Gaikwad effect: AI mulls fine up to `15 lakh on unruly passengers

MPOST BUREAU

NEW DELHI: National carrier Air India is considering imposing a pen-alty of up to Rs 15 lakh on unruly pas-sengers causing flight delays, a move coming in the aftermath of incidents involving some MPs.

The proposal comes within a month of Shiv Sena MP Ravindra Gaikwad assaulting an Air India staffer inside the aircraft upon landing here, prompt-ing the national carrier and other air-lines to ban him for two weeks from their flights.

The ban was revoked after he wrote a letter to Aviation Minister Ashok Gaj-apathi Raju, regretting the episode.

There have been several incidents in recent past of unpleasant scenes involv-ing the airline staff and their passengers, including MPs.

Now, Air India is mulling to penalise passengers who delay flights with their unruly behaviour, airline sources said.

As per a draft proposal, the fine would be Rs 5 lakh for delay up to one hour and the amount would be Rs 10

lakh in case the delay is between one to two hours, sources said. The fine would increase to Rs 15 lakh for delay of more than two hours.

Besides, the airline plans to provide necessary training to the staff for deal-

ing with unruly passengers.Since the incident involving Gai-

kwad on March 23, the national car-rier as well as the government have been exploring ways to bolster the existing mechanism to rein in unruly passengers.

Back in 2015, another MP had assaulted an Air India officer at Tiru-pati airport.

Under the new procedure proposed to be followed in such cases, the airline wants the flight staff to report such mat-ters immediately to the CMD (Chair-man and Managing Director) or other top officials and avoid any direct inter-action with the media.

Besides, an FIR or police complaint would need to be filed immediately and any property damage would need to be assessed and claimed at the earliest, sources said.

PUBLISHED FROM DELHI & KOLKATA VOL. 12, ISSUE 106 | Tuesday, 18 April 2017 | New Delhi | Pages 16 | Rs 3.00

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NO HALF TRU THS

NARENDRA MODI

Centre has decided to double farmers’ income by 2022

Delhi Police books Dinakaran for trying to

‘bribe’ EC official

Modi hints at rules for doctors to prescribe generic drugs

MPOST BUREAU

SURAT: For those wondering why doctors always prescribe the most costly version of a generic drug, there is hope.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday indicated that his government may bring in a legal framework under which doc-tors will have to prescribe generic medicines, which are cheaper than equivalent branded drugs, to patients.

Modi said his government brought in a health policy after 15 years and capped the prices of medicines and stents, which has angered some pharmaceuti-cal companies.

Speaking at the inauguration of a charitable hospital here, he exhorted the wealthy people to come forward and contribute towards health care of the needy people.

This country has not been built by the kings and leaders alone but by the power of the people, he said.

“Doctors write prescriptions in such a way that poor people do not understand the handwriting, and he has to buy that medicine from private stores at high prices,” Modi said.

“We will bring in a legal frame-work by which if a doctor writes a prescription, he has to write in it that it will be enough for patients

to buy generic medicine and he need not buy any other medicine,” he said.

“In our country doctors are less, hospitals are less and medi-cines are expensive. If one person falls ill in a middle-class family, then the financial health of the family gets wrecked. He cannot buy a house, cannot conduct the marriage of daughter,” he pointed out.

“It is the government’s respon-sibility that everybody should get health services at the minimal price,” the PM said.

“We have recently declared a

health policy. The health policy has been brought in after 15 years,” he said.

“See these companies which are manufacturing medicines, they used to charge Rs 1,200 for an injection. We called everyone (pharma companies) and ensured that the prices are reduced.

“The prices of 700 medicines were capped so that poor people get medicines at reasonable rates when they face grave diseases,” Modi said.

“We have also capped the prices of stents used in heart ail-ments,” he said.

“We have done this work, and you can imagine how angry the manufacturers of medicines will be. Despite the wrath of a very powerful lobby, the government is taking one step after another so that poor people and middle class get quality health services,” the Prime Minister said.

He said the government has implemented the ‘Pradhan Man-tri Jan Aushadhi Pariyojna’, where people get generic medicines from stores at reasonable rates.

stressed on preventive health care saying if people adopt it, they will not have to visit hospitals.

OUR CORRESPONDENT

KOLKATA: Twelve Trinamool Congress leaders including Mukul Roy and Madan Mitra have been booked by the CBI for alleged criminal conspiracy and corruption in the Narada sting case.

The Central Bureau of Inves-tigation (CBI) registered the FIR under charges of criminal conspiracy and provisions of Prevention of Corruption Act dealing with bribery and criminal mis-conduct against the TMC lead-ers including sitting MPs and West Bengal ministers besides one IPS officer, the CBI spokes-person said on Monday.

The TMC leaders booked by the CBI are Rajya Sabha MP Mukul Roy, Lok Sabha MPs Saugata Roy, Aparupa Poddar, Sultan Ahmed, Prasun Baner-jee and Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, CBI sources said.

State Urban Development Minister Firhad Hakim, Trans-port Minister Suvendu Adhikari, Environment Minister Sovan Chatterjee, Panchayat Raj and Rural Development Minister Subrata Mukherjee have also named in the FIR, they said.

Former minister Madan Mitra, MLA Iqbal Ahmed and IPS officer Saiyaad Mustafa Hus-sain Mirza have also been made accused by the CBI of the alleged crime, they added.

This investigation will be monitored by Gujarat cadre IPS officer and present Special Director Rakesh Asthana.

The Calcutta High Court had ordered the CBI to carry out a preliminary enquiry in the tapes.

The order was challenged by the West Ben-gal government in the Supreme

Court which refused to provide relief in the order on March 17 and gave the CBI one month to file an FIR, if required. The CBI was directed to undertake preliminary probe to ascertain whether those who featured in the video footage indulged in “corrupt practices” and if required to initiate an FIR.

Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday asserted that merely filing of the FIR by the CBI against TMC leaders in the Narada tape case did not mean that their guilt had been proved. Describing it as a “political game,” Banerjee, who is also the TMC chief, said, “We will fight it out politically”.

SURAT: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday broke his security protocol and stopped his convoy mid-way to meet a four-year-old girl here during his Gujarat tour.

Nancy Gondaliya rushed towards the Prime Minister’s car when thousands of people were waiting on both sides of the road to catch his glimpse on his way to Kiran Hospital from Cir-cuit House.

Seeing the little girl rushing towards the car, SPG commandos accompanying the Prime Min-ister tried to stop her.

But to the surprise of everyone, Modi promptly have his convoy stopped and asked the commandos to allow her to come to him.

Modi exchanged a few words with the little girl, who was then taken back to her father.

The entire episode was captured on camera and its footage went viral on social media.

Nancy, daughter of diamond-cutting worker Prakash Gondaliya, resides in Vedroad area of the city.

“She is a big fan of the Prime Minister and whenever he comes on television she addresses

him as ‘Modi Dada’,” Prakash said.“Today morning she insisted on meeting

Modi. So I took her to one of the streets from where Modi’s convoy was to pass. I told her if she wants to meet him she should run towards his car and waive at him,” he added.

“The Prime Minister asked her name and enquired about the big watch she was wearing. He affectionately rubbed her cheeks and sent her back to me,” Prakash added.

The girl appeared excited after meeting the PM and kept chanting `Modi Dada’.

When Modi broke security protocol to meet his big ‘little fan’

12 TMC leaders booked by CBI

We will fight it out politically says Mamata

SASIKALA’ S NEPHEW DENIES CHARGE

ED issues notice to Karti Chidambaram NEW DELHI: The Enforcement Director-ate (ED) has issued a show cause notice to Karti Chidambaram, son of senior Congress leader P Chidambaram, and a firm purport-edly linked to him for alleged violations of the FEMA laws to the tune of Rs 45 crore.

The Chennai zonal office of the agency also issued a similar notice in the case to Chennai-based Ms Vasan Health Care Private Limited for alleged forex violation of Rs 2,262 crore.

“The total amount of contravention iden-tified on different counts and found to have been committed by Ms Advantage Strategic Consulting Private Limited in the sale transac-tion of shares of Vasan Health Care to overseas investors is around Rs 45 crore.

“A show cause notice has been issued to Ms Advantage Strategic Consulting Private Lim-ited, its directors and also to Karti P Chidam-baram who appears to be the controller and

ultimate beneficiary in these transactions,” the ED said in a statement.

The total amount of contravention iden-tified by the ED, under the provisions of the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA), by Vasan Healthcare and its overseas investors on different counts in the investments received

from overseas investors is Rs 2,262 crore, the central probe agency said.

“A show cause notice has been issued to Ms Vasan Health Care Private Limited, its promoter Director Arun, his wife, Dwara-kanathan (the director’s father-in-law) and also to the overseas investors for the alleged contraventions,” the ED said. A show cause notice under FEMA is issued after the inves-tigation concludes and the person or entity found guilty of the contravention after the due adjudication process of the case can be fined up to 300 per cent of the amount contravened.

The ED probe in this case that went on for over two years, pertains to foreign investments received by Vasan Health Care from the “funds of Sequoia and WestBridge, based at Mauritius and also through investment arms of MS GIC, Singapore” and subsequent alleged irregulari-ties in the issuance of shares. MPOST

FEMA CASE: NOTICE ALSO SERVED ON CHENNAI FIRM LINKED TO HIM

Plastic bullets to be used for crowd control in KashmirMPOST BUREAU

NEW DELHI: Non-penetrative plastic bul-lets are likely to be used in Jammu and Kash-mir for crowd control or stone-pelting mobs to reduce collateral damage during counter-insurgency operations.

However, the pellet guns will continue to be used as the last resort in the non-lethal category.

Thousands of plastic bullets were pro-duced and sent to the Kashmir Valley for use by the law enforcement agencies, official sources said.

The plastic bullets are non-penetrative and can be fired from INSAS rifles, the sources said.

Security forces often face violent protests and stone pelting mobs, especially during stiff resistance from the locals, when they are engaged in gunfight with militants, who at times manage to escape with the help of the crowd. So far, security forces are using PAVA shells and pellet guns, the last option in the non-lethal category before the use of assault rifles, to control the mobs.

PAVA (Pelargonic Acid Vanillyl Amide) is a chilli-based ammunition, which is less

lethal and immobilises the target temporarily.Other less-lethal weapons used include

dye marker grenade with irritant which causes sensory trouble to the target once fired. It leaves a dye mark on the troublemak-ers for easy identification.

An new entrant to the arsenal of non-lethal weapons is a grenade packed with scientifically prepared spicy jelly, which on exploding, causes irritation in the eyes.

Oloeoresin, a semi-solid extract in a solu-tion, mixed with spicy gel, could be put in the grenade casings to tackle rioting mobs, sources said.

APEX COURT ORDERS SUBROTO ROY TO APPEAR BEFORE IT ON APRIL 28

MPOST BUREAU

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday asked Bom-bay High Court’s official liq-uidator to sell the Rs 34,000 crore worth of properties of the Aamby Valley owned by the Sahara Group and directed its chief Subrata Roy to personally appear before it on April 28.

“Enough is enough. You cannot say something today and resile tomorrow,” a bench, comprising Justices Dipak Misra, Ranjan Gogoi and A K Sikri, said, taking strong note of non- submission of over Rs 5,000 crore by the Sahara group.

The bench also cautioned Roy from playing with the court’s order and said non-compliance of its order would invite the wrath of the law and ultimately he will be at his own peril. The bench asked the official liquidator, attached with the Bombay High Court, to auction the Aamby Valley properties, estimated to be worth Rs 34,000 crore, and directly report to it.

The bench also directed Roy and his group as well as SEBI to provide all necessary details relating to the properties to the official liquidator within 48 hours. Meanwhile, the top

court restrained one Prakash Swamy, who has filed an affi-davit with regard to the sale of Sahara hotels in the USA, from leaving India and asked him to deposit Rs 10 crore as fine with the market regulator SEBI.

Swamy will also have to appear in person in the apex court on April 28.

The Supreme Court had on April 6 warned the Sahara Group that if it failed to deposit Rs 5092.6 crore in SEBI-Sahara refund account by April 17 in pursuance of its order, it will be “compelled” to auction its property at the Aamby Val-ley in Pune. The top court had told the group that no exten-sion of time would be granted for depositing the amount.

The observation had come when the lawyer mentioned an interim plea seeking an exten-sion of time for depositing the money in the SEBI-Sahara refund account.

SC orders auction of Sahara’s Aamby Valley

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In today’s paper

...CITY

WOMAN RAPED BY 60-YEAR-OLD 4

NATION

LET’S UNITE AGAINST BJP: KV THOMAS 5

EDIT

THREAT TO THE ECONOMY 8

INTERNATIONAL

ACID SPRAYED INTO LONDON CROWD 10

BUSINESS

IRDAI CUTS 3RD PARTY INSURANCE RATES 12

SPORT

REAL GEAR UP FOR BAYERN RETURN LEG 15

POVERTY ALLEVIATION, HOUSE TAX CUT FEATURE ON CONG MANIFESTO PG3

CENTRE MULLING VARIOUS OPTIONS FOR JK, INCLUDING TALKS PG6

CHINA, RUSSIA DISPATCH SHIPS TO SHADOW TRUMP’S ‘ARMADA’ PG10

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI/CHENNAI: The Delhi Police on Monday booked AIADMK (Amma) leader TTV Dinakaran for allegedly trying to bribe an Election Commission official for obtaining the party sym-bol for his faction following the arrest of an alleged mid-dleman. Dinakaran, who is a nephew of AIADMK(Amma) chief VK Sasikala and party’s deputy general secretary, denied the allegation against him, calling it false.

Dinakaran further said that he did not try to bribe anybody and that he had no knowledge of the alleged middleman.

The crime branch of the Delhi police claimed Dinakaran was trying to ensure that his party was allotted the AIADMK poll symbol of two leaves for the April 12 by-election to the R K Nagar Assembly seat in Chennai that has since been cancelled over the use of money power to influence voters.

Dinakaran was the candidate of the Sasi-kala faction.

An FIR against Dinakaran was filed fol-lowing the arrest of Sukesh Chandrasekhar, an alleged middleman, from a five- star hotel in Delhi on Sunday, a senior police officer said.

“It has been learnt that Sukesh had struck a deal for Rs 50 crore for helping the AIADMK faction to keep the ‘two leaves’ symbol. Police have recovered Rs 1.30 crore from Sukesh. Two cars — a BMW and a Mercedes — have also been seized,” the officer said.

The officer further said that a Delhi Police team may visit Chennai to question Dinakaran.

NARADA STING

mp town2MILLENNIUM POST | New Delhi | Tuesday, 18 April, 2017

Published & printed by Durbar Ganguly on behalf of Front Row Media Pvt. Ltd. from Pratap Bhawan, 5 Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg, New Delhi 110 002 & printed at The Indian Express Ltd., A-8, Sector-7, Noida-201 301 (U.P.) RNI REGN. NO.: DELENG/2005/15351, REGD. NO.: DL(S)-01/3420/2015-17 Editor: Durbar Ganguly, Executive Editor: Arya Rudra. Tel. No. 011-47777500, Email: durbarganguly@gmail.com, Lucknow Office: 401, Chintels House 16, Station Road, Lucknow Ph: 0522-4013126

Although every possible care and caution has been taken to avoid errors or omissions, this publication is being sold on the condition and understanding that infromation given in this publication is merely for reference and must not be taken as having authority of or binding in any way on the writers, editors, publishers, and printers and sellers who do not owe any responsibility for any damage or loss to any person, a purchaser of this publication or not for the result of any action taken on the basis of this work. All disputes are subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of competent court and forums in Delhi/New Delhi only

DAYINDAYOUT What’s on Around Town

ATMA RATIModern individual indulges in self-explo-ration, self-reflection, self-actualization and of course selfies. A classical dance presentation ‘Atma Rati’ by Dr Dimple Kaur aims to show how the psychological view of Gita is still relevant in the mod-ern context, and the learnings from Gita need not be larger than life as por-trayed but can be inculcated in simple day to day acts.WHEN: April 18 WHERE: Stein Audito-rium, IHC TIMING: 7 pm

GOD’S SUMMITA solo show by Temsuyanger Long-kumer envisions a utopian conversation amongst the Gods and Prophets about the predicament of what humanity has done to itself. Temsuyanger highlights events from global history at some key pivotal moments where irreversible change has occurred. This seminal piece of work raises the question of what it means to have power, control, authority, wisdom, vision.WHEN: April 8 – 19 WHERE: Kamadevi Complex 40, IIC TIMING: 11 am – 7 pm

KOREAN FLOWER EXHIBITIONAn exhibition of flower arrangements and fragrances, which will be present-ed by 15 Korean artists. The exhibition will not only show case varieties of Korean flowers used for different occa-sions but will also give provide you with an environment for relaxing yourself in the lap of nature.WHEN: April 17 – 19WHERE: Korean Cultural Centre India, Lajpat Nagar 4TIMING: 9 am – 6 pm

FRAMING THE LIVING TRADITIONSA collaborative photography project under the aegis of Neel Dongre Awards/Grants for Excellence in Photography (2017) by India Photo Achieve Founda-tion, will showcase five photographers presenting different living traditions like The Art of Making Tanpura in Maha-rashtra and Muga & Eri Silk cultivation in Assam through distinctive artistic styles.WHEN: April 21 – May 2WHERE: Kamla Devi Complex, IICTIMING: 11 am – 7 pm

Drinking water may be better for young athletes than consuming sports drinks, according to scientists who warn that energy

beverages can elevate blood pressure and cause cardiac problems in children and teenagers.

Many people associate playing sports with having sports drinks as it is what they see professionals do.

However, most recreational athletes do not play at an intensity or for a duration that would require their hydration to come with extra sugar and salt.

“Sports drinks can replenish some of what you lost during exercise, but you really need to be exercising for more than 45 minutes to an hour before you would consider that,” said Matthew Silvis, from Pennsylvania State University in the US.

“Many of our kids are not doing enough to warrant it,” said Silvis.

With increasing rates of childhood obesity, having kids chug sports drinks loaded with extra sugar as they exercise is not recommended, researchers said.

“Kids and adolescents really should not be using these drinks. Water is the best method of hydration,” said Katie Gloyer from Penn State.

Young people who sip on sports drinks as

a regular drink without physical activity also run the risk of weight gain and tooth decay from the added sugar.

Then there are energy drinks, which some professional athletes use to boost performance and gain a competitive edge by providing them with caffeine and other stimulants to increase focus and prolong their attention span.

However, Gloyer does not even recommend those to the adult, professional athletes. For children and adolescents,

energy drinks can be downright dangerous.The beverages, which are not regulated,

can contain several servings of harmful products in one container and easily exceed the amount of caffeine and other stimulants that are considered to be safe.

That can elevate blood pressure and cause cardiac problems such as palpitations and arrhythmias, not to mention giving the user headaches, an upset stomach, and a general jittery or nervous feeling.

Silvis said the focus really should be on water and making sure kids are properly hydrated during exercise.“If they are playing 30- or 45-minute halves, they should have a water break and maybe add fresh orange slices or a granola bar to add a bit of sugar and/or protein at an appropriate level,” he suggested.

For post-workout recovery, plain old chocolate milk works just as well - if not better – than the fancy recovery drinks now on the market.

“Chocolate milk has the perfect combination of fat, proteins and carbohydrates that you want to get back into your system,” Silvis said. Of course, if the goal of exercise is weight loss, water still reigns king, he said. “Otherwise you can end up drinking more calories than you burned while exercising,” Silvis said. PTI

‘With increasing rates of childhood obesity, having kids chug sports drinks loaded with extra sugar as they exercise is not recommended,’ said researchers

OUR CORRESPONDENT

When a Professor decides to hang up her boots and probe hidden embers of firing and glazes and clay

constructions – it becomes more than a mere pilgrim’s journey.

Manjari Sharma’s affair with stone-ware began more than 15 years ago when exploring clay meant going beyond pots and bowls and platters – exploring clay meant an embodiment of the gestural spontaneity and visual momentum of abstraction as well as gauging degrees of expressionism along with the dra-matic Shakespearean – like acceptance of imperfections that characterizes the creation of sculptural pottery in all its manifestations.

Manjari works with a personal structural vocabulary which she pours over thrown shapes including cylinders, bowls, plates, clay slabs, and whatever forms her hand or mal-let could pierce, press, pinch or pad-dle. Pottery is not only bowls and pots and platters, pottery is a journey that enfolds and explores and experiments

with forms and glazes and textures and expression. Manjari moves a step ahead with human expressions that are full of drama and deep intensity. Her lamps with quirky lips are delightful, her bowls with human hands are truly sculptural, her jars with lids that have fingers are a statement in the power of human emotions.

“A very noticeable outcome of my journey within was a loss of fear and hence the ability to play more. In the celebration of the “human experience”, I found greater acceptability of the good with the bad or the pretty with the ugly. I realized that everything is contextual.

There are no absolute truths. In fact, I feel that perfection and beauty are fairly violent concepts they are so non-inclu-sive,” says sculptor Manjari Sharma.

Curator Uma Nair who has followed her works for 20 years says,“Manjari doesn’t merely throw pots, she builds and fashions them. Indeed, she uses a potter’s wheel on which to spin the ini-tial clay forms; but after that first rudi-mentary step the traditional method of wheel-thrown pottery is dramatically overturned.”

The show which opened on April 16, will run till April 23 at Lalit Kala Akademi, Rabindra Bhavan.

Going beyond ‘just pottery’

OUR CORRESPONDENT

ART SPICE, the luxurious art gallery at a five star deluxe hotel, The Metropolitan Hotel & Spa presented the inauguration ceremony of a beguiling group exhibition “Songs of India”.

Over some of the finest wines and hors d’oeuvres, the incandescent event at the capital was attended by high profile personalities and dignitaries from vari-ous fields including designer Anupamaa Dayal, Jatin Kochhar, artist Neeraj Gupta and Ruchi Chadha, Gudmun Dur Eiriks-son, Executive Director, Jindal Global Law School, amongst others.

“Songs of India” a group exhibition by 21 Indian artists brings to you vivid artworks of India’s heritage which is changing the face of society. As Indian art goes truly global, Indian artists have tried

to explore recent trends that delve deeply into symbols and expressions embed-

ded in local culture. The illustrious art-ists participating include Seema Kohli, Shyamal Mukherjee, P Gnana, Bhaskar Rao, Sanjay Soni, D.V.S. Krishna, K Ravi, Manu Parekh, Pramod MV, Sreekanth Kuruva, Ramesh Gorjala, Dharmendra Rathore and many more.

Speaking on the occasion, Babita Gupta, Director, Art Spice Gallery said, “We live in a diverse land, with differ-ent cultures and various ideologies. The multiplicity of existence is what makes the world distinctive and beau-tiful. Indian artists have traditionally taken inspiration from the philosophi-cal thought that the absolute cannot be created nor destroyed but it can only be felt and understood. Bringing all these elements together through a show is my main idea.”

The exhibition is on view till May 13.

21 artists inspired by local cultures

FROM PACKING summer friendly fabrics, to stocking up light snacks, there are many important things to keep in mind while planning a trip in summer, say experts.

GO EASY WITH CLOTHING: If you are planning a vacation dur-ing the hot months, go easy with what you wear. Pack more of cottons such as comfy pants, loose tops and a light pair of shoes to combat the heat outside. Don’t forget your sunglasses for eyes protection, always wear hat when stepping out in the morning and sun block your skin at any cost.

SKIP STREET FOOD: Street food is always amazing but in sum-mer, please skip the oily and fried items as it will lead to dehydration and gastro-

enteritis. Instead, try to munch on cool, watery foods like cucumber and watermelon through the day. These will help you stay hydrated too.

MEDICINES ARE IMPOR-TANT TOO: Do not forget to carry some emergency medications like anti-emetics, anti-motility drugs and a few packets of oral rehydration powder. Also you can pack some acidity relief tablets for emergency.

CARY YOUR FAVOURITE PILLOW along with you to sup-port your back if you are travelling by car, aircraft or bus.

TAKE A BREAK OFTEN. Do stop for rest room breaks, do light stretching in between so that you do not feel tired. IANS

Essential travel tips for vacation in summer

IANS PTI

PICS/ Naveen Sharma

Water best sports drink for athletes

mp city 3MILLENNIUM POST | New Delhi | Tuesday, 18 April, 2017

MUNICIPAL CORPORATION ELECTIONS

India Golf Expo on April 20-21at GurgaonOrganised by Golf Industry Association (GIA) at DLF Club 5 Gurgaon, the event will focus on unlocking Golf's business potential through Real Estate, Tourism and Retail. Over 10000 sq ft of exhibition area and exclusive deals on equipment and apparel make it a must-go destination. The expo is free for walk in visitors. Golf simulators and putting green contests will give every visitor an opportunity to experience the game first hand. Visit www.indiagolfexpo.com

From Left, Golf Expo organiser Rishi Narain, Director General IGU Arun Singh, President GIA Devang Shah and GCS&MAI Vice Chairman Mohan Subramanian

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: Delhi Congress on Monday released its first manifesto for the upcoming Municipal Corporation elec-tions, promising to set up an urban poverty alleviation department, cut down house tax, provide unemployment allowance and regularise sani-tation workers.

The party said it will come out with a separate manifesto for urban infrastructure and youth in the next two days.

Aiming to win over work-ing-class voters, the Congress also promised to provide free health and accidental insur-ance, unemployment security funds to street vendors and those living in unauthorised colonies, and other benefits to workers in the unorgan-ised sector, including domes-tic helps.

At the release of the mani-festo on Monday, Delhi Con-gress chief Ajay Maken said if voted to power in the three Municipal bodies, the party will also form a task force for

delivery of services to the poor.Maken said that corporate

houses will be encouraged to spend a share of their CSR fund on poverty alleviation. No new taxes will be imposed, rather the existing house tax rates could be lowered by uprooting “corruption” and efficient collection of other taxes, he added.

Five lakh street vendors will be identified, registered and provided with licences to save them from harassment

and exploitation. Addition-ally, all temporary sanitation workers in three MCDs will be regularised in two years, the manifesto said.

The party manifesto also talks of regularisation and development of unauthorised colonies. “Congress-ruled MCD will earmark Rs 2,000 crore development fund for unauthorised colonies and sanction layout plans of such colonies to speed up their regularisation.”

The jhuggi jhopdi (JJ) clus-ters will be developed through in-situ rehabilitation, replac-ing the shanties by housing complexes, the manifesto promises.

Maken said the party man-ifesto was a well thought-out road map for Municipal Cor-porations and it extended solutions to various issues faced by people and the civic bodies.

“We are not making hol-low promises, as BJP did (on

Sunday) in its manifesto. They ruled the Corpora-tions for 10 years and failed even to pay timely salaries to sanitation workers and teach-ers of Municipal schools. How do they plan to fulfil tall prom-ises made by them,” Maken stated.

He futher said that Con-gress is committed to make all the three Corporations self-dependent in two years after coming to power through rev-enue generation from different areas, including annual col-lections of Rs 500 crore from licence fees from vendors, Rs 1,600 crore from toll tax, utili-sation of unused land and out-door advertising.

The party has prepared separate road maps for sanita-tion, primary health and edu-cation services rendered by corporations, besides a blue print for their financial self reliance.

The roadmaps for pri-mary health and education outlined a complete over-haul of the existing systems in corporations.

Poverty alleviation, house tax cut feature on Cong manifesto

The party also promised free health and accidental insurance, unemployment security funds to street vendors and those living in unauthorised colonies

AAP govt failed to fulfil 2015 poll promises, says BJP

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: The Delhi Bharatiya Janata Party on Mon-day slammed the Aam Aadmi Party-led Delhi government for not fulfilling the promises it made during the 2015 Assem-bly elections.

“Kejriwal-led government has accepted its total failure to implement its election prom-ises as made in its 70 Point Action Plan. The failure covers the entire gamut of public ser-vices right from Jan Lok Pal to regularisation of unauthorised colonies,” the party said while referring to an RTI reply.

On Monday during a press conference, the party said that for around 4,200 buses ply-ing in Delhi, CCTV cameras had been installed only in 100

buses.While quoting the RTI

reply, the party said: “No unau-thorised colony has been regu-larized since January 2015. This was a major election promise to woo lakhs of residents of unau-thorised colonies. However, the government failed to take any concrete action.”

The saffron BJP also claimed that the Delhi govern-ment has not moved even an inch with regard to the impor-tant promise made in the field of Higher Education. Loca-tions of new colleges have not been decided and no funds earmarked for the purpose the party said.

“No new college has been set up since March 2015, in place of promises to Delhi peo-ple for the opening of 20 new

colleges,” a BJP leader stated.However, in terms of

Higher Education Guarantee Scheme for students after Class XII, the RTI reply revealed that a budget allocation of Rs 10 crore each has been made dur-ing the last two years. Loans have been sanctioned in 57 cases, amounting to Rs 1.39 crore.

“The steps taken to con-trol corruption can be seen on the internet. On filing appeal for the specific reply, few steps taken to make Delhi a corrup-tion-free state were highlighted.

