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Amid an assertion by formerChief Minister Devendra

Fadnavis that no Government ispossible in Maharashtra withoutthe BJP, Nationalist CongressParty (NCP) president SharadPawar on Friday expressed con-fidence that the Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress Governmentwould soon be formed in theState and it would last for a fullfive-year term.

Addressing a news con-ference at Nagpur, Pawar said,“The process has started...Don’t worry. Things will rollout sooner or later. There is noquestion of mid-term polls inthe State. This (Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress) wil l beformed and it will last for fiveyears. We will be ensure thatthis Government lasts for itsfull term.”

Replying to a question, theNCP president said, “Our effortis to see that there is stableGovernment which is devel-opment-oriented. We want aGovernment that will success-fully address major problems inthe State. Towards this end, wewill do everything that is nec-essary”.

Declining to give a timelinefor the formation of the three-party Government in the State,Pawar indicated that he wouldmeet AICC president SoniaGandhi in New Delhi and dis-cussed whatever remainingissues relating to theGovernment-formation in theState.

Asked about the Sena’s

demand for the Chief Minister’spost, Pawar said, “Discussionsare going on. They are still ininitial stages. If any party wantsthe Chief Minister’s post wewill definitely consider thedemand”.

When his attention wasdrawn to a statement byFadnavis that no Governmentwas possible without the BJPand if any Government was tobe formed in Maharashtra itwould be a BJP-ledGovernment, Pawar took ajibe at the former ChiefMinister and said, “Something

else was going on in my mind...that is (Fadnavis’ oft-repeatedstatement during election ral-lies) me punha yenar, me punhayenar... (I will return as theChief Minister)”.

On being asked aboutFadnavis’ statement that a non-BJP Government would notlast for even six months, Pawarquipped, “I have knownFadnavis for quite some time.But I did not know he is anastrologer too.”

Queried as to how theNCP and Congress would dealwith the Hindutva issue cham-

pioned by the Shiv Sena whilein a three-party Government,Pawar said, “This issue musthave figured in the meetingthat the NCP-Congress leadershad with the Shiv Sena leaderson the Common MinimumProgramme (CMP). I was notthere in Mumbai at that time...But one thing is true that boththe Congress and NCP talkabout secularism. We are notagainst Islam, Christian andBuddhism. But when we runthe Government we insist onbeing secular. I don’t knowwhat transpired at the meeting.I will find out when I return toMumbai”.

On whether the three-party Government was propos-ing to grant give five per centreservations to Muslims injobs, Pawar said: “You will getto know all this when we comeout with the CMP”.

Pawar, who is playing a piv-otal role in forging an allianceamong three non-BJP parties,is likely meet Sonia Gandhi inDelhi on Sunday to finaliseissues relating to the formationof a Sena-NCP-CongressGovernment in Maharashtra.

It remains to be seen if hewill meet Sena presidentUddhav Thackeray before hisSunday’s meeting. Or willUddhav meet Gandhi eitherindividually or with Pawar inthe national Capital?.

Though the Shiv Sena lead-ership is to wrap up all thenitty-gritties relating to theGovernment formations beforeSunday, which happens to bedeath anniversary of late BalThackeray on November 17, itlooks difficult that things willfall in place so fast. In fact,Pawar himself told a Shiv Senaleader to this effect in Nagpuron Friday evening.

Though no party is comingout in the open about the

Continued on Page 4

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In what could be bad news forpaedophiles, the CBI has set

up an Online Child SexualAbuse and Exploitation( O C S A E )Prevention/Investigation Unitin the national Capital under itsSpecial Crime Zone to proac-tively check child porn andassociated crimes throughdetailed investigation.

The newly-established spe-cialised unit will collect, collateand disseminate informationregarding publication, trans-mission, creation, collection,seeking, browsing, download-ing advertising, promoting,exchanging, distribution ofinformation relating to onlinechild sexual abuse and exploita-tion and probe related crimes.

The unit will also conductinvestigation of such offences

covered under the provisions ofthe Indian Penal Code (IPC),the Protection of Childrenfrom Sexual Offences(POCSO) Act and theInformation Technology Act2000 and under various otherlaws.

“Rapid growth of the inter-net and information & com-munication tools over the pasttwo decades has created unpar-alleled opportunities for chil-dren and adults alike to learnand explore the world aroundthem. Today, in many coun-tries, these technologies areubiquitous — permeating everyaspect of our lives — personaland professional, individualand social. These technologieshave simultaneously created anew dimension, wherein thesexual exploitation of childrencan multiply, if unchecked.

Continued on Page 4

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Passengers onboardRajdhani, Shatabdi and

Duronto trains will have to paymore fare ranging from threeto nine per cent if they opt formeals. The revised cateringtariff shall be effective fromMarch 29 next year.

According to a new order,in first class AC and executiveclass of these trains, tea will cost�35 (�15 at present), breakfast�140 (up from �90) and lunchand dinner �245 (from �140currently).

For travellers in secondclass AC, third class AC andchair car, morning tea will nowbe priced at �20 (up from �10),breakfast at �105 (from �70),lunch and dinner at �185 (from

�120), and evening tea at �90(from �45). In sleeper class ofDuronto trains, morning tea

prices have been revised to�15 (from �10), breakfast to �65(from �40), lunch and dinner to

�120 (from �75) and eveningtea to �50 (from �20). The tar-iff of food onboard Rajdhani,Shatabdi and Duronto trainswas last revised in 2013.

“To give good quality food,catering charges needed to beincreased,” said Minister ofState for Railways SureshAngadi when asked about thehike in charges.

The order stated that it hasalso been decided that snacksof regional flavour will beintroduced. The “snack meal”shall be of 350 grams portionand shall be made available at�50, inclusive of GST.

Continued on Page 4

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Chief Minister YogiAdityanath said that the

Bharatiya Janata Party govern-ment in the state was commit-ted to uplift of the people andfor this it was focusing ondevelopment and Kanpur wason its priority list.

Launching the civil con-struction work for the KanpurMetro’s priority section fromIIT-Kanpur to Moti Jheel with‘bhoomi pujan’ at the main gateof IIT-K here on Friday, YogiAdityanath said with the com-pletion of the metro rail project,the industrial city of Kanpurwould no more be known as acity of sick industries.

He said the metro railwould be inaugurated onNovember, 30, 2021.

Addressing the gathering,Yogi Adityanath said metrotrains would soon run inKanpur, adding that he hadasked the authorities to com-plete the first phase of the workat the earliest.

The Chief Minister saidthat strict financial monitoringwas being carried out by hisgovernment and there was fulltransparency in the workingand the money was spent ratio-nally for the benefit of the peo-ple. He added that very soon,UP would get Bundelkhandand Ganga Expressways.

Hitting out at the workingof the previous SamajwadiParty government, the ChiefMinister said it ratified projectswithout even clearing thedetailed project report (DPR)and in 2016, it launched thePurvanchal Expressway projecteven without acquisition ofthe required land. He said theprevious tenders of the projectwere cancelled and the BJPgovernment gave contract forthe expressway project at lowercost and was able to save Rs3,000 crore.

Yogi Adityanath said in

the past 15 years, Kanpur hadbeen totally ignored and over-looked by the previous regimesbut the BJP government wascommitted to the developmentof this city. He said that themetro line was being con-structed in Kanpur at an invest-ment of Rs 11,000 crore.

He said the BJP govern-ment had completed all for-malities before the foundationstone laying ceremony and theentire project would be com-pleted within the stipulatedtime-frame.

The Chief Minister said theprevious government did notextend the benefit of PradhanMantri Awas Yojana to even asingle person while his gov-ernment had extended thebenefit to over 27 lakh peoplewithout any bias.

The Chief Minister said hisgovernment was providing airconnectivity in all major citiesand there were seven airportsin UP and one of the largest

airport was being constructedat Jewar in Gautam BuddhaNagar while his governmenthad acquired land for an air-port in Ayodhya.

Speaking on the occasion,Union Minister for Housingand Urban Affairs HardeepSingh Puri said that in UP,metro line of more than 85 kmhad already been laid out.

Uttar Pradesh Metro RailCorporation (UPMRC)Managing Director KumarKeshav said preparations hadbeen made to build the pillarsof the metro overbridge fromIIT to Kalyanpur in the firstphase. One of the most ambi-tious projects of the industrialcity, the metro rail will reducethe pollution levels,

The feasibility study for theproject was carried out by theRail India Technical andEconomic Service (RITES) inJune 2015, he said, adding thatit was done to curb trafficcongestion, which was ham-

pering the growth, develop-ment and prosperity of Kanpur.

“There is no problem inthis two-kilometre stretch. Thetarget is to complete the Metroproject up to Moti Jheel in thenext two years,” Keshav said.

After the renaming ofLucknow Metro RailCorporation Limited as UttarPradesh Metro RailCorporation Limited, the civilconstruction work for the pri-ority corridor had now begun,a press release issued byUPMRC’s public relationsdepartment said.

The corridor was expectedto be completed by December2021, he added.

The 8.728-km-long prior-ity section will have eight sta-tions — IIT-Kanpur, KalyanpurRailway Station, SPM Hospital,CSJM University, GurudevChauraha, Geeta Nagar,Rawatpur Railway Station, LalaLajpat Rai Hospital (MotiJheel).

