16
T he Bombay High Court on Thursday provided a big relief to Adani group in a coal scam and also paved the way for many other corporate enti- ties to seek similar relief. The court ordered quashing of all letter rogatories (LRs) sent by Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) to coun- tries, including Singapore, against three Adani group com- panies accused of overvaluing Indonesian coal imports between 2011 and 2015. A division bench of justices Ranjit More and Bharati H Dangre allowed the Adani Enterprises Ltd’s (AEL) writ petition which questioned the procedural legality involved in issuing the LRs. The petition- er pointed out that LRs were issued “without any notice and hearing the companies”. It also said that at that point of time the DRI had not taken any cognisance of offence under the Customs Act 1962 against the group firms. The court order virtually brings down the curtain on the ongoing probe against Adani group of companies and also comes handy for over three dozen other companies such as Essar group, JSW Energy and JSW Steel, Hyderabad — based NSL Group, India Cements, NTPC, MMTC, Tamil Nadu SEB and Karnataka Power Corporation. All of them are also facing DRI probe for alleged overvaluation of coal imports from Indonesia. The DRI had demanded around 29,000 crore from these companies for alleged overvaluation of coal imports. The Customs, Excise & Service Tax Appellate Tribunal had already rejected this plea. In June this year, the DRI charged AEL of attempting to block its probe into the over- valuation charge. The DRI filed an affidavit in the Bombay High Court on June 13 questioning the logic behind the AEL decision to question the “well-settled pro- cedure of issuance of Letter Rogatory”. A letter rogatory is gener- ally dispatched to another country by the Central Government to seek the help of foreign judicial authorities in probing an offshore entity in connection with an ongoing domestic probe. The Thursday Bombay High Court order is big setback for the DRI and all those who had alleged that the Adani and several other companies made huge money by overpricing the Indonesian coal imports between 2011 and 2015. The other aspect of the coal scam probe related to allotment fraud had also generated a big controversy when the role of former CBI chief Ranjit Sinha had come under scanner for allegedly helping the accused companies. D elhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday said that hiking parking fees during the implementation of the odd- even vehicle rationing scheme will be counterproductive. Kejriwal’s statement came after the Supreme Court-man- dated Environment Pollution (Prevention and Control) Authority (EPCA) chairman Bhure Lal had asked the Delhi Government last week to fix parking charges as per the new parking policy so that it could be hiked in view of growing air pollution. Addressing media persons, the Chief Minister said, “It will become very difficult for peo- ple to travel if the odd-even scheme is implemented and parking fees are also hiked.” “We are asking people to share their vehicles during odd-even days and if parking fees are increased, they will be deterred to take their vehicles out. There will be threat of chaos,” he said. Speaking on the issue, Transport Minister Kailash Gahlot refused that a report on parking fees was submitted to him. “I do not have informa- tion that any such report has been submitted. We will exam- ine it whenever the report is submitted,” he said. Meanwhile, officials of the Delhi Municipal Corporations said they are waiting for the final approval of the authorities on new parking norms, but they also assured that whatev- er be the new rules, no addi- tional burden would be put on people by the civic bodies. Chairman of the Standing Committee of the SDMC Bhupender Gupta said the Base Parking Fee (BPF) committee has recommended a hike in the fee by a “factor of 1-3” depend- ing on peak hours and crowd- ed areas such as markets. “Since, it is suggested to be increased by a factor of 1-3, we (SDMC) can increase it by a factor of one, so that it effec- tively the fee would remain the same. We do not want to put burden on the people unnec- essarily,” Gupta said. North Delhi Mayor Avtar Singh said the BPF committee has made recommendations to the apex monitoring com- mittee for its final approval. “We will take steps from our side, once the final picture emerges. Whatever happens, we will take steps accordingly in a way that there is balanced approach so that we neither put burden on the people nor incur loss to the corporation,” Singh said. T he UK and the European Union (EU) on Thursday declared that they have agreed a new Brexit deal for Britain’s withdrawal from the 28-mem- ber economic bloc within the October 31 deadline. While UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson hailed the agreement as a “great new deal”, EU President Jean Claude-Juncker branded it a “fair and balanced agreement” as he recommended it for member-countries to be rati- fied at an EU summit under- way in Brussels this week. However, the new deal continues to hang in the bal- ance as it remains to be seen if Johnson would have the required numbers in Parliament to get it through. He is faced with an open revolt by the Northern Irish Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), which supports his Conservative Party Government in the Commons. “We’ve got a great new deal that takes back control,” Johnson tweeted, just before heading to Brussels to join other EU leaders for the crucial summit. Juncker took to Twitter to say, “Where there is a will, there is a #deal — we have one! It’s a fair and balanced agreement for the EU and the UK and it is tes- tament to our commitment to find solutions.” D elhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday announced rules for odd-even scheme that will be effective from November 4 to 15 to tack- le air pollution. The list of exempted peo- ple include President, Vice President, Prime Minister, Lok Sabha Speaker, Deputy Chairman of the Rajya Sabha, Governors, Chief Justices of India and Judges of the Supreme Court and the Delhi High Court. Emergency, enforcement, defence, para- military and embassy vehicles will also be exempted. Violations of the rule will be punished with a fine of Rs 4,000 which was earlier Rs 2,000. Two-wheelers will also be exempted under the scheme. Vehicles driven or carrying women and those carrying physically disabled persons will be exempted. But private CNG vehicles won’t be exempted. I n a shocking incident, the Border Guards Bangladesh (BGB) on Thursday killed a BSF Head Constable and injured another constable by firing at them from AK-47 assault rifles during a flag meeting on the international boundary in West Bengal. The meeting took place to discuss the arrest of an Indian fisher- man by the Bangladesh para- military force. Miffed over the incident, BSF chief Vivek Johri called up his BGB counterpart Major General Shafeenul, who assured him a thorough probe into the incident, officials said. Later the BSF tweeted, “DG & all ranks #BSF salute the supreme sacrifice of Head Constable Vijay Bhan Singh and offer condolences to the family members. On 17th October ‘19, HC Vijay Bhan Singh was martyred while on an operational duty (flag meet- ing with BGB) on Indo- Bangladesh Border.” “Today morning, three Indian fishermen went for fish- ing in River Padma in the bor- der area. Two fishermen returned and approached BSF post Kakmarichar ( Riverine border of River Padma which falls in the AOR (area of oper- ation) of this BOP (Border Out Post) to inform that Border Guards Bangladesh had appre- hended them and later released two of them to call BSF post Commander for flag meeting,” the BSF said in a statement. The BSF further stated, “Around 10.30 hours, Post Commander along with 5 troopers in the BSF boat, approached BGB patrol in the water channel of River Padma near Boundary Pillar 75/7-S. During flag meeting, BGB patrol did not release Indian fisherman and also tried to cor- don (gherao) BSF troops. Sensing the situation worsen- ing, BSF party immediately returned. “BGB troops opened fire on the returning BSF party. Head Constable Vijay Bhan Singh received bullet injuries on his head and succumbed and the constable/crew (boatman) received bullet injuries on his right hand. Both injured BSF personnel were evacuated to the nearest medical facility. Head Constable Vijay Bhan Singh was declared brought dead. Injured Constable has been taken to Murshidabad Medical College and Hospital.” BGB authorities have been contacted and senior officials are on the spot, it said. The attack on the BSF trooper is primarily an indica- tor of some local issues in Bangladesh aimed at address- ing the domestic audience through radical elements in the BGB ahead of the national elections. The incident does not reflect any design at the level of the Government there which has been friendly with India and cooperating on a number of issues including counter-ter- ror operations, sources said. W ith BJD supremo and Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik beginning his elec- tioneering on Thursday, the campaign for the by-election to the Bijepur Assembly con- stituency in Bargarh district gained momentum with the three major political parties trying to woo the voters in their favour. The campaign for the by- poll, which will be held on October 21, will end by Saturday evening. The count- ing of votes will be held on October 24. Patnaik appealed to the people to vote for BJD candi- date Rita Sahu for an all-round development of the con- stituency. The Chief Minister will continue his campaign till Friday. A number of Ministers and senior BJD leaders have been camping in Bijepur to ensure that the party retains the seat by a large margin of votes this time too. BJP heavyweights also accelerated the pace of the party’s campaign by addressing a number of meetings across the constituency canvassing for party nominee Sanath Gadtia. These leaders included State president Basanta Panda, KV Singh Deo and MP Suresh Pujari. Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan is sched- uled to reach Bijepur on Friday and campaign for the BJP till Saturday. Basant Panda said, “Naveen Patnaik has betrayed the people of Bijepur by play- ing with their emotions. The voters will give a befitting reply to the BJD.” However, the Congress camp appears to be demor- alised even though the party leaders have been campaigning for their candidate Dillip Panda. “We don’t have funds like Narendra Modi and Naveen Patnaik. We even cannot match the amount of posters and party flags they have put up for the campaign,” said senior Congress leader and Jatni MLA Suresh Kumar Routray, adding that it is “difficult” for the party to win the by-poll in view of the BJD’s dominant position. C hief Secretary Asit Tripathy on Thursday directed all local bodies and dis- trict administrations to keep the roads named after Mahatma Gandhi and the Gandhi statue areas free from encroachment and also to keep them clean. Tripathy issued the direction while chairing a State-level adminis- trative committee meet- ing on the celebration 150th year birth anniversary of Gandhi. Culture Secretary Manoranjan Panigrahi presented updates for discussion. He also directed the Culture, Language and Literature Department to pub- lish booklets on Mahatma Gandhi with focus on his lifestyle and social messages. Continued on Page 4

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Page 1: B( ˙˚ $ ) C ˙ ) C ˙ C +-./˘ˆ+ˇ 0%1& .˘232.3 4 -./ 01 5˘.6 ... · ˘ˇˆ˙ ˘ˇˆ ˙˝˛˚ ˜ ˙ ˙ ! " # $ % & "’ $$ ( ˜ ˙) ˝ ˛ ˚ ˜ ˘ˇˆ˙ * 01 ˛23,

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The Bombay High Court onThursday provided a big

relief to Adani group in a coalscam and also paved the wayfor many other corporate enti-ties to seek similar relief. Thecourt ordered quashing of allletter rogatories (LRs) sent byDirectorate of RevenueIntelligence (DRI) to coun-tries, including Singapore,against three Adani group com-panies accused of overvaluingIndonesian coal importsbetween 2011 and 2015.

A division bench of justicesRanjit More and Bharati HDangre allowed the AdaniEnterprises Ltd’s (AEL) writpetition which questioned theprocedural legality involved inissuing the LRs. The petition-er pointed out that LRs wereissued “without any notice andhearing the companies”. It alsosaid that at that point of time

the DRI had not taken anycognisance of offence under theCustoms Act 1962 against thegroup firms.

The court order virtuallybrings down the curtain on theongoing probe against Adanigroup of companies and alsocomes handy for over threedozen other companies such asEssar group, JSW Energy and

JSW Steel, Hyderabad — basedNSL Group, India Cements,NTPC, MMTC, Tamil NaduSEB and Karnataka PowerCorporation. All of them arealso facing DRI probe foralleged overvaluation of coalimports from Indonesia.

The DRI had demandedaround �29,000 crore fromthese companies for alleged

overvaluation of coal imports.The Customs, Excise & ServiceTax Appellate Tribunal hadalready rejected this plea.

In June this year, the DRIcharged AEL of attempting toblock its probe into the over-valuation charge.

The DRI filed an affidavitin the Bombay High Court onJune 13 questioning the logic

behind the AEL decision toquestion the “well-settled pro-cedure of issuance of LetterRogatory”.

A letter rogatory is gener-ally dispatched to anothercountry by the CentralGovernment to seek the help offoreign judicial authorities inprobing an offshore entity inconnection with an ongoingdomestic probe.

The Thursday BombayHigh Court order is big setbackfor the DRI and all those whohad alleged that the Adani andseveral other companies madehuge money by overpricingthe Indonesian coal importsbetween 2011 and 2015.

The other aspect of the coalscam probe related to allotmentfraud had also generated a bigcontroversy when the role offormer CBI chief Ranjit Sinhahad come under scanner forallegedly helping the accusedcompanies.

���##� ��� �� �� 2.���.=>�

Delhi Chief Minister ArvindKejriwal on Thursday said

that hiking parking fees duringthe implementation of the odd-even vehicle rationing schemewill be counterproductive.

Kejriwal’s statement cameafter the Supreme Court-man-dated Environment Pollution(Prevention and Control)Authority (EPCA) chairmanBhure Lal had asked the DelhiGovernment last week to fixparking charges as per thenew parking policy so that itcould be hiked in view ofgrowing air pollution.

Addressing media persons,the Chief Minister said, “It willbecome very difficult for peo-ple to travel if the odd-evenscheme is implemented andparking fees are also hiked.”

“We are asking people toshare their vehicles during

odd-even days and if parkingfees are increased, they will bedeterred to take their vehiclesout. There will be threat ofchaos,” he said.

Speaking on the issue,Transport Minister KailashGahlot refused that a report onparking fees was submitted tohim. “I do not have informa-tion that any such report hasbeen submitted. We will exam-ine it whenever the report is

submitted,” he said.Meanwhile, officials of the

Delhi Municipal Corporationssaid they are waiting for thefinal approval of the authoritieson new parking norms, butthey also assured that whatev-er be the new rules, no addi-tional burden would be put onpeople by the civic bodies.

Chairman of the StandingCommittee of the SDMCBhupender Gupta said the Base

Parking Fee (BPF) committeehas recommended a hike in thefee by a “factor of 1-3” depend-ing on peak hours and crowd-ed areas such as markets.“Since, it is suggested to beincreased by a factor of 1-3, we(SDMC) can increase it by afactor of one, so that it effec-tively the fee would remain thesame. We do not want to putburden on the people unnec-essarily,” Gupta said.

North Delhi Mayor AvtarSingh said the BPF committeehas made recommendationsto the apex monitoring com-mittee for its final approval.“We will take steps from ourside, once the final pictureemerges. Whatever happens,we will take steps accordinglyin a way that there is balancedapproach so that we neither putburden on the people norincur loss to the corporation,”Singh said.

����� =/2�/2

The UK and the EuropeanUnion (EU) on Thursday

declared that they have agreeda new Brexit deal for Britain’swithdrawal from the 28-mem-ber economic bloc within theOctober 31 deadline.

While UK Prime MinisterBoris Johnson hailed theagreement as a “great newdeal”, EU President JeanClaude-Juncker branded it a“fair and balanced agreement”as he recommended it formember-countries to be rati-fied at an EU summit under-

way in Brussels this week.However, the new deal

continues to hang in the bal-ance as it remains to be seen ifJohnson would have therequired numbers inParliament to get it through.

He is faced with an openrevolt by the Northern IrishDemocratic Unionist Party(DUP), which supports hisConservative PartyGovernment in the Commons.

“We’ve got a great newdeal that takes back control,”Johnson tweeted, just beforeheading to Brussels to joinother EU leaders for the crucialsummit.

Juncker took to Twitter tosay, “Where there is a will, thereis a #deal — we have one! It’s afair and balanced agreement forthe EU and the UK and it is tes-tament to our commitment tofind solutions.”

���##� ��� �� �� 2.���.=>�

Delhi Chief Minister ArvindKejriwal on Thursday

announced rules for odd-evenscheme that will be effectivefrom November 4 to 15 to tack-le air pollution.

The list of exempted peo-ple include President, VicePresident, Prime Minister, LokSabha Speaker, DeputyChairman of the Rajya Sabha,Governors, Chief Justices ofIndia and Judges of theSupreme Court and the DelhiHigh Court. Emergency,enforcement, defence, para-military and embassy vehicleswill also be exempted.

Violations of the rule willbe punished with a fine of Rs4,000 which was earlier Rs2,000. Two-wheelers will alsobe exempted under the scheme.

Vehicles driven or carryingwomen and those carrying physically disabledpersons will be exempted. Butprivate CNG vehicles won’t beexempted.

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

��������������� ������ �� ���

����������� ������ �������� �!� ����� �������������������������

���� ������� �!"�����������#� ���������$����������� ��"%������ ��&���

"�#��������� ���$������� �� ���������� ������%&

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In a shocking incident, theBorder Guards Bangladesh

(BGB) on Thursday killed aBSF Head Constable andinjured another constable byfiring at them from AK-47assault rifles during a flagmeeting on the internationalboundary in West Bengal. Themeeting took place to discussthe arrest of an Indian fisher-man by the Bangladesh para-military force.

Miffed over the incident,BSF chief Vivek Johri called uphis BGB counterpart MajorGeneral Shafeenul, whoassured him a thorough probeinto the incident, officials said.

Later the BSF tweeted, “DG& all ranks #BSF salute thesupreme sacrifice of HeadConstable Vijay Bhan Singhand offer condolences to thefamily members. On 17thOctober ‘19, HC Vijay BhanSingh was martyred while onan operational duty (flag meet-ing with BGB) on Indo-Bangladesh Border.”

“Today morning, threeIndian fishermen went for fish-ing in River Padma in the bor-der area. Two fishermenreturned and approached BSFpost Kakmarichar ( Riverineborder of River Padma whichfalls in the AOR (area of oper-ation) of this BOP (Border OutPost) to inform that BorderGuards Bangladesh had appre-hended them and later releasedtwo of them to call BSF postCommander for flag meeting,”the BSF said in a statement.

The BSF further stated,“Around 10.30 hours, PostCommander along with 5

troopers in the BSF boat,approached BGB patrol in thewater channel of River Padmanear Boundary Pillar 75/7-S.During flag meeting, BGBpatrol did not release Indianfisherman and also tried to cor-don (gherao) BSF troops.Sensing the situation worsen-ing, BSF party immediatelyreturned.

“BGB troops opened fireon the returning BSF party.Head Constable Vijay BhanSingh received bullet injuries on

his head and succumbed andthe constable/crew (boatman)received bullet injuries on hisright hand. Both injured BSFpersonnel were evacuated to thenearest medical facility. HeadConstable Vijay Bhan Singhwas declared brought dead.Injured Constable has beentaken to Murshidabad MedicalCollege and Hospital.”

BGB authorities have beencontacted and senior officialsare on the spot, it said.

The attack on the BSFtrooper is primarily an indica-tor of some local issues inBangladesh aimed at address-ing the domestic audiencethrough radical elements in theBGB ahead of the nationalelections.

The incident does notreflect any design at the level ofthe Government there whichhas been friendly with Indiaand cooperating on a numberof issues including counter-ter-ror operations, sources said.

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With BJD supremo andChief Minister Naveen

Patnaik beginning his elec-tioneering on Thursday, thecampaign for the by-election tothe Bijepur Assembly con-stituency in Bargarh districtgained momentum with thethree major political partiestrying to woo the voters in theirfavour.

The campaign for the by-poll, which will be held on

October 21, will end bySaturday evening. The count-ing of votes will be held onOctober 24.

Patnaik appealed to thepeople to vote for BJD candi-date Rita Sahu for an all-rounddevelopment of the con-stituency.

The Chief Minister willcontinue his campaign tillFriday. A number of Ministersand senior BJD leaders havebeen camping in Bijepur toensure that the party retains theseat by a large margin of votes

this time too.BJP heavyweights also

accelerated the pace of theparty’s campaign by addressinga number of meetings acrossthe constituency canvassingfor party nominee SanathGadtia. These leaders includedState president Basanta Panda,KV Singh Deo and MP SureshPujari.

Union MinisterDharmendra Pradhan is sched-uled to reach Bijepur on Fridayand campaign for the BJP tillSaturday.

Basant Panda said,“Naveen Patnaik has betrayedthe people of Bijepur by play-ing with their emotions. Thevoters will give a befitting replyto the BJD.”

However, the Congresscamp appears to be demor-alised even though the party

leaders have been campaigningfor their candidate DillipPanda.

“We don’t have funds likeNarendra Modi and Naveen

Patnaik. We even cannot matchthe amount of posters andparty flags they have put up forthe campaign,” said seniorCongress leader and Jatni MLA

Suresh Kumar Routray, adding that it is “difficult” forthe party to win the by-poll inview of the BJD’s dominantposition.

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Chief Secretary AsitTripathy on

Thursday directed alllocal bodies and dis-trict administrations tokeep the roads namedafter Mahatma Gandhiand the Gandhi statueareas free fromencroachment and alsoto keep them clean.

Tripathy issued thedirection while chairinga State-level adminis-trative committee meet-ing on the celebration150th year birthanniversary of Gandhi.Culture Secretary ManoranjanPanigrahi presented updates fordiscussion.

He also directed theCulture, Language and

Literature Department to pub-lish booklets on MahatmaGandhi with focus on hislifestyle and social messages.

Continued on Page 4

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With almost all the iron oreleases expiring on March

31, 2020, steel sector industriesare worried about acute short-age of raw materials for nexttwo-three years leading to aserious crisis.

As the process of miningauction is slow, it is unlikelythat the process will be com-pleted before March 31, 2020,officials apprehend.

And even if the process ofauction will be completed, get-ting statutory clearances willtake a long time, even for yearstogether.

While the Government ofIndia is targeting for 300 mil-lion tonnes (MT) of steel to beproduced by 2025, there will beserious disruption in supply ofiron ore for the steel sector asmore than 250 iron ore mineslease will expire on March 31,2020.

Steel producers are verymuch worried over the emerg-

ing critical scenario as withexpiring of the mining leases allon a sudden, there will bestoppage of production of ironore from these mines.

Odisha, being one of thetop most leaders in iron oreproduction, similar situationwill arise in 2020-21 as major-ity of iron ore mines will facestoppage due to expiring ofmining lease on March 31.

Though the StateGovernment is trying hard togo for auction of the iron iremines, but it will take at leastthree long years to get otherstatutory licences like forestclearance, environment clear-ance and a host of other clear-ances.

Sources in the UnionMinistry of Steel admit that thecountry is likely to face short-age of about 50 MT of iron orein 2020-21 and it will adverse-ly affect the steel sector.

So, now, the steelmakersare requesting the Governmentto help them out and provide

raw material security.In the meantime, almost all

major steel makers haveapproached the StateGovernment to look into theissues of raw material avail-ability. Sources said that theState Government is planningto ramp up production in themines of Odisha MiningCorporation (OMC) as theState PSU will be able to pro-vide much needed raw mater-ial provisions in an impartialway.

And some of the privatemining companies' leases arenot expiring by March 2020, sothat these mining lease holderscan boost up their productionto help out the steel makers.

In the meantime, theMinistry of Mines has allowedthe Steel Authority of IndiaLimited (SAIL) to sell 70 MTof iron ore, which are lying inthe mines.

It is expected that the OMCand the SAIL will come to res-cue of the steelmakers.

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Apolice Constable posted atthe Nimapara police sta-

tion in Puri district was arrest-ed on Wednesday for alleged-ly blackmailing and repeated-ly raping a woman.ConstableGangadhar Rout came in con-tact with the woman morethan a year ago when he wasposted at the Satyabadi policestation in the district.

The woman had come tothe police station for lodging acomplaint, during which theaccused befriended her on theplea of helping her in the mat-ter.Later, he allegedly black-mailed and raped her. Thoughpolice had registered a case inthis connection, Gangadharmanaged to get bail in July,2019.The woman had recentlyapproached Puri SPUmashankar Dash over theincident, following which theaccused was arrested. He wouldbe forwarded to court, policesources said.

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The Odisha Human RightsCommission (OHRC) has

sought a report from theGovernment for its lapses inproviding creche facility forthe chi ldren of womenemployees at Governmentoffices.

The commission hasasked for a reply by December20 this year.

A notice in this regard hasbeen served to the Women &Child DevelopmentDepartment and MissionShakti by an OHRC Bench

comprising Chairman JusticeBimal Prasad Das, JusticeRaghubir Dash and memberAsim Amitabh.

The notice refers to a rul-ing by the Supreme Court inwhich female workers (musterrol l) of the MunicipalCorporation of Delhi hadmoved the apex court in 2000.

A team of lawyers com-prising Biswapriya Kanungo,Bijay Kumar Panda,Subhasish Panda, GolakPrasad Nayak, SubratMohapatra and PrakashChandra Das has drawn theattention of the OHRC seek-

ing an order to the WCD toensure creche facility for thechildren of women employeesengaged at Governmentworkplaces, including theState Secretariat and theToshali Bhawan inBhubaneswar.

As per the NationalMinimum Guidelines of theUnion Ministry of Women &Child Development, everyestablishment having 50 ormore women employeesshould have facility of crecheunder the Maternity BenefitAmendment Act, 2017.

However, the OdishaGovernment is yet to set upsuch facility for children ofwomen employees at work-places.

Not only in private organ-isat ions, but a lso inGovernment of f ices, nocreche has been provided.

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The State Government has formedSpecial Squads to check illegal park-

ing and fee collection in the off-street areasof Bhubaneswar.

“Apart from the designated sites,where Bhubaneswar MunicipalCorporation (BMC) would levy fees forparking, other establishments can’t collectparking charges despite own parking slotsinside and outside their premises,” saidUrban Development Minister Pratap Jenaon Thursday.

Earlier, taking note of the instances ofillegal parking fee collection at commer-cial buildings, shopping malls, multiplex-es, hospitals, apartments and housingprojects in the city, the BhubaneswarDevelopment Authority (BDA) onWednesday asked the property owners anddevelopers to stop collecting parking fees

from visitors on the premises immediate-ly while terming the practice as ‘illegal’.

“It has come to the notice of the BDAthat different shopping malls, multiplex-es and apartments are imposing parkingcharges/fees. This is not consistent with theprovisions of the BDA (P&BS) regulationsas well as the approved building plan andthe developers/owners are hereby direct-ed to stop the illegal practice of chargingparking fees from the visitors, immedi-ately,” the BDA stated in a release.

The BDA further said the parking areashown in the approved building plan isbeing used for purposes other than park-ing vehicles on some such buildings.Such misuse of parking is resulting in on-street parking and thereby adverselyaffecting the traffic movement on the pub-lic road.

Notably, the BDA (Planning &Building Standards) Regulations, 2018prescribe that mandatory off-street park-ing shall be provided in commercialbuildings. The sub-regulation (7) of reg-ulation 37 of the aforesaid regulations pre-scribes that the misuse of the parkingspaces shall be summarily removed ordemolished by the BDA.

The BDA also asked the propertydevelopers and owners to abide by themandatory off-street parking provisions inthe approved building plan. “Any devia-tions in the parking provisions shall berestored by the owners as per the provi-sions of approved building plan within 30days from the date of issue of this notice,”the release added.

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Abroken injection needlewas removed from the per-

ineum of a minor boy at theMadhapur Community HealthCentre (CHC) in Athmallikblock of Angul district onThursday, a month after it gotstuck in his body while a nursewas administering him aninjection.

Swayamjit (3), son ofSitakanta Panda of Mohankhalivillage, had been taken to theCHC a month ago for treat-ment of fever. A nurse admin-

istered him the injection to hiship, during which the injectionneedle broke and remained inhis body, alleged the boy’sfather.

The child repeatedly com-plained of pain during the lastone month. On Wednesdayevening, his father again tookhim to the CHC, where themedical in-charge told them tovisit the hospital on Thursdaymorning.

A team of doctors removedthe needle, which had piercedthe skin outwards, safely fromthe perineum of the child. Hewas shifted to the AngulDistrict Headquarters Hospitalfor further treatment.

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Nagaja Niranjana, IpshitaDas and Janhvi Pathak of

Odisha have brought laurels tothe State as they won three dif-ferent titles at the finale ofIndia’s Mr and Miss CharmingFace-2019 held in Jaipur,Rajasthan.

While Nagaja was crownedas Miss

I n d i aC h a r m i n gFace TourismAmbassadorWorldwide ,Ipshita baggedthe Miss IndiaC h a r m i n gF a c eInternationaltit le andJanhvi won

the Miss India Charming FaceGlobal Universe.Besides,Rajesh Ranjan of Odisha wonthe Best Regional Directoraward, which was received byNagaja on his behalf.

The three girls got a rous-ing welcome at the BijuPatnaik International Airporthere when they returnedhome.

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Abody of a Village LevelWorker (VLW) was found

hanging under mysterious cir-cumstances in a guesthouse atBaligari under the Dharmasalapolice station of the district onThursday.

The deceased was identi-fied as Smitarani Biswal.

Reports said that after dis-bursing allowances at Bhadangavillage, Biswal had gone to theguesthouse of Rupesh Bhadra,husband of HaridaspurSarpanch Madhusmita Bhadra,in Baligari in his vehicle.

Besides Rupesh, some of hisfriends also went to the guest-house in the vehicle.

While Rupesh and hisfriends were busy in prepara-tions for a feast, Biswal went tothe first floor of the guesthouseto get refreshed. “Later, she wasfound hanging with her Chunrifrom a ceiling fan in the guest-house. She committed suicide,”claimed Rupesh.After receivingthe information, police reachedthe spot and seized the body. Adetailed probe was initiated tofind out the circumstancesunder which the VLW died,said a police official.

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Tension prevailed at theBramhanamara Upper

Primary School under theTown police station inMayurbhanj district onThursday when a teacher of theschool allegedly sexuallyassaulted a Class-VI girl stu-dent.

The teacher was identi-fied as Prashant Bhujabal.

Sources said that Bhujabalfound the minor girl alone ataround 10 am and sexually

assaulted her. The matter cameto the fore after the girlinformed her parents about it.

Following this, irate localsdetained the schoolteacher andlocked him up in a classroom.They also vandalised his carparked in the school.

Later, getting informationpolice reached the spot andbrought the tense situationunder control.

Police personnel weredeployed at the school to avoidany further untoward incident.

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The National Human RightsCommission (NHRC) on

Thursday issued a show-causenotice to the Odisha ChiefSecretary directing him to replywithin six weeks as to whycompensation of Rs 10 lakhshould not be given to each ofthe 36 children of Behula vil-lage under Garadapur block inKendrapada district who hadfallen ill after taking date-expired worm medicineAlbendazole syrup in 2014 ina de-worming camp.

The commission also askedthe Chief Secretary to take

action against the concernedauthorities.

Responding to a petitionfiled by Odisha-based humanrights activist Akhanda, theNHRC said that during aninquiry it was found that 27Albendazole syrups were givenduring the routine immunisa-tion camp on November 5,2014. Six vials were found to beexpired by date; and as alleged,these vials were taken by sixchildren. The vials were recov-ered from the custody of theirparents.

The NHRC ruled out neg-ligence of the concerned ANMand ASHA staffs, who were

monitoring the camp, and saidthis contention seems to savethe medical officers and doc-tors on duty who are sup-posed to possess technicalknowledge of the medicines.

