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16
A part from linking the Inter- Services Intelligence (ISI) to the Lashkar-e-Tayyeba (LeT), terrorist-turned-approver David Coleman Headley on Monday made a sensational disclosure in his deposition before a special court in the 26/11 attacks case that the ter- ror outfit had made two unsuc- cessful attempts to attack Mumbai prior to the 2008 may- hem in which 166 people were killed and 300 injured. Deposing before a special court here through a video- conference from an undis- closed location in the United States, incarcerated Headley spoke at length about the train- ing he underwent under LeT founder Hafiz Saeed and LeT chief-of-operations Zaki-ur- Rehman Lakhvi; the manner in which he was dissuaded from going to Kashmir to wage a war against Indian troops; about his association with his handler Sajid Mir and how he got to know three officers of the ISI. Another major revelation on the first day of the deposi- tion was that Headley named Major (Retd) Abdur Rehman Pasha, who once worked with Khyber Rifles Regimental Centre, Major Iqbal of ISI, who was in touch with his han- dler Sajid Mir and Major Ali, who interrogated him in the Landi Kotal jail and later ensured his discharge from a Peshwar jail in 2002-03 in an arms smuggling case. “Major Ali (who was work- ing for ISI at Landi Kotal) introduced me to Major Iqbal because Ali thought that I could be of assistance in Intelligence work,” Headley said. Testifying before the court of Additional Sessions Judge GA Sanap, Headley said he joined LeT in 2002 and changed his name from Dawood Gilani to David Coleman Headley four years later, to hide his identity dur- ing visits to India for car- rying out reconnaissance for the 26/11 attacks. Responding to a ques- tion by Special Public Prosecutor (SPP) Ujjwal Nikam, Headley said that Sajid Mir and Major Iqbal were happy when he secured the American passport in his new name and the Indian visa. Headley said that Tahawwur Hussain Rana, a former Pakistan military physician convicted for pro- viding support to LeT for plot- ting an attack on a Danish newspaper, had helped him get a five-year visa to India. “Rana knew something about the 26/11 attacks and the purpose of my visit to India,” Headley told the court. Describing himself as a “true follower of the Lashkar” who had been tasked with making a general video of Mumbai, Headley said he had travelled to India as many as seven times and passed on information he collected to the LeT. Headley, currently serving a 35-year sentence in a terror case in a US jail following a plea bargain that saved him from a death sentence and extradition, was deposing in the trial of key conspirator of 26/11 attacks Zabiuddin Ansari alias Abu Jundal, two months after he was pardoned and made an approver in the case. During the five-and-a-half- hour-long deposition which began at 7 am and ended for the day at 12.30 pm, SPP Nikam posed more than 150 ques- tions to Headley. The deposition will continue on Tuesday. Headley was accompanied by Sarah Stricker, a US attorney, John Theis, attorney for Headley and his associate Bob Ceder. From the Indian side, Mumbai Crime Branch-CID chief Atul Kulkarni and retired police officer Ramesh Mahale, who headed the investigations into the 26/11 attacks, were pre- sent in the court. Senior counsel Mahesh Jethmalani, who was present in court, clarified that he was not representing Headley, but was there at the request of Headley’s attorney, should they require any help regarding laws in India. Headley disclosed that the same ten terrorists, who carried out the 26/11 attacks, had made two unsuccessful attempts to attack Mumbai in September and October 2008. “Sajid Mir told me the plan failed twice. The first attempt in September 2008 failed when the boat hit a rock in the ocean. The people were saved by the life jackets but the weapons and ammunition were lost and the boat disintegrated. However, the ten terrorists made it to shore and returned to Pakistan.” T elecom regulator TRAI on Monday said no to Facebook’s Free Basics, Airtel’s Zero and others of their sort, and supported net neutrality. TRAI barred service providers from charging discriminatory prices for web access and pro- vided for a penalty of Rs 50,000 for each day on service providers if they flout the order. This penalty would be subject to a maximum of Rs 50 lakh. The Trai order is seen as a setback to Facebook which had plans to roll out Free Basics scheme, providing access to a limited set of websites for free. Supporters of net neu- trality opposed the scheme and argued that it undermined the equal-access precepts of net neutrality and data providers should not favour some online services over others. Meanwhile, Facebook on Monday expressed disappoint- ment over Trai’s decision, say- ing it adversely impacts its free internet platform Free Basics. “Our goal with Free Basics is to bring more people online with an open, non-exclusive and free platform. While disappointed with the outcome, we will con- tinue our efforts to eliminate barriers and give the uncon- nected an easier path to the Internet and the opportunities it brings,” Facebook spokesper- son said in a statement. “No service provider shall offer or charge discriminatory tariffs for data services on the basis of content,” Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) Chairman RS Sharma said unveiling the details of the regulations, effective from Monday, titled ‘Prohibition of Discriminatory Tariffs for Data Services Regulations, 2016’. “Anything on Internet can- not be differently priced. This is the broad point that we have highlighted in regulation,” Sharma said. Plans which are active in contravention of the new reg- ulations should cease to exist in six months, he said, adding that the new regulations have been notified in Gazette and are effective from Monday. “No service provider shall enter into any arrangement, agreement or contract, by whatever name called, with any person, natural or legal, that has the effect of discriminato- ry tariffs for data services being offered or charged to the consumer on the basis of con- tent,” Trai said. However, service providers have been allowed to reduce tariff for access in case of pro- viding emergency services. “We have not defined emergency services. But in case of such services, operators have to inform Trai within seven working days,” Sharma said. Trai has rejected outright the idea of case-by-case approval to plans that may be priced differently as was sug- gested by a panel of officials at Department of Telecom. T he Tirtol police in Jagatsinghpur district on Monday lodged an FIR against Niali BJD MLA Dr Pramod Kumar Mallick and forwarded seven of his supports, who were arrested for vandalising the Tirtol police station, to court on Monday. The arrests were made after examination of CCTV footages, police said. The police seized the vehicle of the MLA. However, no FIR was lodged either by the BJD or the BJP. On Sunday, tension pre- vailed between BJP and BJD workers at Jeypore along the Cuttack-Paradip Road under the Tirtol police limits ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi reaching Paradip to inaugurate the IOCL refinery. Accusing the BJD of using administrative machinery to stop them from attending the PM’s programme, BJP work- ers thrashed the Niali MLA and damaged his vehicle. The MLA was on his way to Paradip to attend the function with his supporters. Alleging inaction of the police, BJD workers allegedly barged into the police station and ransacked furniture and files. The incident led to a huge traffic jam with all stranded on the road for about three hours. The agitators too damaged a bus and four motorcycles in the clash. Meanwhile, MLA Mallick alleged that the inaction of the police led to the ugly situation. “The footage of the CCTV installed at the police sta- tions should be examined. I didn’t touch a single item. I urged the IIC to take action against the attackers. Even, I identified two attackers and informed the IIC. But instead of taking action, the IIC told me to remain silent,” said Mallick. B JD blabbermouth Excise Minister Damodar Rout had once recently publicly praised BJP leader and Union Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan as an Odia leader doing creditably well at the Centre. Rout’s statement sparked off controversy in the BJD quar- ters as well as in political circles in general. The politics-ridden Paradip Refinery inaugural meeting on Sunday has, how- ever, now prompted Rout to go full throat against Pradhan, obviously because the grand ceremony starring Prime Minister Modi was held in no other area than Rout’s own Assembly constituency. This is despite Pradhan in his welcome speech at the cer- emony addressed Rout as his “Pitrutulya” (like father or fatherly). Pradhan’s indulgence towards Rout, as had also been evident on some other earlier occasions, was understandable since Rout, as the local MLA, was not happy over not being given a chance to speak even though offered a seat on the same dais shared by Modi and other leaders. On Monday, a day after the Paradip show, Rout blurted out at Pradhan, stating before the media that the Indian Oil Corporation Limited’s (IOCL) lavish days-on advertisements for the refinery inauguration was meant for individual pub- licity for the departmental Minister Pradhan. And Rout demanded that an inquiry by a Central agency be ordered into the fabulous amount of funds spent by the IOCL for the refin- ery inauguration. T he IOCL refinery fest here on Sunday smacked of pol- itics from the beginning to the end. This was evident from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s silence over certain issues. Modi, who came here in the backdrop of a show of strength between his party and the rul- ing BJD, preferred to avoid Biju Patnaik. However, on past occa- sions, he used to take his name repeatedly when addressing public meetings in Odisha. The Prime Minister did not give any credit to Biju Patnaik over the refinery project even as Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik in his speech highlighted the later leader’s contribution for the State’s industrialisation and his efforts to set up a port-based refinery. The BJD had been claiming since beginning that it was Biju Patnaik who in the early 1990s wrote several letters and contacted people for setting up the refinery at Paradip. Modi, on the contrary, laud- ed efforts of Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan for the project. Perhaps to divert atten- tion from Biju Patnaik, Modi took names of several eminent sons of the soil like Utkalmani Gapabandhu Das, Utkal Gaurab Madhusudan Das, Sarala Das and many others including lead- ers from Jagatsinghpur district. Modi, during his speech at Rourkela last year on April 1, had described Naveen Patnaik as his “Mitra” (friend). However, at the February 7 meetings in Bhubaneswar and Paradip, he preferred to call the CM as “Sriman Naveen Patnaikji.” At that time Modi’s “Mitra” remark had sparked a political row with opposition Congress alleging that both were hand in gloves. Though Modi was seated next to Naveen at the IOCL function, they’re not speaking to each other. Naveen, on his part, also sought to score over Modi and the BJP. He raised the issue of Special Category State status and sought Modi’s help. Naveen made the demand in the presence of over one lakh people so that he and his BJD can later blame the BJP for not taking care of Odisha. But Modi did not respond. A day after the successful visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and an impressive public gathering at the Paradip during IOCL refinery dedication ceremony, the BJP on Monday took a dig at the State’s ruling BJD alleg- ing that the latter had unsuc- cessfully tried to make the Paradip event a success. Party spokesperson Sajjan Sharma told reporters here that the BJD had engaged three MLAs and a Minister to disrupt the refinery ceremony. He said MLAs Debasish Samantray, Pravat Biswal and Pramod Mallick and Energy Minister Pranab Prakash Das had applied various tactics to obstruct movement of BJP workers to the venue in Paradip. “Late on Saturday night, roads were closed at different strategic locations leading to Paradip. The three MLAs were leading the blockades while Minister Pranab Prakash Das was tearing the IOCL invitation cards of the BJP workers near the barri- cades,” said Sharma. He further alleged that efforts had also been made to obstruct the entry of senior BJP leaders Rudranarayan Pani, Pratap Sarangi and Rama Chandra Panda. However, BJD spokesper- son Pratap Keshari Deb said the BJP’s allegations are base- less. BJP State president Basanta Panda expressed grat- itude to the people of the State and his party workers for the successful visit of the Modi. He said the party has already started preparations to make the February 21 visit of Modi to Bargarh a success. “The February 21 visit of the Prime Minister is a party programme. Modiji will address farmers there. We have started preparations to gather a huge crowd,” said Panda. I n a horrific incident, the Ganjam police on Monday retrieved four decomposed bodies, including a woman’s, dug into a nearby jungle close to Mankadchuan village under the Badagad police limits of the district. Suspecting that the four, who had gone missing from the village on Friday, were brutally murdered, police arrested three villagers in this connection. The gruesome murders were an outcome of an illicit relationship, said a release issued by the police headquarters here. Sources said the bodies were identified as that of one Bhima Gomango, his wife Jaina, Chandaru Raita and his nephew Anand, who are relatives. Registering a case, police arrested Basudev Gomango, believed to be the prime accused, and his associates Gouranga Mandal and Bipra Raita.

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Apart from linking the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI)

to the Lashkar-e-Tayyeba (LeT),terrorist-turned-approverDavid Coleman Headley onMonday made a sensationaldisclosure in his depositionbefore a special court in the26/11 attacks case that the ter-ror outfit had made two unsuc-cessful attempts to attackMumbai prior to the 2008 may-hem in which 166 people werekilled and 300 injured.

Deposing before a specialcourt here through a video-conference from an undis-closed location in the UnitedStates, incarcerated Headleyspoke at length about the train-ing he underwent under LeTfounder Hafiz Saeed and LeTchief-of-operations Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi; the manner inwhich he was dissuaded fromgoing to Kashmir to wage a waragainst Indian troops; about hisassociation with his handlerSajid Mir and how he got toknow three officers of the ISI.

Another major revelationon the first day of the deposi-tion was that Headley namedMajor (Retd) Abdur RehmanPasha, who once worked withKhyber Rifles RegimentalCentre, Major Iqbal of ISI,who was in touch with his han-dler Sajid Mir and Major Ali,who interrogated him in theLandi Kotal jail and laterensured his discharge from aPeshwar jail in 2002-03 in anarms smuggling case.

“Major Ali (who was work-ing for ISI at Landi Kotal)introduced me to Major Iqbalbecause Ali thought that Icould be of assistance inIntelligence work,” Headleysaid.

Testifying before the courtof Additional Sessions JudgeGA Sanap, Headley said hejoined LeT in 2002 andchanged his name fromDawood Gilani to DavidColeman Headley four yearslater, to hide his identity dur-ing visits to India for car-rying out reconnaissancefor the 26/11 attacks.

Responding to a ques-tion by Special PublicProsecutor (SPP) UjjwalNikam, Headley said thatSajid Mir and Major Iqbalwere happy when hesecured the Americanpassport in his new nameand the Indian visa.

Headley said thatTahawwur Hussain Rana,a former Pakistan militaryphysician convicted for pro-viding support to LeT for plot-ting an attack on a Danishnewspaper, had helped him geta five-year visa to India.

“Rana knew somethingabout the 26/11 attacks and thepurpose of my visit to India,”Headley told the court.

Describing himself as a“true follower of the Lashkar”who had been tasked withmaking a general video ofMumbai, Headley said he hadtravelled to India as many asseven times and passed on

information hecollected to the

LeT.Headley, currently serving

a 35-year sentence in a terrorcase in a US jail following a pleabargain that saved him from adeath sentence and extradition,was deposing in the trial of keyconspirator of 26/11 attacksZabiuddin Ansari alias AbuJundal, two months after hewas pardoned and made anapprover in the case.

During the five-and-a-half-hour-long deposition whichbegan at 7 am and ended for theday at 12.30 pm, SPP Nikamposed more than 150 ques-

tions to Headley. The depositionwill continue on Tuesday.

Headley was accompaniedby Sarah Stricker, a US attorney,John Theis, attorney forHeadley and his associate BobCeder. From the Indian side,Mumbai Crime Branch-CIDchief Atul Kulkarni and retiredpolice officer Ramesh Mahale,who headed the investigationsinto the 26/11 attacks, were pre-sent in the court.

Senior counsel MaheshJethmalani, who was present incourt, clarified that he was notrepresenting Headley, but wasthere at the request of Headley’sattorney, should they require

any help regarding laws inIndia.

Headley disclosed thatthe same ten terrorists, whocarried out the 26/11 attacks,had made two unsuccessfulattempts to attack Mumbai inSeptember and October 2008.

“Sajid Mir told me theplan failed twice. The firstattempt in September 2008failed when the boat hit a rockin the ocean. The people weresaved by the life jackets but theweapons and ammunition werelost and the boat disintegrated.However, the ten terroristsmade it to shore and returnedto Pakistan.”

"�#�� 1?@�(?:%�

Telecom regulator TRAI onMonday said no to

Facebook’s Free Basics, Airtel’sZero and others of their sort,and supported net neutrality.TRAI barred service providersfrom charging discriminatoryprices for web access and pro-vided for a penalty of Rs 50,000for each day on serviceproviders if they flout the order.This penalty would be subjectto a maximum of Rs 50 lakh.

The Trai order is seen as asetback to Facebook whichhad plans to roll out FreeBasics scheme, providing accessto a limited set of websites forfree. Supporters of net neu-trality opposed the schemeand argued that it underminedthe equal-access precepts of netneutrality and data providersshould not favour some onlineservices over others.

Meanwhile, Facebook onMonday expressed disappoint-ment over Trai’s decision, say-ing it adversely impacts its freeinternet platform Free Basics.“Our goal with Free Basics is tobring more people online withan open, non-exclusive and freeplatform. While disappointedwith the outcome, we will con-tinue our efforts to eliminate

barriers and give the uncon-nected an easier path to theInternet and the opportunitiesit brings,” Facebook spokesper-son said in a statement.

“No service provider shalloffer or charge discriminatorytariffs for data services on thebasis of content,” TelecomRegulatory Authority of India(Trai) Chairman RS Sharmasaid unveiling the details of theregulations, effective fromMonday, titled ‘Prohibition ofDiscriminatory Tariffs for DataServices Regulations, 2016’.

“Anything on Internet can-not be differently priced. Thisis the broad point that we havehighlighted in regulation,”Sharma said.

Plans which are active incontravention of the new reg-ulations should cease to exist insix months, he said, addingthat the new regulations havebeen notified in Gazette and

are effective from Monday.“No service provider shallenter into any arrangement,agreement or contract, bywhatever name called, with anyperson, natural or legal, thathas the effect of discriminato-ry tariffs for data servicesbeing offered or charged to theconsumer on the basis of con-tent,” Trai said.

However, service providershave been allowed to reducetariff for access in case of pro-viding emergency services.

“We have not definedemergency services. But incase of such services, operators have to inform Traiwithin seven working days,”Sharma said.

Trai has rejected outrightthe idea of case-by-caseapproval to plans that may bepriced differently as was sug-gested by a panel of officials atDepartment of Telecom.

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The Tirtol police inJagatsinghpur district on

Monday lodged an FIR againstNiali BJD MLA Dr PramodKumar Mallick and forwardedseven of his supports, whowere arrested for vandalisingthe Tirtol police station, tocourt on Monday.

The arrests were madeafter examination of CCTVfootages, police said. The policeseized the vehicle of the MLA.However, no FIR was lodgedeither by the BJD or the BJP.

On Sunday, tension pre-vailed between BJP and BJDworkers at Jeypore along theCuttack-Paradip Road underthe Tirtol police limits aheadof Prime Minister NarendraModi reaching Paradip toinaugurate the IOCL refinery.

Accusing the BJD of usingadministrative machinery tostop them from attending the

PM’s programme, BJP work-ers thrashed the Niali MLAand damaged his vehicle. TheMLA was on his way toParadip to attend the functionwith his supporters.

Alleging inaction of thepolice, BJD workers allegedlybarged into the police stationand ransacked furniture and

files. The incident led to ahuge traffic jam with allstranded on the road for aboutthree hours. The agitators toodamaged a bus and fourmotorcycles in the clash.

Meanwhile, MLA Mallickalleged that the inaction of thepolice led to the ugly situation.“The footage of the CCTV

installed at the police sta-tions should be examined. Ididn’t touch a single item. Iurged the IIC to take actionagainst the attackers. Even, Iidentified two attackers andinformed the IIC. But insteadof taking action, the IIC toldme to remain silent,” saidMallick.

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BJD blabbermouth ExciseMinister Damodar Rout

had once recently publiclypraised BJP leader and UnionPetroleum MinisterDharmendra Pradhan as anOdia leader doing creditablywell at the Centre.

Rout’s statement sparkedoff controversy in the BJD quar-ters as well as in political circlesin general. The politics-riddenParadip Refinery inauguralmeeting on Sunday has, how-ever, now prompted Rout to gofull throat against Pradhan,obviously because the grandceremony starring PrimeMinister Modi was held in noother area than Rout’s ownAssembly constituency.

This is despite Pradhan inhis welcome speech at the cer-emony addressed Rout as his“Pitrutulya” (like father orfatherly). Pradhan’s indulgencetowards Rout, as had also beenevident on some other earlieroccasions, was understandablesince Rout, as the local MLA,was not happy over not being

given a chance to speak eventhough offered a seat on thesame dais shared by Modi andother leaders.

On Monday, a day after theParadip show, Rout blurted outat Pradhan, stating before themedia that the Indian OilCorporation Limited’s (IOCL)lavish days-on advertisementsfor the refinery inaugurationwas meant for individual pub-licity for the departmentalMinister Pradhan. And Routdemanded that an inquiry by aCentral agency be ordered intothe fabulous amount of fundsspent by the IOCL for the refin-ery inauguration.

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The IOCL refinery fest hereon Sunday smacked of pol-

itics from the beginning to theend. This was evident fromPrime Minister Narendra Modi’ssilence over certain issues.

Modi, who came here in thebackdrop of a show of strengthbetween his party and the rul-ing BJD, preferred to avoid BijuPatnaik. However, on past occa-sions, he used to take his namerepeatedly when addressingpublic meetings in Odisha.

The Prime Minister did notgive any credit to Biju Patnaikover the refinery project even as

Chief Minister Naveen Patnaikin his speech highlighted thelater leader’s contribution for theState’s industrialisation and hisefforts to set up a port-basedrefinery. The BJD had beenclaiming since beginning that itwas Biju Patnaik who in the early1990s wrote several letters andcontacted people for setting upthe refinery at Paradip.

Modi, on the contrary, laud-ed efforts of Petroleum MinisterDharmendra Pradhan for theproject. Perhaps to divert atten-tion from Biju Patnaik, Moditook names of several eminentsons of the soil like UtkalmaniGapabandhu Das, Utkal GaurabMadhusudan Das, Sarala Dasand many others including lead-ers from Jagatsinghpur district.Modi, during his speech atRourkela last year on April 1,

had described Naveen Patnaik ashis “Mitra” (friend). However, atthe February 7 meetings inBhubaneswar and Paradip, hepreferred to call the CM as“Sriman Naveen Patnaikji.” At thattime Modi’s “Mitra” remark hadsparked a political row withopposition Congress alleging thatboth were hand in gloves. ThoughModi was seated next to Naveenat the IOCL function, they’re notspeaking to each other.

Naveen, on his part, alsosought to score over Modi andthe BJP. He raised the issue ofSpecial Category State statusand sought Modi’s help.

Naveen made the demandin the presence of over one lakhpeople so that he and his BJDcan later blame the BJP for nottaking care of Odisha.

But Modi did not respond.

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Aday after the successfulvisit of Prime Minister

Narendra Modi and animpressive public gatheringat the Paradip during IOCLrefinery dedication ceremony,the BJP on Monday took a digat the State’s ruling BJD alleg-ing that the latter had unsuc-cessfully tried to make theParadip event a success.

Party spokesperson SajjanSharma told reporters herethat the BJD had engagedthree MLAs and a Minister todisrupt the refinery ceremony.

He said MLAs DebasishSamantray, Pravat Biswal andPramod Mallick and EnergyMinister Pranab Prakash Dashad applied various tactics toobstruct movement of BJPworkers to the venue inParadip.

“Late on Saturday night,

roads were closed at differentstrategic locations leading toParadip. The three MLAswere leading the blockadeswhi le Minister PranabPrakash Das was tearing theIOCL invitation cards of theBJP workers near the barri-cades,” said Sharma.

He further alleged thatefforts had also been made toobstruct the entry of seniorBJP leaders RudranarayanPani, Pratap Sarangi and RamaChandra Panda.

However, BJD spokesper-son Pratap Keshari Deb saidthe BJP’s allegations are base-less.

BJP State presidentBasanta Panda expressed grat-itude to the people of theState and his party workers forthe successful visit of theModi.

He said the party hasalready started preparations tomake the February 21 visit ofModi to Bargarh a success.

“The February 21 visit ofthe Prime Minister is a partyprogramme. Modiji willaddress farmers there. We havestarted preparations to gathera huge crowd,” said Panda.

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In a horrific incident, theGanjam police on Monday

retrieved four decomposedbodies, including a woman’s,dug into a nearby jungle closeto Mankadchuan village underthe Badagad police limits ofthe district.

Suspecting that the four,who had gone missing fromthe village on Friday, werebrutally murdered, policearrested three villagers in thisconnection. The gruesome

murders were an outcome ofan illicit relationship, said arelease issued by the policeheadquarters here.

Sources said the bodieswere identified as that of oneBhima Gomango, his wifeJaina, Chandaru Raita andhis nephew Anand, who arerelatives.

Registering a case, policearrested Basudev Gomango,believed to be the primeaccused, and his associatesGouranga Mandal and BipraRaita.

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Although every possible care and caution has been taken to avoid errors or omissions, this publication is being sold on the condition and understanding that information given in this publication is merely for reference and must not be taken as having authority of or binding in any way on the writers, editors, publishers, andprinters and sellers who do not owe any responsibility for any damage or loss to any person, a purchaser of this publication or not for the result of any action taken on the basis of this work. All disputes are subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of competent court and forums in Delhi/New Delhi only.

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Petroleum MinisterDharmendra Pradhan’s

stature has grown exponen-tially. He is the prospectiveChief Ministerial candidate ofthe BJP in Odisha, a Statewhere opposition Congressand BJP have for the last 15years failed to present a leaderequalling the popularity andimage of BJD’s Naveen Patnaik.

This is also said to be oneof the prime reasons of Patnaikbecoming the Chief Ministerfor the fourth consecutive timenow.

The question is: Is BJD rat-tled by the rise of Pradhan asan alternative?

The poster war betweenthe BJP and the BJD and sim-ilar related incidents thatbrought the two parties to thepoint of confrontation in thewake of the IOCL refineryinauguration in Paradip give abenefit of doubt that the BJDhas been overtaken by somesort of a fear psychosis. PrimeMinister Narendra Modi laud-ed Pradhan and his Ministry atthe Paradip function for work-ing with dedication which ledthe project commissioningwithin a short period of time.

The �35,000-crore refineryunit has had a rollercoaster rideall through the last 25 years.Even during the stint of RamNaik as Oil Minister, the pro-ject was to be shelved for var-ious hiccups. However, it is agood thing that the project forwhich initiative was taken bylate Chief Minister Biju Patnaikwas finally commissioned onFebruary 7.

Pradhan, therefore,deserves a pat on the back notjust for his dynamism but forhis love for Odisha as an OdiaMinister.

And, here probably liesthe discomfort of the BJDwhich as a regional party hasbeen harping on being theonly party to be doing devel-opment of Odisha in strictadherence to the Biju legacy.Pradhan was targeted by theparty since he started thepreparations for the JanAmantran Yatra to welcomeModi.

Paradip MLA and ExciseMinister Damodar Routdemanded a CBI probe into thefunding of the preparation toorganize the refinery commis-sioning function. Even after thefunction was over, Rout grum-bled for not being given achance to address the public.

The BJD questioned the

propaganda vans of the IOCLas well as the big hoardings andposters of Modi and Pradhan,though it left no stoneunturned to fix Patnak’s pho-tos and hoardings unleashinga poster war. The streets andsquares from Bhubaneswar toParadip were flooded withModi, Pradhan and Patnaikphotos and hoardings claimingcredit for the project.

The two parties facedmuch criticism for such a ratrace for publicity. Thoughmany opine that such a highdegree of publicity was notrequired at all, it is doubtlessthat the trigger was pulled bynone other than Pradhan. TheOil Minister seemed to haveplanned to take 100 per cent

credit for the refinery projectfor his party. When industrial-ization has failed to take off inOdisha with many big ticketprojects like Mittal and Poscohaving pulled out and State’sFDI share slashing over theyears, why the Oil Ministerchose for such as big hype ofthe refinery project is onlyknown to him. The people ofthe State are not gettingenough employments despitehaving given away land. EvenIOCL project oustees havenot got full and satisfactoryrehabilitation in Jagatsinghpur.So distress and agony is con-spicuous. When such is thecase why the inauguration ofthe refinery should be thoughtworthy of such a huge spend-

ing is a moot question.Ever since Pradhan has

been in the PetroleumMinistry, fossil fuel like petroland diesel has gone cheaper.This has given some credenceto the ‘Acche Din’ claim ofPrime Minister Modi what herepeatedly made all too loud-ly while addressing the pollrallies across the country.Pradhan has basked in thewin-win situation even thoughthe price slash is attributed pri-marily to fall in crude oilprice in the international mar-ket.

However, people of thecountry, who had been toomuch fed up with ever soaringprices of oil and gas during theUPA regime, have lauded theModi Government and moreparticularly, Pradhan for tak-ing right policies. Odisha peo-ple are no exception.

