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T he Rajya Sabha on Wednesday passed the Constitution (124th Amendment) Bill, 2019 to amend the Constitution to provide 10 per cent reservation to general category poor in jobs and education. The Lok Sabha had approved Bill on Tuesday and now it will go to the President for approval after which it will become the law. The Bill was passed with 165 votes in favour and 7 against it. The Bill was approved after the House rejected a motion moved by Kanimozhi (DMK) and supported by Left parties for sending it to a Parliamentary Select Committee for scrutiny. Against 18 members support- ing, 155 opposed it and one member abstained. The Bill was approved after the House rejected 5 amend- ments moved by Opposition members. The quota will be over and above the existing 50 per cent reservation to SCs, STs and Other Backward Classes (OBCs). Replying to nearly eight hour-long debate in the Rajya Sabha, Social Justice and Emowerment Minister Thaawar Chand Gehlot asked Congress how it would have implemented the promise it made in its election manifesto of giving reservation to poor of general category but by amend- ing the Constitution. He said reservation to SC, ST and OBCs will not be touched by the amendment and Opposition parties should have supported the legislation without any ifs and buts. The changes in the Constitution being made to provide the reservation will hold scrutiny of the Supreme Court, he hoped. Filling up of jobs reserved for SC/STs and OBCs is an ongoing process, he said, adding the Bill was an attempt to benefit poor of general cat- egory who have been deprived so far. While Opposition parties questioned the motive behind bringing the legislation just four months before the gener- al elections, Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad used cricketing anology to justify the move say- ing ‘sixes are hit only in the slog overs’ and said more such “six- ers” are in the pipeline. Several Opposition mem- bers raised doubts about the legality of the Bill in view of the Supreme Court setting limit of quotas at 50 per cent. Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment Ramdas Athawale said he saw nothing wrong in bringing a Bill to win election. Congress and other Opposition parties also raised doubts over the move actually benefiting the deserving when, they said, Government jobs are drying and the economy is wit- nessing a jobless growth. Questioning the criteria defined to classify economically backward classes in general caterogy as persons with annu- al family income of Rs 8 lakh when income tax exemption limit is only Rs 2.5 lakh, they also asked why in the four-and- half- years the Modi Government did not bring women’s reservation Bill and one for reservation for SCs in promotion. Satish Chandra Misra (BSP) said the Bill was moti- vated by meeting of his party chief and Samajwadi Party head for a possible poll alliance in Uttar Pradesh, which sends most MPs in the Lok Sabha. The Bill comes just four months ahead of Lok Sabha polls and weeks after BJP faced the wrath of the upper castes especially in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan following its aggressive push to win over backward classes and Dalits, and is being seen as an attempt by the party to win over the upper castes. Constitution envisages quota for socially and educa- tionally backward classes besides SC and STs, but has no mention of economically weak- er section. The amendment Bill seeks to insert a clause in Sections 15 and 16 of the Constitution. A Constitution amend- ment Bill requires support from at least two-thirds of members present and voting in the both Houses of Parliament. The Lok Sabha passed the Bill with 323 voting in favour and three against. To avoid the legislation being challenged in the Supreme Court, which had set 50 per cent as the upper limit for quotas, Consumer Affairs Minister Ram Vilas Paswan demanded that the amend- ment be included in the Schedule 9 of the Constitution. Reservation should also extend to private sector and constitu- ion of an All India Judicial ser- vice, he said. The Ninth Schedule to the Constitution was introduced to save land reforms law enacted by various States from being challenged in the courts to facilitate agrarian reforms. Anand Sharma (Congress) said a Government “on depar- ture lounge” brought the Bill after facing “befitting” defeat in three States elections last month. Derek O’ Brien (TMC) charged the Government of bringing “Cheat India” schemes in housing for all, two crore jobs, doubling of farm income and Rs 15 lakh for all citizens. While Kapil Sibal (Congress) equated the law to the “disruptive” demonetisa- tion, Praful Patel (NCP) said it will deliver a “still born” baby. BSP’s Mishra termed it as “fraud on the upper caste” while Manoj Kumar Jha of RJD said it was “a mid night robbery”. A day after he was reinstated by the Supreme Court, CBI Director Alok Verma on Wednesday resumed office and revoked most of the transfer orders issued by then director (incharge) M Nageshwar Rao. Rao had transferred 13 officials, including those prob- ing the corruption case against second-in-command Rakesh Asthana. They include Deputy SP AK Bassi who was probing the case against Asthana to Port Blair. Other officers probing Asthana, including SS Gurm and DIG MK Sinha, were also transferred to Jabalpur and Nagpur respectively by Rao on October 24. A Sai Manohar, Joint Director, Special Investigation team probing several major cases, has been transferred by Verma. Joint Director Policy AK Sharma, also in-charge of the anti-corruption wing, was transferred to Multi- Disciplinary Monitoring Agency by Rao. Deputy SP Tarun Gauba had replaced Bassi after inter- im director Rao’s orders and other officers Satish Dagar and DIG V Murugesan were appointed by Rao to probe the case against Asthana. Through a midnight order on October 23, the Government had sent both Verma and Asthana on leave pending an enquiry by the Central Vigilance Commission and appointed Rao as the inter- im CBI director. Rao had ordered the transfers on October 24. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led High Power Committee for Selection of CBI Director met here late in the evening to take a call on the fate of Verma. Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi’s nominee Justice AK Sikri and Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge also attended the meeting at the PM’s residence at the Lok Kalyan Marg. The committee will again meet on Thursday. Sources said the CVC briefed Modi on the findings of the vigilance watchdog against Verma. The CVC had earlier probed allegations of graft against Verma under the mon- itoring of retired SC judge AK Patnaik. The SC had during the hearing of Verma’s petition challenging the government decision to send him on leave termed some findings of the CVC as “very uncomplimen- tary.” During the meeting, Kharge is learnt to have point- ed out that Verma should be given a chance to defend him- self before the committee head- ed by the PM. Kharge also demanded that Verma lost 77 days of office due to the Government’s decision to send him on leave so he should be compensated and a probe should be ordered on the events of October 23/24 leading to the transfer of Verma. Kharge also demanded that a copy of the CVC report against Verma should be given to him, sources said. T he Congress has convened a meeting of top party lead- ers and State unit chiefs to ini- tiate the discussion to strategise for the Lok Sabha polls and prepare a “plan B” for the party if it has to face the Uttar Pradesh election alone. The meeting on Thursday will be chaired by party chief Rahul Gandhi. The meeting is also expected to take a call on appointing Delhi PCC presi- dent following resignation of Ajay Maken. The reluctance of Akhilesh Yadav-Mayawati combine to include the Congress in the UP “mahagathbandhan” has irked the grand old party. Reports suggest that Congress may be left out in the SP-BSP combi- nation that will set aside just two seats in its strongholds of Amethi and Rae Bareli. In this backdrop, senior Congress leader Salman Khurshid said Congress’ will- ingness to form an alliance should not be seen as its weak- ness. “Every party in this coun- try is capable of fighting on its own but an alliance some- times gives a greater advantage. An alliance with other parties will help the party gain more strength and push the BJP out of power, said the former Union Minister. “The fact that we have an open mind for an alliance doesn’t mean that we are weak. We can improve by an alliance and through it we can improve the general theme of the grand alliance which is to try and push the BJP out of power,” Khurshid said. Meanwhile, NCP chief Sharad Pawar called on Rahul Gandhi to sort out differences on the eight of the 48 Lok Sabha seats from Maharashtra on which the two parties have not yet arrived on a consensus. According to AICC sources, both the Opposition parties have so far decided to share 20 seats each. Also present in the meet- ing was Congress leaders Mallikarjun Kharge and NCP leader Praful Patel. Both Congress and NCP had suffered a drubbing in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, winning only two and four parliamen- tary seats respectively of the total of 48 seats. Congress and NCP are scheduled to start a mass con- tact programme - ‘Parivartan Yatra’ - next week in Maharashtra to highlight “fail- ures” of the Central and State Governments. Separately, top leaders from both the UPA partners including NCP chief Sharad Pawar, Congress lead- ers Ashok Chavan, and Prithviraj Chavan will lead a ‘Jan Sangharsh Yatra’ next week. A fter several years, almost all types of crimes — includ- ing crimes against women — decreased in 2018, data released by the Delhi Police at its annual Press conference on Wednesday showed. However, motor vehicle thefts continued to be the area of concern as there was a steep increase in the number of cases reported last year as compared to 2017. Last year, 44,158 motor vehicle theft cases were report- ed as against 39,084 cases in 2017. More than five vehicles were reported stolen every hour in Delhi in 2018. Road fatalities were down as well. According to the Delhi Police data, not only have heinous crimes like murder, dacoity and robbery — the prime indicators of the crime situation in a city — gone down significantly but police also succeeded in cracking more cases. While releasing the report card, Delhi Police Commissioner Amulya Patnaik said, “Our consistent preventive endeavour led to a healthy reduction in heinous crimes by 11.72 per cent in 2018 while major heads like dacoity, attempt to murder, robbery, rapes and riots saw a decline of 36.11, 16.26, 20.15, 0.78 and 54 per cent respectively as com- pared to the previous year. Even the incidents of snatching and burglary have come down.” Five women were raped and eight were molested every- day on an average in the national capital last year, the Delhi Police said. According to data, 2,043 cases of rapes were registered last year as compared to 2,059 cases the year before that and 2,065 cases in 2016. Police said 2,36,476 IPC cases were filed last year as against 2,23,077 in 2017, show- ing an increase of 6.01 per cent. Total IPC crime per lakh of population was 1,289 last year as compared to 1,244 crimes during the previous year. Owing to sustained efforts by districts and specialised units like the Crime Branch and the Special Cell, 91.16 per cent of heinous cases were worked out last year, as against 87 per cent the previ- ous year. The detection in total crimes also improved to 36.53 per cent from 34.6 per cent in 2017. A fter a passerby noticed the body of an unidentified woman stuffed in a trolley bag floating on the canal passing through Ashok Nagar, he informed police which turned up at the spot and fished out the body containing multiple stab wounds in East Delhi on Wednesday. Police said though the body is yet to be identified they found Mohit inscribed on her right hand in Hindi and it appears that she was murdered somewhere else and her body was dumped in the canal by the killer near the canal at Dharamshila Road. Deputy Commissioner of Police (East) Pankaj Singh said, a case has been registered under appropriate sections at the New Ashok Vihar Nagar police station and the investi- gation has been taken up. A police officer tasked with the investigation said they are trying to identify the tattoo artist who inscribed Mohit on her right hand so as to crack the case. Also, he said police are scanning through profiles of missing women registered at local police stations. Since no CCTV cameras have been found at or near the spot, it is not known who would have dumped the bag, he said. The body has been pre- served in a mortuary and will be sent for post-mortem, police said. An investigation is under- way. The trolley bag was found abandoned near the canal at Dharamshila Road. The body had sharp injuries, Singh said. The incid- net has left many in the local shocked. Residents were seen talking about the incident in hushed tone and are waiting for the case to solved so that killer is arreste as soon as possible. “The incident is shocking. It was a few hours ago that I came to know about the gory incident. New Ashok Vihar Nagar is a peaceful area and safe for women but this incid- net has left local residents deeply uspet. We hope that police will be able to find out the killer and the law takes its own course,” said a resident on the condition of anonymity. L ess than a decade after Shah Faesal was recruited to elite Indian Administrative Service (IAS) by topping the merit list as first Kashmiri, he announced to quit the coveted service in protest against “unabated killings in Kashmir and mar- ginalisation of Indian Muslims”. He will elaborate his reasons and future plans on Friday. Former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah hinted at Faesal’s joining politics while as senior separatist leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq wished his stance over killing of Kashmiris would guide his future course in politics. The people have offered mixed reaction to his resignation ranging between appreciation and ridicule. Faesal (35) was off-duty for a year to pursue a fellowship in Howard University in the US. He returned a week ago amid speculation about his intentions to quit the Government service to join the electoral politics. Faesal topped 2009 civil services examination and arguably became the most cel- ebrated topper of the elite com- petition. He became a youth icon and his performance was referred to by Prime Ministers in their speeches in Kashmir. “To protest against the unabated killings in Kashmir, and lack of any sincere reach- out from the Union Government, the marginalisa- tion and invisiblisation of around 200 million Indian Muslims at the hands of Hindutva forces reducing them to second-class citizens; insid- ious attacks on the special identity of the J&K State and growing culture of intolerance and hate in the mainland India in the name of hyper-nationalism, I have decided to resign from Indian Administrative Service,” Faesal wrote on Facebook. He wrote, “I wish to remind the regime that subversion of public institutions like RBI, CBI and NIA has the potential to decimate the Constitutional edifice of this country and it needs to be stopped.” Bhubaneswar: Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Wednesday made it clear that his BJD will not be a part of the Mahagathbandhan (grand alliance). Patnaik said as part of his party’s policy, the BJD will con- tinue to maintain equal distance from both the BJP and the Congress. “We will continue with our policy of equidistance from the BJP and the Congress,” he said.

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The Rajya Sabha onWednesday passed the

Constitution (124thAmendment) Bill, 2019 toamend the Constitution toprovide 10 per cent reservationto general category poor in jobsand education. The Lok Sabhahad approved Bill on Tuesdayand now it will go to thePresident for approval afterwhich it will become the law.

The Bill was passed with165 votes in favour and 7against it.

The Bill was approved afterthe House rejected a motionmoved by Kanimozhi (DMK)and supported by Left partiesfor sending it to aParliamentary SelectCommittee for scrutiny.Against 18 members support-ing, 155 opposed it and onemember abstained.

The Bill was approved afterthe House rejected 5 amend-ments moved by Oppositionmembers. The quota will beover and above the existing 50per cent reservation to SCs, STsand Other Backward Classes(OBCs).

Replying to nearly eighthour-long debate in the RajyaSabha, Social Justice andEmowerment MinisterThaawar Chand Gehlot askedCongress how it would haveimplemented the promise itmade in its election manifestoof giving reservation to poor ofgeneral category but by amend-ing the Constitution.

He said reservation to SC,

ST and OBCs will not betouched by the amendmentand Opposition parties shouldhave supported the legislationwithout any ifs and buts.

The changes in theConstitution being made toprovide the reservation willhold scrutiny of the SupremeCourt, he hoped.

Filling up of jobs reservedfor SC/STs and OBCs is anongoing process, he said,adding the Bill was an attemptto benefit poor of general cat-egory who have been deprivedso far.

While Opposition partiesquestioned the motive behindbringing the legislation justfour months before the gener-al elections, Law Minister RaviShankar Prasad used cricketinganology to justify the move say-ing ‘sixes are hit only in the slogovers’ and said more such “six-ers” are in the pipeline.

Several Opposition mem-bers raised doubts about the

legality of the Bill in view of theSupreme Court setting limit ofquotas at 50 per cent.

Minister of State for SocialJustice and EmpowermentRamdas Athawale said he sawnothing wrong in bringing aBill to win election.

Congress and otherOpposition parties also raiseddoubts over the move actuallybenefiting the deserving when,they said, Government jobs aredrying and the economy is wit-nessing a jobless growth.

Questioning the criteriadefined to classify economicallybackward classes in generalcaterogy as persons with annu-al family income of Rs 8 lakhwhen income tax exemptionlimit is only Rs 2.5 lakh, theyalso asked why in the four-and-half- years the ModiGovernment did not bringwomen’s reservation Bill andone for reservation for SCs inpromotion.

Satish Chandra Misra

(BSP) said the Bill was moti-vated by meeting of his partychief and Samajwadi Partyhead for a possible poll alliancein Uttar Pradesh, which sendsmost MPs in the Lok Sabha.

The Bill comes just fourmonths ahead of Lok Sabhapolls and weeks after BJP facedthe wrath of the upper castesespecially in Madhya Pradeshand Rajasthan following itsaggressive push to win overbackward classes and Dalits,and is being seen as an attemptby the party to win over theupper castes.

Constitution envisagesquota for socially and educa-tionally backward classesbesides SC and STs, but has nomention of economically weak-er section.

The amendment Bill seeksto insert a clause in Sections 15and 16 of the Constitution.

A Constitution amend-ment Bill requires supportfrom at least two-thirds of

members present and voting inthe both Houses of Parliament.

The Lok Sabha passed theBill with 323 voting in favourand three against.

To avoid the legislationbeing challenged in theSupreme Court, which had set50 per cent as the upper limitfor quotas, Consumer AffairsMinister Ram Vilas Paswandemanded that the amend-ment be included in theSchedule 9 of the Constitution.Reservation should also extendto private sector and constitu-ion of an All India Judicial ser-vice, he said.

The Ninth Schedule to theConstitution was introduced tosave land reforms law enactedby various States from beingchallenged in the courts tofacilitate agrarian reforms.

Anand Sharma (Congress)said a Government “on depar-ture lounge” brought the Billafter facing “befitting” defeat inthree States elections lastmonth.

Derek O’ Brien (TMC)charged the Government ofbringing “Cheat India” schemesin housing for all, two crorejobs, doubling of farm incomeand Rs 15 lakh for all citizens.

While Kapil Sibal(Congress) equated the law tothe “disruptive” demonetisa-tion, Praful Patel (NCP) said it will deliver a “stillborn” baby.

BSP’s Mishra termed it as“fraud on the upper caste”while Manoj Kumar Jha ofRJD said it was “a mid nightrobbery”.

������� �!�"#$

Aday after he was reinstatedby the Supreme Court,

CBI Director Alok Verma onWednesday resumed office andrevoked most of the transferorders issued by then director(incharge) M Nageshwar Rao.

Rao had transferred 13officials, including those prob-ing the corruption case againstsecond-in-command RakeshAsthana. They include DeputySP AK Bassi who was probingthe case against Asthana to PortBlair. Other officers probingAsthana, including SS Gurmand DIG MK Sinha, were alsotransferred to Jabalpur andNagpur respectively by Rao onOctober 24.

A Sai Manohar, JointDirector, Special Investigationteam probing several majorcases, has been transferred byVerma. Joint Director PolicyAK Sharma, also in-charge ofthe anti-corruption wing, wastransferred to Multi-Disciplinary MonitoringAgency by Rao.

Deputy SP Tarun Gaubahad replaced Bassi after inter-im director Rao’s orders andother officers Satish Dagar andDIG V Murugesan were

appointed by Rao to probe thecase against Asthana.

Through a midnight orderon October 23, theGovernment had sent bothVerma and Asthana on leavepending an enquiry by theCentral Vigilance Commissionand appointed Rao as the inter-im CBI director. Rao hadordered the transfers onOctober 24.

Meanwhile, Prime MinisterNarendra Modi-led HighPower Committee for Selectionof CBI Director met here latein the evening to take a call onthe fate of Verma.

Chief Justice of IndiaRanjan Gogoi’s nominee JusticeAK Sikri and Leader ofOpposition in the Lok SabhaMallikarjun Kharge alsoattended the meeting at thePM’s residence at the LokKalyan Marg. The committeewill again meet on Thursday.

Sources said the CVCbriefed Modi on the findings ofthe vigilance watchdog against

Verma. The CVC had earlierprobed allegations of graftagainst Verma under the mon-itoring of retired SC judge AKPatnaik. The SC had duringthe hearing of Verma’s petitionchallenging the governmentdecision to send him on leavetermed some findings of theCVC as “very uncomplimen-tary.”

During the meeting,Kharge is learnt to have point-ed out that Verma should begiven a chance to defend him-self before the committee head-ed by the PM.

Kharge also demanded thatVerma lost 77 days of office dueto the Government’s decision tosend him on leave so he shouldbe compensated and a probe should be orderedon the events of October 23/24leading to the transfer ofVerma.

Kharge also demanded thata copy of the CVC reportagainst Verma should be givento him, sources said.

�������������������� �!�"#$

The Congress has conveneda meeting of top party lead-

ers and State unit chiefs to ini-tiate the discussion to strategisefor the Lok Sabha polls andprepare a “plan B” for theparty if it has to face the UttarPradesh election alone. Themeeting on Thursday will bechaired by party chief RahulGandhi. The meeting is alsoexpected to take a call onappointing Delhi PCC presi-dent following resignation ofAjay Maken.

The reluctance of AkhileshYadav-Mayawati combine toinclude the Congress in the UP“mahagathbandhan” has irkedthe grand old party. Reportssuggest that Congress may beleft out in the SP-BSP combi-nation that will set aside justtwo seats in its strongholds ofAmethi and Rae Bareli.

In this backdrop, seniorCongress leader SalmanKhurshid said Congress’ will-ingness to form an alliance

should not be seen as its weak-ness.

“Every party in this coun-try is capable of fighting on itsown but an alliance some-times gives a greater advantage.An alliance with other partieswill help the party gain morestrength and push the BJP outof power, said the formerUnion Minister.

“The fact that we have anopen mind for an alliancedoesn’t mean that we are weak.We can improve by an allianceand through it we can improvethe general theme of the grandalliance which is to try andpush the BJP out of power,”Khurshid said.

Meanwhile, NCP chiefSharad Pawar called on RahulGandhi to sort out differenceson the eight of the 48 LokSabha seats from Maharashtraon which the two parties havenot yet arrived on a consensus.According to AICC sources,both the Opposition partieshave so far decided to share 20seats each.

Also present in the meet-ing was Congress leadersMallikarjun Kharge and NCPleader Praful Patel.

Both Congress and NCPhad suffered a drubbing in the2014 Lok Sabha polls, winningonly two and four parliamen-tary seats respectively of thetotal of 48 seats.

Congress and NCP are

scheduled to start a mass con-tact programme - ‘ParivartanYatra’ - next week inMaharashtra to highlight “fail-ures” of the Central and StateGovernments. Separately, top

leaders from both the UPApartners including NCP chiefSharad Pawar, Congress lead-ers Ashok Chavan, andPrithviraj Chavan will lead a‘Jan Sangharsh Yatra’ next week.

��������������� �!�"#$

After several years, almost alltypes of crimes — includ-

ing crimes against women —decreased in 2018, datareleased by the Delhi Police atits annual Press conference onWednesday showed.

However, motor vehiclethefts continued to be the areaof concern as there was a steepincrease in the number of casesreported last year as comparedto 2017. Last year, 44,158 motorvehicle theft cases were report-ed as against 39,084 cases in2017. More than five vehicleswere reported stolen everyhour in Delhi in 2018.

Road fatalities were downas well. According to the DelhiPolice data, not only haveheinous crimes like murder,dacoity and robbery — theprime indicators of the crimesituation in a city — gonedown significantly but policealso succeeded in crackingmore cases.

While releasing the reportcard, Delhi PoliceCommissioner Amulya Patnaiksaid, “Our consistent preventiveendeavour led to a healthyreduction in heinous crimes by

11.72 per cent in 2018 whilemajor heads like dacoity,attempt to murder, robbery,rapes and riots saw a decline of36.11, 16.26, 20.15, 0.78 and 54per cent respectively as com-pared to the previous year.Even the incidents of snatchingand burglary have come down.”

Five women were rapedand eight were molested every-day on an average in thenational capital last year, theDelhi Police said. According todata, 2,043 cases of rapes wereregistered last year as comparedto 2,059 cases the year beforethat and 2,065 cases in 2016.

Police said 2,36,476 IPCcases were filed last year asagainst 2,23,077 in 2017, show-ing an increase of 6.01 per cent.Total IPC crime per lakh ofpopulation was 1,289 last yearas compared to 1,244 crimesduring the previous year.

Owing to sustained effortsby districts and specialisedunits like the Crime Branchand the Special Cell, 91.16 per cent of heinous caseswere worked out last year, asagainst 87 per cent the previ-ous year. The detection in totalcrimes also improved to 36.53per cent from 34.6 per cent in2017.

������������������ �!�"#$

After a passerby noticed thebody of an unidentified

woman stuffed in a trolley bagfloating on the canal passingthrough Ashok Nagar, heinformed police which turnedup at the spot and fished outthe body containing multiplestab wounds in East Delhi onWednesday.

Police said though thebody is yet to be identified theyfound Mohit inscribed on herright hand in Hindi and itappears that she was murderedsomewhere else and her bodywas dumped in the canal by thekiller near the canal atDharamshila Road.

Deputy Commissioner ofPolice (East) Pankaj Singh said,a case has been registeredunder appropriate sections at

the New Ashok Vihar Nagarpolice station and the investi-gation has been taken up.

A police officer tasked withthe investigation said they aretrying to identify the tattooartist who inscribed Mohit onher right hand so as to crackthe case. Also, he said police are

scanning through profiles ofmissing women registered atlocal police stations.

Since no CCTV camerashave been found at or near thespot, it is not known whowould have dumped the bag, hesaid. The body has been pre-served in a mortuary and will

be sent for post-mortem, policesaid. An investigation is under-way. The trolley bag was foundabandoned near the canal atDharamshila Road.

The body had sharpinjuries, Singh said. The incid-net has left many in the localshocked. Residents were seentalking about the incident inhushed tone and are waiting forthe case to solved so that killeris arreste as soon as possible.

“The incident is shocking.It was a few hours ago that Icame to know about the goryincident. New Ashok ViharNagar is a peaceful area andsafe for women but this incid-net has left local residentsdeeply uspet. We hope thatpolice will be able to find outthe killer and the law takes itsown course,” said a resident onthe condition of anonymity.

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Less than a decade after ShahFaesal was recruited to elite

Indian Administrative Service(IAS) by topping the merit listas first Kashmiri, he announcedto quit the coveted service inprotest against “unabatedkillings in Kashmir and mar-ginalisation of Indian Muslims”.He will elaborate his reasonsand future plans on Friday.

Former Chief MinisterOmar Abdullah hinted atFaesal’s joining politics while assenior separatist leaderMirwaiz Umar Farooq wishedhis stance over killing ofKashmiris would guide hisfuture course in politics. Thepeople have offered mixed

reaction to his resignationranging between appreciationand ridicule.

Faesal (35) was off-duty fora year to pursue a fellowship inHoward University in the US.He returned a week ago amidspeculation about his intentionsto quit the Government serviceto join the electoral politics.

Faesal topped 2009 civilservices examination andarguably became the most cel-ebrated topper of the elite com-petition. He became a youthicon and his performance wasreferred to by Prime Ministersin their speeches in Kashmir.

“To protest against theunabated killings in Kashmir,and lack of any sincere reach-out from the Union

Government, the marginalisa-tion and invisiblisation ofaround 200 million IndianMuslims at the hands ofHindutva forces reducing themto second-class citizens; insid-ious attacks on the special identity of the J&KState and growing culture ofintolerance and hate in themainland India in the name ofhyper-nationalism, I havedecided to resign from IndianAdministrative Service,” Faesalwrote on Facebook.

He wrote, “I wish to remindthe regime that subversion ofpublic institutions like RBI,CBI and NIA has the potentialto decimate the Constitutionaledifice of this country and itneeds to be stopped.”

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Bhubaneswar: Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik onWednesday made it clear that his BJD will not be a part of theMahagathbandhan (grand alliance).

Patnaik said as part of his party’s policy, the BJD will con-tinue to maintain equal distance from both the BJP and theCongress. “We will continue with our policy of equidistance fromthe BJP and the Congress,” he said.

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Eighty two years is a longtime in the history of any

institution and is an apt occa-sion to look back at the jour-ney so far of that institution. Aneducational institution in averdant green corner of theDoon valley where many well-known people went to as theirfirst little school has todaygrown into a larger institution,moving from “strength tostrength” over the last eightdecades.

Welham Boys’ School, oneof the renowned residentialpublic schools in the country,turns 82 this January. Welhamwas founded in January 1937as a preparatory school forboarding schools in Englandand India by Hersilia SusieOliphant, an English lady, witha capital of £1000. Over the pasteighty two years, the schoolhas grown into an institutionpreparing boys for the CBSEexamination.

The story of H SOliphant , who set up theWelham Boys’s preparatoryschool in the Doon valley isan extremely inspiring saga ofa dedicated lady who workedtirelessly for the cause of edu-cation in India for severaldecades . Not many knowthat the founder was born onAugust 17, 1883 and spent herchildhood at Playworth Hall,Retford, Nottinghamshire.There is no record to establishthat she ever went to school orcollege. In 1920, Hersilia SusieOliphant arrived in India towork as a companion to theMaharani of Cooch Behar.Soon, she left Cooch Beharand went to work in Kanpurand then Delhi .From Delhi,

she came to Dehra Dun andworked at The Doon Schooland Colonel Brown School.

She was resolved to setup a Preparatory School in theDoon valley. In 1936, theowner of 5, Circular Road,Hukum Chand, informed herthat the house could be madeavailable for the school. Theplace was done up and thefirst boy to join the WelhamBoys Prep School in January1937 was Maqbool HussainKhan. Miss Oliphant’s dreamof a residential kindergartenand prep school for Indianchildren was finally realised.She was then 54 years old.There were only six boys tobegin with. The year 1938 saw30 boarders and twenty dayscholars.