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The Supreme Court on Fridaystayed the Allahabad High

Court order on Chinmayanand’srequest for a certified copy of aShahjahanpur woman law stu-dent’s statement made against theBJP leader before a magistrate.

On November 7, the highcourt had asked the trial court toprovide the former Union min-ister a copy of the statement of thewoman, who has accused theformer Union minister of rapingher.

She has challenged the highcourt order in the SupremeCourt. On Friday, a bench ofJustices UU Lalit and VineetSaran sought a response from theUP government on the woman’plea.

“Issue notice, returnable onDecember 9,” the bench said,

adding, “Pending further con-sideration, the operation of theorder impugned herein shallremain stayed”.

Advocate Shobha, appearingfor the woman, said the highcourt erred in allowingChinmayanand to have a certi-fied copy of the statement record-ed under section 164 of CrPC.

The Supreme Court previ-ously directed the Uttar Pradeshgovernment to set up an SITheaded by an IG-rank officer tolook into the charges levelled bythe woman, who had gone miss-ing after accusingChinmayanand of harassment,and was found in Rajasthan.

On September 21,Chinmayanand was arrested bythe SIT and sent to jail.

The 23-year-old student wasalso booked on alleged charges ofextortion.

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The Allahabad High Courton Friday rejected the bail

application of parliamentarianAtul Kumar Rai, accused ofraping a college girl.

The Bahujan Samaj Party(BSP) MP from Ghosi parlia-mentary constituency had sur-rendered in court on June 22.

The order rejecting thebail plea was passed by JusticeRamesh Sinha.

An FIR was registeredagainst the accused MP on May1 at the Lanka Police Station inVaranasi after the victim, a res-ident of Ballia district,approached the police.

In her complaint, the vic-tim said that she had come incontact with Rai in 2015 whileshe was studying in Varanasiand decided to contested theunion election.

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The Delhi High Court onFriday denied bail to for-

mer finance minister PChidambaram in the INXMedia money laundering casefiled by the ED, saying primafacie allegations against him areserious in nature and he playedactive and key role in theoffence.

Justice Suresh Kait saidthat wrong message will be sentto the society if bail is grantedto Chidambaram in this case.“I am not inclined to grant bail,”Justice Kait said.

While pronouncing theverdict, he said the material col-lected by the ED in the moneylaundering case is distinct, dif-

ferent and independent withthat collected by the CBI in thecorruption case.

Even the investigationdone in this case is differentfrom the CBI’s case, the courtsaid, adding that in cases ofeconomic offences, the entirecommunity gets affected.

“I am conscious that bail isrule and jail is exception but awrong message would be sentto the society, if bail is grantedin this case,” the judge said. Thehigh court had reserved theorder on November 8 on thebail petition after hearing thearguments of counsel forChidambaram and theEnforcement Directorate (ED).

The ED had arrested himin the money laundering case

on October 16 and presently hein judicial custody tillNovember 27 under the orderof a trial court.

Chidambaram was arrest-ed by the CBI on August 21 inthe INX Media corruption caseand was granted bail by theSupreme Court on October 22.

The case was registered bythe CBI on May 15, 2017,alleging irregularities in aForeign Investment PromotionBoard (FIPB) clearance grant-ed to the INX Media group forreceiving overseas funds of �305 crore in 2007, duringChidambaram’s tenure asfinance minister. Thereafter,the ED had lodged a money-laundering case in this regardin 2017.

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The Supreme Court verdicton Ram temple at Ayodhya

has developed fissures amongMuslims, triggering a debate onwhat to do with the five acresof land that the apex court hasdirected the government toprovide to UP Sunni WaqfBoard for construction of amosque. Some Muslim outfitsand clerics suggest that Muslimsshould not accept the land,while others feel that the SunniWaqf Board should not take theland free of cost and pay for it.A third section advocates build-ing of educational institutionslike College of Islamic Studies oreven a library on this land.

The UP Sunni Waqf Boardhas announced that it wouldaccept the government landwhile chairman of UP ShiaWaqf Board has declared adonation of Rs 51,000 for theconstruction of Ram temple, buta final decision will be taken ata meeting of All-India MuslimPersonal Law Board (AIMPLB)in Lucknow on Sunday.

Different Muslim outfitshave come up with there owntake and suggestions on theissue. Ittehad-e-Millat Council(IMC) said, “We honour theApex court’s order but a mosquecannot be built on donatedland. The Sunni Waqf Boardmust pay for the land beforebuilding a mosque because amosque can only be built on aproperty whose ownership vestswith it.

On the other hand, All-India Muslim Personal LawBoard has convened a meetingat Nadwatul Ulema in Lucknowon Sunday to take a call onwhether to file a review petitionagainst the Ayodhya verdict inSupreme Court. The AIMPLBsaid that it would decidewhether to accept the land ornot. While some members feltthat Muslims should not acceptthe land, others said that AIM-PLB should file a review petitionin the apex court.

Maulana Arshad Madaniof Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind (JuH)said that the Sunni Waqf Boardshould not accept the five-acreplot. “We are of the view thatSunni Waqf Board should notaccept the land. If we need tobuild a mosque at Ayodhya, wewill build it from our ownresources,” he said.

Meanwhile, Chowk JamaMasjid’s mutawalli (caretaker)Colonel (Retired) Sayyad Abrarsaid that there could be no bet-

ter verdict on the issue than theone pronounced by the SupremeCourt. “Muslims should acceptthe land and propose the con-struction of a library wherebooks on all religions are avail-able for study. This will benefitpeople from all communities,”he said.

Syed Hasan Raza Zaidi,Imam-e-Juma, said that sincethe apex court verdict men-tioned five acres of land for amosque, the order should berespected and only a mosqueshould be constructed on theland. “The court is specific inits order and we should honourthe order,” he said.

President of Dara ShikohFoundation (Aligarh), AamirRasheed wrote to PrimeMinister Narendra Modi urginghim that the mosque to be builtat Ayodhya be named afterMughal Prince Dara Shikoh,who was a champion of secularvalues. “Both Hindus andMuslims have welcomed theSupreme Court verdict. Tostrengthen unity among thecommunities, the mosqueshould be named after DaraShikoh, who translated 50Upanishads from Sanskrit intoPersian and had great respect forSikh gurus. The trust entrustedwith construction of mosqueshould have representatives of allsects of Muslims,” Rasheed said.

“ If Muslim Personal LawBoard or Sunni Waqf Boarddeclines the land, then ourfoundation is ready to take theresponsibility,” he said.

UP Aman Committeechairman Munawwar Ali saidthat the land for a mosqueneeds to be purchased or couldbe acquired by donations. “Assuch, if land is allocated by thegovernment in compliance withSupreme Court directive, thesame can be utilised for a socialcause. A hospital or garden cancome up there,” Ali said.

Lucknow (PNS): In a sensation-al killing in Etah, former pradhanRajendra Singh (72) was brutallyhacked to death.

His body was found in amustard field on the fringes of avillage on Friday.

As per reports, RajendraSingh of Nagla Kishan Singh areaof Awagarh (Etah) was pradhan ofthe village some years back.Around 9 pm on Thursday, ayouth came to Singh’s home andasked the former pradhan to joinhim in cards game, to which heagreed and accompanied theyouth.

When Singh did not return tilllate night, the family memberswent out searching for him with-out any success. On Friday morn-ing, his body with deep gashes onhis limbs and private parts wasrecovered from a mustard field.

The assailants had hackedhim to death sometime lateThursday night and escaped.

The police rushed to the spotand sent the body for autopsy andregistered a case in this regard.

Additional Superintendent ofPolice (Crime) Rahul Kumar saidthat two youths, whom villagersclaimed to have seen playingcards with Singh on Thursdayevening, were detained for inter-rogation.

Kumar said that Singh’s sonsDushyant Singh and Rishi Singhwere working in a cable factory inAmrawati in Maharashtra.

On the complaint of Rishi’swife Dimpi, a case was registered.

Lucknow (PNS): In a major break-through, sleuths of Anti-TerroristsSquad arrested the prime accused inKushinagar mosque blast case, HajiQutubuddin, from Indo-Nepal bor-der and his grandson Ashfaq fromTelangana in the last 24 hours. Theaccused were on the run since a blasttook place inside a mosque inKushinagar on November 11.

Both accused would now bebrought to Kushninagar on transitremand to grill them and find out theconspiracy behind collecting explo-sives in large quantity.

Sources in the ATS confirmedthat mastermind Haji Qutubuddinwas nabbed on the Indo-Nepal bor-der near Gorakhpur, while trying tosneak into Nepal late Thursday night.

Haji’s grandson and retired defencepersonnel, Ashfaq, was later nabbedfrom Sikandarabad area of Hyderabad(Telangana). Altogether, six people,including three minors, have beenarrested by the police in the blast casein which no one was injured.

Haji, a native of Mau is a retiredemployee of UP Public WorksDepartment and had brought 10kilogram of explosives and stored itin the mosque in April. His grandson,Ashfaq, who retired from ArmyMedical Corps in 2017, was also pre-sent when the explosive was broughtto the mosque.

Meanwhile, ATS officials saidthat Ashfaq was being brought fromHyderabad to Lucknow where hewould be interrogated along with Haji.The ATS is already probing the casealong with a blast in Bijnor, to figureout whether it was a well planned con-spiracy or the explosive was broughtfor some other purpose.

