T he Supreme Court on Thursday agreed to hear the plea of Noida Toll Bridge Company Ltd against an Allahabad High Court order making the DND Flyway toll- free. The company whose shares plunged by 20 per cent on the stock exchanges on Thursday has sought a stay of the HC order. Senior advocate Shyam Divan appeared for the toll agent and requested the Bench, head- ed by Justice AR Dave, to list the case for urgent hearing. The Bench asked the company to ful- fill all formalities required to list a case on an urgent basis. When this was done, the court listed the case before the Bench headed by Chief Justice TS Thakur. The DND Flyway, a major link road connecting south Delhi to Noida and East Delhi since 2001, is facing a legal chal- lenge from the Federation of Noida Residents Welfare Association. The Association had approached the Allahabad High Court against the contin- ued toll collection despite the recovery of construction cost. Dealing with the PIL filed by the residents' association, the HC said, "The user fee which is being levied/realized is not supported by the legal provisions relied upon by the Concessionaire (Noida Toll Bridge Company), Continued on Page 4 H eavy exchange of fire along the International Border (IB) across Jammu frontier claimed the life of a BSF Head Constable on Thursday while Pakistan-sponsored infiltrators killed a soldier and injured another one in Tangdhar sector of north Kashmir. However, the Indian Army foiled an infiltra- tion bid. The BSF also claimed to have killed one Pakistan Ranger and injured another one in retaliation. The State remained on the edge as eight civilians were injured in firing by Pakistan Rangers even as normal life remained paralyzed in capital Srinagar. So far three BSF per- sonnel have attained martyr- dom in the fresh flare up of ten- sions along the IB. In strong retaliation, the BSF also claimed to have killed one Pakistan Ranger and injured another one in intense firing. The BSF is also learnt to have caused extensive damage to at least six border outposts on the Pakistani side of the border. The Pakistan Army on Thursday evening intensified shelling in Mankote, Mendhar and Balakote sectors along the Line of Control (LoC) in Poonch district. According to field reports, the Pakistan Army was pound- ing several forward villages using 82 mm mortars and heavy weapons. Continued on Page 4 T he Asian Development Bank (ADB) has refused to commit funds for Pakistan’s $14 billion dam project on the Indus river in Pakistan-occu- pied Kashmir (PoK), two years after the World Bank declined to fund the project following Islamabad’s refusal to seek an NoC from India. “We did not really make any commitment. This is a very big project,” ADB president Takehiko Nakao said on Wednesday at a joint news conference with Finance Minister Ishaq Dar on the con- clusion of the 15th ministerial meeting of the Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation programme. “We haven’t decided (whether to fund) this project,” he said, adding that the ADB might consider joining the financing of this project at a later date, the Dawn reported. Islamabad has consistently failed to attract foreign lenders for the project. Continued on Page 4 T he Delhi Police in concert with the Central Intelligence agencies has bust- ed a spy ring with a Pakistani diplomat as its 'kingpin'. The diplomat, Mehmood Akhtar, working for Pakistan's notori- ous spy agency Inter Services Intelligence (ISI), was detained by the Delhi Police on Thursday for alleged possession of sensitive Defence and Intelligence-related documents, and was immediately declared persona non-grata. Acting on specific inputs, a team of the Crime Branch of the Delhi Police apprehended Akhtar and two others -- iden- tified as Maulana Ramzan (55) and Subhash Jangir (35) -- from Delhi zoo on Wednesday. The Delhi Police also arrested the third accused Shoaib from Rajasthan. He is being brought to Delhi for interrogation, they said. A case has been registered in this regard under Sections 3 and 9 of the Official Secrets Act, 1923 against them at the Crime Branch police station at Chanakyapuri. It has been revealed that Akhtar was posted at Pakistani High Commission for the spe- cific purpose of activating "Sleeper Cells" across the coun- try for launching terrorist strikes. He had become hyper active after the Indian forces carried out surgical strikes across the Line of Control (LoC) to avenge Uri terror attack. Akhtar was reportedly directed by his seniors at GHQ Rawalpindi and Islamabad to provide all the necessary logis- tics to 'Sleeper Cells' to carry out terrorist attacks to teach Indians a lesson. Well-placed sources told The Pioneer that there were five more staffers/diplomats at Pakistani High Commission actively involved the espionage racket other than the diplo- matic duties. Joint Commissioner of Police, Crime Branch, Ravindra Yadav said that Ramzan and Jangir, who are residents of Nangaur district in Rajasthan, would come down to Delhi once every month to give clas- sified documents with Akhtar. "Secret Defence-related maps and deployment charts of border areas, several lists hav- ing details of BSF serving and retired personnel, forged Aadhaar card and several visa- related documents, Photos of security/ military establish- ments, among other docu- ments were recovered from their possession," added Yadav. Continued on Page 4 H ours after the Delhi Police detained a Pakistan High Commission staffer on espi- onage charges on Wednesday, Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar on Thursday summoned Pakistan High Commissioner Abdul Basit and informed him that the accused Mehmood Akhtar has been declared per- sona non grata. Basit was also told that Akhtar, who worked in the visa division of mission, must leave India with his fam- ily within 48 hours. The Foreign Secretary also strongly conveyed to the Pakistan High Commissioner that he must ensure that none of its members indulge in activ- ities inimical to India, or behave in a manner that is incompatible with their diplo- matic status. The Pakistani spy was working as assistant to Farooq Habib, counselor trade in Pakistan High Commission. "Following Intelligence inputs for the last six months relating to espionage on vital installa- tions of Army and paramilitary forces, Mehmood Akhtar was intercepted by the Delhi Police in the forenoon of yesterday while he was receiving sensitive document pertaining to the national security of India from two persons," said Ministry of External Affairs Spokesperson Vikas Swarup. Denying allegations by Pakistan that Akhtar was 'lift- ed on unsubstantial charges and manhandled', Swarup said Akhtra first claimed to be Indian and showed fake Aadhaar Card, but later on dur- ing interrogation he said he was a Pak High Commission staff following which Delhi Police informed the MEA. Continued on Page 4 R ubbishing Cyrus Mistry's claims that he was made a lame-duck chairman, Tata Sons on Thursday said he was fully empowered to lead the group and its companies but had "overwhelmingly" lost the con- fidence of board members. Hitting out at his malicious claims against Tata group com- panies and others, Tata Sons said it would respond to these allegations in an appropriate manner. "The correspondence makes unsubstantiated claims and malicious allegations, cast- ing aspersions on the Tata group, the Tata Sons board and several Tata group companies and some respected individu- als. These will be responded in an appropriate manner," Tata Sons said in a statement. On Mistry's malicious claims, the statement further said, "As the executive chair- man, he was fully empowered to lead the group and its com- panies. It is unfortunate that it is only on his removal that alle- gations and misrepresentation of facts are being made about business decisions that the for- mer chairman was party to over a decade in different capacities." With the contents of Mistry's letter, which he wrote to its Board members after being sacked, becoming public, Tata Sons regretted that a com- munication marked confiden- tial to Tata Sons board mem- bers has been made public in an unseemly and undignified manner. The promoter com- pany of the major Tata group companies also alleged that Mistry's tenure was marked by repeated departures from the culture and ethos of the group. Continued on Page 4 New Delhi: After ousted Tata Sons chairman Cyrus Mistry raised ethical concerns in Tata group’s aviation joint venture with Air Asia, alleging fraudu- lent transactions at AirAsia India, Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju on Thursday said, “Laws have to be followed. Whatever (issue) any- body raises, they will have to be looked into.” Detailed report on P10 New Delhi: Clearing the decks for auctioning of the iconic Taj Mansingh Hotel in the nation- al Capital, the Delhi High Court on Thursday dismissed Indian Hotels Company Ltd's (IHCL) plea challenging the move by the New Delhi Municipal Council, saying the firm has "no right" for renew- al of the licence period. IHCL had challenged the September 5 judgment of a single judge. Detailed story on P3 RNI Regn. No. CHHENG/2012/42718, Postal Reg. No. - RYP DN/34/2013-2015
the plea of Noida Toll BridgeCompany Ltd against anAllahabad High Court ordermaking the DND Flyway toll-free. The company whoseshares plunged by 20 per centon the stock exchanges onThursday has sought a stay ofthe HC order.
Senior advocate ShyamDivan appeared for the toll agentand requested the Bench, head-ed by Justice AR Dave, to list thecase for urgent hearing. TheBench asked the company to ful-fill all formalities required to lista case on an urgent basis. Whenthis was done, the court listed thecase before the Bench headed byChief Justice TS Thakur.
The DND Flyway, a majorlink road connecting southDelhi to Noida and East Delhisince 2001, is facing a legal chal-lenge from the Federation ofNoida Residents WelfareAssociation. The Associationhad approached the AllahabadHigh Court against the contin-ued toll collection despite therecovery of construction cost.
Dealing with the PIL filedby the residents' association,the HC said, "The user feewhich is being levied/realizedis not supported by the legalprovisions relied upon by theConcessionaire (Noida TollBridge Company),
Continued on Page 4
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Heavy exchange of fire alongthe International Border
(IB) across Jammu frontierclaimed the life of a BSF HeadConstable on Thursday whilePakistan-sponsored infiltratorskilled a soldier and injuredanother one in Tangdhar sectorof north Kashmir. However, theIndian Army foiled an infiltra-tion bid. The BSF also claimedto have killed one PakistanRanger and injured anotherone in retaliation.
The State remained on theedge as eight civilians wereinjured in firing by PakistanRangers even as normal liferemained paralyzed in capitalSrinagar. So far three BSF per-sonnel have attained martyr-dom in the fresh flare up of ten-sions along the IB.
In strong retaliation, theBSF also claimed to have killedone Pakistan Ranger andinjured another one in intensefiring. The BSF is also learnt tohave caused extensive damageto at least six border outposts onthe Pakistani side of the border.
The Pakistan Army onThursday evening intensified
shelling in Mankote, Mendharand Balakote sectors along theLine of Control (LoC) inPoonch district.
According to field reports,the Pakistan Army was pound-ing several forward villagesusing 82 mm mortars andheavy weapons.
Continued on Page 4
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The Asian DevelopmentBank (ADB) has refused to
commit funds for Pakistan’s$14 billion dam project on theIndus river in Pakistan-occu-pied Kashmir (PoK), two yearsafter the World Bank declinedto fund the project followingIslamabad’s refusal to seek anNoC from India.
“We did not really makeany commitment. This is a verybig project,” ADB presidentTakehiko Nakao said onWednesday at a joint newsconference with FinanceMinister Ishaq Dar on the con-clusion of the 15th ministerialmeeting of the Central AsiaRegional EconomicCooperation programme.
“We haven’t decided(whether to fund) this project,”he said, adding that the ADBmight consider joining thefinancing of this project at alater date, the Dawn reported.Islamabad has consistentlyfailed to attract foreign lendersfor the project.
Continued on Page 4
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The Delhi Police in concertwith the Central
Intelligence agencies has bust-ed a spy ring with a Pakistanidiplomat as its 'kingpin'. Thediplomat, Mehmood Akhtar,working for Pakistan's notori-ous spy agency Inter ServicesIntelligence (ISI), was detainedby the Delhi Police onThursday for alleged possessionof sensitive Defence andIntelligence-related documents,and was immediately declaredpersona non-grata.
Acting on specific inputs,a team of the Crime Branch ofthe Delhi Police apprehendedAkhtar and two others -- iden-tified as Maulana Ramzan (55)and Subhash Jangir (35) --from Delhi zoo on Wednesday.The Delhi Police also arrestedthe third accused Shoaib fromRajasthan. He is being broughtto Delhi for interrogation, theysaid. A case has been registeredin this regard under Sections 3and 9 of the Official SecretsAct, 1923 against them at theCrime Branch police station atChanakyapuri.
It has been revealed thatAkhtar was posted at PakistaniHigh Commission for the spe-
cific purpose of activating"Sleeper Cells" across the coun-try for launching terroriststrikes. He had become hyperactive after the Indian forcescarried out surgical strikesacross the Line of Control(LoC) to avenge Uri terrorattack. Akhtar was reportedlydirected by his seniors at GHQRawalpindi and Islamabad toprovide all the necessary logis-tics to 'Sleeper Cells' to carryout terrorist attacks to teach
Indians a lesson.Well-placed sources told
The Pioneer that there werefive more staffers/diplomats atPakistani High Commissionactively involved the espionageracket other than the diplo-matic duties.
Joint Commissioner ofPolice, Crime Branch, RavindraYadav said that Ramzan andJangir, who are residents ofNangaur district in Rajasthan,would come down to Delhi
once every month to give clas-sified documents with Akhtar.
"Secret Defence-relatedmaps and deployment charts ofborder areas, several lists hav-ing details of BSF serving andretired personnel, forgedAadhaar card and several visa-related documents, Photos ofsecurity/ military establish-ments, among other docu-ments were recovered fromtheir possession," added Yadav.
Continued on Page 4
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Hours after the Delhi Policedetained a Pakistan High
Commission staffer on espi-onage charges on Wednesday,Foreign Secretary S Jaishankaron Thursday summonedPakistan High CommissionerAbdul Basit and informed himthat the accused MehmoodAkhtar has been declared per-sona non grata. Basit was alsotold that Akhtar, who workedin the visa division of mission,must leave India with his fam-ily within 48 hours.
The Foreign Secretary alsostrongly conveyed to thePakistan High Commissionerthat he must ensure that noneof its members indulge in activ-ities inimical to India, orbehave in a manner that isincompatible with their diplo-matic status.
The Pakistani spy wasworking as assistant to FarooqHabib, counselor trade inPakistan High Commission."Following Intelligence inputsfor the last six months relatingto espionage on vital installa-tions of Army and paramilitaryforces, Mehmood Akhtar wasintercepted by the Delhi Police
in the forenoon of yesterdaywhile he was receiving sensitivedocument pertaining to thenational security of India fromtwo persons," said Ministry ofExternal Affairs SpokespersonVikas Swarup.
Denying allegations byPakistan that Akhtar was 'lift-ed on unsubstantial chargesand manhandled', Swarup saidAkhtra first claimed to beIndian and showed fakeAadhaar Card, but later on dur-ing interrogation he said he wasa Pak High Commission stafffollowing which Delhi Policeinformed the MEA.
Continued on Page 4
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Rubbishing Cyrus Mistry'sclaims that he was made a
lame-duck chairman, Tata Sonson Thursday said he was fullyempowered to lead the groupand its companies but had"overwhelmingly" lost the con-fidence of board members.Hitting out at his maliciousclaims against Tata group com-panies and others, Tata Sonssaid it would respond to theseallegations in an appropriatemanner.
"The correspondencemakes unsubstantiated claimsand malicious allegations, cast-ing aspersions on the Tatagroup, the Tata Sons board andseveral Tata group companies
and some respected individu-als. These will be responded inan appropriate manner," TataSons said in a statement.
On Mistry's maliciousclaims, the statement furthersaid, "As the executive chair-man, he was fully empoweredto lead the group and its com-panies. It is unfortunate that itis only on his removal that alle-gations and misrepresentationof facts are being made aboutbusiness decisions that the for-mer chairman was party toover a decade in differentcapacities."
With the contents of
Mistry's letter, which he wroteto its Board members afterbeing sacked, becoming public,Tata Sons regretted that a com-munication marked confiden-tial to Tata Sons board mem-bers has been made public inan unseemly and undignified
manner. The promoter com-pany of the major Tata groupcompanies also alleged thatMistry's tenure was marked byrepeated departures from theculture and ethos of the group.
New Delhi: After ousted TataSons chairman Cyrus Mistryraised ethical concerns in Tatagroup’s aviation joint venturewith Air Asia, alleging fraudu-lent transactions at AirAsiaIndia, Civil Aviation MinisterAshok Gajapathi Raju onThursday said, “Laws have to befollowed. Whatever (issue) any-body raises, they will have to belooked into.”
Detailed report on P10
New Delhi: Clearing the decksfor auctioning of the iconic TajMansingh Hotel in the nation-al Capital, the Delhi HighCourt on Thursday dismissedIndian Hotels Company Ltd's(IHCL) plea challenging themove by the New DelhiMunicipal Council, saying thefirm has "no right" for renew-al of the licence period. IHCLhad challenged the September5 judgment of a single judge.
Thursday announced digitisa-tion of academic certificatesand making them availableonline, that will also help checkthe menace of fake certificates.
The Cabinet cleared aNational Academic Depository(NAD) for school certificates,degrees and academic awardswhich will be operationalisedwithin three months.
“NAD will provide digitalor a printed copy of the degreeor academic award with secu-rity features to students orother authorised users. It willverify academic awards onlineon the same day of request ini-tiated by any authorised user.Students and employers canaccess the verified documentsdigitally. It will also help can-didates saving time which nowthey waste in completing ver-ification formalities especially
when they are an applicant inforeign institution,” HRDMinistry officials said.
The Union Cabinet accord-ed its approval for establish-ment and operationalisation ofNAD. “NAD would be estab-lished and operationalisedwithin the next three monthsand would be rolled outthroughout the country in2017-18,” an official statementissued after the Cabinet meet-ing said, adding that the moveis “aimed at bringing anotherdimension and enhancement
of the vision of Digital India”.The Depository would be
operationalised by NSDLDatabase Management(NDML) and CDSL Ventures(CVL) - two of the whollyowned subsidiaries of theDepositories registered underSecurities Exchange Board ofIndia (SEBI) Act, 1992.
Academic institutionswould be responsible for theauthenticity of data digitallyuploaded by them into thesystem. The depositories willensure the integrity of data.
The Depository will regis-ter educational institutions/boards/eligibility assessmentbodies, students and otherusers/verifying entities likebanks, employer companies,Government agencies and aca-demic institutions. “Requestsfor access to academic awards,for example, from potentialemployers, and academic insti-tutions would be only on thebasis of consent of the student,”said the statement.
NAD will maintain theauthenticity, integrity and con-fidentiality of its database. Itwill also train and facilitate aca-demic institutions/boards/ eli-gibility assessment bodies toefficiently lodge academicawards in the database.
The Finance Minister in hisBudget Speech of 2016-17 hadannounced to set up a digitaldepository for school learningcertificates, degrees and otheracademic awards, on the pat-tern of a Securities Depository.
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Amidst concern in thearmed forces over report-
ed lowering of status of its offi-cers vis-à-vis civilian staff, theDefence Ministry on Thursdaysaid there was no down grada-tion or change in existingequivalence of the servicesranks.
The clarification came afterDefence Minisster ManoharParrikar had to intervene in theissue when a circular datedOctober 18 issued by hisMinistry created a flutter in thearmed forces. Services person-nel were perturbed that theirstatus was lowered as per thisorder. Parrikar held a meetingof senior officers of theMinistry and Services on
Wednesday to address the con-cerns of the soldiers.
Moreover, Parrikar onTuesday said he will removeany anomalies if any withinseven days.
Mentioning this sequenceof events, Defence Ministry
officials said here on Thursday,there were reports in the mediaclaiming that the Governmenthas issued the new order low-ering the status of militaryofficers with respect to theircivilian counterparts in theArmed Forces Headquarters.
These reports, quoting aletter dated October 18, 2016issued by the Ministry, “areerroneously stating that theequivalence has been disturbedand status of Service officershas been downgrade,” a state-ment by the Defence Ministrysaid.
Maintaining that there wasno down-gradation or anychange in the existing equiva-lence of the Service rankswhatsoever, it said the existingfunctional equivalence as clar-ified in 1991 and further reit-erated in 1992, 2000, 2004 and2005 has only been re-affirmed.
Officials also said the pre-sent reiteration of rank equiv-alence, is only for matters ofassigning duties and function-al responsibilities already exist-
ing in different offices of therespective ServiceHeadquarters of the Army,Navy and Air Force havingcomponent of Service person-nel besides civilian officers.
It has no bearing on civil-ian employees outside theseoffices of the ServiceHeadquarters, the statementsaid.
There are nearly 500 civil-ian officers ranging from therank of Principal Director,Director, Joint Director, DeputySecretary and Under Secretary.The October 18 order asreported in the media said thestatus of Major General,Brigadier and Colonels wasdowngraded as compared tothe civilian ranks as mentionedabove.
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Ahead of Diwali, the UnionCabinet on Thursday
approved two per cent dearnessallowance and relief benefittingabout 50.68 lakh employeesand 54.24 lakh pensioners. Thedecision to provide two per centDA on basic pay was taken bythe Union Cabinet and will beeffective from July 1, 2016.
The 2 per cent DA willresult in annual burden of Rs5,622.10 crore, though for peri-od of 8 months (July-Februaryin 2016-17), it would be Rs3,748.06 crore. The centralgovernment had increased DAby 6 per cent to 125 per cent inMarch this year. DA was latermerged with the basic pay fol-lowing the implementation of7th Pay Commission.
