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16
T he 15 years that Sheila Dikshit was prima donna of Delhi politics, this former reporter had the privileged job of covering her for 14 years for The Pioneer, first as beat reporter and then for over a decade as the head of the city reporting unit. Those were the years of the BJP grounding its feet firmly in national politics and The Pioneer was its only credible sympathiser. Under the situation, it was quite a challenge to cover the most prominent Congress leader in the national Capital. However, contrary to the expectations, Sheila Dikshit had a great traction with the news- paper and took her criticism in right spirit. It also went to the credit of the newspaper’s edito- rial policy, especially its editor Chandan Mitra, that he never approved of negativism in reporting and encouraged devel- opment related reports which more often than not ended up giving credit to Sheila Dikshit. This did not endear Mitra and his team to the Delhi State BJP leadership. That’s another story to be told another day but Sheila Dikshit did come in under lot of criticism within her own party for encouraging what was perceived to be an anti-Congress paper. “Dekho BJP wale aa gaye (see the BJP people have come),” she would say in zest whenever I entered her office. It’s another matter that the city BJPwalas always treated us with suspicion. Despite we being the BJPwalas’, and also being at times very virulent in our crit- icism, people looked up to The Pioneer for inside stories on Delhi Government and Delhi Congress. When dissi- dence broke in Delhi Congress, within a year of her taking over, she disappeared from public, saying she was down with viral fever. She broke her silence in an interview to us, which was headlined, “Clash of Cultures in Delhi”. She loved the headline, as much her rivals hated it. For them we were soon to be chris- tened as ‘Sheila’s men’. What an unenviable situa- tion, she called us ‘BJPwalas’, her rivals in Congress saw us as her propogandist and Delhi BJP leaders suspected us of ‘infidelity’. Once I shared our trauma with her, and said she would have to pay a price for it. “Ask for it,” she had said. “The day you decide to resign, The Pioneer should break the story,” I had said. “That’s not happening,” she smiled but ensured The Pioneer became the newspaper to break the story of her son, Sandeep Dikshit joining politics. The story was headlined, “CM’s son to rise from the East”. The most challenging task of maintaining a workable rela- tionship with her was when we went to town against the Bus Rapid Transport (BRT) corri- dor, a project very close to her. She took the criticism in the right spirit and even took a ride in the bus and contested our claim. I do not know how many political leaders in the country would have this kind of a broad mind. Continued on Page 4 T hree-time Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, 81, who died on Saturday due to cardiac arrest, was cremated on Sunday at Nigambodh Ghat near the Yamuna River with full State honours. Union Home Minister and BJP president Amit Shah, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, his deputy Manish Sisodia, Power and Health Minister Satyendar Jain, former Congress president Sonia Gandhi, her daughter and Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi as well and other Congress veterans, col- leagues, workers and admirers witnessed the last rites braving heavy rain and gusty winds. A large number of leaders, including BJP stalwart Lal Krishna Advani and former External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh paid homage to Dikshit at her Nizamuddin East residence. Dikshit’s body was taken to the Congress headquarters where top party leaders, includ- ing Manmohan Singh, chief ministers Ashok Gehlot and Kamal Nath, paid their respects. Later, the body was taken to the Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee office, the city unit which she was heading at the time of her death. Former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah too visited Dikshit’s residence. From there, Dikshit’s final journey to Nigambodh Ghat began in a van with her sister Rama Dhawan at her side. The truck carrying the cas- ket moved slowly as the road was packed with supporters who chanted ‘ Jab tak suraj chand rahega Sheila ji ka naam rahegaand Sheila amar rahe amid light rain. The cremation was done using the CNG method that was installed at the ghat during her tenure as Delhi CM. Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath and senior leaders Ahmed Patel and Raj Babbar were among others who joined the emo- tionally charged crowd. Vinod Singh (56), a party worker who was standing out- side DPCC headquarters, try- ing to get in to pay homage amid unprecedented gathering, claimed that he worked with Dikshit in Delhi Assembly elections. He said he can never forget the love and warmth of the former CM. “The national Capital is renovated by her. Everything that you can see here, it all became possible because of her extraordinary efforts during her 15 years as Delhi CM,” he said. Friends, relatives and sup- porters remembered Dikshit as an affable person who gave the best advice in hour of need, a concerned chief minister who cared for everyone and a leader above party politics. “She was still working and trying to revive the party. She has left us but will be remem- bered for her extraordinary works for the party and for peo- ple of Delhi. She was a dedi- cated leader. She kept motivat- ing party workers, a soft-spoken and a fighter,” said Ashish Gupta, a DPCC post-bearer. Earlier, paying homage to Dikshit, Sonia Gandhi said the CM was a friend and like an elder sister to her. Her demise was a big loss to the Congress party, she said. As the longest serving woman CM who steered her party to victory for three con- secutive terms in 1998, 2003 and 2008, Dikshit ushered in an era of all-round develop- ment that transformed Delhi into a world class Capital. She also initiated green reforms in public transport sector successfully accom- plishing the shift from pollut- ing vehicles to a CNG based fleet. Kejriwal, who handed Dikshit her first electoral defeat in decades, was among the first to underscore the importance of the CM’s contribution. After announcing that the Delhi Government would host a State funeral for her, he wrote, “Only last month I had met her for nearly an hour when she came with her party’s delegation to submit a memo- randum on several issues.” Continued on Page 4 O nce again holding tam- pered electronic voting machines responsible of her party’s electoral defeat at the hustings and indicating that she would eventually lead the “bal- lot-versus-EVM” battle till its logical in 2021 Assembly elec- tions, Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Sunday gave a call to dump EVMs which her own Trinamool Congress Government would attempt at doing so in next year’s local polls to begin with. Speaking at a mammoth TMC martyr’s day rally, Mamata attacked the BJP for manipulating the EVMs saying the 2019 general elections was “not a history but a mystery” to her. “I have no hesitation to declare that the Lok Sabha election was not a history as is claimed by the BJP but mys- tery” thanks to the manipulat- ed EVMs, Mamata said reminding how the advanced countries like “America, England, Germany and France have returned to the old ballot boxes.” She declared “our Government will write to the State Election Commission to hold the municipal and rural elections with ballot papers. We will start ballot paper once again giving a new direction to electoral politics.” The TMC was stunned by the BJP in the April-May gen- eral elections when the Bengal ruling party came down from a whopping tally of 34 seats in 2014 to 22 seats this time round conceding 18 out of 42 seats to the saffron outfit. Continued on Page 4 A fter destroying thousands of acres of standing crops, affecting lakh of people, and killing around 150 people in Bihar and Assam, the flood fury is now looming over Kerala. The Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) predicted heavy rainfall in six districts of Kerala in the coming days. The Kerala State Disaster Management Authority (KSDMA) has issued a “Red Alert” for Kasargod, Idukki, Kannur, Wayanad, Kozhikode, and Malappuram. A “Red Alert” denotes like- lihood of very heavy to extremely heavy rainfall. Orange Alert means a warning to “be prepared to face any sit- uation arising out of severe weather condition”. Fishermen have been advised not to ven- ture into the sea due to the rough weather. As many as 38.66 lakh animals including 21.47 lakh poultry, 1.79 lakh hectare of crops, 48 lakh population and 3,705 villages are affected in 27 districts in Assam flood. In Bihar, 69.76 lakh people in 12 of the 30 districts, 25 lakh ani- mals have been hit by the calamity. Continued on Page 4 I ndia’s second moon mis- sion Chandrayaan-2 seeking to explore the unchartered Lunar south pole by landing a rover will be launched onboard its most powerful rocket GSLV-Mk0III-M1 from here on Monday, a week after the lift-off was aborted due to a technical snag, said the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). The 978 crore mission, which has been rescheduled for Monday after scientists cor- rected the glitch in the rocket, will be launched at 2.43 pm from the second launchpad at Satish Dhawan Space Centre here, over 100 km from Chennai. ISRO scientists, who abort- ed the previous launch with 56 minutes left for the countdown to end on July 15, have taken quick remedial action based on an analysis carried out by a team set up to look into the snag and announced the rescheduled launch three days ago. Continued on Page 4 L ok Janshakti Party MP from Bihar’s Samastipur Ramchandra Paswan died on Sunday afternoon following a brief illness. Ramchandra Paswan, 57, the younger brother of Union Minister and LJP chief Ram Vilas Paswan, passed away at 1.24 pm at the Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital here. Detailed report on P5 F ormer Delhi Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Mange Ram Garg passed away at a city hospital on Sunday morning. The demise of Garg, 83, was mourned by senior party leaders, along with Prime Minister Narendra Modi who described him as a party man with deep connect with Delhi who selflessly served its people. Detailed report on P3

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The 15 years that SheilaDikshit was prima donna of

Delhi politics, this formerreporter had the privileged jobof covering her for 14 years forThe Pioneer, first as beatreporter and then for over adecade as the head of the cityreporting unit. Those were theyears of the BJP grounding itsfeet firmly in national politicsand The Pioneer was its onlycredible sympathiser. Underthe situation, it was quite achallenge to cover the mostprominent Congress leader inthe national Capital.

However, contrary to theexpectations, Sheila Dikshit hada great traction with the news-paper and took her criticism inright spirit. It also went to thecredit of the newspaper’s edito-rial policy, especially its editorChandan Mitra, that he neverapproved of negativism inreporting and encouraged devel-opment related reports whichmore often than not ended upgiving credit to Sheila Dikshit.

This did not endear Mitraand his team to the Delhi StateBJP leadership. That’s anotherstory to be told another day butSheila Dikshit did come inunder lot of criticism withinher own party for encouragingwhat was perceived to be ananti-Congress paper. “DekhoBJP wale aa gaye (see the BJPpeople have come),” she wouldsay in zest whenever I enteredher office. It’s another matterthat the city BJPwalas alwaystreated us with suspicion.

Despite we being the‘BJPwalas’, and also being at

times very virulent in our crit-icism, people looked up toThe Pioneer for inside storieson Delhi Government andDelhi Congress. When dissi-dence broke in Delhi Congress,within a year of her taking over,she disappeared from public,saying she was down with viralfever. She broke her silence inan interview to us, which washeadlined, “Clash of Cultures inDelhi”. She loved the headline,as much her rivals hated it. Forthem we were soon to be chris-tened as ‘Sheila’s men’.

What an unenviable situa-

tion, she called us ‘BJPwalas’,her rivals in Congress saw us asher propogandist and DelhiBJP leaders suspected us of‘infidelity’. Once I shared ourtrauma with her, and said shewould have to pay a price forit. “Ask for it,” she had said.“The day you decide to resign,The Pioneer should break thestory,” I had said. “That’s nothappening,” she smiled butensured The Pioneer becamethe newspaper to break thestory of her son, SandeepDikshit joining politics. Thestory was headlined, “CM’sson to rise from the East”.

The most challenging taskof maintaining a workable rela-tionship with her was when wewent to town against the BusRapid Transport (BRT) corri-dor, a project very close to her.She took the criticism in theright spirit and even took a ridein the bus and contested ourclaim. I do not know howmany political leaders in thecountry would have this kindof a broad mind.

Continued on Page 4

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Three-time Delhi ChiefMinister Sheila Dikshit, 81,

who died on Saturday due tocardiac arrest, was cremated onSunday at Nigambodh Ghatnear the Yamuna River with fullState honours.

Union Home Minister andBJP president Amit Shah, DelhiChief Minister ArvindKejriwal, his deputy ManishSisodia, Power and HealthMinister Satyendar Jain, formerCongress president SoniaGandhi, her daughter andCongress general secretaryPriyanka Gandhi as well andother Congress veterans, col-leagues, workers and admirerswitnessed the last rites bravingheavy rain and gusty winds.

A large number of leaders,including BJP stalwart LalKrishna Advani and formerExternal Affairs MinisterSushma Swaraj and formerPrime Minister ManmohanSingh paid homage to Dikshit ather Nizamuddin East residence.

Dikshit’s body was taken tothe Congress headquarterswhere top party leaders, includ-ing Manmohan Singh, chiefministers Ashok Gehlot andKamal Nath, paid their respects.Later, the body was taken to theDelhi Pradesh CongressCommittee office, the city unitwhich she was heading at thetime of her death.

Former Jammu andKashmir Chief Minister Omar

Abdullah too visited Dikshit’sresidence. From there, Dikshit’sfinal journey to NigambodhGhat began in a van with hersister Rama Dhawan at her side.

The truck carrying the cas-ket moved slowly as the roadwas packed with supporterswho chanted ‘Jab tak suraj chandrahega Sheila ji ka naam rahega’and Sheila amar rahe amid lightrain. The cremation was doneusing the CNG method that wasinstalled at the ghat during hertenure as Delhi CM.

Madhya Pradesh ChiefMinister Kamal Nath andsenior leaders Ahmed Pateland Raj Babbar were amongothers who joined the emo-tionally charged crowd.

Vinod Singh (56), a partyworker who was standing out-side DPCC headquarters, try-ing to get in to pay homageamid unprecedented gathering,claimed that he worked withDikshit in Delhi Assemblyelections. He said he can neverforget the love and warmth of

the former CM. “The nationalCapital is renovated by her.Everything that you can seehere, it all became possiblebecause of her extraordinaryefforts during her 15 years asDelhi CM,” he said.

Friends, relatives and sup-porters remembered Dikshitas an affable person who gavethe best advice in hour of need,a concerned chief minister whocared for everyone and a leaderabove party politics.

“She was still working and

trying to revive the party. Shehas left us but will be remem-bered for her extraordinaryworks for the party and for peo-ple of Delhi. She was a dedi-cated leader. She kept motivat-ing party workers, a soft-spokenand a fighter,” said AshishGupta, a DPCC post-bearer.

Earlier, paying homage toDikshit, Sonia Gandhi said theCM was a friend and like anelder sister to her. Her demisewas a big loss to the Congressparty, she said.

As the longest servingwoman CM who steered herparty to victory for three con-secutive terms in 1998, 2003and 2008, Dikshit ushered inan era of all-round develop-

ment that transformed Delhiinto a world class Capital.

She also initiated greenreforms in public transportsector successfully accom-plishing the shift from pollut-ing vehicles to a CNG basedfleet. Kejriwal, who handedDikshit her first electoral defeatin decades, was among the firstto underscore the importanceof the CM’s contribution.

After announcing that theDelhi Government would hosta State funeral for her, hewrote, “Only last month I hadmet her for nearly an hourwhen she came with her party’sdelegation to submit a memo-randum on several issues.”

Continued on Page 4

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Once again holding tam-pered electronic voting

machines responsible of herparty’s electoral defeat at thehustings and indicating that shewould eventually lead the “bal-lot-versus-EVM” battle till itslogical in 2021 Assembly elec-tions, Bengal Chief MinisterMamata Banerjee on Sundaygave a call to dump EVMswhich her own TrinamoolCongress Government wouldattempt at doing so in nextyear’s local polls to begin with.

Speaking at a mammothTMC martyr’s day rally,Mamata attacked the BJP formanipulating the EVMs sayingthe 2019 general elections was“not a history but a mystery” toher. “I have no hesitation todeclare that the Lok Sabhaelection was not a history as isclaimed by the BJP but mys-tery” thanks to the manipulat-ed EVMs, Mamata saidreminding how the advanced

countries like “America,England, Germany and Francehave returned to the old ballotboxes.” She declared “ourGovernment will write to theState Election Commission tohold the municipal and ruralelections with ballot papers. Wewill start ballot paper onceagain giving a new direction toelectoral politics.”

The TMC was stunned bythe BJP in the April-May gen-eral elections when the Bengalruling party came down froma whopping tally of 34 seats in2014 to 22 seats this timeround conceding 18 out of 42seats to the saffron outfit.

Continued on Page 4

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After destroying thousandsof acres of standing crops,

affecting lakh of people, andkilling around 150 people inBihar and Assam, the flood furyis now looming over Kerala.

The Indian MeteorologicalDepartment (IMD) predictedheavy rainfall in six districts ofKerala in the coming days. TheKerala State DisasterManagement Authority(KSDMA) has issued a “RedAlert” for Kasargod, Idukki,Kannur, Wayanad, Kozhikode,and Malappuram.

A “Red Alert” denotes like-lihood of very heavy toextremely heavy rainfall.Orange Alert means a warningto “be prepared to face any sit-uation arising out of severeweather condition”. Fishermenhave been advised not to ven-ture into the sea due to therough weather.

As many as 38.66 lakhanimals including 21.47 lakhpoultry, 1.79 lakh hectare ofcrops, 48 lakh population and3,705 villages are affected in 27districts in Assam flood. InBihar, 69.76 lakh people in 12of the 30 districts, 25 lakh ani-mals have been hit by thecalamity.

Continued on Page 4

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India’s second moon mis-sion Chandrayaan-2 seeking

to explore the uncharteredLunar south pole by landing arover will be launchedonboard its most powerfulrocket GSLV-Mk0III-M1 fromhere on Monday, a week afterthe lift-off was aborted due toa technical snag, said theIndian Space ResearchOrganisation (ISRO).

The �978 crore mission,which has been rescheduled forMonday after scientists cor-rected the glitch in the rocket,will be launched at 2.43 pmfrom the second launchpad atSatish Dhawan Space Centrehere, over 100 km fromChennai.

ISRO scientists, who abort-ed the previous launch with 56minutes left for the countdownto end on July 15, have takenquick remedial action based onan analysis carried out by a teamset up to look into the snag andannounced the rescheduledlaunch three days ago.

Continued on Page 4

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Lok Janshakti Party MP fromBihar’s Samastipur

Ramchandra Paswan died onSunday afternoon following abrief illness.

Ramchandra Paswan, 57,the younger brother of UnionMinister and LJP chief RamVilas Paswan, passed away at1.24 pm at the Ram ManoharLohia Hospital here.

Detailed report on P5

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Former Delhi BharatiyaJanata Party (BJP) president

Mange Ram Garg passed awayat a city hospital on Sundaymorning. The demise of Garg,83, was mourned by seniorparty leaders, along with PrimeMinister Narendra Modi whodescribed him as a party manwith deep connect with Delhiwho selflessly served its people.

Detailed report on P3

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Witnessing a number ofcomplaints from the

public against the tent houseowners for charging astro-nomical amount, for weddingarrangements, the DelhiDevelopment Authority (DDA)has planned to create its ownPandals and Barat Ghar (wed-ding and banquet halls) forfamily functions, marriagesand reception in a reasonableand affordable price with all thevital facilities such as parking,toilets and lawns. The pandalswill be called as Utsav pandal.

Currently, the DDA hascommunity centre, district cen-tre for the people while theauthority lends lands to the tenthouse owners and planners onrent for conducting marriagesand functions.

"The aim of this proposal isto provide a space for the pub-lic to conduct marriage andreceptions at an affordable pricewithout involving the middlemen or brokers. Currently,DDA give the land on rent but

there have been numerouscomplaints for quite longagainst the tent house providersfor charging very high price forwedding decorations such astent, designs and pandals. Theseagents provide very beautifuland attractive designs but thecharges are so high that a com-mon middle class person can'tafford. Thus, the authority hasplanned to construct pandalson its lands across the city," saidofficial of DDA on condition ofanonymity.

As per the officials, theDDA has come up with threedesigns of pandals, each ofthem will be allotted onehectare of land to set up. As perthe designs, the first pandal will

have one pukka hall(Permanent), few rooms, openarea, toilet and the second onewill be designed with only pil-lars and terrace (no walls),open space and toilets. While,third pandal will be open withspace for toilets. Besides, all ofthem will have parking spacesand outer boundaries.

The process to finalise thedesigns of pandals has begun.Further, the concerned officialsare working to find outspace/lands for setting up ofthese pandals. The areas iden-tified are in Dwarka, Rohiniand Burari. "The land scoutingprocess for other places is onthe tracks", said an officialadding the tender will issuedsoon once the authority willidentify vacant land and spot inother areas.

The pandals will be afford-able and the public can choosethe design and decorate it withtents, flowers and others itemsin accordance with their bud-get. The pandals will be readyand booking will start by 2020,the official added.

����������(����7 7� �*

In a first in the State, a cam-paign called 'Green Lungs'

which intends to increase thegreen cover in Gurugram andFaridabad was inaugurated onSunday by Haryana Minister ofEnvironment, Vipul Goyal.

Under the campaign, seedswere sprinkled in the Aravalimountain range with the helpof drones and from catapults.The campaign was organisedby the Bharat Vikas Parishadon Gurugram-Faridabad roadnear village Ghata ofGururgram district.

After the program, theBharat Vikas Parishad claimedto have sprayed more than onecrore seeds in Aravali mountainrange with the help of drones inone day. The Minister ofEnvironment, Vipul Goyallauded the campaign of theBharat Vikas Parishad and said,"With the help of the drone andspraying of seeds or roamingthrough spraying of seeds in

Aravali, it is a commendableeffort. These seeds were keptsoaked before sprinkling sothat the seed could be takenroot after getting some soil".

These were mainly seeds ofPipal, Bud, Neem, Sheeshamand Jamun. The minister him-self flagged off a drone filledwith seeds in the sky, which,after reaching the high altitude

at some distance in the hills ofAravali was gradually openedso that the seeds were shatteredin the mountainous area.

The minister further saidthat this unique campaign ofseeding in remote areas will notonly take the state of Haryanato the whole country so thatour country is green and futuregenerations can get adequate

oxygen because of the power-ful medium of oxygen is a treeplant. Goyal also threw seeds inAravali by running a slingshot.

"It is a first-its-kind stepthat the seeds were sprinkled inthe Aravali mountain rangeand we are ready to take all sig-nificant steps to protect the for-est in the state," the ministersaid.

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Two persons were arrested forkilling a local leader of

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)leader here, police said onSunday. An old enmity led to theincident on Saturday night, saidSudhir Kumar Singh, the SeniorSuperintendent of Police (SSP)Ghaziabad.

BJP's mandal president DrBalbir Singh Tomar (50), whoran a nursing home in the Dh-oodhiya Peepal area of Dasnatown, was shot dead by fourbike-borne men. Tomar was sit-ting in his clinic when the as-sailants reached there and firedat him five times, the SSP said,adding that the victim wasrushed to the district governm-ent hospital for treatment, wherehe succumbed to his injuries.

Tomar was a resident ofSikheda village near Pilkhuwatown of Hapur district. Theaccused have been identified asSalman, alias Dagga; Shahrukh;Tahseem and Aman.

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Expressing dissatisfactionover action taken by the

Delhi government againstunauthorised industrial activ-ities, the NGT has asked theDelhi Government to deposit�25 crore with the CPCB for itsfailure to curb the problem ofpollution in the city.

Taking cognisance of areport, filed by the CentralPollution Control Board(CPCB), the NGT noted thatthe Delhi Government has notdeposited �25 crore as per itsorder on December 3, 2018 andeven though an action takenreport (ATR) has been filed, theaction hardly meets the mag-nitude of violation.

A bench headed by NGTChairperson Justice AdarshKumar Goel asked the AAPgovernment to furnish a per-formance guarantee of �25crore and the apex pollutionmonitoring body to ensurethat there is no further lapse in

this regard."We are informed that a

sum of �6,40,000 has beenrecovered for release of 150impounded vehicles foundengaged in transporting pollutants.

There is no serious exerciseof assessing the cost of damageto the environment and thecost of restoration. It is also notclear whether the pollutingactivities have been stopped,"the tribunal said.

"The amount to be recov-ered on 'Polluter Pays' has tocommensurate with the dam-age caused and adequate tomeet the cost of restoration anddeterrent so that pollutingactivity does not remain prof-itable which admittedly has nothappened," it said.

The National GreenTribunal said while the identi-fied polluters are said to bemore than 30,000, the allegedaction is hardly against 150

vehicles.It said the action taken

against identified polluters byway of prosecution and recov-ery of deterrent compensationis hardly adequate for mean-ingful enforcement of rule oflaw and protection of environ-ment.

The NGT granted lastopportunity to the Delhi gov-ernment to deposit the amountand furnish the performanceguarantee.

"Let a further complianceaffidavit be filed giving detailsof the action taken month wiseand showing compliance ofthe order dated December 3,2018," the bench said. It alsodirected the Delhi chief secre-tary to remain present in per-son on August 5, the next dateof hearing.

The green panel said evenafter more than four-and-a-halfyears, the complaint of theaggrieved parties is that thepollution caused by the unreg-ulated handling of plastic con-

tinues to remain unabated.The tribunal was hearing

pleas filed by Mundka villageresident Satish Kumar andTikri-Kalan native MahavirSingh alleging pollution causedby burning of plastic, leather,rubber, motor engine oil andother waste materials and con-tinuous operation of illegalindustrial units dealing withsuch articles on agriculturallands in Mundka and Neelwalvillages.

The tribunal had directedthe Delhi chief secretary to co-ordinate with the municipalauthorities concerned, policeauthorities and other officersresponsible for compliance oforders of the tribunal alreadypassed by it.

The NGT had asked thechief secretary to hold a jointmeeting with the persons con-sidered responsible for com-pliance and continue to holdsuch meetings at least once amonth till the orders remainuncomplied.

�������� ������ ./0�&/+,1

AUS national was appre-hended by the alert CISF

personnel at Indira GandhiInternational (IGI) airport forallegedly using a fake ticket toenter the terminal area, a seniorofficial said.

The man identified asKasi V Malla was apprehend-ed around 12.30 am by theCentral Industrial SecurityForce (CISF) as he was foundsuspiciously roaming in the ter-minal area and attempting toleave the Terminal-3 (T3)building of the IGI airport, an

official said.The man, holding a pass-

port of the United States ofAmerica, was stopped andquestioned, as exiting the ter-minal area is not allowed undernormal circumstances, he said.

The passenger told the

CISF personnel that he used a"cancelled" ticket to enter theterminal area to see off his wifeand children who were travel-ling to Zurich in Switzerland,the official said, adding the pas-senger has been handed over tothe police.

Entering an airport termi-nal without a valid ticket is ille-gal under Indian aviation rules.A number of passengers arecaught in such instances as theyare unaware of the Indian rulesas in many countries across theglobe, visitors can enter the ter-minal area to see off theirfamily members or friends.

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Former Delhi Bharatiya JantaParty (BJP) president

Mange Ram Garg passed awayat a city hospital on Sundaymorning. The demise of Garg,83, was mourned by seniorparty leaders along with PrimeMinister Narendra Modi whodescribed him as a party manwith deep connect with Delhiwho selflessly served its people.

