16
I n order to ensure protection of customers from elec- tronic frauds or forged trans- actions such as unauthorised and fraudulent electronic banking transactions in the country, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Thursday said money of customers suffering any loss from such fake trans- actions will be credited in the accounts concerned within 10-days of the incident, only if these unauthorised elec- tronic banking transactions are reported to the concerned bank with- in three days. With the increased thrust on financial inclusion and customer protection, and con- sidering the recent surge in customer grievances relating to unauthorised transactions resulting in debits to their accounts and cards, the RBI has undertaken a review of cri- teria for determining cus- tomer liability. The move came after the review that there was a need for strengthening of systems and procedures. On such fake transactions, in case the third party fraud is reported with a delay of four to seven working days, a cus- tomer will face liability of up to Rs 25,000. However, in cases where the loss is due to negligence by the account holder such as sharing of pay- ment credentials, the cus- tomer will bear the entire loss until the unauthorised trans- action is reported to the bank. “There will be zero liabil- ity of a customer in case of third party breach where the deficiency lies neither with the bank nor with the customer but lies elsewhere in the sys- tem,” the RBI said. I n a significant decision, the Supreme Court on Thursday held that any person, who forges caste certificate, will lose all resultant benefits that accrue in that name. The sweep of the decision will cover not just persons taking up Government employment but to candidates who win elections to Parliament and State Assemblies as well. The court held that such appointment to any office will be declared void. A mid apprehensions of esca- lation in violence against the backdrop of the first death anniversary of Hizbul Mujahideen (HM) terrorist Burhan Wani on Saturday and its impact on the ongoing Amarnath Yatra, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Thursday chaired a high-level meeting to review the security scenario in Jammu & Kashmir. While the Centre has deployed more than 21,000 additional paramilitary forces in the State in view of the sit- uation there, the State Government has directed all internet service providers to block the social media sites from 10.00 pm on Thursday till further orders. Mobile internet services are also likely to be sus- pended. All educational insti- tutions were also asked to close for 10 days starting Thursday. Giving details of the mea- sures taken to ensure an inci- dent-free Amarnath Yatra and prevent spike in violence dur- ing the next few days as ter- rorists have given a call for observing Wani’s death anniversary, Home Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi told reporters here after the high-level meet- ing that 21,000 additional per- sonnel of central paramilitary were now deployed in the State. H arassing her for the last six months, a 22-year-old jilt- ed lover stabbed a 21-year-old aspiring air hostess ten times near her house in full public view in East Delhi’s Mansarovar Park area outside the peer wali gali of Ram Nagar on Wednesday at 5:10 pm. Deceased Riya Gautam was rushed to Guru Tegh Bahadur hospital where she was operat- ed upon. However, around 2 am on Thursday she succumbed to her injuries, police said. The gory incident was cap- tured on CCTV cameras of a nearby Anil Photo Studio. “In one of the CCTV footages, it is seen that attacker youth, Nanhe Khan alias Adil and Riya were walking close to the lane outside the girl’s house. An altercation took place between the two and it escalated. Adil took a knife and started stab- bing Riya repeatedly. To save her, she went inside the photo studio but he followed her and kept stabbing her until she fell unconscious. Riya suffered around 10 stab wounds on her chest and abdomen,” said a senior police officer privy to the matter. Now, hunt is on to nab Adil, a notorious auto lifter in the area, who has been in and out of jail four times. Police said they have formed several teams and have deployed them across bus stops, railway stations to arrest the accused. Anil, owner of the Photo Studio and a key eyewitness to the murder, told The Pioneer, “I was sitting at my house, located above my studio. B lunting China’s assertions that the atmosphere is not right for a formal or bilateral meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping when they gather for the G20 Summit in Hamburg, the Ministry of External Affairs on (MEA) on Thursday made it clear that India has never sought any such meeting with China in the first place. The MEA said Xi and Modi will meet under the mul- tilateral BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) umbrella on the sidelines of the G-20 but no one-on-one meet- ing was planned between them. MEA’s official spokesper- son Gopal Baglay reiterated on Thursday that PM’s pre- planned bilateral meetings on the sidelines of the Summit are with Argentina, Canada, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Republic of Korea, the United Kingdom and Vietnam. “In addition, he will also participate in the BRICS Leaders’ meeting. There is no change in the Prime Minister’s schedule,” Baglay said. The PM is visiting Hamburg from July 6-8 for the G-20 Summit. Sources said India has not asked for any meeting with President Xi, hence, there is no question of atmosphere being conducive or not. India’s snubbing of China came after one of its officials sought to suggest that it was Beijing which was calling off a scheduled bilateral meeting between the two leaders. “The atmosphere is not right for a bilateral meeting between Modi and Jinping on the side- lines of the G20 Summit in Hamburg,” the Chinese official said even as China “strongly” urged India to pull back to avoid the situation from getting worse and lead to “some more serious consequences”. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang had on Wednesday said: “As for arrangements on a bilateral meeting between President Xi and Prime Minister Modi, I have to point out that recently border troops trespassed into China and obstructed normal activities of Chinese troops in the Doklam area. This endan- gers China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity and dam- aged the political foundations of bilateral relations between China and India. We hope India can immediately with- draw border troops to Indian side of the boundary, uphold peace and tranquility of China India border area, and this is a precondition for any talk between two sides.” In fact, a week before the incident at the India-Bhutan- China border, Modi and Xi had met one-on-one in Astana this June where India and Pakistan became full members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO). It is learnt that during this meeting, the PM told the Chinese President not to “let differences become disputes”. E ven as the Bengal Government allegedly refused the Centre’s offer to send in more Central forces, the communal violence in North 24 Parganas district claimed its first casualty on Thursday. The political ramifications of the ongoing violence reached the shores of Kolkata where Trinamool Congress and the BJP workers ran into each other after senior BJP leader Kailash Vijayvargiya and the party’s State president Dilip Ghosh reached RG Kar Medical College and Hospital where the riot victim, an alleged saffron activist, suc- cumbed to his injuries. Kartik Ghosh, the alleged BJP worker who died on Thursday, was attacked with sharp weapons by the rioters on Wednesday night while return- ing to his house in Basirhat, some 50 miles north of the State capital. Hundreds of ruling Trinamool Congress support- ers blocked the BJP leaders’ passage to the hospital. A polit- ically charged-up crowd raised anti-BJP slogans and pounded Ghosh’s SUV, while another group smashed the windscreen of State BJP leader Locket Chatterjee’s car, even as the police looked the other way. With tension running high, the BJP leaders returned without meeting the victims’ relatives. In light of the fresh vio- lence, the BJP has decided to send a team of its senior lead- ers to visit Basirhat to study the communal flare-up and spi- raling violence. The team com- prising Lok Sabha MPs Meenakshi Lekhi and Satya Pal Singh would be led by the BJP’s vice-president and Rajya Sabha member OP Mathur. They would be leaving for the State in a few days. They would study the sit- uation and find out what led to the violence in Basirhat. Vijayvargiya and Ghosh would “coordinate” the team’s visit in the State. Communal clashes had broken out in Basirhat, Baduria, Berachampa, Swaroop Nagar and other remote vil- lages since Sunday night fol- lowing a Facebook post by a Class XI boy who was quickly arrested by the police. Meanwhile in Basirhat, its three lakh residents spent the fourth sleepless night on Wednesday listening to blazing guns and raining bombs from all sides, in all colonies. T he Supreme Court on Thursday sparked off a debate by observing that there is no need to keep the Chief Justice of India (CJI) outside the ambit of Right to Information (RTI) as the constitutional office does not indulge in “secretive business”. The comment came while the SC was examining an order passed by the Panaji Bench of the Bombay HC allowing a plea under RTI seeking the Governor’s report recommending President’s Rule in Goa between July and August 2007. I n its first major crackdown on the babudom soon after 100 days of governance, the Punjab Government on Thursday affirmed initiation of action against three IAS offi- cers in an alleged multi-crore scam hovering around the floating of tenders for munic- ipal works. It also placed the services of four superintending engineers (SEs) under sus- pension. “It’s just a tip of an iceberg,” said the State Local Government Minister Navjot Singh Sidhu, adding that the decision will act as a deterrent. At the same time, Sidhu declared that his Department would also be carrying out an audit “on a large scale”. Sidhu asserted that “astounding” disclosures were made by the Department’s Chief Vigilance Officer Sudeep Manak after scrutinising about 1000 files of just four munici- pal corporations of Amritsar, Jalandhar, Ludhiana, and Bathinda for just one year — 2016. “Out of total 800 crore tenders for municipal works, 500 crore tenders were allot- ted on a single bid in complete violation of laid down rules,” said Sidhu. Maintaining that he has “right away” suspended four SEs, two from Ludhiana and one each from Amritsar and Jalandhar, for violating rules, Sidhu said that his Department would soon sent a detailed chargesheet against three IAS officers to the Chief Minister and the Chief Secretary for necessary action. “I have taken action as far as my jurisdiction is con- cerned…some are not in my purview. So we will be sending chargesheet against IAS offi- cers Sonali Giri, Ghanshayam Thori, and GS Khera —in the next three-four days with all proofs as they were the competent authority to approve these tenders,” he said. Giri, Thori and Khera were the then Commissioners of MC of Amritsar, Ludhiana, and Jalandhar respectively. The SEs, whose services have been placed under suspension are PK Goel (Amritsar), Kulwinder Singh (Jalandhar), Pawan Sharma and Dharam Singh (Ludhiana). “The SEs will be given a chance to be heard within a week,” Sidhu said. Sidhu said that the Local Government Department’s vig- ilance team found that the large number of work orders were awarded based on single bid in Amritsar Municipal Corporation, and then the scope of inspection was extended to Ludhiana, Bathinda, and Jalandhar’s cor- porations where civil work orders for 2016 were inspect- ed. It was found that Municipal Corporation Act, 1976, has been violated where- in the House resolution is a must for any work order above 25,000. “Approval of Corporation’s Finance Committee has not been taken for majority work order scru- tinised while awarding the contract, and even the CVC guidelines have been violated which call for written detailed justification in such cases,” he added. “Prima facie, it is clear that more than 50 percent of the tenders of hundreds of crores have been allotted on single bid violating MC laws, CVC guide- lines and local government circulars,” he said. Sidhu maintained that he had got departmental inquiry conducted, and ordering vig- ilance inquiry is on the Chief Minister. P unjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh on Thursday wrote to the Prime Minister seeking a bonus of 100 per quintal on paddy, in addition to its MSP, as an incentive to dissuade farmers from burning the crops residue. In his letter, the Chief Minister said the bonus would be given to only those farmers who manage paddy residue or stubble without burning it. Capt Amarinder pointed out in his letter that he had made this request earlier also as a measure to compensate farm- ers for the additional burden of managing paddy residue. Though the Minimum Support Price (MSP) for paddy had been increased by 80 per quintal for Kharif-2017, the hike was not adequate to meet the additional cost of cultiva- tion in terms of seeds and fer- tilisers, leave alone the extra expense of residue manage- ment, the chief minister said. At present, the MSP of paddy for the 2016-17 fiscal is fixed at 1,470 for common grade and 1,510 for A-grade varieties.. Stubble burning is a major issue in the paddy cultivating regions and is currently under adjudication in the National Green Tribunal, the Punjab and Haryana High Court, the Delhi High Court and the Supreme Court of India, he said. Acting on the various directives issued by the courts, the Punjab government has already initiated steps to check stubble burning, including grant of subsidy on purchase of agriculture machinery for crop residue management, a spokesman said. S ignalling that it means busi- ness, Punjab Police on Thursday filed a case against three US-based persons, including the Legal Advisor of Sikhs for Justice (SFJ), along with two persons based in India, on charges of sedition, promoting enmity and crimi- nal conspiracy. This came soon after Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh ordered a crackdown on the out- fit amid complaints by the local people of deliberate attempts to vitiate the State’s atmosphere. Capt Amarinder, who also holds the Home portfolio, directed the police to ensure that neither the SFJ, nor any other outfit succeeds in whip- ping up passions in the state, which Pakistan’s ISI could also exploit to its advantage. The Chief Minister’s orders came after a series of provoca- tive posters and hoardings came up at more than 40 out- door sites across the State. Investigations by the police showed that the campaign, titled ‘Punjab Independence Referendum 2020’, had been managed by the Baba Hanuman Singh Enterprise agency, which was hired for the purpose by New York-based SFJ, through its legal advisor Gurpatwant Singh Pannun. Besides Pannun, others booked by the police have been identified as Jagdeep Singh, originally resident of Fatehgarh Sahib and now based in New York, and Jagjeet Singh origi- nally resident of J&K, also now based in New York. The two accused based in India have been identified by the police as Gurpeet Singh of Mohali and Harpunit Singh of Jammu. All five have been booked for promoting feelings of enmi- ty and disharmony between different groups, and commit- ting acts prejudicial to main- tenance of harmony, through visible representations. Such acts have disturbed and are likely to disturb public tran- quility in Punjab, the police said in its FIR. Further investigations are in progress to uncover the various financial and operational link- ages between persons based in India and abroad, said the police spokesperson, adding that the SFJ, backed by Khalistani forces, had been actively trying to destabilise Punjab for the past several months. Punjab Police has, in recent weeks, busted several modules of terrorists linked to Khalistani forces, which had started rais- ing their ugly heads again in an apparent bid to whip up tension in Punjab. Interrogation of these alleged terrorists, arrest- ed from various parts of Punjab, had shown that they were being mentored and armed by Khalistani supporters in Canada, USA and other places, with some also being trained by ISI in neighbouring Pakistan. Capt Amarinder has made it clear that any attempt to cre- ate disharmony or to revive ter- rorism in the State would be nipped in the bud. "Punjab and its people have suffered enough at the hands of Khalistani extremists", said Captain Amarinder, adding that his government would nail every single person found involved in any subversive activities. The Chief Minister has also categorically ruled out any local support for the SFJ cam- paign, saying external forces were out to whip up passions to further their own vested inter- ests. The people of Punjab wanted peace and his govern- ment was committed to pro- viding them a safe and peace- ful environment in the State.

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Page 1: ˛ 0˚ 1 20 -23 - ˜˙ˇˆ ˛ˇ!˙ rorists have given a call for observing Wani’s death ... lane outside the girl’s house. An ... pal corporations of Amritsar, Jalandhar, Ludhiana,

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In order to ensure protectionof customers from elec-

tronic frauds or forged trans-actions such as unauthorisedand fraudulent electronicbanking transactions in thecountry, the Reserve Bank ofIndia (RBI) on Thursday saidmoney of customers sufferingany loss from such fake trans-actions will be credited in theaccounts concerned within10-days of the incident, onlyif these unauthorised elec-tronic banking transactionsare reported

to the concerned bank with-in three days.

With the increased thruston financial inclusion andcustomer protection, and con-sidering the recent surge incustomer grievances relatingto unauthorised transactionsresulting in debits to theiraccounts and cards, the RBIhas undertaken a review of cri-teria for determining cus-tomer liability. The move cameafter the review that therewas a need for strengtheningof systems and procedures.

On such fake transactions,in case the third party fraud is

reported with a delay of fourto seven working days, a cus-tomer will face liability of upto Rs 25,000. However, incases where the loss is due tonegligence by the accountholder such as sharing of pay-ment credentials, the cus-tomer will bear the entire lossuntil the unauthorised trans-action is reported to the bank.

“There will be zero liabil-ity of a customer in case ofthird party breach where thedeficiency lies neither with thebank nor with the customerbut lies elsewhere in the sys-tem,” the RBI said.

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In a significant decision, theSupreme Court on Thursday

held that any person, whoforges caste certificate, willlose all resultant benefits thataccrue in that name. The sweepof the decision will cover notjust persons taking upGovernment employment butto candidates who win electionsto Parliament and StateAssemblies as well. The court held that suchappointment to any office willbe declared void.

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Amid apprehensions of esca-lation in violence against

the backdrop of the first deathanniversary of HizbulMujahideen (HM) terroristBurhan Wani on Saturday andits impact on the ongoingAmarnath Yatra, Union HomeMinister Rajnath Singh onThursday chaired a high-levelmeeting to review the securityscenario in Jammu & Kashmir.

While the Centre hasdeployed more than 21,000

additional paramilitary forcesin the State in view of the sit-uation there, the StateGovernment has directed allinternet service providers toblock the social media sitesfrom 10.00 pm on Thursday tillfurther orders. Mobile internetservices are also likely to be sus-pended. All educational insti-tutions were also asked to closefor 10 days starting Thursday.

Giving details of the mea-sures taken to ensure an inci-dent-free Amarnath Yatra andprevent spike in violence dur-ing the next few days as ter-rorists have given a call forobserving Wani’s deathanniversary, Home SecretaryRajiv Mehrishi told reportershere after the high-level meet-ing that 21,000 additional per-sonnel of central paramilitarywere now deployed in the State.

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Harassing her for the last sixmonths, a 22-year-old jilt-

ed lover stabbed a 21-year-oldaspiring air hostess ten timesnear her house in full publicview in East Delhi’s MansarovarPark area outside the peer waligali of Ram Nagar onWednesday at 5:10 pm.

Deceased Riya Gautam wasrushed to Guru Tegh Bahadurhospital where she was operat-ed upon. However, around 2 amon Thursday she succumbed toher injuries, police said.

The gory incident was cap-tured on CCTV cameras of anearby Anil Photo Studio. “Inone of the CCTV footages, itis seen that attacker youth,Nanhe Khan alias Adil andRiya were walking close to thelane outside the girl’s house. An

altercation took place betweenthe two and it escalated. Adiltook a knife and started stab-bing Riya repeatedly. To saveher, she went inside the photostudio but he followed herand kept stabbing her until shefell unconscious. Riya sufferedaround 10 stab wounds on herchest and abdomen,” said asenior police officer privy tothe matter.

Now, hunt is on to nabAdil, a notorious auto lifter inthe area, who has been in andout of jail four times. Police saidthey have formed several teamsand have deployed them acrossbus stops, railway stations toarrest the accused.

Anil, owner of the PhotoStudio and a key eyewitness tothe murder, told The Pioneer,“I was sitting at my house,located above my studio.

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Blunting China’s assertionsthat the atmosphere is not

right for a formal or bilateralmeeting between PrimeMinister Narendra Modi andChinese President Xi Jinpingwhen they gather for the G20Summit in Hamburg, theMinistry of External Affairs on(MEA) on Thursday made itclear that India has neversought any such meeting withChina in the first place.

The MEA said Xi andModi will meet under the mul-tilateral BRICS (Brazil, Russia,India, China, South Africa)umbrella on the sidelines of theG-20 but no one-on-one meet-ing was planned between them.

MEA’s official spokesper-son Gopal Baglay reiterated on

Thursday that PM’s pre-planned bilateral meetings onthe sidelines of the Summit arewith Argentina, Canada, Italy,Japan, Mexico, Republic ofKorea, the United Kingdomand Vietnam. “In addition, hewill also participate in theBRICS Leaders’ meeting. Thereis no change in the PrimeMinister’s schedule,” Baglaysaid. The PM is visitingHamburg from July 6-8 for theG-20 Summit.

Sources said India has notasked for any meeting withPresident Xi, hence, there is noquestion of atmosphere beingconducive or not.

India’s snubbing of Chinacame after one of its officialssought to suggest that it wasBeijing which was calling off ascheduled bilateral meetingbetween the two leaders. “The

atmosphere is not right for abilateral meeting betweenModi and Jinping on the side-lines of the G20 Summit inHamburg,” the Chinese officialsaid even as China “strongly”urged India to pull back to

avoid the situation from gettingworse and lead to “some moreserious consequences”.

Chinese Foreign Ministryspokesperson Geng Shuanghad on Wednesday said: “As forarrangements on a bilateral

meeting between President Xiand Prime Minister Modi, Ihave to point out that recentlyborder troops trespassed intoChina and obstructed normalactivities of Chinese troops inthe Doklam area. This endan-gers China’s sovereignty andterritorial integrity and dam-aged the political foundationsof bilateral relations betweenChina and India. We hopeIndia can immediately with-draw border troops to Indianside of the boundary, upholdpeace and tranquility of ChinaIndia border area, and this is aprecondition for any talkbetween two sides.”

In fact, a week before theincident at the India-Bhutan-China border, Modi and Xi hadmet one-on-one in Astana thisJune where India and Pakistanbecame full members of theShanghai CooperationOrganisation (SCO). It is learntthat during this meeting, thePM told the Chinese Presidentnot to “let differences becomedisputes”.

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Even as the BengalGovernment allegedly

refused the Centre’s offer tosend in more Central forces,the communal violence inNorth 24 Parganas districtclaimed its first casualty onThursday.

The political ramificationsof the ongoing violence reachedthe shores of Kolkata whereTrinamool Congress and theBJP workers ran into eachother after senior BJP leaderKailash Vijayvargiya and theparty’s State president Dilip

Ghosh reached RG KarMedical College and Hospitalwhere the riot victim, analleged saffron activist, suc-cumbed to his injuries.

Kartik Ghosh, the allegedBJP worker who died onThursday, was attacked withsharp weapons by the rioters onWednesday night while return-ing to his house in Basirhat,some 50 miles north of theState capital.

Hundreds of rulingTrinamool Congress support-ers blocked the BJP leaders’passage to the hospital. A polit-ically charged-up crowd raisedanti-BJP slogans and poundedGhosh’s SUV, while anothergroup smashed the windscreenof State BJP leader LocketChatterjee’s car, even as thepolice looked the other way.With tension running high, theBJP leaders returned withoutmeeting the victims’ relatives.

In light of the fresh vio-lence, the BJP has decided tosend a team of its senior lead-

ers to visit Basirhat to study thecommunal flare-up and spi-raling violence. The team com-prising Lok Sabha MPsMeenakshi Lekhi and SatyaPal Singh would be led by theBJP’s vice-president and RajyaSabha member OP Mathur.They would be leaving for theState in a few days.

They would study the sit-uation and find out what led tothe violence in Basirhat.Vijayvargiya and Ghosh would“coordinate” the team’s visit inthe State.

Communal clashes hadbroken out in Basirhat,Baduria, Berachampa, SwaroopNagar and other remote vil-lages since Sunday night fol-lowing a Facebook post by aClass XI boy who was quicklyarrested by the police.

Meanwhile in Basirhat, itsthree lakh residents spent thefourth sleepless night onWednesday listening to blazingguns and raining bombs fromall sides, in all colonies.

���������� ��������������������� �������� ������������������������������������������������ ������ ������������

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The Supreme Court on Thursday sparked off a debate byobserving that there is no need to keep the Chief Justice of

India (CJI) outside the ambit of Right to Information (RTI) asthe constitutional office does not indulge in “secretive business”.

The comment came while the SC was examining an orderpassed by the Panaji Bench of the Bombay HC allowing a pleaunder RTI seeking the Governor’s report recommendingPresident’s Rule in Goa between July and August 2007.

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In its first major crackdownon the babudom soon after

100 days of governance, thePunjab Government onThursday affirmed initiation ofaction against three IAS offi-cers in an alleged multi-crorescam hovering around thefloating of tenders for munic-ipal works. It also placed theservices of four superintendingengineers (SEs) under sus-pension.

“It’s just a tip of an iceberg,”said the State LocalGovernment Minister NavjotSingh Sidhu, adding that thedecision will act as a deterrent.