But Pradhan’s obsessionfor publicity has always caughthim on the wrong foot. Leavealone refinery blitz, the giantposters of Modi and Pradhanin each filling station acrossthe State speak volume aboutmisuse of public fund. Thedealers have fixed huge postersof Modi and Pradhan andstandalones of each, as thoughgiving an aura that the oil sta-tions spread in the length and

breadth of the country areincreasing turning out propa-ganda platforms.

The IOCL is a PSU andhas to abide by the guidelines.It can’t and should not bemade to work under influence.The expensive publicity cam-paign which the Oil Ministerthought it fit to dole out a red-carpet reception to Modi wasmade at the cost of the PSU.Public fund cannot be spent toenhance the image of a leader,no matter what his/her statusis.

When criticised for run-ning propaganda vehicles atthe cost of IOCL, Pradhan’sargument was bizarre. He saidthe PSU is of India and not ofPakistan or any foreign nation.So if it is spending for theIndian PM, there is nothingwrong in it. Besides, he coun-tered the BJD by asking therationale for running theAahar scheme at the expens-es of OMC, a State run PSU.

From argument point ofview, Pradhan is justified, butif seen from the perspective ofa welfare State, Odisha’s step isin the right direction. If thePSUs are asked to spend forwelfare programmes, it is salu-tary, but if they are forced tofund for a party’s propaganda,it is certainly uncalled-for.

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The Commissionerate Policetook the two arrested crim-

inal Dhalsamant brothers onremand for the second time onMonday. A court here allowedthe police to take them on afive-day remand against a pleafor 10 days.

Appearing for the brothersin the court, their lawyer SouraChandra Mohapatra objectedto the fresh remand plea of thepolice alleging that the accusedbrothers are being treated asconvicts. “We objected to theremand plea as the police havekept everybody in dark, includ-ing the court, about theprogress they have made so farin the investigation,” he said.

A senior police officer,however, indicated that theinvestigating officers have cov-ered large grounds during thefirst phase seven-day remandin detecting a two-year old caseof kidnap and murder for

whish the brothers are arrest-ed. Police officers further indi-cated that if need arises, theDhalsamant brothers wouldbe subjected to polygraph test.

Entangled in about twodozen criminal cases, the twobrothers Sushil and Sushantwere arrested on January 29 inconnection with the kidnapand murder case of one DipuMallick of Cuttack, who wasthe prime accused of a doublemurder case under theChauliaganj police station.

Claiming to have seizedhuge currency notes and acache of arms and ammuni-tions from the houses andoffices of the Dhalsamants inthe twin cities of Bhubaneswarand Cuttack, the police in themeantime have also claimed tohave seized some more armsand ammunitions from theirrented house inVishakhapatnam.

The police have apparent-ly retrieved the driving licenceand a photograph of DipuMallick from the Dhalsamantbrothers’ Vishakhapatnamhouse although the police herehave neither denied or con-firmed it.

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The Commissionerate Policeon Monday arrested five

Block Grant (BG) teacherswho along with their colleagueswere staging a protest in frontof School and Mass EducationMinister Debi Prasad Mishra’sresidence here.

Shouting slogans, a largenumber of Block Grant teach-ers gheraoed the Minister’sresidence reiterating theirdemand for abolition of theBlock Brant system and regu-larisation of their jobs. Besides,they demanded release of 38 oftheir colleagues arrested recent-ly.

Over 25,000 BG teachers inas many as 2,608 schools areworking at a very low remu-neration, for which they aredemanding implementation ofthe grant-in-aid policy.

“The concerned Ministershad assured us to fulfil ourdemands but failed to do so.We have elected them as our

representatives to address ourconcerns. We want grant-in-aidto be implemented,” a protest-ing teacher said.

Notably, the agitatingteachers had been lathichargedin the capital city when theywere on their way to gheraothe Naveen Niwas onFridaylast. As many as 38teachers were arrested andforwarded to court.

Protesting against the

attack and subsequent arrests,the teachers on Saturday hadalso gheraoed the residencesof seven Ministers PradeepAmat, Sanjay Dasburma, DebiPrasad Mishra, PranabPrakash Das, Arun Sahoo,Bikram Keshari Arukh andAtanu Sabyasachi Nayak, whoare members of the Inter-Ministerial Committee look-ing into the demands of theteachers.

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Even though people of theState are happy over the

inauguration of the ParadipIOCL Refinery Project yetenvironmentalists and farmerbodies have been apprehensiveof more depletion of theecosystem around the porttown.

According to the CentralPollution Control Board’sC o m p r e h e n s h i v eEnvironmental Pollution Index(CEPI), Paradip has now beenidentified as a severely pollut-ed zone. Experts now appre-hend that the pollution level inaround Paradip will increasefurther with the operation ofthe IOCL Refinery.

The two major industries,

the Paradeep Phosphates Ltdand the Essar Steel Ltd, and theParadip Port, were enlisted inthe State Pollution ControlBoard’s list of major industriescreating severe pollutions in2014-15 and 2015-16, accord-ing to information furnished bythe State Government.

“Temperature is alreadyon the rise due to severe pol-lution created by industriesand the Port. When the IOCLRefiner will start operationfull-fledged, Paradip will turn

to be the hottest place of Asiaand agriculture sector inJagatsinghpur district will beseverely affected,” said OdishaKrushak Sangha presidentBibhudhendra Pratap Das.

He lamented that whenscientist have already warnedthat agriculture crops get affect-ed in 42 degree Celsius, neitherthe Centre nor the StateGovernment have taken anyremedies to resolve the prob-lem.

“Krushak Sangha doesn’toppose industrialisation but itshould not come up at the costof agriculture on which morethan two-third people dependon for living. The Governmentand the concerned industriesshould take adequate remedi-al measures to keep the envi-ronment intact,” he demanded.

Das suggested that steps betaken for creation of massiveforestation and solid wastemanagement with use of mod-ern technology in order toresolve the problem.

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Protesting against the Stateand Central Governments’

“anti-people” activities, fiveLeft parties would organise aState-level convention onFebruary 21 and a Samavesh onMarch 19 in the State.

The CPI, the CPI(M), theCPI(ML)-Liberation, theSUCI(C) and the Forward Blocwould hold the convention atthe Nagabhusan Bhawan hereto highlight the issues ofdrought, farmers’ suicide,poverty, unemployment andcorruption, said CPI State sec-retary Dibakar Nayak at a jointPress conference here onMonday.

The present BJDGovernment along with thepast Governments are respon-

sible for the condition of pover-ty in the State, rued leaders ofthe Left parties.

“The BJD has been rulingthe State for the last 16 years.But the party has not taken anysteps to solve the basic prob-lems of the people of our State,”said CPI(M) State secretary AliKishore Patnaik. As a result, theagriculture, irrigation, industry,education, health, andemployment sectors have been

hit hard, he said.He also said that more

than 200 farmers have com-mitted suicide in the State inlast four months; lakhs of peo-ple are migrating outside insearch of work; and the num-ber of land mafias is increasingday by day.

Judhisthir Mohapatra,Udhhab Jena and Jyoti RanjanJena were present, among oth-ers, at the Press meet.

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Strongly condemning thepolice excesses on hundreds

of Block Grant teachers whilethey were staging a peacefuldharna to press for their nine-point charter of demands,including full grant-in-aid andjob regularisation, theDemocratic Teachers’Organisation (DTO), Odishahas demanded strong action tobe taken against the unrulypolice officers. DTO presidentBibhuti Bhusan Nayak saidwhen several discussions andGovernment’s assurance since2004 failed to get our long-standing demands fulfilled, we

had decided to directly discusswith the Chief Minster. Butpolice resorted to lathicharge,resulting which over a hundredof teachers sustained injuries. Heclaimed that around 50 teachershave been arrested in false casesby police. Nayak demandedadequate compensation to theinjured teachers, free treatmentto them and withdrawal of thefalse cases charged against someteachers during the clash.

Besides, the DTO presi-dent, secretary Nrusinga Panda,block grant leader Keshab Biswaland lecturer Laxmidhar Samalcalled upon all teachers outfitsto initiate a joint movementagainst the block grant system.

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British scientist John Daltonproved the existence of

atom in laboratory in 1803. Butnearly 2,500 years before it,Indian philosopher MaharsiKanada had propounded theatomic theory.

Therefore, Maharsi Kanadais, in fact, the father of atomism,said philosophy scholar DrNarayan Mohanty in a paperentitled ‘Atomism of MaharsiKanada’ presented at the 90th ses-sion of the Indian PhilosophicalCongress recently.

Dr Mohanty refuted theopinion of Leftist thinker RahulSaafcrityayan that the atomictheory of Maharsi Kanada wasinfluenced by Greek philoso-pher Democritus Showing asmany as five differencesbetween the atomism ofDemocritus and Kanada, hesaid Kanada was an originalthinker.

The four-day session ofthe Indian PhilosophicalCongress was held at theMagadh University, Bihar. DrMohanty presided over its‘History of Philosophy’ sectionand presented his paper. Manyeminent philosophers fromIndia and abroad includingProf Ganesh Prasad Das fromOdisha attended it.

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Bhubaneswar: The Gop tehsilauthorities on Monday freedand took into possession 42acres of Government landencroached by suspended IPSofficer Satish Gajbhiye’s wifeRanjana Gajbhiye.

The district administra-tion had earlier served noticesto Ranjana and two of her asso-ciates to vacate 42 acres ofGovernment land encroachedby them in the Gop area in Puridistrict. The Government hadallowed them one month’s timeto vacate the encroachment.

Since the encroachers did notvacate the land within the dead-line, the Puri district adminis-tration got into action and freedthe land. The land had beenmeasured on January 30.

Gajbhiye’s wife has 80-90acres of land at Badakiapalaand Sanakiapala mouzas ofGop tehsil which includesencroached Governmentponds, grazing ground andAnabadi land. Ranjana andher associates had allegedlyundertaken fish farming onthe land. PNS

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During Prime MinisterModi’s visit here, Nalco

CMD Tapan Kumar Chandextended him warm welcomeon behalf of all industries inBhubaneswar at the RajBhavan. He also presented abook Aluminium: The StrategicMetal authored by him to thePM.

The book had earlier beenreleased by the CentralVigilance Commissioner onJanuary 6. The book has beenreviewed by (IIM) AhmadabadProfessor Dr Abraham Koshy,who described it as a “One StopShop” for key information per-taining to the entire valuechain of aluminium makingfrom bauxite mining to rolling,casting and high end productmaking.

In the wake of smart citiescoming up, the author pleadsfor extensive use of aluminiumto make these cities greencities, use of aluminium inmaking wagons to increase

haulage capacity by three times,extensive use of aluminium in

the food, beverage and pack-aging and electrical and elec-tronic sectors, transport, etc, togive a decisive push to the percapita consumption of alu-minium which is only two kgper head in India against eightkg globally.

The PM was quite appre-ciative of the efforts despitetime constraints put in by theauthor to bring out the book.

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Colleges under the 662-category here will remain

closed from Tuesday as therespective college presidentswill join a rally and stage anagitation in Bhubaneswar topress for their demand of fullgrant-in-aid.

Al l Odisha Non-Government Lecturers andEmployees Associat ion(AONGLEA) Cuttack dis-trict President Ashok Parijasaid as per the call of theassociation, all the 44 col-

leges will join the State-levelstir at the lower PMG fromTuesday. They respectivepresidents have submittedtheir mass casual leave appli-cations for this.

“The State Governmenthas given several written andoral assurance to mitigatetheir demand but in vain.They will not postpone theirstir unless and until the noti-f ication for ful l GIA isreleased by the Governmentthis time,” warned a memberof the association.

The body also warned toboycott the comingUnivers it ies and CHSEexaminat ions i f theGovernment poses any dilly-dallying attitude. Studentsand parents of the collegeshave extended their supportfor the employees.

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Atwo-day international sem-inar on yoga and lifestyle

management organised by PGDepartment of Sanskrit, UtkalUniversity in the universitypremises concluded on Sunday.

Inaugurating the seminar,Utkal University Vice-Chancellor Prof Ashok KumarDas highlighted the impor-tance of Yoga to get rid of stressin life.

Rashtriya SanskritVidyapeeth, Tirupati VC ProfHarekrushna Satapathy gracingthe occasion as chief speaker

elucidated how yoga negotiatesbetween the finite and the infi-nite.

All India Yoga Sadhana,New Delhi president Swami

Chidanandaji Maharaj, Sri SriUniversity, Cuttack VC ProfNanda Lal and Prof HuguetteLambert addressed the schol-ars at the outset. PG

Department HOD and YogicScience course coordinator DrSubash Chandra Dash deliv-ered the welcome address. ProfRadhamadhab Dash offeredvote of thanks.

The occasion also markedrelease of a book titled‘Yogajyoti’. Among others, ProfPrativa Manjari Rath, DrIndulata Das, Prof GopalKrushna Dash were present.

The session was follow bythree technical sessions where-in scholars from the USA,Canada, Sri Lanka, Mongolia,Bali, South Korea and differentparts of India presented papers.

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The National Human RightsCommission has issued a

show-cause notice to the ChiefSecretary of Odisha seeking areply within six weeks as to whyit shouldn’t recommend pay-ment of �3 lakh as monetaryrelief to the next of kin of aClass-X student, who com-mitted suicide when she waserroneously shown failed in theBSE results, which she hadcleared.

NHRC Member Justice D

Murugesan has set aside thecontention of the StateGovernment that the studentcommitted suicide as sheapprehended her poor perfor-mance. He observed that thevictim committed suicide onaccount of negligence of theofficials of the Board ofSecondary Education, Odisha,which had issued a wrongresult only to be correctedsubsequently and said the Stateis vicariously liable.

The Commission took cog-nisance of the matter on thebasis of a complaint thatRasmita Sahu, daughter ofBimsen Sahu of Bhaliabadi vil-lage under the Khordha Townpolice station could not toler-ate the trauma of failing herClass-X exam and committedsuicide on May 1, 2014.

However, in the revised result,released the next day, she wasshown as passed.

Pursuant to the directionsof the commission, theGovernment admitted that theresult, published on April 30,2014, was corrected on May 2,2014, as there was certainanomaly in the result of ThirdLanguage (Sanskrit/Hindi) forsome students.

It also said that publicationof result by Board is a provi-sional one, subject to modifi-cation and revision.

The report further saidthat the first result published bythe Board cannot be linked tothe death of the student as shescored below average marks inher school examinations andmight have been apprehensiveof her educational standard.

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In continuation of effort ofBaleswar MP RK Jena to

enhance production in agriculture and its allied sec-tors, a meeting was held onSaturday here.

Deputy DirectorAgriculture (DDA) GangadharPal, Deputy DirectorHorticulture Om Prakash Rath,Chief District VeterinaryOfficer Nityananda Das,Director Krishi Vigyan KendraBaliapal Dr Sanjay Mohantyand the representative of dis-trict fishery officer were presentin the meeting.

It may be recalled this wasthe third meeting held underinitiative of Jena, after initialmeetings in December, wherethe objective is to prepare aroadmap of the district fornext three years and double theproductivity of the district infive years.

“Following the meeting,certain decisions have beentaken to enhance per capitaincome of the district through

agriculture and its allied sec-tors,” said the MP.

The decisions were togroom four panchayats asmodel one. In two panchayatsintegrated farming would beundertaken, while in the othertwo, high remunerative veg-etables would be grown. Theagriculture would be under-taken after proper soil testing.The farmers would be issuedwith soil health card.

With the soil testing andsoftware technological assis-

tance, the farmers would beable know the position of soiland content of its basic ingre-dients such as phosphorous,nitrogen etc and its remedialmeasure. KBK Director SanjayMohanty would head the pro-jects in these model panchay-ats, said Jena.

Under the integrated farm-ing scheme, besides growingturnip and arum, fish farmingand poultry would be done.The emphasis would be givenon the organic farming without

use of chemical and fertilizers,he informed.

Further in two panchayatsbanana and papaya, consideredas high remunerative crops,would be extensively grown.One can get �80,000 to �90,000per acre in a year from an acre.About 100 farmers would beselected from these two pan-chayats. Further there is a planto bring value addition to theproduce of the local farmers,”said Jena.

He added, “We have a planto produce quality fish spawns.An expert team fromMaharashtra would be arrivingthis week for a ground study.” Themeeting was attended about 15prospective farmers of the district.

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The Akhil BharatiyaVidyarthi Parishad (ABVP)

has strongly condemned theState Government’s slipshodattitude towards the ongoingturmoil at the MKCG MedicalCollege at Brahmapur.

ABVP activists havealleged that due to inadequatenumber of doctors, the existingdoctors are working undermuch pressure. “We have beendemanding opening of newmedical colleges and increase

in seat numbers. But theGovernment’s lackadaisicalapproach is responsible for notmeeting the healthcare needs.This is also a reason behind therecent disorder at the MKCGCollege, where nine studentshave been arrested in an assaultcase,” the ABVP said.

Alleging that the medicalstudents are deprived of theirfundamental rights, the ABVPdemanded an impartial probeinto the MKCG incident.

The ABVP also threatenedto launch a State-wide agitationif the students would not begiven their fundamental rights,said ABVP State vice-presidentDr Jyotirmay Nayak and sec-retary Abhilas Panda.

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Vigilance officials on Sundayarrested a Village Level

Worker (VLW), NarayanChandra B ehera ofSwainkhanda gram pan-chayat under Bari block inJajpur district, for demandingand accept ing br ibe of�4,000.

The VLW had demandedthe bribe from Satya PrakashDas of Kusabata village in thedistrict to prepare a run-ning bill in favour of thecomplainant’s mother underthe Biju Pucca Ghar Yojana.

The complainant allegedthat when he requested theVLW to prepare the runningbill for construction of houseunder the scheme, theaccused demanded �4,000bribe. Finding no alternative,Das reported the matter toVigilance.

Later, a trap was laid andBehera was caught red-hand-ed by the Vigilance officers.

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Not only is she on a missionto check the environmen-

tal and soil pollution fromplastic and household wastes inher area, but she has beeneking out her livelihood bymaking and selling items madeby her up of the plastic wastes.

Meet septuagenarianBilashi Nath, a resident ofDasipur. Though, she is at thetwilight of her life, but her dex-terous fingers manage to bind

and give shapes to severalhousehold items from the plas-tic items, wrappers and wastematerials.

Every day she collects thewaste materials from the nearbygarbage areas and preparescolourful household items like

mat, tether, pot, basket, padlock,saucer, hand fan, tablemat,mobile stand, flower pot and sev-eral decorative house hold items.There is a look of satisfaction onher face as she manages to earna good amount by selling herhandmade items which are

appreciated by the people.Nath has not taken any skill

training for manufacturing thehousehold items from wastematerials. The zeal to make herdifferent from others and to seethe area pollution free from thehazardous materials rathermade her a skilled craftsperson.

Nearby villagers come toher house to purchase thecolourful household itemsmade up of waste materials andgolden grass. “I generally sellhousehold items ranging from�40 to �200. I manage to earn�5,000 per month,” stated Nath.

“After completing thehousehold works, I generally goto collect waste materials. Iclean them and cut them tosizes for making eye -catchyhousehold items,” added Nath.

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Members of civil societies,socio-cultural organisa-

tions, lawyers, and denizenshere have condemned therecent incident of unruly actionand hooliganism by medicoson Saturday last.

The growing discontentamong the denizens seemsgrowing and became more vis-ible when scores of prominentsocio-cultural organizations,namely, Mahan Sangha,Antarjateeya OdiaSawabhiman Pratisthan,Ganjam Zilla Vikas Manch,Ganjam Zilla Pitchadabarg

Manch, Friends Helping Club,Soundhik Samaj, and Forumfor Ganjam, jointly held apeaceful candle march fromGandhi Statue, GandhinagarSquare here on Sunday eveningprotesting the unfortunateincident. The march was led byMahan Sangha presidentSushant Sabat.

The MKCG MedicalCollege and Hospital of southOdisha which was establishedby spending crores of rupees toprovide free and qualityhealthcare service to the peo-ple of south Odisha in generaland Ganjam district in partic-ular. But the MCH has beendeliberately neglected by thehospital administration andthe Government in spite ofrepeated demands made by

the public and members of civilsocieties in different forums.

There have been demandsfor improvement of health-care service, better infrastruc-ture and patient-friendlyhealthcare which is quite unfor-tunate. The reported incidents

of unruly behavior and patient-hostile attitude of some stu-dents, house surgeons, anddoctors towards patients andtheir kin has rendered thehealthcare system miserable,said Sabat.

This premier hospital cam-

pus has become a shelter ofhooligans, anti socials, touts,and middlemen to exploit thepatients to satisfy their vestedinterests, Sabat alleged. Hedemanded exemplary actionagainst the erring and unrulymedicos, so that similar inci-dents do not occur in future.

In the past, there were alsocomplaints that some medicosattending night duty werereportedly found intoxicated.Police, therefore, should makea thorough and impartial probeinto the incident to punish theculprit, he added.

He demanded for intro-duction of biometric systemand installation of CCTV in allimportant departments of thecollege and in strategic servicedesks.

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With the arrival of thePrime Minister to dedi-

cate the state of the art oil refin-ery, expectations were high onhim that he would announceschemes to solve some of theproblems of Odisha, but afterhis address, the people havebeen left disappointed.

The PM was expected todeclaring a result- orientedroadmap along with a specialpackage for linking develop-ment initiatives in the State. Hewas also expected to expressconcern for the growing farmersuicides in the State, which stillremains unabated in the Stateand growing marginalisation oftribal in accessing develop-ment benefits. But thereremains only a recipe of mis-placed agenda.

The Prime Minister dealtupon issues like developmentworks and initiatives for 2022when India will celebrate 75years of independence andturning Paradip into ‘VikashDeep’ towards unleashing pros-perity in the State. The PrimeMinster as usual in his speechfloated a new concept ‘person-al sector’ in addition to theexisting ‘private’ and ‘public‘sector’, which would play a verycrucial role in bringing inemployment opportunities.But the Prime Minister’s newconcept seems to reflect thegalvanisation of Odisha on‘personal’, completive and pop-ulist politics in taking credit,instead of stressing the need ofindividuals in terms of employ-ment

opportunities. The recent data provided

by the Odisha Government

claims that nearly 1, 35,713workers migrated from differ-ent districts due to lack of ade-quate employment opportu-nities. In addition to this, whatis more distressing is that onlyon an average 34 of days ofemployment were created inthe State. This context itselfwarrants the immediate atten-tion of the CentralGovernment towards mak-ing the Prime Minister’s ideaof ‘Vikash Deep.’

The other crucial aspectof the Prime Minister was onthe energy security and eventhe entire function wasnamed as ‘Urja Utsav’.Looking at the grassrootsreality, the Prime Minstercould have addressed theperennial problem of lack ofadequate electricity facilitiesin Odisha. Nearly 18 lakhpoor households (41 per cent

of total BPL households in theState) and a whopping figureof 35.35 lakh are still in gripof darkness due to lack ofelectricity connection.

The Prime Minister inhis speech claimed credit forhis Government in providing11 lakh LPG connections inlast one year in contrast to 26lakh in last six decades. As perthe latest data, there arearound one crore householdsin Odisha, and the number ofgas connections is only 25lakh. Only 27 per cent popu-lation in the State has accessto LPG connection against thenational average of 60 percent. This policy agendatowards energy security mustbe sensitive towards the starkreality in days to come.

The Prime Minister mustensure a concrete policyroadmap in bringing nearly

87 per cent of population inthe State from using wood asfuel towards alternativesource of energy through solarand LPG. This would be thebest form of inclusiveness inthe much talked about ‘VikashDeep’. The other point whichrequires immediate attentionis above 85 per cent of peopleare in dire need of food secu-rity through PDS. They needto be include in the NFSA.

Hopefully, the upcomingvisit of Prime Minister toOdisha for farmer’s rally andnational budget will addressexisting serious ‘developmentdeficits’ and provide a sus-tained policy solution to trans-late the Prime Minister’s vision.

(The authors work extensively on

development issues. Views expressed are personal)

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A55- year-old woman wastrampled to death by a

tusker at a forest in Sundargarhdistrict on Monday. Thedeceased was identified asSabitri Sa of Amasdighi villageunder the Dharuadih PoliceSation.

When Sabitri along withtwo women and a male personwas returning from theAmasdighi forest after collectingSal leaves, a tusker came in frontof them and crushed Sabitri todeath. The three others managedto flee from the spot.

“Her family members willget � 3 lakh compensation. Wehave given �5,000 for her finalrites and rest �2.95 lakh will begiven after necessary formalities,”said Range Officer DK Digal.

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BJP leader Rama ChandraPanda met Prime Minister

Narendra Modi and submitteda comprehensive memorandumto him on January 31last urginghim to develop Rangailunda-Gopalpur airstrip and executeseveral developmental projectslike, Gopalpur-Rayagada railline via Thiruvalli andGopalpur-Redhakhole rail linkvia Phulbani for economicupliftment of south Odisha.

Panda apprised the PrimeMinister that Brahmapurremained neglected by which

lakhs of workers have migratedto other States in search ofemployment so as to maintaintheir livelihood. He told that theGopalpur air strip built atRangailunda during British ruleneeds upgradation as a full-fledged and regular airstrip tomeet the emerging needs of thecrucial military establishmentslike Gopalpur Cantonment andChilka Naval center includingpromotion of Gopalpur as animportant tourist destination.

Panda further apprised thePrime Minister that the pro-posed railway division atBrahmapur should consists ofRayagada and Palasa sectionsand should be entrusted to exe-cute Gopalpur-Redhakhol andGopalpur-Rayagada rail exten-sion projects. He also urged

upon the Central Governmentfor speedy implementation ofSithalapalli Rail Wagon factoryand development of the Rail-Washing facility here.

He apprised the PM furtherthat once the rail wagon facto-ry becomes functional at pro-posed site Sithalapalli, it wouldbe convenient to introduce newtrains between Bubaneswar andMumbai. Among other things,Panda also requested the PrimeMinister to declare Brahmapur-Amritsar-Nizammudin Expressas a regular train; extend Delhi-Samparkkranti Express up toBrahmapur; run Puri-Okkhapilgrim train three days in aweek; introduce a new trainbetween Gunupur and Howarahand extend Tapaswini Expressup to Brahmapur.

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Prime Minister NarendraModi felicitated Lalita

Prasida Sripada Srisai, winnerof the prestigious CommunityImpact Award in 2015 for herproject at the Google ScienceFair held in California, USA, atthe NISER on Sunday.

Lalita, a student of DelhiPublic School, Damanjodievolved a low-cost and eco-friendly method to purify

water using corn cobs.Lalita’s project, a simple

and cost-effective technique,cleans waste water by flowingthrough different layers ofcorn cobs such as long piecesof corn cobs, small pieces ofcorn cobs, powdered corncobs, activated charcoal madefrom corn cobs and fine sand.

Modi also felicitatedASHA Worker Jamuna ManiSingh, a native of Tenda villagein Balasore district, who

besides creating awarenessagainst Malaria joined her

husband in dissuading peopleagainst black magic or witch-

craft.It may be recalled that

Modi had mentioned Jamuna’sname during the 14th editionof his monthly radio pro-gramme ‘Mann Ki Baat’.

The Prime Minister hadmentioned in his talk then thatshe spread awareness aboutprecautions and helped theentire village during toughtimes.

The PM also felicitatedSrikant Sahu, a native ofNabarangpur district, for win-ning a national skill contest.

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Meritorious Class-XIIstudents would be dis-

t r ibuted laptops at thebeginning of each academicsession henceforth.

Chie f S e cre t ar y APPadhi issued a direction inthis regard while presidingover a review meeting at theState Secretariat on Saturday.He asked officials to makerequisite preparations forthe purpose.

The Odisha ComputerApplication Centre (OCAC)is the nodal agency for lap-top distribution.

E lec t ronics and

Information Technolog yS e cre t ar y and O CACChairman Pradip KumarJena said more than 15,000laptops were distributed lastyear.

This is the third year ina row that the Governmentwould distribute laptops toClass XII meritorious stu-dents. The State spends �30crore for the purpose eachyear, according to sources.

Odia software will beinstalled in the laptops thistime, said Jena.

The tender process forprocurement of laptopswould begin in March,according to sources.

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Director General ofArchaeological Survey of

India (ASI) Dr RakeshSrivastava on Monday inspect-ed the conservation work ofthe world-famous Sun Templehere.

Accompanied by ASIOdisha Superintendent JibanPatnaik and a team of experts,Srivastava inspected the chem-ical treatment work and exam-ined the stone idols.

