2018/10/17  · ˘ˇˆ ˘˘ˇ ˆ ˇ ˘ ˙˝ ˛ ˚˘ ˇ˜ ˙ ˛ ˙ ! " ˇ ˇ ˘ˇ# ˘ ˇ ˘...

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T hick blanket of smog that engulfs the national Capital year after year during winter is clearly visible on the GT Karnal Road connecting Delhi and Karnal in Haryana as it origi- nates from the burning farm stubble and is a major cause of pollution in Delhi-NCR. Even after the NGT pulled up the State Governments and Haryana came up with an alternative solution, stubble burning is continuing unabat- ed in Haryana and Delhi stares at another winter covered in a cloud of pollutants triggered by the biomass burning. The Pioneer visited the fields of Sonipat, Panipat and Karnal on Monday night to find out the compelling reasons that farmers often give to but- tress their claims that there is no attractive alternatives before them except to burn the stub- ble to immediately free the land for another cycle of farming. However, if the Haryana Government is to be believed they have provided alternatives to the paddy growing farmers in the form of “in-situ” man- agement of stubble by using specialised farm equipment. But the farmers still prefer to burn it as they find it more convenient and alleged that the pieces farm equipment are too costly to rent from Custom Hiring Centre (CHC) promot- ed by the Government. For farmers, there is a very short window of time between harvesting of paddy and culti- vation of wheat and the farm- ers alleged that if they wait for the “in-situ” management to be done their turn would come very late and by that time the sowing period would get over. They said equipments at CHC are too less to cater to the large number of farmlands within the stipulated time of fortnight in which they have to sow next crop. Also they said renting these equipments is costly and hence not viable solution. With farmers miffed with the Centre and the State Governments over the ban it is expected to have political over- tones ahead of the Assembly polls due next year. While officials of the agri- cultural department of Haryana are claiming that the Government has taken ade- quate steps and have flowed enough funds for sustaining the CHC's the farmers are “clue- less” about the CHC's nearby their villages. Deputy Director of Agriculture department of Karnal district, Aditya Pratap Dabas, told The Pioneer that there have been 260 cases of stubble burning in the district so far. “The farmers are being stimulated to prefer the mech- anism provided by the Government instead of burn- ing it. Action has also been taken against the erring farm- ers,” said Dabas. Reports from Karnal and adjoining districts show that the combines without 'Straw Management System' (SMS) has fizzled out, leaving no option other than to burn crops residue. According to farmers, there are insufficient numbers of combines with SMS. “The harvesting cost of combines with SMS is more than Rs 3,000 per acre. We can't delay harvesting. The Government should ensure that the cost of combines with SMS is brought down to less than Rs 2,000”, said Tek Chand Dahiya, a paddy farmer from Gudha village near Gharunda, Panipat. Ramesh Battan, another farmer in Phurlak near Gharaunda, said he sowed paddy on 32 acre and it would be ready for harvest in a few days. “The village has paddy on nearly 2,200 acre, but has only one Happy Seeder with a farmer and it can manage 6-7 acre in a day. A Happy Seeder of Rs 1.50 lakh costs Rs 75,000 after subsidy. But it will be used only for six hours in the whole year. How can a farmer invest so much on a machine which is to be used for six hours a year?” he said. “Burning is the only solu- tion to get rid of this trash. We will have to do it again despite knowing that it causes pollu- tion and invite legal action,” Ramesh said. Burning of stubble, which is agricultural biomass residue, increases the Particulate Matter (PM) concentration in air which is extremely hazardous for the human health. Further the smog reduces the visibility and is a major cause of road accidents in win- ter taking toll on human lives. Each year, crop burning in the region is the start of the annu- al escalation of pollutant con- centrations in the air, leading to massive winter pollution in the region. It is further gravi- tated by the massive usage of firecrackers in the region, around “Diwali”. Followed by this, the weather patterns change, making temperatures drop and reducing the disper- sion effect of pollutants. D elhi’s air quality nosedived to “very poor” category on Tuesday even as authorities put several key measures in place to combat air pollution. The overall Air Quality Index (AQI) of Delhi was recorded at 293, eight points below the “very poor” category, according to the System of Air Quality Forecasting and Research. A senior Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) official said several factors like vehicular pollution, construc- tion activities and meteorological factors like wind speed are responsible for stagnant pollution in the city despite measures being taken up. S elf-styled godman Rampal was on Tuesday sentenced to life imprisonment by a Hisar court in connection with a 2014 murder case. The court of Hisar Additional District and Sessions Judge DR Chaliya also gave life imprionment to 14 followers Rampal, head of Satlok Ashram, and slapped a fine of 1 lakh each. The court has pronounced the verdict after a nearly four- year-long trial of the 27 accused in a makeshift court inside the Hisar district jail, where Rampal (67) and his followers have been lodged since their arrest in November 2014. This court will now pro- nounce the quantum of pun- ishment for Rampal in a second murder case on Wednesday. The court had on October 11 convicted Rampal and 26 of his followers in two separate cases of murder and other offences, including wrongful confinement of his victims at his ashram. The two murder cases against Rampal relate to the murder of six people, including five women and one infant, during violent clashes between his supporters and Haryana Police at his Satlok Ashram near Barwala town in Hisar dis- trict in 2014. Thousands of his followers had clashed with police when they had come to arrest him following directions of the Punjab & Haryana High Court over contempt of court in November 2014. The HC had ordered Rampal’s arrest after he failed to appear before the court in connection with a 2006 murder conspiracy case. A fter analysing top 100 bank frauds in the country, the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) has directed the probe agencies, especially the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to go after the promoters who are siphoning money from company to create personal wealth and attach their prop- erties. In its 47-page report released on Tuesday, the CVC analysed the banking frauds committed by promoters in 13 sectors including media, gems and jewellery, manufacturing, aviation, services and projects, and discounting of cheques. The report authored by Vigilance Commissioner TM Bhasin, who was former CMD of Indian Bank and chairman of Indian Banking Association, said basic fraud is committed by creating fake invoices and manipulation of accounts to cheat banks by the promoters of the companies. The CVC has shared their report to the Reserve Bank of India, Ministry of Finance and major investigating agencies and Vigilance Units of the banks. The report urged that the agencies like, the CBI to take parallel steps to attach the properties of the promoters along with filing of chargesheet and trial court proceedings to recover the loss. It reiterated that agencies should concen- trate on money trail from com- pany accounts to promoters’ personal wealth creation. The top most vigilance body also noted that gem and jewellery sector is the most non-transparent sector with many fake accounting prac- tices. The report observed that this sector cheats the banks with fake bills with some time with inflated bills or underval- ued bills. A ccepting the demand of saints and others, the Yogi Adityanath Government on Tuesday announced to rechris- ten Allahabad to its old name Prayagraj. The decision was taken in a meeting of the Uttar Pradesh Cabinet chaired by the Chief Minister in Lucknow on Tuesday. State Government spokesperson and Health Minister Sidharth Nath Singh told reporters that now all departments like Railways and others would be asked to change the name of Allahabad to Prayagraj in their records. “It was the demand of saints and people of Allahabad to restore the historic name of the city and this demand has been accepted by the Government ahead of Kumbh Mela sched- uled next year,” he said. “Rig Veda, Mahabharat and Ramayana also mention Prayagraj (for Allahabad),” he noted. Earlier, Singh had also written to Governor Ram Naik to consider renaming Allahabad as Prayagraj. He had also ridiculed the Opposition for resisting the renaming process. A manhunt has been launched to nab the absconding son of a former BSP MP Rakesh Pandey, who was booked, for allegedly bran- dishing a pistol in the foyer of a Hyatt Regency in South Delhi. After the video of the Sunday incident went viral, Minister of State for Home Affairs Kiren Rijiju said police had initiated action in the case. A team of the Delhi Police reached Lucknow on Tuesday in connection with the inves- tigation into the incident in which the accused has been identified as Ashish Pandey, who hails from Lucknow and whose brother, Ritesh Pandey, is a sitting MLA in Uttar Pradesh. One of the victims said the accused walked up to him and hurled abuses. It is suspected that both the parties involved were drunk at the time of the incident, said police officials. T he Congress’ efforts to form a Government in Goa suf- fered a major setback when two of its MLAs joined the ruling BJP. Congress MLAs Subhash Shirodkar and Dayanand Sopte on Tuesday resigned from the Goa Assembly and also from the primary membership of the party and joined the BJP at a special event in presence of Union Minister Piyush Goyal. Shirodkar and Sopte reached the national Capital on Monday late night and met BJP president Amit Shah before quitting the party. The Congress has accused the ruling party of “poaching” the legislators by using “money power and threats”. Their resignation has now reduced the Congress’ strength from 16 to 14 in the 40- member House led by ailing Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar who enjoys the support of 26 MLAs. The Congress had emerged as the single largest party after the 2017 Assembly elections, winning 17 seats. However, within days its number was reduced to 16 when its newly-elected Vishwajit Rane resigned. The Congress had submit- ted a memorandum to Governor Mridula Sinha, stak- ing claim to form an alternate Government. The Congress had then claimed it has the support of legislators from other parties and can form the Government, if given a chance. The Congress had sensed an opportunity to topple the BJP Government when Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar was admitted into the AIIMS in Delhi and BJP’s allies started talking about the need for change of leadership. However, the party manager failed to engineer the much- needed defection in the BJP rank to pose any serious threat to the State Government. However, the Congress maintained that the twin resig- nations were not a setback for the party as they were confident of roping in four MLAs from the BJP in their fold. “It is not a setback for the Congress. We may have been reduced by two numbers, but our efforts to form the State Government will continue. They have taken two of our MLAs and we will get four from their camp,” Goa Congress spokesperson Nilkant Halarnkar said. Congress Legislature Party (CLP) held a meeting on Tuesday in Panaji during which the current political situation in the coastal State was discussed. Coming out of the meeting, for- mer Chief Minister and Congress legislator Pratapsinh Rane said his party will fight back. M ore than Rs 55 crore of fil- igree works and gold ornaments have been used for tableaux and deities by differ- ent Puja Mandaps of Cuttack city this year for the Durga Puja and this display of precious white metal and yellow metal is said to be the hallmark of Cuttack Dussheras. “This is the uniqueness of Cuttack Dusshera for over seven decades now; and the age-old practice will also con- tinue more enthusiastically in future too,” said Mahanagar Puja Committee secretary Bhikari Das. Filigree works worth over Rs 38 crore and gold ornaments worth nearly Rs 18 crore adore the deities and the tableaus of all the 166 Puja Mandaps in the Silver City as the five-day long Puja began on Monday evening with the invocation of Ma Durga in pandals. While 24 Puja Mandaps have given silvery backdrops to the deities, nine of them have used gold ornaments in the idols, includ- ing some gold used in the sil- ver tableau of the Choudhury Bazaar Mandap. Besides Choudhury Bazaar Mandap that has crowns and ornaments of gold for all the deities, including of the buffa- lo-faced demon Mahisashur; other Mandaps like Sheikh Bazaar, Chauliaganj, College Square, Ranihat, Mangalabag, Kathagada Sahi, Haripur- Dolamundai and Khan Nagar- Khapuria have also decorated the deities with some amounts of gold ornaments. The Choudhury Bazaar Puja Committee is actually the trendsetter in using silver and gold in the tableau. In 1951, it became the first committee to have the tableau made up of sil- ver and gave that sparkling backdrop to the deities. Soon, others followed; and today, 24 Mandaps have joined the elite group. Two more Mandaps, Chhatra Bazaar and Sector 10 (CDA), are likely to join this group next year. Similarly in 1990, the Choudhury Bazaar Puja Committee for the first time used gold for making the orna- ments of the deities; and every year, it is adding some amount of the yellow metal to its tableau. Like the race for silver tableaus, the competition for having gold jewelleries of the deities is also gaining momen- tum in the city. T he State Government on Tuesday confirmed a total of 26 deaths during the recent Very Severe Cyclonic Storm ‘Titli’ and subsequent floods in the State. Briefing mediapersons, Special Relief Commissioner (SRC) Bishnupada Sethi said, “So far, 26 casualties have been reported. Of these, 18 deaths were confirmed in Gajapati district (15 in Baraghara village, two in Labanyagarh village and one in Allada village).” The rest eight deaths included three in Ganjam due to drowning and tree felling and one each in Cuttack (wall collapse), Angul (drowning), Kandhamal (wall collapse), Keonjhar (wall collapse) and Nayagarh (drowning), he added. Sethi said police have confirmed the 26 deaths; and an ex-gratia of Rs 4 lakh would be provided to the next of the kin of each deceased. He also said an investiga- tion would be carried out on the number of deaths due to landslide, tree felling and wall collapse reported from uncon- firmed sources. “A police team, two Executive Magistrates, two medical teams and ODRAF teams have been deployed in different blocks in Gajapati district for the ongoing rescue operation,” he added. The SRC further informed that totally 16 districts have been affected due to heavy rains and floods following Titli. “57 lakh people of 144 blocks, 30 ULBs and 7,402 vil- lages have been affected in the aftermath of Titli. We had evacuated 3.6 lakh people and opened 1,614 relief camps during the calami- ty. Total 26 ODRAF and 14 NDRF teams were deployed in Gajapati district alone for the rescue and relief operations,” he said. Sethi also informed that 950 km of roads in 35 blocks of Ganjam, Gajapati, Rayagada and Kandhamal have severely been damaged. Around Rs 12 crore would be spent for restoration of the roads. T he State Government has directed the Collectors of three worst-cyclone-hit dis- tricts, Gajapati, Ganjam and Rayagada, to disburse ex gra- tia of Rs 4 lakh to the next of kin (NOK) of the deceased per- sons within three days. In a letter on Tuesday, Special Relief Commissioner (SRC) Bishnupada Sethi asked the Collectors to disburse the ex-gratia within the deadline. Besides, the Revenue Inspectors and the Tehsildars were asked to expedite the process of identifying the fam- ilies of the deceased. The district officials were directed to inquire into all cases of alleged deaths and ensure payment of the com- pensation amount to the deceased persons NOK after following due procedure. Earlier, the State Government had announced to provide the ex-gratia within seven days. But after reviewing the widespread destruction caused by Cyclone Titli, the Government has decided to provide the compensation within three days.

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Thick blanket of smog thatengulfs the national Capital

year after year during winter isclearly visible on the GT KarnalRoad connecting Delhi andKarnal in Haryana as it origi-nates from the burning farmstubble and is a major cause ofpollution in Delhi-NCR.

Even after the NGT pulledup the State Governments andHaryana came up with analternative solution, stubbleburning is continuing unabat-ed in Haryana and Delhi staresat another winter covered in acloud of pollutants triggered bythe biomass burning.

The Pioneer visited thefields of Sonipat, Panipat andKarnal on Monday night tofind out the compelling reasonsthat farmers often give to but-tress their claims that there is

no attractive alternatives beforethem except to burn the stub-ble to immediately free the landfor another cycle of farming.

However, if the HaryanaGovernment is to be believedthey have provided alternativesto the paddy growing farmersin the form of “in-situ” man-agement of stubble by usingspecialised farm equipment.But the farmers still prefer toburn it as they find it moreconvenient and alleged that thepieces farm equipment are toocostly to rent from CustomHiring Centre (CHC) promot-ed by the Government.

For farmers, there is a veryshort window of time betweenharvesting of paddy and culti-vation of wheat and the farm-ers alleged that if they wait forthe “in-situ” management to bedone their turn would comevery late and by that time thesowing period would get over.

They said equipments at

CHC are too less to cater to thelarge number of farmlandswithin the stipulated time offortnight in which they have tosow next crop. Also they saidrenting these equipments iscostly and hence not viablesolution.

With farmers miffed withthe Centre and the State

Governments over the ban it isexpected to have political over-tones ahead of the Assemblypolls due next year.

While officials of the agri-cultural department ofHaryana are claiming that theGovernment has taken ade-quate steps and have flowedenough funds for sustaining the

CHC's the farmers are “clue-less” about the CHC's nearbytheir villages.

Deputy Director ofAgriculture department ofKarnal district, Aditya PratapDabas, told The Pioneer thatthere have been 260 cases ofstubble burning in the districtso far.

“The farmers are beingstimulated to prefer the mech-anism provided by theGovernment instead of burn-ing it. Action has also beentaken against the erring farm-ers,” said Dabas.

Reports from Karnal andadjoining districts show thatthe combines without 'StrawManagement System' (SMS)has fizzled out, leaving nooption other than to burncrops residue. According tofarmers, there are insufficientnumbers of combines withSMS.

“The harvesting cost ofcombines with SMS is morethan Rs 3,000 per acre. We can'tdelay harvesting. TheGovernment should ensurethat the cost of combines withSMS is brought down to lessthan Rs 2,000”, said Tek ChandDahiya, a paddy farmer fromGudha village near Gharunda,Panipat.

Ramesh Battan, anotherfarmer in Phurlak nearGharaunda, said he sowedpaddy on 32 acre and it wouldbe ready for harvest in a fewdays. “The village has paddy onnearly 2,200 acre, but has onlyone Happy Seeder with a

farmer and it can manage 6-7acre in a day. A Happy Seederof Rs 1.50 lakh costs Rs 75,000after subsidy. But it will be usedonly for six hours in the wholeyear. How can a farmer investso much on a machine whichis to be used for six hours ayear?” he said.

“Burning is the only solu-tion to get rid of this trash. Wewill have to do it again despiteknowing that it causes pollu-tion and invite legal action,”Ramesh said.

Burning of stubble, whichis agricultural biomass residue,increases the Particulate Matter(PM) concentration in air

which is extremely hazardousfor the human health.

Further the smog reducesthe visibility and is a majorcause of road accidents in win-ter taking toll on human lives.Each year, crop burning in theregion is the start of the annu-al escalation of pollutant con-centrations in the air, leading tomassive winter pollution inthe region. It is further gravi-tated by the massive usage offirecrackers in the region,around “Diwali”. Followed bythis, the weather patternschange, making temperaturesdrop and reducing the disper-sion effect of pollutants.

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Delhi’s air quality nosedivedto “very poor” category on

Tuesday even as authorities putseveral key measures in placeto combat air pollution.

The overall Air QualityIndex (AQI) of Delhi wasrecorded at 293, eight pointsbelow the “very poor”

category, according to the

System of Air QualityForecasting and Research.

A senior Central PollutionControl Board (CPCB) officialsaid several factors like vehicular pollution, construc-tion activities and meteorological factors likewind speed are responsiblefor stagnant pollution in thecity despite measures beingtaken up.

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Self-styled godman Rampalwas on Tuesday sentenced to

life imprisonment by a Hisarcourt in connection with a2014 murder case.

The court of HisarAdditional District andSessions Judge DR Chaliyaalso gave life imprionment to14 followers Rampal, head ofSatlok Ashram, and slapped afine of �1 lakh each.

The court has pronouncedthe verdict after a nearly four-year-long trial of the 27 accusedin a makeshift court inside theHisar district jail, whereRampal (67) and his followershave been lodged since theirarrest in November 2014.

This court will now pro-nounce the quantum of pun-ishment for Rampal in a secondmurder case on Wednesday.

The court had on October11 convicted Rampal and 26 ofhis followers in two separatecases of murder and otheroffences, including wrongfulconfinement of his victims athis ashram.

The two murder cases

against Rampal relate to themurder of six people, includingfive women and one infant,during violent clashes betweenhis supporters and HaryanaPolice at his Satlok Ashramnear Barwala town in Hisar dis-trict in 2014.

Thousands of his followershad clashed with police whenthey had come to arrest himfollowing directions of thePunjab & Haryana High Courtover contempt of court inNovember 2014.

The HC had orderedRampal’s arrest after he failedto appear before the court inconnection with a 2006 murderconspiracy case.

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After analysing top 100 bankfrauds in the country, the

Central Vigilance Commission(CVC) has directed the probeagencies, especially the CentralBureau of Investigation (CBI)to go after the promoters whoare siphoning money fromcompany to create personalwealth and attach their prop-erties.

In its 47-page reportreleased on Tuesday, the CVCanalysed the banking fraudscommitted by promoters in 13sectors including media, gemsand jewellery, manufacturing,aviation, services and projects,and discounting of cheques.

The report authored byVigilance Commissioner TMBhasin, who was former CMDof Indian Bank and chairmanof Indian Banking Association,said basic fraud is committedby creating fake invoices andmanipulation of accounts to

cheat banks by the promotersof the companies. The CVChas shared their report to theReserve Bank of India,Ministry of Finance and majorinvestigating agencies andVigilance Units of the banks.

The report urged that theagencies like, the CBI to takeparallel steps to attach theproperties of the promotersalong with filing of chargesheetand trial court proceedings torecover the loss. It reiteratedthat agencies should concen-trate on money trail from com-pany accounts to promoters’personal wealth creation.

The top most vigilancebody also noted that gem andjewellery sector is the mostnon-transparent sector withmany fake accounting prac-tices.

The report observed thatthis sector cheats the bankswith fake bills with some timewith inflated bills or underval-ued bills.

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Accepting the demand ofsaints and others, the Yogi

Adityanath Government onTuesday announced to rechris-ten Allahabad to its old namePrayagraj.

The decision was taken ina meeting of the Uttar PradeshCabinet chaired by the ChiefMinister in Lucknow onTuesday. State Governmentspokesperson and HealthMinister Sidharth Nath Singh told reporters thatnow all departments likeRailways and others would beasked to change the name ofAllahabad to Prayagraj in theirrecords.

“It was the demand of saintsand people of Allahabad torestore the historic name of thecity and this demand has beenaccepted by the Governmentahead of Kumbh Mela sched-uled next year,” he said.

“Rig Veda, Mahabharatand Ramayana also mentionPrayagraj (for Allahabad),” henoted.

Earlier, Singh had alsowritten to Governor Ram Naikto consider renamingAllahabad as Prayagraj.

He had also ridiculed theOpposition for resisting therenaming process.

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Amanhunt has beenlaunched to nab the

absconding son of a formerBSP MP Rakesh Pandey, whowas booked, for allegedly bran-dishing a pistol in the foyer ofa Hyatt Regency in SouthDelhi.

After the video of theSunday incident went viral,Minister of State for HomeAffairs Kiren Rijiju said policehad initiated action in the case.

A team of the Delhi Policereached Lucknow on Tuesdayin connection with the inves-tigation into the incident inwhich the accused has beenidentified as Ashish Pandey,who hails from Lucknow andwhose brother, Ritesh Pandey,is a sitting MLA in UttarPradesh.

One of the victims said theaccused walked up to him andhurled abuses. It is suspectedthat both the parties involvedwere drunk at the time of theincident, said police officials.

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The Congress’ efforts to forma Government in Goa suf-

fered a major setback when twoof its MLAs joined the rulingBJP. Congress MLAs SubhashShirodkar and Dayanand Sopteon Tuesday resigned from theGoa Assembly and also fromthe primary membership ofthe party and joined the BJP ata special event in presence ofUnion Minister Piyush Goyal.

Shirodkar and Soptereached the national Capital onMonday late night and metBJP president Amit Shah beforequitting the party. The Congresshas accused the ruling party of“poaching” the legislators byusing “money power andthreats”. Their resignation hasnow reduced the Congress’strength from 16 to 14 in the 40-member House led by ailingChief Minister ManoharParrikar who enjoys the supportof 26 MLAs.

The Congress had emergedas the single largest party afterthe 2017 Assembly elections,

winning 17 seats.However, within days its

number was reduced to 16when its newly-electedVishwajit Rane resigned.

The Congress had submit-ted a memorandum toGovernor Mridula Sinha, stak-ing claim to form an alternateGovernment. The Congress hadthen claimed it has the supportof legislators from other partiesand can form the Government,if given a chance. The Congresshad sensed an opportunity totopple the BJP Governmentwhen Chief Minister ManoharParrikar was admitted into theAIIMS in Delhi and BJP’s allies

started talking about the needfor change of leadership.However, the party managerfailed to engineer the much-needed defection in the BJPrank to pose any serious threatto the State Government.

However, the Congressmaintained that the twin resig-nations were not a setback forthe party as they were confidentof roping in four MLAs fromthe BJP in their fold. “It is nota setback for the Congress. Wemay have been reduced by twonumbers, but our efforts toform the State Governmentwill continue. They have takentwo of our MLAs and we will getfour from their camp,” GoaCongress spokesperson NilkantHalarnkar said.

Congress Legislature Party(CLP) held a meeting onTuesday in Panaji during whichthe current political situation inthe coastal State was discussed.Coming out of the meeting, for-mer Chief Minister andCongress legislator PratapsinhRane said his party will fightback.

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More than Rs 55 crore of fil-igree works and gold

ornaments have been used fortableaux and deities by differ-ent Puja Mandaps of Cuttackcity this year for the Durga Pujaand this display of preciouswhite metal and yellow metalis said to be the hallmark ofCuttack Dussheras.

“This is the uniqueness ofCuttack Dusshera for overseven decades now; and theage-old practice will also con-tinue more enthusiastically infuture too,” said MahanagarPuja Committee secretaryBhikari Das.

Filigree works worth overRs 38 crore and gold ornamentsworth nearly Rs 18 crore adorethe deities and the tableaus ofall the 166 Puja Mandaps in theSilver City as the five-day longPuja began on Monday eveningwith the invocation of MaDurga in pandals. While 24Puja Mandaps have given silvery backdrops to the deities,nine of them have used goldornaments in the idols, includ-ing some gold used in the sil-ver tableau of the ChoudhuryBazaar Mandap.

Besides Choudhury BazaarMandap that has crowns andornaments of gold for all thedeities, including of the buffa-lo-faced demon Mahisashur;other Mandaps like Sheikh

Bazaar, Chauliaganj, CollegeSquare, Ranihat, Mangalabag,Kathagada Sahi, Haripur-Dolamundai and Khan Nagar-Khapuria have also decoratedthe deities with some amountsof gold ornaments.

The Choudhury BazaarPuja Committee is actually thetrendsetter in using silver andgold in the tableau. In 1951, itbecame the first committee tohave the tableau made up of sil-ver and gave that sparklingbackdrop to the deities.

Soon, others followed; andtoday, 24 Mandaps have joined

the elite group. Two more Mandaps,

Chhatra Bazaar and Sector 10(CDA), are likely to join thisgroup next year.

Similarly in 1990, theChoudhury Bazaar PujaCommittee for the first timeused gold for making the orna-ments of the deities; and everyyear, it is adding some amountof the yellow metal to itstableau. Like the race for silvertableaus, the competition forhaving gold jewelleries of thedeities is also gaining momen-tum in the city.

���� .7.&�6/2&3

The State Government onTuesday confirmed a total

of 26 deaths during the recentVery Severe Cyclonic Storm‘Titli’ and subsequent floods inthe State.

Briefing mediapersons,Special Relief Commissioner(SRC) Bishnupada Sethi said,“So far, 26 casualties have beenreported. Of these, 18 deathswere confirmed in Gajapatidistrict (15 in Baraghara village,two in Labanyagarh villageand one in Allada village).”

The rest eight deathsincluded three in Ganjam dueto drowning and tree fellingand one each in Cuttack (wallcollapse), Angul (drowning),Kandhamal (wall collapse),Keonjhar (wall collapse) andNayagarh (drowning), headded. Sethi said police haveconfirmed the 26 deaths; andan ex-gratia of Rs 4 lakh wouldbe provided to the next of thekin of each deceased.

He also said an investiga-tion would be carried out onthe number of deaths due tolandslide, tree felling and wall

collapse reported from uncon-firmed sources.

“A police team, twoExecutive Magistrates, twomedical teams and ODRAFteams have been deployed indifferent blocks in Gajapatidistrict for the ongoing rescueoperation,” he added.

The SRC further informedthat totally 16 districts havebeen affected due to heavyrains and floods following Titli.

“57 lakh people of 144blocks, 30 ULBs and 7,402 vil-lages have been affected in theaftermath of Titli.