“The Union Cabinet hasgiven its approval to release aninstallment of DA to CentralGovernment employees andDearness Relief (DR) toPensioners from July 1, 2016
representing an increase of 2 percent of the revised BasicPay/Pension, to compensate forprice rise,” a press statement said.
The Cabinet also approveda new productivity-linkedreward scheme for port anddock employees for the period2015-16 to 2017-18, a movethat would benefit about 37,870workers.
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Cabinet Committee onEconomic Affairs (CCEA)
approved the �500-crore specialhorticulture package to Jammu& Kashmir to help apple grow-ers rejuvenate old orchards andstart new ones. This is part ofthe �80,000-crore packageannounced for the State inNovember last year by PrimeMinister Narendra Modi todevelop infrastructure after the2014 floods.
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Despite China’s strong objec-tion to US Ambassador to
India Richard Verma’s recent visitto Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh,the Ministry of Home Affairs onThursday went ahead with clear-ing Dalai Lama’s visit there.
The Tibetan spiritual leaderwas extended an invitation byArunachal Chief Minister PemaKhandu to visit the seat ofTibetan monastery in March.
China terms parts ofArunachal as its territory, aclaim that India outrightly dis-misses. The visit is expected totrigger another bout of reactionfrom China, which on Mondaycriticised the AmericanAmbassador’s visit there sayinginvolvement of any third partyin the dispute will only com-plicate the matter. China alsoprotests over visits of IndianPrime Ministers and Presidentsto the State.
New Delhi slammed
China’s objection saying therewas nothing unusual aboutthe visit to the State that is anintegral part of India.
External Affairs Ministryspokesperson Vikas Swarupsaid Dalai Lama is a guest ofIndia and is free to travelacross the country. “Dalai Lamais a revered spiritual figure andan honoured guest of India. Heis absolutely free to travel to anypart of the country. It is a factthat he has a sizeable followingamong the Buddhists inArunachal Pradesh who like toseek his blessings. He has vis-ited the state in the past as welland we see nothing unusual ifhe visits again,” Swarup said.
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Global wildlife populationhas fallen by 58% since
1970 and could further declineby two-thirds by 2020, theLiving Planet Report releasedon Thursday stated. The reportplaced India fifth in terms ofcapacity to produce renewableresources and absorb spilloverwastes like carbon dioxide.
The report noted that foodproduction is primarily respon-sible for the destruction ofhabitats and over- exploita-tion of wildlife.”At present,agriculture occupies about one-third of the Earth's total landarea and accounts for almost 70per cent of water use.
While tracking over 14,000vertebrate populations of over3,700 species from 1970 to2012, it provides additionalevidence that the planet isentering a completely unchar-tered territory in history inwhich humanity is shapingchanges on Earth, including “apossible sixth mass extinction”.
The top threats to speciesare directly linked to humanactivities, including habitat loss,degradation and over- exploita-tion of wildlife, the report said.
“This places the world ona trajectory of a potential two-
thirds decline within a span ofthe half-century ending in2020,” WWF's Living PlanetReport 2016 said while high-lighting the magnitude ofhuman impact on the planetand the changes needed in theway society is fed and fuelled.
The report said food pro-duction to meet demands ofgrowing human population wasthe “primary” factor responsiblefor the destruction of habitatsand over-exploitation of wildlife.
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Prime Minister NarendraModi on Thursday told the
2104 batch of IAS officers toensure politics never overridespolicy. Modi also urged themto inculcate team spirit, andwork towards breaking silos, inwhatever capacity they serve, aPMO statement said.
Addressing the officers,Modi told them to use twotouchstones to help them in theirdecision-making: that the deci-sions should never be counter tonational interest, and that thedecisions should not harm thepoorest of the poor.
The IAS officers, who com-pleted their three-month stintat Centre as AssistantSecretaries, made eight pre-sentations before Modi on var-ious themes of governancesuch as DBT, Swachh Bharat, e-Courts, Tourism, Health andSatellite Applications inGovernance.
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The Supreme Court onThursday reserved its judg-
ment on the law barring appealon grounds of religion by elec-tion candidates. On the con-cluding day of arguments, theCourt said that keeping religionaloof from politics is not possi-ble and set out to determinehow a candidate who seeksvote on ground of religion,race, caste, community or lan-guage will fall foul of commit-ting a corrupt practice underelectoral law.
The seven-judgeConstitution bench on Thursdayreiterated that it will not revisitthe 1995 Supreme Court verdict
holding Hinduism to be a wayof life. Instead, the bench, com-prising Chief Justice TS Thakur,Justices SA Bobde, MB Lokur,Adarsh Goel, UU Lalit, DYChandrachud, and LN Rao, saidthat it will determine whether acorrupt practice under Section123(3) of Representation of
Peoples Act gets attracted whenthe candidate appeals to votersto vote on basis of his religion orthe voters’ religion or on a sim-ilar appeal by his agent or a thirdparty.
In the arguments beforethe Court, the petitioners sub-mitted that several registeredpolitical parties in the countrywere formed to protect religiousand linguistic minorities. Thebench agreed that even theConstitution so provided forreligion and state power to coa-lesce. States of MP, Rajasthan,Gujarat, Assam submitted thatwhile determining corrupt prac-tice, the Court should not deter-mine what political discourse inthe country should be.
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The Supreme Court onThursday deferred hear-
ing of a plea challenging SoniaGandhi’s election from RaeBareli Lok Sabha constituencyin 2014 on the issue of her cit-izenship and for allegedly play-ing the communal card to gar-ner Muslim votes.
A bench headed by JusticeAR Dave said a seven-judgeConstitution bench was alreadyhearing a matter on a similarissue and therefore it will notbe appropriate to take a view inthis matter now.
“Similar issue is being dealtwith by a seven-judgeConstitution bench. Let thatissue be decided. Then we cantake up this matter. We are notpassing any orders. If we takea view in this matter, then it willnot be appropriate as largerbench is hearing the issue,” thebench said.
The Allahabad High Courthad on July 11 dismissed a peti-tion filed under theRepresentation of People Act,1951 with costs and held thatthe election petition lackedmaterial facts and did not con-stitute a complete cause ofaction.
On the plea that Gandhihas committed “corrupt prac-tice” by allegedly seekingMuslim votes, the high courthad said it should be shownthat the act was done duringthe election campaign betweenthe date of her candidature andthe poll and she should havecommitted the act herself orthrough her agent or any otherperson with her consent toappeal for votes on ground ofher religion.
The election petition filedby one Ramesh Singh con-tended that Sonia Gandhi hasdual citizenship, as she is anItalian citizen by birth and theItalian law does not allow dualcitizenship.
He had also sought that herelection from Rae Bareli be set
aside as void and as she alleged-ly had got an appeal made toMuslim voters through theShahi Imam of Jama Masjid tovote for her and her party, theIndian National Congress,ahead of elections, whichamounted to corrupt practice.
The high court had said theallegation of corrupt practicewas based on news channelreports which were of no valueif it is without any further proofof what had actually happened.
It had said that thesereports cannot be taken intoconsideration unless it isaccompanied by the statementof the reporter who voiced thenews report in the TV channels.
widow of former ArunachalPradesh Chief MinisterKalikho Pul, from the State’sHayuliang Assembly seat wherethe bye-election is necessitatedfollowing his death while itannounced a total of 13 nameswhich included four for LokSabha and nine for Assemblyby-polls in six states.
Dasanglu is Pul's third wifeand will have the support of thePeople’s Party of Arunachal(PPA), which is in power in thestate and is a BJP ally.
The bye-elections to par-liamentary and Assembly seatsto be held on November 19.
Kalikho Pul, who splitCongress and became the ChiefMinister with the BJP’s support,
had to quit following aSupreme Court order and waslater found dead under myste-rious circumstances. It wassuspected to be a suicide.
Things again took a turn inthe state after Congress leaderand Chief Minister PemaKhandu walked out of hisparty with entire legislatureparty save one MLA andformed a regional outfit PPA.It joined hands with the BJP.
Party sources said they willseek Dasanglu’s election to theassembly uncontested andappeal to the opposition to notfield any candidate against her.
This apart, while GyanSingh and Manju Dadu will beBJP candidates from Shahdol(ST) Lok Sabha seat andNepanagar (ST) assembly seatin Madhya Pradesh. Shahdol isgoing to the polls following the
death of incumbent MP DalpatSingh Paraste, a BJP leader.
S Prabhu, MS Ramalingamand R Srinivasan are BJP nom-inees from Aravakurichi,Thanjavur andThiruparankundram Assemblyseats in Tamil Nadu whileHem Chandra Burman, AmbujMohanti and Biswajit Poddarhave been fielded from CoochBehar (SC) and Tamluk LokSabha seats and Monteswarassembly seat respectively inWest Bengal.
Sista Mohan Das andTapan Kumar Pal are the partycandidates from Barjala andKhowai assembly seats inTripura while Pradhan Baruahand Man Singh Rongpi havebeen fielded from LakhimpurLok Sabha seat andBaithalangso (ST) Assemblyseat in Assam.
this regard states that the coun-try happens to be one of themost vulnerable regions to cli-mate change, with the mean sealevel rise by 1.30mm/year overthe past several decades. A sealevel rise of 1 meter could per-manently submerge around14,000 square kilometers ofcoastal areas in India. WhileIndia has about 4% of theworld's freshwater resourcesranking it among the top tenwater rich countries, yet it is des-ignated a 'water stressed region.’
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The Supreme Court onThursday sought response
from Uttar PradeshGovernment on a plea of DelhiChief Minister Arvind Kejriwaland AAP leader KumarVishwas challenging the sum-mons issued to them by alower court in connection witha criminal case.
A bench headed by JusticeJS Kehar issued notice to UPgovernment and also grantedexemption to Kejriwal andVishwas from personal appear-ance. The AAP leaders hadapproached the apex courtagainst the October 24 verdictof Allahabad High Court dis-missing their pleas against sum-mons issued by a trial court inSultanpur on October 7.
During the last Lok Sabhaelections, an FIR was lodged bythe assistant election officer onApril 20, 2014, against Kejriwaland Vishwas under sectionsincluding 143 (punishment forunlawful assembly), 186(obstructing public servant indischarge of public functions),341 (wrongful restraint),353,171G (false statement in con-
CM Raman Singh on Thurs-day said that he would write
a letter to the Union RailwayMinistry stating that the youthfrom Chhattisgarh who hadcompleted their apprenticeshiptraining should be given priori-ty in ‘Group-C’ and ‘D’ jobs.
He was meeting citizens athis weekly 'Jandarsha pro-gramme at his official residencehere.
A delegation led by RajyaNirman Senani Sangh RaipurRegional President met the ChiefMinister and said that 600 youthhad undergone apprenticeship inthe Railways but till now theyhad not been provided withemployment.
Singh assured the youththat he would look into the mat-ter soon.
A delegation from villageSisdevri in Development PalariDevelopment blockBalodabazar-Batapara district ina memorandum mentioned thatsix acres of Government landhad been allocated for schoolbuilding and playground but agroup of citizens are using foragricultural purposes.
Singh took up the issue seri-ously and called upon theDistrict Collector to look into the
matter immediately and informthe higher authorities.
The Chief Minister alsosanctioned various develop-mental works worth Rs 27 lakhon the requests of villagers, peo-ple's representatives and delega-tions. The works include cul-verts, community halls and lay-ing of drains.
Singh also sanctionedfinancial assistance to 11 seri-ously ill patients from theSanjeevni Funds.
Thirty-nine patients wereexamined for diabetes andSickle cells at the stalls set-upat the Jandharshan pro-gramme.
The Bhilai MunicipalCorporation Councillor BhairiSingh Sonwani in a memo-randum said that the con-struction work of a schoolbuilding at Bhilai Nagar Ward
- 39 Purena had been stoppeddue to the passage of 11 k.v.electric pole nearby.
He requested the ChiefMinister to sanction the shift-ing of the pole.
Singh directed the com-plaint to the Managing Directorof Chhattisgarh State PowerDistribution Company Ltd forredressal of the grievance.
A citizens group from vil-lage Dodagaon Developmentblock Sitapur in DistrictSurguja requested the ChiefMinister to sanction a HighSchool Certificate ExaminationCentre. The school childrenhave to travel a distance of 32kilometer to write an exami-nation, they stated.
Singh directed the memo-randum to SecretaryMadhyamik Shiksha Mandal tolook into the matter. A citizens
group from village ParaskolDevelopment block SaraipaliDistrict Mahasamund request-ed the Chief Minister to sanc-tion 'Adarsh NaveenMahavidyala' at the village.Land is available and 40 grampanchayats had passed a reso-lution for the starting of theschool.
A delegation from villageB i h a r p u r D e v e l o p m e ntblock Odgee in Surajpurdistrict in a memorandumsaid that there is only oneGrameen Bank at the vil-lage on which people from36 surrounding villages aredependent. There is onlyone cashier at the bank.
The customers are fac-ing a lot of difficulties atthe bank. They demandedmore cashiers posted atthe bank.
�������� ������� 4�08�4
The ChhattisgarhGovernment will be estab-
lishing a solar power plant of200 Kv capacity at InternationalInstitute of InformationTechnology (IIIT) in the newcapital region here, officialsinformed.
It may also be recalled thatthe Chhattisgarh Government isin the process of converting theIIIT premises here into a ‘GreenCampus’.
The task involves plantinga huge number of trees in thecampus of the height of 6 to 7feet besides development of asprawling lawn in the campus,officials informed.
A large number of avenueplants would also be planted inthe campus.
Notably, the intake foradmissions to B.Tech (ECE)and B.Tech (CSE) had beenincreased this academic sessionby 20 seats each at Dr ShyamaPrasad Mukherjee InternationalInstitute of InformationTechnology (IIIT).
Previously the seatstrength was 40 each for cours-es which had now beenincreased to 60 each.
Notably, on June 23 lastyear, Union Minister of State forPower and Coal (Independentcharge) Piyush Goyal on hisvisit to Naya Raipur hadannounced to set up an
Innovation Lab on the newlybuilt IIIT campus within thenext two years.
The move would help stu-dents get an opportunity to takeup research and innovation pro-jects of their interest, he said.
Goyal was speaking afterinaugurating the IIIT campusbuilding at Naya Raipur adding,IIIT will become a catalyst ofgrowth in IT and Telecom sector.
"The institute will become acatalyst of growth in InformationTechnology and Telecom sectorin the coming days. Not only inChhattisgarh, but students fromthis institute will serve in theentire country," he had stated.
Spread over 50 acres of land,the state-of-art campus is joint-
ly built by Chhattisgarh govern-ment and NTPC Ltd at a cost ofRs 200 crore in Naya Raipur.
"With the collaboration ofNTPC, the State governmentwould establish an Innovation Labin the IIIT premises whererenowned scientists from eminentinstitutes across the world will becalled to guide the students to takeup research and technology pro-jects," he had stated.
The lab will provide anopportunity to students to show-case their talent in area of researchand innovation and will also helpgreatly in discovering and intro-ducing new technology in coal ,mining, power generation thoughthermal, solar and wind energy,Goyal said.
Appreciating the IIIT building,Goyal had stated, "It resembles thestructure of Belur Math founded bySwami Vivekanand...I hope the stu-dents will take it as an inspirationand excel in their future."
In his address Chief MinisterRaman Singh had stated that theState Government will take everypossible initiative to make thisinstitute- one of the best institutesof the country, he said.
Higher Education andTechnical Education MinisterPrem Prakash Pandey hadannounced in his address that inthis IIIT, 50 per cent seats will bereserved for youth of Chhattisgarh,15 per cent for NTPC and 35 perfor students from across thecountry and abroad.
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The Chhattisgarh MineralDevelopment Corporation
(CMDC) will soon take upmining of Bauxite inNarmadapur and Barimablocks in Surguja division ofthe State.
The mining block atNarmadapur is spread over inan area of 47.81 hectares and atBarima it is spread over an areaof 54.26 hectares, officialsinformed.
In July this year, ChiefMinister Raman Singh hadinformed the ChhattisgarhAssembly during the monsoon
session that Bauxite depositshave also been found in Jashpurdistrict of the State.
In a written reply to BJPmember Yudhhaveer SinghJudev, the Chief Minister
informed that there is no indi-cation of limestone depositsexisting in the district.
Notably, Chhattisgarhaccounted for 6.07 per cent ofthe total bauxite production inthe country in 2013-14, as perthe annual report of the UnionMinistry of Mines.
Gujarat had the maximum32.41 per cent share in bauxiteproduction while Jharkhandhad 10.53 percent share andMaharashtra had 9.51 per centshare.The remaining bauxiteproduction was reported fromGoa, Tamil Nadu andKarnataka, it stated.
Incidentally, the total value
of mineral production (exclud-ing atomic and minor miner-als) in the country during June2015 was Rs. 18194 crore. Thecontribution of coal was thehighest at Rs 6662 crore (37%).
Next in the order ofimportance were-- petroleum(crude) �. 5636 crore, iron oreRs 1847 crore, natural gas (uti-lized) �.. 2164 crore, lignite �.516 crore and limestone �..490 crore. These six mineralstogether contributed about95% of the total value of min-eral production in June 2015.
Moreover, Chhattisgarhhad 7.48 per cent share intotal value of mineral produc-
tion in the country during2014-15, according to theannual report of the UnionMinistry of Mines .
As per the report,Rajasthan had share of 11.49per cent, Gujarat ( 8.85 percent), Andhra Pradesh ( 8.25per cent), Chhattisgarh ( 7.48per cent) followed byJharkhand ( 7.37 per cent),Odisha ( 6.38 per cent),Maharashtra ( 5.35 per cent),Madhya Pradesh ( 4.70 percent), West Bengal ( 4.32 percent), Assam (4.04 per cent),Karnataka (2.96 per cent) andUttar Pradesh ( 2.72 per cent).
The remaining States and
Union Territories having indi-vidual share of less than 2.5 percent all together accounted forremaining of total value ofmineral production during theyear under review, the reportstated.
State-wise analysisrevealed that during 2014-15,the value of mineral productionhave shown a mixed trend ascompared to the previous year.
The states which haveindicated an increase in thevalue of mineral production are-- Tripura (14.3 per cent),Karnataka ( 1.6 per cent),Bihar (6.6 per cent), HimachalPradesh ( 16.5 per cent),
Mehgalaya ( 61.6 per cent),Uttar Pradesh ( 0.8 per cent)and Chhattisgarh ( 0.7 percent).
During 2014-15, mineralproduction was reported from33 states and union territorieswhich is actual reporting fromMineral Conservation andDevelopment Rules ( MCDR)and fuel minerals from 23states and estimation of minorminerals for all the 32 statesand union territories of whichthe bulk of value of mineralproduction of about 94.18 percent was confined to 13 states( including off shore areas)only, it stated.
�������� ������� ��D�4�08�4
A‘Master System Integrator’will manage the extraordi-
The Naya Raipur SmartCity System will compriseSmart Governance, CitySurveillance, IntelligentTransport managementSystem, Electricity and Watersupply and City Commandand Control Centre amongothers.
Notably, the Naya Raipuras a Smart City will leverage thecollective intelligence createdby connecting physical, insti-tutional, social and economicinfrastructure to deliver aquantum improvement in thequality of life of local popula-tion, they informed.
Notably, the new capitalcity of Chhattisgarh is a ‘greenfield’ city and is planned todevelop its infrastructure grad-ually in order to provide world
class amenities and facilities toits residents and visitors.
NRDA has taken the nextstep in “Smart City’ develop-ment with plans now for‘Information &
C o m m u n i c a t i o nTechnology” (ICT) enablementof infrastructure and citizenservices, officials informed
Notably, Naya Raipur isalready among five other citiesin the country chosen as‘Demonstration Cities’ for theCentre’s ambitious SustainableUrban Transport Project(SUTP).
The final five cities par-ticipating as 'DemonstrationCities' under Sustainable UrbanTransport Project (SUTP) are- Indore (Madhya Pradesh),Mysore (Karnataka), NayaRaipur (Chhattisgarh), Puneand Pimpri Chinchwad(Maharashtra).
Detailed project profileswere prepared by all cities withthe assistance of the SUTPConsultants and then endorsedby the SUTP Steering
Committee to be included toSUTP as ‘City DemonstrationProjects’, officials stated.
It plans of developing aproject comprising IT-enabled
systems to manage a host ofutilities using state-of-art tech-nology.
The design would com-prise IT enabled land manage-
ment system, city surveillancebesides a host of other systemstill now popular and beingused only in the developedcountries.