“Mange Ram Garg ji had adeep connect with Delhi andthat was seen in the manner inwhich he selflessly served thepeople of the city. He played apivotal role in strengtheningBJP in Delhi. His demise is sad-dening. My thoughts are withhis family and supporters. OmShanti,” Modi tweeted.

BJP National president andHome Minister Amit Shah saidthat he was all along his lifeworked dedicatedly to the ser-vice of the people. “From thetime of Jansangh till date hewas serving people of Delhi.His sudden demise is a big losswhich cannot be compensated,”he said.

Delhi BJP president ManojTiwari said that Mange Ram

Garg greatly contributed inthe expansion of the party andfor the raising the problems ofthe people is unparalleled andthis was the reason why BJP haswon many elections.

Delhi Chief MinisterArvind Kejriwal has also con-doled the demise of Garg. Hedied around 7.30 AM at ActionBalaji Hospital in PaschimVihar, north Delhi. He was not

keeping much well due to age-related issues. Garg’s mortalremains were taken to his res-idence in Ashok Vihar fromwhere it was taken to Delhi BJPoffice at Pant Marg, said partyleaders.

A large number of partyleaders and workers gathered atthe Delhi BJP office to pay theircondolences. Garg had pledgedhis organs to the ‘Dadhichi DehDan Samiti’ for which his bodywill be taken to Lady HardingeMedical College hospital at 1pm, family members said.

Garg was an MLA fromWazirpur constituencybetween 2003 and 2008. Hehad held a number of positionsin the party, which includedtreasurer, district president andthe BJP Delhi president.

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It was in 1998 when SheilaDikshit was asked by the

Congress president SoniaGandhi to take the reins of ahighly divided Delhi PradeshCongress Committee (DPCC).She accepted the challenge andtook on the then formidable cityunit of the BJP and ensured vic-tory for her party. Congress wasbrought back to power andtherein started her dream run asthe Chief Minister of Delhi.Credited with transforming thelandscape of the nationalCapital, she ushered in an era ofgood governance with publicparticipation.

Before being pitch forkedinto the conundrum of Delhipolitics, she had served asMinister of State in PrimeMinister’s office during RajivGandhi regime. When she tookover the charge of DelhiCongress from veteran Dalitleader Chaudhary Prem Singh,she was billed as a rank outsider.She proved her detractorswrong and defeated the com-bined might of BJP with lead-

ers like former chief ministersMadan Lal Khurana, SahibSingh Verma, Sushma Swaraj,former Chief ExecutiveCouncillor Prof VK Malhotra,Prof OP Kohli and JagdishMukhi. It was a momentous vic-tory for Congress led by SheilaDikshit despite leaders likeSajjan Kumar, Jagdish Tytler andSubhash Chopra, owing alle-giance to HKL Bhagat trying todestabilize her.

During her tenure as ChiefMinister, Delhi Congress unitsaw many chiefs but the DPCChad became synonymous toDikshit as he had a major say inorganisational matters. Since2013, the Congress, once in apole position, was relegated tothe third position in everymajor election that it contestedin Delhi. Congress was effec-tively finished in 2013 with theemergence of Aam Aadmi Party(AAP). She bowed out of theDelhi political scene after heruninterrupted rule from 1998-2013 came to an end as she losther Gole Market Assembly con-stituency to Arvind Kejriwaland Congress being pushed tothird spot with just eight

Assembly seats.Arvind Kejriwal led AAP

won a landslide in 2015 DelhiAssembly elections andCongress was vanquished fromthe national capital territory. Forfirst time since 1993, the grandold party had failed to win evena single seat in Delhi Assemblyelections.

Dikshit was away from thefight in 2015 and the reins ofDelhi Congress were with herformer minister Arvinder SinghLovely. After Congress failed toregister its presence duringmunicipal polls under the stew-ardship of former UnionMinister Ajay Maken, the AllIndia Congress Committee(AICC) once again turned toSheila Dikshit to revive the for-tunes of the party.

She was brought back againto head the DPCC in 2018 withthe specific mandate to revivethe party. She fought a spiritedelection and brought backCongress to 2nd position in fiveout of seven Lok Sabbha seats inthe city.

Despite Congress puttingup an improved show in the LokSabha elections, her detractors

in the party were after her. Shehad to contend with the Delhiaffairs in-charge PC Chackowho did not like her decision todissolve block and district levelcommittees. While she was bat-tling for life at Fortis Escortshospital, Chacko issued a terse-ly worded order to criticise her‘unilateral action’ and revived allthe block and district levelCongress committees that weredissolved by Dikshit. She did notlive to fight her last political bat-tle and breathed her last onSaturday at 3.55 pm.

With her passing away,Delhi Congress has lost itstallest leader. On Sunday SheilaDikshit’s body was taken to theDelhi Pradesh CongressCommittee’s office for the lasttime, the place that was centralto her politics since 1998.

Emotional party workersbid her final adieu and every-body present there had tearsrolling down their cheeks. Manywaxed eloquent about her affa-ble nature and easygoing nature.With Sheila Dikshit (81), goneto her heavenly abode, the pol-itics of Delhi Congress wouldnever be the same again.

����� ./0�&/+,1

Interpersonal skills and theability to iron out differ-

ences through talks were SheilaDikshit’s strongest qualitiesand also key to her long stintas Chief Minister, DelhiCongress leaders said.

Dikshit, one of Congress’stallest leaders and a three-timeDelhi chief minister, passedaway on Saturday and her mor-tal remains were consigned toflames on Sunday, with col-leagues, party workers andadmirers braving heavy rainsand gusty winds to bid her finalfarewell.

Known as a warm andaffable politician, Dikshit couldget along well with politiciansfrom all parties for which shedrew widespread respect.

Haroon Yusuf, who was aMinister in Dikshit’s Cabinet

from 2001 to 2013 and handledportfolios like transport andfood and civil supplies, said sheloved to serve food and wouldoften invite her Cabinet col-leagues for breakfast whenmany issues would be resolved.

“Delhi has its own limita-tions and she was aware of it.She never adopted theapproach of confrontation.Instead she believed in per-suasion that helped her getwork done whenever it wasstuck with the Centre or withthe bureaucracy,” Yusuf, who isthe acting president of theDelhi Congress, said.

Dikshit was the presidentof the Delhi Congress and the81-year-old had served as chiefminister for 15 years from1998-2013.

He recalled how despitehaving difference of opinionwith the Lieutenant Governor

on some issues as chief minis-ter, she never let it come out inthe public. Veteran DelhiCongress leader and five-timeMP Jai Prakash Agarwal saidshe had the ability to iron outdifferences when views on anysubject varied.

Agarwal, who served as theDelhi Pradesh Congress chiefduring Dikshit’s tenure as CM,recalls how she would call himup the next morning if the twohad difference of views on acertain subject.

“Either she would call meto her residence or office or shewould come down to meet meand sort out the difference,whatever it may be. She had theability to forget things...Shehad a big heart,” Agarwal said.

“She never brought the sit-uation to a level where strikinga dialogue with anyone was notpossible,” he said. This qualityhelped her be Delhi chief min-ister for 15 years. Even bureau-crats were happy with her wayof working, Agarwal said.

Haroon Yusuf recalledformer Delhi chief ministerSheila Dikshit as someone wholoved to host people for break-

fast, and advised him the samewhen an officer posted underhis department was “difficult”to deal with.

Yusuf, who was a minis-ter in Dikshit’s Cabinet from2001-13 and handled portfolioslike civil and food supplies andtransport, went to her with aconcern over the officer whowas known for not performing.

“I went to Dikshit with arequest to give me another offi-cer. She (Dikshit) said nothingcan be done as she had alreadyspoken to the LieutenantGovernor, who had denied therequest,” Yusuf said.

The former Delhi chiefminister said there was nooption but to get the work donethrough the concerned officer.“She told me to invite the offi-cer for breakfast the next day,”Yusuf said.

The trick worked, theCongress leader recollectedand he along with the officercould execute different projects.

Yusuf said Dikshit herselfhosted people, including herCabinet colleagues, for breakfast.“She loved to serve the breakfastherself,” he recalled.

�������� ������ ./0�&/+,1

Congress workers, leaders,friends and relatives of

Sheila Dikshit remembered heras an affable person who gavethe best advice in hour ofneed, a concerned chief min-ister who worked to make theCapital green and developedthe city by constructing a webof flyovers. She is also remem-bered for caring everyoneabove party politics.

Vinnet Tyagi, 42, aCongress supporter, said “It isdifficult to believe that she hasleft us. She was like my moth-er. “She treated everyone with

dignity and respect. We havelost a greatest leader of con-temporary India,” he said.

“This was my way of pay-ing my last respects to her. She

would meet every party work-er like a mother meets her chil-dren. She gave everything tothe city in her 15-year tenure asDelhi chief minister,” RitaVerma, a party worker said.

“There is dearth of suchfair-minded, kind-heartedleaders. She was a ChiefMinister who worked selfless-ly and took everybody along. Iremember that she was veryconcerned when newspapersreported that sparrows weredisappearing from the city dueto rapid urbanisation,” she said.

Parvej Ansari, 56, a resi-dent of Azadpur, rememberedDikshit as a woman with strong

character and an inspiringleader with a vision.

“She cannot be comparedto anyone. She was a leaderwho believes in change. It is agreat loss. She empowered oth-ers and that’s a quality of a trueleader. She fought for ordinarypeople so that they could leada live dignified life,” he said.

“She was a dedicated con-gress worker and fought till herlast breath. She kept serving theparty even when she was notwell. One can understand thekind of determination and pas-sion to work for people,” saidVinod Mehta, a resident ofNand Nagri.

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Former Delhi ChiefMinister Sheila Dikshit

never held grudges against herpolitical rivals, BJP leaderVijender Gupta said, recallinghis experience with theCongress veteran.

Gupta, who is the leader ofOpposition in the DelhiAssembly, said that during hisstint as the Delhi BJP president,he had filed a complaint withthe Lokayukta against herGovernment.

Despite this, during hisinteraction with Dikshit, shenever spoke about it and wasalways cordial, he told PTI.She had also filed a defamationsuit against him in 2012 overcertain remarks he had madeagainst her during the MCDpolls. A year later, the two alsounsuccessfully contested theAssembly election from theNew Delhi seat.

“Later, during an event she

met me and said let’s settle theissue. The case had reached anadvanced stage at that time,”Gupta said.

“This reflected her per-sonality of not keeping any-thing in her heart for too long,”he said.

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Singrauli: A 30-year-old trib-al woman was killed after threemen, including a father-sonduo, allegedly ran a tractor overher as a result of a land disputein Singrauli district of MadhyaPradesh, police said on Sunday.

The incident took place onFriday at Dhilari village, around60 kms from the district head-quarters, and the woman, KiranKol, succumbed to her injuriesa day later, they said.

The three accused havebeen identified as Bandhu Bais(55), his son Lalpati Bais (30)and their close relativePrabhakar Bais (25).

While Bandhu andPrabhakar have been arrested,search has been launched forLalpati, police said. "An argu-ment broke out between thevictim and the accused after thelatter Friday started ploughinga farm land, claiming that itwas theirs. However, Kiranobjected to it saying that theland belonged to her family

since the last three decades,"inspector of Jiyawan policestation Nehru Singh said.Angered by her resistance, theaccused knocked Kiran downwith the tractor that they wereusing for ploughing the field, hesaid, adding that the trio alsoattacked her father-in-law,Visheshar Kol (60), with wood-en sticks.

"They also punched andkicked him, leaving himinjured," he added. Followingthe incident, the woman wasrushed to a nearby hospital.However, she died on Saturdaywhile being transferred toanother hospital, he said. WhileBandhu and Prabhakar havebeen arrested, efforts are on totrace Lalpati, Singh added.

They have booked for mur-der, attempt to murder andother offences. They have alsobeen booked under theScheduled Caste and ScheduledTribe (Prevention of Atrocities)Act, the inspector said. PTI

Thiruvananthapuram: Fourpersons have died and three,including two fishermen fromTamil Nadu, are missing asrains continued to lash Kerala.

The body of Sahayaraju(55), one of the missing fisher-men from Tamil Nadu, wasfound in Kollam district. Twoother fishermen had managedto swim to safety, the coastalpolice said.

"The search is on for theremaining two missing fisher-men. A Coast Guard ship andtwo boats of MarineEnforcement are searching forthem," a coastal police officialtold PTI.

The body of ManeshSebastian, who went missing inthe Meenachil river of Kottayamdistrict, was retrieved by theNavy.

The India MeteorologicalDepartment (IMD) has issuedred alert in Kasargod and Idukkidistricts on July 21, andKozhikode, Wayanad andKannur districts on July 22. It

has also predicted extremelyheavy rainfall in Kannur andKasargod districts of the south-ern state on July 23.

The weatherman has alsoissued orange alert in Kottayam,Ernakulam, Thrissur andMalappuram till July 25.

Even though the intensity ofrains has reduced, coastal areasof the state continue to bore thebrunt of the rough sea.

The Kerala government hasasked tourists to stay away fromShankumugham Beach in statecapital Thiruvananthapuram,citing danger.

The IMD has also cau-tioned fishermen from ventur-ing into the sea.

According to sources ofthe State Disaster ManagementAuthority (SDMA), hundreds ofhouses from coastal areas of thestate have been evacuated.

In the hilly Idukki district,a minor landslide occurredSaturday morning atKonnathady village, causingcrop loss. There were no casu-

alties, official sources said,adding people have beenadvised against travelling tohilly areas.

Koshy Varghese (53)drowned after slipping into theManimala river at Thiruvallawhile fishing. Dileep Kumar(54) from Kollam died when acoconut tree fell on him onFriday, Kerala State DisasterManagement sources said.

A man who had gone tobathe at Fort Kochi beach is alsomissing.

A total of 12 relief campshave been opened for those liv-ing in low-lying areas andwhose homes have been flood-ed. According to SDMA, 13houses have been fully damagedso far and 71 partially in thestate. "As of now, we haveopened two relief camps inKasargod. Nearly 15 personshave been shifted there. Thereare many others who haveopted to move to their relatives,"a disaster management officialfrom Kasargod said. PTI

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Chandigarh: The key accusedin the alleged smuggling ofbiggest ever narcotics haulworth �2,700 crore fromPakistan, who was lodged in ajail in Amritsar, died onSunday, with Chief MinisterAmarinder Singh ordering amagisterial probe into hisdeath.

The accused, GurpinderSingh (29), a rock saltimporter, was arrested in con-nection with the biggest evernarcotics haul in which theCustoms Department hadseized 532 kg of heroin worth�2,700 crore at Attari border inAmritsar, which was smuggledinto India from Pakistan in atruck.

Gurpinder Singh wasapprehended by the CustomsDepartment on June 30 andsince July 2 he was sent to judi-cial remand.

His mother Kawaljit told

reporters in Amritsar onSunday that Gurpinder Singhwas falsely implicated in thenarcotics case on frivolousgrounds.

The chief minister onSunday ordered a magisterialinquiry into the accused'sdeath.

Amarinder Singh askedAdditional District Magistrate(ADM) Himanshu Aggarwalto conduct a detailed probeinto the matter, according to anofficial spokesperson here.

The ADM was asked toascertain all facts and circum-stances of the death of theundertrial.

The magisterial enquirywill be in addition to the post-mortem, which will be con-ducted by a board of doctors,and the judicial proceedingsunder the CrPC to be con-ducted by a judicial magistrate.

The spokesperson said theaccused was admitted in theJail Hospital, Central Jail,Amritsar on July 18. The jailmedical officer referred himSunday, due to his serious

health condition, to the GuruNanak Dev Hospital, Amritsarfor treatment. However, hewas declared brought dead atthe GND hospital, he said.

"Amarinder has directedthe ADM to undertake a thor-ough investigation into thematter and identify the lapsesthat led to the death of under-trial Gurpinder," he said.

The spokesperson said,"As Gurpinder Singh was achronic diabetes patient withdeteriorating health condition,he was admitted to the GuruNanak Dev Hospital, Amritsar,for treatment on July 2 and wasdischarged from the hospitalfour days later..," he said.

The smuggling racket'salleged mastermind, based inthe Kashmir Valley, was arrest-ed earlier.

The consignment of hero-in and another 52 kg of sus-pected mixed narcotics wasconcealed under hundreds ofbags of rock salt inside the truck,which arrived at Attari fromPakistan through the IntegratedCheck Post (ICP). PTI

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Bhopal: Madhya PradeshAssembly Speaker NarmadaPrasad Prajapati on Sundayordered formation of a com-mittee under Chief MinisterKamal Nath to discuss thevexed issue of implementationof promotions in Governmentdepartments.

The committee comprisesfour members each from thetreasury benches and the oppo-sition.

The speaker said he wouldset an appropriate date for themeeting of the panel in theAssembly premises.

Prajapti gave the rulingafter senior MLA SitasaranSharma drew attention of theHouse to "flaws" in implemen-tation of the promotion policy,claiming that while class-I

employees were enjoying ben-efits of promotion others arebeing deprived.

Leader of OppositionGopal Bhargava said the issueneeded to be resolved soon, asit involves a large number ofpeople. General AdministrationDepartment Minister GovindSingh said the Madhya PradeshHigh Court in 2016 had setaside the provisions of reser-vation in promotions in MPPublic Service Rules.

He said the governmenthad moved a Special LeavePetition (SPL) in the SupremeCourt on May 12, 2016.

Bhargava said he Speakerenjoys immense power as isevident in the KarnatakaLegislative Assembly, andsought a ruling on it. PTI

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Chennai: Indian Navy willgets its fifth Dornier AircraftSquadron here on Mondaythat would strengthen its capa-bilities in coastal security.

The new air squadron isscheduled to be commissionedby Admiral Karambir Singh,Chief of Naval Staff at NavalAir Enclave, Meenambakkamhere, a press release said.

The Dornier aircraft is fit-ted with state-of-the-art sensorsand equipment — advancedsurveillance radar, electronicsensors and networking fea-tures that would enhance mar-itime domain awareness ofIndian Navy and be utilised insearch and rescue operations.

The commissioning of theAir Squadron would furtherstrengthen the Navy's efforts inmaintaining constant surveil-lance and safeguarding mar-itime interests in the Easterncoast, it said. PTI

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At least four elderly mem-bers of the tribal commu-

nity, including a couple, weredragged out of their houses andbeaten to death by an enragedmob on charges of practicingwitchcraft in the interiors ofJharkhand’s Gumla district,about 100 Kilometers west ofcapital Ranchi, in the weehours of Sunday.

“Prima facie, it seems thatthey were killed on the suspi-cion of practicing witchcraft.The four victims were draggedout of their houses and takento the village’s Akhra, wherethey were beaten to death ataround 3.30 am on Sunday,”said Gumla’s Superintendent ofPolice, Anjani Kumar Jha.

Akhra is a meeting point,usually at the centre of a trib-al village, where villagers holdregular meetings to addresssocial issues and organiseevents for entertainment.

The fact that the perpetra-tors chose the Akhra for exe-cuting the crime indicates thatsome of the locals might bebehind the act, police sourcessaid. It also indicates that theperpetrators wanted to projectthe crime as an act done forsafety of the villagers, they added. The police recov-ered bloodstained batons fromthe spot. The incident occurredat Piskari village in Sisai block.The tribal-dominated village,police said, is at least 15Kilometers away from the SisaiPolice Station.

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From Page 1A 20-hour countdown for

the launch began at 6.43 pmSunday, ISRO announced.

Chandrayaan-2 comes11 years after ISRO’s suc-cessful first lunar missionChandrayaan-1 whichscripted history by makingmore than 3,400 orbitsaround the Moon and wasoperational for 312 days tillAugust 29, 2009.

“Chandrayaan 2 is readyto take a billion dreams tothe Moon now strongerthan ever before! Join us forthe launch on Monday 22July, 2019 at 2:43 PM IST,”ISRO had tweeted on July 18while announcing therescheduled launch.

On the eve of launch,ISRO Chairman K Sivan saidall preparations were on andthe glitch had been rectified.

“Whatever technicalsnag we observed on July 15has been rectified. The vehi-cle is in good health... The(pre-launch) rehearsal hasbeen successfully complet-

ed,” he told reporters at theChennai airport on brief astopover enroute here.

The 43.43m tall three-stage rocket dubbed‘Baahubali’ for its ability tocarry heavy payloads wouldblast-off carryingChandrayaan-2 and inject thespacecraft into Earth orbitabout 16 minutes later.

After lift-off, the 3,850 kgChandrayaan-2, comprisingan orbiter, lander and rover,will undergo 15 crucialmanoeuvres before landingon the Moon, expected by thefirst week of September, Sivansaid.

Scientists would make softlanding of the lander in theSouth Pole region of the Moonwhere no country has gone sofar, the ISRO chief said.

Billed as the most complexand prestigious missionundertaken by the ISRO sinceits inception, Chandrayaan-2will make India the fourthcountry to soft land a rover onthe lunar surface after Russia,the United States and China.

About 16.20 minutes afterthe lift-off, the GSLV rocket

will inject Chandrayan-2 into170 km x 39059 kms Earthorbit.

From then onwards, themission will witness a series ofmanoeuvres by scientists tocarry out different phases ofthe mission over the next 48days.

Subsequent to the resched-uling of the launch, the spaceagency has tweaked the orbitalphases, increasing Earth-bound phase to 23 days asagainst 17 days plannedorginally.

At the end of the Earth-bound phase, the orbit of thespacecraft will be finally raisedto over 1.05 lakh km beforenudging it into the LunarTransfer Trajectory taking it tothe proximity of Moon in thenext two days.

Then gradually over thenext few days it will be broughtto 100 X 100 km circular orbitwhen the lander will separateand after another few days oforbiting it will make a softlanding at a chosen place onthe Lunar surface.

The soft landing of thelander - Vikram carrying rover

‘Pragyan’, one of the toughestphases of the mission anddescribed by the ISRO chief as“15 minutes of terror (filledmoments), would be attempt-ed between September 6-8.

“Chandrayaan-2 is thenext leap in technology as weattempt to soft land close toSouth Pole of Moon. The softlanding is extremely complexand we will experienceapproximately 15 minutes ofterror,” he had said earlier.

The mission, which carriesa total of 13 payloads, includ-ing three from the Europe, twofrom the US and one Bulgaria,seeks to improve understand-ing of the Moon which couldlead to discoveries that willbenefit India and humanity asa whole.

A Laser RetroreflectorArray (LRA) of US spaceagency NASA is among thepayloads and is aimed atunderstanding dynamics ofEarth’s Moon system andderiving clues on Lunar inte-rior.

Sivan Sunday saidChandrayaan-1 revealed thepresence of water molecules

and similarly there were pos-sibilities of the latest missionreturning successful scientificexperiments.

“It is because of these rea-sons that Chandrayaan-2 hasattracted attention not onlyfrom the Indian scientists butalso from global scientists,” hesaid. ISRO encountered thesnag on July 15 when the liq-uid propellant was beingloaded into the rocket’s indige-nous cryogenic upper stageengine. Veteran scientistsheaped praise on ISRO forcalling off the launch ratherhurrying into a major disaster.

President Ram NathKovind was present here onJuly 15 to witness the launch.

The launch ofChandrayaan-2 had missedits date earlier too when it wasfixed for the first week ofJanuary. But it was shifted toJuly 15. According to ISRO,the lunar South Pole is aninteresting surface area whichremains in shadow than Northpole. There is a possibility ofthe presence of water in per-manently shadowed areasaround it, the agency said,

adding craters in the SouthPole region have cold trapsand contain fossil record of theearly solar system.

The lander ‘Vikram’,named after father of Indianspace research programme DrVikram A Sarabhai, carryingthe rover ‘Pragyan’, will belanded in a high plain betweentwo craters at a latitude ofabout 70 degrees South of themoon.

Then the 27-kg ‘Pragyan’meaning ‘wisdom’ in Sanskritand a six-wheeled roboticvehicle, will set out on its jobof collecting information onlunar surface.

A safe site free of hazardsfor landing would be decidedbased on pictures sent back bythe camera onboard the landerand after touchdown the roverwill carry out experiments for14 Earth days, equals oneLunar Day.

The launch would be wit-nessed by nearly 5,000 peoplewho will be accommodated ata viewing gallery, located a fewkms from the launch pad,thrown open to the public bythe ISRO in May last.

From Page 1She was a protector of

media’s freedom. She seldomused the stick of cutting onGovernment advertisements tobrowbeat us. Once around 11 inthe morning I received a callfrom her. She was furious for wehaving run a copy on the MCDdismemberment file having gotlost in the Rashtrapati Bhawan.“You people write whatever youwish about my Government buthow can you say this for theRashtrapati Bhawan,” she hadfumed. One did not have theheart to tell her that the infor-mation had been shared by herChief Secretary.

The story did not end there.She forgot to switch off thecordless phone and one over-heard one of her aides suggest-ing that our advertisementsshould be stopped. She hadangrily countered, “Did I ask foran advise? I have spoken toSidharth, if the need be, I willspeak to Chandan. Aap apnakaam kijiye (you please do yourwork).”

That was Sheila Dikshit, atrue democrat, an able adminis-trator and a great friend of hercritics. She loved disarmingthem with her charm and affec-tion. As Chandan Mitra rightlywrote, “They don’t make politi-cal leaders like her anymore.”

(The writer is formerAssociate Editor of The Pioneerand author of the book DelhiPolitical: 1947-2013)

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From Page 1Experts, however, said

Mamata’s call for return of bal-lot system was an attempt totone up the befuddled partyrank and hammer home thepoint that TMC lost the pollsnot because of loss of popularsupport but because of theBJP’s manipulation of EVMs.“She wants to pull the sup-porters out of this despon-dency and get them going,”political expert BNChakrabarty said. Stumpedby a stunning saffron upsurgeand confused by the ongoingcut-money movement led bythe BJP in villages Banerjeedirected her party men tostart a counter-agitationdemanding the black moneythe BJP leaders had earnedduring demonetization andimplementation of the Ujjwalascheme.

Post 2019 general elec-tions the villagers led by BJPsupporters had been raiding

the houses of lower-level TMCleaders demanding back thecut money they had extortedall these years to help get thebenefit of governmentschemes.