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Uttar Pradesh EnergyMinister Shrikant Sharma

said that power pilferage wasthe single biggest hurdle inensuring round-the-clockuninterrupted power supplyin the state.

He said that power supplycould be further improved andtariff could be reduced if theconsumers made regular pay-ment of their electricity bills.

“The UP government iscommitted to providing powerat cheap rate and round-the-clock power supply to everyhousehold in the state. This canbe realised if power theft ischecked and UP PowerCorporation Limited is notcompelled to go for periodichikes in tariff,” the minister said.

On Friday, Sharma

presided over a ceremony forinstallation of pre-paid metre athis official residence on KalidasMarg in Lucknow and said thesmart pre-paid meters were theonly solution to preventingpower theft and hence it wasstarted from his residence.

“The government wantsto provide 24-hour power tothe poor but it is also their

(consumers’) duty to paymonthly bills regularly.Consumers should also join thegovernment campaign to curbpower pilferage,” he said.

The minister also called onall politicians, parliamentari-ans, legislators and others toinstall smart pre-paid metersand make people aware aboutits benefit.

These meters were alsoinstalled at the residences ofsome other ministers on Friday.

Sharma said that with theinstallation of these meters,consumers could get details oftheir consumption online andpay their bills through a con-sumer app digitally.

He also appealed to thepeople to inform about powerthefts in their areas on toll-freenumber 1912.

Several governmentdepartments, politicians andofficials owe Rs 13,000 crore tothe UPPCL as electricity dues.As per the UPPCL records, theIrrigation department has out-standing electricity dues of Rs2,656 crore and UrbanDevelopment department of Rs3,636 crore.

In order to check powertheft, the UPPCL has opened68 dedicated power police sta-tions where 2,050 personnel,including 75 inspectors, 375sub-inspectors and a largenumber of constables havebeen posted.

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Chief Minister YogiAdityanath said that tenrivers were being revived

in Uttar Pradesh with the helpof people and the project wasbeing financed under theMahatma Gandhi NationalRural Employment GuaranteeAct (MGNREGA).

On Friday, the ChiefMinister held a meeting withVice-Chairman of NationalInstitution for TransformingIndia (NITI) Aayog RajivKumar.

Yogi said that the people ofthe state were also stakehold-ers in the ambitious pro-gramme of the state govern-ment. He said that the revivalof ten rivers would go a longway in addressing the problemof water scarcity in certainpockets of the state, especiallyduring summers.

The Chief Minister saidthat the state government hadbeen able to create a positiveenvironment for investmentand development of UP.

“Besides promoting invest-ment in the state, the govern-

ment is also working on pro-viding running water facility ineach household inBundelkhand region.” he said.

Yogi Adityanath said thatunder the water conservationprogramme, old wells andponds were being revivedthrough various schemes likeMGNREGA involving the peo-ple to combat water crisis inBundelkhand.

“Besides, rain harvestinghas been made compulsory inthe state,” he said.

The Chief Minister saidbesides investment andimproving infrastructure, thegovernment was also pursuingwelfare programmes for themasses. He said that 1.18 crorepeople had been benefited sofar by the Centrally-sponsoredAyushman health protectionscheme. “Those left out havebeen covered by the CM JanArogya Yojana,” he informedthe NITI Aayog Vice-Chairman.

Yogi Adityanath alsoinformed Rajiv Kumar abouteight districts in the state wherethere was sufficient space fordevelopment. The Chief

Minister also discussed tourismopportunities at Sarnath(Varanasi) and stressed theneed to invest in tourismindustry.

On the medical and healthfront, Yogi Adityanath said theUP government had sent a pro-posal to the Centre for open-ing 14 new medical colleges inthe state to address the problemof shortage of doctors andmedical amenities in rural

areas. The Minister further said

that the state government want-ed to have at least one medicalcollege between two districts.

“If the proposal is endorsedby the Centre, then it will notonly increase the number ofmedical colleges, but also go along way in addressing theproblem of shortage of doctorsin the state,” Yogi Adityanathsaid.

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Government of IndiaMinistry of Rural Development

National Rural Infrastructure Development Agency (NRIDA)5th Floor, 15-NBCC Tower, Bhikaji Cama Place, New Delhi-66

Invites applications for appointment on deputation basis to the followingposts

The application should be submitted through proper channel accompa-nied with (i) cadre clearance (ii) Vigilance clearance certificate and (iii)certified copies of Annual Performance Appraisal Reports of the last 5 years.The last date of receipt of application in NRIDA is 6th December, 2019

For details & eligibility criteria, visit ‘‘vacancey icon’’ of the websitewww.pmgsy.nic.in

davp 35104/11/0005/1920

Sl. Name of the post with Pay level No. of PostsNo.

1 Dy. Director (Project/Technical)-Level-12 1

2 Asstt. Director (F&A/Tech/Project)-Pay Level-11 9

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Aweek after the historic Supreme Courtjudgement on the Ram Janmabhoomi-

Babri Masjid title suit, various Hindusorganisations have started lobbying forinclusion of their outfits in the proposedTrust that will overlook the constructionof Ram temple in Ayodhya.

Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP),which has already announced that it isnot interested in getting representationin the Trust, has proposed that UnionHome Minister Amit Shah and UttarPradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanathbe named in the Trust.

Vishwa Hindu Parishad spokesper-son Sharad Sharma said here on Fridaythat their leadership had already con-veyed its decision to the high-ups thatthey were not interested in the Trust andthe Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister andUnion Home minister should be themembers.”

The Trust should be formed in thesame way like it was done in the case ofSomnath temple, he added.

Sharma, however, said the onlydemand of the VHP was that the Ramtemple should be constructed on themodel showcased by the R amJanmabhoomi Nyas.

The Ram Janmabhoomi Nyas isalready working on carving stones at theKarsevakpuram in Ayodhya since 1990and as per the proposed model, thegrand Ram temple will be 268 feet long,140 feet wide and 128 feet high with 212pillars.

However, the saints and members ofdifferent Trusts in Ayodhya are lobby-ing for inclusion of their names in the

Ram Temple Trust, which is likely to beannounced in the coming winter sessionof Parliament.

There are more than 1000 Trusts inAyodhya to be crusaders for the Ramtemple movement. But among them onlythree Trusts are prominent, and can getrepresentation in the Trust.

The most prominent is the ShreeRam Janmabhoomi Nyas, an old trust setup by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad in1985 that collected huge funds from thepeople in the name of donation for theRam temple and has been carvingstones for the proposed temple since1990.

Ramalaya Trust is the second one,formed after the demolition of BabriMasjid in 1992. The third one is ShreeRam Janmabhoomi Mandir NirmanNyas, led by Jankighat Bara SthanMahant Janmey Sharan.

Ramalaya Trust says that the pro-posed Trust should include names of allprominent saints who have taken activepart in the Ram Janmabhoomi agitation.

“The people of Ayodhya know aboutthe site and the problem and are theright persons to give suggestions,”Sudhir Sharma from Ramalaya Trustsaid.

Meanwhile, the Ayodhya districtauthorities have initiated the process tohand over the disputed land to the Trust.

Officials on Friday said that theauthorities had started fresh measure-ment of the 2.77 acres of the disputedland. Though the government hadalready marked the area by putting uppillars in the past, the district authori-ties are not taking any chance and aregoing for fresh measurement of the area.

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'��$�� . ��9Ayodhya: Amid heightenedsecurity, Muslims offered theirfirst Friday prayers at mosquesin the district since theSupreme Court verdict in theRam Janmabhoomi-BabriMasjid case. “The Fridaynamaz was offered by people atvarious mosques in Ayodhyadistrict. Security was steppedup today. Everything went offpeacefully,” Ayodhya DistrictMagistrate Anuj Jha told PTI.

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Referring to the acute prob-lem of pollution and toxic

air, Chief Minister YogiAdityanath said on Friday thatin the journey towardsSustainable DevelopmentGoal, it is important toenhance the living experiencein NCR and Delhi. He said thatthe government was workingextensively in the direction ofproviding mobility services topeople in the state.

The Chief Minister wasspeaking after inauguratingthe three-day ‘Urban MobilityIndia Conference’ at IndiraGandhi Pratishthan on Friday.

“The North-South corri-dor of Lucknow Metro was fin-ished in record time and civilconstruction work for KanpurMetro will also kick off latertoday. We will shortly take upAgra Metro as well. We haveare seeking permission fromSupreme Court on some issuesand waiting for its nod. Thereare six other cities which areunder consideration and weare working out as to what canbe done in this regard. Thereare places like Meerut,Prayagraj, Varanasi,Gorakhpur and Jhansi wherewe are planning to introducing‘Metrolite’, which is a cheaperversion of Metro. The detailedproject report for these cities isready and it has to be takenforward,” Yogi said.

The Chief Minister said noone understood the signifi-cance when Metro first cameto Delhi in 1997-98. “WhenMetro first came to Delhi, thesituation was very bad. Thecourts had issued directionsthat buses powered by dieselwill no longer run. Most of thepeople thought that this won’twork but today Metro hasbecome the lifeline of Delhi,”he pointed out.