We had evacuated 3.6lakh people and opened 1,614relief camps during the calami-ty. Total 26 ODRAF and 14NDRF teams were deployed inGajapati district alone for therescue and relief operations,” hesaid.

Sethi also informed that950 km of roads in 35 blocks ofGanjam, Gajapati, Rayagadaand Kandhamal have severelybeen damaged. Around Rs 12crore would be spent forrestoration of the roads.

���� .7.&�6/2&3

The State Government hasdirected the Collectors of

three worst-cyclone-hit dis-tricts, Gajapati, Ganjam andRayagada, to disburse ex gra-tia of Rs 4 lakh to the next ofkin (NOK) of the deceased per-sons within three days.

In a letter on Tuesday,Special Relief Commissioner(SRC) Bishnupada Sethi askedthe Collectors to disburse theex-gratia within the deadline.

Besides, the RevenueInspectors and the Tehsildarswere asked to expedite theprocess of identifying the fam-ilies of the deceased.

The district officials weredirected to inquire into allcases of alleged deaths andensure payment of the com-pensation amount to thedeceased persons NOK afterfollowing due procedure.

Earlier, the StateGovernment had announced toprovide the ex-gratia withinseven days. But after reviewingthe widespread destructioncaused by Cyclone Titli, theGovernment has decided toprovide the compensationwithin three days.

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The birth and death anniver-saries of Gopabandhu Das

are publicly acknowledged interms of Christian calendar andHindu calendar. The birthday(Jayanti) of Gopabandhu isobserved on October 9 as perthe Christian calendar.

The death anniversary ofGopabandhu, however, isobserved on the day ofNetrotsav as per the HinduPanjika. This manner ofremembering one of thefounders of Odisha is unusualand unique.

By general description andestimation, Gopabandhu isseen as a kindhearted, helpfuland self-sacrificing, sentimen-tal, relief provider during nat-ural calamities. Many sterlingfacets of Gopabandhu’s life arenot adequately analysed and

projected. The demand for a linguis-

tic State emanated from per-sons like Gopabandhu. It tooklong years of struggle forOdisha (then Orissa) to beformed before the onset of thecountry’s independence. Inother words, the State of Orissawas carved out during thecolonial British regime in 1936.The Utkal Sammilani was theplatform bringing togethermulti-faceted personalities,who provided adequate lead-ership.

But the unique ability andskill of Gopabandhu was amplydemonstrated through his suc-cessful attempt at harmonisingand merging the stream ofregional aspirations with themainstream of the nationalmovement for independence.

Gopabandhu realised thatthe socioeconomic structure ofOdisha required multiprongedattack so as to make a dent forthe better.

He, therefore, made effortsfor preserving and propagatingthe language of Odisha, the cul-tural ethos of Odisha andincredible heritage that hascome as a legacy.

Way back on April 10,1921, Gandhiji wrote, “But I am

afraid Orissa beats Champaranin this respect.

The difference between thetwo is that in Champaran theryots had been impoverishedby the oppression of the indi-go planters whereas in Orissathe suffering is due to thewrath of Nature.

Either the crops do notgrow through lack of rains orthere are floods followingexcessive rains and the cropsand houses are washed off;hence, there is always a near-famine in this province. Inthis godforsaken region, theone real leader is GopabandhuDas ….. After visitingGopabandhubabu’s school, wewent on to Jagannath Puri……. Thick darkness reigns inthe recess where the images areinstalled. There is neither airnor light. One or two lampsburn dimly, that is all. …… Asat other places, here too thepriests are a terror. They fleecethe devout pilgrims. How is itthat Jagannath remains a silentwitness to all this wickedness?…. The words of the Mahatmaspeak for themselves and canhardly be improved upon. The“school” mentioned above isthe Bakul Ban Open-AirSchool. Its identity is about to

be lost with the location of theOdia University in that area.One’s thought naturally goes

out on Gopabandhu’s birthdayraising the demand for main-taining the identity and legacyof the open-air educationalinstitution, which can be anadjunct to the university.

Gopabandhu also realisedthat the transmission ofthoughts and interaction withthe people is the foundation ofthe newspaper “Samaja”, whichis heading towards celebratingits birth centenary.

While advocating forobservation and propagation ofOdia language, Gopabandhuensured provision of adequateinfrastructure for the schoolsteaching Odia in the borderareas. Seeing Odisha as a pros-perous and leading State hadbeen the dream of personslike Gopabandhu.

He caused structural andreform-oriented steps in thefield of education, healthcare,media and practically everyfacet of societal existence of theresidents of this area. Sadly, weare still at the mercy of nature

for our agriculture. Villages arebeing mocked at by the degen-erating agro-rural sector. This

scenario would not havepleased Gopabandhu.

Gopabandhu was alsoinvolved with labour reformsand labour union activities. Healong with Lala Lajpat Raifounded the Lok SevakMandal. He had successfullymetamorphosed from a region-al or local leader to a leader inthe national platform.Founding a newspaper in thecontext of the then prevalentcondition and making animpact through that medium isa herculean task by itself. It isa matter of regret that decadesafter his demise, some of theproblems still continued to beuncared for.

If one peruses the speech-es of Gopabandhu in the Bihar-Orissa Council, many of theproblems continue to persist inone form or the other.

There is a marginal change,but the core malady continuesto be the same.

A journalist friend was theother day speculating about the

nature of response and reactionof Gopabandhu if he was toland as a young lad, the con-frontation of Gopabandhu withthe prevalent socioeconomicsurroundings would have beena painful experience; and mostlikely he would have left theworld disappointed andbetrayed by a few coworkers.Another great ability ofGopabandhu was in bringingtalents from different areastogether and form his ownbrigade.

All these persons had suc-ceeded in life and went out toserve their society for causinga change for the better. Frombeing the Gandhi of Odisha, hewent on to organise the firstsuccessful public strike inCalcutta.

There have been attemptsat belittling Gopabandhu’sactivity as a labour leader bystyling his influence to havebeen conditioned by Odiamigrant labour. This small-minded comment should beignored. Gopabandhu led theUtkal Pradesh CongressCommittee and had the audac-ity to sit independently of theBihar-Orissa contingent.

This was before creation ofthe State of Orissa. At that time,

many leaders of the IndianNational Congress whobelonged to Bihar had reser-vations in the matter. When itwas known that there was tacitsupport from Gandhiji, they letGopabandhu lead the UtkalPradesh Congress Committeecontingent with a separateidentity.

This brings us to the verycore of the existence of oursociety. Gopabandhu gave anOdia his identity. He did notsuffer from any identity crisisin the then prevalent hostilesocial political structure. Hisfurther ability was to causestructural changes so that anew State is born with a lin-guistic identity.

Respectful homage to a

personality like Gopabandhushould appropriately bethrough deeds and not throughan over-exercised vocal cord.Rituals may be demonstrativein paying homage, but that hasno lasting effect unless thecorresponding social change inthis regard is brought about.Our society is in a disarray. Wecarry a dominant bulk of youthpower, who have to be devel-oped as skilled and educatedhuman resource.

A social churning is nec-essary through democraticprocess in our paying appro-priate homage to persons likeGopabandhu.

The celebration of the cen-tenary of the foundation of the“Samaja” can appropriately beput into an operation over thenext year to cause feasiblechanges for the better.Gopabandhu is not to be con-fined to the busts only, his spir-it must charge our society fora radical change for the better.

(The writer, a SeniorAdvocate, is a former All IndiaService officer, a former diplo-mat, a former editor, a formerPresident of Orissa High CourtBar Association and a formerAdvocate General of [email protected])

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New rates of the PuriJagannath temple’s

Mahaprasad would beannounced soon. A decision tothis effect was taken at a meet-ing between Shree JagannathTemple Administration (SJTA)Chief Administrator PradiptaKumar Mohapatra and mem-bers of the Suara andMahasuara Nijogs here onTuesday.

A rate chart of theMahaprasad would be dis-

played at theA n a n d aBazar in thet e m p l ep r e m i s e safter fixationof prices. Itwas alsodecided inthe meetingto set up ag r i e v a n c e

cell and a helpdesk at theAnanda Bazar.

Besides, a discussion washeld at the meeting over theKotha Bhoga of the deities.After estimation of expenditurefor the Kotha Bhoga, a ratechart for it would also be putup.

The cooking process ofthe Kotha Bhoga would bemonitored by the Deula Karanaand the temple supervisor.This apart, entry of non-servi-tors to Ananda Bazar would berestricted.

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)��)�� � ��: Chief Minister NaveenPatnaik turned 73 on Tuesday and goodwishes for him poured in from allquarters. A host of leaders across thepolitical spectrum wished him a healthyand long life. Prime Minister NarendraModi prayed for Patnaik’s good health.

Sand artist Sudarsan Pattnaik wishedthe Chief Minister with a sculpture at thePuri sea beach. However, the CM decidednot to celebrate his birthday this year as amark of solidarity with the people affect-ed by Cyclone Titli and subsequent floodsin some parts of the State. He also request-ed his well-wishers and BJD workers andleaders not to organise any function at hisresidence Naveen Nivas. ����

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Odisha PradeshC o n g r e s s

Committee (PCC) pres-ident Niranjan Patnaik,who is on a three-dayvisit to the Cyclone Titliand floods-affected dis-tricts, on Tuesdaydemanded that the fam-ily of each deceased per-son be paid Rs 10- lakhcompensation soon.

On Monday, he vis-ited Brahmapur and nearbyareas and talked to the affect-ed families. On Tuesday, he vis-ited Machmara, Busukudi,Tatikati, Gurundi, Bhasuni,Gangabad, Labanyakotta,Saanpada, Rampa, Barunei andKainpur gram panchayatsunder Parlakhemundi andMohana Assembly constituen-cies in Gajapati district andtook stock of damages caused

by the cyclone and subsequentrains.

He met some deceased’s’family members and consoledthem.

“Media reports said 24people have died so far and thenumber is expected rise.Thousands of families havelost everything.

If the Government hadplanned and prepared itself

on the basis ofinformation of theMet department,this huge destruc-tion could havebeen avoided,”Patnaik said anddemanded that theState Governmentpay a minimum ofRs 10 lakh to fami-ly of each deceasedpersons.

He alsodemanded that the

Government continue reliefand primary rehabilitationwork on war-footing in affect-ed areas and prepare an accu-rate report of destruction andgive compensation according-ly.

The BJD Governmentshould come forward to recon-struct the devastated areaswithout having any politicalagenda, advised the PCC chief.

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The Archeological Surveyof India’s (ASI) stand that

the Kohinoor diamond was infact “surrendered” by DalipSingh to Queen Victoria ofEngland has been decried here.

Researcher Anil Dhir saidthere is ample documentaryproof that Maharaja RanjitSingh had donated the dia-mond to the Jagannath templebefore his death in 1839.

Dhir said just ten years

after Ranjit Singh’s death, theBritish took away the diamondfrom his son, Dalip Singh, in1849, even though they werefully aware of it beingbequeathed to Lord Jagganathat Puri.

Dhir informed that theclaim for the return of theKohinoor was first done soonafter Independence by theGovernment of India. Anotherrequest followed in 1953, theyear of the coronation of QueenElizabeth II.

But the real fight erupted in1976 when the Zulfiqar AliBhutto, in a letter to the BritishPrime Minister, James

Callaghan, submitted a formal request for the return of the diamond to Pakistan.Pakistan’s claim was refused, but Callaghan gave awritten assurance to Bhutto that there was no ques-tion that Britain would havehanded it over to any othercountry.

Shortly after, a majornewspaper in Tehran statedthat the gem ought to bereturned to Iran.

In November 2000, theTaliban regime demanded thereturn of the diamond toAfghanistan.

The Kohinoor had been in

the possession of Mughal rulersin Delhi for 213 years, withrulers in Kandahar and Kabulfor 66 years and with theBritish for nearly 170 years, saidDhir.

INTACH State convenerAB Tripathy said that theKohinoor’s rightful place is atthe Jagannath Temple.

He said that an INTACHteam had met the Director ofthe National Archives of Indiain May this year with a requestthat the original letter men-tioning Ranjit Singh’s wishesshould be displayed at theBhubaneswar Centre of theArchives.

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As many as 17 prisoners have beenreleased from different jails in the

State under the Special Remission schemeon the recommendation of the StateGovernment.

According to ADG PrisonsBinayananda Jha while the Ministry ofHome Affairs asked the State Governmentto release some of jail inmates on the occa-sion of 150th birth anniversary ofMahatma Gandhi, the State Governmentreleased 17, who fulfilled reprievableconditions set by the MHA.

A committee headed by Home ACSAsit Tripathy made the list on the basis ofproposal of the Directorate of Prisons.

Before the release, the prisoners weregiven counseling by a team of experts fortheir release.

On the day of release, they garland-ed the Mahatma Gandhi statue and weregiven books on Mahatma Gandhi.

Out of 17p r i s o n e r sreleased fromjails, threefrom CuttackCircle Jai, twoeach fromKoraput CircleJail and PuriJail and twofemale prison-ers were fromthe Nari BandiN e k e t a n ,

Sambalpur.One each from Baripada, Brhmapur,

Keonjhar, Balangir, Dhenkanal, Bonaigarh,Deogarh and Champua jail was released

According to MHA guidelines,women and transgender convicts of 55years age, male convicts of 60 years andabove and PwDs with 70 deformities com-pleting above completing 50 per cent oftheir actual sentence period were includ-ed in the Special Remission scheme.Death convicts were excluded.

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'�.&)(�� ��)�����/� BHUBANESWAR:In yet anotherepisode in the #MeToo campaign, con-servationist NishaBora has accusedfamous Odiapainter Jatin Das ofsexually harassingher.

However, Das refuted theallegation terming it as “ridicu-lous and vulgar”. Taking toTwitter, Bora said she met Dasthrough her father-in-law inthe summer of 2004 at a din-ner event at the IndiaInternational Centre in NewDelhi when she was 28 yearsold. As per her post, Das askedher to assist him for a few daysto organise his work material,to which she agreed.

“I visited Jatin in his studio,which was in Khidki Village. Idon’t recall the time of day, but

that it was wellwithin daylighthours.

He pouredhimself somewhiskey, offeredme one too but Irefused. The nextthing I knew, he

attempted to grab me. I wrig-gled out of his embrace, flus-tered,” Bora wrote in the post.

“I picked up my bag,stepped out into the sun andran home.

Never to speak about it.Until now,” she added.

Das denied the allegations,saying, “This is horrifying.What else can I say? It’s cheap;I won’t stoop so low. I havenever misbehaved with anyone.Of late, many women are lev-elling allegations like this. Butthese allegations are one-sidedand not true.” PNS

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After a studied silence for 48long hours since Sunday,

the Puri police swung intoaction on Tuesday with districtCollector Jyoti Prakash Dasordering an investigation intothe alleged sale of Dalit womanDaudi Mallick in MadhyaPradesh who was residing inBaliapanda Basti near the Purisea beach.

“I have given an order. Aninvestigation is going on andthe necessary action will betaken,” said Das in a message toThe Pioneer, which was the lonenewspaper to highlight the traf-ficking of the poor woman.

The Collector talked to theSP as investigations are basedon a written petition by thefather of the victim. The inci-dent also psoints to a traffick-

ing racket being active in thepilgrim town.

On Sunday, complainantAru Mallick of BrahamagiriBauribasta village had lodgedan FIR with the police that at acost of Rs 55,000, his marrieddaughter Daudi had been soldoff to one Dhusa Singh ofJanata village near Ashok Nagarrailway Station of MP.

Alleging her daughter is incaptivity of the person after aforcible court marriage there, hehad apprehended her to be indanger. Aru had urged thepolice to rescue his daughteralong with a handicapped girlchild living with her in MP.

The complaint also readsthat the victim woman’s hus-band Daku Mallick was livingwith his second wife inBaliapanda basti. After remar-rying, he was torturing Daudi.

To maintain her four children,Daudi was working as a dailywager in a construction sitenear the railway station fromwhere she was trafficked to MP.

The three of her women co-labourers who were from sameBaliapanda took her to the MPvillage after promising her of agood job. Handing her over tothe person, the co-laobourersreturned to Puri getting Rs55,000 from him, the complaintby the victim’s faher cited.

The Sadar police onTuesday collected the mobilenumber of the victim womanfrom his parents besides otherproofs relating to the identity ofthe victim. If need be, policewould go to the village of MPto trace out the woman. Thepolice have contacted with theirMP counterpart for help, said apolice official.

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Minister of Railways andCoal Piyush Goyal on

Tuesday reviewed issues ofcoal production and evacuationat a joint meeting with officialsof the Ministries of Coal andRailways, East Coast Railway(ECoR), Mahanadi CoalfieldsLimited (MCL) and the OdishaGovernment.

To improve coal produc-tion and despatch, he stressedon joint cooperation and mutu-al understanding between var-ious agencies of the Central andState Governments. This wouldgive a strong message to the

potential investors and businessinterests regarding a positiveindustrial and investment cli-mate in the State, he said.

Goyal also stressed ontackling of public order issuesto give confidence to potentialinvestors about the joint resolveto handle problems facing theindustries. This could be donewhen all the stakeholdersinvolved, including the StateGovernment, together resolveto adopt a focussed and solu-tions-based approach to theproblems, he observed.

MCL officials listed theissues pending with theRailways and the State

Government. They also flaggedissues related to the ForestDepartment. It was seen thatmost of the issues were at thestage of being solved or imple-mented at local levels throughcoordination with the DRMsconcerned or the districtCollectors in some cases.

The ECoR gave a presen-tation of a roadmap for achiev-

ing 55+ rakes a day at theTalcher collieries and action-able points and assistancerequired from the MCL and theState Government.

Besides, the Minister laidfocus on cleanliness and otherissues while holding wit offi-cials.

Cleanliness of toilets wouldcontinue to remain a priority

area. “The focus on clean toi-lets is the humblest tribute wecan pay to Mahatma Gandhion his 150th birth anniversary.”

He too took stock of all themechanised laundries comingup in the East Coast RailwayZone.

Enquiring about the WiFiinstallation position, he said theMahanadi Coalfields will sup-port in installing WiFi at bal-ance stations.

Secretaries of Steel andMines, Revenue, Home, Forestsand Environment Department,among others, represented theState Goverment. ECORGeneral Manager, departmen-tal heads and DRMs ofBilaspur, Chakradharpur,Khurda Road and Sambalpurwere present.

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Good news for railway passengers ofMayurbhanj: A passenger train will

start running between Badampahar andRourkela via Tatanagar by the end ofDecember this year. This has been con-firmed by South Eastern Railway GeneralManager GS Mishra.

Recently, Jharkhand GovernorDrowpadi Murmu, who hails fromMayurbhanj, held a discussion on this mat-ter with senior Railways officials, includ-ing Mishra, during which she raised theMayurbhanj people’s longstanding demandof running of a morning train fromBadampahar to Rourkela. Mishra’s responsewas positive.

The track upgradation work along theTata-Badampahar route, which is in thefinal phase, would soon be over and a pas-senger train would run from Badampaharto Rourkela via Tatanagar every morningby the end of December, Mishra assured.

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Police on Tuesday recoveredthe headless body of a

minor boy buried near a canalin the Sundhimunda, about fivekm from his house inSindhikela village of Balangirdistrict.

Reports said the nine-year-old boy, identified asGhanashyam Rana ofSindhikela, had gone missingon October 13. A “missingcomplaint” was lodged in thisregard at the local police station

by his family members onOctober 14.

Subsequently, policelaunched a search operationand found a boy’s body onTuesday and informedGhanashyam’s family mem-bers, who immediately rushedto the spot and identified thebody.

While an investigation hasbeen launched by police,sources said a scientific teamfrom Balangir assisted thepolice in the probe. Meanwhile,it was suspected that the mur-der could be an act of humansacrifice as there have beenreports of such incidents in thearea in the recent past.

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The district of Mayurbhanj hasgeared up for the Dussehra cele-

brations. People, in almost all parts ofthe district, particularly in the urban

areas, are in a festive mood.The zeal, enthusiasm and puja

spirit of the people was clearly evidentat the district headquarters town ofBaripada on Tuesday when streams ofmen and women kept flowing to the

town throughout the day.Different parts of the town likeBada Bazaar, KC Circle, SahidPadia, Lal Bazar, Baghra Road,Tulsichowra, Palbani andMurgabadi, where puja fes-tivities have already begun,remained crowded on the veryfirst day of Durga Puja cele-brations.

Traffic congestion wasclearly felt on the busy streetsof the town during the peakhours of the day.

The scene was no differ-ent in other townships of thedistrict. Rairangpur, Karanjia,Udala, Kaptipada, Betnoti,Bahalda, Bangriposi,Jharpokharia, Badsahi,Rasgobindpur, Baisinga,Kuliana and still smaller townsof Mayurbhanj are nowobserving the puja with muchpomp and show.

Devotees are throngingpuja pandals everywhere.

With the setting in of mild win-ter and the atmosphere becomingmore and more favourable, the num-ber of pandal hoppers is sure to risein the next two to three days.

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In yet another shameful inci-dent, a minor girl was

allegedly kidnapped and rapedby three persons in Vedvyasarea under the BrahmaniTarang police station here.

The incident came to thefore after the victim, who wasmissing since the last two days,was rescued by locals from neara bush in the locality in a crit-ical condition. Later, she wasrushed to the Ispat GeneralHospital (IGH). Acting on a

complaint lodged by the girl’sfamily, the Brahmani Tarangapolice detained all the accusedand are interrogating them inconnection with the incident.

The incident has sentshockwaves in the area and thelocals have demanded for strin-gent action against the accused.

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The Jagatsinghpur districthealth administration was

conferred with the prestigiousJRD Tata Memorial Award forgood work in family planningand other health services at aprogramme held in New Delhion Tuesday.

Jagatsingpur CDMO DrAshok Kumar Patnaik receivedthe award, given by thePopulation Foundation ofIndia, from Niti Aayog Vice-Chairperson Rajeev Kumar.

Earlier, the foundation hadconducted a survey across thecountry in which Jagatsingpuremerged first in Odisha, said anofficial release.

While an average of 57.3per cent women were includ-

ed in the family welfare pro-gramme in the State,Jagatsingpur topped with 63.8per cent. Similarly, institution-al delivery rate was recordedover 93 per cent in the districtas against average of 85.3 percent in the State. Similarly,

birth registration of childrenbelow 5 years of age wasrecorded at 87 per cent in thedistrict.

Health and Family WelfareMinister has congratulated thedistrict health administrationfor the feat.

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Two persons were killed andtwo others sustained griev-

ous injuries after two truckscollided with each other onNational Highway-16 in thedistrict on Tuesday.

The incident occurred atChapulia Chhak near Soro inthe early morning.

The two trucks’ driversdied on the spot while twohelpers sustained criticalinjuries and were later admit-ted to the Soro CommunityHealth Centre.

One of the deceased wasidentified as Ratikanta Das ofJaleswar in the district, whilethe identity of other driver wasyet to be ascertained, policesaid.

On getting information,police reached the accidentspot and sent the bodies forpost-mortem.

Sources said a truck bear-ing Rajasthan number and atruck having Odisha numbercollided head on at around 3am leaving two drivers dead onthe spot.

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The Manav AdhikarSurakshya Manch took out

its Ghanta Yatra (cymbal beating rally) in the city for the64th time, demanding action doctors of the MKCG MedicalCollege and Hospital and the District HeadquartersHospital, who are neglectingduty, and all facilities at the twohospitals.

Besides, taking out a rally,the Manch sent a memoran-dum to Health and FamilyWelfare Minister Pratap Jenathrough the Chief DistrictMedical Officer (CDMO) infavour of its demands.

“Various diseases are like-ly to spread in Ganjam districtas most of the areas have beenaffected in floods triggered by

Cyclone Titli. In this situation,most of doctors are not attend-ing duty in the MKCG MedicalCollege and Hospital and theDHH. The Government shouldtake action against them,” raidthe memorandum.

It mentioned that patientsare facing difficulties as TB,Cancer and Anaesthesiadepartments have remainedclosed.

Besides, it demandedinstallation of ultrasound, X-

ray and CT scan machines inthe medical college at the ear-lies.

Among others, Manchcoordinator Abani KumarGaya, Rabindra Panigrhi,Rajendra Dalbehera, R

Satyanarayan Rao, NilachalNanda, G ArpitalPriyadarshini, Laxmi NarayanRout, Bijaya Chandra Bishoyi,Maguni Nahak and ShankarBehera signed the memorandum.

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For a pollution-free puja andsafe immersion of idols, the

BMC has planned to developfour ponds.

City Engineer DebasundarMohapatra said four immer-sion ponds at three sites, i.e.,Kuakhai river near Pandra(two) and other two alongDaya river near TankapaniRoad bridge and near Lingipurare under preparation.

While the two immersionponds near Pandara are withsizes 8,000 square feet and3,000 square feet respectivelyunder Engineering Division Iof BMC, along Daya river onenear Tankapani bridge is of4,582 square feet and the othernear Daya river along PuriNH is of 2,784 square feetrespectively under EngineeringDivision II of BMC. The four

immersion ponds will be readybefore Dusshera.

Besides, proper signagewill be developed to guide thePuja Samitis to identify theimmersion ponds.

The sanitation agenciesand sanitation workers havebeen asked to carry out extracleaning work while pujaorganisers were advised to useextra dustbins. The organiserswere also asked for restricteduse of synthetic substance,colour and more use of organ-ic things. Besides, they weretold to limit sound near pujapandals to around 60 decibelsto minimise noise pollution.

An awareness programmeby public announcement wouldcontinue for a week, said CityHealth Officer DrRamachandra Rout

The BMC has already start-ed a trial run of a radio jingle and it will be on air at least for a week to continue the aware- ness drive. Sources said Puja organisers were also asked by

BMC to use special chemicalsto minimise fire incidents, incase of any mishap.

The Engineering Wing hasensured levelling all potholesnear puja pandals across thecity. Nearby drains of Pujapandals were covered withconcrete slabs. Streetlights nearall Puja pandals were eitherrepaired/problems addressed.

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The most-awaited ExecutiveBoard (EB) meeting of the

VIMSAR was held on Monday.It was decided to go ahead withthe appointment of teachingstaffs, especially AssistantProfessors, with immediateeffect.

After this, the VIMSAR,the premier health institute ofthe State, will witness a new erasince it will see 71 new faces inhigher ranks.

Of course, out of these 71,more than 60 per cent arefrom outside and rest are fromVIMSAR who are workinghere on deputation from theState Government.

“We will request theGovernment to relieve them sothat they can join here perma-nently,” informed Prof AswiniPujahari, the Director of theinstitute.

With this, the problem ofstaff crunch could be solved toa larger extent, Prof Pujahariadded.

After the process forappointment for the posts ofAssistant Professors began,

there were so many legal com-plicacies and even cases werethere in the Orissa High Courtchallenging the procedure.

But Prof Pujahariexplained the EB membersregarding steps taken in thematter after which the EBmembers approved issue ofappointment letters to thenewly selected staff only exceptin the Surgery Department asper the HC direction.

In another remarkable step,Prof Dr Braj Mohan Mishra ofSurgery Department will be theacting Principal of the institutetill permanent appointment ismade.

Prof Mishra was theSuperintendent of VIMSARearlier and he had successful-

ly discharged his duties then tothe satisfaction of public,patients and the students.However, it was decided to ini-tiate process for appointment ofpermanent Principal,Superintendent and Registrarimmediately so that adminis-trative and academic activitiescould be streamlined in a bet-ter way.

In another remarkabledecision, the executive boardfurther decided that theDirector can write the CCR ofstaff up to the rank of AssociateProfessor.

But the Professors andother higher posts could sendtheir performance appraisalreport (PAR) directly to theSecretary (Health).

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The Begunia police havearrested and court-for-

warded two persons in con-nection with the bomb hurlingat the car of Rajya Sabha MPPrashant Nanda’s son Rushavaon October 1.