As a counter measureBanerjee directed her partymen to “catch the BJP leadersand take from Rs 15 lakheach that their party earnedduring demonetization andimplementation of UjjwalaYojna.”

Saying that she can sub-stantiate her claims with doc-umentary evidence she said, “Ihave documents to show howthe BJP distributed Ujjwalascheme in the villages ofMurshidabad and other placesin lieu of money.”

She said, “today the BJP israising the cut money issue butwhat about those thousands ofcrores of rupees that theyspent to win the elections.From where this money come?Who gave them this money?”adding how after the electionsthe country was experiencinga steep inflation. “There is asteep rise in petro prices andessential commodities after

the elections,” she said addingthere was a relation betweenthe cash that was used by theBJP in the polls and the pricerise.

Attacking the NarendraModi Government fordestroying the Indian federalsystem by using the investi-gating agencies against theopposition Banerjee said“whenever you raise somequestion they will send CBI,ED to your house. Today inBengal they are targeting thefilm stars like Prasenjit andRituparna Sengupta withagencies,” alleging “the actorsare being told to join the BJP”to escape Delhi’s wrath.

Wondering which side theLeft and the Congress were inthe struggle against the BJPshe said “I don’t want your(CPIM, Congress) support. Ijust only will advise you not toget purchased by the fascistforces,” she said.

Banerjee asked the partymen to restart a movementagainst the BJP from July 26-27 saying “I will personallystart visiting the districts fromthis month.”

From Page 1As per data provided by the

Assam State DisasterManagement Authority(ASDMA), 42,864 animalsincluding poultry in Dhemajidistrict; 20,600 in Lakhimpur;19,800 in Biswanath; 34,500 inSonitpur; 3.87 lakh in Darrang,1.13 lakh in Nalbari, 1.51 lakhin Majuli, 11.7 lakh in Barpeta,3.97 lakh in Kamrup, 4.16 inMoarigaon, 2.75 lakh inGoalpara, 6.10 lakh in Dhubriand 3.69 lakh in South Salmaradistrict are affected due to flood.Over 100 big animals washedaway in the flood since July 13.

Around 90 per cent of rhinohabitats -- the KazirangaNational Park and the PobitoraWildlife Sanctuary -- are underwater and 129 animals havebeen reported to die so far. Atleast 68 camps in KazirangaNational Park are inundated.The water has started recedingfrom the Kaziranga Park. The430-square kilometre Park is a

World Heritage site spreadacross two districts, Golaghatand Nagaon. It is primarilyknown for being home to amajority of the world’s greatone-horned rhinoceroses, but itis also a tiger reserve, and haslarge populations of elephants,buffalo and deer.

The flood report of theAssam government further saythat as per report, 1113 hectarecrops in Lakhimpur, 1293hectare in Biswanath, 4166hectare in Sonitpur, 13711hectare in Darrang, 9602hectare in Baksa, 16377 hectarein Barpeta, 2537 hectare inBongaigaon, 20269 hectare inDhubri, 10089 hectare inKamrup and 100849 hectare inmorigaon have been damagedso far.

“As many as 3024 villagesincluding 197 villages in Dimaji,695 in Dhubri, 55 in Lakhimpur,52 in Biswanath, 44 in Sonitpur,201 in Darrang, 674 in Barpeta,133 in Bongaigaon, 151 in

Nagaon, 260 in Golaghat, andand 143 in South Salmara hasbeen inundated,” said the floodreport.

In Bihar, significant num-ber of casualties have also beenreported from Araria,Madhubani, Purnea, Sheoharand Darbhanga districts.However, the situationremained grim as the Bagmatiriver in Bihar continued to flowabove the danger mark at vari-ous places at Sitamarhi andMuzaffapur, and though theKamala Balam river levelsshowed a falling trend, it wasstill above the danger mark inMadhubani.

In Punjab, flood-like situa-tion prevailed in at least 12 vil-lages in Sangrur district, after anembankment of the swollenGhaggar river collapsed, dam-aging the newly planted paddycrop in over 4,000 acres ofland. In Kerala, the IndiaMeteorological Department hassounded a red alert.

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The ouster of Congress-JD(S) coalition

Government seems imminentwhen the show of strength inthe Karnataka Assembly takesplace expectedly on Monday.

While 11 Congress rebelMLAs released a video onSunday claiming they wouldnot attend the Assembly pro-ceedings, two independentMLAs have petitioned SupremeCourt to direct the Speaker towind up the vote of confidenceprocess 5 pm on Monday.

The KumaraswamyGovernment, on the edge forlast one month, had on July 19defied the two deadlines set byGovernor Vajubhai Vala toprove its majority on the floorof the House.

Hoping for some kind ofrelief from the Supreme Court,the ruling coalition, mean-

while, was making last ditchefforts to win back unrelentingrebel lawmakers.

Kumaraswamy and theCongress had moved theSupreme Court on Friday,accusing the Governor of inter-fering with the Assembly pro-ceedings when the debate onthe trust vote was underwayand sought clarification on itsJuly 17 order, which they said,caused hindrance in issuingwhip to the legislators.

The Assembly wasadjourned till Monday after theGovernor’s 1.30 PM deadlineand the second one to concludethe confidence motion processby Friday itself was ignored,prolonging the instability andsuspense on the possible sur-vival of the coalitionGovernment.

As the first deadline nearedon Friday, the ruling coalitionquestioned the Governor’s

power to issue such a direction,with Kumaraswamy citing aSupreme Court verdict that aGovernor cannot act asombudsman of the legislature.

The Governor’s secondmissive was dismissed as a“love letter” by Kumaraswamy,who criticised Vala for talkingabout horse-trading now“when it had been happening”for the last several days.

However, before adjourn-ing the House on Friday,Speaker Ramesh Kumarextracted a “commitment”from the coalition that themotion of confidence wouldreach finality on Monday, evenas he made it clear that it wouldnot be prolonged further underany circumstances.

If the ruling coalition triesto delay the proceedings onMonday also, all eyes will be onthe next move by the Governor,who has been keeping the

Centre posted on the curiousups and downs in the state.

The “delay” in completingthe trust vote process was seenas an attempt by the rulingcoalition aimed at buying timeto woo back rebel MLAs, herd-ed down in a Mumbai hotelallegedly by the BJP to protectthem from poaching by the rul-ing coalition, whose resignationhas pushed the government tothe brink of collapse.

There are about 13 MLAsof the Congress and the JDSwho have resigned from theassembly and are apparently nomood to go to the rulingalliance as the Congress hasaccused the BJP of horse trad-ing and conspiring to destabi-lize the state coalition govern-ment of the state.

BJP State president BSYeddyurappa on Sundayexpressed confidence thatMonday would be the last day

of the Kumaraswamy led coali-tion Government.

“As Siddaramaiah, Speakerand Kumaraswamy have saidthat they will seek majority onMonday, I am 100 per cent con-fident that things will reach aconclusion.

“The SC has clearly said inits order that under no cir-cumstances should the 15MLAs staying in Mumbai becompelled to attend the currentassembly session”, he said.

It has clearly stated that itis left to them (MLAs) whetherthey want to attend it or not,”the former chief minister said.

He emphasised that whiphas no value in such a situation,which the ruling party leaderstoo know. As Yeddyurappa hascalled the meeting of party’slegislature party on Monday,Congress held a detailed strat-egy session in a hotel atBengaluru on Sunday.

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Rajya Sabha member D Rajawas selected unanimously

as the general secretary of theCommunist Party of India(CPI) on Sunday. The veteranleader, who replaced SSudhakar Reddy, is the first onefrom Dalit community to headthe party.

Reddy stepped down dueto health reasons and therecently concluded CPI’sNational Council decided toselect Raja.

Asserting that the party’sfight against “retrograde” forceswould continue, Raja said,“The country is going througha critical period under the fas-cist regime of Prime MinisterNarendra Modi. The Left mighthave lost seats in the Lok Sabhaelection and might have beenreduced to a smaller force inParliament, but it does notmean that we have shrunkwithin the country or our ide-ological and political influ-ence has shrunk.”

Raja said the Left partieswould continue to fight againstthe “retrograde policies” of thepresent government. “The BJPgovernment may have won theelectoral battle but not thesocial or the political one. Wewant all communist parties tocome together. We will have torework our strategies. That’swhat our parties are trying todo,” he said.

Doraisamy Raja (70), pop-ularly known as D Raja wasunanimously chosen as

Reddy’s successor at a three-day meeting of the CPINational Council, the top deci-sion-making body of the party,earlier this week.

Reddy, who stepped downas the CPI general secretarydue to ill health, was also pre-sent at the press conference.Raja hailing from Tamil Naduwas National Secretary of CPIfor past 15 years and becameRajya Sabha MP in 2007 andreelected on 2013. His 12 yearlong tenure in Rajya Sabha isending on July 24. His wifeAnnie Raja is also a CPI leaderand is general secretary ofCPI’s women’s wing NationalFederation of Indian Women(NFIW).

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In the seven phases Lok Sabhapolls, a record 18,02,646 eli-

gible personnel were enrolledand 10,84,266 voted throughthe Electronically TransmittedPostal Ballot System (ETPBS)or e-postal ballots.

According to the ElectionCommission (EC), a record60.14 per cent military andparamilitary personnel andthose deployed in Indian mis-sions abroad used the e-postalballot to vote in the Lok Sabhaelections. The ETPBS is a flag-ship IT programme of theElection Commission thatempowers people eligible tovote but posted far away fromtheir homes to vote electroni-cally.

In a statement issued onSunday, the Commission saidthat in contrast, the voting inthis category was only 4 percent in 2014. According to theEC, over eight lakh servicemore voters were enrolled forthe 2019 elections compared to13,27,627 in 2014.

Of the total, 10,16,245 werefrom Defence Ministry,7,82,595 from Home Ministry(Central Armed Police Forces);3,539 from External AffairsMinistry and 267 from statepolice.

Persons working in para-military forces and the militaryand government officialsdeployed in diplomatic mis-sions outside India are classi-fied as Service Voters.

The EC said the record vot-ing was possible because ofETPBS, which was among oneof its kind initiatives adopted bythe poll panel this year.

Enabled through the ded-icated portal https://www.ser-vicevoter.eci.nic.in online reg-istration, the service voters forthe first time were sent postalballots electronically one way tosave processing time, resourcesand avoid human errors.

“A total of 18,02,646 postalballots were dispatched elec-tronically using the flagship ITprogramme ETPBS. In return,10,84,266 e-postal ballots werereceived indicating 60.14 percent turnout,” the EC statementsaid.

The poll panel said ETPBSwas a fully secured system, hav-

ing two security layers.“Secrecy of voting is main-

tained through the use of OTP(One Time Password) and PINand no duplication of castedETPB is possible due to theunique QR Code in the portalhttps://www. etpbs.in.,” the ECsaid.

The Commission said thepurpose of the online systemwas to create convenient andeasy-to-use online system fordefence personnel to becomeService Voters.

“With the motto ‘’no voterto be left behind’’, ETPBS hasempowered and ensured all eli-gible service electors with theirconstitutional power to votewhile performing their duty forthe nation,” the Commissionadded.

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Lok Janshakti Party MP fromBihar’s Samastipur

Ramchandra Paswan died onSunday afternoon following abrief illness. He was 57.

Ramchandra Paswan, theyounger brother of UnionMinister and LJP chief RamVilas Paswan, breathed his lastat 1.24 pm at the Ram ManoharLohia Hospital here.

He was admitted to thehospital last week after suffer-ing a heart attack.

The body will be kept at hisresidence in New Delhi and onMonday, at the LJP office inPatna for paying last respects.He will be cremated in theBihar capital on Monday evening. He is sur-vived by his wife, two sons anda daughter.

“With profound sadness, Iam informing that my dearestand youngest brotherRamchandra Paswan, MP LokSabha has passed away today at1.24 pm in Dr RammanoharLohia Hospial, Delhi,” RamVilas Paswan said.

“The body will then betaken to Patna, where it will bekept at Lok Janshakti Party’soffice there from 11 am to 3 pmfor paying

the last respects. He will becremated at 4 pm in Patna,” hesaid. President Ram NathKovind, Vice President MVenkaiah Naidu, PrimeMinister Narendra Modi and

Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birlawere among those who con-doled his death.

Ramchandra Paswan was afour-time MP and was firstelected in 1999.

He was re-elected to theLok Sabha in 2004 and thenagain for the third time in 2014.

In May 2019, he was elect-ed to the Lower House ofParliament from Samastipur inBihar for the fourth time on aLJP ticket.

“Sad to hear of the passingof Shri Ram Chandra Paswan,MP (LS) from Samastipur,Bihar. He remained committedto serving those at the grass-roots and contributed much tothe well being of the people ofBihar. Condolences to his fam-ily, constituents and colleagues,”

President Kovind tweeted. Thevice-president said, “I expressmy condolences on the untime-ly demise of Union ministerRam Vilas Paswan’s brotherand Lok Sabha MP RamChandra Paswan ji.”

Modi said Ram ChandraPaswan worked tirelessly forthe poor and downtroddenand spoke about rights of farm-ers and the youth.

“Shri Ram ChandraPaswan Ji worked tirelessly forthe poor and downtrodden.

At every forum he spokeunequivocally for the rights offarmers and youngsters. Hissocial service efforts were note-worthy. Pained by his demise.Condolences to his family andsupporters. Om Shanti,” thePM tweeted.

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Lauding the heroes of theKargil war, Defence

Minister Rajnath Singh onSunday said he will do his bestto ensure that no harm comesto the pride and honour of thesoldiers. Addressing a gather-ing of war veterans, Kargil warwidows and others at an eventheld here to commemorate 20years of Operation Vijay, Singhalso asserted that people’s “faithin armed forces has increased”.

“Whatever we can do tohonour our martyrs is less. Wehonour them and salute thewar widows present here. Wefeel proud of our soldiers,” hesaid. He also shared his expe-riences of visiting Drass onSaturday, where he paidhomage to fallen soldiers at theKargil War Memorial.

“I can only say this from my

side that I will do my best andwhatever is possible to ensurethat no harm comes to the hon-our, pride and esteem of ourjawans,” the defence ministersaid to a thunderous applause.He also said a man could com-promise with other things, butnot with his pride and honour.

“That pride (‘swabhiman’)could be personal, social ornationalistic (‘rashtriya swab-himan’). It was with this senseof pride that 18-year-olds and20-year-olds had embraced thegallows during the freedomstruggle,” Singh said.

During his Kargil visit, hewas given a detailed presenta-tion on Operation Vijay, thedefence minister said.

Operation Vijay was thename given to India’s limitedwar against Pakistan after theneighbouring country infil-trated in 1999.

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Bangladesh Home MinisterAsaduzzaman Khan will

visit India on August 7 duringwhich he will hold bilateraltalks with Home Minister AmitShah, who is expected to flagissues like illegal immigrationand anti-terror cooperation,officials said. Khan will havebilateral talks with the HomeMinister on August 7 whenissues concerning both thecountries will be discussedthreadbare.

India is expected to taketough stand on the issue of

unabated illegal immigrationfrom Bangladesh.

Anti-terror cooperation,movement of illegal immi-grants, and smuggling of cattle,arms and ammunition and afew other issues are expected tobe discussed in Shah’s dia-logue with Khan.

Radicalisation of youths andRohingya refugees issues mayalso figure in the talks. The del-egation-level talks will also beattended by top internal secu-rity officials of India andBangladesh.

During the delegation-leveldialogue, steps to be taken tostrengthen the existing mech-anism to check movement ofillegal immigrants and smug-gling of cattle, narcotics andother items through the porousIndo-Bangla border will figureprominently, another officialsaid. India shares a 4,096-km-long border with Bangladesh.

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After unveiling full bodyprotectors for the women

troopers in the CRPF, the para-military has now decided toinstall over 500 sanitary paddispensers and incineratorsacross the formations acrossthe country to help them inensuring personal hygiene withease.

The Union Home Ministryhas sanctioned funds to theCRPF to procure and install theequipment for the combatisedwomen in the Force.

As many as 288 sanitarypad vending machines and asmany incinerators to scientif-ically dispose off used sanitarynapkins will be installed in theCRPF campuses.

The Ministry has alsoauthorized the CRPF to acquire783 steel frame stands for dry-

ing clothes for all its six ‘mahi-la’ battalions, 15 special anti-riot units of the Rapid Action

Force and training institutions. With an outlay of

�2,10,69,000 these equipment

will be installed as one sanitarypad vending machine costs�25,000, a burning machine

about �40,000 and a cloth dry-ing stand �3,000, officials said.

The acquisition of the theseequipment will help the forcein ensuring better living andoperating conditions for theover 8,000 women personnel inits ranks. The budgeting forgender-sensitive facilities isexpected to be extended toother paramilitary forces aswell as the Union HomeMinistry has been pitching infor the inclusion of women inall the paramilitary forces.

The idea for gender sensi-tive budgeting and creation ofan enabling environment forwomen in uniformed rankswas first mooted during the‘National Conference forwomen in Police’ in 2016. Theconference was organised bythe Union Home Ministry inthe national capital.

IPS officer Renuka Mishra,

currently an AdditionalDirector General (ADG) inUttar Pradesh police, had con-ducted a study a few years backflagging the issues of health,privacy and challenges beingfaced by women personnel inpolice forces.

Mishra was an Inspectorgeneral with the border guard-ing Force Sashastra Seema Balat its headquarters during herstudy on the issues being facedby the women in the uni-formed ranks including in thepolice and paramilitary forces.

The CRPF had on Fridayunveiled the country’s firstprototype of a full body pro-tector for women personnelwhich it has jointly developedwith the Defence Institute ofPhysiology and Allied Sciences(DIPAS, an entity of DefenceResearch and DevelopmentOrganisation (DRDO).

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The Modi Government hasunderlined its priorities in

the first 50 days of its secondterm, setting sights on makingIndia a $5 trillion economy andhitting the ground running onspurring growth.

Two persons in the knowof the government policy mak-ing said the dispensation trulyfeels that transformativechanges can be brought aboutonly through economic growthand inclusive development.

Prime Minister NarendraModi was sworn-in on May 30

after the BJP won 303 seats —the first time since 1971 that anincumbent governmentreturned to power with such athumping mandate.

The government was offthe blocks on day one and setthe ball rolling on manifestopromises such as pensionschemes for farmers, smalltraders and unorganised work-ers, extension of PM-KISAN toall farmers, and setting up of aJal Shakti Ministry, say politi-cal observers.

Just days after coming topower, the government speltout its key priorities in the bud-

get which was focused on lay-ing the foundation for makingIndia a $5 trillion economy anddoubling farmers’ income, thetwo persons in the know of thegovernment’s policy makingsaid.

Finance Minister NirmalaSitharaman, in her budgetspeech, said in the current fiscal, India’s economywill grow to become $3 trillion economy, sixth largestin world.

The minister had empha-sised the need for structuralreforms for achieving $5 tril-lion economy.

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Sonbhadra: Uttar PradeshChief Minister Yogi Adityanathon Sunday met the families of10 Gond tribals killed over aland dispute here four days ago,promising a slew of steps to helpthe community, and allegedthat “sin” committed during theCongress rule was responsiblefor the present situation.

Adityanath enhanced thecompensation from �5 lakh to�18.5 lakh each for families ofthe deceased and from �50,000to �2.5 lakh to those injured inWednesday's clash and orderedcompletion of inquiry into thecase from 1952 within 10 days.

Vowing to crackdown onland mafias, he said actionagainst them will be takenunder the stringent NSA andsimilar cases in the region willbe probed.

He announced that hous-es, electricity and LPG con-nections, toilets and otheramenities will be provided toimprove living condition offamilies belonging to tribaland other marginalised com-

munities in the district.“This sin was committed

during Congress tenure.Congress will have to pay fortheir sins. The land belongingto tribals was transferred in1955 to the trust of the thenCongress MLC. The investiga-tion committee will also probethis,” he alleged stepping up hisattack on the opposition party.

He also did not spare theSP and BSP, claiming that theaccused have links to them andwere involved in misuse ofpower when the two partieswere in the Government.

“A three-member commit-tee has been formed underAdditional Chief Secretary toinquire into the incident.Congress party and its policieshave always been anti-tribal.Those who have up-rooted thepoor from their land will not bespared,” the chief minister toldreporters.

He said that other cases ofSonbhadra will also be investi-gated. “Full details of this casefrom 1952 will be examined,and report will be submitted in10 days,” he said.

His remarks came asCongress leader PriyankaGandhi Vadra, who had

Saturday met the families fromSonbhadra after a day-longstandoff with UP authoritieswhich stopped her from goingto the district, took a jibe at thechief minister over his visit,saying “acknowledging one's

duty is good”.“Only when thousands of

Congress workers and justice-loving people extended theirsupport to the affected familiesof Umbha, then the UttarPradesh government felt that

some serious incident has takenplace. All the announcements,which have been made today,must be implemented at theearliest,” Priyanka tweeted.

The BJP and the Congresshave been involved in a war of

words over the incident withthe ruling party accusingPriyanka Gandhi Vadra ofshedding “crocodile tears” andindulging in “drama”.

Priyanka was detained onFriday after she insisted ongoing to Sonbhadra and stayedovernight at Mirzapur guest-

house, refusing an offer fromlocal administration to fur-nish a personal bond and leave.

Pointing fingers at otheropposition parties, the UPchief minister said, “Theaccused person is a party work-er of the Samajwadi Party. Heis in an active role in the

Samajwadi Party.“Apart from this, his broth-

er is a BSP leader. All of themhave been misusing power.Cases were filed against thepoor by misusing power andactions were taken in favour ofthe then ruling party,” healleged.

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Lucknow: A delegation ofRampur farmers met UttarPradesh Governor Ram Naikhere on Sunday, urging him tohelp them get back the “land offarmers” from senior SP leaderAzam Khan.

The former Uttar Pradeshminister was named in theFIRs lodged in connectionwith alleged forcible acquisitionof land for Mohammad AliJauhar University, of which heis the founder and Chancellor.

In a statement issued here,Congress leader Faisal KhanLala said, “A 12-member dele-gation met UP Governor RamNaik and handed over a mem-orandum to him, informingthat despite being mentioned inthe list of land grabbers, AzamKhan is unwilling to leave theland of farmers and poor peo-ple.”

“Despite a large number of

cases registered against him,police is yet to arrest him,” headded.

Lala said the Governorassured of taking up the mat-ter with Chief Minister YogiAdityanath.

Family members of thosewhose land was allegedlygrabbed by the Rampur MPwere part of the delegation.

Recently, Rampur MPAzam Khan's name was put onan online list of “land mafias”by the district administration.

“The name of the RampurMP has been put on the list ofthe anti-land mafia portal ofthe State Government afterFIRs were lodged against himon land-grabbing charges,”Additional District Magistrate(Administration) JP Gupta hadtold PTI.

“The listing was done bySDM Sadar,” he had said. PTI

�����������������&�-��������&��������"=������">����#?���+��Lucknow: The All India Shia

Personal Law Board will holdelaborate discussions on theneed to have strict laws per-taining to mob lynching in itsannual meeting scheduled forJuly 28 here.

“The one-day annual meet-ing of the All India ShiaPersonal Law Board (AISPLB)will be held in Lucknow onJuly 28, and a demand will bemade to the State Governmentto frame strict laws pertainingto mob lynching,” AISPLBspokesperson Maulana MirzaYasoob Abbas said on Sunday.

Referring to the moblynching incidents reportedfrom various parts of the coun-try, he said members of a par-ticular community are beingtargeted by the attackers.

“The Shia community is ofthe view that strict laws areneeded to curb this and evencapital punishment be award-ed,” Abbas said.

Taking a swipe at the'Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikaas,

Sabka Vishwaas' (with all, foreverybody's development andhaving everyone's trust) slogangiven by Prime MinisterNarendra Modi, the AISPLBspokesperson said statementsgiven by some leaders are“breaking the 'vishwaas' (trust)instead of enhancing it”.

The meeting is also likelyto deliberate upon how the Shiacommunity is being “ignored”by successive governments, hesaid.

“The All India ShiaPersonal Law Board wants thata committee be constituted on

the lines of the SachcharCommittee to study the eco-nomic, social and educationalsituation of Shias,” Abbas said,adding Shia Muslims areminorities among the minori-ties.

Of the total population ofthe country, the Shias constitute5 per cent, he said.

Apart from Uttar Pradesh,Shia clerics from Bihar, Gujarat,Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra,Tamil Nadu and Telangana arelikely to participate in the July28 meeting, the spokespersonadded. PTI

Jammu: An accused in a rapecase, who was brought at ahospital here for treatment,escaped from police custody,officials said on Sunday.

Four policemen escortinghim have been suspended fordereliction of duty and adepartment inquiry orderedagainst them.

Sajad Ahmad, a resident ofChakyas village of Drass inKargil, was brought to theShri Maharaja Gulab Singhhospital for treatment fromSub-jail Reasi but managed togive a slip to the accompany-ing cops on Saturday, the offi-cials said.

The accused was underjudicial custody for the pasttwo years in connection witha rape case registered againsthim at police station Mahorein Reasi district, the officialssaid. PTI

Jammu: The 20th batch com-prising 4158 pilgrims including1137 women and 260 sadhusSunday left Bhagwati Nagarbase camp here to offer prayersat the 3,880 metre high holy caveshrine of Amarnath in southKashmir Himalayas, officialssaid.

As many as 2,59,889 yatrishad visited the cave shrine,housing the naturally formedice-shivlingam, till Saturdayevening since the commence-ment of the annual 46-day yatraon July 1. The pilgrimage isscheduled to end on August 15,coinciding Raksha Bandhan fes-tival, they said.

A fleet of 156 vehicles car-rying the latest batch, which alsoincluded 19 children, left theBhagwati Nagar base campunder tight security arrange-

ments in the early hours Sundayand will be reaching the twinbase camps of Pahalgam inAnantnag district and Baltal inGanderbal district later in theday, the officials said.

While 2139 pilgrims includ-ing 751 women and 16 childrenare registered for Baltal route, therest of 2019 pilgrims including386 women, three children and260 sadhus are heading forPahalgam to undertake the yatrafrom there.

