B JP national president Amit Shah was welcomed at the Biju Patnaik International Airport here by party leaders with two lotus garlands, one made of 147 flowers and anoth- er with 21, symbolising the 147 Assembly and 21 Lok Sabha constituencies in Odisha with an aim to help the lotus bloom even as the party has virtually stolen the sleep of the BJD Government in the recent pan- chayat elections. While BJP State president Basanta Panda welcomed Shah with the garland of 147 lotus- es, Union Minister Dhamrendra Pradhan greeted him with the other garland of 21 flowers. In the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, only Jual Oram man- aged to bring victory for the party in the State, which has 21 LS seats. A large number of party women activists also greeted Shah at the airport with singing gongs and blowing of conchs. After a brief halt at the airport to receive the rousing wel- come, Shah was taken in a huge bike rally to AG Square, where he garlanded the statue of Dr BR Ambedkar before driving to Hotel Mayfair, where he would be staying for three days. In the afternoon, Shah vis- ited the State party office and celebrated the Odia New Year with party workers and drank Pana, the traditional Odia drink enjoyed on the day, thereby striking an emotional chord with people of Odisha. Later, he chaired a meeting of BJP national executive members to finalise the agen- da to be discussed at the national executive meeting to be held on Saturday and Sunday at the Janata Maidan. On the day, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh also arrived at the city to attend the national executive committee meeting. Prime Minister Narendra Modi would arrive at 3.30 pm on Saturday. On the eight-km stretch of road from the Biju Patnaik International Airport to the national executive venue at the Janata Maidan, a human chain would welcome the Prime Minister. The BJP plans a number of traditional folk dance shows to welcome Modi on his route to the meeting venue. A head of the BJP national executive meeting here from Saturday, Union Petroleum ad Natural Gas Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Friday said Odisha would be Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s laboratory for testing various ‘pro-poor welfare schemes’. “A majority of Odisha’s population is engaed in agri- culture. Many developmental activities can be undertaken in this minerals-rich State. The Modi Government has sanc- tioned 5,200 crore to the State in the Railway Budgets in three years. It indicates how the Prime Minister is concerned about development of Odisha,” Pradhan said while addressing national level reporters here. Claiming that Odisha has got the highest gains from the 14th Finance Commission, Pradhan said the Centre has sanctioned 3,000 crore in its Budget for development of rural Odisha. While 1,600 km of National Highways were constructed during the Atal Bihari Vajpayee Government, the Modi Government has decided to construct 4,800 km NHs. Similarly, LPG connec- tions in the State have been increased to 43 lakh in three years from 22-23 lakh connec- tions made by the year 2014. Stating that the BJP achieved unexpected success during the recent panchayat elections,. Pradhan said the hope for garnering an impres- sive mandate in the 2019 gen- eral elections has brightened. “Odisha has been chosen to be the laboratory for testing various pro-poor welfare pro- grammes. Accordingly, the party has adopted two approaches. Firstly, people’s expectations would be fulfilled by the Government and, sec- ondly, the party organisation would be strengthened to make it a success, he said. Among others, party State president Basanta Panda, Union Minister Jual Oram, BJP Legislature Party Leader KV Singh Deo, national secre- tary Suresh Pujari and spokesperson Sajjan Sharma were present at the Press meet. T ension between India and Pakistan spiked on Friday over death sentence awarded to Indian national Kulbhushan Jadhav by a Pakistan Army court. While India asked the neighbouring country to pro- vide documents related to the trial and consular access, the neighbouring country warned that “inflammatory” statements over Jadhav’s death sentence would only result in escalation of tension in the bilateral ties. In the midst of a continu- ing war of words over what India has described as “false charges” and “farcical trial”, Indian High Commissioner in Islamabad Gautam Bambawale met Pakistan Foreign Secretary Tehmina and asked for a certified copy of the chargesheet as well as the judg- ment on Jadhav. “They have denied our request for consular access 13 times (in the last one year). I have again requested the Pakistan Foreign Secretary to give access to Jadhav so that we can appeal,” Bamwale told PTI. Sources in New Delhi said apart from diplomatic options, India will also explore legal remedies permitted under Pakistan legal system, includ- ing Jadhav’s family appealing against the verdict. Meanwhile, Home Minister Rajnath Singh refut- ed Pakistan’s claim of a fair trial being given to Jadhav and said all efforts were being made to secure justice for him. “I do not agree with what Pakistan has said. Kulbhushan Jadhav did not get a fair trial,” he told a Press meet in Kolkata. “All efforts are being made to secure justice for Jadhav. We will do everything,” he added. He was reacting to Pakistan Prime Minister’s Advisor on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz assertion that due process of law was followed in the trial of 46-year-old Jadhav. Sartaj Aziz rejected India’s accusations that there was no credible evidence against Jadhav and warned that “inflammatory” statements over his death sentence would only result in escalation of tension in the bilateral ties. In a detailed statement read out to the media at the Foreign Office, Aziz said the first FIR against Jadhav was lodged on April 8, 2016 by police’s Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) in Quetta, the capital of Balochistan. He said detailed trial was held and all relevant laws including Evidence Act and recording of statement before a magistrate were followed. Jadhav was also provided legal assistance. “Kulbhushan Jhadav, who is responsible for espionage, sabotage and terrorism in Pakistan, has been tried accord- ing to the law of the land, in a fully transparent manner while preserving his rights, as per the Constitution of Pakistan,” he said. “His sentence is based on credible, specific evidence proving his involvement in espionage and terrorist activi- ties in Pakistan,” he added. On Thursday, India had criticised the Pakistan Government for not sharing Jadhav’s location and details of his condition and said that the international norm to provide consular access was not fol- lowed. India and Pakistan have a bilateral agreement on con- sular access. India had conveyed to Pakistan that given the cir- cumstances of the case, absence of any credible evidence to sub- stantiates the concocted charges against Jadhav, farcical nature of the proceedings against him and denial of con- sular access to him, the people and the Government of India will consider this as a “pre- meditated murder”. “I would like to ask India why Kulbhushan Jhadav was using a fake identity imper- sonating as a Muslim? Why would an innocent man possess two passports, one with a Hindu name and another with a Muslim name? Continued on Page 4 F amilies of the Keralites who had gone missing from the country last year and were suspected to have joined the Islamic State (ISIS) are in anx- iety following Thursday’s mas- sive US bomb attack against the terror force in Afghanistan’s Nangarhar province and the information received in Kerala the other day that a Malayalee ISIS recruit has been killed in that region. More than 20 Keralites are said to be there in the ISIS camps in Nangarhar. Though none of the fami- lies of the ISIS recruits from Kasaragod and Palakkad approves of what they had done, most of them are said to be hoping that they would return to normal life some day. “We can’t accept the choice they had allegedly made. But it seems they were lured into the terror net,” said a native of Padanna, Kasaragod. The family of Murshid Muhammad (24) of Padanna, Kasaragod had late Thursday evening received information that he was killed in Afghanistan. The Telegram message from Afghanistan was received by his father Muhammad and social activist BC Abdul Rahman. However, no pictures or other evidences were available to confirm the information. As per reports, there were Keralite recruits in the region where the US carried out the attack on Thursday with the “mother of all bombs” killing 36 ISIS terrorists. Continued on Page 4 I n order to check unfair prac- tices of imposing service charge on food and drink bills, the Government is mulling issuance of an advisory to all States, asking them to crack down such wrong methods used by restaurants and other eatery outlets as well. “Service charge does not exist. It is being wrongly charged. We have prepared an advisory on this issue. We have sent it to the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), for an Continued on Page 4
Transcript
����� ���������
BJP national president AmitShah was welcomed at the
Biju Patnaik InternationalAirport here by party leaderswith two lotus garlands, onemade of 147 flowers and anoth-er with 21, symbolising the 147Assembly and 21 Lok Sabhaconstituencies in Odisha withan aim to help the lotus bloomeven as the party has virtuallystolen the sleep of the BJDGovernment in the recent pan-chayat elections.
While BJP State presidentBasanta Panda welcomed Shahwith the garland of 147 lotus-es, Union MinisterDhamrendra Pradhan greetedhim with the other garland of21 flowers.
In the 2014 Lok Sabhaelections, only Jual Oram man-aged to bring victory for theparty in the State, which has 21LS seats.
A large number of partywomen activists also greetedShah at the airport with singinggongs and blowing of conchs.After a brief halt at the airportto receive the rousing wel-come, Shah was taken in a hugebike rally to AG Square, wherehe garlanded the statue of DrBR Ambedkar before driving toHotel Mayfair, where he wouldbe staying for three days.
In the afternoon, Shah vis-ited the State party office andcelebrated the Odia New Yearwith party workers and drankPana, the traditional Odiadrink enjoyed on the day,thereby striking an emotionalchord with people of Odisha.
Later, he chaired a meetingof BJP national executivemembers to finalise the agen-da to be discussed at the
national executive meeting tobe held on Saturday andSunday at the Janata Maidan.
On the day, Union HomeMinister Rajnath Singh alsoarrived at the city to attend thenational executive committee
meeting. Prime MinisterNarendra Modi would arrive at3.30 pm on Saturday.
On the eight-km stretch ofroad from the Biju PatnaikInternational Airport to thenational executive venue at the
Janata Maidan, a human chainwould welcome the PrimeMinister. The BJP plans anumber of traditional folkdance shows to welcome Modion his route to the meetingvenue.
from Saturday, UnionPetroleum ad Natural GasMinister Dharmendra Pradhanon Friday said Odisha wouldbe Prime Minister NarendraModi’s laboratory for testingvarious ‘pro-poor welfareschemes’.
“A majority of Odisha’spopulation is engaed in agri-culture. Many developmentalactivities can be undertaken inthis minerals-rich State. TheModi Government has sanc-
tioned �5,200 crore to theState in the Railway Budgets inthree years. It indicates how thePrime Minister is concernedabout development of Odisha,”Pradhan said while addressingnational level reporters here.
Claiming that Odisha hasgot the highest gains from the14th Finance Commission,Pradhan said the Centre hassanctioned �3,000 crore in itsBudget for development ofrural Odisha. While 1,600 kmof National Highways wereconstructed during the AtalBihari Vajpayee Government,the Modi Government hasdecided to construct 4,800 kmNHs. Similarly, LPG connec-tions in the State have beenincreased to 43 lakh in threeyears from 22-23 lakh connec-tions made by the year 2014.
Stating that the BJP
achieved unexpected successduring the recent panchayatelections,. Pradhan said thehope for garnering an impres-sive mandate in the 2019 gen-eral elections has brightened.
“Odisha has been chosento be the laboratory for testingvarious pro-poor welfare pro-grammes. Accordingly, theparty has adopted twoapproaches. Firstly, people’sexpectations would be fulfilledby the Government and, sec-ondly, the party organisationwould be strengthened to makeit a success, he said.
Among others, party Statepresident Basanta Panda,Union Minister Jual Oram,BJP Legislature Party LeaderKV Singh Deo, national secre-tary Suresh Pujari andspokesperson Sajjan Sharmawere present at the Press meet.
Tension between India andPakistan spiked on Friday
over death sentence awarded toIndian national KulbhushanJadhav by a Pakistan Armycourt. While India asked theneighbouring country to pro-vide documents related to thetrial and consular access, theneighbouring country warnedthat “inflammatory” statementsover Jadhav’s death sentencewould only result in escalationof tension in the bilateral ties.
In the midst of a continu-ing war of words over whatIndia has described as “falsecharges” and “farcical trial”,Indian High Commissioner inIslamabad Gautam Bambawalemet Pakistan Foreign SecretaryTehmina and asked for a certified copy of thechargesheet as well as the judg-ment on Jadhav.
“They have denied ourrequest for consular access 13times (in the last one year). Ihave again requested thePakistan Foreign Secretary togive access to Jadhav so that wecan appeal,” Bamwale told PTI.
Sources in New Delhi saidapart from diplomatic options,India will also explore legal
remedies permitted underPakistan legal system, includ-ing Jadhav’s family appealingagainst the verdict.
Meanwhile, HomeMinister Rajnath Singh refut-ed Pakistan’s claim of a fair trialbeing given to Jadhav and saidall efforts were being made tosecure justice for him.
“I do not agree with whatPakistan has said. KulbhushanJadhav did not get a fair trial,”he told a Press meet in Kolkata.“All efforts are being made tosecure justice for Jadhav. Wewill do everything,” he added.
He was reacting to PakistanPrime Minister’s Advisor onForeign Affairs Sartaj Azizassertion that due process of
law was followed in the trial of46-year-old Jadhav.
Sartaj Aziz rejected India’saccusations that there was nocredible evidence againstJadhav and warned that“inflammatory” statementsover his death sentence wouldonly result in escalation oftension in the bilateral ties.
In a detailed statementread out to the media at theForeign Office, Aziz said thefirst FIR against Jadhav waslodged on April 8, 2016 bypolice’s Counter TerrorismDepartment (CTD) in Quetta,the capital of Balochistan.
He said detailed trial washeld and all relevant lawsincluding Evidence Act and
recording of statement beforea magistrate were followed.Jadhav was also provided legalassistance.
“Kulbhushan Jhadav, whois responsible for espionage,sabotage and terrorism inPakistan, has been tried accord-ing to the law of the land, in afully transparent manner whilepreserving his rights, as per the Constitution ofPakistan,” he said.
“His sentence is based oncredible, specific evidenceproving his involvement inespionage and terrorist activi-ties in Pakistan,” he added.
On Thursday, India hadcriticised the PakistanGovernment for not sharing
Jadhav’s location and details ofhis condition and said that theinternational norm to provideconsular access was not fol-lowed. India and Pakistan havea bilateral agreement on con-sular access.
India had conveyed toPakistan that given the cir-cumstances of the case, absenceof any credible evidence to sub-stantiates the concoctedcharges against Jadhav, farcicalnature of the proceedingsagainst him and denial of con-sular access to him, the peopleand the Government of Indiawill consider this as a “pre-meditated murder”.
“I would like to ask Indiawhy Kulbhushan Jhadav wasusing a fake identity imper-sonating as a Muslim? Whywould an innocent man possesstwo passports, one with aHindu name and another witha Muslim name?
Families of the Keralites whohad gone missing from the
country last year and weresuspected to have joined theIslamic State (ISIS) are in anx-iety following Thursday’s mas-sive US bomb attack against theterror force in Afghanistan’sNangarhar province and theinformation received in Keralathe other day that a MalayaleeISIS recruit has been killed inthat region.
More than 20 Keralites aresaid to be there in the ISIScamps in Nangarhar.
Though none of the fami-lies of the ISIS recruits fromKasaragod and Palakkadapproves of what they had
done, most of them are said tobe hoping that they wouldreturn to normal life someday. “We can’t accept the choicethey had allegedly made. But itseems they were lured into theterror net,” said a native ofPadanna, Kasaragod.
The family of MurshidMuhammad (24) of Padanna,Kasaragod had late Thursdayevening received informationthat he was killed inAfghanistan. The Telegrammessage from Afghanistan wasreceived by his fatherMuhammad and social activistBC Abdul Rahman. However,no pictures or other evidenceswere available to confirm theinformation.
As per reports, there wereKeralite recruits in the regionwhere the US carried out theattack on Thursday with the“mother of all bombs” killing36 ISIS terrorists.
In order to check unfair prac-tices of imposing service
charge on food and drink bills,the Government is mullingissuance of an advisory to allStates, asking them to crackdown such wrong methods
used by restaurants and othereatery outlets as well.
“Service charge does notexist. It is being wronglycharged. We have prepared anadvisory on this issue. We havesent it to the Prime Minister’sOffice (PMO), for an
Government to go in for moreand more borrowings fromthe market to fund severaldevelopmental and infrastruc-ture projects.
During 2015-16, the StateGovernment had borrowed�4,400 crore from market,which went up to �7,600 crorein 2016-17 fiscal.
With a slowdown of theCentral funds flow, the StateGovernment started going formarket borrowings from 2015-16 after a period of nine years.Last time, the State had gone infor market borrowing in 2005-06.
According to sources, theState Government would haveto go in for more market bor-rowings to support differentwelfare schemes as tax andnontax resources generationdid not show any marked
improvement during the finan-cial year.
While the StateGovernment has committedto provide more funds in the2017-18 Budget for agriculture,social and infrastructure sec-tors, with Central assistancealmost drying up, the StateGovernment faces a dauntingtask to meet its announce-ments and undertake projectsin the development sector.
So far as revenue collectionis concerned, there was less col-lection of tax and nontax rev-enue during 2016-17. Whilecollection of the total revenuewas �31,238 crore during 2015-16, it came down to �30,227crore in 2016-17.
On nontax revenue, theState suffered a loss of 14 percent as it collected �7,425 crorein 2016-17, which was � 8,711crore during 2015-16. A nega-tive growth of nontax revenuewas due to reduction in receiptin from the mining sector,which fetched less than 16 percent in comparison to 2015-16.In 2015-16, the collection ofmining royalty was �5,798crore, which went down to�4,834 crore in 2016-17.
For last several years, min-ing royalty has been going
down, and the State is facingcrunch of funds to take updevelopmental projects due tothe sluggish market conditionin the metal sector.
The State’s own tax revenueis also affected, and the growthhas slowed down. The own taxrevenue collection registered amarginal growth of over oneper cent in 2015-16.
The State collected lessrevenue from registration fees,stamp duty and land revenue.The lower collection of stampduty is related to less renewalof mining leases, said officials.
Zero collection from theIndian Oil CorporationLimited (IOCL) has alsoimpacted the growth of salestax. The sales tax collection was�13,096 crore during 2015-16,which marginally went up to�13,339 crore in 2016-17.
Spending has been goingup on the development andinfrastructure sectors as theState is committed to spendmore on these sectors. Whilethe State Government has beenrepeatedly urging the Centre toimprove the flow of its fundslooking at the backwardness ofthe State, fund flow from theCentral kitty is just not improv-ing, said official sources here.
Aday before the scheduledtwo-day BJP national exec-
utive meeting to begin at theJanata Maidan here, the BJP onFriday renamed the Maidan asthe Santha Kabi Bhima Bhoiground for its meeting.
The party too proposedthat the ground be perma-nently renamed as Santha KabiBhima Bhoi ground in honourof the legendary poet.
Union Petroleum andNatural Gas Minister said thiswhile inaugurating the media cellfor the executive meeting here.
Informing about sched-uled visit of the Prime Minister,Pradhan said all national exec-utive members of the party,excepting External AffairsMinister Sushma Swaraj, wouldvisit Odisha to attend the meet-ing. Swaraj would not be ableto come to Bhubaneswar due tohealth problems, he said.
Pradhan informed PrimeMinister Narendra Modi wouldarrive at the city airport by 3.30pmon Saturday on a two-dayvisit. From the airport, the PrimeMinister would go straight to theGovernor’s House. Then hewould reach the Janata Maidanby 5 pm to attend the BJP’snational executive meeting.
There is so much poverty inOdisha that if you search
for the poorest districts in thecountry, you will find them inthis State,” Prime MinisterNarendra Modi said in a speechduring his campaign in therecently-concluded UttarPradesh elections.
The statement sparkedprotest from the ruling party,which is in power for last 17years. There is a widespreadbelief that Chief MinisterNaveen Patnaik may margin-ally manage to get a fifth termdue to the absence of any cred-ible alternative face inOpposition camp. However, ifone examines the developmentindicators and current financialsituation in the State, the PrimeMinister is right what he hassaid.
Go by any calculation andyou will find that Odisha is
showing no good sign of devel-opment. As per the recentSocio-Economic and CasteCensus (SECC), it is not Biharor Uttar Pradesh, but thepoverty-hit States are Odishaand Chhattisgarh. Interestingly,both the States figure top in thecountry, with a whopping 81.2per cent (Odisha) and 81.9 percent (Chhattisgarh) peoplerespectively living with highestdeprivation and acute poverty.Even after a stable Governmentwith the same Chief Ministerenjoying the power for last 17years, Odisha is one of thepoorest States in the countrywith over 32.59 per cent of itspopulation, still living in thebelow poverty line (BPL) cat-egory.
The financial situation inthe State is in such a bad shapethat the State Government is inno position to create employ-ment for10 lakh youths, regis-tered in the employment
exchanges. More concerns havecome from the Comptrollerand Auditor General of India(CAG) for the year endedMarch. The CAG has cau-tioned the State Governmentthat the public debt receipts inOdisha saw a spurt of 237 percent (from Rs 2,268 crore in2010-11 to Rs 7,646 crore in2014-15). Forget about thepromise the Government madeto create employment oppor-tunities for 20 lakh in theState, the situation is so worsethat as many as 1.38 lakh postsare lying vacant in variousGovernment departments.Moreover, the State has abol-ished 44,197 vacant posts cit-ing austerity measures asrevealed from the latest annu-al establishment review.Unfortunately, the highestvacancies of 38,717 posts arefound in the School and MassEducation Department whilethe Health Department has
12,167 vacancies.The State has spent a whip-
ping Rs 14,382 crore underSarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA)since 2001 but, there are only25 per cent of primary schoolsin the State which have so fargot access to electricity con-nection. 87 per cent of prima-ry and upper primary schoolslack a teacher for every class,while 80 per cent of them donot have enough class rooms.Besides this, 39,635 schoolslack playgrounds, 17,763schools do not have bound-aries, and 376 schools do nothave their own buildings. Theteacher vacancies are at itspeak with over 38,717 vacan-cies not filled up for last severalyears.
Close to 100 children diedof Japanese Encephalitis intribal-dominated Malkangiridistrict in a span of about twomonths. At least 19 infants dieddue to malnutrition at Nagada
village in mineral-rich Jajpurdistrict in a month’s time.Odisha made it to the top inmalaria deaths in the country(accounts for nearly 32 per centdeaths). The case of DanaMajhi made global headlinesfor wrong reasons. All thesespeak volumes about the stateof health in Odisha. The situ-ation is becoming more com-plicated with around 1,600posts of doctors, which is one-third of the total sanctionedstrength of 4,800 are lyingvacant in the State.
CM Patnaik may win afifth term in 2019, but Odishawill lose another five year tocatch up development withother progressive States in thecountry.
(The writer is a policy anddevelopment expert and writeson Odisha’s development andpoverty issues. [email protected] )
Traffic and security arrange-ments have been bolstered
before the visit of PrimeMinister Narendra Modi andother BJP national leaders toattend the party’s two-daynational executive meeting hereon Saturday and Sunday.
The Commissioneratepolice’s advisory told the resi-dents to avoid travellingthroughout the day on theroads between the airport andAG Square, AG and Raj Bhavanand Raj Bhavan and Janata
Maidan.The police asked airport-
bound passengers to take theOld Airport route instead of thenew one since there would becongestion between SoorCompany Chhak and GoleiChhak near the airport.
Meanwhile, elaborate secu-rity arrangements have beenput in place to provide fool-proof security cover to the PMduring his tour. The PM isexpected to arrive here at 3:30pm on Saturday and go to theRaj Bhavan in a carcade of 200vehicles. After spending sometime at the Raj Bhavan, hewould directly move to theJanata Maidan to attend theparty’s national executive meet.He would spend the night atthe Raj Bhavan. According the
itinerary, he would visit theLord Lingaraj Temple onSunday morning.
The State Government onThursday had announced thatall Chief Ministers and UnionMinisters, who would visit theState to attend the BJP execu-tive committee meeting, wouldbe accorded State guest status.
“The Union Ministers,Chief Ministers and DeputyChief Ministers coming hereto attend the BJP’s nationalexecutive meeting will betreated as State guests,” said theChief Minister’s Office(CMO).
As per the provisions, thevisiting dignitaries would getlodging, security, transportationand other facilities as providedto the State guests, it said.
Bengal is likely to trigger rain-fall in the coastal and interiorparts of the State, the regionaloffice of Indian MeteorologicalDepartment (IMD) forecastedon Friday.
The low pressure is likely toconcentrate into a depressionduring the next 36 hours andintensify further during sub-sequent 24 hours, an IMDrelease said.
Thunder squall with hail,rain and wind speed reaching50-60 kmph is likely to occurat one or two places overcoastal Odisha and adjoiningdistricts of Kandhamal,Kalahandi and Rayagada, theweather office predicted.
Strong and gusty surfacewind speed reaching 45 kmphgusting to 50 kmph is likely toprevail along and off theOdisha coast. Fishermen havebeen warned not to ventureinto sea, as they might berough.
+��������������� ���������� �������
����� ���������
The Utkal SammilaniMancheswar branch
observed the Odia New Year onthe Maha Bisubha Sankranti onFriday here. The function start-ed with offering of flowers toLord Jagarnnath and on por-traits of Utkal GauravMadhusudan Das.
President of the branchDillip Dashsharma presidedover the meeting while mem-ber Dwarikanath Mohantyreleased a news magazine ofthe Sammilani.
The meeting decided to
urge Prime Minister NarendraModi during his visit to theState on April 15 for installinga statue of Madhusudan in theParliament hall and nomina-tion of an Odia to the RajyaSabha from the quota of thePresident every year.
Among others, Samillanivice president Pratap Swain,joint-secretary AshokPaltasingh, executive samitimember Siba Prasad Mishra,Prasanna Rath, Pratap KumarNanda, Gopi Mohan Patnaik,Nalini Kumar Mohanty andAkshaya Kumar Jethi spoke.Secretary Gobinda ChandraSubudhi read the annualreport while Sital ChandraMohanty proposed vote ofthanks.
����������� ��������"��" ������
, ���-������.����
��� � ���������
Areview- cum-planningmeeting of the activities of
the Nehru Yuva KendraSangathan (NKYS), Odishazone was organised under thechairmanship of national vice-chairperson Sekhar Rao Parelahere on Friday.
The meeting focused onwider coverage of NYKS net-work in villages by reachingout to the grass root levelyouth organizations like youthclubs, mahila mandals, NGOs,etc.
Key issues like globalwarming, unemployment, suc-
cessful implementation ofCentral schemes and pro-grammes were discussed.
Amongst the major pro-grammes planned to be organ-ised this year include planta-tion of three lakh saplings allover the State, organisation ofthe International Yoga Day,three massive youth conven-tions at Bhubaneswar,Sambalpur and Bramhapurwith the objective of sensitiz-ing the youths on variousschemes and programmes ofthe Government of India andtheir operational mechanism.
NYKS State director AvijitBose and ABVP State organis-ing secretary Tanmay Das werepresent. Prabir KumarPradhan, district youth coor-dinator, was facilitated. VijayKumar rendered vote ofthanks.
