16
T he turnout for the second phase of polling on Thursday interestingly turned out to be an exact contrast to that of the first phase. According to the Election Commission, the second phase turnout at 67.84 per cent was 1.28 per cent lower than 69.12 per cent registered in 2014. Sporadic violence was report- ed from West Bengal, Chhattisgarh and Manipur even as EVM glitches were reported from some places. The second phase of Lok Sabha elections was held for 95 seats across 11 States and Union Territory of Puducherry. With this, the poll process has been completed in 14 States and Union Territories. In all, polling has been completed in 186 Lok Sabha constituencies. Tamil Nadu went to polls for 38 of 39 constituencies with DMK’s A Raja and Kanimozhi being the promi- nent candidates in the fray. BJP’s Hema Malini and Congress leader Raj Babbar among others were among the notables who contested on the eight seats that went to polls in Uttar Pradesh. Former Prime Minister and JD(S) patriarch HD Deve Gowda from Karnataka and National Conference chief Farooq Abdullah in Jammu & Kashmir too tested the ballot power. Union Ministers Jitendra Singh, Jual Oram, Sadananda Gowda and Pon Radhakrishnan were in the fray in the second of the seven- phased Lok Sabha poll which would conclude on May 19. Voting picked up in the second phase by afternoon which was marred by an IED blast by Naxals in Chhattisgarh, police firing in West Bengal on stone pelters and EVM glitch- es at some places. CPI(M) can- didate from Raiganj Md Salim claimed that his car was attacked by unknown persons when he went to a polling booth at Islampur in Uttar Dinajpur in West Bengal. According to EC, UP reg- istered 62.3 per cent polling, Assam 78.27 per cent, Bihar 62.52 per cent, Chhattisgarh 71 per cent , Karnataka 61.80 per cent, Maharashrra 62 per cent, Manipur 74.69 per cent, Odisha 64 per cent, Puducherry 78 per cent, Tamil Nadu 72 per cent and West Bengal 76 per cent. The first phase of polling on April 11 included 91 con- stituencies, registering 69.43 per cent of polling, three per cent more than recorded in 2014 general elections. Besides Tamil Nadu, voting took place in 14 seats in Karnataka, 10 in Maharashtra, eight in Uttar Pradesh, five each in Assam, Bihar and Odisha, three each in Chhattisgarh and West Bengal, two in Jammu & Kashmir and one seat each in Manipur and Puducherry. Elections were also held in 35 Assembly constituencies of Odisha and in 18 Assembly seats in Tamil Nadu. A total of 1,600 candidates were in the electoral battle for 95 seats which would be cru- cial for the BJP as for the Opposition to keep the tempo of the fight for the New Delhi which has still 357 Lok Sabha seats to go to poll before the final verdict is announced on May 23. The AIADMK holds the maximum of 36 seats of the 95 seats which witnessed polling in 2nd phase, followed by the BJP with 27 seats. The Congress had won 12 of these seats in 2014, the Shiv Sena and the BJD 4 each, the JD(S) and the RJD two each and the AIUDF, the NCP, the JD(U), the PDP, the AINRC, the PMK, the CPM and the TMC one seat each. Electorally key State of Uttar Pradesh with 80 LS seats has completed polling in 16 seats of western UP. Polling was conducted in Srinagar Parliamentary con- stituency of Jammu & Kashmir to decide the fate of 10 candi- dates, including NC president Farooq Abdullah who is seek- ing a re-election. Security personnel have been deployed in strength in and around polling stations in all three districts — Srinagar, Budgam and Ganderbal — of the constituency, officials said. The polling for Udhampur- Doda and Srinagar seats recorded 43.3 per cent at 5 pm. Polling in Chhattisgarh witnessed violence with an ITBP jawan suffering minor injuries after Naxals triggered an IED blast in Rajnandgaon district. Long queues were seen at polling booths in Tamil Nadu, with Chief Minister K Palaniswami and DMK chief MK Stalin among the early vot- ers. Sporadic incidents of vio- lence were reported in some areas of Bengal. A reporter and a camera person of a local news channel were allegedly man- handled when they went to cover polling at Kataphulbari in the Raiganj constituency, they said. Voters in Uttar Dinajpur district’s Chopra under the Raiganj constituency report- edly put up a road blockade, complaining about the absence of Central forces at the polling stations, the sources said. Police fired in the air and lobbed tear gas shells to control a mob, after stones were pelt- ed at them and bombs were hurled by unknown persons in Chopra, a senior EC official in the district said. At least three persons were detained by police in this connection, he said. S hares of Jet Airways contin- ued to fall for the second day in a row, plummeting over 32 per cent on Thursday, a day after the ailing airline shuttered its operations temporarily. The scrip tanked 32.23 per cent to close at 163.90 on the BSE. Intra-day, it plunged 34.62 per cent to 158.10 that is 52-week low. On the National Stock Exchange, shares sank 31 per cent to close at 165.75 apiece. With lenders deciding not to extend any emergency funds, Jet Airways on Wednesday announced temporary suspen- sion of operations. In a state- ment early on Thursday, Jet Airways’ lenders said they were reasonably hopeful of a suc- cessful bidding process for stake sale. Meanwhile the officers and employees union of the grounded Jet Airways on Thursday sought Government intervention to avert a Kingfisher-like collapse of the carrier, which could not take off after halting operations tem- porarily in October 2012. Alleging some “motives” behind the series of develop- ments at the carrier, which eventually forced it to shutter services temporarily from Wednesday night, Jet Airways Officers & Staff Association president Kiran Pawaskar also demanded a probe, preferably by the national investigation agency CBI. “The situation is very bad for employees. As many as 16,000 permanent employees don’t have work today. I told the management that efforts should be made to resume operations as early as possible,” Pawaskar, who is also an NCP lawmaker, said asking why the airline did not clear employees dues before suspending services. A major controversy has erupted after the Election Commission (EC) ordered sus- pension of a high-ranking poll official deputed to Odisha for checking Prime Minister Narendra Modi chopper in Sambalpur. As per the EC guidelines, SPG protectees are exempted from such inspection. However, the Congress and the AAP on Thursday said what Modi was carrying in his helicopter that he did not want India to see. “The poll body’s rules ‘do not exempt’ PM’s vehicle from being checked,” the Congress said. According to the EC, a 1996 batch Karnataka cadre IAS officer Mohammed Mohsin didn’t follow protocol for checking SPG protectees. Modi had visited Sambalpur to address an election rally on April 16. Recently, Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik’s heli- copter was inspected by EC fly- ing squad in Rourkela. Union Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan’s chop- per was checked at Sambalpur. Senior Congress leader Ahmed Patel took strong objec- tion to the EC action against poll official. “SPG protectees can’t be frisked personally. Why suspend an officer for checking PM’s chopper? What message is being sent? Law is special for some,” he tweeted. The party said in a tweet that an official was suspended by ECI for doing his job of inspecting vehicles. T he Election Commission (EC) on Thursday let off Minority Affairs Minister and BJP leader Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi with a light rap for his “Modiji ki sena” remark and “warned” him against using the armed forces for political pro- paganda. It also asked him to be “careful in the future”. Addressing a rally in Rampur on April 3, Naqvi had used the phrase “Modiji ki sena”. State election authorities had issued him a showcause notice, to which Naqvi had accepted the charge. The EC reminded the BJP leader of its March 19 instruc- tion asking politicians “to desist from using any reference to defence forces in their political campaign/propaganda”. Earlier, the EC had let Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath off hook with a warning for “Modi ki Sena” remarks. B angladeshi actor Ghazi Abdul Noor, who had attended a Trinamool Congress (TMC) rally in West Bengal in the alleged contravention of visa rules, has been asked to leave India immediately. Noor is the second Bangladeshi actor after Ferdous Ahmed to be served a “Leave India” notice. Noor was staying in India despite expiry of his visa. “Appropriate action is also being taken regarding his over- stay in contravention of visa rules,” a Home Ministry official said. Reports suggest that Noor campaigned for TMC’s Dumdum candidate Saugata Roy. The Centre on Tuesday had issued a “Leave India” notice to Ahmed and can- celled the business visa given to him for campaigning for a political party against the visa norms. Ahmed had attended a rally in support of the TMC candidate in Raiganj in West Bengal. The Home Ministry action came after it received a report from the Bureau of Immigration regarding visa violations committed by Noor. The BJP on Wednesday lodged a complaint with the Election Commission after a video sur- faced showing Noor purport- edly campaigning for Roy in the Dumdum constituency in alleged violation of the election model code of conduct. “This act is in violation of the terms of visa and yet anoth- er case of a foreigner actively influencing the electoral process. This is a gross violation of the basics of democratic structure,” BJP’s West Bengal vice-president Jay Prakash Majumdar said after filing a complaint with the EC. A mid continuing “flip-flop” over the pre-poll alliance for the Lok Sabha elections, the Congress on Thursday said there is almost no prospects of any tie-up with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). However, sources said the party may wait for any fresh move by the AAP till the announcement of the list of its Lok Sabha candidates in Delhi. As the alliance talks head- ed nowhere, AAP’s candidate from West Delhi Balbir Singh Jakhar filed his nomination papers. “They (AAP) had agreed for an alliance with us in Delhi alone on Wednesday night. On Thursday morning, they raised the full Statehood issue. I told them we are ready, full Statehood was in our manifesto for 2015(Assembly) election. But, later I received Sanjay Singh’s message that Kejriwal had said the alliance was not possible unless it covers Haryana also,” said PC Chacko, the All India Congress Committee in-charge of Delhi. Singh, AAP’s Rajya Sabha MP, was authorised by Kejriwal to take the alliance talks with the Congress forward. After Singh’s message, Chacko met Congress presi- dent Rahul Gandhi and apprised him of the develop- ment. “I told him about the flip- flop of the AAP leaders. Now, we will give a final touch to the list of our candidates in Delhi. It could be announced on Friday,” he said. In the evening, Chacko met Delhi Congress president Sheila Dikshit and other lead- ers to take a final call on the list of party candidates. The Congress had pro- posed a 4-3 formula for an alliance in Delhi, offering four seats to the AAP. It had opted for the Chandni Chowk, North West Delhi and the New Delhi seats for itself. The AAP, however, said if the alliance was limited only to Delhi, the Congress would have to contest in just two seats. I ndia on Thursday decided to suspend bilateral trade across the Line of Control (LoC) with Pakistan after NIA and Intelligence agencies found the routes were being “misused” to smuggle illegal weapons, drugs and fake currency. The Union Home Ministry’s order issued on Thursday said a stricter regu- latory and enforcement mech- anism is being worked out and the issue of the reopening the trade routes will be revisited once they are implemented. The Ministry order further stated that the action was taken on the basis of reports that the trade routes were being “mis- used by the Pakistan-based elements for funnelling illegal weapons, narcotics and fake currency, among others.” The LoC trade, at present, is conducted through two trade facilitation centres located at Salamabad in Uri of Baramulla district, and Chakkan-da-Bagh in Poonch district. This trade takes place four days a week and is based on barter system and zero-duty. “Meanwhile, a stricter reg- ulatory and enforcement mechanism is being worked out and will be put in place in consultation with various agen- cies. The issue of reopening of LoC trade will be revisited thereafter,” the Home Ministry said in the statement.

 · 2019-04-18 · should be made to resume ... Mohsin didn’t follow protocol ... BJP leader Mukhtar Abbas

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The turnout for the secondphase of polling on

Thursday interestingly turnedout to be an exact contrast tothat of the first phase.According to the ElectionCommission, the second phaseturnout at 67.84 per cent was1.28 per cent lower than 69.12per cent registered in 2014.Sporadic violence was report-ed from West Bengal,Chhattisgarh and Manipureven as EVM glitches werereported from some places.

The second phase of LokSabha elections was held for 95seats across 11 States andUnion Territory of Puducherry.With this, the poll process hasbeen completed in 14 Statesand Union Territories. In all,polling has been completed in186 Lok Sabha constituencies.

Tamil Nadu went to pollsfor 38 of 39 constituencieswith DMK’s A Raja andKanimozhi being the promi-nent candidates in the fray.BJP’s Hema Malini andCongress leader Raj Babbaramong others were among thenotables who contested on theeight seats that went to polls inUttar Pradesh. Former PrimeMinister and JD(S) patriarchHD Deve Gowda fromKarnataka and NationalConference chief FarooqAbdullah in Jammu & Kashmirtoo tested the ballot power.

Union Ministers JitendraSingh, Jual Oram, SadanandaGowda and Pon

Radhakrishnan were in thefray in the second of the seven-phased Lok Sabha poll whichwould conclude on May 19.

Voting picked up in thesecond phase by afternoonwhich was marred by an IEDblast by Naxals in Chhattisgarh,police firing in West Bengal on

stone pelters and EVM glitch-es at some places. CPI(M) can-didate from Raiganj Md Salimclaimed that his car wasattacked by unknown personswhen he went to a pollingbooth at Islampur in UttarDinajpur in West Bengal.

According to EC, UP reg-

istered 62.3 per cent polling,Assam 78.27 per cent, Bihar62.52 per cent, Chhattisgarh 71per cent , Karnataka 61.80 percent, Maharashrra 62 per cent,Manipur 74.69 per cent,Odisha 64 per cent,Puducherry 78 per cent, TamilNadu 72 per cent and West

Bengal 76 per cent. The first phase of polling

on April 11 included 91 con-stituencies, registering 69.43per cent of polling, three percent more than recorded in2014 general elections.

Besides Tamil Nadu, votingtook place in 14 seats in

Karnataka, 10 in Maharashtra,eight in Uttar Pradesh, five eachin Assam, Bihar and Odisha,three each in Chhattisgarh andWest Bengal, two in Jammu &Kashmir and one seat each inManipur and Puducherry.Elections were also held in 35Assembly constituencies ofOdisha and in 18 Assemblyseats in Tamil Nadu.

A total of 1,600 candidateswere in the electoral battle for95 seats which would be cru-cial for the BJP as for theOpposition to keep the tempoof the fight for the New Delhiwhich has still 357 Lok Sabhaseats to go to poll before thefinal verdict is announced onMay 23.

The AIADMK holds themaximum of 36 seats of the 95seats which witnessed pollingin 2nd phase, followed by theBJP with 27 seats. TheCongress had won 12 of theseseats in 2014, the Shiv Sena andthe BJD 4 each, the JD(S) andthe RJD two each and theAIUDF, the NCP, the JD(U),the PDP, the AINRC, the PMK,the CPM and the TMC oneseat each.

Electorally key State ofUttar Pradesh with 80 LS seatshas completed polling in 16seats of western UP.

Polling was conducted inSrinagar Parliamentary con-stituency of Jammu & Kashmirto decide the fate of 10 candi-dates, including NC presidentFarooq Abdullah who is seek-ing a re-election.

Security personnel have

been deployed in strength inand around polling stations inall three districts — Srinagar,Budgam and Ganderbal — ofthe constituency, officials said.The polling for Udhampur-Doda and Srinagar seatsrecorded 43.3 per cent at 5 pm.

Polling in Chhattisgarhwitnessed violence with anITBP jawan suffering minorinjuries after Naxals triggeredan IED blast in Rajnandgaondistrict.

Long queues were seen atpolling booths in Tamil Nadu,with Chief Minister KPalaniswami and DMK chiefMK Stalin among the early vot-ers.

Sporadic incidents of vio-lence were reported in someareas of Bengal. A reporter anda camera person of a local newschannel were allegedly man-handled when they went tocover polling at Kataphulbari inthe Raiganj constituency, theysaid.

Voters in Uttar Dinajpurdistrict’s Chopra under theRaiganj constituency report-edly put up a road blockade,complaining about the absenceof Central forces at the pollingstations, the sources said.

Police fired in the air andlobbed tear gas shells to controla mob, after stones were pelt-ed at them and bombs werehurled by unknown persons inChopra, a senior EC official inthe district said. At least threepersons were detained bypolice in this connection, hesaid.

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Shares of Jet Airways contin-ued to fall for the second day

in a row, plummeting over 32per cent on Thursday, a dayafter the ailing airline shutteredits operations temporarily. Thescrip tanked 32.23 per cent toclose at �163.90 on the BSE.Intra-day, it plunged 34.62 percent to �158.10 that is 52-weeklow. On the National Stock Exchange, shares sank 31per cent to close at �165.75apiece.

With lenders deciding notto extend any emergency funds,Jet Airways on Wednesdayannounced temporary suspen-sion of operations. In a state-ment early on Thursday, JetAirways’ lenders said they werereasonably hopeful of a suc-cessful bidding process forstake sale.

Meanwhile the officers andemployees union of thegrounded Jet Airways onThursday sought Governmentintervention to avert aKingfisher-like collapse of the

carrier, which could not take offafter halting operations tem-porarily in October 2012.

Alleging some “motives”behind the series of develop-ments at the carrier, whicheventually forced it to shutterservices temporarily fromWednesday night, Jet AirwaysOfficers & Staff Associationpresident Kiran Pawaskar alsodemanded a probe, preferablyby the national investigation

agency CBI.“The situation is very bad

for employees. As many as16,000 permanent employeesdon’t have work today. I toldthe management that effortsshould be made to resumeoperations as early as possible,”Pawaskar, who is also an NCPlawmaker, said asking why theairline did not clear employeesdues before suspending services.

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Amajor controversy haserupted after the Election

Commission (EC) ordered sus-pension of a high-ranking pollofficial deputed to Odisha forchecking Prime MinisterNarendra Modi chopper inSambalpur.

As per the EC guidelines,SPG protectees are exemptedfrom such inspection.However, the Congress andthe AAP on Thursday saidwhat Modi was carrying in hishelicopter that he did not wantIndia to see. “The poll body’srules ‘do not exempt’ PM’svehicle from being checked,”the Congress said.

According to the EC, a1996 batch Karnataka cadreIAS officer MohammedMohsin didn’t follow protocol

for checking SPG protectees.Modi had visited Sambalpur toaddress an election rally onApril 16.

Recently, Odisha ChiefMinister Naveen Patnaik’s heli-copter was inspected by EC fly-ing squad in Rourkela. UnionPetroleum MinisterDharmendra Pradhan’s chop-per was checked at Sambalpur.

Senior Congress leaderAhmed Patel took strong objec-tion to the EC action againstpoll official. “SPG protecteescan’t be frisked personally.Why suspend an officer forchecking PM’s chopper? What message is being sent?Law is special for some,” hetweeted.

The party said in a tweetthat an official was suspendedby ECI for doing his job ofinspecting vehicles.

����� �,)�",�85

The Election Commission(EC) on Thursday let off

Minority Affairs Minister andBJP leader Mukhtar AbbasNaqvi with a light rap for his“Modiji ki sena” remark and“warned” him against using thearmed forces for political pro-paganda. It also asked him tobe “careful in the future”.

Addressing a rally inRampur on April 3, Naqvi hadused the phrase “Modiji kisena”. State election authoritieshad issued him a showcausenotice, to which Naqvi hadaccepted the charge.

The EC reminded the BJPleader of its March 19 instruc-tion asking politicians “to desistfrom using any reference todefence forces in their politicalcampaign/propaganda”. Earlier,the EC had let Uttar PradeshChief Minister Yogi Adityanathoff hook with a warning for“Modi ki Sena” remarks.

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Bangladeshi actor GhaziAbdul Noor, who had

attended a Trinamool Congress(TMC) rally in West Bengal inthe alleged contravention ofvisa rules, has been asked toleave India immediately. Nooris the second Bangladeshi actorafter Ferdous Ahmed to beserved a “Leave India” notice.Noor was staying in Indiadespite expiry of his visa.

“Appropriate action is alsobeing taken regarding his over-stay in contravention of visarules,” a Home Ministry officialsaid. Reports suggest that Noorcampaigned for TMC’sDumdum candidate SaugataRoy. The Centre on Tuesdayhad issued a “Leave India”notice to Ahmed and can-celled the business visa given tohim for campaigning for apolitical party against the visa

norms. Ahmed had attended arally in support of the TMCcandidate in Raiganj in WestBengal.

The Home Ministry actioncame after it received a reportfrom the Bureau ofImmigration regarding visaviolations committed by Noor.The BJP on Wednesday lodgeda complaint with the ElectionCommission after a video sur-faced showing Noor purport-edly campaigning for Roy inthe Dumdum constituency inalleged violation of the electionmodel code of conduct.

“This act is in violation ofthe terms of visa and yet anoth-er case of a foreigner activelyinfluencing the electoralprocess. This is a gross violationof the basics of democraticstructure,” BJP’s West Bengalvice-president Jay PrakashMajumdar said after filing acomplaint with the EC.

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

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Amid continuing “flip-flop”over the pre-poll alliance

for the Lok Sabha elections, theCongress on Thursday saidthere is almost no prospects ofany tie-up with the Aam AadmiParty (AAP). However, sourcessaid the party may wait for anyfresh move by the AAP till theannouncement of the list of itsLok Sabha candidates in Delhi.

As the alliance talks head-ed nowhere, AAP’s candidatefrom West Delhi Balbir SinghJakhar filed his nominationpapers.

“They (AAP) had agreedfor an alliance with us in Delhialone on Wednesday night.On Thursday morning, theyraised the full Statehood issue.I told them we are ready, fullStatehood was in our manifestofor 2015(Assembly) election.But, later I received Sanjay

Singh’s message that Kejriwalhad said the alliance was notpossible unless it coversHaryana also,” said PC Chacko,the All India CongressCommittee in-charge of Delhi.

Singh, AAP’s Rajya SabhaMP, was authorised by Kejriwalto take the alliance talks withthe Congress forward.

After Singh’s message,Chacko met Congress presi-dent Rahul Gandhi andapprised him of the develop-ment.

“I told him about the flip-flop of the AAP leaders. Now,we will give a final touch to thelist of our candidates in Delhi.It could be announced onFriday,” he said.

In the evening, Chackomet Delhi Congress presidentSheila Dikshit and other lead-ers to take a final call on the listof party candidates.

The Congress had pro-posed a 4-3 formula for analliance in Delhi, offering fourseats to the AAP. It had optedfor the Chandni Chowk, NorthWest Delhi and the New Delhiseats for itself.

The AAP, however, said ifthe alliance was limited only toDelhi, the Congress wouldhave to contest in just two seats.

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India on Thursday decided tosuspend bilateral trade across

the Line of Control (LoC) withPakistan after NIA andIntelligence agencies found theroutes were being “misused” tosmuggle illegal weapons, drugsand fake currency.

The Union HomeMinistry’s order issued onThursday said a stricter regu-latory and enforcement mech-anism is being worked out andthe issue of the reopening thetrade routes will be revisitedonce they are implemented.

The Ministry order furtherstated that the action was takenon the basis of reports that thetrade routes were being “mis-used by the Pakistan-basedelements for funnelling illegalweapons, narcotics and fakecurrency, among others.”

The LoC trade, at present,is conducted through two tradefacilitation centres located at

Salamabad in Uri of Baramulladistrict, and Chakkan-da-Baghin Poonch district. This tradetakes place four days a weekand is based on barter systemand zero-duty.

“Meanwhile, a stricter reg-ulatory and enforcementmechanism is being workedout and will be put in place inconsultation with various agen-cies. The issue of reopening ofLoC trade will be revisitedthereafter,” the Home Ministrysaid in the statement.

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����� 685���

Over 100 bikers, from sixcountries and 15 Indian

cities, will motivate voters inHimachal Pradesh during thethree-day Eighth Hero MTBShimla 2019 commencing onFriday.

The bikers will displaybanners and posters of theElection Commission thatcarry an appeal to vote on

May 19 for the Lok Sabhaelections.

Cyclists f rom India,Nepal, Britain, Japan,Germany and Colombia areparticipating in the 110-kmrace.

Besides the 110 km com-petitive race, a stretch of 25km from Shimla to Kufri hasbeen dedicated for the SVEEP(Systematic Voters Educationand Electoral Participation) in

collaboration with the districtauthorities to encouragelocals to vote for a betterIndia.

There would be 47 ridersin men's solo category, five inwomen's solo, 19 in masters'solo, 11 in student and 20 inteam-of-two category. Theyoungest rider is 14 yearsold while the oldest is 55years.

Last year's winners, DavidKumar, Ashish Sherpa, AkashSherpa and Akshit Gaur, allpart of the Hero Action Team,will be defending their titles

this year.The highest point of the

race is at 2,450m and the low-est point 1,150m.

Total prize moneyannounced by the race organ-isers is Rs 3.5 lakh. The over-all race winner will be award-ed with Rs 25,000, in additionto category prizes of up to Rs30,000.

The ceremonial flag offfor the race will be held onFriday at the historic RidgeMaidan. The flag off will bedone by athletes of the SpecialOlympics Team.

����� (8��"52�;8

Taking serious note of thedamage to crops resulting

from unseasonable rain andwinds, Punjab Chief MinisterCapt Amarinder Singh onThursday called for an urgentmeeting of the DisasterManagement Committee toassess the extent of the losses.

High-speed winds andrainfall on April 16 and 17 hadcaused damage to the Rabicrops in the state and the ChiefMinister had on Wednesday

ordered a special girdawari toascertain the damage.

The Chief Minister, onThursday, also asked the ChiefSecretary to issued detailedguidelines to the DeputyCommissioners to enable com-pletion of the special girdawarion priority basis.

Reviewing the situation,Capt Amarinder directed theChief Secretary to monitor theprogress of the special gir-dawari and ensure it is com-pleted on an urgent basis.

Taking stock of the reportssubmitted by the stateAgriculture Departmentregarding the damage caused tothe standing crops, the ChiefMinister ordered all possiblesteps to expedite the process inorder to ensure timely dis-bursement of compensation tothe affected farmers as perGovernment norms.

����� (8��"52�;8

Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)will submit memorandum

to Punjab Chief Minister CaptAmarinder Singh demanding,among other things, 100 per-cent crop compensation to thestate farmers over the hugelosses due natural calamities.

“The huge loss suffered bythe farmers due untimely rain,hailstorm and velocity winds isimmeasurable. It has wreakedhavoc on them, leaving theirwheat crop worth lakhs flat-tened over vast areas,” saidAAP MLA and party’s stateKisan Wing chief Kultar SinghSandhwan.

He said that a memoran-dum would be submitted to theChief Minister through theDCs to remind those at thehelms of affairs in the state thatthe community had been suf-fering for years now due to theanti-farmer stance of the Stateand Central Governments reinsof the country more than sev-enty years.

“The memorandum seeksto demand 100 percent com-pensation to the farmers for thecrop loss in any form – acci-dental or naturals – so that they

did not have to suffer due togovernment’s apathy. It alsoseeks to amend the law tomake the mode of payment ofcompensation in case of theirdamaged crops more farmer-friendly,” he said.

He said that the memo-randum would also put acrossits stand point pressing the dis-pensation to go for a relook onthe hackneyed terms and con-ditions of the payment of com-pensation and rehabilitationof farmers and so on.

The memorandum seeks tohave in place a 100 percentcompensation and a much-needed raise in the existingamount of Rs 5,400 per acre sothat the common farmerscomes out of the financial cri-sis, saying that the existingmode and amount were a tan-tamount to a cruel joke withthe distressed farmers.

“The memorandum wouldalso impress upon the govern-ment to introduce insurance orcompensation for the farmersto ameliorating their lot. Itwould also demand for the set-ting up of special fund forumon the pattern of ArvindKejriwal-led government haddone in Delhi,” he added.

