ˇˆ ˙˝ ˛ ˚ ˝+ ( ( › uploads › 2019 › epaper › ... · mundra port is one of the...

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T he Border Security Force (BSF) and the Coast Guard have been put on high alert along the international borders in Gujarat after intelligence inputs revealed that Pakistan Navy-trained terrorists and commandos are suspected to have entered the Gulf of Kutch in small boats through Harami Nala creek area. External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said the Government had received information on infil- tration by terrorists from Pakistan. Kumar also asked Pakistan to act like a responsi- ble neighbour. “Pakistan should behave like a normal neighbour, do normal talk, normal trade...This is not something that is happening from Pakistan. We would like them to behave like normal neigh- bours, do not push terrorists in the neighbouring country,” Kumar told reporters at the weekly briefing. According to the inputs, the commandos and terrorists are suspected to be trained in underwater attacks and may be on the prowl to hit port infra- structure and other vital instal- lations in Kutch region of Gujarat. Following the inputs, all the shipping agents have been directed to inform their vessels at Kandla outer anchorage, inner anchorage and berths besides incoming vessels to alert and maintain anti-terror watch. The agents have been asked to report any suspicious activities immediately to the nearest Coast Guard station, marine police station and port control. Following the inputs, secu- rity has been beefed up at Kandla and Mundra ports and other key installations in Kutch district. The latest security move comes days after the Indian Navy warned of a possible ter- ror attack from the sea route. Last week, the Navy had said it was on high alert and was pre- pared to defeat and deter any sea-borne threat with full force. The Adani Group’s Mundra port is one of the largest in the country and last year topped the rankings by volumes, while the State-run Kandla port (now known as Deendayal Port Trust) is a large bulk handling facility. Both these ports are locat- ed in the Gulf of Kutch in the Arabian Sea, in close vicinity of Pakistan. The region also boasts of other vital installations like the world’s largest oil refinery at Jamnagar run by Reliance Industries and a similar facili- ty operated by Russian oil major Rosneft at Vadinar. After the abrogation of Article 370 by Parliament, Pakistan has sought to inter- nationalise the Kashmir issue and has gone on record justi- fying jehad and terror attacks in the Valley. The Pakistan Prime Minister and his Cabinet colleagues have been spewing venom against India in their bid to portray the situation in the region as alarmist. Pakistan has even issued nuclear threat. T aking strong exception to Prime Minister Imran Khan’s provocative statements on Jammu & Kashmir after the abrogation of J&K special sta- tus under Article 370, India on Thursday condemned “highly irresponsible” statements by the Pakistani leadership and said the neighbour is using ter- rorism as a State policy. This comes after Khan talked about a nuclear war between the two countries and announced to raise the Kashmir issue at every international forum, includ- ing the UN. Making New Delhi’s stand clear, External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said Pakistan has been using terrorism as state policy against India and it must stop export- ing terror. “We strongly con- demn highly irresponsible statements by Pakistani lead- ership on matters internal to India,” he said. “The provocative state- ments from Pakistan include call for jehad and inciting vio- lence in India,” Kumar said. The Pakistani Prime Minister has been consistently attacking India on its decisions on J&K in the last three weeks. Meanwhile, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh during a visit to Leh on Thursday said Pakistan should stop “crying” unnecessarily over India’s deci- sion to end special status of J&K and instead focus on dis- mantling terror infrastructure operating from its soil. He also said Islamabad does not have any locus standi on J&K and it must stop interfering in India’s internal affairs. In his first visit to this strategically key region after the Government’s decision on J&K, the Defence Minister said Pakistan should now focus on gross violations of human rights in Pakistan-Occupied- Kashmir (POK), including in Gilgit-Baltistan. In New Delhi, rejecting Pakistan’s contention on J&K, Kumar said a Pakistani Minister’s letter to the UN on J&K — which became contro- versial because it referred to comments by former Congress president Rahul Gandhi and Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar — was “not worth the paper it was written on”. “We condemn the irre- sponsible remarks and tweets by Pakistani leaders on matters internal to India,” said the Spokesperson referring to some Ministers making threats fol- lowing the Government’s deci- sion to end special status to J&K and split it into two Union Territories. Kumar said the statements included an apparent refer- ence to “Jehad within the ter- ritory of India to incite vio- lence”. Pakistan Railway Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed on Wednesday “predicted” war between the neighbours in “October or November”. “The main motive behind this is to form an alarming sit- uation for India which is far from ground realities. Pakistan needs to understand that they have been snubbed from all sides. The world has seen their provocative and unsubstanti- ated rhetoric based on lies and deceit,” he said. I n an unprecedented move, the Patna High Court issued an order withdrawing all cases from a sitting senior judge who turned whistleblower by ordering a CBI enquiry into corruption in lower judiciary while hearing a graft case against a former IAS officer. An 11-judge Bench of the High Court, headed by Chief Justice AP Shahi, also sus- pended Justice Rakesh Kumar’s order on the case on Thursday, saying the single judge Bench had no jurisdiction to pass such an order on a case that had been closed. According to an order issued by the Patna High Court Chief Justice, “all matters pend- ing before Justice Rakesh Kumar, sitting singly, including tied-up/part heard or other- wise, stand withdrawn with immediate effect”. “The registrar (list) will inform as to how and in what manner Cr. Misc. No. 4117 of 2018 that had been disposed of finally earlier was listed on Thursday at Sl. No. 1 under the heading ‘To be mentioned - Tied up’ before Justice Rakesh Kumar,” the order said. “The court concerned will submit his explanation to me as to under whose direction was the case listed in the cause list and as to whether any infor- mation was given to the regis- trar (list) or not,” it also said. Justice Kumar was appoint- ed in the HC in 2009 and is slated to retire in December 2020. He was a standing coun- sel for the CBI and has also acted as special public prose- cutors in the fodder scam cases. Justice Kumar, while hear- ing the bail application of for- mer IAS officer KP Ramiah, had questioned how he was granted bail by a lower court when the HC as well as the SC had rejected his request for pro- tection from arrest because of the gravity of the allegations. Continued on Page 4 W omen can ride DTC and cluster buses for free in Delhi from October 29 as the much-awaited “Free Ride Scheme” was approved by the the AAP Government Cabinet on Thursday. “Women commuters will be able to get free rides using ‘single-journey passes’ to be available with the bus conduc- tors. Those not willing to avail free ride may buy tickets,” Transport Minister Kailash Gahlot. Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal termed his cabinet’s approval to the scheme a “rev- olutionary step” towards “empowerment and safety of women”. However, women employ- ees of the city Government have to give up their transport allowance to avail the facility. According to a statement, women employees of the Delhi Government, local bodies and undertakings will not be enti- tled for transport allowance if they opt for free ride in DTC and cluster buses. “The departments, local bodies, autonomous bodies, etc, will take an undertaking from their women staff to the effect,” it said. Continued on Page 4 T he Delhi Government on Thursday launched a fel- lowship scheme to fund high- er eduation of 100 eligible SC/ST students overseas. Meritorious students who have secured admission to MPhil, PhD, LLM, MTech and other higher education cours- es in foreign universities will be eligible to apply under the scheme, Delhi’s SC/ST Minister Rajendra Pal Gautam said. Candidates applying for the fellowship should be a bonafide resident of Delhi and their annual family income should not exceed 8 lakh per annum. “Students who have secured admission to foreign universities can apply online to avail benefits under the scheme. The applications will be vetted by a committee head- ed by the Principal Secretary of the SC/ST department,” said the Minister, adding that a scholarship of 10 lakh will be provided for two-year course, while up to 20 lakh will be provided for four-year course. “Only one child for the same parents/guardians will be eli- gible and to this effect a self–certification will be required from the candidates... The scheme is proposed to be implemented from the finan- cial year 2019-20 and will cost 5 crore to the exchequer,” a Government statement said. Due to financial con- straints, studying abroad remains a dream for many tal- ented SC/ST students from low-income groups. This scheme will encourage such students to enrol in foreign universities, Gautam said. Continued on Page 4 I n an unprecedented plea, former Finance Minister P Chidambaram on Thursday offered in the Supreme Court to remain in CBI’s custody till September 2 in the INX Media corruption case. Chidambaram’s CBI cus- tody will end on Friday and will be produced before the con- cerned trial court on Friday. The offer was made after a Bench of Justices R Banumathi and AS Bopanna said it would hear on September 2 the plea of Chidambaram challenging the orders passed by the trial court remanding him in the CBI custody in the case. Continued on Page 4 I n a major boost to promot- ing afforestation and achiev- ing “green” objectives of the country, the Centre on Thursday handed over 47,436 crore of Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority (CAMPA) funds to various States. Campa was constituted by the Supreme Court in July 2009 to ensure proper utilisa- tion of funds received from project proponents for diver- sion of forest land for devel- opment activities like erection of dams, mining and con- struction of roads and indus- tries. The amount collected under Campa differs from area to area. The apex court creat- ed Campa as the afforestation funds could not be utilised properly. On Thursday, Odisha received the highest allocation (5,933.98 crore), followed by Chhattisgarh (5,791.70 crore) and Madhya Pradesh ( 5,196.69 crore). Kerala received the least amount of 81.59 crore. After a meeting with the State Forest Ministers and authorities here, Union Minister for Environment Prakash Javadekar said, “It is expected that all States will utilise this fund towards forestry activities to achieve the objectives of the Nationally- Determined Contributions of increasing its forest and tree cover, which will create an additional carbon sink equiv- alent to 2.5 to 3 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide by 2030.” While asserting the State budget for forests shall remain unaffected and the fund being transferred would be in addi- tion to State budget, the Minister reminded them the Campa funds are not meant for payment of salary, travelling allowances, etc. Javadekar said, “Important activities on which the fund will be utilised are: compensatory afforestation, catchment area treatment, wildlife management, assisted natural regeneration, forest fire prevention and control, soil and moisture conserva- tion works in the forest, improvement of wildlife habi- tat, management of biological diversity and biological resources, research in forestry and monitoring of Campa works, etc.” RNI Regn. No. CHHENG/2012/42718, Postal Reg. No. - RYP DN/34/2013-2015

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Page 1: ˇˆ ˙˝ ˛ ˚ ˝+ ( ( › uploads › 2019 › epaper › ... · Mundra port is one of the largest in the country and last year topped the rankings by volumes, while the State-run

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The Border Security Force(BSF) and the Coast Guard

have been put on high alertalong the international bordersin Gujarat after intelligenceinputs revealed that PakistanNavy-trained terrorists andcommandos are suspected tohave entered the Gulf of Kutchin small boats through HaramiNala creek area.

External Affairs MinistrySpokesperson Raveesh Kumarsaid the Government hadreceived information on infil-tration by terrorists fromPakistan. Kumar also askedPakistan to act like a responsi-ble neighbour.

“Pakistan should behavelike a normal neighbour, donormal talk, normaltrade...This is not somethingthat is happening fromPakistan. We would like themto behave like normal neigh-bours, do not push terrorists inthe neighbouring country,”Kumar told reporters at theweekly briefing.

According to the inputs,the commandos and terroristsare suspected to be trained inunderwater attacks and may beon the prowl to hit port infra-structure and other vital instal-lations in Kutch region ofGujarat.

Following the inputs, allthe shipping agents have beendirected to inform their vesselsat Kandla outer anchorage,inner anchorage and berthsbesides incoming vessels to

alert and maintain anti-terrorwatch. The agents have beenasked to report any suspiciousactivities immediately to thenearest Coast Guard station,marine police station and portcontrol.

Following the inputs, secu-rity has been beefed up atKandla and Mundra ports andother key installations in Kutchdistrict.

The latest security movecomes days after the Indian

Navy warned of a possible ter-ror attack from the sea route.Last week, the Navy had said itwas on high alert and was pre-pared to defeat and deter anysea-borne threat with full force.

The Adani Group’s

Mundra port is one of thelargest in the country and lastyear topped the rankings byvolumes, while the State-runKandla port (now known asDeendayal Port Trust) is alarge bulk handling facility.

Both these ports are locat-ed in the Gulf of Kutch in theArabian Sea, in close vicinity ofPakistan.

The region also boasts ofother vital installations likethe world’s largest oil refineryat Jamnagar run by RelianceIndustries and a similar facili-ty operated by Russian oilmajor Rosneft at Vadinar.

After the abrogation ofArticle 370 by Parliament,Pakistan has sought to inter-nationalise the Kashmir issueand has gone on record justi-fying jehad and terror attacksin the Valley. The PakistanPrime Minister and his Cabinetcolleagues have been spewingvenom against India in theirbid to portray the situation inthe region as alarmist. Pakistanhas even issued nuclear threat.

���� 23�42560

Taking strong exception toPrime Minister Imran

Khan’s provocative statementson Jammu & Kashmir after theabrogation of J&K special sta-tus under Article 370, India onThursday condemned “highlyirresponsible” statements bythe Pakistani leadership andsaid the neighbour is using ter-rorism as a State policy. Thiscomes after Khan talked abouta nuclear war between the twocountries and announced toraise the Kashmir issue at everyinternational forum, includ-ing the UN.

Making New Delhi’s standclear, External Affairs MinistrySpokesperson Raveesh Kumarsaid Pakistan has been usingterrorism as state policy againstIndia and it must stop export-ing terror. “We strongly con-demn highly irresponsiblestatements by Pakistani lead-ership on matters internal toIndia,” he said.

“The provocative state-ments from Pakistan includecall for jehad and inciting vio-lence in India,” Kumar said.The Pakistani Prime Ministerhas been consistently attackingIndia on its decisions on J&Kin the last three weeks.

Meanwhile, DefenceMinister Rajnath Singh duringa visit to Leh on Thursday saidPakistan should stop “crying”

unnecessarily over India’s deci-sion to end special status ofJ&K and instead focus on dis-mantling terror infrastructureoperating from its soil. He alsosaid Islamabad does not haveany locus standi on J&K and itmust stop interfering in India’sinternal affairs.

In his first visit to thisstrategically key region after theGovernment’s decision on J&K,the Defence Minister saidPakistan should now focus ongross violations of humanrights in Pakistan-Occupied-Kashmir (POK), including inGilgit-Baltistan.

In New Delhi, rejectingPakistan’s contention on J&K,Kumar said a PakistaniMinister’s letter to the UN onJ&K — which became contro-versial because it referred tocomments by former Congresspresident Rahul Gandhi andHaryana Chief MinisterManohar Lal Khattar — was“not worth the paper it waswritten on”.

“We condemn the irre-sponsible remarks and tweetsby Pakistani leaders on mattersinternal to India,” said theSpokesperson referring to someMinisters making threats fol-lowing the Government’s deci-sion to end special status toJ&K and split it into two UnionTerritories.

Kumar said the statementsincluded an apparent refer-ence to “Jehad within the ter-ritory of India to incite vio-lence”.

Pakistan Railway MinisterSheikh Rashid Ahmed onWednesday “predicted” warbetween the neighbours in“October or November”.

“The main motive behindthis is to form an alarming sit-uation for India which is farfrom ground realities. Pakistanneeds to understand that theyhave been snubbed from allsides. The world has seen theirprovocative and unsubstanti-ated rhetoric based on lies anddeceit,” he said.

� ���#�� ��� 23�42560

In an unprecedented move,the Patna High Court issued

an order withdrawing all casesfrom a sitting senior judgewho turned whistleblower byordering a CBI enquiry intocorruption in lower judiciarywhile hearing a graft caseagainst a former IAS officer.

An 11-judge Bench of theHigh Court, headed by ChiefJustice AP Shahi, also sus-pended Justice Rakesh Kumar’sorder on the case on Thursday,saying the single judge Benchhad no jurisdiction to pass suchan order on a case that hadbeen closed.

According to an orderissued by the Patna High CourtChief Justice, “all matters pend-ing before Justice RakeshKumar, sitting singly, includingtied-up/part heard or other-wise, stand withdrawn with

immediate effect”. “The registrar (list) will

inform as to how and in whatmanner Cr. Misc. No. 4117 of2018 that had been disposed offinally earlier was listed onThursday at Sl. No. 1 under theheading ‘To be mentioned -Tied up’ before Justice RakeshKumar,” the order said.

“The court concerned willsubmit his explanation to me asto under whose direction wasthe case listed in the cause listand as to whether any infor-mation was given to the regis-trar (list) or not,” it also said.

Justice Kumar was appoint-ed in the HC in 2009 and isslated to retire in December2020. He was a standing coun-sel for the CBI and has alsoacted as special public prose-cutors in the fodder scam cases.

Justice Kumar, while hear-ing the bail application of for-mer IAS officer KP Ramiah,had questioned how he wasgranted bail by a lower courtwhen the HC as well as the SChad rejected his request for pro-tection from arrest because ofthe gravity of the allegations.

Continued on Page 4

� ������������� 23�42560�

Women can ride DTC andcluster buses for free in

Delhi from October 29 as themuch-awaited “Free RideScheme” was approved by thethe AAP Government Cabineton Thursday.

“Women commuters willbe able to get free rides using‘single-journey passes’ to beavailable with the bus conduc-tors. Those not willing to availfree ride may buy tickets,”Transport Minister KailashGahlot. Chief Minister ArvindKejriwal termed his cabinet’sapproval to the scheme a “rev-olutionary step” towards“empowerment and safety ofwomen”.

However, women employ-ees of the city Governmenthave to give up their transportallowance to avail the facility.According to a statement,women employees of the DelhiGovernment, local bodies and

undertakings will not be enti-tled for transport allowance ifthey opt for free ride in DTCand cluster buses.

“The departments, localbodies, autonomous bodies,etc, will take an undertakingfrom their women staff to theeffect,” it said.

Continued on Page 4

� ������������� 23�42560�

The Delhi Government onThursday launched a fel-

lowship scheme to fund high-er eduation of 100 eligibleSC/ST students overseas.

Meritorious students whohave secured admission toMPhil, PhD, LLM, MTech andother higher education cours-es in foreign universities will beeligible to apply under thescheme, Delhi’s SC/ST MinisterRajendra Pal Gautam said.

Candidates applying forthe fellowship should be abonafide resident of Delhi andtheir annual family incomeshould not exceed �8 lakh perannum. “Students who havesecured admission to foreignuniversities can apply online toavail benefits under thescheme. The applications willbe vetted by a committee head-ed by the Principal Secretary ofthe SC/ST department,” saidthe Minister, adding that ascholarship of �10 lakh will beprovided for two-year course,

while up to �20 lakh will beprovided for four-year course.“Only one child for the sameparents/guardians will be eli-gible and to this effect aself–certification will berequired from the candidates...The scheme is proposed to beimplemented from the finan-cial year 2019-20 and will cost�5 crore to the exchequer,” aGovernment statement said.

Due to financial con-straints, studying abroadremains a dream for many tal-ented SC/ST students fromlow-income groups. Thisscheme will encourage suchstudents to enrol in foreignuniversities, Gautam said.

Continued on Page 4

����� 23�42560

In an unprecedented plea,former Finance Minister P

Chidambaram on Thursdayoffered in the Supreme Courtto remain in CBI’s custody tillSeptember 2 in the INX Mediacorruption case.

Chidambaram’s CBI cus-tody will end on Friday and willbe produced before the con-cerned trial court on Friday.

The offer was made after aBench of Justices R Banumathiand AS Bopanna said it wouldhear on September 2 the pleaof Chidambaram challengingthe orders passed by the trialcourt remanding him in theCBI custody in the case.

Continued on Page 4

���� 23�42560

In a major boost to promot-ing afforestation and achiev-

ing “green” objectives of thecountry, the Centre onThursday handed over �47,436crore of CompensatoryAfforestation FundManagement and PlanningAuthority (CAMPA) funds tovarious States.

Campa was constituted bythe Supreme Court in July2009 to ensure proper utilisa-tion of funds received fromproject proponents for diver-sion of forest land for devel-opment activities like erectionof dams, mining and con-struction of roads and indus-tries. The amount collectedunder Campa differs from areato area. The apex court creat-ed Campa as the afforestation

funds could not be utilisedproperly.

On Thursday, Odishareceived the highest allocation(5,933.98 crore), followed byChhattisgarh (�5,791.70 crore)and Madhya Pradesh(�5,196.69 crore). Keralareceived the least amount of�81.59 crore.

After a meeting with theState Forest Ministers andauthorities here, UnionMinister for EnvironmentPrakash Javadekar said, “It isexpected that all States willutilise this fund towardsforestry activities to achieve theobjectives of the Nationally-Determined Contributions ofincreasing its forest and treecover, which will create anadditional carbon sink equiv-alent to 2.5 to 3 billion tonnesof carbon dioxide by 2030.”

