A Congress team led by Leader of Opposition in State Assembly Narasingha Mishra, which visited Titli and flood-affected Gajapati and Rayagada districts, on Monday alleged that the State Government has completely failed in undertaking restora- tion works and demanded that the Centre announce a special package for Odisha. “We visited many affected areas in Gajapati and Rayagada districts. What we saw was alarming. The State adminis- tration has not reached many areas. People are yet to get relief. Road communication and elec- tricity supplies have not been restored. The Government has sit silent even as people are spending sleepless nights in the Titli and subsequent floods affected areas,” alleged AICC general secretary and Odisha- in-charge Jitendra Singh at a Press meet here on Monday. He informed a team com- prising himself, Leader of Opposition Narasingha Mishra, AICC secretary Anil Chou- dhury and PCC working pres- ident Pradeep Majhi visited many areas in the two district. “People told us that they were not informed about the Titli before it struck the coast. While 12 days have passed many have not got kerosene and relief materials as announced by the State Government,” they alleged. Singh said 70 to80 people have died so far while the State Government has confirmed 62 deaths. Thirteen persons are still missing. He demanded that the Union Government provide a special package for Odisha in view of deaths and massive property damages. Mishra said the Government is only making false claims. In reality, people have not been provided any support. Majhi demanded that the Government provide interest- free loans to farmers soon. The team demanded that the Government should provide Rs 10 lakh for each fully-dam- aged house and Rs 4 lakh for each partially damaged house. “We will take to the streets if people are not compensated adequately,” said Majhi. W ith diesel getting costlier than petrol in Odisha, the petroleum dealers association on Monday said they would approach the State Government for reduction of Value Added Tax (VAT) on diesel. The members of Utkal Petroleum Dealers’ Association said the VAT of 24 per cent on diesel in the State is compara- tively higher than neighbour- ing States for which they are facing a slump in sales, partic- ularly on the highways. While the price of diesel is 77.24 per litre in neighbour- ing West Bengal, the same costs 80.53 in Jaleswar of Baleswar district. The dealers association claimed that the business of several petrol pump owners in the State along the border has reduced by almost 50 per cent as most consumers are moving to West Bengal to tank up fuel. Notably, diesel was being sold at a higher rate than petrol for the third consecutive day in Bhubaneswar on Monday. The diesel price stood at 80.94 per litre against 80.36 for one litre of petrol. However, the Odisha Government has blamed the Centre for the trend. Finance Minister Sashi Bhusan Behera said “The base price of diesel is nearly 5.13 higher than petrol. Since the day NDA came to power, there is a deviation in the pricing and tax has been hiked by almost 330 per cent as compared to UPA time,” said Behera. Behera further informed that the base price of petrol was 48.89 and for diesel it was 44.72 in 2014 while in 2018 the base price of petrol stands at 43.08 against 48.21 for diesel. The BJP on the other hand demanded that the Odisha Government should reduce VAT on diesel. “Fuel prices are much cheaper in several other States including West Bengal, Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh and why the rates are higher in Odisha. The State Government needs to introspect so that people here could get some relief,” said State BJP spokesper- son Golak Mohapatra. A day after an unidentified destitute patient died unat- tended in the premises of the SCB Medical College Hospital here on Sunday, the hospital authorities have woken up from deep slumber to have spe- cial wards for destitute patients in at least five departments. “Instructions have been issued to the heads of Medicine, Surgery, Orthopaedic, Mental and Neurology Departments to earmark special wards in their departments with all facilities to treat exclusively the uniden- tified destitute patients,” said Hospital Superintendent Prof PK Devta on Monday. About three months ago, Acting Chairman of Odisha Human Rights Commission Justice BK Mishra had visited the hospital personally to assess the situation in the hospital over its concern for the desti- tute patients and had instruct- ed the authorities to have spe- cial wards for such patients. Although the authorities had then assured the commis- sion that special wards would be in place soon, but the things have not changed even after three months. The death of the old man in front of the Medicine Ward on Sunday after lying there unattended for over two days speaks volumes about the affairs in the State’s premier referral hospital. The State Government is claiming that sufficient funds are made available to the Government hospitals for treat- ing and taking care of destitute patients. But the ground reality is very depressing as evidenced from the SCB Hospital situation where patients are seen lying unattended in many places. G etting a nice groom is dif- ficult. It is further difficult if he is a high salaried NRI. But dream gets shattered if the groom found to be a wrong one as has happened in case of two innocent girls of Sambalpur town. The girls in question instead of spending a happy married life with their partners are now knocking at the doors of police and courts for justice. As per information, Subhashree Panda (28) of Gopalmal married Biswajit Hota of Executive Colony, Budharaja in the year 2012. Biswajit went to USA with his newly married wife. Things were alright for a few years ini- tially. They have got a son and a daughter. But situation got changed when her husband and in-laws demanded for more wealth from Subhashree’s father. Matter was not limited to monetary demand. At times, she had to face cruel torture by husband and his parents. Hence, with some plea, Subhashree came back to Sambalpur. She lodged an FIR in the women police station here. The police have served notice to Biswajit and his parents. In another incident, Dibya Devajani Patra, a resident of Dhankauda of the city had married Jyoti Prakash Mahalik of Baleswar in the year 2016. Her husband works in the USA as a scientist. But Dibya has not gone to the USA. But her in-laws were demanding to transfer some valuable landed property belonging to her par- ents in Baleswar to her Jyoti Prakash’s name. Further, the in-laws alleged that Dibya is a thyroid patient for which she could not be a mother. That was another point of discontentment in the fam- ily. The result being, Dibya had to bear unbearable tortures for which she came back to Sambalpur to her parents and took help of police. “In both cases, we have seized the dowry materials and given them to the respective persons. At the same time, we have also served notice to both the parties,” said Mahila police station IIC Tarabati Pradhan here. “Very stringent action will be taken against the persons involved in such heinous crime against innocent girls,” she added. E ven as the tension continued at Tainsi village under the Satkosia Reserve Forest in Angul district, Royal Bengal Tigress ‘Sundari’ killed a bullock on Monday at Baghamunda village, a few km from Tainsi. This further added to the sense of fear among the locals, who spotted the mutilated car- cass of the bullock in the early morning. Sources said a four-mem- ber team comprising experts and doctors from Odisha University of Agriculture and Technology (OUAT), Nandankanan Zoological Park and gun assistants that reached Angul from Bhubaneswar on Sunday night to capture the tigress and take it back to the enclosure, are yet to visit the spot due to the prevailing ten- sion in the area. Alleging involvement of Sundari in the attack, the locals prevented the special four- member team from tranquilis- ing Sundari, sources said. Meanwhile, another team of experts from Similipal will join the current team to tran- quilise the tigress, while sources claimed that the Forest Department is waiting for the permission of local adminis- tration for tranquilisation. “After tranquillisation, the tigress would be kept in enclo- sure in Raiguda. A letter has also been sent to the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and Wildlife regarding further steps,” informed Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (PCCF) Sandeep Tripathy. “Four forest officials have gone missing from Satkosia for- est reserve since yesterday,” he added. On Sunday, the tigress had allegedly attacked one Trinath Sahu of Tainsi village to death while he had gone for fishing. Following the incident, the villagers reportedly thrashed and detained Assistant Conservator of Forest (ACF) Srikant Behera, who had visit- ed the village to take a stock of the situation on Sunday. Later in the evening, the locals also torched police vehi- cles and pelted stones at police and government officials injur- ing Angul Sub-Collector, Tehsildar and Angul police sta- tion IIC. They alleged that the tigress has become ‘man-eater’ and demanded to send Sundari back to Madhya Pradesh. A mid the escalating row between CBI Director Alok Verma and his deputy Rakesh Asthana, Prime Minister Narendra Modi sum- moned both to discuss the goings-on on that have brought much disrepute to India’s pre- mier investigating agency. But there was no thaw in the internecine war as the CBI went on to arrest an investi- gating officer of Deputy SP rank who allegedly “fabricated” a statement from an accused to implicate the agency’s boss on bribery charges. Sources said the PM met the CBI chief separately on Sunday evening and sum- moned him again along with Asthana on Monday. The PM is learnt to have expressed his displeasure over the allega- tions and counter-allegations between the two top officers. Despite attempts to diffuse the crisis, the high drama within the CBI continued. The CBI arrested its Deputy SP and Investigating Officer Devinder Kumar for allegedly trying to “fix” the agency boss. Kumar was probing the case against the controversial meat exporter Moin Qureshi. The CBI arrest- ed him on charges of falsifying the statement of an accused, Satish Sana, who had admitted that a TDP MP of the Rajya Sabha had met Verma to settle investigation in his favour. Sana, accused in the Moin Qureshi case, has now become a complainant against Asthana. The arrested DSP was part of the Special Investigation Team headed by Asthana. “The matter relates to the creation of a statement under section 161 of Satish Sana, a witness in Moin Qureshi case, showing it to be recorded on September 26, 2018, in Delhi. During the investigation, it has been found that Sana was not present in Delhi on that day and was in Hyderabad. Sana actually joined investigation in Delhi only on October 1, 2018,” a CBI spokesperson claimed in a statement. “It was found that Devinder Kumar had fabricat- ed this statement as an after- thought plan to corroborate the baseless allegations made by Special Director Rakesh Asthana against CBI Director Alok Kumar Verma to CVC,” the spokesperson claimed, an indication that the CBI Director’s superintendence over the subordinate staff was not effective. He further said, “Looking into the seriousness of the matter, role of other officers of SIT, CBI, then supervising the Moin Qureshi case, are being probed.” On October 18 and 19, Asthana had alleged in his plaint to the CVC sent that on receipt of information that Satish Babu paid illegal grati- fication to the CBI Director, and the same was brought to the notice of the Cabinet Secretary by Asthana through his letter dated August 24 this year. After this, the CVC initi- ated an enquiry and sought the relevant files from the CBI. Asthana also wrote to the CBI that Satish Babu Sana attempted to flee but could not owing to the LOC opened by SIT headed by him. “Meanwhile, Satish Babu Sana appeared before the IO on October 1, 2018. He stated that he approached CM Ramesh, MP, (Rajya Sabha), TDP, who in turn personally met Director CBI. Later, CM Ramesh assured that Satish Sana would not be called again by the CBI,” Asthana alleged. Through his fresh com- plaints to the CVC, Asthana also sought transfer of eight cases, including the Moin Qureshi case, to the SIT. The Moin Qureshi case now been transferred to Joint Director (Policy) AK Sharma after the registration of the case against Asthana. In his complaints to the CVC, also marked to the Cabinet Secretary, Asthana alleged that Verma scuttled the move of the SIT to arrest Sana. In his complaint dated August 24 to the Cabinet Secretary, Asthana had alleged that Verma had taken a bribe of 2 crore from Sana to grant him relief in the Moin Qureshi case. The CBI has booked Asthana, Kumar and two pri- vate persons for corruption and criminal conspiracy. Sources also said requisite permission under the Prevention of Corruption Act from the Government before registration of the case against Asthana was not taken by the agency. CBI spokesperson Abhishek Dayal did not respond to the query if per- mission was taken in the case and if Verma met the PM last evening. F ather Kuriakose Kattuthara, a key witness in the Kerala nun rape case who testified against accused Bishop Franco Mulakkal, was on Monday found dead under mysterious circumstances in Punjab’s Hoshiarpur district, police said. Kattuthara, 62, was found unconscious in his room in the catholic church premises in Dasuya, 40 km from Hoshiarpur town, this morning and was taken to a local hos- pital where he was declared brought dead, they said. Police said the cause of the death would be known after post- mortem. According to police, no visible injury marks were found on the body. “There was vomit in the room,” said Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) AR Sharma. “The viscera will be sent for examination which will throw light on the cause of the death,” he added. Sharma said the police was investigating the case from all the angles. “The police is waiting for the family of the priest to come from Kerala. After they reach here, the postmortem of the body of the priest will be conducted,” he added. Sharma said the priest retired for the day after taking his meal last night. “In the morning today, the room cleaner, who went to the room of the priest for cleaning, found the door locked from inside. After knocking on the door several times without success, he saw from the win- dowpane of the room the priest apparently lying unconscious on the bed. He immediately informed the school adminis- tration, which got the door opened and found the priest dead,” he said. Relatives of Kattuthara in Kerala said the priest was con- cerned about his safety after coming out openly against the bishop. Besides demanding a thorough probe into the death, the relatives want the post- mortem to be conducted at the Alappuzha Medical College in Kerala. Supporters of the rape vic- tim urged the Kerala govern- ment to provide security to the complainant in view of the “mysterious death” of a key wit- ness in the case. Kattuthara was transferred 15 days ago to the church at Dharampur in Dasuya, police said. He was staying in the church premises which is also home to St. Paul Convent School. Earlier, he was serving in the church at Bhogpur. He had also served as a priest in the Jalandhar diocese. Lawrence Chaudhary, National President, Christian Front, demanded a CBI inquiry into the death. Meanwhile, the five nuns, who are staying with the rape victim at a convent in Kuravilangad near Kottayam, said they were not safe and that anything could happen to them. T he BJP has conceded Janata Dal(U) demand for “respectable” number of seats by agreeing to contest on 17 seats, five less than the number of MPs who got elected on the lotus symbol from the State in 2014 Lok Sabha polls. The JD(U) will contest 16 seats, and the remaining seven seats from the State would be shared by Ram Vilas Paswan’s LJP (five) and the RLSP of Upendra Kushwaha (two). Sources said the agree- ment was finalised in a meet- ing among Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP chief Amit Shah and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar in Delhi last month. In 2014 BJP won 22, LJP six and RLSP three seats. As per the deal, BJP is going to sacri- fice its five wining seats and LJP and RLSP one each. Bihar has 40 Lok Sabha sears. Sources in the JD(U) claimed that the top BJP lead- ership had to succumb before the rigid stand of Nitish, who had made it clear that his party would not agree on any deal in which he will get lesser seats than the BJP Continued on Page 4
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ACongress team led byLeader of Opposition in
State Assembly NarasinghaMishra, which visited Titli andflood-affected Gajapati andRayagada districts, on Mondayalleged that the StateGovernment has completelyfailed in undertaking restora-tion works and demanded thatthe Centre announce a special
package for Odisha.“We visited many affected
areas in Gajapati and Rayagadadistricts. What we saw wasalarming. The State adminis-tration has not reached manyareas. People are yet to get relief.Road communication and elec-tricity supplies have not beenrestored. The Government hassit silent even as people arespending sleepless nights inthe Titli and subsequent floodsaffected areas,” alleged AICCgeneral secretary and Odisha-in-charge Jitendra Singh at aPress meet here on Monday.
He informed a team com-prising himself, Leader of
Opposition Narasingha Mishra,AICC secretary Anil Chou-dhury and PCC working pres-ident Pradeep Majhi visitedmany areas in the two district.
“People told us that theywere not informed about theTitli before it struck the coast.While 12 days have passedmany have not got keroseneand relief materials asannounced by the StateGovernment,” they alleged.
Singh said 70 to80 peoplehave died so far while the StateGovernment has confirmed 62deaths. Thirteen persons arestill missing. He demandedthat the Union Government
provide a special package forOdisha in view of deaths andmassive property damages.
Mishra said theGovernment is only makingfalse claims. In reality, peoplehave not been provided anysupport.
Majhi demanded that theGovernment provide interest-free loans to farmers soon.
The team demanded thatthe Government should provideRs 10 lakh for each fully-dam-aged house and Rs 4 lakh foreach partially damaged house.
“We will take to the streetsif people are not compensatedadequately,” said Majhi.
With diesel getting costlierthan petrol in Odisha, the
petroleum dealers associationon Monday said they wouldapproach the State Governmentfor reduction of Value AddedTax (VAT) on diesel.
The members of UtkalPetroleum Dealers’ Associationsaid the VAT of 24 per cent ondiesel in the State is compara-tively higher than neighbour-ing States for which they arefacing a slump in sales, partic-ularly on the highways.
While the price of diesel is�77.24 per litre in neighbour-ing West Bengal, the samecosts �80.53 in Jaleswar ofBaleswar district.
The dealers associationclaimed that the business ofseveral petrol pump owners inthe State along the border hasreduced by almost 50 per centas most consumers are movingto West Bengal to tank up fuel.
Notably, diesel was beingsold at a higher rate than petrolfor the third consecutive day inBhubaneswar on Monday. Thediesel price stood at �80.94 perlitre against �80.36 for onelitre of petrol.
However, the OdishaGovernment has blamed the
Centre for the trend.Finance Minister Sashi
Bhusan Behera said “The baseprice of diesel is nearly �5.13higher than petrol. Since theday NDA came to power, thereis a deviation in the pricing andtax has been hiked by almost330 per cent as compared toUPA time,” said Behera.
Behera further informedthat the base price of petrol was�48.89 and for diesel it was�44.72 in 2014 while in 2018the base price of petrol standsat �43.08 against �48.21 for diesel.
The BJP on the other handdemanded that the OdishaGovernment should reduceVAT on diesel.
“Fuel prices are muchcheaper in several other Statesincluding West Bengal,Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradeshand why the rates are higher inOdisha. The State Governmentneeds to introspect so thatpeople here could get somerelief,” said State BJP spokesper-son Golak Mohapatra.
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Aday after an unidentifieddestitute patient died unat-
tended in the premises of theSCB Medical College Hospitalhere on Sunday, the hospitalauthorities have woken upfrom deep slumber to have spe-cial wards for destitute patientsin at least five departments.
“Instructions have beenissued to the heads of Medicine,Surgery, Orthopaedic, Mentaland Neurology Departments toearmark special wards in theirdepartments with all facilitiesto treat exclusively the uniden-tified destitute patients,” said
Hospital Superintendent ProfPK Devta on Monday.
About three months ago,Acting Chairman of OdishaHuman Rights CommissionJustice BK Mishra had visitedthe hospital personally to assessthe situation in the hospital
over its concern for the desti-tute patients and had instruct-ed the authorities to have spe-cial wards for such patients.
Although the authoritieshad then assured the commis-sion that special wards wouldbe in place soon, but the things
have not changed even afterthree months.
The death of the old manin front of the Medicine Wardon Sunday after lying thereunattended for over two daysspeaks volumes about theaffairs in the State’s premierreferral hospital.
The State Government isclaiming that sufficient funds aremade available to theGovernment hospitals for treat-ing and taking care of destitutepatients. But the ground realityis very depressing as evidencedfrom the SCB Hospital situationwhere patients are seen lyingunattended in many places.
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Getting a nice groom is dif-ficult. It is further difficult
if he is a high salaried NRI. Butdream gets shattered if thegroom found to be a wrong one as has happened in case oftwo innocent girls ofSambalpur town.
The girls in questioninstead of spending a happymarried life with their partners
are now knocking at the doorsof police and courts for justice.
As per information,Subhashree Panda (28) ofGopalmal married BiswajitHota of Executive Colony,Budharaja in the year 2012.Biswajit went to USA with hisnewly married wife. Thingswere alright for a few years ini-tially. They have got a son anda daughter. But situation gotchanged when her husbandand in-laws demanded for morewealth from Subhashree’s father.
Matter was not limited tomonetary demand. At times,she had to face cruel torture byhusband and his parents. Hence,
with some plea, Subhashreecame back to Sambalpur. She
lodged an FIR in the womenpolice station here. The police
have served notice to Biswajitand his parents.
In another incident, DibyaDevajani Patra, a resident ofDhankauda of the city hadmarried Jyoti Prakash Mahalikof Baleswar in the year 2016.Her husband works in theUSA as a scientist. But Dibyahas not gone to the USA. Buther in-laws were demanding totransfer some valuable landedproperty belonging to her par-ents in Baleswar to her JyotiPrakash’s name.
Further, the in-laws allegedthat Dibya is a thyroid patientfor which she could not be amother. That was another point
of discontentment in the fam-ily. The result being, Dibya hadto bear unbearable tortures forwhich she came back toSambalpur to her parents andtook help of police.
“In both cases, we haveseized the dowry materials andgiven them to the respectivepersons. At the same time, wehave also served notice to both the parties,” said Mahilapolice station IIC TarabatiPradhan here.
“Very stringent action willbe taken against the personsinvolved in such heinous crimeagainst innocent girls,” sheadded.
Even as the tension continuedat Tainsi village under the
Satkosia Reserve Forest inAngul district, Royal BengalTigress ‘Sundari’ killed a bullockon Monday at Baghamundavillage, a few km from Tainsi.
This further added to thesense of fear among the locals,who spotted the mutilated car-cass of the bullock in the earlymorning.
Sources said a four-mem-ber team comprising expertsand doctors from OdishaUniversity of Agriculture andTechnology (OUAT),Nandankanan Zoological Parkand gun assistants that reached
Angul from Bhubaneswar onSunday night to capture thetigress and take it back to theenclosure, are yet to visit thespot due to the prevailing ten-sion in the area.
Alleging involvement ofSundari in the attack, the localsprevented the special four-member team from tranquilis-ing Sundari, sources said.
Meanwhile, another teamof experts from Similipal willjoin the current team to tran-quilise the tigress, while sourcesclaimed that the ForestDepartment is waiting for thepermission of local adminis-tration for tranquilisation.
“After tranquillisation, thetigress would be kept in enclo-sure in Raiguda. A letter has alsobeen sent to the National TigerConservation Authority(NTCA) and Wildlife regardingfurther steps,” informed PrincipalChief Conservator of Forests(PCCF) Sandeep Tripathy.
“Four forest officials havegone missing from Satkosia for-est reserve since yesterday,” headded. On Sunday, the tigress
had allegedly attacked oneTrinath Sahu of Tainsi village todeath while he had gone forfishing.
Following the incident, thevillagers reportedly thrashedand detained AssistantConservator of Forest (ACF)Srikant Behera, who had visit-ed the village to take a stock ofthe situation on Sunday.
Later in the evening, thelocals also torched police vehi-cles and pelted stones at policeand government officials injur-ing Angul Sub-Collector,Tehsildar and Angul police sta-tion IIC. They alleged that thetigress has become ‘man-eater’and demanded to send Sundariback to Madhya Pradesh.
Alok Verma and his deputyRakesh Asthana, PrimeMinister Narendra Modi sum-moned both to discuss thegoings-on on that have broughtmuch disrepute to India’s pre-mier investigating agency. Butthere was no thaw in theinternecine war as the CBIwent on to arrest an investi-gating officer of Deputy SPrank who allegedly “fabricated”a statement from an accused toimplicate the agency’s boss onbribery charges.
Sources said the PM metthe CBI chief separately onSunday evening and sum-moned him again along withAsthana on Monday. The PMis learnt to have expressed hisdispleasure over the allega-tions and counter-allegationsbetween the two top officers.
Despite attempts to diffusethe crisis, the high dramawithin the CBI continued. TheCBI arrested its Deputy SP andInvestigating Officer DevinderKumar for allegedly trying to“fix” the agency boss. Kumarwas probing the case againstthe controversial meat exporterMoin Qureshi. The CBI arrest-ed him on charges of falsifyingthe statement of an accused,Satish Sana, who had admittedthat a TDP MP of the RajyaSabha had met Verma to settleinvestigation in his favour.
Sana, accused in the MoinQureshi case, has now becomea complainant against Asthana.
The arrested DSP was part ofthe Special Investigation Teamheaded by Asthana.
“The matter relates to thecreation of a statement undersection 161 of Satish Sana, awitness in Moin Qureshi case,showing it to be recorded onSeptember 26, 2018, in Delhi.During the investigation, ithas been found that Sana wasnot present in Delhi on that dayand was in Hyderabad. Sanaactually joined investigationin Delhi only on October 1,2018,” a CBI spokespersonclaimed in a statement.
“It was found that
Devinder Kumar had fabricat-ed this statement as an after-thought plan to corroborate thebaseless allegations made bySpecial Director RakeshAsthana against CBI DirectorAlok Kumar Verma to CVC,”the spokesperson claimed, anindication that the CBIDirector’s superintendenceover the subordinate staff wasnot effective.
He further said, “Lookinginto the seriousness of thematter, role of other officers ofSIT, CBI, then supervising theMoin Qureshi case, are beingprobed.”
On October 18 and 19,Asthana had alleged in hisplaint to the CVC sent that onreceipt of information thatSatish Babu paid illegal grati-fication to the CBI Director,and the same was brought tothe notice of the CabinetSecretary by Asthana throughhis letter dated August 24 thisyear. After this, the CVC initi-ated an enquiry and sought therelevant files from the CBI.
Asthana also wrote to theCBI that Satish Babu Sanaattempted to flee but could notowing to the LOC opened bySIT headed by him.
“Meanwhile, Satish BabuSana appeared before the IO onOctober 1, 2018. He statedthat he approached CMRamesh, MP, (Rajya Sabha),TDP, who in turn personallymet Director CBI. Later, CMRamesh assured that SatishSana would not be called againby the CBI,” Asthana alleged.
Through his fresh com-plaints to the CVC, Asthanaalso sought transfer of eightcases, including the MoinQureshi case, to the SIT. TheMoin Qureshi case now beentransferred to Joint Director(Policy) AK Sharma after theregistration of the case againstAsthana.
In his complaints to theCVC, also marked to theCabinet Secretary, Asthanaalleged that Verma scuttled themove of the SIT to arrest Sana.In his complaint dated August24 to the Cabinet Secretary,Asthana had alleged that Vermahad taken a bribe of �2 crorefrom Sana to grant him relief inthe Moin Qureshi case.
The CBI has bookedAsthana, Kumar and two pri-vate persons for corruptionand criminal conspiracy.
Sources also said requisitepermission under thePrevention of Corruption Actfrom the Government beforeregistration of the case againstAsthana was not taken by theagency. CBI spokespersonAbhishek Dayal did notrespond to the query if per-mission was taken in the caseand if Verma met the PM lastevening.
Father Kuriakose Kattuthara,a key witness in the Kerala
nun rape case who testifiedagainst accused Bishop FrancoMulakkal, was on Mondayfound dead under mysteriouscircumstances in Punjab’sHoshiarpur district, police said.
Kattuthara, 62, was foundunconscious in his room in thecatholic church premises inDasuya, 40 km fromHoshiarpur town, this morningand was taken to a local hos-pital where he was declaredbrought dead, they said. Policesaid the cause of the deathwould be known after post-mortem.
According to police, novisible injury marks were foundon the body. “There was vomitin the room,” said DeputySuperintendent of Police (DSP)AR Sharma.
“The viscera will be sent forexamination which will throwlight on the cause of the death,”he added.
Sharma said the police wasinvestigating the case from allthe angles.
“The police is waiting forthe family of the priest tocome from Kerala. After theyreach here, the postmortem ofthe body of the priest will be
conducted,” he added.Sharma said the priest
retired for the day after takinghis meal last night.
“In the morning today, theroom cleaner, who went to theroom of the priest for cleaning,found the door locked frominside. After knocking on thedoor several times withoutsuccess, he saw from the win-dowpane of the room the priestapparently lying unconsciouson the bed. He immediatelyinformed the school adminis-tration, which got the dooropened and found the priestdead,” he said.