The other city manage-ment systems include intelli-gent lighting systems, pay anduse parking systems, city guidemap available through webbrowser, intelligent transportsystem, city level wi-fi touchscreens across the city, displayboards across the city for pro-viding real-time information,emergency alert and crisisresponse systems, traffic re-routing applications based onreal time traffic data.
The city would also havean Central Control Center formonitoring all the servicesincluding central traffic controland management system.
It may be recalled thatNaya Raipur has emerged inthe country with the largestland bank of a mammoth 237square kilometres ( 23,700hectares).
The NRDA has plans ofdeveloping a ‘Transport Hub’spread over an area of 161.9hectares in the new capitalcity.
The hub would include
setting up Light Rail TransportSystem (LRTS) stations. Thearea being earmarked for the'Transport Hub' would be 12.55per cent of the total area of thenew capital city, officials stat-ed.
Notably the Chhattisgarhgovernment will be utilizing‘Centralized ProjectManagement Software System’(CPMS) for automation ofProject Monitoring, Controllingand Reporting task for keyprojects undertaken in theentire State.
The Government is invest-ing significantly in the State tobuild physical Infrastructure -Highways, Bridges, Water &Electrical distribution systemetc.
In order to closely moni-tor and control these majorInfrastructure Projects frominception to closure,Government of Chhattisgarhwants to implement CentralizedProject Management System.
Chhattisgarh Infotech andbiotech Promotion Society
(CHiPS), is the nodal agency ofDepartment of InformationTechnology and Biotechnology,Government of Chhattisgarh inthe state of Chhattisgarh toimplement the software basedmonitoring project.
The Centralised projectmanagement software systemwould be used for monitoringwork of major departmentsand agencies such asChhattisgarh RoadDevelopment Corporation(CGRDC), Chhattisgarh StatePower DevelopmentCorporation Ltd (CSPDCL),Naya Raipur DevelopmentAuthority (NRDA), PublicWorks Department (PWD) andWater Resources Department(WRD).
This apart, a CentralizedProject Management Unit(CPMU) – Team of consultantswould work as an interfacebetween Secretariat andGovernment ImplementingDepartments and system inte-grators to ensure proper mon-itoring of the project works.
be setting up a public e-Libraryat Nehru Bhavan in Supelalocality of the steel city, officialsinformed.
Chief Minister RamanSingh in September this yearhad stated that under the SmartCity project, an amount of �2119 crore had been set apartfor implementation.
The target is to achieve theproject goals by 2020. About �882 crore is meant for develop-ing better sewerage facility and� 50 crore for developing gar-dens, the Chief Minister stated.
An amount of � 450 crore
had been allocated for waterfacility at Bhilai and Korbaunder the Amrut Mission.
The Chief Ministerinstructed the officials to pro-vide L.E.D. lighting arrange-ments on roads at Rajnandgaon,Raipur, Bilaspur , Bhilai, Korbaand Dhamtari within the nextsix months, he said.
Singh said that the toppriority is to provide electrici-ty, drinking water and roadconnectivity in the urbanregions. The State Governmentis assisting the local bodies inthis regard .
The Central governmentalso recently released the firstinstallment of � 55.29 crore out
of the approved Rs 573.40crore for State Annual ActionPlan (SAAP) under AMRUTproject for the current financialyear in Chhattisgarh.
The Union Ministry ofUrban Development has alreadyreleased Central Assistance of �1,062.27 crore to 13 States asfirst installment under AMRUTproject for the current financialyear, officials stated.
This is a part of totalCentral Assistance of � 5,311.38crore committed to 13 States forwhich the Ministry hasapproved Atal Mission ActionPlans for 2015-16 entailing totalinvestment of � .11,671.76crores in 286 cities in these
states. The Ministry has so far
cleared a total of 939 projectsfor 286 cities with most of themrelated to water supply andsewerage network services.
AMRUT project launchedin June last year aims at ensur-ing water supply connectionsand sewer connections to allurban households in 500 mis-sion cities besides supplyingwater at the norm of 135 litresper capita per day, on priority.Under this mission, construc-tion of storm water drains, pro-motion of non-motorisedurban transport, provision ofparks and green spaces also willbe supported.
The purpose of AMRUTis to ensure that every house-hold has access to a tap withassured supply of water and asewerage connection, increasein amenity value of cities bydeveloping greenery and wellmaintained open spaces (parks)and reduce pollution by switch-ing to public transport or con-structing facilities for non-motorized transport (like walk-ing and cycling).
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The State UrbanDevelopment Agency
(SUDA) will be setting up a‘Program Management Unit’ (PMU ) for Solid WasteManagement in Chhattisgarh,officials informed.
It may be recalled that forquick disposal of solid waste,which has remained a chal-lenge, the Chhattisgarh gov-ernment has also sought helpfrom Bhabha Atomic ResearchCenter (BARC), Mumbai.
Under the ‘Mission CleanCity’, for studying the quickcompost making process, ateam of officers from StateUrban Development Authority(SUDA) recently visited BARC,officials informed.
Notably, BARC which is apremier multi-disciplinaryNuclear Research Centre ofIndia, has successfully carriedout numerous research relatedto compost production fromsolid waste.
This premier institutionhas carried out research inproducing electricity fromwaste, CNG and cooking gas
from garbage. SUDA officials informed
that a team of scientists fromBARC will soon visit Raipurand will give a presentation totop administrative officials in
this regard. Notably, State government
has covered 158 towns underthe Mission Clean City underwhich door-to-door garbagecollection will be performed.
According to officials, thewet and dry garbage are sepa-rated and treated accordingly.Then compost is producedfrom the wet garbage while drywaste is sent for recycling pur-
pose. Notably, SUDA in
Chhattisgarh is in the processof preparing a Master Plan forimplementation of Solid WasteManagement Project in all the168 Urban Local Bodies(ULBs) of Chhattisgarh, offi-cials informed.
It will also get a feasibili-ty study and Detailed ProjectReport (DPR) prepared for allULBs in the State .
Meanwhile , it may berecalled that top brains cur-rently being nurtured in thecountry’s premier business andtechnology schools will soonget assignments to prepareurban development plans forcivic bodies in Chhattisgarh.
The Chhattisgarh UrbanAdministration andDevelopment Department hasdecided to invite interns com-prising mainly students andresearchers from renownedinstitutions like IITs and IIMswho would help in preparingbetter plans for management ofwater supply, low cost housing,sewerage management, solidwaste management, povertyeradication, study of various
State and Central schemesrelated to vehicular traffic man-agement in urban areas.
Moreover, as per officialinformation released duringMay this year, under theAMRUT Mission the ninemunicipal corporations-Raipur, Bilaspur, Durg, Bhilai,Korba, Rajnandgaon, Raigarh,Jagdalpur and Ambikapur-have been selected wherein‘Shahar Sandhan Yojna’ (CityResearch Scheme) will belaunched.
The scheme is aimed atutilizing the educationalknowledge of students andresearchers in better develop-ment of cities, officials said.
SUDA has already issueddirectives to all nine MunicipalCorporations in this regard.
The students in final yearof graduation or post gradu-ation studying Engineering,Management, Town Planning,Environment, Technology orSocial Studies will be eligiblefor carrying out the studies.The research scholars canalso take part in the studies invarious municipal corpora-tions.
Notably the RaipurMunicipal Corporation (RMC)would soon be setting up anOrganic Waste Converter (OWC ) for conversion oforganic waste generated dailyin the vegetable markets in thecity.
The waste collected wouldbe converted into organicmanure.
Notably, 100 per centdoor-to-door collection andwaste segregation would betaken up as per RMC’s ‘SmartCity’ plans.
It may be recalled that lastmonth, the ChhattisgarhGovernment decided to estab-lish composite production unitin vegetable markets of citiesacross the State for manufac-turing organic fertilizer usingfruits and vegetables.
SUDA has issued direc-tives to all 168 urban bodies tosend information about thevegetable markets in respectiveareas, where significant amountof fruit-vegetable waste isfound.
Commissioners ofMunicipal Corporations andChief Municipal Officers of
Municipal Councils and NagarPanchayats have been instruct-ed to send information withinthree days.
It is noteworthy thatAgriculture Department willset up composite productionunits in market.
Notably, in February thisyear, the Chhattisgarh gov-ernment had decided to set upa ‘Waste to Energy’ power gen-eration plant in Durg district.
The Government intendsto sign a Memorandum ofUnderstanding (MoU) withthe Bhilai Steel Plant (BSP)administration for jointly tak-ing up the project, officials hadinformed.
The project is proposed tobe undertaken under ‘SwachchBharat Abhiyan’ under theGovernment’s solid waste man-agement project.
The proposed ‘Waste toEnergy’ plant would utilisewaste generated from munici-pal corporations of Bhilai,Durg, Bhilai-Charoda, twomunicipal councils mainlyJamul and Kumhari and threeNagar Panchayats mainly Utai,Patan and Gunderdehi.
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From Page 1
Infrastructure Leaningand Financial Services (pro-moter and developer of theproject) and the NoidaAuthority." It further saidthat the right to levy and col-lect user fee from the com-muters under the conces-sion agreement "suffers fromexcessive delegation".
As per the concession-aire's own financial state-ments, it has recovered Rs810.18 crore (approx) fromtoll income from the date ofcommencement of the pro-ject till March 31, 2014. Afterdeduction of operation costs,maintenance expenses andcorporate Income-Tax, thesurplus was Rs 578.80 crore.
The company, however,maintained that it has thecontract for operating the9.2-kilometre stretch till2031, and the contract couldbe extended for a furtherper iod of two years .According to the DNDFlyway Director MonishaMacedo, the company wasstill trying to recover thecost of constructing the road.On the other hand, the PILpetitioners told the HC thattill date, the total collectionby way of toll added up toover Rs 2,000 crore, givingthem enough returns beyondthe cost of construction.
From Page 1 Repeated efforts to rope in
the World Bank as a co-lenderhad failed two years ago whenthe Government declined toseek a No objection Certificatefrom India for the project.
Instead, Pakistan accepteda funding offer from the World
Bank to start the DasuHydropower project, down-stream of Diamer-Bhasha. TheADB also advised the govern-ment to adopt a professionalapproach towards the con-struction of the big dam thatcannot be funded by a singleinstitution, country or groupgiven its mammoth financial
requirements and the risksinvolved.
As a way out, the ADBadvised Islamabad to restruc-ture the Diamer-Bhasha damproject by separating powergeneration, land acquisitionand main dam structures andtheir various modes of financ-ing. The ADB chief also cau-
tioned Pakistan to wiselyimplement projects under theUSD 46 bi l l ion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor(CPEC), another strategicproject opposed by India as itpasses through the PoK, andutilise their funds well so asto avoid debt or repaymentproblems.
��������"� ��555
From Page 1 "It is unfortunate that Mr
Mistry had overwhelminglylost the confidence of theMembers of the Board ofDirectors for a combination ofseveral factors," Tata Son said.
Stating that Mistry hasbeen on the Board of the com-pany since 2006 and wasappointed deputy chairman inNovember 2011 and formallyappointed Chairman onDecember 28, 2012, Tata Sonssaid he would be fully familiarwith the culture, ethos, gover-nance structure, financial andoperational imperatives of thegroup as well as its variouscompanies.
Reacting strongly to sever-al allegations made by Mistryin his letter to the Board mem-bers, Tata Sons said, "It isunforgivable that Mr Mistryhas attempted to besmirch theimage of the group in the eyesof the employees."
Tata Sons describedMistry's letter as an effort tolevel accusations against indi-viduals and company boardsfor 'ignoring corporate gover-nance norms" that were sup-posedly upheld by him while inoffice. It further asserted thatthere was a multitude ofrecords to show that the alle-gations made by him wereunwarranted.
"And these records will beduly disclosed before appro-priate forums, if and whennecessary, sufficiently justifyingthe decision made by respon-sible Boards of Directors, ofTata Sons and its group com-panies," the statement added.
Giving an account on whyMistry was replaced, the com-pany said, "The Directors of theTata Sons board had repeated-ly raised queries and concernson certain business issues, andTrustees of the Tata Trustswere increasingly getting con-cerned with the growing trust
deficit with Mr Mistry, butthese were not beingaddressed."
The Tata Sons board, in itscollective wisdom, took thedecision to replace itsChairman in the mannerundertaken, it added.Defending the decision of theboard, the company said itsdirectors were several eminentpersonalities from all walks oflife. "This is not a group of peo-ple who one would expect toact without exercising properjudgement in the best interestsof the entities they sit on theboards of," it said.
On the issue of the group'sdebt burden that Mistry hadhighlighted, Tata Sons said itsboard members have in thepast stressed on the need to bemore decisively focused onbringing down debt, sharpen-ing focus on both the portfo-lio and capital efficiency.Refusing to be drawn into apoint by point clarification ofMistry's letter, the companysaid, "It will be beneath the dig-nity of Tata Sons to engage ina public spat with regard to theseveral unfounded allegationsappearing in his leaked confi-dential statement. These alle-gations are not based on factsor the true state of affairs. It isconvenient to put selectiveinformation in the publicdomain to defend one's pointof view. The Tata way is to notrun away from problems, orconstantly complain aboutthem, but firmly deal withthem and build a better tomor-row."Tata Sons further said thestrength of the group was notjust confined to its value systemand ethics in the boardroombut to a very large extent by theadherence to the values by its6 lakh plus employees whosespirit and cooperation has builtthe group to where it is today.It said interim chairman RatanTata in his first interactionwith senior leaders has stressedon the need to continue focus-ing on building great busi-nesses while emphasising ondelivering strong shareholderreturns.
From Page 1 Panic-stricken villagers
have been camping insidebunkers and safer places toavoid getting hit by splinters.
This is for the first timethat Pakistani troops have acti-vated the entire stretch of theIB and the LoC in Jammuprovince. Senior Army andBSF officers were keeping aclose watch on the situation onthe frontiers and sending reg-ular updates to the UnionHome Ministry and DefenceMinistry.
Fresh exchange of firingwas also reported fromHiranagar and Samba sectorsin the evening. Twelve-year-oldSheetal Kumari and 35-year-old Reeta were injured in theintense border shelling inPansar Village of Hiranagar.
Several hundred peoplewere forced to shift to saferplaces even along the LoCwhile more villagers from theworst-hit areas of Hiranagar, RSPura, Arnia migrated to saferplaces ahead of Diwali.
The district authoritieshave pressed the State machin-ery into service to evacuate vil-lagers in bullet proof vehicles toprevent any loss of life.
A BSF spokesman said thata BSF Head Constable attainedmartyrdom after receiving afatal injury in RS Pura sectorlate on Wednesday night. "Hesuccumbed to his injuries whilehe was being shifted to a near-by hospital. The BSF HeadConstable has been identifiedas Jitendra Kumar of Motiharidistrict in Bihar. His mortalremains would be shifted to hisnative village on Friday after aceremonial farewell," he said.
"In response, BSF troops inArnia and RS Pura sectors killedone Pakistan Ranger and serious-ly injured another in the retaliato-ry firing," a senior BSF officer said.
Six civilians were injuredduring intense firing in RSPura and Arnia sectors alongthe IB in Jammu district.
Pakistan troops also vio-lated the ceasefire on the LoC
by resorting to firing inSunderbani sector of Rajouridistrict early in the morning.
Meanwhile, a soldier waskilled and another was injuredwhen security forces foiled aninfiltration bid in Tangdhar sec-tor of north Kashmir. Theinfiltration bid took place at atime when the troops along theentire stretch of LoC and IBwith Pakistan in Jammu &Kashmir are on a high alert dueto ingress attempts and cross-border shelling.
Sources said a gunfightand search operation continuedin the area till late in the night.They said that a group of mil-itants attempted to sneak intoKashmir Valley in Tangdhar onThursday afternoon. The groupwas challenged by the securityforces triggering a gunfightthat resulted in the death of asoldier.
"One soldier has laid downhis life and another is injured.The operation in the area iscontinuing," an Army officersaid. He said the operation wasin progress till the last reportscame in. The identity of theslain soldier was not ascer-tained immediately.
The infiltration bids con-tinued in the LoC areas despitea "surgical strike" launched bythe Indian troops onSeptember 29 that was aimedto smash the militant launchpads across the LoC. Fourinfiltration bids have beenfoiled since the strikes.
Defence sources said thatmilitants escalate infiltrationbids during the autumn monthsbefore the snowfall that forcesclosure of the mountain passesfor several months. Intelligencereports say that around 300 mil-itants were eagerly waiting tocross the LoC before the onsetof winter season. The Multi-Agency Centre headed byIntelligence Bureau has revealedthat as many as 87 militants haveinfiltrated into Kashmir by theSeptember-end. This indicatesthe rise in level of infiltration as33 militants had sneaked intoValley in the correspondingperiod last year.
0�����������!!!�From Page 1
"In keeping with the accept-ed norms for treatment of mem-bers of the Diplomatic Mission,he was treated with utmostcourtesy and handed over to adiplomat of the Pakistan HighCommission soon thereafter inthe presence of MEA official,"said Swarup. The official alsodenied Pak suggestions that thisincident is being used by Indiato divert international attentionfrom Kashmir.
"What has this detention todo with Kashmir? He wascaught red-handed and we havetaken appropriate action as war-ranted. More investigations willreveal how many more peopleare involved. We are happy tohave nipped this in the bud,"added Swarup.
From Page 1 Akhtar, a native of
Rawalpindi, is a servingHawaldar of Baloch regimentof Pakistani Army and was ondeputation to spy agency ISIsince 2013.
"Akhtar is the kingpin ofthe spy ring. The accused wereinvolved in espionage activitiesfor over a year-and-a-half. Wewere watching their activitiesfor past six months. On a spe-cific input, they were held onWednesday," said the Joint CP.
During interrogation,Akhtar said that he was post-ed in Pakistan HighCommission for last two-and-a-half years, police said.
It is also suspected that helured many people into the spy-ing ring by offering them goodmoney and that there was ahoney trap at play to lure peo-ple, said a senior police officer.
Police did not rule outinvolvement of BSF personnelin the racket. "The documentsrecovered from them couldn'thave been procured withoutthe help of someone privy tosuch sensitive information. Weare suspecting that they wereaided by some BSF personnelwho leaked the informationand documents to them," theysaid, adding, "We are investi-gating that aspect. We haveidentified some of the officersinvolved and we will be con-ducting a raid soon."
The Delhi Police hadreceived a tip-off that Akhtarwill be meeting Jangir andRamzan at the Delhi Zoo onOctober 26 around 10 am,said the officer.
A team of officers of CrimeBranch led by ACP SanjaySherawat under the supervisionof DCP Crime (South)Bhisham Singh laid a trap andcaught the trio while they werein the process of exchangingdocuments. Akhtar initiallyshowed an Aadhaar card in thename of Mehboob Rajput.
"He claimed to be a resi-dent of Chandni Chowk butafter sustained interrogation, herevealed his real nameMehmood Akhtar," said Yadav.
"He is serving withPakistan ISI and has got diplo-matic immunity since he is
posted in the Pakistan HighCommission of Delhi. Thiswas verified through MEA andafter confirmation and as perthe due procedures, he washanded over to the PakistanHigh Commission diplomats inthe presence of MEA repre-sentative," said Yadav.
Since Akhtar was workingin the visa department, it gaveeasy access to him to identifypeople who could work for himas spies. "He would chat up withpeople about their family back-ground and then start laying histrap. People who were finan-cially weak would be lured bypromising them big money,"said a senior police officer.
The officer said the honey-trap angle was also beingexplored. "From initial investi-gation, it has been revealed thatsome girls were exploited afterbeing promised good moneyand were used to lure men intothe module. We are investigat-ing this aspect," he added.
Police have also recoveredmobile phones of Jangir andRamzan, who were sharinginformation and documentswith Akhtar. "It has been foundthat they used to mostly com-municate through whatsappcalls as they are not recorded.We cannot procure the calldetail records of calls madethrough whatsapp."
"On normal phone calls,their conversations wouldmostly happen through code-words and we were studying thepattern in the last six months,"said a senior police officer.
Akhtar would meet Jangirand Ramzan once every monthin Delhi here they would givedocuments to him and hewould pay them a high amountin return.
During interrogation, theydidn't reveal the amount forleaking information but it is sus-pected to be in the range of Rs30,000-Rs 50,000, said police.
Akhtar had come in contactwith Jangir and Ramzan througha Jodhpur-based passport andvisa agent, identified as Shoaib.
Jangir and Ramzan are res-idents of Nagaur in Rajasthan.Ramzan has been working asan Islamic preacher at a localmosque Qureshiyon ki Masjid,teaching nearly 40 studentsand Jangir had a small kiranashop near the mosque.