The school was founded asa preparatory school for board-ing schools in England andIndia by Oliphant, with a hum-ble capital of £1000. Named byOliphant after her girlhoodhome, the Welham village inNottinghamshire, this boys’school has indeed come a verylong way from its shelteredexistence as a little prep schoolin the quiet Dalanwala area ofthe Doon valley. It has gonefrom “Strength to Strength” , assays its motto. It kept sendingits boys to other schools likeThe Doon School and MayoCollege after Class 5, for manyyears -till 1980 .The first ClassTen batch appeared for boardsin 1985.

The school is spread over30 acres and has a spectacularview of the Himalayan hills.The School Magazine titled“The Oliphant” is brought outby the student-editors. In 1956Oliphant donated all her assetsto the Welham Boys Schoolwhich presently is administered

by a distinguished Board ofTrustees.

There is great stress on ath-letics, table tennis, swimming,Taekwondo, dramatics andmusic at Welham. Welhamitesare also very keen on planta-tions and reforestation activi-ties.

Among the famous ex-alumni of Welham are RajivGandhi, Sanjay Gandhi, ManiShanker Aiyyer and ZayedKhan, the actor. In 2012, theschool held grand celebrationsto mark its platinum jubilee.

The principal today isGunmeet Bindra under whoseguidance the school is movingfrom strength to strength.“The private boarding schoolsin an Indian milieu continue tohave their relevance despite theadvent of quality day schools.These schools are mini worldswithin themselves. The schoolsystem does demand indepen-dence, resilience, resourceful-ness and a degree of emotion-al toughness, but you are gen-erally respected and encour-aged as an individual,” shesays.

The life for a boarder atWelham Boys School is a mixof academics, sports andextracurricular activities andBindra is quite happy with theperformance of the boys onfield. “Our boys have beenexcelling in different sports.Recently, they won theKandhari Hockey champi-onship, but I must add here thatour thrust area is scholasticachievement followed by sportsand other activities,” empha-sises Bindra.

A keen hockey player anda swimmer, Bindra can befound dribbling her hockeystick in her spare time. She wasselected for hockey India campwhile studying at IndraprasthaCollege (New Delhi) and is alsoa good swimmer. “We areappreciated for several things,but it would be wonderful ifour young boys and girls work-ing in different parts of theworld are recognised for pos-sessing strong values. A greatdeal of emphasis has to be laidon character building and it hasto be done at the school- level,”says the principal.

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As the effects of the driveagainst unauthorised road-

side vendors started onTuesday are limited, theMunicipal Corporation ofDehradun (MCD) has decidedto announce such drives twodays before such vendors areevicted or penalised.

According to the officials,the aim of the prior announce-ment is to make the local ven-dors aware of the rules so thatthey can save their goods orelse MCD would seize thegoods of unauthorised vendorsfrom Friday onwards.

The drive against the unau-thorised roadside vendors wasstarted by the MCD onTuesday in the presence of themayor Sunil Uniyal ‘Gama’and municipal commissionerVinay Shankar Pandey asidefrom 25 police personnel andmunicipal staffers.

However, soon after theofficial team left, the vendorsset their stalls again on theroadsides.

Quizzed over the matter,municipal commissioner VinayShankar Pandey said, “Weknow that as soon as wereached our offices the vendorswere back on the road. Thistime, we would go for priorannouncement, two daysbefore the drive is launched.Thereafter, all the non-regis-tered vendors would be evict-ed from Friday onwards.”

Providing more details, hesaid, “After two days of issuingwarning, MCD would seize allthe goods of the non-registeredvendors. Besides, fines would

be collected from them. For thetask, we have formed a teamconsisting of two officers whowould be regularly checkingthe vendors in the market.

The checking would be doneonce in the morning and thenagain in the evening.”

When asked about theremoval of the marked

encroachment as per HighCourt orders in the city andwhat MCD is doing about it, hesaid, “The team was formed bythe Mussoorie Dehradun

Development Authority(MDDA) and we were part ofthe team. If we are asked toform the team again we woulddefinitely do it.”

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Eyes on the general election2019, the veteran

Congress leader and the for-mer Chief Minister HarishRawat is all set to embark onGanga Ganna Yatra fromThursday.

However, the ruling BJPparty is quick to take a dig atthe veteran and dubbed theproposed yatra as a desper-ate poll plank resorted to aleader who has lost his con-nect with the people of thestate.

Amid the preparationsfor the high-stake generalelection 2019, the formerchief minister Harish Rawatis set to move into the pollmode with the yatra fromJhabreda, determined to woothe farmers and the Gangalovers at the same timethrough championing thecause of both. His rally wouldstart from Jhabreda and cul-minate at the fabled Har KiPaidi.

While Congress support-ers are excited over his rally,

hoping it would help theopposition party build arobust connect with the peo-ple of the district, in general,and the farmers, in particular,ahead of the crucial election,BJP, on the other hand, pre-dict that it would end upbeing a damp squib whichwould peter out without cre-ating even a small ripple inthe people’s mind.

Speaking to The Pioneer,a district Congress leaderRao Afaq Ali said, “The warmsupport Harish Rawat hasbeen receiving from the peo-ple from all walks of life ofthe district clearly indicatesthe current flowing stronglyin his favour. They are excit-ed over the rally. The mas-sive participation of the peo-ple would show which waythe wind is blowing.” Quizzedover the factional bickeringgnawing the state party unit,he said that Rawat is head andshoulders above his peers inthe state party.

“He is now a nationallevel Congress leader as partof the Congress president

Rahul Gandhi’s team. Nobodyin the state Congress is nearhim in terms of stature,” headded.

However, BJP leader OmPrakash Jamdagni, close tothe Haridwar MP RameshPokhriyal ‘Nishank’, said dis-missively that Harish Rawathad no mettle left in him nowas a leader. “His wife washumbled in the 2014 electionfrom here when he was theCM of the state. He has beendeserted by the state Congresschief. None of the MLAs andthe former MLAs cared toattend the programmerecently organised on hisbehalf. Things are clear thathe has lost his connect withthe people,” he added.

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The khaki is under the scanner with a spikein allegation of sexual harassment

being tagged to it. Coming close on the heels of the ASP get-

ting embroiled in sexual harassment row, aconstable has come up in the news with thesame charge dogging him.

He has allegedly sexually assaulted aminor. The invest igat ion is on, said the police.

Notably, a complaint had been lodgedlong ago to the then SSP Krishna Kumar V Kby the minor but things had been shovedunder the carpet with police choosing tomaintain a stony silence.

Now it has surfaced again after a com-plainant was lodged again at a police station,leaving the law-enforcing agency red-faced.Things rolling on, the SP city Mamta Vohra

has been assigned to probe the charge. Queried over the matter by The Pioneer,

SSP Janmajay Khanduri said, “The probe is oninto the matter. Action would be takenagainst the accused if the investigation findshim guilty.”

Mention worthy, a few days ago, a womanconstable had made sexual harassment alle-gations against ASP Parikshit Kumar. Thecomplaint had been made to then SSPHaridwar Ridhim Agarwal on December 28last.

The very next day, a probe had been ini-tiated. However, the proceedings of the probehad been kept away from the cops workingin the circle.

The matter has been closed following aapology tendered by the senior cop. It is nowleft to the director general of police to decidewhether any action would be taken against theofficer in accordance with the norms or not.

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In order to seek solution to variousproblems faced by the local people

because of the crumbling service ofthe Municipal Corporation ofDehradun (MCD), the newly electedcouncillors from various wards metthe senior civic body officials onWednesday. The problems were main-ly related to sanitation and potholesgaping on the roads unrepaired.

Nandi Sharma, the councillor ofward number 12 (Kishan Nagar),said, “There is an area in our wardthrough which the river Bindal flows.The silt of the river has spilled overon to the road. Over the past twoyears, we have been trying to rid thearea of the problem. But MCD hasdone nothing so far. Things turned

grim during the last rainy season. Weapproached MCD, hoping that itwould do something. But nothing hap-pened. Around 150 people faced dam-ages in their houses as water moved

into them. A paltry compensation ofRs 1800 was given to the affected peo-ple and the number of those whoreceived the compensation was verysmall. This time, a solution must be

found out. We are looking forward tothe first board meeting of the coun-cillors to raise the issues.”

A resident of Semma Dwar wardnumber 40 Rajendra Sharma echoedthe same and said, “We are facingmany problems like potholed roadsand crumbling sanitation service inour areas. We hope that this time theofficers would hear out our grievancesand solve our problems.” Councillorsfrom two other wards- Patel Nagar(West) (Ward No- 44) and D L road(Ward No-13) were present at MCDon Wednesday to raise the problemsthe people of their wards have beenfacing.

As per the information given bythe officials, the first board meeting ofthe councillors is likely to be held laterthis month.

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The Budget session of theVidhan Sabha will be held

in Dehradun from February 11to 22. This and other decisionswere taken by the state cabinetin its meeting held here onWednesday.

Addressing the mediaabout decisions taken in thecabinet meeting, Cabinet min-ister and State Governmentspokesman Madan Kaushiksaid that a total of nine issueswere taken up in the cabinetmeeting.

It was decided that thebudget session of the VidhanSabha will be held in Dehradunfrom February 11 to 22.Further, the cabinet alsoapproved five per cent hori-zontal reservation in state ser-vices for children in registeredorphanages.

Presently there are about1,000 such children in the stateand the decision is aimed atencouraging them to complete

their studies towards securinga decent job. The cabinet alsoapproved import of 240 Merinosheep from Australia at a totalcost of Rs six crore. The cost ofthe project will be borne in theratio of 90:10 by the Centraland State governments respec-tively. Forty males and 200females will be imported andthen bred in the state under thisplan for which Rs 4.36 crorehas been released.

The cabinet also decided toget documentaries onKedarnath reconstructionmade by National Geographicat a cost of Rs 1.5 crore. Thetwo documentaries- one 44minutes long and the other 10minutes long will be in English,Hindi, Tamil, Telugu andBengali languages.

The documentaries will betelecast on NationalGeographic channel and achannel of the Fox networkapart from being publicisedwidely through the socialmedia, said Kaushik.

Earlier, the six monthsarrears of government employ-ees under the seventh paycommission had been paidand in its meeting onWednesday, the cabinet clearedpayment of arrears for theremaining six months. This willentail an additional financialburden of about Rs 300 croreon the state.

The cabinet also approvedsome amendments in paraglid-ing rules, appointment tovacant temporary posts in gov-ernment medical college,Haldwani and revisedallowances barring dearnessallowance to governmentemployees as per the recom-mendations of the seventh paycommission.

The revised house rentallowance alone will entail anadditional financial burden ofabout Rs 101 crore per year onthe state government. Chiefsecretary Utpal Kumar Singhwas also present at the Pressbriefing.

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Citing various anomaliesand questionable actions

of veterinarian Dr AditiSharma deputed by AnimalHusbandry department to theRajaji national park, theUnion Minister for Womenand Child Development,Maneka Gandhi has written tothe Minister of State forAnimal Husbandry, RekhaArya requesting her to recallSharma and depute a capableveterinarian in her place.

In the letter, Gandhiwrites about Sharma, “Notonly has she failed to emulatethe progressive steps towardsrescue and rehabilitationtaken by other vets posted innational parks, but has alsobeen a disaster for conserva-tion efforts. She has beensadistic and unscientific indealing with wildlife and mustbe removed from this criticalposting immediately. To giveyou some examples: sheunnecessarily trapped an adultwild tusker and recommend-ed that it be kept in captivityor life. All other problem ele-phants have been successful-ly translocated earlier andthere was no justification forrecommending and insistingon life imprisonment for thisanimal.”

The union minister hasfurther raised serious con-cerns about the treatmentbeing meted out to this ele-phant. She writes, “SinceNovember (2018), this tuskerhas been severely abused andbeaten up, starved, druggedand experimented upon by DrAditi Sharma. Under thePerforming Animals(Registration) Rules, permis-sion from the Animal WelfareBoard of India must beobtained for ‘training’ of ani-mals. She was repeatedlywarned not to torture the

animals but has paid no heedto the authorities. Most cruelmethods of torture of ele-phants are being importedinto Uttarakhand by her tomisuse the public funds avail-able for wildlife conservation.Such practices have empiri-cally increased conflict andthe number of human casual-ties in Kerala and Assam. Shehas now imprisoned and istorturing the elephant in aKraal and is involved withsome very questionable Pujarito do some Jhhad-Phooktricks on the elephant.”

Gandhi further states thatfor the past one year, Sharmahas spent her time attemptingto tranquilise and relocatetigers in Rajaji without anyprovocation or conflict fromthe species.

There are elephants whichthe Delhi Government wantsto give to Uttarakhand, buther repeated unjustif ieddemands of screening and re-screening are delaying theprocess leading to furtherabuse of these animals. Statingthat Sharma’s five years ondeputation are now over,Gandhi has requested Arya torecall her and send somecapable vet to Rajaji who canadd value to the conservationof wildlife. Sharma’s conductand skill should be re-evalu-ated before any critical post-ing is entrusted upon her.

The Union minister hasalso requested Arya, as thehead of the State AnimalWelfare Board to institute acommittee of at least fivewildlife veterinarians to assessthe condition of the tusker,currently kept at Meethawalirange of Rajaji and to facilitateits rehabilitation.

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Delhi visit of the stateCongress chief Pritam

Singh and other senior leadershas let speculation swirlingthat the party would soonannounce a new PCC.

It is reliably learnt that theparty would announce fourcommittees as part of prepara-tion for the upcoming LokSabha election before declaringthe much- awaited PCC.

The PCC president Pritamwas slated to meet the Congresspresident Rahul Gandhi onWednesday but the meetingcould not have taken place withRahul being in Rajasthan onthe day. On Friday, theCongress president would chairan important meeting of All

India Congress Committee (AICC) in New Delhi in whichleaders from all state unitswould participate. In course ofthe meeting, the roadmap ofparty’s preparations for thehigh-stake Lok Sabha electionwould be firmed up. In themeeting, the in charge of stateunit Anugrah Narayan Singh,the PCC chief Pritam Singh

and the leader of the opposi-tion in Uttarakhand AssemblyIndira Hridayesh would par-ticipate.

Meanwhile, speculation isrunning rife that the partywould soon announce the elec-tion committee, coordination

committee, media committeeand publicity committee for theLok Sabha election. The partyis likely to accommodate someleaders, who have been jock-eying for entry in the PCC, inthese committees. Party insid-ers revealed that afterannouncement of these com-mittees, Pritam Singh mightannounce his new team.

The PCC chief in the pasthad repeatedly said that thenew PCC would be a small oneunlike the jumbo PCC formedwhen Kishore Upadhyaya stew-arded the state unit. However,it is unlikely that the PCCwould have less than 50 mem-bers. Sources said that given theinternal dynamics of the partywhere different leaders are

pulling stops to ensure thattheir supporters are in theapex body of the stateCongress, the new PCC wouldat least have 75 members.

Aware of the internal riftgnawing at the state unit wheremighty factions led by formerchief minister Harish Rawat,former PCC chief KishoreUpadhyaya and combinedcamp of PCC chief PritamSingh and Indira Hridayesh areactive, the central leaders havebeen treading a cautious line onthe constitution of the newPCC. The central leaders wantthat adequate representation toall camps is given in the newteam so that the party is able toput up a good show in theupcoming Lok Sabha election.

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Atotal of 10052 complaintsreceived in the ‘Grievance

Redressal Cell’, set up in thepolice headquarters, wereaddressed by the Uttarakhandpolice in the year 2018.

The cell had received atotal 10828 complaints fromthe people in form of mails, emails and mobile app of thechief minister Trivendra SinghRawat. The director general (DG), crime and law and order,Ashok Kumar appreciated theeffort of police in solving thegrievances of the people. Hesaid that the complainantsalways come with a hope thatthe police would deliver justiceto them. He said that when thecomplaint is received by thepolice.

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The strike of the bank andinsurance employees has

adversely affected trade whileleaving the common peopleinconvenienced for the secondconsecutive day on Wednesday.

The two- day strike call wasgiven by many labour organi-sations against what they allegeanti -labour policies of theUnion government. The strikecrippled banking sector as theemployees of nationalizedbanks stayed away from work.It is estimated that businesstransactions to the tune of Rs1000 crores have been affectedin Uttarakhand in these twodays.

On the day, the employeesunder the banner ofUttaranchal Bank EmployeeUnion assembled at Astley Hallbranch of Punjab NationalBank and took out a rallywhich after passing throughmajor roads of the city endedat Gandhi Park.

Addressing the employees,the convener of the unitedforum of bank unions,Jagmohan Mendiratta said thatthe Union government isdithering on wage revision ofthe bank and insurance work-ers. He said that more than 85

percent of Non PerformingAssets (NPA) of the banks is oncorporate houses and in thename of NPA, the banks arebeing merged.

The speakers on the occa-sion blamed the NDA govern-ment for taking a series of anti-labour decisions due to which

unrest is brewing among theworkers. They said that changesin labour laws are being delib-erately incorporated to snatchaway the rights from the work-ing class.

Apart from the bank andinsurance employees, differentlabour organisations also par-

ticipated in the strike. Thedemands of the workers arepayment of minimum wages,abolition of new pension pol-icy and restoration of old pen-sion scheme, wage revision ofbank and insurance workersand amendment in new trans-port policy.

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The transfer of ManjunathTC, who was heading the

SIT probing the Rs 500 scam inthe SC-ST scholarship scam inthe social welfare department,has been stayed by the highcourt of Uttarakhand.

The High Court hasstressed that Manjunath willcontinue the investigationinto this scam.

During hearing in thecase, the issue of the govern-ment transferring officersinvestigating this scam alsocame to notice.

A day before being trans-ferred, Manjunath had sub-mitted an affidavit in theHigh Court acknowledgingthat government fund wasmisused in the scam and thathe had not received cooper-ation or information soughtfrom officials concerned.

The case is being heard bythe divisional bench of chief

justice Ramesh Ranganathanand justice Ramesh ChandraKhulbe.

On the previous date inthe case, Manjunath hadinformed the court that tilldate he had not received theinformation sought by theSIT from the joint directorand district social welfareofficer.

Probe conducted by theSIT so far in to the scam hadbeen on the basis of docu-ments provided by generalcitizens.

It will be recalled theDehradun resident RavinderJugran had filed a PIL in theHigh Court stating that fundsreleased by the CentralGovernment for scholarshipsto SC-ST students had notbeen distributed by the socialwelfare department for theintended purpose.

This had resulted in ascam amounting to about Rs500 crore, he had stated.

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The Mussoorie MLA GaneshJoshi said that the new 51-

bed Joint Hospital in Mussooriewould be opened for the peo-ple in April this year. Heassured this while inspectingthe hospital site on Wednesdayand directed that the workshould get completed by theend of March.

The BJP MLA said that theBJP government in 2009 had

given approval for the 51- bedhospital.

“However, the apatheticattitude of the subsequentCongress government andwork of executing agency hadresulted in the delay of morethan eight years,” he added.

He said that on the initia-tive of the chief ministerTrivendra Singh Rawat, thehealth department has releaseda sum of Rs 234.81 lakh for thehospital. The project managerof Uttar Pradesh RajkeeyaNirman Nigam Limited (UPRNNL) Sunil Malik andassistant engineer A K Malasi,CMS of Mussoorie hospitalDr Rajiv Pal and others werepresent when Joshi inspectedthe hospital site.

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Notwithstanding the IndianMedical Association

(IMA) Uttarakhand chapterbeing doggedly insistent onamending the ClinicalEstablishment Act, the privatehospitals and clinics are mak-ing a beeline for registrationunder the same.

In Dehradun district alone,307 hospitals and clinics haveso far registered themelvesunder the ClinicalEstablishment Act. The statehealth department issues pro-visional registrations to theclinical establishments whenthey apply for registrations. Aprocess of permanent registra-tion is initiated after the end ofone year of provisional regis-tration. Out of 307 registrationsin Dehradun, 278 are provi-

sional while just 29 clinicshave permanent registration.Interestingly, after the order ofUttarakhand High Court andtough stance taken by theauthorities, the hospitals deal-ing in alternate form of medi-cine like Ayurveda,Homeopathy and physiothera-py are also coming forward forregistration. In Dehradun forexample, 44 Ayurveda, twohomeopathy and three physio-therapy hospitals have so farbeen registered under the act.

The chief medical officer (CMO) Dehradun, Dr S KAgarwal said that all the clin-ical establishments should reg-ister themselves as per theprovisions of the act till end ofthis month. He accepted thatthe number of registrationsfor clinical establishment acthave increased in recent times.

The Uttarakhand HC hadrecently directed the state gov-ernment to close such clinicsand hospitals which are notregistered under the act.

The Act

After passage of the clini-cal establishment act in theUttarakhand Assembly in 2013,the act was enforced with anobjective to monitor clinicalestablishments in 2016. Underthe provisions of the act, it iscompulsory for all the clinicalestablishments like doctor’sclinic, private hospitals, diag-nostic centres, homeopathicdoctors and Ayush doctors toget them registered with thestate council. The act seeks toregulate all clinical establish-ments with a view to prescrib-ing the minimum standards offacilities and services providedby them. Under the act, theclinical establishments shouldkeep a record of the all thepatients and disclose and dis-play the type of services theygive. These establishmentswould be bound to disclose thenumber and qualification of thestaffers they are employing anddisplay the rate lists clearly.

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The State Government camea step closer to rejuvenation

of the Rispana and Bindalrivers in Dehradun with thesigning of a memorandum ofunderstanding between theSabarmati River DevelopmentCorporation Limited (SRFD-CL) and Mussoorie DehradunDevelopment Authority(MDDA) on Wednesday. TheMoU for technical supportfrom SRFDCL was signed by itsexecutive director RK Mehtaand MDDA vice chairmanAshish Kumar Srivastav in thepresence of chief ministerTrivendra Singh Rawat andSRFDCL chairman KeshavVerma.

Both these rivers will berejuvenated and developed on

the lines of Sabarmati river inAhmedabad (Gujarat). Besidesdeveloping the housing andnon-housing areas, beautifi-cation, checking encroach-ments and ensuring the flow ofrivers will be ensured. Rawatsaid that efforts were on towork on the project for sometime now but with technicalsupport of SRFDCL, withintwo years, both these rivers willbe rejuvenated and water flowwill be maintained throughout.He said that beautification of

the river will add to the beau-ty of Dehradun and also helpin environmental conserva-tion. Speaking on the occasion,Verma termed the river frontproject as multi-dimensional,adding that by spending Rs1100 crore on Sabarmati riverfront development, it is gener-ating revenue worth Rs 3500crore. The corporation will tryto prepare an internationallevel project on 94 hectaresland along the Rispana andBindal rivers.

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The Bharatiya Janta Party onWednesday announced

Krishan Middha, the son of lateIndian National Lok Dal(INLD) MLA Hari ChandMiddha, as the party’s candi-date for the Jind bypoll sched-uled to be held on January 28.

The bye-election to Jindassembly seat was necessitatedfollowing the demise ofKrishan Middha’s father HariChand Middha in August.Krishan Middha had joined theBJP in November last year andwas the frontrunner to contestas the BJP candidate from Jindconstituency since then.

INLD legislator HariChand Middha was a Punjabileader and represented the Jind

seat for two consecutive termsin 2009 and 2014. Being an oldregistered medical practition-er (RMP) of the region, he wasa popular face in Jind andadjoining areas.

With candidature of hisson Krishan Middha from theJind seat, the BJP hopes thatsympathy factor will work inparty’s favour. Krishan Middha,a doctor by profession is alsolikely to get support of Punjabicommunity in the constituen-cy.

In 2014 assembly polls, hisfather Harichand Middha hadwon with 31,631 votes anddefeated BJP candidateSurinder Barwala with a smallmargin 2,257 votes. Accordingto the political observers,Middha had managed two con-

secutive victories due to votingby Jats, core supporters of theINLD and the Punjabi com-munity in the constituency.

Of the more than 1.7 lakhvoters of the Jind Assembly seg-ment, over 1.07 lakh are urbanvoters while nearly 62,500 livein villages. Caste combinationswill play a vital role in Jindbypolls.

Subash Barala, HaryanaBJP chief on Wednesday saidthat after discussion and taking

various factors into account,the BJP’s Central ElectionCommittee has decided thatKrishan Middha will be theparty's candidate for the Jindbypoll.

Krishan Middha hadjoined the BJP few months agoand we are confident that theparty will win the Jind assem-bly seat, he said.

After his candidature wasannounced, Krishan Middhasaid that he is hopeful to getsupport of the people of theconstituency for the goodworks undertaken by his fatheras an MLA.

The bypoll in centrallylocated Jind in Jatland-Haryana is a litmus test for var-ious parties, including the rul-ing BJP, Congress and INLD.

The victory from Jind isgoing to be crucial for thepolitical parties, with LokSabha polls not far away andthe state assembly polls alsoscheduled to be held later thisyear.

While the BJP will be eye-ing a win from Jind to consol-idate its position ahead of thestate assembly polls, the INLD,main opposition party inHaryana will try to retain itsJind assembly seat.

The Congress, which faceda humiliating defeat in lastassembly polls and newlyformed Jannayak Janta Party, abreakaway faction of INLDwould also look to grab a vic-tory in Jind constituency.

The BJP became the firstamong prominent parties to

announce the name of its can-didate for Jind bypolls onWednesday.

Other major political par-ties, including the Congress,the INLD and newly formedoutfit Jannayak Janata Partywere also scheduled toannounce their candidates onWednesday but will declare iton January 10, the last day offiling nomination for bypoll.

The result of bypoll will beannounced on January 31.

At present, the BJP has 47seats in the 90-memberHaryana assembly. TheCongress has 17 seats whilemain opposition party INLDhas 19 seats.

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���������������After holding a meeting

with party leaders, Leader ofopposition and INLD’s seniorleader Abhay Chautala onWednesday said that the partywill announce its candidate onThursday morning.

The party’s candidate willbe from Jind, he said.

The JJP, floated by OPChautala’s elder son AbhayChautala will also announce itscandidate on Thursday.

On the other hand, AshokTanwar, Haryana Congresschief said that the party is like-ly to finalize its candidate byWednesday night.

While a series of meetingsof Congress leaders fromHaryana were held in New

Delhi under party’s appointedobserver KC Venugopal forJind bypolls, the party leaderscould not reach a consensus onthe name of its candidate tillthe filing of this report.

Former MLA Mange RamGupta has been approached byCongress, INLD and JJP forcontesting the elections but hehas reportedly denied the offer.

A former Minister andfour-time MLA from JindMange Ram Gupta’s familyhad earlier showed interest tojoin hands with the BJP, if theparty offers a ticket for his sonMahavir.

Mange Ram had won as aCongress candidate in the1999, 2000 and 2005 assemblyelections and had later joinedthe INLD.

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Punjab Chief Minister CaptAmarinder Singh on

Wednesday directed the ChiefSecretary to examine theNABARD proposal for fundsto promote small agri busi-nesses amongst the poor ruralyouth as well as farmers withsmall holdings, besides land-less labourers.

The Chief Minister alsoasked the ChairmanNABARD to al lowCooperative Banks to diver-sify, to enable it to widen itsambit of operations fromadvancement of Crop Loansto Term Loans to farmersand the rural populace.

The NABARD chairman,leading a delegation of offi-cials, had called on the ChiefMinister for a meeting here.The Chief Minister also sug-gested exploring the possibil-ity of providing such loans toyoung entrepreneurs whointended to set up their ven-tures in urban areas in orderto resolve the problem ofunemployment.

The Chief Minister con-ceded a proposal of theNABARD chairman tostrengthen the existing net-work of Farmer ProduceOrganisations (FPOs), say-ing it would help bail out thesmall and marginal farmerswho were facing acute hard-ships on account of lack ofproper marketing infrastruc-

ture for their produce. Capt Amarinder also

asked the Chief Secretary tohead a committee, comprisingSecretary Agriculture and aNABARD representative asmember secretary, to developa roadmap for FarmerProduce Organisations (FPO)promotion and to oversee itsimplementation.

Diversification of agri-culture was the only way outthrough FPOs to assist thebeleaguered farmers, as thetraditional wheat-paddy cyclewas no more economicallysustainable due to squeezedmargins of profit on the MSP,the Chief Minister stressed.

Agreeing to the NABARDproposal of merging thePunjab State AgricultureDevelopment Bank andPunjab State CooperativeBank into a single entity tohave better synergy and coor-dination in lending opera-tions, Capt Amarinder askedthe Chief Secretary to explorethe possibility of amalgama-tion of these two banks.

