IS SUICIDE BOMBER KILLS 32 AS AFGHANS CELEBRATE NEW YEAR PG11

SOME ARE TRYING TO DISRUPT PEACE: MAMATA PG3

SC ASKS AGGREGATION OF PERSONAL DATA UNDER AADHAAR SCHEME PG6

NO HALF TRUTHS

millenniumpost.in

VOL. 4, ISSUE 78 | Thursday, 22 March 2018 | Kolkata | Pages 16 | Rs 3.00

RNI NO.: WBENG/2015/65962

PUBLISHED FROM DELHI & KOLKATA

WILL BE ON THE LINES OF SILICON VALLEY, SAYS MAMATA

OUR CORRESPONDENT

BOLPUR: Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee proposed to set up an IT hub in New Town on the lines of the Silicon Val-ley in the US.

Addressing senior bureau-crats and people’s representa-tives at an administrative review meeting here on Wednesday afternoon, the Chief Minis-ter said the proposed hub will come up on 100 acre of land in New Town. She asked Debashis Sen, Additional Chief Secre-tary (IT Department), to get in touch with Amit Mitra, state Finance minister and Firhad Hakim, state Urban Develop-ment minister to discuss the matter.

“If such an IT hub can be created in New Town there will be many new jobs and the entire area will be full of activ-ity,” she maintained. It may be mentioned that IT giant Infosys has registered 50 acre of land in New Town and is likely to start construction once the bound-ary wall is set up. The IT giant is also likely to take possession of the land end of this month.

Earlier, Infosys had paid Rs 75 crore for the plot. Another IT firm — Wipro — has also taken 50 acre and paid Rs 75 crore to Housing Infrastruc-ture Development Corpora-tion (HIDCO). Sen informed

the gathering that the IT hub in Bolpur is functioning well.

Banerjee expressed her dis-pleasure over the way Animal Resources Department (ARD) had tackled the chicken debacle in Baduria in North 24-Parga-

nas. “What were the BDO, IC and the District Magistrate of North 24-Parganas doing? Why the ARD officials took four days to detect the matter and by then dead chicken had been dispatched and sold to different

areas including Kolkata,” she asked. Banerjee added that the matter could have been handled more efficiently and prompt action was required. “No inci-dent should be neglected and remember a stitch in time, saves

nine. If people would have died after consuming dead chicken, then the state government would have been held respon-sible.” She urged people not to panic and assured that every step has been taken.

Banerjee urged the coop-erative banks and nationalised banks to give loans to farmers and Self-Help Groups. Mea-sures should be taken to ensure that the cooperative banks func-tion smoothly. “The problems of banks cannot be ironed out by giving subsidy. The banks should earn and become self-reliant,” she pointed out.

Banerjee asked the Birbhum district administration to set up watch towers in the acci-dent-prone areas as many pil-grims die in road accidents on their way back home from Tarapith. “Thousands come to Tarapith and we should ensure safe and smooth journey,” she maintained.

Banerjee said the five reli-gious places in Birbhum are being developed. Baulbitan and Rangabitan are being developed as tourist spots.

She expressed satisfaction over the progress of work at Gitabitan township and Biswa Bangla Bishyabidyalaya. At Gitabitan township work on infrastructure building is going on and Santiniketan Srinik-etan Development Authority will set up the model bunga-low soon. The DPR of the uni-versity has been prepared. Both the places are being developed by the Housing Infrastructure Development Corporation (HIDCO).

CM announces IT hub in New Town

FOR ADVERTISING kindly contact at 9810195709

or mpostdelhi@gmail.com

FOR SUBSCRIPTION kindly contact at 8800854665

or millenniumpost.circulation@gmail.com

Centre warns FB on data theft

5 security personnel martyred in Kupwara

MPOST BUREAU

NEW DELHI: A fast-track court in Ramgarh district of Jharkhand on Wednesday sentenced 11 people to life imprisonment for lynching a meat trader in June last year over the suspicion that he was carrying beef in his car.

The accused, including the BJP’s local media in-charge Nityanand Mahto, were convicted by Judge Om Prakash under various sections of the IPC, including 147 (rioting), 148 (rioting with deadly weapons) and 149 (unlawful assembly) on March 16.

A group of people had lynched Alimuddin Ansari, 40, in Bazaar Tand locality of Ramgarh town on June 29, 2017, on the suspicion that he was carrying beef in his car. Forensic tests later confirmed that the meat he was carrying was beef.

The sale of beef is banned in the state.

Additional Public Prosecutor S

K Sukla said there were 12 accused and one of them is a minor. The 12th accused, a juvenile, is yet to face any action, but the prosecution has sought his trial as an adult.

The prosecution has moved the Juvenile Justice Board with a prayer that the minor is treated as an adult in the case, Sukla said. The charge sheet against the accused was filed in the case on September 17.

Phone call records had revealed that one of the accused followed Ansari for about two hours on June 29, informed two others about the victim’s location, before intercepting him at Bazaar Tand. The mob had also torched the vehicle of the victim.

(WITH PTI INPUTS)

NEW DELHI: The central government has shelved a proposal to allow Leave Travel Concession (LTC) to its employees to visit SAARC countries, the Lok Sabha was informed on Wednesday.

“The government exam-ined a proposal of LTC facil-ity to government employees to SAARC countries with a purpose to enhance people to people contact and after thor-ough examination involved, the proposal was found not feasible,” said Jitendra Singh in a written reply. MPOST

NEW DELHI: The CBI is overburdened with a large number of cases referred to it by constitutional courts, the government told the Lok Sabha on Wednesday.

Out of 121 cases referred by states to the CBI in the last three years, 85 are pend-ing investigation, Minister of State for Personnel, Pub-lic Grievances and Pen-sions Jitendra Singh said in response to a written ques-tion. MPOST

Govt shelves proposal to allow LTC staff to visit SAARC nations

CBI overburdened with cases referred by constitutional

courts: Govt

JHARKHAND BEEF LYNCHING CASE

No proposal to increase retirement age of employees, says government

NEW DELHI: There is no plan to increase the retirement age of central government employees from existing 60 years to 62 years, Minister of State for Personnel Jitendra Singh said on Tuesday.

“No,” he said, in a written reply to a question as to whether the govern-ment proposes to change the retire-ment age of the employees.

There are about 48.41 lakh central government employees. MPOST

CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA ROW

BJP, Congress trade chargesOUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: A possible role played by data analytics firm Cambridge Analytica in Indian elections triggered a bitter war of words between the ruling BJP and Congress after reports that the UK-based consulting firm may have also worked with a polit-ical party in India.

Law Minister Ravi Shan-kar Prasad cited media reports to lash out at the Congress for relying on the UK-based consulting firm, which he described as “rogue data anal-ysis firm”, for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

The Congress was quick with its rebuttal, accusing the minister of dishing out a bla-tant lie to divert the country’s attention. If the firm was as shady as the government says it is, then why did the BJP

engage the firm in the 2010 election, the Congress asked.

The BJP leader also asked the Congress to clarify whether now-sacked CA CEO Alexander Nix had met several opposition leaders to design the UPA’s electoral strategy for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

“How many times did Rahul Gandhi and Nix meet and what did they discuss? What is the CA’s role in Rahul Gandhi’s social media pres-ence,” Prasad demanded.

Countering the BJP min-ister’s salvos, Surjewala said: “Indian National Congress or the Congress President has never used or never hired the services of a company called Cambridge Analytica. It is a fake agenda and white lie being dished out by Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad.”

Prasad also alleged that the Congress party commit-ted data theft and manipulated data to win elections, a charge the Congress refuted as “fake news”.

“BJP’s factory of fake news has produced one more fake product today. It appears fake statements, fake press confer-ences and fake agendas have become an everyday charac-ter of BJP and its ‘Lawless’ Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad,” Surjewala said.

MPOST BUREAU

SRINAGAR: Three army jawans and two police-men were killed in an ongo-ing encounter with militants in Kupwara’s Halmatpora in Jammu & Kashmir on Wednesday. The search opera-tion is still underway. A total of five militants have been killed

in the encounter that has been going on since Tuesday.

A policeman was also injured in the gunfight. The wounded personnel is under-going treatment at a hospital. His condition is stated to be stable, a police spokesperson said.

An encounter broke out in the Arampora area of the

district on Tuesday after secu-rity forces launched an opera-tion in the wake of militants opening fire at an Army patrol party. The spokesperson said the anti-militancy operation, which continued overnight, was going on when reports last came in. Four unidentified militants were killed in opera-tion on Tuesday. (WITH PTI INPUTS)

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in Bolpur on Wednesday PIC/MPOST

DHIRENDRA KUMAR

NEW DELHI: The social media sites, particularly Face-book, have come under the scanner of government for an alleged attempt to influence India’s electoral process by selling the data of users.

In a stern warning to social media sites, Union IT Minis-ter Ravi Shankar Prasad on Wednesday said that the gov-ernment would take “strong action” against Facebook if needed.

The warning has been issued after it came to the notice that Facebook allegedly sold the data of up to 50 mil-lion Facebook users to Cam-bridge Analytica, a British consulting company without permission, which was used to help politicians, including US President Donald Trump and the Brexit campaign.

Issuing the warning, the IT minister said, “Mark Zuck-erberg, you better know the observation of IT Minister of India. If any data theft of Indi-ans is done with the collusion of Facebook systems, it will not be tolerated. We have got stringent powers in the IT Act, including summoning you in India.”

Prasad also stressed that any attempt to influence India’s electoral process would be dealt with firmly. “We support

the free exchange of ideas on social media, but any attempt by social media including Facebook of trying to influ-ence India’s electoral process through undesirable means will not be tolerated. Let Face-book note it very clearly.”

“In the wake of recent data theft from Facebook, let my stern warning be heard across the Atlantic, far away in Cali-fornia,” the IT Minister said.

Stressing that 20 crore Indians are on Facebook, the IT Minister said, “Prime Min-ister Narendra Modi always tells his cabinet colleagues to remain digitally as well as physically connected.”

Underlining that social media majors must follow all norms, the minister said, “Facebook knows my power. We didn’t permit them free basics. And Facebook will also need to recognise that I understand that Facebook has got the biggest footprint in India.”

» It’s alleged that Facebook sold data of up to 50 million Facebook users to Cambridge Analytica without permission

» The data was used to help politicians, including US President Donald Trump and the Brexit campaign

‘TO WORK IN OMERTA WAS ONCE-IN-A-LIFETIME OPPORTUNITY’ PG16

CHENNAI: In yet another bank fraud, State Bank of India has requested the help of the CBI in January to investigate jewel-lery chain Kanishk Gold Pvt Ltd for loan fraud to the tune of Rs 824.15 crore.

Kanishk, which has a regis-tered office in T Nagar in Chen-nai, is owned by promoters and directors Bhoopesh Kumar Jain and his wife Neeta Jain. Bank-ers said they were unable to con-tact the couple, who are currently believed to be residing in Mauri-tius. The CBI is yet to file an FIR in this regard.

SBI was the lead bank in a consortium of 14 public and pri-vate sector lenders to give loans

to Kanishk. In a letter dated Jan-uary 25, 2018, to the CBI, SBI charged Kanishk with “manip-ulating records, shutting shop overnight.”

While the principle loaned is about Rs 824 crore, adding the

interest due would indicate a loss of more than Rs 1,000 crore to the banks.

SBI was the first to declare the account fraudulent to the RBI on November 11, 2017. By January, all other members had declared

the account as fraudulent to the regulator.

SBI said the jeweller first defaulted in March 2017 in interest payments to eight mem-ber banks. By April 2017, Kan-ishk stopped payments to all 14 banks. The bankers were unable to contact the promoter when it initiated its stock audit on April 5, 2017.

On May 25, 2017, when bankers visited Kanishk’s cor-porate office, factory and show-room -- the facilities were shut with no activity and stock.

On the same day, Bhoopesh Jain wrote a letter to his bankers admitting falsification of records and removal of stocks -- secured

as collateral to the lenders. Sub-sequent visits by the bankers to the other showrooms of the jew-eller revealed that they had also been locked.

State Bank of India extended loans to the tune of Rs 215 crore, Punjab National Bank Rs 115 crore, Union Bank of India Rs 50 crore, Syndicate Bank Rs 50 crore, Bank of India Rs 45 crore, IDBI Bank Rs 45 crore, UCO Bank Rs 40 crore Tamilnad Mer-cantile Bank Rs 37 crore, Andhra Bank Rs 30 crore, Bank of Baroda Rs 30 crore, HDFC Bank Rs 25 crore, ICICI Bank Rs 25 crore, Central Bank of India Rs 20 crore and Corporation Bank Rs 20 crore. AGENCIES

Jewellery chain Kanishk Gold defrauds 14 banks to tune of `824.15 crore

SBI WAS THE FIRST TO DECLARE THE ACCOUNT FRAUDULENT TO THE RBI ON NOVEMBER 11, 2017Ayushman Bharat: Cabinet approves National Health Protection Mission

MPOST BUREAU

NEW DELHI: Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednes-day has approved launch of a new centrally sponsored Ayushman Bharat.

The scheme has the benefit cover of Rs. 5 lakh per family per year. The target ben-eficiaries of the proposed scheme will be more than 10 crore families belonging to poor and vulnerable population based on SECC database.

Cabinet also approves moving of offi-cial amendments in Surrogacy (Regula-tion) Bill, 2016.

Union Cabinet has also approved the continuation of the National Health Mis-sion - with effect from 1st April 2017 to 31st March 2020 with a budgetary support of Rs. 85,217 crore as Central Share over this period.

Cabinet has also approved continuation of the Prime Minister’s Development Pack-age for Jammu & Kashmir 2015 - “Stepping

up of support under creation of Infrastruc-ture in District Hospitals, Sub-district Hos-pitals and Primary Health Centers over 5 years” - with effect from 1st April 2017 to 31st March 2020 with a budgetary sup-port of Rs. 625.20 crores as total centrally-funded scheme.

Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs has given its approval for Central Sector Scheme “Integrated Scheme for Development of Silk Industry” for the next three years from 2017-18 to 2019-20.

A total allocation of Rs.2161.68 crore has been approved for the implementation of the Scheme for three years from 2017-18 to 2019-20.

BJP leader among 11 sentenced to life

In today’s paper

...

Sympathy not helping me

VIJAY SHANKAR

CITY

NOW, INDUSTRIAL ESTATE IN BALURGHAT 3

NATION

HC NOTICE TO RAJA, KANIMOZHI 6

EDIT

TURNING THE CLOCK 8

INTERNATIONAL

HTIN KYAW QUITS AS MYANMAR PREZ 10

BUSINESS

IOC STARTS DOORSTEP DELIVERY 13

SPORT

DRS TO BE USED IN IPL 14

pNIFTY 10,155.25 (+30.90) pSENSEX 33,136.18 (+139.42) pDOW JONES 24,862.51 (+135.24) pNASDAQ 7391.09 (+26.79) qRUPEE/DOLLAR 65.21 (-0.01) pRUPEE/EURO 79.98 (+0.04) qGOLD/10GM 31,350 (-40.00) qSILVER/K 39,000 (-150.00)

2 MILLENNIUM POST | Kolkata | Thursday, 22 March, 2018mp around town

ENCAPSULATING LIVING TRADITIONSAnubhav Nath, Gallery Director of Ojas Art is presenting an intricate art show of 60 artworks which will encapsulate the living traditions in contemporary art while taking a post shot at the paradoxes that India is often defined by. The exhibition titled “Paradox and Play: Living Traditions in Contemporary Art” will showcase art works made by three celebrated artists, which will tend to build a bridge between tradition and modernity. WHEN: Till April 4 TIMING: 11 am – 7 pm (Mon closed) WHERE: Ojas Art Gallery, Qutub Minar

THE BRIDGE 2018The Bridge 2018, a day long festival

of ideas and conversations on gender empowerment in India will be organized in the Capital.The event will witness over 40 prominent speakers including Naina Lal Kidwai, Renuka Chowdhury, Gurmehar Kaur, Sumukhi Suresh, Shehla Rashid and others.The event is open for public and seats are available on first- cum- first basis WHEN:

March 24 WHERE: Shangri-La Hotel TIMING: 9:30 am – 8 pm

DINE LIKE ROYALSJW Marriott is dedicating an entire week to the royal cuisine

of Rampur. Third generation royal cooks will team up with Chefs

at K3, JW Marriott to serve the special royal cuisine. Enjoy a uniquely created experience of regal recipes which include Paneer Baluchi Tikka Kachche Gosht Ki Tikia (Mutton), Saans-e-Dum Pulao (Chicken) and many more. WHEN: Till March 26 WHERE: JW Marriott, Aerocity TIMINGS: 12:30 pm

– 3 pm| 7 pm – 12 am

TURN YOUR FAST INTO A FEASTSavour the spirit of Navratras with some mouth-watering delicacies such as Pethe ki Sabzi, Kesar Badaam Milk, Makhane ki Kheer among others. This lip smacking navratra menu will make you wish the festival never ends. WHEN: Till March 26 WHERE: Singh Sahib Restaurant, Eros Hotel, Nehru Place TIMINGS: 7 pm – 11:45 pmNAVRATRA SPECIAL THALIThe Imperial brings satvik cuisine in a traditional thali for a satiating dining experience while you fast during Navratras. The chefs have put together delicious offerings from the temple cuisine featuring Sabudana Khichdi, Chironji Ki Dal, Kabab-e-Kela, Khire Ka Pakoda and Makhana kheer and more, for you to devour a wholesome meal.WHEN: Till March 26 WHERE: Daniell’s Tavern TIMINGS: 6:30 pm – 11:45 pm

DAYINDAYOUT What’s on Around Town

Sulochana Chaudhary, a mother of three successful daughters, was watching TV with keen interest as Prime Minister Narendra Modi

addressed the audience while launching the “Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao” campaign in Jhunjhunu on March 8.

But long before the girl child became a campaign slogan for the current Prime Minister, Sulochana went against all odds to educate her children and inculcate a strong sense of values in them – in a Marwari soci-ety which looked down upon a woman giv-ing birth to multiple daughters.

“The entire Churu society to which we belonged had something bad to say to me when I delivered my third daughter. Their frequent taunts, soon after the delivery, left me and my husband tormented and pained. But I took my daughter in my lap, kissed her and told her, ‘You are going to be my third son. I will give you the best so that you too can serve the nation following in the foot-steps of Indira Gandhi and Mother Teresa’,” said Sulochana.

As the girls grew up, she took them fre-quently to visit the village. “I wanted them to know that this was the real India and they had to help the poor here. So they grew up with a vision and mission of improving the socio-economic standards in rural India,” she said, adding that “we also gave them wings to fly abroad and spread their hori-zons... to do their best”.

They were never made to feel that they were weaker or inferior in any way to the boys.

Sulochana’s husband N.K. Chaudhary said, “I knew I had three daughters, but I decided they will build my future and realise my dreams. Although society left no stone unturned to make me feel unlucky for having three daughters, my best English friend, Ilay Cooper, who has written many books on the Shekhawati region, inspired me with his positive thoughts.”

He made the Chaudharys realise why it was important to treat their girls at par with boys – and that often women were more efficient and capable than men.

“I decided to give the best educa-tion to my daughters. As they grew up, I decided to send them to the US so that they could bring best practices to my business,” Chaudhary said.

The girls joined the family business, Jaipur Rugs, after finishing their educa-tion, with Archana Chaudhary heading the operations in the United States and Asha Chaudhary becoming the CEO. Kavita Chaudhury became head of the design

department. “They took the business to heights which I might not have been able to do alone,” says the trio’s father.

Kavita is extending the business by engaging rural artisans and allowing them to transfer their thoughts and ideas into rug designs which are making waves across the globe. Recently, one of their weavers, Vim-ladevi from Aaspura village, was taken to Germany to receive the prestigious Ger-man Design Award she had won. “We want to create more such Vimlas in India,” says N.K. Chaudhary.

He says they are always trying to boost the confidence of their grassroots weav-ers. “We want more daughters to become empowered, to stand on their own. We are employing more women and setting up doorstep opportunities for them so that they can recreate the magic of success at different levels,” he added.

Kavita says there was a lot of pressure from their Marwari relatives on her parents to treat their girls in accordance with tra-ditional societal norms – where girls were hidden within the confines of four walls at home and limited to kitchen-related work.

“However, my parents trusted Coo-per and, since early childhood, provided us with the best education and nurtured our personal interests, including sending us abroad.” All this despite their limited resources.

Asked if her parents motivated the sis-ters to pursue their dreams, Kavita said it was not really that. “As children, we did not know what it meant to have dreams

that could be fulfilled. They sim-ply created a nurturing space for us to grow and experience life. They motivated us to learn the things we loved to do. And they greatly trusted us,” she said.

The Chaudhary family business is now working with the most mod-ern versions of enterprise resource planning, the design studio has been computerised and the products are being counted among the best, inviting global awards.

N.K. Chaudhary believes strongly in the con-cept of women empow-erment. Nature, he says, gave sufficient time to man to prove him- self and contribute to the society. “But now it is women who are script-ing success stories in each field with their untiring efforts.” IANS

SOMA BANERJEE

Disruption in commer-cial real estate through coworking space opera-tors, mushrooming rap-

idly in metro cities is a ray of hope for the real estate developers, investors and corporates. India today is viewed by global conglomerates, as a devel-oping and emerging market. In the near future, it is possible that due to coworking spaces, businesses would shoot up rapidly, not only in the Met-ropolitan cities but also in the upcom-ing smart cities and tier-2 cities, as expected consumption of seats in 2018 might cross from 10 to 12 million sqft as per reports of a leading interna-tional property consulting company.

Due to evolving mindsets of busi-ness houses and globalized corporate practices, there is a huge shift in work culture. The SMEs or MSMEs and other big national business houses are replacing their spacious cabins and cubicles with workstations or hot seat culture, for the entire management and employees. Having said that, this arrangement is instrumental in bring-ing about uniformity and a sense of equality amongst all management ver-ticals across the organization and also in bridging the age-old gap between various levels of management within the system.

From dull and boring offices to colourful vibrant offices, from stereo-typical canteens to swanky cafeterias, this shift has taken place across India. Optimum utilization of workspace is the latest buzz now, as everyone is

looking at cutting down on opera-tional expenses.

To further prove the point, sta-tistics prove that in a 10-hour slot of office space usage, hardly 40% of the seats are used throughout the day. On the hind site, sales offices don’t really need a permanent place for their sales executives throughout the day, as they are usually in the market for business.

Although Kolkata is a bit conser-vative in several aspects of adaptabil-ity, it is catching up with this new age corporate space utilization theory and creating organic work ecosystem. It is also observed that coworking or plug and play offices are more cost-effec-tive, with minimal maintenance and

removes daily administrative head-aches and property management lia-bilities, which makes business easier for corporate houses.

Leading international operating companies like Regus and Executive Center with coworking spaces names

were already present in Bengaluru, Gurgaon, Pune, Hyderabad and Kol-kata till now, but seeing the market potential of Kolkata, similar cowork-ing space operators are coming up with various economic models as well.

This phase of evolution is a favour-able opportunity for investors to look into collaborations with coworking operators to enjoy rental incomes with an assured profit sharing com-mercial model. The reason why this is a lucrative business model is that, first, most coworking operators, do their due diligence before they iden-tify any location and select any prop-erty. Second, there is a calculated ROI of 12-15 percent for three years, rental

income is assured, and this is made with the help of their business analyst and SWOT analysis after considering all incomes and expenditures. Third, the occupancy of any coworking space is above 75% to 90% on an average and chances of making losses are less in any given circumstance.

With cost-effective space utiliza-tion, various concepts are entering the market at a very fast pace. The concept of using coffee shops as ‘office on the go’ (OOTG) has already taken birth in Mumbai by Sanjay Guha with his partner and co-founder Nam-rata Goyal and is ready to spread its wing shortly with their pilot project in Powai Mumbai. They are com-ing up as an office coworking space aggregator, with an app based tech-nological support system for the cor-porates. This is basically to make short and quick sales meeting more cost-effective and less time-consuming. The facilities that OOTG would offer are very simple yet crisp, with coffee, quick bites, WIFI facilities, plug points and printout options available, OOTG will capture the market and boost the retail coffee shop business as well.

Commercial space in real estate is evolving with various innovative and cost-effective ideas, to match up the urban fast-paced work culture requirements. This is a promising sign for the investors who can again look into this area as a prospective invest-ment option.

(Soma Banerjee can be contacted at soma@neaera.in)

Couple on empowerment missionThe Chaudhary family took the initiative of ‘Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao’ way before it was launched and now, they are empowering women all over the world

are bringing an evolutionHow coworking spaces

OUR CORRESPONDENT

‘INDIRA,’ a part-prose fic-tion and part-graphic biog-raphy of India’s first and only woman Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi, was launched by Member of Parliament, Jairam Ramesh in the Capi-tal on Tuesday. The book has been written by Devapriya Roy and illustrated by Priya Kuriyan.

Devapriya Roy’s com-pulsive storytelling and Priya Kuriyan’s fine draw-ings weave a seamless tale of the formative years of

the erstwhile Prime Minis-ter through a combination of textual and comic narra-tives. In a mixture of fiction and reality, a young Indira Thapa - who is named after Indira Gandhi - discovers the legacy of India’s first and only woman prime minis-ter, while trying to finish an unusual assignment given by her favourite teacher.

The book launch wit-nessed a riveting conver-sation between MP Jairam Ramesh, Vishwajyoti Ghosh (author of Delhi Calm) and the authors of the book, who discussed the journey of doc-umenting one of India’s most fascinating political figure

and many anecdotes from her life.

On the occasion, Jairam Ramesh said, “In the past, I had spent a good amount of time researching about Indira Gandhi and in the process, I discovered many facets about her personal-ity that we are not aware of. Her love for nature is one of them. In fact, she was a patron of the institution and laws on the environment that we have today. She was not just a great politician but also an intellectual.”

Talking about the book, author Devapriya Roy said, “The book is a manifestation of in-depth research, which included digging deep into material like Indira Gandhi’s biogra-phies and letters exchanged between her and Jawahar-lal Nehru. We real-ized that while it was difficult to con-dense her fascinating life into one book, we ensured that the book captures important nuances from her life, such that it effectively

brings out the very essence of Indira Gandhi in a man-ner that the younger genera-tion reads and appreciates.”

Illustrator Priya Kuriyan, who made the book come alive through her fine draw-ings, said, “While research-ing and travelling for the book we discovered that everything in her life was carefully selected and I kept those little details of her life in my mind while illustrating for the book”.

‘Indira’ has been pub-lished by Westland under their new literary imprint – Context. The book is available on Amazon for purchase.

Take a graphical journey of erstwhile PM ‘Indira’ DON’T FORGET to save your feet from the

harmful rays of the sun. Besides going for regu-lar pedicures, it is essential to apply sunscreen and let your nails breathe sans nail paint once in a while, say experts.4Trim your nails: Go for proper, neat and

short nails for maximum foot care. File them

if that’s easier.4A pedicure helps you get rid of dead and

hard heel skin. It is important to pamper your feet and take care of the dead skin by regularly undertaking pedicure or clean up with a scrub and apply foot cream for nice smelling feet.

Also, soak your feet in lukewarm water

mixed with baking soda for about 15 minutes which will make them clean and smell fresh tak-ing any odour away4Scrape off the dead skin growth from the

corner of the nail and paint some almond oil for super nourishment.4Let your nails breathe from time to time.

This can help stop discoloration, if your inter-ests is towards dark nail paints.4To deal with foot sweat, you can use anti-

bacterial foot washes and deals with foot odour. Spray peppermint foot spray to relieve yourself from foot sore or stress.

If you wear closed shoes, make sure you change your socks every day. Another thing to keep in mind is to wash your feet few times a day so that you always have fresh feet.4Do not just halt to ankle, go on to put

sunscreen on your feet as well. These not only protect your feet, but also protect protein made nails that are more defenseless to sun damage.4Make sure you wear either breathable

material like leather, cork and canvas or else shoes made with mesh so that air can circulate in your feet keeping it fresh. IANS

Don’t torture your feet in scorching heat

“MILLENNIUM POST”, Printed & Published by Jaiyendra Kumar Sharma on behalf of Front Row Media Pvt. Ltd. and printed at Aaj Kaal Publishers Pvt. Ltd., BP-7, Sector-V, Bidhan Nagar, Kolkata - 700 091 and published from Tivoli Court 1A, Ballygunge Circular Road, Block-A, Flat-94, 1st Floor, Kolkata-700 019. Editor: Durbar Ganguly, Executive Editor: Arya Rudra. Email: durbarganguly@gmail.com, mpostcal@gmail.com. For marketing, contact: 9836292306, 9830532306. For editorial, call: 9836072100

Although every possible care and caution has been taken to avoid errors or omissions, this publication is being sold on the condition and understanding that information given in this publication is merely for reference and must not be taken as having authority of or binding in any way on the writers, editors, publishers, and printers and sellers who do not owe any responsibility for any damage or loss to any person, a purchaser of this publication or not for the result of any action taken on the basis of this work. All disputes are subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of competent court and forums in Delhi/New Delhi only.

mp city 3MILLENNIUM POST | Kolkata | Thursday, 22 March, 2018

OUR CORRESPONDENT

KOLKATA: To promote hand-crafted jewellery of Bengal in the international arena and to provide a better platform to the local artisans, the Swarna Shilpa Bachao Committee (SSBC) and KNC services are planning to organise Bengal International Jewellery Show (BIJS) in the city in January next year.

