as global economic powerhouse - The Pioneer · 2019-05-27 · NMDC’s Bailadila Iron Ore Mine at Bacheli Complex in Bastar had been conferred '17th Annual Greentech Safety Gold Award,

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NMDC playing big role to make Indiaas global economic powerhouse

NMDC Ltd, India’s largest iron ore miner, isexperiencing its golden period as itsChairman-cum-Managing Director (CMD)Mr. N. Baijendra Kumar, has started bringingin òut of the box’ thoughts to inspire themassive talented workforce of the company togive their best.

NMDC has thousands of highly talentedand dedicated manpower strength besidesworld-level technical expertise andresources.

NMDC’s hundreds of employees andworkers are now feeling ìnspired and

charged up’ with the vision of the new CMDwho organised a highly successful diamondjubilee year celebrations in December 2017in Hyderabad where Vice President of IndiaMr. M Venkaiah Naidu predicted thatNMDC would set several new benchmarksof success in coming up years.

Inspired by the way the diamond jubileefunction was arranged, Naidu nicknamedthe NMDC as Nation’s Main DevelopmentCorporation and asserted that NMDC has abig role to play if India has to become globaleconomic powerhouse.

NMDC Ltd, the largestproducer of iron ore inthe country has onceagain showcased excellentperformance for the year2018-19 as the companysurpassed the 30 milliontonnes figure ofproduction and sales forthe 3rd year consecutively.

NMDC has produced32.44 MT and sales of32.38 MT iron ore duringFY-19 despitesuspension ofDonimalai Mineoperations for 5months, no exportsup to August 2018,highest rainfall inChhattisgarh’sBailadila Sector and

poor off take in Karnatakain Q1.

Mr N. Baijendra Kumar,IAS, CMD, NMDCcongratulated all theemployees for theirdedicated hard work andexcellent team work.``Team NMDC in spite ofman-made and naturalconstraintshas

shown resilient characterto excel in challengingtimes,’’ remarked MrKumar who is known forhis leadership acumen.

He thanked all thestakeholders for theirsupport and specially

thanked Ministry ofSteel (GoI) andChhattisgarh StateGovernment for theirimmense support andguidance.

Impressive production growth

NMDC’s Bailadila Iron Ore Mine at Bacheli Complex in Bastar hadbeen conferred '17th Annual Greentech Safety Gold Award, 2018' by M/s

Greentech Foundation, New Delhi.The award was bestowed in a grand Award presentation ceremony

conducted at Guwahati (Assam) on November 17, 2018. Sanjeev Sahi, Joint General Manager (Min) & Mines Manager, Bacheli

Complex received the Award on behalf of BIOM, Bacheli Complex.The Project bagged the Greentech Safety Gold Award for excellent work in Safety

and Health and effective implementation of Safety Management System in the mine.

NMDC’s Bailadila Mine bagsGreentech Safety Gold AwardNMDC’s Bailadila Mine bagsGreentech Safety Gold Award

Bailadila Iron Ore Mine (BIOM),Kirandul Complex of the NMDCLimited bagged several prizes dur-ing Mine Environment and MineralConservation Week 2018-19,Raipur region held recently at thestate capital.

The prizes were presented toBIOM, Kirandul Complex inrecognition to best practices andperformance in the areas ofenvironmental monitoring,sustainable development, systemat-ic and scientific mining etc.

A.K. Prajapati, General Manager,BIOM Kirandul Complex receivedthe prizes from chief guest KRajeshwar Rao, IAS, Addl. Secretaryto Government of India andController General, IBM,Nagpur.

Following are the prizesbagged by BIOMKirandul Complex: (i)Ist prize in overallp e r f o r m a n c eunder highlymechanisedgroup-A1 to

14NMZ mines; (ii) Ist prize insustainable development underhighly mechanised group-A1 to14NMZ mines; (iii) Ist prize inenvironmental monitoring underhighly mechanised group-A1 to14NMZ mines; (iv) Ist prize insystematic and scientificdevelopment under mechanisedgroup-A2 to 11ML mines; (v) 2ndprize in publicity and propagandaunder highly mechanised group-A1to 14 ML mines; (vi) 2nd prize inmineral beneficiation under highlymechanised group-A1 to 14 MLmines and (vii) 2nd prize inenvironment monitoring under

mechanised group-A2 to 11 MLmines. Mr. N. Baijendra Kumar,

IAS, CMD, NMDCcongratulated employees

for their unstinted effortstowards environment

friendly initiativesadopted in all its

m i n i n gactivities.

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Adamant on his resignationfrom the post of the

Congress president, RahulGandhi has conveyed to seniorparty leaders Ahmed Patel andKC Venugopal to look for hisreplacement as he has made uphis mind not to continue aschief of the grand old party.

Patel is a close confidant ofthe Congress’ first family andwas one of the most powerfulpoliticians during the 10 yearsof the UPA rule. After the dis-astrous performance of theparty in the Lok Sabha polls,Rahul has cancelled all meet-ings and appointments andhas declined to meet evenelected MPs.

Taking responsibility forthe drubbing at the hands ofthe BJP, Rahul on Saturdayoffered to resign as party pres-ident at a meeting of theCongress Working Committee(CWC), the highest decision-making body of the party, butit was “unanimously rejected”.

“He has conveyed that theparty will have to find a newchief as he won’t change hismind. It is believed his moth-er Sonia and sister Priyanka,who were earlier advisingRahul to continue, too havebacked his decision. The futurecourse will be decided in sometime now,” said a top AICCleader.

While majority of theCongress leaders hoped thatRahul will “not abandon thepost”, sources close to him saidhe is determined not to take

back his decision.The Congress has mostly

been led by members of theNehru-Gandhi family exceptfor the period after formerPrime Minister Rajiv Gandhiwas assassinated in 1991. Theparty did not do well underSitaram Kesri and then sever-al leaders convinced SoniaGandhi to take charge of the

party.At the CWC meeting,

Rahul had accused three seniorleaders — Ashok Gehlot,Kamal Nath and PChidambaram — of placingtheir sons above the party.Priyanka said the entire topbrass of the party left Rahulalone to fight it out againstPrime Minister Narendra

Modi.In the midst of the disqui-

et, several State Congress chiefs,including Punjab’s Sunil Jakhar,Jharkhand’s Ajoy Kumar, andAssam’s Ripun Bora, toooffered to resign from theirposts following the party’sdrubbing in the elections. Theparty won only 52 seats in theLok Sabha polls, just six more

than its 2014 tally. The partycould not open its account in18 States and Union Territories.

As crisis beset theOpposition party, its chiefspokesperson RandeepSurjewala on Monday urgedeveryone to respect the sancti-ty of the CWC meeting andasked the media not to fall intothe trap of “conjectures, insin-uations, gossip and rumour-mongering”.

Surjewala said it is a demo-cratic forum for exchange ofideas and taking correctiveaction. It was a “closed-door”meeting and any speculationabout it was unwarranted anduncalled for. He was reacting tonews reports about happeningsat the May 25 meeting, the firstof the CWC after the Congress’shumiliating defeat in the par-liamentary polls.

“The Congress partyexpects everyone, includingthe media, to respect the sanc-tity of a closed-door meeting ofthe CWC. Various conjectures,speculation, insinuations,assumptions, gossip andrumour-mongering in a sectionof the media is uncalled for andunwarranted.

“The CWC held a collec-tive deliberation on the per-formance of the party, thechallenges before it as also theway ahead, instead of castingaspersions on the role or con-duct of any specific individual.The gist of the deliberationswas made public in the CWCresolution of May 25, 2019,” theCongress leader said in a statement.

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Chemistry has beaten arith-metic in the recent

Parliamentary election, saidPrime-Minister designateNarendra Modi, who is goingto assume the charge as the PMfor second time on May 30.

“It was not for the first timewhen this political change wasseen in Indian politics when thechemistry of social strengthwas clearly visible but shock-ingly, the political pundits werenot ready to change their estab-lished perception,” he said.

Modi was addressing partyworkers in thanksgiving func-tion at Deen Dayal UpdhyayHaskala Sankul (TradeFacilitation Centre) at BadaLalpur here on Monday.

“We had made a hat-trickof victories performingremarkably well in 2014, 2017and 2019 but, unfortunately,the political pundits were notready to change their estab-lished perception of the last 70years and sometimes they used

logical and illogical analysis toprove their point,” Modi added.

Earlier, Modi offeredprayer at Kashi Vishwanathtemple, seeking the blessings ofthe Almighty again as he didfive years ago before assumingthe charge as PM.

Modi appealed to the partyworkers to overlook estab-lished negativity in politicsand continue to adopt positiv-ity. “Our success is the result ofour perfect synergy betweenGovernment policies andorganisational politics,” he said,asking the party workers tocontinue with the same so thatthe people of the country canget optimum benefits ofGovernment schemes.

“Work and workers createa wonder,” said Modi, addingthat “with our work we suc-ceeded in winning the faith ofthe people. We have not doneany favour to them but it wastheir rights.”

Modi went on to highlightthe violence let loose againstparty workers in several States,and said, “Undoubtedly, inachieving the same, our partyworkers faced crises. Several ofour workers sacrificed theirlives in Kerala, Kashmir, WestBengal and Tripura and our

workers are still being beatenup in West Bengal, but shock-ingly a section of the nationalmedia had seen a selectivehumanism behind such sacri-fices of our party workers.”

“We’d also faced politicaluntouchability,” he said, citingthe example of Gujarat when asection of film industry hadraised strong voices when hisGovernment had invited asenior star (AmitabhBachchan) for tourism pro-motion.

In his marathon address,Modi highlighted how for vote-bank politics the Oppositionparties never showed courageto look into the pains of thecommon people.

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In a huge relief for theCongress in Rajasthan, six

BSP MLAs cancelled their pro-posed meeting with GovernorKalyan Singh at the last minuteand downplayed speculationabout pulling out of the GehlotGovernment.

However, the Congressfaced trouble from within amidspeculation of a RajasthanMinister quitting in the wake ofthe party’s electoral debacle.Two State Ministers came outin the open to demand adetailed assessment by seniorleaders of the party.

Sources said the six BSPMLAs were scheduled to meetthe Governor on Monday inthe evening. However, laterthe Governor was informedthat the meeting could notproceed due to illness of one ofthe MLAs, Deepchand.

The BSP has extended itssupport to the Congress inRajasthan and Madhya

Pradesh, thus the news of itsMLAs seeking appointmentwith the Governor sparkedwild speculation.

BSP MLA Wajib Ali soughtto downplay the significance ofthe MLAs’ scheduled meetingwith the Governor. “It wassupposed to be a routine meet-ing,” he said.

Sources, however, said theBSP MLAs changed their mindson the instructions from theparty’s Central leadership fol-lowing the circulation of appre-ciation letter by UPA chairper-son and senior most Congressleader Sonia Gandhi hailing therole of BSP workers along with

the SP cadre in the just con-cluded general elections.

Meanwhile, a review meet-ing scheduled in Delhi to eval-uate reasons for party’s drub-bing in Rajasthan was post-poned in the wake of unavail-ability of Congress presidentRahul Gandhi.

Party sources said themeeting would be held onTuesday at Sonia’s residence inthe presence of Ashok Gehlot,Deputy Chief Minister SachinPilot and Congress Stateincharge Avinash Pandey.Senior party leader AhmedPatel and Venugopal are likelyto participate in the meet.

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In the wake of deaths of 22students at a coching institute

blaze in Surat on Friday, DelhiHome Minister Satyender Jainon Monday issued directions tothe chief of Delhi Fire Services(DFS) to “take strict action asper the fire safety standards andguidelines to prevent recur-rence of such accidents” in thenational Capital.

The Director (FireServices) has been asked toimmediately inspect and shutand seal coaching centres oper-ating in highrise buildingsabove the fourth floor. TheDelhi Government furtherissued notice to all the civicauthorities to enforce the‘Unified Building Bylaws’ incoaching centres.

“In the first phase, allcoaching centres operating inhigh-rise buildings (more thanfour floors excluding the stiltfloor) shall be inspected by theDirector (Fire Service),” theorder read.