, ������������+���"�������������
%&!��������� ������ �"�� �����"��
����� ����� #�
Police on Friday arrestedformer MLA and suspend-
ed BJP leader JayanarayanMishra as a precautionary mea-sure to avoid any untowardincident during the HanumanJayanti celebrations inSambalpur town on the day.
Mishra, also a formerMinister, termed his arrest asan assault on the Sanatanareligion. Mishra was arrested inview of his acts of displayingsword during the
Hanuman Jayanti proces-sions in previous years defyingpolice an on such exercise.
Supporters of Mishra stagedprotest against police action atthe BJP office here by lying onthe ground to prevent his deten-tion. The police arrived at theparty office to detain Mishra inview of the past incidents andto maintain law and order dur-ing the Hanuman Jayanti pro-cession in the town.
Earlier in the day, policehad also detained eight per-sons, including four women, inthe town apprehending possi-ble disruptions during proces-sion on the occasion of theHanuman Jayanti.
���������������������� ��,����������'��
����� ���������
The Congress on Fridayhoped that Prime Minister
Narendra Modi wouldannounce a special programmeto eradicate poverty fromOdisha during his two-daystay here on Saturday andSunday.
“The Prime Minister hastermed Odisha an example ofpoverty at his different meet-
ings across the country. It haspained people of Odisha. Wehope that Modi will announcea special scheme for Odishapoverty eradication,” PCC pres-ident Prasad Harichandan tolda Press conference here.
Stating that BJP and theBJD are equally responsible forthe State’s penury as they hadruled the State together for longnine years, Harichandan criti-cised the saffron party for hav-ing only mastered in makingtall promises.
“The BJP had promised toprovide special State status toOdisha in its election manifest.Though it has already com-pleted three years in power,
why it has not kept itspromise,” the PCC chiefdemanded to know.
Informing that Odishastands at the 28th position inthe Raghurajan Committee’s
list on development,Harichanan wanted to knowwhy the NDA Governmentdidn’t listen to Odisha’s long-standing demand when itannounced a special package of
Rs 1,25,000 crore for Bihar justtwo days ahead of issuance ofelection notification.
Harichandan too wanted towhy a CBI probe has not beenordered for investigation intothe mining scam in the State asper the recommendation of theShah Commission.
He demanded that thePrime Minister make a clarifi-cation as to why five medicalcolleges, announced duringthe UPA II Government, areyet to be completed when theBJP-led NDA Government hascompleted three years in power.
He alleged that the Centreis utilising the Nalco’s profits fordevelopment of Gujarat.
Minister Rajeeb Pratab Rudyblasted the Naveen PatnaikGovernment for poor imple-mentation of various Centralschemes in Odisha on Friday.
Rudy who met the BJPworkers at Padampur inBargarh district alleged that theState Government had utterlyfailed to implement schemes ofthe Central Government. Heappealed the party workers to
apprise the people about the allthe Central schemes meant forthe poor.
As a result of the neglect,the people of the district herehave become poor, he alleged.
Bargarh BJP district presi-dent Narayan Sahu presided.Among others, ChhatisgarhChild Development MinisterRupkunar Chaudhary,Padampur MLA PradeepPurohit, Pratabsing Bariha, SouriCharan Barik and RavinarayanDash were present. Over 2,000workers attended.
The scope of quality prima-ry education for children of
the marginalised section inthe State has not changed to thedesired extent due to low bud-getary allocation and inade-quate steps to curb institutionaldiscrimination against them.
The different varieties ofeducational initiatives of theState Government are only lim-
ited to micro schemes that ben-efit very few without bringingany qualitative structural changein the education system for allthe marginalised poor children.The populist schemes such asAnwesha very insignificantlybenefit a few and suffer limita-tions of improper monitoringand negligence in addressinginherent issues of institutionaldiscrimination that defeats thevery purpose of education.
The SC and STDevelopment Department ofthe State Government hasintroduced the Anewshascheme to provide free qualityeducation to the SC and STchildren in private Englishmedium schools of urban areasin the State. It was introducedfrom the academic session2015-16 in 17 districts such asAngul, Bargarh, Balangir,Deogarh, Ganjam, Gajapati,Kalahandi, Koraput, Keonjhar,Kondhamal, Malkangiri,Mayurbhanj, Nabarangpur,Nuapada, Rayagada,Sambalpur and Sundargada.The ratio of ST and SC studentsis 70: 30. A district level com-mittee under the chairmanship
of the district Collector hasbeen formed to select students.
It is told that all expensessuch as hostel fee, boarding,school fee, books, uniform,school bus and other miscella-neous charges towards educa-tion of selected children fromStandard 1 to XII in private,aided and Government schoolswill be borne by the StateGovernment. The annualschool fee with maximum ceil-ing of Rs 25, 000 per studenthas been allocated for about5,000 students per year. It is tar-geted to cover 23,000 studentsduring next five years. It isreported that only 2,684 stu-dents of SC and ST communi-ties have been enrolled underthe scheme in the year 2015-2016. The schools are chosenbased on the criteria of acade-mic performances, infrastruc-ture, trained teachers and stu-dent-teacher ratio etc.
A recent surprise visit bythe SC and ST DevelopmentMinister in the current monthto two private English mediumschools in Rayagada districtrevealed that the SC and STchildren, who get admission
under Aneshwa scheme, arebeing discriminated in theschool with separate seatingarrangement. It is most unfor-tunate that schools are not adiscrimination free place andall students are not being treat-ed equally by the schooladministration and teachers.There are similar complaintsfrom other districts also whereSC and ST children are facing
difficulties and there is noproper monitoring and com-plaint resolving mechanism toaddress these issues of institu-tional discrimination. The poorstudents coming to the Englishmedium schools are the firstgeneration of the learners of thefamily and a majority of theparents are illiterate and notaware about the standard andprocedure of the schools usu-ally reserved for the uppercaste and rich class people. Theliteracy rate of SCs and STs in2011 census was 69 and 52 percent respectively which is lessthan the State and nationalaverages. There was only 15 per
cent increase in the literacylevel of both the communitiesduring last ten years from cen-sus 2001 to 2011. Therefore,they need handholding supportand proper counselling whilesending their children to suchschools. The State Governmentmust have a mechanism inplace to ensure that there is nocaste, gender and ethnic baseddiscrimination in urban
schools against poor SC and STchildren. It is fact that theamount of financial supportand other facilities provided tothe students is not enough tomeet the expenses and thesocial environment in schoolsand hostels is also not sociallyand economically inclusive toaccommodate the poor SC andST students which needs spe-cial care and protection.
The important aspect mustbe taken care of by the schoolauthorities. The elected peoplesrepresentatives, MLAs and MPsand the departmental officialslike DEO, DWO and WOs atthe district and block levels
have equal responsibility tointervene in the issues by reg-ularly visiting educational insti-tutions. The SC and STDevelopment Departmentsources revealed that as part ofa comprehensive monitoring,the WEOs have to visit all res-idential schools once everymonth and the DWO, the PAITDA, the DI, the SI and theADWO have to visit mini-mum five schools every monthand share the report with Statelevel monitoring officials.
Along with officials, there isabsence of involvement of parentsof SC and ST children in schooleducation matter. Even they havevery less scope to inquire abouttheir children’s performances,mostly in private schools. Therehas been mushrooming of privateschools with support ofGovernment. Many of them arenot following RTE Act provisionsfor weaker section and anti- dis-criminatory provisions for chil-dren of marginal sections due tolack of proper monitoring by theGovernment.
The State Government isalso running Eklavya modelresidential schools (EMRS) for
tribal students. It is suggestedthat English language lab setupin 13 EMRS in the State toimprove the language skill ofstudents must be extended toall residential schools.
The student enrolment inthe ST and SC DevelopmentDepartment schools during2014-2015 was about 4.5 lakh.Currently, the department hasabout 1,670 residential educa-tional institutions. The studentsfrom the tribal dominatedbackward regions such asMayurbhanj, Rayagada,Koraput, Nuapada andSundargarh have more numberof students in residential schools.
At primary level in the year2014-2015, 11.32 lakh SC andST students were coveredunder pre-matric scholarshipout of which 7.31 lakh were STand 4.18 lakh were SCs. Thepre-matric scholarship provid-ed to SC and ST students ofclass 6th and 7th is Rs 15 permonth and for high school it isRs 150 per month for tenmonths. The students in hos-tels get only Rs 600 per monthfor ten months with an addi-tional yearly grant of Rs 750.
The paltry amount itself speaksabout the Government invest-ment on education for the SCand ST children in schools andhostels. The students in the res-idential schools do not have adecent and dignified life in theabsence of basic infrastruc-ture and the very caste attitudeof the teaching and non-teach-ing staff. A majority of the staffbelongs to non-SC and STcommunities who are sociallyand culturally not close to stu-dents. The minimum amountsupported by the Governmentis not enough to live decentlyas it is average Rs 20 per day butstudents have to manage with-in that stipend amount whichis very difficult for them. Eventhere has been report of mis-management by non -teachingstaff managing the hostel mess.
Here a question arises ishow we are going to bringsocial equality when our edu-cational institutions followpractices of discriminationagainst poor Dalit children andGovernment spending on theireducation is abysmally low?
three years ago but it was nothanded over to the respectiveschool. Garabanda based SriVenkateswar High School is ina deplorable stage without min-imum amenities. When underthe Swachh Bharat programme,latrines and bathrooms inschool premises are construct-ed in schools, this school staysignored. The school with astrength of 373 students has nolatrine.
From last three years, thepost of headmaster is also lyingvacant, whereas out of 18 sanc-tioned teaching posts, there areonly eight teachers available.
No teacher is available forMath and Science. The Hinditeacher is staying on leave forlast many years.
To add insult to injury, ahostel for ST and SC studentswhich was completed threeyears back is yet to be handedover to the school. Due to lackof hostel in this school, manystudents are staying in rentedrooms. Many also drop out dueto lack of hostel facility.
ITDA PA Parikhita Sethysaid due to lack of electricpoles, the hostel has not beenelectrified and so not handedover to the school. Notably, thestudents in the school are yet toget books though their classeshave started after annual exam-inations.
�����������
����� �� ���
AState-level seminar on‘Development-induced
displacement and resettle-ment law in India’ was organ-ised by the Balasore LawCollege in association withthe FM University onThursday.
FM University Vice-Chancel lor SibaprasadAdhikary, Dr Pradip Sarkarof KIIT University, ProfSudhansu Mohapatra ofSambalpur University, SukantChand of MS Law College,Cuttack, Balasore FamilyCourt Judge Srikant Mishra,among others, deliberated onthe topic.
The speakers said thepeople displaced due to rea-son of development not onlylose their nativity and liveli-hoods but also miss the soci-ety, social contacts and envi-ronment amidst which theywere born and brought up.
The speakers said that in2013, a resettlement andrehabilitation Act was madewhich includes the right to
fair compensation to the dis-placed persons and trans-parency in land acquisitionfrom them.
Since the Act provides forfair compensation duringacquisition of land, determi-nation of the market and exist-ing value is the key factor n thisrespect. While compensation isborne by a company, it is notknown how much amount isexactly paid. So, this mattercomes under the preview of theRTI Act, the speakers pointedout.
Prof Adhikary spoke aboutthe necessity of law and itsimpact on the society.
Balasore Law CollegePresident Himansu Daspresided over the meeting andPrincipal RN Panda intro-duced the guests.
Vice-Principal RajlaxmiJati gave the inaugural addresswhile senior LecturerSarbeswar Sahu offered a voteof thanks. Besides students,practising lawyers andresearchers also participated inthe seminar.
0��� �������������������������������
����� ����� #�
Entertainment to basicneeds, the Sambalpur
Munic ipa l C or p orat ion(SMC) will address theneeds of the people verysoon with �12 crore fundsavailable from the StateGovernment.
Looking at the success-ful rate of tax collection oft he SMC , t he Ur b anDevelopment Departmentof State Government hasdecided to allot �12 crore toit for different works.
“With funds from theGovernment, we are goingto take up five projects forthe people. These are — one
science park at Burla nearthe Planetarium, musicalfou nt a i n i ns i d e t heRamsagar Bandh (pond), amammoth national flag ona 1 0 0 fe e t p i l l ar onBudharaja hill top exactlyin the design of Waghaborder, dr inking waterATM and finally renovationof the District HeadquartersHospital,” informed SMCCommissioner BimalenduRay.
The renovation of thedistrict headquarters hos-pital including a green lawnand rest sheds for thepatients’ attendants will betaken up soon to give thisage old hospital a new lookand also to provide comfortthe tired attendants.
The Canara Bank willbear the cost of the waterATM. One can get 50 litersof cold and pure water forjust �1, the commissionersaid.
Atribal woman of Koraputdistrict has preserved over
100 rare traditional varieties ofpaddy, which are on the vergeof extinction.
Kamala Pujari of Patraputpanchayat of Jeypore block hasmade herself to be named in agirls’ hostel of the OdishaUniversity of Agriculture andTechnology (OUAT),Bhubaneswar. She has trav-
elled to several countries andhas been felicitated for herimmense contribution to thefield of agriculture.
“I was extremely excited tolearn that a girls’ hostel hasbeen named after me, whichwill definitely inspire the youngones to make research on suchfields,” Kamala said.
Kamala started preservingthe rare breeds of paddy byapplying organic compost andfollowing traditional methodsabout 15 years ago. As she hasnot used any chemicals, theseeds could be preserved formore than 10 years. The impor-tant breeds which she has pre-served included Kalajira,Haladiganthi, Jhilli, Ladiari,Umuriachudi, Lalata, Ghantia
and Barapaka.Kamala gives all credits to
the MS Swaminathan ResearchFoundation of Jeypore for
encouraging her to take up thetask. Renowned agriculturescientist MS Swaminathan hadtaken her with him to Africa
and made her visit to numer-ous farms to boost her confi-dence, she said, adding he gother trained at several institutesas well.
The Equator InitiativeAward at Johannesburg in 2002and the Krushi BisharadSamman at New Delhi in 2003were two of the major awardsthe tribal farmer cherishes themost. Besides, she is proud ofbeing honored with KrushiSamman by Chief MinisterNaveen Patnaik in 2004.
When asked about herfresh interaction with the ChiefMinister on March 16, shesaid Patnaik advised her to con-tinue with the work andencourage others to join her.Kamala has been a member of
Janasurakhya Samiti andPanchabati Gramya UnyanaSamiti which are mobilisingwomen of nearby villages ofMahuli, Baliguda, Balia andKumbharpada to adopt tradi-tional methods of farming.
She has been living withher two sons and a daughterafter the demise of her husbandbut leading a pitiable life in athatched shed. Despite suchaccomplishments, the elderlywoman still lives in penury asher repeated pleas with theGovernment machinery for aconcrete house are yet to bearresults.
“Though I placed Jeyporeon the world map, I don’t havea permanent roof over myhead,” Kamala lamented.
of Bandhugaon block andBadasarpali panchayat ofNarayanpatna block in Koraputdistrict have threatened theZemindars and moneylendersto release the lands of tribals.
The posters bearing name ofthe CPI (Maoist) ZonalCommittee demanded returnthe lands to the tribals and alsoshowed anger against the visit ofPrime Minister Narendra Modito the State. The rebels have plant-ed flags in nearly 100 acres of land.
Similarly, in Rayagada dis-trict, Maoists have put up postersin a village in the district. Throughposters, the ultras have reiteratedthat the Vedanta AluminaRefinery should be closed imme-diately and construction or roadsshould be stopped soon.
The posters were foundposted on trees and walls inParsali village underKalyanisinghpur police stationin the district. Police haverecovered the posters and start-ed investigation, sources said.
0� ���� ��������������3"����+�����
�������� ��������������������/��0������
,�����-�./�0��� �� �� ���� ��� ��������
����� @�:� �
Anumber of troupes of folkdance, tribal dance and
band groups of Sundargarhdistrict left to Bhubaneswarfrom different parts ofSundargarh district to performto welcome Prime MinisterNarendra Modi and othersenior Central and State lead-ers during their visit toBhubaneswar for the BJP’snational executive meeting onSaturday and Sunday.
Prime Minister NarendraModi will arrive atBhubaneswar at around 3.30pm on Saturday for the party’snational executive committeemeeting on Saturday andSunday. Workers and leaders ofthe district BJP are on their toesto welcome Modi.
According to sources,dances like Oram, Nagra andSanthala and Bindhia will beperformed by various troupesof Sundargarh district to wel-
come the Prime Minister andother dignitaries when they willmove from the airport to theJanata Maidan.
Similarly, Bonei BJP hasplanned to take five culturalorganisations in which fourKisan dance and one Oramdance teams of Barghat will beperformed. Similarly, fromSundargarh BJP, four troupeswill perform to welcome thePrime Minister in which Ranaband of Sundargarh, Karmadance of Hemgiri and twoKirtan teams of Bargaon willjoin.
According to sources,about 1,500 workers of BJP ofSundargarh district are expect-ed to arrive at Bhubaneswar onSaturday. Sundargarh MPandUnion Tribal Affairs MinisterJual Oram and Rourkela MLAand BJP national executivecommittee member Dilip Raywill be in Bhubaneswar for thenational executive committeemeeting.
��������"� ��*������ ���� �����
����� ,�,#�
The district administrationhere performed the Ekoisia
Puja for Dharitri on the 21stday of the birth of the girl childat Jajpur town.
Dharitri was adopted bythe district administration aftershe was rescued on March 25from a field inShyamasundarpur villageunder Jenapur police station inthe district. Energy MinisterPranab Praksh Das present on
this occasion.“We arranged a religious
function and a feast to observethe Ekoseea Puja on the 21stday of her birth on the OdiaNew Year on Friday in thetemple. Earlier, we namedher as ‘Dharitri’meaningearth. A special puja was per-formed by the priests of thetemple on the occasion.Locals, officials, social work-ers and others attended thefunction,” said distr ictCollector Ranjan Das.
1�*�"������ ������2(�������3������
& "&�%����+��,"���- +����!� ./0�12.3 ��������"1
����� :@�#�(��9�����
Maoists by pasting postersin Almonda panchayat
of Bandhugaon block andBadasarpali panchayat ofNarayanpatna block in Koraputdistrict have threatened theZemindars and moneylendersto release the lands of tribals.
The posters bearing nameof the CPI (Maoist) ZonalCommittee demanded returnthe lands to the tribals and alsoshowed anger against the visit
of Prime Minister NarendraModi to the State. The rebelshave planted flags in nearly 100acres of land. Similarly, inRayagada district, Maoists haveput up posters in a village in thedistrict. Through posters, theultras have reiterated that theVedanta Alumina Refineryshould be closed immediatelyand construction or roadsshould be stopped soon.
The posters were foundposted on trees and walls inParsali village underKalyanisinghpur police stationin the district. Police haverecovered the posters and start-ed investigation, sources said.
0� ���� ��������������3"����+�����
�������� ��������������������/��0
�����
��� � �����:
The curfew in Bhadrak wasrelaxed on Friday for 12
hours as the situation is return-ing to normal in the commu-nal violence-torn town. It wasrelaxed from 6 am to 5 pm andlater extended by an hour till 6pm.
The prohibitory orderswere again imposed from 6 pmon the day to 6 am on Saturday.Large crowds thronged themarkets on the occasion ofMaha Bishuba Sankranti andOdia New Year during thecurfew relaxation period tomake purchases.
Meanwhile, newly appoint-ed Bhadrak SP Anup KumarSahoo took charge on the day.Sahoo said his priority is tomaintain law and order, arrestthe culprits involved in violence
or the people, who instigatedthem.
Teams of the districtadministration have startedassessment of the damages inthe town as Chief MinisterNaveen Patnaik during his visithere has sought a detailedreport to provide compensationto the affected people.
Though the situation in thetown is normal, the CRPF,RAF and Odisha police are stilldeployed and are keeping aneye on the situation to preventany untoward incident. Thenormally bustling town resem-bles a ghost town at night, withthe eerie silence being brokenby the siren of police vehicles.
In yet another bizarre inci-dent, a woman was branded
with hot iron rods by a quackto ward off evil spirit atGadiapal village underKaptipada police station in thedistrict. Though the incidentoccurred on March 14, it cameto the fore recently after thewoman was rescued from theclutches of the quack, ChotrayMurmu. Police have arrestedMurmu and further investiga-tion is on. Meanwhile, thewoman has been admitted to ahospital.
Sources said the woman’sfamily had earlier soughtMurmu’s help to treat their kidwho was not keeping well forsome time. However, Murmuallegedly termed the woman as‘witch’ and later branded hotiron on her face, neck and otherbody parts. The woman’s hands,neck and other body partswere burnt in the incident. It isalso alleged that the woman andher child were also detained ina house by Murmu before beingrescued by the villagers.
5 ���������������#�������0"#����
Bhubaneswar: In a surprisingmove, the Biju Yuva Janata Dal(BYJD) president SanjayDasburma and Biju ChhatraJanata Dal president (BCJD)Byomkesh Ray were shuntedout by party supremo andChief Minister Naveen Patnaik.
While Amaresh Patri hasbeen appointed as the presidentof BYJD, Rana Pratap Patra wasappointed the BCJD president.BJD vice president andspokesperson SuryanarayanPatro at a Press conference hereon Friday announced thenames of the office-bearers.
Sisir Parija and HarishankarRout were appointed as secre-tary general for BYJD and BCJDrespectively. “The party supre-mo has appointed ChinmayaSahoo as the advisor to BCJDand four persons includingMLA Byomkesh Ray have beenappointed as BYJD advisors”,Patra said.
Similarly, Sanjeet Mohantyhas been appointed as the work-ing president of BYJD and DebiRanjan Tripathy as BCJD’s work-ing president. PNS
�.��������6���#����� ���������
����� ��((��:
Assam GovernorBanwarilal Purohit is
scheduled to attend as chiefguest the occasion of the sec-ond death anniversary obser-vation of Odisha’s formerChief Minister and Assam’sformer Governor JanakiBallav Patnaik here at theSarala Bhawan here on April21.
Janaki Ballav MemorialFoundation general secretaryDr Gobind Chandra Bhuyanfurther informed reportersthat like previous year, thefoundation would also felici-tate a distinguished socialworker, an accomplished jour-nalist and an eminent littera-teur on the occasion.
He said that in order topreserve the memories of lateJB Patnaik, the foundationwould every year honour asocial worker, a journalist anda litterateur with JB MemorialAward as the legendary leaderhad made remarkable contri-butions in these fields.
�����2�'� ��������������'������
����� ���������
Chief Minister NaveenPatnaik released a book,
entitled “Livestock Sector inOdisha” written by BishnupadaSethi and GK Tripathy, whichgives a holistic picture aboutthe livestock sector and itsimportance in Odisha.
The authors have careful-ly examined the conventionalschemes and programmesimplemented by major playersoperating in the field and at thesame time indicated possiblenew directions likely to beundertaken in future to matchthe desired level.
There is a lot of scope todifferent stakeholders likeresearchers, students, acade-micians, developmental agen-cies, livelihood experts, plan-
ners and social activists andother stakeholders to formulatefurther ideas for developmentbasing on the informationimbibed in the book. The bookalso highlights about the localanimal germ-plasm rearedsince centuries.
Moreover, some data col-lected through surveys like theNational Sample Survey (NSS)have been analyzed. The pub-lication provides information
on distribution of livestock bydifferent categories of house-hold, land used for animalfarming and households deriv-ing major income from animalfarming.
All the eight chapters areelaborated in a cogent mannerto trigger the thinking processfor future actions. The authorshave made a unique attempt todocument the unexplored andthe least priority areas.
Dharmendra Pradhan onFridayassured that the UnionGovernment would resolveall problems of the third gen-ders soon.
Pradhan stated this whilea representative team of theAll Odisha Kinnar andTrutiyalinga Mahasangha ledby its president Pratap Sahoosubmitted a 16-point charterof demands to him here.
The Mahasangha urgedthe Minister to take steps sothat the Union Governmentreleases pending assistancefor execution of a welfareprogramme sanctioned underthe Supreme Court’s NalsaJudgment for them. Thoughthe State Government has
already given its 25 per centshare, the welfare programmewas yet to be implemented asthe Centre had not released its75 per cent share, the memo-randum read.
The other demands of theunion include provision ofvoters’ identity card, land,pension, five per cent reser-vation in Government jobs,free houses, special college forthe third gender students,special toilets and free healthcards.
#� ��2(��221�2/�������2�0��6������ ���
From Page 1Since India has no credible
explanation about why theirserving Naval Commander wasin Balochistan, it has unleasheda flimsy propaganda campaign.
“Inflammatory statementsand rhetoric about ‘pre- med-itated murder’ and ‘unrest inBalochistan’, will only result inescalation, serving no usefulpurpose,” Aziz warned.
“We condemn the baselessallegations from India, espe-cially in the light of the fact thatit was non- cooperation andlack of Indian response toPakistan’s request for legal
assistance, due to which con-sular access has not been pro-vided to Mr. Jhadav.
“We expect India to behaveresponsibly and refrain fromissuing statements that willfurther aggravate people-to-people hostility. More activediplomacy is therefore neededto arrest the growing crises inIndia-Pakistan relationsbefore it becomes even moreserious,” Aziz said.
Aziz also said that a Letterof Assistance requesting spe-cific information and access tocertain key witnesses wasshared with the Governmentof India on January 23, 2017.
“There has been noresponse from the Indian side
so far,” he said. Providingdetails of the trial, Aziz saidthat the confessional videostatement of Jhadav followedby initial FIR in CTD Quettaon April 8, 2016.
The initial interrogationwas done on May 2 anddetailed interrogation on May22. It was followed by the con-stitution of a JointInvestigation Team on July 12.The confessional statementunder Section 164 CrPC wasrecorded on July 22 andrecording of summary of evi-dence done on September 24.
The first trial proceedingwas held on September 21,second proceeding onOctober 19, third proceeding
on November 29, 2016 andfourth proceeding onFebruary 12, 2017. The deathsentence was endorsed onApril 10, 2017.
Aziz said that a law qual-ified field officer was provid-ed to defend Jadhav through-out the court proceedings.Aziz said Jadhav can appealagainst the verdict of the mil-itary tribunal within 40 daysto a military Appellate Court.He can file an appeal to theArmy chief within 60 daysagainst the decision of theAppellate Court.
Jadhav can file mercy peti-tion to the President ofPakistan within 90 days if theArmy chief rejects the appeal
for clemency. Aziz listed a sev-eral cases of terrorism inwhich he said Jadhav wasinvolved.
