and the districtadministration is organisingthe three-day fest.

EZCC Director GouriBassi informed this addressinga Press meet held here onMonday.

Revenue and DisasterManagement Minister

Maheswar Mohanty andTourism and Culture MinisterAshok Chandra Panda, MPPinaki Mishra, Odia Languageand Culture Special SecretaryManoranjan Panigrahi wouldattend as guests, he added.

Bassi also said that about350 artists of north-east wouldperform and exhibit their richculture in the three-day fest.

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In a joint operation by theLaxmisagar police and Quick

Action Team (QAT), brownsugar weighing 19.40 gm wasseized from a woman ofHaladipadia slum in the city onThursday night. The primeaccused identified as oneMaina Routray (37) was takeninto police custody.

Apart from the contraband,police also seized Rs 36,640cash from Routray’s possessionand an investigation has beenlaunched into the case. A fewdays back, the ExciseDepartment officials had arrest-ed a B Tech student of a privateuniversity for selling brownsugar near Big Bazar in Patia areaof the city. Prior to that, officialsof the Excise Department hadseized brown sugar worth Rs 38lakh from Chintamaniswar andHaldipadia area in the city.

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The coalition government ofJDs and the Congress in

Karnataka is shaky and differ-ences between partners aregrowing day by day. After chiefminister HD Kumraswamy’sangry statement that he wasready to step down as the chiefminister, his father and JDssupremo HD Devgowda hassaid enough is enough for con-gress leaders constantly takingpotshots at Kumaraswamy. Heslammed the congress leadersfor attacking chief ministerKumaraswamy and said hecan’t be silent on the matteranymore.

Gowda said he has sufferedmuch pain in the last sixmonths when the governmentwas formed in a post-pollalliance. “I am in pain. Sixmonths have completed sinceKumaraswamy became ChiefMinister. All kinds of thingshave happened in these sixmonths, till now I have not

opened my mouth but I can’tkeep quiet now.” “Is this anyway to run a coalition govern-ment, where every day youhave to request your coalitionpartner to not make un-par-liamentary remarks,” Gowdaadded.

This incident is an indica-tion of widening cracks inKarnataka’s coalition govern-ment and Deve Gowda con-demned the increasing fre-quency with which Congresslegislators were taking pot-shots at his son -- ChiefMinister HD Kumaraswamy.

The warnings issued byGowda and his son are seen asa reaction to Congress legisla-tor ST Somasekhar’s recentremark that Karnataka wouldhave witnessed “real develop-ment” if former Chief MinisterSiddaramaiah had receivedanother term. His party col-league, C Puttarangashetty,went a step further by sayingthat Siddaramaiah is the onlyChief Minister in his book.

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In tragic accident involving aMirage -2000 upgraded

fighter jet of the Indian Airforce(IAF) crashed killing twopilots on Friday morning at theoutside of HAL airport inBengaluru. Two senior pilotsof the Indian Air Force (IAF)who were identified asSquadron Leader Sameer Abroland Squadron Leader SiddarthNegi who were killed in thecrash.

“Two IAF pilots died offatal injuries after a Mirage-2000 trainer aircraft crashed atthe HAL airport in Bengaluru,”said a defence ministry officialin a statement here.

“The aircraft was on anacceptance sortie after upgradeby the HAL. Investigation onthe cause of the accident isbeing ordered. Further detailsare awaited,” added the state-ment.

According to sources bothpilots had ejected, but one ofthem died as he had landed onthe wreckage of the aircraft.The reason of the crash is yetto be ascertained. The incidenthappened near Yamalur off oldAirport Road in Bengaluru.An inquiry has been ordered.

The state-run HindustanAeronautics Ltd (HAL) makesand upgrades aircraft for train-ing and combat operations ofthe IAF as the country’s soledefence behemoth. It alsomaintains and operates themilitary airport in the city.According to officials at theHAL the crash took placearound 10.30 a.m.

HAL also operates the mil-itary airport with the IAF andother state-run defence andaerospace agencies like DRDOand ADA.

The aircraft was beingflown by two test pilots of theIndian Air Force. Squadron

Leader Negi and SquadronLeader Abrol were taking theplane for an acceptance testflight after it had been upgrad-ed by the HAL. One of the twopilots died after managing toeject from the plane but he fellon the debris itself. The otherpilot was rushed to hospital butsuccumbed to his injuries.

The reason for the crash isyet to be ascertained, butsources said prima facie itappeared that the plane hadsome technical defects. Adetailed court of inquirywould find out the exact causebehind the crash. The HAL iscarrying out an upgrade of theMirage-2000 fighter aircraftfleet of the Indian Air Forceunder a deal signed withFrance. The French firmDassault Aviation carried outupgrades on the first two ofthe 49 planes while theremaining is being done byHAL.

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The Supreme Court Fridayasked the Centre why it has

not appointed a regular CBIdirector and said it was “averse”to the appointment of an inter-im chief for the agency for along period.

A bench comprising justicesArun Mishra and Naveen Sinhasaid the post of CBI director wassensitive and the governmentshould have appointed a regu-lar director by now.

Attorney General KKVenugopal told the court thata high-powered committee,headed by the prime minister,will hold a meeting on Fridayto select a new CBI director.

He also told the court thatthe Centre had taken theapproval of the high-poweredcommittee before appointingIPS officer M Nageswara Raoas the interim CBI director.

Taking account of theattorney general’s submissionsthat the committee will hold ameeting on Friday, the apex

court posted the matter forhearing on February 6.

The bench was hearing apetition of NGO CommonCause challenging the appoint-ment of Rao as interim CBIDirector.

During the hearing thebench said the process ofappointing a CBI directorshould have been over by nowas it was known that the earli-er CBI chief was going to retirein January.

The court also told theattorney general that the newCBI director who would beappointed must “trace themovements of files” during theperiod when former CBI chiefAlok Kumar Verma was rein-stated to the post for two days.

The attorney generalplaced before the bench in asealed cover the minutes of themeeting of the high-poweredcommittee held earlier.

The last meeting of thecommittee took place onJanuary 24 but it remained“inconclusive”.

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The Supreme Court Fridaysought responses from the

CBI and its interim director MNageswara Rao on a plea ofDeputy Superintendent ofPolice AK Bassi challenging histransfer to Port Blair inAndaman and Nicobar Islands.

A bench of Chief JusticeRanjan Gogoi and JusticeSanjiv Khanna issued a noticeto the probe agency and Raoand sought their response in sixweeks.

Senior advocate RajeevDhavan, appearing for Bassi,said this is the case whichraises questions on the gover-nance of the Central Bureau ofInvestigation (CBI).

Dhavan said that Bassi wasbrought back to Delhi onJanuary 9 after he made a rep-resentation to CBI directorAlok Verma following an apexcourt verdict, but on January 11he was again transferred to PortBlair.

“This matter will also affectthe purity of investigation theofficer was doing,” he said.

The bench then said, “Issuenotice returnable in six weeks.”

On January 21, Bassi

moved the apex court chal-lenging his transfer, saying itwas vitiated by mala fide andwould prejudice the probeagainst former CBI specialdirector Rakesh Asthana.

Verma and Asthana hadbeen at loggerheads and lev-elled allegations of corruptionagainst each other.

Bassi has challenged thetransfer order issued onJanuary 11, saying it is violativeof the directions issued by thetop court in its judgment on theplea of Verma.

Bassi, who was the investi-gating officer in the corruptioncase against Asthana, said he isbeing “victimised by the pre-sent interim CBI Director - MNageswara Rao, who representscertain elements within theCBI, who did not want thePetitioner herein to conduct afree and fair investigation in theAsthana FIR”.

He had said it was Rao whohad passed the order datedOctober 24, 2018 transferringhim to Port Blair and it is thesame person at whose behest heis being sent to Andaman andNicobar Islands again in utterdisregard to the judgment ofthis court in the case of former

CBI director Verma.Verma, however, was

divested from his duties asCBI director by the high pow-ered selection committee andtransferred as Director GeneralFire Service.

Bassi had said there areapprehensions that the transferorder is the first step to impli-cate him either in a false crim-inal cases or in a departmentalproceedings for discharginghis duties in a fair and impar-tial manner in the investigationof the FIR pertaining toAsthana.

He said this is not a routinecase of a transfer of an officer. Inhis application in the Verma casehe had submitted that his trans-fer is pursuant to a deep rootedconspiracy, aimed at influencingthe course of the investigationagainst Asthana and further topenalise him for discharging hisduties in a free and impartialmanner in the case.

Subsequent to the January8 verdict in the Verma case, hehad made a representation tothe then CBI director (AlokVerma) on January 9, whichwas allowed and then he wastransferred back to Delhi andassigned to his duties of DSP,

CBI, AC-III, New Delhi, Bassihad said.

“Once the said representa-tion was accepted and thePetitioner herein was trans-ferred back to Delhi, it was notopen for the impugned order tosummarily, without applica-tion of mind and without anystated reason, simpliciterrevoke the said transfer orderdated January 9, 2019 by ageneric order terming the ear-lier order as “non-est”,” theplea had said.

On January 8, the apexcourt had asked the CBI officersincluding Bassi, who weretransferred overnight to variousplaces after the Centre’s decisionto divest Verma of his powers,to approach appropriate forumassailing their transfers.

Bassi had said he was nevera part of any “group or faction”within the CBI and has no con-cern whatsoever with thealleged disputes that haveerupted within the CBI.

He had said he does notclaim or contend or seek anyvested right to be a part of anyinvestigation team that is inves-tigating into the FIR related toAsthana or any other caseinvestigated by CBI.

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Opposition parties on Fridaydecided to approach the

Election Commission onMonday for redressal of theirconcerns over the use of EVMsin the upcoming Lok Sabhapolls. Congress president RahulGandhi, addressing the mediaafter the meeting, said the issueof EVMs was discussed at lengthby the opposition leaders.

He said opposition partieswill meet Election Commissionofficials on Monday over con-cerns about EVM tampering.Several opposition parties havebeen claiming that only two-three countries are using EVMsand the rest have reverted tothe ballot paper system fol-lowing complaints of mal-functioning of these machines.

The Congress, while sup-porting the demand, has main-tained that since the Lok Sabhaelection is just around the cor-ner, the EC should ensure

counting of paper trail in 50 percent booths across the countryto ensure there is no doubt inthe minds of the voters.

Apart from Rahul, NCPchief Sharad Pawar, NationalConference leader OmarAbdullah, Samajwadi Party’sRam Gopal Yadav, BahujanSamaj Party’s Satish ChandraMishra, DMK’s Kanimozhi,Derek O’Brien of TrinamoolCongress, CPI’s D Raja, CPI-M’s TK Rangarajan, Manoj Jhaof Rashtriya Janata Dal, Aam

Aadmi Party’s Sanjay Singhand Rashtriya Lok Dal leaderJayant Chaudhary among oth-ers, attended the meeting.

“We have had a good meet-ing. All parties have agreed todiscuss in detail three issues -- two central and one structural-- jobs, agriculture and attackon institutions. We are going tomeet and find solutions tothese problems,” he said.

“The election will be aboutjobs, agriculture, attack oninstitutions, and corruption bythe prime minister in the Rafaledeal,” the Congress chief said.

Asked about the budgetbeing hailed as a “surgicalstrike”, Gandhi said “surgicalstrike” will happen on the primeminister and his government onissues such as Rafale, jobs anddemonetisation.

Senior Congress leadersAhmed Patel, Ghulam NabiAzad, Mallikarjun Kharge andA K Antony, Danish Ali of JDSand Sharad Yadav were alsopresent in the meeting.

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With the intervention ofRajya Sabha Chairman

M Venkaiah Naidu, theGovernment and theOpposition reached an under-standing on six bills to betaken up for consideration andpassage in the upper house,sources said Friday.

However, no consensuswas reached on the contentioustriple talaq and citizenshipamendment bills, sources said,suggesting that their fate hangsin balance.

Earlier in the day, Naiduurged both the governmentand the opposition, saying asincere effort shall be made toensure proper functioning ofthe House to send out theright message, as this budgetsession is the last one beforegeneral elections.

Following his intervention,Parliamentary Affairs MinisterNarendra Singh Tomar and

his deputy Vijay Goel held a 30-minute-long meeting withLeader of Opposition in theRajya Sabha Ghulam NabiAzad and leaders of other par-ties, official sources said.

As a result of the meetings,it was decided six legislativeproposals, including one toreplace an ordinance, will betaken up during the session,sources further said.

The Companies(Amendment) Bill to replaceordinance, Trafficking ofPersons (Prevention,

Protection and Rehabilitation)Bill, Arbitration andConciliation (Amendment)Bill, New Delhi InternationalArbitration Centre Bill 2019,Personal Laws (Amendment)Bill 2019, Aadhar and otherLaws (Amendment) Bill 2019,are the ones which a consensushas been reached by both sides.

Rajya Sabha is likely to dis-cuss a motion of thanks to thepresident during February 4 to6, the budget on February 7and 11. In the last two days, itwill take up the agreed uponlegislations for considerationand passage.

February 8 is earmarkedfor the private members bill.

Law Minister RavishankarPrasad, BJP MP BhupendraYadav, Congress leader AnandSharma, SP leader Ram GopalYadav, BSP leader SatishChandra Mishra and TMCleader Derek O’Brien wereamong the leaders who attend-ed the meeting.

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Renowned social workerAnna Hazare’s fast over the

immediate appointment of LokPal at the Centre and otherdemands entered third day onFriday, even senior NCP leaderand former deputy chief min-ister Ajit Pawar apologised tothe Gandhian for an allegationmade against the latter by hisparty’s spokesperson NawabMalik.

A day after the NCPspokesperson alleged thatHazare was an “agent” of theSangh Parivar, Pawar distancedthe party from Malik’s demand.“The NCP has nothing to dowith Malik’s remark. If theallegation has hurt Hazareji, Iapologise to Anna for Malik inthis regard,” the senior NCPleader said.

Hazare had said onThursday that he had taken

cognisance of Malik’s allegationlinking him to the SanghParivar and that he was con-sulting his lawyers if he couldfile defamation case against theNCP spokesperson. Hazarehad also refused to meet theNCP leaders on Thursdayevening.

Alluding to Hazare’s dis-pleasure over Malik’s allegation,Pawar – speaking to media per-sons at Ahmednagar –expressed his deep regret overMalik’s allegation against theGandhian and said that theNCP had nothing to do withthe spokesperson’s remark.

Eight one-year-old Hazarebegan his indefinite fast onWednesday in his home villageof Ralegan-Siddhi in

Ahmednagar district of west-ern Maharashtra to demandamong other things the imme-diate appointment of Lok Pal atthe Centre and Loksyutkas invarious states. His otherdemands are the implementa-tion of of the SwaminathanCommission’s report on farm-ers”, one-and-half times ofMinimum Support Price(MSP) for agriculture produce,total loan waiver for farmersand monthly pension of atleast Rs 5000 to every farmer inthe country.

The three-day-old fast hasalready begun to affect Hazare’shealth. The doctors who exam-ined Hazare on Friday said thathis blood pressure and bloodsugar levels had “significantly”increased. “There was a signif-icant increase in Anna’s bloodpressure and blood sugar levelwhen I examined him thismorning,” Dr Dhananjay Potesaid.

In a related development,Hazare’s supporters staged aprotest in front of theAhmednagar district guardianminister’s office to press for thedemands made by the notedactivist.

New Delhi: The second meet-ing of the Prime MinisterNarendra Modi-led SelectionCommittee for selection ofCBI Director remained incon-clusive, officials said on Friday.

The high powered panelhad earlier met on January 24but could not decide on theCBI chief. The next meeting islikely to be held over the week-end, sourced said.

Friday’s meeting wasattended by Chief JusticeRanjan Gogoi and Leader ofOpposition in the Lok Sabhaand senior Congress leaderMallikarjun Kharge.

The post of the CBI chiefhas been lying vacant sinceJanuary 10 after the uncere-monious exit of Alok Verma,who was engaged in a bitterfight with his deputy andSpecial Director RakeshAsthana leading to the regis-tration of an FIR against the lat-ter in a graft case.

Both Verma and Asthanahad accused each other of cor-ruption and the CVC had vet-ted some of the allegationsagainst the then Chief.

Verma, after being removedfrom the post of CBI director bythe PM-led panel, was namedas the Director General of FireServices, Civil Defence andHome Guards. But Verma didnot accept the offer and wroteto the government, saying heshould be considered asdeemed superannuated as hehas completed 60 years age ofsuperannuation on July 31,2017 and was serving the CBIonly in a fixed tenure role.

He had taken over as theCBI chief on February 1, 2017for a fixed two-year tenure thatended on Thursday.

The PM-led panel hadappointed Additional DirectorM Nageswara Rao as the inter-im CBI.

The meeting remained

inconclusive yet again despitethe Supreme Court on Fridaystating that it was “averse” tothe arrangement of an interimCBI Director and directed theCentre to “immediately”appoint a regular chief of theprobe agency.

The post of CBI Director is“sensitive” and “important”,and it is not good to keep aninterim director of the agencyfor longer period, the apexcourt observed.

Attorney General (AG) KK Venugopal, appearing for theCentre told a bench of JusticesArun Mishra and Navin Sinhathat a high-powered SelectionCommittee would meet Fridayto select a new CBI director.

“We are only saying thatyou should appoint CBI direc-tor immediately. No more ofthis in-charge business,” thebench told the Venugopal, whosaid the committee is doing itas soon as possible. PNS

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Two militants were killed inan encounter in south

Kashmir’s Drubgam villagewhile militants shot dead ayoung lady in cold blood inKulgam district, officials said.

Security sources said thatgunfight erupted between mili-tants and security forces late onThursday night and continuedthroughout the night despiteintermittent snowfall in the area.

On Friday morning, bod-ies of two militants belongingto Jaish-e-Muhammad (JeM)outfit were retrieved from theencounter site. The slain mili-tants have been identified asShahid Ahmad Baba and

Anayat Ahmad Zigar, bothlocal cadre of Jaish outfit.

A self-loading rifle and apistol have been recoveredfrom the encounter site.

Local sources said thatthousands of people took partin the funeral prayers of theslain militants.

Meanwhile, a bullet riddledbody of a young woman allegedto be security forces’ informerwas recovered at Draggad areaof Shopian district even asunknown militants released avideo about the killing thatwent viral on internet.

The slain woman has beenidentified as Ishrat Muneer ofDangerpora area of Pulwamadistrict. The girl is said to berelative of senior Al Badr

Commander Zeenat-ul-Islamwho was recently killed in anencounter at Katapora Yariporaarea of Kulgam district.

A video showing unknownmilitant shooting the said girlwith automatic rifle, is said to beshot from some unknown placein South Kashmir claiming thesaid details, that went viral onsocial media networking sitesreleased by the militants.

A police spokesperson saidthat woman’s body wasretrieved by police fromDragad area of Zainapora inShopian district.

“Militants while perpetrat-ing this gruesome act, made avideo recording of the incidentand circulated it on socialmedia,” he said.

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The strategic 270-kilometerSrinagar-Jammu national

highway continued to remainclosed for vehicular traffic forsecond consecutive day onFriday after fresh snowfall andlandslides occurred at differentstretches along the highway.The MeT department has pre-dicted improvement in weath-er in the region.

Traffic officials said the roadwas closed due to slippery con-ditions triggered by fresh snow-fall at Banihal while landslidesblocked the road at some placesin Banihal-Ramban sector.

They said subject to fairweather and road condition, thestranded vehicles on the highwaywill be cleared on priority. Theyclarified that no fresh traffic willbe allowed on either side untilstranded vehicles are cleared

towards their destinations.The highway remained

closed for nearly two weeks inJanuary due to landslides andsnowfall along the highway.