The yatra is going onsmoothly from both the tracks— traditional 36-km Pahalgamand shorter 14-km Baltal route,the officials said. As many as2,85,006 lakh pilgrims had paidobeisance at the shrine last year,while the number of pilgrimswas 2,60,003 in 2017, 3,20,490 in2016 and 3,52,771 in 2015. PTI

Agartala: Tight securityarrangements have been madefor Tripura panchayat elec-tions and more than one thou-sand polling booths have beenidentified as “sensitive”, asenior police officer has said.

Elections to the three-tierpanchayat polls in Tripurawould be held on July 27.Ballot papers would be used inthe rural polls.

Tripura State Rifles (TSR)personnel and 17 companiesof BSF and CRPF would bedeployed in all the 1,848polling booths of which 1,172have been identified as sensi-tive, Deputy Inspector Generalof Police (DIG), Arindam

Nath told a press conferencehere on Saturday.

The DIG said 17 cases ofpoll violence have been regis-tered in the state till July 20.

The BJP has won 85 percent of the seats uncontestedin the panchayat polls inTripura.

“Of the total 6,646 seatscomprising gram panchayats,panchayat samities and zillaparishads, the BJP has won5,652 seats uncontested,” sec-retary of the state ElectionCommission (SEC), PrasenjitBhattacharya has said.

Polling will now be heldfor around 850 gram pan-chayats, 85 panchayat samities

and 80 zilla parishad seats,Bhattacharya said.

Tripura has a total 591gram panchayats having 6,111seats, 35 panchayat samitieswith 419 seats and eight zillaparishads having 116 seats, hesaid.

Altogether, 12,03,070 vot-ers, including 6,16,893 maleand 5, 86,176 women willexercise their franchise at 2,623polling stations between 7 amto 4 pm on the polling day.

“White ballot paperswould be used for gram pan-chayat polls, pink ones forpanchayat samities and greenpapers for zilla parishads,” theSEC secretary said. PTI

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Srinagar: In a statement likelyto give way to a controversy,Jammu & Kashmir GovernorSatya Pal Malik on Sundayasked militants to stop killinginnocent people, includingsecurity personnel, and rathertarget “those who have lootedthe wealth of Kashmir for years”.

“These boys who havepicked up guns are killing theirown people, they are killingPSOs (personal security officer)and SPOs (special police offi-cers). Why are you killing them?Kill those who have looted thewealth of Kashmir. Have youkilled any of them?” Malikasked, speaking at a tourismfunction in Kargil of Ladakhregion.

However, the Governor wasquick to add that guns couldnever be the solution and citedthe example of LTTE in SriLanka.

“The government of Indiawill never go down before agun,” he said, asking the mili-tants to not take the route of vio-lence.

Taking a veiled dig at main-stream politicians, he said theseleaders talk a different lan-guage in Delhi and different onein Kashmir.

“They should speak in onelanguage at both places andneed not scare us,” he said.

The Governor was speakingat the inauguration of KargilLadakh Tourism Festival-2019

at Khree Sultan Cho SportsStadium Kargil.

The Governor said the twindistricts of Kargil and Leh havehuge tourism potential and saidmore such tourism festivalswere needed.

He said the Kargil Airport'sexpansion work will begin soonand that �200 crore has beensanctioned for it. This will notonly provide round-the-yearconnectivity but also give anew dimension to the tourismsector in the region, Malik said.

The Governor said the stateadministration is committedfor the holistic development ofLadakh division and concretemeasures were being pursuedtowards this goal. PTI

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Agartala: The Border SecurityForce (BSF) on Saturday saidthe force has thwarted anattempt of at least 12 RohingyaMuslims to enter into Indianterritory through Tripura fromBangladesh.

Two men, five women andas many children had tried toenter Sipahijala district, about50 km from here.

“Our troops thwarted theirattempts to enter into our ter-ritory through Futia village inthe international border onThursday. We have successful-ly prevented their entry. Theyare still on the zero line,” BSF

Deputy Inspector General C LBelwa said.

A company commander-level flag meeting was held twodays back on this with BorderGuards Bangladesh (BGB)which was followed by a bat-talion commander-level meet-ing, he said.

“We have seized biscuitsand soft drinks from their(Rohingyas') possession, whichwere manufactured inBangladesh. These were pro-vided by the World FoodProgramme, at Cox's Bazarrefugee camp in Bangladesh,”he said. PTI

;(��<�����%������(�0�������/�������=���� Thiruvananthapuram/Kochi:

Kerala Chief Minister PinarayiVijayan Sunday urged theCentre to take all possibleefforts to secure the release ofIndian nationals including fourKeralites on board a British-flagged oil tanker seized by theGulf country in the Strait ofHormuz.

In a letter to ExternalAffairs Minister S Jaishankar,he asked the ministry to sharethe details of the personsaboard the ship so that theirfamilies could be helped.

“I request that all possibleefforts to ensure the safety ofthe crew be made and the rel-evant details of persons may beshared with the state govern-ment so that their family mem-bers can be contacted and wecan be of help in their hour ofcrisis,” Vijayan said in the let-ter, the copy of which wasreleased to the media here.

Congress MP Hibi Eden,

representing Ernakulam con-stituency, also sought urgentintervention of the Centralgovernment for release of theIndian nationals.

Eden visited the family ofDijo Pappachan, a crew mem-ber on board the seized tanker,

here.Family of Pappachan hail-

ingfrom Kalamassery here saidthe tanker owners haveinformed them that Dijo wasonboard the seized oil tanker.

Asked about the reportsthat two more people from

Ernakulam district wereamong the crew, Eden saidthere was no official informa-tion so far.

Minister of State forExternal Affairs VMuraleedharan had said onSaturday diplomatic efforts

were on to secure the release ofIndian nationals on board thetanker.

“We are waiting forresponse from Iranian author-ities,” Muraleedharan had toldreporters in Kuthiran inThrissur district Saturdayevening.

India had said Saturdaythat it was in touch with Iranto secure release of the Indianson board the British-flagged oiltanker seized by the Gulf coun-try in the Strait of Hormuz.

“We are ascertaining fur-ther details on the incident.Our Mission is in touch withthe Government of Iran tosecure the early release andrepatriation of Indian nation-als,” External Affairs MinistrySpokesperson Raveesh Kumarhad said in response to a ques-tion on the detention of Indiancrew members along with theoil tanker Stena Impero byIranian authorities.

According to a mediareport, 18 Indian nationals areamong the 23 crew membersof the British-flagged oil tankerseized by Iran amid fresh esca-lation of tensions in the Gulfregion.

The Stena Impero wasseized on Friday by the IranianRevolutionary Guard.

Iran's seizure of a British-flagged oil tanker was alleged-ly due to a collision with anIranian fishing boat, Iran'sofficial news agency IRNAhad said.

“There are 18 Indian andfive crew members fromRussia, the Philippines, Latviaand other countries on boardof Stena Impero. The captainis Indian, but the tanker is UK-flagged,” the news agency quoted AllahmoradAfifipour, director general of Ports and Maritime Affairsof Hormuzgan province, assaying. PTI

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���������������"���������!�-������������"��������>��"&���������"Lucknow: Congress leaderPriyanka Gandhi Vadra onSunday took a dig at UttarPradesh Chief Minister YogiAdityanath after he visitedSonbhadra where 10 Gondtribals were shot dead over aland dispute four days ago, say-ing “acknowledging one's dutyis good”.

She said the UP govern-ment has acted only after theCongress came out in strongsupport of the tribals.

The Congress general sec-retary met relatives of the vic-tims at a guesthouse in Chunartown of Uttar Pradesh's

Mirzapur district Saturday, aday after she was detained andprevented from going toSonbhadra.

In a tweet on Sunday, shesaid, “I welcome UP ChiefMinister Yogi Adityanath'svisit to Sonbhadra. Standingwith the affected people is theduty of the government.Acknowledging one's duty isgood.”

“Umbha has been awaitingjustice since a very long time.Hope the affected people ofUmbha will get justice andtheir five demands will be ful-filled,” she added.

After Adityanath's visit toSonbhadra, the Congress gen-eral secretary in another tweetsaid, “Only when thousands ofCongress workers and justice-loving people extended theirsupport to the affected familiesof Umbha, then the UttarPradesh government felt thatsome serious incident hastaken place. All the announce-ments, which have been madetoday, must be implemented atthe earliest.” She said the trib-als should get the ownership ofland and most importantlythe people of the village shouldget security. PTI

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Salem(TN): Facing flak over'poor arrangements' for devo-tees thronging a temple inKancheepuram for worship-ping Lord Athivarathar, TamilNadu Chief Minister KPalaniswami said theGovernment was looking at thefeasibility of shifting the idol ofthe deity to a bigger place tomanage the burgeoning crowd.

Four devotees had died onFriday at the Devarajaswamytemple in Kancheepuram,about 70 km from Chennai,which has been witnessingheavy rush of devotees to havedarshan of the deity's idolmade of fig wood, called “athi'in Tamil began, on July 1 afterit was taken out from the tem-ple tank on June 27.

Four devotees died lastweek after darshan of LordAthivaradhar, a deity taken outfrom under the water once in 40years, with Palaniswami inform-

ing the Assembly that they had'pre-existing' health conditions.

“Yesterday a meeting ofMinisters, Secretaries of HinduReligious & CharitableEndowments, LocalAdministration, Health andRevenue departments wereheld. In that meeting, issuesfaced by devotees who come tovisit the temple were discussed.It was also discussed whetherthe idol can be shifted to a big-ger place to manage thecrowd,” he told reporters here.

The 48-day “Athivaradarfestival” has been drawing hugecrowds, including women andsenior citizens, since the firstday. President Ram NathKovind offered prayers to thedeity on July 12.

Meanwhile, ChiefSecretary K Shanmugam andDGP J K Tripathy took stock ofthe situation at Kancheepuramon Sunday. PTI

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Mumbai: Maharashtra ChiefMinister Devendra Fadnavison Sunday said he was theChief Minister of not only theBJP but also the allies in theState Government and exud-ed confidence that he wouldreturn for a second-term to thetop post.

The post of Chief Ministerhas been a bone of contentionbetween the BJP and the ShivSena and leaders from boththe parties have spoken out ofturn on it.

“I am Chief Minister ofnot only the BJP but also theShiv Sena, RPI, RashtriyaSamaj Paksh (all allies in thestate government). People willdecide who will be the nextchief minister. You need notworry. Our work will speak forus,” he told party workers atthe state executive meetingheld here.

“I have already said thisthat I will return,” Fadnavissaid.

“Some people are rakingup the issue of the ChiefMinister's post. Don't fall intothis trap. There are peoplefrom both parties who speakunnecessarily,” he said.

Meanwhile, Shiv Senaleader and Rajya Sabha MPSanjay Raut Sunday eveningsaid there was no disputebetween the two partiesregarding the chief minister'spost.

“There is no dispute overthe chief minister's post

between the Shiv Sena andBJP,” he told PTI, but refusedto elaborate.

Raut also refused to com-ment on Fadnavis' statementthat he was the “chief minis-ter of the BJP and the ShivSena” and that he would returnto the top post after the statepolls.

Recently, there was alsotalk of Yuva Sena chief AadityaThackeray being the Sena'spick for the chief minister'spost. In response, Thackerayhad said, “It is the peoplewho will have to decidewhether I am ready to occupythe post or not. I can't talkabout it as this is the only thingwhich is not in my hand.”

Thackeray was speaking toa news channels Friday duringhis 'Jan Ashirwad' yatra innorth Maharashtra.

The two parties areexpected to fight on equalnumber of seats, and someSena leaders have routinelystressed that “equal powersharing” also meant sharingthe chief minister's post foridentical tenures.

Fadnavis said the 2019Assembly polls in the statewould be fought in alliance(with the Sena and other par-ties) and discussions on seat-sharing would be held soon.

Allaying fears that influxof leaders from other partiesinto the BJP would put old-timers at a disadvantage,Fadnavis said it was about

inducting good people fromother outfits.

“If they wish to join us,our people shouldn't be dis-turbed. Eight-five per cent of(BJP) candidates in the (2019)Lok Sabha polls were our peo-ple,” he said.

He told workers not to becomplacent post the massivemandate the BJP got in theLok Sabha polls, as theAssembly elections in the statewould be a different battle-ground.

“Since the battleground isdifferent, our strategy will alsohave to different. Don't becomplacent and take peoplefor granted,” he said.

The chief minister toldthe gathering that they shouldbe satisfied with the develop-ment currently on under theleadership of Prime MinisterNarendra Modi instead ofvying for posts.

He asked partymen not toseek tickets or recommendnames as the criteria for nom-ination was fixed, adding that“we will fight each seat to win”.

“The Congress' national,state and Mumbai presidenthave been defeated in the LokSabha polls. The NCP presi-dent accepted defeat evenbefore the election and theVanchit Bahujan Aghadi alsosuffered defeat. Defeat doesn'tmean insult. Let us train ouropponents on how to functionas the opposition for 10-15years,” he said. PTI

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One person was killed and 14others were rescued on

Sunday afternoon when firebroke in an old dilapidatedbuilding located behind TajMahal Hotel on Merry WeatherRoad at Colaba in southMumbai. Two persons, includ-ing a fireman, were injured inthe mishap.

Though the cause of the firehas not been established yet,informed sources attributed themishap to a possible electricshort-circuit.

The fire, which broke out ina third floor flat of ChurchChember Building at around12.10 pm, spread to stair case ofthe second floor of the groundplus three-storey structure. “Thefire was confined to electricwiring, electric installation, fur-niture, household articles inresidential flat on 3rd floor withLoft in an area aboutapprox.5000 sq.ft and staircase

of the 2nd floor,” a senior fireofficial said.

One Sham Iyer (54), a resi-dent of the flat where fire brokeout, went back inside the flatafter his family members ramout, to extinguish and gottrapped in the blaze, before thefire brigade arrived on the scene.

During the subsequentsearch of the flat, Iyer was foundwith critical burn wounds on hisback. Iyer was rushed to GTHospital, when he was declaredupon arrival. Another injuredresident, identified as one YusufPunawala is undergoing treat-ment at the Bombay Hospital.

A fireman Bhurmal SantoshPatil from Mandvi Fire Stationsuffered suffocation whileundertaking rescue operation.He was treated inside an ambu-lance near the mishap site andallowed to go.

The fire brigade personnelbattled with fire and smoke forthree hours, before bring the sit-uation under control. They usedfour fire fighting jets, four fireengines, two Turn Table Laddersand one Angus ladder in theoperation.

Of those rescued, five per-sons – including two girls and aboy — were brought out in asuffocated state from the loft ofthird floor, while two otherswere rescued with the help ofAngus Ladder — a 45 feet man-ual extension. Three personswere brought down from thebuilding with the help of a TurnTable Ladder, while the remain-ing persons were rescued safe-ly by firemen from the staircaseusing breathing sets.

Mumbai: BJP working presi-dent JP Nadda on Sunday saidthe country has changed underthe Narendra Modi-ledGovernment which has brought“good days” in the last fiveyears.

He said when the BJP saysit aims at a “Congress-muktBharat” (India free ofCongress), it means it wants acountry free of corruption.

“'Achchhe din ayenge'(good days will come) and'Desh badal raha hai' (the coun-try is changing) were the slo-gans of the BJP's campaign in2014. We would like to remindthe people that good days havearrived and the country hasalready changed in the last fiveyears,” he said, addressing theBJP's Maharashtra state execu-tive committee meeting here.

At the meeting, he high-lighted the Modi government'sachievements in health sector,poverty elevation, infrastruc-ture, agriculture and ruraldevelopment.

Prime Minister NarendraModi has changed the “politicalculture” of the country, he said.

He said when the BJP saysit wants a 'Congress-muktBharat', it means a countryfree of “corruption and com-mission”.

“By saying Congress-mukt,we don't mean the party assuch. 'BJP-yukt' means devel-opment-oriented. It meansfocus on service and develop-ment and work at the grassrootslevel and not work for self-pro-

motion,” Nadda said.“Modi's victories in 2014

and 2019 are a rejection of thevote bank and caste politics,” hesaid, adding that “look global-ly, act locally”, should be themotto of BJP workers.

Before 2014, India's imageabroad was that of a corruptcountry which suffered for-eign policy paralysis and lackeddirection, he claimed.

“Now, people of Indian ori-gin abroad and those living herefeel proud to be Indian,” he said,pointing out that Modi hasbeen conferred awards for hisachievements by countries likethe UAE, Israel, Russia andSaudi Arabia.

The Modi government'scleanliness drive was mocked,but the prime minister wasgiven the 'Champion of theEarth' award by the UnitedNations, he said.

Nadda asked BJP workersto focus on strengthening theparty at the booth level.

Earlier, newly-appointedstate BJP chief ChandrakantPatil urged the party workers tofocus on poll preparations forall 288 assembly seats in thestate.

“Let's leave the alliancetalks and seat-sharing to ChiefMinister Devendra Fadnavisand party chief Amit Shah. Let'sstrengthen the BJP at the booth-level in the state. Even if ourallies contest particular seats,our booth structure will ensuretheir victory. Let's focus onlyon this,” he said. PTI

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Jammu: Nearly 500 elderlyVillage Defence Committee(VDC) members and SpecialPolice Officers (SPO) inKishtwar district of Jammu &Kashmir will be replaced soon,a senior police officer said onSunday.

The step is part of a strat-egy to counter terror activitiesin the hilly district which wasrattled by the killing of BJP statesecretary Anil Parihar and hisbrother Ajeet Parihar onNovember 1 last year, followedby the assassination of seniorRSS leader ChanderkantSharma and his security guardinside a health centre on April9.

The decision was takendespite reservations expressedby former Chief Minister

Mehbooba Mufti over armingof civilians in Chenab valley.

“Keeping in view the pre-sent security scenario inKishtwar town and the over-staying of SPOs in the district(Kishtwar), an overhauling isbeing done. A process to replace352 VDC members and 117VDC SPOs who are above theage of 60 years has been set intomotion,” ,” the officer said.

The SPOs, who have over-stayed at a particular placehave also been replaced. Besidesthis, 9 VDC SPOs have beendisengaged from the VDC rollsfor non compliance of orders,the officer said.

In response to the recentlyheld SPOs recruitment, he saida list of around 85 meritoriouscandidates was sent to police

headquarters for final approval. The VDCs were setup in

the mid-1990s with an aim tostrengthen the security ofHindus living in remote andmountainous areas of Doda,Kishtwar, Ramba, Rajouri,Reasi, Kathua and Poonch dis-tricts of the region.

The members of thesecommittees not only guard theidentified villages along theborder, but also the infrastruc-tural installations in and aroundthem.

Kishtwar along with sever-al other districts of Jammuprovince were declared terror-ism free over a decade ago butafter the recent killings, theauthorities have taken varioussteps to counter attempts by ter-rorists to gain a foothold in the

Chenab valley.Inspector General of Police,

Jammu, M K Sinha recentlysaid at least 10 local militants-

- eight belonging to HizbulMujahideen and two affiliatedto Lashker-e-Toiba-- wereactive in the district.

Describing the reportedplans of the Centre and theJammu and Kashmir adminis-tration to arm civilians in thesensitive Chenab valley as“alarming”, Mufti, who is alsoPeoples Democratic Party(PDP) president, had warnedthat the move would have “dan-gerous consequences”.

She said similar experi-ments of arming civilians underthe anti-militancy grid in the1990s had led to completechaos and the wounds inflict-ed upon the general masseswere still fresh.

“Reports about the admin-istration trying to arm civiliansunder the garb of creatingVDC in Chenab valley are dis-turbing and alarming especial-ly at the time when the gov-

ernment has to be inclusive toavoid further alienation ofyouth across the state,” Muftihad said in a statement onSaturday.

On Friday, police regis-tered a case against formerPDP MLC Firdous Tak andsome other party leaders afterthey staged a demonstrationagainst the state administrationfor strengthening VDCs in thedistrict.

Mufti dubbed the FIR “falseand frivolous” and demandedits immediate rollback.

“The party leaders haverepresented the sentiments andaspirations of the people but itseems that the local adminis-tration are working under pres-sure from a particular politicalorganisation. The registration of

the case only speaks about thesorry state of affairs in Chenabvalley,” she said.

On July 17, a three-mem-ber delegation of senior BJPleaders led by former deputyChief Minister Nirmal Singhmet Governor Satya Pal Malikat Raj Bhavan in Srinagar anddemanded the strengthening ofthe security apparatus includ-ing VDCs and provision ofmobile bunkers in Chenab val-ley region.

They expressed concernregarding growing threats to thesafety and security of people,illegal encroachments on forestland, and incidents of bovinesmuggling in the region.

The Governor had assuredthe delegation due considera-tion of its demands. PTI

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Kolkata: In a first of its kind inthe country, a township forchildren suffering from AutismSpectrum Disorder (ASD) iscoming up in the outskirts ofthe city and will become oper-ational by 2023.

The India Autism Center(IAC), a community-based ini-tiative will have the capacity toaccommodate 4,000 people asits residents, including the fam-ilies of those having autism,managing trustee and IACchairman Suresh Somani saidon Saturday.

The centre would be locat-

ed on a 53 acre plot at Sirakolin adjoining South 24 Parganasdistrict and would be con-structed at a cost of �350 crore,Somani told PTI.

ASD is a complex neu-rodevelopment disorder whichaffects the behaviour of a per-son and the ability to processinformation. It affects a widevariety of areas like socialinteraction, social communi-cation and speech.

“It is a genetic disorder andthe level of awareness andknowledge is still low in thecountry”, he said. PTI

Purnea: The Bihar Police hasseized 200 cartons of Indian-made foreign liquor (IMFL)worth around �10 lakh andarrested two persons in thisconnection in Purnea district,an officer said on Sunday.

The consignment wasseized on Saturday during vehi-cle checks at Dalkhola check-post, upon receiving a tip-off,that a truckload of liquor fromneighbouring West Bengal wasbeing smuggled into Biharthrough NH 31,Superintendent of Police VishalSharma said.

The cargo was meant to be

delivered at an address inBihar's Saran district, he said.

Two persons identified asShamshul Haque and JahangirAlam, residents of Alhapurvillage in West Bengal's NorthDinajpur district were arrested.

Sharma said that �17,500in cash and two mobile phoneswere also seized from their pos-session.

The accused have beenbooked under relevant sec-tions of the Bihar Prohibitionand Excise Act 2016, and pro-duced in the court, which sentthem to judicial custody, hesaid. PTI

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Aizawl: Darthawma, the lonesurviving Mizo member ofSubhash Chandra Bose's IndianNational Army (INA), died ofmulti-organ failure in southMizoram's Lunglei on Sundaymorning, his family said.

He was 99. The freedomfighter's last rites were per-formed at Lunglei, 170 kmfrom here, this afternoon.

It was attended by repre-sentatives from the districtadministration, Army, para-military forces, non-govern-mental organisations and Ex-Servicemen.

He is survived by six chil-dren, 19 grandchildren and 28great grandchildren.

Darthawma had joined theArmy Medical Corps of theBritish Indian Army onNovember 27, 1940 during theWorld War 2 and was capturedby the Japanese Imperial Armyin early 1942 during his post-ing at Malaysia's Penang Island.

He joined the INA in May1942 to fight against the Britishcolonial rule.

Two years after joining theINA, Darthawma was capturedby the British in 1944 but wasreleased from Lucknow Jail onJanuary 15, 1945 following theintervention of MahatmaGandhi.

The Indian Governmentawarded him the 'TamrapatraAward' in 1972 for his role inthe struggle for Indian inde-pendence. PTI

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Kolkata: West Bengal BJP pres-ident Dilip Ghosh dared ChiefMinister Mamata Banerjee onSunday to name the CBI offi-cers, who had allegedly threat-ened TMC leaders to join thesaffron camp.

Addressing the Martyrs'Day rally here on Sunday,Banerjee, who is also theTrinamool Congress (TMC)supremo, alleged that centralagencies were threatening lead-ers and elected representativesof her party to “get in touch”with the Bharatiya Janata Party(BJP) or face a jail term in chitfund scams.

She, however, did not nameany central agency.

The Central Bureau ofInvestigation (CBI) and theEnforcement Directorate (ED)are separately probing twomulti-crore-rupee Ponzi schemecases in West Bengal.

Ghosh said the chief min-ister was “trying to malign theCBI” as she was afraid of theinvestigations being conductedinto the chit fund scams.

“Today, she (Banerjee)alleged that CBI officers hadasked her party workers to getin touch with the BJP or faceimprisonment in connectionwith the chit fund scams. I chal-lenge her to name the CBI offi-cers, who threatened her partyleaders.

“If she is unable to nameany officer, she should refrainfrom making baseless allega-tions,” he said at a press con-

ference here.Reacting to Banerjee's alle-

gation that the BJP was luringTMC MLAs with Rs two crorein cash and a petrol pump,Ghosh said none of them, noteven the chief minister, had sucha high “market value”.

Banerjee alleged on Sundaythat the saffron party was try-ing to “replicate Karnataka'shorse-trading model” in Bengalby offering Rs two crore in cashand a petrol pump each to herparty MLAs.

“None of the TMC MLAshas such a high market value.Even if they stand idle on theroad, no one would be inter-ested in buying them. Not evenBanerjee has such a high mar-ket value,” the state BJP chiefsaid.

Responding to the TMCsupremo's statement that aprobe would be ordered toascertain if state BJP leaderswere taking commissions toextend the benefits of theCentre's Ujjwala scheme to thebeneficiaries, he said the alle-gation was bereft of truth.

“She has been saying this forthe last few years. Why didn'tshe take any action in the mat-ter all this while? No BJP leaderis involved in any scam. Paying'cut' money to TMC leaders,however, has become a way oflife in Bengal,” Ghosh asserted.

He claimed that the rallyorganised by the TMC annual-ly witnessed the lowest turnoutin its history this year. PTI

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Indian teams put up stupen-dous performance at the 60th

International MathematicsOlympiad (IMO) and 30thInternational BiologyOlympiad (IBO) 2019, by win-ning one gold medal, seven sil-ver medals and two honourablementions.

At the IMO held at Bath inthe United Kingdom, PranjalSrivastava (Bengaluru,Karnataka) won a gold medal,Ritam Nag (Kolkata, WestBengal), Anubhab Ghosal(Kolkata, West Bengal), BhavyaAgrawalla (Indore, MadhyaPradesh) and Ojas Mittal (NewDelhi) bagged silver medals.Soumil Aggarwal (New Delhi)received an Honourable men-

tion. India finished 15th at theIMO.

