A fter resolving the seat-shar- ing arrangements with Sharad Pawar-led NCP in Maharashtra, the Congress is now making efforts to stitch a strong alliance in the poll- bound States of Haryana and Jharkhand. At the backdrop of pre- vailing economic slowdown, unemployment and job losses, the Sonia Gandhi-led Congress is planning to announce simi- lar sops which helped them to bounce back in State Assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh last December when Rahul Gandhi was head of the party. AICC sources said the party will also target the BJP Government both at Centre and States over excesses com- mitted in the implementation of the amended in the amend- ed Motor Vehicles Act. Sonia has formed a six- member screening committee for Haryana Assembly elections nominating senior party leader Madhusudan Mistry as its chairman. The party has begun talks for a grand Opposition alliance with JMM, RJD, JVM and Left parties in Jharkhand. Other members of the panel appointed by Sonia Gandhi for Haryana include Haryana Congress chief Kumari Selja, Congress leg- islative party leader and former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and AICC gen- eral secretary State in-charge Ghulam Nabi Azad. Congress leaders Deepa Dasmunsi and Devender Yadav have also been made members of the panel. Hooda is also the chairperson of election management com- mittee. Launching the elections campaign on Sunday Hooda said the days of the “anti-peo- ple” BJP Government in Haryana are numbered and people have made up their mind to throw them out of power in the upcoming Assembly polls. He said the “false promises” made by the BJP have been exposed before the people. Giving an example where a hefty challan was imposed on a motorcyclist in Gurgaon for violations, Hooda said under the amended act hefty challans were being issued, which were burdening the common people. “A bike is worth 15,000, but a challan is issued for 15,000,” he said. In the 2014 Assembly polls, the BJP won 47 seats and went on to form its Government. The Congress could only win 15 seats in the 90-member Assembly. Continued on Page 4 A woman, who had been an inmate of the infamous Muzaffarpur shelter home, was allegedly raped by four men in a moving vehicle (car) in Bettiah town of West Champaran district, police said on Sunday. The Muzaffarpur shelter home had hit the headlines in 2018 after a social audit report highlighted that over 30 girls were allegedly raped at the Government-aided shelter home, run by an NGO. Bettiah town police station SHO Shashi Bhushan Thakur said the woman was admitted to a Government medical col- lege on Saturday evening and a medical examination was conducted by a team of doctors on Sunday, he said. It will be confirmed whether she was raped only after getting the medical exam- ination report, he said. The woman, in her police complaint lodged with the Bettah town police station on Saturday, alleged that four men forcibly took her inside their vehicle (car) while she was passing through the area where she lives on Friday evening, and raped her in a moving vehicle, police said. The men then dumped the woman in her locality after rap- ing her. All the four men had covered their faces with masks but she could remove the masks and identify them. While all the four persons belonged to the same family, two of them were brothers, she said. Over 30 girls were alleged- ly raped at the shelter home run by Brajesh Thakur, the chief of a state-funded NGO. Continued on Page 4 O pen wells in Gujarat’s Gir forest continue to pose threat to the Asiatic lions with four of them, including a lioness, falling in one of them on Sunday. Fortunately, rescue arrived in time for them. They are recuperating from the injuries. The unused well was about 100-feet deep and was situated on a farm in Manavav, and the four big cats, in the 2-3 year age group, fell into it on Saturday evening, Sarasiya Range Forest Officer MR Odedra said. “The farm owner alerted us. A forest department team managed to rescue the lions and lioness after working through the night. The well was dry and the four had to be dragged out with the help of residents and equipment we had carried for the purpose,” the forest officer said. Last month, a lion had died after falling into a well at Kantala village in Tulsishyam Khambha range of the Gir East wildlife division in Gujarat’s Junagadh district. The incident comes with- in a month after the State Government had informed the State High Court that it has taken care of the open well problem by providing financial subsidy up to 16,000 for con- struction of parapet wall around the wells and so far 37,201 open wells have been covered. According to officials, there are over 50,000 such wells that pose danger to wild animals. As many as 222 lions died, most of them due to natural causes, in the Gir forest region in Gujarat in the last two years, the Gujarat Government had told the legislative Assembly recently. Among them, only 23 lions died because of “unnatural” causes such as getting hit by trains or falling into wells between June 2017 and May 2019. In a written reply a query by Congress MLA Shailesh Parmar, Forest Minister Ganpat Vasava had stated that 82 lions, including 30 cubs, have died between June 2017 and May 2018 while the number of deaths stood at 140, including 60 cubs, for the June 2018 — May 2019 period. Wildlife activists feel that open wells are like death traps and such incidents (falling of lions in wells) reflect the fact that overcrowding in and around Gir was harming Asiatic lions in more ways than one and that something had to be done to resolve this. Gir forest is the only abode of Asiatic lions. As per the last census of 2015, it is home to 523 lions. However, the State Government had recently said that the number of lions has gone up to 600. A s many as 82 former MPs are yet to vacate their offi- cial bungalows in Lutyens’ Delhi despite a stern warning by a Lok Sabha panel. The authorities are planning to take action against these ex-MPs under the Public Premises (Eviction of Unauthorised Occupants) Act for speedy eviction. According to officials of Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, most of the ex-MPs have vacated their official bun- galows. But, 82 former MPs are, however, yet to vacate their bungalows as per a recent list. Sources in the Lok Sabha Housing Committee said this is not acceptable and that strict action will be taken against such former MPs. “It was the panel’s decision to ask ex-MPs to vacate their official residences. Now, if some of them have not done so, it is not acceptable. Strict action will be taken against them,” the sources in the committee said. Notices are being sent to these former Members of Parliament, asking them to vacate their bungalows which had been allotted to them in 2014, another source said. “If they (ex-MPs) do not give up official bungalows, action may be taken against them under the Public Premises (Eviction of Unauthorised Occupants) Act. “Once the eviction order is passed, power, water and cook- ing gas connections will be snapped,” the source added. Continued on Page 4 W ith security forces going all out to target the Pakistan-backed terrorists in Jammu & Kashmir, Islamabad has resorted to uninterrupted ceasefire violations through the years to keep the Kashmir pot boiling. The Pakistani Army has committed more than 2,050 unprovoked cease- fire violations this year in which 21 Indians have been killed, the Ministry of External Affairs said on Sunday. “We have highlighted our concerns at unprovoked cease- fire violations by Pakistan forces, including in support of cross-border terrorist infiltra- tion, and targeting of Indian civilians and border posts by them,” Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said. “This year they have resort- ed to more than 2,050 unpro- voked ceasefire violations in which 21 Indians died,” he said. India has repeatedly called upon Pakistan to ask its forces to adhere to 2003 ceasefire understanding and maintain peace and tranquillity along the Line of Control and International Border, Kumar said. Indian forces exercise max- imum restraint and respond to unprovoked violations and attempts at cross-border ter- rorist infiltration, he said. Indian forces exercise max- imum restraint and respond to unprovoked violations and attempts at cross-border ter- rorist infiltration, he said. His remarks come amid heightened tensions between India and Pakistan following the abroga- tion of provisions of Article 370 in Jammu & Kashmir and the bifurcation of the State into Union Territories. On Saturday, Pakistani troops engaged in heavy firing and mortar shelling on forward posts and villages along the LoC in Poonch district of Jammu & Kashmir. On September 1, an Army per- sonnel was killed when Pakistani army targeted for- ward posts and villages in Shahpur-Kerni sector, raising the death toll in ceasefire vio- lations by Pakistan in the twin districts of Poonch and Rajouri since July to eight — six sol- diers and two civilians. Meanwhile, with tensions rising along the LoC amid repeated ceasefire violations, the Indian Army has launched a fresh drive to reactivate Village Defence Committees (VDCs) in the forward areas of frontier Rajouri and Poonch districts. The objective is to improve human intelligence and revive most of the defunct committees to effectively deal with the fresh threat emanating from across the LoC. “Village Defence Committee training organised at Naoshera to refresh their weapon training and intelli- gence gathering skills. Session included firing practice & med- ical examination of the mem- bers,” tweeted official Twitter handle of Nagrota based White Knight Corps on Sunday. Similar drills are expected to be organised in several other forward areas of Poonch and Rajouri districts in the coming days. According to ground reports, the field commanders of various formations in the region have been observing sharp decline in flow of infor- mation related to suspected movement of infiltrators and miscreants moving in the for- ward areas. Initially, the flow of infor- mation was less due to sus- pension of mobile calling facil- ities and later they realised growing sense of alienation among large section of masses in these areas is also impacting the relations between the ‘awam’ and the Indian Army. These villagers were under intense pressure not to share or pass on any information to local units to avoid getting caught in the cross fire. Intelligence reports claimed, “small batches of infil- trators have sneaked inside the Indian territory but Army authorities have so far failed to track them down in the absence of free flow of information from their known sources.” Local police officers, who are part of counter infiltration grid in the area, claimed local residents fear for their lives as they apprehend some of these infiltrators are camping in the area and if may target them if they would leak information about their whereabouts. After the abrogation of Article 370 and reorganisa- tion of the State, Pakistan is desperately trying to push a large number of heavily armed infiltrators inside the Indian territory via traditional and non-traditional routes of infil- tration via Rajouri and Poonch. Despite heightened vigil in the area, infiltrators have managed to sneak inside the Indian territory taking cover of firing from nearby Pakistani posts and thick growth of maize crop. A PTI report said nearly two dozen terrorists are present in the city and its periphery and even openly threatening shop- keepers in some areas, raising serious concern in the securi- ty establishment, according to officials. However, security forces are taking all precautions to ensure that the terrorists do not use the situation to cause any flare-up as in the past inci- dents of stone pelting by youths have occurred during anti-mil- itancy operations, they said. At many places in down- town Srinagar, the terrorists have been seen roaming freely and even warning shopkeepers to keep their shops shut and adhere to their diktats, the officials told PTI. Jammu & Kashmir Police chief Dilbag Singh did not rule out the possibility of pres- ence of terrorists but said to claim that they are roaming freely “is an exaggeration”. H aryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal on Sunday said the National Register of Citizens (NRC) would be implemented in the State. “In Haryana, we will imple- ment NRC along the lines of Assam,” the Chief Minister said while talking to the medi- apersons after meeting Justice (retd.) HS Bhalla, for- mer chairman of Haryana Human Rights Commission in Panchkula. Manohar Lal, who is seek- ing his second term as the Chief Minister met several imminent personalities includ- ing Justice Bhalla, ex-Navy chief Admiral Sunil Lanba and Lt Gen (retired) Baljit Singh Jaiswal on Sunday. He met them under his party’s “Maha Sampark Abhiyan” ahead of the State Assembly polls in October. The Chief Minister said, “Justice Bhalla has taken up many assignments after his retirement. He is also working on NRC and will visit Assam soon. We will implement NRC in Haryana and have sought Bhalla’s support and suggestion.” The State Government is working on a fast pace on family identity card and its data would also be used in the NRC, he added. Haryana CM had previ- ously too supported NRC implementation across the country. Notably, the final NRC in Assam was released on August 31, leaving out 19 lakh people. Following this, several political parties had voiced their dissatisfaction with the final document. Meanwhile, the Chief Minister also said the Haryana Government will look into the feasibility of setting up a Law Commission. “He (Justice Bhalla) sug- gested that a Law Commission should be set up in Haryana. We shall study it and examine this too. The Government will look into the feasibility of setting up of this commission and if peo- ple get benefitted with it, it will be set up,” the CM said. He said social audit system would be implemented so that the audit of development works could be done by the intellec- tuals in the society, in which ex- servicemen, teachers, engi- neers or others having special achievement would be includ- ed. For this, in the coming time a separate Voluntary Department would also be formed, he said. Manohar said for last five years he has worked with hon- esty and in a transparent man- ner by treating 2.5 crore pop- ulation of the State as his fam- ily. “I have reached out to the people through Jan Ashirwad Yatra in all 90 Assemblies recently,” he added. Raipur: The accused turned approver in the multi-crore Public Distribution System (PDS) scam, Shiv Shankar Bhatt, after claiming that state’s former Chief Minister Raman Singh was the kingpin in the scam in which other party big- wigs were also involved, now made another startling claim of facing life threat after the revelation. Interacting with the medi- apersons at Raipur Press Club on Sunday, Bhatt accused that as he disclosed about the scam the civil supplies corporation office was raided, but he was falsely implicated and was sent to jail. “After detention of four and half years in judicial cus- tody the Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the scam offered me to become an approver which I had gladly accepted”, he informed. Leveling serious allega- tions against Raman and his kin as well as against the then food and civil supplies Minister Punnulal Mohile and Lilaram Bhojwani, Bhatt claimed that whatever state- ment he had given before the court in form of affidavits was not under any duress. Strongly objecting to the allegation of Raman that he was a ‘habitual criminal’, Bhatt fur- ther warned of legal action. “I had worked in so many respon- sible posts, including the Officer on Special Duty (OSD) of the then CM Raman and the alle- gation of him are ridiculous,” he said. “I have faced punishment for the crime I have not com- mitted and now I only want to send the real culprits behind the bars” he added. SR RNI Regn. No. CHHENG/2012/42718, Postal Reg. No. - RYP DN/34/2013-2015
After resolving the seat-shar-ing arrangements with
Sharad Pawar-led NCP inMaharashtra, the Congress isnow making efforts to stitch astrong alliance in the poll-bound States of Haryana andJharkhand.
At the backdrop of pre-vailing economic slowdown,unemployment and job losses,the Sonia Gandhi-led Congressis planning to announce simi-lar sops which helped them tobounce back in State Assemblyelections in Madhya Pradesh,Rajasthan and Chhattisgarhlast December when RahulGandhi was head of the party.
AICC sources said theparty will also target the BJPGovernment both at Centre
and States over excesses com-mitted in the implementationof the amended in the amend-ed Motor Vehicles Act.
Sonia has formed a six-member screening committeefor Haryana Assembly electionsnominating senior party leaderMadhusudan Mistry as itschairman. The party has beguntalks for a grand Oppositionalliance with JMM, RJD, JVMand Left parties in Jharkhand.
Other members of thepanel appointed by SoniaGandhi for Haryana includeHaryana Congress chiefKumari Selja, Congress leg-islative party leader and formerChief Minister BhupinderSingh Hooda and AICC gen-eral secretary State in-chargeGhulam Nabi Azad. Congressleaders Deepa Dasmunsi andDevender Yadav have also been
made members of the panel.Hooda is also the chairpersonof election management com-mittee.
Launching the electionscampaign on Sunday Hoodasaid the days of the “anti-peo-ple” BJP Government inHaryana are numbered andpeople have made up theirmind to throw them out ofpower in the upcomingAssembly polls. He said the“false promises” made by theBJP have been exposed beforethe people.
Giving an example where ahefty challan was imposed ona motorcyclist in Gurgaon forviolations, Hooda said underthe amended act hefty challanswere being issued, which wereburdening the common people.“A bike is worth �15,000, but a challan is issued for�15,000,” he said.
In the 2014 Assembly polls,the BJP won 47 seats and wenton to form its Government.The Congress could only win15 seats in the 90-memberAssembly.
Continued on Page 4
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Awoman, who had been aninmate of the infamous
Muzaffarpur shelter home, wasallegedly raped by four men ina moving vehicle (car) inBettiah town of WestChamparan district, police saidon Sunday.
The Muzaffarpur shelterhome had hit the headlines in2018 after a social audit reporthighlighted that over 30 girlswere allegedly raped at theGovernment-aided shelterhome, run by an NGO.
Bettiah town police stationSHO Shashi Bhushan Thakursaid the woman was admittedto a Government medical col-lege on Saturday evening anda medical examination wasconducted by a team of doctorson Sunday, he said.
It will be confirmedwhether she was raped onlyafter getting the medical exam-ination report, he said.
The woman, in her policecomplaint lodged with theBettah town police station on
Saturday, alleged that four menforcibly took her inside theirvehicle (car) while she waspassing through the area whereshe lives on Friday evening, andraped her in a moving vehicle,police said.
The men then dumped thewoman in her locality after rap-ing her. All the four men hadcovered their faces with masksbut she could remove themasks and identify them.
While all the four personsbelonged to the same family,two of them were brothers, shesaid. Over 30 girls were alleged-ly raped at the shelter home runby Brajesh Thakur, the chief ofa state-funded NGO.
Continued on Page 4
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Open wells in Gujarat’s Girforest continue to pose
threat to the Asiatic lions withfour of them, including alioness, falling in one of themon Sunday. Fortunately, rescuearrived in time for them. Theyare recuperating from theinjuries.
The unused well was about100-feet deep and was situatedon a farm in Manavav, and thefour big cats, in the 2-3 year agegroup, fell into it on Saturdayevening, Sarasiya Range ForestOfficer MR Odedra said.
“The farm owner alertedus. A forest department teammanaged to rescue the lionsand lioness after workingthrough the night. The well wasdry and the four had to bedragged out with the help ofresidents and equipment we
had carried for the purpose,”the forest officer said.
Last month, a lion had
died after falling into a well atKantala village in TulsishyamKhambha range of the Gir
East wildlife division inGujarat’s Junagadh district.
The incident comes with-
in a month after the StateGovernment had informed theState High Court that it hastaken care of the open wellproblem by providing financialsubsidy up to �16,000 for con-struction of parapet wallaround the wells and so far37,201 open wells have beencovered.
According to officials, thereare over 50,000 such wells thatpose danger to wild animals.
As many as 222 lions died,most of them due to naturalcauses, in the Gir forest regionin Gujarat in the last two years,the Gujarat Government hadtold the legislative Assemblyrecently.
Among them, only 23 lionsdied because of “unnatural”causes such as getting hit bytrains or falling into wellsbetween June 2017 and May2019.
In a written reply a queryby Congress MLA ShaileshParmar, Forest Minister GanpatVasava had stated that 82 lions,including 30 cubs, have diedbetween June 2017 and May2018 while the number ofdeaths stood at 140, including60 cubs, for the June 2018 —May 2019 period.
Wildlife activists feel thatopen wells are like death trapsand such incidents (falling oflions in wells) reflect the factthat overcrowding in andaround Gir was harmingAsiatic lions in more waysthan one and that somethinghad to be done to resolve this.
Gir forest is the only abodeof Asiatic lions. As per the lastcensus of 2015, it is home to523 lions. However, the StateGovernment had recently saidthat the number of lions hasgone up to 600.
As many as 82 former MPsare yet to vacate their offi-
cial bungalows in Lutyens’Delhi despite a stern warningby a Lok Sabha panel. Theauthorities are planning to takeaction against these ex-MPsunder the Public Premises(Eviction of UnauthorisedOccupants) Act for speedyeviction.
According to officials ofMinistry of Housing and UrbanAffairs, most of the ex-MPshave vacated their official bun-galows. But, 82 former MPs are,however, yet to vacate theirbungalows as per a recent list.
Sources in the Lok SabhaHousing Committee said this isnot acceptable and that strictaction will be taken againstsuch former MPs.
“It was the panel’s decisionto ask ex-MPs to vacate theirofficial residences. Now, ifsome of them have not done so,it is not acceptable. Strict action
will be taken against them,” thesources in the committee said.
Notices are being sent tothese former Members ofParliament, asking them tovacate their bungalows whichhad been allotted to them in2014, another source said.
“If they (ex-MPs) do notgive up official bungalows,action may be taken againstthem under the PublicPremises (Eviction ofUnauthorised Occupants) Act.
“Once the eviction order ispassed, power, water and cook-ing gas connections will besnapped,” the source added.
Pakistan-backed terrorists inJammu & Kashmir, Islamabadhas resorted to uninterruptedceasefire violations throughthe years to keep the Kashmirpot boiling. The PakistaniArmy has committed morethan 2,050 unprovoked cease-fire violations this year inwhich 21 Indians have beenkilled, the Ministry of ExternalAffairs said on Sunday.
“We have highlighted ourconcerns at unprovoked cease-fire violations by Pakistanforces, including in support ofcross-border terrorist infiltra-tion, and targeting of Indiancivilians and border posts bythem,” Ministry of ExternalAffairs spokesperson RaveeshKumar said.
“This year they have resort-ed to more than 2,050 unpro-voked ceasefire violations inwhich 21 Indians died,” he said.
India has repeatedly calledupon Pakistan to ask its forcesto adhere to 2003 ceasefireunderstanding and maintainpeace and tranquillity along theLine of Control andInternational Border, Kumarsaid.
Indian forces exercise max-imum restraint and respond tounprovoked violations andattempts at cross-border ter-rorist infiltration, he said.
Indian forces exercise max-imum restraint and respond tounprovoked violations andattempts at cross-border ter-rorist infiltration, he said. His
remarks come amid heightenedtensions between India andPakistan following the abroga-tion of provisions of Article 370in Jammu & Kashmir and thebifurcation of the State intoUnion Territories.
On Saturday, Pakistanitroops engaged in heavy firingand mortar shelling on forwardposts and villages along theLoC in Poonch district ofJammu & Kashmir. OnSeptember 1, an Army per-sonnel was killed whenPakistani army targeted for-ward posts and villages inShahpur-Kerni sector, raisingthe death toll in ceasefire vio-lations by Pakistan in the twindistricts of Poonch and Rajourisince July to eight — six sol-diers and two civilians.
Meanwhile, with tensionsrising along the LoC amidrepeated ceasefire violations,the Indian Army has launcheda fresh drive to reactivate VillageDefence Committees (VDCs) in
the forward areas of frontierRajouri and Poonch districts.
The objective is to improvehuman intelligence and revivemost of the defunct committeesto effectively deal with thefresh threat emanating fromacross the LoC.
“Village DefenceCommittee training organisedat Naoshera to refresh theirweapon training and intelli-gence gathering skills. Sessionincluded firing practice & med-ical examination of the mem-bers,” tweeted official Twitterhandle of Nagrota based WhiteKnight Corps on Sunday.
Similar drills are expectedto be organised in several other forward areas of Poonchand Rajouri districts in thecoming days.