“He was part of sabotageand terrorism in which civil-ians and security personnelwere killed,” he claimed.
Aziz also accused Jadhavof orchestrating attacks againstminority Shia Hazara com-munity in Quetta. Aziz alsosaid that India has not allowedconsular access to manyPakistani prisoners for manyyears despite repeated requests.He also said that all politicalparties had supported the deci-sion of the military tribunaland the entire nation was unit-ed against any threat.
From Page 1Though there was no offi-
cial information about theidentities or nationalities ofthose killed in the attack, thedevelopment has led to escala-tion in the anxiety of the fam-ilies of those who had alleged-ly joined the ISIS.
In the wake of the USattack in Nangarhar, theNational Investigation Agency(NIA), which has been pursu-ing the case of the missingKeralites, contacted their fam-ilies as per instructions fromthe Centre.
Reports quoted NIAsources as saying that it wasalmost impossible for theagency to make on-the-spotobservations in the conflictzone in Afghanistan.
Murshid had gone miss-ing under mysterious cir-cumstances from Mumbai inJune last year on his wayhome from Abu Dhabi.
One of his friends, whowas on his way home fromDubai, had also gone missingalong with him. As perreports, Murshid had beenworking in Afghanistan as a
driver after joining the ISIS.In February, Rahman and
the relat ives of TKHafeezuddin (24) of Padanna,who had allegedly joined theISIS, had received a messageabout his death inAfghanistan in a drone attack.
The news ofHafeezuddin’s death wasrelayed by KP Ashfaq Majeed,another youth fromKasaragod who had report-edly joined the ISIS.
A total of 21 Keralites,including six women andthree children, had gone miss-
ing from the country in May-June, 2106 and were feared tohave joined the ISIS in itscamps in Afghanistan. It waslater revealed that all theseKeralites were in ISIS strong-holds in Nangarhar. Of the 21people who had gone missing17 were from Kasaragod andfour were from Palakkad.
The youths who had leftthe country were highly qual-ified and included doctors,engineers and managementexperts. Two of the men in thegroup were converts into Islamfrom Christianity and three
young women - one Hinduand two Christians - amongthem had embraced Islambefore marriage.
“I still hope that mydaughter will return,” Bindu,mother of Hindu girl Nimishawho became Fatima afterembracing Islam and marryingEssah of Palakkad, a Christianwho converted into Islam,told the media.
Essah, Fatima, his brotherYahia and his wife Miriyam, aChristian who had embracedIslam, had left the country forjoining the ISIS.
From Page 1approval,” Food and
Consumer Affairs MinisterRam Vilas Paswan toldreporters.
However, a seniorMinistry official said the advi-sory, once approved by thePMO, would be issued to allStates and Union Territories inthe country. “The advisorywil l also be useful forVoluntar y ConsumerOrganisations (VCOs) fight-ing for consumer right,” saidthe official, adding that nocustomer should be forced topay service charge.
He added, “If customerswant they can pay a tip towaiters or give their consent tolevy the charge in the bill. Thelevying of service charge with-out seeking customer con-sent will be considered asunfair trade practice under theConsumer Protection Act.”
The Minister, however,said consumers should beinformed about service chargein the menu card itself. Earliertoo on several occasions,Paswan spoke against unfairimposition of service chargeon food bi l l and had even sought explanation from hotels and restaurants’bodies.
���&,+6�&�+&�� ������
In back-to-back engagementsduring his day-long visit to
Nagpur, Prime MinisterNarendra Modi on Fridaylaunched two new schemesunder the BHIM app for refer-ral bonus to individual usersand cash-back for merchants toincentivise them with an out-lay of Rs. 495 crore for a peri-od of six months.
At a NITI Ayog-organisedevent on the 126th birthanniversary of social justicecrusader BR Ambedkar, Modi,the Prime Minister said the‘DigiDhan’ movement was notonly about curbing corrup-tion, but also about giving avoice to the poor.
Expressing his confidenceabout India becoming a digitaleconomy soon, the PrimeMinister said, “the time is notfar when every India, even thepoorest would say ‘DigiDhan isNiji Dhan’ (Digital Money isMy Money) of the poor. It willbecome the voice of the poor.”
“The DigiDhan movementis a safai abhiyan (cleanlinessmovement). It is to fight the menace of corruption,” he added.
On a day when he also paidfloral tributes to late DrAmbedkar at Deekshabhoomiin Nagpur where the architectof the Constitution of India hadembraced Buddhism in 1956along with his large number offollowers, the PM dedicated tonation three 660 MW units ofKoradi Thermal Power Plan ofMahaGenco.
He also released two spe-cial commemorative postagestamps — one depictingDeekshabhoomi in its full gloryand the other with twin pic-tures of Lord Gautam Buddhaand late Dr Ambedkar atanother function.
After inaugurating new unitsof the Koradi thermal power sta-tion, the PM stressed the impor-
tance of renewable energy sector.“One of the sectors towardswhich we are devoting significanteffort is the renewable energysector,” the Prime Minister saidwhile describing energy sector asa great vitality in the 21st century.
Commenting on theaffordable housing, the PMsaid, “Each and every Indianmust have his or her ownhouse. And that house must beequipped with electricity, waterand other facilities.”
Modi said, “BabasahebAmbedkar wanted to build anIndia for all citizens and theBHIM-Aadhaar is the strongestfoundation for building a neweconomy of new India.”
Calling it a complete gamechanger, the PM said BHIM-Aadhaar would positively
impact several lives across India.
He said even the mostadvanced nations did not havesuch an inclusive system forpromoting digital economyand asserted that soon it wouldbecome a case study for manyforeign universities.
Seeking to rope in young-sters to promote cashless trans-actions, Modi said for everyperson introduced to theBHIM app, one will get a cash-back of Rs 10.
“If you refer 20 persons aday, you can earn Rs 200,” hesaid. Under the referral bonusscheme, both the existing userswho refer BHIM and new userswho adopt it would get a cashbonus which will be crediteddirectly to their bank account.
Under the cashbackscheme, the merchants will geta cashback on every transactionon BHIM.
Both the schemes will beadministered by the Ministry ofElectronics and InformationTechnology and implementedby the National PaymentsCorporation of India.
BHIM-Aadhaar, the mer-chant interface of the BHIMapp, paves the way for digitalpayments through the Aadhaarplatform. This will enable thecitizens to pay digitally usingthe biometric data like thumbimprint on a merchant’s bio-metric- enabled device, whichcould be a smartphone with abiometric data reader.
Anyone without access tosmartphones, internet, debitor credit cards will be able totransact digitally through theBHIM-Aadhaar platform.
“This will make digitalpayments easy even for thosewho cannot read or write, thusrealising Ambedkar’s vision ofsocial and financial empower-ment for all,” Modi said.
Modi also laid the founda-tion stones for the IndianInstitute of Management’sNagpur campus and other pre-mier institutes like All IndiaInstitute of Medical Sciences(AIIMS), Indian Institute ofInformation and Technology(IIIT) and MaharashtraNational Law University(MNLU). MaharashtraGovernor CH Vidyasagar Rao,Chief Minister DevendraFadnavis, Union MinistersNitin Gadkari, Ravi ShankarPrasad, Prakash Javadekar,Piyush Goyal, Hansraj Ahir,Ramdas Athavale accompa-nied the PM on his Nagpurvisit.
����� ������
Twenty-year-old ShradhaMengshette, a second year
student of ElectricalEngineering from Latur dis-trict in Maharashtra, emergedas the winner of �1 croremega draw for digital con-sumers, Hardik Kumar fromKhambhat (Cambay) inGujarat walked away with sec-ond prize of �50 lakh under the LuckyGrahak Yojana.
While Shradha won the Rs1 crore prize for making atransaction of �1,590 throughher RuPay card online, topay the monthly EMI for hernew mobile phone, Hardik —a primary school teacher —bagged �50 lakh prize forusing his RuPay card for mak-
ing a transaction of �1,100.Similarly, the first prize of
�50 lakh, under the Digi-Dhan Vyapar Yojana catego-ry for merchants, was won byA n a n dAnanthapadmanabhan foraccepting a payment of �300at GRT Jewellers inTambaram, Chennai.
Anantapadmanabhaninstantly donated his prizemoney to the Clean Gangacampaign.
As the initial two incen-tives schemes viz Lucky GrahakYojana and Digi Dhan VyaparYojana, came to an end afterrigorous 100-day information,education and communicationcampaign led by NITI Aayog,the Prime Minister felicitatedthe winners of the Mega Drawin Nagpur on Friday.
an atmosphere of greater trans-parency in its working style, thenational transporter has thedubious distinction of peoplelodging the largest number ofcomplaints against it, among allGovernment entities.
Of the total of 67 per centoverall increase in corruptioncomplaints received againstvarious Government depart-ments by the Central VigilanceCommission last year, theRailways topped the list withover 11,000 such plaints against it.
The CVC said 11,200 com-plaints were against railwayemployees while 8,852 weredisposed and 2,348 were pend-ing. Further, a total of 1,054complaints against railwaysemployees were pending formore than six months. Thecomplaints received are ofbribery, irregularities in ten-dering process, and promises ofemployments among others
As per the CVC report
tabled in Parliament early thisweek, the vigilance watchdogreceived a total of 49,847 com-plaints in 2016, as against29,838 received by it in 2015 —an increase of about 67 percent.”The Commissionreceived a considerable numberof complaints against publicservants working in the StateGovernments and other organ-isations who do not comeunder the jurisdiction of theCommission or which are ofadministrative nature,” it said.
The number of complaintsreceived by the CVC in 2015was 50 per cent less than a totalof 62,363 received by it in2014. The CVC had got 31,432and 37,039 complaints ofalleged corruption during 2013and 2012 respectively, thereport said.
As many as 6,513 com-plaints of alleged corruptionwere received against employeesunder Home Ministry, followedby 6,018 against bank officialsand 2,496 against those working
with Ministry of Petroleum. Atotal of 2,646 such complaintswere received against officialsworking in Income Tax depart-ment, 2,514 against those inUrban Development Ministryand 2,393 against employeesworking under Telecommu-nication Ministry, it said.
There were 1,746 corrup-tion complaints against employ-ees under Labour Ministry,1,668 against those in Food andConsumer Affairs department,1,420 against employees of cus-toms and excise, 1,376 againstthose in public sector insurancecompanies and 1,369 againstofficials of Ministry of Steel, theCVC said.
A total of 759 complaintswere against Coal Ministryemployees, 724 against officialsof Information andBroadcasting Ministry, 689against those in Defence, 571against employees working inHealth and Family Welfaredepartment and 479 againstofficials of Shipping Ministry.
New Delhi: The SupremeCourt has asked the Centre tore-think on the issue whetherparamilitary forces — CRPF,BSF, ITBP, CISF and SSB — canbe given monetary benefitslike the “organised services”.
The apex court was hear-ing a batch of appeals includ-ing one filed by the Centreagainst the Delhi High Court’sSeptember 2015 verdict askingthe Government to consider allparamilitary forces as “organ-ised services”.
The High Court had saidofficers of paramilitary forcesshould be given the benefitsincluding non-functional finan-cial upgradation (NFU), earlieravailable to ‘Group A organisedservices’, from 2006 in terms ofthe 6th Pay Commission.
Under NFU, if all the officersof a particular batch cannotmove up the ladder owing to lackof vacancies but only one does,the others will automatically getfinancial upgradation like theone who has been promoted.
Solicitor General RanjitKumar, representing the Centre,
told the apex court if the para-military forces were declared asorganised group ‘A’ services,there cannot be any deputationand no one from IPS cadre cancome on deputation.
The court said it perceivesthat the paramilitary forces per-sonnel were grieved by the non-grant of ‘equal pay for equalwork’, a benefit granted to theorganised services, and if theconferment of the benefit canassuage their grievance, theGovernment might think over it.
“In the ultimate eventuate,we think it apt to say that if theconferment of monetary ben-efit can assuage the grievanceof the respondents, the Unionof India may rethink over thematter without disturbing itssense of discipline as it con-ceives,” a Bench comprisingJustices Dipak Misra and MMShantanagoudar said.
“The personnel of BSF,CRPF, CISF, ITBP, RPF and SSBare to play their role in theirduties. Though we have framedthe issues that will be requiredto be addressed, yet we would
like the Union of India to takea decision, as advised, so that therespondents may feel that theirgrievances have been apposite-ly addressed,” the court said.
The Bench, which granted12 weeks to the Centre to delib-erate upon the issue, further said,“The respondents, as we per-ceive, are grieved by non-grantof equal pay for equal work, thatis, benefit that has been grant-ed to the organised services”.
“If that is the case, we wouldlike the respondents to file theirduty chart in respect of each ofthe forces. The petitioners shallalso file the chart and the joballocation so that a comparisoncan be made that can renderassistance in the process of adju-dication,” it said and fixed thematter for hearing on August 9.
The apex court has framedthree issues for consideration,including whether the HomeMinistry was alone responsiblefor takeing a decision or otherdepartments can confer thebenefit of equivalence subjectto approval by the Cabinet.
PTI
&�+&�&�":����� ����� ��
Despite being home to thelargest numbers of
patients with haemophilia(PWH) in the world, over 80per cent of the patients inIndia are still undiagnoseddue to unawareness and inad-equate diagnostic facilities.
With an aim to meet thegap in medical research andtreatment, the Department ofBiotechnology under the UnionScience and TechnologyMinistry has sought proposalsfrom scientists in the country tofind ways to diagnosis the blood
disorder as well as implementviable, practical and sustainablecare strategies for the PWH.
Haemophilia is a bleedingdisorder which prevents theblood from clotting correctlyand can cause continual bleed-ing with injuries. April 17 ismarked as World HaemophiliaDay across the globe.
Talking about the need forcalling proposals in the sector,a senior official from the DBTsaid that in the developed coun-tries, management ofhaemophilia has proceededthrough replacement therapy,prophylactic treatment and tak-ing care of post-treatment com-plications such as vulnerabilityto infections like HIV/HCV,development of allo-antibodiescalled inhibitors that neutralise
the replacement proteins (clot-ting factors) and osteoporosis.
In the coming years, gene
therapy is expected to be themost attractive treatmentoption for people.
“However, in India, whenit comes to treatment, PWHstill do not have adequateoptions or opportunities with-in the country.
“To Indian haemophili-acs, factor concentrates havebecome available through thepublic health care systemmostly in the last five yearsonly. While this is a gooddevelopment, much moreneeds to be done,” he added.
The poor availability ofdiagnostic and treatment facil-ities along with the lack ofawareness about hemophiliaamongst primary care physi-cians and specialists is themajor impediment for the man-
agement of haemophilia in ourcountry, the official pointed out.
Therefore, considering largenumber of challenges and to findways to implement viable, prac-tical and sustainable haemophil-ia care strategies in the country,we are seeking proposals frominvestigators to conduct researchin the field, he added.
In India, approximately1,00,000 people suffer fromthe disease, out of which only16,000 are diagnosed, accord-ing to the HaemophiliaFederation of India.
The Federation has beenstressing on providing prophy-laxis treatment to children toprevent them from having per-manent damage in joints as hasbeen experienced by manyadult haemophilia patients.
6 7���(����� ���� � ������������������� � �.�5��
������������������������ ��
While India is yet to frameguidelines on Cerebral
Palsy (CP) — caused due todamage in brain — to improvediagnosis and treatment acrossthe States, experts say that itcan take a cue from UnitedKingdom which has recentlyreleased protocols detailingstandards of care for peoplewith such disability.
Caused due to brain dam-age by injury or abnormal devel-opment of the brain, CP is themost common cause of physi-cal disability in children andyoung people across the coun-tries. In UK it is estimated that2 in 1,000 babies are born withcerebral palsy, in India the ratiois 4-6: 1,000 children.
Senior paediatrician phys-iotherapist from Delhi, DrMansoor Alam said that suchpatients suffer from problemslike speech problem, mentalretardation, deafness, visualdefect, perceptual problems,and convulsive disorder.
He said that India can fol-low the guidelines on CP issuedby the UK’s National Institutefor Health and Care Excellence(NICE). He said that earlyrecognition, intervention and
services for children sufferingwith CP are the need of hour.
The NICE guideline focus-es on the causes and treatmentof the disease and the mostcommon co-morbidities — orsimultaneous conditions —such as saliva control, pain,mental health, and communi-cation issues.
Recommendations include:recognising that parents andfamiliar carers have a key rolein recognising and assessingpain, discomfort and distress inchildren and young peoplewith cerebral palsy and that allchildren with delayed motormilestones should be referredto a child development servicefor further assessment.
Dr Alam added thatCanada and USA too havebeen doing pioneer service forthe welfare in the field of CP intheir respective countries.
According to World HealthOrganization (WHO), 10 per
cent of the global populationsuffers from some form of dis-ability, in India, it is 3.8 per centof the population.
To ensure holistic treat-ment and early disagnosis of thephysical and mental disability,various startups are forayinginto the sector. For instance, DrAlam is pioneering a start-upwith a unique concept wherecomplete rehabilitation of thepatients is taken care under oneroof — Delmira RehabilitationServices.
By providing consistenttreatment and ensuring regu-lar monitoring, the startupwould ensure affordable ser-vices and help cut medicaltreatment costs by about 30 percent, said Ametesh Khare,Executive Director, DelmiraRehabilitation Services.
Besides CP, the firm alsoaims to provide solution forplethora of disorders such asautism, bells palsy, back pain,frozen shoulder and the like. Toensure that its professionals onits board are regularly abreastof latest technology, we havealso launched a skill transferprogram bringing 35 specialistdoctors like neurologists, phys-iotherapists and rehabilitationexperts together on one plat-form, Khare added.
� ������ �/�����1�������'#� � ���������26��7���/2
New Delhi: There is a need tokeep non-serious parties out ofthe political system, and toensure they do not misusefacilities like tax exemption,their registration should beregulated by law, a parliamen-tary panel has said.
The recommendation ofthe committee comes days afterthe Election Commission wroteto the Income Tax departmentasking it to look into thefinances of 255 political partiesit has ‘delisted’ for not contest-ing elections.
The Commission has, overa period of time, identified var-ious parties which have notcontested polls since 2005 andhas ‘delisted’ 255 of them.
The poll panel believesthat most of them exist onpapers to help people converttheir back money into white byaccepting donations.
While the poll watchdoghas the mandate to register apolitical party, it lacks powerunder electoral laws to dereg-ister any party.
“The Committee is of theview that provisions relating toregistration of political partiesneeds to be made more strin-gent so that non serious polit-ical parties are not able to reg-ister in the first place and ifregistered, their registrationcould be cancelled,” the par-liamentary standing commit-tee on Law and Personnel hassaid in it’s latest report tabledin the just-concluded Budgetsession.
The committee said thepossibility of regulating regis-tration of political parties andsuspension/cancellation of theirregistration through a lawshould also be explored to “pre-vent misuse of facilities availableto registered political parties byunscrupulous elements”.
As its demand to get powerto deregister a party is pendingwith the Law Ministry, theElection Commission uses itspowers under Article 324 of theConstitution to delist parties forbeing dormant and not contest-ing elections for a long time.PTI
LJP chief Ram Vilas Paswanon Friday lashed out at the
Opposition for blocking the Billseeking to accord constitution-al status to the OBC commis-sion and asserted theGovernment will ensure itspassage. Prime MinisterNarendra Modi too had ques-tioned the Opposition’s move toblock the Bill in the RajyaSabha even when the Lok Sabhahad passed it and when the leg-islation was aimed at benefittingthe backward classes.
The Bill for according con-stitutional status to the NationalCommission for BackwardClasses (NCBC) was referred toa Select Committee of theRajya Sabha after the opposi-tion blocked its considerationon April 11.
“We are committed.... Forhow long they (opposition par-ties) can delay it. Maximum 2-3 months. We will get itpassed,” Paswan, UnionMinister for Consumer Affairs,Food and Public Distribution,told reporters here.
The Bill seeks to createNational Commission for
Socially and EducationallyBackward Classes (NCSEBC),which will have judicial pow-ers and constitutional status.
“I don’t understand whythey (Opposition parties) areopposing this Bill. They thinkthat Government has taken abig step for benefit of peoplebelonging to the OBC (and sothey are stalling it). The OBCssupported the NDA in a bigway in the just concludedassembly elections. They arerattled. They are trying todelay its passage in the RajyaSabha by sending the bill to theSelect Committee. This iswrong. This is against the OBCcommunity and their rights,”Paswan said.
The Minister said the NDAgovernment was committed toits passage and the oppositionparties cannot block it for long.
“We will get it passed.Their mentality is againstSC/ST and OBCs,” said theMinister, and added it wasbecause of the “double stan-dards” of the opposition partiesthat the poor and margin-alised sections of the societywere yet to get reservation inpromotions.
New Delhi: India, Pakistan,China and Russia and severalcentral Asian countries onFriday deliberated on the situ-ation in Afghanistan at a con-ference in Moscow, a day afterthe US dropped the “mother ofall bombs” in Afghanistan’sNangarhar province.
Representatives from theleading regional powersreviewed the peace process inAfghanistan as well as thesecurity situation, besidesexploring ways to ramp upreconstruction activities in thatcountry.
The conference is alsounderstood to have delved onboosting regional coordina-tion for bringing peace and sta-bility in Afghanistan. TheIndian team was led by JointSecretary (PAI) in the ExternalAffairs Ministry Deepak Mittal,
according to sources.The conference is an ini-
tiative of Russia-China-Pakistan trilateral and, officialsources said it is for the secondtime India is participating init.
The US military onThursdayhad dropped itslargest non-nuclear bomb everdeployed in combat on anIslamic State tunnel complex ineastern Afghanistan, close tothe Pakistani border.
A GBU-43/B MassiveOrdnance Air Blast (MOAB)bomb, nicknamed “mother ofall bombs,” was dropped on atunnel complex of ISIS-Khorasan, a regional affiliate ofthe terror group, in Achin dis-trict of Afghanistan’sNangarhar province, killing 36ISIS militants, the Pentagonsaid. PTI
countries, including India,use a faeces-contaminateddrinking water source, theWHO said on Friday.
Worldwide, the globalhealth body said, almost twobillion people use a source ofdrinking water contaminatedwith faeces, putting them at therisk of contracting cholera,dysentery, typhoid and polio.
In a new WHO report,published on behalf of UN-Water — the United Nationsinter-agency coordinationmechanism for all freshwater-related issues, including sani-tation, it asserted that thenations worldwide were notincreasing their spending fastenough to ensure water andsanitation targets, under theSustainable DevelopmentGoals (SDG) for 2030, are met.
According to the UN-Water Global Analysis andAssessment of Sanitation andDrinking-Water (GLAAS) 2017report, the countries haveincreased their budgets for
water, sanitation and hygiene atan annual average rate of 4.9 percent over the last three years.
Yet, 80 per cent of thecountries report that water,sanitation and hygiene(WASH) financing is still insuf-ficient to meet nationally-defined targets for WASH ser-vices.
“Contaminated drinkingwater is estimated to causemore than 5,00,000 diarrhoealdeaths each year and is a majorfactor in several neglected trop-ical diseases, including intesti-nal worms, schistosomiasis,and trachoma,” WHO Director,Department of Public Health,Environmental and SocialDeterminants of Health MariaNeira said.
Barely a few days after hetriggered controversy by
calling for a ban on Lamanitribesmen, Goa TourismMinister Babu Ajgaonkar hasnow trained his guns ondrunken tourists, accusingthem of ruining Goa’s culture.
Speaking to reporters dur-ing the birth anniversary cele-brations of BabasahebAmbedkar in the State capital,Ajgaonkar said that he wouldtry to woo back electronicdance music festivals back toGoa in order to boost tourism.
“The outsiders who comehere, create chaos after theydrink. They ruin our culture,our Goenkarponn (Goanness).That should not happen. Thisshould be controlled,”Ajgaonkar said.
The Tourism Ministry, hesaid, would crack down severe-ly on tourists indulging indrunken revellery and outragein public.
Goa receives more than
four million tourists every year,nearly half a million of whichare foreign nationals.
While the State is alreadya top beach tourism andnightlife tourism destination inthe country, the liberal exciseregime in Goa has made theState the go-to place for touristsfor consumption and purchaseof liquor, making alcoholanother major draw fortourism.
Ajgaonkar however claimsthat tourists need to controlthemselves after consumingdrinks.
“You cannot behave likethis after getting drunk. Youcannot spoil it for everyonearound you,” Ajgaonkar said.
The Tourism Minister alsosaid that liquor and musicwere a part of the Goan cultureand it needed to be preservedand the dignity of the cultureneeded to be maintained.
“Liquor, music is a part ofour culture. It has been goingon in a traditional way. It can-not be stopped just like that.
Liquor is also a part of our tra-dition, our Goenkarponn,”Ajgaonkar said.
“In Goa, if there is stomachpain, people still warm upalcohol and drink it... ButGoans when they drink alco-hol, they do not lose control.Even if a Goan drinks alcohol,the next person will not knowhe has consumed liquor. Hewill not show it,” the Ministersaid.
Ajgaonkar also said that hewould try to bring back musi-cal events like Sunburn andVH1 Supersonic, which hadrelocated outside Goa, after theState Government denied thempermission to hold the eventlast year.
“We will try to get themback. It will help the tourismindustry,” Ajgaonkar said.
Last week, Ajgaonkar hadtriggered controversy after hedemanded a ban on Lamanitribesfolk, accusing them ofruining Goan culture byaggressively hawking ware onGoa’s beaches.
����� ����������
The temperature in Kutch’sdistrict capital Bhuj
touched almost 46 degreesCelsius on Friday, the highestever temperature recorded inApril in the last 125 years.
According to sources, thehighest temperature recordedin Bhuj in the past was 45.6degrees Celsius on April 30,1893. However, on Thursday,the highest temperature in thehistoric town touched 45.8degree Celsius and broke thecentury-old record.
Even the lowest tempera-ture on the day was fourdegrees higher than the normalat 26.4 degrees Celsius. India'slargest port — Kandla nearGandhidham in Kutch districttoo simmered with 45.3degrees Celsius. Other parts ofbordering Kutch remained hotwith mercury hovering around42 to 44 degrees Celsius.
Main reason for theunprecedented heat was hotwind coming from Baluchistanarea, said official sources,adding that the heat wavewould not affect kharif crop.