“We have put up scaffold-ing around the temple andstarted conducting chemicaltreatment after cleaning up theareas with pulp treatment. Wewill withdraw the scaffoldingafter the work is completed,”Srivastava told mediapersons.

Asked when the conser-vation work of the temple

would be completed, he saidhe has no idea. “The technicalstaff, presently engaged in theconservation work of the tem-ple, can give you correct infor-mation on this,” he said.

He said he came to over-see the ongoing Jagmohanrepair work in Puri and SunTemple conservation work atKonark.

Asked whether the ASIwould be able to bring the SunTemple back to its real shape,Srivastava said that as per theASI work ethics, it does notput up the exact replica of theoriginal stones. “We put upnew stones by replacing thedamaged stones,” he pointedout.

“Conservation is a con-tinuous process. Certain kindsof conservation works aretaken up every year,” he said.

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The body of a youth in his20s was found here under

mysterious circumstances onMonday morning.

Locals spotted the bodywith multiple injury marks onhis body near the BishnupriyaApartment in the IRC Villagearea under the Nayapalli policelimits.

Police recovered the bodyand sent it for postmortem tothe Capital Hospital here.

Though the identity of theyouth was yet to be ascertained,

it was suspected he might havebeen murdered as his body wasfound with hands tied. Policebegan investigation into theincident.

In another incident, awoman was found dead undermysterious circumstances neara school in Khordha district.

The deceased, said to bemarried, was found lying onthe ground with her dupattaentangled in her neck. Policesuspected it to be a case of mur-der.

Police recovered the bodyand sent it for postmortem.

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The Junior Doctors’Association of the SCB

Medical College and Hospitalhere has decided to go on acease-work agitation if theirdemands are not met imme-diately.

The medicos have set forthconditions that criminal casesagainst nine medical studentsof the MKCG Medical Collegein Brahmapur are droppedand they are released, strin-gent act ion againstBaidyanathpur (BNPur)police station official andtight security in the State’sthree Government medicalcolleges.

According to sources, themedicos would launch anindefinite cease-work agita-

tion if their demands are notmet. At least 1,600 medical stu-dents will join the stir.

The Odisha MedicalService Association (OMSA)

and the Indian MedicalAssociation (IMA) haveextended their support to theagitation, the sources added.

The students of VeerSurendra Sai Institute ofMedical Sciences and Research(VIMSAR), Burla have alsoextended support to the pro-posed agitation.

It may be recalled thatnine junior doctors, includingMKCG Medical College andHospital Junior Doctors’Association president PareshGouda, were arrested forallegedly assaulting anAssistant Sub-Inspector ofPolice and a journalist onFebruary 2.

Five cases have been reg-istered against the medicos atthe BNPur police station inBrahmapur after the incident.

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The Science Express carryingscience models on climat-

ic change and its global effectreached Koraput railway stationon Sunday.

This awareness drive hasbeen undertaken jointly byMinistry of Forest andEnvironment and ClimateChange and the Ministry ofScience and Technology.

Central University, OdishaVice Chancellor DrSachhidanandda Mohanty wel-comed the train by cuttingribbon. Students of differentschools and colleges and manyothers visited the train.Officials showed every modelone by one to the peopleexplaining the cause of climatechange and its effect. Theremedies to reduce the pollu-

tion and to preserve the forestswere also discussed.

Regional ChiefConservator of Forest MMohan also coordinated thearrangement along with histeam members.

Train-in-charge RaghabPandyan said Koraput is the38th destination of 64 locations

in the country. The journey,which is scheduled for 208days, had begun its journey onOctober 15and will culminateMay 7, 2016.

The exhibition wouldremain opened for three daystill February 10 (Wednesday) atthe station from 10 am to 5 pm,he added.

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The State Bank of IndiaOfficers’ Association,

Bhubaneswar Circle held itsannual general body meetinghere on Sunday. Around 2,500SBI officers from across theState attended the meeting,inaugurated by GeneralManager Ananta KumarChowdhury.

Chowdhury advised theofficers to strive for excellenceand try to build an Utkrusta

Utkal. Chief speaker All IndiaState Bank Officers’ Federation(AISBOF) general secretary YSudarshan narrated the con-

temporary scenario in the bankofficers’ trade union move-ment and various efforts thatthe federation is taking up for

the betterment of the officers.Federation president DT

Franco Rajendra Dev threwlight on anti-PSBs and anti-labour policies of successiveGovernments and how theyaffect the lot of the commoncitizen and bank officers in par-ticular. He stressed on the needto bring about awarenessamong common people andworkers in PSUs and PSBs tobuild up a resistance against it.

Association presidentBibekananda Das, vice-presi-dent Arun Kumar Bishoyi,general secretary Sambit Misra,SBI Staff Association GeneralSecretary Jyoti BhusanMohapatra also spoke.

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Three persons, including awoman accused were

arrested by the RailwayProtection Force (RPF) in twoseparate incidents. The RPFsleuths also seized incriminat-ing items supposed to havebeen used in dacoity in trainsfrom their possession.

According to ECoR, onlast Saturday, the CrimePrevention and DetectionSquad of RPF conducted aspecial drive against theft ofpassenger belongings atCuttack railway station andmanaged to arrest two personshailing from Haryana of aseven member gang who wereplanning for dacoity.

The team seized one handcutter, two mobile sets, twohandmade bombs, half-burntagarabatti, match boxes, some

mixture, chili powder, gunpowder, iron rod, and liquidcash of �10,490 cash fromtheir possession.

In another such incidenton Friday, the same squad ofthe RPF has arrested a womanaccused in connection withsnatching the vanity bag of alady passenger from Puri-NewDelhi Neelachal Express atCuttack station.

The woman accused

snatched the vanity bag of thewoman and fled away. The RPFpersonnel of the squad caughther and seized the vanity bagcontaining of �1260 and otherbelongings.

The two cases were hand-ed over to GRP, Cuttack.

Meanwhile, the ECoRappealed to all passengers todial its helpline number 182and 1322 of RPF and 1512 ofGRP in emergencies.

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Nine junior doctors ofBrahmapur’s MKCG

Medical College and Hospital,who were arrested for assault-ing a mediaperson and apolice officer, were grantedconditional bailon Monday.

The nine medicos, includ-ing MKCG Junior Doctors’Association president PareshGouda, were released on apersonal bond of �10,000each.

On Februar y 2, theBaidyanathpur police hadarrested the nine junior doc-

tors for allegedly thrashing apolice Sub-Inspector and localjournalist on January 29.

An altercation had ensuedbetween junior doctors andfamily members of a patientundergoing treatment at theGovernment-run hospitalover alleged negligence bythe doctors on duty.

When a Brahmapur-based journalist had gonethere to enquire about theincident, he was allegedlybeaten up, while a police offi-cer who came to help him wasalso manhandled by thejunior doctors.

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Union Water ResourcesMinister Uma Bharti on

Monday said a consensus oninterlinking of Mahanadi andGodavari rivers will be reachedin the next six months after ajoint committee’s report isexamined.

Bharati, who chaired theeighth meeting of the specialcommittee for Inter-Linking ofRivers (ILR) in New Delhi, saidshe will discuss the project indetail with Odisha ChiefMinister Naveen Patnaik afterstudying the committee’sreport.

“When I had a discussion

with the Chief Minister ofOdisha, he accepted my sug-gestion that there should be ateam comprising officials of theState and Central Governmentsto discuss all the issues aboutGodavari-Mahanadi link. Wedecided that the report will besubmitted within six monthsafter which I will have a meet-ing with Patnaik and then wewill reach a consensus onMahanadi-Godavari link,”Bharati asserted.

Underlining the benefitsof ILR, she said, “The inter-linking of rivers is very impor-tant for enhancing water andfood security of the countryand would be very helpful in

providing water to water-scarce, drought-prone andrain-fed farming areas. TheGovernment of India is com-mitted to implementing theinterlinking programme withcooperation of the StateGovernments. In its judge-ment in on February 27, 2012,the Supreme Court (SC) hasheld interlinking programmeto be of national interest andasked for its early implemen-tation.”

Official sources said theMahanadi-Godavari link, ifestablished, would irrigate4.43 lakh hectares of land,including 3.52 lakh hectares inthe southern districts and

generate about 445MW elec-tricity, besides controllingflood.

The project proposes todivert Mahanadi water toGodavari through Nayagarh,Khurda, Ganjam and Gajapatidistricts by storing surpluswater in a reservoir contem-plated at Manibhadra nearNayagarh and four barrages atdifferent places from wherewater finally flows into theMahanadi.

Manibhadra reservoir willsubmerge 63,003 hectares ofland, including 9,520 hectaresof forest area, and affectaround 79,000 persons, thesources added.

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Vigilance officers onMonday arrested Bargarh’s

District Sub-RegistrarHimansu Sekhar Nayak andJunior Clerk Kishore ChandraDani for demanding and accepting bribe of �7,000from Thabira Meher ofKeuntipali village to hand overa Sale Deed of land purchasedby him.

Complainant Meher hadalleged that he had purchaseda land from one HaribolAdabar of his village in the year1990 and registered the same at

the Sub-Registration office atSohela on September 24, 2015.Dani demanded asked him topay �7,000 to hand over theSale Deed to him.

Acting on his complaint,the Vigilance officers laid a trapat the Sub-Registrar officewhere Dani received �7,000from Meher. Then Dani kept�4,000 in his pant pocket andkept the rest amount of �3,000in the table drawer of theDistrict Sub-Registrar Naik.The officers soon caught bothDani and Nayak.

The investigation was inprogress, said an official release.

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Noted essayist and thinkerUmesh Patri’s book

Hindutwa was released here onSunday on the occasion of histhird death anniversary.

“The book depicts social,philosophical and politicalaspects of Hinduism, andhence is the epitome of Indianculture,” opined dignitarieswho attended the programme.

Dr Rajendra Narayan Das,an Odia resident of German,gracing as a guest narrated howhumane Patri was. He saidPatri’s ideology and philosophywould always remain as aninspiration for the society.

Former Minister

Bimbadhar Kuanr, ‘AgaamiSatabdi’ editor Sheikh MatlubAli and noted columnist AsitMohanty discussed about pre-cious creations of Patri on theoccasion.

The function organised bythe Dr Umesh Patri SmrutiCommittee was presided overby noted litterateur and edu-cationist Biswaranjan. Patri’swife Dr Pratibha Devi waspresent.

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Atwo-day national seminaron “Ecofeminist

Interventions: Theory andPraxis’ was held at the BJBAutonomous College here fromSaturday.

Attending as the chief guest,Associate Professor of English,IGNOU, Dr Nandini Sahu saidecofeminism is a very expansivetheory and it brought togetherissues pertaining to an ecologi-cal consciousness and those ofwomen which were not dealtwith in mainstream feminism.

Dr Sahu also spoke onother feminist concerns such astradition and identity in Indianwomen poets, their approach-es to modernity and moralityand the ecological disasterswaiting to happen due toindustrialisation in the State.

Berhampur UniversityEnglish Department HOD DrShruti Das said women are the

natural advocates of an eco-critical approach.

A poetry reading session,chaired by former principal ofJKBK College, Prof Gopa

Ranjan Mishra was also held.The English Department of

BJB (A) College organised theseminar, which was inaugurat-ed by Principal Prof

Mohammad Nawaz Hassan.The conference was attend-

ed by delegates from differentcolleges and universities acrossthe State.

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Akhtar Ali Farrooqui, theDeputy Commissioner of

Police (DCP) under suspensionfor more than 11 years, was dis-missed by the Ministry of HomeAffairs (MHA) on January 29,just two days before he was toretire from Delhi Police.

Farrooqui a 1978-batchofficer of Delhi Andaman andNicobar Islands Police Service(DANIPS), was embroiled inseveral controversies and wasraided by Central Bureau ofInvestigation (CBI) for amass-ing wealth disproportionate tohis known sources of income.He was subsequently suspend-ed by the MHA for gross mis-conduct and remained undersuspension since May 2005.

"His promotion was stalledand he was put under theDoubtful Integrity (DI) list ofthe MHA. His other financialbenefits were curtailed and hisdismissal from the service 48hours before he was to finallyhang up his boots meant that hestands to forfeit all the post-retirement monetary benefitsthat he was entitled to as an offi-cer of the DANIPS cadre," saida senior Delhi Police officerwhen asked about Farrooqui'scase. "Ever since he was suspended he had stopped

coming to the Delhi PoliceHeadquarters and nobody real-ly knew where he was", said theofficer adding that his where-abouts should be probed.

It may be noted thatFarrooqui was convicted by thedesignated CBI court alongwith his wife, who was made aco-accused, on December 23,2014 under various sections ofthe Prevention of CorruptionAct. Interestingly he was onceposted as the DCP of the Anti-Corruption Branch of theDelhi Government.

Officers posted with theEstablishment Branch of theDelhi Police Headquarters con-firmed that the dismissalorders of Farrooqui have beenreceived. He was dismissedjust two days before was toretire from service. Farrooqui,a former student of AligarhMuslim University, had joinedDelhi Police on May 5, 1978 asan Assistant Commissioner ofPolice. His last posting with theDelhi Police was as DCP ofSupreme Court security.

Farrooqui 's troublesbegan after the anti-corrup-tion unit of CBI raided hisoffice and official accommo-dation on April 6, 2005. TheCBI during the raid had thenclaimed to have found wealththat was beyond the officer'sknown sources of income.

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Jammu: Six days after a mas-sive avalanche swept away oneof the forward Indian posts ata height of 19,600 feet inNorthern Siachen glacier inLadakh, rescue workers onMonday retrieved body of a jawan after cutting through30 feet high "ice wall" at thecamp site. Ten soldiers, including a JCOwere buried in the wee hoursof February 3. Since then res-cue teams have been campingin the area in search of thebodies of the missing soldiers.

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The Government is havingsecond thoughts over its

recent decision of withdrawingcustoms duty exemption on theimports of at least 74 drugs —including life-saving ones usedto treat cancer, AIDS andhaemophilia — followingintervention from the PrimeMinister’s Office (PMO).

The move also follows thepublic hue and cry against theFinance Ministry’s notificationwithdrawing customs dutyexemption on the imports of 74drugs that is feared to lead risein prices of such medicines,making them out of reach ofthe people in need.

Sources said the Union

Health Ministry has set up apanel to scientifically studythe impact of the move, that itis against its policy of provid-ing affordable drugs to thepeople and cut down out ofpocket expenditure.

In fact, though the HealthMinistry says that it was caughtunaware by the FinanceMinistry’s notification issuedon January 28, the sourcessaid that the former had doneno ground work to study thelatter’s proposal seeking itsviews on customs duty exemp-tion on the said drugs.

With the PMO seekingreport in the matter, the HealthMinistry officials went intohuddle on Sunday andMonday, holding meetingsback to back to examine thenotification and its impact onthe health sector.

On Sunday, HealthSecretary BP Sharma, JointSecretaries Anshu Prakash andKL Sharma among others suchas officials from the DCGIand a few representatives fromthe pharma sector deliberatedthe matter to discuss nextcourse of action. The panel will

give its recommendation inthe matter soon.

Though the notification wasissued last month, the issue wasflagged recently by BioconChairperson and ManagingDirector Kiran Mazumdar Shaw,who in her tweet said, “Govt hasintroduced 22 per cent importtax on cancer and life savingdrugs. Previously exempted. Isthis the phasing out of exemp-tions by MoF? Sad.”

According to her, “TheDepartment of Revenue hasissued a notification on January28, withdrawing exemption

from import duty on a numberof drugs, including cancer andother life-saving drugs. Thiswill result in excise/importduties to the extent of over 22per cent, which will make thesedrugs more expensive… Thereare over 75 drugs on this list.This will also impact theindigenous drugs being man-ufactured in SEZs, thusadversely impacting theGovernment’s aim of makinghealthcare affordable andaccessible to patients in India.”

Experts elaborated that themove will make treatment of amultitude of diseases costlier:Apart from HIV/AIDS, cancerand haemophilia, the listincludes, kidney stones, heartrhythm disorders, diabetes,Parkinson’s Disease, bone dis-eases, bacterial infections, anes-thetic medication, allergies,arthritis, lupus, menopause,glaucoma, poisoning by achemical or pesticide, growthfailure in children and ulcera-tive colitis.

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Noted West Asia expert andpresident of Middle East

Forum Daniel Pipes has saidthat there were many moder-ate voices among the Muslimclerics in India who opposedradical Islam but that theywere not too effective. “Mysense is that they are not doingenough” to get their view-points across, he remarked.He said that he met severalMuslim religious leaders dur-ing his visits to India and was“impressed” by their clear rejec-tion of violence, which terror-ists across the world unleashedin the name of Islam.

Pipes was speaking at aninteraction organised by theDr Syama Prasad MookerjeeResearch Foundation onMonday. He said the clericsshould be reaching out moreaggressively to their communi-ty members to counter the hatecampaign, which the Islamistshave been spreading across.“The moderate Muslim leader-ship in India is not creativeenough,” he stated. They did notuse social media effectively, forinstance, to spread the rightmessage of Islam and negate thestuff that Islamic radicals werepromoting to lure recruits andjustify their violent acts.

Pipes noted that IndianMuslim clerics, although well-meaning, were not “exciting”

people and thus losing out tothe belligerence of terror-believing Islamists. He believedthat the moderate voices needto be encouraged throughthink-tanks and the main-stream media as well.

The West Asia expert saidthat in India, as in the rest ofthe world, moderate Muslimscondemn all acts of terrorunequivocally. “But it’s notenough to condemn the acts;it’s the ideology and the ideasof terrorists (through the mis-use of Islam) that have to becondemned and countered.Unfortunately, that’s not hap-pening enough”, he observed.

The US-based expert, whohas lectured at universities, isa historian and political com-mentator and was for a whilepart of the US Institute ofPeace during George W Bush’stenure as President, rubbishedthe perception that Muslimyouth were taking to arms dueto reasons of poverty or illiter-acy. He pointed out that inIndia, as elsewhere, the newterror recruit was more oftenthe educated Muslim - doctor,engineer, software expert, aca-demic. It was wrong to say, headded, that these people havebeen brainwashed from thebeginning into believing inthe radical form of Islam.

“They are free-thinkers,though of the bad kind”, he com-mented and added that the new

converts to terrorism “are notImams or experts on Quran” butbelieve in violence because of adistorted sense of Islam that theynurture. “They - some of themare women (even pregnantwomen) - decide to blow them-selves up, and blow up placesand other people.”

He said that radical Islamwas the third dangerous ideolo-gy the world faced, “after Fascismand Communism”. Pipesremarked, “It’s certainly not arevolutionary movement of thepoor but that of the educated…It’s to do with the Ummah - whatto do for their ones in society.”

Pipes said Islamophobiawas a wrongly-used word todescribe hate-campaignsagainst Muslims across theworld, especially every time afresh terror attack happened.“There is plenty ofIslamophobia, but I would notlike to use the term,‘Islamophobia’. I think ‘anti-Islam’ is the right world.”Dismissing criticism by hisopponents that he was anti-Islam, he said, “I am not anti-Islam. Remember, Islamic rad-icals accuse even moderateMuslims of being anti-Islam.”He emphasised that “radicalIslam” was the problem and“moderate Islam” was the solu-tion. Sadly, he added, the mod-erates did not “have money ormedia support, and so they areless heard”.

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New Delhi: Both sides appearto be dubious,” the SupremeCourt on Monday said in asharp reaction as it heard a PILby a businessman against anUttar Pradesh MLC, who isaccused in money launderingand criminal cases.

The Bench headed byChief Justice TS Thakur alsosought fresh status reportsfrom central agencies likeSerious Fraud InvestigationOffice (SFIO), EnforcementDirectorate (ED) and CentralBoard of Direct Taxes (CBDT)on alleged activities of BSP’sMember of Legislative Council(MLC) Mohammad Iqbal.

Simultaneously, the courtasked the UP Government toapprise it of the criminalantecedents of petitionerRanvir Singh.

“Both sides appear to bedubious and cases against bothof them should be taken to log-ical conclusions. Find put thefacts. This man (Iqbal) has 111

companies and this petitioner(Singh) appears to be involvedin illegal mining,” the Bench,also comprising Justices AKSikri and R Banumathi, said.

At the outset, AdditionalSolicitor-General ManinderSingh, appearing for theCentre, apprised the courtabout the present status ofprobes, being conducted bySFIO, ED and CBDT, againstthe BSP leader.

The Bench asked the ASGas to why the agencies were notprobing all the 111 companiesand confining the investigationto six firms only.

The law officer said theprobe conducted so far hasindicated that there was somenexus with the alleged activitiesof former UP Minister BabuSingh Khushwaha, an accusedin NRHM (National RuralHealth Mission) scam, and thecompanies attached to the MLC.The Bench has fixed the PIL forhearing on April 25. PTI

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In a move that may leave theshort-staffed Archeological

Survey of India (ASI) squirm-ing, the Union CultureMinistry is planning to out-source security, cleanliness andmaintenance of importantmonuments to private players.

At present, restoration,security and maintenance ofthe heritage and historicalmonuments are under the ASI,an autonomous body under theCulture Ministry.

However, as the ASI has alimited workforce and theGovernment is in no mood toenhance it, the proposal tohand over some monuments toprivate sector for preservationand maintenance is beingmooted for quiet some time. Itwas felt that many of important

heritage and historic landmarksand buildings were facingneglect due to resource crunch.

However, such thoughtshave been always opposed by theASI on the contention that mon-uments being of national impor-tance should be handled by theexperts and not private players.

But the Ministry seems tobe seriously considering toinvolve private players. UnionTourism and Culture MinisterMahesh Sharma on Mondayspoke the Government’s think-ing, saying, “We have got sug-gestions from some sectorsthat our tourism places, desti-nations and monuments likeQutub Minar, Red Fort inter-nal maintainence can be givento some private hands. We areconsidering this thought.

“All internal arrangementslike cleanliness, security, main-

tainence of toilets, greenerymaintainence, restaurants bookshops will be maintained by thereputed stakeholders for theconvenience of the tourists.

The suggestions in this regardare being invited from thestakeholders.”

The Minister was speakingafter the launch of the round-

the-clock free tourist infoline in12 languages —Arabic, French,German, Italian, Japanese,Korean, Chinese, Portuguese,Russian, Spanish, English and

Hindi at a function here.The infoline will be avail-

able on the toll-free number1800111363 or on a short code1363. The �20-crore project isbeing implemented by theMinistry through TATA BSS,which has been given contractfor three years.

Asserting the Governmentaccords highest priority to safe-ty and security of tourists, hesaid the launch of infoline willgenerate confidence amonginternational travelers who areworried about their security.

Sharma also announcedthat very soon an “IncredibleIndia Mobile App” to facilitatetourists in a better way will belaunched by the Ministry.

Srinivas Koppolu, MD andCOO of TATA-BSS said theinfoline service will provideinformation relating to travel

and tourism to the domestic andinternational tourists/visitorsand to assist the callers withadvice on action to be takenduring times of distress whiletravelling in India and if need bealert the concerned authorities.

Later on the sidelines of theevent, Sharma favoured theentry of women in Kerala’sSabarimala temple, saying thereshould be no discrimination onthe basis of caste and gender.

“The government is of theopinion that there should be nodiscrimination in all religiousplaces on (the basis of) casteand gender,” he said.

The Minister’s remarkscame against the backdrop ofthe Kerala Government defend-ing in the Supreme Court theban on the entry of women inthe age group of 10 to 50 yearsin the historic temple.

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Bollywood actor Kajol will soon join the PrasarBharati Board as a part-

time member. This wasdecided in a meeting heldon Monday which waspresided by Vice-PresidentHamid Ansari, to finaliseon nominees for twovacant positions of part-time members on thePrasar Bharati Board.

Shashi ShekharVempati is the other mem-ber to be nominated. Hehas long experience ofworking with Infosys andheads an online mediacompany.

According to sources,the meeting was held todecide on their nominationwas also participated by thechief of Press Council ofIndia CK Prasad alongwith Secretary, Ministryof Information & Broadcasting Sunil Arora. Thenames of actor Kajol and Vempati have been cho-sen from 7-8 names, including actors MinhazMerchant and Vikram Gokhale. The former Editorof RSS mouthpiece Organiser, Seshadri Chari, wasalso known to figure in the list.

As per the Prasar Bharati Act, the public broad-caster should have six part-time members on itsboard, which is headed by its chairman. Two of thesepositions had been vacant. The part-time membershave to be persons of eminence in public life. Theirterm of office shall be six years, one-third of themshall retire after every two years.

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Concerned over illegal sandmining on the Yamuna

floodplains despite a ban, theNational Green Tribunal onMonday asked the UttarPradesh and HaryanaGovernments to apprise itabout the action they havetaken against the violators.

A Bench headed by NGTchairperson Justice SwatanterKumar directed the officers ofHaryana and UP to file affi-davits of senior most officersalong with appropriate docu-ments, photographs and actiontaken by any departments ofthe States themselves. The affi-davit should be filed threedays in advance to the next datehearing, the Bench said. Thedate for next hearing has beenfixed on February 24.

The green panel had earli-er asked Environment Ministryabout the quantum of illegalmining being carried out and itsimpact on ecology and envi-ronment of the Yamuna riverbed. The panel had also ques-tioned the Ministry on thenames and particulars of partieswho have indulged in illegalmining, building of units, usingof JCBs and heavy machinery formining amongst other details.

It further questioned theMinistry, whether any JCB

(heavy equipments as cranes)had been seized by the state ofUttar Pradesh or Haryana or byany other authority.

The NGT had also issuednotices to four contactors toshow cause to why action benot taken against them forindulging in sand mining.

On November 2 last year,the Tribunal had prohibitedsand mining saying no miningactivity, both legal and illegal,should be carried out on thebanks of the Yamuna and alsoconstituted a committee of seniorofficers of both states to file theirstatus report on mining.

The green panel was hear-ing a plea by NGT BarAssociation alleging that someprivate firms were engaged inthe activity and a temporarybridge was made on the riverobstructing its natural flow.

The plea had alleged thatland mafia was indulging inillegal sand mining on eitherside of banks of Yamuna atGautam Budh Nagar area ofUttar Pradesh and Faridabadarea of Haryana.

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As Aedes mosquito is the common sourceof spreading dengue and Zika virus, the

Centre has asked the Southern States likeTamil Nadu, Kerala and Puducherry to beextra vigilant as these regions continue toreport alarming rise in dengue cases.

An official from the Health Ministry saidthat the three Southern States in particularhave been asked to intensify anti-dengue driveto ensure that the Zika virus does not get thechance to enter through these regions.

This was discussed at a meeting led byHealth Secretary BP Sharma on Monday toreview the preparedness regarding ZikaVirus disease.

The meeting was attended by officialsfrom National Centre for Disease Control(NCDC), Indian Council for MedicalResearch (ICMR), Airports Authority ofIndia (AAI), Directorate General of CivilAviation (DGCA), Ministry of HomeAffairs, Ministry of Shipping and Ministryof Civil Aviation in addition to representa-tives from State governments of Puducherry,Kerala, and Tamil Nadu.

In addition to the two diagnostic facil-ities at NCDC and National Institute ofVirology (NIV) Pune,10 new facilities willbecome operational by the end of February,said the official.

The labs are located in Tamil Nadu, Kerala,Puducherry, Karnataka, West Bengal, UttarPradesh, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Odishaand Assam. Another 10 are expected to beoperational in phase-II. A 24X7 control roomfor providing information on Zika virus isnow operational at the office of the HealthMinistry. The numbers of the control roomare 23061469 and 23063205.

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Causing much embarrass-ment to the CPI(M), the

Kerala High Court on Mondayordered a CBI probe into themurder of Indian UnionMuslim League (IUML) activistAbdul Shukoor (21) of Ariyil inKannur district in 2012.CPI(M)’s Kannur district sec-retary P Jayarajan, who ispresently trying to avoid arrestby the CBI in another murdercase, and party MLA TVRajesh are 32nd and 33rdaccused respectively in theShukoor murder case.

The Justice B Kemal Pashapronounced the order for fur-ther probe by the CBI in theShukoor murder case, in whichthe agency would be concen-trating on the alleged conspir-acy behind the killing, on apetition filed by the victim’smother. The court passed theorder by ratifying a notificationissued earlier by the StateGovernment by leaving thecase to the CBI.

