46 - #& /, ˇ˘ !*˜$+˘ $0˘ · sabha seats in bihar, the jd(u) 16, the ljp five and the rlsp...

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T he Supreme Court on Friday asked the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) to complete its probe against Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Director Alok Verma, who has been divested of power and sent on leave by the Government, and appointed Justice (retd) AK Patnaik to monitor the enquiry by the anti-corruption watchdog. “The enquiry in respect of the allegations made in the note/letter of the Cabinet Secretary dated August 24, 2018 as regards Verma shall be completed by the CVC within a period of two weeks from today,” the Bench noted in its order. The SC also barred the interim CBI Director Nageshwar Rao from taking any “policy” or “any major decision” even as it fixed November 12 as the next date of hearing. The Bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi also said all the decisions taken by Rao from October 23 till October 26, including on trans- fer of investigations and change of investigating officers, be placed before it in a sealed cover by the next date of hear- ing. The court also observed it did not want the CBI issue before the court to linger on. “This is not in the interest of the country,” it said. The internal crisis in the CBI is unprecedented in the 55-year history of the country’s premier probe agency. The court made it clear the supervision of the probe by a former SC judge was a “one- time exception” given the “peculiar facts” of the case and does not cast reflection on any authority of the Government. “We make it clear that entrustment of supervision of on-going enquiry by the CVC to a former judge of this court is a one-time exception which has been felt necessary by this court in the peculiar facts of this case and should not be understood to be casting any reflection on any authority of the Government of India,” said the Bench, also comprising Justices SK Kaul and KM Joseph. The CVC has the authori- ty of superintendence over the CBI in cases relating to the Prevention of Corruption case. Rao was given interim charge of looking after the duties of the CBI Director after both Verma and Asthana were sent on leave and barred from carrying out any supervisory role of the agency on the mid- night of October 23. Shortly after taking charge on the intervening night of Tuesday and Wednesday earli- er this week, Rao transferred 13 officers with most of them being considered close to Verma. Also, Rao constituted a new three-member team to probe the FIR against Asthana in order to be impartial. The court made it clear that from now on Rao, who is a Joint Director of CBI, would only perform the routine tasks that are essential to keep the CBI functional. During the hearing, the court at first remarked that decisions taken by Rao since October 23 are not to be imple- mented but later it ordered that it would decide on that aspect only after perusing the deci- sions taken by him. The Bench sought responses from the Centre and the CVC on the plea of Verma, who has also sought a stay on the Centre’s order giving inter- im charge of his post to Rao. However, this prayer was not raised during the hearing. Meanwhile, Asthana also moved the Supreme Court with a separate petition in the matter challenging the Government order to send him on leave and divesting him of his functions. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the CVC, said the commission was under the process of conducting enquiry and keeping in view the large number of docu- ments involved, 10 days time would not be sufficient to com- plete the inquiry. Senior advocate Fali S Nariman, appearing for Verma, said the CBI Director was appointed for a two-year tenure with the approval of a selection panel comprising the Prime Minister, the Leader of Opposition and the Chief Justice of India. The question is whether the tenure could be breached at any time?,” Nariman asked from the court. I n a bid to save the ailing power companies, the State Bank of India (SBI) has approached the Supreme Court looking into the implementa- tion of recommendation of a committee which suggested for tariff increase or waiver of a portion of the loan owed to the bank by these companies. As per the SBI’s affidavit the three power companies belong to Adani, Tata and Essar Groups. They are operating in Gujarat and owe more than Rs 35,000 crores to it. The Supreme Court in April 2017 had disallowed the power generating firms from increasing their tariff and ordered them to stick to promised tariff in the agree- ment with the State Government. The SBI was roped in to save the loss of power companies, which were barred by the SC in increasing tariff. The companies had demanded permission to hike tariff citing problems and change of rule in Indonesia and claiming that the coal import had become costly and this sce- nario must be treated as an unforeseen. Rejecting all these arguments, the apex court said the companies must supply power in the tariff specified in their agreements with the States. After the SC order, the Gujarat Government formed a Study Committee headed by retired Judge Justice RK Agrawal to look into the crisis in power sector. In September, after consulting all stakehold- ers and the bankers, the com- mittee recommended that the ailing power firms can be saved either by increasing the tariff or by asking the banks to take ‘haircut’ on the loan given by them to these firms. Sources said that the Agrawal Committee has noted that the bankers were “willing to take a haircut” considering the existing scenario in the power sector. It is interesting to note that at present the SBI is facing more than 2.3 lakh crore bad debts. In its affidavit to the Supreme Court, the SBI said Adani Power in Mundra owes them 19,127 crore and Essar Power Gujarat Ltd owes 4,214 crore and Tata Group’s Costal Gujarat Power Ltd owes 10,159 crore to them. “It is relevant to point out that the entire net worth of the three power producers has almost eroded. The monies lent and advanced by the SBI and other banks are at serious and imminent risk. So far as Essar Power Gujarat Ltd is concerned, it is already NPA. The other two companies (Adani & Tata) are servicing their debt but have been addressing letters that they would be constrained to stop operation since they cannot continue to run the plants at loss,” said SBI in its affidavit to SC. “That these issues with regard to the tariff have been pending for a long time and banks have reached a stage that they are facing huge risk of the public monies advanced to the power projects,” said the SBI. This move of SBI is seen as trial balloons to know the mood of apex court. If the apex court agrees to the SBI’s prayer, many PSU banks might approach the court with simi- lar petitions to favour the power firms across India. The SBI in its affidavits said they have got clearance from Finance Ministry in a meeting chaired by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley with all stake- holders and other lender bankers also. A t least eight people were killed and three others seriously injured on Friday in an explosion at a firecracker factory in Badaun, police said. Around 4 pm, there was an explosion in a licensed firecracker factory in Rasulpur village under the Civil Lines police station, Badaun Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Ashok Kumar said. “Three injured have been admitted to the district hos- pital. Their condition is seri- ous," he said. T hree soldiers and two ultras were killed in three separate terror related incidents in Kashmir Valley, officials said. One of the soldiers died due to fatal injury in a stone-pelting incident in south Kashmir. Sources said that uniden- tified terrorists attacked an Army formation near Lorgam village in south Kashmir’s Tral sub-district late on Thursday evening. In the heavy exchange of fire, two soldiers of 42 Rashtriya were injured. They said both the injured were shifted to Army’s 92 Base Hospital at XV Corps head- quarters for treatment. However, one among the injured soldiers succumbed to his injuries. Army officials said Sepoy Ngamsiamliana from Mizoram was killed in an attack on an Army camp in south Kashmir’s Lurgam village in Tral. They said another Armyman injured in the attack is under treatment at Military Hospital. Pakistan-based Jaish-e- Muhammad claimed respon- sibility for the attack and they said it was to avenge the killing of seven civilians and three ultras at Laroo Kulgam area in south Kashmir last Sunday. Army official said Sepoy Rajendra Singh from Uttarakhand was fatally injured during stone-pelting in Arwani area of Anantnag on Thursday evening. He succumbed to his injury on Friday in Military Hospital. Four local terrorists were killed in the Thursday encounter. B JP president Amit Shah on Friday announced that the BJP and the JD(U) will contest equal number of seats in Bihar in the Lok Sabha elections and distribution of seats among four NDA partners will be formally announced in two- three days. At the same time, Shah also announced here in the presence of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar that all partners will have lesser number of seats than they had last time. The announcement was made after reports this week said that as per seat-sharing formula the BJP had agreed to contest 17 of the 40 Lok Sabha seats in Bihar, the JD(U) 16, the LJP five and the RLSP two seats. Sources in the JD(U) had, however, denied that it would contest a seat less than that allotted to the BJP insisting that equal num- ber of seats would be shared by both the parties. N ational Capital’s deterio- rating air quality on Friday surpassed all its records of the current season as concentration of Suspended Particulate Matters (SPMs) was measured “abnormally high” on the Air Quality Index (AQI) of Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB). One month pollution data of the CPCB reveals that values of both pollutants have been recorded three to four times higher for both PM 10, PM 2.5. Significantly, value of PM 2.5 was recorded at 46 Micro Cubic Per Gram (μgm-3) on September 16 of this year, while on Friday it shot to 206.2. Environmentalists have warned that denizens of Delhi are inhaling poison. PM 10 value has escalated above the danger mark, oscil- lating between 139.6 and 140 (μgm-3) in mid-September, and 400 on Friday. SAFAR, a unit of Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES), has also recorded values at four folds the prescribed standard of both PM 10 and PM 2.5. Meanwhile, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Government has initiated coordinated action to combat air pollution. Environment Minister Imran Hussain on Friday conducted surprise inspection and found that dust control norms were being violated blatantly at the Pragati Maidan redevelop- ment site. Delhi Pollution Control Board (DPCC) served notice on the contractor and the builder for violating Environmental Clearance (EC) conditions. Since construction dust is also a major contributor in pol- luting air, Hussian directed officers of civic agency to release an order to cover all construction sites. “No construction site should be left uncovered in Delhi,” said Hussain to officers while inspecting the site. The Minister has decided to regu- larly inspect all areas in Delhi to oversee the implementation of Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) and visit the sites where there is likelihood of high air pollution. The Delhi Government has also consti- tuted joint departmental inspection teams. D efence Ministry (MoD) official spokesperson Swaranshree Rajashekhar was sent on indefinite leave on Friday hours after she posted a tweet criticising the alleged misuse of privileges by military officials leading to an outcry amongst the veterans. She later deleted the tweet saying “it was inadvertently done and the same is deeply regretted.” The Ministry later in the day said Army Public Relations Officer (PRO) Colonel Aman Anand will be acting spokesperson as the “MoD spokesperson proceeds on leave. The twitter controversy began after she responded to a comment by former Navy Chief Admiral Arun Prakash. He had re-tweeted a photo- graph showing a military flag on the bonnet of an official car of the Internal Financial Adviser to the Western Command of the Army in Chandimandir in Haryana’s Panchkula district. The officer is a civilian and is not allowed to use flags on their vehicles, a right reserved for armed forces officers. “Even if misuse of an Army Command’s insignia by a civil- ian is not a cognisable offence, the person needs to be repri- manded by the GOC in C whose ‘Financial Adviser’ he is,” Prakash tweeted. T he wheelchair-bound veter- an politician Ajit Jogi is the most busiest man than any of his competitors while campaigning in poll-bound Chhattisgarh to create a hung Assembly to become the HD Kumaraswamy of the mineral-rich State. Swelling crowd at State’s first Chief Minister’s public meetings in his native sprawl- ing Bilaspur region which has 24 out of State’s total 90 seats, has become a big headache for BJP’s war room strategists. The State goes to polls for 18 seats in the first phase on November 12 while the remaining 72 seats on the sec- ond and final phase on November 20. “The main rival of the BJP is Congress but in over two dozen seats Jogi-led alliance is a formidable force, you can never underestimate his (Jogi) political sharpness’’ said Raman Singh, the BJP’s longest serving Chief Minister. The bureaucrat-turned 72- year old politician Jogi has emerged a potential challenger to State’s two major parties, the grand old Congress and the BJP which is ruling the State since 2003 when Jogi-led Congress regime was voted out of power. Jogi’s new political outfit Janta Congress Chhattisgarh (J) has forged an alliance with Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and the new combine is con- testing on all 90 seats but its core influence lies in State’s most populated Bilaspur region. Political analysts say that Jogi draws massive crowd at his all rallies and the State could see hung assembly if crowd back up him with votes. A top Jogi’s aide claimed, “if we get 8-10 seats which are very much on the cards, then Ajit Jogi will be the king not the king-maker,’’. He claimed that though Jogi has better person- al relationship with Raman Singh and pathological hatred from Congress but in case of hung assembly he would pre- fer to ally with Congress if the national party agrees to install Jogi as the Chief Minister, sim- ilar to the case of Karnataka. Amit Jogi, lone son of Ajit Jogi and de facto head of the Janta Congress Chhattisgarh (J), said, “the election result will produce a shocker for the BJP and the Congress, people are with Ajit Jogi because we are fighting for the larger welfare of Chhattisgarhia (local people of Chhattisgarh). He stated that his party would reserve roughly 90-100 per cent jobs only for the youths of Chhattisgarh in Government if voted to power. A key face in BJP’s election war room in Chhatisgarh, remarked, “Jogi-led alliance has killing instinct in Scheduled Caste dominated seats, it will be interesting to watch out how the front con- vert its popularity in selected areas into actual results,’’. Analysts predict that in best case scenario, Jogi-led alliance could win 6-9 seats with rough- ly seven to nine percent votes polled which would be deadly for the BJP and the Congress as the vote difference between the two national parties was just 0.72 per cent in 2013 election. The overall votes difference between the two national parties were just 92,000 in entire 90 seats in 2013. The BJP had bagged 49 seats, the Congress 39 seats, the BSP one seat with overall four per cent votes polled and while Independent one seat. There are total 10 seats reserved for the SC category can- didates in the State and the BJP had won nine SC seats in last election in 2013. Data shows that in 53 seats the SC population exceeds more than 10 per cent while in remaining 37 seats they are in single digit population. RNI Regn. No. CHHENG/2012/42718, Postal Reg. No. - RYP DN/34/2013-2015

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Page 1: 46 - #& /, ˇ˘ !*˜$+˘ $0˘ · Sabha seats in Bihar, the JD(U) 16, the LJP five and the RLSP two seats. Sources in the JD(U) had, however, denied that it would contest a seat less

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The Supreme Court onFriday asked the Central

Vigilance Commission (CVC)to complete its probe againstCentral Bureau of Investigation(CBI) Director Alok Verma,who has been divested ofpower and sent on leave by theGovernment, and appointedJustice (retd) AK Patnaik tomonitor the enquiry by theanti-corruption watchdog.

“The enquiry in respect ofthe allegations made in thenote/letter of the CabinetSecretary dated August 24,2018 as regards Verma shall becompleted by the CVC withina period of two weeks fromtoday,” the Bench noted in itsorder.

The SC also barred theinterim CBI DirectorNageshwar Rao from takingany “policy” or “any majordecision” even as it fixedNovember 12 as the next dateof hearing.

The Bench headed byChief Justice Ranjan Gogoialso said all the decisions takenby Rao from October 23 tillOctober 26, including on trans-fer of investigations and changeof investigating officers, beplaced before it in a sealedcover by the next date of hear-ing. The court also observed itdid not want the CBI issuebefore the court to linger on.

“This is not in the interest

of the country,” it said. Theinternal crisis in the CBI isunprecedented in the 55-yearhistory of the country’s premierprobe agency.

The court made it clear thesupervision of the probe by aformer SC judge was a “one-time exception” given the“peculiar facts” of the case anddoes not cast reflection on anyauthority of the Government.

“We make it clear thatentrustment of supervision ofon-going enquiry by the CVCto a former judge of this courtis a one-time exception whichhas been felt necessary by thiscourt in the peculiar facts ofthis case and should not beunderstood to be casting anyreflection on any authority ofthe Government of India,” saidthe Bench, also comprisingJustices SK Kaul and KMJoseph.

The CVC has the authori-ty of superintendence over theCBI in cases relating to thePrevention of Corruption case.

Rao was given interimcharge of looking after theduties of the CBI Director afterboth Verma and Asthana weresent on leave and barred fromcarrying out any supervisoryrole of the agency on the mid-night of October 23.

Shortly after taking chargeon the intervening night ofTuesday and Wednesday earli-er this week, Rao transferred 13officers with most of them

being considered close toVerma.

Also, Rao constituted anew three-member team toprobe the FIR against Asthanain order to be impartial.

The court made it clearthat from now on Rao, who isa Joint Director of CBI, wouldonly perform the routine tasksthat are essential to keep theCBI functional.

During the hearing, thecourt at first remarked thatdecisions taken by Rao sinceOctober 23 are not to be imple-mented but later it ordered thatit would decide on that aspectonly after perusing the deci-

sions taken by him.The Bench sought

responses from the Centre andthe CVC on the plea of Verma,who has also sought a stay onthe Centre’s order giving inter-im charge of his post to Rao.However, this prayer was notraised during the hearing.

Meanwhile, Asthana alsomoved the Supreme Courtwith a separate petition in thematter challenging theGovernment order to sendhim on leave and divesting himof his functions.

Solicitor General TusharMehta, appearing for the CVC,said the commission was under

the process of conductingenquiry and keeping in viewthe large number of docu-ments involved, 10 days timewould not be sufficient to com-plete the inquiry.

Senior advocate Fali SNariman, appearing for Verma,said the CBI Director wasappointed for a two-year tenurewith the approval of a selectionpanel comprising the PrimeMinister, the Leader ofOpposition and the ChiefJustice of India.

The question is whetherthe tenure could be breached atany time?,” Nariman askedfrom the court.

��-�����$����� ,34�(3 5�

In a bid to save the ailingpower companies, the State

Bank of India (SBI) hasapproached the Supreme Courtlooking into the implementa-tion of recommendation of acommittee which suggestedfor tariff increase or waiver ofa portion of the loan owed tothe bank by these companies.As per the SBI’s affidavit thethree power companies belongto Adani, Tata and EssarGroups. They are operating inGujarat and owe more than Rs35,000 crores to it.

The Supreme Court inApril 2017 had disallowed thepower generating firms fromincreasing their tariff andordered them to stick topromised tariff in the agree-ment with the StateGovernment. The SBI wasroped in to save the loss ofpower companies, which werebarred by the SC in increasingtariff.

The companies haddemanded permission to hike

tariff citing problems andchange of rule in Indonesia andclaiming that the coal importhad become costly and this sce-nario must be treated as anunforeseen. Rejecting all thesearguments, the apex court saidthe companies must supplypower in the tariff specified intheir agreements with theStates.

After the SC order, theGujarat Government formed aStudy Committee headed byretired Judge Justice RKAgrawal to look into the crisisin power sector. In September,after consulting all stakehold-

ers and the bankers, the com-mittee recommended that theailing power firms can be savedeither by increasing the tariff orby asking the banks to take‘haircut’ on the loan given bythem to these firms.

Sources said that theAgrawal Committee has notedthat the bankers were “willingto take a haircut” consideringthe existing scenario in thepower sector.

It is interesting to notethat at present the SBI is facingmore than �2.3 lakh crore baddebts. In its affidavit to theSupreme Court, the SBI saidAdani Power in Mundra owesthem �19,127 crore and EssarPower Gujarat Ltd owes �4,214crore and Tata Group’s CostalGujarat Power Ltd owes�10,159 crore to them.

“It is relevant to point outthat the entire net worth of thethree power producers hasalmost eroded. The monieslent and advanced by the SBIand other banks are at seriousand imminent risk. So far asEssar Power Gujarat Ltd is

concerned, it is already NPA.The other two companies(Adani & Tata) are servicingtheir debt but have beenaddressing letters that theywould be constrained to stopoperation since they cannotcontinue to run the plants atloss,” said SBI in its affidavit toSC.

“That these issues withregard to the tariff have beenpending for a long time andbanks have reached a stage thatthey are facing huge risk of thepublic monies advanced to thepower projects,” said the SBI.

This move of SBI is seen astrial balloons to know themood of apex court. If the apexcourt agrees to the SBI’s prayer,many PSU banks mightapproach the court with simi-lar petitions to favour thepower firms across India.

The SBI in its affidavits saidthey have got clearance fromFinance Ministry in a meetingchaired by Finance MinisterArun Jaitley with all stake-holders and other lenderbankers also.

���� ')()6,7 680,*4

At least eight people werekilled and three others

seriously injured on Friday inan explosion at a firecrackerfactory in Badaun, police said.

Around 4 pm, there wasan explosion in a licensedf irecracker factor y inRasulpur village under theCivil Lines police station,Badaun SeniorSuperintendent of Police(SSP) Ashok Kumar said.

“Three injured have beenadmitted to the district hos-pital. Their condition is seri-ous," he said.

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Three soldiers and two ultraswere killed in three separate

terror related incidents inKashmir Valley, officials said.One of the soldiers died due tofatal injury in a stone-peltingincident in south Kashmir.

Sources said that uniden-tified terrorists attacked anArmy formation near Lorgamvillage in south Kashmir’s Tralsub-district late on Thursdayevening. In the heavy exchangeof fire, two soldiers of 42Rashtriya were injured. Theysaid both the injured wereshifted to Army’s 92 BaseHospital at XV Corps head-quarters for treatment.However, one among the

injured soldiers succumbed tohis injuries.

Army officials said SepoyNgamsiamliana from Mizoramwas killed in an attack on anArmy camp in south Kashmir’sLurgam village in Tral. Theysaid another Armyman injuredin the attack is under treatmentat Military Hospital.

Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Muhammad claimed respon-sibility for the attack and theysaid it was to avenge thekilling of seven civilians andthree ultras at Laroo Kulgamarea in south Kashmir last Sunday.

Army official said SepoyRajendra Singh fromUttarakhand was fatally injuredduring stone-pelting in Arwaniarea of Anantnag on Thursdayevening. He succumbed to hisinjury on Friday in MilitaryHospital. Four local terroristswere killed in the Thursdayencounter.

��� � ,34�(3 5�

BJP president Amit Shah onFriday announced that the

BJP and the JD(U) will contestequal number of seats in Biharin the Lok Sabha elections anddistribution of seats amongfour NDA partners will be formally announced in two-three days.

At the same time, Shah alsoannounced here in the presenceof Bihar Chief Minister NitishKumar that all partners willhave lesser number of seatsthan they had last time.

The announcement wasmade after reports this weeksaid that as per seat-sharingformula the BJP had agreed tocontest 17 of the 40 LokSabha seats in Bihar, theJD(U) 16, the LJP five and theRLSP two seats. Sources in the

JD(U) had, however, deniedthat it would contest a seatless than that allotted to theBJP insisting that equal num-ber of seats would be sharedby both the parties.

��������-$�� ,34�(3 5��

National Capital’s deterio-rating air quality on Friday

surpassed all its records of thecurrent season as concentrationof Suspended ParticulateMatters (SPMs) was measured“abnormally high” on the AirQuality Index (AQI) of CentralPollution Control Board(CPCB).

One month pollution dataof the CPCB reveals that valuesof both pollutants have beenrecorded three to four timeshigher for both PM 10, PM 2.5.Significantly, value of PM 2.5was recorded at 46 Micro CubicPer Gram (μgm-3) onSeptember 16 of this year,while on Friday it shot to206.2. Environmentalists havewarned that denizens of Delhiare inhaling poison.

PM 10 value has escalatedabove the danger mark, oscil-lating between 139.6 and 140(μgm-3) in mid-September,and 400 on Friday.

SAFAR, a unit of Ministry

of Earth Sciences (MoES), hasalso recorded values at fourfolds the prescribed standard ofboth PM 10 and PM 2.5.