“It was also mentioned that no after-study has been conducted to assess the impact by the measures taken by the government to reduce corruption,” the BJP leader said.

HC rejects plea to restrain Delhi govt from paying JethmalaniOUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court on Monday refused to entertain a petition asking it to restrain the Aam Aadmi Party-led Delhi government from paying Rs 1.22 crore to senior advocate Ram Jethma-lani, who appeared for Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in a defamation case slapped on him by Union Finance Minis-ter Arun Jaitley.

A Division Bench of acting

Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice Anu Malhotra refused to entertain the plea, saying the issue is already pending before the Lieutenant Governor.

“The LG is already seized of the matter. If the authori-ties are not taking any action against the issue raised by you, then only you can move the court,” the Bench told the peti-tioner advocate Alakh Alok Srivastava.

“There is no need of court’s interference. Don’t file unnec-

essary PILs (public interest lit-igations). Don’t waste court’s time,” the Bench remarked. Srivastava later withdrew his plea from the court.

The lawyer asked that the Delhi government be restrained from paying the fee to Jethma-lani by using public money.

The plea also sought a direc-tion to the Delhi government and LG Anil Baijal to immedi-ately withdraw the December 21, 2016 file, which approved the legal bills of Jethmalani

towards professional services rendered to Kejriwal in the def-amation case.

Jethmalani has been appearing for Kejriwal in the Rs 10 crore civil defamation suit filed by Jaitley against Kejri-wal and five other Aam Aadmi Party leaders relating to alleged irregularities in the Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA) when Jaitley headed it.

Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia had directed

the General Administration Department to clear the bills of Jethmalani. However, the Delhi government’s Law Department had said the bills could not be cleared without LG nod.

Kejriwal had earlier said that he wanted the taxpayers to foot legal fee of Jethmalani as it was not his personal case. Jethmalani had also said that he was ready to represent Kejriwal in court for free after the Delhi government sought LG Baijal’s approval for clearing the bill.

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: Aam Aadmi Party’s Delhi unit convener Dilip Pandey, in a letter written to Bharatiya Janata Party national president Amit Shah, here on Monday hit out at the three Municipal Corporation of Delhi for its alleged “corrupt” practices.

“The BJP-led MCD is a den of corruption, inefficiency and political opportunism. MCD has been involved in so many scams that even the intellectually bankrupt and corrupt Congress party would hide its face in shame,” Pandey claimed in the letter.

“The three MCDs, on an average, could not even spend 40 percent of the total allocated budget in 2013 for the developmental works they have been promising.

“The BJP-led MCD is also responsible for the ghost pensioners’ scam, which amounts to roughly Rs 2,000 crore. Even the Central Information Commission (CIC) slammed the three MCDs for spending up to Rs 244 crore per annum in pensions, of which there were no records,” the letter noted.

“Under your (Amit Shah) watch, Delhi has become a huge dustbin; narrow roads, rapid concretisation, unauthorised colonies, jhuggi jhopri (JJ) clusters, dogged sewer lines and garbage strewn everywhere,” it added.

Pandey’s letter also claimed that the MCD has become a hindrance even in the works of the AAP MLAs, as the projects sanctioned by the AAP MLAs are not completed by the MCD.

AAP leader writes to Amit Shah over

malpractices in MCD

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: The Delhi gov-ernment requested the Supreme Court on Monday to set up a five-judge Constitution bench at the earliest to decide its pleas challenging the Delhi High Court verdict that the Lieu-tenant Governor is the admin-istrative head of the national capital territory.

A Bench comprising Chief Justice J S Khehar and Justices D Y Chandrachud and S K Kaul told senior advocate Gopal Sub-ramaniam, appearing for the Delhi government, that it may consider setting up of the bench soon, “possibly” after the sum-mer vacation.

Subramaniam mentioned the matter before the bench and said that the appeals have been referred to the CJI for setting up of a larger bench to deal with various constitutional issues.

The apex court had on Feb-ruary 15 referred to a Consti-tution bench a batch of pleas filed by the AAP government against the high court verdict, which had held that Delhi is not a state and that the Lieutenant Governor (LG) is its adminis-

trative head.The top court had said that

important questions of law and the Constitution are involved in the matter and it should be adjudicated upon by a Constitu-tion Bench. However, it did not frame questions to be deliber-ated upon by the Constitution bench in the matter and had asked the Centre and the Delhi government to argue their case before the larger bench.

The Delhi government had on February 2 told the court that it has exclusive executive powers in relation to matters falling within the purview of the Legislative Assembly and neither the Centre nor the Pres-ident or the LG can encroach upon these.

The apex court had said that it was correct that the elected

government should have some powers but whether it would be as per the Delhi High Court verdict or as it was being per-ceived by the Delhi government needed to be looked into.

The city government had told the bench that the Gov-ernment of National Capital Territory of Delhi (GNCTD), except for public order, land and police, possesses exclusive powers in relation to all other entries in State and Concurrent lists of the Constitution and that neither the central government nor the President or the LG has any role or power with regard to all other matters.

“We are seeking only the special status as contemplated under Article 239AA of the Constitution. It is a narrow issue but requires interpreta-

tion. We need to see what are the limitation and amplitude of the LG’s power under the Arti-cle 239AA,” it had said.

The Constitution has given a face and identity to a govern-ment in Delhi after inclusion of Article 239AA and the execu-tive decisions taken and imple-mented by it cannot be reversed by the LG, it had contended.

The AAP government had said that the LG cannot exer-cise its power with respect to services as it does not fall under the purview of the Centre under the State list. The AAP govern-ment had said that since the law rules out the LG’s discretion on all matters that fall within the purview of the elected govern-ment, there is no occasion for him to differ or have an opin-ion on these matters.

The apex court had on December 14 observed that the Delhi government should have some powers otherwise it can-not function while hearing the appeals of the city government.

On September 9, the apex court had refused to grant an interim stay on the verdict of the Delhi High Court of August 4 last year.

‘May set up Const bench for AAP govt’s pleas after summer break’

The Delhi government requested the Apex Court to set up a Constitution Bench to decide its pleas challenging the Delhi High Court verdict that the LG is the administrative head of Delhi

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court has refused to interfere with the admission process for postgraduate medical courses in Delhi University (DU) and Guru Gobind Singh Indrapr-astha University (GGSIPU) for the academic year 2017-18.

The Court, in its April 13 order, stated that the two var-sities can go ahead with coun-selling for medical admissions.

Justice V Kameswar Rao said there was no prima facie case for not letting both the two universities conduct insti-tutional counselling for post-graduate medical seats.

However, the Court added that the varsities should not pool their seats for common counselling as they were gov-erned by two different reserva-tion policies.

While hearing a bunch of petitions demanding an interim order restraining the two universities from holding common counselling sessions for postgraduate medical seats, the court said that the admis-sion policy of the two univer-sities did not violate Article 14 of the Constitution.

It noted that the Supreme Court had already upheld institutional reservation as constitutional and also observed that brochures pro-viding for such reservation do not prima facie violate Arti-cle 14.

Won’t interfere in DU, IPU medical admissions: HC

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: A joint action committee of 11 transport unions here on Monday announced the boycott of the April 23 MCD polls in protest against toll tax, high parking and registration fees.

The Committee, formed by unions, also called for a four-day-long dharna starting from April 20 at Jantar Mantar.

Convenor of the committee, Balwant Singh Bhullar said that the unions – Delhi NCR Transport Ekta Manch, All Delhi Auto Taxi Transport Congress Union, Rajdhani Tourist Driver Union, Delhi Transport

Association and other seven transport associations will boycott the civic bodies elections.

“The three municipal corporations levy toll tax on each entry of our vehicles in the city. It also charges parking fee from us, but it does not provide parking space. Also, there should be one-time state tax imposed on the commercial vehicles. There is also no health policy for us.

“We have been raising our demands for a long time, but they are being ignored by the political parties. In view of this, 11 transport unions have decided to boycott MCD elections,” Bhullar said.

MCD elections: 11 transport unions

to boycott polls

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: Commuters in Delhi-NCR may face hardship in hiring taxis on Tuesday as the drivers of two app-based cab aggregators Ola and Uber have threatened to go off roads for a day against “low fares”.

This is the second round of strike called by the drivers. They had gone on strike in February too, which had lasted 13 days, causing inconvenience to com-muters in Delhi, Noida, Ghazi-abad, Gurgaon and Faridabad.

The strike might hit private transport service in Delhi and neighbouring cities as some groups of tourist taxi provid-

ers, autorickshaw union, as per agitating Sarvodaya Drivers’ Association, have extended their support to it.

The Association, which claims to represent around 1.25 lakh app-based taxis in the the Delhi-NCR, demands that fares be increased from existing Rs 6 per km to around 20 per km.

It also demands abolition of 25 per cent commission the drivers are charged by compa-nies. Ravi Rathore, vice-presi-dent of the Sarvodaya Drivers’ Association, said drivers will take out a protest march against the Delhi government which, he alleged, is not intervening to resolve the issue.

“The protest march will be taken out from Majnu-ka-Tila to the CM’s residence in North Delhi’s Civil Lines area. There is anger among drivers that gov-ernment is not intervening in raising their issues with Ola and Uber,” Rathore said.

He said the association has called for the one-day strike in favour of the demands and if companies and government do not pay heed, they will go on an indefinite strike.

According to the associa-tion, the app-based cab com-panies made “tall promises” to drivers– like they would earn as much as Rs 1.5 lakh every month.

Ola, Uber drivers likely to remain off road today

Sacked min campaigning for BJP candidate raises eyebrows

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: Former Aam Aadmi Party leader Sandeep Kumar, who was sacked over a sex CD row, was report-edly seen on Sunday going on door-to-door campaigns for Bharatiya Janata Party’s MCD election candidate for Narela, Savita Khatri.

On being asked why he was campaigning for the BJP candi-date, Kumar said that Khatri’s husband is his close friend, which why he was campaign-ing for her.

Reacting over the episode, sources in the BJP said the party strongly condemns “the mischief by the AAP leadership and, for us, people like Sandeep Kumar are taboo and will con-tinue to be taboo.”

“There is no place in BJP for likes of Sandeep Kumar, Sha-rad Chauhan, Somnath Bharti and Amanutullah Khan,” the source added.

Meanwhile, the Delhi BJP also challenged Arvind Kejri-wal to first expel Sandeep Kumar, Somnath Bharti, Sha-rad Chauhan and Amanutullah Khan before raising any finger towards others.

During the campaign, Kumar alleged that AAP indulges in caste-based politics.

Kumar further said: “Kejri-

wal is fooling and misleading Delhi’s people with his broom.”

Meanwhile, the BJP main-tained that it had not officially called Kumar to campaign for its candidate.

Delhi BJP spokesperson Tajinder Pal Singh Bagga on Monday tweeted: “BJP never invited him for campaign,He came along with media. BJP Office Bearers & Karyakartas sent him back from Rally venue in few Seconds.”

Delhi BJP vice-president Rajiv Babbar, during a press meet, said that the move felt like a deliberate attempt by AAP to sabotage the BJP campaign.

He also alleged that Narela’s local AAP MLA Sharad Chau-han is involved in the case of forcing an AAP volunteer’s suicide.

The ruling party is totally out of contest in the ward and BJP has a clear edge, Babbar claimed.

“It seems AAP leadership planned and planted Sandeep Kumar’s visit and media inter-action near a venue of ongo-ing meeting of 36 Biradaris in support of BJP at a Chaupal in Narela with an intent to create confusion.

“However, Sandeep Kumar did not enter meeting venue nor shared the dais, he came and just spoke to media outside the venue,” said a BJP official.

Kumar was sacked from the Delhi government cabi-net in August 2016 after a CD involving him and two women in a compromising position emerged and went viral on media channels.

NEW DELHI: A five-year-old girl was raped by a juvenile in Vijay Vihar area of Rohini on Monday.

The 17-year-old accused is absconding, said a senior police officer. The girl was lured by the accused on the pretext of buy-ing her sweets, he said.

Since the accused resides in her neighbourhood, the girl went along with him. He took her to a vacant plot where he allegedly sexually assaulted her, said the officer.

Later, the girl came back home crying and narrated her ordeal to her family who made a PCR call around 12.20 PM on Monday, he added.

The girl was in shock after the incident and could not recall details, said the officer.

“Initially, it was a blind case since we didn’t have any clues of the accused. However, we scanned the CCTV foot-age from the area in which the accused would be seen taking the girl with him,” he added.

The accused was identi-fied and his family was ques-tioned but it was found that they hadn’t seen him after the incident, said the officer. Police have launched a search for the juvenile and are questioning his friends, he added. AGENCIES

Five-year-old girl raped in Rohini

Congress leaders at the launch of its manifesto for the MCD election on Monday PIC/NAVEEN SHARMA

AAP leaders Dilip Pandey and Atishi Marlena showing the letter written to Amit Shah on Monday PIC/NAVEEN SHARMA

Sandeep Kumar said that the candidate Savita Khatri’s husband is his close friend, which why he was campaigning for her

mp city4MILLENNIUM POST | New Delhi | Tuesday, 18 April, 2017

SUICIDE OF DALIT DU STUDENT

BRIEFSCITYMINOR ALLEGES ASSAULT BY STEPFATHER FOR TWO YEARSNEW DELHI: On Monday, a 14-year-old girl has al-leged that she was sexually assaulted by her stepfa-ther for two years in South Delhi’s Vasant Kunj area, said police. According to police, the incident came to light when the minor told her relatives about the sexual assault. Later, her relatives approached a local NGO. Following this, the NGO brought her case to the police after which the complaint was registered at a local police station. So far, no FIR has been registered. “We have received the girl’s complaint. So far no FIR has been lodged in this matter and we will soon take action in this matter,” said a senior police official.

ENGG STUDENT FOUND DEAD INSIDE NOIDA PGNOIDA: A first year engineering student allegedly committed suicide on Monday, said police. The girl was studying at Rajasthan's Vanshthali University and was here for an internship. “She was staying at a PG in Sector 20 with three other girls”, said cop sources. On Sunday night, her roommates had gone out and when after returning, they returned found the girl hanging from the ceiling fan of her room. Following this, the deceased’s roommates informed the landlord who then called up the police.

ENGG STUDENT FOUND DEAD INSIDE NOIDA PGNOIDA: A first year engineering student allegedly committed suicide on Monday, said police. The girl was studying at Rajasthan's Vanshthali University and was here for an internship. “She was staying at a PG in Sector 20 with three other girls”, said cop sources.

Woman forcefully confined, raped by 60-year-old

DU sports quota: Changes proposed at undergraduate level

Protestors demand effective support mechanism for distressed students

DCW raps MCD over poor street

lighting in South Delhi

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: The University of Delhi on Monday proposed some changes for the undergraduate admissions based on the category under sports quota.

The changes suggest that the varsity would scrap the qualifying fitness test and that the centralised sports trials will continue.

Also, there will be a discipline-specific fitness test of 10 per cent weightage.

The weightage of the sports trials in the final selection has also been increased.

These proposals for the academic session 2017-18 are yet to be cleared by the standing committee but are likely to be adopted in the final guidelines.

Earlier, the aspirants had to appear for three fitness tests, of which an aspirant had to clear two before appearing for the sports trials.

“Candidates will directly come for the sports trials. There will be a fitness test specific to that sport with 10 per cent weightage,” said a member of the sports committee.

He further added, “Candidates will be selected based on their performance at the trials and the certificates.”

Another change that is being proposed is an increase in the weightage for the trials.

The trials and certificates carried 50 per cent weightage each.

Now, 60 percent will be marked for the trials and 40 percent for the certificates.

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: Continuing their pro-test against inaction over the suicide of a female Dalit student, students of Delhi University on Monday alleged that due to the lack of functional legally mandated institutional support mecha-nism, women students are being forced to take the extreme step.

The students said that the lack of a support mechanism for students – who are undergoing distress, prejudice or pressure from peers or other people in the University – has been brought to light from the police inaction over the victim’s suicide, who was a stu-dent of the varsity’s School of Open Learning (SOL).

Personnel at Model Town police station in North West Delhi report-edly extended no help to her when she approached them with her complaint.

“Would this have happened if there was a functioning ICC (internal com-

plaints committee) for SOL students, if the woman student knew that she was not alone in her fight, that the univer-sity would support her in filing a com-plaint with the police,” students said.

According to the students, the vic-tim – who died on April 8 – had clearly stated in her suicide note that the police were equally responsible for her death.

Highlighting the issue, students further alleged that the police had refused to acknowledge the nature of

the caste-based gender violence the victim faced, as her brother informed the students that when the girl first approached police to file a criminal complaint against her former boy-friend, the police suggested that she go for a samjhota (settlement) instead.

The varsity’s students took a stand against the issue of caste and gender-based violence faced by the women students and also brought to light the incident of a Hindi honours student of Laxmi Bai College who was brutally murdered by her boyfriend and his family last year.

Meanwhile, the protesting students demanded immediate action against the police personnel who refused to file an FIR. They further demanded formation of a committee against sex-ual harassment in SOL and estab-lishment and publicity of an effective Equal Opportunity Cells in SOL and all DU colleges to address instances of caste-based harassment and violence.

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: In a notice to South Delhi MCD, the Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) has asked the reasons for the absence of street lights or LED lights at the dark spot area in South Delhi. The com-plaint regarding the absence of the street lights was made by Delhi Vidhansabha.

The Commission stated that despite getting MLA funds, the street lights are yet to be installed. Earlier on March 31, a similar notice was sent but in absence of a response from South MCD, a fresh notice had to be issued.

The notice highlighted that due to no street lights, several stretches of unlit and poor-lit roads, streets and other pub-lic spaced have been rendered dark and are highly prone to crime.

“MLA fund was released for putting up LED street lights in the South Delhi municipal area but despite that no street lights have been installed till date,” the Commission stated.

Taking cognizance of the complaint, the Commission has issued a notice to South MCD seeking information on the number of street lights or LED lights that have been installed by the South Delhi MCD since 1991 using the MLA Fund.

The notice further seeks information whether or not if lights were being installed with the MLA Fund.

Also, the notice inquired about the reasons behind the stopped work of installation of street lights.

The Commission had asked for a reply latest by April 7 but the MCD South has failed to send one. The Commission in the second notice has sought the information within three days of the issue of notice.

ANAND MOHAN J

NEW DELHI: In a shocking case, a 21-year-old mentally unstable woman was forcefully confined and raped inside a cycle repair shop in New Sanjay Amar Colony area near Farsh Bazar on Sunday.

The accused, 60-year-old Prem, used to run the repair shop and had allegedly lured the woman when he found her sitting alone in her house.

Prem was later caught in an objectionable position with the woman, after her relatives and neighbours barged into the shop after breaking open the main gate.

The incident took place on Sunday morning around 11.20 am, when the woman was alone in her house located in the same area. Her father, who works at a local vegetable market, and mother, who works as a house maid, had both left for work.

The victim was suffering from a mental illness and was seeking treatment at a hospital in East Delhi.

Prem, who was passing by her house, noticed that the woman was all alone in the house. He approached her and told her that she should not be left alone inside the house and asked her to accompany him to his repair shop till her parents returned.

When the victim reached the shop, Prem forcefully confined her and raped her. When she tried to raise an alarm, he threatened her with dire consequences and managed to silence her.

In the meantime, her brother had reached the house and found her missing. After enquiring her whereabouts, the neighbours informed him that they had spotted his sister

with Prem.Soon, the neighbours and

the woman’s relatives barged into the repair shop and found Prem in an objectionable position.

The infuriated people went on to thrash Prem and handed him over to the police.

“They tried to break open the door after repeated pleas to open the door went unheard. Sensing that something was amiss, they barged into the shop and found Prem with the woman. The residents were angry and they thrashed him

for a few minutes, before one of them made a PCR call and informed the police, “said a senior police official.

A police team was later deputed to the spot and the accused was arrested. Later, the woman was taken to a local hospital where it was confirmed that she was raped.

“The accused has been produced in a local court and the woman is currently being counselled,” said Deputy Commissioner of Police (Shahdra) Nupur Prasad.

The accused, 60-year-old Prem, used to run the repair shop and had allegedly lured the woman when he found her sitting alone in her house

Noida double murder case accused is dead

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NOIDA: Accused of the double murder case, Noida businessman Rajesh Jolly, who was battling for his life, finally breathed his last in Safdar-jung Hospital on Monday afternoon.

Jolly had opened fire at his partner, Ajay Khurana’s resi-dence on Tuesday night kill-ing Khurana’s wife and son. But, during the shootout, he had attacked self with a sharp weapon to avoid police custody.

Owing to this, he was admitted and was critical since Wednesday.

“The patient was referred from Kailash hospital, Noida to Safdarjung Hospital on Friday for getting advance treatment. The doctors tried their best to save his life but he died on Monday after-noon at around 1:15 pm. He suffered severe brain inju-ries and was also an asthma patient,” said a spokesperson from Safdarjung Hospital.

Jolly had sustained griev-ous injuries on himself after the attack and was admitted

to Kailash Hospital, Noida on Tuesday night.

After being shifted to Safdarjung Hospital, he was kept in intensive care unit (ICU) where the doctors put him on a ventilator.

Though Jolly’s family mem-bers did not visit him in Kai-lash hospital but came to meet him in Safdarjung Hospital.

Jolly’s condition remained unstable throughout the treatment.

He was critical with a frac-tured skull and serious brain injuries.

In Kailash hospital, Jolly was being treated by doctors from the department of neu-

rosurgery and plastic surgery. Jolly, a native of Agra

had shifted his base to Mayur Vihar Phase 1, about 18 years ago. Jolly’s business partner Ajay Khurana was also from the same neighbourhood.

Both Jolly and Khurana had started a business of prop-erty and money lending about a decade ago.

Jolly who no personal office used to work from Khurana's office in Mayur Vihar. He is survived by his mother, wife and his 12-year old son. Jolly's wife Meenu, is a teacher in a private school.

Later, Khurana’s family bought a bungalow in Noida's Sector 39 and shifted four years ago. Khurana's two sons, Amit and Ankush, helped him in the business at the Mayur Vihar office.

Meanwhile, the police have recorded Meenu Jolly's statement.

However, Amarnath Yadav, SHO, Sector 39 police sta-tion, where the case was reg-istered, has been transferred to Kanpur.

“His transfer was a routine one”, said sources.

Man held for forcing estranged wife to return

home at gunpointOUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: Infuriated over his wife’s decision to leave him and return to her family, a 27-year-old man tried to forcefully take her back to his house in Rohtak at gunpoint.

The estranged husband, Yashpal, was inebriated at the time of the incident and had threatened to open fire at his wife’s brother’s house in Outer Delhi’s Sultanpuri in the wee hours of Monday.

Soon, the residents of the locality gathered outside the house and managed to seize the gun from Yashpal.

He was then thrashed by the people and later handed over to the police.

Yashpal had come with another person, Devender, who was also arrested in the case. One country made pistol and five live cartridges have been recovered from the accused.

Yashpal had got married to Rakhi around four years ago. He used to run a canteen in an ITI on contract.

According to police, Yashpal and Rakhi used to quarrel quite often and eventually the quarrels turned into a full-fledged marital discord, following which Rakhi decided to leave her husband and return to Delhi.

“Her brother Akash told us that he was contacted by his sister, who wished to return to Delhi. Akash visited

the couple’s home in Rohtak, Haryana and managed to safely get his sister back to Delhi,” said a senior police official privy to the investigation.

However, when Yashpal found that his wife was missing he tracked her down to her brother’s house and reached there with Devender. Soon, an argument ensued between the couple and later Yashpal pulled out his pistol and threatened to fire at them.

“But soon he was overpowered and the police was called. After taking down the statements, we registered an FIR under sections 452, 506, 336 and 334 of the IPC and sections 25, 27, 54 and 59 of the Arms Act at Sultanpuri police station,” the police official said.

21 Hindu Raksha Dal activists held OUR CORRESPONDENT

GHAZIABAD: The Gha-ziabad police have arrested twenty-one people belonging to Hindu RakshaDalon Sunday for unlawfully taking out a reli-gious procession with an intent to breach the peace.

Also, a FIR has been registered.

The workers of the fringe group allegedly vandalised gov-ernment vehicles and manhan-dled the policemen after they were denied permission to take out a road show in Ghaziabad.

“A FIR has been registered against over hundred mem-bers of the group in Sahibabad Police station. The workers were intercepting with the police team while carrying out a procession of Hanuman Chhati (six days after hanu-man jayanti) without permis-sion from the administration. The road show was intended as a part of the celebration. The number of vehicles brought for the road show

included nearly 120 motorcy-cles, 40 cars, two DJ vans and a number of tractor-trolleys” said senior police officials.

On the basis of local intelli-gence inputs about the group's activities planned on Sunday, the police and district admin-istration officials also reached the spot and tried to disperse the crowd.

“We asked them to take permission from the adminis-tration before going ahead with their meeting and the rally. The group dispersed saying their members would either go to their local office in Tulsi Nik-etan or to a local bhandara.

However, they began a pro-test near their office with slo-gans. A group surrounded the Indirapuram SHO and man-

handled him and his uniform was torn. Some members also hit out at cops who were trying to pacify the mob. Soon, stone-pelting followed. I sustained an injury on my ankle from a fly-ing stone,” additional city mag-istrate, Sunil Singh

According to SP, Ghazi-abad, Salman Taj Patil, the cops soon baton-charged the crowd to control the violent situation.

“A FIR has been registered against more than 100 work-ers under IPC sections for riot-ing, attempt to murder, causing hindrance in official work and other related offences under criminal law amendment act. Police are identifying other workers who were involved in the episode and nab them” said Patil.

Now, Ghaziabad private school witnesses massive protest by parents over fee hikeRAHUL SINGH

GHAZIABAD: In yet another case of fee hike by private schools, more than 50 par-ents protested against the t on Monday morning. They have demanded a rollback of the recent fee hike in the school.The infuriated parents alleged that though they had sub-mitted several written com-plaints against the ‘loot’ by school management, there has been nothing substantial yet. The protesters raised slogans against the school and then later protested in front of DIOS office in Ghaziabad.

The parents alleged that the senior officials of District Administrations are having hand in glove with the private

school managements. “In spite of initiating action against the school managements, some officials are compelling them to remain mum”, shouted the parents. They have warned that if the administration did not take actions, they will go on indefinite hunger strike.

“There are many parents among us who were compelled by the school managements to purchase books and uniform from a particular shop. We have made several written com-plaints to the administration but no actions are taken yet”, said one such parent.

Concerned over the recur-ring protests against the fee hike, the District Magistrate of Ghaziabad District, Nidhi Kesarvani called a meeting

between the parents and the officials of school management on Tuesday.“We have called the parents and officials from school management to have a discussion over the fee hike. Both the parties will be free to present their respective con-cerns. We will take appropriate actions after listening to them,” said Nidhi Kesarvani, District Magistrate, Ghaziabad.

SCENARIO IN A SHOTFee hike in private schools

is a burning topic where trou-bled groups of parents are leading a series of protests and demonstrations against various private schools across Delhi-NCR on a daily basis. The big players such as Delhi Public

School and Amity Interna-tional School have hiked their fees beyond a reasonable rate.

On the other side, the school management seems

unmoved over both the pro-tests and the future of students. The example of such came into light when Delhi Public School in Gautam Buddh Nagar rusti-cated nearly 60 students when the parents failed to pay the stated fees. The rustications were later rolled back after their parents fulfilled their demands.

It is to be noted that the state government had con-stituted fee regulatory bod-ies at divisional level to put a check on the private school. As the directions of the body, the management of the private school cannot exceed the fee more than a fixed percentage than the previous year. But, flouting all the norms, most of the schools are increasing the fee arbitrarily.

The incident took place on Sunday morning around 11.20 am, when the woman was alone in her house located in the same area. The victim was suffering from a mental illness and was seeking treatment at a hospital in East Delhi

The estranged husband, Yashpal, was inebriated at the time of the incident and had threatened to open fire at his wife’s brother’s house in Outer Delhi’s Sultanpuri in the wee hours of Monday

Man found dead in SUV had bullet wound

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: A 37-year-old man was found dead with a bullet shot under mysterious circumstances in his SUV in New Friends colony on Monday evening.

A passerby informed the cops that a man is lying dead in a pool of blood near Holy Family hospital at around 4:30 pm.

Soon the officers from the New Friends colony rushed to the spot and cordoned the area. The black colour Mahindra SUV was parked on the deserted lane.

The deceased has been identified as Afzal, a resident of Jamia Nagar.

“We are investigating the matter. All that we know is he was in deep debt. Further investigation is on,” said DCP South East Romil Baniya.

Afzal ran a Kullad cafe (Tea stall) near Tikona Park in Jamia Nagar but the cafe was demolished recently by Delhi metro.

“We cannot confirm right now if

it's a suicide or murder. It would be clear after initial level of investigation,” added the senior cop.

The forensic team has collected the fingerprints from the car. As soon as the information spread, locals gath-ered at the spot and Afzal’s family was informed.