Yogi said that the three-dayconference will discuss relevantissues associated with mobili-ty. Pointing out that almost 23per cent of the population ofthe state lives in urban areas,the Chief Minister said theyhave 652 urban local bodiesand 17 municipal corpora-tions and there are many citiesof Uttar Pradesh which figuredamong the 100 cities selectedby the Central governmentfor various ‘Smart City’ pro-jects. “The idea of making

cities more livable was moot-ed by former Prime MinisterAtal Bihari Vajpayee, whobrought in Metros for the firsttime in the country. After AtalBihari Vajpayee, it is PrimeMinister Narendra Modi whogave pace to Metro projectsand by March 2017 after hetook over in 2014, there werealready four cities in UttarPradesh which were connect-ed with Metro, includingLucknow, Ghaziabad, Noidaand Greater Noida,” he added.

Yogi said they have alsobrought in the e-vehicle poli-cy in the state so that it can beimplemented to remove airpollution.

A short film on ‘Journey ofUrban Transport in India’ wasalso released on the occasion.The three-day event has Metrorail corporations and transportdepartments from all overIndia. The conference pro-vides an opportunity to inter-act with other professionals,technology and serviceproviders, both domestic andinternational, so that the del-egates can carry home ideas to

develop their urban transportalong a sustainable path.

UMI was first recognisedin the year 2008 and sincethen, 11 successful events havebeen held till date. The gene-

sis of UMI is from the NationalUrban Transport Policy of theGovernment of India, 2006(NUTP), which lays emphasison building capabilities at thestate and city level to address

the problems associated withurban transport and undertake the task of devel-oping sustainable urban transport systems.

Meanwhile, one transport

system that caught everyone’sattention was RRTS. “NationalCapital Region TransportCorporation (NCRTC), theimplementing agency of RRTS,is using modern technology toshowcase the features andpotential of the project. Visitorswill also get a chance to watchholographic projections ofNCRTC project and its feature,which is also a centre of attrac-tion at the expo. They will alsobe able to experience 3D mod-els of the RRTS using virtualreality at the stall. NCRTC hasalso put up an interactive dis-play for public who wish toexplore the project in details,”a senior official of LMRC said.

The three prioritised RRTScorridors for implementationin the first phase are Delhi-Ghaziabad-Meerut, Delhi-Panipat and Delhi-Gurugram-SNB Urban Complex(Shahjahanpur-Neemrana-Behror)-Alwar. The Delhi-Ghaziabad-Meerut RRTS cor-ridor will be the first to startfull operations in March 2025.This will make UP the firststate in India to have a high-speed regional rail.

“The civil constructionwork on the 82-km long Delhi-Ghaziabad-Meerut corridor isunderway. The corridor will beoperational by 2025 and peo-ple will be able to travel fromDelhi to Meerut in about 55minutes. RRTS train will bethree-times faster than Metrotrains,” he said.

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Lucknow (PNS): The fix-ing of fares for Metro should beleft to professionals as politi-cians may be tempted toremove the fares which will notmake it viable. It should beknown that Metro will not beable to provide the serviceswithout proper fares.

These views wereexpressed by Minister of Statefor Housing and Urban AffairsHardeep Singh Puri on the firstday of the three-day ‘UrbanMobility India Conference’ onFriday. The minister said thatby 2030, 600 metres of Metrowill be there in all the majorcities of the country. “TheMetro works started in 2002 inDelhi and now it has over 318km tracks. It is difficult to

imagine Delhi without Metronow,” he said.

Puri said there were manyreasons for organising the 12thedition of the Urban MobilityIndia Expo in Lucknow. “I havementioned this before thatwhen Uttar Pradesh registers agrowth, India shows growth,”he said.

Puri said ever since Yogitook the reigns as the UPChief Minister, 83 km ofMetro track has come intoexistence in the state, which isa big achievement. “I remem-ber I joined the Central gov-ernment as a minister onSeptember 3, 2017 and in twodays, I was invited to attend theinaugural of the first phase ofLucknow Metro and it was

completed in three years. Now,the work of the Kanpur Metrois starting and I have been toldthat it will be completed in justover two years,” he said.

The minister said that theSustainability DevelopmentGoals have to be completed by2030 and one of goals is thatthere should be mobility for all.

“By that time, over 600million people will be living inurban spaces. Over 600 kilo-metres of Metro tracks arealready operating in India and900-plus being constructed.The first phase of Metro con-struction is almost completedin all the major cities of thecountry and lighter versionsare also coming up. Cities arein urgent need of these devel-

opments for urban living,” hesaid.

Former senior director,Transport and ICT GlobalPractices in the World Bank atWashington DC (USA) JoseLuis Irigoyen delivered thekeynote address for the session.He said that cities are driversof growth. “By 2030, 60 percent of the population will beliving in cities in the world andhalf of the population willmove into the middle classwith aspirations of bettermobility,” he said.

Jose pointed out that newtechnology and better forms oftransport, including bike shar-ing, autonomous vehicles, willblur the lines between publicand private transport.

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Twenty-six year oldShiromani Kumar, who was

a resident of Kharika inTelibagh area under PGI policestation, hanged himself in hisroom on Friday. No suicide wasfound from the scene. Hisfather Virendra Kumar is a dri-ver working with a governmentdepartment and presently post-ed in Jhansi. It was by chancethat his father was in the statecapital for some official workand was staying with his son.

Police said the deceasedwas living alone in a room onrent on the first floor of ahouse. The house owner hadgiven a room to his father onthe ground floor to stay till hiswork was over. Virendra saidhis son looked cheerful andboth had dinner together onThursday. He said there wereno signs of nervousness whenhe retired for his room aroundat 10.30 pm. Virendra said hewent up to Shiromani’s roomaround 8.30 am for some work,only to find him hanging withthe ceiling. He informed thepolice about the incidentaround 10 am on Friday. Thedeceased was unmarried and ataxi driver.

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Six persons were arrestedfor various charges from dif-ferent places of the state capi-tal on Friday. They were iden-tified as Ravi Kumar, Ramesh,Pradeep alias Sultana, SanchitChandra, Amit Kumar andAmrit Raj. The police saidKumar, Ramesh and Pradeepwere picked up from near UdaDevi School under Maal policestation late on Thursday nightas they failed to respond topolice queries during a check-ing drive and changed theirstatements. They were taken topolice station for interrogationduring which they confessed tohave been involved in severalcases of theft.

Maal police stationincharge Shailesh Singh nabbedthem when they were planningto strike. A sharp-edgedweapon, two country-madepistols, five live cartridges, fivestolen smartphones and amotorcycle were recoveredfrom their possession. Theywere arrested and sent to jail onFriday morning.

Meanwhile, Chandra andKumar were picked up forinterrogation from RastogiNagar area under Thakurganjpolice station on Thursdaynight. The duo were picked upfor duping students by promis-ing them admission to engi-neering and medical collegeswith the help of fake docu-ments. There were over a dozencomplaints lodged againstthem. Chandra is a native ofGorakhpur and presently livingin Vastu khand, Gomti Nagar.Kumar is a resident of Maalarea presently living in RastogiNagar (Balaganj). They weresaid to have been running theracket for the past five years.

Complaints were lodgedagainst them by people whosewards were unable to getadmission to colleges evenafter paying huge money to theaccused.

Meanwhile, Amrit Raj waspicked up from Kapoorthalacrossing on Thursday eveningfor his involvement in issuingfake appointment and transferletters. The police said Raj is acontractual operator in thePanchayati Raj department.

During interrogation, hedisclosed the names of hisaccomplices as SaurabhSrivastava and Akhand Tiwari.Raj said he was doing that tosupport his family as his fatherRajendra Singh passed away in2014. The police said the rack-et was busted when the officialswere informed about the mis-use of software. Raj was arrest-ed and sent to jail while hecticefforts were on to track downthe whereabouts of Srivastavaand Tiwari.

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Former Bengal GovernorKeshari Nath Tripathi said

development in any country isconstrained by lack of coor-dination between differentdepartments and non-coop-eration among the officialstasked with implementing theschemes.

“Even after 20 years ofgrowth, we have not achieveddevelopment in real sense.Take example of Mauritius,which is a small country buthas economically grownrapidly. Ditto is the case withJapan and Korea because thesecountries have worked in a co-ordinated manner,” Tripathisaid while addressing the thirdannual conference of theAssociation of the Socio-eco-nomic Development Studies(ASEDS), organised by thedepartment of Economics, DrShakuntala Misra NationalRehabilitation University.

The theme of the two-dayconference is ‘Globalisation,Growth and Sustainability’.The conference will also dis-cuss poverty, inequality andexclusion, human Trafficking,insecure migration, marketand state, institutional chal-lenges and economic growth.

Besides Tripathi, otherdignitaries at the conferenceincluded former ViceChancel lor of RMLAU(Faizabad) Prof PK Sinha,guests of honour RajendraSingh ‘Jal Purush’, and direc-tor Giri Institute ofDevelopment Studies(Lucknow) Prof BK Bajpai.

There are about 150 paperpresenters with two panel dis-cussions and six technical ses-sions. Prof Elias Hossani fromRajshai University(Bangladesh) and Prof ICAwasthi from IHD(Delhi)among others who alsogave their representations atthe conference on Friday.

