c m y k c m y k COUNTER POINT ASTROGUIDE Vikari: Aavani 12 Tithi: Chaturtashi Star: Aayilyam Rahukalam: 1.30 pm to 3 pm Yamagandam: 6 am to 7.30 am PRAYERS Fajar: 4.45 am Zohar: 12.17 pm Asar: 3.19 pm Maghrib: 6.26 pm Isha: 7.39 pm SUNSET TODAY 6.22 PM SUNRISE TOMORROW 5.58 AM MOONRISE TODAY 4.34 AM MOONSET TOMORROW 5.39 PM WEATHER M a x : 35 O C M i n : 28 O C R a i n f a l l : 1mm M a r k e t r e p o r t 24 ct (1 gm): ` 3 , 8 6 5 . 0 0 22 ct (1 gm): ` 3 , 7 1 3 . 0 0 Bar (1 Kg): ` 4 9 , 1 6 0 . 0 0 Sensex 3 7 , 4 5 1 . 8 4 pts Nifty 1 1 , 0 4 6 . 1 0 pts US$: ` 7 1 . 7 7 Euro: 7 9 . 4 8 GOLD SILVER INDICES EXCHANGE www.facebook.com/deccannews, www.twitter.com/deccanchronicle, www.deccanchronicle.com Vol. 15 No. 155 Established 1938 | 32 PAGES | ` 3.00 TABLOID 10 Punish sex offenders at once: Trisha WORLD Sikh man stabbed to death in US THE LARGEST CIRCULATED ENGLISH DAILY IN SOUTH INDIA CHENNAI I THURSDAY 29 I AUGUST 2019 N e w D e l h i : BJP leader Mukul Roy and Trinamool Congress MP KD Singh were examined by the CBI in connection with Narada sting case in which some TMC politicians and bureaucrats were allegedly caught on tape accepting money from a journalist posing as a representative of a private company, offi- cials said Wednesday. CBI questions Mukul Roy, KD Singh in Narada sting case M u m b a i : Even as the Reserve Bank is yet to take a call on Indiabulls Housing Finance's plans to merge with Lakshmi Vilas Bank, the mid-sized private sector lender Wednesday announced the resignation of its chief executive Parthasarathi Mukherjee. Mukherjee quit citing per- sonal reasons, the bank informed the bourses late in the evening. In a surprise move, Lakshmi Vilas CEO Mukherjee quits C o a t z a c o a l c o s ( M e x i c o ) : At least 25 people were killed and 11 badly wound- ed when gunmen burst into a strip club in eastern Mexico, doused it with gasoline and ignited a rag- ing fire, officials said Wednesday. President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador condemned Tuesday night’s ‘shameful’ attack in the city of Coatzacoalcos. 25 killed as attackers ignite fire in Mexico bar UK PM sparks outrage with parliament suspension CM takes off on 3-nation tour amid Oppn chatter London, Aug. 28: Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Wednesday announced the suspension of parliament in the final weeks before Britain's EU departure date, enraging anti-Brexit MPs. The pound slid on the surprise news, which opponents branded a ‘coup’ and a “declaration of war”, although US President Donald Trump weighed into the row by praising Johnson as "great". The Conservative leader's move to close par- liament for a month will give pro-EU lawmakers less time than they expect- ed to try to thwart his plans for a possible no-deal Brexit on October 31. Queen Elizabeth II has approved the request to close what has been the longest session of parlia- ment in nearly 400 years, and reopen it on October 14 setting out Johnson's fresh legislative pro- gramme. Seemingly caught on the hop, incensed anti-Brexit MPs were left scrambling for a way to stop the move. Johnson’s announce- ment came after six oppo- sition parties said on Tuesday they would first seek to legislate to prevent leaving the EU without a deal when parliament returns from a summer recess next week. — AFP BJP pounces upon Rahul ‘U-turn’ on Kashmir, Congress fumes D C C O R R E S P O N D E N T S NEW DELHI, AUG. 28 Pakistan’s petition to the United Nations on Kashmir saw the Congress and the BJP engage in a bitter war of words on Wednesday, with each questioning the other’s commitment to national- ism. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi turned the debate, and said while he had many differences with the government, he knew Pakistan was fomenting violence in the region and Kashmir was an integral part of India. The BJP countered by saying that Mr Gandhi had shamed the nation by his com- ments on Jammu and Kashmir. I&B minister Prakash Javdekar went to the extent of asking if Mr Gandhi’s mindset had changed due to the change in his constituency. Having lost the election in his traditional stronghold Amethi, Mr Gandhi won the Lok Sabha polls from Wayanad, a minority-dom- inated seat, in Kerala. The heated exchange started shortly after it came to light that Pakistan had in its petition to the UN quoted Mr Gandhi as saying that people were “dying” in Jammu and Kashmir. Soon after this, Mr Gandhi tweeted Wednesday that Kashmir was India’s internal issue and attacked Pakistan for instigating and supporting violence there. The Congress leader said though he disagrees with the government on many issues, he is clear that Kashmir was an internal issue and there was no room for Pakistan to inter- fere in it. “There is violence in Jammu & Kashmir. There is violence because it is instigated and supported by Pakistan, which is known to be the prime sup- porter of terrorism across the world,” he added. The Congress Party also officially hit out at Pakistan for “mischie- vously” dragging Mr Gandhi’s name in its peti- tion moved in the United Nations to justify its “lies” and misinformation on Jammu and Kashmir. Apex court extends protection for PC from ED till today Assam govt takes steps to avert law & order problem Sex attack case against top cop goes to T’gana SC allows Yechury to visit J&K to meet party colleague FDI norms relaxed in bid to attract investment New Delhi, Aug. 28: The Supreme Court on Wed- nesday extended till Thursday the interim pro- tection from arrest grant- ed to former finance min- ister P. Chidambaram in the INX Media money laundering case lodged by the Enforcement Directorate (ED). A bench of Justices R Banumathi and A S Bopanna heard arguments advanced by Solicitor General Tushar Mehta who said that Chidambaram was trying to play the “victim card” and prevent ED from exer- cising its right to arrest him in the case. — PTI M A N O J A N A N D | D C GUWAHATI, AUG. 28 With the stage set for pub- lication of the final Natio- nal Register of Citizens Saturday, the state govern- ment in close coordination with the Union home min- istry has taken several steps to avert any law and order problem after the publication of the NRC. Saying that the Centre had sent back the paramil- itary forces withdrawn from Assam to be deployed in J&K, security sources said 55 companies of Central forces were with- drawn from the state just before the division of Jammu and Kashmir into two Union territories and the abrogation of Article 370. J . S T A L I N | D C CHENNAI, AUG. 28 In an unprecedented move, aiming at accu- rate transparency, the Madras high court has transferred to the State of Telangana at Hyder- abad, the enquiry into the sexual harassment complaint given by a woman Superintendent of Police against S. Murugan, Joint Director, Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption, Chennai and the investi- gation into the FIR regis- tered based on her com- plaint. ■ P 3 New Delhi, Aug 28 : The Supreme Court on Wednesday allowed CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury to visit Jammu and Kashmir to meet his ailing party col- league Mohammed Yousuf Tarigami while brushing aside the Centre’s claim that it might “endanger the sit- uation” in the state. “Why do you have any difficulty if a citizen of this country wants to go there and meet his friend and party colleague,” a bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi asked Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, who was opposing Yechury's visit. “If a citizen wants to go to a part of his country, he is entitled to go,"”the bench, also comprising justices S.A. Bobde and S.A. Nazeer, said. The court said this after Mehta's contention that Yechury's visit might affect the prevailing situ- ation in Jammu and Kashmir and the issue might become political. “This may endanger the situation. The situation is becoming normal there,” Mehta told the bench, adding that the Left leader's proposed visit “appears to be polit- ical”. — PTI Five-judge top court bench to hear pleas Lover slashes wrist, gifts bottle of blood to girlfriend P A R M O D K U M A R | D C NEW DELHI, AUG. 28 A five-judge Constitution Bench will hear a batch of petitions challenging the abrogation of Article 370 that accorded a special sta- tus to Jammu and Kashmir and its bifurcation in two Union territories — Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh. Issuing notices and seek- ing the Centre’s response to 14 petitions that challenged the abrogation of Article 370, a bench of Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justices S.A. Bobde and S. Abdul Nazeer said the matter will be heard by the Constitution Bench in the first week of October 2019. While issuing notices to the Centre and seeking its response to a batch of peti- tions challenging the scrap- ping of Article 370 and bifurcating J&K into two UTs, the court brushed aside a plea by solicitor-gen- eral Tushar Mehta that the court may not issue notices as it has “cross-border repercussions”. Telling the court that he (solicitor-general) and the attorney-general are pre- sent and they take note of what the court has said, Mr Mehta urged the court not to issue notices as “other countries will take advan- tage of it”. Governor promises new jobs, to protect culture Y U S U F J A M E E L | D C SRINAGAR, AUG. 28 Governor, Satya Pal Malik, on Wednesday assured the people of Jammu and Kashmir that the identity, culture, languages, reli- gions and heritage of the State would be preserved and no outside pressure to dilute these would be allowed. “I want to assure the peo- ple that identity of J&K, its culture, languages, reli- gion, heritage and society will be protected. We will not allow any outside pres- sure on these. We will pre- serve and protect these,” he said in his first interaction of a select group of media persons here after Jammu & Kashmir was stripped of its special status under Article 370 of the Constitution and split into two Union territories in the first week of August. Army ups ops on intel reports of infiltration D C C O R R E S P O N D E N T CHENNAI, AUG. 28 Frustrated over his failure in love, a Chennai man slit his wrist, collected his blood in a bottle and asked his friends to gift it to his estranged girlfriend. The 36-year-old man died in hospital after refusing to take treatment. The police identified the deceased as carpenter Kumaresa Pandian, 36, a resident of Nanganallur. They said the man was in a relationship with a 30- year-old woman who was his distant relative. Sources alleged that the duo was in love for more than two years and recent- ly when Kumaresa Pandian proposed to her she had apparently said 'no' and stopped being friendly with him. She blocked the accused on all social media platforms and started avoiding him. On Tuesday evening Kumaresa had gone to meet his friend Muthu who lives in Pozhichalur in Pallavaram. The duo had a few drinks in an empty plot near Muthu' house. Quoting Muthu, police said that when they were drinking Kumaresa, who was very upset over his love failure, allegedly broke a liquor bottle and slit his left hand with it. Muthu, who was also in an inebriated condition, tried to stop the bleeding but in vain. Before Muthu could alert the locals, Kumaresa start- ed cutting deep into his wrist and is said to have filled an empty liquor bot- tle with his blood. Before falling unconscious, he handed over the full bottle of blood to his friend and asked him to give it to his estranged girlfriend as his breakup gift. Kumaresa Pandian was rushed to the Chrompet government hospital where he refused treat- ment. At around 3.30 am on Wednesday morning he passed away, police said. The body was sent for post- mortem. D C C O R R E S P O N D E N T CHENNAI, AUG. 28 Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami, who emba- rked on a three-nation tour on Wednesday, insisted that his trip abroad was only in response to invita- tions from prospective investors abroad. He would be meeting them in their countries and pre- sent Tamil Nadu as an ideal destination for invest- ments. He hit out at DMK presi- dent M.K. Stalin for criti- cising his foreign trip and asked the DMK chief to clarify about his “frequent” foreign visits. Rubbishing the opposi- tion criticism that his was a jolly trip without any sub- stance, Mr Palaniswami said, “This trip is to seek more investments for Tamil Nadu. I am visiting the U.S, U.K and Dubai to meet investors to invite them to start new business- es in the state.” Stalin shot back saying that as deputy chief minis- ter earlier, he had travelled abroad and had received funds for the Metro Rail project and the Hogenakkal integrated water scheme. He also found fault with Mr Palaniswami compar- ing his “private” foreign visits with that of the Chief Minister’s official one. Speaking to reporters before leaving for his first stop London, Mr. Palaniswami flayed the DMK chief for criticising his foreign trip, and won- dered if Stalin had ever “clarified” on his “fre- quent” overseas trips. “Mr. Stalin frequently goes abroad...why does he go? He says it is for personal reason. What is the person- al reason? What is the mys- tery behind him going to foreign countries often? He has never clarified through the media,” the Chief Minister said. On the other hand, the Chief Minister was not going abroad for any per- sonal reasons. “I am not an industrialist but a farmer, who wants to strive for progress, bring in big industries, ensure jobs for the youth and economic growth,” Mr Palaniswami explained and added that several investors from for- eign countries had suggest- ed to him during the Global Investors Meet (GIM) 2019 held here that he should travel abroad to attract more investments to the State. He was visiting these countries based on their invitation. Mr Palaniswami’s two-week trip is the first by a State Chief Minister to travel abroad in decades. ■ P 4 ● “I am not an indus- trialist but a farmer, who wants to strive for progress, bring in big industries, ensure jobs for the youth and economic growth” — E.K. Palaniswami, Chief Minister LOVE FAILURE D C C O R R E S P O N D E N T NEW DELHI, AUG. 28 Concerned over the slug- gish growth of the econo- my, the government on Wednesday announced a slew of fresh measures to boost foreign invest- ments in various sectors and propel the economy into cruise mode, as it relaxed FDI rules in sin- gle-brand retail, approved 26 per cent FDI in the digital media, and 100 per cent FDI under the automatic route in coal mining and contract manufacturing. Besides this, in view of the grim flood situation across many parts of the country, the Union Cabinet decided to export 60 lakh tonnes of buffer stock of sugar, and also said sugar export subsidy will be given to cane farmers. India has 162 lakh tonnes of sugar stock, of which 40 lakh tonnes is buffer stock and 60 lakh tonnes will be exported, I&B minister Prakash Javadekar told the media after the Cabinet meeting. The sugar export subsidy will help farmers liqui- date their excess stock, the minister added. Commerce and indus- try minister Piyush Goyal, who was also pre- sent, told reporters that “there is a little slowing down of FDI worldwide so we have taken some significant decisions”. He added that “100 per cent FDI for coal mining and all related processing activities will be allowed under the automatic route”. On FDI in single-brand retail, the Cabinet has expanded the definition of the mandatory 30 per cent domestic sourcing norm. It facilitated sin- gle-brand retailers to start online sales, waiv- ing the previous condi- tion of setting up a mandatory brick-and- mortar store, Mr Goyal said. The minister further said these decisions were intended to “liberalise and simplify the FDI poli- cy to provide ease of doing business in the country, leading to larger FDI inflows, and thereby contributing to the growth of investment, income and employ- ment”. ● Jeremy Corbyn, the leader of the main opposition Labour Party, has said he wants to call a vote of no-confi- dence in Johnson's government, which commands a majori- ty of just one seat GUV’S ASSURANCE “I want to assure the people that identity of J&K, its culture, languages, religion, heritage and society will be protected. We will not allow any out- side pressure on these. We will preserve and pro- tect these,” J&K governor Satya Pal Malik said in his first interaction of a select group of media persons. I disagree with this Govt. on many issues. But, let me make this absolutely clear: Kashmir is India's internal issue & there is no room for Pakistan or any other foreign country to interfere in it. — RAHUL GANDHI I had filed a petition in SC for the production of Yusuf Tarigami. The court has now permitted me to visit Tarigami and report to the court on his health conditions and from there the case will proceed further. So the case is not closed as this is an interim order. — SITARAM YECHURY Why do you have any difficulty if a citizen of this country wants to go there and meet his friend and party colleague,” a bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi asked Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, who was opposing Yechury’s visit. RELEASE OF NRC LIST Y U S U F J A M E E L | D C SRINAGAR, AUG. 28 Following reports that a large group of militants may have sneaked into Kashmir through Hajipir sector of the Line of Control (LoC), the Army has launched a major search operation in and around the Valley’s premier resort of Gulmarg in Baramulla dis- trict. Reports received here said that the Army has been conducting searches in the area for the past one week and has, so far, detained two persons for questioning. One report said that both of them identified by their first names Khalid and Nazim are residents of PoK and could be militants “guides”. ● The deceased was in a relationship with a 30-year-old woman who was his distant relative ABROGATION OF ARTICLE 370
sonal reasons, the bankinformed the bourses late in
the evening.
In a surprise move,Lakshmi Vilas CEO
Mukherjee quits
Coatzacoalcos (Mexico):At least 25 people were
killed and 11 badly wound-ed when gunmen burst into
a strip club in easternMexico, doused it with
gasoline and ignited a rag-ing fire, officials said
Wednesday. PresidentAndres Manuel LopezObrador condemned
Tuesday night’s ‘shameful’attack in the city of
Coatzacoalcos.
25 killed as attackers ignite
fire in Mexico bar
UK PM sparks outrage with parliament suspension
CM takes off on 3-nation tour amid Oppn chatter
London, Aug. 28: PrimeMinister Boris Johnson onWednesday announced thesuspension of parliamentin the final weeks beforeBritain's EU departuredate, enraging anti-BrexitMPs.
The pound slid on thesurprise news, whichopponents branded a‘coup’ and a “declarationof war”, although USPresident Donald Trumpweighed into the row bypraising Johnson as"great".
The Conservative
leader's move to close par-liament for a month willgive pro-EU lawmakersless time than they expect-ed to try to thwart hisplans for a possible no-deal
Brexit on October 31.Queen Elizabeth II has
approved the request toclose what has been thelongest session of parlia-
ment in nearly 400 years,and reopen it on October14 setting out Johnson'sfresh legislative pro-gramme.
Seemingly caught on thehop, incensed anti-BrexitMPs were left scramblingfor a way to stop the move.
Johnson’s announce-ment came after six oppo-sition parties said onTuesday they would firstseek to legislate to preventleaving the EU without adeal when parliamentreturns from a summerrecess next week. — AFP
BJP pounces upon Rahul ‘U-turn’on Kashmir, Congress fumes
DC CORRESPONDENTSNEW DELHI, AUG. 28
Pakistan’s petition to theUnited Nations onKashmir saw the Congressand the BJP engage in abitter war of words onWednesday, with eachquestioning the other’scommitment to national-ism. Congress leaderRahul Gandhi turned thedebate, and said while hehad many differences withthe government, he knewPakistan was fomentingviolence in the region andKashmir was an integralpart of India. The BJPcountered by saying thatMr Gandhi had shamedthe nation by his com-ments on Jammu andKashmir.
I&B minister PrakashJavdekar went to theextent of asking if MrGandhi’s mindset hadchanged due to the changein his constituency.Having lost the election inhis traditional strongholdAmethi, Mr Gandhi wonthe Lok Sabha polls fromWayanad, a minority-dom-inated seat, in Kerala.
The heated exchangestarted shortly after itcame to light that Pakistanhad in its petition to theUN quoted Mr Gandhi assaying that people were“dying” in Jammu andKashmir.
Soon after this, MrGandhi tweetedWednesday that Kashmirwas India’s internal issueand attacked Pakistan forinstigating and supportingviolence there.
The Congress leader saidthough he disagrees withthe government on manyissues, he is clear thatKashmir was an internalissue and there was noroom for Pakistan to inter-fere in it.
“There is violence inJammu & Kashmir. Thereis violence because it isinstigated and supportedby Pakistan, which isknown to be the prime sup-porter of terrorism acrossthe world,” he added.
The Congress Party alsoofficially hit out atPakistan for “mischie-vously” dragging MrGandhi’s name in its peti-tion moved in the UnitedNations to justify its “lies”and misinformation onJammu and Kashmir.
Apex court extendsprotection for PCfrom ED till today
Assam govt takessteps to avert law& order problem
Sex attack caseagainst top copgoes to T’gana
SC allows Yechuryto visit J&K to meetparty colleague
FDI norms relaxedin bid to attractinvestment
New Delhi, Aug. 28: TheSupreme Court on Wed-nesday extended tillThursday the interim pro-tection from arrest grant-ed to former finance min-ister P. Chidambaram inthe INX Media moneylaundering case lodged bythe EnforcementDirectorate (ED).
A bench of Justices RBanumathi and A SBopanna heard argumentsadvanced by SolicitorGeneral Tushar Mehtawho said thatChidambaram was tryingto play the “victim card”and prevent ED from exer-cising its right to arresthim in the case. — PTI
MANOJ ANAND | DCGUWAHATI, AUG. 28
With the stage set for pub-lication of the final Natio-nal Register of CitizensSaturday, the state govern-ment in close coordinationwith the Union home min-istry has taken severalsteps to avert any law andorder problem after thepublication of the NRC.
Saying that the Centrehad sent back the paramil-itary forces withdrawnfrom Assam to be deployedin J&K, security sourcessaid 55 companies ofCentral forces were with-drawn from the state justbefore the division ofJammu and Kashmir intotwo Union territories andthe abrogation of Article370.
J. STALIN | DCCHENNAI, AUG. 28
In an unprecedentedmove, aiming at accu-rate transparency, theMadras high court hastransferred to the Stateof Telangana at Hyder-abad, the enquiry intothe sexual harassmentcomplaint given by awoman Superintendentof Police against S.Murugan, Joint Director,Directorate of Vigilanceand Anti-Corruption,Chennai and the investi-gation into the FIR regis-tered based on her com-plaint. ■ P3
New Delhi, Aug 28 : TheSupreme Court onWednesday allowedCPI(M) general secretarySitaram Yechury to visitJammu and Kashmir tomeet his ailing party col-league MohammedYousuf Tarigami whilebrushing aside theCentre’s claim that itmight “endanger the sit-uation” in the state. “Why do you have any
difficulty if a citizen ofthis country wants to gothere and meet his friendand party colleague,” abench headed by ChiefJustice Ranjan Gogoiasked Solicitor GeneralTushar Mehta, who wasopposing Yechury's visit. “If a citizen wants to go
to a part of his country,he is entitled to go,"”thebench, also comprisingjustices S.A. Bobde andS.A. Nazeer, said. The court said this after
Mehta's contention thatYechury's visit mightaffect the prevailing situ-ation in Jammu andKashmir and the issuemight become political. “This may endanger the
situation. The situationis becoming normalthere,” Mehta told thebench, adding that theLeft leader's proposedvisit “appears to be polit-ical”. — PTI
Five-judge top courtbench to hear pleas
Lover slashes wrist, giftsbottle of blood to girlfriend
PARMOD KUMAR | DCNEW DELHI, AUG. 28
A five-judge ConstitutionBench will hear a batch ofpetitions challenging theabrogation of Article 370that accorded a special sta-tus to Jammu and Kashmirand its bifurcation in twoUnion territories — Jammu& Kashmir and Ladakh.
Issuing notices and seek-ing the Centre’s response to14 petitions that challengedthe abrogation of Article370, a bench of Chief JusticeRanjan Gogoi and JusticesS.A. Bobde and S. AbdulNazeer said the matter willbe heard by theConstitution Bench in the
first week of October 2019.While issuing notices to
the Centre and seeking itsresponse to a batch of peti-tions challenging the scrap-ping of Article 370 andbifurcating J&K into twoUTs, the court brushedaside a plea by solicitor-gen-eral Tushar Mehta that thecourt may not issue noticesas it has “cross-borderrepercussions”.
Telling the court that he(solicitor-general) and theattorney-general are pre-sent and they take note ofwhat the court has said, MrMehta urged the court notto issue notices as “othercountries will take advan-tage of it”.
Governor promises newjobs, to protect culture YUSUF JAMEEL | DCSRINAGAR, AUG. 28
Governor, Satya Pal Malik,on Wednesday assured thepeople of Jammu andKashmir that the identity,culture, languages, reli-gions and heritage of theState would be preserved
and no outside pressure todilute these would beallowed.
“I want to assure the peo-ple that identity of J&K, itsculture, languages, reli-gion, heritage and societywill be protected. We willnot allow any outside pres-sure on these. We will pre-
serve and protect these,” hesaid in his first interactionof a select group of mediapersons here after Jammu& Kashmir was stripped ofits special status underArticle 370 of theConstitution and split intotwo Union territories in thefirst week of August.
Army ups opson intel reportsof infiltration
DC CORRESPONDENTCHENNAI, AUG. 28
Frustrated over his failurein love, a Chennai man slithis wrist, collected hisblood in a bottle and askedhis friends to gift it to hisestranged girlfriend. The36-year-old man died inhospital after refusing totake treatment.
The police identified thedeceased as carpenterKumaresa Pandian, 36, aresident of Nanganallur.They said the man was ina relationship with a 30-year-old woman who washis distant relative.
Sources alleged that theduo was in love for morethan two years and recent-ly when KumaresaPandian proposed to hershe had apparently said'no' and stopped beingfriendly with him. Sheblocked the accused on allsocial media platformsand started avoiding him.
On Tuesday eveningKumaresa had gone tomeet his friend Muthuwho lives in Pozhichalurin Pallavaram. The duohad a few drinks in anempty plot near Muthu'
house. Quoting Muthu,police said that when theywere drinking Kumaresa,who was very upset overhis love failure, allegedlybroke a liquor bottle andslit his left hand with it.Muthu, who was also in aninebriated condition, triedto stop the bleeding but invain.
Before Muthu could alertthe locals, Kumaresa start-ed cutting deep into hiswrist and is said to havefilled an empty liquor bot-tle with his blood. Beforefalling unconscious, hehanded over the full bottleof blood to his friend andasked him to give it to hisestranged girlfriend as hisbreakup gift.
Kumaresa Pandian wasrushed to the Chrompetgovernment hospitalwhere he refused treat-ment. At around 3.30 amon Wednesday morning hepassed away, police said.The body was sent for post-mortem.
DC CORRESPONDENTCHENNAI, AUG. 28
Chief Minister Edappadi K.Palaniswami, who emba-rked on a three-nation touron Wednesday, insistedthat his trip abroad wasonly in response to invita-tions from prospectiveinvestors abroad. He would be meeting them
in their countries and pre-sent Tamil Nadu as an idealdestination for invest-ments. He hit out at DMK presi-
dent M.K. Stalin for criti-cising his foreign trip and
asked the DMK chief toclarify about his “frequent”foreign visits.
Rubbishing the opposi-tion criticism that his was ajolly trip without any sub-stance, Mr Palaniswamisaid, “This trip is to seekmore investments forTamil Nadu. I am visitingthe U.S, U.K and Dubai tomeet investors to invitethem to start new business-es in the state.”
Stalin shot back sayingthat as deputy chief minis-ter earlier, he had travelledabroad and had receivedfunds for the Metro Rail
project and the Hogenakkalintegrated water scheme.
He also found fault withMr Palaniswami compar-ing his “private” foreignvisits with that of the ChiefMinister’s official one.
Speaking to reportersbefore leaving for his firststop London, Mr.Palaniswami flayed theDMK chief for criticisinghis foreign trip, and won-dered if Stalin had ever
“clarified” on his “fre-quent” overseas trips. “Mr.Stalin frequently goesabroad...why does he go?He says it is for personalreason. What is the person-al reason? What is the mys-tery behind him going toforeign countries often? Hehas never clarified throughthe media,” the ChiefMinister said.
On the other hand, theChief Minister was notgoing abroad for any per-sonal reasons. “I am not anindustrialist but a farmer,who wants to strive forprogress, bring in big
industries, ensure jobs forthe youth and economicgrowth,” Mr Palaniswamiexplained and added thatseveral investors from for-eign countries had suggest-ed to him during the GlobalInvestors Meet (GIM) 2019held here that he shouldtravel abroad to attractmore investments to theState.
He was visiting thesecountries based on theirinvitation. MrPalaniswami’s two-weektrip is the first by a StateChief Minister to travelabroad in decades. ■ P4
● “I am not an indus-trialist but a farmer,who wants to strivefor progress, bring inbig industries, ensurejobs for the youth andeconomic growth”
— E.K. Palaniswami,Chief Minister
LOVE FAILURE
DC CORRESPONDENTNEW DELHI, AUG. 28
Concerned over the slug-gish growth of the econo-my, the government onWednesday announced aslew of fresh measures toboost foreign invest-ments in various sectorsand propel the economyinto cruise mode, as itrelaxed FDI rules in sin-gle-brand retail,approved 26 per cent FDIin the digital media, and100 per cent FDI underthe automatic route incoal mining and contractmanufacturing.
Besides this, in view ofthe grim flood situationacross many parts of thecountry, the UnionCabinet decided to export60 lakh tonnes of bufferstock of sugar, and alsosaid sugar export subsidywill be given to canefarmers.
India has 162 lakhtonnes of sugar stock, ofwhich 40 lakh tonnes isbuffer stock and 60 lakhtonnes will be exported,I&B minister PrakashJavadekar told the mediaafter the Cabinet meeting.The sugar export subsidywill help farmers liqui-date their excess stock,the minister added.
Commerce and indus-try minister PiyushGoyal, who was also pre-sent, told reporters that“there is a little slowingdown of FDI worldwideso we have taken somesignificant decisions”.He added that “100 percent FDI for coal miningand all related processingactivities will be allowedunder the automaticroute”.
On FDI in single-brandretail, the Cabinet hasexpanded the definitionof the mandatory 30 percent domestic sourcingnorm. It facilitated sin-gle-brand retailers tostart online sales, waiv-ing the previous condi-tion of setting up amandatory brick-and-mortar store, Mr Goyalsaid.
The minister furthersaid these decisions wereintended to “liberaliseand simplify the FDI poli-cy to provide ease ofdoing business in thecountry, leading to largerFDI inflows, and therebycontributing to thegrowth of investment,income and employ-ment”.
● Jeremy Corbyn,the leader of themain oppositionLabour Party, hassaid he wants to calla vote of no-confi-dence in Johnson'sgovernment, whichcommands a majori-ty of just one seat
GUV’S ASSURANCE“I want toassure thepeople thatidentity ofJ&K, itsculture, languages,religion, heritage andsociety will be protected.We will not allow any out-side pressure on these.We will preserve and pro-tect these,” J&K governorSatya Pal Malik said inhis first interaction of aselect group of mediapersons.
I disagree with this Govt. on many issues.But, let me make this absolutely clear:Kashmir is India's internal issue & there is
no room for Pakistan or any other foreigncountry to interfere in it. — RAHUL GANDHI
I had filed apetition in SC for
the production ofYusuf Tarigami. Thecourt has nowpermitted me to visitTarigami and report to the court onhis health conditions and from therethe case will proceed further. So thecase is not closed as this is aninterim order. — SITARAM YECHURY
Why do youhave any
difficulty if a citizenof this countrywants to go thereand meet his friendand party colleague,” a benchheaded by Chief Justice RanjanGogoi asked Solicitor GeneralTushar Mehta, who wasopposing Yechury’s visit.
RELEASE OF NRC LIST
YUSUF JAMEEL | DCSRINAGAR, AUG. 28
Following reports that alarge group of militantsmay have sneaked intoKashmir through Hajipirsector of the Line of Control(LoC), the Army haslaunched a major searchoperation in and around theValley’s premier resort ofGulmarg in Baramulla dis-trict. Reports received heresaid that the Army has beenconducting searches in thearea for the past one weekand has, so far, detained twopersons for questioning.One report said that both ofthem identified by theirfirst names Khalid andNazim are residents of PoKand could be militants“guides”.
● The deceased wasin a relationshipwith a 30-year-oldwoman who was his distant relative
ABROGATION OF ARTICLE 370
PAGE
2SpecialTHURSDAY I 29 AUGUST 2019 | CHENNAIDECCAN CHRONICLE
Panic struckAMMK founder TTV Dhinakaran on Wednesday saidthat CM Edappadi K Palaniswami was panicky aboutinstalling a caretaker in his absence
CM EdappadiK. Palaniswami is not
going abroad toamass properties, like
DMK presidentM. K. Stalin
—D. Jayakumar,
Fisheries minister
SHORT TAKESDiscounts up to 25%
for some Shatabdi,Tejas trains
New Delhi: The railways onWednesday said that the
scheme offering up to 25 percent concession on trains
with AC chair car and execu-tive class sitting will be
implemented fromSeptember. The scheme shall
be applicable for AC chaircar and executive chair car
accommodation like inShatabdi, Gatimaan, Tejas,
Double Decker, Intercitytrains among others, the rail-
ways said. Only trains withmonthly occupancy of less
than 50 per cent in the previ-ous year are eligible for the
discount, it said.
Metro train frequency to be
increasedDC CORRESPONDENTCHENNAI, AUG. 28
The Chennai Metro Rail Ltdhas plans to increase the fre-quency of its trains to cater tolarger sections of the people. Ifthe present trial of reducingthe train frequency to onceevery 2.5 minutes, emerges suc-cessful, then the present fre-quency of 5 minutes will behalved during peak hour com-mute.
Metro rail receives a footfallof 1 lakh passengers on anaverage every day and the pres-ent move is expected toenhance it to 4 lakhs a day. Atpresent, on the Washermenpet -Airport route (Blue line) trainsply once in every five minutesduring peak hours (8.00 am to11.00 am and 5 pm to 8.00 pm)and one every seven minutesduring non-peak hours (6 am to8.00 am, 12.00 pm to 5.00 pm and8.00 pm to 10 pm). On theChennai Central to Airportroute (Inter-connecting corri-dor) and the Chennai Centralto St Thomas route (Green line)the trains ply at a frequency of10 minutes during peak hoursand 14 minutes during non-peak hours.