At the same time, Sidhudeclared that his Departmentwould also be carrying out anaudit “on a large scale”.

Sidhu asserted that“astounding” disclosures weremade by the Department’sChief Vigilance Officer SudeepManak after scrutinising about1000 files of just four munici-pal corporations of Amritsar,Jalandhar, Ludhiana, andBathinda for just one year —2016.

“Out of total �800 croretenders for municipal works,�500 crore tenders were allot-ted on a single bid in complete

violation of laid down rules,”said Sidhu.

Maintaining that he has“right away” suspended fourSEs, two from Ludhiana andone each from Amritsar andJalandhar, for violating rules,Sidhu said that his Departmentwould soon sent a detailedchargesheet against three IASofficers to the Chief Ministerand the Chief Secretary fornecessary action.

“I have taken action as faras my jurisdiction is con-cerned…some are not in mypurview. So we will be sendingchargesheet against IAS offi-cers — Sonali Giri,Ghanshayam Thori, and GS

Khera —in the next three-fourdays with all proofs as theywere the competent authorityto approve these tenders,” hesaid.

Giri, Thori and Khera werethe then Commissioners ofMC of Amritsar, Ludhiana,and Jalandhar respectively. TheSEs, whose services have beenplaced under suspension arePK Goel (Amritsar),Kulwinder Singh (Jalandhar),Pawan Sharma and DharamSingh (Ludhiana).

“The SEs will be given achance to be heard within aweek,” Sidhu said.

Sidhu said that the LocalGovernment Department’s vig-

ilance team found that thelarge number of work orderswere awarded based on singlebid in Amritsar MunicipalCorporation, and then thescope of inspection wasextended to Ludhiana,Bathinda, and Jalandhar’s cor-porations where civil workorders for 2016 were inspect-ed.

It was found thatMunicipal Corporation Act,1976, has been violated where-in the House resolution is amust for any work order above�25,000. “Approval ofCorporation’s FinanceCommittee has not been takenfor majority work order scru-tinised while awarding thecontract, and even the CVCguidelines have been violatedwhich call for written detailedjustification in such cases,” headded.

“Prima facie, it is clear thatmore than 50 percent of thetenders of hundreds of croreshave been allotted on single bidviolating MC laws, CVC guide-lines and local governmentcirculars,” he said.

Sidhu maintained that hehad got departmental inquiryconducted, and ordering vig-ilance inquiry is on the ChiefMinister.

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Punjab Chief Minister CaptAmarinder Singh on

Thursday wrote to the PrimeMinister seeking a bonus of�100 per quintal on paddy, inaddition to its MSP, as anincentive to dissuade farmersfrom burning the crops residue.

In his letter, the ChiefMinister said the bonus wouldbe given to only those farmerswho manage paddy residue orstubble without burning it.

Capt Amarinder pointedout in his letter that he hadmade this request earlier also asa measure to compensate farm-ers for the additional burden ofmanaging paddy residue.

Though the MinimumSupport Price (MSP) for paddyhad been increased by �80 perquintal for Kharif-2017, thehike was not adequate to meet

the additional cost of cultiva-tion in terms of seeds and fer-tilisers, leave alone the extraexpense of residue manage-ment, the chief minister said.

At present, the MSP ofpaddy for the 2016-17 fiscal isfixed at �1,470 for commongrade and �1,510 for A-gradevarieties..

Stubble burning is a majorissue in the paddy cultivatingregions and is currently underadjudication in the National

Green Tribunal, the Punjaband Haryana High Court, theDelhi High Court and theSupreme Court of India, hesaid.

Acting on the variousdirectives issued by the courts,the Punjab government hasalready initiated steps to checkstubble burning, includinggrant of subsidy on purchase ofagriculture machinery for cropresidue management, aspokesman said.

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Signalling that it means busi-ness, Punjab Police on

Thursday filed a case againstthree US-based persons,including the Legal Advisor ofSikhs for Justice (SFJ), alongwith two persons based inIndia, on charges of sedition,promoting enmity and crimi-nal conspiracy.

This came soon after ChiefMinister Capt Amarinder Singhordered a crackdown on the out-fit amid complaints by the localpeople of deliberate attempts tovitiate the State’s atmosphere.

Capt Amarinder, who alsoholds the Home portfolio,directed the police to ensurethat neither the SFJ, nor anyother outfit succeeds in whip-ping up passions in the state,which Pakistan’s ISI could alsoexploit to its advantage.

The Chief Minister’s orderscame after a series of provoca-

tive posters and hoardingscame up at more than 40 out-door sites across the State.Investigations by the policeshowed that the campaign,titled ‘Punjab IndependenceReferendum 2020’, had beenmanaged by the BabaHanuman Singh Enterpriseagency, which was hired for thepurpose by New York-basedSFJ, through its legal advisorGurpatwant Singh Pannun.

Besides Pannun, othersbooked by the police have beenidentified as Jagdeep Singh,originally resident of FatehgarhSahib and now based in NewYork, and Jagjeet Singh origi-nally resident of J&K, also nowbased in New York. The twoaccused based in India havebeen identified by the police asGurpeet Singh of Mohali andHarpunit Singh of Jammu.

All five have been bookedfor promoting feelings of enmi-ty and disharmony between

different groups, and commit-ting acts prejudicial to main-tenance of harmony, throughvisible representations. Suchacts have disturbed and arelikely to disturb public tran-quility in Punjab, the policesaid in its FIR.

Further investigations are inprogress to uncover the variousfinancial and operational link-ages between persons based inIndia and abroad, said the policespokesperson, adding that theSFJ, backed by Khalistani forces,had been actively trying todestabilise Punjab for the pastseveral months.

Punjab Police has, in recentweeks, busted several modulesof terrorists linked to Khalistaniforces, which had started rais-ing their ugly heads again in anapparent bid to whip up tensionin Punjab. Interrogation ofthese alleged terrorists, arrest-ed from various parts of Punjab,had shown that they were being

mentored and armed byKhalistani supporters inCanada, USA and other places,with some also being trained byISI in neighbouring Pakistan.

Capt Amarinder has madeit clear that any attempt to cre-ate disharmony or to revive ter-rorism in the State would benipped in the bud. "Punjab andits people have suffered enoughat the hands of Khalistaniextremists", said CaptainAmarinder, adding that hisgovernment would nail everysingle person found involved inany subversive activities.

The Chief Minister hasalso categorically ruled out anylocal support for the SFJ cam-paign, saying external forceswere out to whip up passions tofurther their own vested inter-ests. The people of Punjabwanted peace and his govern-ment was committed to pro-viding them a safe and peace-ful environment in the State.

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To put an end to the men-ace of eve-teasing outside

schools upto classes X and XII,Haryana Police will re-launchoperation ‘Durga’ in the ruralareas of the State.

Women police personnelwill be deployed as decoysnear schools under operation‘Durga’ in the State.

“The state Police will re-launch operation ‘Durga’ tocurb the incidents of eve-teas-ing in Haryana,” said BSSandhu, Haryana DirectorGeneral of Police, while talk-ing to the mediapersons afterholding a meeting with seniorpolice officials on Thursday.

Operation ‘Durga’ waslaunched by the State Police inApril. In less than 20 days,Haryana Police had arrested15 persons for eve teasingand registered 30 cases underits campaign. Apart from this,23185 violators were let offafter warning, counselling of822 violators was done inpolice stations in the presenceof their parents and 5880 per-sons were challaned for viola-tion of traffic rules.

The DGP also said thatstrict action would be takenagainst such police personnel

as were either hands-in-glovewith gangs or were providinginformation to them. Actionis already being taken againstsome such police personnel,he said.

He also said that a cam-paign would be launched fromJuly 7 onwards to check casesof chain and purse snatching.Anyone providing informationabout the snatcher would begiven award of up to �1 lakhand the name of the informerwould be kept secret, said he.

Sandhu said a special taskforce would be constituted todeal with drug trafficking,unlawful acts, organised crime,recovery of illegal weaponsand stopping gang war in thestate. This proposal has beenaccorded in-principle approval.

The task force would

include an officer of InspectorGeneral of Police-level, twoSuperintendents of Police andfour Deputy Superintendentsof Police, who would gatherinformation regarding organ-ised crime. This decision inthis regard was taken a daybefore at a meeting underChief Minister Manohar Lal.

The DGP said that aCentralised Police ControlRoom is being set up inPanchkula where informationrelated to the entire state wouldbe gathered and referred to thepolice stations concerned, forimmediate action.

For this purpose, 600 newPCRs are being purchasedwhich would be operatedthrough GPS and computer.Ambulance and Fire Brigadewould also be linked with thiscontrol room to deal with anyincident at the earliest byreaching the spot, said he.

To meet the shortage ofpolice personnel, Sandhu saidthat 4,500 constables havebeen recruited and therecruitment process for 7,000more police personnel is inprogress. Out of these, 6,000are males and 1,000 arefemales. All vacant postswould be filled by next year, headded.

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An amount of �2,331 crorehas been recovered by

Haryana Government as taxarrears from 1,874 traders anddealers under its recentlylaunched one-time settlementscheme for recovery of out-standing dues, 2017 in the state.

The State Excise andTaxation Minister, Capt.Abhimanyu on Thursday saidthat the Department hasreceived �2232.20 crore of taxarrears from Panipat aloneunder the scheme. Out of thetotal arrears, the refinery of theIndian Oil Corporation (IOC)alone accounted for �2230.98crore and remaining �1.22crore was received from deal-ers in Panipat.

In districts Gurugram andSonepat, more than �45.75 croreand �10.77 crore were recoveredfrom 359 and 137 dealers,respectively, said the Minister.

Giving more details, hesaid that more than �46.57lakh was recovered from 22dealers in Ambala, over �85.02lakh from 38 dealers inBhiwani, more than �10.45crore from 333 dealers in

Faridabad, more than �99.20lakh from 46 dealers inFatehabad, over �1.78 crorefrom 65 dealers in Hisar.

Similarly, more than �4.05crore was recovered from 75dealers in Jhajjar, over �45.45lakh from 11 dealers in Jind,more than �25.55 lakh from 30dealers in Kaithal and morethan �2.33 crore from 296 deal-ers in Karnal.

In Kurukshetra, over �1.02crore was recovered from 92dealers, more than �56.45 lakhwas recovered from 11 dealersin Nuh, around �16.98 lakhfrom eight dealers in Narnaul,more than �2.82 crore from 31dealers in Palwal, more than�9.90 crore from 46 dealers inPanchkula, �1.19 crore inRewari, �2.03 crore in districtRohtak, more than �1.22 crorein Sirsa and more than �1.71crore from 57 dealers inYamunanagar.

The Excise and TaxationMinister said that the settle-ment scheme was launched onJune 22 to minimise litigation,reduce the burden of defaultersand mop up dues under variousActs administered by the Exciseand Taxation Department.

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Following its decision to re-engage retired teachers to

meet the shortage of teachingstaff in the schools, HaryanaGovernment has approved �22crore for the payment of remu-neration of retired teachersengaged in the state for the year2017-18.

Education Minister RamBilas Sharma on Thursday saidthat retired Post Graduate Teacherwill be given �29,000 per month,Trained Graduate Teacher and Cand V language teachers �26,000per month and the PrimaryTeachers will get remuneration of�21,000 per month.

The State Government hadrecently decided to re-engageabout 5,000 retired teaches in

the government schools. Under the ‘Sugam Shiksha’

component of the HaryanaSwarna Jubilee program, thegovernment has approved �22crore for one year for remu-neration to retired teachers. Aremuneration of �one croreeach will be sent to the DistrictEducation Officer concerned,said the Minister.

Sharma said that StateGovernment will soon recruitregular teachers on vacant posi-tions in all government schools.These retired teachers are beingre-engaged so that students'studies would not be affecteduntil regular recruitment. Theday the regular teacher isappointed at the place of retiredteacher, he will be relieved onthat day, he added.

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The Czech Republic hasevinced keen interest in

investing in Haryana in aero-space, defence and auto man-ufacturing sectors.

Ambassador of CzechRepublic to India, MilanHovorka called on HaryanaIndustries and CommerceMinister Vipul Goel here onThursday to discuss possibili-ties for cooperation in varioussectors.

During the meeting, it wasdiscussed that industries in theCzech Republic could be invit-ed for setting up aerospace anddefence facilities in the upcom-ing integrated aviation hub atHisar, said an officialspokesman.

As Haryana has three fly-ing clubs, world-class flyingtraining facilities could bedeveloped in collaborationwith Czech institutions impart-ing such training. Presently,trainee pilots have to travel toPrague for such training, hesaid.

Discussion was also heldregarding possibility of invit-ing Czech companies to set upauto and auto ancillary units inHaryana. Czech automobilegiant Skoda presently has twoplants at Pune andAurangabad, informed thespokesman.

As a cultural exchange ini-tiative, Haryana could alsohost the Czech philharmonicorchestra for one performancein Chandigarh during theirtour to India in January, 2018,said he.

The spokesman added thatMilan Hovorka also invited theIndustries Minister to visit theCzech Republic in October2017 for the industries fair tobe held there. India is a part-ner state in this trade fair.

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Page 3: ˛ 0˚ 1 20 -23 - ˜˙ˇˆ ˛ˇ!˙ rorists have given a call for observing Wani’s death ... lane outside the girl’s house. An ... pal corporations of Amritsar, Jalandhar, Ludhiana,

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Aam Aadmi Party MLA and the Leaderof Opposition in Punjab Vidhan

Sabha HS Phoolka has decided to surren-der the cabinet minister rank to fight forthe cause of the 1984 anti-Sikh riot victims.

Days after the Bar Council raisedobjections on Phoolka holding ‘office ofprofit’ while also practicing law, Phoolkaon Thursday shared his decision on themicro-blogging website, Twitter. “Willnot give up 84 carnage cases. Asking BarCouncil if by giving up Minister status, Ican appear in these cases,” he tweeted.

Delhi Bar Council had disallowedPhoolka to appear for the victims in sev-eral cases against Congress leader SajjanKumar and others.

The Council had argued that Phoolka

enjoys cabinet rank in his capacity of beingLeader of Opposition, which is an officeof profit, and getting Rs two lakh salary andperks per month.

Phoolka said that he had requested theBar Council to allow him to appear in 1984riot cases as he was willing to leave his cab-

inet rank. AAP leader has made a name for him-

self by representing 1984 victims for over30 years, without charging any fees.

Following the Bar Council’s objection,Phoolka was in quandary as he could notleave either of 1984 anti-Sikh riot victimsor his leading his nascent party in VidhanSabha. AAP, in its first assembly polls inPunjab, secured the place of being the mainopposition party with 20 seats, pushing theSAD-BJP combine to poor third with 18MLAs.

Phoolka, though a first-timer, isaccepted as a leader by all MLAs andenjoys their support and confidence,besides that of the party high commandand national convener Arvind Kejriwal.However, his differences with BholathMLA Sukhpal Khaira are not unknown.

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Punjab Government willsoon initiate a massive

campaign to protect childrenfrom the use of tobacco ornicotine addiction, alcoholand psychotropic substance. Ina first step towards the same,the district authorities havebeen asked to take “strictaction” against vendors sellingtobacco products to theminors.

The State Health andFamily Welfare MinisterBrahm Mohindra said that avendor selling tobacco, alcoholand psychotropic substanceto a minor must be bookedunder the Juvenile Justice Act2015.

“An order has been issuedto district authorities askingfor action against such ven-dors,” he said adding that thehealth and other departmentsconcerned would jointly carryout the campaign to makeyoung people and the generalpublic aware of laws such asthe Juvenile Justice (Care andProtection of Children) Act,2015, and Cigarette and otherTobacco Product Act 2003(COTPA) across the state.

Mohindra said thataccording to Section 77 of theJuvenile Justice Act, “Whoevergives, or causes to be given, toany child any intoxicatingliquor or any narcotic drug ortobacco products or psy-chotropic substance, excepton the order of a duly qualifiedmedical practitioner, wouldbe punishable with rigorousimprisonment for a termwhich may extend to sevenyears and would also be liable

to a fine which may extend upto Rs one lakh.”

Under the Act, a “child”refers to those not yet 18, hesaid, adding that the JuvenileJustice Act has been in force inthe country from January 15,2016.

In addition, necessarydirections have been issued toall Deputy Commissioners,Police Commissioners and heSenior Superintendents ofPolice (SSPs) to ensure strictcompliance with the Act.

The district authoritieswere also asked to submitmonthly action taken reportsto the State Government.

The state PrincipalSecretary (Health and FamilyWelfare) Anjali Bhawra saidthat recently, a team lead byJalandhar ACP registered anFIR under the Juvenile JusticeAct against a tobacco vendor,selling tobacco products to aminor which is the first caseregistered in Punjab.

Earlier, similar action hasbeen taken in Maharashtraand Haryana, she said.

Bhawra said that accusedvenders, who sell tobacco andpsychotropic products to theminors, would be caughtunder this campaign.

The state Director HealthServices Dr Rajiv Bhalla saidthat exemplary punishmentto errant vendors wouldreduce the incidence of tobac-co intake among minors.

According to the ‘GlobalAdult Tobacco Survey Report(2009-10)’, every year, 1.60lakh minors start using tobac-co in Punjab. About 42 percent of users took tobaccobefore they were 18.

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Punjab Forest Departmentwill distribute 25 lakh free

saplings during 2017-18 tovarious institutions to main-tain ecological balance andbring government as well asother institutions under greencover.

“The department woulddistribute saplings under‘Punjab Mission Scheme’ toeducational, social, religiousinstitutions apart from mili-tary and para-military forces,”said the state Forest andWildli fe Preser vationMinister Sadhu SinghDharamsot on Thursday.

He said that it would bemandatory for the concernedinstitutions to carefully nur-

ture the saplings so as to ful-fil the purpose of increasinggreenery.

Department has also for-mulated a comprehensiveplan to prepare herbal gardenat Hoshiarpur, Pathankot, SriMuktsar Sahib, Bathinda andPatiala during 2017-18besides having medicinalplants at appropriate places.Under the scheme, a total of�1.25 crore would be spentduring current year.

The Minister also detailedthat the department hasestablished two modern nurs-eries at Hoshiarpur andPatiala during the course ofprevious three months inorder to prepare good quali-ty saplings for plantation toincrease forest cover.

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Sikh seminary DamdamiTaksal today began "kar

sewa" (voluntary service) to setup a "martyrs gallery" at theOperation Bluestar memorialin the Golden Temple complexhere.

The portraits of Sikh mil-itants, including Jarnail SinghBhindranwale, as well as pil-grims killed during OperationBluestar in June 1984 duringthe Army action will be placedin the gallery.

After a ceremony, kar sewafor the "martyrs" photo galleryto be set up in the basement ofthe memorial, was jointly start-ed by the Damdami Taksalchief Harnam Singh Dhumma,Akal Takht Jathedar, GyaniGurbachan Singh, head priestGolden Temple Gyani JagtarSingh and ShiromaniGurdwara ParbandhakCommittee (SGPC) chiefKirpal Singh Badungar.

Delhi Sikh GurdwaraManagement Committee chiefManjit Singh GK along withvarious other Sikh religiousand political figures was alsopresent on the occasion.

Akal Takht is the supremetemporal seat while SGPC isthe apex religious body of theSikhs.

SGPC chief Badungar saidthe apex religious body hasdecided that 300 photographsof Bhindrawale, Shubeg Singh,Thara Singh and others wouldbe placed at the Damdami

Taksal memorial gallery in theGolden Temple.

Badungar denied anypolitical move behind settingup of the gallery, saying it wasan emotive issue for the Sikhcommunity.

Punjab Chief MinisterCapt Amarinder Singh hadslammed the Damdami Taksalfor trying to "foment trouble"and "disrupting peace" by suchactivities.

The chief minister hadsaid on Tuesday that that hewas against the gallery fromday one and had askedDamdami Taksal not toindulge in such activities as itmay provoke the people.

The SGPC on June 15 gavea go ahead for setting up aphoto gallery of Sikh "martyrs"killed during OperationBluestar, the 1984 army oper-ation to flush out militantsfrom the Golden Temple, at itsexecutive committee meet.

The then Damdami Taksalchief Jarnail SinghBhindrawale was killed duringOperation Bluestar.

After beginning the karsewa, Dhumma also initiated"Akhand Path" in the memo-ry of Bhindranwale andShubeg Singh.

Damdami Taksal wasbehind the construction ofthe controversial 'martyrsmemorial' in the GoldenTemple complex in 2013wherein the portrait ofBhindrawale was installed inthe gallery.

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The Shiromani Akali Dalon Thursday registered its

protest against denial of officiallanguage status to Punjabi byChandigarh administrationbesides non-implementationof Punjab quota in UT admin-istration with the UTAdministrator, VP SinghBadnore.

A delegation of the SADled by party MP Prem SinghChandumajra briefed theGovernor that despite the factthat Chandigarh was plannedas a capital of Punjab byuprooting scores of Punjabi vil-lages, grave injustice had beendone to it by denying officiallanguage status to Punjabi.

The SAD MP also briefed

the Governor that Chandigarhwas the only UT in the coun-try where the regional languagehad not been given official sta-tus. He said this anomalyshould be corrected immedi-ately .

The delegation members,including former ministerDaljit Singh Cheema, said overthe years there had been a con-certed effort to change thePunjabi character of the city. Hesaid while this started withremoval of Punjabi sign boards,it had extended to such anextent now that UT offices nowdid not even entertain corre-spondence in Punjabi.

Badnore assured the dele-gation that a high level com-mittee would look into allthese issues.

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Congress-led opposition’spresidential nominee

Meira Kumar will visitChandigarh on July 9 to seeksupport from Congress MPsand MLAs of Haryana andPunjab.

The former Lok SabhaSpeaker Meira Kumar, whothe opposition has chosen totake on NDA candidate RamNath Kovind in the presiden-tial polls, will visit the city aspart of her campaign for theJuly 17 election.

Haryana Congress chiefAshok Tanwar, while talking tothe mediapersons on Thursdaysaid that Meira Kumar will visitChandigarh on July 9 and willhold a meeting with MPs andMLAs from Haryana andPunjab.

In the 90-member Haryanaassembly, the Congress has 17members. Congress has twoRajya Sabha members and oneLok Sabha MP from Haryana.

The party has 77 MLAs inthe 117-member Punjabassembly. While Congress hasfour MPs in Lok Sabha, thereare three party MPs in RajyaSabha from Punjab.

Earlier on June 29, NDApresidential candidate RamNath Kovind had visited

Chandigarh to seek support ofBJP MPs and MLAs in Punjaband Haryana. Haryana’s mainopposition party, IndianNational Lok Dal had alsoextended its support to Kovindduring his visit to the city.

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Tightening the noosearound Fastway

Transmission Private Limited— having links with the Badalfamily, Punjab LocalGovernment Minister NavjotSingh Sidhu on Thursday laidbare how the “monopolistic”firm evaded taxes `runninginto a whopping �5,000 crore.

Sidhu also declared that hehas set a week’s deadline for hisDepartment officials to sendnotices to all 8000 “erring” ser-vice providers, to recover taxesalong with the penalties.

Only a day before, theChief Minister has asked thestate Advocate General to gointo the details of the matter,and come with the proposedaction within 10 days. “ChiefMinister has asked me to dis-cuss the entire issue with theAG Atul Nanda,” Sidhu toldThe Pioneer.