At the IBO-2019 at Szeged,Hungary between July 14 andJuly 21, 2019, three of the fourIndian students bagged Silvermedals, while one studentreceived an HonourableMention.

Those who won silvermedals were: Hardik Gupta(Agra, Uttar Pradesh),Arunangshu Bhattacharyya(Surat, Gujarat) and SuryadeepMandal (Bankura, WestBengal). Akshay Gupta(Vadodara, Gujarat) receivedan Honourable Mention.

In all, 112 countries par-ticipated in the IMO-2019,while 72 countries took part inthe IBO.

The IBO competition con-sists of a theoretical and anexperimental examination,each of six hours duration.Homi Bhabha Centre forScience Education (HBCSE), anational centre of the TataInstitute of FundamentalResearch (TIFR) is the nodalcentre in the country for all theScience Olympiads (Physics,Chemistry, Biology, Astronomyand Astrophysics and JuniorScience) as well as theMathematical Olympiad. TheHBCSE is responsible for theselection and training of theteams representing India atthe international Olympiads.

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Lucknow: As many as 32 peo-ple were killed in Uttar Pradeshdue to lightening on Sunday,said officials.

A day earlier, the lighten-ing had claimed one life in thestate, while two others had diedof snake bites on July 18 and 20respectively, the statement said.

Thirteen 13 others wereinjured due to lightening, thestatement added.

The Sunday's lighteningvictims included seven each inKanpur and Fatehpur, five inJhansi, four in Jalaun, three inHamirpur, two in Ghazipurand one each in Jaunpur,Pratapgarh, Kanpur Dehat andChitrakoot, the statementadded.

Among the three who diedearlier, one was killed due tolightening in Deoria, whileone lost his life to snake bite onin Kushinagar on Saturday.

Yet another person haddied of snake bite on July 18 inAmbedkarnagar, the govern-

ment statement said.Chief Minister Yogi

Adityanath expressed sorrowover the loss of lives in the stateand has issued orders to the

respective district magistratesto give a compensation of Rs 4lakh to each of the families ofvictims.

He also directed officials to

ensure that the injured personsget adequate treatment, andthat there should be no laxityin execution of relief works, thestatement said. PTI

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In the Union Budget 2019-20 present-ed by Finance Minister NirmalaSitharaman on July 5, theGovernment levied a new surchargeon individuals, Association of

Persons (AOP) and trusts with an annualincome between �2 crore and �5 crore fromthe existing 15 per cent to 25 per cent andon individuals/AOS/trusts with income anincome more that �5 crore from the exist-ing 15 per cent to 37 per cent. Post the hike,the effective incidence of tax will be 39 percent on earners between �2 crore and �5crore and 42.7 per cent on those earningin excess of �5 crore.

This revised tax surcharge has led toa hue and cry. While wealthy Indian resi-dents argue that this move will act as a dis-incentive to wealth generation, foreignportfolio investors (albeit those, who areregistered in India as AoP or trusts) see thisas a deterrent to attract foreign investment.Foreign Portfolio Investors (FPIs) opinethat this move will be come as a setbackat a time when the Government is keen oninvesting �100 lakh crore in infrastructureto fulfill the dream of making India a $5trillion economy by 2024-25. Argumentsin this context are amusing.

There is no dearth of wealth genera-tion in this country, which is mostly con-centrated in a few hands. According to a2018 Oxfam Report released at the WorldEconomic Forum (WEF) in January 2019,“Indian billionaires saw their fortunesswell by �2,200 crore a day last year, withthe top one per cent of the country’s rich-est getting richer by 39 per cent as againstjust three per cent increase in wealth forthe bottom-half of the population.”

Indeed, this has been possible underthe existing policy environment, whichincludes the policies on taxation. A slighttweaking of the policy (read: Extra tax onthe super-rich), which is expected to yield�12,000 crore (equivalent to less than aweeks’ addition to wealth by the billion-aires), is unlikely to make even the slightest dent on the pace of their wealthgeneration.

Put simply, consider a person earningin excess of �5 crore per annum, say �10crore. Per se, an effective tax @42.7 per centmay appear to be high. But look at theabsolute numbers: After paying �4.27crore as tax, he/she will still be left with�5.73 crore or close to �50 lakh permonth. This is a substantial amount forleading an extraordinarily good life (withall amenities at their best) and yet save agood sum to take care of future needs evenunder adverse financial circumstances.

In recent years, we have seen Indianbillionaires donating a portion of theirwealth to welfare trusts with the intent ofusing the money to help the poor. They dothis towards the fag end even as most oftheir life span is spent accumulatingwealth, which may even involve fleecing the

consumers (including poor)by charging higher prices andother unfair practices. Theimpact of such belated “philan-thropic” steps could at best belimited.

So, the real issue is one ofhighly inequitable distributionof the fruits of development.Ironically, successiveGovernments (Modi 1.0included) have only focussedon increasing the size of thecake, thinking that the benefitswill automatically trickle down.But facts on ground zero speakotherwise.

Asking the super-rich togive a little extra is a modeststep in the direction of reduc-ing inequalities. However, thereis an urgent need to nab those,who are currently evading thetaxman. And this number con-tinues to be huge.

According to the‘Household Survey on India’sCitizen Environment &Consumer Economy’ (ICE 360°survey) by the People Researchon India’s Consumer Economy(PRICE) for the year 2015-16— when seen in juxtapositionwith the income tax data forthat financial year — for everyperson with an income morethan �5 crore paying tax, thereare 13 people earning thatmuch but they don’t pay.

Bringing the latter under thetax net is a big challenge thatthe Modi Government mustaddress (if this is not done, thenthe former will have a reasonto grudge).

The resultant boost to taxcollection will help theGovernment fund the gallop-ing expenditure on buildinginfrastructure. Physical: Rail,road, highways, port, airportand waterways among others.Social: Schools, colleges, hospi-tals and wellness centers amongothers. Besides it can also funda host of welfare schemes suchas toilets, homes, electricity, gasconnections, subsidised foodand mid-day meals for schoolkids.

Money spent in this man-ner can contribute to genera-tion of widespread demand(both by way of creating morejobs as well as augmentingcapacity of the people to spendmore) and in turn spur growth.It will also help in reviving apotent engine of growth, name-ly ‘private consumption’, whichhas been sagging for the lastcouple of years even as theGovernment has relied mostlyon boosting ‘public expendi-ture’.

Had the surplus moneyremained with a few rich, thiswould be of little help in boost-

ing demand as there are inher-ent limits to spending byany/group of individuals. Evenif those few were to deposit themoney in a bank, who lends itto industries and businesses,the impact will be much lessthan if it gets distributed amongmillions of people under wel-fare schemes or as wages toworkers employed on projectsundertaken by the Governmentwith additional tax.

Another potent way ofhelping the poor is for indus-trialists to cut prices, which willleave more money in the handsof the former. This will beinclusive development in thetrue sense of the term insteadof the current focus on“tokenism” such as corporatesocial responsibility (CSR) orphilanthropic initiatives.

In so far as the FPIs areconcerned, the Governmentneeds to follow a policy of tax-ing all wealthy people “uni-formly”, irrespective of wherethey come from. Merelybecause a wealthy person isfrom a foreign land, he/shecan’t be spared the levy ofadditional surcharge. Thiswould have been outright dis-criminatory. Besides, it willhave unintended implicationsof Indian residents movingtheir funds to foreign shores

and bringing back (‘round trip-ping’ as it is known in commonparlance) to benefit from thelower tax incidence on FPIs.

Only 40 per cent of theFPIs registered as AOP or trustare affected by the increase insurcharge (as they are treatedas individuals for taxation pur-pose) even as the balance 60per cent registered as corpo-rates need not worry. The for-mer had chosen that route toavoid the hassles of registeringa company; besides escapingthe minimum alternate tax(MAT) that the latter has topay. Having decided to go forAOP/trust, they should livewith its pluses and minuses.They can’t do cherry picking;

Even so, for AOP/trustearning more than �5 crore, thehike in surcharge will increasethe effective tax on long-termcapital gains from 12 per centto 14.2 per cent; whereas onshort-term capital gains, thiswill be 21.3 per cent, up from17.9 per cent. This isn’t the kindof blow that ought to affect for-eign inflow. NirmalaSitharaman has rightly dis-missed the demand for roll-back or any dilution of the extratax on super-rich in her reply todiscussion on the Finance Bill.

(The writer is a policy analyst)

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Sir — This refers to the editori-al, “Breather for Jadhav” (July19). Pakistan can proclaim thatit has been vindicated by theInternational Court of Justice(ICJ) but there is a pregnant mes-sage though in the court’s direc-tive, ordering Pakistan to reviewthe death penalty awarded toKulbhushan Jadhav in 2017.

This also reflects on theconduct of military courts andtheir rough-and-ready justice.While the court has stayedJadhav’s execution pending areconsideration of his convictionand sentence, the exhaustivelist of remedies requested byIndia has not been entertained— ie, our request to annul themilitary court verdict, appeal forthe release and safe passage ofJadhav and plea for a retrial incivilian courts.

The ICJ verdict did notacquit Jadhav as it did not havethe jurisdiction to examine theevidence for and against theaccused. Now that the ICJ hasruled on this matter, India andPakistan must move forwardwith maturity and avoid hyper-bole, which may cause hin-

drance in the judicial process.India must now build on thisreluctant yet affirmative actionshown by Pakistan and, thus,secure an honourable release ofJadhav.

KS Jayatheertha Bengaluru

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Sir — Lok Sabha Speaker OmBirla must be complimented forbringing several positive changesin the working of the House. Evenmembers in the Opposition are

happy with his conduct. Birla istrying to make the Lok Sabhafunction in truly ‘Indian style’ byconducting proceedings in Hindirather than traditional till-nowEnglish. He has even asked themembers to not talk when pro-ceedings of the House are on, say-

ing it was unacceptable. It is to behoped that his efforts to enforcestrict discipline will make theHouse more productive.

Madhu Agrawal Delhi

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Sir — This refers to the editori-al, “Breather for Jadhav” (July19). The verdict given by theInternational Court of Justice(ICJ), directing Pakistan to“review and reconsider” the con-viction and death sentence ofKulbhushan Jadhav is surprising.While the court admitted thatPakistan had violated both theVienna Convention and theInternational Covenant on Civiland Political Rights, it did notannul the death sentence given toJadhav by a military court. Giventhe strained relationship betweenIndia and Pakistan, it will be dif-ficult to release Jadhav. But Indiamust put all efforts, includingusing the diplomatic channel, tosecure his release.

SK GuptaVia email

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India has emerged as the fastest growingeconomy in the world. It believes in forg-ing multilateral relations and not in uni-lateral favouritism. Equivocally, it doesnot agree to a uni-polar or bi-polar world

order. It believes in mutual growth by meansof cooperation in all fields with as many coun-tries as possible, given that understanding ismutual.

Towards this, the country has been part ofmultilateral forums that are growth oriented.Being one of the key players in the South Asianas well as the Indian Ocean region, India hasbeen engaging with many Asian and littoralcountries on a regular basis. It realised theimportance of East Asian countries in the 1990sand, thus, started active dialogue process withmembers of the Association of South East AsianNations (ASEAN). Putting the Indian perspec-tive for the Indian Ocean region — of mutualgrowth in a secured environment as a priori-ty — India also has a shared vision, the SecurityAnd Growth for All in the Region (SAGAR),with all its oceanic neighbours.

Through the “neighbourhood first” poli-cy, India has been according top priority toSouth Asia and countries in the adjoiningregion. Out of the 10 ASEAN countries,Myanmar is the only one which shares its bor-ders with four Indian States and, hence, is ofgreat importance as it acts as a bridge to theASEAN-India future relationship.

India shares a long land border of over1,600 kms with Myanmar and a maritimeboundary in the Bay of Bengal. Four North-eastern States, viz, Arunachal Pradesh,Nagaland, Manipur and Mizoram, share aboundary with Myanmar. Both nations sharea heritage of religious, linguistic and ethnic ties.

Present relations with Myanmar Trade cooperation: India is the fifth

largest trading partner of Myanmar — its thefifth largest destination for exports and thesixth largest source of imports. The agricul-ture sector dominates trade, particularly thesupply of beans and pulses ($809million,2016-17) and timber ($ 156 million) to India.Indian exports to Myanmar include sugar andpharmaceuticals among others. Bilateral tradebetween the two countries has been growingsteadily and reached $1.257 billion as ofJanuary 2018.

Defence cooperation: Defence tiesbetween the two countries continues tostrengthen. Exchanges of high-level visits,enhanced training cooperation, capacity build-ing and support in provision of specificequipment and technology have led to amore wholesome relationship between the twoand the development of better understandingin matters related to mutual security concerns.

Disaster relief: India has always respond-ed promptly and effectively in rendering assis-tance following natural calamities in Myanmarlike Cyclone Mora (2017), Komen (2015),earthquake in Shan State (2010), CycloneNargis in 2008 and the recent outbreak ofinfluenza virus in Yangon in July-August 2017.

Development cooperation: India hasextended development assistance to Myanmaron generous terms and our assistance portfo-lio is now over $1.75 billion. Projects includethe Kaladan Multi-Modal Transit TransportProject (KMMTTP); the Trilateral HighwayProject, which is an East-West corridor con-necting the North-east with Myanmar andThailand; the Rhi-Tiddim road; assistance forborder area development in Chin State and theNaga Self-Administered Zone.

Ongoing projectsAccording to a statement issued by the

Indian Embassy in Myanmar, “The landmarkLand Border Crossing Agreement between

India and Myanmar, signed on May 11, 2018,has been brought into effect with the simul-taneous opening of international entry-exitcheckpoints at the Tamu-Moreh and theRihkhawdar-Zowkhawtar border betweenMyanmar and India.”

The idea is to have better connectivity byall means. Like India, Myanmar, too, does notsupport China’s Belt and Road Initiative(BRI). Infrastructure cooperation between thetwo can counter Chinese debt-orientedapproach to run over countries. Similarly, theIndia-funded Kaladan Multi-Modal TransitTransport Project (KMMTTP), a $484 millionproject connecting the eastern Indian seaportof Kolkata with Sittwe seaport in Rakhine State,Myanmar, by sea will allow sea access for land-locked Northeastern States of India via theKaladan River in Myanmar.

As far as air connectivity is concerned,there is hardly any direct flight to Yangon fromany Indian city.

Way forwardAir connectivity: With the Indian aviation

sector emerging as one of the fastest growingindustries, it is bound to prosper in the nearfuture. Investment in North-east aviationsector will not only connect local people bet-ter but also will offer faster and convenient pas-sage to travelers from the eastern neighbour-hood. Improved infrastructure and air connec-tivity is the need of the hour.

Bus services: Other than developing bet-ter trade opportunities at the two border open-ing points (mentioned earlier), we can alsoimprove bus services to connect local vil-lagers/commuters to deepen the culturalbond.

Port connectivity: There is a need toactively pursue the timely construction ofports. Deepening of port-to-port serviceswill provide a much shorter sea route to theeconomically vibrant Southeast Asian regionand help boost trade.

Medical tourism: India, in particularDelhi and Mumbai, has grown as as a promi-nent exporter of speciality health services fornations across the world. Similarly, for the EastAsian countries, the North-east can become amedical tourism hub.

Educational tourism: Many studentsfrom Myanmar prefer studying in Chinabecause of its proximity. China, too, hasmade a few concessions for the students likeeasing visa rules for Myanmar. Comparatively,India, too, has affordable and well-reputed edu-cational institutes — not only in metropolitancities but cities in the North-east as well. Butwe must give a boost to this sector so as toattract students from Myanmar and otherSouth East Asian countries and, hence, helpyoung minds grow, thus ensuring a long last-ing relationship in the years to come.

Defence interaction: Camps of insurgentgroups operating in the North-eastern borderareas often hamper the timely completion ofconnectivity projects as well as the economicgrowth of the region. Joint operations againstsuch groups can be conducted to rein in theproblem.

In conclusionEver since Myanmar underwent a politi-

cal transition, it has been “opening up”, whichhas helped the country grow to emerge as a‘new player’ among the established team of oldplayers in the region. The democratisation,along with economic reforms, has unleashednew opportunities for India, which is deter-mined to make up for lost time. With a cre-ative blend of diplomacy and culture, India-Myanmar relations can only scale new heightsin the days to come. We need to ‘Act East’ usingthe ‘SAGAR’ vision to have credible and reli-able relation with this strategically importantneighbour, which is a key link between Indiaand ASEAN partnership.

(The writer is a senior research fellow at theIndia Foundation)

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Poet Robert Browning hadonce said, “Ah, but a man’sreach should exceed his grasp,

or what’s a heaven for.”Unfortunately, grasping excellenceseems to be absent from the DNAof not just an average Indian buteven those who excel. Of course, wesimply refer to this as the ‘chalta hai’culture that permeates almost everyaspect of our life — be it social, cul-tural or professional.

Take the recent performance ofthe Indian cricket team at theInternational Cricket Council (ICC)World Cup held in the UK. Notonly was it the odds-on favorite towin but apart from a couple of hic-cups, the team played a superlative

game of cricket and got into thesemi-finals as the top team.Therefore, the Indian team’s loss toNew Zealand was not only unex-pected but shocking, given the rel-atively modest total that it confront-ed despite the loss of its front linebatsmen scoring in single digits.

It goes without saying thatdefeat and victory are part and par-cel of sports and one cannot butadmire the manner in which thefans accepted the unexpected knockout gracefully — undoubtedly asure sign of growing maturity.

Interestingly, both the coachand the captain accepted responsi-bility for the loss with equanimity.Captain Virat Kohli even went onto make the point that “45 minutesof bad cricket put you out of thetournament.” Coach Ravi Shastriechoed the captains’ sentimentsand said, “Walk out with yourheads held high. Be proud. Those30 minutes can’t erase the fact thatyou guys have been the best teamin the last couple of years… Onetournament, one series and that,too, 30 minutes of play can’t decide

that…”Undoubtedly, both made an

excellent point but there’s a catch:It wasn’t really the “30 or 45 min-utes” that mattered but the mannerin which the team played for therest of the time in the game subse-quently. While the batsmen did putup a fight, it was just not compara-ble to the manner in which theEnglish recovered from similar cir-cumstances to go on and win the

trophy. Clearly, there was an excel-lent display of skill, acumen, sheergrit and above all, exemplary deter-mination.

Therefore, such a mindset onthe part of the Indian team reflectsnot just its unwillingness to acceptany weakness but what is worse iscomplacency that is totally uncalledfor, given that loss and complacen-cy make strange bedfellows.

Obviously, it is here that our

DNA is at play, for that allows us toaccept the selection of some play-ers for reasons other than form andtheir inability to deliver underpressure. Moreover, it isn’t as if thiscame as a complete surprise tothose involved in team selection.This is exactly what they are paidto foresee but they preferred toignore. It is this very fact that makesthe “45 minutes bad cricket” answerglib and utterly dishonest.

That brings us to the largerquestion: Do we, as a country —and not just in sports — hope toprogress, to become a “greatpower”? And if we do, can it bedone without focussing on the verylynchpins of excellence, meritocra-cy and integrity?

While historical, religious andsocio-economic disparities maywell have forced us to adopt caste-based reservation policies as anecessity, these very moves havebeen detrimental to the promotionof meritocracy. Instead of provid-ing equal opportunity and inclu-siveness, the state has promoteddivisiveness and a culture of enti-

tlement. Wherever we have beenable to avoid these pitfalls, resultshave been overwhelmingly positive.

Take the Army for instance,where apart from regional quotasfor each State to ensure diversity,only merit counts in selection.Surely, that must have an exceeding-ly important part to play in ensur-ing that their performance, over theyears, has been outstanding.

Though, it must be added thatdefeat here is wholly unpalatable.Surely, it behooves our politicalleadership not to accede to protestsby those wanting to be included inthe reservation pie, such as the Jats,Gujjars and Marathas. Instead, theymust push us towards a more equi-table and just society that placesgreat value on skills, integrity andmerit. Without this transformationin attitude we will only continue togrope for leftovers in the under-growth.

(The writer, a military veteran,a consultant with the ObserverResearch Foundation and SeniorVisiting Fellow with The PeninsulaFoundation, Chennai)

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Asian Development Bank(ADB) has lowered the

inflation forecast for India dur-ing the current financial year to4.1 per cent, on the back of gainin rupee and cut in the coun-try’s GDP projection.

India will be the main dri-ver to lower the inflation for theSouth Asian region, ADB saidin a supplement to AsianDevelopment Outlook (ADO)2019.

South Asia’s inflation fore-cast for 2019, was revised downfrom 4.7 per cent to 4.5 percent, mainly reflecting loweredforecasts for India, the ADOsupplement said.

The ADO supplement haslowered India’s GDP growth

forecast by 0.2 percentagepoints from April outlook to 7per cent in 2019-20.

“In light of a smaller-than-expected uptick in food infla-tion, a strengthening Indianrupee since October 2018, anda lower GDP growth forecast,this Supplement revises downinflation forecasts for India by0.2 percentage points to 4.1 percent in FY2019 (fiscal endingin March 2020) and 4.4 percent in FY2020 (ending March2021),” ADB said.

As per the ADO supple-ment, inflation projections fordeveloping Asia were revisedup a notch from 2.5 per cent to2.6 per cent in both 2019 and2020, reflecting higher oilprices and several domestic factors.

Price fluctuations for brentcrude oil continue amid vari-ous concerns affecting bothsupply and demand, it added.

Meanwhile, the ReserveBank in its last monetary pol-icy review in June had raisedthe retail inflation forecastmarginally to 3-3.1 per cent forthe first half of the current fis-cal citing reasons of uptick infood prices — mainly vegeta-bles, despite expectations of anormal monsoon this season.

However, the retail infla-tion projection for the secondhalf of 2019-20 has been cut to3.4-3.7 per cent as against RBI’sprevious projection of 3.5-3.8per cent.

The RBI will review themonetary policy in its upcom-ing meeting in early August.

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Market regulator Sebi hasexpanded its probe into

the role of five credit ratingagencies after a forensic auditmandated by the new board ofcrisis-ridden IL&FS flaggedserious lapses and their possi-ble complicity with the formertop brass of the group in giv-ing top ratings despite weakfinancials.

While CEOs of two ratingagencies have already beenforced to go on leave pendingcompletion of the probe on theadvice of Sebi, officials said theregulator is now looking intopossible systemic lapses at allfive rating agencies and alsointo the role of multiple peoplesuspected to have intentional-ly manipulated the rating pro-cedures.

The special audit conduct-ed by Grant Thornton foundthat its review of emailsexchanged by the former keyexecutives of InfrastructureLeasing and Financial Services(IL&FS) group and the top offi-cials of rating agencies showedthat they were aware of theserious liquidity concerns andweakening financials of thegroup.

“However, various strate-gies deployed by the then keyofficials of IL&FS group andcertain favours/gifts providedto rating agency officials sug-gest the possible reasons forconsistent good ratings pro-vided to IL&FS group duringthe period June 2012 to June2018,” an interim report of thespecial audit said.

The report has also high-

lighted instances where CRAshad “initially decided to down-grade the ratings, but a com-bination of tactics employed bythen key employees of IL&FSand favours/gifts extended tokey officials of CRAs resultedin either consistent/good rat-ings or avoidance of ratingdowngrade”.

The new board of IL&FS,which was appointed inOctober last year after massivedefaults by the group post itsdebt burden ballooning to overRs 90,000 crore and suspectedwrong-doings by the formertop management, had man-dated Grant Thornton to carryout a a special audit for all high-value transactions undertakenby IL&FS Ltd and some of itsgroup companies for the peri-od between April 2013 andSeptember 2018.

The audit is aimed at iden-tifying siphoning or misuse offunds, fraudulent transactions,their modus operandi, thequantum of the financial lossand fixing of responsibility.

Grant Thornton was alsoasked to review the ratings pro-vided by various credit ratingagencies (CRAs) to IL&FSTransportation Networks Ltd(ITNL), IL&FS FinancialServices Ltd (IFIN) and IL&FSLtd.

In its interim report, GrantThornton said it appears CRAshad consistently provided andmaintained good ratings overthe years until in July/August2018 when they downgradedratings for the first time forITNL due to a default of repay-ment of commercial papers.

During the review period,

IL&FS Group had availed rat-ing services from Crisil Ltd,CARE Ratings, ICRA, IndiaRatings (a Fitch group compa-ny) and Brickwork.

Officials at the rating agen-cies denied any lapses on theirpart and some even said theinterim report seems to suggestlimited knowledge of the ratingprocess and was based on one-sided information.

A higher rating typicallyhelps a borrower get a lowerrate of interest and is aimed atassuring investors about thecreditworthiness of the com-pany. Besides, it helps create awider borrowing landscape forthe company and is also oftenused as a marketing tool in theform of a better image in deal-ing with customers.

Grant Thornton said itidentified multiple e-mails overthe period from 2008 to 2018which indicate that the IL&FSgroup was under stress or facedliquidity issues since 2015.

The main reasons for theliquidity crunch have beenidentified as a significantincrease in debt in the variousgroup companies, majorlyITNL, high capital require-ment for ITNL and its variousSPVs, decreasing profit ofIL&FS group and support toweaker group companies.

It has also identifiedinstances which suggest thatCRAs had multiple concernsfor the last 6-7 years on theoperations of the IL&FS group,but the ratings assigned bythem remained consistentlyhigh until they were reversed ordowngraded after June-July2018.

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Air India has stopped givingpromotions for its employ-

ees and recruiting new per-sonnel as the Government pre-pares for the disinvesment ofthe debt-laden airline, an offi-cial said Sunday.

The Government is expect-ed to soon start the disinves-ment process for Air India,which has a debt burden ofmore than �50,000 crore.

For the disinvesmentprocess, the official said the air-line’s books of accounts till July15, have been closed and thosefinancials would be used whileseeking bids.

Promotions and freshappointments have also beenfrozen ahead of the stake salefor Air India, the official added.

The airline has around10,000 permanent employees.

There was no immediatecomment from Air India.Query sent to Civil AviationSecretary Pradeep SinghKharola remained unanswered.

Sources said Air India hasalso asked all department headsto ensure that there is norecovery pending against any ofthe employees.