Punjab Chief MinisterCapt Amarinder also askedthe Chief Secretary to presenta detailed list of developmentprogrammes and schemes,with prior administrativeapproval from the concerneddepartments, at least sixmonths in advance toNABARD for approval.

During the deliberations,NABARD Chairman Harsh

Kumar Bhanwala apprisedthe Chief Minister that therewere a total of 91 FarmerProduce Organisations (FPO)operational across the stateand 23 non-MSP crops couldbe promoted amongst thefarmers as part of the stategovernment’s ambitious pro-gramme of crop diversifica-tion.

Referring to theNABARD Micro IrrigationFund, the Chief Ministerasked the Chief Secretary toidentify the most vulnerablesites in the Kandi Area and

southern districts of statewhere projects under thisscheme could be undertakenon priority. The ChairmanNABARD apprised the ChiefMinister that the NABARDwas ready to start a pilot pro-ject of Rs. 7-8 Crore in theKandi belt.

He also informed themeeting about several otherschemes, such as conserva-tion of groundwater, valuechain development, cropresidue management andsolarisation of mobile pumpsets, for the betterment of the

farmer community, besidesensuring higher growth rateof agriculture. He alsoassured Captain AmarinderSingh of all support andcooperation from NABARDin pursuing the government’sagro related and rural infra-structure projects.

The meeting was alsoattended by Media Advisor toCM Raveen Thukral, ChiefSecretary Karan Avtar Singh,Principal Secretary FinanceAnirudh Tewari and otherofficials.

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An inordinate delay inapproval of Odisha’s port-

based infrastructure projectsunder the Sagarmala initiativehas worried both the investorsand the State Government.

The State Governmentrecently brought to the noticeof Union Minister ShippingNitin Gadkari that several port-based projects of Odisha arenow pending for approvalunder the Sagarmala initiativefor long time.

Two major ports atDhamra and Gopalpur, whichhave single rail lines, are in direneed of double rail lines formovement goods trains.Doubling of rail line fromBhadrak to Dhamra andGopalpur to Chhatrapur aretwo much needed projects to becleared by Sagarmala, said anoffical.

The State Government hasalready sent the detailed projectreports (DPR) for both the pro-jects, he said. While theDhamra Port is active andcommercial operations aregoing on a huge scale, theGopalpur Port is scaling up itsconstruction activities fortransforming it to a majorport.

While is promotingDhamra Port, has invested inGopalpur Port.

Due to inordinate delay in

sanction of the infrastructureprojects, investors, AdaniGroup and Shapoorji PalonjiGroup, are also feeling the heat.

Besides, the proposal offour-laning of the Haldipadar-Gopalpur Road (18 km) ispending with the Sagarmalaauthorities, which is also crucialfor the Gopalpur Port.

Construction of Fish Pre-processing Centre atBalaramgadi in Baleswar dis-trict is pending. As Balaramgadiis a major fish landing centre,thousands of fishermen wouldbe benefitted by the project.

Similarly, construction of afish landing centre atChandrabhaga in Puri districtis awaiting clearance ofSagarmala authorities.

Another major infrastruc-ture project needs attention ofSagarmala authorities is de-siltation of Satapada mouthchannels of the Chilika Lake.Adverse tidal exchangeoccurred due to the littoraldrift along the coast line is caus-ing flow reduction and shiftingof the lake mouth every year.

Estimated sediment trans-port due to this is on the orderof 1,00,000 metric tonnes.

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Justice Zora Singh, a retiredHigh Court judge who

probed incidents of sacrilege ofGuru Granth Sahib when theShiromani Akali Dal (SAD)-BJP government ruled Punjab,on Wednesday alleged that theCongress government of ChiefMinister Capt Amarinder Singhwas trying to shield thoseresponsible for the sacrilegecases.

The retired judge of thePunjab and Haryana HighCourt, who probed the sacrilegecases and the violence related toit in 2015, told a press confer-ence that the present govern-ment in Punjab was unwillingto make the report of the ZoraSingh Commission public.

"It is painful that theCommission constituted by the

government to bring thoseresponsible for the desecrationof Sri Guru Granth Sahib atBargari and firing incident atBehbal Kalan in which two per-sons were killed was not in pub-lic domain," said Justice ZoraSingh, who recently joined theAam Aadmi Party (AAP).

The one-man Commissionwas constituted by then SAD-BJP government in Punjab. Itsubmitted its report in 2016 butno action was taken by theSAD-BJP government.

The Congress government,which came to power in March2017, junked the Commission'sreport and set up its owninquiry Commission underJustice Ranjit Singh (retired).

Zora Singh said theAmarinder Singh governmentwas shielding those behind thesacrilege incidents and the fir-

ing on people protesting againstthe sacrilege cases by not tak-ing action against them.

"The Amarinder govern-ment has failed to make thereport public," he said, adding

that he had done full justiceduring the inquiry.

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In a bid to equip governmentemployees with IT skills,

Haryana Government willorganise a workshop for thenodal officers of all governmentcolleges in the state.

The workshop will imparttraining related to InformationTechnology on January 18 inPanchkula, said a spokesman ofHigher Education Department,Haryana.

He said that in all govern-ment colleges, the department

has initiated placement mod-ules, complaints and redressal,Asset management, Student-teacher mapping, EducationSetu application like E.R.P(Enterprise Resource Planningsoftware) module and mobileapplication. For this, the teach-ers of colleges are required tobe proficient about computerand in these software applica-tions, the spokesman said.

He said that Principals ofall the government collegeshave been directed on behalf ofDirector, Higher EducationDepartment to send a seniorteacher who has computerknowledge in the workshop tobe held on January 18.

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The forest officials have spot-ted more than 1,45,946

migratory birds of 92 speciesduring a census conducted inthe Hirakud Dam reservoirnear here.

The arrival of winter water-fowl this year has created arecord. Last year 82 species hadbeen spotted with countrecorded at1,36,835 birds, theofficial sources said.

The census was conductedin the Hirakud reservoir onJanuary 6. The entire reservoirarea was divided into 21 sectorsand each sector was covered byone team with expert members.Nine sectors were in SambalpurForest Division, six each inJharsuguda Division andHirakud Wild Life Division.Total 68 people participated inthe census. Apart from the

department staff, representativesfrom various NGOs, studentsfrom OUAT and UtkalUniversity participated in thecensus to help the forest officials.

According to the survey,large numbers of lesserwhistling ducks (32,670), com-mon coots (16,978), commonpochards (912,514), red crest-ed pochards (11,528) and tuft-ed ducks (9,966) are the mainspecies spotted , the officialsources said.

The winged guests startedarriving at the reservoir thisyear a little late. A small num-ber of birds arrived inNovember due to late arrival ofcold. Since mid December, thenumber started increasing.Varieties of the colourful birdsin the reservoir have becomecentre of attraction for thetourists, including the localresidents these days.

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Largely in a state of dilapi-dation, the 11th-12th

Century old Buddhistmonastery Wanla Gompahousing 16-feet-high statue ofAvalokiteshvara, theBodhisattva (prospective orfuture Buddha) on lotuspedestal, in the cold deserts ofLadakh’s Wanla village is, final-ly, all set for a facelift.

The Government lastmonth brought the WanlaGompa complex in the list ofnational importance by issuinga notification in this regard.“The Archeological Survey ofIndia (ASI), under the UnionCulture Ministry, will nowstart restoration work in thisancient monastery constructedon the top of a hill overlookingWanla village,” said an officialfrom the Ministry.

The much-awaited movehas come at a time when theGovernment is heavily pro-moting Buddhist tourism in abid to attract more tourists

from countries with sizableBuddhist population like Japanand China to boost foreigntourist arrivals.

The massive image ofAvalokitesvara standing onlotus pedestal, facing towardseast having 11 heads in threedirection and eight hands indifferent postures, besides var-ious murals of Buddha,Bodhisattvas and Mandalas arekey attractions of this religioussite. Avalokite?vara orPadmapani is a Bodhisattvawho embodies the compassionof all Buddhas and is revered byBuddhists.

The monastery is locatednear the Lamayuru Monasteryand falls in the category of the108 monasteries which wereconstructed during 958-1055AD with the support of theKing of Ladakh.

However, over the time,some of the mural paintings,walls and wooden doors havebeen badly damaged due tosnow and water percolation,neglect and maintenance

prompting the Government tobring it under its fold.

The national tag wouldmake this architectural marveleligible for central governmentfund.

“The front porch ceilingsupported by wooden pillarsand carved motives is in a frag-ile state. Projected wooden

beams and pillars are carvedwith Lord Buddha images andframe for displaying small

wooden sculpture which aremissing now. The wood workshows the influence of

Kashmiri temple architecture.“On the first floor, there is

another rectangular roomflanked with open space. Thereare some Bodhisattva andlamas stucco image and innerwalls completely decoratedwith mural paintings which arerepresented to various pos-tures of Lord Buddha and pre-life of Lord Buddha.

The wall of the Assemblyhall are decorated with muralpaintings of royal scenes, wheelof life, perching of LordBuddha and Budhisattva imagebesides some mandalas,” saidthe official.

Surrounding theAvalokiteshvara standing onlotus pedestal, white face bear-ing a golden colored crownthere are five “Dhyani-Buddha”image in meditation posture.One of the important murals isthat of Rin-chen-znag-po(Ratna Baitra), the great trans-lator and philosopher in theregion. He is said to have con-structed this Buddhist Gompadedicated to Avalokiteshvara.

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The Opposition onWednesday raised objec-

tions over the extension of theRajya Sabha session by a daywithout consensus and chargedthe Government with “bypass-ing” legislative scrutiny beforeintroducing Bills. TheGovernment, however, main-tained the chair and the gov-ernment has the right to extendthe session. Proceedings weredisrupted leading to twoadjournments in the pre lunchsession with several Oppositionmembers including Congressraising slogans and storminginto the well.

The ongoing winter sessionof the Upper House was to endon Tuesday but it was extend-ed by a day to take up theConstitution (124thAmendment) Bill to provide 10per cent reservation in gov-ernment jobs and education forthe economical backward can-didates among the general cat-egory.

The Lok Sabha passed it onTuesday while it was to comeup the Rajya Sabha onWednesday.

Protesting against theextension, the Oppositionmembers said they were nei-ther informed nor was theirconsent taken for the move.Besides Congress, the TMCand the AIADMK cited rulebook to criticise the extension.

Deputy ChairmanHarivansh said it may be con-sidered his “personal lapse”and a “lapse in his under-standing” in not conveying atthe time of adjourning pro-ceedings on Tuesday that thesitting of the House has beenextended by a day.

Finance Minister andLeader of the House ArunJaitley and Minister of State forparliamentary affairs VijayGoel maintained that the Chairand the Government were

within rights to extend thesession to discuss importantissues. The debate on quota billresumed in the afternoon ses-sion after Minister for SocialJustice Thaavarchand Gehlotintroduced it in the morningbut din led to two adjourn-ments.

Earlier, raising the issue ofextending the session when theHouse met for the day,Sukhendu Sekhar Roy (TMC)cited Rule 12 of Rajya Sabha tostate that the sitting can beextended by the Chairmanafter making an announce-ment in the House and thechange being published in theRajya Sabha Bulletin.

He said there was noannouncement, no notifica-tion and the Opposition onTuesday protested against itadding a bulletin was publishedin the night for extension of thesession.

Anand Sharma (Congress)said no decision on extendingthe sitting of the House wastaken at the Business AdvisoryCommittee (BAC) meeting andno time was allocated.Asserting that responsibilityof running Parliament restswith the government, Sharmasaid it was for the first timethere was no dialogue between

the government and the oppo-sition on that matter.

Sharma said it is the estab-lished practice in Rajya Sabhathat no bill be brought withoutthe scrutiny of parliamentarycommittees but this was notbeing followed. Sensitive billsare being brought bypassing“legislative scrutiny” by thepresent regime, he added. S RBalasubramoniyan (AIADMK)also obhjectedto the manner inwhich the session was extended.

Rejecting the Oppositionobjections, Goel said membersshould have been concernedabout half of the 20 days of thesession being washed out inpandemonium. He also saidthe decision to extend theHouse was first taken at theBAC meeting and then theChairman holding an informalmeeting with leaders of oppo-sition parties.

However, the Congress andother Opposition memberswere not satisfied with thegovernment’s response andstormed into the well. TheCongress also demandedHome Minister Rajnath Singh’sstatement on theCitizenship(Amendment) Bill2019 and charged that it hadled to unrest in the North-East.

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As the Congress protested inthe Rajya Sabha on

Wednesday against theCitizenship Amendment Billand said it had led to unrest inthe North-East threatening sta-bility and security, HomeMinister Rajnath Singh told theHouse the Bill is intended topave way for Indian citizenshipto the persecuted religiousminorities from three coun-tries. He also assured the gov-ernment was committed topreserving the distinct cultureand identity of the North East.

The Minister said he wasaware of the concerns regard-ing the bill as well as miscon-ceptions being spread about itbut would like to dispel theapprehensions of the people ofAssam and the Northeast.

He said it is not only formigrants from these states butto “protect migrants of sixminority communities fromthree nations” and was applic-able to the entire country.

Thousands of migrantsfrom Western borders areresiding in states like Gujarat,Rajasthan, Delhi, MadhyaPradesh and other states andthe bill is for them too andwould be implemented in allstates and UTs, he said.

The Minister said therewere reports of sporadic vio-lence from some parts inAssam, Tripura and Meghalayaduring the bandh called overthe Bill, but the situation wasfully under control and peaceful.

Singh informed the mem-bers he was in touch with theChief Ministers of these Statesand would convene meetingssoon.

Singh said Assam was fac-ing the problem of illegal

migration for long and wit-nessed an agitation from 1979to 1985 following which theAssam accord was signed onAugust 15, 1985.

He said the Centre hastaken concrete steps to imple-ment the Assam Accordincluding completing the taskof National Register of Citizens(NRC) and has constituted ahigh level committee toimplement clause 6 of theAccord. The committee afterconsulting the stakeholders onprotecting the interest of thelocal people will give its rec-ommendations within sixmonths.

A Home Ministry appoint-ed committee has given itsrecommendations on grant ofST status to six communities ofAssam namely Tai Ahom, Koch

Rajbongshi, Chutia, Tea Tribes,Moran and Matak.

He said the Governmenthas accepted the recommen-dations and Ministry of TribalAffairs has placed it beforeParliament. While giving STstatus to these communities itwill be ensured that “interests,rights and privileges of theexisting tribes there will be fullyprotected,” he added.

The Citizenship Bill waspassed by the Lok Sabha onTuesday and was brought to theUpper House on Wednesday.The bill was originally intro-duced in 2016 and was latersent to the Joint ParliamentCommittee (JPC) which sub-mitted its report on Monday.On the basis of the recom-mendations of the JPC, a freshBill was introduced on Tuesday.

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Union Housing and UrbanAffairs Minister Hardeep

Singh Puri on Wednesday saidthat 97 towns and cities alongthe Ganga will be declaredopen-defecation free by March2019. The Ministry has alsoannounced a special categoryof awards for these 97 Gangatowns under the ongoing“Swachchh Survekshan 2019”.

Addressing a gathering ata workshop on ‘Solid WasteManagement in Ganga Towns”,the Housing and Urban AffairsMinister said a total of 44Ganga towns have so far beendeclared open-defecation free.

“It is expected that allGanga towns will achieve ODFstatus by March 2019,” theminister said at the event.

He said the Governmenthas accorded highest priority torejuvenate the Ganga throughits f lagship programme,Namami Gange.

“In this regard, theMinistry of Housing and UrbanAffairs (MoHUA) is supportingthe Ganga towns in achievingODF status and effective solidand liquid waste managementthrough the Swachh BharatMission (SBM -Urban) andthe Atal Mission forRejuvenation and UrbanTransformation (AMRUT)respectively,” Puri said.

According to the minister,all Ganga towns have beendirected to implement scientificsolid waste management expe-ditiously.

Puri said the ministry hasalso deployed the QualityCouncil of India (QCI) as athird party agency (TPA) forindependent on-site assess-ment to evaluate the actual on-ground situation in thesetowns.

The findings advocatedputting up install bar screenson drains falling into the Gangato prevent solid waste flowinginto the river, river surfacecleaning and waste disposalarrangements among others.

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Terrorism is becoming anew form of warfare and it

will keep growing like a “multi-headed monster” till nationscontinue to use it as a State pol-icy, Army Chief Gen. BipinRawat said Wednesday as hepitched for some control oversocial media to contain spreadof radicalisation and terror-funding.

In an address at the RaisinaDialogue, India’s flagship con-ference on geopolitics, theArmy Chief said there shouldbe talks with the Taliban so asto bring peace to Afghanistanbut asserted the engagementmust be without any precon-ditions.

In a clear reference toPakistan, Gen. Rawat said a“weaker nation” has been usingterrorists as a proxy to put pres-sure on other nations to cometo terms with them, andwarned against tolerating suchpolicy.

“If this is going to happen,then there will be States thatwill be funding the terroristsand allowing them to movearound in the manner in whichthey want to move,” he said,

adding Pakistan has alwayskept the Taliban in its backyard.

Identifying social mediaas a platform to spread radi-calism and generate financialresources for terrorism, theArmy Chief said time has cometo put some control over it.

“We see a different kind ofradicalisation in Jammu andKashmir. My take is that ter-rorism is here to stay so long asthere are nations which aregoing to continue to sponsorterrorism as a state policy. Weare seeing it happening inJammu & Kashmir,” he said

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Asserting that no country isimmune to the “existential

threat” of terrorism, ExternalAffairs Minister Sushma Swarajon Wednesday said the need ofhour is to ensure zero tolerancetowards terrorism and thoseusing it as an “instrument ofconvenience”.

In an address at the RaisinaDialogue, Swaraj, touching onvarious geo-political develop-ments, said India’s strengthand success has been a force forglobal peace, stability and pros-perity and that it stands for ademocratic and rules-basedinternational order in which allnations thrive as equals.

Sushma said India’s con-sistent message has been thatunresolved border issues can beresolved bilaterally, whenapproached in the right spiritand in an atmosphere freefrom violence and hostility.The comments are seen as aveiled reference to China withwhich India has a lingeringborder dispute.

Sushma also said India’scommitment to upholding ter-ritorial integrity and sover-eignty remains unwavering.

Delving into various chal-

lenges facing the world, she alsosaid that with unwavering beliefin multilateralism, India speaksnot just for itself but also for thecause of justice, opportunity andprosperity around the world.

“For us, transformation isnot just a domestic agenda, itis a global vision,” she said.

Talking about the chal-lenge of terrorism, she saidthere was a time when Indiawould talk about terrorism, andit would be treated as a law andorder issue on many globalplatforms.

New Delhi: The SupremeCourt (SC) on Wednesdaycommuted to life imprison-ment the death sentenceawarded to bus driver SantoshMane, convicted for killingnine people in 2012, by mow-ing them down in Pune.

On January 25, 2012, Mane,a Maharashtra state transportdriver, had hijacked a bus andmowed down nine persons.

He was awarded the deathsentence in 2013 by a sessionscourt, which had termedMane’s crime “rarest of rare”.Mane appealed the verdict inthe Bombay High Court but inSeptember 2014, the BombayHC upheld the death penalty.Mane’s laywer had urged tocourt to acquit his client of themurder charges because hewas “mentally unsound” whenhe committed the crime.

Mane’s lawyers thenapproached the SC againstconviction and argued that hiscase be considered under pro-visions of Section 84 of theIndian Penal Code, whichgrants immunity to a personwho “commits a crime whilebeing in a state of unsoundmind, thereby not knowingthe nature of the act.” ANI

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Taking a dig at the DelhiGovernment’s decision to

put a condition of 50-50 shar-ing in operational losses in theMetro Phase IV, UnionHousing and Urban Affairs(HUA) Minister HardeepSingh Puri on Wednesdaysaid that the DelhiGovernment has such abehavioural pattern that theyalways create “hurdles”.

The Minister said that hisofficers are currently examin-ing the conditions imposed bythe Delhi Cabinet, whileapproving the Phase IV of theDelhi Metro on December 21last year.

“We are committed to exe-cuting the Metro Phase IV.After obstructing the project forfour years, especially two years,they have sent some approvals,but they have such a behav-iourial pattern that they alwayscreate hurdles,” Puri said on thesidelines of an event.

Asked whether hisMinistry will agree with theAAP Government’s condi-tions, Puri said, “Our Ministrywill announce how we pro-pose to go. We are examiningthem (conditions).”

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The Supreme CourtWednesday rejected the

Gujarat Government’s plea tomaintain confidentiality of thefinal report of the Justice HSBedi committee on 24 allegedfake encounter cases from 2002to 2006 in the state and orderedthat it be given to petitionersincluding poet and lyricistJaved Akhtar.

A bench headed by ChiefJustice Ranjan Gogoi said it wasAkhtar and veteran journalistBG Verghese, since dead, who had set the “ballrolling” by filing petitions in thecase, and the copies of thepanel’s report need to be givento them besides the state gov-ernment.

The bench, which alsocomprised Justcies LNageswara Rao and S K Kaul,made clear however that itwas neither accepting norrejecting the 221-page report ofthe committee at this stage.

It said it would deal withthis aspect later and directedthat the parties including thestate government file theirresponses or objections, if any,within four weeks from receiv-ing the report.

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The Supreme Court onWednesday appointed

senior advocate and formersolicitor general Ranjit Kumaras amicus curiae to assist it ina matter related to administra-tion of Jagannath temple inPuri.

The apex court had onNovember 30 last year accept-ed the request of senior advo-cate Gopal Subramanium torelieve him as amicus curiae inthe matter.

During the hearing onWednesday, the issue ofappointing a new amicus in thecase arose before a bench head-ed by Justice AK Sikri.

The Bench requestedKumar, who was present in thecourt, whether he would assistit as an amicus in the case.Kumar agreed.

The Bench has posted thematter for hearing on February 5.

An advocate, who has filedan application in the courtseeking intervention in thecase, told the Bench that person havingknowledge about Jagannathtemple should be appointed asan amicus.

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Russia on Wednesday saidIndia’s role in Afghanistan

is “indispensable” and compli-mented it for carrying out var-ious developmental initiatives.

The comments by RussianDeputy Foreign Minister SergeiRyabkov about India’s engage-ment in the war-ravaged coun-try came days after USPresident Donald Trumpmocked New Delhi’s role inAfghanistan.

The Minister, currently vis-iting India, was also critical ofthe US and some other coun-tries for their tendency to dis-play “raw power” in somecases, without thinking of theconsequences.

“In all countries, wherewe see domestic conflicts, theissue of development is thenumber one issue. Wars can bewon, but peace cannot beensured without any material

investment into economicdevelopment, social stability,”he said in response to a ques-tion on India’s role in rebuild-ing of Afghanistan.

Indian efforts and that ofother countries in the area ofmaterial support toAfghanistan is an “indispens-able one”, Ryabkov said at aPress conference.“Unfortunately, our colleaguesin the US and some othercountries are so much attachedto, what we describe as ‘rawpower’, military power, andresort to military means, insome cases, without thinkingsufficiently of consequencesof it... It itself becomes a desta-bilising factor,” he said.

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The DMK, which was in theforefront of the anti-Sterlite

agitation demanding the “per-manent closure” of the com-pany alleging it of environ-mental pollution finds itself ina precarious situation followingthe disclosures made by ChiefMinister Edappadi KPalaniswami in the floor of theLegislative Assembly onTuesday. Palaniswami told theHouse that it was the DMKwhich had gave permission tothe Sterlite for their first andsecond plants and also the 328acres of land demanded by thecompany.

MK Stalin, EMK chief andLeader of the Oppositiondemanded in the House thatthe Government should adopta policy decision for the per-manent closure of the SterliteCopper Plant at Thoothukudiin the backdrop of the SupremeCourt verdict which refused toquash the order of the NationalGreen Tribunal to process thereopening of the plant.

The plant was shut downby a special order by the TamilNadu Government in May2018 following widespread

rioting by anti-Sterlite activistsat Thoothukudi resulting inpolice firing which claimed 13lives. The Vedanta Group hadapproached the National GreenTribunal against theGovernment order and got afavourable verdict. ThoughTamil Nadu Governmentappealed to the apex courtpleading for the cancellation ofthe NGT verdict the SupremeCourt declined to alter theTribunal order.

This led Stalin to allege inthe House that the Tamil NaduGovernment failed in takingeffective steps for the closure ofthe plant. Chief MinisterPalaniswami in his reply,rebutted all the allegations lev-elled by the DMK leader and putthe ball back in the latter’s court.

“We will take appropriatelegal steps to ensure the per-

manent closure of Sterlite. Butthe DMK is behind all theproblems associated with theSterlite. The root cause of all theproblems faced now was thepermission given for the oper-ation of the Sterlite plant by thethen DMK regime on October14, 1996, without consideringthe conditions set by the TamilNadu Pollution Control Board.While in power , the DMK hasnot taken any stand againstSterlite,” said Palaniswami,quoting records and facts.

The Chief Minister said theDMK ruled the State during1996-1998. “Though manyPublic Interest Litigations werefiled during this period inMadras High Court againstthe plant, highlighting the factsthat pollution and industrial

accidents were because of thecompany’s failure to ensuresufficient safeguards, the DMKGovernment took a standfavourable to the plant,” saidPalaniswami.

He said though the HighCourt had ordered the plant beshut down, the Sterlite manage-ment approached the SupremeCourt and got a favourableorder October 1, 2010. “Thearguments placed before theSupreme Court by the thenDMK Government resulted inSterlite getting a favourableorder,” said Palaniswami.

He also disclosed that theDMK had told the MadrasHigh Court that permissionwas granted after following allthe rules and regulations of theTamil Nadu Pollution ControlBoard. “This submission wasfiled by the DMK Governmentas a response to the PIL filed byVaiko, the MDMK leader, whonow is the strongest ally of theDMK,” said the Chief Minister.

He further stated that it wasthe DMK Government whichgave Sterlite the permission tolunch and operate the secondplant. “The DMK Governmentalso provided the companywith 328.54 acres of land for theplant,” said Palaniswami.

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The Madras High Court onWednesday came down

strongly on the Tamil NaduGovernment for its allegedfailure to provide minimumbasic facilities to AG PonnManickavel, the formerInspector General of Policewho was appointed by theCourt as officer on specialduty for a period of one year toprobe the missing temple idols.

A division bench consist-ing of Justices R Mahadevanand P D Audikesavalu lam-basted the Tamil NaduGovernment for closing downthe office used by Manickavelin Chennai as the head officeof the Idol Wing, EconomicOffences Wing, Tamil NaduPolice.

Manickavel had told thecourt on Tuesday that he has noplace to work in Chennai fol-lowing the shut down of theoffice from where he was func-tioning for the last six years.The move by the top honchosof the State Police has paralysed

the functioning of Manickaveland his team probing idolthefts from the temples inTamil Nadu.

There were serious allega-tions by temple worshippersthat the Tamil NaduGovernment was trying to clipthe wings of the Idol Wing aswell as that of Manickavel.“Last year the Tamil NaduGovernment had transferredManickavel to the RailwayPolice and handed over theinvestigation of missing idols tothe CBI. But both the MadrasHigh Court and the SupremeCourt quashed the StateGovernment’s move and rein-

stated Manickavel as the headof the Idol wing,” said T RRamesh, president, TempleWorshippers Society.

Manickavel succeeded insolving many cases of idolthefts that has happened in thelast five decades. The retrievalof the statues of Raja RajaChola and his royl consortfrom a private museum was amoment of crowning glory forhim. The statues, more than1000 years old and command-ing millions of rupees for theirantique and artistic value werestolen from the BrihadeswaraTemple at Thanjavur fifty yearsago.

Following his re-employ-ment as officer on specialduty, Idol Wing, some of thesubordinate staff working inthe department met the TamilNadu Police Chief with thecomplaint that Manickavelwas forcing them, to arrestinnocent persons under fakecharges. In an unprecedentedmove the officers held a pressconference and blamedManickavel for harassingthem.

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The Trinamool Congress onWednesday expelled two of

its sitting Lok Sabha MPs —Anupam Hazra of Bolpur andSoumitra Khan of Bishnupur— alleging “lack of democracyand dynastic rule in Bengal”.Khan later joined the BJP.

Hazra who had developedserious differences with districtTMC president AnubrataMandal was expelled oncharges of anti-party activities,senior leader and MinisterPartho Chatterjee said.

“Anupam Hazra had beenindulging in activities whichare against the ideals and prin-ciples of the TrinamoolCongress. He had been carry-ing out anti-party activities onthe Facebook and other places.He was expelled from the partyafter this issue was raised beforeour party chief MamataBanerjee,” said Chatterjee.