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Lucknow (PNS): Directorof Balrampur Hospital DrRajeev Lochan said new lease oflife was given to a patient whowas admitted to the hospitalseven months back with totalloss of scalp exposing bone andfracture of 5-7 ribs withhaemopneumo thorax and ahuge 15-cm wound on herback with massive loss of blood.

“We transfused five units ofblood and a tube was placed inher chest to save her life byaspirating the blood and airfrom her chest cavity. Afterabout 20 days, surgeries werestarted to remove the deadbone from her skull. Sevensurgeries were done for this andfive were done to cover thewound on her back. Two surg-eries were done to cover thescalp by taking skin from herthigh and now she is being dis-charged with advice to attendthe hospital after 15 days. Thetotal procedure was done freeof cost,” he explained.

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��7� ��A national conference on

‘Leadership and entrepreneur-ship development’, jointlyorganised by Centre forIncubation, Leadership andE n t r e p r e n e u r s h i pDevelopment, and departmentof Commerce and businessManagement, IntegralUniversity, kicked off on Friday.The welcome address wasdelivered by M Ashraf Rizvi.He stressed on the role of theleader and the traits that makea leader. He quoted the exam-ples of Bill Gates and also dis-cussed the importance of lis-tening skills for becoming aleader. Former revenue secre-tary, Government of India, PKLahiri talked about qualities ofa good leader.

��7��8�� The first day of IIM-

Lucknow’s ‘Manfest-Varchasva2019’ was inaugurated by direc-tor Archana Shukla. This wasfollowed by a leadership talk byCEO of OYO Hotels andHomes for India and SouthAsia Aditya Ghosh, who talkedabout realising personaldreams and how the role of aleader expands beyond thehorizons of his or her jobdescription. The session wasattended by more than 150 stu-dents. Talks were also deliveredby Shreyasi Singh fromHarappa Education on work-place excellence and ParmeshShahnani from a well known

private company who enlight-ened the students about theimportance of inclusion insociety, in particular aboutLGBTQ community. ‘Halla Bol’,a street play competition, wasorganised at Chinhat primaryschool and saw the participa-tion of nine teams. The contestwas won by the team fromMDI, Gurgaon.

��‘Awadh Loan Mahotsav’

was organised by Bank ofIndia, Lucknow Zone, at StarHouse in Vibhuti Khand,Gomti Nagar. Executive direc-tor of Bank of India AtanuKumar Das addressed a gath-ering of customers and farm-ers from Lucknow, Barabanki,Sitapur and other districts.Sanction letters for loan to thetune of more than Rs 100 crorewere given away to the cus-

tomers. A meeting of progres-sive farmers was also organisedwhich was addressed by gen-eral manager of NBG North-II Brij Lal. Agriculture scien-tists from government depart-ments guided the farmers onhow they can double theirincome by 2022 by adoptingnew technology of farmingwith finance from bank.General Manager from theMumbai head office RaviKumar also interacted withfarmers through video-conferencing.

� ��%��& ��Central Institute for

Subtropical Horticulture(CISH) is organising a 4-dayrefresher training course, spon-sored by MANAGE(Hyderabad), on“Opportunities for ValueAddition in Horticulture

Produce’ to upgrade theknowledge and improve theskills of established entrepre-neurs during from November13-16 on Rae Bareli road cam-pus. Established entrepreneursin agri-horti processing areafrom across the country areparticipating in this training.The Central government envis-ages doubling farmers’ incomeby 2022. The farmers’ incomeand rural employment can beenhanced by setting up smallscale industries, start ups andhorti-based enterprises in ruralareas. A large number of hor-ticulture produce processingbased enterprise modules arealready available which can beleveraged for enhancing farmincome, reducing post-harvestlosses and employment gener-ation by setting up new microand small enterprises in ruralareas.

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Repertwahr Festival will beheld at UP Sangeet Natak

Academy from December 12to 16. Key organiser BhupeshRai told mediapersons onFriday that the event has con-stantly pushed its own bench-marks. “Since it’s onset in 2009,the fest has grown organicallyto be one of India’s biggest andmost celebrated cultural festi-vals. It has developed an all-Lucknow-based team that exe-cutes the festival year afteryear, with an aesthetic andartistic sensibility that rivalssome of the best such festivalsin the country,” he said.

“This year again,Repertwahr Festival Season10 invites all of you to witnessthe celebration. We alwaysmake sure that the city gets towitness never-seen-before per-formances. Especially in the-atre, we promise to bring forthe audiences plays that notonly touch the hearts but alsounfold the experimental formsof theatre techniques. The fes-tival is a delight for the litera-ture enthusiast in you,” headded. The fest has stretched itsown boundaries, presenting ascintillating amalgamation ofperforming arts on a singleplatform. It has garnered a lotof attention and appreciationover the years.

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Traders, under the aegis ofthe Confederation of All

India Traders, submitted amemorandum to the UnionCommerce Minister throughLok Sabha member RitaBahuguna Joshi, alleging thatcompanies dealing with e-commerce were violating FDIrules and thus damagingwholesale and retail trade.

National general secre-tary (organisation) of theConfederation of All IndiaTraders (CAIT), Sanjay Gupta,said that big e-commercecompanies like Amazon,Flipkart and others were vio-lating FDI rules, promising toprovide quality products toconsumers at a much cheap-er rate. “The functioning ofthese companies has adverse-ly affected retail business.Both Amazon and Flipkartcontinue to sell goods ontheir portal at predatory pric-ing, deep discounting, con-trolling inventory, promotingpreferential sellers and influ-encing prices,” Gupta, who is

also state chief of AdarshVyapar Mandal, said inLucknow on Friday.

“As part of protest, theCAIT will stage a nation-wide dharna against the atti-tude of Amazon and Flipkarton November 20. The protestswill be held in 200 cities

across all states of the coun-try,” Gupta said.

The CAIT delegation wasasked to submit a memoran-dum to members of LokSabha and Rajya Sabha. As perdirective, a delegation led bySanjay Gupta submitted amemorandum to Rita

Bahuguna Joshi.Joshi said that she would

convey the angst of the tradersto the Union CommerceMinister. “This government issympathetic to the demands oftraders and will look intotheir problems,” she assuredthe delegation.

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The Congress agitationagainst the Bharatiya

Janata Party government toexpose economic recession inthe country will be now car-ried out in Uttar Pradesh tillNovember end. Earlier, theparty had planned the agita-tion till November 15, but itsplan went awry after pro-hibitory order under Section144 of Criminal ProcedureCode was imposed across thestate in the wake of Supreme

Court’s verdict in the Ayodhya case.

The Congress kicked offthe agitation on November 5and besides addressing mediato highlight the plight of eco-nomic slowdown, its leadersalso distributed pamphletsand organised street cornermeetings. They however hadto postpone the agitation inthe wake of prohibitory ordersbeing clamped.

UPCC administration in-charge, Siddharth PriyaSrivastava said that a meeting,

chaired by UP Congress chiefAjay Kumar Lallu, was held atthe state party headquarters inLucknow on Friday, in whichan appeal was made to topartymen to gear up for theagitation and make efforts toensure success of a proposedrally in New Delhi.

Beside senior Congressleaders, the rally will beattended and addressed byCongress chief Sonia Gandhiand former president RahulGandhi and Priyanka GandhiVadra.

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The five-day InternationalGeography Olympiad ‘GeofestInternational-2019’, jointlyorganised by City MontessoriSchool, Jopling Road andRajajipuram II campuses, wasinaugurated on Friday by UPCabinet minister Nand KumarGupta ‘Nandi’. The young geo-graphers from Nepal,Bangladesh, Sri Lanka andvarious states of India pre-sented a view of ‘VasudhaivaKutumbkam’ amidst colourfuleducational-cultural items.The CMS students performedshowcasing a call for greenrevolution. The inaugural cer-emony began with an all-reli-gion and world peace prayer.On the occasion, a world par-liament was presented by theCMS students in which theydiscussed global problems andadvocated the need to protectnature. The students present-ed various educational cultur-al items and mesmerised thedelegates with their songs anddances. Addressing the dele-

gates from India and abroad,Nand Kumar Gupta said thatthe society has great expecta-tions from these geographystudents as global environ-mental problems can be solvedby knowledge of geography.He called upon the student

community to use their talentsfor the benefit of humanityand for spreading world hap-piness and world peace.Earlier, the students’ delega-tion from India and abroadhad an interaction with medi-apersons. The students of

Scholastica School,Bangladesh, said they havecome here to see the cultureand tradition of Lucknow.Students of ManimukundaSecondary School, Nepal, saidthey were eager for the competitions.

��8��8��%'''details relating to the power-sharing formula that is beingworked out among the threeparties, sources said that theNCP and Congress had agreedto give the Chief Minister’spost to the Shiv Sena which,according to them, deservedthe post as it walked out of theBJP-led BJP to align with themto form a Government.

According to the formula,there will be two Deputy ChiefMinisters - one each belongingto the NCP and the Congress.There appears to be unanimi-ty on the number of ministe-rial berths each party will getin the proposed Government.While the Shiv Sena and theNCP will get 14 ministrieseach, the Congress will get 12ministerial berths. As thingsstand, the Congress may getthe crucial State AssemblySpeaker’s post.

In a related developmentin Mumbai, State BJP presidentChandrakant Patil - whilebriefing mediapersons on thedeliberations that took place ata two-day meeting of the partycalled to analyse the StateAssembly results - quotedFadnavis as having told the BJPfunctionaries present at themeeting that “any Governmentthat will be formed in the Statewill be headed by the BJP”.