Sidhu added that he hadalso written to the ChiefMinister, as the state Excise

and Taxation Departmentcomes under him, regardingthe entire tax evasion the dayI made disclosures aboutFastway in the Vidhan Sabha.

“This is such a massiveevasion…In case the StateExcise Department detectsevasion, the recovery can bemade by coordinating withthe Centre…I have alreadywritten to the ChiefMinister…Now, it is upon himto act,” said Sidhu.

As Sidhu has all alongbeen pressing for acting againstFastway, Capt Amarinder wasdragging his feet claiming thathe was against “witch-hunting”.

Fortifying his case, Sidhuon Thursday brought along aformer Central Excise OfficerSL Goyal who exposed how theFastway went into evading notonly the state’s but also the cen-tral taxes.

Goyal minced no words tosay that the Central ExciseDepartment is dragging itsfeet in recovering the duesfrom Fastway. He also hinted

that the EnforcementDirectorate has the authority torecover the “evaded money”under the provisions of MoneyLaundering Act.

He also alleged that an“honest officer” of CentralExcise Department, ASDhaliwal, was falsely implicat-ed.

Having over 40-year expe-rience, Goyal said that theservice tax evasion figure stoodat �2600 crore in 2012 whenthe case was detected by theCentral Excise Department,which would have doubled bynow, having major share ofPunjab.

“The figure of �2600 crore,detected in 2012, would havedoubled by now. If the figurewas actualised now, the Punjabgovernment would get a majorshare in terms of entertain-ment tax,” said Goyal addingthat the total tax evasion bynow would be over �5000crore.

Going into the details,Goyal said that a raid was con-

ducted on Fastway premises in2012, and Company’s allrecords, from 2008 onwards,were seized which are stilllying with the Central ExciseDepartment with no actiontaken.

“Out of �2,600 crore, the

Department sent show causenotices for only �179 crore toFastway whose ultimate con-clusion was notrecovery…Thereafter, the restof the amount became timebarred as the financial liabili-ty exceeded five years,” he

said. He said that out of 8,000

total cable operators in Punjab,Fastway controlled 6,500 localcable operators, out of whichonly 150 used to pay taxes,“and the figure has nowreached to 325, meaning that

only 325 are registered with theCentre”.

Goyal pointed that if anyfirm managed to evade Centraltaxes, including service tax, itcan easily evade state taxes likeentertainment tax, income tax,as the state depended on thecentral figures.

He accused Fastway of“under-declaring” figure of itssubscribers at 1.25 lakh “whichcomes out to be 20 connectionsper operator which isfunny…The actual figure is 25lakh subscribers in Punjab”.

If that is not enough, headded that the Fastway strate-gically evaded service tax onset-top box “by providing it onsecurity on refundable basis,but never refunded anyamount…It is actually de-factosale to evade service tax”. Headded that about 45 lakh set-top boxes were imported inFastway’s name which alsoraises questions on the actualnumber of subscribers.

Goyal said that in this taxevasion, the Fastway and cable

operators “enter into a con-spiracy by singing 21-pageagreement in which the oper-ators would collect all fundsand give it to Fastway…theydeliberately left out who willpay the service tax as Fastwaymaintained that it was notproviding service, and opera-tors maintained that moneywas handed over to Fastway”.

As per the informationunder RTI, �25 crore wasrealised but the Central ExciseDepartment had only details of�11.32 crore. “No informationabout the �14 crore tax wasprovided,” he added.

“In 2014, Fastway evengot a service tax credit for theinvoices amounting to �36crore but the invoices weredeleted from its records,” headded.

Claiming that one lakhpeople be provided employ-ment if cable mafia is con-trolled alone, Sidhu said thatthe financial irregularitiescommitted by the previousGovernment will be audited.

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Chandigarh: Punjab Chief Minister CaptAmarinder Singh on Thursday ruled out anycensorship of cable TV but made it clear thataction would be taken if there were tax relat-ed violations.

He also said that his government wouldextend all possible help to new channels orcable operators and also ensure that peopleget the choice they deserve and are notforced to consume biased coverage dishedout by any one channel with monopolisticpowers.

The Chief Minister however added that

he would ensure that whosoever is foundguilty of tax violations or any other actagainst the law of the land is penalised.

"Let them all come and compete for theviewer's attention," he said in a statementhere, adding that with a wider bouquet tochoose from, the people would automaticallyreject any channel found to be engaged inbiased dissemination of news or information.

He added that his government wouldextend all possible help to any new channelsor cable operators seeking to set up shop in Punjab. PNS

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Page 4: ˛ 0˚ 1 20 -23 - ˜˙ˇˆ ˛ˇ!˙ rorists have given a call for observing Wani’s death ... lane outside the girl’s house. An ... pal corporations of Amritsar, Jalandhar, Ludhiana,

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After extending support toSant Gopal Das, who

has been sitting on a hungerstrike for the past 35 daysseeking protection of cows,Haryana Congress leaderson Thursday met GovernorKaptan Singh Solanki seekinghis intervention into the mat-ter.

A Congress delegation

led by party’s Haryana chiefAshok Tanwar met theGovernor and requested himto issue directions to the BJPled State Government toaccept demands of SantGopal Das and work for theprotection of bovine species.

Tanwar, while talking tothe mediapersons after themeeting said that the partyleaders will join Sant Gopal Dason July 8 and will sit on hunger

strike to press for his demands. Gopal Das has been sit-

ting on a hunger strike inRohtak and has demandedthe State Government tohand over ‘gauchar bhoomi’(pasture land) in villages todevelop gaushalas and graz-ing grounds for cattle.

Besides, Das has alsodemanded the governmentto set up a Gauchar VikasBoard on the pattern of the

Gujarat Government. Ashok Tanwar said that the

party has requested the Governorto issue directions to HaryanaGovernment in this regard so

that Sant Gopal Das ends hishunger strike at the earliest.

Alleging that the StateGovernment has not kept itspromise of protecting cow, the

Congress leader said that‘gauchar bhoomi’ is beingencroached upon and illegalactivities are being carried outon the land meant for grazing.

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Page 5: ˛ 0˚ 1 20 -23 - ˜˙ˇˆ ˛ˇ!˙ rorists have given a call for observing Wani’s death ... lane outside the girl’s house. An ... pal corporations of Amritsar, Jalandhar, Ludhiana,

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The Supreme Court onThursday was forced to

pull back on the issue of farm-ers' suicides after AttorneyGeneral KK Venugopal put upa spirited defence saying thecrop insurance schemelaunched by the Governmenthad in a single year covered animpressive 40 per cent farmers.

The Court, subsequently,had to give Centre breathingspace and it decided to pursuethe matter after six monthswaiting to see further results ofthe insurance schemes in orderto prevent farmers' suicides.Making a strongdefence of the Government'sseriousness to tackle the issue offarmer suicides, Venugopal, whowas appearing in the case for thefirst time as A-G, submitted thatthe Centre intends to provideinsurance cover over 50 per centof irrigable land area by 2018-19under the Pradhan Mantri FasalBima Yojna (PMFBY).

The bench of Chief Justice JSKhehar and Justice DY

Chandrachud kept raisingdoubts over the implementationof the schemes by saying, "Youhave the schemes, you have theheart to do it. But it is on paperand it needs to move from beingjust on paper. You are on theright track, but farmer suicidefigures have not gone down." TheCourt was dealing with a PIL byNGO Citizens Resource andAction Initiative (CRANTI) thatfound the schemes to be goodbut pointed deficiencies in itsimplementation.

A-G Venugopal told thebench that at present, 5.34 croreout of 12 crore farmers in thecountry have been providedwith insurance cover under

PMFBY. The Centre stated thatthe problem of farmer suicidewill not come down in a day asit is a problem plaguing thecountry for years. Venugopalcleared doubts over lack ofimplementation by showingthat in one year since the launchof PMFBY, 40 per cent farmerswere covered. He requested theCourt not to rush through theissue and give time for the ben-efits of the scheme to seep inand sought hearing on the mat-ter after a year.

The point was well taken bythe bench which agreed tohear the matter after sixmonths. It said, "We are of theview that an issue as serious asthis cant be dealt with overnightand it is justified for the A-G toseek time to implement theschemes." The Court directedthe Centre to work out ascheme for implementationduring the interregnum byinvolving senior advocate ColinGonsalves, who representedthe petitioner NGO and takinginputs of another intervenorwho appeared before the bench.

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Rashtriya Kisan Mahasangh(RKM), a consortium of 62

leading national farmer organ-isations is on indefinite strikeat Jantar Mantar where after arally around 1,500 farmerscourted arrest at the ParliamentStreet police station.

Binod Pandey of RKM saidthat one month has beenpassed of killing of six farmersin Mandsaur but neither FIRswas lodged nor report put upin public domain.

To manifest themselves

RKM is contemplating a protestMarch in the form of candlemarch at Jantar Mantar.

He clarified that his orga-nization has nothing to dowith a march organised byfew people with inherent polit-ical interest from Mandsaur toChamparan in Bihar.

He further added that"acute agricultural distress wit-nessed is due to the manifes-tation of a deep seated infir-mity arising from inadequatepublic investment and insuffi-cient public action by variousGovernment and these set of

self-acclaimed farmer leaderswho use them as politicalweapon.

Guranam Singh, presidentBKU who is another corecommittee member fromHaryana, Kurushetra says " theunfinished agenda of variousGovernment ,the technologyfatigue and inadequate institu-tional credit added with non-remunerative marketingopportunities of Farm pro-duce is the real culprit".

The farmers also demand-ed speedy probe by NHRC onthe Mandsaur killing.

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There's good news for chick-en lovers in India as the

Ministry of Agriculture hasdeclared the country free fromthe highly contagious avianinfluenza (H5N1) or bird flueven as it stressed the need forcontinued surveillance. Theoutbreak of bird flu, an infec-tious viral disease of birds, wasreported at various epicentresin nine states and UnionTerritories during October2016 and February 2017. Thegovernment has informed theWorld Organization forAnimal Health (OIE) lastmonth that it has been freefrom Avian Influenza fromJune 6 this year and notifica-tion to this effect has beenissued.

Bird flu affects mainly thedomestic poultry. Commonlyknown as bird flu, the disease

usually spreads from bird tobird but may sometimesspread from birds to humans.Though human to humantransmission - which takesplace mostly after intimateand constant physical contact- is rare, the infection is viru-lent and, in an estimated 60%of cases, fatal. There is no vac-cine against H5N1.

Notably, there werereports of outbreak of HighlyPathogenic Avian influenza

at various epicenters in Delhi,Gwalior (MP), Rajpura(Punjab), Hissar (Haryana),Bellary (Karnataka),Allappuzha and Kottayam(Kerala), Ahmedabad(Gujarat), Daman (Daman)and Khordha and Angul(Odisha during October, 2016to February, 2017. In Delhi,the National Zoological Parkwas shut down after the deathsof nine water birds from AvianInfluenza last year.

According to a statementissued by the Department ofAnimal Husbandry under theagriculture ministry, all theoutbreaks of Avian Influenza(HPAI) mentioned above werenotified to OIE and the con-trol and containment opera-tions were carried out as perthe Action Plan onPreparedness, Control andContainment of AvianInfluenza. "India has declared

itself free from avian influen-za (H5N1) from June 6, 2017and notified the same to theWorld Organization forAnimal Health (OIE)," said ina statement.

In areas on the one-kilo-metre radius of the outbreaklocation, the Government tookmeasures, including culling,disinfection and clean-up, tocontain the spread of avianinfluenza.

"Post the surveillance, thestate has shown no evidence ofpresence of the disease... Therehas been no further outbreakreported in the country there-after," the ministry said.

In a letter to chief secre-taries of states, the Centrehad emphasised the need for"continued surveillance espe-cially in the vulnerable areasbordering infected countriesand in areas visited by migra-tory birds.

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Election CommissionerAchal Kumar Joti on

Thursday took over as the 21stChief Election Commissioner,succeeding Nasim Zaidi. OmPrakash Rawat is the otherElection Commissioner in thepoll panel. The Government isalso soon expected to appointone more ElectionCommissioner to fill up thevacancy caused by Zaidi'sretirement.

Joti had joined the three-member Election Commissionas an election commissioneron May 8, 2015 and would bein office till January 17, 2018.Dr. Zaidi demitted office on

Wednesday after completinghis tenure.

After the assumption ofcharge, Joti spoke about the pri-orities of the Commission andsaid that the Commission shallpursue vigorously its commit-ment to hold free, fair, inclusiveand credible elections through-out the country. "TheCommission will also pursueits mission to ensure that "NoVoter to be Left Behind".Thirdly, the Commission shallactively promote e-Governance

for holding of elections to theState Assemblies andParliamentary Elections in thecountry", Joti added.

Noteworthy, a chief elec-tion commissioner or electioncommissioners can have tenureof six years or hold office till theage of 65 years, whichever isearlier.64-year-old Joti, a 1975batch IASofficer, had served asthe chief secretary of Gujaratwhen Prime Minister NarendraModi was the Chief Ministerand retired in January 2013.

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Stressing that the Congresswill press for reduction in

GST rates and demand a cap of18 per cent, senior Congressleader and former FinanceMinister P Chidambaram onThursday said that GST rolloutshould have been delayed byatleast two months and GSTNetwork (GSTN) should haveundergone a dry run beforeimplementation.

He said the aim was thatone indirect tax will subsumeall other indirect taxes but thisGST fails to achieve that. TheCongress demanded that realestate, electricity and petrole-um products be broughtunder GST. "The ModiGovernment's GST law is"very, very imperfect" andcannot be labelled "onenation, one tax" as it has

seven or more tax rates,"Chidambaram said at AICCPress conference.

He said that Congress willpress for reduction in tax ratesand demand a cap of 18 per-cent, besides seeking to bringpetroleum, electricity and realestate under the new taxregime. "This is a very, veryimperfect law. This is not theGST which we (the UPA) hadenvisaged...What has beenimplemented, however, is aGST with seven, or possiblymore, rates. It is a mockery ofGST. When we have rates like0.25, 3, 5, 12, 18, 28 and 40, andpossibly more because of thediscretion vested with stateGovernments, how can we callthis a 'one nation, one tax'regime?" he asked.

Chidambaram said theCongress would continue towatch the roll-out of GST and

articulate the fears and griev-ances of small and medium sizeand multi-state businesses andconsumers. He noted thatauthorities and businesses were"unprepared or underprepared"for the roll-out of the tax regimeand said its launch should havebeen deferred by two monthsand the GSTN should havebeen put through a trial run.

He said the party wouldhold meetings and conferencesacross the country to highlightthat the Congress was the "orig-inal proponent" of the GST andcampaign for bringing a "trueGST".

According toChidambaram, BJP leader andformer finance MinisterYashwant Sinha had also con-firmed that this was not theGST envisaged by the firstNDA regime led by ABVajpayee.

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Is the disgruntled Congressleader Shankersinh Vaghela's

son crossing over to the BJPbefore the Gujarat elections slat-ed year end ?

Vaghela who quit the BJP in1995 and stayed in the Congresshad recently made noises againsthis party's high command andeven 'unfollowed' Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi andsome other colleagues on Twitter.

This and his interactionwith BJP President Amit Shahfew months ago has triggeredspeculation in political circles onhis next move before the Gujaratpoll. Congress has recently notresponded positively to thedemand of Vaghela's followers toproject him as Chief Ministerialcandidate of the party in Gujarat.

According to sources,Vaghela, 77, along with his sonMahendrasinh, 48, a CongressMLA, could cross over to BJP.

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With the ElectionCommission appearing

reluctant to have verifiablepaper audit trail (VVPAT)EVMs for Gujarat State elec-tions in December this year,the Supreme Court onThursday directed it to file anaffidavit on the number ofVVPAT EVMs available. Thecourt grew wary of the pollwatchdog's reluctance becausewhile the EC said it did nothave enough EVMs, theCentre pointed out that theCommission had 87,000VVPAT EVMs. The Courtwas also informed that Gujaratin all needed only 71,000 ofthose machines.

The occasion for theCourt to deal with the issuearose on a petition filed by oneReshma Patel who demandedVVPAT to be fitted in allEVMs in the upcomingGujarat elections. The Centrefiled an affidavit informing thebench of Chief Justice JSKhehar and Justice DYChandrachud that thePresident had sanctioned therelease of a sum of � 3173.47 crore for acquiring16.15 lakh EVMs fitted withVVPAT.

The affidavit further stat-ed that as per available infor-mation, ECI has in possession

some 20300 VVPAT EVMsand even placed orders foradditional 67000 in year 2016.

In this backdrop, senioradvocate Kapil Sibal whoappeared for the petitionerargued that this number wassufficient to hold elections inGujarat which required anestimated 71000 EVMs. Thecounsel for ElectionCommission stated there werenot enough EVMs.

But when confronted withthe fact that the Centre's affi-davit claims the EC to havepossession of 87000 oddEVMs, the counsel said thatnot all these machines are inworking condition.

The bench said, "The man-ner in which you are arguing,it seems you do not want tohave VVPAT machines." TheCourt demanded on affidavitthe total working stock ofVVPAT machines and thedesirability to employ them inthe coming Gujarat elections.

Sibal said that the SupremeCourt in a decision on October8, 2013 had held paper trail tobe an essential part of free andfair elections to which EC neverobjected in the past.The benchposted the matter after a monthwhile warning EC, "We willenforce it upon you as every-body should know that every-thing is fairly done. Yourdemeanour does not showthat."

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Extension of deadlines isusually the norm. But

Prime Minister Narendra Modihas advanced by two years-from 2020 to 2018-the target toachieve a 90 per cent coverageof immunisation in the coun-try. And it will be monitored bythe PMO.

As per 2014 data, immu-nization coverage in India is 65per cent. Nearly 35 percent(9.46 million) children up tofive years in India remain par-tially immunised or unimmu-nized due to various reasons.

Now, faced with thedaunting task to meet 90 percent coverage goal by 2020 asdirected by the Prime Ministerin a review meeting recently,the Union Health Ministryfrom October will embark onan extensive four-monthIntensif ied MissionIndradhanush Immunisation(IMII) programme spreadover seven working days in thehighly affected areas. (See box)

"During the Pragati reviewmeeting held recently, thePrime Minister directed us toachieve the goal of 90 per centimmunisation coverage by2018 under MissionIndradhanush with specialfocus on urban slum areas anddistricts where the situation isworst," a senior official fromthe Ministry told The Pioneer.

At least 82 per cent of thetotal kids (12 months to 23

months) to be vaccinated are in85 identified districts of fiveStates-UP, MP, Bihar,Rajasthan, Maharashtra.

Nearly 35 per cent of thecountry's 27 million childrenhave remained partially immu-nised or unimmunised. Underthe Mission Indradhanushlaunched in 2014, the HealthMinistry had kept 2020 dead-line to reach the goal of 90 percent or full immunization cov-erage to provide them life-saving vaccines against 7 dead-ly diseases, free of cost.

The fourth phase of theMission is ongoing. From 1 percent increase in full immuni-sation, 'Mission Indradhanush'has contributed to 5-7 per centtill the last assessment by theHealth Ministry.

To put the vaccinationefforts on high speed underthe IMII programme, severalVolunteers from NCC andNehru Yuvak KendraSanghthan will be roped in for

the first time with the greaterconvergence with the non-health Ministries such asRural Development, PanchyatiRaj, Women and ChildDevelopment and a few oth-ers.

Robust headcount will becarried out by ASHAs andaanganwadi workers on thebasis of which logistics such asvaccines will be finalized. Andonce IMII is over, it willbecome the part of routineimmunization drive.

Vacant sub-centres, low-coverage areas, urban areas,high-risk areas indentifiedunder the polio eradicationprogramme, migrant settle-ments, areas with low routineimmunization coverage iden-tified through cases such as ofmeasles or diphtheria out-breaks in last two years, smallvillages, nomadic sites, andhard to reach populationamong others will be the focusarea during the IMII.

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As many as 175 newly-recruited IAS officers will

be given exposure to the Goodsand Services Tax (GST), theBHIM app for cashless trans-actions and Aadhaar. Theseofficers have been posted asAssistant Secretaries in differ-ent Central Governmentdepartments, except the PrimeMinister's Office (PMO), fromJuly 3 to September 29.

Their posting is part of aninitiative started by theGovernment to groom bureau-crats at the Centre before theymove to their respective cadreStates.

All officers of the IndianAdministrative Service (IAS)are allotted cadres which couldeither be a State or group ofStates. The officers are sup-posed to start their career intheir respective cadre States.

The Assistant Secretarieshave been allocated work relat-ing to flagship programmes orinitiatives of the ministry con-cerned.

They will also be givenexposure to the Government'simportant initiatives such asthe GST with particular refer-ence to Saksham (a technolog-ical system by the CentralBoard of Excise and Customs),Constitutional amendments,rules and regulations, workingof the GST council and GSTNetwork, the informationtechnology backbone of theGST, an order issued by theDepartment of Personnel andTraining (DoPT) said.Theseofficers will also be given expo-sure on the move towards "lesscash economy" with emphasison digital transactions.

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Page 6: ˛ 0˚ 1 20 -23 - ˜˙ˇˆ ˛ˇ!˙ rorists have given a call for observing Wani’s death ... lane outside the girl’s house. An ... pal corporations of Amritsar, Jalandhar, Ludhiana,

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As the State is staring at fail-ure of monsoon for the

fourth consecutive year, theKarnataka Government hasdecided to take to the cloudseeding in five river basinsacross the State. The Cabinettook the decision onWednesday and approved cloudseeding to help drought-strick-en farming community sincemonsoon has failed in manyparts of the State. Though themonsoon entered the State onJune 5, the rainfall during themonth was below the expecta-tion. Agriculture activities,including ploughing and sow-ing, are yet to begin in manyparts of the State.

The SiddaramaiahGovernment has approved �30crore for undertaking cloudseeding near Cauvery,Malaprabha and Tungabhadraand other river basins. The cloudseeding work has been entrust-ed to Hoysala Project Private Ltd.According to law Minister TBJayachandra the DevelopmentCommissioner would monitor

the operation which would betaken up immediately and con-tinue for next 60 days.

Jayachandra said that adetailed project report was pre-pared and a Committee com-prising of cloud seeding expertsand other experts from theIndian Institute of Science andKarnataka State Natural DisasterMonitoring Centre was formedto oversee the operation.

While shortage of rain inCauvery basin led to legal bat-tle further worsening betweenKarnataka and Tamil Naduover release of water from

reservoirs built across riverCauvery, the North Karnataka,Bombay-Karnataka andHyderabad-Karnataka regionwitnessed severe drinkingwater shortage. Karnataka hadto depend up on Maharashtrato get water from Koyna damduring peak summer.

Even though scientificcommunity is divided over theoutcome of the cloud seedingthe Government finds cloudseeding is ray of hope to changeweather conditions by spreadingdry ice on clouds for rains. Thecloud seeding when it was tried

when SM Krishna’s period, it didnot yield expected results.

Few days back owing topressure the ruling CongressGovernment led by ChiefMinister Siddaramaiah haswaived of farmer’s loan up to�50,000 per farmer for cropand short-term loans worth�8,165 crore to reduce the bur-den of rising debt on farmers.Karnataka became one of fourStates to announce farm loanwaiver. Other States to do so areUttar Pradesh, Punjab andMaharashtra. Siddaramaiah hasalso written letters to PrimeMinister Narendra Modi towaive off farm loans takenfrom commercial and nation-alised banks.