While asserting the Statebudget for forests shall remainunaffected and the fund beingtransferred would be in addi-tion to State budget, theMinister reminded them theCampa funds are not meant forpayment of salary, travellingallowances, etc.

Javadekar said,“Important activities on whichthe fund will be utilised are:compensatory afforestation,catchment area treatment,wildlife management, assistednatural regeneration, forestfire prevention and control,soil and moisture conserva-tion works in the forest,improvement of wildlife habi-tat, management of biologicaldiversity and biologicalresources, research in forestryand monitoring of Campaworks, etc.”

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Page 2: ˇˆ ˙˝ ˛ ˚ ˝+ ( ( › uploads › 2019 › epaper › ... · Mundra port is one of the largest in the country and last year topped the rankings by volumes, while the State-run

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BJP working president JagatPrasad Nadda said on

Thursday that the abrogation ofspecial status to Jammu &Kashmir under Article 370bore a positive impact on theparty’s membership drivewhich is set to increase itsnumbers by a whopping sevencrore, taking the total count to18 crore. With 18 crore mem-bers on its roll, only eightcountries have populationwhich exceed the BJP’s num-bers, Nadda said.

The membership drive,said the BJP working president,yielded unexpected results inWest Bengal with one crorepeople, particularly those from“weaker sections” enrollingthemselves with the BJP. The

party had fixed 12 lakh as thetarget in West Bengal but itkept increasing and reached afabulous mark, Nadda said.

As the membership drivethat commenced from July 6concluded on August 20, theparty would now engage in thenext phase of enrolling ‘activemembership’ that would entailparty members enroll at least50 or 100 members.

Nadda said the organiza-tional elections would be com-pleted by the year-end when anew President would also beelected. Nadda claimed themembership drive was alsoquite successful in Jammu andKashmir, where the decision onArticle 370 impacted positive-ly on the BJP’s drive with longqueues of people waiting to beenrolled as party members.

Nadda said the process ofcollecting the data of the sevencrore new members was stillon. He said an overwhelmingsupport for the BJP was visibleduring its membership drive asthe target was to recruit 2.2crore members. The member-ship drive had with PrimeMinister Narendra and BJPpresident Amit Shah launchingit from Varanasi and Telangana

respectively on party ideo-logue Syama Prasad

Mookerjee’s birthanniversary.

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Parliament’s Public AccountsCommittee (PAC), headed

by Congress’ Adhir RanjanChowdhury, has selected 107subjects and related CAG Auditreports including controversialsubjects like Rafale fighter jetspurchase.

The other controversialsubjects which the PAC isgoing to scrutinise are theassessment on the implemen-tation of Goods and ServiceTax (GST) and its tax collectionnetwork GSTN, which invitedam series of criticism from var-ious stakeholders includingfrom CAG.

The five aspects of GSTand its related matters will beprobed by the PAC. The objec-tives of GST, Revenue andreturn filing trends, IT audit ofGSTN, Lack of access to dataand Audit of TransitionalCredits are the subjects underGST to be examined by thePublic Accounts Committee.The PAC also selected the sub-ject “Operational readiness ofIndian Air Force.

After analyzing the CAGreport, the PAC will examinethe top officials of the con-cerned Ministries before sub-mitting its report to theParliament.

The examination of pur-chase of Rafale jets is expectedto be a major point of con-tention between theGovernment and Opposition.Though the PAC is headed by

an Opposition MP, the major-ity of the members belong tothe ruling BJP.

The other important sub-jects selected by the panel arescrutinising the performanceaudit report on National RuralDrinking Water Programme,engagement of contract labourby Indian Railways, andNamami Ganga project.

The Public AccountsCommittee’s scrutiny has manyat times led to confrontationbetween the Government andOpposition.

In 2010, BJP leader MurliManohar Joshi-led PAC’s probeon 2G Scam created a furore,leading to Prime MinisterManmohan Singh suo motodeclaring that he was ready toappear before the panel, anoffer that was promptly shotdown by the Congress highcomman.

The Joshi-led panel sum-moned many cororpate bigwigsincluding Ratan Tata in theprobe related to the telecomscam. It also summoned allChiefs of Army, Air Force andNavy in connection with thescrutiny of supply in DefenceCanteens.

In recent times, the PACsheaded by Congress leaders KVThomas and MallikarjunKharge had summonedFinance Ministry officials andRBI Governors on scrutinizingthe affects of demonetisation.

The PAC consists of 15 LokSabha MPs includingChairman and seven MPs fromRajya Sabha.

���� 23�42560

Potato yield is expected to goup by 3.4 per cent while a

dip is expected in tomato pro-duction. Onion production isexpected to remain flat at 23.28million tonne in the 2018-19crop year. The production ofvegetables and fruits is margin-ally higher this year at 0.6 per-cent as compared to last year.

According to the agricul-ture ministry’s latest advanceestimate for horticulture pro-duction, overall vegetables pro-duction is estimated to bearound 185.88 million tonne,higher than 184.39 milliontonne achieved last year.

As per estimates, the totalproduction of horticulturecrops is pegged slightly higherat 313.85 million tonne for the2018-19 crop year, as against311.71 million tonne in the pre-vious year.

“As area under horticulturecrops has remained broadly atthe same level, the higher pro-duction owes mainly to pro-

ductivity gains,” the agricultureministry said in a statement.

There is an estimatedincrease in production of fruits,vegetables, spices, flowers andhoney, whereas decline is seenin production of plantation andaromatic and medicinal cropsfrom over the last year, it added.

Among vegetables, onionoutput is expected to be 23.28million tonne in 2018-19 asagainst 23.26 million tonne inthe previous year. Tomatoproduction, on the other hand,is projected to be around 19.39million tonnes, which is 1.8 percent lower than the productionlast year. Onion is currently rul-ing between Rs 50-60 per kgwhile tomato price loweredfrom Rs 80 per kg to Rs 40-50per kg in the retail market.

According to estimates,potato production is estimatedto be around 53.03 milliontonnes -3.4 percent higher thanlast year while tomato produc-tion is down by 1.8 percent at around 19.39 milliontonnes.

����������A���@����� 23�42560

Former Union Minister TariqAnwar, who recently

returned to the Congress foldafter quitting NCP, is all set totake the command of DelhiCongress after party’s inchargefor Delhi PC Chacko in a surprise move sought to be relieved from the position.

AICC sources said thatAnwar is most likely to beassigned the charge of DelhiCongress in view of the assem-bly elections in the nationalCapital a few months fromnow.

Ever since it lost power inDelhi, the State Congress haswitnessed several turbulentphases and is yet to recoverfrom the losses due to internalbickering between severalcamps revolving aroundChacko.

Chacko had on Wednesdaymet Congress president Sonia

Gandhi and conveyed his deci-sion to quit the post on theground that he has been occu-pying it for the last four andhalf years.

The former MP, however,said he does not want to goback to Kerala politics andwants the Congress leadershipto consider him for a different assignment withinthe party.

“I have expressed my will-ingness to be relieved. I do notknow if they have decided torelieve me. If I am relieved, Iwill be happy,” said Chackowho alonwgith former DelhiCongress chief Ajay Makenwas hell bent to forge analliance with Aam Admi Partyfor the Lok Sabha polls. Theplan, however, did not materi-alize due to stiff resistancefrom Sheila Dikshit, who diedrecently.

“I have apprised party pres-ident Sonia Gandhi about mywillingness to be relieved dur-ing my meeting with her on

Tuesday in which selection ofthe Delhi Congress presidentwas discussed,” Chacko furthersaid.

Chacko said he has beenworking as AICC incharge ofDelhi Congress for the pastfour and half years and hasoverseen many elections. It istime that some new inchargetakes over along with a newpresident.

His desire to be relievedfrom the post has also beencommunicated to former partychief Rahul Gandhi. Chackosaid it was up to the party toconsider him for any otherresponsibility.

The party leader, however,rejected insinuations that hisdecision was prompted by theCongress’s massive defeat in theLok Sabha polls in Delhi thisyear.

Delhi goes to electionslater this year and the Congressis seeking to wrest power fromthe(AAP in the national capital.

����������A���@����� 23�42560

The CPI(M) Politburo onThursday said that the new

FDI policy to allow 100 percentforeign direct investment incoal mining would hit publicsector undertaking Coal IndiaLtd. Terming the Centre’s moveas reckless, the Left party saidthe new policy would enableforeign companies to plunderthe mineral resources of thecountry.

“The Polit Bureau of theCPI(M) strongly opposes thedecision of the UnionCabinet to allow 100 per centFDI in coal mining for allcommercial purposes alongwith 100 per cent FDI incontract manufacturing. Thisreckless measure will enableforeign companies to plunderthe mineral resources of ourcountry.

“This decision will alsohave a harmful effect on CoalIndia Ltd. which is the premiernational coal miner. The Modigovernment is bent upon

weakening the public sectorcoal company. It had alreadyopened coal mining to Indianprivate entities during its lasttenure. The BJP government issurrendering national controlover the mineral resourceswhich is highly detrimental tothe country’s interests,” saidPolit Bureau in a statement.

CITU general secretaryTapan Sen also termed themove as utterly retrograde andsaid it will hinder meeting ofincreasing domestic require-ment of coal both for house-hold consumption and indus-trial requirement particularly inpower, steel, fertilizers andother sectors.

���� � 23�42560�

The National Human RightsCommission has issued a

notice to the Madhya PradeshGovernment over reports ofalleged botched up cataractsurgeries at an eye hospital inIndore, leading to loss of visionfor four out of 15 patientsoperated upon.

The victims also include adoctor, who went for cataractsurgery at this hospital onAugust 5. “The NationalHuman Rights Commissionhas taken suo motu cognisanceof a media report about allegedbotched up cataract surgeriesleading to loss of vision in anumber of patients at IndoreEye Hospital,” the NHRC said ina statement on Thursday.

Reportedly, four personsout of 15 who underwentcataract surgery at this hospi-tal have lost eyesigh.TheCommission has issued anotice to the chief secretary ofthe Madhya Pradesh govern-

ment seeking a detailed reportin four weeks.

The Commission hasobserved that the contents ofthe news report, if true, amountto gross violation of humanrights of the victim patients.

“Losing eyesight not onlymakes a person handicappedbut also puts the victim undertremendous stress and mentalagony. The reported incidentsindicate towards somethingterribly wrong at the particularhospital which is immediatelyrequired to be addressed so thatmore people do not suffer,” thestatement said.

It has further observed thatit is extremely necessary for thestate and district administrationto immediately look into thegrievance and take effectiveaction against the medical teampurported to have acted in a“negligent manner” causingsuch “irrevocable loss” to thevictims, and to provide reliefand rehabilitation to them, itsaid.

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The CBI has sought sanctionfrom Lok Sabha Speaker

Om Birla to prosecute three sit-ting Trinamool Congress MPsand a former parliamentarianof the party in the Narada stingoperation case.

The agency sought thesanction to prosecuteTrinamool Congress MPsSaugata Roy, Kakoli Ghoshand Prasun Banerjee, officialssaid here on Thursday.

The agency has also soughtpermission for prosecution offormer MP Suvendu Adhikariwho is currently transport min-ister in the State Government.

While Roy, 73, is a repre-sentative of Dum Dum con-stituency, Ghosh, 59, representsthe Barasat constituency andPrasun Banerjee, 64, is an MPfrom Howrah.

If the sanction is accorded,they may be named by theagency in its chargesheet in thecase which is likely to be filed

soon, sources said.The Narada sting case

relates to some TMC politiciansand West Bengal bureaucratswho were allegedly caught ontape accepting money from ajournalist posing as a repre-sentative of a private company.

All four leaders werenamed as accused in the CBIFIR filed on April 16, 2017 afternearly a month-longPreliminary Enquiry initiatedat the behest of Calcutta HighCourt.

In its FIR, the CBI hasalleged that the sting operationshows Roy, Ghosh andAdhikari accepting Rs five lakheach from the person posing asrepresentative while Banerjeecould be seen receiving Rsfour lakh for helping in a busi-ness venture.

The agency had questionedTrinamool Congress’ RajyaSabha member K D Singh inconnection with the case.

The sting was broadcast

on various channels in 2016before West Bengal Assemblypolls by Narada news editorMathew Samuel who had pro-vided the recordings to theCBI purportedly showingalleged payments received bypoliticians and senior bureau-crats of West BengalGovernment.

The CBI had booked 12top TMC leaders, includingMPs and West Bengal minis-ters, and an IPS officer in con-nection with the case.

In its FIR, the agency saidsuspect public servants wereidentified who were shown tohave either accepted money incash given by Samuel posing asa representative of a Chennai-based company or asked him tohandover the money to some-one else on their behalf.

An FIR was lodged foralleged criminal conspiracyunder the Indian Penal Codeand relevant provisions of thePrevention of Corruption Actdealing with bribery and crim-inal misconduct.

TOP TMC LEADERS SUMMONED BY CBI

Leaders like TMC strong-man and Minister SubhenduAdhikary a former MP, seniorleader and Minister SubrotoMukherjee, Madan Mitra, for-mer Kolkata Mayor andMinister Sovan Chatterjee whohas recently joined the BJP, anIPS officer have summoned bythe CBI to appear before it inKolkata within next week,sources said adding their voicesamples would be taken forforensic examination.

For his part, formerKolkata Police CommissionerRajiv Kumar who has been fac-ing investigation in Sharadachit fund case for allegedly sup-pressing evidence as the chiefof the Special InvestigationTeam was on Thursday given athree-day respite from arrest bythe Calcutta High Court.Kumar who is presently theADGP, CID has offered toappear before the Agency offi-cials on Monday.

����� 23�42560

The Supreme CourtThursday said it will pro-

nounce on September 5 theorder on plea of former financeminister P Chidambaram inthe INX Media money laun-dering case lodged by theEnforcement Directorate.Abench of Justices R Banumathiand A S Bopanna also extend-ed interim protection fromarrest granted to Chidambaramtill next Thursday. The formerUnion minister offered beforethe bench to remain in the cus-tody of CBI till Monday.

The court refused to com-ment on it after solicitor gen-eral Tushar Mehta said thatextension of remand can onlybe done before the CBIcourt.The bench also directedthe ED to place before it in asealed cover the material whichthe probe agency wanted toproduce for the court’s perusal.

����� 23�42560

AGujarat resident has soughtintervention of Chief Justice

Ranjan Gogoi for early hearingof criminal cases, pending forfour years in the Supreme Court,involving social activist TeestaSetalvad and her husband.

Raiskhan Azizkhan Pathan, aformer close aide of Setalvad

and who worked in her NGOCitizens for Justice and Peace(CJP), has written a letter toJustice Gogoi drawing hisattention to the two casesinvolving her and said theyhave not been listed for hear-ing after the lapse of four years.

Pathan has mentionedcriminal cases of allegedembezzlement of funds andviolations of ForeignContribution Regulation Act(FCRA) lodged againstSetalvad and her husband bythe Gujarat Police and the CBIrespectively. These matters hadreached the apex court in 2015.

He also referred to anoth-er case in which a differentNGO, Subrang Trust, run bythem, received funds from theHRD Ministry allegedly fraud-ulently and came up for hearingin the apex court in March thisyear. This matter was taggedwith the embezzlement case.

These cases are related to theanticipatory bail of the cou-ple.”Please look into the matteras to why the first cases (allegedfund embezzlement and FCRAviolation) after the lapse of fouryears could not be listed for hear-ing and why the second case isalso not coming on board,”Pathan wrote in the August 11letter to the Chief Justice of India.

Pathan, who had workedwith Setalvad for the victims ofthe 2002 riots in Gujarat butlater parted ways with her,claimed that he was the worstsufferer because of her activi-ties. In the letter, he men-tioned the issues reportedabout the management of casesby the apex court registry.

“Numerous cases of man-agement in registry of the topcourt are coming up in the pub-lic domain where your good selfhas also taken a serious note ofit. I am the worst sufferer in thehands of this lady Teesta Setalvadwho is very powerful...,” Pathanwrote to the CJI.

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The glimmering Taj Mahal,said to be at its aesthetic

best in moonlight, could nowbe thrown open after sunset forall tourists.

So far, night access to theglobally renowned monumentwas allowed at a premium onlyfor five nights in a month.

Union Tourism andCulture Minister Prahlad SinghPatel told IANS in an interviewthat the Taj Mahal will remainopen even beyond its 10.00 a.mto 6.00 p.m. public access time.

“We have been receiving alot of requests to keep themonument open during thenight hours. We are dedicatedto make this a reality,” Patelsaid.

The Tourism Ministry isalso planning to illuminate thearea around the monumentand develop other infrastruc-ture required to deal with nightrush.

Night viewing of the TajMahal is available on five daysin a month -- on full moonnight and on the two nightspreceding and following the

full moon. Only 400 tourists -- 8

batches of 50 people -- areallowed on these nights forwhich Rs 510 per adult ischarged, while a single childticket costs Rs 500. Foreignnationals have to pay Rs 750each.The Tourism Ministry iscurrently engaged in getting

clearances for the new planfrom various departments.

Taj Mahal sees an averageof 22,000 visitors a day, with thefigure running into millionsannually.The government hasdecided to extend the visitinghours of 10 popular monu-ments across India from sun-rise till 9 p.m.

The monuments areRajarani Temple Complex(Odisha), Dulhadeo Temple,Khajuraho (Madhya Pradesh),Sheikh Chilli Tomb (Haryana),Safdarjung Tomb (Delhi),Humayun’s Tomb (Delhi), thegroup of monuments atPattadakal and Gol Gumbaz(both Karnataka), the group of

temples Markanda, Chamursi(Maharashtra), Man Mahal,Vaidhshala (Uttar Pradesh)and Rani Ki Vav (Gujarat).

Prime Minister NarendraModi has welcomed the deci-sion to extend visiting hours atthese 10 sites and has linked itto the #IncredibleIndia cam-paign.

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RAIPUR | FRIDAY | AUGUST 30, 2019chhattisgarh 03

STAFF REPORTER nRAIPUR

Chhattisgarh ChiefMinister Bhupesh Baghel

on Thursday announced thatthe state government wouldsoon introduce sports awardin the name of Jheeram Valleymartyrs.

He also announced thatsoon 55 sports trainers/coach-es would be appointed in thestate. The CM was addressingthe State Sports Award

ceremony organised by Sportsand Youth Welfare depart-ment to mark the NationalSports Day at Pt DeedayalUpadhayay Auditorium, in

capital city, Raipur.“Recognition is slow in

politics while it is instant insports and arts. The playermakes country and state

proud by winning medals atnational and internationallevel,” said Chief Minister.

Listing state’s priorities andcommitment for developmentof sports, he said ChhattisgarhSports Development Authorityand Sports Academy would beestablished.

Academy will have residen-tial school and sports trainingfacilities. Citing example ofBhilai Steel Plant established byPt Jawaharlal Nehru, Baghel saidsports and education became akey feature of Durg-Bhilai andsuch an atmosphere would becreated across the state.

Chief Minister gave awaythe Shahid Rajiv Pandey,Shahid Kaushal Yadav, ShahidPankaj Vikram and ShahidVinod Choubey awards to play-ers, coaches/trainers and alsofelicitated the family membersof the players and trainers.

Khelo India Youth Gamemedal winners’ photographand bio-data brochure wasalso released on the occasion.

Sports and Youth welfareminister Umesh Patel, cabinetministers and others werealso present at the ceremony.

Sports award in memory ofJheeram Valley martyrs soon

STAFF REPORTER n RAIPUR

State’s former chief ministerand founder of regional

outfit Janta CongressChhattisgarh, Ajit Jogi, onThursday moved the HighCourt of Chhattisgarh,Bilaspur to challenge thefindings of high powerscrutiny committee thatrevokes his tribal status.

Notable, the scrutiny com-mittee in its 29-page reporthad cancelled all his casterelated documents that sug-gested he belonged to ‘Kanwar’community, a scheduled tribe.

Talking to The Pioneer

Ajit Jogi’s son and statepresident JCC-J, Amit Jogiconfirmed that they havemoved to the High Court andthe case would probably belisted in a day or two.

“We have challenged thescrutiny committee’s reportciting anomalies in 55different points”, he said.

Amit further claimed thatthe decision of the scrutinycommittee was prejudiced andexpressed hope that they willget justice from the court.

“We have complete faithon judiciary and we are surethat we will not face injusticethere”, Amit said.