Shukoor’s mother hadsought a CBI probe by point-ing out that the State police’sSpecial Investigation Team(SIT) which had probed the

murder had not looked into theconspiracy behind the crimeproperly. The CBI had taken aposition that it could not carryout a partial probe. TheCPI(M) said it would appealagainst the HC order.

Justice Pasha unleashedstinging criticisms against theCPI(M) and the State police’sSIT. He observed that Jayarajanand Rajesh were exemptedfrom the charge of conspiracythough they were present in thehospital room where the plotwas finalised and six otherspresent there were charged forconspiracy.

According to thechargesheet filed by the SIT inthe first Class Judicial MagistrateCourt, Kannur, Shukoor ofAriyil in Kannur district wasmurdered on February 20, 2012

by a Marxist killer gang, as pera party court’s decree, in broaddaylight and in full view ofscores of onlookers at a field atKeezhara, Kannapuram.

The crime, according to theprobe team, was committed asan act of revenge for peltingstones at a vehicle in whichJayarajan and Rajesh were trav-eling. The CPI(M) leaders werecharged under Section 118 ofthe IPC for concealing theplan to murder Shukoor evenafter coming to know about it.

“I thank Allah for thecourt’s decision to order CBIprobe,” she said. “I hope to getjustice through this inquiry. Myson had committed no wrong.I have not been able to sleepafter that incident,” she said,adding that the police and theCPI(M) had joined hands to

derail the investigation.The High Court order is a

big blow to the CPI(M) andJayarajan as it has come at atime when he is waiting for thesame court’s decision on hisbail application in the casepertaining to the murder ofRSS leader Manoj ofElanthodath of Kannur inwhich the CBI had recentlynamed him as 25th accused.The court is expected to takeup the bail plea on Wednesday.

The two CBI probes in twoseparate murder cases againstJayarajan, perhaps the toughestCPI(M) leader in Kannur,Kerala’s Marxist heartland, issure to be used by the party’srivals as an effective campaigninstrument in the comingAssembly election by bringingthe focus back on the Marxists’alleged politics of murder.

To make matters worse for theCPI(M) during the run-up to thepoll, the call for a CBI probe intothe murder of rebel Marxist leaderTP Chandrasekharan ofOnchiyam, Kozhikode on May 4,2012 has intensified. Opponents ofthe CPI(M), including the BJP, arefirm that only a CBI inquiry cannail the actual conspirators behindChandrasekharan’s murder.

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Kerala’s beleagueredCongress-led UDF

Government on Monday gotsome ground to take on its crit-ics over the infamous barbribery scam involving sever-al of its Ministers after voicerecordings suggesting sus-pected conspiracy behind theallegations of bribery raisedagainst the Ministers cameout in the media.

In the voice recordings,said to have been found by theState Vigilance on a CD whichwhistleblower Biju Rameshhad submitted to a Magistrate,he is heard as stating that theCPI(M) had assured the barowners that it would help themreopen the 418 bars closed forlack of required facilities if itcame to power after the com-ing Assembly election.

The CD also containedrecordings of a statement byBiju, allegedly made at a meet-ing of the Kerala Bar Hotels’Association, that Superintendentof Police (Vigilance) R Sukesan,who had investigated the scam,had instructed him to implicatefour Ministers in theGovernment of Chief MinisterOommen Chandy in the scam.

The Kerala HomeDepartment had on Fridayordered a Crime Branch probeagainst Sukesan charging himsuspected conspiracy with BijuRamesh for implicatingMinisters in the scam. The UDFGovernment has all the waybeen arguing that the scam is theresult of a conspiracy and theCPI(M) leadership had givenassurances to the bar owners.

“Sukesan asked me to stunthe media with some allega-tions. To my question as towhat I should say, he told methat I could say there are fourmore (Ministers who had beeninvolved in the scam),” Biju isheard as saying in the record-ing. The conversations in therecordings also suggested thatSukesan was against the UDFGovernment.

Biju Ramesh indirectlyconfirmed that the discussionshad taken place but said therecording was edited. “Theedited version has been leakedto the media by theGovernment itself. I challengethe Government to release theunedited version. There arerecordings on the same CD inwhich there are statements onbribes paid to Ministers,” Biju,himself a bar owner, said.

CPI(M)’s State secretaryKodiyeri Balakrishnan, whohad given the assurance to barowners about reopening theclosed bars as per the record-ing, denied the charge. “Wehave given no assurance toanybody on reopening of bars.We don’t dream of dethroningthe Government using the barowners,” he said.

Kerala Congress chairmanKM Mani had resigned as

Finance Minister in Novemberfollowing the charge that hehad taken �1 crore as bribefrom bar owners. Congressleader K Babu, close confidantof Chandy, had resigned onJanuary 23 as Excise Ministerover the charge that he hadtaken �10-crore bribe but with-drew his resignation a weeklater at Chandy’s insistence.

Biju had also accusedHome Minister RameshChennithala, who also holdsthe Vigilance Portfolio, of tak-ing �2 crore from the bar own-ers’ outfit when he was StateCongress chief while his loyal-ist Health Minister VSSivakumar was charged withtaking �25 lakh. The CrimeBranch probe against Sukesanwas ordered after Biju leveledthe charge against Chennithala.

“Ramesh (Chennithala)had requested me not to causeharm to him. Sivakumar alsohad approached me to requestnot to reveal his name,” Bijusaid on Monday. He threatenedto reveal more stories of cor-ruption of the UDFGovernment if the CrimeBranch implicated him in thecase, adding that what hadbeen revealed so far was onlya part of the rot.

Meanwhile, the StateVigilance, which was asked bythe High Court to carry out aquick verification of Biju’scharge that Babu had taken �50 lakh from him, submitteda report in the Special VigilanceCourt in Thrissur exoneratinghim. The report said that therewere no evidences against Babuthat warranted the registrationof a case.

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Continuous bickering with-in a poll-bound Trinamool

Congress has led the worriedparty leadership, includingChief Minister MamataBanerjee to both “appeal,admonish and caution” theparty men against “such anti-party activities”, a senior leaderand a State Minister said.

According to sourcesBanerjee is particularly per-turbed by the regular bomb-and-gun battles among rivalgroups in Birbhum, Malda,South 24 Parganas,Murshidabad, two Midnaporedistricts the Minister whoattended a brainstorming ses-sion of top party functionar-ies at Banerjee’s Kalighat res-idence said.

Banerjee is known to havetold the office bearers to reignin their supporters and askthem to fight “unitedly againstthe CPI(M)-Congress con-spiracy otherwise if the partyfalls none of us will remain tofight.” Party general secretaryPartho Chatterjee said “if the

Trinamool wins then all of youwill survive and if we lose thenonce again the State will gointo the hands of the CPI(M).”

The Trinamool Congresshas suffered a number of casu-alties in the past six months orso on account of internal con-flicts mostly in Birbhum andSouth 24 Parganas. InBirbhum there are groups ledby district party presidentAnubrata Mandal, party MLAsGadadhar Hajra, Kajal Sheikhall of whom are engaged infierce turf war losing a num-ber of their muscle men in theongoing conflict.

In the past one week therewere at least two cases inBolpur sub-division when twohouses were accidentallyblown off killing several partyworkers after the bombs stock-piled there exploded. As late ason Monday three personsincluding a party councilorwas seriously injured in Maldawhere rival groups fought overwhat they said “area domina-tion” before the polls.

The block-level leaders ofthe party are so bitterly in fightagainst each other that the

leadership is planning to fieldapolitical persons like filmstars and players from a largenumber of seats insiders said.

According to sources theChief Minister also warnedleaders like Arabul Islam andKaisar Ahmed and asked themto work unitedly. “There arereports that false promises arebeing given to people aboutdistribution of MLA tickets”Banerjee said asking ticketswould be distributed from theheadquarters and the topmostleadership would take the finalcall on that.

No district-level leadersshould extract money for tick-et, she is known to have said.

“No one in the Trinamoolgets ticket without paying forit. There are reports that theChief Minister asking her dis-trict leaders not to sell ticketsbut their mechanism is suchthat if you do not pay you don’tbecome an MLA” saidCPI(M)’s Gautam Deb addinga time had come when thepeople of the State had decid-ed to defeat the Trinamool andbring an alternativeGovernment.

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The Bengal Police havearrested six people from

Jamalpur village of Burdwandistrict while they were travel-ling in a car with DefenceMinistry sticker.

The incident took place inthe small hours of Mondaywhen the police intercepted awhite car with a red stickeraffixed on its bumper reading:“Government of India, Ministerof Defence.” The vehicle hadKolkata registration number.

The letters were written ingolden, sources said adding theyouth who were coming fromTiljala area of south-easternKolkata could not give satis-factory answers to queries.

“They gave incoherentanswers and were detained forquestioning” police sourcessaid adding the six personswere identified as Sk Irfan, SakilAhmed, Salim, Sk Asrafuddin,Abu Akhtar, Sk Shahrukh.

They are residents ofTopsia Road in Tiljala area,sources maintained.

The incident takes placemore than a year after theKhagragarh blast where twoJamat ul MujahideenBangladesh terrorists were acci-dentally killed while makingbombs. Khagragarh is barelyhalf-an-hour from Jamalpurarea also in Burdwan.

The Khagragarh incidentthrew the lid off a well-plannedterror conspiracy hatched bythe JMB even as a number ofterror moles were arrested sub-sequently. As recently as lastyear a Trinamool leader and hisson were arrested from GardenReach area of Kolkata oncharges of their ISI connection.

A Bangladeshi was arrest-ed early this year while takingphotographs of the ArmyCommand Hospital at Aliporein South Kolkata.

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Seeking help for the farmerswho lost their crop in unsea-

sonal rain and hailstorm earlylast year, Chief MinisterAkhilesh Yadav has written aletter to Prime MinisterNarendra Modi requesting himto release �4,741 crore as relieffor these distraught farmers.

“The farmers had suffereda massive loss due to rains andunseasonal hailstorm. The esti-mated loss was �7,543.13 crorebut the State got just �2,801.59crore from the NationalDisaster Relief Fund. Theremaining �4,741.55 croreshould be released at the ear-liest,” Yadav said in his letter,the content of which werereleased on Monday.

The extension of relief tothe farmers has become a bigpolitical issue with Oppositionparties blaming Governmentfor not providing help to thefarmers. The StateGovernment, on its part, hasblamed Central Governmentfor not providing enoughfunds. Yadav in his letter men-tioned a communicationMinister of State for HomeKiran Rijuju had on October21, 2015. “In that letter MoS

had said that State Governmentwould get �2,801.59 crore asrelief for the farmers who losttheir crop in rains and hail-storm under NDRF and theState will not get any extramoney other than that,” Yadav said.

Chief Minister said thatState had also asked for fundsfor setting up infrastructureand help for the farmers on dif-ferent heads under short-termand long-term basis. Thisfinancial help does not comeunder NDRF and thereforethe Centre should extend addi-tional financial help to thefarmers, he said.

Elaborating on the break-up of the fund sought from theCentre Chief Minister said that�7,543.14 crore was sought ascompensation to the farmerswho lost crop; �0.21 crore forthose farmers who lost their

dwellings; �3.72 crore for thosefamily members who lost theirrelatives in this natural calami-ty and �0.28 crore as compen-sation for those who lost theiranimals in this rain.

“The farmers are facing abrunt of nature’s vagary becauseafter unseasonal rains earlylast year Uttar Pradesh faceddrought in August-Septemberforcing Government to declareat least 50 districts as declareddrought hit. The Centre shouldhelp State in extending help tothese distraught farmers,” ChiefMinister said in his letter.

The BJP has, howeverreacted sharply saying the StateGovernment should first utilisethe money Centre had sent ear-lier. “This is unfortunate thatState Government has moneyto celebrate Saifai festival or thebirthday of SP national presi-dent Mulayam Singh Yadavon a grand scale but does nothave resources for the poor,”BJP spokesman Vijay BahadurPathak said. He said ChiefMinister should give details aswhere and how it had used over�2,800 crore Centre had senton October because farmershave not got financial relief soas to say. Where this money hasgone,” he said.

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Union Surface Transportand Shipping Minister

Nitin Gadkari on Monday,asked party workers to fan outto villages and make peopleaware of the good work doneby the Modi Government.

“Go and meet the peopleand tell them about the achieve-ments of the Narendra ModiGovernment. The Opposition isspreading canards against usand it is the right time to callspade a spade,” Gadkari saidwhile speaking to workers andvillagers during Jan Samvaad(People interaction) inLucknow on Monday.

He held two meetings –one with party workers and theother with villagers. In both themeetings, spoke about theUnion Government’s achieve-ments and how it was workingto ameliorate the grievances ofthe poor. He said that noGovernment has done suchgood work in such a short spanof time. “We have seen previ-ous governments and how theyhave worked. This is a govern-ment which is working withfull accountability. Theschemes are aimed at bringinga holistic change in the society,”he said.

“Name any sector, and you

will see transformation. The JanDhan Yojana has been a gamechanging policy that will bringthe poor to the mainstream ofeconomy. The Start-up Indiascheme will generate newentrepreneurs. Now the youthwill not seek jobs but wouldgive jobs,” the Union Ministersaid. He also spoke at lengthabout his own Ministry andhow it is spreading a networkof roads. “The UnionGovernment has plans to starta cruise from Varanasi toKolkata,” he said. This was thefirst meeting of Gadkari withparty workers and is beingseen as the first step towardsgearing up workers for the2017 Assembly polls in UP.

Gadkari held a chaupalwith villagers in Malihabadwhere he enquired about theirproblems and informed themabout the CentralGovernment’s policies. The BJPthink tank has asked UnionMinisters to visit different partsof the State and halt at least fora night there and hold discus-sions with grass root workers.The aim is to give talking pointto the workers about theachievements of the ModiGovernment. “People are fed upwith the misrule of SamajwadiParty Government in the State.The law and order is bad.

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Hundreds of people belong-ing to a particular tribe

have left the remote Kiphiretown in Nagaland after a mobwent on rampage since Sundayevening damaging over 20houses and setting at least fourvehicles on fire.

The problem started onSunday evening after the bul-let riddled bodies of a youngcouple, which were recoveredfrom an area near Kiphire,and brought back to the town.While the slain husbandbelonged to the Sangtam tribe,the dominant tribe in the dis-trict, the slain wife belonged toTikhir tribe.

Police said that both thehusband and wife were killedby unidentified miscreants at aremote location near Kiphireon late Saturday evening. Both

the couple a school teacher anda nurse were posted in Kiphireand were returning to Kiphireafter visiting their relatives.

It may be mentioned herethat the Kiphire district inNagaland is dominated by theSangtam tribe while there areother communities like theYimchunger, Tikhir and Sumi.

After the bodies werebrought back, the Sangtamsuspected the hands ofYimchunger tribe behind themurder and started attackingthe Yimchunger tribe.

Indefinite curfew has beenimposed in remote Kiphiredistrict in Nagaland after vio-lence broke out in the districton Sunday following the killingof a couple at a place between

Wapher and Sekiurnear, nearKiphire on Saturday.

“Although the situation istense, it is under control now. Wehave deployed three companiesof IR battalions in and aroundthe district. One more compa-nies of IR battalion is on the wayto Kiphire. Prohibitory ordershave been issued under Section144 CrPC. since Sunday,” saidKiphire Deputy CommissionerChumrumo Odyuo.

He admitted that theYimchunger people have beenleaving the Kiphire town asthey have started feeling unse-cured. “We are trying to helpthem move out till the situationis under control completely,”said the DC.

“It will not be proper toterm it as a communal tensionso far. However, groups ofmob—involving membersfrom different communities—have been damaging publicproperties and have set on firevehicles. The rampage contin-ued even on Monday despitecurfew,” said the DC whileadding that security deploy-ment have been intensified inand around the area and toensure that the violence doesnot spread to other district.

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Bihar Deputy Chief MinisterTejashwi Prasad Yadav has

a pointed poser to the UnionGovernment in reaction to thecharges of lawlessness andaccusation of jungle raj in theState. “Terrorists enter thecountry unabated and indulgein mayhem. Should we callthere is ‘Aatank raj’ (rule of ter-ror) in India. But we will notbecause this will damage coun-try’s image worldwide,” saidRJD supremo Lalu Prasad’syounger son on Monday.

Bitter over the Oppositiononslaught on Bihar’s law andorder situation and recent mur-ders, the 26-years old Yadavsaid even Prime MinisterNarendra Modi during BiharAssembly election campaign

had been repeating jungle rajaccusation. But the people gavea strong rebuttal to him, hecountered and alleged thatOpposition was indulging onlyin negative politics and leavingno stone unturned to sullyBihar’s image just to furthertheir politics.

Referring to the loot of thecar of his brother-in-law a few

days back near Gurgaon Metropolice outpost, he said, “We cansay jungle raj is prevailing inGurgaon which is millenniumcity.” Yadav also alleged that fiveStates have a bigger crime rateand all of them are ruled by theBJP. “These people are onlyinterested to defame Bihar. Butwe have got the public mandateand we believe in progressive

politics,” he added. Reactingover the criticism by LJP MPChirag Paswan, he said hetreated him like his elder broth-er but instead of any positivecriticism he too was more con-centrated on defaming Bihar.“The Assembly results showedthese parties have lost publicconfidence,” he added.

The Deputy CM said hewas in favour of a YouthCommission and would talk toCM Nitish Kumar on this issue.Hailing Nitish, he said the CMwas more focused on the wel-fare of the youth and studentsin his seven commitmentswhich provided �4 lakh creditto youths and work has alreadystarted on this sector. Ourconcentration, he said, is on thebetterment of youth, includingrural youth, and to provide

them with job opportunities aswell as small entrepreneur-ship.

Yadav said his party wouldmake dalit scholar RohithVemula who was forced tocommit suicide, a poster boyand give him space next to BRAmbedkar. He said he mightvisit Hyderabad soon.

The Deputy CM who waspresent at the Janata Darbar ofthe CM for the first time,denied that he would also holdseparate janata darbar at hisresidence. “If a departmentwise darbar is being held by theCM there is absolutely noneed for me to hold darbar,” hesaid without naming formerDeputy CM Sushil KumarModi who had started DeputyCM’s janata darbar which hestill maintains.

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The three bypolls and localbody elections in

Karnataka which will be heldon February 13, are crucial andlitmus test for the Congressand for the Chief MinisterSiddaramaiah who is facing arevolt within the party. Eventhough Siddaramaiah and hisloyalists are putting up a bravefront, the simmering discon-tent is evident and explodeduring the polls, affecting theCongress campaign. Theseelections are expected to be apointer to the Assembly elec-tions of 2018 crucial for boththe ruling Congress and theOpposition BJP.

Karnataka is facing bypollsat Hebbal, an urban constituencyin Bengaluru, Bidar andDevadurga in north Karnataka.Siddaramaiah who is facing aninternal rebellion in the partyhas been so far managing thevoices of discontent from thepowerful dominant communi-ty leaders in the party and dal-its against his attitude in con-solidating his communityKuruba, a backward class pow-erful political lobby in the chang-ing political map of the State.

Even today many in theparty consider him as an out-sider and feel “as he has fulfilledhis ambition to become ChiefMinister he has no interest inCongress and would not both-er about it after his stint asChief Minister.”

Even though Siddaramaiahin his stay of almost threeyears as Chief Minister had agood rapport with the highcommand he had to face amajor humiliation this time ashis choice of candidate ByratiSuresh was rejected by thehigh command and accom-modated former UnionMinister Jaffer Sharief ’s grand-son to contest the by poll atHebbal. This has not onlyannoyed his coterie in theparty but also would impact thepolls. Sulking Chief Ministerwas convinced and after lot ofprodding he started cam-paigning for the party officialcandidate at Hebbal. Many ofhis supporters say ChiefMinister was upset with thehigh command culture.

Siddaramaiah, a cleverpolitician, survived all odds butplayed his card Ahinda(Kannada acronym for minori-ties, backward classes and dal-

its) a new political force whichis expected to change the polit-ical equations of politics ofdominant communities inKarnataka. He faced challengefrom G Parameshwara a pow-erful dalit leader and nowHome Minister was behindthe curtain actor in the cry toinstall a dalit Chief Minister.

According to congressinsiders the unexpected snub bythe party high command indenying the ticket to his candi-date in Hebbal by elections hasturned a double-edged swordfor Siddaramaiah — a party winwill not bring any cheer to hiscamp but a loss would mostassuredly arm his detractors tomount another challenge.

Even though the by pollsare expected to be direct con-test between Congress and BJP,by fielding all Muslim candi-dates in the three constituen-cies, the JDS of former PrimeMinister HD Devegowdamight play a spoilsport for theCongress. BJP, the party asusual putting a united effort tokeep the constituencies intact.Former Chief MinisterYeddyurappa and his Lingayatcommunity is going to play adecisive role in the by polls too.

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Police have busted a syndi-cate which indulged in ille-

gal trafficking of children toUnited States and arrested 16members, including kingpin bythe Special Investigation Team(SIT) headed by Additionalcommissioner of police PHarishekaran .

The SIT was formed by theCommissioner of Police lastyear after getting credible infor-mation about a human smug-gling racket operating in the city.

Addressing a Press confer-ence in BengaluruHarisekharan said that 14teams conducted raids in var-ious places in the city andarrested 16 people includingthe Kingpin Uday PrathapSingh and two women foroffences under Forgery,Cheating, Impersonation,Kidnapping, Abduction,Criminal Conspiracy andoffices under Passport Act.

During the raid severalincriminating documents,including Passport, copies ofidentity documents, bank pass-book and photographs of var-ious male and female persons,computers, laptop and mobileswere seized.

He said that interrogationwill be done to ascertain aboutthe children and their where-abouts in US. The interrogationis going on to ascertain the factsabout the modus of the crimesyndicate.

Harisekharan said that pre-liminary investigation hasrevealed that the children werebrought from other States andobtained fraudulent passport,visa and other travel docu-ments from Bengaluru.

He said that after collectinginformation from varioussources including Passportoffice, FRRO, BBMP and otherState and Central GovernmentAgencies, it was found thatKingpin Uday Rudra PrathapSingh, along with his other syn-dicate members lured a coupleor single male/female and pro-ject them as real husband andwife. Accordingly documentswere prepared to obtain passport

and other travel documents.The main accused, through

his agents in Gujarat, Bihar, UPand other places, bring minormale/female children who areunder age of 10 years and pairthem with the couple in theCity. All of them act as familyand are put up in a house. Thegang members used to givethem training as to how theyshould conduct and how to feelat home and as family mem-bers. Then the other teammember start preparing docu-ments like rental agreement,birth certificate, voter cards,ration cards and apply for pass-port as family members.

After obtaining Passportthrough fraudulent menace,another team in Tamil Naduassists the family to get Non-immigration B1/B2 Visa(Business and Pleasure Visa)from US Consulate inChennai.

Based on the investigationso far 16 couple were short-listed and their antecedentswere verified clandestinely.Harisekharan said that thearrested were identified asKingpin Uday Prathap Singh,Micheal alias Ranjit Naren,Rajesh, Simon, Kushalappa,Gunashekar, Pavin aliasPraveen, Domnic ArulKumar,Joison, Manjunath, francisChirstopher Anand Anthony,Sangeetha Prakash, LathaVema Reddy, Sudhir KumarKestur, Bhanu Prakash andVeena Prakash.

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In an aftermath of the attackon a Tanzanian student in

Bengaluru on January 31, theKarnataka Government hasdecided to deport foreignstudents who are staying inthe State without proper visaand papers. Home Minister GParameshwara said that thepolice are conducting a surveyon foreign students withoutpapers and they would bedeported.

He said “All foreignnationals, who are staying inKarnataka without a validvisa, will be deported. Thepolice department is con-ducting a survey in associa-tion with the ForeignersRegional Registration office.We will involve the Centre inthe process, as the UnionGovernment has to issue thedeportation order.”

It may be recalled that itwas on January 31 aTanzanian architecture stu-dent was assaulted andallegedly paraded naked in amistaken identity at the out-skirts of Bengaluru. The inci-dent put pressure on ruling

Government in the State andbecame an international issue.The Tanzanian HighCommissioner to India JohnWH Kijazi called this incidenta racist one but retractedafter visiting Bengaluru aspart of a team accompaniedby the members of MEA.The police have arrested ninepersons in the incident andalso suspended an ACP, oneInspector and four cops fordereliction of duty.

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TENDER NOTICEGROUP CENTRE, KATHGODAM

CENTRAL RESERVE POLICE FORCEGOLAPAR KATHGODAM DISTT-NAINITAL (UTTRAK-

HAND)-263 126T/PHONE NO- 05946-266434 FAX NO- 266434

NO. U. II. 1/2015-16-GC-KGMThe Deputy Inspector General of Police , Group Centre. CRPF.Kathgodam is invites online tenders on behalf of the Presidentof India under two bid system (Technical and Commercial bid)on the prescribed format for the purchase of following store as per details given below. In case date of opening of tenderhappens to be closed holiday, the tender will be opened on nextworking day at the stipulated time.

S.No. 1. Tender No. and date: No. L-VII- 1/2015-16-GC-KGM(Cloth PV Khaki) Dated, the Jan’2016, Description of stores:Cloth Dope Dyed PV Khaki Colour: Khaki Specification as perAppendix “D”), Qty: 39476 Mtr. EMD (Rs.): Rs. 1,00.000/- (Validup to 180 days). Cost Tender Document (Non refundable (inRupees): Rs. 500/-. Date & Time of receipt & opening of ten-der: a) Date & Time of receipt of tender: 26/02/2016 at 1030hrs. b) Date & Time of opening of tender: On or After 1200 Hourson 26/02/2016.

1. All firm who are not registered with DGS&D/ NSIC for subject stores as per T.E. specification shall be required todeposit earnest money as mentioned above along with theirtechnical bid.

2. The tender documents and all details including specification,terms & conditions etc. are available on CRPF web sitewww.crpf.gov.in as well as on E-Procurement web sitehttps://eprocure.gov.in/ eprocure/app (CPPP) the samemay be download by the bidders. Bid will be accepted onlyonline through e-procurement web site https://eprocure.gov.in/eprocure/app (CPPP) and all document are required to besubmitted in original.

3. For any changes In Tender enquiry /specification etc. ten-derers are requested to visit the CRPF / CPPP web sitesregularly.

Sd/-DIGP

davp 19111/11/0542/1516 GC, CRPF. KATHGODAM (UKD)

Jain Studios LimitedRegd. Office: Scindia Villa, Sarojini

Nagar, Ring Road, New Delh-110023.CIN: L92199DL1991PLC042611

NOTICE

Notice is hereby given Pursuant toSecurities and Exchange Board of India(Listing Obligations and DisclosureRequirements) Regulations, 2015, thatthe Meeting of the Board of Directors ofthe Company is scheduled to be held onSaturday, 13th February 2016 at theRegistered office of the Company to con-sider and take on record inter-alia the Un-Audited Financial Results (Provisional) ofthe Company for the quarter/Nine monthsended 31st December 2015.

By Order of the BoardSd/-

Date:06.02.2016 Satyendu PattnaikPlace: New Delhi Company Secretary

e-procurement Tender Notice (Second Call)

Tender I.D. No. 2016_NDMC_98367_1

Name of Work:- Supply of H.S. Type. St. Th. Jointing Kits Suitable for 66 KV, 1000 sq mm/IC,66 KV 630 Sqmm/IC XLPE cable and 33 KV 400 sqmm/3C XLPE cable

Estimate Cost:- � 15,47,151/-

Date of release of tender (second call) through e-procurement solution: 04.02.2016 at 3:00 PM.Last date/time for receipt of tender (second call) through e-procurement solution: 15.02.2016 at 3:00 PM.Date/time for opening of tender (second call) through e-procurement solution 15.02.2016 at 3:30 PM.Further details can be seen at https://govtprocurement.delhi.gov.in.

Note:- To participate in e-tender in NDMC registration with application services provider NIC is manda-tory.

Sd/-EXECUTIVE ENGINEER (E)

M/F Division

Office of the Executive Engineer (E)New Delhi Municipal Council

Maintenance Feeder DivisionVidyut Bhawan, M.L.N. Marg, New Delhi

The selection of thepampered New DelhiMunicipal Council,merely three per centof the area and popu-

lation of the capital city, forupgradation under the Centre’sSmart Cities Mission, embar-rassingly overlapped with theprolonged strike by municipalworkers of the three DelhiMunicipal Corporations andhighlighted some problems thathave long plagued this city.