����� 685���

At 91, eight-time matronly Congresslegislator Vidya Stokes continues to

battle tirelessly to ensure victory of theparty in all the four parliamentary seats ofHimachal Pradesh.

She is daily rubbing shoulders withparty leaders, a majority of them almosthalf her age, and meeting party cadresahead of the May 19 polling.

"Whatever the responsibilities theparty has giving to me so far, I have ful-filled all of them and that too with dedi-cation and sincerity," Stokes, one of India'seldest and active politicians, told IANS.

"Soon I am going to be part of thestate-wide election campaign," she added.

In the 2017 Assembly elections, hernomination papers were rejected due todiscrepancies in the documents.

In the previous assemblies, she repre-sented apple belts of Theog andKumarsein, a seat scrapped in the delim-itation exercise a decade ago and its areasmerged with Theog and Shimla (rural).

Stokes, a long-time hockey adminis-

trator, said: "I work harder than many oth-ers who may be half my age."

"I am daily spending at least 10 hourswith the public and getting much respectand love from people, who are mystrength," Stokes, who has completedover four decades in active politics, said.

The former legislator, who remainedirrigation and public health, horticultureand science and technology minister in hervarious stints in the state cabinet, said:"Throughout my political career, I neverbetrayed my party and remained its loyalworker." Born on December 8, 1927,Stokes is known in political circles for herclean image and has never taken any salary,be it as a legislator or as a minister,throughout her political career.

"In politics it is our duty to serve thepublic. I personally believe that oneshould not hold public office for person-al gains," an elated Stokes, the country'sfirst woman Speaker of an assembly, said.

She has no grudge of not becoming theChief Minister despite being active in statepolitics since 1974, after the death of herhusband Lal Chand Stokes. Their two

daughters live in the US."I have never demanded any post from

the party. Whatever the party offered me,I accepted it with humility."

Stokes has no plans to re-enter thepolitical battle again. "Now, I want to dosocial work that will help strengthening theparty base. For this, I will remain in thefield until my last breath."

Her father-in-law Satyanand (SamuelEvans Stokes Jr), an American missionary,first introduced high quality apples in theKotgarh-Thanedar belt in upper Shimla inthe early 1920s. Stokes now managesmost of her family's orchards.

On being asked about the performanceof the Modi-led government, she said: "Thecentral government has not fulfilled itspromise of hiking apple import duty thatis hitting the state's apple industry most."

"We have requested the NarendraModi government to hike import duty onapples as growers here are facing stiff com-petition from China but the central gov-ernment declined to hike the importduty," she said, adding "the growers willnow give the reply through ballots".

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Election watchdog’s thirdeye will keep a close watch

on the poll activities acrossPunjab. As many as 117 vehi-cles, fitted with cameras, willzip across the length andbreadth of the State to help theElection Commission monitorand supervise the elections.

Implemented only inPunjab till now, as many as 117mobile cars, one for each of the117 assembly constituencies ofthe State, fitted with high qual-

ity cameras would take thestate’s poll panel close to theground realities from any-where in the state while sittingin its main office atChandigarh.

“These mobile cars, whichwill be on the move for theentire day, will send live feedfrom the cameras fitted inthem directly to the com-manding room set up at theoffice of Chief Electoral Officerat Chandigarh to monitoractivities in different areas,” asenior official of the CEO

office told The Pioneer.The official maintained

that the Election Commissionis making attempts to ensurefree and fair polls while mak-ing the best use of the advanc-ing technology. “As per theElection Commission of India’sinstructions, the flying squadshave been formed and super-vising elections across the state.But it is only in Punjab thattheir vehicles are fitted with thecameras, and their live feed willconstantly be monitored by ateam at Commanding Room,”

added the official.“Sometimes what happen

that a person present on thespot may miss somethingwhich is a violation of code,and the person monitoringthe video feed at the com-manding room notice thesame. So, it will complementthe working of the flyingsquads,” said the official addingthat a special team has beengiven the task of the com-manding room.

“The officers sitting herecan see directly what is going

on in the constituency. In caseany violation of model code ofconduct comes to the notice,immediate instructions willbe issued from the Chandigarhoffice to act,” said the official.

The official maintainedthat the video quality is good,and it would help the pollpanel in monitoring and super-vising from the head office.“Right now, it is being moni-tored the entire day for whichwe have a special team, and inthe last two days, it will work24X7,” added the official.

With the camera-fittedvehicles, the Commissionwould not only keep a tab onthe code violation, but it wouldalso keep the flying squadsunder check. “The flyingsquads are also under closewatch and are directly con-nected with the CEO officethrough CCTV cameras ontheir vehicles. They also sharevideo proof at the time ofspot visits,” said the official.

The Commission has alsolinked the flying squads with itscVIGIL mobile application

aimed at quick redressal ofcomplaints. “All the flyingsquads are interconnected withthe application and the controlroom, and on receipt of anycomplaint, the nearest squadwill immediately reach the spotto see if the complaint was rightand inform the control room atthe time of its disposal or oth-erwise,” said the official.

Introducing several hi-techsystem to verify complaints,the ECI has launched cVIGILmobile application throughwhich people can upload only

live pictures and videos show-ing the violations. For the pur-pose, a district complaint cen-tres have been set up wherecomplaints would be receivedthrough the application, andafter verifying the genuinenessof the same, it is forwarded tothe flying squads deployed inthe field.

“The flying squads have toact within 35-40 minutes andreport to the CEO office. Eachcomplaint has to be disposedof within 100 minutes,” said theofficial.

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Punjab police chief DinkarGupta on Thursday asked

the officers of law enforce-ment agencies to share theinformation relating to lawand order.

“It is the need of the hourfor security agencies to remainmore vigilant in view of theattempts of foreign hands todisrupt the law and order ofthis border state,” said thestate Director general of Police(DGP) during a meeting of theofficers of interstate coordina-tion committee held with var-ious law enforcement agenciesin view of Lok Sabha polls.

Gupta also directed thesecurity agencies to maintainlaw and order in the comingdays with the political activi-ties catching pace once the fil-ing of nominations start in theState, from April 22 — thedate of issuing of notificationfor May 19 elections inPunjab.

Punjab Chief ElectoralOfficer Dr S Karuna Raju

and DGP Gupta took stock ofpreparations for electionsbesides holding discussionswith the off icers fromHimachal Pradesh, Rajasthan,Haryana, Chandigarh andJammu and Kashmir.

During the meeting, the

off icials from HimachalPradesh assured that therewould be no smuggling ofallopathy medicine, country-made liquor and opium espe-cially from Baddi and Damtal.The officers from Rajasthanalso assured that they wouldalso strictly control the smug-gling of poppy husk andopium, if any.

The officers from Haryanainformed the meeting that

they had made elaboratearrangements to check thesmuggling of illegal arms fromUttar Pradesh borders besidesconducting the checking ofvehicles minutely to plug theflow of unaccounted cash.

Dr Raju, interacting with

the officers, emphasised thatPunjab and neighbouringstates should ensure the effec-tive setting up of interstatepolice barriers to check thevehicles passing through thesenakas.

He said that all vehicles,including government vehiclesand ambulances, should bechecked. He also directed toensure checking of Volvobuses and trucks entering the

state from Delhi side by set-ting up surprise police nakasby installing CCTV cameras atthese points.

CEO instructed the lawenforcement agencies that thepolls should be conducted intransparent and without any

fear.He also pointed out that

the expenditure limit of Rs 70lakh should also be underclose vigil and smuggling ofintoxicants and arms shouldalso be checked strictly.

“Sur veil lance teamsshould also act proactivelyagainst the illegal flow ofcash, if any, besides monitor-ing the online transactions.No one could use religious

places for electioneering,which would also be main-tained strictly,” he said.

Briefing about a cameraenabled vehicles, the CEOsaid that the ECI had startedthe operation of one vehicle ineach assembly constituencies,which were working roundthe clock to keep a close tabon election related activities.

“Polls in Punjab will beheld in last phase and the peo-ple from other states can cometo influence the voters so thatadequate and necessary pre-ventive measures should betimely put in place,” he said.

It was also informed in themeeting that as per the direc-tions of Election Commission,no parole should be granted toinmates convicted in the casesof drug smuggling. “In casesof parole to convicted personsin routine cases should begiven after having prior per-mission from the ElectionCommission and that parolewould also be granted for aminimum duration only inemergency,” he added.

����� (8��"52�;8

Haryana joint chief electoral officer Inder Jeet onFriday said that so far, liquor and cash amount

of Rs 11,95,19,543 (Rs 11.95 cr) has been seized bythe Haryana Police, Excise and Income TaxDepartments after the announcement of Lok Sabhapolls.

He said that the cash amount of Rs 1,23,60,915has so far been caught by the Police. Apart from this,cash amount of Rs 44,05,600 has been caught by theIncome Tax Department. Thus, total cash of Rs1,67,66,515 was seized by the Police and Income TaxDepartments, he said.

Inder Jeet said that the police has so far seized2,28,284 litres of liquor, which is worth Rs 3,92,71,654.

Similarly, 15,597 litres of liquor has been caughtby Excise Department, which is worth Rs 23,97,500.Thus, the Excise and Police has caught 2,43,882 litresof liquor, which has a total value of Rs 4,16,69,154.Besides this, the police has also seized intoxicantsworth Rs 4,97,90,834.

Apart from this, till now, cash amount more thanRs 38,79,000 and 3.454 kg gold was also seized fromthe state, which is worth Rs 1,12,60,000, he added.

89,672 licensed arms deposited in Haryana PoliceStations

Inder Jeet said that in order to maintain law andorder in the state, 89,672 licensed arms have beendeposited by the people in Police Stations acrossHaryana.

Also, 1,198 criminal cases have been registeredand non-bailable warrants have been issued against9,397 persons. 2,05,765 bottles of countrymadeliquor, 74,309 bottles of English liquor, 20,414 bot-tles of beer, 11,918 bottles of illicit liquor, 1,014 kg ofganja including other intoxicants were also seized.

He added that the police has also seized ganja,poppy husk, heroin, opium, smack, lohan, charas,sulfa, cocaine doda and sulfa, which has market valueof Rs 7,67,820. So far, the intoxicants worth Rs4,97,90,834 have been seized.

1651 complaints received on c-VIGIL appWith regard to the violation of the model code

of conduct, 1651 complaints have been received fromthe state on the c-VIGIL App, of which only threecomplaints are pending and the remaining have beensettled by the concerned District Electoral Officers.

The residents of Ambala district have registeredthe maximum of 413 complaints on c-VIGIL app. As

many as 238 complaints were registered in districtKurukshetra, 200 in Gurugram, 110 in Hisar, 107 inKarnal and 114 in Sirsa, the joint chief electoral offi-cer added.

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Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD)on Thursday asked the

Election Commission of India(ECI) to transfer all policeofficers who had played a par-tisan role in favour of theCongress party as heads ofpolice districts during the pan-chayat, block samiti and zilaparishad elections.

Submitting a written com-plaint in this regard, SADsenior vice-president DaljeetSingh Cheema said that duringthe block samiti and zilaparishad elections, a number ofincidents of booth capturingand bogus voting were report-ed at various places with themost such incidents occurringin Sri Muktsar Sahib.

“Supporters of SAD werethreatened and even expelledfrom polling booths. Repollingwas ordered at a total of 54booths on September 21, 2018,”he said.

Cheema said that it wasshocking that out of these 54booths, as many as 36 boothswere situated in Sri MuktsarSahib district which was underthe direct control of the rulingparty’s hand-picked districtpolice head Manjit SinghDhesi, who is the brother of theOSD to Punjab Chief Minister.

“At that time, though theState Election Commission hadgiven orders for re-polling atsome booths, but it didn’t takeaction against the erring policeofficer as required under the lawdespite the serious nature of alle-gations levelled against him,” hesaid. SAD requested to the ECthat even now, the same policeofficer was holding the post ofdistrict head, and it was not pos-sible to expect free and a fair pollunder his supervision. Cheemaurged the EC “to immediatelyissue orders for transfer of thistainted SSP to restore people’sfaith in the democratic set up ofthe country”.

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Haryana Chief MinisterManohar Lal on Thursday

said that the Congress, whosesome of the senior leaders areon bail, will be completelywiped out on May 23 when theresults of the ongoing LokSabha elections will bedeclared.

The Chief Minister, whileaddressing an election rallyhere, said that today, the BJP isruling and the people haveshown the Congress and otheropposition parties their trueplace.

Elated at the turnout atparty’s rallies in all the districts,Manohar Lal said that variousformer Prime Ministers,including three generations ofGandhi family -JawaharlalNehru, Indira Gandhi andRajiv Gandhi - besidesManmohan Singh gave hollowpromises to remove poverty byrepeatedly giving the slogan

Garibi Hatao.Notwithstanding the fail-

ure of senior leaders of theCongress to remove poverty onthe basis of their repeated hol-low promises of Garibi Hatao,now “Pappu” (Congress chiefRahul Gandhi) is claiming toremove poverty by once againgiving the slogan of Garibi

Hatao, he said.The poverty cannot be

removed by mere slogans,Manohar Lal said adding thatfor uplifting the standard of thepeople, work has to be done ashad been done by the BJPduring its five years rule withthe launching of various welfareschemes for different sections

of the society, including poorand downtrodden, women,sick, youth, farmers and theunemployed youth.

The Chief Minister saidthat there is no other partywhich could give a formidablechallenge to the BJP in the cur-rent Lok Sabha elections.

Manohar Lal said that theCongress is facing the punish-ment due to its misdeeds. AfterMay 23 (day of counting), theCongress will be wiped outfrom the country, he said.

Continuing his tiradeagainst the Congress, he saidthat the Congress leaders areafraid of facing the public dueto their alleged misdeeds. Manysenior leaders of Congress areout on bail, he said adding thatinternal bickering in theCongress is also out in theopen.

He further charged theopposition Congress leadersof filling their houses andthat of their relatives with

wealth accumulated throughcorrupt practices in variousareas as has been exposed byvarious scams.

In the latest series of suchscams during the raid at theclose associates of MadhyaPradesh Chief Minister wealthworth Rs 281 crore was recov-ered. The Congress leadersshould be ashamed of their cor-rupt practices, he added.

Manohar Lal said that thecountry has emerged as thefifth super power of the worlddue to the leadership providedby Prime Minister NarendraModi and the strength of thepeople behind him. Seniorleaders of the world proudlyshake hands today with thePrime Minister, he added.

He said that earlier duringvisit to Police Stations peoplefound middlemen, but the BJPon coming to power inHaryana put all bad elementsbehind bars.

As far as development of

the state is considered, the BJPgovernment did not discrimi-nate between constituenciesrepresented by the ruling partyMLAs and those represented bythe opposition legislators. Dueto this many opposition lead-ers are joining the BJP, headded.

Referring to Mewat, whichtill recently was consideredthe most backward area of thestate; the Chief Minister saidthat despite the BJP not havingany representation from there,the government acceleratedthe pace of development due towhich Mewat area is among thedeveloped areas.

Referring to the shortage ofwater, especially in southernareas of the state, he said thatthe previous government tookno action on this aspect also.But now the BJP government iscommitted to redress the prob-lem of water shortage in theshortest possible time,Manohar Lal added.

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Jannayak Janta Party leaderDushyant Chautala will seek re-

election from Hisar Lok Sabha con-stituency.

The JJP, which is contesting theLok Sabha polls in alliance with AamAadmi Party in Haryana, announcedfour party candidates on Thursday.Dushyant, who was the youngest MPin the 16th Lok Sabha in 2014, willagain contest from the Hisar parlia-mentary seat in 2019 polls. Apartfrom him, the JJP has fielded youngcandidates namely Nirmal Singh

Malhadi from Sirsa constituency(reserved), Pradeep Deswal fromRohtak and Swati Yadav fromBhiwani-Mahendergarh constituen-cy.

The candidates were announcedduring a joint press conference of JJPand AAP held in New Delhi. SeniorAAP leader Gopal Rai, JJP leaderDushyant Chautala, Haryana AAPchief Naveen Jaihind and state JJPchief Nishan Singh were present onthe occasion.

The AAP will contest onFaridabad, Karnal and Ambala(reserved) Lok Sabha seats while the

JJP will contest on other seven seatsin the state.

AAP leader Gopal Rai said thatthe AAP will announce its candidateson Friday.

Dushyant said that he will beseeking mandate for the secondterm based on the works done inHisar constituency during the lastfive years.

Though the Congress is yet toname its candidate from Hisar, theruling BJP has fielded Haryana IASofficer Brijendra Singh, 46, who is theson of Union Steel Minister BirenderSingh, a prominent Jat leader.

Notably, despite of strong Modiwave that had enabled the BJP to win7 out of 10 Lok Sabha seats inHaryana in 2014 Lok Sabha polls,Dushyant Chautala, representingthe fourth generation of formerDeputy Prime Minister Devi Lal haddefeated BJP-HJC candidate KuldeepBishnoi to become the youngestever elected MP to the Lok Sabha.

Contesting on Indian NationalLok Dal’s ticket at that time,Dushyant had won by a margin of31,847 votes, due to extreme polar-isation of the Jats in favour of theINLD.

Dushyant will be contesting onJJP’s ticket this time. The JJP, a splin-ter group of Indian National Lok Dalwas formed in December last year byAjay Chautala and his two sons,Dushyant and Digvijay. Ajay is elderson of INLD’s chief OP Chautala.

According to the JJP release, itsSirsa candidate Nirmal SinghMalhadi, 37, belongs to a landlessfamily in Malhadi village in Sirsa. Hehad unsuccessfully contested the2014 Haryana assembly polls onHaryana Lokhit party ticket from theKalanwali seat.

JJP’s Rohtak nominee Pradeep

Deswal, 32 is Indian NationalStudents Organisation (INSO) statepresident and a close confidant ofDushyant Chautala.

Deswal is a student leader andhas also been associated with socialwork, as per the party release.

Swati Yadav, 30, has more than10 years of experience in the field ofmedical and telecommunication sec-tors. She holds an MBA degree fromGeorgia Institute of Technology inthe US. Her father, Satyavir Yadav isparty's Mahendergarh district chief,the party stated.

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The AAP on Thursday saidthere will be no alliance with theCongress in Haryana after the grandold party refused to have a tie-up inany other state apart from Delhi.

Haryana state party inchargeNaveen Jaihind on Thursday saidtalks over alliance in Haryana in aseat-sharing formula of 6:3:1 wereheld between senior AAP leaderSanjay Singh and Congress generalsecretary incharge of HaryanaGhulam Nabi Azad.

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Two decades after JagmeetBrar defeated Sukhbir

Badal from Faridkot LokSabha constituency, the twoleaders are all set to shakehands “officially” on Friday.

Brar, once a prominentCongress leader in Punjaband a known ardent critic ofChief Minister CaptAmarinder Singh, onThursday made an officialannouncement of his joiningthe Shiromani Akali Dal(SAD).

SAD, which is yet toannounce its candidates forBathinda and Ferozepur, isconsidering to field Brar from

Ferozepur.Brar, who was expelled

from the Congress party andlater went on to join theTrinamool Congress headingthe party’s state unit, has beenin the political oblivion sincequite some time.

On Thursday, Brardeclared his next move to jointhe Akali Dal on April 19 atMuktsar. “In my political andpersonal capacity, I have beendriven by virtues and princi-ples of Guru Nanak. Hence, Iwant to inform all well-wish-ers who have stood by me thatI will be joining the ShiromaniAkali Dal tomorrow at ShriMuktsar Sahib," tweeted theformer MP from Faridkot.

“While I live and breathepolitics for and by the people,the Akali Dal gives me anopportunity to further myobjectives of Sikhism andPunjab. At every step, I haveraised issues for the people andwill continue to do so," he saidin a continuous tweet.

Brar, who had been thepermanent invitee to theCongress Working Committee(CWC) for 10 years, wasexpelled from the party in2016 after his association formore than 30 years with theparty.

After the Congress party'sdefeat in 2014 Lok Sabha polls,Brar had suggested that thethen Congress President Sonia

Gandhi and the then vice-president Rahul Gandhi go ona sabbatical to introspect onthe reasons for the party'sworst performance in the elec-tions.

Brar had later joined theTrinamool Congress and hadremained president of theparty's state unit. He quit theTMC last year. Brar haddefeated Sukhbir Badal fromFaridkot Lok Sabha seat in1999, junior Badal went on todefeat Brar in the 2004 polls.

It has been learnt that alocal leader, who is Brar’s rel-ative and considered close toSukhbir, has persuaded theformer MP to join the AkaliDal.

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AAP Punjab unit presidentand Sangrur MP

Bhagwant Mann on Thursdaysaid that the instead ofindulging in mutual war ofwords on Twitter advisingeach other to learn lessonsfrom history over theJallianwala Bagh carnage andthe man behind this humantragedy, both Chief MinisterCapt Amarinder Singh andUnion Minister HarsimratKaur Badal should “learnthemselves”.

“Both Badal clan and the

Captain needed to learnlessons instead of accusingand advising each other. Theyshould, instead of fritteringaway their quality time onnon-serious issues like these,focus on the issues and con-cern as were important to thepeople of the state,” he said.

Mann said that the Statehad suffered hugely during 10-year BJP-SAD regime andfive-year (previous) and two-year current stint of theCaptain-led government.“Both have been changinghands in power and support-ing each other for their petty

personal and political endswhenever they come topower,” he said.

Terming them as ‘gaddar-gaddar mausere bhai’ (bothtraitors are cousins), Mannblasted both the traditionalparties for shoving the Stateinto a total mess due to theiranti-people stance.

“Both should tender anapology for lying to the teem-ing millions of people of thestate, including distressedfarmers, the youth, ‘dalits’, thepoor, employees, pensionersand others on their issues andconcerns,” he said.

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Chhattisgarh’s three par-liamentary constituen-

cies- Mahasamund,Rajnandgaon and Kanker,recorded nearly 71 percentpolling on Thursday in thesecond phase, and electionofficials said that figure couldsurge further once final vot-ing data was compiled.

Polling was largely peace-ful barring an unfortunateincident in Scheduled Tribereserved seat Kanker wherean assistant school teacher,who was on election duty atAntagarh booth, died of car-diac arrest.

Maoists made a failedattempt to disrupt polling atMohla area underRajnandgaon seat by trigger-ing an IED blast.

Chhattisgarh’s chief elec-toral officer Subrat Sahooinformed, quoting interimdata, that 71 percent of com-bined 4895719 voters of thethree constituencies exercisedtheir franchise in a peacefulpolling.

The second phase pollinghas sealed fate of 36 candi-dates, 14 in Rajnandgaon, 13in Mahasamund and 9 inKanker.

Chhattisgarh has a total11 Lok Sabha seats and so farvoting for four constituencieshad been held, includingBastar that went to polls inthe first phase on April 11.Voting for remaining sevenseats will be held on April 23.

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New Delhi: Political analyst Tehseen Poonawallaon Thursday moved the Election Commission todebar Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, BJP's candi-date from Bhopal, from contesting elections, asshe is facing terror charges.

In a letter to the poll panel, Poonawalla said:"I would humbly request the Election Commissionof India to take further necessary steps to upholdthe Model Code of Conduct 2019 and take appro-priate action against Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakurand debar her from contesting elections."

He informed the poll panel that "a candidateaccused with terror links must not be permitted

to contest elections." Poonawalla said theMaharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) hadcharged her as the "principal conspirator" in the2008 Malegaon blast in which six people werekilled.

"Thakur was in jail for nine years and since2017, she was out on bail citing health grounds.She is currently facing charges under the UnlawfulActivities (Prevention) Act," said Poonawalla.According to the law, any citizen above 25 yearsof age is eligible to contest polls unless convict-ed for any crime, which involves punishment fortwo years or more. IANS

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Page 5:  · 2019-04-18 · should be made to resume ... Mohsin didn’t follow protocol ... BJP leader Mukhtar Abbas

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Soon, outlets selling medi-cines will be called as

“Pharmacy” instead of“Chemists and Druggist.” TheUnion Health Ministry ismulling such a proposal whichis in keeping with the interna-tional practice and provides asense of identity to the prac-ticing pharmacists in theseoutlets.

In contrast, the term‘Chemists and Druggists’ wascoined in 1945 and is quite oldand has lost relevance andalso, at present the word ‘drug’is looked upon as more clan-destine and as addiction forchemicals, hence does not suitto refer a professional phar-macist, said a senior officialfrom the Ministry.

“In order to give retailtrade a better professionalrecognition, the Union healthministry will soon amend Rule65(15)(b) and Rule 65(15)(c) ofDrugs and Cosmetics (D&C)Rules, to replace ‘Chemists &Druggists’ with ‘Pharmacy’.Once the amendment is done,all the medical shops in thecountry will be called asPharmacy,” said a senior officialfrom the Ministry.

The issue was deliberatedin the 55th Drug ConsultativeCommittee (DCC) meeting

held in February 2019 and itwas recommended to replacethe words ‘Chemists andDruggists’ with ‘Pharmacy’ inRule 65(15)(b) of the D&CRules, 1945, he added.

Accordingly, the proposalwas placed before the DrugTechnical Advisory Board(DTAB), a highest decisionmaking body on technicalissues related to drugs fordeliberation. “The DTAB dis-cussed the matter and agreed toamend Rule 65(15) of the D&CRules, 1945 to provide that alllicensees in Form 20 and Form21, they should display theword “Pharmacy”, explainedthe official.

As per Rule 65(15)(b) ofthe D&C Rules, the description“Chemists and Druggists” shallbe displayed by those licenseeswho employ the services of aregistered pharmacist but whodo not maintain a “Pharmacy”for compounding against pre-scriptions.

Similarly in Rule 65(15)(c)of the D&C Rules, the descrip-tion “Pharmacy”, “Pharmacist”,“Dispensing Chemist” or“Pharmaceutical Chemist” shallbe displayed by such licenseeswho employ the services of aregistered pharmacist andmaintain a “Pharmacy” forcompounding against pre-scription.

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Even as India is lookingtowards e-health as one of

the health solutions for thepeople in the remote areaswhere medical care is yet toreach, the World HealthOrganisation (WHO) has cau-tioned that in such healthsetups, consultations shouldbe conducted by qualifiedhealth workers and that the pri-vacy of an individual’s healthinformation is maintained.

In its newly released ‘firstguideline on digital healthinterventions’, the WHO has,nevertheless, recommendeddigital health technology, acces-sible via mobile phones, tabletsand computers, to improvepeople’s health and essentialservices, as an essential medi-um for achieving universalhealth coverage.

“Harnessing the power ofdigital technologies is essentialfor achieving universal healthcoverage,” said WHO Director-General Dr Tedros AdhanomGhebreyesus. “Ultimately, dig-ital technologies are not ends inthemselves; they are vital toolsto promote health, keep theworld safe, and serve the vul-nerable.”

Over the past two years,WHO systematically reviewedevidence on digital technolo-gies and consulted with expertsfrom around the world to pro-

duce recommendations onsome key ways such tools maybe used for maximum impacton health systems and people’shealth.

The WHO noted that onedigital intervention alreadyhaving positive effects in someareas is sending reminders topregnant women to attendantenatal care appointmentsand having children return forvaccinations. Other digitalapproaches reviewed includedecision-support tools to guidehealth workers as they providecare; and enabling individualsand health workers to com-municate and consult on healthissues from across differentlocations.

“The use of digital tech-nologies offers new opportu-nities to improve people’shealth,” added Dr SoumyaSwaminathan, Chief Scientist atWHO. However, there is aword of caution. “But the evi-dence also highlights chal-

lenges in the impact of someinterventions,” she said whileDr Garrett Mehl, WHO scien-tist in digital innovations andresearch warned that digitalinterventions, depend heavilyon the context and ensuringappropriate design.