The arrested persons wereidentified as Prakash Routrayand Ramachandra Samantray.They were nabbed from OCCChhak under the Sadar policestation on Monday night.

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The Indian Red CrossOdisha State Branch under

guidance of its secretary DrBinayak Prusty and joint sec-retary Major Dr Kalpana Dashhas sent relief materials to theTitli victims of Buratala andTumba panchayats of Patrapurblock in Ganjam district.

A team of six Red Crossvolunteers would provideinstant service to the needywith tarpaulins, mosquito nets,stoves, bed-sheets and otheressential materials to the peo-ple whose houses have beenwashed away due to the floodsin the Mahendratanaya riverafter the cyclone.

Among others, PratyusKumar Malla, ITIBhubaneswar Youth Red Crosscounsellor Laxman Swain,Samantiya Palli Youth Red

Cross counsellor SudhakarBisoyi, Kshetra Mohan ScienceCollege Youth Red Cross coun-sellor Bijay Kumar Khatei andBiswash Ray Science CollegePatapur Youth Red Cross coun-sellor Bijay Chandra Pradhanwere present when the reliefmaterials were despatched.

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Punjab Chief Minister CaptAmarinder Singh on

Tuesday paved way for his visitto Israel next week, with theconfidence that it would opennew vistas of growth and coop-eration in key areas of mutual interest, particularlythe agriculture, horticultureand dairy sectors.

The Chief Minister, accom-panied by a high-level delega-tion, is scheduled to leave forhis five-day visit to Israel onOctober 21.

At a meeting with Chargede’ Affairs of Israeli EmbassyMaya Kadosh, the ChiefMinister also hoped to shareIsrael’s expertise in the field ofinternal security to furtherstrengthen the State’s defencepreparedness.

Seeking to position Punjabas the most favoured invest-ment destination among for-eign investors, Capt Amarinder said that hisGovernment was keen to tapthe technological advance-ments on offer by Israel.

India and Israel share glo-rious historical ties whichshould be fully harnessedthrough mutual cooperation toensure overall growth and pros-

perity for both sides, said CaptAmarinder.

The visiting delegateapprised the Chief Minister ofthe elaborate arrangementsbeing made to make his visitresult-oriented, and said thatentrepreneurs, especially fromthe defence segment, werekeenly awaiting the visit.

The Chief Minister said helooked forward to signing thetwo MoUs in the field of agri-culture and water conservation,as these would propel the StateGovernment’s efforts towardsmaking farming more viable forthe agricultural community.

“I am keen to adopt Israeliknow-how to boost the dairysector and also wanted to visitthe Israeli orchards and nurs-eries to secure first-handknowledge of the technologicaladvancements in hybrid pro-duction of plants,” he told thedelegates. Capt Amarindersought Israeli assistance inimproving the quality of citrusfruits as Punjab was the lead-ing producer of Kinnow andwanted to go for mass planta-tion of sweet oranges, whichfinds a remunerative market inthe multi-national companies.He also discussed cooperationin livestock development withthe visiting delegate.

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Punjab Chief Minister CaptAmarinder Singh has

ordered the constitution of aSpecial Task Force (STF) to freethe Buddha Nullah of pollutingeffluents in a mission mode.

The task force, with BabaUdai Singh of Naamdhari Sectas its patron, will submit itsreport to the Chief Ministerwithin two months. Baba UdaiSingh, who met the ChiefMinister on Monday evening,had accepted the request to actas the patron.

The Chief Minister hasdirected the Chief SecretaryKaran Avtar Singh to constitutethe task force, consisting ofelected representatives, tech-nocrats and public figures.

The task force has beenmandated to study and suggestmeasures to address issues oftreating industrial effluents,solid waste management,besides ways to proactivelyengage with the public at largein this cause.

The CM also asked localGovernment Department tosubmit proposal to enhanceexisting capacity of SewageTreatment Plants (STPs) fromcurrent 516 MLDs to 675

MLDs, besides augmentingtreatment facilities for indus-trial effluents.

Amarinder directed bothLocal Bodies and IndustriesDepartments to expeditiouslycomplete all the ongoing worksbeing carried out to flush outtoxic substances from the Buddha Nullah.

He also asked the PrincipalSecretary (Water Resources) todraw up a detailed plan for alasting remedy for channellingand beautification of the 14kms of length of the Nullah,which flows through the city.

Underlining the need tofind a lasting solution to thelong-standing problem, theChief Minister said that it wastime to proactively engageindustry representatives andpublic to complement the gov-ernment’s efforts in providingsafe and healthier drinkingwater to all.

Taking part in the deliber-ations, Baba Udai Singhpledged his full support andcooperation in the govern-ment’s endeavours towards thisnoble cause. The ChiefMinister assured him of allassistance in accomplishingthis gigantic task in a time-bound manner.

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Against the backdrop of the MeToo campaign,NSUI national president Fairoz Khan did not

take any chance and stepped down from his postfollowing charges of sexual harassment againsthim. Sources in the party said that Congress pres-ident Rahul Gandhi has accepted Khan's resig-nation.

Khan, who hails from Jammu & Kashmir, sub-mitted his resignation on Monday evening, say-ing he quit keeping in mind the party's interests.According to sources, Khan said in his resignationletter that he has decided to step down since thecharges against him are hurting the party's image.He, however, has denied the charges against him.

The Congress had set up a three-member com-mittee to look into the issue after a woman, a partyworker from Chhattisgarh, levelled charges of sex-ual harassment against the chief of its students'wing. The panel, which is talking to all the con-cerned parties, is yet to give its report, the sources

said.The woman had first complained against Khan

in June. She had then met Rahul Gandhi and othersenior leaders of the party demanding actionagainst the NSUI president, who, she alleged, hadsexually harassed her and her sister and some otherwomen from the party.

She also lodged a complaint against him at theParliament Street police station in September, say-ing that she feared for her life and security.

The allegations against Khan have come in themidst of the MeToo movement gathering pace inthe country. Congress was under pressure to actagainst the NSUI chief as the party is seeking actionagainst Union Minister M J Akbar, who has beenaccused by several former women colleagues ofsexual harassment when he served as editor at var-ious media organisations.

The Opposition party has attacked PrimeMinister Narendra Modi for keeping quiet aboutthe allegations against Akbar and has demandedthe latter's resignation.

New Delhi: The ElectionCommission does not have any"material information" on thenumber of Electronic VotingMachines (EVMs) and VoterVerifiable Paper Audit Trail(VVPAT) needed to conductsimultaneous elections, thepanel has said in a reply to anRTI query.

Pune-based Vihar Durve,through his RTI application, hadapproached the Commissionseeking to know the availabili-ty and need of EVMs andVVPAT to carry out electionsacross the country in 'onenation, one poll' mode.

In his response, ElectionCommission undersecretaryMadhusudan Gupta said, "Theinformation sought by you isnot available in any materialform as mentioned underSection 2 (f) of the Right toInformation Act."

The section defines infor-mation as "any material in anyform, including records, docu-ments, emails, opinions, advices,press releases, logbooks, con-

tracts, reports, papers, samples,data material held in any elec-tronic form and informationrelating to any private bodywhich can be accessed by a pub-lic authority under any other lawfor the time being in force".

In their discussions onholding simultaneous electionsin the country, the EC officialshad said they would needaround �4,500 crore to buynearly 12 lakh additional EVMsand an equal number VVPATmachines.

The estimate was based onthe current cost to procure thedevices.

BJP president Amit Shahhad written to the LawCommission on August 13 sup-porting holding the Lok Sabhaand Assembly polls simultane-ously.

A paper by the LawCommission had recommend-ed holding the Lok Sabha andAssembly polls in two phasesbeginning 2019.

Political parties are dividedon the issue. PTI

New Delhi: In a giant leap towards digitisation of criminalinvestigation, police in six major cities, including Delhi andMumbai, will mandatorily conduct videography of a crimescene, the Centre has told the Supreme Court.

Besides Delhi and Mumbai, the other cities where videog-raphy of crime scenes would be mandatory are Hyderabad,Ahmedabad, Bangalore and Chandigarh.

The top court had in April asked the Centre to preparea plan for introducing videography in criminal investigationsto strengthen the rule of law.

Taking the lead, the Gujarat Police has set up a centralserver which is connected to a specially designed applica-tion called "Mobile Pocket Cop".

The app can be downloaded on a cell phone providedto every police station for use in an investigation.

A bench of justices UU Lalit and DY Chandrachudsought a reply in four weeks from home secretary, Gujaratgovernment, on the aspect of testing of another app devel-oped by the Bureau of Police Research and Development asproof of concept. PTI

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The CBI has taken over investigationinto the custodial violence at Tihar jail

last year where 18 inmates were alleged-ly beaten up by the prison staff.

The incident had occurred onNovember 21 last year at High SecurityWard of Central Jail No 1 at Tihar. Theagency has registered two FIRs in con-nection with the incident. The CBI tookover the case following a directive fromthe Delhi High Court on May 15 this year.

The cases have been registered undervarious sections of the Indian Penal Coderelating to grievous injury and commonintention against the then Sub Inspector

S Muthupandi of the Tamil Nadu SpecialPolice and other members of his 52-mem-ber team.

The court had ordered the CBIprobe in response to a public interest lit-igation (PIL) filed by advocate ChinmayKanojia, who had alleged that his clientShahid Husuf, who was being investigatedby the National Investigation Agency(NIA), was beaten up without any reasonby the jail staff.

The High Court had termed the inci-dent as "very disturbing".

The plea has said a particular com-munity, including Husuf, was being tar-geted by the jail staff causing seriousinjuries to him and others.

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Mixing his sharp attack onCongress president Rahul

Gandhi with a strong dose ofsatire, Union Finance MinisterArun Jaitley on Tuesdayaccused the former of living in"self-delusion" and being bereftof facts concocting repeat false-hood on several issues includ-ing the Rafale deal, Goods andServices Tax (GST) and NonPerforming Assets (NPA).

Writing in his blog title "Isthe Clown Prince out-clowninghimself ', Jaitley dismissedRahul's claim that he(theFinance Minister) met abscond-ing jeweler and bank defaulterNirav Modi in Parliament andhelped him escape the country.

"I do not recollect everhaving even seen Nirav Modi inmy life. The question of hismeeting me in Parliament doesnot arise. If he came toParliament, as Rahul Gandhiclaims, then reception recordswould show that. Where haveI admitted all this Mr.Gandhi,"Jaitley asked.

On Rahul's claim that healso met another businesstycoon Vijay Mallya inParliament, the FinanceMinister repeated his earlierassertion that he was chased byMallya in the corridor ofParliament.

"If the factual narrativedoes not suit him (Gandhi)then concoct an alternative.Repeat the false narrative adozen times and convince your-self that falsehood is in fact is

the truth. Thereafter, you cancomfortably live in self-delu-sion", Jaitley wrote in hisFacebook post.

"Many young lawyers prac-tising criminal law used to getan advice early in their careerfrom veterans in the field. Theywere told "if you are strong onfacts, bang the facts. If you arestrong on law, bang the law. Ifyou are weak on both, thenbang the desk." Those whoadvise Rahul Gandhi appear tohave persuaded him that he iscut out only for the thirdoption."

Jaitley gave a pointed rebut-tal to the allegations andcharges levelled by the Congressregarding the contract for theFrench fighter jets as also theallegations that the ModiGovernment favoured a privatedefence firm, Anil Ambani'sReliance Defence, to get the off-set contract with DassaultAviation , at the cost of State-run defence firm HindustanAeronautics Limited (HAL).Congress had alleged thatReliance Defence "got anadvantage ranging from�38,000 Crore to �1,30,000Crore," Jaitley noted in his blogpost and went on to explain the"truth".

The finance minister said inhis blog post, "Rafale aircraftand its weaponry is not beingmanufactured in India at all,neither by Dassault or by any

other private company. All 36aircrafts and their weapons ina fully flyable and usable formwill arrive in India. After thesupplies begin Dassault has tomake purchases in India for50% of the contract value. Thisis as per the UPA's policy topromote make in India."

"If the total deal is for�58,000 Crore, 50 per cent ofthat amounts to �29,000 Crore.These supplies to Dassault areto be made by over 120 offsetsuppliers and which the busi-ness house named is one ofthem. Dassault has said thatonly 3 per cent of offset maycome to that business housewhich is less than �1,000 crore."

On the issue of "loan waiv-er" and non-performing assets(NPA) in banks, Jaitley coun-tered Rahul's claims that PMModi had helped "15 of hisfriends" get a loan waiver."Loans were given during theUPA period. Not a single Rupeehas been waived," he said.

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The state-of-the-art SportsInjury Centre (SIC) at New

Delhi's Safdarjung Hospital isunder the Centre's scanner foralleged misappropriation offunds and misuse of facilities.

The Union HealthMinistry has set up a seven-member panel, headed by JointSecretary Rajeev Manjhi, totake up the special audit ofSIC's functioning in variousareas ranging from equipmentsand facilities for operation the-atres to their procurement andmaintenance. The committeehas a one-month deadline tosubmit its report.

This is for the first timethat the functioning of theSIC, which was inaugurated inSeptember 2010, just before theCommonwealth Games, withan objective to provide inte-grated surgical, rehabilitativeand diagnostic services underone roof for the managementof sports injuries and relatedjoint disorders, is being audit-ed.

The panel was formed fol-lowing complaints from Dr RK Arya, who recently tookover as the SIC Director. Priorto him, the SIC was headed byDr Deepak Chaudhary, whohas now joined a private hos-pital in the national capital.

In fact, sources said, DrChaudhary's resignation is yetto be accepted by the Ministryin the wake of the allegationsof corruption in the SIC dur-ing his tenure.

The panel is already on job:Constituted on September 20,

2018, the panel has the man-date to audit equipment andfacilities for operation theatreswith reference to their pro-curement, maintenance andallied expenditure with partic-ular reference to their usabili-ty and usefulness. It is alsolooking into "equipment andfacilities for physiotherapy unitof the centre with reference totheir usability and usefulness,"said the sources.

Two private diagnosticfacilities-M/s Mahajan Imagingand M/s Khanna Pathcare -setup on the premises of the SIChave also come under the scan-ner. Sources said that the panelis auditing "the revenue shar-ing with M/s Mahajan Imagingand M/s Khanna Pathcare forradiological and pathologicalfacilities respectively at theSIC".

The other area the panel isprobing is about the implantsneeded by the SIC andSafdarjung Hospital for recon-structive and Orthopaedic plas-tic surgeries, their availabilityand plan of procurement by theformer.

The team will also auditissues related to allied health-care professionals, recruitment,and service conditions amongothers.

Sensing widespreadbungling, the Ministry has alsoasked the committee to lookinto the status of the SIC withregard to whether it is anautonomous body/semi-autonomous body or depart-ment under the SafdarjungHospital administration. Issuesrelated to budget provision for

the two would also be lookedinto.

The other members of thepanel are Dr HL Nag, Professor,Department of Orthopedic,AIIMS, Dr Deep Sharma,Additional Professor and Headof Department (HoD)Orthopedic from JIPMER,Puducherry, Dr DDMaheshwari, Under Secretary(Health Ministry) and AmitChobey, Deputy Director,

DGHS and one representativeeach from IFD andProcurement Division in theHealth Ministry.

When contacted by ThePioneer, while Dr Arya refusedto speak on the matter citingconfidentiality, sources said itwas he who had rung thealarm bells, seeking a specialaudit of the SIC. Incidentally,soon after taking over as thehead of the SIC , he had also cut

down the prices of someimplants. (See box)

However, this is not thefirst time that the Ministry hasinvestigated the functioningof the prominent centre whichis meant to treat sportspersonswith their injuries.

Last year, in April, theHealth Ministry's DirectorateGeneral of Health Services hadset up a three-member com-mittee to look into what washappening at the SIC. Thepanel members were Dr K.T.Bhowmik, Dr Anita Jain andDr R.K. Anand, all fromSafdarjung Hospital. TheDGHS had noted that the per-sonnel requirements at the SICfor both annual maintenanceand operation and facility man-agement services were exces-sively high. However, the fate ofthe report is not known till datefor the best reasons known tothe Ministry.

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India and China will for the first timesign an internal security cooperation

agreement next week, marking a newbeginning in bilateral relations.

Zhao Kezhi, China's Minister ofPublic Security, will visit India onOctober 22 and hold meetings withHome Minister Rajnath Singh duringwhich they will discuss various aspectsof security cooperation between the twocountries.

During the visit of the Chineseleader, an agreement on internal secu-rity cooperation between the two coun-tries will be signed.

The proposed pact is expected tocover areas of intelligence sharing,exchange programme, sharing of bestpractices, cooperation in disaster mit-igation besides others, an official said.

The move comes just a year after atwo-month-long border stand-offbetween the India Army and the China'sPeople's Liberation Army at Doklam onthe India-Bhutan-China tri-junction.

Prime Minister Narendra Modiand Chinese President Xi Jinping heldan informal summit in Wuhan, China,in April this year which helped repairbilateral ties.

A Chinese delegation met an Indianteam on August 28 to hold discussionson the forthcoming visit of the ChineseMinister of Public Security and the pro-posed pact on security cooperationbetween the two countries, the officialsaid.

This will be the first such agreementbetween the authorities of India andChina which look after internal securi-ty of the respective countries, the offi-cial said.

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The Union Home Ministry has cleared a proposal for absorptionof over 2,000 non-combatised personnel of the Sashastra Seema

Bal into the Intelligence Bureau in order to strengthen the presenceof the covert agency along the frontiers with China and Nepal.

The order to the effect was issued by Ministry following a highlevel meeting between Union Home Secretary Rajiv Gauba and IBchief Rajiv Jain.

According to the blueprint for movement of the SSB person-nel to the IB, , the trained, experienced and well acquainted per-sonnel of the paramilitary will be used to upgrade country's intel-ligence generation and gathering capability along 15,000-kms ofIndia's border. The personnel could undertake tasks aimed at gen-erating nationalist sentiments among the border population. Thepersonnel would be charted over a period of next few months andboth the central agencies will "mutually decide the detailed imple-mentation modalities including those related to transfer of assetsof the Sashastra Seema Bal to the IB."

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Just a month after joining theJD(U), Prashant Kishor has

been appointed as national vicepresident of the party. With thiselevation PK, he is quite popu-lar with his abbreviation in polit-ical circles, is only next to nation-al president Nitish Kumar.

The official statementregarding PK’s appointment wasissued on Tuesday by the party’ssecretary general KC Tyagi whoexpressed confidence that hisexperience and expertise willtake the party to a new height.

Kishor, 41, had formallyjoined the JD(U) on September16 at the party’s State executivecommittee meeting here. Aftergrabbing limelight followinghuge victory of mahagath-bandhan, which involved theJD(U) and the RJD apart fromothers, he was keeping a lowprofile. The victory of 2015Assembly election was largelycredited to the poll strategyengineered by Kishore who in2014 general election hadreportedly crafted the strategyfor Narendra Modi.

With his elevation as JD(U)national vice president Kishor isnow the most powerful leaderof the party only after Nitish,who is supposed to have clippedthe wings of many other lead-ers in the party who were sup-posed to be his close confidents.

It is also expected that Kishorwill have his say in all the toplevel deliberations with otherparties in the NDA and in thedecision making his inputs andsuggestions would be givenweightage by the party supremo.

There had been wild spec-ulations about his role in theparty after he joined the JD(U)last month. There were reportsthat he might contest LokSabha polls from Buxar con-stituency, his hometown, andsome suggested he might bemade a powerful Minister. ButNitish seemed to have provedall those speculations wrong.

In a recent interview to asenior TV journalist andanswering the questions of thestudents of Indian Institute ofTechnology, Delhi, Kishor saidhe would not move out ofBihar for the next 10 years.

Avoiding a direct reply tothe possible poll outcome in2019, Kishor said he would notmake a prediction but claimedthat BJP was still in lead position.

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Assam’s regional politicalparty Asom Gana Parishad

(AGP) has decided to meet themembers of the JointParliamentary Committee onCitizenship (Amendment) Bill,2016 to express theirOpposition to the proposedConstitutional AmendmentBill before October 23.

Senior AGP leader KamalaKalita said this on Tuesdaywhile adding that an AGP del-egation will go to New Delhisoon to meet each of the 30members of the JPC onCitizenship (Amendment) Billto impress upon them the dan-gers looming large on Assam ifthe Constitutional AmendmentBill is passed.

“We have met the JPCduring its hearing in Assamand expressed our reserva-tions regarding the proposedBill. We are not going toaccept the passing of the Billat any cost. We are also goingto hold a mass rally in Assamon October 23 expressing ourstiff opposition to the Bill,” he said.

The AGP and BodolandPeoples’ Front (BPF) are thepartners of the BJP led

al l iance Government inAssam. Assam had witnessedsevere protests earlier thisyear protesting against theCitizenship (Amendment)Bill 2016.

The Citizenship(Amendment) Bill, 2016, whichwas introduced in the LokSabha on July 15, 2016, seeks toamend the Citizenship Act,1955 to provide citizenship toillegal migrants, fromAfghanistan, Bangladesh andPakistan, who are of Hindu,Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi orChristian extraction.

While the AssamGovernment is yet to make itsstand clear on the Bill, theMeghalaya Government—where BJP is a partner—has

taken a cabinet decision tooppose the Bill as it might affectthe indigenous people of theState. Different organisationsand civil society groups inother northeastern States likeManipur, Nagaland, Mizoramand Arunachal Pradesh havealso been opposing the Bill.

Meanwhile, the opposi-tion Congress in Assam hasslammed the AGP termingthe regional party’s oppositionto the controversial Bill asmere eyewash and said thatthe Bill poses gravest threatever to Assam and its indige-nous people.

“The controversial Bill isthe gravest threat ever faced byAssam since Independence. Itis the biggest ever injusticemeted out to Assam. The AGPis hand in glove with the BJP.If the AGP is really against theBill, they should come out ofthe alliance,” said former ChiefMinister and Congress leader,Tarun Gogoi.“There is no point of drama-tizing a sensitive issue like theCitizenship Amendment Bill.The AGP is not even register-ing their protests over the Bill,”said Leader of the Oppositionof Assam Legislative Assembly,Debabrata Saikia.

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Apparently angry overGujarat Chief Minister

Vijay Rupani’s allegations onhis involvement in the violenceagainst Hindi-speakingmigrant labourers, CongressBihar in charge ShaktisinhGohil has threatened to filecriminal and civil suits againstRupani if he does not apologise.

CM Rupani had made theremarks during his recent visitto Lucknow where he went toinvite his counterpart fromUttar Pradesh Yogi Adityanathfor the inauguration ceremonyof Statue of unity project.

At a Press conference onTuesday Gohil claimed that theBJP backed hooligans wereresponsible for attacks onmigrant workers. He went onto say that BJP supporters

spread anti-migrant messageson social media platforms. “Iwas in Bihar when violencebroke out against migrants. Assoon as I came to know aboutsuch incidents I immediatelyappealed people to maintainpeace and harmony in Gujarat.Besides I also demanded totake action against attackers,”he added.

Sharing social media pro-

files of some alleged BJP sup-porters with their anti-out-sider posts to bolster his alle-gation the senior Congressleader claimed that BJP sys-tematically orchestrated vio-lence against migrants.

Gohil said that a day afterthe gruesome rape, BJP MLAfrom Himmatnagar, RajendraChavda spoke to people andexhorted BJP workers to drive

away North Indians who camein Gujarat for employment.

The ruling BJP's politics ofdivision in the name of caste,religion, region and commu-nity is well known, he allegedadding that despite the partygot maximum seats from Hindibelt consisting Bihar, UttarPradesh, Rajasthan,Chhatisgarh and Rajasthan,BJP is targeting the people ofthese states.

Criticising NRC in AssamGohil said that BJP was tar-geting innocent vulnerablepeople. In Shilong peoplebelonging to Punjab were tar-geted only after BJP came inpower there. He has alsodemanded Prime MinisterNarendra Modi's interven-tion and apology in the issueof attacks on migrants in Gujarat.

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G A N D H I N A G A R :Announcing ‘Ekta Yatra’ or‘Unity March’ across 5,000 vil-lages of the State, Gujarat ChiefMinister Vijay Rupani saidthat the Statue of Unity –world’s tallest statue of SardarVallabhbhai Patel wouldemerge as symbol of nationalunity in the coming days.

The tallest statue of theworld being constructed nearSardar Sarovar Dam site wouldbe unveiled by the PrimeMinister Narendra Modi onOctober 31, 2018 to mark 144thbirth anniversary of the Ironmanof India, said Rupani adding thatthe first phase of Ekta Yatra willbe during October 19 to 29 andsecond phase would be betweenNovember 15 and 25.Interestingly foundation stone ofthe project was laid by Modiwhen he was Gujarat CM onOctober 31, 2013 for the projectbuilt at a cost of �2,389 crore.The statue stands 3.2 km down-stream of the Narmada dam onthe islet, Sadhu bet.

“The entire precinct, includ-ing the installation place of‘Statue of Unity’, would be madepatriotic place with the theme‘One India, Best India’ alongwith tourist spot. The land-scape of the place is developedwith the soil pieces collectedfrom over 6-lakh villages acrossthe country. The place will alsohave attractions like valley offlowers, boating, three-star hotel

and food court to name few.Another major attraction wouldbe ‘Light and Laser show’ whichwould give information aboutSardar Patel and his role in thefreedom movement of thenation as well as unification ofIndia post-independence.

Meanwhile, GujaratMinisters and top bureaucratsincluding CM Rupani areroaming across the country inorder to invite Chief Ministersof all the States for the grandinauguration of the statue ofunity project – 182 metreshigh statue of Sardar Patel.

The Gujarat Governmentwants this unveiling to be a grandevent and has drafted almost allthe Ministers to different Statesinvite the respective ChiefMinisters. Rupani recently wentto Uttar Pradesh to invite hiscounterpart Yogi Adityanath.Deputy CM Nitin Patel went toinvite Maharashtra CMDevendra Fadnavis. MinisterVibhavriben Dave visited thenorth eastern State Tripura.

Agriculture Minister RC Falduhas been tasked to invite theAssam Chief Minister, EducationMinister BhupendrasinhChudasama just returned fromhis trip to Haryana, while Foodand Civil Supplies MinisterJayesh Radadia has been sent toUttarakhand. Energy andPetrochemicals Minister SaurabhPatel is right now visiting Biharwith an invite for Chief MinisterNitish Kumar for the event.

Minister of State for HomePradeepsinh Jadeja returnedfrom his trip to HimachalPradesh. Social Justice andEmpowerment MinisterIshwarbhai Parmar went to Goafor the purpose. Forest MinisterGanpat Vasava went to TamilNadu, while another MinisterDilip Thakore has been sent toNaveen Patnaik's Orissa,Revenue Minister Kaushik Patelto Jharkhand. Other members ofGujarat’s council of Ministers arevisiting Arunachal Pradesh,Meghalaya and other States.

PNS

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Jammu & Kashmir GovernorSatya Pal Malik on Tuesday

urged Union Human ResourceDevelopment Minister PrakashJavadekar to intervene andensure a smooth conduct ofacademic activities in AligarhMuslim University (AMU).

The university administra-tion has suspended threeKashmiri students on charges oftrying to organise funeralprayers on the campus for slainHizbul commander MananBashir Wani, an AMU researchscholar who had joined mili-tancy in January this year.

Kashmiri students at theuniversity are protesting thesuspension of the three. About1,200 Kashmiri students havewritten to the AMU authorities,threating that they would quitstudies at the university unlesssedition charges were droppedagainst the accused students.

The Governor spoke to

Javadekar seeking his inter-vention to ensure "smoothstudies of the Kashmiri stu-dents at AMU", an officialstatement said.

The Governor also spoketo the Vice Chancellor ofAMU, Tariq Mansoor.