The BIJS is expected to see foreign buyers from countries like USA, UAE, Thailand, Ban-gladesh and others. According to the organisers, many more countries will participate in the exhibition where various jewel-lery, mainly handcrafted ones, will be put on display.

The main objective of the programme is to ensure that the small-scale jewellery arti-sans across Bengal can get exposure to domestic as well

as international markets.The organisers said that

Bengal has a huge potential, not just because of its skilled artisans but the quality of the jewellery as well. Especially the handcrafted ones can fetch for-eign money. But the artisans from the state do not get the platform. A sizeable number of skilled labourers in the state often migrate to other states for better opportunities.

One of the organisers has, however, blamed the Gem and Jewellery Export Pro-motion Council (GJEPC) for not organising any exhibition in Kolkata, though it has a regional office in the city. They demanded that GJEPC must take a proactive role in this regard, so that Bengal artisans can get a platform to promote their products.

Subir Kumar Sen, president of SSBC, said during a Press

conference at a city hotel that the main purpose of the initia-tive is to give a platform to the local jewellery artisans, so that they can showcase their prod-ucts. Handcrafted jewellery items prepared by the local arti-sans are unique in both their look and qualities.

During the exhibition, which is scheduled to take place at Netaji Indoor Stadium from January 12-14 next year, some modern machines would also be put on display, which would help the artisans make their products more attractive, Sen said.

The organisers, however, assured that the bank fiasco of Nirav Modi will hardly have any impact on the small-scale jewellers, as they do not fully depend on bank loans. The initiative would give a better exposure to the small-scale jewellers in the state.

Bengal International Jewellery Show to be held in city on January 2019

OUR CORRESPONDENT

BOLPUR: The police will not give any permission to carry arms during Ram Navami pro-cession and will chalk out the route which the organisers will have to follow, Surajit Kar Pur-kayastha, Director General of Police, said here on Wednesday afternoon.

While addressing the administrative review meet-ing, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee asked him to speak about the steps that have been taken to ensure a peaceful Ram Navami.

The Chief Minister said, “do not allow any new organisa-tion to hold the procession with arms. Only some organisations that carry arms traditionally, will be allowed. There are two organisations, one in Howrah and the other one in Asansol, who will be allowed to hold the procession with arms, which is their tradition.”

Also, the police will take stern action against the rumour mongers, added Banerjee.

The DGP said that for the past few days, attempts are being made to create tension by uploading “false and delib-erate messages on Facebook.”

He lauded the role played by civic volunteers and green

police as well as some social clubs, in providing informa-tion to police about “these evil forces.”

Banerjee said those who provide correct information, should be rewarded. “Keep your eyes and ears open and ensure peace in the society,” the Chief Minister urged people.

Police to restrict arms during Ram Navami to ensure peace

OUR CORRESPONDENT

DEBRA (WEST MID-NAPORE): Without naming the BJP, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee criticised the party for fanning communalism and spreading divisive politics all over the country.

Addressing a mammoth rally here on Wednesday after-noon, she added: “Bengal is the most peaceful state and we believe in the peaceful coexis-tence of all the communities. But there are some who are try-ing to create division among different religions and com-munities and usher in trouble.”

Coming down heavily on the CPI(M), she said in the past 34 years no development had been carried out in the rural areas. “Because of the fear of

Maoists, people did not visit West Midnapore. Neither did they come to Debra or Gopibal-lavpur or even other areas. But now, the situation has changed. Rapid development has taken place in West Midnapore and Jhargram, the newly formed districts,” she said and added:

“We work for the people and that is our USP.”

Banerjee urged the people to vote for her candidates in the forthcoming Panchayat elec-tions to ensure development in the rural areas. “Vote for those who have worked for you,” she maintained.

Banerjee said nowhere in India such massive develop-ment has taken place after repaying a loan to the tune of Rs 48,000 crore.

“Because of the CPI(M)’s faulty policy, we have to repay the loan. There would have been more development had this financial burden been not there.”

Banerjee said Bengal is number 1 in the country in 100 days’ work and in creating rural jobs. “It is a great achieve-ment and this has been possible because of better coordination among different departments,” she added.

The Chief Minister also said under the Trinamool Congress government, all-round devel-opment has taken place in the state. “When I was coming to

West Midnapore, I found as if the entire district was covered with green carpet. The produc-tion of paddy and vegetables has gone up and the farmers are earning more money.”

She alleged that the Bengal government has not received any money from the Centre to combat disasters. “Assam and Bihar have got financial assis-tance but we have not received any amount,” she said.

Banerjee said Bengal is the only state in the country where medical treatment is free in state-run hospitals. “Expensive operations are being conducted free of cost. Many people from neighbouring states are getting these benefits too,” she added.

She said superspecialty hos-pitals have come up in every district and the rate of child

mortality has gone down with the institutional delivery shoot-ing up.

Banerjee further added that the state government is com-mitted to providing scholar-ships to students in order to encourage them to carry on with higher studies.

The Kanyashree project has benefitted girl students immensely and now those studying in universities are also getting scholarships. There are scholarships for the minor-ity and general category stu-dents as well. “We want to help our students and want them to grow.”

She told the students: “Use these facilities and become responsible citizens and wher-ever you go and whatever you do, you should reach the top.”

Some are trying to disrupt peaceful coexistence of all communities: Mamata

CHIEF MINISTER UPS THE ANTE IN FIRING SALVO AT ‘DIVISIVE POLITICS’

PRITESH BASU

KOLKATA: The state Disaster Management and Civil Defence department is planning to set up a Quick Response Team (QRT) for each district, includ-ing Kolkata, to ensure better help to people at the time of any emergency.

According to a senior offi-cial of the department, who didn’t want to be quoted, there was a discussion in connection with the setting up of QRTs, after a District Disaster Man-agement Authority (DDMA) for each district came into existence.

The main task of the QRTs will be to plunge into immedi-ate action as soon as there is an alert of any natural calamity or emergency situation.

The QRTs will be comprised of civil defence volunteers. There will be one QRT in each district and the numbers of vol-unteers in each of them will be

depending on the number of sub-divisions in a district.

If everything goes as planned, then there will be 25 volunteers for a sub-division. Citing an example, the offi-cial said that if there are three sub-divisions in a district, then there will be 75 volunteers in the QRT of that district.

It may be mentioned that a disaster management plan

has been prepared for the dis-tricts and it easily points out the areas vulnerable to natural calamity. It also demarcates the areas which are prone to floods, earthquakes, draught, etc.

The district-wise disas-ter management plan helps in carrying out proactive work, so that losses due to natu-ral calamities get minimised. Moreover, the nature of calam-

ity varies in districts in North and South Bengal. It is com-pletely different in Kolkata and its adjacent urban areas as well. So, the district management plan ensures well planned res-cue operations in case anything goes wrong, the official said.

At the same time, DDMAs are formed with respective dis-trict magistrates as their chair-men, who will be supervising the QRTs. In Kolkata, commis-sioner of the Kolkata Munici-pal Corporation (KMC) is the chairman of DDMA. So, the QRT in Kolkata will be operat-ing under his supervision.

Though chairmen of the DDMAs will supervise and give necessary directions to the respective QRTs under them, the civil defence volun-teers will rush to the spot in case of any emergency under the leadership of a field officer. The field officer will be main-taining liaison with concerned senior officials.

Disaster Management dept mulls ‘Quick Response Teams’ for each district

OUR CORRESPONDENT

DARJEELING: The Bengal government along with the Gorkhaland Territorial Admin-istration (GTA), working in unison, is trying to revive the lost glory of Darjeeling as an educational hub. New schools and colleges are being built in the district.

Under the Sarva Siksha Mission, around 56 new school buildings are being constructed in the GTA area. Two new col-leges will also come up in Sili-guri sub-division along with two new industrial training centres.

20 primary schools and 36 upper primary school build-ings will be constructed in the GTA area at a cost of Rs 26 crore and 4 lakh.

“Rs 28 lakh has been sanc-

tioned for each new primary school while Rs 58 lakh for each upper primary school building. Tenders have already been floated for the same,” stated Amar Singh Rai, Dar-jeeling MLA and member-in-charge of the Education department, GTA.

The 56 school building con-structions are in the first phase of the 99 school buildings that the state government intends to build in the GTA area.

The schools will come up in far-flung areas where students have to walk long distances to reach schools. “Education is a priority area of the GTA. Work-ing in unison with the state government, we want to revive the lost glory of Darjeeling as an educational hub,” added Rai.

Incidentally, the state gov-ernment has plans to develop

Kurseong as an education hub. Presidency University campus will be opened in Kurseong along with a medical college.

Two new colleges will become operational in the Sil-iguri sub-division within the new academic session. While a Hindi medium college is com-ing up at Hatighisha in the Nax-albari block, the other college is coming up at Ghoshpukur.

The state Higher Educa-tion department has already approved Humanities and Commerce streams at the Ghoshpukur College.

Two new ITIs are being opened at Phansidewa and Batasi. “These ITIs will equip youths for the future. With proper training, they will be able to get jobs or may even be self-employed,” added state Tourism minister Goutam Deb.

State govt, GTA aim to revive Darjeeling as educational hub

PRITESH BASU

KOLKATA: With Bengal having the highest number of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) in the country, the West Bengal Small Industries Development Corporation (WBSIDC) has received a proposal to set up an industrial estate in South Dina-jpur’s Balurghat area.

With the creation of neces-sary infrastructure in the past six years that ensured growth in the MSME sector in both North and South Bengal dis-tricts, entrepreneurs in large numbers are showing interest in acquiring space in the indus-trial parks of the corporation.

Similarly, a section of suc-cessful entrepreneurs includ-ing those from South Dinajpur district had approached the district administration with a proposal to set up an industrial estate at Balurghat, the district headquarter.

It may be mentioned that

at present there are a total of 40 industrial parks and estates under the supervision of the corporation and includes three upcoming ones — Dabgram in Jalpaiguri, Malda Silk Park and at Khasjungle in West Midnapore.

The total area of land on which the industrial estates are situated is around 697 acre and it will increase further if the proposed one in Balurghat comes up.

Sources said the District Magistrate of South Dinajpur

district wrote to the authori-ties of the corporation a few days ago with a proposal to set up the industrial estate where MSME units will come up.

It has been learnt that there will be no problem in getting plots in the district for the same. It has also been stated that a major portion of the land is already available and the nec-essary work to set up the indus-trial estate can begin very soon.

Now, the Detailed Project Report (DPR) of the industrial estate needs to be prepared and

subsequently, the proposal will be sent to the state Finance department for its clearance.

Though the estimated cost to develop the proposed indus-trial estate at Balurghat can be calculated only after the DPR is ready, according to a senior official, it takes around Rs 10 to Rs 15 crore to develop the necessary infrastructure of an industrial estate.

Meanwhile, WBSIDC, which is under the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise and Textiles department, has developed an online platform from where entrepreneurs can get all sorts of informa-tion related to all the indus-trial estates and parks.

The revamped website of the corporation has been launched and it will work as a single window gateway of all services to entrepreneurs.

This comes at the time when Bengal has topped again in ease of doing business among all the states in the country.

Proposal for industrial estate in BalurghatCLOSER LOOK » Bengal has the highest number of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises in India

» Entrepreneurs in large numbers are showing interest in acquiring space in the industrial parks of WBSIDC

» At present there are a total of 40 industrial parks and estates under the supervision of the corporation and includes three upcoming ones

» The total area of land on which the industrial estates are situated is around 697 acre

OUR CORRESPONDENT

KOLKATA: A headmaster of a school at Mainaguri in Jalpaig-uri has been accused of giving undue favour to some students by handing over the question papers to the examinees on repeated incidents, during the Madhyamik examination this year.

West Bengal Board of Sec-ondary Education (WBBSE) has summoned the accused headmaster to its North Ben-gal office. It has also been learnt that he has been served a show-cause notice. The managing committee members have also been summoned by the board on Friday in this connection.

A television channel first reported the incident, follow-ing which the WBBSE admin-istrator ordered a probe into the incident. It was alleged that Haridayal Roy, the headmas-ter of Moynaguri Subhasnagar

High School, had distributed the question paper to students during the Madhyamik exami-nation, 40 minutes prior to the scheduled time.

Another teacher of the school alleged during a televi-sion interview that the accused headmaster had, on a number of occasions during this year’s Madhyamik examination, opened the question papers, got them solved from other teachers and then distributed the answers among some of the students.

The teacher of the school alleged that the headmas-ter had pressurised the other

teachers to solve the question papers, which had been opened before the scheduled time.

A school inspector who vis-ited the institute after receiving a complaint, also alleged that the additional supervisor, who was supposed to be present at the school during the opening of the sealed question papers, had been sent somewhere else by the accused.

Some students of the school and their guardians, however, backed the accused headmas-ter by saying that he is a good-natured person and he could not have been involved in such an incident. They also said that the headmaster might have been framed.

Kalyanmoy Ganguly, Administrator of WBBSE, said that the allegation against the headmaster is serious. He said that steps would be taken against the accused, if the alle-gations are found to be true.

Headmaster accused of solving paper for Madhyamik examinees

WBBSE has summoned the accused headmaster to its North Bengal office

KOLKATA: Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is likely to meet Team India pacer Mohammed Shami’s estranged wife Hasin Jahan in connection with her complaint of domestic violence and infidelity against the cricketer.

According to a senior offi-cial at the Chief Minister’s office, Jahan has been asked in a telephonic communication to meet the Chief Minister at the state assembly on March 23.

“She has been asked to meet the chief minister at the state assembly on Friday. She has been directed to come alone without her lawyer or any-body from her family,” the offi-cer said.

The move came after Jahan went to Banerjee’s Kalighat res-idence on Monday and submit-ted a petition seeking time to meet the Chief Minister.

Jahan had gone to Banerjee’s residence soon after recording her statement before the mag-istrate. She had lodged a com-plaint with the police alleging domestic violence and infidel-ity against him.

Jahan had also alleged that Shami had taken money from a Pakistani woman named Alishba on the insistence of an England-based businessman, Mohammad Bhai.

She had also sent docu-ments related to her complaints against her husband to the Board of Control for Cricket in India’s (BCCI) Committee of Administrators (CoA) chair-man Vinod Rai for a probe into her allegations of corruption, her lawyer said on Wednesday.

Kolkata Police had regis-tered cases under non-bail-able sections 307 (attempt to murder), 498-A (subjecting a woman to cruelty) and 376 (punishment for rape).

In fact, five persons includ-ing Shami have been booked under bailable sections 323 (causing hurt) and 506 (crimi-nal intimidation) among oth-ers. AGENCIES

Mamata likely to meet Shami’s wife

on Friday

SPLASH-HAPPY

A young boy dives into River Ganga for a bath ahead of World Water Day, in Kolkata on Wednesday PIC/PTI

PIC/MPOST

mp city4MILLENNIUM POST | Kolkata |Thursday, 22 March, 2018

OUR CORRESPONDENT

KOLKATA: Various organisa-tions of doctors on Wednes-day staged a demonstration in front of the NRS Medical Col-lege and Hospital, demand-ing the complete withdrawal of National Medical Commis-sion (NMC) Bill, 2017.

It was alleged that the Par-liamentary Standing Commit-tee has submitted a report with some minor changes, thereby allowing the Centre to go ahead with its proposals to abolish age-old institutions like Med-ical Council of India (MCI), Dental Council of India (DCI) and Nurses Council of India (NCI).

The members of differ-ent organisations took out a rally on Wednesday afternoon, demanding that the Centre must scrap NMC Bill, 2017, as it would strengthen the hands of the private players.

The Bill was sent to the Par-liamentary Standing Commit-tee for its consideration after various political parties pro-tested against the Bill in the parliament.

Many of the doctors’ organ-isations, including the Indian Medical Association (IMA), had viewed that the Bill has the

potential to adversely change the character of medical edu-cation and healthcare delivery in this country and it will inflict irreparable damage on pub-lic health.

IMA had strongly opposed the NMC Bill, 2017, which seeks to replace the exist-ing Medical Council of India (MCI), the highest medi-cal regulating body, with the new body - National Medical Commission.

Various organisations alleged that the medical aspi-rants will not be able to study

medical courses on the basis of their merit and it would help those who can get their wards admitted in MBBS courses, against huge amounts of money.

The Bill will also put in place a common entrance exam, which all medical grad-uates will have to clear to get practising licences.

The Bill also has a provision for a common entrance exam and licentiate (exit) exam, that medical graduates have to pass before practising or pursuing PG courses.

Doctors protest against NMC Bill in city

OUR CORRESPONDENT

KOLKATA: Shantiram Mahato, minister for Paschi-manchal Unnayan Affairs Department, laid the founda-tion stone for a lac processing unit at Balarampur in Purulia on Wednesday.

Built at an estimated cost of Rs 14.14 crore, the centre will have a building where state-of-the-art machines will be installed.

The Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises depart-ment will look after the clus-ter where farmers will produce raw lac that will be processed at the unit.

The initiative was taken by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee who wanted to revive lac production in the state. Jharkhand is the leading pro-ducer of lac followed by Chhat-tisgarh. Lac is also produced in

Maharashtra. Purulia, Jhalda, Bagmundi

and Balarampur are famous for lac production in Bengal. Lac is used to varnish furniture and to polish various items. It is used to dye wool as well. Puru-lia was famous for lac produc-tion once. But over the years the farmers lost interest.

Mamata Banerjee said its production should be revived

and asked the MSME depart-ment to take necessary steps.

After laying the founda-tion stone, Mahato said: “It will ensure development of lac production. Paschimanchal Unnayan Affairs Department is trying to rejuvenate lac cul-tivation in Purulia district and regain its past glory. Purulia at one point of time topped the list in lac production.”

Foundation stone for lac processing unit laid in PuruliaSOUMITRA NANDI

KOLKATA: The state govern-ment has started work for the development of Tarakeshwar, which is known for its religious importance, into a major tour-ist destination.

The Tarakeshwar Devel-opment Authority (TDA) has taken up the responsibility of the development of Tarakesh-war temple, its adjoining areas and renovation of Dudhpu-kur, a tank located north of the Shiva temple, which is believed to fulfill the prayers of those taking a dip in it.

“We have prepared a com-prehensive plan for develop-ment of the total area under TDA. The Tarakeshwar temple and the waterbody at Dudh-pukur will also be renovated,” state Urban Development and Municipal Affairs minister Firhad Hakim said.

Hakim, who is also the chairman of TDA, paid a visit to Tarakeshwar on March 17

and interacted with engineers and officials of TDA, along with members of the temple committee.

It may be mentioned that as part of the development ini-tiative, high marked lights are being fitted to illuminate the premises of the shrine. Deco-rative lights are being used to light up the road situated in and around the temple. “The

parking area is being developed in accordance to international standards, with the use of paver blocks. The roads under TDA are being repaired with the use of mastic asphalt,” Hakim said.

TDA is also implementing Banglar Bari Scheme to reha-bilitate the dwellers of slums situated near the temple. The shops adjacent to the temple are being given a smart look.

The state is spending Rs 10 crore for the total project.

“We are giving a special emphasis on renovation and curbing the pollution of Dudh-pukur. We are procuring the technology that is being used in the waterbody at the Golden Temple of Amrtisar, to keep it clean and pollution free. The water in Dudhpukur will be oxidised in a manner, such that

it sucks any sort of unwanted things dumped into it,” Hakim said. A team of engineers has recently paid a visit to Amrit-sar and now, the DPR is being prepared in this regard.

The TDA has also taken up the issue of drainage, which has been a major cause of concern at Tarakeshwar. The drainage system will be overhauled by spending Rs 80 crore. “We will be floating the tender soon,” the minister said.

Chief minister Mamata Banerjee had held an admin-istrative meeting at Tarakesh-war in Hooghly in June 2017 and had said that the area and the temple will be developed.

The Taraknath temple, ded-icated to the Hindu god Shiva worshipped as Taraknath, is a major pilgrimage spot in the town of Tarakeshwar in Hooghly district. Built in 1729, the temple is an atchala struc-ture of Bengal temple archi-tecture, with a ‘natmandir’ in front.

Soon, Tarakeshwar to be turned into tourist hotspot

DOLLED UP

Biswa Putul Nattya Divas being celebrated at Jorasanko Thakurbari on Wednesday PIC/MPOST

OUR CORRESPONDENT

KOLKATA: In a bizarre inci-dent, the son and daughter-in-law of an elderly person killed him and hid the chopped parts of his body at various locations to distract the police. The inci-dent took place at Panskura in East Midnapore.

The 62-year-old was mur-dered on January 14 but the matter came to light after 65 days of the incident on Wednes-day after some parts of the vic-tim’s body were exhumed.

Preliminary investigation revealed that the elderly per-son, identified as Nikhil Maiti, was stabbed to death by his

daughter-in-law when the for-mer attempted to molest her and his body was chopped off when his son returned home. Subsequently, the body parts were hidden at various places.

A police officer said the vic-tim was a resident of Ratrapur

at Pingla near Panskura in East Midnapore. In the same house, his son, Subho and his daugh-ter-in-law Barsha used to live and they used to look after their father.

Subho works in a private company and like any other day; he was late in returning home on January 14. Barsha was in the house and she was busy cooking in the kitchen when the victim attempted to molest her.

Barsha initially tried to resist. But failing to save herself, she stabbed her father-in-law. She kept waiting for her hus-band’s return. As soon as Subho returned home at around 9 pm,

she narrated the entire incident to him.

In a bid to avoid arrest, Subho chalked out the plan to chop off the body and hide the parts. The next day Subho went to an area near his in-law’s house at Panskura Irapur on his bike where he buried the chopped legs and hands.

From Irapur, he went to Ashari in Debra where he left other parts of his father’s body on a truck from a neighbour-ing state.

When locals initiated inquiring about his father, Subho told them that his father had gone missing and lodged a complaint with Pingla police

station on January 18. It was on February 19 that

the body parts were exhumed by some farmers at Irapur. They informed the police. The inves-tigating officers suspected it to be body parts of Nikhil.

A few days ago, the police summoned Subho for inter-rogation but he didn’t turn up. So the police started question-ing Barsha.

Initially, she had tried to distract the police but finally, she broke down before the interrogation and narrated the entire story. They were subse-quently arrested and remanded in the custody of police for nine days.

Son, daughter-in-law kill elderly, hide chopped body parts

The matter has come to light 65 days after the incident took placeIt was on February 19 that the body parts were exhumed by some farmers at Irapur, after which they informed the police

OUR CORRESPONDENT

KOLKATA: North 24-Parga-nas district police on Wednes-day reconstructed the incident in which a husband from Machlandapur had brutally killed his wife and 15-year-old daughter and attempted suicide.

The senior police officers in the district reconstructed the gruesome killing, where the accused husband enacted how he had killed his wife and daughter, who was appearing for the Madhyamik examina-tion this year.

During interrogation, the police came to know that the accused had consumed alco-hol for two days while sitting beside the dead bodies of his wife and daughter. After com-mitting the crime on Saturday night, the accused went to the local market on the very next

morning and bought two big sheets of plastic, with which he wrapped the bodies so that foul smell does not spread in the area.

The investigators said that after killing his wife and daugh-ter, the accused had boozed inside the room on Saturday night. On Sunday night, he again consumed alcohol sitting next to the bodies of his fam-ily members. It has been learnt that the accused had admit-ted his crime during the police interrogation.

Police are investigating if some other persons were

involved in the incident, or if the accused himself had com-mitted the crime. The weap-ons that were used in the crime have been seized by the police.

The victims were Mithu Debnath (35) and Puja Deb-nath (15). According the pre-liminary investigation, police suspect that the accused Sekhar Debnath might have commit-ted the crime due to prolonged depression, stemming from financial constraints.

The incident sparked sen-sation at Machlandapur area under Habra police station, after the local people entered into the house on Monday night, after they felt some foul smell emanating from the house.

The accused had tried to commit suicide by hanging himself from the ceiling fan, when the local residents saved him from doing so.

Machlandapur murder: Cops reconstruct harrowing crime

The accused husband enacted how he had killed his wife and daughter

TMC supporter beheaded in MurshidabadKOLKATA: A Trinamool Congress supporter was beheaded by some unidentified miscreants at Beldanga in Murshidabad on Tuesday night.Police said the victim, Fazlul Rahman, was a resident of Beldanga in Chaitanyapur. He went out on Tuesday night to meet a few of his friends.The miscreants attacked him when he was sit-ting with others at a playground near his house. They threatened the rest with dire consequences and asked them to leave the place.They also beat up two youths who tried to resist. As a result, the others fled the area. They had never imagined that Fazlul would be killed. The cops came to know from local traders that the miscreants were carrying swords and they had beheaded Fazlul. They left the beheaded body. Police are yet to find the head that the miscreants have taken away with them. The police have sent the body for an autopsy.They suspect that some locals are also involved in the incident and have picked some of them. Questioning has been initiated to ascertain the accused persons. The police have also spoken to the victim’s fam-ily members to know if he had a quarrel with someone in recent times that might have led to the rivalry. The victim’s family members, how-ever, failed to give any clue to the police in this connection. The cops have also conducted raids at different places in search of the suspected persons but no arrests have been made yet in this connection. MPOST

OUR CORRESPONDENT

KOLKATA: One person has been arrested on Wednesday in connection with the murder of the Madhyamik examinee, Rahul Burma, who was beaten to death at Kakinara station on Tuesday. Rahul was beaten to death when he was on his way to appear for his Madhyamik examination.

Though the police are yet to ascertain the exact reason behind the murder, they sus-pect that Rahul was killed as he had protested against eve-teasing of girls who were also on their way to sit for the Mad-hyamik exam. The victim was caught when he was about to take a train from Kakinara sta-tion and the accused started beating him up.

Police came to know that initially people, who were pres-ent on the platform, thought that the accused youths were approaching the victim just to have some sort of a discussion. But within minutes, they got engaged in a scuffle and all of a sudden they started beating him up.

They continued beating him till he fell on the platform. They fled the spot when Rahul fell unconscious. Locals took

him to Bhatpara State General Hospital where he was declared brought dead.

Police initiated a probe and got to know that Rahul had some old rivalry with the accused which resulted in the crime.

Later, the police came to know that Rahul had raised his voice when he found the youths teasing some girls, who were also waiting on the plat-form for a train. The accused attacked Rahul as he had pro-tested against them.

The police came to know about the accused after going through the footages of sur-veillance cameras and after speaking to the people who witnessed the incident. The locals have demanded proper steps in this connection.

Madhyamik examinee murder: One arrested

Police suspect that Rahul was killed as he had protested against eve-teasing of girls who were also on their way to sit for the exam

OUR CORRESPONDENT

KOLKATA: Chaos broke out at a private hospital under Pra-gati Maidan police station area on Wednesday morning, after some relatives of a patient who died of alleged medical negli-gence, ransacked a portion of the hospital.

The incident led to panic among other patients under-going treatment at the hospi-tal. A huge contingent of police rushed to the spot and brought the situation under control. The relatives of the deceased have alleged that the patient had not been given proper medi-cal attention.

According to the police, the victim Mosharaf Ali (54),

a resident of Kidderpore area, was admitted to the hospital on February 28, over some nerve-related problems.

The victim’s family mem-bers alleged that the patient had been kept in the general ward for two days, immediately after his admission to the hospital.

The patient was shifted to the critical care unit after his condition deteriorated. He had been kept under ventila-tion since then. The hospital authorities on early Wednes-day morning called the family members and told them that the patient’s condition had turned worse.

After being informed, they rushed to the hospital. They alleged that there was no doc-

tor to attend to the patient when they reached the hospital. Within hours after their arrival in the hospital, they were told by the hospital authorities that the patient had died.

After this incident, they staged a demonstration outside the hospital premises, alleging negligence behind his death. They went on a rampage, ran-sacking a portion of the hos-pital. Some of the employees of the hospital were allegedly heckled by the mob.

Police are yet to arrest any-body in this connection and have started a probe. The fam-ily members of the victim have threatened to lodge a complaint with the state’s health regula-tory commission.

Hospital ransacked after patient dies of alleged negligence

OUR CORRESPONDENT

KOLKATA: There was panic among the employees of Salt Lake’s Swasthya Bhawan after the meter box caught fire on Wednesday afternoon. No casualty or injury has been reported in the incident.