The WHO also said thatpeople also must be assuredthat they are not being put atrisk because they have accessedinformation on sensitive healthtopics, such as sexual andreproductive health issues.

The guideline also recom-mends telemedicine, whichallows people living in remotelocations to obtain health ser-vices by using mobile phones,web portals, or other digitaltools. WHO also pointed outthat this is a valuable comple-ment to face-to-face-interac-tions, but it cannot replacethem entirely. It is also impor-tant that consultations are con-ducted by qualified healthworkers and that the privacy of

individuals’ health informa-tion is maintained.

The WHO guideline alsoemphasized on the importanceof reaching vulnerable popu-lations, and ensuring that dig-ital health does not endangerthem in any way.

India, on its part has comewith a draft legislation, theDigital Information Security inHealthcare Act (DISHA) whichintends to ensure the confi-dentiality and reliability of dig-ital health data by regulatinghow they are collected, stored,transmitted, and used.

Rohit MA, co-founderand Managing Director,Cloudnine Group of Hospitalstoo have a word of caution. Asper a report, he opined thatwhile Data protection andpatient privacy have been spo-ken and been disused at sever-al forums, India’s bloominghealthcare sector could becomea victim of its own success, ifit fails to ensure Data protec-tion to its patients.

Despite all challenges, thetechnology is all set to grow inhealthcare sector. “With Indiaas a market demanding betterhealthcare facilities, thetelemedicine industry, consid-ered to be a niche, is expectedto grow over 20 per cent andcross $32 million by 2020,” saysthe Associated Chambers ofCommerce and Industry ofIndia (ASSOCHAM).

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Father of a victim inMalegaon blast case and

Congress leader TehseenPoonawala wrote to the pollbody seeking to debar the can-didature of Sadhvi PragyaSingh Thakur from contestingthe Lok Sabha polls as she wasfacing terror charges. SadhviPragya is contesting againstCongress leader Digvijay Singhfrom Bhopal on BJP ticket.

Sadhvi Pragya facescharges in the 2008 Malegaonblast case, but charges againsther under Maharashtra Controlof Organised Crime Act(MCOCA) have been droppedby the National InvestigationAgency (NIA). She was grant-ed bail in 2017 on healthgrounds. She spent nearly nineyears in jail and is currently outon bail. Malegaon blast accusedSadhvi Pragya Singh Thakurjoined the BJP on April 18,2019.

The Opposition leaders arecriticising the saffron partyfor giving ticket to SadhviPragya. Meanwhile taking astrong exception to the BJPfielding her from Bhopal,National Conference (NC)’sOmar Abdullah on Thursdaysaid the BJP has given ticket toa candidate who is not only anaccused in a terror case but is

also out on bail on healthgrounds. Dubbing Thakur asan innocent person, BJPspokesperson GVL NarasimhaRao said she was tortured andits fight against the Congressconspiracy to defame Hindureligion by linking it to the ter-rorism. He alleged thatCongress president RahulGandhi had “masterminded”this conspiracy, claiming that itwas meant to appease a minor-ity community.

In a letter to the poll body,Poonawalla said theMaharashtra Anti-TerrorismSquad (ATS) had foundThakur to be the “principalconspirator” in the 2008Malegaon blast in which sixpeople were killed. Her namehas also cropped up in theAjmer Dargah blast case, hesaid.

“I would humbly requestthe Election Commission ofIndia to take further necessarysteps to uphold the ModelCode of Conduct 2019 and takeappropriate action againstSadhvi Pragya Singh Thakurand debar her from contestingelections,” the letter read.

Poonawalla further wrotein the letter, “Thakur is cur-rently facing charges underthe Unlawful Activities(Prevention) Act and alsostands accused of murder,

attempt to murder, criminalconspiracy, and of promotingenmity between differentgroups on ground of religion.That the court had observedthat Sadhvi Pragya SinghThakur had planned the con-spiracy with the aim to spread

terror and cause communalcrack in the society. The BJP isfielding a terror accused as acandidate in Bhopal.”

Her (Pragya’s) medicalreports which were submittedin Court exhibited said that sheis suffering from breast cancer

and is infirm, that she cannotwalk without support.Nonetheless, she is now con-testing elections.

This is clearly indicatedmisrepresentation and forgedground of her bail, (sic)” hiscomplaint reads.

Poonawala said on Twitterthat Pragya should not beallowed to contest polls on thesame grounds applicable toHardik Patel, who is an accusedin a rioting and arson case dur-ing the 2015 Patidar agitation.“ “If Hardik Patel can bebarred, even Sadhvi Pragyamust be prevented from con-testing. This is the duty of theElection Commission. We can-not have two rules. Moreover,by stating this is a dharamyudh, Sadhvi Pragya has vio-lated the MCC. She was grant-ed bail because she was unwell,”Poonawalla tweeted.

Another applicationagainst the Lok Sabha ticketgiven to Pragya was filed by thefather of a Malegaon blast vic-tim. In the application filed bythe victim’s father, he has ques-tioned Sadhvi Pragya’s candi-dature before the NIA court asshe was given bail on healthgrounds. Sadhvi Pragya facescharges in the Malegaon blastcase although charges underMCOCA have been droppedby NIA.

Saffron-clad Thakur (48),with her trademark short hairand sporting a rudraksh mala,became the face of right wingextremism after being arrestedby the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) in the2008 Malegaon blast case.

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Kerala Chief ElectoralOfficer has recommended

“appropriate action” againstBJP State chief PS SreedharanPillai for allegedly makinganti-Islam remarks during anelection campaign meeting inAttingal Lok Sabha con-stituency on April 14.

In his report to theElection Commission, KeralaChief Electoral Officer (CEO)Teeka Ram Meena said Pillaimade the remarks while coun-tering the comments ofCongress president RahulGandhi, CPI(M) general sec-retary Sitaram Yechury andChief Minister PinarayiVijayan on the number ofpeople killed during theBalakot air strike.

“Our Rahul Gandhi,Yechury, Pinarayi and all aresaying that, after getting there...The dead bodies... Whichcaste, which religion... If theyare Islam then there will be afew signs... If only you removethe dresses only then it can befound out... So after doing allthat, we should come back iswhat they say,” Pillai had said,according to Meena’s report tothe poll body.

Pillai made these remarksduring the poll campaignmeeting organised for BJPcandidate Sobha Surendran.

The CEO, in his reportdated April 16, said no per-mission was taken for the BJPmeeting and a complaint hasbeen registered in the Attingalpolice station inThiruvananthapuram district.

“It appears prima facie acase of violation of Section123(3A) and Section 125 of the

Representations of People Act,1951. Accordingly, appropriateaction may be taken in thematter,” Meena said in hisreport sent to Deputy ElectionCommissioner Sudeep Jain.

On Wednesday, the CEOhad informed the High Courtthat strong action would betaken against Pillai in the case.

A petition seeking a direc-tive to the ElectionCommission to take actionagainst Pillai was filed byCPI(M) leader V Sivankutty.

The court disposed of thepetition in the light of the sub-missions made by the ElectionCommission.

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Aman flung a shoe at BJPleaders addressing a Press

conference at the party’s head-quarters here on Thursdaywith Rajya Sabha member GVLNarasimha Rao narrowly miss-ing the hit.

The intention of the manfor throwing the shoe could notbe ascertained initially but thepolice, which let him go later inthe evening after sustainedinterrogation, said it was togain media attention. Theattacker was identified as a doc-

tor from Kanpur.The man was immediate-

ly bundled out by securityguards at the party office andhanded over to police.

At the time of the incident,BJP leaders Bhupendra Yadavand GVL Narsimha Rao wereaddressing the media with Raoattacking the Congress fordefaming Hindus by foisting“false cases” on Hindutvaactivists, including Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakurwho has been nominated asparty Lok Sabha candidatefrom Bhopal.

Several important politicalleaders domestically and inter-nationally have been targetedwith the shoe like formerFinance Minister PChidambaram who wasattacked by a journalist JarnailSingh who accused theCongress of playing a biased role in Sikh riot cases.

US President George Bushtoo was attacked with a shoewhen he was in Iraq. In fact, theattacker threw two shoes onBush but both missed theirmarks.

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The EnforcementDirectorate (ED) on

Thursday seized 145.89 kg ofgold jewellery worth �82.11crore after searches conduct-ed at multiple locations includ-ing office-cum-residence ofKailash Gupta, promoters ofMusaddilal Jewellers Pvt Ltd(MJPL) at Hyderabad, thefirm’s showroom at Vijaywadaand other locations.

Besides MJPL , the agencyalso searched the residentialand business premises ofPavan Agarwal (Partner BalajiGold), residence of Neel sun-der Tharad (Proprietor ofAshta Lakshmi Gold), office ofChartered Accountant, SanjaySarda in ongoing investigationunder the provisions of

Prevention of MoneyLaundering Act, 2002 (PMLA)in a demonetisation case.

ED initiated investigationunder PMLA on the basis ofFIR registered by TelanganaPolice on the basis of com-plaint filed by Income TaxDepartment against KailashGupta, his sons and their com-panies MJPL and VaishnaviBullion Ltd. for conspiringwith certain bullion dealers,chartered accountants andclose relatives by blatantlymisusing the scheme ofdemonetisation by illegallydepositing huge amounts ofunaccounted demonetisedcash in their accounts, the EDsaid.

For this purpose theyfraudulently created around5,200 back dated fabricated

advance sale receipts datedNovember, 2016, each for anamount less than �2 lakh toavoid furnishing PAN details.

During the course ofinvestigation, it was revealedthat immediately afterannouncement of demoneti-sation scheme, the accusedhad illegally deposited �110.85crores in their bank accountsfalsely claiming that within afew hours they had receivedadvances of less than �2 lakheach from more than 5,200customers, on the night ofNovember 8, 2016, for pur-chase of gold/jewellery fromtheir firms.

All these invoices werefound to be bogus. Further,analysis of CCTV footages oftheir offices and that of theneighbourhood revealed that

no such activity of purchase ofgold was carried out duringthat period.

It is further revealed thatthose more than 5,200 invoic-es dated November 8, 2016were fraudulently raised on alater date.

Investigation under PMLArevealed that illegally deposit-ed unaccounted cash to thetune of �110.85 crores in thebank accounts of the accusedand their companies and sub-sequently � 80 crores (approx)was transferred to the bankaccounts of various GoldBullion dealers like AshtaLakshmi Gold, Shri BalajiGold among others in theguise of purchase of gold. Theaccused have admitted thatthey had created fake saleinvoices.

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In a historic verdict, theSupreme Court has given a

ray of hope to people on deathrow who develop “severe men-tal illness” post-conviction,saying their health conditionwould now be a “mitigating”factor for appellate courts forsparing them from the gallows.

An accused could till nowtake the plea of “legal insanity”under the Indian Penal Code(IPC) to avoid criminal pros-ecution and the defence was“made relatable to the momentwhen the crime is committed”.

A three-judge Bench head-ed by Justice NV Ramanaspared a condemned prisoner,who has not been identified in

the verdict owing to his men-tal condition.

He was given death penal-ty in a barbaric rape and mur-der of two minor cousins inMaharashtra in 1999.

It, however, took note of“barbaric and brutal manner ofcommission of the crime” andawarded the jail term to theconvict for “remainder of hislife” with the direction to thegovernment to ensure propermental health care to him.

The Bench, also compris-ing Justices MMShantanagoudar and IndiraBanerjee, was faced with “com-plex questions” concerningrelationship between mental ill-ness and crime and as to how“culpability” of a convict can be

assessed if he develops mentalcondition after the court findshim guilty.

Delineating directions tobe followed by appellate courtson sentencing mentally-illaccused, the bench said: “Thepost-conviction severe mentalillness will be a mitigating fac-tor that the appellate Court, inappropriate cases, needs toconsider while sentencing anaccused to death penalty.

“The assessment of suchdisability should be conductedby a multi-disciplinary team ofqualified professionals (expe-rienced medical practitioners,criminologists etc), includingprofessional with expertise inaccused person’s particularmental illness.”

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Apetition in the SupremeCourt has sought a direc-

tion that misquoting judicialorders for electoral gains bycandidates and political officebearers be declared a corruptpractice under theRepresentation of the PeopleAct. It has also sought a direc-tion that the ElectionCommission of \India (ECI)should have power to refercomplaints against them forseeking vote on the basis of reli-gion, race, caste, community orlanguage to appropriate inves-tigation agencies.

“Direct and declare theElection Commission of Indiahas the power to reject thenomination of contesting can-didates and de-register thepolitical parties for seekingvote on the basis of religion,race, caste, community or lan-guage,” said the plea, filed byBJP leader and advocateAshwini Kumar Upadhyay.

Besides the Centre, thepetition has arrayed the ECI asa party.

Upadhyay has referred to arecent statement given byCongress President RahulGandhi on apex court’s order inthe Rafale fighter jets case.

He has also referred to

another recent statement givenby BSP supremo Mayawati inwhich she had allegedly askedMuslim voters to vote for can-didates of alliance partners —SP, BSP and RLD — in UttarPradesh.

The plea said that underthe Representation of thePeople Act, appeal made ongrounds of religion, race, caste,community or language andpromoting feelings of enmitybetween different classes con-stitute corrupt practice but itcan be questioned only by wayof election petition and the ECIcannot order investigation evenwhen the Model Code ofConduct is in force.

“Ironically, these provi-sions will have application onlyduring period of election.Moreover, there is no provisionto challenge the corrupt prac-tice of candidate, who has lostthe election,” it said.

It said that in January 2010,the ECI had proposed that theAct should be amended tocurtail misuse of caste andreligion for electoral gain butthe government has done noth-ing in this regard till date.

The plea said the govern-ment has not taken steps toimplement recommendationsof the Law Commission’s 267threport on hate speech.

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Page 6:  · 2019-04-18 · should be made to resume ... Mohsin didn’t follow protocol ... BJP leader Mukhtar Abbas

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Jammu: Several migrantKashmiri Pandits could notexercise their franchise as theirnames were found missingfrom the electoral roll at thespecial polling stations set upfor Srinagar constituency inJammu during the secondphase of Lok Sabha elections.

Miffed at it, they raised slo-gans against the administrationand the EC at several polling sta-tions. “We came to the pollingstation to cast our vote butfound our names missing fromthe electoral roll. It is a denial ofour right to vote,” said RadhaKrishen Bhat, a migrantKashmiri Pandit from theChadoora segment of SrinagarLok Sabha constituency.

Bhat said four members ofhis family could not vote andalleged that there was a con-spiracy to deny the migrantstheir right. Similarly, MintooMawa and four of his familymembers, who hail fromAmira Kadal segment, had toreturn without exercising theirfranchise. PTI

Imphal: Voting was stalled intwo polling booths of InnerManipur Lok Sabha constituen-cy. In one of the booths atKiyamgei Muslim Makha local-ity in Imphal East, unidentifiedmen stormed into a polling sta-tion around 11.30 am and brokeEVMs and VVPATs, claiming“proxy voting” was being carriedout. In another booth in samearea, scuffle broke out for derail-ing the voting process.

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Jammu & Kashmir onThursday saw 43.4 per cent

turnout — lowest in the secondphase of Lok Sabha polls.

Despite witnessing peace-ful electioneering in the run upto the second phase of pollingacross Srinagar Parliamentaryseat, from where NationalConference Chief, FarooqAbdullah, was seeking reelec-tion, less than 15 per cent vot-ers turned up at the pollingbooths amid tight securityarrangements on Thursday.

Former Chief MinisterOmar Abdullah accompaniedhis father Farooq to the pollingbooth in Srinagar and appealedto the voters to come out inlarge numbers to exercise theirright to franchise.

Out of three districts, falling

with in the high profile LokSabha constituency, Srinagarrecorded the lowest voter turnout of 7.9 per cent till 6.00 pmwhile Budgam recorded 17. 5per cent polling and Ganderbalrecorded highest voter turn outof 21.6 per cent voters.

Chief Electoral Officer,J&K Shailendra Kumar inSrinagar said, “The entirepolling process passed offpeacefully on two Lok Sabhaseats with the participation ofover 44 per cent electorate” . Hesaid, no major incident of vio-lence was reported during theentire polling day in the state.

Over 70 per cent voterscame out to cast their votes inUdhampur-Doda constituencyin a peaceful manner. Out offive Assembly seats in Kathuadistrict, Kathua Assembly seatrecorded 80 per cent turnout

while Billawar and HiranagarAssembly constituenciesrecorded over 73 and 76 percent voter turnout respectively.Udhampur district also record-ed over 72 per cent polling.

BJP’s sitting MP, DrJitendra Singh is locked in a

close contest withVikramaditya Singh, the jointcandidate of Congress andNational Conference from theseat. The three landlocked dis-tricts of Doda, Kishtwar andRamban too recorded over 60 per cent polling.

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Heads turned when 105-year-old Kabaibai Ganpati

Kamble on Thursday reacheda polling station to cast her votein the Lok Sabha elections inMaharashtra.

Seated on a wheelchair,Kabaibai was accompanied byher grown up children andother fourth-generation rela-tives to the polling station inHarangul New Colony in Latur.She was cheered by other voters who clapped for her.

Udhampur: A newly married couple, inwedding attire, reached a polling booth ofUdhampur parliamentary constituency hereon Thursday, underlining the importance ofexercising one’s franchise.

The couple reached the polling booth ina flower-decked sedan with groom SouravSharma sporting a headgear and a cream‘achkan’ over red churidars with his brideManisha, attired in a red ‘salwar-kameez’ anddonning gold jewellery.

Accompanied by friends and familymembers, the couple stepped into the boothhand-in-hand, surprising many standing inthe queue and exercised their franchise. Theyinstantly became a hit at the polling boothwith dozens of people and visiting journal-ists clicking their pictures. PTI

Chennai: They lined uppatiently to cast their votes inthe blazing sun, 156 inmates ofa mental health centre here,eager to participate in the elec-toral process as polling washeld in 38 Lok Sabha seats inTamil Nadu on Thursday.

The inmates, including 56women, exercised their fran-chise in a booth exclusively setup for them at the Institute ofMental Hospital (IMH),Kilpauk, probably the first timesuch patients are voting in thecountry.

The area comes underCentral Chennai constituencywhere the main fight is betweenformer Union Minister andDMK leader Dayanidhi Maran,Sam Paul of PMK under theAIADMK-BJP-PMK combine,

Kameela Nasser from MakkalNeedhi Maiam floated by actorKamal Haasan.

After casting his vote, a 37-year-old man, battling schizo-phrenia for the last seven years,said when he stood near theelectronic voting machine, hereminisced about the 2001assembly elections, the lasttime he voted.

“I felt special. I am veryhappy to vote,” he said. He wasall praise for students of a localcity college (Loyola College) andElection Commission officialsfor conducting awareness pro-grammes and mock polls on thehospital premises ahead of elec-tions. IMH Director P PoornaChandrika was elated over theexercise being conducted inthe hospital. PTI

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In an ominous sign a Statethat traditionally witnesses

80-plus percentage polling sawlittle above 70 per cent votersexercising their voting rightsindicating the remaining vastmajority of the electorate musthave stayed back home onaccount of pre-electoral threatsor simply out of disgust,pesphologists said.

Otherwise the polling onThursday was less violent com-pared to what it happens onnormal times in Bengal withonly one MP candidate beingattacked and his car shatteredby miscreants and “only in afew places” voters were stopped

from voting in the initial hoursleading to skirmishes leading several persons includ-ing a Bangla television jour-nalist injured.

Chopra a place in Raiganjconstituency adjoining Biharwitnessed sporadic violencebombing by alleged TrinamoolCongress miscreants whoreportedly stopped voters fromgoing to the booth.

Subsequent it needed aroad blockade by them for theElection Commission to wakeup and rush central forces tothe spot — after four longhours — by which time several persons including atele journalist was badlyclubbed.

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Nearly two years ago, whenSrinagar voted in a Lok

Sabha bypoll, Farooq AhmedDar was used as a ‘humanshield’ to ensure safe passagefor Army jawans as they cameunder intense stone-pelting,but now he finds himself post-ed on election duty.

“Farooq Ahmad Dar isworking on consolidated termsas sweeper in the HealthDepartment. He has been post-ed on election duty,” saidBudgam Chief Medical OfficerNazir Ahmad.

In 2017, a picture of Dartied to the bonnet of an armyjeep splashed across the front

pages of newspaper, invokingsharp but divided reactions.

Investigations later foundhe was on his way to his sister’splace for a condolence meetafter casting his vote in thebypoll on April 9, 2017, whenthe army picked him up andtied him with ropes, paradinghim through nearly 28 villages.

“What was my mistake?Going to the polling booth andcasting my ballot?” Dar hadtold PTI in a video interviewlast year. At this village, near-ly 40 kms from the Srinagarcity, where Dar was tied to thearmy jeep, the incident is stillfresh in the minds of the locals.

After the polls opened atthe Utligam polling station,

only two of the registered 1,016voters had cast the ballots in thefirst 100 minutes. The residentsallege the stone-pelting was inresponse to the “unprovokedharassment” of the locals by theArmy officer and the “vandal-ism” by the troops.

“It was the Army personnelwho went berserk and started

beating up people and brokewindow panes of many housesthat day. The youngsters wereinfuriated and retaliated by pelt-ing them with stones,” NazirAhmad, a local resident said.

Ahmad admits the stone-pelting was very intense, whichprobably forced Major LeetulGogoi to catch hold of Dar anduse him as a human shield.

“He is not even from ourvillage. He is from Cheill-Brassvillage, 15 kilometres fromhere. That incident has broughtonly unwanted attention fromall sides to our village. If wevote, it is a problem and if wedo not vote, it is a problem,” hesaid. Mohammad Aslam,another villager, said the police

picked up 22 youths from thevillage over the past couple ofdays without any charge.

“Most of them are labour-ers and students. We are leastbothered about if any onecomes to vote or not. We haveformed a committee to ensurethere is law and order problemin our village this time becausewe are concerned about ourboys,” he said.

There is a sense of deja vuamong some residents here. Ayoung woman died onThursday morning due to brainhemorrhage. “You would nothave been able to come herehad it not been for the death ofthe woman this morning. Thescenes here would have been

different,” said a youth, whowished not to be named, indi-cating that disturbance in thearea was planned.

As this PTI reporter trav-elled to Cheill-Brass, a remotevillage just at the foot of themighty mountain, Dar was notat his home. “He has gone forelection duty,” his mother FaziBegum told PTI.

She said Dar was appoint-ed as a daily wage employee inthe State Health Departmentand has been on election dutysince Wednesday. Asked if theeligible members of her familyhad cast their votes, Fazi Begumsaid, “I almost lost my son dueto voting two years ago. Do youthink we will go to vote again?”

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Chennai: While GPS-fittedvehicles are deployed to trans-port poll materials like EVMs in the State, such tech-nology or vehicles do notalways help; especially when itcomes to hilly terrains of TamilNadu to send across electionparaphernalia.

Particularly, where thereare no roads to reach hamletson hill tops — leave alonemotorable ones — the chal-lenge is more pronounced and

carrying EVMs, and controlunits within the stipulated timeframe is no mean task.

A slew of such remote vil-lages are spread across TamilNadu including those atop hillsin the districts of Dharmapuri,Dindigul, Erode, Namakkal,and Theni with voters rangingbetween 300 and 1,100 in agiven polling station.

Several booths in remotelocations like Kottur in thePennagaram region of

Dharmapuri and hamlets onBothamalai in Namakkal posethe challenge of rocky terrain too.

To surmount the challenge,poll officials loaded electionmaterials — neatly packed ingunny bags — on donkeysand ponies and they carriedsome of the luggage on theirheads to reach the designatedpolling stations and the ardousjourney was in the range of 9to 11 kilometers on the hills.

Vellakkevi and

Pallathukadu in the Kodaikanalhill ranges (Dindigul),Kathiripatti (Erode) andKedamalai (Namakkal) wereamong the hilly villages officialsreached overcoming the chal-lenges with the help of donkeysand ponies.

Also, some villages likeVellakkevi are located amiddense forests and poll officialswere assisted by the anti-naxalpolice personnel to reach thehamlets. PTI

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Close to 400 of the 30,164polling stations in the 14

Lok Sabha seats in Karnatakawhere voting was held onThursday were staffed exclu-sively by women, an officialsaid on Thursday.

“The 393 ‘sakhi’ (women’s)booths were staffed by 10women, including 4 pollingpersonnel, 3 assistants and 3constables, with two outsideand one inside the booth,”Karnataka Chief ElectoralOfficer Sanjiv Kumar toldIANS here.

The maximum number ofsakhi booths — 130 — were inBangalore’s 3 parliamentaryseats, followed by 46 inBangalore Rural, 45 in Udupi-Chikamagalur, 34 inMysore, 30 in Chikkaballapur,28 in Mandya, 22 in Tumkur, 20 in DakshinaKannada, 14 in Hassan and 12each in Chitradurga and Kolar.

“The objective of all-

women’s booths is to empow-er them and demonstrate theircapability to conduct free andfair polling as in the case ofmen,” said Kumar.

Both men and women areallowed to vote in the all-women’s booths.

Akola: A voter on Thursdaysmashed the electronic votingmachine (EVM) while castinghis vote in Akola Lok Sabhaconstituency in Maharashtra.

The incident occurred ataround 1 p.m. at the Balapurpolling station no. 29 wherepolling was underway for thesecond phase of elections in 10Lok Sabha seats in the state,said an Election Commissionofficial.

The voter, ShrikrishnaGhyare, was taken into custody.The motive behind the actionwas not immediately known,police said.

On the fate of the votesalready cast, the EC officialexplained that the Ghyare hadonly broken the ballotting unit(BU). The control unit (CU) orthe VVPAT which were sta-tioned a feet away with the elec-tion officials were safe.

“We have the completerecord of the votes cast earlierin that EVM. There is no prob-lem on that count,” an ECofficial explained. The author-ities arranged for an alternativeBU which was attached to theexisting CU and VVPAT, andthe voting was resumed short-ly thereafter. IANS

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In his first leg of election tourto northern Karnataka

(which will go to polls in thesecond leg on April 23) PrimeMinister Modi mocked theCongress-JD(S) coalitionGovernment in Karnataka. Inhis election rallies at Bagalakoteand Chikkodi on ThursdayModi blasted Congress andsaid vote for majbhoot sarkaarnot for majboor sarkaar .Fourteen North Karnatakaconstituencies will go to pollson April 23 and the BJP isanticipating Modi wave willincrease their seats taking headon the coalition partners.

Hitting out at the Congressover its promise to “remove”Armed Forces Special PowersAct (AFSPA), he said, it wantsthose pelting stones to filefalse cases on soldiers and theyroam in courts.

“The Congress also wants

to give free hand to thoseindulging in desh droh (anti-national activities). Byannouncing it will end seditionlaw. The Congress has made itclear what its intentions are.Will you support such danger-ous intentions? Will you sup-port those committing suchsins? Will you teach a lesson tothe Congress?

“These mahamilavati’s areneither for jawans nor kisans(farmers),” he said. During theCongress and mahamilavatGovernment, three types ofdevelopment can take place –development (vikas) of a fewfamilies, development of middle men and and devel-opment of price hike, Modi said.