Adding to the Clintons’ dis-comfiture following a close
scrutiny of the family’s charita-ble foundation this electionseason, hacked e-mails releasedby WikiLeaks cite a former topaide as claiming that he andanother Clinton ally had helpedsecure more than $50 millionfor former President Bill Clintoneven while raising money forthe foundation.
Citing a hacked 12-pagememo, The Wall Street Journalreported on Thursday thatDouglas Band, the former topaide, has described how he andDeclan Kelly, an Irish-Americanbusinessman and ally of theClintons, secured “more than$50 million in for-profit activ-ity” for Bill Clinton by way oflarge speaking fees and otherpaid work.
In the November 2011memo, Band has also spoken of
how the two of them alsoarranged another $66 million inpotential future payments forClinton through speaking andother engagements, the paperreported. He has spoken ofhaving worked to obtain “in-kind services for the Presidentand his family – for personaltravel, hospitality, vacation andthe like”.
The report comes on top ofthe “pay-to-play” allegationslevelled by Republican presi-dential nominee Donald Trumpagainst his Democratic rival,Hillary Clinton, in respect ofClinton Foundation donorsduring her stint as Secretary ofState.
The Clinton campaign hasrefused to confirm or deny theauthenticity of any of the hackedemails put out by WikiLeaks ona daily basis over the past sev-eral days. Hillary Clinton her-self has been blaming Russia forthe massive hacking of emailsfrom the account of her cam-
paign chief John Podesta in abid to influence the presidentialelection in favour of Trump.
Band had written the memoto a law firm that was review-ing the Clinton Foundation’sactivities and his own links. Theissue came to the fore whenClintons’ daughter, Chelsea,sought the review as she wasworried that Band was “hustlingbusiness” for his consultingfirm, Teneo Holdings, at theClinton Global Initiative.
The potentially-damagingBand memo along with otherhacked emails was put out byWikiLeaks on Wednesday – aday when Trump appeared to benarrowing his huge gap withClinton in at least one nationalpoll. Fox News reported thatClinton now just had a 3 percent lead over Trump (44-41),down from the 6 per cent in itslast week’s poll. And aBloomberg poll said Trumpnow leads Clinton by 2 pointsin Florida, a must-win battle-
ground State for Trump.Trying to bounce back,
Trump unveiled what is beingregarded as a belated plan exclu-sively for African-Americans.Called a “New Deal for BlackAmerica”, it outlines proposalsto revitalize impoverished urbanareas. Besides tax incentivesfor inner cities, the plan promis-es new micro-loans for African-Americans to start companiesand hire workers. He alsopledged to remove criminalgangs from inner cities.
“I will be your greatestchampion. I will never ever takethe African American commu-nity for granted. Never, ever,”Trump said at a campaign eventin Charlotte, North Carolina –another battleground State thathe must win.
Hillary Clinton, speakingat her own election rally inTampa, painted Trump as the“poster boy” for everythingthat is wrong with theAmerican economy.
Baghdad: A US general saidtoday that between 800 and 900Islamic State group fightershave been killed since theIraqi-led operation to recaptureMosul from the jihadists began.
“Just in the operations overthe last week and a half asso-ciated with Mosul, we estimatethey’ve probably killed about800-900 Islamic State fighters,”General Joseph Votel, whoheads the US military’s CentralCommand, said in an interviewwith AFP, speaking from anundisclosed location.
Iraqi security forces andKurdish peshmerga fightersare pushing toward Mosulalong several axes and havemade relatively quick progressas they approach Mosul, Iraq’ssecond city.
The offensive, which began10 days ago, has so far beenconcentrated in towns and vil-lages around Mosul, and resis-tance may get heavier as Iraqiforces break through ISdefences and enter the cityitself. AFP
Beijing: President Xi Jinpingwas on Thursday anointed asthe “core” leader of China’s rul-ing Communist Party, confer-ring on him a status similar tothat of party founder‘Chairman’ Mao Zedong andallowing him to further tight-en his grip on the party, mili-tary and Government.
At the same time, a keymeeting of the CommunistParty of China (CPC) decidedto carry on with the collectiveleadership system, introducedin 1981 to ensure that no indi-vidual dominated the partyleadership. PTI
Beirut: The UN Children’sagency says airstrikes in Syria’srebel-held northern Idlibprovince a day earlier may bethe deadliest attack on a schoolsince the country’s war begannearly six years ago, leaving 22children and six of their teach-ers killed. A team of first respon-ders, the Syrian Civil Defense,and the Britain-based SyrianObservatory for Human Rightssaid on Thursday that theWednesday airstrikes killed atleast 35, mostly children, whenthey struck in the village of Hassaround midday. Initially, theestimated death toll was at 22.The airstrikes hit in a residen-tial area housing a school com-plex, as children gathered out-side. UNICEF ExecutiveDirector Anthony Lake calledthe airstrikes an “outrage.” Headded if it is determined that theairstrikes were deliberate, “it isa war crime.” AP
London: The world’s mostfamous fictional spy, JamesBond, would never have beenhired by Britain’s security ser-vices in the real world due tohis ‘morally dubious character’,the boss of MI6 has said.
In a rare interview withBlack History Month website,Alex Younger said, “We knowthat if we undermine Britishvalues, even in the name ofdefending them, then we havefailed. Our staff are not fromanother planet. They are ordi-nary men and women operat-ing in the face of complexmoral, ethical and physical
challenges, often in the mostforbidding environments onearth.
Bond’s ‘morally dubiouscharacter’ would rule him outas a real-life MI6 spy despite histenacity and patriotism, headded.
Younger said: “In contrastto James Bond, MI6 officersare not for taking moral short-cuts. In fact, a strong ethicalcore is one of the first qualitieswe look for in our staff.
“It’s safe to say thatJames Bond wouldn’t getthrough our recruitmentprocess,” he said. PTI
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AMuslim woman has sued asecurity company in the
US for discrimination, allegingthat the firm rejected her foremployment because of herfaith and her hijab.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations has filed thefederal lawsuit on behalf ofZahraa-Imani Ali, from StLouis County, Missouri, alleg-ing that a nationwide securityfirm discriminated againstprospective Muslim employees.
Securitas Security Servicesrefused to hire Ali, “at least inpart, but likely entirely, on thefact that Ms Ali wears thehijab as part of her adherenceto the Islamic faith,” lawyerRobert West was quoted assaying by St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
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Italy was counting the costtoday after another major
earthquake forced thousands toflee their homes in terror but“miraculously” did not causeany fatalities.
Two months after a quakeleft nearly 300 dead in thecountry’s tremor-prone centralspine, two powerful shocksripped through the mountain-ous, sparsely-populated regionyesterday evening.
Despite numerous buildingcollapses, no deaths had beenreported by midday, more than17 hours after the first of the 5.5and 6.1 magnitude tremors.
“Given the strength of theshocks the absence of anydeaths or serious injuries,which we hope will be con-f irmed, is miraculous,”Interior Minister AngelinoAlfano said.
The national civil protec-
tion agency described the dam-age as “very significant” butsaid they were not aware ofanyone trapped under rubble.
Rescue workers began amajor clean-up operation andhundreds of families wereunsure where they would beliving for the forseeable future.
More than 100 aftershocksrattled the area through thenight after the initial two werefelt in Rome, some 175km(110 miles) away from the epi-centres. Marco Rinaldi, mayorof the village of Ussita,described “apocalyptic” scenes.“People were in the streetsscreaming. Many houses havecollapsed.
Our town is finished,” hesaid.”I’ve felt a lot of earth-quakes but that was thestrongest I’ve ever felt.Fortunately everyone hadalready left their homes afterthe first quake so I don’t thinkanyone was hurt.” AFP
Baghdad: More than 10,000Iraqis have fled their homessince the October 17 start of anoffensive to retake Mosul fromthe Islamic State jihadist group,the United Nations said today.
That figure is just a fractionof the displacement that aidgroups expect to see whenIraqi forces reach the city lim-its and some of the million-pluspeople thought to be insideattempt to flee.
“Over 10,500 people arecurrently displaced and in needof humanitarian assistance,”
the UN’s Office for theCoordination of HumanitarianAffairs said in a statement.
While numbers haveincreased rapidly over the pasttwo days, there was no sign anexodus of larger proportionswas beginning.
“Population movements arefluctuating as the front linesmove, including people return-ing to their homes followingimproved security conditions inthe immediate area,” it said.
The aid community hasbeen scrambling to build camps
and bring equipment to areason the edges of the Mosul bat-tlefield, a vast area where Iraqiforces are closing in on jihadistsfrom the north, east and south.
Humanitarian workers fearbeing overwhelmed by hugeoutflows when the civilianstrapped in Mosul find a wayout, in an emergency that coulddwarf previous displacementcrises in Iraq.
More than 3.3 millionIraqis have had to flee theirhomes due to conflict since thestart of 2014. AFP
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��$ �������$��$����������.6��������������������BRUSSELS : A landmark freetrade agreement between theEuropean Union and Canadacould be signed within daysafter the Belgian governmentovercame an impasse with itsregional authorities onThursday.
Belgian Prime MinisterCharles Michel said his gov-ernment had reached a dealwith the holdout region ofWallonia. The region held aveto over the country’s abilityto back the trans-Atlanticagreement. And the EU, inturn, needed unanimity amongall its members.
The deal will go throughregional legislatures by Fridaynight and have to be vettedagain by the other 27 EU states.
That means it’s effectivelyimpossible to sign the deal inBrussels with Canadian PrimeMinister Justin Trudeau onThursday, as had been sched-uled for weeks.
Still, even getting an agree-ment was a huge relief for EUleaders, who had started nego-tiating the pact with Canadaseven years ago and wereembarrassed by the last-minutestumble.
“This is good news,” saidMichel, adding that the newtext of the deal provides guar-antees for farmers and on a cor-porate dispute settlement sys-tem that “will allow us to signthe deal.”
EU President Donald Tusksaid he would contact Trudeau“only once all procedures arefinalized for EU signingCETA,” as the trade deal iscalled.
Alex Lawrence, thespokesman for Canada’s tradeministry, earlier said that thecountry was prepared to signthe deal whenever Europe isready. And Trudeau had toldParliament he’s prepared towait. AP
Washington: The US has carriedout precision strikes against twotop al-Qaeda leaders, includingone involved in plotting deadlyattacks against American forces,in Afghanistan, the Pentagon hassaid. The US forces launched thestrikes on October 23 in KunarProvince, targeting Faruq al-Qatani and Bilal al-Utabi, two ofal-Qaeda’s most senior leaders inAfghanistan, Pentagon PressSecretary Peter Cook said onThursday.
The US military believes theleaders were killed, but has notyet confirmed whether thestrikes were successful.
“We are still assessing theresults of the strikes, but theirdemise would represent a sig-nificant blow to the terroristgroup’s presence in Afghanistan,which remains committed tofacilitating attacks against theUnited States, our allies, andpartners,” he said. PTI
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Washington: A new GuinnessWorld Record has been set forthe most selfies in three min-utes, after American singerDonnie Wahlberg snapped 122photos with guests on board hismusic band’s cruise.
Wahlberg, a foundingmember of the 80s boyband
New Kids on the Block, hadunsuccessfully tried to breakthe record last year.
With the help of manyexcited NKOTB fans, Wahlbergmanaged to set world recordthis time around.
Guinness World RecordsAdjudicator Sarah Casson was
onboard New Kids on TheBlock Cruise in Mexico - wherethe record was attempted - toconfirm his achievement andpresent him with his officialcertificate.After his record-breaking feat, Wahlberg paidtribute to the NKOTB fanbase.
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The US on Thursday reas-sured its key Asian allies
Japan and South Korea that itspolicy seeking North Korea’snuclear disarmament remainsunchanged, after its intelli-gence chief called it a “lostcause”.
Washington has alwaysmaintained it cannot acceptNorth Korea as a nuclear stateand, under President BarackObama, has made any talkswith Pyongyang conditionalon the country first makingsome tangible commitment
towards denuclearisation.But in remarks to a think-
tank earlier this week, USDirector of NationalIntelligence James Clapper sug-gested that such a policy wasbased on wishful thinking, say-ing: “The notion of getting theNorth Koreans to denucleariseis probably a lost cause.”
US deputy Secretary ofState Antony Blinken tookissue with that view in Tokyoafter a trilateral meeting withhis Japanese and South Koreancounterparts.
“Our policy has notchanged,” he told reporters at
a joint news conference.“We will not accept North
Korea as a nuclear state, we willnot accept North Korea’s pos-session of nuclear weapons.Period.”
The threat from NorthKorea is growing “more acuteby the day” as the countryramps up its missile andnuclear tests, he added.
“We are focused onincreasing the pressure onNorth Korea with one purpose:To bring it back to the table tonegotiate in good faith denu-clearisation. That is the objec-tive,” he said.
political meetings, rallies andprotests in the capital ,Islamabad, ahead of a plannedopposition march againstPrime Minister Nawaz Sharifon November 2.
The ban will remain inforce for two months, thePakistani Ministry of Interiorsaid in a statement.
The party of cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khanhas threatened to lockdownthe capital to force Sharif tostep down. Sharif facesmounting public pressureafter his family members werenamed as holders of offshorebank accounts in leakedfinancial documents fromPanamanian law f irm
Mossack Fonseca.Sharif has defended his
financial record, attempting toexplain the details of his fam-ily business in parliamentand in two televised speech-es.
Pakistan’s Supreme Courthas scheduled a hearing onthe scandal on November 1.
Khan’s party is one of thefive petitioners who haveapproached the top courtrequesting an investigationinto the scandal. The courthas asked the prime ministerto file a reply to the allega-tions made in the petitions inthe November 1 hearing. AnIslamabad high court alsodirected Khan’s party onThursday to explain byOctober 31 what his plans arefor the march against thePrime Minister.
Istanbul: Turkey’s state-run news agency says 45 military pilotswere detained on Thursday and 29 who had previously beendetained were formally arrested as part of the ongoing investi-gation into the movement allegedly responsible for the failed coupon July 15. The chief public prosecutor’s office in the centralAnatolian city of Konya issued warrants for the detention of 73military pilots - two colonels and 71 lieutenants, over alleged tiesto US-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen. Forty-five werebrought to Konya for processing. AP
63��"� ��20���� ������������$$����������Washington: The US justicedepartment charged 61 peopleand entities on Thursday withtaking part in a scam involvingIndia-based call centers whereagents impersonated InternalRevenue Service, immigrationand other federal officials anddemanded payments for non-existent debts. The scam, whichhad operated since 2013, target-ed at least 15,000 people who lostmore than $300 million, thedepartment said in a statement.
The defendants, who wereindicted by a grand jury in theUS District Court for theSouthern District of Texas onOctober 19, included 32 peopleand five call centers in India and24 people in nine US states, thestatement said. The indictmentsaid the operators of the call cen-ters “threatened potential victimswith arrest. Agency
Sochi: President Vladimir Putintoday slammed as “hysteria”claims that Russia has attempt-ed to interfere in the upcomingUS presidential elections byhacking American politicalinstitutions. “The number ofmythical, dreamt-up problemsincludes the hysteria — I can’tthink of another word — thathas broken out in the UnitedStates about the influence ofRussia on the current electionsfor the US president,” Putin saidat a Valdai Discussion Clubmeeting of political scientists inSochi. AFP
In the name of democracy andensuring justice for all, everyconceivable injury, whetherintended or not, has becomejusticiable. New laws were
being added, without deleting theold ones that were framed duringthe British era. The presentGovernment has made a goodbeginning by deleting 1,159 obso-lete laws as against 1,301 scrappedin the past 64 years.
Whatever law the Governmentmay pass or delete, it makes no dif-ference to the people in-charge ofthe law enforcement. Except for afew laws in which action has beentaken or is liable to be taken,copies of most existing laws are noteven available with either the policeor the organisation charged with theenforcement of the same.
Some of my personal experi-ence are worth recalling, the pow-ers that be are ignorant of the exist-ing ground realities. As the districtpolice of Bidar, Karnataka, in 1965,I decided to test the knowledge ofpolice officials — from constablesand above — about the MysorePolice Act that was passed in 1963.
I asked a number of policemenabout the Act. They said that theyhad not heard about it and were justaware of the Hyderabad Police Actthat was in force from the days ofthe Nizam. Incidentally, my cadreof service was Mysore, now calledKarnataka. My pension now ispaid for by Karnataka Government.
I then asked the Mysore policeheadquarters if they had supplieda copy of the Mysore Police Act toeach policeman. The reply that I gotwas that everybody has to buy hiscopy. When I tried to argue, that itis the duty of the Government or thepolice headquarter, to provide fora copy, I got a dressing down.
Nevertheless, I persuaded thepolicemen to give 50 paisa each sothat I could buy the latest Actapplicable to the people and thepolice in Mysore State with myshare of 50 paisa. Surely, otherStates in the country must nothave been in a better position. Thisis prevalent even now.
A vast majority of cases comeunder the Indian Penal Code,wherein the evidence is to be col-lected in accordance with theIndian Evidence Act, as per thelaws laid down in the CriminalProcedure Code. All the abovethree investigation laws are of the1800s and need an overhaul. Thisis equally true with the lawspassed by other Governmentdepartments, for all subjects.
It is commendable that the pre-sent Government has deletedancient laws which have not been
in use even once since indepen-dence. The criminal law above hasbeen woven around the distrust ofthe main law enforcement agencythat is the police. They do not trusteven the topmost officers, with anyconfession made by the accused,which perhaps no where prevails inthe world.
A New York Times report said,“On the basis of police per capita,India is the second lowest among50 countries ranked using data fromthe United Nations Office on Drugsand Crime from 2010. Police forcesaround the world are commonlymeasured as the number of policeper 1,00,000 people, and India has129. Only Uganda fares worse.While this ratio has not increasedin India, due to the increase in pop-ulation over the last decade, itremains far behind many othermajor economies. (The worldwideaverage is closer to 350).” Scotland,for example, has around 330 offi-cers per 100,000; South Africa 327,the US 238 officers and Canada had201, according to 2011 data.
Not surprisingly, some studiessuggest that adding police officersreduces crime. “A nation with a larg-er proportion of police officers issomewhat more likely to have alower crime rate”, said a 2006report by the Institute for the Study
of Civil Society, which looked at lawenforcement data from Europeancountries. The number of femalepolicewomen in India is 84,579 outof the total strength of 158,117 offi-cers, or about five per cent of thetotal police force in 2011.
India’s judiciary is also under-staffed. The country’s judge-to-population ratio would be thefourth lowest in the world, if thecountry were included in a 2008UN study that looked at 65 coun-tries. Only Guatemala, Nicaraguaand Kenya had a lower ratio thanIndia, which only had 14 judges permillion population in 2008.
A Law Ministry report said thatthe situation in the subordinatecourts is getting worse with thenumber of judges’ posts vacant inthe subordinate and district courtsacross the country crossing 5,000.
As of December 2015, thevacancies stand at 5,111 against asanctioned strength of 21,303 judgesin the subordinate judiciary.Gujarat, Bihar and Delhi rankamong the States with the highestnumber of vacancies — about 40per cent to 44 per cent.
In terms of numbers, the high-est vacancy of judicial officers is inGujarat at 794 against a sanctionedstrength of 1,953, around 41 percent of its sanctioned strength.
This is followed by Bihar with 792against a sanctioned strength of1,825, about 43 per cent of itsapproved strength; Uttar Pradeshhas 595 posts to be filled, but theyaccount for just 25 per cent of itssanctioned strength of 2,394 judges.Lower courts in Delhi have 307judges against a sanctioned strengthof 793, which is around 39 per centof its approved strength.
Subordinate courts accountfor at least 2.30 crore of a total ofabout 3.15 crore pending casesacross the country. Uttar Pradeshalone accounts for 23 per cent ofthese cases. In mid-2015, an esti-mate had put vacancies in lowercourts at around 4,400. The rise invacancies are a cause of concern forthe Centre since lower court judgesare recruited through an examina-tion conducted by State public ser-vice commissions or the respectivehigh courts. Even in the HighCourts, which have 464 judicialposts vacant against an approvedstrength of 1,079, the Centre mere-ly plays the role of a post office, andin rare instances, it refers back rec-ommendations made by the apexcourt collegium for reconsideration.
The current judges-to-popula-tion ratio, on the ground in ourcountry is estimated at 12 judges forevery million citizens — far lowerthan most developed and evendeveloping countries in the world.
Currently, roughly the penden-cy of cases in the Supreme Court isaround 60,000 matters and the fig-ures in the various High Courts andsubordinate judiciaries are around40 lakh and 2.8 crore, respectively.Obviously, the justice for all, at pre-sent, is an illusion.