“I don’t know from where the pis-tol came. He was not having any but I cannot say anything right now. We have been told just now that he owned the SUV,” said Afzal's brother Gulzar.

Afzal ran a tea stall which which was demolished by Delhi metro PIC/MPOST

They demanded formation of a committee against sexual harassment and establishment and publicity of an Equal Opportunity Cell

Jolly died on Monday PIC/MPOST

Workers of the fringe group allegedly vandalised government vehicles and manhandled the policemen after they were denied permission for road show

Parents protesting outside the school on Monday PIC/MPOST

REPRESENTATIVE IMAGE

5MILLENNIUM POST | New Delhi | Tuesday, 18 April, 2017

mp nationTRIPLE TALAQ

INS CHENNAI DEDICATED TO CITY BY TAMIL NADU CHIEF MINISTERCHENNAI: Indian Navy’s indigenously designed guid-ed missile destroyer “INS Chennai” was on Monday formally dedicated to the city by Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K Palaniswami. Speaking on the occasion, the Chief Minister urged the Navy to protect the maritime interests of the state and the fishermen. The dedica-tion ceremony of the ‘P15A Guided Missile Destroyer’, which is anchored here since April 15, at the Chennai Port Trust was marked by a series of drills and events. A plaque commemorating the occasion was unveiled by Palaniswami.

EX-TN MINISTER GETS THREE-YEAR JAIL TERM IN ASSETS CASE; WIFE FREEDCHENNAI: Former Tamil Nadu Minister C Aranga-nayagam in an AIADMK government was on Monday sentenced to three years in jail by a special court in a 19-year-old corruption case. The 10th Additional Sessions Judge for Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Cases, M Gomathi Nayagam awarded imprison-ment to Aranganayagam for accumulating dispro-portionate assets to the tune of Rs 1.15 crore during 1991-96 when he was part of the then Jayalalithaa government. The judge, however, acquitted Aranga-nayagam’s wife and two sons of all the charges in the caswe.

CANADIAN DEFENCE MINISTER ARRIVES, TO EXPLORE BOOSTING RELATIONS NEW DELHI: India and Canada will explore ways to deepen bilateral defence and security cooperation during Canadian Defence Minister Harjit Singh Saj-jan’s seven- day visit here, beginning today. Sajjan will have wide-ranging talks with Defence Minister Arun Jaitley and External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on a range of bilateral issues, particularly on ramping up defence and security ties.

BRIEFSNATION

MPOST BUREAU

NEW DELHI: Veteran Con-gress leader K V Thomas on Monday made a strong call to his former party colleagues including NCP chief Sharad Pawar and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to merge their outfits with the grand old party to take on the BJP. However, in a situa-tion where they do not want to unite their parties with the Congress, he said an alliance can be formed of the non-BJP parties which can be headed by Sonia Gandhi while the Con-gress party can move forward under the leadership of Rahul Gandhi.

"All old congressman including Sharad Pawar, Mamata Banerjee and YSR Congress chief Jaganmohan Reddy should join us to fight the BJP on the national front. But the best option is to merge

their parties with the Con-gress," Thomas told reporters.

All former Congress lead-ers should come back to their old party to take on BJP's surge, he added.

"Soniaji has done a wonder-ful job during the UPA-1 and UPA-2, and most of these non-BJP parties have worked with her. Now for a national cause all the non-BJP parties which believe in democratic prin-ciples and secularism should come together under the lead-ership of Mrs Gandhi to take on the saffron party," the for-mer Union Minister said.

In the past, left parties have worked with us, Congress is still their principle opposition party in Kerala, Thomas said, adding "I feel on national front we can come together".

He said all these parties should come together not only for the elections but on the var-ious issues which dominate the

national discourse.The recent state assembly

elections have proved that the Congress is a party which can take on the BJP at the national level, Thomas said, adding that out of five states, people had voted his party to power in Punjab.

While in two states--Goa and Manipur, people voted to

bring the Congress into power but the BJP being power at the Centre used its machinery to form the governments in these two states.

Thomas, an outgoing Pub-lic Accounts Committee chief, says that he stand by his state-ment that Prime Minister can be called in front of the parlia-mentary panel.

The PAC is a mini parlia-ment, it is an institution and the Prime Minister is first among equals but he can be sum-moned before it.

Citing an old rule to defend his contention, he said, the rule that empowers the PAC to summon a Cabinet minister, including the Prime Minister, has supremacy over a contrary direction of the Speaker.

Attacking Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the issue of demonetisation, Thomas said he shocked the country with his decision.

The demonetisation was aimed to prevent the corrup-tion but the new Rs 500 and Rs 2000 currency notes are still coming to the market in bulk and the black money and cor-ruption is as rampant as earlier, he claimed.

He also criticised Modi over handling of situation in Kashmir.

MPOST BUREAU

NEW DELHI: The Centre on Monday launched a training programme for women pan-chayat leaders to skill them in governance and administration with a special emphasis on effi-cient usage of funds to achieve overall development.

Union Ministers Maneka Gandhi and Narendra Singh Tomar interacted with select women village heads from Jhakhand through video con-ferencing during the pro-gramme, urging them to take keen interest in learning about various development schemes of the government.

“In spite of 33 per cent res-ervation for women in pan-chayat bodies, the elected women representatives (EWRs) do not have appropriate knowl-edge and skill to administer the village and the show continues to be run by their husbands,” Gandhi, the Women and Child Development Minister, said.

“Apart from this, the train-ing programme will help to

raise these women to the next level of leadership,” she added.

Gandhi stressed on the need for them to learn how funds are allocated for vari-ous development programmes and how to spend it to ensure the budget released for a par-ticular panchayat is efficiently utilised and the quality of the assets ensured.

“Studies have brought the challenges faced by women panchayat representatives and the problems faced by them. The conditions and back-ground warrant a support system for women leaders to enhance their capacity, capa-bility and skill in governance and administration,” she said.

To fight BJP, Thomas asks old colleagues to merge parties

OUR CORRESPONDENT

LUCKNOW/NEW DELHI: Narendra Modi's pitch against 'triple talaq' has added fuel to the contentious debate on the Muslim divorce practice, with Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Monday saying those silent on the issue were as "guilty" as the ones practising it.

The All India Shia Per-sonal Law Board (AISPLB) asked the Uttar Pradesh gov-ernment to draft a strict law against triple talaq, similar to the one which banned the practice of sati, to prevent Muslim women from getting victimised.

The Hindu far right also reacted angrily to the All India Muslim Personal Law Board's (AIMPLB) assertion that Muslims have a consti-tutional right to follow their personal laws of which 'triple talaq' was a part, contending the Sunni outfit was respon-sible for "all problems" faced by the community.

While deprecating any out-side meddling with the Mus-lim personal law, the AIMPLB had said it would issue a code of conduct under which those pronouncing 'triple talaq' without valid reasons men-tioned under 'Sharia' (Islamic law) will face social boycott. Adityanath, known for his hardline Hindutva image, questioned the "silence" of the political class on the "burning issue" of triple talaq. Draw-ing an analogy between the silence of politicians on triple talaq and that of the nobles during the disrobing of 'Drau-padi' in the Mahabharata, he said in Lucknow, "Those in the political class that are keeping mum need to be put in the

dock along with the perpe-trators of the crime and their accomplices."

Reacting sharply, the All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) termed Adityanath's remark as "jaa-hilaanaa" (foolish).

"These days, there is a new debate in the country on a burning issue. Some people are maintaining silence on this issue. This reminds me of the scene in the Mahabharata in which Draupadi is being dis-robed and she asks a question to the gathering as to who is responsible for this incident,

this sin?" Adityanath said."No one uttered even a sin-

gle word. Only Vidur said peo-ple who have committed the crime, the accomplices and those who maintained silence on this issue are equally responsible," he said, refer-ring to the practice of triple talaq. Adityanath made these remarks at an event to mark the 91st birth anniversary of former Prime Minister Chan-dra Shekhar. Calling for an end to the Muslim practice of triple talaq the Chief Minister also advocated a uniform civil code in the country.

Adityanath fumes over practice, AIMPLB hits back

NEW DELHI: Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi on Monday said practice of triple talaq should not be allowed as women have as much right as men and cannot be treated on a lower pedestal.

Explaining the Centre's stand on the issue of triple talaq, the top law officer said there can-not be a situation in a secular country where women of one religion have same right as their spouse but women of another religion, who may be living next door, will not have the same right.

The Supreme Court is already seized of the issue of triple talaq and is scheduled to hear a batch of petitions on it from May 11 onwards.

"Women have as much right as men. Both have fundamental rights and one cannot be treated on a lower pedestal. And this consti-tutes 50 per cent of women of one religion.

"So can we have a situation where women of other religions have as much right as their spouse but women of another religion, who may be living next door or in the same house, will not have the same rights," Rohatgi said.

He said that the Centre's stand is such prac-tices are unconstitutional and they should not be allowed, adding, "The women should not be treated in this fashion. This also amounts to disrespect and that's the strategy we have taken." MPOST

Women can’t be put on lower pedestal: AG Rohatgi

Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Aditiyanath being greeted by Raja Bhaiya at a function to offer tributes to former PM Chandra Shekhar on his 91st birth anniversary at the Vidhan Sabha in Lucknow on Monday

Govt launches training programme for women

panchayat leaders

MPOST BUREAU

NEW DELHI: The Congress on Monday demanded that the EC revert to the old system of paper ballots till the time all EVMs were linked to VVPAT machines providing paper trail of votes and quoted a Supreme Court verdict in this regard.

Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi criticised Prime Minister Narendra Modi's remarks that the oppo-sition "fabricated" the issue of alleged EVM tampering and instead accused the govern-ment of not being interested in having voter verifiable paper audit trail (VVPAT) machines or giving the Election Com-mission money to buy them.

Citing the 15-page Supreme Court verdict of October 8, 2013 in the mat-ter of Subramanian Swamy versus Union of India, he also accused the government of violating the judgement.

"Today there is no answer, only stunning silence is the answer by the prime minister. There is no answer to a simple question that till such time you fulfill the Supreme Court man-

date, why don't you have paper ballot. "Otherwise, instantly give Rs 3,000 to the Election Commission and within a few months have VVPAT for each EVM. There is no answer to either of these basic points," he told reporters. Singhvi said the problem is that for some reason this government is dis-interested in having either a VVPAT or in giving money to the EC to get VVPATs.

The Congress leader read out the Supreme Court verdict that states that paper trail of votes is indispensable and it is only with the introduction of paper trail that EVM would be a confidence measure of voter and it is necessary for fullest transparency.

Revert to paper ballots till EVMs are linked to VVPATs: Congress

Issue not religious, related to social reforms, says Naqvi Rampur (UP): Union minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi on Monday described the contentious is-sue of triple talaq as "not religious, but one re-lated to comprehensive social reforms" which were the "need of the hour". "Triple talaq is not a religious issue. It's related to social reforms. Comprehensive social reforms are the need of the hour," Naqvi, the Union Minister of State for Minority Affairs, said. MPOST

Veteran Congress leader K V Thomas

Abhishek Singhvi

Maneka Gandhi

MPOST BUREAU

MUMBAI: The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) here on Monday dis-missed a petition by two firms belonging to Cyrus Mistry's family, seeking waiver of an eligibility condition for mov-ing the forum against Tata Sons.

An NCLT bench of B S V Prakash Kumar and V Nal-lasenapathy said, "The waiver is dismissed, the company petition dismissed."

The two firms had sought to challenge Mistry's ouster from Tata Sons last year and alleged that there was mis-management and oppression of minority shareholders.

They urged the NCLT to use its discretion and waive an eligibility condition for fil-ing such a petition.

The tribunal had held last month that the plea was not maintainable, because the petitioner firms did not meet one of the eligibility criteria prescribed by the Companies Act.

NCLT rejects Mistry firms' plea against

Tata Sons

TV, digital media scribes to be under Working Journalists Act MPOST BUREAU

KOCHI: The Centre has initiated steps to bring the electronic and digital media journalists too under the ambit of the Working Jour-nalists Act, Union Labour and Employment Minister Bandaru Dattatreya said here today.

If necessary, the BJP-led NDA government would amend the Working Journal-ists Act to bring the electronic

and digital media under its purview, he said.

“We are taking the ini-tiative to see that under the Working Journalists Act, all the electronic channels, including the digital media... they are also brought. If any Act is necessary, we will amend it further,” he said.

Dattatreya was in Kochi to attend the leadership con-clave of the BJP Ernakulam Lok Sabha constituency.

The minister stated this at

a press conference in reply to reporters’ questions on steps taken by the Narendra Modi government to bring the electronic media journalists too under the purview of the Act.

Dattatreya said the gov-ernment has taken steps at the Labour Ministry level to ensure stringent enforce-ment of the labour laws and implementation of Wage-board recommendations in the newspaper industry.

OUR CORRESPONDENT

BOTAD (GUJ): Exhorting farmers to adopt modern tech-nology, Prime Minister Nar-endra Modi on Monday said his government has decided to double their income by 2022 when India would celebrate 75 years of Independence.

Modi made the announce-ment while dedicating the Rs 1,500-crore phase I of link-II pipeline canal of SAUNI (Sau-rashtra Narmada Avataran Irrigation) project to the peo-ple and laying the foundation stone for Rs 1,694-crore phase II of link II of the project.

The phase II of the proj-ect envisages laying of a 74- kilometre pipeline network connecting Bhimdad dam to seven other dams in Botad and Bhavnagar districts.

The SAUNI scheme would take water from Narmada to 115 dams in the parched Sau-rashtra region.

The PM asked farmers to adopt modern farming meth-ods like drip irrigation and said his government has decided to double the farmers' income by 2022.

"Centre has decided to dou-

ble farmers' income by 2022 by improving technology, increas-ing milk production, use of solar light, honey production. Fifteen years ago people would not have thought that we can come out of drought-like situ-ation (in this region)," he said.

"We will have to make it our nature to adopt modern tech-nology. Entire government –be it the Central government or the state governments –and banks should come under your mobile phone," he said, while urging the people to download BHIM app and earn money by helping others to download it.

Being a former CM, he understood farmers' issues bet-ter, he said.

"I am the first person to become the PM after serving as a CM for a long time. And that is why I know how much farm-ers are troubled when they do not get urea or water in time. For me, it is easy to understand people's problems," he said.

"When as the Gujarart chief minister I would go to the Cen-tre for meetings and say that we spend a large part of our budget on water, many would criticise me saying you cannot win elections that way. I don't work to win elections but to serve the people of Gujarat. It is only water and not money that can make rural Gujarat progress," the Prime Minister said.

Will double farmers’ income by 2022: Modi

PM Narendra Modi addresses the gathering at the inauguration of the Link-II of SAUNI Yojana, at Botad in Gujarat on Monday

mp nation6MILLENNIUM POST | New Delhi | Tuesday, 18 April, 2017

KERALA GOVT ORDERS PROBE INTO PHOTOS OF WOMEN AT SABARIMALA THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Kerala government has ordered an inquiry into photographs circulating on social media, purportedly showing some women in the Sabarimala Lord Ayyappa Temple despite a ban on their entry. Devaswom Minister Kadakampally Surendran directed the Devaswom Vigilance to initiate a probe and find out the veracity of the photographs. There are restrictions on the entry of women between 10- 50 years of age in the hillock shrine, where the presiding deity, Lord Ayyappa is considered as a ‘na-ishtika brahmachari’ (perennial celibate) by devotees.

GFP HITS OUT AT VHP OVER BID TO IMPOSE BEEF BAN IN GOAPANAJI: Hitting out at the VHP’s claims that it will ban beef in the state, the Goa Forward Party (GFP), an al-liance partner of the ruling BJP, on Monday said those who try to create communal disharmony will be dealt with strongly. The Vishwa Hindu Parishad on Sunday said that it is capable of imposing a total ban on cow slaughter and consumption of beef in Goa in the next couple of years, without the government’s help. “I con-demn the statement of the VHP leader who has said that the organisation will force ban on beef consump-tion in Goa in next one or two years,” GFP leader Vijai Sardesai told reporters.

WHY IS POLICE COMPLAINT AUTHORITY NOT FUNCTIONAL, HC ASKS GOVTMUMBAI: The Bombay High Court on Monday or-dered the Maharashtra government to submit details of the Police Complaint Authority set up at state and district levels and asked as to why they were not yet functional. A division bench of Justice R V More gave the directions while hearing a bunch of pleas alleg-ing lack of an institutional mechanism for redressal of grievances against police officers.

ANDHRA CHIEF ENGINEER FOUND IN POSSESSION OF RS 6CR ASSETS; HELD AMARAVATI: The Andhra Pradesh Anti- Corruption Bureau (ACB) on Monday unearthed assets worth over Rs 6 crore belonging to a chief engineer. The accused, Bhumireddy Jagadishwar Reddy, currently working on deputation as chief engineer of AP Education Welfare and Infrastructure Development Corporation, has been arrested, ACB Director General R P Thakur said in a press release. The officer hails from Mahbubnagar district of Telangana.

'

BRIEFSNATION

OUR CORRESPONDENT

SRINAGAR: Students clashed with security forces in sev-eral places in Kashmir valley on Monday during protests against the alleged "highhand-edness" of security forces at a college in Pulwama in south Kashmir.

The students also boycot-ted classes. The protesting students, mostly from degree colleges across the valley and some universities, tried to take out rallies but were stopped by police, leading to clashes, police officials said. The clashes led to disruption in normal activities in various

places including Lal Chowk, the nerve centre of the city, the officials said. Various student groups had called for protests on Monday against the "bru-tality" perpetrated by forces on students of Degree College Pulwama in south Kashmir on Saturday, leaving many a stu-dents injured.

The trouble started when a group of students took out a rally near Sri Pratap (SP) Col-lege on Moulana Azad Road in the vicinity of Lal Chowk against the Pulwama incident, leading to clashes between the protesting students and the law enforcing agencies, the officials said.

BJP must clarify policy towards allies: Sena

GAUTAM LAHIRI

NEW DELHI: In a scathing criticism Public Accounts Com-mittee of the Lok Sabha has exposed serious lapses on the part of Indian Railways for not implementing Integrated Secu-rity System in the suburban rail services in various divisions of the Railways.

The system was concep-tualised after the 2006 serial bomb blasts in Mumbai subur-ban train. 2006 Mumbai train bombings were a series of seven bomb blasts that took place over a period of 11 minutes on the Suburban Railway in Mumbai. 209 passengers lost their lives and about 714 persons were

severely injured. The PAC in its report presented during the last Budget Session observed that security system has not been completed at all in most of the Zonal Railways like East-ern, Central, South Eastern and Western Railways. The com-mittee noted the major flaws in security system pertained to non-functional Door Frame Metal detectors, multiple entry

and exit points at suburban sta-tions, non-manning of Door Frame metal detectors, Non installation of CCTV Cameras.

These are the basic secu-rity requirements which should be taken care of at all Railway major stations on Suburban ser-vices especially after the horrific bomb blasts of 2006 in Mum-bai. PAC directed the Railway ministry to carry out an inter-

nal security audit of all subur-ban stations and present status report within a period of six months to the committee relat-ing to security features provided as per extant guidelines of inte-grated security system.

The most tragic thing Com-mittee has found that family members of the passengers died and injured are not getting com-pensations as declared by the Railways time to time. As on 31st July of 2016 pendency of accident and untoward incident claim stands staggering num-ber of 37699,with highest pen-dency at Lucknow and Mumbai benches of Railway claims Tri-bunal of 9359 and 6055 cases respectively.

‘Rlys has not implemented Integrated Security System’

SRINAGAR: Opposition National Conference’s work-ing president Omar Abdullah on Monday questioned the handling of students’ pro-tests by the Jammu and Kash-mir government, led by Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti. “I hope @MehboobaMufti has thought through the impli-cations of mass student pro-tests across the valley. This is a deeply worrying situation (sic),” the former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister wrote on his Twitter handle.“Why could all colleges/universi-ties not have been closed for a few days after the Pulwama clashes? Is @Meh-boobaMufti not alert to sit-uation? (sic),” he wrote in another tweet after college students across the Valley took to the streets. MPOST

Centre mulling various options for JK, including talksOUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: The Centre on Monday reviewed the security situation in Jammu and Kash-mir where various options, including initiating peace talks, to bring back normalcy in the restive Kashmir Valley were discussed.

The meeting, chaired by Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh and attended by NSA Ajit Doval besides others, took stock of the prevailing situation in the state, which saw mas-sive violence during the April 9 bypoll to Srinagar Lok Sabha seat.

The top brass was given a detailed presentation on the critical situation the Kashmir Valley is facing and the steps taken to restore normalcy there, official sources said.

During the meeting it was discussed whether peace dialogue with any separatist groups wielding influence on the protesters could be initi-ated.The Home Minister had already announced that the central government was ready for talks with anyone within the framework of the Constitution, an offer the separatists are not ready to accept.

However, the idea of dia-logue hit a dead-lock as no group could be identified in breaking the cycle of violence

that has engulfed the Val-ley since July 8 last year when poster boy of Hizbul Mujahi-deen terror group Burhan Wani was gunned down during an encounter in south Kashmir.

The meeting discussed how to deal with the series of videos which portray security forces in bad lights. Sources said authen-ticity of the videos are also a matter of serious question as many of them were posted in social media sites from Pakistan.

The security brass also dis-cussed the reports of “deep planning” in Pakistan to viti-ate the atmosphere in the Kash-mir Valley and incite insurgents to target local police personnel and their families, the sources

said.Meanwhile, the sources

added that the Home Ministry has received a report of a team of “concerned citizens” led by former External Affairs Minis-ter and senior BJP leader Yash-want Sinha on Kashmir.

The group that visited the Valley twice last year on a fact-finding mission has rec-ommended “multi-dimen-sional dialogue” that includes talks with Hurriyat should be “initiated at the earliest” and has asked the government to improve human rights situa-tion and resuscitate demo-cratic linkages between with people and allow Kashmiris to assemble and meet to hold discussions.

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: Army chief General Bipin Rawat on Mon-day reminded top army com-manders about the “strong image” of the force and called for efforts to reinforce it fur-ther, comments that came amid outrage in Kashmir over the controversial “human shield” video.

Gen Rawat was speaking at the army commanders’ con-ference, which deliberated on an array of issues including the evolving security situation, modernisation of the force and logistical difficulties for troops in conflict zones.

In his address on the open-ing day of the three-day confer-ence, Defence Minister Arun Jaitley hailed the army for tack-ling challenging situations, and said modernisation of weapons and other crtical systems for it is the government’s “top-most” priority.

He complimented the com-manders, saying “Whenever the challenges multiply or their nature changes, Indian Army has always outperformed itself ”, the Defence Ministry said in a statement.

The conference will deliber-ate in detail on the prevailing security scenario, particu-larly in Jammu and Kashmir, besides “strategic” and “action-able” issues to ensure effective combat edge over adversaries.

“He (Gen Rawat) observed that Indian Army continues to hold a strong image and a professional reputation. He exhorted all ranks to endeav-our to further strengthen the same,” the Ministry said.

The video, showing a man tied to an army vehicle pur-portedly as a shield against stone-pelters during polling in the Srinagar Lok Sabha by-elec-tion, has triggered a public out-cry prompting civil and army authorities to launch separate investigation.

The army is contemplating whether to order a Court of Inquiry into the incident.

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: In a bid to keep a tab on grants to differ-ent colleges, universities for infrastructural developments, the Human Resource Devel-opment (HRD) Ministry has come up with a robust mech-anism christened as Fund & Reform Tracker portal that will act as a one-stop information gateway for higher education plans, decisions and informa-tion on resources of states.

The portal, which is under the ambit of Rashtriya Uch-chatar Shiksha Abhiyan (RUSA), is aimed at provid-ing central funding to state higher education departments and institutions for achieving the broad objectives of access, equity and excellence.

“In the past three years Rs 2,800 crore has been granted to various colleges and uni-

versities for quality enhance-ment under the scheme and Rs 1,300 crore has been ear-marked in the budget for this year. Our government’s pri-ority is to improve quality of both primary and higher edu-cation,” HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar said while launching the portal on Monday.

The HRD Minister also

launched the solar power facil-ity in Shree Sankaracharya University of Sanskrit in Ker-ala. The launch was followed by a meeting of the HRD Min-ister with Education Ministers from 12 states, secretaries and RUSA nodal officers regarding implementation of the scheme.

According to a senior HRD official, over 2,000 state univer-sities and colleges have been supported under the scheme so far. “Given the commit-ments made by the states under RUSA on removal of ban on recruitment and filling up of vacant positions, many states have started the process of fill-ing faculty positions,” the offi-cial said.

Besides, a cluster univer-sity in Jammu and Kashmir and language laboratories in Jharkhand’s Ghatsila College were among the 17 projects launched by the minister.

Work to reinforce image of Army: Gen Rawat to top commanders Students clash with security

forces in parts of Kashmir

Javadekar launches portal to keep tab on grants to colleges

WB HIDCOE-Tender Notice No.- 01 of G.M (E)-II of 2017-2018

WB HIDCO invites online percentage rate open tender for an estimated amount Rs. 54,28,28,942/- in two bid system for Construction of Flyover/Bridge with RCC Deck and Steel Girder over RCC sub structure over pile foundation from experienced, resourceful bonafide Govt. Contactors and eligible outsiders in the manner as described in the detailed tender notice available on WB HIDCO Website www.wbhidcoltd.com on and from 14.04.2017 at 11:00 A.M. Corrigendum / Addendum, if any to this e-tender would appear only on above Website and not be published.ICA/T 786(3)2017 General Manager (Engg.)-II

IUML retains Malappuram LS seatOUR CORRESPONDENT

MALAPPURAM (Kerala): The Indian Union Muslim League on Monday retained Malappuram Lok Sabha seat with its candidate P K Kun-halikutty winning by over 1.7 lakh votes in the bypoll, defeating the ruling CPI(M)-led LDF nominee.

Kunhalikutty, who defeated his nearest rival M B Faisal (CPI-M), led in all seven assembly constituen-cies of Kondotty, Manjeri, Perinthalamanna, Mankada, Malappuram, Vengara and Vallikkunnu and won by a margin of 1,71,023 votes.

While Kunhalikutty polled 5,15,330 votes, Faisal got 3,44,307 votes and 65,675 votes went into the kitty of BJP candidate N Sreeprakash.

The bypoll had been neces-sitated following the demise of E Ahamed, a former Union Minister and leader of IUML,

a key partner in the Congress-led UDF Opposition in the state. Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said in Delhi that the LDF’s vote and voting percent-age had gone up and the bypoll outcome was not a verdict against the state government.

Marxist veteran V S Achuthanandan said Kunha-likutty’s victory margin was natural as Malappuram is a IUML stronghold.

Kunhalikutty is a member of the assembly from Veng-ara constituency and this is his maiden foray to Parliament.

The former Industries and IT minister rejected the argu-ment that his win was the result of minority polarisation.

“There was no communal polarisation and the electorate has voted for secular politics,” he said adding the verdict was a setback to the BJP govern-ment at the Centre.

Former Chief Minister Oommen Chandy said LDF’s drubbing was a vote against the CPI(m)’s ‘arrogance’ while Opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala said it was a slap in the face for the ‘anti-people’ policies of the 11-month-old LDF government.

Muslim-dominated Malap-puram is considered an IUML bastion. While there were 4,098 NOTA votes, 657 votes were declared invalid.

A total of 71.33 per cent voters had exercised their franchise in the bypoll against the 71.11 per cent recorded in the previous election here.

OUR CORRESPONDENT

MUMBAI: The Shiv Sena on Monday asked the BJP whether it needs its allies, while cau-tioning the party against losing sight of issues across the coun-try during its march to rule from Panchayat to Parliament.

“While it is good and encouraging to think of the party’s rule in every state, the BJP should clarify its policy towards 33 constituents of the NDA for which dinner was hosted (by Prime Minister Nar-endra Modi) recently.

“Parties like Sena, Akali Dal and TDP are standing strong in their respective states. There should be clarity on whether our friendship is needed (by the BJP),” the Sena said in an editorial in party mouthpiece ‘Saamana’.

It said the BJP may continue moving towards the fulfilment of its mission of ruling from Panchayat to Parliament.

“But those who speak

against them should not be termed as anti-nationals or else whatever is left of democracy will also be lost.

“Every political party has the right to expand itself but in a country as vast as India, the party in power is also responsible to give strength to the Opposition parties and to ensure that parliamentary democracy continues,” it said.

“A golden era for the BJP may have arrived but in Jammu and Kashmir, violence contin-ues unabated. Pakistan has tightened the noose around Kulbhushan Jadhav, farmers in states like Maharashtra have become ready for mass suicide, inflation has not decreased and employment rate has not increased. The Golden era for the country has not started yet,” the Sena said.

The Uddhav Thackeray-led party said it believed that the golden age can never be for any single party but should be for the entire country.