Malik urged Javadekarand Professor Tariq to ensurethat the issue was resolved atthe earliest and there was nodisruption to Kashmiri stu-dents' studies.

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Veteran BJP leaderJaswant Singh’s son and

MLA Manvendra Singh willjoin the Congress onWednesday, ahead of theAssembly polls in Rajasthanin December.

Singh (54), who wonBarmer’s Sheo constituencyas the BJP candidate in 2013Assembly elections, hadannounced at a rally lastmonth that he is leaving theBharatiya Janata Party.

“Kamal ka Phool BadiBhool’, he had said then,claiming that going with theBJP’s election symbol, thelotus, was a “big mistake”.

Congress leaders claimedhis move will help bringRajput votes to the party-foldwhile the BJP said the MLA's"politically wrong decision"will have no impact on theruling party.

"Manvendra Singh willjoin the Congress tomorrowin Delhi in the presence of

party president Rahul Gandhi,"Rajasthan Pradesh CongressCommittee president SachinPilot told PTI Tuesday.

"There is a long list ofleaders quitting the BJP and theparty should introspect whythis is happening," he said."We are welcoming ManvendraSingh and this will strengthenthe party."

He added the party willensure his active participationin the upcoming assembly elec-tions in the state.

Rajasthan's ParliamentaryAffairs Minister RajendraRathore claimed Singh's deci-

sion is a political misstep andhe should have thought beforeswitching sides.

"The Congress is helpless.Therefore it is adopting side-lined BJP leaders. It is his per-sonal decision but this is apolitically wrong decision.He is not going to get any-thing with this," Rathore toldreporters at Ranakpur in Pali.

As for the Rajput votes,Rathore said the communityhas traditionally voted for theBJP.

"There will be no impact ofthis as the Rajput votes willremain with the BJP only," hesaid.

Fateh Khan, the presidentof the Barmer unit of theCongress, said the Rajputsare not happy with theVasundhara Raje governmentin Rajasthan.

"The Congress party isgoing to gain when Manvendrajoins Congress," he said.

In western Rajasthan, theRajput vote is often considereda deciding factor on manyseats.

The Congress is also hop-ing to get the support ofcommunities l ike theRajpurohits, Charans andPrajapats with Singh joiningthe party.

Manvendra Singh wonBarmer's Sheo assembly con-stituency in 2013 with a mar-gin of 31,425 votes.

His father Jaswant Singh,who is in coma for the last fouryears, was denied ticket by theBJP from the Barmer-Jaisalmerconstituency in the 2014 LokSabha elections.

He then contested elec-tions as an independent andlost the seat to BJP's Sonaram,who had joined the partyafter switching from theCongress. There was resent-ment among Jaswant Singhsupporters over the denial ofthe BJP ticket for the veteran,and they blamed VasundharaRaje for this.

These supporters had thenrallied around his sonManvendra Singh, calling it anissue of 'swabhiman' or self-respect.

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An advisory committeeheaded by Kerala Chief

Minister Pinarayi Vijayan hasbeen set up for implementationof various projects for rebuild-ing the flood-ravaged state.

Announcing this at a pressconference here, Vijayan saidthe committee, comprisingUnion Tourism MinisterAlphons Kannamthanam,would give advice for imple-menting the projects.

Leader of Opposition inKerala Assembly RameshChennithala, T K A Nair, whoserved as advisor to formerprime minister, and formerstate chief secretary K MChandrasekhar are among theother members of the com-mittee, he said.

The first meeting of thecommittee would be held onOctober 22, the chief ministersaid.

Besides this, a high-pow-ered committee would monitorthe implementation of the pro-jects approved by the statecabinet, he said.

The chief minister alsolaunched a portal for crowdfunding as part of the govern-ment's efforts to mobilise fundsfor rebuilding and rehabilitat-ing the people affected by theflood in the state.

Vijayan is scheduled toleave for some of the Gulfcountries on Wednesday as partof the efforts to mobilise fundsfrom Kerala expatriates there.

Seventeen of the 20 stateministers have also planned tovisit different countries inthe Gulf and Europe tomobilise funds.

However, the Centre hasapproved the foreign visit of thechief minister alone so far.

Answering a question inthis regard, Vijayan said thestate government had expect-ed that the Centre would givesanction for the ministers also.

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Chennai: AMMK leader TTVDhinakaran on Tuesdaylaunched a scathing attack onthe AIADMK leadership, say-ing the ruling party has “lost itsidentity” and was “stuck” dueto a “few selfish” people.

The ousted AIADMKleader also claimed that hisAmma Makkal MunnetraKazhagam (AMMK) would‘retrieve’ the ruling party.

In an apparent reference toDhinakaran, the AIADMKdubbed him an 'overnight'leader rejected by the people.

"One cannot deny the factthat the party has lost its iden-tity and ideology and veeredaway from the path laid down byAmma (the late J Jayalalithaa).It is now stuck due to a few self-ish persons," Dhinakaran saidwithout naming anyone.

He was apparently tar-geting AIADMK CoordinatorO Panneerselavam and theJoint Coordinator KPalaniswami, with whom he isin a running feud for controlof the ruling party.

Palaniswami is ChiefMinister of Tamil Nadu whilePanneerselvam is his deputy.

In a letter to partymenahead of the AIADMK found-ing day on October 17,Dhinakaran said while the lateChief Minister M G

Ramachandran had launched it,Jayalalithaa had taken it forwardand made it a popular move-ment in the state. His jailed auntVK Sasikala had stood "solidly"by Jayalalithaa during her polit-ical journey, he said.

But post Jayalalithaa's deathin 2016, "hegemonic forces"had taken over the AIADMK,Dhinakaran said in the letter.

Reiterating his oft repeat-ed charge of the AIADMKbeing 'subservient' to the BJP-led government at the Centre,he said his AMMK wouldretrieve the AIADMK andrestore it to its old pride.

The AIADMK has "lost itsidentity and become some-one's slave," he said but did notname anyone. Dhinakaranclaimed 90 percent ofAIADMK workers were sup-

porting AMMK and that therest were in the ruling partydue to "selfish motives."

"AMMK has been the trueAIADMK. In the coming days,it will retrieve AIADMK," headded.His victory in the RKNagar bypoll in December2017 was proof of people'ssentiments as the voters elect-ed him as Jayalalithaa's suc-cessor, he said. The bypoll wasnecessitated due to the death ofJayalalithaa in December 2016.Dhinakaran, who contested asan Independent, had defeatedruling party nominee EMadhusudhanan by a goodmargin.

Meanwhile, Panneerselvamand Palaniswami said thosewho have emerged as"overnight leaders" have beenrejected by the people. PTI

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With “themes” once againinundating Durga Puja

pandals in 2018, efforts are onto get the City of Joy declaredas UNESCO’s City ofLiterature.

True, Kolkata has onceagain decked up to the inim-itability of its Durga Puja pan-dals — with each of 3,000-oddPuja pandals exhibiting a cre-ativity of the sublime classblended with abstract mysti-cism and temporal message.

Welcome to ChaltabaganDurga Puja committee in NorthKolkata, where the organisershave set up their Puja Pandalaround the theme of PoetLaureate Rabindranath Tagore’sShantir Nir (Abode of Peace).”S Bhutoria, the chief patron ofthe Puja says, “We have wovenour craft around this theme sothat Kolkata can be enlisted asIndia’s first ‘City of Literature’in the UNESCO list.”

World cities like Milan,Norwich, Edinburgh, Prague,Melbourne, Baghdad, Granada,Barcelona Dublin, Krakow,Heidelberg, Quebec etc havealready been declared as citiesof literature.

The artiste has conveyedTagore’s message of universalpeace and harmony throughexcellent display of motifs andreliefs. In an apparent bid toblend literary flavour with reli-giosity the ceiling of the pan-

dal has been decorated withbooks.

Towards the North Easternfringes at Sribhumi SportingClub the Puja organisers havereproduced the gigantic pandalafter Chittaurgarh Fort. TheTheme here is Padmavat. Theexclusive art work of the pan-dal will make it difficult to readbetween the original and theimitation.

The artist who construct-ed the Durga Puja pandal atRaja Santosh Mitra Squareseems to have worked wondersby building a mammoth 60-feet tall Arjuna’s Rath. Thespecialty of the chariot is: it isplated with silver. “We haveused about 10 tons of silvercosting about �40 crore; addanother �2 crore as construc-

tion cost,” said one of theorganisers. “This Rath ofMother Goddess Durga aimsat bringing rule of law, peaceand justice on the earth,” he said.

Down South at EkdaliaEvergreen Puja Committee,presided over by seniorMinister Subroto M kherjee thepandal is shaped in classicalpattern. “We have no deviationas we rely on heritage,” hesays. So the entire set up is clas-sical.” the temple structure isenormous, and beautifullycrafted, while the inside is dec-orated by idols of gods and isstunningly colourful.

“I have not seen such ahuge crowd for so many days.Gosh! It is stupendous” saysElei from the USA who has

come to visit a friend inKolkata.

A mile away at TridharaSanmilani which has been win-ning numerous prizes for itsexquisite art work the organis-ers have concentrated on thetraditional handicraft ofBengal. While artist GaurangaQuilla has used the tradition-al earthen potery as his themehe has given the finishingtouch with jute. The minute artwords and the finesse has ledthe Club to win more thanthree dozen prizes this year.

“Such exquisite is theartistry of the craftsmen thatpeople not only from all overthe State but all over the worldhave poured in to hop pandals24x7,” says a Dy Commissionerof Police. “We are receivingabout 7-8 million additionalpeople walking throughout theday and night in Kolkata for thepast several days and the figureis likely to cross one crore byNavami Day”, he added

Cut to Badamtala AsharSangha where the theme forthis year’s puja is “shobchoritro kalponic (all charac-ters are fictional).” Even asthey celebrate women thisyear an organiser said “in themodern world, there arenumerous successful women,but there are those who aresubjected to malice andhatred. The puja is dedicatedto those women and is an odeto the spirit of womanhood.”

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Having cracked the sensa-tional murder of a 20-year-

old upcoming model in just overfour hours, the city police havearrested a 19-year-old collegestudent for allegedly killing her,packing her body in a large trav-el bag and dumping it in a bushnear at Malad in north Mumbai.

The boy, identified as oneMuzzamil Sayyed, who wasarrested late on Mondayevening, was on Tuesday pro-duced before a suburban courtwhich remanded him in policecustody till October 22.

Acting on a tip-off from ataxi driver that an youngsterhad dumped the large travel bagin a bush in an isolatedMindspace locality at Malad(west) in a suspicious manner,a team of police officials formedby Deputy Commissioner ofPolice (Zone-XI) SangramsinhNishal rushed to the spot andfound the body of a deceasedmodel inside the bag.

Sayyed, the accused boywho hails from Hyderabad and

used to stay in a rented flat inMumbai, had packed the model’sbody carefully inside a bed sheetwith the face of the deceasedstrapped with a rope and thebody wrapped in cushion.

After examining theCCTV footage obtained fromthe area which showed the boycoming out of the taxi anddumping the travel bag in abush, the investigating teamused the mobile number of theboy given by the taxi driver totrack down the accused boywhom they arrested shortlybefore midnight of Monday.

Police identified the mur-dered girl as one Mansi Dixit,who hailed from Kota inRajasthan. She had visitedSayyed’s Millat Nagar residenceat Andheri (west) in northMumbai on Monday night.

Deputy Commissioner ofPolice (Zone-11) SP Nishandarsaid that Mansi had come toMumbai to try her luck inBollywood and living in a rent-ed flat at Andheri. She used totake small modelling assign-ments and had managed to getbit of roles in some films.

Mansi had come in contact withSayyed through social media.

During the questioningafter his arrest, Sayyed report-edly admitted to the policethat after a tiff, he had hitMansi on her head with aniron stool leading to her death.However, the investigators arenot ruling out the possibilityof Sayyed having strangledMansi to death.

Two versions were makingrounds as to the circumstancesleading to Sayyed hitting Mansiwith an iron stool. While oneversion said that Sayyed andMansi had known each otherfor some time, the tiff betweenthem was genuine one and thedeath was accidental, the sec-ond version was that Mansiused to work as an “escort”whom Sayyed had hired her bymaking an online payment.

However, according to thesecond version, the dispute arosebetween them after the modeldemanded an additional pay-ment of �2,500 when she land-ed at Sayyed’s residence onMonday afternoon, a demandthat enraged the boy leading tothe incident. Sayyed allegedlystrangled her to death. Afterpacking Mansi’s body in a trav-el bag, Sayyed hired a taxi overphone on the pretext of going tothe Mumbai InternationalAirport. However, after reachingthe secluded Mindspace locali-ty where he dumped the bag ina bush and took an autorickshaw.

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Celebrating the bir thanniversary of Bhagat

Singh on a Government col-lege campus has landed awoman student in trouble asshe has been suspended, anaction which she termed as“suppression” of the freedomof expression.

S Malathi, a first year MAStudent at the Governmentarts and science college, wassuspended on October 1 aftershe and some other studentsorganised a function to cele-brate Singh's birth anniversaryon September 28,despite beingdenied permission by the prin-cipal and the tutor, officials said.

"Malathi organised themeeting without permission,which would have affectedpeace in the campus. She wasthus placed under suspen-sion," Chitra, the college principal, said.

Malathi told reporters hereTuesday that she got to knowof her suspension from a col-lege professor.

"This (action) is nothingbut suppression of the freedomof expression," she said.

Malathi claimed she wasnot officially informed of hersuspension.

Though college authoritiestold her that a letter to this effecthad been sent to her residence,it had not yet reached herhome, she said.

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Ruling Congress continues toget setbacks in poll-bound

Mizoram as former Ministerand senior Congress leader

Buddha Dhan Chakma onTuesday left the party and islikely to join the BJP soon.

Chakma has resignedfrom the State legislature andprimary membership of the

Mizoram Pradesh CongressCommittee (MPCC). The res-ignation of Chakma comesclose on the heels of two othersenior Congress leaders leav-ing the party.

Chakma said he was unhap-py over the recent incidentwhere some students belongingto the Chakma community weredenied admission to medical col-leges across the country, thoughthey had qualified for MBBSseats under the State quota.

Although he did not revealhis future course of action, theState Bharatiya Janata Party(BJP) insiders said he is likely tocontest the forthcomingAssembly polls from Tuichawngseat on a BJP ticket.

Earlier, former MizoramHome Minister and numbertwo in the State Cabinet RLalzirliana and former MinisterLalrinliana Sailo had resignedfrom the Congress. Lalrinlianajoined the opposition MizoNational Front (MNF).

Mizoram is going to pollson November 28. BJP PresidentAmit Shah will kick-startparty's campaign for MizoramAssembly elections on October17 and also address booth-levelworkers the same day.

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The Opposition parties aretearing into the Yogi

Adityanath Government overrenaming of Allahabad asPrayagraj, but the BahujanSamaj Party and the SamajwadiParty regimes did the samething while in power.

The Governments of boththe parties passionately indulgedin name changing game in thebelief that it would prove to bea gamechanger when the Statewent to the hustings.

Moreover, there is nothingnew in the decision to renameAllahabad as Prayagraj. In fact,Yogi Adityanath is implement-ing the unfinished agenda offormer Chief Minister RajnathSingh, who had made anannouncement to this effectahead of Ardh Kumbh atAllahabad in 2001.

The proposal was dulyapproved by the state Cabinetand sent to the UnionGovernment led by Atal BiharVajpayee for approval. However,the Centre ignored the proposal

and a year later, in February2002, the State went to polls andthe Bharatiya Janata Party wasdefeated. The BSP-BJP coalitionGovernment headed byMayawati came to power andthe proposal was shelved.

The name change campaigndid not end there. If sources areto be believed, some other dis-tricts in UP with “Muslimsounding names” like Aligarh,Azamgarh, Shahjahanpur,Ghaziabad, Ferozabad,Farrukhabad, Moradabad andMuzaffarnagar could be rechris-tened and the process could beinitiated in 2019.

Before the renaming ofAllahabad, the Yogi Governmenthad changed names of severalroads, parks, crossings, buildingsafter BJP icon and former PrimeMinister Atal Behari Vajpayee,who passed away in August thisyear. During the spree then,two dozen public spots andfacilities were named afterVajpayee in Lucknow itself.

The Yogi Governmentbegan its name-changing spreein July by deciding to rename

the iconic Mughalsarai railwaystation after BJP ideologueDeen Dayal Upadhyaya.

The politics of name-change began in UP in 2007when the BSP was in power.Mayawati renamed eight dis-tricts — most of them afterDalit icons. Shamli wasrenamed as Prabuddh Nagar,Sambhal as Bhim Nagar, Hapuras Panchsheel Nagar, KanpurDehat as Ramabai Nagar,Kasganj as Kanshi Ram Nagar,Amethi as Chhatrapati ShahujiMaharaj Nagar, Amroha asJyotiba Phule Nagar andHathras as Mahamaya Nagar.

The process of renamingdistricts not only incurred hugefinancial burden due to

repainting of signage andreprinting of official stationery,it also led to widespread con-fusion. There were instances ofpeople boarding wrong busesand sending postal goods towrong addresses.

Mayawati had also renamedthe historic King George’sMedical University (KGMU)of Lucknow as ChhatrapatiShahuji Maharaj MedicalUniversity. This had irked thealumni of the KGMU, popular-ly known as Georgians, acrossthe world. Later, the SP regimehad restored the old name of themedical university.

The name-changing didnot help the BSP and the partywas voted out of power in 2012UP assembly election.

The next SP Governmentled by Akhilesh Yadav lost notime in restoring the publicinstitutions to their originalnames. Though he did notrename the districts, he builtnew parks and buildings andnamed them after socialist icons,like Janeshwar Misra Park andJP International Centre.

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Hyderabad: Nearly 190 namesof suspected Rohingyas haveappeared in the voters list and theprocess of verification and dele-tion is on, a senior official of theGreater Hyderabad MunicipalCorporation said on Tuesday.

“We have received the listfrom the Election Commissionwith nearly 190 names ofRohingyas living in Telanganato be verified. We have sent thelist to Returning Officers (RO)and Assistant ROs to verify,” theofficial said.

The official said the dele-tion of such names from thevoters list is underway.

“We have so far deleted 25names from the voters list.The process is going on.Balance will be done before thesecond supplement list of vot-ers comes,” the official said.

According to the official,some of the names figured inother constituencies near thecity and the list was sent to therespective districts for verifi-cation and deletion of namesif required.

There are as many as 39.60lakh voters in GHMC limits asper the latest list. There wereabout 3,600 Rohingyas, who areUNHCR card holders in the cityand most of them are illiterates.

Whoever lives in the campwere not willing to go back asthey fear for their lives, sourcesrelated to the Rohingya campin old city area had earlier said.

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Sir Sy

ed A

hmad

Kha

n wa

s bor

n to

a no

ble

Syed

fam

ily in

Delh

i on

Oct

ober

17,

1817

, and

gra

dual

ly ea

rned

the r

eput

a-tio

n of

a d

istin

guish

ed s

chol

ar a

t tha

ttim

e. By

the s

econ

d ha

lf of

the 1

9th

cen-

tury

, Sir

Syed

Ahm

ad K

han

beca

me o

ne o

f the

mos

t cha

rism

atic

and

far-

sight

ed p

erso

n w

hore

alise

d th

e nee

d to

educ

ate t

he In

dian

s in

gen-

eral

and

the I

ndian

Mus

lims i

n pa

rticu

lar. H

e felt

that

empo

werm

ent c

ame o

nly w

ith k

now

ledge

,aw

aren

ess,

char

acte

r and

socia

l ide

ntity

.Si

r Sye

d A

hmad

Kha

n w

as a

dyna

mic

per-

son,

a ve

rsat

ile ge

nius

, a sc

holar

, soc

ial re

form

er,

educ

atio

nist,

hist

orian

, arc

haeo

logi

st an

d lin

guist

who

was

gift

ed w

ith a

rare

visi

on an

d in

telle

ct.

He w

as on

e of t

hose

pio

neer

ing a

nd re

volu

tion-

ary f

igur

es of

hist

ory w

ho sh

aped

the d

estin

y of

the n

atio

n an

d al

so ch

ange

d th

e cou

rse o

f his-

tory

. Sir

Syed

, a gr

eat d

oyen

of ed

ucati

on in

Indi

a,de

vote

d hi

s ent

ire li

fe fo

r the

educ

atio

nal u

plift

-

men

t of a

com

mun

ity w

hich

was

des

pond

ent,

deje

cted

and

was

soc

ially

, ec

onom

ical

lyde

plor

able

afte

r the

fall

of th

e Mug

hal e

mpi

re.

The

afte

rmat

h of

the

tragi

c ev

ents

of th

em

utin

y of

185

7 ha

d m

ade

him

pon

der d

eepl

yab

out t

he m

oras

s of d

egra

datio

n an

d ch

aos i

nto

whi

ch t

he I

ndia

n M

uslim

s ha

d pl

unge

d.Ev

entu

ally,

Sir S

yed

beca

me t

he m

an w

hom

des

-tin

y had

chos

en to

play

the r

ole o

f a m

essia

h fo

rth

e com

mun

ity. S

ir Sy

ed A

hmad

Kha

n wa

s ver

yin

telli

gent

and

a d

edica

ted

pers

on. E

ven

as h

eha

d di

ffere

nces

of o

pini

on fo

r the

ope

ning

of a

colle

ge, h

e con

vinc

ed th

e com

mun

ity th

at th

iswa

s the

only

way t

o go f

orwa

rd an

d be

com

e suc

-ce

ssful

. The

mov

emen

t sta

rted

by h

im, c

omm

on-

ly kn

own

as th

e Alig

arh

Mov

emen

t, her

alded

the

era o

f an

inte

llect

ual a

nd cu

ltura

l ren

aissa

nce f

orth

e Ind

ian

Mus

lims.

His

mov

emen

t was

an o

ff-sh

oot

of t

his

and

laid

the

fou

ndat

ion

for

Moh

amm

edan

Ang

lo-O

rient

al C

olleg

e in

1877

whi

ch w

as l

ater

con

vert

ed t

o th

e A

ligar

hM

uslim

Uni

vers

ity in

192

0.Si

r Sye

d’s li

bera

lism

and

educ

atio

nal t

hink

-in

g fou

nd fu

ll m

anife

statio

n in

the i

deals

of t

heM

AO c

olleg

e w

hich

wer

e elo

quen

tly st

ated

as

“free

enq

uiry

, pur

e m

orali

ty a

nd la

rge-

hear

ted

toler

ance

” at t

he ti

me w

hen

the f

ound

atio

n sto

new

as b

eing

laid

by th

e Vi

cero

y, Lo

rd L

ytto

n on

Janu

ary 8

, 187

7. S

ir Sy

ed w

as p

roba

bly t

he fi

rst

inte

llect

ual w

ho p

rese

nted

the m

eani

ng of

“cul

-tu

re” a

s pre

valen

t in

the

Wes

t in

the

19th

cen

-

tury

. H

e co

mpr

ehen

sively

def

ined

and

also

revi

ewed

its e

lemen

t and

dyn

amics

whi

ch w

ason

e of t

he o

bjec

tives

of h

is jo

urna

l Tah

zeeb

-ul-

Akhl

aq. H

e beg

an w

ith an

emph

asis

on th

e fou

n-da

tion

of M

uslim

cultu

ral t

houg

ht o

n sc

ient

if-ic

lines

and

for t

his p

urpo

se, s

et u

p th

e sc

ien-

tific

socie

ty. I

t was

due

to th

e stro

ng p

erso

nal-

ity an

d in

telle

ctua

l ste

ad-fa

stnes

s of S

ir Sy

ed th

ated

ucat

ed p

eopl

e beg

an to

follo

w h

im. S

ir Sy

edK

han

in h

is w

ritin

gs t

hrou

gh T

ahze

eb-u

l-A

khlaq

em

phas

ised

two

thin

gs o

n w

hich

the

educ

atio

nal v

ision

shou

ld b

e bas

ed: A

dopt

ion

ofm

oder

n ed

ucat

ion

and

mor

al ed

ucat

ion.

Sir S

yed

was

a gr

eat i

ntell

ectu

al, an

enlig

ht-

ened

and

forw

ard-

look

ing e

duca

tioni

st, an

out-

stand

ing

liter

ary g

eniu

s, an

erud

ite th

eolo

gian

,a v

ersa

tile w

riter

, a fe

arles

s jou

rnali

st, a

prag

mat

-ic

socia

l ref

orm

er, a

n ap

ostle

of s

ecul

arism

and

Hin

du-M

uslim

uni

ty, an

d a v

ery

disti

ngui

shed

arch

itect

for m

oder

n In

dia.

He

was

a fa

rsig

ht-

ed a

nd p

ract

ical m

an a

nd, h

ence

, rea

lised

that

Indi

a is a

mul

ti-re

ligio

us, m

ulti-

cultu

ral, m

ulti-

ethn

ic an

d m

ultil

ingu

al co

untr

y. H

e was

, the

re-

fore

, con

vinc

ed th

at th

e Mus

lims o

f our

coun

-tr

y cou

ld n

ot m

ake a

ny w

orth

whi

le pr

ogre

ss in

any

sphe

re o

f life

unl

ess t

hey

learn

to li

ve in

aso

ciety

whi

ch h

ad so

man

y di

verg

ent e

lemen

tsin

it. U

nity

in d

iver

sity

is In

dia’s

dist

ingu

ishin

gfe

atur

e. H

e was

not

onl

y aw

are o

f it b

ut al

so fe

ltpr

oud

of it

. Sir

Syed

Ahm

ad K

han

once

said

, “W

e(H

indu

s an

d M

uslim

s) e

at t

he s

ame

crop

,

drin

k wate

r fro

m th

e sam

e rive

rs an

d br

eath

e the

sam

e air.

As a

matt

er of

fact,

Hin

dus a

nd M

uslim

sar

e th

e tw

o ey

es o

f the

bea

utifu

l brid

e th

at is

Hin

dusta

n. T

he w

eakn

ess o

f any

one o

f the

m w

illsp

oil t

he b

eaut

y of

the b

ride (

dulh

an)”.

“We b

eliev

e in

insp

iring

min

ds, i

mpr

ovin

gth

eir i

ntell

ectu

al ca

pacit

y an

d bu

ildin

g ch

arac

-ter

s whi

ch ou

r stu

dent

s will

trea

sure

for t

heir

life-

time.

We a

lso en

deav

our t

o in

culca

te so

cial v

al-ue

s and

prin

ciples

of p

erso

nal e

xcell

ence

and

care

for o

ther

s, sa

id th

e Vi

ce-C

hanc

ellor

Pro

fess

orTa

riq M

anso

or o

f Alig

arh

Mus

lim U

nive

rsity

,wh

o is a

lso on

e of t

he pr

omin

ent s

urge

ons o

f thi

sco

untr

y”. H

e fu

rther

exp

ress

ed h

is fe

eling

that

“AM

U d

oesn

’t on

ly fo

cus

on e

duca

tion

but i

two

rks i

n a m

anne

r by d

evelo

ping

per

sona

l qua

l-iti

es su

ch a

s lea

ders

hip,

team

work

, det

erm

ina-

tion,

flex

ibili

ty, co

nfid

ence

, self

-beli

ef, r

espe

ctetc

, in al

l to m

ould

a ve

rsati

le pe

rson

and

beco

me

succ

essfu

l in

their

care

er. A

MU

focu

ses o

n cr

e-at

ing

a hol

istic

learn

ing

envi

ronm

ent”.