Meanwhile, the Aam

Aadmi Party (AAP)Government has initiatedcoordinated action to combatair pollution. EnvironmentMinister Imran Hussain on

Friday conducted surpriseinspection and found thatdust control norms were beingviolated blatantly at thePragati Maidan redevelop-ment site. Delhi PollutionControl Board (DPCC) servednotice on the contractor andthe builder for violatingEnvironmental Clearance(EC) conditions.

Since construction dust isalso a major contributor in pol-luting air, Hussian directedofficers of civic agency torelease an order to cover allconstruction sites.

“No construction siteshould be left uncovered inDelhi,” said Hussain to officerswhile inspecting the site. TheMinister has decided to regu-larly inspect all areas in Delhito oversee the implementationof Graded Response ActionPlan (GRAP) and visit thesites where there is likelihoodof high air pollution. The DelhiGovernment has also consti-tuted joint departmentalinspection teams.

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Defence Ministry (MoD)official spokesperson

Swaranshree Rajashekhar wassent on indefinite leave onFriday hours after she posted atweet criticising the allegedmisuse of privileges by militaryofficials leading to an outcryamongst the veterans. She laterdeleted the tweet saying “it wasinadvertently done and thesame is deeply regretted.”

The Ministry later in theday said Army Public RelationsOfficer (PRO) Colonel AmanAnand will be actingspokesperson as the “MoDspokesperson proceeds onleave.

The twitter controversy

began after she responded to acomment by former NavyChief Admiral Arun Prakash.He had re-tweeted a photo-graph showing a military flagon the bonnet of an official carof the Internal FinancialAdviser to the WesternCommand of the Army inChandimandir in Haryana’sPanchkula district. The officeris a civilian and is not allowedto use flags on their vehicles, aright reserved for armed forcesofficers.

“Even if misuse of an ArmyCommand’s insignia by a civil-ian is not a cognisable offence,the person needs to be repri-manded by the GOC in Cwhose ‘Financial Adviser’ he is,”Prakash tweeted.

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The wheelchair-bound veter-an politician Ajit Jogi is the

most busiest man than any of hiscompetitors while campaigningin poll-bound Chhattisgarh tocreate a hung Assembly tobecome the HD Kumaraswamyof the mineral-rich State.

Swelling crowd at State’sfirst Chief Minister’s publicmeetings in his native sprawl-ing Bilaspur region which has24 out of State’s total 90 seats,has become a big headache forBJP’s war room strategists.

The State goes to polls for18 seats in the first phase onNovember 12 while theremaining 72 seats on the sec-ond and final phase onNovember 20.

“The main rival of the BJPis Congress but in over twodozen seats Jogi-led alliance isa formidable force, you cannever underestimate his (Jogi)political sharpness’’ said RamanSingh, the BJP’s longest servingChief Minister.

The bureaucrat-turned 72-year old politician Jogi hasemerged a potential challengerto State’s two major parties, thegrand old Congress and theBJP which is ruling the State

since 2003 when Jogi-ledCongress regime wasvoted out of power.Jogi’s new political outfit

Janta Congress Chhattisgarh(J) has forged an alliance withBahujan Samaj Party (BSP)and the new combine is con-testing on all 90 seats but itscore influence lies in State’smost populated Bilaspur region.

Political analysts say thatJogi draws massive crowd at hisall rallies and the State couldsee hung assembly if crowdback up him with votes.

A top Jogi’s aide claimed,“if we get 8-10 seats which arevery much on the cards, thenAjit Jogi will be the king not theking-maker,’’. He claimed thatthough Jogi has better person-al relationship with RamanSingh and pathological hatredfrom Congress but in case ofhung assembly he would pre-fer to ally with Congress if thenational party agrees to installJogi as the Chief Minister, sim-ilar to the case of Karnataka.

Amit Jogi, lone son of AjitJogi and de facto head of theJanta Congress Chhattisgarh(J), said, “the election result willproduce a shocker for the BJPand the Congress, people arewith Ajit Jogi because we arefighting for the larger welfareof Chhattisgarhia (local peopleof Chhattisgarh). He stated

that his party would reserveroughly 90-100 per cent jobsonly for the youths ofChhattisgarh in Government ifvoted to power.

A key face in BJP’s electionwar room in Chhatisgarh,remarked, “Jogi-led alliancehas killing instinct inScheduled Caste dominatedseats, it will be interesting towatch out how the front con-vert its popularity in selectedareas into actual results,’’.

Analysts predict that in bestcase scenario, Jogi-led alliancecould win 6-9 seats with rough-ly seven to nine percent votespolled which would be deadlyfor the BJP and the Congress asthe vote difference between thetwo national parties was just 0.72per cent in 2013 election.

The overall votes differencebetween the two national partieswere just 92,000 in entire 90 seatsin 2013. The BJP had bagged 49seats, the Congress 39 seats, theBSP one seat with overall fourper cent votes polled and whileIndependent one seat.

There are total 10 seatsreserved for the SC category can-didates in the State and the BJPhad won nine SC seats in lastelection in 2013. Data shows thatin 53 seats the SC populationexceeds more than 10 per centwhile in remaining 37 seats theyare in single digit population.

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Page 2: 46 - #& /, ˇ˘ !*˜$+˘ $0˘ · Sabha seats in Bihar, the JD(U) 16, the LJP five and the RLSP two seats. Sources in the JD(U) had, however, denied that it would contest a seat less

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ASpecial Court in Delhi onFriday issued notices to the

Sterling Biotech promoters fol-lowing an EnforcementDirectorate's plea to declarethem fugitive economic offend-ers in connection with a�8,100-crore bank fraud case.Additional Sessions JudgeSatish Kumar Arora issued thenotices to the owners of theGujarat-based pharmaceuticalfirm — Nitin Sandesara,Chetan Sandesara, DiptiSandesara, Hitesh Patel.

The plea has been filed bythe agency under various sec-tions of the Fugitive EconomicOffenders Act, 2018 for decla-

ration of the accused as offend-ers and for confiscation ofproperties which are either intheir names or they have inter-est in the properties as benefi-cial owners. ED's special pub-lic prosecutor Nitesh Rana saidthe total amount involved inmoney laundering, which "isnothing but proceeds of crime"in the matter has been quanti-

fied as �8,100 crore approxi-mately from the investigationconducted so far.

The ED told the court thatthe accused persons have leftthe country under suspiciouscircumstances and evaded theprocess of law to face criminalprosecution. "Despite theinstant developments beingwell in their knowledge, theyhave chosen to deliberatelynot to return to the countryand submit to the jurisdictionof the court. They are shiftingcountries to escape the clutch-es of the law," it said.

The agency also told thecourt that it is suspected thatthe accused at present may beresiding in Nigeria, United

States or United Arab Emiratesbecause they have extensivebusiness interests in thesecountries. "Even though theaccused no 1 to 4 (Nitin,Chetan, Dipti and Hitesh) hadsufficient funds and resourcesto avoid declaration of bankloans as frauds subsequent toNon-Performing Assets, they,in active connivance with eachother and other persons laun-dered the funds for their per-sonal advantage and usethrough a complex web ofshell/benami companies con-trolled and managed by themthrough dummy/paper direc-tors who were their employeesand bought certain properties.

"The said highlights the

fact that though funds wereavailable to pay off bank loans,the same were diverted andsiphoned off, cheating thebanks," the agency said. It saidthe investigation has revealedthat 249 companies have beenincorporated in the country bypromoters of Sterling Biotechout of which 200 firms werefound to be 'benami' entitiesused to siphon off loan fundsobtained from various banks.

On October 23, the ED hadfiled a supplementary chargesheet against seven persons inthe court in the money laun-dering case. So far, the agencyhas charge sheeted 191 accused,including seven individualsand 184 companies.

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Benchmarking the standardsof facilities and services pro-

vided by motels, on the sides ofhighways, to cater to motorists,the Centre has decided to grantapproval to only those newmotels or those seeking freshapprovals that have facilities fordigital payments, have safetymechanisms and are disabledand environment-friendlyamong others. The UnionTourism Ministry recentlyissued new guidelines in thisregard.

"At a time when theGovernment is focusing on dig-ital transactions, these estab-lishments must migrate fromcash to cashless payments.Customers too are happy tomake payment by digital wallets,and credit and debit cards.Also, they need to be inclusiveand disabled-friendly to cater alltype of customers.

"The aim is to promotesafe, secure and better hospi-tality facilities at highways fortravelers and provide the Motelswith enough cafes, rest rooms,toilet facilities and other facili-

ties," said a senior official fromthe Ministry.

He said motels have beenclassified as per the facilitiesbeing provided by them.

"The guidelines have beenframed after intense delibera-tions with the tourism and hos-pitality industry along with thestakeholders. The Motel isexpected to maintain requiredstandards at all times. The newguidelines treat Motels sepa-

rately from the Hotel classifica-tions," he explained.

According to the guide-lines, motels which are animportant segment of the hos-pitality sector, providing abudget accommodation is clas-sified as a Hotel designed pri-marily for motorists, havingtheir main entrance on aNational Highway or a StateHighway or on a Service Laneof a National / State Highway.

"Motels cater to the hospi-tality requirements of road trav-elers through the facilities andservices offered by them, withthe rooms usually arranged inlow blocks with parking direct-ly outside," says the guidelines.

The new motel or thoseseeking re-approval will have topass test from the Hotel &Restaurant Approval andClassification Committee(HRACC) comprising

Chairperson, Secretary(Tourism) of the concernedState Govt. or AdditionalSecretary.

Other members include(Tourism) or Director (Tourism)or Additional Director (Tourism)of the concerned State besidesrepresentative from theFederation of Hotel andRestaurants Association of India(FHRAI), Hotel Association ofIndia (HAI), Indian Associationof Tour Operators (IATO) andTravel Agents Association ofIndia (TAAI).

Approval will be given validfor three years. "Applicationswill not be considered asreceived till such time they arefree from all deficiencies. TheHRACC may inspect a motel atany time without previousnotice," said the official.

The Motel must be able toconvince the committee thatthey are taking sufficient stepsto conserve energy and harvestwater, garbage segregation, anddisposal/ recycling as perPollution Control Board (PCB)norms and following other eco-friendly measures, pointed outthe official.

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As many as 199 sitting MLAsand seven MPs have not

declared their PermanentAccount Number (PAN)details. The highest number ofMLAs, who have not declaredPAN details, are 51 from theCongress, followed by 42 MLAsfrom the BJP and 25 MLAsfrom the CPI(M).

Interestingly, the highestnumbers of 33 MLAs whohave not declared the PANdetails are from Kerala, fol-lowed by 28 MLAs fromMizoram and 19 MLAs fromMadhya Pradesh. Two MPseach from Odisha and TamilNadu, and one MP eachAssam, Mizoram andLakshadweep have not declaredtheir PAN details.

Association for DemocraticReforms (ADR) and NationalElection Watch (NEW) haveanalysed the PAN details of 542sitting Lok Sabha MPs and 4086MLAs. Of which 11 re-electedMPs and 35 re-elected MLAshave dissimilarities in the PANdetails submitted by them intheir affidavits. The discrepan-cy also found in the PAN detailsof several re-elected MLAs.

"The PAN comprises 4alphabets, 4 numerical and analphabet at the end, e.g:ABCD4321F. Discrepancynoticed in the PAN card is thatone number/alphabet ischanged. Four re-elected MPsfrom BJD, 2 re-elected MPs

each from BJP and Congress,and one re-elected MP eachNCP, JD(S) and SHS have thediscrepancy in their declaredPAN details. When it comesState wise re-elected MLAswith the discrepancy in PANdetails, Madhya Pradesh hasthe highest number of re-elect-ed MLAs i.e. 8 followed byMaharashtra with 7 re-electedMLAs who have the discrep-ancy in declared PAN details,"the report said.

The highest number of re-elected MLAs who have dis-crepancy in declared PANdetails are 18, from BJP, fol-lowed by 9 MLAs from INCand 3 MLAs from JD(U).

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Sowing of winter (rabi) cropshas begun and the coverage

of oilseeds has gone up 70 percent to 14.61 lakh hectare so farover the year-ago period.Wheat has been sown in 18,000hectare so far in the rabi sea-son of the 2018-19 crop year(July-June) as against 2,000hectare in the year-ago period.Sowing of rabi crops beginfrom October and harvestingfrom March. Wheat is themain rabi crop.

"Wheat sowing will pick up

pace in the coming weeks.Right now, the planting isreported in parts of UttarPradesh, Madhya Pradesh andJammu & Kashmir," a seniorAgriculture Ministry officialsaid. Among winter crops,planting of oilseeds has beengood as farmers have covered14.61 lakh hectare so far, andmuch of it is rapeseed and mus-tard seed, owing to better sup-port price.

In the year-ago period,oilseeds were sown in 8.60lakh hectare. In case of pulses,area was lagging behind at

7.30 lakh hectare so far this rabiseason as against 24.17 lakhhectare in the same period lastyear.

Coarse cereals area wascovered in just 5 lakh hectareas against 9.47 lakh hectare inthe year-ago period. Rice wassown in 3.13 lakh hectare asagainst 4.22 lakh hectare in thesaid period, the AgricultureMinistry data showed. Theofficial said delayed departureof southwest monsoon hasimproved soil moisture thatwill boost sowing of rabi cropsin many States.

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New Delhi: Prime MinisterNarendra Modi on Fridaydescribed India and Japan a"winning combination" andsaid the island nation is NewDelhi's most trusted partners inits economic and technologicalmodernisation.

In a statement before heleaves for Japan on Saturday toattend the Annual Summit onOctober 28 and 29, Modi saidIndia's partnership with Japanis of great substance and pur-pose.

"We have a special strategicand global partnership. Our tieswith Japan, both economicand strategic, stand complete-ly transformed in recent years.It is today a partnership of greatsubstance and purpose. It restson the strong pillars of India'sAct East Policy, and our sharedvision and commitment to afree, open and inclusive Indo-Pacific," he said.

Modi said it will be his 12thmeeting with Prime Minister

Shinzo Abe since he first touredJapan as Prime Minister inSeptember 2014.

He said, as democracies,the two countries have sharedvalues and they seek peaceand prosperity for all.

"Our complementaritiesmake India and Japan a win-ning combination. Japan todayis one of the most trustedpartners in India's economicand technological modernisa-tions and one of the topinvestors in India," he pointedout.

The PM said that projectssuch as Mumbai-AhmedabadHigh Speed Rail and DedicatedFreight Corridors reflect thehigh level and "strength of oureconomic engagement".

"Japan is also at the fore-front of engaging in our nation-al initiatives, such as 'Make inIndia', 'Skill India', 'DigitalIndia', 'Start UpIndia'...Japanese investors havefaith in India's economic future,

which is marked with myriadopportunities," Modi said.

He said India values Japan'sglobal leadership in innovation,technologies and best prac-tices and during his visit, hewill have a chance to see someof Japan's high-tech capabilitiesin robotics.

"I will have wide-rangingtalks with Prime MinisterShinzo Abe and interact withbusiness leaders and captainsof industry from both coun-tries. I will also address theIndian community. Theseinteractions will help to furtherstrengthen our trade andinvestment ties, and coopera-tion in new areas such ashealthcare, digital technologies,agriculture and food process-ing, disaster risk reductionand disaster resilient infra-structure," he said.

He recalled that last year,he had hosted Prime MinisterAbe and his wife Akie Abe inhis home State of Gujarat. PTI

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New Delhi: Russia and Indiaare working on an agreement to"jointly produce" films to boostpeople-to-people ties, theRussian envoy said on Fridayand asserted that the two coun-tries have an age-old history ofcultural collaboration.

Russian Ambassador toIndia Nikolay Kudashev said thisat the embassy here afterannouncing the grand culturalevent — Days of Russian Culturein India — that will bring someof the most iconic musical andart forms to the country over thenext two months.

"The two nations have aspecial affection towards eachother, with a history of cultur-al collaboration that goes longback. Some of the illustriousnames are RabindranathTagore and Leo Tolstoy, andmany other distinguished sonsand daughters of both thecountries, representing our

ties," he said. The envoy saidthe event once again will reflectthe unique cultural tiesbetween the two sides.

"It will open this Sundaywith a breathtaking performance'Reverse' by the Moscow MusicalTheater. It will blur the bound-aries between dramatic and clas-sic, and the circus performances,"Kudashev told reporters.

The 75-minute productionhas been created by youngRussian directors AndreyKoltsov and Irina Drozhzhina,with participation of DebraBrown, the Emmy Award-win-ning Canadian choreographer,officials at the embassy said.

"It will be a silent show,with motion and emotionsintertwined in a breathtakingacrobatic performance by thetroupe, and will have a part ofIndia in its mix too. I say, it willblow away the senses of theaudience," said Koltsov. PTI

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New Delhi: Supreme Court judge MadanB Lokur on Friday said besides constructionand maintenance of washrooms in over16,000 court rooms, a mechanism needs tobe devised to deal with garbage and also toweed out old case files.

He was speaking at a pre-launch func-tion of 'Swachh Nyayalaya project, whichwould be inaugurated on the occasion ofLaw Day on November 26 by Chief Justiceof India Ranjan Gogoi.

The project, which is ostensibly on thelines of the Centre's flagship scheme SwachhBharat Abhiyan, would be undertaken byNITI Aayog and the Union Ministry ofDrinking Water and Sanitation along withthe Department of Justice and wouldinclude construction of new toilets in courtcomplexes in the country, besides main-taining existing ones.

"So really the idea behind this SwachhNyayalaya is to have those general clean upin terms of maintenance, in terms of housekeeping issues, of course, providing toilets,washrooms and all that is one of theaspects of housekeeping and maintenancebut equally important are issues of garbagedisposal," Justice Lokur said.

He stressed the need to take up the pro-ject in "broad perspective" and said it

should not remain confined to toilets andwashrooms only.

"You see we have a process of weedingout of files, so when a case gets disposed of,it is not that it is going to be there forever.Of course, there are certain categories ofcases which needs to be there forever, whichare of historical importance, and so on butif you are in a position to weed out the fileson a regular basis, there is a lot of space thatcan be generated," Justice Lokur said.

He then gave the example of the apexcourt and said that by weeding out old andunnecessary files, a large bar room has beenmade here.

Justice Lokur did not agree with thedeadline of 2020 fixed by Government agen-cies to complete the Swachh Nyayalaya pro-ject and said that it can be completed with-in a span of six months and asked the agen-cies to include PWD also with the project.

The function, in which a presentationwas made about the project, was attendedby the CJI and justices Kurian Joseph andA K Sikri. Niti Ayog head Amitabh Kant alsoaddressed the gathering.

The ambitious project would cover allthe Supreme Court, all the high courts and3,388 subordinate courts and would incura cost of �500 crore. PTI

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New Delhi: India and Myanmar haveagreed to fight insurgent groups operat-ing along the border between the twocountries and check smuggling of wildlifeand narcotic drugs.

It was agreed upon at the 22nd home-land security meeting between India andMyanmar held on Thursday and Friday.

During the meeting, both the sidesagreed to take action against insurgentgroups operating within their territories,a Home Ministry statement said.

The two countries agreed on provid-ing security cooperation and facilitatemovement of people and trade across theInternational Border.

It was also agreed to cooperate in pre-venting smuggling of wildlife and narcoticdrugs and to strengthen cooperation onthe international border management,including construction of subsidiary pil-lars to better demarcate the border, thestatement said.

The Indian delegation was led byUnion Home Secretary Rajiv Gauba andthe Myanmar delegation by Major GeneralAung Thu, Deputy Minister, Ministry ofHome Affairs, Myanmar. PTI

0���� 3���!���������������������������������Thiruvananthapuram: Flood-hit

Kerala would need �31,000 crore forrebuilding, a UN report said.

The post disaster needs assess-ment report prepared by a UN teamwas submitted to Chief MinisterPinarayi Vijayan on Friday by UnitedNations Resident Coordinator YuriAfanasiev.

During the meeting, he informedVijayan that the UN would assist theState in getting international leveltechnical know how for rebuildingKerala, which had witnessed wide-spread destruction when floods rav-aged the State in August this year.

The UN body has also promisedassistance in getting resources fromglobal institutions for rebuilding thestate, an official press release here said.

According to the report, funds forrebuilding various sectors, includehousing (�5443 crore), transportinfrastructure (�10,046 crore), agri-culture and dairy farming (�4498crore) and other infrastructure �2246crore. During the south west mon-soon over 400 people had lost theirlives and several houses destroyed inthe unprecedented deluge in theState. PTI

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New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Fridaydeclined to hear on priority a petition filedby an advocate against the practice ofpolygamy among Muslims, saying he shouldfirst deposit a fine that was due.

When the petition filed by Asok Pandecame up for hearing, a bench headed byJustice Madan B Lokur reminded the advo-cate that he was imposed a cost of �25,000by the apex court recently for filing a pleaand until he deposits that amount with theSupreme Court Legal Services Committee,his matter would not be heard.

A bench of the apex court had onOctober 22 dismissed a public interest liti-gation (PIL) filed by Pande and had imposedthe cost on him for seeking a direction thatlegal marriageable age for men should bebrought down from 21 to 18 years.

"Have you paid the cost," the bench, alsocomprising justices S A Nazeer and DeepakGupta, asked the lawyer who said he woulddo it soon. The bench then said, "We willhear you only after you deposit the costimposed on you." It also directed the apexcourt registry not to entertain any other peti-tion filed by Pande until he pays the costimposed by the October 22 order.

".... This court had imposed costs of�25,000 on the petitioner by an orderdated October 22, 2018. List this petitiononly after the costs are deposited. The reg-istry is directed not to entertain any otherpetition until there is a proof of payment ofcosts," the bench said in its order.

In his fresh petition, Pande had allegedthat permitting only the Muslims to performpolygamy was discrimination on the groundof religion. The PIL has sought a directionto the Centre either to declare polygamy byany citizen of India as "void" and make it apunishable offence under section 494 of theIndian Penal Code (IPC) or permit all cit-izens to perform polygamy as per their wish.

Section 494 of the IPC deals with theoffence of marrying again during lifetime ofhusband or wife and entails a punishmentof up to seven years in jail and fine. PTI

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The Congress party finallysucceeded in pacifying its

disgruntled leader — the for-mer Zila Panchayat president,Chabindra Karma to withdrawhis nomination in favour of hismother and Congress candi-date from Dantewada, DevtiKarma.

Chabindra withdrew hiscandidature on the last date forwithdrawal of nominationpapers on Friday.

Senior party leaders hadtried to convince Chabindraafter he raised his rebellion atti-tude and continued hisadamancy to contest polls as anIndependent candidate.

Chhattisgarh PradeshCongress Committee(CGPCC) President BhupeshBaghel and Deputy Leader ofOpposition Kawasi Lakhmahad carried out efforts to paci-fy him through talks.