Ajit Jogi moves HCto challenge scrutinycommittee’s findings

STAFF REPORTER n RAIPUR

Devati Karma is likely to benominated as Congress

candidate for Dantewada assem-bly by-polls. According tosources in the ruling Congressher name has been almost final-ized by the election committee inits crucial meeting on Thursday.

Her name will be officiallydeclared soon after final and formalapproval of party’s national presi-dent Sonia Gandhi, sources added.

Devati was the Congresscandidate from this seat in 2018assembly elections. She lost by anarrow margin against BJP’sBhima Mandavi. The seat fellvacant after Mandavi was killedin a Maoist attack.

Sources informed thatDevati’s candidature was almostfinalized in the Thursday’s crucialmeeting of state electioncommittee held here at Congress’sstate headquarters Rajiv Bhawanwherein senior leaders of theparty discussed about thepossible names of candidates for

Dantewada by-polls.AICC’s Chhattisgarh

in-charge for party affairs P.L.Punia, chief minister BhupeshBaghel, PCC Chief MohanMarkam, ministers in the state

cabinet and Congress MLAswere present in the meeting.

Talking to media personsP.L. Punia informed that as perthe tradition of the grand oldparty the PCC chief would for-

ward the name finalized at theelections committee meeting andthe party’s national presidentwould give a formal approval toit. Thereafter the name wouldfinally be declared officially.

Devati Karma likely to be Congresscandidate for Dantewada by-polls

STAFF REPORTER n RAIPUR

Chhattisgarh minister for foodand civil supplies Amarjeet

Bhagat on Thursday met unionminister for food and civil suppliesRam Vilas Paswan and apprised himabout the pledge of Bhupesh Baghelgovernment to eradicatemalnutrition from the state.

Bhagat urged the Union ministerto provide help in this regard.

Secretary Food, Kamalpreet,Managing Director MarketingFederation (MARKFED) and seniorofficials of civil supplies corporation

were also present during themeeting.

Official sources informed thatBhagat also raised the issues ofkerosene quota for the state whichwas curtained considerably as LPGconnections were given under theUjjawala Yojana.

He also brought to the knowl-edge of Union minister aboutCentre’s withdrawal of quota of foodgrains provided to government aidedinstitutions and Ashrams in the state.Citing the problem, he demanded ofthe Union minister to take necessaryaction in this regard.

Amarjeet seeksCentre’s help tofight malnutrition

Three hardcoreNaxals carryingreward of `1 lakheach heldDANTEWADA: Three hardcoreNaxals carrying reward of Rs 1 lakheach on their heads were arrestedduring an anti-insurgency operationcarried out by security forces in theviolence-hit Dantewada district,police said on Thursday.

“They were wanted inconnection with murder of a privatecontractor Ganesh Raju Naidu, whowas killed near Kamalur railwaystation,” a local police official said.

Held ultras were identified asRamesh Bhaskar, Mangal Bhaskarand Ramesh Kadti. Mangal Bhaskarand Ramesh Kadti were command-ers of Maoist Janmilita, whileRamesh Bhaskar was commander ofMaoist outfit DKAMS(Dandkaranya Kisan Adivasi MajdurSangh), police said.

They were arrested during anoperation carried out based onintelligence input at a forested patchunder Kamalur police station limits,police informed.

STAFF REPORTER nRAIPUR

Chief Minister BhupeshBaghel on Thursday

felicitated hospitals selectedunder Kayakalp SwachhAspataal Yojana at the state-level award ceremonyorganized by Health andFamily Welfare Departmentof Chhattisgarh governmentfor Kayakalp 2018-19 atMedical College campus incapital city Raipur.

Kayakalp Yojana wasstarted in 2015 to encouragecleanliness, hygiene andinfection control in govern-ment hospitals and healthcenters. Under this scheme,to promote the quality serv-ices in healthcare institu-tions, hospitals abiding bythe quality standards are

provided state-level andnational-level qualitycertificates.

Six parameters havebeen defined under theschemes including main-tenance, cleanliness,w a s t e - m a n a g e m e n t ,infection control, supportsystem, hygiene promo-tion, on the basis ofwhich hospitals wereselected for the award. Inthe district hospital cate-gory, first prize is `50lakh, second prize is `20lakh. Likewise, prizeswere provided to thehealthcare centres select-ed in community healthcentre, city primaryhealth centre and othercategories. Moreover,employees of healthcare

sector were also felicitated fortheir excellent work.

Today, Balodabazar-Bhatapara, Bijapur, Jashpur,Kanker, and Korba wereawarded in the category ofdistrict hospitals, under thescheme. Likewise, Abhanpur,Bakawand, Berla,Bhanupratappur, Bilha,Bodla, Charama,Chhuikhadan, Kartala,Katghora, Kurud, Lailunga,Lohandiguda, Nagri,Narharpur, Palari, Ratanpurand Vishrampuri wereawarded in the communityhealth center category. Aara,Adawal, Adenga, Amadand,Anantpur, Bagodar, Balangi,Bandhabazar, Basnavhi andBasdai were awardedKayakalp Award under pri-mary health centre category.

CM felicitates state hospitals for facelift under ‘Kayakalp’

Singhdeo expresses regret after Jogi threatens legal actionRAIPUR: Chhattisgarh Health Minister TS Singhdeo on Thursday expressed regret for commenting over thecaste issue of former chief minister and founder of Janta Congress Chhattisgarh (Jogi) Ajit Jogi.

“If unknowingly I had hurt your sentiments then I express regret over the same,” Singh Deo stated in a letteraddressed to Jogi. Notably, recently a high-power committee constituted by state government under thechairmanship of Secretary Tribal Welfare D.D. Singh had cancelled all the caste related certificates of Jogi.Reacting over the decision, Singh Deo had reportedly stated that Jogi’s father could have been from Satnamicommunity. Taking serious note of the comment, Jogi had shot a letter to Singh Deo claiming that his father wasfrom Kanwar tribe. “Nowhere even in the documents of high-power committee my father was mentioned as amember of Satnami community,” Jogi claimed in the letter.

He had demanded that Singdeo should take back his statement and threatened to move the court if he failedto do so.

STAFF REPORTER nJAGDALPUR

Chhattisgarh BJP willannounce the candidate

for Dantewada by-poll bySeptember 1. The last date forfiling of nomination papers isSeptember 4 till 3.00 PM.

Filing of nominationpapers for the September 23by-poll began with the issue ofnotification.

BJP Bhatapara MLA andby-poll in-charge ShivratanSharma who is on a tour toBastar, interacting with mediapersons at Jagdalpur onThursday said the party willannounce its candidates bySeptember 1.

He claimed that in the by-polls for Dantewada andChitrakot, BJP will winbecause people have seen theeight months tenure ofCongress government and aredejected by it. Who will win inthe polls, the result will tell?,he added.

At present ShivratanSharma, accompanied by for-mer ministers Mahesh Gagdaand Kedar Kashyap are visitingBastar region interacting with

party office bearers, groundlevel party leaders and workersto assess the ground situation.

BJP after death of its loneMLA from Bastar regionBhima Mandavi has been con-templating to field his wifeOjasvi Mandavi as party can-didate. The Dantewada assem-bly seat fell vacant after Bhimawas killed in a Naxal triggeredblast while he was returningfrom a fair during the last legof electioneering for the BastarLok Sabha seat. Four of hissecurity guards were alsokilled in the incident.

BJP to announceDantewada by-pollcandidate by Sep 1

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Ahigh level meeting ofsenior police officers of

Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthanand Utter Pradesh was held atthe conference hall of the SSPoffice in Gwalior. The meetingwas held to discuss about var-ious issues and challenges facedin controlling crimes in theseStates, especially in the borderareas of the States.

The officials discussedabout the interstate gangs, theirmodus operandi, border issuesand ways to prevent crimes,especially drug peddling,human trafficking, kidnappingand murder. The officials alsodeliberated on prevention ofillegal mining and transporta-tion of sand in the Chambalarea, transportation of illicitliquor and gambling activities.

The senior officials have

decided to share the details

about the criminals of theirrespective areas with theircounterparts. They also decid-ed to take joint actions againstthe most wanted criminals inthese three states. Details aboutthe fairs, festivals and othermeetings taking place in theirrespective areas will be sharedwith one another so that policecan stay alert.

Speaking to the media per-sons Gwalior Zone IGRambabu Singh said that it wasdecided at the meeting to dealdrug peddling with an ironhand. He added that the offi-cials of the three states will

coordinate with one another toidentify and nab the drug ped-dlers who are active in thesestates. The police personnelpatrolling the border areas willbe asked to stay extra vigilantto curb these activities.

Gwalior SSP NavneetBhasin said that a whatsappgroup consisting of all top offi-cials of the three states will beformed. He added that this willhelp in passing on informationabout crimes and criminalsinstantaneously.

The meeting was attendedby Gwalior IG Rambabu Singh,Chambal IG D P Gupta,Gwalior DIG A K Pandey,Lalitpur DIG Lakshman Gaur,Gwalior SSP Navneet Bhasin,SPs of Guna, Shivpuri, AshokNagar, Morena, Sheopur, Datia,Bhind, Agra, Jalon, Etawa,Lalitpur, Jhansi, Dholpur andBharatpur among others.

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Jharkhand Mukti Morcha(JMM) slammed the State

Government for �2,200 croreKonar Irrigation Project as itdid not last even for 22 hoursafter its inauguration onWednesday.

Addressing a press meet,JMM General Secretary,Supriyo Bhattachrya, said thatthe Government is claimingthat the State is developing inevery area but after many yearsof wait, the people got a ruineddam as Konar project did notlast even for 22 hours after itsinauguration by the CM.

“The CM should file acase against Engineer In Chiefof the project, CM should filea FIR against SuperintendingEngineer of the Project and theCM should file a case againstthe contractor who got thework to construct the dam. Butthe CM will not do so becauseit is very dirty nexus and it isclear that the government willnot going to take any legalaction against the Ministerand the officials,” said

Bhattacharya.Hitting hard on the Prime

Minister Narendra Modi’snext visit to the State, theparty General Secretary saidthat why he is coming toSahebganj once again it isnot clear as just two years ear-lier he had laid foundationstone for the construction ofbridge on Ganga river but tillnow tender for the work hasnot been issued by the author-

ity.“It has become culture and

habit of the Government tospeak only lie and dupe peopleby making false promises but itwill not last long as people ofthe State learned that theGovernment is duping them onfalse promises. They will teachthe Government in the upcom-ing State Assembly elections inthe State,” said Bhattacharya.

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State Water resourcesMinister Ramchandra

Sahis has taken the breakingof Konar Irrigation Projectbranch canal very seriouslyand has said that the respon-sible persons will not bespared.

On the directions of theMinister and Additional CS ofthe department AK Singh,Engineer in Chief HemantKumar has formed a threemember probe team to inves-

tigate the lapses and submit itsreport within 24 hours. Singhhad sought report from thechief engineer and in the pre-liminary report it was foundthat the breaking of the wallsof canal could be due to ratholes.

The Additional CS saidthat water supply has beenstopped in the said canal andrepair of the canal branch hasstarted. The three-memberteam has reached the spot andis likely to come up withdetailed report of the incident.

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Prime Minister NarendraModi will sound the poll

bugle for BJP in its bid to retainpower in Haryana at a rally tobe held in Rohtak onSeptember 8. He is likely toaddress more than three lakhBJP volunteers and local peo-ple at the rally.

Earlier, Union HomeMinister and BJP presidentAmit Shah had addressed apublic rally in Jind to kick offthe party's election campaign inthe State on August 16. The BJPhas smartly chosen Rohtak inthe Jatland, the stronghold offormer CM Bhupinder SinghHooda, for the rally.

Sources in BJP said thatChief Minister Manohar LalKhattar is personally oversee-ing the arrangements for therally. Along with this, Haryanaparty affairs in-charge and BJPgeneral secretary Anil Jain,

Haryana Cooperation MinisterManish Grover and state gen-eral secretaries Sandeep Joshiand Ved Pal are keeping aclose watch on the arrange-ments for the rally.

Rohtak MLA and StateCooperation Minister Manish

Grover said, “PM’s rally will behistoric in Rohtak. Lakhs ofpeople of the state would attendthe rally. The rally will strength-en the party at the booth level.This rally will attract youth andenergise workers and also, gearup the cadre for upcoming

polls.”Meanwhile, aiming to

return to power in the Stateagain in 2019 polls, the BJPleaders have geared up to makePM’s Rohtak rally a historic andsuccessful event. The BJP isleaving no stone unturned tomake Modi’s Vijay SankalpRally a massive show ofstrength with the participationof the gross-root workersnamed ‘panna pramukhs’ (incharge of voter list pages), whowere instrumental in the BJPwinning all 10 seats in the lastLok Sabha elections.

The rally is being seen asan attempt by the BJP to con-solidate its hold in Rohtak andadjoining areas and consoli-dating the Jat vote bank asRohtak is known as the turf ofJat leader and former ChiefMinister Hooda. Sources saidsome BJP MLAs who won theprevious Assembly election arenot confident of winning the

election this year. This rally willgive positive momentum to theparty in the upcomingAssembly election, particular-ly in the marginal seats.

Moreover, State BJP hasalready moved into pollmode. Khattar’s Jan AshirwadYatra is at the peak and hasalready traversed a large partof the state. The PrimeMinister’s rally is being organ-ised as the grand finale to the22-day Jan Aashirwad Yatracurrently being undertakenby the Chief Minister. Khattarwill come on the bus of JanAshirwad Yatra from Julanato Rohtak to attend PrimeMinister Modi’s rally inRohtak on September 8.

A senior BJP leader told-The plan to register over 3 lakh‘panna pramukhs’ spread over19,500 polling booths has beenchalked out and it would beensured that all those registeredattend the rally.

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The Bench, which did notcomment on the offer of theformer minister, said it wouldpronounce on September 5 itsorder on Chidambaram’s pleachallenging the Delhi HighCourt’s August 20 verdict deny-ing him anticipatory bail pleain the INX Media money laun-dering case lodged by theEnforcement Directorate (ED).

The Bench also extendedthe interim protection fromarrest granted to Chidambaramtill September 5.

Chidambaram, in his plea,has sought anticipatory bail inthe money laundering case.

Senior advocates KapilSibal and Abhishek ManuSinghvi, appearing forChidambaram, told the benchthat since the plea challengingthe remand orders is listed onSeptember 2, Chidambaramis offering to remain in CBI’scustody till then.

“I am offering myself toremain in CBI’s custody tillSeptember 2. EnforcementDirectorate should not haveany problems with the offer. MyCBI remand is coming to anend tomorrow in the CBI’scase,” Sibal said.

Solicitor General TusharMehta opposed the submissionsaying extension of remand canonly be done by the trial courtas the case is pending there.

“If the same offer is madebefore the trial court tomorrow,then we may have no objectionto it,” Mehta said.Under theCode of Criminal Procedure(CrPC), an arrested accused isremanded in judicial custodyand sent to jail after the con-clusion of the custodial inter-

rogation by the investigativeagency.

The top court also direct-ed the ED to submit in a sealedcover under the official seal ofthe agency, the material whichit wanted to place before thecourt’s for perusal.

The bench said it willdecide on the question whetherto look into the documentsplaced before it by the ED in asealed cover.

“Whether to look into thedocuments will depend on thedecision of the court,” thebench said, adding that if itdecides not look into the doc-ument, then sealed will bereturned to the ED as it is.

At the outset, Mehta, told thecourt that money laundering isan offence against the “societyand nation” and they need tointerrogate Chidambaram incustody without the “protectiveumbrella” of anticipatory bail.

“I have materials to showthat laundering of money con-tinued after 2009 and even tilldate (in the INX Media case),”he said while countering argu-ments advanced byChidambaram’s counsel thatED cannot charge him for anoffence with retrospectiveeffect.Sibal, on other hand,dared the ED to show any onebank account or any one prop-erty, which he had not shownin returns or declared publiclyas a member of Parliament.

“Liberty is not one-waytraffic. If they have right toarrest me, then I also have myfundamental rights. It is not aprocedure of law that a probeagency gives its conclusion toa judge and the judge recordshis finding in his order. Can theprocedure of law be destroyedin this fashion,” Sibal said

From Page 1The Transport Department

will also write to the Ministryof Finance after implementa-tion of the scheme to considerissuing necessary instructionsin this regard to all Ministries,Central Government depart-ments and autonomous bodiesin Delhi, the statement added.

In the Monsoon Session ofthe Assembly, the DelhiGovernment approved a sup-plementary grant of Rs 140crore for free women ridescheme.

The Delhi Cabinet chairedby the Chief Minister ArvindKejriwal has directed the DTCto propose suitable amend-ments in DTC (free & conces-sional passes) Regulations,1985 subject to any alterations,if any, so that the same may benotified in the official gazette.

The Government hasannounced to reimburse theDTC and Delhi IntegratedMulti Modal Transit Limited(DIMTS) Rs 10 per single jour-ney duration pass and similarpayment in the designatedaccount of cluster scheme forproper accounting of this facil-ity will be done by theGovernment.

The Government has fur-ther asked the DTC andDIMTS to strengthen theirticket checking mechanismsto ensure that the facility is notmisused and to plug any pos-sible pilferage in issuance ofpasses for free travel of women.

There shall be no separateticket for luggage with womenpassengers, within the limitprescribed by the DTC. Freetravel will be applicable in allairport and other special air-port route and NCR routes.

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In its 20 page order, JusticeKumar observed : “of course,grant of bail or refusal of bail iscomplete discretion of the court,but if the manner, in which, anaccused is granted bail, whichraises finger against the judi-ciary, certainly exercising super-visory power, this Court is enti-tled to examine as to whetherthe power for grant of bail”.

The judge also alleged thatthe full bench of the Patna HighCourt had taken a lenient viewevery time the case of any judgefrom the lower judiciary cameup. “In normal course, I wouldnot have passed such order, butsince last few years, this Courtis taking notice of the fact thatin Patna Judgeship, things arenot going in its right perspec-tive,” Justice Kumar said.

“After my elevation as

judge, I started to notice thatsenior judges were butteringChief Justice. Initially, I thoughtwhy such action was shown bythe senior judges, but aftersome time, I could gather thatsuch actions were being takento get their favourite or casteman elevated as a judge or dosome favour to corrupt judicialofficers,” recorded the judge onWednesday.

Justice Kumar presented anillustration of four judicial offi-cers who had allegations peti-tions ranging from 11 to 21 but,the judge said, they were all letoff with mild punishments andremained in judiciary althoughthey should have been dis-missed in the best interest ofthe system. “Despite my oppo-sition, a judge facing seriouscharges was let off with minorpunishment instead of exem-plary punishment,” JusticeKumar said in his order.

**��)������������"""�From Page 1

“Saiyyaji Rao Gaekwad,the erstwhile ruler of Barodastate given a scholarship toBhim Rao Ambedkar to studyin London and he wrote theconstitution of India. Thus,the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)government is following thefootsteps and has pledged togive wings to the students to flyas education is very important.If you will give education to thepoor and needy, they willchange the society and to seethe country in top, education ismust,” said the Rajendra PalGautam, the Minister of SC/STand the architect of the pro-posal.

It is also to be rememberthe AAP government has alsosuccessfully implemented JaiBheem Mukhyamantri Yojanain November 2017 which pro-vides free coaching to SC/STstudents to crack competitiveexams such as engineering,medical and civil services.

Under the scheme about4,953 students enrolled in thebatch of 2018-19, out of whichabout 107 students wereenrolled for free medical exam-inations coaching and about 13students Joint Entrance Exam(JEE) and 22 students clearedNational Eligibility cumEntrance Test (NEET) withthe help of this scheme.

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President Donald Trump onThursday said that US

troop levels in Afghanistanwill drop to 8,600 if a deal isreached with the Taliban andthat a permanent presence willremain.

"We're going down to 8,600and then we make a determi-nation from there," Trump saidin an interview with Fox Newsradio. "We're always going tohave a presence." T r u m palso said that if another attackon the United States originat-ed from Afghanistan "we would

come back with a force like...Never before."

US troops were first sent toAfghanistan after theSeptember 11, 2001 terroristattacks on US soil carried outby Al-Qaeda, which was shel-

tered by the former Talibanregime.

Washington now wants toend its military involvementand has been talking to theTaliban since at least 2018.Trump says that troops willonly be reduced when theTaliban gives a guarantee thatits territory will not be used byAl-Qaeda or other interna-tional militant groups.

Trump underlined thatthere was to be no completewithdrawal, keeping a forcethat would provide "high intel-ligence." "You have to keep apresence," he said.

