16
E ven as the striking junior doctors defied Mamata Banerjee for the second time on Saturday turning down her offer for talks, the Bengal Chief Minister swore by her “patience” saying like the other State Governments she had all the legal means to invoke the coercive Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA) but had thus far desisted from tak- ing the extreme step on humanitarian grounds. “The Government is show- ing patience, sympathy for the doctors but now it is time for them to act and resume duty. We have conceded to all the demands that the doctors had made,” she said, wondering why the doctors refused to meet her at the State Secretariat. In Kolkata, a representative of the striking doctors said, “This is an issue relating to thousands of doctors who are being attacked every day. The Government is calling a few of them to hold closed-door meeting. We are not ready to accept that. We want the CM to come here at the NRS Hospital and see for herself the condi- tion we work in and give assur- ances in public to rectify them.” “We are eagerly waiting to start our duty, but from the Chief Minister’s side there is no such honest initiative to find a solution (of the ongoing prob- lem),” a spokesperson of the joint forum of junior doctors told reporters. Meanwhile, after giving a 48-hour ultimatum to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, doctors of Delhi’s AIIMS said they have resumed work for now but they will go on an indefinite strike if no action is taken against the attack on the doctor in Kolkata. “We condemn the hostile and unapologetic attitude of the Government of West Bengal. Our protest at AIIMS, New Delhi continues until justice is meted out,” they said. In what the striking doc- tors of NRS Medical College and Hospital saw a “veiled threat”, the Chief Minister said, “Though we have Supreme Court verdict in our favour and though we have previous instances of other State Governments invoking the ESMA, we have desisted from taking such strong actions as we do not want to take any coercive actions on the young boys and girls who are like our own children.” Mamata’s renewed appeal to doctors to resume duty came close on the heels of a let- ter from West Bengal Governor KN Tripathi, who directed the Government to take adequate security measures for the doc- tors and restore normalcy in the health sector. Referring to the earlier instances of ESMA being invoked, Mamata said, “In 2008/2009 the Narendra Modi Government of Gujarat had enforced ESMA and even arrested 150 doctors while in 2015 the AAP Government of Delhi too invoked the same Act. Again the BJP Governments of Rajasthan and Haryana implemented ESMA and the Government of Jammu & Kashmir too did the same thing. But here our Government is taking a soft approach towards the young doctors who have bright future ahead of them.” She said, “We believe in humanism and expect the doc- tors to do the same. They are into a noble profession,” and reminded, “despite they heck- led and abused me at the SSKM Hospital where I had gone to see whether the Emergency was functioning or not I did not take any action. Any other person in my place would have taken strong action as they did in the other States earlier.” The doctors’ campaign ear- lier spread like wildfire after on-duty junior doctors of NRS Medical College were on Monday night brutally beaten up by hooligans following the death of a patient. Even as the NRSCH doc- tors struck work demanding adequate security measures and arrest of all the 200 people who had attacked the hospital, the protest spread and their col- leagues from other hospitals and medical colleges struck work. A gainst the backdrop of the ongoing debate over India’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rate and unem- ployment besides his Government’s aim to make India a five-trillion economy, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday asked the States to pitch in with their contribution by recognising their respective core competence and working towards raising the GDP targets and per capita incomes. In his opening remarks at the fifth meeting of the Governing Council of NITI Aayog, the Prime Minister said, “The goal to make India a five-trillion-dollar economy by 2024 is challenging but can surely be achieved. The States should recognise their core competence and work towards raising GDP targets right from the district level.” The Modi Government has faced criti- cism over rising joblessness and slow GDP growth rate. According to the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI), unemployment in the country is at a four-decade-high while the Government’s former Chief Economic Adviser, Arvind Subramanian, recently brought the focus back on the GDP growth rate saying between 2011-12 and 2016-17 it was over-estimated by 2.5 per cent (should have been about 4.5 per cent instead of the official estimate of close to 7 per cent). The Centre has denied it and said it will come up with a point-by-point rebuttal. While Modi spoke of a col- lective fight against poverty, unemployment, drought, flood, pollution, corruption and vio- lence, he stressed that NITI Aayog has a key role to play in fulfilling the mantra of “Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas, SabkaVishwas”. After winning the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, Modi has given a new slogan “Sabka Vishwas” to win the trust of the minorities. With several parts of the country facing drought-like situation, Modi called for effec- tive steps to tackle it by adopt- ing “per-drop, more-crop” strategy. He said attention has to be given to water conserva- tion and raising the ground- water table. Turn to Page 2 T he Centre on Saturday sought a report “urgently” from the West Bengal Government on the ongoing strike by the doctors even as it wrote to all State Governments to consider enacting a specific legislation for protecting the medical professionals from any form of violence. The Centre also asked all the States to take strict action against any person who assaults doctors. In its advisory to the West Bengal Government, the MHA said it has received a number of representations from doc- tors, healthcare professionals and medical associations from different parts of the country for their security in view of the ongoing strike by doctors. “It is requested that a detailed report be sent urgently on the repre- sentations and ongoing strike by the doctors,” it said. For his part Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan wrote to all the Chief Ministers regarding the law to protect the medicos and the need to take strict action against any person who assaults doctors. Along with his letter, Harsh Vardhan attached a copy of the Draft Act provided by IMA — the Protection of Medical Service Persons and Medical Service Institutions (Prevention of Violence and Damage or Loss of Property) Act, 2017. Turn to Page 2 T he Centre on Saturday sought a report from the Mamata Banerjee dispensa- tion on the measures it took in light of the “unabated” and “increasing” incidents of polit- ical violence and resultant deaths since 2016 in the State. The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) said according to reports it received, the num- ber of incidents of political vio- lence in West Bengal increased from 509 in 2016 to 1,035 in 2018. While as many as 773 incidents have already occurred in 2019 till date, cor- respondingly, the death toll has risen from 36 in 2016 to 96 in 2018. In 2019, 26 deaths have been reported, it stated. The MHA said the con- tinued trend of political vio- lence from 2016 through 2019 is indicative of the “failure” on the part of the law-enforce- ment machinery of the State in maintaining the rule of law and inspiring a sense of security among the people. The “unabated violence over the years is evidently a matter of deep concern”, the Centre said, pointing out the growing number of election- related and political violence. “It is requested that a report may be sent to this Ministry on the steps taken by the State Government and its law enforcement machinery to investigate the incidents of violence to bring the culprits to book as also the measures taken to contain and curb vio- lence,” the MHA’s advisory to the Trinamool Congress Government said. While violence marred the recently-concluded Lok Sabha elections in the State, in the post-poll scenario too the TMC and the BJP, which has emerged as the principal chal- lenger to the ruling party, have been at serious loggerheads with both sides accusing each other of unleashing violence against each other’s workers. West Bengal Governor Kesharinath Tripathy recently met Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, apparently to brief them about the current situation in the State. A fter skipping Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s swearing in ceremony, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and her Telangana counterpart K Chandrashekhar Rao on Saturday gave a miss to the fifth meeting of the Governing Council of Niti Aayog chaired by the PM. Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh could not attend the meeting due to health reasons, sources said, adding the State was repre- sented by its Finance Minister. Mamata, KCR, and Amarinder had skipped Modi’s swearing- in ceremony on May 23. In a letter to Modi, the Mamata had expressed her inability to attend the Niti Aayog meeting on June 15, say- ing it is “fruitless” as the body has no financial powers to support State plans. Sources said the Telangana CM is busy with preparations for the launch of his ambitious 80,000-crore Kaleshwaram lift irrigation project that would end water woes in the State. Turn to Page 2

€¦ · Mamata Banerjee dispensa-tion on the measures it took in light of the “unabated” and “increasing” incidents of polit-ical violence and resultant deaths since 2016

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Page 1: €¦ · Mamata Banerjee dispensa-tion on the measures it took in light of the “unabated” and “increasing” incidents of polit-ical violence and resultant deaths since 2016

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Even as the striking juniordoctors defied Mamata

Banerjee for the second time onSaturday turning down heroffer for talks, the Bengal ChiefMinister swore by her“patience” saying like the otherState Governments she had allthe legal means to invoke thecoercive Essential ServicesMaintenance Act (ESMA) buthad thus far desisted from tak-ing the extreme step onhumanitarian grounds.

“The Government is show-ing patience, sympathy for thedoctors but now it is time forthem to act and resume duty.We have conceded to all thedemands that the doctors hadmade,” she said, wonderingwhy the doctors refused tomeet her at the StateSecretariat.

In Kolkata, a representativeof the striking doctors said,“This is an issue relating tothousands of doctors who arebeing attacked every day. TheGovernment is calling a few ofthem to hold closed-doormeeting. We are not ready toaccept that. We want the CM tocome here at the NRS Hospitaland see for herself the condi-tion we work in and give assur-ances in public to rectify them.”

“We are eagerly waiting tostart our duty, but from theChief Minister’s side there is nosuch honest initiative to find asolution (of the ongoing prob-lem),” a spokesperson of thejoint forum of junior doctorstold reporters.

Meanwhile, after giving a48-hour ultimatum to WestBengal Chief Minister MamataBanerjee, doctors of Delhi’sAIIMS said they have resumedwork for now but they will goon an indefinite strike if noaction is taken against theattack on the doctor in Kolkata.“We condemn the hostile andunapologetic attitude of theGovernment of West Bengal.Our protest at AIIMS, NewDelhi continues until justice ismeted out,” they said.

In what the striking doc-tors of NRS Medical Collegeand Hospital saw a “veiledthreat”, the Chief Minister said,“Though we have SupremeCourt verdict in our favour andthough we have previousinstances of other StateGovernments invoking theESMA, we have desisted fromtaking such strong actions aswe do not want to take anycoercive actions on the youngboys and girls who are like our

own children.” Mamata’s renewed appeal

to doctors to resume dutycame close on the heels of a let-ter from West Bengal GovernorKN Tripathi, who directed theGovernment to take adequatesecurity measures for the doc-tors and restore normalcy inthe health sector.

Referring to the earlierinstances of ESMA beinginvoked, Mamata said, “In2008/2009 the Narendra ModiGovernment of Gujarat hadenforced ESMA and evenarrested 150 doctors while in2015 the AAP Government ofDelhi too invoked the same

Act. Again the BJPGovernments of Rajasthan andHaryana implemented ESMAand the Government of Jammu& Kashmir too did the samething. But here ourGovernment is taking a softapproach towards the youngdoctors who have bright futureahead of them.”

She said, “We believe inhumanism and expect the doc-tors to do the same. They areinto a noble profession,” andreminded, “despite they heck-led and abused me at the SSKMHospital where I had gone tosee whether the Emergencywas functioning or not I did

not take any action. Any otherperson in my place would havetaken strong action as they didin the other States earlier.”

The doctors’ campaign ear-lier spread like wildfire afteron-duty junior doctors of NRSMedical College were onMonday night brutally beatenup by hooligans following thedeath of a patient.

Even as the NRSCH doc-tors struck work demandingadequate security measuresand arrest of all the 200 peoplewho had attacked the hospital,the protest spread and their col-leagues from other hospitalsand medical colleges struckwork.

����� 1*#�9*0:'

Against the backdrop of theongoing debate over India’s

Gross Domestic Product(GDP) growth rate and unem-ployment besides hisGovernment’s aim to makeIndia a five-trillion economy,Prime Minister Narendra Modion Saturday asked the States topitch in with their contributionby recognising their respectivecore competence and workingtowards raising the GDP targetsand per capita incomes.

In his opening remarks atthe fifth meeting of theGoverning Council of NITIAayog, the Prime Ministersaid, “The goal to make Indiaa five-trillion-dollar economyby 2024 is challenging but cansurely be achieved. The Statesshould recognise their corecompetence and work towardsraising GDP targets right fromthe district level.” The ModiGovernment has faced criti-cism over rising joblessness andslow GDP growth rate.

According to the Ministryof Statistics and ProgrammeImplementation (MoSPI),unemployment in the countryis at a four-decade-high while

the Government’s former ChiefEconomic Adviser, ArvindSubramanian, recently broughtthe focus back on the GDPgrowth rate saying between2011-12 and 2016-17 it wasover-estimated by 2.5 per cent(should have been about 4.5per cent instead of the officialestimate of close to 7 per cent).The Centre has denied it andsaid it will come up with apoint-by-point rebuttal.

While Modi spoke of a col-lective fight against poverty,unemployment, drought, flood,pollution, corruption and vio-lence, he stressed that NITIAayog has a key role to play infulfilling the mantra of “SabkaSaath, Sabka Vikas,SabkaVishwas”. After winningthe 2019 Lok Sabha polls, Modihas given a new slogan “SabkaVishwas” to win the trust of theminorities.

With several parts of thecountry facing drought-likesituation, Modi called for effec-tive steps to tackle it by adopt-ing “per-drop, more-crop”strategy. He said attention hasto be given to water conserva-tion and raising the ground-water table.

Turn to Page 2

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

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The Centre on Saturdaysought a report “urgently”

from the West BengalGovernment on the ongoingstrike by the doctors even as itwrote to all State Governmentsto consider enacting a specificlegislation for protecting themedical professionals from anyform of violence. The Centre

also asked all the States to takestrict action against any personwho assaults doctors.

In its advisory to the WestBengal Government, the MHAsaid it has received a numberof representations from doc-tors, healthcare professionalsand medical associations fromdifferent parts of the countryfor their security in view of theongoing strike by doctors. “It isrequested that a detailed reportbe sent urgently on the repre-sentations and ongoing strikeby the doctors,” it said.

For his part Union HealthMinister Harsh Vardhan wroteto all the Chief Ministersregarding the law to protect themedicos and the need to takestrict action against any personwho assaults doctors.

Along with his letter, HarshVardhan attached a copy of theDraft Act provided by IMA —the Protection of MedicalService Persons and MedicalService Institutions (Preventionof Violence and Damage orLoss of Property) Act, 2017.

Turn to Page 2

����� 1*#�9*0:'

The Centre on Saturdaysought a report from the

Mamata Banerjee dispensa-tion on the measures it took inlight of the “unabated” and“increasing” incidents of polit-ical violence and resultantdeaths since 2016 in the State.

The Ministry of HomeAffairs (MHA) said accordingto reports it received, the num-ber of incidents of political vio-lence in West Bengal increasedfrom 509 in 2016 to 1,035 in2018. While as many as 773incidents have alreadyoccurred in 2019 till date, cor-respondingly, the death toll hasrisen from 36 in 2016 to 96 in2018. In 2019, 26 deaths havebeen reported, it stated.

The MHA said the con-tinued trend of political vio-lence from 2016 through 2019is indicative of the “failure” onthe part of the law-enforce-ment machinery of the State inmaintaining the rule of law andinspiring a sense of securityamong the people.

The “unabated violenceover the years is evidently a

matter of deep concern”, theCentre said, pointing out thegrowing number of election-related and political violence.

“It is requested that areport may be sent to thisMinistry on the steps taken bythe State Government and itslaw enforcement machinery toinvestigate the incidents ofviolence to bring the culprits tobook as also the measurestaken to contain and curb vio-lence,” the MHA’s advisory tothe Trinamool CongressGovernment said.

While violence marred therecently-concluded Lok Sabhaelections in the State, in thepost-poll scenario too theTMC and the BJP, which hasemerged as the principal chal-lenger to the ruling party, havebeen at serious loggerheadswith both sides accusing eachother of unleashing violenceagainst each other’s workers.

West Bengal GovernorKesharinath Tripathy recentlymet Union Home MinisterAmit Shah and Prime MinisterNarendra Modi, apparently tobrief them about the currentsituation in the State.

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)�(�����������������������*����(��������������������

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After skipping PrimeMinister Narendra Modi’s

swearing in ceremony, WestBengal Chief Minister MamataBanerjee and her Telanganacounterpart K ChandrashekharRao on Saturday gave a miss tothe fifth meeting of theGoverning Council of NitiAayog chaired by the PM.

Punjab Chief MinisterAmarinder Singh could notattend the meeting due tohealth reasons, sources said,adding the State was repre-sented by its Finance Minister.Mamata, KCR, and Amarinderhad skipped Modi’s swearing-in ceremony on May 23.

In a letter to Modi, theMamata had expressed herinability to attend the Niti

Aayog meeting on June 15, say-ing it is “fruitless” as the bodyhas no financial powers tosupport State plans.

Sources said the TelanganaCM is busy with preparationsfor the launch of his ambitious �80,000-croreKaleshwaram lift irrigationproject that would end waterwoes in the State.

Turn to Page 2

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Page 2: €¦ · Mamata Banerjee dispensa-tion on the measures it took in light of the “unabated” and “increasing” incidents of polit-ical violence and resultant deaths since 2016

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More Central assistance todeal with farm sector dis-

tress and natural calamities,and compensation against lossof revenue on account of GSTimplementation beyond thefive-year period were amongthe key demands raised by thestates during the fifthGoverning Council meetingof Niti Aayog here on Saturday.

At the meeting, AndhraPradesh Chief Minister YSJaganmohan Reddy made astrong pitch to grant specialcategory status to the debt-rid-den state and urged PrimeMinister Narendra Modi to be“gracious” in fulfilling thepromise made in Parliamentand also in the BJP’s 2014 pollmanifesto.

Uttar Pradesh ChiefMinister Yogi Adityanath urgedthe Niti Aayog to rework theeligibility criteria for droughtcompensation in affected areasand reduce the crop damagelimit from 33% to 20%.

Adityanath said that theCRPF companies deployed inNaxal-hit Chandauli andSonbhadra districts of the stateshould not be withdrawn andthe Union Home Ministryshould take back its order as

the central forces were requiredto keep a check on Naxal activ-ities. He also suggested that theloan facility under the KisanCredit Card Scheme should bebased on the crop, instead ofland area.

From Page 1Vardhan also cited a letter

dated July 7, 2017 sent by theUnion Health Ministry to allChief Secretaries of Stateswhich contains the decisiontaken by an Inter-MinisterialCommittee constituted by theMinistry to review the issuesraised by IMA.

The move comes after theIndian Medical Association(IMA) launched a four-daynationwide protest from Fridayand wrote to Union Home Minister Amit Shahdemanding enactment of aCentral law to check violenceagainst healthcare workers inhospitals.

The apex doctors’ bodyhas called for a nationwidestrike on June 17 with with-drawal of non-essential healthservices. Representatives from

the IMA and the Delhi MedicalA s s o c i a t i o n(DMA) called on Vardhan onSaturday.

“Resident doctors in manyparts of the country are agitat-ing and not providing health-care services. Agitations bydoctors in West Bengal seem tobe getting aggravated and tak-ing shape of strike by bothGovernment and private sectordoctors, all over the country,”he said in his letter.

Stressing further on theneed for avoiding such inci-dents in future, Vardhan saidthat law enforcement shouldprevail so that doctors andclinical establishments dis-charge their duties and profes-sional pursuit without fear ofany violence. “Strict actionagainst any person who assaultsthem, must be ensured by the

law enforcement agencies,” heemphasised.

The inter-Ministerial com-mittee, in its report, had rec-ommended that the HealthMinistry shall suggest to allState Governments which donot have specific legislation to protect doctorsand health professionals, toconsider one to strictly enforcethe provisions of special legis-lation wherever they exist orenforce the IPC/CrPC provi-sions with vigour.

“The IMA has raised thisconcern many a times. Since‘police’ and ‘public order’ areState subjects, the Governmentof India, on many occasions hasdrawn attention of StateGovernments for an urgentneed for a robust criminal jus-tice system with emphasis onprevention and control of

crime,” Vardhan said. The draft of the Protection

of Medical Service Personsand Medical ServiceInstitutions (Prevention ofViolence and Damage or Lossof Property) Act, 2017, circu-lated to the States, includesclauses on penalty and recov-ery in case of loss/damage toproperty.

“Our doctors rank amongthe best in the world and workfor long hours under stressfulconditions, grappling with ahuge load of patients. It is theduty of State to ensure safetyand security of doctors whoassure that the healthcare needsof the society are met,” hehighlighted.

Vardhan had on Fridaywritten to West Bengal ChiefMinister Mamata Banerjee tooon this matter.

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From Page 1The project is scheduled to

be inaugurated on June 21. TheTelangana Chief Ministerplanned to meet Modi andextend an invitation to theinauguration but is yet to get anappointment from the PrimeMinister. The TelanganaGovernment has not sent anyrepresentative to the meeting.

The meeting is beingattended all other ChiefMinisters, administrators ofUnion Territories and theGovernor of Jammu &Kashmir.

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From Page 1He said that the newly cre-

ated Jal Shakti Ministry willhelp provide an integratedapproach to water and Statescan also integrate variousefforts towards water conser-vation and management.

Modi has written a per-sonal letter to ‘Gram Pradhans’(village chiefs) requesting themto conserve rainwater duringthe forthcoming monsoon tohandle water crisis in ruralareas. The letters, signed by thePM, have been delivered to thepradhans through respectiveDistrict Magistrates andCollectors in the districts.

At present, 42 per centareas in the country are facingdrought situation. The PM hasalso suggested construction ofcheck dams and ponds whereproper harvesting of rainwatercan be done. Water crisis is oneof the main agendas of themeeting as it comes on the backof NITI Aayog’s warning that21 cities of India, includingBangalore and national capitalDelhi, will run out of ground

water by 2020.Against the backdrop of

intensifying international tradewar, Modi said India’s fallingexports needed attention. Heasked the States, especially theNorth-Eastern one, to tap theiruntapped potential. He notedthat the export sector was animportant element in theprogress of developing coun-tries and that the Centre andthe States should work towardsgrowth in exports, in order toraise per capita incomes.

Reiterating hisGovernment’s commitment todouble incomes of farmers by2022, PM Modi said thisrequires focus on fisheries,animal husbandry, horticul-ture, fruits and vegetables. Hesaid that the benefits of PM-KISAN - Kisan Samman Nidhi- and other farmer centricschemes should reach theintended beneficiaries wellwithin time.

Turning to aspirational dis-tricts, the Prime Minister saidthat the focus should be ongood governance. He said that

many aspirational districts areaffected by Naxal violence,which is now in a decisivephase.

On the health sector, thePrime Minister said that severaltargets have to be kept in mind,to be achieved by 2022. He alsomentioned the target of elimi-nating TB by 2025. The PrimeMinister urged those Stateswho have not implementedPMJAY under Ayushman Bharat, so far, tocome onboard this scheme atthe earliest.