‘Don’t talk of growth, create peaceful atmosphere first’

To keep India united, celebrate its diversity: Prez

PATNA: To keep India united, people must celebrate its diver-sity, President Pranab Mukher-jee said on Monday. Terming 190 years of British rule as “dark chapter”, the President said peo-ple of the country need to fight another take home battle against communalism and all sort of prejudices.

“If today India is an emerg-ing developing economy, hav-ing highest growth among the emerging economies of the world, it is because of the toils of Indian farmers, workers in factory, farmers in field, sci-entists in the laboratory and people of India,” he said at a felicitation ceremony here to honour the freedom fighters.

The President said 190 years of British rule left a very dark chapter which is described by the students of history as the drainage of resources from India. “Therefore, as we had to fight against the colonial exploi-tation, sufferings and miseries, another take home battle also we have to fight against com-munalism, sectarianism, cultur-alism and all sorts of prejudices and obscurity. MPOST

OUR CORRESPONDENT

PATNA: In an apparent dig at the Modi government, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Monday said there will be no development in the country unless there is an atmosphere of peace and tolerance.

Addressing a function to honour freedom fighters on the occasion of centenary of Mahatma Gandhi’s ‘Cham-paran satyagraha’, he said an atmosphere of peace, love, har-mony and tolerance can only take the country to the path of progress. “Only by talking of growth and success, there won’t be any growth. For this there is a need to create right atmosphere,” he said.

The statement is seen as a veiled attack on Prime Min-ister Narendra Modi, who often talks about the country’s development.

Highlighting achievements of prohibition implemented by his government in Bihar, Kumar said an intensive cam-paign will soon start against social evils like child marriage

and dowry system. Monday’s programme was attended by Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi and RJD chief Lalu Prasad.

The Bihar Chief Minister said Home Minister Rajnath Singh could not attend the pro-gramme despite being agreed to attend the function.

“We had invited the Home Minister. He agreed to come to the event also. The inten-tion behind inviting the Home Minister was that he is one of

the senior-most ministers of the government of India and considered as the senior-most minister after Prime Minister (Narendra Modi)... But at the last moment, for whatever rea-sons he did not come,” Kumar said.

He said all people across political lines were invited to the function. “I do not have any complaint who have come and those who have not. It is not a programme organised with political feelings,” he said.

Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh

Shiv Sena chief Udhhav Thackeray

HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar

President Pranab Mukherjee with Bihar CM Nitish Kumar, RJD Chief Lalu Prasad and deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav during a felicitation function organised by the Bihar government to mark 100 years of Mahatma Gandhi’s Champaran Satyagrah in Patna on Monday

P K Kunhalikutty wins by-election by over 1.7 lakh votes

Army chief General Bipin Rawat

Student throwing stones at police amid heavy tear smoke outside SP college in the vicinity of Lal Chowk, Srinagar, on Monday

Omar questions govt’s handling of students’ stir

7MILLENNIUM POST | New Delhi | Tuesday, 18 April, 2017

mp nation

NEW DELHI: The Enforce-ment Directorate is investigat-ing various aspects of the FIPB approval given in the Aircel-Maxis deal case, including the role of former Finance Min-ister P Chidamabarm, under anti-money laundering laws, the agency said on Monday.

"Investigations under the Prevention of Money Laun-dering Act (PMLA) are going on in respect of FIPB approval given to Aircel-Maxis by the then Finance Minister (Chidamabaram).

"In the case, foreign inflow was Rs 3,500 crore (approxi-mately) whereas as per gov-ernment policy and FIPB guidelines competent author-ity was Cabinet Committee of Economic Affairs for any inflow above Rs 600 crore," the agency said in a statement.

The ED has also recently filed, in a sealed cover, before the Supreme Court a status report of its ongoing investi-gation in this money launder-ing case.

Chidambaram, in his reac-tion, had recently said that he had granted approval to the Aircel-Maxis deal "in the nor-mal course of business."

"In the Aircel-Maxis case, taking into account the face

value of the foreign investment, the FIPB (Foreign Investment Promotion Board) submitted the case to the Finance Minis-ter and sought approval.

"As FM, I granted approval in the normal course of busi-ness," he said in a statement.

Chidambaram's remarks came a day after the Supreme Court asked the CBI to file sta-tus report on the probe being carried out on various aspects of the Aircel-Maxis deal.

During a brief hearing in the apex court on April 3, BJP leader Subramanian Swamy had told a bench of Chief Jus-tice J S Khehar and Justice D Y Chandrachud that he has received a reply from the CBI stating that it was probing "all angles", including the FIPB clearance given to the deal by the then Finance Minister Chi-dambaram in 2006. AGENCIES

NEW DELHI: The National Green Tribunal on Monday asked the Centre to clarify what should be the minimum environmental flow (E-flow) in the Ganga, in a bid to ensure uninterrupted water supply in the river.

The apex environment watchdog also said that unless the excessive extraction of water and discharge of high pollutants are controlled, it would be difficult to restore Ganga to its original pristine condition.

The E-flow defines the quantity, timing and quality of water flow required to sustain freshwater and the estua-rine ecosystems, besides human livelihood.

A bench headed by NGT Chairperson Justice Swatan-ter Kumar directed the Environment Ministry, Ministry of Water Resources and the Central Pollution Control Board to provide complete information on e-flow to be maintained in the river.

It asked them to apprise the green panel about extrac-tion of groundwater in the stretch of 543 km between Haridwar and Unnao, and state whether the water being diverted into the various canals should be regulated so as to help maintenance of minimum flow of the river.

"Ministry of Environment and Forests, Ministry of Water Resources and CPCB will take a clear stand as to what should be the minimum environmental flow of river Ganga in Segment-B (Haridwar and Unnao)," the bench said. The NGT fixed the matter for hearing on April 19. MPOST

MPOST BUREAU

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday sought the personal appearance of home secretaries or authorised joint secretaries of six states, includ-ing Uttar Pradesh, next week to provide a definite roadmap to fill up the long-pending vacan-cies in the states' police forces.

The apex court expressed dismay over the huge back-log in the vacancies in police departments of the states, which also include Jharkhand, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal, and said, "we have been persuading you (states) to fill the vacancies since 2013, but you are not doing anything".

A bench comprising Chief Justice J S Khehar and Justices D Y Chandrachud and S K Kaul then referred to details and said Uttar Pradesh has 1.51 lakh vacancies, West Ben-gal has 37,325, Karnataka has 24,899, Jharkhand 26,303, Bihar 34,500 and Tamil Nadu has 19,803 posts vacant.

Initially the bench asked the counsel, representing these states, about the steps taken so far to fill up the vacancies.

On being dissatisfied with the responses, the bench decided to summon the home

secretaries or an officer not below the rank of joint secre-tary, authorised by the home secretaries, to personally appear on April 21 and assist it in dealing the issue of filling up of vacancies.

"Why this is happening," the bench asked the counsel for UP and then came down heavily on Tamil Nadu which informed it that advertise-ments have been put out for the vacancies.

"Giving advertisements is the first step. You (Tamil Nadu) have taken the first step since 2013," the bench said adding, "We endeavour to monitor the filling up of vacancies."

The bench, perusing details of vacancies, said, "we there-fore, hereby, direct the home secretaries of six states to assist this court personally or nomi-

nate an officer, not below the rank of joint secretary, and pro-vide a definite roadmap for fill-ing up of vacancies."

The apex court fixed the plea filed by Manish Kumar for monitoring by it on April 21.

Earlier, the court had directed home secretaries of all the states to file affidavits giving details of vacancies in police services at all levels.

It had said that if any of the states do not file the affidavit, it would "ensure the presence of home secretaries along with necessary records to assist the court in disposal of the matter.

The apex court was hear-ing the 2013 petition which claimed that law and order sit-uation in the country was dete-riorating due to a large number of vacancies in police services at all levels across all states.

NEW DELHI: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Monday told the Supreme Court that there was no need to keep the accused in the 2008 Malegaon blast case in judicial custody as a charge sheet has been filed in the matter.

A bench of Justices R K Agrawal and A M Sapre was told by counsel for NIA that they were not pressing any more for the custody of accused in the case. "Charge sheet has been filed in the case and argu-ment on framing of charges is going on and at the moment the agency is not pressing for police custody of the accused," the counsel said.

The bench after recording the submission adjourned the matter for further hearing.

Lt Col Shrikant Purohit and other accused Sudhakar Dhar Dwivedi, have moved apex court saying that the investi-gation has remained incom-plete with NIA failing to file charge sheet and his detention without trial is illegal. MPOST

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday directed the Chhattisgarh Government and CRPF to respond to a peti-tion seeking transfer of a plea pending in the High Court for a court-monitored probe into alleged extra-judicial killings in the state.

A bench of Justices Madan B Lokur and Deepak Gupta issued notices to the state government and the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) after it was told that the apex court is already seized of a sim-ilar matter dealing with identi-cal questions of law which has been raised.

Advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for the petitioners, told the bench that the apex court was deal-ing with the matter filed by Nandini Sundar and the issues raised in the plea before high court was similar to the one which is being adjudicated upon here.

He said that the matter pending in the high court should be transferred to the

apex court.The apex court, in July

2011, had declared as ille-gal and unconstitutional the deployment of tribal youths as special police officers or mem-bers of 'Salwa Judum' or any other force in Chhattisgarh in counter-insurgency against the Maoist.

The order had come on a petition filed by Nandini Sun-dar and others.

During the hearing today, Bhushan said the high court had refrained from going ahead with the matter pend-ing before it as the apex court is already hearing a similar matter.

The plea, filed by Suneeta Pottam, Munni Pottam and an NGO women against sex-ual violence and state repres-sion, said the matter pending in the high court "deals with several extra judicial execu-tions by police and security forces that have occurred in the state of Chhattisgarh dur-ing the course of the counter-insurgency campaign". MPOST

Vacancies in police: SC summons home secretaries of six states

NGT directs Centre to state E-flow level of Ganga

DHIRENDRA KUMAR

NEW DELHI: In a major deci-sion, the Human Resource Development Ministry has decided to appoint Jaspal Singh Sandhu as vice chairman of University Grants Commis-sion (UGC), the fund granting arm of the ministry.

“The name of Sandhu for the coveted post has been cleared after scrutinizing over 200 applications for the post. Sandhu made it to the final list among the 17 applicants, who were called for the interview by search and selection committee of the ministry,” a senior HRD official said.

The final order in this regard would be published very soon after completing some neces-sary formalities. According to the official, Sandhu ranked at top position among all the applicants during the interview which was conducted recently. The official further added that the ministry has started the process to recruit new chair-man of the UGC.

Sandhu, who is Professor in Department of Sports Med-icine & Physiotherapy, Guru Nanak Dev University, Amrit-sar, is currently holding the

post secretary in the commis-sion. He has held many aca-demic and administrative posts prior to his stint at the UGC. It goes to Sandhu credit for intro-ducing novel courses in sports sciences such as Ph.D and doc-tor of medicine in sports medi-cine, etc.

Jaspal Singh Sandhu set to be new UGC

vice-chairman

Probing FIPB approval to Aircel-Maxis and P

Chidambaram's role: ED

OUR CORRESPONDENT

JAMSHEDPUR: Controver-sial RJD leader Mohammad Shahabuddin was on Monday acquitted by a Jharkhand court in a triple murder case involv-ing a railway contractor and a Youth Congress leader 28 years ago due to lack of evidence.

Shahabuddin, currently lodged in Tihar Jail in connec-tion with a double murder case that took place in his home-town Siwan in Bihar two years ago, was produced before the court of Additional Session Judge Ajit Kumar Singh here through video- conferencing and was acquitted.

The triple murder had taken place at Jugsalai here on February 2, 1989.

An FIR had been lodged against unidentified per-sons based on the statement of Brahmeswar Pathak, who was the bodyguard of the mur-dered Pradip Mishra, the then East Singhbhum district Youth Congress president. But Sha-habuddin, who is a member of the national executive of RJD and a 4-time MP of the party from Siwan, was later made the accused in the case along with eight others in the killing of Mishra, railway contractor Anand Rao and his associate Janardhan Choubey.

OUR CORRESPONDENT

AMRITSAR: The Akal Takht on Monday announced 'tankha' (religious punish-ment) on as many as 39 poli-ticians, including those from SAD, Congress and AAP, for visiting Dera Sacha Sauda prior to Punjab Assembly polls ignoring its call for boycott of the sect.

Akal Takht head Gur-bachan Singh issued an edict to 39 representatives of various political parties holding them 'tankhaiya' (guilty of religious misconduct) asking them to perform 'sewa' (service) in the Sikh shrines.

On April 4, The top tem-poral seat of Sikhs had asked the representatives of politi-cal parties to appear before it with regard to their visit to Dera Sacha Sauda at Sirsa prior to the assembly elec-tion in Punjab to seek votes. All Sikh activists were asked to submit their clarification about the motive behind their visit to Dera Sacha Sauda sect inspite of the facts Akal Takht had announced boycott of Sect.

Singh said during the elec-tion campaign the members of political outfits had gone

to the headquarter of Gurmit Ram Rahim Singh headed sect "to seek support and blessings" which was "against the Sikh ethics and customs".

He said the head of the sect was held guilty by Akal Takht for various blasphemous acts which had hurt the sentiments of the Sikh community by and large across the globe.

Members (particularly Sikhs) of various political par-ties including Congress, SAD and AAP who were asked to appear before the Akal Takht, since being a Sikh no one could visit sect headquarter espe-cially when the community was asked by it to boycott the tainted sect, Singh said.

Members of SAD who were awarded 'tankha' from Akal Takht included Jeet Mohinder Singh Sidhu, Sikander Singh Maluka, Dilraj Singh Bhunder, Parkash Singh Bhatti, Kawaljit Singh Roji Barkandi, Par-minder Singh Dhindsa, Surjit Singh Rakhra, Nishan Singh Budlada, Mantar Singh Brar, Inder Iqbal Singh Atwal, Ranjit Singh Talwandi, Gobind Singh Longowal, Surinderpal Singh, Guljar Singh, Hardip Singh, Darsh Singh Kot Fatha and Jag-dip Singh Nakoi.

MPOST BUREAU

NEW DELHI: Many places in the country experienced scorching heat with the mer-cury crossing the 40 degrees mark while the weatherman warned of heat wave in Rajas-than, Maharashtra and some other areas.

Hot conditions prevailed in the national capital with the mercury soaring above the 40 degrees Celsius mark in some parts of the city. Safdarjung observatory, whose recording is considered the official figure for Delhi, recorded maximum temperature of 41.2 degrees Celsius, four notches above the season's average.

Palam, Lodhi Road, Ridge and Ayanagar registered maxi-mum temperatures of 43, 40.6, 41.5 and 42.6 degrees Celsius, respectively. According to the MeT office, the city is likely to reel under heatwave-like con-ditions this week.

Heatwave prevailed at most places in Rajasthan while slight rise in maximum temperatures were recorded in some areas, with Sriganganagar being the hottest for the second consec-utive day recording a high of 46.8 degrees Celsius.

Churu registered max-imum temperature of 46

degrees Celsius while Bikaner recorded a high of 45 degrees Celsius, followed by Jaisalmer 44.5 degrees Celsius, Barmer 44.3 degrees Celsius, Kota 44.2 degrees Celsius, Pilani 43.7 degrees Celsius, Jaipur 43.2 degrees Celsius, Dabok in Jod-hopur 43 degrees Celsius and Ajmer 42.1 degrees Celsius.

The MeT department has predicted heat wave at many places and warm night condi-tions at isolated places in west-ern region of Rajasthan.

The India Meteorological Department has issued a heat wave alert for Central Maha-rashtra and Marathwada region.

With the day temperatures already rising, the mercury is likely to soar further at some

places in Central Maharashtra and Marathwada since north India is witnessing severe heat wave like conditions, an IMD official said.

As per the IMD, some places Madhya Pradesh would also face heatwave-like conditions.

Scorching heat persisted in many parts of Odisha, mainly in its western region, while the mercury dropped margin-ally in the coastal belt follow-ing rains due to the impact of Cyclone Maarutha.

The mercury breached the 40 degree mark in at least 10 places in the state and Bhawanipatna in Kalah-andi district became the hot-test place in the state at 43.5 degrees Celsius.

Akal Takht penalises 39 politicians for visiting Dera Sacha Sauda during polls

Mercury rises further, heat wave warning in Maharashtra

Shahabuddin acquitted in triple

murder case

SC seeks Chhattisgarh, CRPF response on encounter killings

Malegaon Blast: No need for custody of accused, NIA to SC

Jaspal Singh Sandhu, a professor in the Department of Sports Medicine & Physiotherapy, Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar, is currently secretary in the Commission

Macaques cool themselves in a pond on a hot day in Jaipur on Monday

mp editorial

We spend hundreds of crores of rupees on a cleanliness campaign (Swachh Bharat Abhi-

yan) with celebrity politicians tak-ing the broom to sweep city streets or filmstars urging rural folk to build more toilets. Prime Minister Naren-dra Modi sweeping a Delhi street and using a shovel to clean the Ganga at Assi Ghat in Varanasi is reflective of the government’s inability, or more likely its refusal, to look at a problem in its entirety. The lack of sewerage systems across the country and the absence of robust finances for urban garbage disposal are not concerns that appear to have crossed Modi’s mind as he launched these much-advertised pro-grammes. Ditto for the big push on digital payment systems—close to a hundred crore rupees were spent on the ad blitz—when 40 per cent of the country is unbanked and Internet con-nectivity is a distant prospect for huge swathes of India.

What policymakers fail to factor in is the ecosystem in which grand projects are expected to take off. So it should not come as a surprise that Startup India, too, is faltering. An industry-tracking report reveals that the bulk of companies that hoped to capitalise on the hugely hyped up ini-tiative launched by Modi in January 2016 have failed to make the cut. It turns out that the nodal agency for this programme, the Department of Indus-trial Policy and Promotion, was forced to reject the applications of 903 of the 1,425 companies because they failed a fundamental test: of being innovative. For the companies based on inven-tive ideas Startup India offered attrac-tive tax breaks and financial benefits. They would have also got an 80 per cent write-off on the patent registration fee and been allowed to jump the crawling queues for patent registration. Or they needed to furnish patents granted to

them by the Patent Office. To qualify, companies have to show

their edge in developing and deploying new products, processes or services driven by technology and intellectual property. Start-ups with an undiffer-entiated product or service or one that is not a significant improvement over existing ones are excluded.

While some companies complained that they could not find a start-up incu-bator in their sphere of specialisation to certify them as being innovative, indus-try sources say the problem is more fundamental: a me-too mentality in which copycat ventures are proliferat-ing recklessly. From grocery supply to homes and eating out apps to fashion e-commerce, there have been too many copycats and with little to differentiate

one from the other. As a result, there have been some stunning burnouts. According to industry watchers, the ideas are usually a copy of start-ups that have done well elsewhere, usually in the developed world and little homework is done on how such ventures are likely to fare in the Indian environment.

And there’s been too much hype—from the whizz kids who come up with what they think is a cool idea and ven-ture capitalists recklessly funding them to the media which goes overboard with its reporting of start-ups before they have passed any significant eco-nomic test. As a result, hundreds of start-ups folded up because they were imitation ventures that were hard to tell apart.

But there’s some cheer, too. On the

Global Innovation Index, put together by WIPO and academic institutions, India has moved to spot 66 last year, several notches higher than the 81 in 2015. It is an index that ranks nations according to their innovation capa-bility, using a host of indicators from education facilities, R&D, and patent filings. China is placed 25th, the only middle-income country in the top 25 list. Apparently, India’s rise in rank-ing was due to its strengths in tertiary education, software exports, corporate R&D, and market sophistication. A pity the start-up brigade has not figured out how to come up with original ideas. DOWN TO EARTH

(The writer is Senior Editor, Down To Earth. Views

expressed are strictly personal.)

8MILLENNIUM POST | New Delhi | Tuesday, 18 April, 2017

As of Thursday, April 13, 2017, India’s population, based on the latest United Nations estimates, was 1,339,040,095,

only some 47 million more than China’s total population on that day. The UN estimate (Worldometers) records India’s population as 17.86 per cent of the total world population as against China’s 18.47 per cent. In 2016, India’s popula-tion grew by 1.20 per cent, compared to China’s 0.54 per cent despite the latter’s lately liberalised two-child-per-fam-ily population policy. Demographers have forecast that India may overtake China’s population as early as in 2022, that is five years from now. Currently, China ranks No.1 in the list of coun-tries (and dependencies) by population. India is No. 2.

At the time of India’s Independence in 1947, the country’s population was only around 330 million. It went up to 520 million in 1968, said a report in an External Affairs Ministry publication, that year. Indira Gandhi was India’s Prime Minister, then. The population growth rate was always politically sensi-tive, and Mrs Gandhi avoided its official reference, until her younger son, San-jay Gandhi, made it a part of his five-point programme during the national emergency period and started a vigor-ous birth-control campaign through ‘forced’ sterilisation that was said to be partly responsible for the Congress par-ty’s crushing defeat in the post-emer-gency 1977 Lok Sabha election. Ever since, every government went for ‘self-control for birth control’ policy until BJP’s newly-elected Assam Chief Min-ister Sarbananda Sonowal announced a few weeks ago a new rigorous-look-ing population control policy — first time by any state in this country — for Assam which has been witnessing a big population explosion due to high birth rate as well as constant illegal immigra-tion from bordering Bangladesh.

The population growth alone would not have been a major concern for India if it did not go apace with the growth of poverty, lack of nutrition and social security. Despite its massive middle-class population at around 300-350 mil-lion today, India is home to the world’s largest number of poor, nearing some 400 million, or more than the country’s total population at the time of Indepen-dence. India’s high GDP growth rate has created a large middle-class. However,

the actual number of its poor, famished, undernourished, underpaid, part-time employed and jobless has also been going up, instead of declining. For its geographical size, India is already the world’s most populous country. For instance, the population density in India is 452 per Sq. Km. The country’s total land area is 2,972,892 Km2, less than a third of China’s total land area of 9,390,784 Km2. The population density in China is 148 per Sq. Km.

One may say that India still has a manageable urban population rate of 32.8 per cent compared to China’s 59.1 per cent. But, India’s urban population rate is unlikely to remain at the current level as more and more rural poor, espe-cially the youth, are moving towards urban fringes looking for jobs as agri-culture is unable to feed the increas-ing number of rural population. The median age in India is 26.9 years com-pared to China’s 37.3 years although the lower median age may not always be to the advantage of a country offering fewer job opportunities in the absence of enough technically educated and skilled workforce. India’s demograph-ics are mind-boggling. The country will have 900 million people of working age by 2020. The demographic boom

shouldering a massive young popula-tion aspiring for jobs and manageable livelihood could make or break India. In dollar terms, India’s GDP ranks the ninth in the world, below many smaller countries, whereas China ranks the sec-ond, after the USA. India has a long way to go to raise its GDP, find millions of new life-supporting jobs for the youth and help its large population of debt-ridden marginal farmers by making their farming viable.

The massive population surge in the country’s both urban and rural areas, alongside the growth of the actual number of the poor, pose the biggest challenge to its social and eco-nomic development. Unfortunately, India’s steady annual GDP growth has not percolated down beyond a level. That explains why India’s ranking on the global Human Development Index (HDI) is rising so slowly. The annual edition of the Global Human Devel-opment report by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) shows through India’s slow pace prog-ress. From 2009 to 2014, the country moved only six positions up in the HDI ranking. India stands well below the average score of 0.630 for countries in the medium human development

group. At its 131st place in the 2016 Index, India stood lower than coun-tries like Namibia, Guatemala, Tajiki-stan, and even Iraq. China ranked 90th. Although it may not speak too well for China, the world’s second-largest econ-omy, but the country, with its popu-lation under control, is poised to do better in the coming years as its econ-omy is still largely industry and manu-facturing based.

Conversely, India seems to be mov-ing away from industry-cum-manufac-turing based growth that encourages and enlarges quality of employment and offers better job opportunities. The country is becoming increasingly dependent on foreign investment, trade, and services. It is fast losing con-trol over the economic growth direc-tion and dimension. India, at its current level of economic growth, is leaning heavily on the less reliable services sec-tor, import distribution, etc, offering mostly low quality, part-time employ-ment as more and more young people are entering the restricted job market. It is rather scary to think that India of 2022 and beyond is in control of neither its population nor its economic growth agenda. IPA

(The views are strictly personal.)

Threat to the economy EDITORIAL

Come 2022, India to surpass China as the most populous country

India is home to the world’s largest number of poor (more than the country’s total population at the time of Independence). The high GDP growth rate has created a large middle-class. However, the actual number of its poor, famished, undernourished, underpaid, part-time employed and jobless has also been going up

To qualify, companies have to show their edge in developing and deploying new products, processes or services driven by technology and intellectual property. Start-ups with an undifferentiated product or service or one that is not a significant improvement over existing ones are excluded

In a not so significant development on Monday, PK Kun-halikutty of the Congress-led United Democratic Front won the Malappuram Lok Sabha by-poll in Kerala. The Bharatiya Janata Party’s candidate N Sreeprakash fin-

ished at a distant third place. What was significant about this by-poll was the campaign that preceded voting. Even as most BJP-ruled states have supported tough laws against cow slaughter and given a free reign for the propagation of beef politics, N Sreeprakash promised voters good beef in his constituency if elected. Yes, the BJP’s candidate might have lost miserably, but one must contextualise it in the overrid-ing message that was articulated during the party’s recently concluded national executive in Odisha—a bid for a pan-national presence. Speaking to party workers at the BJP’s national executive, party president Amit Shah said that the hard work had just begun and that their “golden era” was still ahead of them. Shah urged his fellow party workers to expand the party’s footprint by spending more time on the ground in states like Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, West Bengal, and Tripura, which have remained as unconquered for the party. Ahead of the 2019 general elections, Shah asserted that the party should set its sights in these states, not to mention Odisha, where it seeks to dislodge the long-time incumbent, the Biju Janata Dal. The BJP president’s central message to his party was that it should aim to be in power from pan-chayat to Parliament—a complete sweep. Admittedly, win-ning every election (state or panchayat) is a near impossible task considering India’s fragmented polity. However, it is safe to suggest that the BJP has become the defining party in Indian politics today. There is no other party with such a pan-India presence, overshadowing a flailing Congress. A scrutiny of beef politics gives political observers an idea of what a pan-India BJP presence, akin to the Congress party’s influence of the Nehru era, would entail.

With its ideology based on the provisions of Hindu-tva, cow protection has become a central plank for the BJP, especially in the northern states. Proponents of Hindutva argue that the ban on cow slaughter is an issue of religious sentiment for the majority Hindu population, especially in states like Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Madhya Pradesh, and protecting the sacred animal has become a matter of state policy—a legacy of past Congress governments. But this sentiment has also become a tool to attack religious and caste minorities. Many people think it is perfectly acceptable to attack others on mere suspicion of possessing cow meat when, in many cases, it is buffalo meat or worse, it is not actu-ally illegal to possess. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had called these cow vigilante groups involved in such attacks as “anti-social” last year. After the BJP’s massive win in UP, however, these vigilante groups have once again made the news for their murderous acts with some senior BJP leaders even going to the extent of denying that such things hap-pen. Recently, the Supreme Court asked the Centre and five BJP-ruled states why cow protection groups shouldn’t be banned, based on a petition filed, which says that there has been a spike in instances of vigilantism. Contrast these cir-cumstances to what its politicians have propagated in Kerala and the Northeast, where some have even made the provi-sion of beef a campaign promise. Some might suggest that this is hypocrisy. Others, however, believe that this is not hypocrisy, and reflects a party with desires for a pan-India presence. In other words, the party is willing to embrace local cultural (culinary) norms of other states, communi-ties, and ethnicities within its approach for expansion. Beef, for instance, is kosher in Kerala, Goa, and the Northeast. Moreover, the politics that parties engage in the Northeast is vastly different from the cow belt. Unlike the communal and caste fissures in states like Madhya Pradesh and UP, politics in the Northeast is driven by competing ethnic nationalisms. Determining who is indigenous and who is an “outsider” is what drives politics in particular parts of the Northeast, for example. Nonetheless, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat claims for a national ban on cow slaugh-ter does not help the BJP’s cause. Such a proposal does put off voters from states where the BJP would like to expand its footprint. For the uninitiated, the RSS wields enormous influence on the BJP. Allied with a leadership overtly depen-dent on Amit Shah and Prime Minister Modi, the party’s bid for expansion may definitely hit a few bumps along the way.

Expanding the national footprint

AFSPA once again

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EDITOR

Indeed, most religious practices began evolving at a time when the usual lifestyle of people today was beyond imagination. Apart from being marked by various intellectually ques-tionable aspects, the thing about religion essentially is that despite apparent irrationality, it has practices that must not be questioned. Sonu Nigam exercised his right to free speech in a most immature manner when he questioned the need for speakers for the morning azan. Well, the reason is the same as it is for him as a singer to need speakers to reach out to his audience.