According to groundreports, the field commandersof various formations in theregion have been observingsharp decline in flow of infor-mation related to suspected
movement of infiltrators andmiscreants moving in the for-ward areas.
Initially, the flow of infor-mation was less due to sus-pension of mobile calling facil-ities and later they realisedgrowing sense of alienationamong large section of massesin these areas is also impactingthe relations between the‘awam’ and the Indian Army.
These villagers were underintense pressure not to share orpass on any information tolocal units to avoid gettingcaught in the cross fire.
Intelligence reportsclaimed, “small batches of infil-trators have sneaked inside theIndian territory but Armyauthorities have so far failed totrack them down in the absenceof free flow of informationfrom their known sources.”
Local police officers, whoare part of counter infiltrationgrid in the area, claimed localresidents fear for their lives as
they apprehend some of theseinfiltrators are camping in thearea and if may target them ifthey would leak informationabout their whereabouts.
After the abrogation ofArticle 370 and reorganisa-tion of the State, Pakistan isdesperately trying to push alarge number of heavily armedinfiltrators inside the Indianterritory via traditional andnon-traditional routes of infil-tration via Rajouri and Poonch.
Despite heightened vigilin the area, infiltrators havemanaged to sneak inside theIndian territory taking cover offiring from nearby Pakistaniposts and thick growth ofmaize crop.
A PTI report said nearlytwo dozen terrorists are presentin the city and its periphery andeven openly threatening shop-keepers in some areas, raisingserious concern in the securi-ty establishment, according toofficials. However, securityforces are taking all precautionsto ensure that the terrorists donot use the situation to causeany flare-up as in the past inci-dents of stone pelting by youthshave occurred during anti-mil-itancy operations, they said.
At many places in down-town Srinagar, the terroristshave been seen roaming freelyand even warning shopkeepersto keep their shops shut andadhere to their diktats, theofficials told PTI.
Jammu & Kashmir Policechief Dilbag Singh did notrule out the possibility of pres-ence of terrorists but said toclaim that they are roamingfreely “is an exaggeration”.
#��� 60+�'$ +30
Haryana Chief MinisterManohar Lal on Sunday
said the National Register ofCitizens (NRC) would beimplemented in the State.
“In Haryana, we will imple-ment NRC along the lines ofAssam,” the Chief Ministersaid while talking to the medi-apersons after meeting Justice (retd.) HS Bhalla, for-mer chairman of HaryanaHuman Rights Commissionin Panchkula.
Manohar Lal, who is seek-ing his second term as theChief Minister met severalimminent personalities includ-ing Justice Bhalla, ex-Navychief Admiral Sunil Lanba andLt Gen (retired) Baljit SinghJaiswal on Sunday.
He met them under hisparty’s “Maha SamparkAbhiyan” ahead of the StateAssembly polls in October.
The Chief Minister said,“Justice Bhalla has taken upmany assignments after hisretirement. He is also workingon NRC and will visit Assamsoon. We will implement NRC in Haryana and havesought Bhalla’s support andsuggestion.”
The State Government isworking on a fast pace onfamily identity card and its data
would also be used in theNRC, he added.
Haryana CM had previ-ously too supported NRCimplementation across thecountry. Notably, the final NRCin Assam was released onAugust 31, leaving out 19 lakhpeople. Following this, severalpolitical parties had voicedtheir dissatisfaction with thefinal document.
Meanwhile, the ChiefMinister also said the HaryanaGovernment will look into thefeasibility of setting up a LawCommission.
“He (Justice Bhalla) sug-gested that a LawCommission should be set upin Haryana. We shall study itand examine this too. TheGovernment will look into thefeasibility of setting up of
this commission and if peo-ple get benefitted with it, itwill be set up,” the CM said.
He said social audit systemwould be implemented so thatthe audit of development workscould be done by the intellec-tuals in the society, in which ex-servicemen, teachers, engi-neers or others having specialachievement would be includ-ed. For this, in the coming timea separate VoluntaryDepartment would also beformed, he said.
Manohar said for last fiveyears he has worked with hon-esty and in a transparent man-ner by treating 2.5 crore pop-ulation of the State as his fam-ily. “I have reached out to thepeople through Jan AshirwadYatra in all 90 Assembliesrecently,” he added.
Raipur: The accused turnedapprover in the multi-crorePublic Distribution System(PDS) scam, Shiv ShankarBhatt, after claiming that state’sformer Chief Minister RamanSingh was the kingpin in thescam in which other party big-wigs were also involved, nowmade another startling claim of facing life threat after therevelation.
Interacting with the medi-apersons at Raipur Press Club onSunday, Bhatt accused that as hedisclosed about the scam thecivil supplies corporation officewas raided, but he was falselyimplicated and was sent to jail.
“After detention of fourand half years in judicial cus-tody the Special InvestigationTeam (SIT) probing the scamoffered me to become anapprover which I had gladlyaccepted”, he informed.
Leveling serious allega-tions against Raman and hiskin as well as against the thenfood and civil supplies Minister Punnulal Mohile andLilaram Bhojwani, Bhattclaimed that whatever state-ment he had given before thecourt in form of affidavits wasnot under any duress.
Strongly objecting to theallegation of Raman that he wasa ‘habitual criminal’, Bhatt fur-ther warned of legal action. “Ihad worked in so many respon-sible posts, including the Officeron Special Duty (OSD) of thethen CM Raman and the alle-gation of him are ridiculous,” hesaid. “I have faced punishmentfor the crime I have not com-mitted and now I only want tosend the real culprits behind thebars” he added. SR
Chief Minister Ghulam NabiAzad has moved the SupremeCourt seeking permission tovisit his home State to enquireabout the well being of his fam-ily members. His plea is sched-uled to be taken up by a benchof Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoiand Justices SA Bobde and SAbdul Nazeer on Monday.
Azad has sought a nodfrom the top court to visit hisfamily members and relatives.He had tried to visit the Stateafter the abrogation of Jammu& Kashmir’s special status butwas sent back from the airportby authorities.
In his petition before thetop court, he has also soughtpermission to check on socialconditions in the state after theclampdown imposed by theauthorities in the aftermath ofrevocation of provisions ofArticle 370.
Several opposition lead-ers, including Congress leaderRahul Gandhi, had sought tovisit Jammu and Kashmir, butwere not allowed to do so andwere sent back from the airportitself. CPI(M) leader Sitaram
Yechury had moved the apexcourt to see his ailing party col-league Mohammed YousufTarigami, which allowed himto pay a visit but with certainconditions.
The Supreme court hadon September 5, allowed for-mer Jammu and Kashmirchief minister MehboobaMufti's daughter Iltija to meether in Kashmir, where she isunder detention following therevocation of the state's spe-cial status. The top court hadallowed Iltija to meet hermother in private but said thatas far as moving around inother parts of Srinagar goes,she can do so subject to thepermission from districtauthorities.
The National Panthers
Party (NPP) too on Sundayaccused the Centre of ignoringthe "genuine concerns andapprehensions" of the people ofJammu and Kashmir followingthe scrapping of Article 370 lastmonth. NPP chairman andformer minister Harsh DevSingh said it has already high-lighted the concerns of the peo-ple for protection of their landsand jobs through a memoran-dum to Prime MinisterNarendra Modi and wouldcontinue to agitate till the issueis addressed.
Meanwhile normal liferemained affected in KashmirValley for the 42nd consecu-tive day on Sunday as most ofshops remained shut and pub-lic transport was off the roads,even as the weekly flea marketopened here, officials said.The weekly f lea marketopened here on Sunday as sev-eral vendors put up their stallson the TRC Chowk-Polo Viewaxis.
Most of the shops andother business establishmentsremained closed, while publictransport was off the roadsacross the valley, they added.Internet services remainedsuspended across al l platforms.
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As many as one crore peopleare affected and 1400 peo-
ple have died in rain-relatedtragedies across the countryand damages to property runsinto thousands of crores in 14States. Taking note of grim sit-uation in the recent floods inRajasthan and MadhyaPradesh, the National CrisisManagement Committee(NCMC), headed by CabinetSecretary Rajiv Gauba, onSunday reviewed the prevailingflood situation and directedthat immediate assistance beprovided to meet the crisis.According to the HomeMinistry data, as many as onecrore people are affected infloods.
As per the situation reportpertaining to floods in India,prepared by the Ministry ofHome Affairs, as many as 136people died and 170 villages areaffected in Gujarat while 150died, 6000 houses damagedand 640 villages are affected inMadhya Pradesh. EastRajasthan recorded 49 percentabove rainfall this season whilewest Rajasthan recorded 16percent more rainfall till date.MP recorded 54 percent morerainfall this year.
According to flood situa-tion report, this year, floodshave wreaked havoc in Assam,Kerala, Uttarakhand,Karnataka, Tamil Nadu,
Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra,Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh,Bihar, Odisha and among oth-ers states. The data shows overover one crore people affectedin 18000 villages in flood affect-ed states. As far as five lakhhectare crops have been affect-ed in floods. Several statesincluding Delhi, HimachalPradesh and Uttrakhand havenot submitted crops damagedata to the home ministry.
According to the Home
Ministry, the CabinetSecretary took stock of the sit-uation, preparedness, rescueand relief operations anddirected that immediate assis-tance, as sought by the states,be provided to meet the crisis.The NCMC has beeninformed that action to evac-uate and rescue people andlivestock has been taken by thestates and no loss of life hasbeen reported. Adequateteams of the National Disaster
Response Force and the Armyhave also been deployed in res-cue work.
It was informed by boththe states that due to extreme-ly heavy rainfall and the con-sequent discharge of waterfrom the Gandhi Sagar Dam inMadhya Pradesh and otherreservoirs in the two states,there has been flooding in thedownstream as well asupstream areas.
The India Meteorological
Department (IMD) conveyedthat while there has been veryheavy rainfall in the two statesover the past few days, theintensity is likely to declinefrom Monday.
Senior officials of theMinistries of Home and theDefence, as well as those fromthe IMD, NDRF and CentralWater Commission attendedthe meeting.
The Chief Secretaries andother senior officers from thestate governments participatedin the meeting through videoconference.
According to the agricul-ture ministry, it is estimatedthat 40 million hectares ofland (roughly 12 per cent ofIndia's geographical area) isprone to floods. While floodsoccur in India every year, datafor the last 65 years show thatthe scale of their impact, interms of area affected anddamage caused, has been errat-ic. Between 1953 and 2017, forfarmers, the overall damage tocrops was Rs 1,11,225.621 crore(nearly 30 per cent of the totaldamages) and 60,49,349 cattledead.
India suffered damagesworth Rs 37,82,47,04,70,000(Rs 3,78,247.047 crore) due tofloods and heavy rains. Besidesthis, 1,07,535 people werekilled, a total of 8,07,17,993houses destroyed and an areaof 466.335 million hectareaffected.
is expected to set up a com-mittee of town planners andother experts to carry out astudy for sustainable develop-ment of “far-reaching” areas ofnational Capital region. Thecommittee is also likely tostudy the reasons behind vari-ation in population density ofthe various regions of Delhiand NCR.
NCRPB officials said arecent board meeting ofNCRPB reviewed the issue ofconstituting the expert com-mittee .
Asked who will head thepanel, the official said the deci-sion has not been taken yet,adding that terms of refer-
ences of the panel will soon befixed.
In the recent past, hShamli, Muzzafarnagar, andHapur districts of UttarPradesh and Faridabad, Jindand Karnal districts ofHarayana have been includedin the NCR.
"In surrounding areas ofDelhi like Noida, Gurugram,Ghaziabad, there has beenrapid development. The com-mittee will look into aspects ofsustainable development in far-reaching areas of NCR andoptimization of resources," offi-cial also said.
The plan is to ensure equaldevelopment in all areas whichare part of the National CapitalRegion so that people don'tneed to move to surroundingareas of Delhi, official said.
In 2015, the NCRPB haddecided to includeMuzaffarnagar district of UttarPradesh, and Jind and Karnaldistricts of Haryana.
According to NCRPB'swebsite, National Capital Region(NCR) is a unique example ofinter-state regional planningand development, covering theentire National Capital Territoryof Delhi, thirteen districts ofState of Haryana, seven districtsof State of Uttar Pradesh andtwo districts of State ofRajasthan, with the NationCapital as its core.
The NCR in India wasconstituted under the NCRPBAct, 1985 with the key rationaleto promote balanced and har-monized development of theregion, and to avoid any hap-hazard development.
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With the monsoon showingno signs of withdrawal,
north Indian plains are unlike-ly to get any respite from highlevels of humidity this week.According to the IndiaMeteorological Department(IMD), the humidity is expect-ed to be high in the next 15days as due to high amount ofmoisture due to the low pres-sure area, coupled with tem-peratures, leads to rise in thehumidity.
K Sathi Devi, Head of theNational Weather ForecastingCentre said that currently, thereis a low pressure area of north-west Madhya Pradesh which iscausing good rainfall. Thisalso attracts moisture from theeasterlies. Several parts of thenorth Indian plains have beenrecording high levels of humid-ity, which is not a usual phe-nomenon in September. Inhumid conditions where sur-
rounding air cannot hold fur-ther water vapour, sweat evap-orates slowly, if at all. As a resultthe body heats up. it is difficultfor the sweat to evaporate andin high humidity conditions wetend to sweat more.
The amount of watervapour present in a column ofair determines the AbsoluteHumidity of air but this prin-ciple is not usually preferred bymeteorologists. "The concept ofRelative Humidity is usedwhereby the amount of watervapour present in air is calcu-lated with respect to theamount of water vapour the aircan hold. During rainy seasonor conditions of high humidi-ty, the relative humidity is onthe higher side which means aircannot hold moisture further,"the IMD said.
So far, the country hasreceived four per cent morerainfall than normal. The southpeninsula has received 10 percent more precipitation, whilethe central India division hasrecorded 23 per cent morerainfall. Mritunjay Mohapatra,Director General of the IndiaMeteorological Department,said the intensity of the low
pressure will be ebbing fromMonday but the effect in like-ly to remain for the next fivedays. "Thereafter, we can expectthe withdrawal process of themonsoon to commence,"Mohapatra said.
The east and north Indiadivisions and the northwestIndia division have recordeddeficient rainfall at minus 18
and minus 8 per cent respec-tively. Of the 36 meteorolog-ical sub-divisions of the IMD,more than three-fourths havereceived normal or excessrainfall. Sixteen sub-divi-sions have received normal rainfall, while 11 haverecorded excess precipitation.Nine have received deficient rainfall.
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Just when concerns are beingraised about increasing inci-
dents of violence against doc-tors, sometimes leading togrievous hurt or murder by thepatients and their relatives, theWorld Health Organisation(WHO) has brought to the foreother side of the picture by stat-ing that more than 138 millionpatients are harmed every yearby doctors' errors.
On Tuesday, the WHO willcelebrate the first World PatientSafety Day, with which it seeksto raise awareness of this ongo-ing tragedy. It said that global-ly, at least 5 patients die everyminute because of unsafe caresuch as error in diagnosis,errors in medicine prescriptionsand treatments, and the inap-propriate use of drugs.
Errors in diagnosis, errorsin medicine prescriptions andtreatments, and the inappro-priate use of drugs are the threemain reasons why so manypatients harmed, WHOpatient-safety coordinator Dr.Neelam Dhingra-Kumar said.
Four out of every ten
patients are harmed duringprimary and ambulatory healthcare. The most detrimentalerrors are related to diagnosis,prescription and the use ofmedicines. Medication errorsalone cost an estimated US$ 42billion annually. Unsafe surgi-cal care procedures cause com-plications in up to 25% ofpatients resulting in 1 milliondeaths during or immediatelyafter surgery annually.
In India, according to astudy published in BMJ journalin 2018, safety of patients in ter-tiary care hospitals was found tobe a big problem. "At least 62.9per cent of unsafe injections areadministered every year in India.Estimated risk of Hospital CareAssociated Infections(HCAI) isup to 20 times higher than
industrialised countries and isapprox 10 per cent and 15-30per cent in acute care. 77 percent of all reported cases ofcounterfeit and substandarddrugs are from developing coun-tries," said the study.
In fact, according to theWHO, only errors related toerroneous medicine prescrip-tions cost healthcare systemsaround the world some $42 bil-lion (37 billion euros).
"These mistakes occurbecause healthcare systems arenot suitably designed to dealwith these errors and learnfrom them," Dr Kumar said,while admitting that manymedical facilities hide whatthey did wrong, which oftenkeeps them from taking stepsto make sure these mistakes are
not repeated in the future.Figures provided by the
WHO refer only to countrieswith medium and low eco-nomic status (where 80 per centof the global population live), sothat the real number could beeven greater, considering thateven in developed countries,one out of every 10 patients isthe victim of medical mistakes.
Dr Tedros AdhanomGhebreyesus, WHO Director-General said that "we need apatient safety culture that pro-motes partnership withpatients, encourages reportingand learning from errors, andcreates a blame-free environ-ment where health workersare empowered and trained toreduce errors."
Following demand fromthe medical fraternity, UnionHealth Ministry has proposedHealthcare Service Personneland Clinical Establishments(Prohibition of Violence andDamage to Property) Bill 2019that makes assault of medicalprofessionals a criminal offencewith imprisonment up to 10years and fine extending up to�5 lakh.
New Delhi: The Supreme Court is scheduled tohear on Monday pleas challenging abrogationof provisions of Article 370 — which gave spe-cial status to Jammu & Kashmir, validity ofimposition of President's rule and the relatedrestrictions imposed in the State.
A bench of Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi andJustices SA Bobde and S Abdul Nazeer will bealso hearing a bunch fresh petitions, includingthe one filed by former Jammu & Kashmir ChiefMinister Ghulam Nabi Azad seeking permissionto visit his family members and relatives.Azad,who had tried to visit the state twice after theabrogation of Article 370 provisions in Jammu& Kashmir but was sent back from the airportby the authorities, has sought a nod from thetop court to visit his family members.
Jammu & Kashmir People's Conference partyled by Sajjad Lone has also challenged the abro-gation of provisions of Article 370 and the valid-ity of the state Re-organization Bill.Child right
activists Enakshi Ganguly and Professor ShantaSinha have also filed a plea against the allegedillegal detention of children in Jammu &Kashmir since the revocation of special status.
A plea of Rajya Sabha MP and MDMKfounder Vaiko is also listed for hearing, in whichhe has sought a direction to the Centre and Jammu& Kashmir to produce former Chief MinisterFarooq Abdullah, allegedly under detention fol-lowing abrogation of Article 370, before the court.
In his plea, Vaiko has said that authoritiesshould allow Abdullah to attend a "peaceful anddemocratic" annual conference, being organisedin Chennai on September 15, on the occasionof birthday of former Tamil Nadu Chief MinisterC N Annadurai.
The plea of CPI(M) Sitaram Yechury whohad moved the apex court seeking to see his ail-ing party colleague Mohammed Yousuf Tarigamiis also among the batch of petitions listed forhearing. PTI
To ensure that the country isready to meet scientific
and technological challenges ofthe future, the Department ofScience and Technology (DST)will soon launch five technol-ogy missions - Mission onelectric mobility, Missionmethanol, Mission on pro-moting research and develop-ment in quantum technology,cyber physical systems Missionand last but not the least theMission on digital mapping.
DST Secretary AshutoshSharma told the reportershere recently that the govern-ment was working continu-ously shape a seamless science,technology and innovation sys-
tem, which was cutting edge,collaborative, inclusive, relevantand aligned to national prior-ities.
In this regard, the newmissions would cover aspectsranging from electric mobilityto quantum science and technology.
The electric mobilityMission seeks to promote long-term research and develop-ment in all aspects of tech-nologies in the wake of climatechange concerns while Missionmethanol envisages establish-ment of centres of excellencefor production and utilisationof methanol and dimethyl etherusing various solid fuels andnatural gas and develop knowl-
edge base and trained man-power in the area.
The third mission seeks topromote developments in thearea of cyber physical systems,which includes artificial intelligence, robotics, sensors,big data analytics, geographicalinformation systems andadvanced materials.
The aim is to give a fillip tothe manufacturing sectorthrough development of newproducts and services, creationof skilled human resources atdifferent levels, from technicianto researchers and entrepre-neurs.
A mission on promotingresearch and development inquantum technology and relat-ed areas of quantum comput-
ing, quantum cryptography,quantum communication,quantum metrology and sens-ing, andquantum enhancedimaging will be based on theproperties of quantummechanics.
The fifth mission aims toproduce digital maps across thecountry to a scale of 1:500 withthe help of satellites and drones.The entire country would bemapped within the next twoyears.
Meanwhile, the DST underthe Union Science andTechnology is also preparing adraft geospatial data policywhich puts down in writingwho can own geospatial data,how they can use it, and howit can be shared.
RAIPUR | MONDAY | SEPTEMBER 16, 2019chhattisgarh 03
Tableaux procession for the immersion of idols of Lord Ganesha was taken out on late Saturday night. Chief Minister also performed ‘Aarti’ of the Lord at the heart of the city, Jaistambh Chowk. Procession continued till Sunday afternoon and later the idols wereimmersed in specially created immersion pond at Mahadev Ghat on the outskirts of capital city. Photo Santosh Sahu
STAFF REPORTER n DANTEWADA
Four Naxals were arrested onSunday from separate places in
poll-bound Dantewada district ofChhattisgarh, police said.
Two of them were held from with-in Farspal police station limits whilethe others were caught in Geedam andKatekalyan, an official said.
Dantewada Assembly by-poll isscheduled for September 23 and thearrests came while the District ReserveGuard and Danteshwari Fighters, anall-woman anti-Naxal police unit,were carrying out a joint patrol,Dantewada Superintendent of PoliceAbhishek Pallava said.
He identified the arrested cadre asBhime Kowasi (20), a woman memberof Mirtur LOS (local organisationsquad) with Rs 1 lakh reward on herhead, and janmilitia member UrsaMithu (20), from Kachhe valley,adding that 11 Maoist posters and a setof combat uniforms were seized.
In a separate operation, a womanjanmilitia member, Attami Shanti(18), was arrested from Geedamweekly market when she arrived thereto keep an eye on troop movements,the SP said.