In view of the successivedroughts the State Governmentis also taking a relook on thecropping pattern and advisingfarmers to go far millet sowingin a big way. Millets are a new fadamong diet conscious people andhas a good market across thecountry. This initiative accord-ing to State Government wouldbe a longtime measure to miti-gate drought.

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Kerala’s CPI(M)-led rulingLDF and its Independent

Lok Sabha member Innocent, atop Malayalam movie actor andchief of the Kerala cine-actors’outfit, have come under firefrom the women working in thefilm industry, cultural leadersand the Opposition parties overthe anti-women remarks hemade the other day with respectto the case pertaining to theabduction of and attack againsta frontline actress in February.

The actor’s remarks havealso triggered a gender war inthe Malayalam movie fieldwith the Women in CinemaCollective (WCC), a newlyconstituted organisation ofthe women working in theMalayalam industry criticisinghim and questioning the maledomination in the sector inthe context of the attack onthe actress and the actors’outfit’s refusal to give her thedue support.

Innocent, 72, has comeunder attack from variousquarters also for his several

humiliating statements aspresident of the Association ofMalayalam Movie Artists(AMMA) that al legedlyhumiliated the victim of theattack and in support ofsuperstar Dileep, who is fac-ing the allegation of havinginvolvement in the conspira-cy behind the attack.

Leading actress and one ofthe leaders of the WCC, RimaKallingal, lashed out atInnocent and AMMA througha Facebook post by questioningthe absurdity of a situation“When you (Innocent) areinherently part of a system thatholds women accountable forhaving to sleep around for jobopportunity, rather than themen who ask for the favour.”She also alleged — thoughindirectly — that Innocent hadbeen blinded by his “privilegeand entitlement”.

On Thursday, the YouthCongress and Yuva Morchatook out protest marches toInnocent’s house and offices atIrinjalakkuda in Thrissur dis-trict and in Angamaly inErnakulam district demanding

his resignation as AMMA’spresident and MP fromChalakudy. The YouthCongress march atIrinjalakkuda witnessed sometension between the activistsand the police.

While responding to anewsmen’s queries on a state-ment from a leading actressabout the compromises sever-al actresses were being forcedto make with male colleaguesfor getting opportunities infilms, Innocent had said theother day that no suchexploitation was taking placein Malayalam film industrybut “bad women might bedoing that”.

“The time has gone when(men) used to behave badlywith women in the Malayalamfilm industry. Everything isclean now. I haven’t comeacross any actress’s statementthat women have to share bedfor getting opportunities. Ifthere are bad women (he didnot clarify what he meant withthe term) they might be doingthat,” he told newsmen onWednesday.

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Devraj Sakhiya, the BJPpresident of Rajkot district,

was booked by police for extor-tion and abetting a factoryowner for suicide.

The deceased RameshGamdha consumed poisonallegedly due to harassmentfrom Sakhiya and his accom-plices for extortion. The inci-dent came into light as the fam-ily members of Gamdharefused to accept his bodyafter post-mortem till a com-plaint to be registered againstthe politician by the local policeon Wednesday afternoon.

Gamdha’ wife Jigna allegedthat her husband committedsuicide following extreme pres-sure of extortion and filedcomplaint before the Rajkotrural SP against Sakhiya and hisaccomplices. According to herthe accused were harassingher husband despite the fact herepaid loan.

The accused allegedly forcedthe factory owner to sign sale-agreements for the land that heand his family members owned,including houses and shops.They also allegedly forced himto sign blank cheques, promis-sory notes and blank stamppapers. They also took away onekg gold belonging to the familyof deceased and threatened tokill his two nephews if he did notgive more money.

According to the policebased on the complaint filed bythe victim’s wife, the policebooked Sakhiya and otheraccused under IPC Sections306 (abetment of suicide), 387(putting person in fear of deathin order to extort money), 384(punishment for extortion),504 (intentional insult to pro-voke breach of peace), 506 (2)(criminal intimidation) and114 (common intent).

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The Kerala High Court onThursday directed the

liquor outlets run by StateGovernment agencies to dealdecently with those who pur-chased booze and to makeproper arrangements to avoidlong queues in front of thebooze shops so that the otherpeople and traders near theoutlets did not face difficulties.

Observing that long queuesin front of liquor outlets thatextended to the roads were cre-ating a situation akin to curb-side sales, the court saidarrangements should be madeto avoid it. The court remind-ed the liquor outlets that those

who came to buy booze alsowere customers and theyshould be treated accordingly.

The liquor outlets werebeing given the guidelines onhow these should be run whileallotting licences, the courtobserved. The concernedauthorities should make surethat these guidelines were abid-ed by totally, it said.

The court’s directive andobservations came on a petitionsubmitted by a trader inThrissur who complained thatthe long queues at a liquor out-let near his establishment wereaffecting his business. “This ishappening at all outlets inKerala except in places wherethe outlets are situated in iso-

lated areas,” said a stationerytrader in Thrissur.

The retail liquor outlets inKerala are run by theGovernment agencies, KeralaState Beverages Corporation(Bevco), the monopoly boozedistributor, and Kerala StateCooperative Consumers’Federation. Together they wererunning 268 liquor shops ofwhich 82 are lying closed dueto the Supreme Court’s ban onbooze-vending within 500meters from highways.

“The court has done somegood thinking,” said a customerat a retail liquor outlet near WestFort in Thrissur. “From what Ihave read in newspapers, theGovernment is making morethan �60 when I buy liquor thatis basically worth just �15.Despite that, the Governmentconsiders us as dirty fellows andwe are made to stand in queuesfor long hours in rain andshine. “ he said.

Court orders properarrangements toavoid long queues

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Continuing his attack onRJD supremo Lalu Prasad

and his kin, senior BJP leaderSushil Kumar Modi said thefamily during the past 20 yearshas usurped a number of plotsof land which were “gifted” tohim by known and unknownpersons and thus became thebiggest “landlord” of Bihar.

Modi alleged that Lalu andhis family members was “gift-ed” land by politicians likeRaghunath Jha, Kanti Singh,both former Union Ministers,Prabhunath Yadav, SubhashChoudhary, Lalan Choudharyand Hridyanand Choudhary.Jha donated 6 kathas of land onNH and a three storied houseto Lalu’s sons Tej Pratap andTejashwi Prasad Yadav in 2005.Similalry Kanti Singh gifted ahouse and 9 decimalm of landto both Lalu sons.

He further alleged that oneLalan Choudhary, who workedat Lalu’s khatal and was givena job of peon in Bihar

Legislative Council and he gift-ed land to Rabri Devi and herdaughter Hema. Another per-son Hriddyanand Choudharywho got the job of khalasi inrailway when Lalu was RailwayMinister gifted land to thefamily. Subhash Choudahrygifted 14 decimal land to MisaBharti in 2003, he alleged.

Modi was reacting to Lalu’sdenial that Rama Devi, nowBJP MP, had gifted land inMuzaffarpur to Lalu’s sons.The RJD supremo said hewould file a defamation suitagainst Modi because he or hissons did not own any land gift-ed by Rama Devi, wife of for-

mer Minister late Brij BihariPrasad and that he had can-celled the registry of that land.“It is a false claim that RamaDevi gifted 13 acres of alnd toTej Pratap when he was barelyfour years old,” Lalu said.

“Rama Devi, who was thenin RJD, had gifted land to TejPratap without his or my con-sent and the transfer of landwas cancelled after he tookexception to it,” said RJD chief.

Modi said Lalu admittedthat the land had been giftedbut was later its transfer wascancelled. He also questionedwhy not the land gifted byother people was cancelled.When Lalu was clarifying thatthe gift deed was cancelled bythe registrar at Muzaffarpurregistry office where it wasoriginally executed, he did notmake any disclosure aboutother gifted lands. “If he is real-ly honest he should cancelother lands value of whichruns into crores of rupees gift-ed to his sons, daughters andwife,” Modi challenged.

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NDA candidate for presi-dential poll Ram Nath

Kovind on Thursday appealedto the legislators and Memberof Parliaments (MPs) inNorth-Eastern States to votefor him and assured that hewould put in highest efforts toupkeep the democratic valuesof the country.

Kovind visited ArunachalPradesh capital Itanagar andAssam capital Guwahati onThursday and met the MLAsand MPs of different political

parties seeking their supportfor the July 17 presidentialpolls. The presidential candi-date is scheduled to visitMeghalaya, Nagaland andManipur on Friday beforereturning to New Delhi.

It may be mentioned herethat apart from the BJP ruledStates in the North-EasternStates, Sikkim Democratic Front(SDF) the ruling party in Sikkimhas already extended their sup-port to Kovind while one ofTripura’s Opposition parties —Trinamool Congress has alsodecided to support the NDA’s

candidate for presidential poll.Meanwhile, BJP national

general secretary Ram Madhavwhile addressing the gatheringsaid that it is a mere formali-ty that Ram Nath Kovind isgoing to become the next

President of India.“It is a mere formality now.

Everyone knows that Kovindjiis going to be the country’s nextPresident. The NDA and itsallies who are in power in 17States of the country now enjoys49 per cent of the vote value forthe presidential poll. Besidesthere are many parties who arenot allies of the NDA but assuresto support our candidate,” RamMadhav said.

He said that out of the totalvote value of 10,95,000, Kovindnow enjoys vote value of6,60,000. “We are hopeful of

more votes as his support basehas been ever increasing,” saidRam Madhav while adding thatSikkim’s SDF and TrinamoolCongress of Tripura — whichhas six legislators — also decid-ed to support the NDA’s candi-date. “We have also got infor-mation that Mizoram’sOpposition party Mizo NationalFront (MNF) is also going tosupport our candidate,” he saidappealing to all the legislatorsand MPs in Assam to vote forKovind on July 17 so that theNDA’s candidate gets recordmargin of votes.

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Srinagar: The Jammu &Kashmir Police on Thursdaysaid it had cracked the case oflynching of a police officer herelast month by arresting “threeto four” people.

Other accused have alsobeen identified and will bearrested soon, InspectorGeneral of Police, Kashmir,Munir Ahmad Khan said.

Deputy Superintendent ofPolice (DySP) Ayub Pandith

was stripped and lynched by amob outside Jamia Masjid inNowhatta area of old Srinagaron the night of Shab-e-Qadaron June 22, triggering an out-rage in Kashmir.

“We have been able toidentify the real personsinvolved in that case and wehave arrested three-to-fourpersons. We will be arrestingothers also,” Khan said.

“We have been able to

recover the belongings (of theDySP) such as the identity cardand the pistol,” the IGP added.

He said the investigationwas going in the right direction.

“I can say 60 per cent of theinvestigation we have com-pleted and we have cracked thecase. I will be holding a sepa-rate Press conference after acouple of days once I completearound 90 per cent of theinvestigation,” he said. PTI

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Page 7: ˛ 0˚ 1 20 -23 - ˜˙ˇˆ ˛ˇ!˙ rorists have given a call for observing Wani’s death ... lane outside the girl’s house. An ... pal corporations of Amritsar, Jalandhar, Ludhiana,

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An Army man hailing fromvolatile Pulwama district

has deserted his base in northKashmir and decamped with arifle and few magazines onWednesday night.

Sepoy Zahoor AhmedTokar of Sirnoo, Pulwama,who was posted in 173Territorial Army (TA) regi-ment at Gantmulla Baramulla,went missing along with an AKrifle and three magazines onTuesday night, police said.

A massive hunt has beenlaunched by the forces to tracethe absconding soldier and analert has also been soundedacross the Valley.

“There are apprehensionthat Tokar may have joinedmilitancy,” a police officer said,adding that investigations havestarted in the case. Police teamsalso visited the home of Tokarand inquired from the familyabout him. “His mobile isswitched off,” the officer added.

And if the apprehensionturn out to be true, the desert-ed soldier would be the firstKashmiri Army man to havejoined terrorist ranks sinceinception of insurgency in theregion.

In past, there have beeninstances where policemenhave joined terrorist ranks. InMay this year, constable SyedNaveed of Shopian, had

decamped with four rifles,from the guard post in Budgamand later joined terrorist ranks.

In past five years at leastfive cops have joined militan-cy in Kashmir and most promi-

nent among them was NaseerPandith who was killed in2016. Pandit, was posted as asecurity guard to the Ministerand senior Peoples DemocraticParty (PDP) Altaf Bukahri and

decamped with two AK-47rifles and joined terrorist out-fit Hizb-ul-Mujahideen.

In 2012, a J&K Police con-stable, Abdul Rashid Shigan,was arrested for allegedly car-rying out 13 major attacks inSrinagar which included thekilling of a retired DeputySuperintendent of Police andan assassination attempt onthen Minister Ali MohammadSagar.

Meanwhile, Kashmir hasbeen put on a high alert aheadof death anniversary of terror-ist commander Burhan Wani.Kashmiri separatists andUnited Jehad Council havecalled for two day shutdown onJuly 8 and 13.

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The Congress, in an appar-ent bid to snap back at BJP

president Amit Shah’s contro-versial rally at the DabolimInternational Airport in Goa,wants a wedding organised atthe same venue, with all the duepermissions in place of course.

General secretary of theCongress in Goa JanardhanBhandari has written to the topAirport Authority of India offi-cial in the State, AirportDirector BC Negi, seeking per-mission to hold his wedding onthe airport premises.

“It would be nice if youcould permit me to use yourairport for my wedding recep-tion in September 2017. I will

fix the date as per the avail-ability of the airport as per yourconvenience,” Bhandari saidin his letter, which appears tobe dripping in sarcasm.

“I am very pleased toinform you that I have beenengaged recently and planningto get married soon. Since myguests will be coming from var-ious States and landing atDabolim Airport and as suchI cannot afford to makearrangements for the stay andtravel of so many guests,”Bhandari also said.

On last Saturday, Shahwhen landed in Goa on a two-day visit to the State, the BJPhad organised a party receptionfor the national leader at thepremises of the military-oper-ated airport in Goa, which islocated within the Indian Navalbase ‘Hamla’.

The meeting, howeverresulted in controversy, with alocal lawyer and activist filinga complaint against local

Bharatiya Janata Party leadersand Shah with the UnionMinistry for Information andBroadcasting.

The Congress has alsoobjected to the political meet-ing at the airport which func-tions under the aegis of theDefence Ministry.

Bhandari, however, appearsto have taken the protest to anew pitch altogether. In his let-ter, he has also said that he willensure that there is no pho-tography at the airport whichis a sensitive Defence Ministryinstallation and has even invit-ed the airport director and hisstaff for blessings for the mat-rimony-bound couple.

“I shall be also glad if youalong with your staff couldbless me that day to make mywedding most memorable.Thanking you in anticipation ofyour kind support to make mywedding a grand success,” theapplication for wedding per-mission concludes.

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Contrary to former UttarPradesh Chief Minister

Akhilesh Yadav’s statementsquestioning the patriotism ofGurajatis, a record number ofyoungsters have registeredthemselves for Army recruit-ment rally.

Akhilesh had provoked out-rage with his comment on mar-tyrs earlier this year after ayoung Army officer was killedin Kashmir. In an indrect jibe atPrime Minister Narendra Modi,Akhilesh had said that UP,Bihar, MP and Southern partsof the country had a lot of mar-tyred soldiers, but has any sol-dier of Gujarat been martyred?

According to a recruit-ment officer, more than 71,000candidates have registeredonline and evinced interest tojoin armed forces. The recruit-

ment rally has started from July6 and it will continue till July16 at Vallabh Vidyanagararound 3 km from SardarPatel’s birthplace Karamsad.

Selection procedure of can-didates from 21 districts situ-ated in North, South andCentral Gujarat, exceptSaurashtra-Kutch region, will

be completed in ten days.Candidates from neighbouringUnion Territory Daman &Dadra Nagar Haveli too areparticipating in the recruitmentrally. On and average nearly5,000 to 10,000 candidates arebeing interviewed by the Armyrecruitment officers per dayduring the rally.

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In an effort to mount pressureon the BJP-led saffron alliance

Government to expedite theprocess of farm loan waiver, theruling Shiv Sena will stage a dholbhajao (drum beating) in frontof district co-operative banks onJuly 10 to demand immediatewaiver of loans and display ofnotices in front of their estab-lishments, listing the names ofthe beneficiary-farmers.

Three days ahead of thestart of his State-wide tour tomonitor the implementation ofthe State Government’s farmloan waiver decision, Shiv Senapresident, Uddhav Thackerayon Thursday, announced dholbhajao agitation to force theFadnavis Government to waivefarm loans forthwith and sendout the list of district co-oper-ative banks across the State.

As per the directive issuedby Uddhav, the Shiv Sainiks,headed by district party chiefs,MPs and MLAs, will beatdrums in front of various dis-trict co-operative banks at 11am on Monday, demanding thedisplay on their notice board ofthe list of farmers whose farmloans have been waived by theMaharashtra Government.

In addition, the Sena’s con-

sumer protection wings willvisit the various district co-operative banks and obtainthe list of farmers benefittingfrom the the loan waiverscheme “Chhatrapati ShivajiMaharaj Krishi SammanYojana” announced by theMaharashtra Government.

The activists from theSena’s consumer protectionwing will also set up make-shiftkiosks outside the district co-operative banks to help thefarmers who come to the banksto seek information about thewaiver of their farm loans.

The Sena’s dhol bhajao agi-tation is in line with the state-ment that Uddhav made onWednesday at a news confer-ence at which he had said thathis party would keep a vigil onhow the State Governmentwould implement the farmloan waiver scheme in the State.

“If the State Government

has announced farm loan waiv-er, it is because of the crusadeundertaken by the Shiv Sena.Now that the loan waiver hasbeen announced, we will keepa vigil as to how the decisionwill get implemented. I haveasked my party workers get intouch with banks and preparethe list of beneficiaries of thescheme,” Uddhav had said.

Uddhav also announcedthat he would tour the Statefrom July 9 to interact andascertain from the farmers as tohow many had been befittedfrom the loan waiver scheme.

In a statement issued onThursday, the Sena said thatthrough its agitation, the partywould obtain informationabout the actual beneficiaries inthe State Government’s farmloan waiver scheme. “We havelaunched the agitation toensure justice to all the farm-ers under the farm loan waiv-er scheme,” Sena leader andMP Vinayak Raut said.

Under the loan waiverscheme involving a sum of�34,022 crore, the total numberof beneficiaries is 89 lakh. Ofthem, early 40 lakh farmers areexpected to become totallydebt-free, a situation that willfacilitate them to take freshloans from banks.

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The CBI on Thursday filed achargesheet before a Special

Court against the then directorof a private telecom company,six former top officials of theState Bank of India and four ex-officials of the Guj Info PetroLtd for allegedly causing a lossof �126.40 crore to three majorbanks.

In a chargesheet filed beforethe Special Court on the basisof investigations it carried outon a complaint it had receivedfrom a consortium of banks, theCBI booked Sunil S Kakkad,Director of Messrs. ClickTelecom Pvt. Ltd, at least sixformer senior officers of SBIand four ex-officialsof the Guj Info PetroLtd for allegedlycommitting a fraudon SBI, Vijaya Bank & CanaraBank and thereby causing a lossof �126.40 crore to the threebanks.

The chargesheeted bankofficials included, include for-mer SBI Ahmedabad regionalhead Kaushik Bagchi; ex-DGMin Baroda, Rajeev SadashivDahat; former member of SBIAhmedabad’s Mid CorporateCredit Committee memberSanjiva K Prasad; and a seniorcredit analyst at SBI’sAhmedabad Overseas Branch,Deepa Juthani.

In addition, thechargesheet has named Vinod

Kumar Sharma, former CEO,Gujarat Info Petro Ltd. andthree more officials — NKGoyal, Dinesh P Jani andBharat P Gajjar — as the othermain accused in the case.

During the investigationconducted by it on the basis ofa complaint received from aconsortium of banks madeunder Section u/s. 120-B r/w420, 467, 468, 471 of IPC againstKakkad, the CBI found that theprivate telecom company hadbeen allegedly sanctioned sev-eral Credit Facilities whichinclude Cash Credit, Term Loan& Non Fund Based Limits(LCs) to the tune of �126 crore

According to thechargesheet, Kakkad had taken

over this company,from the earlierpromoters.

After his com-pany had won the bid forlaunching of BSNL VVOBB(Voice and Video over BroadBand) project in the Southern& Eastern Zones of the coun-try, Kakkad allegedly inflatedthe project costs to obtainhuge funds from the banks.With the actual supply ofmachinery, Letters of Creditwere opened favouring asso-ciate companies. These LCswere allegedly discounted andfunds siphoned off.

The CBI had arrestedKakkad on May 5 during thecourse of the investigation ofthe case.

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More than 150 Dalitsembraced Buddhism in

Gujarat on Thursday report-edly as a symbol of protest overalleged inaction of the StateGovernment in the death ofDalit youth’s in judicial custodylast month.

The Gujarat Freedom ofReligion Act, 2003, requires thepermission of the StateGovernment before religiousconversion. Hence the agitat-ing Dalits in Amreli town com-pleted a legal procedure by col-lecting requisite forms from thedistrict collector’s office andreturned them after attaching

necessary documents andchange their faith. Post sub-mission of the forms, theytook a procession.

Jignesh Sondarva, 29 died inAmreli sub jail. The agitators aredemanding stern action againstthe jail authority and CBIinquiry in the case. Sondarvawas arrested by the police onJune 12 for allegedly consumingliquor and was sent to judicialcustody after he failed to depositthe bail money. According to thesources, he had quarrelled withfour inmates there, who banghim against the wall of barrack.He sustained serious injuries andwas hospitalised but succumbedthere on June 14.

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Lucknow:The taxation systemunder GST will soon be part ofthe commerce and manage-ment curriculum in UttarPradesh’s higher educationinstitutes, a Minister said onThursday.

The Goods and ServicesTax (GST) — India’s biggest taxreform since independence —came into force on July 1, uni-fying more than a dozen cen-tral and State levies.

Deputy Chief MinisterDinesh Sharma said, “GST is amajor step in the direction ofeconomic reforms and besidesapprising the common peopleabout the new tax regime,there is also a need to includeit in the syllabus.” PTI

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Page 8: ˛ 0˚ 1 20 -23 - ˜˙ˇˆ ˛ˇ!˙ rorists have given a call for observing Wani’s death ... lane outside the girl’s house. An ... pal corporations of Amritsar, Jalandhar, Ludhiana,

In the sacred and smart city ofJerusalem, a new language andidiom of India-Israel partnershipwas born to encapsulate the quin-tessence of India-Israel relations. It

was exemplified in the resonant formu-la coined by the Israeli leader: I2T2 —Indian Talent X Israeli Technology =India-Israel Ties for Tomorrow.

“This is a marriage made in heavenbut we are implementing it here onearth.” It may sound rhapsodic, but thisis how Israel’s Prime Minister BenjaminNetanyahu evocatively captured the spir-it of India-Israel relations and lavishedpraise on Narendra Modi, the first IndianPrime Minister to visit the Jewish nation,ending a hiatus of seven decades. The bon-homie and camaraderie between Modiand Netanyahu was all too visible as thetwo leaders generously praised each otherand unveiled a new transformative agen-da by elevating their relations to the levelof strategic partnership and signing sevenpacts in key areas, including agriculture,space and development cooperation.