The doctors and medicalofficers and staffs keeping thestorage of the medicines andproviding such expired medi-

cines are responsible and liableto be punished adequately anddepartmental disciplinary actionmust be initiated against theirnegligent acts and omissions, theNHRC said. The commissionfurther said that it is immateri-al that parents did not bring theiraffected children for treatmentto the Patkura CHC.

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Aminor boy succumbed tohis injuries after a branch

of a tree fell on him while hewas playing in his schoolpremises in Khordha districton Thursday.

The tragic incident tookplace at the Kshetrabasi NodalHigh School in Nirakarpur.

Ritesh Pradhan, a Class-IIstudent, was playing in theschool campus during therecess period. Suddenly, thedead branch of the tree crashedon him, leaving his grievouslyinjured.

He was rushed to theNirakarpur Community HealthCentre for treatment. Later,he was referred to the DistrictHeadquarters Hospital (DHH).

However, he died on the way tothe DHH.

As per villagers, the treehad been damaged due to theCyclone Fani on May 3 andsome dead branches werehanging from it.

They alleged negligence onpart of the school authorities asthe branches were not cutdespite bringing to their noticea number of times.

School HeadmasterUdaynath Tripathy said, “Theboy had climbed the tree andfell down as the branch broke.He suffered head injuries. Werushed him to hospital. Thebranch could be a dead one.”

A pall of gloom descendedon the village after the tragedy.

Tension ran high after theincident, following which theheadmaster filed an FIR at thelocal police station.

As per the latest report, theheadmaster was suspended bythe Block Education Officer(BEO),

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The St John Ambulance,Accountant General,

Odisha observed the ‘Restart Aheart Day’ in the AG Officepremises here on Wednesdayunder the guidance ofPrincipal Accountant GeneralMadhulita Basu.

The ‘Restart A Heart’ pro-gramme is a international ini-tiative to raise awareness aboutsudden cardiac arrest andimportance of cardio pul-monary resuscitation (CPR)and defibrillation in life threat-ening cardiac arrest cases.

It was revealed that 6 mil-lion sudden deaths occur in theworld every year. Survivalchances are less than one percent worldwide and five per-cent in the USA.

Whopping 90 per cent ofpeople experience sudden car-diac arrest (SCA) outside ofhospitals. While 69 per centSCA occurs in home/resi-dence, 20 per cent happens in

public/work places and therest 10 per cent in hospitals.

About 45 per cent of out-side cardiac arrest victims out-side hospital survived when abystander administered CPR(cardio pulmonary resuscita-tion).

While 18 per cent of worldpopulation lives in India, it isestimated that India has 60 percent of the world’s heart diseaseburden due to modern lifestyle, lack of physical activity,genetic predisposition andunhealthy dietary habits.

Death due to cardio vas-cular disease rose 1.3 millionto 2.8 million in 2016. Indiahas 30 million heart patientsnow and about 1.7 millionIndian's heart stops beatingevery year.

Sudden cardiac arrestdeath is very high in Indiacompared to the developedcountries. The rate is 4,280 perone lakh population in Indiacompared to 60-151 in devel-oped countries.

People in the age group of18-72 years lost their lives giv-ing a bad impact on the Indianeconomy.

It is estimated that one-third of death of all deaths inthe country by 2020 will hap-pen due to stop of heart beat-ing.

About 9,000 sudden car-diac arrest victims lost theirlives in Odisha annually as perRegistration General of Indiasources.

Mayurbhnja district hasthe highest mortality rate 25per cent followed by Balangir,Nawarangapur, Jagatsinghpurand Nayagarh.

Heart related death is the2nd largest death in indiacompared to old age death(36.5 per cent).

While 98 per cent ofIndians do not know aboutCPR, 85 people in Japang, is 78per cent in the USA and 56 percent 8in Srilanka knows CPR.

Without CPR everyminute counts and everyminute lost reduces thechances of survavival by eightper cent to 10 per cent.

After 3 minute of Sudden Cardiac arrest thebrain cell became dead 32,000

per second. Within 8 to 10minute of Cardiac arrest (Heart beat stop), brain will bedead and no one can save thevictims.

In India, it usually takesminimum 30 minute forarrival of ambulance or med-ical facility available.

Early CPR can increasedouble or triple chance of sur-vival.

The AG office informedthat it has taken an initiative totrain 2 lakh school and collegestudents, police, paramedicalstaffs, doctors, fire and gener-al people on cardio pulmonaryresuscitation (CPR) /AED infree of cost in all district ofOdisha to reduce cardiac arrestmortality.

“Last month, we havealready trained 5,000 schoolstudents and teachers in dis-tricts of Khordha. Bhadrakand Jajpur. Recently, 2500 IITstudents and 20, 000 KISS stu-dents have been enrolled fortrainin in CPR,” informed anofficial release.

CPR should be included inschool syllabus and law tomake CPR training compul-sory in schools and workplaces, viewed many.

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Production of steel is thebiggest metallurgical indus-

try in the world. The steel indifferent forms is meeting thefast growing needs of humanbeings in various sectors. Themajor raw materials requiredfor iron and steel productionare iron ore, coal, limestone,water and energy. Most of thesteel produced at present in theworld are through BlastFurnace (BF) - Basic OxygenFurnace (BOF).

Blast furnacesGlobal steel production

has reached 1808.6 milliontonnes (MT) for the year 2018.Out of these China produced928.3 MT and India produced

only 106.5 MT during thesame year.

The World SteelAssociation (WSA) shows that,India is languishing at the bot-tom rungs of the consumptionladder with a per capita con-sumption of only 70.9 kg,where as that for the global fig-ure is 224.5 kg.

In order to meet theincreasing demand of steelwith fast industrialisation, Indiahas to produce much moresteel by utilizing the availableresources.

The most important bottleneck in this regard is the nonavailability of coking coal in thecountry to produce iron in BF.The reserves of coking coal inthe country are much less thanthat required for iron makingin the BF. It is reported that thetotal coal reserve of India is315.148 billion tonnes.

Out of which primarycoking coal is 5.313 billiontonnes, medium and semi cok-ing coal are 29.219 billiontonnes and non coking coal is279.028 billion tonnes and ter-tiary coal is 1.5888 billiontonnes. Out of the total reservesof coal in the country the cok-ing coal is only 20% and the

rest is low grade non-cokingcoal. Therefore, India has toimport a large quantity of cok-ing coal to produce iron in BFby spending a huge amount offoreign exchange.

In view of this, it is neces-sary to produce iron which isthe main raw material for thesteel, by an alternate route, thatis Direct Reduction Iron (DRI).The DRI is also popularlyknown as sponge iron becausehere unlike in BF, the iron isproduced without melting in aporous form.

In this case unlike in BF,the iron is formed in solid statefrom the iron ore lumps or pel-lets (formed out of iron orefines) using hot reducing gasesor non coking coal. Both theprocesses are commerciallyavailable.

In the gas based process,the reducing gas is produced bychemically reforming a mixtureof natural gas (containingmostly methane) and flue gasfrom the reducing furnace inorder to produce a mixture ofhydrogen and carbon monox-ide. Typical examples of the gasbased processes includeMIDREX and HYL. Thismethod is preferred in coun-

tries where natural gas is abun-dant and cheap. In the coalbased DR Process, the reduc-ing gas is produced from noncoking coal in the reductionzone of the furnace, typically arotary kiln.

Sponge iron plantsThe typical examples of

coal based process includeSL/RN and ACCAR processes.Such coal based sponge ironmaking from iron ore, is pop-ular both in India and China.However, in the world almost80% of sponge iron is beingproduced by gas based DRprocess. Both the gas and coalbased DRI technology are gain-ing importance due to com-paratively less investment cost,flexibility in using the rawmaterials like cheap iron orefines, non coking coal andnatural gas. Generally, the scaleof operation of gas based DRIis 0.82-1.2 MT per annum butcoal based one is comparative-ly smaller (0.3 to 0.15 MTPA).

According to the survey ofIndian sponge iron industryprepared by Joint PlantCommittee of Ministry of Steel,during 2005-2006, the gas-based sponge iron units aremainly three belonging to Essar

Steel, Vikram Ispat and IspatIndustries, all are in westernregion mainly due to proxim-ity to natural gas sources. Atthat time, their report hasshown that, the total number ofcoal based sponge iron unitsare 147 and the concentrationof the units is maximum inChhattisgarh (38) followed byOdisha (33) and West Bengal(30). The total capacity report-ed to be about 11MT of spongeiron; in Chhattisgarh 4.5 MT,followed by 2.2 MT in Odishaand 1.6 MT in West Bengal.

In India, most of thesponge iron producers do nothave captive mines of any of theraw materials namely hematite,non coking coal and limestonewhich are used for sponge ironproduction.

Therefore, they fullydepend upon other agencies toget their raw materials. Nowthe major constraints beingfaced by these industries arehigh price and non availabili-ty of quality raw materials. Theright grade hematite of propersize has become scarce andvery costly.

Most of the high grade noncoking coal has been ear-marked for thermal power

plants and only inferior gradeslike ‘F’ and ‘G’ are available thattoo in a limited quantity. Mostof the units are producingsponge iron much below theircapacity mostly due to want ofproper raw materials.

In India, due to availabili-ty of large amounts of high-grade hematite and non-cokingcoal, the sponge iron industryhas tremendous scope for fur-ther development.

But various problems beingfaced by the industries at pre-sent as mentioned above, havemade this industry sick.

As during the years tocome we need large amounts ofsteel, it is essential to promoteboth the non coking coal andgas based sponge iron indus-tries.

These industries, besidessupplying enough sponge ironfor steel production, can pro-vide a lot of employment toskilled and semiskilled peoplein the country. In view of this,it is highly desirable to promotethese industries by imple-menting the following pro-grammes:

(a) In view of non avail-ability of high grade lumpy ironore as well as because of its high

cost, it is appropriate to utilizethe cheap and abundantly avail-able low grade iron ore finesafter suitable beneficiation andthen agglomerating those aspellets. In this way, the cost ofthe major raw material theiron ore will be cheaper thanthe lumpy iron ore and alsowith better reducibility. Thispractice is being followed inmany DRI units in the world aswell as recently in India bysome units.

(b) Similarly, the verylow grade coal (F / G grade)can be upgraded to suit therequirement of the rotary kilnDRI units through washingand beneficiation. Again coalwashing units can be setup ina cooperative manner by theconcerned companies to meettheir requirements.

(c) All sponge iron unitsshould have captive powerplants to meet their energyrequirements. As a lot of heatis lost in DRI units, Waste HeatRecovery Boiler (WHRB) cap-tive power plants, with elec-trostatic precipitator should beinstalled. In such captive powerplants, the waste coal finesand char fines of the con-cerned unit can also be utilised.

(d) The water require-ment of each of the DRI unitscan be met by harvesting rainwater both on surface as well asrecharging the aquifer, insidethe plant premises or nearbyareas. This would enable thesponge iron units to be inde-pendent of outside watersources.

(e) By adopting variouspollution control measureswhich are already available inthe country for DRI units, theplant area can be kept pollutionfree. For example, it is possibleto bring down the dust emis-sion from about 12 tones toonly 58 kg per day of a 100tonnes per day kiln by adopt-ing various air pollution con-trolled measures.

(Padma Shri Jena is ex-Director General, Council ofScientific and IndustrialResearch, India, ex-PlanningBoard Member, Governmentof Odisha, Founder Chairman,Institute of AdvanceTechnology andEnvironmental Studies andFounder President, NaturalResources DevelopmentFoundation. Email:[email protected])

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Union Minister of State forShipping Mansukh

Mandaviya made his first offi-cial visit to the Paradip Port aspart of a regular review onThursday.

He was extended a warmwelcome by Paradip Port Trust(PPT) Chairman Rinkesh Royand HoDs at the Jawahar GuestHouse. He was given a Guardof Honour by the CISF, PPTcontingent at the guesthouse.

Thereafter, Mandaviya vis-ited the port and saw the oper-ations in the dock area. He alsoinaugurated the PPT’s NewKalyan Mandap. He too par-ticipated in plantation driveand distributed eco-friendlycotton bags to the public fromnearby localities.

The Minister also partici-pated in a cycle rally organisedby the PPT to spread the mes-sage of “Swachhta hi Sewa” and“Fit India”. He said he always

goes to Parliament cycling allthe way from his official resi-dence when the House is in ses-sion.

Mandaviya had an inter-active session with port usersand other stakeholders andemphasised on augmentingthe coastal shipping.

He also reviewed theprogress with officials of IDCOand IOCL on the ParadipPetroleum, Chemicals and

Petrochemicals InvestmentRegion (PCPIR).

During the review, hestressed on a collaborativeapproach for faster develop-ment to bring an overall devel-opment of the area.

The Minister also reviewedthe functioning of the port. Adetailed presentation was madeby the PPT Chairman. Hehoped a bright future for thePPT.

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In view of the reportedincrease in the population of

Bangladeshi infiltrators andrefugees and their illegal inhab-itation in the State, the demandfor enforcement of the NationalRegister of Citizens (NRC) ofIndia for identification andheadcounts Bangladeshis hasmounted.

According to unconfirmedsources, there are about 40 lakhBangladeshis residing in theState now. They are living in bignumbers in Kendrapada,Baleswar and other coastal dis-tricts by encroachingGovernment land illegally.Their presence in towns andcities is also remarkable.

Another source claimedthat prawn mafia andBangladeshi infiltrators haveencroached upon two-third ofcoastal forestland of 350 sq kmin the State.

In most of the places, theBangladishis have been a votebase for politicians. Undersuch a situation, the politiciansare protecting them, and theadministration is not takingany action against them,viewed many.

Bangladeshis have beenenlisted in electoral roll andissued voter identity cards.They have even got AadhaarCards. As they speak Bengali,they are identifying themselvesas residents of Medinipur dis-trict and other parts of WestBengal. Newspapers have manytimes reported about involve-ment of Bangladeshis in nefar-ious activities like trading ofganja, opium and country

liquor.Even though an 11-member team of MLAs hadearlier written to the PrimeMinister, Union HomeMinister and the Chief Ministerurging them not to allot home-stead land and Aadhaar card toBangladeshi settlers, thedemand has still remainedunheard of, informed an intel-lectual.While MLAs have putquestions many times to knowabout the number ofBangladeshi settlers in theState, the Chief Minister, whois in charge of the HomeDepartment, has submitted anone-liner reply that“Information is being collect-ed”, added the intellectual.

“The National Register ofCitizens should come into forcein Odisha in line of Assam toidentify illegal Bangladeshi set-tlers for security of the Stateand the Country,” said a seniorcitizen.

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Apropos of a news storyheadlined ‘Bangladeshis

residing within Paradip IOCLboundary walls’ published inThe Pioneer on October 16,2019, the Indian OilCorporation Limited has raisedan objection, saying it has neverpermitted any Bangladeshinational to stay inside the plantboundary.

“Being a CentralGovernment PSU, we alwaysabide by the law of the land. TheIOCL Paradip RefineryAuthority has never permittedany Bangladeshi national to stayinside the plant boundary.Information published in yournewspaper is baseless,” wroteIOCL GM (HR) Dharmesh

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APlus Three student sus-tained critical injuries

when a group of unidentifiedmiscreants attacked him bru-tally on Wednesday night foropposing ganja trade in theParbatipur area under theFatepur police station in thedistrict. .

The victim identified asLaba Mahapatra, a +3 thirdyear student of PathaniSamanta Collegein the district, wasinitially admittedto the BhapurC o m m u n i t yHealth Centre andlater shifted to theSCB MedicalCollege Hospitalin Cuttack as hiscondition deteri-

orated.Reports said Mahapatra

was opposing ganja peddling inthe area and spreading aware-ness among villagers to refrainfrom its consumption.Severalarmed miscreants, suspected tobe the cronies of the ganja ped-dler, attacked him with swordsand other sharp weapons onBhapur-Parbatipur bypass roadwhile he was returning home atnight.

He sustained multipleinjuries on his head and handsin the incident. His familymembers have alleged that theganja peddler had threatenedMahapatra of dire conse-quences a number of times.

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Awoman was killed andas many as six of her

family members were seri-ously injured when a buscollided with an auto-rickshaw by which theywere travell ing nearAmbagad on theDigapahandi main road inGanjam district onThursday.

The deceased wasidentified as Ranjita Dalaiof Gunasagar village.

According to reports,Ranjita along with herfamily was travelling bythe auto-rickshaw to visit

a temple at Ambagad inthe morning when a pri-vate bus en-route toDigapahandi fromBrahmapur hit it. All ofthem were immediatelyrushed to the MKCGMedical College Hospitalhere.

While Ranjita wasdeclared dead by doctors,the six other family mem-bers, including a seven-year-old boy, underwent treatment atthe hospital.

Later, the minor boywas shifted to the SCBMedical College Hospitalin Cuttack.

Meanwhile, a policeteam reached the acci-dent spot after gett ing information,seized the bus and beganinvestigating into themishap.

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Veteran politician and for-mer Baleswar MLA Arun

Dey has appreciated the intro-duction of 5Ts by the StateGovernment.He observed thatthose opposing and criticisingthe innovate idea are againstthe development and welfare ofthe people.Addressing media-persons here on Thursday, hereiterated that the initiativetaken by Chief Minister NaveenPatnaik is a welcome step, forwhich things are becomingbetter.It would have a greaterramification when it percolatesdown from the top, he told,

addingt h a tinef f i-c ienc yof theelectedre pre -s e nt a -t i v e sled him to think and act for theinterest of people of Odisha. Hemaintained that there aregroups who find fault witheveryone everywhere.

The 5T initiative is noblestep and all should heartilyaccept and welcome it for bet-ter service and justice to thepeople, Dey said.

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Oil marketing companies(OMCs) are the back-

bone of country’s economy. So,the security and safety of theOMCs operating in the State isthe priority of Odisha Police,”said Director General of PoliceBK Sharma while addressingthe 2nd Onshore SecurityCoordination CommitteeMeeting here on Wednesday.

Assuring of all kinds ofcooperation and support to theoil companies as and whennecessary, DGP Sharma saidthe State level Security Co-ordination Committee meet-ing should be organised at reg-ular intervals to sort out issuesrelating to their day to dayfunctioning.

He suggested formation ofDistrict Level SecurityCoordination Committeesunder the chairmanship ofSuperintendents Police forsorting out local issues.

He advised the OMCs tomaintain good rapport with

the staff of local police sta-tions, so that minor issues canbe sorted out at the police sta-tion level.

The relationship betweenpolice and OMCs should be atthe grassroots level.

Sharma also suggested toinvolve officers from FireDepartment in such coordi-nation meetings in future asfire safety measures is equal-ly important for smooth func-tioning of oil companies.

The relationship betweenpolice and company operators should be perma-nent instead of incident spe-cific, he said.A threadbare dis-cussion was held on variousissues. OMCs’ representativesraised issues pertaining to lawand order, crime, land acqui-sition, threat of transport andtender mafias, strike anddemonstration by workers, bandh and dharna bylocal people on local issues,looting of oil by anti-socials,regular patrolling of pipe lineareas and sought early redres-sal for smooth operations.

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The Gangadhar MeherHigher Secondary School

(formerly as Junior College)witnessed a turbulent situationfollowing an agitation by thestudents protesting transfer ofeight teaching staffs.

“In present situation, theplus two wing is facing acutestaff crunch and the transfer ofeight staffs at a time in the mid-dle of the session without sub-stitutes will add to the problem

further,” alleged students.

The students closed themain gate of the university(where it is

functioning) and staged adharna demanding immediatecancellation of the order.

However, the Principalreached the spot and had dis-cussions with the students afterwhich they opened the maingate and allowed other studentsand staffs to enter college anduniversity.

It might be mentioned herethat there are 44 teaching staffspositions in the college out ofwhich only 35 are filled up for18 departments. And if eightstaffs are transferred then stud-ies of students would be affect-ed badly.

However, some studentsalleged that the Government istaking revenge with teachers,who had supported the stu-

dents in their demand for notshifting it from the GMUniversity campus, and istransferring them from thecollege.The students went tomeet the Collector but due hisabsence they met the Sub-Collector, who has moved toGovernment mentioning theproblem of the students andrequested to cancel the trans-fer of the teachers.

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A20-year-o l d

youth sus-tained criti-cal injuriesas a group ofmiscreants attacked him with sharpweapons over past enmity on in theParbatipur area under the Fatepurpolice station in Nayagarh district onWednesday night.

The victim was identified as LabaMahapatra, a Plus Three third year stu-dent of the Pathani Samanta College,Nayagarh. As per reports, the mis-creants came on motorcycles andattacked him near Bhapur-Parbatipurbypass while he was returning home.

He was rushed to the Bhapur CHCand later was shifted to CapitalHospital in Bhubaneswar after his con-dition deteriorated. No complaintwas registered at the police station tillthi report was filed. Sources saidattackers were known to Laba and oldenmity was the reason behind theattack.

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From Page 1Photos of Mahatma

Gandhi and stories of his visitto Odisha will be part of thebook. Bapuji had visited theState eight times and stayed fora total of 79 days.Culture andLanguage and LiteratureDirector Bijay Nayak informedthat the ongoing celebration of150th birth anniversary ofMahatma Gandhi would con-tinue to be observed in all dis-trict headquarters and at theState level till October 2,2020.Each district has beenprovided Rs 2 lakh to observeimportant days having linkswith Mahatma Gandhi.Opinions of Gandhian leadershave been preserved electron-ically. Rs 19,50,000 has beenprovided to 17 organisationsworking on Mahatma Gandhi

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Mining operations atTalcher Coalfields con-

tinued to remain paralysed onThursday affecting about35,000 tonne coal productionat Balram, Kaniha andLingaraj opencast projectsleading to about 30,000 tonneshort supply to the consumers.

Workers of a private firmVFPL engaged in miningoperations had resorted tostoppage of coal production atKaniha and Lingaraj mines,affecting at least 16,800 tonne

coal production a day atLingaraj OCP and about18,000 tonne a day at KanihaOCP.

While Kaniha OCP con-tinued to remain paralysed,workers of VFPL at LingarajOCP called off stir onThursday afternoon andresumed work. Since theworkers had left due to the agi-tation, the full-fledged opera-tions by the contracted firmwill take some time.

Meanwhile, stoppage ofmining operations at BalramOCP by Danara villagers

entered eighth day onThursday.

Till now, 1,20,000 tonnecoal supply, around 50,000tonne coal production andmore than 2.2 lakh cubicmeter of over burden removal has been affectedfrom Balram OCP due to theinternal rift of Danara andSolada villagers.

A meeting of villagersfrom Solada and Danara wasconducted by civil administration in the presenceof local mine management, butit remained unsuccessful.

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After the shutdown of potsin Smelter Plant of Nalco

due to acute shortage of coal ,the company's shares droppednearly 5 per cent on Thursday.The Nalco shares opened at �40.40 against the last close of �41.65 on the BSE and laterdropped 4.68 per cent to � 39.7apiece.

Today's low is mere 2.8points above from the 52-

week low of �36.90, recordedon August 23, 2018.

As per market depth dataon BSE, there was 53 per centbuying against 47 per centselling in the stock.

In its BSE filing, the Nalco

informed, "Short supply of coalhas severely impacted alu-minium production of Nalcoand also the cost of power."

The Nalco's requirement ofcoal for its CPP at Angul isaround 17,000 tonnes per day.Out of this, Nalco's CPP isreceiving around 8,000 - 9,000tonnes per day and there is ashortfall of around 7,000 -8,000 tonnes.

As the coal supply position is not improving, theState-run aluminium manu-facturer may be forced to fur-ther shut down up to 227 elec-trolytic pots in phases, depend-ing upon the power generationin CPP, matching with coalreceipt.

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As per the directions ofMinistry of Railways, the

East CoastR a i l w a y( E C o R )will instalN a t i o n a lFlags atop100 feet tallpoles at 26s t a t i o n sover itsjurisdictionin the cur-rent finan-cial year.

S u c hmonumen-tal tricolourflags havea l r e a d yb e e n

installed at Bhubaneswar andVisakhapatnam. The proposedlist includes 13 stations inKhurda Road Railway Division,

seven in Waltair and six inSambalpur Railway Divisionkeeping in view good visibili-ty, availability of space andother safety and security mea-sures.

These stations include Puri,Cuttack, Bhadrak, JajpurKeonjhar Road, Kendhujhar,Angul, Dhenkanal, KhurdaRoad, Khurda Town, NayagarhTown, Brahmapur, Chhatrapur and Paradip inKhurda Road Railway Division,Sambalpur, Bargarh Road,Balangir, Nawapada Road,Bhawanipatna andMahasamund in SambalpurDivision and Koraput,Rayagada, Paralakhmundi,Srikakulam Road,Vizianagaram, Jagadalpur andDantewada in Waltair RailwayDivision.

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In a bid to prevent elephantsfrom being run over by

trains, the Railways and theState Forest Department havedecided to put up rail barfencing at vulnerable places.

The decision was taken ata coordination meetingbetween the railway authoritiesand the Forest Departmenthere.

Also, it was decided thatthe Forest Department wouldidentify locations for under-passes, which would be con-

structed by the railways.The elephant movement

control room in Khurda RoadRailway office and SambalpurRailway office would beupgraded by the ForestDepartment for better coordi-nation, said an official whoattended the meeting.

Apart from ForestDepartment officials, railwaysChief Passenger Transportation ManagerShailendra Kapil and ChiefGeneral Engineer Victor Josephwere present in the coordina-tion meeting.

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The BJD undertook varioussocial activities, including

a Jeevan Bindu camp, to markthe 74th birthday of its presi-dent and Chief MinisterNaveen Patnaik here onWednesday.

Leaders and workersoffered earthen lamps at theShree Ganesh Temple atHillapatra seeking long life forPatnaik. MP Chandra SekharSahu, MLAs Bikram Pandaand Dr Pradeep Panigrahi,former MLA Dr RameshChandra Chyaupatnaik, for-mer BDA Chairman SubashMoharana, former

Corporators Danda PaniNayak, Durga Prasad Pandaand Sangamitra Dalei werepresent, among others.

A blood donation campunder the Jeevan Bindu pro-gramme was held at the TownHall under the guidance ofMLA Panda.

MP Sahu inaugurated thecamp. A total of 618 units of

blood were collected from thecamp.

In the afternoon, a meet-ing was organised to coveybirthday wishes to the ChiefMinister.

Meals and dresses weredistributed to students andBalashram inmates on theoccasion.

BJD district general sec-

retary Anil Sahu,Bhishmacharya Choudhury,BCC Bank president AlekhaChoudhury, former Assembly Deputy Speaker andsenior BJD leader RamaChandra Panda, SanjitPanigrahi, R Murali Mohan,Rajanish Mishra, SudheerRout and Kinnar Sweety werepresent.

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Aherd of 12 elephantsentered into the Athagarh

forest by crossing riverMahanadi from the Chandaka-Damapada forest on Thursdaymorning.

When they reachedKandarpur village, hundreds ofvillagers were seen teasing thepachyderms by which the big

animals were running hereand there. However, on infor-mation, forest staff reachedthe spot and kept a vigil on themovements of the elephants,told Athagarh Forest RangeOfficer Aisha AkhatriaNisha.On the other hand, thefarmers of the nearby areasremained alert to disperse theelephants if the animals try toenter into the cornfields.

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Sale of tickets for the FIHHockey Olympic Qualifiers

scheduled to be held at theKalinga Stadium here onNovember 1 and 2 began atvarious outlets across the cityfrom Thursday.

The Qualifiers is thebiggest tournament of the yearfor the Indian Men’s andWomen’s Hockey teams as theylook to place their births atTokyo Olympics, 2020. TheIndian Men’s Hockey Team,currently World No-5, will faceRussia in qualifiers in a two-legged tie, while the World No-9 Women’s team will face theUSA in their two matches here.

Tickets for each of the twomatch days (one match-dayincludes two matches) will beavailable across the city at var-ious outlets and also at the BoxOffice situated at Gate No.9 ofthe Kalinga Stadium.

The fans, who have already

purchased their tickets online,can redeem their online vouch-ers at the redemption counterlocated at Gate No.4 of the sta-dium. The sale of tickets alongwith the redemption of onlinevouchers will began onThursday from 11 am to 6 pm.

The tickets have been rea-sonably priced at Rs 300 for

East Stand, Rs 200 for Northand South Stand and Rs 500 forWest Stand.

The outlets where the tick-ets would be sold are SportsEmporium, Sister Mobile inBhawani Mall, Sister Mobile inBapuji Nagar, SS Frozen World,B21 in Kharabela Nagar, B21 inSaheed Nagar, Bharat

Petroleum Petrol Pump,District Center In and Out,ClearPrint.in in Jagamara, CDécor’s in Chandrasekharpur,FH17 Saloon, Ujala CarFashion, Reliance Food Courtin Master Canteen, KlassicBoutique and Beauty Salon,House of Candy and Fresh andFrozen Mount.

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New Hero Indian SuperLeague (Hero ISL) club,

the Odisha FC officiallylaunched their kit and held aninteraction with the media at ahotel here on Wednesday.

The erstwhile Delhi-basedoutfit had earlier signed anMoU with the StateGovernment on August 31 inthe presence of Chief MinisterNaveen Patnaik.

The event started with acultural show, highlighting theState’s rich heritage followed by

the launching of the kit by thesquad members, and variousinteractions with the media.

The event was attendedby Sports and Youth ServicesDepartment Director VineelKrishna and other dignitariesfrom the government, sponsorsand commercial partners ofOdisha FC, fan groups ofOdisha FC and representativesfrom the local and nationalmedia.

Speaking on the occasion,Odisha FC Director RohanSharma said, “I’ve alwayslooked forward to the unveil-

ing of a new kit because it sym-bolises new beginnings.

This is our new beginningfor football in Odisha and I’mexcited and humbled to be apart of it! I hope the fans wearthe kits with pride everywherethey go.”

Odisha FC CEO AshishShah said, “The players and thecoaching staff have been set-tling down in Bhubaneswarand taking advantage of theexcellent training infrastructureat Kalinga Stadium.”

Among others, coach JosepGombau also spoke.

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They are the show stoppersfor their respective parties

BJP and Congress—ManoharLal Khattar and BhupinderSingh Hooda—in Haryana andthey are leaving nothing tochance as they intensify theircampaign ahead of the October21 elections.

Khattar on Thursdayaddressed as many as eightrallies starting from 10.20 am to9.30 pm from various parts ofthe State including Ateli,Loharu, Kiloi, Pundri, Siwan,Kaithal, Asandh and Karnal.