Recalling the recent generalelections as the world’s largestdemocratic exercise, the PrimeMinister said that it is now timefor everyone to work for thedevelopment of India.

Describing SwachchhBharat Abhiyan and PradhanMantri Awaas Yojana as illus-trations of what the Centre andthe States can accomplishtogether, the Prime Ministerurged the States to focus on col-lective responsibility for achiev-ing short-term and long-termgoals.

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Odisha Chief MinisterNaveen Patnaik raised the

Special Category Status issuebefore the Niti Aayog onSaturday, four days after push-ing for the ‘Special Focus State’status for the state in view of itsvulnerability to natural calami-ties. Attending the fifth meet-ing of the Governing Councilof the NITI Aayog chaired bythe Prime Minister NarendraModi in New Delhi, Patnaikdemanded that natural calami-ty be included as a criterion foraccording Special CategoryStatus to Odisha.

“As an interim measure,states hit by major naturalcalamities may be declared asSpecial Focus States and grant-ed benefits of Special CategoryStatus for a specific period,” thechief minister said.

Patnaik had raised thesame demand during a meet-ing with Modi on June 11.

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Karnataka Chief MinisterHD Kumaraswamy on

Saturday asked the Centre toextend GST compensationbeyond five years, saying thatthe state will face “severe finan-cial crunch” after the recom-pense period ends in 2022.

He was speaking at the firstmeeting of the GoverningCouncil of Niti Aayog chairedby Prime Minister NarendraModi here.

While implementing theGoods and Services Tax (GST),the Centre had assured thestates to compensate them forloss of their revenue for fiveyears till 2022.

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Chief Minister ArvindKejriwal on Saturday raked

up the issue of full statehood toDelhi at the NITI Aayog meet-ing here and also sought theCentre’s cooperation in theAAP government’s project fornatural storage of water in theYamuna flood plains.

“Delhi be given the statusof full statehood, which hasbeen promised since decadesbut denied by successive cen-tral Governments,” the ChiefMinister was quoted as sayingin the meeting chaired byPrime Minister NarendraModi.

The ruling Aam AadmiParty had made the full state-hood issue its poll plank in therecent Lok Sabha election, say-

ing it has been unable to carryout its schemes effectively inDelhi due to the Centre’s inter-ference.

“Delhi government wantsCentre’s cooperation in itsmega-project for natural stor-age of water in the Yamunaflood plains. Important studies,including from IIT Delhi, showin case this is done, water stor-age during a single Monsoonwill be sufficient to end watershortage in Delhi for two years,”the chief minister said.

Kejriwal also lamented thatDelhi was not getting its sharein central taxes.

“According to 14th FinanceCommission, states get 42 percent share in central taxes.Whereas Delhi gets a paltry�325 crore,” the Chief Ministersaid.

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Chief Minister SarbanandaSonowal on Saturday

sought enhanced assistance tothe people affected by naturalcalamities like floods, which hitthe state every year. Addressingthe 5th governing councilmeeting of the NITI Aayoghere, he raised key issues per-tinent to the state’s develop-ment and underlined the futureroadmap for state and centralgovernment’s partnership.

He stressed on the need foreffective management of floodand erosion problems afflictinga large part of Assam everyyear, a state government releasesaid. Sonowal pointed out thatthe norms of relief and reha-bilitation provided to the flood-

affected people according toDisaster Relief Fund guide-lines are low.

He also vouched for NITIAayog’s intervention to includeriver erosion in the admissiblelist of calamities for fundingunder National Disaster ReliefFund or State Disaster ReliefFund so that quick steps can betaken to counter erosion.

Thanking Prime MinisterNarendra Modi for setting upa high-level committee forproper management of waterresources in the Northeasternregion under the chairmanshipVice-Chairman of NITI Aayog,Sonowal said suggestions madein the draft report of the com-mittee would go a long way infinding a permanent solutionto the problems of flood.

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Heatwave conditions per-sisted in several parts of

the country on Saturday withPatna recording its highestmaximum temperature in 10years, though there may besome respite in the northernstates by Sunday evening asdust storms and rains havebeen forecast.

Some places in Rajasthanreceived light rain, bringingrespite from the swelteringheat, even as Churu recordedthe state’s highest maximumtemperature of 45.8 degreesCelsius. Sri Ganganagar record-ed a high of 44.5 degreesCelsius, followed by Bikaner(42.6 degrees) and Jaisalmer(42 degrees). The weatherdepartment has predicted lightto moderate rainfall in isolat-

ed places of the desert state tillSunday. The maximum tem-perature in Uttar Pradesh’sAllahabad was 47.4 degreesCelsius, followed by Sultanpurat 46.4 degrees, nine notchesabove normal.

Sweltering heat persisted inDelhi on Saturday with the cityexperiencing a maximum tem-perature of 43.4 degreesCelsius, four notches abovethe season’s average. The mete-orological department has,however, forecast dust stormand very light rains in thenational capital on Sunday.

The Bihar government hasordered the closure of said allschools in Patna till Wednesdayin view of the heatwave condi-tions for the past several days.The state capital on Saturdayrecorded its highest maximumtemperature in 10 years at 45.8

degrees Celsius, nine degreesabove normal.

Sweltering heat continuedunabated in Odisha too, withthe temperature soaring abovethe 40-degree mark in at leasteight places. Titlagarh andMalkangiri were the hottestplaces in the state with the mer-cury touching 43 degreesCelsius.

Meanwhile in Gujarat, aweakened Cyclone Vayu is like-ly to reach coastal Saurashtraand Kutch as a depression byMonday evening, the IndiaMeteorological Departmentsaid. The entire state receivedscattered rainfall Saturday dueto the cyclone, with Sutrapadataluka of Gir Somnath receiv-ing 108 mm of rain till Saturdaymorning, while Talala in thesame district getting 102 mmof rain.

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Seven persons, including foursanitation workers, died on

Saturday after inhaling toxicfumes while cleaning sewer ofa hotel in Vadodara district ofGujarat, officials said.

The incident happenedshortly after midnight atDarshan Hotel in Fartikui vil-lage of Dabhoi tehsil, around 30kms from Vadodara city, policesaid. Three employees of thehotel were also among thosekilled.

“The sanitation workershad been roped in to clean thesewer. When one worker failedto come out of the manhole,others went inside to check, butall of them died of asphyxia-tion,” in-charge district collec-tor Kiran Zaveri told PTI.

“We rushed to the sitesoon after learning about theincident and teams of the firebrigade from VadodaraMunicipal Corporation andDabhoi civic body launchedrescue work. They took out thebodies of the deceased afterthree hours of efforts,” headded.

After the post-mortem, the

bodies were handed over to thekin of the deceased.

The owner of the hotel,Hassan Abbas Ismail Boraniya,is absconding.

Talking to PTI, BJP MLAShailesh Mehta, who repre-sents the Dabhoi Assemblyconstituency, said the four san-itation workers were from thenearby Thuvavi village andthey were hired to clean thesewer lines. He added that theincident shows sheer disre-gard for the safety of the work-ers. Police said the incidenttook place around 12.30 am.

Due to inhalation of toxicfumes inside the manhole, theworkers fell unconscious anddied, police said.

Meanwhile, the Gujaratgovernment announced finan-cial assistance of Rs 4 lakh eachto the kin of the deceased.

In a statement, the gov-ernment said that it has direct-ed the police to take strictaction against the hotel owner.

Dushanbe: Terrorism posesthe “gravest threat” to the peo-ple in Asia and terrorists andtheir victims must never beequated, External AffairsMinister S Jaishankar said hereon Saturday, as he sought sup-port for India’s proposal for acomprehensive strategy tocombat terrorism. Addressingthe fifth Conference onInteraction and ConfidenceBuilding Measures in Asia(CICA) Summit in the Tajikcapital, Jaishankar said thatthe CICA members are the vic-tims of terrorism.

Terrorism is the gravestthreat that we face in Asiatoday. Many CICA membersare victims of terrorism andshould be clear that terroristsand their victims must never beequated,” he said.

“CICA has always shown astrong commitment to combatterrorism and extremism andadopt a comprehensive strate-gy to combat terrorism. Earlyfinalisation of theComprehensive Conventionon International Terrorism,proposed by India,” he said.Noida: A hundred motorcycles,

five bags full of bank chequesand burnt computers werefound from the head office ofmotorcycle taxi service BikeBot, which is accused of dup-ing 2.25 lakh investors of near-ly �1,400 crore, police said.

The Garvit InnovativePromoters Limited (GIPL)company in Greater Noida hadcome out with the multi-levelmarketing scheme “Bike Bot”and lured investors with apromise of double returns inone year, Gautam Buddh NagarSSP Vaibhav Krishna said.PTI

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Page 3: €¦ · Mamata Banerjee dispensa-tion on the measures it took in light of the “unabated” and “increasing” incidents of polit-ical violence and resultant deaths since 2016

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Aday after former DelhiMetro Rail Corporation

(DMRC) Chairman ESreedharan wrote to PrimeMinister Narendra Modirequesting him not to agree toDelhi Government’s proposalof free rides for women,Deputy Chief Minister ManishSisodia said that Delhi Metrohas already been running inlosses and Government’s pro-posal to pay for women com-muters should make the Metrorail authorities happy.

Notably,In the letter,Sreedharan said that the movewould make Delhi Metro bank-rupt. Reacting to Sreedharan'sletter to PM Modi, Sisodiasaid that he, too, has written toSreedharan regarding the pro-posal.

"I have written toSreedharan sahib and told himthat Delhi Metro is running inlosses. It has a carrying capac-ity of 40 lakh passengers everyday but presently, it is carryingonly 25 lakh passengers,"Sisodia said.

The Delhi Deputy ChiefMinister also said that theGovernment's proposal to pro-vide free travel to women willbe beneficial to the Delhi Metro.

"Its ridership will increaseand fares will come down. If theDelhi Government is payingfor the women commuters,Delhi Metro should be happywith it," Manish Sisodia said.

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The Bharatiya Janata Party hasbegun preparations for the

early Assembly Polls in thenational Capital. Sources in theBJP said Assembly elections,scheduled for February, 2020,could be rescheduled forOctober-November this yearalong with Assembly polls inStates like Maharashtra, Haryanaand Jharkhand.

Preparing the ground forthe elections, the BJP has ropedin a leading private agency tocarry out surveys before begin-ning with the electioneering.The surveys will be conductedin three phases. In the firstphase, the BJP will be focusingon the constituency-specificissues while in the later stage, theparty will assess the perfor-mance of the incumbent AAPGovernment and individual per-formance of the AAP MLAs ineach of the constituencies. In the

final phase of the survey, theparty will assess the popularityand acceptability of its ownleaders in each of these assem-bly segments in order to finalisethe candidates for the elections.

The upcoming Assemblypolls assume great significancefor the BJP which is out of powerin the national Capital since1998. The party had lost miser-ably to AAP in 2015, despite theModi wave sweeping the coun-try in 2014 Lok Sabha polls.

A senior BJP leader saidselection of candidate would becrucial as almost all BJP leadershad lost the 2015 Assemblypolls. While some senior lead-ers have been elected to the LokSabha, the party must field newcandidates with strong groundsupport and acceptability amongpublic as well as party workers.

"The survey also aims atassessing the mood of the vot-ers and their response to the pre-sent government. Almost all

promises made by the Kejriwalgovernment have turned out tobe false and people are disen-chanted by the ruling party.Their anger with the AAP wasalso evident with results of theLok Sabha polls where the AAPwas pushed down to the thirdposition in five of the seven par-liamentary constituencies.During the elections, the BJPwill build a strong narrativeagainst the AAP Governmentwhich has failed on all fronts,"the BJP leader said.

Similarly, the agency willalso list out the key issues con-cerning people in every assem-bly constituency in Delhi.Accordingly, the BJP will chalkout its poll strategy prominent-ly highlighting these issues.Sources said the BJP mightcome up with separate manifestofor each of the 70 assembly con-stituencies.

Sources said early electionsin Delhi might be an advantage

for the BJP which is riding highon the Modi wave which wonthe party 303 seats in the LokSabha polls. However, the partyis also treading cautiously keep-ing in view the poll debacle itfaced in 2015 polls where theAAP bagged 67 seats and theBJP was reduced to merely 3seats. The Congress party wascompletely wiped out in the elec-tions and could not win a sin-gle seat.

The Lok Sabha polls resultscome as a huge setback for theArvind Kejriwal-led AAP whosevote hare decline to a meager18.1 per cent as compared to 54per cent votes in 2015 Assemblypolls. Four AAP candidatesended up losing their securitydeposits. The Congress, on theother hand, secured 22.5 percent votes in Lok Sabha polls andfinished second in five of theseven seats in Delhi. The BJPwon the highest ever 56 per centvotes in the Lok Sabha polls.

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The Delhi Police has arresteda woman with her lover

and a juvenile was detainedafter they had murdered a 52year-old man in Delhi's SouthAvenue last week. Police said thewoman, who was married withthe deceased Suresh, was havingextra marital affair and alongwith her lover she had hatcheda conspiracy to kill her husband.

The accused have beenidentified as Anju (34), a resi-dent of South Avenue, ShivamThakur (21) and his brother whois a Juvenile both resident ofMeerut in Uttar Pradesh (UP).

According to MadhurVerma, the DeputyCommissioner of Police (DCP),New Delhi district, a PoliceControl Room (PCR) call was

received by the South AvenuePolice Station on June 7, regard-ing a murder.

"During the investigation,the wife of the deceased Sureshtold police that she was out ofthe home for walk along withher children when the incidentoccurred. Police found her state-ment suspicious," said the DCP.

"During scanning of thephone of Suresh's wife and onspecific inputs it was revealedthat she was in regular contactwith someone in Meerut," saidthe DCP. "Simultaneous raidswere conducted and the accusedShivam and his minor brotherwere apprehended from Delhi'sBurari area and subsequentlyAnju was also arrested", said theDCP adding that the accusedduring interrogation confessedto the killing.

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Former Prime MinisterManmohan Singh on

Saturday held a meeting withthe Chief Ministers of Statesruled by the Congress andallied parties ahead of the cru-cial Niti Aayog meeting. Theydiscussed the proposed agen-da of the Niti Aayog and issuesof the Congress and its alliesgoverned States.

Congress leaders —Madhya Pradesh ChiefMinister Kamal Nath,Rajasthan Chief MinisterAshok Gehlot, Karnataka ChiefMinister HD Kumaraswamyand Puducherry Chief MinisterV Narayansamy andChhattisgarh CM BhupeshBaghel — attended the meetingat the All India CongressCommittee (AICC) headquar-ters. Punjab Chief MinisterAmarinder Singh skipped themeeting due to his health rea-sons.

Among the issues dis-cussed were injecting life backin water bodies, fresh effortsneeded from the Centre in theagricultural sector and amend-ment in the Forest Act to bringabout change and prosperity inthe lives of the tribals.

Kamal Nath said at theAICC that all the ChiefMinisters were briefed byManmohan Singh. He said thatthe Gross Domestic Product(GDP) figures are out and theGovernment should suggest

measures in view of the graveeconomic situation. KamalNath also said that the severedrought conditions are pre-vailing in large parts of thecountry, rivers have dried upand so contingency measuresare needed. The CM said agri-cultural distress also needs tobe addressed urgently, addingthat all these issues will betaken up during the GoverningCouncil meeting.

The fifth meeting of theNiti Aayog's GoverningCouncil focused on issues likethe drought situation, farmdistress, rain water harvestingand preparedness for kharifcrops. It was the first meetingof the governing council of NitiAayog since the formation ofthe Modi 2.0 Government.

Earlier in the day, Baghel,Kumaraswamy andNarayansamy also separatelycalled on the Prime MinisterNarendra Modi. On Friday,Madhya Pradesh Chief MinisterNath had hosted a dinner at hisresidence where Gehlot, Bagheland Narayansamy were present.Punjab Chief MinisterAmarinder Singh could notmake it for the dinner andskipped the Niti Aayog meet-ing.

The five-point agenda forthe meeting also includes aspi-rational districts programme,transforming agriculture,drought and security relatedissues with special focus on leftwing extremism (LWE) dis-tricts, an official statementsaid.

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Gujarat Chief Minister VijayRupani on Saturday called

on Union Agriculture MinisterNarendra Singh Tomar to dis-cuss issues relating to farmers'welfare such as the KisanKalyan Nidhi Yojana andPradhan Mantri Fasal BimaYojana.

A delegation led byRupani, Gujarat AgricultureMinister R C Faldu, ChiefSecretary JN Singh, ChiefPrincipal Secretary to CM KKailashnathan, AdditionalChief Secretary (Agri) SanjayPrasad and officers of the agri-culture department met Tomar.

Union Minister of State forAgriculture ParshottambhaiRupala was also present at themeeting. According to a state-ment, the issues on pendingclaims of interest subvention ofcrop loan advance by banks ofthe state and extension of dateto purchase of mustard in thePrice Support Scheme werealso discussed in the meeting.

It was decided in the meet-ing that the last date for pur-

chase of mustard under thePrice Support Scheme shall beextended up to June 30. TheGovernment also decided toexpedite payment of interestsubvention to the cooperativebanks and nationalised banksso that farmers do not face anyinconvenience, according tothe statement.

The discussion alsofocused on measures beingjointly undertaken by theUnion and State Governmentsto increase agriculture pro-ductivity to improve farmerincome as well as on strength-ening measures for farmerwelfare.

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Kerala Chief MinisterPinarayi Vijayan on

Saturday called on PrimeMinister Narendra Modi andcited the State’s reservation onthe privatisation ofThiruvananthapuram interna-tional airport. Vijayan wasmeeting Modi for the first timeafter the latter assumed thePrime Minister’s office for thesecond time following the BJP-led NDA’s victory in the LokSabha polls. Vijayan is here toattend the Niti Aayog meeting.

During the brief meet,attended by State PWDMinister G Sudhakaran andChief Secretary Tom Jose,Vijayan submitted a memo-randum citing variousdemands including further aidfor rebuilding the flood-hitState.

Official sources said theChief Minister requested theCentre to retain the airport inthe public sector and not tohand over its management toany private company.

Kerala's concern over itsreported exclusion from the pri-ority list of the national high-way development and the needto get more central assistance

for various projects also figuredin the discussion, which lastedfor around 15 minutes, theyadded.

The Adani group had, inFebruary, won the bid to oper-ate five out of six airports,including the one atThiruvananthapuram, pro-posed for privatisation by theCentral Government.

The State Government hadearlier appealed to the Centreto reconsider its decision tolease out Thiruvananthapuramaerodrome for operation, man-agement and developmentunder the public-private part-nership (PPP).

"Without the co-operationof the State Government, noprivate company can develop

the airport properly," Vijayantold the state Assembly earlierthis week.

In a letter to the prime min-ister in March, Vijayan haddemanded that the airport'soperation be handed over to theT h i r u v a n a n t h a p u r a mInternational Airport Ltd(TIAL) floated by the govern-ment-run Kerala

State IndustrialDevelopment Corporation(KSIDC).

The airport was establishedin 1932 on 258.06 acres ofland owned by the princely stateof Travancore, of which thestate is the successor. The258.06 acres of land had beenentered into the revenuerecords as Government land.

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The India MeteorologicalDepartment (IMD) on

Saturday said that cyclonicstorm “Vayu”, which has weak-ened, is likely to reach coastalSaurashtra and Kutch in Gujaratas a depression by Mondayevening. In its latest update, theIMD said that “Vayu” was spot-ted at 355 kms west-southwestof Porbandar coast, 380 kmswest Veraval and 470 kms westof Diu.

The Met said that thecyclone is likely to be accom-panied by strong winds speed ofthe order of 40-50 kmph gust-ing to 60 kmph off Gujaratcoast. “The system is very like-ly to move westwards duringnext 24 to 36 hours with grad-ual weakening and recurvenortheastwards thereafter andreach coastal Saurashtra andKutch as a depression by the

evening of June 17,” it furthersaid. The sea conditions are like-ly to remain rough till June 17.

In a fresh warning, theIMD said that a fresh warningto fishermen not to venture intothe Arabian sea and along thecoast of Gujarat as CycloneVayu storms over the northeastand adjoining east-centralArabian Sea. The IMD said thatthe impact of Vayu had led toheavy to very heavy rainfall inisolated places in Saurashtra,

while the entire state receivedscattered rainfall Saturday.

In a tweet, GujaratAdditional Chief SecretaryPankaj Kumar said,"#CycloneVayu is still main-taining its intensity. Rainfallactivity is set to decrease alongthe coast and the interior partsof #Gujarat, while the westernparts of the state will continueto receive light to moderaterains."

Cyclone Vayu, which was to

make landfall on Thursday nearthe Gujarat coast, changedcourse on the intervening nightof Wednesday and Thursday. Itskirted the Gujarat coast affect-ing Gir, Somnath, Diu, Junagarhand Porbandar. On Friday, theMinistry of Earth Sciences hasstated that Vayu is likely torecurve and come close toGujarat coast.

Earlier, the cyclone, whilenot making landfall in Gujarat,brought moderate-to-heavyrains to 114 tehsils, the highestrainfall of 6.5 inches (160mm)being recorded in Talala tehsilof Gir-Somnath district sinceThursday, a Met departmentrelease said.

The development comes aday after Gujarat Chief MinisterVijay Rupani declared that the"danger over the state hasended." However, the cyclonerecurved coming close to theIndian coast.

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The deadlock over the resig-nation of Rahul Gandhi as

the Congress president follow-ing the Lok Sabha debacle isaffecting the day-to-day func-tioning of the grand old party.

In the last few days, all theimportant notifications, whichwere earlier issued by theapproval of the Congress pres-ident, are being released stating"by the approval of AICC".

On Friday, the notificationregarding the appointment ofMLAs and MLCs to theMaharashtra Biennial Assemblywas approved by the AICCand marked to party GeneralSecretary in-charge of StateMallikarjun Kharge and StateUnit chief Ashok Chavan.

"All the orders which wereissued within the jurisdiction ofthe party chief are now being

done at AICC office bearerlevel. This is for the first timethe organisation is functioningon such a mode," said an AICCsource.

On the other hand, crisis isdeepening within the organi-sation with AK Antony turningdown an offer to be the party'sinterim president. Antony, atrusted man for the Gandhifamily, has cited health issues asa reason for not taking up thejob.