The first trial run was con-ducted by CMRL on August 10.CMRL officials point out thatincreasing frequency is a bigchallenge since it requiressyncing of all critical systemswith minimal failure. Pointmachines, a device used fortrains switching tracks shouldbe fail-proof. CMRL is alsolooking to reduce the timetaken to bring out the trainsfrom the depot to the mainlines. While each corridor issupposed to have one depoteach, currently two corridorsare operated with one depot.The second depot atWashermenpet is still underconstruction.
Visiting Madurai,Tirunelveli or Palani?
You can lay your hands onMadurai malli, Tirunelveli(Iruttukkadai) halwa andPalani panchamirthamwithout much ado. Butfinding Dindigul pootu inDindigul is not easy.
Having heard about thesespecial locks from myfather, I wanted to buy oneduring our visit to theplace for a wedding a fewmonths ago. I reached themarket area and eagerlylooked around for shopsselling Dindigul pootus.But none of them had it.After making enquireswith several vendors and
shopkeepers, I finallyfound a shop which exclu-sively deals with theselocks. The shop was fairlybig and some customerswere checking out the vari-ous kinds of locks avail-able there. The locks wereof different sizes andshapes and all of them hada unique code. I bought acouple of them.
“Smart/electronic doorlocks may be popular now,but nothing can beatDindigul pootu when itcomes to safety,” said acustomer, as a parting mes-sage, while I paid the bill at the counter.
— B. VIJAYALAKSHMI
DC CORRESPONDENTCHENNAI, AUG. 28
GUVI and One-FourthLabs, two startups incubat-ed at Indian Institute ofTechnology, Madras , havecome together to offer anadvanced course on artifi-cial intelligence. Launchedwith the mission to createone lakh experts in artifi-cial intelligence (AI) anddeep learning by the year2020 the course will beoffered at just Rs 1,000 forstudents and faculty.
GUVI, an ed-tech startup,which offers tech skills invernacular languages willbe the platform partner andOne-Fourth Labs, whichspecializes in courses on AIwill be the content partnerfor this joint initiative,according to a statementfrom IIT-M.
The course has also beenexclusively designed basedon the Indian context tohelp students comprehendcomplicated concepts withrelative ease and get skilledin solving AI problems.
Sound knowledge in highschool mathematics andpython programming arethe only prerequisitesrequired to take up thiscourse. The six-monthonline program, dividedinto four stages comprisinga total of 15 courses will beoffered to students and fac-ulty at Rs 1,000 and atRs.5,000 for working profes-sionals. Certificates willalso be provided on thecompletion of every stage,read the statement.
Remarking that demogra-
phy should never be a bar-ricade to acquire skills andthat GUVI aims to taketechnology to all deservingstudents, S.P.Balamurugan, co-founderand chief executive officer,GUVI informed that inaddition to conductingperiodic assessments andcoding contests the plat-form will also maintain thelearning history of theindividual as part of hisGUVI profile which theusers can share with theemployers.
“The platform isGamified to keep the learn-ers attentive and to ensurethe learners complete thecourse”, he said.
“The whole premise ofonline education is not onlyto broaden reach but alsodramatically reduce thecost of education. In emerg-ing areas such as AI wherethere is a large demand forcourses, a majority ofonline education providerscharge a huge fee often run-ning into lakhs of rupees.With the intention ofaddressing this, earlier thisyear we offered a hands-oncourse on deep learning ata fraction of the typicalcost.” said Dr PratyushKumar, co-founder, One-Fourth Labs, and facultymember, Department of
Computer Science andEngineering, IIT Madras,speaking on the collabora-tion.
“This first iteration ofour course was a resound-ing success with extraordi-nary feedback from partici-pants. Looking ahead, wewant to take this course toa much larger audiencewhile maintaining afford-ability” said Dr MiteshKhapra, co-founder, One-Fourth Labs and facultymember, Department ofComputer Science andEngineering, IIT Madrasadding on this.
Registrations for the pro-gramme are now open atwww.guvi.in/dl
Notably, GUVI hasupskilled more than 1.5lakh engineers in latesttechnology skills such asPython, Java and MachineLearning, among othersand help them gain place-ment in IT firms till now.These courses are offeredin regional languages suchas Tamil, Telugu, Kannada,Hindi, Bengali and Arabicbesides English. The plat-form has now beenrevamped for personalizedlearning using AI whichwill learn the user's dataday by day and customizethe learning path accord-ingly.
A. ARUL PALANI | DCDC. CHENNAI, AUG 28
The GeographicalIndication Registry ofIndia is all set to accordtwo GI tags to the TamilNadu for Dindigul lockand Kandangi sarees.The coveted status wouldbe issued on Thursday,said Deputy Registrar ofthe Registry, Chennai,Chinnaraja G. Naidu.
The registry wouldgrant the GI status forDindigul lock to theDindigul Lock,Hardware and SteelFurniture WorkersIndustrial Co-operativeSociety Ltd, Dindugaland Kandangi Sarees todepartment of hand-looms and textiles, TamilNadu.
The Dindigul Lock,Hardware and SteelFurniture WorkersIndustrial Co-operativeSociety Ltd, in the peti-tion filed before theRegistry, submitted thatthe lock industry waslocated in the Dindigulfor more than 150 years.
The lock making unitwas set up byS a n k a r a l i n g a c h a r ibrothers in Dinduglmore than 150 years ago.
The society said thelock making is a very oldand popular cottage
industry in India. Thelock industry in Dindigulis more than 100 yearsold and is spread over 5villages in the district. Ithas evolved its ownunique craftsmanshipdistinct from other lockmaking hubs, such asAligarh in Uttarpradesh, and Das Nagarin West Bengal.
The handmadeDindigul locks werefamous for their tradi-tional design, safety andquality raw materials.There are over 50 vari-eties of locks made bythe artisans. They aremanufactured in morethan 3,000 units and theyare concentrated inNagelnagar, Nallampatti,
K o d a i p a r a i l p a t t i ,Kamalapatti andYagappanpatti.
Every lock is designedand possesses a uniquestyle and it has its ownspecial name. Some vari-eties of the locks made inDindigul are Mango lock,Door lock, Almirah lock,Export lock, Excise lock.Trick lock, Mango sevenlever lock, Mango ninelevers lock, Drawer lockand Square lock.
The society membersmake various categoriesof locks including brass;steel, mild steel paintedchromium plated andgalvanized lock. Theyalso make double lock-ing, triple locking, mas-ter locking, super lock-
ing and trick lockinglocks. The craftsmen alsomake twin keys or threekeys for single lock andlocks with multi lockingsystem. Every lock hasbeen designed and pos-sesses a unique style.The levers are designedto have a greater degreeof non-interchange abili-ty of keys. There is alsocomplete manual assem-bling with each lock hav-ing its own unique keycode. Kandangi sarees: TheTamil Nadu Departmentof Handlooms andTextiles, in a petitionfiled before the registry,submitted thatKaraikudi is the homefor products like thehand-woven Kandangisarees. The town has
magnificent temples andlavish Chettinad houses.The Kandangi sarees arehand-woven by the high-ly skilled weavers in thetown. They take nearly aweek to make an exqui-site saree.
The Kandangi cottonsarees were made by theweavers of DevangaChettiars for the womenof the Chettiar commu-nity, also referred to asNakarathars orNattukottai Chettiars.The sarees were made inthe town for more than150 years.
The sarees exude bril-liant colours like brightyellows, oranges, red anda minimal black in thetraditional pattern ofstripes or checks withbroad borders woven incoarse cotton. The finestripes and checks, hori-zontal and vertical, aremade out of cotton yarnwhich is dyed intovibrant colours, thefavorites being earthyhues of red, orange,brown and colours ofchrome and mustard.With the changing times,more interesting colourshave been introducedand these have managedto retain the vivacity ofthe Kandangi saree.They are made out ofnatural dyes.
■ Lock industry in Dindigul is more than 100 years old
HUNTING FOR A LOCK IN DINDIGUL
The Registry willgrant GI statusshortly toSrivilliputtur Co-operative MilkProducers' Societyfor deliciousSrivilliputturPalkova, a tradition-al milk sweet highlypopular across thestate.
HALWA ON CARDS
IIT-M STARTUPS COME TOGETHERTO OFFER COURSE ON AI
The course has also been exclusivelydesigned based on the Indian con-text to help students comprehendcomplicated concepts with relativeease and get skilled in solving AIproblems
GANESHAS COME CALLING
NSS students of WCC, Nugambakkam, form a human chain for water conservationawareness on Wednesday. — DC
Ahead of Ganesh Chaturthi, huge Vinayaka statues arrive at Chennai Central railway station from Rajasthan onWednesday. — DC
LAKSHMI L. LUND | DCCOIMBATORE, AUG. 28
Two students from thetextile city, R. Gokul andG. Aarudhra, have scoredAIR 1 and 8 respectivelyin the executive pro-gramme of the CompanySecretary (CS) examina-tion, the results of whichwere recently declared.Staying focused whileattempting the examina-tion served as the key forboth to crack the exami-nation with flying colors,the candidate said.
Admitting that he didnot expect to score allIndia rank 1, Gokul saidthat he owed his successto his parents whoencouraged him to takeup the company secretarycourse. Having completedhis high school, the 19-year old Kovai boy did notenrol for an undergradu-ate programme. Instead,he set his eyes onChartered Accountancy,and currently, is undergo-ing articleship trainingunder a city-based char-tered accountant.
“I did not attend anycoaching classes to pre-pare for the CS examina-tion. I began readingstudy material only 30days prior to the examina-tion. Five days ahead ofthe examination, I stud-ied from day to night. Thekey is to stay focusedwhile attempting theexam,” Gokul said.
Seconding him isAarudhra, who also didnot enroll for any formalclasses to train for theexaminations.
“It was all self study,and I thoroughly wentthrough the study materi-al. I stayed focused whileattempting the variouspapers which are part ofthe examination, and thishelped me do well,” sheadded.
While Gokul has notdecided on his careerpath, 23-year-old Aaru-dhra wants to becomeCEO of a company.
WATER CONSERVATIONStamp of best author of Siddhamedicine to be released by PMDC CORRESPONDENTCHENNAI, AUG. 28
He neither had a basicmedical degree norhailed from a family ofphysicians. He possessedin-depth knowledge inthe Siddha system andthis earned him sobri-quet legend of Siddhamedicine largely due tohis unique contributionin the form ofCyclopaedic dictionary.
This work of T.V.Sambasivam Pillai, theacclaimed author, is con-sidered as one of thegreat treasures of theSiddha system and isused as a text by BSMSstudents. He is amongthe 12 inspiring person-alities whose commemo-rative stamps will bereleased on Friday byPrime Minister Naren-dra Modi in the nationalcapital on Friday.
“It is a great privilegeto our Siddha communi-ty as the Central govern-ment is coming out witha stamp on T.V. Sam-basivam Pillai,” saysProf. Dr. N.J. Muthu-kumar, Director, Natio-nal Institute of Siddha.
“Cyclopaedic Dictio-nary” is considered asone of the great treas-
ures of the Siddha sys-tem of medicine. Hisdepth of knowledge inthe Siddha system ishighly commendable. Hespent his entire life con-tributing and decipher-ing the ancient litera-tures of the Siddha sys-tem, the Director said.
“These five volumes ofthe Cyclopaedic diction-ary is now used as a ref-erence book for theB.S.M.S., M.D (Siddha)and Ph.D scholars andthis meticulous work isalso used as referencematerial for literatureresearch scholars,” Dr.Muthukumar said.
T.V. Sambasivam Pillaiwas born on September19, 1880 in Bengaluru, asthe eldest son to VilviahManniar andManonmani Ammal. Hehailed from a non-afflu-
ent family from a villagenamed Kamuga-nchenthangudi nearThanjavur. Astonishedby the treasure of knowl-edge lying behindancient Siddha palmmanuscripts, he decidedto create a CyclopeadicDictionary in English.“What we have today, asthe “CyclopaedicDictionary” is the resultof his sacrifices anduntiring efforts, startingfrom the year 1916,almost to the end of hislife,” Dr. Muthukumaradds.
He toiled for sixteenyears, collecting thematerial, creating alibrary for the intendedwork besides spendingmajor portion of hissalary for this work. Heeven had to sell his landsand other assets for pre-serving the documents.
This dictionary isindeed one of the great-est treasures to theSiddha system of medi-cine that provides vastand accurate informa-tion about plants, miner-als, metals, marine andanimal products used inthe Siddha system forwhoever seeking deepinformation regardingthe system.
KOVAI STUDENTSSCORE ALL INDIATOP RANKS IN CS EXAM
"I did not attend anycoaching classes to pre-
pare for the CS exami-nation. I began readingstudy material only 30
days prior to the exami-nation. Five days ahead
of the examination, Istudied from day to
night. The key is to stayfocused while attempt-
ing the exam," Gokulsaid
GI TAG FOR DINDIGULLOCK, KANDANGI SARI
PAGE
3CityTHURSDAY I 29 AUGUST 2019 | CHENNAIDECCAN CHRONICLE
OptimistSpeaking to reporters in Vellore on Wednesday, BJP leaderDr Tamilisai said that ‘Vellore Fort’ would soon turn into BJP fort
In a first, facilityfor voters to
themselves rectifytheir details in poll list
introduced—-Satyabrata Sahoo,
TN chief electoral officer
IN BRIEFWoman sleeping
on pavementassaulted
Two north Indiansarrested for
molesting
Re-located jumbobegins to minglewith native herd
Chennai: A woman sleepingon the pavement was assault-ed by a man who tried to rob
her gold chain in Mylaporeon Tuesday night.
According to police, Shanthi(50), wife of Jaya Gopi,
works as a flower vendor. Aresident of Nattan Thottam,
Mylapore, she slept on thepavement close to the Sai
Baba temple on Tuesdaynight.
At around 11: 30 pm, a manshe identified as Amaran
tried to snatch her gold chainwhile she was asleep.
Police said that she wasrushed to the hospital sinceshe suffered injuries on her
left ear. A complaint hasbeen filed and Mylapore
police are enquiring.
Chennai: City police havearrested two north Indian
men for allegedly misbehav-ing with a woman at Marina
beach. According to police, the men
identified as Sithu (32) andRajan (27) are working in a
construction site nearChepauk stadium. Police
said that the complainant,24-year-old woman Ramya*of Ethiraj Street in Egmore
works for a media organisa-tion in the city. On Tuesday
night, she was with her friendat Marina beach opposite the
PWD building. At around 9 pm, three drunk
men approached her andasked if she could speak
Hindi. When Ramya said thatthey did not know Hindi andtried to walk away, the three
men allegedly hugged thewomen and misbehaved with
them. The duo raised analarm and ran from the spot.
They began running on theservice road, spotted a police
patrol party and informedthem about the incident.
Policemen Pandiarajan,Tamilarasan and Perumalrajawent to the spot and foundSithu and Ranjan still there,
while the third man was miss-ing. They were taken intocustody.Based on a com-
plaint by Ramya, AnnaSquare police registered a
case and remanded them tojudicial custody. A search for
the other man is on.
Ooty: ‘Crowbar’, the re-locat-ed Hosur wild tusker, has
begun to mix and move alongwith a wild elephant herd in
the Mudumalai Tiger Reserve.Questions were being raised
about the safety of relocatedgiant, a proven troublemaker
within Hosur, and the possibili-ty of it trying to move towards
human settlements.—DC
DC CORRESPONDENTCHENNAI, AUG 28
One person was killedand at least 17 otherswere injured when theprivate bus in which theywere travelling rammedinto a loaded truck whileattempting to overtake itnear Madurantakam inthe early hours ofWednesday. The accidentoccurred at around 6: 30am. Police said that theprivate bus carryingemployees of an automo-bile company headingtowards the company inOragadam was travellingat high speed and thedriver of the bus tried toovertake a loaded liquortruck moving in the front,leading to the accident.
Sources said that thetruck headed from a pri-vate liquor factory inAcharapakkam was hitby the bus when the vehi-cles were near Kalaip-iranpuram in Maduranta-kam on the Tiruchy-Chennai national high-way. The driver overtooka moving truck. When thetruck slowed down, theprivate bus rammed itfrom behind, said a policeofficer. The private bus
driver identified asP.Murugesan ( 50) ofAchurapakkam wascrushed to death on thespot while 17 others sus-tained injuries in the inci-dent. The driver of thetruck fled from the sceneafter the accident.Passers-by and motoristscame to the rescue of the
people trapped inside thebus. The passengers wererescued in an hour, saidpolice. Police personnelfrom Madurantakam sta-tion and fire personnelcame to the rescue. Sevenpassengers who sufferedsevere injuries wererushed to the Chengal-pattu government hospi-
tal and ten others weresent to the Maduranta-kam hospital.
Madurantakam policeregistered a case and con-tinuing investigations.Police said that the acci-dent disrupted vehicularmovements on stretch formore than two hours andvehicles were diverted on
■ 17 injured ■Bus driver tries to overtake liquor lorry
1 killed, 17 hurt as companybus rams into loaded truck
DC CORRESPONDENTCHENNAI, AUG 28
Chennai city police com-missioner A.K.Viswanathan onWednesday installedeight automatic numberplate recognition(ANPR) cameras that canidentify vehicles by read-ing the number of plateson East Coast Road.
The automatic numberplate recognition(ANPR) cameras wouldhelp them in curbingcrimes like vehicle theftsand rash driving on acci-dent-prone ECR stretch.
The commissioner onTuesday installed 209new CCTV cameras andeight ANPR cameraswithin the Neelankaraiand Kanathur policy lim-its. Addressing themedia, he said that cam-eras will be able to readdifferent fonts on thenumber plate and thecameras are equipped
with infrared vision,which can effectivelyfunction during thenight. “During a trafficviolation, a picture ofthe driver, vehicle, the
date and time will bestored automatically.This software will alsohelp police detect stolenand suspicious vehicles,”he added.
ANPR cameras installedon accident-prone ECR
From P1
A division bench compris-ing Justices Vineet Kothariand C.V.Karthikeyan alsodirected the ChiefSecretary of State ofTelangana as well as theDirector General of Policeof the State of Telangana tounder take the necessarysteps for constitution of aseparate InternalComplaints Committee atHyderabad, as per the pro-visions of the SexualHarassment of Woman atWork Place (Prevention,Prohibition and Redressal)Act, headed by a SeniorLady Officer as per section11 of the Act, which shallundertake the enquiry intothe said complaint and alsothe investigation of the FIRby a senior and independ-ent official of the policedepartment of the State ofTelangana.
The report of the saidInternal ComplaintsCommittee and the reportof the investigation in thesaid FIR may be transmit-ted back to this court with-in six months from today.The relevant records in thisregard, shall be transmit-ted by the authorities con-cerned of the State ofTamil Nadu, to the ChiefSecretary of State ofTelangana forthwith. “Weare keeping these writappeals pending, awaitingthe aforesaid report of the
ICC as well as the investiga-tion report from the inves-tigating officer concernedof the State of Telangana,within the aforesaid periodof six months. We make itclear that our aforesaidorder of transfer of pro-ceedings to the neighbour-ing State of Telanganashall, in no way, be treatedas any adverse expressionby this court on the imageof the authorities of theState of Tamil Nadu in thisrespect. The matter may belisted before the court, oncethe aforesaid reports arereceived from the State ofTelangana”, the benchadded.
Passing interim orders onthe appeals filed byS.Murugan, challenging anorder of single judge, thebench said upon objectiveand dispassionate consider-ation of the matter and theaffidavits of the parties andalso the stand taken by theAdvocate General VijayNarayanan on behalf ofthe state, “we are of theview that to ensure fair,independent and unbiasedinvestigation into the mat-ter, looking to the nature ofserious allegations of thesexual harassment by asenior lady officer of thepolice department againstanother very senior officerof the same department,the enquiry by the ICCunder the provisions of theAct as well as the investiga-
tion into the FIR filed bythe complainant should beundertaken in anotherneighbouring state”.
The bench said, “We areconscious of the fact thatthe enquiry and investiga-tion out of a state is notenvisaged under the provi-sions of the Act. But, look-ing to the nature of posi-tions of both the parties,the complainant as well asthe appellant, both belong-ing to police department ofthe State of Tamil Naduand the nature of allega-tions, sought impleadmentof parties including ChiefMinister etc., the spree oflitigation which has ensuedbetween the parties onaccount of the allegationsof sexual harassment, weinclined to ensure completefairness and independencein the internal enquiryunder the Act as well as theinvestigation in the FIR.We, therefore, exercisingour extraordinary powersunder Article 226 of theConstitution of India,including the powers underArticle 226 (2) of theConstitution, direct that allthe proceedings in the pres-ent case for enquiry intothe complaint of sexualharassment made by thecomplainant under the Actas well as the investigationinto the FIR filed by thecomplainant shall be trans-ferred to the State ofTelangana at Hyderabad”.
Household itemsgutted in fire mishapat KorukkpetChennai: Householditems in two houses weregutted in a fire that brokeout at Korukkpet here onWednesday morning.However, there was nocasualties. Fire spreadthrough two houses as thecandles they used due topower cut caught fire onthe curtains.
According to police,Pachaiappan and Kan-agavallai lived in RajivGandhi Nagar at Korru-kpet. Sources said sincethere was a power cut inthe area on Tuesdaynight, Kanangavallai hadlit candles in the hall. Thecandles soon lit the cur-tains.
The fire spread to thehouse of Praveen too.However, he managed toescape. On being infor-med the fire and rescuepersonnel from Korru-kpet and Thondiarpetpolice station rushed tothe spot and doused thefire.R.K Nagar police haveregistered a case.
Government Railway police (GRP) officials recovered about 336 stolen cellphones,257sovereigns of gold, laptops and `2,58,000. A team led by Railways IG Vanitha and SPMageshwaran handed them over to owners on Wednesday morning in Egmore.
—DC
LOST AND FOUND
City police commissioner A.K.Vishwanthan onWednesday inaugurates the operation of automaticnumber plate recognition (ANPR) cameras on EastCoast Road. —DC
The lorry involved in an accident with a private company owned bus nearMadurantakam on Wednesday. —DC
Telangana court gets sixmonths to prepare report
S. Ganesh, Director of Indian Medicine and Homeopathy, gives away allotmentorders to students during counselling in Arumbakkam on Wednesday. —DC
INDIAN MED COUNSELING
Chennai: The TN govt onWednesday informed theMadras HC that no onedenied access to Dalits totheir burial and cremationground in a village in Vell-ore dt and that there wereno caste-based differences.
The submission was madeduring a hearing on a peti-tion on access routes beingallegedly blocked for Dalitsto a cremation ground inNarayanapuram village,forcing the communitymembers to lower bodies oftheir relatives, with thehelp of ropes, from a bridgeinto a nearby riverbed forthe past four years.
The court, which had ini-
tiated the petition on itsown taking cognisance of amedia report afterAssistant Solicitor GeneralG. Karthikeyan drew atten-tion to it, had on Monday
sought an explanation fromthe authorities on the issue.
When the matter came upfor hearing before a benchof Justices S. Manikumarand Subramonium Prasad,the government pleadersaid there was no encroach-ment of the pathway andthe land belonged to indi-viduals.
The owners of the landwould have permitted theDalits to pass through theirland to reach the cremationground had anyoneapproached them, but“unfortunately no oneapproached them or thelocal authorities,” the govtpleader said. However, won-
dering why the Dalits air-dropped their deceasedfrom the top of a bridge ifthe access to the burialground was not denied, thebench adjourned the hear-ing to Thursday.
Reports said Dalits weredenied the access to theircremation ground on thebanks of Palar river forcingthem to air-drop their deadfrom a 20-foot-high bridge.On Monday, the court haddecried the practice of ear-marking separate burialand cremation ground forDalits, while pointing thatright to entry into temples,hospitals or any publicoffice is equal to all. —PTI
DC CORRESPONDENTCHENNAI, AUG. 28
The Madras high court hasmade it clear that if thedetails sought from theDirector of MedicalEducation and DirectorGeneral of Police are notfurnished, as directed, itmay be constrained toissue appropriate ordersagainst those who are notimplementing the ordersrelating to compulsorywearing of helmets.
A division bench com-prising Justices S. Manik-umar and SubramoniumPrasad said, “Instead ofissuing suo motu contemptnotice, the above directionis issued by this court, toensure that orders of thiscourt are implemented inletter and spirit”.
The bench had earlierdirected the DME and DGPto submit number of acci-dents involving two wheel-ers and number of fatal
cases due to head injuries.Passing further orders
on a PIL from K.K.Rajendran, the bench onTuesday directed the DGPto furnish the details ofnumber of cases regis-tered for not wearing hel-mets by riders/pillion rid-ers of two-wheelers ineach district and fatality ofcases reported in theDistrict Head QuartersHospital due to non-wear-ing of helmets.
Pointing out the firstorder passed by the courton July 5, 2018, the benchsaid now more than a yearwas over. The instant peti-tion was filed during April2018. Hence, the Secretaryto government, Home andProhibition department,Chennai was directed toexplain as to why theorders of this court havenot been implemented.Secretary to government,Health and Family WelfareDepartment, was directedto explain as to why med-
ical report as required bythis court has not been fur-nished so far, bench added.
The bench said the stateof Tamil Nadu said thatthe wearing of helmetswill be implemented in aphased manner by the rid-ers and pillion riders with-in a year. The governmenthas taken nearly twelveyears in effectively imple-menting the rules. Thoughit was submitted on behalfof the government that itwas sensitizing the peoplewith regard to the benefitson wearing helmets andthe law regarding wearingof helmets by the ridersand pillion riders, thesame does not appear tohave given the desiredresult through the state,except Chennai. “Policecannot repeat the samesubmission to the courtwhenever the matter islisted. If we say so it willonly reflect ‘not effectiveimplementation’”, thebench added.
Ensure helmet orders areimplemented: High Court
Access not denied to dalits: Govt to HC
ThiruvalluvarPeetam launchedChennai:Formerjudge of the Mad-ras HC justice K.Gnanaprakasamlaunched the Thir-uvalluvar ThamizhPeetam here.
He also launcheda book on: Theva-iyum sevaiyum onthe occasion. Pop-
ular social activistTraffic Ramasw-amy besides thosewho had distin-guished in the fieldof literature andsocial service wereconferred withVaan Pugazh Vend-har awards on theoccasion. —DC
PAGE
4PoliticsTHURSDAY I 29 AUGUST 2019 | CHENNAIDECCAN CHRONICLE
Water releasePMK founder Dr S Ramadoss on Wednesday urgedthe government to release more Mettur water tohelp farmers raise samba crops
Chief MinisterEdappadi K.
Palaniswami willsurely secure foreign
investments fordevelopment of state
—OP Ravindranath Kumar,
AIADMK MP
SHORT TAKES
Rajini visits ailingbrother in B’luru
Bengaluru: Nearly 5,000 peo-ple gathered near Apollo
hospital Sheshadripuram onWednesday when superstarRajinikanth came to visit hisbrother Sathyanarayana RaoGaikwad, who is undergoing
treatment.Gaikwad (77) is suffering
from osteoarthritis and hasundergone knee replacement
surgery. His right knee wasreplaced on Monday and left
on Wednesday.He was hospitalized on
August 25 and is expected tobe discharged next week. Hewill have to undergo physio-
therapy for three weeks.Dr Kiran Chouka, who per-
formed the surgery, said,“Thalaiva himself had cometo see his brother and said
his brother has been suffer-ing from knee pain for the
past 10 years.”
‘Honest utilisation of funds key for
budget’s success’Puducherry: Puducherry Lt
Governor Kiran Bedi onWednesday said honest utili-sation of funds would be the
key to the success of theunion teritorry's budget. She
said in a message to themedia that success of thebudget also “depends on
how we raise and source theuntapped resources and
resources that are not col-lected still.” Reacting to thebudget presented earlier inthe day by Chief Minister V
Narayanasamy, the LtGovernor underlined theneed for recovering thearrears of revenue lying
locked up due to protractedlitigation. There should be
comprehensivecollection oftaxes whether they related to
GST, excise duty and others,she added. “The success ofthe budget also hinges on
how we realise cable channelviewing fee properly which is
grossly under-tapped,” Bedisaid. The former IPS officer
said “money should be spentonly on those in need andnot for those who do not
need it and it should be foressentials.” “Financial pru-
dence lies in the hands of theMinisters in charge with alert
bureaucracy,” she added.
Spl summary revision ofelectoral rolls from Sept. 1
■ Voters can make use of this special opportunity
DC CORRESPONDENTCHENNAI, AUG. 28
It is never too late tobecome a voter. TheElection Commission ofIndia has unfolded anopportunity for people toregister themselves asvoters and also the citi-zens to verify their elec-toral details.
People who have notbeen able to registerthemselves as voters andthose who find errors inthe electoral rolls ormigrate to other con-stituency could utilise thespecial summary revisionof the roll with the first ofJanuary 2020, as the qual-ifying date.
The month-long verifi-cation programme wouldcommence on Sept. 1.Speaking to reportersafter chairing a meetingof recognised politicalparties here onWednesday, ChiefElectoral Officer (CEO)Satyabrata Sahoo,informed that the draftelectoral roll would bepublished in mid-Oc-tober.
“The ElectionCommission of Indiawith an objective toimprove the health ofelectoral rolls and enroll-ment of all eligible citi-zens has introducedElectors Verification
Programme (EVP). Theprogramme starts onSept.1, 2019 and ends onSept. 30, 2019. A meetingwith recognised politicalparties was conductedtoday to brief them aboutEVP,” he told reporters.
Through this pro-gramme, people can veri-fy their electoral detailsthrough the followingways: Voter Help Line no.1950 (for senior citizens &PwDs only), Mobile App,(voters help line),National Voters ServicePortal (nvsp.in), visitingCommon Service Centres(CSC) or submitting hard
copy of filled up formsthrough BLOs to EROs.The applicants canauthenticate their detailsrelating thereto, by sub-mitting a copy of one ofthe following documents:Indian Passport, DrivingLicense, Aadhaar Card,Ration Card or any otherdocument approved byECI.
As to the role of politi-cal parties in the specialsummary revision, hesaid the recognised politi-cal parties can identifyand appoint Booth LevelAgent (BLA) for eachpolling station who would
identify the corrections,deletion and modificationin electoral rolls alongwith Booth Level Officers(BLO). The Commissionhas allowed BLAs ofrecognised political par-ties to file applications inbulk, subject to the condi-tion that a BLA shall notsubmit more than 10Forms to BLO at onetime/in one day.
The electors may alsoutilise the service of BLAof their area for makingnecessary updation oftheir details in the elec-toral rolls, the CEO,added.
CEO Sathyabathra Sahoo addresses the all-party meet at the secretariat onWednesday.
Stalin firmly in saddle,completes a year as prez
Pondy CM presents `8,425 crtax free budget for 2019-20
MRC likely to be shifted soon from Ooty as TN identifies 2 alternate sites
Puducherry, Aug. 28:Puducherry Chief Mini-ster V Narayanasamy pre-sented Rs 8425 crore taxfree budget for the fiscal2019-2020in the Assemblyon Wednesday amidstvociferous protestsagainst the governmentby the opposition. As soonas the Chief Ministercommenced the budgetpresentation, oppositionAIADMK, AINRC andBJP MLAs rose in revoltand registered theirstrong protest against thegovernment “failing topresent a full fledgedbudget” ever since itcame to power in 2016.
The opposition legisla-tors led by the AIADMKleader A Anbalaganrushed towards the wellof the House and contin-ued their noisy protest bysquatting on the floor,necessitating the SpeakerV P Sivakolundhu toorder the watch and wardstaff to evict them. All theMLAs were then evictedand none of them turnedup till the end of the day's
session. The Speaker andthe Chief Minister thenasked the opposition leg-islators staying awayfrom the proceedings toreturn to the House andmaintain dignity of theHouse. However, they didnot return till end of theday's sitting. On the fund-sto be made available forthe budget, Narayana-samy said of Rs 8,425crores, the revenue thegovernment wouldmobilise on its own wouldbe `5,435 crores, whileallocation by the Centreunder Centrally spon-sored schemes would be`1,890 crores. The govern-ment would go in for openmarket borrowing for asum of Rs 1,100 crores,the Chief Minister said.He noted that a total of 1.3lakh families would becovered in the first insta-nce under the Prime Mi-nisters Ayush Insurancescheme in the union terri-tory. On the propriety ofState Planning Boardhere, when PlanningCommission had been
replaced by NITI Aayogatthe national level,Narayanasamy said thegovernment would ascer-tain the necessity to con-tinue to have the board.
“We are also consider-ing a proposal to institutea Chief Minister's Econo-mic and AdministrativeAdvisory Council as is invogue in various States,”he said. Referring to theachievements of variousdepartments, he said thegovernment would dis-tribute 10 kilo free riceinstead of crediting cashequivalent to the familiescoming under 'Yellow co-lour ration card' system.He said the state govern-ment did not want to imp-ose tax burden on the peo-ple.