Indian MeteorologyDepartment (IMD) hasdeclared State-wide orangealert for Friday and Saturday.More than 40 degrees Celsiustemperature was recorded inmost parts of the State.Generally, South Gujarat and coastal Saurashtra remain
pleasant even in mid-summer,but this year in the beginningof the season these areas too witnessed unprecedentedheat.
Major South Gujarat citiesincluding Surat, Valsad andNavsari witnessed tempera-ture ranging from 40 to 43degrees Celsius. In coastalSaurashtra region, includingBhavnagar, Porbandar and twincity Veraval-Somnath, mer-cury remained between 41 and43.5 degrees Celsius.
����� #�(��
Continuing his tirade againstRJD chief Lalu Prasad and
his family, senior BJP leaderSushil Kumar Modi on Fridaycame out with yet another‘document’ claiming thatHealth Minister Tej PrtatapYadav had purchased 45 deci-mal land in 2010 from six dif-ferent persons for �53.34 lakhand the land is valued not lessthan �15 crore.
Modi said, in 2012 thisland was mortgaged by LaraDistributors Private Limitedto Madhya Bihar Gramin Bankfor taking a loan of �2.29 crore.The company had opened amotorcycle showroom on thisland. He said Tej Pratap neitherdeclared this land in his affi-davit to the ElectionCommission during 2015Assembly election nor men-tioned in his affidavit submit-ted to the Government.
“We will soon move theElection Commission aboutthis discrepancy and conceal-ment of the fact,” he added.
Demanding that ChiefMinister Nitish Kumar shoulddismiss a Minister involved incorrupt practices and moneylaundering, Modi said protec-tion of such Ministers was also
a crime. “There is plenty of evi-dence against him for moneylaundering and possession ofland and benami properties,but the CM instead of takingaction was only patronisinghim,” he alleged.
On the land in Aurangabaddistrict in central Bihar, theLara Distributors had estab-lished a bike showroom. Thoseon the company’s board of
director included Lalu’s daugh-ters Misa Bharti, Chanda Yadavand Ragini apart from RabriDevi having 1.17 lakh equityshares for �10 each and TejPratap having 2.51 lakh equi-ty shares of the same value.
Modi said the land waspurchased not by the compa-ny but by Tej Pratap personal-ly and asked how come at theage of 20 he purchased it for
�45.24 lakh and from wherethis money had come. Thisland is located on the NationalHighway.
Modi’s fresh salvo cameamid the reports that Lalu’schildren are running chain ofbusiness companies. As perthe website of Ministry ofCorporate Affairs, his twodaughters Chanda and Raginiare directors in four companieswhich are registered in NewDelhi. Besides, they are otherfamily members like RabriDevi, Misa Bharti, Deputy CMTejashwi Prasad Yadav and TejPratap, who are directors in dif-ferent companies like LaraProjects LLP, AK Infosystems,AB Exports Private Limited,Shivoaham Entertainment,Fairgrow Holding Pvt Ltd,Sunrise IT Infrasoft Pvt Ltd andDelight Marketing Co.
Modi said that a number oflands were in the name ofthese firms which are whollyowned by Lalu family.
“This land scam is muchbigger than fodder scam and itruns into billions of rupeeswhich needed a thoroughinquiry by the CBI, enforce-ment directorate and IT,” hesaid and added, “Lalu’s mantrais: Garib ka nam japna, sab kazamin apna.”
8�+����&�1+&��� ,�����
Asecond incident of ‘orches-trated’ violence against
Rohingya Muslims campingin Jammu came to light in thewee hours of Friday when overhalf a dozen temporary shelterswere gutted in a mysterious firein Bhagwati Nagar area. No lossof life was reported in thearea, but personal belongingsand household items werecompletely gutted in the fire.This is the second incidentinvolving Rohingya Muslims inJammu in the last one weekwhere ‘unidentified’ personswere involved in thrashingthem and torching their shel-ters.
Scared families were plan-ning to shift to bigger clusters ofRohingya Muslims on the out-skirts of Jammu as they werefeeling ‘unsafe’ in the area.
Incidentally, the site of thefire accident was located infront of Yatri Niwas, used asbase camp for Amarnath yatrisin Jammu. Despite presence oflarge number of security per-sonnel in the Yatri Niwas ontheir return from KashmirValley and quick reaction team
stationed near the Yatri Niwas,mysterious fire engulfed tem-porary shelters of RohingyaMuslims. However, two tem-porary rooms in the same plotbelonging to daily wage labour-ers from Bihar and Punjabremained untouched.
Due to ongoing JammuMahotsav, the entire area waswearing a festive look when themysterious fire broke out.
According to eyewitnessreports, “Seven out of the ninetemporary shelters raised in anempty plot were gutted in thefire in the wee hours of Friday.”
The fire was first reportedby one of the Burmese nation-al around 3.30 am and soonSOS calls were made to escortthem to safety. The rescuersfirst shifted sleeping childrenand women to prevent any lossof life. A total of 44 peoplewere staying in the area.
The plot owner who iden-tified himself as Farman Ali toorushed to the spot after inform-ing police control room torush fire extinguisher. He saidthe fire fighters came after4.00 am. Before fire extinguis-hers could salvage anything,seven temporary shelters were
completely gutted in the fire. Farman Ali told The
Pioneer that one of the seniorcitizens living in the plot hadnoticed some unusual move-ment in the area and informedhis son to verify the same. But,he ignored his alarm. In a fewminutes, major fire engulfed allthe temporary shelters.
He alleged that it could bethe handiwork of some anti-social elements,who are afterRohingya Muslims. He alsoruled out the possibility thatshort circuit could have trig-gered the fire. He claimed thatat the time of the incident thepower was off.
Urging the StateGovernment agencies to payattention to series of incidentsof attack on Rohingya Muslims,Ali said, “Last week unidenti-fied youth tried to targetRohingyas living in Talab Tilooarea. Before that similar fireaccidents were reported in thenearby plot and Narwal Balaarea.”
Local police authoritiesalong with some representa-tives of NGOs visited the siteof fire accident and startedindependent investigations.
���&,+6�&�+&�� ������
Union Minister of State forMinority Affairs
(Independent Charge)Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi saidhere on Friday that the Centrewas considering actively therevival of the option of sendingHaj pilgrims via sea route toJeddah, Saudi Arabia, in con-sultation with the ShippingMinistry.
Addressing the participantsat a trainers’ programme forHaj pilgrims at Haj Househere, Naqvi said that a high-level committee, formed bythe Government to frame theHaj Policy 2018 according toSupreme Court's 2012 order,was exploring reviving theoption of sending pilgrims viasea route to Jeddah.
Naqvi said that dispatchingpilgrims through ships wouldhelp cut down travel expensesby nearly half as compared toairfares. “It will be a revolu-tionary, pilgrim-friendly deci-sion,” he said.
The practice of ferryingHaj pilgrims between Mumbaiand Jeddah by waterways wasstopped from 1995. Currently,devotees undertake the journeyby air from 21 embarkationpoints across the country.
Naqvi said that anotheradvantage with ships availablethese days was that they weremodern and well-equipped toferry 4,000 to 5,000 people ata time and that could cover the
2,300-odd nautical miles one-side distance between Mumbaiand Jeddah within just two tothree days. Earlier, the oldships used to take 12 to 15 daysto cover this distance. “Thehigh-level committee will soonsubmit its report,” he said.
Naqvi said that the new HajPolicy was aimed at makingentire Haj process easier andtransparent. Haj pilgrims’ facil-ities would be in focus of the
new Haj policy.Naqvi said that the
Minority Affairs Ministry, incoordination with other con-cerned agencies, had startedpreparations for Haj pilgrimagevery early. “Our aim is to pro-vide world class facilities to Hajpilgrims. The measure to makeHaj process online has pro-duced good results. A total of1,29,196 Haj applications weredone online,” he said.
Naqvi said that the increasein India's annual Haj quota bythe Saudi Arabia Governmenthas benefitted about all theStates as quota of the States forHaj 2017 has also beenincreased significantly. SaudiArabia had increased annualHaj quota of India by 34,005.
More than 500 trainersfrom different States are par-ticipating in a three-day train-ers' programme. The trainerswill now train the pilgrims intraining camps.
As many as 99,903 peoplewent to Jeddah, Saudi Arabiafor Haj from 21 embarkationpoints across India through HajCommittee of India duringHaj 2016. Apart from this,about 36,000 Haj pilgrims hadproceeded for Haj through theprivate tour operators. For Haj2017, a total of 1,70,025 peoplewill go to Haj pilgrimage fromIndia out of which 1,25,025 pil-grims will go through HajCommittee of India while45,000 people will go throughPrivate Tour Operators.
������ ��:�@
In a surprise move, seniorSamajwadi Party leader
Shivpal Yadav met BJP presi-dent Amit Shah in Delhi onFriday. Yadav, however, refusedto speak to the media about themeeting and dismissed it say-ing it was only a figment of themedia’s imagination.
SP sources, however, saidthat Shivpal has been campingin Delhi since Tuesday to meetShah.
Earlier on April 5, ShivpalYadav had met Chief MinisterAditya Nath Yogi along with hisson Aditya Yadav. The meetingtriggered speculation that hewas attempting to join the BJP
after being marginalised in theSamajwadi Party by his nephewAkhilesh Yadav.
Sources, however, said thatShivpal through his meetingswith Aditya Nath Yogi andAmit Shah was trying to mountpressure on Akhilesh Yadav toinitiate unity efforts in theparty and end the discordwithin the first family.
A SP Rajya Sabha membersaid that this kind of deadlockat the top cannot be allowed tocontinue for an indefinite peri-od and this had already takena heavy toll in the form of theworst-ever poll debacle in therecent Assembly polls.
The feud in the SP’s firstfamily came to the fore in
September 2016 and continuesunabated.
“Instead of drawing lessonsfrom the poll rout, both fac-tions were trying to paint each
other as the villain rather thenthinking of challenges ahead.We have to face the election ofurban local bodies and the by-poll to two AssemblyConstituencies and two LokSabha seats in the comingmonths. But the party seems tobe clueless,” said the SP RajyaSabha member.
“The open offer given byMayawati for alliance with anyparty for future political battlewill also add to the pressure onAkhilesh to respond and live upto his supporters’ expectations.Before responding to BSP over-tures, Akhilesh will have torestore order within the partyand end the dispute,” said theSP leader.
SP leaders, however, expectlittle from both factions asboth seem to be adamant tofight till the end. The battle ofsupremacy within the party hasreached an interesting stagewhere both uncle Shivpal andhis nephew Akhilesh are wait-ing for the other to strike first.
Shivpal wants to desert theparty and Akhilesh wants tothrow him out of the party.Shivpal is in the process offorming a new party andAkhilesh is waiting for that day.Yet both factions have refrainedfrom firing the first salvo. Therift within SP’s first family isgrowing by each passing dayand prospects of an amicablepatchup seems negligible.
Calling for Opposition unityto take on the BJP in the
coming elections, BahujanSamaj Party (BSP) chiefMayawati said that she was notaverse to stitching an allianceto halt the saffron outfit's jug-gernaut in the State.
Addressing a gathering onthe occasion of 126th birthanniversary of Dr BRAmbedkar in Lucknow onFriday, Mayawati said, “TheBJP has always ditched andmisled Dalits for its politicalgains. The party was enactinga drama to claim that they werethe only honest people in thecountry and the Oppositionleaders were corrupt.”
“Ninety per cent of theSikhs, Muslims, Parsis,Buddhists Dalits andBackwards have been deniedtheir rights by upper castes.
Kanshi Ram took the pain tounite them. But unfortunately,‘manuwadi’ forces have onceagain created differences,'” shesaid.
“The BJP had openly sup-ported the anti-Mandal move-ment after dislodging the VPSingh Government whichshows their anti-Dalit atti-tude,'” Mayawati said.
Announcing to suspendthe BSP’s protest againstElectronic Voting Machines(EVMs) till the Supreme Courtgave its verdict on the issue,Mayawati continued her attackon the BJP on the issue andclaimed that in Uttar Pradesh,the party had won 250 seats ofthe total 325 by tamperingwith the EVMs.
The BSP supremo alsothanked the party rank and filefor holding a massive protestagainst the use of EVMs inelections on April 11.
whom the BJP has no secretunderstanding, the saffron out-fit on Friday iterated dismiss-ing claims made by the BengalOpposition parties thatTrinamool Congress and BJPwere tied in a secret deal.
While Union HomeMinister Rajnath Singh whoheld a closed-door meetingwith senior State BJP leadersinstructed the Bengal unit ofthe party to ‘ignore such falsepropaganda’ and move for-ward his Cabinet colleagueUma Bharati said Banerjee waspeddling hatred for political-gains.
“There is no secret under-standing between the BJP andthe Trinamool,” said seniorBJP leader Rahul Sinha quot-ing Singh and added “Rajnathjitold us that all such false pro-paganda is being made by theLeft and the Congress in orderto hold on to the ground slip-ping beneath their feat.”
“He told us not to be both-ered by the false propaganda asthey are the part of the oppo-sition strategy to defame asurging BJP which hasbeendoing so well in the State ascould be proved by theThursday’s by-election resultsof South Contai Assembly seatwhere the party has displacedthe Left to come up to the sec-ond position behind theTrinamool Congress.”
“He not only asked us toignore the false propaganda butalso congratulated the Bengalunit for the impressive result inEast Midnapore,” Sinha quot-ing Singh said adding the sup-porters of the party all over thecountry were excited by itsresults in Bengal.
Sinha a former State BJPpresident said that Singh wasbriefed about the issues like vic-timisation of BJP leaders, infil-tration,trans-border smugglingadding the Home Minister wasalso told informed how theState administration was sin-gling out the BJP workers,attacking them and framingthem in false cases.
Subsequently, reacting tothe situation in the State seniornational BJP leader UmaBharati said Bengal ChiefMinister was spreading politicsof hatred in the State.
"Instead of developing theState Mamata Banerjee isspreading hatred in Bengal”Bharati herself a former ChiefMinister said adding the policecould have handled the situa-tion at Suri in Birbhum moresensibly instead of rainingbatons on the people who hadtaken part in a religious pro-cession.
“The State not only fails tospend properly the money thatis sent by the Centre but also itfails to send its requisition toDelhi on time missing out onmany opportunities. This hap-pens because the ChiefMinister is interested only inspreading hatred and appease-ment politics and not develop-ing Bengal,” she maintained.
“The proposals sent by the Government are also full of faults. They cannot makeone correct project proposaland expect the money to come immediately. So how canthey get central funds,” Bharatialso a Union Minister saidadding the State officialsseemed to be lacking in prop-er guidance.
“Instead of giving themguidance, Mamata Banerjee is spreading hatred,” UmaBharati said.
�+6�+��1�&���� ������
The Jammu & Kashmirpolice on Friday arrested
five people, who were alleged-ly involved in jeering and slap-ping at a group of CentralReserve Police Force personnelon poll duty during the bypollto the Srinagar parliamentaryseat on April 9.
After receiving a complaintfrom the CRPF, five personswere arrested, and a hunt wason for others seen in the videoshot in Budgam district, policesaid. Budgam accounted for thedeath of seven of the eight pro-testers during the poll-day vio-lence.
The by-election wasmarred by large scale violenceas security forces shot deadeight anti-poll protesters andinjured scores others. Officialssaid that around a hundredsecurity forces personnel werealso injured.
Sources said police ques-tioned several youngstersbelonging to Kralpora localityon the outskirts of Srinagar for their alleged involvement in attacking the CRPF person-nel deployed in the area
on polling day. In a video clip, the securi-
ty personnel are seen leavingthe area as a slogan shoutingcrowd waylaid the armed per-sonnel. Even as most of thepeople pave way for the per-sonnel, some youngsters slapand abuse them. The CRPFpersonnel maintain their cooland walk ahead. The video cliphas generated debate on socialmedia and television.
While the controversialclip was being debated, formerChief Minister Omar Abdullahuploaded another clip on histwitter handle showing a con-voy of Army passing througha village in central districtBudgam with a local youngstertied with ropes on the leadarmoured vehicle. While thevehicle passes through the vil-lage, an announcement saysthat stone-throwers wouldmeet the same fate. The young-ster tied with ropes is an allegedstone pelter.
A spokesman of the Armyin Srinagar said that the con-tents of the video clip werebeing verified. “The contents ofthe video are being verified andinvestigated.”
Sources said the youngsteris a resident of Beerwah con-stituency in central districtBudgam, which is represented
in the legislative assembly byOmar Abdullah.
The controversy over theissue intensified when a New
Delhi-based newspaper report-ed on its website that ChiefMinister Mehbooba Mufti hadendorsed the Army action to
save the lives of people. An offi-cial spokesman refuted theattribution.
“It is highly unfortunate,severely unethical and grosslyirresponsible on part of such aprominent newspaper toattribute such sweepingremarks to the Chief Ministerwhich she never made,” thespokesman said.
In a separate official state-ment, Mehbooba expressedconcern and anguish over the surfacing of these videos reportedly fromBudgam and has sought adetailed report from the policein this regard.
Terming the display of actsin the videos as unacceptable,the Chief Minister has askedthe police to submit a detailedreport about these incidents toher so that necessary action isinitiated.
In another video, uni-formed personnel are showntraining guns on a group ofstone-throwers and shootingdead one of them. Sourcessaid the clip shot on a mobilephone is showing the first fatalcasualties on the polling day inChrar-e-Sharief area.
�&6,&����,6��&�� :@ :�(�
In what could add a newchapter in India’s transport
history the work for burrowinga tunnel beneath RiverHooghly (Ganga) commencedfor the first time in the coun-try on Friday with the MetroRailway engineers starting thework to dig a tunnel which willjoin Kolkata and Howrah.
The work to construct a520 metre tunnel beneath theRiver bed will take about twomonths to complete Metrosources said, adding the tunnelwould run 26 metres beneaththe river and its bed. The workbegan with deployment of acouple of boring machineswhich will dig about 13 metresof underwater tunnel on thefirst day.
Incidentally the City of Joygot the country’s first Metroproject way back in the mid-eighties. The work is the partnew Metro project called East-West Metro connecting Kolkataand Howrah. The current want
runs from north to south. Thetwo lines will converge atCentral Metro Station.
The project which will runfrom Rajarhat to Howrah viaSealdah a major railway stationin the country will descend fur-ther down past DalhousieSquare — the city’s main officedistrict adjacent to one of Asia’sbiggest wholesale market placeBurrabazar — creating a 1,100metre incline to go under theHooghly, sources said.
The 14.67 km stretchwould have 12 stations out ofwhich six would be underground and six elevated.
The Japan Bank ofInternational Cooperation(JBIC) and Indian Railwayswere funding the phase two ofmetro railway expansion pro-ject which would cost around�5,000 crore. It is likely to becompleted in 2018.
Incidentally, a tunnel aboutsix feet in diameter construct-ed in the British period runsbeneath the Hooghly and car-ries the cable lines.
����� ��:�@
Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP)chief Mayawati appointed
younger brother Anand Kumaras the vice-president of herparty and authorised him totake decisions and sign docu-ments in her absence.
The announcement wasmade by Mayawati whileaddressing party workers onthe occasion of the 126th birthanniversary of Dalit icon Dr BRAmbedkar in Lucknow onFriday.
However, the BSP chiefclarified that her brother wouldnot become an MLA, MP orCM but will continue to do hisbusiness.
“Anand Kumar is facing theire of the BJP government atthe Centre but has not bowedto their pressure. My brother’sfamily has also served KanshiRam during his ill health,”Mayawati said.
Attacking the BJPGovernment at the Centre, theBSP chief alleged that theywere trying to harass her fam-
ily members particularlyAnand Kumar through IncomeTax, Enforcement Directorateand CBI.
Anand Kumar, who calledthe shots during the previousBSP regime without holdingany post in the government orin the party, runs several busi-nesses.
The appointment of AnandKumar is set to overshadowsenior leaders of the party like Satish Chandra Mishraand others who were presently considered next inthe party hierarchy afterMayawati.
Without attaching any spe-cific reason for the elevation,
Mayawati seems decided tobring her heir from the familythus reneging on her earlierpromise that no one from herfamily would be involved inpolitics.
As per Article IV of theBSP constitution filed with theElection Commission, “Theorganisation would have onevice- president along with thepresident.” Clause VI says, “Inthe absence of the nationalpresident, all functions of theformer could be performed bythe national vice-president,provided that all decisionstaken by him/ her in such sit-uation shall be put up beforethe national president for expost facto approval.”
The next Clause VII says,“In the event of unfortunatedemise of the national president, the national vice-president shall immediatelyand automatically assumecharge as national presidentand shall continue to functionas such until the end of the current term of the nationalpresident.”
����� ��:�@
To quell the menace of ille-gal power connections, the
State Government will pro-vide free power connection toBelow Poverty Line (BPL) fam-ilies in urban and rural areas.
On the 126th birthanniversary of Dr Bhim RaoAmbedkar, the State and UnionGovernments signed an MOUcoined ‘Power For All’ onFriday. The scheme aims toprovide 24X7 power supply toall categories of consumers inthe State by the end ofNovember 2018.
The MoU was also signedfor installation of 10,000 solarpanels, 10,000 solar irrigationpump sets and distribution ofLED lap, tube lights and fans.
Addressing a meeting aftersigning the MoU with UnionGovernment, Chief MinisterAditya Nath Yogi said, “TheState Government will act fastto achieve the MoU objectivesand provide electricity to everyhousehold in rural and urbanareas, farmers small traders andall other categories of powerconsumers.'”
Lashing out at the previousSP regime, the CM said,“Previously, only 4-5 districtswere blessed with uninter-rupted 24 hour power supply.”
Lucknow : Mayawati hit out atthe Aditya Nath Yogi Govern-ment alleging that it was doingnothing and was just trying toget the media attention.
“This Yogi Government isdoing nothing and only hold-ing meetings day and night.Publicity done through themedia is the only achievementof this month-old regime,” sheclaimed. Addressing workerson Dr Ambedkar’s birthanniversary on Friday,Mayawati said “The meat con-troversy was intentionally doneby the BJP regime to harass aparticular community whilethe State Government wasoverlooking the problem ofexorbitant fee structure of pri-vate schools.” PNS
BJP youth leader YogeshVarshney’s offer of �11lakh to anybodybeheading West Bengal’sChief Minister Mamata
Banerjee, is utterly revolting. It isnot just a matter of ugly politicalrhetoric but a criminal act in thatit calls for murder backed by anoffer of reward. It has rightlybeen condemned by all politicalparties and right-thinking persons.But that is not enough. One mustponder the circumstances thathave created the climate in whichsome people think nothing ofmaking such statements.
There have been, over the pastseveral decades, a number ofannouncements prescribing thekilling of people, which, in somecases, were backed by the offer ofa reward. There have been, forexample, fatwas for the killing ofauthors like Salman Rushdie andTaslima Nasreen, and one in April,2016, by the Darul-Ulum Deoband,the pre-eminent Islamic seminaryin the Indian sub-continent, againstMuslims saying “Bharat Mata kijai” (Victory to Mother India). Thatwas in April 2017. Another fatwa,in January 2017, was issued byShahi Imam of the Tipu SultanMosque in Kolkata, Maulana Nur-ur Rehman Barkati, for the shav-ing of Prime Minister NarendraModi’s hair and beard and black-ening his face with ink for the suf-fering demonetisation has causedto people. He promised a reward of�25 lakh for the act.
Besides these, hundreds of fat-was have been issued on innumer-able matters, some quite ridiculousand some very serious in theirimplications. This writer cannotremember a single case where aperson, issuing a fatwa that iscriminal in nature, has received apunishment proportionate to theoffence. There has been no deter-rent. As a result, fatwas havebecome a part of India’s politico-religious scene and issuing these,or some similar form of diktat, istending to become increasinglycommon. Yogesh Varshney’s offerfor the killing of Mamata Banerjeehas to be seen in this context.
The second factor is the gener-al climate of violence in the coun-try. The Pakistan-inspired troublein Kashmir, the Khalistan agitationwhich rocked the whole of north-ern India with unprecedented vio-lence, the Maoist insurgency inmany parts, the spreading shadowof terrorism throughout the coun-try, the rising communal tensions,to say nothing of the explosion ofcrime, have all contributed to this.More than any of these perhaps has
been the contribution of the grow-ing incidence of political violencein many parts of the country,including West Bengal. Startingfrom 1967, the State has seen sus-tained violence in which manyimportant political leaders likeHemanta Kumar Basu of theForward Bloc and the Vice-Chancellor of Jadavpur University,Gopal Sen, were murdered. Morerecently, there has been violence inNandigram and Singur. Now thereare continuing clashes betweensupporters of the TrinamoolCongress and Communist Party ofIndia (Marxist) and TMC and theBJP, amid cries of collapse of law-and-order in the State.
There was a time whenwomen and children were sparedphysical violence even in themidst of the most fearful clash-es. On one occasion in 1971, thiswriter was witness to a clashbetween supporters of theCPI(M) and the CommunistParty of India (Marxist-Leninist)in which both sides, arrayedroughly 100 metres or so apart attwo ends of a road, were firingaway from country-made guns.Suddenly, a child strayed into the
road and an old lady ran after himto take him back to safety. Bothsides stopped firing instantly andresumed it after the lady hadtaken the child away to safety.
Women are not spared anymore. Recall what happened inSingur and Nandigram in WestBengal and what is happening inthe same State and elsewherenow. This is partly a result of thedeterioration of the country’s gen-eral political culture closely linkedto the growing criminalisation ofpolitics, underlined by the fact thatan alarming number of Legislators,including Members of Parliament,or leaders, have criminal chargespending against them. The prac-tice of not launching abusive orphysical attacks on women lead-ers and politicians has been defen-estrated in the process.
In its turn, the growing crim-inalisation of politics has been apart of an alarming criminalisationof the wider society. The reasonsare many and known. One isgrowing urbanisation and theinflux into cities of rural migrantswho are without the familial andsocietal restraints that work onthem in the villages where, besides,
different moral concepts and cul-tural and societal mores prevail.The other is the rise of the mar-ket economy, with advertising asthe cutting edge, and the con-sumer culture. Women’s bodies areoften used in many advertisementsin a manner that is tantamount toprojecting them not as humanbeings with feelings but objects ofsexual pleasure. This conduces tothe urge to take such objectsforcibly if they cannot be possessedwith their consent. This, in turn,conduces to an increase in casesof rape and molestation.