Relatives of Kattuthara inKerala said the priest was con-cerned about his safety aftercoming out openly against thebishop. Besides demanding athorough probe into the death,the relatives want the post-mortem to be conducted at theAlappuzha Medical College inKerala.
Supporters of the rape vic-tim urged the Kerala govern-ment to provide security to thecomplainant in view of the“mysterious death” of a key wit-ness in the case.
Kattuthara was transferred15 days ago to the church atDharampur in Dasuya, policesaid. He was staying in thechurch premises which is alsohome to St. Paul ConventSchool.
Earlier, he was serving inthe church at Bhogpur. Hehad also served as a priest inthe Jalandhar diocese.
Lawrence Chaudhary,National President, ChristianFront, demanded a CBI inquiryinto the death.
Meanwhile, the five nuns,who are staying with the rapevictim at a convent inKuravilangad near Kottayam,said they were not safe and thatanything could happen tothem.
“respectable” number of seatsby agreeing to contest on 17seats, five less than the numberof MPs who got elected on thelotus symbol from the State in2014 Lok Sabha polls.
The JD(U) will contest 16seats, and the remaining sevenseats from the State would beshared by Ram Vilas Paswan’sLJP (five) and the RLSP ofUpendra Kushwaha (two).
Sources said the agree-ment was finalised in a meet-ing among Prime Minister
Narendra Modi, BJP chief AmitShah and Bihar Chief MinisterNitish Kumar in Delhi lastmonth.
In 2014 BJP won 22, LJPsix and RLSP three seats. As perthe deal, BJP is going to sacri-fice its five wining seats and LJPand RLSP one each. Bihar has40 Lok Sabha sears.
Sources in the JD(U)claimed that the top BJP lead-ership had to succumb beforethe rigid stand of Nitish, whohad made it clear that his partywould not agree on any deal inwhich he will get lesser seatsthan the BJP
damage assistance of �2,770crore for the districts affectedby Cyclone Titli and subse-quent floods earlier this month.
Speaking to mediapersonsafter an executive committeemeeting of the Odisha StateDisaster ManagementAuthority (OSDMA) here,Special Relief Commissioner(SRC) Bishnupada Sethi said,
“Damage assistance to thetune of �2,770 crore has beengiven approval while �375 crorehas been earmarked for theworst-affected Ganjam,Gajapati and Rayagada dis-tricts.” The Collectors of thethree districts have alreadybeen given �102 crore for pro-vision of first instalment of theGratuitous relief. The restmoney would be transferred tobank accounts of the affectedpersons later, Sethi said.
For various repair andrestoration works, theGovernment has approved �27crore for the EnergyDepartment, �20 crore for theFood Supplies and ConsumerWelfare Department, �7 crorefor the Water ResourcesDepartment, �50 crore for theWorks Department, ��55 crorefor the Rural DevelopmentDepartment and �624 crore forthe Panchayati RajDepartment, he added. Themeeting held at the StateSecretariat was chaired byChief Secretary Aditya PrasadPadhi.
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While the east coast ofIndia is one of the most
cyclone-prone areas in theworld, Odisha is twice as vul-nerable as compared to theother eastern States.
During the last decade,Odisha faced one or otherforms of disasters like cyclone, flood, tornado ordrought every year.
From 1891 to 2018, thenumbers of cyclones, SevereCyclones and Super Cyclonesthat crossed the Odisha coastwere 98, which is the highest inall the east coast States.
The latest report of theState Government on‘Vulnerability to Cyclone’reveals that while Odisha isonly 17 per cent of the Indianeast coast, it has been affectedby nearly 35 per cent of allcyclone and Severe Cyclonesthat have crossed the east coast.
Cyclonic storms that hit the
east coast and associated stormsurges that often inundate largetracts of Odisha cause large-scale damages to life and prop-erties. As per the report, whileOdisha faced 98 cyclones, WestBengal faced 69 and AndhraPradesh 79.
While Odisha had the firstimpact of a Super Cyclone wayback on October 7-12, 1737,
another Super Cyclone crossedthe State’s coast at the FalsePoint on September 22, 1885and took a toll of 5,000 lives.
Odisha was impacted byanother Super Cyclone onNovember 14-20, 1977 whichcrossed Andhra Pradesh nearNizampatnam, Yet anotherSuper Cyclone impactedOdisha which crossed Andhra
Pradesh near Machlipatnam onMay 4-11, 1990.
Odisha faced another dev-astating Super Cyclone onOctober29-31, 1999 whichcrossed near Paradip onOctober 29, killing of over10,000 people.
The State faced its firstVery Severe Cyclone onOctober 31, 1831 whichcrossed the coast near Baleswarand the loss of life was a whop-ping 50,000.
On October 2-5, 1864, aVery Severe Cyclone thatcrossed West Bengal nearContai also had its impact onOdisha. On November 1-2,1864, a Very Severe Cyclonecrossed Andhra Pradesh nearMachlipatnam having itsimpact on Odisha. And onOctober 14-16, 1942, a VerySevere Cyclone crossed WestBengal near Contai andimpacted Odisha.
On October 8-11, 1967, aVery Severe Cyclone crossed
the Odisha coast between Puriand Paradip.
On October 26-30, 1967, aVery Severe Cyclone crossedthe coast near Paradip and theloss of life was 10,000.
On October 12-14, 2013,Very Severe Cyclone Phailincrossed the Odisha coast nearGopalpur. On October 12-14,2014, Very Severe CycloneHudhud crossed AndhraPradesh at Visakhapatnam andimpacted south Odisha.
The latest was Titli, anoth-er Very Severe Cyclone, thatcrossed near Palasa in AndhraPradesh on October 11, havingserious impact on Ganjam,Gajapati, Rayagada andKandhamal districts.
As per the Wind andCyclone Hard Zones Map ofOdisha, out of the State’s 30 dis-tricts, 14 are categorised as‘High Damage Risk Zones’,either fully or partially, said asenior officer in the StateGovernment.
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Premier educational institu-tion Utkal University has
been granted a sum of �40crore under the RashtriyaUchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan(RUSA) for infrastructuredevelopment.
The university, which hassecured the NationalAssessment and AccreditationCouncil (NAAC)’s ‘A Plus’grade and is placed in topRUSA II list, has met the cri-teria to receive �100 crore dur-ing next three years.Accordingly, the university hasbeen sanctioned �40 crore inthe first phase of RUSA II,informed Higher EducationCouncil Vice-Chairman ProfAshok Kumar Das.
Prof Das, who is a former
Vice-Chancellor of the UtkalUniversity, said the Centre hasdecided to make 10 universitiesas the top educational institu-tions with best infrastructurefacilities to the students forwhich �100 crore would besanctioned to each universityunder the RUSA for next threeyears. The Utkal University isamong top 10 institutions in theRUSA list. The funds werereleased in first phase afterUtkal University VC ProfSoumendra Mohan Patnaiktabled a report at a meeting in
New Delhi a few months ago,he said. The RUSA is aCentrally-sponsored, overar-ching holistic and comprehen-sive umbrella scheme for norm-based funding for the StateUniversities and colleges toachieve the goals of expansion,equity and excellence with theaim of imparting relevant andvalue-based education forimproving employability.
While the Centre wouldprovide Rs 25 crore out of �40crore under the scheme, theremaining Rs 15 crore would beborne by the StateGovernment. After submittingthe first-phase fund utilisa-tion report to the Centre, theremaining Rs 60 crore would besanctioned to the university inthe second phase of thescheme, said Prof Das.
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Athamallik MLA SanjeebKumar Sahoo on Monday
requested Chief MinisterNaveen Patnaik to direct theForest Department to shifttigress ‘Sundari’ from theSatakosia Wild Life (WL)Division at the earliest.
In a letter, Sahoo alsourged Patnaik to pay due com-pensation to the family mem-bers of deceased TrinathSahoo.
The MLA alleged thatWild life Institute of India(WII) and the UnionGovernment are responsiblefor the law and order situationon NH-55 that caused of dam-aging of Government proper-ties.
‘Sundari’ was left inSatakosia WL Division by theForest Department and theWII two/three months back.
But she has entered villagearea and hunted humans.
On Sunday, the tigresskilled Trinath Sahoo of Tainsivillage under Angul policelimits. In protest, villagersblocked the NH-55 and dam-aged Government vehicles.
A clash was also eruptedbetween police and commonpeople while the latterdemanded shifting of Sundariand payment of compensationto the diseased family.
Earlier in August, Sundarihad also killed another womanand domestic animals in thearea.
On Monday, Sundarikilled a bullock in the area.Four forest staffs are missingas on date.
Hence, the Governmentshould take immediate stepsto maintain peace and har-mony in Athamallick con-stituency, Sahoo urged further.
Bhubaneswar: The upcomingMake in Odisha (MIO)Conclave 2018 would have afashion show by US-baseddesigner Bibhu Mohapatra,informed Industries SecretarySanjeev Chopra.
Mohapatra has dressednumerous internationalcelebrities, including FriedaPinto, Mary J Blige, Tina Fey,Celine Dion, Kendall Jenner,Jennifer Lopez, Glenn Close,Lupita Nyong’o, Emily Bluntand Taraji P Henson. He hadalso dressed Michelle Obama,wife of former US PresidentBarak Obama, several times.
On the conclave’s them, “Iam Odisha”, Mohapatra woulddeliver a talk which wouldtouch upon his personal jour-ney from Rourkela to NewYork and his experience infashion design. He would alsotalk about the megatrends inthe creative economy of todayin addition to throwing some
light on Odisha’s creative econ-omy. The talk will be followedby a fashion show whereinOdisha-based handloom workwould be showcased in drapingof saris and local textile pieces.
“I am honoured to be invit-ed by the Government ofOdisha to be part of the Makein Odisha Conclave 2018.Having lived the first 23 yearsof my life here before movingto the US, Odisha has alwaysbeen close to my heart,” saidMohapatra.
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Ghasiram Panda, a writerand an activist of Sonepur,
has filed a petition before theOrissa High Court seekingappropriate amendments inthe Prohibition of ChildMarriage Act (PCMA), 2006and related rules, 2009 to makethe law compliant with aSupreme Court judgement.
As per an affidavit on thematter submitted by theGovernment in the HC, childmarriage is rampant in thecountry because of povertyand illiteracy. At present, thecountry has around 23 millionchild brides.
Panda stated that while onthe one hand, sexual relation-ship with girl child below theage of 18 years even when thereis consent is a crime, on the
other, sexual relationship of thehusband with his wife who is aminor (between the age of 15and18 years) despite consent isnot considered a crime.
Earlier, the KarnatakaGovernment has created anexample by amending laws todeclare the child marriage ille-gal. The Supreme Court in itsjudgement on October 11, 2017held that it would be wise for allthe States to go the Karnatakaway to void child marriages and
thereby ensure that sexualintercourse between a girl childand her husband is a punishableoffence under that POSCO Actand the IPC.
The High Court disposedof Panda’s petition by directingthe Chief Secretary, the LawSecretary and theCommissioner-cum-Secretary,Women and ChildDevelopment (WCD)Department to consider therepresentation of the petition-er. Following this, petitionerPanda was requested to attenda hearing before the PrincipalSecretary, WCD on September29. Panda made a strog pitch foramendment in the PCMA 2006and also the rules. It was decid-ed that a committee where thepetitioner will also be a mem-ber among others, will reviewthe PCMA 2006 and the OdishaRules 2009. The WCDDepartment will seek the opin-ion of the Law Department onpossible amendment of thePCMA.
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Pradesh CongressCommittee (PCC) presi-
dent Niranjan Patnaik onMonday alleged that the State Government has turned “enemy of people” byfailing to provide help andsecurity to them.
“The Government hascompletely failed in tackling theCyclone Titli ans subsequentheavy rains that have taken 62precious lives. While initially itdeclared Rs 4 lakh compensa-tion to each deceased’s family,it hiked the amount to Rs 10lakh to match the Congress’demand. But the relief andrehabilitation works are not sat-isfactory,” Patnaik said anddemanded that road, electric-ity, water supply restorationand repair works be complet-ed on war-footing.
Bhubaneswar: Food Suppliesand Consumer WelfareMinister Surjya Narayan Patroon Monday wrote to UnionPetroleum and Natural GasMinister Dharmendra Pradhanto provide domestic LPG cylin-ders to poor people in the Titliand floods-affected Gajapati,Ganjam and Rayagada districtssoon. “As you are aware, ‘Titli’ andsubsequent floods have severe-ly affected lives and propertiesof people of Odisha, particularlyin Gajapati, Ganjam andRayagada districts. As financialconditions of people have been
very week, the StateGovernment has started help-ing poor in every respect. The people are unable to paysubsidised prices for domesticsubsidised cylinders under thePrime Minister Ujjala Yojana.Kindly provide cooking gas tothem free of cost,” Patro urgedPradhan in the letter.
There are 50,990 subsidisedLPG connections in Gajapatidistrict, 2,39,683 connections inGanjam district and 81,979connections in Rayagada dis-tricts as per information ascer-tained from SLC, Odisha, Patromentioned in the letter. PNS
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The BJD and Congress seemto be vying for taking cred-
it for a second bridge over theIb river.
With tender process com-pleted, the work order for thesecond bridge has been award-ed to Shree Balaji Engicon, aprivate agency.
By laying foundation oneafter another, the BJD and theCongress leaders are trying totake credit for the secondbridge construction.
On Sunday, JharsugudaCongress MLA Naba KishoreDas laid foundation for thebridge in the presence of hun-dreds of Congress workers,including Block ChairmanDigambar Bhoi, Sarpanch RajKumar Bada, Samiti Member
Ghanashyam Seth and DCCvice president Pintu Padhi.
Before this, on Saturdayalso, BJD district general sec-retary Trinath Goel and YouthBJD president Prasant Jenaalso had laid foundation for thesimilar work.
Although the bridge isbeing constructed under WorksDepartment, not a single offi-cer was seen on the site eitherfrom the Works department orShree Balaji Engicon during theinauguration. Rs 46.80 crorewill be spent for the project andthe construction will be com-pleted by March 2021.
started its campaign against useof plastic by placing hoardingsat prime locations to make peo-ple aware along with two radiojingles aired through three FMstations to take the message tomore and more people.
The BMC communicationteam is also planning a leafletwith a message on how to builda plastic-free city and factsabout the ill effects of poly-thene, plastics, legal provi-sions to ban plastic and whatare the provisions to restrict,regulate and ban use of plastic.
The plastic bottles wouldbe recycled by manufacturers;and the State Pollution Control
Board would initiate actionagainst polythene manufac-turers in industrial areas.
The two jingles, beingaired by Red FM, Big FM andRadio Chocolate, would tell thelisteners about the ban of plas-tic bottles, polythene. Besides,four types of hoardings arealready placed in fight loca-tions and would multiply moreto be more visible across the
city.BMC officials said that
soon a tableau would also rollout to intensify the campaignand advertisements in filmtheatres on restricted use ofplastic and SwachhaSurvekshan 2019 would beissued very soon so that thefilmgoers would be educatedon the topic and spread themessage in the society.
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The Lions Gate police herearrested six persons on
Monday in connection with theviolence on October 3 bandh inthe beach town.
The accused have beensent to judicial remand by theSub Divisional JudicialMagistrate (SDJM). With this,the total number of personsarrested by police reached 92 as
on Monday.The accused were identi-
fied as Mihira Mahanta ofWest Bengal staying in PuriKhajapati, Kalandi CharanPanda of Dandimala Sahi,Santosh Patanaik of Banapurpresently staying near PuriKhaja Pati, Kaibalya Sahu ofMarkandaswar Sahi, SatyaNarayan Guru of ManikarnikaSahi and Narayan Behera ofBaseli Sahi.
On the basis of CCTVfootages, the police arrested theaccused on charges of arson,loot, violence and damage ofpublic property.
District Weightlifting andWrestling Association wouldorganise a district-levelweightlifting championship atGosaninugaon here on October27 and 28, informed associationpresident Kumuda ChandraSahu in a meeting. Sahu said thatweightlifters of different clubs ofthe district would take part inthe tournament including VeerHanuman Club, SankarPhysical, Chacha Nehru Physicaland others. Association advisorand senior journalist Rabi Rath,secretary Gagarin Nayak, seniortrainer Bhaskar Mohanty, VPsUdaynath Sethi, K Kurma Rao,Pradeep Sahani and members ofdifferent clubs were present inthe meeting. PNS
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Jajpur: Two minor boys mettheir watery grave while takingbath in a canal in Bari block ofJajpur district on Monday.
The deceased were identi-fied as Aditya Barik (13) andBrahmananda Barik (13) of
Sahupada village, both stu-dents of Class-IX of thePushpagiri High School.
According to reports, thetwo had gone to the nearbycanal along with their threefriends to take bath at around11.30 am. Aditya andBrahmananda got swept awaywith the water flow anddrowned.
Their friends informedlocals about the incident. Later,Fire Services personnel reachedthe spot and recovered thebodies from the canal. Thebodies were sent to theRamachandrapur CommunityHealth Centre for postmortem.
PNS
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On the occasion of VijayaDashami, an ambulance
with nomenclature as ‘Maa’was flagged off by UtkalAlumina International Ltd(UAIL) unit head and presidentN Nagesh in the presence ofDoraguda PS IIC GaurahariSahu, Dangasil MO DrNeeranjan Raita, company MODr Rajinder Mandal and AVPRakesh Mishra.
The ‘Maa’ ambulance, ajoint initiative of the UAIL andRayagada police, dedicated tothe public of Kashipur, espe-cially the women in the periph-ery of UAIL would be operat-
ed from the Doraguda PS.“The CSR wing of UAIL
has converged with the broad-er health vision of the districtby donating the ambulance forthe wellness of the womenaround the factory and theCSR programme has been peo-ple centric in improving qual-ity of life”, said RayagadaOmbudsman Bidulata Huika.
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Awoman allegedly killed herfive-year-old son and 10-
year-old daughter by throwingthem into a pond after feedingthem poison at Laxmiprasadvillage under the Khandapadapolice station in Nayagarh dis-trict on Sunday.
Later, the woman alsoattempted to end her life byjumping into the water bodyafter consuming poison.
Reports said KalyaniKhuntia after having a disputewith her husband Babi Khuntiain the afternoon, poisoned herson Sai (5) and daughter Sibani(10) around 7 pm. She thenthrew her children into a near-by pond and jumped into itafter consuming poison.Though the three were rescuedfrom the pond by villagers, Saiand Sibani had died by thattime. The woman was rushedto the District HeadquartersHospital. The husband of thewoman went absconding afterthe incident.
On the other hand, thefamily members of the womanalleged that her in-laws havecommitted the crime byadministering poison toKalyani and her children.Police are investigating into thematter.
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An antique idol of GoddessDurga made of black chlo-
rite stone (locally known as‘muguni pathar’) was alleged-ly stolen from the BhitarkanikaNational Park in Kendrapadadistrict.
The theft came to the foreafter the priest of the Kanikaroyal family, who visited thespot during Durga Puja forworship, found the idol miss-ing from the temple located inthe dense forest.
The 2.50-feet-high and
1.50-feet-wide idol was beingworshipped inside the wildlifesanctuary in the past 200 years.
There was a bungalow forhunting at Bhitarkanika rev-enue village of the nationalpark during the regime ofkings. In leisure period, theKanika King was visiting theplace for poaching. He built atemple of Lord Shiva in the for-est for worship. He installedidols of other deities around thetemple. As there is no landroute to the temple, the waterroute is the only option to reachthe temple.
Since the temple is cur-rently being managed by theForest Department, the theft ofthe centuries-old Durga idolhas raised eyebrows. Whenasked, priest Naresh KumarPati, who used to worship theidol every Sankranti, said theidol has been stolen since a longtime.
In his reaction, local forestofficial Bijay Kumar Patraexpressed surprise over thepriest’s visit to the templethrough water route withoutobtaining permission from thedepartment.
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Four persons of a familywere killed after one of
them allegedly set their houseon fire at Banapat village underthe Kujang police station in thedistrict late on Sunday night.
The deceased were identi-fied as Nabaghana Sahu, hiswife Kamala Sahu, daughterRubina Mallick and son-in-lawHarekrushna Mallick.
While Nabaghana, Kamalaand Harekrushna died on thespot after the fire broke out intheir house, Rubina succumbedto burn injuries while beingtaken to the SCB MedicalCollege Hospital in Cuttack.
Though the exact reasonbehind the incident is stillunclear, neighbours said thatthe Rubina and Harekrushnagot married six months ago andthere was some feud going onin the family over some issue.
They also mentioned thatdue to the dispute Rubina was
staying with her parent since afew days. Harekrushna whohails from Bhadrak had arrivedat the village to solve the issue.
Police have sent the bodiesfor post-mortem and launcheda probe into the incident.Beside, a scientific team hasalso reached the spot to gath-er evidence.
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An unidentified woman ofabout 25 years of age died
in the Ghantikhal railway sta-tion premises on Mondaymorning.
As per reports, the womanwith her luggage had come tothe railway station at about 7am and sat at an isolatedplace. A few moments later,she screamed while fightingfor her life lying in the floor.
When immediately rail-
way staffs reached her, theysaw froth coming out of hermouth. The Station Masterimmediately called a 108Ambulance, but as she haddied when the ambulancereached, the vehicle returnedwithout taking the dead body.
The Government RailwayPolice seized the body.Railway officials from Khurdaand Barang reached the spotand after an inquiry took thebody for autopsy. No claimantof the body was yet found.
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The body of one of the sixpersons, who went missing
after being swept away in aflash flood at Bhutapankal vil-lage in Gajalbadi panchayat ofGanjam district, was recoverednear the Adangi riverbed onMonday. While the identity ofthe deceased was yet to beascertained, three others arestill to be traced even afterintensive search operations.Earlier, two bodies had beenrecovered. The third body wasfound buried in the sand on theriverbed. A search is on to tracethe other missing persons.
Notably, six persons,including four members of afamily, went missing after theirhouse was swept away by aflash flood in Adangi rivertriggered by Cyclone Titli onOctober 11. The victims hadtaken shelter in the roof topwhen the strong current sweptaway the house.
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It is rather unfortunate thatfather of an eight-year-old
girl who was drowned duringincessant rain and flash floodsduring cyclone Titli on October11 walked about 11 km carry-ing the body in his shoulders inGajapati district.
The deceased had gonemissing from home and wastraced by the villagers near aspring after eight days. The girl,Banita, is the daughter ofMukunda Dora of Rayagadablock.
Despite best efforts by boththe Government, the lossescaused by the Titli could not beminimized as many thoughtthe cyclone would have itsimpact only in coastal areas,especially in Ganjam.
The Doppler Radarsinstalled in Paradip, Gopalpurand Visakhapatnam trackedcyclonic storm Titli from itsvery origin to landfall thathelped the IndianMeteorological Department(IMD) to make the forecast.
Cyclone Titli which hadlandfall on October 11 near
Palasa in Andhra Pradesh hadwrecked havoc in some parts ofOdisha and Andhra Pradesh.Till date 61 were confirmeddead of which 49 were from theworst affected Gajapati dis-trict. Two of its blocks such asGosani and Rayagada sufferedhuge losses of life and proper-ty.
The cyclone coupled withincessant rain and flash floodmarooned lakhs of people inthe district. Besides, a massivelandslide in the Mahendragirihills destroyed a village Baragaunder Gangabad gram pan-chayat in Gosani block. 17persons of 21who were shel-tering in a cave near the village
were killed due to the landslide.And 30 more were killed else-where in the district caused bywall collapse, drowning androof damage etc.
The scenes of severelydamaged houses, roofs, homes,broken doors, windows,uprooted trees, plants, dam-aged bridges, potholes in roadsand severely affected agricul-ture fields were a commonspectacle. More than 6 millionpeople spread over 8,125 vil-lages under 128 blocks of 17districts were affected. Theloss is pegged at worth Rs2,765 crore.
Meanwhile, the OdishaGovernment has sought Rs
1,000 crore interim relief fromthe Centre. Chief MinisterNaveen Patnaik has written tothe Prime Minister to releasethe amount.
Out of 56,930 houses dam-aged, 20,000 are fully collapsedand 36,508 houses partiallydamaged. Crops in about 2.63lakh hectares were damagedwhereas 34,951 domestic ani-mals were killed.
In Gajapati district, thepeople were not properlyinformed on the cyclonicstorm. Many stayed indoors. Insome places, people's repre-sentatives like Ward Membersalerted people over phone atthe last minutes.
Many told this correspon-dent that no Government offi-cials came to their rescue.Neither were there anyannouncements through pub-lic address systems.
Many also complained thatnobody reached them evenafter four days of the cyclone.Besides cooked food at someplaces, people were not pro-vided with emergency relief.
In some places where wallscollapsed and roofs damaged,the people were not repairingtheir houses as they had noother places to stay.
They were also waiting forofficials to come and assess thedamage and provide them
compensation.People in affected areas
suffered hugely as far as liveli-hoods are concerned. Dailywagers were sitting idle inhomes finding no work andtrying to repair their partiallydamaged houses leaving asideseverely damaged houses onlyto make it livable.
In many places, paddy,maize and vegetable cultiva-tions have been damaged.Plants uprooted. Small shopsand business establishmentsin districts that also sufferedlosses lay shut.
Though Government hadstarted restoration work onwar footing, still approachroads to villages and majorthoroughfares were notrepaired. Restoration of elec-tricity supply to villages wouldtake more time while theGovernment had restoredpower supply in road pointsand roadside towns.
Getting safe drinking waterwas a far cry for many asmany water bodies and supplylines had been affected. Peoplewere depending on pollutedwells and ponds. Consequently,there was a grave a risk ofspread of water borne dis-eases, including cholera, asmore and more people wereusing unsafe water and floodwater of rivers.
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The Manav AdhikarSurakhya Manch Ghanta
Yatra (cymbal beating rally)demanding permanent solu-tion of the problems of theMKCG Medical CollegeHospital entered its 65th phasehere on Monday.
The Manch submitted amemorandum to Health andFamily Welfare Minister PratapJena demanding functioning ofthe super-specialty depart-ments, opening GeriatricDepartment for senior citi-zens.
They also demanded thatthe Minister direct the medi-cine stores in the medicalpremises to provide 15-percent price off as per the StateGovernment directions andtaking action against the vio-lators and identifying the mid-dlemen in the hospital and takestrict action against them.
Manch coordinator AbaniKumar Gaya said it is high timethat the hospital was made freefrom the middlemen; and if theGovernment does not take anysteps on their demands, theywould intensify their protest incoming days.
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Yet another farmer in theState committed suicide
on Monday, reportedly dis-tressed by crop loss and debtburden in Sundargarh district.
The deceased was identi-fied as Purnachandra Seth, aresident of Nialpali village inthe district.
Reports the Seth consumedpoison in the morning soonafter returning from his farm-land. He was rushed to a near-by hospital where he died aftera few hours.