Senior party leadersAhmed Patel and Ghulam NabiAzad, who have been tasked tolook for a face outside theGandhi family to lead the party,had asked Antony to take upthe job. Antony informed Pateland Azad that he has fullrespect for the Gandhi familybut could not accept the post.

AICC sources said that inthe given circumstances, AICCGeneral Secretary K CVenugopal too has declined to

accept the post of WorkingPresident offered to him citinghis other role of strengtheningthe party.

Senior leaders are in tizzyas UPA Chairperson SoniaGandhi and daughter andGeneral Secretary AICCPriyanka Gandhi have spokentheir minds at a rally in RaeBareilly recently against theparty's system which led to thedrubbing in the last twoGeneral Elections.

The search for the newleader was initiated after RahulGandhi decided to resign fromthe party's top post, followingthe dismal performance in therecently-held general elections.Although the CongressWorking Committee, theparty's highest decision-makingbody, had rejected Rahul's res-ignation, he has remainedsteadfast on giving up the post.

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The Congress on Saturdaysought the Government to

draft a new Naxal policy todeal with left-wing-extrem-ism (LWE) in the backdrop ofthe recent attack on a policeteam in Jharkhand.

Dr Manmohan Singh asPrime Minister of theCongress-led-government atthe Centre had time andagain described the LWE asone of the biggest threats to theNational Security even thoughincidents linked to Maoist vio-lence did not see a let-up in 10years of UPA regime.

Condemning the attack inthe Seraikela-Kharsawan areanear the Jharkhand-Bengalborder on Friday in which fivepolice personnel were killed inan ambush by Maoists,Congress spokesperson

Randeep Surjewala Surjewalasaid the act was highly con-demnable.

"The cowardly face ofNaxalism has been spreadingin Jharkhand. The govern-ment of this country needs todraft afresh its policy to dealwith naxalism," he tweeted.

Two assistant sub-inspec-tors and three constables cameunder attack while patrollingthe Tiruldih police station areaof the district.

The LWE in several statesincluding Chhattisgarh,Telangana, Andhra Pradesh,Odisha and Maharashtra hadkept the police and para-mil-itary forces on their toes andeven though many top Naxalleaders have been eliminated inthe past and several others sur-rendered themselves beforethe authorities, the strikesfrom the underground groups

have continued to take many alives of police and para-mili-tary personnel.

From 2005 to 2011,Congress had experimentedwith 'Salwa Judum' (peacemarch or purification hunt)which involved counteringMaoists by providing armedtraining to tribals. The so-called experiment carried outby Congress leader MahendraKarma later turned highlycontroversial with allegedforcible evacuation of tribalsfrom the land and their shift toarmed camps.

Human rights' group crit-icized the move saying the‘Salwa Judum’ has turned poortribals more vulnerable toMaoist attacks rather securingthem. Subsequently, the 'SalwaJudum' was declared illegal bythe Supreme Court. Karmahimself got killed in a Maoist

attack in 2013. There has not been a

marked change in Modi-gov-ernment's policy towards LWEwith the former also seeingLWE as one of the biggest chal-lenges to the National Securityand insisting on 'zero tolerance'against it.

Development work acrossthe LWE infested lands has notmade speedy progress asMaoist repeatedly thwart it byperpetuating violence and tryfoiling the governmentattempts to bring tribals intothe 'mainstream' . The cor-ruption in developmental pro-jects initiated by the centraland state governments andalleged 'extortion racket' byLWE groups have further com-plicated the scenario whichgets time and again alive withthe burst of gun from bothsides.

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The by-elections to six vacant RajyaSabha seats from Bihar, Odisha

and Gujarat will be held on July 5, theElection Commission said onSaturday.

Six senior leaders from the RajyaSabha, including Amit Shah, RaviShankar Prasad and Smriti Iranihave moved to the Lok Sabha withtheir recent election to the lowerhouse, thus necessitating election forthe said seats for the Upper house.

Irani's seat is the second fromGujarat apart from Amit Shah'swhich needs to be filled. Irani haddefeated Congress president RahulGandhi from Amethi.

Of the six seats, two are fromGujarat, one from Bihar (Prasad) andthree from Odisha- AchyutanandaSamanta, Pratap Keshari Deb andSoumya Ranjan Patnaik (all from BijuJanta Dal). Congress had demanded

that election to the two seats of RSfrom Gujarat be conducted on thesame time as resignations of the twoBJP leaders from the Upper House ondifferent dates sought to create con-ditions that election to the two seatsare conducted on different datesthereby giving an advantage to the rul-ing BJP there.

Congress spokesperson AbhishekManu Singhvi, at a press conferenceon June 13, said they came to knowthat there could be a bid to hold elec-tions for the two seats separately. Theparty will approach the ElectionCommission EC with its demand ofholding elections for the two RajyaSabha seats in Gujarat together, hesaid. Singhvi pointed out that simul-taneous voting can bring one of thetwo Rajya Sabha seats to Congress. Healluded without naming the partythat election to the two seats on dif-ferent dates could help BJP pocketboth the seats.

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Srinagar: The Jammu &Kashmir Bank will now comeunder the purview of Right toInformation Act and CentralVigilance Commission (CVC)guidelines, an officialspokesman said on Saturday.

He said the decision wastaken by the Board ofDirectors of the Jammu & Kashmir Bank.

The move will ensure greater transparency andaccountability, the spokesman said here.

"J&K Bank Board of Directors today (Saturday)decided to bring the bank under the purview of CVCguidelines & J&K RTI Act-2009 to ensure greater trans-parency & accountability," he said.

On June 11, Chief Secretary B V R Subrahmanyamhad said the bank has no choice but to be under RTIas it is a government-owned bank.

"It is registered under the companies act as a gov-ernment company. By the end of June, the bank willbe brought under the RTI and CVC guidelines," he said.

The decision comes days after Parvez Ahmed wasremoved as the Chairman of the J&K Bank for allegedcorruption, nepotism and favouritism. PTI

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Cracking its whip Anti-CorruptionBureau (ACB) on Saturday reg-

istered a case against deputy MayorSrinagar Municipal Corporation,senior officers of J&K Bank and fewGovernment officials for illegalappropriation of subsidy with inflat-ed project cost for establishment ofCA storage at Lassipora, Pulwama.

According to the statementissued by the spokesman of AntiCorruption Bureau, “a case FIR No.3/2019 under section 5(1) (d) PC ActSamvat 2006, punishable u/S 5(2) ofthe Act r/w 420 & 120-B RPC hasbeen registered in Police StationAnti Corruption Bureau, SouthKashmir (Anantnag) against ShiekhImran Director M/S Kehwa SquarePvt. Ltd. BohriKadal Srinagar, offi-cers of J&K Bank and other govt offi-cials, for illegal appropriation ofsubsidy with inflated project cost for establishment of CA storage atLassipora, Pulwama”.

Earlier, IT raids were conducted on the premises ofSheikh Imran on June 11 and sever-al files pertaining to investments were seized.

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Ahead of the MonsoonSession of the Maharashtra

Legislature beginning onMonday, Chief MinisterDevendra Fadnavis will expandhis Ministry on Sunday byinducting “eight to ten” newMinisters, including mostprobably the erstwhile seniorCongress leader and leader ofthe Opposition RadhkrishnaVikhe-Patil and erstwhile NCPleader and now a Shiv Senaleader Jaydutta Kshirsagar, intohis Cabinet.

Among other things,Fadnavis may drop from hisCabinet State Housing MinisterPrakash Mehta of the BJP, whois facing allegations of irregu-larities in the permissions givenby a slum rehabilitation author-ity (SRA) project at MP Millscompound at Tardeo in southMumbai. Lokayukta M L

Tahaliyani, who looked into theallegations against the minister,has reportedly passed stricturesagainst Mehta.

Sunday’s expansion, whichhas been scheduled at 11 am atRaj Bhavan on Sunday, will bethe last Cabinet restructuringthat Fadnavis will undertakeahead of the State Assembly pollsto be held in October this year.

Following the exit of StateFood, Civil Supplies andLegislative affairs minister whoresigned last week from the StateCabinet in the wake of his elec-tion to the Lok Sabha, the num-ber of vacancies in the StateCabinet has gone up to seven.

The current strength ofthe Maharashtra Cabinet is 36,seven short of the stipulated 43Ministers — a number thataccounts for 15 per cent of 288members in the State Assembly.Fadnavis may drop from hisCabinet at least three ministers,

including Mehta, taking thenumber of vacancies to befilled to 10.

Fadnavis, who is expand-ing the State Cabinet after a gapof three years, may accommo-date in his Cabinet “two orthree” MLAs from the ShivSena, which is a constituent ofthe BJP-led saffron allianceGovernment.

Informed sources in theBJP said that RadhakrishnaVikhe-Patil, whose son Sujayquit the Congress in March thisyear and won the Lok Sabhapolls by a margin of 2.81 lakhvotes from Ahmednagar con-stituency on a BJP ticket, wouldjoin the Devendra FadnavisCabinet in Sunday’s Cabinetexpansion.

Similarly, influential leaderfrom Marathwada regionJaydutta Kshirsagar who quitthe NCP and joined the rulingShiv Sena on May 22, will be

inducted into the State Cabinet.Three other names that

are making round as con-tenders for ministerial berthsare BJP’s Mumbai unit presi-dent Ashish Shelar, Atul Saveand Anil Bonde, both from theBJP, and Avinash Mahatekar ofthe RPI (Athavale).

Fadnavis had met BJP’snational president and UnionHome Minister Amit Shah onThursday to seek clearance forhis Cabinet expansion sched-uled for Sunday.

Fadnavis had earlierexpanded his Cabinet on July8, 2016, by inducting 10 moreministers and promoting oneexisting Minister to Cabinetrank.

The current strength ofthe Maharashtra Cabinet is 39,six short of the stipulated 43ministers — a number thataccounts for 15 per cent of 288members in the State Assembly.

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Narayan Lawand, a 45-year-old farmer in Pune district,

died of electrocution whileusing a submersible waterpump to irrigate his fields lastmonth. His death has broughtinto focus the plight of peopleliving in the area around Ujanidam in western Maharashtrawhich was overflowing last monsoon.

Rui, Lawand’s village inPune’s Indapur tehsil, falls in thebackwater region of Ujani damacross the Bhima river. As thebackwater spreads through hun-dreds of small inlets and streamsin the area, it is common forfarmers to draw water fromthem using submersible pumps.

But the water level in thereservoir has depleted to such aprecariously low level this yearthat small rivers and streamswhich flow off the main water-body have gone dry.

Submersible pumps andpipes which draw water fromthem, thus, lie exposed.

In many places, farmers,who mainly grow sugarcane,have pooled money to dig

trenches or shallow wells along-side the parched streams. Thewater that percolates into thesetrenches is then pumped out.

“Rivers and streams havedried up. Our crops are wither-ing,” said Lawand’s brotherTukaram. It forced his brother tolift water from a trench dug neara river. “He suffered electricshock while using a submersiblepump and died,” he said.

“The water level in thedam has gone down to anunprecedented level. But lastmonsoon the dam was full,”said Sharad Kale, a farmerfrom nearby Palasdeo village.

“Mismanagement” of thereservoir is responsible for thesituation, he claimed. Water fordrinking purposes was releasedto Solapur and parts of

Marathwada through riversinstead of pipelines, and a lotof water was wasted in theprocess, he said.

The wall of Ujani dam is inSolapur district. The backwa-ter is spread across Daund andIndapur tehsils of Pune district,Karmala and Madha of Solapurand Karjat in Ahmednagardistrict.

“Water level is going downday by day. Electric pumps offarmers are out of action for lastthree months,” Kale said. Anirrigation department officialdenied that flawed distributionof water of mismanagementwas the reason.

The total capacity of thedam is 123.28 TMCft (thou-sand million cubic feet) and lastyear the dam received 119

TMCft water, he said.“There are many reasons

why the water level went downso much. Water was releasedfor drinking purpose toSolapur and parts ofMarathwada. Water was alsoreleased for crops. Evaporationis another factor. But an impor-tant reason is uncontrolledwater lifting in the backwaterregion,” he said.

The dam was built to pro-vide irrigation only for eightmonths, but unauthorised lift-ing, mainly for sugarcane fields,goes on all-year-round, he said.

With the water level falling,the thousand-year-oldPalasnath Shiva temple nearPalasdeo village is now clearlyvisible. Built in the‘Hemadpanthi’ architecturalstyle, most of it was submergedwhen the dam was built. “Nowthe entire temple is visible.Tourists are flocking here to seeit,” said a local farmer.

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Facing the prospect of payinga sum of Rs 287 crore to a

private contractor and gettingquashed its crucial resolution ofterminating the Balganga con-struction contract, theMaharashtra Government willbelatedly file an appeal beforeRaigad district court onMonday, challenging the rulinggiven by a Bombay High court-appointed Arbitration Tribunalin favour of a private firm.

The BJP-led Maharashtragovernment, which has comeunder severe flak for its failureto appear before the high court-appointed Arbitration Tribunalhearing a payment-related dis-pute, has delayed inordinatelyin moving the Tribal in appealagainst the tribunal’s orderpassed in April awarding Rs287 crore for the State WaterResources department’s “delib-erate” failure to appear at thehearing before the tribunal.

The tribunal had set a 90-day deadline for the state gov-ernment to file an appealagainst its order. “It is shock-ing that the Maharashtra gov-ernment has not bothered tomove the Arbitration tribunaleven 70 days after the tribunalpassed an order against it. It isonly after I obtained the tri-bunal’s order through an RTIquery and shot off a letter toState Chief Secretary AjoyMehta that the State WaterResources department haswoken up and is moving thetribunal in appeal on Monday,”RTI activist PravinWategaonkar said.

“My information is that theState Principal Secretary, WaterResources Department, delib-erately absented himself from

the tribunal’s hearing in thepayment related mater. Thisprompted the tribunal to passan order against the State gov-ernment,” Wategaonkar said.

While awarding Rs 287crore to private firm M/s F AConstruction for the state waterdepartment’s failure before itduring the hearing, theArbitration Tribunal – headedby retired high court judge VG Palshikar -- had on April 6quashed the State governmentresolution dated September23, 2016 terminating the con-tract awarded to M/S FAConstruction for the con-struction of Balganga dam inRaigad district.

“Despite service of notice,the State government has cho-sen not to appear in the presentproceedings. In the circum-stances, we have no hesitationin holding that both, the GR dt.23.06.2016, and the Notice dt.28.10.2016 (by KIDC), sufferfrom the vice of non-applica-

tion of mind, failure to considerrelevant facts, considerationof irrelevant facts and failure tocomply with the elementaryprinciples of natural justice,which amounts to malafides inlaw,” the tribunal order stated

“Hence, we hold that both,the GR dt. 23.09.2016 and(KIDC) notice dt. 28.10.2016,are not only invalid but aretotally null and void in law,” thetribunal noted.

Following a payment dis-pute between the state-runKonkan IrrigationDevelopment Corporation(KIDC) and M/s FAConstruction, the contractorhad moved the Bombay HighCourt in 2015. In turn, the highcourt had ordered the settingup of a five-member panel tolook into the dispute.

Incidentally, the Balgangaproject was one of the 12 irri-gation projects that the StateGovernment had scrapped onAugust 30, 2016, after the

large-scale irregularities sur-faced in them.

On August 24, 2016, theState Anti Corruption Bureauhad registered the first FIR inthe irrigation scam, booking 11people in connection withalleged irregularities in award-ing the contract for Balgangadam to FA Enterprises.

The names of formerdeputy chief minister and NCPleader Ajit Pawar and formerWater Resources Minister SunilTatkare — also of the NCP arebeing investigated for allegedirregularities in 12 major irri-gation projects undertakenduring the previous Congress-NCP regime.

The multi-thousand irri-gation scam, it may be recalled,had come to light in September2012. Ajitdada had resignedfrom the deputy chief minister’spost on September 25, 2012,attributing his decision to themedia reports on the allegedirregularities in the awarding of38irrigation contracts worth Rs20,000 crore in Vidarbha regionduring 2009, without seekingthe mandatory clearance from the governing council ofthe Vidarbha IrrigationDevelopment Corporation(VIDC).

Ajitdada was the StateIrrigation Minister between1999 and 2010, before he waselevated as the deputy chiefminister and handed the port-folios of Finance and Energy.The irrigation scam hadallegedly taken place during histenure as the State irrigationscam. After Ajitdada took overas the deputy chief minister,Tatkare assumed charge as theIrrigation (Water Resources)Minister.

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After the success of UP Investors’ Summit in February2018 that fetched investment proposals worth Rs 4.68

lakh crore, the Yogi Adityanath Government is now con-templating organising its maiden ‘Global Investors’Summit’ early next year.

The 2018 summit resulted in big investment as a fairshare of MoUs matured into actual investment in the state.

The proposed ‘Global Investors’ Summit’ would be heldon a grand scale and position Uttar Pradesh as an idealinvestment destination not only in India but globally.

While reviewing the progress of IndustrialDevelopment department this week, Chief Minister YogiAdityanath asked officials to start preparing for the ‘GlobalInvestors’ Summit’, proposed to be held in February 2020.

He also directed the officials to hold the second ground-breaking ceremony for the pending industrial and infra-structure projects next month. During the two-day UPInvestors’ Summit in Lucknow on 21-22 February, 2018,the UP government had signed 1,047 memoranda of under-standing (MoUs) worth Rs 4.68 lakh crore with private andpublic sector companies. The summit was inaugurated byPrime Minister Narendra Modi in the presence of honchosof corporate world, including Mukesh Ambani, GautamAdani, Kumar Mangalam Birla, N Chandrasekaran,Subhash Chandra, GM Rao, Shiv Nadar and many others.

The State also hosted delegates from Mauritius, Japan,the Netherlands, Finland, Czech Republic, Thailand andSlovakia to explore investment opportunities in UP.

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Inclement weather on Saturdayhampered rescue efforts to

retrieve the mortal remains of13 air-warriors who were onboard the Indian Air Force air-craft that crashed in the moun-tains of Arunachal Pradesh, anIAF spokesman said.

Shillong-based IAFspokesman Ratnakar Singh saidthe rescue operation, whichcommenced early Saturdaymorning, could not progressfurther due to inclement weath-er at the crash site.

Cheetah and ALH heli-copters are on standby and arewaiting to commence opera-tions once the weatherimproves. At present there arelow clouds accompanied withrain in the area, the spokesmansaid in a statement.

The IAF is making allefforts to retrieve the mortalremains of the deceased air-warriors. IAF personnel are inconstant contact with the fam-ilies of these air-warriors andthey are being updated regu-larly about the ongoing rescueoperations. They are alsobeing explained the challengesbeing faced by the rescue team,he added.

The rescue team on Fridayrecovered the cockpit voicerecorder (CVR) and flight datarecorder (FDR) of the Russian-origin AN-32 aircraft.

The aircraft was goingfrom Jorhat in Assam toMechuka advanced landingground in Shi-Yomi district inArunachal Pradesh, near theborder with China, on June 3when it lost contact aroundhalf-an-hour after taking off.

The wreckage of the planewas spotted by an IAF chopperon Tuesday at a height of12,000 ft near Gatte village onthe border of Siang and Shi-Yomi districts, after eight daysof a massive search operationinvolving a fleet of aircraft andchoppers as well as ground

forces. A 15-member team ofrescuers were sent to look forsurvivors in the accident site onWednesday and eight of them

reached the place on Thursdaymorning.

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Hyderabad: The Indian AirForce would ascertain the causeof the recent crash of an AN-32 aircraft in ArunachalPradesh and take steps toensure that such incidents donot recur, IAF chief BS Dhanoasaid on Saturday.

His comments came daysafter the wreckage of the aircraftwas found in a remote area inArunachal Pradesh, more thana week after it went missing with13 people on board.

“We have recovered theflight data recorder and thecockpit voice recorder...We willgo into the detail (to ascertain)as to what happened and howdo we make sure that it doesnot happen again,” he toldreporters on the sidelines of theCombined Graduation Paradeat the Air Force Academy inDundigal near here.

“In Arunachal Pradesh,the way we fly, the terrain isvery treacherous and most of

the time, it is cloudy...Whenyou are flying in that terrain, inthat cloudy weather, there havebeen many, many, not only AirForce, even otherwise, PawanHans and all, lot of accidents,because of controlled flightinto terrain,” he claimed.

Noting that there were pro-cedures to make sure suchaccidents do not recur, he said,“.. Need to review what hap-pened and we don’t have suchan accident again.” PTI

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Alleging that “jungle raj”was prevailing in Uttar

Pradesh, Samajwadi Party chiefAkhilesh Yadav met GovernorRam Naik on Saturday to dis-cuss the poor law and order sit-uation in the state and sub-mitted a memorandum.

Akhilesh Yadav along withsenior SP leader AhmadHassan submitted a memo-randum to the Governor andurged him to intervene and“wake up” the state governmentas he did during the SP regime.

Yadav said, “During SPregime, it was said that therewere only Yadav officers. Nowthere is hardly any districtpolice chief or district magis-trate from the Yadav commu-nity. We have requested theGovernor to wake up the stategovernment and direct it to con-trol the prevailing jungle-raj.”

The SO chief further said,“Criminals are having a freehand and they are doing what-ever they want in this regime.UP Bar Council presidentDarvesh Singh Yadav was shotdead inside the chamber of alawyer in Agra court whilecriminals were shot dead insidejail. How can people takefirearms inside the lawyer’s

chamber or inside the jail?” Holding the present Yogi

Adityanath governmentresponsible for the deteriorat-ing law and order in the state,the SP president said that thestate government had failed toinstil confidence among peopleof the state.

Akhilesh also tweeted:“Incidents of rape, killings andpolitical attacks have beenincreasing in the state. The CMis busy in meetings but the lawand order is getting worse.The firing at chairperson of BarCouncil in Agra has provedthat the situation is now out ofcontrol.”

Akhilesh Yadav also raisedthe issue of alleged harass-ment of senior SP leaderMohammad Azam Khan byRampur district administrationand said, “The Governorshould look into the matterimmediately as fake criminalcases are being registeredagainst the SP leader by officialsto harass him.”

Recently, a couple of seniorRampur district officials hadsought protection from AzamKhan while cases were lodgedagainst the leader for illegallygrabbing government land forAli Jauhar University owned byKhan.