In his rallies, Chief MinisterKhattar is focussing on equaldevelopment of state withoutany regional discriminationclaiming that even oppositionleaders are astonished the waydevelopment in Haryana hastaken place in the last fiveyears.

On the other hand,Congress Legislative Partyleader and former chief minis-ter Bhupinder Singh Hooda addressed around halfdozen rallies in the state empha-sising that Unemployment isthe biggest issue and hasincreased 10 times to 28 percent, highest in the country.

He says no new industry iscoming up and the government is busy in eventmanagement.

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To check stubble burningmore effectively, Punjab gov-

ernment on Thursday decidedto depute nodal officers in near-ly 8000 paddy growing villagesacross the state identified by theAgriculture Department wherepaddy stubble is traditionallybeing burnt.SecretaryAgriculture and FarmersWelfare, Kahan Singh Pannusaid that all the DeputyCommissioners had alreadybeen asked to depute the officersin each of such villages to cre-ate awareness about the ill effectsof paddy stubble burning haz-ardous for human health andenvironment. These nodal offi-cers have been asked to keep aclose vigil over the post har-vesting operations.

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In the wake of funds crunchhitting major road projects,

the Road Ministry has askedthe Central road makingagency NHAI (NationalHighways Authority of India)to explore reducing the roadinfrastructure constructioncosts through new technologyand innovative means in a bidto make projects financiallyviable.

The moves comes afterRoad Transport and HighwaysMinister Nitin Gadkari in areview meeting last week sug-gested the Ministry and NHAIofficials to ponder over theidea of rationalising the con-struction costs.

According to officialsources, in an effort to boostthe morale of officials involvedin highway constructions,Gadkari conveyed them tofocus on delivering projectsrather than getting stuck inprocedures.

In the current fiscal, NHAIhas set a target of constructing4,200 kms of roads and award-ing projects of cumulative6,000 kms. The Ministry hasprojected a revenue deficit ofover �37,000 crore to thefinance ministry.

According to the Ministry,per-kilometre cost of devel-oping a two-lane highway wasbetween �11- 12 crore, whilefour-lane highway was around�30 crore per km till threeyears ago and this costing hascumulatively gone up by 30percent.

"The Minister assured us(officers) there is no dearth offunds for projects, and evenlong-term financial institu-tions are willing to lend to theauthority and don't get de-motivated by baseless rumourswith no substance. He(Gadkari) shared that thatPMO is in full cooperation andthat they want delivery," saidthe official.

The PMO in August thisyear had questioned the

Gadkari led Ministry for forunplanned and excessiveexpansion of roads by declar-ing state highways as nationalhighways which ultimatelyimpacted the central exchequer.

Ministry sources saidNHAI has initiated discussionswith the Indian Institutes ofTechnology (IITs) for researchand development to bring downthe cost of road constructionwith improved quality.

IITs will do a comprehen-sive study on the alternativeenvironment friendly methodsfor road and highway con-structions and simultaneous-ly maintaining the quality. Inthe last couple of years con-struction cost has increased byalmost 30 percent by the givenmaterials, substances andmethods in practice now

To keep up with the paceof highway development of 40km a day the road Ministrysources said that projectsspread across 10 states willnow come up on the public-private partnership (PPP)

model on build-operate-trans-fer (toll) basis. The stretcheshave been selected after con-sultations with bidders inStates including Haryana,Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu,West Bengal, Chhattisgarh andMadhya Pradesh.

This exercise is NHAI'sattempt at reviving the BOTmodel of construction. UnderBOT, private players build,operate and maintain the roadfor a specified period of timebefore transferring the assetback to the Government. Inthe case of HAM, the centralGovernment bears 40 per centof the project cost and theremaining amount is arrangedby the developer.

The Centre has made fundallocation to NHAI for worksunder the Bharatmala Projectand the money will comefrom the Central RoadInfrastructure Fund (CRIF),Permanent Bridges Fee Fund(PBFF) and Monetisation ofNational Highways Fund(MNHF).

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Questions raised by some ofthe BJP leaders in Bihar

recently over the party nottaking leadership in the Stateand playing a second fiddle tothe JDU were unambiguouslyset aside by the BJP presidentAmit Shah, who, on Thursday,affirmed that the JDU-BJPalliance would contestAssembly polls together underthe leadership of incumbentChief Minister Nitish Kumar.

Shah asserted that theiralliance is "atal" (firm) and thatit will fight the Bihar Assemblyelections next year underKumar.

A section of BJP leadersfrom Bihar pitched for Kumarmaking way for a BJP leader atthe helm in the State. UnionMinister Giriraj Singh has been

repeatedly criticising the BiharGovernment for its "inept"handling of water-logging inseveral parts of Patna followingheavy rainfall to which he alsoreceived an acid retort from theJDU leaders who sought him tomind his own central Ministry.

"The JD(U)-BJP alliance is'atal'. Both parties will go to theelections together and we willfight under the leadership ofNitish Kumar. This is clear asfar as Bihar is concerned,"Shah told a news channel.

He was asked if the BJP isconsidering fighting the Stateelection, slated to be held by the

end of next year, on its own.Shah played down the

unease in the alliance, saying itis natural for some differencesto crop up at the local level andthat this is an indication of ahealthy alliance.

'Matbhed' (difference ofopinion) has not changed into'manbhed' (change of heart), hesaid.JDU has been on anuneasy term with the BJP afterit opted out from the ModiGovernment for it not includ-ing two of its leaders in theunion cabinet and makingspace for only one cabinetberth for its alliance partner.JDU has also not been backingtriple talaq bill and objected tothe criminalization clause in it.The discord between the twohad at one time set off specu-lations of Kumar again driftingto the opposition camp.

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The Devendra FadnavisGovernment in

Maharashtra has "fulfiled over96 per cent of the promises"made by the party in its 2014Assembly elections manifesto,the BJP claimed on Thursdayasserting that good Governancehas been the cornerstone of theruling dispensation.

Releasing a report by thePublic Policy Research Centre(PPRC), which analysed imple-mentation of the BJP's 2014assembly elections manifesto,days before the polling in thestate, BJP vice-president VinaySahasrabuddhe said the BJP-ledgovernment gave the State sta-bility which created an envi-ronment for unleashing theeconomic transformation.

New Delhi: A Hindu partyThursday sought action fromthe Bar Council against senioradvocate Rajeev Dhavan, rep-resenting Muslim litigants inthe Ayodhya case, for his "high-ly unethical act" of tearing thepictorial map purportedlyshowing the birthplace of LordRam during the SupremeCourt hearing on Wednesday.

One of the factions of theAll India Hindu Mahasabha(AIHM) wrote to the BarCouncil of India condemningDhavan's action on the con-cluding day of the 40-day hearing in the Ram-Janmbhoomi-Babri Masjid landdispute case before a 5-judge Constitution bench headed by Chief Justice RanjanGogoi. PTI

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Union Home Minister AmitShah has directed the

Central paramilitary forcesincluding CRPF, BSF, ITBPand others to undertake amega manpower planning andensure that around 7 lakhjawans get to spend at least 100days with their families in ayear.

Shah was given a presen-tation last month about thefunctioning of the Forces in theMinistry, following which hedirected that the deploymentdetails of the troops of theseforces should be "digitised" sothat better manpower ratio-nalisation can be done, officialssaid.

The Union Home Ministryhas now asked all the DirectorsGeneral of the Forces to under-take the exercise and implementa regime where a jawan or a con-

stable gets to stay with his fam-ily for about 100 days, they said.

The directive, when imple-mented, will ensure that thejawans will be posted to theirnearest units and they cantravel and stay with their fam-ilies when there are no opera-tional exigencies, an officialsaid.

The forces' chiefs havebeen asked to assess and pre-pare reports of their addition-al manpower so that the over-all deployment of a paramili-tary unit is not affected. Unlikethe paper file format, digitizeddata will make force head-quarters' job easier to to rotate

and deploy their troops.The digital format will also

help in ensuring that a largegrievance of personnel regard-ing their transfer and postingto a place near to their parentsor family home will beaddressed up to a limit, he said.

The forces have been givena deadline of two months toimplement the direvtive.

According to reports, anaverage jawan spends 75 dayswith his family in the BSF.Similar situation prevails inother forces due to lack ofreserve component and con-tinuous deployment. Lack offamily connect has been attrib-uted to one of the many reasonsputting the jawans under stress.Stressed out jawans also. Attimes, tend to indulge in frat-ricidal incidents even leading tocasualties.

The move will give a sig-nificant relief to the jawans.

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Faced with an ambitious tar-get to end malaria by 2030,

the Union Health Ministry islooking towards researchers tohelp address gaps and challenges to tackle the vector-borne disease.

For instance, it has askedthe researchers to conductstudies on the changing behav-iour of mosquito vectors suchas feeding and resting behav-iour, to find out frequencyand level of vector resistance tothe insecticides that are in usefor malaria vector control inhigh risk and residual trans-mission areas.

According to theGovernment, a total of 842,095cases and 104 deaths werereported in 2017. However,the World Health Organization(WHO) in its 2017 GlobalReport has put the estimationat 13.1 million cases and 23,990malarial deaths in India for thesame year.

In fact, as per the WHO, in2017, five countries accountedfor nearly half of all malariacases worldwide: Nigeria (25per cent), the DemocraticRepublic of the Congo (11 percent), Mozambique (5 percent)and India and Uganada (4per cent each). India is high-

ly endemic to malaria andshoulders the burden of twomajor malaria parasites,Plasmodium falciparum and P.vivax.

A senior official from theIndian Council of MedicalResearch (ICMR) said that aprogramme has been launchedwith an aim to bring the vari-ous stakeholders on a singleplatform to identify and pri-oritise research work needed tomeet the target to eliminate thedisease by 2030.

Called Malaria EliminationResearch Alliance India(MERA India), the programmetook off on April 24 underwhich various innovative stud-

ies and tools are being soughtto take the vector headon.

As the emergence andspread of drug and insecticideresistance is undermining theefficacy of existing tools, theICMR is seeking new improvedtools and approaches for dis-ease surveillance, diagnosis,treatment and tackle the vector.Proposals have been sought toconduct studies to assess andquantify outdoor/residualtransmission by vectors thatfeed outdoors or biting early inthe evening or are resistant toinsecticides.

Also, the researchers havebeen asked to look into socio-cultural behavior of the human

population residing perma-nently or temporarily in forestecosystem in relation to malar-ia transmission and vector con-trol interventions.

Studies on communitybehavior, accessibility and uti-lization of current vector con-trol operations under thenational programme, includ-ing study of logistic supplychain.

The ICMR is also lookingtowards development and test-ing of new insecticides andformulations to increase effi-cacy of sprays/LLIN/larvicidingassessment of feasibility andcost effectiveness of new vec-tor control strategies/productsthat are at the developmentstage.

Also, field testing of noveltools such as toxic sugar-bait-ed traps, endectocides, andtargeted larviciding has beenproposed for interruptingresidual (outdoor) transmissionor reducing the receptivity.

According to the Ministry,nearly 70 per cent malariacases in India are contributedby five of 36 States and UnionTerritories. These includeOdisha (36 per cent),Chhattisgarh (12 per cent),Jharkhand (9 percent), MadhyaPradesh (9 per cent) andMaharashtra (5 per cent).

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The trial court on Thursdaysent former Finance Minister

P Chidambaram to seven days ofcustody of EnforcementDirectorate in the INX Mediabribery case. This visibly upsetChidambaram, who would haveto spend the time in the TughlakRoad police station lock-uproom during the ED's custody asthe agency has no custody roomfacilities. Chidambaram thussought air conditioning facilityand even requested that he besent to CBI's custody room.

The Special Court JudgeAjay Kumar Kuhar, however,rejected the demand andapproved other requests likeprovision of home-cooked food,western toilet and medicine etcto the former Finance Ministerwho has to be in the ED's cus-tody till October 24.

Arguing forChidambaram, noted lawyer

Kapil Sibal accused ED and theGovernment for cleverly tim-ing up the ED arrest to settlepolitical vendetta. He said thatED even told the court thatthey don't want to arrestChidambaram few weeks backwhen former Finance Ministerfiled a surrender application.

Solicitor General TusharMehta countered that theaccused person doesn't decidethe timings of the investigatingagencies. He said that ED's caseis different from CBI and theagency was preparing to getsome statements from crucialwitnesses to confrontChidambaram regarding themoney laundering.

Mehta objected toChidamabram's demand for airconditioning facility in ED cus-tody and said that they shouldprovide all security and has noobjection in allowing homecooked food and meeting offamily members.

New Delhi: All postgraduatemedical students will have toserve in district hospitals for atleast three months in order tobe eligible to appear in the finalexam, the Board of Governors(BoG), vested with the powersof the Medical Council of India(MCI), has proposed.

Currently, students pursu-ing undergraduate medicalcourses are attached to prima-ry health centres or urbanhealth centres for three monthsas part of a compulsory rotat-ing internship.

The BoG has written to theHealth Ministry to developguidelines for implementationof the proposal for postgradu-ate students in partnershipwith it and the state govern-ments. It has also sought thatthis provision comes into forcefrom the next academic ses-sion.

"The move is aimed at pro-viding practical experience tofuture specialists in real-life set-ting of the country's publichealth system. Also, this willhelp address shortage of spe-cialist doctors in district hos-pitals of rural and remote areas,and help strengthen services atsuch hospitals," a seniorGovernment official said.

The note sent to the UnionHealth Ministry said all post-graduate students shall under-take a rotation in designateddistrict hospitals/health sys-tem for a period of threemonths as a part of the coursecurriculum.

For postgraduate studentsof community medicine, therequirement can be posting atprimary health centres andfield experience in addition toactivities at the district hospi-tal.

"Satisfactory completion ofthis rotation shall be an essen-tial condition before the candi-date is allowed to appear in thefinal examination of the respec-tive postgraduate course. TheMinistry of Health is requestedto develop guidelines for thescheme in partnership with theState Government and BoG inthree months," it read.

For the purpose of theproposed programme, a districthospital will be defined broad-ly as a functional public sectoror publicly-funded hospital ofabout 200 beds or more, withfacilities for specified special-ities, designated by the Centreor State Governments.

Medical colleges, both gov-ernment as well as private, willplace their post-graduates at thedisposal of the government forrotation/posting for the dura-tion of the course. PTI

New Delhi: The SupremeCourt Collegium has recom-mended elevation of two highcourt judges — Justice RaviRanjan and Justice MohammadRafiq — as the chief justices of the Jharkhand andMeghalaya High Courtsrespectively.

While Justice Ranjan is asitting judge of thePunjab and HaryanaHigh Court, JusticeRafiq is posted at theRajasthan HighCourt.

The apex courtCollegium, headedby Chief Justice ofIndia Ranjan Gogoi,

decided this in its meetingheld on October 15, a state-ment uploaded on the topcourt website said.

The Collegium also rec-ommended transfer ofMeghalaya High Court ChiefJustice A K Mittal to theMadhya Pradesh High Court asits chief justice.

It had earlier recommend-ed that Justice Mittal be trans-ferred to the Madras HighCourt as chief justice.

His name was recom-mended to replace the thenChief Justice of Madras HighCourt V K Tahilramani, whowas transferred to theMeghalaya High Court.However, she refused to gothere and tendered her resignation which was accept-ed.

The Collegium has alsorecommended the transfer ofTripura High Court ChiefJustice Sanjay Karol to PatnaHigh Court as its chief justice.

The Collegium alsoapproved the proposal for ele-vation of advocates MokshaKazmi (Khajuria) and RajneshOswal as judges of the Jammu& Kashmir High Court.

It also approved the pro-posal for elevation of judicialofficers — Parthivjyoti Saikiaand S Hukato Swu — andadvocate Soumitra Saikia asjudges of the Gauhati HighCourt.

It approved the proposalfor elevation of judicial officerWanlura Diengdoh as a judge of the Meghalaya HighCourt. PTI

New Delhi: The SupremeCourt Collegium has recom-mended the transfer of PatnaHigh Court judge RakeshKumar, who had recentlycourted controversy followinghis stinging observations overalleged corruption in the judi-ciary, to the Andhra PradeshHigh Court.

The Collegium has alsorecommended transfer of PatnaHigh Court Chief Justice A PSahi to the Madras High Courtas its chief justice.

The apex court Collegium,headed by Chief Justice ofIndia Ranjan Gogoi, held ameeting this week and decid-ed to recommend the transferof chief justice Sahi and justiceKumar.

"The Supreme CourtCollegium in its meeting heldon October 15, 2019, has decid-ed to recommend transfer ofJustice Rakesh Kumar, Judge,Patna High Court to AndhraPradesh High Court," a state-ment uploaded on the apexcourt website said.

Justice Kumar had madestinging observation over thealleged corruption in judiciary

and had ordered a CBI probeand an inquiry by the Patnadistrict judge into how a formerIAS officer, whom he haddenied anticipatory bail in acorruption case last year, wasgranted regular bail by a trialcourt.

Justice Kumar had alsodirected that copies of hisAugust 28 orderbe sent to theChief Justice ofIndia, the apexcourt Collegiumand the PrimeMinister's Officebesides the UnionLaw Ministry.

Later, a fullbench of the Patna High Court,headed by Chief Justice A PSahi, had set aside JusticeKumar's order, terming it as aninstance of judicial and admin-istrative overreach and a com-plete nullity.

Justice Kumar was divest-ed of his judicial work by thehigh court administration onthe day he had passed theorder. However, a day later hisjudicial work was restored by aspecial 11-judge bench. PTI

New Delhi: India on Thursdayasked Pakistan not to insist onlevying a fee of USD 20 perIndian pilgrim and hoped thatan agreement to operationalisethe Kartarpur corridor will beinked soon between the twocountries.

External Affairs MinistrySpokesperson Raveesh Kumarsaid both India and Pakistanreached an agreement on thecorridor except on the matterof the service fee.

"After several rounds ofdiscussion with Pakistan, wehave reached an agreement onall other issues, except thematter of service fee. Pakistaninsists on levying a fee of USD20 (approx. �1420) on all pil-

grims," he said.Kumar said India has

urged Pakistan not to levy thefee in the interests of devotees,and also because the openingof the corridor is a people-to-people initiative.

"We hope that the agreement can be concludedand signed in time for the greatevent," said Kumar.

Pakistan has been insistingon levying the service fee ofUSD 20 per pilgrim to meet theoperational costs of the corri-dor linking the historicGurdwara Darbar Sahib inPakistan's Kartarpur with DeraBaba Nanak shrine inGurdaspur district in Punjab. PTI

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New Delhi: Pakistan lastmonth scrambled two F-16jets in its airspace to intercepta SpiceJet plane, assuming it tobe a military aircraft, which washeading to Kabul from Delhiwith around 120 passengers, asenior Government officialsaid.

The incident came in thebackdrop of tension betweenIndia and Pakistan that hadescalated after the IndianGovernment revoked Jammu &Kashmir's special status onAugust 5 and bifurcated it intounion territories.

"On the morning ofSeptember 23, the SpiceJetflight SG 21 left Delhi airportand was going throughPakistan's airspace to Kabul.Pakistan scrambled two F-16planes and intercepted theflight mid-air," said the official.

The SpiceJet pilot wasasked by F-16 pilots to lowerthe altitude and give flightdetails, the official added.

Another seniorGovernment official said,"OnSeptember 23, Pakistanassumed that the SpiceJet flight,which had around 120 passen-gers, is an Indian Air Forceplane. Once Pakistan realisedthat it is commercial flight, theF-16s escorted the SpiceJetplane till the Afghanistan air-space."

"There was some mix up atthe end of Pakistan's Air TrafficControl (ATC)," the secondofficial added. SpiceJet did notrespond to the query sent byPTI on this matter.

Pakistan had fully closed itsairspace on February 26 afterthe Indian Air Force (IAF)struck a Jaish-e-Mohammed(JeM) terrorist training camp inBalakot in retaliation to thePulwama attack on February 14and fully opened it for all civil-ian traffic on July 16. PTI

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The Centre has accorded West BengalGovernor Jagdeep Dhankar ‘Z’ category VIP

security cover in the wake of “potential threats”to him.

Union Home Ministry has issued an orderand directed the Central Reserve Police Force(CRPF) to take charge of Dhankar’s security thatwill be valid in all parts of the country and notremained confined to his cover in West Bengal.

Under the ‘Z” category, the West BengalGovernor will have about 8-10 armed securitypersonnel with him when he travels apart froman escort car. The CRPF will take over the chargesoon, officials said.

CRPF cover came as a threat assessmentreport prepared by central security and intelli-gence agencies found that Dhankar needs to besecured by a professional team of personnelespecially in the wake of the recent incident atJadavpur University where Union MinisterBabul Supriyo was heckled and he had rushedto save him.

The CRPF guards a number of VIPs

including Union Home Minister Amit Shah. The Governor had on Tuesday said that he

was deeply hurt at the treatment allegedly metedout to him at the Durga Puja Carnival on RedRoad on October 11. Usually governors are givenstate police cover.

VIP security cover entails four categories:“Z-plus” (34 guards); “Z” (22 guards); “Y” (11guards) and “X” (2 guards).

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Aday after taking control of Naihatimunicipality, which it had earlier lost

to BJP, the ruling TMC on Thursdayclaimed it will soon take over Bhatparacivic body, the only one in the State whichis being ruled by the saffron party.

TMC will soon bring a no confidencemotion against the present board of theBhatpara municipality, party senior leaderJyoti Priya Mullick said.

Bhatpara municipality was the firstcivic body to be taken over by BJP in Juneafter a majority of its Trinamool Congresscoucillors switched over to the saffronparty days after the Lok Sabha pollsresults were announced.

BJP had then bagged 26 of the 34wards of the municipality in a trust voteafter 15 TMC councillors switched to itand Bhatpara became a trouble-torn areawitnessing frequent violence betweenthe two parties.

The tenure of the present civic bodyis till 2020, when it will go to the polls.

“We will soon bring a no confidencemotion against the present BJP board.Several of our councillors who hadswitched over to BJP are in touch withus and want to rejoin the party. They haddefected under threat and intimidationfrom BJP,” Mullick, the party’s North 24Parganas district president said.

Reacting to TMC’s claim, senior BJPleader Mukul Roy, who had played a keyrole in the defections, Thursday accusedMamata Banerjee’s party of using politi-cal and administrative powers to force thecouncillors to rejoin it.

“They (the councillors) had joinedBJP as they were fed up with TMC’s func-tioning. Since then they are being threat-ened by the police and goons. TMC isnow forcing them to rejoin it. The samehas been done in other municipal bod-ies too,” he added.

Located in the northern fringes ofKolkata, Bhatapara municipality fallsunder Barrackpore Lok Sabha con-stituency, which is now represented byArjun Singh of BJP.

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The ruling TrinamoolCongress on Thursday

mocked BJP president AmitShah for “day dreaming” aboutforming the next Governmentin Bengal with two-thirdsmajority and said he and hissaffron camp should insteadconcentrate on reviving theeconomy.

Shah, also Union HomeMinister, had told a news channel during the day thatBJP is going to form theGovernment in West Bengalwith two-thirds majority in the2021 Assembly polls.

Reacting to Shah’s claim,senior TMC leader SubrataMukherjee said Shah shouldstop “day dreaming” aboutforming the Government in thestate.

“Instead of day dreamingand making tall claims theBJP leader should first con-centrate on his own party and

good governance at the Centre. The country’s economy has

gone for a toss due to the faultyeconomic policies of the ModiGovernment and BJP shouldfirst look into reviving it,” hesaid.

TMC also hit out at the BJPgovernment at the Centre forallegedly trying to drive outBengalis from Assam in thename of implementation of theNational Register of Citizens.

The saffron party is plan-ning to replicate the NRC exer-cise in Bengal but as long asTMC is in power in the State itwill never allow such an “divi-sive exercise” to take place,TMC secretary general ParthaChatterjee said.

“The BJP is trying to cre-ate a panic in Bengal in thename of NRC. Eleven peoplehave already died in the statedue to NRC panic. The peopleof Bengal will give BJP a befit-ting reply in the next Assemblypolls in the State,” he said.

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CPI(M) general secretarySitaram Yechury on Thursday

accused BJP and the RSS of tryingto destroy the country’s secular fab-ric and letting loose a “reign of fearand distrust” across the country byimplementing the contentious NRCand CAB.

Yechury said BJP is trying topropagate its ideology of Hindunationalism by replacing the prin-ciples of Indian nationalism, whichhad its roots in the Independencemovement.

“The communal forces haveincreased their activities by leapsand bounds and they are trying toflare communal passions across thecountry. Now the BJP is takingabout NRC and CAB. It will nowdecide who are citizens and whoare not,” he said while addressing aprogramme to commemorate 100years of the Communist Party of

India (CPI).The CPI was formed on 17

October 1920 at Tashkent inUzbekistan, then part of USSR.

Yechury said the updation ofthe NRC in the rest of the countryafter Assam is against the interestsof the people as BJP intends to useit for its “divisive communal agen-da”.

“The BJP government is talkingabout extending the NRC processin the whole of India. This isuncalled for and it is being doneonly with the aim of targeting cer-tain sections of people and to cre-ate polarization,” he said.

He criticised the BJPGovernment at the Centre foromitting Muslims from the list ofreligious denominations eligiblefor getting citizenship in the pro-posed Citizenship (Amendment)Bill, 2019 and called it a “completeviolation” of the Constitution.

The Citizenship (Amendment)

Bill provides for accordingIndian citizenship to Hindus,

Jains, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhistsand Parsis from Bangladesh,Pakistan and Afghanistan afterseven years of residence in Indiainstead of 12 years currently evenif they do not possess any docu-ment.

Expressing concern overalleged attempts by BJP and sever-al other Hindutva outfits to buildup communal frenzy over NRC andCAB, the former Rajya Sabha MPsaid the saffron partysees the sharpening of communal

polarization as the only way to con-solidate its Hindutva vote bank.

It has been acknowledged sinceIndependence that the unity ofIndia lies in its diversity.

The BJP-RSS cannot toleratethe diversity and federal principleand want to create a Hindu Rashtra,he alleged.

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West Bengal Chief MinisterMamata Banerjee on

Thursday said her governmentis committed to alleviatingpoverty and the theory byNobel laureate Abhijit VinayakBanerjee on it will go a longway in helping the poor.

Banerjee took to theTwitter to express her viewsand posted some photographsof her visit to the residence ofthe Nobel laureate’s motherNirmala Banerjee Wednesdayevening in the city.

“Yesterday, I spent timewith the family of our very ownNobel Prize winning econo-mist, Abhijit Banerjee. Hiscontribution to the experi-mental theory of poverty alle-viation will go a long way inhelping people #Bangla is veryproud of him!,” Banerjee tweet-

ed.On the occasion of the

International Day for theEradication of Poverty onThursday, Banerjee in a tweetearlier in the day said, “...OurGovt in #Bangla is committedto alleviating poverty, reducingunemployment, combatingilliteracy and upholding humanrights.”

The United NationsGeneral Assembly had in 1987designated October 17 as theInternational Day for theEradication of Poverty to pro-mote awareness about theneed to eradicate poverty anddestitution.

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The First War ofIndependence in 1857

would have been regarded as arevolt had it not been for VeerSavarkar, said Home MinisterAmit Shah here on Thursdayamid a row over the BJP sug-gesting that the Hindutva iconbe given the Bharat Ratna.

Stressing the need torewrite history from India’spoint of view, Shah creditedSavarkar for calling the 1857rebellion as India’s first inde-pendence struggle.

Shah said had it not beenfor him, the rebellion of 1857would have become historyand India would have seen itfrom the British point of view.

His remarks came twodays after the Maharashtra BJP

unit said in its election mani-festo that the party would askthe Centre to confer the BharatRatna, India’s highest civilianaward, on Vinayak DamodarSavarkar, popularly known asVeer Savarkar.

“Had it not been VeerSavarkar, the 1857 ‘kranti’(revolt) would not havebecome history and we wouldhave been seeing it from theBritish point of view,” the homeminister said.

“It was Savarkar who gavethe name First War ofIndependence to the 1857‘kranti’, otherwise, our childrenwould have known it as arevolt,” he said, inaugurating atwo-day international seminarhere on ‘Guptvanshak-Veer:Skandgupta Vikramaditya’ atBanaras Hindu University

(BHU).A large number of histori-

ans, scholars and politicalthinkers from India andabroad attended the seminar.

Referring to eminent his-torians in the audience and onthe dais, he said, “It is myrequest to all that there is aneed to rewrite the Indian his-

tory from India’s point of viewbut without blaming anyone.”

“It is our responsibility towrite our history. How long arewe going to blame the British?We don’t have to dispute any-one, only write what is truthand it will stand the test oftime,” the Union HomeMinister said.

The Gupta period is calledthe golden period of indian his-tory and Skandagupta is knownfor fighting against Hunas.

Shah also praised MadanMohan Malaviya for foundinga university where “Hindudharma and sanskriti” werepropagated even after so manyyears.

He said SkandaguptaVikramaditya needed to bebrought on top of our historyas he fought and won the warwhich even Rome lost againstthe alien enemy.

He re-formulated the rev-enue collection method,administration and munici-pality, Shah said, adding that itwas believed that the Guptaruler stayed at Ghazipur in thisPoorvanchal region andworked from here, he said.

����� �*?*2*4��J!�K

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister YogiAdityanath has asked the officials

concerned to initiate a campaign toensure that Prime Minister NarendraModi’s parliamentary constituencyVaranasi is the cleanest in the country.

Modi had won the seat in the LokSabha elections held earlier this year bya huge margin of 4.79 lakh votes. He hadnot only retained the seat, but also sawhis victory margin increase by nearly 1lakh votes as compared to the 2014 gen-eral elections.

The chief minister held a reviewmeeting of the development work andlaw and order situation in the state hereon Wednesday night and instructed theofficials to make “Kashi number 1 in thecountry” in terms of cleanliness.

According to an official spokesper-son, he also asked the officials to launchspecial cleanliness drives in villages aswell as urban areas before the festivalof Diwali.

Roads, parks and vacant plots ofland should be included in the cam-paign. In view of Chhath Puja, start aspecial campaign to clean the ghats ofthe Ganga, the chief minister said.

Do something special so that Kashi

remains illuminated from Diwali tillDev Diwali, Adityanath said as hedirected the PWD to make the roadsfree of potholes by October 30.

The government is committedtowards the makeover of Kashi. PrimeMinister Modi had laid the foundationstone of many projects in February 2019out which 13 have been completed andthe remaining 25 will be completed inthis financial year,he said.