The slugfest between theDelhi Government led by theAam Aadmi Party and theCorporations led by the BharatiyaJanata Party, their mutual recrim-inations and sins of commissionor omission, are not the subject ofthis column. But the BJP would dowell to concede that in street-fighting and populist rhetoric,Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal ismiles ahead. While there is an ele-ment of upper middle class disil-lusionment with him, his poten-tial to damage the BJP should notbe underestimated.

For the BJP, this is an oppor-tune moment to introspect whyit has lost five successive electionsin the capital over 17 years, andwhy loss in the next round seemsforetold, unless the leadershipseriously gets its act together. TheBJP must realise that when it lostthe first round to Ms SheilaDikshit, it could not recoverground because it failed to servethe citizens as a vigilantOpposition, which was its prima-ry duty. The soft-spoken MsDikshit thereafter unleashed onewrong after the other upon thehapless citizenry (the corrup-tion of the CommonwealthGames being just one glaringexample), but won three succes-sive terms on the strength of BJPacquiescence in her misdeeds.

Her first anti-citizen act wasto sell 51 per cent stake in theDelhi Electric SupplyUndertaking to two private firms(three discoms), opening thefloodgates for domestic electric-ity bills to spiral out of control.The BJP, however, repulsed sug-gestions to protest against the uni-lateral privatisation of the powerutility. Its indifference killed anascent citizens’ protest againstescalating bills, in Rajinder Nagar,and it was only when Ms Dikshit’sthird term was ending inignominy due to the dimensionsof myriad scandals, that it talkedof reducing bills by 30 per cent ifit came to power. By then, theAAP had captured the imagina-tion of the city, but Mr Arvind

Kejriwal’s first election in 2013ended in stalemate because a stingoperation dented his campaignfor four critical days.

The tragedy, which the BJPneeds to introspect, is why theparty failed to reconnect with vot-ers in 2015, after coming topower at the Centre and winningall seven Lok Sabha seats in2014. One reason is complete fail-ure to understand how prices,particularly of electricity (a fun-damental need in modern soci-ety), were hurting ordinary fam-ilies. Nor was there any appreci-ation of how the intellectuallyagile Mr Kejriwal had apolo-gised for his premature resigna-tion and campaigned on all issuesaffecting people’s lives, much asMr Modi did on an all-India basisin the run-up to the Lok Sabhaelection. In contrast, the BJP, in2015, quietly withdrew the pledgeto reduce electricity prices by 30per cent even as the AAPpromised a 50 per cent reductionand forensic audit of the discoms.

The financial crisis in themunicipal corporations had beenbuilding up for months, but themayors and BJP municipal

Councillors have been content tosit back in the hope that theCentre can somehow bail themout directly, without their havingexerted themselves in any wayover the past five years, at the veryleast. The very first question thatneeds to be asked, therefore, is:Why were the salaries of lowlykaramcharis withheld, while thoseof the elitist IAS and other offi-cers, not to mention the Mayorsand Councillors, were paid?Under Mr Modi, one expected tosee the rise of a culture of takingcare of the last rung first.

As enraged sanitation staffpile up garbage on crossroadsacross the city, the old punitivemeasures of invoking theEssential Services MaintenanceAct will not work. For a start, theCorporations must explain whatthey have done to improve rev-enues, if anything. For instance,several commercial offices havebeen waiting for years to getclearance to operate, withbuilders and investors losinglakhs of rupees in revenue daily.One such project that wascleared, was declared ‘un-cleared’after three months, and the

lapsed demand drafts returned,without explanation or apology.

Garbage management isintrinsic to the Prime Minister’sSwachch Bharat mission. Thiswriter has previously pointedout that the garbage trucks pur-chased by the Congress regimeare defective and increase clutteron roads and pavements on adaily basis, as a result of which noroad ever looks clean; the dangerof disease-causing flies and mos-quitoes rises proportionately. TheBJP has also not noticed that themanner in which garbage collec-tion is done makes a mockery ofgarbage separation at householdlevel, wherever this is done.

One solution is to make sep-aration mandatory; transparentdegradable plastic bags for non-biodegradable waste and black forwet kitchen waste. These shouldbe collected separately and divert-ed directly to landfills or wastemanagement systems. Regardingwater shortages, rainwater har-vesting is a complete failure dueto excessive concretisation ofcolony parks. Nor is there penal-ty for citizens who let treatedwater run into rainwater drains.

Another crisis pertains toparking woes. If Councillors andofficials were alert, they wouldrealise that, besides the growingnumber of large cars, road spaceis being misused by citizens whoare planting trees indiscrimi-nately on pavements, and evendirectly on the road along pave-ments, to prevent others fromparking on the public road alongtheir boundary walls. Othersplace large concrete pots orwiring to deny parking space.This land grab, not just reserva-tion of one’s own spot, hasassumed menacing proportionsand calls for a crackdown.

Another atrocity is theSDMC’s penchant for killing localmarkets with punitive parkingfees. The Aurobindo Market asso-ciation had to struggle to recov-er footfalls lost to sudden impo-sition of parking fees. Now YusufSarai is suffering. The worst isHauz Khas, where the under-ground parking had designdefects, was unused for sevenyears, never repaired, and nowdeclared operational. Citizensshopping for household necessi-ties are being forced to shell out�40 for parking and shop-keep-ers are getting hurt. Yet, malls thatneed to pay attendants are beingforced not to charge shopperswho can afford to pay!

Clearly, such corporationscannot build a smart or clean city.'

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Sir — This refers to the editorial,“The ‘happy to help’ motto”(February 8). At a time when polit-ical leaders are in the news forwrong reasons, such an editorial,highlighting the good work doneby Union Minister for ExternalAffairs Sushma Swaraj, has comeas a breath of fresh air. The goodthing about Ms Swaraj is that shemaintains a low profile and keepsdoing her work. This is not onlya sign of a good human being, butalso of a mature politician. Shetook swift measures to rescueand help people from Germany,Senegal and elsewhere. She isswift in her action and respondsin liaison with the respectivecountries. We need more selflessand dedicated leaders like her.

Bal GovindNoida

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Sir — This refers to the editorial,“Hate politics trounced” (February8). Despite his British education andmembership of Parliament, and alsodue to his being a representative ofthe hardcore Muslim-dominatedHyderabad constituency, All IndiaMajlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen chief

Asaduddin Owaisi loves to makecommunal statements. His party’sdefeat in the Greater HyderabadMunicipal Corporation election isa good thing.

However, Mr Owaisi has slight-ly modified his communal postureby trying to woo the Dalits in hisfold. His aim is to exploit casteismin Hindu society for his nefariousagenda by forging an alliance withradical Dalit leaders like KanchaIlaiah on the lines of RashtriyaJanata Dal chief Lalu Prasad’s‘Muslim-Yadav’ coalition.

M Ratan Via email

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Sir — This refers to the report, “BJPquestions CM over his minister’sstatement” (February 8). UttarPradesh Chief Minister AkhileshYadav is unable to rein in his ownCabinet colleagues, asking them toexercise caution in public remarks.

Uttar Pradesh Minister andSamajwadi Party leader AzamKhan keeps throwing venom by hishighly irresponsible and maliciousstatements, but the Yadavs maintainsilence. By alleging that PrimeMinister Narendra Modi metDawood Ibrahim at Pakistan PrimeMinister Nawaz Sharif ’s house inLahore, Mr Khan has brought

shame to the nation. Mr Yadav mustimmediately dismiss Mr Khanfrom the party and ask him to apol-ogise to the Prime Minister.

C K SardanaBhopal

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Sir — This refers to the report, “Stopmaking excuses, Rahul tells Modi”(February 6). The entire country iswitness as to how the MonsoonSession and subsequently theWinter Session were washed outdue to frequent disruptions by theCongress. While some legislativebusiness could be done in the LokSabha, the Rajya Sabha remainedparalysed except for the last threedays, when a few Bills were passed.

Members of Parliament areelected to make laws and not toobstruct the business of law-mak-ing. Passing laws is the mandate ofParliament and not of the rulingGovernment alone. Instead ofpointing fingers at the PrimeMinister, Congress vice presidentRahul Gandhi and his party shoulddo the job for which they have beenelected and stop stalling Parliament.

MC JoshiLucknow

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The Delhi High Court ishearing a plea filed by theAll-India Footwear

Manufacturers and RetailersAssociation, regarding thealleged flouting of foreign directinvestment rules by e-com-merce companies. In its affi-davit to the court, theDepartment of Industrial Policyand Promotion has argued thatits job is to formulate policy —not monitor implementation.

The DIPP added that it hasalready laid down a ‘transparent’and ‘predictable’ policy whichpermits 100 per cent FDI in busi-ness-to-business transactions ine-commerce, but only prohibitsin the business-to-customer seg-ment. Further, it does not recog-nise the concept of a ‘marketplace’, which all major e-com-merce companies viz, Flipkart,Snapdeal and Amazon are pro-jecting as their business model.

DIPP is the nodal authorityfor all FDI-related issues. If, it was

so confident that the much tout-ed ‘market place’ concept has novalidity, then why did it not com-municate in clear terms to theFinance Ministry about the vio-lations under the ForeignExchange Management Act?Why did it wait till the mattercame up in court?

On the other hand, if, theDIPP felt that the rules were clear(requiring no clarification), thenwhy did the Finance Ministry nottake cognisance of the violationsand ask the EnforcementDirectorate to initiate actionagainst e-commerce companies?This is all the more reprehensi-ble when the Union FinanceMinister basks in the glory of asurge in FDI, propelled in largemeasure by inflows into e-com-merce — and yet there is no clar-ity if such inflow is permittedunder current regulations.

Now, the court has seen aprima facie violation of FDI pol-icy by e-commerce companies

and asked the ED to probe 21 e-commerce players in India. If theinvestigation is meant to authen-ticate what is already known,does this not tantamount to asheer waste of time? Last year, thecourt had told the Governmentto sort out the matter within fourmonths, but the latter continuedto dilly dally.

To understand what an e-commerce company does, lookat this: The customer registershis/her request for an article onthe web portal. The portal thenraises an invoice and arranges forits delivery (from its warehouse)to the customer’s address. Thecompany also receives consider-ations, accepts rejections andarranges for refund. In short, itperforms all sales-related func-tions and has all the logistics tosupport these.

Operations of e-commercecompanies fall under B2C clas-sification. If, however, e-com-merce companies were to accept

reality and declare themselvesretailers, they will find themselveson the wrong side of the law. So,e-commerce companies ‘camou-flage’ their retailer status underthe so-called ‘market place’model — a euphemism for a plat-form where sellers and buyersconduct transactions.

What pushed e-commercecompanies to take up such anunhealthy practice? It is theGovernment’s unrealistic policyof barring FDI in the B2C seg-ment. The policy goes against thecontemporary milieu whereinFDI is badly needed to boost eco-nomic activity including in theretail segment. Foreign funds arewaiting to come in. If you chokethe flow, these will still come in,albeit in a round-about manner.

Under the extant policyapproved by the UPA dispensa-tion in 2012 and continued by theModi Government, 51 per centFDI is allowed in multi-brandretail. But, several riders, such as

30 per cent sourcing from smallenterprises, a minimum invest-ment of $100 million, priorapproval by States Governmentsetc, have virtually shut the doorto FDI in MBR. In this backdrop,permitting FDI in e-commercewould have been out of sync. So,that too has been banned.

With FDI in both forms ofMBR banned, foreign funds arepouring into e-commerce illegal-ly. This too will stop underorders from the court soonerthan later. Even the moneyalready invested will have to goback. The consequences will betoo dastardly to fathom.

The Government allows 100per cent FDI in single-brandretail. Recently, rules weretweaked to permit a foreigncompany already in single-brandretail to sell the brand via e-com-merce as well (for example, Ikeawill be able to sell its furniture one-platforms). Hundred per centFDI is also allowed in wholesale

cash-and-carry businesses. Howironical that foreign companiesin India can sell, through multi-brand platforms, to wholesalebuyers but not to retailers.

Much of the current policymess is due to the unnecessaryclassifications such as ‘single-brand’ and ‘multi-brand’, a prac-tice unique to India. The rest ofthe world does not differentiatein retail. Why cannot India fol-low this practice? Why can’t theGovernment allow 100 per centFDI in MBR?

Once the anomaly withregard to foreign investment inthe physical segment isremoved, the Government willhave no problem allowing 100per cent FDI in e-commerceretail including the B2C seg-ment. With this, both retailersand e-tailors will be at a level-playing field and can engagewith foreign investors in anopen and transparent manner(no back door entry).

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The imposition of Governor’srule in Jammu & Kashmir onJanuary 8 was initially per-ceived to be a temporaryarrangement, under a consti-

tutional requirement. But this weekendCentral rule in the State, in absence of anelected Government, has completed itsfirst month. The Legislative Assembly isunder suspended animation and thepolitical crisis is not showing any signs ofresolution. On February 4, Jammu &Kashmir Governor NN Vohra picked tworetired Indian Administrative Service offi-cers — Mr Parvez Dewan and MrKhurshid Ganai — to be his advisors torun the affairs of the embattled State.

This is indicative of the fact thatGovernment-formation in the borderState of Jammu & Kashmir is not roundthe corner and if there is no progress inbridging the gap between the PeoplesDemocratic Party and the Bhartiya JanataParty, to refresh their alliance, the optionof dissolving the Assembly and having aninterim poll will have to be explored.

The crisis in the State erupted onJanuary 7, following the sad demise ofChief Minister Mufti MohammedSayeed. Unlike National Conferencepresident Farooq Abdullah, who wassworn into the Chief Minister’s officethe same day that his father SheikhMohammed Abdullah passed away, onSeptember 8, 1982, or Rajiv Gandhi,who took charge as Prime Ministerhours after his mother Indira Gandhiwas assassinated on October 31, 1984,PDP president Mehbooba Mufti hasrefused to step into her father’s shoesright away.

For the first two weeks, her partymaintained that Ms Mufti was grief-strick-en, shattered, and devastated by thedeath of her political mentor and was notin the frame of mind to take the oath ofoffice. Since the day of the Mufti’s demise,the BJP had already made clear that it hadno qualms in offering support to Ms Muftiif she stakes her claim as Chief Ministerof Jammu & Kashmir. Technically, MsMufti can be elected as the leader of thelegislature only before seeking support ofthe alliance partner.

However, it was not grief alone thatprevented Ms Mufti from stepping intoher father’s shoes. On January 17, she indi-cated that all was not well with the alliancethat her father had stitched with the BJP,before he took over as Chief Minister onMarch 1, 2015. The Mufti had referred tothis alliance as the joining the North Poleand the South Pole. His daughter hadappreciated her father’s courage to alignwith the BJP despite public resentmentagainst the nationalist party in Muslim-majority Kashmir.

After watching her father’s tenure inoffice for 10 months, Ms Mufti said thatthe decision to form an alliance with theBJP was “courageous but unpopular”. MsMufti’s approach to form a Governmentin Jammu & Kashmir is full of contradic-tions. On the one hand, she wants to carryforward the alliance, but not without freshassurances from the BJP’s central leader-ship that the party will back herGovernment’s agenda on political, eco-nomic, administrative and financialfronts. On the other hand, her party com-pares the Agenda of Alliance — a docu-

ment penned down by the deceased Muftiand Prime Minister Narendra Modi — asthe roadmap for governance. Ms Mufti istrying to suggest that there were no pre-conditions on pursuing the allianceafresh, but seeks guarantee that the“sacred document” will be implementedin letter and spirit.

On February 2, Mr Vohra summonedMs Mufti and BJP’s State president SatpalSharma to the Raj Bhawan, to discussGovernment-formation, ostensibly fol-lowing Ms Mufti’s assertions on the sub-ject in meetings with her party legislatorsand office-bearers at the ground level. Onher return from the Raj Bhawan, Ms Muftispilled the beans and lamented that herfather was not treated well by the BJP.“Unfortunately, the Mufti’s resolute deci-sion (of aligning with the BJP) was not rec-iprocated by the Union Government, theway he expected it to be”, she said.

So, what were the Mufti’s expecta-tions? First, the Agenda of Alliance hadpromised that the coalition partnerswould safeguard the special status ofJammu & Kashmir within theConstitution of India. But in effect, indi-viduals and outfits associated with theBJP attempted legal tricks to fiddle withthe special status guaranteed underArticle 370.

A plea in the apex court was filed todo away with Article 35A that would ineffect render Article 370 ineffective. AMuslim BJP leader from Jammuapproached the Jammu & Kashmir HighCourt to stall an earlier verdict of the samecourt making hoisting of Jammu &

Kashmir’s State flag compulsory alongwith the national tricolour on nationaldays and over buildings and cars occupiedby constitutional authorities. The BJP didnot prevent these legal wrangles.

Second, as Chief Minister, the Mufticould not initiate a dialogue with theHurriyat Conference nor did he find a sit-uation where he could have set the sep-aratist leaders free. He was trumpeting thebattle of ideas in a democracy, but wasforced to eat humble pie with the re-arrestof separatist leader Masarat Alam and oth-ers who were put under house arrest.

Third, the Mufti had expectedlarge financial support from the Centreespecially in the aftermath of 2014floods. But it took a great deal of timefor the Modi Government to announcethe economic package of �80,000 crorefor Jammu & Kashmir on November 7,2015. Also, the actual package forflood victims was meagre.

The �7,854 crore flood relief includ-ed flood management package for Jhelumand Tawi rivers. The actual flood relief forcommon victims was reduced to merepeanuts. Also, Union Minister for PowerPiyush Goyal refused the transfer ofpower projects to State-owned hydel-power giant National Hydroelectric PowerCorporation. What also hurt the PDP wasMr Modi’s public remark that he did notrequire advice on Kashmir from anybody— minutes after the Mufti had urged himto walk an extra mile to reach out toPakistan and Kashmiri separatist leaders.

Alongwith BJP MP Jugal Kishore,Ms Mufti was the co-chair of the coor-

dination committee to monitor theimplementation of the Agenda ofAlliance. During the 10 months that thecoalition Government was functioning,Ms Mufti didn’t come out publicly onthese contentious issues though she didsay that the tenure took a heavy toll onher father’s health. But now, Ms Muftisays that the Chief Minister confronted“enormous resource constraints andfrequent unsettling issues”. Her silencethen is quite intriguing.

As of now, the options for Ms Muftiare limited. She can’t afford to seek a freshmandate because her party has nothingto offer to the people except apologies. Infact, her fresh public posturing against theBJP will be counterproductive for herparty. This is well understood by her polit-ical rival, the National Conference, thathas been stressing on two options — eithercontinue the PDP-BJP alliance or holdfresh elections.

Ms Mufti is aware of the ground sit-uation. One viable option is to providegood governance for the remaining fiveyears to offset the ‘negative impact’.Therefore, she has started stressing onconfidence building measures so that thePDP can walk together with the BJP.

It is now upto the BJP to accommo-date Ms Mufti’s concerns. The BJP’spredicament is that it can’t take any deci-sion at the State-level. The final call hasto be made by Mr Modi and BJP presi-dent Amit Shah. One positive thing forMs Mufti is that the BJP would not wantlose Jammu & Kashmir, where it has cometo power for the first time in history.

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Countr y’s economy isexpected to record a five-

year high growth rate of 7.6per cent in 2015-16 overtak-ing slowing China on theback of improved perfor-mance in manufacturing andfarm sectors.

Gross domestic product(GDP) will expand by 7.6 percent in 2015-16 comparedwith 7.2 per cent a year earli-er, according to the CentralStatistics Office (CSO). Theprevious high at 8.9 per centwas recorded in 2010-11.

China grew 6.9 per cent in2015 while Russia contracted3.7 per cent. Brazil is forecastto shrink 3.7 per cent.

However, India’s GDPgrowth slowed to 7.3 per centin October-December, fromthe revised 7.7 per cent of theprevious quarter. It, howeverbettered the 6.6 per cent in thesame period of the last fiscal.

On the GDP data,Economic Affairs SecretaryShaktikanta Das said: “Thedirection of the numbers isvery positive. The policy andreform measure theGovernment has undertakenin last one and a half years arebeginning to show results.”

The economic growthprojection of 7.6 per cent for

the current fiscal by CSO hassurpassed the estimates of theFinance Ministry, ReserveBank and other multilateralagencies.

The CSO’s estimate ishigher than the FinanceMinistry’s mid-year econom-ic analysis, which projected agrowth rate of 7-7.5 per centfor the current fiscal. It is alsohigher than 7.4 per cent esti-mated by the Reserve Bank ofIndia.

IMF has projected India’sgrowth at 7.3 per cent whileAsian Development Bankexpected India’s GDP toexpand at 7.4 per cent in2015-16. Moody’s InvestorsService has put the corre-sponding figure at 7 per centfor this fiscal.

“Going ahead, we hope tosee a continued momentumon the reforms front. We lookforward to the Union Budgetgiving a positive direction tothe economy. The focusshould clearly be on intro-ducing measures to furtherboost domestic investmentsand demand,” Ficci SecretaryGeneral A Didar Singh said.

The real Gross ValueAdded (GVA), a new conceptintroduced by CSO to mea-sure economic growth, is pro-jected at 7.3 per cent in thisfiscal against 7.1 per cent in

2014-15.The manufacturing sector

is estimated to grow at 9.5 percent in 2015-16, up from 5.5per cent a year ago.

Similarly, in case of agri-culture sector, the growth hasbeen projected at 1.1 per centas against a decline of 0.2 percent in year-ago period. Thegrowth of mining and quar-rying sector, electricity andpower supply and other ser-vices is likely to witness decel-eration during the currentfinancial year.

Referring to the decelera-tion in GDP growth in thethird quarter, AssochamPresident Sunil Kanoria said,“Government should also takeproactive policy measures inthe upcoming Budget, specif-ically focused on agriculture,infrastructure sector, steel,banking and financial sec-tors, among others, to revivethe economy.”

According to the data, theGVA grew at 7.1 per cent inthird quarter of this fiscalcompared to 6.7 per cent inthe same period a year ago.

The GVA for the farm sec-tor contracted one per cent inOctober-December quartercompared to decline of 2.4 percent in the same period a yearago.

However, the GVA for

manufacturing sector grew at12.6 per cent in the thirdquarter as against a growth of1.7 per cent in the same threemonth period a year ago.

Similarly, the GVA formining and quarrying sectorgrew at 6.5 per cent in thequarter under review com-pared to 9.1 per cent growthin same period a year ago.

The GVA growth for elec-tricity, gas, water supply andother utility services tooslowed down to 6 per centfrom 8.8 per cent in samequarter a year ago.

The GVA for constructiongrew at 4 per cent in the quar-ter compared to 4.9 per centin same period in 2014-15.

However, the GVA fortrade, hotels, transport, com-munication and services relat-ed to broadcasting grew at10.1 per cent in third quartercompared to 6.2 per cent inthe same period a year ago.

Financial, real estate andprofessional services grew at9.9 per cent in third quarterthis fiscal compared to 12.1per cent a year ago.

Public administration,defence and other servicesgrew at 7.5 per cent in thethree month period comparedto 25.3 per cent a year ago.

CSO estimated that theper capita income in real

terms (at 2011-12 prices)during 2015-16 is likely toattain a level of �77,431 ascompared to �72,889 for2014-15.

The growth rate in percapita income is estimated at6.2 per cent during 2015-16as against 5.8 per cent in theprevious year.

Gross Fixed C apita lFormation (GFCF), a barom-eter of investment, is esti-mated at �39.82 lakh crore atcurrent prices in 2015-16 asagainst �38.44 lakh crore in2014-15.

At constant (2011-12)prices, the GFCF is estimat-ed at �35.88 lakh crore in2015-16 as against �34.08lakh crore in 2014-15.

In terms of GDP, therates of GFCF at currentand constant (2011-12)prices during 2015-16 areestimated at 29.4 per centand 31.6 per cent as againstthe corresponding rates of30.8 per cent and 32.3 percent, respectively in 2014-15.

The GFCF is expected toregister growth rate of 3.6per cent at current prices and5.3 per cent at constantprices.

The rate of expenditureon valuables at current pricesis same as 1.5 per cent in2015-16 and 2014-15.

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Market snapped a two daysrally on Monday as

Sensex plunged by 330 pointsto 24,287.42 ahead of therelease of GDP numbers for thethird quarter as selling pressureintensified in the second half ofthe session on bearishEuropean cues.

The BSE barometer, whichopened on a flat note, remainedsideways for most part of thesession awaiting quarterly GDPnumbers, but sank heavily onweak opening in Europeanshares.

Most markets in Asia,including China and HongKong, were closed for theLunar New Year holiday.

“Continuous fall in oilprices and slowdown in Chinais impacting global markets aswell as India. European markethas reacted negatively on dis-inflation concerns,” said VinodNair, Head-FundamentalResearch of Geojit BNPParibas.

Moreover, the rupee depre-ciated by as much as 30 paiseagainst the American curren-cy.

The BSE Sensex resumedhigher at 24,637.41 and firmedup further to a high of24,698.95 on early buying inview of good foreign capitalinflows. However, it dropped

afterwards to 24,196.84 on fag-end selling pressure on the backof lower European cues, beforefinishing at 24,287.42, showinga loss of 329.55 points or 1.34per cent.

This was the index’s biggestsingle-day fall since January 20.It had gained 393.65 points inthe last two sessions.

The NSE 50-share Niftyalso moved down by 101.65points or 1.36 per cent to closeat 7,387.25 after moving in arange of 7,512.55 to 7,363.20.

Steel stocks extended gainsregistered in the previous ses-sion after the government set afloor price or minimum importprice (MIP) for import of atotal of 173 steel products in abid to restrict cheap steelimports which has adverselyaffected the domestic steelindustry.

Bhushan Steel surged by up6.28 per cent, JSW Steel ended0.99 per cent higher, whileTata Steel gained 0.19 per cent.

Shares of Jet Airways ral-lied by 4 per cent after the air-line reported a record profit of�467.11 crore for the quarterended December 31, on theback of lower input costs.

Overseas, Japan’s Nikkeiended 1.1 per cent higher asmost regional marketsremained closed. However,European markets tradedlower, extending last week’s

tumble. Key indexes in France,Germany and the UK slumpedby up to 1.61 per cent. Backhome, 22 scrips out of the 30-share Sensex pack endedlow-er.

Major losers were, TataMotors (3.94 pc), ITC (2.72pc), ONGC (2.43 pc), SunPharma (2.42 pc), TCS (2.36pc), Wipro (2.25 pc), Infosys(2.20 pc), HDFC (1.85 pc)HDFC Bank (1.82 pc), HUL(1.78 pct), M&M (1.63 pct),Coal India (1.26 pct), DrReddy’s (1.24 pct), NTPC (1.20pct), Asian Paints (1.11 pct)and RIL (1.10 pct).

However, Axis Bankgained 2.38 per cent, followedby SBI 2.29 per cent, BhartiAirtel 1.27 per cent, Lupin 0.97per cent and GAIL 0.59 percent.

Among the S&P BSE sec-torial and industrials indices,IT fell by 1.95 per cent, teck(1.60 pc), oil&gas (1.48 pc),energy (1.35 pc), FMGC (1.25pc), auto (1.03 pc), healthcare(0.99 pc), power (0.92 pc) andmetal (0.85 pc).

However, telecom, realtyand consumer durables werethe only sectors up by 0.78 percent, 0.37 per cent and 0.19 percent, respectively.

In broader markets, mid-cap and small-cap indicesended 0.23 per cent and 0.02per cent lower, respectively.

�����?�����44;�����

������ ��� Maruti Suzuki India(MSI) is looking at its engineersto take lead in the development ofat least three to four models, outof 15 new vehicles to be launchedin the country by 2020, along thelines of its new compact SUVVitara Brezza.

The move is part of SuzukiMotor Corporation’s (SMC) visionof MSI shouldering more respon-sibility in developing India-specificproducts while the parent focus-es on high-end technology,according to sources.

“There could be three tofour models that would be devel-oped with MSI engineers takingthe lead out of the 15 modelsplanned to be launched in Indiaby 2020. However, no final deci-sion has been taken yet,” a sourcesaid.

These products will, howev-er, be developed on Suzukiengines and platform and notfrom the scratch, the sourceadded.

“These will be like the Brezza,which followed a unique devel-opment process with a specialfocus on taste and values ofIndian customers,” according tothe source.