As per the law,kitchen/cooking and storage ofinflammable material are notallowed on rooftops. Multi-storey buildings, hotels andcommercial buildings will loseNo Objection Certificate(NOC) for violation of norms.

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Heads of BIMSTEC group-ing which includes

Bangladesh, India, Myanmar,Sri Lanka, Thailand, Nepaland Bhutan would be attend-ing the swearing-in ceremonyof Prime Minister NarendraModi on May 30. The Bay ofBengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical andEconomic Cooperation (BIM-STEC) is an internationalorganisation of seven nationsof South Asia and South East

Kyrgyz President, cur-rently Shanghai CooperationOrganisation (SCO) chair,and Mauritius Prime Ministerare also invited for swearing-in ceremony, according to theMinistry of External Affairs.

In his 2014 swearing-in-ceremony, Modi had invitedGovernment heads of SAARCwhich included Pakistan. Thethen Pakistan Prime MinisterNawaz Sharif had attended theoath taking of Modi.

However, BangladeshPrime Minister Sheikh Hasinawould not be attending Modi’sswearing-in this time too asshe would be on a three-nation tour close to May 30 .Liberation War AffairsMinister AKM MozammelHuq will represent her at theceremony.

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The Balakot air strikesnotwithstanding, over three

dozen terror camps along theLine of Control (LoC) inPakistan Occupied Kashmir(POK) are getting active again.Post-Pulwama attack, thesecamps were shifted deep insidePakistan fearing retaliation byIndia. However, after lyingdormant for nearly threemonths, the ISI and thePakistan Army are bringingthese terrorists closer to theLoC to enable them to infiltrateto stoke violence in Jammu &Kashmir.

This alarming develop-ment comes even as Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) chiefMasood Azhar was recently

proscribed as a global terroristby the UN Security Council.Most of the terrorists nowregrouping in the camps arefrom JeM and Lashkar-e-Tayyeba (LeT). The IndianArmy has thus increased vigilto thwart any Border ActionTeam (BAT) action besidesinfiltration.

Mixed teams of terroristsand elite Special ServicesGroup (SSG) commandos ofthe Pakistan Army compriseBAT which carries out crossborder raids to ambush IndianArmy patrols. As it is, the sev-eral teams of SSG commandos,along with the Pakistan Armytroops, moved forward towardsthe LoC post Balakot air strikesby the IAF and remaindeployed even now thereby

increasing the threat percep-tion, officials in the securityestablishment said here onMonday.

Indicating that after theBalakot strikes, in which theJeM major camps were target-ed and destroyed, notwith-standing, the State sponsoredterrorism machinery ofPakistan is now active againwith the terror camps along theLoC reorganising themselves,they said.

Most of the 40 odd campsalong the vulnerable stretchesof the long LoC are located notmore than one to two kmsfrom the border and stationedclose to the Pakistan Army andPakistan Rangers locations.

Following the Pulwamasuicide attack on February 13

in which 40 Central ReservePolice Force (CRPF) personnelwere killed, nearly all the ter-ror camps were shut down asthe Pakistan Army anticipatedsurgical strikes. In fact, manyterrorists took refuge in theJeM camp in Balakot.

With the three dozen oddcamps now regrouping, theIndian security establishment isbracing for renewed bids tosneak into Jammu & Kashmirin the following weeks with thePakistan Army providing cov-ering fire to the terrorists.

Due to prolonged winterthis year and heavy snowfall,most of the ingress routes espe-cially in North Kashmirremained blocked due to snowtill about a few days back.

As snow is now melting,

the LoC is likely to seeincreased infiltration bids, offi-cials said, adding the IndianArmy has taken all necessarymeasures to prevent any mis-deed by the Pakistani terrorists.In fact, during the wintermonths, troops were not with-drawn from the LoC, as in thepast few years, as a precau-tionary measure, they said.

Moreover, taking note ofthe terror camps across LoCgetting active, the Indian Armyhas increased patrols all alongthe LoC besides furtherstrengthening its multi-tieredanti-infiltration grid. The mainobjective is to neutralise theinfiltrators within a km or sonear the LoC if they are suc-cessful in coming in, officialsexplained.

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Chhattisgarh police onMonday dismissed allega-

tions of security forces involve-ment in a fake encounter inwhich one civilian was killed ininsurgency-hit Dantewada.

“There was no wrongdoing.The encounter was genuine,”Special Director General (Naxaloperations) of Police GirdhariNayak told The Pioneer.

Guddi Markam was alleged-ly gunned down last week in anencounter with the securityforces in the jungles of Hiroliunder Kirandul police stationwhen a squad of the DistrictReserve Guard was out on ananti-Naxal operation.

As per police, security per-sonnel were advancing throughHiroli, when the exchange of firebroke out between the two sides.

After the Naxals fled, thebody of Guddi, a member of theOrganisation Squad of MalangirArea Committee of the Maoists,was found. A revolver with sixrounds was also recovered.

After the encounter, resi-dents of Hiroli had alleged thatGuddi Kunjam was picked upfrom his house by the securityforces and then he was killed.

“The allegations are baseless.In all, 40 criminal cases were reg-istered against Guddi and he wasresponsible for death of 34policemen and 11 civilians.Police were searching him since2011 and the State Governmenthad declared a reward of �1 lakhon his head,” Dr Abhishek Pallav,SP Dantewada said.

“This is a ploy adopted bythe Maoists and under theirpressure, villagers made the alle-gations, he claimed.

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chhattisgarh 04RAIPUR | TUESDAY | MAY 28, 2019

K.N. KISHORE n RAIPUR

Dr Krishnakant Sahu, Head ofDepartment and heart, chest

and vascular surgeon of AdvanceCardio-thoracic and VascularSurgery department, Dr BheemraoAmbedkar Memorial Hospital,Raipur said, smoking and use oftobacco products have increasedthe number of Peripheral VascularDisease (PAD) and coronary arterydisease, which are taking morelives than the cancer.

But these two diseases do notfind more mention than cancer,which is reaching dangerous pro-portion, he added.

Interacting exclusively with‘The Pioneer’, he said more peoplein the age group of 30-50 years diedue to smoking and use of tobaccoproducts. Earlier, in India people inthe age group of 50 years and above

used to suffer from heart diseases.But the age limit has now comedown to 40 years.

On PAD symptoms, he said,“Generally it starts in the age groupof 30-50 years. The patient does notfeel anything as there is no outersymptom until arteries of both legsshrank by 60-70 percent. Once thathappens, the victim finds it diffi-

cult to walk even 2-3 kilometres.Gradually it reduces to 500 metres,which is technically known as‘claudication’. The patient then feelscontinuous pain in leg.”

He adds, further ulcer in legsdevelops which than aggravates to‘gangrene’, which leads to limbamputation. The other symptomsare loss of hair on limbs and

unhealthy nails.On treatment, Dr Sahu said,

“In coronary diseases stent can beused but for this ‘diffusely diseases’condition nothing is possibleexcept for surgery and replace-ment.”

On success rate of surgery, hesaid in both cases by-pass of legsand heart, the result is poor. Evenin lung cancer there are two condi-tions one is primary where thesmoker is affected and secondarycase where smoking affects the pas-sive smoker.

Giving a message, Dr Sahusaid, “One should avoid smokingand consumption of tobacco prod-ucts and also avoid passive smok-ing. Those having attained age of30 and above should go for regularcardiac and lungs checkup. Thiswill help for early detection andtimely treatment of diseases.

Vascular diseases killing morepeople than cancer: Dr Sahu

STAFF REPORTER n RAIPUR

Municipal Corporation,Raipur conducted a fire

audit of all the coaching centreslocated in the city on Monday.

The inspection was doneafter a devastating fire at acoaching centre in Surat inGujarat calimed 21 lives recent-ly.

A team of the civic bodytook note of the contingencyarrangements made by the cen-tres to deal with fire accident.

According to officialsources in the corporation,zonal commissioner in differentgroups inspected the coachingcenters in the capital city. Theyspecially took note of the firefighting arrangements wherethe centers are running in mul-tistory buildings.

Wherever a lacuna wasfound, the officials have given

notices with an ultimatum of 24hours to rectify the errors andto make necessary arrange-ments.

Stern actions would be

taken against the coaching cen-ters which will not follow thenorms of corporation in theirrespective buildings, the corpo-ration warned.

Fire audit done in Raipurcoaching centres after Surat blaze


“It is a false propagation toblame Nehru for the partition

of the country. Instead, MuslimLeague leader Muhammad AliJinnah had sown the seeds of parti-tion on the basis of religion. HinduMahasabha leader VinayakDamodar Savarkar also endorsedthe idea”, said Baghel.

Baghel was addressing a sym-posium “Nehru Ka Bharat”, heldhere at Congress’s state headquar-ters Rajiv Bhawan on Mondaymorning to mark the deathanniversary of the first prime min-ister.

While delivering the keynoteaddress at the symposium Baghelsaid “It was Nehru who laid thefoundation of modern India. Hehad a foresight and an effectivephilosophy, which is well depictedin ‘Discovery of India’ penned byhim.”

Based on the book, a 53-episode historical drama ‘BharatEk Khoj’ was made for theDoordarshan by Shyam Benegal.

“Nehru had a modernapproach and was against ortho-doxy. It was due to his foresighted-ness that he had created institu-tions like the All India Institute ofMedical Sciences (AIMMS), IITs,

Indian National Committee forSpace Research, (which laterbecame Indian Space ResearchOrganization).

It was the vision of Nehruwhich led the country towardsbecoming a global power,” Baghelsaid.

Referring to Nehru, he said hewas the architect of the "first-evernational consciousness andnational unity". He further addedthat “Nehru took this conscious-ness forward and made it an every-day experience for Indians”.

Noted thinker and writerPurushottam Agrawal throwinglight on Nehru’s personality said hewas ahead of his time and that’swhy he could contemplate about anew era that was to be dawned.

It was his foresightedness thatbecame foundation of atomic ener-gy in India, he said.

Criticizing the present day’spolitics, Agrawal said leaders ofcontemporary time were involvedin divisive politics and were againsttaking all the sections together inthe path of progress.

“Solidarity of the countrycould only be attained if all the sec-tions of the society are united.When the society is divided, wecan’t think of progress,” he added.

Naming a critic of Nehru,Rahul Sankritayan, Agrawal said“Nehruji was never afraid of hiscritics but had appreciated themtime to time for showing him rightpath”.

Agrawal also rememberedNehru and Gandhi for their contri-bution towards women empower-ment and gender equality.

Talking about present scenarioand role of the Congress in nationbuilding, Agrawal said “Congressis not only fighting a political bat-tle but is also engaged in an ideo-logical battle.”

Home Minister TamradhwajSahu, newly elected Member ofParliament Deepak Baij, MLAsSatyanarayan Sharma andDhanendra Sahu and a largenumber of Congress workerswere also present on this occasionalong with distinguishedintellectuals.

Nehru had awakened national consciousness: Baghel

STAFF REPORTER nRAIPUR

Around 20 pens (femaleswan) and 26 cobs ( male

swan) were released in theMarine Drive (TelibandhaPond) on Monday by RaipurMunicipal Corporation(RMC) and Raipur SmartCity Limited (RSCL) torevive the water body and tomaintain its biodiversity.

Shiv Anant Tayal, RaipurMunicipal CorporationCommissioner and CEO andManaging Director, RaipurSmart City Limited said aspart of the landscaping,

beautification and revival ofthe ponds, following thedirective of the National

Green Tribunal, differentsteps have been undertakenfor reviving bio-diversity of

ponds located within theRMC limits.

The water in the pondhas been cleaned scientifical-ly using green technology incollaborations with theBharat Heavy ElectricalsLimited (BHEL) and theNational EnvironmentalEngineering ResearchInstitute (NEERI), Nagpur,he added.

The initiative succeededin making the sewage treat-ment plant functional sinceDecember 2018, he said.

He further pointed outthat as part of the schemeswans are being introduced

into the pond. The birds wereto be kept for a day in a coopfor acclimatisation beforebeing released into the water.

A special bamboo huthas been constructed as theirnest and resting place in thepond. They would be moni-tored 24x7 for which threecaretakers have beenappointed. They would beproviding food and water tothe swans. Besides, the birdswill feed on weeds grown inthe pond. Creepers and vari-eties of flower plants will beplanted in an around thepond as part of the beautifi-cation programme.