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Srinagar: Four youths, whowanted to cross the Line ofControl (LoC) to join militantranks, were taken into custodyin Uri sector of Jammu &Kashmir and later handed overto their families, the Armysaid on Saturday.

Addressing a Press confer-ence in north Kashmir’sBaramulla district,Commander 79 Mount Brigade

Girish Kalia said the youthswere taken into custody by theArmy near the LoC on Fridayand were handed over to theirrespective families on Saturday.

He said the Army hadreceived information that theywere going to join the path ofviolence after being “misguid-ed” by local militants and theiraccomplices.

“We acted swiftly to pre-

vent them from choosing thewrong path and apprehendedthem along the LoC in Limber area of Boniyar onFriday,” he said.

The Army officer said theyouths were handed over totheir respective families afterproper counselling. Heappealed to the youths to notget misguided by the propa-ganda of militants. PTI

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Google’s Indian-American CEOSundar Pichai has said that it is

“perfectly fine” for big companies tobe scrutinised but cautioned againstdoing it just “for the sake regulating”them amid reports that the US is ini-tiating an anti-trust violations probeagainst the internet giant.

Pichai made the comments forthe first time after reports emergedearlier this month that Google’ssearch business and advertising prac-tices may come under scrutiny dur-ing the potential anti-trust violationsprobe by the US Department ofJustice (DOJ).

The DOJ and Federal TradeCommission are said to be dividingup responsibility for oversight ofGoogle, Facebook, Apple andAmazon to probe their market dom-inance.

Pichai told CNN Business onFriday that it’s “perfectly fine” forcompanies like Google to be scruti-nised when they get big enough.

“Scrutiny is right, and we willparticipate constructively in thesediscussions,” he said.

“I worry that if you regulate forthe sake of regulating it, it has a lotof unintended consequences,” he

said, focusing on the issue of artifi-cial intelligence in particular.

Pichai said, “it will have impli-cations for our national security and... For other important areas of soci-ety. Having leadership ends up beingreally critical.”

This is not the first time Googlehas come under scrutiny. The com-pany was under investigation by theFederal Trade Commission in 2013,but emerged relatively unscathedafter the firm pledged to change cer-tain aspects of its business, such ashow it handles content from third-

party travel or shopping sites.“We have gone through similar

situations in Europe, so it’s not a sur-prise to us,” Pichai said, adding “forsome of the other companies, maybethe scrutiny is newer.”

He said that there are countriesthat aspire to be the next SiliconValley, and they are supporting theircompanies too.

“This doesn’t mean you don’tscrutinize large companies, but youhave to balance it with the fact thatyou want big, successful companiesas well,” Pichai added.

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Representatives of tradeunions on Saturday pressed

the government to raise theminimum wage to �20,000,provide 200 days of assuredwork under the rural employ-ment guarantee scheme andensure minimum monthlypension of �6,000.

The unions during a pre-budget meeting also demand-ed hiking slabs for exemptionof income tax for salaried per-sons and pensioners to �10lakh per year. They asked for �8lakh income tax slab for seniorcitizens and exemption of allperks and fringe benefits likehousing, medical and educa-tion facilities and running allowances fromincome tax.

Besides, the representa-tives of around a dozen centraltrade unions expressed theirreservation against the privati-sation and divestment in prof-it-making public sector under-takings and stressed on increas-ing investment for job creationin the pre-budget meeting withMinister of State for Finance &

Corporate Affairs AnuragThakur.

After the meeting, some oftrade union leaders alsoexpressed their unhappinessover the absence of FinanceMinister Nirmala Sitharamanin the meeting. Thakur chairedthe meeting as Sitharaman hadto attend the NITI Aayog’sGoverning Council meeting held around the sametime.

All India Trade UnionCongress (AITUC) GeneralSecretary Amarjeet Kaur said,“Finance Minister NirmalaSitharaman had invited us forpre-budget consultations. Butwe had a discussion withMinister of State. They tried tolimit the discussion on fourbroad points protection oflabour, skill development, jobsand wages.”

However, she said, “We, the10 central trade unions group,put up all of our points. Wehave demanded for �20,000minimum wage, �6,000 mini-mum monthly pension andguaranteed employment of 200days under MNREGA (100days at present).”

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India along with the US are among the coun-tries with the highest number of visa appli-

cations for the UK’s technology sector, accord-ing to the latest data from Britain’s leading net-work for digital tech entrepreneurs.

Tech Nation, a UK Home Office designat-ed body for tech visas, found that applicationsfrom India covered a wide range of sectors, asthe Tech Nation Tier 1 Exceptional Talent Visafor Digital Technology experienced a 45 per centincrease in applications in 2018-19, up to 650from 450 the previous year.

“The countries with the highest amount ofvisa applications continue to be India and theUS, from Software Engineers and BusinessDevelopers in Software Development, AI &Machine Learning, FinTech andEnterprise/Cloud sectors,” a Tech Nation reportsaid this week.

“Nigeria, Russia, Canada, Australia, Chinaand South Africa also top the list for numberof applications,” it added.

Tech Nation is one of just five designatedcompetent bodies (DCB) appointed by the UKHome Office for the Tier 1 Exceptional TalentVisa, in the fields of digital technology, engi-neering, medicine, science, the arts and media.

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India’s fuel demand in Maywas unchanged from a year

earlier, preliminaryGovernment data showed onSaturday, indicating a continuedslowdown in various sectorsincluding industrial output.

Fuel consumption, a proxyfor oil demand, was 18.61 mil-lion tonnes in May, data fromthe Petroleum Planning andAnalysis Cell (PPAC) of the oilministry showed on Saturday.

India’s economy grew 5.8%in March quarter, its slowestpace in more than four year,falling behind China’s pace forthe first time in nearly twoyears.

Several indicators — auto-mobile sales, rail freight anddomestic air traffic — indicatea slowdown in domestic con-sumption. India has not yetreleased industrial output datafor May.

Sales of gasoline, or petrol,

rose by a robust 11.32% to 2.73million tonnes in May as thenarrowing price gap with dieselis pushing motorists to opt forpetrol-driven vehicles. Dieselsales rose 2.84% to 7.78 milliontonnes.

Cooking gas, or liquefiedpetroleum gas (LPG), rosemarginally to 2.06 milliontonnes.

Naphtha sales increasedby 7.73% to 1.09 million tonnesand sales of bitumen, used formaking roads, were down by8.4%.

India revised down its fuelconsumption for April to 17.67million tonnes, a decline of0.6% from a year earlier, thedata showed.

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Ahead of the Budget, repre-sentatives of tech sector

and industry bodies likeNasscom, IAMAI and MAITmet Minister of State forFinance Anurag ThakurSaturday to discuss variousissues, including tax structure,and share their views onstrengthening digital economy.

The pre-Budget consulta-tion meeting also focussed ondata issues such as use of BigData technology in improvingthe forecasting of economic,financial, climatic etc phe-nomena by analysing largedata sets.

Seoul: The blasts detonated farfrom the bustling megacities ofAsia, but the attack this weekon two tankers in the strategicStrait of Hormuz hits at theheart of the region’s oil import-dependent economies.

While the violence onlydirectly jolted two countries inthe region — one of the tar-geted ships was operated by aTokyo-based company, a near-by South Korean-operated ves-sel helped rescue sailors — itwill unnerve major economiesthroughout Asia.

Officials, analysts andmedia commentators on Fridayhammered home the impor-tance of the Strait of Hormuzfor Asia. AP

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Out of the box is thenew norms today.From pearl farm-ing to mushroomfarming, the agri-

culture industry is now attract-ing the youth like never before.There are many reasons whyGen Z is getting hands dirty.The most important — it givesroom to different cost-effectivefarming ideas.

Pranav Bahl, a 28-year-old Delhi-based, HotelManagement graduate, wholeft his job to take forward hisfather’s legacy of mushroomfarming says that he was alwaysinterested in exploring differ-ent varieties of mushroom.

“In 2014, I decided to leavemy hotel industry job andexplore variety of mushroomsand how to grow them. Myfather, Arun Bahl, came upwith this idea in 1987 and hisfirst project was to grow buttonmushrooms. He named itSwadeshi Mushroom Spawn.Swadeshi because he had readan autobiography of MahatmaGandhi — My ExperimentsWith Truth. He was influencedby the Swadeshi Movementthat happened in the early 90s.Spawn means mushroomseeds. We also harvest spawnsand sell them. Hence thename,” he explains.

Though Bahl didn’t facemany challenges to set up hisbusiness, back in 1987, it didnot come easy to his father.“Back then, not many knewabout mushrooms. Coming upwith the idea of mushroomfarming was challenging forhim. With every business ven-ture there are some risks,” hetells you.

But young Bahl who hastasted different mushroomsfrom around the world felt

there was something missing inthem. That is when he came upwith the idea of organic farm-ing and decided to take hisfather’s business ahead bygrowing King Oyster (a varietywhich is high in protein andother nutrients).

The process consists ofseveral steps. A piece of woodis taken and wrapped into apolythene bag. A fungi —mycellium (Pleurotus eryngii)is then put into the wood andleft for 20 to 25 days under coldtemperature, certain amount ofpressure and humidity. Thefungi then starts spreadingand later develops into a bulblike structure. After five to 10days these bulb like structuresdevelop into a fully grownmushroom.

He tells you that King

Oyster is an exotic variety andcost ranges between �1,200 to�1,500 per kg. The texture andshape of this variety differsfrom the common buttonmushroom. The upper half ofit is slightly brown in colourwhile its stem or the lower halfis usual white.

When Bahl started his ven-ture, he was only supplying tobig hotels but his aim is to enterthe niche market now. “Ouraim is to sweep into this mar-ket and reach the consumersdirectly. Though, these mush-rooms are a bit expensive, butonce people will try it there isno reason they will not like it.This mushroom is an alterna-tive for non-vegetarians whoare now vegetarians,” he tellsyou.

Bahl wants to challenge theageold perception that farmingcan only be done in largefields. “I want to let peopleknow that if you want to dosomething unique, there can bemany reasons which willrestrain you from doing it butthere is an adage: Where thereis a will, there is a way. I havestarted this project in a smallroom. The best part of this typeof farming is that it can be donein vertical space. This waymore space can be utilised. I doit on vertical shelves. Each col-umn is divided into five shelvesand each shelf can occupy upto 20 to 22 pieces of wood (inwhich the mushroom grow),”he tells you.

Everyone who want to trytheir hands at mushroom farm-ing must be willing to go a stepahead. “It requires a lot ofpatience and hardwork. It is notrocket science but it requiresknowledge and expertise. Onceyou have this, you are good togo,” he says.

�What is Medically Yours about?It is a web-series based on a

group of students studying med-icine. There is a perception thatthey are fine but they have prob-lems. The show also highlightsthe relationship between stu-dents and teachers. We havetried to keep it as real as possi-

ble.�What is your character.

I play Abir Basu whois fun loving and cheer-ful. He loves music aswell. But he is from amedical family andbelieves in solvingproblems.�What made you stepinto the digital space?

I used to do youth-centric shows. But

nobody makes theseshows any more. Therefore,I decided to step into the

digital space. I am happy tobe a part of the digital spacebecause it is giving me thespace to play characters thatI love. I can relate to youthcontent. There is more toexplore in this space. �You are a dancer. What

does it mean to you?I am very passionate about

it. Though, I started my career asan actor with Dil Dosti Dance, the

reason I signed the show wasbecause my character — SwayamShekhawat —was an avid dancer.Dancing is my first love.

�What inspires you?Many things — people I have

met and those I see on the streets. Itry to learn from them. �How was your experience beinga part of Khatron Ke Khiladi 8?

It was wonderful. It was differ-ent from any show that I have donein the past. I realised that mentalstrength and stability is the key. Ifyour will power is strong then youcan do anything. You have to stoprestraining yourself from doingthings because you are scared.�What made you say yes?

I was a fan of Fear Factor sincechildhood. I have always acted anddanced. This transition was muchneeded. I always wanted to be a partof the show. Fortunately, I got to doit. There was no reason I would say‘no’ to it. I was excited to go on anadventurous journey and exploremore. Moreover, I got a chance to goalone abroad which otherwise Iwouldn’t have. (laughs)�Was there a moment when youfelt out of place?

No. The environment was goodand all the contestants were sup-portive. I bonded well with them.They always motivated me. I loveddoing all the tasks and stunts. I hada great time. �How has your journey been thusfar?

I have learnt a lot. I have grownup — both mentally and physically.I have got to do a lot of varied char-acters. This is the best part of myjourney. I have evolved as an actor.

From Crime Patrol to SavdhaanIndia, there is no stopping when itcomes to crime shows on TV.

While these two are the longest running,there were others too which came andwent. The success of these shows sug-gests that the audience is in love withthe concept. The sense of realism, sto-ryline and the connectivity of the hostswith the audience is whats makes theseshows a success.

However making crime shows isn’teasy. “Brought up with the morality ofthree wise monkeys, embodying theproverbial principle ‘See no evil, hear noevil, speak no evil’, the audience needa social justification to see a crime show.Tales of crimes need to have a moral les-son attached to them. In a paradoxicalway the crime show has to make theviewer secure, while he watches the vio-lent stories,” Umesh Bist, show runnerand creative director, Big Synergy says.

According to a study conducted, themajority of viewers watching crimeshows are women, who feel secure intheir home space, watching a crimeshow, as they feel it forewarns them ofthe bad things happening to others andprepares them with the knowledge toprotect themselves in case of anyunforeseen eventuality.

“Here in lies the challenge and thesecret of designing a crime show. Thestories selected have to be from theirrelatable world. The characters in thestory have to be familiar. The social,economical issues the characters dealwith in the story have to be their veryown. But there is a catch. With fewexceptions, in the real world the storiesof crime are dry and boring. We haveto face the challenge of narrating themin an entertaining way. It requirescraft, experience and talent to come outwith a package of entertaining crimestories with a moral lesson which seemto be real,” Bist tells you.

The USP of Savdhaan India is that

it not only highlights the crime but alsoput light on how the survivor/victimfightsback the crime.

Rabindra Choubey, Director andProducer, Crime Patrol, GaonwalaCreation says that creating a show fromthe scratch is a challenging task.

“Creating a show from the scratchis challenging and with crime shows, thedifficulties of the makers doubles,” hesays.

First, the niche and loyal audiencefor crime shows on TV and those whobinge on similar crime series on web are

mostly the same. Our priority is to makeconcepts at par with those n number ofseries available on web. But on the hind-side, we also have to abide by the rulesand regulations of TV as all TV shows,even crime, are served for family view-ing. Second big challenge for any crimeshow concept is relevance. Crime does-n’t touch all normal peoples’ lives,while romance and drama toucheseveryone. As crime show makers live inan extra pressure to make our conceptrelevant to the audience.

There has been a visible and obvi-

ous change that is still ongoing in thehistory of crime shows. From the kindof shows that were available five yearsback — if you look at the plethora ofoptions available today, the change isnothing but drastic.

Choubey has a say on the contro-versy around whether the crime showsinspires the criminals to commit crime.

“Whatever shows we make — wealways show the story of how thecriminal is brought to justice. Crimenever pays — in reel or real life. Doeswatching a ‘rags to riches’ movie makeevery viewer a millionaire? The answeris no. The seed of crime is in the indi-vidual’s mentality. The intent of anycrime is a personal motive — developedby an individual himself. No maker everintends to inspire criminals. We try andbring reality to our viewer’s screen andshow them the ugly side of humanity,in hope that these crimes are notrepeated,” Choubey says and tells youthat though a PRO of Gurugram policesaid that the culprits they apprehend-ed accepted that they took inspirationfrom crime shows.

But blaming the shows for inspiringcriminals to commit a crime is never agood idea. The one who wants to com-mit a crime, he will, regardless of themedium of his inspiration. If not TVshows, he will take inspiration from newschannels, newspapers or just from his surroundings.

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While the latest Men inBlack (MIB) may notbe a patch on the

earlier movies in the seriesand definitely not on Tommylee Jones and Will Smith, itdoesn’t mean that everythingis lost here.

The film has severalmoments which will make you

laugh as also melt your heartwith cute aliens and shudderat the ugly aliens.

Then there is ChrisHemsworth as Agent H(repalcing Will Smith). To seehim step out of his Thor char-acter is strange. One keepshoping to see him beat thebaddies to pulp rather beingbeaten up.

A scene where he is tryingto reach out for a small ham-mer to beat the alien who hashim by the scruff, he funny. As

is the reference to him wear-ing pink pants.

Second, the gadgets arecool. The car and the bike thattakes off at the press of a but-ton will take you on a rollercoaster ride. The CGI used tocreate the cute and ugly aliensis great too.

Finally, the NYC head ofops who is a woman (EmmaThompson) not only looksnatty in black but has witmakes this one watchable.

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Usually movies that involvesanimals are cute and sweeteven though Hollywood is

known to make gruesome filmswith them. Anaconda, Lake Placidand Croc are only some of the hor-ror films that have been made over

the years.But when it comes to anima-

tion — the ‘awaw’ factor can’t beignored and The Secret Life of Pets2 is no different, a sequel. Not thatone has to see or remember theprequel but it helps if you are

familiar with the characters andthe relationship they share.

There are three independenttracks running at the same time —this can be a tad confusing for theyoung minds, but the good is thatthey all converge and tie up in theend. All’s well that ends well.

There are enough moments offurry cuteness, laughs and energythat will keep even the adultshappy. More so if you love cats anddogs.

Over all, the film is perfect forkids’ day out!

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Page 8: €¦ · Mamata Banerjee dispensa-tion on the measures it took in light of the “unabated” and “increasing” incidents of polit-ical violence and resultant deaths since 2016

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Washington: President DonaldTrump has blamed Iran forattacks on oil tankers near thestrategic Strait of Hormuz, buthe also held out hope thatimplicit US threats to use forcewill yield talks with the IslamicRepublic as the Pentagon con-siders beefing up defenses inthe Persian Gulf area.

A day after explosions blewholes in two oil tankers justoutside Iran's territorial waters,rattling international oil mar-kets, the administrationseemed caught between pres-sure to punish Iran and reas-sure Washington's Gulf Araballies without drawing the UScloser to war.

"Iran did it," Trump saidFriday on Fox News Channel's"Fox & Friends."

He didn't offer evidence,but the US military releasedvideo it said showed Iran'sRevolutionary Guard removingan unexploded mine from oneof the oil tankers targeted nearthe Strait of Hormuz, suggest-ing Tehran wanted to cover itstracks.

By pointing the finger atIran, Trump was keeping apublic spotlight on an adver-sary he accuses of terrorism butalso has invited to negotiate.

The approach is similar tohis diplomacy with NorthKorea, which has quieted talk

of war but not yet achieved hisgoal of nuclear disarmament.Iran has shown little sign ofbacking down, creating uncer-tainty about how far theTrump administration can gowith its campaign of increas-ing pressure through sanc-tions.

Iran denied any involve-ment in the attacks and accusedWashington of waging an"Iranophobic campaign" of eco-nomic warfare.

A US Navy team on Fridaywas aboard one of the tankers,the Japanese-owned KokukaCourageous, collecting foren-sic evidence, according to a USofficial who spoke on conditionof anonymity to discuss a sen-sitive operation.

Apparently alluding to theUS video, Trump said Iran's

culpability had been "exposed."He did not say what he intend-ed to do about it but suggest-ed "very tough" US sanctions,including efforts to strangleIranian oil revenues, wouldhave the desired effect.

"They've been told in verystrong terms we want to getthem back to the table," Trumpsaid.

Just a day earlier, the pres-ident took the opposite view,tweeting that it was "too soonto even think about making adeal" with Iran's leaders. "Theyare not ready, and neither arewe!" Trump last year withdrewthe United States from an inter-national agreement to limitIran's nuclear program thatwas signed in 2015 under hispredecessor, President BarackObama. AP

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Hong Kong: Hong Kong'sembattled leader on Saturdaysaid a divisive bill that wouldallow extraditions to Chinawould be "suspended" in a majorclimbdown from her govern-ment after a week of unprece-dented protests.

The city's pro-Beijing leaderCarrie Lam has come underhuge pressure to abandon thecontroversial legislation, includ-ing from her own political alliesand advisers.

"The Government hasdecided to suspend the legisla-tive amendment exercise, restartour communication with allsectors of society, do more...Work and listen to differentviews of society," Lam told

reporters on Saturday."We have no intention to set

a deadline for this work andpromise to report to and consultmembers of the legislative coun-cil on security before we decideon the next step forward." Theinternational finance hub wasrocked by the worst political vio-lence since its 1997 handover toChina on Wednesday as tens ofthousands of protesters were dis-persed by riot police firing teargas and rubber bullets.

As criticism mounted, signsalso emerged of a growing dis-comfort among CommunistParty leaders in Beijing, and Lamheld her press conference onSaturday at the sameGovernment complex that was

besieged by protesters earlier inthe week. The South ChinaMorning Post said Lam held anemergency meeting on Fridaynight with her advisers whileChinese officials were also meet-ing in the nearby city ofShenzhen to map a way out ofthe impasse. "I feel deep sorrowand regret that the deficienciesin our work and various otherfactors have stirred up substan-tial controversies and disputes in

society following the relativelycalm periods of the past twoyears," Lam said.

On Friday she found herselffacing growing calls from with-in her own political camp toreverse course and tamp downspiralling public anger — includ-ing from hardline pro-Beijinglawmakers. "Shouldn't (we) coolthe citizens down? I think topostpone it for a little bit is nota bad thing. At this moment, the

Government should self-exam-ine," Ann Chiang, a hardcorepro-Beijing lawmaker, told i-Cable News.

But others have warnedagainst Lam bending to theprotesters. "If the Governmentcaves in to violence and exter-nal influences, in the long runthat would also make HongKong ungovernable," pro-Beijing lawmaker Regina Ip toldreporters. AFP

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Beijing: China on Saturdaysaid it supports the Hong Kongleader's decision to suspend acontroversial bill that wouldallow extraditions to China, fol-lowing massive protests.

About an hour after HongKong Chief Executive of CarrieLam announced the suspensionof the Fugitive Offenders andMutual Legal Assistance inCriminal Matters Legislation(Amendment) Bill 2019, fol-lowing sustained protests fromlakhs of people an official state-ment here expressed China'sbacking for Lam and her deci-sion to back down.