NANTOO BANERJEE

LATHA JISHNU

Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind

Quote martial

ALBERT EINSTEIN

A majority of start-ups in India are failing the innovation test because of their copycat mentality

Me-too ideas fail to start up India

Last July, the Supreme Court had dealt a significant blow to the legal immunity enjoyed by the Indian Army and paramilitary personnel under the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act of 1958 (AFSPA) for acts

committed in ‘Disturbed Areas’. It held that “there is no con-cept of absolute immunity from trial by a criminal court” if an officer of the security forces has committed an offence. The judgement had come following a petition filed by the Extra-Judicial Execution Victim Families Association, which com-prises of families of persons killed by security forces in alleged fake encounter in Manipur. In its petition, the Association alleged that no action was taken in hundreds of instances of fake encounters committed by security personnel in the state since the 1970s. “Every death caused by the armed forces, including in the disturbed area of Manipur should be thor-oughly enquired into if there is a complaint or allegation of abuse or misuse of power,” the judgment read. In response, the Centre filed a curative petition in the court last week, stating that the July 2016 verdict is hampering the army’s ability to respond to insurgency-related situations in regions torn by militancy, particularly the Northeast and Jammu and Kashmir. “It’s an issue of national security,” said Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi. Needless to say, AFSPA contains provisions that violate constitutionally conferred funda-mental rights. The main provisions of the Act allow security forces to shoot on sight for the maintenance of public order, arrest anybody without a warrant on “reasonable suspicion”, carry out searches without consent, and destroy any property that is likely to be used by insurgents. Members of the vari-ous security forces, primarily the army, undertake these acts with the knowledge that they will not face any legal action for operations conducted in areas under the act. It is evident that this piece of legislation falls way short of the established norms of natural justice. “If members of our armed forces are deployed and employed to kill the citizens of our coun-try on the mere allegation or suspicion that they are ‘enemy’ not only the rule of law but our democracy would be in grave danger,” the court had observed in July 2016 order. Needless to say, the court is right. It is not as if the court is not aware of the difficult circumstances prevailing in Manipur and the other parts of the Northeast affected by insurgency. What the court had found difficult to accept is the complete absence of any investigation into alleged abuses of power by the armed forces. In a democracy, where accountability is an integral facet of the rule of law, no authority should be allowed to act with such impunity.

SAMEERA SETHVia email

Representational Image

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Those menacing ‘VIP’ caval-cades with flashing red bea-cons and shrill hooters have suddenly gone off the roads

in Uttar Pradesh. Not long ago, under the former Samajwadi Party govern-ment in the state, those in power con-sidered beacons (‘lal batti’) and the siren to be their entitlements that enabled them to not only impose their power and presence but also keep everyday people at bay.

Samajwadi Party claims that its ide-ology is based on principles of equality and the objective is to create a social-ist society. Surprisingly, most of the party’s leaders, even those at the local level, can be seen moving around only in high-end SUVs. Their disdain for the common man is more visible on the roads than anywhere else. In fact, until recently, speeding SUVs with flashing beacons and blaring sirens, bearing the Samajwadi Party flag, were a familiar sight on the state’s roads. In most cases, the occupants would not be public fig-ures of any standing.

In UP, a state with a feudal mindset, beacons and sirens have always been considered as symbols of power and authority. However, it was during the previous government run by the Sama-jwadi Party that their misuse became rampant. Low-rung party workers, many of whom had dubious charac-ter, would rely on these security aids to terrorise and intimidate the common man. The beacon and the siren turned into tools that could be fitted onto vehi-cles, and then traffic rules were violated with impunity. The drivers of these cars were under the impression that they had the liberty to jump traffic signals, drive under the influence of alcohol, overtake vehicles dangerously, and threaten oth-ers on the road.

Now, here is an important point to note. The use of beacon and siren is gov-erned by Section 70 of the Motor Vehi-cles Act, 1939, Sections 109, 110, 111 of the 1988 Act, and Rules 108, 108-A, and 119 of the Central Motor Vehicles Rules, 1989. Both the Motor Vehicles Act, as well as the Central Motor Vehi-cles Rules, empowers states to regulate the usage of beacon and siren.

At the time Samajwadi Party was in power, a large number of its work-ers used these symbols of power even though they were not entitled to do so as

per the law. The police and administra-tion just looked the other way. Consid-ering that the party openly patronised hardcore criminals, the extent to which they were abused by these elements could be very well imagined.

Immediately after taking over as UP Chief Minister last month, Yogi Adity-anath ordered an end to the ‘VIP’ cul-ture in the state - meaning a crackdown on the blatant misuse of beacons and sirens. Realising that the government meant business, the tools of intimida-tion and assertion of authority were meekly taken off the vehicles overnight. While the public is now heaving a sigh of relief because of this development, for many politicians it is akin to los-ing a lifeline.

Seasoned politicians realise that bea-cons and sirens create a wall between them and the common man and in the long run can severely erode their mass support. It is because of this reason that Punjab Chief Minister Capt. Amrinder Singh has disallowed the use of the red beacon atop his official vehicle as well as the vehicles of his ministers and officials. Earlier, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had shunned the use

of red beacons, removing them from his vehicle as well as those of his ministers. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, too, does not use a beacon on her vehicle and had trimmed the state’s list of dignitaries who can use it. More recently, Prime Minister Narendra Modi travelled from his residence to the Delhi Airport, a distance of around 10 km, in regular traffic without any route restrictions to receive Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, a clear indica-tion that the ‘VIP’ culture is gradually losing acceptability in India.

In December 2013, the Supreme Court came down heavily on the mis-use of red beacons in states and asked state governments to strictly abide by the notifications issued by the Cen-tre in this regard. The Court said that though states had the power to issue notifications to enlarge the list of per-sons entitled to the use of red beacons, such notifications could not go beyond the scope of the Centre’s notifications. The Court also asked the concerned authorities to implement the prohibi-tion on hooter in letter and spirit and said the remedy to the menace was to impose an exemplary fine on violators.

Unfortunately, despite the Court’s clear directive, there has been no movement in the direction of limiting the misuse of beacon and hooter, the issue being politically sensitive.

So, why are most Indian politicians reluctant to give up their beacon and hooter? Some argue that these are secu-rity aids and facilitate smooth move-ment on roads, thereby enabling them to discharge their duties effectively. That may be true for the people holding Con-stitutional posts and a few high digni-taries, but what about the rest? A few politicians are blunt enough to assert that they have a right to use beacons and hooter as they have earned it. Surely, a person who needs a flashing light above his car and a shrill noise emitting from it to prove his worth suffer from extreme insecurity.

India is a democracy and con-trary to the belief of many politi-cians, the ultimate power rests with the people. It is high time the coun-try’s common man collectively gave the thumbs down to politicians who derive a false sense of superiority from the use of beacons and siren. (Views expressed are strictly personal.)

9mp in focusMILLENNIUM POST | New Delhi | Tuesday, 18 April, 2017

Despite the Rs. 1.16 lakh crore ($17.7 billion) spent on Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan -- the national programme for universal elementary education -- the quality of learning declined between 2009 and 2014. Less than one in five elementary school teachers are trained

Seasoned politicians realise that beacons and sirens create a wall between them and the common man, and in the long run can severely erode their mass support. It is for this reason that Chief Ministers of Punjab, Delhi, and West Bengal disallowed the use of the red beacon atop their official vehicle

Public-school education crisisIn 5 years, private schools gain 17 million students, and govt schools lose 13 million

Thumbs down to ‘lal batti’

DEVANIK SAHA Between 2010-11 and 2015-16, stu-

dent enrollment in government schools across 20 states fell by 13 million, while private schools

acquired 17.5 million new students, accord-ing to a new study that offers insights into India’s public-school education crisis.

Average enrollment in government schools -- where teachers are paid, on aver-age, salaries that are four times those in China -- declined from 122 to 108 students per school over five years, while it rose from 202 to 208 in private schools, according to a research paper by Geeta Gandhi Kingdon, professor of education and international development at the Institute of Education, London.

Yet, 65 per cent of all school-going chil-dren in the 20 states, about 113 million, continue to get their education from govern-ment schools, according to District Infor-mation System for Education (DISE) and Ministry of Education data.

Why are students opting out of govern-ment schools, which educate the poorest and most vulnerable students until the age of 14 for free, and migrating to fee-charging private institutions in such large numbers?

The study, which uses DISE data, traced this student migration to the belief among parents that private schools offer better value for money and better teaching. Multiple evaluations after controlling for students’ home backgrounds indicate that “children’s learning levels in private schools are no worse than, and in many studies better than, those in government schools”, said Gandhi.

Despite the Rs. 1.16 lakh crore ($17.7 bil-lion) spent on Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) -- the national programme for universal ele-mentary education -- the quality of learning declined between 2009 and 2014.

Less than one in five elementary school teachers are trained. In Delhi, the capital city and its richest state, by per capita income, half of all government-school teachers are hired on temporary contracts. They are likely to be less motivated and accountable than teachers with full-time jobs.

The preference for private school edu-cation and the differences in learning out-comes of private and government schools vary between states. For instance, in 2015-16, in Uttar Pradesh, over 50 per cent of children studied in private schools, while in Bihar, less than four per cent of children attended private schools, according to DISE data.

In 2016, in Kerala, the proportion of chil-dren (aged 11-14) enrolled in government schools increased from 40.6 per cent in 2014 to 49.9 per cent. In Gujarat too, it increased, from 79.2 per cent in 2014 to 86 per cent, according to the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) 2016 data. ASER is a learn-ing assessment of children in rural India.

In Punjab, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, and Karnataka, government

schools outperformed private schools in reading skills in local languages, once house-hold and parental characteristics were con-trolled for, according to a state-wise analysis in ASER 2014.

In Kerala and Tamil Nadu, where gov-ernment schools were better than private schools to start with, learning outcomes improved between 2011 and 2014, once other factors were accounted for.

States with better-functioning govern-ment schools have more elite -- that is, more expensive -- private schools because there is no market here for the “low-fee” budget pri-vate schools that have been sprouting across the country, Gandhi’s study said.

This explains why in poorer states, such as Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Orissa, about 70 per cent to 85 per cent of children studying in private unaided schools pay less than Rs 500 per month as school fees. Up to 80 per cent of private schools are “low” fee schools when benchmarked against per capita and daily wagers’ incomes, the data show.

In 2016, for the first time in 10 years, private-school enrollment did not increase in rural areas -- it fell from 30.8 per cent in 2014 to 30.5 per cent in 2016, accord-

ing to the ASER 2016 report. But this has not stemmed the growth of private schools nationwide.

Between 2010-11 and 2015-16, the num-ber of private schools grew 35 per cent, while the number of government schools grew one per cent. Section 6 of the Right to Education Act 2009 legally obligates states to create more government schools.

The migration out of government schools has left many unviable, with high per-pupil expenditure, and low value-for-money from public education expenditure. About 24,000 government schools across Rajasthan, Maharashtra, and Chhattisgarh have closed down, according to the study.

India’s government teachers earn more than not just their counterparts in private schools but also those in other countries, Gandhi’s analysis shows.

Despite being paid at least four times the salaries of teachers in China (in terms of multiples of their respective per capita incomes), the performance of Indian teach-ers judged in terms of their students’ learn-ing levels, has been poor in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) test in 2009, with India ranking 73rd and China ranking 2nd, among 74 countries.

Up to 80 per cent of India’s public expen-diture on education is spent on teachers -- salaries, training, and learning material, according to a six-state report. Teacher sala-ries in of teachers in Uttar Pradesh are four to five times India’s per capita gross domes-tic product (GDP) and more than 15 times the state’s, according to a 2013 analysis by Amartya Sen and Jean Dreze. This is much higher than the salaries paid to teachers in OECD countries and India’s neighbours.

“This suggests the need to link future teacher wage increases to the degree of teachers’ acceptance of greater accountabil-ity, rather than across-the-board increases irrespective of performance or accountabil-ity,” said Gandhi.

The private education sector offers sala-ries based on market factors of demand and supply, said Gandhi, and given that there is a 10.5 per cent graduate unemployment rate in India, jobless graduates are willing to set-tle for low salaries in private schools.

A common suggestion is increasing India’s spending on education. In 2015-16, Central government spending on school and higher education was less than other BRICS countries -- India spent three per cent of its GDP on education, compared to Russia (3.8

per cent), China (4.2 per cent), Brazil (5.2 per cent), and South Africa (6.9 per cent).

However, increased government spend-ing on education is not enough to improve educational outcomes. Between 2006 and 2013, public expenditure on school edu-cation rose from 2.2 per cent to 2.68 per cent of GDP. The education policy must be thoroughly revised to put in place better accountability and monitoring mechanisms to exploit the gains of increase in fiscal out-lays on education.

Public-private partnership (PPP) model may be the solution, Gandhi argued, com-bining the best of both worlds-public sector funding and private resources for education.

Before choosing any particular form of educational PPP, India must study these dif-ferent designs and their relevance/applica-bility/adaptability, and must also pilot test the chosen models before scaling up any novel intervention, Gandhi suggested in her paper. IANS

(In an arrangement with IndiaSpend.org, a data-driven, non-profit, public

interest journalism platform. Devanik Saha is with the Institute of Development

Studies, University of Sussex. The views expressed are those of IndiaSpend.)

VIP culture is gradually losing acceptability in India, writes Debdeep Chakraborty

If govt doesn't provide funds to EC, for paper trail EVMs which are mandated by SC, it will strengthen suspicion it wants to rig elections

PRASHANT BHUSHAN@pbhushan1

MCD reality check: schools filthy, missing teachers, unusable toilets. What does @BJP4Delhi chief @ManojTiwariMP have to say about this?

ATISHI MARLENA@AtishiMarlena

tweetRETWEET

Govt announces sale/reissue of Govt of India Floating Rate Bonds 2024, 6.79% Govt Stock 2029, 6.57% Govt Stock 2033 & 6.62% Govt Stock 2051

MINISTRY OF FINANCE@FinMinIndia

I hope @MehboobaMufti has thought through the implications of mass student protests across the valley. This is a deeply worrying situ-ation.

OMAR ABDULLAH@abdullah_omar

Representational Image

Representational Image

WORLD BRIEFSBLAST, FIRINGS CLAIM 8 LIVES IN PAKISTANISLAMABAD: At least eight people were killed and five others injured in three separate incidents of bomb explosions and firing in Pakistan on Monday, local Urdu media reported. Dawn News said a four-year-old boy was killed while his two playmates were injured when a bomb exploded near them in Quetta in southwest Balochistan province. Police said the kids were playing outside their home when the incident happened.

13 KILLED IN BUS ACCIDENT IN CHINA BEIJING: At least 13 people were killed and six others injured on Monday when a bus fell into a river from a bridge in southwest China’s Guizhou Province, officials said. The accident took place in Kaiyang, an outer county of the provincial capital Guiyang, the county government said in a statement. The 19-seater bus, en route from Kaiyang to Weng’an county in Bouyei-Miao Autonomous Prefecture of Qiannan, veered off a bridge and fell into the river, state-run Xinhua news agency reported. At least 13 people were killed and six others injured in the accident and a probe has been launched into the accident.

CLASHES ERUPT BETWEEN TRIBES AND IS MILITANTS IN SINAIEL-ARISH: Egyptian security officials say three people have been injured in clashes between militants and local tribes in the Sinai peninsula. The officials told The Associated Press today that militants from the Islamic State group launched RPG attacks on Sunday in response to the kidnapping of three of its members by local tribes. According to tribal sources, the unrest started when militants shot at a truck smuggling ciga-rettes into the area, where they impose a strict version of Islamic law that prohibits the sale of tobacco. The area around the city of Rafah is at the heart of an ongoing battle between militants and security forces.

LANKA RELOCATES HUNDREDS OF FAMILIES POST COLLAPSE, TOLL 30COLOMBO: Sri Lanka on Monday relocated hundreds of families to temporary shelters after a mountain of garbage collapsed on dozens of homes near the capital two days ago, as the death toll in the tragedy climbed to 30. Seven children were among 30 people killed in the collapse of the garbage dump in Mee-totamulla area in Kolonnawa near Colombo, Daily Mirror quoted officials as saying.

mp world10US AIRCRAFT CARRIER GROUP HEADS TO NORTH KOREAN WATERS

China, Russia dispatch ships to shadow Trump’s ‘armada’

BEIJING: China and Rus-sia have dispatched spy ves-sels to shadow a US aircraft carrier group heading to North Korean waters, Japa-nese media said, amid rising tensions over Pyongyang’s nuclear ambitions.

Beijing sought Russian help in averting a crisis over North Korea last week, as concerns grow in China that Donald Trump is seeking to confront North Korea over its weapon’s program.

The US president sent a navy group led by the aircraft carrier Carl Vinson into the region, in what is being seen as a signal to Pyongyang.

The Yomiuri Shimbun, cit-ing “multiple sources of the Japanese government”, said China and Russia had “dis-patched intelligence-gather-ing vessels from their navies to chase the USS Carl Vinson”.

The ships are “strengthen-ing warning and surveillance activities in the waters and air-space around the area,” Japan’s largest daily newspaper said, according to its English lan-guage sister publication, The Japan News.

It comes amid reports that tour companies in China have stopped arranging tour groups to North Korea, which had pre-viously been a popular destina-tion for Chinese tourists.

Media outlet thepaper.cn said several agencies had ceased organising package tours, including travel website Lumama and Ctrip – China’s

biggest tour agency – which stopped group trips to North Korea at the end of 2016. Ctrip told the Shanghai-based web-site that it did not know when it would resume trips to North Korea. However, travel agencies told thepaper.cn that there had not been a notice from authori-ties forcing them to cancel trips to the reclusive state. China

said on Wednesday that it was willing to work with “all par-ties” to achieve denuclearisa-tion and stability on the Korean Peninsula, hours after US Vice- President Mike Pence warned North Korea against pursuing its nuclear ambitions.

“We are willing to work with all parties concerned to achieve denuclearisation and

safeguard peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula,” Lu Kang told a daily press brief-ing while responding to Pence’s comments in Seoul.

Lu said the situation in the Korean Peninsula was highly sensitive, complicated and high risk and all sides should avoid taking provocative actions that add fuel to fire. Asked about US National Security Adviser H R McMaster’s comments that North Korea should stop desta-bilising behaviour and stop developing nuclear weapons, Lu said “We have taken note of the remarks.” He said seek-ing a peaceful solution to the Korean Peninsula issue was a right step and meets interests of all related parties. Dialogue and consultation is the only way to resolve the Korean Peninsula issue, Lu said, reaffirming Chi-na’s stance. China has put for-ward a “dual-track approach” and a “suspension for suspen-sion” proposal to ease tensions on the peninsula.

Pence visited the tense zone dividing North and South Korea and warned Pyong-yang that “the era of strategic patience is over.” AGENCIES

International monitors deliver scathing verdict on Turkish referendum

ANKARA: International elec-tion monitors have delivered a scathing verdict on the con-duct of Turkey’s controversial referendum to grant expansive new powers to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Representatives from a coalition of international bod-ies said the referendum took place on an “unlevel playing field” with the “yes” campaign dominating media coverage. Voters were not provided with adequate information, opposi-tion voices were muzzled and the rules were changed at the last minute, they said.

“The legal framework remained inadequate for the holding of a genuinely demo-cratic referendum,” the moni-tors’ initial report stated.

The monitors — a partner-ship of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and the Council for Europe — will deliver their final report in eight weeks.

Opposition groups have vowed to challenge the out-come, as results indicated the narrowest of victories for the “yes” campaign.

Despite a state of emer-gency and a widespread crack-down on dissent, Erdogan succeeded in persuading only 51.4% of voters to back his con-stitutional upheaval.

The three biggest cities in Turkey — Ankara, Istanbul and Izmir — rejected the plans, which would abolish Tur-key’s system of parliamentary democracy and replace it with an executive presidency with sweeping, largely unchecked powers.

European governments acknowledged the result but bristled at a suggestion by Erdogan that he would seek the restoration of the death penalty

-- a move that would sink Tur-key’s long-stalled bid to join the European Union. He reiterated his desire to legalize the death penalty Monday as crowds chanted: “We want capital pun-ishment.” The results cement a years-long effort by Erdogan to consolidate his position. After serving as prime minister for nearly a decade, he took over as president in 2014 and through force of personality turned a largely ceremonial role into a de facto head of government.

A failed coup last year allowed him to turn up the heat on opposition voices in the run-up to Sunday’s referendum. AGENCIES

South Korea’s ex-president Park indicted for bribery

SEOUL: Ousted South Korean President Park Geun-Hye was on Monday charged with brib-ery involving millions of dollars over the massive corruption and influence-peddling scandal that brought her down.

Park, whose impeachment was confirmed by Seoul’s top court last month, is at the centre of a sprawling graft investiga-tion, which has also implicated top businessmen and brought millions of people onto the streets. The former leader, already detained at a centre near Seoul, also faces charges of abusing her powers and leak-ing state secrets, Seoul prosecu-tors probing the scandal said in a statement.

“We have formally charged Park... with multiple offences including abuse of power, coer-cion, bribery and leaking state secrets,” they said after wrap-ping up the months-long inves-tigation. Park is accused of colluding with her confidante at the heart of the scandal, Choi Soon-sil, who is already on trial for coercing local conglomer-ates into donating a total of 77.4 billion won (USD 68 million) to two non-profit foundations.

Choi allegedly used some of

the donations for personal gain.Park is also accused of offer-

ing policy favours to top busi-nessmen who enriched Choi, including Samsung heir Lee Jae-Yong who was arrested earlier and is also on trial for bribery.

Prosecutors on Monday also charged Shin Dong-Bin, the chairman of the retail giant Lotte Group, with bribing Choi and Park.

Shin allegedly offered seven billion won (USD 6.15 million) to a sports foundation linked with Choi in exchange for a policy favour from Park over Lotte’s duty-free business. Park, 65-year-old daughter of the late former dictator Park Chung-Hee, spent nearly two decades living in Seoul’s sprawling presi-dential palace, before the allega-tions of corruption engulfed her presidency late last year.

The scandal sent her once-bulletproof approval ratings to record lows with millions taking to the streets for months call-ing for her ouster, though she also had a loyal following from groups of mainly older rival protesters.

Her father is widely revered by aged, conservative South Koreans. AGENCIES

Five killed, 4 injured in Portugal

plane crash LISBON: At least five per-sons were killed and four others injured when a small airplane crashed near a super-market in a residential area on the outskirts of the capital city of Lisbon on Monday, local media reported.

The crash took place around 11 am (local time) near Lido supermarket at Tires in the town of Cascais killing five peo-ple — including a Swiss pilot and three French passengers on board and a Portuguese truck driver on ground. Four others were injured in the crash.

The Swiss-registered plane, which arrived in Por-tugal on Friday and was fly-ing to Marselille in France, exploded in the air and crashed shortly after taking off from the Tires airport, Xinhua news agency reported.

Fire and smokes were seen rising on the scene after the plane crashed into a truck beside the supermar-ket. Around 50 rescue work-ers were taking part in the rescue operation. AGENCIES

London: Manhunt launched after acid sprayed into

crowd injuring 12

LONDON: A manhunt has been launched for an attacker who police say sprayed acid into a packed east London nightclub, leaving two in a seri-ous condition in hospital.

The incident in London Fields, east London, forced the evacuation of the venue where around 600 clubbers had been at an event. In a statement released on Monday after-noon, the Met said the “acidic” substance, which has yet to be identified, was used following a dispute between two groups of people inside the venue.

Twelve people were injured when a corrosive substance was sprayed inside a packed Lon-don nightclub, police and fire services said, amid a sharp rise in acid attacks in Britain’s capi-tal. Two of the victims, both men in their twenties, are in

a “serious but stable condi-tion” and 10 others suffered “minor injuries”, police said in a statement.

A London Fire Brigade spokesman told news agency AFP an ‘unknown corrosive substance’ was thrown in Man-gle, a club in east London, in the early hours of Monday.

Police said the incident was not believed to be terrorism or gang related but the result of a dispute between two groups of people in the club. They said the fight led to “a noxious sub-stance being sprayed by a male suspect directly at Victims 1 and 2” - the two men with the more serious injuries. “Other people inside the venue suf-fered the effects of the sub-stance,” the statement said, adding that no arrests have been made yet. AGENCIES

US nudges Pak to ‘confront’ terror in all its forms

ISLAMABAD: The US on Monday asked Pakistan to “confront” terrorism in all its forms as America’s National Security Adviser held talks with the top civilian and mil-itary leadership here dur-ing an unannounced visit, the first by a top Trump administration official to this country.

US National Security Adviser (NSA) H R McMas-ter, who arrived here ear-lier in the day, held talks with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, Prime Minister’s Adviser on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz, army chief Gen-eral Qamar Javed Bajwa, Pakistan NSA Lt Gen (retd) Nasser Janjua and Special Assistant to the Prime Min-ister on Foreign Affairs Syed Tariq Fatemi.

“McMaster expressed appreciation for Pakistan’s democratic and economic development, and stressed the need to confront terror-ism in all its forms,” said a US Embassy statement on McMaster’s meeting with the top civilian and military leadership here.

The two sides discussed a range of bilateral and regional issues, it said.

During McMaster’s call on, Sharif, while talking about Indo-Pak ties, reit-erated his “firm convic-tion” to sustained dialogue and meaningful engage-ment as the only way forward to resolve all out-standing issues, including the Kashmir dispute, a Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) statement said.

Sharif welcomed Presi-dent Trump’s willingness to help India and Pakistan resolve their differences par-ticularly on Kashmir. AGENCIES

Mike Pence warns North Korea of US resolve shown in Syria, Afghan strikesSEOUL: US Vice-President Mike Pence put North Korea on notice on Monday, warning that recent US strikes in Syria and Afghanistan showed that the resolve of President Donald Trump should not be tested. Pence and South Korean acting president Hwang Kyo-ahn, speaking a day after a failed missile test by the North and two days after a huge display of missiles in Pyongyang, also said they would strengthen anti-North Korea defences by moving ahead with the early deployment of the THAAD missile-defence system. Pence is on the first stop of a four-nation Asia tour intended to show America’s allies, and remind its adversar-ies, that the Trump administration was not turn-ing its back on the increasingly volatile region. “Just in the past two weeks, the world witnessed the strength and resolve of our new president in actions taken in Syria and Afghanistan,” Pence said in a joint statement. “North Korea would do well not to test his resolve or the strength of the armed forces of the US,” he added. AGENCIES

United Airlines removes couple, travelling to wedding from plane

NEWYORK: An engaged couple were removed from a United Airlines flight to Costa Rica on Saturday, as the air-line remained under scrutiny following outrage caused by a video last week of a passenger being forcibly removed from a flight.

According to the couple, who said they were en route to get married, a federal mar-shal had escorted them from the plane before take-off from Houston, Texas, but United denied this on Sunday, say-ing in a statement that neither a marshal nor other authori-

ties was involved. The couple “repeatedly attempted to sit in upgraded seating which they did not purchase and they would not follow crew instruc-tions to return to their assigned seats,” United said in a state-ment, adding “They were asked to leave the plane by our staff and complied.” The statement from a United spokeswoman said the airline offered the couple a discounted hotel rate for the night, and rebooked them on a Sunday morning flight. But Michael Hohl and his fianc, Amber Maxwell, told KHOU they tried to pay

for upgraded seating and were denied, after finding another passenger sleeping across their seats when they were the last to board. After moving within the economy cabin a few rows up, flight crew denied their request to pay a supplement for the seats, which United sells as “economy plus”, and told them to move back to their original seats, Hohl said. “We thought not a big deal, it’s not like we are trying to jump up into a first-class seat,” Hohl said. “We were simply in an economy row a few rows above our economy seat,” he added. AGENCIES

HACKNEY NIGHTCLUB ACID ATTACK

RECEP TAYYIP ERDOGAN CLAIMS VICTORY

Russia warns US against unilateral strike on N Korea

MOSCOW: Russia on Mon-day warned Washington against launching a unilat-eral strike on North Korea, after US Vice President Mike Pence said the era of “strategic patience” with Pyongyang was over. “This is a very risky path,” Russian Foreign Minister Ser-gei Lavrov said at a news con-ference in Moscow.

“We do not accept the reck-less nuclear missile actions of Pyongyang that breach UN resolutions, but that does not mean that you can break inter-national law,” he said. “I hope that there will not be any uni-lateral actions like the one we saw recently in Syria.”

Defying international pressure, the North on Sunday

tried to test-fire another mis-sile in an attempt that failed, but which fuelled fears that it may be preparing for its sixth atomic weapons test.

Pence said that the era of US “strategic patience” in deal-ing with the North was over, after more than two decades.

“In the past two weeks, the world witnessed the strength and resolve of our new presi-dent in actions taken in Syria and Afghanistan,” Pence said.

“North Korea would do well not to test his resolve, or the strength of the armed forces of the United States.”

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe also urged North Korea on Monday to refrain from taking further provoca-

tive actions, comply with U.N. resolutions and abandon its nuclear missile development.