The urge to possess, that playsan important role in such crimes,is steeply enhanced by the con-sumer culture which defines one’sstatus in society by one’s posses-sions. What matters is the make ofthe car one rides or drives, theclothes and perfumes/ after-shavelotions, one wears, the kind ofwatches, pens, mobile phones andother consumer items one possess,or the vacations one enjoys or therestaurants one dines in!
Whether a person is wise andethical is coming to matter increas-ingly little. If this removes such peo-ple as role models in society, theinadequacies of the criminal justicesystem, marked by low rates of con-victions and long trials duringwhich many offenders are out onbail after short incarcerations,severely undermine the deterrencemechanism against crime. Both thesituation and the prospects aregrim. Things continuing this way,utterly condemnable acts like offer-ing a bounty of �11 lakh onMamata Banerjee’s head, wouldbecome increasingly common. Thequestion is: How do we halt thisheadlong march to disaster?
The social, economic and cul-tural factors conducing to it arenow so deeply entrenched in ourcountry that it will take a long timeto eradicate or radically reformthem. The effort, however, shouldbegin with the civil society play-ing an increasing role in uphold-ing moral values and ethical con-duct and pressing upon the Unionand State Governments to discussand formulate measures that facil-itate the process. Also, politicalparties should stop sending per-sons with criminal records orcharges pending against them tolegislatures and elevating them toleadership positions. Finally, thecriminal justice system should berevamped to make it far moreeffective than now. This will per-haps mark the beginning of a trekthat will take years to complete.
(The writer is Consultant Editor,The Pioneer, and an author)(
Sir — This refers to the editorial,“Big mockery of justice” (April 12).The time has come to take harsh-est possible measures againstPakistan. First, India must down-grade diplomatic ties by recallingHigh Commissions and askPakistan to do the same.
Second, there must be no cul-tural or sporting ties, no people-to-people contact in any form, no visasto Pakistanis to visit India and ournationals too must be forbidden tovisit that country.
Third, we must withdraw themost favoured nation status.Subsequently, all perks must bewithdrawn to the separatist leaders.Lastly, we must take up the matterof Kulbhushan Jadhav’s death sen-tence to international forums andtake steps to get Pakistan brandedas a terrorist state.
Ashok MehtaVia web
�����$�%��"�$�� �"#�
Sir — This refers to the editorial,“Big mockery of justice” (April 12).Might is right, goes the adage.When we remain stronger, we aresoft, merciful and charitable towardsPakistan. As soon as the foe gains
strength, it knows no mercy or rea-son. Our history is replete with suchincidents. We pardonedMohammad Ghori 16 times. Onthe 17th occasion, when he got theupper edge, we were enslaved forcenturies. We lost a large chunk ofthe land to the new converts whohad donned the robes of Ghori. Itis strength alone that will bring theother side to reason.
LR GuptaLucknow
�&"'�(")�
Sir — This refers to the article,“Diversifying India’s energy mix”(April 12) by Sreemati Ganguli.Although the writer has talkedabout the diversification of ener-gy mix in the Indian power grid,India’s overwhelming spending innuclear sector is alarming. Ourcountry is massively buildingnuclear power plants without tak-ing adequate measures.
Naveed AhmedVia web
*+�� +!� �"!�, "&+��
Sir — This refers to the article,“When the party interest overridesnational cause” (April 12) by AshokK Mehta. Unless the Government’s
Business Rules are amended andDefence Minister is made account-able and responsible, nothing isgoing to change.
Our babus are men with egosand work round the clock to thedetriment of defence personnel. Allreforms suggested till date remainunimplemented. India must be theonly country where the largestaffected number of employees arenot represented in the PayCommission. The key issue is: Dowe need a Defence Minister at all?
PrakashVia web
��, �"#+(�)�("$�(
Sir — This refers to the editori-al, “Assault on democracy” (April11). It is the separatists who arethe real disturbing elements infoiling the election in SrinagarLok Sabha constituency, thepolling of which saw the lowestturnout. Separatists unleashedunrest, fierce violence and terror,and the voters became frightenedand stayed at home. TheGovernment must withdraw allbenefits enjoyed by separatists.
��������� ��������45�����.��� ������� �It is a well-known fact that Pakistan
always looked for blame games andexcuses to carry on with her illegaloccupation of Balochistan and geno-cidal military operation against theBaloch people.
The aim is to defeat the Balochfight for freedom and force them tosurrender to the Punjabi elite whocould then loot Baloch resourceswithout any resistance.
China, Pakistan’s close friend,joined the Punjabi looting class close-ly in 2001 in its efforts to kill andplunder Baloch resources unabashed-ly. It has now increased the stakes byannouncing the so-calledChina–Pakistan Economic Corridor(CPEC) that has raised Pakistan’sstrategical importance many times inthe region and beyond.
There are no doubts about theimportance of CPEC for China andPakistan (read Punjab). China haseven declared it as the flagship pro-ject under the “One Belt, One Road”(OBOR) initiative. However, CPEC isan existential threat to not only theBaloch people but also to other eth-nic minorities who are graduallycoming to terms with the adverseimpact of it on their lives. TheBaloch people are particularlyincensed about the growing militaryaction that has followed theannouncement of the project.
This has touched their nerves andmade them more determined tofight for their inalienable rights ofIndependence which was snatchedaway from them through illegalannexation of their country byPakistan in 1948.
CPEC is a direct threat to theUSA too even if some of theAmerican analysts have deludedthemselves into believing that itwould bring prosperity and stabilityto the terror-manufacturing country.
They ignore the debilitatingimpact of China-Pakistan strategicnexus on the regional conflict dynam-ics in general and the human rights sit-uation in Balochistan in particular.
Pakistan is keeping its doorsopen for China to enhance its strate-gic existence in the Arabian Seathrough its presence in Gwadar andboost its economy by bringing pros-perity to western Chinese region ofXinjiang. At a time when China is fac-ing economic downturn, investing itsvast idle reserves in a corridor likethis makes eminent sense, especial-
ly when it has a partner like Pakistan,and it is willing to trust Pakistani mil-itary with its ability as well as com-mitment to provide security for itsinvestments.
This should particularly worryrealists in America, when China isstrategically competing with and dis-placing the US from region afterregion in the developing regions ofAsia, Africa and Latin America.
It has inflated aspirations ofreplacing the US as the most power-ful country in the world. It is full ofscorn for the values and norms thatthe US upholds as fundamental tohuman development. There is a con-scious effort by China to provide thedeveloping world with an alternativevision of economic growth foundedon values which are inherently anti-democratic and anti-human rights.
Ideologically, the Punjabi elite ofPakistan is its close cousin even if itmaintains a façade of democracy. Insuch a setting, the US should stopalignment of such regressive forcesrather than seeking to cohabit thestrategic space of Southern Asia withboth of them.
CPEC is also a direct threat to theoil rich West Asian countries. IfChina sets up its military bases rightat the neck of Strait of Hormuz inPersian Gulf in this way, it will defi-nitely flex its muscle in the regionsooner than expected and browbeatthe region into submission.
Having an alternative route forChinese imports and exports awayfrom South China Sea where thewaters are increasingly getting hotdue to Chinese ambitions to controlentire south sea is also an attractive
proposition for China. It will save onits expenses on security and trade-transit through CPEC.
CPEC is being projected as a mat-ter of life and death by the ruling eliteof Pakistan. Perceived Indian opposi-tion to it is acting as an unexpectedincentive for both China and Pakistanto overinvest on it for its successfulimplementation. They know for surethat the main hurdle on their way isthe Baloch movement for freedom.They want to delegitimise the move-ment by inventing a link with India.
It is no secret that since 2000, thePakistan Army is running its brutalmilitary operations against the inno-cent Baloch people, who have beenwaging their fifth-generation strug-gle against the Pakistani policies.
Starting with military dictatorMusharraf, Pakistani rulers have open-ly blamed everybody around the worldfrom CIA, RAW, Mossad, Russian FSB,Afghans, Arabs and Iranian intelli-gence agencies for the ongoing Balochresistance movement.
The Kulbhushan Jadhav episodeonly proves this point further. TheBaloch people have known Pakistanidesigns since 2003 when Pakistaniauthorities offered them US $ 35,000for every Indian they would be ableto kidnap from Afghanistan andUS$ 20,000 every Indian kidnappedfrom Iran. They have offered millionsto Afghan Taliban for capturingIndians working in Afghanistan.
The story emerging from theground suggests that KulbhushanJadhav was kidnapped from westernBalochistan near Chabahar port inIran by three Afghans who later soldhim to some Baloch who were work-
ing for the ISI.Jadhav was there on a business
trip to inspect some possibilities toexport Indian garments toTurkmenistan and other centralAsian states.
He was blind-flooded andbrought inside Pakistani occupiedBalochistan and sold for US$ 35,000that was trophy for ISI. He was thenshown as a RAW agent captured inBalochistan, who was there to trainand help Baloch and create instabil-ity in Pakistan.
It was all just a grand make-believe show to brainwash Pakistanipublic and international communi-ty to hide their crimes in Balochistan.
Another fact that has gone unno-ticed is that the Chinese have resist-ed the temptation to invest heavily inBalochistan so far. The proposedGadani power plants have been keptin abeyance. The move to buildinfrastructure around Gwadar hasbeen pushed by Pakistan to sustainChinese interests.
The only good this is thatPakistani ploy to project Baloch resis-tance as merely a function of mischiefcaused by Indian RAW has not con-vinced the Chinese about the natureof Baloch movement, which is likelyto intensify further.
If the sentence against Kulbushanis carried out, it will be a travesty ofjustice. He has not been given dueassistance under international law toplead his case. The Pakistani versionof the story has been upheld by themilitary court and death sentence hasbeen pronounced without even grant-ing Indian High Commission accessto its citizen alleged to be a spy.
As per international norms, thisis the very minimum requirement fora fair trial. All this shows how des-perate Pakistanis are to undermineBaloch struggle at one level and selltheir antipathy towards India as legit-imate point to the international com-munity on the other.
Ironically, the Baloch people,with their secular outlook and reflex-ive empathy for India, have notreceived due attention and help fromIndia in their struggle for their existence.
With India being a regionalheavyweight with its record ofupholding human rights in the caseof Bangladesh, the Baloch have hugeexpectations from New Delhi, but ithas gone unmet over the years.
Despite steady attempt by variousBaloch leaders in exile to reach outto Indian diplomats abroad in questfor moral and material help, there isno manifest desire to imperil India’srelationship with Pakistan by sidingwith Balochistan.
Prime Minister Narendra Modihas raised Baloch expectations but asthe Indian coyness about theKulbhushan case shows, India is stillnot prepared to openly advocate theBaloch cause and raise the case ofgross human rights violations at theinternational level.
Alas! The ground reality is sovery different from what thePakistanis portray it to be!
(The writer is a physician by profession and a Baloch rights activistbased in Moscow)
No nation ought to have a “two-nation theory”as it militates against the founding myth of a race,
its people and the nation.India with its own two-nation theory suffered
partition and ungainly carnage. The mainlandChina and the outgrowth of its selfsame organic inthe form of Taiwan too militate against the rationaleof nation-state, ideally speaking.
The schism between communist supremo MaoTse Tung and the flight of Chiang Kai Shek leadingthe Kuomintang happens to be a perennial scar onthe founding myth of the Chinese nation, but Taiwantoo needs its Independence.
The small north-top nation of Taiwan has fol-lowed a capitalist and democratic mode of devel-opment and is a micro scab tissue on the organic scaf-folding of China, according to the mainland China’sargument.
The Chinese never gave up on the severedTaiwan, while the status of Taiwan has always beenmired in the quick sand twilight zone of Taiwan’srights and status. The smaller administrative unitwith its promiscuity with the United States sooncharted a grand growth and development story foritself.
Also, in the contemporary context, PresidentDonald Trump’s post-inaugural conversation with theState head in Taiwan led to a blowback with theBeijing, wherein, the old wounds despite a Nixon-Mao détente in 1971 as part of Ping Pong diploma-cy were sure to make an impact upon the generaltenor of the Washington-Beijing bilateral.
The Taiwan Relations Act, passed in April, 1979,declared substantial but non-diplomatic relationswith the people of Taiwan.
Senator Barry Goldwater and other members ofthe Congress opposed the decision of PresidentJimmy Carter, as he had abrogated the Taiwan USMutual Defense Pact, which served as a larger secu-rity umbrella for Taiwan since 1954.
The Chinese act of supporting Washington in itsrole playing in Afghanistan and the Dragon’s expe-dition against Vietnam, the sore for America,brought Beijing and Washington together for a brieffurlough.
Thus, as fallout of this rift in the American home-land, the institution of the order of the AmericanInstitute in Taiwan was established and this spawnednew commercial and abiding cultural ties betweenthe US and the People’s Republic of China (PRC).
The American understanding leaves apart theislands other than the mainland Taiwanese Island andthe Penghu Island away from the jurisdiction of theTaiwan Relations Act (TRA).
The purport of the TRA happens to be histori-cally that, “The Taiwan Relations Act potentiallyrequires the US to intervene militarily if the PRCattacks or invades Taiwan.” The act states that “theUnited States will make available to Taiwan suchdefense articles and defense services in such quan-tity as may be necessary to enable Taiwan to main-tain sufficient self-defence capabilities. However, thedecision about the nature and quantity of defenceservices that America will provide to Taiwan is tobe determined by the President and the Congress”.
The US has displayed a strategic ambivalence inthe context of Taiwan in order to tread the twin canoebalancing acting on the Oriental seas of the AsiaticSpace. It is this development and snippet out of inter-national law, which has to be sorted out peacefullyby the involved Nation State actors.
Initially, in the contemporary context, PresidentTrump had called for a review of the status of PRC,but after a conversation with Beijing akin to otherissues such as immigration policy and others, he hasmellowed down a great deal.
Yan Xuetong, Dean of the School of InternationalRelations at Tsinghua University in Beijing, wrote inthe New York Times, “Even though Trump has saidhe will support the ‘One China’ policy, China can-not fully trust him. Even his own people don’t trusthim.” Thus, the Washington folks need to stick to atough talking position, if they seemingly want toappear to be stately like. Still, a mellowing down inthe light of Xi Jinping’s strong observations on theAmerican standpoint has been taken in astutely byPresident Trump ‘uppity’ and upbeat campaign trail.
The question which needs to be answered is: canthe twin superpowers share power in the Pacific? TheAmerican stratagem towards the PRC has alwaysbeen interpreted as being that of strategic ambigu-ity and one that of “cooperative competition” in near-ly all contested terrains in the larger international sys-tem, including the nationalist northern speck overChina.
To put to rest doubts about any American leg-erdemain, Trump reiterated the American supportto a “One China Policy” in a telephonic conversa-tion with Chinese Premier Xi Jinping.
It might be a tactical retreat by the American
strategists and President Trump. The Cable NewsNetwork in one of his news reports informs the audi-ence, “President Trump’s willingness to pull backfrom some of his more extreme ideas has been wel-comed by market watchers. The pledge to Xi onTaiwan “matters to investors because if China canbring about a change like this, it may succeed in soft-ening other US policy positions,” said Paul Donovan,global chief economist at UBS Wealth Management.”
The Chinese are of the opinion, pragmaticallyspeaking that, Beijing is hopeful about the US mel-lowing down and taking substantial interest in thetrade negotiations between both the nations.
Still, when China refers to the right of self-deter-mination and insurgent ministrations in provincessuch as Xinjiang, its own standpoint in the contextof twilight-zone Taiwan stands on shaky grounds.
The new Chinese Policy of “leapfrog develop-ment” happens to be that of serving the mainframeHan race as most of the demographic alterations inthe sphere of internal migrations have already beenaccomplished. Thus, the Chinese canard of playingthe aggrieved nation in the context of Taiwan fallsflat in the light of the strife-torn East-Turkistan movement.
The Uighur Turks, the original ethnic group, werebelittled in all prevalent manners in order to hike thefortunes of mainland unity, the Han way. The samediscrimination gets reflected in the manner in whichnational day parades exist as charades in light of thepattern of “select participation at national events”.
So much the so for the Chinese doublespeak.London-based the Guardian has reported that
China reiterated in January, 2017 very categorical-ly that Taiwan is non-negotiable.
Even, going by national polls in Taiwan, most ofTaiwanese nationals prefer a separate existentialstreak for themselves and do not prefer to kow-towalong with the dragon wing’s flippancy. This allowsdissent and freedom of existence in the name of theTaiwanese insistence on self determination. USPresident Trump does not propose to utilise theTaiwanese angle as a bargaining chip to outdo PRCdiplomatically in the Asia Pacific.
In return for the Chinese demands, the US hasalready raised the bogey of the North Korean ques-tion, which insists on making Pyongyang retract fromits scary and regimental nuclear ambitions and theambiguities associated with it.
The American concerns over North Korea aregenuine as it has ratcheted up the threat to take themilitary route over North Korea but China, too, hasalertly refuted the American threats and concerns.
Still, as a summation, the Trump dispensationcan hope for a negotiated settlement with Beijing in the peninsular region if not with the North Korean dictator.
Still, Chinese currency manipulation and sub-sidies serve as the constant obstructions in a steadySino-US Relations. Also, Washington should link upits “Rebalancing” with Asia in the light of the Chineseclaims over Taiwan.
(The writer teaches International Relations atIndian Institute of Public Administration, Delhi)
While addressing the students of Lucknow University in 1951,BR Ambedkar had said, “India has failed to develop a strong
foreign policy. Tibet has been garrisoned by China; it will have long-term threat to India.” This statement of Baba Saheb is still relevant.The recent visit of the Dalai Lama to Twang has stirred a fresh con-troversy. China threatened India for permitting the Dalai Lama tovisit Twang. The Indian Government has made it clear that it wasa spiritual visit and nothing to do with politics. But the anger andfrustration of China are well entrenched in the Chinese strategiccalculus. While explaining the vision of BR Ambedkar, it becomesinteresting to connect his thought of a strong nation and realisticforeign policy.
Despite being humiliated as a human being in caste-riddensocial structure of India, Ambedkar never undermined theimportance of nation. He strongly advocated for a power which acountry needs to aspire. It is the only route through which it canmake its presence felt in the world politics. Unfortunately that didnot happen during the Congress regime. He was scornful ofNehruvian foreign policy, especially on China and the erstwhileSoviet Union. He wanted Tibet must remain an independent coun-try. While delivering speech in Kathmandu in 1955, he cautionedthe aggressive approach of China to Himalayan states. Almost sixdecades of Indian foreign policy synchronised itself under the duressof China from a major power to a trivial entity.
But the current Government is moving in the directions of BabaShaeb’s thoughts. Narendra Modi was the first Prime Minister whovisited Bhutan and Nepal after becoming the Prime Minister. Thatwas a breakaway from established trend of Indian Prime Minister’sentourage. Modi as a Prime Minister made the Himalayan statesmore important. This was a major turning point in Indian foreignpolicy. Since then China is very aggressive. The Modi Governmentis also working on the long-term strategy, which was missing ear-lier. That is why at the fag-end of his prime ministership, ManmohanSingh uttered that India did not have strategic culture. With Modi’sdoctrine, China is feeling uneasy.
China plays dual role. On one side, it is keen to hijack theBuddhist structure through its soft power diplomacy, on the otherhand, it is waiting the Dalai Lama to pass away and let the TibetanLiberation Movement be rudderless and leaderless. China publisheda white paper on Tibet in 2015 to showcase the world how Tibethas been converted from pastoral land to well-developed cities.China claims that the Tibetan culture and people have been muchbetter off since its occupation rule began in 1959. It claims: “Tibet’straditional culture is well protected and promoted, and freedomof religious belief in the region is respected, while its ecological envi-ronment is protected too.” The white paper also presents data tojustify its rule for the last 50 years. It claims: “Earlier Tibet did nothave a single school in the modern sense; its illiteracy rate was ashigh as 95 per cent among the young and the middle-aged; therewas no modern medical service, and praying to the Buddha forsuccour was the main resort for most people if they fell ill; theiraverage life expectancy was 35.5 year.”
Even if the above data are true, there are many aspects of whichare equally misleading. The Tibetan community has been killedand subjugated to slavery. Their twin identities of faith and pas-toral lives were forcefully destroyed by the communist regime. Tibethas been strategically cut into two parts. One part of it, the TibetAutonomous Regions (TAR), has been converted into a nucleardustbin, spreading deadly diseases such as cancer. Thousands ofTibetans are behind bars. Their economic status is very low. Thepolicy of transferring Han Chinese into the TAR is making theTibetans a minority community in their own region. China underthe 2020 Plan wants to transfer more Hans to Tibet. This wouldstrengthen China’s rule of terror and worsen the pace of the ongo-ing cultural genocide.
Tibet remains the decisive factor in shaping the China-Indiarelations for the last 65 years. However, India has maintained a prin-cipled stand and stated time and again that Tibet is a part of China.Meeting with the Dalai Lama and refugee status of Tibetans liv-ing in India has been categorically defined by Indian leaders con-sistently. Atal Behari Vajpayee during his visit to China in 1979 asthe Foreign Minister explained that the Dalai Lama was given refugein India purely in reference to his spiritual position. OrdinaryTibetans were granted refugee status on strictly humanitariangrounds. But China remains apprehensive. Any move of India islooked, explained and understood by China under the shadow ofTibetan cause. Overall India-China relations have been shapedunder the currents of Tibetan factor.
The Chinese takeover of Tibet is strategic rather than histor-ical or ideological. The Tibetan rebellion of 1959 and the China-India border war of 1962 tended to strengthen Chinese belief inthe strategic importance of Tibet. No sooner had the PLA troopsentered eastern Tibet than they began building roads. Strategicdevelopment continued in Tibet for more than two decades andcertainly the most spectacular aspect of the overall developmentin Tibet from 1950 till 1976 has been strategic or military orient-ed. China has always been apprehensive of the influence of exter-nal powers into the territory of Tibet. That is why purportedly shift-ed the area of buffer zone from Tibet to their tiny Himalayan stateslike Nepal and Bhutan with India. To consolidate its position, Chinasigned border agreements with Burma and Nepal in 1960,Magnolia in 1962, and Pakistan in 1963
China’s Tibet policy impacts Indian security interests mainlyin two ways. One, it exposed the border problem between Indiaand China, which led to the 1962 Sino-Indian War. The Chineseinvasion of Tibet ended the buffer zone between the two countries.At the same time, it increased China’s reach into South Asia. In fact,Tibet has an 870-mile border with Nepal and China has been con-solidating its relationships with Nepal. Another serious consequenceof Chinese developmental strategy in Tibet could be in terms ofenvironmental hazards. India’s major rivers originate from the Trans-Himalayan region. China’s Western Development programme isfeared to cause major deforestation and ecological imbalance. Tibetand Tibetan ethnic areas are endowed with the greatest river sys-tem in the world. Its rivers supply fresh water to 85 per cent of Asia’spopulation and approximately 50 per cent of the world’s popula-tion.
The Dalai Lama is the most revered figure of Buddhism. TheIndian Government has started its diplomatic venture by creatinga Buddhist circuit from India to South East Asia and Central Asia.China is trying to divert this circuit towards its turfs. Tibet is lynch-pin of this diplomacy and the Dalai Lama is spiritual driver. Keepingthe words of Baba Saheb, Tibet and Tibetans’ dignity need to beprotected. It is not merely for the interests of Tibetans, but for India.
(The writer is Head of the Department of Political Science, CentralUniversity of Haryana)
The Income Tax departmenthas identified over 60,000
‘high risk’ persons for probeunder the second phase of the‘Operation Clean Money’which was launched on Fridayto detect black money gener-ation post demonetisation.
The CBDT said the cate-gory of people who will under-go ‘detailed investigations’ aspart of the next phase of theoperation include businessesclaiming cash sales as thesource of cash deposits, likepetrol pumps and other essen-tial services like hospitals,which is found to be excessivecompared to their past profileor industry norms during thenotes ban period.
It will also probe thosegovernment or Public SectorUndertaking employees whomade ‘large cash deposits’, peo-ple who have undertaken highvalue purchases, those who‘layered’ or laundered funds byusing shell companies andthose who did not respond totaxman's queries under thefirst phase of the said opera-tion.
A senior officer said thereis no threshold of deposits thathas been identified under thelatest operation and all suspi-cious and similar inter-related
transactions have been chosenand brought under it.
“The deposits underscrutiny of the latest operationare no doubt high value ones,”he said. The officer added thatwhile the initial communica-tion to these 60,000 people willgo via the online medium, thetaxman will also undertakesearch and survey action andalso seek physical documentsfrom the assessee as part of theoperation. The thresholdunder the first phase of theoperation, that began onJanuary 31 and ended onFebruary 15, was kept atdeposits made to the tune of �5lakh and above.
“More than 60,000 per-sons, including 1,300 high riskpersons have been identifiedfor investigation into claims ofexcessive cash sales during thedemonetisation period.” “Morethan 6,000 transactions of highvalue property purchase and6,600 cases of outward remit-tances shall be subjected todetailed investigations,” theCBDT, policy-making body ofthe department, said in a state-ment. “All the cases where noresponse is received shall alsobe subjected to detailedenquiries,” it added.
The CBDT said the com-plete exercise of examining‘all the doubtful and non-tax
compliant accounts’ may takemore than an year to completebut with the help of technolo-gy and continuous enforce-ment action all the liableaccounts will be brought totask. The latest operation hasbeen initiated based on ‘iden-tification’ of huge cash depositsthrough use of advanced dataanalytics ‘including integra-tion of data sources, relation-ship clustering and fund track-ing’. The CBDT said the tax-man also undertook ‘extensiveenforcement action’ of search,survey and seizure postdemonetisation and has detect-ed undisclosed income to thetune of �9,334 crore betweenNovember 9 and February 28.
“More than 2,362 search,seizure and survey actionshave been conducted by thedepartment.. .Leading toseizure of valuables worthmore than �818 crore, whichinclude cash of �622 croreand detection of undisclosed
income of more than �9,334crore,” it said. “More than 400cases have been referred by thetax department to theEnforcement Directorate andthe CBI. Surveys have beenconducted in more than 3,400cases by assessment units,” thestatement added.
The demonetisation of twohigh value currencies of �1000and �500 was announced byPrime Minister NarendraModi on November 8 last year.Under the first phase of theoperation, it said, 17.92 lakhpeople, who entered into cashtransactions that did notappear to be in line with theirtax profile, were contacted viathe online medium.