“Having won 105 seatsand with the support of anoth-er 14 MLAs, the BJP has acombined strength of 119MLAs. That being the case, noGovernment can be formedwithout the BJP. Whatever theGovernment that will beformed in the State will beheaded by the BJP,” Patil said,quoting Fadnavis as havingassured the BJP functionariespresent at the meeting that theBJP would form a Governmentin the State. Among otherthings, Patil said that the StateBJP, which had emerged as the

single largest party in the State,had drawn up a plan to furtherstrengthen its base across theState during the next threemonths. Giving statistics ofvotes polled by the major polit-ical parties during the recentAssembly polls, Patil said:“The BJP emerged first bypolling 1.42 crore votes, whilethe NCP secured a total of 92lakh and the Shiv Sena got 90lakh votes in the polls. Noother party has won 100 seatsin the state since 1990. The BJPwon more than 100 for secondtime in this election. We hadwon 122 seats in the 2014 elec-tions, we have won 105 seats inthe 2019 elections”.

“A maximum of 12 BJPwomen candidates have wonthe elections. Of the 59 seats inwhich we were defeated, theBJP stood second. Of the 26candidates who joined the BJPin the least few months andcontested the polls, 16 havewon,” Patil said.

�1��7� ��&��'''“Children, every day, all

around the world are prone tosuffer online sexual abuse andexploitation,” the CBI said in astatement. Numerous refer-ences related to dissemina-tion of CSAM (Child SexualAbuse Material) are receivedfrom Interpol and othernational / international organ-isations. The incidence ofonline child sexual abuse andexploitation generally tran-scends international borders.Victims are mostly helplessinnocent children, it said. Theterritorial jurisdiction of theOCSAE Prevention/Investigation Unit will bethroughout India and will helpin countering the menace ofchild porn on the internetand related crimes, officialssaid. The unit will collect intel-ligence not only on those whoare allegedly creating and

transmitting such material onthe internet but also thosewho are browsing and down-loading such material, theysaid. The agency had registereda case last month against sevenpersons in alleged connectionwith a child pornography casein which they were alleged tobe part of various WhatsAppgroups involved in the trans-mission of child sexual abusematerial. The information onthe international porn grouphad come from the Germanembassy in India. The CBI hadreceived information fromGermany about the convictionof one Sasche Treppke in thatcountry for sexual abuse ofchildren and distribution ofchild pornography. The con-victed criminal Treppke was amember of 29 WhatsAppgroups that were used to sharepornographic content. Theseven accused in the CBI casewere also the members of thegroups operated by Treppkeand were also sharing suchcontent, according to the CBIFIR. In February 2018, the CBIhad busted an internationalracket involved in childpornography. The racket wasoperated through WhatsAppgroups and the administratorof the group Nikhil Verma wasnabbed. Some of the 119members of the WhatsAppgroup hailed from the US,Pakistan, China and Sri Lanka.

��/��1�'''“IRCTC shall be account-

able for providing the newlyintroduced menu options in away that the quantity andquality are commensurate withthe tariff and no undue bene-fit is passed on to the serviceprovider,” the order read.

It said a review of menuand tariff of pre-paid Rajdhani,Shatabdi and Duronto trainsand standard meals or fooditems that are provided to pas-

sengers of mail or expresstrains on payment basis, hasbeen done taking into consid-eration the requests receivedfrom IRCTC and the recom-mendations of the menu andtariff committee set up by theboard.

For mail and expresstrains, the price of tea and stan-dard meals will range from �40to �130. The tariff of standardmeals onboard mail andexpress trains was last revisedin 2012. Railways said themove to hike prices of mealswas to give passengers morevariety and improve hygieneand quality of food. A com-mittee was nominated by theRailway Board to examine andrecommend the revision inmenu and tariff of these ser-vices. “The committee scien-tifically examined all aspects ofcosting keeping in mind theobjective to provide good qual-ity and hygienic food to thetravelling passengers on IndianRailways. “The impact on thetotal ticket fares of the pre-paidtrains will be an increase in therange of 3 per cent to 9 per centfor passengers who opt formeals. The revised catering tar-iff shall be effective fromMarch 29, 2020 ,” a statementfrom the ministry said.

The rate of Janta Meal hasbeen kept unchanged at �20.

To prevent overcharging inthe name of a-la-carte meals,it has now been decided thatno such meals shall be per-mitted for sale on mail andexpress trains. However a a-la-carte snacks with items likesamosa, pakoda and others willbe permitted for sale, it said. Ithas also been decided thatbiryani will be offered as astandard meal variety in viewof the popularity of the dish.IRCTC shall make availablethree types of biryani — veg,egg and chicken at a price �80,�90 and �110 respectively.

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In the last couple of days,Punjab witnessed an over 50-

fold decline in stubble burninginstances from 520 onNovember 12 to just 10 onNovember 13, while Haryanahad an over four-fold dropfrom 68 to 16 instances.

Uttar Pradesh registeredabout three-fold decline from210 to 79. The latest figures onthe basis of satellite imageryshow that Uttar Pradesh mayhave registered an overalldecline in the last two days butnow has the dubious distinc-tion of being ahead of Punjaband Haryana in terms of stub-ble burning instances.

As per data compiled bythe Agriculture Ministry, thenumber of stubble burningcases has decreased from 792on November 12 to 105 onNovember 13. As per data, nostubble burning was detectedMahamayanagar, JyotibaphuleNagar and Varanasi whileAgra, Hathras, Mahoba, Mau,Jaunpur recorded one incidenteach of farm fire till date.

As many as 54,776 cases ofstubble burning have beendetected since October 1 inPunjab, Haryana and UP so far.Of them, 46,221 incidents werefound in Punjab; 5,823 inHaryana and 2,732 in UP.

There was a decline of 12.4per cent this year as comparedto the last year till date. UPrecorded 41.3 per cent decline,Haryana recorded 16.26 percent decline and Punjabrecorded 9.3 percent decline ofstubble burning. Delhi hasbeen reeling under alarmingpollution levels for the last

couple of weeks due to a dip intemperature, a decrease inwind speed, huge vehicularpollution, construction pollu-tion and stubble burning in theneighbouring states of Punjab,Haryana and UP.

Following the direction ofthe Supreme Court to providefinancial support to small andmarginal farmers to stop stub-ble burning, the HaryanaGovernment has announced anadditional Rs 1,000 an acreincentive for custom-hiringcentres and straw baler units, tosupport their operational costs.The Rs 2,500 an acre has beencalculated by assuming 25quintals of paddy is harvestedfrom an acre of land in Punjaband Haryana. UP, which alsofaces the problem of stubbleburning, has decided to set-upbiofuel plants in each district,where farmers can sell theirwaste stubble for generation ofelectricity. UP has recordedreduction of farm fires inMahamayanagar, JyotibaphuleNagar, Sidharth Nagar, Agra,

Jalaun, Hathras, Varanasi,Unnao, Sonbhadra, Sitapur,Shamli, Pratapgarh andSambhal. The data furthershows Mathura, Pilibhit,Rampur, Sharanpur andShaharanpur districts haverecorded maximum number ofincidents. Sonipat, Rohtak,Rewari, Panchkula, Mewat,Panipat, Hisar, Jhajjar, Bhiwaniand Faridabad in Haryanarecorded minimum cases ofstubble burning. As per data, 23cases recorded in Sonipat andPanipat each, 21 in Panchkula,11 in Rohtak, four inGurugram, three in Rewariand Mewat each, two in Jhajjarand Mahendragarh each sofar. Kaithal recorded 1213cases, Fatehabad 1035, Karnal735, Jind 494, Ambala 334 andSirsa 321 cases till date.

The data show Sas Nagarrecorded 149, Roop Nagar 113,Pathankot six and Hosiyarpur307 cases so far. Similarly,Taran Taran, Sangrur andPatiala recorded maximumcases of residue burning.

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Worsening environmentalpollution in the national

Capital may be getting loads oflip-sympathy from celebritiesand the political class but inreal terms not many seem tobe really geared to mitigate thepoison around as was evidentfrom the 'scary' absence ofmost of the MPs and officialsfrom a meeting of aParliamentary panel on theissue on Friday. The issuegained political connotations asthe non-presence of the DelhiMP and former cricketerGautam Gambhir was circu-lated by the AAP in the socialmedia by showing him as'enjoying Jalabis` with his com-mentary teammates coveringthe India-Bangladesh crickettest match in Indore.

Gambhir was the only MPfrom Delhi who had been

summoned to the meeting ofthe Parliamentary StandingCommittee on UrbanDevelopment scheduled tostart 11 am. Attendance waspoor, with only four of 29MPs on the panel list turningup, according to sources.

Members present at themeeting were upset with thoselike the three municipal com-missioners, DDA vice chair-man and Secretary/joint sec-retary of the EnvironmentMinistry absent and plan toraise the issue with the Speaker.They asked junior officials toconvey to their seniors thatthey should have attended themeeting, sources said.

"Instead of sitting in com-mentary box and enjoy-ing.. .We challenge@GautamGambhir to stopplaying blame games over pol-lution and ATTEND MEET-INGS ON AIR POLLUTION

which he skipped ", tweeted@AamAadmiParty.