Prof

esso

r M

Suf

yan

Beg,

prin

cipal,

Zak

irH

ussa

in C

olleg

e of E

ngin

eerin

g and

Tec

hnol

ogy,

also

serv

ing

as th

e Cha

irper

son

of th

e Alu

mni

Affa

irs C

omm

ittee

said

that

the m

essa

ge, t

each

-in

gs, p

hilo

soph

y, vi

sion

and

ideo

logy

of Si

r Sye

dha

ve b

ecom

e m

ore

relev

ant

toda

y th

an e

ver

befo

re n

ot on

ly fo

r the

Mus

lims b

ut fo

r the

entir

eco

mm

unity

. Des

pite

pop

ular

beli

ef, S

ir Sy

ed w

asa

firm

beli

ever

in t

he im

porta

nce

of H

indu

-M

uslim

uni

ty fo

r Ind

ia to

pro

sper

. He r

ealis

ed

that

toge

ther

, we c

an ac

hiev

e mor

e and

he s

trive

dfo

r a u

nite

d co

untr

y un

til h

is las

t bre

ath.

The

mos

t im

porta

nt fi

rst c

ontri

butio

ns to

Sir

Syed

for

the

cons

truct

ion

of b

uild

ing

cam

e fro

mH

indu

s lik

e Ch

oudh

ary

Sher

Sin

gh, K

unw

arLe

khra

j Sin

gh, R

aja S

hiv

Nar

ain

Sing

h, R

ajaG

hans

hyam

Sing

h, R

aja U

day P

rata

p Si

ngh,

Lala

Phul

Cha

nd, L

ala

Vasu

deo

Saha

i and

oth

ers.

Their

nam

e con

tinue

s to

ador

n ol

d bu

ildin

gs of

AM

U. A

nd w

hat b

ette

r trib

ute c

ould

hav

e bee

npa

id to

Sir

Syed

’s id

ea o

f Hin

du-M

uslim

uni

tyan

d th

e id

ea o

f a c

osm

opol

itan,

mod

ern

Indi

ahe

cham

pion

ed th

an th

is —

the f

irst s

tude

nt to

pass

out o

f MAO

colle

ge (A

MU

) was

Mr I

shwa

riPr

asad

, was

a H

indu

not

a M

uslim

. As

a tr

ibut

e to

Sir

Syed

Ahm

ad K

han,

the

Gov

ernm

ent o

f Ind

ia sh

ould

expa

nd th

e hor

izon

of A

MU

in th

e co

untr

y an

d in

crea

se th

e gr

ant

to en

rich

the e

xisti

ng in

frastr

uctu

re o

f the

uni

-ve

rsity

. Kee

ping

the

sent

imen

t of t

he p

eopl

e of

this

natio

n, it

wou

ld a

lso b

e a w

elcom

e ges

ture

by

the

Min

istr

y of

H

uman

R

esou

rce

Dev

elopm

ent t

o de

clare

Oct

ober

17

as S

ir Sy

edD

ay. T

o ca

rry t

he le

gacy

of t

his g

reat

nob

le so

ul,

Sir

Syed

Ahm

ad K

han,

Alig

arh

Mus

limU

nive

rsity

vice

-cha

ncell

or T

ariq

Man

soor

has

clear

ly sa

id th

at h

e will

cont

inue

with

Sir

Syed

’svi

sion

of im

parti

ng m

oder

n ed

ucat

ion.

(The

writ

er is

a w

ell-k

nown

ling

uist,

aut

hor

and

colu

mni

st an

d tea

ches

at th

e Dep

artm

ent o

flin

guist

ics a

t the

Alig

arh

Mus

lim U

nive

rsity

)

����

���

��

���

� ��

���

���

Sir

— T

his

refe

rs t

o th

e ar

ticle

,“B

hagw

at’s

bunc

h of

Gol

wal

kar’s

thou

ghts”

(Oct

ober

16) b

y Man

moh

anVa

idya

. The

thre

e-da

y lec

ture

serie

s by

Sars

angh

chal

ak M

ohan

Bha

gwat

in

New

Delh

i las

t mon

th w

as u

ndou

bted

-ly

a gr

and

succ

ess.

But t

he gr

ande

ur o

fth

e eve

nt w

as fa

lsifie

d an

d m

isint

erpr

et-

ed b

y a

few.

His

disc

ours

e w

as in

deed

a cla

rion

call

for t

he yo

uth

to st

ep th

eir

foot

forw

ard

and

wor

k in

uni

son

for a

unbl

oted

glo

rious

futu

re o

f Ind

ia. N

otfo

r ev

en a

mom

ent

did

he d

istan

cehi

mse

lf fro

m th

e rev

ered

Shr

i Gur

uji.

The R

SS ch

ief p

recis

ely ex

empl

ified

the m

otiv

es an

d w

orki

ng o

f the

sang

h.H

is en

tire

lect

ure

was

an

artic

ulat

ion

of th

e tra

il of t

houg

hts e

xpre

ssed

by Sh

riG

uruj

i. H

is w

as a

gre

at e

ndea

vour

tow

ards

uni

ting

the

coun

try.

Sude

epa

Gan

dhe

Kuru

kshe

tra��

����

���

���

��

Sir —

Thi

s ref

ers t

o th

e edi

toria

l, “H

ere

we g

o ag

ain”

(Oct

ober

16)

. Suc

h is

the

air

qual

ity l

evel

in

Del

hi a

nd t

heN

atio

nal

Cap

ital

Regi

on t

hat

even

mod

erat

e le

vels

of p

ollu

tion

is no

wbe

ing c

onsid

ered

to b

e goo

d. M

ere b

an-

ning

the

use

of g

ense

ts w

ill n

ot s

olve

the p

robl

em. W

hat i

s nee

ded

is a m

ulti-

dim

ensio

nal a

ppro

ach

on th

e pa

rt o

fD

elhi

, Pu

njab

and

Har

yana

Sta

teG

over

nmen

ts to

com

e up

with

a co

m-

bina

tion

of p

lan

to d

eal w

ith th

e man

ypr

oble

ms,

like s

tubb

le b

urni

ng, v

ehic

-ul

ar p

ollu

tion,

am

ong

othe

rs.

The

Gov

ernm

ent s

houl

d de

vice

a st

rate

gyto

edu

cate

the

far

mer

s so

tha

t th

eybe

com

e co

nsci

ous a

bout

the

envi

ron-

men

t. H

ere,

the r

ole o

f peo

ple e

mpl

oyed

with

loca

l Kris

ha V

igya

n Ke

ndra

and

mem

bers

of G

ram

pan

chya

ts is

cruc

ial.

Bal G

ovin

d N

oida

���

����

����

���

���

���

Sir

— U

ttar

Prad

esh

Chi

ef M

inist

erYo

gi A

dity

anat

h d

eser

ves a

ll co

mpl

i-m

ents

for r

esto

ring

the a

ncie

nt n

ame

from

Alla

haba

d to

Pra

yagr

aj. M

ugha

lem

pero

rs h

ad g

iven

suc

h ch

ange

dna

mes

to

man

y ci

ties

of h

istor

ical

impo

rtan

ce e

ven

in t

he e

ra o

f th

eRa

may

ana.

Adi

tyan

ath

mus

t no

wor

der

a st

udy

of a

ll su

ch c

hang

edna

mes

acr

oss

the

Stat

e an

d sh

ould

rest

ore

the

orig

inal

nam

es o

f ot

her

citie

s as w

ell.

Mad

hu A

graw

alD

elhi

��

���

����

��

�Si

r — A

s lon

g as

MJ A

kbar

con

tinue

sto

be M

inist

er it

is n

ot go

ing t

o be

easy

for a

ny p

erso

n to

figh

t him

lega

lly. H

isde

fenc

e, cit

ing e

lectio

ns an

d a p

oliti

cal

angl

e, is

flim

sy. H

ad h

e re

signe

d an

dgo

ne to

the c

ourt,

he w

ould

hav

e ear

ned

som

e re

spec

t. It

is sa

d th

at th

e Pr

ime

Min

ister

rem

aine

d sil

ent

espe

cial

lyw

hen

he ta

lks a

bout

wom

en’s

safe

ty.

Rash

iVi

a em

ail

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Man

y peo

ple fr

om th

e ruli

ng pa

rty w

ere

in tou

ch w

ith m

e. Vis

hwaji

t Ran

e use

d to

call m

e ofte

n. He

has a

fear

psyc

hosis

…—

Goa C

ongr

ess l

eade

rA

CHEL

LAKU

MAR

I hav

e no i

ntere

st an

d I ne

ver c

ontac

ted hi

m,tho

ugh h

e had

tried

to re

ach m

e. Th

ere i

sno

ques

tion o

f me c

ontac

ting C

hella

kuma

r. —

Goa B

JP M

iniste

r VIS

HWAJ

IT RA

NE

�52���%� #��52���

The t

wo s

uper

cat

s, th

eAs

iatic

lion

and

the R

oyal

Beng

al tig

er, dr

ew th

e max

-im

um at

tentio

n of

cons

er-

vatio

nists

in In

dia.

But t

heth

ird la

rges

t cat

, the

Indi

an le

opar

d,ha

s its

own

story

und

er th

e sha

dow

of it

s two

big

trib

es. T

wo re

cent

sto-

ries —

one

, the

dea

th o

f 23

lions

inG

ir du

e to

CDV

and

Prot

ozoa

infec

-tio

ns an

d sec

ond,

the h

unt f

or a

man

-ea

ting

tiger

in

Mah

aras

htra

grab

bed h

eadl

ines

in In

dian

new

spa-

pers

and

elect

roni

c med

ia.

But

this

stor

y is

abou

t th

esm

arte

st bi

g ca

t — th

e Ind

ian le

op-

ard

(Pan

ther

a pa

rdus

fusc

a), a

sub-

spec

ies o

f the

nin

e su

bspe

cies o

f all

leopa

rds i

n th

e wor

ld. It

is w

idely

dis-

tribu

ted

acro

ss th

e cou

ntry

— fr

omJa

mm

u & K

ashm

ir in

the n

orth

-wes

tto

the s

outh

ern

part

of T

ibet

in C

hina

in th

e nor

th-e

ast H

imala

yas t

o Ca

peCo

mor

in in

the s

outh

and

from

the

Gir

fore

st (S

aura

shtra

) and

thor

n fo

r-es

t in

the a

rid zo

ne of

Kac

hchh

in th

ewe

st to

the m

oist

fore

st of

Mya

nmar

in th

e eas

tern

bor

der o

f Ind

ia.

Alth

ough

a m

ajorit

y of t

he le

op-

ards

are c

onfin

ed in

Indi

a, sm

all po

p-ul

atio

ns a

re a

lso f

ound

in

Nep

al,Bh

utan

, Ba

ngla

desh

, M

yanm

ar,

Paki

stan

and

small

area

s of s

outh

ern

Chin

a ad

join

ing

Mya

nmar

. Eac

h of

the

othe

r se

ven

sub-

spec

ies o

f th

eAs

ian le

opar

d has

a sm

all po

pulat

ion,

belo

w on

e th

ousa

nd,

in d

iffer

ent

Asian

cou

ntrie

s. A

fter

the

Afric

anleo

pard

, onl

y the

Indi

an le

opar

d ha

sa v

iable

popu

latio

n. T

he In

dian

leop

-ar

d oc

curs

up

to a

heig

ht o

f abo

ut5,2

00 m

eters

in th

e Him

alaya

s whe

reth

eir h

abita

t mee

ts th

e low

er al

titud

eof

the s

now

leopa

rd. A

stud

y rev

ealed

that

the

dist

ribut

ion

rang

e of

the

Indi

an le

opar

d red

uced

to 28

per c

ent

of it

s hi

storic

al di

strib

utio

n ra

nge,

altho

ugh

the b

ig ca

t enj

oys t

he h

igh-

est p

rote

ctio

n lev

el in

our c

ount

ry as

it is

plac

ed i

n Sc

hedu

le-I

of t

heW

ildlif

e Pro

tect

ion

Act,

1972

.Ac

cord

ing

to a

n ar

ticle

pub-

lishe

d in

the

Ind

ian

Fore

ster

inJa

nuar

y 190

7, a t

otal

of 81

1 leo

pard

san

d 1,3

55 ti

gers

wer

e offi

cially

kille

din

190

5 to

red

uce

their

men

ace.

Leve

l of k

illin

g in

the p

rece

ding

year

(190

4) w

as a

lso a

t th

e sa

me

level.

Thus

, abo

ut 80

0 to 9

00 le

opar

ds w

ere

kille

d ann

ually

in th

e beg

inni

ng of

the

20th

cent

ury w

hich

incr

ease

d sub

se-

quen

tly la

ter.

It wa

s also

men

tione

d th

at le

op-

ards

kill

ed 4

01 h

uman

bein

gs a

nd44

,845

lives

tock

in

1905

. Hun

ting

licen

ses w

ere i

ssue

d fre

ely to

kill w

ildan

imals

, inc

ludi

ng le

opar

ds. A

tota

lof

37,72

0 hun

ting l

icenc

es in

1904

and

37,83

3 in

190

5 we

re is

sued

in In

dia.

As p

er r

ecor

ds,

150,0

00 l

eopa

rds

were

hun

ted

in B

ritish

Indi

a dur

ing

a spa

n of

50

year

s (18

75-1

925)

at an

annu

al ra

te o

f 3,00

0 leo

pard

s. It

was

estim

ated t

hat 1

00 ye

ars a

go, In

dia h

adov

er 10

tim

es th

e pre

sent

pop

ulat

ion

of th

e tige

r. By

exten

ding

sim

ilar l

ogic

and

study

ing h

untin

g rec

ords

, it ca

nbe

said

that

the I

ndian

fore

sts h

ad a

high

popu

latio

n of

the l

eopa

rd be

fore

the

Seco

nd W

orld

War

. The

reaf

ter,

they

wer

e kill

ed in

thou

sand

s, wh

ichpu

shed

them

to be

com

e nea

r ext

inct.

How

ever

, co

nser

vatio

n m

easu

res

have

reve

rsed

the t

rend

.D

istrib

utio

n ra

nge:

In a

majo

r-ity

of t

he In

dian

Sta

tes,

the l

eopa

rds

are

disp

ersin

g in

new

are

as d

ue to

which

its

popu

latio

n is

reco

verin

g.Un

til a

few ye

ars a

go, P

unjab

was

con-

sider

ed to

be a

non

-tige

r Sta

te as

the

anim

al oc

casio

nally

visit

ed in

the w

in-

ter

from

the

hill

s of

Him

acha

lPr

ades

h. B

ut i

n re

cent

tim

es,

the

Leop

ards

hav

e mad

e a co

me b

ack

inth

e low

er Sh

ivalik

hills

of P

unjab

, bor

-de

ring H

imac

hal P

rade

sh.

Sim

ilarly

, abo

ut tw

o an

d a

half

doze

n of

leop

ards

mar

ked t

heir

pres

-en

ce in

the

Shi

valik

of

Har

yana

ade

cade

ago

. The

ani

mal

disp

erse

dfr

om t

he S

hiva

lik o

f H

imac

hal

Prad

esh

and

from

the

Arav

allis

hill

rang

es o

f Raja

sthan

to th

e for

ests

ofH

arya

na. A

t pre

sent

, fore

sts in

10 di

s-tri

cts i

n Sh

ivali

k an

d th

e Ara

valli

s of

Har

yana

hav

e bee

n ca

ptur

ed b

y th

eleo

pard

s in

good

num

bers

.At

pre

sent

, the

Indi

an le

opar

d is

distr

ibut

ed i

n 29

Sta

tes

and

one

Uni

on T

errit

ory.

Utta

rakh

and,

Gujar

at, M

adhy

a Pra

desh

, Kar

natak

a,Ch

hatti

sgar

h, M

ahar

asht

ra, R

ajasth

anan

d Him

acha

l Pra

desh

have

over

two-

third

s of t

he to

tal le

opar

d pop

ulati

onof

the c

ount

ry. In

the 1

990s

, the l

eop-

ard’s

pre

senc

e wa

s re

cord

ed in

196

sanc

tuar

ies an

d nati

onal

park

s acr

oss

26 St

ates o

f the

coun

try.

Sinc

e the

n, th

e num

ber o

f Sta

tes

and p

rotec

ted ar

eas h

as in

crea

sed a

ndex

pand

ed. A

s per

late

st re

ports

, the

anim

al’s p

rese

nce h

as be

en re

giste

red

from

384 n

atio

nal p

arks

and

wild

life

sanc

tuar

ies

acro

ss t

he c

ount

ry,

altho

ugh f

ew ot

her p

rotec

ted ar

eas a

rese

ason

ally

or o

ccas

iona

lly v

isite

d by

the l

eopa

rd.

Area

of th

ese l

eopa

rd su

ppor

ting

natio

nal p

arks

and w

ildlif

e san

ctua

r-ies

is ab

out 1

36,55

0 km

. Of t

his,

abou

t50

tiger

rese

rves

and t

heir

buffe

r zon

esin

17 St

ates a

re oc

cupi

ed by

the T

igers

and

five

natio

nal p

arks

and

wild

life

sanc

tuar

ies in

Guj

arat

by t

he A

siatic

lion.

In th

e res

t of t

he le

opar

d sup

port-

ing

prot

ecte

d ar

eas,

the

leopa

rd is

ato

p pr

edato

r bu

t com

pete

with

the

hyen

a. E

xper

ts be

lieve

that

thou

ghth

e sa

nctu

aries

and

nat

iona

l par

ksac

com

mod

ate a

good

num

ber o

f the

anim

al, a

larg

e num

ber o

f the

m a

refo

und o

utsid

e the

se bo

unda

ries t

han

thos

e with

in, a

nd so

me a

re us

ing n

on-

fore

st ar

eas,

inclu

ding

scru

blan

ds, te

aga

rden

, rav

ines

, sug

arca

ne fi

elds a

ndan

othe

r veg

etat

ion

cove

r. In

the S

tate

of G

ujar

at, a

s per

the

leopa

rd ce

nsus

repo

rt in

2011

, abo

ut38

.2 pe

r cen

t of t

he le

opar

d po

pula-

tion

was

coun

ted

in t

he p

rote

cted

area

s, 18

.0 pe

r cen

t in

the s

ugar

cane

field

, agr

icultu

ral l

ands

, plan

tatio

nsan

d ra

vine

s, an

d th

e res

t in

the f

or-

est a

reas

beyo

nd th

e bou

ndar

ies of

the

prot

ecte

d ar

eas.

Leop

ard

popu

latio

nin

pro

tect

ed a

reas

of U

ttara

khan

d,M

ahar

asht

ra an

d Odi

sha w

ere a

bout

25.2

per c

ent,

44.1

per c

ent a

nd 3

5.3pe

r cen

t res

pect

ively.

An

analy

sis o

fda

ta fr

om 1

2 m

ajor

leopa

rd S

tate

sre

veals

that

abo

ut o

ne-th

ird o

f the

tota

l leo

pard

s wer

e fou

nd in

nat

ion-

al pa

rks

and

wild

life

sanc

tuar

ies.

Also

, bas

ed on

cens

us re

ports

of a

fewSt

ates,

abou

t 15 p

er ce

nt o

f the

leop

-ar

ds us

ed ha

bita

t bey

ond t

he bo

und-

aries

of t

he fo

rests

.Le

opar

d’s oc

cupa

ncy i

n the

majo

rpa

rt of

14 ti

ger S

tates

was

173,9

00 km

in 20

14. A

s per

the r

ough

leop

ard d

is-tri

butio

n ra

nge,

prov

ided

by

the

Chief

Wild

life W

arde

ns an

d wi

ldlif

eex

perts

in t

he S

tate

s, th

e leo

pard

soc

cupy

abou

t 114

,000 k

m in

othe

r 15

State

s and

Uni

on Te

rrito

ries. T

hus, t

heleo

pard

s occ

upy o

ver 2

87,90

0 km

for-

est a

reas

of t

he co

untry

.Te

a gar

dens

have

beco

me a

majo

rm

an-le

opar

d con

flict

zone

beca

use a

good

num

ber o

f the

m br

eed a

nd hu

ntin

thes

e are

as. A

t lea

st 5,6

70 km

area

of th

e hill

y ter

rain

or sl

opes

in N

ilgiri

hills

(Ta

mil

Nad

u, K

eral

a an

dKa

rnat

aka)

, Dar

jeelin

g hill

s, dr

ained

land

of D

ooar

s and

Ter

rai d

own

the

hills

in W

est B

enga

l and

mod

erate

hills

and

slope

s in

Assa

m an

d ot

her

such

land

s in

the N

orth

- Eas

t Sta

tes,

Uttar

akha

nd an

d Him

acha

l are

unde

rte

a cu

ltiva

tion.

Pre

senc

e of

leop

ard

and h

uman

-leop

ard c

onfli

ct in

thes

ete

a ga

rden

s hav

e be

en re

cord

ed fo

rov

er 1

00 y

ears

. Mos

t of t

hese

are

asfo

rm co

ntigu

ous l

eopa

rd ha

bitat

with

the a

djoi

ning

fore

sts.

Rece

ntly,

max

imum

hum

an-

leopa

rd co

nflic

ts we

re re

cord

ed in

and

arou

nd th

e sug

arca

ne fi

elds i

n so

me

Stat

es.

Suga

rcan

e cu

ltiva

tion

has

expa

nded

with

the e

xpan

sion

of ir

ri-ga

tion

netw

ork.

The

adap

tive b

ig ca

tha

s suc

cess

fully

expl

oite

d th

e den

sesu

garc

ane c

rop

for l

itter

ing.

Dur

ing

the l

ast f

ive y

ears

, the

exte

nt o

f sug

-ar

cane

cul

tivat

ion

in I

ndia

rang

edfro

m 4

4,36

0 Km

to

50,6

70 k

m.

Leop

ards

are

freq

uent

ly se

en in

the

suga

rcan

e fie

lds.

Majo

rity

of s

uch

dens

e tall

crop

s in

the f

our S

tate

s —M

ahar

asht

ra, K

arna

taka

, Guj

arat

and

Tam

il Nad

u, w

hich

cove

r abo

ut 31

.9pe

r cen

t of t

he su

garc

ane c

ultiv

atio

nar

ea in

the c

ount

ry —

are i

nflic

ted by

the l

eopa

rd. T

he an

imal

is als

o se

enin

the s

ugar

cane

field

s in

Tera

i belt

inUt

tar P

rade

sh an

d Bi

har.

A re

cent

pap

er, ‘B

ig C

at in

Our

Back

yard

s’, pu

blish

ed b

y th

e jou

rnal

‘Pub

lic L

ibra

ry o

f Sc

ience

’, m

ade

head

lines

by r

epor

ting u

p to

six r

es-

iden

t leop

ards

per 1

00 km

in th

e sug

-ar

cane

field

s in

Sang

amne

r reg

ion

ofM

ahar

asht

ra. T

he bi

g cats

hide

in th

ede

nse c

over

of s

ugar

cane

crop

s dur

-in

g the

day,

prey

ing o

n do

gs, p

igs, c

at-tle

and p

oultr

y in

the n

ight

in th

e vil-

lages

and

town

s. W

hen

one

or tw

oleo

pard

s kill

ed fi

ve pe

ople

in M

andv

iTa

luka

of Su

rat d

istric

t, Guj

arat

in th

epo

st-m

onso

on a

nd e

arly

wint

er in

2010

, whi

le hu

ntin

g and

trap

ping

the

man

-eate

r, abo

ut tw

o doz

en le

opar

ds,

inclu

ding

cubs

, wer

e elim

inate

d fro

mth

e sug

arca

ne ar

eas o

f the

villa

ges i

nth

ree m

onth

s. W

hen

a leo

pard

kille

dfo

ur p

eopl

e in

sug

arca

ne z

one

inVe

rava

l in

Jun

agad

h (G

ujar

at)

inM

arch

201

2, a t

otal

of n

ine l

eopa

rds

were

trap

ped

and

rem

oved

from

the

area

. The

re ar

e sev

eral

such

stor

ies in

the s

ugar

cane

belt

.Th

e ext

ent o

f for

ests

cove

r with

cano

py d

ensit

y of

mor

e tha

n 10

per

cent

is 68

3,925

sq k

m in

29 St

ates a

ndon

e Uni

on T

errit

ory

which

supp

ort

leopa

rds.

The s

hrub

lands

and r

avin

esou

tside

the f

ores

ts als

o sup

port

leop-

ards

. In

the

leo

pard

Sta

te, a

bout

thre

e-fo

urth

of

the

fore

st co

ver

isex

pect

ed t

o be

pot

entia

l ha

bita

t,alt

houg

h pr

esen

t occ

upan

cy ar

ea o

fth

e leo

pard

is le

sser

than

the p

oten

-tia

l hab

itats.

The

ana

lysis

indi

cate

sth

at th

e leo

pard

occ

upan

cy a

rea

inIn

dia

may

be

in a

n ex

tent

of o

ver

300,0

00 km

, alth

ough

poten

tial h

abi-

tat i

s hig

h.(T

his i

s the

first

artic

le in

a tw

o-pa

rt se

ries o

n In

dian

leop

ards

. The

seco

nd p

art

will

app

ear

in t

hese

colu

mns

on

Thur

sday

, Oct

ober

18.

(The

writ

er i

s M

embe

r, Na

tiona

lBo

ard

for W

ild li

fe)

7&3-

�/7&

��63

���$4�2

7-)

&�.-

��

31"

)��

0"��$

Telang

ana,

the c

ount

ry’s y

oung

est S

tate

,w

ill fa

ce el

ectio

ns o

n D

ecem

ber 7

for

the s

econ

d tim

e sin

ce it

s birt

h in

2014

.Ch

ief M

inist

er C

hand

rash

ekar

Rao

took

abi

g ri

sk b

y ad

vanc

ing

the

Tela

ngan

aAs

sem

bly p

olls

by ei

ght m

onth

s. It

was

also

his b

rava

do to

anno

unce

the l

ist o

f 105

can-

dida

tes

on t

he s

ame

day

even

bef

ore

the

Elec

tion

Com

miss

ion

of In

dia

anno

unce

dth

e po

lling

dat

es. B

ut th

e qu

estio

n is:

Will

he su

ccee

d in

his

gam

ble?

T

houg

h it

w

as

the

Con

gres

sG

over

nmen

t at t

he C

entre

then

that

agre

edfo

r a

bifu

rcat

ion

of th

e St

ate

in 2

014,

the

Tela

ngan

a Ra

shtr

a Sa

mith

i (TR

S) c

ame

topo

wer

, rid

ing

on t

he T

elan

gana

wav

e.C

ontr

ary

to it

s exp

ecta

tions

, the

Con

gres

sw

as w

iped

off

from

bot

h Te

lang

ana

and

And

hra

Prad

esh.

A

s the

re is

no

wav

e thi

s tim

e, th

e pol

lsar

e a fi

ght f

or su

rviv

al fo

r the

Opp

ositi

on,

inclu

ding

the C

ongr

ess.

The

Telu

gu D

esam

Part

y (T

DP)

, th

e C

ongr

ess,

Com

mun

istPa

rty

of I

ndia

and

the

Tela

ngan

a Ja

naSa

mith

i ha

ve f

orm

ed a

Mah

a Ku

tam

i(g

rand

alli

ance

) ag

ains

t th

e TR

S. M

Koda

ndar

am o

f the

Tela

ngan

a Joi

nt A

ctio

nC

omm

ittee

, who

has

falle

n ou

t with

KCR

,he

ads

the

Tela

ngan

a Ja

na S

amiti

(TJ

S).

Inte

resti

ngly,

the

Con

gres

s an

d th

e TD

P,on

e-tim

e ar

ch-r

ival

s, ha

ve c

ome

toge

ther

gasp

ing

for p

oliti

cal s

urvi

val.

It is

not c

lear

how

their

chem

istry

will

wor

k. T

he T

RS d

idno

t exp

ect t

his d

evelo

pmen

t but

is ta

king

the a

llian

ce se

rious

ly.

In 20

14, t

he T

RS w

on 63

out

of t

he 11

9se

ats w

hile

the

splin

tere

d O

ppos

ition

was

mau

led. T

he C

ongr

ess a

nd th

e TD

P wo

n 21

and

15 se

ats r

espe

ctiv

ely.