The chief minister further said thatthe government schemes should not bemisused at all and only eligible candi-dates should be entitled for beneficia-ry schemes.

Stray cattle should not be seen onthe streets, he said.

He also asked the officials to to solvewater logging problems within threedays and organise health camps in theaffected areas.

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Any forced implementationof National Register for

Citizens in Bengal will helpMamata Banerjee in the ultimate run, the rulingTrinamool Congress feels.Senior Bengal Minister SubrotoMukherjee on Thursday saidthat it would be a political blun-der for the BJP-ruled Centre toimplement NRC in Bengal.

“If the BJP tries to forceNRC in Bengal it will a bigpolitical blunder committedby them,” Mukherjee one of thefounder members of the TMCsaid adding “the BJP will notonly lose the advantage itextracted in the Lok Sabhapolls but also it will be routedin the Assembly elections.”

The people irrespective ofcaste and religion had becomehighly skeptic of the NRC afterits “fraudulent implementa-tion” in Assam where the futureof more than 19 lakh people isin stake, he said.

“In Bengal if they try toimplement NRC then it will goin favour of the TrinamoolCongress. Its implementationwill turn out to be a hundredpercent gain for MamataBanerjee,” the septuagenarianMinister said.

The TMC’s views foundreflection in the Left Frontcamp too as State LeftLegislature party member andCPI(M) central committeemember Sujan Chakrabartysaid, “NRC will not be accept-ed by the people of Bengal.Whole State will oppose ittooth and nail.”

On the BJP leaders’ repeat-ed assertion in favour of NRCshould that party came topower in the State Chakrabarty

said, “it is the political build upagainst NRC that the Centrehas been forced to retrace itsstep saying they will considerintroducing it post 2024.

In fact the Left will resistNRC tooth and nail. We willprepare the entire population ofthe State against the enlargingblack shadow of NRC.”

On the Delhi’s move toconstruct detention centresthroughout the country,Chakrabarty said let them tryand build one in Bengal. I canassure you that the people ofthe State will smash all thoseillegal structures designed afterconcentration camp of Hitler.”

Reacting to the TMC andLeft leaders’ statement BJPleader Mukul Roy said thatthere was no escaping NRC inBengal. “Implementation ofNRC is a foregone conclusion.The people want NRC inBengal.” Any such move wouldtake place “in line with theUnited Nation’s regulations.”

����� �*��!?

Reiterating that democracy was indanger in the country under the

BJP rule, Rajasthan Chief MinisterAshok Gehlot on Thursday said peo-ple should understand this and ques-tion the Centre what it was doing forthem.

He also accused the BJP ofindulging in politics in the name ofnationalism and religion.

“The democracy today is underthreat. We have no enmity with theRSS or the BJP but we have a fight ofideology, policies and programmes.They should also do this. The public should pressure theGovernment and ask what it has donefor them,” he said.

Stressing that the fight should befor ideology, policies and programme,Gehlot told reporters after returningfrom Mumbai, “They have created anatmosphere in the name of nationalismand religion and doing politics forthat.”

On the BJP suggesting the BharatRatna for Veer Savarkar, the ChiefMinister said the party had a fascist ide-ology and did not consider what thepublic or other political parties think.

“In a democracy, sentiments of theopposition are considered but for

them, the Opposition holds no value,”he said.

He said that it was the BJP’s inten-tion to ensure a one-party rule in thecountry. Targeting Prime MinisterNarendra Modi for accusing theCongress of dynasty politics, the chiefminister said no one could stop any-one from joining politics in a democ-racy.

“This is a useless thing. It is not theera of kingdoms where the one bornto the queen will rule. It’s a democra-cy where people elect those whom theylike,” he said.

The Chief Minister exuded confi-dence that their party would win theOctober 21 bypolls in Mandawa(Jhunjhunu) and Khimsar (Nagaur) inthe state.

On the cabinet’s recent decision ofallowing non-councillors becomechiefs of urban local bodies in the state,Gehlot said that the decision was takenin view of the current scenario wherethe BJP was “doing politics” in thename of nationalism and was creating a divide in the name of reli-gion.

“We want that the gap in societydoes not widen in the name of religionand members of all political parties,castes and communities maintain dia-logue,” he said.

����� �,�>*=

Union Minister of State(Independent Charge) for

Tourism and Culture, PrahladSingh Patel, has said the wrongperception of the North-Eastneeds to be changed to attractmore tourists.

Inaugurating the thirdShirui Lily festival in Manipur’sUkhrul district, along withChief Minister N Biren Singh,Patel said despite being giftedwith scenic beauty and rich cul-tural heritage, due to somewrong perceptions, the regionis unable to attract tourists inlarge numbers.

“A collective effort is need-ed from all the stakeholders toexplore ways to attract moretourists to the state,” he said.

Patel said he has written tothe Union HRD Ministerwhether it would be possibleto make it compulsory for stu-dents of the central schools tovisit the northeast at least once.

“One who has witnessedthe region at a tender agewould never forget it through-out his/her life,” he said.

The four-day festival thatbegan on Wednesday, aims atspreading awareness aboutthe conservation of the endan-

gered Shirui Lily and to pro-mote Ukhrul as a tourist des-tination.

Speaking on the occasion,Biren Singh said the law andorder situation in the state hasimproved under the two-and-half years of BJP-led rule.

The Chief Minister saidmore such fests would beorganised as there is an envi-ronment of peace in theState.”Earlier, tourists used tofear to visit the hill areas of theState due to the poor law andorder. However, that haschanged,” he said.

Lauding the hospitality ofthe Tangkhul community,Singh said more than 2,000homestays have been bookedby tourists for the festival.

Noting that all disputescan be settled through dia-

logue, the Chief Minister saidManipur belongs to its peopleand asserted that the state gov-ernment would not allow any-thing that may hurt the inter-ests or sentiments of any com-munity living in the state.

The Chief Minister said theState Government is urging theCentre to bring about a “topo-graphical need-based budget”to ensure inclusive develop-ment of the state.

“The Centre has imple-mented the Hill AreasDevelopment Programme(HADP) for states with hillytopography like Manipur.Tamenglong district in thestate is among the 82 districtsacross the country where thescheme would be implement-ed in the first phase,” he said.

As part of it, Tamenglongwould get Rs 90 crore forimplementation of develop-mental projects, Singh said.

Mentioning that aroundRs 600 crore would be spent onimproving road connectivity inUkhrul district, the ChiefMinister said around �250crore has been sanctioned forconstruction of roads betweenKamjong and Tengnoupaldistricts.

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Averring that history wouldtake cognisance of state-

ments by all those whoridiculed the Government’sdecision to abrogate Article 370of Constitution, Prime MinisterNarendra Modi on Thursdaydemanded to know if the coun-try— after its much-discusseddecision —had been “ruined”or “has the country lost”Kashmir as predicted by a fewCongress leaders.

Addressing an electionrally at Parli in Beed district ofMarathwada region, Modioffered to “make arrange-ments” to all those who desiredto go Jammu & Kashmir.

Castigating the Congressand other Opposition leadersfor mocking the BJP-led NDAGovernment’s decision to annulArticle 370, Modi said:“Whenever debate takes placein future about the abrogationof Article 370, history will takecognisance of statements madeby the leaders ridiculing thedecision taken in the nationalinterest.”

Exhorting the people to“punish” all those mocking theGovernment’s decision onArticle 370, Modi said: “OneCongress leader said that theKashmir issue not the country’sinternal matter. Will agree withit? Can the leader saying suchthing be pardoned? Will younot punish those who saidsuch things in the election? ...One leader said it’s a black dayfor Indian politics. Anothersaid it’s against democracy,danger to national security...Asenior Congress leader saidthat after the abrogation of

Article 370, the country will beruined. It is going to be threemonths since we abrogatedArticle 370, has the countrybeen ruined?”

“Another Congress leadersaid that by annulling Article370, we have lost Kashmir. Iwould like to ask you: has thecountry lost Kashmir? If youwant to go Kashmir, tell me Iwill make arrangements... Doesit behove well of all those lead-ers who ruled for such a timeto make such statements? Ihave a long list of questionablestatements made by theCongress leaders in thisregard,” the Prime Ministersaid.

Modi, who was campaign-ing for campaigning for lateGopinath Munde’s Minister-daughter Pankaja Munde atParli, said that Parli gavefriends like Gopinath Mundeand Pramod Mahajan. “BothMunde and Mahajan are nolonger there. People from theyounger generation likeDevendra Fadnavis andPankaja Munde are trying tofulfil their dreams.

Modi said that theAssembly elections were a bat-tle between BJP’s “karyashak-ti” (power of development)and opposition’s “swarth shak-ti” (selfishness).”Lotus ( the BJP

symbol) has always bloomedin Beed. Pankaja will win theAssembly polls with a record

margin,” he said.Modi, who subsequently

addressed rallies in Satara andPune,urged the voters to pun-ish the Congress and its lead-ers for their involvement inscams and their questionableremarks. “All those who havelooted the country will not bespared. They will be put behindthe bars. I will not rest till allthe money looted from theState exchequer returns”.

“If the entire Maharashtrais behind the BJP-Shiv Senaalliance, it is because of thehard work put in by us duringthe last five years. See the con-trast: on one side, you can getto see the work ethics of the saf-fron alliance Government,while on the other, theOpposition Congress and NCPleaders are working for selfishmotives,” the Prime Ministersaid.

In Satara, Modi cam-paigned for sitting MP and13th descendent of ChhatrapatiShivaji Udayan Raje Bhosale,who recently quit the NCP andjoined the BJP, is contesting theLok Sabha by-polls from Satara.The by-poll has been necessi-tated by the resignation ofBhosale from Lok Sabha.

In Pune, the PrimeMinister campaigned amongother for BJP’s State PresidentChandrakant Patil, who is con-testing from the Brahmin dom-inated Kothurd constituency.

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Debunking Narendra Modi’smuch-advertised “double

engine” model of governancewhich “has utterly failed”, former Prime MinisterManmohan Singh on Thursdaycharged that the Governmentwas “obsessed” with trying tosomehow fix blame on itsopponents and in the process,it had failed to revive the econ-omy.

A day after Prime MinisterNarendra Modi went to townclaiming that the “double-engine” governance involvinghim and Chief MinisterDevendra Fadnavis was a“super-hit” during the last fiveyears and was giving a “eleven-fold” boost to the State’s development, Singh said: “Themuch advertised “doubleengine” model of governanceon which the BJP seeks voteshas utterly failed. Mumbai andMaharashtra have had to facesome of the worst effects of thegrave economic slowdown”.

Interacting with business-men, professionals and themedia at the Garware Club ofthe Wankhede Stadium here,Singh took a swipe at FinanceMinister Nirmala Sitaramanfor her comment that Indianpublic sector banks had the“worst phase” under the com-bination of him as the thenPrime Minister and RaghuramRajan as the RBI Governor.

“I have just seen the state-ment by Smt NirmalaSitharaman, I won’t like tocomment on that statement butI can merely point out thatbefore one can fix the econo-my one needs a correct diag-nosis of its ailments and theircauses,” Singh said.

“The Government isobsessed with trying to some-how fix blame on its oppo-

nents, in the process it is unableto find solution that will ensurerevival of the economy partic-ularly strengthening of ourbanking system,” the formerPrime Minister said.

Singh’s comment shouldbe seen in the context of theremarks made by Sitaramanduring a lecture ColumbiaUniversity’s School ofInternational and Public AffairsIn in New York on Tuesday. “Ihave no reason to doubt thatRajan feels for every word ofwhat he is saying. And I’m heretoday, giving him his duerespect, but also placing the factbefore you that Indian publicsector banks did not have aworst phase than when thecombination of Singh andRajan, as Prime Minister andthe Governor of Reserve Bank,had. At that time, none of usknew about it,” she said.

Maintaining that theGovernment’s “apathy andincapability” were affecting thefuture and aspirations of mil-lions of our people, Singh said:“Manufacturing growth rateof Maharashtra has beendeclining for four consecutiveyears. Maharashtra has wit-nessed one of the highest fac-tory shutdowns in the pastfive years”

“The industrial slowdownhas been met with risingimports from China. In the lastfive years, imports from Chinahave risen by more than Rs.1,22,000 crores. Chemicals,fertilisers, electronic goods,and automobiles, productsmanufactured in Maharashtra,have seen rising imports fromour neighbouring country,” hesaid.

Lamenting that the indus-trial slowdown was coming inIndia’s way to optimally utiliseits demographic dividend,Singh said: “Only in the recent

past, Maharashtra used toattract talent from around thecountry. Today there is a dearthof opportunities in this other-wise vibrant state.

“In urban areas, every thirdyoung person is jobless.Educated individuals have toface a higher rate of unem-ployment. It is thus no surprisethat many of our young menand women are taking up lowpaying jobs. Investors are shift-ing to other states. The distresspervading our rural areas willonly add to the unemploymentproblem as migration increas-es.”

The former Prime Ministersaid that Maharashtra, fromonce being the number one inattracting investments, “it istoday a leader in farmer sui-cide”.

“Despite the promises ofdoubling farm incomes, therural areas of Maharashtra arewitnessing nothing short of acrisis. Caught between lowincomes and high debt trap, thesuicide rate has doubled. Theobsession with low inflation isinflicting misery of our farm-ers. The Central Government’simport-export policies are alsohurting farmers,” he said.

Accusing the BJPGovernments, both at theCentre and at Maharashtra, of

not being willing to adopt peo-ple-oriented policies, Singhsaid: “As water shortages com-pound, the situation willbecome still worse if notaddressed soon. People fromMaharashtra are already grap-pling with low availability ofclean drinking water and areresorting to digging up driedriver beds. While we cannotcontrol the vagaries of nature,we can ensure the mitigation ofthe damage if we are econom-ically sound”.

“A lot of problems facingMaharashtra today are man-made and the solutions lie inpolicies which are inclusiveand welfare people-oriented.,he said.

“It is my sincere belief thatwe need to go back to thesetime-tested measures if are toensure gainful employment forour young people, men andwomen, farmer welfare, and abetter standard of living for allthe people of Maharashtra,” hesaid.

Calling for a change in theGovernment in the State, Singhsaid: “I can say without a doubtthat the State will progressmuch better under the leader-ship of Congress-NCP”

“During my time as thePrime Minister of India, I hadthe privilege to work with

many leaders fromMaharashtra. I found that theywere all committed to deliver-ing good governance to thepeople of Maharashtra. TheBandra-Worli sea link is oneexample of the many spectac-ular works Congress couldensure. At a time of agri-dis-tress, we delivered an effectiveloan waiver and ensured ruralgrowth,” he said.

Among other things, theformer Prime Minister saidthat while Maharashtra leviedthe highest VAT on petroleumproducts, “the high VAT cou-pled with Modi Government’sdecision to levy excessive exciseduties has punished the peopledespite low international crudeprices”.

Replying to a question onthe PMC Bank crisis, Singhappealed to Modi and chiefminister Devendra Fadnavis toresolve the issue at the earliest.He indicated that the Congresswould take up the PMC Bankissue in a big way in Parliamentduring the Winter Sessionbeginning in mid November.

“I appeal to the ChiefMinister and the PrimeMinister to resolve this matterat the earliest. The grievancesmust be solved,” he said.

Asked if he would inter-vene in the matter, Singh said:“The matter is coming up inthe Supreme Court, so it is sub-judice I don’t want to commentmuch (on the issue). I amappealing to the MaharashtraGovernment, the RBI and theCentre to put the pragmatic hatand solve this at the earliest”

“I have heard your feed-back. I assure you that whenthe Parliament convenes inmid-November, this issue(PMC bank and such cases)will figure very very promi-nently,” the former PrimeMinister told a questioner.

����� 4?�2*�*?

Shops opened for few hoursearly Thursday morning in

some areas here including inthe commercial hub of LalChowk but main markets andother business establishmentsremained shut, officials said.

Few vendors had set upstalls on the TRC Chowk-PoloView road, they said.

Private transport was ply-ing unhindered in the cityhere and elsewhere in Kashmir,the officials said, adding auto-rickshaws and few inter-district

cabs were also seen plying infew areas of the valley.

However, the other modesof public transport were off theroads.

Schools and colleges wereopen, but students stayed awayas parents continued to keeptheir wards at home due toapprehensions about their safe-ty, the officials said. Mobile ser-vices were restored in Kashmiron Monday, but the SMS facil-ity was snapped once againlater that night due to appre-hensions of the services beingmisused.

����� �*,,!

Former State president ofPDP’s Scheduled Caste wing

Vijay Anand on Thursdayjoined the BJP along with sixothers here, a party spokesper-son said.

Anand accompanied bySanjay Kumar, Himanshu, RaviKumar, Rakesh Kumar, AjayKumar and John Sotra joinedthe BJP’s Scheduled Castewing in presence of its statepresident Jagdish Bhagat andstate spokesperson Balbir RamRattan. Welcoming the newentrants into the party fold,Bhagat said the BJP has relieved‘Valmiki Samaj’ of the suffer-ings which they had to bearduring the last 70 years due toArticle 370.

“These people were nottreated as citizens of the stateand their educated childrencould not apply for the gov-ernment jobs or other benefits,”he said, adding the BJP abro-gated the provisions of Article370 to benefit the weaker sec-tions of the society.

"�'���!���'� � � �*,,!

Truck drivers, camping inKashmir valley to ferry

apple boxes outside the State,are living in constant fear afterthe terrorists carried out sec-ond ‘surprise’ attack on twoapple traders hailing fromPunjab late Wednesday night inShopian district.

One of the apple traderidentified as Charanjeet Singhsuccumbed to his fatal injurieswhile another, identified asSanjay Churaya, is undergoingtreatment in Srinagar. Bothhailed from Fazilka in Punjab.

Before this, a truck driverfrom Rajasthan was also killedin cold blood by terrorists inShopian on Monday evening.Later, his truck was also set onfire to spread terror in the area.

After these attacks, freshwave of terror has gripped thearea. The main markets, whereapple growers were bringingtheir crop from differentorchards in the region, wore adeserted look on Thursday.

To instil confidence among

the truck drivers, stranded inthe vulnerable pockets, thelocal police authorities beefedup security deployment by wayof area domination. Posters ofterrorists, believed to be behindthe targeted killing of appletraders was also pasted at dif-ferent places so that they can betracked down and neutralised.

Meanwhile, interactingwith local media in Shopianseveral truck drivers raised theissue of their safety.

Without identifying them-selves in front of media, thetruck drivers said, “we are wor-ried for our own safety. “we arehere to ferry apple boxes and

earn our livelihood”. “We real-ly don’t know why are these ter-rorists targeting us. We are solebread earners of our familiesand they are dependent on us”,truck drivers told localreporters.

In the recent weeks, morethan 30,000 trucks have ferriedlarge quantities of apple cropoutside the state. Commentingon the targeting killing of appletraders and truck drivers,Governor Satya Pal MalikThursday said, terrorists aretargeting apple traders andtruck drivers to spread terror.He said, “we are after them andwe will finish them”.

��� � �*,,!

The State administration inJammu & Kashmir has set

in to motion the process ofbifurcating the State of Jammu& Kashmir in to two UnionTerritories. Late Wednesdayevening, the State administra-tion issued a formal order forabolition of Jammu andKashmir Legislative Council.

The 36-member LegislativeCouncil was established in1957 after an act was passed bythe Parliament.

The Council functionedas an upper house for the 87-member State Assembly.

According to the order,the 116-member staff of theCouncil has been asked toreport to the GeneralAdministration Department(GAD) by October 22.

Jammu & Kashmir will bea Union Territory with a StateAssembly.

The Centre had on August5 abrogated the provisions ofArticle 370 of the Constitutionwhich granted special status to

Jammu & Kashmir for resi-dency and Government jobs.

The order issued bySecretary to the StateGovernment, Farooq AhmadLone, also directed transfer ofall vehicles purchased fromtime to time to the Director ofState motor garages and hand-ing over of the building of theCouncil along with furnitureand electronic gadgets to theDirector of estates.

“Consequent to the aboli-tion of the Jammu & KashmirLegislative Council in terms ofSection 57 of Jammu &Kashmir Reorganization Act,2019, it is ordered that all thestaff of the State legislativecouncil shall report to theGAD by October 22,” the ordersaid. All records pertaining tothe Council Secretariat including related legislativebusiness shall be transferred tothe Department of Law, JusticeParliamentary Affairs by theSecretary, the order added.

JK administration ordersabolition of legislative council,asks its staff to report to GAD

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Jammu: The BJP’s Jammu &Kashmir unit on Thursdaydisqualified eight party leadersfor filing their nominations asIndependents against the official candidates for the BlockDevelopment Council (BDC)elections, scheduled to be heldon October 24, a partyspokesperson said.

Meanwhile, the StateBharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha(BJYM) also discharged its

senior leader Aqib Mir from hispresent party post of State sec-retary due to “breach of partydiscipline”, he said.

“Taking strong note of thefiling of nominations asIndependents by party leadersagainst the official candidatesof the BJP for the BDC elec-tions, the State BJP has dis-qualified them for indulging inanti-party activities,” thespokesperson said. PTI

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The Income TaxD e p a r t m e nt

officials have seized�15.5 crore ofunaccounted cashfrom various placesin Mumbai sincethe declaration ofModel Code ofConduct for theM a h a r a s h t r aAssembly polls bythe Election Commission ofIndia (ECI) on September 21.

“We have increased thestrength of the Quick ResponseTeams, formed for this period,with additional manpower soas to ensure elections free frominfluence of cash and/or valu-ables,” a senior IT departmentofficial said.

“We will give special atten-tion to the movement of unac-counted cash/valuables andalso prohibition of distributionof cash/ valuables meant forwooing the electorate, particu-larly during the period whenelection campaign ceases on19th October till the date ofpolling — October 21,” the offi-cial said.

According to the official,the IT department is respond-ing to every call and informa-tion from police/public/otheragencies and subject to the exis-tence of credible information,search/ survey actions are beingconducted almost on dailybasis.

Set up to curb the use ofblack money and cash induce-ment in the ongoing AssemblyElections in the State, theDirectorate General of IncomeTax (Investigation) has sinceSeptember 21 been working inclose coordination with sever-al law enforcement agenciesand other Government depart-ments, in order to contribute tothe conduct of free, fair andsmooth elections.

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Mumbai: Union MinisterPiyush Goyal on Thursdaysaid the ED launched a probeagainst NCP leader PrafulPatel after his signatures werefound on the documentswhich were also signed by thewife of gangster Iqbal Mirchi.

The EnforcementDirectorate has summonedPatel on October 18 in con-nection with a probe intoalleged illegal assets ofMirchi, who was an aide offugitive gangster DawoodIbrahim. PTI

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One of my favourite ways totravel around the country isto board a train.Unfortunately, due to press-ing engagements and the

urgency of modern life, I have not beenable to take as much advantage as I wouldwant of this uniquely Indian way of trav-elling. There’s something quintessential-ly Indian about taking the train, gettingto know the fellow passengers and chat-ting with them over a cup of tea as theyhead to their respective destinations.While writing these lines, there is a vividimage in my mind of one such journey Imade and I’m certain, a similar imagemust have appeared in the minds of thereaders, too.

An interesting aspect of train travelis the diversity on display during the jour-ney. One gets to hear of so many lan-guages, accents, smell a variety of foodand absorb different perspectives. Once,it got me thinking about what it meansto be an Indian.

Unlike other nations like Pakistan,India is not defined by a particular reli-gion. Some may argue that being a Hindu-majority country, an Indian’s identity is pri-marily driven by this majoritarian outlook.Such an argument does not hold groundbecause not only does India contain a mul-tiplicity of religions but significantly alsoa multiplicity of castes. Therefore, aBrahmin Hindu (approximately five percent of the Hindu community) can hard-ly claim to represent all Hindus. It’s thesame with languages as well.

The recent debate about Hindibecoming a “national” language does nothold water because of the variety of lan-guages spoken in our country. If you donot believe me, just ask a Maharashtrianor a Tamilian about how they feel about“Hindi” being a national language. Thetruth really is that “Indian identity isforged in diversity and everyone of us isa minority”, as Congress leader ShashiTharoor put it eloquently.

But this still doesn’t explain what itmeans to be an Indian. The story ofGhulam Dastagir, however, does. Dastagirwas the deputy station superintendent onduty at the Bhopal Railway station onDecember 2, 1984 — the day when theBhopal gas tragedy took place. By mid-night, the railway station, which wasextremely close to the Union Carbideplant, was filled with poisonous gases thatkilled everything in its path.

On that fateful night, the bravedeputy station master stepped on the plat-form with itchy feeling in the throat anda burning sensation in his eyes.Immediately, he knew something waswrong. Unaware that 23 of his colleagueshad already succumbed to the gas leak,he tried to get clarity on what was hap-pening and sought further instructions.

With none forthcoming,Dastagir took matters intohis own hands and informedhis superiors to suspend alltrains that were headed toBhopal. He then summonedhis staff. While he was barelyable to stand or breathe andagainst all protocol, he direct-ed his staff to clear theGorakhpur train for departureeven though 25 minutes wereleft for it to roll out. Heassured his staff that he wouldtake full responsibility for anyblowback that may follow.

In doing so, Dastagirsaved hundreds of lives. Hedid not, however, stop here. Asterror spread across Bhopal,large crowds of the affectedpopulation descended on tothe station in an attempt toescape the gas chamber.Dastagir went from platformto platform, attending to andconsoling victims and sent anSOS to all nearby railway sta-tions to send ambulances anddoctors.

He himself suffered terri-bly due to the gas leaks. Hedied in 2003 and a large partof his life was spent in the hos-pital due to exposure to toxicfumes. He also lost his son inthe tragedy. However, throughhis bravery and courage, he

ensured that hundreds offathers didn’t suffer the samefate as he did.

Dastagir was a trueIndian. In such moments, weforget about which religion aperson belongs to, which castehe was born into or which lan-guage he speaks. All that wecare about and all that weremember is the great sacrificeof an Indian brother. In real-ity, this is what it means to bean Indian. It means recognis-ing that at the time of inde-pendence, we promised our-selves and our future genera-tions that we would set asideall that divides, to forge a bet-ter India. The poignant storyof Dastagir reminds us of thiscore value.

Another value that formsthe core of being an Indian isthe respect and admiration forknowledge. This is evidentfrom the fact that whenever abook falls down to the ground,we almost unknowingly touchit to our forehead as a sign ofrespect. It is this core valuethat has enabled India to beblessed with brilliant minds.We have had leaders in thefield of mathematics, litera-ture, technology and philoso-phy among others and Ibelieve that one of the prima-

ry reasons for our intellectu-al prowess is the manner inwhich our culture respectsknowledge and the pursuit ofthe same.

The most recent exampleis that of Indian-origin econ-omist Abhijit Banerjee, one ofthe winners of the Noble Prizefor economics. His win addsto a very rich list of Indianluminaries.

Sadly, however, some ofour leaders attempt to replacethese values with those thatare antithetical to Indian corevalues. We are told now tofocus on our differences ratherthan strengths and our lead-ers repeatedly show disdainfor knowledge with an affin-ity for dogma. This is not theidea of India we cherish andit is not what it means to be anIndian.

I imagine most of us swellwith pride when we recountthe story of Dastagir or whenwe talk about the contributionsmade by Banerjee to the fieldof economics. We must ensurethat we retain our core valuesand try to inspire similar pridein others. After all, that’s whatit means to be an Indian.

(The writer is a former IPSofficer, an MP and currently amember of the AAP)

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Sir — This refers to the editorial,“Bangla pride” (October 15). TheNobel Prize for Economics award-ed to Indian-American AbhijitBanerjee, his French-Americanwife Esther Dufflo and MichaelKremer for “their experimentalapproach to alleviating globalpoverty” underlines the renewedconcern over global poverty andways to alleviate it. The husbandand wife have spent considerabletime studying various povertyalleviation programmes. Welcomeas much this is, we will perenni-ally regret the decision of the wisemen to deny a Nobel prize to theMahatma despite the fact that hewas nominated thrice.

We revel in the general feel-ing of happiness among Indiansthat one of them, albeit with anAmerican passport, is a Nobellaureate yet again. Indians arecompetent to excel in any field butfor that, a conducive environmentis required, which unfortunatelyis not available in our universities.It is a sad fact that needs seriousintrospection by our politicians,academicians and policy makers.

JS Acharya Hyderabad

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Sir — The great success ofIRCTC, where its shares doubledovernight, calls for the issuanceof long-term bonds by it to setup large-scale production unitsin every district of the country

for packaged water, confec-tionery items and other foodproducts to replace cooked mealin trains and schools, wherecomplaints of sub-standard foodin unhygienic conditions arequite common.

The setting up of such bigunits in large numbers by IRCTC

with the help of long-term bondswill provide huge employment inthe public sector, apart from giv-ing sizeable profits to the publicexchequer. Products can be soldin the open market so as toensure that private players bringdown their prices.

Employment in the public

sector can go up, too, by retriev-ing unaccounted money throughthe Voluntary DisclosureScheme, whereby those declaringmay be asked to invest 50 percent of the amount in other long-term infrastructural bonds withnominal interest to be issued bypublic sector undertakings likethe IRCTC.

Madhu AgrawalDelhi

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Sir — Prime Minister NarendraModi’s statement at an electionrally that India will not allow itswater to flow to Pakistan andinstead put it to use here is yetanother example of empty “pollpromise.” The Indus WaterTreaty signed between India andPakistan makes it clear that theformer is bound to release waterto the latter. It is strange that thePrime Minister raised an emotiveissue just for votes, to the extentof showing no respect to exist-ing bilateral agreements.

SwadhaVia email

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Colonial India’s Muslim leaders shivered atthe thought of being perpetually controlledby Hindus in a united India once the

British left the country, unless there were safe-guards enshrined in the Constitution. PrimeMinister Narendra Modi has proven them right.By pursuing a populist ultra-nationalist agenda,he has unwittingly validated the much-maligned“two-nation” theory that formed the rationalebehind dividing British India to create Pakistanas a Muslim homeland.

His policy pits Hindus against Muslims, anunfortunate schism that all of his predecessorsfought against. Seven decades after the blood-soaked Partition, hyper-nationalist Modi won alandslide re-election victory in May, donning thesaffron-coloured garb of Hindu gurus andallowing divisiveness based on Islamophobia.