The national highway waspartially reopened last Saturdayafter remaining closed for sixconsecutive days due tounfavourable road conditionbesides continuous shootingstones and landslides at sever-al places along highway.

The highway is the onlyroad linking Kashmir with restof the country.

Traffic officials said thatMughal Road and SrinagarSonamarg Gumri Road arecontinuously closed due tosnow accumulation.

They said travellers shouldconfirm the status of the roadfrom traffic control units inSrinagar, Ramban and Jammuor police control units before

proceeding for day long travel.Similarly, the travellers havebeen advised to follow the cutoff timing from variousembarking points on both sidesof highway to ensure smoothflow of traffic.

The closure of highway leadsto shortage of essential suppliesincluding fuel, as all supplies tothe landlocked Kashmir Valleyare routed through the Jammu-Srinagar highway.

Meanwhile, MeT DirectorSonam Lotus said that weath-er is expected to improve fromFriday afternoon in Kashmirand by evening in Jammuregion. He said rain is likely tocontinue till late afternoon inmost parts of Jammu regionadding that weather is cloudywith likely snowfall on thehills of Ladakh region.

Due to a cloud cover theminimum temperatures

remained around Zero degreeCelsius in the valley. Srinagarwas at minus 0.5, Pahalgamminus 3.6 and Gulmarg minus7.6 degrees Celsius. Leh inLadakh recorded minus 6,Kargil and Drass both record-ed minus 16.8 degrees Celsius.

Meanwhile, WesternDisturbance is likely to affectValley especially Pir Panchalfrom February 5 which maycontinue till February 7.

MeT department officialssaid moderate snowfall is like-ly to occur across the Valleyespecially in Pir Panchal areasfrom next Tuesday to Thursday.

The Valley’s higher reach-es including famous ski-resortand others including Gulmarg,Pahalgam, Sonamarg as well asthe plains received a freshsnowfall since Wednesdaybrining the temperature furtherdown in the Valley.

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Bharatiya Janata Party pres-ident Amit Shah will be in

Amroha on Saturday to par-ticipate in a meeting of boothpresidents and other office-bearers of western UttarPradesh, according to a partyofficial said.

On February 6, Shah willaddress BJP workers in Etahand on February 8, inGorakhpur and Jaunpur, BJPstate media in-charge ManishDixit said here on Friday.

“Party president Amit Shahwill address a meeting of boothpresidents and other office-bearers of the party units atRamabai Ambedkar DegreeCollege at Gajraula in Amrohaon Saturday,” he said.

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George Fernandes lived amulti-faceted life fighting

for the poor and less fortunate,speaking several languages toconnect strongly with peopleand even briefly running aKonkani news magazinebefore entering politics.

Family and friends of‘George Sahab’, as he wasfondly addressed by many,recalled his legacy as his asheswere Friday buried at a colo-nial-era cemetery in the heartof Delhi, a day after his mor-tal remains were cremated.

Bengaluru-based youngerbrother Michael Fernandes,84, said he was named Georgeby their mother after a famousBritish monarch, with whomhe shared the birthday.

“My mother had namedhim after King George V as heliked him and the monarchtoo was born on June 3,” hesaid.

George Fernandes wasborn in 1930 in Mangalore toJohn Jos and Alice Martha,and faced several struggles inlife before climbing high onthe ladder of politics.

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Lauding the people-friendlyprovisions in the Budget,

Prime Minister Narendra Modion Friday said the interimbudget is merely a “trailer” ofwhat will guide India towardsprosperity after the Lok Sabhapolls and described it as some-thing which will benefit all sec-tions of the society. In hisremarks after the interim bud-get was presented inParliament, Modi said itempowers people and referredto a host of budgetaryannouncements and schemesto drive home his point.

More than 12 crore farm-ers, 3 crore middle class fami-lies and 30-40 crore workersemployed in unorganised sec-tor will benefit from the bud-get, he said, adding that pover-ty has been falling at a recordrate due to the efforts of hisGovernment. This budget will

boost the efforts of 130 crorecitizens in realising the goal ofa new India, Modi said.

Prime Minister said thedevelopment initiatives of theNDA Government havetouched several lives whichhave been reflected in the bud-get proposals from farmer wel-fare to middle class, fromincome tax relief to infra-structure, from manufacturingto MSME, from housing tohealthcare and from theincreased pace of developmentto the New India. He expressedhappiness over more peoplebeing removed from the shack-les of poverty.

“Our neo-middle class isrising and so are their dreams... Interim budget a trailer forwhat will take India towardsprosperity after Lok Sabhapolls,” he said in the speech inDoordarshan, after the pre-sentation of the Budget byFinance Minister Piyush Goyal.

He also congratulated themiddle class for the relief intaxes and said he salutes it forits contribution towards thedevelopment of the nation.About the pro-farmer initia-tives in the budget, he lament-ed that for years, many initia-tives were taken for the farming community, but alot of farmers never cameunder the ambit of theseschemes.

Modi said that PM KisanNidhi is a historic step forfarmer welfare which will helpthe farmers who have under 5acres of land. He added that theanimal husbandry sector, fish-eries have been taken care of inthe budget for “new India”.

Underlining the impor-tance of safeguarding the inter-ests of the unorganised sector,he said PM Shram Yogi ManDhan Yojana will be of greathelp. This sector needed moresafeguarding of their interests

and the budget for new Indiahas done so. Ayushman BharatYojana and social securityschemes are also going to touchtheir lives, he added.

Modi said it is essential to

ensure the benefits of devel-opment reach all sections ofsociety. “The budget willempower the poor, give a boostto the farmer and an impetusto the economic growth,” he

said.In his statement, he

thanked Arun Jaitley, under-going treatment in USA, andFinance Minister Piyush Goyalfor the Budget.

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The Congress on Fridayalleged that the

Government presented a full-fledged Budget instead of aninterim one, and said it was nota vote on account, but an“account for votes”. FormerPrime Minister ManmohanSingh said the Government’sInterim Budget, will haveimplications on the nationalelections due by May. “It’s anelection Budget,” saidManmohan Singh.

On being asked about thebig income tax gift for the mid-dle class and farmers,Manmohan Singh, who was theFinance Minister in theNarasimha Rao Government,said, “In these circumstances ofthe case, concessions to farm-ers and concessions to middleclass will obviously have impli-cations in the election”. Singhis widely recognised for theeconomic reforms which heannounced in 1991 when hewas the Finance Minister. Hesaid the Government has notworked out the expenditure inthe Interim Budget.

While Congress presidentRahul Gandhi alleged that theGovernment destroyed thelives of farmers over the pastfive years and the announce-ment of “�17 a day” for themwas an insult, former FinanceMinister P Chidambaram alsoalleged that the FinanceMinister Piyush Goyal testedpatience by giving the “longest”Interim Budget speech inrecent memory.

“Dear NoMo, 5 years ofyour incompetence and arro-gance has destroyed the lives ofour farmers. Giving them �17a day is an insult to everythingthey stand and work for,” RahulGandhi tweeted using hashtag‘AakhriJumlaBudget’.

Presenting the Interim

Budget, Goyal sought toaddress some of the distressthat the farm sector has beenfacing. He said the schemewill be “fully funded by theCentral Government”.

Senior Congress leader PChidambaram, addressing apress conference after theGovernment presented theinterim budget, said “My oneline comment on the budget isthat it was not a Vote onAccount but an Account forVotes,” the former FinanceMinister said. “It was not anInterim Budget. It was a full-fledged Budget accompanied byan election campaign speech.By doing so, the Governmenthas trampled on time-hon-oured conventions,” he said.

Chidambaram said aGovernment confident ofreturning to power would haverespected the conventions. “Itis crystal clear that theGovernment has no hope ofreturning to power and has,therefore, acted desperatelyand recklessly, and in violationof the Constitution,” he said.

The big takeaway is that thepresent Government has furtherweakened fiscal stability and forthe second year in successionthe Government has missedthe fiscal deficit target, he said.All of the announcements are“last-gasp announcements” by aGovernment whose term willeffectively end in about 90 days,Chidambaram said.

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Terming the Union Budgetan “exercise in rhetoric”

done with the general electionsin mind, the Opposition partiesalleged that the Governmenthas made promises which werenot for it to make. WhileCPI(M) said it was a testimo-ny to the BJP’s “fear and des-peration” about what that ver-dict of the people might be,BSP president Mayawatitermed the Budget a ‘jumle-bazi’, that did not address theground realties.

Mayawati, who has tied upwith her once arch rivalSamajwadi Party to take on BJPin Uttar Pradesh in the LokSabha polls, claimed that eco-nomic disparities had grownduring the last five years withonly a handful of capitalists ben-efiting, instead of farmers andthe poor. “This is wrong andagainst the interest of the coun-try,” she said in a statement.

“The last Budget of the BJPGovernment before the elec-tions is far from the groundreality and the bitter truth, andis mostly jumlebazi ,’ theBahujan Samaj Party chief said.“Jumlebazi cannot change thedestiny of the country and endlongstanding problems like

poverty, unemployment andinflation,” she said.

Referring to the comingLok Sabha elections, the BSPpresident urged people to eval-uate the “wrong policies andthe arrogance” of the BJPGovernment. She asked themnot fall prey to its efforts to“divert attention from its fail-ures by inciting religious sen-timents”.

Akhilesh Yadav, whoseSamajwadi Party is in alliancewith the BSP in Uttar Pradeshfor the Lok Sabha polls, alsoaccused the Government of try-ing to mislead people. “TheBJP Government is only worriedabout votes and not the people.In its regime, it broke the back-bone of the people with demon-etisation and the Goods andServices Tax. Now in the year,when people are going to saygoodbye to the BJP, it has onceagain resorted to ‘jumlebazi’ tobefool people,” Yadav said.

Left parties too said Modigovernment has now becomefamous for suppressing andmanipulating data and offeringjumlas to the people. “Theacting Finance Minister madetall claims during his speechabout the record of the ModiGovernment and promises of arosy future for all Indians —

which was a cruel joke playedon the suffering people of thecountry,” the CPI(M) said.

Communist Party of India(CPI), in a separate statement,described the Budget an “eye-wash” as many schemesdeclared to help farmers andworkers in the unorganisedsector do not have sufficientbudgetary provision.

In a series of tweets,CPI(M) General SecretarySitaram Yechury alleged that afarmer’s family of five beinggiven �3 per day as somelargesse makes it evident how“disconnected” the govern-ment is from the “rural crisis ofits making”.

On the other handTelangana Rashtra Samiticlaimed the cash dole for farm-ers announced in the unionbudget was an “imitation” ofthe ‘Rythu Bandhu’ scheme inthe state with slight modifica-tions. At the same time, theparty said politics had takenprecedence over economics inthe budget in general andclaimed that it might not swingvotes in favour of the BJP -NDA in Lok Sabha elections.Delhi Chief Minister ArvindKejriwal too termed the Budgetthe “final jumla” of theNarendra Modi Government.

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The ruling BJP Governmentand its allies on Friday wel-

comed the Interim UnionBudget presented by PiyushGoyal as catering to all sectionsof the society with party pres-ident Amit Shah affirming thatit underscored the ModiGovernment’s dedication to theaspirations of the country’syouth, farmers and the poor,Union Minister Rajnath Singhcalling it “historic” and LJPchief Ram Vilas Paswanterming it a “second surgicalstrike”.

Union Minister of State forPersonnel Jitendra Singh saidthis is a budget which couldhave only been conceived andvisualised by a Prime Ministerlike Narendra Modi, who haslived through the hardshipand constraints of the lowermiddle class.

Singh said the relief pro-vided to the salaried class byway of increasing the tax-exemption limit as well as thestandard deduction limit willbe universally welcomed by allsections of society across thecountry.

Rajnath said, “It’s a historicbudget, and all the sections ofthe society will benefit from it.”

BJP president hailed it for“benefiting” all sections ofsociety and said it has provedthat the Modi Government isdedicated to the aspirations ofthe country’s youths, farmersand poor. He said the budgettouches everybody, will spurgrowth and generate employ-ment and also praised the

Government for “maintain-ing” fiscal discipline.

“This budget gives relief toevery section of society insome way,” he said, referring toits announcements andschemes for farmers, unor-ganised sector workers andincome tax payers.

With its sops for farmersand the middle class— two cru-cial voting blocs— among oth-ers, the BJP believes that thebudget will woo them ahead ofthe Lok Sabha election, he said.

Shah termed the raising ofincome tax exemption to �5lakh as “historic”, saying theModi Government has sur-passed the expectation of themiddle class by announcing anumber of concessions for it.

The decision to provide�6,000 annually to farmerswill be a “milestone” towardsmeeting the Government’s goalof doubling their income by2022, he said, adding that aloan waiver helps peasantsonly once and merely thosewho take loans while thisscheme will benefit all of themand every year.

The increase in budgetaryallocation for the Northeasternstates by over 21 per cent showsthe Government’s commitmentto the remote region which, hesaid, has seen a big boost to itsrail and air connectivity underits tenure, said Shah.

Petroleum MinisterDharmendra Pradhan said itis a budget for the New Indiaand further strengthens Modi’sresolve to bridge the rural-urban divide. He said it is Pro-poor, pro-middle class, po-

farmer and pro-developmentbudget. “It gives unprecedent-ed attention to the aspirationsof New India”, he claimed.

Maharashtra ChiefMinister Devednra Fadnavissaid “Today’s this budget is agift to farmers , labourers,women& middle class ofIndia.The defence budget wasenhanced beyond �3 lakhcrore, a first in history ofIndia. Statesmen don’t talkabout only 1 yr. The budget hascreated a blueprint of India of2030. #Budget2019”, he said.

UP Chief Minister YogiAdityanath said the budget is allinclusive. “ All sections of thesociety including farmers, mid-dle class, poor & women havebeen mentioned in this budget.This budget will help achieve thedream of a ‘New India’”, he said.

In a riposte to Congressleader and former FinanceMinister P Chidambaramremark ‘It’s not vote on accountbut an account for votes’, BJPleader Sudhanshu Trivedi said,“We don’t do politics to form Government but tomake the nation. PM had nottaken such strong decisions inlast 4 yrs if we had only caredabout vote”.

BJP ally and Union min-ister Ram Vilas Paswandubbed the budget as theGovernment’s “second surgicalstrike”, saying the first usedbullets against the country’sexternal enemies

Hailing the PrimeMinister, he said the budgethas provided relief to farmers,income taxpayers and signifi-cantly enhanced expenditurefor scheduled castes, tribesand the poor.

New Delhi: The blockbustermovie on surgical strikes ‘Uri’and its catchy dialogue “How isthe Josh” made its way to FinanceMinister Piyush Goyal’s Budget speech on Friday. Duringthe presentation, Goyal said hewatched the movie and liked itvery much.

The movie “Uri: The SurgicalStrike” is based on the 2016 sur-gical strikes carried out by theIndian Army on terror launchpads across the border after theattack on an Army camp in Uriin J&K. “It was fun watching Uri.There was a lot of josh (energy)in the movie (Uri movie mein jomaza aaya. Jo Josh tha),” he said.

PNS

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Bengal Chief MinisterMamata Banerjee on Friday

condemned the interim UnionBudget as a dated medicineadministered after the patienthad died.

Calling the Budget a farci-cal exercise that only highlight-ed the “BJP’s election manifesto”Banerjee wondered what pre-vented the Narendra Modi Government from pre-senting a similar Budget in thepast four years.

“This (Budget) is like amedicine given to a patientwho has already expired. Whatthey were doing for the past fouryears,” the Chief Minister saidwondering “This Government’sexpiry date will be over in onemonth. What will they do in thisone month?” The Budget pro-posal was just a “farce”; a “man-ifesto” of the BJP which “will notbe implemented as the newBudget will be prepared andimplemented by a newGovernment in the Centre afterthe elections.”

Speaking about the populistschemes proposed in the inter-im Budget Banerjee said “noone knows the financial situa-tion of the country. If we inter-pret it correctly then financialemergency is going on in thecountry. Our apprehension iswhere the money (for populistprojects) will come from? Howthe money will be managed?”

Attacking the Centre forpeddling farce and cheatingthe people Banerjee said Delhiwas just copying the schemes ofBengal.

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Even as the Defence Budget for the nextfiscal has crossed the �3 lakh crore

mark for the first time. In real terms, thehike amounts to a modest seven per centover the current fiscal. The increase inmoney terms is about �20,000 crore as theallocation for financial year 2018-2019 was�2,85,423 crore as against �3,05,296 crorefor 2019-2020. These figures exclude mis-cellaneous allocations of defence amount-ing to �17065.12 crore. Finance MinisterPiyush Goyal assured Parliament addi-tional funds, if necessary, will be provid-ed to secure the country’s borders andmaintain defence preparedness.

Presenting the Interim Budget onFriday, he said “Our Defence Budget willbe crossing �3,00,000 crore for the firsttime in 2019-20. For securing our bordersand to maintain preparedness of the high-est order, if necessary, additional fundswould be provided,” he said.

The break-up of Defence allocationsinclude �1,03, 380.34 crore for capitalstream as against �93,982.13 crore for thecurrent fiscal to sustain the momentum ofmodernisation and acquisition of weaponplatforms. Moreover, the funds for capitaloutlay will cater to meet contractual oblig-ations like paying installments for theRafale fighter jets, warships and four addi-tional P-8 I long range maritime recon-naissance, S-400 air defence missile shieldand Apache and Chinook helicopters toname a few. The financial managers willalso have to factor in inflation and depre-ciation while handling capital allocations.

However, the major chunk of overalldefence budget is taken away by revenueallocation which will be Rs 1,98,485.76crores next fiscal as against Rs 1,88,118.10 for the ongoing financial year. Therevenue budget caters for salaries of

defence personnel, maintenance ofweapons and allied systems, day to dayexpenditure of petrol and diesel for oper-ating warships, tanks, planes, helicoptersand transport all over the country. Thehuge gap between capital and revenueexpenditure is a major issue facing thedefence ministry and efforts to narrowdown the gap has so far not progressed asdesired thereby restricting the funds need-ed for acquiring better weapon systems.

As regards capital outlay Service wise,the IAF has got the biggest share for the nextfiscal. Goyal allocated Rs 39,302-64 crores.The figure stood at Rs 35,770.11 crore forthe ongoing financial year. The hike in cap-ital outlay will give the IAF an elbow roomto go in acquisitions besides meeting con-tractual obligation for Rafale jet payment.So far, the government has paid nearly Rs40,000 crore to France for 36 jets. The over-all cost of the deal is Rs 60,000 crore.

The Army has got the second highestcapital allocation of Rs 29,447.28 crores ascompared to Rs 26,688.42 crore for 2018-2019. The increase will enable the Armyto acquire modern rifles numbering more

than four lakh, anti-tank guided missiles,artillery guns and armoured personnel car-riers. The Rashtriya Rifles(RR), the anti-insurgency force of the Army engaged inoperations in Jammu and Kashmir, has beenallotted Rs 24.64crores as against Rs 22.40crores for the current term. Rs 23, 156.43crores were allocated for the next fiscal tothe Navy. The amount stood at Rs 20,890.87 crores for the current financial year.

Meanwhile, Goyal said due care of sol-diers was taken by the NDA governmentadding the issue of One Rank One Pension(OROP) which was pending for the last 40years has been resolved. “The previousgovernments announced it in three bud-gets but sanctioned a mere Rs 500 crorein 2014-15 interim budget. In contrast wehave already disbursed over Rs 35,000crore after implementing the scheme in itstrue spirit,” he said.