Rao

has s

yste

m-

atic

ally

dec

imat

ed t

he O

ppos

ition

and

stren

gthe

ned

his p

arty

by

poac

hing

on

the

TDP

(13)

and

the

Con

gres

s (1

2) a

s al

soot

her p

artie

s. Th

e C

ongr

ess a

nd th

e TD

Pstr

ateg

ists h

ope t

hat t

he fo

rmer

will

get a

big

chun

k of

upp

er c

aste

Red

dy, S

C/ST

and

min

ority

vot

es an

d th

e TD

P ca

n ge

t a su

b-st

antia

l num

ber o

f its

core

OBC

vot

es.

Rao

is no

w fa

cing

new

chal

leng

es. H

eha

s bui

lt a p

erso

nalit

y cul

t aro

und

him

self.

He h

as m

ade h

is so

n K

T Ra

ma

Rao

as h

isnu

mbe

r tw

o in

his

Cab

inet

, his

neph

ewH

arish

Rao

as

a M

inist

er a

nd d

augh

ter

Kavi

tha

as a

n M

P. Th

e O

ppos

ition

is tr

y-in

g to

mak

e his

style

of au

thor

itaria

n fu

nc-

tioni

ng, d

ynas

tic ru

le an

d hi

s sec

ret u

nder

-st

andi

ng w

ith t

he B

JP a

s el

ectio

n iss

ues

besi

des

jobs

and

non

-del

iver

ance

of

prom

ises.

The T

RS is

now

read

y to

bail

out

the

BJP

in c

ase

it m

isses

the

272-

mar

k in

the n

ext L

ok S

abha

pol

ls. K

CR is

also

hob

-no

bbin

g w

ith l

eade

rs l

ike

Wes

t Be

ngal

Chie

f Min

ister

Mam

ata B

aner

jee,

atte

mpt

-in

g to

form

a fe

dera

l fro

nt.

Why

did

Rao

go

for

this

gam

ble?

Astro

loge

rs ru

le K

CR o

n pr

actic

ally

ever

y-th

ing.

Bef

ore t

akin

g th

e dec

ision

, KCR

got

at le

ast 1

0 su

rvey

s don

e an

d is

conf

iden

tth

at h

is pa

rty

wou

ld g

et a

t lea

st 1

00 se

ats

whi

le re

alist

s pu

t it a

t 70

or 8

0 se

ats.

He

belie

ves t

hat t

he su

rpris

e el

emen

t will

go

in h

is fa

vour

.Ra

o w

ants

the

polls

to b

e a

KCR

ver-

sus t

he re

st an

d no

t a M

odi v

ersu

s KCR

. He

is co

nfid

ent

of w

inni

ng a

s ne

ither

the

Con

gres

s nor

the B

JP o

r the

TD

P ha

s loc

allea

ders

of h

is sta

ture

. If h

e win

s, he

pro

pos-

es to

inst

all h

is so

n Ra

ma R

ao in

the C

hief

Min

ister

’s po

st an

d m

ove

to n

atio

nal p

oli-

tics.

KCR

has b

ig d

ream

s of b

ecom

ing

the

next

Prim

e Min

ister

. O

n th

e plu

s sid

e, th

e KCR

Gov

ernm

ent

has

alre

ady

anno

unce

d m

any

wel

fare

sche

mes

, in

clud

ing

Ryth

u Bh

eem

a an

dRy

thu

Band

hu sc

hem

es fo

r the

farm

ers.

He

has a

lso ta

ken

up v

ario

us p

roje

cts s

uch

asKa

lesh

war

am p

roje

ct, M

issio

n Ka

katiy

a,H

arith

a H

aram

and

Miss

ion

Bhag

irath

a.Th

e man

ifesto

will

com

e up

with

mor

e pol

lpr

omise

s. Be

sides

, Tel

anga

na is

also

one

of

the

top

rank

ers i

n th

e ea

se o

f doi

ng b

usi-

ness

rank

ings

. It r

egist

ered

an

incr

ease

ingr

oss d

omes

tic p

rodu

ct gr

owth

and

indu

s-tr

ial

deve

lopm

ent.

It is

way

ahe

ad o

fot

her S

tate

s in

the p

er p

erso

n co

nsum

ptio

nof

pow

er, p

rogr

ess i

n th

e ser

vice

sect

or an

dIT

exp

orts

. H

owev

er, i

t is n

ot a

ll hu

nky

dory

for

KCR

as h

e ha

s not

del

iver

ed o

n th

e tw

o-be

droo

m h

ouse

sche

me,

tran

sfor

med

the

Stat

e int

o G

olde

n Te

lang

ana,

fille

d up

1.5

0la

kh v

acan

cies

or

prov

ides

jobs

to th

ose

kille

d in

the T

elan

gana

agi

tatio

n. F

rom

asu

rplu

s Sta

te, i

t has

now

bec

ome a

reve

nue

defic

it St

ate.

Tr

aditi

onal

ly, t

he C

ongr

ess

had

the

back

ing o

f dom

inan

t Red

dys a

nd Sc

hedu

ledCa

stes

whi

le t

he T

DP

had

a su

bsta

ntia

lnu

mbe

r of

its

cor

e O

BC v

otes

. T

heCo

ngre

ss is

seen

as a

Redd

y par

ty w

hile

the

TRS a

Vela

ma p

arty.

Mus

lims a

nd D

alit v

ot-

ers a

re k

ey to

the p

olls.

The

Sta

te, a

par

t of

the

erstw

hile

Niz

am te

rrito

ry, h

as a

roun

d12

per

cen

t M

uslim

pop

ulat

ion.

The

AIM

IM, a

one-

time a

lly of

the C

ongr

ess,

has

mov

ed c

lose

r to

the

TRS

and

bot

h ha

vede

cide

d to

go

for

frie

ndly

con

tests

whe

reth

ey h

ave n

o co

nflic

t of i

nter

est.

M

ost s

urve

ys p

redi

ct a

clear

win

for t

heTR

S. A

s of n

ow, t

he p

redi

ctio

n is

that

it is

adva

ntag

e TRS

, alth

ough

figh

t by

a un

ited

Opp

ositi

on ca

n de

nt it

s vot

es. B

ut th

e lac

kof

a Te

lang

ana w

ave i

s a b

ig m

inus

. A

win

or lo

se u

ltim

ately

dep

ends

upo

n O

ppos

ition

unity

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th su

ppor

t, an

ti-in

cum

benc

y and

com

mun

icat

ive

skill

s of t

he p

laye

rs.

(The

writ

er is

a se

nior

polit

ical c

omm

en-

tato

r and

synd

icate

d co

lum

nist)

All

set f

or T

elan

gana

pol

l

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The rupee climbed 35 paiseto end at nearly two-week

high of 73.48 per dollar onTuesday amid softening crudeoil prices and easing concernsover the trade deficit.

Traders said foreign fundinflows and greenback weak-ening against other currencieswere the other factors thatprovided support to the homeunit.

At the Interbank ForeignExchange (Forex), the rupeeopened on a firm note at 73.79from Monday’s close of 73.83.During the day the domesticcurrency gained furtherground to hit a high of 73.47against the US dollar, driven byselling of the greenback byexporters.

The domestic unit settledthe day up by 35 paise or 0.47per cent at 73.48 to the dollar,the highest closing level sinceOctober 3.

The rupee had lost 26 paiseto close at 73.83 on Monday.

Forex dealers said bullishtrend in the equity market aswell as easing crude oil pricessupported the rupee’s upwardmovement.

“Alongside positive newson crude, the ten-year bonds

rallied as yieldsclosed lower.The currencyrallied on thelower thanexpected tradedeficit data,”said SunilSharma, ChiefI n v e s t m e n tO f f i c e r ,S a n c t u mW e a l t hManagement.

The trade deficit droppedto a five-month low of $13.98billion in September even asexports declined by more than2 per cent. A higher tradedeficit inflates the currentaccount deficit which has abearing on the local currencydue to fund outflows.

The benchmark Brent oilwas trading 0.88 per cent lowerat $80.07 a barrel on Tuesdaydue to easing tensions over dis-appearance of a Saudi journal-ist which calmed the oil mar-ket.

US President DonaldTrump Monday had said that“rough killers” could be behindthe disappearance of journalistJamal Khashoggi as opposed tohis earlier threatening stance.

Stock markets also wel-comed a retreat in oil prices

and gains in the rupee with thebenchmark 30-share Sensexrising by 297.38 points or 0.85per cent to close at 35,162.48.

The NSE Nifty after regain-ing the 10,600-mark hit a highof 10,604.90 on the back ofwidespread gains, and finallyconcluded 72.25 points or 0.69per cent higher at 10,584.75.

Foreign investors boughtshares worth �67.86 croreMonday, while domestic insti-tutional investors purchasedstocks worth �294.78 crore,provisional data showed.

The Financial BenchmarkIndia Private Ltd (FBIL) set thereference rate for the dollar at73.9041 per dollar.

The reference rate for eurowas fixed at 85.5750 and for theBritish pound at 97.3327. Thereference rate for 100 Japaneseyen was 65.95.

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The equity benchmarkSensex continued its win-

ning run for the third straightsession on Tuesday, rising 297points to scale the key 35,000-level on positive macro signslike strengthening rupee andhealthy start to the corporateearning season.

Meanwhile, the rupeestrengthened by 25 paise to73.58 (intra-day) against the USdollar in the forex market.

Besides, easing globalcrude prices and positive cuesfrom Asian markets and ahigher opening in Europeanshares too fuelled the rally.Brent was trading 0.25 percent lower at $80.58 a barrel onTuesday.

“Market maintained a pos-itive momentum as healthystart to the earnings season andgaining strength in rupee sup-ported the sentiment. Thoughrally was broad based, finan-cials led from the front...Earnings season will dictate thetrend in the market as investorsare gradually shifting theirfocus from global volatility todomestic triggers,” Vinod Nair,Head of Research, GeojitFinancial Services said.

The 30-share Sensex stayedin the positive zone during the

session and shuttled between35,215.79 and 34,913.06, beforesettling 297.38 points or 0.85per cent higher at 35,162.48.

The NSE Nifty af terregaining the 10,600-markhit a high of 10,604.90 on theback of widespread gains,and finally concluded 72.25points or 0.69 per cent high-er at 10,584.75.

“The Nifty was highertoday again supported by mid-and small-cap stocks. Thebroader indices gained moreground than the Nifty. Bankingstocks were mixed with PSUBanks taking the lead. Globalcues were also mixed where USmarkets were down but mostother markets appear to havestabilised,” Rohit Srivastava,Fund Manager — PMS,Sharekhan by BNP Paribassaid.

Domestic institutionalinvestors (DIIs) bought sharesworth �294.78 crore, whileforeign institutional investorsinvested �67.86 crore onMonday, as per provisionaldata issued by the stockexchanges.

Shares of the country’s sec-ond largest IT company,Infosys fell 0.39 per cent aftercautious investors trimmedtheir positions ahead of July-September quarter earnings.

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Aday after Prime MinisterNarendra Modi voiced

concerns about high crudeprices, oil cartel OPEC onTuesday said it has not failedIndia and other major con-suming countries as it restoredstability in the market after fouryears of downturn.

Organisation of PetroleumExporting Countries (OPEC)Secretary General SanusiBarkindo, however, said the sta-bility achieved in past month isbeing threatened by headwindsfrom extraneous factors likefrictions between leading trad-ing partners of the world,revisal of monetary stimuliand upward movement ininterest rates.

Speaking at the IndiaEnergy Forum, he said a yearago Prime Minister Modi, OilMinister Dharmendra Pradhanand industry chieftains had“all commended the joint effortof OPEC and non-OPEC torescue the industry from thedownturn”.

“India, the third largestconsuming country of hydro-carbon, has endorsed this col-laborative effort to restore sta-bility to the oil market and had,in addition, asked to do what-ever is necessary to sustain thisstability going forward,” hesaid.

Without stability, majorconsuming countries cannotplan let alone manage demand-supply dynamics.

“We have not failed India,we have not failed major con-suming countries. Our actions,decision all take into accountthe interest of consumingcountry,” he said. “We have avested interest in India con-tinue to grow, prosper, contin-ue to use oil in its energy mix.”

On Monday, Modi hadvoice concerns about high oilprices killing global growth ata meeting where Saudi andUAE oil ministers as alsoindustry captains were pre-sent.

India has been over thepast two months battered byhigh crude oil prices that havesent retail petrol, diesel andLPG rates to record high, posedinflationary risks and togetherwith a sliding rupee threatenedto upset its current accountdeficit. Also, unrelenting fuelprice rise since mid-August hasnegated cut in taxes and sub-sidy. Barkindo said the stabil-ity achieved over the pastmonths is under threat from acombination of factors thatare beyond the control of oilproducers.

“In the short term we arealso beginning to see a rise involatility,” he said. “Yes at themoment the market is well sup-

plied. However, these extrane-ous factors are beginning tomake this balance look fragile.These factors are completelyoutside the control of OPECand non-OPEC (oil produc-ers).”

He said on Monday SaudiArabia, the world’s biggestexporter of oil in the world,assured all consumers “toremain claim, not to panicand that there is ample suppliesto meet”.

“Yes, the market is wellsupplied, a balance has beenachieved. But this balance islooking fragile largely becauseof actors outside our control,”he said.

Barkindo said the recentlyreleased OPEC’s World OilOutlook, primary energydemand, globally, is expected toincrease by 33 per cent, or 91million barrels of oil equivalentper day (mboe/d), between2015 and 2040.

“A massive 24 per cent ofthis anticipated increase will befrom India, or 22 mboe/d,” hesaid. “World oil demand isexpected to increase by 14.5million barels per day (mb/d),increasing from 97.2 mb/d in2017 to 111.7 mb/d in 2040.India will account for oildemand growth of 5.8 mb/d,which represents an astonish-ing 40 per cent of the overallincrease.”

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Adopting a seemingly cau-tious approach, the Reserve

Bank has approved appoint-ment of Sandeep Bakhshi asICICI Bank’s ManagingDirector and Chief ExecutiveOfficer for three years as againsta five-year term sought by thelender. ICICI Bank Tuesdayinformed the stock exchangesthat the Reserve Bank of India(RBI) has cleared Bakhshi’sappointment for three yearseffective from October 15.

After ICICI group veteranChanda Kochhar — who wasfacing inquiry related to allegednepotism and quid pro quo inextending loans to certain enti-ties — resigned earlier thismonth, the bank announcedappointment of Bakhshi as theMD and CEO for five years.

In recent months, the RBIseem to be exercising a cautiousapproach when it comes to re-appointment of chiefs of privatesector banks, especially againstthe backdrop of rising non-per-forming assets.

“We wish to inform youthat RBI ... (on October 15,2018) has approved the appoint-ment of Sandeep Bakhshi asManaging Director and CEO ofthe Bank for a period of threeyears with effect from October15, 2018,” ICICI Bank said in aBSE filing.

Bakhshi, who joined theICICI group in 1986, was elevatedfrom the post of Chief OperatingOfficer (COO) to MD and CEOof the bank after resignation ofKochhar on October 4.

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The RSS-affiliated SwadeshiJagran Manch (SJM) on

Tuesday sought PrimeMinister Narendra Modi’sintervention to ensure that thecontrolling stake in multi-business conglomerate ITCdoes not go to a foreign com-pany.

The SJM wrote to Modi inthe wake of reports of a pos-sible takeover of ITC byBritish American TobaccoCompany (BAT), a UK-basedmulti-national firm.

“Swadeshi Jagran Manchrequests you to kindly inter-vene in this case in nationalinterest, and pass instructionsto increase the shareholding of

the Government to thwartthe possibility of a takeover ofan Indian company (ITC) byan MNC,” its co-convenerAshwani Mahajan said in theletter to Modi.

BAT already holds stake inthe ITC, which has diversifiedbusiness in a range of sectorsincluding FMCG, apparel,hotels, specialty papers, pack-aging, agri-business and infor-mation technology amongothers.

Referring to ITC’s share-holding pattern, he said sharesheld by domestic financialinstitutions used to be 32 percent which has come down to30.4 per cent.

BAT’s stake is at 29.60 percent in the company.

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Indonesia has extraditedabsconding industrialist

Vinay Mittal, who was wantedin seven bank fraud casesworth �40 crore, to India, CBIofficials said here on Tuesday.

Mittal’s name had figuredin the list of prominent fugitiveeconomic offenders of theGovernment which containednames of industrialists VijayMallya, Nitin Sandesara, NiravModi, Mehul Choksi and JatinMehta among others.

The CBI had registeredregular cases against Mittal in2014 and 2016 at the behest ofCorporation Bank and PunjabNational Bank, which is reelingunder �13,000 crore bank fraudallegedly perpetrated by fugi-tive diamond traders NiravModi and Mehul Choksi, theofficials said.

The agency had filed sevencharge sheets before designat-ed courts in Delhi andGhaziabad against Mittal afterwhich he purportedly escapedfrom the country.

The court has declaredhim as absconder and theagency got issued a Red CornerNotice against him through theInterpol.

Subsequently, the agenciestraced his location to Bali inIndonesia where he was livingwith his family. He was arrest-ed by Indonesian authorities inJanuary 2017 on the basis ofRed Corner Notice.

Recently, IndonesianPresident had cleared his extra-dition to India following whichhe was sent to India this month.He was arrested upon arrivaland sent to judicial custody.

After his extradition earli-er this month, the agency alsogot a shot in arm when anoth-er accused Mohammad Yahya,accused in a �46 lakh bank loanfraud case, was deported fromBahrain.

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New Delhi: The Government has increased the rate of interest for General Provident Fund(GPF) and other related schemes by 0.4 percentage points to 8 per cent for the October-Decemberquarter.

The rate is in line with that for Public Provident Fund. The interest rate on GPF was 7.6 percent for the July-September quarter of 2018-19. The interest rate would apply on Provident Fundsof central government employees, railways and defence forces. PTI

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Investments in the Indiancapital market through par-ticipatory notes (P-notes)

hit a nearly nine-and-a-halfyear low of �79,548 crore tillSeptember after registering arise in such fund infusion in thepreceding month.

P-notes are issued by reg-istered foreign portfolioinvestors (FPIs) to overseasinvestors who wish to be partof the Indian stock marketwithout registering themselvesdirectly. They, however, need togo through due diligenceprocess.

According to the Sebi data,total value of P-note invest-ments in Indian markets —equity, debt, and derivatives —slumped to a low of �79,548

crore till September-end from�84,647 crore clocked byAugust-end, which was thefirst rise in such fund infusionin 10 months.

Prior to that, in July, thefigure was �80,341 crore.

As per the data, the fundinflow through P-notes inSeptember was the lowest sinceApril 2009, when the cumula-tive value of such investmentsstood at �72,314 crore.

The decline in investmentcould be attributed to severalmeasures taken by the marketwatchdog to stop the misuse ofthe controversy-ridden partic-ipatory notes, experts said.

Of the total investmentsmade last month, P-note hold-ings in equities were at �60,164crore and the remaining was indebt and derivatives markets.

The quantum of FPIinvestments via P-notes remainunchanged at 2.5 per cent dur-ing the period under reviewfrom the preceding month.

P-note investments wereon a decline since, June last yearand hit an over eight-year lowin September 2017. However,these investments rose slight-ly in October but fell again inNovember and the trend con-tinued till July this year.

In August this year, invest-ment through the routeclimbed but again droppedlast month.

In July 2017, Sebi had noti-fied stricter norms stipulatinga fee of USD 1,000 on eachinstrument to check any mis-use for channelising blackmoney. It had also prohibitedFPIs from issuing such notes

where the underlying asset is aderivative, except those whichare used for hedging purposes.

Meanwhile, in September,market regulator Sebi issuedrevised KYC norms for FPIs,wherein resident as well asnon-resident Indians have beenpermitted to hold non-con-trolling stake in such entities.

These norms have been putin place weeks after a panelsuggested various changes tothe guidelines proposed earli-er, amid concerns in certainquarters that overseas fundsmight face difficulties in ensur-ing compliance.

Non-resident Indians(NRIs), overseas citizens ofIndia (OCIs) and residentIndians (RIs) have been per-mitted to hold non-controllingstake in FPIs.

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The country’s second-largestIT firm Infosys on Tuesday

reported a 10.3 per cent growthin its consolidated net profit at�4,110 crore for the quarterended September 2018.

It had posted a net profit of�3,726 crore in the year-ago peri-od, Infosys said in a BSE filing.

The Bengaluru-based firm’srevenue grew 17.3 per cent to�20,609 crore in the quarterunder review as compared to�17,567 crore in the same peri-od of 2017-18, it added.

“We are delighted with ourbroad-based growth across allbusiness segments and geo-graphies during the quarter.This is a testimony to ourstrong client relationships, dig-ital-led full service capabilities,and intense focus on the needsof our clients,” Infosys CEO andmanaging director Salil Parekhsaid.

He added that large dealwins at over USD 2 billion dur-ing the quarter “demonstrateour increased client relevanceand also give us better growthvisibility for the near-term”.

Digital revenues at USD905 million made 31 per centof total revenues, it said.

The company retained itsFY’19 revenue guidance inconstant currency at 6-8 percent.

Infosys also said it would

comply with arbitration awardasking it to pay �12.17 crore toformer CFO Rajiv Bansal.

“The company hasreceived legal advice and willcomply with the award and

make the necessary payments,”the software services majorsaid in a statement.

The company declaredinterim dividend of �7 pershare.

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New Delhi (PTI): Thecountry’s largest two-wheelermaker Hero MotoCorpTuesday reported a maginaldip in its standalone profitafter tax to �976.28 crore forthe second quarter endedSeptember 30, 2018.

The company had posteda net profit of �1,010.49 crorefor the same period of the pre-

vious fiscal, Hero MotoCorpsaid in a BSE filing. Revenuefrom operations for the quar-ter under review stood at�9,090.94 crore as against�8,371.74 crore in the sameperiod previous fiscal, it added.

Shares of Hero MotoCorptoday closed at �2,890 perscrip on BSE, up 0.23% fromits previous close.

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Mumbai (PTI): FederalBank on Tuesday posted a mar-ginal increase in net profit at�266.04 crore for the quarterending September on annualbasis. The bank had posted a netprofit of �263.7 crore during theJuly-September quarter of 2017-18, according to a regulatory fil-ing by the company.

The bank’s total incomestood at �3,087.81 crore during

the second quarter of the currentfiscal as against �2,666.82 crorein the year ago period.

Federal Bank’s gross non-performing assets widened to3.11% of its assets as against2.39% in the second quarter ofthe last fiscal. Net NPA too roseto 1.78% of its assets duringSeptember 2018 quarter. Thiscompares with 1.32% in the yearago quarter.

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&����������A� ���2������#B#����� ��������, �����) �Mumbai (PTI): Online

food ordering and deliveryfirm Foodpanda on Tuesdaysaid it had acquired food-techventure Holachef, for an undis-closed amount, marking itsforay into the cloud kitchenbusiness.

As part of the acquisition,Foodpanda will take overHolachef ’s business includingits kitchens, equipment, as well

as bring onboard the company’semployees, a release said,adding Holachef ’s foundersare also set to join Foodpanda’sleadership team.

The company said it plansto launch its own brand of foodproducts in different categoriesthrough this collaboration.

Pranay Jivrajka, chief exec-utive officer of FoodpandaIndia, said, “We aim to build

India’s largest cloud kitchennetwork that will be a majorstep in further elevating thefood experience for our cus-tomers.”

A cloud kitchen works ona hub and spoke model, wherethere is a mega central kitchenthat delivers to outlets fromwhere the food is again dis-tributed.

The company, owned by

ride hailing giant Ola, said itwould build deeper capabilitiesand tailor its offerings to caterto specific segments. It cur-rently has around 125,000delivery partners.

Saurabh Saxena, co-founder of Holachef, said, “Ourmission with Holachef is toserve incredible food experi-ences to customers throughkitchens with the highest qual-

ity and hygiene standards. Weare delighted to join hands withFoodpanda, to accelerate ourmission.”

Foodpanda, which hasbeen operational in the coun-try since 2012, focuses on localinnovation, technology, anddelivery logistics, and claims toprocess over 300,000 orders aday from over 25,000 restau-rant partners.

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New Delhi: Vegetable oils’import fell two per cent to 14.91lakh tonne (LT) in September dueto rupee depreciation and high-er custom duty, according toedible oil industry body SEA.Total imports of vegetable oilswere also down 3.5 per cent to137.69 LT during November-September period of the 2017-18oil year from 142.72 LT in theyear-ago period, it said in a state-ment. As per Solvent ExtractorsAssociation of India data, importof edible oil fell to 14.22 LT inSeptember from 15.01 LT in theyear-ago period, but the ship-ments of non-edible oils rose to69,171 tonne from 17,994 tonneduring the review period. Thecountry imported 2,44,577 tonneof RBD palmolein, 6,65,110 tonneof crude palm oil, 8,988 tonne ofcrude palm kernel oil inSeptember this year. PTI

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Beijing: Amid global criti-cism, China on Tuesday justi-fied its controversial move tokeep thousands of UyghurMuslims in “vocational train-ing institutions” in the volatileXinjiang region, insisting thatits stringent measures haveprevented terror attacks in theprovince in the last 21 months.

Xinjiang, borderingAfghanistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, has beenrestive for the past severalyears over protests fromUyghur Muslims, an ethnicgroup of over 10 million Turkicorigin people, over the largescale settlements of HanChinese from other provinces.

China blamed the recur-ring violent attacks including inBeijing and elsewhere in thecountry on the separatist EastTurkistan Islamic Movement(ETIM), an al-Qaeda linkedgroup, whose cadres were nowstated to be fighting along withIslamic State of Iraq and Syria(ISIS) in Syria. PTI

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Britain has witnessed a surgein the incidents of reli-

gious hate crime over the pastfew years, mostly aimed atMuslims, according to officialfigures released Tuesday.

The UK Home Office datarevealed that 94,098 hatecrimes were recorded by thepolice in England and Wales in2017-18, an increase of 17 percent on the year before.

This annual increase equatesto a 40 per cent spike for “reli-giously-aggravated hate crime”,

with 8,336 such crimes bringrecorded in 2017-18 against5,949 in the previous year.

The figures also indicatethat most religious hate crime,52 per cent of all offences, wasaimed at Muslims or so-calledIslamophobic hate crime.

“This increase is thought tobe largely driven by improve-ments in police recording,although there has been spikesin hate crime following certainevents such as the EUReferendum and the terroristattacks in 2017,” the HomeOffice analysis says.

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China’s ruling CommunistParty has expelled former

military chief Gen Fang Fenghuifrom the party and referred hisgraft case to a military court fortrial, the military said Tuesday.

Gen Fang, 67, headed the2-million-strong People’sLiberation Army (PLA) tilllast year. He was also the for-mer chief of the CentralMilitary Commission (CMC),which is now headed byPresident Xi Jinping.

The CMC is the overallhigh command of the Chinesearmed forces.

Dubai: The United ArabEmirates has charged a BritishPhD student with spying in theGulf country, as his wifeTuesday called on Britain todefend his innocence.

Matthew Hedges standsaccused of “spying for a foreigncountry, jeopardising the mil-itary, political and economicsecurity of the state”, UAEattorney general Hamad al-Shamsi said late Monday.

The 31-year-old, who wasresearching the UAE’s foreignand internal security policiesafter the 2011 Arab Springrevolutions, was detained atDubai airport on May 5. AFP

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Fourteen Iranian securitypersonnel, including Islamic

Revolutionary Guards Corps(IRGC) also known asPasdaran- Inquilab-i Islamiintelligence officers, wereabducted on the volatile south-eastern border with Pakistan onTuesday, State media reported.

The border guards were“abducted between 4 am and 5am in the Lulakdan area of theborder by a terrorist group,” theofficial IRNA news agency said.