Netanyahu described July 5 as a‘good day’ for advancing partnershipbetween the two ancient nations that arenavigating their way to modernity today.“Our talks focused on not just areas ofbilateral opportunities but also how ourcooperation can help the cause of glob-al peace and stability,” said PrimeMinister Modi.

The two leaders spoke with a sense ofmission, which may have something to dowith the ancient but modern city ofJerusalem. Netanyahu declared in the toneof the Prophet: “...Ours is a partnershipto seek good, defend the good, achieve thegood. This is indeed a good day.”

It was clearly not just inspiredrhetoric as the outcomes that emanatedfrom over two hours of talks between thetwo leaders and their delegations werepragmatic and action-oriented, whichwould have transformative impact on thelives and fortunes of people in the the two countries.

Strategic ties: In political and strate-gic sense, the major takeaway was the ele-vation of relations which were studious-ly kept discreet by New Delhi for fear ofantagonising the Arab world to the levelof strategic partnership, underscoring thejoint resolve of the two leaders to broad-base their partnership and imbue it witha long-term vision and plan of action. Ina sense, what was once a live-in relation-ship, seems to have now morphed into ahappy and mutually fulfilling marriage,with the couple upfront about their lovefor each other.

“This historic first-ever visit by anIndian Prime Minister to Israel solidifiedthe enduring friendship between their

peoples and raised the bilateral relation-ship to that of a strategic partnership,”said the joint statement.

Tech diplomacy: This multi-dimen-sional strategic partnership which hasbeen fleshed out in the July 5 joint state-ment, was reflected in the seven agree-ments signed as well as in a broader align-ment of national aspirations and ambi-tions of India and Israel. Defence willcontinue to be a robust pillar of India-Israel relations, but the accent will be ondiversifying and widening the compassof partnership to include enhanced tradeand investment, collaboration in innova-tion and research, tourism and people-to-people contacts.

Innovation fund: From India’s pointof view, the talks in Jerusalem have setout a detailed roadmap for enhancingcooperation in agriculture, technologyand innovation. The setting up of $40million for India-Israel IndustrialResearch & Development and InnovationFund (I4F) and the $20 million contri-bution each by both countries, will be agame-changer in incubating new jointenterprises and innovations. “ThisMemorandum of Understanding willplay a seminal role in enabling Indian andIsraeli enterprises to undertake joint R&Dprojects leading to development of inno-vative technologies and products thathave potential for commercial applica-tion,” said the joint statement.

Strategic agriculture partnership:

The forging of strategic partnership inagriculture and water underlines the crit-ical importance of Israel with its tech-nologies for raising agricultural produc-tivity, for India’s food security and stim-ulating a second green revolution. Thisdecision to impart a strategic dimensionto sustain and enhance ongoing cooper-ation in agriculture underlines the grow-ing importance of food security and watersecurity in India's strategic calculus.

Strategic partnership in water andagriculture will focus on water conserva-tion, waste-water treatment and its reusefor agriculture, desalination, water util-ity reforms, and the cleaning of theGanges and other rivers using advancedwater technologies. Building on the suc-cess of the 15 Centres of Excellence(COE) set up with Israeli assistance in sixStates of India, the two countries havedecided to double the number of thesecentre and promote commercially viablebusiness models involving farmer pro-ducer organisations. Significantly, thisstrategic agriculture partnership dovetailswith Prime Minister Narendra Modi’sdream of doubling the income of Indianfarmers by 2022.

Space: Sky isn’t the limit: The ongo-ing space cooperation acquired a newenergy with the Israel Space Agency(ISA) and the Indian Space ResearchOrganisation signing three pacts and inareas of Atomic Clocks; GEO-LEO opti-cal link; and academic collaboration

and electric propulsion for small satellites.Expanding space cooperation with Indiais close to Netanyahu’s heart as it rein-forces his formulation that the sky is noteven the limit, opening new possibilitiesof India-Israel cooperation.

The agreements signed in Jerusalemon July 5 are set to have a transformation-al impact on the India-Israel partnership,but in the end the first prime minister-ial visit will go down in history as mark-ing the end of ambiguity about this mutu-ally energising and empowering partner-ship and the forging of personal chem-istry between the two charismatic lead-ers with their singular but kindredvisions of national resurgence.

If Indian talent and Israeli technol-ogy are married and fused, along withfostering of deep civilisational and peo-ple-to-people bonding, this ‘marriagemade in heaven’ could bear new flowersand fruits in days to come, impartingmore content and depth to the newly-forged strategic partnership.

Looking ahead, the India-Israel rela-tions, which had remained defence-cen-tric, are now going to acquire morebroad-based character, and will bemarked by BITE — Business, Innovation,Technology and Entrepreneurship, bring-ing the start-up nation and the world’sfastest growing economy in a tighter embrace.

(The writer is Editor-in-Chief of Indiaand World))

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Sir — This refers to the editorial,“The Chinese face-off” (July 6). Itis unfortunate that time and againChina creates troubles for India atthe border to destroy peace. The lat-est one to achieve the same is theconstruction of a road in Dokalam.Chinese troops bulldosed an IndianArmy bunker. Chinese troops evenstopped a batch of Indian pilgrimsproceeding on the KailashMansarovar Yatra. In ArunachalPradesh, they create problems fre-quently. The worst was the reminderof the India-China war of 1962.

China is working hand-in-handgloves with Pakistan as it has an eyeon Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. TheMiddle Kingdom directly or indi-rectly supports Pakistan on theKashmir issue too. China’s attitudetowards India has not changedsince the Sino-Indian war of 1962.Even Prime Minister NarendraModi’s visit did not show any posi-tive attitude of China towards India.Beijing can take the liberty to cre-ate problems for India and can havea win-win situation, forgetting thatif India repays, it would be hell forthe neighbouring countries who arecreating troubles at the border.

Mahesh KumarVia email

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Sir — This refers to the editorial,“Adityanath’s acid test” (July 4). InUttar Pradesh, a woman has facedacid attack for the fifth time for seek-ing justice against those who alleged-ly gang-raped her in 2008. Why arewe so selective in raising our voic-es against rape/ murder/ acid attack?

Why do we not raise our voice asclearly as we did on the Nirbhayacase? How can criminals disregardour justice delivery system? The vic-tim’s nine-year-wait for justice andmultiple attacks on her in the dueprocess portrays the image of ourcountry in bad light. Justice delayedmeans no justice at all.

Sujit DeKolkata

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Sir — This refers to the article,“From maharaja to pauper for sale”(July 3) by Vinayshil Gautam. Thewriter has rightly criticised thefunctioning of loss-making publicsector-controlled airline, Air India,due to political interference, VIP cul-ture and non-professional man-agement. Day-to-day bureaucraticand political interference makesGovernment-run units unviablecompared to autonomous, private-run organisations.

We had public sector units runby the Government in the 1950s,1960s and the 1970s in differentStates and most of them are nowclosed due to mishandling of polit-ically backed up units workingunder the Government. Precisioninstrument factory and other textileand sugar corporations were estab-lished in the 1950s, 1960s and1970s which failed to run in profitand ultimately most of them had tobe closed or sold to private sectorcompanies. The same needs to bedone with Air India to avoid wasteof public money.

PN SaxenaVia email

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Page 9: ˛ 0˚ 1 20 -23 - ˜˙ˇˆ ˛ˇ!˙ rorists have given a call for observing Wani’s death ... lane outside the girl’s house. An ... pal corporations of Amritsar, Jalandhar, Ludhiana,

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There are many ways to under-stand the significance of theimplementation of the Goods andServices Tax (GST) regime in thecountry. Given that the GST is

essentially a dramatic overhaul of the indi-rect tax system, the most favoured approachto appreciating it would be economic.While this is not a flawed one — indeed,many would argue that it is the only accu-rate one — reducing the policy to a mereeconomic exercise would be missing thelarger political point that both the UnionGovernment and its critics have made. Tore-arrange an oft-quoted phrase: “GST is tooimportant an issue to be left to economists.”

To understand the argument and takeit further, let us begin with the following:First, the Modi Government rang in the for-mal arrival of the GST from Parliament, noless. Second, both President PranabMukherjee and Prime Minister NarendraModi, simultaneously, pressed buttons toofficially usher in the policy. Three, a spe-cial session of Parliament was convened onlate night of June 30 to bring in the GSTfrom midnight July 1. Four, no Governmentpolicy has ever been given effect through ajoint special sitting of Parliament. And five,it’s also never happened before, that a mid-night session of Parliament had been con-vened to launch a Government programme.

Taking off from the last point, midnightsessions have been celebratory in nature. OnAugust 14-15, 1947, the ConstituentAssembly of India had met (in what is nowthe Central Hall of Parliament where the GSTwas launched), on the eve of the country’sindependence. Jawaharlal Nehru’s famous‘tryst with destiny’ speech — now havingentered the books of history and often quot-ed in many contexts, for it was truly remark-able for its literally value — was deliveredthen. A midnight session was convened onAugust 14-15, 1972, to celebrate the nation’s25 years of independence. On August 9, 1992,there was yet another session at a similar hourto mark 50 years of the Quit IndiaMovement. And on August 14-15, 1997,Parliament sat again at midnight to celebratethe golden jubilee of India’s independence.

Why then did the Government ofNarendra Modi deviate from conventionand establish a new trend? At a more gen-eral level, those that are upset by the devi-ation have failed to grasp, even after threeyears, that this regime is known to do thingsdifferently and upset conventional apple-carts. They have been grappling to under-stand the novelty and haven’t made muchprogress. The list of their woes is long —Modi’s foreign policy, his demonetisationdecision, surgical strikes, revamp of socialsector schemes with the introduction oftechnology, the spread of Aadhaar, the mas-sive programme to link people through thebanking system, dismantling of the PlanningCommission of India, and more.

Individually and cumulatively, thesemeasures have left the critics befuddled anddisoriented, and their sense of confusion hasgot further heightened with a string of elec-toral victories that the ruling Bharatiya JanataParty has registered in the wake of such ini-tiatives, leaving them holding the crumbsthe voters considered fit to give. Still,despite its track record for unconvention-ality, the Government’s decision to convenea midnight session of Parliament for theGST’s launch took many by surprise. In theeventuality, millions were glued to their tele-vision sets to see and hear the PrimeMinister speak; and the idiot box wasswitched off only after hearing him out.

The question remains unanswered:Why did the Modi dispensation decide onthis high-profile approach? Governmentsroutinely launch policies and programmes,

some with a bit of tamasha and others ina sedate manner. The Modi regime too hasinitiated several programmes such asSwachh Bharat Abhiyan, digital India andMake in India, through well-publicised,high-profile events — often even with songand dance programmes. The PrimeMinister himself addressed the nation toannounce the demonetisation decision, giv-ing the move added gravity and credibili-ty. So, here are a few probable reasons forthe Government to have brought in theGST regime via Parliament’s special sessionat the stroke of midnight.

The first is that the Government want-ed to sell the GST to the people as the sec-ond most important step towards nation-al integration — the other being the inte-gration of princely States into the IndianUnion under the stewardship of SardarVallabhbhai Patel. The ‘one nation, one tax’,as per the Government’s spin, readily sig-nifies the ‘oneness’ of India not just cultur-ally and geographically, but also econom-ically. As part of this view, it was ridiculousthat the same product or service should bepriced differently in different parts of thesame country — leading to all sorts of con-fusion for both manufacturer and buyerand resulting in irregularities of manykinds. Therefore, since the GST unites thenation economically, it’s a unity that is fitto be celebrated in no less a manner thanthrough the thumps of desks in Parliament.The Prime Minister added the necessarybit of drama to the occasion when heremarked, “At the midnight hour, we areall set to to decide the future journey of thiscountry... 1.25 billion people are witness tothis historic event.” He added that there wasno better place to start this new journeythan from the Central Hall of Parliament.He naturally also invoked Sardar Patel’s uni-fication of India.

The second reason was the Modiregime’s desire to involve PresidentMukherjee in the celebration. Mukherjeehad been the first, as Finance Minister in theCongress-led the United ProgressiveAlliance regime, to moot the common taxidea. Recalling that, the President saidrecently, “The introduction of the GST is amomentous occasion for the country. Butit is also a momentous occasion for me per-sonally. I had introduced the ConstitutionalAmendment Bill in 2009 as the FinanceMinister.” President Mukherjee added thatit had been his “privilege” to give his assentto the 101st Amendment to the Constitutionwhich paved the way for the GST’s eventu-al rollout. In keeping with the stature of thePresident’s post, the Government believedthat the best forum to get him to be part ofthe launch was Parliament, and its CentralHall. And while the country’s President isnot a partisan politician, PresidentMukherjee’s long association with theCongress did reflect in the Government’sdecision to involve him and give the eventa non-partisan colour.

The third is the Government’s sense ofconfidence that the GST will be good for thecountry and that its impact will begin to bepositively felt when the 2019 Lok Sabha elec-tion draws close. Thus, anticipating success,the Modi regime decided to pull no punch-

es in its launch. The confidence derives frompast experiences in demonetisation, surgicalstrikes etc. The Modi regime clearly views thehigh-profile launch as a strong move that willfetch political results in the months to come.In demonetisation’s case, it successfully soldthe decision to the people as a means to reinin back-money hoarders and tax-evaders. TheGST is being marketed as a tax regime wherethe manufacturer or the seller cannot any-more indulge in illegalities, where tax collec-tions will go higher, and following which theadditional money flowing into the publicexchequer will be used for social sectorschemes. And, like in the case of demoneti-sation, the Government will emphasise thatthose who have nothing to hide need not fearthe GST. Besides, the new tax system will leadto, after a few hiccups perhaps, simplificationsin meeting tax obligations — a boon to thenation’s large trading community which gen-erally backs the BJP. Using simple mathemat-ics, the Government will explain that whilethe prices of some products and services mayinch a bit higher, there will be other prod-ucts and services where the consumer has topay a lower price than he did before the GSTsystem kicked in.

The fourth reason for the high visibil-ity launch was the Government’s decisionto ride on the ‘Modi factor’. Make no mis-take: The GST’s credibility rides on thePrime Minister’s credibility. It’s perhaps thisreason why the highlight of the midnightsession of Parliament was not the country’sFinance Minister Arun Jaitley, who steeredthe new tax regime through the various upsand downs and through the 18 momentousmeetings of the GST Council formed tofinalise the nitty-gritty of the scheme —rightly billed as the biggest tax reform so farin independent India — but Modi. A com-parison with demonetisation again wouldbe in order here. Right from the time heannounced the recall of high-value curren-cy notes in his address to the nation onNovember 8 last year to the three monthsor so of upheaval when the common manfaced immense hardships in banks, thePrime Minister’s assurances of a goodresult kept the spirit of the people high. Theytrusted him when he said that thingswould normalise soon, and that the incon-

venience was a price to be paid for break-ing the backbone of black money in thecountry. And so, we had person after per-son, standing for long hours in queues out-side banks, waiting to withdraw or deposithis legal money, endorsing Modi’s assurancesand playing down his problems. Oppositionparties did everything they could to reversethis faith — from issuing condemnatorystatements to arousing public anger over de-monetisation and using it as an electoralissue to organising public protests on streetsetc. But none worked and the BJP registeredwins in important State elections.

Now too, those like the Congress, theTrinamool Congress, the Rashtriya JanataDal and the Left parties, have been ravingand ranting against the GST launch. Theiropposition ranges from the timing of thelaunch to the manner in which it has beenlaunched to defects in the GST regime whichthey claim have not been addressed. In a bidto amplify their opposition, these parties alsoboycotted the special session of Parliament.But the Prime Minister took the sails out oftheir wind when he appreciated the role ofall parties and leaders who had made theGST possible. Still, the Opposition has notgiven up and is gearing to place as manyobstacles as it can towards its effective imple-mentation. For starters, the States theCongress rules, though they are few andcould get fewer in the months to come, couldshow laxity in making the GST a reality andthus, through this deviousness, show up thenew tax system’s ‘failure’.

But the Opposition’s ploy is unlikely tobe considered credible by the people. In thefirst place, the GST concept came during theCongress’s rule, and so that party has lostthe moral right to oppose it. The second isthat the provisions of the GST, including taxslabs, rates and launch date (of July 1) hadbeen discussed and decided upon by theGST Council which comprises representa-tives of all States and different parties andwhose concurrence was needed. It’s true thatthere were some differences over certain pro-visions, but they were carried through withthe help of consensus. Where consensusproved elusive, the provisions were accord-ingly amended. In either case, thus, theOpposition has little reason to object today.

The Congress’s claim that the GST isflawed, the Trinamool Congress’s allegationthat it would lead to ‘Inspector Raj’, and theLeft’s claim that it didn’t take care of the com-mon man are all spurious and after-thoughts. These laments become all themore laughable when one recalls that theTrinamool Congress had most vocally sup-ported the constitutional amendment inParliament, which brought in the GST sys-tem; and a Left leader had once headed theGST Council which finalised the provisions.

The bare fact is that the objection to theGST has been purely political — like theopposition to demonetisation and to themore recent BJP-led National DemocraticAlliance’s (NDA) presidential choice was.Like in the two cases, GST became a meansfor the Congress to demonstrate oppositionunity. But here too the Congress lost the plot.Barring four major opposition parties,none boycotted the midnight session — noteven the Nationalist Congress Party, theJanata Dal (Secular) and the Janata Dal(United), which are supposed to be part ofthe anti-BJP Congress-led camp.Incidentally, neither the Nitish Kumar-ledJanata Dal (United) nor the Shard Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party had con-demned the demonetisation decision;indeed, Nitish Kumar had broken ranks withhis alliance partners and openly supporteddemonetisation. In the midst of the GSTcontroversy, the Bihar Chief Minister terse-ly remarked, in response to a senior centralCongress leader’s criticism of his decisionto favour the GST regime, that he neithertook directives from anyone nor did hebelong to any camp. Clearly, therefore,Opposition unity has failed yet again.

Having emerged victorious in the polit-ical tussle, at least for now, the BJP-helmedNDA Government at the Centre mustensure effective, and as hassle-free as pos-sible implementation of the GST regime.Problems are certain to crop up, and theOpposition can be expected to underlinethem over and over again. Success rests onquick redressal mechanisms. The countrycannot afford a failed GST — both from thepolitical and the economic perspective. ■

(Courtesy : Vivekananda International Foundation)

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The Finance Ministry saidon Thursday said that

traders would not be able toavail of threshold exemption of�20 lakh turnover, if they haveinter-state supplies. It also clar-ified that the traders supplyinggoods to other states will needto register under the Goodsand Services Tax (GST) even iftheir turnover is below �20lakh.

“A trader dealing only inexempted goods or where histurnover is below �20 lakh inthe financial year, but notengaged in inter-state sup-plies, is not required to regis-ter under GST. �20 lakh regis-tration limit is only for intra-state traders. Thresholdexemption is only for traderswho are trading within theState,” Revenue SecretaryHasmukh Adhia said whilespeaking at the ‘GST-Ki-Master Class’ held for traders,tax practitioners and all offi-cers of the Central Board ofExcise and Customs and State

governments.“The traders, who have

turnover below �20 lakh andsupply goods and serviceswithin the State, can also go forvoluntary registration to availinput tax credit. But once reg-istered, the traders will have topay taxes on all supplies, evenif turnover is less than Rs 20lakh,” Adhia said, adding thateven if there were no transac-tions in a certain month,return would have to be filed

once registration was done. The Revenue Secretary

also said since registration isPAN-based, only one GST reg-istration number can be allot-ted against one PAN. “Even ifthe supplies were made inter-state, the Composition Schemeof Rs 75 lakh threshold wouldapply on the combinedturnover,” he clirified.

Traders who have below Rs75 lakh turnover will have topay 1 per cent tax, manufac-

turers will have to pay 2 percent while restaurants busi-nesses below �75 lakh turnoverwill have to pay 5 per cent ifthey opt to go for theComposition Scheme underthe GST.

On being questioned aboutthe additional 30 per cententertainment tax being leviedin Tamil Nadu apart from theGST rate, Adhia said that wasthe prerogative of the state andnothing could be done aboutit.

Under the GST, State gov-ernments are authorised tolevy a parallel tax for the ben-efit of local bodies. “The taxesunder GST will be taken careof by the GST Council. Butother taxes, which are out of thepurview, are under State gov-ernments. They have the rightto increase or decrease the taxthat the State Government willdecide. Can’t do anything inthat,” Adhia said.

Petroleum products, elec-tricity, stamp duty, registrationcharges and vehicle tax remainoutside the GST. �

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��� ���E� Having a jointownership with the govern-ment in Air India will be a“very very difficult proposi-tion”, IndiGo’s founder RakeshGangwal said on Thursday.

While virtually ruling outthe possibility of running AirIndia along with theGovernment, he also cautionedthat it would be a“Shakespearean tragedy” if thenational carrier’s internationalassets go to a foreign entity.

Soon after the Cabinet gaveits in-principle approval for dis-investment of Air India, IndiGoexpressed its interest to acquirethe airline’s international oper-ations as well as Air IndiaExpress.

In a detailed conferencecall with investors and analysts,Gangwal along with co-founder Rahul Bhatia provid-ed their perspective on the bidfor Air India and plans for lowcost long haul internationalflights.

“Our view is that a jointventure or a joint ownershipwith the Government is at best

a very very difficult propositionand we would not go down thatpath.

“The Government hasowned and managed Air Indiafor 50 years and is looking todivest of itself right now. Onewould even wonder if truly atthe end of the day when thethinking is all done, whetherthe Government itself would beinterested in wanting a part-nership,” Gangwal said.

Air India, which is surviv-ing on taxpayers’ money, has adebt burden of more than�52,000 crore.

“From our perspective as acorporate entity which haspublic shareholders and takeson this responsibility very seri-ously, we would not go down apath where there would be ajoint venture or even a minor-ity or majority stake which theGovernment would own... Maybe a good model but we can-not bring value to that propo-sition,” he noted.

IndiGo has been express-ing concerns over the coun-try’s international air traffic

being captured by Gulf carri-ers.

Against this backdrop,Gangwal said that if a foreignairline was to get hold of AirIndia’s international assetssuch as slots and landingrights, then the economicinterests of that particularentity would be maximised.

“... If by chance, the inter-national assets of Air Indiaactually get acquired by astate-owned entity, it poten-tially could play out as aShakespearean tragedy.

“World politics is unpre-dictable. Look no further thanthe state boycott that is goingon in the Middle East and forus, the idea that a foreignnation would control a largepart of India’s domestic andinternational air transportnetwork is very difficult towrap one’s head around,”Gangwal said.

The consequences andimplications, literally of out-sourcing Air India’s trans-portation should raise seriouspolicy issues, he added. �

5�����!������"��#��'�!���0�1��##�� �"��"�������������'���0���� ����� Net direct tax

collection grew by 14.8 percent to �1.42 lakh crore at theend of first quarter onaccount of surge in advancetax payments.

During April-June, therevenue department alsoissued refunds to the tune of�55,520 crore. This was,however, 5.2 per cent lowerthan the refunds issued dur-ing the corresponding peri-od last fiscal.

The net direct tax col-lection represents 14.5 percent of the total BudgetEstimates of direct taxes(�9.8 lakh crore) for 2017-18,the finance ministry said ina statement.