Narayanasamy assertedthat despite all hurdlesand administrative hard-ships, the governmentwould augment the local-ly available resources andprocure additional alloca-tions from the Centre onpar with what is availablein full fledged States. PTI
DIVULGE REAL PURPOSE OFOVERSEAS TRIP, SAYS STALIN
D. SEKAR | DCCHENNAI, AUG. 28
M. K. Stalin has completedone year as the DMK presi-dent since taking charge ofthe party's reins followingthe demise of his 95-year-old father M. Karunanidhiwho reigned supreme inthe Dravidian party in thefootsteps of its founder C.N. Annadurai.
Stalin steered the partyto spectacular victory inthe April Lok Sabha elec-tions winning 38 out of 39Lok Sabha constituenciesin Tamil Nadu and hisDMK emerged as the thirdlargest party in theParliament after the BJPand Congress. Stalin grad-ually rose in the partyranks occupying variouspositions such as youthwing secretary, deputygeneral secretary, treasur-er and party's workingpresident. He was electedto the post of DMK presi-dent on Aug. 28, 2018, at theparty's general council.
At the general councilmeeting held at AnnaArivalayam he had said, "Icannot talk like ThalaivarKalaignar. I don't. But Istand before you with theguts to try anything andimplement it."
Following the demise ofKarunanidhi many lead-ers, even Tamil film super-star Rajinikanth expressedthat a political vacuum hasbeen created owing to thepassing away of
'Kalaignar.' But Stalinpiloted the party to victoryin the April Lok Sabh elec-tions.
"DMK had 23 MLAs ini-tially, Now it has increasedto 100 due to Stalin's hardwork. He is a symbol offaith for the people. He cre-ated an alliance with like-minded parties andsteered the alliance to vic-tory. This is his greatestachievement. The SC/STpeople who have reposedfaith on him are solidlywith him," says V. P.Duraisamy, DMK deputygeneral secretary.
"He is a capable leader ofthe party and his crowningglory is the landslide victo-ry in the recent Lok Sabhaelections. The grandalliance had fetched himgrand victory," says T. K.Elangovan, party seniorand MP. Following the vic-tory in election and alsothe political strategy,Stalin, he said hasemerged as a tallest leaderfrom the south in nationalpolitics.
Paying rich tributes tothe party chief, Murasolidescribed him in an articleas "a leader is one whoknows the way, goes theway and shows the way."
Asked if it was a setbackto the DMK that Congressleader Rahul Gandhi,whose name was proposedby Mr. Stalin as the PrimeMinisterial candidate,could not become PM andthat a situation arose lead-ing to Rahul quitting thepost in the party, Mr.Duraisamy replied, "it isnot at all a setback."
Explaining further hesaid, the DMK chief hadonly conveyed the party'sdesire that Rahul shouldbe projected as the PM can-didate. "Tamil Nadu elec-torate responded well andgave us a massive win butthose in the north hadvoted otherwise. It is not asetback. DMK is a regionalparty. It was Rahul's deci-sion to quit. Our leaderhad even appealed to himto reconsider his decision,"Mr. Duraisamy added.
FROM P1
The State government hadearlier said that besidesattracting investments, theChief Minister would alsostudy new technologies invarious fields like Healthand Renewable Energy toimplement them in TamilNadu.
He is scheduled to returnon September 10. At the air-port here, Mr. Palaniswamiwas given a warm send-offby his senior party col-leagues and AIADMK func-tionaries.
Later, reacting to Mr.
Palaniswami's jibe, Mr.Stalin said he had only ques-tioned the status of variousinvestment proposals made
in GIM 2015 (under the lateJayalalithaa) and 2019, inthe backdrop of the ChiefMinister's latest foreignvisit. Prior to GIM 2019, acouple of State Ministershad flown abroad to meetinvestors and it would havebeen proper for Mr.Palaniswami also to havemade such a visit then, hesaid.
“Have `5.42 lakh crore(proposed) investments inthe two editions of GIMbeen realised? Not at all. Theannouncements regardinginvestments have become a
mere mirage,” the DMKleader alleged in a state-ment. The DMK has beeninsisting that the State gov-ernment release a whitepaper on this issue, he said.
On his private visits, theDMK leader said, they weretransparent.
“My personal visits withmy family were undertakenin full public knowledge. Itis not proper for a CM tocompare his official visitabroad with my privatevisit,” he said and asked theCM to divulge the real pur-pose of his overseas trip.
J. STALIN | DCCHENNAI, AUG. 28
The Madras Race Club situ-ated at the centre of Ooty islikely to be shifted soon asthe state government hasidentified two alternatesites in Kotagiri taluk, assuggested by the Madrashigh court.
Advocate general VijayNarayan, assisted by advo-cate K.Ravikumar informedthe same before a divisionbench comprising JusticesN.Kirubakaran and AbdulQuddhose when the appealfiled by the Madras RaceClub came up for hearing onWednesday.
In its order, the bench saidas far as the alternate site tobe provided to Madras RaceClub to shift the existingRace Club from Ooty, is con-cerned, two places wereshown to the Madras RaceClub officials and a jointinspection was made onAugust 24, 2019.
The bench said the
District Collector,Udhagamandalam, has senta report giving details of theinspection. In her report,she had stated that inKotagiri taluk, SurveyNo.825/2 in Kadaikambattyhamlet of Nedugula-2 vil-lage, having an total extentof 21.17.0 hectares and regis-tered as “Pudhar” in rev-enue records. The aboveland was located atKodaikambatty hamlet
which was 9.5 km distancefrom Kotagiri Town. Duringthe joint inspection, the gen-eral public of theKodaikambatty hamletgathered and filed theirobjections. The above saidland has temple and com-munity hall buildings. Inaddition to that they weresaid to be using one part ofthe land as a burial groundfor the past 60 years. TheDistrict Collector also stat-
ed that another land inSurvey No.382/1 of Jaccako-mbai hamlet of Nedugula-1village of Kotagiri talukwith an extent of 60.63.00Hectares registered as“Tharisu” in the revenuerecords was inspected bythe revenue officials alongwith MRC authorities. Theabove land was located atJaccakombai hamlet whichwas 9.5 Kms distance fromKotagiri town. An extent of00.21.50 hectares of land hasbeen used as Play groundfor religious purpose. Inaddition, an extent of14.57.50 hectares of land wasencroached by way of Teacultivation. “From theabove it is clear that twosites are available to theMadras Race Club to shiftrace club from the presentlocation at Ooty”, the benchadded.
The bench said however,Parthasarathy, counselappearing for the MadrasRace Club submitted thatthe said land was not a lev-
eled one and it has got upsand downs and it may not bepossible or feasible to estab-lish a race course in thoseplaces. He further submit-ted that the site was located40 kms away from Ooty andit was impossible for theMRC to shift race horsesthrough floats. Moreover, hesubmitted that for levelingthe field it would requirearound Rs 200 to Rs 400crore. Advocate generalVijay Narayan submittedthat to go to new site oneneed not go to Ooty and thentravel to new place.However, the nearest pointfrom the main road whichleads to Ooty to the newplace was about 9 km andthe said place was well con-nected with the main roadand even if there was noproper road that can beproperly laid. With regardto the costs involved in lev-eling of the field, advocategeneral submitted that hewill get a feasibility report,the bench added.
■ Stalin graduallyrose in the partyranks occupyingvarious positionssuch as youth wingsecretary, deputygeneral secretary,treasurer andparty's workingpresident
ENSURE POLLUTION FREE OOTY: HC TO TN GOVTDC CORRESPONDENTCHENNAI, AUG. 28
The Madras high court hasdirected the Udhagaman-dalam District Collector togive the details of proposalspending with the govern-ment and other steps taken tomake a pollution free Ooty.
A division bench compris-ing Justices N.Kirubakaranand Abdul Quddhose gavethe directive while passingfurther interim orders on anappeal filed by the MadrasRace Club.
The bench said with regardto amenities to be provided,this court wanted theAdvocate General VijayNarayan to get instructionswith regard to constructionof sewage RCC drain and lay-ing of sewage pipe along bothsides of Coonoor river andconstruction of storage seep-
age tank. Advocate generalproduced a proceeding of theCommissioner of MunicipalAdministration dated August27, 2019. As per the proceed-ings of the Municipal Admi-nistration, the estimated costfor the said work was `330 la-kh and the same has alreadybeen sanctioned and there-fore, the municipal adminis-tration can proceed with thework, the bench added.
The bench said with regardto the restoration of dam-aged underground sewagesystem (UGSS) atKodappamund Channel, asper the proposal Rs 500 lakhhave been sanctioned, as evi-dent from the proceedings ofthe Commissioner ofMunicipal Administrationand therefore, the said workcould also commence. Withregard to Bio Mining projectas per the orders of the NGT,
it was stated by theCommissioner of MunicipalAdministration in the com-munication dated August 27,as regards sanction of Rs856.76 crore, it was underconsideration of the govern-ment and a decision would betaken within two weeks, thebench added.
The bench said with regardto merging of the AestheticsArchitectural Aspects Com-mittee with the Building Pe-rmission District Level Com-mittee, the district collector’sproposal was pending withthe government for approvaland a decision would betaken within a period of twoweeks. With regard to theproposal submitted by thedistrict collector to declare283 locations as no construc-tion area, the Advocate Ge-neral submitted that a deci-sion would be taken soon.
Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami on Wedneday gets a warm send off at Chennai airport. — DC
Dr DonThomas, a Nasaastronaut, who has beenon space shuttle fourtimes, shared hisexperiences, including hisstint in the ISS, withstudents of SaveethaUniversity on Wednesday.He also spoke about thecollaborative efforts of thevarious nations in thespace programme.
Actor Vishal appears beforeEgmore court in connection withtax evasion case on Wednesday.
— DC
State had earlier saidthat besides attract-ing investments, theChief Minister wouldalso study new tech-nologies in variousfields like Health andRenewable Energy toimplement them inTamil Nadu
PAGE
5StateTHURSDAY I 29 AUGUST 2019 | CHENNAIDECCAN CHRONICLE
Going digitalMunicipal administration minister S P Velumanion Wednesday told reporters that house planapproval can henceforth be done via the internet
Installation of CCTVshas brought down
crime rate by 50 per cent
—Dr A. K. Viswanathan,
Chennai police commissioner
IN BRIEF
Iranian film festconcludes today
COIMBATORE: As many assix award winning Iranian
films of various genresincluding drama, romance,comedy and documentary
among others, werescreened at the Iranian Film
Festival organised at theHindusthan College of Artsand Science here. Five new
movies from Iran namely'The Bodyguard', 'Today',
'Crazy Castle', 'The PaintingPool', 'Where are my
Shoes?' and 'Born in 1987',were screened at the three-day festival. Entry for publicwas free. The three day fes-
tival will conclude onThursday. Department ofVisual Communication ofthe college in association
with The Cultural house ofIslamic Republic of Iran and
Indo Cine AppreciationFoundation (ICAF), Chennai,
organised the event.
‘Make eco-friendlyGanesha idols’
0Coimbatore: Members ofan non-government organi-
sation ‘Kovai KulangalPadhukaapu Amaippu’, have
petitioned Collector KRajamani urging him to
ensure that idols that aremade of Plaster of Paris are
not used in the VinayakaChaturthi festival, as thesame would pollute the
water bodies whenimmersed. In the petition
filed on Wednesday, mem-bers of the organisation
stated that the Madras HighCourt has directed the pub-
lic to refrain from using idolswhich are made of harmful
chemicals and colour paints,as the toxins they emit whenimmersed will pollute waterbodies. In their petition, thegroup identified areas in thecity where non eco-friendly
idols were being sold, andurged the collector to take
necessary action against thevendors.
DC CORRESPONDENTCOIMBATORE, AUG. 28
A special court for han-dling family disputesand woman harassmentcases was inauguratedhere on Wednesday.
Following directions ofthe Supreme Court, anew special court wasinaugurated at the inte-grated court complexhere. Principal districtjudge, Sakthivel, inaugu-rated the special courtalong with additionalsessions court judge,Gunasekaran, judge Raviand district collector,Rasamani.
Judge Sakthivel during
the inauguration said,“Harassment casesagainst woman includ-ing oral and physicalabuse, cases in connec-tion with women being harassed by hus-band or else by theirfamily members, dowryharassment, sexualassaults promising mar-riage, and such caseswere so far handled byjudicial magistratecourts. Now, these caseswill be transferred to thenewly inaugurated spe-cial court.”
As many as 800 womenharassment cases arepending in theCoimbatore district
court, of which 600 casesrecorded within the citylimits will be immedi-ately transferred to thespecial court, and fur-ther proceedings will bestarted. JudgeThilageshwari will betaking charge of thisspecial court, addedjudge Sakthivel.
MLA Amman Arjun,City PoliceCommissioner SumitSaran, DeputyCommissioner BalajiSaravanan (L&O)Perumal (crime) SPSujith Kumar, and several lawyers werepresent during the inauguration.
Special court opened tohandle harassment cases
Students of DG Vaishnav college, Arumbakkam participate in 'Eye Donation' awarenessprogramme organised by Sankara Nethralaya hospital. — DC
TWIN SIBLINGSHELD MINUTESAFTER RELEASEDC CORRESPONDENTCOIMBATORE, AUG. 28
Notorious criminal 'twinbrothers' who wererecently released on bail,were re-arrested for stab-bing a man.
According to police,Suresh (28) and Ramesh(28) belonged toSelvapuram in suburbs ofthe city. A notorious pair,the two brothers haveallegedly been involved in16 cases includingattempt to murder, rob-bery, and other law andorder violation cases, thatwere registered in vari-ous police stations acrossthe city.
The duo was recently released on bailfor ‘good conduct’, along with a bond pro-duced by them promisinga new life, but immediate-ly after their release, thetwins picked up quarrelwith a youth and stabbedhim.
Police identified the vic-tim as Ranjith Kumarfrom Selvapuram, who iscurrently under treat-ment in the CoimbatoreMedical College Hospital(CMCH).
The twins were immedi-ately arrested and impris-oned at the CoimbatoreCentral prison.
ARULOLI | DCTHOOTHUKUDI, AUG. 28
Condemning the transferof excess cash reserve ofthe RBI to the government,Lok Sabha MP KanimozhiKarunanidhi, onWednesday warned that itwould create long-termdamage to the nation'seconomy.
Responding to mediaper-sons here on the issue,
Kanimozhi added that theUnion government insteadof taking corrective meas-ures to check the slump inthe economy, has wronglytaken the surplus moneyfrom the Reserve Bank ofIndia, which may only dev-astate our economy.
"We have examples of theeconomies in the worldcaught in trouble by trans-ferring the reserve of theirrespective Central banks,"
said Kanimozhi, whoadded that transferring ofRBI reserve money, wouldset a wrong precedence.
Kanimozhi also criti-cised the BJP-led NDA gov-ernment at the Centre ofdoing nothing concrete toaddress unemployment inthe country, which is at a45-year-high.
She recalled the shrewdmeasures taken by theCongress-led UPA govern-
ment at the Centre in 2008to save the
country’s economy fromglobal recession.
The DMK MP wascritical about Tamil Nadu chief ministerEdappadi K.Palaniswami’s foreigntour, which is said to have been arranged tobring in more foreigninvestments.
Stating that the chiefminister had utterly failedto attract investmentdespite the globalinvestors’ meets arranged
by his government,Kanimozhi said, “Let’swait and watch the resultof his foreign tour.”
Responding to the func-tioning of DMK party pres-ident M K Stalin,Kanimozhi said that as aDMK cadre and the sisterof the DMK president, shewas proud about Stalin,whose opinion in nationalissues are being valuedhighly.
G. SRINIVASAN | DCTHANJAVUR, AUG. 28
DMK president M.K.Stalin on Wednesdayappealed to the UnionGovernment to use the`1.76 lakh crore surplusmoney taken from theReserve Bank of India towrite off the loans takenby the farmers.
“The Central govern-ment should write off allthe farm loans across thecountry using the`1,76,000 lakh crore takenfrom the Reserve Bank,”said the DMK chief whileaddressing a seminar onCauvery, here onWednesday.
Stalin said his party wasnot against ‘development’,but development shouldnot be at the cost of wel-fare of people.
Speaking at a seminaron ‘Cauvery’, Stalin said,“The Central governmenthas launched twin attac kson Tamil Nadu. One is achemical attack and a cul-tural attack.” Citing theproposed hydrocarbonproject in the Cauverydelta as ‘chemical attack’,which is aimed at destroy-ing land, cultivation andfarmers, he cited theimposition of Hindi as‘cultural attack’.
“Tamil Nadu should beprotected from these twinattacks, and DMK is capa-ble of fighting theseattacks,” he said.
Stalin said that the DMKhas been consistentlyopposing the hydrocarbonproject in the delta regionas it would affect the peo-ple, even more the farm-ers, in the state. Hedeclared that the proposedhydrocarbon project, theSalem eight-lane express-
way, are all projects thatgo against the people andfarmers, and hence, theoppostion from the DMK.
“We will oppose anyproject that would affectthe people. But we aredubbed as a party thatstands against all develop-ment activities of theCentral government,” heexplained.
He said that both thestate and Central govern-ments are enacting adrama with respect to theproposed hydrocarbonproject. While Unionpetroleum ministerDharmendra Pradhansays in Parliament thatonly hydrocarbon projectis implemented in Tamil
Nadu and not Methane,State law ministerShanmugham says inTamil Nadu legislativeassembly that the Statewill not permit hydrocar-bon project.
“Is this not a drama, anddoes not this amount tocheating the people,”Stalin asked.
He stressed the need toprotect Cauvery delta as aprotected ‘Agro Zone’.Tracing the history ofCauvery water issue, hesaid that Karnataka is notimplementing theSupreme Court’s order torelease 177.25 tmc ofwater.
The Tamil Nadu govern-ment is also not keen in
getting its due share ofwater for Tamil Nadu. TheCentral governmentwhich should ensureKarnataka released water,remained a silent specta-tor because it is interestedin Karnataka and not inTamil Nadu, Stalin rued.
Only the surplus wateris now being released byKarnataka after the rainsthere. The situation isgrim in Tamil Nadu withfarmers suicides, farmlabourers migration andsuch issues.
“Cauvery issue is notrelated only to Thanjavuror the Cauvery delta, but tothe whole of Tamil Nadu.If Thanjavur is in danger,then Tamil Nadu is in dan-
ger (Thanjaikku aapathuendral, Tamil NadukkuAapathu),” he said. He alsosaid that it is our right toask for Cauvery water andit is the duty of Karnatakato provide it.
S Ranganathan, secre-tary, Cauvery delta farm-ers welfare association,S.S. Palani Manickam MP,K.N. Nehru, former stateminister, DuraiChandrasekaran MLA,K.P. Ramalingam, formerMP and state secretary offarmers wing of DMK,A.K.S. Vijayan, formerMP, Shanmugham, statesecretary of Tamil NaduVivasaysigal Sangam,affiliated to CPI(M), alsospoke.
DC CORRESPONDENTTHANJAVUR, AUG. 28
Participants at a seminaron 'Cauvery, farmers andagriculture', organised bythe DMK's farmers winghere, has appealed to boththe state and Central gov-ernments not to implementproposed hydrocarbonprojects, and also demand-ed declaration of Cauverydelta as a 'Protected AgroZone'.
A resolution to this effectwas adopted at the seminarheld here on Wednesday. Inanother resolution, theseminar urged the stategovernment to immediate-ly release 20,000 cusecs ofwater from Mettur dam, sothat farmers can take upsamba cultivation quickly.(At present 10,000 cusecs isbeing released from Metturdam).
The seminar registeredits strong voice againstKarnataka's proposal toconstruct a dam acrossCauvery at Mekedatu. Itappealed to the Karnatakagovernment to drop theproposal, as it is againstthe order of the SupremeCourt on Cauvery watersharing norms. TheCauvery WaterManagement Authorityshould not give permissionto the project, and theCentral government alsoshould not support theproject, they added.
The seminar criticisedthe state government fornot taking up desiltingworks on time. Karnatakais releasing only surplus
water after heavy rainsthere. The Tamil Nadu gov-ernment has not takensteps to get the due share ofCauvery water fromKarnataka.
Kuruvai (short-termcrop) could not be taken upfor eight years at a stretchin canal-irrigated areas,for want of Mettur water.Desilting has not beendone properly, they rued.
"This seminar condemnsthe state government forbetraying Cauvery deltafarmers," said a resolutionpassed in the seminar.
The resolution alsoobjected to formation of asingle tribunal, which theysaid was aimed at under-mining the Cauvery WaterManagement Authority.This would take away therights of Tamil Nadu onCauvery water, theyopined.
The seminar alsodemanded linking ofGodavari and Cauveryrivers and waiver of farmloans. It also expressed itsobjection to the DamProtection Act anddemanded better facilitiesand prices for copra pro-curement.
‘Use RBI cash to waive farm loans’■Centre urged to write off such loans all over country
DMK president M.K. Stalin speaking at a ‘Seminar on Cauvery’ at Thanjavur, on Wednesday. —DC
‘Agro Zone’ callgrows louder
Meddling with RBI cash reserve will damage economy: KaniCentre haswrongly takensurplus money
from the ReserveBank of India, whichmay only devastateour economy
—KANIMOZHI, MP
● Kuruvai cultivationcould not be takenup for eight years ata stretch in canal-irrigated areas, forwant of Metturwater. Desilting hasalso not been done,members rued.
● Both were recent-ly released on bailfor ‘good conduct’,along with a bondproduced by thempromising a newlife, but immediatelyafter their release,the twins picked upquarrel with a youthand stabbed him.
DC CORRESPONDENTCOONOOR, AUG. 28
It’s not just people or cus-tomers who flock beefstalls here. Rats and dogsrun riots at these beefstalls in the municipal mar-ket here in Coonoor, sub-jecting consumers to greathealth risks.
Residents want a fool-proof mechanism to be inplace to grant licenses torun meat stalls in the town.
All this came to light aftervideo-clips of rats runningover and nibbling meatstocks in these beef stalls,and stray dogs by the num-bers wandering aroundlazily, quick to lap upwastes thrown around,went viral on social media.
Food Safety andStandards Authority ofIndia (FSSAI) wing offi-cials swung into action andinspected beef stalls onTuesday evening, and tem-porarily closed down fiveshops for not measuring toprescribed hygiene stan-dards. They also seized the
beef stacked up in theseshops and destroyed it.
However, RajeshkumarJames, secretary of theCitizens' Forum ofCoonoor, charged that thelax attitude of the officialsgave beef stall owners theadvantage to practiceunhealthy standards inselling beef.
“Leave alone beef stalls,regular inspection by com-petent authorities shouldbe ordered by the districtadministration to ensurethat only quality andhealthy meat products aresold in the market. Sincethe buildings that housemeat and beef stalls in
Coonoor market are veryold, steps should be takento demolish and recon-struct them with a fool-proof mechanism in placeto check rodents sneakinginto the beef and meatstalls. Authorities con-cerned should explore pos-sibilities of forming a taskforce consisting of mem-bers drawn from the publicservice organizations, andconsumer forums to regu-larly monitor hygienic con-ditions in the stalls. Goodcoordination among theofficials and consumerorganisations would helpcurb this type of unhealthytrade practice,” he added.
Public fumes as rodents,dogs invade beef outlets
15 held for staging demo
THANJAVUR: Police herearrested 15 members of the
Mukkulathu Puligal Aamippufor staging a demonstration
condemning the arrest ofAru Saravanan, leader of
their outfit, in connectionwith the recent clashes anddamage of Dr. Ambedkar’s
statue, at Vedaranyam.
A rat nibbling at the meat in a beef stall in Coonoor —DC
BREAKING RECORDS IN FINE ARTS Chennai, Aug. 28: A dance marathon relay as well asmany types of displays of talent in art was performedsimultaneously over a period of 40 hours with over 3,000participants with an aim to create records for theGuinness, Asia and India Book of Records.
Music, art, mimicry, oratorical, keyboard,miruthangam, drums, and other instrumental plays, sil-ambam, karate, yoga and fancy dress competition wereamong the ones organised by Raaba Media at the KrishInternational School, Kovur, Chennai.
A bharatanatyam marathon featuring 600 dancers ledby Mrs. Seetha Lakshmi and Mrs. Kavitha Srinivasan,focusing on various techniques was also one of the high-lights.
In a surprise move, Lakshmi Vilas CEO Mukherjee quits Mumbai, Aug. 28: Even asthe Reserve Bank is yet totake a call on IndiabullsHousing Finance's plans tomerge with Lakshmi VilasBank, the mid-sized privatesector lender Wednesdayannounced the resignationof its chief executiveParthasarathi Mukherjee.
Mukherjee quit citing per-sonal reasons, the bank
informed the bourses latein the evening. Mukherjee,who had served the largerrival Axis Bank before join-ing the Tamil Nadu basedbank in 2015, was given atwo-year extension thisJanuary. LVB had Aprilannounced a merger withthe city- headquarteredmortgage major, in a dealwhich is very keenly
watched for the outcome.Indiabulls' association withthe realty sector is the rea-son why the deal is beingkeenly watched, given theRBI's aversion to allow enti-ties having exposure to thesector into the universalbanking space. TheIndiabulls promoters haveinitiated efforts to com-pletely exit the realty space
and also promised to bringdown their personal hold-ings in the merged entitydown to regulator-mandat-ed levels.
The deal has received allthe necessary approvals,but is stuck with RBI. Allalong, Indiabulls executiveshave been sounding confi-dent of getting the go-ahead. — PTI
DC CORRESPONDENTNEW DELHI, AUG 28
Following a go-ahead fromthe Supreme Court,CPI(M) General SecretarySitaram Yechury wouldon Thursday go to Jammuand Kashmir to visit hisparty colleague formerMLA Mohammed YusufTarigami.
The Apex court while allowing MrYechury to visit thestate cautioned himnot to use the visit forany “political pur-pose”.
The Supreme Courtgreen signal cameafter a HabeasCorpus petition wasfiled by the CPI(M).
Mr Yechury hadbeen twice detainedat the Srinagar air-port when he wastrying to enter
Kashmir. The second timethe CPI(M) GeneralSecretary had accompa-nied Opposition leadersled by Congress leaderRahul Gandhi.
Mr Yechury on his partsaid he would do “whatev-er needs to be done” onthe basis of his visit.
“I had filed a petition in
SC for the production ofYusuf Tarigami. Thecourt has now permittedme to visit Tarigami and report to the court onhis health conditions and from there the case will proceed further.So the case is not closedas this is an interimorder,” Mr Yechury said.
PAGE
6NationTHURSDAY | 29 AUGUST 2019 | CHENNAIDECCAN CHRONICLE
PoliticsCongress never cared about development, security and housing for the poor, claimed UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath.
IN BRIEF
Dehradun: The e-cabinet sys-tem will become fully
operational in two months inUttarakhand and no paper
will be used during Cabinetmeetings after that, state
government spokesman and minister Madan Kausik said
on Wednesday. The decisionwas taken at a meeting ofthe state Cabinet chaired
by Chief Minister TrivendraSingh Rawat here on
Wednesday, Kausik, who isthe Urban Development
Minister, said at the mediabriefing after the meeting.
The e-cabinet system willbecome fully operational in
two months and Cabinetmeetings will become paper-
less, he said. The Cabinet,which took around 30 impor-tant decisions, also removed
the administrative controlover the use of ethanol by
the excise department.
Cabinet meetingsin U’khand to be
paperless
I have been a strongcritic of the Modi gov-
ernment and I hope a constructive one
— Shashi Tharoor,
Congress leader
Yechury gets SC’s green signal for Srinagar visit
MAYAWATI RE-ELECTED BSP CHIEF
DC CORRESPONDENTNEW DELHI, AUG. 28
Home minister Amit Shahhas asked the police andinvestigating agencies tofurther improve and relymore on scientific andforensic evidence to pre-pare foolproof casesagainst criminals so as tofurther improve the con-viction rate in criminalcases, which he describedas “very pitiful”.
Even in the past, manysecurity experts haveexpressed concern overthe gap between the work-out percentage and convic-tion rate of the police.
The home ministerstressed on the need forproviding strong evidenceto back the chargesheet incriminal cases whichwould leave little room fordefence lawyers and inturn help improve the con-viction rate. Whileexpressing concern over
the low conviction ratio,Mr Shah said that intoday’s times this cannotcontinue and needs to becorrected, which can onlybe done by supporting acase with strong forensicevidence.
The days of old police
techniques of relyingmore on “third degree orphone tapping” are notadequate now to ensurebetter investigation andconviction, the seniorBharatiya Janata Partyleader said.
The home minister,
while addressing thepolice top brass at anevent in the capital,described better forensicevidence as the “need ofthe hour.”
He said the governmentwas already considering aproposal to make strongforensic evidence manda-tory in all criminal caseswhere punishment wasseven years or more.
Mr Shah directed theBureau of Police Researchand Development(BPR&D) to prepare adetailed plan in thisregard for investigativeagencies of both theCentre and states.
sPR&D, which functionsunder the administrativecontrol of the home min-istry, works as a thinktank for all policing activi-ties while suggesting dif-ferent policies and tech-nology solutions in further improving polic-ing.
Asks agencies to rely on scientific evidence, rues conviction rateShah bats for forensics
Home minister Amit Shah presents an award to a policeofficer during the 49th Foundation Day celebrations of the BPR&D in New Delhi, Wednesday. — PTI
TENDERS / NOTICES
Lucknow, Aug 28: Bahujan Samaj Party supre-mo Mayawati was on Wednesday re-elected theparty's national president after which she vowednever to “stop or bend, let alone break”.
She was elected BSP president unanimously at aspecial meeting of senior office-bearers of theparty's central executive committee, its state unitsand representatives selected from across the coun-try, a party release said. On her re-election, the 63-year-old Dalit leader expressed gratitude to herparty workers and followers and assured them ofher commitment to take forward the BSP move-ment.
MOILY: JAIRAMRESPONSIBLE FORUPA-2 POLICYPARALYSISBengaluru, Aug 28:Senior Congress leader MVeerappa Moily alleged onWednesday that the thenUnion Minister JairamRamesh was among thoseresponsible for “policyparalysis” during the UPA-2 government as he hit outat him over his controver-sial remarks on the PrimeMinister.
The former UnionMinister also slammedShashi Tharoor for hisstatement that praising thePrime Minister NarendraModi for doing the rightthings would lend credibil-ity to the opposition's criti-cism of him.
Terming the statementsas “most unfortunate”, hecalled for appropriate dis-ciplinary action againstthe two leaders by theCongress leadership.
“He (Ramesh) is responsi-ble for policy paralysis ofour Government (UPA-2)and he is also responsiblefor compromising the prin-ciples of governance manya time”, Moily alleged inan interview to PTI. Helater clarified that Rameshwas among those responsi-ble for the policy paralysisand “not the only person”.
“He (Ramesh) wasEnvironment Minister...Hewas also in Minister char-ge of Rural Development...There.. On land acquisi-tion. A lot of hardship wascreated for industrialistsacquiring land and indus-tries' establishment.
(When he was) Enviro-nment (Minister), every-thing was negative... Nosystem was evolved to clearit (environment clearancefor projects)”, Moilyalleged.
PAGE
7NationTHURSDAY | 29 AUGUST 2019 | CHENNAIDECCAN CHRONICLE
Hand over PokOnly thing remaining to bediscussed with Pak is handingover of PoK, says V-P Naidu
Sonbhadra: A 25-year-oldman arrested for allegedly
stealing some mustard seeddied in police custody afterfalling ill, the police said onWednesday, but the family
has alleged he was tortured.Shivam was arrested by the
Punnuganj police on Mondayand he fell ill on Tuesdayevening, the police said,
adding the man was taken to the district hospital where
he died. Station HouseOfficer Ram Narain Ram of
Pannuganj police station has been suspended afterthe custodial death and a
murder case has beenlodged against him and one
other unnamed person,Additional Superintendent of
Police O.P. Singh said.The victim’s family, however,
alleged that Shivam was“mercilessly beaten” in the
police station because ofwhich he died. “He was fine
when we had met him onTuesday around 5 pm but
around 7 pm we got thenews through the gram prad-
han that he was taken ill,” Shivam’s father Umapati
Shukla said. Shukla allegedthe station house officer“murdered his son” and demanded strict actionagainst him. The family
members also staged a sit-inon Varanasi-Skaktinagar
road demanding the arrest ofsuspended SHO.