"We note that ChiefExecutive Carrie Lamannounced that the Hong Kong

Special Administrative Region(SAR) government decided tosuspend work on the FugitiveOffenders and Mutual LegalAssistance in Criminal MattersLegislation (Amendment) Bill2019," Chinese ForeignMinistry spokesman GengShuang said in statement.

China also expressedBeijing's backing for the belea-guered Lam who faced heavycriticism from local people,specially students, for attempt-ing to push the bill disregard-ing massive protests.

"The Chinese CentralGovernment expresses its sup-port, respect and understand-ing for the SAR government'sdecision and will continue its

staunch support for ChiefExecutive Carrie Lam and theSAR government in governingHong Kong in accordance withlaw and upholding the SAR'sprosperity and stability withpeople from all sectors," Gengsaid.

He said China continued torespect and faithfully imple-menting the "one country, twosystems" policy under whichHong Kong was return fromBritish rule to China in 1997.

The former British colonyis being governed a highdegree of autonomy and therights and freedoms of HongKong residents have been fullyguaranteed according to law,he said. PTI

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Hong Kong: Hong Kong isbracing for another mass rallySunday as public anger seethesfollowing unprecedentedclashes between protesters andpolice over a controversialextradition law, despite aclimbdown by the city's embat-tled leader.

Organisers are hoping foranother mammoth turnout asthey vowed to keep pressure onchief executive Carrie Lam,who suspended work on thehugely divisive bill on Saturdayafter days of mounting pres-

sure, saying she had misjudgedthe public mood.

Critics fear the Beijing-backed law will tangle peopleup in China's notoriouslyopaque and politicised courts aswell as hammer the city's rep-utation as a safe business hub.

The international financehub was rocked by the worstpolitical violence since its 1997handover to China onWednesday as tens of thou-sands of protesters were dis-persed by riot police firing teargas and rubber bullets. AFP

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Beirut: At least 35 combattantsincluding 26 pro-regime forceswere killed on Saturday inclashes and air strikes thaterupted at dawn in northwest-ern Syria, a war monitor said.

The flare-up came asRussian-backed regime forcestried to retake two villagesseized by jihadists and alliedrebels earlier this month, theBritain-based SyrianObservatory for Human Rightssaid.

"Since this morning, theSyrian regime and allied fight-ers have launched five failedattempts to regain control ofJibine and Tal Maleh in north-western Hama province," saidObservatory head Rami AbdelRahman.

Syrian regime and Russianair strikes killed nine jihadistsand rebel fighters, the warmonitor said.

Ensuing clashes in the

north of Hama province left 26pro-regime forces dead, includ-ing eight who were killed in amine explosion, theObservatory said.

The Idlib region of somethree million people is sup-posed to be protected from amassive regime offensive by abuffer zone deal that Russiaand Turkey signed inSeptember.

But it was never fullyimplemented, as jihadistsrefused to withdraw from aplanned demilitarised zone.

In January, the HayatTahrir al-Sham alliance led bySyria's former Al-Qaeda affil-iate extended its administrativecontrol over the region, whichincludes most of Idlib provinceas well as adjacent slivers ofLatakia, Hama and Aleppoprovinces.

The Syrian Governmentand Russia have upped their

bombardment of the regionsince late April, killing morethan 360 civilians, according tothe Observatory.

Turkey said Friday that itdid not accept Russia's "excuse"that it had no ability to stop theSyrian regime's continuedbombardments in the last rebelbastion of Idlib.

"In Syria, who are theregime's guarantors? Russiaand Iran," Foreign MinisterMevlut Cavusoglu told statenews agency Anadolu in atelevised interview.

"Thus we do not accept theexcuse that 'We cannot makethe regime listen to us'," he said.

His comments came asTurkey disagreed with Russiaearlier this week after Moscowclaimed a new ceasefire hadbeen secured in the provincefollowing weeks of regimebombardments — a claim thatwas denied by Ankara. AFP

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Baghdad: Two Iraqi officials say theUnited States has given Iraq a new 90-day extension for an Iran sanctionswaiver allowing Baghdad to importelectricity and natural gas from Tehran.

An Iraqi official told TheAssociated Press on Saturday thatBaghdad was informed about thewaiver during a call the previous daybetween U.S. Secretary of State MikePompeo and Iraqi Prime Minister AdelAbdul-Mahdi.

Another official confirmed thewaiver, saying it will start June 19.

Both officials spoke on conditionof anonymity as they were not autho-rized to speak to the media.

Iraq's power sector is in disrepairand doesn't generate enough electric-ity to meet domestic demand, espe-cially during the scorching summermonths. AP

���8�"�����0�3�������������������"����������0��%�� Nairobi: Kenyan officials say at least

10 police officers are dead after theirvehicle struck an improvised explosivedevice near the Somali border in asuspected extremist attack.

The officials, who spoke on con-dition of anonymity because they werenot authorised to share the informa-tion, said those killed on Saturday inWajir County were among 13 officerswho were pursuing extremists whohad kidnapped police reservists.

Police on Friday said an unknownnumber of gunmen stormed Kontoncenter in Wajir East and kidnappedthree reservists.

There was no claim of responsi-bility for the latest attack.

The Somalia-based al-Shababextremist group often targets Kenyansecurity forces, vowing retributionafter Kenya deployed troops toSomalia in 2011 to combat theextremists. AP

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Kathmandu: Thousands of peoplebelonging to the Newar communitystaged anti-government protests onSaturday, demanding withdrawal of acontroversial bill, which they say has pro-visions in favour of land mafias and couldjeopardise Sanatan Hindu culture andtradition.

Around 10,000 people from Newarcommunity rallied in the major parts ofthe city Saturday morning raising slogansagainst the Oli Government demandingthat the Government withdraw theGuthi bill from the Parliament.

The K P Sharma Oli-led CommunistParty Government has tabled the bill inParliament to amend the Guthi Act andnationalise both public and privateguthis and regulate all religious sitesunder a powerful commission.

Guthis are socio-economic institu-tions (trusts), both public and private,that fund their obligations from incomesfrom cultivated or leased land assets.Depending on their obligations, guthis

fulfil religious, public service or socialroles and could either involve membersfrom a common lineage, or several.

"Don't destroy heritage," "scrap GuthiBill", "Our culture our identity", "downwith KP Oli government," "stop invasionof Sanatana Dharma", read the placardsthe protestors carried during the rally.

"Our Sanatan Dharma and culturecould be jeopardised if the Bill, tabled bythe Communist Party led government inParliament, gets endorsed," said PavitraBajracharya a Newar activist and centralmember of Federal Socialist Party Nepal,which is also part of the ruling coalition.

The aim of the bill is to snatch the pub-lic and private land allocated for culturaltrusts and distribute to others encroach-ing our age cultural heritages, he said.

Thousands of people also organisedtorch lit rallies in neighbouring Lalitpurand Bhaktaur districts on Friday night tooppose the Government's move toendorse the Bill that would destroycenturies old Sanatan culture. PTI

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Kiev: A Ukrainian MP withties to Russia has bought anational Ukrainian news chan-nel, prompting a round of res-ignations from journalists whofear his ownership will meancoverage influenced byMoscow.

Taras Kozak of the pro-Moscow party "OppositionPlatform" already owned twonational TV stations before hetook over the channel ZIK thisweek. Kozak is a close ally ofpolitician Viktor Medvedchuk,a controversial figure inUkraine because of his closeties to Russian PresidentVladimir Putin while Kiev isfighting a Moscow-backed sep-aratist war.

Journalist RomanNedzelskiy, one of five jour-nalists to resign from the chan-nel along with its CEO, saidMedvedchuk now essentiallycontrols ZIK. "Tomorrow I willbe on the air with the lastbroadcast of the weekly show'Details' and then I will startlooking for a job," he said onFacebook late Friday.

"Medvedchuk is an enemyof my country, a murderer ofboth the past and the future,"his colleague Vakhtang Kipianiwrote as he announced his res-ignation. Mustafa Nayyem, aUkrainian MP, wrote on socialmedia that the takeover wouldbe a challenge for new PresidentVolodymyr Zelensky. AFP

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London: A British-Iranianwoman jailed in Tehran formore than three years has beguna hunger strike to protest herdetention, her husband said onSaturday.

Richard Ratcliffe saidNazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe hastold judicial officials she willrefuse food but will drink wateruntil she is granted "uncondi-tional release." Ratcliffe said hewould hold a vigil outside Iran'sLondon embassy, and would fastin support of his wife.

Ratcliffe said his wife "hadvowed that if we passed (daugh-ter) Gabriella's fifth birthdaywith her still inside, then shewould do something — to markto both Governments thatenough is enough. This really

has gone on too long." Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who worked for thecharity arm of news agencyThomson Reuters, was detainedat Tehran airport in April 2016on charges of plotting against theIranian Govt. Her family deniesthe allegations.High-level diplo-matic attempts to secure herrelease have so far failed. ForeignSecretary Jeremy Hunt granted40-year-old Zaghari-Ratcliffediplomatic protection in March,but Iranian officials refuse to rec-ognize her dual nationality. Thehunger strike comes amidheightened tensions betweenthe West and Iran, which theU.S. And U.K. Blame for attackson two oil tankers in the Gulf ofOman this week. Iran deniesinvolvement. AP

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Harare: With Zimbabwe's econ-omy in shambles and politicaltensions rising, leaving the coun-try seems the best option formany who are desperate for jobs.But those dreams often end atthe passport office, which does-n't have enough foreign cur-rency to import proper paperand ink.

A passport now takes no lessthan a year to be issued. Anemergency passport can takemonths amid a backlog of280,000 applications, nevermind recent ones.

Zimbabweans at the mainoffice in the capital, Harare, havetaken to sleeping in line for anychance at being served the fol-lowing day — and that's just tosubmit an application.

Several millionZimbabweans already left forneighboring South Africa andother countries during years ofeconomic turmoil under formerleader Robert Mugabe. The

hardships have only deepenedunder current PresidentEmmerson Mnangagwa, whotook over after Mugabe's forcedresignation in late 2017.

The new Government's slo-gan "austerity for prosperity"now has a bitter ring.Unemployment is rampant andinflation is at 75%, the highestsince 2009, when Zimbabwe'scurrency collapsed under theweight of hyperinflation.

Rapid devaluation of thelocal currency against the USdollar — also used as officialcurrency — has seen basic itemssuch as cooking oil changingprices several times a day. Thehealth sector is collapsing, forc-ing those who can afford it toseek treatment abroad.

At the passport office, thedesperation to escape is all tooclear. "Guys, it's either we jumpthe queue or we will have tojump the border," one teenagertold a group of friends plotting

to sneak to the front of the line.Another teen, 19-year-old

Brian Ndlovu, said coming tothe office makes him "feel likethere is really no way out of thiscountry. We are trapped." The

teens' plot to jump the queuefailed, in large part becausethose at the front had campedthere for days and knew eachother by name. Emma Chirwasaid she only reached the front

of the line because she hadbeen sleeping outside the officesince June 5. "I was No. 34 onFriday. They served no one. OnThursday, they served 12 peo-ple," she said, huddled in a

blanket on Sunday night.In the biting cold of the

Southern Hemisphere's winter,dozens of people, includingwomen with toddlers, slept oncardboard boxes or in the dust,holding their places. Aroundmidnight, one man parked hismotorbike and joined his wife inblankets on the line. Peoplelaughed.

Some huddled around afire of scrap wood taken fromthe grounds of an adjacentschool. A small enterprise hasemerged, with some young menholding places in the line for afee. Others sell pens, food itemsand foreign currency while agenerator powered a photocopymachine. By daylight, the linesnaked for more than a kilome-ter and included school childrenin uniform. A preacher holdinga Bible took advantage of thecrowd to deliver sermons aboutresilience and hope. But formany, the spirit is slipping.

For those seeking an emer-gency passport, the task requiresmultiple lines and a week ofsleeping outside the office. Oneapplies for an ordinary passport,then waits for a chance toupgrade the application to anemergency passport. Those whoare booked for a date in 2020have to join another line to pleadfor an earlier date.

The delays are due to a lackof foreign currency to importspecial paper, ink and othermaterials, as well as machinebreakdowns, according to thenational passport agency's reg-istrar-general, ClemenceMasango. The ZimbabweHuman Rights Commission, agovernment body, has describedthe passport crisis as "a majorhuman rights challenge" andlaunched an investigation. Inresponse, officials are promisingchange. "We have sourced theforeign currency, and themachine is now working, so the

backlog will be cleared soon. Wehave to bring dignity to our peo-ple," Home Affairs MinisterCain Mathema told TheAssociated Press on Wednesday,vowing "a return to normalcy"in a month.

But for those badly in needof a legal way out of Zimbabwe,such official statements count forlittle without action.

In a busy, cramped corridor,people clutching envelopes wait-ed in yet another line outsidewhat they mockingly called the"mercy office." It is where theyplead with senior officials thattheir situations are dire enoughfor their emergency passportapplications to be processed indays, not months.

One woman said the dateshe can upgrade her passportapplication to an emergencyone is May 2020. "My motherneeds an urgent medical oper-ation in India," she said. "She willbe dead by then." AP

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�How tough is it for Indiato prepare and plan for anunpredictable side likePakistan?

We know they have tal-ent, but we play well as ateam. In the first two gameswe gave clinical performancesand focused on what we needto do. We're not focusingtoo much on what the oppo-sition has to do or what it willbring to the table. We need tobelieve in our strengths.If weplay well as a team we canbeat any side in the world.That's the type of confidencewe have carried in the firsttwo games and we want tocontinue in the same mannerin the next whatever cominggames we have.

�Considering Pakistan'sproficiency against spinnersand the wicket, any strategicchanges needed?

The conditions and thelength of the game will makeus think about a few combi-nations. The kind of spinnersand the kind of bowlers wehave, it's difficult for anyteam to just come out andattack these guys. There's acertain level of risk involvedwhen you have world class

bowlers bowling at you.We need to focus on the

combination we're comfort-able with because we bat allthe players in our team andexpect them to put in perfor-mances and execute whatthey are best known for. Thelength of the game and look-ing at the conditions, we willdefinitely think of a few com-binations.

�Do you have to plan some-thing different for Pakistan?

We have to be flexible.We can't be rigid in ourapproach because if the con-ditions are different fromwhat we played in the lastgame then we'll have to thinkof different combinations,areas to strengthen in thebowling attack. If pacebecomes a more importantoption, we'll look to explorethat.If not, if the length of thegame is going to be full andwe expect the game to be 50overs both sides, then we'llprobably think of anothercombination. We'll have tosee how today pans out, howtomorrow the conditions are.All players are in a zone to beready to play, so that helps inselecting the combinationyou need, depending on theconditions.�Who's the real threat in

the Pakistan team for youconsidering the weather?

We're not focusing onthe opposition, so for us noone's a threat. No one playermatters more than the other.It's about going into the parkas the Indian cricket teamand taking on whichever

team is in front of you. If weplay well, we can beat any sidein the world. If you don't,teams are going beat you.That's how simple the gameof cricket is, and should be.

In our minds, nothingchanges according to theopposition. We're only

focused on playing the type ofcricket we're known for, notsingling out any player fromthe opposition.

�Any message for the fans?For us, a professional

approach is most important.We can't get too emotional orexcited. But for the fans,looking at the atmosphereand frenzy around the game,I wouldn't say it's easy tothink like a player. The fans'should enjoy the atmosphere,the occasion the way theywant to and the way it's beenenjoyed for years, but theplayers obviously have tomaintain the mindset whichwe have for years approach-ing any game, whether it'sagainst Pakistan, Australia,England or South Africa. Weneed to go out, be profession-al and execute what we'reexpected to.

�We have not played thisteam very often. How muchof a challenge that is?

I don't see it as a massivechallenge because even theteams that you know well,you have to play good crick-et against. If you play goodcricket, if you do the basicsbetter than the opponent,then invariably you win,

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Yeah… no pressure at all, only 1.5 bil-lion people waiting for you to win,"said Hardik Pandya the other day in

his usual laconic manner. But that quite wellsummarises the traditional frenzy aroundany high voltage India-Pakistan clash, moreso in the World Cup, even if emerging states-man Virat Kohli refuses to rise to the baitand add some of his own banter to the occa-sion.

With the match rated as big asFootball World Cup Final with a 1.5 billionviewership count, it is quite unusual —and unfortunate — that all the mid-fieldcontest, combination, chirping,strategizing and what not kind of excitingtalk has taken a backseat to the moremundane and entirely unrequired chanceof rain cutting short the proceedings todaywhen a well sorted India high on self-belief, performance and wins, meet arelatively new, cornered and edgy Pakistanfacing near ouster from the tournament.

Kohli says that a 50-over both sidesmatch would be outstanding forcombination and strategy, but flexibilitywould be required if the rain cuts it short,of which chances are high. As per the lateston the weather chart - which has beenchanging stance since morning — there isnow a 53 per cent rain chance at 10 am and11 am with a 51 per cent chance and anequal chance at 3 pm, for at least an hour.All through, there will be a cloud coverover the venue, with gentle wind. Thematch is slated to begin at 10.30 am localtime.

How much of a truncated contest itwill become remains to be discussed inemergent morning huddles in both thedressing rooms, but with the kind ofconditions in the air, a three-man pacebattery with the inclusion of MohammedSami is a distinct possibility. "Bumrah andBhuvi are bowling well. It is important forthem to stay in prime condition and themental side of things will take care of itself,more so where conditions are like this,they'll get a lot more help than the first twogames," skipper Virat Kohli said at his pre-match Press conference.

Statistics tell you, and the entire worldquotes them with joy and concerndepending on which side of the border thechirp is coming from, Pakistan is yet torecord a victory against India in a World

Cup. They broke this traditional ICC eventbarrier in the Champions Trophy Finalwhich they won, but as their coach MickeyArthur says, "that was a long time ago."

More than anything in a game of thisproportion, where emotions get overlystoked, especially in young dressing roomson either side, the need is to draw fromfocus more than precedent, calm morethan passion and self-belief over all else.

Kohli knows that Aamir is in topgear having torn through theAustralians with his fifer and Wahabcomes with his own brand of pace andrisk. But he, like Arthur, has also seenthat the three disciplines of batting,bowling and fielding are yet to cometogether for the green brigade. WhileArthur is looking at creating havocupfront to unsettle the famed Indianbatting order, Kohli is confident thatthe shock of a seasoned ShikharDhawan being unavailable would be

duly dealt with by KL Rahul who is inkeen nick.

The regimen is the same as always:See through the first 10 overs, build upa score that the bowlers can defend andthen wait for the excellence of the armdepartment to play through theopponents. On a brown top, there arebrownie points for the likes of RohitSharma and Kohli himself who scored ascintillating ton the last time the twomet in the World Cup at Adelaide.Neither has picked up niggle or rust inthe contravening four years. Add to thatthe fast and furious Hardik Pandya,who fired away in the nets on matcheve, and master finisher in M S Dhoni,and all one needs is a plan that works, abelief that propels it and conditions thatgive India the wings to fly to anothertwo points.

Hype or not, in the end, it is justabout two points, like from any other

game, isn't it? The tournament will goon and tomorrow will be yet anotherday for Kohli. For Pakistan skipperSarfaraz Ahmed though, a defeat wouldmean, well, Gone With The Wind,without the Scarlet O Hara kind ofoptimism in defeat and misery.

�>����India: Virat Kohli (captain), KL Rahul,Rohit Sharma, Vijay Shankar, MS Dhoni(wk), Hardik Pandya, Kedar Jadhav,Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal,Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah,Mohmmed Shami, Dinesh Karthik,Ravindra Jadeja, Shikhar Dhawan.Pakistan: Sarfaraz Ahmed (captain),Fakhar Zaman, Imam ul Haq, BabarAzam, Haris Sohail, Hasan Ali, ShahdabKhan, Mohammed Hafeez, MohammedHasnain, Shaheen Shah Afridi, WahabRiaz, Mohammed Aamir, Shoaib Malik,Imad Wasim, Asif Ali.

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How big an occasion it is forthe Pakistani team to seek a

win against India came throughin their coach Mickey Arthur'spre-match Press conference.

“I’m telling our players in thedressing room, you could be ahero tomorrow. Your careers aregoing to be defined by a momentin the game. You do somethingincredible tomorrow, you'll beremembered forever. Our kind ofmantra is how do you want to beremembered? We've got 15incredible cricketers in thatdressing room, and we keepstressing to them, how do youwant to be remembered? You'rethe Class of 2019. What are theygoing to say about you in histo-ry? And tomorrow presents anunbelievable opportunity forthese guys to really make amark," he said.

He also talked about theyoungest team in the WorldCup yet to put their three disci-plines together. Which means,Pakistan has had a bad matchwith fielding, something thattheir skipper blamed the defeat

against Australia on; when theirbowlers performed, their bats-men fizzled out. And the restwent down the drain due to rain.

In their opener, they werebowled out for 105 by the WestIndies and lost their fourthmatch in the tournament toAustralia by 41 runs. They carry3 points from four matcheswhich has pushed them intofamiliar do or die corner. In fourmatches played thus far, one wasrained out and only one won, theone against the hosts England.

"The opportunities have allbeen there. We are yet to grabthem," Arthur said, hoping thatit all comes together on Sundaywhen they meet eternal rivalsIndia in their bid to stay in thetournament. Only, Arthurknows but ignores the fact thatIndia has moved to the top of theladder in cricket even as Pakistanhas struggled to stay in the biggame with a convulsive admin-istration and a high attrition rate,not to mention the squeezedresources, as compared to Indiawhich has gained superpowerstatus with a cash-rich CricketBoard.

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If the West Indies want to win thisWorld Cup then now is the time forthem to come out fighting and

show what they are made of.Defeats and bad days are always

going to happen in a tournament likethis, and now we just have to hope thatthe West Indies have got all of theirs outof the way.

I still think they have got the fire-power in both their batting and bowl-ing to go all the way but the pressureis building.

They need to win nearly everygroup game from here on in if they areto have a chance of making the semi-finals.

Eleven points will probably beenough to get a Team into the top four,and considering they still have the likesof New Zealand and India to play, it isnow or never.

The defeat to England will have dis-appointed them because that was a hugegame.

They picked a bad time to havetheir worst batting display of the tour-nament so far.