He asked the crowd, “Areyou happy with the firmness Ihave worked? Are you happy?We entered inside Pakistanand hit (terrorists) are youhappy? Do we have to takerevenge for the killing of ourjawans or not? Do you trustArmy on their bravery? TheCongress don’t believe ourbrave and believe in Pakistan’sevidences.

Modi mocked the “neverending drama” marked byrevenge and emotion that char-acterised the Congress-JD(S)coalition Government headedby HD Kumaraswamy.

“If you want to see majbootsarkaar look towards Delhi,and if you want to see majboor

sarkaar look towardsBengaluru,” Modi said.

“After every few days,weeks, at any rally or press con-ference emotion is flowing.Do you think of Karnataka likethis?,” Modi asked the crowd,apparently taking a dig atKumaraswamy who has shedtears publicly quite often —once about being helpless ashead of the Congress-JDScoalition.

He said Congress hadclaimed in its manifesto thatmaking Pakistan agree that its

citizens were involved in theMumbai terror attack was amajor achievement. ButPakistan despite agreeing thatthe perpetrators were its citi-zens still carried out bombexplosions and even threatenedIndia about nuclear bomb.

Modi took onKumaraswamy for saying thatthe matter of airstrike on ter-ror camps in Pakistan inBalakot should not be overpublicised “fearing thatthe vote bank bank would getangry.”

Mumbai: Industrialist MukeshAmbani and billionaire bankerUday Kotak have endorsed thecandidature of Congress leaderMilind Deora from theMumbai South Lok Saba con-stituency, where polling is slat-ed on April 29.

The backing of Ambani,Reliance Industries Limitedchairman, to the Congressleader comes at a time whenthe party has been unrelentingin attack on his industrialist-brother Anil Ambani over theRafale deal.

In a video shared by Deora,former Union Minister, on hisTwitter page, Ambani says“Milind is the man for SouthMumbai”, while Kotak eulo-gises the Mumbai Congresschief for “truly representing theMumbai connection”.

Deora said he was “hum-bled” by the support fromAmbani, Kotak and also othersmall businessmen and traders.

“I’m very proud. I’m equal-ly proud that I’m beingendorsed by paanwalas, smalltraders, Deora said. “Milind isthe man for southMumbai...Having represented

South Bombay for 10 years, Ibelieve Milind has in depthknowledge of social, econom-ic and cultural eco-system ofthe south Bombay constituen-cy,” says Ambani in the video.

Kotak said he “genuinely”felt that Deora is able to relateto Mumbaikars. “And his fam-ily has been associated withMumbai for a long time...Milindtruly represents Mumbai kaconnection,” Kotak says.

The video also featuressmall entrepreneurs andtraders, who are seen praisingand backing Deora. A state-ment issued by Deora’s officesaid he is being supported by“all quarters” of trade and busi-ness in Mumbai South con-stituency. Deora thanked theindustrialists and traders’ bod-ies for their “overwhelming”support to him.

“In the last five years,industry and trade, an integralpart of the spirit of Mumbai,lost its voice in the Parliament.I am humbled by the supportgiven by stalwarts like ShriAmbani and Shri Kotak,” thestatement quoted Deora assaying. PTI

Badaun: In a veiled attack onthe BJP, Congress presidentRahul Gandhi on Thursdaysaid if his party is voted topower, indebted farmers willnot be sent to jails.

Addressing an electionrally at Dataganj under Aonlaparliamentary constituencyhere, he said, “Businessmenwho took loans amounting tothousands of crores wereallowed to flee the countryinstead of sending them to jail.While the farmers who tookloans of Rs 20,000 and were

unable to pay, were sent to jail. “Now, this will not happen,

until and unless the big default-ers are sent to jail, not a singlefarmer will be sent to jail. Assoon as our Government isformed, the farmers will not besent to jail for non-payment ofloans,” Rahul asserted.

He said the Congress afterforming Government inMadhya Pradesh and Rajasthanfulfilled its promise of farmloan waivers. “We will notallow two ‘Hindustans’ to comeup in the country,” he said.

Attacking the SP and theBSP, the Congress leader said,“Did the SP and BSP ever saychowkidar chor hai? No, becausetheir keys are with Modi.” Rahulalso hit out at the Modi-ledCentral Government for itspoor showing in generatingemployment in the country.

He claimed that unem-ployment ratio, under the Modidispensation, was the highest inthe last 45 years.

“By demonetisation, Moditook away people’s money. Now,Congress will snatch the samemoney and deposit it in theaccounts of poor people,” hesaid. Referring to the minimumincome guarantee scheme‘NYAY’ proposed by theCongress, Gandhi said, “Oncethe Congress government isformed, it will ensure an annu-al income of Rs 72,000. PTI

Azamgarh: Samajwadi Partypresident Akhilesh Yadav ownsassets worth over Rs 37 croretogether with his wife Dimple,according to his poll affidavitfiled on Thursday.

The former Uttar PradeshChief Minister has declaredmoveable property worth Rs7.9 crore and immovable assetsworth Rs 16.90 crore, in theaffidavit submitted with thenomination paper.

His wife Dimple hasdeclared Rs 3.68 crore worthmovable properties and immov-able assets of Rs 9.30 crore.Akhilesh’s income has decreasedto Rs 84.83 lakh in financial year2017-2018, when compared toRs 1.25 crore in 2013-14. Hiswife Dimple Yadav’s income,however, has increased. While inthe 2013-14 financial year, herannual income was Rs 28,31,838,in 2017-18 it increased to Rs

61,16,108.As per the affidavit,

Akhliesh has Rs 3.91 lakh cashin hand while Dimple has Rs4,03,743 cash in hand. Akhileshowns a cellular phone worth Rs76,000, furniture of Rs 17,085and exercise equipment worthover Rs 5.34 lakh, while wifeDimple has jewellery itemsincluding gold, diamond, pearlworth Rs 59.76 lakh and com-puter of Rs 1.25 lakh. PTI

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Bengal Chief MinisterMamata Banerjee on

Thursday asked the votersnotto vote for the CPI(M) orthe Congress as neither ofthem would beable to formGovernment in the Centre.

“Don’t waste your votes bygiving them to the CPI(M)which is almostinvisible inBengal and the Congress whichwill not be able to formtheGovernment on its own in theCentre,” Banerjee told a crowdat Samsi in North Malda con-stituency.

She said the Congressshould not be the natural choiceof the secular Bengalis because

“this party is now being backedby the RSS. They are taking thehelp from the RSS to win elec-tions in Bengal. So they shouldbe rejected by you.”

Besides, “Congress will notbe able to form Government inCentre. It is the regional partiesthat will form the Governmentin Delhi and if you want Bengaland the Trinamool Congress totake the lead in the nationalscene then I will ask you not tovote for the TMC so that we cansend 42 MPs from this State toform the Government with otherregional parties,” Banerjee said.

Attacking the NarendraModi Government for ped-dling lies Banerjee said “thisChowkidar (Modi) used to call

himself Chaiwalla (tea ven-dor) earlier on. Then hepromised Rs 15 lakh in everybank account and 10 crorejobs in five years. But now hav-ing failed to do so he haschanged his garb and has reap-peared as Chowkidar (watch-man),” Banerjee said adding“many people call him a thief(Chor) but I call him a liar wholies to the people to win votes.”

On National Register forCitizens (NRC), Banerjee said,“they are invoking NRC inAssam to drive away 22 lakhHindu Bengalis and 23 lakhMuslims but now we willinvoke NBC or ‘national bidaye(farewell) certificate for theBJP after this election.”

Vanthli: Congress presidentRahul Gandhi on Thursdaysaid Minimum Support Prices(MSP) would also beannounced in the separatefarmers’ budget which hisparty’s manifesto has promised.

Addressing a campaignrally at Vanthli in Junagadh dis-trict, he also accused PrimeMinister Narendra Modi ofapplying different rules to therich and the poor.

“If the Congress comes topower, the country will havetwo budgets. One will benational budget and anotherfarmers’ budget. “In the farm-

ers’ budget we will announceMSP for various crops inadvance so that farmers knowwhat they will get. We will(also) announce the amount ofinsurance (premium) payable(by farmers) and what thewould farmers get,” he said.

The Modi Governmentwas ready to waive loans of richindustrialists but not those offarmers, he said. “We will notallow formation of two Indias.If we have one flag, then weshould have one nation. IfAmbani gets justice, farmersshould also get justice,” Rahulsaid. PTI

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Prime Minister NarendraModi on Thursday claimed

that the NDA Government hasrestricted terrorist activities toonly “two-and-a-half ” dis-tricts in Jammu & Kashmir while not a single bomb blastwas reported from anywhereelse in the country in the lastfive years.

Addressing an electionrally in farmer-stressed Amreliin Saurashtra region inGujarat, the Prime Ministersaid: “No bomb blast tookplace anywhere in India in thelast five years. We have beenable to contain terrorism tojust two-and-a-half districts inJammu & Kashmir.”

Referring to PakistanPrime Minister Imran Khan’srecent statement thatIslamabad had tried to reachout to India after the Balakotair strike, Modi taunted himthat he “had to make a publicrequest to us to pick up thephone”.

Modi said he had notcome to Gujarat for an elec-tion rally but to thank the peo-ple of the state from whom hetrained to take on the largerrole of the Prime Minister.“My grooming in Gujarathelped me to deal with thelong Doklam standoff withChina” in 2017, the PrimeMinister said.

He said the previousCongress Governments haddeliberately delayed the SardarSarovar Project, and led to thesuffering of the people in theperennially drought-proneregions of Gujarat. If the pro-ject had completed 40 yearsago, the things would havebeen much better.

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Page 8:  · 2019-04-18 · should be made to resume ... Mohsin didn’t follow protocol ... BJP leader Mukhtar Abbas

In 1989, there was a huge anticipationand excitement about a new way toplay video games. All this excitementand anticipation was the result of themarketing campaign behind the

“Power Glove”, a wearable glove that wouldserve as a controller in video game consoles.The “Power Glove” was featured andreferred to in feature films, found on bill-boards and plastered almost everywhere.Ask about it today though and you are like-ly to get blank, confused stares. Thisbecause, while the marketing campaign wasadmirable, the product was completely dis-connected from what the consumers want-ed. Overall, it was just not a great product.

Fast forward to 2019 and you have thePrime Minister of the world’s largest democ-racy encouraging his followers to buy T-shirts with the slogan “Main Bhi Chowkidar.”Not just that, this election season has seenPrime Minister Modi repeatedly post, com-ment, retweet and actively promote the saleof products with either his name written onthem or with the latest consumer-friendlyslogan of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).How did we get here?

In an era of social media, more atten-tion is being given to the cover of the bookthan the book itself and there is greater focuson selling; nowhere is this more exemplifiedthan in the case of the BJP. Today, we havePrime Minister Modi’s name on T-shirts,mugs and even notebooks. Even in the BJP’sown manifesto, the Prime Minister’s face canbe seen with HD clarity while the everydaypeople whom he is meant to serve are mere-ly a low-quality backdrop. It will be apt togive a summary of the past five years, wherethe Prime Minister and the BJP’s machin-ery spent all the time managing the imageof a single man and forgot about the mil-lions of people who elected him to servethem.

Now, we have a channel with no licencethat is focussed on him and a movie wherethe actor, who plays the Prime Minister, willalso, unsurprisingly, be one of the chief cam-paigners of the BJP. Currently, the movie isnot allowed to be released in theatres dueto a directive by the Election Commission.However, there is no denying that we haveall been handed a ticket to this theatre of theabsurd.

It’s hard to get around without havingseen a photo of Modi staring back at you.While it is important for India to maintainthe right of every person, including thePrime Minister, to engage in marketing tothe extent permitted under the law and tonot restrict the freedom of expression of anyindividual, this megalomaniacal approachtowards any personality is worrisome. EvenNorth Korea, whose obsession with its lead-ers is often a subject of parody, doesn’t havea dedicated channel for its supreme leader.The reason why this trend should bechecked is because a large amount ofmoney is spent by the BJP on advertising and

promoting the Prime Minister.The practice of asking for votesin the name of Modi rather thanthe BJP undermines our parlia-mentary system.

In 2014, for example, whenthis tactic was initiallyemployed, most voters did noteven know the individuals whowere contesting the Lok Sabhaelections in their constituency.Instead, all that the voters weresold was the image of one manwho would solve all their prob-lems. Unfortunately, this storyunravelled dramatically overthe past five years.

India is a parliamentarydemocracy, which means that inthe Centre and States, the partywith the greatest representationin India’s Parliament forms theGovernment and picks one per-son as the Prime Minister or theChief Minister. The reason thissystem particularly makes sensefor India is that we are a vibrantcountry. This vibrancy is notonly in terms of all that is goodin our country like the differentcuisines, cultures and the peo-ple but also vibrant in the sensethat each region has differentneeds and different require-ments, depending on the con-stituents of a particular con-stituency.

I have heard certain peoplesay that they want Modi at theCentre even if they don’t believetheir MP is capable of represent-

ing their constituency effec-tively. Such an approach goesagainst the entire ethos of par-liamentary democracy. PrimeMinister Modi may promise themoon and the stars (and heoften does). However, at the endof the day, it is the local parlia-mentarian who is required toraise local issues that can be dis-cussed and debated inParliament.

Take the example of gettinga new hospital built or theopening of a new Central uni-versity. It is not as if the PrimeMinister will help get your hos-pital built. As the PrimeMinister, Modiji is required toensure that the parliamentarianswhom he leads, serve their con-stituents by raising the issues ofeach constituency in Parliament.

Ideally, he should also givecredit to such parliamentariansfor any work done so that theycontinue to serve their con-stituents and, therefore, as awhole, the nation moves for-ward. However, we hardly hearPrime Minister Modi talkingabout anyone other than him-self. In fact, do you even remem-ber a time when he compli-mented a particular parliamen-tarian during his speeches? Youwould be hard pressed to findan example.

Instead, Prime MinisterModi has ensured that hedeflects blame for everything

that goes wrong — corruption,unemployment, demonetisa-tion, loss of lives due to terrorattacks. And at the same time,he is the quickest to take cred-it when there’s a whiff of success.

The mugs, the T-shirts, themovie and the radio showsamong others — they are all thehallmarks of a man who hasmade it quite clear that the onlything he has on his mind is him-self. Therefore, if India wants totruly progress and move for-ward, it needs to reject this ideathat any one man can be apanacea for all that ails ourcountry.

We must remember that theparliamentary form ofGovernment works for Indiabecause it helps highlight thevarying nature of issues our verydiverse country faces. Whilethere is no denying that a PrimeMinister fulfills a crucial role inthis system, he must alsoremember that he is the firstamong equals. If Prime MinisterModi does not grasp this fun-damental rule of democracy, itis likely his tenure, too, like the“Power Glove”, will serve as alesson for future generations:Even the best marketing cam-paigns can’t fix a flawed prod-uct.

(The writer is JharkhandPCC president, former MP andIPS officer. Views are personal) $��������������������� ��)�����

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Sir — The cancellation of theVellore Lok Sabha election afterhuge amounts of cash were recov-ered from a godown in the parlia-mentary constituency is not a newpoll time malfunction. Nor is it thefirst time that the ElectionCommission (EC) has counter-manded polls in Tamil Nadu.The RK Nagar bypoll was post-poned not long ago for the samereason. Looks like politics hasbecome a channel to mint money.A culture of corruption andbribery has taken deep roots in theState. This is not fair for a democ-racy. Perhaps the EC could havetaken a decision earlier in themonth when the first evidence oframpant cash distribution sur-faced. It can’t be leaden-footed.

Sravana RamachandranChennai

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Sir — After being pulled up by theSupreme Court for not takingaction against politicians spread-ing communal and hate speech-es during the Lok Sabha cam-paigning, the Election

Commission (EC) has regainedits teeth. For now, it has barredUttar Pradesh Chief MinisterYogi Adityanath, Bahujan SamajParty leader Mayawati from cam-paigning because of their remarkswith a decidedly communal con-notation. Specifically, it wasAdityanath’s “Ali and Bajrangbali”remark at a Meerut rally andMayawati’s appeal to Muslim vot-ers, asking them to vote for the

SP-BSP alliance and not theCongress in Saharanpur andBareilly, that irked the top court.

In the aftermath of the apexcourt’s warning, the EC invoked itsextraordinary powers to temporar-ily ban four political leaders fromcampaigning — Adityanath, SPleader Azam Khan, (both barredfor 72 hours) Union MinisterManeka Gandhi and Mayawati(both barred for 48 hours). The top

court rightly observed: “Seemslike the Election Commission haswoken up and found its powers.”

Citizens have generally wel-comed the decision but will a banfor two to three days stop otherleaders from making provocativespeeches? Already, Congressleader Navjot Singh Sidhu hasstoked controversy by urgingMuslim voters of a Lok Sabhaconstituency in Bihar to vote en

bloc and defeat (Prime Minister)Narendra Modi.

Further, even after the ban,Adityanath iterated the “greenvirus” comment, which is a refer-ence to the Muslims.Unmistakable is the communalpolarisation, the wider phenom-enon that transcends the unchar-itable remarks.

Bidyut Kumar ChatterjeeFaridabad

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Sir — This refers to the editorial,“A winning team?” (April 17).Howsoever strong a team is, it alldepends upon how it performs onthe D-day. Since one-day cricketis such an unpredictable game thatanything can happen at the lastfew overs, one cannot indulge inguessing. A favourite team canturn otherwise in a matter of fewovers. While one can hope that theIndian team will perform better,victory or defeat depends on theway the game turns out on the dayof the play.

VS JayaramanChennai

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Amid the surge of demagogues and rab-ble-rousers of far-right across the globein the recent past, the coming of SenorAndres Manuel Lopez Obrador as thenewly-elected President of Mexico has

broken new ground in the Western hemisphere.Elected as the leader of the National RegenerationMovement (MORENA), which was founded byLopez Obrador following two failed attempts in 2006and 2012 elections as a candidate of broad Left coali-tions, he had earlier headed the federal districtGovernment of Mexico city. Like the US presiden-tial election, Mexico, too, elects its President in Julyevery six years and the President-elect assumes officeon the first of December. Obrador was sworn in asMexican President in December 2018.

Having taken charge of the Government andin pursuance of his campaign promises, Obradorhas not moved to the presidential palace, has halvedhis own salary in the proposed Budget and alsodeclared that he won’t allow anyone else to get morethan him. Change can be brought about — duringhis campaigns, he promised to “combat corruption”and maintain an “austere Government.” Other assur-ances include more students’ scholarship and pen-sion to senior citizens, which can be financed by “cut-ting grafts.” He flies in commercial airlines and putthe presidential plane on sale. As the districtGovernment head earlier, he had adopted severalpolicies that benefitted vulnerable sections, infirm,poor women and aged population.

Instead of occupying luxurious presidentialpalace, he has started working from nearly a cen-tury-old national palace — the official seat of power— and has continued living at his private home. Hestrongly believes that neo-liberal policies have ben-efitted a “minority of the population” while “impov-erishing a great majority.” Significantly, a century afterthe 1910 revolution — the first landmark in the polit-ical history of Mexico after it gained independencefrom Spanish colonial rule in 1822 — Obrador hasbecome the first one who had begun as a protestleader but within the folds of the InstitutionalRevolutionary Party (PRI), Spanish PartidoRevolucionario Institucional, which had controlledall levers of power for seven long decades since itsformation in 1929.

Paradoxically, the Mexican political system wasbizarre as it didn’t permit the incumbent to have asecond term, but he was empowered to select hissuccessor who would be the ruling party’s nomi-nee in the ensuing election. Once in power, the newPresident would nominate his candidates for the nextgubernatorial election and likewise, new Mayorswould be hand-picked nominees of incumbentGovernors. Everything was fine-tuned with groundsupport of consensus manufactured through localbranches of cross-sectional wings of the ruling PRI.

The first crack in this electoral machineappeared during the 1988 election whenCuauhtémoc Cárdenas challenged this nominationprocess. Echoing the feelings of the growing mid-dle class, Cárdenas — a former Governor and alsothe son of a former but revered President who hadnationalised petroleum sector way back in 1934 andredistributed land to the poor peasants — assert-ed that the PRI-managed system was no longer insync with a modern country of urban profession-als. Although PRI-sponsored candidates won theelection, the then President Carlos Salinas de Gortari

read the writing on the wall and initiat-ed measures to cleanse the system, includ-ing setting up of an autonomous ElectionCommission and ensuring proportionalrepresentation of parties in Parliament.Measures were also taken to withdraw dis-cretionary powers of bureaucracy, medi-ated by the party, which resulted in the rul-ing party’s loosening grip over the patron-age network.

The beneficiary of these reforms wasthe main Opposition party, NationalAction Party (PAN), which had startedgaining foothold in the northern Statesbordering the US. For quite long, peo-ple from these States would enter theAmerican market as illegal immigrantsto work and upon their return, wouldstart grumbling over the dysfunctionaldrainage, primary health care, schoolsand broken roads among others. Nowonder, simmering discontentment ledto the defeat of PRI in these States. Theinfluence of PAN gradually spread fromwinning a few seats in the lower houseof Parliament to capturing seven of total31 States by the late 1990s. The disen-chantment with the PRI was also deep-ened with the coming of the NorthAmerican Free Trade Treaty (NAFTA)between Mexico, the US and Canada in1991, which saw the coming of a largenumber of maquiladora (assemblingplants owned mostly by Americanswhere goods are assembled and export-ed back to the US) in the borderMexican States. It was a win-win situa-tion for both: US manufacturers wouldgain by cheap Mexican labour and laterwould be happy with the availability ofjobs nearer home and it would furtherexpand the volume of Mexican exportsto the US. In the bargain, however, morethan a million formal jobs were lost

under the new economic policies thatculminated in a near financial collapsein the mid-1990s.

Eventually, all this led to the defeat ofthe longest ruling party in the 2000 pres-idential election. Incidentally, the year2000 also turned out to be watershed forPresident Obrador Manuel when hebroke away from the PRI. He was earlierthe head of PRI in his home State ofTabasco. First, he, along with Cárdenas,the rebel hero of 1988, joined the Left-ori-ented democratic revolutionary party(PRD) but subsequently switched over toa protest movement MRM, which hefounded to mobilise students and youthsagainst “political corruption” and “electoralfraud” and won the district election.MORENA became a political party in2014 only and is now in control of boththe Houses.

Vicente Fox, a former boss of Coco-Cola empire in Mexico, was the biggestbeneficiary of the changing contours ofeconomics and social matrix triggered byNAFTA. During his six-year rule, herealised that reforming the system was notstraight as was winning the 2000 presiden-tial election. Most of his reform-orient-ed legislations couldn’t pass throughboth the Houses of Parliament thatremained under control of the old guardsof PRI and the PAN; though Fox won withits support but remained at loggerheadswith this party. In a country where thePresident has always been seen as the mostpowerful force, people got frustratedwith a perforce lameduck incumbent, whosought to follow procedural nicetiesaimed at bringing durable change. As aresult, Fox lost and the main Opposition,PAN, won the next election in 2006. ButPRI returned to power again in 2012.

During the last six years, the linger-

ing crises over dealings with drug,endemic violence and pervasive corrup-tion, where the last PRI PresidentEnrique Peña Nieto himself was seeninvolved thoroughly, disillusioned thevoters. Above all, President Pena could-n’t manage Central American refugeecrises. Interestingly, erecting a huge bor-der wall and that, too, financed by theMexican Government to prevent theinflux of Mexican and CentralAmerican immigrants to the US was apersistent campaign theme of DonaldTrump. Prospects of deportation of 10-12 million Mexican illegal immigrantsare already looming large. The total pop-ulation of Mexico is 140 million.

Perforce decades of civil war and left-ist insurgency in Guatemala (Mexico’ssouthern neighbour), El Salvador andHonduras and its disastrous economic fall-outs mismanaged by marauder regimesin these Central American countries, acaravan of refugees has recently marchedthrough Mexico and is now lodged intents at the US border. Paradoxically, itspowerful northern neighbour has alwaysremained a factor for Mexican patriciansand plebeians alike as goes an oldMexican maxim: “We may be far fromGod but not from the US.”

Meanwhile, Obrador has signedagreements with these countries to chalkout a long term “development plan”, cre-ating jobs and has also allocated $2 bil-lion in his first budget for this purpose.The outcome of any long term plan takesyears, so it would mean nothing to theimpatient American President.Nevertheless, it does indicate a lot to bothMexicans and its impoverished southernneighbours.

(The writer is former faculty memberof Indian Institute of Public Administration)

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Paedophilia is a psychiatric dis-order where an adult experi-ences an exclusive sexual attrac-

tion to pre-pubescent children. Beinga mental disorder, those sufferingfrom paedophilia need mental healthsupport. The brains of paedophilesaren’t ‘wired’ correctly, causing themto get sexually attracted towards chil-dren. They have a brain malfunctionthat can hardly be corrected, thoughthere are therapies that can reducethe recurrence of a sick person com-mitting child sexual abuse.

Recently, two minor Hindu girlsfrom Sindh were abducted andtransported to Rahim Yar Khanfrom Ghotki in south-east Pakistan.The two minors were then forceful-

ly converted to (their version of)Islam before being married toMuslim men.

In the videos circulating onsocial media, the father and broth-er of the girls can be seen cryinghoarse, saying that the girls wereabducted and forced to change theirreligion. However, in another clip,the minor girls appeared to give theirstatements that they accepted Islamon their own free will. The Pakistanimedia, too, tried to defend the cul-prits, saying that the minor girls hadembraced Islam out of free will andthat they consented to their marriagewith willingness and choice.

Due to the Indian Government’sprotests, the matter was referred tothe court on April 2. The IslamabadHigh Court formed a five-memberCommission to probe the allegedabduction, forced conversion andmarriage of the girls. Its membersincluded Pakistani Human RightsMinister Shireen Mazari andChairperson of the NationalCommission on the Status ofWomen, Khawar Mumtaz.

It was reported that the girls and

their alleged spouses sought courtprotection. The girls also allegedlysaid that they belonged to a Hindufamily of Ghotki, a small town inSindh and converted willfully asthey were impressed by Islamicteachings.

It is amply clear that the state-ment of the girls has been givenunder duress and no sane personcan buy the theory that the minorgirls, aged 13 and 15, have sufficientmaturity and decision-makingcapacity to understand, comprehendor judge the teaching and traditionsof the two religions. Can they makea comparative view of the twodiverse religions without experienc-ing and studying the tenets andprinciples of the two faiths?

Moreover, according to Muslimpractice, at the time of nikah, thefather of the girl, minor or major,being the ‘wali’ (protector) isrequired to give his consent andstand witness to the ceremony,which was not the case here. On thecontrary, the father and brother ofthe girls openly leveled allegationsof abduction, forced conversion

and marriage of the minors.The High Court miserably failed

to understand that before Partition,during the British rule, the IndianMajority Act, 1875, was applicableon the whole of India, and the sameis currently prevalent in India andPakistan both. Legally and philo-sophically speaking, the forced mar-riage of the two girls below 15 yearsof age, amounts to rape. A personbelow the age of 18 years is a minorand is not mature enough to com-prehend what is good or bad forhim/her. The consent given by thegirls, even if willingly, is meaning-less, irrelevant and illegal. The courtshould have restored the girls to theirparents. Whereas, the Islamabadcourt on April 11, vide its impugnedorder, directed the girls to stay withtheir husbands. The court’s orderwas based on the five-memberCommission’s report, which statedthat it held a meeting with the girlsand their spouses and found nocompulsion, though the statement ofthe minor girls, expressing consentfor the entire episode, was not onlyirrelevant but null and void from the

principle of reasonableness. The(mock) Commission did not incor-porate the statements of the girls’father, brother, neighbours and otherrespondents.