Tensions on the Korean peninsula have escalated as U.S. President Donald Trump takes a hard rhetorical line with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, who has rebuffed admonitions from China and proceeded with missile tests.

North Korea launched a ballistic missile on Sun-day but it blew up almost immediately, the U.S. Pacific Command said. Abe told arliament he would exchange views on North Korea with Russian President Vladi-mir Putin when they hold a summit meeting later this month. AGENCIES

The Swiss registered plane, exploded in the air and crashed shortly after taking off from the Tires airport

China said it is willing to work with “all parties” to achieve denuclearisation on the Korean Peninsula

MILLENNIUM POST | New Delhi | Tuesday, 18 April, 2017

mp world 11MILLENNIUM POST | New Delhi |Tuesday, 18 April, 2017

BRIEFSWORLDKIM JONG-UN CONDEMNS US STRIKE IN SYRIAPYONGYANG: North Korean leader Kim Jong-un on Monday condemned the military strikes by the US in Syria. In a message to President Bashar al-Assad on the occasion of the 71st an-niversary of Syrian independence, Kim termed as a “reckless act of invasion” the April 7 US attack on a Syrian regime air base in apparent retalia-tion for its alleged use of chemical weapons on civilians.

FIVE CHURCHGOERS DIE AFTER BOAT CAPSIZES ON LAKE MALAWIBLANTYRE: At least five churchgoers died after an overloaded wooden boat carrying more than 60 passengers back from Easter celebrations capsized on Lake Malawi, police said on Monday. Police spokes-man Victor Khamisi told AFP “five people died” in the incident, which took place at around 4:00 pm (1400 GMT) on Easter Sunday in the northern district of Rum-phi. A total of 54 people had been rescued by today in a search assisted by military personnel and local fishermen, police said.

BRITISH MPs WANT ASSAD WIFE’S UK CITIZENSHIP REVOKEDLONDON: British MPs on Monday wrote to Home Secretary Amber Rudd, seeking revocation of the citi-zenship of Asma al-Assad, the UK-born wife of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, for her support to his regime on social media. “The first lady of Syria has acted not as a private citizen but as a spokesperson for the Syrian presidency [UK foreign secretary] Boris Johnson has urged other countries to do more about Syria, but the British government could say to Asma Assad, either stop using your position to defend bar-baric acts, or be stripped of your citizenship,” Liberal Democrat foreign affairs spokesperson said.

DEATH TOLL FROM ALEPPO BUS CONVOY BOMB ATTACK REACHES 126BEIRUT: The death toll from a bomb attack on a crowded bus convoy outside Aleppo has reached at least 126 in the deadliest such incident in Syria in almost a year, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said on Sunday. The Obser-vatory and the United Nations cited reports that more than 60 children were among the dead. Syrian rescue workers of the Civil Defence said that they had taken away at least 100 bodies from the site.

Mass evacuation in Syria postponed after

blast kills 80 kids

BEIRUT: The evacuation of more than 3,000 Syrians that was scheduled to take place on Sunday from four areas as part of a population transfer has been postponed, opposi-tion activists said, a day after a deadly blast that killed more than 120 people, many of them government supporters.

The reasons for the delay were not immediately clear. It came as shells fired by the Islamic State group on govern-ment-held parts of the eastern city of Deir el-Zour wounded two members of a Russian media delegation visiting the area, according to state-run Syrian news agency SANA.

Russia is a main backer of Syrian President Bashar Assad and Russian journalists enjoy wide access in govern-ment-held parts of the coun-try.Russia’s Anna-News military news service, which employs the journalists, said one was

wounded in the arm while the other suffered leg and stom-ach wounds. The news service said the two were evacuated adding that their condition was “satisfactory.”

The United Nations is not overseeing the transfer deal, which involves residents of the pro-government villages of Foua and Kfarya and the oppo-sition-held towns of Madaya and Zabadani. All four have been under siege for years, their fate linked through a series of reciprocal agreements that the UN says have hindered aid deliveries.

Rami Abdurrahman, who heads the Britain-based Syr-ian Observatory for Human Rights, and Hezbollah’s Al-Manar TV, earlier said that 3,000 people will be evacu-ated from Foua and Kfarya, while 200 fighters, will be evacuated from Zabadani and Madaya. AGENCIES

YET ANOTHER AYLAN KURDI? Italy receives migrants after Mediterranean

rescue opsROME: Italian ports on Mon-day received thousands of migrants who had been res-cued during several coast guard operations in the Mediterranean.

UN Refugee Agency’s (UNHCR) spokeswoman Car-lotta Sami told Efe news that 8,300 people were rescued in 60 rescue operations were con-ducted throughout the week-end by 35 ships, including some merchant vessels that offered support.

Sami said the weekend’s work had a frenetic pace, to the point where some human-itarian agents involved in the rescues worked for 40 hours straight. Many of those rescued were young, and often unac-companied children, as well as adult men who presented signs of having been tortured, including burns on their backs and welts from lashings and electrocutions.

According to Sami, seven deaths were registered, includ-ing a pregnant woman, but the toll could rise.

She said this was possi-bly due to the fact that many are held prisoners in Libya by human traffickers in order to extort their families.

The Italian coast guard told Efe news that some 1,200 peo-ple arrived in the Sicilian port of Messina, and that sea condi-tions were rough. AGENCIES

Hundreds of Palestinians in Israeli jails launch hunger strikeRAMALLAH: Hundreds of Palestinians in Israeli jails launched a hunger strike on Monday following a call from leader and promi-nent prisoner Marwan Barghouti, a movement that could mark a serious challenge to Israeli authorities if sustained. The hunger strike was called for in connection with Palestinian Prisoners Day, observed annually, but also ahead of commemorations this summer marking 50 years since the 1967 Six Day War and the start of Israel’s occupation. Hunger strikes by Palestinian prisoners occur regularly, but rarely on such a large scale. A series of protests were also being held in Palestinian cities in connection with prisoners day. Barghouti’s call for the strike has given it added credibility, with the 57-year-old serving five life sentences over his role in the violent second Palestinian intifada. He is a popular figure among Palestinians, with polls suggesting he could win the Palestinian presidency. Graffiti showing the iconic image of his cuffed hands raised above his head flashing a peace sign while be-ing led away by Israeli authorities can be seen in the West Bank. AGENCIES

Child among seven migrant bodies found off Libya

ROME :The bodies of seven migrants, including a small boy, were found during the lat-est rescue operations off Libya, a Maltese NGO and the Italian coastguard said on Monday.

“Imagine to carry an eight-year-old boy’s lifeless body into your house on Easter Sunday. I will never forget this day,” tweeted Chris Catrambone, founder of Maltese NGO Moas.

Dozens of Mediterranean rescue operations throughout the day spotted around 2,000 would-be migrants, according to an Italian coastguard esti-mate. As weather conditions deteriorated, NGOs urged more vessels to head to the region, with their own already crammed with around 4,500 people picked up from unsea-worthy vessels the previous day in 35 operations. The fine weather going into the week-end had evidently sparked a spike in the number of people attempting the perilous cross-ing to Europe.

Friday had already seen some 2,000 people rescued while the body of one young man was found, presumed asphyxiated, aboard one vessel bursting with people.

With arrivals showing no sign of abating, EU’s border control agency Frontex has

accused donor-funded vessels of doing more harm than good

by acting “like taxis” off Libya.Italian prosecutors have

suggested they may have links with traffickers — a charge fiercely rejected.

Distressing images of Afri-can migrants being plucked from heaving seas or the cof-fin-strewn aftermath of major sinkings have become a regu-lar feature of television news bulletins since the crisis began spiralling out of control four years ago.

The International Organisa-tion of Migration says 666 peo-ple have been logged as dead or missing off the Libyan coast so far this year out of an estimated 27,000 who have tried to reach Italy from Libya.

The images of a three-year-old dead Syrian boy, whose body washed up ashore after his boat capsized off the Turk-ish coast, was a wake up call for the world to the ongoing refu-gee crisis.

But Syrians didn’t just start to flee this year, and there are many more children besides Aylan Kurdi who have died and had their images buried with them in the last half a decade.

The current crisis, which has left an indelible mark on humanity, has its roots in Syria’s Civil War, which marks its sixth year in 2016. AGENCIES

CHICAGO: Police on Sunday were searching for a gunman they said murdered a man live on Facebook in the US state of Ohio. Officials in the city of Cleveland said the suspect, Steve Stephens, 37, shot his 74-year old victim at random — a cold-blooded killing which was livestreamed on the internet. “Sus-pect did broadcast the killing on Facebook Live and has claimed to have committed multiple other homicides which are yet to be verified,” Cleveland police wrote on Twitter.

At a press conference on late Sunday, authorities urged Ste-phens to turn himself in.

“Everyone is out there looking for Steve. We want this to end with as much peace as we can bring to this right now, and we want him to turn himself in,” Cleveland Police Chief Cal-vin Williams told reporters, adding that local authorities were working with the FBI and regional law enforcement.

“We have all of our partners in on this, and we’ll look until we find him,” Williams said. Mayor Frank Jackson told report-ers police were still trying to communicate with the suspect.

“We want to communicate to him that we know who he is, and that he will eventually be caught. And that we’re saying to him that he need not do any more,” said Jackson.

Stephens was at large after fleeing in a white Ford Fusion with temporary license plates, police in the midwestern US city said. Some local media reported that he had boasted on Face-book of killing more than a dozen people in an Easter Day mas-sacre, but authorities said there was no indication of a broader killing spree. AGENCIES

Police seek US suspect accused of committing

murder on Facebook

India’s 680 crores worth of locomotives, train sets to boost SriLanka railwaysNEW DELHI: In its largest export order for any public transporter, Indian Railways are going to supply modern locomotives and train sets to Sri Lanka worth six hundred and eighty crore rupees. Rail India Technical and Economic Service (RITES), a railway PSU, has secured its largest export order from Sri Lanka Railways for the supply of ten broad gauge diesel locomotives and six diesel multiple units (DMU) train sets. DMU train sets do not require separate locomotive as the engines are incorporated into one or more of its coaches.According to a senior Railway Ministry Official, all locomotives and train sets would be equipped with state-of-the-art technology and manufactured in Varanasi and Chennai. The contract will be funded under the Indian Line of Credit to Sri Lanka announced in 2011, and supplies will be made over the next two years, the official said. Since October 2016, the total amount of assis-tance to the Sri Lanka Railways from India for the development of the sector, in Sri Lanka has been up to $1,284 million. RITES, which also serves as the export arm of the railways, is at present executing a contract for the supply of eighteen locomotives to Myanmar Railways as well. It had earlier exported 20 DMU train sets, three locomotives to Sri Lanka. AGENCIES

Germany urges Turkey not to move away from Europe

BERLIN: Germany on Mon-day warned Turkey against further distancing itself from Europe by reinstating the death penalty after a disputed refer-endum and urged authorities to seek “respectful dialogue” to heal a divided society.

Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel said that if Ankara were to bring back the death pen-alty, the move would be “syn-onymous with the end of the European dream” and mark the end of decades of negotiations to enter the European Union.

It is in Turkey’s “own inter-est” not to distance itself fur-ther from Europe, said Gabriel in an interview in the Bild mass

circulation daily to be pub-lished tomorrow. “Any decision (about joining the EU) will not be on the agenda anytime soon. At any rate, joining would not work right now,” he added, not-ing that Turkey must decide which direction to take.

Immediately after winning a nail-biting vote on extend-ing his powers, Turkish Pres-ident Recep Tayyip Erdogan mooted a second referendum on bringing back the death penalty, which would sound the death knell for the country’s EU ambitions.

“If (a bill) comes before me, I will approve it. But if there isn’t support (from

opposition MPs) ... then we could have another referen-dum for that,” Erdogan said, as his supporters chanted for its reintroduction.

Turkey abolished the death penalty in 2004 as part of its bid to join the European Union and Brussels has made it clear that any move to restore it would scupper Ankara’s efforts to join the bloc.

In an earlier joint state-ment with Gabriel, Chan-cellor Angela Merkel urged Turkish authorities to “seek respectful dialogue with all political and social forces in the country after this tough election campaign.” AGENCIES

Russia: Suspected subway bomb organiser arrested

MOSCOW: Russia’s Federal Security Service on Monday said it has arrested a suspected organizer of the suicide bomb-ing in the St. Petersburg subway that killed 14 passengers.

Russia’s Federal Secu-rity Service, as cited by RIA news agency, identified him as Abror Azimov, who was born in 1990 and is from Central Asia. The suspect was arrested in Odintsovo, a city just outside Moscow.

It said the suspect was armed with a pistol and was of Central Asian origin, but did not elaborate. The suspect is the ninth person to have been detained on suspicion of hav-ing colluded with the bomber,

Akbarzhon Jalilov, since the attack on 3 April.

Azimov has been accused of training Jalilov to use the bomb, which he took with him on a train and detonated, kill-ing himself in the explosion.

The attack happened the same day that leader Vladimir Putin was visiting the city. The death toll came to 14 people.

A further 49 people were sent to hospital. The blast took place between Sennaya Plosh-chad and Tekhnologichesky Institut underground stations.

The impoverished, pre-dominantly Muslim coun-tries in Central Asia are seen as fertile ground for Islamic extremists. AGENCIES

(Above) The International Federation of the Red Crescent shows staff moving the bodies of some 74 migrants that were found washed ashore in Libya. (Below) In 2015, a disturbing picture of a young Syrian toddler, Aylan Kurdi, washed ashore, sent ripples across the world prompting leaders from across the globe to take note of the refugee crisis

mp business12MILLENNIUM POST | New Delhi | Tuesday, 18 April, 2017

BAJIPURA (TAPI): In a relief to farmers across the country, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday said the govern-ment has decided to extend the deadline for procurement of pulses by one week.

Addressing a large gather-ing here, Modi also thanked the farmers for accepting his appeal to grow more tur dal.

The PM hit out at the oppo-sition for attacking him on the issue of price rise of dals within days of his assuming office in 2014.

"Due to a late monsoon last year, the sowing and harvest-ing of pulses got delayed. That is why we had decided to pro-cure the pulses at MSP (min-imum support price) for the first time," he said.

"Recently, the farmers made a representation to me and sought extension of the dead-line we set for buying the pulses from farmers," Modi said.

"They urged me not to dis-continue the procurement being done by NAFED after 15th (April). On Monday, I want to announce that we have extended the deadline for one week. This will benefit all those farmers whose crops are still being harvested," he said.

Recalling his initial days as PM, Modi hit out at the opposi-tion for blaming the then newly elected BJP-led dispensation

for the price rise of pulses."Within one week of assum-

ing the charge (in 2014), the people, who disliked me, started criticising me on the issue of price rise in dals.

"We were blamed even before the flowers in our vic-tory garland dried. That price rise was the legacy we inherited.

Despite that we were blamed for snatching away dal from the poor," he said.

"At that time, I appealed to the farmers to focus on culti-vating pulses such as moong, arhar and tur. On Monday, I want to thank the farmers for accepting my appeal, as we had a bumper crop of pulses this time. This has not only shut the mouths of many but also pro-vided cheap dal to the citizens," Modi said.

He was here to inaugurate a cattle feed plant of the Surat District Co Operative Milk Producers' Union, popularly known as Sumul Dairy here.

Modi also inaugurated an ice cream plant built by the dairy at Navi Pardi village and laid the foundation stone for various other projects by the dairy through remote control.

He urged farmers to start various other activities under the cooperative set up, such as installing solar power panels, constructing bio-gas plants and honey production. PTI

NEW DELHI: Insurance sec-tor regulator Irdai on Monday reduced motor insurance pre-mium rates in most of the seg-ments like two-wheelers, cars and trucks by modifying the rates for 2017-18 issued three-weeks ago.

The modified 'premium rates for motor third party liability insurance cover' will apply retrospectively from April 1, the Insurance Reg-ulatory and Development Authority of India (Irdai) said in an order.

However, the premium rates for the current fiscal are higher than those of the pre-vious year. As per the revised list, premium on mid-seg-ment cars (1,000cc - 1,500 cc) has been reduced to Rs 2,863 from Rs 3,132 announced on March 28.

Similarly, premium for cars with engine capacity of more

than 1,500 cc has been brought down to Rs 7,890 from earlier Rs 8,630. There is no change in cars having engine capac-ity of less than 1,000 cc. The premium has been fixed at Rs 2,055. Similarly, premium has been brought down in case of two- wheelers with engine of 150 cc and more.

Irdai further said premium rates have been reduced for most of the truck categories. The new rate, for instance, in case of 'goods carrying vehi-cles public carriers (exceeding 40,000 kg)' has been reduced to Rs 33,024 from Rs 36,120 notified on March 28.

Reduction has been also affected for e-rickshaw and other passenger carrying vehi-cles. Modification in premium rates follows protest by a sec-tion of truckers against the Irdai's move to substantially hike insurance rates. PTI

Irdai reduces third party insurance rates

NEW DELHI: South Korean consumer electronics major LG is scouting for partnership with telecom operators in India to offer its 'smart appliances' con-nected with Internet of Things (IoT) technology. The company is taking small steps to intro-duce its appliances equipped with features such as LG HomeChat and SmartThinQ that enable consumers to con-trol and operate home appli-ances through smartphones. These appliances are connected through the internet.

By partnering with a tele-com operator, it is looking to address the requirement for a network provider to connect with the different appliances in a household. "Already we are prepared for smart home, IoT related products but this is not just a standalone device," LG Electronics India Manag-ing Director Ki Wan Kim said.

Being a total solution and service concept, it functions with devices which are con-nected through the internet, he added. "Device is easy, it only needs protocol interface. That is why, I will be meeting the head of a telecom service

provider on Tuesday to discuss this," he added.

While he did not disclose the name of the telecom firm, Kim said ultimately a partner-ship will be decided on how it would help end consumers.

When asked if LG is look-ing to join hands exclusively with a single or multiple tele-com operators, KIm said: "Any-one who is partnering with us for the sake of our goal, it is fine. LG stands for Life is Good, so our responsibility is enhanc-ing the lifestyle of Indians."

In advanced markets like South Korea and the US, Kim said it is the telecom opera-tors which had taken the lead in offering IoT service so that consumers can subscribe plans according to their needs.

LG HomeChat allows customers to receive notifi-cations and reminders on smartphones about steps and status of progress on activi-ties such as washing or cook-ing and accordingly control it.Likewise, the company's SmartThinQ allows consum-ers control connected appli-ances at home from anywhere to control various activities.

MUMBAI: The deal street got off to a tepid start in 2017 with the first quarter numbers coming down heavily both in value and volume at $3.04 bil-lion through 238 deals respec-tively, down 27 per cent from $4.19 billion in 432 deals.

"The first quarter of 2017 saw a 27 per cent decline in PE investments at $3.04 billion through 238 deals. In terms of volume this is down 45 per cent over 432 deals worth $4.19 bil-lion a year ago," says News Corp VCCEdge.

This is the worst low in five years with activity down 45 per cent and investment value plunging 27 per cent on an annual basis. But average deal value is the highest in 15 quarters, thanks to the Bharti Infratel the primary reason, says the report.

Median deal value qua-drupled to $2.25 million in Q1 compared to $0.6 million in Q1 of 2016. The top PE deal dur-ing the quarter was the Bharti Infratel-KKR, CPPIB deal of $946 million, pushing up the average deal value.

According to the report, the main reason for the sober beginning is the massive fall

in angel investments which hit four-year low at $28 million while VC investments dropped 14 per cent.

As per VCCEdge, this investment value doubled against last quarter to $820 mil-lion in Q1, though this was a fraction of the USD2,500 mil-

lion for a year ago. This was primarily because there were no fresh investments of $250 million or more from investors, during the reporting quarter.

Even exits by PEs and VCs fell during the reporting period with exits halving to USD1.4 billion in Q1 from $2.1 billion

a year ago. Open markets domi-nated exit deal value at USD945 million, bouncing back as the preferred exit route.

In terms of regions, Delhi-NCR continues to rule the roost in deal activity at $1,246 mil-lion, against $692 million in Mumbai and $441 million in

Bengaluru. Delhi-NCR and Mumbai together attracted a much bigger share of PE deals than Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Chennai, Pune, Kolkata, Jaipur and Ahmedabad put together.

The top four incoming PE deals were the Oman-India Joint Investment Fund II, KKR India Credit Fund, ICICI Venture Fund Management's India Advantage Fund Series IV and IDFC PE Fund IV, which together pumped in $641 mil-lion, while the key exits during the quarter were the Providence Equity Partners-Idea Cellular deal and the Khazanah Nasional Berhad- Apollo Hospitals deal.

In terms of sectors, infor-mation technology continued to dominate the space in Delhi NCR with 29 deals, followed by nine in consumer discretionary and four 4 each in consumer staples and industrials.

Coming second in terms of deal value was Mumbai with 47 deals amounting to $692 mil-lion with IT leading the way with 23 deals followed by con-sumer discretionary with seven deals and financials at six. Ben-galuru saw 53 deals worth $441 million, almost 60 per cent of them in IT. PTI

‘We have to be number one in gems & jewellery sector’SURAT: Prime Min-ister Narendra Modi on Monday called upon the diamond industry in Surat to take a lead in mak-ing India emerge as number one in the gems and jewel-lery sector. Surat is popularly known as the diamond city of the country. "Enough of just diamond cut-ting and polishing work. The country has expectations from Surat. Should the country have it or not?" Modi asked after inaugurating a diamond cutting unit of a gems and jewellery firm here. He said the jewel-lery designed in the country needs to be promoted across the globe. "Now we have to be number one in gems and jewellery, and not only 'made in India' jewellery, but 'designed in India' jewellery needs to popularised across the world," Modi said. PTI

NEW DELHI: Telecom reg-ulator TRAI has constituted three subgroups in areas like licencing, tariff and service quality, to identify and weed out obsolete regulations and order. The entire exercise is likely to be completed in next 2-3 months, a senior TRAI official said.

The official, who did not wish to be named, said that the three advisors of TRAI -- Sanjeev Banzal (Networks, Spectrum and Licensing), Vinod Kotwal (Financial & Economic Analysis) and Asit Kadayan (Quality of Service) -- are heading the individual subgroups.

"The idea is to identify obsolete regulations that have already outlived their pur-pose," the official said.

The subgroups, which also include industry representa-tives, will jointly examine and identify regulations and tariff orders that are out of sync with the times.

One such area of this could be paging where ser-vices and related regulations have become outdated and are no longer relevant. Simi-larly, there may be regulations related to technology, like

CDMA, which may be looked at during the review.

Industry representatives from Bharti Airtel, Voda-fone India, Reliance Jio, Idea Cellular, Telenor and Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd are some of the members of the subgroups.

Also, industry associa-tions like Cellular Operators' Association of India (COAI), Association of Unified Tele-com Service Providers of India (AUSPI) and ISP Associa-tion of India are involved in the exercise. Earlier this year, TRAI Chairman R S Sharma had said that once the regula-tions are identified through a joint exercise with the indus-try, the regulator will take up their suggestions along with other issues that have been identified for review this year.

Among others issues, TRAI will be carrying out pub-lic consultation in areas such as developing a new frame-work for tariffs in evolving the communication sector, next-generation public protection and disaster relief commu-nication networks, review of national numbering plan and review of Universal Service Obligation fund. PTI

NEW DELHI: Investors put in more than Rs 70,000 crore in equity-oriented mutual fund schemes in 2016- 17, making it the third successive year of net inflows.

The strong inflows have pushed the asset base of equity MFs by an impressive 41 per cent during the period under review. Market players attrib-uted the phenomenon to con-tinuous participation from retail investors through systematic investment plans (SIPs), along with positive returns from equity funds and steps taken by asset management compa-nies to create awareness among investors.

According to data from the Association of Mutual Funds in India (Amfi), equity funds, which also include equity-linked saving schemes (ELSS), saw net inflows of Rs 70,367 crore in 2016-17, a slight drop from Rs 74,024 crore infusion in 2015- 16. These funds had seen net inflows of Rs 71,029 crore in 2014-15 and withdrawal of Rs 9,269 crore in 2013-14. PTI

NEW YORK: Over 50 Indi-ans, including gymnast Dipa Karmakar, Olympic medal-list Sakshi Malik and actress Alia Bhatt, are among Forbes' list of super achievers from Asia under the age of 30 who are "pushing boundaries of innovation".

The second Forbes '30 Under 30' Asia list 2017 fea-tures 300 impressive young entrepreneurs -- 30 in 10 cat-egories, including entertain-ment, finance and venture capital, retail, social entrepre-neurs and enterprise technol-ogy, under the age of 30 years who are pushing the boundar-ies of innovation.

India has 53 achievers on the list, second only to China which has 76 honorees.

Leading the pack from India are Karmakar, 23, who became the first Indian female gymnast to ever compete in the Olym-

pics during the last games held in Rio de Janeiro - and the first Indian gymnast to compete in 52 years.

"While she didn't win a medal, she ranked an impres-sive fourth on her first-ever Olympic outing, missing the bronze by a hair's breadth - 0.15 points," Forbes said adding that she performed the Produnova vault in the finals - making her one of only five gymnasts to ever successfully do so. Fel-low athlete Malik, 24, became the first Indian woman to win a medal in Rio in wrestling, where she bagged the bronze.

Forbes noted that Malik, who hails from a small Indian town Rohtak, faced a lot of local opposition to her desire to wres-tle when she took up the sport at age 12. Srikanth Bolla, 25, founder of Bollant Industries has been featured in the manu-facturing and energy category.

Bolla was born blind into a fam-ily of farmers in rural India and "went on to become the first international blind student at MIT", where he studied busi-ness management. Post-MIT, Bolla chose to return to India where he set up Bollant Indus-tries in Hyderabad, a company that employs and trains dif-ferently-abled individuals to

manufacture eco-friendly and compostable packaging.

Bhatt, 24, has acted in over 20 high-grossing Bollywood movies, with at least six of them grossing well over $15 million worldwide in opening weeks.

The list also features Sharath Gayakwad, 25, India's first Paralympic swimmer, coach and Arjuna award winner who

has won 96 medals."Swimming wasn't enough

- he realised that the strug-gle to find swim apparel was still difficult in India - so he formed Gamatics, an aggre-gator between international brands and domestic retailers, for anyone to find swimwear in India," Forbes said. Trisha Shetty, 26, is the founder of She-

Says, an Indian non-profit that empowers the country's women to act against sexual violence by providing education, legal, medical as well as psychologi-cal support.

So far, the organisation has engaged more than 60,000 young people through educa-tional workshops and online, creating awareness and sup-

port to survivors who often reach out to share their per-sonal stories and ask for help through SheSays' social media platforms.

On the list is Ankit Kawa-tra, 25, who founded Feeding India, which aims to solve the country's hunger problem by providing free meals through volunteers and donation cen-tres. It operates a smartphone app where restaurants and indi-viduals can sign up to donate food, which are then collected and distributed to people in need.

The youngest Indians on the list are brothers Sanjay, 15, and Shravan Kumaran, 17, who founded GoDimen-sions, a mobile app developer five years ago. To date, they've built a total of seven apps for the App Store and three for Google Play, including goDo-nate, a platform for sharing

excess food, clothes and furni-ture with those in need.

Their apps have clocked over 70,000 downloads in over 60 countries. They hold the dis-tinction of being the youngest Mobile Application Program-mers in India by Apple, Forbes said. The list also features 29-year-old Kavin Bharti Mit-tal, founder of hike, an instant messaging service designed to rival WhatsApp, 29-year-old Vaishnavi Murali, founder of Eikowa Art, an India-based online art gallery curating works from many of the coun-try's contemporary artists.

Indian-American author, screenwriter and filmmaker Kovid Gupta, 28, and Amanat Anand, 24, Shubham Issar, 23, and Yogita Agrawal, 23, co-founders of SoaPen, a teaching tool in the form of a wearable soap crayon, are also featured in the list. PTI

Over 50 Indians in Forbes' under-30 super achievers list

PE,VC deals dip 27% to 5-year low of $3 billion in Jan-March Equity MFs log

`70,000 crore inflow in 2016-17

PM Modi announces extension of deadline for procurement of pulses

BHOPAL: Stating that India has already achieved 12,200 MW of solar capacity so far, Union power minister Piyush Goyal on Monday reiterated that the country is well poised to reach its target of 100 GW capacity by 2022.

"The country's solar power generation capacity was 2,600 MW in 2014 and it has now jumped to 12,200 MW now," Goyal said at an event here.

He was in the city to attend the signing of power

purchase agreement between Delhi Metro Rail Corpora-tion (DMRC) and authorities concerned for buying power from the 750 MW Rewa Ultra Mega Solar (RUMS) project in Madhya Pradesh.

Goyal said the earlier UPA government had set a target to generate 20,000 MW solar energy by 2022.

"This mark, we are going to achieve by this year-end, five years ahead of the target set by the earlier government.

We are confident that we will achieve our 100 GW tar-get by 2022," Goyal added.

Speaking on the occasion, Union Urban Development Minister Venkaiah Naidu said the DMRC will now get green energy for around Rs 3.30 per unit from RUMS.