Swans introduced to revive Marine Drive biodiversity

STAFF REPORTER n BIJAPUR

Two Naxals were arrestedand four improvised explo-

sive devices (IEDs) were recov-ered from their possession ininsurgency-hit Bijapur district,police said here on Monday.

The ultras were identifiedas Kowasi Hunga (23) andKartami Kosa (25). They wereapprehended by a joint team ofsecurity forces near Aautpallivillage under Basaguda policestation area, a local police offi-cial said.

Acting on a specific inputabout a meeting of villagerswas convened by Naxals inLingagiri, Korsaguda andAautpalli village in Basaguda,the combine squad ofCommando Battalion forResolute Action (CoBRA)- anelite crack unit of the CRPF,and local police had launchedan operation there, he said.

On sensing the presence ofsecurity personnel, the twoultras tried to escape but theywere apprehended after a shortchase, he added.

Four IEDs, couple of deto-nators, electric wire and

switches were recovered from abag one of them was carrying,he added.

While Hunga was active asjanmilitia member, Kosa wasworking as DandakaranyaAdivasi Kisan MajdoorSangthan (DAKMS- a frontalwing of the Maoists), he said.

Two Naxals held,explosives recovered

Acting on a specificinput about a

meeting of villagerswas convened by

Naxals in Lingagiri,Korsaguda and

Aautpalli village inBasaguda, the

combine squad ofCommando Battalionfor Resolute Action(CoBRA)- an elitecrack unit of theCRPF, and local

police had launchedan operation there


Eight villagers, residents of vil-lage Chaandan under Kasdol

police station limits of BalodaBazar district of the state, work-ing as bonded labourers atGanganagar of Peddapalli dis-trict of Telangana were rescuedon Monday.

On the state government’sinstruction, district administra-tion had constituted a team torescue the villagers. The teamhanded over the villagers to vil-lage Sarpanch in presence oftheir family members.

One of the villagers RoshanMahar said that they had gone toTelangana through one brokernamed Kumar Belpada ofOdisha to work at a brick kiln inGanganagar.

The kiln owner used toharass them and keep themunder constant watch even when

they were taking bath or food,the villager said.

The owner used to allowonly one person at a time to goout. The kiln owner had giventhem some advance but it wasnot sufficient to meet their day-to-day expenditures, Mahar said.

The villager further addedthat even after completion of thework, he did not give the wagesand even prevented their return

to their native village“We were leading a life of

bonded labourers,” Roshan said.Somehow the district adminis-tration was informed about ourplight, which led to our rescue,”he pointed out. District adminis-tration then constituted a jointteam of officials drawn fromlabour, police, women and childdevelopment departments andconducted the rescue operation.


On the occasion of World MenstrualHygiene Day on May 28,

Chhattisgarh women and child develop-ment minister AnilaBhedia said womenshould not consider“period” as shameful,but they should beproud of it.

It is linked to pro-creation and a naturalprocess, he added.

Women are uncom-fortable to speak aboutthis natural occurrenceboth in urban and ruralareas.

She said, due to periods, adolescentgirls refrain from moving out of houseand skip schools, and follow age-oldtaboos. State government had initiatedseveral schemes to create awareness,including ‘Suchita’ scheme for schoolgoing girls, installing vending machine

for sanitary pads while several womenself-help groups are involved in makingsanitary napkins.

Meanwhile, addressing the round-table for journalists on the subject,

Niharika Barik Singh, sec-retary, Department ofHealth and Family wel-fare, Government ofChhattisgarh called upongirls and women to partic-ipate in ‘Pyari Bitiya’ eventscheduled on May 28,across the state organisedat Health and WellnessCentres.

The girls will bebriefed on hemoglobin and menstrua-tion including cleanliness .

Prasanta Dash, CFO UNICEF saidthere is need for integrated effort to cre-ate awareness in which media can alsoplay a key role.

Different events are being organisedon the issue from May 27 to 29, 2019.

STAFF REPORTER nRAIPUR

Following strict instruc-tion from Chief Minister

Bhupesh Baghel to disposeof pending cases related tocommon people, StateRevenue Secretary N.K.Khaka accompanied by divi-sional commissioner G.R.Churendra conducted a sur-prise inspection at the officeof Sub Divisional Magistrate(SDM) and Raipur Tehsiloffice on Monday.

According to informa-tion the officer duo tooknote of the pending cases inthe courts of SDM,Tehsildar, AdditionalTehsildar and all the NayabTehsildar of the capital city.

During the inspection,

the officials found thatmany cases related toincome, caste and bonafideresidences and land demar-cations were not resolved inthe stipulated time frame.Similarly, they came toknow that applicationsunder Lok Sewa Guaranteetoo were not resolved instipulated time.

Notable, the CM hasinstructed to step up theadministrative work andresolve the pending casesrelated to common man atthe earliest.

Revenue secy conductssurprise inspection atSDM, tehsil offices

8 bonded labourersrescued from Telangana

Need to create awarenesson menstruation: Bhedia

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Liberals and Greens say theyhave broken the two centrist

blocs’ grip on power in theEuropean Parliament based ona projected shift in the electoralfortunes of the four.

Liberals and Greens arenow pushing harder to snag thehead of the EuropeanCommission, the 28-nationEU executive, and shape keylaws, such as on climate changeand taxation.

The centre-right EPP(European People’s Party) stillhas the most seats, followed bythe centre-left Socialists, but thepair no longer control a major-ity, according to partial andprojected results.

“The monopoly of power isbroken,” said Margrethe

Vestager, whose Alliance ofLiberals and Democrats(ALDE) wants her to head thenew commission.

ALDE is projected to havearound 100 seats, making itthird in the assembly behindsome 180 seats for the EPP and152 for the Socialists andDemocrats.

But ALDE and the Greensalso hope to work with the EPPand the Socialists to check biggains by Eurosceptics, pop-ulist and right-wing partieswho could have around 150seats. Though power is set to befragmented, the mainstream,pro-European Union groupsstill control the lion’s share ofthe 751-seat assembly.

Vestager alluded to herown credentials for the top jobon the Commission, where

she served as the anti-trustcommissioner and gained areputation for toughness.

She said EU voters have

broken the EPP and Socialistmonopoly the way she stoppedUS hi-tech firms and othermultinationals from under-

mining market competition.Vestager hailed signals

from both the Socialists and theGreens to forge a new kind ofcoalition “of those who want totake actions progressively tochange things.” The Danish

politician said that meant a“different composition of lead-ership” of the main institutions,long dominated by the EPP andthe Socialists.

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Voters in Sunderland innortheast England voiced

hope on Monday that theBrexit Party’s strong showing inEuropean elections would trig-ger a quick break with the EU,expressing anger and disbeliefat Britain’s two main parties.

The polls delivered majorlosses for both the rulingConservatives — who havetwice delayed Britain’s sched-uled departure from the EU —and the main oppositionLabour, which has remaineddeeply ambiguous over Brexit.

In the North East region,the Brexit Party won 38.7 percent of the vote in last week’selection — its highest result inthe country.

“The sooner we get out thebetter,” said Stephen James, a55-year-old council worker inthe former shipbuilding city, atraditional stronghold for the

Labour Party.“I’m Labour through and

through but you can’t trustLabour or Conservatives anymore now. They’re just back-stabbing each other,” he said -- a comment on the months ofbickering in the British par-liament over Brexit.

The Brexit Party has saidit will seek a better deal withBrussels than the one negoti-ated by outgoing PrimeMinister Theresa May but willembrace no-deal if it does notget one. Several contenders toreplace May have the sameposition. Sunderland played astarring role in Britain’s seismicdecision to leave the EuropeanUnion in 2016.

The city’s 61-per cent votein favour of Brexit during thereferendum signalled early onwhere the nation was headingon the night of June 23 and cel-ebrations at the count werebeamed worldwide.

Warsaw: Poland’s governingright-wing Law and Justiceparty (PiS) won European elec-tions, complete official resultsshowed on Monday, with itsleader Jaroslaw Kaczynski urg-ing a wider victory in theautumn general ballot.

The PiS took 45.38 per centof the vote to win 27 of Poland’s51 seats in the EuropeanParliament compared with

38.47 per cent and 22 seats forthe liberal European Coalition,according to official results.

The progressive Springparty, led by openly gay formerMP and mayor Robert Biedron,took 6.06 per cent for threeseats while the far-rightConfederation group failed tocross the five-per cent thresh-old required to enter theEuropean Parliament. AFP

Vatican City: Pope Franciswarned Monday against a riseof intolerance and racism as far-right nationalists and euroscep-tic parties made historic gainsin European elections.

“The signs of meanness wesee around us heighten ourfear of ‘the other’, theunknown, the marginalised,the foreigner,” he said in a mes-sage for the World Day ofMigrants and Refugees. AFP

Paris: If French far-right leaderMarine Le Pen gets her wish,her National Rally party, vic-torious in the EuropeanParliament election, will forcea dissolution of France’s ownparliament and lure opponentsto her cause, enlarging herbase. But there’s one majorroadblock: French PresidentEmmanuel Macron. AP

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Several Maoist activists werearrested in Nepal as a gener-

al strike called by an outlawedcommunist group on Mondaydisrupted normal life in thecountry, a day after a series ofexplosions rocked the capitalKathmandu, killing at least fourpeople. Educational institutionsand business establishments

remained shut in major citieswhile traffic was thin due to thestrike called by the NetraBikram Chand (Biplav)-ledCommunist Party of Nepaltoprotest against the killing of itscadre during an encounter acouple of months ago.

Just a day ahead of thenationwide strike, a series ofbombs exploded at differentparts of the capital city, killing

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President Donald Trumpsaid Monday he is not “per-

sonally” bothered by recentshort-range missile tests thatNorth Korea conducted thismonth, breaking with JapanesePrime Minister Shinzo Abe,who is hosting the president onfour-day state visit full ofpageantry.

Standing beside Trump ata news conference after hoursof talks, Abe disagreed with theUS president, saying the mis-sile tests violated UN SecurityCouncil resolutions and were“of great regret.”

Abe, who has forged astrong friendship with Trumpand agrees with him on manyissues, is concerned because the

short-range missiles pose athreat to Japan’s security.

Trump was invited to Japanto be the first world leader tomeet with its new emperor.

Despite being far fromWashington, he didn’t missthe chance to lob anotherbroadside against former VicePresident Joe Biden, one of theDemocrats seeking to chal-

lenge Trump in next year’spresidential election. NorthKorea’s Kim Jong Un recentlycriticized Biden as having a lowIQ, and Trump told the worldhe agreed with the authoritar-ian leader’s assessment.

The visit was designed tohighlight the US-Japan allianceand showcase the warm rela-tions between the leaders.

Trump said he and Abedeliberated over economicissues, including trade andIran, during hours of talks atthe Akasaka Palace, but NorthKorea’s recent firing of short-range missiles emerged as anarea of disagreement.

When asked if he wasbothered by the missile tests,Trump said: “No, I’m not. I ampersonally not.”

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Israel’s energy minister said on Monday hiscountry had agreed to enter US-mediated talks

with Lebanon on maritime borders that wouldhave an impact on offshore oil and gas explo-ration. Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz said in astatement after meeting US State Departmentofficial David Satterfield that Israel agreed tomove forward with the talks.

Lebanese officials said last week thatSatterfield, the acting assistant secretary for NearEastern affairs, had informed them that Israelagreed to the negotiations. Israel had not com-mented at the time. Last year, Lebanon signedits first contract to drill for oil and gas in itswaters, including for a block disputed by itssouthern neighbour Israel, with which it hasfought several wars.

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Madagascar held parliamentary elections onMonday in what is being seen as the lat-

est round of a bitter feud between PresidentAndry Rajoelina and his longstanding rival MarcRavalomanana. Beaten to the top job inDecember, Ravalomanana has been pushinghard in support of candidates of his TIM (“I LoveMadagascar”) party, determined to secure a vic-tory in his rivalry with President Rajoelina.

The two men have dominated politicssince the early 2000s, sometimes cooperating butmostly fighting for advantage and high office.