It is well-known that Pakistan isdriven by the extremist ideology ofWahhabism/Salafism. The civilianGovernment over there is a puppetof its Army. As such, all Muslim andnon-Muslim minorities such asShia Muslims, Hazaras, Ahmedias,Sufis, Barelvies and non-Muslimssuch as Hindus, Sikhs andChristians are targetted. TheWahabi/Salafi ideology justifies therape and abduction of all non-Wahhabi women, especially of thosebelonging to the Shia Muslims andHindu minorities.

Dozens of terror groups areoperating from Pakistan’s soil, inter-nally and externally both. Accordingto Human Rights Watch, during thepast one decade, thousands of inno-cent people — Hindus, Shias, Sufis,Sikhs and Christians — have beenkilled mercilessly in Pakistan itselfby these extremists under thepatronage of the Inter-Services

Intelligence and the Army, whichuse them as a bargaining chip in theregion. Again, on April 12, as manyas 20 people, including two children,were killed and 70 injured in an (un)Islamic State blast, targeting HazaraShia minority community inBaluchistan.

Pakistan’s former Ambassadorto the US recently admitted inWashington that Imran Khan’s state-ments, promising the end of supportto terrorist groups, are motivated bythe fear of getting blacklisted by theFinancial Action Task Force and thatthere is no evidence that theGovernment or the military are dis-mantling terrorist support infra-structure.

One can imagine the nightmareof surviving persecuted minorities ofPakistan, who even after survivingcriminal assaults, remain affected byPost Traumatic Stress Disorder, with-out any remedy. This agony is mostlikely to stay, unless Muslim clericsacross the globe come forward andbring an end to the pseudo-IslamicWahhabi/Salafi ideology.

(The author is a legal journalist)

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Jet Airways was groundedfor the time being after fly-

ing for almost 26 years when itslast flight, a Boeing 737,touched down at the Mumbaiairport early on Thursday afterdeparting from Amritsar.

The country’s oldest privateairline took off nearly 26 yearsago from the airport here toAhmedabad as an air taxi oper-ator.

The aircraft VT-SJI (flightno. S2 3502), belonging to theerstwhile Sahara Airlines,departed from Amritsar at10.24 pm on Wednesday andtouched down at ChhatrapatiShivaji International Airporthere at 12.22 am on Thursday,ending the “Joy of Flying” forits millions of customers.

Sahara Airlines wasacquired by Jet in 2007 to killcompetition triggered by theemergence of low-cost airlineslike IndiGo, SpiceJet andGoAir, and the competition issaid to have contributed in itsdownfall.

“I generally fly Jet Airways.But when I boarded it fromAmritsar on Wednesday night,we were told this is the lastflight the airline is operating asit is shutting down for the time

being,” said AmarjitSingh, who hails fromLudhiana.

Singh, a transporterby profession who fre-quently visits Mumbaifor business, said he ishopeful of the airline“resuming” operationssoon.

Set up by NareshGoyal on April 1, 1992,Jet Airways’ first flight took offfrom Mumbai for Ahmedabadon May 5, 1993, as an air-char-ter operator, which does notrequire a published schedule.

However, more than a yearlater, it was granted the sched-uled operator permit onJanuary 14, 1995.

Another passenger, ShareefAbdullah, who runs a hotelchain and is a frequent flyerwith the carrier, said it waspainful to know that the airlineis shutting down.

“They announced it bothon departure from Amritsarand after landing here thatthis was the last flight. It is real-ly painful,” he said.

The abrupt cancellation ofthe airline’s services for the timebeing have left thousands ofpassengers stranded.

“I, along with my wife andchildren, had to travel toAhmedabad early this morn-ing. I had booked five tickets amonth in advance. But when Ireached the airport here, I wasinformed they have cancelledthe operations,” said Madan Lal

Imali, who was travelling to hisnative place Pali Killa inRajasthan for a family function.

He said his wife and chil-dren were very disappointed asit was to be their maiden flight.

“I had also booked traintickets in an AC coach and paid�2,500 each for five seats totravel to Pali from Ahmedabad.Now, I have been forced to can-cel that journey as well, besideslosing money,” said Imali, whowas to board the airline’s flight9W2929 for Ahmedabad fromhere post-mid night.

Struggling for months, JetAirways chief executive VinayDube last evening announcedthe carrier was shuttering oper-ations as his last-ditch attemptto get �400 crore was rejectedby lenders.

The decision leaves 20,000jobs at stake and over �8,500crore of public funds, that thebanks lent to the once-leadingairline, at the risk of goingdown the drain.

The airline also owes lakhsof rupees to passengers and itsvendors.

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The country’s telecom sub-scriber base grew margin-

ally to 120.5 crore on accountof a net addition of customersby Reliance Jio and state-ownedBSNL, according to data pub-lished by telecom regulatorTrai on Thursday.

Both Reliance Jio andBSNL jointly added a net of86.39 lakh mobi le sub-scribers but the rest of thetelecom operators jointly losta net of 69.93 lakh wirelesscustomers with VodafoneIdea losing the biggest chunkof mobile connections, as perthe data.

The number of telecomsubscribers in India increasedto 120.54 crore at the end ofFebruary from 120.37 crore inJanuary, according to theTelecom Monthly SubscriberReport released by the TelecomRegulatory Authority of India(Trai).

The sector, dominated bywireless connection, recordedan increase in the mobile ser-vices subscriber base to 118.36crore in February from 118.19crore in January.

Reliance Jio alone added77.93 lakh customers, taking itstotal subscriber base to 29.7crore at the end of February.According to a television com-mercial of the company, it hascrossed 30 crore customer basenow.

BSNL added around 9 lakhnew mobile customers, takingits total subscriber base to

11.62 crore in February.“BSNL is the only operator

other than Jio that has gainedcustomers. Our performanceshows that customers havefaith in BSNL. We are able tocompete and gain customerswith our much-improved 3Gnetwork. In our endeavour toprovide service, all our officersand employees are together,”BSNL Chairman andManaging Director AnupamShrivastava said.

The state-run firm is com-peting in the market with 3Gnetwork, while all other oper-ators are loaded with spectrumfor 4G services. It has request-ed the government for theallocation of spectrum for 4Gservices through an equityinfusion in 2017. The govern-ment is yet to take final deci-sion.

The country’s biggest tele-com operator Vodafone Idealost 57.87 lakh mobile sub-scribers, reducing its total cus-tomer base to 40.93 crore inFebruary. It was followed byTata Teleservices that lost 11.47lakh mobile customers, Airtellost 49,896 subscribers, MTNL4,652 and RelianceCommunication 3,611 sub-scribers.

Fixed-line connections inthe country declined mar-ginally with BSNL losingabout one lakh connections.Private operators Bharti Airteland Vodafone gained 42,456and 17,563 fixed-line cus-tomers, respectively, inFebruary.

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Japanese auto major HondaThursday said it is recalling

3,669 units of its Accord sedanin India as part of a global exer-cise to rectify faulty airbags.

The company, which ispresent in India through awholly-owned arm Honda CarsIndia Ltd (HCIL), is voluntar-ily recalling the units manu-factured between 2003-2006to fix faulty front airbag infla-tors supplied by Takata Corp.

The replacement will becarried out free of cost atHonda dealerships across Indiafrom Thursday, HCIL said in astatement.

As part of the Takata airbaginflator recalls which haveimpacted several car makersglobally, the company said itcontinues to urge owners ofvehicles affected by the recall toget their vehicles repaired atauthorised dealers as soon aspossible.

“HCIL reiterates the impor-tance of replacing the affectedTakata front airbag inflatorsurgently as they may deploywith excessive internal pressurewhen activated,” it said

The airbag inflator casingmight rupture which may resultin injury or safety risk to thevehicle occupants, it added.

Millions of vehicles global-ly have been recalled due todefective safety airbag manu-factured by Japan’s Takata Corp.

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SpiceJet stock trimmed most ofits sharp early gains and

ended nearly 3 per cent higherThursday on profit-booking afterrising for five consecutive days.

The scrip had climbed14.99 per cent to �152.60 — its52-week high — on the BSEduring the day. Later, it closedat �136.25, up 2.68 per cent.

On the traded volume front,211.25 lakh shares were tradedon the BSE during the day.SpiceJet Thursday said it willinduct six more Boeing 737-800NG aircraft on dry lease.

“These six aircraft are inaddition to the 16 B737s and 5Q400s that the airline willsoon induct. The total numberof planes to be inducted in theimmediate future now stands at27,” the company said in a BSEfiling Thursday.

The airline has applied tothe Directorate General of CivilAviation for a No ObjectionCertificate (NOC) to import theplanes. Subject to regulatoryapprovals, the aircraft would

begin joining SpiceJet’s fleet inthe next ten days, it added.

“We are taking all possibleproactive measures to deal withthe sudden reduction of aviationcapacity in the Indian market.SpiceJet continues to work close-ly with the government and reg-ulatory authorities to help min-imise passenger inconvenience,”Ajay Singh, Chairman andManaging Director, SpiceJet said.

The airline will induct asmany as 27 planes in a recordtime of less than two weeks andis hopeful that these inductionswill help considerably ease thepressure situation, he added.

The shares had climbed 8.5per cent Friday after the airlineannounced it will induct 16Boeing 737-800 NG aircraft, amove that will help in bringingdown flight cancellations.

On Monday, the stockzoomed nearly 9 per cent as thecompany announced launch ofdirect flights from Mumbai toseven international destina-tions, including Colombo,Jeddah, Dhaka, Riyadh andHong Kong.

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Ja p a n e s esmall car

manufacturerS u z u k ia n n o u n c e dThursday itwas recallingtwo millionv e h i c l e ss h i p p e ddomestically,c i t i n gi m p r o p e rinspectionsand a series of other faultsincluding false fuel efficiencydata.

The recall affects vehiclesrunning for four years or lessthat have not yet received aroutine check-up.

Last week, Suzuki admittedthat an internal review haduncovered a host of problemsat its factories, including faultybrake checks, falsified fuel-efficiency data, and uncertifiedstaff carrying out final inspec-tions.

The recall is expected tocost the firm around 80 billionyen ($715 million) and alsoaffects parts made by Suzuki forvehicles produced for Nissan,Mazda and Mitsubishi.Transport minister Keiichi Ishiihas said the company needssome “serious soul-searching”over the scandal.

The problem “raises doubtsabout the firm’s regards forcompliance and it is extreme-ly regrettable,” Ishii toldreporters on Tuesday.

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Google on Thursday saidusers of its hugely popular

Android devices would beoffered a choice of fivebrowsers and search engines aspart of the company’s effort tomeet EU competition con-cerns.

The EuropeanCommission last July hitGoogle with its biggest-everfine, imposing a 4.34 billioneuro ($5 billion) penalty, one ofthree major EU decisionsagainst the company.

Brussels accused Google ofusing the Android system’sdominance of smartphonesand tablets to promote the useof its own Google search engineand Chrome browser and shutout rivals.

Google has appealed thedecision, arguing that theEU’s accusat ions wereunfounded, but Thursday’s

changes were part of the firm’seffort to avoid further fines.Users of Android devices inEurope who open the GooglePlay app store will now beshown screens with options todownload different searchapps and browsers, PaulGennai, Google productmanagement director, said ina blog.

“These new screens willbe displayed the first time auser opens Google Playafter receiving an upcomingup d at e ,” t h e e xe c ut ivewrote.

With the change, “twoscreens will surface: one forsearch apps and another forbrowsers, each containing atotal of five apps, including anythat are already installed,” he said.

Apps not already installedon the device will be chosenbased on their popularity andshown in a random order,

Google said.Crucially, when a user

downloads a search engineother than Google, he or shewill be asked whether thatoption — such as Qwant orDuckDuckGo — should bebecome the default search appon the phone.

Illegal promotion ofGoogle’s hugely profitablesearch engine was the heart ofthe case against the SilliconValley giant.

Android, which is usedon around 80 percent ofmobi le devices both inEurope and worldwide, wasaccused of shutting out rivalsby forcing major phone mak-ers to pre-install the Googlesearch engine and Chromebrowser.

They were also made toset Google Search as thedefault, as a condition oflicensing other Google apps,the EU said.

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The national capital to expe-rience the pure Rajasthani

folk music and its traditionaldances are woven like fabricinto every aspect of people’slives in our country. ShowCaseevents bring to you the mostunforgettable and lifetimeexperience by taking youthrough a journey of the truesoul of Rajasthani Folk music.

After an astounding suc-cess in Mumbai, ShowCaseevents brings the second edi-tion of the “Sounds From theDesert” to Delhi on April 26th,2019 at the Sirifort Auditorium.

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Coming to the rescue of thestranded international pas-

sengers hit by the abruptgrounding of Jet Airways,Government-run Air IndiaThursday offered special faresto such passengers.

The “special stranded” fareshave been offered to passengersat overseas airports such asParis, London Heathrow,Singapore, Dubai, Hong Kong,Abu Dhabi, Jeddah, Dammam,and Muscat, among others, AirIndia said in a statement.

“As a gesture of goodwill andto mitigate the hardship of the9W (Jet Airways flight code) atinternational stations, Air Indiawill be offering special fares tosuch passengers,” it said.

Passengers holding con-firmed RT tickets on Jet Airwayswill be allowed to avail specialstranded passenger fares fromthe destinations common withAir India, it said.

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BharatPe, an Indian compa-ny providing merchants

with interoperable launchedQR code for all UPI Apps.Merchants can receive UPIpayments from any app usingone QR code, and receive dig-ital money directly in theirbank at 0% fee.

“We are offering a basket ofmore than 100 UPI enabledapps that merchants can acceptthe payment from for free”BharatPe’s Chief ExecutiveOfficer and Co-founder,Ashneer Grover said.

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Markets regulator SebiThursday slapped a

penalty of over �1 crore on 11entities for fraudulent andmanipulative trading in theshares of Emed.ComTechnologies.

The regulator had con-ducted investigation fromAugust 2013 to June 2014regarding the trading in thescrips of Emed.ComTechnologies.

During the probe, Sebifound that the entities were

connected to each other andhad executed circular tradeswherein they transferred sharesin off-market to certain entitiesand then purchased back thoseshares in on-market, therebygiving misleading appearanceof trading.

Besides, they contributedto positive last traded price(LTP) and establishing of newhigh price (NHP) in the scrip,the Securities and ExchangeBoard of India (Sebi) said.

“The group entities havecontributed to the creation ofartificial volumes and inflated/

manipulated the price of thescrip and thusviolated...PFUTP (Prohibitionof Fraudulent and Unfair TradePractices) Regulations,” theregulator noted.

Accordingly, Sebi imposeda fine of �10 lakh each on nine

entities, including PummyGarments Pvt Ltd, SurePortfolio Services, SteadyCapital Advisory Services, andSupreme Multitrade Pvt Ltd.

While a fine of �7.5 lakheach was imposed on OlympiaSales Agency and ClarineteRealtor, totalling �1.05 crore.

Besides, in a separate order,Sebi levied fine of �14 lakh onSure Portfolio Services andSteady Capital AdvisoryServices for failing to disclosethe change in shareholdings inthe Emed.Com Technologies toexchanges and the firm.

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Boeing was making “steadyprogress” on the path to

certifying of a crucial softwareupdate for the 737 MAX air-craft, CEO Dennis Muilenburghas said after two fatal crashesin recent months forced thegrounding of the model,including by Indian carriers.

He assured global airlineindustry that Boeing has alsomade the final engineeringtest flight before certificationfor the 737 MAX aircraft.

The ManeuveringCharacteristics AugmentationSystem (MCAS) system of the737 MAX aircraft has comeunder scrutiny from investiga-

tors reviewing two fatal crash-es — the Lion Air crash onOctober 29 and the EthiopianAirlines crash on March 10.

Boeing has been developingand testing a software change tothe system that will now factorin input from a second sensor.

“We’re making steadyprogress on the path to certi-fication for our 737 MAX soft-ware update thanks to thework of our Boeing pilots,engineers and technicalexperts,” Muilenburg said in avideo on his Twitter account.

“Yesterday we completedthe official engineering flight testwith the updated software withour technical and engineeringleaders on board the airplane.

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Page 11:  · 2019-04-18 · should be made to resume ... Mohsin didn’t follow protocol ... BJP leader Mukhtar Abbas

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Equity benchmarks retreat-ed from lifetime highs onThursday as investors

took money off the table aheadof an extended weekend, whilethe grounding of Jet Airwaysstoked fears among banks andother lenders.

After rallying to an intra-dayrecord of 39,487.45 points, the30-share BSE Sensex turnednegative to settle 135.36 points,or 0.34%, lower at 39,140.28.

The broader NSE Niftyslipped 34.35 points, or 0.29%,to 11,752.80 after setting anintra-day record of 11,856.

The benchmark indices hadclosed at record highs onTuesday on earnings optimismand forecast of a near-normalmonsoon.

Markets will be closedFriday on account of GoodFriday.

During the holiday-trun-cated week, the Sensex rose373.17 points, or 0.96%, whilethe Nifty gained 109.35 points,or 0.93%.

“After a period of significantmomentum ahead of the generalelections, the market may takea pause in some kind of an inter-im profit-booking,” said JosephThomas, head of research atEmkay Wealth Management.

“The accelerating scenarioof a slowdown in global growthas also the definitive prospectsof higher fuel prices and aweaker currency may also beworking on the minds of themarket participants at this junc-ture,” he added.

Shares of Jet Airways con-tinued to fall for the second dayin a row, plummeting over 32per cent on Thursday, a day afterthe ailing airline shuttered itsoperations temporarily.

“The hunt for new bid-

ders/suitors is getting tough.This event led to cascading neg-ative effect on lenders to Jet andother banks,” said Deepak Jasani,head of retail research at HDFCSecurities.

Top losers in the Sensexpack included Yes Bank,Vedanta, IndusInd Bank, TataSteel, L&T, SBI, NTPC, KotakBank, HDFC, PowerGrid,Infosys and ITC, falling up to4.18%. On the other hand, RILwas the biggest gainer on theindex, spurting 2.79% ahead ofits Q4 results.

Tata Motors, Asian Paints,TCS, Coal India, HeroMotoCorp, Axis Bank and HULalso ended in the green, risingup to 2.32%.

Apart from energy and oiland gas, all BSE sectoral indicesclosed in the red, led by realty,power, metal, telecom, capitalgoods and banking, shedding upto 2.33%.

The broader markets fell intandem with the benchmarks.The BSE smallcap index lost0.99%, while the midcap gaugetripped 0.89%.

Foreign institutionalinvestors (FIIs) purchased equi-ty worth a net �1,038.58 crore onTuesday, and domestic institu-tional investors (DIIs) boughtshares to the tune of �37.22crore, provisional data avail-able with stock exchangesshowed.

Elsewhere in Asia, marketsin Japan, China and Koreaended in the red.In Europe,bourses in Germany, Franceand the UK were trading on amixed note in early deals. Globalcrude oil benchmark Brentfutures fell 0.17% to USD 71.50per barrel.

Meanwhile, the Indianrupee appreciated 5 paise to69.55 against the US dollarintra-day.

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Aday after Jet Airways suspended all itsflights after running out of money,

lenders to the carrier on Thursday said theywere “reasonably hopeful” that biddingprocess for the airline would end successfully.Lenders led by the State Bank of India haddeclined to extend more funds to Jet, forc-ing it to suspend all its flights.

“The lenders after due deliberationsdecided that the best way forward for the sur-vival of Jet Airways is to get the binding bidsfrom potential investors who have expressedEOI (Expression of Interest) and have beenissued bid documents on April 16,” a state-ment by lenders said.

A consortium of 26 lenders led by theSBI, with 51 per cent stake in the debt-trapped airline, has invited bids from poten-tial suitors.

“Lenders are reasonably hopeful that thebid process is likely to be successful indetermining the fair value of the enterprisein a transparent manner,” it said.

Banks on Wednesday rejected an imme-diate �400 crore demand of Jet Airways,compelling it to ground operations. Jet hadbeen, over the last few months, on a declineas competition from budget airlines hurt itsprofitability and led to a debt pile. It report-ed losses for four straight quarters despitesales holding up.

At its peak, Jet operated 123 planes andover 600 daily flights. It was flying just sevenplanes on Tuesday. Its chief executive offi-cer Vinay Dube on Wednesday wrote anemail to airlines’ passengers saying “withdeep sadness and with a heavy heart that wewould like to share with you that, effectiveimmediately, Jet Airways will be suspend-ing all its domestic and international oper-

ations”.“Tuesday night, we were informed by

SBI, on behalf of the consortium of Indianlenders, that they are unable to consider ourrequest for interim funding. Since no emer-gency funding from the lenders or any othersource of funding was forthcoming, itwould therefore not have been possible forus to pay for fuel or other critical servicesto keep the operations going,” he wrote.

He said the airline had over the last sev-eral weeks and months tried “every meanspossible” to seek funding, both interim aswell as long term funding, to keep our oper-ations going. “Unfortunately, despite the verybest of our efforts, we have been left with noother choice today”.

“A decision like this is never easy tomake, but without the interim funding,which we have been repeatedly requestingfor, we are simply unable to conduct flightoperations in a manner that delivers to thevery reasonable expectations of our guests,employees, partners and service providers,”he wrote.

“After 25 years of sharing the Joy ofFlying with Indian and international guests,Jet Airways and its Board of Directors havebeen forced to take this extreme measure,as prolonged and sustained efforts withlenders and authorities to ensure the sus-tainability of the airline did not yield thedesired results.”

He, however, said the future providesnew hope and opportunity as India is bet-ter off with a flying Jet Airways. “We will nowawait the bid finalisation process by SBI andthe consortium of Indian lenders and willcontinue to support the bid process initiat-ed by the lenders,” he added.

Passengers who had booked on Jet fortravel on future dates will get a refund.

New Delhi (PTI): Himachali KalaZeera, Jeeraphool from Chhattisgarh andKandhamal Haldi from Odisha are amongthe 14 products that have receivedGeographical Indication (GI) tag from thegovernment so far this year.

According to the Department forPromotion of Industry and Internal Trade(DPIIT), the other products which received

this tag include Coorg Arabica coffee fromKarnataka, Wayanad Robusta coffee fromKerala, Araku Valley Arabica from AndhraPradesh, Sirisi Supari from Karnataka andHimachali Chulli oil.

Darjeeling Tea, Tirupathi Laddu,Kangra Paintings, Nagpur Orange andKashmir Pashmina are among the regis-tered GIs in India.

The tag helps growers of these prod-ucts get premium price as no other pro-ducer can misuse the name to market sim-ilar goods

A geographical indication tag is usedfor an agricultural, natural or a manufac-tured product (handicraft and industrialgoods) originating from a definite geo-graphical territory.

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Reliance Communications promot-ers’ stake has come down to 22 per

cent in January-March 2019 quarter,with family and group firms jointly los-ing more than half of the equities, thetelecom firm said on Thursday.

In the October-December 2018quarter, the promoters and promotergroup of debt-ridden RCom had53.08% stake in the company.

In the third quarter of 2018-19,Ambani family members jointly held145.48 crore equity shares, which camedown to 59.79 crore in last quarter ofthe same fiscal, according to share-holding pattern disclosure made by thefirm.

Shares held by promoter groupfirm Reliance CommunicationsEnterprises Private Limited dropped byalmost half to 36.56 crore from 72.31crore.

The disclosure shows that equityholding of Reliance Ornatus Enterpriseand Ventures and Reliance WindTurbine Installators Industries camedown to 9.2 crore and 85 lakh, respec-tively, from 30 crore shares held byeach of them in the third quarter.

According to records, most of thepledged shares were sold by lenders inJanuary-March 2019 quarter.

The company, which is reelingunder debt burden of around �45,000crore, has approached the NationalCompany Law Tribunal to invokeinsolvency against it as the firm hasbeen unable to sell assets and pay backto lenders.