Lulakdan is a small village150 kilometres southeast ofZahedan, capital of the south-eastern province of Sistan-Baluchistan.

The 14 were involved in “asecurity operation” and includ-ed two members of the eliteRevolutionary Guards intelli-gence unit, seven Basij militi-amen and five regular borderguards, the Young Journalists’Club (YJC), a State-owned

news website, said.The report was deleted

from the YJC website shortlyafterwards.

The province has long beena flashpoint, with Baluchi sep-aratists and jihadists based inPakistan regularly attackingIranian security posts.

On September 28, theGuards said they had killed

four militants who had slippedacross the border.

Sistan-Baluchistan has alarge, mainly Sunni Muslimethnic Baluchi communitywhich straddles the border.

Sunni extremist groupJundallah (Soldiers of God)launched a bloody insurgencyin the province in 2000 target-ing the security forces andofficials of Iran’s Government.

The campaign peaked witha spate of deadly attacks from2007 — including twin suicidebombings against a Shiitemosque that killed 28 people —but abated after the group’sleader was killed in mid-2010.

In 2012, Jundullah mem-bers formed a successor organ-isation called Jaish al-Adl(Army of Justice), which hascarried out a spate of attacks onthe security forces.

Iran has alleged that thegroup has received support fromthe US, Israel and Saudi Arabia,with the complicity of Pakistan.

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The United State remainshighly concerned with

China’s continued militarisationin the South China Sea and itspredatory economic behaviour,US Defense Secretary JamesMattis said Monday.

“We remain highly con-cerned with continued militari-sation of features in the SouthChina Sea. Plus, we look at whatwe consider to be almost preda-tory -- in some cases certainlypredatory economic behav-iour...,” Mattis told reporterstravelling with him to Vietnam.

Referring to the major pol-icy speech of Vice PresidentMike Pence last week, Mattissaid the Trump administra-tion seeks a relationship with

China that’s grounded in fair-ness, reciprocity and respect forsovereignty. That means respectfor international rules and forall nations’ sovereignty, whetherthey’re large or small, he said.

“So, we’re two large powers,or two Pacific powers, twoeconomic powers. There’sgoing to be times we step oneach other’s toes, so we’re goingto have to find a way to pro-ductively manage our rela-tionship. And the military rela-tionship is to be a stabilisingforce in the relations betweenthe two countries,” Mattis said.

Responding to a question,Mattis said the US is not lookingfor a confrontation with China.“We are not seeing a more mili-tary, confrontational approachvis-a-vis China,” he said.

���� 2&/7-�8�5�

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is understoodto be preparing a report in which it is like-

ly to admit dissident journalist JamalKhashoggi died during an interrogation at itsconsulate in Istanbul, according to a mediareport.

Khashoggi is feared to have been killedinside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey.The incident has resulted in a global outrageand more so in the US as he lived here as alegal permanent resident and worked for TheWashington Post.

US lawmakers have been demandingscrapping of the $110 billion mega defencedeal with the Saudis, whereas heads of sever-al companies, CEOs, newspapers haveannounced not to attend an upcoming financeconference in Saudi Arabia.

President Donald Trump on Mondaytalked to the Saudi King, during which the lat-ter flatly denied having any knowledge of themissing journalist.

Officially Saudi Arabia has insisted that thejournalist left its consulate, but so far has notbeen able to give any proof of it. Trump, whohas warned Saudi Arabia of severe conse-quences, has dispatched his Secretary of StateMike Pompeo for talks with the Saudi leader.

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Gaza’s Health Ministry says32 Palestinians have been

wounded by Israeli fire duringa mass protest along the beachnear the Israeli frontier.

Protesters threw flamingtires over the fence Monday,while fishing boats hoistedPalestinian flags. Israeli forcesresponded with tear gas andlive fire. The ruling Hamas mil-itant group has been stagingborder protests for the past sixmonths in hopes of easing acrippling Israeli-Egyptian

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In a comment that could giveSaudi officials a route to

climb down from outrightdenials, President DonaldTrump has suggested that“rogue killers” could be respon-sible for the disappearance andpresumed murder of journalistJamal Khashoggi, who hasn’tbeen seen since entering theSaudi consulate in Istanbultwo weeks ago.

Trump’s comment cameafter a 20-minute phone callwith Saudi Arabia’s KingSalman in which Trump saidthe king adamantly denied anyknowledge of what happenedto Khashoggi.

Trump announced he’d dis-patched Secretary of State MikePompeo to the kingdom — andanywhere else necessary — toget to the bottom of the appar-ent demise of Khashoggi, aSaudi who had been livingand working in the UnitedStates.

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blockade.It has intensified the

protests in recent weeks asEgyptian-mediated cease-fireefforts have faltered. Over theweekend, Israel halted Qatari-donated fuel shipments toGaza’s power plant inresponse to the escalatedprotests. Since March, 155Palestinians participating orattending the protests werekilled.

Israel says it is defendingits border. An Israeli soldierwas fatally shot in July.

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��� ������ � ��The Delhi Paramedical

and management Institute(DPMI) commences admis-sions for its one-year full-timeDiploma in Front OfficeOperations (DFO), Food &Beverage (DFB), and HouseKeeping (DHK).

This course combines the-ory and practice of HotelIndustry. Hotel ManagementCatering Technology &Tourism is the fastest growingindustry in the world, with apotential that is limitless.Larger hotels often have man-agement teams, instead of indi-vidual managers, where eachmember of the group special-izes in a certain area. Hotelindustry is an ideal field for stu-dents having a liking for inter-acting with people.

Eligibility: The candidateshould be Class XII pass fromany recognised board.

How to apply: The appli-cation forms & brochure maybe obtained from admissionoffice of Delhi Paramedical &Management Institute, NewAshok Nagar, Delhi.

Deadline: October 29,2018. For more information,log on to ww.dpmiindia.com.

�"������ )��"�The Vidya Gyan Leadership

Academy invites applicationfor admission for its 2018-19academic session. Vidya Gyanis a free residential school formeritorious, economicallyunderprivileged, rural studentsof Uttar Pradesh. Around 400students are selected every yearfor admission to VidyaGyanafter two rounds of competitiveexams.

Admission process: Thethree-stage admission processat VidyaGyan constitutes:�Preliminary written test in alldistricts of UP�Written test for childrenshortlisted in the preliminaryround� Interaction with the selectedstudents and their families.

Eligibility criteria:�Applicants should be study-ing in Grade V in a ruralschool�As of 31st March 2019, thegirls should be a minimum of10 years and a maximum of 12

years and the boys should be aminimum of 10 years and amaximum of 11 years of age.� Students should belong torural, low-income households(with a combined familyincome of not more than �1lakh per annum).

Important dates: The dead-line has been extended toOctober 31. The first round ofexaminations will be conductedon December 9, 2018.

��� ������ � ��The Les Roches Global

Hospitality Education, a leadinghospitality management insti-tution, invites application foradmission to its PostgraduateDiploma (PGD) in InternationalHospitality Management, avail-able in Switzerland, Spain andChina. The next intake is inFebruary 2019.

It is an intensive one-yearprogramme preparing studentsto launch their careers in thehospitality industry. The pro-gramme features one semesterof full-time courses on campuswith a field trip to Dubai, fol-lowed by a six-month intern-ship. Upon successful comple-tion of the course, students maydirectly enter the secondsemester of the MBA in GlobalHospitality Management inLes Roches Switzerland.

Eligibility : Bachelordegree in any field. The mini-mum age criteria is 21 years.The candidate should have flu-ency in English and haveIELTS: 6.0 score (minimum 5.5in each section) or TOEFL: 550points for the paper-based testor 80 for the online test orCambridge English: First (FCE)grade A or Advanced (CAE)grade CA

Deadline: November 30Scholarship: Merit schol-

arships are available. For moreinformation, log on to:https://www.lesroches.edu/pro-g r a m s / g r a d u a t e / t h e -programs/international-hospi-tality-management/

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The Indian Institute of Technology Mandihas launched six new PG programmes.

These are:�MSc in Physics�MTech in Power Electronics and Drives �MTech in Structural Engineering�MTech in Very-Large-Scale Integration �MTech in Communications and SignalProcessing (CSP)�MA in Development Studies

The programmes were introduced as partof IIT Mandi’s vision to be a leader in Scienceand Technology education, knowledge cre-ation and innovation. With the introductionof these new programmes, IIT Mandi is one

step closer towards achieving its target of 60per cent PG students in the coming years.

Salient features:In the first semester, the focus is on elec-

trical engineering core courses, a pre-requi-site for advanced and specialised courses.

Lab core courses are designed so as to gohand-in-hand with theory core courses andto bring in a deeper insight into the conceptslearned in the classroom. Labs are designedin consultation with industry partners.

Advanced and specialised courses areoffered to make the students aware of thestate-of-the-art in the technology, such thatthey are exposed to the real-world problemsand able enough to tackle them with tech-nology solutions.

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The Ministry of Road Transport andHighways (MoRTH) in collabora-

tion with the Institute of Road TrafficEducation (IRTE) has announced itspartnership with Diageo India for thelaunch of Road To Safety – TowardsResponsible Youth Programme foruniversity students.

This partnership attempts to bringa formal and structured training pro-gramme for university students asthey apply for their learner’s license.The programme aims to reach over 500universities across the country in the

next three to five years; with the firstyear target being 100 programmesacross 50 universities.

The programme was inauguratedby Mansukh Mandaviya, Minister ofState, MoRTH in the august presenceof Leena Nandan, additional secretary,MoRTH; Abhay Damle, joint secretary,MoRTH together with AbantiSankaranarayanan, chief strategy andcorporate affairs officer, Diageo Indiaand Dr Rohit Baluja, president, IRTE.

As per industry reports, Indiaaccounts for 12.5% (over 1,45,000fatalities a year) of global road acci-dents, with one road accident occurring

every four minutes. Alarmingly, 72 percent victims involved in such roadmishaps are between the age groups of15-44 years with speeding, reckless anddrunk driving being the top reasonaccounting for 1.5% of road traffic acci-dents and 4.6% of fatalities.

The programme is a step towardaddressing the grave issue of road safe-ty by inculcating behavioural changeand creating awareness about respon-sible driving habits among youngadults. The four-hour extensive pro-gramme is an immersive and interac-tive module-led by senior faculty mem-bers of IRTE covering varied aspects ofresponsible driving including defensivedriving, ill effects of driving under theinfluence of alcohol, speeding andwearing of helmets.

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On the heels of an action-packedSheroes Summit 2018, the women’s

community platform has launched theiconic Women Get Funded programme inIndia, with three full scholarships award-ed to women in the Sheroes ecosystem.

This one-of-a-kind programme,launched by Silicon Valley angel investorAlicia Castillo Holley, trains womenentrepreneurs in Art and Science of rais-ing and accessing capital to build, grow andscale their businesses. As more and morewomen embrace entrepreneurship inIndia, this is a lucrative step towards sup-porting the next generation of womenentrepreneurs, to become savvy in thenuances of funding their ventures.

After a month-long campaign hostedon the Sheroes app, three women entre-preneurs have been awarded scholar-ships worth $1,500 (�35,000 each). The fel-lows 2018 comprise Prerna Prasad,founder of sustainable travel businessEcoplore; Sakshi Khanna, founder of TheUnCube, focused revolutionising work-space flexibility, and Monika Siriah,founder of agri-export business VedGlobal.

Sairee Chahal, founder, CEO ofSheroes, said: “Women entrepreneurs canjoin the SHE Starts Up! community andthe app, and actively engage and grow viachallenges, opportunities, communitychats and masterclasses hosted regularlyon the app. Our ecosystem has lakhs ofentrepreneurs building their businesses ofvarying scales in diverse domains —from travel and creative businesses to food

and services. We want to encouragewomen entrepreneurs to dream bigger, andget more ambitious for their business ven-tures. Accessing the right tools throughfocused programmes like Women GetFunded expands horizons, and I’m happyto share that the first cohort of WGF IndiaFellows has shown great commitmenttowards investing in themselves.”

Alicia Castillo Holley, founder of theWomen Get Funded programme, said:“India’s progress is amazing, especially withregards to women who are making a hugeimpact in society. They are smart, curious,and, overall, driven. Women do magic withlimited resources, and when they get thefunds they need, they transform theworld. I couldn’t be more inspired to workwith Sheroes, changing stereotypes forwomen entrepreneurs.”

The programme will be deliveredover a period of 10 weeks of bite-size infor-mation, pre-recorded lectures, tables,checklists, coaching sessions, Q&As, andvideos; modules cover various aspects—from tapping unconventional sources,valuation and negotiations to under-standing funding needs and the nuancesof taking the venture capital route. It alsogives access to a community of investorsand driven women entrepreneurs.

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The Symbiosis Skills and OpenUniversity (SSOU) has signed an MoU

with Domestic Workers Sector Skill Council(DWSSC) to become the training partner.Run by SSOU, a pilot course, funded byFICCI FLO, has been launched for 100 can-didates in the job role of elderly caretaker(non-clinical) that will commence onOctober 22, 2018 at SSOU campus.

Skill training is just a small step in thedirection of the university awarding a diplo-ma for the domestic workers in the disci-plines such as caregivers and housekeep-ing services. Currently, SSOU is conduct-ing a three-year degree course for beautyand wellness.

India, at present is ranked secondfor the highest number of start-upsin the world after the US and has

earned the reputation of being astart-up hub. Every year, the countrywitnesses the launch of an average ofabout 1,000 start-ups. This trend isattributed to increasing number ofgraduating students and employee tal-ent venturing into the start-up world.They are armed with the zeal and ded-ication to find solutions and enhancecustomer or user experience throughinnovations, appropriate methodsand experiments.

The present generation of mil-lennials are innovative, creative, strongthinkers, quick learners, risk-takersand forward looking. They prefer flex-ibility and do not want to be confinedto the corporate world. A start-up cul-ture fits well into their lifestyle andpreferences. Even employees with anentrepreneurial mindset working forcorporates or large companies areweighing options between building acareer working for other businesses orstarting a business of their own.

The environment tends to recog-nise their creativity, contributionsand innovations and encourages themto excel. The culture provides enoughroom for growth, experimentationimprovement and opportunities toexhibit their skills. An individualworking for a startup gains significantrecognition for their contributionand performance.

However, establishing, runningand sustaining a business or a start-up requires a lot of effort, patience andinvestment. It requires the prospectiveentrepreneur to be equipped with theright skillsets and ethics to survive inthe competitive, fast-paced commer-cial world.

Under Graduate students withpotential entrepreneurial qualitiesneed to be introduced to requiredskillsets and culture through theory,practical and on-the-job training.

All leading educational institutionin the world are focusing on devel-oping entrepreneurial skillsets in stu-dents. They develop a spirit of co-operation and unity amongst studentscoming from different school of

thoughts, thus emphasizing on theimportance of teamwork.

These universities go the extramile to embed the abilities into thestudents and prepare them to build anentrepreneurial mindset. They fosterleadership values and help studentsexcel in their area of expertise.

Before launching a startup, anindividual should be well aware of thefunding and investment requirementsand the avenues to source them. Theindividual should look for a businessmodel which should be self sustain-able in medium to long-term. To givean appropriate direction to the start-up business, an individual should alsopartner with suitable consultants andcounsellors.

Graduating with entrepreneurshipas a Major provides insights on therequired investments in finances andtalent. There are universities thatoffer entrepreneurial majors and spe-cialized courses which have becomea lucrative option especially for stu-dents interested in starting an entre-preneurial venture or diversifyingthe family business. These universitiesalso act as incubators that promote

networking, dialogue and partner-ships among like-minded individualswith business acumen.

Entrepreneurship training doesnot only focus on launching, sustain-ing and managing the business, prod-uct or innovation but also emphasizeson the finance, marketing and man-aging aspects, thus providing com-prehensive knowledge to establish and

grow the startup business. Some start-ups do not have a sep-

arate finance or HR department, as aresult of which they handover theseresponsibilities to the existing mem-bers of the start-ups. As employees instart-ups work in cross-functionaldepartments such courses increasetheir capability of handling a start-up.

According to research, employers

are increasingly seeking students withan entrepreneurial mindset or expe-rience as they are accountable for theirown actions. Employers feel that suchcandidates have a good understand-ing of end to end planning and exe-cution.

Working in a start-up can changeperceptions and working style. Theindividual is on their own and feelsmore proactive and engaged throughthe entire process. Their ideas are wel-comed by teams and contributions arewell-recognised.

However, working in a start-upmay also mean minimal salary, small-er teams, extended work timings, deal-ing with ambiguity and uncertainty.In such situations, it is important forindividuals to remain focused abouttheir end objective.

Formal entrepreneurial educa-tion at undergraduate level preparesthe individual well to overcome chal-lenges and develop skills to workaround limitations, emerge fromunforeseen circumstances and pros-per in the startup and business envi-ronment.

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In August 2018, the floods in Kerala caused extensive dev-astation and a large number of people lost their lives and

thousands were rendered homeless. To provide relief to theaffected flood victims in State and support them in timeof crisis, The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India(ICAI) took the initiative and appealed to its members andemployees to contribute generously towards Kerala relieffund. ICAI, as a partner to the nation since last 70 yearsand considering it as a part of its societal responsibility, con-tributed �70 lakh for the flood victims.

Naveen ND Gupta, Chartered Accountant & president,ICAI today handed over a cheque of �70 lakh to Minister ofFinance and Corporate Affairs, Arun Jaitley in the presenceof Minister of Railways and Coal, Piyush Goyal as a contri-bution of ICAI to the Prime Minister National Relief Fund.

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With an aim to bring the latestinnovation— project Toggle

pH at the upcoming InternationalGenetically Engineered Machine(iGEM) to be held at MIT, Boston,a team from Vellore Institute ofTechnology (VIT), brings a solutionto the global issue of OceanAcidification. This environmentaldisaster is gradually decreasing thepH of oceans making them acidic.

The iGEM is an annual eventand a competition on syntheticBiology and its inter-disciplinaryfields. It is a platform where vari-ous teams from all over the worldshowcase their projects, learn fromeach other and also show their con-tribution to the scientific commu-nity and the general society.

The team — iGEM VIT —hasbeen working on this issue frompast six-month. The Department of

Biotechnology, Government ofIndia, selects five best teams withthe most deserving projects acrossIndia in a competition calledIndian Biological EngineeringCompetition (iBEC) and gives agrant of �10 lakh per team forthem to participate in iGEM.

For the very first time, ateam from VIT, Vellore, baggeda place in the iBEC list of spon-sored teams and won 10 lakhs tocarry forward their project suc-cessfully. The iGEM VIT team,along with their primary investi-gator, Dr R Siva, professor and head,Department of Biotechnology atVIT, is working on developing agenetically engineered bacteriumthat can stabilise pH of the ocean.Once these modified bacteria areintroduced into the ocean waters,it can neutralise this growing acid-ity and hence, reduce the oceans’acidic nature and bring it back to

its normal state. This synthetically modified

bacterium has the ability to absorbthe acid causative agent which isfree hydrogen ions and also the car-bon dioxide present in the water.Theoretically, when these bacteriaare let into the ocean waters, it canstabilise the local pH and hence hasthe capacity to normalise the pHwhen done on a large scale.

The project can be used as animmediate, efficient, and eco-nomical way to provide a holisticand on-site solution to what is con-sidered one of the major environ-mental problems of the modernday. Apart from the lab work, theteam has taken the initiative tospeak to local and internationalexperts in the field and attendedconferences to understand theproblem in-depth. They have alsotaken the initiative to spreadawareness.

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Applications are invitedfor MMMF grants availablefor women applicants ofdeveloping countries to pur-sue their degree in the US andCanada. Indian students canapply.

Eligibility: Be at least 25years old at time of applica-tion deadline (see specificregional programme applica-tion below); Be enrolled (notjust accepted) at an accreditedacademic institution whensubmitting application; andplan to be enrolled for a fullacademic term after award ofthe grant by the Board; Notbe related to a World BankGroup, InternationalMonetary Fund or Inter-American Development Bankstaff member or spouse.English language require-ment: Applicants whose firstlanguage is not English areusually required to provideevidence of proficiency inEnglish at the higher levelrequired by the university.

How to apply: The modeis online. Please scan the fol-lowing documents in digitalform (pdf preferred, jpeg orpng): ID card with photo:Passport page with photo anddate of birth;Government/university-issued identity card withphoto and birth date; Mostrecent proof of official regis-tration from university (not

theiracceptance letter);

Most recent official univer-sity transcripts and/orreports; Visa page or studypermit page within currentpassport (if studying outsidehome country); Second pass-port page with clear photo (incase of dual citizenship). Youwill be asked to upload thesedocuments. You will also pro-vide: Brief paragraphs of yourpersonal story; An estimate ofyour financial situation; Asummary of your thesis (ifapplicable). Two reference let-ters are required.

Application deadline:January 15, 2019

The IIASA offers youngscientists summer pro-gramme to talented youngresearchers whose interestscorrespond with IIASA’songoing research on issues ofglobal environmental, eco-nomic and social change.

Eligibility: Research expe-rience of about 2 years priorto receiving a PhD or equiva-lent degree. A summerresearch proposal that clearlyfits the interdisciplinaryresearch agenda of a selectedIIASA programme; Ability towork independently; Fluencyin English. Candidatesalready holding a PhD degreeby application deadline areasked to consider applying toIIASA’s postdoc program.

How to apply:Applications should be sub-mitted online.

Application deadline:January 11, 2019

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QUERY: My name isMoksh Dhawan. My date ofbirth is June 18, 1999. I aminclined to pursue career inmass media. Is this optionsuitable for me or is there anyother best options in which Ican make a successful career?

BHATT:You are a Geminiand your element is Air.

As per astrolog-ical analysis youwill have manyoptions and willchange careermany times.However yourzeal to perform

better will take you to thedesired goal.

Mercury is your rulingplanet that shows you haterepetitive work. You are notable to stay in one place for longtime hence will change job fre-quently in the beginning untilyou reach your goal.

You are intelligent andinquisitive and will remainpositive in every situation. Youhave ideas and hence can col-lect and process informationvery fast and take the decision.

You are unyielding in yourdetermination. You have greatpower of endurance both phys-ical and mental. You can passthrough enormous strains offatigue, hence the mass mediacourse is apt for you. Here area few positions at which youcan work

Reporter: You have nosefor news. Hence you are aborn journalist and will want toget to the bottom of any storyand will make a successfulcareer in this field. It’s a perfectprofession for you.

N e w sp r e s e n t e r :Gemini aretalkative, livelyand entertaining,and have a gift for the art ofconversation. They are com-fortable in every social situationand are never at a loss forwords. This makes them per-fect for the realm of broad-casting, and in particular radioand television talk shows.Hence by following your inter-est you can get remarkableresults in career.

Translator: You have a sil-ver tongue and are very artic-ulate, you have natural talent oftranslation in an artistic way.You can work quickly andthink fast which is very essen-tial for pursuing career in thisfield.

You star shows you shouldknow at least two or more lan-guages. You may get the chanceto settle in foreign country withthis talent.

Public Relations: You cando well as a public relationmanager as you are verymanipulative and good atspeaking and convincing oth-ers. Making career in PR, brandpromotion and or an ad agencyis perfect for you.

Writer: Gemini get caughtup in the world of ideas andstorytelling. You have an ear forconversation and can translatethis into work. Hence, you canbecome a wonderful writerand can engage the reader witha compelling voice.

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Careers in the IT sector stillentails the four buildingblocks of a digital organisa-

tion — applications, infrastructure,database and security. The IT con-tinues to transform the way we liveour lives, entertain ourselves and dobusiness. It is a broad term thatencompasses everything computer-related, and more synonymously,everything technology-related, isstill the fastest growing career field.To support and implement thedevelopment of digitalisation acrossindustries, network technicians,administrators and security expertsplay a crucial role.

How to choose the right ITpath: One must be very carefulwhen choosing an IT certificationbecause many courses are vendor-specific and have their limitationswhen an employee needs to changejobs and discovers a different sys-tem at work.

The basics: It is always wise tochoose a career that hones yourmost natural skills. Next, the mostbasic certification one needs to beuseful to any employer is a generalability to fix and install and trou-bleshoot computer systems. Thiswill help a prospective job-searcherget a foot in the door. TheCompTIA IT Fundamentals+exposes the candidate to the abovementioned blocks and impartsknowledge on each of these disci-plines, thereby setting a platformfrom where the candidate canchoose their respective areas ofinterests. The course then builds onthat credential and covers ITInfrastructure in details. This pro-gram goes in depth to explain theconcepts of devices, how the con-nected world looks like, practicaltrouble shooting, all varieties ofoperating systems, peripherals andinformation security. These twoprogrammes are currently the mostindustry relevant and comprehen-sive assessments in this direction.

IT security path: One of themost sought after skills in today'sera of massive data availability andease of access to unsecured systemsis the implementation of securityprotocols. But there are many levels

of IT security professionals. Tobecome a cyber security analyst, forexample, one needs to be able toperform data analysis, interpret theresults and identify vulnerabilities,threats and risks to an organisation.The Security+ course meticulouslyvalidates these skills for a first levelsecurity professional.

IT administrators: Similarly,novice system administrators needto be able to implement vendor-neutral servers and open operatingsystems like Linux. They also needto be able to versatile enough topre-empt shifts to virtual serversincluding cloud systems. Cloud+,Linux+ and Server+ are great placesto start and cover each aspect of ITadministration at working-knowl-edge depth. Business users and non-IT staffs that need to get familiarwith aspects of managing a projectfor an organisational purpose mayalso opt for vendor-neutral certifi-cations like Project+ or CloudEssentials.

The IT career extends to variousdomains. To sustain oneself throughchanging times and technologies,one needs to constantly upgrade rel-evant skills through an intelligentchoice of certifications to cover thebroadest ground.

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These last few weeks, thevalue of rupee against dollarhas shown fluctuation. At

present, the value of rupee, whichwas at �65 for a dollar just a yearago, has dropped to �72 for a dol-lar, significantly impacting thelives and businesses of Indiansconnected to the US. A consider-able impact of this steep declinehas been felt by students aspiringto study overseas especially in theUS. The declining rupee hascaused overseas education costs toskyrocket and students who weresupposed to pay their fees for thefall semester in September-October are bearing the brunt.With the cost of Rupee expected tofall further, experts have opinedthat student travel of India will godown by 20 per cent in the wakeof this decline.

Students who had applied totheir preferred universities in theMarch-April cycle will be requiredto pay their tuition fees around thistime for the autumn intake.According to overseas educationexperts, the decline in rupee willcost anywhere between �4 lakh-�6lakh for studying abroad. Studentsplanning to study abroad already

spend a huge sum of money onIELTS and similar exams, visaapplication, cost of living and uni-versity tuition fees.

The cost can lie anywherebetween $15,000-$30,000, depend-ing on the university and country.This hefty sum, increased furtherdue to the weak rupee, will resultin numerous students having togive up on their dream of study-ing abroad.

According to research, almost50 per cent families take educationloans in order to send studentsabroad for further studies.However, with the devaluation ofRupee, this amount will increaseapproximately by �10 Lakh, mak-ing it next to impossible for fam-ilies to cover costs even aftersecuring hefty loans.

The cost plays an importantfactor and definitively rupee depre-ciation will make students thinktwice while a study abroad desti-nation. However, there are otherfactors also which helps in decid-ing destination which arefavourable policies for interna-tional students across countries.

On the other hand, destina-tions like Australia and Japan pre-

sent themselves as attractiveoptions for student willing to gooverseas for studies without break-ing their banks. These countriesare offering a wholesome andholistic alternative to the US as anacademic destination for thosewho are planning their overseaseducation.

Students who are trulyinclined to study overseas can optfor other alternatives to fund theireducation. Students can securepart-time jobs while studying inorder to pay for their living expens-es. A part of their tuition fees canstill be covered by educationalloans that they are required torepay only when they land a jobpost their course.