There is an urgent need toimprove the judicial and investiga-tion infrastructure, apart from tak-ing their number to a level, wherenobody should have to wait formore than one year. It is a challengefor the present Government whichhas done well in other fields.
The Government should cutdown on litigation. Not more thantwo appeals should be allowedalong with a maximum of five totaladjournments in the appellatecourts. Instead of setting more tri-bunals, more courts should be setup. There should be a finality in sec-ond court orders. These are dras-tic remedies. Instead of litigationwith common citizens, theGovernment should not treat thefellow Indians as the opponentparty. It should look within and rec-tify the situation. Of course, thisdoes not apply in the case of fraud-sters, cheats and criminals.
(The writer is former Director,Central Bureau of Investigation)�
Sir — This refers to the editori-al, “Palace coup at Tatas”(October 26). In the interest of thecompany and its shareholders, theremoval of Cyrus Mistry from thepost of chairman, Tata Sons, wasthe right decision, as facts in themedia speak for it. Mistry shouldhave gracefully accepted the deci-sion of the board.
Ratan Tata is a man with amission. He has the track recordof a broader view in business andpersonal life too. He has businessacumen. He is a true nationalist,patriot and a thorough gentle-man. His credentials cannot bequestioned in a light manner.
Had this decision not beentaken now, the company wouldhave suffered more losses fromevery angle, and the Tata group’sreputation would have suffered.
Mahesh KumarVia email
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Sir — It is terrible to read aboutthe deadly terror attack on a secu-rity facility in Pakistan. Whileevery attack does demand adetailed inquiry, it should alsosolidify the country’s resolve to
dismantle all militant groups.Blaming sanctuaries across theborder or even foreign support isa political game, when strongaction is called for. This attack hasexposed how difficult it is forPakistan to make any change tothe self-defeating strategic policyit has followed for long. It has cre-ated its own demons that are nowdevouring the country.
It looks like terrorism inPakistan can never be eradicatedentirely, but it can be tackled farmore comprehensively and effec-tively than it is currently beingaddressed. One hopes the Quettaincident will be a turning point.
J Akshobhya Mysore
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Sir — The ruling party in UttarPradesh enacted in full publicglare, a shoddy drama that has ill-served the largest State in thecountry. The ruling Yadav fami-ly has reduced the SamajwadiParty to a real estate, to be divid-ed among claimants. It has lost allclaims to a mandate for anotherterm in Uttar Pradesh.
Ironically, this is now happen-ing in a party that was born of itsfounders’ disgust with theCongress’s dynastic rule. Waiting in
the wings, the principal oppositionparties — Mayawati’s BahujanSamaj Party and the BJP — mustbe grinning from ear to ear at theirimproving prospects as a fallout ofthe internecine war in theSamajwadi Party. Only time will tellwhat the final outcome will be.
Vani AVia email
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Sir — I still stand by the idea thatart isn’t political and can’t bepoliticised, and artistes have beencaught in the middle of some-thing they did not ask for. Butthen, what takes precedencedepends on the situation. Thatsaid, maybe Pakistan has manygoo-looking actors, but even inIndia, we have equally talentedmen who are vying to be actors.
Unfortunately, the HIndi filmindustry has this itch to cast any-thing foreign, especially actorsand singers. Even down south,Tamil and Telugu film-makerslook only for Hindi film models,actors and singers, despite localtalent available in plenty.
Whether it be peo-ple in Karnatakaor Tamil Nadu,their prayers toriver Cauvery,
which flows through the two Statesto meet her husband, SamudraRaja, (the King of Ocean) remainthe same: “Kaaveri mama prasee-da… (Oh River Cauvery, showeryour blessings on me). This is theKaveri Ashtakam, the age-oldhymn recited by people of bothStates. At Srirangam in Tiruchi, thehymn, “Lobha Mitraaya Vidmahi,Agasthyapathni Saadinee, DhannoKaveri Prachodaya Devi...” rever-berates from the temple dedicatedto Mother Kaveri.
The seven-decade long legalbattle over the Cauvery waterbetween Tamil Nadu andKarnataka is an ideal example ofhow a dispute, which should beresolved for the benefit of the soci-ety, can be extended indefinitely forthe benefit of political masters.Politicians, water experts, admin-istrators, lawyers and journalistsinterpret the Cauvery issue depend-ing on which side of the TamilNadu-Karnataka border theybelong to. There’s no middle path.
When the Cauvery WaterDispute Tribunal delivered itsaward in February 2007, detailingthe quantum of water to be releasedby Karnataka to the lower ripari-an states of Tamil Nadu, Kerala andPuducherry, it was believed that thewater war had come to an end.
The CWDT detailed howmuch water is to be released in awater year, which begins in Juneand ends in the month of May. Thefive Tamil Nadu districts along theCauvery river are known as the ricebowl of the State and any discrep-ancy in the smooth flow of the rivercan derail the dreams and liveli-hood of almost two crore farmersin the region.
Almost a decade after theCWDT delivered its award, theSupreme Court is hearing a peti-
tion filed by Tamil Nadu chal-lenging the decision of the apexcourt in admitting a special leavepetition filed by Karnataka whichwanted the court to quash theCWDT award. The issue before theapex court is: Is the CWDT awardan equivalent to the SupremeCourt order and hence binding onthe States? The tragedy is that eventhe apex court is not sure about thestatus of the CWDT award, 10years of the award pronouncement.
As per the CWDT award,Karnataka should release 192 tmc(thousand million cubic feet) waterannually. The CWDT had also pre-scribed how the 192 tmc has to bereleased by Karnataka on a month-
ly basis, so that the three crops cul-tivated by Tamil Nadu farmers,especially those in the Cauverybasin, are not hit.
The award was based on pain-staking studies and research heldby engineers and scientists of theCentral Water Commission, whowent into details like the quantumof water flowing through theCauvery, the rainfall received in thecatchment area of the river and thewater-usage pattern.
The CWDT also ordered in its2007 verdict that the Centre shouldconstitute a Cauvery ManagementBoard (CMB), an autonomousorganisation of engineering expertsand bureaucrats, to oversee the
implementation of the award.Though the CWDT delivered itsfinal award on February 5, 2007, ittook the then UPA Governmentled by Manmohan Singh morethan six years to notify the verdictthrough a special gazette. Thegazette was issued on February 19,2013, following persistent pleasmade by Tamil Nadu ChiefMinister J Jayalalithaa.
Though the DMK was themost crucial alliance partner in theUPA Government from 2004 to2013, it did nothing to get theCWDT award notified by theCentre. “Karunanidhi was busybargaining for money-spinningministries in the Government for
his relatives and loyalists. He hadput Cauvery issue to the backburner”, said a veteran politicalcommentator based in Chennai.
The DMK or its chief MKarunanidhi was silent aboutCauvery throughout the UPAtenure. It was only after the partysuffered a humiliating defeat in the2011 Assembly election thatKarunanidhi started speakingabout the Cauvery issue and theCWDT award. It is amusing to notethat the DMK convened an all-party meeting to put pressure onthe Centre to constitute the Board.
Karnataka has its own woes.The water level in the Cauvery isdependent on an elusive monsoon.Whenever the southwest monsoonfails, the water level goes down.This has also been aggravated bythe massive deforestation atThalakavery, the place of origin ofthe river in the Western Ghats inKarnataka. Asking Karnataka notto draw water from Cauvery, whichflows nearly 500km through theState, is inhumane. Karnataka hasits own irrigational and drinkingwater requirements, for which theState has every right to draw waterfrom Cauvery.
One of the solutions suggest-ed by India’s leading engineers,lawyers, economists and policyplanners to resolve this perenni-al problem, is the inter-linking ofthe peninsular Indian rivers suchas the Godavari, Krishna,Mahanadi and Cauvery, so thatsurplus water in any of thesebasins can be transferred water-deficit ones. This is a win-win sit-uation for all, as there are no losersin this deal. India’s leadinghydrologist PM Natarajan pointsout that the Colarado RiverSystem in the United States couldbe replicated in south India as apermanent solution to the burn-ing issue, which is robbing thecountry of its economic progress.
(The writer is a Chennai-basedcorrespondent of The Pioneer)
Dynastic politics in India is get-ting stronger with leadersnaming their family members
to succeed them while their partieshave been docile in accepting it.Leaders like Sonia Gandhi, ParkashSingh Badal, Mulayam Singh Yadav,Lalu Prasad, K Chandrashekar Rao,N Chandrababu Naidu and FarooqAbdullah, just to name a few, believein dynastic politics.
The latest to join this club is the93-year-old Dravida MunnetraKazhagam (DMK) supremo MKarunanidhi, who has declared hisyounger son MK Stalin as his polit-ical heir. “From his prisondays, where he faced a lot ofhardships, he has worked veryhard and elevated himself sys-tematically to the position offuture president (of DMK). Inthat aspect, he remains mypolitical heir apparent”, he toldin a recent magazine interview.
Stalin may not have thecharisma or the reputation ofhis father, nor his colourful life,but he has moved up by sheerhard work, playing his cardswell by working under hisfather for over four decades. Nodoubt, the DMK went throughthe democratic motions ofelecting its office-bearers allthese years. Karunanidhi hadall along said that the party wouldelect his successor. So, declaringStalin as the heir-apparent is not inthe style of the original DMK.
The issue of Karunanidhi hand-ing over the baton has been a subjectof speculation in the DMK. His asser-tion that Stalin will succeed him, hascome as a relief to the cadres and hasput an end to the sibling rivalry.
Strangely, the DMK did notbelieve in dynastic politics. When thefirst DMK chief and Tamil NaduChief Minister CN Annadurai passedaway in 1969, Karunanidhi suc-ceeded him although VRNedunchezhiyan was the second in
command. He went to win the 1971election but once MGRamachandran (MGR) split theDMK by launching the All IndiaAnna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam(AIADMK) in 1972, it becametougher for Karunanidhi. The DMKwas out of power for 13 years butKarunanidhi’s leadership and organ-isational skills kept the party intact.
The DMK has weathered manya political storm in the past. Duringthe Emergency, it faced an existen-tial crisis. After MGR’s death in 1987,the DMK wrested power from theAIADMK in 1989, and from then on,
both the AIADMK and the DMK,have ruled the State alternatively.
It is now for Stalin to boost themorale of the party. From 2011, afterlosing the Assembly election and fac-ing allegations in the 2G Spectrumscam, the DMK has been on the backfoot. The consecutive loss in theAssembly polls in 2011 and 2016 hasmade party workers gasping foroxygen. After his hard work in the2016 Assembly election, the partywon 100 seats — which was seen asrather creditable for the DMK.
At the family level, Karunanidhihas chosen Stalin, ignoring the claimsof his elder son MK Alagiri, who once
asked if the party was a ‘mutt’ wherethe senior pontiff could anoint hissuccessor. For years, Alagiri andStalin have been engaged in a tusslefor their father’s favour and clout inthe party. But Stalin trumped his elderbrother when it came to winning thestamp of approval of their father, asalso of the party rank and file.
The sibling rivalry is playing outeven as there is another claimant —Karunanidhi’s daughter Kanimozhi.In the 1980s, Karunanidhi’s eldestson, MK Muthu, was declared per-sona non grata in the DMK when hefell out with his father. An angered
Muthu joined the AIADMKand has been in politicalwilderness since then.Karunanidhi promotedStalin in the 1990s in pref-erence to the firebrand leaderVaiko, who floated his ownoutfit, the MDMK.
Stalin had used the smallwindow of opportunity afterhis brother was dismissedfrom the party.Karunanidhi’s move hascome at a time when TamilNadu Chief Minister JJayalalithaa is ailing in thehospital. There were appre-hensions that the AIADMKmight split if Jayalalithaacontinues to remain inca-
pacitated. That was one of the reasonsfor Karunanidhi announcing hiscrown prince’s name.
There are apprehensions withinthe party that, if he did not name hissuccessor, in the post-Karunanidhiera, the party could split. Despitenaming his political heir,Karunanidhi is clear that he willremain the party chief till he dies.With Jayalalithaa ailing andKarunanidhi getting on in age, TamilNadu’s politics is at an interestingstage, as there are no other strongleaders in sight.
(The writer is a political com-mentator and a syndicated columnist)
The removal of CyrusPallonji Mistry as thehead of Tata Sons is
news beyond boundaries. Business, however, in
India, has taken a fresh turnwith this kind of move. Letus get some fundamentalsright. There is no such thingas the Tata family, anymore,in the conventional terms ofIndian business.
This is not the best placeto get into the pedigree andfamily tree analysis .However, the first significantbreak in the family tree con-tinuum took place with thesuccession of Ratan Tata tothe chairmanship of the TataSons board. JRD did nothave a biological successor.Ratan Tata himself nevermarried. This, therefore,was itself a significant depar-ture in the succession pat-tern of family businesses.
Consider the major fam-ily houses in India. Withoutnaming the significant ones,the succession has almostalways been by blood groupsof biological descent, fol-lowing the law of primo-genitor. Sitting on the boardof a major business familywhich had been successfulfor over 70 years, when Iraised the issue of invest-ment and diversification,the octogenarian chairmanand the head of the grouphad no hesitation in puttinghis foot down. His argu-ment: “We do not have anyadult male ready and avail-able in the family to leadsuch a new enterprise.” Theapproach was simple anddisarming. It was symbolicof a fairly representativemindset in business.
Often, Indian business-
es have spawned new unitsto provide employment toadult males of the dominantfamily. In the case ofuntimely demise of an adultmale, the succession hasgone in the wife’s favour (ifthe next generation was notyet old enough for the task).
This pattern of runningbusiness cuts across all reli-gious effluence and touchesHindus, Christians,Muslims, Sikhs — the listcan go on. The stamp of theso-called Indian culture islarge. It would be dangerousand controversial to offer anopinion. However, businesshas a knack of taking its owndirection, very much in thesame manner as the water-flow takes its own course.
Consider the case ofTata Sons. It is no secret thatthe related family membersof the Tata stock have con-trol of Tata Trusts. TataTrusts in turn controls over60 per cent of investment inTata Sons. The power equa-tion is clear.
Obviously, the mod-ernised educated commen-tator would see this in hisframework of reference.
He would talk of ‘share-holders’ and ‘the board’. Hewill talk of the investorsand the executive control.The basic reality, however, isone of, a family group con-fronted with power in thehands of a non-familygroup. The key players ofTata Sons were confidants ofthe chairman and not nec-essarily in a kinship rela-tionship. This must be a veryunusual situation to the kindof networks systems whichoperated the group of TataTrusts. It’s a tell-tale situa-
tion. There are other uniqueelements that are interesting.
Quite rightly, beginningwith Jamsetji Tata, the groupacquired a halo of high eth-ical values and for its strongespousal of the nationalcause. The Tata story rolledon for a 100 years till thefamily found a person in theextended family networksbased on marriages, with anIrish citizenship, to headTata Sons. Getting theIndian citizenship requiredone year of uninterruptedresidency in India. Thiswould be clearly impossiblefor any individual in thatsegment of the elite andruling class.
The rest is history. Thereare other elements in theTata conglomerate. In thelast few decades, some sor-did truths started surfacing,and one could with reason-able truth argue that TataSons had all the weapons inits arsenal of business whichany business group in Indiahas had. This included liai-son with lobbyists and landacquisition cases whichcourts find unacceptable.
Clearly, these cannot bethe reasons for the sackingof Cyrus Mistry. Theses can-not be the reason for thereturn of Ratan Tata either.The story is still unfolding.Desperate attempts arebeing made by some quar-ters to give a modern spin toexplain the business twists ofa very conventional andaverage frame of reference.
The episodes are incon-clusive. The story line will betaking its own course.
(The writer is senioradvisor, KPMG, and Dean,KPMG Academy)
Amid a fresh bid for the uni-fication of the erstwhile
Janata Party constituents by anembattled Samajwadi Partysupremo Mulayam SinghYadav, the Nitish Kumar-ledJanata Dal (United) is unlike-ly to reciprocate in the way itdid last year before BiharAssembly polls.
Amid reports that MSYdispatched his brother andpresident of UP unit of theSamajwadi Party to meet theleaders of different parties andinvite them for the SP’s silverjubilee functions in Lucknowon November 5, the JD(U) saidit was yet to get any invitation.“Once we get an invitation wewill think over it,” said JD(U)national secretary Shyam Rajakon Thursday. However, inDelhi the party’s general sec-retary KC Tyagi confirmedreceiving the invitation.
While the RJD has wel-comed MSY’s move, the JD(U)is watching the developmentcautiously. In the current polit-ical scenario in poll-boundUP, RJD chief Lalu Prasad hastime and again reiterated hissupport for the SP and evendeclared he would campaign
for the party, while the JD(U)has taken a different standand vowed to contest there inalliance with “like-minded”smaller parties. But in its actionplan the party has not favouredassociation with the SP.
JD(U) national presidentand Bihar Chief Minister NitishKumar is also not veryimpressed with MSY’s move forMaha Gathbandhan (grandalliance) months before thecrucial election in UP and par-ticularly at a time when Netaji’sfamily is gripped by fierceinfighting. “If Mulayam hadnot backed out from the uni-
fication efforts, today he wouldhave been a big leader to chal-lenge Narendra Modi. Hewould have Governments intwo States, Bihar and UP,” saidTyagi. “Had such a MahaGathbandhan been finalisedwhen I took the initiative theSP would not have faced thiscritical situation,” said Nitishand suspected some conspira-cy which frustrated his effortsin July last year.
He said, “It is now clearthat there had been a conspir-acy that the six-party MahaGathbandhan under MulayamSingh Yadav did not take shape.
If it was finalised the politicalmood of the country wouldhave been different.”
What hurt Nitish the mostwas MSY’s decision not only toback out from the unificationbid but also fielding SP candi-dates in Bihar polls againstthree parties alliance. The SPpatriarch though failed, hismove was seen as an attempt tobenefit BJP and its allies.
Sources in the JD(U) closeto Nitish said that the partyleadership was worried over theinfighting in the SP amidapprehension that BJP mighttake advantage of this situation,Nitish is unlikely to take anyinitiative for the MahaGathbandhan.
The JD(U) leaders, whohave started seeing Nitish as theprobable challenger to Modi,would not give much space toMulayam in the national poli-tics.
However, former JD(U)chief Sharad Yadav is sympa-thetic towards Mulayam andmight press Nitish to giveanother chance to Netaji, whohad been offered leadership ofthe proposed grand allianceand was authorised to makeone party under one flag withone symbol.
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The century-old Mysuru Zoowhich is known for captive
breeding of wild animals hasdrawn an ambitious plan to cap-tive breed Asiatic Lion. As partof this plan the female Asiaticlioness, Renitha, in the MysuruZoo will soon have a matearriving from Rajkot in Gujarat.Surya, a young male Asiatic lion,will be the new partner forRenitha and Zoo authoritieshope this will certainly help cap-tive breeding plans of thisendangered species.
Asiatic lion is survivingonly in Gir forest in Gujarat.Sakkarbaug Zoo is famous forbreeding them and later releas-ing them into the Gir forest.Mysuru Zoo Executive DirectorK Kamala said that “Everythingis in place and we are awaitingclearances from the CentralZoo Authority (CZA) on ourdeal with Rajkot Zoo. We mayget the lion in November.”
She said that the Rajkot
Zoo had agreed to spare themale lion in return for a fewbirds that are in our collection.
Renitha, the lioness fromSakkarbaug zoo in Junagadhwhich successfully breeds Asiaticlions in captivity, was broughthere under an animal exchangeprogramme a few months ago.In return, Mysuru Zoo gave apair of black swans, two Indiangrey wolves, and a pair of birds.
Prior to this exchange,
Mysuru Zoo received a pair oflions from Sakkarbaug Zoofive years ago. The lioness,Gowri, suffered a health prob-lem and did not recover despiteconstant treatment. Gowridelivered a cub, which diedsometime later. Gowri is nowtaken off public display andhoused inside the hospital.
Mysuru Zoo had Asiaticlions in 1989 but they could notbreed. Rakshitha and Darshan,
both of whom were cross-bred,are the two other lions housed atthe Zoo. Only a few Zoos in theCountry have Asiatic lion, andMysuru Zoo is one among them.
Meanwhile a high alert hasbeen sounded in Mysuru Zoofollowing suspected H5N1 (BirdFlu) reported in some parts ofthe Country. The Central ZooAuthority of India (CZA), in acommunication, has asked theZoo authorities to take neces-sary precautionary measuresin the light of fresh cases of sus-pected avian influenza (H5N1).The Delhi Zoo had been shuttemporarily after some birdsdied of suspected H5N1.