Some people spotted smoke coming out of the meter box situated between floor number 5 and 6 at around 10 am. Panic sparked among the staff mem-bers, many of whom were seen running helter-skelter.

The employees were evac-uated from the two floors immediately after the incident. Staff members tried to extin-guish the fire but they failed to douse the flames. After being informed, a fire tender rushed to the spot and doused the flames. The situation was brought under control within an hour.

According to the prelimi-nary investigation, police and fire officials suspect that an electrical short circuit might have caused the fire. A detailed probe has been initiated in this regard.

Fire scare at Salt Lake’s

Swasthya Bhawan

DARJEELING: Fugitive for-mer GJM leader Bimal Gurung, on the run since the Gorkha-land agitation in Darjeeling Hills in 2017, has rubbished reports of his arrest near the India-Nepal international bor-der by the Special Task Force from Nepal and urged his sup-porters not to get agitated.

“The news of my arrest which went viral yesterday (Tuesday) has caused panic and fear. I want to assure my supporters that I am safe and secure. I carry the idea of Gork-haland in my very being,” the former GJM leader said in a message from an undisclosed location on Wednesday eve-ning. MPOST

Bimal Gurung rubbishes

arrest reports

LUCKNOW: The Congress on Wednesday dismissed reports that its UP president Raj Babbar has tendered his resignation.

Making an official state-ment on behalf of the party, Congress Rajya Sabha MP Pramod Tewari said, “All reports stating that Raj Babbar has resigned from the post of party chief are baseless.”

On Tuesday night, rumours of Babbar’s resignation caught the attention of media. Later, Babbar posted a tweet from his official handle which added to the confusion.

In his tweet, Babbar quoted

a poem by revered Hindi poet Kedarnath Singh, “ anth mein mitron, itna hi kahunga ki anth mahaz ek muhavara hai jise shabd hamesha apne visfot se uda dete hain.”

Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Pramod Tewari said: “Babbar’s tweet has been misinterpreted. He was sim-ply paying tributes to the deceased poet Kedarnath Singh which is clearly mentioned in his tweet.”

Pramod Tewari stated that rumours of Babbar’s resig-nation were clearly aimed at maligning the image of the party. AGENCIES

Raj Babbar has not resigned as UP Cong chief, says party MP

mp nation5MILLENNIUM POST | Kolkata | Thursday, 22 March, 2018

NEW DELHI: The Centre on Wednesday faced demands from the Congress and a dalit group to seek a review of the judgement of the Supreme Court that protects public servants and private employees from arbitrary arrests under the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.

The judgement pronounced yesterday was described as unfortunate with the Congress claiming it had led to a "sense of insecurity" among dalits and other oppressed classes.

In a bid to protect honest public servants discharging bonafide duties from being blackmailed with false cases under the Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes Act, the apex court yes-terday diluted its stringent provisions mandating immediate arrest under the law. The top court said that on "several occa-sions", innocent citizens were being termed as accused and pub-lic servants deterred from performing their duties, which was never the inten-tion of the legislature while enacting the law. Alleging a rise in atrocities against dalits under the NDA government, the Congress expressed serious concern over the judgement and demanded a review of the same or an amendment in the law.

Congress senior spokesperson Anand Sharma asked the government to clarify its stand on the issue, claiming there was a "sense of insecurity" among Dalits and other oppressed classes after the apex court verdict.

"There is serious concern over yesterday's decision of the Supreme Court. If it is not reviewed, it will be very unfortu-nate. There is a feeling on insecurity among the SC/STs and other oppressed classes. We feel there should be a review of this decision which will be in national interest. "Why is the government silent on this issue. Government should clarify its stand and should present its version before the Supreme Court through the Attorney General. If the government remains silent, it means that the government supports the decision," Sharma told reporters. MPOST

Cong, Dalit body seek review of SC verdict

OUR CORRESPONDENT

CHIKKAMAGALURU: Con-gress president Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday asserted the Modi government would not win the 2019 Lok Sabha polls as he charged the Prime Minister with not understanding the true meaning of ‘Dharma.’

He also said the Congress would win the coming assem-bly polls in Karnataka “with a bang”.

“Four years of Modi’s rule has gone by and he had made big speeches. There is only a year left for his rule and I would like to tell party workers that the same kind of rule is going to continue and Modi is going to lose the next election,” he said.

Addressing a public meet-ing here, Gandhi continued to keep Modi as the focal point of his attack during the second day of his latest tour of poll-bound Karnataka, asserting Congress would win the assembly polls.

Attacking Modi, Gandhi said “when India looks at its Prime Minister, it wants to hear the truth and not speeches filled with hate.

“It wants to hear speech of love and brotherhood, as they know without truth this coun-try cannot go forward, and this is the foundation of Dharma.”

The Congress president vis-ited Sharada Peetham at Sring-eri in Chikkamagaluru district, one of the four seats established by Adi Guru Shankaracharya in the eighth century and met Jagadguru Shankaracharya, Sri Bharati Tirtha Swamiji.

During his interaction with students of Rajiv Gandhi Sanskrit University at Sring-eri Mutt, he cited a 14-year-old boy’s reply to his query on Dharma. “Replying to my question on the foundation of Dharma, a 14-year-old child told me Dharma means truth, Satyameva Jayate. The same was repeated by all the children there.” “During the interaction I felt it is a strange world... a 14-year-old child can under-stand the meaning of Dharma,

but the Prime Minister does not understand Dharma,” he said.

He said a Prime Minister “becomes successful only when his heart is filled with love and empathy, without which the country cannot be run.”

Reiterating that India is what it is today due to the efforts of its people, Gandhi said “our Prime Minister does not agree to this.”

Attacking the Prime Min-ister, he saracastically said “Everything was done by Nar-endra Modi...see in what sort of the world our PM lives.”

Stating that he has seen several Prime Ministers like Vajpayee, Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi and Narasimha Rao, Gandhi said, “India’s Prime Minister can be successful only when he has compassion in his heart.” He said when Vajpayee was leader of the opposition, he respected the people of India.

Gandhi said Vajpayee never in his speeches (while he was Prime Minister) said that “before him nothing happened in India.”

On Chinese presence in Doklam, Gandhi charged Modi with being ‘silent’ on it and other key national issues.

“You can see China is sit-ting in Doklam, they are mak-ing roads, helipads, and airport. Whole country knows about it, but our Prime Minister is not uttering a word about it,” he said.

‘Modi-led BJP Govt cannot win ’19 polls’

Congress president Rahul Gandhi arrives at Sharadamba Temple, Sringeri Mutt, in Karnataka on Wednesday PTI

SC/SC ACT

MILLENNIUM POST | Kolkata | Thursday, 22 March, 2018

'ISRO EXPERIMENTING WITH POTENTIAL STRUCTURES FOR LUNAR HABITATION'NEW DELHI: The Indian Space Research Organisa-tion is experimenting with potential structures for lunar habitation, the government on Wednesday told the Lok Sabha. In a written response to a question in the Lok Sabha, Jitendra Singh, minister of state in the Prime Minister's Office that looks after the Depart-ment of Space, said: "The ISRO, along with academic institutions, is doing experimentation on potential struc-tures for lunar habitation," he said. The minister was responding to a question on whether the ISRO has started working on building igloo-like habitats on the lunar surface for potential future missions.

NATIONAL RUBBER POLICY IN THE MAKING, SAYS SURESH PRABHUNEW DELHI: Commerce Ministry is developing a national rubber policy to address various issues con-cerning the sector with a view to boost shipment and productivity, Union Minister Suresh Prabhu has said. "This policy is necessary because there are so many challenges the sector is facing. We want to make sure that all issues are addressed through this policy. We have already had one meeting on this," the commerce minister said. He said the aim of the proposed policy would be to boost export and production of rubber, "keeping in mind farmers' interests".

WOMAN DIES AFTER BIRTH CONTROL OPERATION IN JAMMU & KASHMIRJAMMU: A 28-year-old woman died after undergo-ing tubectomy at a state-run hospital in Jammu & Kashmir's Samba district, following which a probe has been ordered, an official said on Wednesday Seema Devi underwent the operation at a special camp for family planning at Vijaypur Government Hospital yesterday, Chief Medical Officer (CMO), Samba, Rajinder Sambyal said. The officer said that after the operation she was shifted to a ward and her condition suddenly deteriorated. Devi was taken to the Govern-ment Medical College (GMC) in Jammu where she later died, he said.

CHAMLING WRITES TO SUSHMA FOR KARMAPA'S VISIT TO SIKKIMGANGTOK: Sikkim Chief Minister Pawan Kumar Chamling has written to External Affairs Minister Sush-ma Swaraj seeking permission for the 17th Karmapa Ogyen Trinley Dorje's visit to the northeastern state.

The Karmapa is the head of the 900-year-old Karma Kagyu lineage. He resides at his temporary home, the Gyuto monastery, in Dharamshala in Himachal Pradesh after making a dramatic escape from Tibet in 2000. "I have written a letter to Sushma Swaraj seeking her assistance and cooperation in permitting the 17th Karmapa, His Holiness Ogyen Trinley Dorje, to visit any monastery in Sikkim, if not Rumtek Monas-tery, to bless our people," Chamling said.

17-YEAR-OLD DALIT GIRL ALLEGEDLY RAPED IN UTTAR PRADESHBANDA (UP): A 17-year-old Dalit girl was alleg-edly raped by a youth in a village here, police said on Wednesday. The victim had gone to attend to nature's call yesterday when one Kuldeep allegedly raped her, Baberu Circle Officer Om Prakash said. When the girl raised an alarm, locals rushed there and caught hold of him. They later handed him over to the police, the Circle Officer said. The youth tried to kill himself by consuming poison after being caught but he was immediately rushed to a hospital, he said. The girl was sent for medical examination, the Circle Officer added.

NATION BRIEFS

mp nation6

FROM AYODHYA TO RAMESWARAM

Police personnel look on as they walk along side the chariot modelled on the proposed Ram Janma Bhoomi Temple travelling as a part of Ram Rajya Rath Yatra, organised by Vishwa Hindu Parishad, from Ayodhya to Rameswaram as it reached Madurai on Wednesday PTI

ON ED, CBI APPEALS IN 2G CASE

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court on Wednesday sought response of former telecom minister A Raja, DMK MP Kanimozhi and others on the CBI's plea challenging their acquittal by a special court in the 2G spectrum case.

A similar order was passed by Justice SP Garg on the plea of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) challenging their acquit-tal in the money laundering case arising out of the 2G scam case. While issuing notices to Raja, Kanimozhi and others in the two cases, the court asked them to file their responses before the next date of hearing on May 25.

The court also allowed the interim plea of the ED, repre-sented by Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Tushar Mehta, for maintaining status quo with regard to the properties worth around Rs 223 crore which the agency had attached in the money laundering case.

The ED did not want the properties to be released from attachment, a consequence of the acquittal in the money laundering case, saying that third party rights might be cre-ated in them.

While granting the agency's request for status quo, the court also asked why it had come so

late if it wanted that relief.The court was initially not

inclined to pass any interim order staying the release of attachment without first hear-ing the other side.

However, after the ASG cited past judgements in which such orders have been passed, the court ordered that status quo be maintained regarding the properties attached by the ED.

On March 19, the ED moved the high court challeng-ing the special court's order acquitting all the accused in the money laundering case arising out of the 2G scam.

Yesterday, the CBI too chal-lenged in the high court the acquittal of the accused in the case.

A special court on Decem-ber 21 last year had acquitted Raja, Kanimozhi and others in the CBI and ED cases.

Besides Raja and Kani-mozhi, the special court had acquitted 17 others, including

DMK supremo M Karunani-dhi's wife Dayalu Ammal, Sha-hid Balwa and Vinod Goenka of STPL, Asif Balwa and Rajiv Aggarwal of Kusegaon Fruits and Vegetables Pvt Ltd, film producer Karim Morani, P Amirtham and Sharad Kumar, Director of Kalaignar TV in the ED case.

The ED, in its charge sheet, had alleged that Rs 200 crore was paid by Swan Telecom (P) Ltd (STPL) promoters to DMK-run Kalaignar TV.

On the same day, the trial court had acquitted Raja, Kan-imozhi and 15 others, includ-ing former Telecom Secretary Siddharth Behura, Raja's erst-while private secretary R K Chandolia, Swan Telecom pro-moters Shahid Usman Balwa and Vinod Goenka, Unitech Ltd MD Sanjay Chandra and three top executives of Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (RADAG) -- Gautam Doshi, Surendra Pipara and Hari Nair, in the CBI's 2G case.

Delhi HC notice to Raja, Kanimozhi and others

PANAJI: India and France will work on promoting people-to-people exchanges, which is one of the important areas in the strategic partnership between the two nations, French Ambassador to India Alexan-dre Ziegler has said.

The pillar of the bilateral relationship is the strategic partnership, he said.

"One of the key areas where we would like to work more in future is people-to-people exchanges. There is no point in talking about strategic part-nership for next 50 years if you don't prepare the next genera-tion," Ziegler said.

French President Emman-uel Macron, during his visit to India last week, had rolled out the red carpet for Indian youths, researchers and entre-preneurs, saying he would be proud if they made France their entry point to Europe

and be their "long time strate-gic partner".

"During his visit to India, our president stressed on edu-cational cooperation, research, attracting more Indian stu-dents, French students...and I think this enhancement of people-to-people exchanges will be one of the key issues of

our relationship in future," the ambassador said.

"That is the agreement on mutual recognition of our university degrees which will increase an influx of students, either French or Indian, visit-ing partner countries," he said.

The two countries also has an inter-governmen-

tal agreement on migration and mobility, which will fur-ther ease access to visa, like working visas to students and researchers who want to enter France, he said. Reflecting a growing depth in defence ties, India and France earlier this month inked a strategic pact providing for the use of each other's military facilities, including opening naval bases to warships.

The agreement came amid China's growing military expansion in the Indo-Pacific region.

However, Ziegler said, "the accord is not aiming at decreas-ing anybody's influence. It is a recognition that India and France are both Indian Ocean marine countries." Both the countries share common chal-lenges in the form of terrorism, piracy and freedom of navi-gation, he said. There are two

million French citizens living in the Indian Ocean region, he said. During the meeting of heads of both the nations, there was a joint statement over their cooperation in the Indian Ocean, Ziegler said.

"We also had an important inter-governmental agree-ment with effects on our military cooperation on recip-rocal logistical support, which means access to our naval bases all over the world," he said.

"The second is general secu-rity agreement which allows us to exchange classified informa-tion and documents that will help in improving our naval cooperation," he said. "Both the nations are facing simi-lar challenges in the Indian Ocean. The idea is to address these challenges together because we are a part of the same region," he added. PTI

'India, France to promote people-to-people exchanges'

OUR CORRESPONDENT

CHENNAI/NEW DELHI: A CRPF jawan, who was undergoing psychiatric treat-ment since February, has been arrested for allegedly vandalis-ing a statue of rationalist leader Periyar in Pudukottai district of Tamil Nadu.

Head Constable S Senthil Kumar (35) was held from his house in Vidhuti village last night after the CCTV footage obtained from the area showed him damaging the statue while he was in an inebriated state, Pudukottai district police said.

The CRPF, in a statement, said that Kumar was on a 30-day leave at his native place in Tamil Nadu from March 14 and has been suspended in the wake of the incident.

After the opposition DMK raised the issue in the state Assembly, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K Palaniswami informed the House on

Wednesday about the arrest of Kumar in the case.

The statue of EV Rama-samy, also known as 'Periyar', in Viduthi village was found decapitated on March 19.

The CRPF said Kumar was under treatment at a force hos-pital in Hyderabad since Febru-ary 12 for "schizophrenia".

"He was on 30 days leave at his native place in Tamil Nadu from March 14," the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) said.

"The individual has been placed under suspen-

sion, pending enquiry in the case," it said. In the assembly, Palaniswami said the jawan was posted in Chhattisgarh and had come to his native village on leave.

The chief minister warned of strict action against those vandalising statues of leaders and described as "condem-nable" the recent incidents of desecration of Periyar statues in Vellore and Pudukottai dis-tricts. Referring to the Pudu-kottai incident, he said senior police officials rushed to the spot to prevent any untoward incident and a case was filed. Special teams were formed to nab the culprit.

"It came to be known through CCTV footage and witnesses that he (Kumar) was moving around the place in an inebriated state and when police interrogated him, he admitted to damaging the Periyar statue," the chief min-ister said.

CRPF jawan held for vandalising Periyar statue: Tamil Nadu CM

'Dravidian language

family 4,500 years old'

NEW DELHI: Air India (AI) has rescheduled a couple of India-bound flights from the US on Wednesday due to inclem-ent weather in northeastern America, the airline has said in a tweet. AI's London-Newark flights (both directions) have been cancelled along with the Newark-Ahmedabad flight.

Flight No. AI 102 from New York to New Delhi has been rescheduled and its revised time of departure is 12.15 pm on March 22. The departure timings of flight No. AI 144 from Newark to Mumbai has also been rescheduled to 11 am on March 22. The airline has cancelled its Newark-Ahmed-abad flight for the day along with the London-Newark flight on both ways. MPOST

AI reschedules India-bound

flights from US

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: If you just have to identify the citizens, what is the need to centralise and aggregate their personal data under the Aadhaar scheme, the Supreme Court asked the Cen-tre on Tuesday.

The Centre, in turn, urged a five judge constitution bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra to allow Ajay Bhushan Pandey, CEO of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), to make a powerpoint presentation to the court to allay the appre-hensions about the Aadhaar scheme.

Attorney General KK Venugopal, who started the arguments for the Centre, said the CEO would answer queries of the bench on all issues like surveillance, data security and exclusion and sought the nod for it on Thursday.

The bench, which also com-prised Justices AK Sikri, AM Khanwilkar, DY Chandrachud and Ashok Bhushan, asked Venugopal to submit the details of the presentation in "word format" and said it would take a decision on it Wednesday.

"If your only goal is iden-tification, then there are less invasive means to ensure iden-tification (of citizens). Where is

the necessity to aggregate and centralise the data," the bench asked the Centre.

The bench then gave the example of Singapore and said every person there has to get a chip-based ID card and his or her personal informa-tion remains with the person and not with the government authorities.

The Attorney General said "all this will be explained by the CEO of the UIDAI in his pre-sentation tomorrow and more-over, aggregation of data is not possible in Aadhaar".

At the outset, Venugopal, whose turn to argue came on the 20th day of the marathon hearing, said the CEO's pre-sentation would clear doubts including the technical ones about the Aadhaar scheme.

The bench, however, said it will take a decision and asked him to initiate his sub-

missions to counter the argu-ments, including that Aadhaar violated fundamental right to privacy.

The petitioners have raised the issue of "privacy, ano-nymity, dignity, surveillance, aggregation, presumptive criminality, unconstitutional conditions, absence of a law, security", the bench said.

Venugopal said that Arti-cle 21 (right to life) has two aspects, one deals with rights like Right to Food and Right to Education and the other per-tains to Freedom of Conscience and Right to Privacy.

The question is which aspect will prevail, he said, adding that the fundamen-tal rights like the Right to Life should prevail over Right to Conscience and Privacy.

Referring to the judge-ments, he said it has been held that right to life does not mean

"mere animal" existence, but rather, it is a right to live with dignity.

Before Aadhaar, there was a massive pilferage through bogus ration cards and ghost beneficiaries and the right to dignity of the downtrodden was more important than right to privacy being espoused by a few NGOs and individuals, he said.

The apex court said that even the downtrodden, who needed food and shelter, have the right to privacy and the State cannot violate it.

Through Aadhaar, food, shelter and employment are being given to those living in the fringes and the government has taken care that the right to privacy is affected "in the most minimal way", Venugopal said.

An enormous effort has been put in to ensure safety and security of data and there have been 60 committees since 2006 whichuhave looked into this aspect, he said.

"Aadhaar is not a fly-by-night scheme but a serious effort to insulate deserving beneficiaries from the effects of corruption," he said, add-ing that many countries have adopted a unique identifica-tion system and even the World Bank has referred to Aadhaar in its report.

The core effort of the Aad-haar Act is to protect the huge amounts of money spent to bridge the gap between rich and poor, he said, adding when Britishers left India, poverty was at 66 per cent and illiteracy 87 per cent and now both are down to 27 per cent.

Referring to the siphoning of public money, Venugopal said corruption was massive and over Rs 1000 crore was being diverted. Even China is less corrupt, he said, quoting the report of Privacy Interna-tional and said that something was to be dome.

Before the 2016 Act, it was ordered that Aadhaar would be voluntary and hence, there can-not be a question that funda-mental rights were violated by taking biometric details under the scheme.

The court said it was not "so simple" and when people agreed to obtain Aadhaar, they did not accept to surrender their data for government use and moreover, the safeguards provided in the Act did not exist in 2010-2016.

Venugopal said no affected person has come to the court but it was only the NGOs who have come complaining. The advancing of arguments remained inconclusive and would continue Thursday.

SC asks aggregation of personal data under Aadhaar scheme

Centre seeks apex court nod for PowerPoint presentation

DHIRENDRA KUMAR

NEW DELHI: In a move aimed at making implemen-tation of National Health Protection Scheme (NHPS) smoother, the Centre has asked all states to establish regula-tors to ensure benefits of the national insurance cover reach every vulnerable people.

In a letter to all the Chief Secretaries of the states, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has requested states to implement Clinical Establish-ment Act 2010 so that medical procedures would be regulated. The letter has been written in the wake of proposed launch of national health insurance cover of up to Rs 5 lakh for all.

As NHPS intends to pro-vide health protection cov-erage of upto Rs 5 lakh, the

establishment of regulators would ensure streamlining the treatment package rates for reimbursement to healthcare providers under the NHPS.

“Given that NHPS would utilise public as well as pri-vate health facilities to pro-vide healthcare services, so it’s important to regulate the healthcare for the beneficiaries of the scheme,” a senior offi-cial said, adding that the adop-tion of Clinical Establishment Act would ensure regulation of healthcare facilities.

“Moreover, a system of appropriate checks and bal-ances also needs to be put in place for ensuring that the maximum benefit is obtained by the beneficiaries within assured sum of up to Rs 5 lakh as per the scheme,” the official said.

Centre asks all states to create regulator for NHPS operation

KURUKSHETRA: Sikh activ-ist Gurbaksh Singh Khalsa has allegedly committed suicide by jumping from a water reservoir at his native Thaska Ali village here on Tuesday, police said.

Gurbaksh had been demanding the release of Sikh prisoners who had completed their jail terms.

52-year-old Khalsa, who earlier also had gone on an indefinite fast twice on this issue, last evening jumped from an overhead tank where he was holding a fast unto death, police said.

He was rushed to the dis-trict civil hospital Kurukshetra where he succumbed to his injuries last night, they said.

Earlier in the day he was also given 'Siropa' by the fam-ily members and friends for the "success of his mission." MPOST

Sikh activist ends life

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: Amid dem-ands for separate time zones in the country, especially by the northeastern states, the gov-ernment on Wednesday said it has not made any decision on the matter.

In a written response to a question by BJP lawmaker Varun Gandhi in the Lok Sabha on whether the govern-ment has come to a decision on the feasibility of having two time zones in the country, Sci-ence and Technology Minis-ter Harsh Vardhan replied in negative.

He said the government had set up a high-level com-mittee in 2002 that had not

recommended implemen-tation of two-time zones in India because of complexities involved in the process.

Several countries across the world have opted for multiple time zones for varied reasons, including increasing economic activity and productivity. The US has seven time zones, Rus-sia has 11, while China, like India, follows a single time zone.

In a vast country like India, the sunrise and sunset timings are different in the east, west and north India. For instance, in the far northeastern states, the sun rises and sets early when compared to northern and western regions of the country.

'No decision made yet on separate times in India'

BERLIN: The Dravidian lan-guage family, consisting of 80 varieties spoken by nearly 220 million people across south-ern and central India, origi-nated about 4,500 years ago, a study has found. This estimate is based on new linguistic anal-yses by an international team, including researchers from the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History in Germany, and the Wildlife Institute of India in Dehradun.

The researchers used data collected first-hand from native speakers representing all pre-viously reported Dravidian subgroups.

These findings, published in the journal Royal Society Open Science, match well with earlier linguistic and archae-ological studies. South Asia, reaching from Afghanistan in the west and Bangladesh in the east, is home to at least six hun-dred languages belonging to six large language families, includ-ing Dravidian, Indo-European, and Sino-Tibetan.

The Dravidian language family, consisting of about 80 language varieties (both lan-guages and dialects) is today spoken by about 220 million people, mostly in southern and central India, and surrounding countries.

Its four largest languages, Kannada, Malayalam, Tamil and Telugu have literary tra-ditions spanning centuries, of which Tamil reaches back the furthest, researchers said. MPOST

mp nation 7MILLENNIUM POST | Kolkata | Thursday, 22 March, 2018

KORBA, CHHATTISGARH: Two teenage girls from Chhat-tisgarh's Koriya district were allegedly confined and raped by nine men for over a fortnight, police said on Wednesday.

The girls, aged 17 and 15 years, were rescued by the police on Monday from a spot near Bijuri railway sta-tion in neighbouring Madhya Pradesh, they said.

The victims belong to Jhagrakhand area in Koriya located on the border of Chhat-tisgarh and MP, they added.

Koriya Additional Super-intendent of Police Nivedita Sharma said, "On March 4, the main accused Abhijeet Pal alias Pinku (20) took one of victims, with whom he was having an affair, on the pretext of marry-ing her. A friend of the victim accompanied them."

Sharma said Pal, a native of Khongapani village of Jha-grakhand, took the two girls to a place in Khongapani and

raped them."Later, Pal and eight of his

friends repeatedly raped the two after confining them in Ledri and Bijuri villages," she said. Officials said a complaint was filed by the victims' fami-lies on the morning of March 18. The ASP said that a police team, on the basis of a tip-off, raided a place near Bijuri rail-way station in the early hours yesterday and rescued the girls.

Seven of the nine accused were arrested during the res-cue, Sharma said.

They were identified as Ashraf Ali (26), Manoj Kumar (28), Hemraj Panika (20), Avi-nash (28), Jitendra Kumar Rai (26) and Rakesh Kumar Navait (23) apart from Pal, she said.

A manhunt was underway for two more people, she said.

They were booked on charges of gangrape, kidnapping, abducting or inducing woman to compel her to marry. AGENCIES

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: The proceed-ings in Parliament were washed out for the 13th consecutive day on Wednesday as mem-bers of some parties like the AIADMK and TRS continued with their noisy protests, with the Lok Sabha unable to take up the notices of no-confidence motion against the government for the fourth day.

While the Rajya Sabha was adjourned for the day without transacting any business barely four minutes after it assembled, the Lok Sabha was adjourned till noon and thereafter for the day due to the protests by parties from Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Telangana.

Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu adjourned the Rajya Sabha in four minutes after the start of proceedings as members of Andhra parties, including TDP, and K V P Ramachandra Rao of the Con-gress trooped into the Well raising slogans seeking a spe-cial status for the state.

No sooner were the listed papers laid on the table, the members of Tamil Nadu par-ties - DMK and AIADMK - too walked into the Well demand-ing immediate constitution of the Cauvery Water Manage-ment Board for river water sharing between their state and Karnataka.

Congress members too joined them in the Well shouting slogans against the government.

Leader of the Opposition and senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad sought a discussion on the atrocities against the SCs and STs as well as on the statement of External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on the killing of 39 abducted Indians in Iraq.

He said the House should debate the statement Swaraj made last year and what she stated yesterday.

Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu asked him to give proper notice for the same and asked the members to allow the House to function. "What is happening. Are we so helpless," he asked.

"Go back to your respective seats and raise issues," Naidu said, adding he was willing to allow members to raise issues from their seat and asked them not to shout slogans.

Asking if the MPs wanted images of disruption to be seen

by the nation, he said "is this Parliament or something else? ... I am sorry this is not the way." Thereafter, he adjourned the proceedings for the day.

This is the third day that Naidu has adjourned the pro-ceedings for the day right after the House assembled.

Yesterday, the Chairman had called it a day right after Swaraj had made a statement on the issue of abducted Indi-ans in Iraq.

Both the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha have not trans-acted any substantial business since the Budget session of Par-liament resumed on March 5, barring the passage of the bud-get by the Lower House with-out any debate.

The Lok Sabha proceedings were first disrupted right after it had assembled with Speaker Sumitra Mahajan adjourning the proceedings for an hour due to protests by parties from

Andhra within about four min-utes. At noon, members from the AIADMK, TDP and the TRS were again seen raising slogans and holding placards in the Well.

After the laying of papers by ministers, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar urged the members to return to their seats so that legislative business could be taken up.

He said the govern-ment is willing to discuss any issue, including the no-confi-dence motion. "We have the confidence of the House as well as of the entire country," he said.