— PTI
IN BRIEF
Shimla: A 24-year-old IndianAir Force (IAF) personnel
allegedly committed suicideby shooting himself in
Himachal Pradesh’s Solan district, the police said
on Wednesday. Leading AirCraftman (LAC) Krishnendu
Chowdhary shot himself with his service rifle when he wason sentry duty at Kasauli Air
Force Station on Tuesdayevening, Solan additionalsuperintendent of police
Shiv Kumar said. No suicidenote was recovered from the
spot and the police were trying to ascertain the rea-
son that forced Chowdhary, aresident of Tripura’s Gomti
district, to take the extremestep, they said. The body hasbeen sent to the government
hospital for post-mortem. — PTI
IAF jawan shootshimself in Kasauli
Bikaner: Three pilgrims,including a couple, died
on Wednesday after a snakebit them in Rajasthan’s
Bikaner district, police said.Three pilgrims on way to
Ram Devra in Jaisalmer fromSriganganagar were attacked
by a snake when they hadstopped at a temple in
Motigarh for rest Tuesdaynight, Superintendent ofPolice, Bikaner, Pradeep
Mohan Sharma said.They were taken to a hospi-
tal after their condition dete-riorated Wednesday morning
where they died, he said. They were identified as
Rajuram, 30, Chunnilal, 52,and his wife Radhi Devi, 50,
the police said.— PTI
3 pilgrims die due tosnake bite in Bikaner
New Delhi: Conscious of theclose ties between Turkey
and Pakistan, India is hostinga Turkish media delegationto showcase the country’s
plural heritage among otheraspects and boost the under-
standing of the Turkishmedia on various issues
regarding India especiallythe peaceful co-existence ofpeople belonging to variousfaiths. The visit is also being
seen as helpful to combatPakistani propaganda in theTurkish media against India
on the Kashmir issue. Turkey— an influential member of
the Islamic world — has beena long-standing friend
of Pakistan.
Turkish media team on India tour
UP MAN DIES INCUSTOSY, KIN
ALLEGES TORTURE
Pakistans PrimeMinister would do
better not to becomea Bhasmasura
— Giriraj Singh,
Union minister
DC CORRESPONDENTNEW DELHI, AUG. 28
The Prime Minister islearnt to have directedhis council of ministersto make people awareabout the long term ben-efits of the Centre’s deci-sion to abrogate Articles370 and 35A, which gavea special status toJammu and Kashmir(J&K).
Mr Narendra Modi,who had called a meet-ing of the council ofministers on Wednesdayevening where homeminister Amit Shaheven gave a presentationon the prevailing situa-tion in J&K, is said tohave asked his ministe-rial colleagues to travelto their respective con-stituencies and briefpeople about how thedecision would bringpeace in the terror-hitregion, highly placedsources said.
Sources furtherinformed that financeminister NirmalaSitharaman also gave apresentation on therecent economic meas-ures announced by thegovernment to reviveeconomy and boostgrowth. In addition to allthis, the ministers wereasked to make peopleaware about the ill-effects of plastic.
The Prime Ministerexhorted them to aggres-sively propagate themessage of discourag-ing the use of plasticbags, among the com-mon man. The meetingof the council of minis-ters was held soon afterthe Prime Minister hadchaired the cabinetmeeting.
Russia throws its weight behind India SRIDHARKUMARASWAMINEW DELHI, AUG. 28
Russia came out stronglyin support of India onceagain on New Delhi’srecent decision to bifur-cate J&K state into twoUnion Territories andrevoke Article 370, with itsambassador NikolayKudashev on Wednesday,saying the Russian posi-tion was “almost 100 per-cent identical” to theIndian position. TheRussian envoy also saidthe “sovereign” decision ofthe Indian government“belonged to the constitu-tional space of India thus,making it naturally aninternal matter of India”.He was addressing amedia conference ahead ofPrime Minister NarendraModi’s forthcoming visitto Vladivostok in Russianext week to be the chiefguest at the EasternEconomic Forum there,
something which theRussian envoy said would“open a new chapter” inthe Indo-Russian strategicties. In a major move, thetwo countries also intendto ink a pact soon for con-struction of at least sixmore nuclear power plantunits.
So far as India’s J&Kmove is concerned, just afew days ago, a Russiandiplomat at the UnitedNations had raised eye-brows, when he spoke notonly about bilateral reso-lution of issues betweenIndia and Pakistan butalso about the “UN char-ter”. But, Russian deputychief of mission (DCM)Roman Babushkin said thereference to the “UN char-ter” had been only toemphasise the principle ofnon-interference in thedomestic affairs of othercountries as per the UNcharter. Speaking after hisambassador, the RussianDCM nevertheless said
“any escalation in ten-sions (between India andPakistan) is a matter ofconcern.”
Russian ambassador MrKudashev said, “Our posi-tion is crystal clear. Thisdecision is a sovereigndecision of the Indian gov-ernment. It (the Indiandecision on J&K) belongsto the constitutional spaceof India thus, making itnaturally an internal mat-ter of India. And naturally,we would prefer onlyissues as they say betweenIndia and Pakistan to beresolved through dialogueon the basis of ShimlaAgreement and LahoreDeclaration. If you were tocompare it to the Indianposition, then you wouldcome to the conclusionthat our positions arealmost 100 percent identi-cal.”
Russian DCM Babushkinsaid, “The Russian posi-tion (on India’s J&K move)corresponds to the Indian
position.” On the Kashmirissue, he said, “Russia hasno role to play. It is a bilat-eral issue (between Indiaand Pakistan) unless bothcountries ask for media-tion.”
Russia had recently toosprung to New Delhi’sdefence on the bifurcationof Jammu and Kashmir(J&K) state and revokingof Article 370, pointing outthat “the change in the sta-tus of the state of J&K andits division into two UnionTerritories” has been “car-ried out within the frame-work of the Constitution
of the Republic of India”.This had supported theIndian stand that therecent developments arean “internal matter” ofIndia and within its “sov-ereign jurisdiction”.Moscow’s support is cru-cial for India, as Russia isa permanent member ofthe UN Security Council(P-5) along with the UnitedStates, United Kingdom,France and China.
In response to a questionon whether Moscow wasworried over Indo-Pak ten-sions, Mr. Babushkin saidthat “India and Pakistan
enjoy non-official nuclearpower status” and that“any escalation in ten-sions (between the twocountries) is a matter ofconcern”.
When asked about Uniondefence minister RajnathSingh’s comments regard-ing India’s no first-use ofnuclear weapons doctrine,Mr Babushkin said,“Hopefully, rhetoric willnot lead to real escala-tion.”
On the issue of terror-ism, the Russian deputychief of mission said,“Both countries (India andRussia) strongly condemnterrorism in all its formsand call on the interna-tional community to set upa united front against thisevil. We insist on the inad-missibility of double stan-dards (on terrorism) aswell as the use of terroristgroups for political pur-poses.”
On nuclear energy, MrBabushkin said, “Nuclear
energy constitutes a fun-damental building blockfor the strategic partner-ship in this sector. Russiaremains the only foreigncountry for India which isinvolved in the physicalconstruction of nuclearreactors here. The imple-mentation of the projectincludes six power units ofthe Kudankulam nuclearpower plant (which) is wellunderway. ... We intend tosign a general project forconstruction for at leastsix more units of thenuclear power plants inIndia.”
On railway cooperation,Mr Babushkin said,“There are good prospectsfor scaling up in the rail-way transport sector. Wewelcome the successfulparticipation of theRussian Railways inimplementing the projectto build high-speed rail-way communicationbetween Nagpur andSecunderabad.”
Sovereign decision of Indian govt on J&K belonged to the constitutional space of India, says envoy Nikolay Kudashev
YUSUF JAMEELSRINAGAR, AUG. 28
J&K governor Satya PalMalik on Wednesdayassured the people ofJammu and Kashmir thatthe identity, culture, lan-guages, religions and her-itage of the state would bepreserved and no outsidepressure to dilute thesewould be allowed.
“I want to assure thepeople that identity ofJ&K, its culture, lan-guages, religion, heritageand society will be pro-tected. We will not allowany outside pressure onthese. We will preserveand protect these,” he saidin his first interaction ofa select group of mediapersons here after J&Kwas stripped of its specialstatus under Article 370 ofthe Constitution and splitinto two Union territoriesin the first week ofAugust.
Asked if the governmentwas planning to issue anordinance to this effect,the Governor said, “It isfar off matter.”
He, however, assertedthat what he said had thebacking of PrimeMinister, Narendra Modi.He said, “It is the solemnassurance of PrimeMinister …we will restorenormalcy in the region.”
Talking about the net-work connectivity whichhas been suspended in theValley, he said, “The medi-um of phone and internetis used less by us andmostly by terrorists andPakistanis as well as formobilisation and indoctri-nation. It is a kind ofweapon used against us,so we have stopped it. Theservices will be resumed
gradually.” He said thatthe administration is con-cerned about every life inthe State; hence is leavingno stone unturned to pro-tect it. He said, “EveryKashmiri life is valuableto us, we don’t want a lossof even a single life. Therehas been no civilian casu-alty, only the few who got
violent are injured, theyalso have below the waistinjuries.” This, he said,was in sharp contrast toearlier disturbances whena large number of peoplehad lost their lives.
He added that the strictrestrictions were placedto prevent civilian causal-ities.
BHASKAR HARI SHARMANEW DELHI, AUG. 28
Mohammed Aleem Syeed,who is a law graduatefrom Jamia MilliaIslamia, had lost all hopeto contact his family dueto information clamp-down imposed by thesecurity forces in the trou-ble-torn Jammu andKashmir.
But, the Supreme Courtorder on Wednesday,allowing him to visit hisfamily, has restored hisfaith in judiciary as hefeels that courts were theonly hope, where peoplecan approach in tryingtimes to seek redressal.
But, Aleem has a word ofadvise for his Kashmiribrethren who too hadbeen facing similar situa-tion. “Just knock at thedoors of the highest courtand you are bound to getjustice,” an elated Jamiastudent told this reporter,who will be flying back tohis hometown onThursday”
Aleem, said at one pointof time he had lost all
hope to reach out to hisfamily. “Being a student oflaw myself, I then decidedto seek justice from thejudiciary itself.Otherwise, what was thepoint of pursuing lawdegree when one wasunable to seek redressalthrough judicial process.”
Aleem, who last spoke tohis family on the night ofAugust 4 said, the conver-sation was about the situ-ation, I asked themwhether they had storedenough grocery itemsbecause things weren’tlooking normal at thattime and I was on the callwhen all of a sudden thephone was disconnectedand since then, there arediffere nt narratives about
the real situation prevail-ing in the valley. “There isconfusion on the narra-tive, as contradictorynews is coming. On onehand, you get the newsstating Kashmir is nor-mal, and on the otherhand, you hear completelyopposite. This is causingmore frustration to mebecause there are diverseviews. I don’t know thesituation on the groundand I have no first-handinformation as landlinetelephones as well asmobile phones are notworking since August 5. Iwant to be certain of thewellbeing of my parentsbecause Anantnag inSouth Kashmir, the placewhere my parents live, is avery volatile place,” hesaid.
He said he was very wor-ried about his family as hewas unable to connect tothem either directly orthrough his friends due tototal clamp down on allinformation channels.
Aleem is living in thenational capital for pastsix years.
SC allows Jamia student to visit family in Kashmir
RAJIB CHOWDHURIKOLKATA, AUG. 28
A senior IPS officer ofthe West Bengal hastriggered a controversyas a video went viralshowing him touchingchief minister MamataBanerjee’s feet as amark of respect,moments after she fedhim a cake with her ownhand.
Rajiv Mishra, who wascaught on camera of hisact in uniform, is theinspector general(Western Zone). Thevideo clip of barely fewseconds, which came tolight on Wednesday butis yet to be verified, isbelieved to have beenclicked during MsBanerjee’s tour to Dighalast week. It shows hersitting with a box full ofcakes with the sea beachbehind her. SomeTrinamul Congressleaders and senior IPSofficers were standingin front of her.According to the video,Ms Banerjee offered a
piece of cake to seniorIPS officer VineetKumar Goyal.
Standing in plain-clothes next to statetransport ministerSuvendu Adhikary, MrGoyal, an additionaldirector general postedas the director(Security) in charge ofthe CM security, had thecake as it was his birth-day. Ms Banerjee thenfed another piece to Mr
Mishra, standing next toMr Goyal. With the cakein his mouth, MrMishra is seen touchingher feet with his righthand. Displaying hisdevotion, he thentouched his foreheadwith his right hand.After Mr Mishra, thetransport minister’sfather and Trinamul MPSisir Adhikary, also hada piece of cake from theTrinamul supremo.
■ ‘J&K’s identity, culture will be preserved’Modi callsmeet of topministers todiscuss J&K
DC CORRESPONDENTNEW DELHI, AUG. 28
The EnforcementDirectorate (ED) hasrecorded the statementof Faisal Patel, son ofsenior Congress leaderAhmed Patel, in connec-tion with its moneylaundering probeagainst Gujarat-basedpharmaceutical firmSterling Biotech, whichis allegedly involved in amulti-crore bank fraudcase.
Sources said FaisalPatel has been asked todepose before the inves-tigating officer of theagency on Thursdayalso. His statement wasrecorded under the pro-visions of thePrevention of MoneyLaundering Act(PMLA), they added. InJuly, the ED had record-ed the statement ofAhmed Patel’s son-in-law Irfan Siddiqui in thecase. Ahmed Patel is aCongress Rajya SabhaMP from Gujarat.
Ahmed Patelson deposesbefore ED
A deserted government high school building in Srinagar on Wednesday. Attempts byauthorities to open high schools in Kashmir failed as parents did not send children toschools due to the prevailing situation after scrapping of Article 370. — PTI
Jammu and Kashmir governor Satya Pal Malik felici-tates state DGP Dilbagh Singh for conducting a success-ful Amarnath Yatra at Raj Bhavan in Srinagar onWednesday. — PTI
West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee duringTrinamul Chhatra Parishad Foundation Day rally inKolkata on Wednesday. — PTI
Both countriesstrongly condemnterrorism and callon the internationalcommunity to set upa united frontagainst this evil
— RomanBabushkin
Russia diplomat
LAUNDERING CASE
DC CORRESPONDENTSRINAGAR, AUG. 28
Following reports that alarge group of militantsmay have sneaked intoKashmir through Hajipirsector of the Line ofControl (LoC), the Armyhas launched a majorsearch operation in andaround the Valley’s pre-mier resort of Gulmarg inBaramulla district.
Reports received heresaid that the Army hasbeen conducting searchesin the area for the pastone week and has, so far,detained two persons forquestioning. One reportsaid that both of them
identified by their firstnames Khalid and Nazimare residents of PoK andcould be militants“guides”.
Some hotels and otherproperties in Gulmarg, 59-km from here, and itsneighbourhood too weresearched during past fewdays, the reports said.
The Army and J&Kpolice have restrictedmovement of people insome of the areas put on ahigh alert earlier to makesure the operation is con-ducting in a smooth wayand civilians are not putto any trouble unneces-sary, the police sourceshere said.
Militants sneak into J&K, Army launches search ops
Mohammed Aleem Syeed
PARMOD KUMARNEW DELHI, AUG. 28
The EnforcementDirectorate on Wednesdaysaid that there was no“witch-hunt” in the investi-gation of the seniorCongress leader P.Chidambaram in the INXMedia alleged corruptionand money laundering caserelating to alleged irregu-larities in the grant ofFIPB clearance in 2007-2008when he was Union financeminister.
It is not a witch-hunt but acase of money launderingbased on cogent material,solicitor general (SG)Tushar Mehta told thebench of Justice R.Banumathi and JusticeA.S.Bopanna hearing aplea for anticipatory bailby the former finance min-ister Chidambaram beinginterrogated for his role inalleged irregularities in thegrant of FIPB clearance toINX Media in 2007-2008.
Telling the court that “aghost is created to play avictim card”, Mr Mehtatold the bench, “My effort
is for the court to see it andto clear the air of ghost thathas been created to play avictim” by MrChidambaram.
Mr Chidambaram is cur-rently in CBI custody,which is interrogating himin the criminality aspect ofthe case. CBI arrested himon August 21, 2019 and wasnext day remanded in CBIcustody for four days. Hiscustody to CBI was extend-ed by another four days,which ends on August 30,2019.
Addressing the court onthe necessity its perusingthe material relating toED’s investigation in themoney-laundering dimen-sion of the case, the solici-tor general sought to rebutMr Chidambaram’s con-tention that material couldnot be given to the courtwithout giving it to him.
Mr Mehta cited the posi-tion of law and judgmentsof the top court and thehigh courts as well to but-tress his point that thematerial that ED wantedcourt to peruse beforedeciding on Mr
Chidambaram’s plea forpre-arrest bail could not beshared with him.
As Mr Mehta hammeredthis point, senior counselKapil Sibal told court theyhave never said that thematerial that is sought tobe handed over to the courtshould be given to us aswell. He said all that they haveargued is that before any mate-rial related to case is handedover to court for its perusal, itshould be put toChidambaram.
However, JusticeBanumathi referring to hernotes said that senior coun-sel Abhishek Manu Singhviin the course of his argu-ments on Tuesday had saidthat what ever materialthat is being given to thecourt by the ED should begiven to Chidambaramalso.
Solicitor General took thecourt through the schemeof the Prevention of MoneyLaundering Act to demon-strate that it was in no wayimpeded to look at theoffences alleged againstChidambaram relating to2007-2008 offences.
ED: No ‘witch-hunt’ ofChidambaram in INX case
Former PM Manmohan Singh’s security has been downgradedfrom protection by the elite Special Protection Group. The gov-ernment says the security cover for leaders is periodicallyreviewed from the threat perception angle, and the security cate-
gory is revised accordingly. Known as a reticent PM, Dr Singh might bethe last person to protest against such a move, but the Congress Partyhas done so. There is reason to believe that the downgrading of his secu-rity cover, with protection to be provided by the CRPF, was a politically-motivated decision. Considering the background and the threat the for-mer PM could face even from elements supporting “Khalistan” as a sep-arate Sikh state, it would have been in the fitness of things if his securi-ty cover wasn’t revised this way.
It may ill suit a country that lost Mahatma Gandhi and two PrimeMinisters, one while in office, to slacken in protecting a two-term formerPM. While the severest security cover couldn't have prevented the assas-sination of Mrs Indira Gandhi as the bullets came from the rifles of herown security guards in a place as secure as her residence, it stands toreason that no chances should be taken with the life of anyone who hasserved as Prime Minister. They are invariably seen as a high symbol ofthe State and thus a target of malcontents as well as militants/terrorists,who try to make their dreadful point of opposition to the State in a spec-tacular way to shake the nation.
If it were to be left to him, Dr Manmohan Singh would probably wishnot to have any cloistering close protection in his rare public appear-ances. The same may have been the case with Rajiv Gandhi who, on thecampaign trail as a former Prime Minister, was known to ignore securi-ty protocols. Again, it would have taken more than the tightest securityto stop a motivated terror group like the LTTE, which carried out anunprecedented employment of a belt bomber, a concept till then onlythought of by fiction writer Frederick Forsyth. The point is that anyonewho has served as chief executive of a diverse nation is bound to havetaken some decision to the annoyance of the disgruntled and he must beprotected through his entire lifetime.
Protection by the dedicated SPG created after the death of Mrs IndiraGandhi is of a higher level, and none of the other forces envisaged asalternates are perceived to be as thorough in close protection cover.Those who must be downgraded are the politicians who have wangledsecurity cover for themselves through political influence, only to flauntit as a status symbol. And two former PMs, three members of the Gandhi-Nehru family, the Prime Minister and the home minister do not repre-sent such a huge number as for a nation to crimp on security require-ments. We must stop playing politics in these matters.
29 AUGUST 2019
Three high-profile Congress leaders, though none with a political fol-lowing — Jairam Ramesh, Abhishek “Manu” Singhvi and ShashiTharoor — have recently suggested that Prime Minister Narendra
Modi should not only be criticised but also sometimes be praised (for gooddeeds) in order for the Congress to carry credibility.
There are two underlying assumptions here — that the Congress nolonger has credibility, and that the way to win this back is by backing MrModi (at least at times) rather than by the party laying out its own credoand, above all, living by it. The last, especially, seems a thought from abygone era that clearly seems silly to the highly educated, upper crustindividuals in the Congress.
But surprisingly Mr Tharoor did not live by his own recommendationwhen his strong BJP contender was snapping at his heels in the recentLok Sabha polls in Thiruvananthapuram. He also thought fit not to recallthat he had once been the lone Congress voice to back the PM's high-pitched “Swachchh Bharat” campaign.
If there is any traction in any of this, Mr Ramesh, who started the praise-Modi campaign with the remark that Mr Modi was “not all negative”,might again think to give the lead by cataloguing the PM’s positive actionsthat cry out for endorsement.
In the democratic zone of Western Europe and North America, it is hardto think of Opposition leaders cheering on the government. Britain’s TonyBlair is an outlier, but he ended up splitting Labour to become PM, andnow there is nothing left of him or his party. The “case-by-case” approachnow being propagated belongs to the bureaucratic milieu, not the politicalor ideological arena.
Credibility by praising PM?
Don’t play politics withsecurity of top leaders
What’s the use of a fine house if you haven’tgot a tolerable planet to put it on
We are not permitted to choose the frame ofour destiny. But what we put into it is ours.
HENRY DAVID THOREAUMIND POWER
DAG HAMMARSKJOLD PAGE
8EditTHURSDAY | 29 AUGUST 2019 | CHENNAIDECCAN CHRONICLE
It’s written in the Declaration ofIndependence, so it must be true:the pursuit of happiness is anunalienable right. There are
those, of course, who try to deny usthe pursuit of happiness — we usedto call them ball-busters — and theywere more often than not wives orgirlfriends, ladies who had replacedstern nannies, or even sterner moth-ers, as we grew older. I’ve hadwomen trying to thwart my pursuit of happiness throughout mylife, mostly using the excuse thatthey’re worried about my health.They don’t seem to get that happi-ness is more important than health,and that I was never healthier thanwhen I was doing three months inPentonville without booze or drugsof any kind. Happy I was not. (Thatwas 35 years ago.)
Never mind. The wife no longergives me hell after a night-long ben-der, but now my children play nannyand soon it will be the grandchildren.What fresh hell is this? Can’t a manhave a little tinkle once in a while?We did overdo it for my birthday,mind you. But I’ve got news for thenew Gestapo: it only comes once a
year, thank God. What these Nazisdidn’t realise is that my name day,the saint’s day that counts even moreback home, is 15 August, four daysafter the dreaded birthday and yetanother excuse to get rip-roaringdrunk and disorderly. And oh boy,the Karamazovian hangovers nowlast three days. Remember the grandold days when the hangover woulddisappear after 20 minutes of run-ning? After two hours of exercise onewas ready for another big one, andthen another, and another. Yep,those were the nights — days rather— preparing for the nights to come.
No longer. The sainted editor, writ-ing in the Telegraph, referred to thetelevision series AbsolutelyFabulous, which featured decadentand degenerate parents — or was itgrandparents? Yippee! Today’syouth is shell-shocked from beingbombarded with messages concern-ing their DNA. Unless they’re mem-bers of the LGBTQ community —what the hell does the Q stand for? —young men are seen as rapists andNeanderthals. Admiring a womanthese days is tantamount to leering,and opening a door for a lady is sex-
ist. So late into the night MichaelMailer, my son and some otherfriends and I talked about past ‘cre-ative gatherings’, mainly at my NewYork house, a block down from therecently departed paedophileEpstein’s mega-mansion shithole.
The evenings were informal andrelaxed. Most of the time dinner wasin the kitchen, a converted librarywith dark-brown panelling on thewalls. Norman Mailer was at thehead, Jay McInerney, of BrightLights, Big City fame, and BretEaston Ellis, of Less Than Zerorenown, were regulars. The literarytalks were interrupted by AnthonyHaden-Guest crashing, forcing us toplead in unison in the style of HilaireBelloc: ‘Grant oh Lord eternal rest,/To thy servant Haden-Guest/ Nevermind the where and how,/ Onlygrant it to him now.’ We never man-aged to shame him into leaving. Freebooze was our downfall. Little JohnTaki would hear the noise and comedown, an eight-year-old conversingwith bestselling novelists about lifeand sport. He now recalls thoseevenings with almost teary-eyed nos-talgia.
Tom Wolfe would come to dinner inhis all-white trademark suit, and lis-ten like a gentleman to HenryKwiatowski, or Baron Munchausenas we called him in view of his stu-pendous lies, as he recounted howhis ancestor had led the SomosierraPolish dragoon charge that broke theSpanish resistance in the gateway toMadrid. (Henry is no longer with us,but he once convinced JimmyGoldsmith, in my house, that he wason the board of the top ten Fortune500 companies.) The Poles won agreat victory for Napoleon, but theywere no more led by a Kwiatowskithan a Tchaikovsky. Wolfe, alwaysthe gent, said nothing. It was left upto me.
Another Pole, Zbigniew Brzezinski,Jimmy Carter’s national securityadviser, caused more merriment. Myeditor at Esquire, Clay Felker, rangme at the gym and asked if he couldbring the Pole to dinner. I said ofcourse, looking forward to learning athing or two from Zbig. Sure enough,I told the mother of my children andshe said that she had read his bookand was eager to meet him. But whenhe arrived Alexandra remonstrated
with him about all the bodyguards.‘Writers don’t need them,’ she said,or something to that effect. ‘I am sucha lousy writer I do need them,’answered Brzezinski smiling enig-matically. The Pole was a very intel-ligent man and he also had a sense ofhumour. He realised that the wifehad mistaken him for someone else— Jerzy Kosinski, as it happened,author of Being There. What I clearlyremember is what a perfect evening Ihad and how much I learned fromZbig, a very nice person and verydown-to-earth, once we had estab-lished that he was one of the biggestshots in Washington.
And so it went down memory lane.Norman Mailer is gone, Bret EastonEllis lives in El Lay, and Michael andI recently went to visit JayMcInerney in Southampton. He’smarried to Anne Hearst, one of therichest women in America. When hetook us around their gigantic house,we asked Jay which of his books hadearned enough to build such a man-sion. He didn’t find it at all funny.
By arrangement with the Spectator
When politicalconformism was
retrograde andexcess was king
J&K: Why no endgameappears to be in sight
The govern-ment’s plansfor Jammuand Kashmirremains far
from clear even afterseveral weeks of a totallockdown of the popula-tion. As in its earlier“bold” policies likedemonetisation and theimplementation of GST,once again the govern-ment shoots from thehip and waits for theconsequences.
It will not be quite soeasy for the governmentto declare “finis” inKashmir because theresulting political fall-out of its measures isstill unclear and severalfactors have not beenaccounted for.
The biggest unknownis the how theKashmiris will react.Not only to the removalof the special status ofJ&K and the bifurcationinto two Union territo-ries, but also to leadersof the ruling BJP pub-licly gloating about out-siders being now able tobuy land in the state.The “Han-isation” of theKashmir Valley, afterthe manner of China’spremeditated settling ofHan Chinese in Muslim-dominated Xinjiang, hasbeen a central theme inthe political imagina-tion of key decision-makers in the NarendraModi government.
To add insult to injury,a BJP leader went on tosuggest that party work-ers could now marry“fair Kashmiri girls”.Haryana chief ministerManohar Lal Khattarwas (mis)quoted as say-ing that whereas earlierwomen from Bihar werebrought into Haryanafor marriage because ofits skewed sex ratio,“now some people aresaying we can bringthem from Kashmir”.No one knows how,when and with whatintensity a humiliatedand insulted Kashmiripopulation would react
to such leery claimsover land and womenonce the lockdown isfully lifted.
The next unknown isPakistan’s reaction. Itwould be a mistake toassume that Pakistanwill do nothing beyondformal protests at everyavailable internationalfora. Neither the publicnor the political-mili-tary establishment isgoing to be satisfied withthese measures.Pakistan will have to optfor covert action againstIndia. Past experienceshows that India’s abili-ty to predict or deal withsuch actions has beenremarkably poor. Thiswas evident in 26/11 ter-rorist strikes, in thePulwama suicide bombattack more recentlyand in Pakistan’s tit-for-tat retaliation for theBalakot airstrikes.
The third unknown isthe reaction of the main-stream Kashmiri politi-cal leaders once they arereleased. If they take astand against NewDelhi, then the situationin Kashmir couldbecome even moreunmanageable. Theyhave the credibility tolead public protests,especially if they were to“atone” for carrying theIndian tricolour for thepast seven decades. Thismay be why the govern-ment is carefully vettingits list of Kashmiripoliticians for releasingonly those who “pose theleast threat to the lawand order situation”.
Mehbooba Mufti of thePDP with her streetfighter reputation couldattempt to regain herlost political credibili-ty. Even OmarAbdullah would find itdifficult to stand withNew Delhi under theprevailing circum-stances. Reports sug-gest that the top leadersof the Peoples’Democratic Party (PDP)and the NationalConference (NC) will
continue to be incarcer-ated for now.
It is unclear whetherthe policymakers inNew Delhi have a clearstrategy of winning overordinary Kashmirisafter rubbing their nosein the dirt. The time-test-ed formula of announc-ing development grantsand packages is unlikelyto work because thatstill denies the politicalnature of the problem.
Some hope that oncethe apple season picksup in September, thingswill cool down.Experience, however,suggests that the fruittrucks have moved,bypassing cities and atnight, even when popu-lar protests have takenplace. The experience ofthe economic blockadeof August 2008, when theHurriyat Conferencegave a call for“Muzaffarabad chalo”,in a symbolic bid toevacuate local fruit cropvia Pakistan-occupiedKashmir, would suggestthat no attempt would bemade to preventKashmiris from sellingtheir apples or pears. Inshort, New Delhi canneither determine norshape the protests inKashmir.
New Delhi can also dolittle about Pakistan’sreactions. The rulingelite in Pakistan will doeverything it needs to doto legitimise its hold onpower. At best, underpressure fromWashington, India mayoffer a dialogue toPakistan.
New Delhi’s only possi-ble hope is still the polit-ical class in J&K. It mustwork out some modusvivendi with its mem-bers before they arereleased. There areunconfirmed reportsthat some unsuccessfulapproaches havealready being made.
Omar Abdullah’s trust-ed lieutenant DevenderSingh Rana (brother ofJitendra Singh, a minis-ter of state in the Modigovernment) has beenreleased and is in NewDelhi.
Meanwhile, the gov-ernment’s attempts tocreate a new Kashmiripolitical leadership con-tinues. Nothing else canexplain the re-arrest of aformer bureaucrat andwannabe politicianShah Faesal. He hadbeen released after hisinitial arrest, and thenon the basis of a “look-out notice” issued by theIntelligence Bureau wasrearrested with orches-trated fanfare and pub-licity. The attemptseems similar to the cre-ation of the PDP in 1998by the powers that be inNew Delhi.
At best, what the gov-ernment can offer thearrested Kashmiri polit-ical leaders is theprospect of full state-hood for the truncatedJ&K. The offer to bringin laws to limit outsidersfrom buying land in thestate as in some hillyand tribal states mayalso be dangled beforethem. These induce-ments, however, maynot lead to the re-emer-gence of Delhi-centricpolitics in Kashmir.
The euphoria in therest of India about thegovernment’s decisionson J&K also seems to bepetering out in the faceof increasing economicwoes. Otherwise, wherewas the need for the BJPto announce that itwould hold public meet-ings in 35 major citiesand 370 small ones toeducate people aboutthe government’s “his-toric move” onKashmir?
Such desperate anticssuggest that the politicalplanners in New Delhibelieve more in thinkingon the trot than in opera-tionalising a well-thought out strategy.Strategic thinkingseems to have beenreplaced by politicaloptics in the NarendraModi government. Thisis the reason why it hasno endgame in mind forKashmir.
The writer is a journal-ist based in New Delhi
It is unclear whetherthe policymakers in
New Delhi have aclear strategy of
winning over ordi-nary Kashmiris afterrubbing their nose inthe dirt. The formula
of developmentgrants and packagesis unlikely to work...
Subhani
Taki
Bharat Bhushan
DECCAN CHRONICLE
A.T. JAYANTI T. VENKATESWARULUEditor Printer & Publisher
KIRMANI’S VIEWSIndia's former wicket keeper SyedKirmani's reported views on RishabPant’s inclusion in the Indian Testteam are totally correct. It is perplex-ing that right since the recent WorldCup matches, Pant is being given toolong a rope by the Indian selectorsand team management. While experi-enced seniors like Saha, DineshKarthik and Parthiv Patel haverepeatedly proved their keeping andbatting abilities to be included in theteam, Pant is being unjustifiablyparachuted into the Test team, seem-ingly more as a blue eyed boy, despitehis obvious inexperience and imma-turity as a player. After all, he is nogreat batsman like Gavaskar, Sachinor Kohli who deservedly came intothe team with their world class bat-ting abilities at a very young age.Why are the Indian captain andteam's chief coach being given suchsweeping powers in team selectionduring overseas tours? Do the selec-tors have absolutely no say in thematter at all when experienced play-ers like Saha are being inexplicablysidelined?