The Finance Minister also said thegovernment also announced substantialhike in the Military Service Pay (MSP) ofall service personnel and special allowanceswere given to naval and air force person-nel deployed in high risk duties.

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The Government on Fridayincreased overall budgetary allo-

cation for the Union EnvironmentMinistry by 20.27 per cent to Rs3,111.20 crore, but the wildlife flag-ship schemes such as Project Tigerand Project Elephant saw no changein their allocation compared to lastyear. Also even though pollution isincreasingly becoming a cause ofconcern across the country, fund forpollution abatement was cut down tohalf from �20 crore last year to �10crore for 2019-20.

Also, at �100 crore, the 2019-20allocation also remained the same aslast year for the Central PollutionControl Board (CPCB), the centralpollution watchdog. The revisedallocation for the year 2018-19 was�114.42 crore.

In the last fiscal, theEnvironment Ministry was allocat-ed �2,586.67 crore. The current fis-

cal’s allocation of �350 crore forProject Tiger, an initiative for con-serving the wildcats, and �30 crorefor Project Elephant, which waslaunched to conserve the jumbosacross the country, remainunchanged for 2019-20.

The interim budget, presented byFinance Minister Piyush Goyal,raised the allocation for the NationalTiger Conservation Authority(NTCA), a statutory body under theMinistry for tiger conservation, to�10 crore for 2019-20 from �9 crorelast fiscal.

The revised allocation for NTCAfor 2018-19 was also �10 crore. TheAnimal Welfare Noard (AWB) got anincrease of �2 crore in the budget.The Centre has allocated �12 crorefor AWB for 2019-20. It was �10crore in 2018-19.

The Budget for NationalCommission for Green India hasbeen increased from �210 crore in2018-19 to �240 crore in 2019-20.

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The Health Budget 2019-20 was upby 16 per cent to �61,000 crore

from �52,800 crore the previous year.However it is much low to meet thetargets under the National HealthPolicy 2017, where the Governmenthad promised to increase health allo-cation to 2.5 per cent of GDP till 2025.The Ministry had demanded �80,000crore for 2019-20.

The Centre’s much ambitiousAyushman Bharat-Pradhan Mantri JanArogya Yojana (AB-PMJAY) which waslaunched by Prime Minister NarendraModi in September 23 saw an alloca-tion of �6,400 crore for the year. Thescheme aims at providing a cover of �5lakh per family annually and is aimedat benefitting more than 10 crore poorfamilies across the country.

�250 crore and �1,350 crore havebeen allocated for setting upAyushman Bharat Health and WellnessCentres under the National UrbanHealth Mission and National RuralHealth Mission respectively to providecomprehensive and quality primarycare close to the community in urbanand rural sector.

Under the programme, nearly 1.5lakh sub-centres and primary healthcentres will be transformed as healthand wellness centres by 2022. Thesecentre will be equipped to providetreatment for diseases such as bloodpressure, diabetes, cancer and old

age-related illness.The allocation for the National

Health Mission (NHM) for 2019-20was raised to �31,745 crore from thelast budget’s allocation of �30,129.61crore. However, the RashtriyaSwasthya Bima Yojna (RSBY) whichfeatures under the NHM saw an allo-cation of �156 crore, a decline of�1,844 crore.

The Government allocated �2,500crore to its National AIDS and STDControl Programme an increase of�400 crore from last budget’s alloca-tion of �2,100 crore.

The budgetary allocation for theAIIMS has been increased to �3599.65crore from �3,018 crore in the 2018-2019 fiscal. The National MentalHealth Programme saw a declinefrom �50 crore to �40 crore while thebudgetary allocation for the National

Programme for prevention and con-trol of Cancer, Diabetes, Cardio-vas-cular Disease and Stroke was reducedto �175 crore from �295 crore.

The Government, in the InterimBudget, has allocated �64 crore forupgrading and strengthening nursingservices, �5 crore for upgrading phar-macy schools and colleges, �800 crorefor upgrading district hospitals andState Government medical colleges(post-graduate seats).

It allocated �1,361 crore forstrengthening Government medicalcolleges (undergraduate seats) andCentral Government health institu-tions, �2,000 crore for establishing newmedical colleges and �20 crore for set-ting up State Institutions ofParamedical Sciences in the states andfor setting up colleges of para-medicaleducation.

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Guwahati: Assam Chief Minister Sarbandanda Sonowal on Fridayhailed the interim Union Budget as pro-poor, pro-women andpro-farmer. Stating that it will expedite the rate of developmentin the country, Sonowal said the budget is pro-people which wouldpropel the rate of development of all sections of people of thecountry.

He also said the budget will catapult the pace of developmentin the North East region as the budget proposed to pump in Rs58,166 crore this year which is a rise of over 21 per cent fromthe previous year. PTI

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The Centre earmarked �93,847.64crore for the education sector for

2019-20, an increase of over 10 percent from last Budget allocation.While �37,461.01 crore has beenallocated for higher education, anamount of �56,386.63 crore has beenearmarked for school education. Lastyear, then Finance Minister ArunJaitley had allocated �85,010 crore forthe education sector.

However there has been a declinein budget outlays for IITs, IIMs,IISER, and statutory and regulatorybodies such as UGC and AICTE inthe Interim Budget 20 as comparedto the allocation for 2018-19. Thiscomes at a time when HRD Ministryhas said it will implement 10 per centreservation for economically weakersections of the general category fromthe 2019 academic session and hasdirected to increase around 25 percent seats in higher educational insti-

tutions and universities across thecountry.

The Budget outlay for the IndianInstitutes of Management (IIMs) was�415.41 crore, a massive decline of59.9 per cent from last fiscal’s allo-cation of �1,036 crore. The IndianInstitutes of Technology (IITs) havebeen allocated �6,223.02 crore asagainst �6,326 crore in 2018-19. TheIITs also saw a budget cut in the lastfiscal from �8,337.21 crore in 2017-

18 to �6,326 crore in 2018-19. The outlay for the University

Grants Commission (UGC) is�4,600.66 in the budget, a decreasefrom �4,722.75 crore in 2018-19. Theoutlay for the All India Council forTechnical Education (AICTE) is �466crore as against �485 in 2018-19. Inall, the Budget outlay for statutorybodies saw a decline of 2.70 per centfrom the last fiscal. In 2019-20, theBudget outlay for the bodies is

�5,066.66 crore as opposed to last fis-cal’s figure of �5,207.75 crore.

Finance Minister Piyush Goyalproposed the launch of a schemenamed ‘Revitalising Infrastructureand Systems in Education (RISE) by2022’ with a total investment of �1lakh crore in the next four years tostep up investments in research andrelated infrastructure in premiereducational institutions, includinghealth institutions.

The Government allocated�608.87 crore for research and inno-vation, a massive increase from pre-vious allocation of �350.23 crore.Goyal also proposed the setting up oftwo new full-fledged ‘Schools ofPlanning and Architecture’ (SPA) tobe selected on challenge mode.

Additionally, 18 new SPAs wouldbe established in the IITs and NITs asautonomous schools, also on chal-lenge mode, he said. “The proposalfor setting up SPAs have beenappraised by the Expenditure Finance

Committee. Directors of IITs/NITsand Chief Secretaries of States/UTshave been requested to submit pro-posals,” the minister said.

Goyal said technology will be thebiggest driver in improving the qual-ity of education and proposed toincrease the digital intensity in edu-cation and move gradually from“black board” to “digital board”. Adedicated digital infrastructure forteachers, DIKSHA, has been devel-oped with the aim to empower schoolteachers with access to innovativetech-based solutions, he said.

“Technology will also be used toupgrade the skills of teachers throughthe recently launched digital portal‘Diksha’. “A committee has been set upby the Department of HigherEducation to work out the modalitiesto support ‘Operation Digital Board’in all schools and to provide qualityeducation by effective use of tech-nology and telecom services,” theMinister said.

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For the first time, budgetaryprovisions for the Home

Ministry has crossed the �1-lakh crore mark and is peggedat over �1,03,000 crore for thenext fiscal, with specialemphasis on improving borderinfrastructure of police forces.The ministry has got �1,03,927crore for 2019-20 which is 4.9per cent more than �99,034crore given in 2018-19, accord-ing to the budget papers.

Home Minister RajnathSingh termed the interimBudget “historic” and said itwill accelerate the process ofcreating a ‘New India’ which isconfident, self-reliant, devel-oped and prosperous.

“I congratulate the PrimeMinister and the FinanceMinister for this historic inter-im Budget which is not onlydevelopment-friendly, but also

pays special attention to themiddle class, farmers, workersin unorganised sector and theother vulnerable sections of our society,” said the HomeMinister.

The Delhi Police, whichmaintains law and order in thenational Capital, has been allo-cated �7,496.91 crore while�2,000 crore has been allocat-ed for the development ofborder infrastructure, amidtension along the India-Pakand Sino-Indian borders.

The Central ReservePolice Force (CRPF), which isengaged in anti-militancyoperations in Jammu &Kashmir, the Northeast, andoften deployed for internalsecurity duties, has been allo-cated �3,742.04 crore for2019-20, in com-parison to

�22,646.63 crore given in2018-19.

The Border Security Force,which guards the Indo-Pakand Indo-Bangladesh borders,has been allocated �19,647.59crore for the next fiscal, incomparison to �18,585.96crore given in 2018-19. Thetotal allocation to CentralArmed Police Forces, includ-ing CRPF, Border SecurityForce, Indo-Tibetan BorderPolice, Central IndustrialSecurity Force, SashastraSeema Bal, Assam Rifles andNational Security Guard is�71,618.70, in comparison to�67,779.75 crore in 2018-19.

The Intelligence Bureau,which is respon-

sible

in gathering internal intelli-gence, has been allocated�2,198.35, in comparison to�2,056.05 crore given in thelast fiscal.

The Special ProtectionGroup, which is responsible forthe security of the prime min-ister, former Prime Ministersand their close family members, has been allocated�530.75 crore, in comparisonto �411.68 crore given in 2018-19.

In this Budget, �5,117crore has been allocated fordevelopment of police infra-structure, including construc-tions of barracks, residentialquarters, purchase of vehi-cles, arms and ammunition.

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Iremembered the first stanza ofRabindranath Tagore’s seminal poemPrasna (Question), written towardsthe end of his life, as I began writingthis column. It reads in literal English

translation: “God, you have sent messen-gers from age to age/To this compassion-less world/ — They have said ‘forgive all’,said love/ — Destroy the poison of hatredfrom your hearts/They have been peopleto be respectfully welcomed and remem-bered, yet in these unfortunate days/Wehave turned them away from our outerdoor with futile salutation.”

Was Gandhi a messenger of God? DoesTagore’s lament apply to his case? He was cer-tainly not a messenger if the word is takento mean reincarnation; he himself hadstrongly denounced attempts at deifying him.He was, however, certainly so if the word isinterpreted in the wider sense of being some-one of towering stature spreading God’s mes-sage and applying it in practice. Deeply reli-gious, Gandhi tirelessly strove to apply toboth personal and public life the values oftruth, compassion and non-violenceenshrined in all religions.

His belief in truth had clearly prompt-ed him to lay bare his weaknesses and inad-equacies in My Experiments with Truth. Hisabiding faith in non-violence had led himto withdraw the non-cooperation movement,then at a high tide, after a mob had burntalive 22 policemen in the local police stationat Chauri Chaura in Uttar Pradesh’sGorakhpur district on February 4, 1922,thereby courting intense unpopularity insome quarters. The savage communal vio-lence in Noakhali, in which thousands ofmen were killed, women mass raped andproperty was systematically damaged on alarge scale, shook him to his core. While theremight have been other considerations suchas continuing to wage his losing war againsta partition of India, “it was”, in the words ofHarijan, “the cry of outraged womanhoodthat had peremptorily called him toNoakhali.” The horrible atrocities perpetrat-ed on women en masse had devastated theMahatma emotionally and deeply violatedhis sense of morality.

Arriving in Noakhali in November1946, Gandhi stayed on till March 1947, inthe teeth of increasingly shrill attacks, ver-bally and in print, by communal groups asso-ciated with the Muslim League. The uneasypeace that had descended with his arrivalcontinued even after his departure butmany parts of the rest of India and Bengalcontinued to be wracked by periodic violenceand India was partitioned. Towards the endof his life, he was increasingly haunted by asense of failure. Nirmal Kumar Bose, pio-neering anthropologist and a close associ-ate of the Mahatma, has quoted him as say-ing, “My own doctrine was failing. I don’twant to die a failure….”

Some would consider him to have beena failure by looking at the outcome of what

he tried to achieve. He could notstop Partition. Non-violence asa method, which played a majorrole in mobilising the masses forparticipation in the freedomstruggle, has been swamped byan increasing resort to violentmethods that began even beforethe communal riots had start-ed with the Great CalcuttaKilling (August 16-20, 1946). Itnow receives only lip service.The same goes for the values oftruth, which few now seem toconsider an end in itself, andcompassion which, though notabsent, moves a decreasingnumber of people.

From a historical perspec-tive, however, it would be unre-alistic to expect a massive trans-formation of Indian polity andsociety, and the lives of Indians,along the radically differentlines prescribed by Gandhi, inthe little over a century since hisreturn to India. More than 2,000years after the crucifixion, onefinds that the ethical principlesand conduct that Christ stoodfor are observed more in thebreach in Christian countries.

Gandhi has provided amoral compass and a non-vio-lent political trajectory to theworld. The indication of themeasure of his success would liein the extent to — and the paceat which — people and nationsadopt both. There have been sig-nificant developments. The val-ues of truth and non-violencethat Gandhi stood for, and the

method of non-violent satyagra-ha that he applied in India’s free-dom struggle, had deeply influ-enced Martin Luther King. Hisinfluence on Nelson Mandela isclear from the latter’s statement,made on being awarded theNobel prize for peace in 1994,that he owed his success toGandhi. One saw methods ofprotest, approximating his, inaction in Tiananmen Square inBeijing in 1989, in several cities,including Cairo, during theArab Spring which began in2010, arousing great hopes thatended in disillusionment, andseveral other places.

Yet, a very great deal ofground remains to be covered.What is needed is an increasing-ly powerful global mass move-ment propagating his ideals andimplementing them throughpraxis. The first pre-requisite forits emergence would be keepinghis ideals alive through politicalaction, meetings, discussions,talks and writings. All of thesecontinue, albeit primarily with-in academic precincts. There isalso a growing corpus ofGandhiana containing volumesthat are scholarly, readable andinformative.

Particularly needed in thecontext of a mass movement,however, are books that bringGandhi to life through pho-tographs and readable prose.One that does this admirably isthe historian Aparna Basu’sGandhi’s Vision: Freedom and

Beyond (2019), published byNiyogi Books. It covers theentire span of Gandhi’s activitiesfrom his life and movements inSouth Africa to his defining rolein India’s freedom struggle andefforts to end communal vio-lence and prevent the Partitionof India. It puts his arrival andwork in India in perspective byplacing both in the backgroundof the social, political, culturaland economic developments,and the reform movements thattransformed India in the 19thcentury. It also dwells on thepolitical movements that, gath-ering momentum from late 19thcentury and, involving directaction and the participation ofa large section of the middleclass during the movementagainst the Partition of Bengalin 1905, had laid the foundationsof a national struggle thatGandhi transformed into a massmovement across the country.

The distinguishing featureof the publication, which com-bines scholarly knowledge withaccessible prose, is the largenumber of photographs it car-ries, covering the entire range ofGandhi’s activities. This gives itthe character of a pictorial biog-raphy which vividly recalls atime of great stirrings andupheavals and the man with thestick and steel-frame glasseswho played a defining role in it.

(The writer is ConsultantEditor, The Pioneer, and anauthor)

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Sir — This refers to the article,“Remembering the last socialist”(February 1) by Abhishek PratapSingh. With the passing of GeorgeFernandes, India has lost a verysincere politician who dedicatedhis life to the cause of the nation.He was frank, forthright and, atthe same time, very simple. Thereare many political anecdotes toprove that he stood by his prin-ciples. He will be missed.

KV SeetharaamaiahHassan

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Sir — This refers to the editorial,“Remembering the last socialist”(February 1) by Abhishek PratapSingh. India has lost a bold, daringand much loved leader. Honest andforthright, he fought for the rightsof the poor and the downtroddenand won many over with his bril-liant oratory skills. He shone as aMinister. The west coast willremember him as a far-sightedleader instrumental in the KonkanRail project becoming a reality.

M PradyuKannur

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Sir — This refers to the editori-al, “Remembering the last social-ist” (February 1) by AbhishekPratap Singh. It can rightly be saidthat George Fernandes was thelast true socialist leader our coun-try has produced. He was also aself-made man, with a number ofanecdotes to prove this. His

strong principles and values willbe remembered for long.

Mala RampuriaHyderabad

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Sir — It was comforting to hearthat National Democratic Frontof Bodoland chief RanjanDaimary and nine others were

sentenced to life imprisonmentby a special Central Bureau ofInvestigation court. Finally, aftera long waiting of 10 years, jus-tice has prevailed for the victimsof the heart-wrenching blaststhat took place on October 30,2008. In this incident at least 11bombs went off almost simulta-neously in Guwahati and inBongaigaon, Barpeta andKokrajhar. The incident left 81

people dead and 470 othersinjured. Such decisions byIndian courts increase our faithin the judiciary.

MF Qasmi Hyderabad

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Sir — In yet another move thatshows that it will go to anyextent to appease the electorate,the NDA Government has sud-denly woken up from its slum-ber and requested the SupremeCourt to return the “superfluousland” to the Ram JanmabhoomiNyas trust. Perhaps learningfrom opinion polls that itsprospects seem quite bleak thiselection, the Government isdoing everything it can to regaintrust, from providing 10 per centreservation for the economical-ly poor among the forwardcommunities to making thisrequest to the court. The hope is that the top court will actfairly and quickly in both thesematters.

Tharcius S FernandoChennai

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In March 1987, I sat for my final yearBCom exams. Pakistan Studies wasthe last paper. I was a student at a

state-owned college in Karachi whereI had spent more time doing studentpolitics. Some of my friends — most-ly from the progressive student outfitthat we were all part of — believed Idid not need to study because my“English was good.” To them, that’s allit took to get through. Their English,they lamented, was not good enoughbecause unlike me, they had all grad-uated from “Urdu-medium schools.”

Since there was also the option oftaking the exams in Urdu, they decid-ed to do just that. All but one. Usman.He was a wiry young man who camefrom a lower-middle-class family inKarachi’s Nazimabad area. He insistedon taking the exams in English afterconvincing himself that I would “help”him out. No, not before the exams but

during the exams! I did help him inwhatever manner I could. I am relat-ing this story due to the rhetoric oneincreasingly hears these days aboutwhat is not Pakistan’s culture. Oncemostly the domain of clerics and reli-gious parties, these days, the issue hasbecome a favourite of High Courtjudges, Ministers of Culture and themedia regulatory organisation Pemra.They are all quick to judge that anevent, film or a piece of art is not partof Pakistan’s culture but they neverexplain what Pakistani culture really is.

For example, when in 2016, formerIHC judge, Shaukat Aziz, banned thecelebration of Valentine’s Day, he stat-ed that “it was not part of our culture.”Recently, a Lahore High Court judgesaid the same when he ordered that astatue of Satan at the Lahore Museumbe removed. He said, “this statue hasnothing to do with our culture.” OnJanuary 9 this year, Pemra told chan-nels to avoid “intimate moments” onTV because “they violated our cultur-al standards of decency.” In January2019, a festival on the work of Urdushort story writer, Saadat Hasan Manto,was not given the go-ahead by thePunjab Ministry of Culture. TheJanuary 15 issue of Express Tribune

quoted unidentified officials of theMinistry as saying, “Manto was a lib-eral and vulgar writer.” In December2018, a Bollywood film on Manto hadalready been banned by Pakistan’sCentral Board of Film Certification.