The fourth arrest was that ofLakhma Podiyam (28) who wasarrested from Parcheli Bandiparavillage road, he said.
The Dantewada by-poll wasnecessitated following the death ofsitting BJP MLA Bhima Mandavi in aNaxal attack in April this year.
‘Sakhi one stop centre’ inKorea giving hope tofemale victims of violenceKOREA: For female victims of violence, Sakhione stop centre in Korea district has become aplace to go as the institution provides supportto such women. As per official information,out of 711 cases registered at Sakhi one stopcentre, 641 cases have been resolved. The cen-tre was established on April 1, 2017.
“Out of the 711 cases, 305 were directlyregistered at the centre while 406 were regis-tered through ‘181-women helpline’. So far,the centre has provided support to 170women including minor girls,” a districtadministration official informed.
The officials further stated that at thiscentre the victims have been provided withmedical, legal and psychological counseling.Even with victim’s consent family counselingwas provided, which resulted in amicable set-tlement of dispute and victim returning totheir family. A good number of women whowere found straying alone were also reunitedwith their families. However, those who couldnot return to their families due to various rea-sons were sent to Ujjwala home and NariNiketan. The officials said to avail assistancefrom Sakhi one stop centre one can eitherapproach the centre directly or call ‘181woman helpline’ or call 07836-233519.
STAFF REPORTER n RAIPUR
Following the startling dis-closures indicting previous
chief minister Raman Singh inthe multi-crore PDS scam byformer manager CivilSupplies CorporationShivshankar Bhatt, theEconomic Offence Wing(EOW) has geared up itsinvestigation in the graft case.
It detained erstwhileAccounts Officer ChintamaniChandrakar who is suspectedto be the ‘CM’ mentioned in acode name in the diary thatwas recovered.
Superintendent of PoliceEOW, I.K. Elesela informedThe Pioneer that Chintamaniwas detained by the EOW onSunday for interrogation. Hewas later released in the late
evening after interrogation.The investigation will
continue and he will again becalled for interrogation in a
day or two, he said.Notable, Chintamani is a
key person in the PDS scambeing an accountant at corpo-
ration at the time of the scamand is suspected to be the ‘CM’referred in code word in thediary recovered by the EOW.
EOW sleuths interrogates Chintamanisuspected as ‘CM’ in PDS scam diary
CM to visitDantewada today
RAIPUR: Chhattisgarh Chief MinisterBhupesh Baghel will be on a day-longvisit to Dantewada on September 16.
During his visit he will address pub-lic meetings at Metapal and Nakulnaar.
As per the scheduled programme,Chief Minister will leave Raipur at 11.00am by plane and reach Jagdalpur by11.40. He would then take helicopter tovillage Metapal of Dantewada districtand address the public meeting. Hewould then reach village Nakulnar ofKuwankonda block at 2.25 pm andaddress the public meeting. Baghel willthen return to Jagdalpur by 4.00 pm.
Four Naxals held inpoll bound Dantewada
Dantewada Assemblyby-poll is scheduled forSeptember 23 and thearrests came while the
District Reserve Guard andDanteshwari Fighters werecarrying out a joint patrol
STAFF REPORTER nRAIPUR
Chhattisgarh BJP has comeheavily on the scam
accused, who are allegedlyplaying in the hand of the gov-ernment namely ManturamPawar and now ShivshankarBhatt and claimed that theentire conspiracy will comeout in the open soon.
BJP State spokespersonand former MLA ShrichandSundertani raising questionover the press conference ofPDS-scam accused ShivShankar Bhatt, said underpressure of rulinggovernment, the affidavit ofthe accused is spread in the
media citing it as statementrecorded under section 164before the magistrate.
He said it clearlyrevealed that there is a con-spiracy on the part of theaccused to get scot free andthat the statement wasrecorded at the behest of thegovernment. But in courtthe reality would come out.
The BJP spokespersonfurther claimed that it was aploy to defame BJP leadersbefore Dantewada by-polland that the common manclearly understand this.
Sunderani alleged that aformer chief secretarywhose name has been men-tioned for taking money in
the PDS scam, to save him,had dramatically removedhis stenographer and per-sonal assistant and is nowinvolved with the govern-ment to hatch the conspira-cy. He likes to project him-self as super CM, he alleged.
BJP spokesperson saidin last 9 months theCongress government hasbeen indulging in vindictivepolitics but due to whichnothing has been gained bythe state. The PDS scamaccused is being given highprofile post.
He stated that ChiefMinister Bhpesh Baghelshould stop such indecentpolitics.
Conspiracy to malignopposition leaders willbe revealed soon: BJP STAFF REPORTER n BIJAPUR
Naxals torched a bus in theinsurgency-hit Bijapur dis-
trict after asking the passengersto alight on Sunday, police said.
The incident occurred ataround 4 pm near Sitapur campof security forces under Usoorpolice station area when the pri-vate passenger bus was on itsway to Usoor from Bijapurtown, a senior police officialsaid.
Maoists stopped the busnear a nullah and set it ablazeafter allowing passengers to getoff, he said.
None of the passengers orcrew was harmed, he said.
When security forcesreached at the spot of the inci-dent after being alerted about it,
a group of ultras hiding inforests opened fire on them thatled to gun battle, he said.
However, after a briefexchange of fire ultras escapedinto dense forests, he said.
No harm was reported toeither side in the gunfight, headded.
Naxals torch bus, openfire at police party
Maoists stoppedthe bus near a
nullah and set itablaze after
allowingpassengers toget off, he said
STAFF REPORTER nBALRAMPUR
Three members of afamily-- one minor and
two women-- died ofdiarrhoea in village Gainaunder Wadrafnagar block onearly morning of Sunday.
One more death hadoccurred this week, makingthe total death toll four.
The health departmenthas rushed to hold a camp totreat the villagers affected bythe disease. Health and familywelfare minister T S Singhdeosaid the area has beenvulnerable to diarrhoea. If any
laxity on the part of healthground staff is found, thenaction will be taken.
As per reports15-year-old Rajpati, daughterof Sant Kumar, 70-year-oldPhulmati, wife of Bir Singhand 70-year-old Nankur Ramhave died one after the other.All of them had been affectedby diarrhoea since Thursday.As per health department, thevillagers had been drinkingwater from a well in thevillage.
Meanwhile, districtcollector Sanjiv Kumar Jhasaid that administration isready to fight any case of
seasonal diseases. With rainsstill continuing the groundstaffs have been asked to tellvillagers to drink clean andboiled water and that tooonly after sieving it.Door-to-door drive is alsobeing undertaken forprevention and providingbasic medicines. Bleachingpowder is also provided.
Collector said that peopleinstead of using hand pumpshave been using the waterfrom well. The villagers arebeing provided treatment.The health department hasbeen asked to conduct regulartours of different areas.
Three members offamily die of diarrhoea
The protest isagainst theirallegedinvolvement inAntagarhTapes Caseand PDS scamSTAFF REPORTER nRAIPUR
State Congress onSunday staged a
statewide protest againsttwo of the state’s formerchief ministers by burningtheir effigies for theiralleged involvement inAntagarh Tapes case and
PDS scam.Official sources in the
Congress claimed thatthey burnt the effigies inaround 300 places acrossthe state.
Claiming overwhelming
response to their agitation,state general secretary ofPCC and chairman of itsCommunication Wing,Shailesh Nitin Trivedi saidthere was tremendousresentment among the
state populace about theacts of these two formerCMs-- Raman Singh andAjit Jogi.
The wrongful acts ofthese leaders have come tothe fore with the disclosureof Manturam and ShivShankar Bhatt in theAntagarh Tapes case andPDS scam respectively byfling affidavits under section164 in the court, he said.
The corrupt and anti-democratic faces of thesetwo big leaders have nowcome to fore with thestatements of Manturamand Bhatt and to protesttheir act of maligning thepolitics of Chhattisgarhthe ruling Congressstaged the demonstrations,he added.
STAFF REPORTER nRAIPUR
Janta CongressChhattisgarh – Jogi (JCC-
J) legislator Renu Jogi onSunday met Chief MinisterBhupesh Baghel and urgedhim to provide better treat-ment to her son and JCCstate president Amit Jogi.
“It was sheer motherlylove which drove me to meetmy political rival and ChiefMinister Baghel to seeksympathetic interventionfrom him for better treat-ment of my son”, she toldmedia persons about hermeeting with the CM.
“I have lost my daughter20 years ago and now I am
not in a situation to lose myonly son due to any negli-gence on anybody’s part”, shesaid.
Regarding her meetingwith the CM, she said afterpatiently hearing her pleathe CM had assured to per-sonally take necessary action
pertaining to Amit’s healthcare, she added.
Notable, Amit has beensent to jail on judicialremand for 14 days and ashis health condition was notsatisfactory he had beenadmitted to a private hospi-tal in the state capital.
Renu Jogi meets Baghel, urges
him to take care of his son’s healthSon Amit has been sent to jail in judicial
custody for 14 days but due to his ill healthhe has been admitted to a private hospital
Congress burns effigiesof Raman Singh, Ajit Jogi
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Based on specific inputs, twoMaoists were arrested from
an area under Bhelwaghatipolice station of Giridih districton Sunday morning. The arrest-ed cadres were identified asPrem Soren and Sunil Marandi,belonging to Harkund villageunder Bhelwaghati police sta-tion of Giridih district, said ASPDeepak Kumar.
Police informed that therewere inputs about these rebelscoming on their motorcyclefrom their house at the localmarket of Bhelwaghati.
Later they were to visit anearby construction companywith an alleged intension of exe-cuting some serious crime andspreading Maoists propaganda.
Following this a police teamunder ASP Deepak Kumarswung into action. Immediatelya joint operation was launchednear Harkund village. Both theMaoists were rounded up, ASPsaid.
He informed that bothPrem and Sunil were activemembers of the Maoist cadreand they were close associates ofSidhu Kandhu. They involved incollection of levy from differentparts of Giridih and its sur-roundings districts, the policeofficial said.
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Seeking justice, a woman ofOdisha has been struggling
for 20 years to see that herfather’s killers are duly pun-ished.
Being disappointed by theexisting system of law and‘lengthy’ administrative proce-dures, Rukhsana Bano ofminority community ofBhawanipatna in Kalahandidistrict is on a dharna in Delhidemanding punishment forher father Abdul Habib’s assas-sins.
During the last eightmonths, Rukhsana along withher mother has been stagingdharnas at various places in thenational capital and appealingto Prime Minister NarendraModi seeking action againstaccused persons involved in herfather’s murder.
Rukhsana, who has usedFacebook and YouTube mas-sively to make public her
protests, was found roamingrecently in Noida area with aposter written in Hindi reading’20 saal se laga rahe hain nyayki guhar! kab milega merepapa ke hatyare ko saja?’
According to reports,Rukshana’s parents had a lovemarriage. However, her fatherdied in 1999 while she and hertwo other siblings were underthree years’ of age.
Rukshana alleged that herfather was poisoned to death byhis siblings over property dis-pute. When her motherprotested seeking justice, shereceived murder threat from
the accused persons.“Though we have been
leading a very miserable life, wehave insisted for justice for thelast 20 years,” said Rukshana.
She said though sheapproached the districtCollector, SP, DSP and IICmany times, her demand hasstill remained unheard. Ondirective by the Collector, theSP reopened the case andbooked the accused personsunder sections 302, 506 and 34of IPC, but nobody was calledfor interrogation in the case.
“As we did not get justice inOdisha, we have come to Delhi.After sitting on dharna for 62days, a CBI probe was orderedinto the case. ButBhawanipatna SP closed thecase and forwarded the copy tothe CBI. With no option left,we have come here to seek jus-tice,” said Rukshana
Meanwhile, various vol-untary organisations haveextended helping hands to pro-vide them food and other facil-ities during their stay in Delhi.Rukshana and her mother stillhope that they would get jus-tice one day.
At least 12 people drownedand 17 others were rescued
after a boat carrying them to atourist spot capsized in theswollen River Godavari inAndhra Pradesh on Sunday,police said. The boat was car-rying around 60 people, includ-ing nine-member crew, and asearch was on for others.
Prime Minister NarendraModi expressed anguish overthe incident. Chief Minister YSJagan Mohan Reddy expressedshock over the grave tragedyand announced an ex-gratiarelief of �10 lakh each to the kinof the deceased. The boat,belonging to a private operator,was on its way to the pic-turesque Papikondalu touristspot in the middle of the riverwhen it met with the accident,apparently on colliding with alarge rock formation, atKachchuluru in East GodavariDistrict, about 200 km fromhere, they said. Twelve bodieshave been retrieved so farwhile 17 people were rescuedby the locals, police said addingtwo teams of National DisasterResponse Force and StateDisaster Response Force, witha total of 140 personnel, have
been sent to the accident spotfor rescue operations. A specialhelicopter has been pressed
into service fromRajamahendravaram for therescue operation.
The alleged sexual exploitation of the girls was first high-lighted in an audit report submitted by TISS to the state’s socialwelfare department.An FIR was lodged against 11 people, includ-ing Thakur, on May 31, 2018. The state government had on July26, 2018 handed over the case to the CBI. On February 7, 2019,the Supreme Court ordered authorities to transfer the case fromBihar to a Protection of Children from Sexual Offences(POCSO) court in Saket District Court complex in Delhi, whichwould conclude the trial within six months by holding prefer-ably day-to-day hearing.
From Page 1The Indian National Lok
Dal (INLD) had 19 legislators.Since then, the INLD has splitinto two factions.
Targeting the KhattarGovernment, Hooda said,“This Government showedhurry to implement theamended Act because it is ana n t i - p e o p l eGovernment...When we cometo power, we will reduce thefines.”
Appealing to the people tostrengthen the hands of theCongress, Hooda said only hisparty can get rid of “this anti-people Government”. Hoodasaid if the Congress comes topower, it will increase the oldage pension, give pay scales toits employees at par with thoseenjoyed by PunjabGovernment employees anddevelop Faridabad at par withGurgaon.
In Jharkhand where theparty just settled the internalsquabbling with appointmentof a new State chief RameshwarOraon, Congress is certain itwould not be able to take onthe BJP’s might in the Assemblypolls without an alliance toughthe alliance with JVMP andJMM was not rewarding in theLok Sabha elections.
Congress sources said JVMchief Babulal Marandi hascommitted for an alliance andthe crucial talks with majorregional parties JMM and RJD
is scheduled for this week. Theparty has also initiated talkswith Left parties which hasconsiderable influence in theState. The five working presi-dents of the Jharkhand
Congress has been entrust-ed with different divisions torejuvenate the cadre and get thepoll machinery ready. In recenttimes though several RJD lead-ers have joined BJP, theOpposition is trying to includeit in the alliance to mop upevery anti-BJP vote.
In this year general elec-tions, BJP-AJSU alliance won12 of the 14 Lok Sabha seatswhile Congress-JMM settledfor two in Jharkhand. For theforthcoming Assembly elec-tions, Congress is planning toraise the shutting down ofindustrials units includingmajor ones operated by Tataswhich incidentally has manu-facturing units in ChiefMinister Raghubar Das’ home-town of Jamshedpur.
“While more than 20,000lost jobs, the Tata factorieshave on many occasions shutdown its production units. Wewill blame the BJP Governmentfor this. We plan to make it aState-specific campaign andfocus on governance. The BJPGovernment has done nothingto address unemployment,farm distress, economic slow-down, starvation deaths,” saida Jharkhand Congress member.
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On August 19, the LokSabha Housing Committeeheaded by C R Patil had orderedaround 200 ex-MPs, who didnot vacate their bungalows, togive up the facility within a weekand disconnect their power,water and cooking gas connec-tions within three days.
According to rules, formerMPs have to vacate theirrespective bungalows withinone month of dissolution of theprevious Lok Sabha.
President Ram NathKovind had on May 25 dis-solved the 16th Lok Sabhawith immediate effect on therecommendation of the Union
Cabinet after the ModiGovernment was formed for asecond term.
Some newly-elected MPs,who won in the Lok Sabha elec-tion earlier this year, have beenstaying at temporary accom-modation as some ex-MPshave not vacated official bun-galows.
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The Odisha Governmentwould set up Atal
Community InnovationCentres (ACICs) in backwardareas of the State to supportinnovations in various fields,for which the NITI Aayogwould extend support.
With a large number ofcorporate majors operating inOdisha, there is a huge scopefor setting up the centres inthe State. The ACICs wouldbe set up in public-privatepartnership (PPP) mode andCorporate SocialResponsibility (CSR) fundscan be routed for the initia-tive.
CSR funds of private andpublic sector undertakingswould be utilised for the pur-pose, officials say.
In order to tap the oppor-tunities, the NITI Aayog hasurged the State Governmentto purse such innovations,which would spur the cultureof innovation and entrepre-neurship.
The centres are launchedthrough the Atal InnovationMission (AIM) and this is aNITI Aayog flagship pro-gramme, which is promotinginnovation in a big way.
NITI Aayog CEOAmitabh Kant has brought tothe notice of the StateGovernment the large scopeof setting up of ACICs in thedistricts. With 10 AspirationalDistricts in the State, there isenough scope for setting up ofACICs in these districts, saidsources.
While universities wouldbe able to set up ACICs, non-Government organisations(NGOs) are also eligible to setup the centres, said sources.
The Atal InnovationMission would give supportup to Rs 2.5 crore over fiveyears and an equal amount isneeded to be invested by the organisation, which needsto set up an ACIC, officialssay.
The ACICs would be setup to promote a design think-ing process to spur commu-nity focused innovation andto create local, national andglobal synergy with all stake-holders in the ecosystem.
The CSR funds availablewith private and public sectorwould ensure financial sta-bi l ity of these centres.Innovation through the localclusters would be promotedand it will help the entrepre-neurs.
The AIM would leveragementoring network with10,000 mentors under themission. The ACICs wouldcreate a positive atmosphere,where different communitieswould learn from each otherabout unique innovations.
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Iran on Sunday dismissed USaccusations it was behind
drone attacks on Saudi oilinstallations, suggesting theUnited States was seeking apretext to retaliate against theIslamic republic.
"Such fruitless and blindaccusations and remarks areincomprehensible and mean-ingless," foreign ministryspokesman Abbas Mousavi wasquoted as saying in a statement.
US Secretary of State MikePompeo condemned Iran afterSaturday's attacks, whichknocked out half of SaudiArabia's oil production.
Yemen's Iran-aligned ShiiteHuthi rebels claimed responsi-bility for the drone strikes, butPompeo said "there is no evi-dence the attacks came fromYemen".
"The United States will
work with our partners andallies to ensure that energymarkets remain well suppliedand Iran is held accountable forits aggression," the top USdiplomat tweeted.
Mousavi said the US alle-gations over the pre-dawnstrikes on Abqaiq and Khuraisin Eastern Province were meantto justify actions against Iran.
"Such remarks... Are morelike plotting by intelligenceand secret organisations todamage the reputation of acountry and create a frame-work for future actions," hesaid.
Tehran and Washingtonhave been at loggerheads sinceMay last year when PresidentDonald Trump pulled out of a2015 deal that promised Iranrelief from sanctions in returnfor curbs on its nuclear pro-gramme.
Since the withdrawal, the
United States has slapped crip-pling sanctions on Iran as partof a campaign of "maximumpressure" and the Islamicrepublic has responded byreducing its commitments tothe nuclear accord.
"The Americans have takenthe policy of 'maximum pres-sure' which has apparentlyturned into 'maximum lying'due to their failures," saidMousavi.
The arch-foes were on thecusp of confrontation in Junewhen Iran downed a US droneand Trump ordered retaliato-ry strikes before cancellingthem at the last minute.
In remarks publishedSunday, the commander of theIslamic Revolutionary GuardCorps' aerospace arm saidIran's missiles could hit USbases and ships within a rangeof 2,000 kilometres (about1,240 miles).
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Saudi Arabia has temporari-ly halted production at two
Aramco oil facilities that wereattacked by Yemeni rebels,interrupting about half of the company's total output,the energy minister saidSaturday.
The attacks "resulted in atemporary suspension of pro-duction at Abqaiq and Khuraisplants," Prince Abdulaziz binSalman, the energy ministersaid in a statement carried bythe official Saudi Press Agency.
It led to the interruption ofabout 50 per cent of total pro-duction, he added.
"These attacks resulted in production suspension of 5.7 million barrels of crude oilper day," the state-ownedAramco said in a separatestatement.
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Prime Minister Boris Johnsoninsisted Sunday that "huge"
progress was being made inBrexit talks and declared Britainwould break out of theEuropean Union just like thecomicbook hero Hulk.
The Conservative leadermade the comments ahead ofmeetings with EuropeanCommission chief Jean-ClaudeJuncker and EU negotiatorMichel Barnier in Luxembourgon Monday.
In an interview with theMail on Sunday newspaper,Johnson said he was "very con-fident" of getting a divorce dealat an EU summit on October17, in time for Brexit on October31.
In an odd analogy, he com-pared Britain to the comic bookcharacter Hulk. "The madderHulk gets, the stronger Hulkgets and he always escaped, nomatter how tightly bound in heseemed to be -- and that is thecase for this country," he said.
But Johnson is facing oppo-
sition in parliament to his threatto leave the EU without a dealnext month if his negotiationsfail.
On Saturday night, one ofhis Conservative MPs defectedto the pro-European LiberalDemocrats.
Former universities minis-ter Sam Gyimah, who has calledfor a re-run of the 2016 Brexitreferendum, condemnedJohnson for "veering towardspopulism".
Meanwhile former primeminister David Cameron, wholed the failed campaign to stayin the EU in 2016, accusedJohnson in his memoirs of onlypursuing Brexit out of politicalambition.
The turmoil comes ahead ofanother crucial week, as theSupreme Court considers thelegality of Johnson's decision tosuspend parliament earlier thismonth until October 14.
Johnson was a leading"Leave" campaigner in the ref-erendum, and took office in Julypromising to deliver Brexit nomatter what.
He wants to renegotiate theterms struck by his predecessorTheresa May, which MPs haverejected, but EU leaders have sofar refused.