His crown is made of two emotion-filledexplosive elements: Kashmir and migration, bothhaving a common thread of bias and suspicionagainst Muslims. They have roots in the centu-ry-old vision of Hindutva, or Hinduness, outlinedin the 1920s by VD Savarkar, a violent revolu-tionary-turned-ultra-nationalist. Savarkar, aBritish-trained lawyer and avowed atheist,espoused several ideas to deal with India’sminorities, mimicking Adolf Hitler’s racist solu-tion to Germany’s Jewish question.

Since his re-election, Modi’s administrationhas aggressively moved on both Kashmir and thealleged illegal migration from Bangladesh, whichis India’s most friendly neighbour. In earlyAugust, keeping local leaders in detention anddeploying nearly a million security personnel inKashmir, it abolished a decades-old law thatgranted Kashmiris special rights — their own flag,own laws and land rights. Meanwhile, India’sHome Minister Amit Shah, who heads Modi’snationalist BJP and is widely expected to succeedhim as Prime Minister, is pressing ahead with hisagenda to deport fictitious 40 million illegalBangladeshi migrants.

Clash over Muslim migrants: This idea hasprovoked a sharp backlash from Bangladesh.Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan has dis-missed the BJP’s assertion, noting thatBangladesh’s economy is at par with India’s, sono one from his country’s stays illegally in India.Still the matter turned acrimonious enough dur-ing Shah-Khan talks in Delhi in August to pre-vent them from issuing a customary joint state-ment.

India, nevertheless, seems determined topush ahead its agenda. It has started a campaignto round up Muslims unless they can prove theyhave lived in India way before 1971 whenBangladesh was created. They will be put in con-centration camps, which ironically the migrantsthemselves are building now.

Of India’s 1.3 billion people, 14 per cent areMuslim. Modi’s party does not target migrantBangladeshi Hindus, classifying them as refugeesand minorities from neighbouring countries. Butit seeks to deport Muslims. In fact, India hasalready deported Rohingya Muslim refugees toMyanmar and detained hundreds of them.Modi faced global criticism for the Godhra mas-sacre in 2002 in his home State of Gujarat. Heruled Gujarat for 13 years before becoming PrimeMinister in 2014.

What is most disturbing in this government’s

policy is its anti-minority agenda. It isthis very posture of the professedly sec-ular Indian National Congress partyand its paramount leaders — JawaharlalNehru and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel —that propelled British India’s Muslimsto demand a separate homeland as theyfeared that the Hindus would perpet-ually control the Muslims once theBritish left.

The Congress balked at grantingspecial rights and Britain createdPakistan in 1947. But problems surfacedsoon afterward with semi-autonomousprincely States, including Kashmir.The picturesque Himalayan regionencompasses roughly 135,000 squaremiles, almost Germany’s size, withabout 18 million people. India controls85,000 square miles, Pakistan 33,000and China 17,000. Both Pakistan and India claim the entire area as theirown.

In 1948, after a Indo-Pakistanfight, India raised Kashmir in theUnited Nations Security Council, whichcalled for a referendum on the territo-ry’s status. It asked Pakistan to withdrawtroops and India to cut military pres-ence to a minimum. A ceasefire cameinto force but Pakistan refused to pullout. Kashmir has remained partitionedever since.

Until Hindutva swept Modi topower, India assuaged minorities bypursuing a policy that emphasised onnational unity. In contrast, Modi beganhis tenure by killing a centuries-oldMuslim marriage law. Even theMughals and the British left Indian per-sonal law untouched. The governmentvoided the Muslim law but kept simi-

lar laws for other minorities intact.What’s behind Hindutva poli-

tics? To boost his re-election bid,Modi fired up his anti-Muslim rhetoricand took the crusade to India’s north-eastern State of Assam, plagued by ahalf-century-long hate-based politics.The politics that originated with ademand to drive out non-Assamesequickly turned into an anti-Bangladeshioutcry at the BJP’s instigation. Modi hasvowed to rid the State of all the allegedBangladeshi migrants.

Following his re-election, theNational Register of Citizens, whichverifies citizenship, after several flawedcounts, has classified nearly two millionlong-term residents as non-citizens orstateless. Most of them are at the bot-tom of the economic ladder. They willbe detained in camps with limitedrights, considering that the governmenthas promised not to send anybody backto Bangladesh, which fears a reverseinflux.

Unfortunately for the Hindutvabrigade, the citizenship count hasbecome a boomerang. Of the two mil-lion designated non-citizens, 1.2 mil-lion unexpectedly turned out to beHindu. Modi’s followers are now cry-ing foul, demanding a recount. The BJPhad expected to find four millionmigrants in Assam, most of themMuslim.

Assam’s neighbour West Bengal,which shares a common language anda rich culture with Bangladesh, is gear-ing up to play political hotball againstthe BJP. The hardliners want to repli-cate the citizenship drill in West Bengalbut Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s

party has vowed to fight it. State BJPchief Dilip Ghosh, who is seeking todeport the alleged migrants, remainsadamant because rhetoric is the magicwand for his party to win votes.

Muslims foresee the BJP’s game:Ironically, while Ghosh wishes to expelthem to an unnamed country — pre-sumably Bangladesh — Modi is urgingHindus to flock to Muslim-majorityKashmir, which barred non-Kashmirisfrom owning land until New Delhiscrapped its autonomy in August.

The BJP prescription to push moreHindus into Kashmir is intended tochange the demographic balance in therestive territory of 12 million people.Modi’s arbitrary action is the mother ofseveral repugnant ideas. This is exact-ly the kind of capriciousness on the partof the overwhelming Hindu majoritythat British India’s Muslim leadersfeared most.

One of those leaders, Liaquat AliKhan, the right-hand man of Pakistan’sfounder, Mohammad Ali Jinnah, artic-ulated this concern while talking withGeorge Merrell, then America’s high-est-ranking diplomat in India, onDecember 27, 1946. Liaquat believedthat the Congress was “determined toseize power without regard for Muslimrights.” Now, 73 years later, Modi’sHindutva agenda, which calls for aMuslim-free India, has proven Liaquatright. By scrapping Kashmir’s status, thePrime Minister has taken a highly riskygamble in challenging the secularmatrix and embedding a majoritarianconsciousness.

(The writer is an established authoron Bangladesh-related issues.)

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The fast-approaching wintermonths have now become syn-onymous with a worsening

air quality in the Delhi-NationalCapital Region (NCR). The pollutionreaches unmanageable levels, large-ly due to the smoke emanating fromcrop residue burning in the neigh-bouring States of Punjab, Haryanaand Uttar Pradesh (UP), blowingover to Delhi-NCR.

Incidents of stubble burninghave already begun increasing inPunjab and Haryana and are likelyto peak in the next 10-12 days as theharvest season picks up in Sangrur,Patiala, Ludhiana and Fatehabaddistricts. Here, the tradition of openfield burning is rampant and contin-

ues unabated in spite of the activitybeing deemed illegal. According toa report by the Centre-run System ofAir Quality and Weather Forecastingand Research (SAFAR), this biomassburning is likely to add nine per centto Delhi’s PM 2.5 concentration.

In spite of all this, enforcementof the law pertaining to crop burn-ing in Punjab has been lax, to say theleast. This toxic mix of smoke andvehicular pollution has resulted inDelhi-NCR’s Air Quality Index(AQI) plummeting to alarming lev-els. However, all is not lost as a bevyof efforts undertaken by theGovernment and authorities con-cerned has had a positive impact onan otherwise grim scenario.

First, awareness regarding thequality of the air we breathe inthrough regular publicity of the AQIhas made people conscious. Second,the introduction of the much-clean-er BS-VI fuel ahead of schedule hasalso instilled confidence among thecitizens. Furthermore, the closure ofcoal-based power plants and fall in

the sales of diesel vehicles havehelped salvage the situation in Delhiand the situation now is much bet-ter than what it was five years ago.

But clearly much more needs tobe done. Probably, keeping this inmind, the Delhi Government hasintroduced the Graded ResponseAction Plan (GRAP) early this yearto handle pollution in an incremen-tal manner, depending on the levelof severity, especially in the winters.

GRAP came into force fromOctober 14 with the objective to curb

air pollution in Delhi-NCR, byproactively rolling out measures likediscouraging private vehicles on thecity’s roads, stopping trucks fromoutside, using diesel generators, clos-ing brick kilns and stone crushingunits. It seemed a timely step as onOctober 13, the AQI was “verypoor” with the level going beyond the300-mark. On October 14, the AQIimproved by around 50 points butthe situation has continued to oscil-late between “poor” and “very poor”over the last few days.

Even though experts have hailedGRAP for the gradual reduction inpollution levels over the years and forfixing accountability — as it clearlymarks the agency responsible foreach action to be taken — the effi-cacy of the plan is yet to be proven.

This is because many of the pol-lution-triggering factors are beyondthe purview of the Arvind Kejriwaladministration and the DelhiGovernment needs active coopera-tion and collaboration of the StateGovernments of UP, Haryana andPunjab. In the absence of a cohesivecollaboration strategy, the GRAPmight just end up being a knee-jerkreaction to the pollution onslaught.

The gaps in the fight against pol-lution are becoming visible with gen-erators being used in Gurugram withimpunity due to the exceptionalpower cuts the city faces. Similarly,many questions were raised on theGRAP’s efficacy in January 2019.

This is because toxic levels of airpollution monitored over Delhialmost every week, from November

1, 2018 to January 6 this year,showed that the Government’semergency plans to tackle the city’sannual crisis had failed, according toa report of the United Residents’ JointAction (URJA), a collective of thecity’s resident welfare associations.

The report summarised the find-ings of 45 Right to Information(RTI) applications filed at 14Government departments.Responses were sought from Central,State and municipal bodies to assessthe effectiveness of GRAP. Theanalysis of data collected by URJA for68 days showed that except for oneday in Central Delhi’s ITO, thenational Capital’s air quality was con-tinually above permissible limits.

The GRAP initiative for this yearcannot be allowed to be a rerun oflast year. The Government mustundertake necessary steps to over-come possibilities of failure andachieve the objective of curbingpollution levels effectively.

(The writer is an environmentaljournalist)

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Extending its gains for thefifth consecutive session,

equity benchmark BSE Sensexrallied 453 points on Thursdayas global investors cheered aBrexit deal reached betweenBritain and the EU.

Domestic traders were alsoenthused after Finance MinisterNirmala Sitharaman hinted atmore stimulus measures as sheurged international investors topump funds into India.

After opening on a sub-dued note, the 30-share Sensexsurged in afternoon trade toclose at 39,052.06, up 453.07points, or 1.17 per cent.

The broader NSE Niftytoo spiked 122.35 points, or1.07 per cent, to settle at11,586.35. Yes Bank was thebiggest gainer in the Sensexpack, soaring 15.19 per cent,followed by Tata Motors,IndusInd Bank, SBI, Bajaj Auto,Asian Paints, Axis Bank, TataSteel and Maruti, rising up to9.82 per cent.

On the other hand, HCLTech, Vedanta, PowerGrid,Kotak Bank, Infosys, ONGC,Tech Mahindra, L&T andHDFC Bank fell up to 1.04 percent. According to traders,domestic market followedEuropean equities that ralliedafter Britain and the EuropeanUnion said they have struck anoutline Brexit deal after pro-longed negotiations.

The deal, however, muststill be formally approved bythe bloc and ratified by theEuropean and UK parliaments.

“Government’s intention toprovide further fiscal stimulusin the future as per the needs ofthe economy lifted the marketsentiment today. Easing tradetension and positive develop-ment on Brexit provided furtherboost to the market.

“Risk taking ability isimproving in the market withoptimism over recovery in theeconomy led by stimulus, fes-tive demand, good monsoonand lower interest rate,” saidVinod Nair, Head of Research,Geojit Financial Services.

Sectorally, BSE auto,bankex, finance, energy,FMCG, metal, healthcare andpower index rose up to 2.93 percent. Broader BSE midcap andsmallcap indices gained up to1.77 per cent.

Elsewhere in Asia, bours-es in Shanghai, Hong Kong,Seoul and Tokyo ended on amixed note. Further, theChinese Government’s appealto Washington to negotiate aquick end to their tariff waralso buoyed market sentiment.

Mumbai: The rupee darted up 27 paise to close at 71.16against the US dollar on Thursday, led by optimism overthe Brexit deal amid softening crude oil prices.

Persistent foreign fund inflows and robust buying indomestic equity markets added to the momentum, forextraders said.

At the interbank foreign exchange market, the rupeeopened at 71.38 against the US dollar. During the day, thedomestic unit fluctuated between a high of 71.14 and alow of 71.47, before finally ending at 71.16, up 27 paiseover its previous close.

“Rupee has appreciated nearly 1 per cent in two days.The hopes of US-China closing the phase-one trade dealalong with the announcement Brexit deal, has kept allemerging market currencies including rupee, afloat,” said Rahul Gupta, Head of Currency, Emkay GlobalFinancial Services.

Global markets rallied after Britain and the EuropeanUnion said they have struck an outline Brexit deal afterprolonged negotiations. The deal, however, must still beformally approved by the bloc and ratified by theEuropean and UK parliaments.

Weak US economic data, fall in dollar index and spec-ulation over the third rate cut by US Fed added to thestrength in rupee, Gupta said. PTI

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With Microsoft postingstrong results, the com-

pany’s CEO Satya Nadella hasgot a 66 per cent raise in the2018-19 fiscal, taking his totalyearly earnings to a whopping$42.9 million, according tomedia reports on Thursday.

While Nadella, 52, has abase salary of a little over $2.3million, most of his pay camefrom stock awards, reported

CNN Business.He received $29.6 million in

stock award, $10,7 million innon-equity incentive plan compensation and around $1,11,000 in other com-pensation.

In a proxy statement,Microsoft’s independent direc-tors said, “The past fiscal yearoffered another record yearfor financial performance, andMicrosoft delivered strongresults for our shareholders,

including a return of $30.9 bil-lion in the form of share repur-chases and dividends.”

The directors creditedNadella for his “strategic lead-ership, including his efforts tostrengthen trust with cus-tomers, drive for a company-wide culture change, and suc-cessful entry and expansioninto new technologies andmarkets.”

In the 2017-18 fiscal, theHyderabad-born business exec-

utive had got a pay of $25.8 million.

Nadella became the CEOof Microsoft in 2014. Under hisleadership, the company hasbecome a major force in cloud computing.

In September, Microsofthit an all-time high after thecompany raised its dividendand authorised a plan to buyback as much as $40 billion ofits own stock, the CNN Businessreport said.

New Delhi: Telecom regulatorTrai will finalise, in next twoweeks, its views on call ringtime — a contentious issue onwhich old and new operatorshave locked horns.

On the controversial issueof Jio’s latest allegations thatrival telcos are fraudulentlymasking fixed-line as mobilecalls for undue enrichment andshould be slapped with penal-ty, a senior Telecom RegulatoryAuthority of India (Trai) officialsaid the matter will be exam-ined just as all complaints to theauthority are.

“Any complaint that gen-erally comes to us will beexamined... If there is any vio-lation, we will look into thematter...” the official said.

Reliance Jio has accused oldoperators including BhartiAirtel and Vodafone Idea of“illegally” masquerading wire-line numbers as mobile num-bers for “undue enrichment”and has exhorted Trai to slap

“severest penalty” on them forviolating regulations and licens-ing norms. After the fresh set ofallegations surfaced, BhartiAirtel immediately hit backsaying Jio was trying to mis-guide the regulator ahead of thecrucial consultation on call con-nect charges (also called IUC orinterconnect usage charges).

Meanwhile, at the openhouse discussions on the issueof call ring-time on Thursday,a senior Jio official urged thetelecom regulator to keep thematter under forbearance.

Jio has maintained that if atall Trai wants to take a view onthe issue, it should be in formof a reference guidelines andnot in form of a mandatedvalue. “In such a case, therange of 20 seconds to 25 sec-onds may be prescribed as ref-erence guideline,” Jio hasinformed Trai, which is in theprocess of finalising its viewson the issue through a consul-tation paper. PTI

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The consumption slump, amajor challenge afflicting

the economy, cannot be attrib-uted to the NBFC crisis as itpredates the first default byinfra lender IL&FS, says a bro-kerage, which has also slashedgrowth forecast to 6 percentwith a downward bias.

Many people attribute thedeepening slowdown in con-

sumption to the NBFC crisisthat began in September 2018when IL&FS went belly upfollowing which consumptionfinancing — a forte of shadowbanks, stopped with a chill indisbursements by these players.

According to Prachi Mishra,the chief economist at WallStreet brokerage Goldman Sachs,her analysis indicates that con-sumption has been falling sinceJanuary 2018, which is much

before the end August 2018default by IL&FS which triggeredthe liquidity crisis for NBFCs.

She said the fall in con-sumption is responsible for athird of the overall dip in over-all growth, with the global slow-down coupled with fundingconstraints. “There is a slow-down and the growth numbershave fallen by 2 percentagepoints,” Mishra said, speaking atan event by The Economist.

New Delhi: Auto industry bodySIAM on Thursday said thedraft guidelines on authorisedvehicle scrapping facility (AVSF)in India will help in setting upof such facilities in an organisedmanner, while reiterating thatthe sector is waiting for incen-tive-based Vehicle ScrappagePolicy from the Government.

Welcoming the draftguidelines released by the

Ministry of Road Transport &Highways for setting up ofAVSF, Society of IndianAutomobile Manufacturers(SIAM) President RajanWadhera said the automobileindustry wholeheartedly sup-ports the vehicle scrappageinitiative of Government.

“The draft guidelines willhelp in establishing organisedvehicle scrapping facilities in

the country and will lead toincrease in latent demand forend-of-life vehicles available forscrapping,” he said in a state-ment. As per the draft AVSFguidelines, individuals, firmssociety or trust will be allowedto set up scrappage facilitysubject to meeting eligibilitycriteria and receiving authorisation from licensingauthority. PTI

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Gold prices on Thursday declined�105 to �38,985 per 10 gram in

the national capital on a strongerrupee and weak global cues, accord-ing to HDFC Securities.

However, silver surged by �509 to�46,809 per kg here from its previousclose of �46,300 per kg.

On Wednesday, gold closed at�39,090 per 10 gram.

“International gold prices tradedweak on Brexit hopes and the US-China trade deal optimism,” HDFC Securities Senior Analyst — Commodities Tapan Patel said.

Gold was trading lower at USD1,488 an ounce in the internationalmarket, while silver quoted higher atUSD 17.45 per ounce.

The Indian rupee was trading 18paise stronger against dollar duringthe day and weighed on gold prices,he added.

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Karnataka has been rankedas the most innovative state

in the country while the top tenstates are concentrated mainlyin southern and western India.

These rankings werereleased by the NITI Aayog onThursday under the IndiaInnovation Index 2019. TamilNadu, Maharashtra, Telangana,Haryana, Kerala, Uttar Pradesh,West Bengal, Gujarat, andAndhra Pradesh form theremaining top ten major statesrespectively. The top ten majorstates are majorly concentratedin southern and western India.

Sikkim and Delhi take thetop spots among the north -eastern & hill states, and unionterritories. Delhi, Karnataka,Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu,Telangana, and Uttar Pradeshare the most efficient states intranslating inputs into output.

According to the NITIAayog, the study is an outcomeof extensive research and analy-sis, which looks holistically atthe innovation landscape ofIndia by examining the inno-vation capabilities and perfor-mance of Indian states andunion territories.

“The aim is to create aholistic tool which can be usedby policymakers across thecountry to identify the chal-lenges to be addressed andstrengths to build on whendesigning the economic growthpolicies for their regions”, it saidin a statement.

Karnataka is the leader inthe overall rankings in the cat-

egory of major states.Karnataka’s number one posi-tion in the overall ranking ispartly attributed to its top rankin the performance dimen-sion. It is also among the topperformers in infrastructure,knowledge workers, knowl-edge output and business envi-ronment.

According to the NITIAayog, the index shows that theinnovation ecosystem of thecountry is strong in south andwestern parts of India. In fact,three of the top five major statesare from southern India. Delhiand Haryana seem to be anexception to this rule and seemto be doing well on the Index.“Thus, there seems to be awest-south and north-eastdivide across the country”, theindex report said.

The index was released inthe presence of Rajiv Kumar,Vice Chairman, NITI Aayog,Amitabh Kant, CEO, NITIAayog, Ashutosh Sharma,Secretary, Department ofScience, Renu Swarup,Secretary, Department ofBiotechnology and VaidyaRajesh Kotecha, Secretary,AYUSH.

Rajiv Kumar expressedhope that the India InnovationIndex would create synergiesbetween different stakeholdersin the innovation ecosystemand India would shift to com-petitive good governance.

Amitabh Kant added thatIndia has a unique opportuni-ty among its myriad challengesto become the innovationleader in the world.

New Delhi: In a push to domes-tic drone manufacturing, India’scivil aviation regulator DGCAhas given nod the for companiesto manufacture UnmannedAircraft Systems (UAS).

In an interview to IANS,Directorate General of CivilAviation (DGCA) DirectorGeneral Arun Kumar said theregulator has given its approvalto 5 companies for drone man-ufacturing based on the pre-sentations made to it earlier.

Market watchers told IANSthat firms such as SkylarkDrones and ideaForge amongothers, have received the nod tostart manufacturing opera-tions. “Domestic drone manu-facturers have approached uswith their products. These aretested by our engineeringdepartment,” Kumar said.

“We are concerned withthe safety aspect of these prod-ucts.” According to Kumar, themove is expected to reduceimport dependence and give thenecessary push to the nascentdomestic industry. IANS

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Existence of BSNL is instrategic interest of the

nation and the government islooking to resolve issues plagu-ing it, Union Minister RaviShankar Prasad said onThursday.

The law and telecom min-ister acknowledged that thereare problems in the telecomsector, which are being lookedupon by the government.

“BSNL is in strategic inter-est of the nation. Wheneverthere is flood, cyclones, BSNLis the first one to offer servicesfor free. 75 per cent of their rev-

enues goes into salary ofemployees while others manageit in 5-10 per cent. There arelegacy issues which we arelooking in to,” Prasad said atIndia Economic Conclave.

The debt-ridden PSU hasnot been able to pay salaries ofemployees for September.

There have been reportsthat the Finance Ministry wantspublic sector telecom firmBSNL and MTNL to be shutdown.

A group of ministers head-ed by Home Minister AmitShah has approved a revivalplan proposed by the DoT.

The group of ministers

had earlier approved a revivalpackage for the loss-makingpublic sector telecom firms inmid-July. Finance ministerNirmala Sitharaman, telecomminister Ravi Shankar Prasadwere part of the GoM thatapproved the plan. However,finance ministry officials laterraised over 80 objections to theproposal prepared by the tele-com ministry.

Prasad said that the gov-ernment is also working toresolve problem in the telecomsector, but it also expects ser-vice provider to be responsibleby upgrading their networkand ensuring that customers

are satisfied with the services.The minister did not give

any timeline for the launch of5G services in India, while thegovernment has officially settarget to roll out the next gen-eration services by 2020.

Prasad, however, said hewould like India become ahub of 5G intellectual proper-ty rights and need to work care-fully keeping in mind thedevelopment of global ecosys-tem.

“We have given spectrumfor demonstration purposes. Iwould like India to becomegood hub of 5G IP but we haveto work carefully as to what

kind of ecosystem develops inthe world as far as 5G is con-cerned. Will it come in one yearor two year, it will create oppor-tunity, it will create problemalso,” he said.

He said that there are issuesaround 5G technology likewho will be responsible if a dri-verless cars causes an acci-dent.

“There are many issues of5G. Our Prime Minister isvery clear that both artificialintelligence and 5G must beused for healthcare, education,in agriculture and we are verykeenly pushing it,” Prasadsaid.

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Housing sales declined 25per cent in nine major

cities to 65,799 units duringJuly-September quarter, whilenew launches fell 45 per centas consumers sentiments anddemand remained subdued,according to property broker-age firm PropTiger.

Earlier this month,Anarock and JLL India alsoreported 18 per cent and oneper cent, respectively, declinein housing sales during July-September period across sevenmajor cities.

In its report ‘Real Insight’,News Corp-backed PropTiger

said that housing sales declinedto 65,799 units during July-September 2019 from 88,078units in the same period lastyear.

New launches fell to 33,883units from 61,679 units duringthe period under review.

These cities are — MumbaiMetropolitan Region (includ-ing Navi Mumbai & Thane),Pune, Noida (includingGreater Noida & YamunaExpressway), Gurugram(including Bhiwadi, Dharuhera& Sohna), Bengaluru, Chennai,Hyderabad, Kolkata andAhmedabad.

“New launches continuedto show a downward trend in

the September quarter even asthe government continues tomove towards a solution to theongoing NFBC issue, a prob-lem that has dried up a keysource of finance for real estatedevelopers in India. As buyerspostponed their purchase deci-sions to time it with the festiveseason, sales numbers also fellduring the quarter,” said DhruvAgarwala, Group CEO, ElaraTechnologies.

Singaopre-based Elara isfull stack real estate technolo-gy platform that ownsPropTiger.com, Housing.comand Makaan.com.

“While new launch num-bers might continue to fall in

the coming quarters due to theliquidity crunch, we expecthome sales numbers toimprove in the subsequentquarter, factoring in the high-er purchase activity that nor-mally takes place during thefestival season,” he added.

According to the data,housing sales in Mumbairegion fell to 21,985 units dur-ing July-September 2019 from28,563 units in the year-agoperiod. In Pune, sales fell to13,644 units from 16,946 units.

In Bengaluru, demanddeclined to 7,772 units from10,929 units. Housing sales inHyderabad went down to 6,141units from 6,783 units.

Housing sa les inAhmedabad fell to 3,951units from 5,413 units, whiledemand dipped in Chennaito 3,656 units from 4,898units. Kolkata saw sales of3,081 units as against 4,030units.

Gurugram witnessedsales of 2,742 units as against3,988 units, while Noida sawsales of 2,827 units com-pared to 6,528 units duringthe period under review.

PropTiger said thatunsold inventory declined 13per cent year-on-year, pri-marily because new launch-es fell at a faster clip thansales did. As of September,

builders in India’s nine topmarkets have an unsold stockconsisting of 7,78,627 units.Notably, more than half ofthis unsold inventory isaffordable stock.

Barring Hyderabad whereproperty prices have seen ajump of 15 per cent y-o-y,prices have undergone onlyslight changes in other mar-kets.

However, only two mar-kets markets have seen adownward movement in pric-ing in the past one year,Gurugram ( 4 per cent) andChennai ( 1 per cent). Othermarkets saw prices apprecia-tion by 2 to 4 per cent y-o-y.