When the Speaker took up the two notices of the trust vote given by the TDP and YSRC, the AIADMK members raised the pitch of their slogans. TRS members were also seen in the Well.

Mahajan said she cannot do a headcount of 50 mem-bers supporting the move, a pre-requisite for taking up the notices for the trust vote. Plac-ards held by protesting MPs were apparently blocking her view, as she said as she can't see anything from the Chair.

Members of the Congress, TMC and the Left then raised their hands and stood at their seats to indicate to the Speaker that they were supporting the no-confidence motion.

But Mahajan said as the House is not in order, she can-not move ahead with the issue and adjourned the House for the day.

Parliament proceedings washed out for 13th day

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: The Home Ministry has conveyed to a parliamentary panel that Sikh youths are being trained at ISI facilities in Pakistan to carry out terror activities in India, and members of the commu-nity who are settled in Canada and other places are also being instigated against the coun-try with false and malicious propaganda.

Top officials of the home ministry, led by the Union Home Secretary, told the Com-mittee on Estimates, headed by senior BJP leader Murli Mano-har Joshi, that radicalisation of youths by terrorist groups through the misuse of internet and social media has emerged as a big challenge.

According to the report of the committee - ' Central

armed police forces and inter-nal security challenges- evalu-ation and response mechanism' - which was tabled in Parlia-ment on Monday, there have been some developments on the Sikh militancy front.

The "commanders" of terror groups based in Pakistan are under pressure from ISI to fur-ther the Pakistani spy agency's terror plans not only in Punjab but also in other parts of the country, it said.

"Sikh youth are being trained at ISI facilities in Paki-

stan. Interdictions and inter-rogations have revealed use of jailed cadres, unemployed youth, criminals and smugglers by Pakistan-based Sikh terror groups for facilitating terror attacks," the report said.

Sikh youths based or settled in Europe, the US and Can-ada are also being misguided and instigated against India with false and malicious pro-paganda, but the situation is being watched closely by the central and state agencies and they are taking lawful action as and when required.

On the issue of new chal-lenges which have emerged as a threat to internal security, the ministry, in a note furnished to the committee, voiced concern over radicalisation of youths by the terrorist groups through the misuse of internet and social media.

Sikh youth being trained at ISI facilities in Pak: Govt

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: In a major decision, the government on Wednesday granted approval to amend regulation for admis-sion to PG medical courses in order to expand the scope of persons with disabilities getting benefits of reservation.

As per the amendment, the percentage of seats to be filled up by persons with disabilities has been increased from 3 per cent to 5 percent in accordance with the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016.

Commenting on the deci-

sion, Health Minister JP Nadda said, “The government has taken a historical decision for welfare of divyangs in line with the Prime Minister's vision of ‘Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas’. It will ensure that the persons with disabilities are equal con-tributors to the progress of the nation.”

According to the amended provision, 21 kinds of disabili-ties, including dwarfism, intel-lectual disability, cerebral palsy, multiple sclerosis and thalas-semia will now be considered under the reservation provided for persons with disabilities.

OUR CORRESPONDENT

PANAJI: Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar is respond-ing well to treatment in the United States, the Chief Min-ister's Office (CMO) said in a statement here on Wednesday.

Parrikar is suffering from a pancreatic ailment and is undergoing treatment at a hos-pital in the US .

"Further treatment on the chief minister has begun and he is responding well. The next review will be done in two weeks," Rupesh Kamat, per-sonal secretary to Parrikar, said in the statement. Parrikar was admitted to the Lilavati Hos-pital in Mumbai on February 15 after being diagnosed with mild pancreatitis. He was dis-charged after a few days and returned to Goa to present the budget on February 21.

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: The Army lost 163 personnel deployed at the Siachen Glacier, the world's highest battlefield, during the last 10 years, according to details provided by Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.

Six officers were among the army personnel who lost their lives while guarding the glacier which is at an altitude of above 20,000 ft.

Sitharaman gave year-wise details on the deaths in a writ-ten reply to a question in the Lok Sabha.

The Siachen Glacier in the Karakorum range is known as the highest militarised zone in the world where the soldiers have to battle frostbite and high winds.

Avalanches and landslides are common at the glacier during the winter and tem-peratures can drop to as low as minus 60 degrees Celsius

India and Pakistan started deploying troops at the strate-gically key glacier in 1984.

Sitharaman said nine army men lost their lives in 2008 fol-lowed by 13 in 2009, 50 in 2010 and 24 in 2011. Twelve army men had died in 2012, 11 in 2013 and eight in 2014.

The number of deaths in 2015 was 11 while it was 20 and fi6ve in 2016 and 2017 respectively.

"Indian Army soldiers deployed in extremely harsh terrain and weather conditions are suitably equipped and prop-erly trained to undertake oper-ational challenges and carry out their mandated tasks," Sithara-man said.

Replying to a separate ques-tion on whether the Sahayak system in the Army has been discontinued in peace stations, Minister of State for Defence Subhash Bhamre said no such decision has been taken.

"A Sahayak in the Indian Army has clearly defined mili-tary duties and forms an inte-gral part of the organisational structure of a unit and has spe-cific functions during war and peace," he said.

163 Army personnel died in Siachen in last 10 years: Govt

Centre to amend rules to admit people with disabilities in PG medical courses

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: The armed forces are facing a shortage of over 52,000 soldiers with the Army topping the list with over 21,000 vacant posts, the government said on Wednes-day. According to the details provided by Minister of State for Defence Subhash Bhamre in the Lok Sabha, the Army is reeling under a shortage of 21,383 personnel, while the number of vacant posts in the Navy is 16,348 and 15,010 in the Air Force.

Replying to a question, he said 7,680 posts of officers are lying vacant in the Army. To a question on the Rafale deal, Defence Minister Nirmala Sith-araman said all relevant proce-dures were followed to ensure transparency in the acquisition

of the 36 jets.India had in 2016 inked an

inter-governmental agreement with France for procuring 36 Rafale fighter jets at a cost of around Rs 58,000 crore. The delivery of the jets is scheduled to begin from September 2019.

The Congress has been demanding details of the agreement, including the cost of equipment and weap-ons, alleging that the deal negotiated under its rule was much cheaper than the con-tract signed by the Modi government.

“In the acquisition of 36 Rafale aircraft, all relevant procedure as laid down in defence procurement proce-dure were followed to ensure that due transparency existed in the entire acquisition pro-cess,” Sitharaman said.

She said the government preferred the inter-govern-mental route to procure the jets considering critical operational requirement of the Indian Air Force.

Replying to a question on whether the nuclear-powered submarine Chakra, which was leased from Russia, suf-fered extensive damage, she said the information cannot

be divulged in the interest of national security.

Bhamre also declined to share information, citing national security, when asked if indigenous nuclear subma-rine Arihant suffered major damage.

Replying to a separate ques-tion, he said the government believes that artificial intel-ligence has the potential to

have transformative impact on security.

He said a task force headed by Chairman of Tata Sons N Chandrasekaran has been constituted to study strategic implementation of application of artificial intelligence for national security and defence needs.

Asked about the implemen-tation of a project to strengthen 73 strategic roads along the India-China border, he said the work on 23 roads with a total length of 981 km had been completed.

He said the work on 33 other roads having a total length of 2,436 km was going on.

The project was approved by the government in 2006-07 and it was to be completed by 2012.

'Armed forces reeling under shortage of over 52K soldiers'

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: There is no strong disagreement between the executive and the judiciary over appointment of judges, and any "difference of opinion" between the two is mutually settled, the government said on Wednesday.

Responding to a question in the Lok Sabha on whether the executive and the judi-ciary were "very strongly dis-agreeing" over appointment of judges, the government replied in the negative.

"No," Minister of State for Law PP Chaudhary said in his written reply.

He said "differences of opin-ion, if any, are mutually recon-ciled by the executive and the judiciary to ensure that only the apposite person is appointed to the high constitutional post of judge."

The minister also said that

appointment of judges to the Supreme Court and the 24 high courts is a "collaborative and integrated process" involv-ing both the executive and the judiciary.

The government's stand assumes significance as two recommendations made by the Supreme Court collegium to elevate Uttarakhand High Court chief justice K M Joseph and senor lawyer Indu Mal-hotra to the apex court are pending with the law ministry since January.

Highly-placed sources in the government have said the law ministry wanted to appoint Malhotra to the Supreme Court and keep on hold the name of Justice Joseph.

The government feels that while recommending the name of Justice Joseph, the collegium has disregarded seniority and regional representation.

While recommending the name of Justice Joseph for the top court, the collegium had said that he is more deserving and suitable in all respects than other Chief Justices and senior puisne judges of high courts for being appointed as judge of the Supreme Court of India .

The collegium had taken into consideration combined seniority on all-India basis of chief justices and senior puisne judges of high courts, apart from their merit and integrity, the body of top five judges of the SC had said.

Govt: No strong disagreement with judiciary over judges appointment

The government feels that while recommending the name of Justice Joseph, the collegium has disregarded seniority and regional representation

OUR CORRESPONDENT

CHHATARPUR (MP): Con-struction of a Ram temple in Ayodhya is "our" resolve, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat on Wednesday said while stressing that the present circumstances are suitable for the purpose.

"Construction of a Ram temple (in Ayodhya) is not just a desire but it is our resolve," he said while addressing a gath-ering after unveiling a 52-feet tall statue of Maharaja Chha-trasal at Mausahaniya, around 15 kms away from the district headquarters.

Observing that the present circumstances are suitable for the construction of the tem-ple, Bhagwat said those who wanted to build the Ram tem-ple would need to follow in footsteps of Lord Ram.

He said Maharaja Chha-

trasal was a brave warrior who defeated his enemies with the help of small number of soldiers.

Bhagwat also recalled the association of Maharaja Chha-trasal with Maratha warrior king Chhartapati Shivaji.

Chhatrasal was a medieval Indian warrior from the Bun-dela clan who fought against the Mughal emperor Aurang-zeb, and established his own kingdom in Bundelkhand, becoming the founder of Panna State.

Construction of Ram temple in Ayodhya

our resolve: Bhagwat

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: Opposing a plea to restrain people with crim-inal background from form-ing or holding any posts in political party, the Centre has told the Supreme Court that a convicted person could not be banned from indulging in political activity.

In an affidavit filed in the apex court on a petition seeking direction to Election Commission not to recognise a political party headed by a

convicted person, the Centre said that it was conscious of the need for electoral reform to curb criminalisation of politics and such order should not be passed by the court.

“Having regard to the exist-ing provisions of law relat-ing to registration of political part, there does not appear any connectivity and nexus between the situations debarr-ing the persons disquali-fied under Representation of People’s Act and/or convicted under criminal law from con-

testing an election to Parlia-ment or state legislatures vis-a-vis debarring such per-sons from forming or becom-ing a member of any political party,” the government said in its response.

“Appointment of post-holder to a political party is a matter of party autonomy and it may not be apposite to pre-clude the Election Commis-sion from registering a political party merely because a particu-lar post-holder is not qualifies to contest elections,” it said.

Convicted person cannot be barred from holding posts in political party: SC told

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Wednesday asked the embattled realty firm Jaip-rakash Associates Limited (JAL) to deposit Rs 200 crore in two installments by May 10.

The bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra asked the real-estate major to deposit Rs 100 crore by April 6 and the rest by May 10.

The bench, comprising jus-tices AM Khanwilkar and DY Chandrachud, also asked the firm not to send any notices for default in payment of EMIs to home buyers who have opted for refund.

The top court asked JAL to submit a project-wise chart of home buyers seeking refund so that the amount can be dis-persed on pro-rata basis. "At present we are concerned with the refund and will take later the issue raised by home buy-ers who want delivery of flats," the top court said. MPOST

SC aks sJaiprakash Associates Ltd to

deposit ̀ 200 crore

'Two girls confined, raped by 9 men for a fortnight in C'garh'

Goa CM Parrikar responding well to treatment in US, says CMO

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: In a significant development, Government on Wednesday approved a pro-posal that will encourage states to undertake projects in pub-lic private partnership in the higher education sector based on the concept of viability gap funding.

The Rastriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan (RUSA) 2.0, cleared by the Cabinet Com-mittee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) chaired by Prime Min-ister Narendra Modi, encour-ages states to create facilitating

mechanisms to ease restric-tions for enhancing private investment in the sector.

"With a view to ensure greater resource flow to the State higher education sector, RUSA 2.0 will encourage states and institutions to undertake projects in a public-private partnership mode based on viability gap funding," a gov-ernment statement said.

RUSA 2.0 extended till March 31, 2020, seeks to increase gross enrolment ratio by 30 per cent during this period, creation of 70 new model degree colleges and 8

new professional colleges.Besides, it seeks to enhance

quality and excellence in 10 select State universities and 70 autonomous colleges, pro-viding infrastructural sup-port to 50 universities and 750 colleges.

RUSA is an overarch-ing scheme for funding the state universities and colleges to achieve the aims of equity, access and excellence. It also seeks to improve the over-all quality of existing higher educational institutions by ensuring their conformity to prescribed norms and

standards.Under RUSA 2.0, an on-line

virtual platform of infrastruc-ture and equipment (inven-tory) will be created so that institutions can share these resources, the statement said.

The scheme will also focus on bringing about a significant improvement in well perform-ing state public universities and autonomous colleges through programmes such as 'enhanc-ing quality and excellence in select state universities' and 'enhancing quality and excel-lence in autonomous colleges', it added.

RUSA 2.0 seeks enhanced pvt partnership in edu sector

Reduction in recruitment by

UPSC, RRB: GovtNEW DELHI: There is an overall reduction in the num-ber of candidates recom-mended for government jobs by various recruitment bod-ies, according to a written reply given by Minister of State for Personnel Jitendra Singh in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday.

A total of 1,00,933 candi-dates were recommended for government jobs during 2016-17 as against 1,11,807 in 2015-16 and 1,13,524 in 2014-15, it said. Giving the break-up, Singh said the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC), which selects IAS and IPS offi-cers among others, recom-mended 5,735 candidates in 2016-17 as against 6,866 and 8,272 in 2015-16 and 2014-15, respectively.

The Staff Selection Com-mission (SSC) recommended 68,880; 25,138; and 58,066 can-didates during 2016-17, 2015-16 and 2014-15, respectively.

The Railway Recruitment Board (RRB) and Railway Recruitment Cells (RRCs) empanelled and recruited 26,318 candidates in 2016-17 as against 79,808 and 47,186 such selections in 2015-16 and 2014-15 respectively. "Government of India does not have any proposal for providing unem-ployment allowance to unem-ployed persons," the minister said. In another reply, Singh said the Centre has referred to the CBI for an impartial probe the matter of alleged cheating in a recruitment examination conducted by the SSC. MPOST

mp editorial8MILLENNIUM POST | Kolkata | Thursday, 22 March, 2018

AMULYA GANGULI

TAPONEEL MUKHERJEE

There were two notable fea-tures of the recent All India Congress Committee (AICC) plenary session in Delhi. One

was about Sonia Gandhi demonstrating that she was a more aggressive speaker than her son, although the latter tried to make up any shortfall in this respect in his second speech. The other was the party’s curious nostalgia for the past as was evident from its rejection of the electronic voting machines (EVMs) in preference of paper ballots.

While Rahul Gandhi’s articulation about the Congress’s policies based on love and bhaichara (brotherhood) in his opening remarks underpinned a Gandhian approach as opposed to BJP’s dependence on spreading krodh (anger) and divisiveness, thereby emphasising a fundamental difference between the two parties; the thrust of Sonia Gandhi’s speech was more political.

Rebutting BJP’s call for a Congress-mukt Bharat, she wanted the country to be free of bhay (fear), ahankar (arro-gance), pratishodh (revenge), pakshpat (partiality), and hahakar (wails of dis-tress). For the party faithful, the high-lighting of these aspects of BJP’s rule can be an effective communication tool.

It is possible that these two planks of the Congress’s approach to the forthcom-ing electoral battles constitute contrast-ing tactics for taking on an adversary. If presented in a coordinated manner by the party president and the outgoing president along with other leaders, they may well make an impact.

But, it is not speeches alone which are important. Even more so is the par-ty’s ability to reach out to possible allies. There is little doubt that the Congress has become more aware of its weakness since the days of the 1998 Panchmarhi reso-lution when it regarded coalitions as a “transient phase” and favoured going the way alone. Now, however, it has realised that the only way forward is in the com-pany of others.

Before that, however, the party has to put its own house in order, break-ing down with “love” the wall between the leaders and workers. There is also, apparently, a wall between the younger generation and the older leaders. The Congress may not be able to imitate Nar-endra Modi’s ruthless marginalisation of the old guard, but it will be ill-advised to allow the 70-plus whose faces recall

the party’s scam-ridden past to be seen to be calling the shots. Instead, the pro-motion of the Sachin Pilots and Jyoti-raditya Scindias will do the Congress a world of good.

What the party needs is the projec-tion of fresh faces and a forward-looking outlook. Unfortunately, the call for dis-pensing with EVMs is a retrograde step in a digital age when even 10/12-year-olds are more familiar with smartphones than their parents. If there any doubts about the reliability of EVMs (which are usually mentioned by losers), the party should have called for their upgradation, especially when Indian prowess in this particular field of technology is widely acknowledged.

The harking back to the days of paper ballots, therefore, will only reinforce the belief that the 133-year-old party has begun to show its age. It will be like going back to black-and-white TVs and Ambassador cars. The retrogressive proposal is not unlike the preference

expressed in the party’s 2003 Shimla conclave where it called for introduc-ing the quota system in the private sec-tor – a step tailor-made for scrapping the economic reforms and a return to the Hindu rate of growth.

It is not only in the matter of realis-ing the party’s diminished political influ-ence, necessitating an accommodating approach towards other parties which will broaden its appeal, but also an atti-tude which shows that the Congress is a party of the future. The Samajwadi Par-ty’s Akhilesh Yadav is among those who have understood the need to dump his father, Mulayam Singh’s anti-computer and anti-English mindset and enter the 21st century. Rahul’s father, Rajiv Gan-dhi, too, was a man of the present rather than the past.

The focus on GenNext as a means of widening a party’s outreach does not only relate to weeding out the elders for the sake of making space for the young, but mainly to attuning the organisation

to a time when AI (artificial intelligence) will be the buzzword in the technologi-cal and academic fields, heralding the advent of an era of which most people have little idea because of the changes which the new discoveries will bring to day-to-day life.

As the inheritors of Jawaharlal Neh-ru’s modernistic legacy, which is reflected in the constitutional directive about developing a scientific temper, it falls on the Congress to carry forward this wonderful heritage. It is far better placed to do so than BJP, which has been mak-ing a mockery of science by doubting the validity of the theory of evolution (because no one has seen an ape turn into a man, as a minister dealing with education (!) said, and claiming that the theory of relativity was foreshadowed in the Vedic texts, as another minister deal-ing with science, of all subjects, argued. This is not the time for Congress to want to turn the clock back. IPA

(The views are strictly personal)

Turning the clockEDITORIAL

The emphasis on revitalising paper ballots over EVMs would not be a wise decision

Unfortunately, the call for dispensing with EVMs is a retrograde step in a digital age when even 10-year-olds are better familiar with smartphones than their parents. If there are any doubts about the reliability of EVMs, Congress should have called for its upgradation

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Monday told the Parliament that the 39 Indians held hostage in Iraq in 2014 are dead and their DNAs have matched with those of their relatives. The lone survivor from

the 40 Indian construction workers taken as hostage, Harjit Masih, had emphasised the same four years ago as he narrated how he played dead when all of them were being gunned down by ISIS militants in Iraq. The government did not take Masih’s account of the incident seriously and went on following differ-ent leads that suggested that the kidnapped Indians could be alive. The opposition parties have criticised the government’s move to announce the startling disclosure four years since the incident. But, Minister of State for External Affairs General VK Singh responded to the criticism by saying that the govern-ment has stood by its commitment that the kidnapped Indian workers in Iraq would not be pronounced dead until there is conclusive proof. The government has now accepted that all the 39 workers are dead after their bodies were exhumed from mass graves and analysed. Their DNAs have matched with those of their relatives in India. The timing of the gov-ernment’s announcement is significant. In the last four years, the government was never under the attack of the opposition as it is now. The Congress and some of the NDA partners are questioning the government over-inclusiveness of the govern-ment’s policies. And, there is increased hostility along the LoC as Pakistan has stepped up ceasefire violations and is trying to infiltrate militants into Jammu and Kashmir. The Indian workers were shot dead because they were Hindus. The same group of ISIS militants had also kidnapped nearly 50 Bangla-deshi workers but they were freed because they were Muslims. India is on the radar of Islamist militants for a long time. Pak-istan keeps instigating Islamist militancy in Kashmir. It also provides training and logistical support to jihadi elements, who in turn create problems in the restive state of Jammu and Kashmir. To keep the situation under control, India has to take strict measures against jihadi elements including the deployment of a large number of troops along the LoC and within the state. Besides strict policies against the militants and those who support them, India has to deploy a number of logistical measures to ensure that the militancy in Jammu and Kashmir does not spread beyond the borders of the state. There is a fundamental difference between the BJP’s viewpoint on this issue from the other parties. BJP advocates a strict han-dling of the situation while the opposition parties would want a more mellowed and nuanced approach. As the government is under attack from opposition parties now that the general elections are only about a year away, through the announce-ment of Indian workers having been killed in Iraq where ISIS militants control a large part of the territory, the government may be trying to send the message that in the name of inclu-siveness, the country cannot afford to lower the guard. Occa-sionally, ISIS flags are seen in protest marches taken out in Srinagar and other places in Kashmir, where the wave of mili-tancy is still not over though it has been effectively suppressed to a large extent. The government’s decision to announce, at this point in time, the death of 39 Indian workers in Iraq may have some political overtones. It will help BJP workers spread the message that if we did not tackle the problems of Islamist militancy with a firm hand, it could destabilise the country like it has done to Kashmir. The Narendra Modi-led NDA government had carried out a surgical strike well within the Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (POK) killing about 40 militants and Pakistani Army soldiers in 2016. Recently, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh had announced that if Pakistan did not stop ceasefire violations, Indian troops could cross over the border. The killing of Indian workers in Iraq reminds us of the extent to which the situation has deteriorated in Iraq and some other countries including Syria and Afghanistan where ISIS and other militants are on a killing spree. International workers who have risked their lives to work in these difficult spots need to be protected. But it is not easy to offer protection to everyone when a large number of people are out with guns to create terror and anarchy. The whole world stands shocked and stunned at the merciless killing of innocent people in Iraq and Syria. For India, which is an important partner in the fight against international terror and militancy, the situation in neighbouring Pakistan is no better off. The existence of mili-tant training camps in Pakistan poses a serious and constant threat to peace in the region. While the government should suitably compensate the families of the 39 workers who were killed in Iraq, it must keep a strict vigil against Islamist mili-tancy taking root in the country.

World Forest Days come and go; but few, if any at all, are really bothered about the fast depleting green cover and the loss of its inhabitants. Sans doubt, this has caused a huge negative impact

on Climate Change. Forests cover about 30 per cent of the planet but deforestation is clearing these essential habitats on a massive scale. According to several estimates, the world’s rainforests could completely vanish in a 100 years. Farmers cut forests to provide more room for planting crops or graz-ing livestock. Often, small farmers will clear a few acres by cutting down trees and burning them in a process known as slash and burn agriculture. Logging operations, much of them illegal, which provide the world’s wood and paper products, also cut countless trees each year. Forests are diminished as a result of the growing urban sprawl. Not that all deforestation is intentional. Some are caused by a combination of human and natural factors like wildfires and subsequent overgraz-ing, which may prevent the growth of young trees. There is, of course, a dramatic impact of the loss of habitat for mil-lions of species. 80 per cent of Earth’s land animals cannot survive the deforestation that destroys their homes. Defor-estation also drives Climate Change. Trees help perpetuate the water cycle by returning water vapour to the atmosphere. Removing trees deprives the forest of portions of its canopy, which blocks the sun’s rays during the day, and holds in heat at night. This disruption leads to more extreme temperature swings that can be harmful to plants and animals. The green cover also plays a critical role in absorbing the greenhouse gases that fuel global warming. Fewer forests implicate larger amounts of greenhouse gases entering the atmosphere and an increased speed and severity of global warming. The number of new tree plantations is growing each year but their total still equals a tiny fraction of the Earth’s forested land. Many of the world’s most threatened and endangered animals live in forests and 1.6 billion people rely on the benefits that the forests offer, including food, fresh water, clothing, traditional medicine and shelter. We are losing 18.7 million acres of for-ests annually, equivalent to 27 soccer fields every minute. The green cover acts as a carbon sink, soaking up carbon dioxide that would otherwise be free in the atmosphere and contrib-ute to ongoing changes in climate patterns. It is estimated that 15 per cent of all greenhouse gas emissions are the result of deforestation. This is of particular concern in tropical rain-forests because these forests are home to much of the world’s biodiversity. Deforestation in this region is particularly ram-pant near more populated areas—roads and rivers—but even the remote areas have been encroached upon when valuable mahogany, gold and oil are discovered.

Demolished spirits

A losing battle

Log on to write letters to the editor or send them to

letter2editor.mp@gmail.com You can also send your

comments to The Editor,Millennium Post,

Pratap Bhawan, 5 Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg, New Delhi 110 002

millenniumpost.inA POLICY SHOULD BE MORE TRANSPARENTdear

EDITOR

India's unprecedented thrust to meet the commitment to generate clean energy generation is basically a stunt. As the solar Sector is not augering at a pace that could actually achieve 100GWof power by the year 2022 is nothing but mere hullaballoo that appears in the media in the big canvas to project the Government's high ambition. It is obviously not linked with the reality and seems to be preposterous. The total solar power generation as on today is only 15.5GW as per CEA Data. And, this has to be scaled to 100GW is merely a daydream by the energy planners.

AMAR NATH BHADRAVia email

My policy on cake is pro having it and pro eating it

Quote martial

BORIS JOHNSON

India has a coastline of approxi-mately 7,500 km and as we look to build infrastructure to boost eco-nomic growth and jobs, the one

question that we must address is: Does having a long coastline matter? Or to put it another way: What advantages could its coastline provide for India?

For a country that spends approxi-mately 14 per cent of its GDP on logis-tics costs and is a large consumer of energy, the coastline offers the oppor-tunity to make both logistics more effi-cient while also potentially generating energy. Coastal shipping and offshore wind energy are two sectors that the coastline can be used to grow and boost infrastructure creation, especially given the fact that both these sectors are new and relatively unexplored in the country.

Coastal shipping is an important component of the government’s Sagar Mala project. It has inherent cost advan-tages versus road and rail transportation. According to the Ministry of Shipping, coastal shipping costs one-sixth of what rail costs, therefore, significant cost sav-ings are possible for industries in which transportation forms a large part of the cost base, such as cement and fertilis-ers. Essentially, coastal shipping has the capacity to transform “bulk trans-portation”, in the process, reducing the burden on the road and rail networks.

The implementation of coastal ship-ping infrastructure has faced imped-iments such as the lack of financing for ships, lack of infrastructure at both major and minor ports, and, most importantly, the lack of linkages on land to help deliver the bulk goods to the end user. It is important to be patient with regard to the development of coastal shipping infrastructure. Changes such as these take time, and the positive impact can be seen through the years to come. Streamlining of policies, effec-tive financing mechanisms and appro-priate regulatory schemes will have to be worked on by industry partici-pants and the government to deliver the desired result.

The coastline also has tremendous

potential to cater to India’s energy needs, especially with a focus on wind energy. The recent news of Norway-based Statoil, one of the largest offshore oil and gas operators, changing its name to Equinor to reflect a future where energy will be driven by renewables rather than fossil fuels, shows the clear focus glob-ally. What is even more interesting is that Statoil’s first floating wind farm, “Hywind Scotland”, started delivering electricity in October 2017. Such news is significant for India. The key takeaway is that offshore wind energy is in the reckoning now. A recent study by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) found the average generation cost of offshore wind energy at $140/MWh, to be still relatively high versus onshore wind at $60/MWh. However, what is more interesting, given the rel-atively nascent technology of offshore wind, generation costs are expected to

dip well below $100/MWh by 2020.Such technological progress and

cost-reduction have significant ramifi-cations for India. The pace of offshore wind development globally and the decline in generation costs of offshore wind energy suggest that the country’s coastline can be a valuable source of energy in the future. That said, for off-shore wind energy to deliver results and provide energy on a large scale, signifi-cant investments will be required in the development of wind farms, transmis-sion of energy and creating the port infrastructure to service the industry.

To truly utilise the coastline to deliver value, India will have to keep building on existing policies in both the coastal shipping and renewable energy space. These are large infrastructure projects that require significant tech-nical expertise and, more importantly, patient capital. Strong policy frame-

works from the government that assure investors of consistent policymaking regardless of which way political winds blow will be important to truly boost these sectors.