Refuting the chargesagainst him, Hazra said, "

"There was some issues regard-ing the use of FB but I deletedeverything after I was asked todo so by the party. There hasbeen no problem thereafter.Still the party has decided tolevel anti-party charges on me.I wonder how the partyexplains anti-party activities."

Hazra, a Shanitniketanprofessor, said there was nocorruption charges against him.He went to add sarcastically, ""I was not involved in Naradaor Sharada chit fund cases,either."

Khan the more vociferousof the two MPs cited "lack ofdemocracy and dynastic rule,"as his reasons for quitting hisparty and joining the BJP.When reminded that the TMCcriminal charges were beingbrought against him the leadersaid "after I have quit the partythey are now trying to frameme. They have already arrest-ed my personal assistant nonfalse charges."

Khan , said he was ready to

take any responsibility for theBJP, which he joined in pres-ence of Union MinisterDharmendra Pradhan. He metBJP president Amit Shah in themorning before joining thesaffron outfit, sources said.

Reacting sharply to Khan'sallegations senior TMC MPAbhishek Banerjee said"Soumitra Khan is nothingwithout the TrinamoolCongress. He has no credibil-ity without the party. He can-not win even from a singlebooth."

Asking as to "why he didnot raise these questions earli-er," Abhishek , who is also thenephew of Chief MinisterMamata Banerjee, said "first askhim to win one election single-handedly and then raise apoint. This time the BJP willwin not a single seat fromBengal."

Meanwhile, a senior StateBJP leaders said six more TMCMPs were waiting to cross thehedge and join the BJP.

4)���9"�����'�)�� �.�(������%� Srinagar: Former Chief

Ministers Omar Abdullah andMehbooba Mufti on Wednesdaywondered why the Centre wasnot initiating a dialogue with theseparatists in Jammu & Kashmirif Army chief General BipinRawat could bat for holding talkswith the Taliban in Afghanistan.

"We bat for talks with tal-iban, autonomy for Tibet &Tamil areas of Sri Lanka yet weare unwilling to look at engage-ment or political initiatives inJ&K. Why is our policy allabout "do as we say, don't do aswe do"? Engagement for Taliban,Operation All-Out for Kashmir,"Abdullah tweeted.

Earlier in the day, Rawatsaid there should be talks withthe Taliban to bring peace inAfghanistan, but asserted thatthe engagement must be with-out any preconditions. He wasspeaking at the Raisina Dialogue— India's flagship conference ongeopolitics — in Delhi. "If theArmy Chief can advocate fortalks with (the) Taliban thenwhy different standards when itcomes to our own people?"Mehbooba asked in a tweet. PTI

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Lucknow Metro on Wednesday com-pleted the successful trial run of the

remaining section of the North-South cor-ridor. This is being seen by many techni-cal experts here and elsewhere in thecountry as yet another milestone for the23 km long corridor from the ChowdharyCharan Singh International Airport toMunshipulia.

The Metro work is likely to be com-pleted by February 2019, much ahead ofthe initial deadline of April 2019. Thestretch will have 21 stations and the max-imum fare will be Rs 60. Currently, it takesaround 90 minutes to reach fromMunshipulia to the airport, but once theroute is operational, this distance will becovered in 40 minutes, and people wouldget a respite from traffic congestion.

While executing the 8.5 km 'PriorityCorridor' project between Transport

Nagar and Charbagh, LMRC (LucknowMetro Rail Corporation) achieved numer-ous milestones. The execution became allthe more difficult as it was an extremelychallenging urban environment.

This operational portion was execut-ed in less than 3 years, making it the fastestever metro project execution in the coun-try. LMRC is all set to achieve a similarfeat by completing the construction workof the remaining north-south corridor in

record time.Sharing about the project Kumar

Keshav, Managing Director, LucknowMetro Rail Corporation (LMRC) said"Construction of Metro in a city likeLucknow has been a challenge in itself. Ina period of less than three years, LMRChas created a world record and hasearned the distinction of being the fastestMetro which has ever been implement-ed so far. We today completed the suc-cessful trial run of the remaining sectionof the North-South corridor," Keshav said.

Lucknow Metro is a rapid transit sys-tem serving the city of Lucknow in thenorthern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.Construction of the line began onSeptember 27, 2014 with the 8.5 kmstretch from Transport Nagar to CharbaghRailway Station which began its com-mercial operation on September 5, 2017,making it the fastest built metro rail sys-tem in the country.

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Guwahati: Three Asom GanaParishad(AGP) Ministersresigned from the AssamCabinet on Wednesday, twodays after their party exited theGovernment over theCitizenship Amendment Bill.

Agriculture Minister AtulBora, Water Resources MinisterKeshav Mahanta and Foodand Civil Supplies MinisterPhanibhushan Choudhurysubmitted their resignationsto Chief Minister SarbanandaSonowal at the Janata Bhawan(state secretariat) here, Boratold reporters after tenderinghis resignation.

The strength of the BJP-ledcoalition Ministry, led bySonowal, has been reduced to15, of whom 12 are from thesaffron party, including theChief Minister, and three BPFMinisters.

"The Centre's obstinacynot to withdraw the bill forcedus to take a decision to comeout of the Government as wecannot go against the interestof the Assamese people," Bora,who is also the AGP president,said.

The AGP is a "partyformed by the blood of martyrs(shahider tez) who sacrificed

their lives to protect the exis-tence and identity of theAssam. We cannot disrespecttheir sacrifice by remaining inpower when the Centre decid-ed to go ahead with the bill.

"We tried our best till thelast minute to convince theCentre not to go ahead with thebill but when Union HomeMinister Rajnath Singh madeit clear that the Centre wouldnot budge from its obstinatestand, we decided to withdrawfrom the Government," he said.

Bora said, "We are with thepeople and will join in theirstruggle to protect their inter-ests at all cost."

The AGP president alsothanked the people andexpressed the party's gratitudefor electing them in 2016 andsaid respecting their verdict,they had joined theGovernment with the BJP andthe BPF.

"We respect and are grate-ful to the people of Assam forgiving us a chance to servethem," he added.

Asked what the chief min-ister told them about the res-ignation, Bora said he talkedabout constitutional safeguardsin the bill.

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Guwahati: The Krishak MuktiSangram Samiti (KMSS) andits 70 partner organisations onWednesday vowed to not letPrime Minister Narendra Modiand Union Ministers enterAssam till the Citizenship(Amendment) Bill 2016 wasscrapped.

Addressing a press confer-ence, KMSS leader Akhil

Gogoi said they will alsoprotest in all meetings andfunctions of Chief MinisterSarbananda Sonowal andBharatiya Janata Party (BJP)MLAs in the State.

"Till the time the bill iswithdrawn, the PrimeMinister, Central Ministersand other BJP leaders will notbe allowed to enter Assam,"

Gogoi said."We will not allow them to

hold any function, be it officialor non-official, in the state.Everywhere, black flags will beshown," he added.

Obstructions will be cre-ated in their every function,including political rallies for theLok Sabha polls, Gogoi said.

"We will also not allow the

Chief Minister and other BJPMLAs to hold any meeting orofficial function in the state. Wewill show black flags wherev-er they go," he added.

Flanked by other leaders ofthe groups, Gogoi said if theRajya Sabha passes the bill onWednesday, then a "civil dis-obedience movement" willbegin from Thursday. PTI

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Samajwadi Party chiefAkhilesh Yadav on

Wednesday said that he hopedthat Prime Minister NarendraModi would learn the lesson ofaffection and love from TajMahal during his visit to Agra.

Akhilesh also stepped uppolitical campaign for hisdefence after teams of CentralBureau Investigation raidedseveral locations in the State forprobing a mining scam andindicated that it would probethe role of the SP chief as he wasthe Chief Minister of UP whenthe scam took place.

“Hope the PM returns fromTaj Mahal after imbibing affec-tion and love from it” Akhileshtweeted hours before Modi’svisit to Agra where the PrimeMinister is scheduled to launchseveral development projects ofroad widening, rail over bridge,drainage and sewage, drinkingwater, defence corridor andhealth sector worth �3,000crore.

The SP chief also said that

he hoped that Modi wouldremember the pain of farmersgrowing potato, sugarcane andwheat in nearby areas.

“UP was never so far fromDelhi that the country’s chiefexecutive was unaware of theplight of farmers and traders,”he said.

Agra in the Brij region isthe potato belt of Uttar Pradesh.

Meanwhile, the SamajwadiParty launched a hoarding waragainst the possible interroga-tion of party chief AkhileshYadav by the CBI in the min-ing scam.

A hoarding with photos ofBahujan Samaj Party chief

Mayawati and SP chief AkhileshYadav, put up in front of the SPState office said, ‘Satya pareshanho sakata hai, parajit nahin’(truth can be harassed, it can-not be defeated) The hoardingalso carried the photos of RamManohar Lohia and Dr BRAmbedkar.

Posters depicting the SPchief saying, ‘Hamare pass gath-bandhan hai, BJP ke pass CBI’(We have the alliance, BJP hasCBI), also dotted several sitesaround the SP State office.

The SP-BSP gave a jointstatement against the BJP indi-cating to jointly fight the inves-tigations by the CBI after theagency conducted raids earlythis month.

BSP chief Mayawati hadspoken to Akhilesh over phone,assuring of her support and ask-ing him not to worry about theCBI raids.

Both parties are likely toannounce their pre-poll alliancefor Lok Sabha polls on January15, the birthday of Mayawatiand Dimple Yadav, wife ofAkhilesh Yadav.

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In a major relief to the con-servation efforts, the Union

Government dumped the pro-posal to build elevated corridorin the Bandipur National Parkand tiger reserve which fallsunder the Nilgiri bio sphere.

The Karnataka Governmentcaptained by HDKumaraaswamy has alsoopposed building of any suchcorridor in the Tiger reserve tofacilitate night travel insidethe corridor.

While answering in RajyaSabha to unstarred question

Mahesh Sharma, Minister ofState of environment, forestand climate change, saidthe State Government hasalso opposed any construc-tion or opening up of theroad during night hours,which passes throughBandipur Tiger Reserve. Hecategorically said there is nosuch proposal to build ele-vated corridor in theBandipur Tiger reserve. Hesaid” In fact, we have sug-gested strengthening of thealternative route passingthrough Thithimathi-Gonikoppa-Kutta." He wasresponding to MPVeerendra Kumar, a RajyaSabha member, from Keralawho asked about theMinistry's stand on the cor-ridor proposal and its status.

Kerala has been insisting toopen the night travel in thetiger reserve to connect Kerala,but environmentalists and gov-ernment here had opposed anysuch proposal stating that itwould affect the flora andfauna. According to Karnatakaforest department statistics thenight ban has reduced the acci-dental death of wild animals.The existing traffic ban hasbeen in effect since 2009 whenthe Karnataka High Courtbanned traffic flow after darkwhile hearing a case pertainingto roadkills, where at least 215

animals were being run overbetween 2004 and 2007.

The JD(S)- Congress coali-tion Government in Karnatakahas opposed construction ofthe road or lifting of the nine-hour night traffic ban on NH-212, that passes throughBandipur Tiger Reserve. Theproposal to build four elevat-ed corridors, each 1-km long,on National Highway 766 bythe National HighwayAuthority of India as part of theBharatmala project had unitedactivists under the banner of'Save Bandipur'.

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The controversy over thedecision to revoke the invi-

tation extended to English lit-terateur Nayantara Sahgal forthe inauguration of an all IndiaMarathi literary meet atYavatmal reached a flash pointon Wednesday, as AkhilBharatiya Marathi SahityaMahamandal (ABMSM)President Shripad Joshi resignedfrom his post in protest.

Upset with the decisiontaken by the conclave’s localorganisers— Yavatmal’s Dr V BKolte Sanshodhan Kendra AniVachanalay to revoke the invi-tation extended to Sahgal toinaugurate the three-day con-clave beginning on January11, Shripad Joshi — through anemail to the conclave organis-ers — tendered his resignationfrom his post as the presidentof ABMSM. Confirming thedevelopment, Vidarbha SahityaSangh (VSS) President ManoharMhaisalkar said: “Yes, we have

learnt that Shripad Joshi hasresigned from his post and I amawaiting details. However, theABMSM will meet tomorrow toelect a new President in his place”.

Incidentally, Joshi’s tenureas the president of ABMSMwas to end after next threemonths. Though the exact rea-son for his resignation has notbeen spelt either by Joshi him-self or the conclave organisers,the outgoing ABMSM isunderstood to have beenmiffed with the manner inwhich the local organisersrevoked Sahgal’s invitation.

It may be recalled that onJanuary 6, the organising com-mittee of the 92nd AkhilBharatiya Maratahi SahityaSammelan revoking the invi-tation to English litterateurNayantara Sahgal to inauguratethe conclave on the ostensibleground that it had receivedthreats that there would be dis-ruptions in the proceedings ifshe attended the three-dayconference.

Thanjavur (TN): DMK chiefM K Stalin on Wednesday saidthe 'mystery' over late ChiefMinsiter J Jayalalithaa's deathpersisted and asserted that if hisparty was voted to power peo-ple found guilty of causing herdemise would be put behindthe bars.

Proper medical bulletinswere not issued on her treat-ment and health condition, hesaid addressing people of a vil-lage here as part of the DMK'sstate-wide outreach pro-gramme of panchayats.

"Make a note, it will be myfirst task to find out who wasbehind her death and put themin jail after the formation ofGovernment by the DMK," hesaid citing the ongoing probeby a commission of inquiryinto the circumstances leading

to the death of Jayalalithaa onDecember 5, 2016 after pro-longed illness.

His comments come daysafter the commission raisedseveral questions, includingon why an angiogram was notperformed on her during hos-pitalisation. Citing the ongoingprobe by the commission intothe circumstances surroundingher death, Stalin said,

The DMK leader who isalso the Leader of Opposition

said when the late DMK patri-arch and his father MKarunanidhi was hospitalisedlast year medical bulletins wereissued to keep people posted onthe developments.

Jayalalithaa was DMK'spolitical rival and although"we may not like her...She wasa elected by the people and shewas Chief Minsiter when shepassed away," he said.

Reiterating his party'sdemand for a CBI probe intoher death, Stalin alleged the rul-ing AIADMK was afraid of aprobe by the Central agency as"truths," would tumble out.

Lashing out at both theAIADMK and BJP ledGovernments at the Centre, hesaid Tamil Nadu could growonly if the two incumbentregimes were dislodged. PTI

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Visakhapatnam: Gold biscuitsworth �1.09 crore smuggledfrom Myanmar has been seizedfrom two train passengers atthe railway station here, theDirectorate of RevenueIntelligence said here onWednesday.

It said that DRI officers, acting on specific intelligence

inputs, intercepted two pas-sengers travelling on theGuwahat i -S ecunderabadExpress on January 4 at theVisakhapatnam railway sta-tion.

On examination, it wasfound that they were carryinggold concealed in specially

made packets inside the cottonvests worn by them, the DRIsaid in a statement.

On being questioned, theduo reportedly confessed thatthe gold was smuggled to Indiafrom Myanmar and someonehanded it over to them foronward transfer to

Secunderabad.A total of 3,314 grams of

smuggled gold was recoveredfrom them, the release said.

The two passengers andthe mastermind involved in thesmuggling of the gold werearrested yesterday, the releaseadded. PTI

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The latest from New Delhi’s politicaldrawing rooms is that on currentform, both national parties, the rul-ing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) andthe principal Opposition party the

Congress, could end up with a combined LokSabha tally that doesn’t exceed 300 MPs afterthe coming general election. Simple mathe-matics tells us that if, and that’s a very big ifat this stage because the Prime Minister is stillquite popular across the country, that were tocome to pass, it would mean 243 legislatorswould likely belong predominantly to region-al parties.

It has once again become fashionable toderide the unitary impulse of the Indiannation-state, which a responsible Indianpolitical leadership post-1947 from JawaharlalNehru to Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi to PVNarasimha Rao and Atal Bihari Vajpayee toNarendra Modi has in the main done a rea-sonably good job of preserving against thedepredations of the proponents of an India thatis federal in the sense of being a conglomer-ation of sub-nationalities. This is not to argueagainst functional autonomy for States of theUnion which should certainly not be curbedin any manner or indeed to suggest that thesubjects in the Central, State or ConcurrentList be fiddled with. And, of course, the afore-mentioned political leadership and the polit-ical parties they represent have on occasionplayed dirty for political considerations. Thedismissal of the EMS NamboodiripadGovernment in Kerala by the Nehru-ledCentre in 1959, the turfing out of Karnataka’sSR Bommai Government in 1989 on RajivGandh’s watch and more recently theUttarakhand Government’s dismissal by theModi regime in 2016 are prime examples ofthis mindset.

But, on balance, the Centre must hold. For,the very real fear of Balkanisation of India thatdogged the nation for, say, the first five decadesafter Independence, may have abated some-what but there are new dangers to the coun-try’s unity and integrity in the 21st century andone does not have to be a conspiracy theoristto acknowledge this fact. National and inter-national issues have to be dealt with by theUnion Government and the positions andpolicies adopted on such matters impact thewelfare, security and prosperity of all Indiancitizens.

So, to get back to our original inquiry, ifa federal front of some description is in powerat the Centre come May 2019, what can weexpect? To ensure an empirical basis for anysuch assessment, here’s a look at the 2014 LokSabha poll election manifestoes of some ran-domly chosen regional parties and what theyhave to say on national/international issues:

Shiv Sena: Nothing whatsoever on inter-national issues though the party’s advocacy ofa hard line including coercive military actionagainst some of our neighbours is well-known.On national issues, with an understandableand very prominent Maharashtra skew, theparty promised for the agriculture sector the

implementation of the MSSwaminathan CommissionReport, a review of the UPA-eraMNREGA scheme to make itmore effective and timely com-pensation pay-outs for farmerssuffering from natural disas-ters. In terms of a social justiceagenda, affirmative action forand prevention of atrocities onbackward classes and women ishighlighted but with nothingspecific apart from the promiseto distribute caste certificates tofisherfolk, ensure the shepherdcaste is provided reservationbenefits under the SC categoryand provide justice for Marathasdemanding a quota. Buildingstatues of Chhattrapati ShivajiMaharaj and BabasahebBhimrao Ambedkar just aboutrounds off the Shiv Sena’s nation-al agenda, as it were.

Trinamool Congress:Welfarism, federalism and sec-ularism dominated the mani-festo which focussed on promis-ing roti kapda aur makaan (food,dress and shelter) and usheringin electoral reforms, transparen-cy and a corruption-free India.National issues are dealt withsubstantively though obviouslywith a Bengal bias and the “spe-cial thrust on the social and eco-nomic empowerment of minori-ties” was highlighted. “By imple-menting reservations for OBCcommunities, 94 per cent of theMuslim population of Bengal hasbeen covered, who can now availthe benefits of reservation underthe OBC category.” Oppositionto jobless growth, SEZs, FDI inretail/insurance sectors and anadvocacy of state-control ofprices, job creation by the stateand state-funding of elections are

showcased. The manifestopromised to works towards a set-ting up a “pro-people judicialsystem” with fast-track and spe-cial courts apart from a massivejump in the appointment of judi-cial officers. A national healthpolicy with the focus on “moth-er and child” and enhancedconnectivity through the build-ing of rural roads are the otherfocus areas. On foreign relationsincluding those with neighbour-ing countries, the party will beguided by the principles of“peaceful co-existence, resolvingterritorial/other disputes throughtalks, self-interest, promotionof social, economic, cultural,technological ties with all nationsand looking upon the world asone single family.”

Telugu Desam Party:Focussed almost entirely onAndhra Pradesh (andTelangana), the hi-tech visionstatement of the party commit-ted itself to the development ofgrowth corridors in differentsectors, a pilgrim corridor cov-ering all major temples, railrapid transport system (bullettrains), three international air-ports, smaller airstrips in eachof the 13 districts of the Stateand development of port-basedindustrial clusters for accelerat-ed economic growth of 10 to 15per cent on an average over thenext decade. A water transportchannel, running along thecoast connecting all the majorports for shipment of productsdeveloped in the clusters to thenearest port, would also bemade functional. The effort toattract private investment, bothforeign and domestic, would beled by the party chief himself.

The focus would be on agricul-ture, aquaculture and exportprocessing zones in the coastaldistricts of Andhra Pradeshwhile interior districts would bedeveloped as textile hubs.Cement and steel industrieswould take centre-stage in ear-marked geographies, ditto elec-tronics and pharmacy manu-facturing hubs in others. Thecommitment was to “putAndhra Pradesh on the inter-national map” by making theState a residuary global manu-facturing hub complete with taxincentives.

Suffice it to say this federalcircle will take some squaring.That, however, is not the issue.After all, stranger bedfellowshave been known in politics. Butit is essential for these and otherregional, non-Congress, non-BJP parties to work out specificsand present an intelligible set ofpolicy priorities nationally andin terms of geopolitics ratherthan leave themselves to the ten-der mercies of bureaucrats or thewhims of individual ministers ina putative federal front-runCentral Government.

It is worth iterating, in con-clusion, that the purpose behindthis exercise is not to imply thatregional players can’t have aviable national/world view ornational parties cannot be terri-bly parochial. The point beingmade is that it would behovethose with ambitions to rule thecountry to articulate a coherentidea of India and its place in theworld, the sooner the better.

(The writer, a senior jour-nalist, is a media consultantand commentator on contem-porary affairs.)

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Sir — This refers to the editorial,“Quota politics” (January 9). It isn’tsurprising that there have beenmixed reactions to the NarendraModi Government’s proposal for10 per cent reservation to the eco-nomically backward sections in thegeneral category. But wasn’t theCongress’ farmers’ loan waiver anelection gimmick too? TheReservation Bill has been clearedby the Lok Sabha, and if the RajyaSabha, too, passes the Bill, theModi Government will have tomake sure that the benefits and aidreach those who truly deserve it.The Opposition has no otheroption but to ensure its support forthe Bill. For those who lament thedevelopment, they must under-stand that a nation like ours isdeeply rooted in a caste and reli-gious system. Ours is a society thatruns on this ‘fuel’.

M PradyuKannur

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Sir — This refers to the editorial,“A toast to Test” (January 9). It wasa pleasure to see India script his-

tory as the Indian cricket teamwon its first ever series onAustralian soil, beating the hosts.Indeed, it was a long wait and thespectacular performance, splendidefforts, dedication and determina-tion of the Indian players mustbe appreciated. Hopefully, theIndian cricket team will achievemany more feats like this.

Mohd Umar Madhya Pradesh

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Sir — This refers to the editorial,“A toast to Test” (January 9). It wasa historic victory for India onAustralian soil. The twin wins inAdelaide and Melbourne are proofof the unfaltering dedication andhard work done by the Indiansquad. Last year, the Indian teamwas beaten in South Africa in the

Test series (1-2) and later, it suf-fered a humiliating defeat at thehands of England (1-4) in the Testseries.

Surely, the Indian team hasshown resilience and has comeback stronger. This is also a timeto congratulate the Indian team’scoach, Ravi Shastri, who managedthe team admirably.

Devendra KhuranaBhopal

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Sir — This refers to the editorial,“Quota politics” (January 9). TheUnion Government’s approval of10 per cent reservation for theeconomically backward class inGovernment jobs and higher edu-cation institutions is a cruel joketo remain in power. This willcome at the high cost of curtail-ing economic and social develop-ment of the country. It seems noGovernment can survive withoutreservation policies, which wasintroduced as a temporary mea-sure by the makers of the IndianConstitution. Our learned authorswouldn’t have even dreamt thatvarious parties would make it apermanent political tool to exploitthe citizens of India for votebank.

The economically weakersections need more opportunitiesto compete but in no case shouldthere be reservation for anyone.Reservations have led to morechaos than delivering on the so-called benefits. They must beabolished completely.

Mahesh KumarVia email

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Earlier this month, a food manu-facturer of a popular brand waspulled up by the Supreme Court

for lead content in its noodles. Thecourt put a poser to the manufactureras to why Indians, especially kids, musteat noodles laced with lead. Earlier, theFood Safety and Standards Authorityof India, too, had banned the specificbrand of noodles after finding exces-sive lead content in its product. Elevatedlead levels in food products, especial-ly those that are popular among kids,should be unacceptable. This displaysthe callous attitude of multinational cor-porations, which put profits and mar-ket share before health and well-beingof their consumers.

The appreciable stand taken by theapex court earlier may have forced the

manufacturer to pull the product fromthe shelves and submit samples for test-ing to the Government labs, but theproblem of lead exposure is still wide-spread and hazardous to on’s health.

The gravity of lead exposure canbe gauged by the fact that toxic leadaffects 1.5 to two million people in Indiaalone. Children are most vulnerable,especially those under six years of age.The process of lead consumption byhumans is the most unfortunate: Wetend to confuse lead with essential ele-ments like calcium and start using it tomake bones, muscles and brain con-nections. Imagine what will happen ifwe allow a harmful substance to formthe building block for a child’s body.

Already, studies have confirmedthe worst fears that Indian childrenunder 12 years of age have a meanblood lead level (BLL) of 10 μg/dl,which is twice the level considered as“action level” in the US. The poor IQof children due to such high levels oflead is resulting in a loss of $236.1 bil-lion (12.5 per cent of India’s GDP) ineconomic productivity every year. Thelead content in noodles is only the tip

of the proverbial iceberg. Lead expo-sure in India occurs from paints,canned food, old pipes in the drinkingwater system, cosmetics, indigenousmedicine systems and battery and plas-tic recycling industry.

Motor fuels, too, contribute to leadexposure levels. Given the wide area oflead exposure sources, one questionthat comes to mind is: Where’s theGovernment’s audit of all these possi-ble sources? And if an audit is alreadyin place, why have we, the citizens, notbeen made aware of the risks from leadexposure?

Lead poisoning is one of the mostcommon diseases of toxic environmen-tal origin and accounts for about 0.6 percent of the global disease burden. Leadis a naturally occurring heavy metalfound in the earth’s crust. It is soft, mal-leable, melts at a relatively low temper-ature, is easily moulded and can becombined with other metals to formalloys. Given these favourable proper-ties, it is widely used in many productssuch as lead-acid batteries for motorvehicles, pigments, paints, solder,stained glass, lead crystal glassware,ammunition, ceramic glazes, jewellery,

and toys and in some cosmetics too.The Government has to clamp downon those products that have higher thanthe advisable limit of lead content.

Lead is a cumulative toxicant thatincreases in quantity in the body overthe years and adversely affects multi-ple body systems — neurologic, hema-tologic, gastrointestinal, cardiovascu-lar and renal. While children can suf-fer from permanent adverse healtheffects, adults, when exposed to lead,are at an increased risk of developinghigh blood pressure and kidney dam-age. Exposure of pregnant women tohigh levels of lead can cause miscar-riage, still birth, premature birth, lowbirth weight and malformations.

Lead has no essential role in thehuman body and no safe level of expo-sure has been established so far. Evenblood lead concentrations as low as 5μg/dl may result in decreased intelli-gence in children, behavioural difficul-ties and learning problems. Hence, pre-vention from exposure is important.

Apart from human health risk,environmental damage due to lead isalso occurring through mining, smelt-

ing, manufacturing and recycling activ-ities, continued use of leaded paint,gasoline and aviation fuel. It is high timethat we rein in its use.

The phasing out of lead from petrolis a major international public healthachievement but global consumptionof lead is still increasing because of highdemand for energy-efficient vehicles.Yet another area of contamination ispaint that is high in lead content. Thiscan cause a long-lasting hazard tohealth for all age groups. Since leadedpaint is a continuing source of expo-sure in many countries, the WorldHealth Organisation, along with theUnited Nations EnvironmentProgramme, formed the GlobalAlliance to Eliminate Lead Paint. Itsbroad objective is to promote a phase-out of the manufacture and sale ofpaints containing lead and eventuallyeliminate the risks involved with it.Lead is a silent killer and its ever-increasing presence is alarming. TheGovernment needs to act fast and limitour growing exposure to it.

(The writer is an environmentaljournalist)

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My first introduction to MrinalSen was through his filmsCalcutta 71 and Chorus. Boththe films were telecast on thenational channel soon after he

passed away. My father was a great admirer ofMrinalda’s films and he became my initial guideto understand his thought-provoking art filmsthat were based on contemporary political andsocial issues of Bengal during the late 1960s andearly 1970s. Thanks to Doordarshan, many ofhis films like Ek Din Pratidin, Ek Din Achanak,Akaler Sandhane, Akash Kusum, Interview, NeelAkasher Neechey and Padatik among otherswere telecast over the years and exposed us lib-erally to his worldview.