A. Mohan, Chennai
LETTERSRBI FUND TRANSFERThis refers to the report thatthe finance minister defendsthe RBI for transferring `1.76Lcrore to the government. Thestep is highly needed in thepresent circumstances whenthe government is facingfinancial stress. The criticismby Rahul Gandhi that thePrime Minister and financeminister are ‘clueless’ aboutsolving the ‘self-createdeconomic disaster’ andaccusing them of ‘stealingmoney’ from the central bankis highly unmerited. Use ofthe words ‘stealing money’ isvery inappropriate. Politiciansshould use decent languagewhile referring to politicalactivities of those theyoppose. The step taken by thefinance minister is quitejustified and does not meritany criticism.
T.R.Anandan, Coimbatore■
Finally, the central government suc-ceeded in its efforts to get a sizableamount of `1.76 lakh crore from RBItot tide over its financial crisis. Eversince the implementation of demon-etisation and GST, our economy hasbeen facing setbacks in growth dueto many adverse effects like loss ofproduction in manufacturing sec-tors, acute unemployment leading tolesser consumer demand, etc., whichresulted in all round stagnation. Inthe prevailing grave situation, theabove amount will solve the problemto some extent only. Hence, in orderto stimulate the economic activityand achieve the sustained inclusivegrowth, the government shouldarrange for comprehensive urgentstudy of problems in each sector andtake revival measures to restoregood performance which alone willyield lasting results.
M. Govindaraj, Gudiyatham
PAGE
9OpedTHURSDAY | 29 AUGUST 2019 | CHENNAIDECCAN CHRONICLE
PARACOPYRIGHT WIKIALITYWord SPY
A set of non-traditional copyright-related principles, practices, and laws
Reality as defined by a consensus, particularly in acollaborative endeavour such as Wikipedia
If actions do indeedspeak louder thanwords, then the resig-nation of KannanGopinathan from theIndian Admin-istrative Service is theloudest indictment of
the effective abrogation of thefundamental rights of over 1.2crore people living in what wasthe state of Jammu andKashmir, and will now be theUnion territory of Jammu andKashmir and the Union territo-ry of Ladakh. By his action, MrGopinathan has questioned thelegitimacy of majoritaraindemocracy. By implication, hehas interrogated the decisionof the majority in Parliamenton August 5 to disregard theidea of constitutionalrestraints and reasonablerestrictions.
It is significant that MrGopinathan has not opposedthe decision to abrogate
Article 370 and Article 35A.Instead, he has challenged thevalidity of the majority inParliament and the govern-ment in power to restrict thefreedoms of the people througha lockdown that put thousandsof people in jail and preventedfor citizens access to informa-tion on the one hand, andaccess to goods and servicesbecause of the extended curfewon the other.
In doing so, Mr Gopinathanhas raised a troubling ques-tion: What is citizenship, andwhat is its relationship withthe State on the one hand andthe government on the other.With apologies to pundits,economists and Georg Akerlof,Nobel laureate in Economics,who wrote about “peaches”and “lemons” in the used carmarket and the problem ofquality uncertainty because ofthe information asymmetrybetween the buyer and seller, I
will pilfer the idea or ratherthe miniscule part of it that Ihave understood, to try andmake sense of the abruptchanges that occurred onAugust 5.
Access to information, or thedenial of access to information,has increased the uncertaintyof millions of Indians. Jammuand Kashmir and Ladakh atone end, and Assam at theother, are illustrative of howthe government is using infor-mation to punish or rewardindividuals and categorieswithin the population.
A citizen, be she/he inKashmir or in Assam or any-where else in the country, hascivil and political rights,including the right to partici-pate in decision-making andthe right to seek and obtaininformation and the right tocriticise and oppose. To denycitizens, be she MehboobaMufti or be he Omar Abdullah,Sajjad Lone. Mirwaiz UmarFarooq or the residents ofSoura in Srinagar, basic free-doms and fundamental inalien-able rights, even if for a tempo-rary period, is to reduce themto a category of persons whoare not citizens.
By taking years to cull ille-gals from citizens through a
process of vetting the informa-tion they produce is hopelesslyflawed and hugely expensive inAssam. The fact that absurdinclusions and exclusions havesurfaced after the list of citi-zens was issued in 2018 has notembarrassed the Registrar-General of India. Instead, theBJP in Assam is exercised thatthe NRC process has failed toidentify sufficient numbers ofminorities in certain districts.Therefore, to correct theerrors, the Assam governmenthas declared it will set up 400Foreigners Tribunals to sortout the mess.
The justification of what hashappened in Assam and inJ&K, and I mean the erstwhilestate of Jammu and Kashmir,is a sense of entitlement. Thepowers that be, meaning the
political establishment, in thiscase the BJP armed with anelectoral majority, evidentlybelieves itself entitled to pun-ish over and over again sec-tions of the population in thename of the public good andpeace and security by ques-tioning their citizenship andtheir religion.
The Narendra Modi govern-ment has declared that October31, coinciding with SardarVallabhbhai Patel’s birthanniversary, will be the daywhen the apparatus of govern-ment in Jammu and Kashmirwill change from administer-ing a state to administering aUnion territory. After takingyears and years, with increas-ing rather than decreasingdegrees of uncertainty and con-sequent distress, of verifyingcitizens from illegals in Assam,it is almost impossible toexpect that the transformationin Jammu and Kashmir,including the separation ofLadakh, will get done and dust-ed by the deadline.
And till the paperwork isdone in J&K, it is equally diffi-cult to imagine that the lock-down will be entirely lifted andnormality will be restored. Theconcept of normality, howeverliberally or restrictively it may
be implemented, has no placein the order of things in eitherAssam or Jammu and Kashmiror wherever the Modi govern-ment perceives an enclave ofpolitical resistance thatoffends its political design ofpresiding over a “New India”.
Majoritarian democracy hasset about the job of defendingthe nation from terrorism,malign infiltrators, malevolentcritics by creating classes ofwho is and who is not deemedan authentic citizen. If consti-tutional democracy is weak-ened or compromised, themajority, it would seem, doesnot care.
Therefore, the majority gov-ernment at the Centre candecide that the NationalCapital Territory of Delhi doesnot need a separate humanrights commission. Theassumption that the nationalcapital’s protection of humanrights can be defended by theNational Human RightsCommission contains within itthe idea that justice, in theform of an institutional mecha-nism, can be denied to the resi-dents of Delhi, which raisesanother question — are theseresidents not quite citizens?
The threat to plunge specificparts of the country into uncer-
tainty and consequent chaos, itseems, is a leitmotif of theBJP’s idea of governance.From branding critics as anti-nationals, which was all aboutperception, the BJP has movedto concrete ways in which toclassify people, through themechanism of citizenship.West Bengal is an easy choicebecause it shares a border withBangladesh and cross-bordermovement of people, with orwithout papers, is a constantflow. There are other political-ly significant states where theBJP can raise this threat, likeTamil Nadu.
Between fake citizens andauthentic citizens the idea ofthe citizen is in danger of beingirreparably damaged. It is athreat that is sometimes loudand aggressive and at othertimes quiet and dormant in thepolitical game of acquiringdominance.
Citizens are either legal orillegal. Its weaponisation forpolitical reasons in India, inthe United States and inEurope is as ominous asobvious. Globalisation isfailing and nationalism istaking over.
Shikha Mukerjee is a seniorjournalist in Kolkata
The main reason Conser-vative MPs prefer BorisJohnson’s government toTheresa May’s is because of
its clarity of message. The govern-ment now has direction and pur-pose. Briefings from Tory HQ,delivered even to those MPs whohave managed to get away on holi-day, have gone from intermittentand inconsistent to daily and suc-cinct. The message is simple:Brexit will be delivered by October31, crime is being tackled and theNHS properly funded. We canexpect to hear these messages, orvariants thereof, for the next fewmonths.
But there is one area where thegovernment seems less sure ofitself: what will happen in theevent of no deal? The PrimeMinister has long been reluctant toentertain the possibility as a likelyoutcome, after having said the oddson it happening are “a million toone”. He is a firm believer in thepreparation paradox: by preparingfor no deal, you avoid it. He haspitched himself as an optimisticleader, decrying the naysayers asdoomsters and gloomsters. Butwith Brussels this week rejectingJohnson’s call to ditch the back-stop and renegotiate, even the mostoptimistic souls in government arebeginning to regard a no-dealBrexit as the most likely outcome.So it’s time to talk about it. Buthow to do so without scaring vot-ers, or saying anything that mightcome back to haunt them?
A taste of the challenge aheadarrived last weekend with a leak ofOperation Yellowhammer. Theofficial government document set
out various scenarios for a no-dealBrexit: food, medicine and fuelshortages and the return of a hardborder in Ireland. In response,Downing Street attempted to playdown the leak, claiming it was anold document from the previousregime which was based on “worstcase scenarios”. The finger ofblame was pointed at an ex-minis-ter working against no deal.
But while Operation Yellow-hammer began under May,Johnson and his team cannot dis-miss the various disaster scenariosit details as impossible. No one canknow for certain what will happenin a no-deal Brexit. There are toomany variables: it is impossible topredict.
The recent messages from No. 10about no deal have been about whogets the blame: Brussels, for refus-ing to renegotiate? MPs who areopposed to no deal, who have beenundermining the government’sposition in the Brexit negotiationsby plotting to tie Johnson’s hands?While no-deal preparations havebeen ramped up under Johnson,we don’t hear very much aboutwhat it would mean in reality.
Are the stories — some of whichlie in government analysis — acase of Project Fear 2.0? Or are theythings that ought to be taken seri-ously — and, if necessary, a priceto be paid in pursuit of a projectthat millions have steeled them-selves for? Depending on who ingovernment you speak to, you get adifferent answer. In light of theleak, Johnson himself would onlygo as far as to say ‘there may wellbe bumps in the road’.
“There is still no central mes-sage,” says a government source.“Some say it will be a walk in thepark. Others that no deal is bad,but can be mitigated.” A member ofgovernment adds: “Do or die iseasy to sell to voters. It’s the bitafter that worries me.”
The Prime Minister’s most senior
aide, Dominic Cummings, isregarded by ministers as being oneof the most gung-ho about no deal.His line is to do Brexit by “anymeans necessary”. And whileJohnson chose his governmentministers in part for their willing-ness to go through with no deal,some worry that playing downwarnings could come back tohaunt them. “Let’s face it: in a no-deal scenario, we will be blamedfor everything that goes wrong —even if it’s unrelated,” says oneTory MP.
Some are concerned that theeffect of Johnson’s optimism couldbe to raise expectations to the pointthat even light disruption in theevent of no deal results in a back-lash. To try to assuage such fears,the government will soon embarkon a multi-million-pound PR blitzto raise public awareness overmeasures they ought to take inpreparation for no deal. Time hasbeen spent attempting to preparethe government website for extratraffic, so it doesn’t crash (whichwould not be an encouraging sign).Michael Gove is expected to giveweekly no-deal updates to theCommons when it returns, on thegrounds that if planning is kepthidden, people will expect theworst.
The arrival of Sajid Javid in No.11 has changed how the Treasury
treats no deal. Under PhilipHammond, government depart-mental bids for funds were subject-ed to slow scrutiny, which minis-ters saw as obstructionism. Now,cash bids are welcomed, withTreasury aides offering to do whatthey can to speed things up.Cummings told aides last monththat he expected a Budget in earlyOctober, but a decision has yet to bemade on whether to publish a no-deal Budget in advance. Budgetsneed to be approved by MPs: a riskymove for a government with aworking majority of one.
The political divisions thatdogged Ms May’s premiershiphave not completely vanished nowMr Johnson is in No. 10. The coali-tion that put him there consisted ofreformed Remainers hopeful of adeal to bring the Brexit drama toan end, and arch-Brexiteers —some of whom now regard no dealas an optimal outcome. Both SteveBaker and Mark Francois havealready made clear that even if thebackstop is ditched entirely, theywouldn’t support the originalBrexit deal. Some of the MPs in theBrexiteer European ResearchGroup have privately encouragedthe Brexit party to pitch candi-dates against the Tories in anyimminent election to keep the pres-sure up.
The message from Boris Johnsonis to stay calm, keep smiling, andkeep planning: the more you pre-pare for a no-deal Brexit the morelikely the EU is to offer a deal. ButNo. 10 itself has some hard deci-sions to make. Would no deal be areal problem? Would it be a painfulbut necessary experience, a steptowards a brighter Brexit destinyfor the country? Or is this all agiant bluff, to force the hand ofBrussels? There isn’t much timeleft to decide.
By arrangement with the Spectator
The very first chapter of thefirst book of the Bible —Genesis — describes, as its
author imagined it, the story ofhow creation came into existencein stages. The Bible tells us thatGod found everything He had cre-ated to be Good. And yet, despitecreation being ‘good’, the worldcontinues to experience naturalcatastrophes, like the recentfloods in many parts of the world,including India, causing untolddamage to crops, property andeven loss of life. So the question naturally arises, is thecreator to be blamed for suchhavocs?
Today while some powerfulpoliticians like to deny the reality
of climate change caused byrelentless ‘development’ andgreed, there are scientists whoprovide incontrovertible evi-dence saying that it is already toolate for the world to realise itsnegative impact. While sciencelooks at the problem from a prac-tical perspective, it would beinspiring to discover how someholy people, for centuries havefound God in nature.
One such saint, whose birth-place I visited last week inGermany and near whose grave Ihad the privilege of spending aprayerful week was St. ArnoldJanssen. Born in 1837, as a youngpriest, he taught mathematics andscience in school. Later he was
inspired to found threereligious Orders, thefirst being founded in1875. In order to pro-mote his work, in 1878he started a family mag-azine, called “StadtGottes” (City of God) inGerman, which contin-ues to be in circulationeven today. His secretary Fr.Hilger, outlining one of the pur-poses of the magazine, besidesbeing entertaining, curiouslystates, was, “to be an instructivemagazine for the purpose ofspreading useful knowledge, par-ticularly from that exalted ‘tem-ple of God’, which nature is. Godhas placed us there so that nature will proclaim to usHis existence, His greatness, His wisdom and all His exaltedqualities”.
Hilger even compared the out-look of Arnold Janssen to Francisof Assisi, who literally consideredeverything in nature as his broth-ers and sisters, singing the hymn,“Brother Sun, Sister Moon”. ForJanssen, “nothing in nature was
insignificant, for every-thing led him to God”,as he “was a friend ofthe clear spring water…the rushing rivers andthe surging sea, a friendof towering mountains,a friend of the stars…”
Currently it is PopeFrancis who, particu-
larly through his recentEncyclical, ‘Laudato Si’, has beenpushing the agenda of saving,what he calls, “our commonhome”. Preserving nature wasalso one of the priorities of amulti-religious group — theParliament of Religions — thatsome of us founded in Delhi backin 2007. Thus it is not just in theface of ravaging floods, but onevery available occasion that weneed to preserve, what ArnoldJanssen beautifully describes,‘the Temple of God’.
Father Dominic Emmanuel, afounder-member of the Parliament
Keep calm and prepare for‘no deal’, it’s time to get real!
Preserve nature, it is the temple of God
What citizenship means: IAS man’s wake-up call
Decade’s two majorconflicts will end instep back to the pastI
never thought I’d work, but it’sbetter than having to go ask peo-ple for money,” one woman toldreporters from The New York
Times in the eastern city of Aleppo.She was one of the many conserva-tive women who have been forcedinto the workforce because the menhave either died or disappeared.Syrian society looks nothing likewhat it did when the war beganalmost a decade ago. Most of the mid-dle-class has fled and a large percent-age of the population now lives inpoverty. Areas like Damascus, whichwere always controlled and support-ed by the regime, have access to elec-tricity and running water; others likeDouma and Aleppo are ruins,bombed-out hulks of buildings alooming and ghostly presence overthe empty streets. According to theNYT and other newspaper reports,the Assad regime is going to be backin control over the majority of thecountry by this week. Regardless ofthe city and who controls it and whowill control it, all of Syria standstransformed.
So it is with Afghanistan, our coun-try next door. The war there has beenlonger, a terrible two decades inter-spersed with varying amounts ofcommitment by the United States andthe rest of the world. A war thatbegan with rousing promises for theelimination of the Taliban — a groupthat has been bombed and ‘droned’and driven from power — is at a pointwhere peace talks cannot happenwithout them. It is no longer a ques-tion of whether the Taliban will beeliminated, but which portions of thecountry they will control and whichsort of government they will tolerateat the centre.
There is incredible and discordantirony in the fact that after years ofwar, the country will be left in thehands of the very people the UnitedStates came all the way to South Asiato fight. At the end of 2019, followingthe probable retaking of most ofSyria by the Assad regime and theretaking of parts of Afghanistan bythe Taliban, the people of both coun-tries are once again going to face theproblems that they attempted tofight. In Syria, the regime is likely toexact revenge from those it knowswere disloyal, in Afghanistan theTaliban are likely to impose the samedraconian edicts that were consid-ered terrible enough to start a nearly20-year war.
The outcome of two of the world’smajor conflicts then is regression, amove back to the past and to the veryterrors that populations hoped theycould escape. Even worse than this isthe fact that the two war-ravagedsocieties, who now face some flavourof ‘peace’, now exist in a world whereinstitutional structures that backedhuman rights regimes are weakerthan ever. The United Nations,whose Security Council is now theplaying ground of repressiveregimes, has shown its completeinability to hold anyone at allaccountable. The United States,which once led a global coalition thatcould convince others to follow suit,
has been part of the problem; it’simpossible to imagine that it will bepart of the solution.
The larger message of these con-flicts and the condition in which theywill leave the populations in Syriaand Afghanistan is a grim one. It isone that Pakistanis themselves arefeeling acutely as they watch Indiatrample upon the lives and rights ofKashmiris. There is no ‘world com-munity’ left to answer the call of suf-fering people in any kind of way.From here on until the foreseeablefuture, only piecemeal efforts by indi-vidual states will represent any sortof action for the sake of humanrights.
Pakistan needs to consider its ownposition in this new world order.Beyond international relations, thelooming threat of the Taliban willconstantly loom in the border townswith their populations open toharassment and influence by theTaliban next door. Even far fromthese towns, the emergence of anIslamist regime so close to the coun-try threatens to destabilise Pakistanevery time the Taliban have somequalm with the government ofPakistan. Similarly, Pakistan’s align-ment with China, who has nevermade any overtures in relation tohuman rights, alienates it from theWestern world where it could gleansupport of one or two or three of theWestern European nations that couldhave been coaxed into caring for thesituation in Kashmir or Afghanistanor Xinjiang.
The generations that are alive todayhave all lived in a world where therehas been some small guarantee of aworld order that would stand upagainst the resurgence of barbarismand cruelty. The tragedy of this isthat the certainty of internationalcoalitions against the whims of thisor that dictator or extremist grouphas left them unable to consider anyoptions to the contrary. Repressedpopulations, in Kashmir, in Syriaand in Afghanistan, seem unable tofind any means to protect themselvesbeyond their pleas to a world commu-nity that does not know how to act forchange beyond the feeble mecha-nisms afforded by social media. Thistruth, in turn, energises repressivegovernments within countries thatborder these regions, who can nowvow that abridgement of civil liber-ties within countries that are not atwar are necessary for security.
The generation that is now graduat-ing from school and college is comingof age in a world largely withoutrights (if rights are construed per theold definitions in the UniversalDeclaration of Human Rights). In thissense, the generations that have gonebefore, the institutions that weretrusted before, are all guilty of leav-ing them a world that is far bleakerthan the one they were born intothemselves. Syria and Afghanistanmay seem far away, but the reverber-ations of their hollowed-out realities,their unheard pleas, will echothroughout the world.
By arrangement with Dawn
Mr [Kannan] Gopinathanhas not opposed thedecision to abrogateArticle 370 and Article35A. He has challengedthe validity... to restrictthe freedoms of the people through a lock-down that put thousandsin jail and preventedaccess to information
No. 10 itself has some harddecisions to make. Wouldno deal be a real problem?Would it be a painful butnecessary experience, astep towards a brighterBrexit destiny for the coun-try? Or is this all a giantbluff, to force the hand ofBrussels? There isn’t muchtime left to decide.
Dominic Emmanuel
Shikha Mukerjee
Rafia Zakaria
Katy Balls
View from Pakistan
PAGE
10WorldTHURSDAY | 29 AUGUST 2019 | CHENNAIDECCAN CHRONICLE
Iran meetJapan PM Shinzo Abe to meet Iranian PresidentHassan Rouhani in New York next month todefuse rising tension in the Middle East
Racism in America isan institutional “white
man’s problem visitedon people of color”
— Joe Biden
US Vice-president
IN BRIEFFrench cyberpolice
break up ‘botnet’Paris: French police have
neutralised a hacking opera-tion that had taken control
of more than 8,50,000 com-puters, mainly in Latin
America, while also manag-ing to remove the malwarefrom the infected devices.
The agents went into actionlast spring after the Czech
antivirus firm Avast alertedthem to the software worm,
called Retadup, that wasbeing controlled by a serverin the Paris region. The C3N
cybercrime unit at theFrench gendarmerie, which
carried out the counterat-tack with help from FBI,
called it a “world first” in astatement late Tuesday.
FB tightens rulesfor US political ads
Washington: Facebook saidon Wednesday it would
tighten its rules for politicalad spending ahead of the
2020 US elections, notablyby requiring more informa-
tion about who is paying formessages. The move is the
latest by Facebook to crackdown on efforts to deceive
or manipulate users after thesocial network admitted
lapses in the 2016 election.While Facebook has already
begun requiring politicaladvertisers to provide identi-fication to confirm who they
are and where they arelocated, the new policy
requires more information toshow they are registeredwith the US government.
This new verification can bedone by submitting a taxidentification number or
proof that the group is regis-tered with the Election
Commission. “People shouldknow who is influencing
them and advertisers should-n’t cover up who is paying
cers in the Gaza Strip inwhat witnesses called sui-
cide attacks as thePalestinian enclave was
placed under a state of alert.Witnesses told AFP that
both bombings were suicideattacks by assailants on
motorbikes, but there was noofficial confirmation. A
source familiar with theinvestigation said a Salafist
movement in Gaza, which isrun by Islamist movementHamas, that sympathises
with the Islamic Statejihadist group was suspect-
ed. Hamas's interior ministryconfirmed the three deaths,
but spoke only of two“bombings” in Gaza City
without providing details.It said two of the police offi-
cers were 32 and the thirdwas 45.
Philippine ferryfire kills three
Manila: At least three peoplewere killed and more than
100 others were rescuedafter a fire engulfed a ferryin the southern Philippinesovernight, the coast guard
said on Wednesday. Searchand rescue efforts were con-
tinuing after the fire on theM/V Lite Ferry 16 off Dapitancity in Zamboanga del Norte
province, coast guardspokesman Armand Balilo
said. It was not immediatelyclear how many people wereon board, a common dilem-
ma when such sea accidentshappen. The coast guard
said a manifest showed the645-ton ferry was carrying
137 passengers, including 28children, but it was unclear
how many crewmen were onboard. A 1-year-old girl and a60-year-old male passenger
died, Balilo said. He said athird person died, but did
not have any details. Photosshowed passengers wearingorange life vests waiting to
be rescued at the loadingbay of the ferry.
Brazil environment agencyfunds on the fall since Jan 1President Bolsonaro has made no secret of his disdain for public bodyBrasilia Aug. 28: - As theworld recoils at the sightof fires ravaging Brazil’sAmazon jungle, thenation’s far-right govern-ment is undermining theagency charged with pro-tecting the rainforest,Reuters has learned frominterviews with ten cur-rent and former employ-ees, public records and areview of internal govern-ment reports.
Conservative PresidentJair Bolsonaro has madeno secret of his disdain forthe public body, known asIbama, which he has pub-licly rebuked as an imped-iment to the nation’sdevelopment.
Since he took office onJanuary 1, Ibama’s budgethas shrunk by 25% as partof government-wide belttightening, according tointernal government datacollected by the oppositionPSOL party and sharedwith Reuters. Among thecuts: funding for preven-tion and control of forestfires was reduced 23%.
New leadership at Ibamaalso has made it tougherfor the agency to crackdown on illegal logging,farming and mining thathave despoiled nearly12,000 square kilometers(4,633 square miles) in theAmazon this year, all ofthe former and currentemployees told Reuters.
For example, field agentshave seen new restrictionson their ability to destroyheavy equipment found atthe scene of environmen-tal crimes, a long-standingtactic to slow land-grab-bers, five of the peoplesaid.
In addition, an elitecorps of Ibama forest copshas not seen action in theAmazon this year, a firstsince the heavily-armed,
highly-trained unit waslaunched five years ago,according to four of thepeople familiar with thematter. Instead, these spe-
cial agents have been con-fined largely to desk duty,the people say, or assignedfield tasks far from hotspots in the rainforest.
Punishment of environ-mental criminals hasdeclined substantially onBolsonaro’s watch.
—Reuters
Smokes rise from forest fires in Altamira, Para state, Brazil, on Wednesday. — AFP
Brazil Prez open to foreignaid to fight Amazon firesPorto Velho, Brazil, Aug27: Brazil’s President JairBolsonaro is willing toaccept foreign aid forfighting fires devastatingthe Amazon rainforest,but only if the countrycontrols the funds, hisspokesman said Tuesday.
The announcement sug-gests Bolsonaro hasdropped an earlierdemand that FrenchPresident EmmanuelMacron withdraw“insults” made against
him before he wouldaccept a G7 offer to helpput out the fires in theworld's largest rainforest.
“The Brazilian govern-ment through PresidentBolsonaro is open toreceiving financial sup-port from organizationsand even countries,”Otavio Rego Barros toldreporters in the capitalBrasilia, without refer-ring specifically to theG7's offer.
“The essential point is
that this money, on enter-ing Brazil, will be underthe control of theBrazilian people.”
Bolsonaro has beeninvolved in an escalatingwar of words with Macronover the worst fires to hitthe Amazon in years --blazes that have sparked aglobal outcry and threat-ened to torpedo a hugetrade deal between theEuropean Union andSouth American coun-tries. —AFP
TRUMP VOICESSUPPORT FORBOLSONARO Washington: PresidentTrump on Tuesday voicedsupport for Brazilian far-right President JairBolsonaro, whose admin-istration faces interna-tional scrutiny over thesurge in wildfires in theAmazon rainforest.
“I have gotten to knowPresident @jairbolsonarowell in our dealings withBrazil,” Trump tweeted ofthe populist leader whohas been dubbed the“Trump of the Tropics.”“He is working very hardon the Amazon fires andin all respects doing agreat job for the people ofBrazil - Not easy. He andhis country have the fulland complete support ofthe USA!”
The supportive remarksfrom Trump came thesame day Brazil rejected a$20 million aid packagefrom Group of Seven (G-7)nations to battle wildfiresthat have ravaged theAmazon rainforest, aregion that serves as avital carbon store for therest of the world.
French PresidentEmmanuel Macronannounced the offer onthe final day of the G-7Summit in Biarritz,France, saying that theAmazon rainforest firesposed “dire” consequen-ces internationally. Theaid was intended to go toall of the South Americannations that the Amazonencompasses. Trump wasnot in attendance duringthe session where the aidwas agreed to. —Agencies
Sikh man stabbedto death in USWashington, Aug 28: A64-year-old Sikh manfrom India was stabbed todeath by an unidentifiedperson in the US state ofCalifornia while he wason his evening walk,according to a mediareport.
Parmjit Singh wasattacked in GretchenTalley Park in Tracyaround 9 pm on Sunday.He died from his injuries,ABC News reported.
Detectives say a passer-by spotted the man bleed-ing on the ground andimmediately called 911.Police have launched ahomicide investigation.
Police don't have anyclear suspects just yet. OnMonday, they asked forthe community's helpidentifying a man cap-tured on video hopping afence and running awayfrom the park around thetime when the incidenttook place, according tothe report.
“We just need to figureout who that is, why theywere in the area, whatthey may have seen andpotentially any of theirinvolvement in the inci-dent,” said Tracy PoliceSpokesperson Lt TrevinFreitas. Singh was wear-ing a traditional Sikh tur-ban as he always wouldfor his walks twice a day.Some residents are wor-ried Singh may have beenattacked because he wasSikh.
Police said they cannotsay if it was a hate crime.
We can't say what it wasright now. We're keepingall possibilities open. Wehave no information that
would lead us to themotive of this crime. It issomething that we can'tdisprove at this time andwe're actively investigat-ing all possibilities,”Freitas said.
Harnek Singh Kang, thevictim's son-in-law, saidSingh immigrated toTracy from India threeyears ago and was anactive member of theSikh community.
“We feel very safe in thecountry, so whatever hap-pened, this is unaccept-able,” he said.
Singh had two kids andthree grandkids.
The attack has left theneighbourhood shaken.Neighbours said they areall deeply saddened bywhat happened.
“Absolutely stunned.This is a very safe neigh-bourhood, very decentarea of Tracy,” neighborDave Roychowdhury said.
“Nothing has ever hap-pened like this here,” hesaid. —PTI
Parmjit Singh
JAILED UIGHUR MANUP FOR TOP AWARDStrasbourg (France),Aug 28: Europe’s toprights body, the Councilof Europe, has nominat-ed a jailed academicfrom China’s Uighurminority, Ilham Tohti,for one of the conti-nent’s top human rightsawards.
The economics profes-sor who was sentencedto life in prison in 2014after being convicted ofseparatism, “has work-ed for over 20 years onthe situation of theUighur minority and onfostering inter-ethnicdialogue and under-standing in China,” theCouncil’s parliamen-tary assembly said in astatement after meetingMonday in Prague.
Tohti is one of three
nominees for the 2019Vaclav Havel prize,along with Tajik humanrights lawyer Buzurgm-ehr Yorov and a youthgroup promoting post-war reconciliation inthe Balkans.
The winner of the60,000-euro prize will beannounced on Septem-ber 30 in Strasbourg,home of the 47-countryCouncil of Europe whi-ch founded the the Eur-opean Court of HumanRights. Tohti has alsobeen nominated by USlawmakers for theNobel Peace Prize.
His nomination for theEuropean prize comesas China's treatment ofthe Uighurs comesunder growing scrutiny.
—AFP
■ ■ SINGH WAS wear-ing a traditional Sikhturban as he alwayswould for his walks.Some residents areworried Singh mayhave been attackedbecause he was Sikh
Lima, Aug. 28: Archeol-ogists in Peru say the 227bodies they have unear-thed from a site used bythe pre-Columbian Chimuculture is the biggest-everdiscovery of sacrificedchildren.
Archeologists have beendigging since last year atthe huge sacrificial site inHuanchaco, a beachsidetourist town north of thecapital Lima.
“This is the biggest sitewhere the remains of sac-rificed children have beenfound,” chief archeologist
Feren Castillo told AFP onWednesday.
Castillo said the chil-dren, who were agedbetween four and 14, weresacrificed in a ritual tohonor the Chimu culture'sgods.
“They were sacrificed toappease the El Nino phe-nomenon,” and show signsof being killed during wetweather, he said.
He added that there maystill be more to be found.
“It's uncontrollable, thisthing with the children.Wherever you dig, there's
another one,” Castillosaid.
The children's remainswere found in a position
facing the sea. Some stillhad skin and hair.
Huanchaco was a sitewhere many child sacri-
fices took place during thetime of the Chimu culture,whose apogee was between1200 and 1400.
Archeologists first foundchildren's bodies at the digsite in the town's Pampa laCruz neighbourhood inJune 2018, unearthing 56skeletons.
Pampa la Cruz is a shortdistance fromHuanchaquito, where theremains of 140 sacrificedchildren and 200 llamaswere found in April 2018.
The Chimu civilizationextended along thePeruvian coast to Ecuadorbut disappeared in 1475after it was conquered bythe Inca empire. —AFP
Remains of 227 sacrificed children dug out■ Biggest ever discovery from site used by the pre-Columbian Chimu cultureGORY | PAST
Remains of 227 children, allegedly offered in a sacrificeritual by the pre-Columbian culture Chimu, uncoverednear Lima, Peru on Wednesday. — AFP
Police officers guard the scene outside a bar where more than 20 people died in anovernight attack, in Coatzacoalcos, Mexico, early on Wednesday. — AP
25 dead in Mexico bar attackCoatzacoalcos (Mexico),Aug 28: At least 25 peoplewere killed and 11 badlywounded when gunmenburst into a strip club ineastern Mexico, doused itwith gasoline and igniteda raging fire, officials saidWednesday.
President Andres Man-uel Lopez Obrador con-demned Tuesday night's“shameful” attack in thecity of Coatzacoalcos, andsaid federal authoritieswould investigate evi-dence that it may havestemmed from collusionbetween the state prosecu-tor’s office and organised
crime. The attack is thelatest to rock the state ofVeracruz, a flashpoint inbloody turf wars betweenMexico’s rival drug car-tels and a hotbed of politi-cal corruption.
Survivors said gunmendescended on the bar, the
Caballo Blanco (WhiteHorse), in a hail of bul-lets, blocked the entrancesand set the club alight.But because of the loudreggaeton music pound-ing inside, many patronsand dancers did not evennotice the attack until theentire bar was in flames,they said.