And here is where I return toUsman. On the day of the PakistanStudies paper, he whispered to ask mehow he should answer the followingquestion: “Define Pakistan’s culture ina paragraph.” Itching to finish the paper,I told him to write whatever he want-ed to. After completing the paper, Iasked him, “Usman, kya likha (Whatdid you write)?” He told me exactlywhat he wrote: “Maine likha (I wrote),my mother say give exam in English;father say give in Urdu; maulvi ofmosque say give in Arabic; my provincesay give in Sindhi and forefather saygive in Punjabi. This is Pakistan culture.This is what I say.”

I thought that was brilliant, eventhough he flunked. “English weak haina yaar (It’s because my English isweak),” he later complained. Recently,High Court judges, Ministers of Cultureand Pemra have been on a banningspree, always maintaining that whatev-er they ban isn’t according to Pakistaniculture. And yet, none of them can

explain Pakistan’s culture in a convinc-ing manner or in a manner in whichthe more conservative segments of soci-ety haven’t already. This questionabout Pakistani culture first emergedduring the declining years of the AyubKhan regime in the late 1960s. Beforethat, it wasn’t much of an issue as suchbecause Pakistan was still a very youngcountry. However, nationalist histori-an IH Qureshi authored a book in 1956titled, “The Pakistani Way of Life.” Eventhough the book celebrates the fact thatPakistan was a Muslim-majority coun-try whose ancestors in the region andfounders resisted being assimilated byHinduism, it does not see the presenceof both historical and contemporarynon-Muslim elements in Pakistanisociety as something opposed toPakistani culture.

In the late 1960s, when AyubKhan’s ‘modernist’ Muslim nationalistnarrative began to crumble, Abul AlaMaududi, the founder of the Jamaat-i-Islami (JI), took this opportunity toplug his idea of Pakistani culture. Hestated that the country’s culture was“Islamic.” Professor of Sociology, SaadiaToor, in State of Pakistan, wrote thatMaududi lamented that Leftist, secu-lar and Western ideas had entered

Pakistan’s Islamic culture “through aTrojan horse” and were altering thecountry’s “Islamic character.”

Progressive Urdu poet Faiz AhmadFaiz was quick to respond. In a seriesof lectures that he delivered to theCommission of Arts and Culture in1967 (and which were later publishedas a report), Faiz explained Pakistaniculture as a historical combination ofvaried and diverse religious and polit-ical, traditional and modern influences,of which Islam was an importantaspect but not its entire body. In her2011 paper for the University ofAlberta, S Hemani wrote that in 1973,the ZA Bhutto regime organised a con-ference of intellectuals, historians andscholars. Two views emerged at theconference. One was that Pakistan’snationalism should promote multicul-turalism. But the other view insistedthat (in light of East Pakistan’s separa-tion in 1971), a more rigorous nation-alism should be constructed and thecountry’s culture be defined as a sin-gle politico-religious entity. This was anidea born from a sense of territorialinsecurities and was, thus, bound toremain narrow and myopic.

Today, most High Court judges,Ministers and Pemra, who imposed

bans on certain events, simply statedthat “it (the banned event) was notaccording to Pakistani culture andIslam.” Such statements have becomea favourite of the conservative segmentsof the state and society ever since thelate 1970s, despite the fact that if anevent is against Pakistani culture, thenexactly what is this culture?

Saying Pakistani culture is “Islamic”doesn’t say much because there are var-ious manifestations of Islam in practice,in addition to the fact that there arenon-Muslim Pakistanis in our midst aswell and laws that are entirely secular.This is also why it has been easier forthe state to define Pakistan as aMuslim-majority nation but almostimpossible to construct a monolithicdefinition of the expression “IslamicRepublic.” That’s why explaining some-thing as being opposed to Pakistani cul-ture has increasingly started to soundhollow. This is also because Pakistan isnow comfortable (to a certain extent)in seeing itself as a diverse society.Denying this reality would put thedenier on the wrong side of history.And this is exactly where some mem-bers of the Government and judiciaryare still stuck.

(Courtesy: Dawn)

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One often comes across laments in themedia and during discussions oneducational issues that Indian univer-sities do not figure prominently inglobal institutional rankings. This is

followed by an expression of serious anxiety regard-ing a decline in the overall quality of educationacross the board. The shrinking of learner attain-ment in sarkari schools is regularly highlightedthrough credible surveys; and this includesPratham’s Annual Status of Education Report(ASER). Everyone seems to be concerned abouthow to reform the education system to overcomethe increasing problem of unemployment amongeducated young people. To what extent can stepslike the creation of the Ministry of SkillDevelopment and Entrepreneurship help? Whatneeds to be done to restore credibility and publicacceptance of the present education system?

India has reached a stage when every parentwants to educate children — both boys and girls— in a good school, which in the current con-text means a private school. If around 60 per centof the students still go to Government schools,it is only because parents are not in a position toafford the ‘luxury’ of a private school, or its non-availability in the vicinity. In higher education,competition is too tough to get entry into reput-ed public-funded professional institutions. Privateones charge huge fees. Those who can manageand afford look for ‘good quality education’beyond the shores.

As demand increased, the Indian State qui-etly withdrew from its commitment, paving theway for private entrepreneurs, both in schools andthe higher education sectors. There are assuredincreasing returns and takers are many. India hadjust around 50 universities in 1950. Today, it is setto touch the four-figure mark. Further, there arearound 40,000 colleges across the country. All ofthis could be seen as a great achievement — expan-sion was necessary and one should be happy aboutit. However, the dilution of quality is not the onlyconcern; the problem surrounding Indian educa-tion is much more complex. The emphasis on prac-tised values in our institutions stands hopelesslydiluted. To recall a somewhat similar situation andits analysis, one could refer to John W Gardner’sEssay titled, Excellence: Can We be Equal andExcellent Too? Referring to over emphasis onattending colleges and universities, Gardner sum-marised: “The crowding in our colleges is lessregrettable than the confusion in our values.Human dignity and worth should be assessed onlyin terms of those qualities of mind and spirit thatare within the reach of every human being. If wemake the assumption that college is the sole cra-dle of human dignity, need we be surprised thateveryone wants to be rocked in that cradle?”

Gardner went on to elaborate that the inten-tion is not to undervalue attainments and impor-tance of higher education but to remember thatthey alone need not become the sole criterion forassessing human worth. We could get a much bet-ter comprehension of the missing elements in theIndian education if we were to reflect on how thedecline/change 1960 onwards has altered ouremphasis on the total worth of an individual.There are occasions when personal experiencesreflect the prevalent institutional ethos; and that

could lead to tangible reforms without the needfor illusive fiscal inputs.

In 1962, obtaining a MSc degree in physicswith electronics as a special paper was one of themost sought after courses offered by the Universityof Allahabad. Just before the start of the prepa-ration leave for the final examination, ProfessorKrishnaji took stock of how far the prescribedcourse was covered. He was a highly respected aca-demic, known internationally for having estab-lished the microwave laboratory, which at thatstage was a pioneering effort. One of the chap-ters on ‘Detectors’ was not taken up in the regu-lar class teaching and students were sure that itwould not feature in the exam paper. When thelearned professor came to know of it, he asked thegroup to assemble the next day. Detectors weretaught for four hours that day, followed by anoth-er three hours the very next day. Every studentwas convinced that at least one question wouldcertainly appear in the exam paper on Detectors.On the crucial electronics exam paper day, oncethe question paper appeared before each one ofthem, examinees received a big jolt as there wereno questions on Detectors. One could say not abig deal as it does happen in exams when expect-ed questions escape the attention of paper setters.But this was a special instance.

After over three years, in a regular 3.30 pmtea gathering, someone hesitatingly recalled howDetectors could not be detected in the exam paper.Some five of that group of 15 became researchscholars, and like all others, were eagerly waitinghow the professor would react to this recollection.He did and said: “I was the paper setter. I knewthere were no questions on Detectors that year.But tell me, how could anyone get a degree of MScin physics with specialisation in electronics fromthe University of Allahabad, and not learn suffi-cient enough about Detectors?” He went on toelaborate how the university gained its reputationand credibility; how the department of physicsshould maintain its name and fame; and how theprofessors and even the laboratories of the

department have professional, moral and ethicalobligations to discharge. He wasn’t preaching butnarrating a tradition and there were oceans oflearning that afternoon. He also recalled how hewas advised by his favourite teacher: Never entera classroom if you have are not dutifully preparedfor it; never use old notes; prepare afresh each timeeven if you have to teach the same topic in twodifferent sections.

Then Krishnaji gently pulled out two sheetsof paper from his pocket and said, “these are mynotes for the first year undergraduate class that Itook in the morning.” It was so revealing. He hadbeen teaching for around 30 years and could teachthe post-graduate students continuously for threeto four hours without any notes or books. He wasalso scrupulously following the advice of his teachereven at this stage. This was teacher education forthe prospective teachers, this was value educationfor the educated — young and old — and this wasthe measure of university teaching quality in high-er education. It was also a lesson in how to sus-tain and enhance credibility of the university.

Reflecting over it after about six decades, itis not tough to visualise why India is worried aboutits educational quality, practically in every aspectand at every stage. The department of physics ofthe University of Allahabad was reputed to be oneworking 24X7; visit it at any time in the night andyou will find a couple of youngsters working inthe laboratory. Unbelievable, even for the present-day students of the same university. There wereno instructions to do so and no biometric atten-dance for anyone. Values were learnt because thesewere being practised in the department by allseniors. It may sound utopian but quality of edu-cation will improve only when the situation isanalysed and inferences drawn independent ofideological constraints.

It must also be mentioned that the univer-sity system did not face the challenge of vacantacademic posts in universities at that stage.Whenever a vacancy arose because of someonegoing abroad; or on deputation; or retirement, the

head of the department was authorised to makead hoc arrangements. He would trace out the top-per of the last batch, or the next one and just askhim to begin work. In due course, his appoint-ment letter would follow from the Registrar’soffice, with all the pay and allowances as admis-sible to others.

There was no system of guest lecturers or lec-ture-basis payments. Every senior academic ofthe department was available to provide neces-sary inspiration, motivation and guidance to thenew entrant to their family. He could take hischance along with others whenever the regularselection committee would meet next. Today, inthe University of Allahabad, several reputeddepartments may not be having even one-thirdof the sanctioned posts filled. Such situation isnot new — it has developed over the decades —and there are no signs of application of brainpower to overcome it.

It is common knowledge that at most uni-versities, Vice Chancellors have to take “permis-sion of the Government” to make appointmentseven against regularly sanctioned academicposts. And that in effect implies Vice Chancellorsrunning to under secretaries and deputy secre-taries in the State sachivalalya. How does it impactthe morale of the institutional leadership will notbe too tough to visualise. But that is a reality whichmust be acknowledged to envision how to bringabout some positive changes. The role of acad-emic leadership just cannot be ignored. Andentrusting effective control of academic institu-tions to bureaucracy is certainly a folly that mustbe corrected at the earliest. Any serious effort torestore the right ambience of learning and alsoof teaching in the university system will requirea serious study of how changes in recruitment pol-icy parameters have impacted the quality declineand how it has resulted in the gradual erosion ofthe much-needed empathetic bond between theteacher and the taught.

(The writer is the Indian Representative on theExecutive Board of UNESCO)

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Benchmark Sensex endedover 212 points higher in

see-saw trade on Friday afterthe Government presented afarm-friendly, consumption-oriented Budget ahead of thegeneral elections.

After rallying over 500points to hit the day’s high of36,778.14, the 30-share indexgave up all gains and sank to36,221.32 in late-afternoontrade. It finally ended 212.74points, or 0.59 per cent, high-er at 36,469.43.

Similarly, the 50-shareNSE Nifty jumped 62.70points, or 0.58 per cent, toclose at 10,893.65.

Auto and consumptionstocks buzzed as investors wel-comed incentives for the agri-culture sector and middle classin the budget, traders said.

Finance Minister PiyushGoyal proposed to double thethreshold tax exemption limitto �5 lakh and increased thestandard deduction to �50,000from �40,000.

The proposal will benefit3 crore middle-class tax pay-ers, Goyal said while unveil-ing the budget proposals for2019-20.

As widely expected, theFinance Minister alsoannounced the PradhanMantri Kisan Samman Nidhifor small and marginal farm-ers, providing �6,000 per year

to be transferred directly tofarmers’ bank accounts.

Overall, market mood waspositive even as theGovernment overshot the fis-cal deficit target for the cur-rent financial year on theback of populist measuresahead of the general elec-tions. Goyal said the fiscaldeficit for the current finan-cial year is expected to be 3.4per cent of GDP. As per theBudget estimate, the fiscaldeficit for 2018-19 was peggedat 3.3 per cent.

“All these are those factors(sops) are going to bring in alot of liquidity to the marketin terms of investment,” saidMustafa Nadeem, CEO, EpicResearch.

Some profit-booking andconsolidation in the shortterm was expected as pricestend to absorb the Budget, butwe expect the momentum toremain strong, he added.

The BSE auto, consumerdurables, FMCG and realtyindices climbed up to 2.62 percent.

Top gainers in the Sensexpack included HeroMotoCorp, Maruti, HCLTech, Asian Paints, Bajaj Auto,Bajaj Finance, HDFC, RIL,HUL, Bharti Airtel andPowerGrid, rising up to 7.48per cent.

Vedanta was the biggestloser on the Sensex, cracking17.82 per cent after the met-

als and mining giant onThursday reported a 25.54per cent decline in consoli-dated net profit at �1,574crore for the December 2018quarter on the back of higherexpenses and drop in com-modity prices.

Banking stocks were theother top losers, with YesBank, SBI, ICICI Bank andAxis Bank falling up to 4.68per cent.

Meanwhile, on a net basis,foreign portfolio investors(FPIs) bought shares worth anet of �3,006.41 croreThursday, and domestic insti-tutional investors (DIIs) werenet sellers to the tune of�1,634.32 crore, provisionaldata avai lable with BSEshowed.

Elsewhere in Asia,Shanghai Composite Index ral-lied 1.30 per cent and Japan’sNikkei rose 0.07 per cent.Hong Kong’s Hang Seng ended0.04 per cent lower and Korea’sKospi slipped 0.06 per cent.

In the Eurozone,Frankfurt’s DAX gained 0.20per cent, Paris CAC 40 was up0.19 per cent and London’sFTSE jumped 0.37 per cent inlate morning deals.

The rupee, meanwhile,depreciated 24 paise againstUS dollar to 71.32.

The benchmark Brentcrude futures were tradingslightly lower at $60.53 perbarrel.

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The Indian rupee on Fridayweakened by 17 paise to

close at 71.25 against the USdollar as concerns related to fis-cal slippage weighed on thesentiment after the interimbudget unveiled some big pop-ulist measures ahead of thegeneral elections.

On a weekly-basis, thedomestic currency registered aloss of 8 paise. The rupee hadregistered a marginal gain of 2paise in the previous week.

At the Interbank ForeignExchange (forex) market, therupee opened at 71.08, butduring the day it came underselling pressure. The local unitmoved in a range of 70.94 to71.39 and finally finished at71.25 per dollar, down by 17paise against its previous close.

On Thursday, the rupeehad settled 4 paise higher at71.08 against the US dollar.

“Indian rupee and bondsfell on the budget announce-ment of the higher borrowings,”V K Sharma, Head PCG andCapital Markets Strategy,HDFC Securities said.

The interim budget pegsfiscal deficit slipping by 10bps to 3.4 per cent for the cur-rent year, owing to an incomesupport scheme for farmersand expects it to stay at thesame level in FY20 as well.

Global credit rating agencyMoody’s said the inability tomeet fiscal deficit target forfour consecutive years as a big“credit negative” for the sover-eign.

“Announcements towardsfarms, farmers and middleincome category are expectedto create huge pressure on thefiscal deficit during FY20,”Dun & Bradstreet’s lead econ-omist Arun Singh said.

The government made abig populist push in his finalbudget before the Lok Sabhaelections, cutting taxes for mid-dle-class voters and giving cashhandouts to farmers. This,however, will widen its fiscaldeficit targets for the currentand next financial year.

Meanwhile, the dollarindex, which gauges the green-back’s strength against a basketof six currencies, fell 0.06 percent to 95.52, ahead of USlabour market report.

Forex traders said risingcrude prices weighed on thelocal unit, while, heavy buyingin domestic equities restrictedthe slide in the local unit tosome extent.

Meanwhile, equity bench-mark Sensex ended 212.74points, or 0.59 per cent, high-er at 36,469.43, despite thegovernment presenting a pop-ulist budget carrying fiscalfragilities.

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The insurance industryexpects the budget pro-

posals to increase disposableincome through hike in taxrebates, pensions, health coverfor the masses and digital con-nectivity, help the sector growfaster.

“The interim budget aimsto uplift the poor, both in citiesas well as in villages,” ICICILombard General Insurance’sBhargav Dasgupta said.

For the insurance industry,the schemes aimed at boostingfarmers’ income and reducingtax outgoes for the middle-classwill encourage consumption,while the plan to develop 1 lakhdigital villages will boost digi-tal infrastructure, he added.

It can be noted that apartfrom providing income taxrebate of up to �5 lakh and �6000per annum in basic incomesupport to small farmers, thebudget also rolled out a target tohave 1 lakh ‘digital villages’.

The life insurance industrywill benefit from the increasein disposable incomes, highdigital connectivity in the hin-terlands and focus on infra-structure boosting job cre-ation, Pankaj Razdan of AdityaBirla Sun Life said.

The mega pension schemefor the unorganised sector isalso a positive for the sector, hesaid as it is a well- thought-outplan.

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Business leaders in the UAEgave mixed reaction to the

interim budget on Friday assome welcomed it, saying itshowcased the achievements ofthe Government while otherscriticised it as an “election bud-get” with no word on job cre-ation and nothing for the NRIsto excite them to invest backhome.

Sudesh Aggarwal,Chairman India Trade andExhibition Centre M.E andChairman Giant Group, saidthat the farmer income supportscheme and increase in taxableincome slab is to garner votesin the election year.

“The vision to increase GDPto $5 trillion in 5 years and to$10 trillion in 8 years is dreamonly as it will require an annu-al GDP growth of 15 per cent infirst 5 years and then 25 per centin next 3 years which is not pos-sible,” he said.

He said there were also noword on jobs creation. “It isdouble sword budget, may bethey win with dreams shown,otherwise leave a legacy for theincumbent Government tofight,” said Aggarwal.

Sripriyaa Kumaria, Director

General of ITEC ME andSecretary General — BusinessLeaders Forum said the interimbudget presented by FinanceMinister Piyush Goyal high-lighted the Government’s focuson healthcare and agriculturewhich is a welcome move.

“The full tax rebate onannual income of up to �5Lakh is definitely a huge relief forthe middle class tax payer. Theannouncement that businesseswith less than Rs five crore annu-al turnover, which comprisesover 90 percent of GST payers,will be allowed to return quar-terly returns is a welcome movefor the existing SME’s,” she said.

According to Kumaria, thepolicies of this Government orany Government will only showresults with effective adminis-trative policies and good gov-ernance which ensures that thepolicies are implemented inthe right spirit.

“The Government’s policyof minimum Government withmaximum governance and tobe proactive, responsible withfriendly bureaucracy shouldnot remain as just statement,but should be implemented toshow visible results that can befelt by the common publicpeople,” she said.

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The interim budget has pri-oritised populism over

fiscal prudence, and themoves to appease voters ingeneral, and the farmers andthe middle-class in particularahead of the elections willboost consumption,econo-mists said.