And then finally one day I got the chanceto meet the great master of our times at a dis-cussion in Nandan, Kolkata. I gulped whatev-er he was saying to the listeners — about howhe was amazed watching a European film,where the hero and the heroine were supposedto meet at a decided place, but the former didnot turn up and, hence, the latter reached hishouse and wondered if she should press thecalling bell or not. Sen described that never everhad he seen such beautiful fingers that playedaround the calling bell but was unable to decideif it should be pressed or not. This scenario,according to him, spoke about the self-esteemand self-respect of a woman and playedaround the conflict in her mind.

In yet another case, Sen chose to describea scene from his own film. As per the sequence,in a particular shot, one of his actors had to askhis wife if she was involved in an extra-mari-tal relationship with another man. The actorasked Sen if while coming on a motorbike topick up his wife, after she had heard the bike’shorn, he should strengthen his facial musclesto show the anger within him or not. Sen clear-ly advised him not to do so because any actorcould get just 90 or 99 marks out of 100 buthe/she cannot, by any chance, score 110 out of100 while acting. This conversation depictedhow Sen was completely against overacting.

In those days, we saw how after thedestruction of the Berlin Wall, East and WestGermany came together. In this process, theGermans discarded communism. Sen, howev-er, came up with his own version of the narra-tion about the impact of the failure of commu-nism through his film Mahaprithibi (WorldWithin, World Without). Sen was a Leftist butnever ever entered actively into direct politics.Nor did he shy away from questioning its short-comings.

Sen was a true master of craftsmanshipand tempered it to reflect his humanist con-cerns. His cinematic language was acknowl-edged internationally as he always chose to por-tray the narrative from a local, Indian perspec-tive and not attempt a foreign grammar for theheck of it. As his contemporary Ray was paint-ing an urban India emerging out of the pangsof early nation-building in an uplifting man-ner, Sen never romanticised or universalisedthe struggle. Rather he kept it stark. His every-day man, be it a job-seeker or a tribal, was aproduct of the systems in place and was just

attempting his/her survival within it rather thanasking the hows and whys. His protagonistslearnt to compromise alright but within theeverydayness of life.

Sen did not restrict himself to makingfilms in Bengali, Hindi and English but madefilms in Oriya (Odia) and Telugu like MatiraManisha Oka Oori Katha. His films were high-ly applauded for the relatable human conditionand, therefore, won awards and prizes nation-ally and across the world, which included thoseat Cannes, Berlin, Venice, Moscow, KarlovyVary and Montreal film festivals. Retrospectivesof his films have been shown in almost all majorcities across the world.

His international acclaim also helpedIndia earn a prestigious identity in world cin-ema. Besides, Sen also served as the jury mem-ber at international film festivals like inCannes, Venice, Berlin, Moscow, KarlovyVary, Tokyo, Tehran, Mannheim, Nyon,Chicago, Ghent, Tunis and Oberhausen.

Finally, the golden moment dawned uponme when I got the opportunity to interview him.Mrinalda was in Delhi for the release of his book,Always Being Born: A Memoir. Sen was veryclose to my mentor and godmother, ArunaVasudev. It was, therefore, quite easy for me toapproach the great master, who agreed to meetme for the interview. The best part of the con-versation with him was when he said,“Whenever someone asks me about my age, Ialways say, I am one year older than last year,and if they ask what was my age last year, I alwayssay, one year younger than this year.” And hedid have an ageless mind. During the interview,Sen did not fail to point out the mistakes in myway of conversation in Bengali. He had a rareeye for seeking perfection in every detail. Thatperhaps explains why his observation of soci-

ety was so real and penetrated multiple layersof complexity. I was fortunate enough to min-gle with the pioneer of the Indian cinema onceagain when Aruna Vasudev, who has been thedirector of many film festivals, decided to hon-our Sen with the lifetime achievement award atthe 10th Osian’s Cinefan Festival of Asian andArab Cinema in Delhi in 2008.

As he suffered ill-health after 2002, Sencould not direct any film but would attend theKolkata International Film Festival till 2011.When the Singur and Nandigram episodes tookplace in West Bengal, huge social and apoliti-cal protests were reported from across the State,particularly in Kolkata. Sen was the front-run-ner of these marches on consecutive days, sid-ing with both the Leftist and neutral lobbies.For him, Singur was about people. Incidentally,both the protest rallies happened at a time whenthe 2007 Kolkata International Film Festivalwas on. Though Sen never became an activemember of any political party, he became a vic-tim of petty politics. As long as he was alive,he never got his due and till his last breath, hewas denied the highest civilian honour of thecountry, the Bharat Ratna award.

It was also shocking and unfortunate thatduring a committee meeting at the KolkataInternational Film Festival, where noted film-maker Gautam Ghose, the chairman of the fes-tival, proposed a retrospective of Mrinal Sen,some authorities within the political circles didnot think it necessary to honour him duringhis lifetime. Sen was the last representative ofthe greatest trio of Indian cinema that com-prised Satyajit Ray, Mrinal Sen and RitwikGhatak. An unmatchable story-teller, we havelost the last of the Mohicans.

(The writer is a Delhi-based film festivalcurator and a freelance writer)

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The Governmentis eyeing around

$1 billion (about�7,000 crore) fromthe sale of nationalcarrier Air India inthe next financialyear, a Governmentofficial said.

The Governmentwill initiate theprocess of strategicdisinvestment of AirIndia in the secondhalf of 2019-20 and inbetween it wouldwork towards sellingsome of its subsidiaries andmonetise assets.

Air India has a debt burdenof �55,000 crore. In Novemberlast year, a ministerial panelheaded by Finance MinisterArun Jaitley had approvedtransferring �29,000 crore debtto a special purpose vehicle(SPV) — Air India AssetHolding Company.

“We are eyeing $1 billionfrom the sale of Air India,” theofficial told.

After a botched attempt tosell Air India in May last year,the Jaitley-led panel in Junedecided to scrap the stake saleplan for the time being. It wasdecided to infuse more fundsinto the carrier and cut downdebt by raising resources byselling land assets and othersubsidiaries.

The government had ini-tially planned to offload 76 percent equity share capital of thenational carrier as well as trans-

fer the management control toprivate players. The buyer wasrequired to take over �24,000crore debt of the carrier alongwith over �8,000 crore of lia-bilities.

However, the stake salefailed to attract any bidderswhen the bidding process com-pleted on May 31.

In August 2018, theGovernment had receivedParliament nod for �980 croreequity infusion in Air Indiaunder a “turn around plan”.Earlier this month, Parliamentapproved a further �2,345 croreequity infusion into the airline.

The ministerial panel hasalready cleared strategic sale ofAir India’s ground handling sub-sidiary, Air India Air TransportServices. Plans are afoot for sell-ing another subsidiary, Air IndiaEngineering Services.

The proceeds from sale ofsubsidiaries and land andbuilding assets would go to the

SPV and will be utilisedtowards lowering the debt bur-den of the airline.

The national carrier had inSeptember last year invitedbids to sell its properties locat-ed across India.

The airline had put up forsale 28 flats in Mumbai, sevenflats in Ahmedabad, and twoflats and an office space inPune, besides several otherproperties across the country.

On December 27, the CivilAviation Ministry told the LokSabha that the Government hasprepared a revival plan for AirIndia.

A comprehensive finan-cial package, including transferof non-core debt and assets toa SPV, implementation ofrobust organisational and gov-ernance reforms by the boardand differentiated businessstrategies for each of the corebusinesses of Air India, are partof the plan.

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Commerce minister SureshPrabhu on Wednesday

urged the Finance Ministry tomake the process of refund ofGST input tax credit online.

Prabhu, along with com-merce and revenue depart-ment officials, met exporters todiscuss the problems faced bythe sector.

Banking issues, like cautionlisting of exporters, third party/third country exports and listof items to be traded withIran, were also discussed. Thefinance ministry officials woulddiscuss the issues which wereflagged in a meeting with bankson January 22, an official state-ment said.

Prabhu also highlightedthe declining trend of export

credit in recent months andsuggested that banks may beasked to encourage flow ofcredit to the export sector par-ticularly to MSMEs for gener-ating more employment.

"The commerce ministeralso urged to make input taxcredit (ITC) refund online toensure that the export refundis seamless and also transpar-ent and accountable," the state-ment said.

As of November-end, Rs91,149 crore has been issued toexporters as Goods andServices Tax (GST) refund,which was 93.77 per cent oftotal claims with the tax author-ities.

While Integrated GST(IGST) refund process isonline, claiming of ITC refundstill requires manual interven-

tion. Representatives of the

export sector highlighted theproblems of pre-import underadvance authorisation andrequested the CommerceMinister to bring the notifica-tion deleting the conditionwith retrospective effect.

"Suresh Prabhu askedDGFT and Department ofRevenue, Ministry of Finance,to look into it so that genuineexporters are not harassed," thestatement added.

Representatives fromFederation of Indian ExportOrganisations, Pharmexcil,Gems and Jewellery ExportPromotion Council,Engineering ExportsPromotion Council andChemexcil attended the meet-ing.

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Shale gas may turn as a boonto West Bengal’s investment

map with a potential of �50,000crore over the next severalyears but proper regulatoryframework, environmental orsocial factors needs to be han-dled properly.

“In West Bengal shale gasand related sector offers aninvestment potential of �50,000crore and huge employmentopportunity,” State FinanceMinister Amit Mitra said onWednesday at FICCI organisedGas Industry in West Bengal.

Great Eastern Energy Corp(GEECL) and Essar Oil whoare producing CBM in theRanigunj belt had expressedinterest in exploring andextracting shale gas and underthe new licensing regimeGovernment has allowed shaleexploration from CBM blocks.

“GEECL had alreadyannounced to invest $2 billionover next 10 years in shale gasextraction. Given the opportu-nity in existing blocks andpotential blocks investmentcould as high as �50,000 crore,”

GEECL MD & CEO PrasantModi said.

He called for conduciveregulatory framework andincreasing the licensing periodto make it viable to invest in theproject.

Investment from Essar Oilwill be similar as the reservesfor both are almost similar.

GEECL’s coal-bed methane(CBM) block may hold asmuch as 6.63 Trillion cubic feet(Tcf) of shale resources, ofwhich about 1.7 Tcf can berecovered, he said.

The Raniganj block has ashale gas potential of 7.7 trillioncubic feet (tcf), Essar officialshad said earlier.

But, several experts haveflagged environmental andsocial concerns in shale gasexploration.

An environmental NGOhad urged the Government toundertake research to explorethe link between fracking,groundwater resources and‘land subsidence’ before auc-tioning the the shale blocks.

A presentation made by aWest Bengal Pollution ControlBoard official earlier said waterrequirement is 11,000 to 15,000m3 for one well (the estimateis of the same order of 7-19 mil-lion litres per well according toa field data from a US gasfield).

Since the wells are hori-zontal and multilateral, there ishigh possibility of ground watercontamination which may be aconcern for the people in thebelt, the presentation has said.

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Union Minister Raj KumarSingh on Wednesday

pitched for creating a policyframework to further propa-gate the use of solar energy inthe dairy cooperative networkfor benefit of farmers.

The entire dairy chainfrom village-level milk poolingto product delivery is energyintensive. Extensive use of solarenergy in dairy value chain cansignificantly reduce operationalcost and promote use of cleanenergy, he said.

Speaking at a workshoporganised by the NationalDairy Development Board(NDDB) here, Singh “stressedon the need of creating anenabling policy framework tofurther propagate usage ofsolar energy, utilising the dairycooperative network for thebenefit of farmers”

Presently, the Centre is

promoting solar pumps in theagriculture sector to ensureuse of clean energy and at thesame time reduce farm subsidyburden, the Minister of Statefor Renewable Energy said ina statement.

He said GRID-connectedsolar pumps is an alternativewhich while ensuring water forfree for farmers will help themearn additional income by sell-ing surplus energy.

The dairy network hasaround 1.65 lakh village-leveldairy cooperatives, 218 dis-trict/ regional/taluk unionsand 24 state dairy federations.About 15 million milk pro-ducers are affiliated with thisnetwork.

As at March-end 2018, thenetwork maintains 72 millionlitres per day (MLPD) of pro-cessing capacity, 18 MLPD ofchilling capacity and 38 MLPDof village-level milk coolingcapacity.

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In coming decades, con-sumption growth and the

Fourth IndustrialRevolutionwill create tremendous oppor-tunities in the emerging Indianmarket. During 2018, exten-siveproprietary research wasconducted on India, the world’slargest democracy, and amongthe world’sfastest growingeconomies. The WorldEconomic Forum’s new reportin collaboration with Bain&Company, Future ofConsumption in Fast-GrowthConsumer Market — INDIAidentifies key forces that will-shape consumption in Indiaand is a call to action for mul-tistakeholder collaboration tobuild an inclusivefuture forthe country.

“As India continues its pathas one of the world’s mostdynamic consumption environ-ments, private andpublic-sectorleaders will have to take sharedaccountability to ensure such

consumption is inclusiveandresponsible. I am confidentthat strategic foresight from thisreport will contribute to inspir-ing action andrealizing a pros-perous future for India with sus-tainable benefits for both businessand society,” said ZaraIngilizian,Head of Consumer Industriesand Member of ExecutiveCommittee, World EconomicForum.

With an annual GDPgrowth rate of 7.5%, India iscurrently the world’s sixth-largest economy. By2030,domestic private con-sumption, which accounts for60% of the country’s GDP, isexpected to develop intoa $6trillion growth opportunity. Ifrealized, this would makeIndia’s consumer market thethird largest inthe world,behind the US and China.

The future of consumptionin India in 2030 is anchored inrising incomes and a broad-based pattern ofgrowth andbenefit sharing. It is anticipat-

ed that the growth of the mid-dle class will lift nearly 25 mil-lionhouseholds out of poverty.In addition, India will have 700million millennials and Gen Zconsumers, whohave grownup in a more open and confi-dent country.

By 2030, there will beopportunities to bypassWestern growth trajectories,such as those presented bymorethan 1 billion internet users,many of whom will only usemobile platforms, driving theneed forbusiness model inno-vation. Finally, future con-sumption growth will comefrom the “many Indias” — thediverse, rich and densely pop-ulated cities and the thou-sands of geographically dis-persed, developed rural towns.This positive vision for thefuture of India will only mate-rialize if business and policy-makers pursue aninclusiveapproach to the country’s eco-nomic and, hence, consump-tion growth.

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Nissan is showing thebeefed up version of its hit

Leaf electric car as the Japaneseautomaker seeks to distanceitself from the arrest of its starexecutive Carlos Ghosn.

The unveiling Wednesdayat Nissan Motor Co.’sYokohama headquarters,southwest of Tokyo, had beenpostponed when Ghosn wasarrested November 19.

Ghosn has been chargedwith underreporting hisincome. Tokyo prosecutorshave extended his detentionthrough Friday, adding breachof trust allegations.

The Tokyo District Courtrejected Wednesday theprotest f i led by Ghosn’slawyers on his prolongeddetention.

The lawyers have said theywill appeal to a higher court.

Ghosn made his first pub-lic appearance since his arrestTuesday, and denied each alle-gation in the Tokyo DistrictCourt.

The Leaf was among theachievements for Nissan thatGhosn highlighted in his state-ment to the judge.

The new 4.16 million yen(USD 38,000) Leaf e+ is aboutthe same size as the model onsale, but gets more power andcruise range.

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New Delhi (PTI): Private sector lender IndusIndBank on Wednesday posted a marginal 5.2 per centincrease in net profit to �985.03 crore for the thirdquarter ended December 31, 2018. The bank hadrecorded a net profit of �936.25 crore in theOctober-December quarter of last fiscal.

Total income of the lender also increased to�7,232.32 crore during the October-December 2018as against �5,473.54 crore over the correspondingperiod of the previous fiscal, IndusInd Bank said ina regulatory filing.

The gross non-performing assets (NPAs) declinedto 1.13 per cent of the total advances during the thirdquarter of the current fiscal, against 1.16 per cent atthe end of third quarter. However, net NP1As of thebank rose to 0.59 per cent in the quarter from 0.46per cent of the total assets.

�����������D�����������(��������"!����Bajaj Corp on Wednesday reported 8.93 per cent

increase in standalone net profit at �60.09 crore forthe third quarter ended December 31, 2018. The com-pany had posted a net profit of �55.16 crore in thesame period of 2017-18.

Total income during the reported quarter wentup 11.48 per cent to �236.94 crore as against�212.53 crore in the year-ago period, Bajaj Corp saidin a BSE filing.

The company, which sells cosmetics, toiletries andother personal care products, said its board of direc-tors has recommended an interim dividend of �14per share of face value of �1 each.

New Delhi (PTI): MG Motor India, awholly-owned arm of China’s SAIC MotorCorp, on Wednesday said it would launcha sports utility vehicle, Hector, in the mid-dle of this year to kick off its journey in thecountry. The MG Hector will go in to pro-duction in the second quarter of 2019 at thecompany’s manufacturing facility at Halol,

Gujarat, MG Motor India said in a state-ment. MG Motor India president & man-aging director Rajeev Chaba said, “Basedon the company’s global platform, theHector has been heavily re-engineered toenrich product attributes and suit theevolving preferences of the customers andIndian road conditions.”

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Continuing its rising spreefor the fourth session,benchmark BSE Sensex

reclaimed the 36,000 mark byjumping over 200 points onWednesday tracking positive cuesfrom global markets on risinghopes that the US and Chinawould strike a deal to end theirtrade tiff.

Moreover, optimistic buying byinvestors ahead of Q3 earnings sea-son supported the rally.

The BSE Sensex after a gap-upopening at 36,181.37, advanced fur-ther to the day’s high of 36,250.54,before ending at 36,212.91, show-ing a gain of 231.98 points, or0.64%. The gauge had gained by467 points in the previous three ses-sions.

The NSE Nifty also gained 53points, or 0.49%, to settle at 10,855.15after shuttling between 10,870.40and 10,749.40.

Top performers that led thegains on bourses were Axis Bank,ITC, Tata Motors, Bharti Airtel,HDFC, IndusInd Bank, HUL,HDFC Bank, Maruti and ICICIBank, rising up to 2.94%.

Infosys, the country’s secondlargest IT services firm, rose 0.90%after company on Tuesday said itsboard would consider a buybackprogramme and payment of specialdividend, among other proposals,at its meeting on January 11.

On the other hand, Yes Bank,Tata Steel Hero MotoCorp, ONGC,Bajaj Finance, NPTC, HCL Techand TCS were the top losers, fallingup to 3.07%.

Market started on a positivenote but took some caution aheadof major quarterly results scheduledon Thursday, said analysts.

“In totality, with expectation ofa breather from the US-Chinameeting led the market to close ona positive bias. Buying interest hasbeen seen across sectors led by pri-vate banks, IT and FMCG; whilePSU banks declined due to profit-booking post recent gains,” saidVinod Nair, head of research,Geojit Financial Services.

Investor sentiment also got aboost after the World Bank pro-jected India’s GDP growth at 7.3%in the fiscal year 2018-19, and 7.5%in the following two years, attribut-ing it to an upswing in consump-tion and investment, traders said.The bank said India would contin-ue to be the fastest growing majoreconomy in the world.

Market sentiment was buoyantlargely in sync with a positive trendat other Asian bourses, supported byrising hopes that the US and Chinawould reach a truce, traders said.

US President Donald Trump,on Tuesday, had said that talks withBeijing on a trade deal were goingon “very well”.

However, selling towards thefag end, as investors took some

money off the table at record lev-els, cut down the session’s gains.Besides, optimism ahead of Q3earnings of some bluechip compa-nies such TCS and Infosys, too, bol-stered trading sentiments, acceler-ating buying by retail investors.

Meanwhile, domestic institu-tional investors (DIIs) boughtshares to the tune of �698.17 crore,while foreign portfolio investors(FPIs) offloaded shares worth a netof �553.78 crore on Tuesday, pro-visional data showed. Sector-wise,the FMCG index surged the mostby gaining 1.11%, followed bybankex 0.69% and realty index0.66%.

Oil and gas, metal, PSU andinfrastructure sector indices, how-ever, ended in the red, falling up to1.74%.

Furthermore, most Asian mar-kets ended in the green andEuropean markets too were notablyhigher in their late morning ses-sion.

Hong Kong’s Hang Sengclimbed 2.26%, Japan’s Nikkeisurged 1.10%, Korea Kospi rallied1.95%, Taiwan’s index gained 1.83%and Shanghai Composite Index wasalso up 0.71%. In European mar-kets, Paris CAC 40 rose 0.99%,while Frankfurt’s DAX gained0.96% in their late morning deals.London’s FTSE too gained 0.59%.On Wall Street, the US Dow JonesIndustrial Average closed 1.09%higher on Tuesday.

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Business conglomerateShapoorji Pallonji on

Wednesday announced its entryinto the Delhi-NCR market andsaid it would develop a housingproject here with an estimatedinvestment of �1,200 crore.

The project ‘JoyvilleGurugram’, spread over 18 acreland on Dwarka Expressway, willbe developed by a USD 200 mil-lion platform established byShapoorji Pallonji, ADB, IFCand Actis.

The group will develop 516flats in the first phase of the pro-ject and is selling them in a pricerange of �58 lakh to �1.05 crore.The total units in this projectwould be 1,500 in three phases.

“We are entering into theDelhi-NCR which is the biggestreal estate market in the coun-try. We are launching a housingproject at Sector 102 inGurugram,” Joyville ShapoorjiHousing MD SriramMahadevan told reporters here.

He expressed hope that the18-km long Dwarka Expresswaywould become operational bythe time the project is complet-ed. “The NCR market has bot-tomed out. We expect good trac-tion in this project,” Mahadevanand added, “The estimated costof this housing project is around�1,200 crore,” he told PTI on thesidelines.

The group had bought thisland parcel from another realestate developer, BPTP Ltd, andthe land is fully paid. The con-struction of the project willstart soon and is expected to getcomplete in four-and-half years.

With the launch of thisproject, he said, the company haslaunched development of 9.5million square feet under theJoyville platform.

This is the fourth housingproject under this platform. It isalready developing housing pro-jects at Howrah-Kolkata,Mumbai and Pune.

Keeping the pollution levelof the region in mind,

Mahadevan said the companywould install outdoor air pollu-tion controllers in children’splay areas, common walkways,garden areas, club house andsimilar outdoor locations with-in the project.

Mahadevan said the com-pany would launch two otherhousing projects in Gurugramand Noida, but those would notbe under this platform.

Outside this developmentplatform, Shapoorji Pallonji RealEstate is currently developingfour projects.

The company has 80-90million square feet of develop-ment in the pipeline. Out of this,it is launching 35 million sq ftthis fiscal, an equal number inthe next year and the rest in thethird year. The projects would bedeveloped across its productportfolio and in cities likeMumbai Metropolitan Region(MMR), Pune, Bengaluru,Hyderabad, Kolkata, Howrah(near Kolkata), Delhi,Gurugram, Noida, Mohali.

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New Delhi (PTI): Hero Electronix, the electronics and tech-nology venture of the Hero group, on Wednesday announcedforay into consumer products segment with plans to launch 10artificial intelligence (AI) powered and connected devices in thenext five years. The products will be across home automaton,automotive, health and entertainment domains, it said.

Script Open High Low LTPRCOM 14.00 14.14 13.66 13.81YESBANK 193.75 193.95 181.55 186.40GRUH 256.50 259.90 228.40 234.30INFY 684.90 689.80 664.55 675.85BANDHANBNK 480.50 488.00 450.00 454.35TATASTEEL 488.50 497.15 475.50 479.35AXISBANK 652.95 672.00 652.70 670.05INDUSINDBK 1570.10 1610.00 1549.30 1600.80ITC 284.20 291.90 284.20 290.70TATAMOTORS 181.90 183.90 180.30 183.10SUNPHARMA 450.00 453.60 443.65 447.40SBIN 306.00 306.95 300.85 305.05SUZLON 5.40 5.40 5.25 5.32DHFL 232.00 233.00 223.00 226.90DELTACORP 266.00 272.90 259.25 262.05ICICIBANK 382.10 383.35 375.90 382.00EDELWEISS 182.10 184.40 175.40 178.15RELIANCE 1111.90 1116.00 1098.50 1108.40ASHOKLEY 94.00 95.60 93.55 94.40IBULHSGFIN 814.20 824.10 806.40 819.95JPASSOCIAT 7.72 7.72 7.36 7.43SPICEJET 83.00 83.50 80.30 80.85MARUTI 7493.00 7525.00 7417.50 7465.85VEDL 197.90 198.00 192.10 194.70TCS 1915.00 1919.00 1869.05 1887.80JINDALSTEL 158.95 158.95 149.35 151.80HINDPETRO 246.50 247.60 238.00 239.35JETAIRWAYS 244.00 246.60 241.20 243.95IOC 134.20 134.20 131.45 131.80AUROPHARMA 750.00 758.30 742.50 756.25NMDC 92.90 93.35 90.80 91.40HINDALCO 208.90 209.10 203.25 205.65JAGRAN 121.00 125.30 116.35 117.55ASIANPAINT 1411.95 1413.50 1390.00 1402.90L&TFH 149.00 150.10 142.70 144.75BHARTIARTL 330.50 340.00 327.45 335.15HDFC 1965.00 1997.85 1965.00 1993.30RELCAPITAL 221.60 223.25 214.30 217.00JUBLFOOD 1250.00 1265.25 1226.05 1234.40BAJFINANCE 2550.00 2558.50 2510.00 2525.10FEDERALBNK 95.25 97.40 94.50 96.65BPCL 351.00 351.55 338.70 341.25PCJEWELLER 83.50 83.50 80.50 81.25LT 1393.30 1393.30 1372.70 1385.20TATAELXSI 971.10 993.00 964.50 969.90M&M 725.60 730.00 720.65 726.10PNB 82.25 82.25 79.80 80.70KOTAKBANK 1243.50 1244.20 1229.45 1238.90BANKINDIA 109.80 109.80 104.20 105.50TITAN 950.00 955.15 945.40 952.50GAIL 355.00 356.00 338.50 341.75EICHERMOT 19900.00 20389.95 19890.00 20277.75UNIONBANK 95.25 95.45 91.10 92.10BANKBARODA 124.00 124.50 121.50 123.05RELINFRA 303.00 306.30 294.75 300.55DBCORP 177.05 187.60 177.05 182.65DBL 405.70 408.55 384.70 391.30HFCL 24.20 24.30 22.75 23.00BHEL 72.00 72.00 69.80 70.30DMART 1574.00 1607.90 1565.40 1590.50RADICO 403.90 419.50 403.15 409.20ZEEL 452.90 461.40 446.50 451.90NCC 89.10 91.35 89.10 90.55IDBI 62.65 65.80 62.65 64.70NIITTECH 1121.00 1171.00 1121.00 1161.60SADBHAV 234.40 239.95 220.90 222.85WIPRO 325.90 332.55 324.60 329.10NBCC 62.95 63.30 60.80 61.60GODREJPROP 737.00 743.00 717.50 741.05MPHASIS 927.85 928.60 896.90 904.00INDIACEM 91.40 91.45 87.55 88.30SAIL 54.95 54.95 52.05 52.25JSWSTEEL 295.50 296.35 286.80 290.60BEML 920.95 923.70 897.60 908.75DLF 182.10 184.70 178.10 182.00CANBK 288.80 290.00 276.45 280.55ABFRL 209.40 212.60 207.45 210.80HEROMOTOCO 2990.00 2990.00 2910.00 2940.45ESCORTS 732.95 742.70 732.10 738.50ICICIPRULI 325.50 339.80 325.00 335.65UJJIVAN 285.50 291.90 283.00 285.90COALINDIA 234.35 234.85 232.00 232.95DABUR 419.90 426.70 417.30 421.05SUPREMEIND 1039.00 1066.45 1029.20 1047.25AMBUJACEM 220.00 220.00 211.45 212.95GNFC 348.55 358.00 348.55 351.30STAR 468.95 480.70 464.30 476.05HINDUNILVR 1780.10 1795.40 1774.00 1783.20BAJAJCORP 388.00 389.75 371.00 375.10TECHM 695.00 701.00 685.00 694.00GRASIM 844.90 844.90 827.50 834.15PEL 2317.00 2349.95 2308.60 2336.70NTPC 147.70 148.90 145.20 146.15ORIENTBANK 101.80 102.00 98.35 99.30MOTHERSUMI 159.75 162.25 158.25 161.40INFIBEAM 46.20 46.20 43.90 44.65STRTECH 289.50 289.65 285.75 287.60ABCAPITAL 98.00 98.25 96.35 96.50ONGC 147.40 148.20 145.05 145.55BAJAJ-AUTO 2700.00 2708.00 2673.60 2695.65HDFCBANK 2120.00 2123.00 2103.00 2116.20RAIN 123.40 123.40 114.85 115.85VGUARD 208.70 214.05 204.00 205.50ADANIPOWER 52.00 52.00 50.45 51.00GRAPHITE 726.00 729.80 721.00 723.40HCLTECH 950.00 950.00 934.00 940.10BAJAJFINSV 6445.00 6476.50 6353.40 6393.40RBLBANK 572.25 581.50 566.60 577.35