Purnachandra had grownpaddy on eight acre of whichfive acre was being cultivatedon sharecropping basis.
He was forced to takeextreme step due to crop lossand the rising debt burden ashe had taken money from localmoneylenders, his familyalleged. Similarly, a farmerGoutam Seth, of Sambalpurdistrict committed suicide onSunday after his standing cropover 12-acre got damaged dueto water scarcity.
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State Planning Board mem-ber and BJD observer for
Gajapati district RamaChandra Panda has been cam-paigning at different Titli-affected areas of Gajapatidistrict since October 12 tooversee relief and rehabilitation work.
Panda visited some of theseriously storm affected villagesof Mohana, R Udaygiri andRayagada blocks. He was alsoat Dalei Sahi and Kamasing vil-lages under Anagha GP of RUdaygiri where two personsdied due to a landslide.
The villagers of these hillslope villages numbering about200 are taking shelter inBhunyapada school, who havebeen provided relief through
rice and cash worth Rs 4 lakheach to the families of thedeceased persons. The balancerelief fund is going to bereleased soon, sources said.The two persons Puni Beheraand Sukuru Dalei reportedlydied, Panda said. He discussedwith the BDO and other offi-cials to expedite the housesurvey works and requested thelandslide affected villagers toselect a site for their re-settle-ment. Panda also visited vil-lages whose houses were total-ly destroyed at TR Colony ofRamagiri GP, Raising village ofAnagha GP of R Udaygiriblock, Podaguma village ofNuagada block and Adaba areaof Mohana block. A masscleaning programme of thestorm-affected areas wasorganised.
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The Odisha State Red Crosson Monday distributed
relief materials in Odia Sahi,Malik Sahi, Sabar Sahi andManikpur under Mohanablock in Titli and floods affect-ed Gajapti district on Sunday.
Odisha State Red Crossjoint secretary Major DrKalpana Dash, Youth RedCross Counsellor LaxmanSwain, Red Cross AdvisorChandan Kumar Mohanty andGajapati District coodinatorPradipta Sarangi guided therelief distribution done bytwelve Red Cross volunteers.The team also provided first aidtreatment to the people whowere injured during storm and
subsequent floods.On their return, the team
rescued an accidental victim,who fell down with pickup vanin the forest. The team pro-vided first aid treatment andtook him to Mohana hospital.Then, they took him to theMKCG Medical CollegeHospital on doctors’ advice. Hiscondition is stated to be well.
The local administrationand the MLA praised KalpanaDas and others for showinghumanity even after workingrestlessly for three days atunreachable areas of Gajapatidistrict.
Among others, DeepakChoudhury, Arun Das, SanjayPatra, Sarada Ojha, ManojKumar Swain, Prasanta Barik ,Sasanka Swain, MunaMoharana, Surendra Parida,Esak Baliyarsingh andNageswar Sethi distributedreliefs and helped the accidentvictim.
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To inform about the rightsand entitlements of migrant
women workers under theInter State Migrants Act 1979,a one- day meet was held atDangbahal village inPatnagharh block on Friday.
Organised by Palli AlokPathagar with support fromNGOs like Aide et Action,Bhubaneswar, Global AllianceAgainst Traffic in Women
(GAATW) and others, it wasattended by around 70 migrantwomen of nearby panchayats.
While the migrant womennarrated their plight of exces-sive hours of work, denial ofminimum wage, exploitation atbrick kiln site, they were
informed about the facilitiesthe registered contractors aresupposed to provide them.They were explained about acard which contains theirdetails, various local and Stateofficials’ contact numbers.
In the entire migrationprocess, it has been observedthat it is the women and ado-lescent girls who are more vul-nerable to exploitation thantheir male counterparts.
Hence there is a need tosensitize them with relevantinformation so that they canprotect themselves and act ashelp to other distressed womenworkers at brick kilns, toldSaroj Barik of Aide et Action.
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Sundargarh: In yet another ele-phant attack, a 55-year-oldman was trampled to deathduring late night on Sunday inRajgangpur forest range. Ateam of forest officials reachedthe spot on Monday morningand sent the body for postmortem.
The deceased was identi-fied as Gobardhan Lakra (55)of Modi Dipa Sahi of KenduKudur village. Gobardhan,being a farmer, used to guardhis farm land during nighttime.
Accordingly, on Sundaynight, he was keeping a watchover his farm land, when atabout 2 am, a ten-memberelephant herd had entered in tohis area.
When he attempted tokeep the elephants away fromhis farm land, one elephantattacked Gobardhan andcrushed him to death on thespot.
The elephants had report-edly damaged the farm land,before leaving the spot.
Assistant Conservator ofForest, Rourkela, Dilip Sahoosaid, “We have paid Rs 20,000to the family of the victim, asan advance amount to meet thefuneral expenses. The remain-ing amount of Rs 3.8 lakhwould be paid later.”
The Pinkathon encouragedwomen for maintaining fit-ness as a lifestyle. A 5-km runwas conducted where morethan 150 women and othervolunteers participated.
Pinkathon ambassadorMousumee Mishra flagged offthe run in the presence of twoother ambassadors, IndiraPriyadarshini and Biswanath.Former Olympian AruradhaBiswal cheered up the runners.
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Bringing laurels to the coun-try, Odisha shuttler
Rutuparna Panda paired withArathi Sara Sunil to win the women’s doubles titleat the Hellas Open-2018 bad-minton tournament in Greeceon Sunday.
This is the first international title won by theace badminton player fromthe State.
Rutuparna and Arathiachieved the feat by beatingFrance’s Vimala Heriau andMargot Lambert 21-19, 21-12in 50 minutes.
Notably, the two playerspaired in May this year afterRituparna’s regular partnerMithula UK sustained injuries.
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The Brahmapur policeobserved the 59th Police
Martyr’s Day (PoliceCommemoration Day) at theReserve Police Ground inAmbapua on Sunday.
Chief guest Brahmapur SPPinak Mishra taking salutefrom the parade paid rich trib-utes to 414 police officers of thecountry, including SanjayKumar Behera of Rayagarhdistrict and Sushant Gauda ofBrahmapur, who sacrificedtheir lives while performingtheir duties.
Mishra also felicitated thewinners of different competi-tions organised recently.
ASPs Santanu Dash, PravatRoutray, DSP MS Santa, SDPO
Ashok Mohanty, IICs SibaSankar Mohapatra, NiharRanjan Pradhan, KulamaniSethi, Kalpana Nayak, SusantSahu, JK Patnaik, RameshChandra Dash and others othersenior police officers also paidfloral tributes.
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Several members of theOdisha Union of Journalists
(OUJ), Nabarangpur unit onMonday met Nabarangpur SPVivekananda Sarma and hand-ed over a memorandum to himseeking action againstChandahandi police for mis-behaving a reporter and book-ing him in a false case.
The team led by OUJNabarangpur president SusantaBehera and working presidentPrasant Kumar Sahu also urgedthe SP to ensure safety forworking journalists in the dis-trict.
The SP assured them toconduct an inquiry into theirallegation and take necessaryaction. Md Husen, a reporter ofan Odiya daily, was allegedlymisbehaved by theChandahandi police duringvehicle checking on October12 on Chandahandi-JharigamMain road. Despite, he pro-duced documents on his bike,the police and MV officialsused slangs and abused him.
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Nambala Ravi Kumar ofDamanjodi in Koraput
district has bagged �25 lakh intelevision show Kaun BanegaCrorepati (KBC) hosted bymegastar Amitabh Bachchan.
He qualified for the FastestFinger First round and playedin the studio to bag his place onthe prestigious ‘Hot Seat’, rightin front of India’s angry youngman.
Since the programme’s tele-cast in 2000, Ravi Kumar hasburnt candles on both ends forthe last 18 years to qualify forthis popular quiz and gameshow telecast on Sony televi-
sion. He is a technician
employed with Nalco and is awell-known KBC buff and BigB fan, according to his family,friends and colleagues.
He answered 13 questionscorrectly by using four lifelinesand bowed out at the 14thquestion that would have won
him Rs 50 lakh, even though heguessed the right answer, afterquitting the game.
The 47-year-old RayagadaAutonomous College alumniexpressed his admiration forthe Shehshah of Bollywoodand even produced a scrapbook of ‘Supremo’, a comicbook superhero inspired byAmitabh Bachchan that hehad preserved since 1982!
He and his colleague andcompanion for the game,Trayalokya Nath Sahoo wereseen on the show and hearddeliberating in Odia, the prob-able answer to the 13th ques-tion that won the former �25lakhs eventually in the tenthedition of KBC.
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Public health groups alongwith doctors and econo-
mists have urged the Group ofMinisters (GoM) in the GSTCouncil to increase the cess ontobacco products for raising thedisaster remediation revenue.
Appreciating the leader-ship and vision of the GST
Council to help Kerala raisefunds for rehabilitation of itspeople affected by the recentfloods, the group is suggesting,raising cess on tobacco prod-ucts to address the crisis facingthe citizens of Kerala.
The World HealthOrganisation (WHO) recom-mends that the countriesshould impose tobacco excisetaxes that amount to at least 75per cent or more of retail priceto achieve the dual objective ofreducing tobacco use andincreasing government rev-enue. The tax burden on bidispost-GST is only 22 per centcompared to 53 per cent for cig-arettes and about 60 per cent forsmokeless tobacco.
The overall tax rate on alltobacco products in India is stilllow very and the GST has madeno significant increase in the taxburden of tobacco products,especially cigarettes and has infact made all products moreaffordable.
According to Health PolicyAnalyst Dr Rijo John,“Compensation cess constitutesmore than two thirds of the totaltax revenue from cigarettes.
As these cesses were notrevised for more than a year,cigarettes have become muchmore affordable compared tothe time GST was implement-ed and it warrants significantupward revision of cess ratesapplied on cigarettes.”
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The Himachal Cabinet onMonday decided to pro-
vide Kaushal Vikas Allowanceto new employees to beemployed in industries @ of Rs.1000 per month for maxi-mum period of two years.Those youth with physical dis-ability of more than 50 per centwould be provided allowanceof Rs. 1500 per month underthe scheme and it will beapplicable for all the employ-ees who are getting salary upto Rs 15,000 per month in pri-vate sector.
The meeting held hereunder the Chairmanship ofChief Minister Jai RamThakur, also decided to launchMedha Protsahan Yojana toprovide coaching facility tomeritorious students ofHimachal Pradesh for com-petitive examinations. Underthis scheme, financial assis-tance of rupees one lakh or asper the actual, whichever is less
will be provided to the meri-torious students whose familyincome does not exceed Rs.2.50 lakh per annum. A sum ofrupees five crores will be spentunder the scheme during thecurrent financial year.
The Cabinet decided tointroduce Swathya MeinSahbhagita Yojana in the Stateto ensure improved access andaffordability of quality healthcare services in rural areas andto provide impetus to growthof private sector health careinvestments to ensure align-ment with public health goalsand enable making health caresystem effective, efficient, safeand affordable.
The Cabinet decided toallot 780 MW Jangi-Thopan-Powari Hydro Electric Projectin Kinnaur district for execu-tion to SJVNL. It was alsodecided that the Power depart-ment would come up withtimelines for all projects allo-cated on nomination basis toCentral PSUs or State PSUs.
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Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD)has decided to observe Ardas
Divas at the five Sikh Takhts(temporal seats) to seek justicefor the families of 1984 victimswho were “brutally killed inmob violence perpetuated bythe Congress party and itsgoons in Delhi as well as partsof the country”.
Besides, the party wouldhold a protest at Jantar Mantarin New Delhi on November 3for the same.
Announcing this, SADvice-president and the formerMinister Daljit Singh Cheemasaid that the party leadership,along with the workers, wouldparticipate in large numbers atthe Ardas Divas samagam beingobserved on November 1 at allSikh takhts simultaneously.
Cheema said that the deci-sion was taken by the corecommittee in its late nightmeeting held under the chair-manship of the party patronParkash Singh Badal and SADpresident Sukhbir Badal.
its loss making cooperativesugar mills into the complex-es manufacturing sugar besidesother things such as ethanol,power and liquor as per theavailability of the sugarcane atvarious places across the state.
As per the decision, theclosed down cooperative sugarmills at Tarn Taran, Zira andPatiala, will be restarted withthe assistance of private sector.
The decision was taken onMonday during a meeting ofthe Cabinet sub-committeeformed by the StateGovernment for giving rec-ommendations aimed atincreasing the production insugarcane and sugar sectors.
The meeting saw theFinance Minister ManpreetBadal, Rural Development andPanchayat and UrbanDevelopment Minister TriptRajinder Singh Bajwa,Cooperation and Jail MinisterSukhjinder Singh Randhawa,Registrar Cooperative Societies
Giving details of the meet-ing, Randhawa said that thespecial invitee in the meeting,National Federation ofCooperative Sugar Factories’managing director PrakashNaikanware explained in detailthe policy constituted by theUnion Government withregard to ethanol and also thepresent state of sugar industryin Punjab.
The meeting also saw thebrainstorming pertaining toplanning about measures to beundertaken so as to ensurefinancial self-dependence ofcooperative sugar mills ofPunjab.
Apart from this, the planswith regard to modernizationof loss making cooperativesugar mills of the state to bol-ster their financial health, pro-duction of ethanol throughestablishing distilleries and set-ting up co-generation plants,were also approved in themeeting.
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Noida Police on Mondayarrested three Paytm
employees, including a woman,for trying to extort �20 crorefrom e-wallet giant’s founderVijay Shekhar Sharma afterthreatening to leak stolen dataand confidential informationabout his company.
According to Ajay Pal, SSP,Gautam Buddha Nagar, thosearrested are Sharma’s womansecretary (identity withheld),
her husband Roopak Jain, a res-ident of Sector-120, Noida,and another Paytm employeeDevendra Kumar, a resident ofShahdara village near GautamBudh Nagar. The trio hadthreatened to leak the dataand misuse the information tocause the firm loss and dent itspublic image, officials said.
“The trio had threatened toleak the data and misuse theinformation to cause the firmloss and dent its public image.These three employees of the
Noida-headquartered e-com-merce and wallet firm werearrested by a team from theSector 20 police station, whilethe fourth accused is still atlarge,” said the SSP.
“The owner of Paytm hadmade a complaint with thepolice that their employees, awoman and her aides, hadstolen some data from thecompany and were blackmail-ing him. They were demanding�20 crore for not leaking it,”said the SSP.
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Four fire-related incidentswere reported in the nation-
al Capital during the last 24hours. In a major incident, afire broke out at Bhalswa land-fill site at 2 pm on Sunday,sending the Governmentmachinery into a tizzy, as thepoisonous smoke billowingfrom the landfill started tomix in the already hazardousair of Delhi.
Delhi Fire Service (DFS)official said after they receiveda call regarding the fire, around6-7 fire tenders were rushed tothe spot. “The fire was broughtunder control on Mondayevening,” said the DFS official.
All the three landfill sites atBhalswa, Okhla and Ghazipurhave reached a saturation point(50 meters while 20 metersallowed) almost 10 years agobut still ignoring hazards,authorities kept a blind eye infinding an alternative way toavoid the tragedy.
“About 2,000 tonnes ofmixed garbage is dumped atthe site every day,” a seniorNorth Corporation official said.
Delhi produces over 9,500tonnes per day (TPD) of solidwaste, but all three of its dump-ing grounds, with a collectivecapacity of 4,600 MTD areoperating beyond their satura-tion point and also posing“risk to human lives’. In addi-
tion, it is expected that Delhiwill need an additional area of28 square km till 2020 to dump15,000 tonnes of garbage daily.
In another incident, a firebroke out in the parking lot atMori Gate on Monday. “Nocasualties were reported. Acall was received about the fireat 10.30 am and three fire ten-ders were rushed to the spot.The fire was doused by 10.55am,” said DFS official.
“A bus and a car in theMori Gate parking area behindthe Tis Hazari Court hadcaught fire,” said the DFS offi-cial.
Two other incidents werereported in the city on Sundayincluding one in west Delhi’sRaghubir Nagar, where a cylin-der blast injured seven.
“A call reporting the inci-dent was received at 8.20 pm onSunday. The seven people suf-fered 50-60 per cent burns,”DFS official said.
One more incident of firewas reported on Sundayaround 8.40 pm at West Delhi’sMoti Nagar where a dozen firetenders were sent to extin-guish the fire. “The situation isunder control now,” said theDFS official.
There are few takers to theCentre’s incentives to check
stubble burning in neighbour-ing States — Punjab, Haryanaand Uttar Pradesh causingspurt in air pollution in Delhi-NCR region.
According to farmers,despite availing the 80 per centsubsidy provided, they stillneed to shell out �20,000 perset of agro machinery for farmwaste management.
The subsidies being offeredis 50 per cent for individualfarmers and 80 per cent forcooperative societies for themachinery. These are notenough for the farmers whocannot afford to go for machin-ery purchase for want of sur-plus cash even if they want toavail of the subsidy.
The Centre has provided�575.18 crore to farmers ofPunjab, Haryana Uttar Pradeshthis year to ensure that theyshould buy state-of-the-artmachines, such as happy seed-er, paddy straw chopper/cutter,mulcher, RMB plough, shrubcutter, zero till drill, superstraw management system on
combine harvesters, rotaryslasher and rotavator to man-age crop residue at their farmsat subsidised rate.
The Narendra ModiGovernment had approved of�1,151 crore Central funds tocontrol stubble burning caus-ing pollution in four States. Ofthese, �591 crore will be spentin next fiscal while the remain-ing �560 crore will be meantfor assisting stakeholders in2019-20. Currently, the happyseeder machine costs about�1.75 lakh while the shrub cut-ter is priced at �15,000.Similarly, rotavator costs �1lakh. Farmers will have tobuy more than one suchmachine to get rid of the stub-ble. The cost of a single com-bine harvester is �15 lakh.
Farmers said the stubbleburning is necessary as it isdifficult to prepare compostwith the help of machinessince it takes almost 20 days
for the whole process to becompleted. Besides, due tolate withdrawal of southwestmonsoon, the situation aggra-vated this year as the windowperiod for managing thepaddy crop residue has gotshortened by at least 10-15days because of rains lastmonth that delayed paddyharvesting. “We are smallfarmers. `Happy seeder’ isn’tsuitable for us. Machines arevery expensive, we cannotafford spending 50 per cent ofthe cost from our meagerincome,” a farmer said. Hewent on to add that increasingprice of diesel make thesemachines a costly affair.
“The Government hassupplied less than four per centof the total machineryrequired to the farmers todeal with stubbles”, RashtriyaKisan Mahasang ChiefExecutive Officer BinodKumar Pandey said.
unconfirmed reports that theBJP would contest 20 seats andleave remaining 20 seats to itsallies: JD(U), LJP and RLSP.
Bihar has 40 Lok Sabhaseats and in last election JD(U)
which contested alone couldwin just two seats. It is expect-ed that the seat sharing formu-la would be formally announcedthis week but there was still noconfirmation if the BJP topbrass has sought the nod of itstwo other allies. There werereports that Kushwaha was notcomfortable with this arrange-ment. In case his party RLSP,breaks alliance and walks out,the two seats earmarked forKushwaha might be dividedbetween the BJP and JD(U).
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Taking objection to a BorderAction Team(BAT) action
in which three Indian soldierswere killed in Rajouri in theJammu region on Sunday, Indiawill lodge a strong protest withPakistan on Tuesday during theDirectors General MilitaryOperations(DGMO)talks. TheArmy had issued a stern warn-ing to Pakistan soon after theincident at the sector level andasked Pakistan to take back thebodies of two intruders killedin the gunfight during theambush. However, Pakistan isyet to respond.
The office of DGMOs oftwo countries talk to eachother on the hotline every
week and officials said here onMonday, the Indian Army willtake up the latest incident. ABrigadier from our side and aColonel from Pakistan willhold parleys.
Explaining the rationalefor protest, they said the twoDGMOs during their talks onMay 29 at the behest ofPakistan decided to maintainpeace and the Line ofControl(LOC). India at thattime also urged the PakistanArmy to restraint terroristsoperating from its soil. Sincethen, the Indian Army hasshown utmost restraint inmaintaining ceasefire at theLOC despite provocations bythe other side and Pakistancontinuing to aid and abet ter-rorists, they said.
"Pakistan Army has beeninformed through establishedcommunication channels to takeover the bodies of the hostilePakistani nationals. A sternwarning has been conveyed toPakistan Army to restrain theterrorists operating from its
soil," officials said, adding thetwo heavily armed intruderswere donning the Indian armycombat fatigues including stan-dard issues boots. Most infil-trators including those of BATwear Indian army fatigues toavoid detection in the fog ofgunfight. The BAT comprisesPakistan army commandoesand terrorists and they targetIndian army patrols along theLOC to inflict casualties andthen escape back to Pakistaniside. The Indian protest wasconveyed through log messageon the telephone in Rajouri, theyadded. Log message implies thatboth the sides officially notedown the communiqué.
In the latest ambush closeto the LOC on the Indian side,three soldiers of 8 Jammu &Kashmir Light Infantry(JAKLI) Havildar KaushalKumar of Nowshera (Rajouri),Lance Naik Ranjeet Singh ofDoda and rifleman RajatKumar Basan of Pallanwala(Jammu) were killed andRifleman Rakesh Kumar of
Samba was injured. Officialssaid the raiding Pakistan partyincluded five to six persons andtwo of them were killed inretaliatory action.
As regards the PakistanArmy actions despite talks onMay 29, they said the PakistanArmy is persistently attemptingto push terrorists from its ter-ritory into India across theLOC. Backing this with fig-ures, officials said seven infil-tration bids were foiled by theArmy since May 30, in which23 terrorists have been killed.
Moreover, reports indicat-ed concentration of large num-ber of terrorists in the launchpads desperate to infiltratebefore the onset of snow. Atleast 250 to 300 trained andarmed militants are poised tosneak into Kashmir from thelaunch pads close to the LOCin Pakistan OccupiedKashmir(POK). The Armytroops are alert and maintain-ing round-the-clock vigil toscuttle any attempt of infiltra-tion by the terrorists.
BJP on Monday attacked Congress and its pres-ident Rahul Gandhi for mocking 'Beti Bachao,
Beti Padhao' scheme saying it is a "serious issue"as it cited a number of rape cases registeredagainst Congress leader and former Kerala CMOommen Chandy and many others in theOpposition party.
Addressing a Press Conference , BJPspokesperson Meenakshi Lekhi said Chandyand former Union Minister K C Venugopal, alsoan accused in the case, were Rahul "friends" andthe Congress should answer questions on such aserious charge against its leaders, instead of tar-geting the ruling party's functionaries.
She also referred to a "Sukanya case" in 2007,alleging that it was against the Congress
President.Lekhi maintained that the 'Beti Bachao, Beti
Padhao' programme had led to an improvementin the sex ratio in many states.
The Crime Branch of the Kerala Police hasregistered cases against Chandy and Venugopal,who is an MP, on a complaint of sexual miscon-duct filed by Solar scam accused Saritha S Nair.
She alleged that there are number of otherCongressmen who have complaint registeredagainst them.
Lekhi parried the Congress's allegationsagainst Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, saying theopposition party should instead answer questionson the charges against Chandy and Venugopal.
The Congress has accused the Modi govern-ment of conniving with fraudsters who hadescaped the country and claimed "conflict ofinterest" to demand the sacking of FinanceMinister Arun Jaitley.
On the issue of oil pumps' strike in Delhi,Lekhi blamed the Aam Aadmi Party government,saying it did not reduce the petrol and dieselprices like the neighbouring states, leading to peo-ple buying fuel from outside Delhi.
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The Andhra PradeshGovernment on Monday
requested the Centre to declareTitli Cyclone as a nationalcalamity, depute central teamsto assess the damages caused inSrikakulam and Vizianagaramdistricts and release �1200 cras interim relief immediately.
The State Governmentofficials' team comprisingD.Varaprasad, Relief commis-sioner and Praveen prakash,Resident commissioner metDebashree Mukherjee, JointSecretary to Prime Ministerand PK Sinha, CabinetSecretary and submitted copiesof the letters that AndhraPradesh Chief Minister NaraChandrababu Naidu wrote to
PM Modi besides the prelim-inary reports on cyclone. Theyexplained to the PMO officialsthe severity of the damagescaused by the cyclone.
The officials ' teamexplained that the cyclone hascaused damage of public andprivate properties in 1802 vil-lages of Srikakulam andVizianagaram districts.
The total damage causedby the cyclone amounts�3,435.29cr includingElectricity �505.05 cr, Roadsand Buildings �406.32 cr,Panchayat Raj and rural devel-opment �140.55 cr, Agriculture�802.13 cr, Horticulture �1000cr, Animal Husbandry �50 cr,Fisheries �50 cr, Rural watersupply �100 cr, Irrigation �100cr, House damages �220.49cr, Ex-gratia (Human loss)�55 lakh, civil supplies �50lakh, medical and health �1.07cr, Municipal administrationand sanitation �8.58 cr.
New Delhi: A memorial com-memorating the contribution ofIndian armed forces in the WorldWar I is being built in France andwill be inaugurated by an Indiandignitary next month, an ex-ser-viceman overseeing the project saidon Monday.
Squadron Leader Rana Chhina,the secretary of the United ServicesInstitution of India's Centre forArmed Forces Research, said thememorial is being built in Villers-Guislain, a village in northernFrance.
It will be inaugurated onNovember 10, which also marks thecentenar y of the armisticeannounced during the World WarI.
"This will be first battlefieldmemorial to be built by the Indianarmed forces, which will be dedi-cated to the Indian soldiers who losttheir lives in France during theWorld War I," Chhina said.
There is another war memori-al in Nueve Chappelle, but it wasbuilt by Commonwealth WarGraves Commission in honour ofthe Indian soldiers who died in
France and Belgium.The memorial is likely to be
inaugurated either by PresidentRam Nath Kovind, Vice PresidentM Venkaiah Naidu or PrimeMinister Narendra Modi, he said.
The location is also the placewhere the Battle of Cambrai tookplace between the German and theBritish forces.
The 500-square metre land wasgiven for the memorial for 1 Euroby Villers-Guislain, Chhina added.
"The memorial is being built bynoted sculptor Ram Sutar and hasan Ashoka Chakra over it," he said.
Nearly 1.5 million Indian sol-diers participated in the WorldWar I as part of the then BritishIndian Army, of which 1.3 millionfought overseas in places such asFlanders (Belgium), East Africa,Gallipoli, Aden, Egypt, Iraq,Palestine, Persia and China, Chhinasaid.
Some 74,000 Indian soldierslost their lives, he added.
From November 9-11, there isalso an elaborate programme sched-uled to commemorate the centenaryof the World War I. PTI
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Mondayasked the Centre to file its reply by October 26on a batch of pleas challenging the newamendments in the SC/ST Act.
The top court said it was listing the mat-ter for final hearing in November and allowedseveral impleadment applications.
A bench of Justices A K Sikri and AshokBhushan asked Solicitor General Tushar Mehta,appearing for the Centre to file the reply to thepetitions within a week after he sought sometime.