Chabindra Karma had filedhis nomination papers asIndependent candidate and

was declared Samajwadi Party(SP) candidate fromDantewada but he refused to go

with the party later.Chabindra had revolted

seeking Congress party ticket

even before the Congressdeclared the party ticket andhad filed the nominationpapers as an Independent can-didate while thinking that partywould give him the ticket butinstead sitting MLA Devti wasrepeated as candidate.

But Devti Karma was con-fident and was saying rightfrom the beginning that shewould convince her son that hewould not fight the electionagainst her. Finally, it did hap-pen and the Congress partyheaved a sigh of relief at last.

Commenting on the devel-opment, senior Congress leaderSatyanarayan Sharma said“when blood calls, the bloodwould return”.

He said that in the firstphase of polls at two con-stituencies there was resent-ment where damage controlhas been done. In first phase,Congress will be leading in allthe 18 state assembly con-stituencies, he claimed.

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Chief Minister Raman Singhwould commence poll

campaign for the first phase inBastar region from Saturday(October 27).

He would address fourpublic meetings in three assem-bly constituencies of Konta,Dantewada and Bastar on dayone.

As per party sources, hewould leave Raipur at 10.15 amand reach Dornapal in KontaAssembly constituency at 11.30am. on Saturday.

Singh would then addressa public meeting at Geedam inDantewada Assembly con-stituency. Thereafter, he willproceed to Baghmohlai foraddressing a public meeting.The last public meeting for theday will be at Mandalapal ofBastar after which he willreturn to Raipur.

Singh said, “My target is toreach maximum number ofstate assembly constituencypersonally. The first tour will bethe campaign for Bastar, afterwhich it would progress con-tinuously.”

He added that Prime

Minister, Narendra Modi, BJPNational President, Amit Shahwould be campaigning in theregion and their programmeswould be officially announcedsoon.

Union ministers would alsobe arriving for poll campaignsin Chhattisgarh, Singh said.

He added that as per theparty’s work plan, the areaswhere there is dominance ofcertain communities likewisethe star campaigner wouldapproach the electors.

Uttar Pradesh ChiefMinister Yogi Adityanath

would also be conducting pollcampaign. The party sourcessaid that he would be cam-paigning in the second phase ofpolling for which the pro-gramme would be finalized.

The election vehicle forthe BJP has arrived fromMumbai .It has LED screen,stage and other facilities.

The vehicle was flagged offon Thursday by the ChiefMinister from the BJP office inRaipur.

A stage has been preparedin the vehicle on which folkartists would be performing.

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In what could be termed as asigh of relief to the Bharatiya

Janata Party (BJP) and its offi-cial candidate and MinisterMahesh Gagda, rebel candidateRajaram Todem withdrew hisnomination papers fromBijapur assembly constituencyon last day of withdrawal ofnomination papers on Friday.

Former MLA and triballeader Rajaram Todem hadfiled the nomination papers byrevolting against the Bijapur sit-ting MLA and Forest MinisterMahesh Gagda.

Todem is an influentialleader of Bijapur region andcould have hampered the inter-est of BJP by bifurcating its tra-

ditional votes.On Thursday, Todem was

reinstated in BJP after hisexpulsion which was ended bythe State BJP PresidentDharamlal Kaushik.

The disgruntled leader waspacified by the senior BJPleaders not to fight the electionsas an Independent candidateand after which he withdrewhis nomination papers.

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Under ‘Sanjha Vikas’ pro-gramme, the Bharatiya

Janata Party (BJP) on Fridayhad a discussion with mediapersons of the capital at StateBJP Office ‘Ekatma Parisar’and took their views for prepar-ing the ‘Sankalpa Patra’(Election Manifesto) for theAssembly polls.

Speaking on the occasion,BJP National General Secretaryand Chhattisgarh In-charge DrAnil Kumar Jain said the sug-gestions of journalists andother intellectuals would bevaluable for the party.

Apart from other citizens,the journalists too could sug-gest important suggestions asthey know the actual mindsetof the people because of beingin the field. Media is the fourthpillar of democracy and theirsuggestions are important for

solidarity of democracy, Jainsaid.

The Convenor of BJP elec-tion Manifesto CommitteeMinister for Agriculture andWater Resources, BrijmohanAgrawal said that the party hadgiven the manifesto the nameof ‘ Sankalpa’ as it has pledgedto do more development workin coming five years after form-ing the government for thefourth consecutive time.

“We have done honestattempt of fulfilling the 99 percent promises made in previouselection’s manifesto and areonce again promising in sucha way that it could be fulfilledand not turned to be ‘hollow’”,he said.

Agrawal further apprisedthat the party has received5000 suggestions to be includ-ed in the manifesto and it iscommitted to fulfill what it willpromise.

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Following directives of AllIndia Congress

Committee (AICC),Chhatt isgarh PradeshCongress Committee(CGPCC) office-bearers andworkers staged a protestbefore State office of CentralBureau of Investigation (CBI)here demanding reinstating

the CBI Director Alok Vermain national capital who wassent on long leave.

The activists of party ledby former Union MinisterCharandas Mahant and for-mer Minister SatyanarayanSharma also staged sit-in andwhen the district administra-tion denied permission forprotest, the senior leaderswhile lodging a token protest

returned .The district administra-

tion had denied permissionciting the reason that Section144 was imposed in the state.

Later Youth Congressactivists led by their WorkingPresidents Koko Padhi andMahendra Gangotri staged agherao of the CBI office andwere court arrested by thepolice.

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The star campaign-ers of Aam Aadmi

Party (AAP) wouldbe holding publicmeetings in districtof Dantewada, Bastar,Bhanupratappur andRajnandgaon fromSaturday ( October27).

Member of DelhiLegislative Assembly,Vice President ofAAP, Delhi State,Sanjeev Jha will hold

meetings atDantewada, Memberof Delhi LegislativeAssembly ManojKumar atBhanupratappur andAntagarh, MLA ofDelhi Bandana Kumariin Bastar and AkhileshPati Tripathi, alsoMember of DelhiLegislative Assemblywill hold atRajnandgaon. All thestar campaigners wouldhold minimum fivepublic meetings, partysources informed.

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Congress party leaderVishram Gawade who

rebelled against the party’s offi-cial candidate and filed hisnomination papers as anIndependent candidate fromAntagarh assembly con-stituency withdrew his nomi-

nation papers in favour ofAnup Nag, the official candi-date of Congress party.

Gawade on Friday reachedthe nomination office withsupporters.

Member of Parliamentfrom Kanker, Vikram Usendi,is the BJP candidate from theAntagarh assembly segment.

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Ajoint squad of Police,Raipur Municipal

Corporation and revenue offi-cials would be formed for fivecities of the State to stopbursting of crackers by citizensbeyond 10 pm as per thedirectives of the SupremeCourt.

Official sources inChhattisgarh EnvironmentConservation Board (CECB)informed that a joint meetingof officials of district admin-istration, police department,Petroleum and ExplosiveSecurity Organization andCECB was held on Fridaywhich discussed in detailabout strictly abiding by theSupreme Court directives onuse of crackers.

Station House In-charge ofrespective police station areasalong with revenue officials

and off icials of RaipurMunicipal Corporation wouldcarry out patrolling in theirrespective areas after thescheduled period of burstingof crackers i.e. after 10 p.m.

The monitoring workwould be done from sevendays prior to festival of Diwaliin all the major cities of thestate namely Raipur, Bhilai,

Bilaspur, Raigarh and Korba.Teams would also inspect

the dealers of crackers to checkthat they are not storing crack-ers beyond the prescribed deci-bels.

In between November 1 to7 , police department andCECB would also measurethe pollution level, sourcessaid.

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Page 4: 46 - #& /, ˇ˘ !*˜$+˘ $0˘ · Sabha seats in Bihar, the JD(U) 16, the LJP five and the RLSP two seats. Sources in the JD(U) had, however, denied that it would contest a seat less

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Subject: Directions in pursuance to the Hon'ble Supreme Court'sjudgment regarding people with criminal antecedents contestingelections.Hon'ble Supreme Court in Writ Petition (Civil No. 536 of 2011), has given following directions on 25.09.2018:(i) Each contesting candidate shall fill up the form as provided by

the Election Commission and the form must contain all theparticulars as required therein.

(ii) lt shall state, in bold letters, with regard to the criminal casespending against the candidate.

(iii) If a candidate is contesting an election on the ticket of aparticular party, he/she is required to inform the party about thecriminal cases Pending against him/her.(iv) The concerned political party shall be obligated to put up onits website the aforesaid information pertaining to candidateshaving criminal antecedents.

(v) The candidate as well as the concerned political party shall issue adeclaration in the widely circulated newspapers in the locality aboutthe antecedents of the candidate and also give wide publicity in theelectionic media. When we say wide publicity, we mean that the sameshall be done at least thrice after filing of the nomination papers.

Accordingly, the Commission on 10.10.2018 has directedthat candidates at elections to the Houses of Parliament/StateLegislatures, who have criminal cases against them, and the politicalparties that set up such candidates, shall publish the declaration in thefollowing manner:(A) Such candidates shall publish the declaration in Format C-l-

giving information about all criminal cases against them.(B) Political parties, who set up such candidates, shall publish the

declaration in Format C-2 giving’information about criminalcases against their candidates.

(C) The declaration shall be published at least on three different datesfrom the day following the last date for withdrawal of candidatureand up to two days before the date of poll.

(D) The declaration shall be published in widely circulated newspa-pers and in the TV in constituency area concerned.

(E) Such political parties shall also put up the declaration in FormatC-2on its website.

(Details of Format C-l and C-2 and related instructions are availableat https://www.eci.nic.in/ and can also be obtained from concernedReturning Officer.)

Public Notice

Chief Electoral OfficerChhattisgarh,RaipurG-56423/6 Ryp/Dtd 26.10.18

POSSESSION NOTICE (FOR IMMOVABLE PROPERTY)The undersigned being the Authorized Officers of the Corporation Bank, Under theSecuritization and Reconstruction of Financial Assets and Enforcement of security interest Act.2002 and in exercise of powers conferred under section 13 (12) read with rule 9 of the securi-ty interest (Enforcement) Rules. 2002 Issued a demand notice on 02.07.2018 to Borrowers Mr.Mahesh Prasad Lader S/O Chandram calling upon the Borrowers and also owner of the prop-erty/surety to repay the dues within 60 days from the date of receipt of the said notice. The bor-rowers having failed to repay the full amount due to the bank as on date, notice is hereby givento the herein below in exercise of power conferred on him/her under Section 13 (4) of the saidordinance read with rule 8 & 9 of the said rules on date mentioned below. The borrower in particular and the public in general is hereby cautioned not to deal with theproperty and any dealing with property will be subjected to the charge of Corporation Bank,Janjgir Branch for an ammount mentioned as below & interest thereon costs etc.

STATUTORY NOTICEThe borrower/gurantors are hereby noticed to pay the sum mentioned above within 30 Daysfrom the date of publication of this notice failling which the aforesaid properties will beauctioned and balance if any will be recovered with interest and cost from borrower andgurantors.

CORPORATION BANK(A permier public sector Bank)

Janjgir Branch D.D. PlazaKacheri Chowk, JanjgirDistt.-Janjgir-Champa (C.G). 495668

Name of Borrowers/Property Owner

Description of Mortgate Property

Demand notice Dt.Possession Dt.

OutstandingAmount (Rs.)

Mahesh PrasadLader

All the part amd parcel of theproperty consisting of maujadiverted area, khadfadi para ph no41/47, kh no 2763/1kh/2 ,ward no20, situated at khadfadi para janjgir,tehsil-janjgir, dist janjgir- champatotal area 1526 sqft boundaries east-road,west-house of deepak rathore,north-house of rathore, south- houseof rajesh lader.

02.07.201817.10.2018

Rs. 409615.00Four Lakh

nine thousandsix hundredfifty only

+unchargedinteres

Authorized OfficerCorporation BankDate: 24.10.2018

Place : Janjgir

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Following the recentSupreme Court order for

sale and use of only greenfirecrackers within a stipulatedtimeframe, the State police aregearing up to implement theapex court’s directions.

DGP Dr RP Sharma in aPress meet on Friday said thatalready a circular has beenissued to all police stationsacross the State to ensure thatcrackers are used within thestipulated time between 8 pmand 10 pm on Diwali as direct-ed by the apex court.

Strict instructions havebeen issued to all

Superintendents of Police,Inspectors-in-Charge (IICs) ofpolice stations, PoliceCommissioners and DCPs oftwin cities of Cuttack andBhubaneswar to ensure a com-plete ban on manufacture, saleand use of firecrackers of theparticular chemical composi-tions which has been bannedby the court. Only improvisedcrackers or ‘green crackers’will be allowed so as to protectthe environment, minimisehealth hazards and ensure safe-ty. As per the police circular,only licensed traders will beallowed to store and sell crack-ers while action will be takenin case of violation as per the

prescribed norms.“We have asked all senior

police officials to explore thepossibility of identifying a par-ticular space, land so that peo-ple can assemble at one placein their respective jurisdictionand burst crackers on Diwali,”said DGP Sharma. He furtherinformed that concerned IICswould be held responsible ifthere is any deviation in sale ofbanned firecrackers in theirrespective areas.

“We are also planning toconduct intensive public aware-ness regarding the SupremeCourt order on firecrackersacross the State,” Sharmaadded.

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Normal life was disrupted inKonark as the BJP’s Mahila

Morcha launched 12-hourbandh across the town protest-ing prostitution in the area anda recent incident of gangrape ofa woman belonging to WestBengal.

Shops remained shut andvehicles were off the roadscausing inconvenience to localsand tourists flocking the SunTemple.

The woman’s wing of thesaffron party called for a dawn-to-dusk bandh demandingimmediate arrest of the accusedin the gangrape case.

“We demand the Arkaplace ‘Konark’ to be declared aprostitution-free region for thesafety of women and arrest ofthe kingpin,” said BJP MahilaMorcha State president Pravati

Parida.She accused the police of

not taking action against thekingpins and other accused inthe case under pressure fromthe ruling BJD.

“If prostitution will con-tinues in Konark, the smalltraders, who are dependingon the tourists, will be hugelyaffected as one day the touristswill stop visiting the place,” shesaid.

Notably, thewoman hailingfrom West Bengalwas gangrapedafter being heldcaptive by a youthfor 10 days inKonark earlier thismonth. The victimwas rescued by thepolice and localsfrom a closed roomat a market com-

plex on October 17 in criticalcondition. The victim told theKonark police that she waslured to Odisha on a pretext ofbeing given a job one year ago,but later she was raped by morethan 10 to 12 men and forcedinto prostitution.

Meanwhile, police havearrested at least six persons inconnection with the allegedgangrape.

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ABiju Janata Dal (BJD) del-egation of the Jharsuguda

unit on Friday met party supre-mo and Chief Minister NaveenPatnaik at his residence hereover non-operation of UDANflights at the recently-inaugu-rated Veer Surendra Sai Airportin the district.

The team led by party dis-trict president and WesternOdisha Development Council(WODC) Chairman KishoreMohanty discussed with theCM about the apathetic attitudeof the BJP-led NDAGovernment at the Centretowards proper functioning ofthe airport. The party leaderslater submitted a memoran-dum to the CM in this regard.Patnaik assured them that hewould soon take appropriatesteps in this regard.

“We don’t believe in pub-licity; rather, we are committedto welfare of the people ofOdisha. The Naveen Patnaik-led BJD Government has con-tributed wholeheartedly torevive the airport inJharsuguda,” said a member ofthe delegation.

The airport was inaugu-rated by Prime MinisterNarendra Modi under theUDAN (Udega Desh Ka AamNagrik) scheme on September22.

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Chief Minister NaveenPatnaik inaugurated the

official website of the OdishaVirtual Academy,www.ova.gov.in, at the StateSecretariat here on Friday.

In the initial phase, asmany as 160 popular Odiabooks relating to literaturehave been digitised and placedin the website with an aimmaking those reach the loversof the language and Odia liter-ature, not only in the State butalso across the globe.

A total of three MoUs weresigned with the University ofChicago Library, C-DAC andCentre for Internet and Society,Bangalore to expedite digitisa-tion of Odia literature anddevelopment of Odia software.

The objective of the web-site is digitising approximate-

ly 2,000 rare and copyright-freeOdia books, various Odia dic-tionaries, establishing a freedigital library, promoting Odiaunicode font faces throughstandardisation of typing key-boards and others.

The academy’s purpose isto digitise and preserve rareOdia books, lexicon, ancientmagazines-journals, tradition-al music, ancient documents,literature on science and his-tory, folk culture, tribal lan-guage and literature, history-oriented essays, folk culture,speech of great personalities,Shree Jagannath culture, tem-ple and architectures.

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In an effort that would checkpollution of water bodies

and drainage problems in theState, Chief Minister NaveenPatnaik inaugurated six SeptageTreatment Plants (STPs) onFriday.

On the sidelines of theNational Workshop on FaecalSludge and SeptageManagement held here, theCM inaugurated the facilities insix cities, Bhubaneswar,Brahmapur, Rourkela,Sambalpur, Dhenkanal ad Purithrough a videoconference.

Patnaik said the STPs con-structed on behalf of theHousing and UrbanDevelopment Departmentwere launched in the first

phase. Eleven more such facil-ities would come up in the Statesoon.

The treatment plantswould help prevent pollution ofrivers and other water bodies inthe State. The project wouldalso ensure a healthy environ-ment for more than 60 per centpopulation residing in urbanareas.

The workshop would con-clude on Saturday.

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The State Congress on Fridayheld a demonstration in

front of the Central Bureau ofInvestigation’s (CBI) office hereas part of the party’s country-wide agitation against theCentre’s interference in the

affairs of the nation’s premierinvestigating agency.

Party workers led byOdisha Pradesh CongressCommittee (OPCC) presidentNiranjan Patnaik took out arally and congregated beforethe CBI office in the State cap-ital wearing black shirts as amark of protest against theNarendra Modi-led CentralGovernment for its unduemeddling in the CBI affairs.

The members of the partyraised slogans demanding rein-

statement of Alok Verma asCBI Director and also soughtan apology from PM Modi fortarnishing the image of theprobe agency.

“Without taking approvalfrom the Chief Justice of India(CJI) and Opposition leaders,the Modi Government hasunethically removed Vermafrom the post of CBI Director.Not only that, the Centre hasalso diluted the powers of theEnforcement Directorate andthe RBI. The move is a con-

spiracy by Modi to establish anautocratic form ofGovernment,” Patnaik said.

In Odisha too, the investi-gations into the chit fund scamswhich were under the ambit ofthe CBI Deputy DirectorRakesh Asthana, who wasappointed as replacement ofAlok Verma, could not becompleted, thus suggesting thatit was all stage-managedbetween the ruling-BJD, the Centre and the CBI, headded.

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Haryana Roadwaysemployees continued

their strike on Friday for theeleventh consecutive day, withhundreds of employees fromvarious government depart-ments going on mass causalleave to express solidarity withthem.

The employees affiliated toSarv Karamchari Sangh inHaryana and other tradeunions went on a mass casualleave on Friday in support ofongoing strike by roadwaysemployees.

Defying the EssentialServices Maintenance Act(ESMA) being in force, theemployees went on strike onOctober 16 and have extend-ed their strike four times,announcing to continue it tillOctober 29 against the StateGovernment’s decision to hire700 private buses in the state.

“Lakhs of employees wenton mass casual leave as aresult of which work in vari-ous government departmentswas badly hit. Among thedepartments where work wasaffected included the SchoolEducation Department, thePower Department, munici-palities, the PWD (B&R), thePublic Health Department andthe Rural Development andPanchayats Department,”claimed the roadways union.

Roadways union leadersclaimed that these employeesalso joined the transport work-ers at dharna at various placesacross the state.

As per the attendance sta-tus in Elementary EducationDepartment, an overall atten-dance of only 19.75 percentwas recorded. Out of 2079DEE/DEEOs/BEEOs in theEducation Department, 719were present in the office onFriday, as per government’srecord. Subhash Lamba, gen-eral secretary of the SarvKaramchari Sangh, Haryana,said that a large number ofemployees from the TourismDepartment, besides Boardsand Corporations also went onmass casual leave.

However, the emergencyand essential services wereattended by the employees

who were on casual leave, hesaid.

“The State Governmentshould immediately rollbackits decision to run 700 privatebuses, take back cases regis-tered against the strikingtransport workers under theEssential ServicesMaintenance Act or else wewill be forced to take some bigstep,” he added.

Meanwhile, the StateGovernment claimed that2165 buses plied on Haryanaroads on Friday. The govern-ment has ordered recruitmentof 905 conductors under thepart II of its outsourcing pol-icy.

The Haryana Roadwaysemployees had on Thursdayannounced to extend theirongoing strike till October 29as their fresh round of talkswith the State Governmenthad failed to make any head-way on Wednesday.

A day before, ChiefMinister Manohar Lal hadsaid that the work of employ-ees unions should be to raisethe issues and concerns per-taining to the welfare ofemployees. The policy deci-sion are not under theirpurview and should be left tothe government, he had said.

Manohar Lal had alsomade it clear that 700 privatebuses will be hired by the gov-ernment as per a previouscabinet decision.

In a meeting with agitatingemployees, the StateGovernment had offered toreconsider its on 190 privatebuses as the tenders for thesame were yet to be finalised,but remained firm on 510buses, saying it cannot bereworked as the Cabinet hadalready decided on this matterand signed an agreement tothis effect.

The employees' union,however, has remainedadamant on their demand thatthe tenders issued until now becancelled under the kilometrescheme.

There are about 19,000employees in the HaryanaRoadways. The roadways, hav-ing a fleet of 4,100 buses,cater to about 12 lakh passen-gers daily.

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Punjab, Haryana andChandigarh units of the

Congress on Friday held aprotest near the CBI officehere against the Centre's moveto send agency director AlokVerma on leave after divestinghim of powers and demandedan apology from PrimeMinister Narendra Modi.

Police said roads leading tothe investigative agency's officein Sector 30 were barricadedand the traffic was suspendedfor over an hour in view of theprotest.

The police used watercanons on the protestors butthey continued to raise slogansagainst Modi and his govern-ment and later they dispersedfrom the site, they said.

Punjab Congress presidentSunil Jakhar was leading thegroup of protesters whichincluded several prominentparty leaders, including min-isters in the Amarinder Singh-led government.

Haryana CLP leader KiranChoudhary and former rail-ways minister Pawan KumarBansal were among the leadersfrom Haryana and Chandigarhparticipating in the agitation.Senior Congress leaders AshaKumari and Harish Chaudharyalso took part. Several minis-ters from Punjab were presenton the occasion, includingVijay Inder Singla, SukhjinderSingh Randhawa, Sadhu SinghDharamsot, Sham SunderArora, besides Rana GurjitSingh, Pargat Singh, Raj KumarVerka, Vikram Chowdhary andPradeep Chabbra.