Script Open High Low LTPYESBANK 41.90 48.20 40.65 47.40IBULHSGFIN 169.80 204.00 165.95 197.15RBLBANK 256.00 293.90 253.65 289.85TATAMOTORS 126.95 143.80 125.15 138.15HINDUNILVR 2068.00 2108.00 2061.85 2103.60SBIN 256.00 266.10 255.85 265.45MARUTI 6970.15 7157.00 6944.25 7123.10RELIANCE 1378.00 1399.00 1372.15 1396.15TATASTEEL 346.95 361.25 340.40 355.65INDUSINDBK 1273.00 1344.60 1272.25 1339.80BAJFINANCE 4029.80 4115.25 3997.20 4105.20ZEEL 261.00 273.75 256.00 264.70TCS 2015.00 2037.80 2001.00 2030.70AXISBANK 691.50 712.40 691.00 710.55BAJAJCON 251.50 270.90 250.80 261.90EICHERMOT 19451.10 20780.40 19451.10 20518.00PEL 1373.60 1475.00 1368.15 1467.95TVSMOTOR 409.80 451.45 399.10 437.15HDFC 2060.00 2094.95 2050.55 2088.20ICICIBANK 435.30 443.25 433.75 440.55EXIDEIND 183.50 183.50 170.70 177.70BAJAJFINSV 8100.00 8361.90 8100.00 8295.65APLAPOLLO 1422.85 1422.85 1386.00 1410.80MOTHERSUMI 100.00 111.70 99.30 108.60HDFCBANK 1224.00 1229.50 1213.05 1220.80BANKBARODA 87.30 89.40 86.30 89.00PNBHOUSING 389.00 423.60 371.90 410.65JSWSTEEL 219.80 224.60 214.50 223.35JINDALSTEL 101.80 105.95 99.70 104.55UPL 588.75 593.60 580.25 592.40BPCL 513.45 515.00 504.30 513.15TORNTPOWER 282.10 286.90 277.10 285.50SBILIFE 880.00 928.30 880.00 902.30VEDL 148.80 149.60 144.85 148.15BHEL 42.00 44.90 41.65 44.55INFY 768.90 770.55 765.20 769.10FEDERALBNK 81.90 84.80 81.70 84.40DMART 1875.00 1931.45 1875.00 1927.80ASHOKLEY 71.25 74.00 71.00 73.50BAJAJ-AUTO 3015.00 3138.30 2995.05 3110.30ITC 243.00 246.60 243.00 245.85ADANIGREEN 80.60 92.85 80.35 88.70IDEA 6.40 6.40 5.97 6.32JCHAC 1925.00 1998.00 1925.00 1981.75HDFCLIFE 611.10 621.90 610.10 614.85LT 1426.00 1438.75 1420.50 1424.25NESTLEIND 14415.00 14606.60 14160.80 14512.75PVR 1836.00 1856.60 1807.00 1839.45PNB 57.50 59.35 57.05 59.10KOTAKBANK 1613.90 1613.90 1587.00 1603.95ESCORTS 628.00 648.75 625.00 646.40PFC 95.50 96.40 93.20 95.15HEROMOTOCO 2600.00 2643.30 2583.00 2628.60PIDILITIND 1365.00 1374.00 1353.35 1356.70TATAELXSI 674.00 725.30 666.80 709.05ICICIGI 1212.00 1248.90 1209.80 1244.20HINDPETRO 315.00 315.45 306.90 313.90BRITANNIA 3180.60 3265.00 3169.05 3245.20GICRE 279.00 279.00 260.00 264.40EQUITAS 100.95 104.95 100.55 104.50INDIGO 1724.00 1741.15 1692.90 1736.00GRAPHITE 273.00 291.80 268.25 282.90L&TFH 83.85 85.90 80.75 85.55MCX 1027.00 1036.70 998.50 1006.00NMDC 101.80 103.20 100.40 102.20NCC 48.80 51.25 48.15 50.70DLF 156.25 164.60 156.25 163.70ASIANPAINT 1768.30 1816.40 1755.65 1812.95NIACL 122.00 136.50 115.85 136.50HEG 888.00 956.95 884.45 938.00TATAMTRDVR 56.85 64.20 55.70 61.95ADANIENT 158.50 165.15 157.65 162.60MINDTREE 748.50 748.50 720.00 729.35LTTS 1551.00 1600.30 1551.00 1593.25RAJESHEXPO 672.45 676.80 671.50 673.45SAIL 32.75 33.75 32.00 33.55AUROPHARMA 464.00 468.25 457.20 466.40CIPLA 447.00 447.50 439.50 446.30IBREALEST 41.20 44.40 40.20 44.30M&M 583.80 596.20 578.75 593.15SUNPHARMA 400.00 402.60 396.70 401.40BATAINDIA 1700.00 1750.55 1689.60 1747.45JUSTDIAL 585.00 609.50 584.95 606.35NAUKRI 2289.70 2298.00 2258.00 2284.45BHARTIARTL 384.90 387.10 379.30 385.75JUBLFOOD 1323.95 1354.70 1305.05 1343.35PFIZER 3200.00 3217.20 3184.15 3198.05LICHSGFIN 374.25 382.70 370.00 381.55FORCEMOT 1105.00 1174.00 1070.50 1084.15TATAPOWER 58.20 60.15 57.60 59.80IOC 145.60 146.80 143.80 146.45NBCC 33.50 34.50 33.00 34.30ONGC 142.00 142.00 139.10 141.35HINDALCO 186.40 189.70 182.40 188.85WIPRO 249.00 250.15 246.70 248.05CANBK 180.00 187.10 179.00 186.50UBL 1317.00 1326.00 1291.20 1318.65COALINDIA 194.80 199.95 193.00 199.35EMAMILTD 317.00 351.65 317.00 342.25ITDC 338.75 362.25 328.05 351.70SPICEJET 120.45 123.50 119.60 122.30GODREJPROP 988.45 1015.00 982.05 989.90BANKINDIA 60.95 64.10 60.55 63.65PIIND 1317.75 1318.00 1301.50 1314.15BERGEPAINT 479.00 490.65 471.10 486.40GRASIM 730.50 730.50 711.90 724.75CEATLTD 980.00 982.00 956.00 969.45ULTRACEMCO 4286.00 4286.05 4221.00 4257.40

FRETAIL 383.40 387.00 381.00 382.65ICICIPRULI 467.50 474.50 464.50 472.60INFIBEAM 39.90 42.45 39.50 41.10BOMDYEING 72.00 77.80 71.40 75.70ACC 1525.00 1539.30 1508.40 1534.25MANAPPURAM 135.50 144.65 133.80 144.05ADANIGAS 147.05 153.50 146.00 148.85BHARATFORG 440.40 464.95 432.90 457.30HAVELLS 673.40 687.00 668.00 685.75ADANIPOWER 61.10 62.60 60.70 62.25LTI 1536.45 1540.90 1494.00 1498.90PAGEIND 20937.50 21737.00 20858.55 21555.30CONCOR 607.90 609.60 597.70 599.00IDFCFIRSTB 39.45 40.10 38.65 39.95EDELWEISS 83.90 87.50 83.00 86.40TITAN 1284.00 1285.00 1272.00 1276.85UJJIVAN 309.05 310.95 303.35 307.80AMARAJABAT 665.00 673.50 639.05 670.55BANDHANBNK 575.05 577.95 556.00 568.95NATIONALUM 40.40 40.55 39.70 40.40SIEMENS 1611.30 1632.00 1607.90 1622.45BEL 112.90 113.50 111.70 113.15SUNTV 486.20 504.10 482.60 502.55M&MFIN 305.00 317.70 304.50 315.95GAIL 127.30 129.05 125.90 128.70MRF 62800.00 65676.95 62800.00 64856.30RNAM 261.00 275.00 261.00 271.30ADANIPORTS 408.85 411.20 404.80 408.95STRTECH 137.75 143.65 137.25 141.20BIOCON 257.50 258.80 255.00 258.15UNIONBANK 50.80 52.40 49.85 52.10SRTRANSFIN 1041.05 1074.80 1021.65 1070.503MINDIA 20700.00 23291.00 20700.00 22889.05DISHTV 16.75 17.55 16.55 17.40APOLLOHOSP 1485.10 1492.25 1471.00 1488.30TECHM 727.00 730.80 715.90 726.25GILLETTE 7400.00 8015.25 7296.50 7837.30

IEX 122.10 144.70 118.50 135.55BEML 894.05 918.50 894.05 911.00SPARC 130.40 133.40 128.10 130.75NTPC 117.45 119.00 116.95 118.60IBVENTURES 79.65 85.35 78.10 85.35IPCALAB 893.00 917.45 893.00 912.80AMBUJACEM 203.00 208.00 202.05 206.80PETRONET 261.60 264.85 261.40 262.75VENKYS 1698.95 1700.15 1651.00 1668.85SRF 2624.75 2688.00 2620.00 2678.25HDFCAMC 2727.00 2736.00 2711.30 2716.30WABAG 176.00 195.00 167.35 189.75DRREDDY 2700.80 2732.55 2700.10 2726.65GODREJCP 715.00 717.15 703.90 714.70COLPAL 1527.40 1535.00 1514.75 1529.85CHOLAFIN 267.05 289.90 267.05 287.50ITDCEM 35.30 38.40 35.00 36.60BBTC 1180.05 1182.60 1146.15 1155.40DABUR 454.95 463.50 454.25 462.20BLISSGVS 113.30 119.00 110.20 118.15ASHOKA 108.05 114.80 98.60 99.70ATUL 3972.20 4219.95 3964.10 4203.05RELCAPITAL 13.10 13.30 12.60 12.85DELTACORP 179.90 183.40 177.20 178.65RAIN 87.20 94.40 86.90 93.10RVNL 24.00 24.10 23.00 23.45NOCIL 104.35 111.40 101.85 109.85RECLTD 125.30 125.80 122.40 124.45LUPIN 732.00 732.00 719.35 726.40MUTHOOTFIN 643.70 657.00 638.00 654.40ABB 1520.00 1534.00 1507.90 1521.40JAICORPLTD 79.00 83.35 77.90 81.50DEEPAKNI 303.05 318.00 300.35 314.95GODFRYPHLP 1034.00 1070.00 1017.55 1061.55DHFL 19.75 20.90 19.20 20.45SUNTECK 444.30 445.60 412.60 417.45DIVISLAB 1721.00 1732.85 1706.00 1723.90VIPIND 461.00 477.20 458.85 462.95IBULISL 73.95 81.50 73.95 74.00VOLTAS 671.70 678.25 670.40 676.10HCLTECH 1101.00 1101.00 1084.55 1092.90GLENMARK 287.90 289.95 283.00 288.60TATAGLOBAL 276.80 280.00 271.90 279.30AKZOINDIA 1956.15 2000.00 1936.20 1951.05HEXAWARE 379.40 379.40 366.70 369.90APOLLOTYRE 176.10 182.25 175.15 180.95PCJEWELLER 32.00 32.60 31.80 32.30JUBILANT 480.00 489.00 468.00 472.45STAR 351.00 355.10 344.30 353.30RPOWER 1.90 2.01 1.82 1.94MGL 987.00 987.00 961.60 974.85CUMMINSIND 577.10 580.30 560.50 569.80GAYAPROJ 113.85 121.70 112.50 117.00BOSCHLTD 14112.75 14350.00 13848.40 14011.75

INDIANB 109.00 119.35 108.50 117.55PHILIPCARB 114.90 120.90 114.00 118.30CASTROLIND 130.00 132.90 130.00 132.35RITES 262.05 264.30 257.25 261.55SHREECEM 18749.75 18749.75 17786.15 18191.90POLYCAB 715.00 730.05 712.55 718.50BAJAJHLDNG 3699.00 3745.00 3623.30 3694.10ABCAPITAL 79.00 79.00 75.60 76.45IRB 64.65 68.25 63.60 66.45IGL 373.55 374.70 367.75 370.90MARICO 381.60 389.85 378.85 387.30TATACHEM 594.00 608.00 591.80 605.95WHIRLPOOL 2135.00 2179.40 2119.90 2173.30WOCKPHARMA 257.00 261.40 254.35 259.05LAXMIMACH 3350.00 3669.95 3350.00 3630.25NAVINFLUOR 722.35 753.00 722.35 749.45TORNTPHARM 1635.60 1699.00 1631.80 1695.40RAYMOND 571.00 575.00 565.05 571.25GICHSGFIN 160.90 163.65 152.50 154.25AVANTI 388.80 395.80 383.00 389.10NHPC 23.45 23.65 23.05 23.35ASTRAZEN 2200.00 2331.00 2200.00 2299.50RELINFRA 18.60 20.15 18.00 19.90BLUESTARCO 821.00 835.00 808.95 830.85RCF 47.75 48.35 47.40 48.00SWANENERGY 105.45 105.55 103.60 104.05POWERGRID 199.90 199.90 196.55 197.70SCI 43.20 43.70 42.60 42.95ADANITRANS 235.00 241.00 231.15 233.15HINDZINC 211.00 213.90 210.00 211.55INOXLEISUR 335.00 346.30 332.30 339.65FSL 45.55 49.45 45.55 48.50CROMPTON 260.10 268.00 258.95 263.95GUJGAS 175.00 180.50 175.00 176.60GLAXO 1438.65 1447.00 1421.00 1437.45GMRINFRA 17.35 17.65 17.20 17.55GNFC 196.40 198.65 192.50 197.40BALKRISIND 780.00 799.15 774.95 794.30KEC 276.50 280.00 275.55 277.75BALRAMCHIN 150.50 152.65 147.60 148.50RAMCOCEM 729.00 748.75 727.30 743.30CHENNPETRO 161.85 163.80 158.35 162.20SOUTHBANK 10.00 10.04 9.91 9.95IDBI 29.15 30.40 28.95 29.95MFSL 411.00 411.00 403.35 405.65DBL 368.00 379.40 366.15 372.20JSWENERGY 64.45 66.50 63.35 66.30KANSAINER 522.10 525.90 514.00 524.70ABFRL 198.00 204.80 193.80 203.35INDHOTEL 149.50 154.00 146.55 150.60OMAXE 193.50 193.50 186.50 186.65FORTIS 136.25 137.65 135.65 136.80INFRATEL 255.50 257.75 253.75 257.20OIL 161.40 163.85 158.60 163.55GSKCONS 8820.00 8933.80 8785.60 8900.45WABCOINDIA 6145.00 6154.00 6101.00 6141.30DCBBANK 179.00 182.50 178.50 181.15GSFC 75.45 76.50 74.65 76.25ENGINERSIN 107.20 108.90 106.55 107.00HEIDELBERG 183.05 188.00 180.70 186.05COFFEEDAY 32.60 36.00 32.60 35.00MAHSCOOTER 4550.00 4655.00 4549.10 4593.60KTKBANK 68.75 69.40 68.00 68.70J&KBANK 30.85 30.90 29.40 29.65FCONSUMER 24.05 24.50 22.85 23.80ITI 81.10 81.75 80.25 81.10TV18BRDCST 21.50 21.60 19.95 20.45INDIACEM 79.25 80.10 79.20 79.85KAJARIACER 556.00 558.00 550.70 552.90CYIENT 459.95 460.00 441.55 446.45FINOLEXIND 609.90 615.00 590.00 593.95MOTILALOFS 632.80 652.05 631.40 641.20FINEORG 1898.90 1920.00 1849.50 1898.50JISLJALEQS 12.45 12.75 11.55 11.70WELCORP 131.95 133.75 130.40 130.65NIITTECH 1400.00 1419.45 1396.80 1408.35RALLIS 169.00 175.70 169.00 171.25HATHWAY 23.65 23.70 22.60 23.15CADILAHC 234.00 238.25 232.00 237.65EVEREADY 34.50 38.00 34.40 37.90CANFINHOME 387.70 388.50 384.30 385.10FINCABLES 354.75 357.95 354.00 356.00SUNDRMFAST 464.60 466.60 462.00 464.75THOMASCOOK 129.50 133.80 125.25 127.30VBL 635.35 636.85 620.30 626.45HSCL 76.00 76.00 73.10 74.05ABBOTINDIA 10910.00 10997.00 10900.00 10968.10SUZLON 2.49 2.55 2.42 2.47PERSISTENT 608.00 619.00 597.60 606.55CUB 215.05 220.10 214.70 216.85PTC 53.90 54.00 53.35 53.50JAMNAAUTO 35.90 38.20 35.20 37.55JKTYRE 67.30 68.00 65.25 67.00SUVEN 264.50 267.25 263.05 265.45TRENT 506.75 506.75 491.30 500.85SHANKARA 290.00 292.95 286.20 287.35BALMLAWRIE 172.00 173.85 170.10 171.40OBEROIRLTY 514.00 517.00 506.00 514.85VMART 1995.00 2117.55 1993.20 2032.20VGUARD 230.85 234.50 229.65 233.30AJANTPHARM 963.20 990.00 961.95 980.75RADICO 300.00 304.95 297.80 304.25THERMAX 1108.00 1120.05 1087.70 1107.20JINDALSAW 82.30 85.30 81.75 84.90GHCL 206.00 206.60 203.50 204.60RCOM 0.73 0.75 0.72 0.74DEEPAKFERT 93.00 94.00 91.75 92.00ALBK 24.00 24.90 23.65 24.75OFSS 3144.10 3160.00 3048.05 3092.45

IDFC 31.35 32.25 31.20 32.10TIMETECHNO 56.00 57.05 55.75 56.05CHAMBLFERT 151.80 155.25 151.50 154.45ORIENTBANK 50.90 52.35 50.40 52.10TATAINVEST 795.00 824.45 783.50 803.70TIMKEN 792.50 805.00 791.75 794.80DCMSHRIRAM 382.65 399.95 381.95 388.70HINDCOPPER 33.00 33.00 31.75 32.30ADVENZYMES 148.00 153.00 147.90 151.45MMTC 15.75 16.20 15.35 15.55BASF 961.05 961.05 929.75 944.30HFCL 17.75 17.95 17.45 17.75JYOTHYLAB 158.75 163.30 158.75 162.35MEGH 51.40 52.00 50.30 51.50JBCHEPHARM 360.00 363.50 348.90 354.20CREDITACC 614.95 637.20 612.95 629.10GODREJIND 385.20 393.80 383.80 390.75DBCORP 156.45 159.00 155.10 156.50SCHNEIDER 70.00 72.55 68.60 71.40INOXWIND 37.90 38.80 35.40 36.05SANOFI 6002.15 6075.00 5984.75 6055.30NATCOPHARM 569.00 577.10 565.15 571.50PRESTIGE 292.50 293.75 285.15 286.35PGHH 11623.00 11894.20 11567.25 11666.00HUDCO 33.00 33.60 32.75 33.20IFCI 6.35 6.65 6.06 6.52KEI 542.05 547.50 540.15 544.15LALPATHLAB 1377.00 1390.00 1377.00 1386.50INTELLECT 186.35 188.95 183.35 187.15MAHINDCIE 147.80 147.80 139.00 142.45GALAXYSURF 1462.00 1488.00 1440.00 1465.45PARAGMILK 154.00 157.00 153.00 153.60DALBHARAT 810.00 814.35 781.50 795.85ISEC 278.70 288.00 275.00 282.55GODREJAGRO 478.00 489.75 478.00 486.75EIHOTEL 169.00 173.00 166.10 169.35LUXIND 1133.30 1190.00 1133.30 1164.60SHK 120.00 121.30 118.85 120.20QUESS 469.35 469.35 458.85 462.25VINATIORGA 2126.85 2126.85 2093.00 2105.55AUBANK 650.00 656.10 644.95 648.95JPASSOCIAT 2.02 2.10 1.96 2.04SUPREMEIND 1219.05 1225.00 1206.00 1217.35GRANULES 96.55 98.20 95.25 97.60SKFINDIA 2124.00 2155.85 2098.70 2128.85COROMANDEL 409.00 413.90 404.00 410.75SYNDIBANK 24.05 24.45 23.55 24.35MPHASIS 920.00 924.20 918.00 923.00METROPOLIS 1272.50 1283.00 1263.95 1271.15MAHSEAMLES 352.15 363.10 350.25 354.35UFLEX 204.15 204.40 200.25 202.35PGHL 4429.00 4460.55 4418.00 4445.05AAVAS 1664.15 1697.00 1655.25 1690.70PNCINFRA 169.50 174.00 168.00 172.65BAJAJELEC 386.15 393.65 382.50 384.00TRIDENT 56.00 57.15 55.60 56.85PHOENIXLTD 697.50 703.80 690.00 700.20MAHLOG 360.85 360.85 352.55 353.30GESHIP* 286.00 289.35 278.00 279.70BDL 280.00 283.90 278.00 281.05GREAVESCOT 134.50 134.50 130.55 133.20CENTRUM 25.15 25.85 23.05 23.65AEGISLOG 165.10 168.00 163.00 164.05COCHINSHIP 329.65 332.45 329.10 330.20MOIL 133.35 134.00 130.95 133.35KRBL 200.90 205.10 200.70 201.50CENTURYPLY 154.65 157.90 154.35 156.40HONAUT 28500.00 28715.70 28425.00 28561.25TATAMETALI 569.50 581.60 562.00 565.80SJVN 24.50 24.60 24.15 24.25RELAXO 496.30 503.25 495.00 500.90REPCOHOME 304.00 304.00 288.75 290.05SREINFRA 7.30 8.10 7.30 7.85CRISIL 1325.00 1330.95 1311.00 1324.75SOBHA 454.60 458.00 446.00 455.80TATACOFFEE 75.50 75.50 74.20 74.90ALKEM 1910.85 1927.60 1890.00 1915.50JKLAKSHMI 282.10 296.50 282.10 287.00TTKPRESTIG 5906.60 5950.80 5859.50 5917.35EIDPARRY 155.15 155.15 152.60 153.90AIAENG 1689.95 1727.20 1688.00 1722.05MINDAIND 353.15 360.40 352.55 356.45BLUEDART 2230.00 2317.45 2223.00 2307.00IRCON 367.55 369.60 366.00 367.60NLCINDIA 52.65 53.30 52.65 53.10ASTRAL 1169.00 1176.00 1165.30 1169.50REDINGTON 108.50 108.70 107.25 108.20CGPOWER 14.42 14.42 14.42 14.42CARBORUNIV 290.10 304.50 290.00 299.75WESTLIFE 318.25 329.20 316.00 324.30GMDCLTD 57.90 58.50 57.45 58.20SYNGENE 325.00 328.95 323.65 327.40UCOBANK 11.62 11.85 11.51 11.79TNPL 188.10 188.40 184.95 185.65CAPPL 402.45 407.85 354.00 394.60NETWORK18 19.50 19.75 19.25 19.60THYROCARE 504.65 505.90 498.65 501.65WELSPUNIND 49.55 50.30 49.55 49.95MRPL 51.45 51.70 50.90 51.55HAL 712.00 726.00 706.00 710.20VARROC 447.75 480.35 442.40 470.20SADBHAV 134.75 141.00 134.75 138.10TAKE 106.70 107.75 105.30 107.15JSL 33.40 34.20 33.40 33.95ORIENTELEC 158.10 165.00 158.10 163.40SONATSOFTW 298.20 299.70 293.35 295.90BAYERCROP 3308.05 3315.00 3262.65 3287.50SUDARSCHEM 378.00 378.15 374.55 375.55INDOSTAR 183.00 189.85 181.10 184.20

IIFL 106.00 112.00 105.60 110.20PRSMJOHNSN 75.05 77.45 75.05 76.70SCHAEFFLER 4132.00 4133.00 4061.75 4118.65NESCO 584.40 586.85 571.50 572.90NILKAMAL 1196.00 1217.00 1190.55 1207.10APLLTD 522.55 551.25 522.55 547.65ASTERDM 118.10 118.90 115.75 116.90VTL 903.00 930.00 903.00 913.60CENTRALBK 17.10 17.10 16.75 16.95SOMANYCERA 188.55 190.50 181.00 181.35DCAL 158.00 158.00 154.35 155.85ECLERX 391.00 424.20 390.10 413.05GET&D 170.30 191.80 168.50 181.95CHOLAHLDNG 465.00 466.00 456.50 458.85TIINDIA 365.30 366.50 357.50 363.60ZYDUSWELL 1647.75 1693.60 1647.75 1682.60GSPL 212.00 214.90 210.00 211.70ESSELPRO 113.50 115.50 113.00 114.95MAHLIFE 440.40 442.70 426.25 432.65LAURUSLABS 315.65 315.65 309.30 313.50KNRCON 222.90 232.20 221.50 231.35MHRIL 209.00 214.35 208.00 212.85JSLHISAR 64.30 65.10 63.70 64.60ENDURANCE 992.50 1005.00 989.00 998.50HIMATSEIDE 140.40 142.40 137.80 139.15SYMPHONY 1267.00 1267.00 1242.10 1245.75JAGRAN 58.50 59.05 57.85 58.50ALLCARGO 99.00 99.80 98.50 99.45MAHABANK 9.75 9.75 9.49 9.60GDL 92.95 94.20 92.15 93.45LEMONTREE 56.25 56.40 56.05 56.15TEAMLEASE 3101.20 3191.70 3101.20 3143.20BIRLACORPN 535.60 547.10 535.45 543.60KALPATPOWR 437.00 440.50 437.00 439.50MAGMA 46.80 51.25 46.10 50.95JMFINANCIL 72.30 72.90 71.50 72.40LINDEINDIA 513.80 522.20 513.80 515.10GPPL 80.10 80.55 79.00 80.20JKCEMENT 1060.70 1073.00 1058.00 1066.80UNITEDBNK 7.00 7.18 6.95 7.04GUJALKALI 431.25 440.00 430.80 434.80HERITGFOOD 327.50 327.50 322.65 324.65DHANUKA 295.50 300.75 292.00 295.10ANDHRABANK 15.95 16.10 15.70 16.05APARINDS 515.25 517.00 510.00 516.70VSTIND 3825.15 3860.00 3769.50 3786.15SHOPERSTOP 398.35 407.70 390.40 394.70TEJASNET 77.35 77.35 74.40 76.25GEPIL 710.85 716.50 705.00 711.20TVTODAY 298.10 309.90 298.10 303.15RATNAMANI 913.05 921.55 913.05 921.45NBVENTURES 73.70 74.20 73.35 73.95IOB 9.50 9.54 9.36 9.39ORIENTCEM 85.00 85.65 83.70 84.30MASFIN 686.00 686.50 670.00 680.45FDC 161.15 162.45 159.65 161.50JSWHL 2750.00 2761.00 2750.00 2750.85STARCEMENT 94.65 95.10 93.40 93.85TVSSRICHAK 1820.70 1850.00 1790.65 1818.65CCL 232.00 232.60 229.05 230.05MINDACORP 81.95 82.20 80.85 82.05TRITURBINE 98.60 100.40 97.00 97.40LAKSHVILAS 19.95 19.95 19.95 19.95FLFL 404.80 404.90 401.55 402.40ZENSARTECH 209.10 212.00 208.50 210.75CERA 2465.25 2467.00 2450.00 2460.70NH 228.50 232.90 228.50 231.45GRINDWELL 586.60 602.45 586.00 597.25LAOPALA 170.25 176.70 164.25 174.90SOLARINDS 1099.55 1103.00 1085.05 1089.10ERIS 413.00 422.65 411.00 413.70SUPRAJIT 180.45 182.70 179.50 181.20CORPBANK 13.90 13.95 13.65 13.90MAXINDIA 64.10 64.80 64.00 64.05TCNSBRANDS 691.15 717.00 688.30 708.30CARERATING 527.75 531.65 527.75 530.15GULFOILLUB 852.00 854.00 847.00 851.00IFBIND 665.00 670.90 657.45 662.40SHILPAMED 256.40 263.75 256.40 261.90SIS 890.95 900.60 887.85 888.45KPRMILL 560.70 568.60 560.70 567.55SHRIRAMCIT 1345.65 1347.35 1345.65 1347.35

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SCRIP OPEN HIgh LOW LTP CHANGENIFTY 50 11466.30 11599.10 11439.65 11586.35 122.35YESBANK 41.90 48.20 40.70 47.40 6.35TATAMOTORS 127.10 144.35 125.10 142.55 16.70EICHERMOT 19500.00 20789.00 19455.00 20750.00 1529.40INDUSINDBK 1276.00 1345.00 1270.00 1340.00 65.50BAJAJ-AUTO 3009.00 3140.00 2995.00 3138.00 114.30SBIN 256.40 266.00 255.60 265.30 9.25TATASTEEL 346.00 361.35 340.35 359.90 12.50ASIANPAINT 1772.00 1816.65 1756.00 1811.00 45.30AXISBANK 690.50 712.40 690.50 710.35 16.95BAJAJFINSV 8154.00 8357.40 8102.00 8316.65 182.35COALINDIA 194.00 199.95 192.90 198.85 4.30MARUTI 6977.00 7155.55 6940.00 7126.00 151.00BAJFINANCE 4020.05 4117.20 4001.00 4096.00 79.60BRITANNIA 3176.00 3266.35 3160.00 3235.00 58.25HDFC 2056.95 2095.00 2050.10 2085.45 36.75HINDUNILVR 2067.50 2108.00 2061.95 2106.50 35.50RELIANCE 1375.00 1399.00 1372.00 1394.95 22.60JSWSTEEL 218.30 224.70 214.35 223.75 3.45TCS 2014.00 2038.00 1999.30 2029.00 27.60GAIL 126.70 129.05 125.85 128.40 1.60ICICIBANK 436.00 443.35 433.70 440.75 5.45ZEEL 260.60 274.00 255.80 262.70 3.05HEROMOTOCO2609.00 2644.00 2582.00 2631.00 28.65NESTLEIND 14383.00 14630.35 14160.00 14505.00 153.50ITC 244.00 246.70 243.85 245.95 2.30DRREDDY 2711.00 2734.00 2699.00 2726.00 24.55NTPC 117.70 119.20 116.95 118.40 1.00M&M 581.10 596.35 578.75 589.00 4.75IOC 145.90 147.00 143.75 146.40 0.85HINDALCO 185.50 189.75 182.55 188.60 0.65UPL 585.00 593.70 580.35 590.60 1.85TITAN 1285.00 1285.55 1271.10 1276.00 1.45SUNPHARMA 401.60 402.55 396.80 400.00 0.30LT 1428.00 1438.60 1420.20 1425.00 0.80HDFCBANK 1227.50 1229.85 1213.10 1221.50 0.40BHARTIARTL 385.00 387.50 379.05 384.95 -0.30BPCL 512.40 515.30 504.10 511.50 -0.90KOTAKBANK 1610.00 1613.60 1586.50 1602.00 -3.55WIPRO 248.90 250.15 246.60 248.30 -0.60INFY 767.00 770.55 765.10 769.40 -2.05CIPLA 445.30 447.70 439.40 445.50 -1.30TECHM 725.00 731.00 715.95 724.80 -2.90ONGC 141.10 141.90 139.15 140.95 -0.70ADANIPORTS 409.10 411.20 404.60 407.95 -2.05POWERGRID 198.75 199.75 196.50 197.40 -1.15INFRATEL 255.00 257.95 253.55 255.60 -1.50ULTRACEMCO 4271.00 4280.00 4221.05 4254.05 -31.25GRASIM 728.15 730.85 712.00 725.50 -5.35VEDL 148.05 149.70 144.75 148.45 -1.45HCLTECH 1100.00 1102.20 1084.55 1089.20 -11.70

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SCRIP OPEN HIgh LOW LTP CHANGENIFTY NEXT 50 27275.60 27650.60 27230.80 27627.60 387.05NIACL 120.00 136.60 115.50 136.60 22.75IBULHSGFIN 168.45 204.00 165.80 197.40 24.35MOTHERSUMI 99.50 112.00 99.25 111.65 12.20PEL 1374.90 1475.00 1368.00 1464.40 88.70BERGEPAINT 472.00 490.95 470.50 488.00 17.35PAGEIND 20900.00 21755.00 20852.15 21524.95 708.35ASHOKLEY 71.40 74.10 71.00 74.00 2.35SBILIFE 880.00 928.50 880.00 903.60 26.25PNB 57.40 59.30 57.05 59.00 1.65L&TFH 83.05 86.00 80.70 85.45 2.35SRTRANSFIN 1039.00 1075.00 1021.60 1068.00 28.45ICICIGI 1208.90 1249.00 1208.50 1239.90 32.65DLF 157.55 164.75 156.70 163.95 4.20AMBUJACEM 203.00 208.20 202.05 208.00 5.30MARICO 380.05 389.90 378.80 389.90 9.45DMART 1883.00 1932.00 1875.55 1916.00 45.50GICRE 279.00 279.60 261.00 266.85 6.25UBL 1298.40 1327.00 1289.90 1326.50 28.10HAVELLS 674.00 687.15 668.75 686.00 14.35BANKBARODA 87.30 89.45 86.30 88.90 1.60MCDOWELL-N 628.50 637.10 625.15 636.20 9.95BAJAJHLDNG 3632.00 3750.00 3610.05 3684.25 56.90DABUR 455.95 463.60 454.40 463.05 6.95ICICIPRULI 467.95 474.75 464.65 472.50 6.65GODREJCP 710.00 717.65 703.65 715.00 8.55CADILAHC 234.70 238.50 231.50 237.20 2.50ACC 1525.00 1538.90 1507.20 1535.45 14.00SIEMENS 1610.20 1632.40 1608.40 1625.50 14.25PGHH 11600.00 11850.00 11505.00 11670.00 87.15HDFCLIFE 612.95 622.00 610.00 615.00 4.40PETRONET 261.50 264.85 261.15 263.35 1.60INDIGO 1717.00 1742.15 1692.15 1734.00 8.20HINDZINC 211.45 213.75 209.60 211.55 0.95AUROPHARMA 462.45 468.45 457.00 465.75 2.05DIVISLAB 1723.00 1734.30 1705.10 1722.40 2.20COLPAL 1529.90 1535.20 1514.20 1526.10 0.10NHPC 23.35 23.60 23.00 23.40 0.00HINDPETRO 314.95 315.00 306.55 313.05 -0.10HDFCAMC 2728.00 2735.15 2709.40 2715.00 -5.50PIDILITIND 1361.00 1374.85 1353.00 1356.60 -4.30LUPIN 731.50 732.00 719.00 727.00 -5.85NMDC 102.00 103.20 100.40 102.00 -0.85PFC 96.00 96.40 93.15 95.20 -0.80BOSCHLTD 14100.00 14350.10 13820.20 14007.05 -121.90BIOCON 257.60 258.85 255.00 257.30 -2.65CONCOR 607.50 609.50 597.45 597.90 -6.80SHREECEM 18650.00 18699.95 17750.00 18200.00 -395.85OFSS 3152.95 3168.00 3049.90 3082.55 -70.40BANDHANBNK 576.70 577.00 560.20 568.00 -15.60IDEA 6.40 6.40 5.95 6.35 -0.20

New Delhi: Capital marketsregulator Sebi has reconstitutedits Primary Market AdvisoryCommittee (PMAC) that advis-es it on policy framework, devel-opment of initial public offeringsand other such segments.