The walk-through aviary atKaranji Lake Nature Park(KLNP), which is under the con-trol of Mysuru zoo, has also beenunder close watch as a lot ofwinged varieties have beenhoused there. The Zoo man-agement has continued to feedchicken to its mega carnivoresonly after thoroughly washingand boiling the meat.
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Promising effectiveGovernance, BJP national
president Amit Shah said thatUttar Pradesh needed a KalyanSingh-like Government wherecriminals were either houndedout of the State or were sent tojail.
“Lawlessness is at its peak inUP. Criminals are calling theshots due to patronage by the rul-ing party. The State needs atough Chief Minister like KalyanSingh, who in his over two-yearrule, made the State criminalfree,” Shah said while addressingSankalp Maharally in Etawah on
Thursday. The BJP topgun saidthat it is only the BJP which cangive a clean administration.“Look around yourself, peaceprevails in all BJP-ruled States.All villages in Madhya Pradesh,Rajasthan, Chattisgarh andHaryana are getting 24X7 powersupply. Pace of development ishigh and crime rate is low,” hesaid.
“The position in UP is justthe opposite to what you see inBJP-ruled States. This is becausewe are committed to the welfareof people while parties likeSamajwadi Party (SP) andBahujan Samaj Party (BSP) aremore into looting public money
through various means,” Shahsaid.
He said neither Bua(Mayawati) nor Bhatija(Akhilesh ) can bring UP backon rails because their intentionsare not clear. “In their regimemafia rule the roost because theyget patronage from ruling par-ties,” the BJP boss pointed out.
To drive home his point,Shah took the name of MokhtarAnsari and Atiq Ahmad and saidthat if SP has tacit understand-ing with leaders like these, howcan one expect Chief Minister toprovide clean administration.
It was first rally of BJPnational president in Etawah –
considered to be Mulayam SinghYadav’s pocket burrough. Theresponse was good as peoplecame in large numbers to listento the BJP chief.
Time and again he threwquestions at the audience whoenthusiastically answered in ̀ yes’or ‘no’. He started his rally withchants of ‘Bharat Mata ki Jai’ andfollowed it up ‘Jai Sri Ram’ indi-rectly reminding people thatthe BJP has not forgotten thetheme issue of Ram Mandir –which might hog limelight incoming months.
In his over 40-minutespeech, Shah pointed his barbsat SP, BSP and Congress calling
these parties as corrupt andinefficient. “During the UPAregime Congress scam wasworth Rs 12 lakh crores. In UP,you are witnessing tusslebetween Chacha and Bhatija,which is because of distributionof loot money,” he said.
“It is unfortunate that theCentral government has givenseveral thousand crore rupees toUP for development work, butnot a single penny has been used.If BJP comes to power theCentral government’s allocationof funds will reach the benefi-ciaries. The State will get at least�1 lakh crore annually fromCentre,” he said.
Shah also spoke aboutNarendra Modi government’sachievements including the sur-gical strikes carried out by IndianArmy.
“In 2014 Lok Sabha electionspeople showered their love onthe BJP and we want the same in2017 elections,” he said anddeclared that the BJP will formthe Government of its own.
State BJP president KeshavPrasad Maurya also spoke onthis occasion.
Later in the evening AmitShah held a detailed meetingwith party leaders in Lucknowand discussed the nitty-gritty ofParivartan Yatras.
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The Samajwadi PartyGovernment and the party
seem to be working at tangents.While State Samajwadi Partychief Shivpal Singh Yadav isscouting for partners to builda ‘secular’ front to contest the2017 Assembly polls, ChiefMinister Akhilesh Yadav seemsto be averse to the idea and hasadvocated that the partyshould go to the hustings onthe basis of its performance.
People close to AkhileshYadav told The Pioneer onThursday that the CM had adetailed meeting with partypatriarch Mulayam SinghYadav and forcefully pushedthe idea that the party shouldgo alone in the elections.
“The SP should not go foralliance. We had won 229seats in the2012 elections.What prevents us from goingto polls on our own? Why arewe scared? Akhilesh has aclean image. People are saying
that this Government hasdelivered and still we are look-ing for partners,” a member ofTeam Akhilesh said.
Questioning the credibil-ity of the poll partners, he said,“And who are the allies–Janatadal (United), RLD andCongress – parties which havelost their identities in UP.”
Despite these arguments,Shivpal Yadav spoke to JD (U)and RLD leaders in NewDelhi. “To prevent the BJPfrom coming to power, we willhave a big alliance this year. Ihave spoken to several leadersand got positive responses,” hesaid in Ghaziabad onThursday.
Mulayam Singh had sentbrother Shivpal to invite lead-ers for Samajwadi Party’s sil-ver jubilee programme sched-uled in Lucknow onNovember 5. The inviteesinclude Janata Dal (Secular)leader HD Deve Gowda,Janata Dal (United) leadersNitish Kumar and Sharad
Yadav, Rashtriya Lok Dalleader Ajit Singh and RashtriyaJanata Dal leader Lalu Prasad.
“The whole idea is to sendacross a message that MulayamSingh Yadav is trying to unitesecular forces before the UPAssembly elections. He hasassigned the task to Shivpal tokeep him busy elsewhere,” asenior SP leader said.
But where is the unity?“If the CM says we should
go alone and the State SPchief stresses on forming pre-poll alliances, it is a clearpointer that there is differenceof opinion on the issue.Akhilesh has rejected anyalliance proposal in the past.Netaji should have takenAkhilesh into confidencebefore initiating the move,” asenior leader said.
A second line of thinkingsuggests that SP’s pan-Indiathinking could stop the chainof action and reactions in theYadav family.
Trouble started in the
Samajwadi Party onSeptember 13, when Mulayamreplaced Akhilesh with Shivpalas the State party chief. Inretaliation, Akhilesh divestedShivpal of the Public WorksDepartment, Irrigation andRevenue Ministries only togive back the Irrigation andRevenue Ministries.
With the strife snow-balling, Shivpal suspendedfive MLCs and six youth wingsleaders loyal to Akhilesh.Eventually, he also suspendedgeneral secretary and spoke-spearson Ram Gopal Yadav forwriting to Mulayam againsthim. A furious Akhilesh thensacked Shivpal and his threeaides from his cabinet onOctober 23.
Janata Dal (U) leaderSuresh Nirajnan Bhaiya said:“Nitish Kumar’s stand hasbeen politically vindicated.Nitish had already advocatedfor an anti-BJP front and nowMulayam Singhji is supportingit.”
BJP president Amit Shah’s state-ment at a rally in Etawah offorming Governments like theone during Kalyan Singh’sregime. She asked Shah to ten-der an apology for making thestatement which had hurt pub-lic sentiments.
“Kalyan Singh’sGovernment was involved inunconstitutional work during1992 for which the then BJPGovernment was sacked bythe Apex Court and KalyanSingh was also held guilty”,pointed out Mayawati.
“Shah’s statement has hurtthe sentiments of 22 crore peo-ple of Uttar Pradesh and hencethe BJP president must imme-diately apologise for his state-ment,” she said.
She further hit out at Shahfor saying that both the SP andBSP could not improve law andorder in the State. “The law andorder during BSP’s regime wasthe best with most criminals in
jails and people living withoutfear. The situation in Delhi aswell as all BJP-ruled states isvery bad. The poor and Dalitshad to bear the atrocities,minorities were facing riots andno one is feeling safe,” assert-ed BSP chief.
Interestingly, Mayawatialso attacked the BJP on safe-ty of border areas. “Shah claimsthat international borders dur-ing Modi’s rule are most safe isnot correct as everyone knowsthat how cross-border firingwas taking place everyday dueto the NDA’s flawed policies. Inrecent times, several Armypersonnel and other civilianshave been killed,” she said.
Mayawati said that justlike people are fed up with cor-ruption and wrong policies ofCongress and taught them les-son in 2014 elections, the BJPtoo will face the same fate aspeople have readthrough theBJP’s fake promises of ‘achchedin’. She claimed that the BSPwill be forming theGovernment in UP after thecoming Assembly polls.
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Samajwadi Party received asetback on Thursday when
the party’s former president ofChhattisgarh unit and nationalexecutive member RamanandYadav resigned announcing tofloat a new political outfit‘Samajwadi Swabhiman Manch’with motorcycle as its election
symbol.Announcing the new party,
Yadav said that the new outfitwill contest all 403 seats in the2017 Assembly polls. “Theparty has been registered withthe Election Commission andit has asked for motorcycle asits election symbol,” he toldmedia persons in Lucknow onThursday.
Yadav said that the on-going family feud has given abad name to the SamajwadiParty. People have started ques-tioning the morality of leadersto continue in power.
“The way dirty linen hasbeen washed in public reflectsthat nothing is going well in thefamily. When relations amongsenior leaders is not cordial,
how can we expect the party toprogress,” he asked.
In his resignation sent toMulayam Singh Yadav onOctober 24, Ramanand Yadavsaid, “I am leaving the partyafter being humiliated severaltimes. Though you are mypolitical guru yet you nevercared for me nor you gave meany respect in the party.”
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Celebrity visitors includingveteran filmmaker
Bharathiraja and lyricistVairamuthu on Thursday vis-ited Apollo Hospital, whereTamil Nadu Chief Minister JJayalalithaa is undergoingtreatment, and enquired abouther well-being.
Bharathiraja exuded con-fidence that Jayalalithaa willreturn in good health follow-ing prayers of scores of people.
He said people's prayershad helped AIADMK founderand former Chief MinisterMG Ramachandran when hewas hospitalised in the 80s,adding “it will be the same forMadam (Jayalalithaa) also.”
National award winninglyricist Vairamuthu saidJayalalithaa will return with the
help of medicines and “herdetermination.”
Veteran actore Sheela saidshe was confident that theChief Minister will return soonas “she is an iron lady.”
Meanwhile, AIADMKsupporters continued to holdprayers in different parts of theState for the speedy recovery oftheir party General Secretary.
Jayalalithaa was admittedto the Apollo Hospital here onSeptember 22 after she com-plained of fever and dehydra-tion.
Later on, the hospital hadsaid she was being treated forinfection with respiratory sup-port among others.
In its latest medical bul-letin, issued on October 21, thehospital had said the ChiefMinister was interacting andprogressing gradually.
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In a significant developmentthat came ahead of the special
court in the Sheena Bora mur-der case, the CBI questionedMumbai’s former PoliceCommissioner Rakesh Mariaand two senior IPS officers earlythis week in connection with theinitial phase of investigations car-ried out by the Mumbai police inthe sensational case.
Informed sources in theCBI said here on Thursday thatMaria-who was shunted out ofhis post as the Mumbai PoliceCommissioner on September 8last year right in the middle ofinvestigations into murder casethat he was heading–appeared
before the CBI and answered ahost of questions.
Apart from Maria, two othersenior police officers were ques-tioned by the CBI. They were:Deven Bharati and SatyaNarayan Chowdhury.
While Maria is currently theDirector General, Home Guardsand Commandant General, CivilDefence, Bharati andChowdhary are JointCommissioner of Police (Law &Order) and DeputyCommissioner of Police (ZoneIX) respectively. All three offi-cers were overseeing the inves-tigations in the Sheena Boramurder case, before the CBI took
over the investigations in the caseon September 29 last year.
The sudden transfer ofMaria in September last year andthe subsequent decision by theMaharashtra Government tohand over the investigations inthe Sheena Bora murder case tothe CBI had sparked intensespeculation in the media as to therole by the former police com-missioner, who had taken per-sonal interest in the case.
There was also speculationin the ruling Saffron alliance cir-cles that some of the BJP leadershad not taken kindly to “exces-sive interest” shown by Maria inthe investigations into the SheenaBora murder case and his allegedproximity to Peter Mukherjea.
anger among hard-coreDravidians in Tamil Nadu.Christodas Gandhi, a retiredIAS officer in Chennai, wentto the extent of telling that hewould not hesitate to slipperLord Rama since he felt thatRamayana is the story of thevictory of the fair complex-ioned Aryans over the darkskinned Dravidians represent-ed by Ravana, the demon king.Activists of the HinduMunnani have filed a com-plaint with the Chennai Policeagainst Gandhi.
This year’s Vijaya Dashamicelebrations also saw theDravidian extremists burningLord Rama in effigy in various
places in Tamil Nadu. Butthese incidents have not damp-ened the spirits of the IndianRailways Catering and TourismCorporation (IRCTC) fromorganising a tourism packagein search of places in Sri Lankaassociated with Ramayana.
The IRCTC is offering aspiritual package to devotees ofLord Rama, Mother Seethaand Lord Anjaneya to get afeeling of the places in SriLanka blessed by their pres-ence. It was to Sri Lanka, thedemon king Ravana forcefullytook away Seetha from thepicturesque forests inPanchavadi where Lord Rama,Seetha and Lakshmana wereliving as part of their 14 yearsexile from Ayodhya.
Nanditha Krishna, hon-ourary director, CPRamaswami Aiyer Centre for
Indological Studies , Chennai,said there are places likeNuwara Elia, Sita Eliya in SriLanka which are monumentsassociated with the Ramayana.“You can re-live the epicRamayana with this trip. Theremnants of Asoka Vana whereSeetha was living in captivityguarded by the women guardsof Ravana could be still seen inthese parts,” said Nandithawho has undertaken a tripfrom Panchavadi inMaharashtra to Sri Lanka trac-ing the route travelled bySeetha, Lord Rama, Lakshmanand Lord Anjaneya.
Lord Anjaneya (Hanuman)who was deputed by Lord Ramato find the whereabouts ofSeetha, might have burnt downthe beautiful capital city ofRavana as a harbinger to theevents which were to unfold
later. But that has not prevent-ed the Lankans from buildingtemples in honour of Hanuman,Lord Rama and Seetha. “Thecaves where Ravana performedthe yaga to propitiate LordShiva before setting out to wagethe battle against Rama could bestill seen at Nuwara Eliya”, saida senior IRCTC official atChennai while overseeing thepreparations of “Trails ofRamayana”, a six day and sevennight package through the beau-tiful island nation.
The IRCTC package is nota mere Ramayana trip. The visitincludes pilgrimage to variousshrines dedicated to Anjaneya,the Kadirgamar Temple, SriLakshmi Narayana Perumal Koiland other places of touristimportance. If the weather Godsdo not play truant, travellers arelikely to get a bird’s eye view ofRam Sethu, the bridge believedto have been built by LordRama and his army for crossingover from Rameswaram to SriLanka to liberate Seetha fromthe hands of Ravana.
The journey starts fromChennai and all travel arrange-ments are being made byIRCTC which offers accom-modation in three-star hotels inthe island nation besides thevisa formalities. The tour pack-age starts from �46,050 per per-son depending on the kind offacilities.
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The five-member delegationled by former foreign affairs
minister and senior BJP leaderYashwant Sinha concluded its3-day visit to Kashmir, thefirst effort to mediate betweenthe separatists and theGovernment to end deadlockin Kashmir due to ongoingshutdown and public protests.
The delegation revisitedsenior separatist leader Syed AliGeelani’s residence for “someclarifications” before callingupon the Governor NN Vohraat Raj Bhawan who stressed theimportance of a sustained dia-logue with all stakeholders forsecuring very early restora-tion of peace and normalcy inthe State.
During the visit, the dele-gation met a host of separatistleaders including Geelani,Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, ProfAbdul Ghani Bhat and ShabirShah besides trade union lead-ers and civil society membersto get the actual feedback onthe ground situation inKashmir.
Though the delegationdeclined to be called asGovernment sponsored,
sources said that the interven-tion has the official go-ahead.The details of the meetings,especially with the separatistswere not revealed to the media.
Sources said that the ini-tiative was undertaken by NewDelhi based Center forDialogue and Research (CDR)headed by Soshoba Bharve,who has been active in dialogueand reconciliation processesin Kashmir for past severalyears.
A source said that the ini-tiative can be called as civilsociety’s track-two effort.Besides Sinha and Bharve, for-mer Chief InformationCommissioner WajahatHabibullah, former Air Vice-Marshal Kapil Kak and veter-an journalist Bharat Bhushan.
The delegation arrived hereon October 25 and found theseparatist leaders ready to talkto them unlike on a similarGovernment sponsored effortin September last. During thevisit of the all-party delegationled by Home Minister RajnathSingh, a group of Parliamentmembers led by CPM GeneralSecretary Sitaram Yachury wasrebuffed by separatists whenGeelani disallowed them to
enter his residence onSeptember 4. Geelani, howev-er, welcomed this delegationwith open arms and served the
members with Kashmirikehwa. He described the 80-minute talks as held in positiveatmosphere.
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In a major initiative to endexploitation of patients by the
private hospitals KarnatakaGovernment is bringingamendment to the health leg-islation in the ensuingAssembly session. State HealthMinister Ramesh Kumar saidin Bengaluru on Thursday thatState would amend relevanthealth law to end exploitationof patients by private hospitals.
He said “Following com-plaints from many aggrievedpeople, the State Governmenthas decided to enact amend-ments to have control incharges levied by PrivateHospitals for various treat-ments.”
He said that a Committeeunder the Chairmanship ofJustice Vikramjit Sen has beenconstituted to recommend thenecessary inputs for theamendments. Experts fromMedical, Law fields, represen-tatives from Private Medicalinstitutions and senior citi-
zens are appointed as membersof the Committee and havebeen asked to submit the reportwithin eight weeks.
He said that suitableamendments will be incorpo-rated in the existing Act tomake it compulsory for theHospitals to display consulta-tion fee and charges for treat-ing various ailments.Underlining that serving thepublic should be the main aim
of the Private Hospitals besidesmaking profit, he said thatsuitable rules will be brought topunish those who charge exor-bitantly and indulge in exploit-ing poor patients. “Ensuringgood treatment for all is toppriority. A Legislation will beintroduced in such a way that“the motto should be firsttreatment and then collectmoney,” he added.
Health experts feel theamendments to the legislationwould really help patients whohave been harassed and exploit-ed by the private hospitals forthe treatment. Karnataka whichis one of the first States in thecountry to have a unique healthpolicy is expected to in a waycontrol private hospital men-ace. Karnataka which has intro-duced a unique health insur-ance policy called Yeshaswinito the farmers and other BPLcard holders at a cost of a pack-et of beedi per month is expect-ed to control the private sectorhospitals which are exploitingthe hapless patients.
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The Assam PradeshCongress Committee
(APCC) has lodged a com-plaint with the ElectionCommission of India allegingviolation of model code ofconduct by Union MinisterNitin Gadkari, Assam ChiefMinister Sarbananda Sonowaland State Education MinisterHimanta Biswa Sarma ahead ofthe November 19 bypolls in theState.
APCC president and RajyaSanjay MP Ripun Bora sub-mitted a memorandum toChief Election Commissionerof India on Thursday appealingaction in this regard.
The APCC memorandum
alleged that while UnionMinister Gadkari and CMSonowal announced mega pro-jects for Assam on Monday last,State Education ministerHimanta Biswa Sarma hadannounced a slew of soaps forthe people at Dongkamokamarea under BaithalangsoLegislative Assembly con-stituency on Thursday duringa rally.
“Sarma today announcedthat 1,100 youth ofBaithalangso and KarbiAnglong will be appointed inDiphu medical college. Further,the Minister also said that theGovernment will announce aHill university in KarbiAnglong followed by anEngineering College in
Baithalangso,” Bora said in thememorandum.
The senior Congressmanfurthersaid that these all aredone intentionally to influ-ence the voters of Baithalangso,which is going to bypoll onNovember 19.
The APCC president alsourged the Election Commissionto ask the Assam governmentto stop giving advertisements inprint and electronic mediaannouncing schemes in therun up to the bypolls.
On November 19, bypollwill take place for LakhimpurLok Sabha and Baithalangsolegislative assembly con-stituencies. The counting ofvotes will take place onNovember 22.
employees and 58 lakh pen-sioners got a pre-Diwalibonanza of 2 per cent hike inDearness Allowance theirBengal counterparts threat-ened an indefinite stir if ChiefMinister Mamata Banerjeefailed to implement the find-ings of the 6th State PayCommission.
The State pay commissionearlier sought a year’s time tocomplete its report andexpressed its helplessness to
announce its findings beforethe stipulated deadline ofNovember 2016.
“This is obnoxious. Whenthe Government can spendhundreds of crores in erectinguseless buildings and paint thegovernment facilities in blueand white every six months andbestow doles on clubs many ofwhich exist only in paper whycan’t it listen to our legitimatedemand,” said a senior officebearer of the StateGovernment’s employees fed-eration committee.
Moloy Mukherjee of theconference of State govern-
ment employees said “while theminimum pay packet of a cen-tral government employee is Rs18,000 ours is just 6,000. Addto this the 6 percent DA thatthey got this year. They getmore than three times thanwhat we do whereas we have tosustain in the same inflationarymarket conditions.”