The Congress leadersdemanded an apology from theprime minister and alleged

that the "illegal, unconstitu-tional and illegitimate" removalof the CBI director had shamedIndia and its premier inves-tigative agency.

The protesters carriedplacards attacking the centralgovernment and the primeminister. Some of the signs said"stop interfering in CBI's func-tioning" and "respect theConstitution".

Jakhar alleged that theModi government's actionsshowed its autocratic behaviour.

Pawan Kumar Bansal, aformer MP from Chandigarh,claimed, "The Modi govern-ment did not seem happy whenthe CBI director worked as perhis own independence andasserted himself."

"The Congress demandsthe government should acceptits folly and act of malfeasancein removing the CBI directorand refer the matter to thecommittee set up for the pur-pose in which the leader ofopposition is a member,"Bansal said.

Punjab Minister VijayInder Singla said Modi shouldapologise to the nation for the"unceremonial" removal of theCBI chief as it was constitu-tionally incorrect for the primeminister to remove him.

He said the agency direc-tor was appointed by a com-mittee of chief justice of India,the leader of opposition and thePM.

"But the government tookan unconstitutional and unde-mocratic step in removing him.When an inquiry regarding theRafale deal was about to start,the PM removed the CBI direc-tor in the middle of night,which raises eyebrows," hesaid.

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Page 5: 46 - #& /, ˇ˘ !*˜$+˘ $0˘ · Sabha seats in Bihar, the JD(U) 16, the LJP five and the RLSP two seats. Sources in the JD(U) had, however, denied that it would contest a seat less

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CIA chief Gina Haspel hasbriefed President Donald

Trump on the outcome of hervisit to Turkey this week overthe murder of Saudi dissidentjournalist Jamal Khashoggi,who was brutally killed insideSaudi Arabia’s consulate inIstanbul, the White House said.

There are no details ofwhat was discussed, and therehas not been any reaction fromthe president.

“The President received abriefing from director Haspelthis morning following herreturn from Turkey. She briefedthe president on their findingsand her discussions,” WhiteHouse Press Secretary SarahSanders said Thursday.

In Turkey, she met withofficials involved in the inves-tigations of the murder of 60-year-old Khashoggi. Turkishofficials say they have audio ofthe proof of the murder.

In a news report, TheWashington Post said thatHaspel listened to the audiotape which Turkey claims cap-

ture the murder. A personfamiliar with the audio said itwas “compelling” and could putmore pressure on the US tohold the kingdom account-able for the death of Khashoggi,the daily reported.

Turkish officials haveleaked details of an allegedrecording of Khashoggi thatapparently proves he was mur-dered and dismembered.

Up until now, both USand Turkish officials have saidthe alleged recording had notbeen shared by Turkey. Theexistence of such a recordinghas not yet proven. Khashoggiwas a contributing columnist

for The Washington Post.“This puts the ball firmly in

Washington’s court,” BruceRiedel, a former CIA officialand scholar at the BrookingsInstitution, told the Post.

“Not only will there bemore pressure now from themedia but Congress will say,‘Gina, we would love to haveyou come visit and you can tellus exactly what you heard’,” hetold the daily.

Haspel’s briefing to Trumpcomes amidst latest change inSaudi stance in which itacknowledge that Khashoggiwas murdered by its officials ina “premeditated” operation.

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Saudi Arabia’s chief prosecu-tor will visit Istanbul on

Sunday to speak with Turkishauthorities as part of the inves-tigation into the murder ofjournalist Jamal Khashoggi,Turkey’s president said onFriday.

“They (the Saudis) aresending the chief prosecutor onSunday to Turkey,” PresidentRecep Tayyip Erdogan said,adding that Ankara had moreevidence on the killing.

The 59-year-oldKhashoggi, a Washington Postcontributor and a critic ofRiyadh, was killed on October2 while visiting the Saudi con-sulate in Istanbul to obtainpaperwork for his marriage toa Turkish woman.

Riyadh acknowledged onThursday that the murderappeared to have been pre-meditated, on the basis of evi-dence supplied by Turkey.Turkish media have publisheda series of grisly revelationsabout the murder.

Erdogan, who has so far

stopped short of directly blam-ing the Saudi government, saidTurkey had already shared evi-dence with countries includingSaudi Arabia and added it hadeven more.

“It is not that we don’t haveany other information or doc-uments. We do. Tomorrow isanother day,” he said.

The Turkish leader hadmocked Saudi Arabia’s initialexplanation of Khashoggi’s dis-appearance — that he left theconsulate alive — as “childish”and “far from state seriousness”.

He pressed Riyadh toreveal who ordered the killingand the whereabouts of thebody.

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The son of slain journalistJamal Khashoggi has left

Saudi Arabia after the kingdomrevoked a travel ban, allowinghim to come to the UnitedStates — the latest in the sagaof the Saudi writer and dissi-dent whose macabre killingearlier this month at the SaudiConsulate in Istanbul shockedthe world.

State Departmentspokesman Robert Palladinosaid Washington welcomes thedecision to have SalahKhashoggi and his family leave

Saudi Arabia. His US destina-tion was not immediatelyknown but his late father livedin the Washington area.

Palladino said on Thursdaythat US Secretary of State MikePompeo had discussed JamalKhashoggi’s son during hisrecent visit to Riyadh and“made it clear” to Saudi lead-

ers that Washington wantedhim free to leave the kingdom.

“We are pleased that he isnow able to do so,” Palladinosaid. Saudi media had showedKhashoggi’s son meetingTuesday with the crown prince,who reportedly expressed hiscondolences. Palladino alsosaid Pompeo attended a brief-

ing on the former WashingtonPost writer’s death by CIADirector Gina Haspel, follow-ing her return from Turkey.The White House did notrelease any details of theirmeeting.

The developments cameafter the kingdom on Thursdaycited evidence showingKhashoggi’s killing was pre-meditated, changing its storyagain to try to ease interna-tional outrage over the slayingof a prominent critic of CrownPrince Mohammed binSalman.

The announcement con-tradicted an earlier Saudi asser-tion that rogue officials from thekingdom had killed Khashoggiby mistake in a brawl insidetheir Istanbul consulate.

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Washington: US PresidentDonald Trump has said allsanctions against Iran lifted bythe 2015 nuclear deal will beback in “full force” fromNovember 5 and promisedmore in the future to preventTehran from developing theworld’s deadliest weapons.

In May, the Trump admin-istration withdrew the US fromthe Iranian nuclear deal andreimposed a series of toughsanctions on Iran, citing theIslamic nation’s ‘malign activ-ities’.

While the first phase ofsanctions is already in place,the sanctions would come intofull force on November 4 andthe US expects all countries,including India, to bring downtheir import of Iranian oil tozero by then or face secondarysanctions. PTI

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Ja p a npledged

to “active-ly partici-pate” inC h i n a’sambitiousBelt andR o a dInitiative(BRI) asthe twonations on Friday shedtheir bitterness over terri-torial disputes and vowedto promote economiccooperation during talksheld between the leaders ofAsia’s two biggesteconomies on improvingties amid their trade fric-tion with the US.

Japanese PrimeMinister Shinzo Abe, whois on a rare visit to Beijing,held talks with his Chinesecounterpart Li Keqiangand called on President XiJinping.

Colombo: In a dramatic political devel-opment in Sri Lanka, former strongmanMahinda Rajapaksa was on Friday swornin as the new Prime Minister by PresidentMaithripala Sirisena after his partyabruptly quit the ruling coalition.

Visuals of the former PresidentRajapaksa taking oath as the premier werereleased to media and was shown on TVchannels.

The sudden development came after Sirisena’s broaderpolitical front United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA)announced that it has decided to quit the current unity gov-ernment with prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe’sUnited National Party (UNP).

Mahinda Amaraweera, agriculture minister and the gen-eral secretary of the UPFA, told reporters that the UPFA deci-sion has been conveyed to Parliament.

The unity government was formed in 2015 when Sirisenawas elected President with Wickremesinghe’s support, end-ing a nearly decade-long rule by Rajapaksa.

Sirisena, who was Rajapaksa’s minister of health, brokeaway from him to contest the presidential elections. PTI

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Beijing: Ahead of PakistanPrime Minister Imran Khan’smaiden visit, China on Fridaysounded positive about extend-ing new loans to Islamabad toavoid another IMF bailoutpackage which may carry strin-gent conditions. Khan’s visitfrom November 2 to China,Pakistan’s “all weather” ally,will come ahead of a visit toIslamabad by InternationalMonetary Fund officials onNovember 7 for formal dis-cussions on a bailout packagefor the cash-strapped country.

“We noted the difficultiesfaced by Pakistan in its finan-cial situation...We supportPakistan in taking pro-activemeasures to deal with this.Actually, we also provide ouroutmost efforts and assistanceto Pakistan,” Chinese ForeignMinistry spokesperson HuaChunying told a media briefinghere Friday.

“We believe Pakistan hasthe capability to ensure steadyeconomic development,” Huasaid. PTI

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Mumbai attack master-mind Hafiz Saeed-led

Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) and Falah-i-Insaniyat Foundation(FIF) are no longer on the listof banned outfits in Pakistan as the ordinancethat proscribed them under aUN resolution has lapsed andthe new Imran Khan-led Government didnot extend it, a media reportsaid on Friday.

In February this year,former president MamnoonHussain promulgated an ordinance amending the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997 todeclare JuD and FIF as pro-scribed groups.

During a hearing onThursday of a petition filed bySaeed, his counsel informedthe Islamabad High Court(IHC) that the presidentialordinance had lapsed and ithad never been extended,Dawn newspaper reported.

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Agai

nst t

he o

dds:

Ele

ctio

ns in

Afg

hani

stan

ww

w.d

aily

pio

nee

r.co

m

�(

��

/�9

0'.

��(

##

021

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���"������������������� ���������������������������������

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It is

easy

to r

un d

own

the

elec

tions

toA

fgha

nist

an’s

250-

mem

ber W

oles

i Jir

ga,

the

low

er H

ouse

of

its b

icam

eral

Nat

iona

l Ass

embl

y, on

Oct

ober

20

and

21. T

here

wer

e te

chni

cal a

nd a

dmin

is-tr

ativ

e glit

ches

. Man

y po

lling

cent

res o

pene

dla

te o

n O

ctob

er 2

0. C

onse

quen

tly,

the

Inde

pend

ent E

lect

ion

Com

miss

ion,

hol

ding

the

elec

tions

, de

clar

ed t

hat

thes

e w

ould

rem

ain

open

unt

il 8

p.m

. aga

inst

the o

rigin

alde

adlin

e of

4 p

.m. T

hose

that

did

not

ope

nun

til 1

p.m

. wou

ld re

mai

n op

en o

n O

ctob

er21

as w

ell.

Besid

es, w

hile

the

depl

oym

ent o

fov

er 7

0,00

0 se

curit

y pe

rson

nel e

nsur

ed th

atse

curit

y w

as, o

n th

e w

hole

, rea

sona

bly

good

in K

abul

and

the c

ities

, vio

lent

atta

cks b

y th

eTa

liban

eith

er d

isrup

ted

or p

reve

nted

pol

ling

in o

utly

ing

dist

ricts

like

Rog

hist

an an

d Im

amSa

heb

in B

adak

hsha

n an

d Ku

nduz

Pro

vinc

esre

spec

tivel

y. Tr

oubl

e ha

s also

bee

n re

port

ed

from

dist

ricts

in th

e M

aida

n W

arda

k, L

ogar

,Pa

ktia

and

Tag

harP

rovi

nces

.It

rem

ains

to b

e see

n ho

w th

e ele

ctio

ns in

Kand

ahar

Pro

vinc

e, po

stpon

ed to

Oct

ober

27,

are h

eld. N

o da

te h

as b

een

anno

unce

d fo

r elec

-tio

ns in

Gha

zni P

rovi

nce w

hich

hav

e also

bee

npo

stpo

ned.

As o

ffici

ally

indi

cate

d, it

will

not

be h

eld

this

year

. Art

icle

104

of A

fgha

nist

an’s

elec

tora

l law

lays

dow

n, “W

hen

secu

rity

sit-

uatio

ns, n

atur

al d

isast

ers

and

othe

r sim

ilar

cond

ition

s” m

ake “

the p

rincip

le of

gene

ral a

ndfa

ir re

pres

enta

tion”

impo

ssib

le to

uph

old

“and

unde

rmin

e th

e cr

edib

ility

of

the

elec

tora

lpr

oces

s,” t

he l

atte

r sh

ould

be

post

pone

dfr

om th

e sp

ecifi

ed d

ate

for a

per

iod

of u

p to

four

mon

ths.

It ad

ds, “

The p

ostp

onem

ent o

rsu

spen

sion

is pr

opos

ed b

y th

e IE

C a

ndap

prov

ed b

y a

com

mitt

ee,

whi

ch s

houl

dco

mpr

ise h

ead

and

mem

bers

of t

he N

atio

nal

Secu

rity C

ounc

il, sp

eake

rs o

f the

two

Hou

ses

of th

e Par

liam

ent,

Chi

ef Ju

stic

e, a

nd ch

air o

fth

e Ind

epen

dent

Com

miss

ion

of O

vers

ight

of

Impl

emen

tatio

n of

the

Con

stitu

tion

ofA

fgha

nist

an.”

It fu

rthe

r st

ates

, “If

the

situa

-tio

n m

entio

ned

abov

e whi

ch le

d to

pos

tpon

e-m

ent o

r sus

pens

ion

of th

e ele

ctio

ns d

oes n

otim

prov

e with

in th

e per

iod

of fo

ur m

onth

s, th

eco

mm

ittee

may

exte

nd th

e pos

tpon

emen

t or

susp

ensio

n of

elec

tions

for a

per

iod

of an

oth-

er fo

ur m

onth

s.”Th

e fa

ct, h

owev

er, i

s tha

t ele

ctio

ns h

ave

been

hel

d in

32

of A

fgha

nist

an’s

34 P

rovi

nces

and

four

mill

ion

out o

f the

8.8

mill

ion

regi

s-te

red

vote

rs h

ave v

oted

. Des

pite

the k

illin

g of

10 c

andi

date

s in

the

viol

ence

pre

cedi

ng th

eel

ectio

ns, t

he r

est

of t

he 2

,500

can

dida

tes,

incl

udin

g 40

0 w

omen

, rem

aine

d in

the f

ield

.A

nd a

ll th

is de

spite

the f

act t

hat,

stat

ing

that

the

elec

tions

wer

e a

proj

ect o

f the

inva

ding

Am

eric

ans,

the

Talib

an h

ad d

ecla

red

that

resi

stin

g th

ese

was

a r

elig

ious

dut

y.A

nnou

ncin

g th

at th

ey w

ould

do

ever

ythi

ngpo

ssib

le t

o pr

even

t th

e el

ectio

ns, t

hey

had

aske

d ca

ndid

ates

to w

ithdr

aw an

d ha

d w

arne

dpe

ople

aga

inst

ven

turin

g ou

t on

the

polli

ngda

y as

they

wou

ld th

en r

isk b

eing

kill

ed o

r

hurt

. Not

onl

y th

at, t

heir

viol

ent a

ttack

s had

kille

d hu

ndre

ds in

the w

eeks

prio

r to

the e

lec-

tions

. Sign

ifica

ntly,

the

pos

tpon

emen

t of

the

elec

tions

in

both

Kan

daha

r an

d G

hazn

iPr

ovin

ces w

ere d

ue to

vio

lenc

e unl

eash

ed b

yth

e Tal

iban

. The

latte

r has

clai

med

resp

onsi-

bilit

y fo

r the

terr

orist

atta

ck in

Kan

daha

r on

Oct

ober

18,

that

kill

ed G

ener

al A

bdul

Raz

iq,

the

polic

e ch

ief

of K

anda

har

and

one

ofA

fgha

nist

an’s

mos

t pow

erfu

l and

impo

rtan

tse

curit

y of

ficia

ls, t

he p

rovi

ncia

l G

over

nor,

Zalm

ay W

esa,

and

inte

llige

nce

chie

f, A

bdul

Moh

min

and

two

polic

emen

. The

Tal

iban

fur-

ther

cla

imed

that

the

targ

ets o

f the

atta

ck —

shoo

ting

by o

ne o

f Raz

iq’s

own

elite

gua

rds

— w

ere

Gen

eral

Raz

iq a

s wel

l as N

ATO

-led

Reso

lute

Sup

port

Mis

sion

Com

man

der

Gen

eral

Aus

tin S

cott

Mill

er.

The

elec

tions

in

Gha

zni

have

bee

n po

stpo

ned

beca

use

of tw

o re

ason

s. Th

e fir

stis

a vo

latil

e se

curit

y sit

uatio

n. T

he T

alib

an

occu

pied

the p

rovi

ncia

l cap

ital o

f Gha

zni o

nAu

gust

10

and

wer

e ou

sted

, af

ter

fierc

e fig

htin

g, o

n Au

gust

15-

16 b

y te

ams o

f Uni

ted

Stat

es S

peci

al F

orce

s ope

ratin

g w

ith A

fgha

n co

mm

ando

s, a

nd m

ilita

ry a

nd p

olic

e pe

rson

nel,

and

with

air

sup

port

. Th

ey,

how

ever

, ha

ve c

ontin

ued

to b

e st

rong

lyen

tren

ched

in

the

coun

trys

ide

whi

ch h

as,

acco

rdin

g to

the a

utho

ritie

s, re

mai

ned

too

dis-

turb

ed to

hol

d el

ectio

ns.

The

othe

r fa

ctor

beh

ind

the

deci

sion

topo

stpon

e the

elec

tions

was

a di

sput

e ove

r eth

-ni

c rep

rese

ntat

ion

amon

g H

azar

as, P

asht

uns,

Tajik

s and

Say

yeds

. The

Pas

htun

s, pa

rtic

ular

-ly,

dem

ande

d th

e div

ision

of t

he P

rovi

nce i

nto

smal

ler u

nits

to e

nsur

e ba

lanc

ed e

thni

c re

p-re

sent

atio

n. O

n Ju

ne 2

5, 2

018,

the I

EC d

ecid

-ed

to s

plit

the

Prov

ince

into

thr

ee s

epar

ate

elec

tora

l con

stitu

enci

es fo

r the

par

liam

enta

ryel

ectio

ns. T

ensio

ns, h

owev

er, c

ontin

ue as

the

feel

ing

pers

ists a

mon

g se

ctio

ns th

at th

e spl

it-tin

g ha

s not

bee

n fa

ir to

all t

he et

hnic

gro

ups.

The

atta

cks i

n th

ese

two

Prov

ince

s are

apa

rt o

f the

roll

of v

iole

nce

unle

ashe

d by

the

Talib

an o

ver t

he ye

ars f

rom

thei

r san

ctua

ries

in P

akist

an’s

trib

al te

rrito

ries.

The

situa

tion

had

been

mad

e wor

se b

y com

petit

ive v

iole

nce

by th

e Isla

mic

Sta

te w

hich

soug

ht to

esta

blish

a bas

e in

the c

ount

ry. T

he co

mbi

natio

n of

the

two

larg

ely

acco

unte

d fo

r the

surg

e of i

nsur

-ge

nt/te

rror

ist a

ttack

s in

the

coun

try

durin

gFe

brua

ry-M

arch

this

year

. The

Isla

mic

Sta

te’s

chal

lenge

seem

s to

have

rece

ded,

but

Pak

istan

-ba

cked

Tal

iban

vio

lenc

e ha

s co

ntin

ued

toes

cala

te,

Uni

ted

Stat

es’

Pres

iden

t D

onal

dTr

ump’s

rep

eate

d w

arni

ngs

to I

slam

abad

notw

ithst

andi

ng.

In th

is co

ntex

t, th

e ta

rget

ing

of G

ener

alM

iller

in th

e Kan

daha

r atta

ck w

as si

gnifi

cant

.M

etap

horic

ally,

it

wou

ld h

ave

been

tan

ta-

mou

nt to

sla

ppin

g Pr

esid

ent T

rum

p on

the

face

had

it s

ucce

eded

. Ind

eed,

the

very

fact

that

it

was

not

onl

y un

dert

aken

but

anno

unce

d w

as cl

early

mea

nt to

deli

ver t

o hi

man

d th

e U

S th

e m

essa

ge t

hat

the

Talib

anth

ough

t no

thin

g of

try

ing

to a

dmin

ister

hum

iliat

ing

blow

s to

thei

r res

pect

ive f

aces

inpu

blic

. Sin

ce th

e Tal

iban

coul

d no

t hav

e don

eth

is w

ithou

t at l

east

Pak

istan

’s ap

prov

al —

ifno

t at i

ts b

ehes

t — th

e en

tire

atta

ck re

flect

-ed

the I

mra

n K

han

Gov

ernm

ent’s

mes

sage

toW

ashi

ngto

n, D

C,

that

it

wou

ld t

each

the

Trum

p A

dmin

istra

tion

a le

sson

for e

ffect

ing

the a

id cu

ts it

had

impo

sed

on Is

lam

abad

for

not

doin

g en

ough

to

com

bat

the

terr

orist

grou

ps o

pera

ting

from

its s

oil.

It re

mai

ns t

o be

see

n ho

w t

he T

rum

pAd

min

istra

tion

sort

s thi

s out

or i

f it c

an at

all

do so

. Mea

nwhi

le, t

he es

cala

ting

leve

l of v

io-

lenc

e, w

hich

pre

vent

ed th

e el

ectio

ns to

the

Wol

esi J

irga

, due

in 2

015,

from

bei

ng h

eld

till

now,

cont

inue

s. Th

e ver

y fa

ct th

at v

otin

g ha

sta

ken

plac

e, m

any o

f the

cand

idat

es h

ave b

een

youn

g m

en a

nd w

omen

, and

a la

rge

num

ber

of w

omen

que

ued

up to

vot

e, is

sig

nific

ant.

It cl

early

show

s tha

t Afg

hans

wan

t dem

ocra

-cy

and

not t

he re

trog

rade

, med

ieva

l the

ocra

-cy

of

Paki

stan

-bac

ked

Talib

an t

hat

wou

ldre

duce

wom

en to

, at b

est,

dom

estic

slav

ery.

(The

w

rite

r is

C

onsu

ltan

t E

dito

r,

The

Pio

nee

r, a

nd

an

au

thor

)

����

����

���

�Si

r — T

his r

efer

s to

the e

dito

rial, “

Run

mac

hine

” (O

ctob

er 2

6). V

irat

Kohl

iha

s be

com

e th

e fa

stes

t ba

tsm

an i

nIn

dian

cric

ket h

istor

y as

he a

chie

ved

a mile

stone

of 1

0,00

0 ru

ns in

One

Day

Inte

rnat

iona

l (O

DI)

. One

mig

ht b

ete

mpt

ed at

this

stag

e to

take

a lo

ok at

som

e of t

he le

gend

ary I

ndia

n ba

tsmen

who

hav

e do

ne o

utst

andi

ngly

wel

ldu

ring

thei

r car

eer.