When contacted, a companyspokesperson declined to com-ment, saying “we do not commenton our future product plans.”

The 15 new models to belaunched in the next five years inIndia are to be mainly spread over

three key platforms, which willtogether entail an investment of$1 billion.

MSI Executive Director -R&D, C V Raman lead the designand development of the VitaraBrezza, which was developed ata total investment of �860 crorewith localisation level of 98 percent.

The model, that was unveiledat the Auto Expo 2016, would belaunched in the market in the

coming weeks.During his visit to India for

the Auto Expo, SMC Presidentand COO T Suzuki had statedthat the Japanese car majorexpected its arm Maruti Suzukito shoulder more responsibility indeveloping India-specific prod-ucts.

“The main responsibility ofour Indian R&D is to developsuitable products for the Indianmarket. Maruti Suzuki will beshouldering more and moreresponsibility in this regard,” hehad said.

Suzuki had pointed out thatentry of other global players hasincreased competition in Indiaand “we have to develop moresuitable products for the Indianmarket”. Already, Maruti Suzukihas been ramping up its designand development capabilitieswith an investment of �2,500crore to set up its R&D centre atRohtak which boasts of a testtrack, among others. "��

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������ ����Tata Motors todaysaid a lockout has beendeclared at the Dharwad plantof one of its subsidiaries, TataMarcopolo Motors, following“illegal strike” by workmenover wage negotiations.

The company said “work-men resorted to an illegalstrike, with mass absence onJanuary 31, 2016, compellingthe plant’s management toresort to temporary suspensionof operations on February 1 toensure safety.”

“In view of continued dete-rioration of the situation and inthe absence of a congenialworking atmosphere, with acontinued threat to safety ofpeople and equipment, thecompany declared a lock-outfrom February 6,” a TataMotors spokesperson said in ane-mailed response.

The company accusedworkers of disruption and jeop-ardising its operations and rep-utation in spite of it “under-taking an upward wage revisionevery year, even in adversemarket conditions.”

“Tata Marcopolo remainscommitted to its well-estab-lished principles of strong andcordial relationship with itspeople, with fair, employee-friendly policies at all times, butwill not tolerate any indisci-pline and coercive methods topressurise for unreasonabledemands,” the spokespersonsaid.

The Tata Marcopolo plantin Dharwad employs over2,500 people and has the capac-ity to manufacture over 15,000buses per annum.

The plant rolls out fully-built buses for intra-city andinter-city transportation, includ-ing 16 to 54-seater standardbuses and 18 to 45-seater luxu-ry and low-floor city buses. "��

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The Government is planningto bring out large tenders for

producing 2-4 giga-watts (GW)of solar power, Union MinisterPiyush Goyal said on Monday.

“We are looking at comingout with 2-4 GW of solar powertenders. This will lead toeconomies of scale as large play-ers will come as well as large cap-ital...” Goyal told reporters on thesidelines of the India-AustraliaEnergy Dialogue here.

The country’s grid-con-nected solar power generationcapacity has crossed the 5,000MW mark.

The Government has set anambitious target of generating100 GW of solar power by 2021-22 under the National SolarMission. It is envisaged to gen-erate 60 GW ground mountedgrid-connected solar power and40 GW roof-top grid interactivesolar power to meet the target.

The Power ministry hasalso fixed year-wise targets tomonitor the solar power gener-ation in the country. The targetfor the current year is 2,000 MWand 12,000 MW for the nextyear.

The ministry is putting allefforts through various Centraland State Governments schemes

to achieve the target.It has also initiated several

schemes for development ofsolar parks and ultra mega solarpower projects. Tenders foraround 18,000 MW of solarprojects are expected to be issuedby March 31, 2016.

The Power, Coal andRenewable Energy Minister saidthe tariffs for solar power cancome down by another 10 percent from the record low of Rs4.34 per unit last month.

“When I first said that solarpower tariffs need to comedown, nobody believed me.Now when they have comedown to record low they believeme. But looking at the way auc-tions have gone, it can comedown by 10 per cent,” the min-ister said.

In November last year, thesolar power tariff had touched anall-time low of �4.63 per unit fol-

lowing aggressive bidding by theUS-based SunEdison, the world’sbiggest developer of renewableenergy power plants.

Also, the Government willencourage roof top solar projectsas well as come out with ways toencourage farmers to start smallsolar power projects, he added.

“I want to do something forfarmers and I am thinking ofways to encourage them towardssolar power. This can also add totheir income. This is my dream,”Goyal said.

He is heading a delegation ofsenior officials for the IndiaAustralia Energy Dialogue.

Industry body CII is alsoleading a delegation to the four-day dialogue, which will witnessroundtable meetings betweenthe government of the two coun-tries as well as businesses fromboth sides on energy relatedissues.

+����������������������������� ��)(>�+7��������������� ����The US-based IT

services firm Cognizant onMonday posted a 16.7 percent rise in net profit at $423.4million for the Decemberquarter, from $362.9 milliona year ago, helped by growthin healthcare and NorthAmerica and Rest of World(RoW) geographies.

The company, which hasa large part of its workforcebased in India, met its revenueguidance at $3.23 billion inthe said quarter, up 17.9 percent from $2.74 billion inOctober-December of 2014.

However, the manage-ment expects negligiblechange in January-March of2016 from the precedingquarter and has forecast rev-enues to be in the range of$3.18-3.24 billion.

For the entire 2016,Cognizant expects to grow at9.9-14.3 per cent, translatinginto a revenue of $13.65-14.20 billion.

While this is in line withIndian IT industry bodyNasscom’s estimates of 10-12per cent growth for 2016-17,it is lower than its own 21 percent growth it clocked in2015.

For 2015, Cognizant sawnet profit rising by 13.2 percent to $1.62 billion while rev-enues were up 21 per cent at$12.42 billion. "��

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������ ����Apple, the makerof popular iPad and iPhonedevices, will have to submit afresh application for openingsingle brand retail stores inthe country, as certain gapshave been found in the initialproposal.

The Department ofIndustr ial Policy andPromotion (DIPP) hasexplained the gaps to thecompany and wants them to

submit a fresh application,seeking more information ontheir proposal for furtherprocessing, according tosources.

Last month, the companyhad filed its proposal seekingpermission for single brandretailing and sell its productsonline.

Apple had not mentionedthe amount of investmentand number of stores it wantsto open. "��

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AUCTION TO BE HELD ON 25.02.2016 AT1100 HRS AT CISF UNIT GBS, NEW DELHI.

DETAILS OF ITEMS:-1. CONDEMNED TYRE, TUBES&FLAPS

SL No. SIZE QT Security Money to beY collected from Bidders

01 7.5 x 16 & 7.0 x 16 10 Rs. 2000.0002 215/75 R 15 6003 9.00 x 20 2004 2.75 x18/300 x 18 1805 205/65 R 15 04

2. CONDEMNED BATTERIES

SL No. MHD/Volt QTY Security Money to becollected from Bidders

01 MHD 1800 12 Volt 0502 MHD 1800 12 Volt 01 Rs. 2000.0003 MHD 700 12 Volt 0704 2.5LC 19

3. SCRAP ITEMS

SI No. Items Weight Security Money to becollected from Bidders

01 Scrape 220 Kg Rs. 1000

TERMS AND CONDITIONS:-

01. Every Bidder has to deposit above mentioned amount assecurity money before participation in the auction sale whichwill be refunded to unsuccessful bidders after auction asover.

02. The highest bid shall be subject to approval by the boardof officers

03. The purchaser has to pay full amount of his bid togethersale tax in cash or in shape of demand draft in favour ofAsstt. commandant/DDO CISF Unit GBS New Delhi drownin SBI on the spot and remove the items on the same dateat his own cost.

04. The items will be sold on as is where basis is.05. Any change in date and time due to unavoidable circum-

stances will be communicated through News paper on othermedia.

Sd/-SR. COMMANDANT

davp 19141/11/0049/1516 CISF UNIT GBS, NEW DELHI

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0�����;�#����#���

Terrorism and DrugSmuggling are Siamese

twins. Although both look in dif-ferent directions, they movetogether in one direction. Theysupport each other, they helpsustain and strengthen eachother andproceed with single-minded determination to movetowards their goal.

In Punjab, their target is justone: Bleed India. This truism wasonce again displayed beyond anydoubt in the recent Fidayeenattack on the strategic air base inPathankot. Just as the dawn wasstruggling to welcome the NewYear in the blood-curdling cold,a sinister, well-armed, well-trained and highly motivated sui-cide-hugging Fidayeen gangsneaked into the Pathankot airbase, which housed, besides sev-eral ‘vital assets’, 10,000 familymembers of air force personnel.

The ease with which theFidayeen could move inPathankot and commandeer thevehicle of the district superin-tendent of police also speaks vol-umes of the collusion and deep-rooted criminal nexus betweendrug smugglers and thePathankot police. While thisnexus is well-known and needsto be somehow broken-easiersaid than done-it is not confinedto Pathankot only but has its ten-tacles all over Punjab. Drugs aredoing more damage to the youthand future of Punjab (and India)than terrorist bullets.

Although ill-informedmedia men and so-called‘experts’ started tearing into theIndian response to the Fidayeenstrike, their self conceit blindedthem to the several positives thatwere exhibited by the Indian airforce and counter-terroristmachinery that existed on theground at the air base. Whentalking about any terrorist strikeand the response of the counter-terrorism machinery, the factthat the 'element of surprise' isalways with the terrorists hasnecessarily to be kept in mind.After every terrorist strike, thepost-mortem that is doe in theentire media, specially in TVdebates, just does nottake intoaccount this 'element of surprise'.Naturally, this gives rise to a lotof misinformation being dis-seminated.

My intention is not to rundown anybody or any thesisabout terrorist strikes, it is myhumble endeavour to give a fewvaluable tips to whosoeverspeaks, writes and discusses onTV suicide attacks. Urban ter-rorism is now a fact of life ans wehave tio live with it. The dynam-ics and mechanics of terrorismare such that terrorist strikes willcontinue to take place, despitebest precautionary measures.

They just cannot be avoided asit is the job of terrorists to keepthe pot boiling. The efficacy andeffectiveness of our law enforce-ment agencies can be gaugedonly from the time it takes themto"neutralize" the attackers with-out substantial "collateral" dam-age. A lot of misconceptions andmyths get circulated when all andsundrystart condemning theanti-terrorism machinery with-out taking hard realities intoaccount.

The same was the case withthe Pathankot air base attacks inwhich 7 innocent lives werelost. These deaths need to becondoled but what emergedcrystal clear was the ‘quickresponse’ by the Defence SecurityCorps personnel.

It showed beyond any rea-sonabledoubt that even at thatunearthly hour when theFidayeen struck, the reflex actionof DSC Jawan was A-grade.India should be proud ofsuchalert and brave officers andmen. It showed that India haslearnt itslessons in teachingFidayeen a lesson of their lives.

Some of the myths that gotcirculated after the Pathankotstrike were:

(MYTH 1) The casualtieswere very high.

FACT: (a) Only one AirForce Guard Commando waskilled in direct combat with theterrorists; (b) In keeping with thehighest traditions of the Indianarmed forces, whose officerslead from the front, one NSGofficer who died was actuallyaccidental in nature. He diedwhile defusing an explosivedevice;(c) the bulk of the casu-alties-five in all-occurred in the'langar' (cook house) of the DSCLines located near the outerperimeter wall of there air base.Though unfortunate, the fiveDSC Jawan died when theywere not on sentry duty. Theywere actually off duty. Hence, thecasualties can in no way bedescribed as very high. In fact,they were minimal.

(MYTH 2) Why did it takeso much time to terminate theoperation?

FACT: The aim was to keepown casualties minimal. Nocasualty occurred, except that ofthe NSG officer who died acci-dently while defusing an explo-sive device, and the deaths in the'langer' in the first fewminutes,there was no casualty after con-tact was established with theter-rorists.

The operation was neutral-ize the Fidayeen was done in avery deliberate and meticulousmanner to firstly avoid "collat-eral" damage in terms of owntroops and vital assets likebuildings and airplanes.

The operation was deliber-ately slowed down so that the

type of weapons and firepowerused by the Fidayeen could becalibrated andeffectively coun-tered. Further, priority wasaccorded to cutting off all escaperoutes that the Fidayeen couldtake as the final aim was to catchthem alive.

These orders had been givenby the topmost officer super-vising the operation, who wasnone other than the NationalSecurity Adviser tothe PrimeMinister.

Mr Doval, a hard-bpoiledIntelligence officer. Critics whowere raising a hue and cry overwhy it took so long to end theoperation even when theFidayeen were not many innumber probably did not knowthat the air base is spread over2,000 acres.

Naturally,the search andcombing operations took a longtime as they aredeliberatelydone very slowly and meticu-lously, avoiding all kinds ofboo-by traps.

That the actual engagement(fire-fight) with the terroristswas actually for just 11 hoursspeaks volumes of the clinicalmanner in which this operationwas carried out. In fact, itdenotes a welcomestep forwardin the war against terror.

Hence, by no stretch ofimagination can it be said thatthe operation was either pro-longed or took too long to ter-minate. The air base securitystaff need to becongratulated forsecuring all the valuable assetswhich were actually air bornewithin minutes of the suddenattack. This fact is not known-to many.

(MYTH 3): Why was itannounced on the very first daythat the operation was over?

FACT: The two terroristswere holed-up inside a buildingand they just could not move outor carry out any of their sinis-ter designs as anair-tight cordonhad been thrown around them.This encounter site was so tight-ly secured that the Fidayeen hadno options but to either die orsurrender.

They were finally neutral-ized on January 3. Hence, theoperation, in a practical way ofspeaking, was actually over onthe first day itself. Buty it was notcalled off as search and comb-ing continued. It was the mediawhich hyped it. Mopping upoperationcontinued for a fewdays more.

(MYTH 4 ): Why were theArmy's Special Forces notemployed?

FACT: This was a blatantcanard as the Special Forces werekept in readiness to move in anymoment in case the need arosenot just at the air base but atother military installations inentire Pathankot district.

(MYTH 5): Even whenthere was advance informationabout the Fidayeen attack, howcould they enter the air base?

FACT: Security personnelwere deployed to protect vitalinstallations and assets in andaround Pathankot, which hasthe distinction of being thelargest cantonment in Asia andhas several military installa-tions.

Further, due to the tacticalsituation-- the exact location ofthe Fidayeen was not known norwas it certain whether they hadalready entered the air base-itwas decided to first secure thevital assets and 10,000 civiliansand dependents of air forcepersonnel present at the airbase. Due to this significant fac-tor and criticality of time,itwould have been counter-pro-ductive to first secure the 25-kilometrelong outer parameter.Hence, the main considerationwas on securing the aircrafts,radars, anti-aircraft batteries.Ammunition/POL dumps, etc.This strategy greatly helped incountering and containing theFidayeen.

(MYTH 6): There was noCentralised decision-makingapparatus and also there waslack of synergy on the ground.

FACT: Nothing could befarther from truth than allegingthat there was no Centraliseddecision-making and no syner-gy on the ground. Little knowl-edge is always dangerous and itwas this lack of knowledge thatprompted some critics to makethis allegation and assumption.

The sudden Fidayeen attackwould have taken a differentshape if time was wasted in con-vening meetings of the CabinetCommittee on Security and theNational Crisis ManagementCommittee of the UnionCabinet.

The criticism that there wasno Centralised action or syner-gy on the ground is mostunwarranted. An accurate read-ing of the situation and analysisof the intelligence inputs led tothe pre-positioning of spe-cialised forces on the ground todeal with the emerging threatandsituation.

On the ground itself, com-plete synergy among the forceswas seen. Exemplary coordina-tion was also on display whichhelped the security forces choosethe firepower and type ofresources to deal with theevolv-ing tactical picture and require-ments. Minute-by-minutereports were sent to the NationalSecurity Adviser, Mr. Doval,who, in turn, kept the membersof the CCS duly informed.

(MYTH 7): Why was theArmy not involved in the entireoperation?

FACT: Nothing could be

farther from the truth than thisunwarranted criticism Perhapslack of knowledge led to thisallegation beingleveled. The realpicture is:

✮Infantry columns playeda leading and vital role in theoperation - maintaining a tightinner and outer cordon, pro-viding fire support to the strikeelements of the NSG, carryingout search and areasanitizationoperations inside the air base.

✮Army columns weremobilized on 01.01.2016 itself,well before the first contact wasestablished with the terrorists at03.30 hours on 02.01.2016. Sincethe afternoon of 01.01.2016,Army columns were assistingthe local police in strengtheningnakas and beefing upsecurity atthe air base.

✮The first persons to beinvolved in formulating thestrategy after news of the suddenattack reached the NSA were theArmy Chief and the Air Chiefwho initiated the necessaryactions. Both were present in thefirst meeting called by the NSAat 1500 hours on 01.01.2016).

✮ Lt. Gen. KJ Singh, GOC-in-C, Western Command was inoverall commandof the opera-tion.

✮ The NSG contingentpresent at the air base consistedof 320specially selected andtrained Army soldiers from theSpecial Action Group (SAG) -component of the NSG andSpecial Forces units.

The counter terrorism andcounter hijack task force of theNSG was led by Maj. Gen.Dushyant Singh, IG(Operations), NSG, himself anInfantryofficer, who only recent-ly relinquished command of anInfantrydivision in Jammu (andhence was intricately familiarwith the general modus operan-di of Fidayeen terrorists).

✮ The Army had deployed9 Infantry columns (70 soldiersin eachcolumn) in addition tobomb disposal squads, engi-neering, medical element andcasspier mine / armour protec-tion vehicles.

Since we Indians will haveto live and suffer terroriststrikes by ultras of all hues, wewould do well to do ourhomework and collectalldetails before jumping infront of TV cameras and airall kinds of misinformationand lies about terrorist attacksas such utterances only go tohelp the terrorists, who needcondemnation and not the-forces fighting them at greatrisk to their life and limb..

(Dr Rajeshwar Singh,Formerly Police Officer ofUttar Pradesh Govt, is cur-rently Deputy Director ofDirectorate of Enforcement).

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Maharashtra is targeting tobag �4 trillion in invest-

ments during the maiden 'Makein India' (MII) week to be heldin the country's financial cap-ital from Saturday.

“We are targeting up to ��lakh crore of investmentsthrough the agreements,”Maharashtra IndustrialDevelopment Corporation'schief executive BhushanGagrani told reporters on thesidelines of a curtain-raiserpress conference for MII week.

He however declined tooutline more details like the sec-tors which will see the invest-ment commitments or compa-nies with whom the stateGovernment is negotiating.Declining to quantify invest-ments which his administrationis targeting, Chief MinisterDevendra Fadnavis said it willbe a ‘big number’, and addedthat officials have been working

on stitching the agreementsfor the last three months. Hesaid Memorandums ofUnderstanding are being signedafter full diligence and focus isalso being given to make surethat the agreements translateinto actual investments on theground. He said the state will beannouncing five new policiesaimed at ease of doing business,during the event.

Senior officials said theseinclude new frameworks forretail, electronics, ports, back-ward classes (SC/ST) and sin-gle window clearances.Maharashtra has been at theforefront of industrial develop-ment in the country, but hasbeen facing competition fromothers like Tamil Nadu, Gujarat,Andhra Pradesh, Karnatakaand others.

The disparities in the state,especially with backwardregions like Vidarbha,Marathwada and NorthMaharashtra have also attract-

ed flak from critics.Over 1,000 business dele-

gates from 60 countries, 2,500domestic delegates, 192 com-panies and four heads of stateare expected at the maidenMII week which will be inau-gurated by Prime MinisterNarendra Modi on February 13.

A business forum organ-ised by international news net-work CNN, and an award showby Time Magazine for manu-facturing is being held as partof the week, Chief SecretarySwadheen Kshatriya said.

Maharashtra will be havinga dedicated pavilion at thevenue, and will also have a ses-sion exclusively devoted forthe investment opportunities inthe state where industrialistsRatan Tata and MukeshAmbani will be speaking, hesaid. The state is focusing onopportunities in the agro-pro-cessing and textiles sectors dur-ing the week, which will bene-fit the farmers, Fadnavis said.

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Awhopping �1.14 lakh croreof bad loans have been

written off by 27 public sectorbanks (PSBs) during FY 2012-15, with the last fiscal alone wit-nessing a steep 53 per cent risein write-offs as part of the bal-ance sheet clean-up.

For the fiscal ended March2015, public sector banks havewritten off loans amounting to�52,542 crore, an increase of52.6 per cent over the previousfiscal, as per the RBI data.About one-fifth of bad loanswas written off in 2014-15 as thegross non-performing assets(NPAs) at the end of March2015 rose to �2,67,065 crore.

These 27 banks had writtenoff �34,409 crore in 2013-14while �27,231 crore in 2012-13.So in aggregate, a staggering�1.14 lakh crore were written offin the last three fiscals. For 2014-15, SBI topped the chart of PSBsby writing off �21,313 crore fol-lowed by Punjab National Bank�6,587 crore and IndianOverseas Bank �3,131 crore.Besides, Allahabad Bank's write-

off figure stood at �2,109 crore,Central Bank of India �1,995crore, IDBI Bank �1609 crore,Bank of Baroda �1,564 crore,Syndicate Bank �1,527 crore,Canara Bank �1,472 crore andUco Bank �1,401 crore. PSUbanks have been witnessing acontinuous surge in bad loans.

As on September 2015, thegross NPAs of PSBs haveincreased to �3,00,743 crore asagainst �2.67 lakh crore inMarch 2015. Concerned overmounting bad loans, RBI inconsultation with the govern-ment is working on method-ologies to clean up balancesheet of state-owned banks byMarch 2017.

RBI Governor RaghuramRajan recently announced aMarch 2017 deadline for banksto clean up their balance sheetswhich are plagued by highincidence of bad assets. WhileR ajan had assured thatenough capital is availablefor public sector banks, hecautioned that some of thebanks may witness erosion ofprofitability in the short rundue to cleaning of books.

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NEW DELHI: As India andNepal look to normalise tiesafter months of tense rela-tions, Finance Minister ArunJaitley on Monday discussedbilateral trade and economicissues with his Nepalese coun-terpart, Bishnu Prasad Paudel.

The meeting comes ahead ofNepal Prime Minister KP SharmaOli's likely visit to India onFebruary 19, his first foreignvisit as the country's premier.Jaitley, who also hosted a lunch forPaudel, discussed bilateral eco-nomic ties with a view to boost-ing trade between the two coun-

tries, official sources said. India'sassistance to Nepal for recon-struction after the devastatingApril earthquake also came up fordiscussion. India had extended $1billion in assistance at a donors'conference in Kathmandu inJune. Also, Nepal is facing an acuteshortage of cooking gas LPG, fuel,medicines and other essentialgoods as key border trade pointswith India have been blocked forfive months due to the Madhesiagitation. Paudel, who is on a two-day visit to India, had on Sundaymet External Affairs MinisterSushma Swaraj. PNS

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NEW DELHI: Consumer sentiments in Indiarose for the first time in the last four months by1.2 per cent to 109.8 in January as householdshave been relatively upbeat about the purchas-ing environment, says a Deutsche Borse report.The MNI India Consumer Sentiment Indicatorfell for four consecutive months since Septemberto 108.5 in December on the back of deteriora-tion in personal finances amid rising inflation.

While sentiment remains above the 100 level,meaning optimists still outnumber pessimists, ithas fallen 8.8 per cent over the past year.“Following four consecutive declines in headlinesentiment, the latest survey provides a tentativesign of stabilisation,” the report said.

Despite wavering confidence in householdfinances, prices and the general economy, house-holds have been relatively upbeat about the pur-chasing environment, it added.

“This was the first increase in the MNI IndiaConsumer Sentiment Indicator since August last

year and in that respect it is most welcome,” MNIIndicators Chief Economist Philip Uglow said.

“While more positive views on buying con-ditions would usually point to higher consumerspending ahead, it sits against a backdrop of weakand still falling sentiment on personal financesand the current business environment,” he said.The report further noted that when asked aboutthe status of the job market since the NarendraModi-led NDA Government came to power, 32.6per cent respondents were uncertain about theimpact of the government's policies on the jobmarket, while 27.6 per cent said that there hadbeen no change in the employment market.

However, it said, about a quarter of respon-dents thought that the job market had improved,with a mention of the ‘Make in India’ programme.There was also 14.4 respondents who thought thatit had worsened. Moreover, there was a drop inconfidence in household finances, with currentmeasure falling to record low. PNS

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The names of Myanmar's nextpresident and two vice pres-

idents will be revealed on March17, an official said on Monday,setting a clear timeline for thetransition of power from a mil-itary-controlled government todemocracy icon Aung San SuuKyi's party. Parliament chair-man Mann Win Khaing Thanannounced that the upper house,the lower House and the militarywill have to select one candidateeach for the three posts beforeMarch 17, and submit them toparliament on that day.

While Suu Kyi herself isbarred from becoming president,

there are growing signs that hertalks with the military to removea constitutional hurdle blockingher path can be completed byMarch 17. Once the three namesare put before the 664-memberparliament, all members will takea vote. The person with the largestnumber of votes will become pres-ident, and the other two will bevice presidents. It isn't clear whenthe vote will take place, but thecurrent president's term endsMarch 31 and the successor musttake office April 1.

Given that Suu Kyi's NationalLeague for Democracy partyhas a majority in both houses ofparliament, it is certain to get thepresident's post.

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At least 35 migrants drownedin two accidents in the

Aegean Sea on Monday as theytried to cross from Turkey toGreece, Turkish media said.

Twenty-four died whentheir boat sank off the districtof Edremit in the westernprovince of Balikesir in anapparent bid to reach the Greekisland of Lesbos.

Four people were rescuedboth by air and by sea in asearch and rescue operation bythe Turkish coastguard, Dogannews agency said.

The accident came shortlyafter 11 migrants died in anoth-er boat sinking further south, off

the port city of Izmir, alsoapparently trying to reachLesbos, the agency said.

The coastguard rescued

three people.Turkey, which is hosting at

least 2.5 million refugees fromSyria's civil war, has become the

main launchpad for migrantsfleeing conflict, persecutionand poverty to Europe.

The deaths came as GermanChancellor Angela Merkel wasmeeting Turkish officials inAnkara for talks on reducing theinflux of migrants to Europe.

The Turkish Govt struck adeal with the EU in Nov to haltthe outflow of refugees, in returnfor three billion euros (USD 3.2bn) in financial assistance.

The EU on Wednesdayfinally reached an agreementon how to finance the deal.

But the deal and the onsetof winter do not appear to havedeterred the migrants, withboats still arriving on the Greekislands daily.

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Nepal's Madhesis protestingagainst a new Constitution

on Monday called off theirnearly five-month long crip-pling blockade at the borderwith India that led to severeshortages of fuel, medicineand other essentials in thelandlocked nation and strainedIndo-Nepal ties.

"Considering the currentcrisis facing the nation and thepublic necessity and aspira-tions, the ongoing protest pro-grammes of general strike, bor-der blockade, Govt office shut-down have been called off fornow," the United DemocraticMadhesi Front (UDMF) said ina statement.

"The agitation will contin-ue till our demands areaddressed," said the statementissued after the meeting ofUDMF leaders, three days afterangry traders from both sidesburned down tents set up byagitating Madhesis on Friday.

The "UDMF leaders decid-ed to withdraw their ongoingprotest programmes," LaxmanLal Karna, the Vice Chairmanof Sadbhawana Party, one of themembers of the front, told PTI.

The announcement to endthe border blockade comesahead of PM K P Oli's trip toIndia on February 19, the firstoverseas visit of the newNepalese premier.

Prime Minister Oli wel-comed the decision by the

Madhesis to call off the agi-tation and said it was a "pos-itive move."

"The PM has stressed ontalks among the parties toaddress the differences," saida press note issued by Oli'spress advisor.

"I am confident that thedifferences and disputes can beaddressed through talks amongus," said the prime minister,who had publicly announcedthat it would not be appropri-ate for him to visit India unlessthe border blockade ends.

Nepal's Madhesi commu-nity, largely of Indian origin,are opposed to the newConstitution that divides theirancestral homeland under theseven-province structure andhave led an ongoing blockadeof key border trade pointswith India.

The blockade had causedmuch hardship to the generalpublic as they were faced withacute shortage of petroleumproducts, cooking gas, medi-cines and other essentials due toclosure of all border trade pointsbetween the two countries.