“Online queries wereraised “in 35,000 cases andonline verification was com-pleted in more than 7,800cases,” it said, adding thedepartment has decided toclose the verification in caseswhere explanation of source of
cash was found to be justified.“In cases where the cashdeposit has been declaredunder Pradhan Mantri GaribKalyan Yojna (PMGKY), theverifications would also beclosed,” it said. The ‘OperationClean Money’, the CBDT said,is being conducted by the taxdepartment through use ofadvanced data analytics allow-ing ‘optimisation of govern-ment resources and causingminimum inconvenience tothe taxpayers’. It added that theimpact of government action isalready visible in the increaseof 21.7 per cent in the returnsof income received in FinancialYear 2016-17.
Sixteen per cent growth ingross collection was seen, thehighest in the last five years,14 per cent growth in net col-lection- the highest in lastthree years and above 18 percent, 25 per cent and 22 percent growth in personalincome tax, regular assess-ment tax and self-assessmenttax respectively. The state-ment said the demonetisationexercise was aimed at the‘elimination of black moneythat casts a long shadow ofparallel economy on our realeconomy’ and the latest oper-ation is one of the major stepsaimed to achieve this goal andalso widen the tax base.
The Reserve Bank of India(RBI) has issued a new set
of enabling provisions to resolvethe problem of banks’ mount-ing non-performing assets(NPAs), or bad loans. Throughthe notification titled ‘RevisedPrompt Corrective Action(PCA) framework for banks’, theRBI has said the new set of pro-visions, effective from April 1,override the existing PCAframework, and are based onthe financials of each bank as ofMarch 2017. The new frame-work will be reviewed afterthree years.
Under the revised frame-work, if a bank crosses thethird level of risk threshold(where a bank's common equi-ty tier I capital falls below thethreshold of 3.625 per cent by3.125 per cent, or more) it willeither be amalgamated ormerged, or taken over by anoth-er entity.
“Breach of 'risk threshold 3'of CET1 (common equity tier 1)by a bank would identify it as alikely candidate for resolutionthrough tools like amalgama-tion, reconstruction, winding upetc,” the notification said. Theapex bank also said that in casea “bank defaults in meeting theobligations to its depositors,possible resolution processesmay be resorted to without ref-erence to the PCA matrix”.
“A bank will be placed
under PCA framework based onthe audited annual financialresults and RBI's supervisoryassessment. However, RBI mayimpose PCA on any bank dur-ing the course of a year, includ-ing migration from one thresh-old to another, in case the cir-cumstances so warrant.”
The revised PCA frame-work is applicable to all banks,including small and foreignbanks. The new framework alsoplaces capital, asset quality andprofitability as the key areas formonitoring. Besides, the over-riding indicators tracking capi-tal, asset quality and profitabil-ity will be capital to risk assetsratio (CRAR), CET1 ratio, metNPA ratio and return on assets,respectively, the notificationsaid. A bank’s “leverage will bemonitored additionally as partof the PCA framework and anybreach of any risk threshold willresult in invocation of PCA,” itadded. If a bank breaches the
risk levels or leverage levels, RBIsaid ‘promoters/owners/parentin the case of foreign banks’ willhave to bring in capital to meetthe special supervisory require-ment. Breach of risk threshold2 will attract restrictions onbranch expansion, as well asdomestic and overseas higherprovisions, as part of the cover-age regime, RBI said.
Breach of risk threshold 3 willinvite mandatory actions ofthreshold 1 and 2, along withrestrictions on managementcompensation and directors' feesand any other corrective actionssuch as removal of officials andsupersession or suppression of theboard. At its first monetary pol-icy review of the fiscal on April6, the RBI said it would come outwith a revised PCA framework.The NPAs of state-run banks atthe end of last September rose to�6.3 lakh crore (almost $100 bil-lion), as compared to �5.5 lakhcrore at the end of June 2016.
����� ����� ��
Infosys CEO Vishal Sikka,whose pay package was
one of the contentions raisedby the founders, has drawn$6.68 million (about �43crore) or 61 per cent of thepromised compensation forthe 2016-17 fiscal. Sikka waseligible for a $11 million payincluding basic salary, vari-able pay, restricted stockunits (RSUs) and perfor-mance stock options for theyear.
Incidentally, this is alsolower than what Sikka drewin the previous financial yearwhen he took home �48.73crore. According to Infosys'financial statements that out-line compensation to keyexecutives, Sikka receivedonly $ 3.68 million of the $8million variable componentthat he was promised.
One of the highest paidexecutives in the Indian ITindustry, Sikka took home$0.82 million in variable pay,$1.9 million in RSUs andESOPs worth $0.96 million,total l ing $3.68 mil l ion.
Sikka’s salary was revisedfrom $7.08 million to a hand-some $11 million packagewith effect from April 2016, amove that did not go downwell with the founders,including NR NarayanaMurthy. The $11 millionpackage was to include a basesalary of $1 million and $2million worth of stock annu-ally as well $3 million invariable pay. Sikka is also eli-gible for another $5 millionworth of performance-basedequity and stock options uponachievement of certain per-formance targets.
“The Board, based on therecommendations of theNominations Committee,approved on April 13, 2017,
$0.82 million as variable payto CEO for the year endedMarch 31, 2017,” Infosys said.It further mentions “...RSUsamounting to $1.9 millionand ESOPs amounting to$0.96 million representingthe performance-based equi-ty and stock options for thefinancial year 2017".
While the founders hadraised concerns over the sig-nificant salary hike given toSikka, the Board, on its part,maintained that the variablecomponent was tied to steepperformance goals. However,Infosys has not made thosegoals public. Infosys haddefended Sikka’s pay hike say-ing all decisions were made ‘inthe overall interest of thecompany’.
Infosys’ performance of2016-17 has disappointed thestreet, especially after it low-ered its annual revenue guid-ance thrice last fiscal. The‘aspirational goal’ of $20 bil-lion revenue by 2020 set byInfosys looks like a tall ordergiven the current perfor-mance, said industry watch-ers. The Bengaluru-based
firm, which posted a revenueof $10.2 billion in 2016-17,has been focussing on newareas like automation andartificial intelligence to bol-
ster its revenues to meet thesaid target. For the financialyear 2017-18, Infosys expectsits revenues to grow by 6.1-8.1 per cent in $terms.
NEW DELHI: Moving goodsworth more than �50,000under GST will require prioronline registration of the con-signment and securing an ‘e-way bill’ that tax officials caninspect anytime during thetransit to check tax evasion.
The Central Board ofExcise and Customs (CBEC)has issued draft rules onElectronic Way (e-way) billthat require registered entitiesto furnish, in a prescribed for-mat, GST-Network (GSTN)website information relating toany goods worth more than�50,000 they intend to movewithin a state or outside.
GSTN will generate e-waybills that will be valid for 1-15days, depending on distance tobe travelled - one day being for100 kilometres and 15 days formore than 1,000 km transit.“Upon generation of the e-waybill on the common portal, aunique e-way bill number(EBN) shall be made availableto the supplier, the recipient
and the transporter on thecommon portal,” stated thedraft norms. The person in-charge of conveyance will berequired to carry the invoice orbill of supply or delivery chal-lan, and a copy of the e-way billor the e-way bill number, eitherphysically or mapped to aRadio Frequency IdentificationDevice (RFID) embedded onto the conveyance.
The rules authorise the taxcommissioner or an officerempowered by him on hisbehalf to intercept any con-veyance to verify the e-way billor the number in physicalform for all inter-state andintra-state movement of goods.
Physical verification ofconveyances can be carried outon specific information of eva-sion of tax, as per the rules.The officer will be required tosubmit a summary report ofevery inspection of goods intransit within 24 hours and thefinal report within three daysof inspection. PTI
MUMBAI: The NationalPayments Corporation of India(NPCI) on Friday announcedthe launch of mobile applica-tion for Aadhaar-based pay-ments through BharatInterface for Money (BHIM)app for merchants. The servicewas launched by PrimeMinister Narendra Modi inNagpur. The new service willallow customers to make pur-chases using their Aadhaarnumber linked with their bankaccount. The transaction willrequire customer's fingerprintfor authentication.
“This will directly cater toabout 40 crore bank accountcustomers spread across thecountry whose account is linkedwith Aadhaar. It is a huge oppor-tunity for enabling digital trans-actions as about 99 per cent ofadult population is now aadhaarenabled,” NPCI managing direc-tor and CEO, AP Hota said.Currently, over 30 banks are par-ticipating on BHIM Aadhaarand more member banks shall beon-board, NPCI said. BHIMAadhaar would be applicable forretail merchants only and not forcorporate merchants, it said. PTI
equity as well as equity deriv-ative trading in the security ofCairn India from April 26, asthe cash-rich oil producerhas merged into its debt-rid-den parent Vedanta.
Under the merger deal,shareholders of Cairn Indiawill get one equity share ofVedanta and four redeemablepreference shares of face value`10 and coupon 7.5 per cent.
Further, Cairn Indiashareholders, as on recorddate , w ho wi l l b e comeshareholders of Vedanta,would also receive an inter-im dividend of `17.70 perequity share. April 27 hasbeen set as record date forthe share swap.
Accordingly, in two sep-arate notices, NSE and BSEhave asked the investors andbrokers not to deal in theequity shares of Cairn Indiawith effect from April 26.
“...It is hereby notified
that the following security willbe suspended from tradingwith effect from April 26,2017,” NSE said in the circu-lar.
BSE in its circular said:“ Trading Members areadvised not to deal in theequity shares of Cairn IndiaLtd with effect from the undermentioned date (April 26)”.
At the same time, thebourses in separate circularssaid ‘no futures and optionscontracts will be available inthe underlying CAIRN fortrading from April 26, 2017onwards’.
Moreover, the boursessaid the existing equity deriv-ative contracts of Cairn ‘withexpiry dates April 27, 2017,May 25, 2017 and June 29,2017 will expire on April 25,2017’. Earlier this week,Cairn and Vedanta hadannounced the completion ofthe merger. The mergerwould help the metals andmining company Vedantaaccess to the cash of CairnIndia, helping it cut debt.
����� ����� ��
State-owned telecom firmMTNL is looking to convert
nearly 50 per cent of its fixedline users into broadband sub-scribers over the next 18months, as part of plans toincrease revenue and retaincustomers. At present, nearly34 per cent of its fixed line cus-tomers are also its broadbandsubscribers.
“In the next 1.5 years, weshould gun for 50 per cent oflandline customer basebecoming broadband enabledcustomers for us. And thatshould be driving force for us,”MTNL Chairman andManaging Director PKPurwar told PTI. Termingbroadband as a ‘flagship’ offer-ing for Mahanagar TelephoneNigam Ltd (MTNL), Purwarnoted at present large numberof the corporation's landlinecustomers do not subscribe toits broadband services.
“So, we will be pursuingwith them (to sell broadband
services) such that the per-centage of the broadband cus-tomers can also be increased.It will not only increase ourrevenue but the customerretention will also be better,”he added. The company alsoplans to take the broadbandequipment closer to sub-scriber premises and hasrecently ‘revisited’ tariffs plansto tune them with the varyingcustomer requirements, headded.
“To improve broadbandspeeds, we have installed 140DSLAMs in Delhi, and 150 inMumbai in 2016-17. We arelooking at similar numbers for2017-18 so that the customerwho are being providedbroadband services should bewithin 1-1.5 kms from our
DSLAM areas or broadbandequipment areas and henceget better experience,” Purwarsaid. Digital Subscriber LineAccess Multiplexer or DSLAMis a network devices that con-nects customer digital sub-scriber lines to a high-speeddigital communications chan-nels.
MTNL has 15 lakh land-line subscribers in Delhi and18 lakh in Mumbai, while itsmobile subscriber base ispegged at 35 lakh in the twometros combined. The cor-poration has over 20 broad-band plans, said Purwar. Hesaid that MTNL is talking tocustomer to better under-stand their requirements.
“We customise broadbandpacks for different pricepoints... We believe that weshould cater to all kinds ofcustomers...From those withhigher data usage to students,”he said. In 2015-16, MTNLreported a total annual rev-enue of �3,197.41 crore andnet loss of �2,005.72 crore.
NEW DELHI: Tata Trusts andBrick Eagle Foundation havepartnered to design a pilot afford-able housing project at Karjat, onthe outskirts of Mumbai. TataTrusts has offered a grant to BrickEagle Foundation for extensiveresearch on customer needs,industry best practices and scal-able and sustainable constructiontechnologies, a statement said.The project is expected to becompleted in two years.
“This project will provide acritical perspective to under-stand the housing needs of theEconomically Weaker Sections(EWS) and Lower Income Group(LIG) population,” said ShikhaSrivastava, Lead, Urban PovertyAlleviation and Livelihoods port-folio, Tata Trusts. KirtiTimmanagoudar, founder ofBrick Eagle Foundation, said,“Our association with TataTrusts began about a year ago.Tata Trusts’ focus on Habitat isa welcome move as it supportsthe Government’s ‘Housing forAll’ objective’. PTI
President Pranab Mukherjeeon Friday underscored the
need for India to be a globalpowerhouse not just in termsof economic parameters butalso 'Gross NationalHappiness'.
“If we aspire to be one ofthe leading economic powersof the world, yes, we can be,but merely in statistical terms,in terms of gross domesticproduct (GDP), in terms ofskill are not adequate,”Mukherjee said after laying thefoundation stone for theBengaluru Dr B R AmbedkarSchool of Economics here.
The President said theconcept of development haschanged now and interna-tional organisations like theWorld Bank and IMF are talk-ing about development interms of GDP as well as GrossNational Happiness (GNH).
“Along with GDP, GNH isconsidered as one of theimportant factors of develop-
ment,” Mukherjee emphasised.He expressed concern overunemployability of the youthin India, saying ‘600 millionyouth are entering the jobmarket, but their employabil-ity is not adequate’. “They areeducated, but not employable.Their employability is not upto the world standard,” hesaid.
Mukherjee observed thatskill development may notappear glamorous but is mostimportant in the Indian con-
text. Putting a premium onquality, the President said it isimportant to maintain inter-national standards in educa-tion and training to makeIndian youth employable inthe world.
“IITs have 100 per centcampus recruitments. IITiansare working in MNCs acrossthe world at different posi-tions. Even Dr BR AmbedkarSchool of Economics will notbe local but of internationalrepute,” Mukherjee stressed,
calling upon the state govern-ment to run the school withthis objective.
He expressed happinessthat the school is named afterAmbedkar, the father of theIndian Constitution, a ‘brightproduct’ from the LondonSchool of Economics.Speaking on the occasion,Karnataka Chief MinisterSiddaramaiah said the stategovernment has already allo-cated a sum of �150 croretowards setting up of theschool.
“Further, �75 crore arebeing released in the next fiveyears in a phased manner forsetting up of the proposed cor-pus. It has also been decidedto release the recurring grantof �10 crore each year for thenext five years,” he added.
Union ministers AnanthKumar and DV SadanandaGowda, state GovernorVajubhai Vala were present,along with state higher edu-cation minister BasavarajRayareddi and academicians.
NEW DELHI: Insurance behe-moth LIC will soon obtainservices of retired bankers tostrengthen its lending opera-tions and ensure that NPAs arekept at the minimum. LIC hasset up a cell for its lending, NPAresolution and one time settle-ment (OTS), sources said,adding the company will soonget experts particularly bankersto this portfolio.
LIC has been into the busi-ness of insurance but theydon't have expertise on loanrisk assessment and resolu-tion, sources said. A standardoperating procedure has alsobeen worked out for repaymentthrough one-time settlementscheme, they added. At the endof March 2016, LIC had a debtportfolio of �3.79 lakh crore,bigger than the loan portfolioof most banks. Its gross nonperforming assets stood at 3.76
per cent at the end of March2016, up from 3.30 per cent inthe previous year.
Driven by sudden surge insingle premium policy salesand falling interest rates, totalnew business premium of LICrose 25.8 per cent to �1.22 lakhcrore in FY 2016-17 fromaround �97,000 crore in theprevious year. However, thestate-owned insurer witnesseddegrowth in terms of policiesduring the year under review.
Total new business premi-um, including pension andgroup business, rose to �1.22
lakh crore in 2016-17 fromaround �97,000 crore a yearago, a senior LIC official said.New business on the individualbasis zoomed 47 per cent to�37,800 crore from �25,700crore a year ago. New businesson the individual basis jumped122 per cent from the project-ed target of �31,000 crore in2016-17. Interestingly, the tar-get was the same for the previ-ous fiscal too. New business onthe individual basis at LICgrew by 47 per cent to �37,800crore for 2016-17 from �25,700crore in the previous fiscal.
NEW DELHI: World’s largestcoal miner CIL will diversifyinto coal to chemical businessand is planning to set up acoal-based methanol plant inWest Bengal.
“Coal India (CIL) intends todiversify into new 'Coal toChemical business’ domainby converting the high calorif-ic value, low ash thermal coalinto chemical," an officialsaid. To implement the new strat-
egy, premises of its existingDankuni Coal Complex inWest Bengal has been identi-fied as the location for settingup a coal to methanol com-plex by using the good qual-ity coal from Raniganj coal-f ield, the of f icia l said. However, the official further
said that the methanol plantwould be set up through coalgasification route.
“The first step to this newventure will be pre-qualifica-tion of coal gasification licen-sors who can produce Syngasof required composition forproduction of methanol util-ising the Raniganj coal,” theofficial added. PTI
NEW DDELHI: Mobile hand-set makers may get some reliefas the Government is expectedto ease bank guarantee normsfor import of components atconcessional duty rates for localmanufacturing. According tosources, the Prime Minister’sOffice convened a joint meetingwith industry and inter-minis-terial officers last week to lookinto the impediments beingfaced by mobile makers in India.
Industry players raised con-cerns over huge capital gettingblocked in bank guarantees givenas assurance to customs that theitems imported by them on con-cessional duty rates will not beretailed in the market and will beused solely for making mobilephones. “The PMO has assuredthat it has noted concerns ofmobile manufacturers on IGCR
and will take it up so that at leastthe formalities of bank guaranteeis waived for companies withgood track record,” a source whoattended the meeting told PTI.Bank guarantees of as much as�29,000 crore have been fur-nished by companies.
“The accounting period ofbank guarantees is 3 month forIGCR (Import of goods at con-cessional rate of duty for man-ufacture of excisable goods). Acompany cannot free the bankguarantee if the imported goodshave been exhausted even in 5days so the capital remains blockfor long period,” said a repre-sentative of a mobile company.When contacted, Indian CellularAssociation (ICA) NationalPresident Pankaj Mohindrooappreciated the support of PrimeMinister's office. PTI
NDMC officials led the nationin paying homage to Bharat
Ratna Baba Saheb, Dr BRAmbedkar on his 127th Birthanniversary here on Friday.Director (Technical), NMDC asChief Guest, Dr TRK Rao,Director (Commercial), NMDC,RK Satpathy, Director(Production), NMDC, SandeepTula, Director (Personnel),NMDC were the Guests ofHonour on the occasion. G SivaRama Krishna, GeneralSecretary and B HanumanthaRao, President of the NMDCSC/ST Employees WelfareAssociation along with executivemembers were also present. Atthe outset Chief Guest, Guests ofHonour and other dignitariesunveiled and garlanded newstatue of Dr BRAmbedkar and litthe lamp.
NK Nanda while addressingthe gathering appealed to bring
a change in the society by fol-lowing the principles laid downby Dr BR Ambedkar and imbibeat least one principle of BabaSaheb in the life of our childrenthis would give moral satisfactionto parents and would also enablethe children to understand theimportance of respect to elders
and the society. Dr BRAmbedkar's role is of pivotalimportance in framing IndianConstitution and upliftment ofdowntrodden people and alsoemphasised on the principles ofoneness and equality.
Dr TRK Rao, Director(Commercial) in his speech
emphasized to follow ideals andprinciples of Dr BR Ambedkarin eradication of SocialInequality, bringing in humanequality and liberation of mindsto understand humans reforms.PK Satpathy, Director(Production) emphasized on tofollow Dr. B.R. Ambedkar's prin-
ciples of humanity and fightagainst social discriminationand inequality. He also said thatmore focus should be given onwomen empowerment in thispresent society. He said that theBHIM APP (Bharat Interface forMoney) is named after Dr. BhimRao Ambedkar as a mark ofrespect by the presentGovernment.
Sandeep Tula, Director(Personnel) in his speech saidthat life of Dr. B.R. Ambedkaris a source of inspiration for allcitizens' of India. His determi-nation, dedication and think bigattitude gave new dimension toIndia and for its new genera-tions. G Siva Rama Krishna,General Secretary gave a briefabout the activities of the SC/STassociation of NMDC and itscontribution in the welfare ofthe employees. The functionwas attended by employeesalong with their family mem-bers making it a grand success.
Accepting the long-pendingdemand of India’s leading
merchant navy unions -Maritime Union of India(MUI) and the National Unionof Seafarers of India (NUSI) -the Ministry of Finance hasfinally agreed to grant incometax exemption to Indian sea-farers sailing aboard foreignships outside India for morethan 182 days a year.
Central Board of DirectTaxes (CBDT) under theFinance Ministry has issued aclarification regarding liabili-ty to income-tax in India fora non-resident seafarer receiv-ing remuneration in non-res-ident external or NRE accountmaintained with an Indianbank.
Following the decision ofthe Finance Minstry, AmarThakur, General Secretary,MUI, said, “This decision is ahuge boost for over 1.3 lakh
Indian seafarers, as tax-freeincome has always been anadded attraction for Indianmerchant navy workforce,which contributes around $40million annually to our coun-try's exchequer.”
However, NUSI GeneralSecretary Abdulgani Serangsaid, "Income tax exemption toIndian seafarers will certainlystrengthen the Centre’s“Maritime Agenda 2020' aimedat increasing the global shareof Indian seafarers to 9 per centfrom7 per cent currently”.
A judgement delivered bythe Kolkata income tax tri-bunal in August 2016, man-dated Indian merchant navyworkforce to pay taxes in India,which shattered the morale ofIndian seafarers. Both MUIand NUSI jointly challengedthe tribunal’s decision inAugust 2016 in the KolkataHigh Court through MesserDave & Padvekar Associatesand Advocates.
NEW DELHI: Digital transactionsincreased by about 23 times inMarch to nearly 64 lakh, with totalvalue of �2,425 crore, from lastNovember when demonetisationtook effect. “Volume of all digitaltransactions increased by about 23times with 63,80,000 digital trans-actions for a value of �2,425 crorein March 2017, compared to2,80,000 digital transactions worth�101 crore till November 2016,”Niti Aayog said in a statement.Aadhaar Enabled Payments haveincreased from 2.5 crore inNovember 2016 to over 5 crore inMarch 2017, it said.
After scrapping of �500 and�1,000 notes on November 8,2016, the Government hadlaunched two schemes to incen-tivise digital payments LuckyGrahak Yojana and DigiDhanVyapar Yojana on December 25.The statement also said ImmediatePayment Service (IMPS) transac-tions have also increased from 3.6crore to 6.7 crore during the same
period. In order to achieve the tar-get of 2,500 crore digital transac-tions in the current financial year,the Prime Minister todayannounced about 75 townshipsspread all over India as ‘less-cashtownships’, it said. According to thestatement, a less-cash township isone where the deployment ofpayment acceptance infrastructureis complete, all the families in thetownship are covered under train-ing programmes.
“Townships with more than80 per cent of the total number oftransactions being done throughdigital modes of payments duringthe review period are included inthis list,” it pointed out. Noting thatthe townships were selected onthe basis of third party assessmentby Price Waterhouse Coopers(PWC), the statement said that‘these townships are likely togenerate over 1.5 lakh digitaltransactions every day therebyleading to about 5.5 crore digitaltransactions in a year’. PNS
Swedish auto major VolvoCars on Friday launched its
performance oriented sedanVolvo S60 Polestar at an intro-ductory price of �52.5 lakh (ex-showroom Delhi). With itsfirst performance car in India,the company is looking for apush in the luxury segment asit targets to sell over 2,000 vehi-cles in the country this year.
The Volvo S60 Polestar is thequickest car from Volvo's stableand can accelerate from 0-100km/hr in just 4.7 second witha top speed of 250 kmh. It is pow-ered by a two-litre, twin-charged(Turbo Charged and SuperCharged) petrol engine.
Polestar, which was foundedas a motorsport team in 1996, isnow the performance brand ofVolvo Cars after its acquisition in2015. Commenting on the launch,Volvo Auto India ManagingDirector Tom von Bonsdorff toldPTI: “With the S60 Polestar, we areplugging the gap we had. Now wehave a complete range of vehiclesin the luxury segment.”He furthersaid: “We hope this will give us apush in the performance segment.”
referendum on expandingPresident Recep TayyipErdogan’s powers made a lastpush for votes on Friday as thearrest of five suspected jehadisfuelled security concerns.
Opinion polls — usuallytreated with caution in Turkey— have predicted a tight out-come on Sunday despite theconsiderable advantages of the‘Yes’ campaign in both airtimeand campaign resources.
The referendum will takeplace under a state of emer-gency that has been in placesince last summer’s failed coupwhich has seen some 47,000arrested in the biggest crack-down in Turkey’s history.
Analysts regard the refer-endum as a turning point in themodern history of the countrythat will affect not just theshape of its political system butalso its relations with the West.
If the new system is passed,it will abolish the office ofPrime Minister, enabling thepresident to centralise all statebureaucracy under his controland also to appoint CabinetMinisters.
Supporters see the new sys-tem as an essential modernisa-tion step for Turkey to stream-line government but opponentsfear it risks granting Erdoganauthoritarian powers.
Erdogan has raised hacklesin the West throughout thecampaign with his repeateddenunciations of the EuropeanUnion, which Turkey hassought to join for the last halfcentury.&� � ���,�
Nigerians on Friday marked three yearssince the mass abduction of nearly 300
schoolgirls by Boko Haram extremists amidanger that Government efforts to negotiatetheir freedom appear to have stalled. Activistswere expected to rally in the Capital, Abuja,and commercial hub Lagos to urge PresidentMuhammadu Buhari’s Government to domore to free the nearly 200 schoolgirls whoremain captive.
Nigeria in October announced the releaseof 21 of the Chibok schoolgirls after negotia-tions with the extremist group, and it saidanother group of 83 girls would be released“very soon.”
No one has been freed since then. TheGovernment this week said negotiations have“gone quite far” but face challenges. It refusedto give details, citing security reasons.