He told the Mail there wasa "very good conversation"going on about the key stickingpoint, the issue of the Irish bor-der.
"A huge amount of progressis being made," he said.
Much of the opposition inLondon to the current Brexitdeal is focused on the so-calledbackstop plan to keep open theIrish border.
It could keep Britain indef-initely tied to EU trade rules toavoid frontier checks betweenBritish Northern and EU mem-ber Ireland.
Brexit minister SteveBarclay insisted "the backstopneeds to go", but fuelled spec-ulation that an alternative mightbe taking shape.
"We can see a landing zonein terms of a future deal butthere is significant work still todo," he told Sky News televisionon Sunday.
"The talks tomorrow will bean important step forward aspart of that and they build onsignificant discussions that havebeen happening at a technicallevel."
Johnson repeated that"under no circumstances" wouldhe delay Brexit. However, hemay have no choice after MPslast week passed a law to post-pone until January if he does notget a divorce deal by the EUsummit.
Twenty-one Conservativesrebelled to back the law andwere expelled from the party,leaving Johnson without amajority in the House ofCommons. One of the rebelswas Gyimah, who becomes theLib Dems' 18th MP in the 650-seat chamber.
The 43-year-old was onceviewed as a rising star in theConservatives and briefly ranagainst Johnson for the partyleadership. But he said Johnsonhad left moderates like him witha "stark choice... To accept a nodeal Brexit or walk away frompublic life".
Hong Kong riot police firedtear gas and water cannons
at hardcore pro-democracyprotesters hurling rocks andpetrol bombs on Sunday, tip-ping the violence-plagued cityback into chaos after a brief lullin clashes.
Tens of thousands of peo-ple defied authorities to marchthrough the streets of the cityin an unsanctioned rally onSunday, the latest expression ofa popular revolt that has ragedfor the last 99 days.
But the rally descendedinto violence when smallgroups of hardcore activists --known within the movement as"braves" -- tried to attack thecity's main government com-plex.
Police fired repeated vol-leys of tear gas and deployedwater cannon trucks afterMolotov cocktails and rockswere thrown over security bar-riers surrounding the com-plex, which has become a fre-quent flashpoint in the ongo-ing protests.
Local television networks
broadcast footage ofprotesters tearing down and
burning a banner celebratingthe upcoming 70th anniversaryof the founding of communistChina — as well as burning aChinese flag. As evening set in,protesters retreated, chased byriot officers and water cannonfiring blue-dyed water.
Some demonstrators builtbarricades, set fires and van-dalised subway stations butthe crowds avoided further
direct clashes and largely ranaway when ranks of policeofficers got close.
The clashes ended a relative lull in recent days in the intensity of skirmishes between police andprotesters.
The once-stable interna-tional hub has been convulsedby weeks of huge, sometimesviolent rallies calling for greaterdemocratic freedoms andpolice accountability.
The waters for French fisher-men are being stirred up by
uncertainty of what will happenif Britain leaves the EU withouta deal on October 31 and theirboats barred from British waters.
A no-deal Brexit wouldlikely end access for Frenchboats to British waters and, inFrance, fishing industry playersfear this will not just increasetensions with rivals across theChannel but between them-selves.
Sophie Leroy, whoseArmement Cherbourgeois com-pany operates three fishing ves-sels off the northwest coast ofFrance, says there have beenalmost daily checks of theirboats by the British authorities.
Earlier this month, her boatswere stopped for what shedescribed as an interminable setof checks 21 miles off the Englishcoast.
Her boats were also sur-rounded by 15 British fishingvessels, she said. "And theywere saying, 'We are going to do
the same as what the French didto us last year'."
The "Scallop Wars" in 2018,when French and British fishingvessels clashed over access toscallops off France's Normandycoastline, was finally settled bythe two sides in a deal lastSeptember.
While a Brexit deal wouldhelp put a framework in place,Britain anticipates the possibil-ity of more clashes betweenrival fishing vessels if the coun-try pulls out of the EU with noagreement in place. The gov-ernment last week released astudy of that scenario, code-named "Operation Yellow ham-mer", after a copy of the docu-ment was leaked to the press.
One issue it addressed wasthe possibility that EU vesselscould illegally enter Britishwaters, leading to "clashesbetween vessels", "violent dis-putes" or even the "blockadingof ports". So far this time aroundthe two sides have not actuallycome to blows. But Leroyreferred to what she called a "warof nerves" online.
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Amajor tragedy was avertedon Sunday when an agile
pilot successfully landed aPakistan International Airlinesflight carrying about 200 pas-sengers onboard after one of itsengines caught fire minutesafter take off.
The Jeddah-bound flightPK-759 was forced to make anemergency landing back toAllama Iqbal InternationalAirport Lahore after one of itsengines caught fire during takeoff. "One of the engines of theaircraft caught fire during thetake off Sunday morning andthe pilot alerted the controlroom about it and sought foremergency landing," an officialof the airlines told PTI.
He said the pilot success-fully landed the plane and nopassenger was injured.
The passengers were sent toJeddah on another aircraft in theafternoon while the plane hasbeen grounded for repair work.
PIA spokespersonMashhood Tajwar, however,claimed that the plane had notcaught fire.
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Jeffrey Roberts lifted a mus-tard-yellow curtain from the
ground as he looked for pass-ports and other documents atthe site where his family's homeonce stood in Grand Bahama.
He then moved the clothaside, picked up a pair of old,rusty pliers, and continued hissearch.
"We got to take what Godgives us," Roberts said in refer-ence to Tropical StormHumberto, which narrowlymissed the island over the week-end as it continued on its north-ward trajectory well offshore ofFlorida's east coast.
By early Sunday morning,the US National HurricaneCenter said the storm was locat-ed about 137 miles (220 kilo-meters) north of Great AbacoIsland and was moving at 7 mph
(11 kph) north-northwest withmaximum sustained winds of 60mph (97 kph).
Weather forecasters said itwould likely become a hurricaneby The storm briefly shuttereda couple of small airports, sentpeople in damaged homes toseek shelter and threatened tointerrupt the distribution ofsorely needed supplies includingfood and water.
As the storm barely passedthe northern Bahamas, howev-er, Roberts and others werealready returning to the task athand: resuming their cleanupand recovery efforts in com-munities devastated byHurricane Dorian two weeksago.
On Saturday, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres vis-ited the island of Great Abaco tosupport humanitarian effortsin the wake of the storm, whichleft thousands in need of food,
water and shelter."Hurricane Dorian has been
classified as Category 5. I thinkit's Category Hell," said the sec-retary-general, adding he washorrified by the "level of sys-tematic devastation."
The death toll from thehurricane stands at 50 and thenumber of missing at an alarm-ing 1,300 people, although offi-cials caution the list is prelimi-nary and many people could justbe unable to connect with lovedones. Meanwhile, detritus waspiled high as Bahamiansattempted to continue salvagingwhat was left behind.
On Saturday, Patrice Higgsstood barefoot in her backyardwith grey mud caked on her feet.She stared listlessly at the hori-zon as she occasionally pointedat some of her belongings thatremained tangled in the debrisand out of reach, including acream-colored loveseat.?
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South African President CyrilRamaphosa has sent high-
ranking emissaries on a mis-sion to reassure African coun-tries after a wave of xenopho-bic attacks, the presidency saidon Sunday.
At least 12 people havebeen killed in the surge of mobviolence targeting foreign-owned businesses and homes,mainly in and aroundJohannesburg since the start ofthe month.
Hundreds of economicmigrants from neighbouringZimbabwe and Mozambique
have fled to shelters andNigeria has flown 600 of its cit-izens back home after theywere targeted in the violence.
The mission, led by formerminister Jeff Radeba, left SouthAfrica on Saturday and willvisit Nigeria, Niger, Ghana,Senegal, Tanzania, DR Congoand Zambia, the presidencysaid.
Ramaphosa was jeered aton Saturday during his speechat Zimbabwe ex-leader RobertMugabe's funeral in Hararebefore he apologised for theattacks, which have beenprompted by unemploymentand poverty.
ban on the InternationalCommittee for Red Cross(ICRC) working in areas undertheir control Sunday andrestored security guaranteesfor those working for theorganisation.
The militants and the ICRC "consented to fol-lowing the old agreement on top of new promises inhumanitarian aid leading to the Islamic Emirate grantingICRC permission of resuming their activities," said Taliban spokesmanZabihullah Mujahid in a state-ment.
at the Jersey Shore during anevent weekend, trapping peo-ple and injuring at least 22,including some children, offi-cials said.
No deaths were reported.The collapse happened
around 6 p.M. Saturday inWildwood during the annualNew Jersey Firemen'sConvention.
It was unclear how manypeople were on or under thedecks at the time, or how manywere firefighters, but authori-ties said those who weretrapped were quickly removed.
The annual conventionattracts thousands of currentand former firefighters to theresort town. Firefighters werelikely among those hurt ortrapped.
Cape May Regional HealthSystem said 21 people weretaken there, at least three ofthem children. Eleven patientshad been released by 10 p.M.,including all the children who
were admitted, hospital spokes-woman Susan Staeger said.
AtlantiCare RegionalMedical Center in AtlanticCity said at least one addition-al person was taken there.
The conditions of theremaining hospitalized peoplewasn't known.
Photos and video on socialmedia showed firefighters try-ing to lift a piece of decking.
Images showed multiplelevels of decking ripped awayfrom the building and reducedto beams and splintered wood.
The decks appeared to havebeen attached to a three-storybuilding and topped by afourth-floor overhang.
The second and third lev-els appeared to have pancakedonto a first-floor deck. Theoverhang looked intact.
Nearby resident JoannDevito saw the collapse from adeck across the street.
"I was sitting on the deckup there, and I heard thisnoise, so I turned and lookedand saw the whole thing cav-ing in," she said.
"I saw two women runningand screaming. It was horrible."
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Italy allowed a charity rescueship to sail Saturday to a tiny
southern island so that 82migrants aboard could be trans-ferred to shore, but the coun-try's foreign minister cautionedagainst interpreting the move asa sign the new government iseasing a crackdown on human-itarian vessels.
Shortly before midnight,all the migrants had been trans-ferred off the Ocean Vikingafter several days stranded atsea prior to being given per-mission to sail to Lampedusaisland.
Women, children andunaccompanied minors wereput on an Italian coast guardvessel, while men were takenaboard a customs police boat,so all could be brought toLampedusa's dock.
The Norwegian-flaggedship, which had appealed fordays for a port of safety, is oper-ated by two humanitariangroups, Doctors WithoutBorders and SOS Mediterranee.
Ocean Viking carried outits first rescue, of 50 migrantswho were struggling in anunseaworthy rubber dinghylaunched by Libyan-basedmigrant smugglers, onSeptember 8.
The others were rescuedthe next day. Among themigrants is a 1-year-old boyfrom Somalia.
"We just heard that we havebeen assigned a place of safety,we are now on our way" toLampedusa, Erkinalp Kesikli ofDoctors Without Borders saidearlier in the day after the shipreceived a call from Italianauthorities about the permis-sion.
Migrants clapped with joy
and excitement."We are very happy about
the news this morning. Itamazes us. This news amazesus," said Myriam AnnieMalang, one of the migrants.
"We are arriving at a placewhere people understand andlisten to us. We are very happyto learn that we are disem-barking in Lampedusa."
Malang said she had beenbeaten while detained in Libya,a common account of sufferingamong migrants waiting todepart the northern Africancountry on smugglers' boats.
She said she had fled con-flict between English- andFrench-speaking communitiesin Cameroon.
The previous government,under a rigid anti-migrant pol-icy led by right-wing leaderMatteo Salvini, banned charityrescue boats from enteringItaly's waters and disembarking
migrants on Italy's shores.Premier Giuseppe Conte's
week-old coalition now con-tains the center-left Democrats,whose leaders have called for amore humane policy on the res-cue boats. Italy's current andprevious governments haveinsisted on more solidarityfrom fellow European Unionnations, saying the migrants setout on their journeys seekingasylum or better economic con-ditions in Europe as a whole,not necessarily in Italy.
Italy's new foreign minister,Luigi Di Maio, leader of thecoalition's senior partner, thepopulist 5-Star Movement, cau-tioned against concluding hisgovernment was softening itsstance on private rescue boats.
"I believe there's a big mis-understanding about a safeport given to Ocean Viking," DiMaio told reporters.
"It was assigned a port
because the EU adhered to ourrequest to take the great shareof the migrants."
Germany's interior minis-ter said in a report published onSaturday his country is pre-pared to take in a quarter ofmigrants rescued off the Italiancoast as the European Uniontries to find a solution to repeat-ed standoffs involving human-itarian groups' ships.
The Italian news agencyANSA said Germany, France,and Italy were expected to takeabout 24 migrants each, whilethe other 10 would go toPortugal or Luxembourg.
While Di Maio insistedthat Italy wasn't lifting the ban,championed by former InteriorMinister Salvini, on docking bycharity rescue boats, lawmakersfrom the left praised the reso-lution of Ocean Viking's situa-tion as a break with the previ-ous government's hard line.k
have been found at the Illinoishome of a former Indiana abortion clinic doctorwho died last week, authoritiessaid.
The Will County Sheriff 'sOffice said in a news releaselate Friday that an attorney forDr Ulrich Klopfer's family con-tacted the coroner's officeThursday about possible fetalremains being found at thehome in an unincorporatedpart of Will County in north-eastern Illinois.
The sheriff 's office said authorities found 2,246preserved fetal remains but there's no evidence medicalprocedures were performed at
the home.The coroner's office took
possession of the remains. Aninvestigation is underway.
A message left Saturdayseeking additional comment onthe discovery was not returnedby the Will County Sheriff 'sOffice investigations depart-ment.
Klopfer, who diedSeptember 3, was a longtimedoctor at an abortion clinic inSouth Bend, Indiana. It closedafter the state revoked the clin-ic's license in 2015.
The Indiana StateDepartment of Health had pre-viously issued complaintsagainst the clinic, accusing it oflacking a registry of patients,policies regarding medicalabortion, and a governing bodyto determine policies.
There is a deafening silence that sur-rounds the ongoing fate of thebeleaguered Uighurs, incarceratedin Chinese detention centres. Thisindifference is especially ironical
from the affluent Gulf sheikhdoms, whothemselves cry hoarse on issues like Palestine,Rohingya, Bosnia or even Kashmir, albeit,unsuccessfully. Countries like Saudi Arabia,who have used religion to legitimise their ownregime, political standing and global effortspertaining to the matters of Ummah, are con-spicuous by their feeble and pusillanimousstand against the Chinese for their treatmentof the Uighur Muslims. Even the theoretical-ly-powerful multilateral forum (world’s sec-ond-largest organisation with 57 membercountries representing 1.8 billion people) likethe Organisation of Islamic Cooperation(OIC), which positions itself as “the collec-tive voice of the Muslim world”, has beenequally fearful of slamming Beijing.
On the contrary, the OIC had incredu-lously passed a resolution at the Abu Dhabideclaration to “commend the efforts of thePeople’s Republic of China in providing careto its Muslim citizens.” Whereas voluble andbelligerent nations like Pakistan, who are vir-tually surviving (economically and diplomat-ically) on the Chinese doles and bail-out pack-ages, are expectedly mum on the Uighuraffairs and are only selectively pitchingKashmir. Matters like the fate of the besiegedand oppressed co-religionists like the Uighursare not allowed to vitiate the “all-weatherfriendship” with China. On the contrary, it wasleft to the 22-odd countries, includingAustralia, Canada, Japan, the UK, France,Germany and the US among others, to joint-ly write to the United Nations HumanRights Council (UNHRC) stating: “We alsocall on China to refrain from the arbitrarydetention and restrictions on freedom ofmovement of Uighurs, and other Muslim andminority communities in Xinjiang.”
The undeniable reality is that a lot of pub-lic posturing, cause-espousal and haranguingthat is routinely done by Islamic countries isonly on account of convenience, selfish con-siderations and not on account of morality orconscience. As Pakistan wraps itself up as theself-appointed custodian of the Kashmiris, itsembarrassing silence on the Uighurs and thestate-sponsored complicity against its ownBalouch populace or other minority denom-inations like Hindus, Christians and even thesectarian “others”, like the Shias and theAhmediyas among others, makes a mockeryof its self-righteousness. Pakistan’s patent two-facedness has earned it the ire of its ownIslamic neighbours like Iran and Afghanistan.
Even though Pakistanis play up the rote“brother-Islamic-nation” card with both Iranand Afghanistan, the former fumes at the sec-tarian intolerance that is “allowed” withinPakistan, whereas the Afghans bristle at theactive support that Islamabad bestows onAfghan-facing terror organisations. Whereas“Kashmir” unites the polity of Pakistan like
nothing else can, it is the singu-lar societal unifier that legit-imises the unwarrantedly gener-ous budgets of the Pakistanimilitary. The poison of thePakistani clergy emerges as thepivotal rallying cry for Pakistanicivil politicians. “Kashmir” isthe ultimate weapon of distrac-tion that can sway mood, deflectattention and cobble together thesemblance of a unified nation. Nosuch tears are even pretended onthe hapless Uighurs even thoughthe situation, treatment andConstitutional status of theKashmiris and Uighurs cannoteven be compared. Kashmiris areentitled to all Constitutionalrights, guarantees and opportu-nities as is applicable to others.
Clearly, realpolitik and com-merce overrides all other consid-erations in the Middle East.China is the high-temple oftransactional relationships and isflexing its “scale” muscle toextract its own pound of flesh.Beyond beholden or vassalnations like Pakistan (owing tothe $60 billion China–PakistanEconomic Corridor investment)or pathologically anti-US coun-tries like Iran for whom Chinahas a natural traction, others likeSaudi Arabia, the UAE, Kuwaitand Qatar are engaged in veryhigh-stakes trade and commercewith Beijing. That is perenniallyat the risk of earning China’s ire,should these countries speakout against the Uighurs.
Reciprocally, China never
expresses any concern with stateactions like the Jamal Khashoggiepisode, Balouch insurgency orother human right issues in theregion. It is a mutually-beneficialsilence maintained by both Chinaand these nations that selective-ly bury some issues like the bla-tant Uighur exploitation, whileallowing for some others.
Even when the UnitedNation forums were taking upthe Uighur issue against China(often by Western powers onaccount of their own realpolitikconsiderations against China),the visiting Saudi Arabian CrownPrince Mohammad Bin Salmanendorsed the Chinese “counter-terrorism” strategy against theUighurs in Xinjiang by stating,“We respect and support China’srights to take counter-terrorismand de-extremism measures tosafeguard national security. Westand ready to strengthen coop-eration with China”. He added forgood measure that the Saudisoppose “interference by externalforces in China’s internal affairs.”
Shortly thereafter, a multi-billion Saudi-Chinese oil deal andagreement to partake in the gar-gantuan “One Belt, One Road”initiative was promptly con-firmed. Independent bodies haveconsistently called the bluff onChinese camps that forcibly hostup to one million Uighurs inwhat the Chinese regime calls“boarding schools”, “vocationalcentres” and even “re-educationcentres”. Independent researchers
have described the same as“wartime concentration camps”that are part of a “systematic cam-paign of social re-engineeringand cultural genocide.”
Reports of torture, forcedsterilisation and political re-edu-cation are commonplace, yetthere is not a twitch of condem-nation from major Islamicnations. Already, the Chinesehave brazenly forbidden peoplefrom practising Islam in certainareas and banned elements ofreligiosity like keeping fasts,wearing hijab, growing a beard oreven retaining “Muslim” sound-ing names. The ChineseGovernment has openlyannounced its five-year to“Sinicize” Islam via a virtualdenouncement of religion. Theingenuous attempt to “guideIslam to be compatible withsocialism and implement mea-sures to Sinicize the religion” isa barely concealed socio-cultur-al genocide that has escaped anytangible condemnation fromIslamic nations. The sheerhypocrisy of silence surroundingUighur suppression exposes apotent combination of greed, fearand insincerity that guides someof these nations, who oftenshroud themselves with fakeemotions about issues that do notearn them either petrodollars orthe wrath of countries like China.
(The writer, a militaryveteran, is a former Lt Governorof Andaman & Nicobar Islands
Sir — Looks like Union RoadTransport and HighwaysMinister Nitin Gadkari will notrelent easily. Undaunted byopposition from BJP-ruled Statesto the hefty road penalties, he hasboldly asserted that he is notafraid of street protests, explain-ing, “My responsibility is to savethe lives of 1.20 lakh people whodie on road in accidents.”
He further reasoned that it iseveryone’s responsibility to savepeople’s lives besides underscor-ing “the duty of the State as well.”We can blame successiveGovernments for failing to stemthe rot at the “rogue” transportoffice but what about the way wehave chosen to drive?
Frankly, in India, one canprocure a vehicle, learn to driveand get licence from a tout. Itcould be a truck, a light com-mercial vehicle or a motorbike.Which means that just aboutanyone can start driving on theroad in real traffic.
The dangers are immense,for what one is driving has theability to kill. The working pre-sumption is not a scientific one:That everyone’s life is dear to
them so they will by defaultdrive carefully, learn to swimquickly than sink. Along withfear, Indians need to learn howto make the process of drivinga pleasurable one.
KS JayatheerthaBengaluru
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Sir — Irrespective of its meritsand demerits, a step at unravel-ling the Gordian knot in Kashmirhas been taken. A pause shouldcertainly be in order but it can-
not prolong beyond a point.Restoring normalcy, even in cal-ibrated stages, must be visiblyseen to be prompt and earnest.We cannot increasingly be cir-cumspect as the structure andstrategy are in place, built all theseyears as we countered militancy
and unrest in the Valley.International opinion has
always been counted in our diplo-matic stances and initiatives andit tends to be in our favour. Butthere always exists the probabili-ty of a tilt towards an abruptchange. Besides, we must also fac-tor in the reality that ensuingsocio-economic imbalances postthe abrogation of Article 370would be onerous to tackle. Thesooner we move on to the nextphase, the quicker we can put theKashmir episode behind us.