Once you have got past the best ofthe England bowling attack, you real-ly shouldn't be giving your wickets away

to a part-timer like Joe Root. He issomeone you should be looking to milkall day long.

The two youngsters ShimronHetmyer and Nicholas Pooran had totry and rebuild the innings and gave ita pretty good effort.

Pooran in particular has reallyimpressed me so far this tournament,but we shouldn't be asking two youngguys to do it all.

The rest of the batsmen left themhigh and dry, and there was ampleopportunity there on a Southamptonpitch that didn't have too much devilin it.

There is a lot of power in that bat-ting line-up but maybe we are missingsomeone who can stick around. In myday we had Larry Gomes who couldplay that role.

Maybe they missed a trick by notchoosing someone in the squad with theall-round skills who can play the rolelike Moeen Ali plays for England andfilling that extra batting place whichWest Indies sorely needs.

Royston Chase would fill that rolefor West Indies because he can also offera bit of spin as well and can anchor aninnings with the bat.

The bowlers need to have a bit ofa re-think as well.

They can't go into every gamethinking they are just going to blastteams out like they did Pakistan.

They need to be able to read theconditions, adapt to their opponentsand the pitches put in front of them.

It's all very well bowling short all thetime, but the key to short bowling is theline as well as the length - you need tobe asking questions of the batsmen andyesterday they weren't able to do that.

But all is not lost just yet. JasonHolder has got to try and rally thetroops and get them back on track.They started well in this tournamentand are still in there fighting.

Bangladesh are up next on Mondayand they are no pushovers - they beatthe West Indies twice in a Tri-Seriesvery recently, have beaten South Africain this tournament already and madea very good fist of chasing down a hugetotal against England.

It's a must-win clash for both sides- Bangladesh will be feeling very goodabout their game and it's up to the WestIndies to stand up and be counted.

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Bangladesh fast bowling coachCourtney Walsh expects his

team to come back strongly as theytake on West Indies in their fifthgame of the ICC Men's World Cupin Taunton on Monday.

Bangladesh had a promisingstart in the tournament, beatingSouth Africa first and then nearlypulling off a close finish againstNew Zealand at The Oval.However, the Mashrafe Mortaza ledside went down by 106 runs againstEngland, before their next gameagainst Sri Lanka got washed out.Walsh seemed confident of histeam putting up a collective effortagainst West Indies - a side theydefeated thrice in the recently con-cluded tri-series in Ireland.

"We were very consistent inevery department right throughoutthat tri-nation [series]," Walsh toldreporters in Taunton. "We havebeen hampered a little bit by theweather here. It is out of our con-trol. If we can get the consistencyin the next couple of games, whoknows what can happen?"

Walsh viewed Chris Gayle andAndre Russell as potential threatsfor the Monday's clash. "We arecoming up with some ideas andplans looking at their current game.

"They are two dangerous play-ers we have to try to restrict, andget them out at the same time to

have more control of the game. Wewill be focused on their team itself,because they have very good play-ers in their team as well. I am surewe can perform as a team againstWest Indies."

Bangladesh have had the bet-ter of West Indies in recent times,winning seven of the last ten gamesincluding a bilateral series tri-umph last July.

"We have to do it all over again.We will be looking in the contextof the game itself. We will be see-ing players who didn't come toBangladesh or play against us in theWest Indies. They are probably fullstrength. We have been playingconsistently well against WestIndies."

The former West Indian fast

bowling great who took 746 inter-national wickets in a career span-ning nearly two decades, said thatconsistency and discipline are thekeys to success, after Bangladeshconceded 386 runs against England.

"You have to have pace some-times but for me, consistency, con-trol and execution is more impor-tant. If you don't have the 140-150kph [pace], then you have tocompensate [for] that. We have cer-tainly been consistent, hitting theright areas and getting good vari-ation. The guys have been workinghard but you will have bad gameshere and there. Consistency is thekey for us, and try to get good vari-ation," he concluded.

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Shimron Hetmyer insists his fledgling part-nership with Nicholas Pooran could bear

fruit for years to come after the West Indiesduo dug deep against an England onslaught.

The pair put on 89 for the fourth wicketin the West Indies' eight-wicket defeat, battingmaturely and patiently while under the cosh.

Hetmyer, 22, has four ODI centuriesalready and guided the West Indies througha difficult 16 overs alongside Pooran — withthe pair coming together at 55-3.

He undid all his hard work by playing aloose shot to Joe Root on 39, while Pooranwent on to make 63 in the Windies’ overall 212.

But the signs were still encouraging andHetmyer believes the pair can score plentytogether again.

“Batting with Nicholas is very comfortablefor me because we played in the under-19stogether and then in the CPL [CaribbeanPremier League] we played together too, so Ihave got to know him a little better at thecrease,” he said.

“I think I was trying to hit the ball at onestage and he just came up to me and said let’sjust try to time it, not muscle it and from thereit came out a bit better.

“For me, my role does not change. I haveto go out and whatever role I need to play, itis there for me. I will try to execute as muchas possible.

“Today did not come off like I would haveliked or the team would have liked but we hadsome positives, we had a partnership andwent from strength to strength in the mid-dle overs,

“We did come out on the wrong end oftoday’s game but I just tried to play my role

and pick up the slack if we had a good startand build a partnership.”

The West Indies have now lost two oftheir four matches, while Monday’s game withSouth Africa was washed-out, leaving theirwin against Pakistan as their sole success sofar.

The semi-finals are not yet out of reachbut Monday's clash with Bangladesh inTaunton is pivotal to their chances andHetmyer insists they will deliver.

“I am very confident. It happens in thesetypes of competitions, you go down and it isall about how you pick yourself up for thenext game,” he said.

“All the guys are in good spirits and weare looking ahead and looking forward to thenext game.”� ����5�B�����(�������� � ��� ��-C�44��79DE

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Pakistan bowlers should goafter a vulnerable Indian

middle order when the twoteams clash in the marqueeWorld Cup game on Sunday,says former Pakistan captainWasim Akram.

Akram, hero of many Indo-Pak cricketing battles, is hope-ful that Mohammed Amir ledattack would do well to find thechinks in the Indian middle-order.

"India have a solid toporder. Not only there is Virat(Kohli) but there's also Rohit(Sharma). But I have a feelingthat middle order isn't that set-tled. Pakistan bowlers shouldtry to cash in on that aspect,"Akram said.

Amir's presence in the sideis a big positive feels Akram.The left arm pacer took 5 for 30

against Australia albeit in alost cause.

"I don't know why did theydrop Amir in the first place. Hispresence even when he is not at

his best is important. He is asenior bowler now and I believehe has a duty to guide theyoungsters," Akram said.

He has confidence in Babar

Azam but wouldn't like com-parisons with Virat Kohli.

"Babar Azam is a very tal-ented batsman and it's good tosee his consistency. He should-n't be compared to Virat and lethim play freely."

The 'Sultan of Swing' ishowever disappointed thatyoung fast bowlers these daysdon't know the use of wrists.

"Aajkal ke ladke wristskahaan maarte hain. (Bowlersnowadays don't use theirwrists). How do you evenexpect bowlers to get swing?" hequestioned.

Two new balls from bothends have been quite a deterrentfor bowlers but the legendaryWasim Akram is of the opinionthat the white Dukes used dur-ing the 1999 edition was betterfor seamers.

Akram, Shoaib Akhtar,Abdul Razzaq and Azhar

Mahmood made life difficultfor the opposition during thatWorld Cup in England wherePakistan reached the finals.

"The seam of the kookabur-ra ball is not pronounced and Ihave always found Dukes to bethe best ball. I don't know whythe ICC had done away with theDuke Whites. Those ballswould have certainly swungmore," Akram said.

India must not entertainthoughts that they would startfavourites in the marquee WorldCup clash against Pakistan,warned stalwarts SouravGanguly and Sachin Tendulkar.

Ganguly said the Indianteam perhaps made the mistakeof taking Pakistan lightly in the2017 Champions Trophy finaland had to bite the dust.

"India needs to be verycareful, don't go into this gamethinking they are the favourites.

I think they did that the last timein 2017 in the ICC ChampionsTrophy finals, and Pakistan beatthem hands down. It's going tobe a great game of cricket," com-mented Ganguly as an expert forStar Sports ahead of the game.

Tendulkar also said thatIndia cannot afford to take thetraditional rivals lightly.

"Pakistan has always beenunpredictable, and they are adangerous side - so there is noway the Indian team is going totake them lightly. Every step thatthe Indian team takes forward,we would want to be 100% sureof what we are doing, and it iswell thought and well planned,"he said.

The hype and interest anIndia-Pakistan cricket matchgenerates is surreal and bothTendukar and Ganguly agreedthat "it is more than just acricket match".

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Unless someone creates a match-winning magical performance all

by himself. Familiar oppositions,unfamiliar oppositions don't matterbecause you understand that if youdon't play well, you don't win, and ifyou play well, you win against any-one. If we do our strengths well it willbe good enough for anyone in theworld. We need to have that belief.

�When it is a game against Pakistanwhat do you tell your young camp?

We have discussed nothing differ-ent from the time we came toEngland. The mood in the dressingroom hasn't changed. We understandthat any game you play for your coun-

try can be emotional, adrenalinefilled, so no one game is more impor-tant or more special for us than theother.We are a top side in the worldbecause of the cricket we play and wealways need to remember that.

�You have had outstanding successunder pressure. But how difficult isit as a captain to keep the youngstersaway from the hustle-bustle of anIndo-Pak meet?

The best way to approach some-thing like this is to understand thatthe game starts tomorrow at a certaintime and it finishes at a certain time,it's not going to last a lifetime,whether you do well or don't. The

tournament goes on.As a unit, 11guys share responsibility. That's beenour message from day one.

�If it rains, then what?It's in no one's hands. We've

been in these situations many times.We'll just have to wait and see howthe weather pans out. Whateveramount of game we get - a full gamewould be outstanding - we have to bementally ready to go in there and dowhat we need to do.

�Fast bowlers haven't had an idealpreparation for this big game….

They are in a good head spaceand have bowled well in the first two

games. If physically they can stayfresh and their bodies are feelinggood, mentally they're just fine. Theyshould take care of their bodies,recovery and energy levels.Bumrahand Bhuvi are bowling well. It isimportant for them to stay in primecondition and the mental side ofthings will take care of itself, more sowhere conditions are like this, they'llget a lot more help than the first twogames.

�Can you take us through sometense and funny moments againstPakistan on field?

Tense was Champions Trophy2009 where Yuvi fractured a finger

and I was literally flown in and in twodays' time I was playing againstPakistan at Centurion. I hadn't expe-rienced anything like that beforeand I played a very bad shot. Icouldn't sleep until 6 am. I waslooking at the ceiling and thinking,that's it, I've flown in and now I'm fin-ished. There have been many funnymoments over the years The incidenthappened during the World Cup inMohali I can't really elaborate here.That was quite funny.It was involv-ing Shahid Afridi and Wahab. I wasstanding with the strikers, and I hearda conversation, which as I say, I can'telaborate here, but in a high-pressuregame, that made me laugh.

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Skipper Aaron Finch strokedhis way to a majestic centuryas defending champions

Australia inched closer to thesemifinal berth with a crushing 87-run win over Sri Lanka in theirWorld Cup fixture here Saturday.

Finch forged two crucial part-nerships -- 80 with his openingpartner David Warner (26) and 173with Steve Smith (73 off 59) for thethird wicket — in his 132-ball 153knock. It was his 14th ODI hun-dred which was laced with 15 foursand five sixes, two of them gigan-tic.

Glenn Maxwell then providedthe late charge with an unbeaten25-ball 46 as Australia posted achallenging 334 for 7.

Chasing the total, Sri Lankawere 115 for no loss at one stagebut they squandered the superbstart to be eventually dismissed for247 in 45.5 overs.

Skipper Dimuth Karunaratne(97) was the top-scorer for SriLanka, while his opening partnerKusal Perera (52) also scored a fifty.

Mitchell Starc took four wick-ets, while Kane Richardsonclaimed three and Pat Cumminsscalped two.

This is Australia's fourth winin five matches, having beatenAfghanistan, the West Indies andPakistan while losing to India inthe 10-team tournament.

Sri Lanka, who came into thematch with one win from fourgames after their previous twomatches were washed out, arehowever running out of time aftersuffering their second defeat.

Sri Lanka were off to a flyingstart to their runchase withKarunaratne and Kusal Pererahelping the team post 87 for zeroin 10 overs, the highest total in thepowerplay in the tournament sofar.

The Island nation scored 100in 12.4 overs before Mitchell Starcproduced a breakthrough, cleaningup Perera in the 16th over.

Lahiru Thirimanne (16), whosurvived a couple of run-outchances, brought up the team 150with a square drive but he wascaught behind in the next ball byJason Behrendorff as Sri Lankaslipped to 153 for 2.

Runs dried up after that asAustralia tightened the screws.With pressure mounting,Karunaratne ended up giving astraight catch to Maxwell at gully,just three runs short of his hun-dred.

Two quick wickets next saw SriLanka further slump to 209 for fiveand they never recovered after that.

Earlier, Finch played someexquisite shots to keep the runsflowing even as his opening part-ner Warner found the going tough.

Nuwan Pradeep was first in thefiring line as he was hit for twofours by Finch.

The Australia skipper thenblasted Lasith Malinga for a cou-ple of fours in the seventh overbefore welcoming Thisara Pererawith successive boundaries asAustralia scored 53 in the firstpowerplay.

In the 17th over, Dhananjayade Silva cleaned up Warner whenhe tried to make room for himselfto play a cut shot.

Finch and Usman Khawaja(10) took Australia to hundred in23rd over but the left-handedbatsman perished soon after his

sweep shot was caught by IsuruUdana at deep midwicket.

Smith then joined hands withFinch, who exploded in the 29thover, smashing de Silva out of thepark twice besides a boundary toamass 20 runs off the over.

Smith too dealt in boundariesas the duo brought up the 200 in35.3 overs.

The former skipper complet-ed his fifty in 46 balls, while Finchsmashed Perera over deep squarefor his fifth six of the innings.

Finch and Smith carted Pererafor 18 runs in the 41st over witheach smashing a couple of fours.Smith then deposited Malingaover deep mid-wicket in the nextover.

Udana finally broke the part-nership when he had Finch caughtat cover by Karunaratne off aslower delivery as Australia slippedto 273 for 3 in 42.4 overs.

Malinga then dismissed Smithwith a cracking yorker in the nextover, while Udana showed greatathleticism to run out Alex Careyand Pat Cummins to stem the runflow.

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Leg-spinner Imran Tahirsnared four wickets to trigger

Afghanistan's dramatic battingcollapse as South Africa bundledthem out for 125 in yet anotherrain-affected World Cup matchhere Saturday.

Sent into bat, Afghanistanwere slow and steady to reach 69for 2 at the end of the 20th overwhen rain came for the secondtime and when play resumedafter a break of one hour, theylost four quick wickets for theaddition of just eight runs.

They were reduced to 77 for7 in the 26th over, losing fivewickets in the space of 4.4 overs.

Earlier, the Afghanistaninnings was also halted for 25minutes in the sixth over due torains. After the second raininterruption, the match wasreduced to a 48-over side.

The Afghans did not evenlast the full 48 overs as they wereshot out in 34.1 overs.

South Africa will now chase127 from 48 overs to get theirfirst win in the tournamentafter the target was revisedunder Duckworth/Lewismethod.

Chris Morris chipped inwith three wickets while hispace colleagues AndilePhehlukwayo and KagisoRabada took two and one wick-et respectively as the Afghansgave little fight against theProteas.

Phehlukwayo removed astruggling HashmatullahShahidi (8 off 22 balls) in thefourth ball after the long raininterruption before Tahir tooktwo wickets in the next over, dis-

missing well-set Noor AliZadran (32 off 58 balls) andAsghar Afghan (0) in the spaceof five deliveries.

Phehlukwayo then hadMohammad Nabi (1) in thenext over -- 23rd -- before Tahirgot his third wicket of the day inthe 26th over in the form of cap-tain Gulbadin Naib (5) to leaveAfghanistan innings in disarray.

After a competition amongAfghan batsmen to return to thedressing room, it was number 9and top-scorer Rashid Khan,who delayed the end of Afghaninnings and take them past 100-mark with a 25-ball 35 but hislate fight was too little too late.

He stitched a 34-run standwith wicketkeeper Ikram Alikhil(9 off 33 balls) for the eighthwicket before he was out in the34th over.

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David Warner on Saturday presented a signed team shirtto the Indian origin net bowler Jaykishan Plaha who

was struck on the head by a powerful drive from theAustralian opener.

Warner met Plaha ahead of Australia's game against SriLanka and presented him with an autographed team shirt.

"Last week, Jaykishan Plaha was hit on the head by aDavid Warner drive during an Australia training session,"said a post on the official World Cup Twitter handle.

"Today, Warner met both Jaykishan and his mum beforeplay, presented Jaykishan with an Australia shirt and wishedhim a speedy recovery."

"Hope you recover well. I appreciate your understand-ing," Warner said in the video.

The incident took place ahead of Australia's clash withIndia on Sunday. Australia had immediately stopped theirtraining session as the team's medical staff and paramedicsrushed to attend an injured Plaha. The 22-year-old spentfour nights in a London hospital.

Plaha, who was seen happily chatting with Warner inthe video, thanked the explosive opener for his gesture.

"Warner gave me his match shirt from the World Cup.Really appreciate it. What happened was that I got hit onthe head by David Warner on the front drive," Plaha saidin a video posted on Twitter.

"Glad to be standing here actually. Hope to be back onthe field soon. My dream is to be a professional cricketeras well," he added.

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England skipper Eoin Morgan hasheaped praise on Joe Root, describ-ing the star batsman as the ‘glue’ that

holds the team together.Root hit his second century of the

World Cup on Friday to steer the injury-depleted England to a convincing eight-wicket win over the West Indies and cap-tain Morgan could not have been moreimpressed.

“I am exceptionally pleased,” Morgansaid after the match.

“He’s such an important player for us,he is the glue that holds everythingtogether and probably a side of his battingthat’s got better over the last two or threeyears that people haven’t seen a lot of is hisexpansive game.

“He never seems to be scoring at less

than a run a ball. You look up and he’sgoing at more than a run a ball. It’s excep-tional to see him come out and be in thisform,” he said.

Morgan further added that Root wasthe man with a ‘golden arm’ as his part-time off-spin helped England pick up twokey West Indian wickets — ShimronHetmyer and captain Jason Holder —before his 94-ball unbeaten 100 made thehosts’ run chase look like a stroll in the parkdespite the absence of two key players inMorgan himself and Jason Roy due to

injuries.“Adil (Rashid) had got it to turn so

much, Jos said ‘it’s turning more than youthink here’ so we discussed it and thenwent with it for one, possibly two overs butJoe started brilliantly; he’s got a goldenarm,” said Morgan.

Having also scored a century againstPakistan, Root has now amassed 279 runsin four matches, becoming the firstEngland player to score two hundreds ina single edition of the World Cup sinceKevin Pietersen 12 years ago.

He has also become the first in histo-ry to compile three in total, as the hostsmoved to second position in the pointstable. Yet Root insisted that there was stillroom for improvement.

“It’s not about the number of runs youscore, and being the one that stands outin terms of individual accolades,” said Root.

“It’s about building those substantialpartnerships that win you games and col-lectively getting the job done. I feel like I’mplaying all right. I don’t feel like I’m play-ing exceptionally well at the moment but

I feel like I’m playing some good stuff andthere’s still loads of things that I want tokeep working on and keep improving,” saida modest Root.

“It was important we didn’t panic andkept it together. We managed to getacross the line and did it really convinc-ingly in the end so it’s a really good signand will fill the dressing room with a lotof confidence in knowing that we don’thave to go about things in just one way tobe successful,” he added.

Root, who ended up taking 2/27 offfive overs, was surprise with his all-rounder status. “I didn’t really expect (toget so many overs). I got the opportunityand it was nice to pick up a few wickets.I probably burgled them rather than out-skilled them. I’m not the most skilful off-spinner, so I was just trying to be as unpre-dictable as possible,” Root said.

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Abrace from Philippe Coutinhohanded hosts Brazil a winning

start to the Copa America in a 3-0victory over Bolivia as the absenceof superstar Neymar was quicklyforgotten.

Barcelona's Coutinho scoredfrom the penalty spot early in thesecond half and added a close-rangeheader three minutes later.

Substitute Everton netted asensational third five minutes fromtime to clinch a Group A victory forcoach Tite’s tournament favorites inSao Paulo.

The build-up to the competi-tion had been dominated byNeymar’s woes, firstly when hewas accused of rape by a Brazilianmodel, and then when he damagedankle ligaments in a friendly lastweek, forcing him out of the Copa.

If Brazil’s first half performancewas anything to go by, the ParisSaint-Germain star was sorelymissed, but Coutinho’s brace at leastsilenced the jeers that met the teamat half-time.

“Whistles are part of the game,the fans want us to win and playwell, so that’s why they jeer,” said thematch-winner.

“We always want their supportbut we’re focused on the objective,which is the match,” Coutinho toldBrazil’s SportTV.

“Whistles or cheers, the impor-tant thing is to stay focused and getthe win.”

Brazil made a bright start andpredictably dominated the earlypossession and chances.

But surprisingly theirgreatest threat came fromset-pieces with Coutinho’scorner delivery causing panicin the Bolivian backline.

Bolivia's goalkeeperCarlos Lampe made aninstinctive block from a RobertoFirmino flick that came straight athim.

And a few minutes later, tow-ering center-half Thiago Silva wasleft unmarked eight yards out to

meet another Coutinhodelivery, but he inexplicablyheaded well wide.

Brazil, wearing whiteshirts and blue shorts,weaved almost geometricpatterns around their unam-

bitious visitors but struggled to testLampe.

Their best chances came fromBolivian mistakes and Richarlisonshould have scored into an opengoal when a woeful Lampe clear-

ance went straight to him, but theEverton forward failed to lift the ballover defender Adrian Jusino, whoheaded clear from the edge of the18-yard box.

'���� ���=������Tite’s team were treated to a bar-

rage of jeers from the 67,000 crowdwhen the half-time whistle went.