“These elections will define our future forthe next five years,” said Rajoelina after votingin the capital Antananarivo.

“The candidates who will be elected MPshave the duty not only to pass laws, but also torepresent the aspirations of the people.”Ravalomanana also voted in the capital, and heraised allegations of fraud in the presidentialelection last December.

“People are less enthusiastic to vote becauseof the fraud that has already been noted in pre-vious elections,” he said.

Paris: French police havearrested a suspect following ablast in the city of Lyon thatwounded 13 people last week,Interior Minister ChristopheCastaner said Monday.

Castaner announced thedevelopment on Twitter. Astatement later from Paris pros-ecutors, who handle all terror-ism-related cases, said a 24-year-old was arrested in Lyon and has been placed in

custody.Police had launched a large

manhunt after a device explod-ed Friday on a busy pedestri-an street in the central city.Regional authorities said the 13wounded suffered mostlyminor injuries.

President EmmanuelMacron called the explosion an“attack” but no group hasclaimed responsibility for theexplosion yet. AP

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi isaccused of making the 2019 gen-eral election a presidential race cen-tred on his formidable personali-ty and powerful oratory, thus

ensuring the landslide victory of theBharatiya Janata Party (BJP) 303; NDA 353.However, his principal challenger, Congresschief Rahul Gandhi, made the contestmonarchical with his family-driven rhetoricand entitlement brigade — scions of politi-cal families close to the Nehru-Gandhis, whoowe their eminence to proximity. RahulGandhi’s closest colleague is sister, PriyankaVadra, and his political advisors and men-tors (Digvijay Singh, Sam Pitroda) are alsoinherited.

The Congress was hobbled by this bag-gage. In an age of soaring aspirations andquest for equality, it was clueless how toappeal to rural or urban voters, women,youth, farmers, traders, entrepreneurs andprofessionals among others. Decision-mak-ing within the party has shrunk to closeddoor meetings with unknown membershipand little regular communication with therank and file. In contrast, BJP president AmitShah kept the party on its toes round the yearand gave tasks to every booth worker.

The result of the lustreless campaign isevident in the collapse of the political blue-blooded: Rahul Gandhi (Amethi), SheilaDikshit, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Milind Deora,Jitin Prasad, Salman Khurshid, Ajay Maken,Kumari Shailja, Priya Dutt, Meira Kumar,Vaibhav Gehlot, Manvendra Singh, RPNSingh, Ashok Chavan, Bhupendra Hoodaand son Deependra Hooda and Kirti Azad.Indeed, hereditary politicians fared badlyacross State-based political parties, virtual-ly a guillotine by ballot box.

The more disturbing news for Congressis that it has been reduced to a fringe party,with a decent presence only in Punjab andKerala. It drew a blank in ArunachalPradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Delhi, Gujarat,Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu andKashmir, Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland,Odisha, Rajasthan, Sikkim, Tripura,Uttarakhand, Daman Diu, Dadra NagarHaveli, Lakshadweep, Andaman & NicobarIslands and Chandigarh. A comeback wouldtake a miracle. Meanwhile, the BJP vote sharerose to over 50 per cent in several States.

The Left collapsed with the Congress,given its deep symbiotic relationship. TheLeftist stranglehold over the media gothuge coverage for Kanhaiya Kumar (CPI,Begusarai, Bihar), who was trounced. Butpublic fatigue with the Left’s shrill and neg-ative rhetoric caused its fall from 59 seats in2004, 26 in 2009, 10 in 2014 and five in 2019;recovery is unlikely.

Modi’s success lay in shifting the electoraltemplate away from the Nehruvian paradigmof default Muslim vote bank plus sprinklingof castes to fill the electoral kitty towardsmore inclusive voter participation. Theprocess began in 2014 but was largely

ignored by analysts. Fine-tunedand implemented with greatervigour in 2019, it is beingmaligned as the rise of “majori-tarianism.” Western newspapersand their Indian echo chambersare warning of danger to minor-ity groups. Yet none of theseeminences ever criticised minor-ity religious leaders, who askedtheir flocks not to vote for theBJP, thus tampering with the freewill of voters and perverting thedemocratic system.

Simply put, Modi hasremoved the minority veto in thepolity, a Nehruvian aberrationthat denied equality to the myr-iad groups comprising the non-monolithic Hindu community.Henceforth, minorities, like oth-ers, must vote as individuals onthe issues of the day – national-ism, terrorism, farmer distress,budget and employment amongothers. The ancien régime,which pressured citizens to “voteyour caste/community”, whilelampooning them for doing so,has made way for “vote yournation/issue”. This caused therout of the Samajwadi Partydespite its pact with the BahujanSamaj Party in Uttar Pradesh.The Congress won only SoniaGandhi’s seat, which meansPriyanka Vadra (who failed toretain Amethi) may not win RaeBareli if Sonia Gandhi vacates it.

With hindsight, it seemsamusing that Sonia Gandhi,Sharad Pawar and TeluguDesam Party’s ChandrababuNaidu were so oblivious of thesimmering Modi wave that theyproposed a grand Oppositionalliance in the event of BJP-NDAfailing to win a clear majorityand even wanted the President

to call the post-post alliancebefore the pre-poll pact. Theycast aspersions on the integrityof the Electronic VotingMachines (EVM) even afterdodging a previous challenge bythe Election Commission topublicly demonstrate that themachines could be hacked.Sadly, former President PranabMukherjee joined this chorusand blotted his copybook.

The truth is that EVMscannot be tampered withoutphysically handling eachmachine (which is impossible).Each machine is an independentrecording device with no inter-net connection and cannot behacked via internet/Wi-Fi. TheVVPAT trail found no discrep-ancies. Anyway, ChandrababuNaidu vanished after the TDP’srout; Trinamool Congress chiefMamata Banerjee was chas-tened. At its working committeemeeting, the Congress agreednot to question the EVMs.

In Jammu and Kashmir,the National Conference wonAnantnag (Hasnain Masoodi),Baramulla (Akbar Lone) andSrinagar (Farooq Abdullah) andthe BJP won Jammu (JugalKishore), Udhampur (JitendraSingh) and Ladakh (J.T.Namgyal). The People’sDemocratic Party’s rout is amessage to the BJP to fulfill itspromise to abolish Articles 370and 35-A, which only needs aPresidential order and politicalwill. In Assembly elections laterthis year, if a coalition is neces-sary, the BJP must cut a dealequal to that crafted by theCongress when it gave the ChiefMinister’s post to OmarAbdullah. In Delhi Assembly

elections, the BJP must fieldleaders with an electoral baseand shun paratroopers whoruined the party in 2015.

Modi has promised cooper-ation to the new Governmentsof Odisha, Sikkim, AndhraPradesh and Arunachal Pradesh;they will naturally reciprocate inParliament. For India as a whole,some urgent priorities includeupdating the National Registerof Citizens, passing theCitizenship Amendment Bill toprotect Hindus fleeing persecu-tion or instability in the neigh-bourhood, giving equal rights toHindu refugees languishing inJammu and Kashmir and scrap-ping the discriminatory Right toEducation Act or applying itsprovisions equally.

Above all, Modi must givepriority to the economy bysecuring investments andincreasing the pace of infrastruc-ture development. Agricultureneeds a rethink outside the dis-credited paradigm of costly fer-tilisers, pesticides and depletedwater tables. The growing healthconsciousness in society willmake organic farming feasibleand remunerative.

Modi’s victory marks a tec-tonic shift in the history of therepublic. Unlike Rahul Gandhi,who embodied elected monar-chy and had little to offer the cit-izen, Modi wove city and chau-pal together in a grand narrativeof nationalism, national resur-gence and regeneration. He mayhave seemed presidential but thespirit was republican.

(The writer is Senior Fellow,Nehru Memorial Museum andLibrary; the views expressed arepersonal)

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Sir —There is no doubt that theModi magic did wonders thiselection. How else can oneexplain the fact that a terror-accused won by a huge margin?Even though the Prime Ministermade his communal agendaplain, it did not affect the pollresults. BJP chief Amit Shah’sorganisational skills, too, hadtheir impact. People seem tobelieve that Narendra Modi issome kind of a messiah who cansolve all their problems. A studyby the Centre for the Study ofDeveloping Societies found thatnearly one-third of the peoplewho voted for the BJP did so insupport of Modi rather than theparty or the local candidate.

In a bitter and divisive cam-paign, Modi effortlessly createdbinaries — nationalists versusanti-nationalists, the watchmanversus the entitled and the cor-rupt and so on — that eclipsedthe other fai lures of hisGovernment. Of course, thebountiful coffers of the BJP —funded by secret donations —helped his cause. This majorityverdict proves that Modi has anappeal that cut across barriers of

caste and class.Bidyut Kumar Chatterjee

Faridabad

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Sir—This refers to the edito-rial, “What’s next for Britain”(May 27). By agreeing to leave theEuropean Union (EU), Britaininflicted self-harm. With such a

massive divide between the peo-ple across the society, no oneknows what lies ahead and whatshould be done. Some support nodeal at all, others still hope noBrexit at all. The best option,however, is to go back to the EUand seek better terms. If not, thenit’s better to stay put as Britain inEU is a far better proposition forthe rest of the world.

British Prime Minister

Theresa May tried her best to sal-vage the situation and handleBrexit well but probably damagewas too big to be sorted out.Around 1.3 million British are liv-ing in 27 European countrieswhile 3.8 millions EU citizens areliving in Britain. Their interestsneed to be taken into account.The nations’ interest must not becompromise. Hopefully bettersense will prevail with the succes-

sor who occupies 10 Downingstreet.

Bal Govind Noida

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Sir — This refers to the editori-al, “What’s next for Britain" (May27). British Prime MinisterTheresa May tried thrice to bro-ker a Brexit deal but could notmake it since the proposals weretime and again rejected by theParliament. Parliamentariansthemselves are divided about thecountry’s EU exit. May had to quitdue to mounting pressure fromher party. Her stepping down has,however, put the country intouncharted waters. Being a sea-soned politician her quitting isquite unfortunate. She now leavesthe job to her successor. Britain’snew leader will have to contendwith an adamant Europe and dis-illusioned, exhausted citizens.Let’s wait to see how Britainmakes the EU exit with or with-out an agreement.

NR RamachandranChennai

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River valleys over the centurieshave cradled and nurturedsome famous civilisations. For

obvious reasons, this pattern hascontinued and even today most of thelarge cities continue to flourish on theriver banks. Excavations and discov-eries undertaken by Sir MortimorWheeler during the earlier decades ofthe last century unravelled the secretsof the Indus Valley civilisation hith-erto lying buried under centuries ofhistory.

We may have known about theIndus Valley civilisation much earli-er had the original discoveries byCharles Mason, a noted archaeologistin the 1820s, been given more seriousconsideration. It may come as a sur-prise but some of the Harappan sites

around the Indus are known to havebeen pillaged by contractors for brickballast to build a portion of the Lahorerailway in the later half of the nine-teenth century.

Archaeological evidence showsthat Indus was highly prone to floodsand frequent changes of course. As thesister river to the Indus, the Mihranalso carried large volumes of wateralong a course parallel and eastwardsof Indus. But over the millennia, theMihran has ceased to exist, so also thetowns on its banks. In later studies,the Mihran came to be identified withHakra as well as the Saraswati (alsoextinct).

Recent (May 2019) excavationsreported from Ganweriwala indicatethe town to have been located on thebanks of old river Hakra, often citedas the mythical Saraswati. There hasbeen a renewed interest in the recentyears in river Saraswati, as the depart-ment of culture has initiated a projectfor research on satellite imagery toascertain and chart out the entireroute of this ancient river. It would bein the general area of the present states

of Haryana and Rajasthan that evi-dence would be attempted to be col-lected to ascertain whether the civil-isation around the Saraswati was anextension of the Indus valley or viceversa.