"Right now, DMRC is get-ting power for around Rs 6 per unit. But now it will get green energy at a very cheaper rate of just Rs 3.30 per unit," he said. PTI

India has achieved 12,200 mw of solar capacity: Goyal

Trai forms subgroups to identify, weed

out outdated rules

Looking to partner telcos in India for

smart appliances: LG

The median deal value quadrupled to $2.25 million in the quarter compared to $0.6 million in Q1 of 2016. The top PE deal during the quarter was the Bharti Infratel-KKR, CPPIB deal of $946 million, pushing up the average deal value

The second Forbes ‘30 Under 30’ Asia list features 300 impressive young entrepreneurs, who are pushing the boundaries of innovation in 10 categories

GREATER NOIDA: India's services sector must gear up to take advantage of Industrial Revolution 4.0, which will cre-ate huge opportunities in high tech manufacturing, Com-merce Minister Nirmala Sith-araman said on Monday.

Emphasising on the grow-ing importance of services sector, she said India has also relaxed its visa regime to facil-itate movement of tourists and businesses. At global platforms people are talking about Indus-trial Revolution 4.0 which would open huge opportuni-ties for Indian companies in the services sector as there is a "servicification" of manufactur-ing, she said.

In manufacturing of goods, "a huge degree of services" are involved, Sitharaman said.

The next level of indus-trial revolution encompasses use of robotics, artificial intel-ligence and increasing digiti-sation in which, according to experts, there is a big role of services sector. The country is very strong in the segment and "there is so much opportunity for India," the minister said. PTI

‘Services need to gear up

for Industrial Revolution 4.0’

CORPORATE KALEIDOSCOPE

mp business 13MILLENNIUM POST | New Delhi | Tuesday, 18 April, 2017

Demonstration of fire safety in a shop at Durgapur Steel Plant during the National Fire Services Week started on April 14, 2017. During the week it undertook several campaigns and carried out various drills to promote fire safety awareness among the employees

Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay, Minister-in-charge,Department of Power & Non Conventional Energy, inaugurated the Customer Care Centre of New Town Electric Supply Company Limited on April 17 in Rajarhat, Bengal

Punjab National Bank celebrated its 123rd Foundation Day on April 12, 2017. MD & CEO Usha Ananthasubramanian launched three new products for customers viz. Automated electronic Toll Collection to facilitate hassle free toll payment/collection, Credit Card Mobile App and Scheme for financing Grid connected Roof Solar Power Project

RANCHI: Continuing the suc-cess run, Central Coalfields Limited (CCL) has accom-plished new feat by record-ing coal production of 67.04 million tonne (MT) and Coal Dispatch of 60.9 MT in the financial year (FY) 2016-17. This achievement have a special place in the history of CCL as company had almost stagnant growth till November 2016, due to low coal demand.

CCL has set an example for others by registering growth of 9.3% despite all odds. This is the third consecutive year when CCL has achieved its tar-get with almost double digit growth.

During the period 2009-10 to 2012-13, the company’s coal production was stagnat-ing around 48 Million Tonnes (MT). The company was hold-

ing inventory (coal stock) of about 16 MT (about 33 % of annual production) for years together and because of its age, coal stocks had indications of spontaneous heating at many places.

Many ongoing projects had acute shortage of land as land

owners were not giving physi-cal possession of their land to CCL.

The employees were demo-tivated and demoralized. Same company, with the same set of employees has achieved unprecedented growth in the last three years. MPOST

MUMBAI: Concerned over the rising prices of steel and rupee appreciation, engineer-ing exporters' apex body EEPC India has approached the Com-merce Ministry seeking its intervention to curb such vola-tility which is adversely impact-ing the sector.

"We have approached the Commerce Ministry, stating that a sharp rise of over five per cent in rupee against the US dollar along with increase in prices of steel, is acting as a double whammy for engineer-ing exporters in a highly com-petitive global market," EEPC India Executive Director and Secretary B Sarkar said in a letter to Commerce Secretary Rita Teaotia. EEPC said the Indian currency has appreci-ated against the US dollar by 5.26 per cent from Rs 68.0225 on January 02 to Rs 64.4418 on April 10.

"We have sought urgent attention of the government on these two issues to curb volatility in the rate of foreign exchange as well as raw mate-rials prices, as these develop-ments are making it extremely difficult for exporters to face

international competition more so when the global conditions are one of protectionism and competing countries," he said.

Sarkar said the sharp appre-ciation has come together with an increase in Indian steel prices from $582 per ton in September 2016 to $712 per ton in March 2017 implying an increase of nearly 22.5 per cent within a span of six months. PTI

NEW DELHI: The state-owned NTPC has managed to bring down its cost of electric-ity generation by an average 39.5 paise while for the Mauda project, it was a decline of Rs 1.65 per unit, mainly because of improvement in coal qual-ity and supply.

Data available with NTPC showed that the overall cost of power generation has come down to below Rs 2 last fiscal, driven by improved quality of coal and its supplies, a power ministry official said.

The overall cost of power generation of the company has come down by 39.5 paise. It does not include taxes and cess primarily imposed to finance protection of environment, the official explained. According to the data, the overall cost of power production for the com-pany stood at Rs 2.01 per unit in 2014- 15, which has declined to Rs 1.94 in April-February of 2016- 17. Elaborating, he said the actual reduction was 6.4 paise per unit, but if increased levies and charges are taken into account, the total drop in

power output cost translates into 39.5 paise.

The data further showed that NTPC's Mauda project registered an overall fall in cost of power generation at Rs 1.65 per unit, taking into account the impact of revision in lev-ies and charges. The official explained that new projects and plants with high dependence of imported coal have bene-

fited the most. The other plants which gained due to improved quality and supplies of coal are Barh Stage-II (Rs 1.24 per unit), Badarpur (Rs 1.16) and Tanda (93.6 paise).

The official said the NTPC plants represent a quarter of thermal power generation proj-ects in the country and indicate an encouraging trend in power generation cost. PTI

NEW DELHI: NLC India Ltd has no plans to acquire coal mines overseas as the three blocks alloted to it by the gov-ernment were sufficient to meet fuel requirement of its power plants, a top company official said.

"We have no plans to acquire coal mines overseas as three coal blocks alloted to us – two in Odisha and one in Jharkhand – were enough to meet the coal requirement of our power plants," NLC India Ltd Chair-man and Managing Director S K Acharya said. The company would continue to focus on the blocks allotted to it in line with government of India's mission of 'Make in India'

Company's coal-based plants "with 1,000 mw capacity were running, while 2,000 mw (plants) were under construc-tion and around 4,000 mw were in the planning stage," the CMD

said. Around two years back, "we had invited expression of interest...to find out commercial viability and to find out whether it would make good business sense for us to go abroad but now we are not thinking that," he said. The main activity of NLC India is mining (coal and lignite) and power generation of thermal and renewable energy.

The company's present min-ing capacity (lignite) is 30.6 mil-lion tonnes per annum (MTPA) and the present power genera-tion capacity, including JVs is 3,240 mw. PTI

MUMBAI: Within a fortnight of UP's farm loan waiver and calls for the same in other states, a foreign brokerage on Monday estimated the burden from such populist measures to touch 2 per cent of GDP by the 2019 elections.

"Farm loan waivers of up to 2 per cent of GDP in the run up to the 2019 hustings pose fiscal/rate risk and impacts credit cul-ture," analysts at Bank of Amer-ica Merill Lynch said in a note on Monday.

They said the Yogi Aditya-nath government's debt waiver of $5 billion or 0.4 per cent of the state GDP, will lead other states to follow such populist suit. Even though the Centre has asked the states to take care of its finances while declaring such schemes, the note said the states will continue to be in breach of the indicative 3-3.5 per cent fiscal deficit numbers. Already most of the states are running over 3.5 per cent deficits.

It can be noted that such demands are being made in other states, including Maha-rashtra, Haryana and Tamil

Nadu.In fact, the Madras High

Court ordered the state to write of the entire farm loans in the state which would entail a hit of over Rs 4,000 crore to the state finances.

Terming such measures as a "worry", the note welcomed Reserve Bank Governor Urjit Patel's warning on the farm loan waivers creating a moral hazard by inducing farmers not to pay and also spiking rates.

The American brokerage said the farm loan waivers are a "key risk" to the new fiscal def-icit roadmap proposed by the NK Singh committee.

Once the demand for credit picks up, such measures can

spike yields and put pressure on lending rates as banks will want to lend to high-yielding commercial credit, it said.

It can be noted that the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nab-ard) has also raised flags of con-cern on the issue.

It also welcomed the pro-visions to make fiscal deficit number counter cyclical, say-ing it is on expected lines.

The achievement of fis-cal gap numbers -- 3 per cent between fiscal 2018 and 2020 and reduction to 2.8 per cent in fiscal 2021, 2.6 per cent in fiscal 2022 and 2.5 per cent in the next year-- depends on the global situation. PTI

KOLKATA: Tantuja, the apex body of handloom weavers' society of West Bengal, has tied up with online market-place Amazon.com for selling sarees in the US.

Tantuja would now become a seller under Amazon's global selling program covering 10 countries of the world, Swapan Debnath, West Bengal minister of state for handloom and tex-tiles said here on Monday.

Debnath said Tantuja had earlier tied up with Amazon.in for selling handloom sarees within India. A similar arrange-ment had also been made with another online marketplace Flipkart, he said. Last year, Tan-tuja had sold sarees worth Rs 65 lakh through e-commerce portals Amazon.in and Flip-kart, he said.

With a meagre turnover of Rs 53 crore in 2010-11, Tantu-ja's present turnover was at Rs 150 crore with an operational profit of Rs 4 crore, Debnath said. With 68 showrooms at present, Tantuja sells handloom sarees like Jamdani, , Tangail, , Murshidabad Silk, Tasar Silk, and many more, he said. PTI

BEIJING: China's economy beat the government target and grew by a healthy 6.9 per cent in the first quarter this year mainly due to a surge in infrastructure investment and exports, official data said on Monday, signalling a steady growth in the world's second largest economy.

The growth was well above the full-year target of 6.5 per cent, and the 6.8 per cent increase registered in the fourth quarter of 2016, Chi-na's National Bureau of Statis-tics said.

The GDP reached 18.07 trillion yuan ($2.63 trillion) in the first quarter.

The NBS statement said, "the national economy main-tained the momentum of steady and sound develop-

ment from the second half of last year, getting off to a good start in 2017 and laying a solid foundation for accomplishing the whole-year growth target".

The official data also sug-gested a pick-up in domestic consumption as February retail sales jumped 10.9 per cent from the previous year.

China is trying to boost domestic consumption to shift focus of its export reliant econ-omy, which is also driven by massive state investments in improving the infrastructure.

Also, China's exports, which were on a declining trend in recent years, showed increase in Q1 in Yuan terms.

China's exports in yuan-denominated terms rose 14.8 per cent year-on-year in the first quarter, while imports

increased 31.1 per cent, cus-toms data released on April 13 said.

Foreign trade volume reached 6.2 trillion yuan (about $902 billion) in the first quarter, up 21.8 per cent year on year.

As per the data released on Monday by the NBS, China's fixed-asset investment (FAI) grew 9.2 per cent year-on-year in the first three months of 2017, quickening from the 8.9 per cent growth registered in the first two months.

FAI includes capital spent on infrastructure, property, machinery and other physi-cal assets.

Private sector FAI, which accounts for more than 60 per-cent of the total FAI, grew 7.7 per cent in the first quarter, accelerating from the 6. PTI

GUWAHATI: Numaligarh Refinery Limited (NRL) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Paradip Port Trust and Indian Oil Corporation (IOCL) for transporting imported crude oil from Paradip port in Odisha to Numaligarh in Assam for its proposed refinery expansion.

Under the NRL’s proposed refinery expansion project from the existing three MMTPA to nine MMTPA, a 28-inch diame-ter 1400 km long crude oil pipe-line of one MMTPA capacity will be laid for transporting six MMTPA of imported crude oil from Paradip port to Numa-ligarh. The MoU provides for utilizing IOCL s spare capacity of existing single point moor-ing at Paradip.

The Trust will extend land space for installation of crude storage tanks, pump house and township at Paradip, a NRL release said on Monday. The tripartite MoU was signed between Paradip Port Trust Chairman Rinkesh Roy, NRL Director(Technical) B J Phu-kan and IOCL ED (Pipelines) A K Tiwari at Bhubaneswar. PTI

NEW DELHI: Inflation based on the wholesale price index slipped to 5.70 per cent in March as manufactured goods showed cost decline even as food prices hardened.

The WPI inflation, reflect-ing the annual rate of price rise, in February was 6.55 per cent. In March 2016, the print came in at (-)0.45 per cent.

According to official data released on Monday, food prices saw a sharp rise of 3.12 per cent in March compared to 2.69 per cent in the previ-ous month.

This is primarily because of a steep price jump in veg-etables where inflation stood at 5.70 per cent. As for fruits, the figure was also high at 7.62 per cent, while for egg, meat and fish, it was 3.12 per cent.

Fuel inflation declined to 18.16 per cent, from 21.02 per cent in February.

The manufactured items witnessed some softening in price rise, with inflation at 2.99 per cent in March, as against 3.66 per cent in the previous month.

The government also revised upwards January infla-tion to 5.53 per cent from the

provisional estimate of 5.25 per cent.

Earlier this month, the Reserve Bank had left key policy rate unchanged at 6.25 per cent for the third review in a row citing upside risks to inflation. It had, however, increased the reverse repo rate -- which it pays to banks for parking funds with it -- by 0.25 per cent to 6 per cent, narrow-ing the policy rate corridor.

For 2017-18, it projected retail inflation to average 4.5 per cent in the first half and 5 per cent in the second half.

Data released last week showed that retail inflation touched a five-month high of 3.81 per cent in March on cost-lier food items and non-food products like fuel and light.

RBI frames its monetary policy stance on the basis of retail inflation. PTI

NEW DELHI: State-run power equipment maker BHEL today said it has commissioned two units of 270 mega watt (MW) thermal power project in Maharashtra.

“Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (BHEL) has successfully commissioned two units of 270 MW at RattanIndia Nasik Power Ltd’s 5x270 MW thermal power project, located at Sin-nar in Nasik District of Maha-rashtra,” the company said in a BSE filing.

It further said: “With the commissioning of these units, BHEL has commissioned eight sets for RattanIndia in Maha-rashtra - 3 sets at Nasik and 5 sets at Amravati. In addition, two more 270 MW units are presently in advanced stages of completion at Nasik”.

Shares of BHEL were trad-ing 0.09 per cent lower at Rs 173.25 on BSE. MPOST

Oil India Ltd completes $500-mn bond offering

Wholesale inflation cools to 5.7% in spite of food prices heating up

Wholesale Price IndexBase: 2004-05=100

Rate of Inflation

Mar2016

Feb2017

KBK graphicsInfo

Fuel and Power

18.16%5.70%

Primary Articles

4.63%

ManufacturedProducts

2.99%

Mar 2016 Feb 2017 Mar 2017

Figures for Feb & Mar 2017 are provisional

Mar2017

AllCommodities (Weight: 20.12%) (Weight: 14.91%)

(Weight: 64.97%)

-0.45%

100

Annual Rate of Inflation

6.55%5.70%

154.1

203.8

158.82

03.7

158.7

172.4

257.5

246.1

258.1

185.5

185.3

175.3

NTPC power generation cost dips by 39.5p to below ̀ 2/unit

No plans to acquire coal mines overseas: NLC CMD

Tantuja ties up with Amazon to sell

sarees in America

CCL achieves record 67.04 mt coal output, 60.09 mt despatch in FY17

EEPC seeks Govt intervention to curb steel price volatility

According to the data, the overall cost of power production for the company stood at `2.01 per unit in 2014-15, which has declined to `1.94 in April-February 2016- 17

NRL signs MoU with Paradip

Port Trust, IOCL

'Farm loan waivers to touch 2% of GDP in run-up to 2019 polls'

BHEL commissions two 270-mega watt

thermal units in Maharashtra

China posts 6.9% quarterly GDP growth, exceeds govt target

EEPC said that the Indian currency has appreciated against the US dollar by 5.26 per cent from `68.0225 on January 2 to `64.4418 on April 10

SINGAPORE: Oil India Inter-national Pte Ltd, a singapore based wholly owned subsidiary of Oil India Limited (oil), has successfully completed $500 million Reg S bond offering on April1, 2017. The $ 500 mil-lion Reg S senior unsecured 10-year notes are guaranteed by Oil India Limited, which is one of the leading Indian oil & gas ‘navratna’ CPSE engaged in the exploration, development, production and transportation of crude oil and natural gas. Oil is the second largest public sec-tor exploration and production company with government of India being the majority share-holder with current sharehold-ing of 66.60%.

The bonds are rated ‘BAA2’ by Moody’s and ‘BBB-‘ by Fitch. The $ 500 million bond issue marks second successful foray of Oil India group in $

Reg S markets and represents the lowest spread achieved by any indian issuer for a 10 year usd transaction in last decade. The US$ denominated 10-year bonds were priced at a spread of 172.5 bps over the 10-year US treasury and will bear fixed interest coupon of 4% per annum. The bonds will mature on April 21, 2027. The credit spread of current issu-ance is 100 bps tighter than oil’s maiden us$ 500 million 10 year bonds issued in 2014.

The final allocation had 56% investor participation from Asia and 44% from Europe & US offshore with 63% investment from asset / fund managers, 18% from insurance companies and SWFS, 14% from banks and 5% from private banks Bar-clays, Citibank and SCB acted as the joint global coordinators for the offering. MPOST

mp sport14MILLENNIUM POST | New Delhi | Tuesday, 18 April, 2017

MURRAY STAYS AT TOP OF ATP RANKINGSMADRID: British tennis ace Andy Murray continued to lead the men’s Association of Tennis Professionals world singles rankings, released on Monday. Serbian Novak Djokovic came in second, followed by Swiss Stan Wawrinka and Roger Federer in third and fourth place, respectively, reports Efe. Spaniard Rafael Nadal dropped two positions to the seventh place, while Japa-nese Kei Nishikori jumped to the fifth position.

AUSTRALIA EXTENDS SUPPORT TO INDIAN WHEELCHAIR BASKETBALL TEAMPANAMA CITY: A 10-member Indian women’s wheelchair basketball team is currently training in Thailand, with funding by Australian Consulate-General. The Consulate has supported the Wheelchair Basketball Federation of India with a direct aid programme grant of Rs. 2.58 lakh which enabled the team to participate in a six-day “development camp” in Chon Buri.

GEETA PHOGAT FOCUSES ON COMMONWEALTH, ASIAN GAMESINDORE: Wrestler Geeta Phogat on Monday said she was focusing on the next year’s Commonwealth and Asian games. “A year is left for mega events, Commonwealth and Asian games. So I have started my practise which I am going to accelerate in a month,” Geeta said. The wrestler said she will compete at the selection trail for the next world wrestling championship.

Pandey, Pathan guide KKR to 4-wicket win over Delhi

NEW DELHI: Half centuries by Yusuf Pathan and Manish Pandey enabled Kolkata Knight Riders overcome early jitters en route a thrilling four-wicket win over Delhi Daredevils in an Indian Premier League match here on Monday.

It was a team effort by KKR, who first rode on Sunil Narine and Nathan Coulter-Nile con-trolled bowling effort to restrict Delhi to 168 for seven, and then Pathan (59) and Pandey (69 not out) anchored the chase to per-fection as they won with a ball to spare.

It went down to the wire in the end with KKR needing nine runs from the last over. The first two balls from Amit Mishra resulted in dots as well as a wicket.

With the third ball yielding a run, Pandey got to the strike and straight away hit a much-needed six to KKR s relief. He eventually sealed it off in style with one ball remaining.

Chasing a modest 169 for victory , Kolkata lost three quick wickets to be reeling at 21 for three before Pathan and Pandey joined hands to put on a crucial 110-run stand off just 72 balls for the fourth wicket.

But after Pathan’s dismissal, Daredevils had their chances but KKR managed to have the last laugh.

Despite Kolkata struggling at one stage, Pathan dealt in fours and sixes to not just show his batting prowess but keep the team in the hunt.

He, in the able company of Pandey, ensured that the Knight Riders were always in

the game.Pathan brought up his half-

century in style as he hit Delhi skipper Zaheer Khan for a six.

The duo slowly and steadily stole the match away from the home team but Pathan failed to finish it for KKR as he fell for a well-made 59 off 39 balls, which included six boundar-ies and two sixes. Zaheer, on his part, showed that the class is permanent as he finished with figures of two for 28 from his four overs, while Pat Cum-mins took two for 39. Even after Pathan’s departure, Pan-dey continued and remained

unbeaten off 49 balls stud-ded with four fours and three sixes. Earlier, Delhi reached a decent total riding on a late cameo by Rishabh Pant even as Coulter-Nile and Narine managed to restrict the hosts with their superb bowling. Off to a blazing start after opting to bat, Sanju Samson and Sam Billings laid a solid platform for Delhi with a quick 53-run opening stand but after the two got dismissed, KKR bowlers led by Coulter-Nile dominated the middle overs to put a leash on the increasing run-rate.

But it was the young Pant,

who smashed 38 off 16 balls to take the team past 160-run mark. It was the 17th over bowled by Umesh Yadav, which yielded 26 runs. Pant launched into a furious assault hitting him for three sixes and two fours in that over. Coulter-Nile was the pick of the Kol-kata bowlers, finishing with impressive figures of three for 22, while Narine chipped in with economical one for 20.

To begin with, Samson took the Kolkata bowlers by the scruff of their necks, and was dealing in boundaries since the very first over. The

only centurion of the sea-son so far, Samson made his intentions clear from the very beginning, hitting Coulter-Nile for two back-to-back boundaries, which saw the Daredevils getting off the blocks in the opening over of the match. Brief Scores:Delhi Daredevils vs Kolkata Knight RidersDD: 168/7 (Sanju Samson 39, Rishabh Pant, 38, Zaheer Khan 2/28).KKR: 169/6 (Manish Pandey 69, Yusuf Pathan 59, Nathan Coulter-Nile 3/22). AGENCIES

N Srinivasan cannot represent BCCI in ICC meeting: SC

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday said former BCCI President N Srinivasan cannot represent the board in the April 24 ICC meeting as he has been held guilty of “conflict of interest” and “abuse of authority”.

The Apex Court allowed acting secretary of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), Amitabh Chaudhary, to represent the board in Inter-national Cricket Council (ICC) meeting and asked BCCI’s CEO Rahul Johri to accompany him.

The court was informed that Srinivasan and Niranjan Shah, who were rendered inel-igible to become office-bearers in the BCCI and state cricket associations by virtue of the Apex Court’s verdict, could participate in Tuesday’s spe-cial general body meeting of BCCI and may be nominated to take part in the ICC meeting.

“N Srinivasan cannot go (for ICC meeting),” a Bench headed by Justice Dipak Misra said.

“This person (Srinivasan) was held guilty by this court for conflict of interest and abuse of authority. He cannot go,” the Bench, also comprising Jus-tices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud, said, adding “a man, once having a conflict of interest, cannot go”. “Regard being had to the significance of representation of the BCCI in the said international body, i.e. ICC, it is directed that Amitabh Chaudhary shall represent the BCCI before ICC and Rahul Johri shall accompany him and also attend the meeting of the chief executive officers,” the Bench said. The top court, on January 22, 2015, had barred Srinivasan from contesting any BCCI polls unless he forsakes ownership of an IPL team. The court had also assailed the amendment in BCCI rules per-

mitting cricket administrators like Srinivasan to have com-mercial interest by owing teams in IPL and Champions League and had said it was bad on grounds of conflict of interest.

During the hearing on Monday, senior advocate Kapil Sibal and advocates represent-ing the parties in the matter said that Chaudhary was a qualified person and was well-versed with all the facts. So he could be nominated to attend the ICC meeting.

Senior advocate P Chidam-baram, appearing for the apex court-appointed Committee of Administrators (CoA), said the issue was whether a per-son who has been disqualified by virtue of the court’s verdict, could be nominated to repre-sent the BCCI in ICC meet-ing in which revenue-sharing between the members of the apex cricket body would be dis-cussed, apart from other issues.

Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi, who was appearing for the cricket associations of the armed forces, association of universities and Railways, told the court that a person having the know-how and experience of at least 15-20 years in the affairs of cricket body should go to attend the ICC meeting.

To this, the Bench said: “We agree on this. We can send this second man (Niranjan Shah) who is 74 years old but hav-ing experience of 40 years.” “We have names of two per-sons in our mind, Shah and Chaudhary,” the Bench said, after which Chidambaram said the court can appoint anyone to attend the ICC meeting but Johri should be allowed to accompany him. “We will zero in on Amitabh Chaud-hary, who is the acting secre-tary of BCCI,” the Bench said and posted the matter for fur-ther hearing on July 14. AGENCIES

No clarity on Srinivasan’s

SGM attendance despite verdict

NEW DELHI: Even as the Supreme Court rendered N Srinivasan ineligible to attend ICC meeting as BCCI repre-sentative, confusion remained over the Tamil Nadu strong-man’s participation in Tuesday’s Special General Meeting to dis-cuss a five-point agenda.

The Supreme Court has named joint secretary Amitabh Chaudhary and CEO Rahul Johri as the two representatives at the ICC Annual General Meeting on April 27 and 28.

“I don’t think there is any-thing that stops me from attending the SGM. But since you are asking me whether I am attending tomorrow (Tuesday) SGM, it is because you want a headline.

You won’t get it from me,” Srinivasan said.

Meanwhile, the SGM will now have a five-point agenda after the Supreme Court clari-fied on BCCI’s representatives.

“The primary discus-sion will be on ICC Gover-nance and Revenue structure. The pending legal issues and appointment of ombudsman will also be discussed,” a BCCI official said. The meeting will start at 5 pm in the evening.

“N Srinivasan cannot go (for ICC meeting),” a Bench headed by Justice Dipak Misra said.

“This person (Srinivasan) was held guilty by this court for conflict of interest and abuse of authority. He cannot go,” the Bench, also comprising Jus-tices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud, said, adding “a man, once having a conflict of interest, cannot go”. AGENCIES

Warner shines as Hyderabad reach 159/6 against KXIPHYDERABAD: Skipper David Warner top-scored with a 54-ball 70 as Sunrisers Hyder-abad reached 159 for six in their Indian Premier League (IPL) match against Kings XI Punjab here on Monday.

Warner added 60 valu-able runs with Naman Ojha (34), giving the innings some momentum after a slow start, which saw the home side score only 25 runs in the first five overs.

This was Warner’s 34th fifty, the most by any bats-man in the tournament, and his fifth straight against Kings XI Punjab.

Opting to field, Kings XI

Punjab bowlers were dis-ciplined in their approach on a pitch where shot-mak-ing was not the easiest thing in the world. Warner, however, was equal to the task on a day when Afghanistan’s Mohammad Nabi made his IPL debut.

Warner got to his half century off 45 balls when he tucked one past the keeper for a boundary in the innings’ 17th over.

Earlier, Sunrisers Hyder-abad were off to a slow start, and it was not till the second ball of the third over they got their first boundary.

Kings XI Punjab contin-ued to bowl a tight line and length and the reward came in

the form of Dhawan’s wicket, caught behind off a Mohit

Sharma bouncer in the fifth over.

Dhawan positioned him-self for the hook early as the ball slowly climbed at his right shoulder.

Having swiftly switched his stance, Warner’s reverse-ramp six past short third man broke the shackles in the sev-enth over, KC Cariappa being the bowler.

A couple of wickets by spinner Axar Patel, including Yuvraj Singh’s first-ball duck, and Sunrisers were struggling at 50 for three in the 10th over.

The hat-trick ball was negotiated by Naman Ojha, before the batsman scored a

few useful runs, using the long handle to good effect.

Rashid Khan finished the innings in style, pulling Sand-eep Sharma over long on for a six.

For Kings XI Pun-jab, Mohit Sharma and Axar Patel were the most successful bowlers, return-ing figures of 2/25 and 2/33 respectively.Brief scores: Sunrisers Hyderabad vs Kings XI Punjab SRH: 159/6 in 20 overs (David Warner 70 not out, Naman Ojha 33). KXIP: Mohit Sharma (2/25), Axar Patel (2/33). AGENCIES

IPL Preview: Gujarat bowlers face litmus test against RCB

RAJKOT: Struggling to find form after three losses in four matches, Gujarat Lions would look to make the home advan-tage count when they take on Royal Challengers Banga-lore in their IPL match here on Tuesday.

The Lions had a dream debut last season by finishing third. But, they are struggling this year, losing back to back games, against Kolkata Knight Riders at home and Sunrisers Hyderabad away, before regis-tering their first win of IPL-10 by beating Rising Pune Super-giant at home.