Coastal shipping infrastructure is still relatively underdeveloped in India while offshore wind is still at ideation stage. It is important for industry par-ticipants and the government to deliver financially feasible and efficiently com-pleted projects to start with, to give con-fidence to the sector. Successful pilot projects that are financially feasible and well-structured provide a very strong signal to market participants, indicat-ing that the policymakers are ready to walk the talk. Hence, boosting much-needed investment. IANS

(The author heads Development Tracks, an infrastructure advisory firm. The views

expressed are strictly personal)

To truly utilise the coastline to deliver value, India will have to keep building on existing policies in both the coastal shipping and renewable energy space. These are large infrastructure projects that require significant technical expertise and, more importantly, patient capital

India’s 7,500 km long coastline could be utilised to the country’s infrastructural advantageIndia’s coastline

Developing India’s coastline would save costs and further the use of energy

Congress must embrace the present rather than resorting to the past

9mp in focusMILLENNIUM POST | Kolkata | Thursday, 22 March, 2018

ASHIS BISWAS

CHANDRA PRAKASH KALA

Indian Minister for External Affairs, Sushma Swaraj has finally drawn the curtain over the four-year-old story of the disappear-

ance of the 39 Indian workers in Mosul in Iraq. She admitted in Parliament on March 20 that all of them had been killed by the ISIS extremists and their bodies have been identified. This sor-did story of the fate of the poor Indian migrant workers is only one part of the continuing plight of the Indian work-ers in foreign lands, especially in war-torn West Asia.

Thanks to an intervention by Exter-nal Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Congress leader from Malda, Mausam Noor, 35 stranded migrant workers from Jharkhand and West Bengal have been rescued in Malaysia. They are being sent back to India in batches and should return by March end, accord-ing to Noor.

Meanwhile, there is still no official word on the fate of another 160 work-ers from West Bengal and Jharkhand are known to be stranded in Azerbaijan. Concern has mounted in West Bengal and Delhi, following reports that the men are under arrest. Ministry of Exter-nal Affairs (MEA) officials are trying to learn more. Details are awaited about a similar incident in Saudi Arabia, too.

As for the latest incident in Malay-sia, there had been many recent reports about unscrupulous agents and compa-nies ‘recruiting skilled/unskilled hands’ from various Indian states on a two-year work permit. Most workers, it is alleged, are kept in sub-human conditions and paid well below their stipulated amount. If they complain, then physical assaults, isolation, food and sleep deprivation are common punishments. Their passports are held by their appointing companies.

In the present instance, 35 Indian workers recruited from West Bengal (24) and Jharkhand (11) had been taken to Malaysia by the Lead Master Engi-neering and Construction Company.

Details about their plight came to light only this February after they had worked for nearly ten months. Most had been paid 50 per cent or less than their stipulated monthly salary of 1,800 ring-gits (1 ringgit equals Rs 16.30). Working conditions were extremely tough. They were kept herded in small cells or tents.

It was learnt through videos they

had managed to smuggle out through WhatsApp on social media outlets, that during the last 3 months their employ-ers had stopped paying their reduced salaries! Indian websites picked up their story and learnt that often a worker would be fed two pieces of bread and four bottles of water. No work, even on account of illness, meant no pay. If water ran short, workers would have to buy it with their own money. One worker reported that they often begged food from nearby mosques.

Fortunately, some of the workers’ families in India came to know of their situation. Local leaders and politi-cians took up the matter with political/administrative authorities in Jharkhand and West Bengal.

Tanmoy Ghosh, the leader of Bangla Sanskriti Manch (BSM), was quoted by one website alleging, ‘We approached the MEA officials and Sushma Swaraj in

particular about the workers suffering in Malaysia. The Indian Embassy ini-tially took little interest, but later freed the workers and kept them in a small cell, at a place about 100 kilometres away from Kuala Lumpur. Here too, they remained cut off and did not enjoy freedom of movement. As for their back pay or expected date of repatriation, they were not told anything.’

While the MEA did intervene into the matter, the stand taken by West Ben-gal government was most surprising. Bengal officials when contacted, accord-ing to Ghosh, hardly took any interest, although so many workers from the state had been trapped in such dire strait in a foreign country and were not get-ting any help!

Attempts made by the BSM to con-tact Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee brought no response either!

Kolkata-based analysts are equally

intrigued. As one observer put it, ‘West Bengal Chief Minister usually stands by the side of the distressed people all over the world, including the Rohingya Mus-lim minority in Myanmar. She attacked the Centre for not allowing Rohingyas to settle in India and said Bengal would be open to them. Yet, when people from Malda or Nadia are treated like slaves or trapped in Malaysia, the Bengal govern-ment does not seem to exist!’

Noor maintains that all workers are from Malda, the area she hails from. However, there are other reports claim-ing that some might have gone from Nadia district as well. There has been some good news from Jharkhand in that so far two workers from the state have returned already. Quoting MEA sources, Noor says all workers should be back by the end of this month. IPA

(The views expressed are strictly personal)

Whatever be the reason, worshipping trees signifies the human association with nature. There are sacred species, sacred groves, and sacred landscapes all around us. Spiritual ecology, through which human beings connect themselves with the cosmos, has evolved over time. Today, it is an emerging idea in ecological conservation. Growing interest in this concept may help address the environmental issue

A worker would be fed two pieces of bread and four bottles of water. No work, even on account of illness, meant no pay. If water ran short, workers would have to buy it with their own money. One worker reported that they often begged food from nearby mosques

The ‘sacred’ way of lifeBesides conserving individual tree species, indigenous communities have marked forested areas associated with deities, spirits, rituals, and taboos in many places

Distressed Indian labourers abroad

Every morning, Kamla Devi offers water to the tulsi plant in her court-yard. On Mondays, she trudges downhill to worship a giant banyan

tree in Sumari, a mountain village about 175 km from Dehradun. When asked about the rituals, Devi says, “It gives me peace of mind. I have grown up watching my mother and grandmother do the same.” Unlike the tulsi which is found in Hindu homes, the banyan is a village property. Almost in every Indian village, people share a deep attachment with this tree. The banyan at Sumari has crystal clear water flowing near its roots. It is con-sidered sacred, as its source is associated with the village deity. After marriages are solem-nised, new brides are welcomed at this spot. They perform puja in the presence of the priest. Like Sumari, residents of Lupunguttu village in Jharkhand’s West Singhbhum dis-trict also revere a grove where natural springs flow out of tree roots. People believe that the water has therapeutic properties. “The water could be deriving its therapeutic property from Arjuna trees (Terminalia arjuna) that dominate the grove,” says Manisha Toppo, a post-graduate student at the Bhopal-based Indian Institute of Forest Management.

Whatever be the reason, tree worshipping signifies the human association with nature. There are sacred species, sacred groves, and sacred landscapes all around us. Spiritual ecology, through which human beings con-nect themselves with the cosmos, has evolved over time. Today, it is an emerging idea in ecological conservation. Growing interest in this concept may help address environ-mental issues.

A way to conserve the healerTrees are intrinsically connected with

Hinduism and felling them is generally dis-couraged. Even Ayurveda practitioners are advised to perform special rituals before gathering plants for treatment of diseases. Many medicinal trees and plants are consid-ered sacred, symbolising deities. For instance, brahmakamal (Saussurea obvallata), peepal (Ficus religiosa), bargad (Ficus benghalen-sis), Bael (Aegle marmelos), tejbal (Zan-thoxylum armatum), and tulsi (Ocimum sanctum) are considered sacred in Hindu-ism. Bael is an important species and used to prepare medicines in India. It is also used to make drinks and jam. Since it is used on a number of occasions, its overexploitation may endanger this species. This may have compelled people to associate it with Lord Shiva to ensure that devotees revere it. Over the years, offering bael leaves to Shiva has become an important ritual. There is a similar reason as to why rudraksha (Elaeocarpus sp) symbolises Rudra, another name for Shiva. Tejbal is also associated with Shiva. Hindus

believe tejbal wood-sticks keep away impure air and evil spirits.

Different parts of bargad are associated with the Hindu triumvirate. The branches symbolise Shiva, the bark Vishnu, and the roots stand for Brahma. Similarly, kad-amba is associated with Lord Krishna, who is depicted as playing flute under its shade. Saraca indica, or the Ashoka, has medicinal uses and is considered pious in both Hindu-ism and Buddhism. Even the coconut tree is important, the fruit being widely used in Hindu auspicious ceremonies. Ban tulsi (Origanum vulgare), which grows in and around the Badrinath valley, enjoys special status as it is offered to Lord Badrinath. Col-lection of Brahmakamal, which grows above 3,800 metres in the Himalayas, is restricted to a few days. To keep many species intact, tra-ditional healers avoid disclosing their medici-nal properties. While transferring knowledge to the next generation, healers often make their disciples take oath regarding misuse of knowledge.

Ensuring species’ diversityBesides conserving individual tree spe-

cies, indigenous communities have marked forested areas associated with deities, spir-its, rituals and taboos in many places. Such places, known as sacred groves, are the live manifestations of historical, cultural, and emotional attachment of man with forests. Sacred groves are found across the country, ranging from a few square metres to sev-eral hectares. They are known as devray in Maharashtra, devarkand and siddarvanam in Karnataka, oraans, kenkari and malvan in Rajasthan, saran in Chhattisgarh, and jaher-than in Jharkhand. For indigenous commu-nities, such patches are often situated in the vicinity of villages. This helps in conserving species’ diversity across different ecosystems.

Sacred groves also harbour many threat-ened plants, trees and animals. In Kodagu of the Western Ghats, threatened tree spe-cies such as Actinodaphne lawsonii, Hopea ponga, Madhuca neriifolia and Syzygium zeylanicum are restricted to sacred groves,

along with the presence of birds and micro-fungi. A 2005 study published in the journal, Ecology and Society, authored by S A Bhag-wat et al points out that traditional rules pro-hibiting felling of trees and killing of animals in groves have helped preserve their biodiver-sity. Forests also hold special significance for indigenous communities. Such an attitude stems from the belief that they provide power to deities. In some communities, the power of the deity is brought to the village temple through various rituals at the time of festivals. Once festivities are over, the same power is returned to the forest by performing specific rituals. Author M K Mishra mentions this in an article published in the journal, Language & Ecology, in 2009. Sacred groves not only unite communities spiritually, culturally and socially but also create space for festivals and social events.

Moving beyond grovesIn many cases, the idea of preservation

is not limited to specific forest patches only.

Traditionally, communities have also revered mountain peaks and wildernesses. Consider the Himalayas. Since time immemorial, it has been a pilgrimage spot for devotees. Many Himalayan peaks such as Kailash, Nanda Devi, Neelkanth, Trishul, Gaura and Om are worshipped as deities. As they are con-sidered sacred, landscapes surrounding such peaks support rich biodiversity. The Nanda Devi Raj Jat, which is celebrated every 12 years, is a combination of a revered pilgrim-age and festival held in Chamoli, Almora and Pithoragarh in Uttarakhand. The pil-grimage starts from Nauti village near Karn-prayag, goes through a number of villages and finally reaches Roopkund and Homkund with a four-horned ram. Nanda’s Chhatoli, or the deity’s umbrella, is made up of rin-gal (a local dwarf bamboo species called Thamnocalamus spathiflorus scientifically). This spreads the idea of respecting animals, trees and the environment among people. In the same spirit, Himalayan lakes like Hem-kund, Kakbhusandi, Nandi Kund, Mansar-ovar and Mansar are considered sacred. The Ganga, which originates from Gaumukh in the Himalayas, covers a long distance. All the places it flows through are also consid-ered sacred.

Many cultural activities are aimed at con-servation of seeds. Festivals such as the Bihu in Assam, Baisakhi in Punjab and Pongal in Tamil Nadu are associated with either sow-ing of seeds or harvesting. Often, seed selec-tion is conducted traditionally. For instance, in Sumari, people collect soil from nearby farms and keep it at a corner of their rooms. They sow barley seeds in this soil on the first day of Navratra during October-November. As a mark of respect, every day they sprin-kle water over it and offer prayers. This con-tinues till the last day of Navratra when the seedlings are uprooted amid the chanting of mantras. Finally, they are used to make gar-lands and offered to the village deity or used in religious functions. This has helped con-serve seeds through generations and main-tain agro-biodiversity.

Realising the significance of spiritual ecology, the environment ministry has incor-porated the “maintenance and enhancement of social, economic, cultural and spiritual benefits” as one of the eight criterion in the National Working Plan Code for determin-ing sustainable management of forests. In the era of climate change, it is necessary to explore ways to preserve natural resources for posterity. Long-established beliefs may go a long way in saving the planet from destruc-tion. DOWN TO EARTH

(Chandra Prakash Kala teaches ecology and environment management at the Indian

Institute of Forest Management in Bhopal. The views expressed are strictly personal)

MEA and state governments ought to be more proactive

tweetRETWEET

SURESH PRABHU @sureshpprabhu

PRASHANT BHUSHAN @pbhushan1

PIYUSH GOYAL @PiyushGoyal

ASHOK SWAIN @ashoswai

West Bengal is India's 6th largest economy with a growing export potential. Its location advantage makes the state a traditional market for eastern India, the Northeast, Nepal and Bhutan and also a strategic entry point for markets in Southeast Asia.#StatesLeadingIndias Exports

Demonetised notes are still being encashed for new ones by a clutch of bankmen, middlemen & perhaps politicians! This is why RBI is still counting demonetised notes and can't give us final figures of notes which were returned to banks. War on Black money?!

Developing Cordial Relations with Neighbours: Indian Railways hands over 18 microprocessor controlled locomotives to Myanmar, 6 months ahead of delivery schedule, further boosting the cooperation between India & Myanmar.

JNU students demand Justice - JNU administration shamelessly protects a serial sexual harasser #JohriHataoBetiBachao

Traditional rules prohibiting felling of trees in groves have helped preserve their biodiversity (Representational Image)

MEA has decided to intervene in the matter of exploited Indian labourers overseas (Representational Image)

mp world10MILLENNIUM POST | Kolkata | Thursday, 22 March, 2018

Suu Kyi’s man Htin Kyaw quits as Myanmar prez

YANGON: Myanmar's presi-dent, a close friend of leader Aung San Suu Kyi, said on Wednesday that he was retir-ing, a move that puts a rep-resentative of the country's already powerful military at least temporarily in a position of executive power.

An announcement posted on the Facebook page of the Myanmar President Office said 71-year-old Htin Kyaw would step down because he wished to take a rest.

It follows reports that he suffered ill health that forced him to travel abroad for med-ical care at least twice in the past year.

The statement said his post would be filled within seven working days, in line with the constitution.

Htin Kyaw, who became president in 2016, was Myan-mar's first elected civilian president and head of its first government to be elected in free and fair polls since a 1962 military coup.

After he became presi-dent, Suu Kyi became Myan-mar's de facto leader when she

was named state counsellor, a position created for the coun-try's once-leading voice for democracy because she's con-stitutionally banned from the presidency.

A clause in the charter bars anyone with a foreign spouse or child from holding the job. Suu Kyi's two sons are British, as was her late husband.

By mutual agreement, Htin Kyaw acted as a proxy for Suu Kyi, who is also foreign minis-ter. Suu Kyi had explained pub-licly, and to public approval, that she would be "above the president." Htin Kyaw was "a constitutional president whose role and powers were reduced to that of a figurehead," said analyst Khin Zaw Win, direc-

tor of the Tampadipa Institute, a policy advocacy group.

"The new president, who-ever he is, needs to take a firmer stand and not let the (state counsellor) do everything," he said in an email.

He added that Htin Kyaw's stepping down was widely expected because of his health, but that "there won't be much of an impact unless his succes-sor provides some unexpected surprises, good or bad."

Myanmar has two vice pres-idents, and according to its constitution, 66-year-old First Vice President Myint Swe will serve as acting president.

He was nominated for vice president by the military, which retains great influence even in the elected civilian government because it is guaranteed 25 per-cent of the seats in parliament as well as the three key security portfolios in the Cabinet.

Myint Swe, a former lieu-tenant general, was chief of mil-itary affairs security under the former military government, a position important enough to put him on a US Treasury Department blacklist in 2007

with restrictions on travel and financial transactions, imposed because of the junta's anti-democratic activities.

He and others were taken off the list in late 2016 as a ges-ture of support from Washing-ton to Suu Kyi's government, installed earlier that year. Myint Swe was also regarded as being close to Senior Gen. Than Shwe, who headed the last military government.

When a vote is taken for a new president by both houses of parliament, the choice will be among Myint Swe, Second Vice President Henry Van Thio, who was nominated by the upper house of parliament, and a third candidate to be put for-ward by the lower house, which had nominated Htin Kyaw. Van Thio is a member of Myanmar's Chin ethnic minority.

The strong majority held by Suu Kyi's party allowed it to name Htin Kyaw president in 2016 and should put its new choice, whoever it may be, back in the job again

However, there is the pos-sibility of disruption, said Khin Zaw Win. AGENCIES

By mutual agreement, Htin Kyaw acted as a proxy for Suu Kyi who is also foreign minister. Suu Kyi had explained publicly, and to public approval, that she would be ‘above the president’

Found: Secret of making scents stick longer to skinNEW YORK: Scientists have found a way to get fragrances to stick to the skin longer, instead of washing down the drain immediately after being applied.

From floral perfume to fruity body wash and sham-poos, scents heavily influence consumer purchases.

However, for most, the smell does not last long after showering before it fades away.

"Companies incorporate a lot of fragrance oils in wash-off products, such as face washes and body scrubs, but the majority of these oils get washed away," said Martin S Vethamuthu from the Univer-sity of Delaware in the US.

"My research team of solv-ers wants to help other compa-nies amplify the efficacy, add to the allure and ensure the integ-rity of the retention of these fragrance notes in their prod-ucts for skin and hair," said Vethamuthu.

His group adapted a device known as the twister bar head-space sorption extraction sen-sor, commonly used in the food industry to detect chemicals that could contribute to off-flavours or scents.

The sensor, presented at the National Meeting & Exposi-

tion of the American Chemi-cal Society (ACS), absorbs trace amounts of volatile fragrances deposited on the skin after a shower.

Combined with gas chroma-tography-mass spectrometry, the team can gather a profile of the scents that remain on skin after rinsing off.

Then, fragrance evaluators are only brought in at the last step to validate and verify the results.

Vethamuthu also looked at ways to ensure the fragrances lasted longer by mixing them with various polymers, which help the scents remain on the skin.

"Polymers impact different

fragrances in diverse ways," said Vethamuthu.

"By studying synthetic and naturally derived polymers, manufacturers can select the types of polymers they want to use that will correspond with the fragrance notes they want to prevail," he said.

Vethamuthu's group used the sensor to assess which fra-grances still lingered on the skin several hours after the scents were applied.

However, there was a lot of trial and error to get to this point, since companies use many different combinations of scents, and the identities of those compounds are often kept secret. AGENCIES

Trump raps Clinton for questioning his voters’ intellect WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump has slammed Hillary Clinton for her contro-versial remarks in India against his voters, saying Democrats have lost touch with "normal everyday working people".

Trump's remarks came after Clinton said in a speech that women have to get approval from their husbands, their sons, and their male bosses to vote for Trump. In her remarks, Clinton suggested that those who sup-ported Trump did so because they didn't like black people getting rights, women getting jobs or Indian-American suc-ceeding more than them.

"You know, you didn't like black people getting rights. You don't like women, you know,

getting jobs. You don't want to see that Indian-American succeeding more than you are. Whatever your problem is, I am going to solve it," the 2016 US presidential candidate had said during a conclave in Mumbai.

"We do not do well with white men and we don't do well with married, white women, and part of that is an identifica-tion with the Republican Party, and a sort of ongoing pressure to vote the way your husband, your boss, your son, whoever, believes you should," Clinton had said last week.

Trump, 71, slammed 70-year-old Clinton, saying that was "not a good statement".

"Not good," Trump said amidst laughter and applause

at the National Republican Con-gressional Committee dinner.

"I would say her last state-ment about women -- they have to get approval from their hus-bands, their sons, and their male bosses to vote for Trump. That

was not a good statement," Trump said. "The truth is the Democrats have never been more vulnerable because they've lost touch with normal everyday working people," Trump said. "Democrats haven't learned.

They still think the loyal citizens who care about jobs and borders and security are deplorable."

Trump was talking about Clinton's fundraiser speech weeks before the 2016 pres-idential election, where she called half of his supporters "deplorables." "The problem is she said so many of my people were deplorable and you know the next day I made a speech and everybody is wearing I am deplorable.' I said, There is something going on here.' That was not a good word to use. You have to be careful in politics, right?" Trump said.

Trump claimed that her Democrat colleagues have dis-tanced themselves from her.

"You notice how fast the

Democrats have run from these statements now? They are dis-avowing those statements like I've never heard before.

"She's wrong, people that were her biggest supporters are now saying, What is she doing? Why doesn't she just go home? But that was not a good state-ment," Trump said. Clinton, earlier in a Facebook post, clari-fied her comments on white women voters, saying she meant no disrespect to any individual or group.

"I understand how some of what I said upset people and can be misinterpreted. I meant no disrespect to any individual or group. And I want to look to the future as much as anybody," she said in the post. AGENCIES

Former B’desh PM Khaleda Zia hires UK lawyer to fight her cases

DHAKA: Jailed Khaleda Zia has roped in a prominent Brit-ish criminal lawyer to defend her as the former Bangladeshi prime minister faced a series of graft and criminal cases.

A Dhaka court had on Feb-ruary 8 sentenced Zia, 72, to five years' imprisonment find-ing her guilty of embezzling foreign funds for an orphan-age named after her husband and slain president Ziaur Rah-man, during her premiership in 2001-2007 tenure.

Last week, she was granted bail in the corruption case but was again arrested for allegedly instigating clandestine arson attacks as a fresh warrant was issued against her in that case.

Zia is facing more than a dozen cases of corruption, vio-lence and sedition.

"British lawyer Lord Carlile has been appointed to assist and provide consultations to her lawyers' panel in fighting her

cases," Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir said here on Tuesday.

Alamgir said Carlile, who was earlier hired by two major 1971 war criminals during their trials, accepted the appointment and "from now on he will extend support, provide consultations and necessary legal aid as much as he can" in defending the main opposition BNP chief.

Several prominent pro-BNP

lawyers including former law minister Moudud Ahmed and former speaker Jamiruddin Sir-car and two former attorney generals currently lead Zia's defence team.

Asked if the Bangladeshi lawyers were not good enough to fight her cases, Alamgir said Carlile was appointed to enrich "the defence panel and take the issue to the international arena".

One of the defence coun-sels said Carlile would work as

adviser to the lawyers' panel, being one of the most prom-inent lawyers of Britain and member of the British House of Lords.

Carlile had earlier served as the counsels of convicted Mir Quasem Ali and Salahuddin Quader Chowdhury, who subse-quently were executed for com-mitting crimes against humanity while helping invading Paki-stani troops in the 1971 libera-tion war.

As the Supreme Court upheld the verdict against Quasem Ali, Carlile, had also written to the Bangladesh gov-ernment seeking to halt their executions while he lobbied for creating international pressure for his clients.

Zia has appealed in the high court against her five year sen-tence and a process is underway to hear her arguments, which apparently prompted her to hire the British lawyer. AGENCIES

Sarkozy grilled for 2nd day over poll funds from Libya

PARIS: Former French presi-dent Nicolas Sarkozy returned to police custody on Wednes-day for a second day of ques-tioning over allegations the late Libyan dictator Moamer Kad-hafi financed his 2007 election campaign, sources close to the inquiry said.

Sarkozy arrived just before 8:00 am at the bureau of offi-cers specialising in corrup-tion, money laundering and tax evasion in the western Pari-sian suburb of Nanterre, an AFP journalist said.

He was first taken into custody on Tuesday, but left the police building around midnight.

His lawyers did not respond to requests for comment.

Since 2013, investigating magistrates have been probing media reports, as well as state-ments by Kadhafi's son Seif al-Islam, that claimed funds were provided for Sarkozy's run at the presidency. The case is France's most explosive political financ-

ing scandal and one of several legal probes that have dogged the rightwing politician since he left office after one term in 2012.

Brice Hortefeux, a Sarkozy ally who was a top minister during his presidency, was also questioned Tuesday until about 11:30 pm. "Testifying freely, the details provided should put an end to a series of errors and lies," Hortefeux later said on Twitter.

Under French law Sarkozy can be held for questioning for up to 48 hours, after which he can be either released, told to return for further question-ing later, or brought before a judge to potentially face charges. AGENCIES

Pak court upholds death sentence of convict in 7-yr-old's rape-murder LAHORE: A Pakistani court has upheld the death sentence of a man convicted in the brutal rape and murder of a seven-year-old girl that shook the entire nation and sparked outrage.

In the first ever trial in the country's history that con-cluded in shortest period of four days, an anti-terrorism court last month sentenced to death 23-year-old Imran Ali on four grounds -- murdering a child, kidnapping a child, rape of a minor, and committing an unnatural act with a minor.

The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Tuesday upheld the verdict of the anti-terrorism court that awarded death sen-tence to Ali.

Ali was arrested in January, two weeks after he raped and killed the 7-year-old girl and

threw her body into a garbage dump in Kasur city, some 50 kilometres from Lahore.

The brutal rape and murder of the child had sparked outrage and protests across the country. Her case was the twelfth such incident to occur within a 10 kilometre radius in Kasur city over a 12-month period.

The arrest brought to light seven more such crimes and many Pakistanis have demanded he be publicly executed.

A division bench of the LHC comprising Justice Sadaqat Ali Khan and Justice Shehram

Sarwar Chaudhry dismissed Ali's appeal against his convic-tion after hearing arguments from the prosecution and the defence counsel. The convict's lawyer advocate Asad Jamal questioned the admissibility of the DNA findings which the trial court had relied on when handing down the sentence. He said there was a misconception that the DNA test was foolproof evidence. The court could not blindly rely on that evidence.

Ali pleaded he should be treated with leniency because by confessing to his crime he had saved court's time.

Additional Prosecutor Gen-eral Abdul Samad said the trial court had awarded punish-ment in the light of the con-vict's confession, DNA analysis and witnesses who had testified against him. AGENCIES

Austin bombings suspect blows

himself upWASHINGTON: A man being sought over the Austin parcel bombings blew himself up on Wednesday inside his car as police moved in to arrest him, police said.

"The suspect is deceased," Austin police chief Brian Man-ley told a news conference.

Manley said the suspect is believed to be responsible for all five bomb explosions that have killed two and wounded several more and put people on edge in the Texas capital since March 2.

Police traced the man's car to a hotel outside Austin.

As authorities waited for tactical teams to arrive, the man started to drive away. And as police moved to stop and arrest him the man detonated a bomb inside his car and was killed, Manley said. AGENCIES

19 dead as bus plunges off Philippine cliff

MANILA: Nineteen people were killed and 21 others injured when a bus veered off the road and plunged down a ravine in the central Philippines, police said on Wednesday.

The bus was heading to the capital Manila when it crashed through the railing of a bridge on Mindoro island late last night, said regional police spokeswoman Imelda Tolentino.

"The survivors said the driver lost control of the vehicle and that is why it fell," she said.

"Police are investigating why the driver lost control -- whether there was mechanical trouble or the driver fell asleep," she said.

The bus driver was among the deceased, she added.

Police photos showed rescue workers clambering down the cliff to reach the bus, which lay on its side amongst trees and grass about 15 metres below

the road.The accident occurred near

Sablayan town, which is about 195 kilometres south of Manila.

Road accidents are com-mon in the Philippines, where inadequately maintained buses and poorly trained drivers form the backbone of land transport options.

In 2010, 41 people died, including five foreigners, when a packed bus plunged into a deep ravine in the northern Philippines.

Another 31 people perished in bus crash in the country's north in April last year while 20 were killed when two buses col-lided in the north in December.

Public transport regula-tors on Wednesday suspended the bus company involved in the Mindoro crash and said they would be inspecting its facilities. AGENCIES

Israel summons Austrian diplomat over ‘Nazi’ T-shirt VIENNA: Austria's foreign ministry has summoned an attache from its embassy in Israel after he posted a picture of himself on social media wearing a T-shirt bearing the name of a Nazi tank division. A screenshot of the post on Juergen-Michael Kleppich's Facebook page shows him in the green shirt with the words "Stand your ground" and "Frundsberg", the Falter weekly reported. The last name of Georg von Frundsberg, who was a mercenary in the 15th century, was used by the Nazis during World War II for its 10th SS Panzer division. The garment is sold by Phalanx Europa, an online shop that sells "patriotic" clothing for followers of the nativist Identitarian move-ment. The episode is the latest embarrassment for a member of the far-right Freedom Party (FPOe) since it came to power in December in a coalition with the centre-right People's Party. AGENCIES

ICA/T 2187(3)/2018

ICA/T 2208(3)/2018

ICA/T 2209(5)/2018

mp world 11MILLENNIUM POST | Kolkata | Thursday, 22 March, 2018

IS fidayeen kills 32 as Afghans celebrate Persian new year

KABUL: An Islamic State sui-cide bomber struck on the road to a Shiite shrine in Afghani-stan's capital on Wednesday, killing at least 32 people as Afghans celebrated the Per-sian new year.