The mythical Saraswati River,which is now extinct, has foundwide mention in the Puranas andancient Indian history. The SkandaPurana mentions that the KanyakubjaMahadesh of Bhoja, comprising 36lakh villages, extended up toKurukshetra and Saraswati. In theRigveda, a river course has been men-tioned, which now corresponds to theSaraswati and Ghaggar. The Saraswatihas been mentioned as a mighty riverfrom the pre-Vedic times. By the timethe Manusmriti and the Mahabharatacame to be written, it had alreadydeveloped its present character. Manucalls the place where it disappears asVinasana. The Mahabharata statesthat after disappearing, the riverreappeared at three places. It disap-pears in sands near the village ofChalaur and reappears at Bhavanipur.At Ballchapart, it again disappears,

only to appear again at Barakhera. AtUrnai, near Pehova, (ancientPrithudaka), it is joined by theMarkanda stream. At Sirsa (ancientSairishka), it is joined by Drishavadior Chitang.

The area between the Saraswatiand Drishadvati is known to be thesacred land of Brahmavarta, thehome of the Vedic rishis. After disap-pearing, the dry bed reappears southof Rohri and runs parallel to the Indusinto the Arabian Sea, which is anal-

ogous to the ancient Mihran HakraSystem. The other cities of theSaraswati era were Kapishthala(Kaithal), Sonaprastha or Sonepat andPaniyaprastha or Panipat.

Reports of the appearance ofsweet water in certain dry areas ofKutch after the earthquake also led toa revival of interest in the archaeolo-gy of the Indus Valley and the impactof tectonic movements on the riversystems. It is widely believed that theSaraswati river system may havebecome dry on account of one suchupheaval. There is sufficient data toshow that the original course of theSutlej was to follow a southward flowfrom Ropar (Punjab) towards theGhaggar, the two coming togethernear Shatrana in Sangrur district andthen flowing towards Kutch. Thesharp bend and a directional changeat Ropar, which is extremely unusu-al considering the flat terrain, mayappear to have been possible onaccount of a tectonic uplift. This mayhave led to the ultimate drying up ofthe Ghaggar-Saraswati system asSutlej was the only perennial source

of water in the area, which may havechanged course due to an earthquake.

That the Sutlej was earlier joinedto the Ghaggar-Saraswati system isalso borne out from a legend in theMahabharata, where it is mentionedthat Vashistha threw himself into theSutlej to commit suicide. TheSaraswati might have been a myth forsome but satellite imagery clearlyshows that such a river system didexist in line with the present dayGhaggar, and had a very wide basinright up to the Rann of Kutch.

Another interesting feature of theancient history of this area is the spec-ulation on the possible linkagebetween the Harappan civilisationand the Gangetic plain. Is it that theriver Saraswati could provide themissing link? Only forthcomingresearch would be able to decipherthis centuries-old secret whetherSaraswati was originally joined bySutlej or by river Yamuna, both theserivers having changed course cen-turies ago.

(The writer is a formerCommissioner of Police, Delhi)

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Imust admit to being gobsmacked when theelection results gathered momentum and theinevitable stared me in the face.Disappointment would be a severe under-statement, I was completely devastated. The

numbers seemed unreal, fictitious, as the BJPcounter clocked above 300 while that of theCongress party plateaued around 50. A historicmandate, screamed one channel; an unprecedent-ed landslide, suggested another. For once, their egre-gious hyperbole was not misplaced. Prime MinisterNarendra Modi had made a triumphant return, andin fact, bettered his previous performance of 2014of 282 seats. I say Modi’s victory and not that ofthe Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) or the NationalDemocratic Alliance (NDA) that he representsbecause essentially general elections 2019 becamelike a US presidential contest, where a personali-ty-centric pitch overwhelmed compelling issuesthat most thought would be the determining fac-tors affecting voter sentiment. That was not to be.There are reports that many voters did not evenknow the name of the Lok Sabha candidate theywere voting for; just the lotus symbol on the EVMmachine was sufficient motivation. Not unexpect-edly, Congress was facing the predictable onslaughtof acerbic scrutiny marinated with dollops of unre-strained sarcasm; is the party now facing an irre-versible terminal decline? Did NYAY (theMinimum Income Guarantee scheme) fail to per-colate down to the last mile? Was the campaignstrategy flawed ? Was the Congress party unableto answer Modi’s rhetorical fusillade of the GrandOld Party being soft on terror? Some partially saf-fronised TV anchors could barely conceal theirschadenfreude when mocking the Congress pres-ident Rahul Gandhi’s leadership. For many of us,it was a dark dismal nightmare. We have seen itbefore in 2014. But this one hurt a lot more.

The BJP has indulged in asymmetrical warfarewith a bountiful treasury, chaperoned by a capti-vated mainstream media and backed by rent-seek-ing corporate behemoths who are opportunisticaccessories with big ticket deals to formalise. Thetraditional template of political contestationsstood completely upended by the time the victorwas formally announced. So where does theCongress party go from not aggregating even 100Lok Sabha seats in two consecutive elections, whileup against a formidable monstrosity that has madewinning elections its raison d’etre? To understandthat, first we need to know what really happened.

Modi and BJP president Amit Shah had clear-ly recognised the clear and present danger follow-ing the Congress party wins in the State electionsof Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthanin December 2018. This electoral adversity followedthe sledgehammer blow in Karnataka when theCongress-Janata Dal (Secular) formed the govern-ment, by checkmating the BJP’s Chanakya.Rahul Gandhi was seeing stratospheric traction onsocial media, and his relentless assault on Modi onthe Rafale corruption scandal, had created a pop-ular leitmotif of Chowkidar Chor Hai. Frequentinteractions with different sections of peoplewithout a pre-arranged script, impromptu pressconferences and a refreshingly honest politician,who talked compassionate politics, had the toxicBJP nonplussed. Despite a prodigiously jaundicedmedia that was sand-bagging Modi, the percep-

tion battle had now become a competi-tive one. And Modi was feeling thecracks. The farming community was fac-ing diminishing incomes due to fallingprocurement and lower prices whileModi dilly-dallied on Minimum SupportPrices. The agrarian crisis is an alarm-ing reality and a pandemic problem.India’s storied demographic dividend hasbecome an onerous liability, as we areconfronted with an epic catastrophe onjob creation. The macro-economic fun-damentals are a manifestation of an econ-omy in virtual stagnation.Demonetisation, which was nothingbut an atrocious hocus-pocus econom-ics and the clumsy execution of Goodsand Services Tax (GST) had plunderedthe informal economy, pauperising mil-lions in its wake. India’s GDP appearsmanipulated and government data whenunpalatable to Modi ( like the job num-bers) have been unceremoniouslydumped. The latest figures on the auto-mobile industry sales show a conspicu-ous downward trend and the manufac-turing sector appears to be in rigor-mor-tis. The stressed assets in the banking sec-tor are kissing some dark clouds. Sumand substance, a rejuvenated and resoluteRahul Gandhi and a faltering economyhad Modi outwitted, foxed. ThenPulwama happened.

For a man who sold the “develop-ment” spiel in 2014, Modi calculatedlydumped his flaky past promises whichhave been nothing but embarrassing sna-fus such as 2 crore jobs per annum, theobliteration of black money, doubling offarm incomes and creation of monochro-matic smart cities, among a few. Post theterror attack at Pulwama and the Balakotcounter-strike, Modi had found his 2019trumpcard; muscular nationalism. Thisbecame for him what the Kargil war wasfor former PM Atal Behari Vajpayee. Theheart-stopping capture of WingCommander Abhinandan and his sub-sequent release by Pakistan were seizedby Modi as his own superman prowess

that intimidated Islamabad. Ghar MeGhus Ghus Ke Maroonga (I will entereach and every home and kill them all)was his thundering pomposity thatsought to resurrect his attenuated 56”machismo. People whistled and clappedlike they once did watching AmitabhBachchan bash up goons in Deewaar.

The new global authoritarian leaderis now an elected autocrat who presidesover an illiberal democracy. For him themost marketable weapon is fear;Islamophobia is popular political curren-cy. An enemy at the border is usuallyenough. Modi found one at home too.His speech at Wardha, Maharashtra, lam-basted Rahul Gandhi for contestingfrom Wayanad in Kerala because it wasa Hindu-minority parliamentary con-stituency. This was scare-mongering, andan “othering” of the fellow Indian. APrime Minister takes an oath on India’sConstitution to embody its consecratedprinciples in his impartial political con-duct; Modi cast them aside, making hispreferred religious choice publiclyknown. It was dog-whistle politics. As thevotes closed in on May 23, it was clearModi's stratagem worked. And how.

In 2014, there were large billboardsin Marine Drive, Mumbai that hadModi vaingloriously promoted as aHindu Hriday Samrat. This time the BJPchose another Hindutva icon, SadhviPragya Singh Thakur. The political mes-saging behind the questionable choicewas unambiguous; even a terror-accusedallegedly responsible for a bomb blast thatkilled six persons in Malegaon andinjured several from the minority com-munity was kosher. Modi was legitimis-ing an orchestrated violent attack, evenproposing to give the controversial can-didate a haloed seat in the Parliament. Itwas an abject low even by BJP’s polaris-ing standards. But there it was. ForThakur, Mahatma Gandhi’s assassinNathuram Godse was a patriot. Thakur’selectoral victory from Bhopal on May 23is perhaps the defining moment of this

election, and of the reshaping of India. The Congress party will have to

aggressively defend the IndianConstitution, which is being systemati-cally annihilated by ridiculing its quin-tessential credo. It is an ideological warwhere BJP’s Hindutva enterprise clever-ly disguised through cultural nationalismis getting fresh tailwinds. First, the BJPtrivialised communal harmony by creat-ing the term pseudo-secular, and now theIndian liberal is called an Urban Naxal.The Saffron Project is to gradually infil-trate institutions and convert impression-able Indians through religious chauvin-ism. The Congress faces an arduous chal-lenge given BJP’s propaganda machine,social media troll army and theWhatsApp fake news manufacturingcapabilities. The party is up against anasty adversary that has altered the rulesof the game. Playing within the BJP’scomfort zone will be like trying todefeat Rafael Nadal on red clay at theFrench Open. There is only one option;force your opponent to a surface wherethe ball skids faster and the grass is green.

The Congress party will have to rein-vent the political discourse, while simul-taneously maximising its enormoushuman talent currently performing at lowproductivity on account of bureaucrat-ic cholesterol in its organisational struc-ture. Internal disorganisation is costingthe party dear, as was expressed by theCongress president himself. There istremendous energy that needs to be lib-erated for the great struggle ahead. It istime to take bold pragmatic risks, beunpredictable and practise political plas-ticity. There is too much at stake. It is abattle that must be won.

Rahul Gandhi correctly said that the2019 election was a battle for India’s soul.That soul is today splintered intosmithereens. But the soul is indestruc-tible. And it will find its voice again.

(The author is a national spokesper-son of the Indian National Congressparty. The views are his own.)

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Days after the NationalDemocratic Alliance

(NDA) scripted a resoundingvictory in the Lok Sabha elec-tions, Rashtriya SwayamsevakSangh (RSS) chief MohanBhagwat said that “Ram kakaam karna hai, Ram ka kaamho kar hi rahega (Ram’s workneeds to be done and Ram’swork will be done).”

Bhagwat made the com-ments during his visit toUdaipur on Sunday for a“mandir pran pratishtha” pro-gramme in Pratap GauravKendra, where he was accom-panied by spiritual leaderMorari Bapu.

The programme was firstaddressed by Morari Bapu.Speaking on the occasion, hesaid, “Since centuries this coun-try has been chanting the nameof lord Ram. Today the coun-try is passing through such cir-cumstances that we need tothink of doing Ram’s worktoo. It makes me happy to seeRam’s name written on theyouth’s hands.”

Soon after his address,Bhagwat said, “We shouldremember the message givenby Morari Bapu. Ram’s workneeds to be done and Ram’swork will be done. Ram residesin our hearts. We all need to beactive and move ahead to ful-fil our goals.”

Bhagwat was on a four-daytrip to Udaipur since Friday toattend the RSS-run ‘SanghShiksha Seva II’ training camp.

Soon after landing inUdaipur airport on Friday,Bhagwat told the media, “Aagaayi hai sarkar wapas (Thegovernment is back).”

Even before the Lok Sabhaelections, the RSS had pitched

for the construction of Ramtemple in Ayodha, and hadasked the Narendra Modi-ledgovernment to hasten theprocess of temple construction.The Ram Temple has been onthe BJP manifesto since 2014.