Bolivia’s best moment had per-haps been a cheeky nutmeg ofCasemiro by Raul Castro on theedge of his own 18-yard box. It hadbeen slim pickings. Fans’ spirits werequickly lifted after the restart,though, as Coutinho fired homefrom the spot on 50 minutes aftera contentious penalty award.

Bolivia were stunned and justthree minutes later their defencewent missing as Firmino reachedthe bye line and chipped the ball tothe back post for Coutinho to headhome from barely two yards out.

Reluctant to push men forward,Bolivia never looked like gettingback into the match.

“If you want to qualify (for theknock-out stages) you have toattack a little more,” admittedVillegas.

And Coutinho’s corners contin-ued to present Brazil with their bestchances, as Marquinhos headedstraight at Lampe from seven yardswith 15 minutes left.

The game had slowed to almostwalking pace when substituteEverton scored a sensational third,cutting in from the left wing beforefiring an unstoppable shot into thefar corner with Lampe rooted to thespot.

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Joe Root is one of the best one-day players in the world and heproved it again in England’s

eight-wicket win over the WestIndies with another brilliant centu-ry.

His recent record is outstandingand having him as that rock in thebatting line-up helps the moreattack-minded guys because theyknow Joe is there to steady the ship.

It just seems a formality at themoment he’s going to score 50-plusand quite often turn that into a cen-tury.

He had to open the batting atshort notice due to Jason Roy’sinjury but he took it all in his stride.

Joe went about his innings bril-liantly and scored as quickly as

Jonny Bairstow at other end — helooked great and it was a very low-maintenance knock. He kept it sim-ple and played proper cricket shots.

Eoin Morgan might’ve thoughtabout potentially opening with JosButtler and it wouldn’t have been theworst shout because he’s a playerwho can score at a strike-rate ofabove 200 even when there are fivefielders on the boundary.

But Morgs probably wanted tomake the most of having Jos at back-end of the chase if needed, that’s akey spot.

And you want to keep your bat-ters in the position where they willbe playing for most of the tourna-ment.

It was an awesome England

performance — very professional,clinical and ruthless. It was a reallygood display with the ball to restrictWest Indies to 212 and that set thetone.

Pre-game, it was being billed asa battle of the pacemen, so to see theEnglish bowlers hitting consistent-ly good lengths was great.

Jofra (Archer) and Chris (MarkWood) got going together, while BenStokes can hit 145 kph as wellwhich is so exciting to watch.

You always feel like somethingwill happen with that trio’s pace anda wicket is just round corner.

There will be a bit of a nervouswait for news on Eoin Morgan andJason Roy’s injuries ahead of theAfghanistan game on Tuesday.

In an ideal world, England willwant to play their best team and getas close to qualifying for the semi-finals as they can.

But it’s a long tournament andif there’s any risk involved with play-ing them, they won’t take it.

It doesn’t matter that Englandwill be considered heavy favouritesfor the Afghanistan contest — youprepare in the same way as anygame, make sure you’re ready fortheir bowlers and keep yourselves onyour toes.

Morgs and the coaches willmake sure there are no signs of com-placency and it’s about trying not tothink of opposition as a lessernation because then you get introuble – just play it like any other

match.We’ve already seen some great

catches in this ICC Men’s CricketWorld Cup from the likes of BenStokes and Sheldon Cottrell but inour match against West IndiesWomen on Thursday, Fran Wilsontook the best live catch I’ve everseen.

I couldn’t stop watching it themorning after — I saw someone hadsuperimposed a cape on Fran onTwitter, which was fitting.

It was absolutely outstandingand everyone has been asking meabout it, which is an amazing sign– moments like that go viral and it’sa great advert for women’s cricket.

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By his own admission, England captain EoinMorgan is doubtful for the next World Cup

game having suffered a back spasm while JasonRoy undergoes a scan for hamstring strain but theskipper insisted it is not a ‘panic station’ yet.

During their World Cup match against theWest Indies here on Friday, Morgan left the fieldin the 41st over of West Indian innings, joiningRoy on the treatment table, who had earlier hob-bled off with a hamstring strain.

“It is sore. I have had back spasms before andit normally takes a few days to settle down. It isunclear, we will know more in the next 24 hours.You normally get a good indication the followingday. If it settles down then the improvement is therestraight away.

“Jason had a tight hamstring and will go fora scan, it will be 48 hours until we know more. Ithink when any two players go down it is a bit ofa worry but it is not panic stations yet,” Morgansaid while addressing the post-match mediainteraction standing because of discomfort due toback spasm.

Chasing 213 for victory against the WestIndies, England did not require the services ofeither Morgan or Roy as Joe Root stepped intoRoy's shoes at the top of the order, scoring anunbeaten 100 of 94 balls to help the hosts post acomfortable eight-wicket win.

"Like everybody, we have to see how it pullsup. We will see how risky it is and do a risk assess-ment going into that game, baring in mind we willhave two games in a few days," said Morgan.

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India lived up to their billing andthrashed South Africa 5-1 in the

summit clash to win the FIH SeriesFinals hockey tournament here onSaturday.

Coming into the tournament asoverwhelming favourites, world No 5India played like champions andremained unbeaten throughout thetournament.

Dragflickers Varun Kumar (2ndand 49th minutes) and HarmanpreetSingh (11th and 25th) scored a braceeach, while Vivek Sagar Prasad (35th)was the other goal scorer for India.

South Africa's lone goal was scoredby Richard Pautz in the 53rd minute.

India and South Africa havealready qualified for the final round ofthe Olympic qualifiers beforeSaturday's summit clash.

Earlier in the day, Asian Gameschampion Japan defeated USA 4-2 tofinish third in the competition.

The top two finishers of this tour-nament make it to the final round ofthe Olympic qualifiers to be heldlater this year.

Going by world rankings, theIndians were expected to control theproceedings and they exactly did thatfrom the word go.

India secured their first penaltycorner as early as in the secondminute and Varun made no mistakein converting the opportunity into goal.

In the 11th minute, India gotanother penalty corner and this timeHarmanpreet slammed home to make

the scoreline 2-0 in favour of the hosts.Seconds before the end of the first

quarter, South Africa got a rare oppor-tunity but Nqobile Ntuli's reverse hitwas kept away by Krishan BahadurPathak in front of the Indian goal.

Five minutes from half time, Indiawere awarded a penalty stroke whenBirendra Lakra was stick-checkedinside South Africa's ‘D’ by JethroEustice and Harmanpreet made nomistake to make the scoreline 3-0.

The flow of the match continuedin the same vein after the change ofends with India dominating the pro-ceedings.

Five minutes into the third quar-ter, India extended their lead whenVivek Sagar Prasad scored from closerange after being set up by SimranjeetSingh.

India secured their third penalty

corner in the 41st minute but this timeAmit Rohidas' try was saved by theSouth African goalkeeper.

India kept up the pressure andearned their fourth penalty corner inthe 49th minute and Varun scoredfrom a variation to make the scoreline5-0 in the home team's favour.

South Africa finally had somethingto cheer about when they securedback-to-back penalty corners in the53rd minute and from the secondchance, Pautz deflected in Eustice's flickto reduce the margin to 5-1.

Four minutes from the final hoot-er, India secured two more penalty cor-ners but failed to utilise the opportu-nities.

South Africa too got a last chanceto pull another goal back in the formof their third penalty corner but to noeffect.

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This is it. We’ve come full circle. We’reback to where our journey as a cricketcrazy nation began: England. Lord’s.Here we go again. From completeunderdogs then to absolute world dom-

inators and financial powerhouses now. We’vecome a long way since that fine day in 1983 whenKapil Dev — an all-rounder from Punjab with an

erstwhile ordinary individualrecord — lifted that trophyand ushered in an era of fran-tic following to the point ofraising the status of the sportto that of a religion and itsmost revered son, SachinTendulkar, to that of a God.

A lot has happenedbetween that iconic momentin the balcony of Lord’s tothe iconic six hit byMahendra Singh Dhoni towin India’s second World

Cup in 2011. But all of thatlater. First, let’s celebrate the fact that ourSharma ji ka ladka, Rohit Sharma, is living up toexpectations, and that Koffee With Karan cameway before the World Cup and IPL and is athing of the past. If only it will serve to ignitethe fuel to perform better for Hardik Pandyaand KL Rahul. And we still have our maverickex-captain, Dhoni, albeit for most likely the lasttournament of his stellar trophy-laden career.

So let’s get down to business and examinewith utmost scrutiny our beloved Team India’schances in the 12th edition of the ICC CricketWorld Cup 2019. Starting with our very own cap-tain furious, Virat Kohli. He has come a long waysince leading India to the U19 Cricket World Cupin 2008, and being a part, but not a key man, ofthe 2011 World Cup winning squad. He washanded over the ODI captaincy in 2017 and hasonly taken India to newer heights since. His per-sonal accolades are a statistician’s dream. In ODIs,he holds the world record for the fastest batsmanto 10,000 runs in 205 innings. He has the highestnumber of centuries in run chases in the worldand is only nine centuries away from breakingTendulkar’s record (49) in style, which I’m sure allus thought would never be broken.

But as the adage and some commentator’sfavourite line goes: “Records are made to bebroken.” We should, in fact, consider ourselvesfortunate that we are seeing the cricket versionof Messi and Ronaldo — albeit not in the sameera — and both of them are Indians. And theyare broken and keep getting broken in everydepartment, which makes you wonder what thereason for that could be. The reasons are aplen-ty, namely smaller cricket boundaries, newimproved thicker bats, different balls (Dukes v

Kookaburra), changed power play rules, andpitches generally favouring batsmen etc.

So it’s only natural that India would featureheavily amongst those records being a battingheavy team predominantly. But recently, trendshave changed and for the better. India has becomea force to reckon with when it comes to the ball.The destroyer-in-chief being Jasprit Bumrah, whois atop the ICC world rankings for bowlers. He issupported by Kuldeep Yadav (7), YuzvendraChahal (8), Bhuvnesh Kumar (17) — who are allamongst the top 20. While amongst the top 20batsmen, only three Indians feature, namely Kohli(1), Rohit Sharma (2), and Shikhar Dhawan (14).The next best batsman is Dhoni at number 24.

Talking of the all-rounders, they are whatmany believe to be the X factor in India’s chancesfor progressing to the last four. Pandya is fresh offa Koffee controversy and fresher off an IPL show-ing he should be proud of — he ended the tour-nament with 402 runs at a strike rate of over 190,smashing 38 boundaries and 29 sixes in 15matches. He also claimed 14 wickets in 16 games.He has so far played 45 ODIs and has taken 44wickets with an economy of 5.53 and battinglower down the order, he has scored 731 runs in29 innings. He can field well too and can bowl sixto seven crucial overs, picking up wickets. Hisrole is akin to that of Yuvraj Singh in the 2011World Cup. And if he can channelise that embar-rassing, unnecessary media scrutiny and a won-derful IPL showing, he can very much be themost important player of the team and a potentialMan of the Tournament just like Yuvraj Singh.

The other player who could be as effective isKedar Jadhav. He might not be as exuberant andcontroversial but he has proved himself many atime not just with the bat but also with the ball. Asolid middle order batsman and good finisher, heis also the man with the “golden arm”. His sidearm action and the angle at which he deliversmakes it difficult for batsmen to pick the ball.

KL Rahul has also shown his mettle and notlet controversies affect him. It’s good to see thatboth Pandya and Rahul took the negative mediaattention in a positive way and came out of itstronger and more determined. Rahul looks con-fident and reliable to call upon in any situation.He has made the crucial number 4 position hisown. And being an opener originally, it’s anadvantage when the ball is moving around andcausing problems. Talking of how the controver-sy affected him, he said: “In life, in cricket, youmake mistakes. You have bad days, you learnfrom them and try to be a better person. I neverdoubted myself, my personality, never doubtedwho I am. I was strong in my head, I gotthrough it and am happy to be back and enjoy-ing my cricket.” I think we all have something tolearn from him in the sense that it’s not the blow

that gets you down, it’s the mettle to get back upand fight for what you believe in.

This is the fifth time that cricket’s most pres-tigious tournament is being held in England andWales. The previous winners of those editionshave been West Indies (1975, 1979), India (1983),and Australia (1999). The format for the tourna-ment is quite different from the previous editionswe are used to seeing. It’s played in a round-robinmanner in a single group of 10 teams, with eachteam playing the other nine once, and the topfour at the end of the group phase progressing tothe semi-finals. The 1992 World Cup in Australiaand New Zealand was also played in a round-robin format, with nine teams participating. The10-team tournament this time has gained criti-cism due to the lack of Associate teams in thetournament. Given the increase of the Test-play-ing nations from 10 to 12, with the admission ofIreland and Afghanistan in June 2017, it is thefirst World Cup to be contested without all of theTest playing nations being present. After theelimination of all Associate teams at the qualify-ing tournament, this is also the first World Cupto feature no Associate members.

There’s no tournament without a bit of con-troversy. A few days ago, Dhoni was asked bythe ICC to remove the dagger insignia from hiswicket-keeping gloves despite the Indian cricketboard’s assertion that it was not a military sym-bol. The BCCI had sought permission for thestar wicketkeeper batsman from the world gov-erning body (ICC), but it was denied citing reg-ulations that no individual message or logo canbe displayed on any item of clothing or equip-ment. In addition, the logo also breaches therule that allows only one sponsor’s logo on thewicket-keeping gloves. In Dhoni’s case, healready sports an SG logo on his gloves.

Another talking point is the big match for allIndians — cricket fans or not — at Old Trafford,Manchester, on June 16. It’s the one game thatbrings every Indian together (if cricket didn’t doa good enough job of it already). It’s India vPakistan. With the same old rivalry and passion,but with renewed verve and political context.Following the 2019 Pulwama attack, several for-mer Indian players and the BCCI called for theboycott of this group match fixture, wanting toban the Pakistan team from playing in the tour-nament. However, after conducting a boardmeeting in Dubai, the ICC rejected the BCCI’sproposal and confirmed that the scheduledmatch would go ahead as planned, despite theongoing stand-off between the two nations. Thematch being held today will most likely beviewed the world over by a record audience as isusually expected for an India-Pakistanencounter, but made extra tense by the recentpolitical relationship of the two nations.

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Talking of India, Pakistan and the many reasons thiscannot be viewed as just a sport. It’s an extension of every-thing we stand for and believe in — personally, politically,morally. Ever wondered why Team India’s jersey colour isblue and not the usual suspected patriotic colours, saffronor green? It had to be taken from the Indian Flag as a sym-bolic gesture for patriotism. While saffron stands forcourage and selflessness, green signifies faith, fertility, andprosperity. The blue in the Ashoka Chakra stands for thecolour of the sky and ocean. The selection of saffron orgreen colours for the jerseys would have created controver-sies of religious or political favoritism as saffron is heavilyassociated with Hinduism, Jainism, and Buddhism as wellas the political parties we all know by now, while green isaffiliated with Islam. Thus, it wouldn’t have been a wisedecision to choose those to represent a nation which pridesitself to be secular. The blue colour then automaticallybecame the first choice to represent the nation and its war-riors on the field with its symbolic meaning of the “mosttruth of the universe”. And “Bleed Blue” has recentlybecome an anthem of the youth, again symbolically signify-ing the passion and dedication of battling till you bleed andstaying true to your talents and virtues. And nobodyembodies that never-say-die attitude and fighter mentalitythan our current and former captains, Kohli and Dhoni.

In the 2011 World Cup hosted by India, we were oneof the favourites and definitely one with the most pressureto perform on our home ground with the final being inMumbai. This time, that mantle is taken by England withthe final being at the Mecca of cricket — Lord’s. Andunlike India, they’re not that adept at handling the unduepressure of expectations, with the 2013 Champions Trophyfinal being a case in point. India sure has good memoriesof playing finals at the Mecca of cricket (cue SouravGanguly’s shirt waving at Lord’s balcony), the NatWestSeries Final in 2002, and, of course, the 1983 World Cupwin. But for that to happen again, India will have to beatthe best of the best to first come in the top four and thenit’s all down to the semi-finals and the finale at Lord’s.

England, meanwhile, will be looking to win their firstever World Cup, which is ironic since they’re the inventorsof the game. They have been losing finalists in 1979, 1987,and 1992. In the 2015 World Cup, Bangladesh knockedout England from the group stage, which raised questionson the latter’s relevance as an ODI team. Since then, theyhave completely turned over a new leaf and have becomethe number 1 ranked team in the world in ODIs. Theyhave defeated several top teams, including India andAustralia, this year and their batsmen also broke therecord for the highest total in an ODI innings. With aplethora of match winners in their squad, they are certain-ly not the team they were in the previous World Cups andare viewed by most as ‘the’ team to watch out for. Butwhether or not they have shed their choker status andweak mentality remains to be seen. Lord’s save the Queen!

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The James Bond movies of the1960s genre were our first expo-sure to science fiction. At a time

when television or satellite televisionchannels were unheard of and even tele-phones and cars were rare items (at leastin Kanjirakkadu in Ernakulam districtwhere I grew up), the scenes which por-trayed Sean Connery — who immor-talised Bond — speaking to his sourcesat far away places through the contrap-tion attached to his wrist watch and dri-ving around in that Aston Martin stilllinger in the mind. Sridhar, a theatre atErnakulam, was the window to thisworld of sci-fi for my generation.Sridhar theatre has given way to a shop-ping mall and the interest in James Bondmovies, too, came to an end withConnery leaving the field and makingway for the new generation actors.

But interest in science fiction con-tinued because of television series likeCosmos: A Personal Voyage anchored byCarl Sagan and the works penned byArthur C Clarke whose 2001: A SpaceOdyssey remains fresh in the mind.Through his science writings, Clarketold us that the world would use spacescience and satellites from the geosta-tionary orbit for communication ser-vices. He had written in one of his sci-ence papers in 1945 about the “extra-ter-restrial relays” that would revolutionisethe world of communication.Conventional science teachers hadscoffed at such ideas and told us not tobe carried away by such prophecies! Seewhat has happened to the telecommu-nication sector, which has transformedthe world into a global village.

In Ramayana, the great Indian epicwhich is portrayed by progressive ele-ments as a work of fiction, the warbetween Lord Rama and the demon kingRavana is described by author SageValmiki as a spot report from the theatreof war. Valmiki gave an account of themyriad arrows deployed by the Lord andhis enemy. Aagneyam, Varuna, Kaubera,Indrastram, Nairyathaastram,Yaamyaastram, Gandharvaastram,Gauhyakamastram, Aasuramastram,Vaishnavastram are some of the arrowsused by the Lord and his rival in the war,which lasted many days. It wasBrahmastra, provided by Lord Indrathrough Matali, the charioteer, whichcame to the rescue of Lord Rama in fin-ishing off Ravana once and forever.

Rationalists may laugh at the namesof arrows deployed in the greatRamayana war. But the truth is that mod-ern missiles developed by Indian scien-tists and which could be categorisedbased on their properties (surface to airor SAM, Agni, Prithvi, Aakash etc)were all inspired by the arrows men-tioned in the great epic. This underlinesthe role played by science-fiction in

developing the technological know how.Science fiction is what strengthens

the foundation for strong and robust sci-ence and technology sector. Scientifictemper should not be used to demeanand ridicule the facts mentioned in Indiaspecific epics and great literary works.The dreams espoused by the great sci-ence fiction authors are slowly butsteadily becoming a reality. Recent newscoming out of China is that scientists inthat country have succeeded in develop-ing the Invisible Coat, a subject that hasinspired many books and films.

Numbercaste, authored by SriLanka-born Yudhanjaya Wijeratne, is anexciting piece of work. We are mute wit-nesses to the role played by ArtificialIntell igence and InformationTechnology in moulding the new world.These technological marvels are likedouble-edged swords, similar to the

internet as well as mobile phones. Howthe internet and cellphones cause dis-asters and development in human livesis a part of modern folklore.

We live in an era where humanbeings have lost their relevance and iden-tity and have been compressed into 10or 12 digit numbers. The Aadhaar num-ber controversy is raging all over India,with people debating heatedly about per-sonal privacy being violated with the helpof Aadhaar numbers, making thehumans “niraadhaar”.

What Wijeratne portrays in thiswork of fiction is how a technologydeveloped by Numbercaste, a digitalstartup launched in Silicon Valley byJulius Common, an entrepreneur withstrange habits, takes on IT giants likeFacebook, Google, and other socialmedia outlets and emerges as the glob-al monopoly. The events unfold in our

immediate future, say in 2030 or so.The Twitter is dead and gone.

Numbercaste starts from where Twitterends. “People used hashtags, 140 char-acters, and you send a message out andthe people who follow you could readit. We are building something like that.The plan is you are in the area and peo-ple are talking about it, then you knowit. It could be anything from a revolu-tion to armed robbery to a party hap-pening two lanes away. It doesn’t mat-ter. If it’s something you can benefitfrom, we’ l l point you that way.Numbercaste’s got you covered,”Common, owner of Numbercaste, tellsPatrick Udo, the main protagonist whohas been hired by Common for the job.

Common explains to Patrick hisidea of the perfect world. “A world whereyou can name a man and I can tell youexactly how much he means to us… Not

just the money in his bank, but his actu-al worth, as a member of this species. Youcan drive your expensive cars and roll outyour stupid make-up, but in 10 years’ time,none of that will matter. I am going to takethis world and I am going to goddamngrind it into something more real,”declares Common. He lives up to hisword. It is a thrilling mission. If thereviewer reveals more, the suspense asso-ciated with the book would vanish. Sincethis book is a must-read for all who areinterested in the future of the world, it isnot advisable to disclose more than this.

The Numbercaste brought backmemories of 1984, the dystopian novelauthored by George Orwell in 1949.Though 1984 has come and gone, pos-sibilities of the chances of the scenarioportrayed by Orwell continue to hauntus. If there are some similarities between1984 and Numbercaste, it could be coin-cidental. Time to go for a re-read of1984 too. Sir Arthur Clarke spent a bigpart of his life in Sri Lanka and craftedsome of the best sci-fi works while stay-ing in the island. Who knows, Wijeratnemay have a lot to offer the readers in thecoming days. The climate and ambienceof the island nation could be ideal forsuch literary pursuits.

For India to truly change,there needs to be a changein our society and culture.The internet is playing abig part in it. The rise of

internet penetration also means thatthings are now more equal, sincepeople who didn’t have a voicebefore now do. ‘The Great OpinionWars’ talks about how social mediahas allowed aspirational Indians tovoice their opinions on topics thathave always been the domain of theprivileged class.