While gross collectionsunder Corporate IncomeTax (CIT) grew at 4.8 percent, that from PersonalIncome Tax (PIT), includingSecurities Transaction Tax(STT), rose by 12.9 per cent.

“However, after adjust-ing for refunds, the netgrowth in CIT collections is22.4 per cent while that inPIT is 8.5 per cent,” itadded.

������� A National TelecomPolicy is currently under for-mulation and will be madepublic “soon” for stakeholderconsultation, Telecom MinisterManoj Sinha has said.

The upcoming policy willlook at areas like technologyinnovation and security as wellas plug “loopholes”, the minis-ter promised but did not elab-orate on the specifics.

“We are framing NationalTelecom policy...We have donea lot of work on this. Once it isformulated, we will put in onthe website for comments ofgeneral public, academia,industry and then we will go toParliament,” the minister toldthe news agency in an inter-view.

He said that at a broadlevel, the policy will be drivenby technology innovations,among other aspects.

“There are many thingswhich change with time...Wewill take all that into consider-ation,” he said, adding it willalso address “loopholes”.

He was responding to aquestion on gaps that the newpolicy will seek to address overthe National Telecom Policy(NTP) 2012.

Asked about the timeframefor finalising the new policy,Sinha said he expected it “soon”.

“I am hopeful that it willcome soon. First, we will initi-ate a consultation...Maybe theimplementation will take sometime but we will soon put in onthe website so we can seek peo-ple’s opinion,” he pointed out.

Sinha vowed that reforms,especially consumer-centricones, will continue in the tele-com sector and hinted thatsome announcements were inthe offing.

“Reforms will contin-ue...Yes, it will move, and moveswiftly...You will soon see somethings...In the coming days,there will be some news regard-ing reforms, and it will beconsumer-centric,” he said butdeclined to divulge details.

The Telecom Ministry hasissued technology neutral tele-com licences under the NTP2012 which was delinked fromspectrum. Other reforms thathave been undertaken includefinalisation of spectrum trad-ing and sharing rules, fullmobile number portability,increasing spectrum supply forthe industry, Right of Waynorms and eKYC.

However, it is yet to meetcertain targets like 2 megabitsper second broadband speedfor consumers and formationof the National MobileProperty Registry.

Also, the new policy for-mulation comes at a time whenthe sector is confronting finan-cial difficulties. Revenue andprofitability of both large andsmall operators have come

under severe pressure after theentry of aggressive newcomerReliance Jio and the subsequentadvent of free data and voiceofferings.

The telecom industry’s debthas touched Rs 4.6 lakh crore,and a latest report by ICRA haswarned that industry revenuewill plunge by another 6 percent in the current financialyear due to competition andpricing pressure.

Last month, an inter-min-isterial group held extensivedialogue with all telecom play-ers as well as large banks to dis-cuss the industry’s financialstress and look for remedialmeasures.

Bharti Airtel, Vodafoneand Idea Cellular as well asother telcos are making anaggressive pitch for reductionin levies (like licence fee, spec-trum usage charge) and are alsoseeking an extension in thedeferred payment liability forradiowaves.

Jio, on the other hand, hasascribed the financial stress inthe telecom sector to existingoperators like Airtel and Idearunning businesses on debtand investing heavily in unre-lated sectors. �

,�!�+� ����� � �������!����<"� ������� ���������%�*���� ��� ����� The Cabinet is

likely to consider this monthsale of government’s 51 per centstake in Hindustan PetroleumCorp Ltd (HPCL) to Oil andNatural Gas Corp (ONGC)for over �26,000 crore.

The Department ofInvestment and Public AssetManagement (DIPAM) in theMinistry of Finance is movinga note for consideration of theCabinet for divesting govern-ment’s entire 51.11 per centshareholding in India’s third-biggest fuel retailer HPCL tooil producer ONGC.

The Cabinet may take upthe proposal this month, asource in the governmentsaid. “It may come before theCabinet as early as 10 to 15days,” he said.

After the Cabinet nod,the government will move toappoint valuation and trans-action advisers while ONGCtoo may decide to hire mer-chant bankers to arrive at thevaluation of Governmentshareholding.

Following up on FinanceMinister Arun Jaitley’s Budgetannouncement of creating anintegrated oi l company,ONGC evaluated options ofacquiring either HPCL orBharat Petroleum Corp Ltd(BPCL) - the two downstream

oil refining and fuel market-ing companies.

While acquiring eitherone of them made a lot ofbusiness sense, ONGC foundthe nation’s second-biggestfuel retailer BPCL too expen-sive.

It then conveyed its choiceto the parent oil ministry,which relayed it to DIPAM.

After few rounds of inter-ministerial consultations,DIPAM is now approachingthe Cabinet for a nod for thetransaction, the source said,adding the transaction is like-ly to be completed withinthis fiscal year.

ONGC has a cash reserveof �13,014 crore and to fundthe Government stake acqui-sition in HPCL, it will have toborrow at least �10,000 crore,the source said.

BPCL has a market cap of�95,447.12 crore and buyingGovernment’s 54.93 per centwould alone have entailed anoutgo of �52,430 crore.

HPCL on the other handhas a market cap of �51,764.25and buying government’s entire51.11 per cent stake wouldentail an outgo of �26,450crore. Another Rs 13,450 croreor so would be required in caseopen offer for an additional 26per cent has to be made. �

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Th e B R IC S’ Ne wDevelopment Bank has

23 new projects amountingto USD six billion in thepip e l i n e for f i n an c i ng ,including six ventures inIndia valued at $1.8 billion,the bank’s President K VKamath said today.

The bank set up byBrazil, Russia, India hasseen good results in the lasttwo years and has a strongpipeline for the future,Kamath told the media atthe bank’s headquarters inShanghai on the occasion ofcompleting two years of itsfounding.

The bank has 23 pro-jects at various stages ofpreparation for 2017 to2018, with a total lendingamount of $six bi l l ion,Kamat h to ld rep or ters ,including Indian journalistsbased in Beijing who werelinked up online to thepress meet.

“The last two years havebeen very satisfying to us.It has built a strong foun-dation for the bank,” hesaid.

Among the projects inthe pipeline six are in Indiatotalling up to $1.8 billion.The financing in India is

aimed at improving ruralinfrastructure development,he said.

T h e proj e c t s i n t hepipeline also include fiveprojects, totalling $1.7 bil-lion, in China. The remain-der projects are -- seven inBrazil, two in Russia, andthree in South Africa.

In 2016, the bank grant-ed $1.5 billion in loans toseven projects.

Most projects involvedgreen energy or infrastruc-ture, Kamath said.

The bank sold its firstthree billion yuan (USD437 million) yuan-denom-inated bonds in China inJuly last year, to fund cleanenergy projects in memberstates.

It plans to issue rupee-denominated bonds thisyear and will also look foro p p or t u n i t i e s t o i s s u ebonds in Brazil and Russia,Kamath said.

The bank currently has100 staff members whichare expected to be increasedto 150 by the end of theyear, he said

T h e b a n k f or m a l l yopened on July 21, 2015.The NDB was establishedwith an initial fund of $100billion pooled from fiveBRICS countries.

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Online photography companyCanvera, on Thursday,

announced its partnership with IT giantHP and unveiled its much awaited#yougraphy range providing con-sumers with an unconventional photoprinting mechanism.

The Bangalore-based companyalso released numerous productsranging from canvases and posters tocalendars and sharebooks impartingconsumers with various mediums to

print their photographs.The photography range, which

enables customers to use their personalpictures and convert them into highquality photo prints, comes as a con-structive opportunity for people look-ing to transform digital images intoingenious printed products.

“The idea to launch this range isto help people transform their great pic-tures into beautiful memories, insteadof keeping these photos in their harddisk or leaving them on the phone’smemory card. Yougraphy has some

exciting and quirky collections ofofferings that are sure to beautify yourhome or workplace,” said Mr. RanjitYadav, Managing Director, Canvera,adding that the aim behind the launchis to directly connect with the pur-chasers through an easy and interac-tive photo printing apparatus.

The photo variety, which usesHP’s flagship ‘Indigo Digital Press tech-nology’, claims to impart customerswith non-tearable and weather/waterproof printing to maintain its longetivity.

The move is seen as a strategic plan

by Canvera to expand its personalizedphoto printing business in Indiathrough utilizing HP’s core printingtechnology.

“HP strives for consumer satis-faction by providing them withsomething more than just a product.We are happy to join hands withCanvera for the launch of Yougraphywhich provides customers uniqueoptions to preserve their memories,”said Mr. Puneet Chadha ,DirectorMarketing-Graphics SolutionsBusiness, Asia Pacific Japan, HP Inc.

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��������Debt-ridden BhushanSteel has reported a net loss of�1,130.65 crore in the fourth quar-ter ended March 31, 2017, muchlarger than �756.76 crore mentionedin the unaudited results in May thisyear.

The troubled steel maker hasalso re-designated some of its keyofficials that include giving addi-tional charge of CEO to Vice-Chairman and Managing Director

Neeraj Singal.The company re-designated

whole time Director (Technical)Rahul Sen Gupta as whole timeDirector (Technical) and ExecutiveVice-President (Technical).

Whole time Director(Commercial) P K Agarwal was re-designated as whole time Director(Commercial) and Executive VicePresident (Commercial), the com-pany said in a filing to the BSE.�

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MUMBAI: The Goods andServices Tax (GST) is likely topose challenges for the golddemand in the short termwhen small-scale artisans andretailers may struggle to adaptto the new tax regime, theWorld Gold Council (WGC)on Thursday said.

“In the short term, we believeGST may pose challenges for theindustry. Small-scale artisans andretailers with varying degrees oftax compliance may struggle toadapt,” WGC Director, MarketIntelligence, Alistair Hewitt said inthe fourth issue of magazine‘Gold Investor’.

He said on June 3, the GSTCouncil announced a 3 per centrate for gold bullion and jewellery.

The gold industry reacted posi-tively to this as there had been fearsthat it could have been higher, per-haps 5 per cent or more, Hewittadded. “Our econometric researchinto data spanning 26 years indi-cates the tax may pose a headwindto gold demand, because it push-es up the overall tax rate con-sumers face,” he said.

Despite these possible obsta-cles, Hewitt said WGC believeddemand is unlikely to go down fur-ther, after falling so sharply last year.The gradual remonetisation of theeconomy, the bumper crop after agood monsoon and the Centralgovernment employees and pen-sioners’ inflation-busting wagehike can support economic growthin 2017, he said. PTI

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Global e-tailing giantAmazon has invested over

�2,000 crore (over $310 mil-lion) in India in the last twomonths as it looks to consol-idate its position in the coun-try and fend off local rivals likeFlipkart.

The US-based f irmpumped in �1,680 crore inJune into its online market-place business in India, while�341 crore was invested in thepreceding month in the whole-sale business. As per regula-tory filings with the CorporateAffairs Ministry, AmazonCorporate Holdings andAmazon.Com.Incs has madethese investments in the twoIndian entities.

The capital infusion will

also provide more arsenal tothe Indian entity that has beenaggressively investing inexpanding infrastructure andadding solutions to enhanceconsumer and seller experi-ence. Last year, Amazonfounder Jeff Bezos had com-mitted investments to the tuneof $5 billion into the Indianmarket. Estimates suggest thatthe company has already

invested over $2 billion in thelast few quarters in the Indianmarket.

Amazon India, which hasrecently completed four yearsof operations, has been direct-ing its investments towardsbuilding warehouses, strength-ening logistics and increasingproduct assortment.

Besides, money is alsobeing invested in marketingand promotions as the com-pany looks to bring more con-sumers into shopping onlineon its platform. Bezos, as partof investor calls, has high-lighted the importance of theIndian market to its operationson multiple occasions and hasassured that the company willcontinue to invest in India.

When contacted, anAmazon India spokesperson

said: “We remain committedto our India business with along-term perspective to makee-commerce a habit for Indiancustomers and invest in thenecessary technology andinfrastructure to grow theentire ecosystem.” With TigerGlobal-backed Flipkart raising$1.4 billion earlier this year,the competition is intense andthe rivals are already believedto be gearing up for the festiveseason. Amazon has invested�341 crore in AmazonWholesale India, the wholesaleB2B arm of Amazon India.

The company has alsomade an additional invest-ment of �1,680 crore in itsIndia unit as it looks tofurther strengthen opera-tions in the booming e-commerce market.

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KOLKATA: Real estate playersare planning to absorb the post-GST additional tax burden of fiveto six per cent post to prevent fur-ther slump in sales as demoneti-sation hangover continues in thesector. “We had talked to sev-eral builders and all of them aretrying hard to absorb the addi-tional tax burden of five to six percent due to GST,” Knight Frankchief economist and nationaldirector Samantak Das said.

“Already sales volume on anational level of the first half of 2017(Jan-June 17') is down by 11 percent and in Kolkata it is down by22 per cent. If additional tax bur-den is passed on, then sales will fur-ther dip,” he said. GST on real estateis 12 per cent and in the pre-GSTperiod, taxation was about six toseven per cent. New launches ofproperties have crashed 41 per cent,lowest in the last seven years of thefirst half average in top 8 cities ofthe country, Das said. PTI

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The retirement fund bodyEPFO’s investment in stocks

through exchange traded funds(ETFs) would cross the �45,000-crore mark by the end of this fis-cal, Labour Minister BandaruDattatreya said on Thursday.

“In the exchange tradedfunds, we have increased (invest-ment) from 10 per cent to 15 percent. With this, this year alone, itmay go in totality to �45,000crore, and I feel (that) the rate ofreturn last year was 13.3 per cent(from ETFs),” Dattatreya said onthe sidelines of an Assochamevent here. “The markets are goodand let’s see the situation, but it isan encouraging one. That's whywe have increased (investment),”he said. As of April 21 this year,the stock investment stood at�21,559 crore. The EPFO invest-ed �6,577 crore in 2015-16 and�14,982 crore in 2016-17.

Dattatreya also said the min-istry is working on consolidating44 labour codes into four in orderto simplify them. The four codespertain to labour, industrial rela-tions, social security and welfareand safety and working condi-tions. Besides, he said the gov-ernment plans to create 65 mil-lion jobs by 2026 in the auto sec-tor alone. Speaking on the occa-sion, Secretary, Heavy Industriesand Public Enterprises, GirishShankar said there is a huge gap

the auto industry must address toensure Make in India delivers.Original equipment manufac-turers (OEMs) need to make sub-stantial investment in engineer-ing R&D for designing and devel-oping in India so that Indiagraduates to a truly auto engi-neering hub.

“We request the auto majorsto consider this seriously and fastenough. Also, suggest to us as tohow to support this through anappropriate policy framework.

We are already working towardsthis direction,” he said.

The ministry has finalised thenet automotive mission plan(AMP) 2016-26, he said, addingthat AMP 2026 is a combinedeffort of the central governmentand the industry. It also seeks todefine the trajectory of evolutionof the automotive ecosystem inIndia including the glide path ofspecific regulations and policiesthat govern a wide range of para-meters affecting the industry.

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NEW DELHI:Retirement fundbody EPFO is likely toannounce the interest rate on PFdeposits for this fiscal at itstrustee meeting slated for nextmonth.The EPFO hadlowered the rate of returnfor its over 4.5 crore sub-scribers to 8.65 per centfor 2016-17, from 8.8per cent in 2015-16.

“After discussing inthe Central Board ofTrustees meeting, my ministrywill take a decision. I am goingto call a meeting shortly. Themeeting will happen nextmonth,” Labour MinisterBandaru Dattatreya toldreporters when asked about thedecision on EPF interest rate forthis fiscal. The Minister furthersaid, “Last time, I gave 8.65 percent and this year, our rate of

return has come 13.3 per cent onequity investments. The CBTwill propose a rate of interestbased on income projection forthis fiscal. Then, as its chairman,

we will take the decision.”There is a buzz that

the interest rate on EPFcan be further loweredby around 25 basispoints, or 0.25 percent-age point, for the cur-rent fiscal from 8.65

per cent for 2016-17 in view ofa falling yield on securities orbonds where the body investsbulk of its funds. OnWednesday, however, the min-ister had said the EPFO was inthe process of working outincome projections for the cur-rent fiscal which would thenbecome the basis for fixing therate of return for 2017-18. PTI

2��@���������� ����<&,���� �����'���MUMBAI: The Sensex rose 124points to end at a new peak of31,369.34 as investors pinnedhopes on positive Q1 numbersthat are due from next week,besides an above normal rain inthe first month of monsoon.

The market was back to itsbullish ways following thesmooth implementation of GST,hopes of a pick up in the coun-try's economic grwoth and anabove normal monsoon so far,brokers said. Realty, FMCG andbanking sectors hogged the lime-light and lifted the key bench-mark Sensex to close at new peakbut profit-booking towards thefag-end trimmed early gains.

The 50-share Nifty, afterreclaiming the 9,700-mark toscale a high of 9,700.70, ended36.95 points up, or 0.38 per cent,at 9,674.55, just shying awayfrom its record closing of9,675.10, recorded on June 5.

“Market has come out of theconsolidation path due to pro-gressing monsoon season and anexpectation of positive quarterresults after a hassle-free rolloutof GST.” “On the global front, Fedminutes is giving a mixed toneand lacking unity to find con-sensus to deal with the balancesheet runoff at the time of under-shooting inflation which willlimit the outflow of foreign fundsfrom EMs like India,” Vinod Nair,Head of Research, GeojitFinancial Services Ltd said.

Among realty stocks, SobhaLtd, Prestige, Unitech, DLF Ltd,Omaxe, HDIL, Godrej Propertiesand Phoenix ltd evoked freshbuying support and gained up to6.93 per cent. Realty stocks hada leg up after the Karnataka cab-inet on Wednesday approvedrules under the new real estateregulation act that aims to pro-tect home buyers. PTI

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NEW DELHI: Global merger and acquisition activity touched $1.49trillion across 8,052 deals in the first half of this year, registeringan eight per cent increase in value terms over last year, says a report.A total of 9,169 deals worth $1.38 trillion were sealed in January-June period of 2016. “Companies have been looking at ‘future-proof-ing’ in the wake of rapid changes to technology and politics to keepahead of rivals,” said a report by Mergermarket. Moreover, therehas been an increase in the number of megadeals. A total of 17megadeals (worth over $10 billion) were announced since the begin-ning of the year, as against 14 in the first half of 2016.Sector wise,Energy, Mining and Utilities segment has been the most targetedindustry globally by value with $267.9 billion across 662 deals.PTI

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NEW DELHI: Tata Motors on Thursday said it has cut prices of itscommercial vehicles by up to 8.2 per cent to pass on the GST ben-efit to customers. “We are offering a price reduction in commercialvehicles (cargo) in the range of 0.3 per cent to 4.21 per cent and incommercial vehicles (passenger transportation) in the range of 0.6per cent to 8.2 per cent,” Tata Motors Head of Commercial VehicleBusiness unit Girish Wagh said. The company is confident that postGST price reduction will enable the customers to bring down theircost of operations and in turn, boost demand, he added. Commentingon GST implementation, Wagh said the initiative will bring aboutsignificant gains to the country’s economy and advantages for the stake-holders, while enhancing the ease of doing business. PTI

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NEW DELHI: The Governmentshould permit wider utilisation ofduty credit scrips by exporters asany limited use would impact liq-uidity situation of exporters, FIEOon Thursday said. Implementationof the Goods and Services Tax(GST) has limited their use byexporters as these can now beutilised only for payment of basicCustoms duty and not IGST.

The Federation of IndianExport Organisations (FIEO)President Ganesh Gupta said theGovernment should permitexporters to use these scrips for

payment of integrated GST as well.“The current norm will impact thevalue of these scrips. We should beallowed to use this for payment ofincome tax and IGST. Scrips aresort of currency notes. It shouldnot carry any tax on it,” he toldPTI. He also suggested that saleof scrips should not attract anyduty, otherwise its value woulddrop significantly. These scrips,a type of certificate that carriescertain monetary value, are keyincentives extended to exportersby the Government under theforeign trade policy. PTI

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Warsaw: President DonaldTrump said on Thursday theUnited States had demon-strated its commitment toNATO’s defence throughwords and actions, and calledon Russia to end its “destabil-ising” action in Ukraine andelsewhere in the world.

Trump’s reference toArticle Five of the NATOtreaty, which guarantees thatalliance members will defendeach other, represented achange of tone from thePresident, who upset US allies by not mentioning support for the provision dur-ing a trip to NATO head-quarters in May.

His criticism of Russiacomes ahead of his first face-to-face meeting with RussianPresident Vladimir Putin inGermany on Friday.

“We urge Russia to ceaseits destabilizing activities inUkraine and elsewhere and its

support for hostile regimesincluding Syria and Iran, andto instead join the communi-ty of responsible nations in our

fight against common enemiesand the defense of civilizationitself,” Trump said in a speechin Warsaw. Agencies

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Karachi: A top leader of a prominent politi-cal party in Balochistan was on Thursday shotdead by unidentified gunmen in the capitalof the restive Pakistani province. MalikNaveed Dehwar, a leader of BalochistanNational Party (BNP), and his guard were shotdead in Quetta city, police said. Some uniden-tified gunmen opened fire at Dehwar’s vehi-cle and fled from the spot. Police said Dehwardied at the spot while his guard succumed tohis injuries later in the hospital. Another per-son was also injured in the firing and wasadmitted to a hospital. PTI

Islamabad: Pakistan on Thursday expressed concern over the reported sale of advanced weaponsto India by some countries, saying it would undermine the strategic balance in the region.

“Pakistan will continue to raise its voice at the international fora which should objectivelyassess its actions and policies towards South Asian region,” Foreign Office spokesperson NafeesZakaria said at his weekly media briefing.

His comments came amid reports that the US has cleared the sale of predator Guardian dronesto India. Zakaria said Pakistan was alive toward the issue of its national security which would besafeguarded at every cost. PTI

Ankara: Turkey’s EuropeanUnion Affairs Minister says apossible European Parliamentvote to suspend accessiontalks with his country wouldgo down in history as a “ter-rible mistake.”

Omer Celik made thecomments on Thursday atthe start of talks with EU

enlargement commissionerJohannes Hahn in Ankara,hours before the EuropeanParliament is due to hold anonbinding vote on a draftreport that calls for the sus-pension of negotiations with Turkey due to concernsover its human rights anddemocracy. AP

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The Jerusalem municipalityhas said it plans to approve

800 new homes in Jewish-pop-ulated areas of east Jerusalem inthe coming month, a move thatcould complicate PresidentDonald Trump’s attempt torestart peace talks.

The housing would be thefirst approved in east Jerusalemsince Trump called on IsraeliPrime Minister BenjaminNetanyahu to curb settlementconstruction in February.

Trump’s son-in-law andadviser Jared Kushner arrived inIsrael last month and sat downwith Israeli and Palestinianleaders in an effort to helpkick-start long-dormant nego-tiations. Kushner discussedpotential actions to makeprogress toward “a genuine andlasting peace” between Israelisand Palestinians during hismeeting with Netanyahu.

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US President DonaldTrump insisted on

Thursday that ties betweenEurope and the United Stateshave never been stronger,during a landmark speech inthe Polish capital. Brushingaside a surfeit of transatlanticspats that have erupted since Trump took office inJanuary, the US leader insist-ed that the alliance is in rudehealth.

“The transatlantic bondbetween the United Statesand Europe is as strong asever, and maybe in many ways, even stronger,” hetold a large crowd in Warsaw.