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Script Open High Low LTPRPOWER 9.60 9.60 8.05 8.20SPICEJET 144.00 152.60 135.00 136.25PCJEWELLER 149.40 167.60 134.30 145.20JETAIRWAYS 217.70 217.70 158.10 163.90SUZLON 7.40 7.53 7.02 7.09DHFL 172.50 172.95 156.00 157.20RELCAPITAL 173.40 173.40 149.50 151.75WIPRO 289.40 289.65 281.00 284.80RELIANCE 1365.45 1387.00 1365.00 1382.90YESBANK 266.90 268.00 253.95 255.30TATAMOTORS 232.00 239.30 230.45 235.90JPASSOCIAT 5.60 5.72 5.38 5.53RELINFRA 133.80 133.80 120.35 121.75INDIGO 1600.00 1650.00 1544.10 1554.70INFY* 724.85 724.85 713.00 716.40IBULHSGFIN 839.00 839.00 789.00 800.25ICICIBANK 408.60 410.65 402.55 404.90ADANIGREEN 44.70 48.00 41.40 45.05DLF 184.00 185.70 179.35 183.15RAIN 134.00 138.55 120.75 125.60BHARTIARTL 350.95 350.95 333.00 346.75IBREALEST 109.50 110.85 103.20 103.75WESTLIFE 433.30 440.30 401.05 405.60SBIN 315.90 315.90 308.10 310.90MARUTI 7475.00 7542.00 7435.00 7441.10HDFCLIFE 409.00 413.40 395.90 405.95HDFCBANK 2306.00 2315.00 2284.60 2290.15MOTHERSUMI 159.00 162.95 156.20 157.15PNBHOUSING 800.15 825.00 779.00 791.85JINDALSTEL 189.50 190.45 179.25 183.40MFSL 445.90 473.00 437.55 442.65PNB 92.90 92.90 89.55 90.10JAMNAAUTO 62.00 62.40 59.05 59.75ASHOKLEY 97.00 97.05 94.15 95.70JUSTDIAL 597.05 598.20 571.95 574.50JAICORPLTD 128.70 132.65 127.50 128.15INFIBEAM 51.90 53.55 49.65 50.05VEDL 185.90 186.80 178.00 178.70TATAMTRDVR 112.90 116.35 111.50 113.65DEEPAKFERT 159.60 169.00 157.95 159.15DCBBANK 203.00 205.00 196.80 202.45DMART 1413.00 1423.00 1356.00 1362.90TATASTEEL 553.00 555.00 537.15 542.85TCS 2141.00 2150.05 2116.30 2145.50IDEA 18.15 18.15 17.00 17.25RBLBANK 685.00 686.30 669.55 676.10BOMDYEING 135.50 135.90 124.15 129.95ZEEL 418.00 418.00 401.25 402.45LT 1382.50 1387.00 1359.00 1360.75BANKBARODA 131.40 131.40 125.85 126.35SAIL 59.60 59.60 56.15 57.35CGPOWER 38.70 38.85 36.50 36.90GRAPHITE 470.00 473.20 450.55 451.60TECHM 797.20 808.00 797.20 799.35EXIDEIND 228.05 228.40 216.80 220.95RECLTD 151.70 154.25 151.70 152.70RADICO 353.15 354.00 333.40 335.05ADANIPOWER 54.30 55.80 52.80 54.15SOUTHBANK 17.70 17.70 17.00 17.20MINDTREE 977.00 986.45 961.55 969.10STRTECH 195.00 199.90 194.30 196.75HINDPETRO 264.50 269.40 258.30 266.60DBL 642.00 667.95 633.75 643.35AXISBANK 777.35 779.00 769.00 771.20JSWSTEEL 291.00 301.00 286.50 298.95ITC 307.30 308.00 303.40 304.35SUNPHARMA 462.50 466.00 456.80 462.10KOTAKBANK 1387.00 1392.30 1361.00 1376.70HEG 2087.00 2087.00 2009.20 2019.95INDUSINDBK 1815.85 1822.15 1755.40 1764.00IDFCFIRSTB 53.70 54.00 52.70 52.85IBVENTURES 326.70 327.00 307.95 310.45AMBUJACEM 231.55 235.25 230.00 234.00BAJFINANCE 3059.95 3059.95 2995.50 3013.80BANDHANBNK 562.50 577.90 562.50 566.35ICICIGI 1080.00 1098.00 1070.60 1092.20LTTS 1690.00 1727.00 1673.20 1679.85KTKBANK 137.40 137.90 133.60 134.55COALINDIA 251.15 252.70 249.60 251.75HDFC 2031.00 2048.25 1999.15 2003.90ONGC 161.25 162.15 159.10 160.20OBEROIRLTY 576.15 577.90 545.80 549.10BANKINDIA 99.00 99.70 96.10 96.60NCC 106.35 106.40 103.00 103.70FEDERALBNK 98.10 98.20 95.40 96.95HINDALCO 215.50 215.95 206.35 207.25HEXAWARE 346.55 346.60 334.25 337.20M&M 690.00 691.15 682.00 683.40WOCKPHARMA 455.40 456.00 436.80 439.10IOC 157.00 157.90 154.15 156.15BPCL 357.90 364.60 353.65 362.15TATAELXSI 981.10 985.55 952.50 956.25L&TFH 149.05 150.75 145.05 146.15MEGH 68.05 68.25 65.00 65.50NTPC 137.35 137.70 135.05 135.40HEROMOTOCO 2740.00 2759.90 2731.20 2739.30BHEL 77.65 77.95 75.65 75.90RCOM 2.20 2.20 2.20 2.20ASIANPAINT 1462.00 1478.80 1460.30 1465.35PIDILITIND 1294.00 1296.40 1250.00 1253.10EDELWEISS 180.30 182.85 173.80 179.45JUBLFOOD 1390.00 1390.70 1341.25 1344.60TITAN 1125.25 1129.00 1113.60 1125.75UNIONBANK 92.20 92.95 90.00 90.70DISHTV 40.40 40.40 37.55 37.90ANDHRABANK 28.80 28.90 28.05 28.20NATIONALUM 56.00 56.00 54.10 54.35INDIACEM 113.20 113.30 108.60 109.75

ABCAPITAL 101.30 101.40 98.85 99.85PVR 1719.00 1722.05 1665.00 1714.10HCLTECH 1109.30 1122.60 1091.00 1100.35CIPLA 568.00 568.00 553.80 562.00DABUR 409.05 412.20 403.00 404.80HINDUNILVR 1744.90 1744.90 1728.00 1737.45PFC 120.85 120.85 118.00 118.55DELTACORP 255.90 256.25 248.05 248.85SUVEN 270.55 280.35 260.35 272.20CANBK 278.30 280.95 273.40 277.30FSL 51.50 51.50 49.65 50.45KANSAINER 455.00 456.60 443.20 450.50GLENMARK 647.50 648.10 634.05 639.60NBCC 62.40 63.05 60.85 61.55AUBANK 603.95 623.35 598.00 616.10UPL 938.95 938.95 926.70 934.35TATACHEM 615.00 615.00 592.20 596.05ESCORTS 799.90 799.90 768.40 770.65TATAPOWER 71.35 71.60 70.00 70.55BEL 94.45 94.55 92.10 92.45UJJIVAN 351.40 351.40 340.10 342.30JUBILANT 695.45 707.75 682.00 701.80TVSMOTOR 520.05 524.80 514.60 518.20IFCI 13.10 13.29 12.35 12.50AUROPHARMA 783.80 792.70 778.10 786.85WELSPUNIND 58.35 58.35 54.40 56.20MCX 810.00 812.95 776.60 779.75GRUH 287.90 295.40 285.75 286.90BEML 966.00 969.00 948.85 953.40LTI 1635.20 1659.85 1633.35 1650.55ADANIPORTS 397.00 397.00 388.00 390.05PERSISTENT* 617.50 631.15 617.50 628.40IPCALAB 948.85 984.05 947.95 968.95LUPIN 838.00 839.90 821.60 834.10VIPIND 476.25 487.00 466.05 472.35GREAVESCOT 146.00 147.80 142.50 143.05FORCEMOT 1792.00 1798.00 1752.00 1761.85MINDAIND 377.50 392.45 372.00 388.80ICICIPRULI 365.00 367.45 358.55 365.45EQUITAS 135.40 137.40 134.15 135.75MERCK 3924.65 3924.65 3755.00 3781.85CONCOR 514.75 522.85 508.75 521.80

NATCOPHARM* 564.00 564.00 540.00 541.75GICRE 250.95 261.40 245.05 260.35MANAPPURAM 126.00 128.50 123.60 124.45BAJAJ-AUTO 3070.00 3085.00 3042.95 3063.00CADILAHC 342.30 342.30 334.85 336.85TV18BRDCST 35.80 36.30 34.30 34.50IGL 323.00 327.70 319.40 325.05CANFINHOME 343.25 346.75 335.65 337.55CENTURYTEX 934.00 944.75 915.00 940.15IRB 142.65 142.65 135.50 136.85DRREDDY 2819.95 2826.00 2792.70 2800.90PETRONET 241.50 242.30 239.00 239.55CROMPTON 236.40 237.95 230.45 236.10EICHERMOT 21477.00 21477.00 20929.00 21029.20HFCL 23.05 23.70 22.55 22.65LICHSGFIN 523.50 528.60 515.45 517.55PHILIPCARB 171.20 171.20 166.25 166.70INDIANB 269.10 271.60 262.90 265.40SRF 2489.00 2507.95 2438.15 2448.60BHARATFORG 510.00 512.50 498.00 499.75GNFC 325.00 327.60 317.80 321.25SUNTECK 502.10 509.90 485.55 488.45ACC 1697.50 1707.15 1679.25 1697.45APOLLOTYRE 218.00 221.15 214.35 218.85SHILPAMED 375.20 414.75 360.90 398.70M&MFIN 422.00 423.50 415.45 417.85HAVELLS 755.50 767.00 755.45 757.00MUTHOOTFIN 613.15 623.25 610.30 614.80GODREJPROP 940.00 940.00 912.20 916.30GRASIM 883.25 888.30 861.25 865.40STARCEMENT 106.50 109.90 104.00 107.85APOLLOHOSP 1275.10 1278.90 1256.85 1269.95ALBK 52.80 52.80 50.55 51.05SUNTV 604.50 604.50 586.00 588.30BHARATFIN 1139.00 1139.00 1106.00 1109.00VENKYS 2230.55 2230.55 2145.00 2156.10WELCORP 141.00 142.70 136.20 136.70BRITANNIA 3019.30 3026.00 2990.05 2999.75JISLJALEQS 59.75 60.45 58.50 58.85BIOCON 624.00 624.00 612.70 615.30TATAGLOBAL 215.20 216.45 207.15 208.35BAJAJFINSV 7551.05 7590.00 7465.00 7565.85MANPASAND 124.90 125.00 117.90 118.45INFRATEL 313.85 313.85 303.35 307.60STAR 496.70 497.45 484.00 488.25ORIENTBANK 108.00 108.30 104.10 105.15IDBI 44.30 44.30 43.20 43.40ISEC 226.00 232.00 222.95 225.70POWERGRID 197.95 197.95 193.40 194.20ABB 1410.05 1443.05 1410.05 1432.30

RELAXO 875.10 922.05 856.85 905.65PEL 2673.00 2693.25 2616.00 2653.95RAYMOND 797.95 802.00 776.85 779.90VOLTAS 626.00 626.95 610.00 615.45CASTROLIND 167.45 167.65 161.25 163.15BAJAJELEC 577.10 578.00 563.20 566.80INTELLECT 229.80 230.05 219.45 220.95ITI 100.00 100.00 96.65 97.05GMRINFRA 18.55 18.60 18.10 18.25J&KBANK 63.60 64.40 61.20 61.75TAKE 151.40 152.00 145.20 148.55ASHOKA 134.85 135.00 130.50 131.80GRANULES 114.95 116.25 112.40 114.10SPARC 184.60 184.70 178.45 179.60SOBHA 522.00 522.75 505.00 507.00WABAG 303.45 305.80 293.85 296.45SRTRANSFIN 1230.00 1240.00 1204.00 1213.10ISGEC 552.80 570.00 552.80 565.00LEMONTREE 84.50 84.50 76.75 77.55CEATLTD 1126.35 1132.30 1101.00 1107.60AMARAJABAT 709.40 710.70 692.00 693.75SHANKARA 533.90 536.80 520.00 521.95HINDCOPPER 50.20 50.60 48.60 48.85SBILIFE 620.00 621.90 612.80 615.60NHPC 24.05 24.10 23.60 23.65BATAINDIA 1431.00 1439.05 1419.75 1422.15CUMMINSIND 736.50 749.30 725.00 737.75KEI 421.40 433.85 416.00 421.70AVANTI 408.55 411.15 396.45 397.30UBL 1446.00 1446.00 1412.25 1414.30VINATIORGA 1740.00 1785.00 1735.50 1761.90MOTILALOFS 744.90 747.00 721.75 727.95OMAXE 212.90 212.90 211.20 211.35SYNDIBANK 41.60 41.75 40.05 40.40MPHASIS 980.05 986.40 971.20 977.45PAGEIND 23998.55 24131.65 23496.50 23765.80ABFRL 220.90 222.95 216.20 221.55JMFINANCIL 92.00 92.60 89.65 90.00LAKSHVILAS 87.25 87.65 82.90 83.35RCF 61.30 61.30 59.65 60.05NIITTECH 1298.70 1319.35 1293.30 1311.70GUJGAS 161.00 162.00 156.95 160.35NOCIL 143.60 144.00 140.65 141.45PRESTIGE 274.65 274.65 259.00 261.90KEC 303.40 306.70 291.00 292.25PRSMJOHNSN 101.10 102.50 98.10 100.15HEIDELBERG 180.45 181.35 177.35 178.80ULTRACEMCO 4255.90 4273.45 4220.95 4250.55CRISIL 1600.00 1600.00 1481.00 1498.55GAIL 355.00 355.00 348.65 351.95ADANITRANS 228.95 229.85 221.50 223.80MAXINDIA 69.55 69.80 67.00 69.50NMDC 104.00 104.85 102.95 104.30INDHOTEL 155.00 155.50 150.65 153.65RAMCOCEM 787.95 791.70 774.55 778.75TATAMETALI 681.10 684.05 655.20 662.80MARICO 366.00 368.00 363.10 364.55PTC 72.60 72.90 70.60 70.85HSCL 117.50 119.00 115.00 115.60GODREJCP 669.90 672.80 665.10 668.40GODREJIND 527.90 527.90 514.00 516.85SUNDRMFAST 555.60 556.20 544.60 550.55APLAPOLLO 1569.65 1578.90 1533.20 1567.45HIMATSEIDE 232.85 241.00 226.55 228.50GET&D 269.60 271.10 258.05 263.25COLPAL 1223.55 1227.65 1213.95 1217.95BBTC 1349.75 1350.00 1306.20 1315.20ENGINERSIN 119.30 120.00 117.00 117.75GESHIP 301.40 303.40 288.20 290.30TORNTPOWER 263.90 263.95 257.15 258.35DIVISLAB 1718.80 1728.95 1714.05 1725.40GSFC 106.65 107.25 103.45 103.85RALLIS 159.85 159.85 155.65 156.40JSWENERGY 73.05 74.30 71.65 72.40CENTRALBK 35.00 35.00 33.85 33.95BALKRISIND 968.35 972.50 956.00 960.45JINDALSAW 88.95 88.95 85.65 86.25REPCOHOME 438.85 446.00 425.80 430.75ITDCEM 125.00 131.15 123.40 128.45FCONSUMER 44.90 45.00 43.85 44.00IDFC 46.50 46.85 45.05 45.35OIL 179.00 180.50 178.55 179.20GODREJAGRO 532.65 532.65 518.05 522.95HERITGFOOD 500.00 500.00 491.40 495.25KAJARIACER 619.35 627.00 614.30 623.90WABCOINDIA 6300.00 6315.00 6271.90 6294.40BLISSGVS 178.40 179.60 174.00 174.60GSPL 189.75 189.95 184.80 189.45RAJESHEXPO 668.95 669.65 662.70 665.10CHOLAFIN 1489.95 1489.95 1462.85 1472.30HINDZINC 284.00 284.95 281.60 283.70MGL 1024.00 1028.60 1010.00 1017.10NESTLEIND 11203.95 11229.10 10852.65 10952.70GODFRYPHLP 1185.00 1192.50 1154.35 1163.60GMDCLTD 77.65 78.00 75.55 75.90BERGEPAINT 335.00 336.60 326.85 329.25CHENNPETRO 265.00 268.20 261.05 261.75DCAL 228.00 233.90 227.50 229.05SHREECEM 19528.15 19825.00 19282.95 19656.35SIEMENS 1188.50 1194.45 1172.70 1183.45RNAM 200.50 202.00 187.50 190.50FRETAIL 427.00 434.00 425.00 430.05JKTYRE 93.50 93.70 91.55 91.70QUESS 730.85 732.70 711.80 715.35ALLCARGO 116.00 119.00 115.35 116.15JBCHEPHARM 353.80 354.20 343.00 347.75THERMAX 986.00 987.00 969.00 980.30SHK 156.00 156.00 151.70 153.10NAVKARCORP 39.55 39.55 38.10 38.55

NAUKRI 1935.00 1936.25 1897.00 1910.55COCHINSHIP 393.00 393.00 387.00 390.10AJANTPHARM 1040.15 1040.15 1019.60 1024.25SWANENERGY 110.20 112.00 108.75 110.25GICHSGFIN 260.05 260.60 254.10 255.90KALPATPOWR 494.30 495.15 477.00 484.20MAHABANK 16.40 16.40 15.51 15.84MAGMA 124.00 126.45 120.80 124.40PIIND 1028.00 1031.55 1010.00 1026.70TRENT 354.70 364.00 350.00 359.50TATACOMM 582.25 582.25 569.00 572.75JSLHISAR 90.75 91.40 87.75 88.25GILLETTE 7761.00 7875.35 7482.00 7644.85MRPL 72.00 72.20 70.00 70.40TORNTPHARM 1833.00 1834.10 1815.10 1829.15IBULISL 341.95 356.95 332.50 335.05ESSELPRO 131.60 132.00 130.80 131.45EVEREADY 184.70 185.45 175.05 176.80MRF 58555.00 58600.00 57513.45 57742.45BALMLAWRIE 182.80 183.00 178.10 178.55TRIDENT 67.40 68.20 66.25 66.45MMTC 28.10 28.15 27.50 27.60SCI 35.20 35.25 34.75 35.05MOIL 162.00 162.00 159.10 159.80BAJAJCON 339.00 339.00 334.65 335.40UFLEX 247.50 247.50 238.00 240.45VGUARD 226.00 227.95 224.60 225.75MAHINDCIE 230.00 230.00 223.10 225.00NESCO 493.95 520.00 489.10 511.95OFSS 3551.25 3565.00 3481.00 3514.70CARBORUNIV 373.80 375.20 368.00 374.10SONATSOFTW 339.00 339.00 331.50 333.00EMAMILTD 397.85 398.00 392.35 394.55SYMPHONY 1386.55 1397.30 1360.00 1374.95CENTURYPLY 189.00 190.20 183.50 186.25ASTRAL 1237.85 1254.00 1217.70 1247.60MAHSCOOTER 3802.05 3872.00 3764.40 3827.65INOXWIND 68.75 69.10 67.45 68.75ZENSARTECH 243.25 243.25 235.00 238.30MAHLOG 544.00 544.00 532.45 536.45ADVENZYMES 192.00 193.00 188.85 191.50JYOTHYLAB 189.35 189.35 181.70 184.10GUJFLUORO 1058.30 1064.20 1050.35 1060.15INOXLEISUR 321.55 323.40 315.00 315.80DBCORP 193.40 193.40 188.70 191.05MAHLIFE 368.50 370.70 362.25 363.60NIACL 189.55 191.60 184.00 189.60COFFEEDAY 271.25 273.90 262.30 264.45BDL 297.05 297.15 287.90 288.15CHAMBLFERT 167.45 167.90 165.00 165.75SREINFRA 28.70 28.70 27.95 28.15KNRCON 237.05 247.80 235.15 242.55FORBESCO 2500.00 2520.00 2425.50 2484.30LAURUSLABS 400.25 400.25 389.20 395.50NH 219.00 219.75 214.60 219.50THOMASCOOK 248.25 251.85 241.30 248.40GRINDWELL 590.05 606.00 585.00 605.05GUJALKALI 506.90 523.35 496.40 497.30SUDARSCHEM 361.00 361.00 342.15 344.05NBVENTURES 108.15 108.15 105.05 105.90HAL 709.65 709.65 699.00 700.80ASTRAZEN 2282.00 2284.10 2208.65 2265.10LALPATHLAB 1054.00 1070.00 1045.35 1064.05FINCABLES 486.05 486.05 473.15 479.40INDOSTAR 418.00 419.00 400.60 408.20NAVINFLUOR 718.50 718.50 701.00 709.80CUB 202.00 203.00 200.95 202.20PFIZER 3240.00 3247.85 3200.00 3211.30VBL 840.00 845.20 826.15 831.80SYNGENE 586.00 588.65 578.00 581.30SJVN 24.95 24.95 24.20 24.35HUDCO 44.80 44.90 44.00 44.15ASTERDM 152.00 153.40 150.00 152.05DEEPAKNI 268.00 271.55 266.30 267.30DCMSHRIRAM 399.70 404.00 397.00 398.30SUPPETRO 227.00 228.55 220.00 222.60TIMETECHNO 100.50 100.50 97.00 97.20HSIL 271.00 273.30 267.25 269.25NILKAMAL 1432.75 1432.75 1386.00 1400.35CYIENT 587.00 593.75 586.00 587.75BOSCHLTD 18350.00 18350.00 18050.00 18175.85EIHOTEL 194.95 195.70 190.50 193.05KSCL 486.25 488.70 472.00 477.50

SUPREMEIND 1143.85 1143.85 1128.65 1134.80GPPL 98.20 98.20 94.50 95.40BIRLACORPN 524.95 526.45 515.05 519.40UCOBANK 18.80 18.85 18.25 18.55COROMANDEL 427.00 442.65 427.00 439.15TEJASNET 189.05 191.45 187.10 189.85ECLERX 1134.95 1141.95 1125.05 1131.35WHIRLPOOL 1449.95 1452.50 1428.00 1431.10TATACOFFEE 92.65 93.00 91.40 92.15TVTODAY 317.15 318.75 307.00 317.25BAJAJHLDNG 3325.00 3325.00 3280.00 3285.65PGHH 10675.00 10788.75 10631.40 10720.90ENDURANCE 1173.95 1174.95 1156.30 1161.00TEAMLEASE 3016.35 3016.35 2895.05 2969.65LUXIND 1392.95 1415.00 1362.95 1376.15FORTIS 140.15 141.00 139.00 140.70LINDEINDIA 488.55 488.70 475.90 478.65CERA 2789.90 2809.90 2788.20 2804.65ALKEM 1789.95 1789.95 1710.55 1721.40AARTIIND 1641.00 1641.00 1620.00 1624.70ATUL 3550.00 3562.45 3485.00 3545.45GHCL 239.65 239.65 234.65 235.25PARAGMILK 248.65 248.65 243.25 244.30SKFINDIA 2058.00 2068.95 2008.05 2029.95GEPIL 865.05 865.05 850.05 857.30BAYERCROP 4224.00 4295.00 4179.00 4234.75GLAXO 1308.00 1308.00 1290.00 1298.10JKCEMENT 886.00 889.60 879.00 888.95PNCINFRA 158.15 158.15 153.30 154.50GDL 145.75 145.85 140.55 144.05FINOLEXIND 488.00 490.90 478.25 481.60CORPBANK 28.00 28.40 27.80 27.95MINDACORP 140.00 140.00 133.15 135.10VTL 1126.05 1147.30 1110.00 1142.25NLCINDIA 68.35 68.45 68.20 68.25REDINGTON 96.20 99.00 96.20 97.85MHRIL 240.00 245.00 238.60 240.95ABBOTINDIA 8054.10 8054.10 7777.05 7810.95SCHNEIDER 105.25 105.55 103.50 104.15IOB 14.85 14.85 14.62 14.65SANOFI 5770.05 5803.15 5751.15 5770.20SADBHAV 240.00 240.30 237.70 239.30NETWORK18 36.35 36.35 35.00 35.15GREENPLY 172.75 172.75 168.80 169.20JAGRAN 118.00 119.00 117.20 117.40TIINDIA 372.00 376.55 370.00 374.45BLUESTARCO 674.00 674.00 660.80 661.85AIAENG 1770.00 1822.30 1770.00 1806.25THYROCARE 516.00 519.95 509.40 511.20LAOPALA 202.70 212.55 202.70 209.40KRBL 350.00 352.00 344.15 345.20SHOPERSTOP 454.20 456.80 449.90 451.95JKLAKSHMI 374.65 381.30 371.00 371.70APLLTD 535.00 540.00 530.20 534.40IEX 158.20 161.00 157.40 158.35SFL 1371.00 1410.00 1360.00 1399.50EIDPARRY 203.60 204.20 201.55 203.15UNITEDBNK 11.85 11.85 10.95 10.98JSL 39.95 39.95 39.00 39.10CAPPL 390.05 391.70 383.20 384.95TNPL 206.80 209.00 204.85 207.05TTKPRESTIG 8400.10 8407.45 8306.10 8326.55SCHAEFFLER 5490.00 5530.00 5430.00 5477.40ITDC 277.35 278.55 272.30 273.05TATAINVEST 862.45 862.45 855.00 857.90MONSANTO 2555.00 2610.00 2555.00 2588.10GSKCONS 7212.40 7234.00 7168.90 7217.45VMART 2740.00 2740.00 2615.05 2659.30FLFL 476.05 482.45 473.55 481.50PHOENIXLTD 622.00 622.00 607.80 613.40NAVNETEDUL 114.15 114.75 113.00 113.45CHOLAHLDNG 509.95 511.30 491.50 499.85CCL 269.25 270.00 264.65 267.40BASF 1381.05 1384.60 1374.50 1378.00LAXMIMACH 6038.00 6038.00 5950.00 6004.30AEGISLOG 209.40 210.75 207.50 208.35AKZOINDIA 1774.40 1775.00 1758.20 1766.20BLUEDART 3225.05 3289.90 3207.00 3223.85ZYDUSWELL 1319.30 1324.30 1296.95 1300.80ELGIEQUIP 260.25 260.25 255.35 256.75TIMKEN 591.30 592.40 581.15 583.60SHARDACROP 396.30 396.30 385.00 389.55CARERATING 992.75 992.75 986.45 988.50ORIENTCEM 96.35 96.60 92.85 93.90SUNCLAYLTD 2949.00 2949.00 2828.00 2856.50SOMANYCERA 420.00 420.00 412.35 415.50HATSUN 732.00 735.75 718.90 733.75ASAHIINDIA 257.00 258.40 252.05 255.10CENTRUM 33.05 33.40 32.80 32.80SOLARINDS 1074.80 1075.00 1055.00 1069.25JCHAC 1941.25 1974.95 1915.00 1922.20ERIS 637.20 637.20 623.00 627.903MINDIA 24950.05 25114.85 24800.00 24848.85FDC 165.75 165.75 163.70 164.90HONAUT 23750.00 23947.50 23400.00 23807.80KIOCL 138.15 138.60 135.00 135.20SIS 840.50 845.75 837.00 844.45DHANUKA 403.00 405.00 394.00 397.00GALAXYSURF 1074.00 1096.00 1000.00 1006.65TRITURBINE 109.00 109.00 107.10 108.20SUPRAJIT 228.20 230.00 221.00 223.95GAYAPROJ 173.05 176.95 173.05 176.30TVSSRICHAK 2200.00 2233.85 2200.00 2214.40APARINDS 696.85 698.65 693.00 695.00IFBIND 860.00 871.10 852.00 863.50GULFOILLUB 877.50 880.00 870.00 875.00KPRMILL 575.85 575.85 572.00 572.45SHRIRAMCIT 1784.00 1806.00 1784.00 1792.70RATNAMANI 886.00 886.00 886.00 886.00

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SCRIP OPEN HIgh LOW LTP CHANGENIFTY 50 11856.15 11856.15 11738.50 11752.80 -34.35RELIANCE 1375.00 1389.75 1365.00 1386.05 42.30JSWSTEEL 291.20 301.30 286.50 299.60 8.40TATAMOTORS 231.90 239.30 230.60 235.80 5.30BPCL 358.00 365.00 353.80 362.95 5.45WIPRO 289.00 289.55 280.20 284.55 3.65TCS 2149.90 2155.00 2114.20 2149.25 17.45ASIANPAINT 1464.00 1479.90 1460.30 1469.00 10.00BAJAJ-AUTO 3069.00 3089.90 3041.20 3080.00 11.55TITAN 1125.95 1129.50 1113.50 1123.90 3.85IOC 157.45 157.45 154.15 156.20 0.50CIPLA 562.00 566.65 553.20 561.00 1.65TECHM 804.00 809.00 798.10 800.00 1.90HINDUNILVR 1738.55 1744.10 1729.25 1742.00 3.45BAJAJFINSV 7593.00 7595.00 7465.00 7591.55 12.60SUNPHARMA 463.90 466.00 456.70 463.20 0.65ULTRACEMCO 4279.70 4279.70 4220.00 4260.55 5.50GAIL 354.40 354.40 348.50 352.00 0.40HEROMOTOCO 2742.90 2759.90 2732.55 2742.40 2.75ONGC 160.85 162.20 159.05 160.50 0.05COALINDIA 251.75 252.90 249.60 251.55 -0.05AXISBANK 778.40 779.00 769.00 770.05 -1.05UPL 935.05 938.95 926.10 932.50 -1.40MARUTI 7533.10 7539.35 7434.05 7440.00 -18.55HDFCBANK 2313.00 2315.05 2288.00 2293.00 -12.05HCLTECH 1108.00 1123.90 1090.50 1101.00 -6.05BAJFINANCE 3038.70 3046.00 2995.00 3015.00 -17.50ITC 308.25 308.25 303.55 305.00 -2.20DRREDDY 2827.95 2827.95 2791.35 2802.50 -22.60BRITANNIA 3029.85 3029.85 2988.15 2995.00 -25.50M&M 689.60 691.95 681.25 682.05 -6.05ICICIBANK 411.00 411.00 402.60 403.35 -3.65POWERGRID 197.35 197.85 193.50 194.90 -1.95HDFC 2040.00 2047.90 1998.15 2005.00 -21.70BHARTIARTL 349.50 350.45 332.65 344.90 -3.85INFY 722.50 722.50 712.75 715.70 -8.40KOTAKBANK 1386.40 1392.00 1362.85 1369.90 -16.50EICHERMOT 21378.00 21469.95 20949.55 21000.00 -270.55LT 1387.00 1387.60 1357.40 1362.50 -18.90ADANIPORTS 395.00 395.50 388.90 389.50 -6.15NTPC 137.50 137.85 135.05 135.35 -2.20SBIN 315.80 315.80 308.05 310.20 -5.55TATASTEEL 553.50 554.50 536.70 542.60 -10.65GRASIM 887.40 887.90 861.60 865.00 -18.55INFRATEL 312.95 314.45 303.25 306.00 -6.95ZEEL 418.00 418.00 401.00 402.50 -13.05INDUSINDBK 1816.00 1823.75 1752.30 1757.60 -57.55VEDL 185.30 186.90 178.00 178.40 -6.55HINDALCO 216.15 216.15 206.25 207.00 -7.95YESBANK 266.40 267.95 254.05 255.55 -10.90IBULHSGFIN 833.00 833.95 788.65 795.50 -36.95