“They arrived in severalvehicles, with rifles andpistols. They threatenedthe security guards at thedoor and took control ofthe main entrance,” onesurvivor said, speaking oncondition of anonymity.
—AFP
■ ■ THE ATTACK is thelatest to rock the stateof Veracruz, a flash-point in bloody turfwars betweenMexico's rival drugcartels and a hotbed ofpolitical corruption.
■ ■ THE CHILDREN agedbetween four and 14were sacrificed in a rit-ual to honor the Chimuculture's gods toappease the El Ninophenomenon and theyshow signs of beingkilled during wetweather
US WARSHIPSAILS IN SOUTHCHINA SEAWashington Aug. 28:A U.S. Navy destroyersailed near islandsclaimed by China in theSouth China Sea onWednesday, the U.S. mili-tary said, a move likelyto anger Beijing at atime of rising tensionsbetween the world’s twolargest economies.
The busy waterway isone of a growing num-ber of flashpoints in theU.S.-Chinese relation-ship, which include anescalating trade war,American sanctions onChina’s military andU.S. relations with Tai-wan. Reuters reportedon Tuesday that Chinahad denied a request fora U.S. Navy warship tovisit the Chinese portcity of Qingdao.
The U.S. Navy vesselWayne E. Meyer, anArleigh Burke-class gui-ded missile destroyer,carried out the opera-tion, traveling within 12nautical miles (14 mil-es/22 km) of Fiery Crossand Mischief Reefs,Commander Reann Mo-mmsen, a spokeswomanfor the Japan-based U.S.Navy’s Seventh Fleet,told Reuters.
The operation was con-ducted “to challenge exc-essive maritime claimsand preserve access tothe waterways as gov-erned by internationallaw,” Mommsen added.
The operation comesamid an increasinglybitter trade war betweenChina and US. —Reuters
TALIBAN INSURGENTS STORM HERATCHECKPOINT IN AFGHAN, KILL 14 Kabul, Aug 28: AnAfghan official saysTaliban insurgents havestormed a checkpoint inwestern Herat province,killing 14 pro-governmentmilitia members. Policechief spokesman AbdulAhid Walizada said onWednesday that sevenothers were wounded inthe Tuesday night attackin Robat Sangi district.He said an unspecifiednumber of Taliban fight-ers suffered casualties.Separately, in eastern
Nangarhar province, gov-ernor’s spokesmanAttaullah Khogynai saida university professorwas killed and two otherswounded on Tuesdaywhen a bomb attached totheir vehicle detonated inJalalabad, the provincialcapital. The Taliban haveclaimed responsibility forthe attack in Herat but noone has claimed responsi-bility for the attack inNangarhar, where boththe Taliban and the ISgroup are active. —AP
Pound dives on increasedno-deal Brexit prospectLondon, Aug 28: Thepound fell versus the dol-lar and euro Wednesdayas Britain's governmentmoved to extend the sus-pension of parliament,increasing the likelihoodof a no-deal Brexit.
Britain's currency slidby more than one per-cent against both curren-cies in early business,before paring the loss tonearer 0.6 percent -- stilldown some 3.7 percentover three months.
"The pace of sterling'sdrop demonstrates yetagain the currency's sus-ceptibility to Brexit
fears," said Han Tan,market analyst at FXTMtrading group.
The pound's plungehelped London's bench-mark FTSE 100 indexoutperform as it featuresmany multinationalswith most of their earn-
ings in dollars -- whereasconstruction companiesnotably saw their sharestake a tumble.
British Prime MinisterBoris Johnson onWednesday announcedthat the annual suspen-sion of parliament wouldbe extended untilOctober 14 -- just twoweeks before the UK isset to leave the EuropeanUnion.
"Such an event wouldcurtail attempts to blocka no-deal Brexit withinthe UK parliament," Tanadded.
— AFP
Boris Johnson
THURSDAY | 29 AUGUST 2019 | CHENNAI
■ Govt eyes 6 mt exports with `6,268-crore subsidy
Fake goldbars slipinto worldmarkets
FC BUREAUNEW DELHI, AUG. 28
Giving much-needed reliefto stressed sugarcane farm-ers, the government onWednesday announced Rs6,268-crore subsidy forexporting 6 million tonnesof sugar during the mar-keting year 2019-20 thatstarts from October. Themeasure is expected to liq-uidate surplus domesticstocks and help mills clearhuge sugarcane arrears tofarmers.
The decision was taken ata meeting of the CabinetCommittee on EconomicAffairs (CCEA), headed byPrime Minister NarendraModi. “The proposed sub-sidy would be directly cred-ited into farmers’ accounton behalf of mills againstcane price dues and subse-quent balance, if any,would be credited to mill’saccount,” Information andBroadcasting MinisterPrakash Javadekar toldreporters.
As per a senior Agri-culture Ministry official,for the current marketingyear 2018-19 that ends nextmonth, the government hadannounced a subsidy of Rs4,500 crore for exporting of5 million tonnes of sugar.With a month to go, theexports in the current mar-keting year have reachedmore than 3.8 milliontonnes till now. “We expectthe exports to touch 4 mil-
lion tonnes this marketingyear,” the official said.
India raising the exporttarget to 5 million tonnefrom 2 million tonne in theprevious year has annoyedsugar producing countrieslike Brazil and Australia,which have moved theWTO, alleging that India isdistorting the world sugarmarket.
In a statement, the gov-ernment, however, assertedthat the export subsidy onsugar is WTO compatibleand as per the Agreementon Agriculture (AoA).
Javadekar said, “A lumpsum export subsidy of Rs10,448 per tonne will begiven to sugar mills in the2019-20 marketing year
(October-September), cost-ing the exchequer Rs 6,268crore as subsidy."
It is expected that thiswill benefit millions offarmers in Uttar Pradesh,Maharashtra, Karnatakaand other states.
The lump-sum exportsubsidy will be provided tomillers to meet expenses onmarketing costs includinghandling, upgrading andother processing costs aswell as international andinternal transport andfreight charges.
The subsidy would becredited into farmers'accounts on behalf of millsagainst cane price dues andany balance would be cred-ited to mills' account.
In wake of surplus sugarproduction during sugarseasons (Oct-Sep) in 2017-18and 2018-19, the govern-ment said, the ensuingsugar season 2019-20 isexpected to commence withan opening stock of about14.2 million tonnes and sea-son-end stocks are expectedto be about 16.2 mt.
It also said the surplusstock would have created adownward pressure on ex-mill sugar prices, affectingliquidity of mills andmounting of cane arrears.
The National Federationof Co-operative SugarFactories Ltd hailed thegovernment decision. ItsManaging DirectorPrakash P Naiknavaresaid, "This is a good deci-sion taken at a right time.There is an inventory of43.5 million tonnes in thecountry. Unless exportstakes place, there is no wayout. Now the ball is in thecourt of the industry howbest they utilise this."
He said the export sub-sidy for the current yearwas around Rs 11,000 pertonne, which was linked tocrushing of sugarcane.However, the export sub-sidy announced for 2019-20at Rs 10,448 per tonnes islinked to marketing andother expenses, which isWTO compatible.
The Indian Sugar MillsAssociation said it seesadditional cash flows of Rs18,000 crore from the move.
NEHA DASGUPTA &MAYANK BHARDWAJNEW DELHI, Aug. 28
India is set to impose anationwide ban on plasticbags, cups and straws onOctober 2, officials said,in its most sweepingmeasure yet to stamp outsingle-use plastics fromcities and villages thatrank among the world’smost polluted.
Prime MinisterNarendra Modi, who isleading efforts to scrapsuch plastics by 2022, is setto launch the campaignwith a ban on six items onOctober 2, the birthanniversary of MahatmaGandhi, two officials said.
These include plasticbags, cups, plates, smallbottles, straws and certaintypes of sachets, said theofficials, who asked not tobe identified, in line withgovernment policy.
“The ban will be com-prehensive and will covermanufacturing, usage andimport of such items,”one official said.
India’s environment andhousing ministries, thetwo main ministries lead-ing the drive, did notrespond to emails fromReuters to seek comment.
In an Independence Dayspeech on August 15, Modihad urged people and gov-ernment agencies to “takethe first big step” onOctober 2 towards freeingIndia of single-use plastic.
Concerns are growingworldwide about plasticpollution, with a particu-
lar focus on the oceans,where nearly 50 per centof single-use plastic prod-ucts end up, killingmarine life and enteringthe human food chain,studies show.
The European Unionplans to ban single-useplastic items such asstraws, forks, knives andcotton buds by 2021.
China’s commercial hubof Shanghai is graduallyreining in use of single-use plastics in catering,and its island province ofHainan has already vowedto completely eliminatesingle-use plastic by 2025.
India lacks an organ-ised system for manage-ment of plastic waste,leading to widespread lit-tering across its townsand cities.
The ban on the first sixitems of single-use plas-tics will clip 5 per cent to10 per cent from India’sannual consumption ofabout 14 million tonnesof plastic, the first offi-cial said.
Penalties for violationsof the ban will probablytake effect after an initialsix-month period to allowpeople time to adopt alter-natives, officials said.
Some states havealready outlawed poly-thene bags. The centralgovernment also planstougher environmentalstandards for plastic prod-ucts and will insist on theuse of recyclable plasticonly, the first source said.
It will also ask e-com-merce companies to cutback on plastic packagingthat makes up nearly 40per cent of annual plasticconsumption, officials say.
Cheap smartphones anda surge in the number ofinternet users have boost-ed orders for e-commercecompanies, such asAmazon.com Inc andWalmart Inc’s Flipkart,which wrap their wares—from books and medicinesto cigarettes and cosmet-ics—in plastic, pushing upconsumption.
— Reuters
Sugar subsidy, exporttarget pegged higher
SANGEETHA G with agency inputsCHENNAI, AUG. 28
In the face of a slowdownin consumption, fast mov-ing consumer goods(FMCG) companies havegone for selective cuts andhikes in product prices,based on the mixed trendsin raw material prices andconsumption pattern.
Market leader HindustanUnilever (HUL) has cut theprices of soaps but hasraised face wash prices.
HUL has increased theprices of face wash by 4-14per cent across brands,including Pears, Dove,Ponds and Fair and Lovely.It has also increased theprice of Pond’s MiracleAge cream by 8 per cent,finds Kotak InstitutionalEquities.
In contrast, the companyhas taken an overall pricecut of 5 per cent recently inthe soap portfolio. Thecompany had noted thatpersonal wash witnessedmuted delivery, particular-ly in the popular segment.
“HUL does selective andjudicious price changesacross its portfolio in thenormal course of its busi-ness. Given that the com-
modity prices are expectedto remain benign for cer-tain time period, we havetaken price reductions inrange of 4-6 per cent in Luxand Lifebuoy portfoliowhile it may be higher oncertain packs in order topass on the benefits to theconsumers,” said the HULspokesperson.
According to EdelweissSecurities, this is the rightstrategy considering soapvolumes are soft and palmoil prices remain lower ona year-on-year basis,though they have picked uplately. “This will help HULgain market share fromunorganised and some ofthe smaller players. Anypressure on gross marginswill be compensated by acut in advertisementspends; so Ebitda marginsshould be fine,’ it said.
Other FMCG players alsohave gone for pricingchanges for select prod-ucts. Reckitt Benckiser hasreduced price of Dettolsoap by 8 per cent. Colgatehas increased prices ofselect toothpaste brands by5-6 per cent and Dabur hasincreased price of Meswakby a modest 2 per cent andthe company has alsoincreased prices of
Almond hair oil by 3 percent, pricing it at par withBajaj Almond Drops HairOil, according to Kotak.
Wipro Consumer Care,makers of Santoor soap,has also slashed the prices."We have also cut prices insoaps, passing on the bene-fit of lower raw materialprices to the consumer,”said Anil Chugh, President(India Consumer CareBusiness), WiproConsumer Care.
ITC also cut prices ofsome soap brands. "ITCpassed on the benefit oflower raw material costs toconsumers through adownward revision inprices about 5-6 weeks backin certain packs of its soapvariants," said an ITCspokesperson.
In the food and beveragessegment, Britannia hasreduced price of Good Daybutter cookies by 9 per centwhile Parle has increasedprice of Hide & Seek bour-bon by 20 per cent to Rs30/100 gm.. ITC too hasincreased price of Sunfeastbourbon. Dabur hasincreased the price ofGlucose D, as sugar priceshave remained firm inrecent times.
Britannia has increasedthe price of cheese blockand cheese slices by about12 per cent. Amul hasincreased the price ofAmul Gold milk by 3 percent, Nestle has increasedthe price of condensedmilk by 2 per cent and milkpowder by 3 per cent as themilk prices have been firm-ing up for some time.
Data analytics firmNielsen had, in a report,last month said that salesof FMCG items, includingsoaps, slowed down inApril-June quarter,.
"... This quarter has wit-nessed a slowdown acrossall food as well as non-foodcategories with saltysnacks, biscuits, spices, toi-let soaps, and packaged tealeading the slowdown,"Nielsen had said.
Most brokerages have cutNifty earnings by over 5per cent, with many Niftycompanies’ earnings pershare (EPS) being down-graded.
“Earnings growth storythat was expected to pickup meaningfully this yearis getting derailed. Wehave lowered the Nifty’searnings by about 5 percent due to overall slow-down in the economy,post-June 2019 corporateearnings and expectationof a weak second quarter.While there are positivetriggers emerging, the sec-ond quarter outlook con-tinues to remain weak,and further downgradescannot be ruled out,” saidNaveen Kulkarni, Head ofResearch, RelianceSecurities.
Edelweiss Financial hascut Nifty EPS estimates by8 per cent for FY20, led bybanks, auto and metals.
“We believe, the 18 percent Nifty EPS growthforecast for FY20 is opti-mistic and prone to down-grade given the weak glob-al growth and subdueddomestic economic
momentum. Earningsdowngrade is likely to bebroad based,” Edelweisssaid.
CLSA cut Nifty earningsfor FY20. At the currentlevels, FY20 and FY21 EPSreflects 17.6 per cent and20.5 per cent growth overFY19 and FY20, respective-ly, with earnings expan-sion in banks, healthcareand industrials.
As many as 28 stocks inthe BSE100 saw FY20 EPSdowngrades in the lastfour quarters.
Companies like Cipla,Eicher Motors, TataMotors, Vedanta, Lupin,Avenue Supermarts andTata Power saw earningsdowngrade by brokerages.
Analysts attribute weakglobal demand along withsubdued state capexweighed on industrialcompanies.
Brokerages cutNifty earnings
VIVEK MISHRA &HARI KISHANBENGALURU, AUG 28
India’s liquidity-starvedeconomy will restrainhousing market activityand price rises in comingmonths and into 2020,according to a Reuters pollof property marketexperts, who were skepti-cal aggressive interestrate cuts will revive it.
House prices are expect-ed to rise just 1 per cent onaverage this year and 2 percent in 2020, the lowestmedian predictions sincepolling began for the twoyears, and well below thecurrent 3.15 per cent rateof consumer price infla-tion.
A majority of respon-
dents in the August 13-27survey said risks to thosealready-modest predic-tions were skewed more tothe downside.
That comes despite theReserve Bank of Indiahaving slashed its reporate by 110 basis points sofar this year, to 5.40 percent. It is also expected tocut it further to 5.15 percent over the comingmonths to revive a slowingeconomy.
However, much of thateasing has not reachedborrowers as banking andnon-banking financialcompanies (NBFCs) arestill grappling with verylarge bad loans on theirbalance sheets, which hasled to a liquidity crunch.
The government’s own
assessment is that the lackof available credit is theworst in over 70 years.
“It is my expectation thatwe will continue to seemore defaults over thenext few years as develop-ers are still facing liquidi-ty issues due to slow salesand lack of refinancingoptions,” said SiddhartGoel, Principal Consultant
and Founder at ARAISConsulting.
“Even the recent ratecuts will not have a posi-tive impact on the situa-tion as easing by theReserve Bank (is) seldompassed on by the banks tothe loan seekers and neverin the same quantum.”
Indeed, nearly three-fourths of 18 analysts who
answered an additionalquestion said the RBI’sinterest rate cuts this yearwould have no impact onthe housing market. Fivesaid it would be stimula-tive and none said verystimulative.
All 18 analysts whoanswered a separate ques-tion unanimously said theimpact of the liquiditycrunch would last for atleast another six monthsand would either be severeor very severe.
A continued decelerationin housing activity willhave serious repercus-sions for the overall econo-my as the real estate mar-ket provides jobs to largeswathes of people migrat-ing from rural areas tocities.
“The problem of low jobcreation looms large inIndia, even though the eco-nomic growth rate is pre-dicted to be the highest,”said Anuj Puri, Chairmanat Anarock property con-sultants.
“A stagnant formal jobmarket has a direct impacton the sentiment of home-buyers who have to makelarge investments in buy-ing a residential property.The situation will eventu-ally improve, but notovernight.”
While the governmenthas taken steps to providestimulus to the slowingeconomy, analysts saythose measures are too lit-tle to prop up demand sig-nificantly in the housingmarket. — Reuters
Rate cuts may not re-fire housing market: Poll
MA JIEAUG. 28
Toyota Motor Corp. andSuzuki Motor Corp. arestrengthening their rela-tionship by takingstakes in one another,the latest alliance in anindustry that’s facingsweeping changes intechnology, consumerpreferences and busi-ness models.
Japan’s biggestautomaker will acquireabout 5 per cent ofSuzuki shares for about96 billion yen ($907 mil-lion), while Suzuki willget a smaller holdingvalued at about 48 bil-lion yen in Toyota, theautomakers said instatements Wednesday.
The move builds onties established twoyears ago between thetwo carmakers and isaimed at expandingtheir collaboration tokeep up with electricand self-driving cars, aswell as growing demandfor on-demand rides andnew businesses that arereinventing how peopleget from A to B. ForToyota, the deal adds yetanother automaker tothe company’s expand-ing portfolio of partner-ships, which includesMazda Motor Corp. andSubaru Corp.
Toyota will pay 4,004yen a share, lower thanSuzuki’s closing price of4,085 yen. Suzuki sharesare down 27 per cent thisyear, following a 15 percent decline in 2018 asthe Indian economycooled.
The deal gives Toyotagreater access toSuzuki’s presence inIndia, which is on trackto overtake Japan andbecome the world’sthird-largest vehiclemarket.
While Suzuki is smallin other markets, it occu-pies almost half of themarket share in India.
India Ratingsslashes GDPforecast to 6.7%India Ratings lowered thecountry's growth forecast tosix-year low of 6.7 per cent forthe current fiscal from an earli-er estimate of 7.3 per cent onaccount of slowdown in con-sumption and moderation inindustrial growth, among otherfactors. This would be the thirdconsecutive year of subduedgrowth, its Principal EconomistSunil Kumar Sinha said.
Govt aims at fullelectrificationof railways
The Centre has decided tomove towards fulll electrifica-tion of railways, as part ofefforts to curb carbon foot-prints, Union Railways MinisterPiyush Goyal said. He also saidhe has a mission that in next 10years, Indian Rail-ways will berunning on renewable energy.“We will be the world's firstlarge railways... which will be100 per cent electrified.”
BBB namesGupta, Kumarfor LIC MD postThe Banks Board Bureau hasrecommended the names ofMukesh Kumar Gupta and RajKumar for the post of MD, LIC.BBB has also suggested namesof Devesh Srivastava and MalayKumar Poddar for the post ofCMD, General InsuranceCorporation of India andAgriculture Insurance Companyof India, respectively. The inter-views were held on Tuesday.
China’s Fosun tothe rescue ofThomas Cook
Printed & Published by T Venkateswarlu on behalf of DeccanChronicle Holdings Limited. Printed &
Published at Deccan Chronicle Pressessituated at SP-3 Developed Plot,
whole or in part without written per-mission of The Editor, Financial
Chronicle ® is prohibited.
Overleaf
British travel company ThomasCook agreed to a 900-millionpounds rescue deal that willhand control of its tour opera-tor business to China’s FosunGroup. The recapitalisation,worth the equivalent of 994million euros or $1.1 billion,sent Thomas Cookstock crashing by a fifth asanalysts warned that share-holders may see investmentswiped out.
HELPING FARMERS
◗ Govt had set a subsidy of `4,500 crorefor the current marketing year endingSeptember for exporting 5 million tonnes◗ New sugar season is expected to com-mence with an opening stock of 14.2 mt
Renault aimsto disruptmarket, prices Triberat `4.9L
THURSDAY | 29 AUGUST 2019 | CHENNAI
MICHAEL GONSALVESPUNE, AUG. 28
Renault, Europe's biggestcar maker but struggling inIndia, on Wednesdaylaunched Renault Triber,which it dubbed as a "gamechanger" at the competitiveprice to double its sales vol-ume to 2,00,000 units annu-ally in the mid-term.
Priced between Rs 4.95lakh to Rs 6.49 lakh at panIndia showroom for the top-end, Renault Triber willtake on like-sized hatch-backs such as the MarutiSuzuki Wagon R, the Swift,the Hyundai Grand i10, theFord Figo and the DatsunG0+ in the Indian market.
The Renault Triber is thenewest sub 4-metre multi-seater to go on sale in Indiaand promises a compact yetversatile offering at com-petitive prices.
The new hatchback withan option of 5-seater and 7-seater (the third row canonly seat kids) is availablein four trims called RXE,RXL, RXT and RXZ with
more than 20 key featuresas standard equipment towoo buyers.
Renault Triber is fittedwith a 72HP, 1.0-litre petrolengine and 5-speed manualgearbox. The companyplans to introduce the auto-matic version in a couple ofmonths."
Renault Triber is a gamechanger in this fiercelycompetitive car market. Weare confident to sell about10,000 units a month,"Venkatram Mamillapalle,Country CEO & ManagingDirector at Renault India
told Financial Chronicle. The company's Kwid
hatchback and Duster SUVhad canged the Indian carmarket when they werelaunched a couple of yearsback and went on to clockover 10,000 units a month,though the volume camedown due to new carlaunches.
He said the companyplans to bring in a new cardesigned specifically forthe Indian every year. "Ourproduct offensive strategyis to double our sales vol-umes to 200,000 units annu-ally in India by the mid-term," Mamillapalle said.
He said the company willenter into every segment ofthe car industry such assedan, SUV, MPV and elec-tric vehicles.
"We are also working onthe electric car for theIndian market and launchit her when the entire eco-system is ready,"Mamillapalle said, addingthat today "we cannot drivean electric car fromMumbai to Delhi".
PETER HOBSONLONDON, AUG. 28
A forgery crisis is quietlyroiling the world's goldindustry.
Gold bars fraudulentlystamped with the logos ofmajor refineries are beinginserted into the global mar-ket to launder smuggled orillegal gold, refining andbanking executives tellReuters. The fakes are hardto detect, making them anideal fund-runner for nar-cotics dealers or warlords.
In the last three years, barsworth at least $50 millionstamped with Swiss refinerylogos, but not actually pro-duced by those facilities,have been identified by allfour of Switzerland's lead-ing gold refiners and foundin the vaults of J. P. MorganChase & Co, one of themajor banks at the heart ofthe market in bullion, saidsenior executives at goldrefineries, banks and otherindustry sources.
Four of the executives saidat least 1,000 of the bars, of astandard size known as akilobar for their weight,have been found. That is asmall share of output fromthe gold industry, which pro-duces roughly 2 million to2.5 million such bars eachyear. But the forgeries aresophisticated, so thousandsmore may have gone unde-tected, according to the headof Switzerland's biggestrefinery.
"The latest fake bars ... arehighly professionally done,"said Michael Mesaric, theChief Executive of refineryValcambi. He said maybe acouple of thousand havebeen found, but the likeli-hood is that there are "way,way, way more still in circu-lation. And it still exists, andit still works."
Fake gold bars — blocks ofcheaper metal plated withgold — are relatively com-mon in the gold industryand often easy to detect.
The counterfeits in thesecases are subtler: The gold isreal, and very high purity,with only the markingsfaked. Fake-branded barsare a relatively new way toflout global measures toblock conflict minerals andprevent money-laundering.Such forgeries pose a prob-lem for international refin-ers, financiers and regula-tors as they attempt to purgethe world of illicit trade inbullion.
High gold prices have trig-gered a boom in informaland illegal mining since the
mid-2000s. Without thestamp of a prestigious refin-ery, such gold would beforced into undergroundnetworks, or priced at a dis-count. By pirating Swissand other major brands,metal that has been minedor processed in places thatwould not otherwise be legalor acceptable in the West -for example in parts ofAfrica, Venezuela or NorthKorea — can be injected intothe market, channelingfunds to criminals orregimes that are sanctioned.
It is not clear who is mak-ing the bars found so far, butexecutives and bankers toldReuters they think most
originate in China, theworld's largest gold produc-er and importer, and haveentered the market via deal-ers and trading houses in
Hong Kong, Japan andThailand. Once accepted bya mainstream gold dealer inthese places, they can quick-ly spread into supply chains
worldwide.Word of the forged bars
began to circulate quietly ingold industry circles afterthe first half of 2017, when J.P. Morgan, one of five bankswhich finalize trades in the$10 trillion-a-year Londongold market, found that itsvaults contained at least twogold kilobars stamped withthe same identificationnumber, 10 people familiarwith the matter told Reuters.Reuters couldn't determineexactly where the vaultswere.
J.P. Morgan declined todirectly address questionsabout the fraudulent bul-lion, or comment on any ofthe details in this story. "It'sour standaard practice toimmediately alert the appro-priate authorities and refin-eries should we discover mi-smarked gold kilobars duri-ng routine checks and proce-dures," the bank said. "For-tunately, we have yet to havean incident resulting in aloss to the firm or a client."
The Shanghai GoldExchange, which regulatesChina's gold market, said itwas not aware of counterfeitbars being made in or trans-ported through China. "TheShanghai Gold Exchangehas established a thoroughdelivery and storage system.The process for gold (materi-al) to enter the warehouse isstrictly managed and incompliance with the regula-tions," it said.
— Reuters
New Delhi, Aug. 28: NITIAayog CEO Amitabh Kanton Wednesday said the costof electric vehicles willalmost become at par withcombustion engine cars inthe next three-four years,largely owing to decline inbattery price and Indiashould be ready for thistransition.
Observing that 28 cars forevery 1,000 people, muchlower than in the US orEurope, which have 980 and850 cars for 1,000 peoplerespectively, Kant said thismeans as country transitstowards urbanisation thefuture will all be electric,shared and connected.
"We will transit towards
there as the cost of batteryfalls from 276 dollars perkilowatt hour (kwh) to 76dollars per kilowatt/hour.
The cost of electricvehicles willalmost become atpar with com-b u s t i o n(engine) cars inthe next 3-4years," the NITIAayog CEO saidwhile addressing aCII event here.
Electric vehicles gener-ally use lithium ion batter-ies.
He said when this hap-pens it is important weshould have done adequatespadework that our three-
wheelers, four-wheelersand our buses all becomeelectric in due course and
we are able to save a hugeamount of crude oil
consumption andsubsequently thenearly $111 bil-lion spent on itsimport.
"We have laiddown a policy
f r a m e w o r kwhere in the
future people will gofor electric vehicles, an
economic incentive hasbeen created for people togo for this," Kant observed.
He said, it was criticalthat as India modernises,the country creates a model
of urbanisation where weare able to recycle ourwater, recycle our waste,where we are able to trulyensure that there is publictransportation.
Kant said India has madehuge commitments in theParis Accord and remainscommitted to reduce itstotal pollution by almost 35per cent, unlike the USwhich has backed out of it.
"...The speed at which weare going in terms of hydro,in terms of wind energy interms of rooftop, we willactually be bypassing thetargets that we have set forourselves," the NITI AayogCEO noted.
— PTI
Beijing, Aug. 28: Foreign busi-nesses in China are ill-prepared forthe tough sanctions and constantsurveillance demanded by a socialcredit system to be rolled out thisyear, a European business groupwarned on Wednesday.
Under this new system for rank-ing businesses, both foreign anddomestic companies will berequired to install surveillancecameras in their premises andshare the data with the government.
They will also be rated on theirtax record and compliance with arange of existing laws, includingcustoms or environmental regula-tions.
Those who violate rules will beplaced in "blacklists" and subjectedto "immediate and severe punish-ments", the EU Chamber ofCommerce in China said in areport published on Wednesday.
The sanctions are not limited topenalties but also include more fre-quent inspections, customs delays,not getting subsidies or tax rebatesand public shaming, the reportadded.
"The corporate social credit sys-tem could mean life or death forindividual companies," said Jorg
Wuttke, President of the EU cham-ber.
"The overwhelming absence ofpreparation by the European busi-ness community is deeply concern-ing." Each company operating inChina is already being assessedagainst at least 300 different "spe-cific rules" ranging from emissionslevels to workplace safety and com-plaints against their products on e-commerce platforms, governmentdocuments showed.
"Beijing plans to combine allthese different ratings into a singledatabase by the end of the year,"said Bjorn Conrad, head of theBerlin-based consultancySinolytics that co-authored thereport.
A single score could mean that acompany is penalised across Chinafor a slip by one of its regionalbranches.
Companies will also be rapped forworking with suppliers or partnerswith bad social credit.
The system will also involve theunprecedented demand that allbusinesses have to install surveil-lance cameras in their premisesand transfer huge amounts of dataand footage to government offi-cials.
"Dozens of companies haveraised concerns about the sheervolume and depth of data thatneeds to be shared with the govern-ment," said Conrad.
"They are worried about how thisdata will be handled and whetherbusiness secrets will be leaked."Rewards for being a good corporatecitizen include easier access toloans and faster governmentapprovals -- although they are veryfew in comparison to the penalties.
— AFP
China’s rating system scares foreign firms
Financial
OPENING
PROJECTION FOR TODAYBELL
After the volatile trade,Sensex and Nifty closed inthe red as the investors re-mained cautious on econo-my concerns. The Sensexclosed at 37451.84 falling189.43 points, or 0.50 percent, while the Nifty shed59.25 points, or 0.53 percent, ending at 11046.10.
The Nifty remained weakthroughout the day andwent below the level of11000. However, towardsthe end it tried to eraseintraday losses ahead ofthe proposed announce-ment on relaxing FDInorms in several sectors.
Technical View
Technically, Wednesday'sweakness in the Niftycould indicate a short termreversal in the market.There is a possibility somemore weakness in the next1-2 sessions.
After the formation ofconfused type of candlepattern in the last session,the Nifty slipped into wea-kness and closed on a mod-est loss, analysts said.
"We observe a formationof decent negative candleas per daily time framechart. This indicates anear term down reversalin the market. The keyoverhead resistance of11,150 levels (resistance asper the concept of changein polarity) is so far weigh-ing high on the market,"said Nagaraj Shetti,Technical ResearchAnalyst, HDFC Securities
But, the expected declineis unlikely to damage therecent uptrend status ofthe Nifty. Important sup-ports to be watchedaround 10900-850, whereone may expect reliableupside bounce from thelows, he further said.
"On Thursday, on theback of weekly and month-ly expiration of the con-tract, we can expectgreater volatility in themarket. Nifty wouldremain in the range of10900 and 11150, buy inselect companies if Niftycorrects to 10900 levels,"said Shrikant Chouhan,Head Technical Research,Kotak Securities.
Market View
The recent announcementmade by the finance minis-ter and the outcome of RBIboard meet are definitelypositive for the markets.This is likely to lift domes-tic sentiments in the nearterm. Going forward, themarket participants wouldkeep a close watch on cur-rency movement andupcoming Q1FY20 GDPdata. Globally, trade ten-sions between US-China islikely to induce volatilityinto the Indian markets.
"Despite reversal in sur-charge, FPIs continued tobe net sellers due to cloudsover global trade discr-epancies, risk of recessionand fall in bond yields,which are having a rippleeffect on the market. Con-sensus estimates a drop indomestic Q1FY20 GDP gr-owth to 5.7 per cent andweakening rupee impactedinvestor's optimism onearnings," said Vinod Nair,Head of Research, GeojitFinancial Services.
— Ashwin J. Punnen
Nifty supportseen near10900
Fake gold bars slip into world markets■ Fraudulently stamped bars with logos of major refineries being inserted into market
EV cost to meet ICE’s in 4 yrs: Kant
FC BUREAUMUMBAI, AUG. 28
National Stock Exchange ofIndia (NSE) announced maj-or overhaul of constituentsof its various indicesincluding the benchmarkindex Nifty-50 with effectfrom September 27, 2019.
Nestle India will replaceIndiabulls Housing Financein the Nifty-50 Index.
"The Index MaintenanceSub-Committee of NSE hasdecided to make the replace-
ment of stocks in variousindices as part of its period-ic review. These changesshall become effective fromSeptember 27, 2019 (close ofSeptember 26, 2019)," arelease issued by NSE said.
Nestle India shares closed0.36 per cent higher at Rs12,517.40 per share on theNSE and touched a high ofRs 12,850 in intra-day trade.