"Reply be filed by October 26," the benchsaid as it posted the matter for further hearingon November 20.
The apex court had on September 7 saidthat the new amendments to the SC/ST lawpassed by Parliament cannot be stayed at thisstage.
It had sought the response of the Centre insix weeks on a batch of petitions challengingthe fresh provisions of SC/ST Act.
The pleas have sought declaration of thenew amendments to the Schedule Castes andSchedules Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Actas ultra vires.
Parliament on August 9 had passed the billto overturn the apex court order concerningcertain safeguards against arrest under the SCand ST law. PTI
New Delhi: The Supreme Courton Monday declined urgent hear-ing on a PIL seeking registrationof FIRs and prosecution againstthose accused of sexual miscon-duct and assault on women, whohave called out names across sec-tors as part of the #MeToo move-ment in the country.
A bench comprising ChiefJustice Ranjan Gogoi and JusticeS K Kaul said there was no needfor an urgent hearing on the PILand it would come up for hear-ing in regular course.
"We have seen the writ peti-tion. There is no need of urgenthearing," the bench told lawyerM L Sharma who has filed thePIL in his personal capacity andwas seeking urgent hearing. Theplea, which has made NationalCommission for Women and theMinistry of Home Affairs as par-ties, has urged the apex court totake "suo motu" (on its own)action and order registration ofFIRs on the basis of statementsmade by victim women on socialmedia. PTI
New Delhi: The Supreme Court onMonday took note of over 5,000vacant posts of judicial officers inlower courts across the country andsought information from all the 24High Courts as also States, termingthe extent of vacancies as "whollyunacceptable".
A bench headed by Chief JusticeRanjan Gogoi exercised the extra-ordinary powers of the apex courtunder Article 142 (power of theSupreme Court to seek enforcementof its orders) under the Constitutionand directed all the 24 High Courtsand 36 States and Union Territoriesto apprise it of issues like vacanciesand the time frame within whichthey can be filled up.
The bench, also comprisingJustice S K Kaul, considered thecommunication between the apexcourt's registry and registries of allthe high courts. It said there were22,036 posts of higher and lowerjudicial officers in lower courts inthe country and, as on date, 5,133posts are vacant. PTI
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In the most direct and personal attack yetagainst Finance Minister Arun Jaitley,
Congress president Rahul Gandhi onMonday alleged that his daughter was onthe payroll of fugitive diamantaire MehulChoksi, one of the key accused in the PNBScam. He also demanded his sacking fromthe Cabinet.
Rahul claimed that Jaitley's daughtergot money (from Mehul Choksi) from anICICI account number 12170500316. Asusual, Rahul Gandhi deliberately misspeltthe finance Minister name as Arun Jaitlieand demanded his resignation with thehashtag 'Arun Jaitlie Must Resign'.
"Arun Jaitlie's daughter was on thepayroll of thief Mehul Choksi. Meanwhileher FM daddy sat on his file & allowedhim to flee. She received money fromICICI a/c no: 12170500316. It's sad thatmedia has blacked out this story. The peo-ple of India won't.
#ArunJaitlieMustResign," the tweet fromRahul Gandhi's handle stated.
The Congress has accused the ModiGovernment of conniving with fraudsterswho had escaped the country and claimed"conflict of interest" saying his daughterand son-in-law, both lawyers, allegedlyreceived a retainership of �24 lakh fromChoksi.
The party said that in the 44 monthstill January 2018, the Modi Governmentwitnessed an unprecedented 19,000 'bankfraud cases' involving �90,000 crore.
Congress also alleged that 23 fraudstersescaped India under the Government'swatch after duping the country of over�53,000 crore.
Congress leader Sachin Pilot said asinking economy, banking frauds and fly-ing fraudsters form part of BJP's-Jaitley's'New India' and demanded that theMinister should resign on moral grounds."Successive escapes of Vijay Mallya, LalitModi, Nirav Modi, Mehul Choksi and oth-ers reflect that Modi Government is nota guardian of 'public money' but a 'trav-el agency' facilitating 'fraud, fleece and flyto foreign shores' of willful bank default-ers," Pilot said.
He also used a Sholay parody to attackthe Modi Government over the "dubious"deal on Rafale fighter jets. Rahul used thehit song, "Ye dosti hum nahin todenge",from the film, using the pictures of Modiand Anil Ambani, whose company,according to the Congress chief, hadreceived the offset contract worth �30,000crore in the Rafale deal. The 17-secondvideo uploaded by the Gandhi scion onTwitter only shows the smiling faces ofModi and Ambani with the song playingin the background.
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The first India-China Bilateral SecurityCooperation meeting on Monday here signed
"security pact" and agreed to "further strengthen"cooperation in the areas of counter-terrorism andtackling narcotic trade and organised crimes."Home Minister Rajnath Singh co-chaired the firstIndia-China High Level Meeting on BilateralSecurity Cooperation with Zhao Kezhi, StateCouncilor and Minister of Public Security of thePeople's Republic of China. During the meeting, thetwo sides discussed issues of mutual interest,including bilateral counter-terrorism cooperation,and welcomed increased cooperation betweenIndia and China in the area of security cooperation,"said the statement issued by Home Minsitry.
An Agreement on Security Cooperationbetween the Ministry of Home Affairs of India andthe Ministry of Public Security of China was alsosigned by the two Ministers. The Agreement willfurther strengthen and consolidate discussions andcooperation in the areas of counter-terrorism,organised crimes, drug control and other such rel-evant areas, said the statement.
come up on October 25, neu-rosurgeons here have urged theGovernment to embark onnational programmes as isbeing done in many countriesto focus on brain congenitalconditions like Hydrocephalus(excess fluid in the area aroundthe brain) and Spina Bifida(most common congenitalspine defect) which are treat-able and results are better whentreated early.
"Many countries like theUS, Poland and UK havenational programmes focusingprevention and awarenessabout the brain congenital dis-eases, helping the patients tolive a quality life. In contrast,unfortunately no definite
national level programme inIndia have yet materialized tolook into the plights of earlypickup and screening of highrisk cases," said Dr DaljeetSingh, HoD of Neurosurgery atDelhi-based GB Pant Hospital.
He further explained thatwhile there are several con-genital disorders in the body,affecting almost all organsincluding heart, genital organs,musculoskeletal organs, in thecentral nervous system, someof the common cranial con-genital diseases includeHydrocephalus, agenesis ofcorpus callosum, various braincysts, Chiary malformationsand others.
Of these, Hydrocephalus--wherein the water in the brainis more than normal and isassociated with series of com-plex neurological symptoms--- is most common cranial con-
genital disorder found in India."It can lead to enlargement ofhead, eyes deviation (sun setsign) and delayed milstone inchildren less than one year.Older patient can haveheadache, vomiting, and evenblindness, added neurosur-geon Dr AK Srivastava fromthe hospital.
While world-over, theHydrocephalus incidence is
somewhat 80-330/100,000 livebirth, in India it is around 110-
120 cases per 100,000. Despitebeing higher number, it is not
adequately being addressed byhealth policies for its diagno-sis and treatment, Dr Srivastavasaid adding that to createawareness and showcase newmedical advances in the sector,Department of Neurosurgeryof GB Pant Hospital is organ-ising a public lecture onOctober 25 at its premises.
"There is currently noknown way to prevent or cure
hydrocephalus and the onlytreatment option today requiresbrain surgery. With early detec-tion and appropriate interven-tion, most children recoversuccessfully."
However, untreatedHydrocephalus can get worse,leading to brain damage, aloss in mental and physicalabilities, and even death.
For its treatment, V Pshunt tube which deliver waterfrom brain to abdomen isinserted with excellent results.Shunt has its own limitation soendoscopic treatment forhydrocephalus can provideshunt free life and better accep-tance, pointed out neurosur-geon Dr Anita Jagetia from theGB Pant Hospital.
Neural tube defects likeSpina bifida are another majorcongenital conditions whichdevelop during pregnancy.
"Some time defects is alreadythere before a female comes toknow that she is pregnant andthat creates a major problem.MRI and CT scan helps indiagnosis and surgery is theonly remedy," she added.
Dr Hukum Singh (neuro-surgeon) from the Hospitaltalked about association ofSpina bifida with problemselsewhere in the body besideback of the spine. Children areborn with swelling in back orsome stigmata such as fat, hair,dimple and these may be sen-tinel to underlying Spinal bifi-da, where lamina of spine failsto fuse in midline, he explained.
Some of these kids maypresent neurological problemsin later part of life, or even nonhealing ulcers in legs. However,Folic acid given during preg-nancy can help its prevention,said Dr Hukum Singh.
The normal life was crippledin Kashmir on Monday in
response to a shutdown call byseparatists over the deaths ofseven civilians in an explosionat an encounter site in southKashmir’s Kulgam districtwhere three terrorists also haddied in the gunfight on Sunday.
Ignoring advisories, theencounter site was run over byprotesters even as the securityforces abandoned the site with-out sanitising it after the gun-fight ended.
The shutdown wasobserved a day ahead of HomeMinister Rajnath Singh’s visit toKashmir Valley on Tuesday toreview the security situation.
Protests erupted inHawoora village of Kulgamwhen the body of youngsterJavid Ahmad Lone was takenfor burial to the local cemetery.Lone’s body was identified lateon Sunday evening by his rel-atives in a hospital mortuary.Earlier, six local youngsterswere killed in a massive blast inLaroo village where peoplehad gathered at an encountersite shortly after security forcesleft the area following killing ofthree local cadre of Jaish-e-Muhammad outfit.
The shutdown call wasgiven by Joint ResistanceLeadership (JRL), a grouping ofthree prominent separatistleaders Syed Ali Geelani,Mirwaiz Umar Farooq andYasin Malik against the spree ofkillings in the Valley.
All shops, business estab-lishments, Government andprivate offices, educational insti-
tutions, banks and post officesremained closed while the traf-fic was generally off the roads.The train services were haltedbetween Banihal and Baramulla.The State Board of SchoolEducation and several univer-sities announced postponementof examinations in the backdropof the shutdown call.
An official said that con-tingents of forces weredeployed at sensitive locationsin parts of Kashmir to thwartany “element of violence”.
The authorities alsosnapped mobile internet ser-vice in several volatile parts ofsouth Kashmir.
Besides Javed Lone six othercivilians identified as AuqibAhmad Sheikh (18), UzairAhmad Dar (15), Irshad AhmadPaddar, Mansoor Ahmad Dar,Talib Ahmad Laway,Mohammad Maqbool andMukeen Ahmad Bhat were killedin the deadly blast on Sunday.
More than 40 civilians wereinjured in the area, most of themwith shrapnel, splinters and pel-lets. Locals said that some peo-ple suffered bullet injuries.
The situation took a worseturn at a time when Urban LocalBody elections concluded inthe region despite large-scaleboycott of the people to theseelections.
The panchayat electionswould be held in the State inNovember and December.
Home Minister RajnathSingh’s is scheduled to reviewthe security situation inSrinagar besides holding ameeting with Governor SatyaPal Malik. The separatists havecalled for protest march in LalChowk area of Srinagar onTuesday.
Meanwhile, legislatorSheikh Rashid said the wors-ening situation in Kashmirwas a result of delay in politi-cal settlemeht of the Kashmir
issue. “It is shameful that rather
taking permanent measures toresolve Kashmir dispute forev-er, New Delhi and its proxiesare busy in distorting the factsand accusing Kashmiris whoare the worst victims of stateterrorism.
Whatsoever happened inKulgam should be condemned
by all and there is no excuse tojustify these killings,” Rashidsaid addressing a protest rallyin Handwara.
“It is failure of the politicalleadership that New Delhi isenjoying our killings and polit-ical parties are strengtheningtheir vote bank from Srinagarto New Delhi over dead bod-ies of Kashmiris,” he said.
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There is talk of leadershipchange in the AIADMK as
the Madras High Court is get-ting ready to pronounce theverdict on the petition filed bythe 18 party MLAs who weredisqualified by the Speakerlast year under the provision ofthe anti-defection law.
A two-member divisionbench of the court had delivereda split verdict in June 2018 onthe petition filed by the dis-qualified MLAs which necessi-tated the case being heard againby another judge. While the thenChief Justice Indira Banerjeeupheld the disqualification orderissued by Speaker P Dhanapal inSeptember 2017, the other judge,M Sunder, struck it down.
Later, the case was referredto M Sathyanarayanan, thethird judge who heard thepetition and reserved orders onAugust 31. There is speculationthat the judge would pro-nounce the verdict this week.If the judge upholds theSpeaker’s decision, then TamilNadu has to go for by-electionin the 18 constituencies. If the
verdict allows the petition filedby the disqualified MLAs, theState is certain to see turmoiland political instability.
The 18 MLAs owe theirallegiance to TTV Dhinakaranand VK Sasikala, the jailedclose aide of former chief min-ister Jayalalithaa. The numberof dissident MLAs in theAIADMK has gone by anoth-er five or six during the lastthree months adding to thewoes of chief ministerEdappadi Palaniswamy who isin a precarious position due tothe CBI probes into theHighways Department, a port-folio held by him and an inves-tigation into the Gutkha scam.
It is reported unofficiallythat there is a move to make thetwo warring factions of theAIADMK to bury the hatchetand merge the groups. ThoughDhinakaran had launched aseparate party (AMMK), he hasmade it known that it was onlya temporary arrangement andwas a ploy to regain the com-mand of the AIADMK.
“Discussions are on withleaders of both the factions tomake them see the writing on thewall that internecine war would
cost of them dearly as the DMKwould be the only beneficiary insuch a scenario,” said a BJPleader who is privy to the talks.
The name of KASengottaiyan, minister ofschool education in thePalaniswamy government , isgoing the rounds as the possi-ble chief ministerial candidate. a close confidante of lateJayalalithaa, theGobichettipalayam bornSengottaiyan is known as theleast controversial leader inthe AIADMK .
Interestingly he has notmade any attack on the Sasikalafamily in spite of being in thegovernment.
According to AIADMKinsiders, Sengottaiyan is accept-able to the Sasikala clan also. Itmay be noted that Dhinakaranhad declared sometime backthat he was ready to accept any-body from the present lot ofAIADMK MLAs as chief min-ister other than Palaniswamy andPanneerselvam.
The Pioneer had reportedearlier that Subramanian SwamyMP, was working out the modal-ities to bring both the AIADMKfactions together.
tyred in the BAT attack alongthe Line of Control inSunderbani sector of Rajouridistrict on Sunday, was cre-mated with full military hon-ours in his native Pallanwalavillage in Jammu on Monday.
Before his mortal remainsarrived in the village hundredsof angry villagers and near anddear ones gave vent to their ireagainst the repeated attacks by'beleaguered' Pakistan armyand demanded a 'firm' responsefrom the Indian Government.
Ratan Lal, father of braveheart Rajat Kumar said, "I amfeeling proud my son sacri-ficed his life in the line of dutydefending frontiers of moth-er Nation. At the same time iwant to know for how longour sons will keep sacrificingtheir lives like this. It is timeto give Pakistan a befittingreply", he added.
Rifleman Rajat Kumar'syounger brother and closefriends in the village alsoappealed to the PrimeMinister Narendra Modi toteach Pakistan a bitter lessonon the borders. Several young-sters demanded better equip-ment for the Indian armyjawans to tackle the threatalong the border.
"We are all ready to give abefitting reply to Pakistanarmy. We urge Prime Minister
Narendra Modi to order a spe-cial recruitment drive in theirborder villages so that moreand more youth can joinIndian army and take revengeof 'barbaric' killing of Indiansoldiers in the BAT strike", oneof the school time friend ofRajat Kumar told reportersoutside his home.
Paying glowing tributes tohis close friend, he said,"whenever Rifleman RajatKumar, came home on leavewe used to go for running andparticipated in several eventstogether to relive our childhood memories".
He said Rifleman RajatKumar was very social andtook good care of his parentsand younger brother. Hisyounger brother said, "givenan opportunity he too wouldjoin the Indian army andserve the Nation".
Earlier, mortal remains oftwo other jawans Lance NaikRanjeet Singh and HavaldarKaushal Kumar were dis-patched to their native villagesin Ramban and Nowsherarespectively after wreath lay-ing ceremony in Akhnoor.
According to Defencespokesman, Lance Naik RanjeetSingh is survived by a pregnantwife Shimu Devi. She is expect-ed to deliver next month.
Havaldar Kaushal Kumaris survived by wife NareshKumari and two daughtersaged 12 and 8 years and a 10year old son.
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Reacting to Pakistan PrimeMinister Imran Khan's
comment on Kashmir, seniorseparatist leader MirwaizUmer Farooq said on Mondaythat he expects much morefrom the neighbouring country.
Umer said on his Twitterhandle: "People of Kashmir
appreciate Pakistan's concern,but to put an end to theappalling grind of repressionand human right abuse thatKashmiris are suf fer ing at the hands of Indian Stateurgently requires Pakistan asa party to the dispute to domuch more".
After seven civilians werekilled in an explosion onSunday following a gun fight
in Kulgam, Pakistan PrimeMinister tweeted, "Stronglycondemn the new cycle ofkillings of innocent Kashmirisby Indian security forces. It is time India realise it mustmove to resolve the Kashmirdispute through dialogue in accordance with the UNSC resolutions and thewishes of the Kashmiri people."
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Thiruvananthapuram: KeralaChief Minister Pinarayi Vijayanon Monday slammed PrimeMinister Narendra Modi for his"negative approach" on theneeds of the State, which isslowly picking up pieces aftera devastating flood in August.
"I fail to understand whythe Centre and the PrimeMinister have taken such a neg-ative approach to our needs.When I had met him (Modi),he was very considerate. I toldhim that the State's Ministerswere trying to meet the Keraladiaspora settled abroad forhelp," Vijayan told reportershere after returning from anofficial tour of the United ArabEmirates.
"At that time, Modireminded me that he had done
a similar exercise when earth-quake struck his State and theGujarati diaspora came forwardto help."
Vijayan described his 4-daytrip to the UAE as successful.
Vijayan said that was thelast positive vibe from theCentre. When the KeralaGovernment sent a list ofMinisters with their respectiveplans to travel abroad, only theCM's tour was approved.
"We have no idea whythe Centre has taken such astand against Kerala," said Vijayan.
He said that his trip to theUAE was a huge success andmembers of the Kerala dias-pora as also the Emirates RedCrescent have promised help tothe flood-ravaged State. IANS
The Janata Dal (United) andthe Rashtriya Janata Dal on
Monday slammed BJP leaderand Union Minister GirirajSingh for demanding renamingof Bakhtiyarpur in Patna district.
JD(U) is ruling Bihar inalliance with the BJP.
Giriraj has demanded thatBakhtiyarpur and other townsand cities in Bihar named afterMuslim invaders be rechris-tened, as is being done in theneighbouring Uttar Pradesh.
The BJP Government inUttar Pradesh, led by YogiAdityanath, has renamed theMughalsarai Railway Junctionas Pandit Deendayal UpadhyayJunction, and recently changedthe name of Allahabad city toPrayagraj.
Bakhtiyarpur is ostensiblynamed after Bakhtiyar Khilji -the military general of Qutb-ud-Aibak - who destroyed thefamed Nalanda University in late12 century. JD(U) spokespersonSanjay Singh said: "There is noquestion of change of name ofany district or town in Bihar."
Sanjay Singh, consideredclose to Chief Minister NitishKumar, dared Giriraj to changethe name of Bakhtiyarpur. "Whois Giriraj Singh to change thename of Bakhtitarpur or any dis-trict of Bihar," RJD leader BhaiVirender said.
supply of food and relief mate-rials to Mizo refugees, shel-tered in camps in the north-ern parts of the State for thepast 21 years.
Following a four-partyagreement in Delhi on July 3,the supply of food grains andrelief materials was stoppedfrom October 1, ostensibly tocompel the Reang tribalmigrants to return to Mizoramfrom where they had fled inOctober 1997.
The refugees, comprising5,907 families, have been stay-ing in Tripura's Kanchanpurand Panisagar sub-divisions
following ethnic tension aftera Mizo forest official was killed.
Tripura Education andLaw Minister Ratan Lal Nath,accompanied by TripuraAssembly Deputy SpeakerBiswabandhu Sen, twoBharatiya Janata Party (BJP)MLAs, North Tripura DistrictMagistrate Raval HamendraKumar and other officialsformally restarted the supplyof foodgrains and relief mate-ria l to the refugees on Monday.
"The Central Governmenthas agreed to resume the sup-ply of rations and relief mate-rial to the refugees. It wouldcontinue until January 15, 2019.Within this period the refugeeshave to return to their homes
in Mizoram," Kanchanpur Sub-Divisional Magistrate AbedaNanda Baidya told IANS on thephone.
According to an official ofthe Tripura Relief andRevenue Department, over�366 crore have been spent toprovide relief and basic ser-vices to the refugees sinceOctober 1997.
Nath, while addressing agathering of the tribal refugees,said that life in the makeshiftrefugee camps was not good,specially for the younger gen-eration.
"After the Union HomeMinistry stopped the supply ofrelief to the refugees, TripuraChief Minister Biplab KumarDeb talked to the Home
Ministry to resume the supplyof rations and other servicesimmediately," Nath said askingthe refugees to return to theirhomeland.
"The Government wants torepatriate the refugees to theirhome land through democra-tic process. Do not create anyethnic or any other adminis-trative problems. Try to solveyour problems through mutu-al discussions with the officialsand elected leaders.
"Your life, culture, socio-economic condition, educa-tion of children would beaffected to a large extent ifyou stay for long in refugeecamps."
The Reang tribals, locallycalled "Bru", on October 9
urged Prime MinisterNarendra Modi and UnionHome Minister Rajnath Singhto restart the supply of reliefand other basic services.
Mizoram Bru DisplacedPeople's Forum (MBDPF)General Secretary Bruno Mshasaid the refugees were keen toreturn to their villages butnine most basic and vital issuesmust be resolved before therepatriations.
The issues are opening ofbank accounts, issuing ofAadhaar cards, distribution ofration cards, enrolment of therefugees' names in Mizoram'selectoral lists and identifica-tion of villages where theserefugees would be settledpost-repatriation.
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Union Minister forCommerce and Industry
Suresh Prabhu on Mondaydodged questions here relat-ed to an ongoing politicalimpasse triggered by GoaChief Minister ManoharParrikar's ailment, claimingthat he was responsible for the"health of citizens and not thehealth of politics".
Asked to comment on thefluid political scenario in Goa,where Parrikar has been inca-pacitated due to his prolongedtreatment of advanced pan-creatic cancer, Prabhu said:"What is the impasse? Thereis no impasse. The
Government is stable." "There is no need for any-
body to take responsibility. I amresponsible for the health of cit-izens not health of politics".
Parrikar's failure to attendto day-to-day administrativeand political chores due to hisprolonged treatment, whichhas stretched over eight monthsnow, has thrown Goa into apolitical crisis for the last sev-eral weeks.
While the coalition allieshave been stepping up pres-sure on the BJP seeking min-isterial portfolios, the saffronparty appears to be in a bindover the issue of choosing asuccessor for the ailing Chief Minister.
Hundreds of posters termingPriyanka Gandhi Vadra an
"emotional blackmailer" wereseen on Monday in Rae Bareli,the parliamentary constituencyof her mother and UPA chair-person Sonia Gandhi.
The posters which literal-ly cropped up all around theUttar Pradesh town overnight,showed her as "missing", andsaid while many tragediesstruck the constituency sinceher last visit, Vadra has notbothered to reach out to the
people in the Congress bor-ough where she is seen as hermother's heir.
In a reference to her lastminute visits to Rae Bareliduring successive polls andtrying to pitch in for her moth-er by striking the emotionalchord of the relationship of theGandhis with the area, theposters also called her an "emo-tional blackmailer".
They said Vadra plays withthe sentiments of the Rae Barelipeople only to garner votes.
Carrying pictures ofCongress President Rahul
Gandhi's sibling the postersalso asked her when would shevisit Rae Bareli next.
These posters have beenplastered on walls on majorthoroughfares, markets, publicplaces like Tripula square andHardaspur.
They questioned herabsence after major train acci-dents, including atHarchandpur, and the NTPCblast in Unchahar.
They posed querieswhether she would be presentin her mothers constituency onEid since she has not turned up
on Hindu festivals like Navratri,Durga Puja and Dusshehra.
Congress leaders and work-ers called the posters yet anoth-er "dirty trick" by opponents whowere petrified by the "comebackprospects of the Gandhis and theparty to power in 2019 (after theLok Sabha polls)".
District Congress chiefV.K. Shukla said the party willgive a befitting reply to suchslandering. For now they wouldask the district administrationto act against people involvedin putting up the posters,Shukla said.
Srinagar: The panchayat pollsin Jammu & Kashmir will starton November 17 and will beheld in 9 phases, officials saidon Monday.
Chief Electoral OfficerShaleen Kabra told the mediathat the notification for the firstphase will be issued on Tuesday.
"Polling for the first phasewill take place on November 17and for the last phase the vot-ing would take place on
December 11", Kabra said.He also said that the model
code of conduct will remain inforce till the poll process iscompleted.
Panchayat polls were lastheld in the state in 2011.
Elections for the localurban bodies were completelyin the state in four phasesrecently and the results wereannounced on October 20.
IANS
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Coimbatore: BJP's Tamil Naduunit president TamilisaiSoundararajan on Monday saidher party would never have analliance with corrupt partiesand expressed confidence thatit would win 'considerableseats' from the State in the 2019Lok Sabha elections.
The BJP had not yet start-ed the process on formingalliances for the elections and adecision would be taken at theappropriate time, she toldreporters here.
The party which was rulingin 22 states would "definitelywin considerable seats" in TamilNadu and would not enter into
alliance with corrupt parties,she said replying to a question.
In a veiled dig at AMMKleader TTV Dhinakaran, shewent on to add that BJP wouldcertainly not have any tie-upwith those "who had given�20 as token" to voters.
She was apparently refer-ring to the allegations thatDhinakaran's supporters haddistributed �20 currency notesto the voters as tokens of futurebribe money for voting for himin the RK Nagar by-electionheld in December last year.
Dhinakaran, who then wonas an independent from theconstituency held by late Chief
Minister Jayalalithaa, has deniedthe charge of bribing voters.
On the national politicalscene, Soundararajan claimednone of the allies of Congresswas willing to accept its presi-dent Rahul Gandhi as thePrime Ministerial candidate.
"Rahul Gandhi lacks themass appeal and not a match toModi... People will not notaccept him as prime minister,"she maintained. When askedwhether BJP was playing pol-itics with Lord Ram in thenorth and Lord Ayyappa in thesouth, she said building Ramtemple in Ayodhya was theparty's declared policy.
All the three BJP-led rathyatras scheduled to com-
mence in the first week ofDecember will now solely beinaugurated by party presi-dent Amit Shah. Earlier, Shahwas to inaugurate only oneyatra while the other two wereto be flagged off by AssamChief Minister SarwanandaSonowal and his UP counter-part Yogi Adityanath.