However, the moves like abasic income to farmers anddoubling the income taxexemption threshold to �5lakh come at a cost to fiscalmath, they said.

“The continuous devia-tion from the FY19 fiscaldeficit target and the ‘pause’on FY20 fiscal consolidationis a negative surprise and thecredibility of the target to getfiscal deficit down to 3 per-cent by FY21 is “now in ques-tion”, Japanese brokerageNomura said in a note.

Ratings agency Moody’salso viewed the focus onhigher expenditure withoutany revenue gathering mea-sures, leading to a slippage onfiscal deficit front for fourconsecutive years, as a “cred-it negative” for the sovereignrating.

“Both the measures inregard to tax exemption andbasic income for the poorfarmers are significantly con-

sumption positive,” privatesector lender Yes Bank chief economist ShubhadaRao said.

“Announcements towardsfarms, farmers and middleincome category are expectedto create huge pressure on thefiscal deficit during FY20,”Dun & Bradstreet’s lead econ-omist Arun Singh said.

Rao said while there is a“marginal slippage” in thefiscal deficit target for FY19,the move towards consolida-tion has also had to be “dilut-ed” because of the relief tofarmers as the Governmentwants to appease the voters.

It is the reliance on mar-ket borrowing for financingthe deficit for both this fiscaland the next one which isconcerning the markets, Raosaid, adding the yields on thebenchmark bond have react-ed adversely.

The budget sees an impactof �20,000 crore for the cur-rent fiscal and �75,000 croreon the next fiscal due to thebasic income support of�6,000 to each of the poor, and the Government will haveto forego over �18,000 crore in taxes through the move toexempt income tax ti l l �5 lakh.

It can be noted that thef iscal def icit number istracked closely as it has widermacroeconomic implications,especially because of itsimpact on inflation and alsoa potential crowding out ofthe private enterprises fromloan market due to govern-ment’s additional borrowing.

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Microsoft announced theavailability for Surface

Pro 6 and Surface Laptop 2 inIndia via e-commerce plat-forms such as (Amazon andFlipkart) and select retail storesof Croma, Reliance, Vijay Sales,and other retailers. The deviceswill be available for commer-cial/enterprise customersthrough authorised resellers.

The next generation ofSurface devices will deliverincredible experiences, andenhanced productivity for indi-

viduals on-the-go. With thepower of Surface, Windowsand Office, connected throughthe cloud, users are empoweredto be more creative with theirchoice of Surface devices.

While the refined exteriormay look familiar, Surface Pro 6features redesigned architectureunder its hood that deliversastonishing power. The quad-core, 8th Generation Intel Coreprocessor device is an instrumentof versatility, portability andpower. It is 1.5 times faster thanits predecessor, while offering thesame all-day battery life.

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Trade unions on Fridayvoiced split opinions on the

interim budget 2019-20; whilethe AITUC slammed the bud-get, the Bharatiya MazdoorSangh (BMS) hailed it.

The All India Trade UnionCongress (AITUC) Fridayslammed the interim budget2019-20, saying majority ofthe people falling under unor-

ganised sector will be left outof the pension scheme.

However, RSS-affiliatetrade union BMS hailed thebudget as those earning up to�5 lakh per year have beenexempted from tax.

“It is a great relief to thesalaried employees who con-stitute the major part of themiddle class and is most wel-come,” said Saji Narayanan,National President, BMS.

AITUC said, the BJP-ledNDA Government is making acruel joke and has once againattempted to throw “jumlas” onthe face of the people of Indiathrough the interim budget.

“The announcements madeare with forthcoming electionsin mind, just throwing statisticswithout any basis,” AITUC said.

Those covered under EPFin India should be around 10crore workers who are notfully registered and hence all ofthem are not covered, the tradeunion body said.

“There is nothing in thebudget for about 35 crore ofunorganised sector workers otherthan the 10 crore workers whoare covered under EPF,” it added.

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The interim Budget unveiledby Finance Minister Piyush

Goyal on Friday will stimulatedemand and boost economicgrowth, with a slew of sops forthe middle class, farmers andworkers in unorganised sectorleading to more disposableincome in their hands, IndiaInc said.

Industry leaders includingGautam Adani, AnandMahindra, ITC ManagingDirector Sanjiv Puri andWalmart India CEO Krish Iyerfelt issues relating to farmers,unorganised sector workersand middle class wereaddressed in the Budget with-out ‘risking bankruptcy of the

economy’.“India’s middle class, small

traders and farmers are the life-lines of its economic growth. Bycatering to these ambitions#Budget2019 infuses hopes formillions of dreams,” AdaniGroup Chairman and FounderGautam Adani tweeted.

Expressing similar views,Mahindra Group ChairmanAnand Mahindra said in atweet, “I was bracing for a pop-ulist, profligate budget drivenby ‘election panic.’ I’m justgrateful that the reliefs to thekey middle class & farmer seg-ments were delivered in a mea-sured way without riskingbankruptcy of the economy.This was a controlled, pump-priming exercise...”

CII Director GeneralChandrajit Banerjee said theBudget for 2019-20 touched theright notes for stimulatingdemand and growth in theeconomy.

“By strongly addressingthe major consuming sectionsof society such as farmers, themiddle class and unorganisedsector workers, it aims to sta-bilise incomes and reduce risksfor vulnerable people,” he added.

Walmart India presidentand CEO Krish Iyer also saidthe Budget rightly focused onthe middle class, rural sectorand on enhancing farmers’income.

Echoing similar senti-ments, ITC’s Puri said: “The

interim Budget proposalsshould augur well for theIndian economy by providinga growth impetus through aboost in consumption as wellas an inclusive frameworkdesigned to benefit agri andrural communities, unorgan-ised sector workers as well themiddle class.”

Dabur India CEO SunilDuggal said the Budget 2019can be summed up as “a seriesof sops” for the middle class, farmers and millions of employees in the unorgan-ised sector.

Cargill India presidentSimon George said there was quite a strong rural econ-omy and agri push in theInterim Budget.

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India Inc on Friday termedthe Modi Government’s last

Budget as a balancing act ofpopulism with a pragmaticapproach in an election year,taking into consideration both“hosh and josh”.

Industry leaders includingGautam Adani, AnandMahindra, Anil Agarwal, KiranMazumdar Shaw and SanjivPuri felt issues relating to farm-ers, unorganised sector work-ers and middle class wereaddressed without ‘riskingbankruptcy of the economy’.

It is “an ‘election year’Budget that expectedly hassomething for everyone, fromfarmers to traders, workers in

unorganised sector to thesalaried middle class”, BioconCMD Kiran Mazumdar-Shawsaid. She said the Governmentdid well to balance the populisttone by signalling its commit-ment to stick to the road of fis-cal discipline.

“India’s middle class, smalltraders and farmers are the life-lines of its economic growth. Bycatering to these ambitions#Budget2019 infuses hopes formillions of dreams,” AdaniGroup Chairman GautamAdani tweeted.

Expressing similar views,Mahindra Group ChairmanAnand Mahindra said in atweet, “I was bracing for a pop-ulist, profligate budget drivenby ‘election panic.’ I’m just

grateful that the reliefs to thekey middle class & farmer seg-ments were delivered in a mea-sured way without riskingbankruptcy of the economy.This was a controlled, pump-priming exercise...” RPGEnterprises Chairman HarshGoenka termed the announce-ments in the Budget as “a vol-ley of sixes, a victory for farm-ers and middle-class, two majorpillars of our economy”.

He further said, “Balancingboth hosh and josh, the Budgetwill stimulate consumptiondemand and alleviate lives inrural areas...” “The NarendraModi government must beapplauded for a pro-growthand fiscally prudent budgetfor the financial year 2019-20

without putting the exche-quer’s finances under too muchpressure,” Vedanta ResourcesExecutive Chairman AnilAgarwal said.

Dalmia Cement (Bharat)MD and CEO Mahendra Singhisaid the key highlight of theBudget was benefits to empow-er the rural and agro economy.“The measures announced in theBudget are likely to provide a sig-nificant impetus to consumptionspending in the economy, whichwill boost growth in the near tomedium term,” CII PresidentRakesh Bharti Mittal said.

Another industry bodyAssocham said the interimBudget appears to be a goodone with a mix of populist andpragmatic statements.

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The Centre on Fridayannounced that the coun-

try has attained the fastestgrowth in highways building at27 km a day and is all set for aquantum leap in transportinfrastructure, including water-ways, airways or digiways.

Terming infrastructure asthe “backbone” of any nation’sdevelopment, Finance MinisterPiyush Goyal while presentingthe interim Budget for 2019-20said India aspires to be a USD10 trillion economy in the nexteight years, and on the anvil isnext generation infrastructureof roads, railways, seaports,airports, urban transport, gasand electric transmission andinland waterways.

“Today, India is the fastesthighway developer in the world

with 27 km of highways builteach day. Projects stuck fordecades like the EasternPeripheral Highway around Delhi have been com-pleted,” he said.

Road Transport andHighways Minister NitinGadkari termed the budget as“historical, revolutionary” bud-get and allocation for highwayssector has been increased toabout �83,000 crore and thebudget takes care of growinginfrastructure needs.Congratulating Prime MinisterNarendra Modi for a dynamicbudget, Gadkari said it isintended for a “New India”.

On aviation, Goyal saidbecause of ‘UDAAN Scheme’,an ordinary citizen is also trav-elling by air and the number ofoperational airports hascrossed 100 with the commis-

sioning of the Pakyong airportin Sikkim. Domestic passen-ger traffic has doubled duringthe last five years leading tolarge number of jobs being cre-ated also, he said.

Mentioning the ambitiousSagarmala initiative of the gov-ernment, he said India’s longcoastline has the potential ofbecoming the strength of theeconomy, particularly throughexploitation of the BlueEconomy, to ensure betterstandards and quality of life fora large number of people livingin the coastal areas.

“Our efforts in theSagarmala programme will bescaled up and we will developother inland waterways faster,”the minister said adding that“for the first time, containerfreight movement has startedon inland waterways from

Kolkata to Varanasi”.He said the government

will introduce container cargomovement to the North East aswell by improving the navigationcapacity of the Brahmaputrariver while will develop water-ways. As far as Indian Railwaysis concerned, he said it hasexperienced the safest year in itshistory and all unmanned levelcrossings on broad gauge net-work have been eliminated.

Mentioning infrastructurein the North East, the ministersaid Arunachal Pradesh cameon the air map recently andMeghalaya, Tripura andMizoram have come on India’srail map for the first time.Allocation for the North Eastern Areas wasincreased by 21 per cent to Rs58,166 crore in 2019-20 BEover 2018-19 BE.

Giving stress on digitalinfrastructure in the villages,including connectivity heannounced that “the govern-ment will make 1 lakh villagesinto Digital Villages over nextfive years”. About the PradhanMantri Gram Sadak Yojana(PMGSY), the Minister saidconstruction of rural roadshas been tripled.

“15.80 lakh habitations outof a total of 17.84 lakh habita-tions have already been con-nected with pucca roads andwork is going on to completethe rest very soon. ThePMGSY saw increased alloca-tion of Rs 19,000 crore in BE2019-20 as against Rs 15,500crore in RE 2018-19.

“There was time when achild used to reach schoolafter walking on a foot trail,today the situation has changed

and a bus can reach her/his vil-lage During the period 2014-18, a total number of 1.53crore houses have been builtunder the Pradhan Mantri

Awas Yojana,” he said. “Infrastructure is the back-

bone of any nation’s develop-ment and quality of life.Whether it is highways or rail-

ways or airways or even digi-ways, We have gone beyondincremental growth to attaintransformative achievements,”Goyal said.

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With an aim to boost therural economy and as a

part of the NDA Government’slarger plan to focus specifical-ly on the country’s rural sector,amid concerns over risingagrarian crisis, the Governmentin its interim budget allocatedhigher funds to rural roads andjobs schemes-Pradhan MantriGramin Sadak Yojana andMahatma Gandhi RuralEmployment Guarantee Act.

A fund of Rs 19,000 crore

has been allocated for devel-opment of roads in rural andbackward area under PradhanMantri Gram Sadak Yojana(PMGSY). The allocation wasup against last year’s revisedestimate of Rs. 15,500 crore.

Similarly, higher alloca-tion has been proposed forMNREGA, up by 11 percent toRs 60,000 crore for the finan-cial year 2019-20. FinanceMinister Piyush Goel said thatadditional allocations will bemade, if required. In last year’sBudget, the Finance Ministry

had allocated Rs 55,000 crorefor employment guaranteescheme.

The rural employmentguarantee scheme providesminimum 100 days ofemployment out of 365 days in

a year to every rural householdwilling to do unskilled manu-al work.

Despite massive allocationfor Mahatma Gandhi RuralEmployment Guarantee Act(MNREGA) in the current

financial year, the rural devel-opment ministry has twicesought additional funds fromthe finance ministry.

Regarding PMGSY, Goelsaid that per day constructionwas 69 km per day during2013-14 The rate of construc-tion was 100 km per day dur-ing 2014-15, the year Modigovernment took over as theCentral government.“Construction of rural roadshas increased three times dur-ing the last five years,” headded.

PMGSY was launched in2000 to provide “all-weather”road connectivity to “uncon-nected villages” in India. A totalof 1,78,000 habitations wereselected where roads were to bebuilt. About 47,000 habitationscontinue to stay “unconnected”.Centre plans to construct roadsin these habitations by March2019.

During the period 2014-18,a total number of 1.53 crorehouses have been built underthe Pradhan Mantri AwasYojana, the Minister said.

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The Northeastern States gota major budgetary thrust

on Friday as the Governmentproposed to increase the allo-cation to the region by 21 percent to Rs 58,166 crore in theinterim budget for 2019-20.

Finance Minister PiyushGoyal said that theGovernment will introducecontainer cargo movement tothe North East by improvingthe navigation capacity of theBrahmaputra river.

The allocation will also beused for ongoing projects in the region.

Presenting the interimbudget 2019-20 in ParliamentFriday, Goyal said the people of the Northeast havealso received significant benefits of infrastructuredevelopment.

“The allocation for theNortheastern areas is beingproposed to be increased by 21per cent to Rs 58,166 crore in2019-20 budget estimates over2018-19,” the Minister said.

Arunachal Pradesh hascome on the air map recentlyand Meghalaya, Tripura andMizoram have come on India’srail map for the first time, hesaid.

Goyal said the projectsstuck for decades like theBogibeel rail-cum-road bridgein Assam and ArunachalPradesh have been completed.With the commissioning ofthe Pakyong airport in Sikkim,the number of operational air-ports in the country hascrossed 100, he said.

The budget allocation forsome of the major schemesbeing implemented in theNortheastern region include Rs580 crore for various schemesof the North Eastern Council,Rs 931 crore under CentralPool of Resources for Northeastand Sikkim, Rs 674 crore underother subsidy payable, includ-ing for North Eastern Region and Rs 1,700 crore forrefund of Central andIntegrated GST to IndustrialUnits in Northeastern regionand Himalayan States.

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With an allocation of Rs37,126.56 crore to

Ministry of Housing and UrbanAffairs (HUA) for its variousflagship schemes, the Narendra Modi government inits interim budget 2019-20,increased budget for Smart CityMission and the Atal Mission forRejuvenation and UrbanTransformation (AMRUT)scheme that is targeted atupgrading urban infrastructureacross 500 towns and cities.

The Government has allo-cated Rs 7,300 crore under theAMRUT scheme. It is anincrease of almost over 14 per-cent as compared to last year ofRs 6,400 crore (revised). Theallocation under the schemewas cut to Rs 6000 crore in2018-19 from Rs 9,000crore in 2017-18.AMRUT scheme isaimed at ensuringrobust sewage net-works, water sup-ply and other civicamenities toimprove the quality oflife of people in urbanareas.

The allocation for SmartCities Mission has beenincreased from Rs 6169 crore in2018-19 to Rs 6600 crore in2019-20. Under the programme,100 Smart Cities have beenselected in four rounds based onan all India competition.

Since the launch of themission, a total of 5,151 pro-jects have been identified andare in various stages of imple-mentation in 100 cities.

Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana(Urban), an ambitious pro-gramme of the Modi govern-ment, has been given Rs 6,853.26crore as against Rs 6,505 crorein Union Budget 2018-19.Allocation to another flagshipprogramme of the government,Swachh Bharat Mission hasbeen increased to Rs 2,750 crorefrom Rs 2,500 crore in the cur-rent financial year.

The Deen Dayal AntyodayaYojana-National Urban

Livelihoods Mission( D AY- N U L M )

scheme hasbeen given

Rs 500crore int h eI n t e r i mBudget asagainst Rs

310 crore inthe 2018-19

Union Budget.

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With expansion plans ofmetro projects and mass

rapid transit projects in the off-ing, the Interim Budget 2019presented by Union FinanceMinister Piyush Goyal has pro-posed Rs 19,152 crore to theMinistry of Housing and UrbanAffairs (HUA), almost 23 per-cent up from Rs 15,600 crorelast year.

The HUA Ministry hadasked for an average 20 percenthike in outlay with the Metronetwork extension high onagenda during the pre-Budgettalks. The Budget has allocat-ed Rs 1000 crore for the massrapid rail transit corridor con-necting Delhi-Meerut.

The outlay under theMetro Rail Transit System(MRTS) had dropped to Rs

15,600 crore in 2018-19 fromRs 18,000 crore in 2017-18. Butnow with several Metro pro-jects are in the offing, the out-lay has been increased sub-stantially. The Centre is expect-ed to announce the beginningof the Delhi Metro Phase- IV,which was cleared by the Delhigovernment in December lastyear and formally sent to theUrban Affairs ministry.

At present, as much as 566km of Metro Rail lines areoperational in 10 cities includ-ing Delhi & NCR, Bengaluru,Hyderabad, Kolkata, Chennai,Jaipur, Kochi, Lucknow,Mumbai and Gurugram. SinceMay, 2014 to till date, about 287km of metro rail lines havebeen commissioned in Delhiand NCR, Bengaluru, Chennai,Kochi, Lucknow, Mumbai,Ja i p u r,

Hyderabad and Gurugram, asper housing and urban affairsministry data. In 2018 (fromJanuary, 2018 to till date),about 110 km of metro raillines have been commissionedin Delhi and NCR, Hyderabadand Chennai.

Since May, 2014 to tilldate, 13 new metro projectswith a total length of about 248km at a total cost of Rs. 68,021crore have been approved forNagpur, Ahmedabad,Gurugram, Lucknow, ChennaiExtension, Pune, Delhi MetroExtensions, Noida - GreaterNoida, Bhopal and Indore. In2018 itself, three new projectswith a length of about 66 km ata total cost of Rs 16, 408 crorehave been approved for Bhopal,Indore and Delhi MetroExtension from Noida CityCentre to Noida Sector 62.

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US President Donald Trumpsaid he would soon

meet his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping to try to secure a“great” trade deal between theworld’s two largest economiesas crucial talks to resolve thetariff war that rattled the global economy ended withoutany deal.

The US and China havebeen locked in an escalatingtrade spat since early 2018, rais-ing import tariffs on eachother’s goods.

Last year, Trump imposedtariff hikes of up to 25 per centon $250 billion of Chinesegoods.

The move prompted Chinato increase tariffs on $110 billion of Americangoods.

During a meeting inArgentina on the sidelines ofthe G-20 Summit, Trump andXi agreed to halt any furthertariff increases for 90 daysbeginning January 1.

During the two-day talkswhich ended here on Thursday,US Trade Representative

Robert Lighthizer led the USdelegation while Vice PremierLiu He headed the Chineseside.