Indiabulls HousingFinance ended 3.08 per centdown at Rs 457. IndiabullsHousing Finance along with
Berger Paints, Power Fina-nce Corporation and PunjabNational Bank have beenincluded in the Nifty Next 50Index replacing ABB India,Bharat Heavy Electricals,MRF and Steel Authority ofIndia, the release said.
Also 21 new entrantsincluding Adani Gas,Abbott India, BayerCropscience and ArvindFashions find place in theNifty 500 Index with exclu-sion of same number ofstocks from the Index.
Nestle to replace Indiabulls HF in Nifty
New Delhi, Aug. 28:Shares of Yes Bank tumbled7.5 per cent on Wednesdayafter Moody's InvestorsService yanked down thelender's ratings to junk sta-tus with a negative outlook,citing the lower-than-expected capital raisingfrom the recent QIP issueand the plunging shareprices that's a hurdle in rais-ing more funds.
The scrip tanked 7.47 percent to close at Rs 59.50 on
the BSE. During the day, itdropped 9.72 per cent.
Moody's downgraded thebank's long-term foreign-currency issuer rating toBa3 from Ba1, which is bel-ow investment grade.
The agency also down-graded the long-term for-eign and local currencybank deposit ratings to Ba3from Ba1, foreign currencysenior unsecured MTN pro-gramme to Ba3 from Ba1,and the baseline credit
assessment to B1 from Ba2."The downgrade takes into
account the lower-than-expected amount of capitalraised by Yes Bank recentlyand the risks that the sub-stantial decline in its shareprice, which will challengeits ability to raise sufficientcapital," Moody's said.
The agency said the bulkof the bank’s operating prof-it will get consumed by loanloss provisions over the next12-18 months.
Yes Bank gets junk statusRenault aims to disrupt market,prices hatchback Triber at `4.9L
PAGE
12
—RAVI RANJAN PRASAD
FPIs sell despite tax reliefForeign portfolio investors are selling equities despitelast week announcement of roll back of surcharge,announced in the Union Budget.
Reports said government may take ordinance route forrepealing the surcharge on high net worth individuals.
FPIs were net sellers of equities worth Rs 935.27 croreon Wednesday as per provisional data.
On Tuesday too FPIs were net sellers of equities worthRs 1,060.20 crore as per NSDL data.
Siddhartha Khemka, Head — retail research, MOFSLsaid, "FIIs were net sellers in the last five trading ses-sions despite government withdrawing surcharge on FIIand RBI transfer Rs 1.76 lakh core from reserves to thegovernment."
Shares of RBL Bank wereunder fresh selling pres-sure and fell 18.18 per centintra-day. However the sto-ck recovered partially fr-om new 52 week low priceof Rs 291.90 to close 12.09per cent down at Rs 313.65.The stock started fallingafter first quarter resultswhere it had forecast incr-ease in its non-performingassets going forward.
Bank’s reports regard-ing transactions by empl-oyees in the shares ofRBL Bank said, "Markettransactions by emplo-yees is a routine activitywith regular exercise ofESOPs and sale of equityshares thereafter. TheESOPs exercised and saleof equity shares by theemployees for the monthof July 2019 is in linewith the past.
STREETbuzz
RBL Bankfalls over 18%
CG Power and IndustrialSolutions shares gained4.97 per cent on news ofdivestments of non coreassets and considerationof other fund-raisingoptions. CG Power stockwas locked in 5 per centupper circuit and closedat Rs 9.50, it had touched a52 week low of Rs 8.25 onAugust 27.
CG Power stock had fall-en sharply last week asthe stock 20 per cent ontwo consecutive days afterfinancial irregularitiesand unauthorised trans-actions in the companycame into light.
CG Power in a clarifica-tion said, "The company isevaluating divestments ofnon core assets and con-sidering other fund-rais-ing avenues to avoid anybusiness disruption."
CG Powerbounces back
London, Aug. 28: Thepound slumped morethan one per cent versusthe dollar and euro onWednesday as Britain'sgovernment moved toextend the suspension ofparliament, increasingthe likelihood of a no-deal Brexit.
Britain's currency slid1.1 per cent to $1.2157,while the euro bought91.23 pence. Sterlinglater recovered to above$1.22 but remained heav-ily down on late Tuesday.
The pound's plungeboosted London's bench-mark FTSE 100 Index,which features numer-ous multinationalsearnings in dollars.
"The pace of sterling'sdrop demonstrates yetagain the currency'ssusceptibility to Brexitfears," said Han Tan,Market Analyst atFXTM trading group.
— AFP
Pound diveson no-dealBrexit prospect
FC BUREAUNEW DELHI, AUG. 28
Dispelling a falseimpression being creat-ed in certain sections ofmedia, Central Board ofDirect Taxes (CBDT)said on Wednesday thatgovernment's recentrollback of enhancedsurcharge on selectinvestors has not creat-ed a differential regimebetween FPIs anddomestic investors.
The clarification cameafter the governmentannounced the with-drawal of enhanced sur-charge on short-termand long-term capitalgains earned by FPIs aswell domestic investors.
"Differential regimebetween domesticinvestors (includingAlternative InvestmentFund category III) andFPIs existed even priorto the 2019 Budget,”theCBDT said.
CBDT clarifieson surchargeremoval
New Delhi, Aug. 28:Slamming decision ofthe RBI to transfer itsexcess reserve to the gov-ernment, bankers' bodyAIBEA on Wednesdaysaid the apex bank sho-uld not be an "extensioncounter" of the FinanceMinistry and what ishappening now is a mat-ter of "serious concern".
The All India BankEmployees Association(AIBEA) said the RBIwas created as an indepe-ndent institution manda-ted with the responsibili-ty of ensuring the stabil-ity in the economy besi-des monitoring externalstability, monetary sta-bility and money supply.
"RBI is a totally autono-mous body and is not ex-pected to be an extensioncounter of the FinanceMinistry or the governm-ent. It has specific tasksto perform which shouldnot be interfered with.
— PTI
AIBEA slamstransfer ofreserves
Chennai, Aug. 28:Doosan Bobcat Indiahas opened its first man-ufacturing facility inGummudipoondi nearChennai. With an invest-ment of Rs 190 crore forthe next 5 years, the fac-tory is spread across anarea of 21.6 acres andhas an annual produc-tion capacity of 8,000units. The integratedfacility with Fabri-cation, Warehouse, Ass-embly and Paint Shopwill be initially makingBackhoe Loaders com-pletely designed anddeveloped by the engi-neering team based inChennai. —FC Bureau
Doosan Bobcatopens TN unit
RANJEETHA PAKIAMSINGAPORE, AUG. 28
Citigroup Inc has raisedthe possibility gold mayextend its impressiverally should it breach atechnical level against amajor US equity marketbenchmark, adding to pos-itive commentary aroundthe metal.
The ratio between bul-lion and the S&P 500 is "te-sting key pivots that ext-end up to the Christmashighs," Shyam Devani,Senior TechnicalStrategist, said. "It is onlya matter of time before asignificant bullish breakoccurs that could trigger arally to the tune of 25 percent in favor of gold."
Gold has powered aheadthis year, hitting a six-yearhigh above $1,500 an ounce,as global trade tensions, sl-owing economic growthand investors seeking alte-rnatives to risk assets incl-uding equities boost dema-nd. Among bulls, UBS Gro-up AG says prices will sur-ge to $1,650 over 12 months
as central-bank easing spu-rs flows into bullion-back-ed exchange-traded funds.
"Equity markets contin-ue to look vulnerable, giv-en the deeper inversion ofthe US yield curve,"Citigroup said, highlighti-ng the potential for gainsin bullion: "Sometimes theratio between asset classesis too hot. Sometimes toocold. But sometimes thechart signals 'Just right'."
Spot gold slipped 0.1 percent to $1,541.08 an ounceon Wednesday, but is stillup 20 per cent this year.
— Bloomberg
Citi sees ‘bullish break’ for goldGolden years
Srouce: London Bullion Market Association price from RefinitivDatastream
2000 2005 2010 2015
2,0001,5001,000
5000
Figures in $ per ounce
2017 global crisis triggereda boom in gold prices
Gold could rally further ifratio with equities breaks
‘Just right’
Srouce: Bloomberg
2014 15 16 17 18 19
0.70
0.65
0.60
0.55
0.50
0.45
0.40
0.5359
■ Spot gold/S&P 500 Index ratio
NITIAayog CEOsays as the
country transitstowards urbanisa-
tion the futurewill all be electric
Tech cos have to choose between moderation or free speechWashington, Aug. 28:Take the post down. Put itback up. Stop policingspeech. Start silencingextremists.
That’s just a sampling ofthe intense, often contra-dictory demands facingtech companies and theirsocial media platforms asthey try to oversee inter-net content without infri-nging on First Amend-ment rights. The pendu-lum has swung recentlytoward restricting hatefulspeech that could spawnviolence, following a massshooting in Texas wherethe suspect had posted aracist screed online.
For Facebook, Google,Twitter and others, it’s ano-win whipsaw, ampli-fied by a drumbeat ofaccusations fromPresident Donald Trumpand his allies that theirplatforms are steeped inanti-conservative bias.With lawmakers and regu-lators in Washington por-ing over their businesspractices, the tech compa-nies are anxious to avoidmissteps — but findingcriticism at every turn.“There’s a thin linebetween disgusting andoffensive speech, andpolitical speech you justdon't like. People are blur-ring the lines,” says JerryEllig, a professor atGeorge Washington Uni-versity’s Regulatory Stud-ies Center who was a poli-cy official at the FederalTrade Commission.
Companies operatingsocial media platformshave long enjoyed broadlegal immunity for postedcontent. Under the 1996Communications DecencyAct, they have a legalshield for both for contentthey carry and for remov-ing postings they deemoffensive. Be it socialmedia posts, uploadedvideos, user reviews ofrestaurants or doctors, orclassified ads — the shel-ter from lawsuits andprosecution has been atent pole of social net-working, and undoubtedlycontributed to its growth.
But in the current cli-mate of hostility towardBig Tech, that legal protec-tion is getting a second
look. Legislation proposedlast spring by RepublicanSen. Josh Hawley ofMissouri, an outspokenconservative critic, wouldrequire the companies toprove to regulators thatthey’re not using politicalbias to filter content.Failing to secure a bias-free audit from the gov-ernment would mean asocial media platformloses its immunity fromlegal action. It remains tobe seen whether such asystem could pass musterunder the FirstAmendment.
Hawley’s legislationdrew pushback fromMichael Beckerman, whoheads the major tradegroup Internet Associa-tion. He said it forces theplatforms “to make animpossible choice: eitherhost reprehensible, butFirst Amendment-protect-ed speech, or lose legal
protections that allowthem to moderate illegalcontent like human traf-ficking and violentextremism. That shouldn'tbe a tradeoff.”
The bias issue hasdogged Silicon Valley foryears, though there's beenno credible evidence thatpolitical leanings factorinto Google's search algo-rithms or what users seeon Facebook, Twitter orYouTube.
That's done little tosilence critics on theright, including at theWhite House, whereTrump promised at a“social media summit”last month to explore “allregulatory and legislativesolutions to protect freespeech and the free-speechrights of all Americans.”While no details weregiven, the remark hintedat an approach similar toHawley's bill.
Some critics of Big Techsay the industry's woesare partly of their ownmaking. Having champi-oned their commitment tofree speech, the argumentgoes, their users weren'tprepared for the realitythat content, at times, willbe restricted. “They wereinsisting they were neu-tral, or just technologyplatforms,” said EricGoldman, a law professorat Santa Clara Universityand co-director of its HighTech Law Institute.
That argument was per-suasive, until disappoint-ment set in. “It eventuallyblew up and caused con-sumers to lose trust inthem,” Goldman said.
Others note that theindustry has well-docu-mented problems thatcan't be blamed onWashington. Tech compa-nies have faced criticismover diversity, their treat-ment of women and howthey address sexualharassment and discrimi-nation, both online andoff. Protests from techemployees, many of themhighly paid engineers,have sometimes boiledover into dramatic actionslike the global walkoutand street demonstrationsby Google employees lastNovember. In that case,the company responded bychanging the way it inves-tigates misconduct claimsand simplifying the com-plaint process.
Then there are also thescandals surrounding laxdata privacy and rampantforeign influence, whichhave consumed much ofWashington's attentionsince the 2016 election.
A massive Russian influ-ence campaign usedphony Facebook and othersocial media postings,seeking to sow discordamong the millions ofAmericans who viewedthem. Under pressurefrom lawmakers, techcompanies are now work-ing to devise protectionsagainst “deepfake” bogusbut realistic-seemingvideos and other onlinemanipulations that couldbe used to influence the2020 election.
— AP
Tech cos find it hard tomaintain balancing act
PAGE
13TechnomicsTHURSDAY | 29 AUGUST 2019 | CHENNAIDECCAN CHRONICLE
Cracking downA federal grand jury has charged eightpeople with running the two biggestillegal streaming services in the US
SHORT TAKES
MARIO KARTTOUR TO LAUNCH
ON SEPT 25New Delhi, Aug. 28: Themuch-anticipated Mario KartTour is finally being launchedfor mobile in the comingmonth, the company has offi-cially announced.
The Twitter account for thegame posted the pre-registra-tion link for Mario Kart Tourwhich will be available onSeptember 25.
The game is inspired by real-life locations and features theiconic Mario character. It isavailable for pre-register onboth iOS and Android. — ANI
LENOVO ROLLSOUT LAPTOPS
FOR INDIANew Delhi, Aug. 28: Lenovolaunched new Legion seriesgaming laptops in India today.The two new series includesLegion Y740 and Legion Y540,on the sidelines of concludingits first-ever esports tourna-ment.
The Legion Y740 is poweredby NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070Max-Q GPU and 9th Gen IntelCore i7 laptop processor forenhanced 4K gaming, the offi-cial release notes. Legion Y740with a 15-inch display is avail-able at the starting price of`1,29,990.
The Legion Y540 boastsNVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 6GGDDR6 GPU and 9th Gen IntelCore i7 laptop processor withup to 1TB SSD support. Itcomes with Harman Kardonspeakers with support forDolby Atmos. It is priced at69,990 onwards for the basemodel with a 15-inch display.
— ANI
REALME Q TO BEUNVEILED ON
SEPTEMBER 5DC CORRESPONDENTMUMBAI, AUG. 28
Realme will launch their nextline of smartphones, the Qseries in an event in China.The announcement comesfrom Realme’s ChiefMarketing Officer Xu QiChase after he posted aboutthe launch on his Weiboaccount.
While not much is revealedabout the specs of the phone,we can expect a quad-cameradevice since the company’sWeibo profile displays thebrands high inclinationtowards a quad-camera setup.
Realme’s Q series phonescould also be the very firstRealme phones to runRealme’s own UI after the com-pany decided to ditch its par-ent company Oppo’s ColorOS.We are likely to know moreabout the device and Realme’sOS in the coming days aheadof the event.
You can go Rambo on CyberpunkISHAAN ARYA | DCNEW DELHI, AUG. 28
At Gamescom, I got to takea closer look at the futuris-tic RPG — Cyberpunk2077. During my hands on,I tried out the multiplegameplay styles in a mis-sion that revolved aroundclearing a gang strongholdto get information aboutthe mysterious chip play-ers found in the previousgameplay reveal.
The build allowed me toswap between two differ-ent versions of V to showoff a brute force gameplayvariant and one which ismore hacking oriented. Asyou would expect yourstats will open up newabilities and choices in notonly combat, but how youinteract with the worldaround you. When playingas the hacker, we couldbypass security terminals
and turn off the cameras,whereas with the brute wecould open half opendoors and take completelydifferent routes in thegame.
Another great example isin combat up against auto-mated turrets; if you’vespent your stat pointssmartly you can hack intoturrets and turn themagainst your enemies, butif you want to go in allRambo and have enoughstrength points you canbreak it off and runaround raising hell!
The hacking abilitiesalso allow you to hackfrom a distance, givingyou special cables that notonly hack enemies but canbe used for lethal or nonlethal takedowns whensneaking up on enemies.
It also showed off theinventory managementand shopping options.
Gamer has the secondary option for a stealth-based approach to success
Oppo India CEO Charles Wong is flanked by Oppo India VP (product & marketing)Sumit Walia (left) and VP (R&D) Tasleem Arif (extreme right) at the launch of OppoReno 2 Smartphone on Wednesday.
Oppo Reno 2
Trails Rising to take you on atrip of southern hemisphereISHAAN ARYA | DCNEW DELHI, AUG. 28
The latest expansion forthe Trials franchisetakes you on an adven-ture south of the equatorwith locations acrossSouth America, Africa,Australia and evenAntarctica!
While the change inlocations doesn’t neces-sarily mean mind blow-ingly new content, thechange in scenery keepsthings fresh and you getnew types of objects inthe world around you.
For example SouthAmerican tracks werethrough favellas, lushforests and have a bit offootball here and there.
The special build of thegame that I got to try hadseven tracks from begin-ner to extreme difficultyalong with two new bikesand a shopping cart; I kidyou not, it's a lot of fun.The new bike Alpaca hasa much stronger frontwheel so it completelychanges the gameplayand allows you to tacklespecific tracks a littlebetter.
The new tracks werequite fun and if theremaining 30 tracks inthe DLC are just more ofthe same, it’s money wellspent.
Trials rising is proba-bly one of the most crim-inally underrated partygames out there, you canspend hours before youeven realise the sun isabout to come up. Thenew DLC will also fea-ture a party mode,andprivate multiplayer
Trials Rising Crashand Sunburn DLC comesout on September 10.
Galaxy M20s willpack 6000mAhDC CORRESPONDENTMUMBAI, AUG. 28
A month ago, we heardabout Samsung workingon a new phonerumoured to pack a hugebattery.
Reported to be theSamsung Galaxy M20swith a 6000mAh batteryinside, the device wassupposed to be the succes-sor of Samsung GalaxyM20 which itself packed a5,000mAh battery.
Earlier, the SamsungM20s appeared as a phonebearing the SM-M207model number which car-ried a 5830mAh cell withthe EB-BM207ABY prod-uct code.
Now, with a new teaser,the South-Korean techgiant has confirmed thatindeed this is the samephone. The poster readsthe slogan, “Get ready to#GoMonster” below ‘6000’written in a huge yellowfont.
Now, control your homelights from anywhere DC CORRESPONDENTMUMBAI, AUG. 28
SYSKA LED have part-nered with Google HomeMini. Through this collab-oration, Syska will beoffering its Smart LEDbulbs along with GoogleHome Mini in a combopack on Flipkart, India’sleading e-Commerce mar-ketplace.
Syska Google HomeMini’s smart connectenables consumers toexperience smart living intheir homes and offices.This smart combo willbring more value andcomfort to millions ofconsumers across thecountry.
Syska believes in contin-uous innovation and hasalways been at the fore-front of offering innova-
tive LED lighting solu-tions to consumers.
With Syska GoogleHome Mini combo, userswill be able to controllights using voice com-mands and through the‘Syska Smart Home LEDApp’.
Syska’s Wi-Fi enabledSmart LED bulb useswireless technology thatallows users to controllights from anywhere inthe world. Users can alsoset the colour tonedepending on the occasionwith three million shadesto choose from.
Syska Smart LED Bulbsare Wi-Fi enabled andcompatible with GoogleAssistant. The bulb comeswith a two years warranty.Syska Google Home Minicombo consists of 1 SyskaSmart LED Bulb, 1 Google
Home Mini and a quickstart guide.
This combo is priced at`5499/- and is available atleading retail stores and e-commerce platforms.
SYSKA LED providesinternational LED light-ning solutions for homeand offices. The compa-ny’s compressive list ofproducts include a varietyof bulbs, ceiling lights,spot lights, tube lights,emergency lights, electri-cal accessories and striplights. Coming in variousshapes, sizes, color tem-perate, WATT power andtypes, these LED lightsare crafted to meet globalstandards and class. Allthe products are aestheti-cally designed which givesa home or office a com-plete makeover with itsfine lighting effect.
ViewSonic launches4K UHD displaysDC CORRESPONDENTMUMBAI, AUG. 28
ViewSonic Corp launchesViewBoard IFP50 – 2series, interactive dis-plays providing upgradesto the hardware and soft-ware features.
From an ultra-slimbezel design andenhanced touch screen, tobuilt-in 2.1 stereo speak-ers with subwoofer andSmartPort USB, theViewBoard IFP50 – 2series provide outstand-ing experiences forenhanced classroomlearning and next-genboardroom collaboration.
The new embeddedAndroid 7 operating sys-tem, improvedmyViewBoard white-boarding software andimproved casting ensuresthat IFP50 – 2 displaysdeliver incredible next-level collaboration.
The ViewBoard IFP50 –2 series include anenhanced 20-point touch-enabled panel, which pro-vides not only differenti-ated tip sizes of IR-basedpens but also simultane-ously offers two colourwriting, in addition toallowing multiple users to
write or draw on the dis-play’s surface.
The new touch screenalso features reducedlatency of 4ms for asmooth writing experi-ence. These interactivedisplays provide powerfulcomputing for annotationand multimedia playbackwithout the need for a PC.
The ViewBoard IFP50 –2 series displays comewith a built-in ARM quad-core processor and anAndroid 7.0 operating sys-tem, making it 2.3x fasterthan previous iterations.
This offers better appli-cation performance, moreefficient memory usageand optimized hardwareintegration, with 2GBmemory and 16GB stor-age. With the improvedprocessor power, IFP50 – 2series can handle multi-ple cast streams, allowingup to nine screens, withthe vCastSender utility.
Also, the users have anoption to utilise nativeChromecast. The View-Board IFP50 – 2 series are“out-of-the-box” collabo-ration ready. It allowsusers to write, highlight,edit and transform docu-ments and images on thescreen in real-time.
HOW TO SILENCE GOOGLE ASSISTANTRESPONSES ON YOUR ANDROID PHONEGoogle has now made it possible to silence all Google Assistant voice output and onlyshow the answers to your questions on your phone. Here’s how to set it up:
REALME XTFINALLY GETSREVEALEDDC CORRESPONDENTMUMBAI, AUG. 28
The Realme XT was ear-lier spotted on the webin the form of a render.Now, real pictures of thephone have surfaced.Chinese Media represen-tatives posted pictures ofthe upcoming RealmeXT on Weibo afterattending what likelywas a pre-launch event.
While the phone’slooks are locked, we arestill left in speculation tosome of the specifica-tions of the 64MP cam-era sporting device.
The Realme XT lookslike a jacked up Realme 5Pro, which ups theprocessor, the primarycamera, more memory, abigger screen and asuper-AMOLED display.
The USP of the RealmeXT will be the Main64MP sensor on the rearcamera setup, There isalso an 8MP ultra-widesensor, and two 2MP sen-sors for close shots(macro) and a 2MP depthsensor. There is also awater-drop notch on thefront of the phone, sothere will be no pop upcamera on this one.
FACEBOOK DITCHES THE ‘IT’S FREE’ SLOGAN
Back in May, the European Union issueda directive that considered data as formof payment.
After a string onhigh-profile privacyscandals, the valueof your personalinformation — whichis willingly surren-dered to Facebook atthe point of signup— has become moreapparent than ever.
Experts suspectsit could possiblyhave been spurredby a directive thatEuropeanParliament passedin May that recog-nises that exchang-ing data is actuallya form of payment.
Access your Google Assistant by either long-pressing on the home button or saying “Hey,Google” or “OK Google.”
Tap the symbol on the lower right corner.
Tap your personal icon on the upper right corner.
Select “Settings.”
Select “Assistant” (on the top line).
Scroll down to “Assistant devices” and find eitherthe word “Phone” or the name that you’ve assignedyour phone. Tap on it.
Scroll down to “Voice and Speech” and tap on “Speech output.”
Select “Hands-free only.”
PAGE
14THURSDAY | 29 AUGUST 2019 | CHENNAIDECCAN CHRONICLE
SHORT TAKES
I was not able tobelieve it when Ifound out about
the accolade.— Poonam Yadav
on being nominated for the Arjuna Award
Paul replacesCummins
St. John’s (Antigua): All-rounder Keemo Paul has
replaced fast bowler MiguelCummins in the West Indies’ 13-
member squad for the secondTest against India, starting on
Friday in Jamaica.Paul, who missed the first Test
due to an ankle injury, is nowavailable for selection, the West
Indies Cricket Board (WICB)said in a statement. Besides,
West Indies’ interim selectioncommittee has also decided to
keep wicket-keeper JahmarHamilton with the squad. Shane
Dowrich, meanwhile, hasreturned to Barbados to
continue his rehabilitation afterbeing ruled out of the series
with an ankle injury. India won the first Test by 318
runs in Antigua. The Virat Kohli-led visitors also emerged
New Delhi: Sitanshu Kotak andParas Mhambrey have beennamed head coaches of the
India A and U19 teams, respec-tively, for the next few months.
With Rahul Dravid, who guid-ed the team to the ICC U19
World Cup 2018 title, elevatedto the head the National CricketAcademy, Kotak and Mhambrey
have been give charge of thejunior sides.
Kotak, a left-hand batsmanwho averaged 41.76 in 130 first-
class matches while taking 70wickets, was in charge of the
Saurashtra side in the domesticset-up. He will also oversee bat-ting in the A side, with Ramesh
Powar, the former India off-spinner and women's teamcoach during their ICC T20
World Cup 2018 run, helpinghim as the bowling coach and T
Dilip as the fielding coach.Mhambrey, who played two
Tests for India, was a medium-pacer who took 284 wickets in91 first-class games. A part ofDravid's staff, he has earned apromotion. He will be assistedby Hrishikesh Kanitkar, the for-mer India batsman, and AbhaySharma, a wicket-keeper in his
playing days. —Agencies
CricketKhawaja to lead Usman Khawaja will lead the Australians intheir three-day tour match againstDerbyshire starting on Thursday
New Delhi, Aug. 28:Mahendra Singh Dhonimay have put his interna-tional retirement on holdbut he is unlikely to beselected for India’s three-match T20 home seriesagainst South Africa start-ing September 15 inDharamsala. The team forthe series is expected to bepicked on September 4.
The remaining twogames will be played atMohali (September 18)and Bengaluru(September 22). In all like-lihood, the squad thatblanked West Indies 3-0 islikely to be retained (sub-ject to fitness) and theselection committee wantsto continue building
towards World T20 inAustralia in October 2020.
‘There are only 22 T20Internationals beforeIndia play their firstWorld T20 game and selec-tors are clear in theirvision that it’s time tomove forward,’ a seniorBCCI official privy todevelopments in selectioncommittee told PTI onWednesday.
‘They are planning ongetting a pool of threekeepers ready for limitedovers, especially T20s,’ headded.
It is still not clearwhether the BCCI brass orthe selection committeewill speak to Dhoni toenquire about his plans
like they did before theWest Indies tour when theformer captain informedthat he would be taking abreak to serve his regiment in TerritorialArmy.
‘Retirement is an indi-
vidual decision and selec-tors or for that matter, noone has any right to decideon that front. But theyhave every right to decidethe roadmap for the 2020World T20 and that’sto give Rishabh Pant maximum chances,’ theofficial explained.
It is learnt that the sec-ond and third option forthe selection committee isSanju Samson, whose batting is considered to beon par with Pant and IndiaA regular Ishan Kishan.
While Pant remains thefirst choice across formats, the selectors arealso factoring in the fit-ness and workload management. — PTI
Selectors unlikely to pick MSD for SA T20sRetirementis anindividualdecision and
selectors or for thatmatter, no one hasany right to decideon that front.
—A senior BCCIofficial
Thiruvananthapuram,Aug. 28: Young ShubmanGill would be the cynosureof all eyes when the five-match unofficial ODIseries between India ‘A’and South Africa beginshere on Thursday.
Gill, who has been ingood form in recent times,shone during the India Ateam’s recent Caribbeantour but missed out onselection for the seniorODI squad. And the bats-man would be keen toprove his credentials dur-ing the matches againstthe visiting Proteas ‘A’side.
The stylish Punjab right-hander, who played twoODIs in New Zealand ear-lier this year, would lookto continue the good runhe enjoyed in theCaribbean (with the ‘A’team) to make a case forhimself before the nation-al selectors ahead of thehome season.
Besides Gill, all-rounderVijay Shankar is another
player who will be on theselectors’ lens after herecovered from a toeinjury. Shankar had toreturned mid-way fromthe ICC World Cup inEngland due to the injuryand made his return to thefield during the recentTamil Nadu PremierLeague. With a long homeseason ahead, the TamilNadu all-rounder would beeager to get back into the
groove and push his casefor selection.
Manish Pandey, whorecently made a comebackinto the national limited-overs side in the WestIndies, will lead the teamin the first three gamesbefore Shreyas Iyer takesover for the last twomatches.
Pandey will be eyeing bigruns as the battle for amiddle-order slot in the
Indian ODI side continues. The team comprises sev-
eral players who wererecently part of the seniorlimited overs side in theWest Indies.
The series will also pro-vide a good opportunityfor wrist spinnerYuzvendra Chahal to gethis mojo back.
Chahal, who is goingthrough a slump in formsince the World Cup,would be looking to hit the straps quickly againstthe Proteas, who are not regarded as great players of spin.
Krunal Pandya, who hasmade a mark with both batand ball in the T20 seriesin the Caribbean, will also be seen in actionalong side talented Ishan Kishan, in-formRuturaj Gaikwad andNitish Rana.
India A’s bowling will beled by pace duo of KhaleelAhmed and DeepakChahar. For South AfricaA, led y the experienced
Temba Bavuma, the serieswill help them gain much-needed experience of sub-continent conditionsahead of the senior team’stour — PTITeams: India ‘A’: ManishPandey (Captain), RuturajGaikwad, Shubman Gill,Anmolpreet Singh, RickyBhui, Ishan Kishan (wick-et-keeper), Vijay Shankar, Shivam Dube,Krunal Pandya, AxarPatel, Yuzvendra Chahal,Shardul Thakur, DeepakChahar, Khaleel Ahmed,Nitish Rana.South Africa ‘A’: TembaBavuma (Captain),Matthew Breetzke, KyleVerrynne, Junior Dala,Theunis de Bruyn, Bjorn Fortuin, BeuranH e n d r i c k s ,Reeza Hendricks,Heinrich Klaasen,George Linde,Janneman Mala,Marco Jansen,Anrich Nortje,Sinethemba Qeshile,Lutho Sipamla.
New Delhi, Aug. 28: Jammuand Kashmir’s player-cum-mentor Irfan Pathan says heis dealing with most uniquechallenge of his long cricket-ing career as he tries to keepthe state’s preparations forthe upcoming domestic sea-son on track amid a commu-nication clampdown in thestate.
The Jammu and KashmirCricket Association (JKCA)has put out ads on local TVchannels to get in touch withtheir players from the valleywho have been incommunica-do.
Communication in Kashmirvalley has been restricted bythe government after theabrogation of the provisionsof Article 370, which gave thestate special status. Jammuand Kashmir is now a UnionTerritory.
“The biggest challenge forus is that we are not able tocontact players in Kashmirand its districts. We are intouch with the Jammu play-ers,” Pathan, who has played29 Tests and 120 ODIs forIndia, said.
The pacer said the currentsituation in Kashmir hasundone the massive gainsmade by the team in a fitness
camp supervised by formerIndian team trainerSudarshan V P in June. Thedomestic season gets under-way next month with theVijay Hazare Trophy.
Desperate times call for des-perate measures and with theJKCA unable to contact itsplayers including big nameslike Parveez Rasool, Pathan,JKCA CEO Ashiq AliBukhari and administrator CK Prasad finally met here onTuesday to come up with asolution.
“Bukhari is a former DIG.He came up with the idea thatwe should advertise on televi-sion. There is a programmethat comes every evening andKashmiris are communicat-
ing with their near and dearones through that.
“So we put the ad there hop-ing the selected boys can jointhe camp in Jammu. We put itout yesterday and we can’texpect everyone to respond inone day. It will take at leasttwo to three days. It is a veryunique situation. I have neverbeen involved in anythinglike this before,” said the 34-year-old.
Pathan was appointed asplayer-cum-mentor in March2018. He feels sad that theteam is back to the drawingboard after a successful fit-ness camp in Kashmir.
“Preparation has been bighit time. In the training campheld in June, we put a lot ofemphasis on fitness as we feltthat our biggest weaknesswas agility. The J and K play-ers have the lungs but theylack in agility so I arranged aqualified trainer likeSudarshan to work the play-ers.
“The players were supposedto peak by now but it is allback to zero in the currentscenario. Even if the situa-tion becomes normal, there isno time for training, it is justabout playing matches,” hesaid. — PTI
(From left) Sitanshu Kotak, Ramesh Powar and RahulDravid. — BCCI
London, Aug. 28:Australian batting main-stay Steve Smith thoughtabout his late teammatePhillip Hughes right afterbeing hit on the neck byEngland pacer JofraArcher in the secondAshes Test.