The panel, which is chairedby TV Mohandas Pai, chair-man of the Manipal GlobalEducation Services, has now 26members. Earlier, the panel has23 members, according to theSecurities and Exchange Boardof India (Sebi).

The other members of thepanel include BSE MD andCEO Ashish Chauhan, HDFCVice-Chairman and CEO KekiMistry, NSE MD and CEOVikram Limaye, DolphyDsouza Partner at E&Y, PrimeDatabase chief Prithvi Haldeaand Sunil Sanghai founder andCEO of Nova Dhruva Capital.

The panel also has repre-sentatives from Sebi, RBI, andfinance and corporate affairsministries. Sebi's Whole-TimeMember Ananta Barua, its

Executive Director AmarjeetSingh Chief General ManagerJeevan Sonparote and RBIChief General Manager SKKar are part of the panel. TheSebi’s PMAC is significant as itadvises the markets regulatoron policy framework related tothe primary markets, as well ason matters required to be takenup for changes in legal frame-work to introduce simplifica-tion and transparency in sys-tems and procedures in the pri-mary market. PTI

Mumbai: Promoters of realestate group HDIL, Rakeshand Sarang Wadhawan, whoare the prime accused in thePMC Bank scam, have request-ed the RBI and investigationagencies to sell off their assets,including a yacht, a Rolls Royceand an aircraft, to pay off thebank’s dues.

The Wadhawans, who wereremanded in judicial custodyby a court here on Wednesday,in a letter to the EnforcementDirectorate, the Union FinanceMinistry and the RBI, request-ed that they be allowed to sell

off 18 of their attached assets.The letter was released by

a spokesperson of theWadhawans. According to theMumbai Police’s EconomicOffences Wing, which firstarrested the Wadhawans, thescam at the Punjab &Maharashtra Cooperative Bankis worth �4,355 crore.

The assets listed in the let-ter include ultra-luxury carssuch as a Rolls Royce Phantom,Bentley Continental, a BMW730 LD, as well as a humbleAmbassador, owned by RakeshWadhawan. PTI

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US President Donald Trumphas dispatched his deputy

Mike Pence to Turkey todemand a ceasefire in Syria, asAnkara rebuffed internationalpressure to curb its deadlyoffensive against Kurdish forces.

President Recep TayyipErdogan vowed on Wednesdaythat Turkey's operation -- whichhas been facilitated by the with-drawal of US troops fromnorthern Syria -- would con-tinue.

That came as an extraordi-nary letter emerged in whichTrump warned Erdogan: "Don'tbe a fool".

Sent the day Turkeylaunched its incursion intonortheastern Syria, Trump saidhistory risked branding him a"devil".

On Wednesday, Kurdishforces struck a desperate deal

with Damascus and steppedaside to allow Syrian regime troops and alliedRussian soldiers enter the bor-der town of Kobane, accordingto the Syrian Observatory forHuman Rights.

Kobane is a highly sym-bolic town for Syria's Kurds,whose forces had in 2015 wrest-ed it from the Islamic State (IS)group in an epic battle backedby the US-led coalition.

Days after American troopsabruptly began withdrawing,clashes continued across theregion, with Kurdish fighters inthe border town of Ras al-Ainburning tyres in a bid to blindAnkara's warplanes and diggingin against a ground offensive byTurkish-backed Syrian rebels.

The Turkish operation,now in its second week, hastriggered a flurry of diplomacyamong major powers.

Trump sent Pence along

with his top diplomat MikePompeo to Turkey amid thegreatest crisis in relations fordecades between the NATOallies, with talks due in Ankaraearly Thursday.

Facing a barrage of criticism in Washington forabandoning the Kurds, Trump has imposed sanctionson three Turkish ministers andraised tariffs on its steel indus-try.

Pence's office said the USwould pursue "punishing eco-nomic sanctions" unless therewas "an immediate ceasefire".

In the missive to Erdogandated October 9 — whoseauthenticity was confirmed toAFP by the White House —Trump wrote: "You don't wantto be responsible for slaughter-ing thousands of people, and Idon't want to be responsible fordestroying the Turkish econo-my — and I will."

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The US President DonaldTrump did not oppose a

deal struck between the SyrianKurdish-led forces, Russia andthe Syrian government inDamascus to protect against aTurkish offensive in northeast-ern Syria, the commander ofthe force said as his fighters bat-tled a new push by Ankara-backed fighters to seize a strate-gic border town.

The commander of theKurdish-led forces, MazloumAbdi, said Trump essentiallygave the go-ahead for the dealin a phone call Monday.

The Kurds' deal,announced Sunday, came afterTrump ordered US troops tostep aside as Turkey launchedits attack last week.

Under the agreement,forces of Syrian President

Bashar Assad effectively replacethe US troops on the ground inthe border areas, with Moscowguaranteeing the deal.

"We told (Trump) that weare contacting the Syrianregime and the Russians inorder to protect our countryand land," Abdi, better knownby his nom de guerre MazloumKobani, told a local TV station,Ronahi TV.

"He said, 'We are notagainst that. We support that.'"

Vice President Mike Pence,heading a US delegation thatincludes Secretary of State MikePompeo, is set to arrive inTurkey Thursday afternoon,aiming to press Turkey to accepta cease-fire in its offensive.

Before their arrival, TurkishForeign Minister MevlutCavusoglu met with WhiteHouse national security advis-er Robert O'Brien.

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Humanitarian groups innortheastern Syria are

scrambling to provide aid tohundreds of thousands of peo-ple as rapidly shifting battlelines make it increasingly dif-ficult to reach them.

Nearly all foreign aid work-ers have been evacuatedbecause of security concerns,and there are fears that localstaff could face reprisals, eitherat the hands of Turkish-led

forces pushing in from thenorth or Syrian troops fanningout across territory held by theembattled Kurds.

The front lines are beingrapidly redrawn as more than160,000 people flee the fighting,including many who were dis-placed by earlier battles inSyria's eight-year civil war.

The offensive has created anew refugee crisis in a region where some 1.6 millionpeople already rely on human-itarian aid.

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American domestic politicshas experienced a new low

with President Donald Trumpand House Speaker Nancy Pelosiengaging in an unprecedentedwar of words on the issue of pullout of US forces from Syria, amove that paved the way forTurkey to launch cross-bordermilitary operations against US-ally Kurdish forces.

The war of words onWednesday between the twoleaders started after the WhiteHouse had invited the leadershipand top committee members ofboth Democrats andRepublicans, and the Congressto brief them about their policyon Syria.

Emerging out of a meetingat the White House, the twoleaders accused each other of aserious meltdown.

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President Donald Trump onWednesday defended his

decision to pull US troops outof Syria, calling it "strategical-ly brilliant," and denied givingTurkey a "green light" to launchoperations against Kurdish mil-itants.

"President (Recep Tayyip)Erdogan's decision didn't sur-prise me because he's wantedto do that for a long time,"Trump told reporters at theWhite House.

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Northern Ireland'sDemocratic Unionist Party

announced Thursday it cannotsupport Boris Johnson's currentBrexit plan, dealing a major blowto the British prime minister justhours before a crunch EU sum-mit.

"As things stand, we couldnot support what is being sug-gested on customs and consentissues, and there is a lack of clar-ity on VAT (value added tax),"the DUP, which backs Johnson'sGovernment, said in a briefstatement on Twitter.

"We will continue to workwith the government to try andget a sensible deal that works forNorthern Ireland and protectsthe economic and constitution-al integrity of the UnitedKingdom." The statement wasseen as a major setback forJohnson, who would most like-ly need the support of his DUPallies in parliament for any dealagreed in Brussels.

It came as British and EUnegotiators worked late into thenight in the hopes of presentinga last-minute Brexit deal to

leaders meeting for a Europeansummit.

Both sides said they wereclose to finding a basis for atreaty to ensure Britain heads for a managed withdrawal from the European bloc it has been part of for nearly halfa century.

But officials had to iron outdetails on how Northern Ireland,which is part of the UK, wouldremain under the Europeanscheme for sales tax.

The pound fell 0.5 per centagainst the dollar and the euro within minutes of theannouncement.

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European Commission chiefJean-Claude Juncker con-

gratulated Prime MinisterBoris Johnson on their Brexitwithdrawal deal Thursday andsaid it meant there should be"no further delay".

"We have a deal, and thisdeal means there is no need forany kind of prolongation,"Juncker told reporters as hewelcomed the British leader toEU headquarters ahead ofsummit talks. British MPs areexpected to vote on the deal onSaturday.

Pro-EU parliamentarianshope they can defeat it andBrexit can still be delayed toallow a general election or anew referendum on whether toleave the EU at all.

Arriving later at an EUsummit of leaders expected toendorse the new withdrawalplan, Juncker said he hopedBritish MPs would pass theplan as agreed so that Britaincan leave on October 31.

"There will be no prolongation. There is not an argument for further delay— it has to be done now," hesaid.

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Hong Kong leader CarrieLam was again forced

from the legislative chamberbecause of protests Thursdayby opposition members fol-lowing a bloody attack on aleader of the nearly 5-month-old protest movement.

Pro-democracy lawmak-ers shouted and waved placardsdepicting Lam with bloodiedhands, prompting theirremoval by guards and thesuspension of proceedings.

A day earlier, Lam wasforced to abandon an annualpolicy address in the chamber,later delivering it by television.

Disruption in the chamberand the attack Wednesdaynight on Jimmy Sham byassailants wielding hammersand knives marked the latestdramatic turn in the unrest thathas rocked the city since June.

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Hong Kong’s embattledleader took to

Facebook Live lateThursday in a bid to reachout to citizens after monthsof political unrest — andthe emoji count was farfrom kind.

Carrie Lam — thecity's unelected ChiefExecutive — currentlyboasts record low approvalratings as the financial hub convulses with more than four months ofhuge, increasingly violent pro-democracyprotests.

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The US ambassador to theEuropean Union is expect-

ed to tell House lawmakers con-ducting an impeachmentinquiry that he was merelyrepeating President DonaldTrump's reassurances when hetold another envoy that therewas no quid pro quo in theadministration's dealings withUkraine. Gordon Sondland,scheduled to appear Thursday,would be the latest in a series ofwitnesses to be interviewedbehind closed doors by Houselawmakers.

Trump blocked his appear-ance last week, but Democratspromptly subpoenaed Sondland.

His appearance is especial-ly anticipated since text messagesand other witness testimonyplace him at the center of a for-eign policy dialogue withUkraine that forms the basis ofthe impeachment inquiry andthat officials feared circum-vented normal channels.

Part of that effort involvedpushing the former Sovietrepublic to commit to political-ly charged investigations soughtby Trump, including into a gascompany connected to the sonof Democratic rival Joe Biden.

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Iran on Thursday said itwould further reduce its

commitments under the 2015nuclear deal, unless its inter-ests are secured by the signa-tories.

Iran is determined to takefurther steps to suspend itsnuclear commitments underthe pact, officially known asthe Joint Comprehensive Planof Action (JCPOA), and thepolicy "will remainunchanged until the desiredconditions are met and Iran'seconomic interests from theJCPOA are ensured," IranianDeputy Foreign MinisterAbbas Araqchi was quoted assaying by local media.

Araqchi made theremarks in a meeting onWednesday with his Swedishcounterpart Anika Soder inTehran, Xinhua reported.

He said despiteWashington's withdrawalfrom the JCPOA and reim-position of sanctions, "Irantried to keep the windows ofinteraction and diplomacyopen, while Europe has onlyrelied on political supportand refused to keep theaccord alive".

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When life throws lemons atyou, make lemonade,’ is a

philosophy that 21 year oldSaurav Parasrampuria (played byDarsheel Safary) follows, whoseonly dream is to go to theMassachusetts Institute ofTechnology (MIT). As he nearshis dream, he faces a crisis — hisbrother, 27-year-old KapilParasrampuria (played byAbhishek Pattnaik) develops aMultiple Personality Disorder.He chooses to stay. What followsis mayhem. Thus begins Saurav’sjourney to help his brother makethis disorder a boon for him.

After doing Can I Help You?and Two Adorable Losers ,Darsheel’s next play, KaiseKarenge? depicts a conflictbetween ambition and familyduty. Excerpts:

How did you land this role?I was watching TV at home

when Abhishek contacted meand wanted to meet me. ThoughI was feeling lazy but since theplace was nearby, I went. I hadno idea that I was going for ameeting that would be aboutworking in theatre. And thenwhen I met them, they narratedme the script. It sounded funny.But I thought that I should be apart of it because it will be a newexperience. I thought for a whileand agreed on the spot.

How has the experience of per-forming live for theatre been?

Honestly, it has been a tran-sitional experience, because it’sthe first time I was learningabout theatre and its technical-ities. I adapted to the situationsand and as soon as I got the hangof it, I started discovering itsmultiple facets. For instance, intheatre, when the audience is infront of you, their reactions arevisible. I enjoyed that feeling.Incidentally, we were doing com-edy, so watching people laugh,enjoy and connect with us felt sogood. My co-actor Abhishekkeeps describing this. He says,‘It’s like a high that you get whenyou perform for an audience andentertain them thoroughly.’ Ithink that’s one of the manylearnings I have had. It hasmade me a better actor, a moreconfident person and has showedme a very different way ofapproaching a role. People askme, ‘For how long will you dotheatre?, ‘When are you gettingback to films?’ Now, even if I getback to films or whatever I do inthe future, I will continue doingtheatre because it makes you aconsistent learner.

What was the research workinvolved to get into the skin ofyour character? How did youunderstand the problems and

nuances of a person with mul-tiple identity disorder?

I was told that in the play, Iwill be playing a role that I havenever played before, that is, therole of a genius. It was not easybecause I was struggling to addmy own flavour. But that’s howyou become more comfortablewith your character. Our direc-tor Suketu was very open to uschanging, improvising andadding our own flavour to roles.Even Abhishek was very sup-portive of this. So it’s like a mixand that way you get the best ofall the worlds. And probablythat’s how we locked up Saurav’scharacter.

Since you have been a part ofboth theatre and cinema, howdo you think that cinema is dif-ferent from theatre? What doyou find more challenging?

I think theatre is definitelymore challenging. You have toreally live the character andmake it believable. So if you arenot really crying on the stage,you are not feeling it. Even theaudience won’t feel it. Film meinkar sakte ho as there are all sortsof tricks and techniques there tomake it look natural or believ-able. You have a lot of supportwhen you are doing films. But intheatre, the support vanishes.That is why people say that the-

atre is the best art form. Notdenying the fact that films arechallenging too. But in a differ-ent way. So for me, here you haveto make things believable and ifyou get those aspects in films aswell, it automatically elevatesyour performance. It helps bothways.

How have you evolved since thetime of Taare Zameen Par tonow?

I started in 2006 when I fol-lowed everything I was told to do.Sometimes they would ask me toenjoy myself and they would askme what would you do in this sit-uation, and what would come outorganically was what I would do.Throughout the years, I workedwith different people and Igrasped as much as I could. Butthere were certain limitations,which got changed in every stepthat I took. For instance, when Idid TV for the first time (realityTV show Jhalak Dikhla Jaa) — Ilearnt something new and verydifferent. Post that, I joined the-atre, which changed my percep-tion towards acting even more. I

usually marked my performanceson a scale of up to 10 — 8/10,9/10, etc, — but theatre dissolvedthat scale for me. Now the scaledoesn’t exist because it’s like anever-ending ladder for me.That’s what the main concept oftheatre is — you learn everythingfrom every play that you do. Thatway when my thought processchanged. Also, I learnt the factthat every day is a learningopportunity. You cannot stoplearning, especially when doingtheatre. I never think of themedium or the fact that whetherI have to act in films or TV or dotheatre. I just keep the story as mypriority. Earlier, for me, anyonewould decide how big my char-acter is or how long the role is.Now, I just decide that the storyis good and I can be a part of it.And it automatically becomessomething nice. Now, I just wantto act more. One of my other per-ceptions that has changed is thatthe line between theatre, filmsand TV has just blurred for me.I only want to act and enjoymyself. It increases my love foracting as well.

Twelve years down and peoplestill remember you as ‘IshaanAwasthi.’ Do you think that therole had been the most iconicone in your acting career?

If people still remember meas Ishaan Awasthi, it just showsthe impact and the value of thatperformance. I am very thankful.It’s something that happens oncein a lifetime. I don’t really remem-ber real acting. It was, in a way,me only. I remember that therewas no stress or tension. I was justnine years old and busy enjoyingmyself. It’s a memorable one forsure. People can remember me asIshaan for as long as they can. Ilove it. It motivates me to do moreworks like Ishaan, performing inthat way and strive for better. Thisis what such roles motivate us todo.

There’s a huge similaritybetween your roles in TZP andKaise Karenge? In both, youdeal with a certain psychologi-cal disorder. What is your takeon mental health and the chang-ing scenario of people acceptingsuch people?

I personally feel that actingis also very psychological. Youare re-channelling your emo-tions and a certain thoughtprocess. In a way, actors have theedge over other people. Theyhave better control on theiremotions. And people doingmethod acting, they have theability to step into a differentcharacter altogether, although it’sby choice. I feel that because ofthis, I have learnt the fact thatcommunication is very impor-tant while facing any kind ofmental or psychological prob-lem. The more you communi-cate it out, the more it will help.

Two Adorable Losers is alsoabout communication. Akshay,the character that I play suffersfrom inferiority complex. Eventhe teacher, who teaches himsuffers from a certain type ofinferiority complex, and both ofthem communicate it to eachother in the most hilarious ofways and very genuinely too.And gradually, the audiencewatches them becoming moreconfident as they have under-stood how to react to society.

Same goes with KaiseKarenge? Once you are awareabout what’s happening, becauseyou can never know how peoplemay react, you should take themon the side and have a genuine,heartfelt conversation about theproblems they are suffering with.Sharing is key. If you have aproblem, you can always share itwith your best friend, parentsespecially, or with your sibling,because I don’t think there isanything better than a clearunderstanding. Once you havecommunicated the problem, thebest will come your way. Ibelieve in the oldest saying,‘God helps those, who helpthemselves.’ When you are fac-ing any issue, just believe in thissaying and get yourself out of it.No one but only you can getyourself out of this. Keepingyourself in a better mindset isalways important. These are thefew elements that I have under-stood because all of us gothrough a certain emotional orpsychological problem at somepoint in our lives.

People have seen very less of yourfilms post 2012, do you plan to domore films and roles in futureagain? Any other forthcomingprojects?

Of course, I am open to doingfilms as long as the story is great,there talks in the pipe line, so you’llbe seeing me soon. Also like I said,I’ll be doing films and theatre side-by-side. But nothing as of now.

(Out of the Box Production’seighth, the play will be staged onOctober 20 at 6.30 pm at KamaniAuditorium.)

Of late, how often have youseen people wearing masksin metros, local marketsand malls? Yes, the trend iscorroborated by recent sur-

veys which suggest that as awarenessabout air pollution is spiking, more peo-ple are queuing to buy protective gear.And considering that Diwali is roundthe corner along with the annual men-ace of stubble burning, is it even surpris-ing? For it’s that time of the year whenpeople retreat to their homes because ofthe smog that wraps the city like a blan-ket. Move over gold and electronics,anti-pollution products are emerging asthe latest trend in the Diwali must-haves. So private players have steppedin and have on offer equipment that canfight the poisonous air.

Delhi-based environmental activistand entrepreneur Jai Dhar Gupta runsNirvana Being, an anti-pollution toolscompany. It manufactures specialised airpollution masks and provides indoor airquality solutions too. Talking about‘Kalyug Ki Khidki’, a new concept beinglaunched this month, he says, “We stay

in our bedrooms for eight to 10 hourswith air conditioners on. This blocks thecirculation of fresh air. As the AC takesin the air from a room, cools it andreleases it back there is an excess of car-bon dioxide. If we inhale it for pro-longed periods, it is poisonous. Sowhat is the option that we are left with?This equipment provides a solution tothis problem by bringing in filtered out-door air into your room to maintain theoxygen level. It needs to be installed ona window or wall, which then constant-ly refreshes incoming air through ahepa-filter.”

Other private companies are com-ing up with innovative equipment.Rohit Bansal, founder of AQI India &Purelogic Labs India Private Limited,says that now more efforts are beingmade by citizens to set up air qualitymonitors. “So we have come up with aPrana air motion mask, which notonly protects a user from more than 99per cent of the pollutants but also mon-itors the air. With that, they will knowwhen to protect themselves. This yearwe have also launched a junior mask for

children and teenagers, speciallydesigned keeping their sensitivity inmind,” he adds.

As per the recent statistics, releasedon October 16, the Air Quality Index(AQI) has crossed 300. Vikas Bagaria,founder of Pee Safe, says, “Poor air qual-ity has been a consistent public healthconcern in Delhi for the past few years.To fight this issue, we have launchedmodern-style anti-pollution dust masks,which ensure that air pollution does notdisrupt people’s lifestyles. These arecapable of filtering out 95 per cent of thetoxins present in the air and have theperfect facial fit with earlobes andvalves that facilitate easy breathing,alongside reducing build-up of heat orhumidity. They filter out dust, microbes,and also help to combat serious respi-ratory problems like asthma.”

Amway has gone a step furtherthrough its recently-launched atmos-phere mini air purifier. Says CEOAnshu Budhraja, “Air Pollution is a seri-ous issue in India where majority ofpeople are breathing air which is 10times or more over the WHO-safelimit. Therefore, there is a growingneed for air purification solution tobreathe better and stay healthy. Oursis a next-generation air purifierequipped with better membranes thanthe HEPA grade filter that removes par-ticles as small as 0.0024 microns witha single pass efficiency of 99.99 per cent

and comes with allergy UK seal ofapproval.”

Among other things, organisationsare also making efforts to first researchand understand the problem at thegrassroot level. AirOk TechnologiesPrivate limited CEO Deekshith VaraPrasad says that they first analysed thedata before moving on with launchingthe equipment. She adds, “The dirty airwith particulate matter, which is pret-ty large, can be trapped with HEPA fil-ters. However, pollutants stick on theirsurface, creating a perfect environmentfor microbial growth to feed and mul-tiply. Studies show that in the indoorenvironment, HEPA filters can becomea breeding surface for pathogens, in aslittle as six days. So the air becomesunhealthy when it is contaminated withviruses and bacteria. To fight this, thereis the EGAPA (Effective GranularParticulate Arrester) solution that con-trols all these parameters along withPM 2.5 (particulate matter), which canbe integrated into any building to cre-ate a clean air zone throughout theyear.”

Though the equipment claim amarginal improvement in the air qual-ity, a lot of effort has to be put in tocombat pollution. Gupta says, “The realproblem lies at the roots. So we needto cut the pollution level at the source.There should also be a regulation onthe emissions from vehicles.”

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Tucked in one of themany busy and bustlingblocks of Connaught

Place, Wok in the Cloudsinstantly took me back to theKeanu Reeves-starrer, A Walkin the Clouds. I wonderedwhether it was one of thosehigh-concept bars based on ablockbuster. As I entered theplace, I realised that it wasinspired only by the film’sname. Its vibe was about chiccontemporaneity. The heart-shaped mirrors, graffiti andtrendy posters about drinkingand dining at the entrancewere a quirky way to welcomethe guests. As I sat on thehigh-pitched chaise-lounge atthe table adjacent to the bar, Iobserved artefacts and show-pieces which intrigued me.Why would a fine dine-inrestaurant-cum-bar have threetiny statues of soldiers holdinga rope in different positions —climbing up, crawling downand hanging? However, theyadded to the absorbing aura.To my left were posters of gui-tar, music signs, and somedoodles that said, ‘I LoveBinge Drinking.’ Well, thevibrant bar with a colourfulglassy slab, lit with yellowlights, and an array of wines,whiskies, spirits and beers,could certainly make that onecome true.

As impressed as I was byWITC’s aesthetics, I wonderedwhether what it served mewould match up to the ambi-ence. Scrolling through themenu, I first ordered the pureeof wild mushroom soup. Theporcini, shitake and buttonmushrooms-infused off-whitecreamy soup had a delicatetexture. I never had thoughtthat mushrooms could be sodistinctly flavourful. Talking ofspices, the soup tasted of blackpepper that blended perfectlywith a variety of bland butfresh mushrooms. The soupwas served with two cigarrolls and a chilli oregano dip,which complemented thesoup’s comforting taste.

It was time for theMinestrone. The broth filledwith finely-chopped bits oftomatoes and vegetables, kid-ney beans, dry spaghetti, ryebread and garlic butter had theright amount of tanginesswhich made the right impact.However, an excess of garlicmeant the soup couldn’t quitemake the cut.

Next up was the Aloochakna chaat. As eager as I wasfor this dish to arrive on mytable, my interest fell flat as Ibit into it. With wheat crisps(sev) and pomegranate sprin-kled on top, the chopped pota-toes dipped in sweety-spicytamarind sauce and tastedexactly the way it wasdescribed, nothing less ormore. I wished there was extrazing to the dish. After all, whywould I pay �225 for an Aloochaat that I could relish at just�40 at the street side? Also, thelatter would have been aptlyspicy.

The Rawa dal tikki fol-lowed. I chose to order thedish as the thought of a tikkibeing served with Matar kahummus, rather than the con-ventional mint chutney ormeethi saunth, instantly drewme towards it. Well, it didn’tdisappoint me. But the prob-lem lay at the heart as the tikki,due to its blandness and drytexture, failed to make aneverlasting impression.

Next in line were thecrunchy dahi sticks, or theDahi kebabs. The previoustwo dishes were responsiblefor a taste graph that was slid-ing down fast. However, it’srightly said, good things cometo you when you least expectthem. The kebabs, wrappedaround wooden ice creamsticks, were presented in fourvodka shot glasses. Its appear-ance had made a mark. Now

was the time for the moreimportant test — taste — andit passed with flying colours.It instantly melted in mymouth which was soon awashwith the creamiest filling.Served with a mint chutney,the kebabs were made with

lavash which is a soft, thinunleavened flatbread cookedin tandoor. Most food expertssay that giving a shape todahi kebabs is the toughestpart while preparing them.However, here, even the shapewas 10 on 10. Certainly, the

tastiest dish of the evening.To accompany the sweet

and salty dishes that I was hav-ing, I ordered the scentedblack currant sherbet whichhad kokum, black currant,cumin in sparkling water. Itwas the perfect refreshment. Isulked at the thought that Icould have ordered it earlier.Its juicy, spicy and tangy tex-ture made me forget all mywoes of tasting imperfect dish-es on an evening when Icraved for some lasting delica-cies.

Then came the spicy gold-en paneer fingers in two ways —peri peri and pesto. Now as weknow, the mere mention ofpaneer excites a vegetarian.However, to my surprise, thelong cottage cheese fingers did-n’t arrive in ‘two ways,’ rathercame with two flavoured dips —creamy green pesto and peri perisauce. Well, one bite into the dishand there occurred an epiphany— there’s nothing worse than sit-ting down at a cafe, ordering adish, pining for it and being mis-erably disappointed. The dishwas bland and even the dips did-n’t help.

As full as I was, I didn’t wantto miss the desserts. I orderedtwo out of the four in the menu— Apple pie and Sizzlingbrownie. While the latteramazed me with its remarkablepresentation and taste, the latterdid a great job at fulfilling mycravings. Just a few words forboth the desserts — taste it your-self and feel its extraordinariness.

Though the place had itsmisses, a certain joy remainspreserved there. It has a quiet,personal yet, at the same time,a strangely social vibe, makingit ideal to catch up with a friendafter years. Another thing thatcan be said in favour of the placewas the service which wasimpeccable.

It all started with a fictionalturkey burger.

Andrew Rea’s YouTubevideo series Binging with Babishwas born in 2016 when heattempted to recreate the “fussylittle burger” described in elab-orate detail by Rob Lowe’s char-acter Chris Traeger on a third-season episode of Parks andRecreation. Hungry viewers weresoon clamouring for morerecipes based on foods thatappear or get mentioned infilms or TV episodes, and Reahad a new career on his hands.

Now he has a new cook-book: Binging with Babish: 100Recipes Recreated from YourFavorite Movies and TV Shows(Houghton Mifflin Harcourt).And while the premise mightsound more silly than serious,the book — like the video series— is actually full of real mealsand desserts that transcendtheir sometimes ridiculous fic-tional origins.

There are a few recipesyou’ll marvel at but probablynever want to make, like Buddythe Elf ’s candy-laden pasta dishfrom the movie Elf or Jake theDog’s bizarre “perfect sand-wich” from the cartoonAdventure Time,w h i c hincludesh u m a ntears as aningredient.But even withthese, Rea laysout the steps torecreate them inactual, edible form.

Most of thisbeautiful hardcoverbook, though, is filled withdishes you’d want to dig intoeven if they didn’t have a pop-culture connection.

Rea’s recipe for flavourful,yogurt-marinated Palestinianchicken really is as good as LarryDavid says it is during a seasoneight episode of Curb YourEnthusiasm. And Rea’s versionof the mushroom soup recipethat Elaine is determined to getfrom the Soup Nazi on Seinfeldreally is sublime, and not diffi-cult to replicate.

Though he points out in thebook’s surprisingly movingintroduction that he’s not aprofessional chef, Rea bringsa remarkable professional-ism to the authenticity ofhis recipes. His lusciousstrudel, inspired by thefilm Inglourious Basterds,includes dough painstak-ingly made from scratch.

Fans might be a bit dis-appointed, in fact, by the short-age of explanation about how

these recipes fit into the storiesthat inspired them. Beyond thename of the show or film, Reasays little or nothing about that.

The focus is on the food.And the more tangential arecipe’s connection to pop cul-ture — like the beef Wellingtononly casually mentioned in a flir-tatious riff delivered by JohnSlattery’s Roger Sterling on anearly episode of Mad Men — themore determined Rea seems tobe to offer the best and mostauthentic version possible.

The recipes are laid outwith detailed instructionsamid gorgeous photogra-phy, and Rea explains howhe chose the ingredientsand created the dishes.Each recipe includes hispersonal “verdict” onhow good it reallytastes.