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British Prime Minister BorisJohnson is gambling his

future on the audacious propo-sition that he can blunt aneffort to halt his Brexit plan bysimply suspending "the moth-er of all parliaments" for keyweeks ahead of the October 31departure date.

If Parliament isn't in ses-sion, it can't conduct officialbusiness and won't be able totake concerted action to pre-vent him from pushingthrough a "no-deal" Brexit thatwould abruptly sever tiesbetween Britain and theEuropean Union if he is unableto reach a new deal by that date.

Johnson knew full wellthat asking Queen Elizabeth IIto suspend Parliament would

provoke howls that he is mas-terminding an anti-democrat-ic coup.

But if he is able to makegood on his frequent vow toleave the EU on October 31,Johnson stands to be remem-bered as the leader who madethe results of the 2016 Brexitreferendum a reality.

"If it works, many will saythat it was a brilliant piece ofpolitical theater and leader-ship," said Anthony Seldon, ahistorian at the University ofBuckingham. "And if it doesn't,it will quite possibly spell theend of his premiership."

Johnson is betting that thepolitical boost would over-shadow any financial costs,despite dire warnings frominfluential business leaders andeconomists that a sudden break

of European ties would plungeBritain into a prolonged reces-sion accompanied by a loss ofjobs and consumer buyingpower.

It is a step that his prede-cessor, former Prime MinisterTheresa May, was unwilling totake. She repeatedly pulledback from the brink and soughtan extension from the other 27EU nations rather than departwithout a deal on future eco-nomic arrangements.

But if the gamble fails,Johnson may well face a generalelection that would put hisConservative Party's leader-ship at risk, or find his Brexitbid blocked by an energizedParliament determined toimpose its will in what hasbecome a historic politicalclash.

Even if that happens,Seldon said, Johnson could bewell positioned for a generalelection because he couldblame Parliament for thwartingthe will of the people by mak-ing Brexit impossible despitethe majority that backed it inthe referendum.

The prime minister's deci-sion drew predictable con-demnation from some Britishnewspapers that are vehe-mently opposed to a no-dealdeparture. The Independentsaid Johnson is using "devious"means to undermine Britain'sdemocratic institutions.

"With just 63 days until the31 October deadline, anunelected prime minister hasmade himself unaccountable toMPs for five weeks," it said."Not only does Boris Johnson

want to deny voters the FinalSay, he is now silencing theirrepresentatives." Johns onhas very little leeway for anypolitical slippage. He was notelected in his own right and hisparty does not enjoy a major-ity in the House of Commons,relying instead on an agree-ment with a small NorthernIreland party to back it on keyvotes.

Both of his predecessors —May and David Cameron —were brought down by Brexitsetbacks, and Johnson seemsdetermined to avoid their fate.

By suspending Parliamentfor much of the period beforethe departure date, he is reduc-ing the time available for hispolitical opponents to come upwith a solid legislative plan toblock a no-deal Brexit.

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Europe's Brexit drama ishurtling toward a new cli-

max at the wrong time for theregion's economy, threateningto sow chaos for businesses justas a large part of the continentis sliding toward recession.

British Prime Minister BorisJohnson's move to suspendParliament for weeks ahead ofthe October 31 Brexit deadlinemeans lawmakers will have lit-tle time to pass laws to keep thecountry from crashing out of theEuropean Union without a deal.A disorderly divorce is a worst-case scenario that both sideshave been trying to avoid sincethe Brexit vote three years ago -and many experts now see it asa likely outcome.

Economists describe anightmarish setting for com-panies: new tariffs overnight ontrade between Britain and theother 27 EU countries, border

checks for people and com-merce, the sudden loss of busi-ness licenses, and countlessother regulatory problems.

This all would play out ata time when the Europeaneconomy is already taking amighty hit from uncertaintyover the US-China trade war,with powerhouse Germanyhalfway into recession.

"Germany could have takenthe UK's departure from the EUin its stride a couple years agobut it will be hit quite badly if ano-deal Brexit occurs in twomonths' time," says AndrewKenningham, chief Europeaneconomist at Capital Economicsin London.

Where Germany goes, sodoes Europe. The EU's largesteconomy contracted in thesecond quarter and is expect-ed by many analysts to shrinkagain in the third, putting it inwhat is technically defined asa recession.

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Pakistan has successfully test-fired nuclear-capable sur-

face-to-surface ballistic missile'Ghaznavi' with a range of upto 290 kms, the Army said onThursday, amid fresh Indo-Paktensions after India revokedJammu and Kashmir's specialstatus.

Pakistan Civil AviationAuthority on Wednesdayclosed three aviation routes ofKarachi airspace till August 31,leading to reports that thePakistan Army may conduct amissile test from a flight testrange in Balochistan.

The Pakistan military'smedia spokesperson, MajorGeneral Asif Ghafoor on

Thursday shared a video of the"night-training launch" of theshort range ballistic missile onTwitter.

The Ghaznavi missile iscapable of delivering multipletypes of warheads up to 290kms, that could cover parts ofIndia.

According to experts, theGhaznavi missile could be animproved 'Scud' type ballisticmissile. The missile's warheadcan be conventional, highexplosive (HE) and nuclear.

Maj Gen. Ghafoor saidthat the Pakistan ChairmanJoint Chiefs of Staff Committee(CJCSC) and the three serviceschiefs congratulated the teamof experts for successfully test-ing the missile.

President Arif Alvi andPrime Minister Imran Khanalso conveyed their apprecia-tion to the team, and congrat-ulated the nation on the feat, hesaid.

The nuclear-capable mis-sile was launched amidPakistan's efforts to interna-tionalise the Kashmir issue

after India abrogated provisionsof Article 370 of theConstitution to revoke Jammuand Kashmir's special statusand bifurcated it into twoUnion Territories.

Prime Minister Khan hasrepeatedly raised the threat ofa nuclear war in the region asa result of India's decision onKashmir.

"In a nuclear war, no onewill win. It will not only wreakhavoc in this region, but theentire world will face conse-quences. It is now up to theinternational community," hesaid last week in his address tothe nation on the Kashmir

issue. Pakistan expelled theIndian High Commissionerafter it downgraded the diplo-matic ties with India in protestto India's decision to endJammu and Kashmir's specialstatus. Pakistan also suspend-ed its trade with India andstopped the cross-border trainand bus services.

India has categorically toldthe international communitythat the scrapping of Article370 was an internal matterand also advised Pakistan toaccept the reality.

Prime Minister Khan onceagain raised the nuclear capa-bilities of the neighbours, say-ing there are no winners in anuclear war. Earlier in May,Pakistan conducted a success-ful training launch of Shaheen-II, a surface-to-surface ballis-tic missile.

In January, Pakistan suc-cessfully launched the tacticalballistic missile Nasr as part ofthe Army Strategic ForcesCommand training exercise.

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The EU's diplomatic chiefsaid Thursday the bloc

would support talks betweenthe United States and Iran, butonly if the current nuclear dealwith Tehran is preserved.

Washington and Tehranhave been locked in a bitterstandoff since last year whenUS President Donald Trumpunilaterally pulled out of the2015 deal that gave Iran relieffrom sanctions in return forcurbs on its atomic pro-gramme.

Tensions have risen dra-matically in the Gulf, whereIran has seized tankers, but EUcountries are reluctant to joina US-led operation to protectcommercial shipping.

Instead, EU foreign anddefence ministers meeting inHelsinki discussed the possi-bility of launching their ownobservation mission in the

Strait of Hormuz, a strategicallyimportant choke point at theentrance to the Gulf.

The idea of direct talksbetween Washington andTehran as a way out of the cri-sis grew this week after Trumpmooted the idea and the newUS defence secretary urgedIran's leaders to engage.

The European Union hasdesperately sought to preventthe deal from collapsing com-pletely, arguing it is the bestway to stop Iran developingnuclear bombs. EU diplomat-ic chief Federica Mogherinigave a cautious welcome to theidea of negotiations, afterTrump said Monday he wasready to meet Iran's PresidentHassan Rouhani within weeks.

"We are always in favour oftalks, the more people talk, themore people understand eachother better, on the basis ofclarity and on the basis ofrespect," Mogherini said as she

arrived for the Helsinki meet-ing. But she added that "firstand foremost what is existingneeds to be preserved" -- refer-ring to UN Security Councilresolutions and specifically the2015 deal known formally asthe Joint Comprehensive Planof Action or JCPOA.

"We will always advocatefor the full respect by all sidesof the UNSC resolutions andthat includes the JCPOA," shesaid. At the recent G7 summitin Biarritz, Trump showedopenness to French PresidentEmmanuel Macron's proposalof a summit with Rouhani.

US Defence SecretaryMark Esper followed up onWednesday by urging Tehranto negotiate, but IranianForeign Minister MohammadJavad Zarif insistedWashington must respect thedeal and halt what he called"economic terrorism" againsthis country.

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US President Donald Trumpon Wednesday complained

that the often friendly Fox Newstelevision network is not loyalenough and has stopped "work-ing" for him. "Fox isn't workingfor us anymore!" he said at theend of three tweets expressingoutrage that the network hadgiven too much airtime toDemocratic party opponents.

As US president, Trumphas no equivalent of the state TVchannel used to serve leaders inmany less free countries, likeRussia. But for much of his firstterm he's at least been able to relyregularly on Fox for friendly cov-erage. While Trump routinelylashes other networks as "fakenews," he or his top aides makealmost daily appearances to giveoften softball interviews on Fox.

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The United States staged asecret cyberattack in June

against a database used byIran's Islamic RevolutionaryGuard Corps to plot attacks onoil tankers in the Gulf, TheNew York Times reported.

The newspaper, quotingsenior US officials, said theJune 20 attack had degradedthe ability of Iran's paramilitaryforce to target shipping in theGulf.

It said Iran was still tryingto recover information andrestart military communica-tions networks and other sys-tems knocked offline.

The Times said the cyber-strike was the latest in anongoing cyberconflict betweenthe United States and Iran.

It said the cyberattack wentahead after President DonaldTrump had called off a retalia-tory military airstrike againstIran for shooting down a USdrone.

The newspaper said theWhite House viewed the cyber-attack as a proportionalresponse to the destruction ofthe unmanned drone.

It said the database target-ed in the attack was used by theGuards to choose which

tankers to target.No tankers have been tar-

geted since the June 20 opera-tion although Iran did seize aBritish oil tanker after one of itsvessels was detained, the Timessaid.

US Defence SecretaryMark Esper urged Iran onWednesday to enter into dis-cussions with the United Statesin order to ease tensions in theGulf region.

"We are not seeking conflict with Iran. We want toengage with them diplomati-cally," Esper said in his first formal press conference

after being confirmed lastmonth.

Breaking with his prede-cessor Barack Obama, Trumpenacted a policy of "maximumpressure" on Tehran over itsdisputed nuclear program andlast year unilaterally withdrewfrom the landmark 2015 inter-national deal that placed lim-its on Tehran's nuclear activi-ties.

Tensions over that movehave gradually risen, with Iranseizing tankers in the Gulf inrecent months and Britaindetaining an Iranian tanker offof Gibraltar.

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Pakistan on Thursday said theresolution of the Kashmir

issue as per the UN resolutionswas its top foreign policy agen-da.

India has not been engagingwith Pakistan since an attack onthe Air Force base at Pathankotin January of 2016 by Pakistan-based terrorists, maintainingthat talks and terror cannot gotogether.

Addressing a weekly mediabriefing here, Foreign Officespokesman Mohammad Faisalsaid Pakistan has always sup-ported bilateral talks with India,but the Indian leadership wasnot ready for it.

"Resolution of Kashmiraccording to UN resolutions iscorner stone of our foreign pol-icy," Faisal said.

He also said ForeignMinister Shah MahmoodQureshi would visit Geneva toattend the meeting of UNHuman Rights council.

Earlier in the day, PakistanPrime Minister Imran Khancalled for nation-wide demon-strations to protest India's actionof revoking the special status toJammu and Kashmir.

"I want all Pakistanis tocome out tomorrow (Friday) 12noon -12.30 pm to show soli-darity with the Kashmiri peo-ple...," he tweeted. "We mustsend a strong message toKashmiris that our nation standsresolutely behind them," headded.

Pakistan has been trying tointernationalise the Kashmirissue after India abrogatedprovisions of Article 370 of theConstitution to revoke Jammuand Kashmir's special statusand bifurcated it into twounion territories.

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Page 6: ˇˆ ˙˝ ˛ ˚ ˝+ ( ( › uploads › 2019 › epaper › ... · Mundra port is one of the largest in the country and last year topped the rankings by volumes, while the State-run

US President Donald Trumpovercame his mercantilistinstinct to “mediate” in theIndia-Pakistan muddle andreason was restored in the

debate, albeit temporarily, given his whim-sicality and penchant for “deals.” The ini-tial hoopla to “mediate” was unnecessari-ly created by an over-enthusiastic Trump,who rode roughshod over the deliberate-ly-calibrated position articulated by previ-ous presidential regimes in deference to“bilateralism” as the preferred means toaddress India-Pakistan differences.

Trump had waded the perenniallyshort-of-facts-and-sensitivities into thesub-continental quagmire and incredulous-ly stated that he “would love to be a medi-ator”, without realising the inadvertent twistthat such a reckless statement was afford-ing. Soon, the revert to “bilateralism” as thestrategic framework was clarified by thebumbling-fumbling US President on thesidelines of the G-7 summit as he restoredAmerica’s position by stating, “I have verygood relationship with both the gentlemen(Prime Ministers Narendra Modi andImran Khan) and I’m here. I think they cando it (resolve the issue) themselves.”

Part businessman’s braggadocio andpart his genuine sovereign concern to keepthe Pakistani establishment in goodhumour — given the tactical urgency tosolicit Islamabad’s help in extricating itselfout of Afghanistan — Trump had almostacceded to the Pakistani aspiration of“internationalising” the India-Pakistandifferences instead of insisting on “bilat-eralism” between the two disagreeing par-ties as was maintained by the US for long.

The immediate battleground for theIndo-Pakistan war of words is essentiallyon the disagreeing framework of a possi-ble peaceful solution ie, should it be con-ducted in a “bilateral” manner as Indiathinks appropriate or should third-party“mediate” as is the wont on Pakistan?Legally speaking, there ought to be noambiguity as the last-standing agreementbetween the two sovereigns, overriding allprevious understandings, is the SimlaAgreement (1972) that unequivocallystates that both countries will “settle theirdifferences by peaceful means throughbilateral negotiations.”

The Simla pact also captures theessentiality of “non-interference” in eachother’s internal affairs and conducting hos-tile propaganda — features that have uni-laterally been violated by Pakistan with itsproven support to insurgencies and terrorgroups in India, with Kargil emerging asthe apogee of its misadventures and machi-nations. Today, despite much posturing tothe contrary, having been found guilty on32 counts of the total 40 parameters relat-ed to terror financing, Pakistan has beenput on the “enhanced blacklist” by the glob-al watchdog, the Financial Action Task

Force (FATF). This backdrop ofsovereign immorality, incorri-gibility and duplicity is whatunderlies the Pakistani aversionto “bilateralism.”

There are various reasonsas to why Pakistan abhors“bilateralism”. Conceptuallyand practically, the delibera-tions that are conducted in a“bilateral” framework areimplicitly more focussed,nuanced with historical per-spective and sensitivities andabove all, lead to the fastestpossible resolutions.

Ironically, the efficacy of“bilateralism” is what hauntsthe Pakistani narrative. Peacewith India is the ultimate dele-gitimiser of the troika inPakistani establishment ie, mil-itary, politicos and the clergy.The entire edifice and rationaleof the Pakistani state is basedon a regressive, competitive andflawed concept of “two-nation”theory that militates against thetenets of inclusivity, secularityand prosperity of the Indianstate.

The creation ofBangladesh in 1971 destroyedthe foundational raison d’etreof Pakistan. This was a deepwound that dangerously ques-tioned its military and the rul-ing politicos of that time and,

thus, germinated the seeds ofthe third vector of thePakistani establishment ie,clergy, to inter-mingle, mutateand atrophy the societal-polit-ical-cultural moorings of thestate. Post 1971, for BenazirBhutto to Zia-ul-Haq as alsosubsequent regimes over theresuch as the Pakistan PeoplesParty (PPP), Pakistan MuslimLeague (Nawaz) [PML-N] andnow Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf(PTI) led by Imran Khan, theunderlying, accompanyingand unsettled fixation to“even” with India by keepingthe fires burning is a predom-inant national instinct.

“Bilateralism” works onreconciliation, confidence-building steps, gradualism —all of this is an anathema to thevery existence of the Pakistanitroika/establishment. Thethird-party “mediation” allowsthe much-needed obfuscation,escalation and pandering tounrelated emotions that keepthe issue “live”, thus necessitat-ing the relevance of each of theelements of the Pakistani estab-lishment. Third-party media-tion is also sought via friend-ly and leverage-able countriesand organisations who canprovide the much-needed tilt inthe battle of positions.

Resorting to pitching theKashmir issue within theprecincts of an organisation likethe Organisation of IslamicCountries (OIC) by defaultallows Pakistan to posit thesame from a narrow religiouslens and emotion as opposed tothe reality of historical facts,agreements and any other soci-etal lens. On the other hand,the Constitutional construct ofIndia auto-rejects religiosityas a basis of difference, prefer-ence or concern. Equality of all,irrespective of their race, reli-gion or region, is theConstitutional guarantee.

“Internationalising” theKashmir issue is the only uni-fying aspiration for a nationthat is deeply polarised, com-busting and enfeebled (finan-cially, socially and economical-ly). However, Pakistan has notbeen able to replicate thewounded sense of “Palestine” asthe comparable actions of theIndian state and Israel inaddressing their respective con-cerns have been starkly differ-ent. With all its systemic flaws,occasional mistakes and mis-steps, India has always sought,invested and aspired for“peace.” This legitimises thelarger Indian narrative.

Globally, there is an

increasing amount of plain-speak, impatience and intoler-ance with roughish duplicitous-ness that naturally lends itselfto isolating nations that stillinsist on carrying on the tracksof the past.

The recent retraction ofTrump to re-suggest “bilater-alism”, the haunting silence ofthe Arab Sheikhdoms towardsthe rote Pakistani pitch onKashmir and the unrelentingpressure on Islamabad bymultilateral organisations likeFATF, are all symptomatic ofthe times that be.

Unfortunately, there is aparallel need to sustain theskeletal-structure of gover-nance in Pakistan as it is, as thealternative to this can be farworse than the one that existstoday — Libya, Iraq, andYemen are cases in point of dis-mantling imperfect structures.

Thus, it is only the collec-tive global pressure to “man-age” the Pakistani establish-ment and limit its nefariousabilities that can usher in rela-tive peace as the existing issuesare foundational, existentialand regime-sustaining.

(The writer, a military vet-eran, is a former Lt Governor ofAndaman & Nicobar Islandsand Puducherry)

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Sir — This refers to the editori-al, “Funding the economy”(August 28). It is hard to believethat the Reserve Bank of India(RBI) deferred to the CentralGovernment to the extent ofalmost emptying its coffers on itsown without any prodding fromthe beneficiary of its bonanza. Itis all too evident that the Centralbank has become lessautonomous and more pliant.

The Government was eyeingthe RBI cash for a long time andit did as a first resort what itshould have done as a last resort— taking what was saved by theRBI over the years for a “rainyday.” “Exhaust all sources ofmoney” seems to be the princi-ple followed by the ModiGovernment. That it had to tapinto RBI’s reserves is an admissionthat all is not right with the econ-omy.

It would be a grossly exagger-ated claim to say that RBI’s sur-plus cash transfer will reverse theslowdown in economic growth.At best, it might ease some of thefiscal pressure of theGovernment’s own making.Rahul Gandhi’s analogy that the

transfer of �1.76 lakh crore sur-plus from the RBI to the CentralGovernment is like “stealing aband-aid from a dispensary andsticking it on a gunshot wound”is striking and is not completelywithout substance.

The payout of �1.76 lakh

crore will make it that muchmore difficult for us to ensurefinancial stability in the event ofa global economic crisis and anintensification of trade wars. TheGovernment is sure to use a por-tion of the bonanza to meet theshortfalls in revenue collections

and recapitalise banks and it hasto make a judicious use of the bal-ance if it is to succeed in justify-ing the receipt of the windfall. Weare okay with the cash transfer ifit brings tangible benefits.