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*� ��&�� &��0�� 0��Lucknow: Rashtriya Swayam-sewak Sangh (RSS) chiefMohan Bhagwat’s support for agrand Ram temple in Ayodhyahas evoked a sharp reactionfrom the Muslim clergy.

Maulana Khalid RashidFirangi Mahali, Imam ofEidgah and a well known Sunnicleric, said. “It is not right tomake such statements when thematter is in the Supreme Court.The mediation process is alsoon under the court supervision.

“Muslims are waiting for adecision and the Hindu leadersshould also exercise patience.Such statements will only serveto create controversy and panic.”Shia cleric Maulana YasoobAbbas said that since matter issub-judice, leaders of both com-munities should refrain frommaking statements. IANS

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Former Rajasthan educationminister Vasudev Devnani

on Monday flayed the StateCongress Government foraffixing “son of Portugal” toRSS ideologue VinayakDamodar’s description in ClassX social science textbooks.

Recently, the CongressGovernment constituted a text-book revision committee in theschool education department.Based on the committee’s find-ings, the department revised ashort biography of RSS ideo-logue Vinayak DamodarSavarkar introduced by theprevious BJP Government.

Now, in the textbooks it ismentioned Savarkar haddescribed himself as “son ofPortugal” when seeking

clemency from the BritishGovernment in 1910-11.

In a series of tweets onMonday, Devnani said the StateGovernment should take inspi-ration from former PrimeMinister Indira Gandhi whohad described Savarkar as the “byword for daring andpatriotism.”

The former Prime Ministerhad called Savarkar “a classicalrevolutionary and countlesspeople drew inspiration fromhim”, Devnani said.

“Former Prime MinisterIndira Gandhi recognised andhailed the legacy of great free-dom fighter Veer Savarkar.The then Government hadissued a commemorative stampon Veer Savarkar in 1970.

“Indira Gandhi had donat-ed a sum of Rs 11,000 from her

personal account to SavarkarTrust and ordered the FilmsDivision to produce a docu-mentary on his life,” Devnanitweeted.

The former State Ministersaid calling the freedom fight-er “son of Portugal” is an insult.

He alleged the CongressGovernment had the single-

point agenda of insulting hero-ic characters and eulogisingonly one family. In response,Rajasthan Education MinisterGovind Singh Dotasara said thechanges were made by theexperts committee.

“What can I say? A com-mittee of experts have writtenit based on authenticity andtheir recommendations. I canonly say that whatever hasbeen written in the textbookshave been written based on therecommendations of educa-tionists,” Dotasara told PTI.

In other changes, the com-mittee removed the prefix‘Veer’ from Savakar’s name inthe textbooks and it now refersto him as Vinayak DamodarSavarkar who “plotted assassi-nation” of Mahatma Gandhi,who was killed by Nathuram

Godse on January 30, 1948, lessthan a year after India gainedindependence from Britain.

The revision of textbooksnot only drew flak from theOpposition but also from acouple of leaders in the rulingCongress.

The panel had recom-mended the removal of a pic-ture suggesting self-immolationunder Sati or Jauhar from aClass VIII English textbook. It was replaced with that of ahill fort.

“We need to understandthe practice of Jauhar. Withoutunderstanding the sensitiveissue, any leader, be it from theCongress or the BJP, shouldrefrain from making a state-ment,” said State TransportMinister Pratap SinghKhachariyawas.

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Newly-appointed SikkimChief Minister PS Golay

on Monday announced a five-day working week for StateGovernment employees.

After taking charge of theoffice at Tashiling state secre-tariat, he also held a meetingwith top Government officials.

Talking to reporters afterinteracting with senior officials,Golay said there will be five-day working week for the Government employeesin Sikkim.

“We have fulfilled one ofour election promises to reducethe working week forGovernment employees fromsix days earlier to five days,” hesaid. The Government employ-ees will get an additional day asholiday which they will use to

take care of their health andthat of their parents and fam-ily members, he said.

The Chief Minister alsoannounced his Ministers andMLAs, including himself, willuse Scorpio vehicles instead ofFortuner SUVs which werebeing used by the elected rep-resentatives earlier.

“For the time being wehave no option but to useFortuner SUVs, but we will useScorpio vehicles once they aremade available to us,” Golaysaid. The SKM supremo hadearlier accused the SDF gov-ernment headed by his prede-cessor PK Chamling for “mis-using public money”.

Golay said the moneysaved on using less expensivevehicles like Scorpio will beused for betterment of thepeople of Sikkim.

Lucknow: The Uttar PradeshAnti-Terror Squad (ATS) hasarrested six Bangladeshi citi-zens for allegedly preparingfake passports using false doc-uments, an official said onMonday.

The accused were arrestedfrom Agra. “The UP ATS wasgetting information that someBangladeshis, living illegallyin Uttar Pradesh, used to call

other Bangladeshis and makefake documents (used for iden-tity) such as Aadhaar cards andration cards. Based on thesefake documents, they used toeven get their passports made,”Asim Arun, AdditionalDirector General of Police, UPATS, said in a statement.

He added the sixBangladeshi nationals werepicked up from the Agra railway

station on Sunday. “Duringinterrogation, it was revealedthat all of them were residentsof Bangladesh, who were livingin India on the basis of fake doc-uments. A case has been regis-tered against them and theyhave been arrested,” Arun said.

He added the dataretrieved from the accusedrevealed that they had also vis-ited Punjab and Rajasthan.

“During interrogation, theysaid they had unsuccessfullytried to go to Pakistan bycrossing the barbed-wire fence.Their Pakistan-based accom-plices had told them to sneakinto Pakistan with the help ofan electric tester to find outwhether current was flowingthrough the fence. Four testerswere seized from their posses-sion,” the officer said. PTI

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Security forces averted amishap on Monday by time-

ly detecting a suspected impro-vised explosive device (IED)near Kallar chowk alongJammu-Poonch highway infrontier Rajouri district.

According to spokesman ofthe J&K Police, “a road openingparty (ROP) of the Army firstdetected the suspected IEDlying near Kallar Chowk along-side the highway that connectsRajouri district with Jammu”.

Police spokesman said,“during close examination, abottle filled with liquid mater-ial and a polybag filled withsome solid material was found.The ROP immediately flashedan alert and traffic was halted onboth sides of the road to preventany untoward incident”.

“After senior army andpolice officers, took stock of the

situation, army’s bomb dis-posal squad launched its oper-ation following SOP and afterhour long exercise, the said sus-pected IED material wasdestroyed on the spot therebyaverting any possible mishap”,police spokesman added.Traffic on the busy road wasrestored to clear the rush ofstranded vehicles.

Senior superintendent ofpolice, Rajouri, Yougal Manhassaid that timely action by thealert jawans of army ROP avert-ed any untoward incident.

He also clarified that duringinitial investigation of the mat-ter, it has come to fore that nobanned explosive material waspresent in the suspicious objectfound along highway in Rajouri.

“It seems that some mis-creant placed a suspicious objectin a disintegrated form to giveit the shape of an IED to createsocial disorder”, he added.

Guwahati: Incumbent PemaKhandu will be sworn in asArunachal Pradesh ChiefMinister on Wednesday after theState BJP won the recentAssembly and Lok Sabha polls.

The BJP legislature party inArunachal Pradesh has electedKhandu as their leader during ameeting on Monday. Later,Khandu accompanied by legis-lator and former Deputy ChiefMinister Chowna Mein andstate BJP chief and MP TapirGao called on State GovernorBrig BD Mishra at Raj Bhavanin Itanagar and staked claim toform the next Government.

Khandu informed theGovernor about the meetingconsisting of 41 elected membersof Arunachal Pradesh LegislativeAssembly from the BJP andsaid 40 members have unani-mously elected him as theirleader in seventh LegislativeAssembly of the State. IANS

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Though the Narendra Modi-led NDA Government at

the Centre has a comfortablemajority in the Lok Sabha, theTamil Nadu brigade led by theDMK is all set to make life dif-ficult for the ruling party.

The Secular ProgressiveAlliance (SPA) led by the DMKhas 37 members and it is expect-ed to win the rescinded VelloreLok Sabha as and when it isheld making the rally to 38.

“We were able to sustain theanti-Modi campaign throughoutthe last few years abd in everynook and corner of the State,”said RS Bharati, Rajya Sabhamember as well as the organis-ing secretary of the DMK.

The immediate target of theDMK is winning the LocalBody elections in Tamil Nadu asand when they are held . “Thiswill be precursor to the assem-bly election to be held in 2021which we are sure to sweep,”said a senior party leader. Hencethe DMK and its allies wouldkeep the heat going on againstthe Modi government in bothHouses of Parliament.

The DMK has promised tonominate Vaiko, the MDMKleader as a member of Rajya

Sabha when election is due onJuly 2019. Vaiko is expected tomake life difficult for the rul-ing dispensation at the Centre.He had already assured thepeople that he would make theCentre agree to exempt TamilNadu from the NationalEligibility and Entrance Test(NEET) , the qualifying exam-ination for dmission to undergraduate and post graduatecourses in the country’s med-ical colleges.

Vaiko has already “fired”warning shots by asking thePrime Minister to ensure thesafety f the minority commu-nities in the country. He con-demned the BJP and Modi forthe attack on a couple belong-ing to the minority communi-ty at Bhopal allegedly by cowvigilantes. Adding headache tothe Modi government would beThol Thirumavalavan, theVCK leader who scrapedthrough from Chidambaramconstituency by a margin of3,219 votes, the smallest mar-gin in Tamil Nadu.

The southern bench is amyriad combination of youthand experience. MK Kanimozhi,former DNK chiefKarunanidhi’s daughter by histhird wife, Dayanidhi Maran,Karunanidhi’s grand nephew, ARaja, the 2G spectrum fame for-mer Union Minister, TamizhachiThangapandian who wasKaruinanidhi’s beloved discipleand Kalanidhi Veersamy, son offormer DMK minister ArcotVeerasamy are the leading lightsin the DMK array.

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Ahigh-level meeting to reviewthe arrangements being put

in place for the upcomingAmarnath yatra in southKashmir Himalayas was heldhere on Monday, an official said.

The annual 46-day pil-grimage to the 3,880 metrehigh holy cave shrine is sched-uled to begin from the twinroutes of Pahalgam inAnantnag and Baltal inGanderbal districts on July 1.

Principal Secretary HomeShaleen Kabra chaired themeeting which was attended byDivisional Commissioner,Jammu Sanjeev Verma, IGPMK Sinha, IG Traffic AlokKumar, IG CRPF AV Chauhanand other senior civil andpolice officers, the official said.

The DivisionalCommissioner gave a detailedpresentation on the arrange-ments being put in place by dif-ferent departments to ensuresmooth conduct of the yatra,the official said. The commis-sioner also apprised those pre-sent in the meeting about thenumber of SRTC busses beingmade available, halting pointsset up in Kathua, Samba,Jammu, Udhampur andRamban districts, langar (com-munity kitchen) points enroute,shelter sheds, accommodationfor pilgrims and other relatedarrangements, the officialadded. PTI

Ahmedabad: Ahead ofRathyatra in Ahmedabad,Special Operations Group(SOG) on Monday detained 47Bangladeshi nationals fromvarious parts of the city for ille-gal stay, police said.

The Ahmedabad SOG hadformed five different teams tocarry out a search operation, asper an official statement.Patrolling was conducted indifferent areas of the city dur-ing which as many as 47Bangladeshis were detainedfrom areas including Chandolalake in Ishanpur, Danilimda,Chirag Park Society, NarodaPatiya, Juna Wadaj etc, andbrought to SOG police station,it said.

They were detained as theywere found to be staying ille-gally in the city without anyvalid documents. PTI

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Former Prime Minister andJD(S) supremo HD Deve

Gowda had a discussion withKarnataka Congress chiefDinesh Gundu Rao onMonday, following the com-bine’s rout in the just-conclud-ed Lok Sabha election.

After the meeting that last-ed for over an hour, Rao toldreporters that Deve Gowda hadasked him to come home to dis-cuss various issues. He, howev-er, refused to divulge what tran-spired between the formerPrime Minister and him.

“I cannot disclose whatdiscussion we had because hehas said something outrightabout the two parties. We willhave to take certain decisionsafter discussing with the seniorleaders in our party,” Rao said.