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SCRIP OPEN HIgh LOW LTP CHANGENIFTY NEXT 50 28593.75 28639.70 28304.10 28419.55 -122.90GICRE 255.40 261.80 245.25 261.50 10.75BANDHANBNK 563.00 577.40 562.00 569.90 12.15ABB 1414.10 1449.00 1414.10 1436.00 24.35CONCOR 515.90 523.00 508.10 520.30 8.10ICICIGI 1089.00 1100.00 1070.40 1099.80 16.65AUROPHARMA 785.00 794.00 779.00 789.15 6.75NMDC 104.10 105.15 102.90 104.60 0.60HINDPETRO 265.00 269.50 258.15 266.00 1.35HDFCAMC 1571.10 1589.00 1531.50 1586.20 5.90DIVISLAB 1716.00 1731.75 1713.00 1721.00 6.40LUPIN 833.00 837.60 820.95 835.80 2.85SHREECEM 19598.10 19819.90 19333.20 19661.00 65.50ICICIPRULI 364.05 367.90 358.40 365.75 1.05MARICO 362.25 368.40 362.25 365.00 1.00AMBUJACEM 232.00 235.25 230.00 232.40 0.40HINDZINC 282.30 284.95 281.55 282.80 0.20PGHH 10660.00 10750.00 10625.15 10699.90 1.25GODREJCP 669.85 673.00 664.75 667.50 -0.70NIACL 187.25 192.00 186.20 189.00 -0.20PETRONET 239.10 242.85 238.85 240.30 -0.30HAVELLS 751.15 767.60 751.15 756.05 -2.10SBILIFE 621.00 621.40 611.75 616.00 -1.70COLPAL 1226.00 1227.90 1214.00 1218.40 -3.50CADILAHC 339.65 340.40 334.25 336.90 -1.00MCDOWELL-N 558.90 558.90 545.10 554.20 -1.85ACC 1705.80 1709.75 1680.00 1697.35 -5.65MRF 58203.00 58400.10 57526.10 57848.50 -207.60SIEMENS 1185.00 1194.60 1171.50 1185.80 -4.35MOTHERSUMI 159.75 162.90 156.20 157.45 -0.75ASHOKLEY 97.00 97.20 94.05 95.85 -0.50HDFCLIFE 409.35 413.70 395.90 406.40 -2.15BAJAJHLDNG 3307.00 3324.95 3280.00 3285.55 -18.55DABUR 409.90 412.00 403.55 405.50 -3.50DLF 183.85 185.70 179.25 181.75 -1.60PEL 2681.60 2694.75 2613.55 2647.00 -25.95NHPC 24.05 24.10 23.55 23.75 -0.25BHEL 78.00 78.00 75.75 75.90 -0.80BOSCHLTD 18444.95 18444.95 18071.55 18071.55 -201.90BIOCON 624.00 624.90 612.40 615.35 -7.15PAGEIND 23711.20 24123.00 23460.05 23535.95 -300.65SRTRANSFIN 1237.00 1242.00 1202.65 1213.20 -16.40OFSS 3550.00 3569.40 3507.15 3514.00 -49.05UBL 1435.00 1439.95 1417.00 1420.00 -22.50INDIGO 1597.00 1650.00 1542.25 1555.10 -26.80L&TFH 149.65 150.95 145.75 146.35 -3.20PIDILITIND 1284.95 1302.70 1252.10 1259.70 -32.05SAIL 59.00 59.10 56.15 57.15 -1.55IDEA 18.10 18.15 16.95 17.45 -0.50DMART 1415.00 1424.00 1353.00 1362.00 -48.65BANKBARODA 130.85 131.05 125.75 126.05 -4.85

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The nearly two-year investi-gation by special counsel

Robert Mueller found "no evi-dence" of a "collusion" betweenthe Trump campaign and theRussian government duringthe 2016 US elections, AttorneyGeneral William BarrThursday announcedThursday, in a major relief toPresident Donald Trump.

Addressing the media atthe Department of Justice hereon the release of Mueller'sredacted report on the investi-gation into Russian interferencein the 2016 presidential elec-tion.

Mueller was chosen tohead the investigation in 2017following concerns from USintelligence agencies that Russiahad tried to tip the election inTrump's favour. The business-man-turned-politician defeat-ed former secretary of stateHillary Clinton in the 2016

presidential election.Barr said Mueller investi-

gated a number of links or con-tacts between TrumpCampaign officials and indi-viduals connected with theRussian government.

"After reviewing those con-tacts, the special counsel didnot find any conspiracy to vio-late US law involving Russia-linked persons and any personsassociated with the Trumpcampaign," Barr said on the400-page report.

He, however, said theRussian government sought tointerfere in US election process.

Barr emphasised that theprimary purposes of the SpecialCounsel's investigation was todetermine whether members ofthe presidential campaign ofTrump, or any individuals asso-ciated with that campaign,conspired or coordinated withthe Russian government tointerfere in the 2016 election.

The Special Counsel's

report states that his "investi-gation did not establish thatmembers of the TrumpCampaign conspired or coor-dinated with the Russian gov-ernment in its election inter-ference activities."

"I am sure that allAmericans share my concernsabout the efforts of the Russiangovernment to interfere in ourpresidential election.

As the Special Counsel'sreport makes clear, the Russiangovernment sought to interferein our election.

"But thanks to the SpecialCounsel's thorough investiga-tion, we now know that theRussian operatives who perpe-trated these schemes did nothave the cooperation of PresidentTrump or the Trump campaign— or the knowing assistance ofany other Americans for thatmatter," he said."That is some-thing that all Americans can andshould be grateful to have con-firmed," Barr said.

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North Korea said onThursday that it had test-

fired a new type of "tacticalguided weapon," its first suchtest in nearly half a year, anddemanded that Washingtonremove Secretary of State MikePompeo from nuclear negotia-tions.

The test, which didn'tappear to be of a banned mid-or long-range ballistic missilethat could scuttle negotiations,allows North Korea to show itspeople it is pushing ahead withweapons development whilealso reassuring domestic mili-tary officials worried that diplo-macy with Washington signalsweakness.

Separately, the NorthKorean Foreign Ministryaccused Pompeo of playingdown the significance of com-ments by leader Kim Jong Un,who said last week thatWashington has until the end ofthe year to offer mutuallyacceptable terms for an agree-

ment to salvage the high-stakesnuclear diplomacy.

Both the demand forPompeo's removal from thetalks and the weapon test pointto North Korea's displeasurewith the deadlocked negotia-tions. In a statement issuedunder the name of Kwon JongGun, director general of theAmerican Affairs Departmentat the Foreign Ministry, NorthKorea accused Pompeo of "talk-ing nonsense" and misrepre-senting Kim's comments.

During a speech at TexasA&M on Monday, Pompeosaid Kim promised to denu-clearize during his first summitwith President Donald Trumpand that U.S. Officials wereworking with the NorthKoreans to "chart a path for-ward so we can get there."

"He (Kim) said he wantedit done by the end of the year,"Pompeo said. "I'd love to seethat done sooner." The NorthKorean statement said Pompeowas "misrepresenting the mean-ing of our requirement" for the

negotiations to be finalized bythe year's end, and referred tohis "talented skill of fabricatingstories."

It said Pompeo's continuedparticipation in the negotiationswould ensure that the talksbecome "entangled" and calledfor a different counterpart whois "more careful and mature incommunicating with us." In aspeech at his rubber-stampparliament last week, Kim saidhe is open to a third summitwith Trump, but only if theUnited States changes its stance on sanctions enforce-ment and pressure by the endof the year.

Kim observed the unspec-ified weapon being firedWednesday by the Academy ofDefense Science, the North'sstate-run Korean Central NewsAgency said. Kim was report-ed to have said "the develop-ment of the weapon systemserves as an event of veryweighty significance in increas-ing the combat power of thePeople's Army."

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North Korean leader KimJong Un will visit Russia

later this month, the Kremlinsaid Thursday, in a meetingthat offers President VladimirPutin an opportunity to emergeas a broker in the long-runningnuclear standoff and raiseRussia’s profile in regionalaffairs.

The Kremlin said in a briefstatement Thursday that Kimwill visit Russia "in the secondhalf of April" on Putin's invi-tation, but gave no furtherdetails. Russian media havebeen abuzz in recent days withrumors about the rare meetingbetween the leaders.

Putin is set to visit Chinalater this month, and somemedia speculated that he couldmeet with Kim in Vladivostok,the far eastern port city nearthe border with North Korea.

Kim said last week that he

is open to a third summit withUS President Donald Trump,but set the year's end as a dead-line for Washington to offermutually acceptable terms fora deal. The North Koreanleader blamed the collapse ofhis February summit withTrump on what he described asunilateral demands by the US.

For Kim, the meeting mayallow him to expand hisoptions in talks with Trumpand also balance the influenceof China, the main ally andsponsor of the communistNorth.

Moscow maintained closeties with Pyongyang during theSoviet era, building dozens offactories and key infrastructure,sending supplies and providingweapons for the North Koreanmilitary. Those ties witheredafter the 1991 Soviet collapse,when Moscow cold-shoulderedformer Soviet allies amid thenation's economic meltdown.

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Pakistan's Finance MinisterAsad Umar, who was

involved in extensive discus-sions with the IMF to finalisea bailout package for the cash-strapped country, quit theCabinet on Thursday afterPrime Minister Imran Khanexpressed his desire to shift himto the energy ministry.

Umar, who recentlyreturned from a trip to the USin which the details ofPakistan's next InternationalMonetary Fund bailout werefinalised, said he has obtainedthe prime minister's consent "tonot take any cabinet position".

"As part of a cabinetreshuffle, prime ministerdesired that I take the energyminister portfolio instead offinance," Umar said. "However,I have obtained his consent to

not take any cabinet position."Prime Minister Khan-led

government and FinanceMinister Umar in particularhave faced mounting criticismby opposition parties, membersof the business communityand citizens over the handlingof the economic crisis. OnMonday, the Pakistani mediareported that a major reshufflewas on the cards in the FinanceMinistry.

However, InformationMinister Fawad Chaudhrydenied the reports of the

reshuffle. "There is no truth inreports regarding changes inposts of federal ministers. Theprime minister has the powerto change ministers and themedia should play a responsi-ble role on this subject," hetweeted.

Cash-strapped Pakistan isseeking USD 8 billion from theIMF to bail itself out from asevere balance-of-paymentscrisis that threatens to cripplethe country's economy.Pakistan has so far received atotal of USD 9.1 billion infinancial aid packages fromfriendly countries like China,Saudi Arabia and the UAEduring the current fiscal year.

Finance Minister Umarsaid earlier this month that amission of the IMF would visitIslamabad soon after the springmeetings of the World BankGroup, which includes theIMF, and an agreement shouldbe signed by the end of thismonth.

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Nepal Thursday successful-ly launched its first satel-

lite into space from the US togather detailed geographicalinformation of the Himalayannation, evoking unbridledexcitement among the peopleand scientists.

Developed by the Nepalesescientists, NepaliSat-1 satellitewas launched at 2.31 am (Nepaltime) from Virginia in UnitedStates, according to NepalAcademy of Science andTechnology (NAST).

Two Nepali scientists,Aabhas Maskey and HariramShrestha who are currentlystudying at Japanese KyushuInstitute of Technology, devel-oped the satellite under theBIRDS project of their institute.

Prime Minister KP SharmaOli congratulated all the sci-entists and institutions involvedin the development of the satel-lite. He said it was a matter ofprestige for the country tohave its own satellite.

"Though a humble begin-ning, with the launching ofNepaliSat-1 Nepal has entered

the Space-Era. I wish to con-gratulate all those scientistsand institutions that wereinvolved right from the devel-opment to its launching there-by enhancing the prestige ofour country," he said in atweet.

Spokesperson for NASTSuresh Kumar Dhungel saidthey invested in the satellite ina bid to open new paths forspace engineering in the coun-try.

He said with the help ofNepaliSat-1, ground stationlocated at NAST office willcommunicate and gatherimages of the geographicalarea of the country.

NepaliSat-1 is a low orbitsatellite which will be in the400-km distance from the

Earth's surface. It will be sta-tioned at the InternationalSpace Station for a month andthen it will be sent to orbit theearth, according to NAST.

The satellite will take pho-tographs on a regular basis togather geographical informa-tion of the country.

The satellite has a Nepaliflag and the NAST logo. It alsohas the name of the scientistsinvolved in the making of thesatellite.

Nepal Academy of Scienceand Technology has investednearly Rs 20 million for thesatellite that weighs 1.3 kilo-grams, a small satellite withlimited capability.

Nepal's first entry intospace has brought huge excite-ment among people and sci-entists.

NAST initiated the launchof the country's own satelliteunder the BIRDS project of theJapanese Kyushu Institute ofTechnology.

The BIRDS project hasbeen designed in associationwith the United Nations andaims at helping countrieslaunch their first satellite.

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Twenty-nine Germantourists were killed on

Wednesday when a bus crashedon the Portuguese island ofMadeira.

Televised images showedthe bus had spun off the road,apparently having flipped sev-eral times, before crashing intoa house at the bottom of aslope.

"Horrible news comes to usfrom Madeira," a German gov-ernment spokesman tweetedafter the deadly crash.

"Our deep sorrow goes to all those who lost their livesin the bus accident, ourthoughts are with the injured,"he added.

Filipe Sousa, mayor ofSanta Cruz where the accidenthappened, said 17 women and11 men were killed in the crash, with another 21injured.

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Haman-hai-ishq — love is all thereis — words evocative of India’s rich

pluralistic tradition represented thequintessence of what Haku Shah, a cel-ebrated Gandhian artist and socialanthropologist of exceptional vision,stood for. His death at the age of 84,after a long illness on March 21, didn’tgo unnoticed. The National Gallery ofModern Art celebrated his extraordi-nary life by hosting an evening of musicand intimate reminiscences.

An avant-garde in more ways thanone, Shah mainstreamed rural, tribal,folk art and craft by bridging thechasm between elitism and art that hasoften been relegated to the eponymouscategory of folk or subaltern tribalexpressions. His love for folk artists andartisans evolved as part of a burgeon-ing movement in the 50s for the creativeintersection of craft and design. One ofhis first assignments was at the Weavers’Service Centre established by PupulJayakar near the Opera House inMumbai. An astonishing number of

artists with different terms ofengagement gravitated to thecentres and elsewhere —

Prabhakar Barwe, Jeram Patel,Jogen Chowdhury, Himmat Shah,

Gautam Vaghela, Bhasker Kulkarni,Amrut Patel and Manu Parekh to name

but just a few. Also budding scenogra-phers like Rajeev Sethi and MartandSingh. KG Subramanyan came occa-sionally and created stunning stand-alone sculptures from the fibres ofhandspun wool. Haku Shah thrived inthis hothouse of creativity. His nextassignment, a long stint with theNational Institute of Design, was alsonot an act of artistic hubris, but was dri-ven by the need to research tribal artand crafts, rituals and belief systemsthat had intrigued him for a long time.In 1978 he was appointed advisor to theMingei International Museum at SanDiego in California .

Shah’s exquisite personal collectionof terracotta objects picked up from vil-lages near Valod, Mandvi, Buhari,Poshina and Chhota Udaipur in Gujarat

and the tribal areas of Tamil Nadu andKarnataka was the seedbed of a seriesof revelatory and beautifully curatedexhibitions, beginning with a modestdisplay in Sevagram in 1955. His trav-elling terracotta exhibition, Forms ofMother Clay, was first curated for theCrafts Museum in Delhi. It pioneeredsome of the best curatorial practices.Another precious exhibition, UnknownIndia, on tribal ritual art, curated withart historian Dr Stella Kramrisch for thePhiladelphia Museum of Art in 1968,took the art world by storm. He alsocontributed to the richness of theFestival of India exhibitions in UK, USAand Japan, challenging rigid binaries bydrawing attention to powerful artisticimaginations at work.

Several interesting stories unrav-elled at Haku Shah’s remembrancemeet at NGMA. His son Parthiv’s storyof a Vaghri woman hawker who wouldvisit their home in Paldi, Ahmedabadwith a basket full of clay toys day afterday, encouraged by his father to createnew art forms. Some of her work arepart of the permanent exhibits at thePhiladelphia Museum. Professor ParulDave’s story of Saroja, the impoverishedwife of a locked out textile mill work-er who was encouraged to make figu-rative appliqué that was later celebrat-ed worldwide, was an eye-opener.Manu Parekh’s story of Gopal Jogi, anitinerant ballad singer from a drought-hit area in Rajasthan, who was work-ing as a stone breaker at a constructionsite when Shah spotted him andencouraged him to draw, uncovered hispotential as an artist. Shah’s visceralengagement with rural, tribal art formore than half a century and his cru-

sade-like zeal in promoting artisans wasremembered with great affection byRajeev Sethi.

As a teacher, Shah mentored gen-erations of students at the NationalInstitute of Design, taught at the Schoolof Architecture and joined theUniversity of California in the spring of1991 to teach a studio course in Textilesand Design as a distinguished Regents’professor. He was a conscientiousresearcher and authored several booksand monographs on folk and tribal art,deconstructing the semiotics of ritesand rituals embedded in nature andearth with eminent scholars likeEberhard Fischer, Stella Kramrisch,Joan Erikson and Charles and RayEames. His book on Votive Terracottasof Gujarat has acquired a cult status.Jyotindra Jain, who partnered withhim to research on Temple Tents for theMother Goddesses in Gujarat, a 225-page monograph with 460 plates, spokeabout their shared passion for researchthat would often keep them awake till2 at night as they roamed the streets ofthe old city of Ahmedabad to study thenocturnal rituals of Matani Pachediartisans.

One of Shah’s most seminal contri-butions was establishing an ethno-graphic Tribal Museum at the GujaratVidyapith and a crafts village inUdaipur. His own body of work res-onates at many levels, from the tender,visual rendering of nirguna poetry andimagery derived from folklore to potentexpressions of Gandhi’s satyagraha ina 2015 exhibition evocatively titledNitya Gandhi. Glimpses of his work onthe beautiful memory wall created bythe NGMA team, Vidya Shah’s exquis-ite rendering of Kabir’s songs, JhiniChadariya and Naiharwa Humka NaBhave, Antara’s luminous weavers’ songtaught by her grandfather and Anant’spoignant tribute to his dada who wouldnot have liked all this fuss was whatmade the evening at NGMA so special.

(The author is a former civil ser-vant and currently the adviser to the

Crafts Museum).

This year, many streets andtowns in Germany are cel-ebrating Bauhaus’ centenni-

al, an arthouse movement thatgave us clean, minimalist lines inarchitecture, the kind that definesthe look of new-age buildingsacross the world. The movementrepresented a break from ceremo-nial grandeur and opulence. Itradically simplified forms, com-bined rationality with functional-ity and lent credence to the ideathat mass production was recon-cilable with the individual artis-tic spirit. It also used basic mate-rials.

From Weimar to Berlin andDessau, it would be a celebrationacross the nation through exhibi-tions, awareness programmes,performances and workshops.However, if Romit Theophilus,director for India, the GermanNational Tourist Office, is to bebelieved then its accents havealso percolated to India, particu-larly in Kolkata, whereRabindranath Tagore internalisedit in 1922. The Indian Society ofOriental Art introduced the con-cept.

The movement didn’t initial-ly include other cultures and wasnot prevalent worldwide except inGermany and a few Europeannations. However, Theophilussays that it is prevalent everywherenow. “It’s just that we don’t noticehow it is deeply embedded in ourvery cultures and everydaylifestyles.” He believes that thegenerations after the movementdissipated never learnt muchabout it to understand its valueand presence in our lives. “When

Bauhaus started, it was a move-ment that was changing Europeanideologies at that time. And by thetime, the movement ended, due tocertain issues like funding, man-agement, war, and more, its mas-ters travelled across the world andwent to places like the US andLondon. They continued themovement in traces. They took italong with themselves,” he says,which is how it manifested itselffrom the biggest structures to thesmallest things.

From 1919 to 1933, it was onlyin 14 years that the Bauhausmovement brought in a surge of

transformation in the modernthinking about arts and culture,fashion, urban trends and thepublic realm. However, why is itthat it holds so much importanceeven today? Theophilus explainsthat there are things we have forour everyday utilities which werebirthed from the revolution.However, we do not realise theirorigin. “This is the unique thingabout their products. What wasmade 100 years ago could also beused today. For instance, its defin-itive lamp shades have a very sim-plistic design and are used eventoday. Also, the baby cradle is stillrelevant.”

He explains that the wholeidea of Bauhaus is “simplicity, notjust in architecture but goes intovarious fields. Sometimes we don’teven know where it is comingfrom but we see it everyday.”

And though people maybelieve that the movement died, itactually kept evolving constantly.“We might not even realise whatall aspects have changed everyday.Even about the German Embassyin India, we were told by theDeputy Ambassador that he couldsee Bauhaus everytime he drivesacross the city. So, it did survivewell actually. Even today it hasbeen embracing new things tosurvive and change,” he says.

India recently witnessed 100years of the Jallianwala Bagh mas-sacre of 1919. The event was awatershed in the history of Indiannationalism and continues toreverberate even today. Well, thereare always certain events in histo-ry which stay important evenafter years of their occurrence but

need to be revived with time.Bauhaus is one such. Theophilussays, “To bring such things backinto focus, we need to rememberthe old masters. Because even ifwe are using it everyday in refer-ences and common day examples,we might not know that it was firstinspired by the school. And hence,on its 100th anniversary, all acrossGermany, institutions and Gothicschools, Max Mueller Bhawanshere, and even the tourism indus-try, we are focussing on revivingideas of Bauhaus. With this, weaim to bring it to India on a largescale as well. We also invite cul-turally-minded travellers toexplore this birthplace of mod-ernism.”

It was seen on the screensfrom China to the US recently,how the massive fire at the NotreDame Cathedral became a horri-fying scene against the Parisiansky. He says, “It’s important to pre-serve such monuments as they area symbol of ancient heritage.They need to be revived andreminded of with time. The sameis the case with the Bauhausmovement. We need to be verycareful and mindful. And notjust from fire or other man-madedisasters, but even from pollu-tion.”

He tells us that history hasalways been the primaryfocus of German tourism.“The previous year, we hadculinary revolution inGermany, this year is theBauhaus and the next year,it would be the 150thanniversary of Beethoven,”he says.

As the Angriya cruise boatheaded out to sea from

Mumbai, past the Gateway ofIndia, Hyundai India used theopportunity to unveil its newcompact SUV, the Venue. Whilethe standing joke among auto-motive journalists was about theunique ‘venue’, the car was itselfquite interesting. This segmentwas birthed by the Indian gov-ernment’s ridiculous excise rulesthat gave concessions to carsbelow four metres in length andwith smaller engines, instead ofa progressive level of taxationbased on emissions. The FordEcoSport was the first SUV totake advantage of this rule, butnow carmakers are developingproducts specifically targetingthis segment, and makingadjustments for this market.You had the Maruti-SuzukiVitara Brezza, developed forIndia by an Indian team andMahindra’s engineers recentlyre-engineered the SsangyongTivoli, reducing length to adhereto Indian norms as the XUV300.And now the Hyundai Venuedoes that too. This model is aglobal product as India hasbeen on the top of the mind forthe Korean carmaker. Indeed,the Indian unveil took place anhour before the car was show-cased at the New York autoshow.

There is a global market forcompact Sports Utility Vehicles,and the Indian market is no dif-ferent. But Hyundai had noproduct in this segment otherthan the hastily put together i20Active, which was an i20 that hasa bit of extra plastic cladding anda raised suspension. And if

you’re thinking that the Venueis similar to the i20, far from it.It looks unique and the head-lights and front indicators looksimilar to those on the TataHarrier, although both cars weredeveloped concurrently. It is avery unique looking productand with stand-out front designand a very nice rear-end, it ispossibly one of the smartestvehicles to enter the market now.

And all of this has beendone without compromisingon interior space. In fact, theinteriors are where the Venuereally shines. Hyundai India isactually launching its connectiv-ity suite, Blue Link, with theVenue when it goes on sale fromMay 21. Connectivity and info-tainment are huge selling points,or that is what carmakers thinkand the Venue has a Vodafone-Idea eSIM car that allows you touse Hyundai’s concierge servicesand Here Maps with live trafficdata sources from Ola.Personally, I’m happy if a car hasan Apple CarPlay system whichgives me all that minus aconcierge service. Or AndroidAuto, both of which offer memusic-streaming services. ButHyundai is ensuring that bothservices will still work on theVenue.

The Venue’s unveiling wasalso an opportunity to meetHyundai India’s new ManagingDirector, SS Kim, and hisunderstanding of the Indianmarket. While he is still new toIndia, Kim did mention thatHyundai will be going all gunsout with the Venue. However,with Hyundai about to launchthe electric Kona in India in acouple of months, he did saythat we still have to work onimproving electric vehicle infra-

structure as well as increas-ing Indian consumer

acceptance of thehigher prices ofelectric cars.Well onA n g r i y a ,things werepretty electricalready.

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��How different do you findthe Kayastha cuisine fromothers?

Kayastha cuisine is anadapted cuisine, not a region-al one. Kayasthas brought theroyal Mughal cuisine to thelocals, hence creating theirown adapted version of thesedishes. It doesn’t belong to anyparticular region of India asthe Kayasthas are spread allover the country. These factorsprobably make it one of themost unique cuisines of thecountry.

�� How do you think suchtraditional cuisines should beencouraged to bring them tothe level of other globalcuisines?

India being the countrywhich is vast in culture, alwayshas space for all. I do believea global exposure throughsocial media showcasingthe beauty of this cuisinewill be helpful.Whether throughfood enthusiastswriting moreabout this orfood critics giv-ing their valu-able feedback onthese dishes.Through cheftables that Io r g a n -ise, myp r i m egoal is tobring forththis cuisine to asmany as I can, making sure thelegacy of my ancestors is car-ried forward respectfully.

��How have you customisedyour dishes to suit otherpreferences which are notfamiliar with the Kayasthacuisine?

Since it’s an adapted cui-sine from Mughals, people

are already familiar with theflavours and spices and so itdoesn’t need too much cus-tomisation. However, I alwaysinclude a touch of garammasala. For instance, the mainingredient for Murgi Gulaabiis rose petal powder, washeddried and crushed. I use itsince roses were the Mughalfavourite and so are mine.

�� What are someof the most successful

food experiments that youhave mastered?

I have worked mostlyupon meaty dishes andIndian desserts, with a bit of

Western fusion as wellas tradition-

al. I havee x p e r i -

m e n t e dwith Sabudana

Kheer giving it theflavour of blueberries andlavender.