��� � ������(@�
President Donald Trump hashailed the US military’s “very,
very successful” strike on an ISIStunnel complex in Afghanistanwith the largest non-nuclearbomb ever used in combatwhich killed 36 militants anddestroyed their mountain hide-outs near the Pakistan border.
In another dramatic show ofmilitary force after the bombingof a Syrian airfield with 59Tomahawk missiles, the US mil-itary on Thursday dropped aGBU-43/B, colloquially knownas the “Mother Of All Bombs” orMOAB, to target tunnels andbunkers built by ISIS fighter inNangarhar province.
Trump said he authorisedthe use of the MOAB — MassiveOrdnance Air Blast — and calledthe mission “very, very success-ful”. “It was really another suc-cessful job, we are very proud ofour military. We are so proud ofour military, it was another suc-cessful event,” Trump toldreporters at the White House.
The MOAB, developed foruse in the Iraq war and first test-ed in 2003, is dropped from anaircraft on a pallet. A MOAB isa 21,600 pound, Global Pos-itioning System (GPS)-guidedmunition that is US’s most pow-erful non-nuclear bomb. Its ma-in effect is a massive blast wave— said to stretch for 1.6 kms.
The bomb was dropped byan MC-130 aircraft, operatedby the Air Force SpecialOperations Command. It’s thefirst-ever combat use of the
bomb, said Pentagonspokesman Adam Stump.
“Everybody knows exactlywhat happened, what I do is Iauthorise our military. We havethe greatest military in the world,they’ve done a job, as usual, sowe have given them total autho-risation and that’s what they’redoing, and frankly, that’s whythey’ve been so successful late-ly,” Trump said.
The bombing inAfghanistan was the secondmajor incident when the US mil-itary in recent days have shownits combat prowess, after missilestrikes on a Syrian airfield.
“If you look at what’s hap-pened over the last eight weeks
and you compare that to what’shappened over the last eightyears, you’ll see there’s a tremen-dous difference. So we haveincredible leaders of the militaryand incredible military, and weare very proud of them, and thiswas another very very success-ful mission,” Trump said.
He, however, said he doesnot know if this would send amessage to North Korea.
“I don’t know if this sends amessage. It doesn’t make any dif-ference if it does or not. NorthKorea is a problem. The problemwill be taken care of. I will saythis: I think China has really beenworking very hard,” he said.
White House Press SecretarySean Spicer told reporters thatthe tunnels and caves ISIS fight-ers used to “move around freely”were targeted as they make it eas-ier for them to target US militaryadvisers and Afghan forces in thearea. “The United States takes thefight against ISIS very seriouslyand in order to defeat the group,we must deny them operationalspace, which we did.”
Spicer said the US took “allprecautions necessary” to pre-vent civilian casualties and col-lateral damage. The strike waspart of efforts to defeat IslamicState’s local affiliate ISIS-K inAfghanistan, the US CentralCommand said.
Nangarhar bordersPakistan and is a hotbed of mil-itancy. According to theDepartment of Defence, thereare about 600- 800 ISIS-Khorasan fighters in the areawhere the bomb was dropped.
&��� �����
Spain’s maritime rescue service says it hassaved 26 migrants, including one pregnant
woman, from a boat that was taking on wateras it tried to reach the European coast.
The migrants were 15 miles southwest ofthe Atlantic coastal town of Barbate, whichlies between Cadiz and Gibraltar. The maritime rescue boat “Salvamar Gadir”found the struggling smugglers’ boat onearly Friday.
Emergency services for Spain’s southernAndalucia region say the 20 men and six womenwere all of North African descent.
Tens of thousands of migrants, most fromsub-Saharan African countries, try to reachthe shores of Spain and Italy by boat each year.
Dubai: A Gurdwara in Dubai has found a placein the Guinness book of world records by serv-ing free breakfast to hundreds of people from over100 countries in an hour-long event.
The Gurunanak Darbar Gurdwara servedcontinental breakfast titled ‘Breakfast for Diversity’to 600 people from 101 countries, the maximumnumber of people from diverse nationalities,entering the Guinness World Record.
The people enjoyed the hour-long breakfastwearing traditional outfits on the premises of thegurdwara in Jebel Ali area on Thursday, KhaleejTimes reported. The chief guest at the marathonbreakfast even was Indian Ambassador to theUAE Navdeep Singh Suri. PTI
����� ������(@�
New CIA Director MikePompeo has termed whis-
tle-blower collective WikiLeaks,whose leaking of classified doc-uments have embarrassed theUS, a “non-state hostile intelligence” agency which isoften helped by Russia.
In his first public addressas the Central IntelligenceAgency chief, Pompeo said “itis time to call out WikiLeaksfor what it really is: a non-statehostile intelligence service
often abetted by state actorslike Russia.”
He said US intelligenceservices had found thatRussian state-owned televi-sion network RT actively col-laborated with the website.
Pompeo, a formerRepublican Congressmen whoonce applauded disclosures byWikiLeaks, said the intelli-gence community at CIA findsthe celebration of entities likeWikiLeaks “both perplexingand deeply troubling”.
“WikiLeaks walks like a
hostile intelligence service andtalks like a hostile intelligenceservice,” he said.
But his harshest wordswere directed at its founderJulian Assange, and at formerNSA contractor EdwardSnowden, who had leakedclassified documents from theNational Security Agency in2013. “(They) seek to use thatinformation to make a namefor themselves” and “care noth-ing about the lives they put atrisk or the damage they causeto national security”.
&9��� ��@�
North Korea’s Army on Friday voweda ‘merciless’ response to any US
provocation, as tensions soar overPyongyang’s nuclear programme andspeculation mounts that it is preparing afresh weapons test.
Pyongyang’s rogue atomic ambitionshave come into sharp focus in recentweeks, with United States PresidentDonald Trump vowing a tough stanceagainst the North and threatening unilat-eral action if China failed to help curb itsneighbour’s nuclear programme.
As hostilities in the region surgeTrump has sent an aircraft carrier-led strikegroup to the Korean peninsula to press hispoint, while the North has launched a flur-ry of rockets.
In a statement on official news agencyKCNA, the North’s Korean People’s Armysaid Trump had “entered the path of openthreat and blackmail against the DPRK”.
Citing Washington’s recent missilestrike on Syria, the typically bombasticstatement boasted that US military basesin South Korea as well as Seoul’s presi-dential Blue House “would be pulverisedwithin a few minutes”.
“The closer such big targets as nuclearpowered aircraft carriers come (to theKorean peninsula), the greater would bethe effect of merciless strikes,” the state-ment added.
Earlier on Friday Chinese foreign min-ister Wang Yi said a conflict over North Koreacould break out “at any moment”, warningthere would be no winner in any war.
China, the country’s sole major ally andeconomic lifeline, has come under increas-ing pressure to curb Pyongyang’s mili-
tarism, but Beijing fears dramatic actioncould cause the regime’s collapse, sendinga flood of refugees across its borders andleave the US military on its doorstep.
Trump has repeatedly said he will pre-vent Pyongyang from its goal of developing a nuclear-tipped ballistic mis-sile capable of reaching the mainlandUnited States.
The US president also flexed his mil-itary muscle last week by ordering cruisemissile strikes on a Syrian airbase the USbelieved was the origin of a chemicalweapons attack on civilians in a northernSyria town.
Yesterday the US military dropped thebiggest non-nuclear bomb it possesses onAfghanistan, targeting a complex used bythe Islamic State group.
&9��� ������(@�
The Syrian Government’s sus-pected chemical weapons
attack on civilians last weekamounts to a “war crime,” the USState Department has said.
It also ridiculed commentsby President Bashar al-Assad inan interview with AFP to theeffect that the alleged attackwas fabricated by the UnitedStates to justify an American mil-itary strike.
“Sadly, it’s vintage Assad. Itis an attempt by him to throw upfalse flags, create confusion,”said department spokesmanMark Toner, alluding to whatAssad said in the interviewWednesday. It was Assad’s firstsince the alleged April 4 chem-ical weapons attack prompted aUS cruise missile strike on aSyrian air base. The suspectedchemical attack killed at least 87people, including many chil-dren, and images of the dead andof suffering victims provokedglobal outrage.
“Frankly, it’s a tactic we’veseen on Russia’s part as well in thepast,” Toner told a daily pressbriefing.
Echoing charges byDefense Secretary James Mattisand Secretary of State RexTillerson, Toner said there can
be little doubt that the chemi-cal weapons attack in Idlibprovince was carried out bySyrian Government forces.
“It wasn’t only a violation ofthe laws of war but it was a — webelieve, a war crime,” Tonersaid. Tillerson, visiting Moscowon Wednesday, addressed the
issue of the chemical weaponsattack but he stopped short ofcalling it a war crime.
Tillerson did raise theprospect of criminal proceedingsat some point over the attack,including against Assad himself,but warned there were be majorlegal obstacles to this.
&9��� ����(
Civilians and fighters beganevacuating four towns
besieged by rebels andGovernment forces on Fridayunder a deal brokered by oppo-sition backer Qatar and regimeally Iran.
An AFP correspondent inrebel-held Rashidin, west ofAleppo city, said at least 80buses arrived in the region fromGovernment-held Fuaa andKafraya in Idlib province. Arebel source in Idlib told AFP“the implementation of the dealstarted in the morning”.
The Syrian Observatory forHuman Rights confirmed thebeginning of the evacuation.
Madaya resident Amjad al-Maleh, who spoke to AFP on thephone from one of the busesleaving opposition-controlledMadaya and Zabadani around6:00 am (0300 GMT), said: “Wejust left now, around 2,200 peo-ple in around 65 buses”.
More than 30,000 people areexpected to be evacuated underthe deal, which began onWednesday with an exchange ofprisoners between rebels andGovernment forces. All 16,000residents of Fuaa and Kafraya areexpected to leave, heading toAleppo, the coastal province ofLatakia or Damascus.
�&���� �@��@
Russia, Iran and Syria haveproposed an on-site investi-
gation into the use of chemicalweapons in Syria, RussianForeign Minister Sergei Lavrovsaid on Friday.
“We insist on conducting ameticulous, objective and unbi-ased investigation into thealleged chemical weapon attackby Syrian aircraft on April 4,”Lavrov said at a joint conferenceafter talks with his Iranian andSyrian counterparts,Mohammad Javad Zarif andWalid al-Muallem, respectively.
The trio said that the probeshould be carried out by a well-balanced team of experts underthe auspices of the Organisationfor the Prohibition of ChemicalWeapons (OPCW), the UNchemical weapons watchdog,reported Xinhua news agency.
Russia and Iran hailed thereadiness of the Syrian govern-ment to accept such a mission,Lavrov said. On April 7, the USlaunched 59 cruise missilesagainst a Syrian military airfieldin response to the Assad’sregime’s chemical weapons attackthat killed at least 89 people inSyria’s Idlib province.
&9��� ������(@�
NASA will probably delaythe first two missions of its
Orion deep-space capsule,being developed to send astro-nauts beyond earth’s orbit andeventually to Mars, the USspace agency said on Friday.
A report by NASA’s Office ofInspector General cited techni-cal as well as budget challenges.
The first launch of theOrion spacecraft atop theplanned Space Launch System,or SLS — set to become the
world’s most powerful rocketwhen it flies — is currentlyscheduled for early November2018 with no crew.
A second mission carryingastronauts is envisioned forAugust 2021 at the earliest.
However, “NASA’s initialexploration missions on itsJourney to Mars — EM-1 andEM-2 — face multiple cost andtechnical challenges that like-ly will affect their plannedlaunch dates,” the report said ofthe conclusions from a nine-month audit.
It cites delays in the devel-opment of the Orion servicemodule, provided by theEuropean Space Agency (ESA),as well as technical risks fromchanges in the design of thecapsule’s heat shield.
��� � ������(@�
The Trump administrationshould “shake things up”
and hit terrorist groups insidePakistan, a top former Americandiplomat has said, identifying theTaliban sanctuaries in the coun-try as a “big problem” forAfghanistan.
The remarks by ZalmayKhalilzad, who served as the USambassador to the UnitedNations and Afghanistan in theBush administration, came asthe US dropped a massive bomb— the largest non-nuclear bombever used by Americans in aconflict — near the Pakistanborder in Afghanistan’sNanagarh province.
The US said the bomb tar-geted a tunnel complex of IslamicState-Khorasan, a regional affil-iate of the terror group.
Khalilzad said the terroristsanctuaries inside Pakistan“should not be accepted as (just)sanctuaries”.
The US and NATO forceswere being attacked by terroristshiding in those sanctuaries and“if we are attacked from thoseplaces... They would be legiti-mate targets for a response,”Khalilzad said during a discus-sion at the Hudson Institute, anAmerican think tank, inWashington on Thursday.
Khalilzad, who had hostedDonald Trump for his first for-eign policy speech during hispresidential campaign, said,“Perhaps we have to do some-thing to shake things up.”
against carrying out aNuclear test, saying such a“dangerous and irresponsi-ble” move could lead to abreakout of conflict at anymoment amid soaring ten-sions with the US.
Conflict over NorthKorea could break out “atany moment”, China’s
Foreign Minister Wang Yisaid, warning there wouldbe “no winner” in any waras tensions soar with the US.
“There has beenheightened tensionbetween the United States,the Republic of Korea andthe Democratic People’sRepublic of Korea.
The precarious situa-tion deserves our attentionand concern,” Wang saidwithout directly referring to
strong retaliation threatenedby US President DonaldTrump if North Korearesorted to Nuclear test.
“We urge all parties torefrain from inflammatoryor threatening statementsand deeds to prevent the sit-uation on the KoreanPeninsula from becomingirreversible,” Wang toldreporters following talkswith French ForeignMinister Jean-Marc Ayrault.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s comments that last
week’s chemical weaponsattack was a fabrication to jus-tify a US military strike are“100 per cent lies”, FrenchForeign Minister Jean-MarcAyrault said on Friday.
“It’s 100 per cent lies andpropaganda,” Ayrault said dur-ing a visit to Beijing, respond-ing to an exclusive AFP inter-view with Assad on Wednesday.
“It’s 100 per cent crueltyand cynicism.” The French min-ister mirrored language used byAssad himself, who dismissedthe allegation that his regimeperpetrated the attack that left 87
civilians dead, including manychildren.
“Definitely, 100 per cent forus, it’s fabrication,” Assad saidin the interview.
The Syrian leader ques-tioned whether the attack hadin fact occurred, claiming that“fake videos” and “propaganda”were being used against hisGovernment.
He also accused the UnitedStates of colluding with terror-ists and “fabricating the wholestory in order to have a pretext”for a cruise missile strike on aSyrian air base last week.
The French minister madethe remarks during a jointpress conference with ChineseForeign Minister Wang Yi.
�&�� � #���
French investigators haverequested the European
Parliament to waive the immu-nity of far-right presidentialhopeful Marine Le Pen in aprobe over her alleged misuseof European Union funds topay for party assistants, themedia reported on Friday.
According to reports,Paris’s prosecutor’s officelaunched an investigation in2015 to look into the EU par-liamentary assistants fraudu-lently paid for their serviceswith EU funds while workingfor Le Pen’s National Front(FN) party.
In particular, Le Pen’s per-sonal assistant had reportedlyreceived about 340,000 euros($360,000) of EU money,Europe 1 broadcaster reported.
The request for waiving LePen’s parliamentary immunitywas filed in the EuropeanParliament in late March.
Just when we are beginning to warm upto streaming of live TV, shows and films,
signing up for Netflix and Amazon Prime,devouring varied and interesting contentthat’s redefining the art of story-tellingeverywhere, home-grown studio Balaji hasseized the first mover advantage in the dig-ital space. This week it launched ALTBalaji, a Netflix-type app that will bestreaming 250 hours of original content inHindi and will soon add regional contentto its bouquet. With no ads, some initialdiscount, even rewards and only 60 paisaper episode, it gives each owner of a hand-held device a chance to snack up on whatthe international players do not have: orig-inal Indian stories. Manav Sethi, CMO,ALT Balaji, is upbeat about the launch andhopes to be present the day when EktaKapoor, currently considered as the coun-try’s undisputed TV moghul, completelyswitches over to the digital platform.
How are they so sure about taking overthe nascent entertainment app businesswith the numbers yet to deliver for the big-ger players? “You need to see what exist-ing players have got. Either they aredoing catch-up TV or they are into sports.Hotstar (from the Star Network) has verylittle original content. It spends humon-gous amounts on TV rights of IPL andthen tries to monetise it. Then it has liveTV and show archives accessible on yoursmartphones. No player in India has avalue prop as of now. But we have com-mitted to play 250 hours of original con-tent this year itself. If you draw a parallelwith a global player like Netflix, who did600 hours of content last year, we havealready begun with a bang. Even Amazonand Netflix have written huge cheques butnone of the shows are out. Considering theIndia studio culture is not as organised asit is in the US or UK (here we have too may
variables like running behind the cast, thewriter, the director, screenwriter...), onlyEkta Kapoor, who has been creating andcurating TV shows at the pace of canningone episode a day, could take the plungeand serve up fare with a frenetic pace. Notonly that, having worked across GECs, shehas the best understanding of her targetaudience and what they expect or couldexpect. We are leveraging these strengths,”says Sethi, confident that they will takeentertainment consumption in the coun-try to the next level.
What ALT Balaji is aggressively doingis filling up the web audience spacebetween English and the Hindi or vernac-ular. But personalising content for 100 mil-lion consumers and making sure they hitthe right button is a tall order indeed.However, this new start-up has a “safe” mixfor what Sethi describes as the “intelligentmass audience.” So there’s the familiarityof a Ram Kapoor-Sakshi Tanwar’s Kar LeTu Bhi Mohabbat, where she plays theshrink to his ageing and cranky superstar,a carry-over from their last TV show. Thenthere’s The Test Case, helmed by ace direc-tor Nagesh Kukunoor and starring NimratKaur, about a woman officer’s journey tobecome a commander. This is a courage
under fire story, anticipatory and taut, con-sidering women in the Army have justbeen cleared for combat duties and are yetto experience the whole gamut of fieldchallenges. The ace duo of Hansal Mehtaand Rajkumar Rao are bringing alive thepersonality of Netaji Subhash ChandraBose. Meanwhile, the urban tribe hassomething to look forward to in Romil andJugal, a twist on Shakespeare’s Romeo Julietwhere the protagonists are gay and Dev
DD, where a female Devdas embarkson her own journey of self-discov-ery. There’s also the coming-of-ageBoygiri. “We have kind of complet-ed the entire spectrum of issues thathas so far not been dealt with intelevision. But we talk about themin the corridors, in our bedrooms,in our colleges and in our offices. ForBose, we have done a humongousamount of research. We are present-ing him not from the point of viewof history or the Indian freedomstruggle, we are looking at him, theperson. Bose, the person, is still anenigma with some files yet to bedeclassified. There’s a story waitingto be told to unravel his unknownself. And he is such a figure thathe can fire up the imagination oftoday’s youth as well. We have lentit credibility and quality by rop-ing in director Hansal Mehta,”says Sethi.
Sure, the web offers a demo-cratic space. But ALT Balaji isbeing careful about not tread-ing the territory of eitherTVF or AIB. As Sethisays, “We are never
going to make content thatis preposterous or
object ionable.Our stories ared e e p - ro ot e dand we will notdo anythingthat will beantitheticalto our con-sumers.”
But in theend it is all
about numbers andeconomics. Sethiinsists that theyhave made fool-proof calculations.“We have about950 millionmobile users withabout 100 million
internet or broad-band-enabled audi-
ence. Of that 400 mil-lion can be sliced and
diced. As a platform, themobile phone helps to
create a one-is-to-onerelationship with a con-sumer as compared to TV.So if you don’t like Romiland Jugal, you are atabsolute liberty not to watchit. Which is why from a busi-ness standpoint, I am givingyou five episodes free tomake your call. If you like
even one or all of our shows,then you pay me less than � 1
a day which works to about� 300 annually. This ischeaper than Netflix orAmazon. And you get relat-
able stories with an Indian ethos.” He has done the math. “If you look at
youtube, it has about 180 million month-ly active users. About 67 per cent of theusage graph is the Hindi consumer.English is a miniscule seven per cent. Weare attempting to build on this base. Forall its spread, Netflix has only 1.5 millionpaying users because it is focussing onlyon English. Shift the focus to Hindi andregional languages and you suddenlyhave huge volumes staring at you. That’swhat we intend to address and that’s wherewe intend to take our stories to. We areoffering ad-free snackable content. Soevery episode is of about 20 minutes thatyou can finish watching in a Metro orwhile waiting for a meeting or at the air-port. On flights, I find 80 per cent of pas-sengers watching something or the otheron their smartphones that has been down-loaded. India, according to me, is goingthrough a cataclysmic shift which is per-sonal entertainment.”
ALT Balaji is already seeing itself as aself-generating engine and will not rely onthe mother ship called Balaji Telefilms tobalance the troughs. Sethi wants compe-tition. And tough competition at that. “Wehave only seen the tip of the iceberg. Iwould really want competition that wouldmake us stand up on our toes. May the beststoryteller win.” So will TV flatten out? “Itwon’t be dead because if there is anythingthat India taught us, it is that there will belayering. Having said that, even an Indianhousewife has a smartphone and India isthe only geography that is adding moresmartphones every month compared toanywhere else on the planet. If this is trueand the Jios of the world are willing to givebandwidth, then content will be the ulti-mate king.”
���� ���(�*!"���
Ekta Kapoor is enjoying her creativefreedom these days. She is back onthe drawing board, reading stories,
hearing scripts, devouring them, chaper-oning talent and is reinventing herself witha passion. She is a ball of energy these days,waiting to exhale on the digital space withher original content, something that shehas done in fits and starts in both televi-sion and films as a producer. Many wouldsay she set the template and formula forcommercial television so deep that sheherself found it difficult to budge an inchwithin its repetitive confines. And keptgoing as along as the dough came in. Nowshe has broken free from her mould andis willing to take a risk in the digital space,experimenting with ideas and giving freeflow to her voice. If she has delivered tothe masses, she is all set to create a cate-gry of “thinking masses.” Excerpts:
�When did you first think about enter-ing the digital space, considering thelineup of ALT Balaji seems to havebeen well-incubated and put together?
Not that early actually. It was in 2015that I decided to enter the digital spacelargely because people around me told methat it was a young medium and that I didnot know or understand it. But I am astory-teller and would do that given aslightest chance anywhere, on any plat-form. I respect all kinds of audience andwould like to offer something for every-body. People wouldn’t know this but I didthe TV show called Naagin and producedUdta Punjab the same year. How could I,therefore, not explore the digital space,assuming it allowed a wider arc for story-telling? Not doing something is worse thandoing something and then failing. So Itook the plunge.
I may fail but then I have the libertyto make mistakes and pay for them. I wantto be like an ostrich... focus on the job athand, meet people, hear ideas and if some-thing clicks, go for it. I am not going toanalyse and see if it works on TV or onthe big screen or on the net. If the storyis good (I have come across an amazingtalent pool) and if me and my team areinterested in it, I will put it out there andif there is an audience, they will come andwatch it. I cannot over-think or strategisebecause then I would panic and gettense. There is nothing I can do but deliv-er my best.
�What exactly drew you to the digitalspace?
The personal connect you make. Wehave different viewers for TV and films.But when it comes to digital, it’s you andyour mobile and a dialogue between thetwo. You decide what you want to see. It’s
like your music playlist; youdon’t tell everybody what songsyou hear. It’s your own journeywith each song reminding youof a person, a moment, anevent, a mood. The digital plat-form is akin to this playlist.There are various shows on offerbut you choose the one you con-nect to.
�What research have you putin to compile the bouquet ofweb series?
Actually I have not donemuch of research because anytype of research would tell youwhat has already happened butnot where the whole dynamic isheaded. I work instinctively.
�How would you define enter-tainment viewership in Indiatoday?
It’s definitely polarised. Ithink everyone has an individ-ual taste and is proud to expressit. I might not watch Narcos butI might watch Riverdale. Netflixprovides me both. So I will signup for it simply because it hasmy choices and allows me thefreedom to ignore what I do notlike. Besides, the days of the sin-gle-TV family, using a pro-gramme to connect in a com-mon space, are waning. Noweach family member is inhis/her isolated, exclusive zone,hooked on to entertainment inhis/her phone. Then there’ssomebody like me who watch-es Orange Is The New Blackbecause it is about a differentkind of woman power.Simultaneously, I also watchScandal which Sameer (SameerNair, ALT Balaji group CEO)says is not to his liking becauseit is very massy. Which WhiteHouse is not like that, he tellsme. But I will go for a platformwhich accommodates thedemocracy of choice. That’swhat ALT Balaji is all about.
�You have crafted the TVspace over a decade now. Doesthis new content-sharing plat-form mean you are movigaway from that medium?
I love television and havegiven a lot of years to it. Havingsaid that, if I am not able to del-egate programming and execu-tion now, then I have certainly
not been capable enough inthat medium. I have somesuperb writers for my top-rated shows and yes I amdelegating more than Ishould. Luckily for me, a lotof my shows is so well-setand my writers are so goodthat I don’t have to brain-storm with them.
�Will the television con-tent, therefore, flatten out?
I don’t think so becausewithin the TV format toosegmentation has begun.The fantasy-loving audi-ence that watches Naagin(by the way some urbanviewers are hooked on to ittoo) won’t watch Yeh HaiMohabbatein, which has adifferent audience.
Once the digital showstake off, there will be over-laps too. In daily soaps, wefocus on key characterseveryday so that theybecome a part of our fami-ly lives. But after 20episodes, that also becomesexhausting in an age ofshorter attention span. Howmany people can commit toan every day watch over asustained period of time? Sofor the audience that watch-es two shows at the sametime, watching three or fourinternet shows that arequick and snacky is moreinteresting. This is the over-lap that will power theswitchover to digital andbring in varied storylines. IfI am a kind of viewer whodoesn’t want to fix a timeslot and likes to tuck into myown comfort zone, I wouldbinge watch on my phone.Numbers will never be aproblem because there is anentirely new demographicof phone consumers to tapinto.
So instead of targetingthe 28 Indian states I wouldmake all the 108 countriesmy market by capturing thecellular audience.
�Were you at any point oftime disappointed withTV?