Smith, who missed thethird Test due to theresultant concussion, wasinitially cleared toresume his innings onday five following thenasty blow before hestarted feeling a “little bitunder the weather”.
“I had a few things run-ning through my head,particularly where I gothit, just a bit of past cameup, if you know what Imean, from a few yearsago. That was probablythe first thing I thoughtabout,” Smith toldreporters in Derby refer-ring to Hughes whopassed away after beinghit by a bouncer in a 2014Sheffield Shield match.Smith was found to havedelayed concussion whichhe said, felt like he hadtoo much alcohol.
“It wasn’t until laterthat evening that it hitme. When the doc askedme what did it feel like Isaid it felt like I had sixbeers last night and felt alittle bit under the weath-er, without the six beersunfortunately.
“That was the sort offeeling I got, that groggyfeeling and that stuckaround for a couple ofdays. Not a nice place tobe in but these thingshappen and unfortunate-ly missed what was a pret-ty amazing Test match,”he said.
Smith is expecting a lotof short balls to be direct-ed at him but will notchange the way he batsagainst Archer. “Ifthey’re bowling up thereit means they can’t nickme off, or hit me on thepad or hit the stumps.With the Dukes ball, Idon't know, that's aninteresting ploy.” — PTI
London, Aug. 28: BenStokes’s astonishingmatch-winning perform-ance in the third AshesTest at Headingleyupstages that of IanBotham in 1981 at thesame ground, according toformer England captainMike Brearley.
“It is hard to believeStokes’s could ever havebeen, or even ever will be,surpassed,” wroteBotham’s 1981 captain inThe Times.
Both performancesincluded stamina and skillwith the ball as well as amonumental performancewith the bat, each of themsecuring narrow wins forEngland in cricket’s oldestrivalry.
Stokes’s 135 not out onSunday secured an highlyunlikely one-wicket winover Australia —England required 73when the last batsmanJack Leach came tothe wicket — and fol-lowed a monumen-tal 24-over bowlingstint in thetourists’ secondinnings duringwhich he tookthree wickets.
Botham’s perform-ance in 1981 wasequally heroic. In spiteof taking six wickets inAustralia’s first inningsand then scoring 50 in
England’s first dig,Botham came to crease asecond time with theEnglish following on.
His unbeaten 149 trans-formed the outcome of theTest, setting thestage for BobWillis to writehis name intofolklore witheight wicketsin theAustralians’s e c o n dinnings asE n g l a n dsealed aremarkable
18-run win.Brearley likens Stokes,
Botham and another cele-brated all-rounder FreddieFlintoff, who was the starof the England’s 2005Ashes victory, to “the
finest specimen of thethoroughbred old
English yeomen.”“Vivid though the
images from thedistant past are,mental pictures of
rampaging bowlingand batting by all
three iconic all-rounders, it is difficultnow to remove from
the front of my mind theshock, the exhilaration, ofthe recent: the sheerimprobability of Stokes’sperformance atHeadingley last week,”wrote Brearley.
Brearley, regarded as oneof England’s finest cap-tains, said the trio rodetheir luck at times.
“I like the story of theman who kept complain-ing to God about his badluck in life; why wouldGod not at least let himwin the lottery?
“Fed up at last with theseendless complaints, Godbarked down from the sky:‘Do me a favour, at leastbuy a ticket.’
“Stokes, Botham andFlintoff all did rathermore than buy tickets. By
their courage, skill, con-viction and genius,
they earned theirluck.”
Brearley, whois now arespected psy-choanalyst,said there
were similarities betweenBotham’s Headingleyinnings and that ofStokes.
“In a way, Botham’s 149not out against Australiaat Headingley in 1981started where Stokes’s 135not out left off, with outra-geous rusticity and defi-ance, in the quest for anapparently unreachabletarget.
“Echoes of the villagegreen on the respectablearena of Headingley.”
Brearley, who won 17 andlost just four of his 31Tests in charge ofEngland, said all threeplayers would be people“to go into combat with”.
The 77-year-old also cred-its the England andWales Cricket Board(ECB) for bringing Stokesback despite protestationsfrom some after he wasfound not guilty of affrayin a court case last year.“It is to the credit of theECB, that they gave him asecond chance.”
— AFP
It’s unique challenge ofmy career, says Pathan
Botham upstaged by Stokes: Brearley
Smith thought ofHughes after blow
It is hard to believe Stokes’could ever have been, oreven ever will be, surpassed.
—MIKE BREARLEY, Former England skipper
■ All eyes on young guns as one-day series begins todayProtea diet for India ‘A’
Irfan Pathan
■ JKCA puts out TV adverts to locate players
India ‘A’ players during a training session ahead of the one-day series against South Africa at Thiruvananthapuram. — BCCI
<<< Ben Stokes
● Phil Hughespassed away afterbeing hit by abouncer in a 2014Sheffield Shieldmatch. Smith washot on the neck bya Jofra Archerbouncer.
<<< Steve Smith
MS Dhoni (left) and Rishabh Pant.
PAGE
15THURSDAY | 29 AUGUST 2019 | CHENNAIDECCAN CHRONICLE
SHORT TAKESRooney bannedfor rough play
NNeeww YYoorrkk:: D.C. United’s WayneRooney has been suspended an
additional game for a blow tothe head and neck of New York
Red Bulls midfielder CristianCasseres Jr. while defending a
corner kick last Wednesday.Major League Soccer
announced the suspension onTuesday.
Rooney was given a red cardafter the incident and was sus-
pended for United’s matchagainst the Philadelphia Union
on Saturday. MLS suspendedhim another game and finedhim an undisclosed amount
because the blow was to thehead. That means the Englishstar will sit out United’s game
this Saturday against theMontreal Impact.
United is 1-5-1 in its last sevenmatches and sits fifth in the
Eastern Conference with fivegames remaining in the MLS
regular season.Rooney announced earlier this
month that he will leave Unitedat the end of the season andreturn to England as a player
and assistant coach for DerbyCounty. — AP
Belgian Hazard hurt, sidelined
BBeerrlliinn:: Belgian internationalThorgan Hazard will be out ofaction for several weeks after
picking up a rib injury in theBundesliga, his club Borussia
Dortmund announced onWednesday.
“Thorgan Hazard suffered arib injury following a collision
with an opponent in the matchaway to FC Cologne,” said a
statement on the club website.“The 26 year-old is now set
for several weeks on the side-lines. Get well soon, Thorgan!”
Hazard, who arrived fromMunchengladbach during the
summer, is likely to missDortmund's next two
Bundesliga matches at least,against Union Berlin and Bayer
Leverkusen.He will probably also miss
Belgium's two Euro qualifiersagainst San Marino and
Scotland next month. — AFP
With the newhorses I amconfident of
qualifying for theOlympics.
— Fouaad Mirza, India’s doubleAsian Games silver medallist
Out of actionIvory Coast international Jean-Philippe Gbamin isexpected to be sidelined for eight weeks with a thighinjury, his Premier League club Everton revealed
Games
Jamaican Noah Lyles takes up Bolt’s place in 100m sprintGatlin gears up for new rival TN’s Nithin bags
200m gold medal
Telangana governor fetesSindhu, Manasi for feats
Lucknow, Aug. 28: TamilNadu’s Balakumar Nithinwon the men's 200m gold onthe second day of 59thnational inter-state athlet-ics championships here onWednesday.
Having won the sprintdouble in the Khelo IndiaYouth Games in Pune earli-er this year, Nithin's win-ning time of 20.91 secondshere was the third-best onthe list among Indians overthe 200m this year. OnlyArokia Rajiv andMuhammed Anas Yahiya— both 400m specialists —have run faster in 200mthan the bespectacledsprinter from Tamil Nadu.
The 200m qualifying timefor the WorldChampionships is 20.40.Asian Games gold medal-list triple jumper ArpinderSingh won the gold butfailed to touch the WorldChampionships qualifyingmark.
Arpinder managed theseason's best jump of16.83m, 12cm short ofWorld Championship qual-ifying standard of 16.95munder hot and humid con-ditions at the PAC Stadiumhere.
Karnataka's U Karthikand Tamil Nadu'sMohammed Salahuddintook the silver and bronzerespectively with jumps of16.0m and 16.79m.
The 26-year-old Arpinder,who has a personal best of17.17m (of 2014), will haveanother shot at WorldChampionships qualifica-tion in the Indian GrandPrix in New Delhi onSeptember 5. None of theIndians could come close tothe qualifying marks ofthe World Championshipsto be held in Doha fromSeptember 28 to October 6.
Kerala runner Alex, whofirst gave glimpses of hispotential with a 46.66 sec-ond run in the IndianGrand Prix V in Patialaearlier this month,improved his personal bestwith a 46.17 second effort.
It's creditable that he wona race that included run-ners of the caliber ofAyyasamy Dharun (400mhurdles national recordholder) and Tamilarasan
Hyderabad, Aug. 28:Newly-crowned badmintonworld champion P. V.Sindhu and Manasi Joshi,who won gold at the recentWorld Para-BadmintonChampionship, were felici-tated by TelanganaGovernor ESL Narasimhanhere on Wednesday.
Along with them, chiefnational coach P.Gopichand and othercoaches were also felicitat-ed at a function at the RajBhavan.
Hailing their victories,Narasimhan describedSindhu as “pride of India”and Manasi as the “brave-heart of India”.
He said Sindhu would getrest only after winning goldin the Tokyo Olympics nextyear. “Let me assure you,
ladies and gentlemen, thisSindhu, with this goldmedal will come to this RajBhavan. I may be there, Imay not be there... The RajBhavan will felicitate hernext year,” he said.
Praising Manasi for hercourage and determina-tion, Narasimhan said sheis a “role model for everyone of us”.
He also appreciated thecoaches and trainers fortheir efforts.
Thanking the Governorfor the felicitation,Gopichand said theachievements have becomepossible only with the helpof coaches and supportstaff. There are eight to 10years of badminton left inSindhu (who is now 24years old) and she should
prove that right, he said.The world of para bad-
minton was not known andManasi was almost his firststudent when she came, hesaid hailing coaches andother personnel involved intraining the player. “Truly,some of my happiestmoments of the tourna-ment came from para-bad-minton,” he said.
Sindhu said she will workhard to achieve the gold inthe Olympics. “I will behere with the gold,” shesaid.
Sindhu, along withGopichand and her par-ents, also met ChiefMinister K. ChandrasekharRao, who assured supportfrom the government forher future endeavours.
— PTI
Los Angeles, Aug. 28:They climbed atop podi-um in the center of thefield, hoisted a trophyabove their heads, andbegan bouncing up anddown with feverish pas-sion.
For Atlanta United, cele-brating never gets old —though it is becomingroutine.
Atlanta claimed theirthird title in less thannine months, holding offMinnesota United 2-1 inthe final of the U.S. OpenCup on Tuesday night.
“It’s a good feeling.Before the game, wetalked again about beinga winning club, winningtrophies, being a big club.That’s what it’s about,”
goalkeeper Brad Guzansaid.
Atlanta United jumpedout to a 2-0 lead just 16minutes into the game asPity Martinez scored agoal and set up an own-goal by Minnesota with anifty pass.
In the end, the hometeam barely managed tohang on. MinnesotaUnited scored in the open-ing minutes of the secondhalf and really turned upthe pressure whenLeandro Gonzalez Pirezwas sent off with a redcard, forcing Atlanta tofinish the game with 10players.
With the clock windingdown, Michael Boxall hada chance to tie it but sent
the ball over the crossbarwith a shot from right infront. He collapsed to theturf, holding his handsover his face in disbelief.
In a matchup of teamsthat entered MajorLeague Soccer togetheras expansion franchisesin 2017, Atlanta Unitedadded to its trophy haul.They captured the MLSCup last December, andthen added theCampeones Cup with avictory over Mexicanchampion Club Americatwo weeks ago.
“For sure, it’s a habit,”Guzan said, adding,“being there before, usingour savviness, using ourknow-how of being in thissituation, and ultimately
finding a way to get thejob done. We did that.”
Now, Atlanta has itsfirst title in the 105-year-old U.S. national competi-tion, a victory thatensures a return trip tothe CONCACAFChampions League in2020. United was eliminat-ed this year by eventualchampion Monterrey inthe quarterfinals.
“We got experience thisyear. Hopefully we’ll dobetter next year,” coachFrank de Boer said.
Atlanta United becomethe first MLS team toqualify for the continen-tal competition and joinfive other teams thatalready claimed spots.
— AP
Yet another Cup for Atlanta
Fouaad sure he’llmake it to TokyoNew Delhi, Aug. 28: Aninjury to his preferredhorse has jeopardisedFouaad Mirza’s qualifica-tion chances for the TokyoGames but the doubleAsian Games silver medal-list is confident of makingthe cut for the Olympics inthe equestrian event.
Mirza, 27, shot to famewhen he became the firstIndian since 1982 to win anAsian Games individualmedal in equestrianbesides guiding the coun-try to a second-place finishin the team competition inJakarta last year.
And Mirza has now sethis eyes on qualifying forthe Tokyo Games but willmiss the services of hismain horse, SeigneurMedicott for the entireyear.
“Unfortunately, my mainhorse Seigneur Medicottthat helped me win the twosilvers at the Asian Games
sustained an injury thisyear. So he is out for theentire season which is ahuge blow,” Mirza said.
“I had ups and downs.Losing this horse is a hugeblow. Our sport is very dif-ficult when you lose a goodhorse it makes things evenharder. Having said that Ihave two younger horsescapable of qualifying,capable of doing the job,”he added.
In equestrian, qualifica-tion for the Olympics isbased on an elaborateranking system. A rider-horse duo has to collectpoints from four star levelcompetitions and abovethroughout the year and atthe end of the window —Janauary 2019 to December2019, — these points will becalculated to compile theworld rankings.
Mirza still has five moreevents to book his Olympicticket. — PTI
Zurich, Aug. 28: JustinGatlin will take on NoahLyles in what promises tobe another thrilling 100metres at Thursday’sDiamond League meet inZurich, the American duofine-tuning preparationsfor the world champi-onships in Doha.
Gatlin, at 37, is 15 yearsolder than Lyles (who willonly race the 200m at theSeptember 27-October 6worlds in the Qatari capi-tal) and last time out hadto race like a “bat out ofhell” to beat him.
The veteran sprinter, the2004 Olympic 100m goldmedallist and currentworld champion whoserved a doping banbetween 2006-10, is a long-standing fixture on thetrack, albeit a controver-sial one, but continues toshow his enduringprowess.
Last month in Monaco,Gatlin kept both his nerveand form after an averagestart to streak through thefinish line in 9.91 seconds,just one-hundredth of asecond ahead of much-vaunted Lyles.
And Lyles is very muchan in-form runner, havingposted two very quicktimes over his favoured200m, including a 19.50secin Lausanne that made
him the fourth fastest eversprinter over that dis-tance.
Gatlin has admitted tofeeling that this season is“surreal, I can’t believeI’m still winning hereafter more than 20 years”.
“It’s a hard feeling beingthe old guy,” he said.
Gatlin won world gold inLondon in 2017 ahead offellow AmericanChristian Coleman — inthe spotlight for missingthree drugs tests — andnow-retired Jamaicansprint legend Usain Bolt.
Not only is Gatlin plot-ting to defend his title inDoha, but he is using thatas a handy warm-up for afourth Olympic Games
campaign at Tokyo 2020.“I really try not to set a
(retirement) date formyself,” Gatlin said at lastmonth’s US trials.
A loaded 100m field atthe 25,000 sell-outWeltklasse meet atZurich’s Letzigrund stadi-um also featuresJamaican Yohan Blake —the 2011 world 100m cham-pion who set a meetingrecord of 9.67sec duringhis last appearance inZurich in 2012.
Also lining up will beBritish duo Adam Gemiliand Zharnel Hughes,American MichaelRodgers and SouthAfrica’s Commonwealthchampion Akani Simbine.
The women’s 200 metresalso has a stellar line-up,with Dina Asher-Smithback on the circuit afterwinning the 100m and200m silver at last week-end’s British champi-onships, the former in achamps record of 10.96sec.
She faces JamaicanElaine Thompson, thereigning Olympic doublesprint champion, and cur-rent world championDafne Schippers of theNetherlands.
The tussle of theevening, however, couldcome in the women’s1500m, in whichEthiopia’s GenzebeDibaba faces off withSifan Hassan, theEthiopian-born Dutchrunner.
Dibaba is the worldrecord holder in the 1500mand currently holds sixadditional indoor and out-door world leading times.
Hassan, in turn, ran thefastest mile of all time inMonaco last month.
Sharma (68) occupied jointthird place at four-under-140.
Feeder Tour Order of Meritleader Anil Bajrang Mane (69)of Mumbai was in tied fifth at
three-under-141. — PTI
SISODIA INPGTI SECOND
ROUND
Players of Atlanta United football team celebrate defeating Minnesota United 2-1 to win the US Open Cup Final atthe Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, Georgia (USA) on Tuesday. — AFP
World badminton champion P. V. Sindhu (third from right) and Para World Champion Manasi Joshi (second fromright) cut a cake during a felicitation function organised by the Telangana Governor ESL Narasimhan (fourth fromleft) at the Raj Bhavan in Hyderabad on Wednesday evening. Also seen are Sindhu’s parents (left), V.Chamundeswarnath (third from left) and the Governor’s wife, Mrs Vimala Narasimhan (right).
JUNIOR CHAMPFAILS DOPE TESTKingston (Jamaica),Aug. 28: Double worldunder-20 sprint championBriana Williams couldmiss next month’s WorldChampionships afterreportedly testing posi-tive for the banned diuret-ic hydrochlorothiazide(HCTZ). Jamaican dailyThe Gleaner said that the17-year-old initially failedthe doping test after theNational Senior Champ-ionships between June 20-23 where she placed thirdin 100m. — AFP
London, Aug. 28:Egyptian star MohamedSalah may be settingEuropean and Englishfootball alight now butwhen he arrived inSwitzerland he cast a fewdoubts in the mind of hisfirst coach Heiko Vogel.
The 27-year-old forward— an integral part ofLiverpool’s ChampionsLeague success last sea-son — has started thecampaign in flying formscoring a double in lastSunday’s win overArsenal.
Vogel, though, told theGerman SPOX website hewondered whether Salahhad the mental strengthto succeed when he askedhim to come for a weeklong trial in 2012 — on theback of scoring a doublefor the Egyptian Under-23side against Basel in afriendly.
“It was always clear tome that he is an outstand-ing player, but whether hehad the mentality? I did-n’t know that exactly,”said Vogel.
“Momo is a gentle killer.I would be lying if I hadprophesied such a mas-sive global career forhim,” he said.
Vogel then asked Basel’sscouts in Egypt to con-firm his potential by tak-ing video footage of him.“I wondered whether thevideos had been speededup. He had everything —the speed, the finish, theleft foot,” he said.
Vogel, who picks outArsenal’s Swiss midfield-er Granit Xhaka as themost impressive of thePremier League-basedstars he coached at Baselwith Salah and hisLiverool teammate Xher-dan Shaqiri the other two,said things progressivelygot better. — AFP
Justin GGatlin Noah LLyles Briana WWilliams
Ex-managersays Salah isgentle killer
INTER-STATE || ATHLETICS
Balakumar NNithin
PAGE
16THURSDAY | 29 AUGUST 2019 | CHENNAIDECCAN CHRONICLE
SHORT TAKESNeymar closer to
deal with BarcaPPaarriiss:: Neymar said he had
“realised” his dream with acameo appearance in his
favourite Netflix show as laterthere was a fresh plot twist in
his long-running Paris Saint-Germain transfer drama.
The Brazil forward is anxiousfor a move back to Spain with
both Barcelona and Real Madridtrying to seal a deal before the
European transfer window clos-es next Monday.
“We are continuing negotia-tions, we are closer to a deal,”
Barca director Javier Bordastold reporters at Barcelona air-port on Tuesday after returningfrom a meeting with PSG in the
French capital.According to French newspaper
Le Parisien, Neymar’s formerclub have upped their offer to
170 million euros, payable intwo instalments. — AFP
Tiger reveals hehad knee surgery
LLooss AAnnggeelleess:: Tiger Woodsrevealed he had undergone sur-
gery to repair cartilage in hisleft knee but said he expects tobe fit to play at the PGA Tour’s
inaugural event in Japan inOctober.
In a brief statement on Twitteron Tuesday, reigning Masters
champion Woods said he hadundergone keyhole surgery lastweek to mend “minor cartilage
damage.”Dr Vern Cooley, who conductedthe procedure, said in the state-
ment he expects Woods tomake a full recovery. “We did
what was needed, and alsoexamined the entire knee.
There were no additional prob-lems,” Cooley said.
Woods said he was alreadywalking following the surgery
and expected to return to prac-tice in the next few weeks. “Ilook forward to traveling and
playing in Japan in October,” hesaid.
It is the fifth time since 1994that Woods, 43, has undergone
surgery on his left knee. In2008, he famously won the US
Open at Torrey Pines despitebeing informed weeks before
the tournament he had sufferedtwo stress fractures of the left
tibia. Woods made a successfulreturn to top flight golf in 2018,winning the season-ending Tour
Championship. — AFP
I have a lot of reallygood memorieshere because Igrew up in this
area.— Naomi Osaka after winning
her US Open match in New York
Thigh lowReal Madrid midfielder Isco is set to miss thisweekend’s Spanish league match againstVillarreal after he picked up a thigh injury
Games
However, four top 10 players bite the dust in US Open first round matchesNO STOPPING NADALNew York, Aug. 28:Rafael Nadal launchedhis tilt at a fourth USOpen title with a swiftdefeat of John Millmanas other leading seeds inhis half of the draw tum-bled out in the firstround.
Four players in theworld’s top 10 — DominicThiem, StefanosTsitsipas, KarenKhachanov and RobertoBautista Agut — lostTuesday to ease Nadal’spotential path to thefinal.
The Spanish secondseed — US Open champi-on in 2010, 2013 and 2017— needed barely twohours to see Millman off6-3, 6-2, 6-2 at ArthurAshe Stadium with theworld number 60 fromAustralia unable toreproduce the magic thatsaw him stun RogerFederer here a year ago.
“The beginning, thefirst match, is always alittle bit new even if I’veplayed here plenty oftimes. I think I playedwell and in general amvery happy with the wayI started,” said Nadal,who meets AussieThanasi Kokkinakisnext.
Two-time French Openrunner-up Thiem wasupset by Italian giant-killer Thomas Fabbiano6-4, 3-6, 6-3, 6-2, theAustrian fourth seedslumping to anotherfirst-round exit, havinglost at the same stage atWimbledon. “I got verytired and exhausted aftertwo sets. I’m far awayfrom 100 per cent. It wasnot the real me there onthe court,” an ailingThiem said.
Greek eighth seedTsitsipas struggled withcramps and accusedumpires of having “pref-erences” after he fell to a6-4, 6-7 (5/7), 7-6 (9/7), 7-5defeat by Next Gen rivalAndrey Rublev in a gru-elling four-hour slog.
Tsitsipas, for whom itwas also a second succes-sive Grand Slam open-ing-round defeat, was hitwith a point penalty for atime violation in thefinal set.
Russian ninth seedKhachanov lost toCanada’s Vasek Pospisilin five sets, with 10thseed Bautista Agut ofSpain succumbing insimilar fashion toMikhail Kukushkin ofKazakhstan.
Nerves for OsakaReigning women’s USOpen champion NaomiOsaka confronted severenerves as she overcameRussia’s Anna Blinkova,the world number 84.
Osaka suffered a first-
round exit last month atWimbledon and theJapanese star struggledto put away Blinkovabefore prevailing 6-4, 6-7(5/7), 6-2.
“I have a lot of reallygood memories herebecause I grew up in this
area. I don’t think I’veever been this nervous inmy life. You want to dowell after you did welllast year. I definitely did-n’t want to lose in thethird set,” said Osaka,sporting a black brace onher left knee.
The top seed goes on toface Poland’s MagdaLinette.
Osaka must retain herUS Open crown to have achance of remainingworld number one andwas tested extensively by2015 Wimbledon juniorfinalist Blinkova, whoraced 4-1 ahead in thefirst set and saved amatch point in the sec-ond to force a decider.
Wimbledon championSimona Halep, ousted inthe opening round thepast two years atFlushing Meadows, beatUS lucky loser NicoleGibbs 6-3, 3-6, 6-2.
“I feel much better thatI could win a match final-ly in this tournament. Ifeel like my game, it’sthere,” Halep said.
Sloane Stephens, the2017 champion, slid to a3-6, 4-6 loss to Russianqualifier AnnaKalinskaya, while 15-year-old Wimbledon sen-sation Coco Gauff edgedpast Anastasia Potapova,18, in three sets on herUS Open debut. — AFP
New Delhi, Aug. 28:Olympic bronze medallistshooter Gagan Narang onWednesday hoped theDronacharya Award is insti-tuted for coaches at everylevel in the future with equalincentives for even thosetasked with spotting talents.
One of India’s finest rifleshooters ever, the 36-year-oldhas set up many training cen-tres across the country aspart of the Gagan NarangSports Promotion Founda-tion (GNSPF) to teach andpromote shooting to youngaspirants.
His efforts will be recog-nised on Thursday whenPresident Ram Nath Kovindpresents him the RashtriyaKhel Protsahan Puraskar onthe National Sports Day.
“I believe there should be a
Dronacharya in every sys-tem, at every level, the bestgrassroots level coach, bestintermediate level coach,best excellence coach, bestforeign coach,” Narang said.
“Incentives should be givenat all levels, there should be asystem in place where thegrassroot level coach is aspir-ing to become the best grass-root level coach in the coun-try. Because without grass-roots level coaches elite can’t
do anything. The governmentis working towards it,” hesaid.
GNSPF has come a long waysince its inception in 2011,with Narang himself fundingit by using the money he wonin the form of cash awardsafter his stellar display at the2010 Commonwealth Games.Currently, they have 16 train-ing centres across the coun-try (in Maharashtra, Gujarat,Telangana, Madhya Pradesh,
Odisha, Uttar Pradesh,Karnataka and Tamil Nadu)where they train over a 1,000-1200 shooters annually.
Narang, whose father soldtheir house in order to helphim become a shooter, isfamiliar with the struggleyoung athletes face in theirquest to reach the top.
While he has no doubt thatthings have improved drasti-cally from the time he wasdreaming to make it big,Narang said more needs to bedone, urging corporate hous-es and state governments tocontribute. “In not-for-profitscenario we are alwaysstrapped for funds. So if weare able to give scholarship tosomeone and support him,it’s always better than put-ting the money back into thesystem,” he said. — PTI
BBuurryy,, EEnnggllaanndd:: Bury, one of theoldest clubs in English football,
has been expelled from theFootball League after 125 years
of membership following itsfailure to find a new owner.
The club from GreaterManchester had until Tuesday
to provide evidence to theEnglish Football League that it
could meet its financial com-mitments, but was unable to
after a takeover bid collapsed.The English Football League
said that “having fully consid-ered all available options,
including a number of lateexpressions of interest provided
to the EFL, the EFL board hasunanimously determined with
enormous regret that Bury’smembership be withdrawn.”
Bury is the first FootballLeague club to be kicked out
since Maidstone in 1992.The team has been unable to
play any of its first five gamesin the third-tier League Onethis season. League One will
now comprise 23 teams for theremainder of the season. — AP
New York, Aug. 28:Australia’s Nick Kyrgiosbecame the last player toreach the second round ofthe US Open by defeatingAmerican Steve Johnson6-3, 7-6 (7/1), 6-4 early onWednesday morning.
While the conclusioncame at 1.12 am, it wasn’tthe latest-finishing USOpen men’s first-roundaffair. That distinctionstill belongs to the 1991Jimmy Connors defeat ofPatrick McEnroe in fivesets that ended at 1.35 inthe morning.
Later, Kyrgios said thatto be issued a record$113,000 fine by the ATPfor actions at theCincinnati Masters wasnot a concern for himentering the US Open.“Not at all. ATP is prettycorrupt anyway. I’m notfrustrated at all,” he said.
He later added, “I’mfined 113K for what?”
Kyrgios smashed tworacquets and used a pro-fanity in describing anumpire as a “tool” afterbeing assessed a time vio-lation in a loss to Russia’sKaren Khachanov. He alsocalled the umpire “rub-bish”, “a disgrace” and“the worst ref in thegame.” — AFP
PLAYERS PUSHFOR MORE PRIZEMONEY AT OPENNew York, Aug. 28: Asizeable number of topmale tennis players,including some big stars,are backing a petitionseeking a major prizemoney boost from GrandSlams and other tourna-ments in a behind-the-scenes revenue fight atthe US Open.
And women’s playersmight join them in thebattle.
Canada’s Vasek Pospisilpulled the cover off theturmoil on Tuesday amidreports that up to 100players have signed thepetition.
— AFP
KYRGIOS ANGRYWITH ‘CORRUPTATP’ OFFICIALS
New York, Aug. 28: AlisonRiske has made her name intennis, but her biggest claim tofame might be the Bollywooddance moves from her weddinglast month that became aninternet sensation.
The 29-year-old Americandefeated two-time Grand Slamwinner Garbine Muguruza ofSpain 2-6, 6-1, 6-3 on Tuesday inher first-round match at the USOpen, her first Grand Slamevent since being married amonth ago to Stephen
Amritraj, the nephew of Indiatennis legend Vijay Amritraj.
“The whole weekend wasawesome, just to have everyonethat we love together — it wasreally special. There were somany highlights. I think myBollywood dance went overwell, as well,” Riske said.
Riske admitted preparing forthe dance brought nerves, butnothing like what she faces onthe court. “I practiced theBollywood dance so much thatI knew when I got up there, if I
didn’t freeze, I was going to beOK. Once I got past the initialfirst move I was ready to go,”Riske said.
“I take a lot more pride in mytennis than I do my Bollywooddance. I feel there’s morenerves associated with thatthan the dance,” she added.
But she also admits that herdance moves got greater expo-sure, thanks to the internet,than any of her tennis match-es. “It was hilarious. Theamount of Indian magazines
and Indian influencer pagesthat picked it up was reallyentertaining for me and myhusband. We both reallyenjoyed that. “Yeah, I can’t sayI have ever had anything in mytennis career that got as manywatches or likes,” she said.
The wedding dance wasn’tRiske’s only exposure toIndia’s culture, a trip to visither husband’s family payingdividends in exciting newways for her. “I did go toChennai and I met my hus-
band’s grandmother, whichwas really special that I hadthe opportunity to meet her,”Riske said.
“We had the opportunity, aswell, to go north to Delhi andtravel to Agra to see the TajMahal, which was really spe-cial and one of our favouritemoments together, for sure,”Riske added. — AFP
Our Ali wins, talks Bollywood dance and India
Alison Riske gestures afterdefeating Garbine Muguruza ofSpain at the US Open. — AFP
Four-time Olympian Gagan Narang imparts tips to trainees at the GaganNarang Sports Promotion Foundation shooting academy in this file photo.
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Gagan for coaches at every levelThere should be a Dronacharya in every system, at everylevel, the best grassroots level coach, best intermediatelevel coach, best excellence coach, best foreign coach.Because without grassroots level coaches elite can’t doanything. There has to be a system in place.
— GAGAN NARANGOlympic medallist, whose shooting academy Gagan
Narang Sports Promotion Foundation has been select-ed for the Rashtriya Khel Protsahan Puraskar award
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Rafael Nadal celebrates after defeating John Millman of Australia in their men’s singles first round match of the USOpen at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in New York on Tuesday. — AFP
New York, Aug. 28:Stefanos Tsitsipas accuseda US Open chair umpire ofhaving a bias against himduring a tirade in which hetold the official, “You’re allweirdos!”
Tsitsipas told DamienDumusois that thecause of his bias was“because you’reFrench probably andyou’re all weirdos!”
The argumentcame midway through
the fourth set ofTsitsipas’ 4-6, 7-6 (5), 6-6 (7), 5-7 loss toAndrey Rublev.
Tsitsipas, the No.8seed from Greece,appeared to be bat-tling cramps andwas slow to returnto the court afterlosing his serve.
D u m u s o i stold Tsitsipas itwas time to play,
but Tsitsipas was stillreaching into his bag for anew headband andscreamed at Dumusois thathe still needed time tochange. Dumusoisresponded that Tsitsipaswould be penalised.
“I don’t care,” Tsitsipasreplied. He continued: “Dowhatever you want,because you’re the worst. Idon’t know what you haveagainst me. Because you’reFrench probably andyou’re all weirdos! You’reall weirdos!”
Dumusois is indeedFrench.
Tsitsipas had been angrythat Dumusois believed hewas getting coaching dur-ing the match from hisfather, Apostolos, which isnot allowed. “I don’t knowwhat this chair umpire hasin specific against myteam, but he’s been com-plaining and telling me
that my team talks all ofthe time when I’m out onthe court playing. He’svery — I don’t know,”Tsitsipas said after-wards. — AP