The Public Health Ministry said another 52 people were wounded in the attack, which was carried out by a bomber on foot.

The Islamic State group claimed the attack in an online statement, according to the SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors jihadi websites. IS said the attack targeted "a gathering of Shiites celebrat-ing Nauruz."

The Persian new year, known in Afghanistan as Nau-ruz, is a national holiday, and the country's minority Shiites typically celebrate by visiting shrines.

The Sunni extremists of IS have repeatedly targeted Shi-ites, who they view as apostates deserving of death.

The attack took place near Kabul University and a gov-

ernment hospital, around one kilometer away from the Sakhi shrine, where people were gathered to celebrate the new year, said Gen. Daud Amin, Kabul's police chief.

Daud said the attacker man-aged to slip past police check-points set up along the road. He said an investigation into the security breach is under-way, and that anyone found to have neglected his duties would be punished.

The same shrine was attacked in October 2016 when Islamic State gunmen

killed 18 people gathered to mark Ashura, an important date for many Muslims, espe-cially Shiites.

A man who was standing metres from where the explo-sion happened told Tolo News that he saw “at least four bodies in blood” on the ground.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the assault but Taliban and Islamic State militants have increas-ingly targeted the war-weary city in recent months.

The blast comes days after a Taliban suicide attacker blew

up a bomb-laden car in the Afghan capital, causing mul-tiple casualties.

The Taliban faces grow-ing pressure to take up a recent offer by Afghan Pres-ident Ashraf Ghani of peace talks to end the 16-year war. So far it has given only a muted response.

This latest suicide attack underscores the growing chal-lenge facing Afghan and for-eign forces to protect the already heavily militarised city.

Authorities had increased security ahead of Nawrooz fes-tivities, which militants have previously struck with deadly force. General John Nichol-son, who leads US and NATO forces in Afghanistan, recently told reporters that protecting Kabul was a priority for for-eign troops.

“Kabul is our main effort right now, to harden Kabul, to protect the people of Kabul and the international commu-nity that are here because of the strategic impact that has and the importance to the cam-

paign,” Nicholson said.The latest attack comes as

US Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff General Joseph Dun-ford visits Afghanistan to assess the military campaign against insurgents.

Despite calls for the Taliban to sit down with the Afghan government, it appears to have few reasons to negotiate.

The group has been resur-gent since the withdrawal of US-led NATO combat troops at the end of 2014, taking back territory and devastat-ing Afghanistan’s beleaguered security forces.

In October, insurgents con-trolled or influenced nearly half of Afghanistan’s districts -- double the percentage in 2015, the US government’s office of the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruc-tion said in January.

Over the same period, the watchdog said, the num-ber of districts under Afghan government control or influ-ence fell to its lowest level since December 2015. AGENCIES

WhatsApp co-founder joins #DeleteFacebook mission

NEW YORK: WhatsApp mes-saging service co-founder has urged users to "delete" Facebook amid a massive data harvesting scandal in which information of 50 million people was leaked allegedly to influence the 2016 US presidential election.

WhatsApp co-founder Brian Acton left Facebook in Sep-tember last year and joined a foundation.

"It is time. #deletefacebook," CNN quoted Acton as saying.

Acton co-founded What-sApp with Jan Koum which was acquired by Facebook in Febru-ary, 2014 for USD 19 billion.

Momentum gathered behind the #DeleteFacebook campaign, with several media outlets publishing guides to per-manently deleting your Face-book account, CNN reported.

The backlash has spooked investors, leading shares in the company to fall by more than 9 per cent over the last two days wiping almost USD 50 billion off the valuation of the com-pany, the report said.

In the US, the Federal Trade Commission will examine whether the social networking

site violated a 2011 agreement with the agency over data pri-vacy, after reports that a firm called Global Science Research harvested information relating to 50 million Facebook profiles and provided the data to Cam-bridge Analytica.

Meanwhile in the UK, MPs summoned Facebook's chief executive Mark Zuckerberg to give evidence to a select com-mittee investigating fake news.

UK's Information Commis-sioner Elizabeth Denham ear-lier said she would be applying to court for a warrant to search the offices of Cambridge Ana-lytica the UK-based political consulting firm accused of using the data of 50 million Facebook members to influence the 2016 US presidential election. AGENCIES

South Korea fines FB for limiting user access

SEOUL: South Korea's tele-coms regulator says it is fining Facebook for illegally limiting user access to its services.

The Korea Communi-cations Commission said Wednesday that Facebook should pay 396 million won ( 369,400) as a penalty for alleged violations of the com-munications law from late 2016-2017, following reports it had interfered with some local users' access to Facebook and Instagram.

The Korea Communica-tions Commission probed claims that Facebook inten-tionally slowed access while it negotiated network usage fees with internet service providers.

Facebook didn't respond to a request for comment. Earlier, the company said it was striv-ing to provide better services to Korean users. AGENCIES

China building world's fastest hypersonic wind tunnel to develop super fast aircraft

BEIJING: China is building the world's fastest hypersonic wind tunnel to develop a new genera-tion of super-fast airplanes that could fly from Beijing to New York within two hours, official media reported.

A wind tunnel is a tool used in aerodynamic research to study the effects of air mov-ing past solid objects. Engineers use wind tunnels to test mod-els of aircraft, automobiles and other machines.

"The 265-metre-long tunnel can be used to test hypersonic aircraft that can travel at speeds of up to Mach 25 (30,625 kph), 25 times the speed of sound," Han Guilai, a researcher with China's State Key Laboratory of High Temperature Gas Dynam-ics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) said.

Han said the current wind tunnel could simulate flights ranging from Mach 5 to 9. Researchers from CAS in Bei-jing have successfully tested one hypersonic plane in a wind tun-nel at such speeds, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

The research was published in the journal 'Science China:

Physics, Mechanics & Astron-omy' last month, the report said.

It unveiled the 'I Plane' model, which is capable of trans-porting people and payloads from Beijing to New York within two hours, beating any com-mercial airline flight which now takes over 13 hours. The new wind tunnel will help China take the lead in wind tunnel building,

though competition from other countries is still fierce, Han said.

"The new tunnel will aid the engineering application of hypersonic technology by duplicating the environment of extreme hypersonic flights. Once issues are discovered dur-ing these ground tests, they will be ironed out before test flights begin," Han said. AGENCIES

China testing unmanned Type 59 tanks

BEIJING, CHINA: China is testing unmanned tanks which could be equipped with artificial intelligence, a state-run newspaper said on Wednesday, as the country continues with its military modernisation programme.

State television showed images this week of the unmanned tanks undergo-ing testing, the Global Times newspaper reported.

Footage showed a Type 59 tank being driven by remote control, in what the paper said was the first time a Chi-nese-made unmanned tank has been shown in a public forum.

The Type 59 tank is based on an old Soviet model first used in China in the 1950s and has been produced in large numbers and has a long service life, it said. AGENCIES

The 'I Plane' model is capable of transporting people and payloads from Beijing to New York in just two hours, beating any current commercial airline flight... which now takes over 13 hours

LONDON: Meghan Markle will join the royal waxwork line-up at Madame Tussauds museum in London alongside her fiance Prince Harry in early May, before their wedding on May 19, the museum announced on Wednesday.

The world-famous attraction announced the addition of the 36-year-old American actress to its collection in royal style out-side Buckingham Palace.

"Giving Meghan the royal welcome she deserves, the offi-cial notice of Ms Markle's immi-nent arrival was placed on a golden easel outside Bucking-ham Palace, confirming the news she will join the rest of the royal family at the attraction in time for her upcoming nup-tials to Prince Harry," Madame Tussauds said in a statement.

It employed the services of an infamous 81-year-old roy-alist Anthony Appleton, who dressed up as a "town crier" to make the announcement in tra-ditional style associated with English royalty.

Appleton rang the bell and bellowed: "Oyez! Oyez! Edward

Fuller, general manager of Madame Tussauds London, is proud to announce the immi-nent arrival of her royal likeness Meghan Markle."

In a reference to the actress' most famous role as a lawyer in 'Suits', he added: "The future princess, bride-to-be and queen of the courtroom will be safely delivered to the world-famous London attraction in early May 2018".

The details of the waxwork, including the chosen outfit and stance, will remain secret until the unveiling in early May.

But the museum said the choice will reflect an iconic moment in the actress' royal

journey so far. "Excitement for the royal couple's wedding reaches across the globe so it will come as no surprise that we've been secretly working away on a Meghan Markle figure since news of the royal engagement broke, said Madame Tussauds London's General Manager Edward Fuller.

"It's clear that the public has already taken Meghan to their hearts. One half of arguably the most famous couple in the world right now she's already made her own mark as a humanitarian and role model. We're excited to give guests the chance to 'meet' her in attraction later this year," he said. AGENCIES

Meghan to figure in Madame Tussauds royal line-up by May

Cyanide may have been key to origin of life

Dutch vote in referendum on govt powers to tap online data

THE HAGUE: Dutch voters go to the polls on Wednesday in local elections with far-right parties seeking gains and all eyes on a referendum on plans to broaden government online spying powers.

Most polling stations across the Netherlands open at 7:30 am with more than 12 million voters eligible to pick council-lors in the 380 municipalities. Ballots close at 9:00 pm.

But political analysts say the local vote is being dwarfed by a simultaneous referendum over whether to back a new online security law giving Dutch intel-ligence services sweeping pow-ers to tap online data.

"The consultative referen-dum on the law concerning the Dutch secret services ... is dom-inating the news," said Ruud Koole, political science profes-sor at Leiden University.

The referendum on the new security laws -- which would allow the Dutch secret service AIVD to trawl for information by tapping into internet fibre-optic cables -- was conceived by Amsterdam students.

Angered by what they see

as a bid to hand the authorities over-arching powers, the stu-dents gathered enough support to force a non-binding refer-endum on the law, set to come into effect on May 1.

Proponents of the legis-lation say it will give security services greater ability to moni-tor dangerous groups such as jihadist organisations.

Prime Minister Mark Rutte has been among those urging voters to back the new law at the ballot box, saying it will help protect the country.

One of the latest polls said 53 percent of those planning to vote would back the law, with 34 percent against, according

to the ANP news agency.But critics, including rights

organisations, fear private data unrelated to any investigation, will also be scooped up by the government. It has "not been ruled out that information could be shared with repres-sive regimes," argued Amnesty International.

"The work and lives of activ-ists and journalists could thus be endangered," it has claimed.

On Wednesday's ballot is also seen as a test for far-right MP Geert Wilders, who bar-relled his way into second place in general elections last year with his Freedom Party (PVV). AGENCIES

S Korea musicians to play first concert in North since 2007SEOUL: K-pop stars will play the first concerts by South Korean artists in the North for more than a decade, officials said, as the dramatic thaw in relations kicked off by the recent Winter Olympics gathers pace. Seoul will send a total of 160 performers to Pyongyang for a four day visit from March 31 to April 3, ac-cording to a statement issued after inter-Korean talks at the border truce village of Panmunjom.

The group will include local pop legends Cho Yong-pil and Choi Jin-Hee, five-member K-pop group Red Velvet and Seohyun, a member of the famous K-pop group Girls' Generation. They will stage the first performances by South Korean acts in the North since 2007. "It was not easy to select songs that are wanted by both sides," Yoon Sang, South Korea's chief delegate to the talks, told a press briefing on Tuesday. AGENCIES

SEOUL: K-pop stars will play the first concerts by South Korean artists in the North for more than a decade, officials said, as the dramatic thaw in relations kicked off by the recent Winter Olympics gathers pace.

Seoul will send a total of 160 performers to Pyongyang for a four day visit from March 31 to April 3, according to a statement issued after inter-Korean talks at the border truce village of Pan-munjom. The group will include

local pop legends Cho Yong-pil and Choi Jin-Hee, five-mem-ber K-pop group Red Velvet and Seohyun, a member of the famous K-pop group Girls' Gen-eration. They will stage the first performances by South Korean acts in the North since 2007.

"It was not easy to select songs that are wanted by both sides," Yoon Sang, South Korea's chief delegate to the talks, told a press briefing on Tuesday.

Seoul said the North had

invited the art troupe "in order to keep the momentum for peace and reconciliation", which was galvanised by the Winter Olympics and built on when South Korean special envoys met North Korean leader Kim Jong Un earlier this month.

The North sent its own art troupe to South Korea to cel-ebrate the the Olympics last month, with 140 members of the Samjiyon Orchestra stag-ing two performances. AGENCIES

Hawking ashes to be buried at Westminster Abbey... near Newton and Darwin

LONDON: Stephen Hawking’s ashes will be buried near the graves of fellow British scien-tists Isaac Newton and Charles Darwin at Westminster Abbey, it was announced Tuesday.

The remains of the legend-ary physicist and icon, who died last week, will be laid in the church during a thanksgiv-ing service later this year, the abbey said.

His family earlier confirmed the funeral will take place on March 31 at Great St Mary’s church in Cambridge Univer-sity, a short distance from Gon-ville and Caius College, where Hawking worked at unlocking the secrets of the universe for more than 52 years.

Hawking died aged 76 on March 14 after a cosmic career in which his mental genius transcended his physi-cal disability.

Propelled to stardom by his 1988 book “A Brief History of Time”, an unlikely worldwide bestseller, Hawking’s genius and wit won over fans from far beyond the rarefied world of

astrophysics.As a scientist, he earned

comparisons with Newton and Albert Einstein.

Family, friends and col-leagues will be invited to the private funeral service, which takes place at 2:00pm (1300 GMT). A private reception will be held afterwards at Trin-ity College.

Hawking was famously an atheist, something his children Lucy, Robert and Tim touched on, as they thanked people for their “wonderful tributes” and messages of condolence.

“Our father lived and worked in Cambridge for over 50 years. He was an integral and highly recognisable part of the university and the city,” they said. AGENCIES

Brian Acton

ABRIDGED -e-NIT e-NIT ref. no. Name of work Estimated Amount Last date of bid

submissionNIT-198of2017-18

Improvement of riding quality of existing road from Rampur to Daralhat road Tapan Block in the district of Dakshin Dinajpur.(Length : 6.20 Km)

` 2,51,91,690.00 11/04/2018 upto15:00 Hours

NIT-199of2017-18

Extension of Shree AgrasenMahavidyalaya, Dalk-hola G + 3 Structure in the district of Uttar Dinaj-pur, West Bengal. (Civil Portion)

` 6,95,44,695.00 11/04/2018 upto15:00 Hours

Sd/- Superintending Engineer North Bengal Development Department

Details can be seen in the Official Website www.wbnorthbengaldev.gov.in For all details and online tender submission visit https://wbtenders.gov.in

Government of West Bengal North Bengal Development Department

Branch Secretariat Uttarkanya, Fulbari, Jalpaiguri

ABRIDGED -e-NIQ NIQ ref. no. Name of work Last Date of

Submission of Quotation

Date & Time of open-ing Quotation

NIQ No. 124 of 2017-18

Preparation of Detailed Project Report (DPR) for “Construction of Pundibari Hat (G+2) and fish stall near Pundibari Hat, Harimandir at Pundibari, district Coochbehar. (Area -1000 Sq.m, approx.)”.

04/04/2018 upto 12.00 p.m

06/04/2018 upto 12:30 p.m

Sd/- Execurtive Engineer North Bengal Development Department

Details can be seen in the Official Website www.wbnorthbengaldev.gov.in For all details and online tender submission visit https://wbtenders.gov.in

Government of West Bengal North Bengal Development Department

Branch Secretariat Uttarkanya, Fulbari, Jalpaiguri

ABRIDGED -e-NIT NIT ref. no.

Name of work Estimated Amount

Last date of bid submission

NIT-196OF2017-18

Face Lifting, Renovation and Modernization of Maharaja Nrip-endra Narayan SmritiSadan Audi-torium at Dinhata in the district of Coochbehar

Rs.2,66,23,315.00

16/04/2018 upto 15:00 Hours

NIT-197 OF2017-18

Construction of Two nos. Police Barrack (Building Block ‘C’ & ‘D’, Civil and S & P works) nearUttar-kannya Campus Beside “Kanny-ashree campus” at Fulbari in the District Of Jalpaiguri

Rs. 1,31,07,228.00

16/04/2018 upto 15:00 Hours

Sd/- Superintendin EngineerNorth Bengal Development Department

Details can be seen in the Official Website www.wbnorthbengaldev.gov.in For all details and online tender submission visit https://wbtenders.gov.in

Government of West Bengal North Bengal Development Department

Branch Secretariat Uttarkanya, Fulbari, Jalpaiguri

Siliguri Jalpaiguri Development Authority

mp business12MILLENNIUM POST | Kolkata | Thursday, 22 March, 2018

NEW DELHI: The government's move to extend the facility of hiring workers on fixed term em-ployment to all sectors will boost job creation in the near future, industry body Ficci said on Wednesday. In a statement, Ficci President Rashesh Shah said the move will help compa-nies to employ people for a fixed duration for which they have orders or assignments and there will be no burden of carry-over of extra labour force during the lean season.Since, the provisions under the existing labour laws did not provide for such flexibility, industry had inhibitions in engaging extra labour to dis-charge timely commitments like export orders. The amendment will certainly remove this hurdle and employment generation will receive an impetus in coming months, Shah said. The government has extended the facility of hiring workers on fixed term employment to all sec-tors for improving the ease of doing business for players intending to hire people for complet-ing specified projects, tasks or orders.This facility was available only for the apparel manufacturing sector as per the Industrial Establishment (Standing Order), 1946. The concept of fixed term employment defines the tenure of employment as well as other associ-ated conditions of service and remunerations which are provided to regular employees under various labour laws. PTI

Meanwhile, India Inc chips in to justify Govt decision

NEW DELHI: Regulator Sebi is considering a new set of norms for auditors and other third-party fiduciaries in the securities market under which defaulters will face stringent penal actions, including ban on issuance of audit or valua-tion reports and disgorgement of unlawful gains and their fees.

The proposed move assumes significance as the role of auditors and valuers has come under scanner in a num-ber of high-profile cases such as the Satyam and Kingfisher frauds, as also the PNB scam, WhatsApp leak and the Fortis matter in the recent past.

Sebi is looking to enhance the regulatory oversight to check such frauds in future

with the new regulations for fiduciaries in the securities markets, which will require additional disclosure require-ments and greater scrutiny of financial statements by auditors and other third party entities, a senior official said.

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has prepared a draft consul-tation paper for the proposed regulations, which is expected to be placed before its board at its next meeting on March 28, sources said.

The final regulations would be put in place after taking into account comments from all stakeholders on the consulta-tion paper.

Asked about the rationale

behind a new set of norms, a senior official said investor con-fidence is fundamental to the successful operation of securi-ties market and it depends on investors having credible and reliable financial information when making decisions about capital allocation.

"One of the prime objec-tives of Sebi is to ensure that there should be full, timely and accurate disclosure of finan-cial results and other infor-mation that is material to

investors' decision," he said, while pointing to alleged lapses at various levels in cases like WhatsApp leak of financial results, the PNB scam and the matters concerning Fortis and Satyam-PwC.

The official explained that the information which has gone through various third-party fiduciaries such as audi-tors, merchant bankers, rating agencies, cost accountants and valuers are often considered as "basis of most of the invest-ment and financial decisions of the investors", and these enti-ties are seen as "principal gate-keepers or conscience keepers" and there must not be any lack of efforts in flagging lapses or potential risks.

While entities such as mer-chant bankers, rating agencies, custodians, debenture trustees and registrar to public issues are registered with the capital mar-kets regulator under specific regulations, some other fidu-ciaries like practising chartered accountants and company sec-retaries, cost accountants, val-uers and monitoring agencies are not registered with Sebi.

To fill this gap, a high-level panel on corporate gov-ernance, headed by eminent banker Uday Kotak, had also suggested that Sebi should have clear powers to act against auditors and other third-party fiduciaries with statutory duties in case of frauds as well as gross negligence. PTI

MUMBAI: In what could fur-ther delay the resolution of Essar Steel that owes over Rs 45,000 crore to lenders, the SBI-led consortium of cred-itors on Wednesday rejected the bids by Numetal, an SPV floated by Russian lender VTB Bank and Rewant Ruia, and ArcelorMittal,finding them ineligible under the IBC laws that debar related parties from bidding.

The decision to reject both the bids was taken at a meeting of the committee of creditors (CoC) of Essar Steel here on Wednesday, a banking source said, adding however, they have voted to allow a second round of bidding for the nearly crip-pled 10-million tonne-asset at Hazira in Gujarat.

"They (Numetal and Arce-lorMittal) were found to be ineligible under Section 29 A of the amended IBC. They did not fall under the satisfactory cri-terion that the defaulting pro-moters' link should not be there or connected persons should not be there in the new com-pany that is bidding," a bank-ing source said.

Numetal and ArcelorMit-tal were the only two bidders for Essar Steel which owe the banks over Rs 45,000 crore.

These companies have put up their bids on February 12 but have since been battling with each other amidst ques-tions about their very eligibil-ity to bid.

Even though the Luxem-bourg-based ArcelorMittal has teamed up with Nip-pon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corp to bid for Essar Steel, it has been found ineligible for its joint venture with Uttam Galva, which is at the NCLT

awaiting resolution now, and Numetal's bid was done in by the fact that one of the promot-ers of the special purpose vehi-cle is Rewant Ruia, the son of an Essar Group promoter Ravi Ruia, one of the original pro-moters of Essar Steel.

Bankers, however said if these companies delinked their connection from the promot-ers or standardise their loans they can bid again in the sec-ond round of bidding.

The lenders have set an April 2 deadline for the second round of bidding for Essar Steel that owes over Rs 45,000 crore to over 30 banks and other creditors. But this is unlikely to yield the desired results as biggies like Tata Steel, the Anil Aggrawal-led Vedanta and JSW Steel have reportedly decided against bidding for Essar Steel.

The shareholders of the Mauritius-based Numetal, a special purpose vehicle that focuses on steel and infra space along with manufacturing, are VTB Capital, the PE arm of the Russian state-owned lender VTB Bank and Aurora Trusts in which Rewant Ruia is a ben-eficiary and owns 25 per cent.

The other promoters

include the Russian steel and engineering major TyazhPro-mExports (TPE) and Indo International, a Dubai-based metals trading firm promoted by an NRI. VTB Capital owns majority in Numetal.

Bids of these firms were evaluated by resolution pro-fessional Satish Kumar Gupta, along with risk advisory Grant Thornton and law firm Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas.

The rejection comes a day after Numetal moved the Ahmedabad National Com-pany Law Tribunal seeking to declare its eligibility, as it appre-hended that all the full facts it submitted to the RP were not assessed properly.

Earlier in the day, Numetal in a statement had said it had filed an application the Ahemd-abad bench of NCLT to declare its elegibility as it "apprehends that full facts submitted by it for eligibility to submit a resolution plan have not been appropri-ately assessed by the RP."

An industry observer said following the rejection of its bid, Numetal may ask Rewant Ruia to exit the firm, something that the company was anyway ready to do. PTI

NEW DELHI: RSS-affiliate Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS) on Wednesday criticised the government for extending fixed term employment to all sector, saying this will legalise hire and fire, while permanent jobs would vanish.

"Government should imme-diately withdraw the contro-versial new notification on 'fixed term employment' which extends it to all employments in the country," said Saji Naray-anan C K, President, Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh in a statement.

The BMS said that by this notification that amends the Industrial Employment (Stand-ing Orders) Central Rules, 1946, permanent employment will vanish from the industrial sec-tor and all jobs will be converted into temporary contract works for a fixed period only.

The union said, "It is also highly objectionable that a fixed term contract can be even can-celled by the employer unilater-ally by giving only two weeks' notice. None of the objections raised by the BMS was accepted by the Government. Hire and fire will become the legalised rule in the labour sector. There will not be any permanent rela-tionship between worker and industry".

Earlier this month, the government has amended the Industrial Employment (Stand-ing Orders) Central Rules, 1946 to extend the facility of fixed term employment to all sec-

tors. It was available for apparel manufacturing sector earlier.

The BMS said that creating workers who do not own their industry and without perma-nent commitment or relation-ship with the industry, will be a hazard for industrial growth. Instead, the government should stop the increasing contractu-alisation in permanent jobs in the country, which is a demand of the joint trade unions.

Fixed term is a new system that replaces the middle man viz contractor in a contract employ-ment. Finance Minister vio-lated the ILO convention 144 on Trade Union Consultation, which was ratified by the Indian Parliament, when he unilat-erally declared that the fixed term employment will be imple-

mented, BMS alleged.Even the government did

not properly conduct several rounds of consultation with trade unions. The amendment is brought in a hasty way. The important amendment has been brought about by an executive order, without the matter being sent to parliament or being sub-jected to the scrutiny of a Par-liamentary Standing Committee on Labour, it said.

This is a backdoor method of bureaucrats taking up the legis-lative power enjoyed by the par-liament on matters of National importance. The amendment is brought about under pres-sure from a powerful Industrial lobby. Studies in Europe have shown that fixed term employ-ment has increased unem-

ployment. This was because employer can easily go for auto-mation or employer can easily close business after a period.

"Ease of Doing Business" will become "Ease of Closing Busi-ness". Studies have shown that it reduces the incentive to invest in labour capital. It can lead to more accidents because long experienced workers are not being engaged, the BMS said.

It further said that in 2003 the Vajpayee government brought fixed term employ-ment. But the UPA govern-ment on seeing protests by trade unions, withdrew the controver-sial amendment. But, again the present government has brought it to made-up sectors, apparel and food processing. Now, it is extended to all sectors. PTI

Fixed term to legalise ‘hire & fire’, warns BJP trade union arm BMS

WASHINGTON DC: The US has decided to slap anti-dumping duty on stainless steel flanges imported from India and China after it found in its preliminary probe that both the countries provided subsidies to the exporters.

President Donald Trump had earlier this month imposed heavy tariffs on imported steel and aluminium which he said were necessary to boost the US industry suffering from "unfair" business practices, a move that has sparked fears of a global trade war.

The Department of Com-merce has found that export-ers from China and India have sold stainless steel flanges in the US at 257.11 per cent and 18.10 to 145.25 per cent less than fair value, respectively, according to an official statement issued on Tuesday.

Following this decision, the commerce department will instruct the US Customs and Border Protection (USCBP) to collect cash deposits from importers of the stainless steel flanges from China and India, based on these preliminary rates, it said.

In 2016, imports of stainless steel flanges from China and India were valued at an esti-mated USD16.3 million and USD32.1 million, respectively.

The preliminary investi-gation was launched by the Department on the petition by the Coalition of American

Flange Producers, including Core Pipe Products Inc. (Carol Stream, IL) and Maass Flange Corporation (Houston).

"The United States will not sit back and watch as our domes-tic businesses are destroyed by unfair foreign government sub-sidies and dumping," US Com-merce Secretary Wilbur Ross said.

"This Administration is tak-ing fair and transparent action on behalf of American industry to defend businesses and work-ers while we continue reviewing the facts related to this deci-sion," he said.

The enforcement of the US trade law is a prime focus of the Trump administration.

From January 20, 2017, through March 20, 2018, the commerce department has ini-tiated 102 anti-dumping and countervailing duty investiga-tions a 96 per cent increase from January 20, 2016 through March 20, 2017, the statement said.

The anti-dumping law pro-vides the US businesses and workers with an internationally accepted mechanism to seek relief from the harmful effects of unfair pricing of imports into the US. PTI

‘Frontline ally’ US slaps anti-dumping duty

on Indian steel flanges

LAS VEGAS: Tech giant IBM on Wednesday announced the formal launch of Watson Assis-tant, a smart enterprise assis-tant powered with artificial intelligence (AI), cloud and the Internet of Things (IoT) and it can be accessed via voice or text interaction.

The smart enterprise assis-tant is aimed at helping busi-nesses enhance their brand loyalty and transform customer experiences even while keep-ing the data private and secure, IBM said.

The announcement was made by Ginni Rometty, CEO of IBM, during her address at the ongoing Think 2018 - the company's flagship conference being held here. Watson has started a very big integrated

system. We broke it into API, we broke it into micro-services. It is now platform for busi-nesses This (Watson Assistant) is pre-trained for hospitality, for automotive; you can embed (it ) in anything (like) customer care, banking and insurance. This is what I mean when I say the inflection point for IBM is all about innovative technolo-gies for you, she said.

Watson Assistant is not just designed for a single location or it doesn't just respond to a per-son's commands.

The enterprise AI assistant helps businesses enhance brand loyalty and transform their cus-tomer experiences by deliver-ing proactive and personalised services while ensuring data privacy.