The White House said in astatement that the two sideshad made progress but that“much work remains to bedone.”

The administration said itwould keep a “hard deadline”of March 2, at which point itwould escalate import taxes on$200 billion in Chinese good ifthere was no deal.

Asked in the Oval Office,where he was meeting with Liu,

whether a deal was possible,Trump said he was not sure.

“We have to get this put onpaper at some point if weagree,” the President said.

But Trump said he was optimistic the world’s two largest economies couldreach “the biggest deal evermade”.

Responding to a question,Trump said the two countrieshave made “tremendousprogress in trade negotiations.

It doesn’t mean you have adeal, but I can say there is atremendous relationship and

warm feeling.” Trump has reiterated that

the US tariffs will increaseunless China agreed to reformsby March 1 deadline.

“There are some pointsthat we don’t agree to yet, butI think we will agree. I think,when President Xi and myselfmeet, every point will be agreedto,” said Trump.

“We’re going to have agreat trade deal with China ifit all works out it’s going to begreat for both countries -- notjust us, not just them,” headded.

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President Donald Trumpsaid on Thursday he will

announce next week the siteand date for the second sum-mit he plans with NorthKorean leader Kim Jong Unaround the end of February.

Trump later said he wouldlikely make the announcementduring his State of the Unionaddress to Congress onTuesday.

“They very much want themeeting,” Trump told reporters,and he asserted that his admin-istration has made “tremen-dous progress” toward reiningin the North’s nuclear ambi-tions.

The president said thatbefore he took office in January

2017, “it looked like we weregoing to war with North Korea.

Now, there’s no missiletesting. There’s no rocket test-ing, there’s no nuclear testing.

We got back our prisoners,our hostages. We’re gettingback our remains.”

Trump long has contend-ed that his outreach to Kim andtheir initial summit last June inSingapore have put the USand North Korea on the pathto peace.

But his list of concrete achievements has notgrown in the months since thatmeeting, and his own intelli-gence chiefs believe there is lit-tle likelihood Kim will volun-tarily give up his nuclearweapons or missiles capable ofcarrying them.

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An advisor to TurkishPresident Recep Tayyip

Erdogan says a United Nationshuman rights expert will listento the audio recordings of thekilling of Saudi journalist JamalKhashoggi as part of an inves-tigation.

Special Rapporteur AgnesCallamard and her team ofexperts met Tuesday with advi-sor Yasin Aktay, a friend ofKhashoggi’s. He told reportersthe team would have access tothe audio, according to Turkishmedia. Khashoggi, aWashington Post columnist whowrote critically about the SaudiCrown Prince Mohammed binSalman, was killed inside theSaudi Consulate in Istanbul onOct. 2. His remains have notbeen found.

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AUS lawmaker has intro-duced a resolution in the

House of Representatives togrant asylum to Pakistaniwoman Aasia Bibi, who was acquitted by the Supreme Court in a blasphemycase, claiming she was “perse-cuted” in the Muslim-majori-ty country for being aChristian.

A three-member SupremeCourt bench threw out a petition seeking to review the apex court’s decision toacquit 47-year-old Bibi onTuesday.

Bibi, a mother of four, wasarrested in 2009 for allegedlyusing derogatory words duringa quarrel with Muslim womenwhile working on a farm inPunjab province.

Bibi was convicted in 2010by the trial court and her death sentence was maintainedby the Lahore High Court in2014. The apex court over-turned her conviction last year,sparking days of violentdemonstrations led by hardlineIslamist parties.

“Aasia Bibi has been persecuted, jailed and threat-ened for doing nothing morethan being a Christian inPakistan,” Congressman KenCalvert said.

The recent decision byPakistan’s top court to overturnBibi’s death sentence and freeher from jail is obviously wel-come news, the lawmaker said.

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What attracted you to the project?

Ijust needed the money. It’s been a longtime since Shooting Stars and LittleBritain and I was looking out for work.

I did ask to go on ‘Celebrity Big Brother’ butthey wouldn’t have me. They said theyalready had David Gest, they had their ‘olderfatter person’ so they wouldn’t have me.

What was it like to take this respectedgenre (crown jewels of the BBC) and turnit on its head?Well I think what we’ve done is we’vebrought some much needed gravitas to thenatural history genre. This youngAttenborough chap, sort of a bit of a kindof wannabe. And we’ve brought some intel-ligence to the genre.

Describe the character of ArmstrongWedgewood.Armstrong Wedgewood is a bit of a stretch,he’s sort of an ageing actor whose glory daysare behind him and he’s a bit poofy and over-weight, just sat in a chair…Yeah he was achallenge. I like Armstrong, he’s got a bit ofa short temper, but then I’ve never reallyliked people with long temper. I don’t thinkyou should have too long of a temper. Whatdon’t I like about him? I don’t like the manwho plays him, not for me.

What influences have you drawn on for thecharacter of Armstrong?For the character of Armstrong I drew ona mixture of Grace Jones and Joey Essex.

How do you convey a character throughvoice alone?

By vocalising thoughts. (Laughs) I don’tknow that’s the strangest question I’ve everbeen asked! You do it by doing really phys-ical things that they can’t see and then rightat the end you just say ‘I’m really sorry youcouldn’t see it but it was great’.

Tell us how the two genres of comedy anddocumentary come together in this show.Well, everybody knows these BBC wildlifedocumentaries and I think that they’re sofamous around the globe that they feelrobust enough to have a bit of fun with. Ididn’t write this, I improvised some stuff butanything that makes you laugh, let’s assumethat it’s a bit that I improvised rather thanthe writers.

I think its really important in interviewsto not just talk for the sake of it, and there’snothing worse than not really having ananswer but just sort of saying somethingbecause you sort of feel obliged to in the

hope that people will forget what the orig-inal questions was, then just go “Oh yeahall right yeah”. I think that’s quite a decep-tive thing to do. A lot of people do that ininterviews. Then they go on for too long andgive really long answers and the whole thingwas just to hide that they didn’t really havea response. I’ve always really looked downon people who do that.

From a comedy point of view, why is thisrich territory?Well like I say, everybody knows these doc-umentaries and I think they’re ripe for spoof-ing. We’ve all heard Morgan Freemandoing… What was the documentary thatwas like ‘Happy Feet’ and it was kind of likethe boring version of ‘Happy Feet’?Whatever one that he did, and the DavidAttenborough ones, they’re often donequite seriously, which is understandable asthey’re educational, but education can be

hilarious. And that’s something that I’mimmensely passionate about, the hilarity ofeducation. Also a really great way of teach-ing something is to undermine it, that’s areally great way of getting the messageacross. That’s how you do it by disrespect-ing it, which is what I really hope we’ve done.

What do you do when the gory bits comeon and you have to watch? Nature is rawafter all.When we’re doing the gory bits I genuine-ly don’t watch, I just read and I say to thepeople in the booth, “I’m not watching thisbit, tell me when its over”. Which is actual-ly what Armstrong himself says, and I’mtotally with him on that. I don’t need to seea monkey eating another monkey.

If you could go on any location with thefilm crew, where would you pick and why?That’s a toughie because there are a lot ofbeautiful places in the world. ProbablyOxford Street because they’ve still got somegood shops left where you can always bar-gain.

If you could give a message to DavidAttenborough, what would it be?If I had a message for Sir DavidAttenborough what would it be…Oh, “Ireally like you, could I have your autographplease? Could you put ‘To Matthew’…Two‘t’s. Thanks.”…Oh and “Could you do onefor my brother Howard please”. Yeah thatwould probably be my message.

(The show, Round Planet, airsMonday to Friday at 9pm on

Sony BBC Earth.)

We are delighted that theimmense contribution ofIndian cinema towards

employment generation in the coun-try has been acknowledged andapplauded in Parliament during thepresentation of the Union Budget.

The announcement of a single-window clearance mechanism forIndian filmmakers shooting withinIndia is a significant step and has thepotential to play a huge role inboosting tourism in the country.

The amendments in the AntiCamcording provisions will supportthe industry’s growth by curtailingillegal recordings of films in cinemahalls and will go a long way towardsreducing piracy.

—Siddharth Roy Kapur, presi-dent, Producers

Guild of India

Iam delighted that cinema is beingtaken seriously by the government. It

will help a lot of people in terms ofemployment and overall motivation. Ibelieve this will help and motivate theindustry to make more films.

I am so happy that Finance MinisterPiyush Goyal mentioned Uri: TheSurgical Strike during his budget speech.Its really increased my Josh. I metPiyush Goyal and I know that he loveswatching films with his family. TheModi government has ensured that it haslooked minutely at the detailing of thisbudget. The Finance Minister spokeabout piracy and I think the authoritieswill take it very seriously. Footfalls in cin-ema halls will increase. Overall, outflow

will be benefitted and the recovery willbecome much easier for producers.

—Sandip Singh, producer

Obtaining permissionsfrom various authori-

ties have been very time-consuming. Single win-dow clearance will not onlysave time but also eradicatethe hidden costs involved inthe procedure. I am hopingthat anti-camcording provi-

sions terminates piracy as awhole and the offenders arepunished.This can be exe-cuted only with the supportof exhibitors.This will alsohelp the films to collect bet-

ter revenues.—Sunir Khetrepal, CEO,

AZURE Entertainment

It is a small room where anywherebetween 70-100 people are packed in.Some are sitting on chairs, others onthe floor and still others are standingon the edge. Everyone is straining his

ears and trying hard to listen to a frail man,dressed simply in a blazer. His voice is softbut carries the strength of steel. There isnothing really remarkable about him, ormaybe there is. If he had been an actor, itwould not have taken a minute for the cast-ing director to make him a part of a filmaround the freedom struggle. He is bald,fragile and has a posture that reminds oneof the Mahatma. It of course helps thatamong the many descriptions that areattached to Harsh Mander’s name, Gandhianis one.

Mander along with some of his likeminded colleagues, including journalistand film-maker Natasha Badhwar, hisdaughter and human rights lawyer Suroorand others are addressing people and talk-ing about the Karwan e Mohabbat, an ini-tiative where they travelled to eight states tomeet the families hit by hate violenceincluding lynchings and riots.

Mander describes incident after incidentwhere people of the majority communitybehave as if nothing has happened or insistthat the ones who had been killed had itcoming. “After these incidents, it took a longtime to register FIRs, if at all that happened.When it did, there were pages describingwhat the cow or calf looked like and a verysmall section on the actual killing of ahuman being,” he says.

Another stark example that he recallsis that of Shambhu Regar who killed a manand blamed it on ‘love jihad’. “When we vis-ited the the family they felt that he hadruined the life of the boy who had filmedthe incident as he was sent away to a juve-nile home. But they insisted that Regar’sanger was justified. When we dug furtherwe found three incidents of inter commu-nity relationships dating back to 13, nine andseven years! A completely irrational preju-dice was normalised and accepted. A Hindiproverb, Jaage ko kaise jagaen, sums it” hesays but there seems to be no trace of bit-terness or anger in the words.

He explains the attitude with the“Doctrine of Vicarious Guilt” which makesan entire community responsible for everycrime, historical or present, real or imagined.He argues, “If we extend this, nobody shouldbe alive as we’ve done unspeakable things.Of course, no man in the world should beallowed to live because of the way we treat-ed women. But here we don’t use the samelogic.”

It is this attitude and the way hatredseems to have permeated the social fabricwhich makes Mander apprehensive. “I’m avery optimistic person who believes in theessential goodness of human beings. I haveworked during riots and there were always

stories of people saving each other. But nowour capacity for compassion has frozen,” saysMander, who worked in the IndianAdministrative Service, serving in the pre-dominantly tribal areas of Madhya Pradeshand Chhattisgarh for almost two decadesbefore resigning after the Gujarat riots of2002.

Mander, who also works on issues likehunger and homelessness, believes that onecannot create this degree of hatred. “Wehaven’t dealt with the demons of Partitionthe way Germans did with the Holocaust.We fail to acknowledge that people of bothcommunities did an equal amount ofkilling. We cannot be indifferent to histo-ry. We haven’t reflected on what makes uskill our neighbours and friends,” says theauthor, who traces his ancestors toRawalpindi in present day Pakistan fromwhere his parents migrated.

However, he also sees it as a part of thelarger global picture as hatred seems to beerupting in USA or even France, Germanyand Scandinavian countries where partiesthat believe in majoritarianism have occu-pied a large part of the political discourse.“In 19th century US, people were killed andbodies mutilated. We find a parallel in theIndian lynchings where they record it oncamera and share it. While the political dis-course has created an enabling environment,we as a society need to reflect within ourhearts and souls because we elected them.Pehle hume apne se ladna hog aur phir apnose ladna hoga,” says Mander.

He draws a parallel with the Holocaustand the 1930s Germany where peoplewent on with their lives as if nothing hadhappened while Jews were being attacked.“Now, the younger generation of Germansis acutely conscious about it and ask how didthe people allow this to happen or what werethey doing when this was happening? Evennursery children are taught to respect dif-ferent religions and colour. In India it is thereverse where we hear children in Class Isaying things like ‘go to another country.’During my childhood, this otherisation wasnot a part of the consciousness.”

“We have to recognise that first theypartitioned the land and now they are par-titioning hearts which is more difficult to

fight as they are in our most intimate spaces.They are there in the WhatsApp groupswhere we can see incredible levels of bigotryamong family and friends,” says the 64-year-old activist and writer who has just come outwith his new book, Partition of the Heart:Unmaking of the Idea of India.

He believes that much of the crisis hasto do with the economy’s state. “There is adeeper crisis and churning under way.Younger people have nothing to look for-ward to. And then we are getting leaders whoblame the problems on minorities,” he analy-ses, making a chilling assessment with gri-maces.

The spread of hatred is often blamed onthe working of the social media but Mandersees it only as a vehicle which is utilised tospread disharmony. “In the long history ofcommunal violence, rumours have beenessential in spreading hatred. It happenedin Bhagalpur where a rumour was spreadthat Hindus had been massacred in a hos-tel and in retaliation Muslims were attackedand killed in large numbers. But the rumourcould never be traced to anyone. It also hap-pened recently in Muzaffarnagar but therumour could be traced back to a politicianwho has, despite or maybe because of it,prospered,” he says. An attempt to curb thesocial media and bring it under governmentcontrol, he feels, is just an attempt to jus-tify snooping.

Mander along with Farah Naqvi wasinstrumental in drafting a CommunalViolence Bill which is yet to see the light ofday. But he is heartened by a law passed byManipur which talks about punishment incase of dereliction of duty of a public ser-vant which is punishable by up to three yearsof jail. “It also fixes the responsibility not onlyon the person in the field but also underwhose command the incident happened.Another important thing is that there is noneed for a state sanction to act against a pub-lic official, which was required earlier. Thethird important thing is to give a manda-tory compensation to the victims,” he says.

He does believe that often there is dere-liction of duty on the part of the police forcebut it is a culmination of past events. “Whenwe say police is communal, the caveat is thatif junior ranks are led to do the right thing,

they follow you with conviction. It is morea crisis of leadership and not the rank andfile,” says Mander who is founding memberof the National Campaign for the People’sRight to Information.

One can’t help but bring up his 22 trans-fers during the course of his 17 years careerin the IAS as he often did not do the bid-ding of the political masters but preferredto abide by the Constitution. “I still feel thatit is a small price to pay. But then, if therewas no price to pay for doing the right thing,everyone will do it. If you do not act, youare party to the hate crime. It should be onyour conscience,” he says and once again thesteel in his soft voice is almost palpable.

He does agree that resignation from theCivil Services was an extreme step but jus-tified it by his personal belief. “I could notwork as a public servant under those whodid not value the Constitution. There aremany battles that one has to fight but thisone, I believe, is for India’s soul and couldonly be done without being encumbered byany kind of strictures. So it had to be foughtfrom outside,” says Mander, who answeringthe call by Jai Prakash Narain, dropped Singhfrom his name so that it did not reflect hiscaste or religion even though it proved tobe a complicated process, including publish-ing the change in a gazette. He also con-vinced his three other batchmates to followsuit. “I further confounded the confusion bynaming my daughter Suroor, an Arabicword,” he laughs.

One thing that he has documented inthe book is how starkly different educatedAmericans and Indians are in behaviour.“White Americans with benefit of educationare against hate but in India it is exactly thereverse. I found that the more educated aremore communal, casteist and supersti-tious. Poor people show far greater accep-tance of others. The reason is that educa-tion is preparing us for a competitive mar-ket but not be caring and compassionate ordevelop a rational scientific temperament.We’ve been taught to think about ourselvesonly,” he says.

However, he also blames the so-calledsecular parties who are complicit in not deal-ing with the communal cauldron. “Many ofthe riots took place during the Congressregime as did the lynchings in non-BJPstates. I feel that we have to make a choice.We have to negotiate between two parties,one where communal politics is oppor-tunism and the other where it is the core oftheir ideology.”

Mander also works on issues likehunger and homelessness which he sees asa part of one whole. “I work directly withpeople and policy makers, write and tell sto-ries, teach — and I don’t see any of it sep-arately,” says Mander who is also a SpecialCommissioner to the Supreme Court ofIndia in the Right to Food case. Clearly, thereare many a battles that await him.

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As we walk to the India Art Fair, thePalette Art Gallery’s melange of mas-ters throws up a trio of artist Jogen

Chowdhury’s drawings that are a treat for tiredeyes and stand apart as a corollary of contem-porary conversations in the vitality and ver-satile power of drawings. With humble toolsand ink and mixed media on paper, he pre-sents three drawings that are a heady studyof anatomical exaggerations and the fascinat-ing felicity of the cross-hatch style that cannever grow old. This is what defines Jogenda,the maestro.

���������� �*1,0�In 2007, when I went to spend a few days

at his Shantiniketan home. One chilly win-ter, he spoke of how a generous scholarshiptook him to Paris where he was trained at theEcole Nationale Superieure des Beaux Artsand Atelier 17 of William Hayter, which, atthat time, was the finishing school of manytalented young Indian artists aspiring to seekrudiments of European techniques. “We hadto draw many portraits and sketches of sev-eral European models who sat in the studios,”recalled Jogenda. “But I always felt that trans-lating mere realism for the sake of it was notwhat I wanted. I used to get bored, so I start-ed doing exaggerations in mood and I creat-ed a set of pen and ink drawings with thosesignatures.”

He added, “In later years they becamestudies of the people I associated with orobserved in day to day activities and that ishow my cross hatched portraits became partof my sensibility. I think I was yearning forsomething original and that is the beginningof my journey with such drawings.”

���� ����� ��������Those drawings from the 1960s have

come to bearing even today as you look at twoportraits of men and one of a bulbouswoman. Intriguing perhaps to see thatJogenda is happy creating loose-limbed,bulging torsos of naked evocative men whoare by no means young, and also creating along-haired woman with rotund eyes withthin and knobbly arms that end in long undu-lating fingers. These two men and thewoman are by no means large but their impactis indeed monumental almost as if their fleshhas turned into skin that is coarsely tinted andhewn by his pliant pen and ink. The bodywith deeply grooved furrows ensures a strik-ing attractiveness that emanates a strong andpulsating sensuality.

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Jogenda is the master of the modernistfigure. The manner in which he distortsform with the pensive fluidity of lines isreminiscent of all forms and indices of theritualistic alpana created on the floors ofBengali homes by gorgeous women withgraceful saris. In all the three drawings,Jogenda draws our attention to the limbsand if we look closely, the extremities havea luxuriant as well as languid grace aboutthem. This reminds us of the abundantfoliage on rooftops, crevices and corners ofvillages.

“My work has always been deeply root-ed in Indian traditions,” states Jogenda. “You

can look at many references but of coursethe one that comes instantly to mind is thatof the patachitras, alpanas and the floralstudies that I have done and observed in thepast.”