R NarayananNavi Mumbai
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Sir — This refers to the editorial,“Grudge wars in Andhra”(September 14). The house arrestof N Chandrababu Naidu and hisson was unwarranted. Leadershave the right to take out rallies toexpress their dissatisfaction withthe Government. Resorting tosuch tactics amounts to curtail-ment of Constitutional rights.
The Union Government has set up a com-mittee to reform Power PurchaseAgreements (PPAs) to ensure power avail-
ability at competitive prices and make distribu-tion companies (discoms) viable. A PPA is a con-tract between a generation company (genco) anddiscom which lays down the terms of electrici-ty purchase by the latter from the former, includ-ing the tariff, which is subject to approval by theState Electricity Regulatory Commission (SERC).
The Cabinet is also considering a new tar-iff policy which will inter alia require discomsto pay a surcharge to the genco for delayed pay-ment, which would be equal to the commercialrate of interest. The Government has alreadymade it mandatory for discoms to open Lettersof Credit (LoC) for getting supply from gencosfrom August 1, 2019. However, State-owned gen-cos are not covered by this dispensation.
The discoms would be allowed to recoveronly up to 15 per cent of under-recovered powersupply cost from other consumers implying theyneed to absorb the remaining 85 per cent. Also,they won’t get any grant or loan if they don’treduce losses.
When seen in juxtaposition with the extanttariff policy environment as also the architectureof PPAs, the intended reforms and proposed mea-sures are laughable.
On tariff policy, under directions from theState governments, discoms sell electricity to poorhouseholds and farmers at heavily subsidisedrates, even free in some States. To make up forthe under-recovery, they charge exorbitant ratesfrom industries and businesses; yet they contin-ue to incur losses forcing the Centre to come outwith packages to bail them out. Three packageshave already been given since 2000, with the lat-est being Ujjwal DISCOM Assurance Yojana(UDAY) launched in 2015 and the fourth is inthe offing as alluded to by Power Minister RKSingh.
In this backdrop, if discoms’ recovery ofunder-recovered power supply cost from others(industries) is restricted only to 15 per cent, theirlosses will multiply.
Instead of allowing proper pricing of suppliesto households and farmers and curb theft (theonly logical way to cut under-recovery), theGovernment wants discoms to absorb losses. Dothey have Alladin’s lamp? Penalising them bycharging commercial rates of interest, insistingon LoC or denying them loans, for not reduc-ing losses, amount to adding insult to injury.
Yet another factor adding to the woes of dis-coms is the unusually high price they are forcedto pay to gencos under long-term PPAs whichaccount for nearly 86 per cent of the power sold(of the balance, ten per cent is covered undershort-term agreements and four per cent sold ontrading platform). Herein, two extreme scenar-ios are discussed to show how discoms and even-tually the consumer and the taxpayers are takenfor a ride.
First, in consonance with Prime MinisterNarendra Modi’s plan of giving a big push torenewable energy, in Andhra Pradesh, promot-ers of 139 power plants based on solar and windenergy had signed agreements with the discomsduring the last five years under the erstwhile dis-pensation led by N Chandrababu Naidu. Under
the PPAs, the discoms had agreed to payto the gencos �4 to 6 per unit which isalmost double the cost of supply, about�2.4 per unit. At such high tariff, dis-coms are incurring huge losses. Of thetotal loss of close to �7,000 crore in thelast five years, an overwhelming �5,500crore was on account of excess pay-ments to the generators of renewableenergy.
This prompted the newGovernment led by YS JaganmohanReddy to set up a high-level commit-tee in July, to review those agreementswith a view to bring down the tariff. Butthe decision has been stayed by theAndhra Pradesh High Court (APHC).The issue is heading for a protractedlegal battle and it will be some timebefore the proceedings get concludedand final pronouncement from theSupreme Court comes.
Meanwhile, investors in these pro-jects (mostly foreign investors) haveraised the pitch, arguing that anyreview will dent the sanctity of con-tracts, thereby eroding their confidencein India as an attractive investment des-tination. The countries from wherethese companies come have taken upthe matter with the Centre, which inturn, has asked the AP Government tohonour the PPAs. The way events areunfolding, it is unlikely that the issuewill get settled in favor of discoms.
At another extreme, gencos hadagreed to charge from discoms low tar-iff — using the Tariff-BasedCompetitive Bidding (TBCB) method.Under the long-term PPAs signed by
Tata Power Ltd (TPL) and Adani PowerLtd (APL) with regard to their UltraMega Power Projects (UMPP) inGujarat, these companies had commit-ted to sell at �2.26 per unit and �2.35per unit respectively for supplies to dis-coms in the State. Both projects arebased on coal; TPL is entirely onimported coal, APL uses 70 per centdomestic and 30 per cent imported coal.
Unlike all other PPAs whereinincrease in the cost of fuel is pass-through, for supplies from theseUMPPs, the consumers were fullyshielded. In fact, TPL/APL had arrange-ments in place to ensure that they gotcoal supplies at a fixed price all throughthe project life.
These included TPL acquiring 25-30 per cent equity in three Indonesianmines. Likewise, Adani acquired acoal mine in Queensland, Australia in2010. But, this turned out to be an illu-sion.
In 2012, TPL/APL petitioned theCentral Electricity RegulatoryCommission (CERC) seeking ‘compen-satory tariff ’ — a sophisticated nomen-clature for hike in tariff. They arguedthat following an order of theIndonesian Government in September2011, fixing a Minimum Export Price(MEP) of coal, they were forced to paymore which should be compensated.This was instantly allowed by theCERC and confirmed by the AppellateTribunal for Electricity (APTEL) inDecember 2016.
The Supreme Court (SC) after ini-tially rejecting the claim (order of
April 2017), finally directed CERC “toamend the PPAs to enable pass-throughof fuel price escalation subject to a cap”(order dated October 29, 2018).
We see a typical syndrome of“head I win and tail you lose.” While,on one hand, there are PPAs whichallow gencos to charge more from dayone, even where the agreements werecrafted to charge low tariff, those weresubsequently altered to provide for esca-lation (TPL and APL).
For the discoms being squeezed atboth the ends by having to pay more togencos and compelled to charge lessfrom preferred users (farmers andpoor households), any talk of makingthem financially viable or reduce tar-iff burden on industries — as contem-plated in the new tariff policy— ismeaningless.
The Government should look at asto why cost of supplying power is high;especially aspects such as ‘gold plating’(a euphemism for claiming higherinvestment than actual), over-invoicingof fuel bills need to be seriously exam-ined and remedial steps taken. Forinstance, PPAs should have a clause toprovide for cancellation of the contractif any irregularity involving corruptionis noticed. On the consumption side,they should do away with subsidised orfree supply and bring down power theftto zero. Sans these reforms, there is noway of salvaging discoms and protect-ing industries and businesses from hightariff.
On August 31 this year, for-mer chairman of the Senateand long-time member of
the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP),Raza Rabbani was quoted in themedia as saying it is high time forPakistan to pull out of theOrganisation of IslamicCooperation (OIC). He then addedthat the “bubble of an Islamicummah (global Muslim communi-ty) had burst.”
Rabbini was echoing thethoughts aired by many Pakistanis— especially on social media sites— who are incensed by the man-ner in which Saudi Arabia and theUnited Arab Emirates (UAE) react-ed to India’s move to controversial-
ly remove Article 370 from India’sConstitution and thus nullify the‘special status’ that the article pro-vided to India-Occupied Kashmir.
The Saudi monarchy wentahead with a $15 billion investmentdeal with an Indian business giant,whereas the UAE Governmentbestowed Indian Prime MinisterNarendra Modi with the UAE’shighest civilian award.
The English weekly The FridayTimes had reported on August 9that Pakistani Prime MinisterImran Khan was not happy withSaudi Arabia and the UAE’s passivestance on Kashmir. But when, inmid-August, news of Saudi invest-ment in India became commonknowledge, and later, when Modiwas bestowed with an award by theUAE, Imran Khan didn’t say much.In fact, his Foreign Minister wentto the extent of suggesting that“international relations are abovereligious sentiment.”
Of course, Pakistan was nevergiven this privilege by the sameArab monarchies. In the 1970swhen Saudi/UAE jobs, money and
oil began to arrive in Pakistan it waswith the condition to gradually rollback the manner in which the stateand governments of Pakistan hadadvocated Islam —sometimes bymerging it with Islamic modernismand sometimes fusing it withsocialism.
After the Shia clerics came topower in Iran in 1979, Pakistancould still not claim that foreignrelations are above religious senti-ment as the state of Pakistan glad-ly embraced militant Saudi proxiesin Pakistan against the country’sShia minority, segments of whicheventually became Iranian proxies.
Nevertheless, there is nothingincorrect about what the ForeignMinister says. Indeed, foreign rela-tions are almost entirely based ongeopolitical and economic interestsof states. Yet, for over 40 years orso, the Pakistani state and govern-ments have been passionately lec-turing their citizens about thenotion of a “Muslim ummah” andthat Pakistan was at the core of it.
The more immediate roots ofthis claim can be found in the mid-
1970s when oil-rich Arab countriesbegan enjoying windfall profitsdue to an unprecedented rise in oilprices, and when Saudi Arabiasuccessfully replaced Egypt as themost influential Muslim country.
The Pakistani state’s thinkingalso began to transform after thecountry lost its eastern wing in1971. Pan-Islamist ideas and theword “ummah” became a lot morecommon in the post-1971 state nar-rative, mainly to offset the creep-ing paranoia that Islam alone couldnot keep an ethnically diversePakistan together.
The perception that there wasan ummah and Pakistan was animportant part of it was bolsteredwhen Pakistan was made thelaunching pad for an armed jihadagainst the Soviet-backed regime inKabul.
Saudi Arabia (along with theUS) became the largest donor offinancial and military aid toPakistan during this period. Theirreasons were geopolitical in naturebut, of course, Saudi Arabia andPakistani dictator General Zia
explained the endeavour as a jihadby the ummah against the godlessSoviet Union. What’s more, it alsogave Zia the excuse to start defin-ing himself as ‘Mard-i-Momin’.
Former senator Rabbani isright in saying that this bubble hasburst — especially when the Saudimonarchy is making some unprece-dented political and social movesto change the geopolitical and ide-ological complexion of theKingdom.
Pakistan, on the other hand, isleft lamenting that it was made aproxy of the Arabs when theyneeded to enhance their politicalclout in the Muslim world throughthe ummah narrative.
Fact is, the roots of the idea ofan ummah run even deeper thanwhen the populist ZA Bhuttoregime first floated the idea in 1974to get close to oil-rich Arab monar-chies. According to historianMubarak Ali and celebrated soci-ologist Hamza Alvi, in the 19thCentury, when the already deplet-ed Muslim rule in India complete-ly collapsed, many Muslims became
aware of their minority status vis àvis the Hindus.
In his 2011 book Pakistan InSearch of Identity, Ali writes thatthis is when some members of thefading Muslim elite began to claimthat the Muslims of India were apart of the larger Muslim universe,the ummah. In a 1997 essay “Ironiesof History”, Alvi explains that theidea of the ummah was proliferat-ed among India’s Muslims by 19thCentury pan-Islamists, many ofwhom had the backing of the lastremaining caliphs of the OttomanEmpire.
Interestingly, according toChristopher Jaffrelot’s The PakistanParadox, Sir Syed Ahmad Khan,actually discouraged the wholeidea of the ummah because hebelieved it diluted his idea of form-ing a concrete Indian Muslim iden-tity.
Muhammad Ali Jinnah, too,aired similar concerns when herefused to join the KhilafatMovement (1919-24) led by pan-Islamists and the ulema.
Yet, some 25 years after
Pakistan’s birth, the state reinstat-ed the idea of the ummah. Just asthis idea had emerged in the 19thCentury to appease Indian Muslimswho had suddenly became con-scious of their minority status, inthe 1970s, the shock of losing EastPakistan because of ethnic divi-sions, reinvigorated the same ideato (albeit artificially) lift Pakistanfrom its South Asian roots andplace it at the core of the largerMuslim world.
This diluted Pakistan’s identi-ty and the manner in which itdescribed itself as a Muslim major-ity state. It began looking for vali-dation from Arab monarchs to theextent of sometimes changing theway its South Asian Muslim ances-tors had practised their faith forcenturies, and adopting the behav-iourisms of rich Arabs.
It is time to refigure Pakistaninationhood in the context of itsrich South Asian heritage, especial-ly now that India is digging exact-ly the kind of hole that we once dugand then fell into.
Jammu: A 120-mm mortarshell, fired by Pakistani forces,was destroyed by the IndianArmy in a forward village nearthe Line of Control (LoC) inPoonch district of Jammu &Kashmir on Sunday, officialssaid. The shell had landed neara house in the Balakot area ofMendhar sector during cross-border shelling on Saturdayand was noticed by some vil-lagers, who informed the Army,the officials said.
They said Army expertsimmediately rushed to the spotand destroyed the unexplodedshell safely.
Pakistani troops violatedthe ceasefire by targeting for-ward posts and villages at sev-eral places, including Balakot,on Saturday, prompting strongand effective retaliation fromthe Indian Army. PTI
Srinagar: Nearly two dozenterrorists are present in the cityand its periphery and evenopenly threatening shopkeepersin some areas, raising seriousconcern in the security estab-lishment, according to officials.
However, security forcesare taking all precautions toensure that the terrorists do notuse the situation to cause anyflare-up as in the past incidentsof stone pelting by youths haveoccurred during anti-militancyoperations, they said.
There have been only strayprotests since the governmentimposed severe restrictions oncommunication channels andmovement of people after itannounced its decisions toabrogate the special statusaccorded to Jammu & Kashmirand split the state into twoUnion territories on August 5.
Restrictions have subse-quently been eased, but the sit-uation in Kashmir Valley seems“far from normal”, particularlywith a high presence of terror-ists, they said.
At many places inDowntown Srinagar, the ter-rorists have been seen roamingfreely and even warning shop-keepers to keep their shopsshut and adhere to their diktats,the officials said.
Jammu & Kashmir Policechief Dilbag Singh did not ruleout the possibility of presence ofterrorists but said to claim thatthey are roaming freely “is anexaggeration”.
From interactions with sev-eral officials of the state as well
as the Centre, it is estimated thataround two dozen terroristsare well-entrenched within thecity limits, while their move-ment and visibility in ruralareas have become a routine.
The officials, speaking oncondition of anonymity, saidcounter-militancy operationshave taken a severe hit eversince August 5 when theGovernment announced itsdecisions on Jammu & Kashmir.
Only two operations havetaken place since August 5 —one in Baramulla on August 20and another chance encounterin Sopore on September 9.
The terrorists have erectedblockades in certain parts of thecity, including in areas adjoin-ing Anchar Lake and Soura.
The officials said that theadministration has ensuredthat there is no civilian deathtill now and apprehends thatany strong action may provide
a trigger for violent protests.Search-and-cordon operationsand imposition of night restric-tions in the city area had endedin early 2000s and it had beendeclared as militancy free in2012, they said.
The officials believe theterrorists have “a deeper gameplan” as the violence level hascome down despite their “heavypresence”. At many places in thecity, including the highly securedCivil Lines areas of Raj Bagh,Jawhar Nagar and Lal Chowk,shopkeepers were threatened atgunpoint to keep their shops shutand ensure a complete hartal.
The shopkeepers and somemedia outlets have also beenasked to keep their peripheralCCTV cameras off, the officialssaid. In the militancy-hit areasof Shopian, terrorists burntdown an automobile workshopas it was repairing vehicles onSaturday, they said. PTI
�>�������������������(����9��������������%��������Srinagar: With no internet andmobile services in Kashmir forover 40 days now, journalists inthe Valley have been hard-pressed as a make-shift mediacentre set up here by theGovernment continues to be theonly connection for many withthe rest of the world.
The restrictions wereimposed across Kashmir onthe evening of August 4 — a daybefore the Centre announcedthe abrogation of Article 370provisions and bifurcation ofJammu & Kashmir into twoUnion territories.
Even though landlinephones have been restored earlythis month, mobile servicesand internet — on any platform— remain snapped. Harriedjournalists are now demandingthat the Government should atleast restore broadband con-nections of media houses.
“We have minimal contactwith our head office. We areoften outside our offices here forassignments or something elseand it is difficult for the headoffice or even our family toreach us in the absence ofmobile phone services,” IrfanAhmad, a senior photojournal-ist, said.
Another local journalist,Mudasir, who works for a dailynewspaper, said informationgathering has suffered due to thecommunication restrictions.
“We often do not knowwhat is happening in the cityand information from otherdistricts is hard to come by. Wehave to rely on official versionsof the events or incidents.Reaching officials or sourcesespecially in the other districtsis very difficult,” he said.
During the first few daysafter the restrictions wereimposed, the journalists couldnot file any stories except for theTV reports using the channels’outdoor broadcast vans here.
In the absence of any medi-um to send the news-reportsacross the country or outside,some journalists would sendtheir reports on pen drives
through flyers at the airport. The flyers would then con-
tact the offices of the mediahouses which would collect thedrives from him.
Most media organisations,especially TV channels, sentjournalists from Delhi to theValley as their reporters wereincommunicado.
Around a week later, thestate government’s Departmentof Information and PublicRelations set up a ‘MediaFacilitation Centre’ at a confer-ence hall of a local hotel here.
Four computers and a lonecell phone were available to caterto hundreds of journalists —both local as well as from out-
side the State.“One often had to wait for
more than half-an-hour to geta (computer) system. Then thespeed was so irritating that theemail would take ages to open,”Firdous Ahmad, a local jour-nalist, told PTI.
Journalists have to registerthemselves before making acall from the cell phone andmore often than not, the wait-ing period would stretch forhours because of the rush.
“We have to write down ournames on a register before mak-ing a call and then wait for ourturn,” Ahmad said.
However, after frequentcomplaints by journalists, few
more computers were added tothe centre and the networkspeed was also upgraded, bring-ing some relief.
Irfan Ahmad said whilethe addition of more computersand speed upgrade was a wel-come step, media persons arestill grappling with a number ofproblems. “After completingour assignments and capturingpictures, we have to first go toour respective offices to selectand re-size the pictures. Thencopy them in a flash drive andhead to the media centre to sendthem. This is so hectic,” he said.
Mudasir said it has been the“longest-ever blockade” of ser-vices faced by journalists in theValley and the Governmentshould at least restore broad-band or leased-line internetconnections of media houses.
“We have seen mobile andinternet suspensions, but neverbefore has it been this long forjournalists. It has been over 40days now that we have beendeprived of the facilities. In anera when government agenciescan monitor anything, why is itso difficult to restore internetlines of media houses?” thejournalist said.
While the television chan-nels have outdoor broadcastvans for their reportage, thework of their stringers fromother districts across the Valleyhas been hit. PTI
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Jammu: There should be afresh socioeconomic survey inJammu & Kashmir for the wel-fare of members of schedulecaste communities, a seniorBJP leader said on Sunday,claiming that they were livingin “sub standard conditions”.
BJP state SC morcha pres-ident Jagdish Bhagat alsoclaimed that the existingsocioeconomic survey, whichwas conducted in 2011, wasinexact.
“The fresh socioeconomicsurvey should be conducted asit is a must for improving theliving conditions of members ofthe SC community who are liv-ing in sub-standard condi-
tions,” he said at a meeting atthe BJP headquarters here.
Bhagat also appealed toPrime Minister Narendra Modifor early implementation oflaws favouring schedule caste(SC) communities in Unionterritories of Jammu &Kashmir, and Ladakh, whichwill come into being onOctober 31.
Hailing the Centre forscrapping the special status toJammu & Kashmir and itsbifurcation into the two Unionterritories, he said peoplebelonging to the SC communi-ty are victims of Article 370 thatproved a major hurdle in theiroverall development. PTI
Lucknow: Union LabourMinister Santosh KumarGangwar has said there was nodearth of employment oppor-tunities in the country, butrecruiters visiting north Indiacomplain of lack of “qualitypeople” to fill vacancies, draw-ing flak from Opposition lead-ers who accused him of insult-ing people of the region.
The comments came amidcriticism of the Governmentover India’s unemployment raterising to a 45-year high of 6.1per cent in 2017-18, data ofwhich was released in May.
“The issue of employmentkeep figuring in newspapersthese days. I am handling thesame Ministry for labour and
employment and examine theissue daily. I have understood theproblem,” Gangwar toldreporters on Saturday in Bareilly,his Lok Sabha constituency.
“Recruiters who visit northIndia complain of facing dearthof quality people for the poststhey need to fill,” he added.
The Minister’s commentsdrew sharp reactions fromOpposition with Congress leaderPriyanka Gandhi Vadra sayingthe Government was trying toescape blame for the job lossesdue to economic slowdown bysuch “insulting” comments.
“Mr Minister, it has beenmore than five years for yourGovernment. There is no job
creation. Whatever jobs werethere, they have been snatcheddue to the economic slow-down brought by theGovernment. You want toescape by insulting NorthIndians,” she said.
“Youths are lookingtowards the government hop-ing that it will do somethinggood for them,” the Congressgeneral secretary said.
Bahujan Samaj Party chiefMayawati said such commentsare laughable. “After the dif-ferent laughable statements bydifferent Union ministers onthe serious issue of economicslowdown, instead of removingunemployment in the countrynow it is being said that thereis no shortage of jobs, but ofcompetence, especiallyamongst north Indians.
“This is extremely shame-ful and an apology should betendered to the nation,” shetweeted. PTI
Attacking the BJP for impos-ing a super emergency-like
situation in the country, BengalChief Minister MamataBanerjee on Sunday calledupon the people of India tounite and fight against the saf-fron outfit so that their rightsand freedom guaranteed by theConstitution can be preservedand protected.
Tweeting on the occasionof International Day ofDemocracy, Banerjee said “onInternational Day ofDemocracy today, let us onceagain pledge to safeguard theconstitutional values our coun-try was founded on.”