INDIANB 257.90 260.00 249.85 253.10PFC 107.50 109.90 107.20 108.35BIOCON 632.90 635.60 627.35 630.30IDFCBANK 46.15 46.55 45.60 46.20ULTRACEMCO 3916.20 3934.00 3800.00 3820.00NOCIL 162.55 170.05 162.55 168.80GMRINFRA 16.30 17.00 16.20 16.85WOCKPHARMA 515.00 517.50 504.65 509.80MCX 746.20 757.10 739.20 748.80BALKRISIND 875.05 896.60 871.20 887.50CGPOWER 46.05 46.50 45.05 45.25ADANIPORTS 384.00 384.00 373.30 377.40IBREALEST 88.85 89.50 86.55 87.90AJANTPHARM 1173.05 1190.00 1145.05 1158.20BATAINDIA 1130.05 1152.40 1127.00 1148.95BEL 91.30 92.65 90.20 92.15RPOWER 30.50 30.65 29.25 29.75SPARC 187.05 191.80 185.10 186.45HDFCLIFE 394.00 398.40 392.00 396.45DRREDDY 2571.00 2610.00 2571.00 2603.90PAGEIND 23075.00 23340.00 22810.00 23201.20IBVENTURES 385.00 390.60 383.85 385.70LTI 1688.50 1770.00 1688.50 1749.80SREINFRA 35.50 36.75 35.25 36.10SBILIFE 618.00 648.15 617.00 642.20GODREJCP 781.00 789.00 764.40 774.80CIPLA 516.00 516.85 507.90 510.80CUMMINSIND 850.35 863.80 845.20 860.00TVSMOTOR 536.50 544.30 532.55 538.50APOLLOTYRE 230.55 230.65 223.10 224.10ALBK 47.70 47.80 45.65 46.15TATAMTRDVR 96.20 98.00 95.70 96.95JUSTDIAL 497.00 499.00 483.20 486.55HEG 3698.00 3698.00 3625.00 3657.90MGL 903.00 915.00 892.00 896.80JAICORPLTD 114.50 114.85 110.80 111.55BHARATFORG 472.00 478.65 470.05 476.75RECLTD 121.65 122.20 119.30 121.05WABAG 275.50 289.40 274.90 278.80RALLIS 170.90 172.60 168.50 169.25INFRATEL 301.85 301.85 289.05 290.75PETRONET 219.50 220.85 213.20 214.35GUJFLUORO 949.00 974.70 940.00 951.15MANAPPURAM 96.05 97.30 94.55 95.50CHENNPETRO 282.30 282.85 266.85 271.50EQUITAS 121.20 123.30 120.35 122.55JSLHISAR 84.05 86.00 83.10 83.70RAYMOND 817.25 820.00 796.45 806.55CEATLTD 1270.05 1278.25 1250.10 1258.30IDFC 44.00 44.30 42.50 43.25SRF 2048.00 2058.05 2027.10 2035.30SUNTV 602.50 602.80 585.60 588.65LUPIN 847.95 847.95 830.60 836.65MANPASAND 86.60 87.10 84.25 85.10ACC 1483.50 1483.50 1444.00 1455.85FSL 47.90 48.45 46.80 47.30

MINDTREE 829.90 838.50 819.50 823.05IDEA 37.00 37.35 36.45 36.95DISHTV 40.55 41.15 39.35 39.85BLISSGVS 169.35 172.45 166.90 170.45LINDEINDIA 693.00 705.00 681.00 688.10LTTS 1665.00 1670.00 1636.00 1643.65SIEMENS 1059.90 1064.00 1046.80 1053.15KEC 290.75 290.95 281.45 284.45MUTHOOTFIN 519.00 522.00 508.30 515.05OMAXE 213.60 214.55 212.60 212.70PVR 1602.15 1633.75 1602.15 1613.20AVANTI 386.75 387.05 377.45 379.35HEXAWARE 329.70 333.00 327.70 328.80TATAPOWER 75.10 75.35 73.85 74.30DCBBANK 179.85 179.85 176.00 177.65BRITANNIA 3101.65 3108.50 3067.85 3094.90SRTRANSFIN 1200.00 1218.90 1188.60 1208.60SUVEN 230.10 231.85 223.15 226.15REPCOHOME 432.00 433.75 421.00 423.15M&MFIN 465.00 465.75 452.15 459.40SYNDIBANK 41.95 41.95 40.00 40.75POWERGRID 198.00 198.55 195.25 197.20CANFINHOME 285.05 286.20 272.60 273.85GSFC 113.90 114.70 111.65 112.35INDIGO 1114.00 1115.00 1093.25 1104.40OIL 177.70 177.70 175.00 176.05IGL 275.85 275.85 265.50 266.45UPL 758.05 768.00 753.85 764.85NATIONALUM 62.70 63.30 62.55 62.95PIDILITIND 1109.45 1117.00 1090.05 1099.40

FORCEMOT 1633.00 1642.00 1606.00 1620.20BOMDYEING 112.45 112.45 109.00 110.10HAVELLS 674.50 683.70 673.00 681.95LICHSGFIN 486.00 486.00 472.90 476.10NESTLEIND 11107.35 11276.85 11086.80 11252.20CUB 197.55 198.35 188.80 191.40SOBHA 455.10 486.90 451.25 479.60WHIRLPOOL 1425.90 1471.55 1425.90 1453.25JUBILANT 717.40 720.95 712.05 715.30JSWENERGY 70.10 70.50 69.00 70.05JISLJALEQS 67.00 67.45 65.90 66.75ABBOTINDIA 7750.00 8150.40 7750.00 7990.45UBL 1419.90 1419.90 1378.25 1386.85NAUKRI 1625.55 1650.00 1610.00 1627.35KTKBANK 116.50 116.50 111.95 114.15EIDPARRY 221.55 227.80 218.50 223.45TATACHEM 705.95 705.95 692.80 697.50EXIDEIND 274.00 274.00 258.30 260.00TATACOMM 543.00 546.00 517.55 519.60WESTLIFE 384.15 392.05 381.00 383.10TATAINVEST 895.50 899.00 891.35 893.70VIPIND 512.40 512.95 500.00 502.20KSCL 536.85 550.85 532.20 548.40TORNTPOWER 263.50 265.80 258.80 261.85J&KBANK 37.50 37.80 36.70 36.95BHARATFIN 995.60 1016.15 984.00 1011.35COLPAL 1313.15 1321.50 1302.05 1303.80SUNTECK 348.50 350.35 341.10 343.15RCF 63.35 63.65 62.30 62.75CENTURYTEX 909.00 913.00 885.25 896.45MRPL 72.80 72.80 70.85 71.40TATAGLOBAL 215.00 216.50 210.70 212.60PHILIPCARB 206.60 206.75 203.70 205.05KPIT 207.55 209.75 205.80 207.85NHPC 26.00 26.20 25.90 26.05MOTILALOFS 706.05 709.35 680.00 684.35CENTRALBK 35.95 37.20 35.60 36.95FRETAIL 462.85 463.55 451.70 454.80MFSL 438.30 442.00 436.80 439.55VENKYS 2380.05 2397.05 2352.00 2371.50TEJASNET 211.40 221.30 211.40 217.80BERGEPAINT 325.00 326.70 322.05 325.60CASTROLIND 151.35 152.20 150.25 150.80IRB 161.40 161.40 154.90 156.50AARTIIND 1486.00 1499.15 1467.50 1485.10HINDCOPPER 49.95 50.40 49.25 49.50CHOLAFIN 1206.05 1219.05 1186.00 1197.70SOUTHBANK 15.30 15.55 15.20 15.30ITI 93.25 93.25 90.55 91.00MERCK 3188.90 3279.65 3163.55 3241.30ALLCARGO 110.00 113.00 108.80 109.70SHANKARA 531.10 531.60 516.40 519.40AUBANK 617.55 633.00 616.10 628.35PFIZER 2740.00 2750.00 2715.00 2738.90AMARAJABAT 738.00 745.00 735.40 738.65VOLTAS 542.65 542.65 531.95 535.85PNBHOUSING 908.85 909.00 883.00 897.30EMAMILTD 423.50 424.05 420.00 421.75INDHOTEL 142.65 144.45 141.50 142.25TV18BRDCST 38.00 38.30 37.45 37.75JINDALSAW 82.40 83.50 81.00 81.75IBULISL 323.05 336.40 317.55 320.90NAVKARCORP 51.25 52.15 50.00 50.80APOLLOHOSP 1258.00 1270.35 1250.05 1265.25TATACOFFEE 98.50 98.90 97.15 97.65DIVISLAB 1467.05 1476.00 1460.00 1474.25SCI 45.70 46.55 45.15 45.55JAMNAAUTO 62.85 63.25 61.60 62.00GODFRYPHLP 921.00 921.00 893.85 904.50PERSISTENT 578.00 610.00 562.00 565.00MARICO 382.85 385.65 378.95 383.95CONCOR 679.85 690.60 677.70 682.50IFCI 14.95 14.95 14.64 14.74ASTRAL 1157.95 1197.00 1157.95 1173.25TATAMETALI 637.20 642.30 630.00 636.05MEGH 57.15 57.60 56.35 56.65ENGINERSIN 125.60 126.05 123.65 124.95DENABANK 14.10 14.20 13.80 13.95INTELLECT 223.25 226.85 220.00 222.15BBTC 1310.00 1315.00 1295.30 1299.15SYNGENE 551.00 566.20 548.00 563.35TRIDENT 68.55 68.55 67.50 67.80ISGEC 5007.00 5149.80 5001.30 5035.90OBEROIRLTY 454.45 458.45 448.70 456.35NAVINFLUOR 690.00 693.85 677.05 678.30GLENMARK 656.00 659.80 649.40 656.50IPCALAB 780.45 787.50 770.00 773.80FCONSUMER 44.20 44.85 43.00 43.35SONATSOFTW 310.05 310.05 301.00 304.20RAJESHEXPO 573.00 573.95 570.50 571.25MAHINDCIE 246.00 246.00 240.00 240.90WELSPUNIND 61.20 61.70 60.55 61.05UCOBANK 21.65 21.75 21.00 21.10GRANULES 87.20 91.00 87.20 90.45ANDHRABANK 30.50 30.60 29.50 30.10RAMCOCEM 631.20 633.10 614.55 622.30PARAGMILK 243.20 245.20 241.00 242.70CADILAHC 349.30 351.90 344.60 347.20WELCORP 136.40 137.00 133.40 134.05DEEPAKFERT 144.80 146.80 143.25 144.00GICHSGFIN 267.80 270.00 261.30 263.25KAJARIACER 516.80 518.90 510.10 516.00JKTYRE 103.90 104.15 101.85 102.05HINDZINC 275.00 276.20 273.15 274.85KEI 359.00 361.50 355.25 359.55OFSS 3593.00 3632.90 3589.60 3602.85VIJAYABANK 49.20 49.75 48.75 49.60ADANITRANS 206.40 209.00 204.00 207.35ASHOKA 135.00 136.50 133.50 134.35

JSL 33.25 33.65 32.55 32.85MINDAIND 325.20 326.10 313.90 317.05MINDACORP 150.60 156.00 149.40 149.90PRESTIGE 225.50 230.00 219.50 225.30GSPL 170.65 171.40 168.60 170.05CROMPTON 230.15 231.85 227.10 229.00PTC 91.85 92.10 89.65 90.70HUDCO 42.65 43.50 42.45 42.65GREAVESCOT 120.05 122.50 119.90 121.70KANSAINER 462.40 462.50 451.00 453.95CHAMBLFERT 157.15 159.25 156.40 158.05MMTC 29.20 29.70 28.65 28.95ICICIGI 868.00 872.30 856.00 864.00KALPATPOWR 383.90 383.90 375.30 380.85MAHABANK 15.60 15.80 15.21 15.29ADANIGREEN 40.65 41.25 40.50 40.75DCMSHRIRAM 358.00 364.00 355.00 361.20BAJAJELEC 490.00 494.00 482.00 489.30COCHINSHIP 364.80 373.00 363.85 367.05ADVENZYMES 170.50 175.90 170.50 172.75DEEPAKNI 219.15 224.00 219.15 220.35LEMONTREE 69.15 69.75 68.50 68.95GREENPLY 140.85 144.50 139.40 140.45HSCL 129.50 130.00 129.00 129.15NATCOPHARM* 699.95 699.95 684.75 685.80SWANENERGY 100.00 100.00 97.90 98.40HAL 790.00 798.00 782.00 783.90DCAL 239.00 243.50 236.40 241.90FINCABLES 450.00 452.25 446.00 449.30LUXIND 1280.00 1280.00 1210.00 1222.25TIINDIA 343.00 345.45 334.35 335.15SOMANYCERA 365.20 369.20 359.50 366.40NH 202.00 212.00 200.40 205.30ABB 1306.00 1311.85 1294.10 1300.80CENTRUM 36.00 36.40 35.00 35.15VBL 820.00 822.00 801.70 813.35EIHOTEL 188.45 191.60 187.45 189.95LAKSHVILAS 83.00 83.00 76.70 77.15TORNTPHARM 1820.00 1833.00 1819.60 1822.95JMFINANCIL 89.75 90.60 88.00 88.45IEX 165.00 165.75 162.00 164.35GUJALKALI 532.00 536.00 529.50 531.35GODREJAGRO 498.00 500.25 495.60 498.05BASF 1518.05 1537.00 1510.00 1513.80TIMETECHNO 102.65 102.65 99.80 100.45BOSCHLTD 19478.40 19575.70 19270.00 19432.70NIACL 178.10 182.05 174.00 178.25SUNDRMFAST 522.75 524.55 519.45 521.60TRENT 352.40 356.30 349.10 350.15ITDCEM 116.50 118.75 116.00 117.05GODREJIND 542.20 542.95 533.95 539.25PRSMJOHNSN 87.10 87.10 85.20 86.10DHANUKA 410.00 420.00 401.15 414.85APLLTD 591.00 595.00 587.75 591.95GPPL 96.55 97.00 94.85 95.10ISEC 269.90 269.90 266.20 267.20GHCL 244.60 245.25 242.40 244.35VMART 2473.00 2505.00 2370.50 2379.60THERMAX 1143.25 1155.00 1134.20 1139.60HSIL 235.00 240.30 234.50 239.10JBCHEPHARM 304.70 306.80 299.40 301.90SANOFI 6150.00 6284.40 6122.00 6241.00QUESS 728.65 728.65 712.10 715.90GESHIP 313.65 319.00 313.00 316.30MRF 66670.80 66999.65 65769.80 65943.15AEGISLOG 207.80 210.20 206.00 209.60MONSANTO 2639.00 2689.75 2600.00 2617.90TAKE 148.00 150.00 147.15 148.80BALMLAWRIE 198.55 199.00 196.10 196.90GMDCLTD 88.70 91.50 87.65 88.25BDL 298.95 298.95 284.00 284.80MAXINDIA 84.10 86.50 83.50 84.60ITDC 325.25 325.25 315.20 316.85CORPBANK 29.80 29.95 28.95 29.05SJVN 25.75 25.75 25.00 25.10MOIL 167.95 169.90 167.10 167.80COROMANDEL 458.00 462.00 450.10 456.50NLCINDIA 68.30 68.40 68.00 68.30RNAM 157.95 158.40 154.75 157.35CENTURYPLY 174.95 176.50 173.75 174.40GLAXO 1445.65 1474.90 1442.05 1457.553MINDIA 20950.35 20950.35 20078.00 20181.55ATUL 3421.40 3471.30 3410.00 3448.75JYOTHYLAB 205.55 205.90 202.30 203.85GICRE 263.55 266.05 261.60 263.15KNRCON 214.90 217.00 213.00 214.95FORBESCO 2217.90 2247.05 2190.00 2208.00KIOCL 152.50 152.50 148.00 148.50APLAPOLLO 1130.00 1130.00 1104.00 1114.20

ALKEM 1961.45 1987.95 1961.45 1971.15NILKAMAL 1461.85 1461.85 1444.05 1449.80PIIND 868.55 870.00 850.00 853.75HATSUN 674.00 690.00 669.65 674.65MHRIL 206.00 208.00 205.15 205.65TRITURBINE 109.35 112.75 108.60 109.45SUDARSCHEM 351.00 354.05 348.00 350.35SHREECEM 16750.00 16750.00 16260.00 16359.75CARBORUNIV 366.20 368.85 363.95 364.50INDOSTAR 341.40 352.75 341.40 350.15LAXMIMACH 5712.00 5750.00 5712.00 5736.20SYMPHONY 1128.70 1140.15 1111.00 1125.30JKLAKSHMI 312.85 312.85 300.00 302.65ZYDUSWELL 1323.45 1341.50 1314.45 1322.55NESCO 470.00 481.00 470.00 479.55UFLEX 272.00 272.05 267.65 268.25NETWORK18 40.35 40.35 39.25 39.75GET&D 297.40 302.00 293.00 293.80RELAXO 750.15 757.00 734.20 735.60SCHNEIDER 99.20 101.00 98.05 98.90LALPATHLAB 952.75 959.00 941.00 947.85REDINGTON 87.00 87.40 85.45 86.05FORTIS 139.55 139.85 138.15 138.85IOB 14.90 14.90 14.55 14.63HIMATSEIDE 213.25 215.40 208.65 209.35ELGIEQUIP 247.45 256.85 247.45 250.30ASTERDM 159.55 165.00 159.55 163.50PGHH 9979.85 10000.00 9921.50 9953.45SKFINDIA 1925.00 1939.95 1896.85 1934.70ZENSARTECH 232.80 233.30 228.60 231.70VINATIORGA 1620.00 1620.00 1604.00 1613.35AKZOINDIA 1764.05 1770.70 1741.50 1751.80ENDURANCE 1210.00 1215.95 1192.95 1200.85SHARDACROP 300.00 304.95 298.00 303.25INOXLEISUR 251.05 257.10 251.05 251.65CARERATING 988.00 988.00 980.00 983.15ASTRAZEN 1473.00 1494.40 1470.00 1482.50BIRLACORPN 573.65 578.90 565.10 567.30CYIENT 605.40 608.90 603.00 604.35TNPL 246.45 246.45 237.10 238.75SOLARINDS 1043.45 1065.00 1031.30 1058.60BLUESTARCO 610.05 616.80 609.30 613.50ERIS 682.15 688.65 675.45 683.75ECLERX 1061.15 1070.00 1045.00 1045.55KRBL 293.10 295.20 288.20 291.60GULFOILLUB 830.00 833.50 820.00 825.90THYROCARE 553.00 553.00 536.30 544.80GSKCONS 7444.45 7535.00 7444.45 7500.85VTL 1079.05 1083.05 1068.60 1075.70FDC 172.95 173.45 172.25 173.15HEIDELBERG 149.90 150.95 149.50 149.90PHOENIXLTD 575.20 578.05 574.25 576.75GUJGAS 660.40 663.25 657.00 660.50MAHLIFE 392.00 395.25 390.00 391.30SUPPETRO 202.95 202.95 199.45 200.50JCHAC 1797.80 1814.00 1750.00 1776.60CRISIL 1620.00 1641.70 1620.00 1631.85EVEREADY 182.30 182.30 180.60 180.70TVSSRICHAK 2456.05 2483.60 2443.15 2445.25ASAHIINDIA 255.05 257.45 255.00 255.05AIAENG 1640.00 1655.00 1630.05 1646.95NBVENTURES 118.50 118.50 115.90 116.30TEAMLEASE 2804.00 2804.00 2740.55 2787.45MAHLOG 503.05 507.00 503.00 504.60JKCEMENT 708.00 708.00 698.50 699.65STARCEMENT 102.80 103.75 101.70 102.25ESSELPRO 108.05 108.05 106.30 108.00WABCOINDIA 6450.00 6450.00 6365.00 6385.85CERA 2694.00 2694.00 2615.00 2631.15LAURUSLABS 372.60 379.30 372.60 376.40TTKPRESTIG 7371.40 7519.90 7363.20 7477.15INOXWIND 75.80 76.40 75.25 76.15KPRMILL 537.00 538.20 532.65 535.95LAOPALA 217.35 219.80 217.30 219.05CAPPL 383.00 386.00 380.00 383.60SHOPERSTOP 504.60 506.00 501.10 503.60GALAXYSURF 1222.05 1225.00 1210.60 1223.75BAYERCROP 4215.80 4264.75 4215.00 4230.40FINOLEXIND 530.05 533.90 530.00 531.05GDL 119.00 120.50 118.60 118.80BAJAJHLDNG 2958.75 2964.10 2950.00 2951.95GRINDWELL 556.00 556.00 550.95 553.05ORIENTCEM 81.00 81.40 79.00 80.40TVTODAY 372.20 374.00 368.10 373.55PNCINFRA 147.90 149.85 146.20 146.75CCL 267.80 269.20 267.50 267.85TIMKEN 593.00 593.00 585.65 591.40GILLETTE 6454.95 6494.95 6450.00 6480.65TIFHL 490.15 490.15 472.00 476.05COFFEEDAY 270.00 270.00 266.15 267.35SHK 171.15 172.45 170.45 171.60HERITGFOOD 529.05 529.05 520.75 525.95HONAUT 21909.00 22174.80 21900.55 22016.65THOMASCOOK 233.00 234.50 232.20 233.70MAGMA 108.60 108.60 107.15 107.45BLUEDART 3305.00 3305.00 3287.00 3287.00FLFL 390.00 394.35 390.00 390.05NAVNETEDUL 109.05 109.45 108.60 108.80SFL 1379.90 1379.90 1361.15 1376.25APARINDS 630.00 631.95 624.10 624.15GEPIL 809.00 819.00 804.00 813.25SHILPAMED 385.00 386.00 384.55 385.00RATNAMANI 902.25 902.25 895.05 898.65SUPRAJIT 223.25 223.25 221.40 222.20SUNCLAYLTD 3390.00 3390.00 3350.00 3380.00IFBIND 835.00 835.00 825.00 825.00SCHAEFFLER 5670.00 5670.00 5651.00 5651.00SIS 755.00 762.20 750.10 753.15SHRIRAMCIT 1551.05 1551.05 1551.00 1551.05

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SCRIP OPEN HIgh LOW LTP CHANGENIFTY 50 10862.40 10870.40 10749.40 10855.15 53.00AXISBANK 652.35 672.05 652.35 671.20 20.30ITC 285.60 291.70 284.60 291.50 7.25TATAMOTORS 181.50 183.60 180.20 183.55 3.60UPL 758.00 767.00 753.45 765.00 12.80HDFC 1962.00 1998.00 1962.00 1991.30 32.35EICHERMOT 19890.00 20397.75 19850.00 20345.00 300.35IBULHSGFIN 816.00 824.70 806.00 824.20 11.65INDUSINDBK 1580.00 1610.00 1548.00 1599.70 21.95BHARTIARTL 333.20 337.90 327.30 333.20 3.95DRREDDY 2580.90 2610.90 2580.90 2597.90 27.40HINDUNILVR 1777.50 1797.00 1773.40 1786.00 15.15WIPRO 324.55 332.60 324.55 328.30 2.75INFY 686.20 689.80 664.00 675.60 5.55TITAN 949.00 955.35 945.35 953.50 7.35HDFCBANK 2118.00 2121.35 2102.60 2116.80 13.80KOTAKBANK 1237.35 1244.00 1228.10 1236.70 7.80MARUTI 7460.50 7529.00 7414.00 7481.00 41.50ICICIBANK 381.65 383.55 375.60 382.25 2.10TECHM 694.20 701.40 684.00 692.80 2.95RELIANCE 1112.00 1117.00 1098.70 1109.25 4.60M&M 729.00 729.95 720.15 725.80 2.40ZEEL 453.10 461.65 445.80 452.00 0.35POWERGRID 197.35 198.75 195.60 197.50 0.15LT 1389.50 1393.55 1372.00 1383.00 0.80BAJAJ-AUTO 2702.50 2710.00 2672.50 2693.00 -1.85ASIANPAINT 1402.50 1414.00 1397.15 1400.00 -1.25NTPC 147.00 148.45 145.40 146.80 -0.15SBIN 306.00 307.10 300.75 304.75 -0.55SUNPHARMA 450.50 453.65 443.70 447.15 -0.90HINDALCO 208.50 209.25 203.10 206.00 -0.50BAJAJFINSV 6460.00 6476.00 6365.00 6425.00 -18.05VEDL 197.95 198.00 192.00 195.05 -0.60COALINDIA 234.20 234.85 231.80 232.45 -0.85TCS 1907.40 1919.00 1866.70 1884.60 -8.95BAJFINANCE 2546.00 2559.80 2510.00 2523.00 -14.05GRASIM 840.00 844.30 826.50 831.50 -5.10CIPLA 515.55 516.75 507.50 510.40 -3.25ADANIPORTS 382.00 382.00 373.30 376.35 -2.40HCLTECH 947.00 948.55 932.30 936.25 -8.90JSWSTEEL 295.00 296.80 286.55 290.55 -3.35ONGC 147.90 148.20 144.85 145.35 -2.10IOC 133.75 134.30 131.60 132.00 -2.00HEROMOTOCO 2985.10 2985.10 2907.00 2925.00 -45.30INFRATEL 299.90 299.90 289.25 291.25 -6.70TATASTEEL 488.95 497.30 475.25 479.20 -12.15ULTRACEMCO 3917.00 3934.90 3800.00 3810.10 -106.20YESBANK 193.95 193.95 181.50 186.55 -5.80BPCL 351.00 351.50 338.00 340.00 -11.95GAIL 356.00 356.25 338.05 341.00 -13.60HINDPETRO 246.00 247.65 238.00 238.15 -9.80

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SCRIP OPEN HIgh LOW LTP CHANGENIFTY NEXT 50 27780.05 27818.90 27470.90 27683.50 -5.60SBILIFE 615.00 649.75 615.00 648.00 35.50ICICIPRULI 326.45 339.90 325.05 339.70 15.25DMART 1575.10 1610.00 1566.55 1607.85 35.45MOTHERSUMI 158.90 162.40 158.15 161.60 3.35HAVELLS 672.00 684.35 672.00 683.00 13.30SRTRANSFIN 1192.75 1217.00 1188.55 1215.10 22.35ASHOKLEY 94.20 95.60 93.35 94.55 1.50AUROPHARMA 749.00 759.00 742.40 756.85 10.30PEL 2320.00 2352.50 2310.00 2338.00 29.45DABUR 419.75 426.80 417.00 421.60 5.20BEL 91.10 92.85 90.20 91.90 1.05CONCOR 681.30 691.75 677.90 685.50 5.10OFSS 3588.50 3644.00 3584.30 3606.00 24.40MARICO 384.00 385.70 378.50 383.55 1.70DLF 182.25 184.70 178.10 182.30 0.80BOSCHLTD 19360.00 19574.55 19270.05 19378.00 77.40HINDZINC 275.90 276.60 273.55 275.30 1.00PGHH 9939.75 10024.95 9920.00 10000.00 21.55BIOCON 632.70 636.00 628.40 630.45 1.30IDEA 37.00 37.40 36.40 37.00 0.05SIEMENS 1053.90 1064.35 1046.50 1053.50 1.20ABB 1307.70 1314.25 1292.60 1300.00 0.60BRITANNIA 3114.00 3119.85 3081.00 3090.00 0.45HDFCLIFE 392.70 398.45 391.50 394.65 -0.05ICICIGI 865.00 872.50 856.00 863.50 -0.70NHPC 26.00 26.30 25.85 25.95 -0.05OIL 176.95 177.20 174.80 175.95 -0.50COLPAL 1316.00 1322.60 1301.25 1305.80 -4.95NIACL 179.35 180.40 177.25 178.00 -0.75GODREJCP 781.00 789.40 763.90 776.00 -3.45CADILAHC 349.25 352.35 344.25 347.65 -1.60GICRE 262.85 266.75 261.45 263.00 -1.30LUPIN 844.00 844.90 830.05 836.60 -5.10INDIGO 1114.90 1116.05 1093.00 1103.00 -7.30MRF 66501.00 66999.00 65820.45 66000.65 -439.25PIDILITIND 1104.30 1117.00 1093.35 1095.00 -7.90BANKBARODA 124.10 124.60 121.40 122.80 -1.05ABCAPITAL 97.85 98.20 96.10 96.25 -1.10LICHSGFIN 482.30 486.35 472.30 475.00 -5.90MCDOWELL-N 602.50 604.50 590.10 592.50 -7.80BHEL 71.80 71.90 69.70 70.10 -1.25SUNTV 601.50 603.40 585.10 587.75 -12.10ACC 1484.00 1485.00 1443.25 1449.00 -31.40L&TFH 149.10 150.05 142.65 144.75 -3.55SHREECEM 16875.00 16940.50 16220.30 16350.00 -403.85PETRONET 220.95 220.95 213.05 214.30 -5.75AMBUJACEM 219.50 219.50 211.60 212.45 -6.25NMDC 92.70 93.35 90.60 91.25 -3.70SAIL 54.50 54.95 52.05 52.15 -2.20BANDHANBNK 480.00 487.85 450.80 452.00 -25.05

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US President Donald Trumpmade a televised plea for

border wall funding Tuesdaynight, seeking an edge in theshutdown battle with congres-sional Democrats as hedeclared there is "a humani-tarian crisis, a crisis of the heartand a crisis of the soul".