In fa

ct, I

ndia

has

a hi

stor

y of p

ro-

duci

ng p

rolif

ic r

un m

aker

s an

dac

com

plis

hed

bats

men

. Su

nil

Gav

aska

r was

one

of t

he fi

nest

ope

n-

ing

bats

man

the

wor

ld c

ould

hav

ese

en in

his

prim

e y

ears

. The

n ca

me

Sach

in T

endu

lkar

who

inf

used

life

into

a t

eam

tha

t co

uld

othe

rwise

have

bec

ome

dull

in h

is ab

senc

e.Te

ndul

kar’s

per

form

ance

dur

ing

his

gold

en y

ears

was

out

stan

ding

. Now

,Vi

rat K

ohli

look

s to

be in

mid

st o

f ago

lden

run

. He

scor

es r

uns

both

on

fore

ign

shor

es a

s wel

l as b

ack

hom

e.Ko

hli l

ooks

muc

h m

ore

sure

of

his

tech

niqu

e, a

nd a

s a

resu

lt, h

e sc

ores

runs

effo

rtle

ssly.

Th

e fac

t tha

t he i

s the

faste

st b

ats-

man

to

achi

eve

the

mile

ston

e of

10,0

00 r

uns

in O

DIs

is

perh

aps

an

indi

catio

n th

at h

e is

likel

y to

end

up

with

reco

rds t

hat w

ould

be d

iffic

ult t

oem

ulat

e.D

even

dra

Khu

rana

Bhop

al�

����

��

�� �

��

��

Sir

— T

his

refe

rs t

o th

e ed

itoria

l,“U

ncag

e the

par

rot”

(Oct

ober

26)

. The

Cen

tral

Bur

eau

of In

vest

igat

ion

(CBI

)is

one

of t

he p

rem

ier

pres

tigio

usin

vest

igat

ing

agen

cies

of t

he n

atio

n.O

f lat

e, th

e w

orki

ng o

f the

CBI

has

been

far

from

sat

isfac

tory

. It l

ost i

tscr

edib

ility

for i

t fai

led

to p

rove

man

ypo

litic

ally

impo

rtan

t cas

es, l

ike t

he 2

G

scam

, coa

l sca

m et

al.

Ther

e ar

e al

so m

any

impo

rtan

tly

ing

befo

re it

, whi

ch it

is p

roce

edin

gat

a s

low

spa

ce. T

his

will

ulti

mat

ely

prov

ide m

ore s

pace

to th

e cor

rupt

and

crim

inal

s. Th

e ver

y fun

ctio

ning

of t

heC

BI se

ems t

o be

in a

disa

rray

. N

R R

amac

hand

ran

Che

nnai

����

���

��

�Si

r —

Thi

s re

fers

to

the

edito

rial,

“Unc

age

the

parr

ot”

(Oct

ober

26)

. It

is un

belie

vabl

e th

at th

e G

over

nmen

tw

as u

naw

are

abou

t th

e ha

ppen

ings

wit

hin

the

Cen

tral

Bur

eau

of

Inve

stig

atio

n (C

BI)

all

this

whi

le.

Then

, giv

en th

e alle

gatio

ns o

f cor

rup-

tion

agai

nst

the

coun

try’s

pre

miu

min

vest

igat

ive

body

, how

can

the

peo-

ple

repo

se fa

ith o

n it?

The

CBI

is,

perh

aps,

the

last

orga

nisa

tion,

on

whi

ch p

eopl

e rep

ose

faith

tha

t th

e tr

uth

will

fin

ally

be

know

n. In

stea

d, th

e C

BI h

as b

ecom

ea t

ool f

or th

e Opp

ositi

on as

well

as th

eru

ling

disp

ensa

tion.

Sum

itVi

a em

ail

����$$� ������*+)������

��//�

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8"*��56!"�

#������ ���(�������������

��������������������������

����� �����������������

���������������������

������������������������

The C

BI dir

ector

was

remo

ved b

ecau

sethe

agen

cy w

as ra

ising

ques

tions

over

the

Rafal

e dea

l. This

is ill

egal.

—Co

nges

s pre

siden

tRA

HUL G

ANDH

I

Cong

ress

is un

nece

ssar

ily ra

ising

its v

oice

again

st the

Cen

tre in

the f

alse a

ssum

ption

that t

he G

over

nmen

t is t

inker

ing w

ith C

BI.—

Union

Hom

e Mini

ster

RAJN

ATH

SINGH

�"�%��*��1�+�"�%��

Wit

h ex

pone

ntia

lte

chno

logi

es ev

olv-

ing

at b

reak

neck

spee

d,

exis

ting

com

pete

ncie

s in

the

area

of e

duca

tion,

skill

ing

and

work

plac

e cal

ibre

are c

oncu

rren

tlych

allen

ged.

As

with

the

adv

ance

-m

ents

that

took

plac

e with

thre

e ear

-lie

r ind

ustri

al re

volu

tions

, with

the

adve

nt o

f In

dustr

y 4.

0, l

ies

huge

oppo

rtuni

ties f

or su

perio

r job

cre-

atio

n, em

bedd

ed w

ith si

mul

tane

ous

risks

of j

ob d

ispla

cem

ent.

Why

is

ther

e an

inc

reas

edur

genc

y for

a pl

anni

ng fo

resig

ht o

nth

e fu

ture

of

jobs

, ed

ucat

iona

lqu

alific

atio

ns an

d sk

ills m

atch

ed to

new

prod

ucts

and

evol

ving

empl

oy-

men

t mod

els?

Bec

ause

Indi

a do

esno

t hav

e the

luxu

ry o

f tim

e. It

has

only

a tw

o to

thre

e-ye

ar w

indo

w to

play

cat

ch-u

p w

ith th

e al

tere

d jo

ban

d sk

ills

scen

ario

. Ind

ia’s

labo

urpr

oduc

tivity

, gau

ged

by e

cono

mic

outp

ut p

er h

our o

f wor

k, is

belo

w15

per

cent

of U

S lev

els. F

allin

g pro

-du

ctiv

ity w

ill b

ring d

own

the c

om-

petit

ive e

dge o

f goo

ds an

d se

rvic

esif

we

don’t

rap

idly

ada

pt t

o te

chin

nova

tions

.By

202

2, o

ut o

f the

org

anise

dse

ctor

wor

kfor

ce m

ix, t

hat a

ccou

nts

for 1

5 per

cent

of t

he to

tal e

mpl

oy-

men

t, ni

ne p

er ce

nt w

orke

rs w

ill b

ede

ploy

ed i

n ne

w jo

bs t

hat

neve

rex

isted

bef

ore;

37 p

er c

ent w

ill b

ew

orki

ng in

jobs

requ

iring

radi

cal-

ly ch

ange

d sk

ill se

ts; an

d 54

per

cent

will

fall

unde

r the

unc

hang

ed st

a-tu

s qu

o ca

tego

ry, a

ccor

ding

to a

nan

alys

is by

Ern

st &

You

ng.

Her

ein, w

e are

only

cons

ider

ing

risk

miti

gatio

n an

d up

grad

atio

n of

the p

oten

tial f

or th

e org

anise

d se

c-to

r w

ho a

re e

duca

ted

and

skill

edwh

ite-c

ollar

empl

oyee

s. M

uch

mor

epr

ovisi

onin

g w

ill b

e re

quire

d on

how

to

abso

rb a

nd u

pski

ll th

eun

orga

nise

d se

ctor

that

com

prise

sth

e rem

aini

ng 85

per

cent

of I

ndia’

swo

rkfo

rce,

out o

f whi

ch 50

per

cent

are

still

depe

nden

t on

agric

ultu

re,

seek

ing m

igra

tion

to u

rban

jobs

soas

to a

chie

ve h

ighe

r ear

nabi

lity.

With

cor

pora

tes,

scal

ing

upef

ficien

cies t

o m

atch

up

to In

dustr

y4.

0, th

e G

over

nmen

t has

a c

ruci

alst

abili

ser r

ole t

o pl

ay in

calib

ratin

g

the p

ace o

f cha

nge t

o in

dustr

y’s le

vel

of p

repa

redn

ess b

ecau

se th

ere

are

unvi

rtuo

us e

ffect

s of

rev

ersa

l of

glob

alisa

tion,

whi

ch h

ave

so f

arbe

en th

e la

rges

t job

ena

bler

in th

eem

ergi

ng m

arke

ts. D

e-gl

obali

satio

nha

s im

pact

ed th

e ove

rsea

s job

mar

-ke

t for

Indi

ans d

ue to

pro

tect

ion-

ist p

olic

ies o

f the

Wes

t. It

has a

lsoaf

fect

ed e

xpor

t-dr

iven

em

ploy

-m

ent,

loca

lly, n

eedi

ng a

‘buf

fer p

eri-

od’

for

tran

sitio

n, w

hich

mos

tlyon

ly th

e G

over

nmen

t and

the

old

econ

omy

sect

ors c

an fi

ll in

. By

just

asse

ssin

g the

‘dec

linin

gem

ploy

men

t co

effic

ient

’ in

the

expo

rt se

ctor

, whi

ch p

rovi

des 2

0 per

cent

of j

obs

so v

ital f

or a

labo

ur-

abun

dant

coun

try, in

terim

stop

- gap

mea

sure

s and

pol

icy

reca

libra

tion

are r

equi

red

by th

e Gov

ernm

ent t

ofin

d so

lutio

ns f

or d

ispla

cem

ents.

Prot

ectio

nist

polic

ies of

the W

est a

reaf

fect

ing t

he fl

ow o

f cap

ital, l

abou

ran

d go

ods,

all o

f whi

ch ar

e dep

ress

-in

g wag

es, i

mpa

ctin

g con

sum

ptio

nan

d st

agna

ting

per c

apita

inco

me.

Polic

y th

rusts

tow

ards

Sm

art

Citie

s and

Mak

e in

Indi

a offe

r per

-fe

ct so

lutio

ns fo

r tra

nsiti

on b

ecau

seth

ey p

rovi

de co

ntin

ual s

uppo

rt fo

rla

bour

-inte

nsiv

e in

dust

ries

that

driv

e jo

b cr

eatio

n by

sup

port

ing

infr

astr

uctu

re a

nd c

onst

ruct

ion

driv

en i

nves

tmen

ts. B

y bo

ostin

gpr

ojec

ts in

hig

hway

s, ur

ban

tran

s-po

rtat

ion,

affo

rdab

le h

ousin

g, ai

r-po

rts a

nd in

dustr

ial c

orrid

ors,

the

Gov

ernm

ent h

as b

een

pro-

activ

e in

perp

etua

ting

gain

ful

oppo

rtun

i-tie

s fo

r la

bour

s in

con

trac

t mod

ean

d fo

cusin

g on

sec

tors

whi

chha

ve ‘h

ighe

r em

ploy

men

t ela

stici

-ty

’. Th

is is

vita

l in

the

perio

d of

empl

oym

ent

flux,

giv

ing

the

job

mar

ket t

he ti

me

to a

djus

t to

new

real

ities

.In

dia’s

poo

r in

fras

truc

ture

restr

icts

gros

s do

mes

tic p

rodu

ct(G

DP)

grow

th. T

here

fore

, incr

ease

dou

tlays

in in

fras

truc

ture

dev

elop-

men

t and

acc

eler

atin

g pr

ojec

ts of

100

smar

t ci

ties

will

buf

fer

the

empl

oym

ent

mar

ket

by a

t le

ast

part

ly re

tain

ing

the o

lder

empl

oy-

men

t mod

el o

f abs

orbi

ng m

anua

lla

bour

to c

reat

e w

orld

-cla

ss h

igh-

way

s, po

rts a

nd a

irpor

ts.

To g

ive

an u

nder

stan

ding

of

how

this

play

s out

, Sm

art C

ity m

is-sio

ns w

ould

use

hyb

rid o

pera

-tio

nal m

odel

s by a

bsor

bing

man

u-al

lab

our,

para

llel

with

sup

erio

rem

ploy

ee sk

ills n

eede

d to

har

ness

adva

nced

leve

ragi

ng o

f clo

ud co

m-

putin

g, R

obot

ic a

pplic

atio

ns a

ndBu

ildin

g In

form

atio

n M

odel

ling

(BIM

) to

impr

ove o

n-sit

e mon

itor-

ing

of la

bour

and

pro

duct

ivity

.A

noth

er in

terim

win

dow

that

exist

s for

yet a

noth

er fi

ve ye

ars f

orIn

dia e

xists

in th

e van

tage

of l

abou

rar

bitra

ge. A

bund

ance

of l

ow c

ost

labo

ur in

Indi

a w

ould

help

mai

n-ta

in it

s ed

ge in

bei

ng a

fav

oure

dm

anuf

actu

ring

offsh

orin

g hu

b til

lin

dustr

ial w

ages

beg

in to

rise

on p

arw

ith th

e de

velo

ped

econ

omie

s. In

dia

mus

t se

ize

the

spac

eCh

ina

has c

eded

in co

ntra

ct m

an-

ufac

turin

g be

fore

nat

iona

l m

ini-

mum

wag

es b

egin

to

incr

ease

indu

e tim

e, an

d fa

ctor

ies r

eloca

te to

leas

t de

velo

ped

coun

trie

s (L

DC)

whe

re e

lect

ricity

and

labo

ur c

ost

less

, an

d w

hich

offe

r du

ty f

ree

acce

ss to

top

cons

umin

g m

arke

ts,lik

e th

e U

S an

d th

e Eu

rope

anU

nion

(EU

).To

com

bat w

orkp

lace

obs

oles

-ce

nce,

the

wor

kfor

ce h

as t

o be

futu

re-re

ady a

s the

Indi

an ed

ucati

onsy

stem

is la

ggin

g be

hind

Indu

stry

4.0’s

qua

lifica

tion

need

s. Th

is fa

ct is

valid

ated

in

the

lates

t In

dia

Skill

Repo

rt w

hich

ind

icat

es t

hat

only

abou

t 47

per c

ent o

f Ind

ian

grad

u-at

es c

omin

g ou

t of

edu

catio

nal

insti

tutio

ns ar

e dire

ctly

empl

oyab

le.M

ore

than

50,

000

jobs

in d

ata

sci-

ence

and

mac

hine

lea

rnin

g ar

ely

ing

vaca

nt d

ue to

a h

uge

talen

t

defic

it, a

ccor

ding

to

a stu

dy b

yon

line

educ

atio

n co

mpa

ny, G

reat

Lear

ning

. The

refo

re, p

olic

y-m

aker

sne

ed t

o fa

ctor

in f

utur

e-pr

oofin

gca

reer

s w

ith n

ew c

ompe

tenc

ies

with

in th

is th

ree-

year

win

dow

avail

-ab

le. Advi

sory

firm

, Gar

tner

, pro

jects

that

out

of 1

0 la

kh re

giste

red

com

-pa

nies

in I

ndia

, 75

per

cent

hav

epl

ans

to i

nves

t in

dat

a sc

ienc

e.W

ith th

e G

over

nmen

t’s p

riorit

isa-

tion

on A

rtifi

cial

Inte

llige

nce,

Big

Dat

a and

Rob

otic

s and

thei

r app

li-ca

tion

in th

e dig

ital e

cono

my,

care

erop

portu

nitie

s ar

e se

t to

rise

in

thes

e sph

eres

with

in th

e nex

t thr

eeye

ars.

Skill

def

icit

is no

t ju

st an

Indi

a-ce

ntric

pro

blem

but

a gl

obal

phen

omen

on,

acco

rdin

g to

McK

inse

y, w

hich

lea

ds t

o a

dem

and-

supp

ly m

ismatc

h in

the t

al-en

t poo

l, if

not s

caled

up

by 2

020.

All

of th

is m

ay so

und

futu

ris-

tic, b

ut th

e fut

ure h

as ar

rived

faste

rth

an w

e ha

ve b

een

prep

ared

for

.In

deed

, the

rate

of o

bsol

esce

nce

isso

swift

that

ear

lier p

resu

mpt

ions

,th

at on

e fin

ished

lear

ning

by th

e age

of 2

5 ye

ars,

are

no l

onge

r va

lid.

Stay

ing

in th

e sa

me

job

till r

etire

-m

ent i

s ano

ther

out

date

d co

ncep

t,as

this

is th

e age

of f

aste

r job

por

ta-

bilit

y an

d, c

onse

quen

tly,

high

er

attri

tion,

as se

en w

ith th

e rise

of th

egi

g ec

onom

y. As

the

fut

ure

com

posit

ion

ofwo

rkfo

rce

alter

s du

e to

cha

ngin

gbu

sine

ss m

odel

s, p

erm

anen

tem

ploy

ees

bein

g re

tain

ed w

ill b

eth

ose w

ith co

re sk

ills;

whi

le fo

r spe

-ci

alise

d sk

ills,

com

pani

es w

ould

rath

er o

utso

urce

tal

ent

from

the

onlin

e lab

our e

cono

my,

know

n as

the ‘

gig-

mar

ket’.

The n

ew an

d ev

olvi

ng m

odel

ofth

e gig

econ

omy i

s an

envi

ronm

ent

in w

hich

fre

elanc

e po

sitio

ns a

reco

mm

on, a

s org

anisa

tions

cont

ract

with

skill

ed w

orke

rs fo

r sho

rt du

ra-

tion

enga

gem

ents.

In

the

‘gig

mar

ketp

lace

’, bus

i-ne

sses

sav

e re

sour

ces

by w

ay o

fof

fice s

pace

and

train

ing.

Whi

le on

-de

man

d fo

r em

ploy

ees l

ower

s cos

ts,it

also

crea

tes m

ore c

ompe

titio

n fo

rto

p ta

lent a

s mor

e tra

ditio

nal c

aree

rsar

e pha

sed

out a

nd ar

e rep

laced

with

tem

pora

ry p

ositi

ons.

As m

illen

ni-

als

turn

to

entre

preu

nara

l se

lf-em

ploy

men

t, w

hich

offe

rs f

lexi-

work

tim

ing,

the

rise

of

‘shar

ing

econ

omy’

with

bus

ines

s m

odel

slik

e O

la, U

ber,

OYO

et a

l, an

d th

egi

g eco

nom

y will

hav

e far

-rea

chin

gef

fect

s on

cor

pora

te e

mpl

oym

ent

mod

els.

The

natio

nal c

halle

nge

is no

tju

st ta

king

a lo

ng-te

rm an

d in

terim

term

vie

w o

f up

skill

ing

of t

heor

gani

sed

sect

or t

o m

atch

up

toex

pone

ntial

tech

nolo

gies

and

newe

rbu

sines

s mod

els th

at ac

coun

ts fo

r 15

per c

ent o

f wor

kfor

ce. P

olic

y-m

ak-

ers a

lso n

eed

to p

rovi

sion

for s

upe-

rior j

ob op

portu

nitie

s for

85 p

er ce

ntun

orga

nise

d se

ctor

and

how

to

upgr

ade

them

into

the

org

anise

dse

ctor

, whi

ch p

rovi

des

bette

r jo

bse

curit

y an

d fo

rmal

ben

efits

.To

unl

ock

the p

oten

tial o

f cut

-tin

g ed

ge t

echn

olog

ies

that

will

trans

form

socie

ty at

a pa

ce d

eman

d-ed

for

tec

hnol

ogic

al c

hang

e, th

eC

entre

for

the

Fou

rth

Indu

stria

lRe

volu

tion

(CFI

R), s

et u

p by

the

Wor

ld E

cono

mic

For

um, s

eem

s to

be th

e id

eal h

ub to

han

dhol

d w

ithlo

cal

Gov

ernm

ents

thr

ough

the

perio

d of

tran

sitio

n. T

o m

ake I

ndia

Indu

stry 4

.0 co

mpl

iant,

NIT

I Aay

ogas

the

noda

l age

ncy

coor

dina

ting

with

bus

ines

s, ac

adem

ia, s

tart

-ups

and

CFIR

, is t

he p

erfe

ct m

odul

e to

facil

itate

cros

s-se

ctor

coop

erat

ion

tohe

rald

Fou

rth In

dustr

ial R

evol

utio

ngo

vern

ance

.(T

he w

rite

r is

aut

hor,

colu

mni

stan

d

Ch

airp

erso

n

for

Nat

ion

al

Com

mit

tee

on F

inan

cial

Inc

lusi

onan

d Li

tera

cy fo

r W

omen

con

stit

uted

at N

ITI

Aay

og)

'�,(

6�(

"30(

!),

�&/(

#'2)

0

5�")

,!)F

,(/"

�,(/

The In

solve

ncy

and

Bank

rupt

cy C

ode

(IBC)

of 20

16, t

hat r

ebala

nces

righ

ts of

prom

oter

s, ba

nks,

vend

ors a

nd em

ploy

-ee

s, is

unar

guab

ly o

ne o

f the

stell

ar ac

hiev

e-m

ents

of th

e Nar

endr

a Mod

i disp

ensa

tion.

Itse

eks t

o tac

kle t

he m

ount

ain of

over

�10 l

akh

cror

e of n

on-p

erfo

rmin

g ass

ets (

NPA

s) in

the

bank

ing

syste

m t

hrou

gh a

res

olut

ion

that

inclu

des l

iqui

datio

n an

d ch

ange

in m

anag

e-m

ent/o

wner

ship

. Tha

t com

pani

es ca

nnot

stall

reco

very

act

ion

has o

nly

adde

d te

eth

to th

eIB

C, en

surin

g no

t onl

y qu

icker

turn

arou

ndof

bank

rupt

firm

s in

less t

han

a yea

r, bu

t also

impr

ovin

g the

asse

t qua

lity o

f ban

ks in

a tim

e-bo

und

man

ner.

On

May

18, 2

018,

Tata

Stee

l Ltd

acqu

ired

72.65

per

cent

stak

e in

Bhus

han

Stee

l Ltd

, one

of th

e 12

larg

e wi

lful d

efau

lters

for �

35,2

00cr

ore i

n a h

istor

ic m

ove,

with

lend

ers g

ettin

gba

ck n

early

two-

third

of t

he m

oney

owed

toth

em b

y Bhu

shan

Stee

l, th

ereb

y sho

wcas

ing

that

the s

treng

th o

f IBC

lies

in th

e fac

t tha

tre

solu

tion

can

be a

chie

ved

with

out

any

maj

or h

airc

ut t

o ba

nks.