With the 2019 general elec-tions less than a year away theBJP rath yatras were scheduledto commence on December 3,5 and 7 and culminate in a pro-posed grand rally to beaddressed by Prime MinisterNarendra Modi at the historicBrigade Parade Ground inKolkata sometime in January.
After the rescheduling thethree Yatras will now com-mence on December 5, 7 and9, party sources said quotingShah’s office and added“because of his preoccupationin Rajasthan elections he will beable to inaugurate the pro-grammes on December 5 only.”
Earlier Shah was to lead hisYatra from Birbhum, the UPChief Minister was to start hisYatra from Ganga Sagar Islandswhile the third Yatra was to beled by Sonwal from Coochbeharin Northernmost Bengal.
Now Shah will inauguratethe first Yatra from Tara Peethin Birbhum, second Yatra from
Coochbehar and the third Yatrafrom Ganga Sagar, sources said.
The Chief Ministers willnow be required to addressmass meetings to be heldenroute the Rath Yatras, sourcessaid. Other leaders like RajnathSingh, Railway Minister PiyushGoyal are also likely to addressmeetings during the Yatra.
“The Yatras will be takenout in protest againstTrinamool Congress’ reign ofterror, its appeasement policyand continuing infiltrationthrough Bangladesh border,”State BJP leader SamikBhattacharya said.
However TrinamoolCongress leaders likeSukhendu Shekhar Roy andFirhad Hakim said the Yatraswill end up in a damp squib.“Earlier Yatras were taken outunder the leadership LKAdvani also. But it was not suc-cessful in Bengal. This time alsoit will fail here as the people ofBengal do not like communalpolitics,” Roy said.
Meanwhile, in a unrelateddevelopment violence contin-
ued to mar Bengal politicswith a Trinamool Congressblock leader being gunneddown allegedly by BJP. The saf-fron outfit however deniedsuch charges. Dipak Ghosh aTMC leader of consequence inBirbhum district was shot andhacked to death by the BJPgoons imported fromJharkhand district TMC pres-ident Anubrata Mondal saidadding his party “will not takesuch things lying down and willdefinitely give a befitting reply.”
BJP State secretary DilipGhosh however said the mur-der was the result of in-fight-ing in the TMC over hundredsof crores that was coming fromillegal coal mining in the area.”
Within hours of the TMCworker’s death a BJP man TapasDas was found hanging from atree at Luvpur in the same dis-trict with the saffron leadershippointing fingers at the TMC forthe murder. “Tapas was ourdedicated worker and was killedby the TMC like they did to ourmen in Purulia a few monthsago,” BJP leaders alleged.
Birbhum district, who washospital ised with bul letinjuries, died on Monday, thehospital sources said.
Dipak Ghosh, the party'sblock president of Birbhumdistrict's Khayrasole, wasallegedly shot at by unidenti-fied persons on Sunday whileriding a motorcycle with a fel-low party worker.
He was rushed to a pri-vate hospital in the district'sDurgapur.
"Dipak Ghosh was admitted
to the hospital with two bulletinjuries on Sunday. He diedtoday. The body will be sent foran autopsy," an official from theMission Hospital, Durgapur said.
Police said they havearrested seven persons.
The district TrinamoolCongress president AnubrataMondal condemned the inci-dent and accused the BJP oforchestrating the attack.
"I knew him very well. Hewas an active party leader. Thegoons of BJP killed him. Theyfired five bullets at him yester-day. He had been attacked by theBJP workers before but managedto survive," Mondal said.
The BJP has, however,refuted the allegation andclaimed that Ghosh's death wasa result of Trinamool Congress'faction fight over the spoils ofcoal mining in the area.
"Our party is not involved inthis. There has been incidents fviolence and deaths inKhayrasole before but no oneaccused BJP for that. LocalTrinamool leaders there arefighting each other over thepossession of coal mines. Ghoshwas killed in his party's factionfight," said state BJP PresidentDilip Ghosh.
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Samajwadi Party is bracingitself to go it alone in the
2019 Lok Sabha election. Thegeneral mood in the party isagainst an alliance with theBahujan Samaj Party afterMayawati did a volte-face ontie-up with the Congress inthe bypoll-boundChhatt isgarh, MadhyaPradesh and Rajasthan.
The standing of the BSPamong minorities has alsosuffered after its refusal to allywith the Congress in thesestates. The SP brass feels thatthey would get overwhelmingsupport of minority commu-nity in the 2019 election.
“The message is clear,that Mayawati is playing theBharatiya Janata Party’s gameto make it easy for the saffronparty to retain power in allthree States where it facesstrong anti-incumbency wave.The BSP chief has puncturedthe opposition unity bydirect ly attacking theCongress and tying up withAjit Jogi in Chhattisgarh,”said a senior SP leader.
Sources in the SP said thata senior leader told partychief Akhilesh Yadav bluntlythat the BSP would neverally with the Samajwadi Party,to which Akhilesh reported-ly said, “Even that would
serve positively for the partyin 2019 elections as the vot-ers, particularly the minori-ties, would shift to the SP.”
Meanwhile, sources in theBSP said the party had alreadyfinalised candidates for over60 of the 80 Lok Sabha seatsin UP and it was not willingto offer more than 18 seats tothe Samajwadi Party.
The possibi l ity ofMayawati refusing to ally withthe SP has forced Akhilesh to
rethink about a grand alliancehaving BSP in its fold.
And this is visible in SPstance. The party has startedwooing its old guards, mar-ginalised after Akhilesh Yadavtook over as SP national pres-ident in January 2017.
In a bid to set its house inorder, the SP chief visitedRajya Sabha member BeniPrasad Verma twice thismonth and held long parleyswith him.
Verma has been an oldassociate of Mulayam SinghYadav for five decades and isa tall leader of Kurmi caste.
He distanced himselffrom the party after his sonwas denied t icket f romBarabanki in 2017 assembly poll.
The SP badly needs thesupport of Kurmis, which isthe second most numericallydominant OBC caste in UP.
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Lucknow: Alleging interfer-ence by the Union MinorityAffairs Ministry in the work-ings of the Haj Committee ofIndia, its member SyedMuhammad Maqsud Ashrafannounced his resignationfrom the committee on Monday.
“I am resigning with imme-diate effect as member of HajCommittee of India (HCI). Myresignation is to express my con-cern and dissatisfaction with themanagement of the HCI due to interference by the ministry,” Ashraf told newsper-sons in Lucknow on Monday.
Ashraf said though theHCI was an autonomousbody, its decisions in the inter-est of Haj pilgrims were being“overruled” by the UnionMinority Affairs Ministry.
Ashraf said the rate of goodsand services tax (GST) on Hajflights was 18 per cent while fordomestic flights within thecountry it was only 5 per cent.
“Similarly, the HCI haddecided to accommodate all Hajpilgrims in Medina Markazia inSaudi Arab but the proposal wasnot accepted by the ministry.Now, most pilgrims have to stayoutside Markazia and pay high-er charges,” he alleged. Ashrafsaid that he had brought hisconcerns to the knowledge ofthe Ministry and chairman ofHCI but the HCI chairman was
helpless and could do little toaddress the issues raised byhim. “I regret to say that theHCI is not allowed to functionas an autonomous body in the
interest of Hajis. The HCI deci-sions are overruled by the min-istry and it has no role andautonomy in the management ofHaj,” Ashraf said. PNS
cial National InvestigatingAgency (NIA) court here toensure that the trial in theMalegaon 2008 blast case isconducted without delay.
Six persons were killedand over a 100 injured whenan explosive device strappedto a motorcycle went off neara mosque in Malegaon inMaharashtra, on September29, 2008.
A bench of Justices SSShinde and AS GadkariMonday directed advocateSandesh Patil, who appearedfor the NIA, to ensure that theagency did not seek anyadjournment on Friday,October 26, the next date ofhearing in the case.
The special court is like-ly to begin framing of chargesagainst the accused personson October 26.
The bench was hearing aplea filed by Sameer Kulkarni,one of the accused in the case,seeking that the trial be expe-dited and that the specialcourt be directed to conductdaily hearings in the matter.
The bench, however,refused to grant Kulkarni'splea for a day to day hearing.
Instead, it noted that since
there already existed a 2015order of the Supreme Courtdirecting that the trial in thecase be conducted expedi-tiously, the special court must"ensure" that the order wasimplemented.
"The high court also saidthat the NIA must not seekany adjournments and let theframing of charges begin asscheduled on October 26. We gave our word to thecourt that we will not be the reason for any delays in the hearing. Besides, all partiesand the NIA court have to implement the SC order and conduct the tr ia l expeditiously," Patil told PTI.
The accused persons inthe case are Prag ya Singh Thakur, LieutenantColonel Prasad Purohit,Major (retd) RameshUpadhyay, Sameer Kulkarni,Ajay Rahirkar, SudhakarDwivedi, and SudhakarChaturvedi.
All the above persons willface trial under the UnlawfulActivities (Prevention) Actand other sections of theIndian Penal Code, includingmurder and criminal con-spiracy.
The special court had,last week, rejected their pleason the applicability of UAPAagainst them.
The Members of Parliament LocalArea Development Scheme(MPLADS), which was launched aquarter of a century ago, has beenmired in controversy for long years
because of allegations of corruption and nepo-tism and gross violation of the scheme’s guide-lines by MPs. But a new issue — lack of trans-parency — is now at hand following a coupleof orders of the Central InformationCommission pertaining to non-availability ofinformation on projects which have been sup-posedly implemented.
MPLADS provides MPs five crore rupeesper annum to identify and fund developmentprojects in their constituencies, as per the guide-lines drawn up by Parliament. But the schemehas been controversial since its inceptionbecause of violation of the norms by many par-liamentarians. However, having committed itself
to the idea, the Government is obliged to ear-mark close to �4,000 crore per annum for thisscheme. These funds are sent to DistrictCollectors, who, in turn, have to ensure imple-mentation of projects identified by MPs in theirconstituencies.
Lack of transparency and accountability inthe execution of this scheme has come in foradverse comment from a variety of institutions,including the National Commission to Reviewthe Working of the Constitution (NCRWC), theSecond Administrative Reforms Commissionand the Comptroller and Auditor-GeneralGeneral of India. Now, the Central InformationCommission has some harsh things to say aboutit. However, despite the severe indictment of thisscheme from various quarters, there has beenno visible effort by Parliament to stop the mis-use of funds and to remove the anomalies.However, one is bound to hear shrill protestsfrom MPs if ever it is suggested that the schemebe scrapped.
This issue has been dealt with extensivelyin recent orders passed by ProfMadabhushanam Sridhar Acharyulu, CentralInformation Commissioner in Vishnu DevBhandari vs PIO M/o Statistics & ProgramImplementation and in Ram Gopal Dixit vs PIOin the same Ministry.
Referring to the procedure prescribed inthis scheme, the Information Commissioner has
said it is the reverse of what usually transpiresin the Government. In all other schemes, a workhas to be proposed, its viability has to beassessed and eventually, funds have to be allo-cated and released. But, in MPLADS, it worksthe other way. Here, the funds are first allocat-ed, after which the works are recommended andthe district administration has to implement it,if it is viable. Hence, the need for securing thesefunds is even greater.
The Commission said Parliament is known
for enforcing strict financial discipline. Not asingle rupee can be spent without prior sanc-tion, but MPLADS, which was launched in1993, operates differently. Projects are recom-mended without studying their viability. It is amassive scheme that is totally discretionarybased and “prone to high corruption”.
The Commission has expressed major con-cern over the way this scheme is implemented.It says that it is difficult to prevent corruptionin a scheme which has such massive funding andyet is so non-transparent and is “totally depen-dent upon individual discretion with question-able privileges coupled with immunity of MPs”.
In the order in Vishnu Dev Bhandari’s case,Prof Sridhar Acharyalu has recommended thatthe Speaker of the Lok Sabha and the Chairmanof the Rajya Sabha provide the necessary legalframework for implementation of MPLADS. Hehas suggested that MPs be subjected to “spe-cific duties and compulsory transparencyobligations” and that they be also subjected toliabilities for dereliction of duties and breachof rules. They must be prohibited from spend-ing MPLADS funds for private work of MPs;recommending allocation of funds to ineligi-ble agencies; diversion of funds to private trusts;recommending works that benefit MPs or theirrelatives; and breaching any of the norms laiddown under the scheme. The legal frameworkshould also deal with the problem of assets cre-
ated with MPLADS funds later becominguntraceable. This has become necessary becausethere is no law governing MPLADS spending.There are guidelines and there is sufficient evi-dence to show that these guidelines are oftenobserved in the breach. Also, MPs are notpenalised for misusing MPLADS.
The Commission has further recommend-ed that MPs must be obligated to provide thefullest information on the applications theyreceived for allocation of these funds, the worksrecommended, details of beneficiaries etc. Theymust also be duty-bound to inform their vot-ers about this spending. Further, the politicalparties to which MPs belong must have anobligation to post all these details on their web-sites so that the people are informed.
Another issue that the Commission hastouched upon is the non-utilisation of funds byMPs. The 16th Lok Sabha was constituted inMay, 2014. It was reported that the Governmenthad released �1,757 crore towards this schemein the first year up to May 2015, of which just�281 crore constituting just 16 per cent wasspent. As much as �1,487 crore had goneunspent and not a single rupee was spent in 278(51 per cent) of the 543 Lok Sabha constituen-cies in the country. As many as 223 MPs didnot recommend any expenditure.
As stated earlier, MPLADS has come in fora lot of flak in the past. Although the Supreme
Court has held that the scheme is constitution-ally valid, the NCRWC was of the view that thescheme be discontinued because it went againstthe principle of demarcation of responsibilitiesbetween the Executive and the Legislature. Italso felt that MPs should not tread into the areaof local Government institutions. The SecondAdministrative Reforms Commission alsostrongly recommended that MPLADS bescrapped because it eroded the notion of sep-aration of powers. It said MPs choosing pro-jects for execution amounted to intrusion intothe powers of the Executive.
The CAG too has come down heavily onthe scheme and listed its various drawbackswhen it made a detailed analysis of this schemeon two occasions. It spoke of wastage of pub-lic funds, execution of inadmissible works anda host of other problems. Therefore, the CAGsaid in view of the persistent poor administra-tion of the scheme, wastage of funds, inadmis-sible expenditure and frauds, the governmentmust re-evaluate the need, manner and modal-ity of resource transfer under the scheme.
It is now for the presiding officers of the twoHouses of Parliament to take a call. Now cana scheme involving MPs be non-transparent?The Central Information Commission’s obser-vations need to be taken note of.
(The writer is Chairman, Prasar Bharati.The views expressed here are personal)
������������Sir — This refers to the editorial,“Avoidable tragedy” (October 22).Railway accidents are not too uncom-mon in our country. The Punjabtrain tragedy that claimed the lives of60 innocent people is another harshreminder of the fact.
Revelry on religious festivals bymasses is but natural. It was, therefore,expected of the local administrationas well as the Railway officials to havemade necessary arrangements. Hadtimely precautions been taken, thegory incident could have been avert-
ed. While those who have been killedin the incident cannot be broughtback to life yet, a firm determinationon the part of officials to leave noroom for laxity must be our motto.
Azhar A KhanRampur
���� ����������Sir — This refers to the editorial,“Avoidable tragedy” (October 22).The way the railway tragedy unfold-ed near Amritsar is tragic. One amongthe many takeaways from the incidentis that a level of preparedness is butessential on the part of organisers and
officials before any such event isplanned.
It was also very irresponsible thatthe onlookers, who had gathered tosee the Raavan dahan, moved on tothe tracks. Surely, the incident couldhave been averted had the localadministration informed the Railwayofficials about the event before.
But the Municipal Corporationhad not granted permission for hold-ing the Dussehra event. Clearly, lapsehas been on the part of the organis-ers of the event.
Devendra KhuranaBhopal
���������� �Sir — This refers to the editorial,“Avoidable tragedy” (October 22). It isshameful that a blame-game of sorts isdoing the rounds post the Amritsartrain tragedy where 60 people lost theirlives. Certainly, the incident could havebeen averted or at least the number ofcasualties could have been minimised.Of course, lives of people can’t bebrought back but what is left for us isto learn lessons so that incidents likethese can be avoided in the future.
Gulab Shanker SinghLucknow
���������������� ��Sir — This refers to the editorial,“Avoidable tragedy” (October 22).The local body should have informedthe Railway officials about the event,especially in view of the reports thata fete is organised at the same spotsince almost 20 years. Nevertheless,public events must not be organisednear rail tracks and roads.
There are hundreds of places across thecountry whose name needs to be changed.
Bakhtiyarpur is a case in point. —Union Minister
GIRIRAJ SINGH
Before speaking about Bakhtiyarpur, he(Giriraj Singh) should have gained some
knowledge about the history of the place.—JD(U) spokesman
SANJAY SINGH
Bhutan, also known asDruk-Yul (meaning theland of the thunder drag-on), the closest neighbourand a time-tested friend
of India, was in news a few monthsago due to the Doklam stand-offbetween India and China. However,the Indian people’s interests in thisbeautiful country lies is much morethan this stand-off as the countrywitnesses a large bunch of touristswho flock Bhutan in record num-bers every year. In return, theyenrich its economy as tourism is thesecond largest source of revenueafter export of hydroelectricity.
Bhutan was the first country inthe world to coin the word ‘GrossDomestic Happiness’ to signify itsdevelopment index. It attainedinternational acclaim for thisunique venture. It is also officiallythe only carbon negative country inthe world and it emerged as a worldleader in evolving revolutionary cli-mate change policies.
This writer has always been fas-cinated with the people of Bhutan.After two successful visits, helatched on an opportunity to visitthe beautiful country again duringthe month of October to enjoy itspristine beauty and culture onceagain. The purpose of this article isto discuss what makes Bhutan aunique nation in the world wherethe people love their King muchmore than anything else in their lifeand the King considers himself asa true servant of the people.
The writer observed severalfacets of Bhutanese life closely andwould like to put forth certainthings that the IndianGovernment as well as the citizenscan emulate from this tiny littlenation of eight lakh people livingin 38,000 sq mt area.
The name Bhutan is derivedfrom the ancient Indian term‘Bhotania’ which means the end ofthe land of the Bhots (Bhots mean-ing Tibet). Bhutan is located on thesouthern slopes of the easternHimalayas, landlocked betweenthe Tibet Autonomous Region tothe north and the Indian States ofSikkim, West Bengal, Assam, and
Arunachal Pradesh to the westand south. Bhutanese people pri-marily consist of the Ngalops andSharchops, called the westernBhutanese and eastern Bhutanese,respectively.
Bhutan has a wide diversity ofethnic groups, starting with anumber of small tribal groups(related to similar tribes in Indiaand Sikkim), whose ancestry datesback to almost three thousandyears. People also migrated fromTibet, Nepal and Mongolia.Bhutanese are followers of theMahayana branch of Buddhismwith huge influence of Tibetan andancient Indian traditions.
Dzongkha, meaning the lan-guage of the fort, is the national lan-guage of Bhutan. The country wasinhabited 4,000 years ago, there arearcheological evidence indicatingsettlements in Bhutan dating backto 2000-1500 BC. Bonism (involv-ing worship of nature spirits andpractice of sacrifice), a pre-Buddhistreligion of Tibet, was the main reli-gion in Bhutan before the arrival ofBuddhism.
Seventy-two per cent of itsarea is under forest cover. It has arich variety of plants and animalswith a very rare Takin, a species ofgoat-antelope, the national animalof Bhutan, surviving with less than20 specimen, mostly in the nation-al park at Thimpu. Paro is the soleairport situated in a picturesque val-ley and serviced by the DruckAirways, a national carrier andBhutan Airlines with flights toDelhi, Kolkata and Bangkok. Thecapital city of Thimpu is a pictureperfect hill station at an altitude of2,334 meters.
The country is a ConstitutionalMonarchy with a Parliament. Overthe years, the previous Monarch,who abdicated at quite a young ageto hand over the reign to his son thepresent King Khesar NamgyelWangchuck, had promoted democ-racy in the country so much so thatthat the present King empoweredthe Parliament to impeach theKing! This is a marvelous commit-ment from an all-powerfulMonarch for the people’s wishes anda reflection of ushering the nationto true democratic life.
This should serve as a lesson toall powerful leaders of the world,including India. This has comefrom the King not as a largesse butdue to the fact that the Bhutanesepeople have deep respect for theirculture, values and traditions which
evolve themselves into a proud viva-cious nation. It gives more impor-tance to human values than simplydefining the economic growth as anindicator of development.
The Bhutanese Parliamentnever wastes time in unruly scenesbut devotes itself in fruitful discus-sions. This is in sharp contrast towhat is witnessed in India. Andbecause of this, they measure devel-opment on the basis of GrossNational Happiness rather thanon Gross National Products andthis is why they have become worldfamous in coining this term.
Precisely, this is also the reasonwhy Bhutan is not unnecessarilypromoting industrial growth and isemphasising more on social andenvironmental development.Despite scarcity of resources, all cit-izens are entitled for free educationand healthcare. The needy and thepoor are provided necessary assis-tance for livelihoods. Still, a leastdeveloped country is fast marchingahead and leads South Asia in easeof doing business, peace and ratedas least corrupt nation.
The commercial capital isPhuentsholing, which is located insouth near the Indian border. Theeconomy is based on agriculture,animal husbandry and forestry,
and is a source of livelihood for 90per cent of the population. Theeconomy of Bhutan is aligned withthat of India through strong tradeand monetary links. Major indus-tries include electricity, cement, cal-cium carbide, wood products,processed fruits, alcoholic bever-ages, among others. The mainsource of income is hydroelectricpower and tourism industry.
From the point of view oftourism, Thimpu, Punakha andParo are very important places.Punakha, nestled between the maleand female rivers, was the capital ofBhutan till 1958 when it was shiftedto Thimpu. The Punakha fort archi-tecture is inspired by lordViswakarma as the fort has an abodefor the mechanical engineer God.
One of the most beautiful siteis the 160 feet Buddha statue inThimpu which gives an impressionas if Buddha is descending from thesky and resting on the verdant for-est. It can be rated as one of themost beautiful sites on Earth. Thenthere are the Bhutanese forts inThimpu, Punakha and Paro, whichthrow light as to how religion andgovernance developed in Bhutan.
Paro has the most admiredTiger nest monastery which alsotests the human endurance when
one has to climb more than 800steps after tracking through six kilo-meters uphill. On reaching thetop, it gives a breathtaking view ofthe Bhutanese landscape.
Another important event for thetourists is the ‘Hot stone Bath’where stones are heated red and thenwater is poured on them and chan-neled to the Bath tub which gives arefreshing bath. Bhutan is a neat andclean country and developing fast asthis writer found expansion of con-struction activities all over inThimpu, compared to 2011.
However, the Government inBhutan should be cautious aboutexpansion of its building construc-tion activities as more and morehigh rise concrete buildings arecoming up and changing the cultureand landscape. Second, theGovernment must have a regulato-ry law to control use and diversionof forestland for developmentalpurpose as the scenic beauty ofBhutan is due to pristine forests andcannot be ignored. The area nearthe Buddha statue in Thimpu needsto be further consolidated and sta-bilised with vegetation. In a nut-shell, Bhutan is a tourist paradiseand should remain so.
(The writer is a retired civil servant)
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The ghastly and completely uncalledfor tragedy that overtook Amritsarthe other day calls for deep intro-
spection and something that has beencompletely absent from our national dis-course, honesty. The magisterial inquirythat has been ordered will only look at thebureaucratic aspects of the incident andpinpoint responsibility for the lapses thatled to the horrific loss of 60 lives andinjured a hundred more if Governmentreports are to be trusted.
It is hardly likely to look at the humanaspect of this calamity or lay the blame onwhere it truly should, our chalta hai cul-ture that seems to have permeated the verypoison we breathe, becoming firmly root-ed in our DNA, and impacting everyaspect of our lives.
Let us be honest, this public mourn-ing and the self-flagellation we indulge inmeans absolutely nothing and is justplain hypocrisy playing out in slowmotion. Nothing will change, soonenough, the media will focus on someother appalling news, politicians will paylip-service, the public will forget and allof us will go back to our own dreary exis-tence as if it never ever happened.
It is only a matter of time before thisissue is reduced to a political blame-gamewith each party doing its damnedest tosway public opinion in its own favour. Offcourse, some politicians and bureaucratswill pay the price, not least PunjabMinister Navjot Singh Sidhu and his wife,whose aspirations for high office will beheld hostage by this tragedy for the rest oftheir polit ical career, just as theChappaquiddick incident put paid toSenator Ted Kennedy’s hopes of winningthe Presidency, not that many will care.
The fact of the matter is that the realtragedy for which we will continue to payan appalling price in the future is ourinability to face up to the stark reality ofwhat ails our society and the nation. In allthe coverage of this horrendous incident
not once has there been any mention ofindividual responsibility.
Except, that is, by the Railways, whichhas stood firm, at least for now, and hasrefused to undertake any inquiry againstits own officials, claiming that the revellerswere trespassers on railway property, astand that has come under intense criti-cism from many quarters.
We can turn blue in the face discussingthe importance of the rule of law in soci-ety, but more than its imposition, isn’t itthe responsibility of every citizen to fol-low the law, both in letter and spirit? Theplain fact is that this incident is not an iso-lated one. We are witness to such behav-iour on a daily basis as individuals andgroups flagrantly violate laws, be it withregard to civic regulations, traffic rules ora myriad of other issues with absolutely nofear of being held accountable.
It is indeed ironic that an individual,willing to commit a criminal act endan-gering lives to witness the victory of goodover evil, as these spectators were, will notbreak a single rule when travelling abroadfor fear of being held accountable. Clearly,it is not a case of ignorance or even care-lessness but a blatant disregard for thecommon good that separates us from more
developed societies. Why are we afraid to clearly state that
each and every individual who was stand-ing on the tracks was committing a crim-inal act and must have been fully cognizantof what the consequences of such stupid-ity could be, and in this particular case,tragically it was.
By using law-abiding taxpayers’ moneyto dole out compensation to the next of kinand those injured in the State, showingcompassion and humanity or condoningcriminal behaviour? how can society everprogress if we are going to continually caterto the basest instincts of the mob, even ifit is for votes?
This is not a question of political cor-rectness but of holding individuals respon-sible. Common good requires commoneffort and nobody is exempt.
Maybe, this dreadful incident is show-ing us the way towards a more empathet-ic, equitable and just society whichrequires accountability to be treated asinviolable. It is time we stood up for ourhigher selves.
(The writer is a military veteran, aConsultant with the Observer ResearchFoundation and Visiting Senior Fellowwith The Peninsula Foundation, Chennai)
The death of Father Kuriakose Kattuthara, a priest whowas a witness in the Kerala nun rape case againstBishop Franco Mulakkal, has kicked up a huge rowwith the cleric’s family alleging he was murdered whilePunjab Police says no injury marks were found, he wasdiabetic, had vomited all over his bed and blood pres-sure tablets were found next to the body so they arenot ruling out a natural death. His body was foundnear Jalandhar where Mulakkal, who denies thecharges against him, is staying after being granted bail.