G David MiltonMaruthancode

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Sir — Recently, Congress parlia-mentarian Shashi Tharoor court-ed controversy for praising PrimeMinister Narendra Modi.Enraged at this, the Kerala unit ofthe Congress has been demand-ing its pound of flesh fromTharoor. The party wants todemonise the Prime Ministerinstead of praising him butTharoor is made of sterner stuff.He cannot be a political puppetto act as per the whims and fan-cies of the party.

He has already made it clearthat he is a true Congressman butwhatever good the Prime Ministerdoes cannot be hidden. He hasalways criticised Modi when hewent wrong. So, he is of theopinion that whatever Modi doesgood for the country must beacknowledged rather than criticis-ing it. One should not remainmyopic. Tharoor’s stand on thisissue is praiseworthy. He shouldnot be singled out or sidelined inthe party for speaking the truth.

TK NandananChennai

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In the Indian Constitution, the Governor ofa State occupies a unique position. He is, byvirtue of his oath, expected to preserve, pro-

tect and defend the Constitution of the coun-try and uphold the law. No other high func-tionary, except for the President of India, issworn in as per such phraseology.

While the oath that a Governor takes is sim-ilar to that of the President, unlike him, theGovernor is allowed a certain degree of discre-tion, albeit within constitutional limits. Forinstance, Article 163 (2) reads, “If any questionarises whether any matter is or is not a matteras respects which the Governor is by or underthis Constitution required to act in his discre-tion, the decision of the Governor in his discre-tion shall be final, and the validity of anythingdone by the Governor shall not be called in ques-tion on the ground that he ought or ought notto have acted in his discretion.”

At the time of formation of a StateGovernment, when the Chief Minister and theCouncil of Ministers are yet to be sworn in, con-stitutionally there is no one to aid and advise theGovernor as per the provisions of Article 163(1). However, over time, precedents and conven-tions have evolved which are usually followedby the Governor.

Also, in this matter, the SarkariaCommission that was set up in 1983 by theCentral Government to examine the Centre-State relationship on various portfolios and sug-gest changes within the framework of theIndian Constitution, had given some concreteadvice.

One of the key suggestions made by theCommission was that while going through theprocess of Government formation, the Governorshould select a leader who, in his opinion, is mostlikely to command a majority in the Assembly.

In this context, Article 164 (1) lays down thatthe Chief Minister shall be appointed by theGovernor and further as per Article 164 (4), aminister who for any period of six consecutivemonths, is not a member of the Legislature ofthe State, shall at the expiration of that periodcease to be a Minister.

In this context, an unprecedented situationcontinues to prevail in the sensitive State ofSikkim, where Prem Singh Tamang alias PSGolay of Sikkim Krantikari Morcha (SKM) wassworn in as the Chief Minister on May 27, 2019.The unusual thing about this swearing-in is thefact that Golay, during his tenure as Minister forAnimal Husbandry in 1996, was held guiltyunder the Prevention of Corruption Act for mis-appropriating �9.5 lakh meant for the purchaseof milch cattle. Golay’s conviction was upheldby the High Court and he was released only afterserving a one-year prison sentence last year.

This conviction and subsequent imprison-ment has brought Golay under the ambit ofSection 8 (1) (m) of the Representation of thePeople Act, 1951, entailing disqualification fora period of six years from the date of his releasefrom prison.

Perhaps it was only on account of this dis-qualification that Golay did not contest the elec-tion to the State Assembly held in April 2019.This also disqualifies him from becoming amember of the State Legislature in accordance

with the provisions of Article 173. Despite the disqualification, the SKM elect-

ed Golay as their leader and Governor GangaPrasad swore him in as the Chief Minister, beingthe leader of the party with an absolute major-ity. It is obvious that the Governor had used hisdiscretion and not followed the principles laid down by the Supreme Court in such mat-ters.

The Governor is at liberty to appoint a per-son as the Chief Minister, who may not be amember of the Legislature, at that time, provid-ed the State Legislature endorses such achoice, with the condition that he has to gethimself elected within a period of six months.

Keeping this rule in mind and in a last-ditch effort to secure his position, Golayrequested the Election Commission of Indiato waive his disqualification from contestingpolls. He cited Section 11 of the Act, whichallows the Commission to remove any disqual-ifications under Chapter 3 of the Act (whichincludes Section 8) or to reduce the period ofsuch disqualification. Golay argued that heneeded to be elected to the Assembly withinsix months of his appointment.

On the other hand, there is this case wherethe person so elected has the confidence of theHouse but is not qualified to be elected as alegislator. It was argued in late J Jayalalithaa’scase by KK Venugopal, the incumbentAttorney-General that, in a parliamentarydemocracy the will of the people must prevail.

Justice Patnaik, however, ruled inJayalalithaa’s case that with the disqualificationunder Section 8 (3) of the Representation ofPeople Act staring him in the face, the Governorwould be acting beyond his jurisdiction andagainst the constitutional inhibitions and normsin appointing a disqualified person as the ChiefMinister on the sole reasoning that he/she had

been elected as leader of the majority party.The plea taken by the SKM that the rele-

vant amending clause of the Representation ofPeople Act has since been repealed, may nothave much strength, as after the amendmenthas been incorporated in the main body of theAct and notified as such, repealing of theamending Act at a later date would not makean impact.

But this is also a matter on which the apexcourt has to take a view whether the repeal-ing of this Act was constitutional or not.

The Supreme Court, in Jayalalithaa’s case,also went on to say that the Governor was afunctionary under the Constitution and can-not, in exercise of his discretion, do anythingthat is contrary to the Constitution of the coun-try and its laws.

When requested to wait for the period ofsix months allowed under Article 164(4) toexpire before pronouncing the judgment, thecourt had taken the view that “appointment ofa person to the office of Chief Minister whois not qualified to hold it should be struckdown at the earliest.”

The situation as it prevails today is that a per-son disqualified under the law has been in theChief Minister’s chair for the last three months.It is now for the apex court to decide whetherthe discretion used by the Governor was con-stitutional or was a matter of indiscretion.

In the latter case the appointment ofSikkim’s Chief Minister and his entire Councilof Ministers would become invalid as happenedin the case of Jayalalithaa in Tamil Nadu. Whatthe future holds and what precedents will be setthrough the Golay case, only time will tell.

(The author is a former Governor and asenior advisor at the Pranab MukherjeeFoundation)

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The untimely demise of formerFinance Minister Arun Jaitleyhas been variously mourned as

the passing away of a political andlegal giant, a strategist par excellence,both in the court of law and in thepeople’s court, an erudite orator andabove all, a great human being.Jaitley’s acts of benevolence touchedmany hearts and were duly men-tioned by many people in theirremembrances.

However, there was one aspectof his personality that was not writ-ten about much, and that was Jaitley,the institution builder.

Today, the Vivekananda Instituteof Professional Studies (VIPS), theinstitution I head, ranks among the

top centres of higher educationwith state-of-the-art facilities. Eachyear, thousands of VIPS studentsenter the fields of law, media, busi-ness and the IT sector.

Unknown to them, they all havea huge debt to pay to Jaitley becauseit is due to his skills as a lawyer andhis benevolence that they got theiralma mater.

More than a decade ago, theinstitute was given a five-acre plot bythe Delhi Development Authority(DDA) for a hefty sum. However, theDDA was not forthright about thefact that there was a jhuggi clusteron the plot. The DDA intended tohand over the plot to us withoutbothering to clear the settlement, asit should have done.

We filed a suit and the mattercame up before the Delhi HighCourt. Our lawyers advised us tohire a senior advocate and suggest-ed Jaitley’s name. I was acquaintedwith Jaitley but did not know himtoo well. When I accompanied mylawyer for a meeting with Jaitley, heoffered us a cup of coffee, heard usthrough and said, “Dr Vats, I am told

that your law school is doing verywell. In fact, my son refers to thetutorials that you give to your stu-dents.” I was taken aback and did-n’t know how to react to this highpraise.

Going back to the case at hand,Jaitley told my lawyer that it wouldbe a long-drawn court battle need-ing several court appearances; nev-ertheless he would fight for the insti-tute.

Amazingly, after the first hear-ing in the matter, he told his legalclerk not to raise any bills as he wasoffering his services pro bonobecause the future of students wasat stake.

In all, there were over 20 hear-ings before the High Court andJaitley, who was a senior SupremeCourt advocate, would appear foreach of them. In case there was adelay for some reason like the DDAcounsel not turning up, he wouldsettle down in the High Court can-teen, have cups of coffee while chat-ting with the lawyers there and waitfor his turn before the Bench.

There was only one hearing for

which he did not appear as there wasa pressing meeting of the Board ofControl for Cricket in India (BCCI)in Mumbai.

On the day of the final argu-ment, Jaitley spoke with erudition,authority, conviction and aplomb fornearly 45 minutes. He concluded bysaying that the plot was meant for aneducational institution of eminenceand not for a five-star hotel, hence,the land allocating authority couldnot apply similar parameters for

handover. Needless to say, we gotrelief from the HC. It was a monu-mental judgment that forced theDDA to revise its land allocation pol-icy.

Thankfully, Jaitley’s associationwith us did not end with the case andhe began taking a keen interest in thedevelopment of VIPS. In fact, he vis-ited the VIPS campus twice after itscompletion.

His second visit to the campuswas as Finance Minister and he tookthe time out from his busy scheduleto preside over the convocationfunction. In his address, he spokelike a true scholar and impressed thefaculty and the students alike withhis knowledge of diverse issues.

His last public function too waswith us, as a few days before his 66thbirthday in December 2018, heagreed to release a book on photog-raphy published by VIPS. This booktitled Wide Angle showcased myefforts and that of the students andfaculty. Since he was recuperatingfrom a kidney transplant surgery, itwas difficult for him to travel all theway to the VIPS campus in Pitam

Pura. Jaitley requested for a venue inthe heart of Delhi and despite healthrestrictions, he arrived on time.

Once again he spoke with sim-ilar affection and enthusiasm for theinstitution he had helped build. Hespoke about the new avenues in edu-cation and how the art of photogra-phy not only encouraged creativitybut also created employment oppor-tunities.

He encouraged young minds tomove off the beaten track and lookfor newer and richer employmentavenues. Jaitley was very clear thatevening about his vision of ‘NewIndia’, which he and his long-timefriend and comrade-in-arms PrimeMinister Narendra Modi had gottogether to implement.

I am sure that Jaitley must havehelped several other institutionslike VIPS to overcome obstacles cre-ated by obdurate systems. I cannotspeak for others but for us at VIPS,he shall ever remain a guiding star.

(The writer is a former MLA andChairman, Vivekananda Institute ofProfessional Studies, GGSIPUniversity)

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Roadside eateries inChennai and suburban

regions would soon spotnew looks and ambiencethanks to an initiativebeing launched by theTamil Nadu Government incollaboration with celebri-ty chef K Damodaran.

There are no officialstatistics about eateries in thecity, especially those operatingfrom footpaths, walkways andpublic places. These “restau-rants” patronised by the work-ing classes and migrant work-ers were epicentres of all kindsof contagious diseases becauseof poor hygiene and sanitation.

“Big money could be madeout of eatery business as insti-tutional expenses are nil com-pared to graded restaurants andhotels. A slight tinkering hereand a small rearrangementthere would make these estab-lishments real money spin-ners,” K Damodaran told ThePioneer.

Damodaran , who wasrecently elected as the presidentof the South India Chef

Association (SICA) said he hassubmitted a comprehensiveplan to the State government tohelp the eateries to emerge asspot new looks and making thecustomers happy. “Most of theseeateries are run by people with-out any educational qualificationor professional experience. Butmost of them are good inpreparing tasty food. All we haveto do is to convince them aboutmaintaining hygiene while cook-ing and serving the dishes. Wewill make them understand theimportance of sanitation, neat-ness and hygiene which could beexecuted without major expens-es,” explained Damodaran.

He pointed out that thekind of water they use and thevessels in which they serve the

foods and how it was servedare points the SICA wouldgive emphasis. “The trainingsessions would be held byGovernment agencies whichwill take the initiative ininviting the people man-ning these eateries. Since theproprietors of these eatingplaces stand to gain in thelong run we are confidentthat they would join thisscheme,” said Damodaran.The aim is to convert the

road side eating places to that ofglobal level. “What makes theeateries in Tamil Nadu lookweak compared to other placesis the poor hygiene and sanita-tion associated with them. Mostof the people owning thesetemporary hotels do not knowthe financial potential of theseventures . Some of the eateriesin Marina Beach and T Nagarare money spinners which gen-erate thousands of rupees asprofit after a night’s sale,” said anauditor who helps the owners tomanage their money.

So, next time when youcome to Chennai , be preparedto eat in different kind ofroadside eateries which wouldbe neat, clean and hygienic.

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For the first time in the 126-year history of sarvajanik

(public) Ganeshotsav celebra-tions, a prominent associationwill unveil gigantic ‘eco-friend-ly’ idol of Lord Ganesha, herenext week.

The 22x19 feet idol, withLord Ganesha shown in a gen-tle, but striking, sitting pose,was commissioned by theTejukaya SarvajanikGaneshotsav Trust (TSGT), inthe Lalbaug area.

“After a lot of deliberations,we decided to forego the reg-ular inexpensive Plaster ofParis (PoP) idol in favour of aneco-friendly one this year. Weexpect it to be a trend-setter

and shall continue to makeonly eco-friendly idols henceforth,” TSGT vice-presi-dent Ashish C Rampure told IANS.

The approximately 1.20tonne idol has been designedand crafted by legendary artistRajan Zad, known for makinghuge idols for different organ-isations across Maharashtra.

“Initially, he made a claymould of the Tejukayacha RajaGanesh idol and then coveredthat with papier mâché, a stickymixture comprising ordinarypaper mixed with either flouror glue or water.

“Then the idol took shapewith several layers of papiermâché to make it a solid struc-ture. It’s stone-hard but can eas-

ily dissolve in water, barelywithin an hour,” Rampure said.

However, the idol cost wentup to Rs 12,00,000, against thenormal Rs 400,000 for a regu-lar clay idol of this size. The risein cost is also attributed to totalabsence of clay moulds in themarket for making eco-friend-ly Ganesh idols, and the longtime taken to dry it, accordingto Zad.

After the idol was dried, itwas painted with natural watercolours to bring out the magi-cal qualities of the LordGanesha.

The idol will be unveiledon Monday, the first day of the10-day festival of Ganeshotsavacross Maharashtra and otherparts of India.

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Large number of school-going children remained

stranded inside their class-rooms in one of the middleschools along the Line ofControl in Mendhar sector ofPoonch during heavy firing byPakistan Army early onThursday morning.

As the mortar shelling con-tinued for about two hours inthe forward area, the schoolchildren along with their teach-ers took shelter inside theirclasses to ensure their safety.

Since August 15, thePakistan Army is bent upon tar-geting civilian areas along theLine of Control (LoC) to pro-voke strong Indian retaliation.

According to eyewitnessreports, during the brief lullperiod, the school authorities,directed the children to shift tosafer places away from theschool building. Eyewitnessessaid, the children were seenrushing out of their class roomsand climbed hillocks to reachsafer places. According to offi-cial sources, no student washurt in the firing. All of themreached homes safely, officialsources said.

According to Defence PROin Jammu, Lt-Col DevendraAnand, “The Pakistan Armyinitiated ‘unprovoked’ ceasefireviolation in Mendhar sector ofPoonch around 11.30 a.m”. Hesaid Pakistan army used smallarms firing and mortar shellingto target the forward areas”.

In response, “The IndianArmy gave befitting reply andretaliated effectively andstrongly,” he added.

Meanwhile, tension pre-vailed in the forward areas asintermittent firing continuedfrom both the sides.

Indian Army has lost threejawans and one civilian inrecent incidents of ceasefireviolations. Giving befittingreply to Pakistan Army, IndianArmy too has caused heavydamages on the other side ofthe line of control anddestroyed several Pakistaniposts and inflicted heavycausalities to the PakistanArmy soldiers.

According to officialsources, Pakistan army isresorting to at least 10 ceasefireviolations in different sectorsand desperately trying to pushheavily armed group of terror-ists inside the Indian territory.Indian army too is maintainingtight vigil along the line of con-tol to foil these attempts. SinceAugust 2019, over 270 inci-dents of ceasefire violationshave been reported along theline of control in Jammu andKashmir, official sources said.

Since January 2019, over1,850 incidents of ceasefireviolations have been reportedin the region.

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Pakistan should stop “crying”unnecessarily over India’s

decision to end special status ofJammu & Kashmir and insteadfocus on dismantling terrorinfrastructure operating from itssoil, Defence Minister RajnathSingh said on Thursday.

As tension between Indiaand Pakistan escalated overthe Kashmir issue, Singh saidIslamabad does not have anylocus standi on Jammu &Kashmir and it must stop inter-fering in India’s internal affairs.

In his first visit to thisstrategically key region after theGovernment’s historic deci-sion on Jammu & Kashmir, theDefence Minister said Pakistan should now focus ongross violations of humanrights in Pakistan OccupiedKashmir (PoK), including inGilgit-Baltistan.

“I want to ask Pakistanwhen was Kashmir with youthat you keep crying about it.In fact, Pakistan is part ofIndia. On what issue are youaggrieved? Why you are unnec-essarily crying? Stop crying,”Singh said addressing an eventorganised by Defence Researchand Development Organisation(DRDO).

“Truth is that PakistanOccupied Kashmir includingGilgit-Baltistan has been underPakistan’s illegal occupation.Pakistan should focus onaddressing human rights vio-lations and atrocities in PoK,”

he added. Singh also referred toa resolution by Parliament in1994 which said entire PoK,including Gilgit-Baltistan ispart of India.

“We respected your exis-tence after Pakistan became aseparate country. It does notmean you keep saying whatev-er you want to say and keepcommenting on Kashmir in aplanned way. No country in theworld will allow it. Kashmir ispart of India and nobody hasany doubt about it,” he said.

In his address, Singh saidLadakh is a strategic area forthe country and theGovernment will ensure itsall-round development.

“Why are you concerned?

You first end terrorism in yourcountry. Pakistan is our neigh-bour. We and our prime min-ister want cordial relations withPakistan. We are for resolvingissues through dialogue. Buthow can talks take place whenyou keep trying to destabiliseIndia by using terror. The entireinternational communityknows about it,” he said.

The Defence Minister saidabrogating provisions of Article370 of the Constitution towithdraw special status ofJammu & Kashmir has been along-standing promise of theBJP and the decision was nottaken in a hurry.

“No country is withPakistan on the current issue,”

Singh said. He also cited Hindiproverb ‘begani shaadi meinAbdullah deewana’ to assertthat Pakistan had nothing to dowith Kashmir.

“There is no need toindulge in unnecessary melodyon Kashmir, to show concernover Kashmir...We respect peo-ple’s wish. People’s will prevailin any healthy democracy,”said Singh.

He said US DefenseSecretary Mark Esper, during atelephonic conversation, toldhim that abrogation of provi-sions of Article 370 was aninternal matter of India.

“When we made a law tomake Ladakh a separate UnionTerritory then we not onlyrespected the public sentimenthere but also gave a solution tothe problems of the people,”Singh said.

“Our Prime Minister hasmade it clear that localisedsolution will be brought in forIndia’s strategic areas,” he said.

Singh, who was here toattend the ‘Kisan Jawan VigyanMela’, organised by DefenceInstitute of High AltitudeResearch (DIHAR) DRDO, saidthe event is a big step towardsstrengthening the strategicecosystem in Ladakh.

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The mystery surroundingthe sudden disappearance

of a post-graduate student,who levelled harassmentcharges against BJP leaderSwami Chinmayanand, con-tinued on the sixth day as herfamily awaited any concreteinformation about her.

The woman, a student at acollege run by Chinmayanand’strust, has been missing sinceAugust 24, a day after sheposted a video on social media,alleging that the former UnionMinister was harassing andthreatening to kill her.

She had not namedChinmayanand in the videobut said “a senior leader of thesant community”. The politician,who faced similar accusations in2011 and was booked for rap-ing a woman who stayed at hisashram, has disputed the charge.

The UP Police claimed thestudent was spotted at a Delhihotel on Wednesday but hadleft the place before officialsreached there. A search isunder way to trace her.

On Thursday, Kotwalipolice station incharge PraveshSingh said the woman’s hostelroom in Shahjahanpur wassealed last evening to avoidtrespassing and evidence tam-pering. Her mother had visit-ed the hostel on August 24 afterthe news the student had beenmissing spread but she foundher room locked.

Her college’s principal toldPTI that though classes beganon August 5, she has notattended any since. He said shehad begun working at a libraryafter college hours in July 2018.