However, sources quotingState Pay Commission chair-man Abhiroop Sarkar said thedelay was on account of hugenumber of applications andcorresponding hearings thatwere needed to dispose themoff.
persons lobbed a petrol bombin north Kashmir’s Soporetown and set ablaze two auto-rickshaws and a school build-ing apparently to enforce strictshutdown on a day when theIndian army celebrated theanniversary of its first landingin Kashmir in 1948.
The separatists who arespearheading a shutdown andprotests campaign in Kashmirvalley since July 8 when theHizbul Mujahideen comman-der BurhanWani was killed inan encounter in south Kashmirhad asked the people to observestrict shutdown on Thursday toprotest against the Indianarmy’s arrival in Kashmir. The
separatists are issuing weeklyprotest calendars for shut-downs and rallies.
Unknown persons setablaze a school building atKhag village in central districtBudgam on Thursday evening.Police sources said that a pri-mary school building was setablaze by unknown miscreants.A spree of burning schoolbuildings has erupted in theValley. Around two dozenschools have been burnt downduring the past three months.
Police said a petrol bombwas lobbed towards somehandcarts near a state-run hos-pital in Sopore town of northKashmir. An auto-rickshawwas set ablaze by unidentifiedpersons in Saida Kadal area onthe outskirts of Srinagar city onThursday.
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Known for his benevolentDiwali gifts to his employ-
ees, Surat-based billionaire dia-mond merchant Savji Dholakiahas this year too kept over athousand cars and 400 flats tohis well-performing stafferswith the company bearing partof the monthly instalments.
Dholakia, who owns theHare Krishna Exports, has gift-ed 400 flats and 1,260 cars asDiwali bonuses to his employ-ees. However, the companywill bear a part, �5,000, of theloan instalments on the flatsand the cars for five years.
“We have selected 1,716employees as the best per-formers this year. We arearranging for houses for thosewho already own cars, whilethose who don’t have a four-wheeler will get one," Dholakiatold IANS.
He said the 400 flats eachof 1,100 square feet would beallotted in a housing scheme ofthe company itself. "The flatswould come dirt cheap at Rs 15lakh and the monthly instal-ment, which the employee willstart paying after five years willbe �11,000," he said.
Nigam Limited (MTNL) havereason to cheer as theGovernment has ruled out thedisinvestment plan for thetime being. After massiveprotests by employees' union ofMTNL, NITI Aayog hascleared the air, saying that as ofnow there is no such propos-al of strategic sale or closure ofthe Government-owned tele-com firm.
In a response letter issuedon October 14, 2016, which isin possession with The Pioneer,Niti Aayog Chief ExecutiveOfficer (CEO) Amitabh Kantwrote to Arvind Sawant,Member of Parliament (MP) inLok Sabha, “I would like toinform you that there is noproposal under consideration
of the NITI Aayog at presentfor closure or disinvestment ofthe MTNL.”
After media reports of theMTNL's strategic sale, fol-lowed by the Government'smove for the same in a selectfew loss-making PSU units, notonly Sawant but also allemployees of the public sectortelecom firm were panicked forthis unwanted development.Thereafter, all of themappealed to the PrimeMinister's Office (PMO), NITIAayog, Telecom Ministry andDepartment ofTelecommunication (DoT)through various social mediaand individually as well for itsrevival, requesting not to ini-tiate any sale move of theGovernment. Sawant also per-sonally wrote to the NITI
Aayog, spelling out the reasonfor recurring losses in theMTNL, and subsequent sug-gestions for its revival.
In the letter of response, ithas been observed, Kantassured that there won't be anysuch unprecedented moveagainst the MTNL or itsemployees, but he had nevermentioned any way out orrevival mechanism for a long-term sustainability plan of thecontinuous loss-making firm.When contacted to Kant, hewas not available for the com-ment.
However, sources said thatthe fate of MTNL still hangs inthe balance. “The proposal ofdisinvestment or strategic saleof MTNL is still pending in thePMO for consideration. Sofar, there has been no com-
munication to either theTelecom Ministry or DoT fromthe PMO in this regard, norhas it given any 'green signal'of revival to the telecom firm,”it said.
Meanwhile in a separatedevelopment, the five-membersearch-cum-selection panel
formed by the Governmentand headed by PublicEnterprise Selection Board(PESB) Chairman Ajit Seth,also decided to appoint PKPurwar, Director (Finance) ofMTNL as permanentChairman and ManagingDirector (CMD) with a full
five-year term in the company,lighting up some hope for theemployees on revival aspect.
Purwar who was givenadditional charge for the CMDpost temporarily for threemonths, was officially issuedan official order of appoint-ment by the panel in theevening on October 25, 2016 asfull-time CMD of MTNL forfive years, a move by theGovernment to allay fears ofstrategic sale or closure of thecompany.
“Keeping in view perfor-mance of the candidates inter-viewed with special regard totheir qualities of managerialcapability, leadership, boardvision, track records etc, theCommittee recommendedPurwar as permanent CMDfor the MTNL,” the order said.
As per the order, the inter-view for selection of the CMDwas held in the morning onOctober 25, 2016, and the panelmet a total number of 9 candi-dates for the purpose. Amongthem, Purwar was the front-runner for the top post. Apartfrom Purwar, there were other8 other contenders - 7 from theMTNL itself and one fromIndian Rare Earths Limited(IREL), Mumbai for the race.They include Sunil Kumar,Director, (HR &EB), SanjeevKumar, Director (Technical),AK Agrawal, PGM(Development), RajendraPrasad, PGM (Training), NKrishna Moorthy, GM (SpecialService), Anirudh Prasad Singh,GM (Finance) and RajendraSingh, GM (MM) - all fromMTNL and Rakesh Tumane,
Director (Finance) from IREL,Mumbai.
The PSU telecom firm,which offers services in Delhiand Mumbai, has been withouta full-time CMD since May 30,2014, when AK Garg retiredfrom the post. However, Purwarwas given additional charge forthe post from June 2014. FromJune 2015 to June 2016, NKYadav, who is member (ser-vices), held the charge. Purwarwas again given the additionalcharge in June 2016, after com-pletion of Yadav's tenure.
For this key post, theGovernment had sought suit-able candidates who wererequired to submit their appli-cations before September 8,2016. Purwar's name had beenrecommended for the MTNL'stop post by the PESB inNovember 2013, but theGovernment did not go aheadwith the recommendation.
After ousted Chairman CyrusMistry flagged ethical con-
cerns in Tata group's aviationjoint venture with Air Asia,alleging fraudulent transactionsat AirAsia India, the AviationMinistry on Thursday said allissues would be looked into andlaw of the land will have to be fol-lowed in case of any violation.
“Laws as per policies have tobe followed. Whatever (issue)anybody raises, they will have tobe looked into,” Civil AviationMinister Ashok Gajapathi Rajutold reporters.
The comments come a dayafter Mistry's allegations, con-tained in a confidential letterdated October 25, became pub-lic wherein he alleged that foren-sic investigation revealed fraud-ulent transactions of �22 croreinvolving non-existent entities inIndia and Singapore.
Asked whether the min-istry would take any action inthis matter, Raju said: “If anyoneviolates laws, laws of the land willhave to followed everywhere.”
He, however, did not giveany direct reply about specificallegations made in Mistry's let-ter which he had written soonafter being ousted as Chairmanof Tata Sons, the main holdingcompany of over $100 billionconglomerate.
Raju said: “The regulatorprovides the licence. So that wasthe point of that time. If there areviolations in it, the courts arethere to look at it. Our concernhere is that we should keepIndian skies vibrant. We havesustained a 20 per cent growth.Why should we put a stop to it.Laws as per policies have to befollowed.
“Whatever anybody raises,they will have to be lookedinto.” Earlier in the day, the min-istry officials had said they are
keeping a close watch on devel-opments related to the purport-ed disclosures made by Mistryabout AirAsia India and will actif something actionable isbrought to its notice.
“We are waiting for anyinput from any quarter,” CivilAviation Secretary RN Choubeysaid, adding “we have notreceived anything so far”.
While another civil ministryofficial said: “If anything new isbrought to the ministry attention,appropriate authorities will lookinto it”.
As the bitter war played outbetween Mistry and interimChairman Ratan Tata, he alsoalleged that due to the latter's pas-sion for aviation, Tata Sonsboard increased capital infu-sion in the aviation sector at mul-tiple levels of the initial com-mitment.
In a letter written to theBoard members of Tata Sons aday after he was ousted, Mistrysaid: “Board members andtrustees are also aware that in thecase of Air Asia, ethical concernshave been raised with respect tocertain transactions as well asoverall prevailing culture with-in the organisation.
“A recent forensic investiga-tion revealed fraudulent trans-actions of �22 crore involvingnon-existent parties in Indiaand Singapore.”
Mistry went on to allege that“executive trustee MrVenkataraman, who is on theboard of Air Asia and also ashareholder in the company,considered these transactionsas non-material and did notencourage further study”.
It was only at the insistenceof the independent directors, oneof whom immediately submittedhis resignation, that the boarddecided to belatedly file a firstinformation reports, Mistry saidin the letter.
He claimed it was Tata whocompleted negotiations with AirAsia but early in his tenure as theChairman of Tata Sons he wasasked to table a proposal for theJV with Air Asia at a Tata Sonsboard meeting.
Claiming that in the case ofJV with Air Asia, he was able toextract a “promise of no debt tobe raised at the level of JV, as wellas limiting Tata Sons investmentto 30 per cent of the $30 millionequity”, Mistry said he was takenby surprise with a similar situa-tion when Tatas formed a JVwith Singapore Airlines.
“A few months later, I wassurprised to be confronted witha similar situation requiring meto execute a fait accompli JV withSingapore Airlines,” he said.
Mistry further said in the let-ter, “without the benefit of timeand experience to fully evaluatethe proposal, I had to accept thatTata Sons would take a 51 percent stake in a $100 million jointventure”.
Pointing fingers at Tata, hesaid: “The passion for the airlinessector has led Mr Tata to con-tinue his involvement with strat-egy of the two airlines. It is on hisadvice that the Tata Sons boardhas increased the capital infusionin the sector at multiple levels ofthe initial commitment.”
In 2013, Tata Sons hadjoined hands with Malaysian car-rier AirAsia and Arun Bhatia'sTelestra Tradeplace to start lowcost carrier AirAsia India. Thecarrier had to wait for ninemonths before taking off.
In September 2013, Tatagroup had joined hands withSingapore Airlines to start anew full-service airline in India,18 years after a failed attempt.Tata Sons owned 51 per centstake in the carrier, which hasbeen christened as Vistara withSingapore Airlines holding therest.
India on Thurs dayannounced 60.18 per centjump in its net profit to�2,398 crore for the quar-ter ended September 30, its“best ever” quarterly prof-it on the back of recordsales.
It had posted net prof-it of �1,497 crore duringthe July-September periodof last fiscal, 2015-16.
Its total income fromoperations rose by 29.28per cent to �20,296.8 croreduring the second quarterof the current fiscal asagainst �15,699.7 crore inthe year-ago period, MSIsaid.
The comp any s old4,18,470 vehicles duringthe quarter under review, agrowth of 18.4 per centover a year ago.
Maruti Suzuki IndiaChairman RC Bhargavasaid: “It has been in manyways best quarter we haveever had.”
As p er t he s e condquarter performance in theongoing fiscal, on annu-alised basis, the productionwould have crossed 1.7million cars, which is “waybeyond 100 per cent capac-ity utilisation”, he added.
Bhargava s a id t hecompany's profitability wasdriven by high capacityutilisation due to robustsales. “When you havecapacity utilisation like wehave now, every extra carwe make adds to profitbecause of reduced over-heads, including deprecia-tion.”
The company's sales inthe period under reviewwere at best in a quarterbeating the previous recordof 3,60,402 units in thefourth quarter of 2015-16.
In terms of profit aswell, this is its highest in aquar ter break ing t herecord of �1,486 croreposted in the first quarter(April-June) of 2016-17.During the quarter, thecompany's average dis-counts were less at �16,100as compared to �19,500 inthe same period last year.
MSI said lower expens-es on sales promotion andmarketing and higher non-operating income also con-tributed to increase inprofit.
This was partially off-set by adverse foreignexchange movement ,which stood at a total of�145 crore for the quarter,after taking into accountroyalty payment, importand export expenses.
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The Union Cabinet onThursday granted gave in-
principle approval to NitiAayog's proposal for strategicsale in over a dozen public sec-tor undertakings (PSUs) includ-ing those that are making prof-its.
Talking to reporters afterthe Cabinet meeting, chaired byPrime Minister Narendra Modi,Finance Minister Arun Jaitleysaid the names of PSUs that areup for strategic stake sale wouldbe made public once they aregoing to be put up for the auc-tion.
“The recommendations ofthe NITI Aayog with regard toboth disinvestment and strate-gic sale came up for considera-tion. In principle the Cabinethas approved the recommen-dations with regard to some ofthe units,” the minister said.
Each case would be con-sidered separately after it hasbeen examined by theDepartment of Disinvestmentand the ministries concerned,he said.
“So in-principle it has beenapproved. Specific cases wouldnow come up after a detailedexamination as to how it is to bedone in each case and thedetails with regard to the unitsconcerned will be furnished atthat stage. This list does notinclude PSUs for closure,” hesaid.
The strategic sale willinvolve a management control
transfer as the shareholding ofthe Government would comedown to below 50 per cent.
“Some of these are impor-tant units and, therefore, sinceeach unit would be consideredin its own merit, the timing ofthat would be decided by theGovernment accordingly,” hesaid.
With regard to valuation ofthese PSUs, he said there are set-tled valuation processes and atransparent one would be fol-lowed.
Jaitley further said the val-uation will also take intoaccount immovable propertyand other assets.
Asked whether theGovernment will be able tomeet the �20,500 crore strategicstake sale target for current fis-cal, he said that “at the momentwe are at the mid-point of theyear and this year we havealready made a significantheadway”.
The Government hasalready raised over �8,000 crorethrough PSU share buybackand OFS (offer for sale). Itintends to raise �36,000 crore inthe entire fiscal through minor-ity stake sale in PSUs.
Department of Investmentand Public Asset Management(DIPAM) will work out themethodology, price fixation andbase price for each of the PSUsup for strategic sale.
“I am not going to allow itto be under sold merely becausethere is a calendar limitation,”Jaitley said when asked about the
timeline for sale.Niti Aayog has prepared a
list of public sector units wherethe Government can sell itsmajority stake to private com-panies in order to bring ingreater efficiency and profes-sionalism in their functioning.
PSUs identified for strategicsale reportedly include profit-making Bharat Earth Moversand Certification EngineersInternational as well as loss-making Scooters India.
The last strategic sale tookplace in Jessop and Co in 2003-04 under the NDA Governmentheaded by Prime Minister AtalBihari Vajpyaee, when 72 percent of Government stake wassold to Indo Wagon Engineeringfor �18.18 crore.
Incidentally, the first strate-gic sale in a PSU also happenedunder NDA rule in 1999-2000when the Government sold 74per cent equity in Modern FoodIndustries to Hindustan Leverfor �105.45 crore.
During 1999-2000 and2003-04, the Government hadstrategically divested stake in 16PSUs, garnering �6,344.35 crore.These included sale of fuelretailer IBP Ltd to state-ownedIndian Oil Corp (IOC) for�1,153.68 crore.
Indian Petrochemicals CorpLtd (IPCL) was sold to RelianceIndustries for �1,490.84 crore,Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd toTata Group firm for �1,439.25crore and Hindustan Zinc Ltd toVedanta Group for a total con-sideration of �768.88 crore.
ry losses, India's largest oilretailer India Oil Corp (IOC)on Thursday posted the netprofit of �3,122 crore for thesecond quarter of current fis-cal as against a loss a year ago.“The net profit of �3,121.89crore, or �6.58 per share, in theJuly-September period com-pared to a net loss of �450.24crore in the same period a yearago,” IOC Chairman B Ashoktold reporters here.
“Last year we had a hugeinventory loss of �5,134 crore,this year we had a loss ofmuch lower proportion at Rs686 crore,” he said, adding therefineries turned 14.3 per centhigher crude oil at 15.635 mil-lion tons in the quarter ended
September 30 while sales wereup 1.8 per cent to 18.465 mil-lion tons.
IOC earned $4.32 on turn-ing every barrel of crude oilinto fuel in the quarter underreview, as compared to a grossrefining margin of $0.90 perbarrel. “Physical performancecontinues to be very good,” headded.
IOC reduced finance cost
to �615 crore from �758 crore,Ashok said, adding that debthas come down to �41,885crore as on September 30 asopposed to �53,404 crore atMarch-end.
However, AK Sharma,Director (Finance) said that theGovernment reimbursed all ofthe �1,453 crore the companylost on selling kerosene belowcost and �768 crore on LPG.
India's limited overs skipperMahendra Singh Dhoni hassaid that the job of a finisher
is one of the toughest and it is dif-ficult to find a 'complete' playerwho is adept at batting in lowerorder and take the team throughwhen the chips are down.
"Batting down the order isone of the toughest things to doespecially on wickets like these.There will be pressure to rotate,to get a partnership. It's not easy.You don't always get a playerwho's complete and bats at no 5,6 or 7," Dhoni said in the post-match news conference afterIndia’s defeat against NewZealand in the 4th ODI.
Ajinkya Rahane (57) andVirat Kohli (45) gave India a flu-ent start but their modest 261-run chase went horribly wrongafter the hosts folded for 241 in48.4 overs despite being 128-2 atone stage.
Lower down the order, Axar
Patel (38) and Amit Mishra (14)had revived India's hope butbefore they could convert it intoa match-winning partnership thelatter was run out.
Asking for more patience tobe shown with the inexperiencedmiddle-order, Dhoni said:"Batting down the order on wick-ets like this when you're chasingis always going to be tough. Youwill have to give them time.They will find their way. Afterthey get more and more gameslike this they will figure outwhat suits best for them to chasea total.
"On a wicket like this, whenthe score was not too much, youneed partnerships. With two newballs, it comes on to bat better ini-tially. The wicket slows down. Itdoes not come on to the bat thatwell. It was a difficult phase andit becomes difficult to rotate.
"When you have partner-ships going a lot of stuff becomeseasier. If you lose wickets at that
point of time, it adds to the pres-sure. Bowlers tend to bowl inright areas and becomes diffi-cult," he added.
With this win, New Zealandlevelled the five-match series 2-2 and now head toVisakhapatnam for the final one-dayer on Saturday.
One of the best run chasersin world cricket, Kohli wascaught behind in his attempt tocut a wide delivery from leg-spinner Ish Sodhi and his rarefailure coincided with India los-ing the match.
Asked whether India wereheavily reliant on Kohli, Dhonisaid: "It's not like that. The statsdon't exactly reflect the exact sce-nario."
India have not won a bilateralseries since November 2014, ifone discounts the two cleansweeps against Zimbabwe in July2015 and June 2016.
Pointing out that India hadplayed less one-day matches inthe last one and half months,Dhoni said: "We have not playedmuch ODIs. In between we hadZimbabwe. It's very difficult.
"Also I've batted atdifferent position inthat period. Our toporder was batting bril-liantly. So everything isvery different."
Dhoni pointed outthat the pitch was slug-gish and slowed down,drawing parallel to the DelhiODI where New Zealandwon by six runs, defending242 in the second one-dayerat the Feroz Shah Kotla sta-dium.
"There have been a couple ofgame where the wicket has beenon the slower side, where theopposition, if they scored 300-plus there's more often you keepplaying your shots to chase itdown," he said.
"When the wickets are slow,and required run-rate is not toohigh, that's when you calculateand play out a few overs think-ing of a partnership. I feel that'swhere it lies as of now. We havequite a few batsmen who can dothe job."
India had lost opener RohitSharma (11) cheaply for theteam's score of 19 but Rahane andKohli put life into the chase witha 79-run partnership for the sec-ond wicket.
"The partnership was neededmore than anything else at thatpoint of time. Given the require-ment of the game, he was battingwell and generally he bats in thatfashion. I don't think there wasanything wrong in it," Dhoni said.
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His strokeful 72 helped New Zealand notch up a series-levelling 19-run winover India but opener Martin Guptill said it wasn't a fluent knock as the
condition was tough to bat once the ball got old at JSCA International StadiumComplex here.
Guptill's innings set the platform for New Zealand as they posted 260 andthen bowled out India for 241 in 48.4 overs to win the fourth ODI here.
"It wasn't as fluent as I would have liked. But at the end of the day, I'll take72 any day of the week. It was tough," the senior New Zealand opener said.