The

desp

erat

eat

tem

pt b

y N

eera

j Sin

ghal,

Bhu

shan

Ste

el's

erstw

hile

prom

oter

, to

pre

vent

the

sai

dta

keov

er w

as d

ismiss

ed b

y th

e N

atio

nal

Com

pany

Law

Trib

unal

(NCL

T) a

nd t

heSi

ngha

ls we

re si

mpl

y re

class

ified

as “

publ

icca

tego

ry sh

areh

olde

rs” fr

om b

eing

prom

ot-

ers p

ost t

he d

eal.

Apar

t fro

m th

e Bhu

shan

Ste

el ta

keov

er,

the l

itmus

test

in a

man

ner o

f spe

akin

g ha

sbe

en p

asse

d, g

iven

that

as m

uch

as 2

70 p

erce

nt o

f th

e ‘li

quid

atio

n va

lue’

has

been

rece

ived

in th

e 32 s

igni

fican

t cas

es th

at w

ere

reso

lved

unde

r the

aegi

s of t

he IB

C in

the l

ast

two y

ears

. The

fact

that

IBC

max

imise

s valu

efo

r all s

take

hold

ers,

inclu

ding

empl

oyee

s, ca

nbe

bes

t gua

ged

by th

e sta

y gi

ven

in A

ugus

t20

18 by

the N

ation

al Co

mpa

ny L

aw A

ppell

ateTr

ibun

al (N

CLAT

), in

resp

onse

to a

petit

ion

filed

by ov

er 80

0 em

ploy

ees o

f Jyo

ti St

ructu

res,

a de

faul

ting

Mum

bai-b

ased

eng

inee

ring,

proc

urem

ent a

nd co

nstru

ctio

n (E

PC) c

om-

pany

. As p

er Se

ction

33 (1

) of I

BC, in

the e

vent

a re

solu

tion

plan

is

not

appr

oved

by

Com

mitt

ee of

Cre

dito

rs (C

oC) a

nd p

rese

nt-

ed to

the a

djud

icatin

g aut

horit

y for

appr

oval

unde

r Se

ctio

n 31

with

in t

he C

orpo

rate

Inso

lvenc

y Res

olut

ion

Proc

ess (

CIRP

) per

i-od

of 2

70 d

ays,

the a

djud

icatin

g aut

horit

y is

man

dated

to pa

ss an

orde

r liq

uida

ting t

he co

r-po

rate

deb

tor.

Sinc

e a

buye

r co

uld

not b

efin

alise

d fo

r Jyo

ti wi

thin

the m

anda

tory

270

days

, it w

as h

eadi

ng fo

r liq

uida

tion,

as m

an-

date

d un

der t

he IB

C Ac

t.H

owev

er,

disa

llowi

ng t

he l

iqui

datio

npr

ocee

ding

s te

mpo

raril

y an

d gi

ving

the

Inte

rim R

esol

utio

n Pr

ofes

siona

l (IR

P) a

lit-

tle m

ore t

ime,

keep

ing i

n m

ind

the i

nter

ests

of th

e em

ploy

ees,

is a c

lassic

case

of h

ow IB

Cse

eks t

o mar

ry th

e int

eres

ts of

bot

h fin

ancia

lcr

edito

rs/le

nder

s, wi

th t

hat

of o

pera

tiona

lcr

edito

rs/em

ploy

ees.

The J

yoti

Stru

cture

s’ cas

eals

o es

tabl

ishes

that

the

ultim

ate

auth

ority

vests

with

the

NCL

AT a

nd t

hat

is ho

w it

shou

ld b

e so

as to

ensu

re th

ere i

s no

conf

u-sio

n in

the a

djud

icatio

n pr

oces

s.Ag

ain, in

the E

ra In

fra E

ngin

eerin

g cas

e,th

e N

CLT

adm

itted

ins

olve

ncy

plea

by

Unio

n Ba

nk ag

ainst

Era,

desp

ite se

vera

l win

d-in

g up

pet

ition

s pen

ding

aga

inst

it in

oth

erco

urts,

rulin

g tha

t unl

ess a

win

ding

up

orde

rha

d be

en p

asse

d by

ano

ther

cou

rt, E

ra w

illha

ve to

face

inso

lvenc

y pr

ocee

ding

s und

erIB

C. B

asica

lly, w

ilful

def

aulte

rs ca

n no

long

erta

ke re

fuge

, giv

ing

the

lame

excu

se o

f mul

-tip

le lit

igat

ions

in m

ultip

le co

urts,

som

ethi

ngth

at th

e Vija

y Mall

yas a

nd Ja

tin M

ehta

s of t

hewo

rld d

id w

anto

nly.

Furth

er u

phol

ding

the

inte

grity

of I

BCan

d N

CLT

is th

e Chi

tra Sh

arm

a jud

gem

ent,

wher

e the

Supr

eme C

ourt

ruled

that

the C

IRP

is a

mar

ket-d

riven

pro

cess

tha

t re

quire

s“e

xper

t det

erm

inat

ion”

and,

ther

efore

, cou

rtsm

ust n

ot in

terv

ene

or su

perv

ise it

s int

rica-

cies.

The a

pex c

ourt

also c

onfir

med

that

strict

adhe

renc

e to

Sect

ion

29A

of IB

C is

man

dat-

ed w

here

in er

rant

prom

oter

/hol

ding

com

pa-

ny, J

P As

socia

tes L

td in

this

case

, will

not

be

perm

itted

to p

artic

ipat

e in

the b

iddi

ng/C

IRP

proc

ess o

f its

defa

ultin

g su

bsid

iary

com

pa-

ny, J

P In

frate

ch L

td.

The a

pex c

ourt

also r

uled

that

ther

e can

-no

t be

any

pre

fere

ntia

l pa

ymen

ts m

ade

unde

r IBC

to a

ny cl

ass o

f cre

dito

rs, i

nclu

d-in

g ho

me b

uyer

s, w

ho n

ow co

me u

nder

the

purv

iew o

f ‘fin

ancia

l cre

dito

rs’. N

eedl

ess t

oad

d, IB

C ha

s fair

play

and

‘reso

lutio

n’ ra

ther

than

mer

e ‘re

cove

ry’ a

t its

core

.To

cut t

o the

chas

e, th

e NPA

mes

s und

erth

e erst

while

Con

gres

s-led

coali

tion

was n

ever

�2.43

lakh

cror

e to s

tart

with

. The

NPA

s wer

em

ore t

han

3x th

e am

ount

repo

rtedl

y in

Mar

ch

2014

, bu

t we

re f

raud

ulen

tly e

verg

reen

edth

roug

h re

peate

d re

struc

turin

gs in

gros

s vio

-lat

ion

of p

rude

ntia

l ba

nkin

g no

rms.

Ineff

ect, t

he C

ongr

ess-l

ed G

over

nmen

t hid

from

the h

ones

t tax

paye

r the

fact

that

while

the t

otal

loan

s giv

en by

bank

s bet

ween

1947

and

2004

were

onl

y �1

8 lak

h cr

ore,

the

over

all lo

ans

give

n by

ban

ks b

etwe

en 2

004

and

Mar

ch20

14,

unde

r th

e Co

ngre

ss-le

d co

aliti

on,

stood

at m

ore t

han �3

4 lak

h cr

ore.

Suffi

ce to

say,

ther

efore

, tha

t the

stag

ger-

ing �

52,0

00 cr

ore o

ffere

d fo

r meg

a acq

uisi-

tion

of c

hron

ic d

efau

lter

Essa

r St

eel

byLu

xem

bour

g-ba

sed

globa

l beh

emot

h Ar

celo

rM

ittal

, by e

dgin

g ou

t Num

etal

in a

bidd

ing

war

, with

zero

hai

rcut

to In

dian

lend

ers,

isar

guab

ly th

e big

gest

vind

icatio

n of

how

IBC

has u

proo

ted

cron

y ca

pita

lism

, loc

k, st

ock

and

barr

el. T

he R

uias

of E

ssar

Gro

up o

nO

ctob

er 2

5, 2

018,

to th

war

t the

take

over

of

Essa

r Ste

el, d

ecid

ed to

pay

�54

,389

cror

e to

settl

e ful

l cla

ims o

f all

finan

cial

and

oper

a-tio

nal

cred

itors

, in

cludi

ng t

he s

taff,

by

mak

ing

upfro

nt c

ash

paym

ent o

f �45

,559

cror

e. Th

e Guj

arat

Hig

h Co

urt d

ismiss

ed th

epl

ea o

f Rui

as a

nd E

ssar

Ste

el w

as b

roug

htun

der t

he p

urvi

ew o

f IBC

.Bu

t on

Oct

ober

25, 2

018,

the C

oC ru

ledin

favo

ur o

f Arc

elor M

ittal,

whi

ch h

as n

owwo

n th

e ba

nkru

pt E

ssar

Ste

el. A

lso, u

nder

Secti

on 12

A of

the I

BC, a

ny w

ithdr

awl p

roce

ssun

der I

BC ca

n ha

ppen

onl

y bef

ore i

ssua

nce

of E

xpre

ssio

n of

Inte

rest,

whi

ch in

this

case

was i

ssue

d wa

y bac

k in

Oct

ober

201

7. If

the

Ruia

s ind

eed

had

the

mon

ey, w

hy d

id th

eyno

t offe

r to p

ay ea

rlier

? Was

it be

caus

e of t

heir

scan

t reg

ard

for c

redi

tors

, ban

kers

, len

ders

and

the l

aw of

the l

and?

Tod

ay w

ilful

def

ault-

ers h

ave g

ot a

bitte

r tas

te o

f the

ir ow

n m

ed-

icine

. Tha

nks t

o th

e IB

C, b

anks

can

not b

eta

ken

for a

roya

l rid

e by

dish

ones

t pro

mot

-er

s any

mor

e.Th

e wa

r for

Ess

ar S

teel

has u

nden

iably

been

lost

by th

e Rui

as an

d an

y atte

mpt

to ge

tth

e Sup

rem

e Cou

rt to

use

its e

xtra

ordi

nary

juri

sdic

tion

unde

r A

rtic

le 1

42 o

f th

eCo

nstit

utio

n wi

ll no

t wo

rk, i

f th

e Bi

nani

Cem

ent t

akeo

ver i

ssue

in th

e pas

t is a

nyth

ing

to go

by. C

ontra

ry to

the s

trapp

ings

of xe

no-

phob

ia t

hat

the

decr

epit

Neh

ru-G

andh

idy

nasty

und

er a

dec

aden

t Con

gres

s foi

sted

upon

the

Indi

an e

cono

my,

Mod

inom

ics is

refre

shin

gly bo

th lib

eral

and

prog

ress

ive, a

ndan

idea

who

se ti

me h

as re

soun

ding

ly ar

rived

.IB

C is

a gian

t lea

p to

ward

s tha

t.(T

he w

rite

r is

an

econ

omis

t an

d ch

ief

spok

espe

rson

for

the

BJP

, Mum

bai)

IBC

dem

olis

hed

NPA

s

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rs d

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g bu

sines

s m

odel

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rman

ent e

mpl

oyee

s be

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will

be

thos

ew

ith c

ore

skill

s, w

hile

for

spec

ialis

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kills

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pani

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Page 7: 46 - #& /, ˇ˘ !*˜$+˘ $0˘ · Sabha seats in Bihar, the JD(U) 16, the LJP five and the RLSP two seats. Sources in the JD(U) had, however, denied that it would contest a seat less

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Rajinikanth, the south Indiansuperstar who had declared

his political intentions on thenew year eve encountered thefirst major obstacle to hisdreams on Friday. The DMK,the major Opposition party inTamil Nadu made it knownthat the party does not wel-come Rajinikanth’s move tolaunch a political outfit.

The DMK, which had kept

its fingers crossed hitherto overthe move by Rajinikanth toenter politics, came out onFriday through an unsignedarticle in Murasoli, the partymouthpiece lambasting andlampooning Rajinikanth’s polit-ical dreams. Interestingly, theKarunanidhi clan controllingthe daily had invited Rajinikanth

for its platinum jubilee celebra-tions last year and the super starhad attended the function.

Though no reasons havebeen given by the DMK for theattack on Rajinikanth, it is clearfrom the article that party chiefMK Stalin does not like the ideaof facing the super star’s politi-cal party. Political commentator

S Gurumurthy is of the viewthat Rajinikanth has the poten-tial to emerge as the rallyingpoint for all anti-DMK votes.

Rajinikanth in a releaseon Thursday had told his fansand followers that those whoare after power and wealth donot have any place in hisscheme of things. The Murasoliarticle asks how is it possible forRajinikanth to expect his fol-lowers to work tirelessly formaking him the Chief Ministerwhile they themselves shouldnot aspire for anything.

In a recent crack downRajinikanth had removed someof the office bearers of his fansassociation from their positionsfor violating the guidelines ofthe association. “What is thelogic behind removing thosewho allegedly violated guide-lines when there are no guide-lines?” asked the article. Since

the article has appeared inMurasoli, it is certain that thepublication has been done atthe instance of Stalin.

The Murasoli or the DMKleadership has not responded toKamal Haasan’s comments to aTV channel that his party wouldhave alliance with the Congressonly if the Grand Old Party dis-sociates itself from the DMK.This is further proof of theDMK clan’s soft corner forKamal Haasan and an indica-tion of a possible alliancebetween the DMK and theMNM, the political outfitlaunched by Haasan.

With the Murasoli article,Stalin has given enough indi-cations that Rajinikanthwould be an untouchable vis-à-vis the DMK. The papermade it known through acartoon that Rajinikanth is thecreation of the BJP.

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Gujarat Chief Minister VijayRupani will inaugurate

ambitious 'Ro Ro ferry' services

on Saturday which will connectSaurasahtra and South Gujaratacross the Gulf of Khambhat.

Due to the fairy servicesdistance between Ghogha nearBhavnagar in Saurashtra inthe west and Dahej in SouthGujarat will be decrease byalmost 300 kms. By road dis-tance between the two desti-nation is neat 360 km and ittakes more than 10 hours totravel. However the fairy willreach Dahej within one hourby completing just 32 kmsacross the Gulf.

For the completion andfunctioning of the projectGujarat Maritime Board(GMB) has formed an SPV(special purpose vehicle) androped in Indigo SeawaysPrivate Limited on a publicprivate partnerships (PPP) mode.

The group has investedaround �140 crore for the pro-ject and bought a south Koreanvessel 'Voyage Symphony'. Thevessel is a double-ended ferrythat will sail at an averagespeed of 15-17 knots with atransit time of one hourbetween the two shores.Boarding and unboarding thevehicles, passengers off thevessel will take another hour.

As per agreementthe tariffs for the ser-vices will be shared bythe GMB and the IndigoSeaways, but the exactshare was not disclosedby any of the party. Formulti wheeled emptycargo (one driver andone cleaaner), thecharges for trucks andbuses will be �4,500,�800 for cars, �150 fortwo wheelers. Additionalcharges for trucks will be�125 per Ton and �2,500for 36 passengers perbus.

As far as passengersare concerned, the tariffis �200 for economyclass and �400 for luxu-ry for single trip.

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Duhazaar unish, BJP finish(Come 2019, there will be

no BJP).” That is going to bethe Trinamool Congress’ slo-gan in the run-up to the 2019general elections for whichpreparations will begin onNovember 16 when BengalChief Minister MamataBanerjee will address a meet-ing of party functionariesincluding elected representa-tives down to the block level,TMC general secretary ParthoChatterjee on Friday said.

November 16 meeting willin fact focus on the grand rallyscheduled to be held at theBrigade Parade Ground onJanuary 19. The Brigade rallyhas been called by Mamatawhere all the Opposition outfitsbarring the BJP will be invited.

Among the invitees wouldbe Congress president RahulGandhi, Sonia Gandhi, NCPchief Sharad Pawar, BSPsupremo Mayawati, SP chief

Akhilesh Yadav, RJD presi-dent Lalu Prasad. “Even theCPI(M) leadership includingKerala Chief Minister Vijayanwill be invited in the rally,” theChief Minister was quoted as saying.

But before the grand rallywhich will apparently be orga-nized as a show of strength tocounter BJP’s rising stature inBengal the TMC will hold apreparator y meeting onNovember 16 where “all MPs,MLAs, councilors, panchayatsamiti heads, district andblock presidents have beenasked to come,” Chatterjeesaid adding the meeting willbe held to prepare the work-ers so that they can startpreparations from now.

“Mamata Banerjee hasalready said that ‘duihazaar

unish, BJP finish’. This means we will haveto work towards oustingthe BJP not only fromBengal but the entirecountry,” Chatterjee said.The November 16 meet-ing will be held at theNetaji Indoor Stadium. Though the rally is goodthree months away partieslike the RJD have alreadyconfirmed their atten-dance, sources saidadding Andhra PradeshChief MinisterChandrababu Naidu hasbeen in constant touch

with Banerjee.According TMC sources

the Bengal Chief Ministercould also attend the TeluguDesam Party sponsored grandrally sometime in December:this apparently in order toensure a return visit by the TDP president.

“Though all oppositionparties have no doubt thatthey will have to come togeth-er in 2019 to ensure the ousterof the BJP some regionalissues still keep them sepa-rated. Our leader MamataBanerjee can play an impor-tant role in bringing these par-ties together or ensuring acompromise region-basedcompromise formula so thatthe opposition vote is notdivided,” said a seniorTrinamool leader and a Minister.

Banerjee had earlier putforward the Bengal formula toensure “one-against-one can-didate.”

The TMC had “tried thisformula in 2009 and 2011 andensured a landslide winagainst the mighty Left Front.If we could defeat the Leftthere is no reason why we can-not defeat the BJP,” said theMinister adding the January2019 Brigade rally will be agrand success.

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Imphal: Cadres of twoterrorist outfits wereengaged in a gun battle inManipur's Tengnoupaldistrict early Fridaymorning, a police officersaid.

The exchange of firetook place between sus-pected terrorists of theKuki National Army(KNA) and United KukiLiberation Front (UNLF)near Moreh town whichis close to the Indo-Myanmar border, theofficer said.

PTI

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Page 8: 46 - #& /, ˇ˘ !*˜$+˘ $0˘ · Sabha seats in Bihar, the JD(U) 16, the LJP five and the RLSP two seats. Sources in the JD(U) had, however, denied that it would contest a seat less

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Lucknow: Prime MinisterNarendra Modi on Fridayexpressed confidence that farm-ers would pave the way forimbibing of new technologyand hoped that better opportu-nities would be created in theagriculture sector.

Inaugurating Krishi Kumbh2018, a mega conclave of farm-ers and agricultural experts, inLucknow through video confer-encing from Delhi on Friday, thePrime Minister lauded the effortsof the Uttar PradeshGovernment and Chief MinisterYogi Adityanath for the devel-opment of agriculture and wel-fare of the farmers with the aimof enhancing their income.

“The Government is com-mitted to doubling the income offarmers by 2022, the year whenIndia completes 75 years ofindependence. The Governmentis creating a strong infrastructurefrom ‘beej to bazaar’ (seed tomarket) for enhancing theincome of farmers.,” he said.

Modi expressed the hopethat there would be record pro-duction of foodgrains during theKharif season. He reiterated theGovernment’s commitment todouble the farmers’ income byhelping the nation’s food pro-ducers at every stage, from sow-ing to selling.

The PM said that farmers,the country’s ‘annadata’, werebecoming power generator of thecountry with the help of newtechnologies. He said the solar

technology had changed thelives of the farmers in Gujaratwhere they were generating solarpower and after meeting theirelectricity needs, were selling thesurplus electricity and earningadditional income.

Modi said events like KrishiKumbh would greatly benefitfarmers and it was a commend-able achievement of the UPGovernment as it would opennew avenues for farmers incoming days. The PM expressedconfidence that the farmerswould pave the way for newtechnology to be imbibed andbetter opportunities to be creat-ed in the agriculture sector.

He said this time the farm-ers would get increased price fortheir crops as the MinimumSupport Price of 21 Rabi andKharif crops had been increased.

The PM appreciated the UPGovernment for its efforts inaugmenting substantially theprocurement of foodgrains. Heasserted that the farmers werethe ones who took the countryforward. Modi mentioned theseries of steps that theGovernment was pursuing toreduce input costs and raiseprofits to double farmers’income. He said a large numberof solar pumps would beinstalled in farms across thecountry in the near future.

Modi said the Governmentwas working to deliver the ben-efits of science to agriculture andthe Rice Research Centre being

set up in Varanasi was is a stepin this direction.

The PM also spoke aboutthe importance of value additionin farming and mentioned thesteps being taken in the foodprocessing sector. He said thatafter the Green Revolution, theemphasis now was on milk andhoney production and also onpoultry and fisheries.

Modi called for discussionon judicious use of waterresources, better technology forstorage and use of latest tech-nology in farming in the sessionsof the Krishi Kumbh. He empha-sised the need to evolve newtechnologies and ways thatwould help eliminate the needfor farmers to burn crop stubble.

Chief Minister YogiAdityanath said that Modi isthe first Prime Minister afterindependence who has farm-ers and agriculture at the topof his agenda. He said the soilhealth card scheme for farm-ers had immensely contributedin agricultural productivity asfarmers, instead of recklessuse of fertilisers and insecti-cides, were now judiciouslyusing the agriculture inputsand this had boosted agricul-tural productivity.

The CM said UP had hugeuntapped potential in the fieldsof agriculture and horticulture.He said UP was already numberone in the country in sugarcane,sugar and milk production andthe same could be achieved inthe field of horticulture.

Yogi said the previousGovernment had ignored agri-culture and there were only 69Krishi Vikas Kendra (KVKs) inthe state. He said after the BJPcame to power in UP in March2017, the Centre had sanctioned20 new KVKs in the State andthey were now linked with thefour State agriculture universitiesfor ensuring easy availability ofnew technology to the farmers.Israel and Japan are official part-ners of Krishi Kumbh 2018which will continue for threedays. PNS

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Within hours after a Punespecial court on Friday

rejected their bail applications,the Pune police on Fridayevening arrested civic rightsactivists Vernon Gonsalves andArun Ferreira, while the inves-tigators are likely to arrestanother activist SudhaBharadwaj from her Faridabadresidence for her alleged linkswith the CPI (Maoists).

Gonsalves, Ferriera andBhardwaj who were amongthe five activists arrested onAugust 28 for their allegedlinks with the CPI (Maoists)and their association with theElaagar Parishad held in Puneahead of the January 1, 2018Bhima-Koregaon riots.

While Gonsalves wasarrested from his Mumbai res-idence, Ferreira was taken into

custody by the police from hisThane residence.

Gonsalves and Ferreira willbe produced in the Pune UAPAcourt on Saturday.

Meanwhile, a police teamis leaving for Faridabad whereBhardwaj is likely to be arrest-ed from her home on Saturday.