The Congress and the JanataDal (Secular) only managed towin one seat each of the 28 inKarnataka, while the BJP won 25seats. The other seat was baggedby BJP-backed Independentcandidate SumalathaAmbareesh, who defeated DeveGowda’s grandson NikhilKumaraswamy in Mandya.

Deve Gowda too lost from

Tumkur. BJP leaders have pre-dicted the collapse of theCongress-JD(S) coalition inKarnataka and an increase inthe saffron party’s tally in theAssembly after the Lok Sabhapoll results, claiming that 20-odd Congress MLAs

were unhappy with the StateGovernment.

The Deve Gowda-Raomeeting comes amid coalitionworries and discontent withinthe Congress, with its MLARamesh Jarkiholi, who hasbeen rubbing shoulders with

the BJP for some time, eventhreatening to resign, alongwith a few other lawmakers.

The Congress has con-vened a meeting of its legisla-ture party on Wednesday todiscuss the political develop-ments in the southern State.

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Three suspects have beenarrested in connection with

the killing of a BJP worker inAmethi two days ago, policesaid on Monday.

Director General of Police(DGP) OP Singh said there wasa local-level political rivalrybetween the deceased,Surendra Singh, 50, and thefather of one of the accused.

“We have arrested threepersons. After the incident wasreported, as many as sevenpeople were taken into custodyand they were thoroughlyquizzed,” Singh told reportershere. “Among the seven people,there were three who werelinked with the incident.”

Amethi Superintendent ofPolice Rajesh Kumar said thosearrested have been identified asRamchandra, Dharmanath andNaseem, while two personswere absconding.

Singh, a close aide ofnewly-elected Amethi MPSmriti Irani, was shot when hewas sleeping in his house atBaraulia village, 25 km fromthe district headquarters, onSaturday night. The formervillage head was referred to aLucknow hospital, but suc-cumbed to injuries duringtreatment.

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The simmering discontent inRJD has come to the fore

following its rout in Lok Sabhaelection with a senior party leg-islator Maheshwar PrasadYadav on Monday askingTejashwi Yadav to resign fromthe post of Leader ofOpposition taking moralresponsibility of the drubbing.

Alleging that parivarwad(family politics) has cost theparty most, Maheshwar, RJDMLA from Gaighat Assemblyconstituency in Muzaffarpurdistrict, claimed the party will break if his demand is notfulfilled.

As a party MLA, I wouldrequest Tejaswhi Yadav toresign from the post of LOPtaking moral responsibility ofthe Lok Sabha poll debacle andappoint any other senior partyleader hailing from a casteother than Yadav to the post ofLOP, failing which the partywill have to face crushing defeatin 2020 Assembly elections, hetold reporters.

The RJD is the secondparty of the five membersmahagathbandhan to face theheat of resounding defeat in thehands of NDA in Bihar.

Except for one seat ofKisanganj won by theCongress, the BJP, JD(U) andLJP combine bagged 39 out of a total 40 Lok Sabha seatsin Bihar.

Earlier, UpendraKushwaha led RLSPs three leg-islators — two MLAs and oneMLC — merged with theJD(U) on Sunday followingthe massive drubbings at thehustings.

If my demand (to appoint

someone else as LOP) is notfulfilled, then the legislatureparty will break as party’s sev-eral legislators are with me, Maheshwar Prasad Yadav claimed.

Asked whether he has thesupport of two-third of RJDlegislature party to avoid dis-qualification under anti- defec-tion law, he answered in affir-mative saying that he has thesupport of large numbers ofparty MLAs as no one wants toboard the sinking ship...Butplease, dont ask me the namesand numbers at the moment.

Asked whether he wouldattend the two-day RJD meet-ing scheduled to be held onMay 28 and 29 to discuss thepoll debacle, the rebel MLAsaid he would not participate inthe meeting till his demand(Tejashwi resignation) is met.

Maheshwar, who has beenseen in close company of BiharCM Nitish Kumar in the recentpast, said Lalu Prasads affectionfor his family cost the partymost and the party (RJD)would not have staged a come-

back in the 2015 Assemblypolls, if the RJD would not havestitched an alliance withKumar’s JD(U).

It was because of Kumarthat the RJD came to power in2015 in the State, he said,adding but the party supremoagain chose to anoint his bothsons as Deputy CM andMinister in Nitish Kumar-ledGrand Alliance Governmentignoring senior party leaders.

When Nitish Kumar part-ed his ways, RJD chief againfoisted his son Tejashwi andwife Rabri Devi as LOP inlower and upper house respec-tively. I had opposed the partychiefs move to make RabriDevi as the CM in 1997 andhad suggested him to appointany other senior leader of theparty as CM but he ignored myopinion. There was a timewhen the party was reduced to22 MLAs and four MPs. Butpeople in recently held gener-al elections have thoroughlyrejected the RJD for carryingout ‘parivarwad’ politics, theMLA added.

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After almost a month-and-half, the much awaited

Cabinet meeting of the YogiAdityanath Government will beheld on Tuesday in which thestate government is expected tofinalise the transfer policy and take decisions on pending issues.

A Government official toldThe Pioneer here on Mondaythat the Cabinet meeting would be held at 11 am and waslikely to continue for an houror so.

Many decisions, whichwere pending because of theModel Code of Conduct beingin force, were expected to betaken up on Tuesday, he said.

The last Cabinet meetingwas held on March 8 before the

Model Code of Conduct cameinto force for 78 days.

Sources say the Cabinetmay finalise the transfer poli-cy whose nitty-gritty awaitsCabinet nod.

Generally, the deadline fortransfer ends on May 31 butthis year the deadline is sure toincrease.

The Cabinet will decide themodalities as generally only 10per cent of the staff are trans-ferred and the policy also con-tains many riders.

The spokesman said thegovernment may also takedecision on wheat purchaseand set guidelines for the con-struction of Purvanchal andBundelkhand expressways.

“There are around a dozenissues which need Cabinetapproval and these will be dis-

cussed threadbare in the meet-ing,” the official said.

The Cabinet is also likely tocongratulate Prime MinisterNarendra Modi for theresounding success in the LokSabha election.

Three Cabinet ministers— Rita Bahuguna Joshi(Tourism), Satyadeo Pachauri(Khadi and Gramodyog) andSPS Baghel (AnimalHusbandry) are also likely toattend the Cabinet meeting,their last in UP.

They have been elected tothe Lok Sabha and would betaking oath as members of the17th Lok Sabha.

Rita Bahuguna Joshi hasbeen elected to the Lok Sabha from Allahabad,Pachauri from Kanpur andBaghel from Agra.

T h i r u v a n a n t h a p u r a m :Congress president RahulGandhi would visit Wayanad inthe first week of June to thankthe electorate for his recordbreaking win from this LokSabha seat in Kerala, said aCongress leader on Monday.

Leader of OppositionRamesh Chennithala said thisafter the Congress-led UnitedDemocratic Front (UDF) metfor the first time after register-ing a resounding victory in theLok Sabha polls, winning allbut one of the 20 seats in the State.

A source in the know ofthings said Rahul Gandhi’svisit could be either onSaturday or Monday.

Rahul won with the high-est ever margin of victory inany Lok Sabha election with4,31,770 votes.

He defeated his nearestrival PP Suneer of theCommunist Party of India whosecured 2,74,597 votes whileCongress president received7,06,367 votes.

“This huge victory hasplaced more responsibility onus and we assure the people thatthis victory will not get intotheir heads. They will alwayswork for people of the State,”said Chennithala. IANS

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Bengaluru: Former KarnatakaChief Minister Siddaramaiahon Monday asserted that theJDS-Congress Governmentwas a ‘strong’ one and ridiculedState BJP president BSYeddyurappa for repeatedlyclaiming that the coalition will collapse.

In a series of tweets, healso said the people’s mandatewas for continuation of theBJP-led Government at the

Centre and not for ‘toppling’the State Government.

“Yeddyurappa has beensaying for the past one year theGovernment will fall. He willcontinue to say the same forthe next four years. I am con-fident the Government isstrong,” Siddaramaiah said.

Referring to Prime MinisterNarenda Modi bowing to theConstitution after being elect-ed leader of the BJP-led NDA

on Saturday, he sought to knowwhich article in the Constitutiongave the BJP the right to topplea State Government.

Siddaramiah said the out-come of the Lok Sabha elec-tions, in which the BJP won 25seats, was for continuation ofthe NDA Government at theCentre and not for toppling theGovernment in the State andmake Yeddyurappa ChiefMinister again. PTI

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Investors’ wealth has gone up by �3.86 lakh crore intwo days of market rise where the Sensex has gained

872 points after the decisive mandate for the BJP in thegeneral election.

The 30-share BSE key index has gained 871.9 pointsin two days. The Sensex Monday closed 248.57 pointshigher at 39,683.29.

Led by the rally in the equity market, the marketcapitalisation (m-cap) of BSE-listed companies rose by�3,86,220.41 crore to �1,54,11,395.90 crore on the BSE.

At the close of trade on Thursday, the market val-uation of BSE-listed firms was �1,50,25,175.49 crore.

The Sensex had hit its all-time high of 40,124.96 dur-ing the trade on May 23, the day election results wereannounced.

Hemang Jani, Head (Advisory), Sharekhan byBNP Paribas said, “Indian markets end the day on a pos-itive note. The markets continue their upward trend sup-ported by FII (foreign institutional investor) buying inthe past two consecutive trading days. The current gov-ernment wining the general elections by a two-thirdsof majority will clam the political environment in thecountry.”

He said slowdown in global growth, US-China tradewar along with rise in oil prices pose an immediate threatto domestic markets

“However, post the elections, we now expect themarket to revert to fundamental issues such as earningsgrowth,” Jani added.

From the 30-share pack, 17 scrips gained led by TataSteel, YES Bank, NTPC, Larsen and Toubro, Axis Bankand State Bank of India.

Among sectoral indices, the BSE capital goods,power, industrials, utilities, metal and realty indices ral-lied up to 3.06 per cent.

In the broader market, the S&P BSE Midcap indexgained 1.13 per cent and BSE Smallcap 1.77 per cent.

On the BSE, 1,793 scrips advanced, while 785declined and 188 remained unchanged.

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PresidentD o n a l d

Trump saysthe US isn’tready tomake a tradedeal withChina, buthe’s leavingopen thepossibi l itythat the twon a t i o n scould strikean agree-ment some-day.

Speaking in TokyoMonday, Trump said of China,“they would like to make a deal.We’re not ready to make a deal.”

He added, “We’re taking intens of millions of dollars of tar-iffs and that number could goup very, very substantially, veryeasily.”

Still, Trump predicted a“very good deal with Chinasometime into the futurebecause I don’t believe thatChina can continue to paythese really hundreds of billionsof dollars in tariffs.”

The world’s two largesteconomies are in a tense stand-off over trade. Trump has saidhe expected to meet with his

Chinese counterpart, XiJinping, next month at a G-20meeting in Japan.

Trump said he knows thathis advisers think that NorthKorea violated UN SecurityCouncil resolutions when itfired off short-range missilesearlier this month. But Trumpsaid he sees it differently — andthat it doesn’t matter anyway.

Trump said perhaps NorthKorean leader Kim Jong Unwas trying to get attentionwith the tests.

Trump spoke Monday inTokyo alongside JapanesePrime Minister Shinzo Abe,who also believes North Korea’srecent tests violated UN reso-lutions.

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Anil Ambani’s RelianceGroup will sell its FM radio

business by divesting its entirestake in BIG FM Radio toJagran Prakashan-owned MusicBroadcast Ltd (MBL) for an esti-mated value of �1,200 crore, anofficial statement Monday said.

Reliance Capital andReliance Land (a part of RelianceCapital Group) will divest theirentire equity stake in RelianceBroadcast Network Ltd (RBNL)to Music Broadcast Ltd (MBL).

The move would help inreducing the loan burden of theReliance group firms, it added.

“This transaction is part ofour overall strategy to reduceexposure in non-core busi-nesses and will reduce ourdebt by an estimated �1,200crore,” the statement RelianceCapital CFO Amit Bapna saidin a statement.