Commerce secretary AnupWadhawan underlined thecommitment of theGovernment to address con-cerns of labour- intensiveleather and textiles sectors.
“Our exports will reach arecord figure both in rupee andUS dollar terms,” he toldreporters here after an interac-tive session with exporters,but did not quantify the figure.
He said the Governmentwould address the concernssuch as easier availability ofcredit from banks and boosting
schemes like the merchandiseexports from India scheme, inthe wake of the challenges in aglobal environment.
The commerce secretarysaid the export scenario in theregion, especially in TamilNadu, was healthy, and laudedexporters for their performancedespite protectionism and uni-lateralism.
“Despite the challenges,the exporters have been doingwell over the last two-and-a-half years and we’ve since beenhaving a steady growth,” hesaid.
On the country signing afree trade agreement with theEuropean Union, he said,”It ison the table and we will do ourbest to expedite it (pact).”
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Hero MotoCorp, India’slargest two-wheeler man-
ufacturer on Mondaylaunched their first model inthe fast-growing 125cc scoot-er segment with the new‘Destini 125’. Targeted at the‘family’ buyer, MarkusBraunsperger, Chief TechnicalOfficer, Hero MotoCorp toldThe Pioneer, that the addi-tional power and torquewould be welcomed by usersmoving up from the 110ccscooter segment. In addition,the company has added their‘i3s’ start-stop technology tothe scooter, whichBraunsperger said could
potentially add as much as 10per cent to the scooters fuel
economy, “however, this isan inexact science, becausehow much additional fueleconomy the start-stop willadd depends on your ridingstyle and your route.”
Sanjay Bhan, Head ofSales, Hero MotoCorp alsosaid that the 125cc segmentwas growing ver y fast ,“Suzuki and Honda are verystrong in this segment withthe Access and Activa 125respectively. But we feel wecan offer a great value pack-age with your product.” Thecompany has priced the newDestini at between �54,650and �57,500 and sales willstart from all Hero MotoCorpdealerships in the National
Capital Region from today. Agradual rollout of the productwill happen across the coun-try in the following weeks.
While this scooter willaddress the ‘family’ market,Hero MotoCorp is also likelyto launch another scooterwith a more ‘sporty’ look inthe 125cc segment by earlynext year to take on theHonda Grazia. According toBhan, the 125cc scooter seg-ment will easily cross the onemillion unit annual sales markby 2019-20 if not earlier, withmonthly segment sales alreadyclose to touching 100,000units, which Bhan said will beeasily crossed after the intro-duction of the Destini.
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Union C ommerceMinister Suresh Prabhu
on Monday said that aworld-class laboratory totest food quality would beset up in Goa by the Centre’sExport Inspection Agency(EIA) and Quality Councilof India (QCI).
Prabhu held a meetingon t he i s sue wit h G o aAgriculture Minister VijaiSardesai Monday afternoon.
“Last week it was point-ed out to us by state HealthMinister (Vishwajit Rane)that there are certain appre-hensions in the mind ofpeople about the quality offish,” Prabhu told reportersat Porvorim.
“Anything that is ediblemust be of the best quality.Keeping that in mind, wehave decided to set up a
world class laboratory inGoa,” Prabhu added.
He said that EIA, whosecertification is accepted inEurope, Japan and the USA,would help set up the testingfacility in the coastal state.
He said a mobile testingvan and an online mecha-nism would be commis-sioned to take care of spe-cific complaints about edibleitems.
Sardesai said that thestate Government wantedto build a system to ensureall food items in Goa are ofthe best quality.
The use of formalin, apotential cancer-causingchemical, to preserve fishhas been a controversialissue in Goa over the pastfew months with ruling par-ties and those in the oppo-sition attacking each otherover it.
The Reserve Bank of India isexpected to keep key poli-
cy rates unchanged in theremaining 2018-19 fiscal asinflation may stay ‘benign’ inthe range of 3 to 4.4 per cent,says a report.
According to the report byKotak Economic Research, thefocus of the Monetary PolicyCommittee (MPC) remainspurely on inflation print, whichis expected to remain benign (3-4.4 per cent) in the secondhalf of 2018-19.
In the policy review meetearlier this month, majority ofRBI’s six-member MPC,including Governor Urjit RPatel, favoured to keep the keyrepo rate unchanged as part of“calibrated tightening” to keepretail inflation at 4 per cent.
“The minutes reaffirmedour view post the October pol-icy and the September CPIinflation print, that the RBIwill possibly stay on hold forthe rest of 2018-19,” the reportsaid.
It however added thatupside risks to inflation stillexist owing to pass-through ofMSPs, elevated crude oil prices,volatility in global financialmarkets, hardening of inputprices amid rupee weaknessand staggered impact of HRAincreases by states and its sec-ond-round impact.
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India is now home to 81,000individuals with disclosed
income of above �1 crore perannum, with this ‘crorepaticlub’ expanding by over two-third in last three years, theCentral Board of Direct Taxes(CBDT) data showed onMonday.
Releasing key statistics ofincome tax and direct taxes, thepolicy-making body of the ITdepartment said the total num-ber of crorepati taxpayers,which includes corporates,firms, Hindu UndividedFamilies (HUFs) and individ-uals, has also seen a growth ofabout 60 per cent during thesame time period.
“The total number of tax-payers (corporates, firms,Hindu undivided familiesamong others) showing incomeof above �1 crore has registereda sharp increase over the three-year horizon.
“While 88,649 taxpayershad disclosed income above �1crore in assessment year 2014-15, the figure was 1,40,139 forAY 2017-18, which is a growthof about 60 per cent,” theCBDT said.
Similarly, the number of“individual” taxpayers disclos-ing income above �1 crorehad increased during the sameperiod from 48,416 to 81,344,which translated into a growthof 68 per cent.
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The net direct tax collec-tion in the country grew
by 15.7 per cent on year-on-year basis to reach �4.89lakh crore in the currentfiscal ti l l third week ofOctober, a senior official onMonday quoting from thelatest data.
This marks over 42 percent of the full-year direct taxcollection target of �11.5 lakhcrore for the fiscal endingMarch 31, 2019.
The CBDT official alsothe income tax departmentissued about 2 crore refundsfor an amount of about�1.09 lakh crore, till lastweek.
The Central Board ofDirect Taxes (CBDT) is thepolicy-making body for theIncome Tax Department(ITD).
As per the latest data, thenumber of taxpayers get-ting refunds is up by 62 percent from 1.22 crore refundsin the corresponding periodof the last fiscal. In terms ofthe refund amount, therehas been a surge of 31.7 percent from �83,000 crorerefunded to taxpayers in the
corresponding period lastyear.
The department, the offi-cial said, received 5.8 crore ITReturns (ITRs) till October21 as compared to 3.6 crorereturns during the same peri-od of last fiscal.
“This is an increase ofabout 61 per cent,” the officialsaid.
As part of its efforts towiden and deepen the tax-payer base in the country, theCBDT has given a target tothe income tax department toadd 1.25 crore new people byend of the current fiscal, theofficial said.
Last year, 1 .06 newincome tax assesses wereadded, he added.
The present taxpayer basein the country is over 6.26crore.
The department sentabout 1.85 crore emails andSMSes to assessees and tax-payers during the last quarterof the last fiscal 2017-18(Januar y-March), askingthem to file their ITRs andpay taxes based on their taxhistory or some new infor-mation received by the tax-man about their transactions,he said.
IT industry body Nasscom onMonday said it has signed a
letter of intent with theHiroshima Government towork together in creatingJapan-India IT corridor tofacilitate partnerships betweencompanies from both nations.
“The HiroshimaGovernment will co-invest withNasscom in creating JapanIndia IT Corridor that could beat the forefront of promotingB2B cooperation and talenttransfer from India to Japan,”Nasscom said in a statement.
This project will be for-mally initiated by early 2019 onmutual consent, it added.
Both parties will undertakea process of thorough due dili-gence with assistance of rele-vant partners and local com-panies, focused on talent avail-ability; local demand potentialand; policy benefits and fund-ing support to determine themutual viability and long-termfeasibility of setting up an ITcorridor in Hiroshima, thestatement said.
“Both parties agreed tosetup IT corridor in Hiroshima
with incentive package thatcould be extended to the Indiantech companies that come for-ward to adopt this platformwhile forming partnership withJapanese companies,” the state-ment said.
It added that the IT corri-dor will allow Indian compa-nies — with their prowess insoftware services — helpJapanese manufacturing firmsadopt digital transformationand create innovative productand solutions lines.
The partnership is alsoexpected to help create IT jobsin Hiroshima and India as wellas facilitate talent transfer fromIndia to Japan.
“For achieving sustainablegrowth in Hiroshima, what welack is a cluster of IT and soft-ware industry,” AtsuhitoUemaru, Chief of InnovationPromotion, HiroshimaPrefectural Government, said.
Uemaru added thatthrough the collaboration,Hiroshima would like to serveas a gateway for Indian com-panies to enter the Japanesemarket and vice versa and “tobuild an ecosystem beneficialfor the growth of both Indianand Hiroshima companies”.
Gagan Sabharwal, SeniorDirector (Global TradeDevelopment) at Nasscom saidthe alliance will act as a “build-ing block” towards strength-ening the Indo-Japan relation-ship.
India is emerging as the Diabetes capital of the world. The coun-try currently has 49 per cent of the world’s Diabetes burden,with around 72 million people living with Diabetes in 2017. The
number is expected to almost double to 134 million by 2025. It is time for a concerted campaign to keep Diabetes at bay.
More so, because it is festive season. In fact, doctors have seenan increase in blood sugar levels above 300 during festive sea-son. If you too are one amongst those fighting Diabetes, we under-stand how difficult it must be to say no to those laddoos and kajukatlis. This Diwali, fear not, as we tell you how to keep a checkon your blood sugar levels, while enjoying the flavours of thefestival.
Do not give up on healthy eating, find alternatives to tra-ditional sweets: Indian festivals, especially Diwali, are incom-plete without sweets. However, calorie rich sweets can providechallenges for blood sugar control in patients with Diabetes. Ittherefore pays to plan how to manage your sugar intake throughthe celebrations. The following tips might help you control yoursugar levels.
Take smaller portions of sweet foods: This will allow youto get a good taste of Diwali without spiking blood sugar levels.
Make your own sweets: This will let you use healthier vari-ants of sugar like jaggery or natural stevia.
Buy food with natural sweeteners: Sweets made up of anjeer,dates, and jaggery are healthier options.
Keep sipping water: Sipping water in between helps to flushout the toxins accumulated in your body due to wrong eating.
Control your alcohol intake: As it is important to maintainblood sugar levels.
Lose weight: Weight is notgood for your sugar levels.People who are overweight havea higher chance of contractingDiabetes. If you are alreadyDiabetic, there is a risk of bloodsugar levels rising if you areoverweight. Losing weight helpsreduce the risk.
Exercise: Do not give up onyour regular exercise regimenduring festival celebrations. Ithas been proven by studies thatexercise helps increase the num-ber of insulin receptors in your
cells. This allows your body to utilise the hormone insulin, withease. Studies have shown that people, who exercise for at least30 minutes a day, four to five times a week, reduced their riskof contracting diabetes by 80 per cent.
Walk more: A recent study has found that a 15-20 minutewalk after every meal is effective in keeping Diabetes in checkas it reduces one’s blood sugar level over the day. Instead of tak-ing the elevator, take the stairs, or walk to places close by.
Sleep: It is essential to catch the standard 7-8 hours, or atleast a minimum of 6 hours of sleep every night. Studies haveshown that people who get less than 6 hours of sleep double theirrisk of contracting Diabetes. Sleeping for less than 5 hours alsotriples the odds of increased blood pressure.
Take your medicines on time: Do not miss your medicineamidst festive celebrations. Check your feet every day for cuts,blisters, red spots and swelling, which might occur while play-ing firecrackers.
Keep track of your blood sugar: You may want to check yourblood sugar levels one or more times a day. Keep a record of yourblood sugar levels. Be sure to talk about them with your doc-tor. Check your blood pressure too, if your doctor advises andmaintain a record.
Balance your sugar level: If you have diabetes, both the con-ditions — dangerously high blood sugar as well as dangerouslylow blood sugar — can lead to diabetic coma. It is a conditionwhere you are alive but you can’t respond purposefully to sights,sounds or any other types of stimulation. If left untreated, it canbe fatal. The key therefore is to balance your sugar level
Constantly lookingdown into a hand-held screen or jut-
ting the neck out whileusing laptops puts a lot ofpressure on the spine. Thenumber of hours we spend on variousdevices everyday makes us susceptible toa host of problems including acute andchronic neck, shoulder, back, elbow,wrist, and thumb pain.
Apart from device usage, theincreased anxiety and stress related toanswering messages and calls from timeto time can trigger muscular spasms, achesand pains.
It impacts breathing and functioningof structures, leading to poor posture.Smartphone is also a cause for parent-child conflict in 30% of the cases. On anaverage, people spend 30 to 60 minutes inthe bed playing with the smartphonebefore sleep.
Some tips from Heart CareFoundation of India:
�Electronic curfew means not usingany electronic gadgets 30 minutes beforesleep.
�Take a Facebook holiday for sevendays every three months.
�Avoid use of social media once ina week for the entire day.
�Use your mobile phone only whenmobile.
�Do not use computer for more thanthree hours in a day.
�Limit your mobile talk time to morethan two hours in a day.
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Just like dry skin is a problemfor some, oily skin is just asproblematic. More so given
that the festive season is upon usand so is the wedding season.Going to a dermatologist canhelp but it will be expensive.Here are some DIY tips:
The most impor-tant thing toremember is thatpeople who haveoily skin need towash their faceevery day —twice daily —using a mildsoap.
Many house-holds have cornstarch.Mix two tablespoons of corn-starch with warm water to makea thick paste. Apply evenly onthe face and let it dry. Wash yourface with lukewarm water.Repeat daily for good results.
Tomato is another fruit that
is found in homes. It acts like anatural cleanser and gets rid ofexcess oil, blackheads and spotson the face. Mash one tomato,extract its juice and strain. Adda few drops of honey. Apply thison the face and leave it on for 10-
15 minutes. Wash off withwater. Do this once
every week.Coffee is
another ingredi-ent that mosthomes have. Mixcoffee powderwith some honey
and use this mix-ture to scrub your
face. Wash it off withwarm water.
Here’s another ingredientthat cure all. Mix 1 tablespoonof baking soda in 2-3 table-spoons of water to make a finepaste. Apply this paste on theface and wash it off when itdries.
Tired of trying fancy creamsto get rid of oily skin? Fret
not. ROSHANI DEVI sharessome home remedies that
can work wonders if a properregimen is followed
With Global Iodine DeficiencyDay observed on October 21each year, Tata Salt, pioneers
of the salt iodisation movement inIndia, has launched establish a cam-paign — The Missing I to spreadawareness on the importance ofiodine in the diet and stepsfor tackling iodine deficiencythat can lead to a multitudeof health disorders such asgoitre, hypothyroidism, mis-carriage, stillbirth, congenitalanomalies, infant and neonatalmortality, and impaired growth.
Iodine deficiency is the leadingcause of preventable mental retardation.Iodine deficiency causes irreparable dam-age to the developing brain and is especial-ly damaging during the early stages of preg-nancy and in early childhood. It can causea vast spectrum of mental disorders and loss
of intellectual capacity. Salt is known to bean effective micronutrient carrier, thereforemaking iodised food grade salt, one of theeasiest ways of supplementing one’s diet withthis vital nutrient.
Dr Chandrakant S Pandav, alum-ni at AIIMS, New Delhi, and
presently the member ofNational Council on IndiaNutrition Challenges underPoshan Abhiyan, said: “A pinchof iodised salt can give us free-dom from preventable brain
damage as we continue on ourjourney to become a healthy
nation. Universal salt iodisation,WHO’s preferred strategy for the elimina-tion of IDD, results in saving 1.5 billionIQ points in children globally every year.Let us as a country take a pledge to ensuredaily consumption of adequately iodisedsalt for a healthy mind and body.”
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Sometimes, having a workout buddy and thattoo if he or she your BFF is a great motivation
to stay fit. You’ll see the results together and canencourage each other when one’s energy ormotivational levels begin to drop. This routine canbe done in 30 minutes or less.
Before you start, warm up for five minutes ona treadmill at an easy pace, jog around the blockor do low step-ups. You would need a five to 10-pound dumbbell and a medicine ball.
�+/���+� �==��0+��E���/+������Targets shoulders, core, and legs
� Stand one foot apart, facing away from each
other, feet wider than shoulder-width apart;partner A holds a dumbbell or medicine ball withboth hands.� Squat so you’re butt to butt; then A leans for-ward and passes weight between legs to B.�You both stand up; B passes weight back to Aoverhead to complete one rep.�Do 20 reps, then switch directions (B passesweight to A between legs, and A passes weight toB overhead).
��/+��=��!�/�� +==�����Targets shoulders, obliques, and core
� Lie on right side two feet apart, parallel to eachother and facing the same direction, with part-ner B in front and holding a three to five pounddumbbell in left hand.� Lift hips so you’re balancing on right forearmand on the side of right foot, feet stacked. Extendleft arm straight up in line with shoulder, palmfacing forward.�B lifts hips slightly and passes dumbbell under-neath torso to A, who takes dumbbell in left handand then extends arm back up again (staying inside plank). Partner A passes dumbbell back toB as B reaches under her body.�Do 20 reps, then flip to the left side so A is infront. Repeat, with A passing dumbbell back toB. (Only the partner in front passes weight underraised hips.)
����/���+�!�!�E��F��'Targets core, butt, and legs
� Stand facing each other, two to three feet apart,with feet wider than shoulder-width apart andhands in fists next to chin.�Partner A squats low while partner B brings theright foot in toward left, then kicks right leg upand over A, finishing with feet wide.�B squats low while A kicks one leg over B.�Do 50 kicks total, switching legs every time orhalfway through.
(++= ����(��������(�'�=�-'Targets arms, chest, back, core, and legs
�Partner A gets in plank position on hands andtoes; partner B stands behind A and holds an anklein each hand.�Partner B bends over from the hips, keepingarms straight, as A bends elbows and lowers chesttoward floor.�As A straightens arms, B stands up, keepingknees and back straight.�Do 20 reps, then switch positions and repeat.
Note: You can perform three rounds of oneminute each back to back per exercise with a breakof one minute after three rounds.
Researchers are developing anintegrated biosensing platform
aimed at detecting and monitoringmosquito-borne diseases faster andcheaper than current methods, toaid in preventing virus outbreaksand their devastating effects.
Lia A Stanciu, a Purdue profes-sor of materials engineering, isleading the research and develop-ment of the technology. Additionalresearchers are Ernesto Marinero,professor of materials engineeringand electrical and computing engi-neering; and Richard Kuhn, profes-sor and department head of biolog-ical sciences and director of thePurdue Institute for Inflammation,Immunology and InfectiousDiseases.
Kuhn also led the researchteam that were the first to determine
the structure of theZika virus. Stanciu,Marinero and Kuhnhave developed anamperometric biosen-sor that utilises func-tionalized nanoparti-cles that specificallybind to the targetviruses’ DNA or RNA.
When the binding occurs thereis a change in the device resistance,which the sensor employs to unam-biguously detect the presence of thevirus. The sensor can then deter-mine whether or not a blood ormosquito sample has the virus andhow much of the virus is present.The sensor relies on an agent thatwill only respond to the intendedvirus to be detected.
“We’ve used mosquito samples
on our laboratory scalesensor and we’ve beenable to detect the virusshowing a high sensi-tivity rate to low con-centrations of thevirus. We’ve been espe-cially interested in thedengue and Zika virusbecause it’s the same
mosquito that transmits both dis-eases, so our technology would beable to quickly detect one of thosediseases using the same platform,”Stanciu said.
The device will operate througha low-power wireless network andwill use thin-film rechargeable bat-teries combined with thin-filmphotovoltaics to power and harvestenergy from the environment tomaintain functionality and perfor-
mance without human intervention.When a disease is detected in a mos-quito sample it will send an alert tohealth control officials about thepotential threat.
Marinero said there are manyways in which they plan to furtherdevelop their device. “Our firstand foremost goal is to have a pointof care, potentially a personal device,which is simple to use. This wouldallow people to detect the viruspromptly without having to go to ahospital, which would have signif-icant impacts in developing coun-tries. However, we’re also workingon an autonomous device that isdeployable in remote field areas thatare difficult to access or difficult toperform in-site detection, to mon-itor outbreaks in these areas,” hesaid.
Over 123 cases have beenreported so far out of
which 25 per cent are preg-nant women. As there are novaccinations for Zika, the bestway to prevent is to protectoneself from mosquito bites.Here are a few tips:�Cover complete body bywearing full sleeved shirtsand long pants.�Avoid going outside, orprefer using an air condi-tioned room where therooms have window anddoor screens and mosquitonets to prevent entry of mos-quitoes.�Make use of insect repel-lants to prevent mosquitofrom biting. Sleep undermosquito nets.�Empty, clean or cover con-tainers that can hold watersuch as buckets, flower potsor tyres, so that the placeswhere mosquitoes can breedare removed� Spray insecticide�Avoid travelling to or livingin areas with risk of Zika.
-����+( ����E�!�/��Avoid use of insect repel-lents on babies younger thantwo months of age. Instead,make use of mosquito nets.�Dress children in clothingthat covers arms and legs�Cover the baby carrier/ cribwith mosquito netting� For older children, sprayinsect repellent onto one’shands and then applies tochild’s face.
If the symptoms appear, it is preferableto get plenty of rest, drink fluids, and
treat pain and fever with common med-icines. People usually do not get sickenough to visit the hospital. If the condi-tion does worsen, you should seek med-ical care and advice. Zika virus is alsotransferable through sex, pregnancy and
blood transfusion. At time with no vaccine to prevent
Zika virus, the best way to keep this dis-eases from spreading is by protectingyourself from mosquito bites with the helpof repellents, wearing full clothes andavoiding sexual activity when infectedwith the virus. E����-���
Zika virus reaches to people mainly through thebite of an infected Aedes mosquito, which is also
responsible for the spread of chikungunya anddengue. The infection is also a trigger for Guillain-
Barré syndrome, neuropathy andmyelitis, particularly in adults
and older children. It can also spread dur-
ing sexual intercourse withan infected person, from apregnant woman to herfetus during pregnancy or
around the time of birth, andthrough blood transfusion.
The World Health Organisation(WHO) had declared Zika virus a public healthemergency of international concern last year. E���"-�!�� ������� ���� ���������?����� �������� ����������
Zika infection in pregnancy might alsoaffect the baby’s growth or increase the
chance of miscarriage or stillbirth.Sometimes, a baby can be born with noapparent effects from Zika infection butcan later have slowed head and braingrowth as a result of the infection (calledpostnatal microcephaly).
Women who have had symptoms ofthe virus or tested positive for it shouldwait at least eight weeks after their symp-
toms first appeared before trying to getpregnant. It is recommended that menwho had symptoms should wait threemonths before having unprotected sex.Condoms can reduce the chance of get-ting Zika from sex.
Mosquito bands don’t have anyproven efficacy, hence, one must use aproven product containing DEET (chem-ical) even in children (after two monthsand avoiding hands, mouth and cuts).
Ankara: A man appearing to wearJamal Khashoggi’s clothes left theSaudi Consulate in Istanbul fol-lowing his killing there, accordingto a surveillance video, while amember of Saudi Crown PrinceMohammed bin Salman’s entouragemade four calls to the royal’s officearound the same time, reports saidon Monday.
The reports by CNN and a pro-government Turkish newspapercame just a day before PrinceMohammed’s high-profile invest-ment summit is to begin in Riyadhand Turkish President Recep TayyipErdogan has promised that detailsof Khashoggi’s killing “will berevealed in all its nakedness.”
That yet again adds to thepressure Saudi Arabia faces over theslaying of the Washington Postcolumnist. The kingdom’s claim onSaturday that Khashoggi died in a
“fistfight” met international skep-ticism and allegations of a cover-upto absolve the 33-year-old crownprince of direct responsibility.
Turkish media reports andofficials maintain that a 15-mem-ber Saudi team flew to Istanbul onOctober 2, knowing Khashoggiwould arrive for a document heneeded to get married. Once he wasinside the diplomatic mission, theSaudis accosted Khashoggi, cut offhis fingers, killed and dismemberedthe 59-year-old writer. CNN airedsurveillance footage on Mondayshowing the man in Khashoggi’sdress shirt, suit jacket and pants.
It cited a Turkish official asdescribing the man as a “body dou-ble” and a member of the Sauditeam sent to Istanbul to target thewriter. The man is seen in thefootage walking out of the consulatevia its back exit with an accomplice,
then taking a taxi to Istanbul’sfamed Sultan Ahmed Mosque,where he went into a public bath-room, changed back out of theclothes and left. AP
Tapachula (Mexico): PresidentDonald Trump said Mondaythe US will start cutting aid toGuatemala, Honduras and ElSalvador as a caravan of thou-sands of mostly Honduranmigrants rolled on regardlesstoward the US border.
Trump kept up his almost-daily Twitter attacks on theapproaching caravan, calling ita national emergency and saidhe had alerted the US borderpatrol and military.
“We will now begin cuttingoff, or substantially reducing,the massive foreign aid” thatthe United States provides tothe three Central Americancountries, he said.
Mexican authorities hadmanaged to block the “caravan”of migrants on a border bridgebetween Mexico andGuatemala, but many later
crossed the river below inmakeshift rafts before march-ing north.
The caravan of around3,000 migrants was headingMonday to the town of Huixtla,around 40 kilometres furtheron from Tapachula in ChiapasState where they slept Sundaynight. “Sadly, it looks likeMexico’s Police and Military areunable to stop the Caravanheading to the Southern Borderof the United States. Criminalsand unknown MiddleEasterners are mixed in,”Trump said in one tweet.
“I have alerted BorderPatrol and Military that this isa National Emergy (sic). Mustchange laws!” Activists say thejourney through of at least3,000 kilometres throughMexico to the US border couldtake a month. AFP
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Deposed former PrimeMinister Nawaz Sharif on
Monday told a court here thathe is not a traitor as his fami-ly migrated from India for itslove for Pakistan.
The Lahore High Court onMonday held the hearing on apetition seeking action against67-year-old Sharif under trea-son charges for claiming thatthose involved in the 2008Mumbai terror attack belongedto Pakistan. Another formerpremier Shahid Khaqan Abbasiand Dawn’s journalist CyrilAlmeida, who are the otherrespondents in the case, alsofiled their reply in the court.
Some 166 people werekilled in the attack carried outby 10 Pakistan-based LeT ter-rorists. Nine of the attackerswere killed by police whilelone survivor Ajmal Kasab wascaught and hanged after hand-ed down death sentence.