"It can be accessed via voice or text interaction, depending on the needs of the business and how consumers wish to interact with it, an IBM release

said.Watson Assistant in the

form of Josie Pepper is already in use at the Munich Airport at Terminal 2, acting as an ambas-

sador to interact with and assist passengers as they make their way through the terminal.

IBM Watson Assistant and Watson Conversation Ser-vices were used to develop a rich conversational back-end, providing a range of topics for Josie to discuss - from real-time airport information, to weather and even small talk, IBM source said.

Royal Bank of Scotland is piloting Watson Assistant that will help triage call cen-tre requests by responding to specific customer queries or directing customers to a human agent, source added.

Building on the existing partnership with Apple, IBM also announced that both the companies will combine their

AI and machine-learning tech-nologies to make it easier for developers to build secure AI-powered solutions.

The aim is to allow develop-ers to build apps that continu-ously learn and adapt, Rometty said.

Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam, who was in an inter-active session with Rometty at the Think 2018, said the Amer-ican telecom company touches 1.2 billion consumers a day and is the largest provider of fibre in the U.S.

We have 12 million miles of fibre for the next 3 years, enough to go to Mars. 5G will usher in the fourth indus-trial revolution, McAdam said replying to a query on 5G rollout. PTI

IBM launches AI-powered ‘Watson Assistant’ for biz PANAJI: Sesa Mining Cor-poration Limited (SMCL), a Vedanta Group company, has asked all its workers and staff-ers in Goa not to report for duty with immediate effect in view of the Supreme Court ban on the mining activity.

SMCL, one of the biggest players in iron ore mining in Goa, has several hundred people working on its mining leases in the coastal state.

In a notice, SMCL has asked all its employees “not to report to duty at the mines with immediate effect until further notice”.

“As you are aware that the SC by its order dated February

7 has asked for the stopping of all the mining operations with effect from March 16.

“Also Director of Mines and Geology have directed us to stop extraction of ore and in further communication has directed us to take care of only dewatering, safety and security of mines till further instruc-tion,” reads the notice.

It is beyond the control of the company to continue the operations of the mines consid-ering the SC judgement, it said.

“Hence employees have been adviced not to report for duty at mines with immediate effect until further notice,” it added. PTI

Goa mining ban: Sesa asks staff not to report to duty

Banks throw out ArcelorMittal, Numetal bids for Essar SteelApril 2 is deadline for second round of bidding

Fraud at listed firms: Sebi to rein in erring auditors, valuers

NEW DELHI: Sebi plans to bring in additional disclosure requirements for listed corpo-rates undergoing insolvency resolution process as well as amend norms pertaining to minimum public sharehold-ing norms and other provisions for such entities, a senior offi-cial said.

The proposal comes at a time when there are increas-ing number of cases coming up under the Insolvency and Bank-ruptcy Code (IBC) as entities look to address issues of stressed assets in a time-bound manner.

The regulator is planning to come out with a discussion paper on compliance with Sebi norms by listed companies undergoing insolvency reso-lution process. The proposal is likely to be discussed by Sebi's board during its meeting on

March 28, the official said.Amendments are being pro-

posed for certain Sebi norms on the basis of three stages of Corporate Insolvency Resolu-tion Process -- pre, ongoing and post CIRP stages.

Listed companies under CIRP are likely to be subject to various disclosure require-ments. Such entities would have to disclose about filing of appli-cation for initiation of CIRP as well as when creditors ini-tiate the process and amount of default mentioned in the application.

Besides, the entities would be asked to disclose details about the number of bids received by the insolvency resolution pro-fessional, filing of resolution plan as well as approval of the plan by the NCLT, among oth-ers. PTI

Sebi proposes to amend norms for cos undergoing insolvency proceedings NEW DELHI: Private equity

investments witnessed a two-fold jump in February with transactions worth $1.3 billion taking the deal tally for the first two months of this year to $2.3 billion, says a report.

According to assurance, tax and advisory firm Grant Thornton, in February, there were 62 PE deals worth $1,330 million, while in the corre-sponding period last year there were 45 such transactions worth $588 million.

Investments in start-ups dominated the February deal tally, as this sector contributed 47 per cent of total invest-ment volumes garnering $278 million.

Besides, fintech and discov-ery platforms attracted signifi-cant attention from investors with 5 deals each followed by health tech space with four investments.

The top deal in February

was Bigbasket raising $300 million in its Series E round. Another major funding in food delivery space was Swiggy's $100 million fund raise.

India Grid Trust's (Indi-Grid) acquisition of three transmission assets from its sponsor Sterlite Power Grid Ventures for a consideration of Rs 1,410 crore was the other major deal of the month.

Meanwhile, PE investments in January-February witnessed a sturdy 67 per cent year-on-year growth to $2,313 million on account of increased big ticket investments rounds. PTI

Private equity investments double to $1.3 billion in Feb

NEW DELHI: Primary deal-ers on Wednesday suggested the finance ministry to borrow more through short-term debt instruments to give a boost the Indian bond market.

The finance ministry had convened a meeting of primary dealers ahead of release of bor-rowing calender for the first half of the next financial year.

According to official sources, the dealers have suggested for "more shorter duration gov-ernment debt instruments" to reduce mark to market losses. The government has plans to borrow Rs 4.07 lakh crore from the money market in 2018-19. PTI

Primary dealers pitch for more

short-term debt instruments

mp business 13MILLENNIUM POST | Kolkata | Thursday, 22 March, 2018

NHPC POWERS SIKKIM ECONOMY

NHPC CMD Balraj Joshi at a meeting with Sikkim Chief Minister Pawan Kumar Chamling at New Delhi. The Chief Minister assured Joshi of his cooperation for NHPC to get various clearances and any other support required for the timely execution of the 520-mw Teesta-IV hydroelectric project

SROOTI JHA

NEW DELHI: ATS Infra-structure Group, a realty firm founded by Geetambhar Anand, on Wednesday has ven-tured into mid-income housing segment with a new venture ‘HomeKraft’ under the PMAY scheme in National Capital Region (NCR).

Prasoon Chauhan, a bank-ing veteran with 12 years of experience, has been appointed as the chief executive officer of the project Homekraft.

HomeKraft will develop homes of size ranging from 950 sq ft to 1,600 sq ft and in the price range of Rs 30-70 lakh.

The company will develop projects in the National Capi-tal Region and gradually move to other projects across the country.

All the apartment would qualify under Pradhan Man-tri Awas Yojana (PMAY) and other concessional schemes of the Government such as inter-est subvention under CLSS,

concessions on GST etc and would depend on custom-ers eligibility. The investors are looking to invest about Rs 2,000 crores for construc-tion of these unit which will be attained from mix of inter-nal accruals, debt and private equity funds.

It is already in advance talks with a major private equity

firm to raise the fund within 3 months.

“The firm is looking to reach sales of 6000-6500 units in the next 3‐5 years with expected revenue in the range of Rs 4000-5000 crore,” ATS CMD Getamber Anand said, adding that the first project would be launched by June this year.

ATS has already delivered nearly 7,000 units of apartment build on 30 million square feet of residential space while 40 million square feet of residen-tial space is under construction.

The group has the magnif-icent 3,500 dedicated work-force, extraordinary in-house construction, security, facility and maintenance teams and unmatched brand equity.

Homekraft CEO Prasoon Chauhan said that the venture Homekraft aspires to become one of the top five developers in the country in the next 3-5 years with the perseverance of quality construction and timely delivery.

Homekraft promises to deliver every apartment with maximum space efficiency and integrated utilities which will fulfil the needs of the client.According to Market and hous-ing experts, there is a strong demand for affordable housing segment as also it is a key pillar of Indian Government’s vision of housing for all.

MUMBAI: Sports sponsor-ship grew at 14 per cent in 2017 to Rs 7,300 crore from Rs 6,400 crore in 2016, led by media investments, according to a report.

Media investments contrib-uted to the largest portion of the pie with 55 per cent of over-all spends, followed by ground sponsorships, the ESP Proper-ties - SportzPower report said.

Media spends on sports grew by 15.8 per cent from Rs 3,511 crore to Rs 4,065 crore.

"Media spends driven even more strongly in 2017 by tele-vision, which grew an incred-ible 42.7 per cent, from Rs 2,367 crore to Rs 3,379 crore," it said.

On ground sponsorship grew by 14.7 per cent from Rs 1,165 crore to Rs 1,337 crore. Team Sponsorship was up by 17.1 per cent in 2017 from Rs 700 crore to Rs 819 crore, while franchise fees rose 24.8 per cent from Rs 548 crore to Rs 684 crore, led by developments in sports except cricket.

As per GroupM's forecast, Indian advertising expenditure in 2017 was Rs 61,263 crore, and the report estimates 12 per cent contribution to the overall ad spends are from sports spon-sorship alone.

"While demonetisation

and GST hit overall ad expen-diture in 2017, the sports sec-tor has been able to ride the storm with a steady and posi-tive trajectory. All major sport-ing leagues managed to bring on board sponsors at a 100 per cent or more incremental value for the title sponsorship. Spe-cifically, the IPL has emerged as one of the top five most valu-able global sports properties in the world," the report said.

Overall sports endorse-ments has de-grown by 17 per

cent, primarily due to Lionel Messi and Tiger Woods's deals got over with Tata Motors and Hero MotoCorp, respectively.

However, cricket endorse-ment has grown by 15.5 per cent, with Indian cricket cap-tain Virat Kohli leading with 19 brands and over Rs 150 crore worth of endorsement value. Ace badminton player PV Sindhu is leading the non-cricket endorsement space with 11 brands and over Rs 30 crore worth of endorsement value. PTI

NEW DELHI: The banking division in the Department of Financial Services and the Department of Telecommu-nications (DoT) received the maximum number of com-plaints in the last three years, the government informed the Lok Sabha on Wednesday.

A total of 1,06,299 and 1,21,075 complaints were received by the DFS (banking division) and DoPT last year, according to a reply given by Union minister Jitendra Singh in the House.

There were 88,850 and 53,776 complaints against the banking division in 2016 and 2015 respectively, the min-ister of state for personnel, public grievances and pen-sions said.

The DoT received 67,551 and 63,929 complaints in 2016 and 2015 respectively. A large number of com-plaints were disposed of by the banking division and the DoT.

The complaints were received through the Cen-tralised Public Grievance Redress and Monitoring System (CPGRAMS) — an online mechanism. PTI

Banks, telecom depts got most

complaints in last 3 years

Nation’s sports sponsorship industry grew 14% in 2017

NEW DELHI: State-owned Indian Oil Corp (IOC) has launched home-delivery of die-sel on a pilot basis in Pune and plans to expand doorstep deliv-ery of the fuel to other parts of the country in near future, its Chairman Sanjiv Singh said on Wednesday.

The country's biggest oil company has mounted a die-sel dispenser, similar to the one seen at petrol pumps, on a mid-sized truck along with a storage tank for delivering the fuel at customers doorsteps in Pune.

"We are the first company to have started doorstep delivery after receiving clearance from the Petroleum and Explosives Safety Organisation (PESO)," he said.

The doorstep delivery has been launched on a pilot basis in Pune and it would be expanded to other cities based on the response it gets during the three-month trial period, he said, adding that the same on petrol too would be started soon. Initially, the company is targeting 'static customers' like shopping malls and commer-cial establishments that use diesel in gensets for produc-ing electricity, and transport

companies with large diesel consumption.

"Doorstep delivery is not a substitute for sale through retail outlets (petrol pumps). It is meant to serve consum-ers, say a farm harvester, for whom it doesn't make sense to travel to a petrol pump just to refuel," he said.

Like IOC, other two state-owned fuel retailers, Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd (HPCL) and Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd (BPCL) too have got PESO approval for a trial run of door-

step diesel delivery. They will be given different geographies for the trial run. Depending on the response, the trial run be extended to other cities.

"We have to develop a busi-ness model for doorstep deliv-ery," Singh said adding mobile dispenser for door delivery of fuel can be used in areas where there is no petrol pump in a radius of 5-km. Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan had in April last year stated that the government was looking at options to home deliver petrol

and diesel to cut queues at fuel stations and give consumers an option.

But, for home delivery of fuel, a clearance from PESO is required as both petrol and diesel are highly inflamma-ble fuels and require adequate safety precautions. So far, PESO has given approval for door-step delivery of diesel only on a trial basis.

India currently has 61,983 petrol pumps with state-owned firms operating 90 per cent of them. PTI

IOC powers diesel home delivery with pilot project

BRUSSELS: The EU on Wednesday approved the pro-posed blockbuster buyout of US agri-giant Monsanto by German chemical firm Bayer after securing concessions in order to win approval.

"We have approved Bayer's plans to take over Monsanto because the parties' remedies, worth well over 6 billion euros ($7.4 billion), meet our com-petition concerns in full," said Commissioner Margrethe Vestager, the EU's anti-trust chief.

Brussels launched an in-depth investigation in August into the $66 billion (56-billion-euro) deal, which would create the world's largest integrated pesticides and seeds com-pany and raised alarm among activists.

The European Commis-sion, which serves as the pow-erful anti-trust regulator for the 28-nation European Union, at the time cited concerns it

could reduce competition in key products for farmers.

Brussels made the decesion despite opposition by environ-mentalists who fear that the deal gives too much power to the world's leading manu-facturers of genetically modi-fied organisms (GMOs) and the controversial weedkiller glyphosate.

The tie-up has already won approval by Chinese author-ities, but still awaits the cru-cial approval by US regulators, which have voiced concerns.

The EU has won sev-eral concessions from Bayer including the announced sale in October by Bayer of parts of its agrochemical business to German rival BASF. PTI

ATS group to invest `2,000 cr on building affordable homes under PMAY scheme

ATS CMD Getamber Anand with HomeKraft CEO Prasoon Chauhan at a press conference organised to launch the new venture under PMAY in New Delhi on Wednesday PIC/ NAVEEN SHARMA

NEW DELHI: Allocation of 11 mines to Coal India (CIL) arms - ECL, WCL and BCCL - will enhance its annual output by 225 million tonnes (MT), Parliament was informed on Wednesday.

CIL has requested the gov-ernment for allotment of addi-tional coal mines to Eastern Coalfields Ltd (ECL), Bharat Coking Coal Ltd (BCCL) and Western Coalfields Ltd (WCL) to make these subsidiaries 100 MT-plus as these arms do not have adequate coal reserves at present, Coal and Railways Minister Piyush Goyal told Lok Sabha in a written reply.

Considering the request of CIL, 11 coal mines have been allocated to CIL under the pro-visions of the Coal Mines (Spe-cial Provisions) Act, 2015, and the MMDR Act, 1957, Goyal said. "Addition of these 11 coal mines will add about 225 MT of coal in its annual produc-tion capacity," the minister said.

Five of these mines are in Jharkhand, of which three have been allotted to ECL and two to BCCL. Of the remain-ing six mines, four are in Odi-sha and have been allotted to WCL, while the two in Bihar have been given to BCCL. PTI

11 mines allotted to Coal India, to add 225 mt in annual output

NEW DELHI: To promote environment-friendly uses of coal, Coal India is planning to set up plants for coal gasifica-tion, Parliament was informed on Wednesday.

To promote cleaner and alternate use of coal, CIL is pursuing initiatives for set-ting up plants for gasification of coal and its further process-ing into downstream chemi-cals, Coal and Power Minister Piyush Goyal said in a written reply to the Lok Sabha. "In this direction, CIL has formed a JV

company along with RCF, GAIL and FCIL, namely; Talcher Fer-tilizers Ltd to set up a coal based Ammonia-Urea plant at Talcher, Odisha, through surface coal gasification route," Goyal said.

He said the government has already taken several ini-tiatives to improve the efficiency of coal based power plants and to reduce carbon footprint.

All new, large coal-based generating stations have been mandated to use the highly effi-cient supercritical technology, he said. PTI

CIL to set up plants for coal gasification: Goyal

Coal India’s price realisation through FSAs dips 3.4% in Q3NEW DELHI: Average price realisation of coal sold by CIL through fuel supply pacts fell 3.4% to Rs 1,182 per tonne in October-December in comparison to the previous quarter, Parliament was informed on Wednesday. "Average price re-alisation of coal sold by CIL through Fuel Supply Agreement (FSA) for the quarters ended Decem-ber 31, 2017 and September 30, 2017 is Rs 1,182 per tonne and Rs 1,224 per tonne, respectively. PTI

NEW DELHI: State-run power equipment maker BHEL on Wednesday said it has entered into a tech-nology collaboration agree-ment (TCA) with HLB Power, Republic of Korea.

The collaboration is for in-house design and manufacture of large size gates and damp-ers for use in coal fired power

plants, to be commissioned or retrofitted with high capacity emission control equipment, a BHEL statement said.

In the presence of Atul Sobti, CMD, BHEL, the TCA was signed by Subrata Biswas, Director (E, R&D) BHEL and Dr. Jong Weon Kim, CEO and Director, HLB Power at BHEL's corporate office here.

BHEL has been supplying conventional gates and damp-ers, manufactured at its boiler auxiliaries plant in Ranipet, for over three decades.

This TCA will help in establishing the capability for in-house design, manufacture and testing of very large size gates and dampers, the com-pany said.

BHEL is fully geared to manufacture and supply locally engineered and man-ufactured emission control equipment for Indian thermal power plants to meet the Envi-ronment Protection (Amend-ment) Rules 2015 notified by the ministry of environment, forest and climate change, it added. PTI

Bhel inks tech pact with S Korea’s HLB Power

NEW DELHI: Renewable energy solutions provider Suzlon Group on Wednesday said it has designed and man-ufactured the country's longest wind turbine blade at its Padu-bidri rotor blade unit.

The advanced blade (SB 63) measures 63 metres in length and has been specifi-cally developed for Suzlon's new S128 wind turbine family with a rotor diameter of 128 metres, 1.5 times taller than the India Gate monument in terms of height, the company said in a statement.

The blade has been engi-neered with a carbon girder which provides the capability to utilise thinner aerodynamic profiles and provides higher lift with less drag, it added.

The S128 series offers 33 per cent more swept area (12,860 m2) and is expected to deliver 32 per cent more energy gen-eration compared to the S111.

These rotor blades will be transported using an innova-tive two fold transport system, which will use a specialised Adapter Trailer' for the first time in India, which ensures safe and unbound manoeuvrabil-ity through hilly terrain while transporting the long blades, the statement added.

J P Chalasani, Group CEO, Suzlon Group, said: It has been our continuous endeavour to reduce the levelised cost of energy (LCoE) by leveraging technology. Our R&D efforts are focused on developing techno-logically advanced and innova-tive products. The new blade will offer higher aerodynamic per-formance and improved annual energy production (AEP) and will harness the optimal avail-able wind resources. PTI

NEW YORK: Google has launched a new initiative, com-mitting $300 million to help news publishers get more paid subscribers while stemming the flow of misinformation.

The internet giant described the Google News Initiative as part of an "effort to help jour-nalism thrive in the digital age."

The announcement in New York followed a series of com-mitments to help the troubled sector by Google, which has been accused by some in the news industry of sapping reve-nues from the digital ecosystem.

"I have always believed that the future of Google and

the future of our publishing partners were linked,"Google chief business officer Philipp Schindler said in announcing the initiative.

"If you are not successful, we are not successful."

Google will enable its users to subscribe to news sites in as little as two clicks through their Google accounts, and will step up efforts to help news organi-zations add paying subscribers.

The initiative was developed with some 60 media partners including the Washington Post, Financial Times, French-based Le Figaro, Brazil's Grupo Globo and Italy's La Republica. PTI

MUMBAI: Reserve Bank Gov-ernor Urjit Patel and five other experts on the MPC will take a call on changing interest rate in the backdrop of declining retail inflation (rpt) inflation rate when they meet here on April 4-5 to decide the first bi-monthly monetary policy of the next fiscal.

The Reserve Bank, which has been tasked to restrict infla-tion at 4 per cent (plus/minus 2 per cent), has retained the key short term lending rate (repo) at 6 per cent in its last three bi-monthly policy reviews citing inflationary concerns.

"...the Monetary Policy Committee will meet six times during 2018-19," the RBI said while releasing the calender of bi-monthly meetings for 2018-19. The first meeting is sched-uled on April 4 and 5 and the last of the fiscal on February

5 and 6. The policy statement will be issued in the afternoon of April 5.

As per the Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934, the central bank should organise at least four meetings of the Monetary Policy Committee in a year. The meeting schedule of the MPC for a year should also be pub-lished at least one week before the first meeting in that year.

The retail inflation based on the Consumer Price Index

(CPI), which the RBI factors in while arriving at policy rate, fell to a 4-month low of 4.44 per cent in February on cheaper food articles and lower cost for fuel. It was at 5.07 per cent in January, though in February 2017 CPI was 3.65 per cent.

Industry wants that RBI should reduce the interest rate to give a boost to the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) which has started moving northwards.

It has also been argued that the RBI can take bold steps as both retail and wholesale infla-tion is on downside.

Patel headed MPC has two other representatives from RBI — Deputy Governor Viral Acharya, Executive Director Michael Debabrata Patra. There are three external members — Chetan Ghate, Pami Dua and Ravindra Dholakia. PTI

Patel-led MPC to announce FY19’s first monetary policy on April 5

Google allots $300 mn to help news organisations

‘Unholy, anti-people’ Bayer-Monsanto

takeover gets EU nod

Suzlon makes country’s

longest wind turbine blade

WASHINGTON DC: The US will start accepting petitions for H1-B visas from April 2, a federal agency announced on Wednesday as it temporarily suspended the premium pro-cessing of all such work visas, popular among Indian IT pro-fessionals, subject to fiscal cap.

The H1B visa is a non-immigrant visa that allows US companies to employ foreign workers in speciality occu-pations that require theoreti-cal or technical expertise. The technology companies depend on it to hire tens of thousands of employees each year from countries like India and China.

The H-1B petition filing is for the fiscal year 2019 begin-ning October 1, 2018, the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) said.

The suspension of premium processing of all H-1B petitions which are subject to the annual caps is expected to last until September 10, 2018.

During this time, the USCIS said it will continue to accept premium processing requests for H-1B petitions that are not subject to the fiscal 2019 cap. PTI

USA suspends H-1B application

premium processing

Tata Nexon starts innings as IPL official partnerMUMBAI: The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on Wednesday announced its as-sociation with Tata Nexon as the official partner for the Indian Premier League (IPL) for the next three years. IANS

NEW DELHI: Heralding a new beginning in the people-to-people contact and diplo-matic ties between India and Israel, the state-run Air India will introduce a direct thrice a week flight from New Delhi to Tel Aviv from Thursday, with 50 per cent seats in the inaugu-ral flight already booked.

The flight will operate every Tuesday, Thursday and Sun-day. While the inaugural flight will leave at 6.10 PM tomorrow, the scheduled departure will be 4.50 PM from March 25 when the summer schedule comes into operation. PTI

AI's direct flight service to Israel

begins today

mp sport14MILLENNIUM POST | Kolkata | Thursday, 22 March, 2018

NEW DELHI: Sympathy, however well-meaning, can at times add to misery -- something that Vijay Shan-kar is dealing with as he tries to move on from a "disheart-ening" off day that nearly cost India the Nidahas Tro-phy final against Bangladesh.

While Dinesh Karthik became the toast of the nation with a last ball six in India's triumph over the South Asian rivals, the 27-year-old Shankar was lambasted for his 19-ball-17 that included four successive dot balls in the 18th over.

"My parents and close friends didn't say anything as they knew what I was going through. But I get these text messages like 'don't worry about what's being said on social media', when I actu-ally I want to move on. They perhaps think that's the way to show sympathy but it may not work," the all-rounder said during an interview on Wednesday.

For him, the final was an off-day that marred a

good tournament in which he turned in decent figures with the ball.

"It was an off-day for me but I am finding it difficult to forget. I know I need to move on. I had a good tournament until that final day," the soft-spoken Shankar said.

The Chennai player was practical when asked about being pilloried on social media.

"I need to accept that these are things that can hap-pen when you play for India. The same social media would have gone berserk had I won the match all by myself.

"It happened the oppo-

site and I have to accept all the brickbats. That's also a part of growing up," Shankar replied calmly.

There are times when get-ting out for a duck in a close encounter allows someone to go under the radar but Shan-kar doesn't want any safe pas-sage while trying to chart his own destiny.

"Had I got out for a sec-ond or a third ball duck, no one would have bothered about my performance. But then would I have liked that to happen? Certainly not. I would rather accept this situation.

"You just can't think of

safe options always. You have to accept challenges head on," Shankar said.

But he does accept that it was a missed opportunity to become a hero in a tricky chase.

"When everyone was rejoicing after the final, I was feeling very disheart-ened at how things panned out. It was an opportunity given to me to become a hero. I should have finished the match," the Delhi Dare-devil allrounder said.

"Everyone in the team, including my captain (Rohit Sharma) and coach (Ravi Shastri), told me that it can even happen with the best and I shouldn't feel bad," he said.

Asked about the mis-take that he made, Shankar pointed to his attempts to go for big hits rather than rotat-ing the strike.

"If you take a look at my batting in the Syed Mushtaq Ali or Vijay Hazare Trophy, I don't play so many dot balls. I rotate the strike but Musta-

fizur (Rahman) really bowled well during that over," he said.

While everyone spoke about the dot balls, hardly anyone noticed his bound-ary bisecting the point and short third man, which made it easy for Karthik to launch a final assault.

"DK just told me one thing -- hold your shape (in cricketing parlance main-taining the balance in one's stance) and hit a boundary. That ball from Soumya, I was trying to just put bat on ball," he said.

In the Indian team, opportunities are few but Shankar is not worried about the fact that primarily he is being seen as Hardik Pan-dya's cover.

"The selection thing is not my concern. The posi-tive part is that IPL is start-ing in two weeks' time and my focus is now to do well for Delhi Daredevils," said Shan-kar, who would like to pick Delhi Daredevil’s chief coach Ricky Ponting's brains. PTI

Sympathy not helping: VijayThe allrounder doesn’t seek sympathy for getting lambasted on social media

My parents and close friends didn’t say anything as they knew what I was going through. But I get these text messages like ‘don’t worry about what’s being said on social media’, when I actually I want to move on. They perhaps think that’s the way to show sympathy but it may not work for me.

Vijay Shankar

MUMBAI: Whitewashed by Australia in the three-match ODI rubber, the Indian women cricketers would be hoping for a reversal of for-tunes when they clash with the same rivals in the lung-opener of the T20 tri-series starting here on Thursday.

England is the third team to figure in the tournament in which all matches will be played at the Cricket Club of India's Brabourne Stadium.

The Indian women's team would take confidence from their 3-1 win against South Africa in the five-match T20 series held in the Rainbow Nation.

But having surrendered the ODI series rather tamely to Australia, it will be an uphill ask for the Harman-preet Kaur-led side to face the same opponents, although the format is different.

With back-to-back half centuries, Smriti Mandhana was the top run-getter for Indian women during the ODI series against Australia and she would look to con-tinue her good run.

Among others, the bat-ting would depend largely on the experienced duo of Kaur and Mithali Raj and the two players would need to fire big against a strong Australian pace attack.

India women also pos-sess other good batswomen like Veda Krishnamurthy and all-rounder Pooja Vastrakar,

who scored a crucial 51 in the first ODI. Young Mumbai girl Jemimah Rodrigues too showed her skills when she scored a racy 42 after being asked to open the innings in third ODI.

With experienced Jhulun Goswami back in the mix, it the seam attack looks more or less settled as Shikha Pandey would look to share the bur-

den after taking five wickets during the ODI series.

The spin department has off-spinner Deepti Sharma and leggie Poonam Yadav. The two had played a pivotal role in the team's win in South Africa and if the Aussies are to be restricted, they will have to be at their best.

On the other hand, the Aussies will be aiming to con-tinue their form and keep the winning momentum going.

Their skipper Meg Lan-ning, who failed to convert her starts in the ODI series, would be hungry to get some runs under her belt.

Wicket-keeper Alyssa Healy, who scored a mag-nificent 133 in the final ODI at Vadodara, is among runs and poses a big threat to the Indian bowlers.

Left-arm spinner Jess Jonassen too have proved to be a difficult customer for the Indians as she picked eight wickets during the ODI series. Other spinners Amanda-Jade Wellington and Ashleigh Gardner too have done well and the hosts will have to careful against them. PTI

India women take on Australia in T20 tri-series opener

SQUADINDIA: India: Harman-preet Kaur (Captain), Smriti Mandhana (vice-captain), Mithali Raj, Veda Krishnamurthy, Jemimah Rodrigues, Anuja Patil, Deepti Sharma, Taniya Bhatia (wicket-keeper), Poo-nam Yadav, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Jhulan Go-swami, Shikha Pandey, Pooja Vastrakar, Rumeli Dhar, Mona Meshram.AUSTRALIA: Meg Lanning (c), Rachael Haynes (vc), Nicola Carey, Ashleigh Gard-ner, Alyssa Healy, Jess Jonassen, Delissa Kim-mince, Sophie Molineux, Beth Mooney, Ellyse Perry, Megan Schutt, Naomi Stalenberg, Elyse Villani, Amanda-Jade Wellington.