Addressing the nation fromthe Oval Office for the first time,Trump argued for funding onsecurity and humanitariangrounds as he sought to putpressure on newly empoweredDemocrats amid an extendedpartial Government shutdown.

The US President calledon Democrats to return to theWhite House to meet with him,saying it was "immoral" for"politicians to do nothing."

Trump, who has long railedagainst illegal immigration atthe border, has recently seizedon humanitarian concerns to

argue there is a broader crisisthat can only be solved with awall along the US-Mexico bor-der.But critics say the securityrisks are overblown and hisadministration is at least part-ly to blame for the humanitar-ian situation.

Trump has been discussingthe idea of declaring a nationalemergency to allow him to cir-cumvent Congress and moveforward with the wall. But hemade no mention of such a dec-laration Tuesday night.

Democrats have vowed toblock funding for a wall, whichthey say would be immoraland ineffective, and have calledon Trump to reopen shutteredportions of the Governmentwhile border negotiations con-tinue.

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An Israeli ex-Ministercharged with spying for

the country’s arch-foe Iranhas reached a plea bargainwith prosecutors that will seehim serve 11 years in prison,the Justice Ministry said onWednesday.

As part of the agreement,Gonen Segev will plead guiltyto serious espionage and trans-fer of information to theenemy, the ministry said in astatement. A sentencing hear-ing was set for February11.The trial of Segev, whoserved as energy and infra-structure Minister from 1995to 1996, opened in July but washeld behind closed doors, withfew details of the accusationspublicly released.

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China has developed anadvanced compact size

maritime radar which canmaintain constant surveillanceover an area of the size of India,media reported Wednesday.

The domestically-devel-oped radar system will enablethe Chinese navy to fully mon-itor China's seas and spotincoming threats from enemyships, aircraft and missilesmuch earlier than the existingtechnology, the Hong Kong-based South China MorningPost reported, quoting the sci-entist who took part in China'sOver-the-Horizon (OTH) radarprogramme.

Liu Yongtan, an academi-cian of the Chinese Academy ofSciences (CAS) and the ChineseAcademy of Engineering (CAE)from the Harbin Institute ofTechnology, is credited to haveupgraded the China's radartechnology and developing anadvanced compact size radarfor the PLA Navy's carrier fleetto "maintain constant surveil-lance over an area the size ofIndia," the Post reported.

President Xi Jinping con-ferred the country's top scienceaward, carrying a prize moneyof USD 1.116 million, to Liuand another military scientist,Qian Qihu at an event in theGreat Hall of the People inBeijing on Tuesday for theircontributions.

Qian was felicitated for set-ting up the theoretical systemfor China's modern defenceengineering and contributionsin creating undergroundnuclear shelter facilities, the

state-run Xinhua news agencyreported.

According to Liu, the ship-based OTH radar had greatlyincreased the range of areathat the Peoples' LiberationArmy (PLA) could moni-tor."Relying on traditional tech-nologies, our surveillance andmonitoring could only coverabout 20 per cent of our mar-itime territory. With the newsystem, we can cover the wholearea," he said.

A senior member of Liu'steam told the Post that the newsystem would be a ship-basedOTH radar system.

The floating radar "willincrease our navy's informationgathering capabilities in criticalareas" including the SouthChina Sea, Indian Ocean andPacific Ocean, he was quoted assaying in the Post.

China is not the only nationdeveloping the technology. Amajor US defence contractor,Raytheon, was granted a patentin 2016 for a similar system.TheRaytheon design involves atransmitting vessel and sever-al receiving ships with antennaemounted on the deck.

Radio waves are directedinto the sky by the transmitterto be collected by the receivingships, which then pass on thesignals to aircraft carriers viasatellite or airborne relays.

According to a recentreport China had built anantenna five times the size ofNew York. Chinese military,which now has over USD 175billion annual defence

budget, is focussing ondeveloping heavy militaryequipment to compete.

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The UN has said an 18-year-old Saudi woman who fled

her family is a legitimaterefugee and has asked Australiato resettle her, Canberra said onWednesday, as the Twitter-ledcampaign to grant her asylumedged towards resolution.

Rahaf Mohammed al-Qunun was stopped by author-ities at Bangkok's main airportas she arrived on a flight fromKuwait at the weekend afterrunning away from her fami-ly, who she says subjected herto physical and psychologicalabuse.

Thailand initially said itwould deport her at the requestof Saudi embassy officials, bar-ring her from travelling on toAustralia where Qunun saidshe had intended to claim asy-lum.

But armed with a phone,she barricaded herself into anairside hotel room and foughtback — live-tweeting her fearsof deportation in a campaignthat swiftly galvanised inter-national support and prompt-ed a sharp U-turn by Thai offi-cials. Qunun is now in the careof the UN's refugee agency inBangkok, which is processingher case.

"The UNHCR has referredMs Rahaf Mohammed Al-Qunun to Australia for con-sideration for refugee resettle-

ment," Australia's Departmentof Home Affairs confirmed ina statement. The departmentsaid it would "consider thisreferral in the usual way, as itdoes with all UNHCR refer-rals".

Australian officials havestrongly hinted that Qunun'srequest will be accepted.

"If she is found to be arefugee, then we will give very,very, very serious considerationto a humanitarian visa," healthminister Greg Hunt had saidbefore the UN determinationwas public.

Qunun's desperate tweetsricocheted across social mediawith the #SaveRahaf hashtagdrawing an outpouring of sup-port but also the bile of somehardliners in her native coun-try. She only joined the socialmedia site at the start of thismonth but has quickly rackedup more than 100,000 follow-ers.

Phil Robertson of HumanRights Watch said Qunun hadrenounced Islam, which putsher at "serious risk" of prose-cution in Saudi Arabia.

Her father and brotherarrived in Bangkok on Tuesday, but Qunun "refused tosee" them, according to Thaiimmigration police chiefSurachate Hakparn, who hasbeen caught up in the interna-tional firestorm since Qunun'sarrival.

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Beijing: Taiwan independencesupporters would be regardedas "war criminals" if China wasforced to intervene militarily toretake the island, a Chinesegeneral warned.

"Supporters of Taiwaneseseparatism must stop in time toavoid disaster, repent andreturn to the right path.Otherwise they will become thescum of the Chinese nation andbe condemned by history," saidHe Lei. AFP

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Britain's Government suf-fered another setback

Wednesday as MPs voted toforce it to announce within

three sitting days what steps itwill take next if its Brexit dealis rejected by parliament nextweek as appears likely.

The contentious amend-ment was passed by 308 votes

in favour to 297 against, a dayafter MPs delivered another blow toPrime Minister Theresa May byvoting to scupper a no-dealBrexit.

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Many people might not haveknown Sandeep Singh beforethe film Soorma came along.

And now there are not many whodon’t. For everyone has now seen orat least heard of Sandeep’s tragicaccident that shocked the countryalmost 12 years back.

But heroes are born when theyovercome adversity. And the Indianhockey star did just that by provinghis mettle by staying optimistic andproductive throughout out his lifejourney till date.

It wasn’t an easy journey back intothe Indian team for Sandeep but hekept pushing till he achieved it. Sowhen asked, did you ever feel like giv-ing it up all and resigning to your fate,when you were paralysed, he says,“Trust me, when someone says theyhave never given up ever in the jour-ney of life, that’s completely dishon-est because at some point or the other,an individual does admit defeat andstop trying at all. Even I had aban-doned all hope and surrendered to myfate. But, my elder brother, Vikram(Singh) never left me and has alwaysbeen my inspiration. He kept megoing.”

He believes in people who stillchoose to cross the line, be selfless andgiving in their actions and accomplishsomething exceptional in their way.

Former captain of the Indianhockey team, Sandeep says thatnobody can ever make you feel infe-rior without your permission.

The real-life warrior is now readyto play an altogether different game.Sandeep will make his small screendebut with Roadies Real Heroes and isquite excited to explore this arena.

The show is about finding suchinteresting individuals and stories toawaken the hero within through real-life stories of courage, honour andbravery, offering them a platform toemerge victorious. As a concept, thisseason completely resonates withwhat Sandeep personally follows andhence, he says he’s happy to associatewith the show as a gang leader.

“For the last 15 years, no othershow has connected with the youth asstrongly by simply innovating andchallenging the limits of action andadventure. It’s going to be an all-newexperience, to find people who areinspiring. I am eager to explore some-thing I haven’t done before,” he adds.

“This is my first association witha show and the concept of finding reallife heroes propelled me. All of us havethe potential to rise beyond the ordi-nary and make a difference and that’swhat I believe.”

The biopic, Soorma, on Sandeep’slife was made featuring Diljit Dosanjhin the lead. So while talking about aspurt in biopics these days, especial-ly those of sportspersons, he says,“There’s never a right time for biopicsto be made, whenever they are madethe right time starts. It’s more abouthow many people get inspired bythem and how in a way they affectthem for not giving up on life, no mat-ter what the situation is. Biopics area great way to reach a wider audienceand bring to light the forgotten sto-ries of the legends. Participation willincrease once people appreciate thehistory of the sport.”

Interestingly, Sandeep says that hewas approached before for his film tobe made in Punjabi but, “I refused asI wanted my story to reach the mass-es. And a film made in Hindi wouldhave done that. I just wanted my lifestory to remind youngsters to neverlose sight of their goals and to nevergive up — not only in sports but in allspheres of life.”

Imagine. It’s a usual day, youhave lost your phone and youinadvertently come across a

crime scene and become a witnessto it. You are, in turn, then trappedin a pool of circumstances whereyou are considered to be theactual culprit eventually. Howwill you overcome such a situa-tion?

Director Pia Sukanya’s direc-torial debut film, Bombairiya,starring Radhika Apte, AkshayOberoi, Adil Hussain, and ShilpaShukla, brings something similarto people’s conscience. It not onlyprojects what happens when onefinds himself/herself under suchcircumstances, but also stands fora cause of witness protection inIndia.

When the trailer of the filmwas first released later inNovember, there was curiosityamong the audience as to what thefilm wanted to say.

Pia is glad to hear that thetrailer intrigued the audience.She narrates how the film is a“smart comedy that doesn’t haveany slapsticks or abhorrent con-tent, rather keeps one focussed.”She says that it will keep peopleglued to the mystery that “unveilswith every scene of the film.”

She says, “I realised this whenI watched the film for the firsttime with a live audience in a the-atre during its screening. In a way,I was also watching my film forthe first time, and I realised whata mystery it is. It’s a smart come-dy and the audience will realise itwhen they watch it for the secondtime. It is actually a film that is asecond- or third-time watch.”

Set in Mumbai, in the film,

Radhika Apte plays Meghna, whois a public relations manager andgets embroiled in a series ofevents after her phone gets stolen.

Pia believes that the film is“reflection of our personalities”and a lot goes on in it. She says,“It is complex and witty yet has awarm touch. People are describ-ing it as a dark comedy but it isnothing like that. There is a lot ofhope in it. It’s a very gentle andhopeful satire.

She says that the film includesa huge cast of 54 actors, and yet“each one of them shines. Even thewatchman, who has just one dia-logue in the film, has such animportant presence. I realisedhow real it is and that even minorthings can make a great differ-ence.”

Pia reveals that she had got abit emotional when she firstwatched the film during its screen-ing upon realising that her firstproject has finally come alive. Shesays, “There’s magic in thatmoment since in your first film,you have a lot to lose and give, andat the same time there is one con-dition — you can’t stop. No mat-ter how tired you are, whatevercondition you are in, it’s a do-or-die situation. You even give awayyour bone marrow if the need be.”

However, she believes thatsuch is the beauty of the first filmfor a director.

She shares the first part oftheir struggle that begun whenthey had to write the screenplay27 times before executing thefinal plan. Giving credit to herhusband and also the writer of thefilm, Michael Ward, and herfriend Aarti Bagdi, she tells us how

the story came into shape. “Thenugget of the story came whenAarti told us how her phone gotstolen on the streets of Mumbaiand the thief who stole it neverswitched it off. Since it was active,she was able to negotiate with thethief to track it. Meanwhile, therewas also another person who washelping her.”

That was where the spark ofthe idea for this film was born. Sheexplains, “In today’s world, itseems difficult to work when youhave lost something that is likeyour second hand, and also ahabit. How do you function with-

out a limb? You lose all your dataand important information withthe phone. In that sense, the filmis a very modern story.” The filmexplores how three beings get con-nected and their worlds collidewith each other. “Amidst that,Meghna finds herself trapped ina much larger story.”

Under the title itself, it reads,One witness, one hitman and onebunch of idiots.

She explains that story isn’tjust a comedy but also brings avery serious issue to light that isextremely important to every cit-izen of the country. It questions

that if you inadvertently becomea witness to a crime, what does thestate infrastructure do to protectyou as a witness?

“We, in this nation, till date,have not had a fruitful or well-implemented witness protectionact. Many a times the witness isonly the one who is being preyedupon and considered as the finalculprit,” says Pia.

She adds, “I wanted the storyto be much bigger than just a com-edy and show something that’srelatable to the society and standsfor a cause.”

Hence, there are two broadlines. First is Meghna, who is quite“self-absorbed” and having a badday as she loses her phone. Andin the midst of that self-absorp-tion, “she is forced to interact withthe world. On the other hand, shefinds herself swimming in a muchlarger pool of chaos.”

She says that making the filmwas a “vast game” as it needed alot of focus. “It unveils a new sidewith every scene like Russiandolls. There is a clue in every shot.Hence, to build that level ofcuriosity and the right balance, thescript had to be written well.”

Since the film shows only oneday throughout the story, Piareveals that they used 40 differentlocations to shoot it and not evenone of them was a studio. It wasall at live locations and streets ofMumbai, which was “extremelytough.”

She lists a number of chal-lenges that the film’s eight-monthlong shooting process wentthrough. She says, “We lost somelocations, the city rains wiped usout, the climax location got lostfive days before its shoot.Eventually, even after writing thescript a number of times, impro-visation was all that helped. Youthink that everything is going theway you had planned, but thereare certain situations that alwaysmake you change the initial game.”

She explains that the title ofthe film, Bombairiya, signifies anumber of things. It contains theword, Bairiya, that “initiallyMichael didn’t know the meaningof. He found it interesting whenI explained him that it referredtowards an enemy who was alsolike a lover.”

The initial title, The Phone

Thief, she says, made it look very“arthouse.” She adds, “But wewanted to make a commercialfilm. Hence, Bombairiya alsoevokes a feeling of love-hate rela-tionship that we have with thecities with live in. And here, it iswith Mumbai.”

She says that the film is a “seri-ous comedy,” which itself impliesan oxymoron. Isn’t it? So how didshe bring together seriousnessand comedy into one frame?

She explains that we laugh atpeople when they are in crisis eventhough we are aware of what theyare going through. This is becausethey are able to relate to them.

“For instance, if someone fallson a banana peel, it’s funny for usbut the person will get hurt(Laughs). It is about how we, asthird persons, perceive suchscenes where people are strugglingwith their daily lives. We are allweird in our own way of lookingat the world. It’s somewhat laugh-ing at your own problems becauseat the end, you also relate to them.”

Talking about Bollywood andits ever-evolving course, Pia saysthat she is excited to see howthings have changed to such anextent in the industry. “We are hit-ting the right chord today. Filmslike Andhadhun, Newton, arewonderful. There’s a feeling linkedto such films that ‘Wow! What didwe just watch!’ I feel that we havestarted getting that and mostimportantly, filmmakers havestarted understanding the impor-tance of it.”

She adds that the level of craftthat filmmakers have startedtouching is “incredible.”

“Our cinema is increasinglymoving towards the realistictheme. It’s not only music anddance that makes Bollywood dif-ferent, there are musicals even inthe Western film industry, like LaLa Land... but a Bollywood film isabout the performance pitch,”she adds, saying that if peoplewant to see Indian cinema tomatch the world stage, “so weneed our performances to bearound reality rather than creat-ing some larger-than-life charac-ters. We just need them to behuman beings.”

(The film releases on January 11.)

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Even though food needs no reasonto be celebrated, but specialoccasions and festivals alwaysadd colour to our meals makingthem perfect.

A survey by food ordering and deliv-ering app, Foodpanda, researched overwhat is India ordering at special occasions,the most recent one being, New Year’s Eve.

The eve saw India celebrating the nightby ordering in vociferously. Well, biryaniturned out to be its favourite. As per the sur-vey, more than 20,000 biryanis were orderedand delivered to customers across India onDecember 31, 2018. Adding to that, over 300biryanis were delivered in the last 30 min-utes leading to 2019. Other popular fooditems on the eve were Black Forest choco-late cake, chicken rolls, burgers and fried rice.

An interesting observation broughtinto notice a customer from Mumbai, whoordered food as many as 22 times on the eve.Customers from Hyderabad, Delhi NCR,Bengaluru, Mumbai and Vizag were hookedon to the app.

Another food ordering app, Swiggyobserved that desi or traditional Indian dish-es seemed to rule the roost during the fes-tive season.

Some popular items were Laddu andKaranji, that saw a whopping 400 per centincrease during Ganesh Chaturthi the pre-vious year.

"#��$%&"'(%)�*�+%%*As per the Foodpanda survey, it has

been observed that Indians love to orderbiryani, burgers, shakes and ice-creams.

There are different dish preferencesfor different times of the day. Whilefavourite breakfast turned out to be idliand dosa, most loved lunch items hap-pened to be biryani and shakes.

A commonality between lunch andevening meals were shakes and ice-creams, and has dumplings and pasta.

While the favourite dinner dishturned out to be chicken biryani, the go-to meal for late night hunger was also the

same including rolls.According to Swiggy, the most-

searched for food item appeared to bepizza, chicken, burger and cake. The mostordered dishes according to the app werechicken biryani, masala dosa, paneerbutter masala, mutton biryani, chickenfried rice, tandoori chicken and dalmakhani.

"#��$%&"�%,*�,�*�(%-�"�%.&As per the Foodpanda survey, cities

like Delhi-NCR, Bengaluru, Hyderabadand Mumbai had the highest graph interms of ordering food online.

While chicken biryani again emergedas the most-ordered dish in Hyderabad,on the other hand, Delhiites order tikkasand butter chicken the most. However, anemerging new trend observed in Delhi-NCR region was ordering hakka noodlesalong with chicken tikka.

Swiggy observed how people aremaking conscious efforts towards mind-ful eating, and opting for healthy mealsand eco-friendly packaging options. Citieslike Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Chennaiappear on top when it comes to order-ing healthy food online.

While Mumbaikars came big onmilkshakes and burgers, sugar-free juicesand fruit and vegetable salads got moreattention in Bengaluru.

Soon-to-be-metros, and cities likeVizag, Jaipur, Bhubaneswar, were founddrooling over thaalis and sweets themost. While Vizag had chicken biryaniand masala dosa the most, people inBhubaneswar relished rasgulla after theirmeal. Dishes like chole bhature, rolls,chicken tikka were the comfort food of theNorthern region whereas biryanis, burg-ers and salads were big hits in southernIndia.

The top searches in western Indiawere food items like shakes, ice-cream,paav bhaaji, whereas the eastern citiesbinged on chicken biryani, rasgulla anddesserts.

The survey also observed that mostnumber of orders are made between 8 to9 pm, showing that dinner time is peo-ple’s favourite.

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Anutosh Mishra, a 53year old man hadbeen suffering from

ankylosing spondylitis, aform of arthritis that pri-marily affects the spine. Hehas reported severe backpain and stiffness in bothhis hips which hindered hisdaily movements so muchso, that he was unable towalk for the last 15 yearsand had to depend on oth-ers for his day-to-day activ-ities. In order to treat thiscondition, the senior con-sultant of the Orthopaedicsand Joint Replacementdepartment at theIndraprastha ApolloHospitals, Dr HavindTandon, along with his teamof experts, operated onAnutosh for both side, hipreplacement surgery at thehospital.

Anutosh had lost hope,as many efforts to get treat-ment had been turned

down elsewhere. Post thenecessary medical investiga-tions, the team of doctorsdecided to perform the hipreplacement surgery andreplaced both his fused hipswith artificial hips. Twodays after the surgeryAnutosh started to walk.

Dr Tandon said, “As thespine is fused in this condi-tion, it leads to various chestproblems also. Surgeries ofthis kind have very highcomplication rates and thus,they require a multi-discipli-nary medical intervention.”

Explaining the disease,the doctor stated that anky-losing spondylitis is thechronic inflammation ofthe spine and the pelvis.Severe inflammation caus-es pain and stiffness. Thisdisease causes deformityand joint destruction thatleads to loss of mobility.

The onset of the diseaseusually starts in the second

or third decade of life. Headded, “This disease ismajorly a genetic one, but israpidly becoming prevalentdue to high adoption rate ofa sedentary lifestyle, abuseof alcohol and tobaccoamong the population.Young-onset of this diseaseleads to many young peoplein their 20s and 30s facingits debilitating symptoms.Incorrect use of steroidworsens the condition.There are many complica-tions associated with thisdisease such as uveitis (eyeinflammation), heart prob-lems, chest problems, com-pression fractures, and soon. The earlier this diseaseis diagnosed, the easier itbecomes to manage its pro-gression with exercise, med-icines and various othertherapies. In severe cases,such as the case of Anutosh,a surgical interventionbecomes necessary.”

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The Meet The Folks Events (MTFE)has announced the first-ever con-

sumer tourism fest and exhibition—‘Meet 2 Travel’, to be held at the PacificMall, Tagore Garden in New Delhifrom April 5-7. Sharing the details on theupcoming event, Vineet Gopal said,“MTFE has covered four major aspectsof the industry, where everyone canmeet, connect and network with newpeople and transact business. ‘CreatingBusiness Network’ is our tagline.” Meet2 Travel (M2T), a unit of the MTFE, isproviding a platform for the travelcompanies to showcase their brand, ser-vices and products directly to theirclients. In today’s time, sourcing newclients is one of the biggest challengesfor organisations when the online trav-el agents (OTAs) are taking up a majormarket share. M2T, the state-of-the-artB2C exhibition, aims at providing help-ful and successful solutions.”

Megha Mittal stated that with guar-anteed return on investments and a 360°marketing strategy, M2T will bring

travel companies, tour operators andother stakeholders of the tourism indus-try on a single platform over three days.“The exhibitors will get to meet and net-work with potential clients and cus-tomers and spearhead their business inthe right direction. The event will takeplace on weekends to ensure a higherfootfall,” she said.

On the sponsorship front, ManojBabbar said, “This is a great platform forthe Tourism Ministry, state tourismboards, international tourism boardsand others to come on board as spon-sors to showcase their tourism productsto consumers through cultural perfor-mances.”

Tata Power DelhiDistribution (Tata Power-

DDL) and the Norwegianpower technology company—PIXII, have joined hands toexplore the use of distributedpole-mounted storage for aresilient and sustainable dis-tribution grid. The memoran-dum of understanding(MoU) for the collaborationwas signed between the CEOof Tata Power-DDL, SanjayBanga and the chief innova-tive officer of PIXII, OleJakob Sørdalen, on the occa-sion of the state visit of thePrime Minister of NorwayErna Solberg, during theIndia-Norway BusinessSummit 2019 in New Delhi.

India is witnessing amajor revamp of its electricitygeneration system and distri-bution network. The countryis leveraging on renewableenergy generation andemerging smart grid tech-nologies to make its energysupply system smart andgreen. As a natural progres-sion from distributed solar

PV/grid level battery storage,distributed pole-mountedstorage is yet another emerg-ing technology that has thepotential to facilitate smartoptimisation of distributionecosystems by ensuring vari-ous aspects of grid reliability.

As a major distributioncompany, Tata Power-DDL isin the process of integratingIndian’s first 10MW of gridstorage to address grid stresssituations and to compensatevariability with renewablegeneration. As an extensionto this effort, the company isevaluating pole-mountedstorage solutions to addressthe challenge of space con-straints to bring a reliable anda robust grid for customersand communities. With thisdistributed storage, TataPower-DDL aims to reducethe strain on distributiontransformers by smootheningthe daily electricity peakingcycle. The integrated systemwill also help reduce techni-cal losses and improve theasset health of feeders and

distribution transformers,thus significantly reducingthe network augmentationinvestment needed to supporta fast-growing urban land-scape.

Speaking on the collabo-ration, Tata Power DDL’sCEO, Sanjay Banga said, “AtTata Power DDL, we are con-stantly looking for innovativetechnologies to promotesmart sustainable solutionsthat can be integrated withour grid and eventually withthe grids across the country.We are excited to partnerwith PIXII to explore pole-mounted storage cost effec-tive solutions.” The chiefinnovative officer of PIXII,Ole Jakob Sørdalen, added,“As a future oriented technol-ogy provider, we are veryexcited about the collabora-tion with an innovation ori-ented organisation like TataPower-DDL. We are lookingforward to contributing to agreener, more cost-effective,and reliable grid togetherwith the company.”

The chairman of the OffshoreSecurity Co-ordination

Committee (OSCC) and theDirector General Indian CoastGuard (DGICG), DG RajendraSingh, PTM, TM, underlinedthe importance of oil explo-ration and the maritime sectorin India’s march towards a‘bhavya and divya Bharat’. Healso stressed upon the need fora safe and secure environmentfor exploration and productionactivities to aid India’s quest forenergy which extends fartherand deeper. He was speaking atthe 131st meeting of the OSCC,held recently in Mumbai.

The chairman highlightedthe impact of climate changeand stated, “With 14 depres-sions and seven cyclones, theprevious year had been a chal-lenging one. All the securityforces and other agencies haveworked in cohesion to avert anymajor disaster during these nat-ural calamities.” Singh furtheremphasised the need to adaptequipment, systems, operationsand doctrines for climatechange and natural disasters.Recalling the incident of listingof the drilling rig Olinda Star offKakinada and the grounding ofdredger Veera Prem offKaraikal, the chairman stressed

on the importance of preemp-tive measures and coordinationamongst various agencies dur-ing disasters.

Drawing attention to thetrans-boundary and the dynam-ic nature of maritime threats,that pose typical challenges,Singh impressed upon thestakeholders for a collectivethinking and a co-ordinatedapproach for achieving the aimsof offshore security. Hereviewed the progress on vari-ous ongoing projects and delib-erated on various issues pertain-ing to offshore security, inter-agency coordination, surveil-lance around ODAs and so on.He urged the stakeholders toaddress the pending issues in atime bound manner withurgency, so as to arrive at a logi-cal end. He added, “While off-shore exploration is a nationaldemand for growing energysecurity, securing the offshoreareas is equally vital. Hence, asan economically progressivepeninsular nation, with proba-bilities of maritime asymmetricthreats, an optimum balance hasto be brought out between theeconomics, productivity andsecurity to ensure meeting thenation’s demand for both energyas well as security.”

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How has the performance ofNFL been so far in 2018-19?NFL is steadily movingtowards a successful 2018-19after the best ever performancefor the last three years since2015-16. The company hasperformed exceedingly well inthe first half of this year. Witha capacity utilisation of 118 percent in urea production and atremendous growth in the saleof fertilisers, our income hasgrown by 35 per cent to �5,405crore and the profit hasjumped by 24 per cent at�178crore in H-1.

Your fertiliser sale is soaringsince the last few years. Whatare the key drivers?A major part of our income isnow being contributed by thenon-urea business, which isgrowing year by year, since wechanged the business model in2016. Riding on this businessand our own fertilisers, wehave touched a new sale figureof 34.50 lakh MT during April-December 2018. In addition toimporting and marketing fer-tilisers like DAP, NPK, APSand MoP, we are also handlingand marketing the importedurea now, as we have received

the rights for handling ureaimported on the Government’saccount at Tuna (Gujarat),Vizag (Andhra Pradesh) andParadip (Odisha) ports.