Lashing out at the Centrefor imposing a super-emer-gency-like situation she said “inthis era of ‘Super Emergency’, wemust do all it takes to protect therights and freedoms that our
wishing the people good camea couple of days after shewarned the Centre againstbringing Bengal within theambit of National Register forCitizens.
In an earlier meeting onThursday, she lambasted theCentre for subjecting the peo-ple of Assam to untold misery
through NRC. “Their (BJP)version of NRC is nothing buta political vendetta on thosewho oppose their politics,” shesaid adding “in the guise ofNRC the Government hasstruck out the names of morethan 11 lakh Bengali Hindus,four lakh Muslims, one lakhGorkhas and Bihari and UPwallahs.”
This was all a part of BJP’s
electoral politics in Assam,she said. “They are not onlymixing religion but also lin-guistic divide in the name ofNRC which is dangerous forthe future of the country,” shesaid It was “for the sake ofHindus, Muslims, Sikhs,Christians and others that Ihave rejected NRC.”
On the BJP’s proposal ofinvolving NRC in Bengal she
said “let them touch Bengal andthen see what happens.”
While the Bengal BJP pres-ident Dilip Ghosh said that hisparty was determined to invokeNRC in the State after theouster of the State Government,BJP legislator from Ballia inUttar Pradesh Surendra Singhsaid lashed out at Banerjee forcriticising NRC saying she wasmore interested in preservingher vote bank than preservingthe interests of her motherland.He asked her to shift toBangladesh and become thatcountry’s Prime Minister.
He said “MamataBanerjee`s bad days are aboutto come and she should changeher language. If she wants to dopolitics with the support ofBangladeshi people, she shouldgo to Bangladesh. It will begood if she becomes PrimeMinister of Bangladesh if shehas courage for it.”
Cuddalore (TN): A priest of thefamous Lord Nataraja temple atChidambaram in this districthas been suspended for arrang-ing the recent marriage of aSivakasi-based businessman atthe shrine’s 1,000-pillar hall inviolation of “Agama sastras”.
Trustees of the temple,including AyyappanDeekshathar, told reportersthat the priest had violated the“Agama sastras” (rulesGoverning the poojas andother temple rituals) and theindustrialist family had con-verted the entire hall into a lux-urious wedding hall withflower decorations, festoons
and illuminations.The grand decorations
had converted the holy atmos-phere of the temple into a pri-vate wedding hall and this hadhurt the sentiments of devotees,they said.
Though weddings were per-formed in the PandiyanayakarSannathi in the temple, the1000-pillar hall was used only forthe special festival occasionssuch as celestial marriage of thedeities and “Arudhra darshan”.
As per Agama rules, theplace where celestial wedding isheld should not be used for themarraige of humans, a priest ofthe temple said. PTI
Srinagar: While schools, col-leges and universities are func-tioning normally in the Jammuand Ladakh divisions of the twoUnion Territories, the samecannot be said for the KashmirValley where education hastaken the worst beating becauseof the clampdown.
Authorities have openedschools up to the 10th standardin the Valley, but the attendanceof children in these education-al institutions has been disap-pointing so far.
“All the teaching staff havebeen attending their duty reg-ularly in the Valley’s govern-ment-run schools, though theattendance of children has notimproved,” said an official of theSchool Education Department.
Parents have been reluctantto send children to school asthey are unable to keep track ofthem because of the suspension
of mobile phone services.“During normal days we
would keep a track of our chil-dren through mobile phones by
calling the school authorities, orthe bus drivers in case of privateschools.
“In the present uncertainsituation, no one wants to takea chance with the child’s safetyespecially when mobile phonesare not working,” said JavaidShah father of two school-goingchildren in Srinagar old city.
Submission of examinationforms for the 10th class hasalready started in the Valleyeven though the students saidthey had not covered all the top-ics of their academic syllabus.
“We have not yet beentaught many topics in Physics,Chemistry, Biology and SocialSciences. How can we answer allthe questions unless they ignorethe untaught topics?,” said a class
10th student.The general demand of the
class 10th student for curtail-ment of the syllabus has not yetbeen accepted by the authorities.
Farooq Ahmad Khan, theadvisor on education to theGovernor, has said all schoolexams will be held in the Valleyeven if their conduct is delayedby some days.
Khan also dispelledrumours of any mass promotionof students to higher classes onaccount of the prevailing uncer-tainty in the Valley.
Colleges and universities,however, continue to remainshut for the last 42 days.
“All colleges and universitieswill start functioning soon inthe Valley as the situation is fast
returning to normal,” said anofficial of the Higher EducationDepartment.
The opening of collegesand universities is likely to havea cushioning effect on the atten-dance of students in schools.
It is, however, believed thatthe authorities do not want anystudent unrest to add to theirlaw and order problems.
“We do not want anti-social elements to play withthe future of our students bystoking passions throughunfounded rumours.Institutions of higher learningin the Valley will start func-tioning after the situationimproves further in the com-ing days,” said anotherGovernment officials. IANS
4�"�����)����������"�����#��������������)��� ����Ayodhya: Senior BJP leaderSubramanium Swamy hasclaimed that the constructionof the grand Ram temple inAyodhya will commence byNovember.
He also stated that thedecision of the Supreme Court,which is hearing the RamJanambhoomi-Babri Masjidtitle suit, will be in favour of theRam temple.
Swamy, who was inAyodhya on a two-day visit,further said that the right toworship is a fundamental rightand cannot be taken away byanyone.
“The temple which is at thespot of Lord Ram’s birth can-not be removed,” he said.
The remark by the BJPleader comes just days afterNDA constituent Shiv Senachief Uddhav Thackeray calledfor action by Prime MinisterNarendra Modi-led centralgovernment to enable speedyconstruction of the grand Ramtemple in Ayodhya.
The Shiv Sena chief hadsaid that with abrogation ofArticle 370, which grantedspecial status to Jammu andKashmir, the Modi govern-ment had shown that it wasdecisive in nature.
He added that after theArticle 370 move, it was nowtime for construction of RamMandir and introduction ofuniform civil code. IANS
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Mumbai: Maharashtra ChiefMinister Devendra Fadnavison Sunday expressed displea-sure over Shiv Sena leader andState Transport MinisterDiwakar Raote’s “unilateral”announcement to keep on holdthe implementation of theCentre’s amended MotorVehicles (MV) Act which stip-ulates steep fines for violationof traffic rules.
Speaking to PTI, he alsoindicated revision in theamount of fines to make it lessharsh on the common man,without compromising on the“deterrent value” of the Act.
Days after Raote requestedthe Centre to reconsider thehefty fines under the amendedprovisions and announcedholding their enforcement,Fadnavis said sometimes he hadto “cover” his colleagues fromallied parties for certain deci-sions.
“At times, some of myCabinet colleagues, from alliedparties, take decisions which Ihave had to cover. Raote’s deci-sion was about a policy. Hence,
it should have been discussedwith me and the entire Cabinet,”the Chief Minister told PTI.
The amended MotorVehicle Act was passed byParliament in July-August thisyear, but its steep fines havebeen at the Centre of a debate,leading to some states decidingto give breathing time to thepublic before enforcing it.
While Gujarat andUttarakhand have announced acut in penalties for traffic vio-lations under the Act, few stateshave adopted it in its entiretywhile several others have put iton hold.
Fadnavis went on to saythat he was “whole-heartedly”
supporting the amended pro-visions.
“Earlier provisions in theMotor Vehicles Act were notstringent enough. There wereinstances where people threwthe fine amount at officialsbecause it was so low. Therehave been major accidents andcomplaints of traffic violations.Such a strong deterrent is need-ed,” he said.
The CM said the Act wouldbe implemented notwithstand-ing differences over the quan-tum of fines.
“Maharashtra is going toaccept and implement the Act.There may be a difference ofopinion about the fine amounts.Whether to reduce the fineamount, so that it is not a bur-den of the common man, canbe considered. It can be workedout and fine amount can berevised to make it less harsh,”Fadnavis said.
He, however, added thatsuch reduction in the fineamounts must not “compromiseon its deterrent value”. PTI
Shahjahanpur (UP): The SITprobing the alleged rape of alaw student by BJP leaderSwami Chinmayanand onSunday examined three malefriends of the victim, besidessome employees of her college.
The victim’s friends whowere examined included theone who was with her when shewas located in Rajasthan afterhaving gone missing from herelate last month.
He and the two otherswere also present inside the carin which the girl had made hervideo recording, narratingabout her ordeal.
The apex court-appointedSpecial Investigation Teamcalled them to the Police Lineshere and recorded their state-ments, official sources said.
The SIT also examined theprincipals of girl’s alma mater— a law college and a post-graduate college — both locat-ed on the campus ofMumukshu Ashram of former
Union MinisterChinmayanand.
The SIT also examinedtwo other college employees,who had been summoned onSaturday but had failed toturn up for recording of theirstatements.
The girl’s father, mean-while, termed the leakage of thevideo footage given to the SITby his daughter as a “conspir-acy” and said he would request
the Supreme Court to order aprobe into it.
“From where have thescreenshots and videos come tothe social media? The screen-shots have been posted even onvarious social media platforms.These were given to the SIT bymy daughter. This is a con-spiracy,” he said.
He said he would inform theSupreme Court about it and seeka probe in the entire matter.
A beleagueredChinmayanand, meanwhile,got support from self-styledgodman Swami Omji whothreatened with rebellion byHindu society if a case is reg-istered against the BJP leader.
“If any false case is regis-tered against Chinamayanand,then crores of Hindus will hitthe streets throughout thecountry and rise in rebellion,”said Omji, who was also a con-testant in reality TV showBigg Boss.
“The UP Governmentmust not register any case ofrape against Chinmayanandand if it has been lodged, itmust be withdrawn,” he said.
Omji claimed the girl stu-dent had met Congress presi-dent Sonia Gandhi and partyleaders Rahul Gandhi andPriyanka Gandhi Vadra inDelhi and it was at their behestthat a zero FIR was lodgedagainst Chinmayanand.
The law student had onSaturday given a pen drive con-taining 43 videos to the SIT tosupport her allegations afterthe sleuths asked her to submitwhatever evidence she hadagainst the former Union min-ister. The SIT, set up on SupremeCourt orders, had taken thewoman to Chinmayanand’sbedroom on Friday morningand had collected various piecesof evidence. The special inves-tigation team had quizzed thestudent’s mother on Saturday,they said. PTI
Kota (Raj): Over 5,000 peoplewere evacuated while manyothers remained stranded onrooftops on Sunday as largeareas were flooded in the citydue to discharge of 6.93 lakhcusecs of water from Kota bar-rage, officials said.
Schools have been closedand Army, NDRF, SDRF andteams from Kota municipalcorporation engaged in rescueoperations in areas along theriver Chambal.
“Over 5,000 people have sofar been shifted to shelterhomes and safe places.However, people are stilltrapped in many areas andefforts are being made to evac-uate them with the help ofArmy and rescue personnel,”Kota district collectorMuktanand Agrawal toldreporters on Sunday evening.
No causality has beenreported so far, he said.
The official said Kota wasfacing an unprecedented situ-ation as it is the first time sincethe construction of Gandhi
Sagar dam that a record 6.93lakh cusecs of water was dis-charged from 19 gates of KotaBarrage in a day.
He said more water is like-ly to be discharged fromGandhi Sagar dam which iscurrently overflowing at 1,314ft and needs to be broughtdown to 1,308 ft.
“The Army, administra-tion, NDRF, SDRF and civildefence teams are on alert tomeet any eventuality,” he said
He also appealed to peopleto ignore rumours of damageto dams and said both GandhiSagar and Kota Barrage arefully safe and secure.
Around 500 policemen
and 200 NDRF, SDRF and civildefense personnel have beendeployed.
Meanwhile, additionalchief secretary and Kota districtin charge secretary P K Goyal,along with divisional commis-sioner LN Soni and Kora rangeIG Vipin Panday, visited theflood affected areas.
Collector Agrawal tooreviewed the flood situationwith officials.
The down stream localitiesin the city were the worstaffected by the deluge, as waterreached even the second floorof houses and people weretaking shelter on the thirdfloor of buildings to save them-selves, officials said.
“The situation followingrelease of 7.50 lac cusec waterfrom Kota barrage is very seri-ous and grave,” said assistantfire officer, KMC, DevendraGautam, who is engaged in therescue operation.
People are being asked toevacuate, but most of the themare not ready to leave their
houses and have climbed onrooftops to save themselves, headded.
Meanwhile, the situationimproved in downstream areasof Jhalawar district which wereflooded due to discharge ofabout 5 lakh cusecs of wasterfrom Kalisindh dam in the dis-trict.
As the discharge wasbrought down to 2 lakh cusecs,food waters receded.
“The flood situation isunder control. No one in thedistrict is reported trapped,”Jhalawar district collectorSiddharth Sihag said.
In Baran, district collectorIndra Singh Rao has declareda holiday in schools onMonday.
Bundi district collectorRukmani Riyad Sihag alsoappealed the people to moveaway from areas near Chambal.
Meanwhile, Lok SabhaSpeaker and Kota-Bundi MPOm Birla remained in touchwith senior state officials on theflood relief operations. PTI
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The Central Bureau ofInvestigation on Sunday
sent letters to Bengal ChiefSecretary, Home Secretaryand Director General of Policeseeking the whereabouts ofsenior IPS officer Rajiv Kumareven as the former KolkataCommissioner of Police con-tinued to remain “untraceableand uncontestable” even twodays after the Calcutta HighCourt lifted the shield againstarrest off him.
Informed sources in theBengal Police said Kumar,presently the AdditionalDirector General of CID whofailed to present himselfbefore the CBI officials for thesecond day on Sunday afterlosing the protective coveragainst arrest on Friday, wasplanning to file a SpecialLeave Petition in the SupremeCourt.
After summons were sent
to him on Friday, the formertop cop had reportedly wroteto the CBI seeking a month’stime as he was on leave tend-ing to his ailing wife a seniorIRS official herself.
About the contents of theletters sent to the senior StateGovernment officials, sourcesin the Agency said the CBIwanted to know through theletters that whether Kumarwas genuinely on leave, if sowhen he applied for the leave,what was the reason for theleave taken and when was hesupposed to join back.Information was also soughtabout the reason of leavetaken and the address he wasto be found during the leaveperiod.
Meanwhile, senior CBIcounsel RJ Dastoor on Sundayrushed to Delhi to meet thetop officials. “He has beenasked to visit Delhi wherelegal consultations will takeplace for further steps tomor-row,” sources said.
Nagpur: Two Naxals, each car-rying a reward of �4 lakh,were killed and at least five oth-ers injured in an encounterwith police on Sunday inMaharashtra’s Gadchiroli dis-trict, an official said.
The gun-battle took placein Narkasa forest area, locatedaround 170 km from here ineast Maharashtra, when C-60commandos, a specialised anti-Naxal unit of State police, werecombing the area, he said.
On a specific informationreceived by district SP ShaileshBalkawde about a naxal build-up in Gyarapatti area inDhanora taluka the securitypersonnel rushed to the spotwhen they came under heavyfire from a group of 20-25ultras around 7:30 am,
Gadchiroli Police said in arelease.
“The firing continued forabout half an hour. We laterfound bodies of two Naxals,including a woman. We alsofound a carbine, a one-borerifle, several rounds of ammu-nition, binoculars, walkie-talkie set, a transistor, anditems of daily use,” the officialsaid.
He said that around four tofive Naxals were apparentlyinjured in the skirmish.
The slain ultras are identi-fied as Lalsu alias ShantaramDevrao Gawde, a resident ofDhanora and platoon partycommittee member of compa-ny no 4, and the woman cadreas Samila from Bastar inChhattisgarh. PTI
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Bengaluru: Arrested Congressleader DK Shivakumar hasappealed to his supporters notto come to New Delhi toexpress solidarity with him, inthe backdrop of a large num-ber of them barging into acourt there on Friday, when hewas produced in connectionwith a money laundering case.
Conveying this in a pressrelease, his brother DK Sureshsaid Shivakumar has asked hissupporters not to come toDelhi on Tuesday when he islikely to be procuded in theSpecial Court dealing withcases relating to ED.
A Delhi court on Fridayhad extended the custodialinterrogation of Shivakumar bythe Enforcement Directorate(ED) by four days tillSeptember 17 in the case.
“I request all party workers,supporters and well wishers ofShri D K Shivakumar to not tocome to New Delhi on Tuesday(17.09.2019).
This request is on behalf of
my brother DK Shivakumartoo,” Suresh said in a pressrelease.
He said, “We requesteveryone to be in their respec-tive places in the state andarrival of more people in Delhiwill cause inconvenience tothe administration and judi-ciary.”
“As law abiding citizen, itsour responsibility to maintainsmooth functioning of admin-istrative and judicial systems.
Therefore we request andexpect everyone’s cooperationand support in this regard,” headded.
Shivakumar, 57, sittingCongress MLA fromKanakapura assembly segment,is in the ED custody since hisarrest on September 3.
On Friday, whenShivakumar was producedbefore the court on the expiryof his 9-day custodial interro-gation by the agency, additionalforces from Delhi police andCRPF were deployed inside
and outside the courtroom tocontrol the large number ofsupporters who had gathered.
But even the heavy deploy-ment of security personnelcould not stop the supportersfrom barging inside the court-room.
Before being escorted outof the court on Friday,Shivakumar had reportedlyasked his supporters present atthe premises, to go back home.
The ED had in Septemberlast year registered the moneylaundering case againstShivakumar, Haumanthaiah,an employee at the KarnatakaBhavan in New Delhi, andothers.
The ED had filed thePMLA case against him andothers based on a charge sheet(prosecution complaint) filedby the Income Tax Departmentagainst them last year before aspecial court in Bengaluru oncharges of alleged tax evasionand hawala transactions worthcrores. PTI
Bengaluru: Karnataka Ministerfor Rural Development andPanchayat Raj KS Eshwarappa,who ahead of the LS polls madea controversial comment thatMuslims won’t be given ticketsby BJP, on Sunday said patriot-ic Muslims will vote for the saf-fron party while those who arepro-Pakistan will hesitate.
The senior BJP leader alsoannounced that the party-ledgovernment will ban slaughterof cows in the state.
“Every one has a wish forAkhanda Bharat, why it is nothappening is because of fearthat they (section of politi-cians) may not get Muslimvotes..” Eshwarappa said.
Speaking at an event here,he said, “Before BJP govern-ment came to power I hap-pened to meet couple ofCongress MLAs who expresseddesire to come to BJP, butclaimed that they have over50,000 Muslim votes in their
constituencies and may facedefeat if they lose that, which iskind of a ‘Hijada’ (eunuch)behavior.”
Eshwarappa also claimedthat in his constituency inShivamogga, there were over50,000 Muslim voters and hehas never gone to them seekingvotes.
“I told them (CongressMLAs) that in my constituen-cy, my community- Kurubavote is about 8,000-10,000 andthere is more than 50,000Muslim votes. I have till todaynot gone to a single Muslimsaluting him for vote. I havewon by a lead of over 47,000votes,” he said. “Why I’m sayingthis-Journalists write down this.
A rashtra bhakta (patriot)Muslim will vote for BJP, andthose who are pro Pakistan andrashtra drohis (traitors) willhesitate to vote for BJP,” theMinister added. Ahead of theLok Sabha polls in April,
Eshwarappa had said the BJPwould not give tickets toMuslims to contest the electionsas they do not believe in theparty.
On banning cow slaughterin the state, he said, “Cowslaughter is banned in a way,but it has to be done completely.When there was BJP govern-ment in the past we had doneit, but Congress governmentcame to power and removed it.
I’m saying this in this meet-ing, in front of holy seers thatthis government will ban cowslaughter, let there be no doubt.”
Despite resistance fromopposition, the then BJPGovernment led by BSYediyurappa in 2010 had gotthe controversial Prevention ofSlaughter and Preservation ofCattle Bill passed that pro-posed to replace the KarnatakaPrevention of Cow Slaughterand Cattle Preservation Act,1964. PTI
Bengaluru: Hitting out at theBJP Government in the Stateand at the Centre over thedelay in announcing flood relieffor Karnataka, senior Congressleader Siddaramaiah on Sundaytermed BS Yediyurappa as themost weakest Chief Minister.
The Centre had not giveneven a single rupee since thefloods caused havoc last monthdespite a Central team visitingthe affected places and thestate government submitting amemorandum putting the lossat �38,000 crore, he toldreporters here.
Stating that the centralGovernment had sent back thestates memorandum, seekingsome clarifications, he askedwhat was the difficulty inannouncing interim relief and
pointed to the largescaledestruction caused by thefloods that hit several districts,especially in the northern partsof the state.
“I have been in politics for40 years, I had never seen suchlarge scale floods, coupled withdrought in some districts, hesaid. As many as 103 taluks of22 districts were affected byrecent floods for which the StateGovernment has sought a reliefof �38,000 crore from theCentre. Around seven districtswere reeling under drought.
Questioning as to why thePrime Minister has not visitedthe affected areas, he asked,doesn’t Narendra Modi haveany responsibility? He wouldhave come if he had cared forfarmers and poor.”
Attacking the BJP leadersfrom Karnataka as coward fornot demanding central relief, hesaid: “According to me none ofthem has the courage. OurChief Minister Yediyurappa isthe most weakest ChiefMinister”
The Congress leader alsoalleged that BJP was trying foranother round of operationlotus (poaching of oppositionMLAs), but expressed confi-dence that none from Congresswill leave the party.
Absence and resignationof 17 rebel Congress-JD(S)MLAs during the trust vote hadled to the collapse of the HDKumaraswamy headed coali-tion Government in July, pavingthe way for the BJP to come topower. PTI
Chief Minister MamataBanerjee to mend her ways orget ready to meet the same fateas former Finance Minister PChidambaram who is current-ly lodged in jail.
The MLA from BairiaAssembly constituencySurendra Singh said theTrinamool Congress supre-mo should “become the PrimeMinister of Bangladesh” asshe was opposed to theNational Register of Citizens(NRC).