Dhaka: An upscaleBangladeshi restaurant hasbanned foreign guests, fearinga repeat of last year’s deadlyterrorist attack in a Dhakacafe, the owner said onThursday.

Lake Terrace, a reputedrooftop barbeque restaurant inthe capital’s northern Uttaraneighbourhood, put a notice atits entrance saying no for-eigners were welcome.

Shah Tanzil, the owner ofLake Terrace, said the orderhad come from his landlord.

“We had no choice but tofollow the landlord’s instruc-tion,” he told AFP.

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The UK has begun movingits most extremist prison-

ers, including those who havebeen involved in planning ter-rorism, to special cells dubbed“jehadi jails” to tackle growingradicalisation within the coun-trys prison system.

The first such specialistcentre has been set up at HMPFrankland near Durham innorth-east England.

Two other centres, whichare expected to be at HMP

Full Sutton near York and atHMP Long Lart in inWorcestershire, are due toopen in the coming monthsand the three centres together will hold up to 28 of the most subversiveextremist prisoners.

“Any form of extremismmust be defeated wherever itis found, and it is right that weseparate those who pose thegreatest risk in order to limittheir influence over otherprisoners,” said UKs Prison Minister Sam Gyimah.

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At least two people havebeen killed and about 20

others are missing in hugef loods that are surgingthrough southern Japan, with hundreds of thousandsof people ordered or

urged to flee. Unprecedented torrential

rain has caused rivers to bursttheir banks, sweeping awayroads and houses, anddestroying schools.

Thousands of soldiers andothers were scrambling todayto reach people cut off by tor-

rents of swirling water orthreatened by landslides, andhad rescued 250 people, theGovernment said.

“We are in an extremelyserious situation,” DeputyPrime Minister Taro Aso said,warning of the danger of col-lapsing hi l ls ides and

adding “many people are still missing”.

More than 50 centimetres(20 inches) of rain delugedparts of Kyushu, the south-ernmost of Japan’s four mainislands, over 12 hours onWednesday, the meteorologi-cal agency said.

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Pakistan’s Attorney General Ashtar Ausaf willrepresent the country against India at the

International Court of Justice in the case involv-ing Indian national Kulbhushan Jadhav, who wassentenced to death by a Pakistani militarycourt. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs hasinformed the ICJ registrar at Peace Palace in TheHague that Ausaf would be the “agent” forPakistan in the case whereas Foreign AffairsDirector General Dr Mohammad Faisal wouldcontinue to act as the “co-agent”.

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Having lost patience withChina, the Trump admin-

istration is studying new steps tostarve North Korea of cash forits Nuclear programme, includ-ing an option that would infu-riate Beijing: sanctions onChinese companies that helpkeep the North’s economy afloat.

It’s an approach that’s paidoff for the US in the past,especially with Iran, whereAmerican economic penaltieshelped drive Tehran to thenuclear negotiating table. Yetthere are significant risks,

too, including the possibilityof opening a new rift withBeijing that could compli-cate US diplomatic efforts onother critical issues.

The renewed look at “sec-ondary sanctions” comes asWashington seeks a forcefulresponse to North Korea’s testthis week of an intercontinentalballistic missile that could strikethe United States. Few are advo-cating a military interventionthat could endanger millions oflives in allied South Korea acrossthe border. But options for turn-ing the screws on the Northfinancially also are imperfect.

“I don’t like to talk aboutwhat I have planned, but I havesome pretty severe things thatwe’re thinking about,” PresidentDonald Trump said Thursdayduring an appearance at anews conference in Poland.

“That doesn’t mean we’re goingto do them.”

He said the US would bewatching what happens in thecoming weeks and months butchided North Korea for “behav-ing in a very, very dangerousmanner” and added: “Somethingwill have to be done about it.”

Already, a wide array ofU.S. and international sanctionstarget North Korean entitiesand officials, making it illegalfor Americans to do businesswith them. The US also haspursued companies outsideNorth Korea accused of sur-reptitiously helping the com-munist country, such as a smallChinese bank the US penalisedlast week for allegedly laun-dering money for North Korea.

But the US thus far hasavoided what sanctions expertsdescribe as a logical escalation:

secondary sanctions targetingbanks and companies that doany business with North Korea— even legitimate transactionsthat aren’t explicitly prohibitedby UN Security Council reso-lutions. Nikki Haley, Trump’sU.N. ambassador, told an emer-gency session of the councilWednesday that the world mustdo more to “cut off the majorsources of hard currency to theNorth Korean regime.”

“We will look at any coun-try that chooses to do businesswith this outlaw regime,” Haleysaid. On the Korean Peninsulaon Thursday, South Korean jetsand navy ships f ired a barrage of guided-missiles intothe ocean during drills, a dis-play of military power two daysafter North Korea test-launched its first interconti-nental ballistic missile.

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The US on Thursday warnedof using military force in

response to North Korea’s“reckless” launch of a ballisticmissile and blasted China andRussia for “holding the hands”of the reclusive nation’s “viciousdictator” Kim Jong Un.

“It is a dark day becauseyesterday’s actions by NorthKorea made the world a moredangerous place. Their illegalmissile launch was not onlydangerous, but reckless andirresponsible. It showed thatNorth Korea does not want tobe part of a peaceful world,”

US Ambassador to the UNNikki Haley said at an emer-gency Security Council mee-ting on Wednesday followingthe launch of theintercontinental ballistic mis-sile by North Korea.

The device, launched onWednesday, was capable ofreaching Alaska, and theKorean Central News Agencyquoted leader Kim Jong-Un assaying the confrontation withthe US had entered the “finalstage”. Indian-American Haleywarned that the US “is pre-pared to use the full range ofour capabilities” to defenditself and its allies.

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The road from Mangalore to the cloudcovered hill station of Madikeri is quitewell maintained and in the upper reach-es of the Western Ghats the road is niceand twisty as well. A perfect place to takea sporty little hatchback then. But I did-n’t have a sporty little hatchback, I hadthe surprisingly large Volvo V90 CrossCountry.The V90 Cross Country is the third ofthe next-generation ‘90’ series of largecars introduced in India by the Swedishcarmaker. It follows the XC90 SportsUtility Vehicle and the S90 sedanlaunched last year. Both those cars arequite large as well, but while the XC90is a full-size SUV and the S90 a large lux-ury sedan, the V90 is wait for it, an estate.In this case, in Volvo’s ‘Cross Country’form a raised estate with more thanenough ground clearance at 210 millime-tres. But it is an estate after all and estateshaven't done very well in India.The last estate on sale was Audi’s RS6Avant and people didn't care what bodyshape that car was because it had 550horses under the hood. Before that youhad the Indigo Marina from Tata Motors,the Altura from Maruti, the OctaviaCombi from Skoda and the muchmaligned but rather brilliant Adventurefrom Fiat. None of these cars did verywell and that scared most Indian man-ufacturers from launching estates. Buthere is a simple thing, the V90 CrossCountry is a rather brilliant idea sinceit combines the rough road ability of anSUV with the performance of a sedan,well in this case a large sedan because itdoesn't have the additional height andweight of an heavy SUV. And you docouple this with an incredible amount ofstorage space, although you lose the thirdrow of seats, but how often do ownersuse those? Almost never.Back to the car, driving the V90 CrossCountry which features Volvo’s two-litrediesel in a 235 horsepower specificationis quite rewarding in the hills. Switch thecar to dynamic mode, which makes thesteering heavy but also tightens up the

suspension and throttle response whichmakes it really good fun. But do bewarned it could lead to your fellow pas-sengers losing their lunch. Volvo hasintroduced something called “PowerPulse” on this engine, which keeps a tankof compressed air to spool the turbo upfaster so while there is still a little bit oflag, it is almost imperceptible. And theeight-speed gearbox gets the job donefabulously well, and in most circum-stances you do not find yourself need-ing to use the steering mounted gearlevers.But the nicest thing about modernVolvo have been their superb interiors,and while the V90 continues the fami-ly look with the 9-inch touchscreen con-trol panel, there are some really nicetouches. The machined aluminium inte-rior door handles and

speaker covers add a touch of class whichrival cars lack. Similarly, the two-toneleather finish with counter stitchingmakes the inside of this car a place youreally want to be inside. The driver andpassenger seats both have a messagefunction along with ventilation, so your

back is both cool and relaxed. Even afterthe four hour drive back to MangaloreAirport one actually felt fresh, possiblyeven refreshed.But we come back to the same issue, thisis an estate and this class of cars despiteits undeniable sense has failed on thesales front. Can Volvo change its image?Well, for one this will be cheaper thana XC90 and it is more fun to drive. It isalso surprisingly spacious inside withloads of luggage room and rear seatlegroom. If you drive over bad roads oreven venture into the mud the all-wheeldrive keeps it going and the ride issuperb. And as mentioned above, theinteriors are superb and the Bowers andWilkins sound system is at another level.Volvo India is also launching this carwith one fully loaded trim level. The onlyoption buyers will have is choosingbetween 19 and 20 inch wheels, the lat-ter being the variant I drove.So the Volvo V90 Cross Country ticksall the boxes and if you are looking fora car in the `60 lakh range you reallycouldn't do any better. Now for Indianbuyers to give up their reluctance ofchoosing to buy an estate.

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Go minimal — that seems to be thetrend not just in clothes, jewelleryand make up but increasingly even

in tattoos. Rather than using the body as anexpansive canvas, most tattoo enthusiastsseem to believe in the motto, small is beau-tiful.

While bikers, who initially made thetrend popular amongst urban youth, pre-ferred huge tattoos in vibrant colours, tat-toos are going smaller, almost equivalent ofminiatures.

Vikas Malani, tattoo artist, Body CanvasTattoos, who operates out of the tony HauzKhas Village, Delhi says, “Small tattoos arepopular across different age groups and withboth genders. A small or minimalistic tat-too is ideal especially for a first timer whohas no idea about tattooing. Another rea-son is that many people prefer not to dis-play their tattoos but want to keep it per-sonal.” Of course there is the third catego-ry — people who are commitment phobicand do not want to have anything that is bigwhich would take a lot of time (and pain)to erase. “The fear of pain is another fac-tor that influences the size of the tattoo,” hesays.

Bird silhouettes, arrows, Nordic sym-bols, butterflies, flowers, date of birth, HarryPotter symbols are some of the tattoos thatare extremely popular. But one that standsapart is the semicolon tattoo. Malani says“The semicolon tattoo represents depres-sion. It is in solidarity with people who havegone through depression, had suicidaltendencies and have overcome it.” Similarlya purple knot is a souvenir or a mark ofrespect for cancer patients. People who haveovercome depression, get the semicolon tat-too or their friends get it done because theywant to show their respect and affection forthe person who has gone through a toughtime.

Women’s tattoos are usually small,sleek, floral and symbolic — which look ele-gant.

Script tattoos where letters of a languagewith a delicate cursive take finds many tak-ers as do geometric shaped tattoos whichare often placed to complement the body'scontours and boast a timeless appeal.

Dainty skin art has been hot for some-time now and people have narrowed downon specifc places to put the small designs.Arms, the side of the ribs, the back of theneck, and behind the ear — these are beau-tiful, elegant spots. The hottest spot for those

who want flexible visibility, is the side of hip.Those who like hide-and-seek prefer theinsides of the arm.

Emotions getting inked is on thetrending list these days and ‘permanent’ isthe new black especially in miniature orteeny-tiny forms. Tattoos are a unique wayto portray artistry, emotions, and senti-ments.

Curiosity about tattoos is also increas-ing the demand for miniature tattoosespecially among the youth. Kolkata-basedtattoo artist Anirban Roy Choudhury,

Forever Poetry, says, “Miniature tattoos aredifferent from small/basic tattoos. Peopleget the tattoos for various reasons, but onething common is that they feel it is beau-tiful. Usually the first tattoo is small as peo-ple are curious about the process, anxiousabout the pain and speculative of the per-manence.”

Lucky charms, zodiac signs and naturealso feature in the miniature tattoos. ShilutiLongkumer, student, Kala Bhavan,Santiniketan and a tattoo artist says,“Usually client wants to get Roman num-bers, symbols from different cultures, flow-ers, mountains or just a circle, whichreminds them of infinite nature of this uni-verse tattooed. But one thing is for sure,everyone’s story is personal and unique. Thetattoos are an indication of their personal-ities.”

Kritika Sharma (23), a journalism andmass communication student, CalcuttaUniversity, says, “I got small tattoos becausethose particular designs look good in asmaller size and also because it is lesspainful. I have an anchor symbol and dol-lar sign inked these two respresent strengthand money respectively. I feel both strengthand money are important for my life. Iwanted to get something meaningful.”

Dhanushree Pandya (20), student ofKamla Nehru College, New Delhi says “Ipreferred getting a small tattoo because itwas my first tattoo. I got it done two-threeyears back and it means a lot to me. The tat-too on my arm is in Arabic and it meanswarrior.”

For some, memories and love for anobject determines the tattoo design.Sanchari Tarafdar (22), a post-graduate stu-dent, West Bengal says “I love Harry pot-ter thus I ended up getting the symbol ofalways and I feel it looks good in a smallsize. Also I dedicated this tattoo to my lovedone.” Cost is another factor for gettingminiature tattoos especially for students asSubhasish Majumder (22), a post-graduatestudent, West Bengal says, “I wanted to getinked and a small tattoo didn’t cost much.”

Minimal tattoos have become a part ofaccessories and are usually done only withblack ink. People are opting for tiny tattoos,which tells a story of their life which theycan carry it until the end.

So go ahead, take the first tentative stepand get a small tattoo. This might just bethe beginning of a life-long affair with get-ting your body inked.

Friends are the real jewels in a per-son’s life. They are the ones on

whose shoulders we can lean andexpress our real emotions. NadirKhan’s, latest play Anand Express isan ode to friendship. The playrevolves around the journey of threeboys and within the time frame thatit is stage, it encapsulates emotionslike loss, tension and humor. Theaudience embarks on an on an emo-tional journey with the actors whobid farewell to their deceased friend.

The Aditya Birla Group’s theaterinitiative Aadyam in collaborationwith Rage Productions will be pre-senting Anand Express on 8th and 9thJuly at Kamani Auditorium, Delhi.the play written by Carl Miller isbased on the book Ostrich Boys byKeith Gray. It has been adapted byAkarsh Khurana for the Indian audi-ence and directed by Nadir Khan.

Khan has worked with GoldhawkProductions to produce his firstBBC radio drama, A Suitable Boy in2001. Khan says he decided to takeup the script of Anand Express forseveral reasons. He says, “It was afresh and exciting script, very differ-ent from what I have done before. Itdeals with young adults at a time andage when they do not have much.That’s why I found the script some-thing to work upon and interesting”.

Khurana is the man behindscripting The Ostrich Boys in anIndian landscape. “Akarsh and Ihave worked together before onmany occasions. We know each othervery well. Rage Production andAkarsh too go back a long way. Whenthe question came up about script-ing the Indian version of The OstrichBoys, we narrowed down on Akarshas the best person to pen it, ” saysKhan.

What did Khan have in mindwhile casting the boys for the play?He says, “When you are casting fora particular role, you always try tofind who will fit it and also bringsomething new to the character.Therefore, a director always hasmany things in mind while castingfor a particular role. And that’s howI choose Sukant Goel, Vivaan Shah,Siddharth Kumar and ChaitanyaSharma.”

Since the play has been adaptedfrom the play The Ostrich Boyswhich has been adapted from theeponymous novel Khan elucidatesthe ways in which Anand Express isdifferent and similar to the originalone. He says, “The basic structureand the story of the play are same. It’sjust been contextualised to the Indiansetting. Even the characters andtheir journey are similar to the orig-inal play. But, we do have very inter-esting set designs and have used ele-ments like unique projections toenhance the storytelling of the playon the stage.”

Khan has tried to manage and

balance all the emotions in the playso that he can bring out the best outof his characters. He says, “A storycan be told as well as you can and beas true to the text and the script asyou can possibly be. Any scriptneeds many layers and many differ-ent things that characters are goingthrough, otherwise, it would be quiteboring. This one has many differentlayers of complexities be in terms ofwhat are boys going through and it’snot just a one-dimensional story, sowe tried to be as true to the script aspossible and tell the story as truth-fully and as in as excitiNg a manneras possible.”

On asking about the difficultieshe faced while showcasing the play,he answered “It was a very challeng-ing experience but in a good waybecause it was a very different scriptfor me that I have worked upon interms of how it is structured. It’s avery linear but not naturalistic orrealistic and goes back and forth intime. I haven’t directed this kind ofa script for a long time. I was happyto accept that challenge”.

Anand Express is a coming-of-agestory of a teenager. He believes,“The play unfolds the challenges ateenage faces during his transition toadulthood. Generally, when you areyoung you wear your heart on yoursleeve and get excited by life.Everything appears in black andwhite and things are much simplerbut as you grow older, you under-stand there are repercussion to whatyou do and there are grey areas in theworld and it is at this point whenthese start to appear. It’s a journey toadulthood, basically”.

Khan not only directs but is alsoacting, and is the lighting technicianand stage manager. Being a multi-tal-ented man, he answered, “Of these,my favorite would probably be direct-ing because I think it’s very challeng-ing and interesting. One can constant-ly improve with each show and eachnew experience. As a director, Ialways want to see the play grow andalso help me in my growth.”Talking about his upcoming projects,Nadir responds “I’ve not muchplanned for now. Currently, I’mfocusing on my running play AnandExpress. My previous play 12 AngryJurors is also being staged inBangalore. Something will turn updefinitely for the later part of the year”.

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The answer is chocolate! Whatever might be your ques-tion. When you are low or when you are happy.

Whether it is Diwali or Valentines Day or Raksha Bandhan.So, it is ony fit that there is a special day for chocolate, whichgives people around the world immense happiness. Since 7July 2016 marked 466 years since chocolate was introducedto Europe, it was seen fit that this be adopted as InternationalWorld Chocolate Day.

Research also suggests that the amount of chocolate soldin India ballooned by 13 per cent in 2016 partly because ofthe growing disposable income and young population’s tastefor indulgence. Chocolate’s popularity has been attested toby Swiggy, the food delivery app as well. Their order analy-sis show that Indians are particularly partial towardsdesserts made of chocolate. Almost half of all dessert ordersplaced online (on Swiggy) are made of chocolate. In fact, 60per cent of the top orders for dessert on the platform arechocolate based.

Death by chocolate, hot chocolate fudge, chocolate milk-shake, chocolate brownie and chocolate truffle pastry.Women are 25 per cent more likely to order chocolate itemsonline. Those in the age group of 18-24 order more choco-late items online. As for the cities, Mumbai leads the packwith the maximum chocolate sales.

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No matter how old you are, there is always anurge to turn the clock back and relive schooldays when the interval was the most-await-

ed time of the day. When we opened and sharedour tiffin boxes, the smell left us drooling. In thecurrent scenario of corporatisation where peoplehardly get time to have delicious home-cooked food,Singh Sahib, the restaurant at Eros Hotel, NehruPlace has come up with a much-needed theme.

To break this time and money constraints, therestaurant has started their ‘Tiffin Lunch’ menu torevive the culture of tiffin, from school days. Theyalso deliver their tifffin lunch menu within the area.Since the main focus is on the lunch, the timingsare from 12:00 noon to 2:45 P.M. Nikhil Rastogi,executive chef, Singh Sahib, said, “Our target mar-ket is the corporate sector that barely gets the lever-age to have a luxurious lunch during their busyschedule. So we have planned this tiffin system inorder to allow them to eat some home made deli-cacies with special spices. The lunch has been craft-ed so that it is light but nutritious.”

Soothing ghazals played in the highly spaciousdining area, which gave the place a laid-back charm.The tiffin lunch is available both in vegetarian andnon-vegetarian with suitable amount of choices.

The starter in the vegetarian menu was Paneertikka which gave off a tantalising aroma of the tan-door. The tikka was flavoured with carrom seeds.Masala papad was served with dips of various fla-vors like mango, mint, pineapple and yoghurt. Themenu is varied keeping all the different food choic-es a person might ask for at lunch. It can be cus-tomised.

For the main course I had Dal Tadka, MatarPaneer, Dhingri Kofta, Steamed Rice, KachumberSalad and Assortment of Indian Breads. DalTadka was the most delicious dish. Chef Rastogiexplained the mantra behind the Dal, “Everyonelikes to have the Arhar daal and it's the easiest recipeto make. But as is said, ‘Too many chefs spoil thebroth’, so I personally like to keep it simple. It is beenprepared the way it is done in our homes by mix-ing it with Indian spices.”

The restaurant is trying to bust the myth that5-star restaurants are very expensive. Priced at Rs999+taxes, in a luxurious setting, it is value formoney.

The non-vegetarian menu starters include soletikka, chicken tikka and seekh kabab. The sole tikkaprepared with boneless chunks of fish fillet is soft.Here Matar paneer has been replaced by chicken,

lamb or fish curry, depending upon yourchoice. The chicken curry is the best optionfor those who prefer milder spices. Theremaining dishes were the same as the vege-tarian menu. However, if a person wants some-thing like a Bharta or Kadhi, that too can beserved.

But the amusing part was that there is nodessert in the Tiffin lunch menu. Rastogi saysthis omission is deliberate. He points out, “Sinceit is serving lunch, the restaurant wants to keepthe food light. Despite, the famous Indian sweettooth which craves for a dessert, the team atSingh Sahib wants to keep the people's healthin mind and give the sweets a miss.” But for allthose, who do not want to forgo it, do notdespair, for there is always the option of beingprovided with one. All you need to do is ask.

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Novak Djokovic had to play all threesets at Wimbledon this time. Thethree-time champion advanced to

the third round by beating Adam Pavlasek6-2, 6-2, 6-1 Thursday, two days after hisopening match ended early when hisopponent retired with an injury.

Djokovic won the Wimbledon titlein 2011, '14 and '15. But he has not wona major title since completing a careerGrand Slam at the 2016 French Open.

In his opening two matches at the AllEngland Club, Djokovic has only losteight games.

"It's perfect. Exactly what I want,"Djokovic said. "I don't want to have anyfive-set matches in there."

Djokovic will next face ErnestsGulbis. The unseeded Latvian defeatedJuan Martin del Potro 6-4, 6-4, 7-6 (3).

Grigor Dimitrov, Gael Monfils andDavid Ferrer also reached the thirdround. Ferrer advanced when opponentSteve Darcis retired with an injury whiletrailing 3-0.

Darcis is the eighth man to retireduring a match this week. The Belgiantook a medical timeout after 18 minutesof play and was unable to continue.

Two-time major champion SvetlanaKuznetsova, seeded seventh, advanced tothe third round in the women's drawalong with ninth-seeded AgnieszkaRadwanska and 24th-seeded CoCoVandeweghe.

Two players previously eliminatedfrom the tournament were handed fineson Thursday.

Bernard Tomic of Australia wasfined $15,000 for unsportsmanlike con-duct two days after he spoke about feel-ing "a little bit bored out there" duringhis match.

Daniil Medvedev of Russia, whothrew a handful coins in the direction ofthe chair umpire after a second-roundloss on Wednesday, was given three finestotaling $14,500.

��������0����������Veteran Leander Paes' 23rd appear-

ance at the Wimbledon Championshipsended with a first round defeat in a gru-elling five-setter against Julian Knowleand Philipp Oswald, here on Thursday.