In his explanation, the for-mer cricketer-turned-BJP MPsaid his work "will speak foritself " and then criticised theAAP for "making my com-mercial engagements (whichwere entered into before I hadbecome an MP) an issue..."

In an extraordinary " carea damn" response , top officialsof the Environment Ministry,DDA and municipal commis-sioners too stayed away froma key meeting of the parlia-mentary body that too on theeve of the Winter session ofthe Parliament which isexpected to deliberate on thedeadly poison spreading acrossthe city.

The Environment Ministryclarified that " some of its offi-cials were present during thedeliberations" while one wasbusy in critical Supreme Court

hearing. The questions that the

members were planning toraise included: As there areabout 50 lakh cars on theroads in Delhi, is theGovernment coming up withany sort of car pool policy orregulation?

Another question was thatas per the Union Government,�1,150 crores were given by theCentre to the states in the lastone year to combat air pollu-tion along with 14,000machines. Does theGovernment have a quantita-tive and qualitative utilisationreport of the money disbursed?

The third question to beraised pertained to theSupreme Court's recent obser-vation that everybody rangingfrom the secretary to the ̀ grampradhan` will be held respon-sible for losses due to air pol-lution.

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Days after blaming KejriwalGovernment for not

doing enough to curb smog,Union Environment MinisterPrakash Javadekar on Fridaycalled for "joint action" by allagencies to combat the wors-ening air quality in the nation-al capital. Addressing a pressconference here, Javadekarsaid it was not the time for dif-ferent agencies to blame eachother.

"Delhi pollution is not theproblem of this city. Delhi's airhas been worsening since1990s. There are new chal-lenges everyday as circum-stances change. We haveworked towards reducingindustrial pollution, con-

struction waste and dust etc.There is continuous work.

"But everyone shouldwork together. Cooperation ofPunjab, Haryana, Rajasthan,Uttar Pradesh, DelhiGovernment, all three MCDsand NDMC, DDA, and allother agencies is required to fixthis. Everyone has to work

together," the minister said.He said the Government

was "very serious about theissue of air pollution. "Air pol-lution is an issue to be tackledcollectively by agencies. It isnot the time to blame eachother. We are very seriousabout the issue of pollution,"the Minister said.

A few days ago, Javedkarhad slammed the DelhiGovernment for not doingmuch to curb the pollution.

Replying to another query,the Minister said theGovernment has withdrawnthe 'officers' draft on amend-ments in the Forest Act, 1927as the Government is com-mitted to protect the rights oftribals and forest dwellers.

Javadekar said that the

draft was not officially pre-pared by the UnionGovernment.

The provision in theamendment which invitedcriticism was the one whichallowed forest officials to usearms against people to preventforest offence.

The provision read, "Anyforest-officer, may if necessary,to prevent the commission ofany offence under this Act orunder the WildlifeAmendment proposed to pro-vide indemnity to forest-offi-cer using arms etc, to preventthe forest offence.This indem-nity shall be in addition to theimmunity provided under sec-tion 197 of Code of CriminalProcedure 1973 for certaincategories of Public Servant."

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Outgoing Chief Justice India(CJI) Ranjan Gogoi on

Friday expressed his inability tohave one-to-one interview withscribes and lauded the press forits "maturity" and "character" inpreventing "canards and false-hood" in "trying times" of thejudiciary.

Justice Gogoi, the 46th CJIand the first from a north-east-ern State, said it was not therequirement of the SupremeCourt that judges "reach out toour citizenry through thepress".

"Such outreach (to the

press) ought to be symbolic ofan extraordinary situationdemanding an exception tothe norm," said Justice Gogoiwho would demit office onNovember 17, a Sunday.

Justice Gogoi and threeother senior most apex courtjudges - Justices J Chelameswar,Madan B Lokur and KurianJoseph had held an unprece-dented press conference onJanuary 12, 2018 alleging thatthe administration and alloca-tion of cases in the apex court,then headed by the then CJIDipak Misra, was "not inorder".

In a three-page common

letter to journalists, the CJIdeclined the request for inter-views and said: "I would not beable to meet your request for aone-to-one meet."

The letter said: "I am keenthat you would appreciate thatthe ordinary freedoms are fine-ly balanced in our institution-al functioning - while you havethe Bar whose members canexercise their freedom ofspeech to the extent of evenpushing the boundaries of suchfreedom, the bench requires itsjudges to maintain silence,while exercising their free-doms.

"This is not to say that

Judges do not speak. They dospeak, but only out of func-tional necessity, and no more.Bitter truth must remain inmemory."

The CJI lauded the role ofmedia for its reportage duringthe "trying times" of the apexjudicial institution.

"Good press is also a para-meter amongst others that isknown to be indicative of ourinstitutional health. In suchview, I do wish to put onrecord that by and large, thepress corps has been kind tomy office as well as to our insti-tution during my tenure at thehelm of the institution.

"Even during trying times.When our institution was keep-ing an ambush or two at bay,most members of the press dis-played maturity and characterad exercised exceptional dis-cretion to prevent canards andfalsehood from clogging thenews space," the letter said.

Justice Gogoi said that as apublic functionary, who wasentrusted with onerousConstitutional duties to per-form, the idea of "courting thepress" never came as a choicefor him in the interest of theinstitution.

"I chose to belong to aninstitution whose strength lay

in public confidence and trustearned not through good press,but through our work as Judgeson the bench.

"In fact, our work-placesare, by our functional necessi-ty, required to be public placesas justice is ordained to bedelivered in presence of ordi-nary citizens to ensure that it isnever far removed from them.In that view, our institutionalconnect and interface with thecitizenry is proximate," the let-ter said.

Though the CJI is official-ly retiring on November 17, aSunday, Friday was his lastworking day.

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Union Home Ministry onFriday told the

Parliamentary standing com-mittee on Home Affairs thatthe situation in J&K was gettingnormal after the quashing ofArticle 370 but did not give anytimeframe for the release of thedetained political leaders,including former ChiefMinisters, as sought byOpposition MPs.

Union Home SecretaryAjay Kumar Bhalla andAdditional Secretary in theHome Ministry GyaneshKumar and other Ministryofficials briefed theParliamentary standing com-mittee on Home Affairs,chaired by senior Congressleader Anand Sharma, on thesituation in the union territo-ries of Jammu and Kashmir,and Ladakh.

Opposition MPs quizzedtop Government officials onthe detention of political lead-ers, particularly the formerChief Minister FarooqAbdullah, Omar Abdullah andMehbooba Mufti. It is learnedthat Opposition MPs were agi-

tated while asking questions tothe officials on this regard.Responding to questions on therelease of the detained politicalleaders, Bhalla and his team ofofficers conveyed that somehad been released and otherswill be freed gradually butrefrained from giving any timeline, sources said.

The Home secretary,sources said, told the MPs thatthe situation in the UT of J&Kis getting normal, schools areopen and the apple trade isgoing on, sources said. TheMPs also raised the issue ofcurbs on the internet in theValley since August 5. HomeMinistry officials, it is learnt,said the restrictions wereimposed as the internet couldbe used by terrorists for sub-

versive activities as well as byanti-social elements to spreadrumours.

According to sources pre-sent at the meeting, differ-

ences between the BJP and theCongress MPs cropped up overthe issue of J&K being dis-cussed in the panel. While BJPmembers cited the rule book to

say the panel should not inter-fere in the work of the execu-tive, Congress MPs said theissue was important and had tobe discussed, the sources said.

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The Supreme Court Friday heldFormer Ranbaxy promoters

Malvinder and Shivinder Singhguilty of contempt for violating itsorder that had asked them not todivest their shares in FortisHealthcare Limited. The apexcourt had earlier asked the Singhbrothers to give it a plan as to howthey would honour the arbitralaward of �3,500 crore granted by aSingapore tribunal against them, infavour of Japanese drug manufac-turer Daiichi Sankyo.

A bench comprising ChiefJustice Ranjan Gogoi and JusticeDeepak Gupta held them guilty ofcontempt of court and said that theyhad violated its earlier order bywhich the sale of their controllingstakes in Fortis Group to Malayasianfirm IHH Healthcare was put onhold. The apex court said itwould hear the Singhs on the quan-tum of sentence later. The Japanesefirm had filed contempt petitionagainst them alleging that executionof their arbitral award had been injeopardy as the Singh brothers dis-posed of their controlling stakes inFortis Group to the Malaysian firm.

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Aday after the SupremeCourt left a scope for a fur-

ther probe into the the Rafaledeal, lawyer Prashant Bhushanand former BJP leader andMinister Arun Shourie onFriday demanded that the CBIshould register a case regardingthe deal.

Bhushan, Shourie alongwith another former BJP mem-ber and Minister YashwantSinha had filed a review peti-tion in the apex court after itcleared the Government lastyear in the �59,000 crore dealfor procurement of 36 Rafalefighter jets from France in agovernment to Governmentdeal. Other review petitions onthe same issue were filed bylawyer Vineet Dhanda andAam Aadmi Party lawmakerSanjay Singh.

The apex court onThursday again gave a cleanchit to the Modi Governmentand said there is no ground toorder an FIR by the CBI or aroving inquiry into allegationsof irregularities in the deal.