The agitating communitythat shares strong culturaland family bonds with Indiais demanding demarcation of provinces, fixing of elec-toral constituencies on thebasis of population and pro-portional representation, andhave launched a protest formonths that has claimed atleast 55 lives.

Beijing: An enterprising youngBritish businessman has founda way to mint money by sellingbottles of "cool" British coun-try air to monied Chinese inpollution- hit cities.

Leo De Watts, 27, has madethousands of dollars sellingbottles of British country air toChinese buyers at 80 pounds(USD 115) per bottle.

De Watts says the 580 mlglass jars have been flying out thedoor, many headed for pollution-plagued Chinese cities such asBeijing and Shanghai. PTI

������������-��� ������ �0 ��� ���������/����Istanbul: German ChancellorAngela Merkel is in Turkey dis-cussing measures to stem the flowof refugees bound for Europe.

Tens of thousands ofSyrians remain stranded at theborder with Turkey after fleeinga Russia-backed governmentoffensive in Aleppo.

The talks came as reportsemerged that another 33 peo-ple died off Turkey's coast try-ing to reach Greece. AFP

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After losing the Iowa cau-cuses to Ted Cruz,

Republican Donald Trumpexpects to win Tuesday’s NewHampshire primary with anassortment of polls puttinghim in the comfort zone.

And on the Democratic side,Bernie Sanders, who lost Iowa toHillary Clinton by a razor-thinmargin, holds a good 13 per centlead even as the whole Clintonestablishment is 0ut there cam-paigning in a bid to upstage the

Senator from Vermont.The polls, however, carry

the warning that nearly a thirdof New Hampshire voters arestill undecided, making it hardfor pollsters to say definitely

how the day is going to unfoldin the ‘Granite State’. An addedcomplication is the fact thatNew Hampshire allows inde-pendent voters to vote in eitherparty’s primary.

A RealClearPolitics averageof five polls gives Trump 31.6 percent, followed by Marco Rubio(14.6 percent), Cruz (13 percent),John Kasich (12.4 percent), JebBush (9.8percent), Chris Christie(5.2percent), Carly Fiorina(4.4percent) and Ben Carson(2.6percent). In the Democraticrace, Sanders has 53.3 percentagainst Clinton’s 40.5 percent.

Although Governors didbetter than Senators atSaturday’s Republican debate,they are still behind the twoSenators (Rubio and Cruz),albeit closing the gap lately. It wasChristie, the New Jersey Governor,who embarrassed Senator Rubioat the debate, yet he still appearsto be lagging behind in thenumbers game.

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APhilippine breeding centre trying tosave the country's critically endan-

gered monkey-eating eagle has been sosuccessful it is now scrambling for space,officials said on Sunday.

Another eaglet was hatched last week,the second in barely three months, help-ing the giant bird's fight against extinction.

The chick, born from the natural mat-ing of two birds at the Philippine EagleFoundation, is the 27th born in captivity saidits curator Anna Mae Sumaya.

"The centre is at full capacity. We arefull. If there are any new admissions, we

will have to move the birds to smallerenclosures," she told AFP.

The new chick, hatched on February4, is the 35th eagle at the centre, joining19 other captive-bred birds and 15 rescuedfrom the wild, she said.

The seven other eagles born in cap-tivity have either been released into thewild or died.

Sumaya described the new chick as"active and alert as it can already lift its head,sit and follow objects even at a day old".

But the breeding centre on the out-skirts of Davao city on the country's south-ernmost island of Mindanao covers justeight hectares (20 acres), she said.

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The ISIS' recent defeats signifyits worsening money prob-

lems, desertions and a dwindlingpool of fighters with many of themjoining rival militant groups afterfacing pay cuts, according to amedia report.

Citing top analysts and mon-itoring groups, the Washington Postreported that the recent losses of theterror group are linked to its strug-gles to pay fighters and recruit newones to replace those who havedeserted, defected to other militantgroups or died on the battlefield.

US-backed Kurdish andArab forces have seized signifi-cant amounts of territory fromthe extremist group in the partsof Iraq and Syria where itdeclared a caliphate in 2014.

"These issues suggest that asan entity that is determined to

hold onto territory, the ISIS is notsustainable," Jacob Shapiro, anexpert on the ISIS who teachespolitics at Princeton University,was quoted as saying.

There appears to be a rise inthe number of ISIS fighters whohave deserted or, in the case of theSyrian conflict, defected to other

militant groups, Vera Mironova,an expert on armed groups inSyria and Iraq at HarvardUniversity's Belfer Center, wasquoted as saying.

The salary and benefit cutshave caused "for-profit militants"in Syria to increasingly "look for

better deals" with other armedfactions, she said.

The group, she said, is alsostruggling to replenish ranks ofits foreign fighters, who tend tobe more ideologically driven butalso die in relatively large num-bers on the battlefield.

Beirut: The Syrian Govt andopposition activists say armytroops have recaptured a newvillage north of Aleppo, bring-ing troops closer to the Turkishborder. State-run news agencySANA said army troops todaytook control of the village ofKfeen in the northern coun-tryside of Aleppo "after wipingout the last group of terroriststhere." AP

London: British accomplices ofslain ISIS terrorist executioner"Jihadi John" were unmaskedon Monday as Londoners whoformed part of a so-called"Beatles" terror gang.

Mohammed Emwazibecame known as "John" in ref-erence to John Lennon, leadsinger of the iconic Britishrock group, due to his Englishaccent. PTI

Baghdad: ISIS extremist mili-tants executed over 300 peopleover the past few days in the IS-held city of Mosul in Iraq, aKurdish security source said."All those executed were ex-police, ex-army members andcivilian activists accused byISIS group of collaboratingwith the Iraqi security forces,"Xinhua quoted the source assaying on Sunday. IANS

London: Scotland Yard is con-sidering using eagles to hunt andtake down drones operated bycriminals amid concerns that thepilotless aircraft can be used tosmuggle items and drop explo-sives by terrorists.TheMetropolitan Police commis-sioner, Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe, is reportedly impressedwith a similar Dutch initiativeand is keen for London to trialthe use of birds of prey againstdangerous pilot-less aircraft con-trolled remotely.

"As would be expected in anorganisation that is transforming,we take an interest in all innov-ative ideas and will of course belooking at the use of eagles by theDutch police," a Met Policespokesperson said. PTI

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Official moves towards thedeployment — fiercely

opposed by China — of a US mis-sile defence system in S Korea high-light the inherent dangers of dis-unity in dealing with N Korea'sgrowing military threat, analysts say.

Hours after N Korea's long-range rocket launch on Sunday,S Korean and US military officialsannounced they would begin for-mal discussions on placing theTerminal High Altitude AreaDefence System (THAAD) onthe North's doorstep.

The rationale was a clearnecessity to upgrade the defenceposture of the S Korea-US mil-itary alliance "against N Korea'sadvancing threats," said YooJeh-Seung, Seoul's deputy

defence minister for policy.Yoo's reasoning is hard to

fault in the wake of the North'sfourth nuclear test on January 6and Monday's rocket launch,which was widely regarded as acovert ballistic missile test.

Seoul: The S Korean navyfired warning shots at a NKorean patrol boat that intrud-ed over their disputed mar-itime border today, a day afterthe North's launch of a long-range rocket raised tensions.The defence ministry in Seoulsaid the N Korean vesselcrossed the Yellow Sea borderjust before 7 am. AFP

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Priyanka Chopra has been making headlinesall over the world with her US-based showQuantico and Jai Gangaajal has come at the

right time. Unlike the FBI agent that she plays in the tele-vision series, Chopra will be seen playing a hard-hittingcop in the Prakash Jha directorial venture.

And just not direction, Jha has, for the first time,stepped in front of the camera, too. Although he will beseen playing a role of a corrupt police officer, BN Singh.Through his film, he tried to show the relationship ofsociety with police and also the cases of farmers sucideand land grabbing.

Jha, who had also directedGangaajal in 2003 said, “We cansay that Jai Gangaajal belongs tothe same genre as Gangaajal

was. It depicts the story of an hon-est police officer but it is not a

sequel of Gangaajal.”He, however, mentioned that the

society has changed a lot since2003. “Thirteen years ago, I hadmade Gangaajal and in the climaxof the movie, there was a dialoguewhere Ajay Devgan says, ‘Samaj kopolice waisi hi milti hai jaisa ki samajchahti hai’ That was the theme of thefilm.” He told us that today, the soci-ety that we live in has changed com-pletely. “The kind of pressure thatthe cops have to face now and alsothe people who are leading the soci-ety today is quite different from2003,” he pointed out.

The blinding case of Bhagalpurinspired Jha to make Gangaajaland while he was doing research foranother film he came across othermajor issues that inspired him tomake Jai Gangaajal.

The story revolves around apolitician who wants a womansuperintendent of police in his areabecause he wants her to sign filesand not interrupt in his illegalwork. But the newly appointed SPis Abha Mathur (Chopra) who isclear about her duties and is willingto go to any length to dischargethem. Her headstrong attitude isreflected in the first thing she saysafter taking her post, “Aap ye matsamajhiyega ki main yaha kursitable par baith ke salami thokwaneaayi hoon.”

Sharing his thought on UPPolice, the veteran director said,“The image of UP police is worst

across the country. But if we see that how policefunctions, and if we talk about the technologies,then UP is the only state where police providesthe facility of 1090 to help their public. Theyhave solved five lakhs case of womenharassment. They are also digitalisingLucknow.” He added, “There is somethinggood and bad in everyone. Police wants totake action but they cannot take the actionbecause of someone else. So, we have todecide whether police is not good or the

person who is ruling themis bad.”

The director-turned-actor shared with us thatfew years ago, while trav-elling, he had met a policeofficer who had taken atransfer from the policeservice to an institution.The fact suprised thedirector. “It was a bigstatement that he made.So when I asked thereason why he took sucha decision, he said, ‘InIndia, police can only workif people want them towork otherwise they cannotwork. For me, society hasalways been the hero. I doresearch on society — howthe work is being done, howpeople react and how societyis changing. So if I find any-thing interesting, and if I think thatthe particular story needs to be told, thenI make a film on the subject,” said thedirector.

When Jha was asked about his sud-den flair for acting, he explained that whenhe was writing the character of BN Singh,there was no one else he could think of,except for himself. “While writing thescript, the only face I could imagine forthe role of BN Singh was of myself. I couldnot imagine anyone else for this role. I gotconnected with it,” he said and added, “I wasthe junior artiste on the set because all ofthem were experienced in terms of actingand they were giving me tips (laughs).”

Chopra was his first choice for the film.“Whenever she got time between Quanticoand Bajirao Mastani, we did this film. Ourorganised planning was the reason that wewere able to finish the film on time,” he con-cluded.

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Known for his soulful compositions like “kab-hie kisi ko mukamil jahan na milta’ ‘Aa bhijaa, aa bhi jaa’, ‘Tu Is Tarah Se Meri Zindagi

Mein’ (Aap To Aise Na The) and ‘Hosh WaalonKo Khabar Kya’, renowned poet—lyricist Nida Fazliis no more.

Fazli breathed his last at his suburbanMumbai residence following a heart attack. He was78 and is survived by wife and a daughter.

Muqtida Hasan NidaFazli — better known asNida Fazli was a recipientof the Sahitya Akademiaward.

Born in Delhi in aKashmiri family, Fazlihad attended school inGwalior. His father wasalso an Urdu poet.During the partition, hisparents migrated toPakistan, but Fazli decid-ed to stay in India.

Mourning the deathof Fazli, noted singer LataMangeshkar said, “Aajmashhoor Shayar NidaFazli sahab ka inteqalhua is baat mujhe bahut

dukh hai.Allah unhe jannat ataa farmaaye ye meridili dua.”

Fazli will long be remembered for his elegantpresentation and exclusive use of colloquial lan-guage for ghazals, nazms and dohas in Urdu andHindi.

Some of Fazli’s famous ghazals include“Kabhie Kisi Ko Mukamil Jahan Nahi Milta”, ‘AaBhi Jaa, Aa Bhi Jaa’ (“Sur“), Tu Is Tarah Se MeriZindagi Mein (Aap Toh Aise Na They) and HoshWaalon Ko Khabar Kya (Sarfarosh).

Congress President Sonia Gandhi and partyVice President Rahul Gandhi condoled Fazli’sdeath. “A Sahitya Akademi and a Padma Shriawardee, he will be remembered forever for hiswritings which enthralled an entire generation,”Sonia said.

Maharashtra Chief Minister DevendraFadnavis said Urdu literature had lost a popularfigure in Fazli’s demise.

Urdu novelist Rahman Abbas said Fazli wasa bright symbol of Indian literature. “I am saddenedby the news of demise of Nida Fazli. He was veryclose to me, and I had spoken to him a week ago,”Abbas said.

Fazli wrote the title song of TV serials likeSailaab, Neem ka Ped, Jaane Kya Baat Hui and Jyoti.The composition Koi Akelaa Kahaan was hisanother popular composition sung by KavitaKrishnamurthy.

Fazli also worked with late ghazal singer JagjitSingh in 1994 and together they brought out analbum Insight, which got appreciation for its soul-ful poetry and music.

Filmmaker John Mathew Matthan, whodirected Sarfarosh — a film which featured his song“Hoshwalon ko khabar kya” said, “It’s a great lossfor this film industry. He was such a renownedpoet. Coincidentally, today is also Jagjit Singh’sbirth anniversary and I have worked with both ofthem in my film Sarfarosh.”

“Heartbroken to hear of the demise of NidaFazli-saab. Not just a brilliant lyricist, he was a truepoet, with a brave social voice. RIP,” composer-singer Vishal Dadlani stated

Enough with your ubiquitous greasy chilli paneeror honey and chilli-glazed chicken. Also, dropthat fork and pick up those chopsticks that you’ve

been wanting to learn to use for a while now. It is timeto get serious and explore the wonderous world of del-ish Asian cuisine.

Last year, in October, foodies in town tried outAsian food from Indonesia to Japan in Delhi underone roof with the first edition of Asian HawkersMarket. The idea was derived from the NoodleMarket in Sydney. “All four of us (includingSiddharth Mathur, Atul Sikand, Tanveer Kwatra)have worked earlier together for other events. Atuland I, we are the co-founders of the Delhi GourmetClub, all of us were thinking of doing something con-cerning Asian food. The concept of Hawkers mar-ket came to us from the noodle market that happensin Sydney. They call it the Sydney Noodle Market,we thought of doing something on those lines,” saidone of the organisers.

“The time when we started, we already had estab-lished food festivals but they were generic. They hadeverything, we did not want to go that route. If we fol-lowed them, then how could we stand out? Then wethought, what is the second most loved cuisine afterIndian cuisine. It was Asian. The spices are closer toour palate, that is why we chose Asian food,” he said.Atul Sikand added, “I attended a food festivalmyself and there were a lot of options available, whichwas bit confusing for me as a consumer. So, we cameup with this idea of small portions and affordableprices. We wanted to be theme focussed, that is whywe chose the oriental cuisine. You can call it India’s

favourite cuisine outside India.”

����� �!��The festival is like a test market not only

for the restaurants but also for the chefs.This time, many restaurants would bemaking their way to the Delhi’s socialcircuit through Asian HawkersMarket. “There are a lot of newrestaurants coming in not only to theevent but making their way toDelhi. In fact, they will be launch-ing with us. The Bento Cafe,Hawkers chowk and Honk, they arenew restaurants which would beshowcasing their dishes for the firsttime at any food festival. Pa Pa Ya ofMumbai, for the first time wouldmake a grand entry with us at theAsian Hawkers market. There isgoing to be a lot of newness, not onlyin terms of the restaurants but also thedishes,” said one of the organisers. Notonly this, delivery services like Thaicrate would also be debuting with thefood festival.

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Apart from your sushi and dimsums, you are goingto see some new dishes like chinese bhel, chilli idliesand chilli chicken dosa. “I call it a playground for achef. You can do whatever you want to, you have directaccess to the patrons. Your customers are there, youcan be as innovative as possible. You can get the directfeedback then and there. Then, you can actually putup these things back at the menu. We have 35 restau-rants participating and this is the reason why I call ita playground,” said Tanveer Kwatra chef, executive chefat Le Meridien, Gurgaon.

“We were the ones who introduced Okonomiyaki(Japanese pancake) last time. And, it was a successamong those who came to attend the festival. Takingque from that, this time, we are putting up a cart whichis only going to sell Japanese pizza,” he added.

“With all of this, you will also see a lot ofVietnamese influences in the dishes that are going tobe showcased at the festival. We have something foreveryone— even restaurants like En, who serve authen-tic Japanese are also going to be there. It is going tobe a mix of Asian as well as modern Asian which youcall pan asian,” he said.

����%&�'���(��)�What stands out at most of the food festivals is

the way how a stall presents itself. Some choose to bringsome part of their innovative set-up to the festival,some choose an ordinary stall to sell the food. But,here, we are going to see as many as 14 carts lendingyou the flavours from Asian kitchen. “We have gota lot of emphasis on carts this time. We have approx-imately 14 carts which would be selling dishes on thewheels. So, those who don’t have enough product toparticipate with, can present themselves in this way,”said Sikand.

�*��&�!$*���'One of the destination bars, this place has

already hosted big names like Skrillex,Rehab, Bassjackers and many more. But,this time, the bar is also going to mark itsentry to the food festival. Get ready toexperience and taste some nice cocktailsalong with your pitchers, sangrias et al.“Having all of this in our kitty, we thoughtthat it was the time to show the productto the masses and enter the market. Wewould be developing some nice cocktailsand of course, Asian influenced drinks willalso be served,” said the chef.

�!��'��+!��!�As the last time witnessed many dance

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Commedia dell’arte (literallymeaning “comedy of craft”)is a form of theatre distin-

guished by masked f igures.Beginning in the medieval Italy, itwas responsible for the advent ofthe actresses as well as improvisedperformances, based on sketches orscenarios. Key to the success of thecommedia was the ability of theperformers to travel to achievefame and financial success. Themost successful troupes performedbefore kings and nobility, allowingindividual actors to become well-known. The characters of the com-media usually represented fixedsocial types and stock characters,such as, foolish old men, deviousservants or military officers full offalse bravado. Characters, such as,Pantalone, the miserly Venetianmerchant; Dottore Graziano, thepedant from Bologna; and manyothers, were quite common inCommedia dell’arte, which beganas satires on Italian “types” andbecame the archetypes of many ofthe favorite characters of 17th and18th century pan-European theatre.

Its real genesis may be traced tothe carnival in Venice, where it waswell-established by 1570. The con-nection to the carnival (the periodbetween Epiphany and AshWednesday) would suggest thatmasking was a convention of thecarnival and was applied liberally.The tradition in the northern Italywas centered in Florence andVenice, where the major companiescame under the aegis of the variousdukes. Concommitantly, a traditionemerged in the south Italy, featur-ing the prominent stage-figure,Pulcinella. The latter had longbeen associated with Naples, andbuilt into various types elsewhere,the most famous being the puppet-character Punch (of the Punchand Judy shows in England).Similarly, Harlequin had become amute character in the western pan-tomime.

The Comedy of Harlequin andPulcinella in Venice, performedrecently by the Teatro PottachGroup from Italy in the NSD’sBharat Rang Mahotsav, did full jus-tice to Italy’s hoary theatre-art.Harlequin was there — character-istically masked and dressed in adiamond-patterned costume.Pulcinella was there, too, dulymasked and in a white, flamboyantattire. Together, they proceeded to

do quick-silver changes of accou-trement and presented all thestereo-typical roles, especially ofPantalone, the scheming merchant— responsible for all the misery ofthe banished Pulcinella — and of

the dainty Marianna: in and out ofwedlocks. Indeed, it was an enor-mously complicated story that theyproduced, where one episode fol-lowed another in break-neck speed.It was not important for the spec-

tators to follow all the episodes, forthe quintessential drama ofCommedia dell’arte is its sheerphysicality and its boisterous buf-foonery. Everyone was duly enter-tained, as entertainment remained

the catchword.Excerpts from interaction with

the Claudio De Maglio, director:�How popular is Commedia del-l’arte in today’s Italy?

It has been a dying art and sub-stantially gone down in populari-ty. Only, of late, signs of its revivedpopularity is there: with some real-ly talented performers showing upin Italy.

�Are there many stories goinground, similar to Japan’s Nohand Kabuki traditions?

Oh yes, there are many set sto-ries for the Commedia. I wouldimagine they number about onehundred.

�How much training is requiredfor a traditional show?

It needs very hard training. Theapparent effortlessness in physicalacting and fluid body-languageneeds long preparation. The showthat you saw was created with fulltwo years of preparation.

�What’s the role of music?We don’t use notated music.The

music in our show is purely basedon incidental sounds: generated bythe characters themselves. Indeed,it remains only sound-effects..

�Do you always use just twoactors: donning all the roles, asyou did here?

It needn’t be so. In fact, thereare usually three or even more per-sons performing together. Here, webrought only two actors for simplylogistic reasons.

�Lastly, what’s the role of impro-visation for your actors?

On the stage, it’s very little.Everything is lined up there. Butduring rehearsals, it’s improvisationall the way. The entire show buildsitself up on actors’ improvisation!

Rabindranath Tagore penned Visarjan, in 1890, arguably hisfinest play in blank verse. It was an adaptation of Rajarshi,

an earlier novella he wrote, based on “a forthright denunciationof meaningless and cruel superstitious rites.” Rajarshi’s originalstory featured intricate sub-plots and prolonged monologues thatgave play to historical events in the 17th-century Tripura, whosedevout king Govinda Manikya was pitted against the wicked head-priest Raghupati, on the question of stopping severe blood-let-ting through animal sacrifice: an endem-ic feature of worship of the goddess Kaliamidst the then-prevailing Shakti cult.

Both Rajarshi and its dramatic adap-tation Visarjan, subsequently translated inEnglish by the poet himself as Sacrifice,begin with the king’s orders that thereshould be no more blood-shedding,responding to the voice of a beggar-girlAparna, whose hand-reared little goat hadbeen ear-marked for the day’s sacrifice. Theking’s conscience has been deeply aroused,making him proclaim prohibition of allbloody sacrifices henceforth. There is anincipient revolt: by the army-chief, thehead-priest; the king’s own brother Nakshatra; and eventuallyby the haughty queen Gunavati. The events progress rapidlytowards the head-priest’s hatching a conspiracy for assassinat-ing the king — first, by Nakshatra; and then, when the latter provesineffectual, by Jaisingha, the loyal disciple of the head-priest.

How the king faces, and eventually stems, the vicious scheme;how the queen-consort, first walking out on the king, later sur-renders to him; and how the good samaritan Jaisingha makesthe noblest sacrifice of his own life: to offer his Rajput blood atthe divinity altar as per the head-priest’s command, constitutethe rest of the story. It was, incidentally, remarkable that the orig-inal theme showed finally the repentant head-priest — regret-ting his ace devotee’s suicidal death — dare to throw away theicon of the “blood-thirsty” deity: a revolutionary gesture in a myth-ridden land of the 19th century.

Rajrakto (the Royal Blood), recently presented by IFTA(Institute of Factual Theatre Arts) from Kolkata at NSD’s Bharatrang Mahotsav, blended Rajarshi’s elaborate fiction with the suc-ccint play Visarjan and the latter English-rendering sacrifice, andproduced a cocktail, in which some incidents repeated themselvesand the three prevailing emotions — of idolatry, cruelty to ani-mals and iconoclasm, dealt with suavely in Tagore’s texts — gotconfused with “terrorism” unnecessarily. To make matters worse,

Bengali blank verse was hopelessly mixed with the col-loquial lingo and the major characters used English dia-logue — that, too, intermittently — to no apparent pur-pose. Even the acting style of a few (like the head-priest)was quite out of sync with the rest of the dramtis per-sonae.

Excerpts from an interaction with DebashishDutta, director: �How did you bring Tagore’s stories at this date?

You will agree, Tagore’s ideas and ideals have alwaysremained relevant. He had taken up his cudgels againstsuperstition and bigotry which the country still hasn’tgot rid of.

�You’ve used a medley of music…I’ve mainly used a classical base, composed and conducted

by Debjani Mukherjee, a trained musicologist and has beenresearching on music. She has also used other mood music, too.

�You’ve liberally mixed English with Bengali in dialogues…This was keeping in mind a wide base of audience which is

not confined to the Bengali-speaking zone alone. My analogywould be to invoke Sanskrit plays where Pali, Prakrit and Sanskritare freely inter-mingled. In my play, the queen and the king speakEnglish while Jaisingha and the common folks talk in Bengali.

�What ideas motivated you while choosing your costume?I’ve really used quite a variety of attires, resulting in a fusion.

You’ll notice that I’ve used tunics as well as draping robes, to suitthe characters’ moods.

Macbeth — Shakespeare’s best-knowntragedy and set mainly in Scotland,

dramatises the damaging physical and psy-chological effects of political ambition onthose who seek power for its own sake.Penned between 1599 and 1606, the play tellsthe story of a brave army-general, Macbeth,who receives a prophecy — in the incanta-tion of a trio of witches — that one day hewould become King of Scotland. Consumedby ambition and spurred to action by hisvainglorious consort, Macbeth murdersKing Duncan and takes the Scottish thronefor himself. He is then wracked with guilt andparanoia, soon becoming a tyrannical ruleras he is forced to commit more and moremurders: to protect himself from enmity andsuspicion. The blood-bath and consequentcivil war swiftly take Macbeth and LadyMacbeth into the realms of arrogance andmadness and the eventual jaws of death.

Macbeth, presented recently by ChorusRepertory Theatre from Imphal as the inau-gural play in NSD’s International Theatre fes-tival of India, depicts the Bard of Avon’s verywell-known tale: directed by the eminentthespian Ratan Thiyam entirely at an allegor-ical level. On a stage completely bereft of anyprops, four witches (instead of the text’s three)materialise : attired in thread-bare cobwebsand utter their prophetic words, settingMacbeth’s imagination afire. Soon the king’smessenger appears, hailing his victory withthe oracle seeming to work. Lady Macbethreceives the news, strutting regally on a rolled-out carpet and takes the steely resolve to killKing Duncan.

Scene after scene, the tempo developsand soon gathers momentum crescendo withthe royal guards moving in symbolic proces-sion. Macbeth — now having shed his war-like shoulder-horns — meets his lady and theconspiracy rises to a heady crescendo: withthe king’s murder caught in a red aura on thecyclorama. The subsequent thanks-givingfeast — marred by the eerie appearance ofBanquo’s ghost, edging Macbeth’s break-down and delirium — is caught in semi-dark-ness, leading to fearful whispers on Macbeth’sailment. The subsequent scenario — of aswarm of modern wheel-chairs and nattily-dressed nurses, to look after the diseased ones— is a little out-of-sync with the general runof primeval images: invoking ancientJapanese Noh drama.

The play leaps into character with re-appearance of the witches and the inevitabil-ity of the gory progress towards a fatal end.The dead-slow manual battles, the washingof Lady Macbeth’s hands in a basin — sym-

bolic of the Bard’s “turning the wholeNeptune’s Sea incarnadine” — the proverbialstirring up of Birnam Forest signallingMacbeth’s fall and the final sweeping awayof the accumulated debris by the women-scavengers: were all metaphors neatly drawn,despite a prevailing sense of make-believecostuming and forcibly-imposed grandeurThe mood-lighting and minimalist musicwere very well-conceived.

Excerpts from interaction with thedirector:�How do you view the archetypal charac-ter of Macbeth in the play?

Macbeth is the name of a disease spread-

ing at an unbelievable pace in the contem-porary world and the so-called advancedcivilisation. It is a dangerous epidemic: withsymptoms like unlimited desire, greed, vio-lence, etc. But this malady is not easily diag-nosed as it does not surface and remains hid-den inside polluted and corrupt minds.

�How do you think the malady hasevolved?

Its evolution has been a process that isdangerous, complex and full of instigationand conspiracy. The eruption’s ultimately inthe form of violence: destroying mankind andpeace on earth. Despite the measures of erad-ication — taken against this dangerous dis-ease through millions of literary texts, finearts, performing arts, scientific knowledge,lightening-swift advance in technology andcommunication, and the endeavour of reli-gious cannons — the result seems to be farshort of the mark of satisfaction.

�What could be, in your opinion, its heal-ing process?