The combo of Paes and AdilShamasdin lost 6-4, 6-4, 2-6, 6-7(2) 8-10 to its Austrian rivals in the first round,

which was just one minute short of fourhours.

Elsewhere, Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan'sGrand Slam debut ended in the firstround itself but not without a valiantfight as he and Jared Donaldson lost agruelling five-setter. Nedunchezhiyanand his American partner lost 7-6 (4),7-5, 6-7(3), 0-6, 3-6 to British pair ofMarcus Willis and Jay Clarke after fight-ing hard for three hours and 15 minuteson court number nine.

Meanwhile, in the women's doubles,Sania and Kirsten Flipkens, seeded 13th,easily dispatched Naomi Osaka and ShuaiZhang 6-4 6-3 in their opening match.Also advancing to the second round ofmen's doubles were Purav Raja and DivijSharan who pipped Kyle Edmunds andJoao Sousa 7-6(2) 3-6 6-4 7-6(8).

#� ����� �����"��"�����Madison Brengle knew, of course,

that her opponent, Petra Kvitova, was atwo-time Wimbledon champion and apopular pick to win the title again thisyear.

Brengle also was aware, of course,that she herself never had won so muchas one main-draw match at the AllEngland Club until this week.

This, instead, is all the 27-year-oldfrom Dover, Delaware, was focused onas she began playing Kvitova onWednesday evening on Court No. 2:Please just let me win a game. The 95th-ranked Brengle did just that - andmuch, much more, stunning the 11th-seeded Kvitova 6-3, 1-6, 6-2 to reach thethird round at Wimbledon.

The reason for Brengle's preoccu-pation with taking merely a single game?In her Wimbledon debut in 2015, she lostto Venus Williams 6-0, 6-0.

"So, like, that's always in my headwhen I'm out here," Brengle said, point-ing a finger at her right temple. "It's like,'Oh, my goodness, don't do that everagain!' That was really tough for me."

Turned out, she didn't need to stressabout a shutout for too long: Brenglebroke the strong-serving Kvitova totake the very first game. "As long as I goton the board to start, then I could relax,"Brengle said with a smile, "because, trustme, an 'O-and-O' stays with you."

Kvitova, who won Wimbledon in2011 and 2014, had been favored bysome British bookmakers to lift the tro-phy at fortnight's end, despite compet-ing in only her third tournament of hercomeback.

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Victoria Azarenka walked to thebaseline, preparing to serve, when

a man shouted from the upper reach-es of No 3 Court, "Come on, Mom!"

It wasn't her son, Leo, born inDecember, but it shows the 27-year-old former No 1's return to competi-tion has caught on among the public.

Between Azarenka and SerenaWilliams, who announced in April sheis pregnant with her first child, twoformer Grand Slam winners willattempt to balance their careers withmotherhood.

Although Azarenka's second-round victory over Elena Vesnina onWednesday was only her fourth com-petitive match since December, shesaid she has already begun conversa-tions with WTA officials about facil-itating arrangements for child care.

If needed, the WTA will providehealth and wellbeing support to play-ers who are mothers, as well as otherphysiotherapy and counseling.

"From my own power, I'll doanything to make that happen becauseI think it's really important," Azarenkasaid. "The guys do have that luxury ofhaving the nurseries and stuff atevery event and I think it's time forwomen to have the same benefit."

The travel has been the most dif-ficult part thus far, Azarenka said.Although Leo is "actually a very goodtraveler," preparing for flights has beenstressful.

Carving out time for tennis hasalso been troublesome. Last week, sheposted a photo on Instagram of Leo,lying on a blanket and chewing on aplastic credential while she practiced.

To help take care of her son dur-ing the tournament, Azarenka has hermother, Alla, and her boyfriend, BillyMcKeague, with her.

"I have absolutely no idea how it

feels to have a baby on tour or how shemanages that, you know?" ninth-ranked Dominika Cibulkova said."It's not easy. It's something - it mustbe completely different."

The last mother to win the singlestitle at Wimbledon was EvonneGoolagong Cawley, who won herthird title at the All England Clubwhen she defeated Chris Evert in 1980.Mandy Minella, who lost in the firstround to Francesca Schiavone onMonday but will play in the doublestournament, is four months pregnant.

Azarenka, a two-time AustralianOpen champion, reached the semifi-nals at Wimbledon in 2011 and 2012,when she ended the year at No. 1.

After defeating CiCi Bellis in thefirst round, she encountered the 16th-ranked Vesnina, who had not beatenAzarenka in seven previous meetings.

The eighth was no different.Azarenka broke her opponent late in thefirst set and early again in the second,and Vesnina, after taking a medicaltimeout to address a lingering backinjury, double-faulted twice in thedeciding game. Azarenka won 6-3, 6-3. "It was not easy," Vesnina said. "Icannot say she is playing now as shewas playing when she was No. 1 in theworld. She needs some time to adjust,some time to feel her game andwhere she is right now. It's not easy,but a couple more matches and I'msure she'll be back."

Azarenka, who will face HeatherWatson of Britain in the third round,said she has had an ongoing discus-sion with Williams about her experi-ences. She also spoke this week to KimClijsters, whose third child was bornin October.

"It wasn't a long conversation,"Azarenka said, "but it's nice to see thatsome of my colleagues have childrenand we have just much more in com-mon than just tennis."

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Everyman's everyman wasback at Wimbledon on

Wednesday, only instead offacing Roger Federer onCentre Court in singles,Marcus Willis was playingdoubles.

And instead of losing, hewas winning.

The straight-out-of-a-movie-script British tennisclub instructor was ranked772nd in the world a year agowhen he managed to earn ameeting against Federer in thesecond round at the AllEngland Club. This timearound, he lost in the lastround of qualifying for sin-gles.

In doubles, though, heand Jay Clarke were given awild-card entry for the tour-nament. And on Wednesday,they thrilled the spectators atCourt 9 by coming all the wayback after dropping the open-ing two sets to beat Jared

Donaldson of the UnitedStates and JeevanNedunchezhiyan of India 6-7(4), 5-7, 7-6 (3), 6-0, 6-3.

"I'm buzzing right now.It's what you dream of whenyou're a player - coming backat Wimbledon; two sets down;packed crowd going crazy,"Willis said. "It's a very, verygood moment."

Over a couple of weeks in2016, as a 25-year-old still liv-ing at home with Mom andDad and charging about $40per hour for tennis lessons,Willis put together quite aseries of very good moments.

He collected three victo-ries during a playoff for low-ranked British players, thenanother three in qualifyingrounds for Wimbledon, get-ting a chance to play the firsttour-level match of his career.

When he won that, too, itset up an improbableencounter with Federer.

That 's where Will is 'unlikely run ended with a

three-set loss. He hasn'tplayed a tour-level main-drawmatch since; he is currentlyranked 380th.

Willis said he hasn'tbumped into Federer at thegrass-court Grand Slam tour-nament yet this year, noting:"The top guys have their ownlocker rooms, don't they?"

Since his moment in thespotlight at Wimbledon, somethings have changed: He gotmarried and became a father.And some haven't: He stillplays for a local German ten-nis club.

In the second round ofdoubles, Willis and Clarkecould face the No 2-seededduo of Pierre-Hugues Herbertand Nicolas Mahut, whosefirst-round match is sched-uled for Thursday.

If they are the next oppo-nents, Willis was asked, couldhe and Clarke pull off a sur-prise?

"Yeah," Willis replied."Everybody is winnable."

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The Indian football team on Thursdayrose to the 96th spot in the latest FIFA

rankings, its best- ever in the last twodecades and the second best overall.

As far as Asia is concerned, India are the12th highest ranked team in the continent,while Iran lead the chart at the 23rd spot.

India's best-ever FIFA ranking till datestays 94, which was attained in February1996, while 99 was India's second- best,achieved in November 1993.

The national team has been on anupsurge with a string of impressive resultsleading to a climb of 77 places over the lasttwo years.

The team has now won 13 of its last 15matches and is unbeaten in the last eightgames (including the unofficial matchagainst Bhutan).

India were ranked 171 when StephenConstantine took over as national coach forthe second time in February 2015 andslipped further to 173rd in March 2015 inthe FIFA ladder even before the gaffer couldhave his first game in charge against Nepal,which India eventually won 2-0 on aggre-gate.

Congratulating the team, All IndiaFootball Federation president Praful Patelsaid: "It's a giant leap of faith for Indian foot-ball. Two years back, we were 173 and nowwe have reached our second best FIFA rank-ing ever. The leap signifies the potential of

Indian football. Congratulations to thenational team boys, the coach, the staff andall in AIFF."

AIFF general secretary Kushal Dasstated: "This comes as a huge boost aheadof our next AFC Asian Cup qualifying matchagainst Macau on September 5, 2017. Hatsoff to the team for giving it their all inachieving this milestone. Qualifying for theAFC Asian Cup 2019 stays our top priori-ty."

Confederations Cup champions and

reigning world champions Germany haveovertaken Brazil to be the top team in theworld and are followed by Argentina at thirdspot, Portugal and Switzerland.

Constantine said: "When I took over, Ihad mentioned that my target was to bringIndia below 100. I am happy to have playeda small part in this process. Kudos to theboys, the staff and a big thank you to my col-leagues in AIFF for supporting us allthroughout. I also need to thank Mr. Pateland Mr. Das for their trust in allowing meto do things in the manner I wanted."

"But the present FIFA spot doesn'tmean that we have achieved much. Weneed to stay focused on the upcoming chal-lenges."

A qualification spot in the AFC AsianCup UAE 2019 is what the AIFF aims at thismoment. That would be India's second AFCAsian Cup stint in eight years, the last beingin Doha in 2011.

H������� �� �����������;Indian football coach Stephen

Constantine has cautioned his players fromgetting carried away after the team achievedits best-ever FIFA ranking in the last twodecades, asking them to keep getting better.

As India rose to the 96th spot in the lat-est FIFA rankings issued today, Constantineattributed it to team work.

"There is always the next game whichcomes to your mind. So it's not always pos-sible to enjoy the moment. That's how life

is as you are always trying to get better.People may be tempted to go crazy with therecent rise in rankings and the results, butwe cannot get carried away," Constantinesaid.

Constantine was in his room as the newsbroke, lonely but smiling nonetheless.

"I don't think it's got to do anything withmagic. It's just a respect for my job andrespect for my players, as much it's therespect for the people around me. These arethe key ingredients to any national teammoving forward.

"Football team is never about one sin-gle person. I take responsibility when theteam is not doing well and share the praisewhen the team is doing well. That's how itis."

India were ranked 171 whenConstantine took over for the second timein February 2015 and slipped further to173rd in March 2015 in the FIFA ladder evenbefore the gaffer could have his first gamein charge against Nepal, which India even-tually won 2-0 on aggregate.

"I was here some 10 years prior and atthat time no one knew me. I have always hadan emotional attachment with India. Havingsaid that, 2015 was the first year after theIndian Super League was launched.

"I could foresee a change coming asIndian Football had itself decided that itneeded to change. I felt that I could helpthem go forward. Luckily, Mr. (Praful) Patelalso thought the same."

"��"��������India opened their account withwomen's shot putter Manpreet Kaur grabbing thegold medal with a throw of 18.28m on the open-ing day of the 22nd Asian AthleticsChampionships.

Manpreet also qualified for the WorldChampionship in London by virtue of being AsianChampion. Seasoned Vikas Gowda, a last minuteentry into the squad, won bronze medal in themen's discus throw event. Manpreet, who turned27 on Thursday, upstaged defending championChinese Guo Tianqian to give herself a perfectbirthday gift at the packed Kalinga Stadium.

Tianqian took the silver with a best throw of17.91m while Aya Ota of Japan got the bronzewith 15.45m. Manpreet though was expected towin the gold as her 18.86m at Asian Grand Prixin Jianhua (China) was the season's best in thefield of eight, in absence world No 4 Gong Lijiaoof China (19.56m). However, in the men's discusthrow, Vikas Gowda failed to defend his title butgrabbed a bronze with a best effort of 60.81m.Gowda's long-time nemesis at the Asian circuit,Ehsan Haddadi of Iran took the gold with a bestthrow of 64.54m while Malaysia's MuhammadIrfan won the silver with 60.96m.

Meanwhile, Govindan Laxmanan alsoclinched a gold for India at the Asian AthleticsChampionships by emerging triumphant in themen's 5,000 metres at the Kalinga Stadium hereon Thursday. Laxmanan was trailing the leadingfour runners towards the end of the second lastlap but he produced a stunning sprint finish overthe final 300 metres to win by a handsome mar-gin. Agencies

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Twin strikes from Umesh Yadav andtidy bowling from Indian spinnersmeant that the home side West

Indies progressed very steadily in theirinnings of the crucial fifth and final matchof the five-match series her e onThursday.

When reports last came in, theCaribbean side were struggling at 175/7without any top order batsman left in 46overs.

West Indies won the toss and choseto bat first on a wicket which seems per-fectly suited to batting.

They again seemed to get off to agood start with openers Evin Lewis andKyle Hope keeping the Indian bowlers atbay and the scoreboard ticking.

While Lewis was playing within him-self, Hope played some delightful shotsand move well ahead of his partner’sscore.

Their opening partnership was even-tually broken in the ninth over byHardik Pandya who struck by removingLewis whose sedate innings of 9 in 20balls was brought to an end by a tame dis-missal when he looked to break theshackles by hitting the ball over mid-offbut only managed a top-edge which wentcomfortably into the hands of Indian cap-tain Virat Kohli.

This wicket brought together theHope brothers with Shai joining Kyle inthe middle.

These two formed a solid partnershipthat was in the process of laying a strongplatform for the WIndies to build a goodscore upon.

Their 37-run partnership came in 45balls and there were encouraging signsfor the hosts.

Kyle continued batting in a smoothrhythm while Shai decided to play thesheet anchor’s role and batted with a lotof patience.

The two brothers took their team tothe score of 76 but then in the 16th over,Umesh Yadav dealt two deadly blows tothe West Indies line-up by picking up twowickets in two balls.

His first victim was Kyle Hope whowas nearing his fifty when he gave an easycatch to Shikhar Dhawan in the processof pulling a delivery that wasn’t all thatshort off the bowling of Yadav.

He scored 46 runs in relatively quicktime of just 50 balls with nine fours.

On the very next ball, the new bats-man, Roston Chase was caught leg-beforetrying to play a full, in-swinging deliv-ery on to the leg side and missing it.

The on-field umpire gave it out butChase had his doubts as to whether it wasgoing down the leg side and decided toreview the decision.

It proved to be a futile attempt as theball-tracker showed the delivery crash-ing into the stumps and Chase had theignominy of not just getting out for agolden duck but also using up his team’sonly review.

Umesh was pumped by this wicketand West Indies found themselves in aprecarious situation at 76/3 in just the six-teenth over.

Jaon Mohammad was the new manin to bat and he had a difficult time try-ing to keep the score board ticking andcouldn’t manage even a single boundaryin his entire innings of 16 in 39 balls.

His stay at the crease was brought toan end by part-timer Kedar Jadhavwhose innocuous looking off-breaksgot the better of Mohammad.

It was another soft dismissal as acompletely harmless ball from Jadhavwhich was short in length and henceenticed the batsmen to go for a cut shotwhich he completely mistimed andhanded a simple return catch to thebowler. West Indies now stared at the pos-siblity of a major collapse but their cap-tain Jason Holder, star of the previousmatch came in and brought the kind ofcalmness he normally exudes.

He along with Shai Hope, who waslooking good, started to rebuild theinnings although their scoring rate was-n’t special.

It was in this stage of the innings thatIndian spinners; Jadhav, Kuldeep Yadavand Ravindra Jadeja started bowlingmiserly overs and brought the WestIndian scoring rate further down.

It seemed that West Indies couldachieve a competitive score around 250with the help of these two batsmen butin their attempts to increase the run rate,Holder perished on 36 made of just 34balls while Shai followed him soonbeing out on 50.

After that the West Indian inningsstarted to go off the rails and found them-selves in serious danger of being bowledout for less than 200.

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Openers Niroshan Dickwella andDanushka Gunathilaka hit sub-

lime centuries to help Sri Lanka hum-ble Zimbabwe by eight wickets in thethird one-day international inHambantota on Thursday.

Chasing 311 for victory, the hostsrode on a 229-run opening standbetween Dickwella (102) andGunathilaka (116) to canter home in 47.2overs and earn a 2-1 lead in the five-match series.

The left-handed batting duo gottheir maiden ODI hundreds to over-shadow Zimbabwe opener HamiltonMasakadza's sparkling 111 in the visitors'310-8 after being put into bat first.

While wicketkeeper-batsmanDickwella hit 14 boundaries during hisstay, Gunathilaka smashed 15 foursand a six to flay the Zimbabwe attack atthe Mahinda Rajapaksa InternationalCricket Stadium.

"It was a fantastic effort by the boys.After losing the first game, we had ourbacks against the wall and we came backwell," Sri Lanka skipper Angelo Mathewssaid. "The way Dickwella andGunathilaka batted, we could havechased 350 on that wicket."

Off-spinner Malcolm Waller gotDickwella trudging back to the pavilionand left-arm orthodox Sean Williamscleaned up Gunathilaka, who receivedthe man of the match award, in an oth-erwise disappointing show by theZimbabwe bowlers.

Upul Tharanga (44) and KusalMendis (28) then steered the team

home with an unbeaten 75-run stand asthe batting duo survived a dropped catcheach as fielding lapses also hurt the vis-itors.

Mathews praised Tharanga for being"an absolute team man" after he onceagain dropped down the order to allowDickwella and Gunathilaka to open.

Earlier Masakadza put on a crucial127-run partnership for the secondwicket with Tarisai Musakanda (48)before Sri Lankan bowlers struck backto check Zimbabwe's surge.

Masakadza's 98-ball knock, lacedwith 15 fours and a six, had Zimbabweeyeing 350-plus at one point before amiddle-order collapse pulled them back.

Teenage leg-spinner WaninduHasaranga, who took a hat- trick on hisODI debut in the second match in Galle,and paceman Asela Gunaratne grabbedtwo wickets each. Sean Williams con-tributed 43 while cameos from wicket-keeper-batsman Peter Moor (24) andSikandar Raza (25 not out) helpedZimbabwe cross the 300-run mark.

����� 4�)��)

Vernon Philander continuedhis love affair with Lord's

by taking three wickets asEngland struggled inThursday's opening session ofthe first Test against SouthAfrica.

England were 82 for four atlunch, with Philander havingtaken three wickets for 26 runsin eight overs. Joe Root,England's new Test captain,was 33 not out and Ben Stokes,his vice-captain, unbeaten onfour.

Root perhaps encouragedby the blue skies overhead andLord's reputation as a good bat-ting pitch, opted to bat firstafter winning the toss. But agreen-tinged pitch also gave the

bowlers hope of early move-ment.

Alastair Cook in his firstTest since resigning as Englandcaptain in February, had madejust three when he flat-footed-ly chased a Philander deliveryoutside off stump and edged towicket-keeper Quinton de

Kock.South Africa-born Keaton

Jennings, who played in thesame Johannesburg school sideas de Kock before opting forEngland, fell next on his homeEngland debut.

Cook's fellow left-handedopener was lbw to Philander

for eight after not getting thatfar forward.

S Ravi took his time beforeraising the finger, with Englandeventually opting against areview.

Replays, which showed theball had just pitched outside legstump, suggested a challengemight have seen the Indianumpire's decision overturned.

The 32-year-old Philander,fit following an ankle injurysustained while playing forEnglish county side Sussex,had once again shown that anability to move the ball bothways at a lively pace more thancompensated for a lack ofexpress pace. He'd now takentwo wickets for three runs ineight balls to leave England 17for two.

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Australia's players on Thursday boycotted thismonth's Australia A tour to South Africa,

escalating a bitter pay dispute which threatensto derail senior tours to Bangladesh and Indiaas well as this year's home Ashes.

The Australia Cricketers' Association (ACA)said the players were unavailable to tour SouthAfrica for the Australia A team without an agreedpay deal or new Memorandum of Understanding,after their existing contracts with CricketAustralia expired on June 30 following monthsof increasingly acrimonious wrangling.

"It is with great frustration that with noprogress towards resolving the current dispute,Australia A players confirm they will not tourSouth Africa," ACA said in a statement.

"This decision is made in support of morethan 200 male and female players who are nowunemployed."

Cricket Australia (CA) said it was disap-pointed with the players' decision not to go onthe A team tour of South Africa.

"CA regrets that players have made this deci-sion despite progress made in talks between CAand the ACA in meetings over the past week,including regular communication betweenCEOs," it said in a statement.

C������C�The players, selected for the Australia A tour

starting on July 12, had been training this weekwith captain Usman Khawaja and hoping for anend to the impasse before their scheduleddeparture on Friday.

"By making this call, the Australia A play-ers have sacrificed their own ambitions for thecollective — an incredibly selfless act that showstheir strength and overall commitment to thegroup," the ACA said.

There are fears now that the pay row couldscupper next month's Test tour to Bangladesh.

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South Africa stand-in captain DeanElgar is confident there will be no

"scarring" on show when his side faceEngland paceman Stuart Broad again inthe first Test at Lord's on Thursday.

Broad's Test career has been studdedwith several dramatic match-winningspells, notably his Ashes-clinching eightfor 15 against Australia at theNottinghamshire quick's Trent Bridgehome ground two years ago.

But opening batsman Elgar hasfirst-hand experience of what can hap-pen when Broad gets on a roll.

Last year's Johannesburg Test sawthe now 31-year-old Broad take six for17 in the second innings to lay the plat-form for England's series-winning seven-wicket victory over the Proteas.

Elgar, the first batsman Broad dis-missed that day, insisted the spell wouldprovide "motivation" to the Proteasrather than a source of lasting damageahead of this four- match series.

"It was a freakish spell ... A great ref-erence point to look back at and tough-en us up a bit more," said Elgar, leadingthe side in place of Faf du Plessis, whohas stayed at home to attend to his wifefollowing the birth of their first child.

"It was an extraordinary bowling

spell and great to watch," he added."It was bad being part of it as a bat-

ting unit — but as a cricket lover andwatcher, it was seriously good.

"I don't think there is any scarring.If anything it will serve as motivation."

C������C���"����South Africa, who have lost just one

away Test series in 10 years, have plen-

ty of fast-bowling firepower of their own,including Kagiso Rababa — one ofworld cricket's undoubted rising stars.

The 22-year-old has already taken 71wickets in his 17 career Tests.

Rabada has twice made a significantimpression on England, including atLord's where earlier this tour his four-wicket burst helped give the Proteas aconsolation win in an overall one-dayinternational series loss.

And in the Test arena, he took animpressive 13 wickets at Centurion inJanuary 2016 in a 280-run South Africavictory which reduced the series resultto 2-1 in England's favour.

"He's been a find and he's taken tointernational cricket brilliantly," saidElgar of Rabada.

"Those were the characteristics weexpected he would show at this level."

And the new captain is confidentRabada will rise to the occasion oncemore at the 'Home of Cricket'.

"I'm sure he'll be up for it," Elgar said."He hasn't played a lot of cricket of

late, so I'm sure his hunger is throughthe roof.

"You can see the way he's bowling inthe nets. He's fresh and willing to go.

"If he hits his straps he's going to besomething exciting to watch," Elgarconcluded.

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