“The statements made byMamata Banerjee against theNRC show that she is backedby foreign forces,” Singh toldreporters here on Saturday on
the sidelines of a ‘krishi mela’.“It seems that Mamata is
forgetting that bad days areapproaching her. She shouldchange her language andbehaviour otherwise she willmeet the same fate as Congressleader P Chidambaram,” hesaid.
On September 13, Mamata
Banerjee took out a rally inKolkata against the NRC inAssam after the final list wasreleased on August 31 whichleft out 19 lakh people.
After the rally, the TMCchief had said that she wouldnever allow the Centre to con-duct a similar exercise in WestBengal.
Singh, however, said: “IfMamata wants to do politics byprotecting the infiltrators fromBangladesh then she shouldbecome the Prime Minister ofBangladesh.”
“In Bengal, lord Ram andlord Hanuman respectivelyin form of Amit Shah and YogiAdityanath have appeared,and in the next Assemblyelections, there will be achange of power in the state,”he added.
The largest lender State Bankof India will be seeking
clarifications from the ReserveBank whether it can offer long-term home loans with fixedrates in the beginning andconvert the same into floatingrates later, chairman RajnishKumar has said.
The move comes after theReserve Bank has mandatedbanks to shift all retail lendingto floating rates that will bedetermined by externalbenchmarks like the repo rate.
Kumar said there is a lackof clarity on how it can goahead with the fixed rate prod-ucts, after the RBI’s new regu-lations on floating rates.
Hinting at the volatility inthe repo rate, he said somehome buyers may want theirloan rates to be fixed.
For such buyers, it canoffer a ‘fixed-floating’ product,wherein the rates are locked infor an initial period of say fiveto ten years, and then turnsfloating.
The need for making theproduct floating in the latterpart arises out of the bank’sinability to project the liabili-ty movements in the future, hesaid, adding typically, homeloans are for about 30 years.
It can be noted that therepo rate at which the centralbank lends to the system is ata nine-year low of 5.40 per cent.
Speaking to reporters hereover the weekend, Kumar saidthe central bank’s recent guide-lines on floating rate products
for the retail segment hasnecessitated the need for theclarity.
Kumar has clarified thatfrom an asset liability man-agement perspective, it is dif-ficult to have a fixed rate prod-uct for a long term like 30 years,the maximum tenor of a homeloan now from the bank now.Some private sector peers offerup to 35 years of home loansdepending on in the age of theborrower, though.
At present, SBI has a float-ing rate home loan productlinked to its marginal cost offunds-based lending rate and itrecently withdrew one linked tothe repo rate. It does not havea fixed rate home loan productat present.
As of now, under the mar-ginal cost of funds based lend-ing, floating rate loans are re-set as when the interest ratesfall or rise, but fixed rate loansare reset in 9-12 months. Butwhen the loans are linked to therepo rate, the rates can changesharply, depending on howRBI acts on the rate front.
Many mortgage borrowers
normally choose fixed rates, asthat helps them better managetheir finances because of thecertainty about the EMI out-goes.
Kumar said the bank doesnot have adequate liabilitieslinked to the floating ratewhich makes such a floatingproduct difficult.
Speaking on the RBI-man-dated systemic shift to externalbenchmarked lending rates,he said SBI will have minimalissues with the same.
He said the industry leaderwas the first to move on to therepo-linked loans and depositssince May, and has many of itsproducts aligned to the exter-nal benchmarks now.
However, he said suchshifts make asset liability man-agement “challenging” as therelack of floating rate liabilitiesnow.
About the impact of themega bank mergers on SBI, hesaid it will not impact thenation’s largest bank as SBI hasspecified business model andtarget segments, and will con-tinue with the same.
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The Narendra Modi-ledGovernment’s plan to sell
debt-laden airline Air India iswell on track but the sale maynot mop up the targeted yieldowing to its value erosion overlast several months since itdecided to stop selling ticketson the platform of global tick-eting distribution companyAmadeus.
In October last year,Travelport had announced thatit had “won competitive tenderprocess undertaken by AirIndia for the sole provision ofdistribution of its domesticflight content in the airline’shome market”.
The national carrier haddecided to shift to Travelportdespite several senior officialsraising objections against themove. Joining hands withTravelport meant giving accessto details of AI’s flyers toInterglobe TechnologiesQuotient, a strategic businessunit of InterGlobe Enterpriseswhich is the parent company ofIndiGo, India’s largest airline bymarket share and Air India’sbiggest competitor.
It is understood Amadeusmanaged about 50 percent ofAir India’s ticket sales through
its GDS network. GDS is a globally connect-
ed computerised reservationnetwork offering a one-pointaccess to airline bookings, hotelreservations as well associatedtravel-related areas includingcar rentals.
Dr Sanat Kaul, ChairmanInternational Foundation forAviation Aerospace and Dronessaid “Air India has been on theproverbial ventilator for longtime. Divesting it’s saleableassets and properties is not theanswer to this mess. Reducingit’s vast GDS distribution net-work to one vendor is shrink-ing its catchment area of pas-sengers. The government pol-icy of appointing one CMDafter another who have nobackground in aviation or air-
lines business shows its lack ofseriousness. Taxpayers are thevictims of this policy unlikeother airlines which go in forliquidation.”
The committee of secre-taries (CoS) headed by CabinetSecretary PK Sinha has giventhe green signal to offload 95per cent stake in the nationalcarrier. Last year, the Centrehad invited bids to sell a 76 percent stake in the ailing airline,along with the transfer of man-agement control.
The divestment proposal ispresently with group of minis-ters (GoM), headed by UnionHome Minister Amit Shah. Itis understood the GoM willshortly take a final call on thetiming, price and amount ofshares of Air India to be sold.
The government took mul-tiple measures to make AirIndia competitive by way ofbringing down debt and rais-ing resources by selling landassets and other subsidiaries.However, Air India’s net debtpeaked to �58,351.93 crore inFY19 from about �55,000 crorein FY18. The national carrierreceived an equity infusion of�30,520.21 crore from the gov-ernment till date as a part of its2012 Turn Around Plan.
Last month,in a majoradmonition to state-run AirIndia, Delhi High Court hasdirected national carrier topresent its reasons behind itsdecision to shift domestic tick-et-booking business “exclu-sively” on Travelport, andabdruptly discontinuing usingthe services of global ticket dis-tribution firm Amadeus.
In its order dated July 25the High Court ruled, “time issought to file counter affi-davit. Let the counter affi-davit be filed within fourweeks. Rejoinder, if any be filedwithin four weeks thereafter”.The HC is slated to hear thecase on September 26.
The court has given AirIndia four weeks’ time torespond to the judgement withrelevant documents.
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Union MinisterArjun Ram
Meghwal onSunday said peopleon their ownshould avoid singleuse plastic to helpprotect environ-ment.
“ P r i m eMinister (Narendra Modi) hascalled for ban on single useplastic. Can we discontinuesingle use plastic?. We have totake oath that I will not use sin-gle use plastic one day in aweek” the Minister of state forheavy industries and publicenterprises said here.
Addressing “Vision NewIndia 2022-DevelopmentThrough Technology for All”conclave jointly organised byhis Ministry and the IndianInstitute of Technology,Madras, he said an alternativeshould be invented to replacesingle use plastic.
“India is one of the signa-tories of the Paris Agreement.We have to protect the envi-ronment and take suo motuaction to reduce carbon emis-sion”, he said.
Members of the UnitedNations negotiated and adopt-ed the Paris Agreement inwhich India has made fourcommitments, includingreducing greenhouse gas emis-sion intensity of its GDP by 33-35 per cent below 2005 levelsby 2030.
Referring to the last publicspeech by former president AP J Abdul Kalam at IIMShillong in 2015, Meghwal saidthe late leader had spokenabout the need to save theEarth.
“It is the duty of the presentgeneration to follow his wordsto save the earth. We follow theideas of APJ Abdul Kalam. Butwe do not follow his words. Wehave to follow,” the ministersaid.
Meghwal also mooted theidea of collaboration betweencorporates and academia ontapping renewable energy atChennai Airport and referredto the example of the airport inKochi, which uses solar power.
“Why cannot we intro-duce this (concept) in Chennai,Kolkata (airports) or in anyother parts of the country? Wehave to take some suo motuaction and it can be doneunder CSR activity”, he said.
He said companies canform a consortium to take upthe initiative and can collabo-rate with institutions like IITMadras.
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Eq u i t ym a r k e t s
will take cuesfrom globaldevelopmentsand wholesaleinflation datathis week,while thethird trancheof stimulusm e a s u r e sannouncedby the gov-ernment maybolster senti-ment, ana-lysts said.
Finance Minister NirmalaSitharaman on Saturdayunveiled over Rs 70,000 croreof measures for exporters andthe real estate sector, includingabout Rs 30,000 crore newspending in plans such as set-ting up of a stressed asset fund,as part of efforts to boost eco-nomic growth from a six-yearlow.
“The new measuresannounced by the FM send theclear message that the govern-ment is giving top priority toreviving growth in the econo-my. The measures relating tohousing and export promotionlike textiles will provide a bigboost to employment too sincethese are labour intensiveindustries.
“The Rs 10,000 crore fundfor providing last mile fundingfor stalled non-NPA, non-NCLT (housing) projects needsto be specially appreciated,” saidV K Vijayakumar Chief
Investment Strategist at GeojitFinancial Services.
On the global front,geopolitical tensions in theMiddle East ratcheted up afterYemen’s Houthi rebels carriedout drone attacks on two majoroil plants in Saudi Arabia,affecting more than half of theKingdom’s output and puttingupward pressure on global oilprices.
Any spike in crude oilrates will affect the fiscal posi-tion of net energy importerslike India. Brent crude hasbeen trading at USD 60 perbarrel levels.
Participants will also trackWPI inflation data scheduledto be announced on Monday.
“Going ahead, we haveimportant numbers such asWPI inflation, food and fuel,but we see trade war, globalmarkets taking the spotlight.The market is poised to followthe path of how global marketsrespond and move,” Mustafa
Nadeem, CEO, Epic Researchsaid.
Factors such as movementof rupee against the US dollarand foreign capital flows willalso influence trading senti-ment in the market.
Meanwhile, global mar-kets will also focus on the USFederal Reserve’s interest ratedecision and Federal OpenMarket Committee (FOMC)economic projections.
Signs of easing US-Chinatrade tensions boosted thedomestic equities last week.During the last week, theSensex advanced 403.22 pointsor 1.09 per cent. On Friday, itclosed at 37,384.99, up 280.71points.
Jimeet Modi, Founder andCEO, SAMCO Securities andStockNote, said markets arewaiting for the festive season togauge how consumer spendingpans out and whether there isa change in sentiments at thebottom of the pyramid.
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Foreign portfolio investorsturned net buyers in the first
half of September, pumping in�1,841 crore into the capitalmarkets, after remaining sell-ers for the previous twomonths.
The latest inflows havebeen triggered by improvinginvestor sentiment on the backof easing US-China trade warand supporting macroeco-nomic data, experts said.
According to the latestdepositories data, foreign port-folio investors (FPIs) withdrewa net amount of �2,031.02crore from equities but put in�3,872.19 crore in the debt seg-ment during September 3-13,translating into a total netinflow of �1,841.17 crore intothe capital markets.
Prior to this, FPIs pulledout a net �5,920.02 crore inAugust and �2,985.88 crore inJuly from the domestic capitalmarkets (both equity anddebt).
“The markets have beenlargely positive on back ofcooling US-China trade war.Besides, the July IIP came outat 4.3 per cent which couldhave helped with the investor’ssentiments,” said Harsh Jain,COO at Groww.
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Facebook global executiveNick Clegg has proposed a
“prospective” mechanism forWhatsApp to act on casesflagged by law enforcementagencies, but the governmenthas refused to budge on itsdemand for traceability of mes-sages.
The issue of traceability hasbeen a flashpoint between thegovernment and WhatsApp,and the Facebook-owned mes-saging platform has so farresisted India’s demand foridentification of message orig-inators, arguing that doing sowould undermine its policy onprivacy and end-to-endencryption.
A senior government offi-cial told PTI that FacebookVice-President, Global Affairsand Communications, NickClegg, during his meeting withIT Minister Ravi ShankarPrasad last week mooted alter-natives to absolute traceabilityof messages, including use of‘meta data’ and machine intel-ligence for dealing with theissue, even offering to harness
WhatsApp, Instagram andFacebook linkages to provideassistance to law enforcementagencies.
When contacted, aFacebook spokesperson said:“Facebook cares deeply aboutthe safety of people in Indiaand Nick’s meetings this weekprovided opportunities to dis-cuss our commitment to sup-porting privacy and security inevery app we provide and howwe can continue to work pro-ductively with the Governmentof India towards these sharedgoals.”
A person aware ofWhatsApps’s position on thematter emphasised that theplatform cannot read messagesexchanged as they are encrypt-ed. It is learnt that Clegg inmeetings with top authorities,including Home Minister AmitShah, National SecurityAdvisor Ajit Doval as well as ITMinister Ravi Shankar Prasadon September 12, reiterated theUS tech giant’s stance that it willabide by any lawful request forinformation by the Indian gov-ernment, but it cannot readmessages exchanged on itsplatforms.
Clegg told the officials thatthe company can provide ‘sig-nals’ and meta data such as whocalls were made to and dura-tion, among others, of lawful-ly identified users, a sourcesaid.
The US social media gianthas agreed to provide Indiawith ‘meta data’ of any user ofits platforms, includingWhatsApp, that the govern-ment lawfully identifies but hasinsisted it cannot look intomessages exchanged as they areencrypted.
India is home to 400 mil-lion WhatsApp users and morethan 328 million Facebookusers. Social media compa-nies in India have drawn flakfrom the government in recentpast over instances of circula-tion of fake news, breach ofuser confidentiality, unautho-rised data sharing by the appsand concerns over privacy anddata security.
WhatsApp in particularhas been under fire over usersmisusing the platform for cir-culation of fake news that haveincited mob fury. The Indiangovernment has made it clearthat it intends to strengthen thelegal framework and makesocial media platforms moreaccountable under law.
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With an aim to unearthfinancial irregularities
and other fraudulent trans-actions at listed companies,capital market regulator Sebiis planning to set up a newwhistle-blower mechanismfor auditors and other ‘gate-keepers’ to report such cases.
The proposed moveassumes significance in thewake of several auditors in therecent past decided to exitfrom their audit mandateafter certain listed companiesfailed to take remedial actionsdespite financial wrongdo-ings having been flagged intheir auditors’ observations.
Officials said most ofthese auditor exits have takenplace at a much later stage,but a ‘confidentiality mecha-nism’ can help in cases offinancial frauds being report-ed at an early stage by audi-tors, independent directorsand others considered to be‘gate-keepers’ or ‘consciencekeepers’.
Regulators and enforce-ment agencies have oftenstressed that auditors, inde-pendent directors, investmentbankers, valuers and othersuch entities have a greaterresponsibility to ensure com-pliance to regulations and
safeguard the interest byminority shareholders.
While Securities andExchange Board of India(Sebi) has announced a newmechanism to reward infor-mants with up to Rs 1 crorecash for any credible insideinformation for providinginformation on insider trad-ing at listed companies, this isnot applicable to corporateentities and professionals suchas auditors and lawyers.
While there were sugges-tions from some quarters thatauditors, lawyers and consul-tants on behalf of their firmsshould also be allowed toavail the ‘informant mecha-nism’, Sebi was of the viewthat corporate entities were assuch under a duty to report.
Besides, lawyers arebound of confidentiality andit would considered unethicalfor them to complain againsttheir clients.
“However, as far as gate-keepers such as auditors areconsidered, a separate confi-dentiality mechanism is beingproposed,” a top official said.
The proposal is in earlystages as of now and a finaldecision would be taken onlyafter a detailed consultationprocess with all the con-cerned stakeholders, the offi-cial added.
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Auto-makers Maruti SuzukiIndia and Tata Motors’
domestic passenger vehiclemarket share declined in April-August this year, whileHyundai and M&M witnessedgain in the same period, as perdata compiled by industrybody SIAM.
The country’s largest car-maker Maruti Suzuki India(MSI) saw its market share dipby over 2 percentage pointsduring the period under reviewand slip below 50 per cent inthe domestic passenger vehiclesegment in April-August.
The company sold 5,55,064units this fiscal as comparedwith 7,57,289 units duringApril-August previous year. Itsmarket share has come downfrom 52.16 per cent last year to49.83 per cent in the April-August this fiscal.
Overall PV sales during theApril-August of the current fis-cal stands at 11,09,930 units ascompared to 14,51,647 units.
When contacted MSI exec-utive director (marketing andsales) Shashank Srivastava toldPTI that while cars and vans (Aand C segment) have per-formed well, there has been adrop in sales of utility vehicles(B segment).
“This is because of con-straint in supply of Ertiga hav-ing a large waiting period,” headded.
Besides, there is a shift inconsumer preference in SUVsegment towards petrol wherecurrently the company does nothave a variant, Srivastava saidadding that MSI plans to intro-duce petrol variants of VitaraBrezza and S-Cross BS-VI laterthis fiscal.
Similarly, Tata Motors hasreported sales of 60,093 unitsthis fiscal so far as against98,702 units last year. Its mar-ket share has fallen by 1.39 per-centage points to 5.41 per cent
in the current fiscal as against6.79 per cent last year.
On the other hand,Hyundai Motor India saw itsmarket share go up by 2.77 per-centage points in the April-August this year. The compa-ny sold a total of 2,03,729units this fiscal as compared to2,26,396 units.
Despite selling less this fis-cal, the company’s market sharehas risen from 15.59 per centlast fiscal to 18.36 per cent.
“2019 is a milestone yearfor Hyundai Motor India as welaunched three products inthree different segments...Thenew launches have led toincrease in customer traction,footfalls in showrooms andmarket share,” Hyundai MotorIndia Ltd National Sales HeadVikas Jain said.
Similarly, Mahindra &Mahindra (M&M) sold 89,733units this fiscal so far as com-pared with 1,00,015 units inApril-August last financial year,still its market share has risenby 1.19 percentage points thisfiscal to 8.08 per cent from 6.89per cent.
Likewise, Toyota KirloskarMotor sold 53,977 units this fis-cal so far as against 67,051unitsin the same period previ-ous year. Its market share roseto 4.86 per cent from 4.62 percent earlier.
Other players like RenaultIndia, Skoda Auto, VolkswagenIndia saw their market sharesincrease marginally duringApril-August this year.
Honda Cars sold 51,569units as compared to 79,599units last year, shrinking itsmarket share marginally to4.64 per cent this fiscal asagainst 5.48 per cent in thesame period last fiscal.
Similarly, Ford India saw itsmarket share go down mar-ginally to 2.7 per cent from 2.81per cent in April-August lastyear. It sold 30,010 units thisyear as against 40,799 units.
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Bajaj Finserv offers WalletCare, which will help cus-
tomers block their credit cardsand debit cards with a singlephone call without any hassles.The card protection plan givescoverage upto �2 lakh at just�599. Emergency travel andhotel assistance and as well asget free replacement of impor-tant identity proofs like yourPAN card are also possiblethrough it.
Wallet Care offers instantcard blocking facilities. Peoplecan report a loss 24X7 fromanywhere in the world bydialling the helpline number.Once a call is made to reportdamage, fraud, or loss, all yourcards will be blocked at once.Along with carrying out yourcredit and ATM card block,you can ask for replacement ofyour lost PAN card too.
Pocket Insurance ensuresthat small losses in life do notkeep adding up to make a bigdent in wallet.
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India’s apex realtors group saidit is disappointed with the gov-
ernment’s measures to supportthe sector, as it did not addressthe key demands such as taxrebate and lower interest rate forhome buyers and developers.
CREDAI’s NationalChairman Jaxay Shah said thefund created for completing thestalled real estate projects willhave limited impact as itexcludes those projects whichare either facing insolvencyproceedings or become non-performing assets (NPAs).
“Last month, we had met thefinance minister and made sev-eral demands to improve liquid-ity and boost demand in the realestate sector. But, unfortunatelyour demands have not beenmet,” Shah told PTI on Sunday.
Reiterating the demand ofthe association that has about12,000 members, Shah saidthe Government should with-draw its decision to ban sub-vention scheme as it was for thebenefit of home buyers andhelped generate demand.
India's Sourabh Verma reg-istered a thrilling three-game win over China's Sun
Fei Xiang to claim the men'ssingles title at the USD 75,000Vietnam Open BWF TourSuper 100 badminton tourna-ment here on Sunday.
Second seed Sourabh, whohas won the Hyderabad Openand Slovenian Internationalearlier this year, recoveredfrom a mid-game slump tobeat Sun 21-12 17-21 21-14 inthe summit clash which last-ed an hour and 12 minutes.
"I am very happy with theway, I played this week. Iplayed three Japanese andthese players have similar kindof style. Most like to attack andthe little differences in theirstyle is something you have tofigure out on the court. So itwas nice to beat them,"Sourabh told PTI.
He beat three Japaneseshuttlers -- Kodai Naraoka, YuIgarashi and Minoru Koga --on way to his title win.
"The final was a toughmatch but I am happy I couldplay my game and come outvictories. This title will give aboost to my confidence," theIndian said.
It was a third career meet-ing between Sourabh and Sun.The duo has faced off twicethis year at Canada andHyderabad with the Indiancoming up trumps on both theoccasions.
Talking about the final
match, the world no 38 Indiansaid: "In the first game, I wait-ed for his weak returns. Irealised his defence was a lit-tle weak, so I looked to exploitthat. He committed too manyunforced errors and it helpedme.
"In the second game, I was
troubled by the drift from oneside and he jumped into ahuge lead. But after the changeof side in the decider, I wentback to the strategy thatworked for me and I amhappy I could win," added theNational champion.
Asked if he will play the
USD 400,000 Korea OpenWorld Tour Super 500 eventto be held from September 24to 29, Sourabh said: "I willhead back home now anddepending on the condition ofmy body and the t imerequired to recover, I willtake a call if I want to go toKorea or not."
In the finals, Sourabhdominated the proceedingsin the opening game as hejumped to a 4-0 lead early onand kept moving ahead. Heenjoyed a 11-4 cushion at thebreak and surged to a 15-4advantage after the breather.