Students who have excellentgrades can also secure scholarshipsin order to significantly cut downtheir tuition fees. Students plan-ning to get a Masters can opt forcountries like Germany whichoffer free of cost Masters. If the stu-dents keep a track of their budgetand lifestyle while studying abroad,they can save a significant amountof money.

There are a lot of ways to savemoney and cover costs if a student

has a burning desire to studyabroad. It all boils down to thepolicies of a country with regardsto foreign students. Certain coun-tries are very accommodating ofstudents and offer several schol-arships and campus job options inorder to help students fulfill theirdreams. Identifying such accom-modating universities and coun-tries is currently the key to suc-cessfully studying and eventuallygetting placed overseas.

The parents and studentsshould do a thorough research ofthe economic factors and rela-tionship between both the coun-tries while planning for studyabroad. Factors like currencydepreciation, political relation-ships, working opportunitiesshould be among the priority of thestudents while planning, studyingabroad is all about the experience,so keeping that in mind prior care-ful planning is a must. For bestadvise, one must visit a consultantwho has vast experience in theimmigration industry and betterunderstanding of the immigrationpolicies.

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Pakistan recovered from 57-5 topost 282 and take two cheapAustralia wickets on a com-

pelling first day of the second crick-et test on Tuesday.

Nathan Lyon took four wickets insix deliveries to embarrass Pakistanin the morning, but newcomerFakhar Zaman and captain SarfrazAhmed led the rescue with identicalscores of 94 runs each before bothwere dismissed by part-time legspin-ner Marnus Labuschagne.

Seamer Mohammad Abbas thenput Pakistan on top at the end of theday by dismissing Usman Khawajafor 3 and nightwatchman Peter Siddlefor 4 on the last ball of the day toleave Australia 20-2 in reply. Aaron

Finch was 13 not out.Australia rallied to draw a

thrilling first test in Dubai by battingout the last day and surviving withtwo wickets left.

The visitors started this test inequal fashion with a stunning 11-minute period by offspinner Lyon.

He took a return catch to removeAzhar Ali on 15 and then dismissedHaris Sohail, Asad Shafiq, and BabarAzam all without scoring.

Pakistan was in a reasonableposition at 57-1 after winning thetoss, but the Australia spinners werethreatening.

Then the threat became reality.Lyon took the wickets of Ali andSohail on consecutive balls to end hisfourth over, the 20th of the innings.

Shafiq blocked the hat-trick ball,

the first ball of the 22nd over, but gota faint inside edge to Lyon's subse-quent delivery and was caught at bat-pad by Labuschagne after a success-ful decision review by theAustralians.

Lyon struck again two balls laterfor figures of 4.4-4-4-4. In theprocess, Lyon surpassed formerpaceman Mitchell Johnson to moveto fourth on Australia's list of all-timeleading wicket-takers with 314. Attea, he had 4-58.

Pakistan's perilous position couldhave been worse. Zaman survivedbeing dropped on 30 by Labuschagneoff an irked Jon Holland, and later aclose run out.

Labuschagne earlier brought offa sensational catch close to the wick-et to dismiss opener Mohammad

Hafeez for 4 in Mitchell Starc's sec-ond over, before Zaman and Alishared a half-century stand for thesecond wicket.

After crashing to 57-5 in the firstsession, Pakistan outsmartedAustralia in the second sessionthrough Zaman and Ahmed as theyscored 127 runs.

Zaman scored nearly three quar-ters of his runs on the offside, hittingeight fours and a six in his 198-ballknock.

He was six runs from a centuryon debut when Labuschagne, notgiven a bowl until just before tea,trapped Zaman leg before wicket onthe stroke of tea. It ended a remark-able 147-run, sixth-wicket stand last-ing 37 overs.

Ahmed was, by far, more aggres-

sive, and kept the scoreboard mov-ing with constant rotation of thestrike before his 129-ball knock wasended in which he hit seven bound-aries. He tried an ambitious big hitto raise his hundred but sliced a catchto Siddle and missed out on his firstcentury in four years.

No. 9 batsman Yasir Shah liftedthe total with a breezy 28 beforePakistan was all out.

Pakistan made two changes to thelineup that started in Dubai, givingZaman and left-arm seamer MirHamza test debuts as replacementsfor Imam-ul-Haq and Wahab Riaz.

Hamza bowled one over late inthe day, but Abbas got both strikes,getting Khawaja caught behind downthe leg side for his 50th test wicket,and trapping Siddle.

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Paceman Umesh Yadav wason Tuesday rewarded for

his maiden 10-wicket haul inTest cricket with a recall in theODI squad as a replacement forinjured Shardul Thakur.

The selectors hadannounced the squad for thefirst two matches but Thakur hasbeen ruled out of the five-ODIseries after sustaining a rightadductor tendon injury.

His much-awaited Testdebut ended in a nightmare inHyderabad as he bowled only 10deliveries before hobbling outwith a groin strain.

There has been considerabledebate as to whether Thakur wasfully fit and proper rehabilitationwas done before naming him inthe Test squad.

Umesh got the nod from theselection committee after hissuperb show in Hyderabadwhere he got 6 for 88 and 4 for45 in the two innings.

He has so far picked 105wickets from 73 ODIs with hislast appearance in July againstEngland at the Lord's.

������H���Virat Kohli (Captain), Rohit

Sharma (vice-captain),Shikhar Dhawan, KL Rahul,Ambati Rayudu, ManishPandey, MS Dhoni (wicket-keeper), Rishabh Pant,Ravindra Jadeja, YuzvendraChahal, Kuldeep Yadav,Mohammed Shami, KhaleelAhmed, Umesh Yadav.

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Astar-studded batting line-up, headlined bytroika of Rohit Sharma, Ajinkya Rahane and

rising sensation Prithvi Shaw, make Mumbairunaway favourites against Hyderabad in thefirst Vijay Hazare semi-final, here Wednesday.

With the inclusion of Prithvi and Rahane,who joined the squad after completing their Testmatch duty in Hyderabad along with presenceof Rohit and Shreyas Iyer, the Mumbai battingdoes have a menacing look to it.

Ambati Rayudu and young pacerMohammed Siraj do add muscle to theHyderabad side, which has been impressive inthe national One Day Championship so far.

With Prithvi set to open with India's lim-ited overs vice-captain Rohit, left-handedopener Akhil Herwadkar is expected to bebenched.

Rahane will come in place of eitherSiddhesh Lad or Suryakumar Yadav.

The Indian ODI squad members are set to

report in Guwahati on October 18 and ifMumbai happen to win the semi-final, Rohitwill miss the summit clash on October 20.

For Mumbai, the three top run-getters inthe tournament so far have been Shreyas (311runs), Prithvi (287) and Yadav (237 runs).Rahane is fourth in the list with 230 runs.

The Mumbai bowlers have also been con-sistent with seamer Dhawal Kulkarni (14wickets) and left-arm spinner Shams Mulani(15 wickets) sharing the bulk of the wickets.

Medium pacer Tushar Deshpande, whograbbed five against Bihar in the quarter-finalalso is in good form.

F o rHyderabad, theirpremier performerhas been BP

Sandeep (342) and Tanmay Agarwal (292 runs).The bowling will depend on Siraj (8 wick-

ets from 6 games) and Mehidy Hasan (13 wick-ets from 8 games).

�H����Mumbai: Ajinkya Rahane(c), Rohit

Sharma, Shreyas Iyer, Prithvi Shaw, Jay GokulBista, Suryakumar Yadav, Siddhesh Lad, AdityaTare, Eknath Kerkar, Shivam Dubey, AkashParkar, Dhawal Kulkarni, Shams Mulani, VijayGohil, Tushar Deshpande, Royston Dias

Jharkhand: Varun Aaron(c), Anand Singh,Ashish Kumar, Kumar Deobrat, Ishan Kishan,Jaskaran Singh, Monu Kumar, ShahbazNadeem, Shasheem Sanjay Rathour, AnukulRoy, Rahul Shukla, Sumit Kumar, Atul SinghSurwar, Saurabh Tiwary, Utkarsh Singh, ViratSingh.

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Sri Lanka's middle order batsmanKusal Perera will skip the three

remaining one-day matches againstEngland, while visiting all-rounder LiamDawson has been ruled out of the entiretournament, officials said.

Perera, who scored 30 in Saturday'ssecond ODI, suffered a hamstring injuryand will be replaced by SadeeraSamarawickrama for the rest of thefive-match series, Sri Lanka Cricketofficials said.

Dawson strained his right side whilebowling duringE n g l a n d ' sSaturday win,the England andWales CricketBoard (ECB)said on Monday.

The toporder batsmanand leg spinnerhas been ruledout of the rest ofthe tour andwas due to return home Tuesday.

He has been replaced by Joe Denly,who is in England's Test squad.

The third one-day international isdue to take place in Kandy onWednesday.

The first ODI was washed out. Apartfrom the five-match ODI series, Englandwill play three Tests and a one-off T20in Sri Lanka with the tour due to end onNovember 27.

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South African batsman JeanPaul Duminy has been

ruled out of South Africa'sl imited overs tour ofAustralia, starting later thismonth, because of a shoulderinjury which he sustainedduring Zimbabwe series.

He is the second experi-enced batsman to miss thetour because of injur y.Hashim Amla is out because

of a finger injury.Cricket South Africa

announced in a statement onTuesday that Duminy willundergo surgery on his rightshoulder after aggravatingan old injury during a seriesagainst Zimbabwe whichended last weekend.

Duminy will also missthe Mzansi Super League,which starts on November15. He had been named as amarquee player for the Cape

Town Blitz team.Team manager and doc-

tor Mohammed Moosajeesaid it was not possible at thisstage to estimate how longDuminy would be out ofaction.

"That is dependent on theresults from the surgery," hesaid.

South Africa will playthree limited overs interna-tionals and one Twenty20international in Australia.

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West Indies coach Stuart Law was on Tuesday suspended fromthe first two ODIs against India for making "inappropriate

comments" against a match official, adding to the Caribbean team'swoes after a disastrous Test outing here.

Law was also fined 100 per cent of his match, the ICC saidin a statement.

With the latest transgression, Law accumulated four demer-it points within a 24-month period, leading to his suspension fromthe ODIs on October 21 and 24 against India in Guwahati andVisakhapatnam, respectively.

The incident that led to the action took place on the thirdand what turned out to bethe final day of the secondTest in Hyderabad.

Law, following the dis-missal of opener KieranPowell, went to the TVumpire's room and madeinappropriate comments,the ICC stated.

"He then walked to thefourth umpire's area and, inthe presence of the players,again directed inappropri-ate comments at the fourthofficial."

Law was found guiltyof breaching Level 2 Article2.7 of the ICC Code ofConduct.

This relates to "publiccriticism" or "inappropriatecomment" of player, play-er support personnel, matchofficial or team participating in any international match.

Law earlier received a 25 % fine and one demerit point dur-ing the final day's play in the Dominica Test against Pakistan in2017.

Four demerit points convert into two suspension points. OnMonday, Law admitted the offence and accepted the sanction pro-posed by match referee Chris Broad, ruling out the need for aformal hearing.

The charges were levelled by on-field umpires BruceOxenford and Ian Gould, third umpire Nigel Llong and fourthofficial Nitin Menon.

Two suspension points equate to a ban from one Test or twoODIs or two T20Is, whatever comes first for the player or play-er support personnel.

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Romania's world number one Simona Halepon Tuesday withdrew from the Kremlin

Cup, a joint WTA and ATP event, due to con-cerns over an ongoing back injury.

"I tried everything I could to be ready hereas I really wanted to play," Halep said. "Butunfortunately the back is still causing me painand I don't want to take any unnecessary risks."

The 27-year-old's appearance in Moscowand the WTA Finals had been in doubt whenshe withdrew from Beijing two weeks ago andwas diagnosed with a herniated disk in her back.

Halep, who has already qualified for theWTA year-ending finals in Singapore, said sheneeded more time to recover completely fromher back injury.

"While it's disappointing to withdraw, Iknow it's important to put my health first," she

added.Halep this year played two Grand Slam

finals, winning the French Open crown atRoland Garros, and won titles in Shenzhen andMontreal, leading the rankings for 40 weeks thisyear.

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India A women will look for animproved show when they

take on their Australian coun-terparts in a must-win gamehere on Wednesday in a 50-overs match.

Australia A are 1-0 up in thethree match series courtesy their91-run win on Monday at theMCA Bandra-Kurla facilityagainst the hosts, led by skipperPoonam Raut.

Come Wednesday, theIndian eves will be eyeing to putup a better batting and bowlingshow.

Poonam, who departed fora duck, will be hoping to getsome runs under her belt. Eventhe likes of Mona Meshram,Rajeshwari Gayakwad andShikha Pandey need to fire.

The positive for the homeside in the opening game was theall-round show by Preeti Bose.

Even the bowlers, who werehammered by the Aussie batters,will be looking to perform bet-ter.

On the other hand, the vis-itors will look to notch upanother win and seal the series.

The 50-over series will befollowed by a T20 series.

India A: Punam Raut (c),Priya Punia, Devika Vaidya,Mona Meshram, TanushreeSarkar, Sushma Verma,Rajeshwari Gayakwad, SushreeD, C Prathyusha, ReemalaxmiEkka, Shikha Pandey, Nethra L,Hemali Borwankar, Kavita Patil,Preeti Bose.

Australia A: SamanthaBates, Maitlan Brown, LaurenCheatle, Piepa Cleary, JosephineDooley, Heather Graham,Sammy Jo Johnson, TahliaMcGrath, Chloe Piparo, GeorgiaRedmayne, Naomi Stalenberg,Molly Strano , Belinda Vakarewaand Amanda-Jade Wellington.

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Saina Nehwal rallied tocarve out a hard-fought

opening win but PV Sindhucrashed out of theDenmark Open with astunning loss to AmericanBeiwen Zhang in thewomen's singles event, hereon Tuesday.

Saina defeated HongKong's Ngan Yi Cheung20-22, 21-17, 24-22 in adraining clash that lasted 81minutes.

However, third seedSindhu lost 17-21, 21-16,18-21 to Zhang in anothertough opening encounterthat lasted 56 minutes.

In a tense match, Sainahad to endure a stiff chal-lenge from Cheyung, who

she last played back in 2016and went on to lose thatmatch.

The see-saw battle wasa thriller down to the lastpoint with the Indian sav-ing two match points at 21-

20 and 22-21 in the finalgame to emerge triumphantand move ahead.

Saina was also guilty offrittering away a matchpoint of her own when sheled 20-19 in the final game.

For Sindhu, this wasthe third consecutive timethat she lost to Zhang. TheAmerican shuttler defeatedSindhu in the Indian Openfinal in February earlierthis year.

Rio Olympics Silver-medallist Sindhu is goingthrough a difficult phaseafter winning the Silvermedal in the Jakarta AsianGames.

She was knocked out inthe second round of theJapan Open after a straight-game loss to Gao Fangjie.

The script played outsimilarly in the ChinaOpen, where the 23-year-old suffered a 11-21, 21-11,15-21 loss to world no 6Chen Yufei of China in thequarterfinals.

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Raheem Sterling scored twice asEngland delivered one of their finestvictories of the modern era by beat-

ing Spain 3-2 in Seville.Away from home, and against a Spanish

side in scintillating form under their newcoach Luis Enrique, this was certainlyEngland's best win under Gareth Southgateand, perhaps, their most impressive sincethrashing Germany 5-1 in Munich in2001.

Marcus Rashford was the other scorerin a breathless opening 45 minutes, whichwitnessed Spain conceding three on homesoil for the first time in their history.

"To play the way they did, this shouldbe a great reference point for this team forthe future," Southgate said.

Paco Alcacer, on as a substitute, head-ed in before the hour to spark hopes of acomeback but England were home and dryby the time Sergio Ramos scored in the 98thminute, with the last action of the match onMonday.

It means England keep alive theirhopes of finishing top of Group 4 in theUEFA Nations League, the position Spainhad needed only a point to all-but-guaranteewould be theirs.

It was a night for streaks ending andrecords tumbling. Sterling's opening goalwas his first in 1,102 days for England, evenmore remarkable given he added his sec-ond 22 minutes later.

"The only thing we did say is when hescores he will score again," Southgate said."He managed to do so pretty quickly." Thelast time England won away against Spainwas 1987 -- which was also when they lastscored against Spain away from home, GaryLineker on target.

With an average age of just over 23, this

was also the youngest England starting line-up in the 21st century. That will be the mostexciting aspect for Southgate.

For Spain, Alcacer now has an aston-ishing 10 goals from his last 10 shots on tar-get. But defeat represents something of areality check. "Waving the flag for goals,"read Marca's front page on Monday. They

had scored 12 in three games since LuisEnrique took charge.

"Clearly it wasn't our night," he said."We have made mistakes on an indi-

vidual level and their goals were medicinefor them and poison for us." But Eric Dierset the tone early on. He left SergioBusquets, sluggish throughout, hopping out

of his first pass and then slid throughRamos, who was also out of sorts.

After a frantic start, England settled andin the 13th minute, scored. Under pressureat the back, they kept the ball until the riskwas too great and Jordan Pickford drove for-ward to Harry Kane.

With Spain caught upfield, he was able

to turn and find Rashford, whose quickswitch set Sterling free. He finished into thetop corner.

"We are staying up," sang the away sup-port as Thiago Alcantara danced aroundEngland's midfield with flicks and tricks.But to little effect.

Instead, Kane showed the value of a top-class centre forward for England's second.He outmuscled Ramos to win Pickford'spunt downfield, outpaced Nacho to theloose ball with a superb reverse pass inbehind. Rashford only had to finish.

Spain's early confidence was gone andEngland added a third before the interval,which was greeted by whistles from thehome fans.

Ross Barkley's sumptuous ball over thetop caught Ramos napping again andKane squared for Sterling to tap in. "Are youScotland in disguise?" came the taunt fromthe corner.

Spain were sent out early for the sec-ond period, among them Alcacer, whoreplaced Saul. He scored with his first touch,heading in Marco Asensio's corner, givenaway after a fumble by Pickford.

It was a nightmare few minutes forEngland's goalkeeper, who then dallied andwas tackled by Rodrigo.

Pickford scrambled the ball away butprobably fouled Rodrigo in the process andSpain were adamant they deserved a penal-ty. The referee was not convinced.

England played for time, with a hand-ful of players going down injured, andSpain's pressure gradually eased. Rodrigoshot wide in the final 10 minutes. Asensiowent even closer.

Marcos Alonso then deflected onto thebar deep into injury time and Ramos head-ed home in the 98th minute. But there wasnot even time for a restart. England's winwas complete.

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Back in action after a fortnightbreak, Delhi Dynamos would look

to put pressure on a struggling ATKand get their first win of the seasonwhen the two teams clash in theirIndian Super League (ISL) match,here on Wednesday.

The hosts, who are coming intothis game after playing a 1-1 drawagainst FC Pune City, are likely to playstriker Daniel Lahlimpuia, who wasinjured but midfielder Bikramjit Singhstill remains a doubtful starter due toa calf injury he sustained againstPune.

Dynamos head into the game fol-lowing a two-week break due to inter-national fixtures but defender RanaGharami believes that a long gap hasallowed his team to prepare well forthis game.

"We had a long break and that hasgiven us a lot of time to figure thisATK team out. They have a strongteam with really good foreign playersso its going to be hard for us defend-ers, but we are confident heading intothis game," he said.

"We were really close to winningthe last match but that ended as a drawand it was a big disappointment for us.

This is a must-win encounter forboth the sides, so we really need to giveour best," Rana added.

In the last fixture, Dynamos cre-ated a lot of chances but failed to hitthe target on most occasions but thatisn't bothering Head Coach JosepGombau as he believes the side isworking according to the plan.

"Last game we had a lot of chancesand we missed. To win games you needto take these chances and we are work-ing on that. Good thing is that we cre-ated chances. That's the difficult thingin football."

The visitors boast a strong squadand Gombau is wary of the threat theypossess in terms of attack.

"ATK have a very good game. Theyhave many good players in the side.Wednesday will be a difficult game forus."

The game meanwhile will markthe return of Dynamos' all-time topscorer Kalu Uche as he returns to thestadium where he was so prolific lastseason, for the first time.

Former Dynamos defender SenaRalte though will miss the clash as hewill be serving his suspension.

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Real Madrid's Croatian inter-national midfielder Luka

Modric admits that neitherhe nor his team-matesexpected both ZinedineZidane and CristianoRonaldo to leave the clublast summer.

Zidane stepped downas coach after leading theclub to three consecutiveChampions League titles,while Ronaldo ended hisnine-year association withMadrid when he joinedJuventus in July.

"I wasn't expectingeither of the two to go; Ididn't think Zidane wouldleave and the same withRonaldo," said Modric in aninterview with the latest edi-tion of the magazine 'FranceFootball.'

"In fact when the rumorsabout Cristiano appeared, we(Real Madrid players) hadbets among ourselves and we

were certain he would stay, but every-one makes their own decisions," headded.

The 33-year-old, who is thefavourite to win the prestigious

'Balon d'Or' award for thisseason, was asked whichformer players he wouldmost likely to have linedup alongside. He said hisfirst choice was formerCroatian international

Zvonimir Boban; "he wasmy hero in the Croatian

team," he said, before nam-ing Zidane as his secondchoice.

"I was lucky to havehim as a coach and we have

lived some incredible momentswith him at Real Madrid, some-times he has played alongside usand it was incredible to see howelegant he was and how he movedover the pitch," said Modric.

The Croatian described him-self as "much more timid," than

Ronaldo and that he didn't "appre-ciate being over-exposed in the

media."I prefer simplicity," he said.

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Sprint king Usain Bolt could be making his wayto Europe after being offered a two-year profes-

sional football contract in Malta, reports said onTuesday, with the club saying it wanted to "write his-tory" with the signing.

Bolt, 32, has been on trial with A-League clubthe Central Coast Mariners since arriving inAustralia in August in his bid to pursue a boyhooddream of becoming a footballer after retiring fromathletics last year.

The 100 metres world record-holder scored hisfirst two goals in professional football on Friday whenhe started a pre-season game against second-tierMacarthur South West United in Sydney.

Malta club Valletta FC said they had made a for-mal offer which includes playing in its upcoming cupfinal, with chief executive Ghasston Slimen sayingthe move to snare Bolt was "about writing history".

"Usain Bolt broke the record in Beijing(Olympics) in 2008, and I have followed him for thelast year-and-a-half on his football journey," Slimentold the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

"We play the final of the Super Cup onDecember 13, which we will win... so can you imag-ine Usain Bolt lifting the Super Cup trophy 10 yearsafter he broke the record in Beijing?

"This isn't about money, this is about history. Thisis something that they will talk about in 50 or 100years' time."

Slimen admitted Bolt still had to improve hisfootballing skills, but said he was inspired by the for-mer sprinter's jubilant celebrations -- including thetrademark lightning bolt victory pose -- after thegoals.

"I don't want him to be here on holiday, I wanthim training hard," he said, adding that he wantedBolt to be lifting trophies during his stint atValletta.

"I don't want to make a big fuss, I want him tosign the contract, get on the flight, arrive in Maltaand train, because we need to prepare for the SuperCup."

The Australian agent who arranged Bolt's trialwith the Mariners declined to confirm or deny thereports.

The 32-year-old previously tried out with clubsin Germany, South Africa and Norway to no avail.

���� 17&��-8&37�

Tiger Woods is the only athlete in theworld who is bigger than the sport he

plays, Indian golf veteran Jeev Milkha Singhsaid Tuesday as he complemented theAmerican superstar, who once described himas a "great guy and a good friend".

Jeev, whose career took a hit because ofincessant injury breakdowns, praised theAmerican for winning his 80th PGA Tourtitle last month, which was his first in fiveyears.

The win made for a remarkable triumphover career-threatening injuries for the cel-ebrated 42-year-old, who endured quite a fewother setbacks in the last few years as well.

"I feel that he has got another three-fouryears during which he is going to win a fewtournaments," said the 47-year-old Jeev.

"For me, personally, Tiger is the only ath-lete in the world who is bigger than the sport.There have been legends in basketball, in ath-letics, but I think what Tiger has done for golf,he is bigger than the sport.

"The awareness he has brought for golf,I think nobody could have done that,"added Jeev.

In 2006, when Jeev was in peak form,Woods was effusive in his praise for theIndian for winning back-to-back titles inJapan. The American went on to say that helikes to track Jeev's progress and called hima "good friend".

Jeev was recently honoured by the TheProfessional Golf Tour of India (PGTI),which a tournament, the Take Open GolfChampionship, after him.

The Chandigarh leg of the domesticPGTI Tour will be called the Jeev MilkhaSingh Invitational Presented by TakeSolutions.

The tournament will be played at theChandigarh Golf Club, Jeev's home club,from November 1 to 4 and will offer anenhanced prize purse of � 1.5 crore. That'san increase of � 50 lakh from last year's prizewhen Shubhankar Sharma won.

About the upcoming tournament, Jeevsaid, "I am sure it is going to be a grand suc-cess. Players love coming here to play, theyenjoy the hospitality here".

Jeev said he plans to do full justice to thetournament as a host but that would not stophim from trying to win the title.

Asked if there would be pressure on himplaying at his home course, he jokingly said,"As a host the pressure on me is going to bethat players are well taken care of ".

Chandigarh Golf Club President B S Gillsaid this tournament is going to be a game-changer for golf in India.

"What is happening in Chandigarhtoday is that there is a huge dynamic shift andplayers are wanting to come to the city toplay," Gill said.

���� .6�5/�&-36/�

India's Suraj Panwar clinched a Silverin men's 5000m race walk event in the

ongoing Youth Olympic Games toopen the country's medal account inathletics here.

Panwar won the stage 2 competi-tion by clocking 20 minutes and 35.87seconds on Monday night but finishedsecond overall.

In a new format, there are no finalsin track and field (with the exception of4km cross-country) in the YouthOlympics and each event is held twice,with results from both rounds countingtowards the final standings.

The 17-year-old Panwar had fin-ished second in the first stage in20.23.30s, behind Patin Oscar ofEcuador.

Oscar, who finished second inStage 2, won the Gold with timings of20:13.69s and 20:38.17s.

Panwar's total time of 40:59.17s wasover seven minutes slower than Oscar's40:51.86s. Puerto Rico's Jan Moreu fin-ished third to claim the Bronze.

This is India's first athletics medalin this edition and third overall. Arjun(men's discus throw) and DurgeshKumar (men's 400m hurdles) had wona Silver each in the inaugural edition in2010.

"It's a great feeling. I am veryhappy to have won a medal. I had putin a lot of hard work for the Games. Itis my first medal for India," Panwar saidafter winning the Silver medal.

"My next target is to better my per-formance here and win a medal in thesenior level also," he added.

)�����"���� �� �� �India's boxing challenge at the

ongoing Youth Olympics ended at the

very first hurdle after former worldchampion Jyoti Gulia (51kg) lost herquarterfinal bout to Italy's Martina LaPiana here.

Gulia was the lone Indian boxer toqualify for the Games owing to herworld title and lost in a unanimous 0-5 verdict to the Italian on Monday night.

The 17-year-old Indian fromHaryana was expected to do well at theevent given that she was coming off aGold medal winning performance at theSilesian Open in Gliwice, Poland lastmonth.

India's maiden and only set of

medals in the Youth Olympics' boxingcompetition came in the inauguraledition of 2010.

Shiva Thapa and Vikas Krishandelivered a Silver and a Bronze medalrespectively, which remain India's bestperformance. While Shiva won hisSilver in the 54kg category, Vikas fin-ished with a Bronze in the 60kg divi-sion.

In 2014, the best that India man-aged in boxing was Gaurav Solanki'sfourth-place finish. Solanki (52kg)won the Gold medal in this year'sCommonwealth Games.

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