However, social media has alsobirthed a strange new phenomenonin India — the bhakts, and there isadvice for both the bhakts andthose at the receiving end of theirabuse in ‘Anatomy of an InternetTroll’. Another phenomenon thatsocial media has caused is ‘virtuesignallers’ — those people whohave to show that they are so vir-tuous, so noble and so good thatthey sense communal intolerancein a statement even when othersdon’t. ‘Look, I’m so Secular!’: TheRise of Virtue Signallers on SocialMedia’ talks about this and how itdistorts national public debate ona range of important issues.

But do these phenomena indi-cate that India is getting moreintolerant? There are endless debatesabout this, but I think that we are amixed society, tolerant and intoler-ant at the same time, as explainedin ‘Fifty Shades of Intolerance’. Idon’t believe that intolerance hasanything to do with the requestfrom Hindus that a temple be builtin Ayodhya, and ‘Why We Need aRam Temple in Ayodhya’ talksabout why restoring the temple onits original site and building an evengrander mosque nearby will be agreat act of religious cooperation.

A crucial aspect of what makesIndia the country it is, is the factthat we are a democracy, and anyattempt to undermine that is dan-gerous. The essay on blind bhaktstalks about how unquestioningsupport of a leader, rather than thecountry, can actually harm thatleader. The essay on the SupremeCourt’s order regarding the playing

of the National Anthem before amovie screening (‘Anthem Order:The Intention’s Good butImposition Isn’t’) argues thatauthoritarianism can never createpatriotism. The Government banon pornography is a similar curtail-ment of basic freedoms, asexplained in ‘Hypocritical andImpractical: With the Porn Ban, theGovernment Has Flaunted ItsControl Freak Instincts’. I think thatthe key to becoming an awesomenation is to defend individual lib-

erties. Related to this is the need tostop mixing religion and law, and‘Too Many Holy Cows’ talks abouthow it is time to discuss what itmeans to be a secular republic, andrevise the Constitution to reflect it.

Social change means that weneed to look at the infrastructuresin our cities, and the essay onMumbai rains talks about this andwhat needs to be done so that thecountry’s financial capital doesnot come to a grinding halt everymonsoon. This overriding indiffer-

ence that seems to inflict Indiansis also reflected in our views oncorruption, and our don’t-careattitude to corruption is addressedin the essay on the 2G ‘non-scam’.

It’s important for one to beproud of the country we live in, and‘Will You Spend �80 to See IndiaWin a Dozen Olympic Golds?’ sug-gests ways that we can improve ourgold medal tally at the Olympics atthe micro and macro level. Finally,‘Creaming the People’ suggests amove from caste-based reserva-

tions to economic-based ones inorder to create a truly fair society.

����'����� ����������������������E���������If you are a true nationalist, put thenation before individuals, even ifthat individual happens to be yourfavourite leader.

I recently conducted a Twitterpoll to test the hypothesis thatNarendra Modi enjoys an insaneamount of support among hisfans. The poll asked this question:If Modi wanted to declare anational emergency to eliminatecorruption, would you support it?Out of nearly 10,000 participants,57 per cent said they would sup-port such a decision.

The usual Twitter poll dis-claimers apply: It’s a highly skewedsample, polls aren’t scientific, etc.Also, the poll does not indicate myown views in any way, nor does itclaim that such a proposal is on theGovernment’s anvil. However, theresults do give us a sense of whatsome of Modi’s hardcore fans (thebhakts) feel. It is worth noting thatthe participants were almost allyoung, educated, digitally savvy

people who understand English.Yes, a significant number of pro-gressive young Indians are appar-ently happy to give up democracy,and vote themselves voteless.

Stunned? Well, I admit that thequestion was a tad unfair. After all,there is nothing in the air that sug-gests an emergency is in the offing.Nor does one need to make suchharsh choices in order to proclaimtheir support, or lack of it, for aleader. Still, the numbers do show(a)the enormous popularity ofModi in his core fan base and/or(b)a possible ignorance of what anational emergency and giving updemocracy could mean. They alsoindicate a huge lack of confidencein the current political system andthe kind of leaders it generates.

The reason for Modi’s appeal isobvious. After all, he is a leaderwho has created some hope. Hespeaks a language that connects us.Modi takes steps — big, bold ones— to fix India. Whether or not theysolve problems is a separate story.Making the effort and having goodintentions counts for a lot.Demonetisation is a case in point.Many experts have questioned thebenefits of the move. They diligent-ly quote numbers and facts toshow that the actual advantages ofdemonetisation could be margin-al. Of course, these are wastedefforts. All this economic mumbo-jumbo is irrelevant to the Modi fan.If fans are ready to support anemergency in their leader’s name,do you really think they give adamn about falling GDP or actualdata about black money beingback in circulation?

No, we are talking about lovehere. Love doesn’t, and is not meantto, see reason. And speaking ofdemonetisation, the experts, thoughnot wrong, miss a key point. A hugeintangible benefit of the note banhas been its unifying effect on anotherwise divided country. Imaginea bickering joint family.

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Higher education in gener-al and Delhi University in

particular have witnessed a lotof changes in undergraduatestudy pattern during the lasteight years. Starting with a shiftfrom annual mode to semestermode in 2010, semester modeto four-year undergraduateprogramme (better known asFYUP) in 2013, FYUP to againsemester mode in 2014, andsemester mode to “choicebased credit system” (CBCS) in2015. Latest in the loop isongoing revision of all under-graduate courses in DelhiUniversity based on UGC’slearning outcome-based cur-riculum framework (LOCF)for the 2019-20 academic ses-sion. All the departments con-cerned have been given threemonths to complete thisprocess. Interestingly, all these“reforms” have beenannounced all of a suddenand implemented in the verynext year of the announcement.

However, the purpose ofthis article is to draw the atten-tion of Delhi University’sundergraduate curriculumrevision committee (2019)towards some issues related toongoing CBCS pattern thatrequires immediate attention.

As per the UniversityGrants Commission (UGC),CBCS provides “a ‘cafeteria’type approach in which thestudents can take courses oftheir choice, learn at their own

pace, undertake additionalcourses and acquire more thanthe required credits and adoptan interdisciplinary approachto learning”.

As CBCS enters its fourthyear, a critical evaluation of theprogramme is in order, espe-cially when the first batch of theCBCS passed out last year.Delhi University can be the bestinstitution for the purpose ofevaluation since it has beentreated as guinea pig for allexperiments related to“reforms” in higher education.

CBCS and implications ofinterdisciplinary approach

Unlike all previous patternof the undergraduate pro-gramme, CBCS is differentdue to its infusion of compul-sory interdisciplinary approachin papers apart from compul-sory language courses. Thegeneric elective (GE, hereafter)is a course that needs to becompulsorily chosen from anunrelated discipline/subject.Every discipline is entitled tooffer some papers as genericelective for honours studentsfor the first four semestersand for non-honours studentsin the last two semesters.

CBCS necessitates all hon-ours students to choose onegeneric paper from disciplineother than their own in each offirst four (1 to 4) semesters.Similarly students of non-hon-ours courses are supposed to

choose one generic paper fromdiscipline other than their ownin each of last two semesters i.e.5th semester and 6th semester.For instance every student ofB.Com (Hons.) is required toopt a generic paper each forfirst four semesters out of apool of disciplines other thancommerce i.e. maths, eco-nomics, business economics,history, political science, psy-chology, Hindi, English, etc.

In order to understand theproblem, let us take an exam-ple of generic paper offered bydepartment of commerce atundergraduate level in DelhiUniversity. According to CBCSsyllabus, department of com-merce of Delhi Universityoffered following papers forgeneric elective: microeco-nomics in the first semester,macroeconomics in the secondsemester, business statistics inthe third semester and Indianeconomy in the fourth semes-ter. These papers can be takenby students enrolled in anyhonours course other thanB.Com (honours).

The experience of last threeyears of CBCS indicates thatcommerce generic was mostlyopted by the students ofBachelor in Business Economics(BBE. There is an astonishingco-incidence that all those BBEstudents who opted for com-merce discipline as genericpaper were studying samepapers as their core papers in

same semester for first threesemesters, and one in the fifthsemester. Similarly, the stu-dents of BA(Hons.) Economics,BBA(FIA) and BMS were study-ing almost similar compulsorycore paper(s) as they werestudying (or studied) in theircommerce generic.

In this way opting com-merce as generic paper by thestudents of BBE and manyother courses will not add any-thing to their knowledge butthe repetition of same papers inthe same semesters.Interestingly, students of BBEopt commerce generic mainlyto lessen their burden. Whilepreparing for one paper, otherautomatically gets prepared.However the question stillremains: Will lessening burdenat the cost of the other paper behelpful in long run?

Teaching a group of heterogeneous students

Other significant problemlies in the fact that when stu-dents of different disciplinesopt generic elective of a par-ticular discipline, it bringstogether students of highlyheterogeneous nature in termsof attitude, knowledge, aptitudeand exposure. This makesteaching and learning evenmore challenging. For instanceteaching generic of commercediscipline to the students ofeconomics and BBE requiresdifferent skills than teaching

the same to the students ofHindi journalism, English,History, Sanskrit, etc.Unfortunately, these students ofdifferent disciplines are taughtcommerce generic together inthe same class, where it is eas-ier for some to grasp and verydifficult for others.

It is not the case that con-cerns raised here are beingfaced only by commerce disci-pline, while offering its gener-ic paper to the students of dif-ferent disciplines or when stu-dents of commerce disciplineare opting generic electiveoffered by other disciplines. Butmore or less similar problemsare being faced by many disci-plines since inception of CBCSpattern in 2015-16.

CBCS and synchronisationof papers

The provision of introduc-tion of a generic paper mayhave been with a noble causebut the lack of synchronizationbetween various disciplinesduring syllabus formulation isgoing to have a far-reachingimpact on teaching learningprocess. For instance, prior tothe introduction of CBCS, fourcompulsory papers of eco-nomics were being taught tothe students pursuingBCom(Hons), but post CBCS,there is no compulsory paperof economics to be studied bythem. However, students canopt economics as their gener-

ic paper if they wish so, andthey can also drop it anytimein the upcoming semester ifthey wish so.

Problem might arise whena student doesn’t opt for eco-nomics as his generic elective,as in that particular case he willbe graduating without gainingany knowledge in the field ofeconomics. In the absence ofbasic knowledge of economics,how fruitful that degree incommerce would be for thestudent is all together anothermatter of concern.

However, problems do notget over by avoiding econom-ics by commerce students asthey are required to study acompulsory core paper,Business Mathematics in theirfourth semester. Interestinglythis paper covers various math-ematical tools related to max-imisation and minimisationi.e. differentiation, integration,linear programming, simplex,input-output, etc. The applica-tion of differential calculus isused to find out maxima of rev-enue, output and profit func-tions, utility maximisation,minimisation of costs, marginalpropensity to consume (MPC),marginal propensity to save(MPS), etc. Similarly integralcalculus is used to obtain con-sumer’s surplus, producer’s sur-plus, etc. All these concepts arerelated to either microeco-nomics or macroeconomics,which were earlier compulso-

rily being taught to students ofcommerce before they wereintroduced the paper ofBusiness Mathematics andStatistics. Since studying eco-nomics has been left on thechoice of student in CBCS, theyare being exposed to mathe-matical applications on variousconcepts related to economicswithout being acquainted withrelated basic concepts of eco-nomics. This has resulted inmechanical way studying busi-ness mathematics withoutknowing the reason for usinga particular application.

However, irrespective ofthe people responsible for poorformulation of syllabus whileignoring harmonisation of thesyllabus offered by variousdepartments, the ultimate loserare the students who lost theopportunity to study one addi-tional paper by studying twosame papers for four semestersor study some papers mechan-ically or the teachers who arerequired to teach a paper whichis simultaneously being taughtin other classroom to the samestudents.

This is the high time anynew change in the CBCS for-mat carried out homeworkwith due consultation with allstakeholders rather than doinganother exercise in haste.

(The writer is AssistantProfessor of economics in DelhiUniversity)

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Just before the 30th anniver-sary of the Tiananmen

Square protests on June 4 thisyear, the Chinese State — con-sidered by many as world’sbiggest censorship authority— removed all references ofthe historic event from the webpages in the country.

The moot point is whetherthe Communist leadership iswary of the revival of suchdemocratic uprisings in themainland. Many politicalexperts opine that deep insideCommunist China, the fear ofthe explosion of the myth of theSocialist State remains high.

What led to the bloodyTiananmen Square crack-down? How the Communistbosses in Beijing responded?And how the internationalcommunity wanted them todeal with this democraticawakening? The immediatecause of this uprising was noother than the demise of iso-lated Communist Party leaderHu Yaobang in April 1989. Themain reason for his isolationwas his strong views about eco-nomic and political liberalisa-tion in China.

In fact, Yaobang was theone who helped navigate Chinaaway from orthodox Marxismand led the world’s largestCommunist Party for six years.His death triggered a sponta-neous outpouring of publicgrief, with millions of youthcoming out in protests seekingto restore his reputation andlegacy for wide ranging reformsin areas such as free press, free-dom of assembly and an end toofficial corruption acrossChina.

However in a remarkabletwist, this simple demand ofthe youngsters and ordinarypeople gradually transformedinto a massive protest move-ment not only in the heart ofcapital city Beijing but acrossChina. As many as one millionpeople occupied theTiananmen Square on June 4,1989, making it one of the

largest protests in the history ofmodern China. The demon-strators refused to leave theSquare for nearly seven weeks,until their demands for demo-cratic reform were met by theauthority. Throughout the dayi.e. on June 3, the Governmentwarned the protesters that itwould do whatever is requiredto quell, what it described, the“social chaos”.

The Communist bossesreacted by rolling Army tanksover these unarmed youngprotesters in the TiananmenSquare. According to a secretdiplomatic cable, as many as10,000 were killed on that fate-ful day. Many of the leadingyoung leaders of the movementare now living in the US,according to information com-piled by human rights inChina, an NGO, based in HongKong and New York that pro-motes fundamental rights andfreedoms in China.

No event like theTiananmen Square protestshas stirred such emotional out-pouring from all walks of lifearound China and no event likeit has brought so vehementcondemnation upon Chinafrom the international com-munity then and even now.

The Tiananmen Squareprotests remain a permanenttaint on China. Then USPresident George Bush hadsaid he deplored the use offorce. And then UK PrimeMinister Margaret Thatchersaid she was shocked andappalled by the shootings.

While the entire worldcommemorated the 30thanniversary of this horribleclampdown on non-violenthuman rights activists inBeijing, China keeps onlinemention of the historic incidentwithin the country virtuallynon-existent.

The US President, DonaldTrump, has described the vio-lence in Beijing 30 years ago asa “strong powerful movement”,quelling a “riot”, albeit with

“horrible force”. KevinMcCarthy, the current HouseMinority leader in the USHouse of Representatives,expressed his deep concernwhich truly symbolises whattook place in China on June 4,1989: “Thirty years later, thehorrors of the TiananmenSquare Massacre continue tosymbolise the ChineseCommunist Party’s inhumanegrip on power. Today, the cit-izens of China have less free-dom and their leadershipremains opposed to the mostbasic of human rights. Chinasuppresses the truth byattempting to sanitise its darkhistory. It runs concentrationcamps for religious minorities

and political dissidents. And itboasts of its imperial designsfor global trade and disputedterritory. That is what the gen-erations of Chinese leadershipis continuously doing to makethe party precisely the onlyaffair in every citizen’s life.

However, unfortunately, itis not happening and many arenot responding to its machi-nations today.

The secrecy and grandcensorship machine of theCommunist State makes it dif-ficult to know even how manyactually died in the TiananmenSquare movement. The partyhas used both algorithm andhuman editors to erase everysign of the massacre from

China’s history. Commemorating the

anniversary, even by repostinga photo can land a person indetention across China. One ofthose memorable photos isthat of “Tank Man” who playeda game of chicken with anArmy tank on June 5, just oneday after the dreaded massacrein Tiananmen Square. But hisfate is unknown as of today.The most recent imprison-ment related to the Tiananmenmovement occurred on April 4this year. A court in the SouthWestern city of Chengdu sen-tenced activist Chen Bing tothree and half years in prisonfor picking quarrels and pro-voking trouble. His main

offence was that he labeled bot-tles of “baijiu” alcohol with theiconic image of the lone pro-tester who stared down tanksnear the Tiananmen Square.

Much more than this, whatthe Chinese State does to therelatives and families ofactivists of this movement isreally surprising and terrible.Each year, when theTiananmen anniversaryapproaches, these families andtheir dear ones are placedunder strict surveillance ortaken on enforced tours outsidethe town.

Besides killing thousandsin the Tiananmen Squareprotests, many thousands wereput behind bars across China.

However, the authorities neveracknowledged that the arrestswere part of the “counter rev-olutionary” drive.

Ironically, this month also,China defended the crack-down on the 1989 Tiananmenprotesters in a rare publicacknowledgement of events.Defence Minister Wei Fenghetold in a regional forum inSingapore that the “incidentwas a political turbulence andthe Central Government tookmeasures to stop the turbu-lence, which is a correct poli-cy”. He further said, “The pastthirty years have proved thatChina has undergone majorchanges because of theGovernment’s action at that

time. China has enjoyed sta-bility and development.”

The statement from theGovernment functionary epit-omises the brutal face of Chinathat can do any anything in thename of maintaining “stability”and “development”. How farthis madness of urbanisationand inhuman developmentwould take China to is nobodyguess. Development bereft ofbasic freedoms may not boostthe Communist regime. Eveniron curtains fall when its timecomes.

The historic TiananmenSquare protests tarnished theimage of the Communist Partylike never before. Equally itundermined the legitimacy ofits rule both within and outsideChina. Beijing needs to under-take democratic reform at theearliest. And it should embracea new system based purely on“rule of law”.

After decades of econom-ic reform, Chinese peoplecould realise their dream ofnational rejuvenation onlywhen basic political freedomsare guaranteed to them.

The problem with Chinatoday is that they do not wantto change as the liberal Westwanted it to be. The successiveChinese leaders want the Westto believe that they rule Chinawith willful acceptance by themajority of people.

The nationalist Chineseautocracy, currently consoli-dated under Xi Jinping, wouldbe a real terror both for itspopulace and for the rest of theworld. When their reveredleaders boast about Chinapreaching and practicing“peaceful rise”, why they are notallowing its own people tospeak up against the party innon-violent manner? Crushinginnocent and unarmed civil-ians do not qualify China to adignified seat in the comity ofglobal leadership.

(The writer is an expert oninternational affairs)

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Life in its usual run is subject totwists and turns — sometimespleasant and at other times full of

pains. It is ever on its run, continuouslyundergoing change, as the conditionswithin and beyond keep varying. Thereis no scope for having a perfect situationin life. There comes a time when thegross body loses its dynamism andturns into a dead matter. It is true aboutevery finite existence. The duration ofstay may, though, vary from person toperson. There is no standard of measureworth the name to account for one’s lifespan in finite terms. We all are aware ofthis existential truth. Yet, it is difficult tobear with when a near and dear onedeparts from the world. It is still moreshocking if it comes about at a youngage. Life, therefore, is paradoxical. Theother day, a grieving father sent a hearttouching message: “Big brother, my dearson left us today. Feeling totally lifeless.Prayer and everything failed to keephim alive.” The message left me shiver-ing for a few moments. If this newscould knock me down so badly, one canonly imagine the plight of the grievingfather who lost his only son at theyoung age of 23. I knew that no pep talk

could assuage the feelings of someonefaced with such a devastating happen-ing. So, I thought of trying to refreshhim with existential truth. Even thatmay not so easily calm down his emo-tional volatility. It may, however, offerhim grounds that may help him comeout of this sooner than later.

Remember my friend, going byancient India’s philosophic perception,the run of life doesn’t end with grossbody becoming a dead matter. In fact,death is an opportunity to shed theincapacitated body and reincarnate witha fresh encasement in all strength. Yourson had to bear with excruciating painduring the last one year of his chronicailment. You need to appreciate thatwith his death, having discharged hisKarmic debt of being faced with such aharrowing ordeal, he has movedbeyond, and so stands relieved.

Bear in mind: A jeevatma (a livebeing) with form and name is struc-tured in three layers — gross, subtle,and causal bodies, the three driven bysoul (the element of consciousness).On death, it is just the gross body,which is nothing but agglomeration ofmatter, disintegrates. Its five con-

stituents — space, air, fire, water, andearthly matter — merge with their pri-mal source. The subtle and causal bod-ies that are pure energy platforms donot wither away, as would the laws ofconservation of energy mean. The soulcarries along the causal and subtle bod-ies, having in store all the memoryimprints picked up during live exis-tence, to reincarnate with a fresh grossbody encasement. So, life needs to beseen in succession. Should you grieve,the jeevatma’s attention is drawn,which may disturb its onward journey.Better pray for his smooth transition.

“I appreciate your point and shalltry to follow your advisory. But don’tyou think that this unforeseen happen-ing puts a question mark on the veryrelevance of Astrology? For, with what-ever knowledge of Astrology I have,Jupiter being the 6th lord was justindicative of health issues but notdeath as it doesn’t happen to be amaraka. I am just curious to know, notquestioning you, could you see in hischart the possibility of departure fromthe world so early?” the man asked.

Well, going by the traditional normsof Astrology, his death didn’t seem like-ly. But the death-inflicting 8th cusp’ssub-lord Saturn (as per Krishnamurty

system) did indicate the possibility ofdeath during Jupiter’s period. For,Jupiter occupying the nakshatra ownedby Saturn, would act as latter’s agent,potent enough to make it happen. Eventhe progressed Sun having becomesquare (adverse 90 degrees placement)to natal Moon, carries the probability oflosing life. Even transit Saturn conjunctunpredictable Neptune, and also squareto its dire enemy Mars did not augurwell for his survival either.

Here again, Jupiter simultaneouslysignified recovery from ailment instrong terms. For, Jupiter’s nakshatralord Saturn happens to be the 5th lord,which being 12th from the 6th, willserve as latter’s antidote. With suchcontrasting indicators in place, whatwould one be tempted to lay impor-tance to — raise the hope of survivalso that one tries to combat the situa-tion in all strength, or indicate deathand make the person lose the battlemuch before it even happens?

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