In the video she postedonline, the student alleged shehas “evidence” that the 72-year-old three-time Lok Sabhamember, who was a Minister ofState in the Atal Bihari VajpayeeGovernment, had harassed andthreatened to kill her.

Her father later filed a

written complaint, accusingChinmayanand of sexuallyharassing his daughter. But thepolitician’s lawyer Om Singhclaimed his client was beingblackmailed and had receiveda message on WhatsApp onAugust 23, the day the videosurfaced, demanding Rs 5 croreransom.

“There is not an iota oftruth in their claims,” thelawyer said. The student’smother has said she talked toChinmayanand over phoneafter visiting her hostel and hetold her he was in Haridwarand will try to find her after hisreturn to the city.

The same day, her fathersaid, the family received a callfrom the woman and she toldher mother she was fine. Herfather said he called back onthe phone number and was toldit was the reception of a hotelin Mahipalpur in Delhi. But,according to the UP Police, shewas spotted in a hotel in Delhi’sDwarka on Wednesday and shewas seen accompanying a manin the CCTV footage.

Shahjahanpur Superinten-dent of Police S Chanappa saidChinmayanand has beenbooked on charges related toabduction for murder andcriminal intimidation.

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Armed with a SupremeCourt order, CPI(M) gen-

eral secretary Sitaram Yechuryon Thursday met his ailingparty colleague MohammedYousuf Tarigami who has beenunder house arrest sinceAugust 5.

Yechury arrived here inthe afternoon and was escort-ed by police to meet Tarigamiat his Gupkar Road residencein Srinagar’s Civil Lines area.Officials said the CPI(M)leader spent nearly three hourswith Tarigami.

Yechury had landed inSrinagar on August 9, too, but

was turned away from the air-port by the State administration.It was four days after the Centreannounced the revocation ofJammu & Kashmir’s special sta-tus under Article 370.

On Wednesday, theSupreme Court rejected theCentre’s contention thatYechury’s visit may endanger

the situation in the State.“Why do you have any dif-

ficulty if a citizen of this coun-try wants to go there and meethis friend and party colleague,”a bench headed by Chief JusticeRanjan Gogoi asked SolicitorGeneral Tushar Mehta, whowas opposing Yechury’s visit.

The apex court made it

clear that Yechury was allowedto visit Jammu & Kashmironly to meet his party col-league. Attention was drawn toan interim application seekingthe court’s orders to bringTarigami to the All IndiaInstitute of Medical Sciences,New Delhi, for better medicalfacilities.

The Bench said it would beconstrued a violation of thecourt order if Yechury wasfound to be “indulging in anyother act of omission and com-mission”. In accordance withthe apex court’s direction,Yechury will be filing an affi-davit about what transpired inJammu & Kashmir.

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Congress leader RahulGandhi on Thursday

sought early compensation andspeedy rehabilitation for flood-affected people of his parlia-mentary constituencyWayanad. Rahul also attendeda meeting of local self-govern-ment members at Mambad inWandoor and said the prima-ry aim of the elected represen-tatives was to work for theinterest of the people.

He also visited the flood-hit at Odayikkal regulatorbridge area, and met the floodvictims and the business com-munity at Thiruvambady inKozhikode.

Besides his new office atKalpetta, the Wayanad MP onThursday opened his secondoffice at Mukkam and said the

doors would always remain openfor people of the constituency.

While interacting with localsat the St Claret Public Schoolhere on the third day of his visitto Wayanad, Rahul said he haddemanded Prime MinisterNarendra Modi and Kerala Chief

Minister Pinarayi Vijayan thatcompensation and relocation bedone fast and quick.

Rahul said he had beenassured that the needful wouldbe done. “United DemocraticFront (UDF) workers shouldput pressure on the Kerala

Government to ensure thatcompensation and relocation isdone quickly and fast,” he said.

The Congress MP said hecould not help but salute thespirit of people, especially chil-dren, of Wayanad, which hasbeen hit by devastating floods.“Yesterday, I met a little girl, whowas standing in front of herdamaged house, but still had asmile on her face. I asked her ifshe was scared during the floodsand her reply was no,” he said.

Pointing out that pic-turesque Wayanad hadtremendous tourism potential,he said there was need todevelop it in a sustainablemanner. “I love Kerala, butwhen people say God’s owncountry, they should think ofWayanad,” Rahul said.

He assured the people ofhis constituency that he would

raise their problems inParliament and said the issuesfaced by farmers in the regionhad been raised by him in theLower House.

The Congress leader alsomet flood-affected people atAaram Mayil in Pozhithanapanchayat. Rahul would beconcluding his four-day visit toWayanad on Friday after visiting a family who lost twoof their members and meetingthe flood affectedat Pathar andKaippini.

Heavy rain and floods hadtriggered a series of landslidesand caused havoc in the north-ern districts of Wayanad andMalappuram early this monthin which at least 125 people losttheir lives. While 60 peopledied in Malappuram, 14 losttheir lives in rain-related inci-dents in Wayanad district.

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Little did a 55-year-oldMumbai doctor suffering

from liver cancer, and a 36-year-old Kolhapur farmer putting upwith end-stage liver failure,realise till four months ago thattheir destinies would be soclosely intertwined — that theywould have successful livertransplants through exchange oftheir donor livers and becomeconnected forever.

Suffering as they were withterminal ailments, the two —the doctor and the farmer —had lost all hope of life-savingliver transplants, as the onlyavailable family donors — theirrespective wives — were of dif-ferent blood groups.

A rare donor liver exchangewas successfully performed onthem three weeks ago at Sir HNReliance Foundation Hospitalhere by a liver transplant teamheaded by renowned liver sur-geon Dr AS Soin.

Congratulating his teamfor its achievement, Hospital’sCEO Dr Tarang Gianchandanisaid that a team of 35 doctors

toiled for 14 hours in 4 operat-ing theatres to perform the twoliver transplants. “Apart fromSir HN Reliance FoundationHospital, Mumbai, only a hand-ful of other hospitals in Indiaand abroad have the infra-structure, expertise and coor-dination to pull off such achallenging case,” she said.

Dr AS Soin, Director andChief Transplant Surgeon said:“Atam (name changed) and hiswife’s blood groups were B andA and that of Bikram (namechanged) and his wife’s, A andB respectively. An exchange ofthe livers donated by eachdonor allowed us to transplantboth patients and save them.The biggest challenge in swaptransplant surgery is that allfour operations (two patientsand two donors) must takeplace simultaneously, other-wise the donor for the secondtransplant (first recipient’s rel-ative) may refuse to undergosurgery once their own lovedone has been transplanted”.

Dr Soin’s team comprisedsurgeons and anesthetistsincluding Dr Amit Rastogi, Dr

Thiagarajan, Dr Soumil Vyas,Dr Pravin Agarwal, Dr HemantMehta and Dr Vijay Vohra.

While kidney swaps arecommon, they are rare in livertransplantation as the opera-tions are far more intricate, takeeight to ten hours each, must bedone with zero error, and apartfrom blood group, also needliver size matching betweenpatients and donors.

“Out of nearly 3,100 livertransplants, we have done 43swaps in 86 patients, which isthe highest such experienceglobally,” Dr Soin said.

“We are now developing anAI-based liver exchange algo-rithm that matches incompat-ible patient-donor pairs tomaximize the number of trans-plants. In fact, we are now con-templating inter-hospital and

inter-city swap transplants. Theethics of possible swapsbetween different organdonors, for example — ‘liver fora kidney’ swap, are also beingdebated,” Dr Soin said.

Dr Chetan Bhatt, Director,Gastroenterology andHepatobiliary Sciences said:“The pre-transplant prepara-tion of both patients was verychallenging, as they were verysick – one with advanced can-cer and the other with recur-rent life-threatening bleedingand liver failure-related kidneydysfunction. Neither of themwould have survived morethan a few months without atransplant. The successfulexchange was an outstandingexample of how the sharing ofhuman suffering and joy tran-scended social barriers andunited two families.”

“The swap option is ablessing at the time of organdonor shortage,” Dr Bhatt said.

Three weeks after thetransplants, both patients andthe donors are on normal diet,convalescing well, and fastreturning to normal lives.

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Page 9: ˇˆ ˙˝ ˛ ˚ ˝+ ( ( › uploads › 2019 › epaper › ... · Mundra port is one of the largest in the country and last year topped the rankings by volumes, while the State-run

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In an early morning operationon Thursday, sleuths of the

National Investigation Agency(NIA), barged into multiplelocations in Coimbatore as partof its probe into reports of infil-tration by Lashkar-e-Tayyeba(LeT) into Tamil Nadu.

“The NIA is conductingraids in Coimbatore in housesUmar Farooq, Janaabar Ali,Sameena Mubin, MohammedYasir and Saddam Husseinrelating to the possible links ofthese people with Islamic Stateand LeT infiltrated terrorists inTamil Nadu,” a source on theNIA team told The Pioneer.

Residents of five personswere raided by the team of NIAofficials which reached the cityfrom its Kochi office.

Sources in NIA tod thisnewspaper that the raids werepart of the investigation into theintelligence alert of August 23about terrorists belonging to theLeT had entered various partsof Tamil Nadu to create extrem-

ist activities. Coimbatore isalready in the radar ofIntelligence and security agen-cies as there are reports thatIslamic youth were on a missionto set up the dreaded Ansarullamodule in the district.

Various parts ofCoimbatore has come under asecurity blanket as the city isall set to celebrate VinayakaChathurthui in a big way.

Though the raids lasted fornearly six hours no arrest hasbeen made with either by theNIA or the State Police. Someof the houses raided onThursday were the same ones

searched by the NIA after theAugust 23 alert.

The NIA probing the linksof Easter bombings in Sri Lankahad conducted searches at var-ious locations in Tamil Nadu aspart of its probe into the‘Ansarulla’ terror module case inJuly. During that raid five per-sons were taken into custodyfrom various places in the State,including Ramanathapuram,Theni , Coimbatore, Tirunelveliand Chennai. The five personswere arrested following the cap-ture of 11 youth in Delhi, whowere deported from a WestAsian country.

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Even as MK Stalin, the DMKpresident, continued his

slanging, Edappadi KPalaniswami, Chief Ministerof Tamil Nadu reached Londonon Thursday morning as partof his fortnight long foreigntour to the UK, the USA andthe UAE to woo investmentsfrom Tamil diaspora settled inthese countries for the indus-trial development of the State.

J News, the news channelowned by the AIADMK airedvisuals of the chief ministerclad in suit and accompaniedby Health Minister VijayBhaskar visiting head quartersof London Ambulance Servicesto get himself familiarised withthe functioning of life savingmissions undertaken by theagency. The delegation led bythe chief minister signed MoUswith the National HealthMission of Britain for cooper-ation and collaboration inhealth related issues, the chan-nel said quoting a member of

the Chief Minister’s entourage.The CM is expected to visit

the advanced dairy units in UKand USA as part of his initia-tive to set up a world class dairyunit in Salem. The verbal duelbetween the chief minister andleader of the opposition Stalinpeaked as the former boardedthe aircraft from Chennai air-port late on Wednesday.

Earlier in the day Stalin gadquestioned the purpose behindthe foreign tour of the chiefminister within seven monthsof holding the Global InvestorsMeet . “The Government hadclaimed that the GIM had suc-ceeded in attracting more thanRs 3 lakh crore worth of invest-ments to the State. If that istrue, why the chief minister isleaving on a fortnight longtour,” said Stalin while com-

menting about the first officialvisit in 20 years by a TamilNadu CM to Europe and US.

He claimed that his fatherKarunanidhi (former chiefminister) was instrumental inbringing in investments andindustries to the State withoutgoing anywhere in search ofcapital and entrepreneurs. “Allmajor industries which you seein Tamil Nadu were set up byKarunanidhi and that too bystaying in Chennai,” said Stalin.

But Palaniswamy retorted bytelling that he was an ordinaryfarmer and has no personalinterests or motives behind thetour. “ I am going abroad for theeconomic development of TamilNadu and to create jobs to theeducated youth of the State.Investors and entrepreneurs whohad come for the GIM held inJanuary had asked me to under-take a trip like this for interact-ing with industrialists based inUK and USA and hence thistour. Ill be meeting perons ofTamil origin to seek their help inthe economic development ofthe State,” the CM said.

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Telangana Health MinisterEtela Rajender, who is in

the thick of controversy overalleged ‘leaking’ of details ofChief Minister KCR’s meetingat Pragathi Bhavan last weekwith Ministers and officials todiscuss new Revenue Act torevenue employees union lead-ers, has stirred up yet anothercontroversy on Thursday.

Etela said that his Ministerpost is not a ‘bhiksha’ (alm)given by anyone to him and hegot Minister post based on hisseniority, efficiency and loyal-ty to TRS and KCR.

Etela also claimed that he isone among the owners of ‘gula-bi jenda’ (TRS flag) as he is withTRS since its inception and notlike other some other leaders inTRS, who joined from otherparties in the middle.

Etela was responding to thereports in the media that KCRis angry at him for leaking con-fidential information to rev-enue staff and CM is all set todrop Etela from his Cabinet.

Etela said, “Minister postgiven to me is not a biksha byanyone. It came in recognitionof my seniority, efficiency andloyalty to TRS and KCR. Inever sought Minister post inBC quota.”

He rubbished reports thathe got minister post under BCquota as he hails from Mudirajcommunity.

Condemning mediareports on alleged ‘leaks’ ofCM’s meeting, Etela said, “Ihave no need to give explana-tion on these cheap reports.

Everyone knows who is what.Everyone know what is EtelaRajender.”

Responding to reports thathe indulged in heavy corrup-tion as Minister for the past fiveyears due to which he couldbuild a palatial bungalow inShamirpet on city outskirts,Etela said, “If anyone provesthat I took even Rs 5,000 bribefrom anyone, I will quit polit-ical permanently. Why some-one should feel jealous of me ifI construct my own house.”

Stating that in democracyit’s the people who will decidethe fate of politicians and notleaders, Etela said, “Who is ahero, and who is a zero will beknown very soon. I am alwaysa lighting lamp. My journeywill continue.”

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Former Union FinanceMinister P Chidambaram’s

arrest in the INX Media cor-ruption and money launderingcase is “good news”, IndraniMukerjea, the prime accused inthe Sheena Bora killing case,said on Thursday.

Chidambaram was arrest-ed by the CBI on August 21 foralleged corruption in Rs 305crore clearance given to theINX Media group when he wasthe Finance Minister.

The group, once promotedby Indrani Mukerjea and herhusband Peter Mukerjea, bothin jail in the case of killing theformer’s daughter Sheena Bora,had allegedly made paymentsto a firm linked to the formerFinance Minister’s son Karti Chidambaram, the CBIearlier claimed.

“His (Chidambaram) arrestis good news. He is now cor-nered from all sides,” IndraniMukerjea told reporters whenshe was produced before a spe-cial CBI court here to attend thetrial proceedings in the SheenaBora case.

She added the bail grantedto Karti Chidambaram, who isalso an accused in the INXMedia case, should be can-celled. In July this year, sheturned approver in the caseagainst P Chidambaram andhis son and recorded her con-fessional statement.

In her statement, Mukerjeasaid she and her husband hadmet P Chidambaram at his

office in Delhi’s North Block(when he was the FinanceMinister).

She alleged that the formerUnion Minister had asked herto help his son in his businessand make overseas remittancesin lieu of granting ForeignInvestment Promotion Board(FIPB) approval to INX Media.

The CBI registered an FIRon May 15, 2017, alleging irreg-ularities in the FIPB clearancegranted to the INX mediagroup for receiving overseasfunds of Rs 305 crore in 2007during P Chidambaram’stenure as the Finance Minister.

Thereafter, the ED alsolodged a money launderingcase in this regard in 2018. PChidambaram’s son was arrest-ed by the CBI in the case inFebruary 2018. Later, the DelhiHigh Court granted him bailon March 23, 2018.

New Delhi: Amid tensions inthe South China Sea (SCS)region, India on Thursday saidit firmly stands for the freedomof navigation and over-flight,and unimpeded lawful com-merce in the internationalwaters. The assertion cameamid tensions in the region overa Chinese survey ship antago-nising Vietnam since July.

The ship sailed thoughwaters near the Spratly Islandswhere Vietnam has several oiland gas projects. Asked aboutthe issue, MEA SpokespersonRaveesh Kumar said, “SouthChina Sea is part of the globalcommons. India, therefore, hasan abiding interest in the peaceand stability in the region.”

“India firmly stands for thefreedom of navigation and over-flight, and unimpeded lawfulcommerce, in the internationalwaters, in accordance with inter-national laws, notably UNC-LOS,” he said. India believes anydifference must be resolvedpeacefully by respecting legal anddiplomatic processes, and with-out resorting to threat or use offorce, he said. PTI

Shillong: Meghalaya ChiefMinister Conrad K Sangma onThursday walked from his offi-cial residence to the venue ofthe ‘Fit India’ Movement’ func-tion here and urged the peopleof the State to walk to theiroffice, school and college atleast once in a week.

The CM announced thathe would be walking from hisofficial residence to his officeevery Wednesday and urgedone and all to follow suit. “Irequest all officials, studentsand whoever who would like tojoin this campaign to walk towork and their institutions onWednesdays,” he said.

The CM said the people areaware of fitness which has beena part of tradition and culture.“Problem is that in our day today lives and different respon-sibilities we have as a student,officer or public leader we some-times tend to forget that aspectand this programme today is toremind us to take out a certaintime in our day to remain activeand fit,” Sangma said. PTI

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The Bombay High Court tolda special NIA court here on

Thursday to conclude the trialin the September, 2008Malegaon blast case, in whichBJP MP Pragya Singh Thakur isa prime accused, expeditiously.

Neither the prosecutionnor the accused should try anddelay the trial, the judges said.

A division Bench headed byJustice Ranjit More was hearinga petition filed by SameerKulkarni, one of the accused,claiming that the trial was pro-ceeding at a snail’s pace as theprosecution summoned onlyone witness every day. “If thatwitness is unable to attend, thewhole day is wasted. Even theaccused keep filing some or theother application, which leads toadjournments,” Kulkarni said.

Sandesh Patil, the lawyer forthe National InvestigationAgency (NIA), informed thecourt that so far, 128 prosecu-tion witnesses had deposed,while 369 more were yet to tes-tify. The court, after hearing thebrief arguments, directed thespecial court to conclude thetrial as expeditiously as possible.

“We also do not want any-one, including the prosecutionand the accused, to make anyattempt to delay the trial pro-ceedings,” the court said, dis-posing of the petition. Six per-sons were killed and a hundredothers injured when a bombattached to a motorcycle wentoff near a mosque in Malegaon,a communally-sensitive townin north Maharashtra, onSeptember 29, 2008.

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Aday after a reference to LeoTolstoy’s famous work

“War and Peace” was attributedto him by a section of themedia sparked a controversy,the Bombay High Court JudgeJustice Sarang Kotwal onThursday his displeasure overthe manner in which the mediamisinterpreted the questionsposed by him to the counsel ofan accused in the Bhima-Koregaon-Elgaar Parishad casein the courtroom onWednesday.

As the daily hearing inbail applications filed by theBhima Koregaon-Elgaarparishad case began, Dr YugMohit Chaudhary, appearingfor Sudha Bharadwaj, alludedto reports in the media aboutthe hearing held in the court onWednesday and said the bookseized from Vernon Gonsalves’home was ‘War and Peace inJunglemahal’ by Biswajit Roynot Tolstoy’s “War and Peace”.

The reports in a section ofthe media had quoted JusticeKotwal as asking an activistarrested in connection BhimaKoregaon-Elgar Parishad case inthe courtroom on Wednesdayas to why he had Leo Tolstoy’sWar and Peace at his homewhen the book was “about a warin another country”.

Voicing his displeasure overthe misrepresentation of ques-tions posed by him to the aca-demic and accused VernonGonsalves in the courtroom onWednesday, Justice Kotwalsaid, “What was reported wasdisturbing, it sends a wrong sig-

nal. Before that there was ref-erence to other materials. Inever turned to War and Peace.What kind of irresponsiblereporting is this?. I hope this isclarified. But the damage hasalready been done”.

At Wednesday’s hearing,Justice had alluded to all theseized material and asked thecounsel of the accused, “Natureof the books suggests you area part of a banned organisation,why did you have these booksat home?” Since Biswajit Roy’s“War and Peace inJunglemahal” was not namedon Wednesday, those present inthe high court had presumed itwas Leo Tolstoy’s War andPeace. The fact remained thehigh court had not made ref-erence to any specific book.