INDIA W VS AUSTRALIA W

LIVE FROM 10:00 AM

MUMBAI: Hosts India may not have the experience but they won't be lacking in inten-sity during the Twenty20 tri-series against England and Australia starting here Thurs-day, said women's T20 skipper Harmanpreet Kaur.

England and Australia have players, who compete in the Women's Big Bash League and Harmanpreet describes the two sides as good.

"No doubt they (England and Australia players) have lot of experience, because they have played T20 format. We know we are not as powerful in our strength as compared to the foreign players. We are working on it daily," Harman-preet said.

"Right now, for us as a team it is a learning process and pre-paring for the World Cup and

day by day we are taking the challenges. We know both the teams (Australia and England) are good in T20 and we will like to give them a fight," she added.

India were whitewashed by Australia in the three-match ODI series at Vadodara and Harmanpreet said it was field-ing that let them down.

"In the T20 format, there are lot of areas where we need to improve and a big thing

where we are lacking is our fielding, because if you see the ODI series, (because of) field-ing we have given a lot of runs," Harmanpreet told reporters here.

"In the T20 format, it is a short format, we will give our 100 per cent and girls are look-ing confident and we will do better."

India had thrashed South Africa 3-1 in the five match T20 rubber held in the Rain-bow nation and Harmanpreet said the girls were positive in their approach and hoped that the team would do well.

"When we played T20 in South Africa, everybody enjoyed it because we were playing the format after 14-16 months. And this is the second series and everyone is positive,” she said. PTI

We will give them a fight: Harmanpreet

MUMBAI: Rajeshwari Gayakwad will replace injured left-arm spinner Ekta Bisht in India's squad for the Women's Twenty 20 tri-series starting here on Thursday."Bisht has been advised rest for 10 days after suffering an injury to her left index finger during a caught and bowled attempt in the third ODI against Australia in Vado-dara," a media release said. India will face Australia in the open-ing match of tri-series that also includes England. PTI

Gayakwad to replace Bisht MUMBAI: They outclassed

India in the preceding ODI series but Australia skip-per Meg Lanning refused to underestimate the hosts in the Twenty20 tri-series, saying all sides are even in the shortest format.

After thrashing India 3-0 in the ODI series, the Australians will take on the hosts in the lung-opener of the tri-series, which also includes England.

"India are a very good team in this format, and so are Eng-land. So we know that we've got to play really well," Lan-ning said on the eve of clash against India.

"We've definitely got some confidence in our group from the way we've played (in the ODIs). But we do understand that it's a different format and it's very close in T20 interna-tionals," she added.

The Aussie skipper said the series is even and it would be

difficult to say which team is better than the other.

"Even in the ODI series, they (India) were putting us under the pump. So it's a very even series. Very difficult to say that one team is ahead of the other two, which is great. By the looks of the wicket and the outfield out there, there are going to be plenty of runs out there," Lanning said. PTI

‘Can't underestimate India in T20 format’

From left: Aus’s Meg Lanning, India’s Harmanpreet Kaur & England’s Heather Knight with tri-series trophy

CAPE TOWN: Australian cap-tain Steve Smith has criticised the decision to overturn a ban on South African fast bowler Kagiso Rabada for making physical contact with him.

Smith said ahead of today's pre-Test press conference that a "line in the sand" had been drawn regarding physical con-tact and said he was surprised he had not been asked his opin-ion during the appeal hearing.

Having been banned for the remaining two Tests in the series for brushing against Smith's shoulder after taking his wicket in the second Test, Rabada was cleared to play in the third Test starting tomor-row after a successful appeal.

Australia spin bowler Nathan Lyon had said the team had "no dramas" with the deci-sion, but Smith has told cricket.Com.Au website: "I certainly think he (Rabada) bumped me a little bit harder than it actu-ally looked on the footage." Although Smith claimed "it didn't bother me too much,"

he went on to say, "they've obvi-ously decided what's deliber-ate contact and what's not and apparently it wasn't.

"The ICC have set the standard, haven't they? There was clearly contact out in the middle.

"I certainly won't be telling my bowlers to go out there and after you take a wicket go and get in their space. I don't think that is on and part of the game. But the standard has been set."

Rabada was initially given three demerit points for the incident in Port Elizabeth by match referee Jeff Crowe, trig-gering an automatic two-Test ban.

But judicial commissioner Michael Heron said he was not completely satisfied that the contact was deliberate and reduced the charge to acting against the spirit of the game, imposing a one-point penalty, which took Rabada one point

below the threshold for the ban.He will therefore line up

for South Africa as they seek the edge in a series tied at one match apiece.

Smith said it was "inter-esting" he had not been asked for his version of events and said Crowe had reason to be annoyed about his judgement being questioned.

"The way he handled both sides throughout the two Test matches, I thought he did a terrific job. I'd be feeling a bit annoyed if I was him, to be per-fectly honest."

Smith said he and senior Australia players Lyon and David Warner had spoken to incoming match referee Andy Pycroft, who will handle the remaining two Tests of what has been an often bad-tem-pered series.

He said the referee would also speak to South Africa captain Faf Du Plessis "just to ensure that the series is con-tinued to play in pretty good spirit." AFP

Steve Smith criticises Rabada ruling

Steve Smith (with bat) having heated argument with Kagiso Rabada

MUMBAI: The Decision Review System, already used in the Twenty Internationals, will be introduced at the upcoming edition of the cash-rich Indian Premier League.

“Yes, this idea has been going around for many years,” said IPL chairman Rajeev Shukla at a media conference here on Wednesday, confirm-ing that the TV replay system will be utilised if a team chal-lenges an umpiring decision.

Each team is given one chance to review an umpiring decision during a T20 innings at the international level.

Shukla was speaking to the media after announcing that the T20 League has inked a three-year deal with Tata Nexon as its partner, declar-ing there was “great synergy between IPL and Tata Nexon.”

Shukla said BCCI was awaiting the report from the

BCCI's anti-corruption unit head, Neeraj Kumar on alle-gations against fast bowler Mohammed Shami. “Our anti corruption unit, headed by Neeraj Kumar, will investigate and give us a report. We are awaiting it. We are expecting the report shortly,” said Shukla.

Kumar has been asked to investigate allegations levelled by Shami's wife Hasin Jahan who had claimed that the cricketer had received unac-counted money from a Paki-stani woman. PTI

DRS to be used in IPL this year: Shukla

Notice Inviting e-Tender No. 57 of 2017-18SE/SWC/PWD, Midnapore invites e-tender for the work “Construction of Crash Barriers at Bhasraghat Bridge at 8.75 Kmp. of Keshiary-Nayagram Road under Jhargram Division,PWD in the District of Jhargram (3rd Call). Estt. Amt. : Rs.2,08,65,489.00. Bid Submission End Date is 31.03.2018 at 15.00 Hours. Tender ID : 2018_WBPWD_165925_1. Any Corrigendum / Addendum related to this NIT, if published,will be available in the e-portal only. For details, visit the website-http://wbtenders.gov.in

Sd/- SE/SWC/PWD

WBPHED NIeT The Superintending Engineer, Mechanical Circle-IV, PHE Dte. Siliguri invites e-Tender vide NIeT No. 20 of 2017-18, Dated 20/03/2018 for the work of Supply and delivery of 128 mm ID MSERW Fin cut pipe (Bid Removed) for construction of RBTW by ODEX-115 method of drilling under Northern Mechanical Division, P.H.E. Dte. Document collection and submission from 20/03/2018 to 16/04/2018 upto 2.00 PM. Tender ID- 2018_PHED_165748_1 can be made online through the website “ https://wbtenders.gov.in”

Superintending Engineetr Mechanical Circle-IV, PHE Dte.

Memo No. 1660 Dated: 20/03/2018CORRIGENDUM TENDER NOTICE

Corrigendum regarding Tender for SUPPLY OF MEDICINES for North Bengal Medical College and Hospital in reference of NIT 1388 dated 12/03/2018 the following medicines is being include in the list / exclude from the list of Annexure II :

New Annexure II (Hard Copy / Soft Copy) may be collected from the office of the undersigned or downloaded (in PDF format) from the website of www.nbmch.org ****It is hereby informed to all bidders any overwriting in Financial bid will not be accepted. If found any overwritin in - Financial bid immediately reject the same item by the Tender Selection Committee without showing any further cause.

Sd/-Medical Superindent-Cum-Vice Principal NBMC&H,Sushrutanagar, Darjeeling.

e-Tender Notice e-tender is invited by the undersigned vide Tender Id. 2018_ W BPWD_165844_1 (N/W/Construction Of Meeting hall 300 Capacity at Balurghat Colltctorate Compound in the district of Dakshin Dinajpur during the year 2016-17 - SITC of Fire Detection.) Last date of Submission:28.03.2018, 10:00 A.M. Information in details will be available from the website http://etender.wb.nic.in Corrigendum notice(s) of this tender if any will only be published in the above website

Executive Engineer, P.W.D, Dakshin Dinajpur

Electrical Division

mp sport 15MILLENNIUM POST | Kolkata | Thursday, 22 March, 2018

SAO PAOLO: Going into his first World Cup as Brazil coach, Tite is looking for some rhythm. It's the one thing, sur-prisingly, he thinks his team is short of. So Tite will use the upcoming friendlies against World Cup host Russia and defending champion Germany to find a proper No. 10, some-one who can play at the heart of the midfield and keep his orchestra in sync.

"To use a samba concept, I need a rhythm-maker," Tite said recently. "Even if that player is not in his top form he will be brought in because the team needs that." Beijing Guoan's Renato Augusto has been Tite's first-choice No. 10 so far but hasn't inspired much confidence that he can lead a team that is among the favor-ites to win the tournament for a sixth time.

With Neymar out injured, there's even more room for experiment, and players like Willian, Philippe Coutinho and Fernandinho could be tested in more than one position. Here is a look at the main issues that Tite has to sort out ahead of the World Cup.

Once a weakness, the goal-keeping position is now one of Brazil's main strengths. And there is little doubt that Roma's Alisson will keep his role as the No. 1 for the tournament, after a stellar season that has seen him linked with a host of top clubs such as Real Madrid.

But Tite also has Manches-ter City's Ederson at his dis-posal, and there's not much to separate the two at the moment.

But one doubt remains: who will be the third goalkeeper in the squad? Corinthians' Cassio had been considered the most

likely choice until the squad list for these two friendlies was announced, with Tite giving Valencia's Neto a first call-up instead.

Neto is currently the goal-keeper with most saves in the Spanish league.And there's one common problem with all of those goalkeepers. Neither of them has any World Cup

experience.Tite has relied heavily on

Augusto, viewing the mid-fielder has his voice and eyes on the pitch. But the player has had such an easy time in the Chinese league that he has a separate fitness program to stay ready for Brazil games. And his recent sub-par performances have forced Tite to think of

alternatives.The most obvious change

would be to push Coutinho back to Augusto's position, which would also open space for Willian in the starting lineup. Besiktas' Anderson Talisca and Juventus' Douglas Costa could also be options to Willian. There is also a more defensive alternative with Fer-

nandinho replacing Augusto, which could be useful once Brazil has the lead.

If neither of those options prove effective enough, Tite might decide to bring in some players he has overlooked recently, such as Giuliano (Fen-erbahce), Lucas Lima (Palmei-ras), Diego (Flamengo) or Rodriguinho (Corinthians).

Gabriel Jesus' recent injury with Manchester City and Roberto Firmino's top form for Liverpool have thrown the striker position wide open for Brazil. Whichever of the two performs better during these two friendlies could have the upper hand going into the World Cup.

Jesus only recently returned from a near two-month injury layoff but had a good first half to the season and is widely seen as Brazil's future No. 9. But Fir-mino's current form has some wondering whether the Liver-pool player could still represent the present.

The 26-year-old Firmino is having his best season with Liverpool and has become one of the main leaders of the team after the recent departure of Coutinho to Barcelona. Tite seems inclined to keep Jesus for now, but could try playing both strikers at the same time because of Neymar's absence.

Tite also needs a Plan B with a more traditional target man who can be brought off the bench if the team is strug-gling for goals. That's why he has brought in William Jose for the first time, hoping that he can replicate the form. AFP

Brazil aim for rhythm in last friendliesSelecao coach Tite look to solve midfield puzzle as they face Russia & germany during FIFA club breaks

Brazil’s Neto and Douglas Cost during practice session in Sao Paolo on Tuesday

With Neymar out injured, there's even more room for experiment, and players like Willian, Philippe Coutinho and Fernandinho could be tested in more than one position.

PARIS: Brazil team doctor Rodrigo Lasmar said that Ney-mar's recovery from foot sur-gery "is going well", as the star forward bids to be fit for the World Cup in Russia.

Lasmar, who operated on Neymar on March 3, said he speaks "two or three time a day" with the physiotherapists work-ing with the Brazil and Paris Saint-Germain player.

"For now, everything is going well, they tell me every detail of Neymar's recovery," Lasmar told French sports daily L'Equipe.

"They are working hard and in a very professional way so that he can return as quickly as possible and, above all, so there won't be any further problems for his foot or posture."

He added that he planned to reassess the injury in mid-April.

Neymar, who missed Bra-zil's 7-1 semi-final thrashing on home soil by Germany through injury four years ago, is key to his country's hopes at this year's World Cup, which starts on June 14.

At the time of the operation, Lasmar said Neymar would be out for between "two-and-a-half to three months".

The 26-year-old, who joined PSG for a world-record 222 million euros ($264 mil-lion) from Barcelona last year, suffered a fractured bone in his

right foot last month in a match against Marseille.

Record five-time winners Brazil open their World Cup campaign against Switzerland in Rostov on June 17, ahead of further Group D matches with Costa Rica and Serbia.

In Madrid, Marco Asensio would not be against Neymar joining Real Madrid because he has proven at Barcelona and Paris Saint-Germain that he is a “great player”.

Neymar joined PSG in August in a transfer that rocked football, leaving Barcelona for a world-record deal of €222mil-lion. AGENCIES

Surgeon says Neymar's recovery

is 'going well'

AUCKLAND: England were guarded over whether injury-hit Ben Stokes would bowl against New Zealand when he makes his Test comeback from suspension on Friday.

Speaking on Wednesday, ahead of the first day-night Test to be held in New Zea-land, captain Joe Root said the all-rounder would "play a part" but would not discuss what role he would fill.

"There's still stuff that needs to come out of today to be very sure of that," Root said, when asked whether Stokes, 26, had recovered sufficiently from a back strain to bowl normally.

"But I'm quite happy that Ben will play a part in the game." Stokes, suspended

after a nightclub incident last September which left him fac-ing a charge of affray, was sorely missed by England in their 4-0 trouncing by Australia in the

Ashes series.He returned to interna-

tional cricket in the recent lim-ited-overs series against New Zealand, which England won 3-2, but has been hampered by back stiffness.

Meanwhile, New Zealand captain Kane Williamson said senior batsman Ross Taylor, who has a Test average of 48.04, had been passed fit after recov-ering from a groin injury and stomach bug.

"He's good to go so that's great news for us," William-son said.

"Roscoe has played beau-tifully every time he's walked out to the crease, the calmness at the crease, the confidence.

"It's reflected in how much

success he's had this year. It's important for us as a team that he's there."

The clash at Auckland's Eden Park will be the ninth day-night Test but the first to be played in New Zealand.

Williamson described it as a "slightly unique and an exciting opportunity", but was aware the teams were heading into the unknown.

"There is probably a danger of over complicating some of the finer parts of the pink-ball game," he said, pointing to vari-able characteristics at differ-ent stages of the ball and times of day.

"There's definitely some unknowns. There's a lot of talk about the evening session.” AFP

Stokes returns for Poms in NZ TestAUCKLAND: New Zealand received a boost on Thurs-day, on the eve of the first Test against England at Auckland's Eden Park, with confirmation senior batsman Ross Taylor is fit to play.

Taylor, who has a Test aver-age of 48.04, had been battling a groin injury and a stomach bug but captain Kane William-son said he had completed a full training session without problem.

"He's good to go so that's great news for us," William-son said.

"Roscoe has played beau-

tifully every time he's walked out to the crease, the calmness at the crease, the confidence.

"It's reflected in how much

success he's had this year. It's important for us as a team that he's there."

The clash will be the ninth day-night Test and the first to be played in New Zealand.

Williamson described it as a "slightly unique and an excit-ing opportunity", but did not want to over-think the possi-ble pitfalls of heading into the unknown.

"There is probably a danger of over complicating some of the finer parts of the pink-ball game," he said, pointing to vari-able characteristics at different stages of the ball. AFP

Blackcaps’ Taylor fit for 1st Test against England

PANJIM: The FC Goa first team will begin their Hero Super Cup campaign against two-time Hero ISL cham-pions ATK on 3rd  April at the Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar.

Squad: Naveen Kumar, L Kattimani, Bruno Colaco, Seri-ton Fernandes, A Ranawade, Ali Mohamed, B Pinheiro, Sergio Juste, N Das, J Cardozo, Chinglensana Singh, E Bedia, P Halder, M Lanzarote, P Shi-rodkar, M Rao Dessai, B Fer-nandes, A D’souza, L Colaco, Md Yasir, H Boumous, Manvir Singh, F Corominas. MPOST

Goa announce squad for Hero

Super Cup

Bengal rout Maha to notch up 2nd

Santosh win

HOWRAH:  Bengal put in a stellar second-half perfor-mance to rout Maharashtra 5-1 in their second Group A fixture of the 72nd Santosh Trophy on Wednesday at the Sailen Manna Sports Complex in Howrah. The win took Bengal’s tally to 6 points from 2 games.

 Fresh from their win over Manipur, Bengal coach Ran-jan Chowdhury named an unchanged XI as striker Jiten Murmu continued to lead the line. Meanwhile, Maharashtra coach Augusto D'Silva started with the 5-4-1 formation with Ranjeet Singh lined up as the lone striker.

  The hosts squandered a host of chances, looked shaky in defense and needed a spe-cial effort from teenage striker Bidyashagar Singh to come from behind and see off a Maha-rashtra side who played attrac-tive football.

While Bengal pressed high up, opponents Maharashtra

managed to take the lead against the run of the play at the other end. Leander Dharmai capital-ised on an error to beat Bengal custodian Ranajit Majumder from Kiran Pandhare’s free-kick in the 8th minute.

 Having conceded, Bengal began attacking with inten-sity through Jiten Mumru and Bidyashagar but Maharashtra managed to hold on, defending deep as the first half ended 1-0.

  Needing a goal, Bengal came out all guns blazing in the second half. The pressure paid off as the host restored the parity at the 55th minute mark. Sumit Das held off a defender on the left flank and floated in a cross to the far post finding Manotosh Chakladar to slot past Maha-rashtra keeper Manav Baraskar.

Bengal’s continued pres-sure yielded another goal in the 62nd minute when Jiten got on the score-sheet after he slotted home to put the Bengal into the lead. MPOST

Abridged NITNotice Inviting e-Quotation No. - WBPWD/SE/SWEC/

NIQ47/2017-18Tender ID: 2018_WBPWD_166136_1 Name of Work: Construction of Auditorium and childrens’ park at Mahisadal (Itagara Gram Panchayet), Purba Medinipur ---SITC of Air-Conditioning system. Work Site : Mahisadal, Purba MedinipurLast date of submission of bid :-04/04/2018 up to 16:00 Hrs. Further details can be seen in the above mentioned office during working hours or in Official Website www.pwdwb.gov.in For all details and online tender submission visit https://wbtenders.gov.in

Government of West Bengal O/O The Superintending Engineer PWD South Western Electrical Circle

Sahid Mangal Pandey Sarani, Midnapur-721101

Abridged NITNotice Inviting e-Quotation No. - WBPWD/SE/SWEC/

NIQ46/2017-18Tender ID: 2018_WBPWD_166048_1 Name of Work: Supply, Installation, Testing & Commissioning of Passengers lift at Administrative Building of S.K.B University Purulia in the district of Purulia. Work Site : S.K.B University PuruliaLast date of submission of bid :-04/04/2018 up to 16:55 Hrs. Further details can be seen in the above mentioned office during working hours or in Official Website www.pwdwb.gov.in For all details and online tender submission visit https://wbtenders.gov.in

Government of West Bengal O/O The Superintending Engineer PWD South Western Electrical Circle

Sahid Mangal Pandey Sarani, Midnapur-721101

RECRUITMENT NOTICEApplication invited for a contractual post of Data Entry Operator (DEO) with consolidated payment of Rs.11,000/- Per Month at MPLADS Section, District Magistrate’s Office, Cooch Behar, Candidate having Graduation and Certificate in Computer Application may apply in application form exhibited (with other details) in website www.coochbehar.gov.in frorn 22/03/2018 to 12/04/2018.

16MILLENNIUM POST | Kolkata | Thursday, 22 March, 2018

mp Entertainment

‘TO WORK IN OMERTA WAS ONCE-IN-A-LIFETIME OPPORTUNITY’

SYEDA EBA

Known for ease with which he slips under the skin of the character he plays, Rajkummar

is back yet again in a distinctive role. The Newton actor will next be seen in Hansal Mehta’s much talked about directorial Omerta, which is based on the life of Brit-ish-Pakistani terrorist Omar Saeed Sheikh. Rao calls it once in a life time opportunity which would add a feather to his cap.

“Whenever I sign a movie I look for a unique storyline. The character needs to excite me. With Omerta, I got a chance to perform a unique role. Moreover, I don’t think we have ever made a film which is only about the villain. It’s a character which is completely black. It does not have shades of white or grey to it. I thought it to be an opportunity to explore a very different arena that I could have never explored otherwise. And of course because Hansal sir was making it, I could never say no to it”, stated Rajkummar.

Rao has given some of the most remarkable performances of his career in Hansal Mehta’s films. From Shahid to Aligarh, this director-actor duo knows how to utilize each other’s potential and bring the best out of a mediocre script. “I think our style of work-ing is still the same as it was when we started with Shahid. Our work culture is very pure. It does not have a speck of corruption. We don’t follow the mentality that believes in making ‘what is selling in the market’. We are very com-mitted to our stories and charac-ters and that is what drives both of us,” mentioned the actor who pre-fers doing method acting.

Rajkummar has always believed in paving a less trav-eled path. The kind of movies he opted for demanded a great deal of mental and physical prepara-tion. Speaking of the process he underwent to portray the charac-ter of Omar Sheikh, Rajkummar said, “It took a lot of time. I read a couple of book on terrorism, as well as philosophies of terror-ist group leaders. Also, I watched

hate videos and public speeches. It was an amalgamation of so many other things apart from learning the British accent. I had to be in a particular shape for this film but ofcourse mental preparation was more important. I had to explore that dark world so that ‘ when you see Omar Sheikh, uske ek look me bhi bahaut kuch hona chaiye kyuki uske andar hi bahaut kuch hai.”

But were there any inhibitions while working in a film based on a real-life story?

“I just followed my director’s vision and did my part. I really can’t work under pressure. I hardly pay any attention to how people will react to a specific sit-uation, scene, or dialogue. I can’t relate to my character like that. I have to be very prepared before I get into a film. I need to make sure that I am doing a specific film for myself before anybody else”, clari-fies Rao.

After portraying a whole range of diverse character, Rao, who is also a trained martial artist wishes to do an action movie with a story attached to it.

After exploring almost every genre, Rajkummar Rao will next be seen in Hansal Mehta’s directorial Omerta, where he will be portraying a completely dark character of Omar Saeed Sheikh, a British-Pakistani terrorist

Industry has started LOOKING AT ME

differently: NushratNEW DELHI: After delivering his career-best performance as the noto-rious Alauddin Khilji in Padmaavat, Ranveer Singh will be seen as a police

officer in Simmba, street rapper in Gully Boy and as cricket star Kapil

Dev in 83. Experimenting with roles is nothing new to Ranveer.

From the desi entertainer in Band Baaja Baaraat

to the introvert and brooding man in

Lootera and the raw and flam-

boyant char-acter in

Goli-yon Ki

Raas-leela

Ram-Leela – versatility has been

the mainstay in his Bol-lywood portfolio.“I am attracted to those per-

formers the most who have that

chameleon – like quality and have that ability to transform into each charac-ter. Like the Hollywood actors Daniel Day-Lewis and Johnny Depp... These are some of my biggest heroes,” Ran-veer said.

“They pick an eclectic mix of char-acters, they keep switching things up from film to film which I have aspired to do in my own filmography. It is very exciting for me to switch things up.

“It keeps you stimulated, challenged and it is my constant endeavour and I aspire to be recognised as a versa-tile performer,” said Ranveer. He fur-ther added that he enjoys surprising the audience with something new. He wants every filmmaker to believe that he has the ability to excel in various genres.

“I want the audience to remain excited about my work. I hope they will look forward to my work thinking ‘I wonder what he will do next’.” The 32-year-old, who has courted praise galore with his Padmaavat role, keeps saying his “best is yet to come”. IANS

Ranveer believes in having ‘chameleon-like’ quality

I am attracted to those performers the most who have that ability to transform themselves into each character

NEW DELHI: Fame has altered English actor Elizabeth Hur-ley’s life in a big way. She says she prefers to stay at home a lot more to avoid “being stared at and bothered in public”. Her personal life has seen her through many ups and downs.

She dated actor Hugh Grant, married Indian businessman Arun Nayar, and after her split from him, had a relationship with cricketer Shane Warne.

zShe has raised her son from Steve Bing as a single mother while making a career in show-biz – and her broken relation-ships have grabbed headlines. Now living life in the public eye seems to have taken a toll on her.

“You get accustomed to being in the public eye; I’ve learnt ways of coping. It has certainly changed the way I live my life on an everyday basis. No human being enjoys being a prey, and I never get used to being followed and chased,” Hurley said in an email interview.

“We all like to have private time, and I now stay at home a lot to avoid being stared at and bothered in public. However, when you’re well known, you can use fame for good causes and zfinding a cure for breast cancer is the cause clos-est to my heart,” she added. Hurley walked into the world of glamour as a model, but caught everyone’s eye when she started dating Grant, especially her appearance with him at a film premiere in a Versace safety-pin dress.

Starting with her stint in Aria back in 1987, Hurley has featured in Austin Pow-ers: International Man of Mys-tery, Bedazzled, Bad Boy and Gossip Girl. Currently, she is enjoying all the appreciation coming her way for her por-trayal as Queen Helena in The Royals.

She has built an impressive career. But she says finding a balance between the personal and the professional is not easy. IANS

LOS ANGELES: Actor George Clooney has come on board to narrate the documentary Never Stop Dreaming: The Life and Leg-acy of Shimon Peres. It is based on the life of late Israel President Shimon Peres.

It’s the 16th film produced by Moriah Films, the film division of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles. The production company generates documenta-

ries focused on the Jewish expe-rience as well as contemporary human rights. 

Nine months before Peres died in 2016, the 92-year-old had asked Moriah Films to cre-ate a documentary on his life story, reports variety.com.

Never Stop Dreaming: The Life and Legacy of Shimon Peres includes interviews with President Bill Clinton, Pres-

ident George W. Bush, Pres-ident Barack Obama, British Prime Minister Tony Blair and American singer-song-writer Barbra Streisand.  It will be released later this year. 

“We deferred production on our documentary about David Ben-Gurion to start working on Never Stop Dreaming...,” said director Richard Trank. 

“We wound up with about

50 hours of footage of Shimon and I was struck by how he wanted to keep learning. He said that dreams are what kept him young.”

Trank said the documentary has been scheduled for a June 13 screening at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. The release is likely to coincide with the anniversary of Peres’ passing on September 28. IANS

Fame has changed how I live: Elizabeth Hurley

Clooney to narrate Shimon Peres documentary

MUMBAI: Actor Nushrat Bharucha, who is basking in the success of her last

release Sonu Ke Titu Ki Sweety, says people in the film industry have started looking at her

differently. “Industry has already started look-ing at me differently. And that difference is of belief. I can feel a sense of belief in me,” Nushrat said in a statement. 

On her success, the Pyaar Ka Punchnama fame actor said: “When you have been persis-tent for as long as I have been, you have to exer-cise a certain amount of caution, but I want to do everything. I wish there were 48 hours in a day and 14 days in a week.”

Sonu Ke Titu Ki Sweety, a new-age love tri-angle set with a ‘bromance’ twist, released on February 23, and has crossed the Rs 100 crore mark.  Film expert Taran Adarsh tweeted: “Truly unstoppable. Sonu Ke Titu Ki Sweety marches into Rs. 100 crore club... Sec-ond film to cross Rs. 100 crore mark in 2018, after Pad-maavat.” IANS