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Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Mondaymade an emotional national apology to
thousands of Australian victims of institution-al child sex abuse for failing to protect themfrom the “evil dark” crimes committed over thedecades and voiced his anger at those who havemisused the “shield of faith and religion” to hidetheir misdeeds.
The formal apology followed a nationalinvestigation into institutional sexual abuse inAustralia, which spanned five years and stunnedthe country with revelations of thousands ofcases of shocking abuse in institutional settingslike churches and orphanages.
In a speech which was broadcast liveacross the country, Morrison said the traumasuffered by the victims had been “hiding in plainsight for too long.”
“To the children we failed, sorry. To the par-ents whose trust was betrayed and who have strug-gled to pick up the pieces, sorry. To the whistle-blowers, who we did not listen to, sorry. To thespouses, partners, wives, husbands, children,who have dealt with the consequences of the abuse,cover-ups and obstruction, sorry. To generationspast and present, sorry,” Morrison said.
Washington: NASA scientists havedevised a new set of 21 moderngamma-ray constellations and namedthem after fictional characters such asthe Hulk and Godzilla.
The constellations, constructedwith sources visible through its gamma-ray telescope, were devised to celebratethe completion of 10 years of operationsof the Fermi Gamma-ray SpaceTelescope. The new constellationsinclude a few characters from modernmyths. Among them are the LittlePrince, the time-warping TARDIS from‘Doctor Who,’ Godzilla and his heat ray,the antimatter-powered U.S.S.Enterprise from ‘Star Trek: The OriginalSeries’ and the Hulk, the product of agamma-ray experiment gone awry.
“Developing these unofficial con-
stellations was a fun way to highlight adecade of Fermi’s accomplishments,” saidJulie McEnery, the Fermi project scien-tist at NASA’s Goddard Space FlightCenter in the US. “One way or another,all of the gamma-ray constellationshave a tie-in to Fermi science,” saidMcEnery. Since July 2008, Fermi’s LargeArea Telescope (LAT) has been scanningthe entire sky each day, mapping andmeasuring sources of gamma rays, thehighest-energy light in the universe.
The emission may come from pul-sars, nova outbursts, the debris ofsupernova explosions and giantgamma-ray bubbles located in ourown galaxy, or supermassive blackholes and gamma-ray bursts — themost powerful explosions in the cosmos— in others. PTI
Moscow: White House national secu-rity adviser John Bolton on Mondaybegan two days of meetings with seniorRussian officials following Washington’sweekend announcement of its with-drawal from a Cold War-era nuclearweapons treaty.
The Moscow visit by Bolton wasplanned before the Saturday announce-ment by President Donald Trump thatthe US was ditching the three-decade-old Intermediate-Range Nuclear ForcesTreaty, known as the INF, a move
AFP
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Jerusalem: In recent months, theTrump administration has repeat-edly put off the release of its long-awaited Mideast peace plan. Now,the death of Saudi journalist JamalKhashoggi at the hands of Saudiagents may put the plan into a deepfreeze.
Saudi Arabia’s powerful crownprince, Mohammed bin Salman,was meant to be the linchpin of theplan, providing key diplomaticcover to both Israelis andPalestinians. AP
Ankara: The murder of Saudi jour-nalist Jamal Khashoggi insideRiyadh’s Istanbul consulate was“savagely planned”, Turkey’s rulingparty spokesman said on Monday,the first official indication fromAnkara it believes a plot washatched in advance.
“This was extremely savagelyplanned, and we are faced with a sit-uation where there has been a lot ofeffort to whitewash this,” Justice andDevelopment Party (AKP)spokesman Omer Celik said inAnkara. “This is a very complicat-ed murder,” Celik said, warning thatthe Turkish Government wouldnot be drawn into speculation,”Celik added. AFP
Bata Ae Dil from the filmChhoti Bahen (1959) it paintsa sad picture, of a cold worldon the brink of ruin. DirectorAadish Keluskar’s film withthe same name also depicts aworld that is hopeless, con-fused and the people are in abewildered state of being. “Iwas listening to some songthat reminded me of theMukesh song with the samename. Jaoon Kahan Bata AeDil, this is exactly what we arefacing, we don’t know what wewant and even if we havewhat we want,” he said.
He portrays the middleclass Indian psyche through acouple in Mumbai havingconversations and grapplingwith modern love and thestate of the economy. For this,he believes, is what the truthis not the romantic cinema onscreen. Keluskar’s world is agrey one where there is verylittle chances of white. “I don’tknow if anyone is in the whitearea there are people in com-pletely black area but I don’tthink anybody is in white. Ican’t say what every filmmak-er should do but I try to findas much of the grey as possi-ble,” he said.
This edgy “anti-roman-tic” film has been selected forthe India Gold competitionsection at the 20th Jio MAMIMumbai Film Festival(October 25-November 1).
“The screenplay came tome like an attack. i wrote it infew days without stopping.The deliberate thing was afterthe first draft, ‘Did I want tomake it into a film?’. That’swhat I analysed for the seconddraft and realised that wehave not seen such conflictson the Indian screen comingfrom this strata of society. I feltthat the least cinema can do isdepict the unheard issues likecynicism and romanticism, Isthere a political choice or isthere an illusion of choice?What is the way forward whenthe economy is not doing thatgreat for the aspirant class?Morality and the binarybetween neglecting the truthand lying, between which liesa thin line of taking a standand being neutral — verybasic conflicts we face on adaily basis,” he said.
As per the concept of con-fusion, he said that it liesdeep within every single stra-ta but the nature of the con-flict differs on the surfacelevel but at the core everythingis same.
The city is an importantpart of the film but he did notwant to use a montage toshow it. “We wanted to showthe city by delving deep intothe character who live in thecity. Through their psycholo-gy you will see the city,” hesaid.
The film is a commentaryon the society and on thehuman condition. He por-
trayed the grey areas sincenobody is able to follow anyideology or belief or set ofprinciples. And the femaleprotagonist was therefore thecentral character.
“She’s in a way the centralcharacter and that required atremendous amount of focus.It is a conversational filmwhich is shot in the long take.I told the actors not to impro-vise because of the kind ofconditions we shot in — with-out permission and in 39degree Celsius and wherethere was always the possibil-ity of police telling us to stop.Often, the camera wouldbump into you or the otheractor would forget the lines.For the female character, I waslooking for a different sense ofintelligence, someone whocould remember the layers ineach of the lines and knowwhich one to show and notshow. There was immensecourage required to gothrough the torture, physicaland sexual but KhushbooUpadhyay, who is also an FTIIalum, like my wife and I, wasunbelievable in her under-standing and portrayal,” hesaid.
As an independent film-maker he accepted the realitythat workshops were not pos-sible since that wouldn’t fit thebudget. Instead, he went forline by line analysis with theactors separately and let themrehearse to build a rapport ofa couple that had been togeth-er for a year.
The cruelty of their wordsand their actions are what hewanted to show. Despite theconfidence that reflects in hisvoice about the message hewanted to give he doesn’tknow how the audience willreact. “A movie is where thedirector decides the effect ofeach scene and the movieaudience watching is sup-posed to feel that in differentdegrees it. Even Karan Johardoes it but a film is whereeveryone from the audiencefeels something different indifferent degrees. And as afilmmaker, I make sure thatthat level of freedom andinterpretation is possible sothat anyone can feel anything,”he concluded.
Singer Shweta Pandit, who hasaccused veteran music compos-
er Anu Malik of sexual miscon-duct, says child abuse is not takenseriously by men in the country.
Pandit tweeted: “All these‘young men’ on Twitter, who keepasking ‘so what happens next’ ina few days of my tweet are forget-ting that I kept this in my heart for17 years. We live in a country thatconstantly questions ‘only women’on the silliest of things. We don’twant any more dumb questions.Post my tweet I’ve also realised thatchild abuse is not taken seriouslyby most men (mindset is totallywrong) in India. ‘Just a peck’, ‘ohit must be like uncle’, ‘it must beon cheek’ came across some dis-turbing mentalities/replies onlineIndia #MeToo Maneka Gandhi.”Pandit, in a Twitter post, hadrecounted her ordeal with Malikin an incident dating back to 2000.She claims once in a cabin at a stu-dio, he told her he would give hera song with Sunidhi Chauhan andShaan “but first give me a kiss”.
“He then smiled, what I wouldrecall the most evil grin I’ve seen,”Pandit said of the incident whenshe was all of 15 years old.
Malik has denied allegations
that he sexually harassed Pandit,who has called him a “pedophile”and “sexual predator”.
She then wrote that if “youguys are trivialising my experienceas a 15-year-old as ‘just a peck’ orno big deal, you need to beslapped by your mother at homeand also know that you have thegerms of becoming a predatoryourself!”
“Every word said and writtenabout Anu Malik is true. I standby all the women who have final-
ly spoken up. May they find peaceand closure in their lives,” Alishasay.
Singer Alisha Chinai too whoworked with him extensively in the‘90s, has said that she believeseverything that has been writtenand said about him. She hadaccused Malik of molestation inthe ‘90s. The matter was settled afew years later and they reconciledas co-judges on Indian Idol.
“When I sued (Anu) Malik, Ifought it alone. It was an unprece-dented landmark verdict and arestraining order was passedagainst him. The man has repeat-edly begged for my forgiveness. Ihave chosen to forgive him andmoved on,” Alisha said.
Alisha went on to say thatMalik would routinely prey upgirls his daughters’ age, and oftenin their presence at his house.“Shweta Pandit, who disclosed herhorrific experience with Malik, isthe niece of composer duo Jatin-Lalit. Malik has two daughters andall these years he has been prey-ing on girls his daughters’ age.Many of them were attacked in hishouse with his wife and daughterspresent,” she said.
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In a time when rich businessmen, especiallythe Gujarati ones, have absconded withcrores from public sector banks, Baazaar,
actor Saif Ali Khan’s latest film is bound to attractinterest.
This time around Chhote Nawab dons atough, corporate look and plays a high level busi-nessman who wants to shake up the financial sec-tor in India. He explains how the role turned outto be the most exciting and enjoyable in his act-ing career till date. “Shakun’s character throwslight on how much money matters for some peo-ple. I am a rich Gujarati businessman who is fullof himself and pride. He doesn’t respect the oldtraditions. He wants to challenge the establish-ment but loves his family. Though, by the end,he is like a gande paani ka shark (shark of a drain).You call such a person as a corporate raider infinancial terminology. He is only interested in hisprofit. He doesn’t care about the company’sgrowth but is interested only in his own. He rep-resents a very khatarnaak (evil) person with a cap-italist mindset,” he says.
Radhika Apte, who hasn’t portrayed manyglamorous characters, believes that unconvention-al is the new normal and that “you have to selectfrom what you have been offered. You choosewhatever you find more exciting. I feel moreinclined to do such roles because I as well needto sometimes relate to the person I am playing.”From Nida in Ghoul, Anjali in Sacred Games,Sofie in Andhadhun, we have all seen her intel-ligence through the roles that she portrays. So dosuch characters also impact an actor’s life in a cer-tain way? Radhika believes that portraying toomany characters is difficult but it does changeyour life to a great extent as it “makes you knowyourself in a much better way.”
She adds, “It’s so funny, sometimes you comeacross different characters and they somehowsync with what is going on in your personal life.This is because you attract certain stories to you.There are also times when you have to play partsof those who probably resemble people whomyou do not appreciate in real life, but you haveto ultimately play those and step into their shoes.This is teaching me how to empathise and learnabout each and every person’s situation; abouthow not to be upset and angry at people and justlet them be. I also feel that this is one of the mostgifted professions because of the number of peo-ple you meet and stories you come across.”
The actor is basking in the success ofAndhadhun, says, “I honestly never think that Ihave ever ‘arrived’. It’s all a process to me. TodayI am lucky enough to be getting a lot of work thatI’m passionate about, but one can never knowwhat the future has in store,” she said.
Apte has a reason to be wary. She says, “I hadto struggle a lot to get to where I am today andit is appreciated more because people are awareof my work much more so there’s more talk aboutit. But at the same time I don’t think the strug-gle has ended because in any freelance industrythere is a constant struggle with constant rejec-tions, constantly trying to maintain a level of workas well as challenge yourself and bring somethingdifferent to every project you do.”
As Radhika has practically carpet-bombedNetflix which also inspired a meme later, whenthe online channel wrote in their Instagram bio:‘Another official Radhika Apte account.’ Shelaughs and says, “It was actually very smart ofNetflix to do that. But I question only one thing,how can someone be trolled for working?”
Rohan Mehra, son of actor Vinod Mehra,who is debuting with the film says, “I feel I aman outsider despite being his son. I don’t thinkI’ve ever used his name to get an interview or ameeting. Till last year, if I had gone to aBollywood party, I would’ve walked and no onewould know who I am. No one even knew I exist-ed. They came to know when the trailer cameout.”
Rohan says he never received any specialtreatment from anyone in the industry becauseof which he has “massive respect for the people.
“The other so-called star kids we speak about, theones who are spoken about even before their filmhas released, I wasn’t one of those. I was neveron the map. This is the way I would’ve wantedit to be. I’ve never got anything because of my sur-name.”
He believes the film industry today welcomesoutsiders with open arms. Although he belongsto a film family, Rohan says he had to struggle alot to bag his first project. “Today, there are somany casting agents and production houses doinga wonderful job of backing new talent. I don’tthink anyone should feel disheartened that theyaren’t from the industry. I am not and I have strug-gled too,” he adds.
Rohan says initially he was not influenced bycinema but after growing up, he was subcon-sciously drawn to acting.
He said that there was a lot of nervousnessand hesitation initially, “but I am lucky to havea fabulous cast who made me feel welcome.” Hetalks about how he related to the role that he plays,“I wanted to play the character that looks real.But the most important factor was about ‘whothe person is inside?’ Why he wants to do what-
ever he wants to do? The role is special to mebecause it’s my first and also quite similar to me.”
While the other two get candid about themrelating to their characters, Saif ’s role made himask questions about an ambitious person’s men-tality and how a human performs when it comesto money. He says, “Earlier, such topics had nevercrossed my mind. There’s a rich man’s world anda poor man’s. But it takes a lot of understandingto show both the sides. And everybody wantsmoney. The poor wants it because he doesn’t haveany, and the rich wants it because he is now accus-tomed to a lifestyle. But is money an illusion?Does it actually make you happy? What does itmean to specific people? It is somebody’s posses-sion, somebody’s insecurity, somebody willcommit crimes to get it because it will make hissleep a million times better.” Talking aboutChitrangda Singh, who plays his wife in the film,he questions that “she’s already rich. So what doeslife mean to her or what does money mean toher?”
He goes on to add, “There could be a com-plete anthology of Baazaar. It makes you ques-tion the human nature.”
The Federation of Western IndiaCine Employees (FWICE) on
Monday said it will issue show causenotices to actor Alok Nath andactor-director Sajid Khan, who havebeen accused of sexual harassmentand violation.
In a statement, FWICE said ashowcause notice will be sent toAlok as his response to its affiliateassociation Indian Film andTelevision Directors’ Association(IFTDA), was not “satisfactory”,and because Sajid did not respondto the letter of IFTDA on beingaccused of sexual harassment andmolestation by a few female mem-bers of the industry.
“The FWICE along withIFTDA pledge to support the vic-tims of sexual misconduct, irrespec-tive of the gender, with our fullstrength and might,” read the state-ment.
This step follows a meetingbetween top officials of FWICE andmembers of IFTDA.
It has been made mandatory foreach production house to form aseparate Special RedressalCommittee in accordance with theVishakha guidelines to closely mon-itor such incidents occurring ontheir projects (film/serial). Thiscommittee will empower the victimsto come out with such issues open-ly and help eradicate such malprac-tices from the industry completely.
“The committee shall extendfull support to the victim to goahead with the case and all the legalguidance and help shall be offered
to the victim till the judgment onthe case is awarded by the court oflaw,” the statement read.
This comes amidst the raging#MeToo movement, as part ofwhich women have come forwardto share their unsavoury experi-ences with people in positions ofpower. Writer-director VintaNanda named and shamed Alok ofsexually violating her 19 years ago,while Sajid has been named bymultiple women for his unaccept-able behaviour.
An array of sculptural heads at theNGMA Delhi make manifest whatit feels like to be a human being and
how sculptors can create heads that echorealistic idioms as they translate humancharacteristics in materials to reflect theveritable essence of existence. Culling ashow from the NGMA Archives is whatdirector general Adwaita Gadanayak hasbeen doing ever since he took over threeyears ago. In scouring the archivesGadanayak unveils how artists introducedmethods and techniques that are centralto his own artistic aesthetics.
Gadanayak states: “The art of modernportraiture in sculpture can be seenmajorly from the colonial times, but withthis exhibition a focus is drawn on the indi-vidualistic creativity of the artists ratherthan a particular academic style. Chehre isabout discovering India’s talent in moderncultural trends. The NGMA Archives is fullof a number of works that present art his-tory in many shades. I want the art worldand art lovers to know and recognise ourhistory and its depth of creativity. Chehreshows various phases of this form of cre-ative expression rendered in stone, wood,metal and other experimental mediums.”
Among the 50 heads on display it isvital to zoom in on a quartet that form thegenesis of Indian contemporary art histo-ry.
�����������������������������������The pioneer of modern sculpture in IndiaRamkinkar Baij’s portrait ofAbanindranath Tagore is worthy of scruti-ny. Abanindranath was a founder of the
Bengal School of Art. Here the por-trait has about it a rough hewnpinched panache. Rustic rhythmsseem evocative as well as expres-sively elegant. Baij obviouslycreated his cast with his pen-chant for moulding and youcan see the signature of hon-esty and translation of char-acteristic features with con-summate ease. Modellingthe features of ears and thehair with a naturality wasBaij’s brilliance.This headbecomes the edifice onwhich we can beginunderstanding the evolution of works inthis finely curated show by AdwaitaGadanayak and his curatorial team.
������������������������� �The second work that you must hunt outis Himmat Shah’s organic tenor terracot-ta work entitled Dead Metallic. Himmat’sbirth in 1933 in Lothal, near Saurashtra,one of the sites of the Indus Valley civili-sation where several pre-historic artefactshave been excavated becomes an impor-tant detail to understand his felicity withterracotta. It is the archetypal aura, the rad-ical emotive moulding of the streamlinedhead that draws attention. Historianshave noted that Himmat used self-designed tools and innovative techniques,to create sculptures that spoke of a uniqueyet rare contemporary edge.
Working with slip-casting, and accept-ing the tenors and travails of firing,Himmat’s head accentuates the tactile qual-
ities of the surface smoothness. Hisrecurring theme in terracotta hasbeen the monolith head that takes onthe form of an iconic object, a ritualsymbol or an ancestral memory. Theerect form of the head here exudes a
subliminal signature containing anaura of spiritual energy, perhaps of a
tirthankara, or a guardian spirit as weespie its early birth.
��������������Akbar Padamsee’s sculptural head is adelight to behold. “Expression is all themore powerful when it is about a solitaryfigure,” said Padamsee in a recent interviewto Christie's and it is so true when you lookat his work in this archival collection.Padamsee created masks of beaten copperas far back as 1955. This bronze belong-
ing to 1985 has about it an orientationof universality about it. He has often
said that he sees art as an innatelogic. This head testifies to thatvision.
“I feel that art alwaysbelongs to the present in a liv-ing culture, even if its actualmaking dates back to 10,000years. Great works of art usu-ally carry within them anintuitive, innate logic. I donot subscribe to thenotion of art as selfexpression. Rather it isthis intuitive logic whichis expressed through
form, colour, line, sound, formulae — pro-portion, the tension between spaces, theirinterrelationship, all this have their owninternal logic,” stated Padamsee in 1953and these words help us understand hiscreative surges. Sculpted first in clay,then cast in plaster of Paris and wax —afterthe age old cire-perdue process, cast final-ly in bronze, this tip tilted head is stoic andholds a dignity as it exudes an inherent,compacted strength. “We are a presence,the here and the now. All that matters isthat we have to deepen our existence,” hestated and this holds true.
���������Sculptor Biman Das’s 1976 composition ofa double head has about it a deep aura ofinvincible intensity as it veers into abstrac-tion and simple sophistication. There area range of responses that arise when welook at this iconic work . We can think ofman and woman, sharing everything somuch so that their spirit of being is con-
joined and in symphony. Ranging from thedense, and the vivid, to a monochromat-ic mooring with distinct tonalities itoffers a spectrum of references. Smoothcontours and lithe lines speak of a deep-ened intuitive understanding of humanfeatures.
The planar lines with a seeminglysimple finesse of the fingers and econo-my of execution, capture the intrinsicgrace of the human face while we can alsospend time analysing its very catalyst ofconstruction. Creating a compositionwith long, lithe and slender lines is whatmakes this work stand apart. At best itspeaks to us about inferences andimageries that are remote, timeless andmysterious. “I learnt how to play withabstraction in my friendship withDhanraj Bhagat,” says Biman Das.“Sculpture for me was about finding newjourneys, and simplifying forms. WhileI was rooted to Indian traditions and cul-tural symbolism my forms were born outof abstracted sensibility which I believeis Indian. If you look at the old Kali tem-ples and see the level of abstraction youunderstand that abstraction was part ofthe Hindu identity,” says Das who getsready for a historic Retrospective atAIFACS in February 2018.
(Chehre runs at NGMA Delhithrough October and November 2018.)
Stephen Hawking was a cosmicvisionary, a figure of inspiration
and a global celebrity. His uniquestatus is reflected in an upcomingauction of some of the late physi-cist’s possessions: It includes com-plex scientific papers, one of theworld’s most iconic wheelchairs anda script from The Simpsons.
The online sale announcedMonday by auctioneer Christie’sfeatures 22 items from Hawking,including his doctoral thesis on theorigins of the universe, some of hismany awards, and scientific paperssuch as Spectrum of Wormholes andFundamental Breakdown of Physicsin Gravitational Collapse.
Thomas Venning, head ofbooks and manuscripts at Christie’s,said the papers “trace the develop-ment of his thought — this brilliant,electrifying intelligence.”
“You can see each advance ashe produced it and introduced it to
the scientific community,” Venningsaid.
Of course, Hawking’s famerests only partly on his scientific sta-tus as the cosmologist who putblack holes on the map.
Diagnosed with motorneuron disease at 22 andgiven just a few years to live,he survived for decades,dying in March at 76.
The auctionincludes one of fiveexisting copies ofHawking’s 1965C a m b r i d g eUniversity Ph.D. thesis,Properties of ExpandingUniverses, which carries an esti-mated price of 100,000 pounds to150,000 pounds ($130,000 to$195,000).
Venning said the thesis, signedby Hawking in handwriting madeshaky by his illness, is both a key
document in the physicist’s scien-tific evolution and a glimpse into hispersonal story.
“He was diagnosed withALS (amyotrophic lateral
sclerosis) just as hearrived in
Cambridgeto begin his
Ph.D. stud-ies,” Venning
said. “He gaveup his studies for
a time because hewas so despondent.
The thesis “was thefruit of him reapplying
himself to his scientificwork,” Venning said, and
Hawking “kept it beside himfor the rest of his life.”The disease eventually left
Hawking almost completely paral-ysed. He communicated through avoice-generating computer and
moved in a series of high-techwheelchairs. One is included in thesale, with an estimated price of10,000 pounds to 15,000 pounds($13,000 to $19,500). Proceedsfrom its sale will go to two chari-ties, the Stephen HawkingFoundation and the MotorNeurone Disease Association.
Venning said the wheelchairbecame a symbol not just of disabil-ity but of Hawking’s “puckish senseof humor.” He once ran over PrinceCharles’ toes — and reportedlyjoked that he wished he had donethe same to Prime MinisterMargaret Thatcher — and appearedin a Monty Python skit runningdown fellow physicist Brian Cox.
Venning said Hawking “verymuch thought of himself as a sci-entist first and a popular commu-nicator second,” but accepted andeven enjoyed his celebrity status. Heappeared several times on animat-ed comedy show The Simpsons andkept a figurine of himself from theshow in his office.
The sale includes a script fromone of Hawking’s Simpson’s appear-ances, a copy of his best-seller ABrief History of Time signed with athumbprint and a personalisedbomber jacket that he wore in adocumentary.
Hawking’s daughter Lucy saidthe sale gave “admirers of his workthe chance to acquire a mementoof our father’s extraordinary life inthe shape of a small selection ofevocative and fascinating items.”
Hawking’s children hope topreserve his scientific archive for thenation. Christie’s is handling nego-tiations to hand it over to Britishauthorities in lieu of inheritance tax.
The items — part of a sciencesale that includes papers by IsaacNewton, Charles Darwin andAlbert Einstein — will be on dis-play in London for several daysfrom October 30. The auction isopen for bids between October31 and November 8.
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Ayub Bachchu celebrated guitarist,song writer, composer and singer,
loved to perform on stage. Not onlywas he passionate about singing andplaying the guitar for his fans at shows,he also loved to talk and carry onaddas at his studio with visitors,sharing anecdotes for hours on end.
The singing and spoken voice hasfallen silent as he breathed his last onThursday.
Bachchu formed LRB after 10long years of practice for perfectionin 1991 and it is the only Bangla rockband which played in famousMadison Square Garden in New YorkCity.
Bachchu performed live withRichard and Le Gang (France), RemoFernandez, Nandon Bugchi, andBikram Gosh of India; and AzamKhan (singer), Feelings (nowNogorBaul), Miles, Warfaze and manymore.
In 2012 after he suffered his firstcardiac arrest, Bachchu tried tobring about some lifestyle changes,only so he could carry on with his liveperformances. Not only did he com-promise on food that he was passion-ate about, he also tried to sleep atdecent hours, trying to give his bodythe rest it needed. Instead of kacchibiryani and parata rolls his studio wasnow filled with fresh fruits, deliciousvegetable dishes and healthier optionsfor snacks.
Despite the changes, he suc-cumbed to a cardiac arrest at hisMoghbazar residence at the age of 56.
The famous singer had been suf-fering from heart disease for long and
the performance rate of his heart was30 per cent, he said.
The legendary singer was buriedbeside his mother’s grave in his homedistrict Chattogram.
Bachchu, the lead guitarist ofmusical band ‘LRB’ (Love Runs Blind),was born in Chattogram on August16, 1962 and made his debut in themusic industry when he sang HaranoBikeler Golpo. He started the bandFeelings in 1978. Then he joined theband Souls in 1980. Later on heformed LRB.
In 1986, he released his firstmusic album Rakto Golap. His suc-cess story began when his secondalbum Moyna was released.
He came close to listeners byreleasing the third album Koshto in1995. The album was super hit. Thesong Koshto Pete Bhalobasi touchesthe listeners’ heart intensely.
Ayub Bachchu became a heart-throb singer overnight across thecountry for the heart touching song.
Although he was a rock singer heimpressed the listeners with modern,classic and folk songs.