Continuing his submis-sions seeking bail for his clientGonsalves, who has beenaccused under the UnlawfulActivities (Prevention) Act,senior Counsel Mihir Desai

told the court that mere pos-session of books or literaturecannot be incriminating. “Noneof these books seized from myclient’s home is banned underSection 95 of CrPC. My clientis a writer, journalist. He needscertain books for literary pur-poses.” Desai argued.

Maintaining that none ofthe witnesses had spokenagainst Gonsalves, Desai saidthat even the “hidden witness”whose statements have beenrecorded twice, had stated hehad never met his client. Theother witnesses had also saidthat they had not met or heardhis client Gonsalves.

Desai substantiated hisarguments citing several judge-ments of the Supreme Court,US Supreme Court and theHigh Court at Bombay, Delhiand Gujarat. He said that on thebasis of his arguments,Gonsalves — who had been injail for more than a year — begranted bail.

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Page 10: ˇˆ ˙˝ ˛ ˚ ˝+ ( ( › uploads › 2019 › epaper › ... · Mundra port is one of the largest in the country and last year topped the rankings by volumes, while the State-run

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The Reserve Bank’s contin-gency fund, useful in fight-

ing any exigency, has plungedto Rs 1.96 lakh crore as of June30, after the Rs 52,000 croreexcess payout to the govern-ment, says the central bank’sannual report for FY19.

The RBI board has decid-ed to transfer the excessreserves to government basedon the Bimal Jalan committeereport on the appropriate eco-nomic capital framework.

In the annual report, thecentral bank makes it clear thatas of June 30, 2019 it “stands asa central bank with one of thehighest levels of financialresilience globally.”

After the payout to the gov-ernment, “the balance in thecontingency fund as of June 30,2019 was Rs 1,96,344 crorecompared to Rs 2,32,108 croreas of June 30, 2018,” the annu-al report said.

It can be noted that theexcess capital amount of Rs52,000 crore had undershotmarket expectations of over Rs1 lakh crore, and had beenarrived at after arriving at alevel for the reserves.

As per the committee, thesurplus distribution policy tar-gets having the capital reservesbuffer in the range of 5.5-6.5percent of the entire balancesheet.

According to people in theknow, the committee had delib-erated a lot before arriving atthe level, and the 5.5 percentlevel will be sufficient to take

care in the event of the 10 topbanks going down and yetallow the RBI to play the roleof the lender of last resort.

Apart from the Rs 52,000crore, the RBI had also paid asurplus from its profit worth Rs1,23,000 crore to the govern-ment, which is virtually doublethe size of the average of recentpayouts.

Sources had on Wednesdayexplained that the higheramount was due to the gains ofRs 56,000 crore from the mas-sive open market operations, Rs21,000 crore from the changesin accounting norms of itsforex operations, while therewas also an advantage of zeroprovisions, which helped.

The annual report pub-lished Thursday says the RBIcomputed exchange gains/loss-es using weighted average costmethod resulting in an impact

of Rs 21,464 crore.It also said income from

domestic sources increased132.07 percent to Rs 1,18,078crore from Rs 50,880 crore inthe previous fiscal.

It was mainly because ofthe coupon income followingan increase in the portfolio ofrupee securities, net income oninterest under liquidity adjust-ment facility/marginal standingfacility operations due toincrease in net liquidity injec-tion to the banking system andalso write back of excess riskprovision from the contin-gency fund.

A table on expenditureexplained that the overall pro-visions plummeted more than99.5 percent to Rs 64 crorefrom a high Rs 14,190 crore inthe year-ago period as thebuffer has demarcated at muchlower but comfortable level.

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Mumbai, Aug 29 (PTI)Despite the many an effort toshift to digital payments andusher in a digital paymenteconomy, the currency in cir-culation has jumped by a hefty17 percent to Rs 21.10 lakhcrore as of March 2019, theReserve Bank says in its annu-al report for 2019.

The demand for the Rs 500bill, which is the second high-est denomination after the Rs2,000 note, has soared thehighest and now accounts forover 51 percent of the value ofcurrency in circulation, says thereport released Thursday.

“The value and volume ofbanknotes in circulationincreased by 17 percent and 6.2percent to Rs 21.10 lakh croreand 1,08,759 million pieces,respectively, in FY19,” thereport says.

It can be noted that one ofthe objectives of the note-banof November 8, 2016 renderingas much as 86 percent of theoutstanding bill useless and hada crippling impact on the econ-omy as a whole, was to encour-age digital payments and bringdown the use of cash.

����� 23�42560

The microfinance industrywitnessed a 42.9 per cent

growth in first quarter of2019-20 over the correspond-ing period last year with thetotal loan portfolio at Rs1,90,684 crore as on June 30,2019, MicrofinanceInstitutions Network (MFIN)said in a report.

The total number ofmicrofinance loan accountsstood at 9.27 crore in April-June quarter of financial year2019-20 (as on June 30, 2019)as compared to 6.68 croreaccounts in April-June quar-ter of financial year 2018-19,MFIN, a RBI recognised self-regulatory organisation andindustry association of themicrofinance industry inIndia, said in its 30th issue ofits Micrometer report.

“The entire microfinanceindustry has witnessed agrowth of 42.9 per cent in Q1FY 2019-20 over Q1 FY 2018-19 with the total loan portfo-lio (GLP) at Rs 1,90,684 croreas on June 30, 2019,” it said.

“The larger share is pri-marily due to the merger ofBharat Financial InclusionLimited (BFIL) with IndusIndBank,” it added.

Non-Banking FinancialCompany-Micro FinanceInstitutions (NBFC-MFIs) arethe second largest provider ofmicro-credit with a loanamount outstanding of Rs57,601 crore, accounting for30.2 per cent of total industryportfolio, the report stated.

Small Finance Banks(SFBs) have a total loanamount outstanding of Rs32,406 crore with total shareof 17 per cent, NBFCs accountfor 10.8 per cent share, whileother MFIs account for 1 percent share in the microfi-nance universe.

“The increase in the loanportfolio and the loanaccounts is symbolic of theenhanced needs and growingaspirations of microfinancecustomers across the country.The fact that this growth isbalanced by an equally goodportfolio quality is importantas it reflects the industry’scommitment to grow respon-sibly,” MFIN CEO HarshShrivastava said.

Karnataka, Tamil Nadu,Bihar, Odisha and UttarPradesh are the five top statesin terms of loan amount out-standing and account for 52per cent of the total loanportfolio, as per the report

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The rupee gave up most of itslosses to close down by 3

paise at 71.80 against the UScurrency on Thursday even asuncertainty over the US-Chinatrade talks and recession fearskept investors on edge.

Losses in domestic equitymarkets and unabated foreignfund outflows hit the rupeesentiment, forex dealers said.

At the interbank foreignexchange, the rupee openedlower at 71.96 and fell furtherto the day’s low of 72.09 againstthe US dollar after inverted USyields fuelled fears of a possi-ble recession.

Positivity surrounding theUS-China trade talks afterChina indicated that it may notimmediately respond to recentUS tariff hikes helped revive thesentiment.

Chinese currency yuangained 0.20 per cent, cuttingshort its 10-day losing streakagainst the dollar.

The domestic currencytouched a high of 71.70 duringthe session before settling at

71.80, down by 3 paise.The BSE Sensex ended

382.91 points, or 1.02 per cent,lower at 37,068.93, while thebroader NSE Nifty shed 97.80points, or 0.89 per cent, to fin-ish at 10,948.30.

Foreign investors pulledout Rs 986 crore on a net basisfrom equities on Thursday,provisional exchange datashowed.

“continues to take resis-tance around 72.20 zone, untilit is trading below this the viewwill be bearish for dollar.However, further developmentsregarding US China trade warwill keep Chinese yuan, Indian

rupee and other emergingmarket currencies on edge,”Rahul Gupta, CurrencyResearch Head, Emkay GlobalFinancial Services Limited,said.

Brent crude futures, theglobal oil benchmark, declined0.08 per cent to USD 60.44 perbarrel as recession fears grippedmarkets.

The dollar index, whichgauges the greenback’s strengthagainst a basket of six curren-cies, rose 0.08 per cent to98.29.

The 10-year governmentbond yield was up at 6.58 percent.

����� 23�42560

The National Company LawTribunal (NCLT) has

ordered start of insolvencyproceedings against NCR-based realty firm Three CProjects Ltd and also appoint-ed an Interim ResolutionProfessional (IRP) to take overthe management of the debt-ridden company.

A two-member principalbench, headed by PresidentJustice M M Kumar, admitteda plea filed by five flat buyerswho had booked homes in thecompany’s Lotus Zing projectin Noida, Uttar Pradesh.

“We are satisfied that adefault has occurred and theapplications under sub section2 of section 7 (of IBC) is com-plete,” said NCLT.

“As a sequel... This petitionis admitted and Manish KumarGupta is appointed as theInterim ResolutionProfessional,” it added.

NCLT also directed theex-management of Three CProjects to “provide all docu-ments in their possession andfurnish every information intheir knowledge” within a peri-od of one week to the IRP.

The tribunal declared amoratorium, protecting thecompany from the lenders byprohibiting them from recov-ering their dues for a certainperiod.

The NCLT order came ona petition filed by flat buyers of

the company for its projectLotus Zing, through theircounsel Aditya Parolia, Partner,PSP Legal.

Flat buyers, who are nowtreated as financial creditorsafter recent amendments in theInsolvency and BankruptcyCode (IBC), had paid money tothe realty firm as per their con-struction-linked payment planson various dates.

According to the buyeragreements, the flats were to bedelivered in 33 months in theyear 2014.

Three C Projects submittedthat the petition against it wasnot maintainable and that theproject was delayed due tovarious factors, includingdemonetisation, order fromNGT and farmers’ unrest.

However, NCLT rejectedthe builder’s argument, sayingthat “submission made by therespondents (Three C Projects)is whole unsustainable.”

According to the tribunal,

objections like water supplyinterruptions and farmers agi-tation “are merely lame excus-es to deny the claim of thefinancial creditors.”

“The maximum period of33 months has already expiredeither in 2013 or early 2014.The possession as per stipula-tion has not been handed overtill date,” the tribunal observed.

NCLT said while there wassome delay due to reasonsspecified in the clauses of thebuyer agreements, home buy-ers could not be expected towait till eternity.

“The clause cannot begiven a literal meaning to meanthat till eternity the corporatedebtor would defer possessionand the financial creditors arebound to wait.

“A reasonable construc-tion of any such clause wouldbe to grant maximum period ofone year. Even then, the pos-session should have been deliv-ered in 2015,” it said.

��� � 23�42560

US tech titan Apple onThursday said it is keen

on offering online and in-store experiences to Indianusers at par with its globalstandards and aims to open itsmaiden retail store in India.

The comments comeafter the government onWednesday eased the FDInorms for single-brand retail,offering more flexibility onlocal sourcing norms. It alsodid away a provision thatrequired companies tomandatorily set up a brick-and-mortar store before get-ting into online retail trading.

Welcoming the move,Apple in an e-mail statementsaid it looks forward to “oneday welcoming customers toIndia’s first Apple retail store”.Apple, which competes withcompanies such as OnePlusand Samsung in the premiumsmartphone category, did notspecify the timeline for itsplans.

“We love our customersin India and we’re eager toserve them online and in-store with the same experi-ence and care that Apple cus-tomers around the worldenjoy... It will take us sometime to get our plans under-way and we’ll have more toannounce at a future date,”the statement added.

�� � �20�0 7

Beijing hinted Thursday itmay break the cycle of

retaliation in the trade warwith the United States, as thepunishing tariff battle threat-ens global economic growth.

Last week China and theUS exchanged the latest blowsin the year-long trade dispute,with Beijing announcing itwould hit $75 billion worth ofUS goods in retaliation forWashington taking aim atabout $300 million of its goods.

US President DonaldTrump lashed out immediate-ly in return by increasingexisting and planned tariffs ona total of $550 billion inChinese products.

“China has sufficientmeans to take counter-mea-sures, but under the currentsituation, we believe that theissue that should really bediscussed is cancelling furthertariffs on $550 billion ofChinese goods, and preventingthe trade war from continuingto escalate,” said commerceministry spokesman Gao

Feng.China has lodged a diplo-

matic protest with the USover it, Gao said.

In earlier rounds of esca-lation, Beijing had pledged tohit back at any US tariff hike.

“The escalation of thetrade war is not beneficial toChina, and it is not beneficialto the United States,” said Gao.

Trump has blown hot andcold this month, thunderinglast week that US companiesshould withdraw from Chinabut then optimistically pre-dicted a deal on Monday.

Trump’s recent, moremoderate tone helped stanchbleeding on Wall Street butwas quickly met with scepti-cism by investors, since Beijingdid not seem to share thatoptimism.

Gao stopped short of con-firming face-to-face trade talksnext month, saying “the twosides are discussing this issue”.

“The most importantthing at the moment is that thetwo sides create conditions forthe continuation of consulta-tions,” Gao said.

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The number of cases offrauds reported by banks

saw a jump of 15 per cent year-on-year basis in 2018-19, withthe amount involved increasingby 73.8 per cent in the year,RBI’s annual report showed.

In FY19, banking sectorreported 6,801 frauds involvingRs 71,542.93 crore as against5,916 cases involving Rs41,167.04 crore reported in2017-18.

Among bank groups, PSBs,which constitute the largestmarket share in bank lending,have accounted for the bulk offrauds reported in 2018-19. Itwas followed by private sectorbanks and foreign banks.

In the reporting year, state-run banks reported 3,766 casesof frauds worth Rs 64,509.43crore as against 2,885 casesinvolving Rs 38,260.8 crore.

The report said that theaverage lag between the date ofoccurrence and its detection bybanks was 22 months.

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Austraia’s Mitchell Starc pressedhis claims for a Test place with

three wickets in an over againstDerbyshire as star batsman SteveSmith played on Thursday in his firstmatch since being concussed.

Left-arm fast bowler Starc has yetto feature in a five-match Ashes seriesthat is all square at 1-1.

But Starc did his chances of beingincluded for next week’s fourth Testin Manchester no harm by workingup towards his top speed after lunchon the opening day of a three-daytour game against the English coun-ty in Derby on Thursday.

Having gone wicketless before

lunch, Starc had Matt Critchleycaught behind mishooking by AlexCarey for an entertaining 11 off fiveballs featuring two well-struck fours.Carey was in as wicketkeeper for rest-ed Australia captain Tim Paine.

Next ball Alfie Gleadall wasclean-bowled by a ball that was sim-ply too quick for him.

Tony Palladino survived thehat-trick only to be bowled for aduck off the last ball of the 47th over.

At tea, Starc had figures of 3-46from 16 overs in Derbyshire’s totalof 168-8 with uncapped fellow quickMichael Neser, not expected to fea-ture at Old Trafford, having taken 3-31 in 11.

South African batsman Leus du

Plooy, in at nought for two, was 82not out. Fans hoping to see Smith batfor the first time since the drawn sec-ond Test at Lord's had to wait withDerbyshire captain Billy Godlemandeciding to bat after winning thetoss.

He is set to return to Ashesaction next week provided he comesthrough this match in Derbyunscathed.

In Derby, Smith spent most ofthe first two sessions fielding at sec-ond slip.

He also bowled the last overbefore lunch, with the occasionalspinner's warm-up delivery sailingyards wide before he started the overproper with a full toss.

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Haryana’s Anjali Devi madea stunning return to com-

petitive race after an injury lay-off as she won the women’s400m Gold on the penultimateday of the 59th National Inter-State Athletics Championshipshere on Thursday.

Anjali clocked a personalbest of 51.53 seconds to beatSaritaben Gayakwad (52.96)of Gujarat and Jisna Mathew(53.08) of Kerala by a distanceat the PAC Stadium.

The 20-year-old Anjali hasalready qualified for the WorldChampionships as early as inSeptember last year with a51.79 second effort in theNational Open AthleticsChampionships inBhubaneshwar. She again

dipped further below the WorldChampionships mark onThursday.

The World Championshipsqualifying standard for women’s400m is 51.80 seconds andAnjali is the lone Indian to havecrossed the mark so far.

Reigning world juniorchampion Hima Das, who haswon six Gold medals in Europerecently in mediocre fields, isyet to qualify for the WorldChampionships in her petevent of 400m.

The qualifying period is tillthe midnight of September 6.

Anjali had been part of theIndian team that had Spala(Poland) as its training base butreturned home to get her ankleattended to.

“Having not run since theFederation Cup (in March), I

knew I would have to give mybest in the final,” Anjali saidafter winning the Gold.

“I am grateful to all thosewho stood by me when I wasgetting my ankle treated. Thenational coaches have been intouch with me and I havetrained under coach RohtasSiwach at home before cominghere.”

The third day of the four-day meet also saw NationalAnti-Doping Agency officialsturning up to collect dopesamples from the athletes.Their absence in the first twodays had led to speculation thatNADA will not send anybodyto collect dope samples fromthe championships.

Marathon specialist GopiThonakal (Kerala) won thegruelling 10,000m race in

30:52.75, outsprinting ArjunKumar (Uttar Pradesh) andVikram Bangriya (Goa).

With L Suriya opting notto run the women’s 10,000mrace and with 5000m winnerParul Chaudhary (UttarPradesh) not entering theevent, Phoolan Pal ensuredthat the distance Gold medalswould remain with the homestate.

Phoolan Pal andKarnataka’s Kavita Yadav wereengaged in a gritty duel but theUttar Pradesh runner turned ina good kick in the end.

There was a keen battle atthe high jump pit with SarveshKushare (Maharashtra), GeoJose (Kerala) and B Chethan(Karnataka) finishing within4cm of one another.

Kushare, who won the

National Open last year with2.24m, clinched the Gold in2.23m while Jose (2.21m) andChethan (2.19m) took theSilver and Bronze respectively.

World University Gameschampion Dutee Chand’s pres-ence on the track arousedexcitement during the 100msemifinals. She clocked 11.34seconds and will need to befaster in the final on Friday tobreach the 11.24 second markthat will grant her automaticqualification for the WorldChampionships in Doha laterthis month.

Archana Suseendran(Tamil Nadu) won the othersemifinal heat in 11.49.

In the men’s 100m semifi-nals, 19-year-old Nuzrat ofHaryana clocked the fastesttime of 10.51 seconds.

�� � 23�?9/8

Serena Williams nearlycrashed out of the rain-hitUS Open while top-ranked

defending champion NovakDjokovic battled through shoul-der pain and Roger Federer

advanced despite a weak start.US eighth seed Serena

Williams, seeking her 24thcareer Grand Slam title to matchMargaret Court’s all-time record,got a scare before ousting 17-year-old US wildcard CatyMcNally 5-7, 6-3, 6-1.

McNally, who hadn’t beenborn when Williams won herfirst Slam at the 1999 US Open,threatened a struggling Williamsfrom the start before the six-timeUS Open champion won nine ofthe last 11 games to escapeunder the roof at Arthur AsheStadium.

“I survived tonight. I’m nottoo pleased with the way Iplayed at all,” Williams said.

“‘Serena, you made way toomany errors today. What wereyou thinking?’ But I’m alive. I’mhappy. I’ll do better next time. Ipromise.”

Djokovic, winner of four ofthe past five Slam titles and 16in all, was treated for a sore leftshoulder throughout his 6-4, 7-6 (7/3), 6-1 victory overArgentina’s 56th-ranked JuanIgnacio Londero.

“It was definitely affectingmy serve and backhand,”Djokovic said of his shoulderinjury.

“I was definitely tested.”Federer, a 20-time Grand

Slam winner who last won theUS Open in 2008, rallied to beat99th-ranked Bosnian Damir

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Sebastian Vettel hopes to re-boot his and Ferrari’s season

this weekend in pursuit of his firstvictory in more than a year asFormula One returns to action atthe Belgian Grand Prix.

The four-time world champi-on won last year’s race at themajestic Spa-Francorchamps cir-cuit, but has been without a vic-tory since and needs to make themost of Ferrari’s power advantageto add to his career total of 52 tri-umphs.

“This is a legendary track andit is definitely one of myfavourites,” said the Germanahead of Sunday’s race after heand the rest of the F1 circus re-grouped following the now-tra-ditional mid-season Europeansummer break.

“It has climbs and drops andso much of it runs through forests— once you learn it and you

know it, it is impossible not tolove it.”

To win, however, Vettelknows he must not only over-come his fast Ferrari team-mateCharles Leclerc, but also series-leading defending five-timechampion Lewis Hamilton.

Hamilton holds a 62-pointadvantage ahead of Mercedesteam-mate Valtteri Bottas.