�� How do you think theIndian foodie is acceptingglobal food trends?

Indians are very open tonew concepts lately and areready when it comes to exper-imenting with their taste buds.For instance, modern Indian

cuisine has taken a great stepforward and is being appreci-ated by a number of people.

�� What is it that could bethe greatest cause of failure ina chef ’s dish?

Unbalanced flavours, intu-itive cooking and compro-mising with the quality ofingredients. I recently did anevent in Kolkata where unfor-tunately due to some reasonsI had to compromise the qual-ity of the ingredient whichmade my dish zero in terms offlavours. One has to make surethe availability of the quality ofingredients wherever andwhenever one is cooking.

�� How has your cookingevolved over the years interms of keeping track ofthe latest trends?

In the world of fusion andlatest gastronomical style ofcooking, I believe one stilllooks back to that bygone erawhich used to fill our heartsand not just the tummy. Withtraditional cuisines one can’texperiment much with ingre-dients and style, but can onlymaster the old techniques andpresent it to the new world intheir own signature style.However, I don’t follow the lat-est trend but I make sure I givethe customer a complete expe-rience of not just the food butthe journey along with it.

��Food is subjective. Somemay like a dish and somewon’t. How do you deal withnegative criticism to yourfood?

With all due respect, peo-ple will always have opinions.No one can ever deny that fact.And food is very subjective.The sooner one understandsthat, the sooner negative crit-icism won’t seem like censureanymore.

I could hear the laughtermuch before I reached theplace. And it seemed to be

drifting out wave upon fre-quent wave. It was a Sundayafternoon and I was standingoutside Plum by Bent Chair,Aerocity, which I had beenhearing about frequently in thepast few months. Describedvariously as the most“Instagrammable restaurant”and “one where you can buyeverything that you see includ-ing the furniture,” it was indeeda surprise that no one had spo-ken about the happy, infectiousvibe that seems to pervade theplace. And if one was to mis-takenly think that it was a placefor the young to hang out at, Icould see several tables wherethree generations of a familywere happily congregating overwhat seemed to be an extend-ed lunch.

Now, coming back to whatthe restaurant has been mak-ing waves for. A joint effort byrestaurateur Priyank Sukhijaalong with partner NatashaJain (the lady behind BentChair), it started with a uniqueconcept of combining retailwith eating out. So while youeat, if you happen to admireanything from the comfortablefurniture that you are sitting onor the plates that you areserved in or even the lampsthat light up the place or anyof the paintings, vases or walldécor and wish to cart themback home, all you have to do

is order. Not surprisingly, theidea has caught the fancy ofDelhiites.

The place is a splash ofcolour with an abundance ofbright pinks and magentas,vivid greens, happy yellows,exuberant purples and more.They feature as paint on thewalls, upholstery on the furni-ture and the various acces-sories that dot the place. Kitschis the word that can describethe ambience but then, thatcannot fully convey the smor-gasbord that it offers.

Whether a restaurantworks or not boils down to notjust the way it looks but theway its food tastes. Here too, itdoes not disappoint. Mostly.We had a range of dimsumsstarting with Fern Verdure,which had mock duck meat. Itsfilling, which was combinedwith fresh corn, carrots, garlic

flakes and spicy chilli Plum oil,made me look forward to whatwas to follow. While you couldtaste each element separately,at the same time, they cametogether beautifully as a whole,which made for a dish that wassatisfying and at the sametime left me craving for more.

The Crystal Dumplings,which had a filling of chest-nuts, carrots and mushroom,were elevated by the taste ofsea salt that stood out for thecrunch of its vegetables. Thespices were not overpoweringand the flavours that camethrough were clean and those

of various vegetables.We also had the Hanging

Globe Vegetation Bao and I cansay, without much of a doubt,that it was the best that I havetasted, ever. The covering wassoft, so much so that the onlyequivalent I could think of asI bit into it was that of a cloud.The insides, stuffed with freshtofu and spinach, were deli-cately flavoured with fivespices. My mouth watered atits very thought even a fewdays after I ate it.

Next up was Flying Cupid,which is listed as ‘Plum-azing’or rather the must-have at the

restaurant. This consists ofturnip cut into cubes andflavoured with Cantonesespice pepper, scallions andgolden garlic. I guess, my ver-sion of the vegetable got thebetter of me and while I did eatit, I would not really order itif I go back to the place.

We also ordered thePlanter Broccoli Bird Eye,which Chef Sagar Bajaj told us,was made by reducing milkthat gave it a slightly sweettaste. The tempura broccoliwas crunchy and the bird-eyechilli gave it a slight heat. Thechef told us that as comparedto Mumbai, where theyopened the first outlet, thechilli quotient was 30 per centhigher as Delhi loves it hot.

Another favourite amongthe clientele is the Dried Chillichicken, where the meat isrubbed with Szechuan pep-per-infused oil and keptovernight before being cooked.Served with finely-choppedred chilli, which is de-seeded,boiled and then lightly tossedin a wok to give it a crunch, thedish is a hot favourite eventhough it is poles apart fromthe image that the mind con-jures up when we say “chillichicken.”

We ended the meal withPlum tropical fruit citruscheesecake, which was again asurprise, served as it was witha cocktail of diced apple andpomegranate. A fresh end to asoul-satisfying meal.

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Manchester City manager PepGuardiola insisted VAR does pro-duce "fair football" despite a cruel

Champions League quarter-final exit on awaygoals to Tottenham after a pulsating tie ended4-4 on aggregate.

City were 4-3 victors in Wednesday's sec-ond leg, but for the third straight season failedto reach the last four under Guardiola as twobig VAR reviews went in Spurs' favour.

Firstly, Fernando Llorente's decisivegoal 17 minutes from time stood despite theball appearing to clip the Spaniard's hand onits way into the net.

Then deep into stoppage time, RaheemSterling had the strike that would have sealedhis hat-trick and seen City through ruled outafter Sergio Aguero was shown to be offsidein the build-up.

Elimination ended City's quest for aquadruple and Guardiola lamented a seriesof costly errors across both games, afterAguero also missed a penalty in the first leg,that saw his side bow out to a side 16 pointsbehind them in the Premier League.

"It's tough. We were close to go through,it's cruel, but we have to accept it," addedGuardiola.

"The mistakes in this competition pun-ish you a lot. Unfortunately it was a bad endfor us."

Unlike Guardiola, Tottenham bossMauricio Pochettino has previously been acritic of VAR, but believes the decisions toaward City a penalty in the first leg and notpunish Fernandinho for a clash with HarryKane balanced themselves out over the tie.

"You have to trust the VAR when it isagainst or for you," said Pochettino. "Thedeicision to include VAR in football is goingto change the game."

And the Argentine labelled his playersas "heroes" for reaching the semi-finals of theEuropean Cup for just the second time intheir history after a season in which they havenot signed a single player and played themajority of the campaign at a temporaryhome in Wembley.

"On this type of night, this type of vic-tory, only I can feel proud. I feel they areheroes. With all the circumstances to be inthe semi-finals of the Champions Leaguethey deserve a lot of praise."

���������� � Guardiola's decision to not start Kevin

de Bruyne in the first leg will be further ques-tioned as the Belgian bagged a hat-trick ofassists to take City to the brink of the last four.

The first set up the first of four goals in11 minutes as Sterling opened the scoring.

However, Spurs struck back twice inthree minutes as Son Heung-min's doubletook his tally for the season to 20.

Yet, with Kane expected to be sidelinedfor the rest of the season, Pochettino hasanother selection headache with Son sus-pended for the first leg of Spurs' semi-finalagainst Ajax.

A kamikaze opening had another twistas Bernardo Silva's effort deflected off

Danny Rose and wrong-footed Hugo Llorisat his near post to bring City level on thenight.

By the midway point of the first-half, thehosts were back in front as Bernardo and DeBruyne played creators once more and

Sterling finished off a low cross at the backpost.

Spurs' hopes of holding on to theiradvantage on away goals suffered anotherblow when Moussa Sissoko was forced offwith an injury.

Pochettino chose attack as the best formof defence by replacing the midfielder withLlorente in what proved to be a decisivechange.

De Bruyne had his third assist on thehour mark as he surged through midfieldbefore timing his pass for Aguero to perfec-tion and the Argentine rifled past Lloris.

Having gone ahead for the first time inthe tie, Guardiola soon sent on Fernandinhoto restore some sense of control, but Citywere pegged back again as an incredible tieswung back in Tottenham's favour.

Kieran Trippier's corner was bundled inby Llorente, but there was controversy as theball seemed to hit the striker's arm on its wayin.

After a VAR check, though, Turkish ref-eree Cuneyt Cakir stood by his original deci-sion and the goal stood.

And VAR went against City again deepinto stoppage time as delirium soon turnedto disbelief inside the Etihad when whatwould have been a hat-trick for Sterling wasruled out.

����� �-;�-

Jurgen Klopp admitted he cannot wait tolead Liverpool into a Champions League

semi-final against Barcelona after watch-ing his side crush Porto 4-1 in Portugal onWednesday to complete a 6-1 aggregatevictory in their last-eight tie.

On a wet night at the Estadio doDragao, Liverpool weathered an earlystorm against Porto before scoring fromtheir first attempt just before the half-hour,Sadio Mane prodding home for a goalgiven after a lengthy VAR review.

Already in control of this tie after a 2-0 win at Anfield in the first leg, Liverpoolhad effectively killed off Porto there andthen, but Mohamed Salah, substituteRoberto Firmino and Virgil van Dijkadded further goals after the break.

Eder Militao scored a consolation forthe hosts 21 minutes from time, but thiswas another miserable night for them afterthey lost 5-0 to the same opponents on thisground a year ago.

Liverpool now march on to a clashwith Lionel Messi's Barca, the first meet-ing of the clubs since a last-16 encounterin 2006/07 that the Reds won on awaygoals.

"To be in the semi-finals for the sec-ond year running is a big statement. I amreally proud of the boys for what they did."

On the night Manchester City'squadruple bid died, the dream of aChampions League and Premier Leaguedouble remains alive for Liverpool andtheir supporters, whose spirits were notdampened by the dreary weather by thebanks of the River Douro.

This was their 17th game withoutdefeat and their eighth straight victory,although Barcelona will offer a far toughertest than Porto.

With the matches coming thick and

fast, he made three changes to his teamhere following Sunday's 2-0 win overChelsea. Firmino and Naby Keita, whoboth scored in the first leg, dropped outalong with Jordan Henderson.

They were replaced by GeorginioWijnaldum, James Milner and DivockOrigi, with the latter making his firstChampions League start for the club.However, the Belgian only played the firsthalf before making way for Firmino.

����%�������4��Porto had 13 attempts on goal in the

first 25 minutes, but would regret not scor-ing while on top.

Porto needed an early goal tonight anddidn't score it. I'm completely happy. It'sonly important to go through, and we wentthrough," Klopp said.

Their opening goal came when Salah— his every touch jeered by the Porto sup-port who felt he should have been sent offin the first leg — rolled the ball into thesix-yard area for Mane to get his 22nd ofthe campaign.

The offside flag came up but Dutchreferee Danny Makkelie conferred with hisvideo assistants before awarding the goal.

Porto knew their chance was gone,with their fans cursing Mane again — hescored a hat-trick in Liverpool's win herein the last 16 last season.

Trent Alexander-Arnold releasedSalah to run through and beat IkerCasillas on 65 minutes to make it 2-0,before Porto got their consolation short-ly after when Militao headed in from anAlex Telles corner.

However, Mane missed the target afterrounding Casillas, before Henderson setup fellow substitute Firmino to head inLiverpool's third on 77 minutes and VanDijk nodded in from a corner to completethe scoring."

����� ��;56

Paris Saint-Germain failedto the seal the Ligue 1 title

for the third match running onWednesday after a second-string line-up without droppedKylian Mbappe took the cham-pions to their second defeat ina matter of days, 3-2 at Nantes.

A Diego Carlos brace andMajeed Waris' tap-in inflicted athird league loss on ThomasTuchel's side, who were ham-mered 5-1 at second-placedLille on Sunday and drew withStrasbourg the previous week,despite Dani Alves' stunningopener and substitute MetehanGuclu pulling one back late on.

However PSG, who werealso missing a host of otherfirst-team players throughinjuries and suspension, remain17 points clear with six gamesleft.

The runaway leaders willwin their sixth title in sevenyears on Sunday if Lille fail towin at Toulouse and they thenbeat struggling Monaco.

"It's very easy to analyse, itwas a very bad performance, wedeserved to lose," said Tuchel.

"We controlled the game atLille but today there was no per-formance for 90 minutes.

"You can lose and you canmake mistakes, and we willalways defend the players if wefeel that they've played with agreat attitude and hunger. Buttoday it is not possible."

������������4�Depleted PSG had to thank

Gianluigi Buffon 12 minutes inwhen he managed to pushaway Kalifa Coulibaly's headerfrom point-blank range, andseven minutes later Alvesappeared to have calmedParisian nerves with his won-

der strike.There looked to be little on

when the Brazilian collectedLeandro Paredes' simple pass,but he quickly lashed anunstoppable dipping drive pastMaxime Dupe to score his firstLigue 1 goal this season.

However just three minutesafter the opener Diego Carloswas allowed too much space tonod home Valentin Ronger inswinging corner.

PSG continued to struggle

despite the odd flash fromMoussa Diaby, and the hostsgrabbed a deserved second justbefore the break.

Nantes turned the screwseven minutes after the breakfrom another corner, this onemet by a Nicolas Pallois flick-on that crept through a sea oflegs to Carlos, who unwitting-ly knocked in the third.

Without Mbappe to pres-sure them, Nantes kept comingforward, and were almost gift-ed a fourth in the 68th minutewhen Paredes passed the ballstraight to Coulibaly withBuffon way out of his goal, onlyfor the Malian to hit his shoottoo hard and over the bar.

Guclu crashed home hisfirst ever PSG goal on his debutin the final minute to give theaway side hope that they couldstill clinch the title with sixmatches to spare, but despitepressing forward they couldn'tfind the breakthrough.

����� �,;�5�

Bayern Munich wingerKingsley Coman has said

that he hopes to step out ofFranck Ribery's shadow whenhis veteran compatriot leavesBayern.

Coman, 22, has long beentouted as the natural successorto Ribery, who is expected to enda glistening 12-year spell atBayern this summer.

Yet in an interview withKicker magazine on Thursday,Coman insisted that he is not acarbon copy of his fellow Frenchwinger.

"Franck has his career and Ihave mine. I am not the newRibery, I am myself," he said.

Having missed the first halfof the season with injury, Comanhas established himself as a reg-ular starter under coach NikoKovac.

A key part of Bayern's gen-erational shift under Kovac, the22-year-old has been first-choiceleft-winger in recent weeks.

He scored twice in Bayern's4-1 win over Duesseldorf lastSunday, but told Kicker that hestill needs to improve.

"As a winger I should bescoring more goals," he said.

"I bring a lot of good qual-ities, but I am still a long wayaway from being world class."

Coman, whose contractruns until 2023, said that hecould match Ribery's longevityin a Bayern shirt.

"I can really imagine stayinghere for a long time," he said.

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Their house in complete dis-order after seven defeats

from eight outings, the ViratKohli-led Royal ChallengersBangalore will be desperate fora win to stay afloat in the IPLwhen they take on KolkataKnight Riders here on Friday.

It would be a great opportu-nity for the Bangalore outfit topost a win against an opponentwho are low on confidence hav-ing slipped from second to sixthposition in the points table aftersuffering three straight defeats.

In fact, to make mattersworse, Kolkata's dangermanAndre Russell has suffered aninjury scare after being hit on hisleft shoulder by a bouncer dur-ing their practice.

Russell was already sufferingfrom niggles ahead of their lastmatch against Chennai SuperKings and had failed to fire forthe first time, exposing KKR'sover-reliance on the West Indiesbig hitter.

Russell had left the RoyalChallengers in shambles in theirfirst leg exchange, smashingseven sixes en route to his 13-ball48 not out as KKR had chaseddown a huge 206.

It remains to be seen if theJamaican recovers in time. Hisabsence would be a big void forKKR, who are looking to returnto winning ways and reignitetheir campaign.

To make the playoffs, KKRneed to win at least four of theirremaining six matches, of whichthree are at home. However,even KKR will fancy theirchances and seek to get back ontrack against a lowly RCB facinga do-or-die situation.

RCB's star duo of Kohliand AB de Villiers have been insublime form but the team hasnot clicked as a whole with theirpace bowling being a major let-down. While youngster NavdeepSaini has been impressive, seniorpro Umesh Yadav has turned outto be a big flop, bagging twowickets at an expensive econo-my of 9.26.

With South African veteranpacer Dale Steyn ready to takecharge as an injury replace-ment for Nathan Coulter-Nilemidway into the IPL, the pacedepartment will hope to get theirsting back. Kohli and de Villierswill look to fire in unison againsta team whose bowling has failedto click collectively.

The KKR pace departmenthas looked mediocre, while theirfamed spinners have struggled toget wickets on the batting-friendly Eden conditions here.

Meanwhile, all eyes will alsobe on KKR skipper DineshKarthik who has grabbed a sur-prise World Cup berth ahead ofyoung wicketkeeper RishabhPant. Karthik has only one half-century and an average of 18.50so far this season.

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Nepalese sensationS a n d e e p

Lamichhane has calledfor the World Cup to beexpanded to up to 16teams, saying limiting itto 10 hurts players fromemerging cricketnations.

The 18-year-oldleg-spinner, who lastyear became the firstNepalese player to landan Indian PremierLeague contract, saidhe was frustrated to bemissing out on the tour-nament in England andWales starting in May.

"Sorry to say but a10-team World Cup willhurt a lot of players likeme who will not be apart of it," the DelhiCapitals player said.

"I think thereshould be 14-16 teams in the World Cup."

Lamichhane added: "World Cup comes afterevery four years and teams can achieve theirbiggest dreams there. We are an emerging nationand this is something we would love to play forour country.

"Even in 2023 there are (again) only 10 teamsso it will be a while before we can even think ofplaying in the 50-over event."

Cricket's showpiece tournament had 16teams in 2007, but the field was reduced to 14 in2011 and 2015 as the International CricketCouncil sought to avoid one-sided matches.

It has been slashed to just 10 teams for 2019and 2023, featuring the top eight sides in the one-day rankings and another two coming throughqualifying.

Lamichhane, who will be watching theWorld Cup from afar, said he was hoping for someupsets by the smaller teams, who includeAfghanistan.

"I am going to watch the World Cup on TVand love to see any team that is under-rated per-form well against the big nations," saidLamichhane.

"It will be an inspiration for us who are justbeginning their journey right now."

���� �,)�",�85

Virat Kohli hasn't forgotten thetimes when Mahendra Singh

Dhoni firmly stood by him as a cap-tain and now that the roles havereversed, he is not going to back downfrom supporting the veteran despitethe "unfortunate criticism" that the for-mer skipper is coping.

The Indian captain also expressedhis happiness with the composition ofthe 15-strong Indian squad for theWorld Cup in an interview to IndiaToday.

"It's unfortunate to see so manypeople going after him. For me, loy-alty matters the most," Kohli's wordsshowed his reverence for his first inter-national captain.

"When I walked into the team hehad the option of trying someone elseafter few games, although I grabbedmy chances but for me to get that kindof backing, it was very crucial for me.

"Also, he gave me an opportuni-ty to bat at No 3 because not manyyoungsters get to play at No 3," theskipper recalled his formative days ininternational cricket.

When an astute brain meets a

superlative performer, there is boundto be lot of mutual admiration and theKohli-Dhoni relationship is no differ-ent. "It's just about the field placementsand bowling changes and we say youknow the angles, you know the paceof the pitch and that's why there is somuch of trust and respect between thetwo of us," he said.

As he has said earlier, Kohli againreiterated that there are no peers toDhoni when it comes to readingmatch situations.

"He is one person, who literallyknows the game inside out. He under-stands the game from 'Ball 1 to Ball 300

(50 overs) on the field. I won't say itsa luxury to have him but I am fortu-nate to have a mind like that frombehind the stumps," Kohli said.

It is Dhoni's presence behindstumps that has ensured that Kohliwith one of the strongest arms canafford to field in the deep.

"At the end of the day, I want tobe involved in strategy with the teammanagement with Mahi bhai andRohit. "In the death overs, I know thatI have to be on the outfield to try andmake something work for the teambecause that's my nature that I wantto do something for the team ratherthan just be there.

"After 30-35 overs, he knows thatI will be in the outfield and its on theauto mode," he explained.

While he didn't elaborate about histake on the debate on the World Cupsquad, he didn't forget to give it hisstamp of approval. "We are veryhappy with 15 that we have. This is themost balanced side we could havethought of because everyone is in agood space," the skipper said withoutgetting into the debate about themuch talked about omissions ofRishabh Pant and Ambati Rayudu.

���� =�;�(85�

Pakistan on Thursday left out experiencedbut out-of-form pacer Muhammad Aamir

from its 15-member World Cup squad whileincluding batsman Abid Ali in the line-up.

Chief Selector Inzamam-ul-Haq, announc-ing the World Cup squad and two reserve play-ers, said the 11 from the 2017 ChampionsTrophy had been retained in the selectionprocess.

"We are hopeful and confident thatPakistan will give a good account of itself inthe World Cup," Inzamam said.

The selectors, while not showing faith withleft-armer Aamir who has taken just five wick-ets in his last 14 ODIs since the ChampionsTrophy two years back, reposed confidence inseniors Shoaib Malik and Muhammad Hafeez.

Inzamam said that Hafeez's final inclusionin World Cup was subject to him being 100 percent fit before the tournament as he is stillrecovering from a thumb injury.

"Doctors have advised him not to bowl orbat now but when his rehab is over he will beback in action in two weeks time," he added.

Inzamam said hard-hitting batsman AsifAli and Aamir were in the reserves for the one-day series against England and the side match-es before the World Cup.

He said that if both performed exception-ally well in the ODI series and T20 they willbe considered as cover for the World Cupincase of injuries to any of the selected play-ers.

"If they are not needed they will returnhome after the ODI series," he said.

Pakistan's World Cup squad is a combina-tion of three openers, four middle-order bats-men, wicketkeeper/batsman in SarfarazAhmed, two spinners and five fast bowlers.

The chief selector said the side had beenpicked according to the conditions and includ-ed reliable batters, trusted wicket-takingbowlers and dynamic fielders.

���� (-�-��-

Sacked as skipper, pacer LasithMalinga was on Thursday

named in Sri Lanka's 15-strongWorld Cup squad and the coun-try's embattled cricket boardhoped that the veteran will putbehind the disappointment toshow up for the team.

The 35-year-old Malinga wasreplaced as captain DimuthKarunaratne, who leads the Testteam but hasn't played an ODIsince the 2015 World Cup. Thesurprising move continued theongoing turmoil in Sri Lankancricket, which is also being inves-tigated for large-scale corruptionby the ICC.

"We hope he would play forthe country," Sri Lanka Cricket

chief Shammi Silva said whileannouncing the squad amid spec-ulation that Malinga, who is cur-

rently with IPL franchise MumbaiIndians, will quit.

"I spoke to him on the tele-

phone and explained to him thereasons," added Asantha de Mel,the Chairman of selectors.

The team was most recentlyhammered by South Africa in anaway limited-overs series. SriLanka start their World Cupcampaign on June 1 at Cardiffagainst New Zealand. They aredue to play two warm-up gamesagainst South Africa and Australiabefore that.

De Mel said captaincy wasnot working out for Malinga andhe struggled to make the team acohesive unit.

"He was performing alright,but was not able to lead the oth-ers," de Mel explained.

Sri Lanka's World Cup squadfeatures quite a few comebackplayers, led by Karunaratne.

���� ���2=-=

Two-time continental medallistPooja Rani confirmed India's

first medal in the women's 81 kg cat-egory after making it to the semi-finals in a field of five as the AsianElite Boxing Championship's drawwas released on Thursday.

Asian Games Gold medallistAmit Panghal, set to make hisdebut in the 52 kg category in alllikelihood will face the reigningOlympic champion HasanboyDusmatov of Uzbekistan in thequarter-finals.

Former world junior championNikhat Zareen (51kg) will start hercampaign against Srey Pov Nao ofCambodia but she will run into two-

time world champion NazymKyzaibay in the quarter-finals.Lovlina Borgohain (64kg) couldhave a possible face-off with China'sworld champion Chen Nien-Chinin the quarters.

Amit, who started the seasonwith a Gold medal will fight his firstbout on April 21 after a first-roundbye. Shiva Thapa, who will begoing for a record-breaking fourthsuccessive medal from this presti-gious tournament meets Korea'sKim Wonho in the first round.

"Four of our boys will be inaction tomorrow. We are quite con-fident about our prospects. Thetricky journey will begin fromquarters," said CA Kuttappa, headcoach men's team.

������������� �,)�",�85�

Dashing all-rounder duoof Pandya brothers hardhitting in the slog overs

helped Mumbai Indians to post168 for five wickets againstDelhi Capitals during an IndianPremier League clash here atFeroz Shah Kotla stadium onThursday.

Batting first after winningtoss, three time championMumbai Indians lost themomentum in between theinnings after openers Rohitand Quinton de Kock gavethem a flying start but it wasHardik and Krunal Pandya’ssuperb striking in the last threeovers that helped Mumbaireach past 150 runs mark andpost a match winning total atslow turning wicket in Delhi.

Hardik who smashedPawan Negi for 21 runs in the19th over during MumbaiIndians 172 run chase in thelast game against RoyalChallengers Bangalore contin-ues his rich form here at Kotlatoo and scored 32 runs in just15 balls with three sixes andtwo fours.

He was dismissed in thethird ball of last over bowled bythis season’s leading wickettaker Kagiso Rabada but evenhis dismissal couldn’t stop therun flow as his elder siblingmake the most of the remain-ing three balls by scoring 10vital runs.

Krunal was guilty of wast-ing too many deliveries in thelast game but here at Kotla herectified that and his unbeaten37 off 26 balls with five fourswas the highest individualscore by Mumbai batsman.

He added 54 runs for thefifth wicket in just 4.2 overswith his younger brotherHardik.

Earlier, Rohit Sharma (30)and Quinton de Kock(35) giveMumbai a flying start by scor-ing 57 runs in the first power-play.

The opening duo startedslow initially scoring just 16runs in the first three overs butchanged gear when ChrisMorris was introduced in theattack in the fourth over. Rohit

welcomed him with a fourand then his countrymen deKock hits him for a four and asix.

And then in the last overbefore powerplay, last gamehero Keemo Paul was smashedfor two sixes, one each bySharma and de Kock. He alsoyielded 16 runs.

Mumbai completed its firstfifty in 35 balls. However afterthat the twist happened, Amit

Mishra removed Rohit in thevery ball of his spell. After dis-missing Rohit for sixth time, healso completed his 150 IPLcareer wickets.

And in the next over AxarPatel got rid of Ben Cutting (2runs in 4 balls). He was out legbefore. But the big jolt came inthe fifth ball of tenth over whende Kock was sent back topavilion after a misunderstand-ing with his strike partner

Suryakumar Yadav.At that midpoint, Mumbai

scorecard was reading 74 for 3.And in the next seven

overs Mumbai could only add43 runs scoring just 3 fours andlosing Suryakumar for 26 runs.

But it was the Pandyabrothers combined effort thatlifted Mumbai as the duoadded 50 runs in last threeovers to take Mumbai to 168for 5.

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