Every effort of healing proves to be mere-ly an external fomentation which fails to reachinside the foetus of the mind from where thisdisease actually begins to operate. Macbeth,the play as well as the character, is the ugli-est version of human species that is growingin numbers day by day everywhere in theworld.

We live in a digital world — aworld of dominated by the

Internet and the last technology.While the younger generation isquite quick in adapting themselvesto innovative ideas, the older gen-eration struggle to understand. So,imagine what would happen of aman in his 50s decide to buy asmartphone?

Marathi play Bin KamcheSanwad (Useless Conversation)aims to answer that through thecharacter of Bhosanka. The play,directed by Alok Rajwade, is ashort synopsis of GandishGarbachov’s work. “The play is likea dream sequence in which we allexist today. We cannot escape theflood of information constantlypoured on us. The way we talk,think, act, who we vote for; allseems pre-decided. We constant-ly go through contradictions. Theplay talks about the void betweentwo poles — necessary and unnec-essary. The character in our play,Bhosanka goes through all this,and so do we,” said Rajwade.

Bin Kamche Sanwad is a playabout how a 50-year-old man

buys a smart phone and is imme-diately plunged into a wrestling pitwhere he meets all his acquain-tances in the form of wrestlers.The playwright, DharmakirtiSumant told us, “It happens in avirtual world where people, whothe character was connected to,comes and meets him. Then, theystart telling unimportant jokes —the kind we receive on whatsappand which we ignore.” The narra-tive moves on with Bhosankabecoming bored and exhaustedwith all that was happening aroundhim. “There is a philosophy thatis attached to it. If you are norbored, then you will not get toknow about the things that arereally exciting,” added Sumant.

The play closes with thedestruction of Bhosanka’s bodyand mind. Interestingly, the playdoes not follow a definite structureeither.” “Largely the play is aboutthe unintelligent and the uncre-ative language that we talk. Eventhe jokes have become unfunnynow. We don’t laugh at the subver-sion of the joke but at the ‘unfun-ny-ness’ of it,” the playwright said.

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Boosted by their 3-0 clean sweep ofAustralia Down Under, a confident

India would seek to continue their win-ning momentum when they take on adepleted and new-look Sri Lanka in thefirst of three T20 here on Tuesday.

After the comprehensive series tri-umph in Australia, these three matcheswould certainly act as the springboard forthe hosts to begin their preparations for theAsia Cup T20 Championship which isbeginning in Bangladesh later this monthand the World T20 in March-April in India.

India will also look to win the T20series to retain their number one positionin the ICC T20I Championship table,which they achieved after sweeping asideAustralia last week.

Even in the absence of a top shot likeKohli, who has been rested by the selec-tors before the more important Asia Cupand the World T20 events, the home team'sbatting strength looks pretty formidable forthe new-look attack of Sri Lanka, thedefending World T20 Champions.

In Rohit Sharma, who was also in topform in Australia, and Shikhar Dhawan —who took time to get going Down Under,the home team has a set of right-left open-ers who have repeatedly given the side greatstarts and they could be a handful for thelargely inexperienced Lanka bowling attackon the Indian batting tracks.

The riches are evident in the rest of thebatting order with the likes of SureshRaina, captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni andthe recalled Yuvraj Singh, present alongwith the fit-again Ajinkya Rahane andManish Pandey who played a match-win-ning knock in the final ODI at Sydney.

In fact, Pandey would be very eagerto stamp his class in the T20 format tooahead of the Asia Cup and World T20events for which he has not found a placein the squad.

In bowling too, the same attack that fig-ured in the series in Australia, includingBhuvneshwar Kumar who is not part of theAsia Cup or World T20 squad, would beseen although he may not be among thefirst choice for seam-up stuff in the pres-

ence of Ashish Nehra and Jasprit Bumrah,who had impressed with his unorthodoxaction and extra pace in Australia.

With the matches being held in con-ditions favouring the slow bowlers morethan the pace men, India are expected togo in with their regulars RavichandranAshwin and Ravindra Jadeja, along with thevastly experienced Harbhajan Singh whodid not make the playing 11 in the threegames Down Under. Also left-arm spinnerPawan Negi, the highest Indian buy in theIPL auction, is also in the squad and hewould be itching to make the playing XI.

On the other hand, the visitors, whoare being led by batsman DineshChandimal, will be without their regularT20 captain Lasith Malinga and Test skip-per Angelo Mathews for the entire seriesas they are nursing a knee injury and agroin strain respectively. Experienced all-rounder Tillakaratne Dilshan has alsobeen ruled out of the opening game dueto a hand injury.

Also absent from the visitors' line-upare seasoned bowlers — pacer NuwanKulasekara and spinner Rangana Herath— to make the attack appear a bit thin.

To fill up for the lack of experiencein the squad, the Lanka selectors haverecalled veteran Dilhara Fernando at theage of 36 after putting the tall and well-build pacer in cold storage in 2012.

Fernando was selected in the squadon the basis of his recent form in a domes-tic T20 competition where he picked up11 wickets in four games.

His inclusion is a gamble that theLankans will be hoping pay off on thisshort tour which concludes atVishakapatnam on February 14.

Dilshan, who is expected to be avail-able from the second game in Ranchi onFebruary 12, has been covered by theinclusion of newcomer NiroshanDickwella, who was adjudged the bestbatsman of the Super T20 provincial tour-nament which concluded recently in theEmerald Isle.

Seekuge Prasanna, Thisara Perera andMilinda Siriwardana are the all-roundersin the squad which has some others suchas Danushka Gunathilaka, DasunShanaka, Asela Gunaratne, Kasun Rajithaand Sachithra Senanayake, who are large-ly unfamiliar to the Indian fans.

0��/���/�����#���#��*�����$� The already depleted Sri Lanka team

on Monday suffered another blow withleft arm fast bowler Binura Fernandobeing ruled out of the T20 series againstIndia after sustaining a hamstring injury.

"Left-arm fast bowler BinuraFernando injured his hamstring whenbowling in the nets yesterday. He has beenruled out of the entire series. He will bereplaced by Shaminda Eranga", Sri Lankacaptain Dinesh Chandimal said.

The squad is already without regularT20 and Test captains Lasith Malinga andMathews, both recovering from injuries,plus a few other experienced players.

All-rounder Tillakaratne Dilshan isalso nursing a finger injury and will misstomorrow's game but is expected to beavailable for the second match at Ranchion February 12.

"Dilshan has a finger fracture. He willnot be available for tomorrow but is com-ing for the second and third games," he said.

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Unwilling to tinker with the line-up in viewof next month's World Twenty20, India

captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni on Mondaysaid the team will prefer Suresh Raina in theNo.4 slot in the series against Sri Lanka eventhough vice-captain Virat Kohli's absence hasopened the No.3 position.

"It did cross our minds (to use Raina atno. 3) but it will be slightly better if he (Raina)bats at the position in which he will most like-ly bat in the World T20," Dhoni said at thebefore the first game of the three-match T20series on Monday.

"We need to give him that exposure as weare a team, whichdoesn't play manyT20s. It's usuallyone-game a series.This (three-game)series gives us theopportunity toexpose him to No.4slot for a consider-able period of time.It will be moreappropriate to keephim at No.4 so thathe gets adjustedrather than use him at one drop and ask some-one else to bat at 4," Dhoni explained.

At No 3, Raina has scored more runs (471with a hundred — 101 against South Africaat Gros Islet, West Indies — to boot) in 15games compared to No 4 position, where hehas notched up 238 runs.

"It's only the T20 format (that India willbe playing for a while). After this series thereis the Asia Cup, some warm-up games and theWorld T20. It has given us time to get into thegroove as in different formats the requirementsare different. I feel it will give us time to adjust.The last three games in Australia (that Indiawon for a 3-0 sweep) will also help us. Andthe conditions here will be exactly what we willget in the ICC World T20," Dhoni said.

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Brendon McCullum markedhis last one-day interna-

tional for New Zealand with amatch and series victory overAustralia on Monday.

McCullum's farewellseemed likely to be soured by adramatic batting collapse whichsaw New Zealand lose its last sixwickets for 23 runs to be all outfor 246, but the bowlers dis-missed Australia for 191 withmore than six overs to spare,winning by 55 runs to clinch a2-1 series victory.

Australia had been on tar-get for victory when on 164-5but the controversial dismissalof Mitch Marsh exposed the tailand New Zealand's bowlersquickly wrapped up the win.

Marsh was given out caughtand bowled by Matt Henrywhen his forcing shot hit the toe

of his boot and carried to thebowler who took ball low down.

Neither Henry nor any ofthe New Zealand fieldersappealed, thinking the ball hadhit the ground, and it wasn'tuntil the incident was replayedon the big screen at SeddonPark that spectators saw the ballhad come off Marsh's boot andbegan to boo.

English umpire Ian Gouldthen referred it to the thirdumpire, who gave Marsh out.

But the Australians ques-tioned whether the matter couldbe referred to replay if none ofthe New Zealand playersappealed and the umpire on theground had not given a decision.

"It wasn't until we sawsomething on the big screenthat the decision went upstairsso I was a bit disappointedabout that," Australia captainSteve Smith said.

"He was out, there was nodoubt about that, but if I get hiton the pad next time and it'smissing leg do I stand there andwait until it's going to show thaton the big screen."

McCullum produced a sig-nature innings on his farewell,hitting 47 runs from 27 balls togive New Zealand a bold begin-ning as it batted after losing thetoss. He hit three sixes to lift histally to 200 sixes in 260 one-dayinternationals, placing himfourth on the all-time listbehind Shahid Afridi (351),Sanath Jayasuriya (270) andChris Gayle (238).

But after Martin Guptillmade 59 and Grant Elliott alaborious 50, New Zealand'sfrail middle order tottered andthen collapsed, slumping from223-4 to be all out for 246.

The total seemed inade-quate, especially when Australia

started strongly with UsmanKhawaja making 44. NewZealand's bowling attack wasdepleted by the absence of fastbowler Trent Boult, who was ill,and allrounder MitchellSantner, who has a foot injury.

But Henry led the attacksuperbly, taking 3-60, includingthe wickets of David Warner(16), George Bailey and Marsh.Ish Sodhi, who replaced Santner,dismissed Smith and GlennMaxwell and Doug Bracewell.

McCullum was able tosavor a last and memorable winover New Zealand's greatestrival. "I've been incredibly luckyto play for 14 years and to rep-resent my country and to playwith some great blokes," he said.

"When you play againstAustralia you have to turn upand play your best cricket andtonight for 80 percent of thegame we were outstanding."

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Undefeated so far, three-timechampions India will look to

continue their rampaging runwhen they take on Sri Lanka in thesemifinals of the Under-19 crick-et World Cup at the Sher-e-BanglaNational Stadium here on Tuesday.

India have had an invinciblerun in the tournament so far,defeating Ireland, New Zealandand Nepal to top Group D.

Skipper Rishabh Pant andSarfaraz Khan, who have amassed252 and 245 runs respectively inthe tournament so far, have beenthe bulwark of the Indian battingorder. The 18-year-old fromHaridwar had laid the foundationin their last game with a 96-ball111 after opening the innings andhe would look to set the tonetomorrow as well. Sarfaraz, on theother hand, has been the epitomeof consistency as he scored threefifties in four games so far.

Armaan Jafferand MahipalLomror too havecontributed whenneeded and India will depend onthem to take the side to the finals.

Their bowling unit too hasput up an combined effort withAvesh Khan (9) emerging as thehighest-taker. Mahipal andMayank Dagar too have chippedin with seven and five wicketsrespectively so far.

Sri Lanka, on the other hand,finished second behind Pakistanin pool B, winning two of thethree games in the group stage.They beat Canada and

Afghanistan but lost to Pakistanin the league stage.

In the quarterfinals, Sri Lankabounced back with a comfortablesix-wicket win over England and

they would be keen tomake it to the finalslike they did in 2000.

Charith Asalanka(194) and Avishka Fernando (143)have scored maximum runs for SriLanka and islanders will dependon them again on Tuesday.

H���$�#��/ ������������ =India Under-19 cricket coach

Rahul Dravid on Monday said histeam will have to produce a goodall-round performance to outwitSri Lanka in the ICC World Cupsemifinal on Tuesday given thatboth sides are well aware of whatto expect from each other.

The power-packed Indiansbreezed through Group D with anall-win record against NewZealand, Nepal and Ireland,before crushing Namibia by 197runs in the quarter-final.

Sri Lanka bounced back aftera 23-run defeat to Pakistan in thelast Group B match to stun astrong England side by six wick-ets in the quarter-final.

The in-form India are ratedfavourites, having won a tri-series in Sri Lanka last December,which also featured England, butDravid refused to take the victo-ry for granted.

"We know what to expectfrom them. They have a couple ofseamers and a lot of good spinners.They bowl a lot of spin. Havingsaid that, they also know what toexpect from us," said Dravid.

"It should be a good contest.We have been playing very goodcricket of late and the lead-up tothe tournament was good. Weneed to play well, irrespective ofwhether we bat or bowl first. If weplay good cricket and bring ourA game to the party, we will giveourselves a good chance to win."

India's batting has been led byaggressive left-handed openerRishabh Pant, who followed a 18-ball half-century against Nepalwith 111 off 96 balls in the quar-ter-final. Sarfaraz Khan has shoredup the middle-order with threehalf-centuries in four matches.

Sri Lanka coach RogerWijesuriya said his side's impres-sive win over England left himoptimistic about the semi-final.

"India is a strong side, a goodall-round side," said Wijesuriya.

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Skipper Shimron Hetmyer and TevinImlach hit half-centuries as the

West Indies upset Pakistan by fivewickets to cruise into the semi-finalsof the ICC U19 Cricket World Cuphere on Monday.

Hetmyer scored 52 and Imlachmade 54 to ensure a gallant 113 byUmaid Masood went in vain as theWest Indies surpassed Pakistan's 227for six with 10 overs to spare.

Pakistan's defeat prevented an all-Asian semi-final despite Umaid's Manof the Match-winning performance,but the WIndies played better all-roundcricket to emerge deserved winners.

Umaid came to the crease in the15th over with Pakistan struggling at40 for four and rebuilt the innings inthe company of Salman Fayyaz afterhalf the side was back in the hut by the21st over. Umaid, who had scored 13not out and 10 in previous matches, hit15 boundaries and two sixes before hewas out in the final over.

Salman remained unbeaten on adefiant half-century, which includedthree hits to the fence and a six.

The revival came after a two-wicket burst by seamer Chemar Holderand fiery fast bowling by AlzarriJoseph, who conceded just 28 runs inhis 10 overs.

The Caribbean flair was evident asthe West Indies raced to 100 for one bythe 16th over. Hetmyer and Imlach puton 77 for the second wicket to take thescore to 122 for one, before two need-less run outs saw the total slip to 147for four. Shamar Springer was the fifthbatsman to fall for 37 when 38 runswere still needed for victory, but JydGoolie (26*) and Keemo Paul (24*) sawtheir side home.

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���� �� ��� Civic authorities onMonday agreed to grant DDCA anoccupancy certificate for FerozshahKotla stadium here on the conditionthat it ensures compliance of 60safety related issues within 20 days,brightening chances for hosting of theT20 World Cup matches at the venue.

The Delhi and District CricketAdministration (DDCA) will alsohave to furnish a bank draft of �50 lakhas "security" deposit which will be "for-feited" if it fails to ensure complianceof safety aspects, officials at SDMC said.

The decision by the SDMC toissue the conditional certificate camehours after Delhi High Court askedthe civic body whether it can give thepermission to host the matches ifDDCA complies with the safety mea-sures within three weeks. The SDMCwill inform the court on Tuesdayabout its decision.

The court also observed that aconditional final occupancy certifi-

cate cannot be granted, adding thatit does not want anyone to say laterthat something untoward happenedthere due to lack of compliances ordue to some minor deviation.

���������" ��������0��:A Delhi court on Monday decid-

ed to consider a criminal defamationcomplaint filed by DDCA and its vicepresident Chetan Chauhan againstArvind Kejriwal and suspended BJPMP Kirti Azad for allegedly defamingthe cricketing body by making "scan-dalous" remarks.

The matter came up beforeMetropolitan Magistrate JagminderSingh who put up complaint for Feb23 for consideration and hearingarguments. The petition alleged thatthe defamatory Statements weremade by Kejriwal and Azad, whohimself is a member of DDCA, toremain in the public eye and to gainpolitical mileage. "-+

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India's might found no challenge in the 12thSouth Asian Games with the country'sarchers, wrestlers and weightlifters clinching

a majority of gold medals to ensure a third suc-cessive day of supremacy for the host countryhere on Monday.

While compound archers scooped all fivegold medals on offer, wrestlers also annihilatedcompetition to grab five yellow metals out of six.

Courtesy the strong showing by them, Indiacontinued to top the medals' tally with a countof 72, which includes 48 gold, 18 silver and sixbronze medals.

Sri Lanka held on to the second spot with 59medals (11 gold, 25 silver and 23 bronze). Pakistanwas a distant third in the tally with 29 medals (4gold, 11 silver and 14 bronze) in their kitty.

The golden run began early on Monday forIndia in Shillong with compound archers grab-bing all the five gold medals on offer along withtwo silver medals to rule the roost.

The Indian archers topped the medals chartahead of Bangladesh, who finished with two sil-ver and two bronze medals and third placedBhutan (0-1-1).

The compound trio of Purvasha Shende, JyotiVennam and Lily Chanu Paonam started the goldrush for India downing their opponents fromBangladesh 228-217 in the morning session.

Purvasha went on to win a hat-trick of goldmedals as she also emerged the individual cham-pion and bagged her third in mixed pair eventwith Asian Games team gold and individual sil-ver medallist Abhishek Verma.

Ranked world No.5, Chauhan Rajat lived upto his reputation, edging out Verma 144-142 toemerge the individual champion in a thrillingmen's final in the afternoon session.

On the wrestling mat in Guwahati, Indiangrapplers simply destroyed their opponents tofinish with 14 gold medals out of a total 16 onoffer. Despite being represented by a secondstring team, the home wrestlers proved too strongfor their South Asian neighbours as theygrabbed five more gold out of six on offer, besides

a silver, on the concluding day on Monday.Indian wrestlers thus ended their campaign

with a whopping 14 gold and two silver. Indiawon gold in all the eight women's categories,while their men counterparts won six gold andtwo silver.

Shilpi Sheoran began the gold count for Indiaas she beat Farzana Sharmin of Bangladesh inthe women's 63kg final bout. Rajani and Nikkimade it an all-gold affair for Indian women inthe Games by defeating Bangladesh's ShirinSultana and W Weerasingh of Sri Lanka, respec-tively in the 69kg and 75kg categories. Amongmen, Mausam Khatri and Pardeep won a goldeach in 97kg and 74kg respectively, whileMandeep had to settle for a silver as he lost toPakistan's Zaman Avwar in the 125kg final bout.

There was no stopping the weightlifterseither as India grabbed all the four gold medalon Monday.

Victor Abilash Christopher (men's 105kg),Pardeep (men's 94kg), VIkas Thakur (men's

85kg) and Kavita Devi(women's 75kg) won agold each as the home

lifters ran away with all thehonours. With the four gold

on Monday, India have so far won 11 gold medals(6 in men and 5 women).

The cyclists also brushed aside competition fora third day on the trot to win both the gold medals.

The Indian teams won the women's 40kmtime trial and men's 70km time trial events totake their medal count to five gold, three silverand one bronze on the third and penultimate dayof the cycling competitions here.

In women's 40km team time trial final, theIndian quartet of T Bidyaluxmi, Rutuja Satpute,G Manisha and Chaoba Devi bagged the gold ina time of 59:23.5secs. Sri Lanka and Pakistan tookthe silver and bronze respectively.

In men's 70km team time trial final, the hometeam of Arvind Panwar, Manjeet Singh, DeepakKumar Rahi and Manohar Lal Bishnoi took thegold in one hour 29 minutes and 37.840 seconds.

Medals trickled in from wushu competitionas well with M Punshiva Meitei clinching a goldmedal and Swachacha Jatav bagging a silver inthe men's and women's Nanquan events.

India now have two gold, one silver and onebronze in their kitty.

However, after two days of domination in thepool, India on Monday shared the spoils with SriLanka in the swimming competition. BothIndia and Sri Lanka won three gold medals eachduring the day, while Bangladesh won one.

In all, India won three gold, four silver andone bronze.

Sandeep Sejwal, who has already won twogold medals for India at SAG, added another goldto his kitty, by winning the 50m breaststroke formen with a new Games record of 28.79 seconds.

V Malvika won the women's 800m freestyleevent while P S Madhu bagged the third gold forIndia by winning the 100m backstroke for men.

/����/�#�0������*����������/��#�� ����Star shuttler Jwala Gutta on Mondayonce again asked the Badminton Association ofIndia to stop the "step-motherly treatment"towards its doubles players, saying its high timethe federation changes its attitude.

"I've won medals at the highest level butyou're still not capitalising on the achievement.The doubles are still being given a step-moth-erly treatment. You need to change your attitude,"a concerned Jwala told on the sidelines of the12th South Asian Games here.

"After Ashwini and I, there is nobody andthat is the plain truth. It's the doubles I'm moreworried about," a three-time medalist in theCommonwealth Games 2006, 2010 and 2014lamented. "If we want to compete with China,we have to encourage all the events. We can't justbank on singles all the time. Doubles is taken seri-ously everywhere except India."

"We keep talking about China but if yousee...They have at least six players in men's,women's doubles and mixed doubles. They givea lot of importance to their doubles players,"she added.

She pointed out that they won a team bronzein the Thomas Uber Cup in 2014 and with theAsian Team Championships coming up inHyderabad from February 15, there's no oneIndia can bank on expect for her and Ashwini.

"We still have not done anything to strength-en our team. As a team we are just Saina, Sindhu,myself and Ashwini. There's nobody else we canbank on. That is because we are not paying atten-tion to our doubles. That's why we're not pro-ducing good doubles players," she said. "AsianTeam Championship is coming up but we don'thave a second pair. Even we cannot bank on ourthird singles — we just have Saina and Sindhu.”

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Alacklustre India suffered a 1-2 defeatat the hands of arch-rivals Pakistan

in their much-anticipated group matchof men's hockey event at the 12thSouth Asian Games here on Monday.

Muhammad Arslan Qadir scoredboth the goals for Pakistan in the 11thand 37th minutes while Indian captainMandeep Antil pulled one back in the55th minute of the match at theMoullana Tyabulla Stadium.

The much-awaited match of theGames played between second stringsides of the two countries did not riseto any heights as there were few verygoal-scoring chances.

There was not much spark either onthe field as both sides lacked creativityfor most of the time. This was the firsttime both sides were playing againsteach other after the controversy in the2014 Champions League match inBhubaneswar.

The Indian side, without a host oftop stars, lacked coordination and hadmispasses galore as they have not playedtogether often and the defence was vul-nerable.

The two sides are though expectedto play in the final again on February 12as they should finish first and secondafter the round robin league of the fourteams taking part in the Games.

There was not much to differenti-ate between the two sides in the first half,though Pakistan had slight edge. Theinexperienced Indian defence gavespace to the Pakistan forwards especial-ly at the right flank.

From one such early raid, Pakistantook the lead in the 11th minute. In afast build-up deep from Pakistan half,Fareed Ahmed sent a pass to

Muhammad Arslan Qadir whose pushon the run beat Indian goalkeeperPankaj Rajak.

India had a chance to equalisethree minutes from the first half as theygot a penalty corner but leave along tak-ing a strike, Umar Mohammad did noteven take the push properly to the penal-ty corner stopper and thus wasted it.

Pakistan made it 2-0 within twominutes of resumption with the Indiandefence once again found wanting.Muhammad Arslan Qadir was left totake a free strike for Pakistan's second

goal in the 37th minute.India forced one penalty corner very

soon but failed to score from that asGagandeep Singh's strike was blockedby the goalkeeper.

It was left to captain MandeepAntil to pull one back for India as heconnected an Abbay Ekka long hitwith a diving effort.

India made some last-ditchedefforts to find the equaliser but theattack lacked teeth against a Pakistanidefence well manned by captainMuhammad Irfan.

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Defending champions Ranchi Rays came from behind toeke out a 3-2 victory over Kalinga Lancers in the Hockey

India League here on Monday. With this win Ranchi Raysgo top of the table with 27 points.

The first quarter of the match between the table toppersKalinga Lancers and Ranchi Rays started on an attacking notewith both the teams pressing hard.

Kalinga Lancers drew first blood in the 9th minute witha field goal from Dharamvir Singh. The visiting team madea comeback in the next minute with an excellent penalty cor-ner conversion from theRays captain Ashley Jackson.

The second quarterstarted with Ranchi Raysbuilding up pressure on thehome team with lots ofpasses and strong midfieldplay. The away team puttogether some good attack-ing moves but failed toequalise. The score at half-time stood at 2-1 in favourof Kalinga Lancers.

Ranchi Rays started thethird quarter on an attack-ing note. Kalinga Lancerswere put on the backfoot from the start of the quarter andweren't allowed to go past the half line. The third quarterended with the score still at 2-1 in favour of the home team.

The fourth quarter started with the home team lookingenergised and playing with a new strategy of pressing hardto score. The pressing game soon gave the opportunity tothe away team to counter attack and they scored in the 49thminute through Mohd Amir Khan which gave Ranchi Raysa one-goal lead at a critical juncture of the game. KalingaLancers started pressing hard in order to equalise and gotan opportunity to score in the 53rd minute but failed to con-vert the penalty corner. The last moments of the game sawnumerous attacking moves but none of them were convert-ed into a goal and Ranchi Rays won the match.

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Star player Joshna Chinappa clinched the gold inwomen's individual squash after beating Maria Toorpaki

Wazir of Pakistan in a tense and ill-tempered summit clashto make up for India's disappointment in the men's eventhere on Monday.

Top seed Chinappa, ranked 14th in the world, recov-ered from one set down to beat second seeded Wazir 10-12, 11-7, 11-9, 11-7 at the brand new squash facility at theR G Baruah Sports Complex here.

With Chinappa's gold, India has so far won threemedals in squash with Sourav Ghosal and Harinder PalSingh Sandhu having grabbed a bronze each after losingto their Pakistani opponents on Sunday.

Chinappa, one of the few top Indian players to haveopted to play in the SAG, thus gave some solace to the teammanagement after men's players failed to reach the final.

The women's final match had all the drama which waswitnessed during the men's semifinals with Chinappaexpressing unhappiness to the match officials with the"aggressive" play of Wazir who was seen as trying to be abit physical with the top-ranked Indian.

Wazir, ranked 50th in the world, won the first set 12-10 after a neck-and-neckcontest but she gotinjured midway in thesecond set at 7-7 as bloodcame out of her left eye-brow region after contactwith Chinappa and playwas stopped for a while toget her treated.

The Pakistani wasimmediately given firstaid and she resumed playafter a few minutes. Itlooked like the break gaveChinappa time to ponderon her game and theglamorous Indian starteddominating the matchfrom there on.

Wazir looked tenta-tive just after comingfrom her injury breakand Chinappa did nottake much time to takethe second set 11-7 andlevel scores at 1-1.

The third set sawChinappa taking a 5-2lead but Wazir came backwith some superb shotsto make it 6-6 and then 8-6. By then there was ten-sion among the crowd atthe stands, but a calmChinappa just went abouther job and brought thescore to 9-9 and then 10-9 before taking the set.

In the fourth and final set, Wazir gave some fight ini-tially but later frittered away as Chinappa won it 11-7 togive India the first gold in squash in this edition.

Chinappa later made it known that she was not happywith the way the referees handled the match and that shedid not enjoy playing the match as her opponent was "veryaggressive" and "not playing fair".

"Wazir is a good player but she was very aggressive.Fortunately, I won the gold but I did not enjoy playing thefinal. I play in the professional circuit and there, these kindof things, likes lot of interference and blocking (by rivalplayer) does not happen," she said after the match.

"I tried to keep my self calm but I had to let them(match officials) know what was happening on the court.I cannot let things happening all the time," said Chinappa,who argued with the referee on a couple of occasions.

"I am a kind of player who plays fair, without theseinterfering and blocking etc. Doing all these is not nice forthe spectators and also for the game," she added.

Asked if the referees should have handled the situa-tion better, she said, "I don't want to be in trouble againbut I feel it is their job to control the match and stop allthose things. They should have done better."

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