Some dishes, itseems, are better left

on the screen, including LizLemon’s Cheesy Blasters (anartery-clogging mix of hot dogsstuffed with Monterey jackcheese, wrapped in a frozenpizza, from 30 Rock) andDothraki Blood Pie from Gameof Thrones, which has as its pri-mary ingredient a full pound ofpork fat, finely diced.

The verdict on that one,according to Rea: “DothrakiBlood Pie is pretty gross.”

But the “prison gravy” fromGoodfellas will elevate your nextspaghetti dinner. And Reaswears by his

recipe for confit byaldi (betterknown as ratatouille, and includ-ed here in honor of the animat-ed movie of the same name).

In this much longer fol-lowup to his 2017 cookbook EatWhat You Watch: A Cookbookfor Movie Lovers, Rea has includ-ed nods to just about every genreof film and TV. You’ll find LakeTrout and Pit Beef from TheWire, followed on the next pageby Principal Skinner’s favoritecoconut-based seafood stewfrom The Simpsons.

If you’ve ever wanted thesecret recipe for Krabby Pattiesor thought about assemblingyour own Friends-inspiredMoistmaker sandwich out ofThanksgiving leftovers, bothrecipes are here.

And Marvel fans, rememberthat sandwich Simmons loving-ly sent along with Fitz on his firstreal mission during season oneof Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.? It’shere, along with a recipe forchicken paprika just like the oneVision attempts to whip up forWanda Maximoff duringCaptain America: Civil War.Even the chicken shawarmathat the Avengers refueled onafter the exhausting Battle ofNew York is included.

Whatever your TV ormovie preferences may be, Rea’sappealing voice and creativerecipes might just inspire you tostart cooking.

In describing the joyfulreaction of Aziz Ansari’s char-acter, Dev, at having made real-ly good pasta from scratch dur-

ing an episode of Master ofNone, Rea offers this

e n c o u r a g e m e nt :“This sentiment ofexcited accom-plishment is anaccessible, tangi-ble sensation thatwe can manifestfrom our favorite

pieces of fiction.All you’ve got to do

is try.”I��

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Manchester United will preparefor Sunday’s Premier Leagueclash against leaders

Liverpool without the injured PaulPogba and David De Gea, managerOle Gunnar Solskjaer said onWednesday.

Goalkeeper De Gea was forced toleave the field during Spain’s Euro2020 qualifier against Sweden onTuesday.

“David needs a scan,” Solskjaertold Sky Sports. “I think he’ll be out.It certainly looked like it anyway judg-ing on last night so it’s just one of thosethings.”

France midfielder Pogba hasmissed five of United’s last sevenmatches with an ankle injury, and afterspending part of the internationalbreak recuperating in Dubai, Solskjaersaid the 26-year-old is still not readyfor first-team action.

“Paul had an injury, he came back,he worked really hard. He came backand played a couple of games, maybeplayed through the pain barrier,”Solskjaer added.

“He had a scan after the Arsenalgame and maybe needed a few weeks’rest in a boot so hopefully he won’t betoo long, but he won’t make this game,no.”

United have recorded two wins intheir opening eight league matchesthis season and sit two points abovethe relegation zone in 12th place.

Anthony Martial, Luke Shaw andAaron Wan-Bissaka are likely toreturn from the treatment room butSolskjaer is yet to make a decision ontheir availability.

“Hopefully, Aaron and Anthonywill last the training this week and beavailable for selection,” the Norwegiancoach added.

“If it’s for half a game or 30 min-utes I don’t know but let’s see wherethey’re at.”

Liverpool have made a perfectstart to the season with 24 points fromeight matches and will look to equalManchester City’s record of 18 con-secutive top-flight victories whenthey visit Old Trafford.

REINFORCE SQUADManchester United will try to

sign one or two players in the Januarytransfer window to improve theirchances of finishing in the top fourbut will not spend big on transfer feesand wages, manager Ole GunnarSolskjaer has said.

United are 12th in the PremierLeague ahead of Sunday’s homegame against league leaders Liverpoolafter a poor start to the season thathas been further disrupted by injuriesto key players.

Solskjaer sanctioned the depar-tures of forwards Romelu Lukakuand Alexis Sanchez in the close sea-

son without reinforcing United’sattack.

“We’re looking at one or two newsignings. We’re one or two playerslight,” Solskjaer told Sky Sports. “If theright ones are available in Januarythen we might do something. If not,these players will give everything (fora top four finish).

“I’m not going to go down theroute of bringing players in on bigcontracts and big fees if they’re notthe right ones for the whole groupand for the future. The money isthere to strengthen in January and inthe summer.”

United started the season with a

4-0 win over Chelsea but have scoredfive goals in seven league matchessince and Solskjaer said an injury toforward Anthony Martial, who hasnot played since August, was a fac-tor in their struggles.

“There’s many reasons, but one ofthem is injuries to Anthony,” the 46-year-old former United player said.“Creating chances has been a chal-lenge for us with teams droppingdeep.

“But we’re practising patternsevery single week. When we get theplayers fit, I’m going to make Marcusand Anthony score those scruffygoals, as that’s what I did.”

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Swiss tennis legend Roger Federer on Thursdaysaid he will play the French Open in Paris next

year.“I will play the French Open. I probably won’t

play much before that because I need some timeaway from it (tennis) and I need some time with thefamily,” the 38-year-old told CNN.

The 20-timeGrand Slam cham-pion returned toRoland Garros thisyear after a threeyear absence,falling to RafaelNadal in the semi-finals.

Federer hasconfirmed he willcompete at nextyear’s TokyoOlympics afterWimbledon andprior to the USOpen.

But his priori-ty before theFrench Openwhich he has wononly once in 2009will be a family vacation.

“We need a vacation, we need a break, and espe-cially if I am playing the Olympics and all that,” hesaid.

In Tokyo he will be in competition for a men’ssingles Gold medal, the only major prize he has yetto win.

Earlier this week he said he had been debatingwith his team on his programme after Wimbledonand before the US Open.

“At the end of the day my heart decided to playthe Olympic Games again,” he said.

����� �>!�*2.4�*?

Chief Coach Graham Reidis impressed with Indian

hockey team’s all-roundgrowth and wants his playersto play at the highest levelwhile tackling Russia in theupcoming FIH HockeyOlympic Qualifiers.

The Indian team won theFIH Men’s Series FinalsBhubaneswar in June and fol-lowed that with victory in theTokyo Olympics test event inAugust.

The team remainedunbeaten on its recentBelgium tour, where it won allfive matches against theworld champions hosts andworld number eight Spain.

Reid said he had a lot“good takeaways” from theBelgium tour.

“Our GPS numbers weregreat, which means that therunning, effort, speed andintensity was actually evenhigher than last year’s WorldCup. So they were very goodnumbers for us to see, and forthe players to understand thatto play at that level, you needto be achieving those consis-tently,” said Reid.

“Another part was theconsistency of our perfor-mances against Belgium andSpain, and it was good to see

that we kept building momen-tum as the tour progressed.”

Reid, who took over asthe chief coach in April 2019,said while taking on Russia inthe the FIFA Qualifiers onNovember 1 and 2, his wardswill be focused on doing the

right things.“There is always the con-

cern about playing a team likeRussia and it is, that they holdthe ball very well, they like tobe in possession. Trying to getthe ball off them is always dif-ficult, so that is something weneed to keep an eye on, andmake sure that our tackling,interception, and pressingskills are at the highest level.

“We want to make surethat we are playing at our best,and there will be no compla-cency. It does not matter whowe play, we will approach thegame in the same manner,that is, in a professional andrespectful way.”

�������'���Former junior worldchampion boxer Nikhat Zareenhas written to Sports MinisterKiren Rijiju, demanding a trialbout against the celebrated M CMary Kom before India’s squadfor next year’s OlympicQualifiers is decided.

Mary Kom (51kg) claimedher eighth world medal at therecently-concluded champi-onships in Russia. She wasselected for the event ahead ofZareen, who was refused a trialby the Boxing Federation ofIndia (BFI), which decided to goby Mary Kom’s consistent per-formances while making thechoice.

The BFI now also plans tosend Mary Kom for the Olympicqualifiers on the back of herBronze-winning show at theworld championships, movingaway from the previous decision

to give direct selection only tothe Gold and Silver winners.

The qualifiers will be held inChina in February next year.

“Sir, the very basis of sportis fairplay and need to keepproving oneself each and everytime. Even Olympic Goldmedallists have to fight again toqualify to represent the country,”she wrote in the letter.

“I have been inspired byMary Kom since I was a teenag-er. The best way I can do justiceto this inspiration was to striveto be as great a boxer as her. AndMary Kom is too big a legend insport to need to hide fromcompetition and not actuallydefend her Olympic qualifica-tion,” she said.

“After all, if 23-time Gold-medallist Michael Phelps has tore-qualify every time for theOlympics, the rest of us should

do the same.”Mary Kom has maintained that

she would follow the BFI guidelines onselection trials and will compete ifasked by the federation.

The Sports Ministry is not entitledto intervene in selection matters of anynational federation unless requested bythe parent international body as anysuch unilateral move is considered aviolation of the Olympic Charter.

Zareen said even if she were to losethe trial bout, should she get one, shewould feel content about at least get-ting a chance.

“I look for no favours, just fairplay.And whether Mary Kom or any otherboxer qualifies after the trial, we canat least sleep at night knowing thatevery one of the candidate for the bestpossible opportunity to make Indiaproud at Olympics,” she said. PTI

�#��� 4/+�*

Racists must be "kicked out" of stadiums, FIFApresident Gianni Infantino said on Thursday,

as he pressed for a worldwide ban on spectatorswho abuse black footballers.

Speaking days after England's Euro 2020qualifier in Bulgaria was twice stopped becauseof chants targeting English players, Infantinoinsisted the world body would punish racism.

"If there are racists that abuse footballers, wehave to stop the game," he told a press confer-ence on a visit to Dhaka.

"We cannot let the racists win. The footballhas to continue and we have to punish the peo-ple," Infantino said during his visit.

He added it was now easy to identify the cul-prits in modern stadiums with closed circuit TVand that a "strong message" must be sent.

"They have to be taken, kicked out of the sta-dium, they must not be allowed to enter intofootball stadiums any more, and criminal pro-ceedings should be brought against them.

"It's a crime and it should be a crime in allcountries of the world to commit a racist abuse,"he said.

Infantino reaffirmed that if a country bansa spectator because of racism, "FIFA will extendit worldwide because racists have no place infootball in any country and no place in any foot-ball stadium or arena in any part of the world."

Six Bulgarians have been indicted for abuseat Monday's Bulgaria-England game whenmonkey chants and apparent Nazi salutes over-shadowed England's 6-0 win. Three more arebeing sought.

One 18-year-old was indicted on Wednesdayfor using Nazi salutes and four others have beenfined and banned from sports events for twoyears.

Infantino had already condemned the inci-

dent in a statement on Tuesday, calling racisman "obnoxious disease that seems to be gettingeven worse in some parts of the world".

He said Thursday that on top of stadiumaction better education was needed.

"We have to educate our youth, our childrenand those who are a bit older as well," he said.

Infantino also said that the 2022 World Cupin Qatar "will be the very best World Cup ever"despite new controversy over the heat and emptystadiums after the world athletics champi-onships in September saw some long distanceraces badly affected.

The FIFA boss insisted that it would be cool-er as the football tournament would be inNovember and December.

"I am sure in Qatar we will witness from atechnical point of view, the very best World Cupever." He also expressed confidence that the sta-diums would be "full".

"Football is the number one sport in theworld. We will fill the stadiums in Qatar andanywhere else in the World easily with the WorldCup."

�#��� ,�=*2

Troubled former Italianfootballing giants AC

Milan have suffered recordlosses, according to reportsin Italy.

Gazzetta Dello Sportclaimed that in the year toJune 30, 2019, losses rose by16 percent to 146 million ($162 million) euros com-pared to 126 million eurosfor the same period the pre-vious year.

Gazzetta said the figureswere far worse than the pre-dicted loss of 90 millioneuros.

US hedge fund Elliotttook over the debt-riddenseven-time European cham-pions from Chinese busi-nessman Li Yonghong in

July 2018.The club's absence from

European football has hadan impact on merchandisingand sponsors, with incomefrom sponsors slipping by6.7 million euros and ticketsales down by 1.2 millioneuros.

However, revenues fromTV rights rose from 109.3

million to 113.8 million.Milan finished fifth in

Serie A last season but sur-rendered their EuropaLeague berth after breachingUEFA's financial fair playrules.

Revenues from the saleof players in particulardropped from 42 millioneuros to 25.5 million euros.

To keep the club afloat,Elliott have injected 325 mil-lion euros in total up untilthis September, Sky SportItalia reported.

On the pitch the 18-timeSerie A champions are alsoin turmoil with MarcoGiampaolo sacked as coachafter just seven games andStefano Pioli coming in asthe club's eighth coach infive years.Milan won their

last Serie A title in 2011, andhave not played in theChampions League since the2013-2014 season.

The club are 13th placein Serie A, following a run offour defeats in seven games.

Italian media mogul andformer prime minister SilvioBerlusconi, who oversawMilan's glory years duringhis 31-year ownership, soldthe club to Li in 2017 withElliot assuming control afterthe Chinese businessmandefaulted on a loan payment.

AC Milan are currentlyworking with city rivals InterMilan on a new 1.2 billioneuro ($ 1.34 billion) stadiumproject to rebuilt the San Siroand the area surroundingstadium to the west of thecity.

LAHORE: Pakistan's top-orderbatsman Azhar Ali is likely toreplace Sarfaraz Ahmed as thenational team's skipper in thelongest format of the game whilew i c k e t k e e p e r - b a t s m a nMohammad Rizwan could serveas his deputy.

Pakistan's head coachMisbah ul Haq is unhappy withSarfaraz's performance andaccording to sources, Misbah hasmade it clear to the PCB thatSarfaraz should not continue asthe captain of the Green Brigadebut the board is unwilling to takeany chance with a new captain ona tough tour of Australia.

According to reports, themanagement is experimentingwith young players for theAustralia tour and in case theteam fails to deliver results, themanagement can give the excuseof the team going through a tran-sition phase.

����� 2.���.=>�

The seventh season of VIVO ProKabaddi League has entered its

twilight stages, with the grand finalbetween Dabang Delhi and BengalWarriors looming. Interestingly,VIVO PKL will have a new winnerwhatever be the result, with bothteams playing their first final ofIndia's top Kabaddi tournament.

The final itself is testimony tothe competitive nature of seasonseven that saw favourites stumblewhile young stars scripted newrecords. Three-time championsPatna Pirates failed to reach theplayoff stages despite another stel-lar season for Pardeep Narwalwhile pre-season favourites TamilThalaivas' poor run remindedeveryone how Kabaddi is a teamsport and not just about a group oftalented individuals.

A SEASON OF HIGHS'High-flyer' Pawan Sehrawat

was once again the standout raiderof the season and broughtBengaluru Bulls within touchingdistance of a place in the finals. Thedefending champions were heavi-ly reliant on Pawan's raiding skillsand he scored 346 points in 24match with 18 Super 10s and a stag-gering strike rate of 75%. WhileNaveen Kumar didn't exactly matchPawan Sehrawat's points, his 20consecutive Super 10s was the keyin Dabang Delhi's road to thefinals. The 20-year-old, a produceof the Future Kabaddi Heroes(FKH) programme, scored 283points in 22 matches, and will endthe season behind only PawanSehrawat and Pardeep Narwal

(302) in overall points.Ever since the dawn of the

VIVO PKL, Kabaddi as a sport hasevolved, and season seven wasonce again proof to the fast chang-ing nature, with the defenders hav-ing a bigger say in results. While UPYoddha's Nitesh Kumar couldn'tmatch his 100-point tally from lastseason, you could see a distinctchanges in approaches as the cor-ners starting tackling more eager-ly. In fact, the success of teams likeU Mumba, UP Yoddha and BengalWarriors was down to effective cor-ners. U Mumba's 'Sultan' FazelAtrachali topped the chart with 82tackle points. UP's duo of Sumit andNitesh Kumar scored 77 and 75respectively while Sandeep Dhullclinched 73 despite playing for aJaipur Pink Panthers side thatfailed to qualify for the playoffs.

A FINAL ON MERITThe League stage's top two

teams — Dabang Delhi and BengalWarriors — will fight it out for thecoveted trophy tomorrow. Bothteams have shown remarkably con-sistency throughout the seasonand deserve a shot at the title fortheir all-round performances. TheBengal corner combination ofBaldev Singh and Rinku Narwalwill be keen to stop Naveen 'Express'Kumar from reaching anotherSuper 10 while at the other end theexperienced duo of Ravinder Pahaland Joginder Narwal will look tothwart the Bengal raiders. TheWarriors haven't been beaten byDelhi this season but it remains tobe seen if their talisman ManinderSingh will be fit enough to startagainst Dabang.

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West Indian batting great Brian Lara on Thursday praisedthe current Indian pace attack, which reminded him of

the deadly West Indian attacks of yore.The Indian pace trio of Jasprit Bumrah, Ishant Sharma and

Mohammed Shami, in 2018, picked the record 142 wicketsamong them in Test matches.

Asked what makes Indian team special, Lara said: “It’s theIndian pace attack. Unbelievable. I saw them in the West Indies.When you look at the quality —(Jasprit) Bumrah, (Mohammed)Shami, (Umesh) Yadav — all these guys, and the guys on thesidelines, like Bhuvi (Bhuvneshwar Kumar) are unbelievable.”

“It reminds me a little bit of the (pace bowling) strengththat the West Indies had in the 80s and 90s. The reserve strengthis very important in assessing a team’s ability. It means that yourattack has quality,” Lara added.

Lara, who had scored 11,953 Test runs, was also lavish inhis praise for Virat Kohli, whom he termed the ‘UltimateCaptain’.

“He’s (Kohli) the ultimate captain. In terms of his perfor-mances, he leads by example. And I mean that in all facets ofthe game, and off the field too. He is came off very well in thebackground of MS Dhoni, who laid the foundation, and didthings in a different way.

“So, I think Indian cricket, as we all know, is headed in theright direction. It’s influenced by some of the best people, andis reaping the benefits of it,” Lara told reporters here.

Lara also seemed happy that a player of Rohit Sharma’s cal-ibre is set to play regularly across formats.

“I think that Rohit is an awesome player in all formats ofthe game. Obviously, in the limited overs game, he’s been verysuccessful. I don’t see any reason why he should not be in Testcricket. It seems that he has the passion to play and wants toprove himself on that stage (Test cricket) as well.

“To exclude a player like that (from the Test team) will bevery difficult, with the talent that I see. So, hopefully, he willbe successful. He is a gifted batsman,” said Lara.

Lara, who holds the record for highest individual run scor-er in Tests, also welcomed the ICC move of Test Championship,saying it has provided contest to the game.

“I think (World Test Championship should have startedearlier). In terms of Test Championship, where there is an end,it culminates into a team becoming Championship, that is some-thing that should have happened a long time ago and happyto see it now. Even if you play against theminnows—Afghanistan, Bangladesh — it means something.

�#��� 4D�2.D�

All-rounder MitchellMarsh is set to miss

the opening Test againstPakistan after fracturinghis right hand punchinga wall, with Australiancoach Justin Langerbranding him “an idiot”.

The WesternAustralia captain took hisfrustrations out in thechanging rooms after hewas dismissed for 53 in aSheffield Shield matchagainst Tasmania onSunday.

Scans revealed a frac-ture, and an apologeticMarsh said he faced up tosix weeks on the sidelines.

That would almostcertainly rule him out ofthe opening Test againstPakistan in Brisbane start-ing on November 21.

“It’s my middle finger,just below the wrist — afracture straight through

the bone,” Marsh, whowas sporting a cast on hisarm, told reporters.

Marsh had only beenrecalled to the Test sidefor the final game of theAshes against Englandlast month after a longperiod out of favour andthere are no guarantees hewill win a spot back.

“It’s a good lesson for

me. Hopefully it’s a goodlesson for other people aswell,” added Marsh,whose blunder couldopen the door for MarcusStoinis in Brisbane.

“At the end of the day,it’s a game of cricket.Sometimes you get beat-en, sometimes you getout, and you can’t bepunching walls.”

����� /�.24.�

India’s campaign at the $ 775,000 Denmark Opencame to a disappointing end with the trioka of PV

Sindhu, B Sai Praneeth and Sameer Verma — all-exit-ing after suffering straight-game losses, here onThursday.

World Champion Sindhu, seeded fifth, yet againstruggled to buck the trend of recent early exits asshe was knocked out after she lost 14-21, 17-21 toKorea,s An Se Young in a 40-minute second-roundwomen,s singles clash at the BWF World Tour Super750 event.

It turned out to be a dismal day for Indian shut-tlers in general as B Sai Praneeth, Sameer Verma, andmen's doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy andChirag Shetty also went down in straight games intheir second rounds.

While Praneeth was outclassed by two-timeWorld Champion Kento Momota of Japan 6-21, 14-21 in yet another dominating show, Sameer lost 12-21, 10-21 to Olympic champion Chen Long of China.

Thailand Open champions Satwik and Chiragalso suffered a 16-21 15-21 defeat against sixth seedChinese combination of Han Cheng Kai and ZhouHao Dong in men's doubles.

Later in the day, Pranaav Chopra and N SikkiReddy put up a gallant fight before going down 24-26 21-13 11-21 to fourth seeded Malaysian pair ofChan Peng Soon and Goh Liu Ying in the mixed dou-bles competition.

���������� *2(�.?�

Stan Wawrinka was made towork hard at the European

Open on Wednesday as theSwiss veteran outlastedFeliciano Lopez 6-7(4) 6-4 7-6(4) to reach the quarter-finalsin Antwerp.

The 34-year-oldWawrinka, seeking his firstATP trophy since he lifted thetitle in Geneva two years ago,served 17 aces — one lessthan Lopez — and convertedone out of four break-pointopportunities to edge the tightmatch.

Up next for the worldnumber 18 is unseeded GillesSimon, who powered past hisFrench compatriot Jo-WilfriedTsonga 6-4, 7-5.

Wawrinka has beatenSimon four times in sevenmeetings but the Frenchmanprevailed in straight sets thelast time they played eachother on the hardcourts ofShanghai in 2016.

Argentina,s Guido Pellajoined the duo in the last eightafter beating South Korea,sKwon Soon-woo 7-5, 7-5 to setup a clash with Ugo Humbertor second seed David Goffin.

In first-round action, PabloCuevas beat Hugo Dellien 6-4,6-3 and will take on BritonAndy Murray next. AmericanFrances Tiafoe overcameGermany's Yannick Maden 7-6(7), 6-3.

����� �>*6*�

Left-arm spinner ArafatSunny and pacer Al-

Amin Hossain were recalledas Bangladesh on Thursdayannounced a 15-membersquad for next month’sthree-game T20I seriesagainst India.

Opener Tamim Iqbalalso made a comeback aftera break during which hemissed the tri-series athome involving Afghanistanand Zimbabwe.

Both Sunny andHossain have been out ofcontention for a long timehaving played their last T20Iin 2016.

The 33-year-old Sunny,who has taken 12 wickets in10 T20Is, was suspendedduring the 2016 ICC WorldTwenty20 for an illegalbowling action. He had alsospent two months in jailafter being arrested in 2017for his involvement in afamily dispute.

The 29-year-oldHossain also last featured inthe 2016 ICC WorldTwenty20.

“We have recalledSunny because we needsomeone experienced forIndia, which is a toughcountry. Al-Amin comes

into the squad as some ofour other fast bowlers areinjured,” said chief selectorMinhajul Abedin.

The selectors alsodecided to drop SabbirRahman, Nazmul HossainShanto, Rubel Hossain andTaijul Islam from the teamof the last T20 Bangladeshplayed during the tri-nationseries at home.

The T20I series willbegin with the first matchon November 3 at ArunJaitely stadium in NewDelhi. The next two gamesare at Rajkot and Nagpur onNovember 7 and 10 respec-tively.

Squad: Shakib Al Hasan(C), Tamim Iqbal, LitonDas, Soumya Sarkar, NaimSheikh, Mushfiqur Rahhim,Mahmudullah Riyad, AfifHossain, MusaddekHossain, Aminul IslamBiplob, Arafat Sunny,Mohammad Saifuddin, Al-Amin Hossain, MustafizurRahman, Shafiul Islam.

����� 2.���.=>�

Three-time Olympic medallistCarmelita Jeter is impressed with

India’s Dutee Chand and said a reput-ed coach can guide the country’s talent-ed sprinters reach the highest level infuture.

“I have seen Dutee Chand competeat the Olympic Games. She has donesome remarkable things. I hope moreyoung ladies will step up and representthe country,” said Jeter, who is the inter-national event ambassador at the 15thedition of the Airtel Delhi HalfMarathon.

“I feel that all sprinters need goodcoaches. If a big name coaches Indianathletes, then you will certainly see a riseof Indian sprinters in the future,” saidJeter.

The fastest woman alive, Jeter isdelighted to see over 40,000 participantsready to give it their all at the HalfMarathon, which is an IAAF Gold LabelRoad Race, on Sunday.

A world record holder, Jeter hadfinished with a winning time of 10.64seconds at the Shanghai Golden GrandPrix in 2009, giving her a spot in his-tory as the second-fastest woman ever

in the 100 meters.Carmelita Jeter was a part of the his-

toric 4x100m USA team which set theworld record at the 2012 Olympics. TheAmerican said that sharing a medalwith three other women was even morespecial than an individual medal.

“It was a moment for the USAteam. It was a special team out there.People think that four of the fastest run-ners form a good 4x100m group, but no,a team has to have four people who trusteach other and have chemistry. It wasgreat to share a Gold medal with a team.Winning a medal with three otherwomen was even more special,” she said.

����� ?*2->��

South Africa opener Dean Elgarsays he got “stretched” as acricketer and learned a lot

more about himself during what hasbeen a humbling India tour, part ofwhich included visiting “smallerplaces and staying in hotels” not thatgood.

After managing a 1-1 draw inthe T20 series, South Africa sufferedbig defeats in the first Two Tests ofthe three-match rubber against adominant outfit led by Virat Kohli.

“It’s a challenging tour. You getstretched as a person, you getstretched as a cricketer, I think youget to know yourself quite a lot as aperson when you come to thesmaller places where the hotels aremaybe not as good, and you get chal-lenged on the field,” Elgar said.

“It’s always a good learningcurve coming to India.”

The introduction of the WorldTest Championship means SouthAfrica still have “quite a lot to playfor” in the third Test despite conced-ing the series, Elgar said.

“Back in the day it was alwaysa bit of a dead rubber game but nowwith the World Test Championshipsaround, we still have points to playfor,” Elgar said.

“We can still get 40 points by fol-

lowing our process against India inthe last Test. That’s something wecan’t neglect going into this game.There is still a lot to play for,” headded. Elgar, who became the firstSouth African batsman to score a

hundred in India after nine yearsduring the opening Test, said theProteas batsmen will have to go backto the basics to tackle the Indianbowlers in the final game.

“It’s no secret that it’s been a bit

of a challenge for all of us. We haven’tplayed our greatest cricket, consis-tent cricket. But we are trying to bepositive. The senior players are try-ing to keep the guys motivated. Weare still representing our country

which is an immensely proudmoment for every player.

“We still motivate everyonewithin our squad. It has been a chal-lenging few weeks but it’s still not toogloomy for us. We are upbeat, the

morale in the camp is still very good.“We still have one game and we

can actually change quite a lot. Weare still pretty hopeful and prettypositive going into the last Test,” heasserted.

���'��� Having already lost thethree-match series, South Africaskipper Faf du Plessis has called onhis players to come out with animproved performance, especiallywith the bat when they face India inthe final Test beginning Saturday inRanchi.

The Proteas have not been ableto make use of their first innings —barring the Vizag Test where theymanaged to score 431 in reply toIndia’s 502. India, on the other hand,have dominated by getting big runsin their first innings. In the first Test,

the hosts scored 502 runs while theyput on 601 runs in Pune.

And, du Plessis wants his batsmento learn from the Indian batters andmake most of their first innings in thefinal Test.

“We need to put big runs on theboard in the first innings,” said duPlessis while addressing a press confer-ence on Thursday.

“When you get runs in the firstinnings anything from there is possi-ble. For us first innings runs will be vitaland then anything could happen in thesecond innings,” he added. IANS

����� ?*2->�

Skipper Virat Kohli and opener RohitSharma skipped the optional practice

session but spinner Kuldeep Yadav lookedto hone his batting skills ahead of India’sthird and final Test against South Africahere on Thursday.

Kuldeep, who sat out of the first twoTests, made full use of the net session dis-playing some elegant cover drives in theirafternoon practice which was also attend-ed by Ajinkya Rahane, Cheteshwar Pujara,Mayank Agarwal and Ishant Sharmaamong others.

Earlier chief coach Ravi Shastri andbowling coach Bharat Arun had a close lookat the pitch which wore a dry look, indi-cating that it would have something for thespinners.

Spin duo of Ravichandran Ashwin andRavindra Jadeja have been the key bowlersfor India, bagging 14 and 10 wickets eachand Kuldeep’s inclusion will only be at thecost of a pacer.

The pacers too have made crucial con-tributions with Mohammed Shami claim-ing eight wickets at a strike rate of 41 andUmesh snapping six wickets at an even bet-ter strike rate of 21 and it remains to be seenif Kohli tinkers with his winning combina-tion.

The Proteas trained in the morning ses-sion with focus on their batsmen.

South Africa’s training was attended byskipper Du Plessis, Temba Bavuma,Theunis de Bruyn, Quniton de Kock,Senuran Muthuswamy as they faced the netbowlers.

Vernon Philander was seen among thebowlers but the new-ball bowler wasmostly seen honing his batting skills.

����� ?*2->��

A“frustrated” South Africanbatsman Aiden Markram

was on Thursday ruled out ofthe third and final Test againstIndia, having sustained a wristinjury after punching a solidobject.

As per Cricket SouthAfrica’s media release, “Theinjury took place following theopener’s dismissal in the secondinnings of the match. In amoment of frustration with hisown performance, he lashedout at a solid object, resulting in

his injury.”Markram has had a mixed

tour of India. While he scoredtwo hundreds in the practicegames, he couldn’t carry forwardhis form into the Test series.After scoring 5 and 39 in thefirst Test, he was dismissed fora pair in the second.

He left for South Africa on

Thursday morning. The teammanagement hasn’t called upany replacement.

A disappointed Markramadmitted he has let his teamdown and said, “It’s sad to begoing home on this note and Icompletely understand whatI’ve done wrong and take fullaccountability for it.”

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