The Suresh Raina-led side suffered a six-wicket loss to Mumbai Indians on Sunday night and they are now at sev-enth spot, just above bottom-placed RCB, at the league table. The Lions will be looking to get back to winning ways at SCA stadium on Tuesday. Lions’ top order batsmen like Bren-don McCullum, Aaron Finch, Raina and Dinesh Karthik have been in good touch but the problem has been that they have not been firing in uni-son. West Indian all-rounder Dwayne Smith could not do score big against Mumbai, but is very destructive with McCul-lum as opener. Finch did not play the game against Mumbai duo to his missing cricket kit and would shoulder the Lions innings in lower order.

Bowling has been a mat-ter of concern for Lions in the first two matches where they picked up just one wicket, but the inclusion of Andrew Tye has added sting to the bowling attack. Tye made a dream debut against Pune by taking five wickets, including a hat-trick. He also picked up two wick-ets against Mumbai on Sunday. Praveen Kumar looked good in the first couple of overs and gave early breakthroughs for Lions against Pune and Mum-bai but he remained expensive in death overs. Munaf Patel played his first game yester-day and took one wicket while Kerala seamer Basil Thampi was also impressive against Mumbai.

The spin department still looked unimpressive even after return of Ravindra Jadeja who has been handy with both the bat and ball But, the other spinners like Shadab Jakati and Shivil Kaushik proved to be expensive when they were given a chance. Meanwhile, last year’s runners-up RCB have also been struggling, having lost four matches and won only one -- against Delhi Daredevils. They are now at the bottom of the eight-team table with two points from five matches.

Skipper Virat Kohli, who missed RCB’s first two matches due to shoulder injury, showed his class as he scored 62 in his first game of the tournament against KXIP. AGENCIES

My cameo was one of match-turning points: TiwaryBENGALURU: Rising Pune Supergiant batsman Manoj Tiwary described his 27-run cameo as one of the turning points of his side’s match against Royal Challengers Bangalore here and expressed happiness at the role he played in the win. Tiwary struck 27 from just 11 balls after RPS suffered a middle order collapse to take the team score to 161 for 8. RPS then restricted RCB to 134 for 9 to notch up a 27-run win. “There were lot of turning points. My innings at the end was important, that made 20-odd runs difference. Obviously we had a collapse in the middle order. We lost the momentum from there, he said. “It was not easy for batsman to rotate the strike. Obviously my innings proved im-portant to the team and also the contributions of others. It was a team effort,” he said. Tiwary said he was not surprised with his side’s 161/8 after being sent into bat because he knew the wicket was very difficult to play on. He said the bowlers did a fantastic job to restrict RCB to 134 for nine. “To be honest, I am not surprised because the amount of runs we put on was just enough. Rest was left for the bowlers to execute, and they executed the plan very well by bowling a lot of slow deliveries and slow cutters,” he said. Tiwary said read-ing bowlers’ mind was very important for him in the last phase of his side’s innings. He said before coming into this IPL season, he had made up his mind to build innings and go for aggressive strokes at the same time to have good strike rate, which is very important. AGENCIES

Vettori defends dropping Gayle against PuneBENGALURU: Royal Chal-lengers Bangalore head coach Daniel Vettori has defended the dropping of Chris Gayle to bring in Shane Watson in his side’s IPL match against Rising Pune Supergiant, saying he felt his team was a bowler short in the earlier matches.

“After the Mumbai Indi-ans game, we thought we had a bowler short and Wat-son gives us the opportunity as he is a proven performer with both bat and ball. He has been a wonderful Twenty20

all-rounder and we decided to back Watson for his all-round

skills, Vettori said after RCB lost to RPS by 27 runs here on

Sunday night.Watson failed miserably

both with the bat and ball. He conceded 44 runs in his four overs and made 14 while bat-ting as he fell to Ben Stokes at a crucial stage of the match.

Vettori said conceding far too many runs in the final cou-ple of overs after bowling tightly in the earlier 18 overs brought a lot of pressure on the team. “We bowled tightly in the first 18 overs but went away with the plan in the last two overs which cost us 30 runs. It was

15 runs too many and that put us under immense pressure,” Vettori said. On low-scoring nature of Chinnaswamy wicket so far, Vettori said it, however, made for entertaining cricket. “The Chinnaswamy wicket has not been a bad one for T20s.

It has been exciting for the bowlers. All the matches here have been entertaining. It is dif-ferent and we need to adapt.

We have not been able to mirror the performance we had against Delhi Daredevils,” Vet-tori said. AGENCIES

‘It was tough to make a comeback after injury’

NEW DELHI: Kolkata Knight Riders pacer Nathan Coulter-Nile, who picked up three wick-ets for 23 runs to help his side beat Delhi Daredevils said it was tough to make a comeback after an injury layoff. KKR on Monday defeated Daredevils by four wickets in a keenly-con-tested match and Coulter-Nile said he was happy to have con-tributed to the team’s success. “Making a comeback from injury, I had to focus on my role. Getting back was tough, it was long time out of the game. Probably it was hard years of my life. Playing T20 cricket, doing well and contributing to the win, all worth in the end,” the Australian said at the post-math press conference here.

Coulter-Nile and Sunil Narine controlled bowling effort restricted daredevils to 168 for seven, and then Yusuf Pathan (59) and Manish Pan-dey (69 not out) anchored the chase to perfection as KKR overwhelmed the target with a ball to spare. However, KKR were struggling at one stage with their top three batsmen back in the pavilion with the team scoreboard reading 21 for three. “We back our top-6 batsmen and losing one or two wickets at the top does not really bother us. Yusuf and Manish have been doing well and we back our middle and lower order to come good even if we lose wickets at the top,” said Coulter-Nile. AGENCIES

KKR batsman Manish Pandey celebrates his fifty during the match against Delhi Daredevils in New Delhi on Monday PIC/PTI

The Suresh Raina-led Gujarat Lions will be looking to get back to winning ways at SCA stadium on Tuesday

Naman Ojha and David Warner captain of Sunrisers Hyderabad during the match against the Kings XI Punjab in Hyderabad

mp sport 15UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE PREVIEWS

No Bale as Real Madrid gear up for Bayern return leg

MADRID: Bayern Munich face a familiar problem as they travel to old European foes Real Madrid on Tuesday needing to make history to keep faint hopes of Champions League glory alive.

Cristiano Ronaldo’s sec-ond-half double in Munich last week made him the first man to reach a century of European goals, but more importantly handed Madrid a vital 2-1 first leg lead.

The 11-time European champions have never failed to progress after winning the first leg away from home in the Champions League.

“It won’t be easy, we’re the underdogs, but we’ll have a chance to win in Madrid,” insisted Bayern captain Philipp Lahm after Saturday’s 0-0 draw at Bayer Leverkusen.

Recent history, though, would say otherwise.

Should Bayern fail to pull off a fightback, it will be the fourth successive season they have been eliminated by Span-ish opposition. When Pep Guardiola was hired as Bayern boss in 2013, he was expected by the Bavarians’ demand-ing hierarchy to build on Jupp

Heynckes’s treble and create a Bayern dynasty of the like that saw them win three consecu-tive European Cups between 1974-1976. Heynckes’s Bayern thrashed a worn down Barce-lona left behind by Guardiola a year earlier 7-0 on aggregate on their way to winning the Champions League.

However, the Germans have only known defeat in

four visits to Spain since with-out even scoring a goal. Guar-diola was humiliated on his three returns to Spain as Bay-ern boss in three semi-final, first legs on the way to elimi-nation against Real, Barcelona and Atletico Madrid. Carlo Ancelotti was named as Guar-diola’s replacement specifically for his European nous having won the Champions League a

record three times as a coach.Yet, the Italian hasn’t been

able to find a solution for Bay-ern’s Spanish travel sickness as they also lost 1-0 to Atletico on their most recent visit back in September. Bayern’s struggles tell a broader tale, though, as Spanish sides have won their last 11 European ties against German opponents in the past three seasons. With Ancelotti’s

men needing to score at least twice to have any chance of progressing, it is just as well top scorer Robert Lewandowski looks set to shake off a shoulder injury to start at the Bernabeu.

The Pole, who has scored 38 goals in 40 games this sea-son, missed the first leg and the stalemate against 10-man Leverkusen in which Bayern missed a host of chances.

“The chances we missed were fatal,” fumed Thomas Mueller, whilst former Bay-ern star Lothar Matthaeus said Lewandowski is simply “irre-placeable.” Lewandowski has haunted Madrid in the past, scoring four times in a famous semi-final, first leg rout for Borussia Dortmund on their way to the Champions League final in 2013. And if Bayern need more encouragement, Ancelotti has shown he can dramatically turn around his-toric streaks in the past. Before the 2013/14 season Madrid had won just once in 25 vis-its to Germany. However, after smashing Schalke 6-0 in Gelsenkirchen, they went onto eliminate both Dortmund and Bayern on their way to winning the competition. AGENCIES

Barca eye another famous comeback against Juve

PARIS: Little over a month after producing the great-est comeback in Champions League history, Barcelona need another special turnaround as they face Juventus in the sec-ond leg of their quarter-final on Wednesday.

Luis Enrique’s side were taken apart in the first leg in Turin, losing 3-0 to a Juve team inspired by Paulo Dybala, who scored twice. In the last 16 they became the first team ever to overturn a 4-0 deficit when they beat Paris Saint-Germain 6-1 in the return at the Camp Nou, so fans are hoping for a similar “remuntada” this time. “We are going to take as many risks as we need to the point that we could go out with eight strikers, as we have nothing to lose,” said Luis Enrique after Saturday’s 3-2 defeat of Real Sociedad. The Barcelona coach also called for supporters “to have faith in these players who have won everything. This is a squad of champions.” But he added: “The thing is that we are used to always eating beluga caviar. That can’t go on forever.” Barca welcome back midfielder Sergio Busquets from suspen-sion, while Juve are hopeful Dybala will be ready after he came off in the 2-0 weekend win at Pescara with a sprained ankle. In contrast to their fierce rivals, Real Madrid are very much on course for a semi-final berth after their 2-1 win away to Bayern Munich last week.

The sides clash at the San-tiago Bernabeu in Tuesday’s second leg with the Germans looking to become just the third side to overturn a first-leg home defeat to win a Cham-pions League tie.

Bayern coach Carlo Ance-lotti has fitness concerns with leading scorer Robert Lewan-dowski hopeful of returning from a shoulder injury.

Defenders Mats Hummels and Jerome Boateng are also

fighting to be fit, while Javi Martinez is suspended. Gareth Bale is struggling to shake off a calf problem for Real, who have lost just twice in 12 past home meetings with Bayern. Borus-sia Dortmund go to Monaco still shaken by the events of last week, when the first leg between the clubs was post-poned by 24 hours following the bomb attack on the Ger-man team’s bus en route to the game. Dortmund went on to lose 3-2 to the French league leaders but morale was lifted as they got back to winning ways in the Bundesliga at the weekend, beating Eintracht Frankfurt 3-1. After that game, the Dortmund players paid tribute to defender Marc Bartra by holding his num-ber five shirt aloft as they cel-ebrated in front of their fans. Spanish international Bartra had earlier been released from hospital after having surgery on a broken wrist suffered in the attack.

“This gesture shows how important the things off the field are to us at this moment, and that Marc gets better soon and that we are all still here,” said Dortmund captain Mar-cel Schmelzer.

Monaco, looking to become the first French side in the Champions League

semi-finals since Lyon seven years ago, are missing the banned Fabinho as well as Dji-bril Sidibe, who is recovering from appendicitis. Leicester City have defensive concerns as they look to turn around a 1-0 deficit when they host last season’s runners-up Atletico Madrid. AGENCIES

AFC Cup Preview: Focus back on Asia as Bengaluru face Abahani today

BENGALURU: Bengaluru FC will have to switch gears and shrug off fatigue as they get ready to host Bangla-desh side Abahani Limited Dhaka in an AFC Cup group stage fixture here on Tuesday.

The Blues, who lead Group E with two wins from as many games, made the ardu-ous trip to Shillong over the weekend where they beat Lajong 2-0 in the I-League and Albert Roca said his side will have their work cut out against Abahani.

“The schedules haven’t made things easy for us but we’ve never been a team that moans. We’re hoping to handle this situation as well as we can. The new format of the AFC Cup doesn’t allow us the lux-ury of even one bad game, so we’re going to have to put everything behind us and get the job done.” However, Roca will not be on the touchline for the fixture as he will be serv-ing a one-game suspension for

his sending-off in the win over Maziya S&RC, leaving Blues’ assistant coach Carles Cuadrat in charge of things.

Bengaluru’s suspen-sion woes don’t end with the Spaniard as midfielder Cameron Watson and defender Sandesh Jhin-gan too will sit out of the game after having picked two cautions each. “Cameron and Sandesh are vital players

and will be missed, but we have a squad that’s capable of step-ping up when the need arises,” said Roca, add-ing that a call on goalkeeper Amrinder Singh’s avail-ability will be a late one. CK Vineeth and Udanta Singh, who were unused substitutes against Lajong, may also be left out of the squad as they recover from injuries.

Abahani haven’t had

the best of starts to what is their debut AFC Cup cam-paign, going down 2-0 to Maziya at home and 3-1 to Mohun Bagan.

Interestingly, Abah-ani coach Drago Mamic has an Indian connect in that he was coach of I-League side Churchill Brothers in the 2010-11 season. AGENCIES

Morgan resigns as East Bengal coach

India U-17 team to

begin practice match today

KOLKATA: After four back-to-back losses in the I-League football championship, under-fire East Bengal chief coach Trevor Morgan resigned on Monday.

East Bengal lost to DSK Shivajians 0-1 a week after going down 1-2 to arch-rivals Mohun Bagan. Previ-ously, Chennai City FC and Churchill Brothers too beat them away and at home, respectively.

With only two matches remaining, East Bengal are six points behind league leaders and arch-foes Mohun Bagan.

“I have got the resig-nation letter from Trevor. I don’t know about the future course of action. You should talk to the club secretary (Kalyan Majumder) to know about it,” said San-

tosh Bhattacharya, the foot-ball secretary who played the pivotal role in ensuring Mor-gan comes back for a second innings in Kolkata.

Manoranjan Bhattacha-rya and Tushar Rakshit will be taking charge of the

red and gold brigade for the remainder of the I-League season.East Bengal (27 points from 16 matches) will play Minerva Punjab FC and Mumbai FC in their two remaining matches in the I-League. AGENCIES

NEW DELHI: The Indian Under-17 World Cup foot-ball team will face Portugal’s Vitoria de Setubal side on Tuesday in their first prac-tice match of the exposure trip of Europe.

After taking on Vito-ria de Setubal at Troia, the team will cross swords against leading Portuguese club sides Belenenses, Ben-fica, Estoril and Sporting Club Portugal.

The players had left the Indian shores on April 11 and will be in the Portugal capital of Lisbon till May 15 before proceeding to France to face Paris Saint-Germain’s U-17 Team.

The Luis Norton de Nor-ton’s men are also sched-uled to take part in the Lazio Cup and play a series of practice matches in Italy, France and Hungary amongst others. AGENCIES

In the earlier leg, Juventus ran away to victory riding Dybala’s brace

Real Madrid’s Cristiano Ronaldo (center) at a training session at the Valdebebas stadium PIC/AP/PTI

The Blues, who lead Group E made the arduous trip to Shillong over the weekend where they beat Lajong 2-0 in the I-League and Albert Roca said his side will have their work cut out against Abahani

Bengaluru players (in white) in action against Maziya in an AFC Cup Group stage match

Leicester’s Morgan fit to face AtleticoLEICESTER: English football champions Leicester City trained on Monday for the second leg of the Champions League quarter-finals against Atletico Ma-drid at the King Power stadium, as central defender Wes Mor-gan as well as Yohan Benalouane attended the training session after recovering from injuries. AGENCIES

Match abandoned after Bastia fans attack Lyon players

BASTIA: Bastia’s home game with Lyon in French Ligue 1 was abandoned at half time after supporters of the Cor-sican side twice invaded the pitch and attacked the visiting players. A hardcore section of home fans at Bastia’s Armand Cesari stadium targeted Lyon’s players as they warmed up before the game, causing it to be delayed by more than 50 minutes, and then again as the two sides went in for the break with the score at 0-0. “We must stop, we must stop, they hit the players,” Lyon coach Bruno Genesio told club presi-dent Jean-Michel Aulas in the corridors of the stadium. Bot-tom-of-the-table Bastia are

likely to have points deducted for the latest trouble involving their supporters. Bastia were punished in February over racist abuse directed at Nice striker Mario Balotelli while the Nice team bus had its win-dows smashed. “Following the new incident at the end of the first period, the LFP decided to definitively stop the game between Bastia and Lyon,” the French professional football league said. In the first inci-dent Lyon players fled to the dressing rooms and kick-off was consequently delayed as captains and officials from the two teams and league officials held talks over whether the game should go ahead. AGENCIES

millenniumpost NO H ALF TR U THS

millenniumpost.in

I, Tanushree Dasgupta Saha W/o Sh. Debashis Saha R/o A1/52 1st Floor Panchsheel Enclave New Delhi 110017 have changed my name from Tanushree Dasgupta to Tanushree Dasgupta Saha for all future purposes.

I, Asgar F/o Aashifa Khan R/o 159/10, Village-Jharera, Delhi Cantt, New Delhi-10. That my daughter’s name is Aashifa Khan her name mistakely written in the Secondary 9th class and 10th class marksheet is Aashifa urf Sania Khan. That I have changed my daughter name from Aashifa Urf Sania Khan to Aashifa Khan for all purposes.

I, Rajiv Arora F/o Rushel Arora R/o 187-A/1, Ground Floor, Jeewan Nagar, New Delhi -14 have changed my minor daughter name from Rushel to Rushel Arora for all future purposes.

I, Ram Krishan S/o Ram Samujh R/o G-68, Gali No.2, Shastri Park Delhi -53. That in my son Vansh Bith certificate issued by ESI Hospital Jhilmil Delhi my name mentioned wrongly as Kishan Lal instead of Ram Krishan. That Kishan Lal and Ram Krishan both are same name and sane person. That in future I will be known as Ram Krishan for all purposes.

I, Ravindra Nath S/o Late Sh. Bansidhar R/o 553, Pocket E Mayur Vihar Phase-II Delhi -91 have changed my name to Ravindra Nath Sharma.

CHANGE OF NAME

Additional Tribal Commissioner, Tribal Development Department, Nashik,

Government of Maharashtra Tender Second Extension Notice

Supply of Various Items to Government Ashramschools

Additional Tribal Commissioner, Tribal Development Department, Nashik, Government of Maharashtra are inviting Competitive Tenders from Recognised and expe-rienced Manufacturer/Company/Institution/ Retailer to Supply Items to Government Ashramschools vide sepa-rate Tenders. The tenders with low response are given First Extension. As the following tenders again get low response, these tenders are given Second Extension List of Tenders as given below, 1 ) Supply of Eggs (Hen Eggs) to Government Ashramschools Desired Tenderers may visit http://maharashtra.etenders.in/ or http://mahatribal.gov.in websites for detail Tender documents. Only Online Tenders will be accepted & date 24.04.2017 & time 5.00 p.m. is the Final time limit to submit Tenders Online.

Sd/-

(Madhukar Gaikwad) Additional Tribal Commissioner,

Tribal Development Department, Nashik Government of Maharashtra

D.G.I.P.R. 2017/2018/212

GOVERNMENT OF MAHARASHTRA WATER RESOURCES DEPARTMENT

E-Tender Notice No. 01,02,03 & 04 for 2017-2018

E-Tender for Mechanical Works of Renovation of Lift Irrigation Scheme on Tapi River in Nandurbar and Dhule District are invited from contractor Registered with Mechanical Organization Class Category ‘A’ and above [ As per Governments GR. Misc.( 10-09/57/25/09) Mechanical Man-tralaya Mumbai - 32 Dated - 29/07/2011]

Blank Tender forms will be available on Government website “https://mahatenders.gov.in “ form 18/04/2017 to 12/05/2017

EXECUTIVE ENGINEER Mechanical Divisional Unit,

D.G.I.P.R. 2017/2018/203 Jalgaon

MILLENNIUM POST | New Delhi |Tuesday, 18 April, 2017

NEW YORK: Priyanka Chopra is set to return to India this week but the actor is a little upset as she has to bid adieu to NYC, where she has been living for the past one year.

Taking to Twitter, the 34-year-old star says she is dealing with ‘conflicted emotions’ as it is her “last official week in NYC”.

“Packing up the house is such a con-flicted emotion! so many things pop out that you didn’t remember... Last official week in NYC until next time,” she wrote.

Priyanka, who is popular in the west for ‘Quantico’, wrapped up filming the second season of the American TV show last month.

There were reports that the actor had signed a contract with ABC studios and the ‘Quantico’ producers, indicating a strong possibility of a season three for the show but official word on the same is still yet to come from the showrunners.

Priyanka will head to the US again in May for the promotions of her first Hollywood movie Baywatch.

The upcoming American action-

comedy film, based on the television series of the same name will feature Priyanka as the antagonist Victoria Leeds. Directed by Seth Gordon, it also

stars Dwayne Johnson, Zac Efron, Alex-andra Daddario and Kelly Rohrbach. The film will be released by Paramount Pictures on May 25. PTI

mp Entertainment16 MILLENNIUM POST | New Delhi | Tuesday, 18 April, 2017

‘Didn’t make‘UDTA PUNJAB’

to win National award’

MUMBAI: Actor Alia Bhatt, who played the role of a Bihari migrant in Udta Punjab, said the film was not made with the intention of winning a National award.

Abhishek Chaubey’s Udta Punjab, which dealt with the issue of substance abuse in Punjab, failed to win an award in the 64th National Film Awards.

When asked how she felt on the film not getting recognition at the National awards, Alia said she did not feel bad, as the film had already been well received by the audience.

“When the film released, it got that appreciation and recogni-tion from the people. It’s not that National awards are not presti-gious, but it doesn’t take away the fact whatever the film has achieved.

“We did not make a film for that purpose, so it’s ok. An award is given when your efforts are rewarded. So,

the people who have won, have put in more efforts and have been rewarded, so you shouldn’t feel spiteful to somebody’s else’s win.That’s the wrong way of looking at it,” Alia told reporters here.

She was speaking on the sidelines of International Indian Film Acad-emy (IIFA) awards press meet of voting weekend.

Udta Punjab also had Shahid Kapoor, Kareena Kapoor and Diljit Dosanjh were in key roles.

Alia, who made her acting debut with Karan Johar’s Student of the Year, has delivered great performances in films like Highway, 2 States, Udta Punjab,

Dear Zindagi, doesn’t feel a sense of fulfilment yet in her career.Alia says there is still a lot for her to achieve.“It’s very boring to be feeling fulfilled at a given point. There is no

fulfilment, but there is gratitude for the opportunities that I have got.” Talking about the IIFA awards ceremony, she said, “It’s been five years

and I have not been to IIFA once. I am very happy as it’s happening in New York and I will be performing as well.

“I have not decided yet about my performance. I get bored by constantly dancing to my own songs. I try to be different so maybe I will perform on a mix of my songs and other songs,” she said. PTI

Alia Bhatt won the Best Actress award for her perfect portrayal of a gritty

migrant woman in Udta Punjab

Sushant kept me on my toes during Raabta shoot: Kriti

MUMBAI: Actor Kriti Sanon said her co-star Sushant Singh Rajput kept her on her toes during the shooting of their upcom-ing film Raabta.

“He (Sushant) is fabulous. He is an amazing actor so he keeps you on your toes. He gets into the skin of the char-acter and does a lot of homework in detail. If you have a good co-actor your performance also enhances,” Kriti told reporters.

The actor was talking on the side-lines of International Indian Film Acad-emy (IIFA) voting weekend press meet here today.

Ever since Sushant and Kriti began shooting for their upcoming romantic drama, reports of their growing closeness started doing the rounds.

When asked about the same, Kriti said, “It’s better to ignore them.”

The 26-year-old actor will be seen doing some action sequences in Raabta and she enjoyed every bit of it.

“There is a section in the film that requires action.”

“I always wanted to do it. So I am excited about it. It makes you feel little stronger when you doing and learning it. It is very difficult to do it. I have had lot of cuts and bruises but it was a great experi-ence,” she said.

Directed by Dinesh Vijan and pro-duced by Homi Adajania and T-Series, the film is set to release on June 9.

Kriti was last seen in 2015 Dilwale and had no release last year, but the actor said absence from big screen did not bother her.

“I was working constantly. If I am not

working and sitting at home then I get very restless. But I was constantly work-ing. I have finished ‘Raabta’ and ‘Bareily Ki Barfi’. I will have back-to-back releases. Release of a film is unfortunately not in my hands,” she said. PTI

MUMBAI: Twinkle Khanna is now popular among fans for her books and satirical columns and she says her father always knew about her hidden talent.

The 43-year-old star, who became India’s highest-selling female writer of 2015 with her book ‘Mrs Fun-nybones’, says her actor father Rajesh Khanna always wanted her to write.

“Dad always said I should be a writer – was proud of my maggot filled poetry – would’ve been beaming that I got that paper in my hand eventu-ally,” Twinkle posted on Twitter on, while sharing one of her articles.

It has been more than 16 years since Twinkle has appeared in any film, she was last seen on the big screen in the movie Love Ke Liye Kuch Bhi Karega.

She has recently ventured into production with Pad Man starring Akshay Kumar, Sonam Kapoor and Radhika Apte. PTI

Dad always said I should be a writer:

Twinkle Khanna

Priyanka gets emotional on her ‘last official week’ in NYC

LOS ANGELES: Actor Jennifer Aniston is reportedly upset with her husband Justin Theroux’s intimate scene on television.

According to a report by In Touch magazine, the 48-year-old actor is upset with her husband’s love scene with co-star Carrie Coon in the season premiere of ‘The Leftovers’, reports aceshowbiz.com.

The magazine claims that when the Office Christmas Party actor accompanied her husband to the red carpet premiere earlier this month, she was taken aback by his love scene in the third and final season of the HBO show.

The publication states that “it was the last thing she wanted to see.”

The said scene features Theroux’s character hooking up with Coon’s.

When watching it at the premiere, “Jen squirmed in her seat” and “looked incredibly uncomfortable”, according to an onlooker.

A source couple said, “She freaked out at Justin for making her sit through the steamy scene without any prior knowl-edge of what was coming.”

The source further contends Aniston deemed it “one of the most uncomfortable experiences of her life” and “felt humiliated”. The publication goes on linking the “Horrible Bosses” actor’ reaction to her then-husband Brad Pitt having sex scenes with Angelina Jolie in Mr and Mrs Smith, a movie that eventually led to Aniston’s divorce.

A representative for Aniston told a website Gossip Cop, however, that all these claims are a “complete fabrication”. While it’s true that the actor accompanied her husband at ‘The Leftovers’ premiere, the rest of the contentions are false, the representative added. IANS

Is Aniston upset with Theroux’s intimate

scene on TV?

Luke Skywalker can turn to dark side in new ‘Star Wars’ filmLOS ANGELES: Actor Mark Hamill has hinted it is “possible” that Luke Skywalker could turn to the dark side in the forth-coming ‘Star Wars’ film.

Speaking at the celebration of the epic space opera franchise in Florida, the 65-year-old star discussed the path his character could take in The Last Jedi.

“It’s possible, anything is possible,” he said.The actor, however, quipped that he suffers from “short

term memory loss” and said he “lost credibility with the pub-lic through social media because I lie all the time”.

“And I post and exclusive look at the Episode VIII trailer and it’s a trailer on the back lot... It’s like the boy who cried wolf, nobody believes me,” he added. PTI

I got more time to explore in ‘Blacklist’ than ‘X-Men’: Famke

LOS ANGELES: With her portrayal of the red- haired mutant Jean Grey, Famke Jenssen became a favourite among X-Men fans but the actor believes there is a lot more to her side than the well-known movie character.

The 52-year-old actor says although working in the popular Hollywood movie series was a great experience, she did not get enough time to explore herself as Jean/Phoenix Force.

On the contrary, she had more time to nurture her role of Scottie Hargrave on TV show ‘The Blacklist: Redemp-tion’, which airs in India on Colors Infinity.

“They are very different parts. With Scottie Hargrave, I get much more time to explore her for one. I have been in the ‘X-Men’ movies, but they’re about so many different characters,” Famke said.

The American crime thriller, about the president of a privately owned company, who has a bunch of mercenar-ies working for her, is a spin-off from the NBC series ‘The Blacklist’.

“Scottie Hargrave is just very unique. She’s very strong on the one hand and very vulnerable on the other. She’s such an interesting woman. It was this dichotomy in her person-ality that I really wanted to put on the screen because it’s rare to get to play somebody like that.”

Over the years, Famke has worked in various films and TV shows and the actor says both the mediums have their own challenges.

“Television definitely works differently from films. You don’t know the whole character. It’s a little bit challenging at times as I have to create a character only knowing part of who she is and then having to find out along with everyone else more about her. It was much faster in terms of how you film a movie. So, it’s just a different way of working, but I really love it. I’m having a great time.” PTI