Yes I have been. It’s notthat I wanted to stick to a
hit formula. I did try to vary content butthe TV audience rejected it. I was partic-ularly affected by the way some womenrejected Ajeeb Dastaan Hai Ye, which wasabout a woman who was undergoing aseparation in her middling age and wastrying to stand up and move on in life.Imagine the plight of a woman for whomthe marital relationship is the only axis andwho finds that everything that she believedin till that point of time was a lie. Manywomen in India are familiar with this sce-nario. Yet when I showed her as a survivorand finding companionship, I got a lot ofnegative feedback from no less thanwomen themselves. They just couldn’taccept the fact that she was leaving thehusband despite her travails. They wroteto me and asked what would happen to herchildren. And I was very careful to depictthat there was an emotional and mentalconnection with the other man rather thanthe physical. Yet women in India could-n’t take it. Guess what the reviews werelike: “I can’t watch it with my husband, aisato hota hi hai har aadmi ke saath, mardhai toh chalta hai....”
There wasn’t any empathy for our pro-tagonist. I had really wanted to change themindset of women who watch TV just abit. But they weren’t ready. Yet I support-ed my protagonist. It is not that we pro-ducers do not want to change stereotypesor try something new. Who wants to getbored? Imagine the pressure of thinkingabout 1000 episodes and not getting to dothe things you like. Digital is 20-30episodes flat and a real story is done.
If I get many million viewers and if Ican make that many programmes on theweb, I do not need TRPs which come fromtwo million or 10 million viewers. I justneed a couple of shows that are watchedby half a million viewers, another coupleof shows that are watched by another halfa million …that way I get my two millionsubscribers. So yes, I am like a kid in acandy shop and I am having a blast.
�What about your films?Half Girlfriend is coming up now.
Then there are two more films.
�Considering digital content is moredemocratic, are you fearing some soprtof policing and monitoring?
Most of the programmes on ALTBalaji have a lot of heart. There are no sex-ual overtones, nothing offensive, noteven in the gay show. That one has a beau-tiful line, “Every great love has a story init.” This love story has a real problem. Andit is this that I am more concerned aboutthan the physical representation.
�You won some kind of lottery toend up being paired with SofiaVergara…
Yeah. Isn’t she amazing? I callher the forces of nature. When Ifirst met her, it was at a readingsession. I looked at her andthought, “Well, I know why theyhired her.” And I thought, “I justhope she can act just a little bit.”Then, you know, two weeks later,I thought, “My god, she’s like aLucille Ball or something.”
�What about improvisation?Because it’s really well written…
We are talking about Sofia.She doesn’t improvise so much asmispronounce, and when she mis-pronounces, sometimes it’s hilar-ious what comes out of her. TyBurrell is very good at it. Julie ispretty good at it. I’m not so goodat improvising. I don’t actually liketo improvise. I like to keep theseparation between church andstate. We’ve got a good writing. Wetry to give them what they write,and then we’ll play around a littlebit with things.
�What about the kids, how arethey with improvisation?
The kids hardly improvisebecause they memorise and youhave to make sure it doesn’t soundlike it’s memorised. Often times,they’ll speed through because they
are already thinking of the nextline they know, and it doesn’tsound as if they are making it upas it goes along, which is what youwork on with them. Also, there arediction, clarity, vowel pronuncia-tions. It’s really very simple. Youjust work on basic speech withthem. But kids learn fast.
�Working with Rico and Sofia,are you more interested aboutLatino culture?
I’ve always been interested. Asa kid growing up in Ohio, we hadvery few Latinos. We had PuertoRicans, a few, and I went to schoolwith a couple of them. I alwaysfound it a fascinating culture any-
way. I love Flamenco dance andmusic. I used to watch Latino box-ers. We used to have a feed onSaturday, a tape delay out of TheOlympic in L.A., and they were allMexican fighters. I could name allthe fighters.
�Do you remember one of them?I remember all of them!
Armando Ramos, Indian RedLopez... Julio Cesar was myfavourite fighter. He came a bitlater. A good friend of mine,Carlos Palomino was a welter-weight champ of the world.
�What did you think about theconcept of the show when they
pitched it to you? Well, when they pitched
it to me, I told them I was-n’t interested. They had-n’t written it. And I justtold Lloyd and Levitan,“Look, I’ve done my timewith half hour. I did 11 years. Idon’t want to do any more. But,you know, good luck.” They said,“Will you read it when we writeit?” I said, “Of course, I’ll read it.”So, a year later, I get the script.And I read it, and I thought, “Oh,god, this is good.” I read it again,and I said, “I’ve got to do it.” SoI called and said, “Make thedeal.” And they said, “Too late.”They went out to Craig T. Nelson.So I said, “Okay. All right. That’sall right.” You know, I told themI wouldn’t do it. Now I’m notdoing it. A week later, they calledback my manager and he told me,“Well, they are back to you.” Iasked, “Why? They couldn’t makethe deal with Craig?” Turns outhe wanted too much upfrontmoney.” I said, “Well, make thedeal. I want to do it.” And hesaid, “Ed, you’re not even the starof it. It’s an ensemble.” I said, “Iknow. Make the deal.”
Watch Modern FamilySeasons 1-8, Monday to Friday at8:30 PM only on Star World andStar World HD
Srijit Mukherji is among the new breed of Bengali directors whoseek to redefine the lens through which Bengal has been tra-
ditionally viewed in films. And now the National Award-winningfilmmaker is making his Hindi directorial debut with Begum Jaan.
“There is a greed for a larger audience. That is why I shiftedfrom theatre to films in the first place and eventually from Bengalito Hindi films in search of a greater audience to tell my storiesto. What the impact will be is something which only time can tell,”he told us during a recent promotion of Begum Jaan, the Hindiadaptation of Rajkahini. “I thought about a bilingual simply becauseit dealt with the fallout of the Partition and thematically it wasconcept that had shattered the nation as a whole. It was as mucha Bengali tragedy as it was the rest of India’s, the scars of whichremain even today.”
Srijit also mentioned his love for Manto and Chughtai, influ-ences of whom pepper his screenplay for Begum Jaan. He told us,“I am their addict. Not only that I had read a lot of literature, aca-demic literature books, recitations, thesis of a lot of Partition schol-ars like Suvir Kaul and Urvashi Butalia. The film is dedicated toManto and Chughtai and the name Begum Jaan is from the pro-tagonist of Chughtai’s Lihaf. It’s a story of a marginalised groupand how Partition is tearing them apart. The space is veryMantoesque. I have also been brought up on a very versatile fareof cinema — Shyam Benegal, Ketan Mehta and MS Sathyu...thesemasters have been in my consciousness. I have drawn influencesfrom Mandi, Mirch Masala, Tamas and Garm Hava.”
Asked about the difference between the lead actors of BegumJaan and Rajkahini, he said, “I wanted someone who would fit into
the local structure as I believe in theauthenticity of accents and
local flavour. While Ritu gaveher lifetime best perfor-mance it was in her nativelanguage. We needed some-body pan-Indian for the
Punjabi milieu.”Asked if he was apprehen-
sive about his first Hindi film,he exclaimed, “I have always
been fearless when it comes tofilms. When I debuted, I did
not know what a filmcamera was. I think itis the passion and spir-it which make a film,not the technicalities.The technicalitiesyou tend to learnand pick up alongthe way. But whatyou can’t pick up is
the vision, what youcan’t pick up is the
sense of film making,what you can’t pick up is asense of a story. I havesomehow come to realisethat cinema was inside meall the time. When I watchmy own films and gaugehow they affect the people,I know I have been right.”
Srijit believes that hisfilms work because heenjoys and conceives ofthem as an audience. “Mybiggest test is myself. If Idon’t like a story as anaudience, I will probablynot make it. I have a veryvery diverse taste. I takeimmense pride in thatbecause that gets reflectedin my films which I makefrom the audience perspec-tive.”
The director doesn’tbelieve in compromises. “Iwas always particular aboutthe fact that I will only make
films on my terms, be it Bengalior otherwise. I always thought thatif my stories were good enough, aproducer would come to me.That’s the intellectual courage Ihave.” No wonder producer
Mahesh Bhatt told him that Srijitreminded him of his throwback ver-sion of the 80s. “And the Bhatt lega-cy is a huge weight to carry and exe-cute,” he added.
So what is his strategy for cre-ating a global Bengali film mar-ket considering the southernfilm industry has already mas-
tered the art of mainstreaming?“See the problem is marketing. To
actually advertise for a milieu whichis not very regular is not cost-efficient.It is much easier to release it acrossIndia but if you don’t spread the infor-mation, then your footfall is not to thatlevel where it can get a bigger release.Still I would say that Bengaluru is avery good market for Bengali films.They have rolled for three or fourweeks even. Delhi has been more of aflip-flop. The media here is vast. Anyinformation conveyed is lost. So youhave to make your presentationaccordingly with posters and socialmedia. I think one solution is to havea dedicated cinema hall for regionalfilms so that everyone checks in forupdates of regional cinema like weused to do before. Instead of havingmultiplexes spread over the city, onemay have three strategically placedcentres of regional cinema in Delhi or
Bombay. It has to proliferate over time. “Also you cannot compare south with north for the movie-
watching audience there has a passion which is unmatched. Thehabit of going to a movie every weekend inculcates a culture andensures a basic footfall.”
And what of cannibalisation of content on regional TV? Srijitis not content taking things as they are and is waiting for the webseries revolution to hit Bengal. “I want to connect Bengalis withnon-Bengalis and get more stories,” he concluded. His ultimatestory, though, would be to get Vidya Balan to play a man. Andwhen Srijit puts his mind to it, he gets the job done.
�Does this series have seasons? Well, the first season is approximately 240 minutes. It will
be a ten-part season.
�Why did you choose the digital format?I think the digital medium is inevitable in our evolution as
an artiste. It is undoubtedly a more democratic format andallows for innovative story-telling.
�Do you think that there is too much hype andhoopla about the restrictive culturescape in ourcountry?
In an artistic sense, I think censorship is over-rated and over-discussed. We have learnt to livewith it and we have learnt to complain about itall the time. Look at Iran, they make spectacu-lar films with heavy censorship. We have to learnfrom them, of learning to work within that sys-tem. In the end, we have to tell human stories.
�Because you chose Bose to make a bio series,you must have done a lot of research and refer-encing?
Well, Bose was Ekta’s brainchild. It was developedby her and her team. I read the script by a gifted writercalled Reshu Nath. It is very well-researched. For me,it is about exploring a new format and within that,how do you take the story to the audiencethat consumes digital content and howdo you make it more approach-able and acceptable to them.I can’t sell India’s freedomstruggle to the youngeraudience anymore. Theidea is to sell a hero aboutwhom not much isknown. The idea is to sellthat in a way that is palat-able to today’s generation.
�So treatment wise, howis it different for you as afilmmaker?
I must clarify, I am thecreative producer. I amsort of responsible for theentire creative output ofthe show. It is being direct-ed by a young director,Pulkit, whose film Maroon iseverywhere on Netflix. Thebrief that I have given to himis to make Bose a rockstar. Inattitude and grit though. We aregetting a background rap by Q.He is a great rapper and Boserap is something I needed todraw the youth to the story. Itis very creative but not disre-spectful.
�When you recreate an iconicfigure, you’re bound to bepanned. Particularly when thesubject is a revered icon who cannotbe shown as anything less than super-human. Does the digital format helpyou ease out a bit?
See, I have always done that. I havenever let my work get bogged down byresearch, be it Shahid or Aligarh or therecently-completed Omerta. For me,my characters have always been person-al. The public life, the politics of it isatmosphere, it’s environment. We havedeftly mixed fact and fiction to make avery compelling and engaging screen-play.
�What do you do about the epical back-drop because no story on Bose would
be complete without his travels? Well, we are travelling. It is perhaps one of the biggest shows
that is being made in the country right now.
�What is the timeline you are looking at?We are intending to release the show on August 15. The good
thing about web content is an episode need not to be limited orfixed to a specific duration. Whatever engages the audience isthe duration. Thirty minutes max. Not one hour. It is too muchto stream.
�Is this a break from you own style of filmmaking?Well, every film is a departure. Aligarh was very different from
Shahid. I consume a lot of digital content myself and do a lot ofbinge-watching. So I have been itching to get into the digital medi-um for sometime.
�The youth demographic will certainly adapt to it easily. Whatabout the older demographic?
I think I belong to that middle demographic which is 40 to50. And I am a huge consumer. The lesson to be learnt is thereis something there for everyone in that space. I like House of Cards,my daughter would like something else and my son would likeRiverdale. There is something for everyone. And that’s what Ektahas done really well. It is a very eclectic mix, keeping in mindthe Indian audience.
�Since you are conversant with digital media, are weheaded towards a revolution in popular culture, ashift of sorts?
I have always been optimistic. There was a mid-dle lull in my career when I became a little
pessimistic. This was between 2002 and2010. Pre-Shahid and post Ye Kya Ho
Raha Hai. I think the entertain-ment space is evolving like neverbefore. What gives me hope isthe kind of filmmakers that areemerging. Like this boy who isdirecting Bose, Pulkit is verybright. It’s a new mind and hasso much energy. Younger film-makers are ready to take morerisk than us.
�What about story-telling?It needs to evolve further. We
are unfortunately bogged down bythe kind of stories we tell.Somewhere it has to do with com-mercial constraints but the digitalmedium will break that.
�Your take on clampdowns onartistes...
We will tell more human storieswhich will blossom much more. I willonly say this. Trust us to be moreresponsible and have faith in us. Wehave imposed implicit faith in youwhen we voted for you. Have faith inus; trust the people who voted you topower with their art.
�How will economics workin a digital project of thisscale?
I haven’t studied the eco-nomics of it but I think it iscurrently an investment-heavyproposition. I think digital isgoing to be the permanentarchive of important stories.Bose’s story is going to be thereforever. And no investment istoo big for that legacy.
Buoyant Kolkata Knight Riders will look to continue theirwinning momentum when they face defending cham-
pions Sunrisers Hyderabad in the Indian Premier Leaguehere on Saturday.
It will be a battle between two top bowling sides of theIPL and Kolkata will hope to avenge their defeat in theEliminator round last season. After a win and a loss, thetwo-time former champions began their campaign at homewith an eight-wicket thrashing of Kings XI Punjab with21 balls to spare last night.
Their 11th successive run-chase at Eden Gardens wasmade possible by anoth-er Gautam Gambhir mas-terstroke in letting SunilNarine open the inningsas the duo killed theirchase with their best everPowerplay display of 76runs. KKR's spirited runwas halted by MumbaiIndians in their second match but last night's victory withNarine shining with the bat will boost the team which isstruggling to find Lynn's immediate replacement.
One of the reasons for KKR's consistency has been theirskipper Gambhir's form with the bat. He notched up arecord- equalling 33rd IPL fifty and would look to con-tinue his good form.
With SRH also boasting a superb pace-cum-spin attackin Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Rashid Khan, who lead thetally with 13 wickets from three matches, it promises tobe a nice contest between bat and ball. Purple Cap hold-er Bhuvneshwar has been outstanding at the death and heand veteran Ashish Nehra are two key Indians of their paceattack that also features Mustafizur Rahman who playeda key role in their 2016 title-winning journey.
�&�+���&8&��� ����� ��
On the back of a thumping victory against Rising PuneSupergiants, Delhi Daredevils will be eager to build
on that momentum when they face Kings XI Punjab in theirmaiden home match here on Saturday.
Led by the ever-reliable Amit Mishra — second high-est wicket-taker in IPL — in bowling, Delhi will be keento continue their good work with the ball, following twoimpressive bowling performances.
However, batting seemed to be their biggest worry atthe start of the tournament after two most experienced bats-men in Quinton de Kock and JP Duminy withdrawal fromthe tournament. However, Delhi seemed to have found away to deal with those blows. After failing to chase downa mediocre 158 against Royal Challenger Bangalore in theopener, Delhi got their act together against Pune to scorea massive 205, thanks to a brilliant 105 by Sanju Samsonand a late blitz by Chris Morris (38 off 9 balls). A disci-plined bowling effort saw Daredevils bowl out Supergiantsfor a mere 108 runs, thereby winning the match by 97 runs.
Due to de Kock and Duminy's absence, Delhi wereforced to rely on local talents more in this edition of IPL.That seems to work so far. Rishabh Pant has been a con-sistent performer, coming up with scores of 57 and 31.
Samson will be alsobrimming with confi-dence following hismaiden T20 hundred.
Opener SamBillings, however, hasfailed to convert his gotgood starts into bigscores. The Englishopener will be hoping fora good show in front of the home crowd.
The bowling, however, has been the side's biggest pos-itive so far. Amit Mishra will definitely be their go-to man.The 34-year-old leg spinner is the second highest wickettaker in IPL with 127 wickets from 114 games. Mishra isalso the first bowler to take three hat-tricks in IPL histo-ry. He was particularly impressive in the last match, pick-ing up three wickets. Vastly familiar with the Kotla wick-et, he will spearhead Delhi's attack on Saturday.
Skipper Zaheer Khan was equally good in the previ-ous match, taking three wickets. Besides, Chris Morris' valu-able experience will come in handy for them. Moreover,they have one of the best bowling talents in the world inPat Cummins.
Kings XI, on the other hand, had a reality check in thelast outing after starting the tournament with two straightvictories. Follwing a massive 8-wicket defeat against KolkataKnight Riders, Punjab will be eager to put behind the dis-appointment when they face Delhi.
They have an explosive batting unit. Led by their hard-hitting skipper Glenn Maxwell, Punjab have big-hitters inthe form of David Miller, Eoin Morgan, Shaun Marsh,Hashim Amla, Martin Guptill and Wriddhiman Saha.
However, bowling seems to be their main concern.Barring Mohit Sharma and the newly recruited IshantSharma, they do not have many top experienced bowlersin their side. The likes of Axar Patel, Varun Aaron andSandeep Sharma need to step up a level to restrict the oppo-sition from scoring big.
����� ����� ��
Kieron Pollard scripted MumbaiIndian's sensational four-wicketwin over Royal Challengers
Bangalore with a blistering 70-runknock which overshadowed SamuelBadree's hat-trick in an IPL game hereon Friday.
Chasing a 143-run target, Mumbailooked down and out with Badree's hat-trick that reducing the visitors to sevenfor four in the third over. It was first hat-trick of IPL-10.
It soon became 33 for five but thebig-hitting West Indian and KrunalPandya (37 not out) stitched a match-winning 93-run partnership to stage adramatic turnaround.
Mumbai went into the inningsbreak having the upper hand after lim-iting RCB to 142 for five despite ViratKohli striking a classy 62 off 47 balls inhis first competitive outing in nearly amonth.
Mumbai, with the batting they pos-sess, were expected to chase the 143-runtarget comfortably on a batting friend-ly pitch at the Chinnaswamy Stadium.
However, Badree, playing his firstmatch of the tournament, brokeMumbai's back by removing ParthivPatel, Mitchell McClenaghan and RohitSharma in successive balls to have the vis-itors reeling at seven for four in the thirdover.
It was a remarkable effort by theWest Indian, considering he picked allthose three wickets in the Powerplay. Hedismissed Patel and Rohit with a googly,the left-hander handing a simple catchto Gayle at short extra cover while anoth-er went through Rohit's defence, send-ing the packed crowd into a frenzy.
The spinner had the luck on his sidetoo as he dismissed McClenaghan off alow full-toss. He ended his spell with awicket, sending back the in-form NitishRana to leave Mumbai at 33 for five ineight overs. Badreee returned incredible
figures of 4-1-9-4.What followed was sensible batting
from both Pollard and Krunal. They kepttheir team in the hunt with an oddboundary but did not take too manyrisks.
The game tilted hugely in the favourof Mumbai in the 16th over whenPollard pummelled Pawan Negi for twohuge sixes, reducing the target to 33 off24 balls.
Pollard departed after smashingfour sixes and three fours in total, moreimportantly doing the job when his team
needed it most.Hardik Pandya ended the game in
emphatic fashion, a six off Tymal Millsover long on.
Earlier, RCB failed to capitalise onthe good work done by Kohli, manag-ing just 31 runs off the last five overs andlost four wickets.
Kohli, out of action for almost amonth with a shoulder injury he sufferedduring the third Test against Australia,got into the groove in no time.
After mistiming a short ball offHarbhajan Singh for a single in the sec-
ond over of the innings, Kohli found hisominous touch.
All this while his opening partnerChris Gayle (22 off 27) was not unableto unleash the big hits he is known for.Though the West Indian did manage tohit a six off Harbhajan, he was far fromhis best. However, RCB lost their wayafter his dismissal in the 16th over, strug-gling to 127 for five from 110 for one ina space of 17 balls.
����� :@ :�(�
Kings XI Punjab pacer IshantSharma said they were sur-
prised to see Sunil Narine open theinnings and set up the eight-wicketwin for Kolkata Knight Riders in IPLThursday night.
"We were quite surprised. Wedid not know how he would bat. Wewere thinking about Robin Uthappa.When you see Narine, you did notknow what's going to happen,"Sharma said at the post-match newsconference.
Chasing a tricky 171, KKR,who were missing opener ChrisLynn, gave the chance to 'mysteryspinner' Narine atop the order andthe Trinidadian blasted a whirlwind18-ball 37 as KKR posted their high-est Powerplay score of 76.
KXIP got the hint during theinnings break when Narine was seenwith pads at the dug-out.
"We could make out seeinghim in the dug-out. Maxi (Maxwell)told us that his go-to shot was theslog over the midwicket. So if wekeep hitting the back of length on to
his body. It's very difficult as he's abowler not a batsman," Sharmasaid.
Sharma further said there was alot of dew but added they were help-less with Narine and Gambhir set-ting up the chase brilliantly.
"With dew the ball was comingnicely on to bat. But if you give away76 runs in six overs, I don't think youcan win even if you scored 200," hesaid. Dew was affecting too much.The spinners could not grip the balland it was skidding nicely on to thebat. I think it was very difficult, inthis format you need to have varia-tions.”
����� :@ :�(�
Explosive Australia opener DavidWarner says he remains good friends
with Indian cricketers despite a bitterlyfought Test series which India won 2-1 toclinch the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.
During the recent spiteful Australia'stour of India, home team skipper ViratKohli might have said that he was no morefriends with the Australian cricketers afterbeing repeatedly targeted on and off thefield, but Warner feels at the end of theday a cricketer always wants to play thegame in the right spirit.
"We always gel very well. It's a differ-ent feeling when you put both the teamson the field. Our ultimate goal is to go outthere and win for the country and we willdo anything to try and beat each other,"said Warner, who is now rubbing shoul-ders with Indian cricketers in the ongo-ing Indian Premier League.
"There were antics on and off the fieldin the Test series but we are also goodfriends. We enjoy laugh and that bringseveryone together in international crick-et. We have to keep the game in a nice fairspirit to make sure that we have grown thegame of cricket. That's the ultimate goal
for us as athletes, to make sure cricket isthe number one sport in the world,"Warner said while donating his bat andgloves to the Fanattic Sports Museum atEcospace in New Town here on Friday.
The onfield controversies, notwith-standing, Warner said the Test series wasa "fantastic" exhibition of five-day game.
"It was a fantastic series for cricket and
for fans in general with a lot of edge of theseats moment. A lot of stuff happeningboth on and off the field. We hoped every-one enjoyed the series," he said. "It's dis-appointing not to have drawn the seriesor won it. But for us there was a lot of pos-itives out of the way. We have proven thatwe can play in these conditions."
=�D3�+&��8&1���5&:������&��5�4The game of cricket has evolved
with the advent of Twenty20 format andmost players are now capable of playingmany roles, Sunrisers Hyderabad headcoach Tom Moody observed on Friday.
"In Twenty cricket you have to be alertand aware that anything can be possible,whether it's spinner open the bowling orbatting. Most cricketers are pretty adapt-able and versatile now," Moody said ofSunil Narine's 18-ball 37 while openingthe batting that set up KKR's eight-wick-et win over KXIP on Thursday. "As a sideneed to be prepared for the unexpected.One of the key tactics is try to catch youropponent by surprise. Even if you steal anover from the game with bat or ball it givesyou a big advantage. KKR felt good reasonto go with the change at top of the ordergiven the loss of Chris Lynn."
����� �,:@(
Debutant Andrew Tye registeredthe second hat-trick of the day to
enable Gujarat Lions restrict RisingPune Supergiant to 171 for eight in anIndian Premier League match, here onFriday.
Right-arm pacer Tye, playing hisfirst IPL match, returned with impres-sive figures of 5 for 17 from his fourovers to keep Supergiant undercheck,especially after a blazing start by open-er Rahul Tripathi (33 off 17) and skip-per Steven Smith (43 off 28).
Tye's was the second hat-trick ofthe day in the history of IPL afterRoyal Challengers Bangalore's SamuelBadree (4/9) achieved the feat earli-er in the day against Mumbai Indiansin a losing cause.
Electing to bowl, Gujarat Lionsgot off to a prefect start as veteranPraveen Kumar (1/51) removed dan-gerous Ajinkya Rahane for a duck
with the third ball of the innings.The credit for the dismissal
should go to Gujarat Lions skipperSuresh Raina who pulled off a one-handed blinder at the first slip froma good length delivery that came inafter pithing and cramped the bats-man for room only to induce an out-side edge.
Therefater, Supergiant skipperSmith and Tripathi took the attack tothe opposition and stitched quick 63-run partnership off just 32 balls totake Gujarat forward.
Tripathi smacked Praveen fortwo consecutive sixes and a four andthen Smith hit the bowler two con-secutive boundaries to pick up 25 runsfrom the fifth over.
But Tye put the brakes on thescoring with a slower delivery byremoving the dangerous-lookingTripathi in his first over as the bats-man went for another huge shot onlyto lift the ball as far as mid-off into
the safe hands of Aaron Finch.Smith was the next to depart
when he mistimed a Dwayne Smithdelivery to Finch at long-on with theSupergiant scoreboard reading 89for two in 9.2 overs.
Tye once again came to the partywhen he went through the defence ofBan Stokes in the 13th over.
Under-fire Mahendra SinghDhoni's (5) woeful run in the tour-nament continues as he lasted a justeight deliveries, caught in plumb infront of the wicket by Ravindra Jadeja(1/40).
Manoj Tiwary (31) and AnkitSharma (25) then added valuable 47runs for the sixth wicket to pushSupergiant's forward.
But Tye left his best for the lastover of the innings and dismissedAnkit, Tiwary and Shardul Thakurwith the first three balls to haltSupergiant's surge.
Tye was at his effective as hedeceived the batsmen, who went forbig shots, with best with his slowerballs that includes his famous knuck-le delivery.
Tye was unlucky not to get hissixth wicket of the day in the form ofRahul Chahar as Jadeja dropped asimple chance in the final delivery ofthe innings.