Sun tried to recover butthe gap was too wide to bebridged as Sourabh pocketedthe first game comfortably.
The Chinese came out allguns blazing in the secondgame, zooming to a 8-0 lead.He lead 11-5 at the intervaland even though the Indiantried to make a comeback, itproved an uphill task as Sunroared back into the contest.
In the decider, Sun had aslender 4-2 lead initially butSourabh ensured he enjoyed11-7 advantage at the breather.The Indian then maintainedhis lead, despite the Chinesesnapping at his heels.
Leading 17-14, Sourabhblasted off the next four pointsto shut the door on his oppo-nent and win his third title ofthe year.
The 26-year-old fromMadhya Pradesh had won theDutch Open and Korea Openlast year
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Neymar shrugged off ahostile reception as he
marked his return to actionfor Paris Saint-Germain witha stunning injury-time win-ner, and then insisted it wastime to move on from thesaga of his aborted return toBarcelona.
The world's most expen-sive player was booed andinsulted by sections of thePSG support in the Ligue 1match against Strasbourg atthe Parc des Princes.
That seemed set to be theonly story of the afternoonuntil the second minute ofadded time when, with thegame still goalless, theBrazilian met Abdou Diallo'scross with an acrobatic effortthat sent the ball arcing backover his own head and in offthe post, sealing a 1-0 win.
It was a remarkable goaland a reminder of why PSGpaid a world record 222 mil-lion euros ($264 million atthe time) to sign Neymar in2017. It also leaves them twopoints clear of Rennes at the
top of Ligue 1."I made it clear that I
have nothing against thefans, nothing against ParisSaint-Germain as a club.Everyone knows I wanted toleave. I am not going to getinto the details of what hap-pened," he said after thegame.
"It is time to turn thepage. Today I am a ParisSaint-Germain player and Iam going to give everythingon the field."
He had not played for hisclub since May and had beenleft on the sidelines in theirfirst four league games of thecampaign because of theuncertainty surrounding hisfuture.
However, having beenresigned to a third season inFrance, he was handed astart by coach ThomasTuchel here, and loud jeersgreeted his name as theteams were read out. He wasalso regularly whistled by
fans when he touched theball.
"It is not the first time Ihave been booed by every-one," Neymar admitted.
"I played in Brazil awayfrom home, I was widelybooed. I have played in finalsand been booed, I haveplayed here in France, awayfrom home, and also beenbooed.
"It is sad but I know that,from now on, every game Iplay will be an away game."
One banner unfurled inPortuguese, aimed atNeymar's father who is alsohis agent, read: "NeymarSenior, sell your son in theVila Mimosa".
Vila Mimosa is a districtof Rio de Janeiro notoriousfor prostitution. Anotherbanner mockingly calledNeymar "Calimero", a refer-ence to the always unluckyItalian cartoon character.
Certainly not much wasgoing right on the field forthe 27-year-old or for histeam, who had been held byStrasbourg twice in theleague last season.
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Inter Milan reclaimed top spot in SerieA after a 1-0 win over 10-man Udinese
on Saturday as Juventus lost three play-ers to injury in a painful goalless draw atFiorentina to complicate preparations fornext week's Champions League opener.
Stefano Sensi's diving header wasenough to seal a maximum nine pointsfor Antonio Conte's Inter ahead of theirEuropean opener against Slavia Prague inthe San Siro next Tuesday.
But as Maurizio Sarri made his debuton the Juventus bench after recoveringfrom pneumonia, the Italian championsshowed signs of weakness four daysbefore their trip to Atletico Madrid.
Juventus are trailing two pointsbehind Inter Milan after three games andcould be overtaken by city rivals Torinowho host promoted Lecce on Monday.
Napoli meanwhile warmed up forEuropean holders Liverpool on Tuesdaywith a Dries Mertens double sealing a 2-0 win over crisis club Sampdoria, to moveup to fourth in the table.
The reigning eight-time Serie Achampions are already missing injuredcaptain Giorgio Chiellini, Mattia DeSciglio and Marko Pjaca.
And Brazilian Douglas Costa pulledup with a hamstring problem minutes into
the game in Florence, followed byMiralem Pjanic with a muscular issuewith Danilo later suffering cramps in theheat.
- 'Better than Ronaldo' -Ribery, 36, went off to a standing ova-
tion from the crowd at the ArtemioFranchi Stadium after an hour as his teamearned their first point this season.
Ribery "played better than Ronaldo,"insisted Fiorentina's new owner RoccoCommisso, as the former Bayern Munichmidfielder did well to neutralise Ronaldo,who had scored four goals for Portugal inEuropean qualifiers this week.
Ronaldo failed to add to his tally withan acrobatic bicycle kick in the 85thminute flying over the bar.
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Ansu Fati, the 16-year-oldstarlet from Guinea Bissau,
scored his second goal of theseason as Barcelona breezed toa 5-2 win against Valencia onSaturday.
Karim Benzema nettedtwice for Real Madrid as theyfought off a late comeback tobeat Levante 3-2 as EdenHazard made his La Liga debut.
Atletico Madrid retainedtheir place at the top of thetable, but only by one pointfrom Real Madrid after theirfirst defeat of the season whenthey lost 2-0 at Real Sociedadat the Basque club's newlyrefurbished stadium.
With Lionel Messi still outand watching from the standsat the Camp Nou it was left toFati take the plaudits.
Fati, who became the thirdyoungest scorer in La Liga his-tory when he came off thebench to net in a 2-2 draw atOsasuna this month, scored inthe second minute, before pro-viding the assist for Frenkie deJong's seventh minute goal.
Barca coach ErnestoValverde marvelled at Fati's
composure."It's not usual that on his
first touch he scores, and on hissecond he sets up a goal," hesaid.
The defeat left Valenciawith just four points from fourmatches, leaving new coachAlbert Celades -- a formerReal Madrid assistant coach -- with a huge amount of workto do before the club play theirfirst Champions League groupgame against Chelsea onTuesday.
- Real show frailties -At a rain-drenched
Santiago Bernabeu, Benzema'sgoals came just six minutesapart in the first half beforeCasemiro put Real 3-0 up.
However Levante, who hadwon their previous two outings,made a fight of it in the secondhalf as they pulled goals backthrough Borja Mayoral andGonzalo Melero.
Hazard also came off thebench for the final half-hour tomake his first La Liga appear-ance after a thigh injury hadinterrupted the start of hisReal career following his 100million-euro ($110 million)move from Chelsea.
Indian chess bosses haveswung into action to contain
the damaging fallouts of thesensational corruption chargesleveled by GrandmasterDibyendu Barua, a chess legendin his own right, against theBengal Chess Association (BCA)secretary, Atanau Lahiri.
The latest reaction of the AllIndia Chess Federation (AICF)in dealing with Lahiri, who hasbeen caught with his hands lit-erarily in the till, shows .theFederation has done a rethink ontacking an alleged offender,who is also one of their own offi-cials. Laihri is a member of theAICF trainer's committee andperceived to be close to theFederation bosses.
Barua had accused Lahiri ofrouting huge amount of fundreceived from the state govern-ment to his own chess promo-tion company in a clear case ofconflict of interest. Barua pro-duced documents to show thatRs 23 lakh in cash was with-drawn from LahIri's comp[nay--Global Chess- in around 53weeks.
Barua also accused Lahiri ofnot allowing him to hold a youthtournament and banning two ofIndia top players, GrandmasterSurya Sekhar Ganguly and DeepSen Gupta, from taking part inBengal Chess events.Lahiri alsobarred under-9 national girls'champion Sneha Haldar fromplaying in a tournament on dis-ciplinary grounds.
Barua has reportedly also
met with State Chief MinisterMamata Banerjee and brought toher notice serious financial irreg-ularities in conduct of state chessassociation.
Barua's charges of corruptionare in sync with ·an allegationleveled by an office bearer of theBCA that signature of a char-tered account was forged tomanipulate the accounts.
There are also serious alle-gation that Lahiri conducts allprofitable tournaments underGlobal Chess and all non-prof-itable ones under BCA. Lahiri isa partner and main signatory inGlobal Chess.
In its first reaction AICFsecretary Bharat Singh Chauhanon August 30 issued a statementtaking cognizance of Barua'scomplaint and promised to setup a three-member committee toprobe the charges.
"The AICF will initiate athorough enquiry into the affairsof Bengal Chess Association andits secretary Atanu Lahiri on thecharges leveled by DibyenduBarua. We will set up a commit-tee soon to look into the matter."
Stopping chess activity isperceived as a serious offence byus in AICF," the statement added.Chauhan's letter also slammedBCA's decision to stop nine-year-old Sneha Halder - the state andnational U-9 champion - fromtaking part in state-level tourna-ments.
The tone of Chauhan's state-ment was highly critical ofLahiri's conduct and gave theimpression that the AICF wasdetermined to do justice in this
case.Chauhan statement created
a flutter in the chess circle,because Lahiri is seen as a blue-eyed boy of the AICF bosses,who allowed him to control thedestiny of Bengal chess despitepresiding over an associationwhich didn't even have a fulltimepresident in the last three years.
It didn't take long before dif-ferences cropped up in the AICFover this issue.. On September 6,AICF president P.R.Venkatarama Raja issued a state-
ment in which he virtually crit-icized Bharat Singh Chauhanaccusing him for taking side inthe matter and arguing forimpartial probe,
Rebuffing Chauhan forbacking a serious issue tossed byIndia's foremost chess player,the AICF president VenkatramaRaja said, the Federation shouldact impartially in this matter andChauhan "went beyond the brief "while issuing the press statementregarding the allegations lev-eled by Barua.
Raja said he had agreed thata press release be issued, sayingplayers' interest would be pro-tected and the matter would beinvestigated.
Stating that Chauhan creat-ed 'unnecessary emotions, Rajasaid, "It is important that we inthe AICF be seen as impartial tillall allegations are verified and achance is given to all parties. I seesome members of the BCA havealready called a meeting to ini-tiate action against Lahiri evenbefore the AICF has done theinvestigation."
When Barua first held thePress conference on August 26,the AICF president phonedhim up and expressed regret overwhat had transpired in WestBengal. Sources said in his talkwith Barua the AICF boss alsodisapproval of Lahri's conduct.The tone of the AICF president'sstatement clearly shows that thechess bosses are not with theFederation's secretary on thismatter.
Has Raja changed his mind?Was there a lobby which was try-ing to prevent the wheels of jus-tice from moving in the rightdirection?
Raja directed the BCA tohold its annual general meetingand conduct its elections underthe supervision of an AICF-appointed committee in earlyOctober. The million dollar ques-tion is: How can state associa-tion's election be held underLahiri when he is facing suchgrave charges? The AICF hasgiven no indication that theprobe will be completed before
the state elations.Raja nominated a three-
member committee, compris-ing senior AICF office-bearers A.Narasimha Reddy (chairman),D.V. Sundar and KishorBhandekar, to oversee the elec-tion process, probe the com-plaints made by Barua againstLahiri and submit a report with-in three months.
Senior chess players andorganizers are already wonderinghow such grave charges could beprobed by an in-house commit-tee. Will inter-personal relationnot influence decision making.,especially in a case where theman being probed in also amember of the AICF. Was not anexpert from outside the cricketentrusted with the task of prob-ing cases of corruption and con-flict of interest in cricket?
"This is eyewash. Whyshould they take three months toprobe such simple case whichcan be concluded in a few days.The charges are based on docu-ments. If AICF was serious, itcould have appointed a commit-tee of experts from outside anddecided the matter in one week,"said a Grandmaster.
Incidentally, soon afterBarua raised red flag againstLahiri conduct, the BCA meet-ing decided to serve show causenotice to Lahiri and hold electionin three months.
"The letter of the AICFpresident has clearly come asdamper to the chess lover whowanted stern action againstLahiri and the likes of him," saida senior chess player.
Naveen Kumar was once againthe hero for Dabang Delhi K
C as they beat GujaratFortunegiants 34-30 in a ProKabaddi League match here onSunday.
Naveen Kumar picked upanother Super 10 (13th consecu-tive) as Delhi produced a com-posed performance, despite beingclosely challenged in the secondhalf by Fortunegiants, to pick upfive points and consolidate theirstay at the top of the points table.
The initial minutes of thematch suggested it would be aclosely-fought encounter with bothdefences looking sharp.
Ravinder Pahal pulled off twosuccessful tackles for the Delhi sidewhile, at the other end, RuturajKoravi was looking in form.
But Naveen had other plans, as
he unlocked the Gujarat defencewith a five-point raid in the ninthminute to clinch an All-Out forDelhi.
The restart didn't bring goodfortunes for Fortunegiants, withtheir raiders looking rather one-dimensional against a Delhidefence that was slowly growing instature.
The first half ended withNaveen claiming another two-point raid that reduced Gujarat to
a single player and gave Delhi an11-point lead (20-9).
Sadly for Delhi, both MerajSheykh and Anil Kumar had to besubstituted due to injuries.
Delhi secured their secondAll-Out in the first move of the sec-ond half but the restart marked therevival for last season's runners-upFortunegiants.
Pankaj, playing in the left cor-ner for Gujarat, ensured NaveenKumar had no influence in thegame, while Rohit Gulia produceda quick-fire Super 10 to inflict anAll-Out on Delhi (sixth minute ofthe second half) and reduced themargin.
Sachin also got into the act forGujarat as the team kept pace withthe Delhi side.
But Naveen's clinical Super10 and a dash by Vishal Mane onGujarat's Sachin was enough forDelhi to pick up a victory
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India head coach Ravi Shastrihas made it clear that Rishabh
Pant will be "rapped on theknuckels" if he keeps on playing rash shots like the onehe did against the West Indiesrecently.
Shastri did not mince wordsas he pointed out that the youngwicketkeeper-batsman has letthe team down during India'srecent tour of the West Indieswhere he was dismissed first ballin an ODI game.
"We'll let him be but at timeswhen you see a shot, like the firstball dismissal in Trinidad, if herepeats that, then he will be told.There will be a rap on theknuckles, talent or no talent," thehead coach said.
"As simple as that. Becauseyou are letting the team down,forget letting yourselves down.In a situation where you havethe captain at the other end, atarget to chase, the need of thehour is sensible cricket," Shastriwas quoted as saying in an inter-view with Star Sports.
Shastri said Pant hasunquestionable talent but if he
can sort out his shot-selectionand decision-making, he will beunstoppable.
"No one will even think ofchanging his style. Like Viratsaid, reading the situation,match-awareness and shot-selection becomes crucial. If hecan fathom that, he could beunstoppable.
"It could take one game, itcould take four games. He hasplayed so much IPL cricket, hewill learn. It's time now for him
to step up and show how dev-astating he can be," Shastri saidwith captain Virat Kohli by hisside. Kohli, on his part, said hewants Pant to play according tosituations.
"The only expectation fromRishabh is that he read situationswell," Kohli said.
"We don't expect him toplay the way you might bethinking. It is about analysing asituation and dealing with it inyour own way."
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India captain Virat Kohli has made itamply clear that the youngsters drafted
into the squad ahead of the T20 World Cupnext year will have to prove themselves inthe "four or five" opportunities they get.
Giving his own example, Kohli, whomade his India debut in 2008, said he neverexpected to get a bagful of opportunitiesin his early days as an international crick-eter.
"We have 30 odd games (before T20World Cup). From team's point of view, itis very clear. Even when I got into the teamit is not like I was expecting 15 opportu-nities. You get four to five opportunities andyou have to make the most of it. That is thelevel we are playing at," Kohli told StarSports.
"I think individuals coming in need tohave the mindset (of limited opportunities)because team definitely has that mindset.
Guys who grab the opportunity quickly,they grab the opportunity. It is a delicatebalance to strike but it is importantbecause you only have 30 games (to figureit out)."
Besides the T20 World Cup inAustralia next year, the team is alsofocussing on the World TestChampionship.
For the last two T20 Internationalseries, including against the West Indiesand the ongoing one against South Africa,India have left out spinners KuldeepChahal and Yuzvendra Chahal who havemade way for Rahul Chahar andWashington Sundar. The selectors have alsobrought in batsmen Shreyas Iyer andManish Pandey.
"Before we reach the World Cup,focus is on T20s and Tests. Youngsters arebeing pushed in from time to time. It is veryimportant to settle the team combinationand you will have to figure out the playerswho will take the team forward," addedKohli.
Australia captain Tim Paine admit-ted he was having “a mare” after
twice failing to review umpiring deci-sions in the fifth Ashes Test eventhough the challenges would havebrought wickets.
England, seeking to level the seriesat 2-2, are firmly in control of the finalTest with two days to go, 382 runs aheadwith two second-innings wickets left.
Australia toiled in the field at theOval on the third day of the match onSaturday and were not helped by Paine’smisjudgements.
Joe Denly, who went on to score 94,should have been out lbw to MitchellMarsh when he was on 54 but Australiaopted not to review the not-out decision.
Later on the skipper, who is theteam’s wicketkeeper, failed to review anot-out decision against Jos Buttler afteran appeal for lbw, with replays showingNathan Lyon’s delivery would have hitthe stumps. Buttler, then on 19, went onto score 47.
“I'm getting it wrong,” said a tetchyPaine.
“I don't know what else to say. We’rehaving a mare (nightmare). We’ve gotit wrong.”
“It’s fast,” he added.“It’s a tough job as I’ve said through-
out the whole Test series. I’ve got a newrespect for umpiring, particularly in Testcricket because it’s a hard job.”
When asked what he could do aboutit, he said sarcastically that he wouldenrol in “umpiring school” when hereturned home to Australia.
Paine said after his side’s defeat inthe third Test at Headingley that hewould be putting someone else incharge of the team’s reviews.
During the closing stages of thatmatch, Lyon had a huge appeal for lbwagainst Ben Stokes but the England vice-captain was given not out and Australiacould not challenge that verdict as theyhad used up all their reviews.
Their misery was compoundedwhen replays revealed that Stokes wouldhave been given out.
Paine said it was sometimes diffi-cult to judge from behind the stumps,saying he was not sure where the ball
hit Denly, for example.The skipper said his team, guaran-
teed to retain the Ashes urn, still had achance to win the series outright.
“The only thing that's been a bitupsetting this Test match is our catch-ing and our referrals but that's not any-thing new,” he added.
He described his top-scorer SteveSmith as a “freak” after he took a stun-ning diving slip catch late on to see theback of Chris Woakes.
“Cricketers like him, I think Stokesis the same, they’re just in the contestand in the game all the time,” he said.
“That's what makes great cricketersgreat because they're always in the con-test, they're always aware of what's hap-pening. It was a pretty special catch.”
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England crushed Australiaby 135 runs in the fifthand final Ashes Test on
Sunday to level the series at 2-2, ending their historic WorldCup-winning season on a high.
Victory for the home sidemeans the Ashes ends in adraw for the first time since1972, a lthough holdersAustralia retain the urn.
The tourists, chasing anunlikely 399 to win in a shadeunder two days, were in trou-ble early in their second inningswhen England paceman StuartBroad removed openers MarcusHarris and David Warnercheaply.
While former captain SteveSmith was at the crease,Australia retained a faint hopesealing their first Ashes serieswin in England since 2001.
But when Ben Stokes divedto his left at leg slip to catchSmith for 23, giving Broad histhird wicket of the innings,England knew they hadremoved the biggest obstacle intheir victory charge.
Smith, who scored anastonishing 774 runs in justseven innings, was out for ascore of less than fifty for thefirst time in the series.
The Oval crowd gave him astanding ovation as he walkedback to the dressing room inthe September sunshine, withAustralia in deep trouble at 85-4 in the post-lunch session.
Matthew Wade offeredbrave resistance, scoring 117 asman-of-the-match Jofra Archercranked his speed up to 95miles-per-hour in the eveningsunlight , eye-bal l ing theAustralian batsman in anattempt to intimidate him.
England captain Joe Rootfinally got his man, luring himforward as Jonny Bairstowwhipped off the bails.
Nathan Lyon and JoshHazlewood went in successiveballs, meaning England fin-ished their season on a high twomonths after winning the one-day World Cup for the firsttime.
Broad and left-arm spinner
Jack Leach both finished withfour wickets.
"A very good performance,"said Root. "I thought we werebrilliant. To bounce back froma very difficult emotional week,to come and play in the man-ner we have, the team has char-acter in abundance.
"This was more of a tem-plate of how to play moving for-ward. It is a step in the rightdirection. I am very proud ofeveryone's effort throughoutthe summer."
- Broad strikes -Earlier, England added
16 runs to their overnighttal ly, withArcher andLeach the lastmen out.
Broad then pounded in,
roared on by apacked crowd,
who raised theroof when hed e m o l i s h e d
Harris's off-stumpin the fifth over ofthe Austral ianinnings.
In his fol-lowing over,Broad endedWarner's mis-erable series,
with the openeredging to Rory
Burns in the slipsand departing for
11.W a r n e r ,
who returnedto inter-nat ional
cricket in June after a 12-monthban for ball-tampering, had agood World Cup but hasendured a torrid time in theAshes.
The attacking batsman, whowas booed after his dismissalfor his part in the cheatingscandal, scored just 95 runs in10 innings and was dismissedby Broad seven times.
Warner's dismissal broughtSmith to the crease and heopened his account with a sweetdrive through the covers forfour off Archer but this time hecould not find the magic.
The exit of Smith, alsobanned over the ball-tamperingscandal, led to one or two iso-lated boos but they weredrowned out by applause fromthe crowd in appreciation of his
run-scoring feats.His run haul put him fifth
on the list of highest tallies inan Ashes series behind DonBradman's two entr ies ,England's Wally Hammond andformer Australia skipper MarkTaylor.
Australia were seeking theirfirst Test series win in Englandfor 18 years but only oncebefore had they scored 399-plusruns in the fourth innings towin a Test match, againstEngland at Headingley in 1948.
The tourists won the firstTest at Edgbaston and thefourth at Old Trafford whileBen Stokes inspired England tovictory in the third Test atHeadingley.
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