His fans also flooded the social
media platforms expressing theirdeepest condolences to the iconic fig-ure of the country’ music industry.
He wanted his creations to beappreciated and respected but hewas also very possessive—about hisidentity, his country, his songs, band,his studio and the people he loved andsacrificed for. He would work hard butwould always acknowledge the goodwork done by his rival.
Last year, the national copyrightoffice in Bangladesh went digital andrecognised Ayub Bachchu as the firstmale musician to have his profilerecorded online.
At an age where he should havebeen relaxing and enjoying his life, likeall musical legends do all over theworld, Ayub Bachchu was busy withlive shows, sometimes too many forhis own good.
Besides the fact that he likeddoing shows, was it also because,unlike the other countries with prop-er laws and royalty system, it is diffi-cult in Bangladesh for a musician tosurvive otherwise.
Three-time defending champi-on Real Madrid is in crisisafter four defeats in five games
as it returns to the ChampionsLeague on Tuesday.
The question hanging overSantiago Bernabeu Stadiumbefore Viktoria Plzen's visitis whether club presidentFlorentino Perez has alreadyhad enough of Madrid coach JulenLopetegui.
The former Spain coach, whotook over after Zinedine Zidane'ssurprise resignation, is on shakyground after three straight defeats.Lopetegui's team lost 1-0 at CSKAMoscow in the Champions Leaguebefore two humbling defeats tomodest Spanish league teams Alavesand Levante.
Lopetegui said after Saturday's2-1 home loss to Levante that hismain concern is "picking up hisboys."
Even a win over Plzen may notsave Lopetegui with Madrid facingan always demanding visit toBarcelona's Camp Nou on Sunday.
Madrid captain Sergio Ramossaid he hopes a win over Plzen willhelp the team start to click.
"Every three days you have achance to turn this around," Ramossaid. "Tuesday we have anothertest. The best thing we can do is toremain united."
Madrid is unbeaten in 26 groupgames at home while Plzen - alreadybottom of Group G - has lost allthree European games it has playedin Spain without scoring.
Here is a look at the fourChampions League groups onTuesday:
,�����+Bayern Munich is targeting
another win at AEKAthens after finallyending a four-gamewinless streak atWolfsburg on
Saturday. Tension at theBavarian powerhouse was
evident with club bosses blasting themedia on Friday for unfavorable
coverage during its uncharacteristicslump, but the mood is better nowahead of the visit to Athens.
The Greek champion is lookingfor its first points after losing bothof its opening games to Ajax andBenfica.
Bayern coach Niko Kovac willtake encouragement from the factthe club has never lost in nine gamesagainst a Greek club.
Ajax hosts Benfica inAmsterdam, where the home sidewill hope to build on its fine per-formance from its 1-1 draw inMunich.
,�����-Shakhtar Donetsk ended
Manchester City's unbeaten start tothe season with a 2-1 win when theymet in the Champions League lastyear. This time round, Shakhtar wel-comes City on an 11-game unbeat-en run of its own, though most ofthat was against relatively weakopposition.
City, beaten 2-1 at home byLyon in its first group game, will bewary of another slip despite a con-fidence-boosting 5-0 win overBurnley on Saturday.
Group leader Lyon visitsHoffenheim with forward MemphisDepay hitting form again at the righttime. Depay impressed for theNetherlands during the interna-tional break and ended his 10-game scoring drought for Lyon onFriday.
,�����,With most of the attention on
Real Madrid, CSKA Moscow willhope to build on its win over thedefending champions by beatingRoma away on Tuesday.
It won't be an easy task. Sincedefeating Madrid, CSKA has lost toLokomotiv Moscow and crashed out
of the Russian Cup on penalties toa struggling second-tier team. It beatRussian Premier League relegationcandidate Anzhi Makhachkala 2-0on Friday.
CSKA won't want a repeat of itslast away game at Roma. A 5-1 lossin 2014 was accompanied by racismand violence from the traveling fans,leading to CSKA being forced toplay two European home gamesbehind closed doors.
Roma has also had a mixed runthis season. Just as it seemed likeEusebio Di Francesco had sorted outhis team's problems, its four-matchwinning streak was brought to a haltby a 2-0 home defeat to Spal onSaturday.
Roma has picked up only 14points in Serie A so far, its worst tallyfrom the first nine league matchessince 2012-13.
,�����All eyes will be on Cristiano
Ronaldo when he returns to OldTrafford looking to score for thethird straight match against hisformer club - this time for Juventus.
Ronaldo has played againstManchester United twice since leav-ing for Real Madrid in 2009. Bothgoals came in the last-16 stage in the2012-13 competition.
More than five years on andRonaldo is still a goal-scoring phe-nomenon. On Saturday, he scoredagainst Genoa in Serie A to becomethe first player to net 400 goalsacross Europe's top five leagues.
Juventus midfielder Emre Canwill miss the game after being diag-nosed with a thyroid nodule thatcould also require surgery.
Young Boys hosts goal-shyValencia in the other group game.Valencia hasn't managed to scoremore than one goal in a match sinceSept. 2.
ner as Inter Milan stunned ACMilan 1-0 in the derby at the SanSiro to retake third place in SerieA.
The Argentinian pounced on amistake by goalkeeper GianluigiDonnarumma to nod home in the sec-ond minute of added time after anotherwise forgettable match, leavingGennaro Gattuso's Milan without awin in the last five league derbies.
But Inter continued their recentresurgence under Luciano Spalletti
after finishing fourth last termto qualify for the ChampionsLeague for the first time since2011-12, moving to withinsix points of leaders Juventus,after their 1-1 home drawwith Genoa on Saturday.
"I came here to win, not tojust sit on a bench for a season and tryto bring home a salary," former Romacoach Spalletti told Sky Sport Italia.
"I came here to organise thefuture of Inter and the players must dothe same."
"I liked that after the final whis-tle, Icardi said we must find consis-tency and keep pushing. Inter chose
us to bring this side back to the levelthat the fans deserve."
There was an injury blow for Interahead of Wednesday's ChampionsLeague clash against Barcelona,though, with Radja Nainggolan sub-stituted midway through the firsthalf after tangling with AC midfield-er Lucas Biglia.
"Nainggolan has been choppeddown," added Spalletti.
"We have to take him to the hos-pital and see. He won't be with us fora while." AC Milan remain down in12th after seeing their eight-gameunbeaten run in all competitionsended.
The game appeared to be peter-ing out into a goalless draw, butDonnaruma came and failed to claima speculative right-wing cross fromVecino, and Icardi headed into theunguarded net to score his fourthleague goal of the campaign andspark jubilant scenes among the Interfans in the stands.
"We lost the game together, notbecause of Donnarumma," insistedMilan boss Gattuso.
"We lost because we didn't playwith the right courage, we were dis-tracted and conceded a naive goal."
Earlier on Sunday, late goals fromCiro Immobile and Joaquin Correagave Lazio a 2-0 win at Parma.
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Hosts Delhi Dynamos will be aiming toend their winless streak against an
equally desperate Chennaiyin FC when thetwo teams lock horns in an Indian SuperLeague encounter here on Tuesday.
The hosts secured a draw againstKerala Blasters where they needed a late goalfrom Andrija Kaluderovic to salvage a point.
Even in the opening game against FCPune City, they dropped points at the endand coach Josep Gombau will feel theyneeded much more than two points fromtheir three games.
"We are a new team. We are trying toplay a new style of football. This issomething that cannot happen in oneday. I think we deserve more than thetwo points we have because, in all thethree games, we had chances to winthe game," said Gombau.
While Lallianzuala Chhangte andRomeo Fernandes have shown glimpses oftheir quality, lack of composure in front ofgoal is telling. Delhi's profligacy has seenthem score only three goals despite fash-ioning countless opportunities.
Delhi will miss the services of influen-tial midfielder Marcos Tebar, who is nurs-ing a hamstring injury.
Chennaiyin FC looked a shadow of theirold side, which won the title in March thisyear. In the absence of the injured DhanpalGanesh, none of their midfielders, includ-ing the likes of Anirudh Thapa and
Germanpreet Singh, have been able totake control. "You can always look at the
reason why we have not started so well. Butthe effort that the boys have put in for allthree matches is incredible. I certainly haveno problems with the way that they haveapproached the games," said Chennaiyin FCcoach John Gregory.
Chennaiyin FC is the only team to havelost all their three matches and coachGregory will need to inspire his side to makea mark soon or risk being left out of the raceearly in the competition. Just like the firstthree matches, it wouldn't be any easyagainst Delhi Dynamos.
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Yuki Bhambri, who has just returned to cir-cuit after recovering from a knee injury,
dropped out of top-100 but PrajneshGunneswaran was rewarded for his good runat the Ningbo Challenger as he touched acareer-best 146 on Monday.
Bhambri was on the edge of the top-100when he lost his first round at the EuropeanOpen in Antwerp last week and has nowdropped seven places to 107.
He had returned to top-100 in April thisyear after spending 26 months outside thebracket.
Left-handed Prajnesh, who lost theNingbo Challenger title clash to ThomasFabbiano on Sunday, jumped 24 places to 146.
Ramkumar Ramanathan who had alsolost to Fabbiano gained a place to be 124.
He was followed by Sumit Nagal (312) andSaketh Myneni (316, +10) and Arjun Kadhe(356).
In the doubles, Rohan Bopanna wasunchanged at 30 and was followed by DivijSharan (39, -1), Leander Paes (62, -1), JeevanNedunchezhiyan (75, -2) and Purav Raja (88,+3).
In the WTA rankings, Ankita Rainabroke back to the top-200, gaining six placesto be at number 195. Karman Kaur Thandiwas unchanged at 215 while PranjalaYadlapalli leapfrogged 60 places to career-best280.
The 19-year-old Yadlapalli had won back-to-back ITF $ 25000 events in Lagos, Nigeria.Now she has three singles ITF titles in hercareer.
In a match between the last two USOpen champions, Sloane Stephens
came out on top.The 2017 champion beat Naomi
Osaka 7-5, 4-6, 6-1 on Monday at theWTA Finals, the season-ending tour-nament for the top eight players in theworld.
Both players are making their debutappearances at the tournament, butStephens appeared to be more composedwhile Osaka, who became the firstJapanese citizen to win a Grand Slamtitle last month in New York, neverseemed comfortable.
"I'm just really happy to get throughand play a good competitive match,"Stephens said on court after the match."I never gave up. I knew she's been play-ing well and I'd have to play really goodtennis to beat her."
Both players struggled to holdserve. Osaka was broken on seven of 19break-point opportunities, whileStephens was broken on four of 12.
Stephens entered the tournamentwith 33 wins this season, the least ofany of the eight qualifiers. She reachedher second career Grand Slam final atthis year's French Open, and won theMiami title.
Osaka continually showed her frus-tration during the match. When shefailed to capitalize on four break pointsin the fourth game of the second set, shemade a visible shrugging gesture withboth hands.
Stephens gifted the second set toOsaka when she double-faulted on a sec-
ond set point in the10th game. ButOsaka appeared tobe mentally fatigued
and only managed to hold serve in thethird game of the final set.
Stephens is now 1-0 in the RedGroup, while Osaka is 0-1. AngeliqueKerber and Kiki Bertens are also in thegroup.
Meanwhile, Roger Federer hasrevealed that he has been suffering with
a hand injury since the summer, but saidthe problem is no longer a worry as heheads into his home Swiss Open start-ing on Monday.
The 20-time Grand Slam winnertold Germany's Sonntag Zeitung of theproblem which began when he trainedfor the grasscourt season.
"I hurt my hand training at the startof the grass season," Federer told thenewspaper. "It's had more consequencesthan I thought. I dragged this pain forabout three months.
"It's not an excuse and we're not
going to make a fuss over it."He added: "(Sometimes) I felt pain
during the first ten minutes of a matchwarmup. But now I can let go of my fore-hand normally without thinking of it."
The 37-year-old Federer will starthis bid for a ninth Basel title on Tuesdaywhen he plays Serbia's Filip Krajinovicand could face a revenge match in thesecond round if he and John Millmanboth advance.
The 33rd-ranked Australianshocked Federer in the US Open fourthround in September.
player to win an ATP WorldTour title when he beat ErnestsGulbis 6-4, 6-4 in the final ofthe Stockholm Open onSunday.
The 20-year-oldTsitsipas tossed his rack-et in the air and putboth hands to hishead when Gulbisput a forehand intothe net after 1 hour,21 minutes.
Tsitsipas had losthis previous two finals,both times to Rafael
Nadal. "Of course I feel happy
because I'm the first Greek(to win an ATP title)," said
16th-ranked Tsitsipas, whobecame the 12th first-time title-
winner on the ATP Tour thisyear. "Hopefully many Greek
players can achieve some-thing like this. I would be
super-happy to see themachieve something like
this in the future."Gulbis had won
all six of his finals atATP tournaments.
This was his firstsince 2014, having beat-
en top-seeded John Isnerin the semifinals.
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Lewis Hamilton was forced to waitfor a fifth world title when he fin-
ished third at the US Grand Prix asFerrari's Kimi Raikkonen took afirst victory in more than five years.
Title rival Sebastian Vettel inanother Ferrari was fourth meaningthe championship race will probablybe decided in Mexico next weekendinstead.
Hamilton now leads Vettel by 70points and with 75 remaining in thefinal three races he can clinch his fifthtitle by finishing seventh in Mexico,if Vettel wins.
If Vettel fails to win, Hamiltonwill be champion. Red Bull's MaxVerstappen finished second onSunday after starting in 18th place.
"Congratulations to Kimi, andgreat job from Max too. This was thebest we could do today, and it wasgreat that we got to do some racing,"said Hamilton who had started onpole position and was looking for asixth win at the Circuit of theAmericas.
Raikkonen, whose last win was atthe 2013 Australian Grand Prix, wasdeadpan.
"Obviously I'm much happierthan finishing second. It's been agreat weekend and the car has beenpretty good all the time," said the 39-year-old Finn.
Raikkonen, who will leaveFerrari for Sauber at the end of theseason, claimed the lead on theopening lap and rodehis luck in a strategicand tactical race toclaim the 21st victoryof his career.
It was his first winin 113 races, the longest periodbetween wins in F1 history, break-ing the previous record held byItalian Riccardo Patrese.
Raikkonen came home 1.3 sec-onds ahead of Verstappen withHamilton finishing a further secondadrift after failing to battle past theDutchman in the final laps.
Vettel recovered from an open-ing lap spin to keep is slender titlehopes alive.
Hamilton's Mercedes teammateValtteri Bottas was fifth ahead of
Nico Hulkenberg and his Renaultteam-mate Carlos Sainz.
Esteban Ocon of Force Indiacame home eighth ahead of KevinMagnussen of Haas and Sergio Perezin the second Force India.
Afte the race Championship
leader Lewis Hamilton said Mercedesmade life difficult for themselveswith a cautious race strategy in theUnited States Grand Prix.
The 33-year-old Briton, whofinished third, but missed out onclinching his fifth drivers title, told
reporters that he was surprisedwhen he was called in for an earlypit-stop to take advantage of aVirtual Safety Car intervention onlap 11.
"It was a little bit of a surprise,"said the Mercedes man after finish-
ing behind race winner KimiRaikkonen in a Ferrari and Red Bull'sMax Verstappen.
"And once we'd done the stop on11, I knew I would be doing a two-stop.
"We just made it so hard for our-selves. When we came out, I had tocatch Kimi, I caught him, but mytyres were dead.
"Then he did his stop and wascatching me with fresh tyres -- andthen I came out, after the last stop,and had 12 seconds to catch up. Itjust made it so hard for us even tocompete today."
Despite his disappointment,Hamilton seems assured of wrappingup the title in Mexico next weekend.
D/�/�6���(���'�'=+������'HDKimi Raikkonen lived up to
expectations when he refused tochange his customary laconic styleafter claiming his first Formula Onewin for more than five years.
But the 39-year-old Finn couldnot resist an ultra-dry riposte at theexpense of Lewis Hamilton onSunday.
Sitting in the green pre-podiumroom after the race, he leaned acrossto speak to the Briton, who was frus-trated in his bid to clinch a fifth titleand finished third.
"So, did you win the champi-onship today?" asked the Ferrariman.
Raikkonen and Hamilton mayboth have been unaware of it, butSunday's race came exactly 11 yearsafter the Finn's victory and drivers'title triumph for Ferrari in Brazil inHamilton's 2007 debut season.
That race ended theEnglishman's title dream for that sea-son.
Typically, Raikkonen playeddown his success on Sunday while allaround him dashed around in cele-bration.
"It's not going to change my life,"he said. "The champagne tastes thesame. It's no different to the last timeon the podium.
"We always come to the weekendto do our best and if we do our bestthen we expect to be up there to fightfor the win. We did it today. I feltconfident and it worked out.
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All eyes will be on PrithviShaw but senior pros like
Ajinkya Rahane andRavichandran Ashwin will aimto remain relevant in the one-dayformat when the rejiggedDeodhar Trophy starts here onTuesday.
With only 17 ODIs leftbefore India play their firstWorld Cup match, the core ofthe team Indian team is more orless settled, which can be detri-mental for the motivation for thestar players.
For the younger crop ofdomestic performers, it will bean opportunity to stake claim forthe A tour to New Zealand, nextmonth.
While his bowling partner inTests, Ravindra Jadeja, has man-aged to make an ODI comeback,Ashwin has not played a limit-ed overs game for India sinceJuly 2017.
Considering India's spindepartment looks settled at themoment, it will take a specialeffort from Ashwin to get backin the reckoning in white-ballcricket ahead of the 2019 WorldCup.
His captain in the India Ateam and Tamil Nadu teammate,Dinesh Karthik, faces a similarsituation after being dropped forthe ongoing West Indies series.
The wicket-keeper batsmandid not do badly in the chanceshe got, most recently in AsiaCup, but following his match-winning six off the last ball in theNidahas Trophy final, he has notdone much to write home about,something his replacementRishabh Pant has done.
For that very reason, a suc-cessful Deodhar Trophy is amust for Karthik if he has tomake a case for selection in theteam for the away Australiaseries next month. India A sidealso includes teenage sensationShaw and Karun Nair, whowould like to make a strong casefor himself after being ignored inEngland.
Test vice-captain Rahane,who has not played an ODI sinceFebruary, too will have to dosomething sensational for selec-tors to take notice. He was apotential candidate for numberfour position where AmbatiRayudu is being preferred at themoment.
Most of the performers inthe recently concluded VijayHazare Trophy have been pickedfor the event which will see IndiaA, B and C fight it out for thetitle. Vijay Hazare Trophy cham-pions are not featuring this time,like earlier editions. Overall,four games will be staged includ-ing the final on October 27.
India B will be captainedShreyas Iyer and C by Rahane.
After losing to World No 1Tai for the fifth time this
year in the Denmark Openfinal at Odenese on Sunday,heartbroken Saina Nehwal willlook to fill the upset in the $750,000 French OpenSuperseries starting in Parisfrom Tuesday.
Former World No 1 andLondon Olympics Bronzemedallist Saina, who wasdropped down to 27th positionin the world rankings followingsome unexpected results in therecent few tournaments made astrong comeback last week inDenmark but couldn't finishsupreme.
She lost in three sets evenafter bouncing back in the sec-ond set in 53 minutes clash. Butoverwhelmed by her brilliantshow in Danish tourney, Sainais expecting to lift title in theFrench capital.
Back to top 10 in the rank-ing once again after edgingpast Japanese old foes AkaneYamaguchi and NozomiOkuhara in quarters and semi-final respectively. Nehwal willopen her campaign againstworld No 37th Japanese SaenaKawakami.
While Asian Games and
World ChampionshipSilver medallist PVSindhu, will look to startafresh after forgettingher poor run inDenmark, where shesuffered a shock defeatin the first round.
Ranked third in theworld, Rio Olympics runner upwill start against eleventh seedAmerican opponent BeiwenZhang.
This year turned out to bewell for Sindhu as she managedto pull out some brilliant per-formances which includes Silvermedals in top three events of
the year, respectivelyC o m m o n w e a l t hGames in Gold Coast,World Championshipin China and AsianGames in Jakarta.
But the disap-pointment lies withthe fact that even
though she was in flawlessform, the Hyderabadi couldn’tfinish it with the desired results.
She will be desperate toammend for all the upsets bywinning title in France capital.
In the men's section, topshuttler Kidambi Srikanth willlead India's challenge along
with Sai Praneeth and SameerVerma.
Srikanth, who reachedDemark semifinal before losingto eventual winner new worldNo 1 Kento Momota will starthis run against 22nd seededHong Kong player Wong WingKi Vincent.
Sameer Verma will faceAsian Games Gold medallistJonatan Christie in the firstmatch.
However for Sai Praneeththe first match could also be hislast in the tournament as hefaces tough challenge fromViktor Axelsen, who is droppeddown to third in the rankingsfollowing some unfavourableresults.
Apart from the singles com-petition, number 24th in theworld Indian duo ofSatwiksairaj Rankireddy andChirag Shetty will lead chal-lenge in men's doubles andwill start campaign against 36thseed German pair of JonesRalfy Jansen and JocheZurwonne.
And in the mixed doubles,33rd in the world AshwiniPonnappa and SatwiksairajRankireddy will face 10thranked English pair of Chrisand Gabrielle Adcock in thetournament opener.
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Sri Lanka's left-arm bowler Rangana Herath is retir-ing earlier than expected and will bid farewell after
next month's opening Test against England in Galle,the cricket board announced on Monday.
Herath, 40, was expected to bow out at the con-clusion of England's three-Test tour, but he will now
call it quits frominternational cricketat the same groundwhere he made hisTest debut againstAustralia in 1999.
"We respect andsupport Rangana'sdecision even thoughhis retirement willbe a big loss for SriLanka Cricket," theSri Lankan boardsaid.
"We wish tothank him for theinvaluable contribu-tion he has made."Herath has played 92Tests, taking 430wickets — making
him Sri Lanka's sec-ond most prolif ic bowler behind MuttiahMuralitharan, who holds the all-time world recordof 800.
His last ODI appearance was in Wellingtonagainst England in March 2015. The first Testagainst England starts on November 6.
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Smriti Mandhana and experi-enced Harmanpreet Kaur
shone with the bat as India Adefeated Australia A by four wick-ets in the lung-opener of thethree match T20 series here onMonday.
The India women,which isbasically the national team thatwill play the women's T20 WorldCup, have thus begun their prepa-rations well.
Choosing to bat, Australia Amanaged to score 160/6 in theiralloted 20 overs, with HeatherGraham top-scoring with 43 at theMumbai Cricket Association'sBandra-Kurla Complex facility.
But Mandhana (72 off 40balls) and Kaur (45 off 39 balls)made a mockery of the stiff tar-get as they dominated the Aussiebowlers.
India A scored 163/6 to sur-pass the target with an over to
spare.Left-handed Mandhana
showed her class after youngJemimah Rodrigues (4) and wick-et-keeper Taniya Bhatia (0) fellcheaply.
She found an able partner inKaur as the two took the sidetowards victory.
When Kaur fell, India A were126-4, but all-rounder PoojaVastrakar remained unbeaten on21 to take the side home.
Earlier, apart from Graham,Aussie batters Tahila McGrath (31and Naomi Stalenberg (39) gotstarts but failed to convert theminto big scores.
The Indian bowlers tookwickets at regular intervals andnever allowed the opposition bat-ters to settle.
For India A, Anuja Patil andDeepti Sharma picked two wick-ets each.
The second game will beplayed at the same venue onWednesday.
��+-����+��Australia A 160/6 in 20 overs(Heather Graham 43, NaomiStalenberg 39, Anuja Patil 2-22)lost to India A 163/6 (SmritiMandhana 72, HarmanpreetKaur 45, Lauren Cheatle 2-18).
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Aday after being hammered0-9 by defending champi-
ons India in the ongoing AsianChampions Trophy, AsianGames Gold medallists Japanhockey team coach SiegfriedAikman hailed India's attack-ing style as a sight to see.
"I enjoy watchingIndia because theyplay to win and theywere too strong for usin this match,"Aikman said.
"India played a very highquality of hockey. Theircounter attacks were too goodfor us. We tried our level best,but they were too good for us.
"They played with focusand determination to perform.India are physically muchstronger than us. They couldalso see that we had not recov-ered quickly from the previousday's match," he added.
Impressed with India'sskills and determination,Aikman acknowledged thatthe Harendra Singh-coachedside will beat his team on mostoccasions.
"India will probably beat usnine times out of 10 encoun-ters. This was unfortunately nota day for us," said Aikman,whose team is missing six play-ers from the side that wonJapan's first Asian Games men'stitle.
The coach is pleased withthe way the young players hadtried to compete with strongerrivals.
"India taught us valuablelessons. We will learn from thisgame. If we meet India in thesemi-finals or the final, it willbe totally different," saidAikman.
"India made a point in thismatch, but they cannot do soevery time."
Aikman said Japan stillhad aspirations tomake the semi-finalsin the AsianChampions Trophy.
"We still have achance to advance
to the semi-finals. It will onlychange if South Korea or Omanstart winning matches and weslip up," he said.
"We look forward to doingwell in the remaining games.We are not here to slip into thesemi-finals by under-perfor-mance."
India's next opponent willbe Asian Games Silver medal-lists Malaysia, who pulled off ashock semi-final victory toknock them out of the final inthe Asian Games at Jakarta.
India are leading the stand-ings in the six-nation event,where the preliminary round-robin league competition willbe followed with knock-outsemi-finals featuring the topfour nations.
Japan have won one matchand lost two in three games,which places them in fourth inthe standings, behind India,Malaysia and Pakistan.
South Korea and hostsOman are the teams placedbehind Japan.
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D'Arcy Short smacked an unbeatenhalf-century as Australia cruised to
a seven-wicket victory over United ArabEmirates in a lone Twenty20 internationalin Abu Dhabi on Monday.
Short struck eight boundaries as hefinished 68 not out off 53 balls to helpAustralia chase down a modest 118-runtarget in 16.1 overs after UAE wererestricted to 117-6.
Short overcame the loss of skipperAaron Finch (one) and Chris Lynn (20)as Australia tuned up for their three-match T20 series against Pakistan start-ing in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday.
The other two matches will be playedin Dubai on Friday and Sunday.
Earlier UAE captain, Rohan Mustafaopted to bat after winning the toss, buthe and his teammates were immediate-ly in trouble.
Ashfaq Ahmed fell to the third ballof the match without scoring, and thenMustafa was dismissed first ball by BillyStanlake to leave the UAE reeling at 0-2.
But good knocks from Shaiman
Anwar (41), Rameez Shahzad (22) andthen a brisk unbeaten 27 off 13 balls fromMohammad Naveed got UAE to a totalof 117-6 from their 20 overs.
Anwar hit three boundaries andtwo sixes during his 44-ball knock whileNaveed also smashed two sixes and twoboundaries in his 13-ball innings.
Nathan Coulter-Nile and BillyStanlake finished with identical bowlingfigures of two for 20 as UAE lost wick-ets at regular intervals.
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