Is there any other area wherethe company is exploring itsgrowth options?

Seeds are the next businesssegment where we are focusingafter fertilisers. We are settingup our own seed processingunits at three locations. Thecompany is also developingmore seed research farms inNangalto to exclusively pro-duce the highest quality offoundation seeds from thebreeder seeds by ensuring thebest isolation (avoiding anyvarietal impurities). Afterseeds, the trading of agro-chemicals is another segmentwhere NFL’s Kisan brand shallbe wooing customers.

What are the future plans ofthe company?We are making efforts toincrease our market share inthe fertiliser business despite itbeing a stagnant market. Withour own production of 38 lakhMT urea and the growing vol-ume of imported fertilisers, wewant to have a significant mar-ket share in all the categories.We have expanded our market-ing network even to the south-ern states to distribute ourproducts all over the country.So far, we were a single prod-uct company majorly focusedin northern part of India.

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The closing ceremony of the 9th AllIndia Police Commando

Competition was held at the KarbiAnglong Sports Association Stadium inDiphu, Assam yesterday. The event wasattended by a number of senior CentralArmed Police Forces (CAPF) and StatePolice Force officers. The event wasgraced by the Director General AssamRifles Lieutenant General SukhdeepSangwan, SM, as the chief guest. A cul-tural programme showcasing theNorth East was the main attraction ofthe event. Speaking at the occasion, the

DG Assam Riffles stressed on theimportance of conducting such eventswhich foster competitive spirit, providea platform to enhance professionalskills and fine tune the Special Actiondrills which is an important aspect forany team undertaking the SpecialMission tasks. He also felicitatedBrigadier Arjun Segan, SM, DIG,ARTC&S for having conducted theevent efficiently. The Assam Riflesteam won the prestigious trophy andthe ITBP and BSF teams secured thesecond and third positions respectively.

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The 'red ball boys' are still savouring the sweet after-taste of a maiden Test series win in Australia but

for the 'white ball specialists', including veteran MSDhoni, it was business as usual as they hit the strapsat SCG on Wednesday.

With the 2019 ODI World Cup on the horizon,focus has firmly shifted to white-ball cricket with thearrival of limited-overs' specialists here on Tuesday.

India have a long white-ball season lined up aheadof the marquee tournament in England this summer,with three ODIs in Australia and another five ODIsin New Zealand along with a three-match T20I seriesthere as well.

Australia thenvisit India for areturn leg of fiveODIs and twoT20Is, before the2019 IndianPremier Leagueseason gets under-way on March 23.

MS Dhoni,along with otherwhite-ball special-ists includingShikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma, Ambati Rayudu,Kedar Jadhav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Dinesh Karthik andKhaleel Ahmed, has joined up with the Indian teamhere.

On Wednesday, four members of the newly arrivedbunch trained at the SCG. Dhoni, Dhawan, Jadhav andRayudu went through the paces ahead of the first ODIin Sydney on Saturday.

The preparations will kick off in earnest fromThursday when the full squad holds it first trainingsession together since the home series against WestIndies in November.

The quartet primarily took throwdowns as no spe-cialist bowlers from the squad were present for thisoptional session.

While Dhawan and Rayudu prepared with boththe right and left arm throwdown specialists, Dhoniworked in the indoor nets with assistant coach SanjayBangar. Jadhav alternated between the two nets'options.

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Indian cricketer HardikPandya on Wednseday

offered "regrets" inresponse to a show causenotice for his commentson women on a TV show,which triggered a massiveoutrage and might promptthe BCCI to bar playersfrom such appearances.

Pandya and teammateK L Rahul were onWednesday issued showcause notices by the BCCIfor their remarks onwomen which triggered asocial media storm. Regretand not apology was whatPandya offered in his reply.

"I made an appearanceon the chat show where Ihave made certain state-ments without realisingthat these could be disre-spectful and offend sensi-tivities of viewers forwhich I am sincerelyregretful," stated Pandya'sresponse.

"I would like to assureyou that there was nomalice or any sort of ill-

intent on my part tooffend anyone or portrayany section of the societyin bad light," he added.

Pandya vowed neverto repeat the behaviour.

"I made these state-ments in the flow of theshow and had not com-prehended the extent towhich my statements

would be found offensive.Rest assured I hold theBCCI in highest regardand will exercise completediscretion and prudence toensure that such incidentsare never repeated infuture," he said.

The show in questionwas 'Koffee with Karan',hosted by film-maker

Karan Johar, and Rahul,who was the morerestrained of the two in hisanswers, has neitherresponded to the showcause notice nor reacted tothe criticism as yet.

The duo had beengiven 24 hours to give anexplanation

"I will have to checktheir explanations. At thispoint, I cannot commitwhat action will be taken,"Chairman of theCommittee ofAdministrators that runsthe BCCI, Vinod Rai said.

The 25-year-oldPandya had earlier posteda regret message on hisTwitter page.

"After reflecting onmy comments on Koffeewith Karan, I would like toapologise to everyone con-cerned who I may havehurt in any way.

"Honestly, I got a bitcarried away with thenature of the show. In noway did I mean to disre-spect or hurt anyone's sen-timents. Respect."

On the show, Pandyaboasted about hooking upwith multiple women andalso how open he has beenabout it with his parents.

When asked why hedidn't ask women theirname in a club, Pandyaresponded by saying, "Ilike to watch and observehow they (women) move.I'm little from the blackside so I need to see howthey move."

Criticism started com-ing Pandya's way soonafter and it is learnt that hewas ticked off by the BCCItop brass.

According to a source,his comments weredeemed "crass and cringe-worthy" and might have abearing on whether Indiancricketers appear on "suchnon-cricket shows" afterthis.

"It will be consideredwhether players shouldeven be allowed to appearon such shows which havegot nothing to do withcricket," a BCCI sourcesaid.

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Indian men's hockey coachHarendra Singh was on

Wednesday sacked from theposition following a disap-pointing 2018 and offeredthe task of helming the juniorsquad by the national feder-ation.

Constant chopping andchanging of coaches is a fre-quent phenomenon in Indianhockey and Harendra, whowas appointed in May, is thelatest casualty. He has becomethe sixth coach to be sackedin six years.

"Though the year 2018was very disappointing for the

Indian Men's Hockey Teamwith results not going asexpected, Hockey India (HI)believes investing in the juniorprogram which will reap long-term benefits," HI said in astatement explaining the rea-sons behind Harendra's axing.

The Junior World Cup-winning coach took chargeafter India's medal-less show-ing at the Gold CoastCommonwealth Games butwas unable to change theteam's fortunes.

India was also below-parin the Asian Games inIndonesia, settling for aBronze after going into thetournament as the defending

champions. They ended theyear with a quarterfinal loss in

the World Cup inBhubaneswar.

"Hockey India will short-ly be advertising and willinvite applications for theposition of the Chief Coach ofthe Indian Men's HockeyTeam which will be returningto training camp in February2019 for the Sultan AzlanShah Cup scheduled to com-mence from 23 March 2019.

"In the interim, the teamwill be overseen by HockeyIndia High PerformanceDirector, David John andcurrent Analytical Coach,Chris Ciriello," the statementadded.

The decision to reassignHarendra was taken by the HIHigh Performance and

Development Committee onMonday with an aim to builda "strong base" ahead of the2021 Junior World Cup andthe 2020 and 2024 Olympics.

"The offer (of junior headcoach) has been made toHarendra Singh for takingcharge of the Junior Men'steam commencing from thecamp slated to start in March2019," HI said.

Harendra took the juniorteam to the World Cup titlein 2016. As women's chiefcoach, he had swapped placeswith Dutchman SjoerdMarijne to join the men'ssquad ahead of the August-September Asian Games.

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Cricket icon SachinTendulkar on Wednesdaysingled out 'Run Machine'

Cheteshwar Pujara for his stellarshow in India's historic maidenTest series win in Australia.

Tendulkar was alsoimpressed with the style of playdished out by the Indian team,saying the brand of cricket pro-duced by Virat Kohli and his menin the four-Test series was "mag-nificent".

"Fantastic. The team hasdone really well. The brand ofcricket that India has been ableto produce Down Under hasbeen magnificent," Tendulkarsaid.

Pujara scored 521 runs in theseries with three centuries andone half century with 193 as hishighest score and Tendulkar pin-pointed that Pujara was out-standing in the series.

"I find it difficult to pinpointone moment, but I think Pujarahas been really outstanding. Thenumber of statements made onPujara, which ideally weren't inhis favour, kind of undermined(diminished) his contribution.Along with (Pujara), (we) cannotignore the bowlers' contribu-tion. The bowlers have (also)done exceedingly well.

"But somewhere Pujara hasbeen instrumental in laying thatsolid foundation (standing) onwhich there were a number ofguys who went out and got runs.Virat (Kohli) scored runs in thesecond Test. Ajinkya (Rahane)had that crucial partnership (inthe series). Then Rishabh (Pant),(Ravindra) Jadeja - all these guyshave done well. Mayank(Agarwal) got off to a good start.

"But (still) if I have to pin-point one guy then Pujara stands

out along with the fast bowlers,"said Tendulkar.

He also hoped that the Testseries victory in Australia, thefirst ever in 71 years, wouldinspire the younger generation.

"You need these kinds ofresults to inspire them (youngergeneration) and make thembelieve that you can go out anddeliver your best and get laurelsto our nation. That is exactlywhat the team has done DownUnder," he emphasised.

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Cricketing icon SachinTendulkar on Wednesday

said the Indian bowling attackhas proved that it is capable ofdelivering in all conditions.

"I can comfortably say thatwe are a competitive attack inany part of the world (or) onany surface. We are ready to goand play anywhere in theworld and be extremely com-petitive...," the legendary bats-man said.

"If I have to name....Bumrah, Shami, Ishant,Kuldeep, Ashwin and Jadeja,Umesh also played one Test

match (in Australia).... Allthese guys, have chipped in atvarious points," he said.

Tendulkar said even thespinners came to the party inAustralia, not just the pacers.

"Spinners have alsochipped in, it's not just the fast-bowlers, but the spinners. Butwhat you also want — your fastbowlers to bowl those hostilespells in patches and that hashappened more frequently, itwas not just about the new ballgame, it was also to do with theold ball and how consistentlyone can bowl in 140 plus andthat is something, which ispleasing to the eye."

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Young batting prodigy WillPucovski was parachuted into

the Australia squad for two Testsagainst Sri Lanka in a shock call-up on Wednesday, with veteranShaun Marsh and his brotherMitch dumped.

Also axed from the 13-mansquad after their humbling 2-1series defeat to India were under-performing opener Aaron Finchand middle-order batsman PeterHandscomb.

In-form Joe Burns was recalledfor the first time since the SouthAfrica tour early last year andcould open the innings with rook-ie Marcus Harris, who did enoughagainst India to keep his place.

But they face competitionfrom Matt Renshaw, who hasbeen handed another opportuni-

ty despite misfiring in the domes-tic Sheffield Shield this season.

Off-spinning allrounderMarnus Labuschagne was retainedfrom the team that played the rain-affected drawn Test in Sydney thisweek, as was Travis Head.

Selectors kept faith with theirpace attack of Mitchell Starc, JoshHazlewood and Pat Cummins,with veteran Peter Siddle alsoincluded.

National selector TrevorHohns said "there is no doubt theIndia series produced some dis-appointing results" and change wasneeded, after four Tests charac-terised by the failure of anyAustralian batsmen to score acentury.

"Ultimately Aaron, Peter,Shaun and Mitch have not pro-duced the performances expectedof them with the bat at the Test

level," he said."They have been given a good

opportunity, but have not pro-duced the scores we nefied."

Pucovski was the shock call-up. The 20-year-old is one of the

brightest batting talents in thecountry, scoring a double centuryfor Victoria last year.

But he has only played eightfirst-class matches, and after thatdouble ton took a break fromcricket because of a mental healthissue.

Burns, who has played 14Tests, has been knocking on thedoor this season withQueensland, while Renshaw hasbeen unlucky not to get anothercall-up until now, since his lastappearance at Johannesburg inApril.

Burns, Renshaw andPucovski will all play for a CricketAustralia XI against Sri Lankaahead of the Tests in preparation.

The first Test will be a day-nighter in Brisbane from January24, with the second in Canberrafrom February 1.

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Jonty Sidhu's fighting tonhelped Delhi reach 268 for 6

in 103 overs at stumps againstTamil Nadu on the third day ofthe Elite Group 'B' match at theM A Chidambaram stadium.

Tamil Nadu had made 432in the first innings, riding onAbhinav Mukund's solid knockof 134. Sidhu's unbeaten 104(235 balls) helped the teamrecover from 49 for 4 in Delhi'sfirst innings.

His 126-run seventh wick-et partnership with Lalit Yadav(65 batting) went a long way inblunting the Tamil Naduattack.

Meanhile in Indore,Andhra Pradesh recorded a307-run win as MadhyaPradesh imploded rather spec-tacularly on the third day, slip-ping from 35 for 3 to 35 all out(one batsman was absent hurt),losing six wickets while notscoring a run.

Right-arm medium-pacerK V Sasikanth (6 for 18) and DP Vijayakumar (3 for 17)wreaked havoc as the MP bat-ting line-up folded in just 16.5overs, chasing 342 for a win.

����������������������E�Bihar left-arm spinnerAshutosh Aman etched hisname in record books, sur-passing the great Bishan SinghBedi as the highest wicket-taker in a Ranji Trophy seasonafter claiming his 65th scalp onWednesday.

Bihar defeated Manipurby three wickets, whileUttarakhand sealed the lonequarterfinal spot from the PlateGroup with a bonus point winover Mizoram in the PlateGroup.

The 32-year-old Amanachieved the feat when hetrapped Manipur's SagatpamSingh lbw for his 65th wicket

and eclipsed former India cap-tain Bedi's tally of 64 wicketsfor Delhi in 1974-75.

An employee of IndianAir Force, Aman, ended upwith 7/71 against Manipur inthe second innings to end theseason with 68 wickets from 14innings at an average of 6.48.

Needing just a win to edgeout Bihar, Uttarakhand secureda massive innings and 56 run-win over Mizoram inDehradun. Uttarakhandtopped the table with 44 pointswith Bihar finishing secondwith 40 points.

���������������������E�Hosts Saurashtra heldthe upper hand after theyreduced Vidarbha to 280 for 9on the third day of the EliteGroup A game in Rajkot. Andit was Saurashtra skipperJaydev Unadkat who led fromthe front grabbing six wicketsconceding 56 runs.

The hosts had posted 356in their first innings and arestill 76 runs ahead and well oncourse to take the crucial firstinnings lead.

Meanwhile, 41-time cham-pions Mumbai, who are alreadyout of quarter final reckoning,defeated Chhattisgarh by 9wickets to record their first out-right win of the season at theWankhede Stadium.

The win meant that themultiple Ranji championsavoided relegation to a lowerGroup. Chasing the 91-runtarget, Mumbai resumed fromtheir overnight score of 77 forno loss and hit off the required14 runs in the morning.

But they lost their openerVikrant Auti (34) when theteam score was 79. The otheropener Jay Bista (49 not out)then completed the proceed-ings in 24.2 overs along withYashasvi Jaiswal (0 not out) atthe other end.

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Opening batsman Dean Elgarwill captain South Africa in

the third and final Test againstPakistan, starting at theWanderers Stadium on Friday,Cricket South Africa announcedon Wednesday.

Elgar, 31, will stand in for reg-ular captain Faf du Plessis, whowas suspended for one matchafter South Africa fell short of therequired over rate during theirnine-wicket win in the secondTest at Newlands.

It was the second offenceunder Du Plessis's leadershipwithin a 12-month period.

It will be the second timeElgar has captained the side. Heled South Africa in the first Testagainst England at Lord's in 2017when Du Plessis returned homefor the birth of his first child.

South Africa have also called

up uncapped Pieter Malan on standby for Elgar's opening battingpartner, Aiden Markram, who will undergo a fitness test onThursday.

Markram suffered a badly bruised right thigh while fieldingduring the second Test at Newlands and was unable to bat in thesecond innings.

Malan, 29, has performed consistently as an opening batsmanfor the Cape Cobras franchise, scoring seven centuries during thepast two seasons.

�������� ����������� �����E�Pakistan selectors on Wednesday recalled fast bowlerMohammad Amir in a 16-man squad for the five-match seriesagainst South Africa starting later this month.

The 26-year-old fast bowler failed to get a wicket in his lastfive one-day internationals, including three Asia Cup matches inSeptember last year.

He was left out of Pakistan's last series against New Zealand,but was redrafted for the one-day side on the back of good formin the ongoing Test series in South Africa.

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) said there were five changesfrom the Test side, which is presently in Johannesburg preparingfor the third and final Test starting from Friday.

"Asad Shafiq, Azhar Ali, Haris Sohail, Mohammad Abbas andYasir Shah have been replaced by Mohammad Hafeez, ShoaibMalik, Hussain Talat, Usman Shinwari and Imad Wasim, respec-tively," said a PCB release.

Chief selector Inzamam-ul-Haq said the squad was selectedwith the World Cup — to be held in England from May 30-July14 this year — in mind. "While selecting the squad, we have triedto maintain consistency, taking into consideration player perfor-mances in white-ball cricket as well as looking ahead to the upcom-ing ODI challenges, including the World Cup," he said.

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World number oneSimona Halep's prepa-

rations for next week's Australian Opensuffered a huge setback on Wednesdaywhen she was bundled out of the SydneyInternational, along with fourth seedSloane Stephens.

The Romanian hadn't played sincewithdrawing from the WTA Finals inOctober with a herniated disc, and wasno match for fast-rising AustralianAshleigh Barty, who scored thebiggest win of her career 6-4, 6-4.

Halep, the reigning French Openchampion and 2018 AustralianOpen runner-up, had a byethrough to the second round,meaning she heads toMelbourne Park for the open-ing Grand Slam of the yearwith just one game under herbelt.

"It was a great match afteralmost four months (since the last one). Ithink I played a good level of tennis but Ihad no inspiration in some importantpoints," she said.

"She played really well and deserved towin. But I was also very close to winning.

Barty, who ended a breakthrough2018 with a WTA title in Zhuhai and is

now ranked 15, brought the momentuminto the new year and is now in the quar-

ter-finals, where she will meet eitherBelgian 10th seed Elise Mertens or

Estonian Anett Kontaveit.American world number five

Stephens was another casualty.She narrowly escaped defeat

in the first round, and slumpedout to Kazak qualifier YuliaPutintseva 3-6, 7-6 (7/4), 6-0,meekly surrendering in the final

set.In other matches on

Wednesday, Switzerland's TimeaBacsinszky beat Australia's SamStosur 5-7, 6-4, 6-3 and will meetAliaksandra Sasnovich of Belarusin the last eight.

In the men's draw, thirdseeded Argentine DiegoSchwartzman booked his place inthe quarters by beating Spain'sGuillermo Garcia-Lopez in twosets. He will next face Japanese

qualifier Yoshihito Nishioka.Veteran Italian Andreas Seppi is also

through to meet top seed Stefanos Tsitsipasof Greece, while fifth seeded Alex DeMinaur set up an all-Australian last eighttie with Jordan Thompson. France's GillesSimon will take on another Australian,John Millman.

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If Thailand was big, India are faced witha bigger test in hosts United ArabEmirates in the AFC Asian Cup here

on Thursday, overcoming whom willrequire them to play out of their skins.

Four days after creating a flutter witha stunning 4-1 drubbing of Thailand, Indiaare now looking an upbeat lot in the con-tinental showpiece.

While the result against Thailand, whohave three J-League players in their ranks,was no mean feat, it will be a biggerachievement if the Indians are able to putit across the hosts who are gunning for thetitle.

Currently ranked 79th to India's97th, the United Arab Emirates wereplaced as high as 24 in the FIFA chartin January 2015.

Coach Stephen Constantine willbe pleased with how the second halfagainst Thailand turned out. Indianot only managed to shut down alethal Thai attack after being tied 1-1 at the break, but also threatened atthe other end through quick transitions inattack.

That stupendous show earned Indiathree valuable points, a place on top of thegroup and a goal average of plus three.

"We have a very young side here andthey are excited. Of course, hosts UAE willbe a different game. They are a very goodside but they are just another team stand-ing in our way," said Constantine.

As far as the Indian team is concerned,Sunil Chhetri hogs the limelight wherev-er he goes, and the Blue Tigers will againlook up to him upfront.

It will not exactly be appropriate to saythat Chhetri will be high on confidenceafter his double strikes against Thailand,which saw him go past Argentine super-star Lionel Messi in the goal-scoring chartamong active international players, becausethat is an ingredient the Indian talismannever lacked. He is never overconfident,though.

In a team sport like football, a squad

heavily dependent on Chhetri would nothave experienced a 13-match unbeaten runon way to qualifying for the tournament.

Over reliance on the 34-year-old strik-

er would not haveseen them maulThailand the waythe did.

And that is a good sign forConstantine's team, which will enhance itsprospects of qualifying for the secondround of the tournament for the first timein over 50 years if it is able to win or at leastdraw against the UAE.

It is even better for the team that forall his achievements over the years, Chhetriremains grounded.

Minutes after coming off the benchagainst Thailand, Jeje Lalpekhlua found theback of the net, and so did young AnirudhThapa.

However, the surprise package wasrookie forward Ashique Kuruniyan,Udanta Singh being the livewire down wideright. Udanta, in fact, set up a couple ofgoals including the inch-perfect crossfrom right flank, which Chhetri slammedhome for India's second goal.

Chhetri and the FC Pune City wingerhad their eyes on goal whenever they wereon the ball and the direct runningof the latter and the technique andfinishing prowess of the former leftthe opposition's defence helpless.More of the could be expectedagainst a superior opponent inUAE.

India can expect the UAE tocome hard at them after a 1-1 stalemateagainst Bahrain in the tournament open-er. They wouldn't be satisfied with theirperformances, especially in the attackingthird. It was the late goal by substituteAhmed Khalil that saved them the blush-es.

Midfielder Ismail Hammadi is also akey player in UAE's scheme of things.

UAE will look to dominate the mid-field where Anirudh Thapa and PronayHalder will come up against a tightly-knitunit. India will also be required to be vig-ilant at the back as the likes of AliMabkhout and Ahmed Khalil are goal-scorers with predatory instincts in theattacking third.

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Yuya Osako netted a quickfire double as for-mer champions Japan survived a scare to beat

Turkmenistan 3-2 in their opening game onWednesday.

The Blue Samurai reached the last 16 at lastyear's World Cup but had to fight back from a

goal down at halftime in an absorbingGroup F clash.

Turkmenistan captain ArslanAmanov put the plucky underdogs aheadafter 26 minutes, unleashing a ferociouslong-range drive that arrowed into the topcorner.

But Osako produced a smart turn andfinish inside the box to equalise for Japan 10 min-utes into the second half following sustained pres-sure from the four-time Asian champions.

The Werder Bremen striker put Japan infront four minutes later, tapping into an emptynet after Yuto Nagatomo's dinked pass over goal-keeper Mammet Orazmuhammedow.

Ritsu Doan added a deflected third after 70minutes as Turkmenistan began to wilt.

But Ahmet Atayev swept home a penalty 11minutes from time to ensure a nervous finish forJapan, who are now unbeaten in six matches sinceHajime Moriyasu took charge after the WorldCup.

The Japanese are seeking to make up for theirAsian Cup flop four years ago when they lost onpenalties to UAE in the quarter-finals.

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Mauricio Pochettinohailed Tottenham's

growing maturity as HarryKane fired them a step clos-er to the League Cup finalwith a 1-0 win over Chelseain the semi-final first leg onTuesday.

Pochettino's side arechasing their first trophysince winning the 2008League Cup at the expenseof Chelsea.

Kane's first-half spot-kick, awarded via VAR, set-tled a hard-foughtencounter to keepTottenham on coursefor a first League Cupfinal appearance sincetheir 2015 defeatagainst the Blues.

That loss was one ofseveral missed opportunitiesfor Pochettino to win thefirst si lverware of hispromising managerialcareer.

This was an importantstep towards ending thatdrought.

"We were very compet-itive. The effort was massive.Whether or not we wintitles, I'm so proud to have

this squad,"Pochettino said.

"We played oneof the best teams inEurope. To win thistype of game is an

amazing experience for us tobe more mature."

Pochettino challengedTottenham to finish the jobin the second leg at StamfordBridge on January 24.

"Of course it is only half-time in the tie. We have onlya little advantage," he said.

"It is going to be differ-ent in the second leg. Wehave to show we can beatthem there and go to the

final."It was another frustrat-

ing night for Chelsea, whorecovered from a sluggishstart to dominate the secondhalf without turning theirpossession into goals — afamiliar tale of woe forMaurizio Sarri's men.

"We deserved more. Weplayed better than them andwere in control of thematch," Sarri insisted.

"I'm really disappointedwith the result but reallyhappy with the performance.It is one of the most impor-tant performances of theseason for my team."

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Mohamed Salah com-pleted a memorable

day for Egyptian football byretaining his African Playerof the Year award inSenegal on Tuesday.

The 26-year-oldLiverpool star finished firstwith club-mate SenegaleseSadio Mane and Arsenaland Gabon striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang theother finalists.

"I have dreamt of win-ning this award since I wasa child and now I havedone so twice in a row,"

Salah said soon after receiv-ing his trophy in Dakar.

"My thanks go to myfamily, my team-mates andmy fans and I dedicate thistrophy to my homeland,Egypt."

It was an identical out-come to last year whenSalah became only the sec-ond Egyptian after 1983winner Mahmoud alKhatib to be voted the bestfootballer in Africa.

Having defended hisPlayer of the Year title, hisnext goal will be to matchthe four straight wins in thecompetition by former

Manchester City and IvoryCoast star Yaya Toure.

The other male awardswent to France-bornMorocco coach HerveRenard, the Mauritanianational team, andMoroccan Achraf Hakimiin the youth category.

South AfricanChrestinah Kgatlana wasvoted Women's Player ofthe Year and South Africacoach Desiree Ellis and theNigeria national team werethe other female winners.

The Goal of the Yearaward also went toKgatlana.

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French World Cup winning defend-er Benjamin Pavard will join

Bayern Munich from Stuttgart on afive-year contract as of July 1, thedefending German championsrevealed on Wednesday.

Media reports in Germany putthe transfer at 35 million euros ($40million) for the 22-year-old whocan play at right-back or centre-back.

"He is young and a world cham-pion, so we are happy and proud tohave won over such a player," said

Bayern's sports director HasanSalihamidzic at their winter trainingcamp in Doha.

Pavard's status skyrocketed lastsummer when the centre-back scoredthe goal of the World Cup with astunning net-busting strike in a 4-3last-16 win over Argentina that setFrance on their way to the Russia2018 title.

Pavard has been at struggling VfBStuttgart, who are currently thirdfrom bottom in Germany's top flight,since 2016 after he joined from Lillefor five million euros.

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India's top singles playerPrajnesh Gunneswaran over-

came a fighting Viktor Galovic instraight sets to move to the secondround of the Australian Open qual-ifiers here on Wednesday.

The left-handed sixth seedIndian prevailed 6-4, 6-4 over theCroatian, ranked 228 as compared to112 of his opponent.

"It was an average match, I played

okay, It was a tricky match, stayedtough mentally and got the jobdone," Prajnesh said, reflecting on thewin.

He will next face Spain's EnriqueLopez Perez, ranked 213th.

Prajnesh had a breakthrough2018 in which he made fourChallenger-level finals and won twotitles. He also came close to makinghis first ever Grand Slam main drawappearance at the French Open butmissed out.

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World number seven Marin Cilictested a knee injury with the best

possible result on Wednesday, buttemperamental Nick Kyrgios' poorstart to the season continued at theKooyong Classic.

Former US Open champion Cilic,who led Croatia to a Davis Cup tro-phy in November, skipped last week'sMaharashtra ATP tournament to rest.

The wait was worth it as he post-ed a gritty 6-3, 4-6, 15-13 win overKevin Anderson, recovering from 2-7 down in the new final-set tiebreak-

er that will be used at the AustralianOpen for the first time next week.

Under the rules, the first player towin at least 10 points by a two-point

margin takes the match.Kyrgios, who was knocked out in

the second round at Brisbane lastweek, was beaten 6-3, 6-4 by friendand fellow comeback candidateBernard Tomic in an all-Australianbattle.

Tomic ended his victory with aflourish, sending over a sneaky serveon match point by hitting the ballbetween his legs for a winner — amove which totally caught Kyrgios offguard.

"It was a lot of fun just to get backout there," the often edgy Kyrgios, whohas slipped to 51 in the world, said.

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