���� ������What is evident also is how in the draw-

ing that is a portrait he gives us the limpidlanguage of surrealism. The decorative ele-ment is inherent in Jogenda’s style, but forhim embellishment has its own flourish, itsown lingua franca. It also highlights folk ele-ments. The beauty of these three drawingsis the intricate crosshatching that gives anundeniable three-dimensional quality. Thesedrawings are far from beautiful, they havetales to tell and elicit the power of the humanhand because despite his age, Jogenda daresto be simple and sophisticated, leaving hislithe, loose lines to do all the talking. Thepanache and perfection of using pen and inkdirectly on paper is non pareil. The linesmeander across the white surface and as thehuman forms take shape, we are remindedthat drawing is the basis of all art and it isthe human hand that empowers andembraces the very spirit of creation.

British artist David Hockney hascreated the 14th 1995 BMW 850

CSi art car for the first time in India.Art cars or the ‘Rolling Sculptures’ areoriginal masterpieces of art thatdemonstrate an individual synthesisof artistic expression and automobiledesign. Since 1975, 19 internationalartists have created the art cars.Hockney’s art car tells a story. Theimagery, flat and Matisse-like, nar-rates the emotional connection andsingular bond between the driver andthe vehicle. He offers a glimpse intothe dynamics of the driver’s life: thecar contains this personal story.

The X-ray view of the interior ofthe car presents a view of this con-

nection. He turns the inside out,putting the technology of the BMW850 CSi on the outside and makingthe bodywork seem transparent. Onthe bonnet he paints parts of the 380hp 12 – cylinder engine: big greycylinders and huge round intakemanifolds. He stretches stylised tyretreads, painted in black on white, farbeyond the wheel arches, as if you arelooking down through the metalfrom above.

On the driver’s side there is a sil-houette of a human figure in blackand white. It’s like the shadow of thedriver on a canvas screen. On the pas-senger side, roof and trunk, Hockneydepicts a landscape. We can see ashort stretch of grey road and lots ofgreen, the lush rich green ofCalifornia’s trees. Behind the silhou-ette of the driver is a white dog in anupright position. The dog is lookingover the driver’s shoulder and out ofthe window. The Californian sunshines a powerful yellow and orangein the background.

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To recreate her series of photographs, titled, ‘Don’t See, Don’t Hear,Don’t Speak,’ artist Shilpa Gupta creates a sculpture in which three

identical figures are intertwined in circle, each and concealing andinterrupting each others’ senses — to see, listen and communicate.The sculpture finds its roots in today’s changing political landscapewith unidentified borders of orchestrated oppression and loss of agency.

The ChangeRoom by Bhopal-born artist BaaraanIjlal is a sound instal-lation about conflicts,fear, loss, love and thepossibilities ofchange.

Audio record-ings of anonymousvoices, of those whohave experiencedviolence — ethnic,racial, state-spon-sored and gender-based, or war anddisplacement — playin a dark room, audi-ble when visitorsmove closer.

Another instal-lation by artist NehaVerma is a personalinterpretation of tra-ditional consort ofarchitectural patternsand hangs in a boothby the organisationAccess For All. Theartist brings out geo-metric patterns andforms in her work.

What makes itinteractive is aminiature, tactileversion of thedeeply-geometricand layered work,that can be touchedby the visually-impaired.

Access for Allhead, Siddhant Shahsaid the idea behindthe tactile artworkscame when his moth-er, who is partially sighted, was once asked to leave a gallery for thefear that “she will break something.” Shah, who now championsUniversal Design, encouraged the Fair visitors to experience tactileworks in a simulated environment, blindfolded.

Ravi Agarwal’s The Desert of the Anthropocene is an installationwith photographic works, text, videos and objects, and is a part ofan ongoing investigation into the current state of the nature, bothas a crisis which traverses a political realm, but also a cultural con-testation of how ‘nature' is thought of as an abstract idea to be exploit-ed, in the era of the Anthropocene.

An immersive experience from architect Pinakin Patel engagesvisitors in a narration about a stone placed at the roots of a tree:“..another traveller notices the beautiful rock and is tempted to adda wild flower, a lady applies her vermillion on it, and another day,the cook paints the stone with turmeric...”

An exhibitor hands a paintbrush and a palette of colours to thevisitors, and asks them to add their signatures on the stone, after whatcomes to their mind listening to the narration. Many visitors do pickup the brush hesitantly, and probably after years.

Manisha Baswani, who documents artists’ lives and studios, andherself has a Partition connection, is also showcasing her projectPostcards From Home, which has stories of India and Pakistani artistskept in sacks of wheat grain (kanak) —symbolising feelings of homeand something that is common to the lands of the countries.

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Ole Gunnar Solskjaer haschallenged Anthony

Martial to fulfill his potential atManchester United by followingCristiano Ronaldo's example.

United announced onThursday that the France strik-er had signed a new contract thatcommits him to the club until atleast June 2024, with the optionfor a further year.

Martial, who is expected torecover from a minor traininginjury to play at Leicester in thePremier League on Sunday, hasscored 10 goals this season,although he had gone more thana month without one beforestriking in the 3-1 FA Cup winat Arsenal on January 25.

Solskjaer, United's caretak-er-manager, witnessed Ronaldo'stransformation from raw teenag-er to world-class talent while atOld Trafford.

The Juventus forward, whojoined United from SportingLisbon as an 18-year-old in2003, spent six years with theclub before joining Real Madrid.

Martial moved to OldTrafford from Monaco in 2015,aged 19, and has shown flashesof talent, without ever estab-lishing himself as a consistentgoalscorer.

Solskjaer believes the Franceforward has plenty of room forimprovement and has urgedhim to look at the way Ronaldodeveloped.

"Cristiano was the best, theway he's changed to now, that'spart of any player's develop-ment," said the interim Unitedboss.

"You've got to model your-self on someone and you've gotto have more challenges aheadof you. You can't just rely onwhat you do now."

"I speak about my experi-ence at this club with Cristianoand what Anthony can achieve.I talk about Cristiano's career,what he's made, how he's gotthere."

Martial scored 17 goals inhis first season with United, buthas not matched that total since.

He endured a difficult cam-paign under Jose Mourinho lastseason, missing out on France'sWorld Cup squad, and it seemedat one stage as if he might leaveOld Trafford.

He appears to be playingwith more confidence now, andSolskjaer sees the new contractas a sign of the club's faith in theforward.

"He's had some ups anddowns at the club, he's been topscorer, he's been developing,"said Solskjaer.

"Of course as a young ladmoving abroad it's not easy butnow he knows he's going to stayhere for the coming future andI believe in him, I certainlybelieve in him.

"He's a fantastic finisher,with great ability. He's young, buthe's intelligent, knows his foot-ball."

Solskjaer, a prolific strikerfor United between 1996 and2007, is certain that Martial hasthe ability to become a 20-goal-a-season striker.

"He has the capability but I'dlike him to make a few moreruns in behind because he does-n't miss chances," he said.

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The gamble of playing ongrass did not work outfor hosts India, at least

on the opening day, as Italylived up to their reputation towin both the singles in theDavis Cup Qualifiers at theCalcutta South Club onFriday.

Andreas Seppi experi-enced some early hiccupsbefore getting past RamkumarRamanathan 6-4, 6-2 in theopening rubber, while 22-year-old Matteo Berrettinimade a winning Davis Cupdebut, cruising past Indianumber one PrajneshGunneswaran 6-4, 6-3.

With 0-2 down, India'sdoubles pairing of RohanBopanna and Divij Sharanfinds itself in a must-win sit-uation on Saturday.

For Italy, top-ranked sin-gles player Marco Cecchinatois paired with Simone Bolelli,the 2015 Australian Openwinner in the doubles.

"Focus is on tomorrow(on Saturday). We know we

have a job at hand. It will be alot harder. No time to give upnow," non-playing captainMahesh Bhupathi said afterthe opening day's struggles.

India had bounced backfrom a similar situation to winin China 3-2 in Asia/OceaniaGroup I rubber last year andBhupathi drew inspirationfrom that turnaround.

"They are so much moreexperienced. If you take yourchances you get rewarded. Weunderstand the pressure ofplaying for the country.Strange things happen. It hashappened in China. I knowItalians are stronger thanChina but we will take onematch at a time," a confidentBhupathi said.

Italy opted to go withBerrettini ahead of top rankedand world number 19 MarcoCecchinato and the youngster,who made the second roundof Wimbledon last year, didnot disappoint and brokePrajnesh's serve in the first set.

Berrettini, who had beat-en Prajnesh in the ChengduATP last year, raced to 15-40

with two big forehands beforeconverting his break point.

As the set wore on,Prajnesh looked more settledtook as his serves started get-ting better. Both players heldtheir serves until the Italiansealed the issue in the 10thgame without a dropping apoint.

Berrettini began the sec-ond set exactly the way hestarted the first, breakingPrajnesh to take a 1-0 lead.

He started off with a sub-lime volley at the net andPrajnesh had no chance as theItalian dished out a couple of

superb groundstrokes to makethe job tougher for the Indian.

The crowd did their bestsupporting Prajnesh but thenerves soon started playing forthe Indian who remained inthe game by holding his servetill the seventh game.

Berrettini effortlesslymade it 5-3, racing through hisservice games before breakingPrajnesh again in the ninthgame.

After two early errors,Prajnesh clawed his way backto make it 30-all but the Italiancapitalised on another error tosecure a match point.

Prajnesh hit a forehandright into the middle of the netto concede Berrettini thematch and Italy a huge 2-0advantage.

Earlier, Andreas Seppiovercame early jitters to beatRamkumar Ramanathan instraight sets, giving Italy a 1-0 lead.

The World number 37was slow off the blocks but hittop gear in the second set tocomplete a 6-4 6-2 win in onehour and 11 minutes.

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Indian captain Mahesh Bhupathion Friday rued that his men

failed to seize the opportunitiesagainst a much higher-ranked Italy,which raced to a 2-0 lead on theopening day of the Davis CupQualifier.

The big-serving RamkumarRamanathan got a break point in hisvery second game after he wasleading 1-0 but the world number 37Andreas Seppi used all his experi-ence to hold his serve.

Then again in the eighth gamewith Ramkumar leading 4-3, Seppifended off another break beforeswitching gears to wrap the set 6-4and the second set turned out to bea formality with the Indian provingno match.

"When you are playing players,who have so much experience andare used to playing at a level, youhave to take your chances," he saidof Ramkumar, who went on thedefensive despite being in an advan-tageous position.

"I am a firm believer that if youtake your chances, you will getrewarded. That's where the momen-tum swung."

Bhupathi admitted that his play-ers were under pressure, something

that top singles player PrajneshGunneswaran also echoed.

"We understand the pressurethat comes with playing for thecountry. The job of everybody in theteam is to keep all of us relaxedwhile at the same time we want towin."

Prajnesh on his part said:"Nerves and tension got to me. It'sa learning experience for me. Igave my best, Seppi was bettertoday. He deserved to win."

Ramkumar, who is enjoying a

career-high singles ranking of 102,said he became jittery when hefailed to break after being 4-3 up.

"That (failing to break) put alot of pressure on me because heis a good frontrunner and has avery good serve. He used that tohis advantage. I think he playedmore aggressive than I did and thatworked well for him," he saidafter losing to Berrettini for thesecond time since Chengdu ATPlast year.

Last year, India bounced backto defeat China 3-2 from a similarsituation and Bhupathi is expect-ing a repeat show from his menstarting with doubles pair of RohanBopanna and Divij Sharan.

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Italy on Friday did not rule out the possibility of fielding MatteoBerrettini in Saturday's doubles tie against India after the young-

ster made a dream Davis Cup debut.Berrettini, the youngest member in the team, had pipped

Italy's top-ranked singles player Marco Cecchinato (world num-ber 19) to make the singles draw.

And he lived up to his non-playing captain CorradoBarazzutti's confidence by beating India's numero uno singlesplayer Prajnesh Gunneswaran in less than an hour to hand Italya 2-0 lead on the opening day of the Davis Cup Qualifier.

"He (Berrettini) played very well. He played like a veteraneven though it was his first Davis Cup match. He really had agreat match," Barazzutti said.

The 1976 Davis Cup winner said Italy's doubles line-up isnot yet finalised and they have one-hour time before the matchto change the combination.

"We still have time to discuss about that (Berrettini's inclu-sion). We can change the doubles combination one hour beforethe match. We still have time to change the team," he said.

However during the official draw, Italy had paired Cecchinatowith doubles specialist Simone Bolelli.

Saturday's only rubber will be the doubles and there is a strongchance of the 22-year-old pipping Cecchinato once again as theywould look to seal the issue.

The 22-year-old Berrettini had won the doubles title in StPetersburg Open with Fabio Fognini, who is missing the ongo-ing Qualifiers.

Berrettini also clinched the first title of his career upsettingsecond seed Roberto Bautista Agut en route to winning the SwissOpen in Gstaad in July last year.

"A lot of things have changed (since the Swiss Open win).Things are starting to fall in place. I think I did a great week there.I realised I could play at that level. After that I won doubles withFabio. I like to play tennis. It's a dream coming true," Berrettinisaid.

Berrettini, however, said the Indian duo of Rohan Bopannaand Divij Sharan would be tough to beat.

"They are always a very good team in doubles. We know itwill be tough. For them it's a very important point. They willplay their best tennis possible. But we are up for the challenge.We are a good team too. We will try hard to win the match," hesaid about doubles rubber.

The youngster was at his aggressive best against Prajnesh,who has achieved career high 102 rank recently.

"Our captain decided to play aggressive tennis, to play as thenet as much as possible. I think I did all these things really well,"Berrettini said.

He further gave credit to Andreas Seppi for winning the open-ing rubber against Ramkumar Ramanathan, something that madehis work easier.

"There was a bit of pressure on me. It was my first match inthe Davis Cup. But Andreas played a great match and reducedmy pressure," Berrettini said.

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Lazio beat Inter Milan on penalties inthe Italian Cup quarterfinals on

Thursday, a result that will do little todispel reports that Antonio Conte is intalks to become the next Nerazzurricoach.

Lautaro Martinez and RadjaNainggolan had spot kicks saved asLazio won 4-3 on penalties after thematch ended 1-1 following MauroIcardi's stoppage-time equalizer.

Lazio will next play AC Milan.Atalanta faces Fiorentina in the othertwo-legged semifinal.

It is the third successive year Laziohas reached the semifinals. They lost toMilan on penalties last season, whilethey beat Roma in 2017 but lost the finalto Juventus.

"If there was a team that should'vewon, it was Lazio," Immobile said. "Wedeserved it, then there was that penal-ty incident which forced us to postponeour celebrations. ... Now we hope to getour revenge on Milan."

Inter goalkeeper Samir Handanovicpulled off a number of great saves tokeep his side in the match but was sur-prised when Immobile's shot wasdeflected past him in the 108th minuteafter the Lazio forward had played asmart one-two with Felipe Caicedo.

Matters almost went from bad toworse for Inter as defender KwadwoAsamoah was shown a red card for atackle on Sergej Milinkovic-Savic.However, the referee downgraded it toa yellow on video review.

VAR came to Inter's assistanceagain when it was used to award a penal-ty for a Milinkovic-Savic foul on DaniloD'Ambrosio, after the referee had ini-

tially awarded a free kick.Lazio defender Stefan Radu was sent

off for dissent and Icardi kept his coolunder immense pressure to convert thepenalty with the last kick of extra time.

He also netted another penalty inthe shootout, as did Marcelo Brozovicand debutant Cedric Soares for Inter.

Handanovic saved from RizaDurmisi but Immobile, Marco Paroloand Francesco Acerbi were successfulfrom the spot and Lucas Leiva convertedthe decisive penalty.

It was Inter's third successive defeatand will pile the pressure on coachLuciano Spalletti.

Earlier on Thursday, Conte wasspotted walking past the Inter offices inthe center of Milan. The former Juventusand Italy coach has been out of a jobsince being fired by Chelsea and herefused to respond to questions if he wasin contact with Inter.

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Peter Crouch is back in the PremierLeague after the former England

striker joined Burnley from Stoke onThursday.

Crouch linked up with Sean Dyche'sside after Burnley agreed to swap Walesstriker Sam Wolves for the 6ft 7in(201cm) former Liverpool andTottenham star.

The 38-year-old has scored 108goals in 462 top-flight games through-out his career.

He has joined Burnley on a short-term deal until the end of the season,with manager Sean Dyche hoping theveteran can provide an extra boost in the

battle against relegation.Crouch has played 23 times in the

Championship this season, starting onlytwice and scoring once.

He also scored against Shrewsburyin the FA Cup third round. Only 23 play-ers have scored more than Crouch's 108goals since the inception of the PremierLeague in 1992 -- he just needs four moreto climb into the top 20.

"I still want to achieve things. I wantto get more games in the PremierLeague and I would love to add to the100 Premier League goals," Crouchsaid.

Vokes, 29, who joined Burnley fromWolves in 2012, has signed a three-and-a-half-year deal with Stoke.

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Spanish football topflight La Liga will

sponsor tennis' DavisCup finals under thetournament's new guiseled by Barcelona centre-back Gerard Pique'sinvestment group, theITF announced onThursday.

In an unusual cross-sport move, La Liga willpromote the Davis Cupduring broadcasts of itslive matches.

"The cross-sportpartnership with La Ligais innovative for theDavis Cup," said ITFpresident DavidHaggerty in a statement."This will widen our

reach to not only tennisfans but other sportsenthusiasts."

The 119-year-oldDavis Cup competitionhas traditionally beenstructured around a 16-nation World Group,contested over fourweekends during theyear, but will now switchto an 18-team finals, withthe inaugural edition inMadrid in November.

On Wednesday,Australian Davis Cupcaptain Lleyton Hewittcriticised Pique, whoseinvestment groupKosmos proposed theplanned changes.

"I haven't been a sup-porter since they firstf lagged the possible

changes," Hewitt saidahead of his team's qual-ifying tie this weekagainst Bosnia.

"I think having thefinals in one place isridiculous. I personallydon't think all the topplayers will play.

"Now we're beingrun by a Spanish footballplayer... that's like mecoming out asking tochange things for theChampions League -- it'sridiculous."

The qualifying tiesstart on Friday, with the12 winners to join the sixautomatic qualifiers —Croatia, France, UnitedStates, Spain, Argentinaand Britain — inNovember's finals.

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Katsumi Yusa struck a brace asNeroca FC rallied to beat

Indian Arrows 3-2 in an exciting I-League match on Friday.

Yusa struck in the 68th and87th (penalty) minutes while FelixChidi (38th) was the other goalscorer for Neroca.

Boris Thangjam (34th) andRohit Danu (62th) found the tar-get for the home side in the matchplayed at the Kalinga Stadium.

The match began on a slowpace with Neroca playing a much-organised game and enjoying bet-ter possession. The Manipur-basedside had some fine attempts, but agoal eluded them due to lack ofgood finishing.

The Arrows, who were tryinghard to come back into the game,kept on penetrating with attacks onthe counter but could not reallysucceed in doing that.

Their efforts, however, weresoon rewarded when Boris madethe most of an opportunity andconverted a cross from the rightside to fire in a goal for IndianArrows in the 34th minute. Thiswas also the 200th goal of the I-League this season.

Neroca soon found the equalis-er four minutes later throughChidi. The game thereafter openedup a bit and both sides were attack-ing in short bursts but neither ofthem could convert any of thechances that came their way. Thefirst half ended 1-1.

In the second half, a defensiveerror cost Neroca dear as they con-ceded a goal in the 62nd minute.