Earlier in the afternoon,Additional sessions judge K.D.Vadane had rejected the bailapplications of the threeactivists.

"At this stage, from mater-ial collected by investigatingofficer, prima facie, it reveals theinvolvement of the present appli-cants/accused. Moreover, inves-tigation is at very crucial stage,therefore, in my view, the presentaccused are not entitled to bereleased on bail. Hence applica-tions devoid of merit, liable to berejected," Special Judge Vadanestated in his order.

While under house arrest,the three activists had movedthe Pune sessions court seek-ing an extension of their housearrest by a week.

While opposing the bailapplications, the Prosecutionhad argued that it have “cor-roborative evidence” against the

accused to prove their allegedrole in Maoist activities likesmobilising cadres, recruitingstudents from eminent institu-tions and sending them to thehinterland areas to become “pro-fessional revolutionaries”, raisefunds and procure weapons.

Since the house arrestperiod ended on Friday,Gonsalves’ lawyer RahulDeshmukh said that the threeactivists would move theBombay High Court onagainst the Pune court’s order.

Apart from Bharadwaj,Ferreira and Gonsalves,activists Varavara Rao andGautam Navlakha had beenarrested on August 28.

Earlier this week, theHyderabad High Court hadextended Rao’s house arrestperiod by three weeks whileNavlakha’s arrest was quashedby the Delhi High Court. Later,the Supreme Court rejected theMaharashtra Government'sspecial leave petition againstthe Delhi High Court order.

The rejection of bail pleas ofthree activists, includingBhardwaj and Gonsalves comestwo days after the Bombay HighCourt quashed a special courts

order granting an extension of90 days to the police to file acharge-sheet against five personsarrested on June 6 in connectionwith their alleged Maoist linksand their role in the January 1,2018 Bhima-Koregaon riots.

However, upon a plea bythe Prosecution that it wantedto test legality of the the highcourt’s order in the SupremeCourt, a single-judge HCbench of Justice MridulaBhatkar stayed till November 12018 the implementation of herorder quashing the Pune spe-cial court’s order to facilitate theMaharashtra Government tochallenge the HC order in theapex court.

While quashing the PuneSpecial court’s order, the highcourt took cognisance of thefact that there was no compli-ance of section 43-D of the ofthe Unlawful Activities(Prevention) Act, 1967 whichmandates the Public Prosecutorto submit a report justifying theextension of time for filing thecharge-sheet in the case.

“This shows that theInvestigating Officer has nav-igated the application for exten-sion of period by further 90

days, which is not contemplat-ed under the provison to sec-tion 43-D of the Act. It is to beremembered that theInvestigating Officer is alwaysinterested in the success or theconviction in the case.However, it is the duty of thePublic Prosecutor to assist theCourt in the process of admin-istration of justice by uphold-ing the law,” Justice Bhatkarnoted.

Quoting the judgment inthe case Hitendra VishnuThakur vs. State ofMaharashtra (supra) case, thejudge noted: “....The request ofan investigating officer forextension of time is no substi-tute for the report of the pub-lic prosecutor. ….”On September 2, a SpecialUnlawful Activit ies(Prevention) Act (UAPA)court had granted an exten-sion of 90 days to the police tofile a charge-sheet against fivepersons with alleged Maoistlinks who were arrested inJune this year in connectionwith the Elgaar Parishad heldin Pune and the subsequentJanuary 1, 2018 Bhima-Koregaon caste riots.

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The 11 Base Repair Depot(BRD), the only fighter air-

craft repair depot of the IndianAir Force, on Friday handedover the indigenously over-hauled Su-30 MKI aircraft to theSouth Western Air Commandat an impressive ceremony heldat Ojhar in Nashik district innorth Maharashtra.

In a formal ceremony, AirMarshal Hemant Sharma AtiVishisht Seva Medal, VishishtSeva Medal Air OfficerCommanding-in-Chief ofMaintenance Command gavepossession of the indigenouslyoverhauled Su 30 MKI aircraft

to Air Marshal HS Arora AtiVishisht Seva Medal Air OfficerCommanding-in-Chief ofSouth Western Air Commandat an impressive ceremony heldat Air Force Station at Ojhar.

The 11 BRD is the onlyfighter aircraft repair depot ofthe Indian Air Force andundertakes repair and overhaulof frontline fighters such asMIG-29 and Sukhoi 30 MKI.

Established on 29 Apr 1974and subsequently renamed as 11Base Repair Depot on 01 Jan1975, the BRD progressivelybuilt and improved the techni-cal expertise and infrastructureover the years and by 1983 it hadoverhauled 100 Su-7 aircraft.

From 1983 to 1988, thedepot also undertook overhaulof MIG-21 and 28 aircraft wereproduced. Later, overhaul facil-ity for MIG-23 aircraft was setup in 1986 and 248 aircraft wereoverhauled till May 2015.Overhaul of MIG-29 aircraftcommenced in the year 1996.

Currently, the “Up gradationof MIG-29” and Repair &Overhaul (ROH) at Su-30 MKIaircraft is being undertaken at thedepot. In addition, the 11 BRDis the only agency to undertakeoverhaul of ejection seats and roleequipment of Su-30 MKI aircraft,both for IAF and HindustanAeronatic Limited (HAL).Earlier, the first Su-30 MKIoverhauled by this Depot suc-cessfully took off on 24 Apr2018 and has been flight testedfor its airworthiness, beforeinducting it for operationaltasks at a flying squadron.

Among those present onthe occasion were a largenumber of senior AirForce dignitaries formAir Head Quarters NewDelhi, Head QuartersMaintenance Command,Nagpur, South WesternAir Command,Gandhinagar, Gujarat,Senior officers of HAL(Nasik Division), DRDO

and DGAQA.During the function, the

Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief ofMaintenanceC ommandand SouthWestern AirC ommandapplaudedr e l e n t l e s sefforts put inby personnelof Air ForceS t a t i o nOjhar. Air Cmde

Samir V Borade Vishisht SevaMedal Air OfficerCommanding, Air ForceStation Ojhar, thanked all theair warriors and personnel ofHAL (Nasik Division) for theiractive involvement and supportin achieving this importantmilestone for the depot andIndian Air Force.

Borade said that with thiscapability, 11 Base Repair Depothad exhibited what the unit wascapable of and was ever readyfor meeting the new challenges.

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The rupee depreciated by 20paise to close at 73.47

against the US dollar on Fridayamid a strengthening green-back and sustained foreigncapital outflows.

At the Interbank ForeignExchange, the rupee opened ona weak note at 73.44 and fur-ther slipped to hit an intra-daylow of 73.47 against the US cur-rency.

The local unit gained someground to reach 73.28 duringthe day. However, it finallysettled at 73.47, showing a lossof 20 paise over the previousclose.

On Thursday, the rupee fell

11 paise to close at 73.27.The dollar rose to a 10-

week high Friday ahead of USGDP data.

Oil prices fell over fears ofpossible drop in oil demandamid a rout in global markets.Brent crude was trading at$76.20 per barrel.

The BSE Sensex crashedmore than 1 per cent for thesecond straight session onFriday to close at a fresh seven-month low of 33,349.31, whilethe broader NSE Nifty slipped94.90 points to 10,030.00.

Foreign funds pulled out�1,356.66 crore from the cap-ital markets on a net basis,while domestic institutionalinvestors bought shares worth�1,875.89 crore on Thursday,provisional data showed.

The Financial BenchmarkIndia Private Ltd (FBIL) set thereference rate for therupee/dollar at 73.3740 and forrupee/euro at 83.4077. Thereference rate for rupee/Britishpound was fixed at 94.0503 andfor rupee/100 Japanese yen at65.41.

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Petrol price has been cut bynearly �2 per litre and diesel

by �1 a litre in the last eightdays on the back of softerinternational rates, an officialstatement said on Friday.

Petrol price has beenreduced by �1.98 per litre anddiesel by �0.96 a litre during thelast eight days.

In Delhi, petrol now costs�80.85 per litre and diesel ispriced at �74.73 a litre, it said.

The rates are off theirrecord high of �84 per litre forpetrol and �75.45 a litre fordiesel touched on October 4.

On that day, theGovernment decided to cutexcise duty on petrol and dieselby �1.50 per litre each and

asked state-owned fuel retailersto subsidise by another �1 alitre by reducing their margins.

Subsequent to this, thepetrol price came down to�81.50 per litre and diesel at�72.95 a litre on October 5, thestatement said.

“As the international oilprices continued to rise, priceof petrol and diesel in Delhiincreased to �82.83 per litreand �75.69 per litre. (But)since last eight days, interna-tional oil prices have beenfalling and rupee has alsoappreciated,” the statementsaid.

The twin factors havebrought down fuel prices to asix-week low.

“As per the assessment, theretail prices of petrol and dieselmay reign easy in the next fewdays,” it said.

The retail selling price ofpetrol and diesel is dependenton the international prices ofbenchmark fuel and the rupee-US dollar exchange rate. “Thisis because a large proportion ofcountry’s requirement is metthrough imports,” the state-ment added.

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Indian public sector compa-nies have already placed

orders with Iran for crude oilsupply during November, asenior Government officialsaid here on Friday.

“Our public sector com-panies have already placedorders for the month ofNovember with Iran,” saidSunjay Sudhir, joint secretaryfor international cooperation atthe Ministry of Petroleum &Natural Gas.

“Iran, historically, has beena key supplier of crude forIndia,” he stressed after pre-senting investment opportuni-ties in the Indian StrategicPetroleum Reserve programmePhase II (ISPR) to Singapore-based investors.

“In India, we are guided byour consideration for energysecurity,” Sudhir said.

He also said Indian officialswere in talks with the US onwaivers relating toWashington’s sanctions ondealing with Iran.

Sixty-five per cent of India’scrude supply comes from theMiddle East from Iraq, SaudiArabia and Iran. The other twomain suppliers are Venezuela

and Nigeria.Crude oil supply from the

US has been choked due topipeline and terminal infra-structure at the supply points.“The constraints are on the USinfrastructure side,” he said.

India’s has imported about30 million barrels of US crudeover the last year, startingOctober, 2017. India importsover 80 per cent of its crude oilneeds.

Touching on the ISPR IIprogramme, Sudhir said “weare exploring the Public PrivatePartnership (PPP) model”.

The final investmentmodel will depend on investors’participation, he said. TheIndian Government’s partici-pation will depend on how the

investors respond to ISPR II.Investors are being sought

for the $1.6 billion cavern-typefacilities at Chandikhol inOdisha and Padur in Karnatakafor storing 6.5 million metrictons of crude oil.

The ISPR I, in partnershipwith ADNOC of Abu Dhabi, isfor holding 5.33 million met-ric tons of crude oil, on a seven-year contract basis.

National security is servedby the fact that there is alwaysthe minimum threshold, withthe Government having thefirst right of refusal, said Sudhir.

ISPR II would be a con-tractual obligation based on aseven-year

contract as is the case forISPR I with ADNOC.

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Airports Authority of India’sWomen Welfare

Association (AAIWWA) inassociation with AAIAF (AAIArtist’s Forum), FIPA (Forumof India Photographers andArtists) and AAIOI (AirportsAuthority of India Officer’s

Institute) is organizing an ArtExhibition at the IndianAviation Academy, VasantKunjfrom 24th October, 2018to 10th November, 2018. TheArt Exhibition is showcasingthe paintings that were pre-pared by the participants of theArt Camp organized in April,2018.

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Non-banking finance com-pany Capital First Friday

reported a 246 per cent jumpin its profit at �104.6 crore inthe quarter ended September,helped by strong loan growth.

The company’s profit aftertax stood at �30.2 crore in theyear-ago period.

“We are happy to continuethe steady growth in the loanassets and net profit for thecompany,” it’s chairman, VVaidyanathan, said.

The company’s asset undermanagement (AUM) stood at�32,622 crore as on September30, 2018, with its retail loanportfolio contributing to 91 percent of its overall AUM.

Its retail loan book grew 38per cent to �29,625 crore in thereporting quarter, up from�21,429 crore in the same peri-od last year.

Core income, whichincludes net interest income andfee income of the company, rose49 per cent to �695.2 crore, from�467.2 crore last year.

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Union minister of state forhousing and urban affairs

Hardeep Singh Puri on Fridaysaid he wants fly-by-nightoperators (developers) to becompletely eliminated.

Speaking at the 25thIndian Plumbing Conferencehere, Puri said the policydecisions taken by hisGovernment includingdemonetisation, the Goodsand Services Tax regime andthe RERA have disrupted themarket in a big way.

“The policy decisions likedemonetisation, GST andRERA have brought a disrup-tion in the market. But I haveno sympathy towards them. Iwant the fly-by-night operatorsto be completely eliminated,”Puri said.

He further said that it isnecessary to solve issues ofthose (developers, buyer andpromoters) who have genuineproblems, but not at the cost ofthousands of home buyers whoput their life savings into theprojects.

“The period of the offer-

ings of 40:60 or 50:50 or 80:20have gone now. Now every pro-ject has to be registered includ-ing ongoing projects. Even theagents who deal in the sectorhave to register. There is, there-fore, a lot of hue and cry and alot of blood shed,” the ministersaid.

In todays day and age withzero tolerance for corruption ifone thinks they can take some-body’s money and invest itelsewhere, they are mistaken,he said.

The minister further notedthat unsold inventory is declin-

ing and new projects are start-ing, which is an indicationthat the construction industryhas streamlined.

“We are going to be a $5trillion economy by 2025 and$10 trillion by 2030. If thereone sector I would bet on formedium to long term, then itis construction. But we have toclean the mess just now,” Puriadded.

He also urged the plumb-ing industry to adopt the bestglobal practices as it accountsnearly 12-13 per cent of thetotal cost of construction.

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Page 10: 46 - #& /, ˇ˘ !*˜$+˘ $0˘ · Sabha seats in Bihar, the JD(U) 16, the LJP five and the RLSP two seats. Sources in the JD(U) had, however, denied that it would contest a seat less

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Handed a reality check afterWest Indies salvaged amorale-boosting tie in the

second game, India will be hop-ing to put up an improved bowl-ing show with their frontline pac-ers Bhuvneshwar Kumar andJasprit Bumrah back in action forthe third ODI here on Saturday.

A well-oiled India hammeredthe Windies in the lung opener inGuwahati by eight wickets, but thegritty visitors indeed, made astatement of sorts inVisakhapatnam, by denying thehosts a victory and a chance to go2-0 ahead in the five-match rub-

ber.However the absence of

Bhuvneshwar and Bumrah sawIndian bowling unit being clob-bered for 320 plus runs in bothgames.

With more variations in theirrepertoire in white ball cricketcompared to the profilgate UmeshYadav and an inconsistentMohammed Shami, Bhuvneshwarand Bumrah are expected to makea significant difference, especial-ly in the first Powerplay and thedeath overs.

India also have issues to pon-der over with only 16 games areleft before the World Cup inEngland next year — the fragile

middle-orderand lack of con-sistency fromthe lower-mid-

dle order batsmen — when they take fieldat the MCA International stadium. SkipperVirat Kohli, who surpassed iconic SachinTendulkar to score fastest 10,000 runs, hasalways been the backbone of the team. Hisback to back hundreds (140 and 157 notout) is just a testimony to it. The skipper,who has scored 297 runs so far in the series,will be aiming for a big knock again.

Ambati Rayadu, whose 73 consolidat-ed his claim for No 4 spot and a good showon Saturday, will only help him make theposition his own.

But questions remain on a stable num-bers 5, 6 and 7.

Veteran Mahendra Singh Dhoni (20)again looked out of sorts in the second ODIand with his ability to finish innings on thewane, the stumper will be under immensepressure to perform.

A big score is expected from youngRishabh Pant, who has got the ability to goall guns blazing. The team management isexpected to persist with him for his game-changing ability.

The dew is a big factor during day-nightmatches in India, something that willworry Kohli since both his wrist spinnersKuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahalwere finding it difficult to grip the wet ball.

Senior spinner Ravindra Jadeja willhave to pull up his socks and can't affordto be inconsistent with only a few places upfor grabs going into the World Cup.

For the visitors, their biggest asset isyoung Shimron Hetmyer, who scored ascintillating 94 in the last game after anattractive 106 in the opening encounter.

The 21-year-old southpaw would beraring to go at the Indian bowlers onceagain.

Wicketkeeper-batsman Shai Hope withhis hundred in Visakhapatnam has provedthat there is more to his game than theattractive 30's.

But apart from these two, West Indieswould be hoping that the others likeKieron Powell, Chanderpaul Hemraj andRovman Powell step up and deliver.

Their senior pros like experiencedMarlon Samuels (13 runs) and skipper JasonHolder (50 runs) haven't really played totheir potential. The duo will look to makeamends.

The bowling attack will be spearhead-ed by Kemar Roach but he has been leak-ing runs along with their spinners DevendraBishoo and Ashley Nurse.

The trio, along with the others includ-ing Holder and Oshane Thomas will needto come up with something special torestrict a ruthless Indian skipper and theothers, who can hammer any bowlingattack.

���� �6,3

West Indies coach Stuart Law is happy thathis batsmen have been able to "manu-

facture" changes in the Indian bowling line-upwith their premier pacers Bhuvneshwar Kumarand Jasprit Bumrah set to play the final threeODIs.

The Indian bowlers have conceded 320 plusscores on both ODIs in batting friendly con-ditions with both Umesh Yadav andMohammed Shami failing to impress.

While Bhuvneshwar and Bumrah's come-back during the second phase was always onthe cards, Law feels that it's batsmen who haveforced the hosts to ring in changes.

"Yeah I would like to think so (on theircomeback). That's probably the reason whythey've (India) called back their two most expe-rienced one-day bowlers. To our credit, wehaven't shied away from it," Law said on theeve of the third ODI.

He is happy that Indians are asking them-selves a few questions.

"So yeah, hopefully we are getting theIndians to ask questions to themselves. Theyare giving us plenty of questions to ask our-selves but at this stage, we are coming up withpretty good answers," added Law.

Virat Kohli's brilliance has overshadowedeverything in this series but Law is expectingthe Indian captain to falter.

"How do you get Virat out? He gave uschance at 40. He is a wonderful player. I justlove the way he goes about compiling aninnings. Looks like he is working very hard buthe's doing it very easy. So we do have plans tohim.

"At the moment, he is coming up a lot ofgood answers, so we have to just keep askingquestions about his technique and his abilities.In the end, he is only human. But when we getan opportunity, we have got to grab hold of it."

The coach also heaped praise on Shimron

Hetmyer, who has been bulldozing the Indianbowlers, especially the spinners.

"Hetmyer has been outstanding. (Shai)Hope got a hundred in the second game, all inall for an inexperienced side, that we have, theycan hold their heads very high," said Law.

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Former champions ATKdefeated tit le holders

Chennayin FC 2-1 in a keenly-contested Indian Super Leaguematch to register their firsthome win of the season here onFriday.

Nigerian striker Kalu Uche(3rd minute) and John Johnson(13th) put Steve Coppell's side 2-0 up before Carlos Salom (17th)pulled one back for the defend-ing champions.

ATK, however, managed tomaintain their slender lead tohand Chennaiyin FC theirfourth defeat of the season andclimbed to the fourth spot on thetable.

Chennaiyin FC got off to theworst possible start as a defen-sive mix-up saw them concedeas early as in the third minute.

Chennaiyin goalkeeperKaranjit Singh's goal-kick washeaded back by Gerson Vieira.It fell to Uche who found him-self clear of both the centre-backs and slotted a calm finishpast the custodian.

ATK assumed control of thematch thereafter as ManuelLanzarote started to show hisquality on the ball. He threadeda delicious ball for Uche in the11th minute but the Nigerian'sshot straight at the goalkeeper.

Two minutes later, Johnsonmet his wonderful free-kick intothe box and headed into the farcorner to double ATK's lead.

The setback forced thereigning champions into actionand they pulled a goal back with-

in five minutes through Salom.Francisco Fernandes' accuratecross from the right wing wasglanced into the net expertly bythe Palestinian striker as coachJohn Gregory heaved a sigh ofrelief.

Chennaiyin FC pressed foran equaliser and created sever-al chances in the first half butfailed to convert them.

In an attempt to attack, theywere leaving spaces behind forthe likes of Lanzarote to exploit.However, ATK also could notcapitalise on the offerings.

ATK looked a bit more com-pact at the start of the secondhalf and Chennaiyin had to waituntil the 56th minute to fashiona proper opportunity whenSalom managed to dart into thebox, only to see his rasping shotfrom close-range go well wide ofArindam Bhattacharya's goal.

The stor y of spurnedchances continued forChennaiyin FC as AndreaOrlandi saw a brilliant ballacross the box just miss the out-stretched legs of Salom andIssac Vanmalsawma.

At the other end, Lanzarotecontinued to threaten theChennaiyin defence with hisset-piece deliveries. One sucheffort saw Everton Santos senda header just over the bar.

Second-half substituteGregory Nelson could have res-cued a point for the MarinaMachans when Thoi Singhfound him at the far post witha cross. But his header was par-ried away by an alertBhattacharya.

�������Defending champions Patna Pirates started their home legwith a bang as they beat Jaipur Pink Panthers 41-30 in the InterZone Challenge Week of Pro Kabaddi season six here on Friday.

Pardeep Narwal's raiding performance laid the foundations of Patna'svictory with 11 points and was ably supported by Manjeet who got 10points.

Jaideep and Vikas Kale combined to score 10 tackle points for Patna.Narwal achieved a landmark with his super 10 as he is now the leaderof super 10s in the history of Pro Kabaddi League.

Anup Kumar also reached a milestone as he hit the 500 raid pointmark in Pro Kabaddi League but his eight-point effort could not helphis team from avoiding a defeat.

Both teams' defence got into the scoring act early in the game asJaipur Pink Panthers led 2-1 after three minutes. With Patna trailing2-3 in the 3rd minute, Pardeep Narwal's super raid got the lead.

Anup Kumar reached the milestone of 500 raid points in PKL witha successful raid in the fourth minute.

Jaipur came back in the next three minutes as they got 5 points tolead 8-6 in the 8th minute. But Pardeep Narwal had other ideas as inthe 9th minute he got another super raid to give Patna Pirates 11-8 lead.

Deepak Niwas Hooda scored two quick raid points as Jaipur PinkPanthers trailed 14-20 after 16 minutes.

At the end of the first half, Patna Pirates led 22-15 with PardeepNarwal scoring nine points.

The second half saw Jaipur Pink Panthers start impressively as theyforced a super tackle to trail 17-23. Two more points saw Jaipur cut thelead to just three as they trailed 20-23 after 24 minutes. Patna Piratesdefence tightened their hold on the match to lead 29-21 after 29 min-utes. In the 30th minute, Patna Pirates inflicted another all out to lead33-21. Anup Kumar tried to revive Jaipur Pink Panthers with a superraid as they reduced the deficit to nine points.