Last year, he pulled off a vic-tory, but then plunged to defeatto Hamilton in a fiercely-foughtItalian Grand Prix, Ferrari’s homeevent.

Monza hosts the next raceagain a week after the Belgianshowdown.

For Vettel, there could not bea more critical scenario thanthese two Grands Prix, as he bat-tles to save his season, his repu-tation and, perhaps, his career.

His Ferrari team boss MattiaBinotto allowed himself a glim-mer of hope when he said: “I

think that Spa is more power-sen-sitive, but there is nothing that isgiven, of course.

HOPES ON POWER“And I think the situation will

be very different to Budapest sowe will try to prepare the best wecan to seek our first victory.”

While Hamilton andMercedes revelled in delivering atactical master-class in Hungary,Ferrari were again left trailing andwill pin their hopes on theirgreater power and straight-linespeed paying off.

Vettel and Hamilton haveeach recorded three previouswins at Spa where KimiRaikkonen of Alfa Romeo haswon four times, the most of thecurrent grid.

Hamilton, however, has alsowon eight of this year’s 12 racesto control the title contest. Bottashas won twice and MaxVerstappen of Red Bull also hastwo wins.

Mercedes team boss TotoWolff, relieved at the Hungarianrecovery of form after what hecalled their “Armageddon” inGermany, said they will be takingnothing for granted now as theygo into the final nine races of the21-race season.

“We’re approaching the startof the second half of 2019 morelike the start to a new season,” hesaid. “And we are looking forwardto the fight.”

That fight is as likely to comefrom Verstappen, who welcomesa new team-mate in Thailand’sAlex Albon — promoted fromToro Rosso in a swap with PierreGasly — as from anyone.

The Dutchman will againhave massive support from hisorange army and hopes to add tohis two wins in four outings, butknows also that he may have apower disadvantage with hisHonda-powered Red Bull.

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Valtteri Bottas will remain as Lewis Hamilton’sMercedes team-mate next year while Esteban

Ocon will replace Nico Hulkenberg at Renault, theteams announced on Thursday.

Frenchman Ocon’s return to a race seat after a sea-son spent as test and reserve driver with Mercedes wasannounced soon after the champions Mercedes haddecided to give Bottas a fourth year alongside the five-time champion Hamilton.

Ocon has been signed on a two-year contract asteam-mate for Daniel Ricciardo in a bid to boost theFrench team’s competitiveness, a move that has leftthe widely-liked Hulkenberg in search of a vacant seatfor 2020.

“First and foremost, I am very proud to becomea Renault driver,” said Ocon, formerly a test driver withthe team. “I have grown up at Enstone, starting withLotus in 2010 and then with Renault.

“I am very attached to this team and everyone whoworks there — they are the ones who opened the doorsof top level motorsport for me.

“Secondly, I am pleased that a team with big ambi-tions has entrusted me with the opportunity to onceagain demonstrate my skills at the highest level of F1.”

Hulkenberg was praised for his work with theteam. Renault team boss Cyril Abiteboul said he hadmade a “phenomenal contribution.”

Earlier, Mercedes confirmed they had exercisedan option to retain Bottas, who was 30 on Wednesday.

Since joining Mercedes in 2017, the Finn has wonfive Grands Prix and is second behind Hamilton inthis year’s title race.

“I am very happy and proud to be part of the teamfor a fourth season and wish to thank every teammember and the board of Mercedes for their trust andbelief in me,” said Bottas.

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Neymar took part in ParisSaint-Germain training

on Thursday afternoon amidreports that an agreement hadbeen reached that would seethe Brazilian return toBarcelona.

The world’s most expen-sive player was the last to taketo the training field in a sessionattended by a large contingentof journalists and broadcastlive on PSG’s own televisionchannel.

A short while earlier,Italian broadcaster Skysportclaimed PSG had finally agreedto sell Neymar back toBarcelona, two years after sign-ing him for 222 million euros($264 million at the time).

Meanwhile, Catalan radiostation RAC1 reported thatBarcelona president JosepMaria Bartomeu was inMonaco — where theChampions League group stagedraw was due to take place onThursday evening — andwould take part in negotiationswith PSG.

Neymar, scorer of 51 goalsin 58 appearances in his twoyears at PSG, has not featuredfor his current club this seasonamid the uncertainty sur-rounding his future.

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Striker Robert Lewandowskihas extended his contract at

Bayern Munich until 2023, thedefending Bundesliga champi-ons announced on Thursday.

“FC Bayern is one of thethree largest clubs in the worldand we have an outstandingteam.

I am proud to be part ofthis club,” said the 31-year-old,who has scored 207 Bundesligagoals in 292 appearances forBayern and former clubDortmund.

Lewandowski, reportedlyone of Bayern’s highest paidstars on 15 million euros($16.6m) per season, will beapproaching his 35th birthday

by the time his new contractexpires in June 2023.

His pre-season demandsthat Bayern sign more playersto strengthen their star-studdedsquad seem to have beenappeased by the arrival ofBrazil midfielder PhilippeCoutinho from Barcelona andback-up striker Ivan Perisicfrom Inter Milan.

“FC Bayern has become mysporting home. We also feelvery comfortable as a family inMunich,” added Lewandowski,whose wife gave birth to adaughter in 2017.

“I am convinced that wewill achieve a lot more in thecoming years.”

Bayern are delighted tohave secured the long-termfuture of their star striker amidpersistent rumours he wasbeing courted by Real Madrid.

“Robert is for me the bestcentre forwards in the worldand for years a supporting pil-lar of our team,” said Bayernchairman Karl-HeinzRummenigge.

“We are therefore veryhappy that he will be playingfor FC Bayern for a long timeto come”.

Lewandowski wrote him-self into Bayern folklore byscoring five goals in just nineminutes during a Bundesligamatch in 2015.

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Dzumhur 3-6, 6-2, 6-3, 6-4.The 38-year-old Swiss third seed,

who also dropped the first set againstIndian qualifier Sumit Nagal in hisopener, answered the wake-up calldespite 17 first-set unforced errors.

“It’s just a bit frustrating more thananything, especially when the level isthat low and there are that manyerrors and the energy is not kind ofthere,” Federer said.

“But can only do better, which is agreat thing moving forward.

“I clearly have to play better fromthe get-go.”

What the year’s final Grand Slamevent lacked in quantity, with 22 sin-gles matches postponed by showers, itovercame with quality in amazingmatches that challenged three of thegreatest stars in tennis history.

Djokovic’s injury casts grave doubtson his bid to be the first US Open repeatwinner since Federer won from 2004-2008, admitting he wondered if hewould even get through the first set.

“This is something I’ve been car-rying for quite a while now,” Djokovicsaid.

Five-time US Open winner Federer,who lost to Djokovic in last month’s epicWimbledon final, started poorly butbroke early in each of the last three setsand held serve to the end.

“I buckled down and told myself Iwas going to hang tough and not getbroken,” Federer said.

“That made a big difference.”French Open champion Ashleigh

Barty, the second seed from Australia,eliminated 73rd-ranked AmericanLauren Davis 6-2, 7-6 (7/2).

Czech third seed Karolina Pliskova,seeking her first Grand Slam title, oust-ed 202nd-ranked Georgian qualifierMariam Bolkvadze 6-1, 6-4.

Ukrainian fifth seed Elina Svitolinadefeated seven-time Grand Slam win-ner Venus Williams 6-4, 6-4 and US10th seed Madison Keys, the 2017 USOpen runner-up, trounced China’sZhu Lin 6-4, 6-1.

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Page 12: ˇˆ ˙˝ ˛ ˚ ˝+ ( ( › uploads › 2019 › epaper › ... · Mundra port is one of the largest in the country and last year topped the rankings by volumes, while the State-run

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Paralympic Silver-medallist DeepaMalik on Thursday became the

first Indian woman para-athleteand the oldest to be conferred theRajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award buttraining commitments kept co-awardee Bajrang Punia away fromthe ceremony at the RashtrapatiBhawan.

Malik, who won a Silver medalin the shot put F53 category in the2016 Rio Paralympics, was joint win-ner of the top honour with Asianand Commonwealth Games cham-pion Punia, who is in Russia to pre-pare for the upcoming WorldChampionships in Kazakhstan.

Malik became only the secondpara-athlete after double ParalympicGold-medallist javelin throwerDevendra Jhajharia, who receivedthe recognition in 2017, to have wonthe prestigious award. At 49, she alsobecame the oldest athlete ever tohave claimed the honour.

“I am very happy. This wholejourney has been more about chang-ing the attitude of people towardsdisability and the hidden potentialin people with disability,” Malik said.“I think the award is going to be ahuge inspiration to women athletesin disability. It took 70 years for inde-pendent India to win a medal by a

woman athlete in Paralympics,” sheadded.

World Championships Bronze-medallist shuttler B Sai Praneeth,woman cricketer Poonam Yadav,Asian Games Gold-winner hep-tathlete Swapna Barman, footballerGurpreet Singh Sandhu, two-time

world Silver-medallist boxer SoniaLather, Asian Games Silver-medal-list equestrian Fouaad Mirza, motor-sports ace Gaurav Gill and Kabaddicaptain Ajay Thakur were among the19 sportspersons who received theArjuna Award from President RamNath Kovind.

Malik became fourth-time luckyas she was ignored for the award forthe past three years, leading her toquestion and criticise the decision.

Prominent absentees from theevent, apart from Punia, were crick-eter Ravindra Jadeja, Asian GamesGold-medallist shot-putter TejinderPal Singh Toor, Silver-winner quar-termiler Mohammed Anas andshooter Anjum Moudgil, all of whowere picked for the Arjuna awardthis year.

Jadeja is currently on nationalduty with the Indian Test team in theCaribbean. Toor, on the other hand,

is training in Europe while Anas iscompeting in the National Inter-State Athletics Championships inLucknow right now.

Heptathlete Swapna Barmansaid winning the Arjuna Award wasa dream-come-true moment forher.

“It’s a dream-come-truemoment for me. I would like tothank the Athletics Federation ofIndia for recommending my name.This award will inspire me to achieve

greater things in future,” she said.While the Khel Ratna award

carries a prize purse of � 7.5 lakh, theArjuna awardees are given � 5 lakheach, along with citations.

Besides the Khel Ratna andArjuna awards, the President alsogave away Dronacharya and DhyanChand awards to coaches, theTenzing Norgay National Adventureawards, Maulana Abul Kalam AzadTrophy and Rashtriya KhelProtsahan Puraskar.

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Rishabh Pant will be desperate topay back the faith reposed in himby the team management when

India look to steamroll West Indies withanother dominant show in the secondWorld Test championship encounterstarting today.

Having won the first Test by 318runs, India are runaway favouritesgoing into the second and final matchat the Sabina Park against a team thatneither showed the resolve nor the apti-tude required to put up a sustained fightin five-day cricket.

“The conditions here are good andthe pitch also looks good. We areexpecting another good performance,”bowling coach Bharath Arun said onWednesday.

Jasprit Bumrah (match haul of 6wickets) and Ishant Sharma (8 wickets)exposed the opposition’s technical frail-ties and they will be gunning for morein the second game.

It is unlikely that India will be tin-kering with their playing XI after a bigwin even though Pant’s form has beena bit of a concern of late.

More than the runs scored, it is themanner of his dismissals that is causingfrustration, considering that the Indiancricket establishment has invested heav-ily in the 21-year-old.

His sequence of scores across for-mats during this current tour has been0, 4, 65 not out, 20, 0, 24, 7.

With veteran Wriddhiman Sahaback in the dressing room and the gutsyKona Srikar Bharat, waiting in thewings, Pant can ill-afford to take thingsfor granted, especially the kind that onesaw in the second innings of the firstTest.

The pressure was completely offafter India took a handsome lead. Whatthe side required from the flamboyantleft-hander was something in the rangeof a solid 30 not out but what it gotinstead was another impetuous shot.

The slog sweep has brought abouthis downfall more often than not andsave a fifty in the dead rubber in the T20series, he has done precious little withthe bat.

Opener Mayank Agarwal wasn’t inhis elements either in the first Test but

it is expected that he would get anoth-er opportunity, which he rightfullydeserves having worked hard inAustralia.

The Indian middle-order performedadmirably with Ajinkya Rahane back inform with an under-pressure half-cen-tury and a century.

Hanuma Vihari also justified hisselection with a 93 in the secondinnings, meaning that Rohit Sharma’swait to make the side could just get a bitlonger.

However, Agarwal would be on histoes.

He may not get too many opportu-nities if the team management decidesto fit in an impact player like Rohit atthe top of the order alongside KLRahul in the coming Test series againstSouth Africa at home.

While Rohit’s technique againstthe moving red ball is a bit suspect butin the sub-continent, he could prove to

be a handful.The pace bowling was near flawless

in the first game with Ishant andBumrah looking menacing with five-wicket hauls each. Even MohammedShami was very effective in short burstswhile Ravindra Jadeja proved his utili-ty as an all-rounder.

“Any seamer are at their best whenthey are getting wickets. The five-wick-et haul for both (Ishant and Bumrah) ofthem will give them tremendous con-fidence. Also Shami looked good when-ever he was given the ball and it augurswell for the team,” Arun said.

For West Indies, there hasn’t beenmuch to write home about as none oftheir players even got a half-century intwo innings.

Talented players like ShimronHetmyer and Shai Hope didn’t measureup while the normally dependableRoston Chase also looked out of sortsin the second innings.

The only saving grace for them wasthe new ball pair of Shannon Gabrieland Kemar Roach, who bowled theirhearts out without much support fromothers.

TEAMSIndia: Virat Kohli (captain), KL Rahul,Mayank Agarwal, Cheteshwar Pujara,Ajinkya Rahane, Hanuma Vihari,Rishabh Pant (wk), Ravindra Jadeja,Mohammed Shami, Ishant Sharma,Jasprit Bumrah, Wriddhiman Saha(wk), Ravichandran Ashwin, UmeshYadav, Bhuvneshwar KumarWest Indies: Jason Holder (c), KraiggBrathwaite, Darren Bravo, ShamarhBrooks, John Campbell, Roston Chase,Rakheem Cornwall, Shane Dowrich,Shannon Gabriel, Shimron Hetmyer,Shai Hope, Keemo Paul, Kemar Roach.

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Rohit Sharma has to wait for a spot in theIndian Test eleven with Ajinkya Rahane and

Hanuma Vihari justifying their selection, saidformer opener Gautam Gambhir on Thursday.

ODI vice-captain Rohit has been in sub-lime form of late and is part of the Test squadtouring the West Indies but was not picked forthe first Test with Rahane and Vihari doing wellin the series opener and it is unlikely he willfeature in the second and final Test.

“He (Rohit) has got to wait for his oppor-tunity. There is Rahane, who has done well nowand Vihari too. So he has to wait and when getsthat opportunity, he needs to perform,”Gambhir said.

An under pressure Rahane scored a time-ly 81 and 102, his first hundred in two yearswhile Vihari made 32 and 93.

“I am not at all surprised (with Rahane’sperformance) but it was a much needed per-formance, both from individual and team’spoint of view. And when it comes in a win-ning cause, it doesn’t get better than that,” saidGambhir.

Rishabh Pant is now India’s first choicewicketkeeper across formats, getting ahead ofTest specialist Wriddhiman Saha, who isback in the squad after a long injury lay-off.Saha was the number one choice at the timeof his injury.

Gambhir feels Saha too has to wait for hisopportunity.

“When someone (Pant) is averaging 48(45.43 actually) with the bat and scored a hun-dred each in England and Australia, hedeserves to be playing Test cricket. Saha needsto wait for his opportunity as Pant hasgrabbed his opportunity with both hands,”Gambhir added. A couple of days back formerIndian wicketkeeper Syed Kirmani had saidthat Saha should be given an opportunityinstead of Pant.

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Mumbai all-rounderShivam Dube’s big-hit-

ting prowess was well comple-mented by senior interna-tional Yuzvendra Chahal’sfive-wicket haul as India Acomfortably beat South AfricaA by 69 runs in the firstunofficial One Day encounterof the five-match series hereon Thursday.

The muscular Dubesmashed an unbeaten 79 off60 balls that included a half adozen of sixes and threeboundaries which took India’sscore to 327 for 6 in 47 overs.His whirlwind seventh part-nership of 121 off 71 balls withAxar Patel (60 no off 36 balls)gave Indian total an imposinglook.

In reply, Chahal warmedup nicely for the upcominginternational assignmentswith figures of 5 for 47 asSouth Africa were all-out for258 in 45 overs despite ReezaHendricks’ century.

Hendricks’ 110 off 108

balls went in vain as theProteas weren’t exactly com-fortable with the slow natureof the tracks. HeinrichKlaasen (58, 43 balls, 4 fours,3 sixes) and Khaya Zondo (30)were the only other batsmento make notable contribu-tions as Chahal kept the SA A

batsmen in check.Earlier in the day, most of

the Indian batsmen got startsbut couldn’t convert into bigscores. Shubman Gill (46, 47balls, 7 fours) and captainManish Pandey (39, 41 balls,4 fours) were set but failed toscore big.

The home team appearedto be heading for a below-parscore when Krunal Pandya(14, 25 balls, 1 six) fell toAnrich Nortje, with the scoreat 206 for 6.

However, Dube and Axarhad different ideas. The twosouthpaws blasted the rivalbowlers at will, almost, notsparing the pacemen —Anrich Nortje (2 for 89 in 10overs), Beuran Hendricks (2for 89 in 10 overs) and JuniorDala (1 for 62 in 9 overs).

Dube reached 50 in 46deliveries, his first in List-Acareer, blasting some big six-ers.

After a quiet start, all-rounder Patel raced to his 50in just 34 balls as he effortless-ly smote a few sixes.

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“Fitness is zero per cent investmentwith infinite returns”, said Prime

Minister Narendra Modi on Thursdaywhile launching a nationwide ‘Fit IndiaMovement’ which he believes will takethe country towards a healthier future.

The campaign is aimed at encourag-ing people to include physical activity andsports in their everyday lives.

“Fitness is not just a word but a pre-condition for a healthy and fulfilling life.It should become a revolution,” Modisaid.

A committee, headed by SportsMinister Kiren Rijiju and comprisinggovernment officials, members of IndianOlympic Association (IOA), nationalsports federations, private bodies and fit-ness promoters, has been formed to takethe movement forward.

The 28-member government com-mittee also features secretaries of Sports,Secondary Education, Ayush, and YouthAffairs, among others.

The Prime Minister also congratu-lated the winners of the national sportsawards and lauded India’s sportingachievements.

“Be it boxing, badminton, tennis orany sport, our athletes are giving newwings to our aspirations. Their medals arenot just a result of their hard work butalso a reflection of a new India’s confi-dence,” he said.

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The fast-rising ElavenilValarivan claimed her

maiden senior World CupGold medal, finishing ontop in the women’s 10m airrifle competition to becomeonly the third Indian toachieve the feat.

The 20-year-old’s topprize, however, did nottranslate into an Olympicquota for India as ApurviChandela and AnjumMoudgil have alreadysecured the maximum twoberths available per coun-try in last year’s WorldChampionships.

The fancied Chandelaand Moudgil, world num-ber one and two respective-ly, finished outside themedal bracket in the ISSFRifle/Pistol Stage eventhere.

Moudgil finished sixthin the final with 166.8,while Chandela could notclear the qualifications, fin-

ishing 11th.In her debut year at the

senior level, Elavenil shot251.7 in the finals to helpIndia extend their new-found dominance in theevent, leaving behindSeonaid Mcintosh ofBritain, who won Silverwith an effort of 250.6 onWednesday.

Chinese Taipei’s Ying-Shin Lin won Bronze aswell as one of the twoTokyo 2020 quota places onoffer. The second quotawas won by Iran.

Anjali Bhagwat andChandela are the country’sother two shooters to winGold in the event.

India has now won

three out of the four WorldCup Gold medals in thewomen’s 10m air this year.

Elavenil Valarivan saidher maiden senior WorldCup medal will be a “greatconfidence booster” as sheseeks to scale greaterheights in coming years.

“I am happy and thiswin will give me great con-fidence going ahead intoother national and interna-tional competitions,” saidthe youngster.

Olympic Bronzemedallist Gagan Naranghas played a part in herprogress and the shooterdid not forget to thankhim.

“I am really thrilledwith this achievement andwant to thank my mentorGagan sir, my coach Nehama’am & my mental train-er Kirtika ma’am who havetrained me so well andwithout their correct guid-ance, this would not havebeen possible.”

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