"Early on the ball came on bit more and you were able to hit through theline bit better but once the ball became a bit softer the scoring
became a lot tougher and you had to work for your runs,you had to grind it out a wee bit. I was happy to get through
that little period."Guptill hit 12 boundaries in his 84-
ball innings to match his score in thethird and final Test in Indore and hesaid that's his style of play. "It's just theway I've played my one-day cricket inthe last one year to 18 months. I enjoyhitting the ball over the top when I can.So I just tried to make use of the hardball when it was hard and I got awaywith it today," he said.
Guptill said opening the batting wasthe toughest place to bat. "As an open-er you're going to get a ball, you're goingto nick off early on and things like thathappen. But you know you just got tofight through that because you're goingto come out the other side, you canscore some runs," he said.
The pressure is now back on hostsIndia with the series locked 2-2 aheadof the final one-dayer inVisakhapatnam on Saturday andGuptill said a win would boost theirconfidence.
"The last game in Mohali I startedto get some old touch back and todaywhile I wasn't as fluent as I would haveliked you know I was able to bat for aperiod of time," he said.
"So going forward to Vizaghopefully I can spend a bit moretime in the middle and then cre-ate a few partnerships with theguys I'm batting with. Hopefullywe can score some big runs.
"Everyone fought right to theend. The bowlers did a fantastic job
today up front getting rid of Rohitearly and then they had a partner-
ship together and Ish came on andbroke that," he said about Kohli's dis-
missal for 45.Showering high praise on their
spinners, Guptill said: "I think the wayIsh and Mitch Santner bowled today was
top draw and absolutely world class bowl-ing to arguably the best players of spin in
the world."The wickets suited them and the boys
bowled really well and fielded extremelywell as well."
���� 2:/�.0
Delhi took firm control of theproceedings after a collective
performance from bowlers sawthem bowl out Odisha for a lowly237 in a Ranji Trophy group Bencounter, here on Thursday.
At stumps, Delhi comfortablyreached 43 for no loss in 10 overswith skipper Gautam Gambhirreaching 26 in company of UnmuktChand, who was batting on 13.
Earlier, Gambhir won the tossand put Odisha into bat. Veteranseamer Sumit Narwal (2/34) usedthe new ball to good effect as heremnoved Ranji Singh (4) with anoutgoing delivery and SandeepPattanaik (7) with an incomingdelivery. Once Gobind Poddar(24) and Anurag Sarangi (18) weredismissed in quick succession,Odisha were in trouble at 59 for 4.
Seasoned Biplab Samantray (62)and Subhranshu Senapati (76) added145 runs for the 5th wicket asOdisha recovered at one stage to be204 for five. While Biplab hit eightfours and a six in 112 balls, Senapatihit 10 boundaries in 153 balls.
But a lower-order collapse ini-tiated by left-arm spin duo ofVarun Sood (3/23) and MananSharma (2/52) saw Odisha lose lastfive wickets for only 33 runs.
Ishant Sharma, who opened thebowling, sent down 14 overs witha wicket for 29 runs to show for hisefforts.
Ishant has now sent down atotal of 35 overs in the two inningsthat he has bowled so far since hiscomeback from Chikungunyafever.
More than the number of wick-ets that he gets, Ishant's fitness andthe number of spells that he bowlswill be important for the nationalselectors with the first Test againstEngland, only a fortnight away.
%����������������� ����Two seasoned, left-hand-ed Bengaluru-born players — AmitVerma and Sreenath Aravind —representing rival teams, stole thehonours on day one of a Group BRanji Trophy match betweenAssam and Karnataka here.
While pacer Aravind wreckedthe Assam batting line-up after theychose to bat first at the Bandra-Kurla complex ground with hiscareer's second five-wicket in aninnings haul, his former statemateVerma stood rocklike to prop upAssam's first innings by notchinghis 11th first class hundred in his62nd game.
At stumps, Assam were 268 forsix after recovering from 16 forthree and then 166 for six by rid-ing on no. 4 batsman Verma's dili-gent, unbeaten knock of 125 in 340minutes that contained 18 foursand a six and came off 259 balls.
The other unbeaten batsman atclose was Sarupam Purkayastha,who was on 56 after having battedfor 140 minutes, facing 88 balls andhitting seven fours and one six.
Aravind finished with figures
of five for 49 in 21 overs, shoul-dering the pace bowling responsi-bility in lion-hearted style follow-ing the early exit of partnerAbhimanyu Mithun, who bowledonly four balls in his second overbefore leaving the field. He didn'tbowl again during the day.
������ �#�������������������Bengal seamers ledby Ashok Dinda brought theirteam back in the match by blowingaway Railways top-order after beingbowled out for 205 in the firstinnings of the Ranji Trophy groupA encounter here on Thursday.
Dinda (2/17 in 8 overs) bowledunchanged for eight overs andwas supported well by Amit Kuila(1/8) and Sayan Ghosh (1/12) asthey reduced Railways to 37 for 4in seamer-friendly conditions.
Arindam Ghosh (4), who isgoing through a wretched run wascastled by Kuila as Railways still need169 runs to get a first innings lead.
Earlier, Bengal crossed 200-runmark thanks to some lusty blows byDinda, whose 26-ball-30 had fiveboundaries.
���� 9��������2�.�D"0��
Indian defender Surender Kumar will not playany role in the ongoing fourth Asian
Champions Trophy hockey tournament afterbeing suspended for two matches following adeliberate foul during the game against Malaysia.
Asian Hockey Federation's Technical DelegateRamesh Appoo on Thursday conducted a disci-plinary hearing under the Code of Conduct andfound Surender guiltyof a serious foul,warranting sus-pension for twomatches.
The Indiandefender, whosegood performance inthe Champions Trophyearned him a place in thesquad for the OlympicGames, will have to sitout of the knockoutround, starting with thesemifinal on Saturday.
"Surender was shown ayellow card by the umpire foran off-the-ball incident in whichSurender lifted his stick in anappropriate manner, thereby caus-ing his stick to hit the chin of aMalaysian player," Appoo said in astatement.
"Having considered the evidencebefore me, including the explanationgiven by Surender, I have imposed atwo-match suspension," theTechnical Delegate said.
Surender was sent off in the49th minute of India's last leaguematch, which they won 2-1 to takethe top spot in the round-robinleague and now await the last cou-ple of preliminary matches beforeknowing who they play in thesemifinal.
After Surender got the yellowcard, India had to play the rest ofthe match with 10 players butmanaged to ward offMalaysia's rapid attacks.India managed to get a latematch-winner off a penalty
corner from Rupinder Pal Singh with just twominutes left.
A one-match suspension was also imposedon Malaysian player Ashari Firhan.
"Team India handed me a video in whichAshari was seen mak-
ing a deliberatephysical contact by
extending his elbowinto the body of Indian
player AkashdeepSingh in an off-the-ball
incident," Appoo said."I have imposed a
one-match suspension onAshari," he said.
������������#����Top-ranked India will
take on South Korea in thesemifinals of the fourth Asian
Champions Trophy after the Koreansconceded a late equaliser to Malaysiaand finished fourth in the round-robin league standings here on
Thursday.India had topped the league
standings with 13 points afterfinishing their preliminary
fixtures on Wednesday, butthere was plenty of dramaon the last day of theleague fixtures.
Pakistan defeated China4-0 to take their points tallyto nine, the same asMalaysia before the lastouting against the Koreans,who had seven points aheadof the last match. Pakistan's
goal-difference was far inferiorto that of hosts Malaysia, so atie on points would putMalaysia ahead.
Malaysia needed a victo-ry or a draw to take the sec-ond spot in the group, but avictory in the last outing wouldhave lifted the Koreans to thesecond place in the standings,pushing Malaysia down to thethird spot and Pakistan to thefourth.
Jose Mourinho got his own back ongreat managerial rival Pep Guardiolaas Manchester United beat a weak-
ened Manchester City 1-0 in the fourthround of the English League Cup onWednesday, with Juan Mata scoring thesecond-half winner.
Six weeks after City's 2-1 win at OldTrafford in the Premier League, Unitedgot a measure of revenge as Mourinho'sdecision to play a virtually full-strengthteam paid off.
Mata sidefooted home a low shotfrom 10 meters in the 54th minute fol-lowing a lay-off by Zlatan Ibrahimovic,ensuring City is now winless in sixgames under Guardiola - the worst runof the Spaniard's distinguished coach-ing career.
Guardiola rested most of his keyplayers - starting 19-year-olds AleixGarcia and Pablo Maffeo among hisfringe players - and City faded after adecent start, failing to have a shot ontarget in an error-strewn match.
"No regrets," Guardiola said, refer-ring to his team lineup.
It was Mourinho's fourth win in 18meetings with Guardiola and an impor-tant victory psychologically for United,coming three days after a 4-0 loss toChelsea in the Premier League -Mourinho's heaviest loss in Englishsoccer. "It was a big defeat and numbersthat the history of this club does notdeserve," Mourinho said, adding: "Wehad to give something back."
United's more physical and pow-erful players had more of an impact asthe match wore on. Paul Pogba, whowas relatively quiet again, had a left-footshot tipped onto the post by City goal-keeper Willy Caballero five minutesbefore Mata made the breakthrough.
The titleholders are out - althoughGuardiola said the League Cup was theleast of his priorities this season andthat was reflected in his starting line-up. Sergio Aguero and Raheem Sterlingwere brought on as substitutes in thesecond half, but to little effect.
Vincent Kompany, City's injury-prone captain, started for the secondstraight game but was substituted athalftime.
"He told us he is tired and not readyto play the second half," Guardiola said.
��������������Jose Mourinho has been charged
by the English Football Association forthe first time since becomingManchester United manager, aftermaking comments about a refereebefore the Premier League game againstLiverpool. Mourinho questionedwhether it would be difficult for refer-ee Anthony Taylor to have a "very good
performance" in the Oct. 17 gamebecause the official lives close to OldTrafford. The match finished 0-0.
The FA said Thursday thatMourinho has been charged with mis-conduct because his comments "wereimproper and/or brought the game intodisrepute." He has until Monday torespond to the charge.
"��������&6)�������Objects were thrown and there
were scuffles between both sets of fans
behind one of the goals at LondonStadium as West Ham advanced in thisderby match.
There has been crowd trouble atprevious matches this season at the sta-dium, West Ham's new home follow-ing its move from Upton Park. For thisgame, supporters faced enhanced secu-rity checks and a larger police presencethan normal. West Ham is starting tolook more at home on the field afterthis second win there in four days.
Cheikhou Kouyate headed in Mark
Noble's cross in the 11th minute andEdimilson Fernandes added a secondin the 48th to see off a weakenedChelsea lineup. Gary Cahill scored alate consolation goal for the visitors.
������� ����"��Sofiane Boufal scored the winner
for Southampton in the 66th minute onhis first start since his club-record movefrom Lille in August.
The Morocco midfielder found thetop corner from 25 meters (yards).
� �� 20.��
Mauro Icardi ended the longestgoalscoring drought of his
Inter Milan career with two goalsthat may have saved the job of coachFrank De Boer.
Inter had lost three successiveSerie A matches and De Boer wasreportedly on the verge of beingfired but Wednesday's 2-1 victoryover Torino has likely given theDutch manager some respite.
"It was the most difficult matchof my career," De Boer said. "I havealways been focused on the Torinomatch. I don't let myself be influ-enced by anything.
"I'm not used to losing threematches in a row. Neither as a foot-baller nor as a coach. But I havealways had great pressure to win."
Icardi made a fantastic start tothe season, with six goals in sevenmatches, but had not scored for sixgames in all competition.
The Argentine forward endedthat run in the 35th minute, thanksin part to a mistake by England goal-keeper Joe Hart, who is on loan fromManchester City.
Icardi beat the offside trap to runonto Antonio Candreva's throughball. Hart rushed out and appearedto save the ball but only succeededin pushing it onto Icardi and it ric-ocheted into the back of the net.
Inter gifted Torino the equaliz-er shortly after the hour whenAndrea Belotti flicked on a long balland Inter defenders Cristian Ansaldiand Jeison Murillo fell over eachother, allowing the Italy forward tofire into the far side of the net.
Icardi secured the victory twominutes from time with a stunningstrike, carving out space just insidethe area before curling into the topleft corner.
!�%������26)���� �����Juventus bounced back from a
shock defeat to AC Milan at theweekend with a convincing win onWednesday.
The Serie A leader and five-timereigning champion had thrashedCagliari 4-0 after its only previousleague defeat and it appeared as ifSampdoria was in for similar pun-ishment when Juventus went 2-0 upinside nine minutes.
Mario Mandzukic netted hisfirst goal of the season in the fourthminute, heading in Juan Cuadrado'scross, and Giorgio Chiellini noddedin Miralem Pjanic's corner shortlyafter.
Patrik Schick got Sampdoriaback into the match in the 57th butPjanic restored Juve's two-goaladvantage seven minutes later andChiellini doubled his tally late on.
The match was also ClaudioMarchisio's first in more than sixmonths. The Italy midfielder hadbeen sidelined since he tore his cru-ciate ligament in April.
Marchisio went off in the 72ndminute to resounding applause fromthe Juventus Stadium.
���������)6:������Edin Dzeko moved to the top of
the scoring standings with anotherdouble.
Dzeko's first season was full ofdisappointment after Roma signed
him from Manchester City in August2015. But the Bosnia andHerzegovina forward has nowscored 10 league goals in as manymatches this season - two more thanhe netted in his 31 previous appear-ances.
"It's all down to him," Romacoach Luciano Spalletti said."Sometimes he makes you angry,other times you have to stand up andapplaud."
Paolo Cannavaro headedSassuolo in front in the 12th minutebut Dzeko leveled in the 57th with
an angled strike into the far corner.He doubled his tally from the
penalty spot in the 75th after beingtripped by Pol Lirola.
Radja Nainggolan sealed thewin three minutes later, tapping inthe rebound after Andrea Consiglicould only parr y Stephan ElShaarawy's effort.
The celebratory mood endedshortly before full time when Romamidfielder Alessandro Florenzi wascarried off the pitch in tears afterappearing to seriously injure hisknee.
"We are all upset and it removesthe joy at the victory a bit," Spallettisaid.
Tests immediately after thematch revealed Florenzi's injurymay not be as bad as first thoughtas he does not appear to have rup-tured his cruciate ligament. The Italyinternational will undergo moretests.
Roma remained second, twopoints behind Juventus.
�� ����&6(��� ����Napoli is just two points behind
Roma, in third spot, adding moreexcitement to the eagerly-antici-pated match against Juventus onSaturday.
Maurizio Sarri's side found ittougher than expected againstEmpoli but eventually broke thedeadlock six minutes into the secondhalf when Jose Callejon's cross wasdeflected, allowing Dries Mertens toturn in at the far post.
Both goalkeepers made stunningsaves before Vlad Chiriches sealedthe win eight minutes from time,tapping in Marek Hamsik's corner atthe back post.
������������Pescara's match against Atalanta
and Fiorentina's game againstCrotone were both temporarily halt-ed because of an earthquake and awaterlogged pitch.
A 5.4-magnitude earthquakestruck central Italy about 90 minutesbefore kickoff and there was a sec-ond one, measuring 6.1, a half hourinto the match in Pescara.
After several minutes of con-cern, the match resumed andAtalanta went on to win 1-0.
The match in Florence was sus-pended in the 18th minute as heavyrain made the pitch unplayable.
Diego Falcinelli gave Crotone asurprise lead shortly after itresumed, approximately 40 minuteslater, but Davide Astori ensured itfinished 1-1 when he bundled in theequalizer five minutes from time.
Elsewhere, Lazio beat Cagliari 4-1 and Bologna drew 1-1 at ChievoVerona.
� �� ;4��9;�4�
United States international Julian Green scoredin his first official start as title holder Bayern
Munich eased to a 3-1 win over Augsburg to reachthe third round of the German Cup on Wednesday.
Green's first goal in a competition match forBayern came in the 42nd minute with a header offa cross by Thomas Mueller.
The 21-year-old American winger played in theprevious German Cup round, coming off the benchin a 5-0 win over Carl-Zeiss Jena. Green has beenin coach Carlo Ancelotti's squad several times thisseason but this was his first start.
Green became the youngest American to scorea World Cup goal in a loss to Belgium at the 2014tournament in Brazil. His club career at Bayernstalled, however. He made a Champions Leagueappearance in 2013, before being sent to HamburgerSV on loan. He rarely played there and returned toBayern. He made another Champions Leagueappearance at Dinamo Zagreb last season but didnot see any Bundesliga action.
However, Green made headlines by scoring ahat trick against Inter Milan in a pre-season tourof the United States, then scored in back-to-backmatches for the United States against Cuba and NewZealand.
Ancelotti left many of his regulars on the benchagainst Augsburg and Green got his chance.
Another player made a comeback with defend-er Holger Badstuber coming off the bench late inthe match. Badstuber had not played since an ankleinjury in February.
Bayern, an 18-time German Cup winner, wentahead through Philipp Lahm in the second minuteand David Alaba completed the victory in injurytime.
Ji Dong-won had cut Augusburg's deficit withfine angled shot above Manuel Neuer's arms intothe roof of the net in the 69th.
Both teams missed penalties, with Muellershooting high for Bayern and Neuer saving the spot-kick taken by Koo Ja-cheol.
���������������"��Dortmund's veteran goalkeeper Roman
Weidenfeller stopped the first two shots in theshootout and Berlin's third spot-kick bounced offthe crossbar. Ousman Dembele, Matthis Ginter andMario Goetze all converted for Dortmund.
An own goal by Michael Parensen had givenDortmund the lead in 44th, but Steven Skrzybskiequalized for the second-division team in the 81st.Dortmund played with a reshuffled lineup becauseof numerous injuries and rotation.
�������&6)������������In a match between two surprise teams in this
season's Bundesliga, Anthony Modeste scoredearly in extra time to give Cologne victory over hisformer club.
Hoffenheim, undefeated in the Bundesliga, wentahead in the eighth through Benjamin Huebner,before Marcel Risse fired Cologne level with a freekick.
Hoffenheim found the net with the last kick ofthe match, but the strike was ruled offside.
SCHALKE 3-2 NUREMBERG Yevhen Konoplyanka scored two goals for
Schalke, which let slip a 3-0 lead.Klaas-Jan Huntelaar also scored for Schalke,
before the second-division team netted twice afterthe break and made it a tense finale.
Schalke has now won five straight games in allcompetitions, following a poor start to the season.
������������Mainz and Darmstadt joined the exodus of
Bundesliga teams from the German Cup, losing tolower-tier opposition in the second round.
Darmstadt lost at fourth-tier Astoria Walldorf1-0, while Mainz went down 2-1 at second-divisionGreuther Fuerth.
Germany striker Mario Gomez scored a second-half winner as Wolfsburg edged second-divisionHeidenheim 1-0 for interim coach Valerien Ismael'sfirst win.
Hannover thrashed Fortuna Duesseldorf 6-1after scoring five goals inside the first 34 minutesof the match between two second-division teams.
Bayer Leverkusen and Freiburg, two otherBundesliga teams, were eliminated on Tuesday.
���� �,-��,./0
Delhi Dynamos were left without a win in their lastfive matches after only managing a 1-1 draw against
FC Pune City in a Hero Indian Super League encounterat Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, Delhi, on Thursday.
FC Pune City stunned the hosts after taking the leadin the stoppage time of first half with their first realattempt on goal through Jesus Tato but Delhi Dynamosmanaged to snatch a point late in the game after MilanSingh found the mark from a set-piece in the 79th minute.
No doubt Delhi Dynamos were the dominant sideon Thursday and should have won comfortably at home.They created lot ofchances but it was FCPune City's keeperEdel Bete who stoodguard to his netdenying the host anyadvances. The goal-keeper, who won theGolden Glove lastseason and has wontwo consecutive ISLtitles in his first twoseasons, kept histeam in the hunt withnumerous saves untilhe was beaten byMilan Singh.
FC Pune Citysurged ahead muchagainst the run of play. In the 45th minute, Rahul Bheke'slong cross inside the danger zone was headed towardsthe goal by Jesus Tato, leaping over Souvik. His headershould have been collected but goalkeeper Soren Poreiand defender Anas Edathodika simply looked at each
other even as the ball hit the post andentered the goal.
In the second session, Bete againrescued Pune a number of times. Aminute after resumption, Ruben
Gonzalez's low grounder was kept away by the ever-alertgoalkeeper.
Bete, however, was beaten in the 79th minute andDelhi rewarded for their persistent efforts. A free-kickon the right by Marcelinho was smartly pushed towardsMilan who took a low grounder that slipped between twoDelhi players and past a diving Bete.
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