The message was conveyedto the heads of departments bythe airline’s HR DirectorAmrita Sharan during a con-ference call last week, theyadded.

The Government is look-ing to complete the Air Indiastake sale in the next four tofive months.

Air India is currently mak-ing a revenue of �15 crore

everyday.Efforts to sell 76 per cent

stake in the national carrierfailed to take off in 2018. Thentransaction adviser EY in itsreport had cited the govern-ment retaining 24 per centstake and corresponding rightsand high debt as reasons for thefailure of the disinvesmentprocess.

On July 3, Civil AviationMinister Hardeep Singh Puritold the Rajya Sabha that thegovernment is committed tothe disinvestment of Air Indiaand the plan is to make it moreoperationally viable beforestake sale.

“It (Air India) will be soldwhen the buyer ultimately givesthe cheque and there are cer-tain prerequisites before anysale, those also have to be met.I do expect that to be finishedin 4-5 months but neverthelessto provide for that exigency, wehave not accounted for AirIndia sale proceeds (in bud-geted disinvestment proceeds).

“We will try to finish it offby Diwali, if not before,”Department of Investment andPublic Asset Management(DIPAM) Secretary AtanuChakraborty said on July 7.

In her Budget speech onJuly 5, Finance MinisterNirmala Sitharaman said thatin view of current macro-eco-nomic parameters, theGovernment would not onlyreinitiate the process of strate-gic disinvestment of Air India,but would offer more centralpublic sector enterprises forstrategic participation by theprivate sector.

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The World Bank hasapprised the Andhra

Pradesh government of itsreadiness to finance other pro-jects in the state in spite of itsrefusal to a $300 millionAmaravati project, an officialsaid.

World Bank officials com-municated this to the stategovernment after the $300 mil-lion loan proposal forAmaravati was dropped at thebehest of the Centre, a top offi-cial in the Chief Minister’sOffice said.

“The Washington-basedBank is now not averse toextending loan to AP govern-ment according to the latter’spriorities. The possibility ofincreasing the quantum of loanwas also not ruled out by theBank,” the official said.

He indicated that theGovernment might seek WorldBank assistance for funding theflagship Navaratnalu pro-gramme that was aimed atimproving the living standardsof citizens in tune with theSustainable Development Goals.

World Bank officialsinformed the state governmentofficials that the loan proposal

was dropped mainly due to“non-compliance of its policies,”particularly those related tosettlement of affected people.

Also, alleged rampant cor-ruption and flouting of varioussocio-economic norms werecited as other reasons, theCMO official said.

The IndependentAccountability Mechanism(teams) of the World Bank con-ducted an extensive study inthe field after touring the cap-ital region in September 2017.

The Bank teams found“many irregularities in the ten-der process which were heav-ily loaded in favour of con-tractors.”

They also detected manyirregularities in land pooling,utilisation of verdant agricul-ture land for other purposes,agriculture workers losinglivelihood, serious environ-mental violations, the plan ofthe new proposed capitalaffecting the course of KrishnaRiver and other issues.

The World Bank, based onfield-level investigations,sought an explanation from theCapital Region DevelopmentAuthority over these issues butthe explanation was “unsatis-factory.”

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Having failed to privatisePawan Hans last fiscal,

the Government has signifi-cantly diluted the terms of salepertaining to employeeretrenchment, asset sale and taxliability to attract bidders thistime around, sources said.

As per the revised terms ofsale proposed by theGovernment, the successfulbidder would be required toretain all permanent employeesfor a period of at least one year,as against two years stipulatedearlier.

The Government has alsodecided to indemnify the buyeragainst �577 crore worth taxliability of Pawan Hans in casean ongoing tax dispute is decid-ed against the company.

The revised terms of salehave also reduced the timeperiod for stripping of assets ofPawan Hans by the buyer totwo years, from three yearsspecified earlier.The relaxationin norms will provide greaterfreedom to the successful bid-der to manage Pawan Hans, thesources said.

The Government had lastfiscal tried to sell the helicopterservice provider but no buyercame forward. TheGovernment holds 51 per centstake in Pawan Hans, which hasa fleet of 43 helicopters. Theremaining 49 per cent is withONGC.

After the new Governmenttook over, it decided to sweet-en the deal by diluting certaincrucial terms of sale in view ofthe concerns raised by poten-tial bidders when Pawan Hanswas first put on the block.

As of April 30, 2019, PawanHans had 718 employees, ofwhich 415 were regular and 303on contract. The company’smanpower comprises 116pilots, 101 aircraft mainte-nance engineers (AMEs), 52executives, 157 technicians and292 other technical and non-technical employees.

The firm posted revenuesof �410 crore in 2018-19, whileemployee cost was about �180crore.

According to the revisedsale terms, the successful bid-der would be permitted toprovide voluntary retirementscheme (VRS) to existingPawan Hans employees as perthe terms specified by theDepartment of PublicEnterprises.

As regards stripping ofassets held by Pawan Hans, thesuccessful bidder would bepermitted to sell, transfer orlease the assets two years afterconsummation of the transac-tion.

The Government on July11 had come out with a freshPreliminary InformationMemorandum (PIM), a docu-ment inviting bids from com-panies having minimum net

worth of �350 crore.The last date for submis-

sion of Expression of Interest(EoI) is August 22, 2019, andthe short-listed bidder will beintimated on September 12.

If the Pawan Hans salegoes through, it would add tothe disinvestment kitty andkickstart the process of pri-vatisation. The Budget has seta disinvestment target of �1.05lakh crore for current fiscal, upfrom �85,000 crore raised lastfiscal.

The Government had firstfloated an offer to sell its 51 percent stake in Pawan Hans inOctober 2017, but in view ofsubdued response from bid-ders, the EoI was withdrawn inApril 2018. At that time, someinvestors had suggested that theGovernment and ONGC shouldsell their stakes together.

Later in April, 2018, the

Government again issued aninformation memorandum for51 per cent strategic stake salein Pawan Hans and had soughtEoI from interested bidders byJune 18, 2018.

On July 2, 2018, ONGCwrote to the Government say-ing its board has resolved thatit would prefer to exit PawanHans simultaneously with theGovernment, following whichthe Centre came out with afresh PIM in August 2018,putting 100 per cent stake inthe helicopter company on theblock.

When the financial bidprocess concluded on March 6,2019, only one investor had putin a “conditional bid”, whichwas not accepted. The PawanHans sale process was then puton hold till the newGovernment took charge postthe general elections.

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Foreign portfolio investorspulled out around �7,712

crore from Indian equities inthis month so far following the‘super-rich’ tax announced inthe budget for 2019-20, accord-ing to analysts.

FPIs had been net investorsin the equity segment in theprevious five months.

According to the latest dataavailable with depositories, anet sum of �7,712.12 crorehas been pulled out from equi-ties during July 1-19. However,foreign portfolio investors(FPI) pumped in �9,371.12crore in the debt segment dur-ing the period. This has trans-lated into a net investment ofaround �1,659 crore in July sofar into the capital markets(both equity and debt).

He further added that froman investment perspective, thecurrent scenario is clearly“unfavourable” for FPIs toinvest in Indian equities.

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As many as 345 infrastruc-ture projects, each worth

�150 crore or more, haveshown cost overruns to thetune of over �3.28 lakh croreowing to delays and other rea-sons, a report said.

“Total original cost ofimplementation of the 1453projects was �18,32,579.17crore and their anticipatedcompletion cost is likely to be�21,61,313.18 crore, whichreflects overall cost overruns of�3,28,734.01 crore (17.94% oforiginal cost), “ the Ministry ofStatistics and ProgrammeImplementation’s latest reportfor April 2019 said.

The ministry monitorsinfrastructure projects worth�150 crore and above. Of these1,453 projects, 345 reportedcost overruns and 388 timeescalation.

According to the report,the expenditure incurred onthese projects till April 2019 is�8,84,906.88 crore, which is40.94 per cent of the anticipat-

ed cost of the pro-jects.

However, itsaid the number ofdelayed projectsdecreases to 317 ifdelay is calculatedon the basis of lat-est schedule ofcompletion.

For 749 pro-jects, neither theyear of commissioning nor thetentative gestation period hasbeen reported.

Out of 388 delayed pro-jects, 121 projects have overalldelay in the range of 1 to 12months, 78 projects have beendelayed by 13 to 24 months, 98projects reflect delay in therange of 25 to 60 months and91 projects show 61 monthsand above delay.

The average time overrunin these 388 delayed projects is40.28 months.

The brief reasons for timeoverruns, as reported by vari-ous project implementingagencies, are delays in landacquisition, forest clearance

and supply of equipment.Besides, there are other

reasons like fund constraints,geological surprises, geo-min-ing conditions, slow progress incivil works, shortage of labour,inadequate mobilisation by thecontractor, Maoist problems,court cases, contractual issues,ROU/ROW (right of use/rightof way) problems, law andorder situation, among others,the report said.

It also observed that projectagencies are not reportingrevised cost estimates and com-missioning schedules for manyprojects, which suggests thattime/cost overrun figures areunder-reported.

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Chinese importers are apply-ing to their government to

lift tariffs on some US agricul-tural imports, state mediareported on Sunday, three weeksafter the two sides reached atruce in their trade war.

The unnamed importerswere talking to US suppliersabout potential pricing andhave applied to a Chinese gov-ernment body with oversight oftariffs to lift the levies, the near-ly identical reports in variousmedia outlets said.

The importers were acting“according to the needs of thedomestic market,” the reportssaid. No further details weregiven, such as which productsmight be affected.

The move may be a good-will gesture after the UnitedStates earlier this month wasreported to have removed 110Chinese export items from itsown tariffs list.

The two economic giantshave hit each other with puni-

tive tariffs covering more than$360 billion in two-way tradesince US President DonaldTrump launched a trade war lastyear, damaging manufacturerson both sides of the Pacific. ButTrump and Chinese PresidentXi Jinping agreed to a truce andto revive fractious trade nego-tiations when they met on thesidelines of the G20 summit inJapan on June 29.

The Chinese media outletson Sunday did not cite a specificsource for the reported requestto lift the tariffs on US goods.

The reports come just a fewdays after Trump accusedChina of backsliding onpromises to increase purchas-es of American farm exports.

Following the Osaka sum-mit, Trump announced that, inreturn for Washington’s pledgeto suspend a planned tariffincrease on $300 billion inChinese imports, Beijing hadoffered to buy “a tremendousamount of food and agricultureproduct” from the UnitedStates.

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The GST Council, chaired byFinance Minister Nirmala

Sitharaman, will meet on July25 and decide on lowering taxrates for electric vehicles, offi-cials said.

The 36th meeting of theCouncil, which will happenthrough video conferencing, isalso likely to decide the valua-tion of goods and services insolar power generating sys-tems and wind turbine projectsfor the purposes of levyingGST.

The Council, which hasState Finance Ministers asmembers, in its meeting lastmonth, had referred the issuerelating to Goods and ServicesTax (GST) concessions onelectric vehicle, electric charg-ers and hiring of electric vehi-cles, to an officers committee.

The recommendations ofthe officers committee is like-ly to be placed before theCouncil on July 25, officialssaid.

To push domestic manu-facturing of e-vehicles, theCentre proposed to the Councilto slash GST rates to 5 per cent

from 12 per cent.GST rate for petrol and

diesel cars and hybrid vehiclesis already at the highest brack-et of 28 per cent plus cess.

The Council will also con-sider tax structure for solarpower projects.

The Delhi High Court hadin May asked the GST councilto take a relook at the taxationstructure following industrypetition.

The Government had ear-lier this year said that for thepurpose of taxing solar powerprojects, 70 per cent of contractvalue would be treated as goods— taxable at 5 per cent, andbalance 30 per cent as services— taxable at 18 per cent.

The solar industry hasbeen pitching for a differentratio for splitting goods andservices for levying GST.

Further, the Council mayalso look at taxation of lotter-ies. In the previous meeting, theCouncil had decided to seeklegal opinion of the AttorneyGeneral for levying GST.

Currently, a State-organ-ised lottery attracts 12 per centGST, while a state-authorisedlottery attracts 28 per cent tax.

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Masked protesters threweggs at China’s office in

Hong Kong on Sunday nightfollowing another massive rally,focusing anger towards theembodiment of Beijing’s rulewith no end in sight to the tur-moil engulfing the finance hub.

The city has been plungedinto its worst crisis in recenthistory by weeks of marchesand sporadic violent con-frontations between police andpockets of hardcore protesters.

The initial protests were litby a now-suspended bill thatwould have allowed extradi-tions to mainland China.

But they have since evolvedinto a wider movement callingfor democratic reforms, uni-versal suffrage and a halt tosliding freedoms in the semi-autonomous territory.

Police have fired tear gasand rubber bullets, while theparliament has been trashed byprotesters as Beijing’s authori-ty faces its most serious chal-lenge since Hong Kong washanded back to China in 1997.

On Sunday tens of thou-sands of anti-government pro-testers marched through thestreets -- the seventh weekendin-a-row that residents have

come out en-masse.Police ordered protesters to

follow a shorter route than nor-mal, but the designated finishline was widely ignored ascrowds headed towards theLiason Office -- the departmentthat represents China’s centralgovernment.

Thousands of masked

demonstrators then seized theroad outside the imposing sky-scraper, erected barricades andbegan targeting the buildingwith eggs, projectiles, laserlights and graffiti.

“We are here to declare thatBeijing is the one violating ourgoverning values and judicialprocedures,” a 19-year-old pro-

tester who gave his first nameas Tony, told AFP.

A man wearing a blackmask and bicycle helmet laterread out a list of demands ona loudspeaker.

“There is no violent pro-testers or rioters, there is onlytyranny, we will protect ourhomeland by any means,” he

said. “We urge the govern-ment to stop leading HongKong towards the brink ofdestruction.”

Police were nowhere to beseen outside Beijing’s officeon Sunday evening, but therewere widespread expectationsamong the protesters therethat riot officers would soonrespond.

Generally the marcheshave passed off peacefully, butsome have been followed byviolence between riot policeand small groups of more hard-core protesters who feel yearsof peaceful demonstrationshave achieved little.

Six weeks of huge protestshave done little to persuade thecity’s unelected leaders -- orBeijing -- to change tack on thehub’s future.

Under the 1997 handoverdeal with Britain, Chinapromised to allow Hong Kongto keep key liberties such as itsindependent judiciary and free-dom of speech.

But many say those provi-sions are already being cur-tailed, citing the disappear-ance into mainland custody ofdissident booksellers, the dis-qualification of prominentpoliticians and the jailing ofpro-democracy protest leaders.

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US President Donald Trumprenewed attacks on

Sunday on four Democraticcongresswomen he launchedxenophobic tweets against lastweek, demanding they apolo-gise “for the horrible (hateful)things they have said.”

“I don’t believe the fourCongresswomen are capable ofloving our Country,” Trumptweeted of ethnic-minorityfirst-term Democrats

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez,Rashida Tlaib, Ilhan Omar andAyanna Pressley.

“They should apologize toAmerica (and Israel) for thehorrible (hateful) things theyhave said. They are destroyingthe Democrat Party, but areweak & insecure people whocan never destroy our greatNation!” the president tweeted.

The comments come aweek after Trump sparked afirestorm of outrage when heattacked the left-leaning law-makers with a series of tweets,saying they should “go back” totheir countries of origin.

The group -- three ofwhom were born in the United

States -- are of Hispanic, Arab,Somali and African-Americandescent.

In a rare move, Trumpwas rebuked by theDemocratic-controlled Houseof Representatives on Tuesdayfor “racist comments” againstthe women, who are known asthe “Squad.”

The following day chants of“Send her back!” broke out atthe president’s “Make AmericaGreat Again” rally inGreenville, North Carolina,when he again attacked thewomen.

To the delight of his thou-

sands of supporters, Trumpdescribed Omar and the otherDemocrats as “left-wing ideo-logues (who) see our nation asa force of evil.”

Trump later said there was“great energy” at the rally butclaimed he was not pleased bythe taunts. “I was not happywhen I heard that chant,” hesaid. “I didn’t like that they didit, and I started speaking quick-ly” to move on with his speech.

Television footage showed,however, that Trump let thechant continue for more than13 seconds, only resumingspeaking as they died down.

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An Iranian tanker held inSaudi Arabia since being

forced to seek repairs at Jeddahport has been released and isreturning to the Islamic repub-lic, a minister said Sunday.

The Happiness 1 tanker“has been released followingnegotiations and is now mov-ing toward Persian Gulf waters,”said transport ministerMohammad Eslami, quotedby state news agency IRNA.

The ship had been forcedto seek repairs in Saudi Arabiain early May after suffering“engine failure and loss of con-trol”, the Iranian oil ministry’sSHANA news agency said at thetime.

The rare docking camedespite escalating tensionsbetween staunch enemies Iranand Saudi Arabia.

“Yesterday, with follow-ups from the ports and mar-itime authority the issue wasresolved,” Eslami said.

“The tanker is movingtowards the Persian Gulf with

the permission of the Jeddahport, towed by two Iranian tugboats.”

Iran’s national tanker com-pany said in a statement that ontop of “political and diplomat-ic negotiations” the tanker’srelease required “the paymentof related costs” demanded bySaudi Arabia.

According to a July 2 reportby Mehr News Agency, Iran paid “over $10 million to Jeddah port for repairs and maintenance” of thetanker.

Saudi Arabia severed diplo-matic ties with Iran in 2016,after its missions in the coun-try were attacked in demon-strations over the kingdomexecuting prominent Shiitecleric Nimr al-Nimr.

They still lack directdiplomatic channels, and Iran’sforeign ministry spokesmanAbbas Mousavi on Sundaythanked “Switzerland andOman as well as related Saudiparties for offering servicesand facilities” to resolve theissue.

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In an audio recording releasedSunday, a British naval officer

can be heard saying the transitof a British-flagged vesselthrough the Strait of Hormuzmust not be impaired underinternational law as Iraniannaval forces warn the vessel tochange course.

The audio, released by mar-itime security risk firm DryadGlobal, shows how the Britishnavy was unable to prevent theship’s seizure by IranianRevolutionary Guard forces onFriday.

The seizure has promptedcondemnation from the UKand its European allies as theycontinue to call for a de-escala-tion of tensions in the criticalwaterway.

In the recording, an Iranianofficer can be heard telling theStena Impero to change course,saying: “You obey, you will besafe.”

“Alter your course to 360

degrees immediately, over,” theofficer says, before saying theship is wanted for security rea-sons.

A British naval officer fromthe HMS Montrose frigatepatrolling the area around theStrait of Hormuz is heard tellingthe Stena Impero, which had acrew of 23 on board, that its pas-sage must be allowed.

“Sir, I reiterate that as youare conducting transit passage ina recognised international strait,under international law yourpassage must not be impaired,intruded, obstructed or ham-pered,” the British officer says.

The British officer then tellsan Iranian patrol boat: “Pleaseconfirm that you are not intend-ing to violate international lawby unlawfully attempting toboard the MV Stena.”

Iranian officials say theseizure of the British oil tankerwas a response to Britain’s rolein impounding an Iraniansupertanker two weeks earlier.

Friday’s incident comes

amid heightened tensionsbetween the US and Iran stem-ming from President DonaldTrump’s decision last year to pullthe US from Iran’s nuclearaccord with world powers andreinstate sweeping sanctions.

The US has expanded itsmilitary presence in the region,while Iran has begun openlyexceeding uranium enrichmentlevels set in the nuclear accordto pressure Europe to alleviatethe pain caused by the sanctions.

Britain’s Defense SecretaryTobias Ellwood reiterated callsfor de-escalation on Sunday inan interview with Sky News.

“Well, firstly we need to tryand de-escalate this. There hasbeen a ratcheting up of tensionsin the Middle East,” he said,before adding that Friday’sseizure is “a hostile act” by Iran.

Ellwood also noted that theBritish Royal Navy “is too smallto manage our interests acrossthe globe” and that this would bean issue for the next primeminister to recognize.

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Ukrainians on Sunday went tothe polls to elect a new par-

liament as comedian-turned-president Volodymyr Zelenskyseeks to bring in political new-comers and consolidate power.

Zelensky’s newly-createdparty is expected to win thelargest share of the votes in theearly polls expected to usher ina new era in the country domi-nated up to now by politicianswho grew up in the SovietUnion.

The leader’s party Servant ofthe People -- named after a sit-com in which he played a pres-ident -- is predicted to get rough-ly half of the vote even thoughit barely existed before Zelenskywon a landslide victory in anApril presidential vote.

Zelensky, however, may notsecure a majority and wouldneed to form a coalition, possi-bly with rock star SvyatoslavVakarchuk’s newly-created party

Golos (Voice).After casting his ballot, the

41-year-old leader said he wouldmake a decision about possiblecoalition partners after the resultsof the vote are out.

“We do not see a coalitionwith the old authorities,”Zelensky said in the capital Kiev,wearing a casual blue shirt.

The outgoing parliament,dominated by Zelensky’s prede-cessor Petro Poroshenko, hasbeen hostile to the actor, whocalled a snap election during hisswearing-in as president.

The Ukrainian presidentmust share power with parlia-ment, which will nominate aprime minister and form a gov-ernment.

Many said they voted for theleader’s party. “He was electedbut he can’t do anything. They(lawmakers) constantly put sticksin his wheels and dump hisideas,” Valentyna, an 82-year-oldpensioner told AFP in centralKiev.

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Planes and helicopters joinedmore than a thousand fire-

fighters in central PortugalSunday to battle huge wildfiresin a mountainous region whereover 100 people died in hugeblazes in 2017.

By 9:30 am (0830 GMT),one of the biggest mobilisationsever seen in the area -- includ-ing 1,100 firefighters and 340vehicles -- had been deployedto fight the blazes in the heav-ily forested Castelo Brancoregion, 200 kilometres north ofLisbon, the rescue servicessaid.

The biggest effort -- 760firefighters, 230 vehicles and 11planes and helicopters -- battledto douse flames in the munic-ipality of Vila de Rei, which hadspread nearly 25 kilometres.One seriously injured civilianwas evacuated by helicopter toLisbon, the commander of theCivil Protection for the region,Luis Belo Costa, told a newsconference.

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At least nine persons, includ-ing six policemen, were

killed and around 40 othersinjured in northwest Pakistanon Sunday in a terror strike ona checkpost and a subsequentsuicide blast by a burqa-cladwoman at a hospital where thevictims of the first attack wereshifted.

Both the attacks took placein Dera Ismail Khan district ofKhyber Pakhtunkhwa, a dayafter the first-ever successfulelection was held in the newlymerged tribal areas of theprovince.

Four unidentified armedmen riding two motor-bikesopened fire on two policemen,who were on duty at the KotlaSyedan checkpost, and killed

them, District police chiefSaleem Riaz told the media.

When the bodies of theslain policemen were brought tothe district hospital, a burqa-clad suicide bomber, already sit-ting there, targeted the peoplewho gathered around theambulance, the official said.

Seven people, includingfour policemen, were killed inthe suicide blast, police said.

He said the suicide bomb-ing by a female was first everand unexpected incident in theregion.

According to eye witness-es, the bomber was wearing ahead-to-toe veil. Police alsorecovered hairs and feet of theattacker and sent them forforensic examination.

The Tehreek-e-TalibanPakistan (TTP) claimed respon-

sibility for the attack.The seriously injured peo-

ple were shifted to the CombineMilitary Hospital for medicalcover. The police and civiladministration reached the spotimmediately after the explosion.

Riaz said that 7 to 8 kgexplosive was used in the sui-cide explosion. He confirmedseven fatalities, in both the ter-ror act. The death toll could riseas the majority of the victimswere in critical condition, hesaid.

He said that security checkis done by the police on theentry of people into the hospi-tal. But due to tradition andcustoms of the area females areexempted. He said the suicidebombing by a female was firstever and unexpected incident inthe region.

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The United States said it’sconcerned by reports of

China’s interference with oiland gas activities in the dis-puted waters of the SouthChina Sea (SCS), whereVietnam accuses Beijing ofviolating its sovereignty.

State Department spokes-woman Morgan Ortagus saidin a statement that China’s“repeated provocative actionsaimed at the offshore oil andgas development of otherclaimant states threaten region-al energy security and under-mine the free and open Indo-Pacific energy market.”

Vietnam on Fridaydemanded China remove asurvey ship from VanguardBank, which it says lies with-

in Vietnam’s 200-mile exclu-sive economic zone. China claims the South ChinaSea almost in its entirety andhas rattled smaller neighboursby constructing seven man-made islands in the disputedwaters and equipped themwith military runways andoutposts.

Chinese coast guard vesselsalso have been reported near adrilling rig in the sameVanguard Bank area whereVietnam has contractedRussia’s Rosneft to develop gasfields. “Vietnam has made con-tact with China on multipleoccasions via different chan-nels, delivered diplomatic notesto oppose China’s violations,and staunchly demandedChina to stop all unlawfulactivities and withdraw its

ships from Vietnamese waters,”Vietnam’s Foreign Ministryspokeswoman Le Thi ThuHang said in a statementFriday.

Chinese Foreign Ministryspokesman Geng Shuang ear-lier in the week urged Hanoi torespect China’s sovereign rightsand jurisdiction, “and not totake any move that may com-plicate matters.”

In May 2014, Chinese andVietnamese vessels engaged ina dangerous confrontationwhen China’s national oil com-pany moved its oil platforminto waters Vietnam considersits territory.

Ortagus calls on China to“cease its bullying behaviourand refrain from engaging inthis type of provocative anddestabilizing activities.”

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Pakistan Prime MinisterImran Khan arrived here on

his maiden trip to the US dur-ing which he will hold talks withDonald Trump and reboot bilat-eral ties that were hit after the USpresident publicly criticisedIslamabad, cancelled military aidand asked it to do more to fightterrorism.

Khan, 66, is scheduled tomeet President Trump at theWhite House on Monday dur-ing which the American lead-ership is likely to press him totake “decisive and irreversible”actions against terrorist andmilitant groups operating fromPakistani soil and facilitate peacetalks with the Taliban.

The cricketer-turned-politi-cian arrived here on Saturdayafternoon aboard a commercialQatar Airways flight and isstaying at the official residenceof the Pakistani Ambassador tothe US, Asad Majeed Khan.

He was welcomed at the air-port by his foreign ministerShah Mehmood Qureshi. Alarge number of PakistaniAmericans also welcomed him.