Patna Pirates although were in no mood to relinquish their win-ning position. Manjeet got a couple of raid points as with less than fiveminutes to go Patna Pirates led 38-26. Patna Pirates rounded off thematch with an 11-point victory. PTI

����!6!')��

Mumbai City FC would want to forget their humiliating defeatagainst FC Goa and look to bounce back with a victory against

a winless Delhi Dynamos in their Indian Super League footballmatch here on Saturday.

Mumbai lost 0-5 to Goa earlier this week and will now seekto redeem themselves with a positive result against the Delhi sideat the Mumbai Football Arena.

The Jorge Costa-coached side started well againstGoa and had chances to turn the match on its head.However, they were woeful in front of goal and Goacapitalised to inflict a painful defeat.

That defeat hurt Costa a lot, not just the resultbut also the manner in which they surrenderedtowards the end.

"The first half (against Goa)was very good. The players didalmost everything that I asked. Inthe second half, it wasnot bad in the first 20minutes. Then, we gaveup. That is why I amsad. Not because welost 5-0 but because inthe last 15 minutes wesaw a team waiting forthe game to finish," saidCosta.

The Portuguesecoach said he wants his team to fight from start to finish, what-ever the score line.

"We must respect our job. Second, we must respect the work.Third, we must also respect the fans and we cannot give up. Whathappened in the last 15-20 minutes, I was ashamed because theygave up. As a professional football player, you cannot give up," hesaid.

The Portuguese tactician is likely to ring in some changes onSaturday as he seeks to turn around the glum mood in the camp.

Captain Lucian Goian will have to take ownership and ensurethe leaks in the defence are plugged and spirits in the dressing roomare raised. They will have to fight without goalkeeper AmrinderSingh who was injured against Goa.

Delhi Dynamos have their own woes to address as they seektheir first win of the campaign. Delhi have drawn three games whilelosing one so far and cannot take Mumbai City for granted.

"That loss was not on Mumbai City. It totally was on FC Goa.All the goals were good. Mumbai City got chances but they didnot convert. Tomorrow is a new match, a new day. I think that resultwill not affect the performance of Mumbai City," said Delhi's assis-tant coach Mridul Banerjee.

Delhi have largely flattered to deceive in their games. They havecreated chances in most of their games but abysmal finishing havecome back to bite them. The three goals in four games does notreflect the number of chances they have had. "We are playing verywell and we have created so many goal scoring chances but we havefailed to convert. We are working on that though and I think with-in one or two matches, we will sort it out," said Banerjee.

���� 85*,'6"��

The Indian women's foot-ball team slumped to a 0-

2 defeat at the hands of Nepalin the AFC U-19Championships qualifiers hereon Friday.

Striker Rekha scored boththe goals for Nepal in the 59thand 88th minutes to give herside three points from thematch.

The result put a dent inIndia's chances of qualifyingfor the next round, as they arenow level on three pointswith Nepal and Thailand.

Indians slowly clawedtheir way into the game, andgot their first real chancewhen Renu broke away fromthe defence and found herselfone-on-one with the keeper.However, her first touch waspoor and Nepal goalkeeperAnjana came out to collect it.

India had another great

chance in the 30-minutemark, when Jabamani playedout a short free kick from theright flank towards Roja at thenear post, but the winger mis-cued her shot and the Nepaldefence was able to clear it.

Nepal came out with greatguns in the second half andconstantly posed threat onthe Indian goal. In the end, itwas a clearance from the half-line by the Nepalese defencethat found Rekha, who beatthe Indian offside trap,unmarked and she slotted itpast the keeper.

India tried frantically toget back on level terms, butsome dogged defending byNepal kept them at bay. Nepalstriker Rekha then made theresult beyond India's reachwith just two minutes left, asshe broke away from the Indiadefence again, dodged past thegoalkeeper to score her secondgoal.

� ��� '3" �,

Jadon Sancho will be look-ing to maintain his perfect

record for rampant BorussiaDortmund on Saturday whenthe in-form Bundesliga lead-ers host top-six rivals HerthaBerlin.

After Wednesday's 4-0thrashing of Atletico Madrid,Dortmund have now won sixgames in a row, and Sanchohas chalked up either a goalor an assist in each of thosewins.

Dortmund are threepoints clear at the top of theleague, and fourpoints ahead offourth-placed BayernMunich.

The championsare still searching fortheir best form, withMats Hummels com-plaining of "fundamentalproblems" in midweek.

Elsewhere, BorussiaMoenchengladbach strikerAlassane Plea will be seekingto write himself into therecord books againstFreiburg on Friday, whileSchalke and BayerLeverkusen remain mired inthe early-season blues.

Here are five things tolook out for in theBundesliga this weekend:

��77��-���������League leaders

Dortmund are in suchsuperb shape that some arealready casting them as titlefavourites ahead ofSaturday's tough clash withHertha Berlin. Lucien Favre'steam have drawn compar-isons with the Jurgen Klopp-era Dortmund, and it is easyto see why after six thump-

ing wins in a row.D o r t m u n d

have scored 26goals in their lastsix games, withsuper-subs Sanchoand Paco Alcacer

doing much of the damage."Lucien Favre gives you

the feeling that you belong,even when you don't makethe team," explained mid-fielder Thomas Delaney thisweek. "He really gets theright balance." Both Alcacerand Delaney are doubts forSaturday's game.

�� ���� ��� ���������Mats Hummels has said

that Bayern Munich still have"fundamental" problems todeal with, as the championslook to continue their mini-recovery away to Mainz onSaturday.

Bayern had failed to winfour games in a row beforelast weekend, and despitevictories over Wolfsburg andAEK Athens since then,Hummels insisted they arenot out of the woods yet.

"We keep giving the ball

away too easily in defence orplaying unnecessary longballs," said Hummels.

������ ��������Alassane Plea could

equal a Bundesliga record ifhe gets on the scoresheetduring BorussiaMoenchengladbach's trip toFreiburg.

With Bayern languishingin fourth, high-f lyingGladbach are the ones keep-ing the heat on Dortmund insecond, and much of that isdown to the French striker.

Plea has scored eightgoals in nine games this sea-son, and could become onlythe third player to score agoal in each of his first fiveBundesliga away games ifhe scores on Friday, follow-ing Steffen Baumgart andSerge Gnabry.

"I've had a very goodstart," Plea told Bild. "As astriker, it is always good to bescoring goals."

�$�������������-$�Schalke are out to end

their crippling goal droughtaway to big-hitters RBLeipzig on Sunday.

Domenico Tedesco's sidehave scored just five goals in

eight league games this sea-son, and failed to take any oftheir 17 chances in a 0-0draw with Galatasaray onWednesday.

Their poor conversionrate sees last year's runners-up stuck in the relegationplay-off place, just a point offthe bottom of the table.

"We need a result if weare going to start climbing upthe table," said Tedesco onWednesday. "This phase can'tgo on forever."

$����$��������Bayer Leverkusen are

another big Bundesliga clubin trouble, as coach HeikoHerrlich fights to save hisjob. Leverkusen have onlytwo wins from their firsteight games, and rumoursthat Herrlich is heading forthe chop were exacerbatedthis week when Kickerreported that the club hadbeen in contact with formerRB Leipzig coach RalphHasenhuettl.

Herrlich and his teamface a tough task on Sunday,coming off the back of aEuropa League tie to face aconfident Werder Bremenside who are punching abovetheir weight in third place.

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India's Greco Roman wrestlers continuedto struggle at the World Championship

with only Manish managing to clearqualification round on Friday.

Manish, competing in the 67kg, is theonly Indian Greco Roman grappler to havewon a bout thus far. He won his qualifi-cation bout 3-1 against Aleksandrs ofLatvia before losing the 1/16 round 0-9 toJapan's Tsuchika Shimoyamada.

Both Gyanender (60kg) and Manjeet(87kg) could not clear the qualificationround, losing by technical superiority.While Gyanender was knocked out byLithuania's Justas Petravicius, Manjeet lostto Estonia's Eerik Aps.

Whether these three get a repechageround will be determined after the eveningsession.

On the opening day also, none of thefour Greco Roman wrestlers could win amatch. Vijay (55kg), Gaurav Shar (63kg),Kuldeep Malik (72kg) and Harpreet Singh(82kg) had all crashed out after losing theirqualification rounds.

Sandeep Tulsi Yadav remained thelone Greco Roman wrestler from India towin a medal at the Worlds. He had wona Bronze in the 2013 edition.

India have won two medals so far inthe ongoing Championship with BajrangPunia winning a Silver in men's freestyle

65kg event and Pooja Dhanda grabbing aBronze in the women's 57kg category.

Earlier on Thursday night, PoojaDhanda joined the elite Indian companyof women grapplers to take the bronzemedal at the Worls Championships hereon Thursday.

Pooja defeated Grace Bullen of

Norway 10-7 in the 57kg Freestyle cate-gory to secure the Bronze medal at thePapp Lszlo Sportarena here.

Before Pooja, only three Indianwomen grapplers Alka Tomar in 2006,Geeta Phogat and Babita Phogat in 2012had won a Bronze medal each at theWorlds Championships.

Pooja, who led 6-1 in the first period,had to go through some harrowingmoments in the second period when theNorwegian launched an all-out attackwhich the Indian managed to stave off,despite giving away some passivity pointsand step-out points.

In fact, what clinched the bronze play-off bout in Pooja's favour was the four-pointer which zoomed her to an unas-sailable lead after the Indian got to Grace'sleg and rolled her for the vital clincher.

Earlier, Pooja had defeated AlyonaKolesnil of Azerbaijan 8-4 to reach theBronze medal bout.

Meanwhile, in the 50kg freestylebronze medal play-off, India's Ritu Phogatbegan with a promise only to fade awayagainst the tight defence of Ukraine'sOksana Livach.

The Ukrainian eventually bagged thebronze with a 10-5 win.

However, Sakshi Malik failed to pastthe repechage round, losing 2-3, includ-ing a challenge point to HungarianMarianna Sastin to bow out of contest.

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Page 11: 46 - #& /, ˇ˘ !*˜$+˘ $0˘ · Sabha seats in Bihar, the JD(U) 16, the LJP five and the RLSP two seats. Sources in the JD(U) had, however, denied that it would contest a seat less

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Roger Federer won his 17th consecutivematch at the Swiss Indoors on Thursday,

dispatching Jan-Lennard Struff 6-3, 7-5 toreach the quarter-finals.

The top seed, unbeaten in Basel since 2013,is an eight-timewinner of his homeevent and will nextplay FrenchmanGilles Simon, whodefeated Latvia'sErnests Gulbis 7-6 (7/4), 7-6 (7/0).

Federer admitted he was not satisfied withhis slow start, going down a break in the thirdgame.

"I didn't really get into the game. It's beena long time since I've played a match a matchwithout being broken. I have to improve in thenext round."

"It was a lot of rocky start, I had to cleanup my game, I'm happy about that," Federersaid.

Fourth seed Stefanos Tsitsipas dominatedPeter Gojowczyk 6-3, 6-1 to line up a quarter-final with one of his toughest NextGen rivals.

The Greek will face Russian DaniilMedvedev, who defeated Italy's Andreas Seppi7-6 (7/5), 6-2 in their second-round encounter.

Medvedev owns three titles this seasonfrom Sydney, Winston-Salem and last monthin Tokyo. He has also defeated last week'sStockholm champion Tsitsipas in two meetingsthis season, in Miami and the US Open.

Tsitsipas made his trophy breakthrough atthe weekend in Sweden with his first careertitle.

"I'm playing well," said 16th-rankedTsitsipas. "I think the rivalry between theyoung guys right now may be even strongerthan that of the big names.

Tsitsipas, 20, is the youngest player in theATP Top 20, and the first Greek to win an ATPtitle. He also reached his first Masters final inToronto in August before losing to RafaelNadal.

Second seed Alexander Zverev ended therun of 174th-ranked Australian teenage qual-ifier Alexei Popyrin with a 6-4, 6-4 win. TheGerman next plays Spanish eighth seedRoberto Bautista Agut who continued his quietprogress through the draw, beating SerbDusan Lajovic 6-7 (6/8), 6-3, 6-3.

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Aconfident Sloane Stephensstormed into a semi slot at theWTA Finals with a convincing

straight sets victory against top seedAngelique Kerber Friday, joining fellowdebutant Kiki Bertens in the knockoutstage.

The former US Open champion con-tinued her unbeaten run in Singaporewith a 6-3, 6-3 triumph in 101 minutes,her fifth straight-sets victory in a row overKerber.

After topping Red Group, Stephenswill play Czech Karolina Pliskova in thesemi-finals.

For the first time since 2003, none ofthe top four seeds advanced to thesemi-finals of the WTAFinals.

The match started tense-ly, with Kerber unable toconvert seven break points inStephens' first three service games, andthe missed opportunities proved costly.

An energetic Stephens made her payby converting all three of her break pointsto draw first blood.

The American impressively coun-terattacked and pinpointed the lines tofrustrate Kerber, who survived an injuryscare when she landed awkwardly mid-way through the first set.

Kerber was immediately under pres-sure in the second set and saved sevenbreak points in the fourth game beforecracking under the pressure.

There was still fight left in theGerman, who broke straight back butcontinued to struggle on serve.

On her fifth break point, Stephensclaimed the decisive break in the eighthgame and then served it out to knockoutthe Wimbledon champion.

���� �����$������Bertens faces unbeaten Elina

Svitolina after a hamstring injuryforced Naomi Osaka's retirementearlier Friday.

She won the first set 6-3 in 47minutes before US Open champion

Osaka, who wiped away tears, forfeitedthe match.

It was a bitterly disappointing end forthe 21-year-old, who came into Singaporeas the form player but lost three-setmatches to Stephens and Kerber.

Osaka has had a whirlwind timesince her stunning win over SerenaWilliams in a controversial US Openfinal.

The triumph cemented her standingon hard court but Osaka has had limit-ed success on clay and grass, where sheis yet to make it past the third round atWimbledon and the French Open.

She struggled on the SingaporeIndoor Stadium's hard court, whichplayed slower than expected.

"For me, Ishouldn't justbe doing wellon hardcourts. I thinkI should bedoing well onall surfaces,"she toldreporters. "I

think I'm capable of doing that. So def-initely I want to try to focus on that nextyear."

But it was enough for Bertens to seala final four spot having defeated Kerberearlier in the round-robin phase.

Bertens only qualified for the WTAFinals just days before the tournamentafter world number one Simona Halepwithdrew due to injury.

"It's never easy or never nice to wina match like this, but it is what it is,"Bertens said.

"To be at the last four, last tournamentof the year, it's unbelievable."

Osaka had started the match bright-ly, rolling through her service gamesbefore being broken in the eighth game.

With her upper leg heavily strapped,Osaka called a medical timeout after theeighth game and required treatment inthe locker room. She came back on courtbut dropped her serve to love, culmi-nating in a double fault which turned outto be her last action at the WTA Finals.

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Defending champions Indiawill look to assert their

continental supremacy onceagain when they take on reigning AsianGames Gold-medallists Japan in thesemi-final of the Asian ChampionsTrophy (ACT) hockey tournament hereon Saturday.

Having spanked Japan 9-0 in theround-robin stage, India will start overwhelming favouritesagainst the Asian Games champion side.

India are the only side in the tournament that remainedunbeaten in the round-robin stage, having won all theirmatches except for a close goal-less draw against old neme-sis Malaysia.

India qualified as the top team with 13 points from fivegames. Arch-rivals Pakistan finished second on 10 pointsahead of Malaysia on account of a better goal difference, whileJapan were fourth with seven points.

The ongoing Asian Champions Trophy being the lasttournament before the season-ending World Cup inBhubaneswar, the Indians would be desperate to prove their

critics wrong with another strong performance on Saturday.Going by performance, the Indians looked the dominant

side in the tournament with convincing wins except for thestalemate against Malaysia.

Harendra Singh's men defeated Oman 11-0, Pakistan 3-1, Japan 9-0 and South Korea 4-1.

And come Saturday, India would be eager to prove thatthe disappointing Bronze at the Asian Games was just an aber-ration with another big morale-boosting win over Japan.

India's chief coach Harendra Singh said Saturday will bea completely new game for his side.

"I would like my boys to play aggressive hockey with con-trol over their emotions. The semi-final will be a differentball game. The result or score-line of our last encounter withJapan in the preliminary league will have no significance whenthe semi-final gets underway on Saturday," Harendra saidon the eve of the match.

Japan, on the other hand, have fielded six youngsters inthe squad after their Gold medal at the Jakarta Asian Gamesin their bid to focus on a long-term team-building exercise.

Japan are the only team among the semi-finalists herenot to have qualified for the World Cup.

Japan, however, will play for pride and find a way to bluntthe Indian attack. Their recent habit of turning the form-book on its head will cause some unease for their rivals.

In the other semi-final of the day, Pakistan will lock hornsagainst Malaysia. The final of the tournament will be playedon Sunday.

� ��� �)"��

Ruben Loftus-Cheek capitalisedon a rare start for Chelsea by

scoring a hat-trick in Thursday's 3-1 Europa League victory overBATE of Belarus, while Arsenalextended their winning run to 11games away to Sporting Lisbon.

Loftus-Cheek, part of England'sWorld Cup squad in Russia, start-ed for just the second time this sea-son under Maurizio Sarri andstruck twice inside the openingeight minutes as Chelsea domi-nated at Stamford Bridge.

The 22-year-old midfielderdrilled in a low Davide Zappacostacross as the Blues led after two min-utes, and Loftus-Cheek doubled histally when he hooked in from a cor-ner.

He completed his hat-trickwith a side-footed effort from theedge of the area on 54 minutes,although BATE left with a conso-lation goal after an unmarkedAleksei Rios turned in from a latefree-kick.

"It feels really good," LoftusCheek told BT Sport after hebecame the first Chelsea player toscore a hat-trick in Europe sinceDidier Drogba 12 years ago. "It's upthere, it's my first hat-trick in awhile, even since playing for theyouth team. It feels nice.

"Any player will tell you it's niceto score a hat-trick and it feels good,

I'll get the ball signed and put in aglass box. Hopefully there aremany more to come."

Three wins from three inGroup L have Chelsea poised toreach the last 32 of the competition,with Unai Emery's Arsenal set tojoin them following a 1-0 victoryin Portugal.

Danny Welbeck pounced on adefensive lapse by former Liverpooldefender Sebastian Coates on 78minutes to keep Arsenal on max-imum points in Group E and pro-long the club's best run since 2007.

����������������������Seven-time European cham-

pions AC Milan crashed to a 2-1home defeat by Real Betis asGennaro Gattuso's team dropped

their first points in Group F.Goals from Antonio Sanabria

and Giovani Lo Celso, on loan fromParis Saint-Germain, earned groupleaders Betis a memorable win atthe San Siro.

Patrick Cutrone grabbed aconsolation for Milan who finishedthe game with 10 men after SamuelCastillejo saw red for the hosts ininjury time.

Olympiakos beat Dudelange ofLuxembourg 2-0 in the group'sother fixture, while there was more

misery for Brendan Rodgers andScottish champions Celtic inGermany.

Brazilian striker MatheusCunha and Portugalwinger Bruma, whoscored againstScotland in a friend-ly this month, wereboth on target in thefirst half as RBLeipzig won 2-0.

Salzburg picked up a thirdsuccessive victory to stay top ofGroup B as Munas Dabbur nettedtwice in a 3-0 defeat of bottom sideRosenborg. Steven Gerrard'sRangers remain unbeaten in GroupG but were left frustrated after a 0-0 draw against an understrengthSpartak Moscow, who left a num-ber of first-choice players behind inRussia.

"We are making huge stridesfrom where we were," said Gerrard.

"We came close but it wasn't tobe. It could be a valuable point atthe end of the day. It shows just howfar we've come when we are dis-appointed to take a point off aChampions League team."

Rangers are level on five pointswith Villarreal at the top after theSpaniards hammered Rapid Vienna5-0. Last season's runners-upMarseille are in danger of an earlyexit after losing 3-1 at home toLazio, while five-time championsSevilla thrashed Akhisar 6-0.

���� �)"���

World number one Tai beatsSaina Nehwal in straight sets

to enter French Open semifinal onFriday. This was the second meet-ing of both these decorated play-ers of world Badminton within aweek and like the past one Taipeiplayer comes out better of herIndian opponent by 22-20, 21-11.

Earlier on Thursday night,India ace P V Sindhu advanced to

the quarterfinals with a straight-game win over Japan's Sayaka Satobut B Sai Praneeth crashed out.

Sindhu dished out a compactgame to outwit Sayaka 21-17, 21-16 in a second round match onThursday to set up a clash with sev-enth seeded Chinese He Bingjiao.

However, Praneeth was nomatch for Asian Games championJonatan Christie of Indonesia,going down 16-21, 14-21 in amen's singles match.

The men's doubles pairs ofSatwiksairaj Rankireddy andChirag Shetty and Manu Attri andB Sumeeth Reddy too put up agood show, progressing to thequarterfinals with straight gamewins. While Satwik and Chiragdefeated China's He Jiting and TanQiang 21-13, 21-19, Manu andSumeeth stunned third seededChinese combination of Liu Chengand Zhang Nan 21-14, 21-16 inanother match.

� ��� !3?�8*�8�&F

Lewis Hamilton said Thursdaythat another Formula One

championship would be oneearned by him and Mercedes -not one thrown away by Ferrari.

Sebastian Vettel won the firsttwo races of 2018 to set up whatpromised to be a dramatic chasefor a fifth career championshipbetween him and Hamilton. NowHamilton's dominant second halfof the season, helped by a rash ofmistakes by Vettel and Ferrari,has the Mercedes driver set towin the crown even if he finish-

es as low as seventh Sunday."I see a lot of people write a

lot of stories saying things havebeen 'handed'" to Mercedes thisseason, Hamilton said.

"That naturally takes awayfrom the job the team and I havedone."

Vettel has taken criticismover Ferrari's season of miscues.That includes last week at the USGrand Prix, won by his Ferrariteammate Kimi Raikkonen whileVettel missed the podium.

Vettel said the driver with themost points at the end of the sea-son deservedly wins the title.Saying another driver lost itwouldn't be fair, he said.

"For the words to come froma four-time world champion,that's positive to hear," Hamilton

said in advance of this weekend'sMexican Grand Prix.

"He's been a great competi-tor this year. It's been so hot forboth of us. I look forward tomany more years of us racingtogether right at the top."

Ferrari's blunders certainlymade Hamilton's season easier.There have been crashes, pitstop and tire mistakes, and prac-tice penalties that cost Ferrariwins and race position.

Vettel's last victory came inBelgium six races ago and he'smissed the podium three times inthe last five.

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