Rohit Danu made the most ofthe situation as he dispossessed theNeroca center-back and showed hisalertness as he comfortably foundthe back of the net to regain the leadfor Indian Arrows.

However, the Imphal side, whofinished runners-up last season, yetagain found an equaliser througha brilliant header from Yusa in the68th minute.

The game thereafter sawNeroca creating many chances butthey were unable to find the leaduntil the 87th minute when ahandball inside the Arrows box sawthe visitors being awarded a penal-ty kick.

Yusa made no mistake in find-ing the back of the net to seal thematch for his side.

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Former championsAizawl FC beat

defending championsMinerva Punjab FC 1-0in a 15th round match ofthe I-League on Friday.

The all-importantgoal was scored byLalrinchhana in the 69thminute.

With this win, theStanley Rosario-coachedAizawl leapfrogged theirFriday hosts and movedto seventh on the pointstable, with 14 pointsfrom 15 games.

They were in 10thspot before this game,deep into the relegationzone, but this resulttakes them out of it fornow.

For Minerva, theseason got from bad toworse, as they sufferedtheir seventh defeat in15 games. With an AFCChampions Leagueplay-off campaign com-ing up, it will not inspiretheir side, despite aheroic effort from theiryoung keeper ArshdeepSingh.

It was a scrappyaffair for most part ofthe game, except for aperiod in the second

half when Aizawl lookedenterprising.

Minerva's coachPaul Munster evenplayed new recruits JuanQuero of Spain andMahmoud Al Amna ofSyria, but his team's goaland win drought con-tinued.

The Mizoram teamhas now picked up fivepoints since new coachRosario took over.

The first chance ofthe game cameMinerva's way when, offa Juan Quero cross fromthe left flank, DilliramSanyasi got under a vol-ley but the effort lackedpower and direction.

Then, Kussaga tooka shot in the 19thminute for Aizawl froma distance but Arshdeepin the Minerva goal wasequal to it.

Albert then made apurposeful foray fromthe right channel forAizawl to deliver a deli-cious cross butArshdeep again made atimely intervention tothwart the danger.

The second half saw

Aizawl pressing hard,particularly throughIsak, whose runs fromthe right troubled aMinerva defence with-out the solid LancineToure.

After a few scoringchances were missed bythe likes of Kussaga andKareem Nurain, thanksmainly to Arshdeep'sheroics, Isak's first pur-poseful run from theright channel broughtAizawl a much-deservedlead.

He found the short-est player on the fieldand the youngsterLalrinchhana pulled offa delectable headeracross the face of goal tobeat Arshdeep.

Akash Sangwanmissed a golden oppor-tunity to equalise a cou-ple of minutes later,finding himself in theclear inside the Aizawlbox, but with only thekeeper to beat, his shotwas woefully wide offtarget.

Munster brought onMahmoud Al Amna latein the game in a des-perate attempt but a goalstill eluded Minerva andAizawl held on for awin.

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Having already sealed theseries, the Indianwomen's cricket team

put up an ordinary effort withthe bat to go down by eight wick-ets against New Zealand in thethird and final ODI on Friday.

Captain Mithali Raj, playinga record 200th ODI on Friday,had spoken about the impor-tance of a clean sweep going intothe game but her team couldmuster only 149 after being putin to bat. The White Fernschased down the target in 29.2overs to register a morale-boost-ing win.

Deepti Sharma, batting atnumber three, was the only oneto make a significant contribu-tion for India, top-scoring with52 off 90 balls. India collapsed to149 all out in 44 overs after beingat 117 for four in the 35th over.

"I am happy with the firstseries win in New Zealand. I amhappy that youngsters likeDeepti (Sharma) and Jemimah(Rodrigues) got runs. We defi-nitely wanted to try a few things.The bowlers have done wellthrough the tournament. Buttoday we didn't get enoughruns," Mithali said in the post-match presentation.

The venue proved to be a

testing one for both of India'smen and women's teams.Having sealed the series 3-0, theRohit Sharma-led side too suf-fered a heavy loss on Thursdayafter being bundled out for 92.The ball swung and seamed con-sistently for the first time in theseries, troubling the highly-ratedIndian batting.

However, off-spinner AnnaPeterson did the maximumdamage in the women's fixtureon Friday, taking four wickets for28 runs in 10 overs. Pacer LeaTahuhu chipped in with threewickets and conceded just 26runs in nine overs.

"We talked a lot about prideand just wanted to bounce back.

Really glad that we did. Butprobably took us a little bit toolong," said White Ferns captainAmy Satterthwaite.

Considering opener SmritiMandhana's match-winningperformances in the previoustwo outings, the Indian middle-order did not need to do much.Such was the visitors' dominance

that star batswomanHarmanpreet Kaur did not get tobat.

On Friday, she did andmade 24 off 40 balls before anunsuccessful charge down thewickets off Peterson led to herdownfall.

The in-form Mandhanaattempted a big one against thespin of Peterson to only end upbeing caught by Sophie Devine.Her opening partner Jemimahtoo did not do much, leavingIndia at 13 for two in the fifthover.

"I would have been reallyhappy to get some more runs.The first two games were verysatisfying, I was happy that Icould score the winning runs. It'sa lot of hard work yet to be done.I have to score more, win morematches to be tagged the best inthe world," said Mandhanareflecting on her performance.

A solid knock was expectedfrom Mithali on her 200th ODIbut she ended up with nine off28 balls.

New Zealand chased downthe target with ease with veter-an Susie Bates (57) andSatterthwaite (66 not out) scor-ing fine half centuries.

Mandhana was awardedplayer of the series for 105 and90 in the first two games.

����� �0���--0�

Joe Burns and Travis Head plunderedAustralia's first centuries of the home sum-

mer on Friday in a stirring fightback as theyruthlessly exposed Sri Lanka's inexperiencedattack in the second Test at Canberra.

Australian skipper Tim Paine won the tossat the Manuka Oval and put his side in on aflat track conducive to batting, a gambit thatpaid off after some early wobbles.

At stumps, they were a commanding 384for four with Burns not out 172 and KurtisPatterson, who was dropped first ball, on 25.

Head fell for 161 after a 308-run stand withBurns — Australia's first stand over 200 sinceSteve Smith and Mitch Marsh achieved the featin the third Test against England in December2017.

Vishwa Fernando was the best of thebowlers with 3-99.

On a cool, overcast day, Burns and Headdug Australia out of a hole after they lostMarcus Harris, Usman Khawaja and MarnusLabuschagne cheaply to be in trouble at 28 forthree.

After weathering the stormand as the new ball lost its shine,the pair started cashing in on a SriLankan attack missing their topbowlers and fieldsmen who putdown a host of chances.

Back in the side after beingoverlooked for series againstPakistan and India, opener Burnssurvived a dropped catch on 34, butwas otherwise invincible andbrought up his fourth Test ton off147 balls with a single.

His 172 surpassed his previous high scoreof 170 against New Zealand in 2016. Burns'knock was the first century for Australia sinceKhawaja's 141 against Pakistan in Dubai inOctober and only the second an Australian hasscored since the fifth Ashes Test in Sydneyalmost 13 months ago.

Vice-captain Head soon followed suit,reaching his maiden hundred off 155 balls inhis eighth Test, capitalising on DilruwanPerera dropping him on 87.

It puts the pair in prime position to beselected for the Ashes series later this year, withthe Canberra Test — the first-ever in thenation's capital — Australia's last before theirtour of England.

�� ������Their partnership followed a dire start

against a team they had beaten by an inningsand 40 runs in the first Test at Brisbane.

Pace duo Lahiru Kumara and DushmanthaChameera picked up injuries in that rout, withthe inexperienced Kasun Rajitha and Fernandotaking their place in Canberra.

And in a big blow, Suranga Lakmal, theirbest bowler in Brisbane, was ruled out on themorning of the Test with a stiff back, with debu-

tant Chamika Karunaratne stepping in.The three newcomers have only five Tests

of experience between them, but they initial-ly rose to the challenge.

"First hour the ball moved a bit and ourbowlers were hitting the right areas," saidKarunaratne. "But after the first session...Almost every over we gave a boundary. We haveto stop that."

Harris fell for 11 with a poorly executedsquare drive off Fernando caught at point byKarunarante.

The out-of-form Khawaja soon followed,lasting just three balls before being caught atslip by Kusal Mendis for nought, leavingAustralia on 15 for two.

The gloom continued when Karunaratnestruck with his fourth ball in Test cricket,removing Labuschagne with an excellentangled delivery for six, caught behind byNiroshan Dickwella.

Burns watched the carnage at the other endand dug in, playing only the loose balls as hebided his time and waited for the bowlers towilt.

Head did the same with both men accel-erating the run rate once the pressure of scor-ing centuries was past. Head was finallyundone by Fernando, who snared him lbw.

����� 3-1�0

Karim Benzema fired Real Madrid intothe semi-finals of the Copa del Rey on

Thursday by scoring twice in a 3-1 win overGirona.

Benzema was on target in the first legtoo, a 4-2 victory at the Santiago Bernabeulast week, and he continued his brilliantburst of form with another pair at Montilivi.

Pedro Porro pulled one back for Gironabut any hopes of a comeback were extin-guished when Marcos Llorente drove in fora 7-3 win on aggregate.

Santiago Solari's team is gainingmomentum, having won six out oftheir last seven games, with theresumption of the ChampionsLeague just around the corner.

Benzema has been key to thatrun, the Frenchman scoring fivegoals now in three matches and even cast-ing doubt on Gareth Bale's place in the side.

Bale has only just returned from a calfinjury but was left out of the starting line-up, instead having to wait until the 67thminute to replace the in-form ViniciusJunior.

Perhaps Solari was keen not to rushBale back but Vinicius and Benzema com-bined well again for the second goal andthere might be a reluctance to break up aburgeoning partnership.

If Alex Granell's free-kick had droppedinto the far corner in the second minute,perhaps the contest would have been dif-

ferent but it clipped the crossbar and stayedout, much to the relief of Keylor Navas.

The opening half an hour was lackingin spark but came to life whenBenzema darted in from the right,used Dani Carvajal as a wall anddrove a left-footed shot past GorkaIraizoz.

Vinicius was involved inBenzema's second, weaving in from the leftand rolling inside. Benzema took onetouch and curled it low, inside the far post.

Lucas Vazquez should have made itthree after half-time but somehow managedto slice onto the post with the goal gaping.

Bale came on and tested Iraizoz fromrange but Girona pulled one back whenPorro nipped in behind and slid a finishunder Navas with 19 minutes left.

Porro rushed to collect the ball out ofthe net but the revival was short-lived.Llorente drilled a shot into the corner from25 yards to keep Madrid's resurgencerolling on.

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The stage is set for theinaugural edition of the

RuPay Pro Volleyball Leagueaimed at giving a boost to thesport in the country, begin-ning with the first leg here onSaturday.

Six teams will battle it outfor top honours in the tour-nament, to be played in Kochiand Chennai.

The first 12 matches willbe held in Kochi while sixmatches including the semi-finals and final will be held inChennai.

The final is on February22.

According to Kochi BlueSpikers captain, MohanUkkrapandian the leaguewould provide a platform forIndian players to competewith the best from across theworld.

"The league is a much-needed boost as it gives us aplatform to compete with thebest in the world. I reallyhope the fans take to theleague in a fitting manner," hesaid.

The tournament will kickoff with a match betweenKochi Blue Spikers and UMumba Volley at the RajivGandhi Indoor Stadium.

U Mumba Volley skipperDipesh Sinha was upbeat

about the league and said itprovides an opportunity foryoung players in the countryto rub shoulders with the bestfrom various countries.

The presence of foreignstars including David Lee, aformer Olympic Gold medal-list , Novica Bjelica(Ahmedabad Defenders),Paul Lotman (Calicut Heroes)and Rudy Verhoeff (ChennaiSpartans), among others, isexpected to add to the

league's appeal.To make the game faster

and spectator-friendly, theround-robin matches willhave five sets and the first toreach 15 points shall win theset. The winning team will beawarded 2 points.

If a team wins 5-0, it willbe called a whitewash and thewinning team will be award-ed 3 points for the same.

The playoffs will see eachset of 25 points.

Also, new concepts likeSuper Serve and Super Pointhave been introduced tomake the league exciting.Each ace served will give theserving team two points,which will be called the SuperServe.

Chennai Spartans skipperShelton Moses is upbeatabout his team's prospectsand said the first target is toreach the playoffs first.

"We have a strong teamput together with the rightbalance of experience andyouth. Our target is to makeit to the playoffs so that wecan take advantage of homesupport during the second legin Chennai," Moses said.

America's Carson Clark,the only foreign captain of afranchise in the league, saidhis team Black HawksHyderabad had a good mix ofplayers and expected thetournament to do wonders tothe sport here.

Ahmedabad Defenderscaptain Ranjit Singh is thecostliest player of the league,who was picked through adraft.

The six franchises thatwill be part of the league are:Ahmedabad Defenders,Calicut Heroes, ChennaiSpartans, U Mumba Volley,Black Hawks Hyderabad andKochi Blue Spikers.

����� 0�,���0�

Qatar stunned Japan 3-1 towin their first Asian Cup

on Friday sparked by amoment of magic fromrecord-breaker Almoez Aliand after nail-biting latedrama.

Sudan-born striker Aliscored with an acrobatic bicy-cle kick after just 12 minutesbefore Abdelaziz Hatim curledin a superb second and AkramAfif converted a VAR-assistedpenalty to give the 2022 WorldCup hosts a famous victory inAbu Dhabi.

Qatar survived a scare at2-0 when Takumi Minaminopulled one back on 69 min-utes, only for Uzbek refereeRavshan Irmatov to award theMaroons a penalty on reviewfor a handball by Japan captainMaya Yoshida.

Ali became the first play-er to score nine goals at a sin-gle Asian Cup after only beingcleared to play just hoursbefore kickoff following a UAE

protest over his eligibil-ity.

Qatar had neverbefore gone beyond theAsian Cup quarter-finalsbut they scored 16 unan-swered goals coming into thefinal and kept a record sixclean sheets.

Japan, meanwhile, hadnever lost an Asian Cup final,winning the last of their recordfour titles in 2011.

But the BlueSamurai were soonchopped down to sizeby Ali's outrageousopener, taking him pastIran legend Ali Daei's

record tally of eight goals at the1996 tournament.

Cleverly found by Afif,Ali flicked the ball up to him-self before launching into anoverhead volley that left Japangoalkeeper Shuichi Gonda

helpless as it flew in off thepost.

Ali almost scored againwithin a minute, only to bedenied by a desperate blockfrom Yoshida.

However, Qatar doubledtheir lead in the 27th minuteafter yet another Afif assist —his 10th of the tournament —as Hatim bent in a sumptuousleft-foot shot from distance.

Japan, whose only previ-ous Asian Cup defeat by Qatarcame 31 years ago, musteredlittle of note, much to the cha-grin of their colourful fansamong a crowd of 36,000 —several sporting fancy dress,including one hardy soul in aninflatable sumo suit.

That all changed whenMinamino breached Qatar'sdefence for the first time thistournament with a delicatechip after Hatim had blazedover from close range.

But moments later Afifended Japan's resistance fromthe spot to complete a fairytaletriumph for Qatar.

����� !,!�0

FC Goa ended Mumbai City FC'sunbeaten run of nine games after reg-

istering a comfortable 2-0 win in anIndian Super League game here onFriday.

Spanish midfielder Edu Bedia (28thminute) and star striker FerranCorominas (79th minute) struck oneither side of the break at the MumbaiFootball Arena as a sizable number offans cheered the visiting team.

Right from the beginning, the twoteams played aggressive. The visitors hadan early chance in the second minute.

A throw-in from Seriton Fernandesfrom the right reached Corominas, whogave a low pass to Brandon Fernandes.

But the midfielder sold a dummy toskipper Mandar Rao Dessai behindhim. Dessai shot from a distance but analert Mumbai custodian Amrinder Singh

parried it away.Goa had more chances but Mumbai

defenders thwarted the attack eitherfrom near the box or inside the box.

Also, the match officials were kepton their toes with Goa player SeritonFernandes and Mumbai's Milan Singh,Lucian Goian earning yellow cardsinside the first 25 minutes.

After wasting a couple of free-kicks,Goa's aggression finally paid off in the28th minute with Bedia netting in theopener.

Brandon Fernandes ran from themidfield and then put Corominas on thegoal. Corominas' shot was saved byAmrider but the deflection fell in pathof Bedia, who shot on target and the balltook deflection of Mumbai defenderSubhasish Bose, before rolling in. At thehalf-way mark, Goa were 1-0 ahead.

After the change of ends, Mumbaiwere initially more aggressive. But, it was

Goa's goalkeeper Mohammad Nawaz,who ensured that his side stayed aheadas he made couple of superb saves.

Two back to back chances came forMumbai, but they failed to equalize. Inthe 63rd minute, Paulo Machado's free-kick was nodded by Lucian Goian, butit hit the crossbar.

Mumbai defender Bose broughtdown Corominas inside the box as thereferee pointed to the dreaded spot. Acalm and composed Corominas suc-cessfully converted the penalty as heslotted the ball into the right corner todouble the lead.

With the win, Goa logged threepoints to move to the third spot in thestandings with 24 points. This wasGoa's seventh win in 13 games, while itwas Mumbai's only third defeat in 14games. In their previous encounter inGoa, the home team had hammeredMumbai 5-0.

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Back in 1999, 16-year-old schoolgirlMithali Raj was simply happy wear-

ing the India colours for the first timeand not much changed even after twodecades as the coveted milestone of 200ODIs "is just a number" for the 36-year-old legend.

Mithali made her ODI debutagainst England in Milton Keynes inJanuary 1999 and on Friday became thefirst woman to complete in 200 match-es in the 50-over format. Not to forget,she is the top run-getter in the worldwith 6622 runs.

"200 is just a number for me but itfeels nice to come so far," the unas-suming India's ODI captain said aftercompleting a maiden 2-1 series win onNew Zealand soil.

"I have seen different stages of(transformation) in women's cricketacross the globe since I made by debutway back in 1999 under IWCC(International Women's CricketCouncil). Coming under ICC, wecould see the difference. I am just happyto represent the country for so long,"Mithali said.

For Mithali, it is a surreal feelingthat she could continue for so long at

the top level."When I started, I didn't think that

I will come so far. Initially, my aim wasto only wear the India colours, be one

of the core members of the team butnever did I think that I will continueto play for so long," said Mithali as onecould gauge the sense of satisfaction inher voice.

According to Mithali, her onlyendeavour has been to suit her gameas per team's needs.

"When you have a long career, youhave different elements and reasoningthat comes into factor. But one thinghas been to constantly thrive andchange my game to suit different con-ditions, different areas of my game andtrying to keep up with the internationalstandards.

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Real Madrid will face defending cham-pions Barcelona in the semi-finals of

the Copa del Rey.The draw made on Friday means

there will be back-to-back Clasicos,with the second leg due to take place inthe last week of February, before Madridhost Barca in La Liga on March 2.

The first leg will be played at theCamp Nou next week before a return atthe Santiago Bernabeu. Real Betis willplay Valencia in the other semi-final.

Real Madrid's club director EmilioButragueno said after the draw: "Madridagainst Barcelona is one of the bestmatches that can be seen all over theworld today. It will be a great knock-outmatch."

Barca is chasing a record fifth Copadel Rey success in a row while Madridis into the last four for the first time sincethey won the competition in 2014.

Two Clasico games in a week willcrank up the pressure on both teams atthe end of the month but Real also havea testing schedule around the first leg,sandwiched between a city derby againstAtletico in La Liga and their ChampionsLeague last-16 first leg away to Ajax.

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