Nawaz Sharif was the lastPakistani prime minister to visitthe US on an official trip inOctober 2015.

During his three-day visit,Khan, in addition to his meet-ing with Trump, is also sched-uled to meet IMF acting chiefDavid Lipton and World BankPresident David Malpass.

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Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’sruling coalition secured a

majority in Japan’s upper houseof parliament in electionsSunday, according to votecounts by public television andother media.

Exit polls indicated Abecould even close in on thesuper-majority needed to pro-pose constitutional revisions.

NHK public television saidAbe’s Liberal Democratic Partyand its junior partner Komeitohad won 64 seats in the upperhouse after two hours of votecounting.

The two-thirds majorityneeded for constitutional revi-sion could be within reach ifthe ruling bloc can gain sup-port from members of anoth-er conservative party and inde-pendents.

Up for grabs were 124seats in the less powerful ofJapan’s two parliamentarychambers.

There are 245 seats in theupper house — which does notchoose the prime minister —about half of which are elect-ed every three years.

The results appeared tomatch or even exceed pre-election polls that indicatedAbe’s ruling bloc was to keepground in the upper house,with most voters considering ita safer choice over an opposi-tion with an uncertain trackrecord.

To reach the two-thirdsmajority, or 164 seats, Abeneeds 85 more seats by his rul-ing bloc and supporters of acharter change.

Opposition parties havefocused on concerns overhousehold finances, such as the

impact from an upcoming 10per cent sales tax increase andstrains on the public pensionsystem amid Japan’s aging pop-ulation.

Abe has led his LiberalDemocratic Party to five con-secutive parliamentary elec-tion victories since 2012.

He has prioritised revitalising Japan’s economyand has steadily bolstered the country’s defenses in thebackdrop of North Korea’s mis-sile and nuclear threats andChina’s growing military pres-ence.

He also has showcased hisdiplomatic skills by cultivatingwarm ties with PresidentDonald Trump.

Abe was hoping to gainenough upper house seats toboost his chances for constitu-tional revision, his long-cher-ished goal before his term ends

in 2021. Abe needs approval by a

two-thirds majority in bothhouses to propose a revisionand seek a national referen-dum.

His ruling bloc already hasa two-thirds majority in themore powerful lower house.

But Abe and his conservative backers face chal-lenges because voters seemmore concerned about theirjobs, the economy and socialsecurity.

The main oppositionConstitutional DemocraticParty of Japan and three otherliberal-leaning parties teamedup in some districts.

They stressed support forgender equality and LGBTissues — areas Abe’s ultra-conservative lawmakers arereluctant to back.

At a polling station in

Tokyo’s Chuo district on Sunday, voters were divided over Abe’s 6 1/2-yearrule.

A voter who identifiedhimself only as a companyworker in his 40s said he chose a candidate and a partythat have demonstrated anability to get things done, suggesting he voted for Abe’sruling party and its candidate, as “there is no pointin casting my vote for a partyor a politician who has no suchabilities.”

Another voter, KatsunoriTakeuchi, a 57-year-old fishmarket worker, said it wastime to change the dominanceof Abe and his ultra-conserv-ative policies.

“I think the ruling partyhas been dominating politicsfor far too long and it is caus-ing damage,” he said.

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An Israeli Minister boastedSunday that his country

was the only one that “has beenkilling Iranians”, after tensionsbetween Britain and Iran rosein the Gulf.

Regional CooperationMinister Tzachi Hanegbi’scomments to public radio werea reference to Israeli strikes inneighbouring Syria againstIranian and Lebanese Hezbollahmovement’s military targets.

But they came after Iranseized a British-flagged tankeron Friday, adding to tensionsbetween Washington andTehran linked to a 2015nuclear deal.

Hanegbi accused Iran,Israel’s main enemy, of seeking

to create “chaos” and “harmfreedom of navigation.” Askedif he feared that Israel wouldnot receive the backing of theUnited States in the case of aconflict with Iran, Hanegbisuggested that Tehran wouldavoid such a scenario.

“Israel is the only countryin the world that has beenkilling Iranians for two years,”he said.

“We strike the Iranianshundreds of times in Syria.Sometimes we acknowledge itand sometimes foreign reportsreveal it.”

He added that the Iranians“understand that Israel meansbusiness.” Israel has carriedout hundreds of strikes in Syriaagainst what it says are Iranianand Hezbollah military targets.

It has vowed to keep Iranfrom entrenching itself mili-tarily there.

Prime Minister BenjaminNetanyahu spoke in a similarvein last week with cadets at thenational security college.

“At the moment, the onlyarmy in the world to fight Iranis the Israeli army,” he said.

Earlier this month,Netanyahu warned that Israelifighter jets “can reach anywherein the Middle East, includingIran”. Iran’s seizure of a British-flagged tanker in the Strait ofHormuz for breaking “inter-national maritime rules” camesome two weeks after Britainseized an Iranian tanker at themouth of the Mediterranean onallegations of breaching UNsanctions against Syria.

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From far, it looks like anordinary bird as it moves itsspindly legs to roam around

the grassland in search of a mate.But what makes this Great IndianBustard (GIB) unusual is that thisis the last male left in Gujarat.While some might despair at thenews, others take heart at the birthof an artificially hatched chick inJaisalmer, Rajasthan.

The GIB that lost the battle tobe crowned the national bird ofIndia is fighting another battle,this time around for survival.However, it is not alone as thedecline in bird and animal specieshas been catastrophic as over thelast 100 years more than 500species have been lost instead ofthe nine that would have beenexpected at natural rates.

With less than 130 left in thecountry, the Centre has decided tostep in and has initiated a projectworth �33.85 crore for their con-servation and protection, accord-ing to the Environment Ministry.

India is spending �100 croresover five years to bring fourspecies back from the brink ofextinction. They are the GreatIndian Bustard, the GangeticDolphin, the Manipur Deer andthe sea cow or Dugong. Almost athird of the money under theSpecies Recovery Programme isgoing towards the conservation ofthe GIB, the state bird ofRajasthan.

Arjun Awasthi, project asso-ciate of The Great Indian BustardConservation, Breeding andHabitat Project, Wildlife Instituteof India says, “Power line colli-sions are the biggest issue. Thepower agencies need to install birddiverters. These devices makethe power lines 70 per cent morevisible to the birds and havereduced collisions in Europe andSouth Africa. Other threats to thebustard include loss of their grass-land habitat, predation of theireggs by stray dogs and, in someparts, illegal hunting. My job, assomeone who has worked close-ly with other species of bustardsand other wild birds, is to facili-tate the captive breeding of thebirds and to ensure they have asafe, healthy and enriching envi-ronment to grow in.”

However, the Indian govern-

ment is steadfastly developing aconservation-breeding pro-gramme to improve these num-bers. “This involves radio taggingbustard females, figuring out theirnesting sites, collecting eggs sothat we have one chick in captiv-ity and another in the wild andsetting up a natural breedingpopulation in a captive environ-ment. All of this, with the hope torestore their natural habitat so thatthey can be released in the wild inthe future,” adds Arjun, who hasbeen working on this project forthe last two years in Rajasthan.“The programme has seen successmainly in Jaisalmer. Our effortsare not only focussed onthe ex-situ (captive breed-ing) component but thereis also a significant push forthe in-situ (on site; bustardhabitat) conservation.”However, just captive breed-ing to push up the numbers isnot the end of the process.Arjun highlights that “thefirst step in this whole processis completed but the ultimategoal is to release these birds intoplaces where they can live, safe-

ly.” As always happens in any con-servation programme, the attemptis to involve people and sensitisethem, which is a long drawnprocess. The issue has also beenhighlighted at WWF.

Asad Rahmani, former direc-tor of Bombay Natural HistorySociety and former chair-man, Department ofWildlife Sciences says,“We shouldn’t be negativeabout the future of the GIB.The Wildlife Institute,Dehradun, has done a com-mendable job. For the

last 30 to 40 years, things haven’tgone well and we are now left withvery few birds but the first step ofthe conservation programme inRajasthan has been successful.After breeding them in captivity,we would want to safely releasethem into the wild, in the future.

We basically needto have a breedingstock.”

He goes on toadd, “These birds

cross the border andfly to Pakistan where

they are hunted and peo-ple proudly post picturesof themselves with the

bird as trophies on socialmedia platforms.” Ask him

whether people are awareabout how serious the issue is,

he says, “The need of the hour issensitising the new generation tothe concern as well.”

There is a larger issue involvedas well which are related to howhuman beings are overtaking theplanet and changing its demo-graphics. Jai Dhar Gupta, environ-mentalist and founder of NirvanaBeing, says, “Threats to most

species are caused because of lossof habitat, which is due to landgrab in the country. Even theinsects that the bustard eats arepoisonous because of the pesti-cides in them. All our environ-ment-related issues are caused bygreed. People like to grab every bitof land available and this isdestroying our eco systems, com-pletely.” A good example of this,he says, was people wanting tobuild a highway through theAravali Hills, which he termed“crazy”. “Everything, from the airpollution to the loss of habitat inthe country is harming our envi-ronment. The bustard almostbecoming extinct, is a visibleexample of the harm being causedand we have literally reached astate of emergency” he conclud-ed. The plan is to successfullycomplete the conservation pro-gramme for the GIB so it is out ofthe danger zone. While theprocess will take some time beforewe can see results, a more holis-tic approach to conserving allcreatures big and small is neededrather than the belief of the sur-vival of the fittest.

If you post a photo onInstagram and no one likes it,

did you really post it? In arecent research, Instagram isexpanding a test to hide howmany “likes” people’s postsreceive as it tries to combat crit-icism that such counts hurtmental health and make peoplefeel bad when comparing them-selves to others.

The Facebook-ownedphoto-sharing service has beenrunning the test in Canadasince May. Now, Facebook saidthe test has been expanded tomany countries. Facebook typ-ically tests new Facebook andInstagram features in smallermarkets before bringing themto the US, if it ever does. Thecompany would not commenton what it’s learned from theCanada test or if it has plans toexpand it to the US any timesoon.

One group that may beaffected from Instagram “influ-encers,” the major, minor ormicro celebrities who use socialmedia to market products andotherwise influence theirhordes of followers. People canstill see how many people liked

their own photos but won’t seecounts for other people’s posts.Rather, they could tap to see alist of all the accounts that likedthe other posts but would haveto count the total manually. It’sa task few people would both-er with. Likewise, though

Instagram isn’t hiding the num-ber of followers on an account,it still requires an extra tap ortwo to find that.

“It makes it hard to findwho the influencers are,” saidRyan Hilton, a 27-year oldCanadian who works in social

media and has been part of theno-likes test for months. “It’shard to know who to followbecause everyone looks thesame.”

Hilton, who has a person-al account as well as one for hisdog, the latter with more than

3,200 followers, added that heunderstands why Instagram isdoing this. Hilton said hisyounger sister, who is in highschool, is “obsessed” with likes.

“It’s mostly for the youngergeneration, people in highschool and stuff,” he said.“There is a lot of pressure. Ifsomeone has 1,000 likes andsomeone has two likes, thatprobably makes them feel notvery nice.”

While Hilton said thechange will probably slow downthe influencer world a little bit,he pointed out that a lot ofyoung influencers now areusing live videos, not static pho-tos, to build their following.Here, likes are still visible.

Guy Avigdor, co-founderand chief operating officer ofinfluencer marketing companyKlear, said many marketers arealso moving toward Story,Instagram’s disappearing videoand photo feature.

“If anything, now is a timefor the industry to adapt moreadequate metrics for measuringinfluencer impact and reducereliance on likes,” Avigdor said.

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The series presents an irreverenttake on what happens when

superheroes, as popular as celebrities,as influential as politicians and asrevered as gods, abuse their super-powers rather than utilising them todo good. The story plots the super

powerful against the powerless as the‘boys’ embark on a heroic quest toexpose the truth about The Seven, and their formidablebacking.

The sci-fi releases on July 26 onAmazon Prime.

After a massive alienartifact lands on the

Earth, Niko Breckinridgeleads an interstellar mis-sion to track down itssource and make firstcontact.

Created by AaronMartin, the series starsKatee Sackhoff, JustinChatwin, SamuelAnderson. It will releaseon July 25 on Netflix.

You may have been born rich or havean illustrious and a wealthy family

legacy but in order to be successful andcreate a unique reputation, you needvision and hardwork, or so believesentrepreneur and philanthropist PriyaJain, who has been listed in the 50 mostinfluential women in India. “In order toattain personal success, you need to setyour own goal, pave your own path,believe in yourself and think through athousand times before taking any deci-sion. And once you have begun your jour-ney, never look back,” said she.

Giver her belief, it was not surprisingthat Priya was one of the 50 women whowere felicitated for being the most influ-

ential Indian women world-wide. These women call coun-

tries like Britain, India,Spain, America, Scotlandtheir home where they

have made a mark intheir own fields.

At the award cere-mony at the House ofLords, BritishParliament, Priya ded-icated her success andaward to her latefather DK Jain, whois considered to be apioneer in the fieldof education.

She added,“Prime MinisterNarendar Modi’snew theorySabka Saath,Sabka Vikas,

Sabka Vishwas (com-pany of all, develop-ment of all and trustof all) has beenguiding the worldleaders. His welfaremeasures for

Muslims, especially forwomen are unparallel in the history ofIndia. His vision to create a new India hashad an everlasting impact on me. Also,schemes such as Ujjwala Yojana, SwachhShauchalya, Mudra Yojana and SkillIndia have changed the mindset of somany people in the country, and especial-ly women.”

The entrepreneur revealed that one ofher major ongoing projects is a bookabout Narendra Modi. She said, “Thebook will not portray his life events andpolitical activities rather, it will be a doc-umented work. It aims to present theviews of beneficiaries of different pro-grammes announced by the PM.”

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��7����6Feeling forgotten andalienated on Mother’s

Day, three mothers andbest friends leave the sub-urbs and drive to the NewYork to surprise their adultsons. The film presents alight-hearted take on lifeafter motherhood.

Starring AngelaBassett, Patricia Arquetteand Felicity Huffman, thefilm releases on August 2on Netflix.

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Recently, an article, writ-ten by the chief econom-ic advisor of the

Government of India, Towardsa $5trillion economy, whichwas published in a leadingEnglish daily raised a lot ofquestions and hopes and madeheadlines across global media.However, even after the mediahype, the common manremains as confused as before.The political fraternity mustunderstand that in the 21stcentury, where the averagevoters of India are agedbetween 18-35, a mere enun-ciation of national policyobjectives, which reads like awish-list, would no longerwork out in their favour.

The approach, howeverlaudable, has to be backed bygiving up political and person-al antagonism and animusand must be supported bysubstance and records. Themethods of governance have toprovide a framework in whichthe complete political class,undividedly, can work onnational issues like poverty,illiteracy, disease, pollution,unemployment and numerousothers. Let the politicians bidadieu to personal prejudicesand beliefs that have proved tobe debilitating and costly forthe country to the extent thatSwaraj has become a distantdream.

Today, every Indian, richor poor, hopes for a politicalleader who could act as a rolemodel. The recent past hasturned out to be horrific forthe country as politics hasbecome synonymous with cor-ruption, exploitation and dis-crimination on the basis ofcaste and religion, hypocrisyand double-speak, egoism, lustfor power, and some falsepromises. Some small allianceshave also become tools of bigparties for swinging them backto power, for toppling thestate governments that havebeen formed by a differentparty or for ruining thechances of an opposing partyfrom gaining power. So, it istime that we clear this corrupt,stained image of politics as itneeds to regain its lost respectand faith among the people sothat they don’t lose the remain-ing interest in the govern-ment and their methods.

Can politicians, whoalways claim to be the ‘servantsof people’, not make some sac-rifices for their motherland?Can’t they save their countryfrom sliding down furtherinto the morass of divisionism,ill-will and energy-drainingactivities, returning to co-operation in constructive andconsensual ways? However, isit possible to end the morassand bring back social trans-parency and accountabilitywithout morally educating themasses?

When news channelsshow that the new govern-ment will be building morehouses, creating opportunitiesfor employment in rural areas,making primary educationcompulsory, providing freedrinking water to the citizens,and making India a hunger-free nation in the next fiveyears and so on — the news iswelcomed by all. But onemust first question wherewould the money for theseschemes come from. Howwould these be funded? Also,even though in such casesmoney is usually raised bybroadening the tax-base,would it be possible to makethese benefits reachable tothe deprived masses? Thattoo, without delays or anykind of inefficiency from thebureaucracy, which has led toleakage of the funds. So is itreally possible?

We all wish that thesegoals should be achieved andthat the new governmentattains stability and success.But with a small note of cau-tion — without moral andspiritual cleansing, Swarajwould remain a far-off goal.

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Every week, on an appointed day,a steady stream of women withchildren in tow can be seen

making their way from Yavatmal’sBabhulgaon block towards the angan-wadi centre in Kopara, Maharashtra.As the women of this quiet rural ham-let gather around in the baithak (liv-ing room), the little ones get busyplaying games.

These mothers’ meets are anopportunity for young mothers andmothers-to-be to lean on each otherfor friendship and support. Together,they seek some sound advice onchildcare and indulge in creativeproblem-solving for the well-being oftheir offsprings.

Prabha Sudhkar Navade, angan-wadi worker, conducts the meetingand invites participants to speak oneby one. Gradually, it turns into a full-blown discussion on different aspectsof motherhood. “The meetings takeplace every week so that the womencan exchange notes on the healthproblems that their children face andcollectively offer some practical solu-tions to each other,” says she.

The unique feature of these gath-erings is that the groups have beenformed on the basis of children’s age.For example, expectant women gath-er on the first Saturday of everymonth, mothers of toddlers come onthe third Saturday and so on. “Thisapproach enables them to easilyshare their experiences since theirchildren are going through similarmilestones and difficulties. Very

often they find solutions amongstthemselves by tapping into collectivewisdom,” reveals Navade.

This, indeed, is a sustainableand participatory initiative that notonly helps in building the confidenceof the women but also enables themto safeguard the health of their littleones. For expert opinion and assis-tance, mothers can always reach outto the anganwadi worker or theAccredited Social Health Activist(ASHA).

During the Poshan Pakhwada cel-ebrations, held in March to mark thefirst anniversary of the PoshanAbhiyan, Navade had called a moth-ers’ meet to discuss nutrition, immu-

nisation and other key elements ofchildcare. The participating mothersdiscussed the varied and unpre-dictable food habits of their children.

Aparna, mother of Aditi GaneshMehekar, confessed that earlier shewas unaware that she should give veg-etables and fruits to her childreneveryday. She says, “Also, I had noidea how frequently growing childrenhad to be fed”. Aradhya SantoshPatil’s mother, Seema candidly toldeveryone, “Earlier, my daughter atevery little at home but now she haslearnt to eat everything in the com-pany of other children as they sharefood. Now she also asks me to cooka variety of vegetables.”

Navade is really proud that themothers associated with anganwadihave understood the value of holis-tic, healthy living and achieving all-round growth for young ones.

An hour-and-a-half ’s drive away,in the neighbouring block of Digras,there is a village called Harsul. Theanganwadi worker and her assistantthere have found a unique way toensure that the children are excitedto come to the centre. The healthworkers have transformed the off-white cloth bag, which was used toprovide families with fortified TakeHome Ration (THR), into a craft bagfor the children. Each bag displaystheir I-card and this creates a sense

of ownership among children. It alsoenables friendly competition amongthem. When they come for classes,they take out time to draw, colour ormake something from rough paperand crayons that they have broughtfrom home. When it’s time for themto go back, they neatly put their cre-ations back into their bags.

When the children come alongwith their mothers for weekly meet-ings at the centre or for some specialprogrammes, the anganwadi-tai asksthem to show off their art work. Suchdisplay of talent encourages them tolearn and grow. Not surprisingly, themothers can’t stop gushing.

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It is said that life is all aboutlearning and expanding your

horizons. Business writer TomPeters once said, “A career is aportfolio of projects that teach-es you new skills, gains you newexpertise, develops new capabil-ities, grows your colleague setand constantly reinvents your-self as a brand.” While all thesewords of wisdom define thedepth of learning, simultane-ously there is the debatewhether education ever stops orit continues throughout life.

Our entire life is a learningexperience that never ends.From classroom lectures toreal-life experiences, it is acombination of everything thatdefines your existence. In thecurrent scenario, it is an on-going process where an individ-ual acquires skills and compe-tence in the formal and non-formal learning set-up through-out his life. Today, education isa highly time-dependent andcumulative process thatrequires you to move slowlyand go deeper to make the bestof it.

According to scholars, edu-cation or learning is a part oflife, which takes place at alltimes in all places. The lifelongprocess begins at home withfamily and friends and gradu-ally moves to society, commu-

nities, schools, religious institu-tions and workplaces. The bestpart of this ongoing process isthat you evolve as a betterindividual, who understandsthe deeper meaning of life andexistence. Also, through contin-uous learning one can becomea ‘provider’ rather than justbeing a ‘receiver’. It has beenproven that learning helps indeveloping the business-ori-ented mindset that can result inmaking you a ‘job provider’. Itenhances the understanding ofthe world around us, provide uswith better opportunities andimproves the quality of life.

Master It Faster by ColinRose has described the sixstages of learning that arebelieved to be the key tobecome an effective learner.These stages can be applied toany type of learning, eitherformal or informal. The firststage in this process is ‘motiva-

tion’. It is believed that it isessential for an individual tohave this so that the learningreflects in his personality.Forceful learning is always in

vain. The next stage is called‘acquire’. During effective learn-ing, you are required to read,listen, observe, practice, exper-iment and experience. The

trick is to acquire relevant andmeaningful information anddevelop this into knowledgeand skills. The next stage isdescribed as ‘search’. At thisstage, one needs to search forpersonal meaning in the infor-mation s/he is acquiring. Itoften happens that we find ithard to remember facts withoutunderstanding them or beingable to put them into context.Next comes, the stage of ‘trig-ger’. It is the time when youneed to make notes of every-thing you learn as it is difficultto remember everything. Youneed to examine your knowl-edge to help reinforce what youhave learned. And finally, oneneeds to reflect on the learning.It is necessary to think abouthow and why you learned,including how you felt about aparticular topic or situation.That is how you develop andevolve your skills.

If you are wondering whyit is important, you need tounderstand that it’s also aboutpassion and satisfaction that itoffers. When you are passion-ate about learning, it gives youa kick and an incomparablesense of satisfaction. Also, itskills up your functionality asan individual. From learning anew process at work to using anew app, it is a new world ofknowledge every day thatmakes you an efficient individ-ual. It has been proven thatlearning is becoming an eco-nomic imperative. A technolog-ical change demands strongerand continuous connectionbetween education and employ-ment. And that’s the reasonpeople in the corporate sectorare always striving to learnmore in order to improve theirexistence.

Apart from all this, learn-ing also adds value to your dailylife. It makes it more practical,helps you handle everything —right from home to office andfrom society to nature. In sim-ple words, it makes you an assetto the world. So are you readyto be a part of the process thathas no end?

(The author is the manag-ing director of a companyengaged in bridging the educa-tion gap.)

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Harry Kane scored a stunning 93rd minute win-ner from the halfway line as Tottenham

Hotspur edged Juventus 3-2 in an entertaining pre-season friendly in Singapore on Sunday.

The England captain latched onto Lucas Moura’sshort pass and launched a first-time shot high overa scrambling substitute keeper Wojciech Szczesnyas Spurs rallied past new manager Maurizio Sarri’sItalian champions in front of a delighted NationalStadium crowd.

“It’s probably one of the best goals of my career.I noticed thekeeper wasoften off of hisline andthought if I geta chance toshoot I will andit just went in,”Kane said in ap o s t - m a t c hinterview.

A youthfulSpurs domi-nated the firsthalf as Juventusstruggled toadapt to theirnew coach’s“S a r r i - b a l l ”tactic of play-ing out fromthe back withshort, quickpasses.

Instead ofmoving the ballforward, Juventus often found themselves defend-ing desperately after being caught in possession asSpurs pressed high up the pitch with the PremierLeague side going on to take a deserved lead on thehalf-hour mark.

Son Heung-min started the move by holding upplay and feeding Troy Parrott for a clear run atGianluigi Buffon in the Juventus goal, with the 17-year-old forward’s low strike parried by the veter-an keeper straight into the path of an unmarked ErikLamela for a routine tap-in.

“It was a very good game, very competitive. Tobe honest, we are still short in our preparations andI wasn’t planning to play this way so early in the pre-season ... We were still hoping to give some play-ers more rest after a long campaign,” Spurs manag-er Mauricio Pochettino said.

“The result was not the most important thingtoday, the performance was and how we continueour preparations for the upcoming season.”

Juventus had more success after the break whenthey increased their tempo and went more direct,and halftime substitute Gonzalo Higuain levelled thescore in the 56th minute with a drilled strike afterexchanging neat passes with Federico Bernardeschi.

Buoyed by the equaliser, Juventus were soonahead when Cristiano Ronaldo arrived late to drivehome Mattia De Sciglio’s cutback four minutes later,leaving to rapturous applause by an adoring crowdwhen he was substituted immediately after scoring.

Spurs were level in the 65th minute, however,when Champions League semi-final hero Lucas firedhome record signing Tanguy Ndombele’s low cross,the French midfielder finding the Brazilian with hisfirst touch after coming on as a substitute.

Kane and Higuain both squandered goodchances to score winning goals in the final 10 min-utes before the England striker prevented the con-test going to a penalty shootout with the most bril-liant of strikes.

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India added another goldenchapter to the 21st

Commonwealth Table TennisChampionships when its mixeddoubles pair of G Sathiyan andArchana Kamath defeatedSingapore’s Peng Yu En Koen-Goi Rui Xuan 3-0 in the finalhere on Sunday.

The Gold count, on thepenultimate day of the champi-onships, stood at three.

This had, in a way, avengedthe earlier loss of A SharathKamal and Sreeja Akula in thesemifinal by the sameSingaporean pair as well as thedefeat of Sharath in men’s sin-gles quarterfinals by Peng.

The Indian pair was on topin the final as they piled on theagony of their rivals, particular-ly on a tired Peng who could notcope with the pressure appliedby the top-seeded duo.

But the second-seededSharath Kamal squanderedthree match points and then thequarterfinal match, shatteringhis men singles medal hope.Though Sharath failed to go pastthe semifinals in mixed doubles,he would definitely rue the sin-

gles loss to the younger legs ofPeng in the quarters.