RBNL operates under thebrand name BIG FM Radio net-work with 58 stations across thecountry. MBL will initiallyacquire a 24 per cent equity stakeof RBNL by way of a preferen-tial allotment for �202 crore.

Thereafter, subject to thereceipt of all regulatoryapprovals, MBL will acquire allof the remaining equity stakeheld by Reliance Capital andReliance Land in RBNL at a totalenterprise value of �1,050 crore.

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Weakness in consumer spending andsoftening commodity prices have led

India Inc to deliver a six-quarter low rev-enue growth of 10.7 per cent for January-March period, a report said Monday.

From profitability perspective, oper-ating margins also narrowed 0.78 percent to 16.8 per cent during the period,but were up 0.93 per cent on lower com-modity prices and price hikes, ratingagency Icra said in the report.

The agency analysed the results of304 listed entities while arriving at theaggregate.

It said for the consumer companies,the revenue growth declined to 2.3 percent for March quarter, 2018-19, downfrom 9.8 per cent in the precedingquarter, while the same for companies inthe commodity-linked sectors was 12.4per cent as compared to 31 per cent.

The weakness in the consumer-linked sectors was visible in the declinein wholesale dispatches of passengervehicles and two-wheelers and sequen-tial decline in same store sales growth ofquick service restaurants, retail chainsand FMCG companies, its Vice PresidentShamsher Dewan said.

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Adoption of artificial intel-ligence is expected to help

double the rate of industrialinnovation, and may result inover two times jump inemployee productivity in Indiaby 2021, a study by tech giantMicrosoft said Monday.

The study, conducted byresearch firm IDC on behalf ofMicrosoft, said organisations

that have adopted AI saw tan-gible improvements in therange of 8-22 per cent in areaslike customer engagement,margins and competitiveness.

“By 2021, artificial intelli-gence (AI) will more than dou-ble the rate of innovation atorganisations (2.2 times) andemployee productivity (2.3times) in India,” the studytitled ‘Future Ready Business:Assessing Asia Pacific’s GrowthPotential Through AI’ said.

However, only one-third ofthe organisations (respondents)in India said they haveembarked on their AI journeys.

The study found that Indiabusiness leaders and workershold positive viewpoints about theAI’s impact on the future of jobs.

About 64 per cent of businessleaders and 63 per cent of work-ers believe that AI will either helpto do their existing jobs better orreduce repetitive tasks.

When it comes to creatingor replacing jobs, 16 per cent ofbusiness leaders believe that AIwill create new jobs, but 18 percent also feel that the technol-ogy will replace workers.

The report said that about85 per cent of businesses pri-

oritise skilling and re-skilling ofworkers in the future and planto invest in the human capitalevenly or even more comparedto investing in technology.

“Economies and business-es that have yet to embark ontheir AI journey run a real riskof missing out on the compet-itive benefits that are enjoyedby leaders. Businesses mustnow embrace a new culture,where innovation and contin-uous learning are core compo-nents of the organisational cul-ture,” Microsoft India NationalTechnology Officer RohiniSrivathsa told reporters here.

The Asia Pacific study wasbased on response from 1,605business leaders and 1,585workers, including 200 businessleaders and 202 workers inIndia. Fifteen countries werepart of the report includingAustralia, China, Japan, Korea,Malaysia, and Singaporeamong others.

ICICI Lombard GeneralInsurance Company, whichused Microsoft’s AI expertise,showcased a new solution thatdeploys AI to process vehicleinsurance claims and renewpolicies more efficiently.

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As a result of strategic ini-tiatives taken, Bharat

Heavy Electricals Limited(BHEL) has registered quan-tum growth in its profitabilityand entered several new busi-ness areas in fiscal 2018-19,ending the year with significanttraction in growth drivers. Thecontinued commitment andefforts to deliver on its purpose— to help in building a NewBHEL, and a New India, haveresulted in the company con-tinuing on the path ofimproved performance.

During the year, the com-pany achieved a profit beforetax (PBT) of �2,058 Crore,compared to a PBT of �1,585Crore in the year before, regis-tering a surge of 29.8%. Netprofit (PAT) for the year standsat �1,215 Crore, against �807Crore in the previous fiscal, a50.7% jump. Earning Per Share(EPS) for FY18-19 is �3.35 asagainst �2.20 in FY17-18, up by52.3%. The topline has alsogrown by 5.4% to �29,349Crore, as against �27,850 Crorein the previous year.

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India’s crude steel outputremained almost flat at 8.662

million tonne (MT) duringApril 2019, according to officialdata.

The domestic crude steelproduction stood at 8.653 MTduring April 2018, according toa report by the Joint PlantCommittee (JPC), whichcomes under the Ministry ofSteel.

“Crude steel productionstood at 8.662 MT in April2019, up by 0.1 per cent overApril 2018,” the report said.

State-run Steel Authority ofIndia Ltd, Rashtriya Ispat

Nigam Ltd along with privatefirms Tata Steel, Essar Steel,JSW Steel, and Jindal Steel andPower produced 5.082 MT andthe remaining 3.58 MT camefrom other producers, it added.

During April this year, theproduction of hot metal was 1.4per cent down at 5.825 MT,against 5.907 MT in April2018.

The output of pig irongrew 3.9 per cent to 0.537 MTin April, compared with about0.517 MT in the same montha year ago.

The JPC is the only insti-tution in the country that col-lects data on the domestic ironand steel sector.

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The Commerce Ministry hascome out with a compre-

hensive draft of the exportpolicy which includes productspecific rules with a view toprovide a ready reckoner forexporters.

“Based on inputs receivedfrom various partner govern-ment agencies, it is proposedto bring out a comprehensiveexports policy for all ITC (HS)tariff codes (including itemswhich are ‘free’ for export anddo not currently exist in thepolicy), coveringc o n d i t i o n s / r e s t r i c t i o n simposed by partner govern-ment agencies on exports,” theDirectorate General of ForeignTrade said. The draft policyaims at consolidating theexport norms for each productas applicable at differentGovernment agencies.

ITC-HS Codes are IndianTrade Clarification based onHarmonized System of Coding.It was adopted by India forimport-export operations.Every product has been accord-ed eight digit HS codes.

The compendium will helpan exporter know all theapplicable norms pertainingto a particular product, helpinghim/her understand policyconditions for that item.

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NMDC Ltd, India’s largest ironore producer and exporter inpublic sector, in association withChhattisgarh government andTENVIC Sports would implementa unique sports educationprogramme in 30 Governmentschools in Chhattisgarh i.e. 14schools in Mahasamund andKabirdham districts, 6 schools inRajnandgaon and 10 schools inJagdalpur, headquarters of Bastarregion.

Chhattisgarh government hasidentified 23 sports includingcricket, table tennis, badminton,basket ball, football, etc. forphysical development of childrenstudying between Class-III toClass-X of schools in the State.The schools can choose any 04

from among the 23 sports for theabove purpose.

This initiative has beenlaunched in the presence ofGaurav Dwivedi, PrincipalSecretary to Chief Minister,Govt. of Chhattisgarh; SandeepTula, Director (Personnel),

NMDC; Amitava Mukherjee,Director (Finance), NMDC andAnil Kumble, Chairman,TENVIC Sports at Raipur onFebruary 16, 2019 by signing of aMemorandum of Agreement(MoA) by NMDC with Govt. ofChhattisgarh and the initiatives

will be implemented by NMDCCSR Foundation (NCF).

The State Authorities haveintimated their willingness topartner with NMDC forimplementation of the programme.The above sports educationprogramme in 30 schools wouldcost about Rs.2.0 crore that wouldbe borne by NMDC.

Mr. N. Baijendra Kumar, IAS,CMD, said, `` NMDC haspro-actively supported sportsand games in the past and hadbeen instrumental in framing theSports Policy of Steel PSUs whichwas approved by Government ofIndia. It is a moment of pride forNMDC to get associated withChhattisgarh government for thisnoble cause,’’.

NMDC to play big role for promoting sports

education in Chhattisgarh schools

National MineralDevelopmentCorporation (NMDC)Limited has bagged theprestigious S&P GlobalPLATTS Global MetalsAward 2019 in CorporateSocial Responsibilitycategory for the secondconsecutive year.

The company got theaward for the dedicatedinitiatives undertaken inthe field of education,skill development andhealth for theemancipation of localcommunities.

Mr. Sandeep Tula,Director (Personnel),

NMDC Limited receivedthe coveted awardamong the shortlisted 11nominations of renowned

companies across theworld, at a function onMay 16 in London.

The hallmark of the

NMDC`s investment forthe cause of promotion ofeducation is theÈducation City` - anisland of educationalfacilities from primaryschooling to graduationin one of the mostbackward and Left WingExtremism affected areasof the country.

The stakeholderconsultation mechanismadopted by the NMDC toimplement its CSR hasbeen applauded by theDept. of PublicEnterprises, Govt. of Indiaand has beenrecommended by them for

emulation by all Centralpublic sector enterprisesacross the Country.

Mr. Sandeep Tula saidthis Platts Award for CSRbelongs to the teamNMDC who relentlesslyworked towards the causeof creating value for thesociety through CSRinitiatives.

NMDC Ltd Chairman-cum-Managing Director(CMD) Mr. N. BaijendraKumar congratulated theNMDC team and said itis a matter of pride forgetting the coveted Plattsaward for CSR, two yearsin a row.

NMDC bags global PLATTS award for second consecutive year

Mr. N Baijendra Kumar, Chairman-cum-ManagingDirector NMDC Ltd, receives S&P Global PLATTSGlobal Metals Award 2018 in London.

NMDC Ltd, bagged the prestigious S&P GlobalPLATTS Global Metals Award 2018 in corporate socialresponsibility category held on May 17, 2018 in London.

Mr. N Baijendra Kumar, Chairman-cum-ManagingDirector NMDC Ltd, received the coveted award. Theshortlisted 12 nominations were of renowned companiesacross the world. This is the first time since inception ofthis award, an Indian company bagged an award in thiscategory.

Top award pours in for NMDC

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During the fiscal 2018-19, NMDC’s iron ore projects haveclocked their best in a single day, monthly and annualproduction and sales figures.

Highest ever monthly dispatches – 37.95 LT in March2019 against previous best of 37.20 LT (January 2017)

Highest ever single day production of 1.91 LT(31.03.2019) against previous best of 1.63 LT(28.03.2019)

Highest ever single day dispatches of 1.42 LT(16.03.2019) against previous best of 1.40 LT (04.03.2018)

Highest ever exploratory drilling of 16071 mtrs in2018-19 against previous best of 15065 mtrs in 2017-18

Second highest production of diamonds (38033carats) after reopening of mines in 2009-10.

NMDC staff hard work, team worklead to record production, sales

NMDC intends to emerge as aglobal environment friendlymining organisation and also asa quality steel producer with apositive thrust on socialdevelopment.

The basic mission of theNMDC Ltd is to maintain itsleadership as the largest iron oreproducer in India, whileestablishing itself as a qualitysteel producer and expandingbusiness by acquiring andoperating various iron ore, coaland other mineral assets in India

and abroad, rendering optimum satisfaction to all itsstake holders.

The prime objectives of the NMDC Ltd are to expandthe operations in the areas of mining and mineralprocessing to meet the growing demands from domesticand international markets.

Achieve international standards in per capitaproductivity, value addition and cost effectiveness.

NMDC is working on action plan to increase the ironore production capacity to 67 MTPA by 2021-22.

NMDC is all set to commission a three MTPAintegrated steel plant at Nagarnar in poverty-hit butmineral rich Bastar region in Chhattisgarh.

NMDC fast marching towards its vision & mission

Expansion of existing minesOperating new mines fully owned by NMDC or in JointVenture Give thrust to exploration and exploitation of iron ore andother strategic & critical minerals.

To maintain environment protection.To conserve mineral resources through scientific mining. To maintain high level of customer satisfaction. To improve the quality of life of people in general and socioeconomic environment in and around the mines in particular.

The other key objectives of the NMDC are

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Documents

as global economic powerhouse - The Pioneer · 2019-05-27 · NMDC’s Bailadila Iron Ore Mine at Bacheli Complex in Bastar had been conferred '17th Annual Greentech Safety Gold Award,