The other Indians thatmade the grade included top-seeded G Sathiyan, who beatNigerian Bode Abiodun 4-0and Harmeet Desai whoaccounted for fellow IndianSushmit Sriram 4-1. Sanil Shetty

joined Sharath when he wentdown to England’s ThomasJarvis 1-4.

Earlier, the top-seeded HoTin-Tin of England beat theunseeded Archana Kamath, thereigning national champion, 4-1 to enter the women’s singlessemifinals.

But the second-seededMadhurika Patkar and fourthseed Ayhika Mukerjee easily fol-lowed the English woman in thelast-four stages while in amarathon battle, Sreeja Akuladefeated Sutirtha Mukherjee 4-2 even as Madhurika downedKrittiwika Sinha Roy 4-1 and

Ayhika beat Mousumi Paul instraight games.

Archana, who played welluntil this point, was unable tofind her feet against the attack-ing Ho who cashed in on sev-eral unforced errors committedby the Indian. After losing thefirst game, the Bengaluru girlcame back to level 1-1 but losther rhythm from there to losetamely.

Madhurika had a goodmeasure of Krittwika, thenational runner-up and despitelosing a game she punishedher rival when the opportunitiespresented themselves.

Indeed, Krittiwika had aslight advantage in the fourthgame but lost it 10-12 and thenthe steam. However, for Ayhikait was rather easy as Mousumicould not cope with her rival'squick returns and excellentplacements.

Two extended games musthave sapped the energy of bothSreeja and Sutirtha but the for-mer held her nerves despitesquandering five match-points

to romp home winners.The scratch pair of Sharath

Kamal and Sreeja Akula, in theabsence of Manika Batra, hadlittle problem up to the semifi-nals. But once there, the mis-match became more palpablewhen the Indian duo took onSingapore’s Yu En Koen Pangand Rui Xuan Goi, who playtogether more regularly.

In men’s doubles, twoIndian pairs — Sharath andSathiyan and Anthony Amalrajand Manav Thakkar — made itto the semifinals while the twoother pairs that will challengethe Indian domination will bePang Yu En and Chua Shao Hanfrom Singapore and the Englishduo of Samuel Walker andThomas Jarvis, respectively, onMonday.

In women’s doubles, PoojaSahasrabudhe and KrittiwikaSingha Roy, Sreeja Akula andMousumi Paul and SutirthaMukherjee and AyhikaMukherjee entered the semifi-nal while the fourth pair, top-seeded Madhurika Patkar andArchana Kamath went down toSingapore’s Goi Rui Xuan andWon Xin Ru 2-3 (5-11, 8-11, 11-8, 11-7, 9-11).

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PV Sindhu’s hopes of breaking aseven-month title drought camecrashing down as the Indian lost in

straight games to Akane Yamaguchi in thefinals of Indonesia Open BWF Tour Super1000 tournament here on Sunday.

Seven months after becoming thefirst Indian to win the season-ending BWFWorld Tour Finals in December, OlympicSilver medallist Sindhu had an opportu-nity to finally lay her hands on anothercrown only to squander, losing 15-21, 16-21 to the Japanese in a lop-sided summitclash that lasted 51 minutes here.

Playing her first final of the season,Sindhu looked a bit anxious and failed tomatch the brilliance of the 22-year-oldYamaguchi, whom she had beaten in thelast four meetings.

“She played really well and there werelong rallies. I was leading in the first gameby 2-3 points but I made a few mistakesand then she finished it off. If I could havewon the first game, it could have been abit different,” Sindhu told reporters.

“In the second I gave her a huge leadlike 5-6 points and was left to cover it. Butoverall, I think it was a good tournamentfor me and I hope I can take the confidencegoing forward. Next I am playing Japanand I hope to do well there.”

This was Sindhu’s fifth loss toYamaguchi in 15 meetings. The last timethe Indian lost to the Japanese was at thesemifinals of the All EnglandChampionship last year.

The defeat added to Sindhu’s list ofrunners-up finishes, which include Silversat the World Championships, AsianGames, Commonwealth Games, ThailandOpen and India Open last year.

It was Yamaguchi’s third title of theseason after claiming crowns at GermanOpen and Asian Championship.

Prior to this in 2019, Sindhu reachedthe semifinals of Singapore Open and IndiaOpen.

Sindhu had a forgettable start in the

opening game as she lagged 0-3 but soonthe Indian controlled the proceedings,making Yamaguchi run across the courtand finishing with her precise returns totake a 5-4 lead.

Yamaguchi took the lead at 7-7 whenSindhu went wide. But the Indian managedto grab a three-point advantage at the break

after the Japanese went wide twice.Yamaguchi then displayed good

retrieval skills and grabbed three straightpoints when Sindhu miscued her strokes.

A delicate net short took Yamaguchito 12-13 but she again missed the line. TheJapanese levelled par at 14-14 when theIndian went long.

Yamaguchi attacked Sindhu’s longbackhand corner and soon eked out a 16-14 lead. An attacking game helped theJapanese to widen the gap as Sindhu onceagain sent a shuttle wide.

A lapse in backhand defence and thenone shot going long from Sindhu gaveYamaguchi six game points. The Indian

saved one before a smash to a return ofserve helped the Japanese to seal the open-ing game.

In the second game, Yamaguchi madea good start again, moving to a 4-1 leadbefore stretching it to 8-5 with Sindhustruggling to control the shuttle. TheIndian won a few points because ofunforced errors by Yamaguchi.

The Japanese sent one at Sindhu’s bodyduring a flat exchange before entering theinterval with a 11-8 advantage, when theIndian hit out.

Sindhu unleashed a cross court smashand pushed one at the backcourt to leaveYamaguchi off balance, but the Japaneserode on the Indian’s unforced errors tomove to a 15-10 lead.

At 15-11, the duo played a 51-shot rallythat ended with Sindhu making a judge-ment error.

Two unforced errors by Yamaguchitook Sindhu to 13-16 before she moved to15-18. After a treatment on her right knee,Yamaguchi was back on the court and pro-duced a smash to make it 19-15.

The Japanese held four match pointswhen Sindhu went long and she sealed itwith another smash to claim the biggesttitle of her career.

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Bayern Munich spoiledEden Hazard’s Real

Madrid debut, downing theSpanish giants 3-1 in afriendly in Houston onSaturday despite goalkeep-er Sven Ulreich’s sending off.

Corentin Tolisso,Robert Lewandowski andSerge Gnabry had givenBundesliga championsBayern a comfortable 3-0lead before recent RealMadrid signing Rodrygograbbed a consolation goalwith a brilliant free kick.

That followed Ulreich’sdeparture in the 81st for afoul on Brazilian teenRodrygo outside the area.

Rodrygo, Luka Jovicand Ferland Mendy allmade their debuts forrebuilding Real Madrid —all coming on at halftime asZinedine Zidane changedhis entire side.

Hazard’s first outing ina Madrid jersey since hishigh-priced move fromChelsea had dominated theheadlines.

But despite getting astarting nod he made little

impact at the NRG Stadium— home of the NFL’sHouston Texans, where theEuropean giants producedplenty of lively end-to-endaction from the kickoff.

It needed a stellar dis-play from Bayern goalkeep-er Manuel Neuer to keepReal Madrid at bay.

Bayern led at the inter-val thanks to Tolisso’s 15th-minute strike.

Thomas Muller freedKingsley Coman whosecross made it to Tolisso —who was denied by Real

Madrid keeper ThibautCourtois on his first attemptbut slotted home therebound.

Down a goal with half-time approaching RealMadrid poured it on.

Karim Benzema let agolden chance go begging inthe 43rd, meeting a crossfrom Isco but knocking hiseffort wide.

Neuer came up withanother impressive save inthe 45th, diving to his rightto grab Luka Modric’s effortfrom 10 yards out of the air.

Courtois fended off ablast from Coman in first-half injury time to keepBayern from stretching theiradvantage before the break.

While Real Madridapplied plenty of pressure,Hazard was circumspect,often opting to pass off to hisnew teammates.

The closest the 28-yearold Belgian came to his firstReal Madrid goal was in the39th minute, when he foundspace on the left and bent ashot toward the far post onlyfor Neuer to punch it away.

Zidane’s wholesalechanges at the interval didnothing to further RealMadrid’s cause, even thoughthey controlled possessionearly in the second half.

Lewandowski doubledBayern’s lead in the 67thcontrolling a high ball fromNiklas Sule, turning andfiring into the bottom cor-ner.

Two minutes laterMadrid gave the ball awaydeep in their own end andan unmarked Gnabry wasable to control the ball andfire past Keylor Navas ingoal.

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Gareth Bale’s agent has branded RealMadrid boss Zinedine Zidane a “dis-

grace” after the Frenchman revealed that theLa Liga giants were ready to offload the Walesstar in a matter of days.

Zidane left Bale out of the Real squad forSaturday’s 3-1 exhibition loss to BayernMunich, and after the match he revealed hehad been dropped because the club were“working on his departure”, adding that hehoped it happens soon, “for everyone’ssake”.

“Zidane is a disgrace, he shows no respectfor a player that has done so much for RealMadrid,” Bale’s agent Jonathan Barnett said.

Asked whether Bale is close to leavingMadrid, Barnett added: “We are working onit”.

After Zidane’s reappointment, Baleplayed 90 minutes in just three of theremaining 11 matches, was left out complete-ly four times and frequently substituted whenhe did play.

He was denied a chance to say goodbyeat the end of last season when he was left onthe bench in a 2-0 loss to Real Betis that sawZidane’s side submerged with boos and whis-tles.

However Zidane insists that his treat-ment of the 30-year-old forward “is nothingpersonal”, even though Bale would be wel-come at some of Europe’s biggest clubs.

“There comes a time when things aredone because they need to be done,” Zidaneadded after the Bayern defeat.

“I’ve not got anything against him. Wehave to make decisions and change things,that’s all there is to it.

“I don’t know if this will happen in 24or 48 hours’ time. The situation will changeand it’s for the best for everyone.”

Bale joined Real Madrid to much fan-fare, a blockbuster transfer fee and a big salarythat may prove to be an obstacle for all butthe richest teams.

He has three seasons left on his deal andhas been linked to Tottenham, ManchesterUnited and Bayern.

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India set up a quarter-final clash withIndonesia despite losing their last

group match to Korea at the BadmintonAsia Junior Championships 2019(Mixed Team Event) in Suzhou, Chinaon Sunday.

Maisnam Meiraba’s great effortwas the silver lining of the day for theIndian contingent in their 1-4 loss butby finishing second to Korea in GroupC, they made it to the last-eight.

On the first day of the continentalevent, India blanked both Mongolia andMacau China by an identical score of5-0.

Manipur’s Meiraba had been insterling form of late and he even wonhis first international tournament at theWhite Night Russian JuniorInternational earlier this month.Meiraba refused to give up and foughtfor 1 hour 32 minutes to subdue Korea’sHyeon Seung Park.

While that was the solitary win ofthe day for Team India, there wereencouraging performances from others.The doubles teams, especially, stood outfor their gutsy displays in a losing cause.

The mixed doubles pair of DingkuSingh Konthoujam and Ritika Thakerfought for 56 minutes before goingdown 21-19, 12-21, 12-21 to Dong JuKi and Eun Ji Lee. Goa’s Tanisha Crastoand Kerala’s Treesa Jolly were equallyimpressive in their 16-21, 21-16, 12-21girls’ doubles loss to Young Bin Ji andEun Ji Lee.

The boys’ doubles combine ofIshaan Bhatnagar and Vishnu VardhanGoud Panjala found Korea’s Dong Ju Kiand Joon Young Kim too strong in their17-21, 15-21 defeat. In girls’ singles,Malvika Bansod suffered a 10-21, 8-21defeat to Ga Lam Kim.

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Opener Shikhar Dhawan on Sundayreturned to India’s limited overssquad after recovering from a

thumb injury while Rishabh Pant waspicked in all three formats for the WestIndies tour as the selectors braced up forlife beyond Mahendra Singh Dhoni.

Former India captain Dhoni, who isat the business end of his illustriouscareer, has made himself “unavailable” forthe West Indies tour but ruled out imme-diate retirement.

Speculations over Captain Virat Kohlibeing rested for the tour were put to restas the batting mainstay will lead Indiaacross formats.

Rookie leg-spinner Rahul Chaharemerged as the lone new face across threeformats for the upcoming overseas assign-ments, while all-rounder Hardik Pandyahas been rested for the tour. Also com-ing back into the ODI squad are ShreyasIyer and Manish Pandey.

Promising batsman Shubman Gill,though, missed out on selection.

The squads for the T20, ODI and Testseries were announced by the MSKPrasad-led selection committee.

A notable inclusion was veterankeeper-batsman Wriddhiman Saha, whois back in the Test squad after undergo-ing a shoulder surgery for an injury, sus-tained during the 2018 IPL.

Saha last played a Test match in SouthAfrica in January 2018.

Rajasthan leg-spinner Chahar has

been rewarded for his consistent show inthe IPL and domestic cricket with a berthin the Twenty20 squad. He is the youngercousin of seamer Deepak, who is also inthe T20 squad.

From the World Cup squad, theprominent player to be dropped is DineshKarthik, while Hardik and Jasprit Bumrahhave been rested as a part of the board’sworkload management programme.

Bumrah, though, is part of the Testsquad.

Quite a few of the players werepicked based on their performance forIndia A recently.

“We have taken India A perfor-mances into consideration. In the longerformat, KS Bharat was very, very close toget selected. We have an unwritten normthat when an established cricketer isinjured, he should get a comeback oppor-tunity. That’s what we have given to Saha,”chief selector Prasad said.

Pant, who was included in India’sWorld Cup campaign after VijayShankar’s toe injury, has been named inthe squad across all three formats.

Dhawan, whose World Cup journeywas cut short due to a thumb fractureduring the second group game againstAustralia, has been declared fit.

Bhuvneshwar Kumar will spearhead

the attack in the shortest format withMohammed Shami joining him for thethree ODIs. Dehli pacer Navdeep Sainihas been included in the limited oversside while Deepak Chahar was picked forthe T20Is.

The selection panel also went for left-arm pacer Khaleel Ahmed for the limit-ed overs leg.

“Rishabh, Wriddhiman and K SBharat are some of the players we will belooking ahead for Test cricket.”

“We had certain plans for the WorldCup but after that we have to give oppor-tunities to youngsters who will go on toplay for long,” Prasad said of the theyoung faces in the limited overs squads.

The young Prithvi Shaw was not partof the squad as he is recovering from aninjury.

The tour will kick off with a three-match Twenty20 series (August 3, 4, 6)and will be followed by a three-matchODI series (August 8, 11, 14). The tourwill conclude with a two-Test series(August 22-26 and August 30- September3).

H)��T20Is: Virat Kohli (captain), RohitSharma (vc), Shikhar Dhawan, KL Rahul,Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey, RishabhPant (wk), Krunal Pandya, RavindraJadeja, Washington Sundar, RahulChahar, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, KhaleelAhmed, Deepak Chahar, Navdeep SainiODIs: Virat Kohli (Captain), RohitSharma (vc), Shikhar Dhawan, KL Rahul,Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey, RishabhPant (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, KuldeepYadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kedar Jadhav,Mohammed Shami, Bhuvneshwar Kumar,Khaleel Ahmed, Navdeep SainiTESTS: Virat Kohli (Captain), AjinkyaRahane (vc), Mayank Agarwal, KL Rahul,C Pujara, Hanuma Vihari, Rohit Sharma,Rishabh Pant (wk) Wriddhiman Saha(wk), R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, KuldeepYadav, Ishant Sharma, MohammedShami, Jasprit Bumrah, Umesh Yadav.

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Ambati Rayudu’s sarcasm-laden‘3D tweet’ might have hastened

his international retirement butchairman of selectors MSK Prasaddefended the recently-retiredHyderabadi’s omission from theWorld Cup squad, asserting that hispanel cannot be accused of bias.

Prasad explained that MayankAgarwal was summoned as areplacement for injured VijayShankar instead of Rayudu becauseopener KL Rahul’s on-field injuryduring the England game hadprompted the team management toseek an opener as “cover”.

However Prasad’s logic ofAgarwal’s inclusion was far fromconvincing as Rahul played threegames (Bangaldesh, Sri Lanka andsemi-final) after that.

After being ignored, Rayuduhad posted a cryptic tweet, whichwas certainly directed at the selec-tion committee, which had termedShankar as a “three dimensionalplayer.

“Just Ordered a new set of 3dglasses to watch the world cup,” hetweeted and was widely believed tobe the reason behind Rishabh Pantand Agarwal’s inclusion as replace-

ments.Rayudu announced his retire-

ment from all forms of cricket justdays after Agarwal’s selection.

“It was a lovely tweet. Verytimely one. I really enjoyed thetweet. It was fantastic. I don’t knowhow it struck him,” Prasad’s answerhad everyone laughing when askedabout Rayudu’s tweet.

However he wanted to clear theair that Rayudu couldn’t be includ-ed purely because of the permuta-tions and combinations and theselection committee didn’t resort toany favouritism.

When Agarwal came in, it wasmore about having a cover forRahul. In fact, he revealed that itwas team management asked for anopener in writing.

“At that juncture, a writtencommunication was given to us onthe back-up opener. We looked atsome of the openers working out oncertain permutations and combina-tions. Some were not in form, oth-ers were injured, so that’s when wewent to Mayank Agarwal. There is

no confusion on this and by the endof the day, all speculations shouldbe clear,” he further added.

But the chairman empathisedwith Rayudu.

“How much emotions any-body (Rayudu) has gone through,the the selection committee hasgone through the same emotions,”Prasad said.

“When we pick any player andhe does well, we feel so happy forhim. Similarly when somebodywho goes out in this way, the selec-tion committee also feels for it. Buthaving said that, with regards to thedecision taken, it has been com-pletely devoid of any bias or anyfavouritism into why we havepicked Vijay Shankar, Rishabh Pantor Mayank Agarwal also,” the for-mer stumper said in his commit-

tee’s defence.While Rayudu has every reason

to be aggrieved, Prasad remindedthat when he had failed a fitness testafter being picked on the basis ofhis T20 performances, his panelhad backed the Hyderabad man.

“I will give you a small exam-ple about Rayudu. When Rayuduwas picked, on the basis of 17-18T20s (2018 IPL performance), wepicked him in ODI side. There wasa lot of criticism but we had somethoughts about him subsequently.

“When he failed the fitness (YoYo) test (before England awayODIs), this selection committee

backed him and we put himthrough a fitness programme for amonth, ensured that he gets fit andcomes into the side.

“Once he came into the side,we backed him but due to certainpermutations and combinations inthe side, we couldn’t pick him,”Prasad reasoned why Rayudu wasoverlooked even after Shankar gotinjured.

But he made it clear that hiscommittee can’t be accused of“bias or favouritism”.

“That (Rayudu’s exclusion)doesn’t make the selection commit-tee or me biased about any partic-ular person. We know how emo-tional Rayudu is, we are also emo-tional. We as ex-cricketers, also feelfor him,” he said.

He explained how Pant andAgarwal came in as replacements.

“The team managementrequested for a left-hander and wehad no other choice than RishabhPant. We are very, very clear onthat. We know what he is capableof. That’s the reason we had tobring in a left-hander, which con-fused many people as to why amiddle-order batsman has beenselected in place of an opener,” hesaid.

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Retirement is solely Mahendra SinghDhoni’s prerogative but chairman of

selectors MSK Prasad on Sunday clear-ly stated that young Rishabh Pant will be“groomed” as India’s first choice keeperacross formats in the coming days.

Dhoni has not announced his retire-ment from international cricket amidwidespread speculations but has madehimself unavailable for the next twomonths as he will be serving his regimentin paramilitary forces.

Without divulging much on two-time World Cup winning captain’s futureplans, Prasad said that a legend likeDhoni knows when to retire but thefuture course of Indian cricket will becharted by the selectors.

“Retirement is purely individual(decision). A legendary cricketer likeDhoni, he knows when to retire. Whatis the future course of action, that is inthe hands of the selection committee. Idon’t think we need to discuss anythingmore on it. First of all he is not available.Second, we have already started groom-ing youngsters,” Prasad said at the mediaconference.

The former India Test keeper wantsPant to get as many opportunities as hegets ready to fill in the big shoes of Dhoniin the coming days.

“He (Dhoni) is unavailable for theseries. He has expressed his unavailabil-ity. Having said that we had a certainroadmap and plans till the World Cup.Post World Cup, we have laid down a fewmore plans and we thought of giving asmany opportunities as possible toRishabh Pant and and to see, he isgroomed. That is our plan right now andwe did discuss this with him (Dhoni),”said Prasad.

Pant was already the number onechoice in Tests and now with uncertain-ty over Dhoni’s future, he has become thepreferred choice in all three formats.

The 21-year-old is a powerhouse oftalent but at times, his shot selection incrucial moments have been questionedincluding in India’s World Cup semfinalloss to New Zealand.

However, Prasad praised Pant for hisinnings of 32 against the Black Caps afterIndia lost three wickets for five runschasing 240.

“He played well. Especially in thoseconditions, he batted really well,” headded.

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It indeed was a judgementerror to award six runs to

England from an overthrow inthe World Cup final admittedumpire Kumar Dharmasena butthe Sri Lankan will never“regret” the decision.

Dharamsena had signalledto add six runs to England’s total,instead of five, when MartinGuptill’s throw from the deepraced to the boundary ropesafter being deflected of a divingBen Stokes’ bat.

The match was stretched toa Super Over which alsoremained inconclusive andeventually hosts England weredeclared champions on betterboundary count, leaving NewZealand players in disbelief.

“It’s easy for people to com-ment after seeing TV replays,”Dharmasena told Sunday Times.

“I agree that there was ajudgment error when I see it onTV replays now. But we did nothave the luxury of TV replays atthe ground and I will neverregret the decision I made.Besides, the ICC praised me forthe decision I made at thattime.”

The TV replays showedthat Adil Rashid and Stokes hadnot completed the second runwhen Guptill released the ballfrom the deep.

Dharmasena, who wasstanding as head umpire, con-sulted leg umpire MaraisErasmus and added six runs to

the England total following theincident — four runs for the ballreaching the boundary plus twofor running between the wick-et.

England needed nine fromthe final three balls. Thischanged to three off two balls.

The 48-year-old added thataccording to the law, there wasno provision to consult thethird umpire on the incident.

“There is no provision in the

law to refer this to the thirdumpire as no dismissal wasinvolved.” he said.

“So, I did consult the legumpire through the communi-cation system which is heard byall other umpires and the matchreferee. And, while they cannotcheck TV replays, they all con-firmed that the batsmen havecompleted the run. This is whenI made my decision.”

Former international

umpires Simon Taufel and KHariharan had also come outand said the officials standing inthe World Cup final erred by

awarding six runs.Law 19.8 of the ICC

rules, pertaining to‘Overthrow or wilful actof fielder’, states: “If theboundary results froman overthrow or fromthe wilful act of a fielder,the runs scored shall beany runs for penaltiesawarded to either side,and the allowance for theboundary, and the runscompleted by the bats-men, together with therun in progress if theyhad already crossed at theinstant of the throw oract.”

“One must under-stand that there were too

many things on our plate. Wehad to watch the batsmen com-plete the first run, the ball beingfielded, how it was handled bythe fielder and whether thebatsmen completed the secondrun. And where the throwwould come from, the striker’send or non-striker’s end.”

“In this case, we were allhappy that the batsmen hadcompleted the second runbecause the ball ricocheted offStokes’s bat at the time of himcompleting the second run. So,we assumed that they hadcrossed each other at the time offielder releasing the ball,”Dharmasena said.

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Pakistan could have separatecaptains and head coaches

for Test and limited overs crick-et following its failure to qual-ify for the World Cup semifi-nals in England.

A well-placed source in thePakistan Cricket Board saidthat when the CricketCommittee meets later thismonth, a proposal to split thecaptaincy and coaching for thedifferent formats would be upfor discussion.

“Since Pakistan has to playeight Tests of the World TestChampionship against SriLanka, Australia, Bangladeshand England before the T20World Cup in Australia nextyear, the PCB is pretty con-cerned about how to improveperformance of the team inTests,” the source said.

Pakistan will be playingonly three ODIs but nine to 10T20s before the T20 Asia Cup

and T20 World Cup next year,prompting PCB to considerseparate captains and coachesfor red and white-ball cricket,”he said.

He said PCB ManagingDirector Wasim Khan metwith Wasim Akram, who is amember of the Cricket

Committee, in London earlierthis month. The former captainand fast bowler had advised theMD that the board shouldretain Sarfaraz and MickeyArthur for the limited overscricket until the T20 WorldCup.

“But the board is now con-

sidering the option of havingseparate captains and headcoaches for Test and limitedovers cricket with the supportstaff i.e., manager, bowlingcoach, batting coach, trainer,fielding coach, physiotherapistremaining the same for all for-mats.”

Pakistan is presently sixthin the ODI rankings and num-ber one in T20s but it is in Testcricket where Sarfaraz andArthur have failed to achieveanything notable in last twoand half years. The Test teamis languishing at number sevenin the ICC rankings having losthome series to Sri Lanka, NewZealand before being out-classed in South Africa.

The source said if theboard decides to split the redball and white ball captains andhead coach positions thansenior batsmen Asad Shafiqand Azhar Ali are likely to bethe top candidates for the cap-taincy.

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England paceman Mark Woodhas set his sights on recover-

ing from injury in time to play arole in the Ashes againstAustralia.

Wood will be out for up tosix weeks after suffering a sidestrain during last Sunday’s WorldCup final. The 29-year-old won’t

play in next week’s one-off Testagainst Ireland at Lord’s or thefirst Test against Australia whenthe Ashes get under way onAugust 1.

But Durham star Wood stillhopes he can get back to full fit-ness in time for the last two Testsin the five-match series.

“I might make the last cou-ple (of Tests). It all depends on

selection,” Wood told BBC 5Live’s Sportsweek on Sunday.

“My side injury is four to sixweeks, so hopefully I’ll still playa part towards the end of the sea-son, but if not it’s been a fantas-tic summer so far for Englishcricket.

“There’s still plenty more togo and hopefully for me there’sstill a bit more cricket to play.”

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