But Bhushan referred tothe judgment of Justice K MJoseph, one of the three judgesof the bench headed by Chief

Justice Ranjan Gogoi that gavethe verdict.

In his separate but con-curring judgement, Joseph saidthe CBI, the country's premierprobe agency, is expected to act"completely independent" ofthe Government of the day andprofessionalism of "highestquality", uncompromisingindependence and neutrality isexpected of it.

"The CBI has to seek thepermission of the Governmentfor probing the case and it hasthree months to do so,"Bhushan said. If the CBI doesnot do so, it has to cite reasonsfor not probing the case.

Bhushan said here it isbinding on the CBI to probe

their complaint despite theruling by the three-judge apexcourt bench. If the CBI fails todo so, it will again approach theSupreme Court, Bhushan toldreporters at a press conferencealso addressed by Shourie.Sinha was not there.

He also said it has beenmore than a year since thecomplaint was submitted to thethen CBI Director Alok Verma."Accordingly, we expect RishiKumar Shukla, his successor, toseek the necessary approvalfrom the competent authorityunder Section 17A to begin thenecessary inquiry into the com-plaint in earnest in conformi-ty with the judgement of thecourt," he contended.

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The government must readthe "extremely important"

dissenting verdict for imple-mentation of the 2018 judge-ment allowing women of allages to enter Kerala'sSabarimala temple and ensureits compliance, Justice R FNariman of the Supreme Courtsaid on Friday.

A five-judge Constitutionbench, by a majority of 3:2, onThursday referred to a largerseven-judge bench the pleasseeking review of the 2018judgement allowing all womenand girls to enter Sabarimalatemple.Justice Nariman, whopenned the minority verdict onbehalf of himself and Justice DY Chandrachud, did not agreethe majority view of referringthe issue to the larger benchand reiterated that the court's2018 verdict, allowing allwomen and girls into theshrine, be strictly implement-ed.

As the majority verdict,penned by Chief Justice RanjanGogoi, kept review pleas pend-ing for the 7-judge bench anddid not stay the 2018 majorityjudgement, women of all age

groups will be entitled toundertake the pilgrimage to theshrine.

On Friday, a bench head-ed by Justice Nariman whichwas hearing the appeal ofEnforcement Directorateagainst grant of bail toCongress leader D KShivakumar, observed that theGovernment must read his"extremely important" dissent-ing verdict in Sabarimala caseand ensure its compliance.

"Please tell yourGovernment to read the dissentjudgement delivered in theSabarimala case yesterday. Thisis extremely important. Wecannot allow violation of ourorder and it has to be complied

with. Inform your authorityand the Government to read it,"he told Solicitor

General Tushar Mehta,who was appearing for the EDin the case. A bench of justicesNariman and S Ravindra Bhatdismissed the appeal of EDagainst the Delhi High Court'sorder granting bail to theCongress leader in a moneylaundering case.

When Justice Nariman toldMehta that the Governmenthas to comply with the orderspassed by the apex court, thesolicitor general said that thecourt should not have animpression that theGovernment would not complywith the directives.

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The Supreme Court onFriday dismissed the

Enforcement Directorate's pleachallenging the Delhi HighCourt order granting bail toKarnataka Congress leader D KShivakumar in a money laun-dering case.

A bench comprising jus-tices R F Nariman and SRavindra Bhat rejected therequest of Solicitor GeneralTushar Mehta, who appearedfor the ED, and said the issueshould be heard as it raises animportant legal question.

The High Court had onOctober 23 granted bail toShivakumar, saying he cannottamper with evidence or influencewitnesses and no material hasbeen shown to indicate that hewas a flight risk. Shivakumar, aseven-time MLA in Karnataka,was booked along withHaumanthaiah, an employee atthe Karnataka Bhavan in Delhi,and others for alleged offencesunder the Prevention of MoneyLaundering Act (PMLA). TheED had arrested Shivakumar onSeptember 3 in the money laun-dering case.

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The Congress on Fridayattacked the Modi

Government over the deten-tion of mainstream politicalleaders in J&K, and askedwhether sitting Lok Sabhamember from SrinagarFarooq Abdullah will beallowed to attend Parliamentfrom Monday. It also allegedthat the Centre had left "nostone unturned in interna-tionalising Kashmir" and hitout at the Government forallowing European Union(EU) lawmakers to visit theValley but not Indian leaders.Former Chief Minister and

senior National Conference(NC) leader Farooq Abdullahwas detained under the con-troversial Public Safety Act(PSA).

"Kashmir has been in alockdown situation for the last103 days. The Prime Minister(Narendra Modi) is goingaround the world saying 'all iswell'," Congress spokesper-son Pawan Khera said at apress conference.

He said the Governmentmust give reasons as to why ithas kept leaders of estab-lished political parties underdetention. When FarooqAbdullah "sings 'Ram Bhajan'or says 'Bharat Mata ki Jai'", he

does not think what theresponse of separatist forceswill be, Khera said.

The Congress spokesper-son hit out at the ModiGovernment for granting adelegation of EU MPs accessto Kashmir whenParliamentarians of the coun-try were not allowed.

The Government onFriday did not spell out atimeline for the release ofpolitical leaders detained inJ&K even as it said that the sit-uation in the troubled regionis getting normal post therevocation of special statusand bifurcation into twounion territories in August.

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Congress has drawn up anelaborate plan to corner

the Modi Government duringthe month long WinterSession of Parliament thatbegins on Monday and hasbeen in talks with otherOpposition parties to come onboard on raising commonissues concerning citizens likeeconomy, employment, NRCetc. Congress in particular willagain raise the demand ofJPC in Rafale scam.

The performance ofCongress in the just conclud-ed Assembly polls leading toformation of a Government inMaharashtra with its long termally NCP, has also given hopesto opposition parties to buildupon the pressure in corneringthe BJP Governments.Congress leaders said that theissue of an Israeli software tosnoop on Indian civil societywill also rock the Parliament

debates and in this regard theleaders of Opposition togeth-er have written to PresidentRamnath Kovind also to takeup the matter with theGovernment.

The Opposition parties,particularly Congress, are nowhopeful that the result could beused to build consensus uponelectoral understandings, polit-ical positioning and policyviews.

Senior opposition leaderssay that the immediate impactof this can be seen in upcom-ing winter session ofParliament and elections inJharkhand slated for later thisyear.

"Certainly the poll perfor-mance will boost greater coor-dination on the floor ofParliament during winter ses-sion. Two key issues which aunited opposition is likely totake up in the session includestate of economy and situationin J&K.

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Karnataka Chief Minister BSYediyurappa on Thursday said dis-

qualified MLA R Shankar will be madea member of Legislative Council and aMinister as he announced Arun KumarPujar as the BJP candidate to contestfrom Ranebennur seat represented byhim in the December 5 bypolls.

The move is seen as an apparent bidto mollify Shankar, who along with 15other disqualified Congress and JD (S)MLAs joined the BJP on Thursday andwas keen to contest from Ranebennur.

Yediyurappa announced the nameof Pujar on Friday for Ranebennur seat.

With this, the BJP has named can-didates for all 15 seats for which bypollswill be held following the disqualifica-tion of the Congress-JD(S) MLAs and13 of them have been fielded in theirrespective constituencies.

Bypolls are being held to 15 of 17seats represented by disqualified MLAs,whose resignation and absence from thetrust vote had led to the collapse of HD Kumaraswamy-led coalitionGovernment in July.

By-elections to Maski and R R

Nagar constituencies have been withheldas separate cases with regard to them,are pending before the High Court.

“I have promised Shankar that it ismy responsibility to make him an MLCand a Minister. I am the one who keepsthe promise,” Yediyurappa said after ameeting with Shankar here.

The Chief Minister said he hadasked Shankar to assist Pujar, adding itwas decided to give ticket to him(Pujar) because everybody in the partydesired so.

Though Shankar was adamant oncontesting the byelection, the ChiefMinister had persuaded him to relent,party sources said.

Reacting to the development,Shankar said the Chief Minister hadassured to make him a Minister.

Shankar was elected on theKarnataka Pragnyavantha Janatha Party(KPJP) ticket in the 2018 Assembly polls,and had repeatedly switched sides sincethen. Subsequently, he had merged theKPJP with the Congress.

As he had camped with rebel MLAsleading to the fall of coalition gov-ernemnt, he was disqualified on theCongress’ petition.

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Amid reports he was miffed at beingdenied the BJP ticket for December

5 bypolls, Karnataka Deputy ChiefMinister Laxman Savadi on Friday saidhe was a “disciplined soldier” of theparty and will abide by its decision.

He said the party which made himthe Deputy Chief Minister, despitehim not being a legislator, will decideon his future.

The BJP has fielded disqualifiedCongress legislator Mahesh Kumatalli,who had defeated Savadi in 2018Assembly polls as the party candidatefrom Athani.

“I have been saying that I’m a dis-ciplined soldier of the party. Whateverdirections the party will give me fol-lowing it has been my practice, sincethe beginning. I will abide by theparty decision,” Savadi said.

Speaking to reporters, the DeputyChief Minister said he will put all possible efforts in the bypolls to cam-paign for the party candidates andensure their victory.

Savadi was made Deputy ChiefMinister despite him not being a mem-ber of the Assembly nor or the Council.

His induction into the Cabinet hadcaused resentment among severalsenior BJP legislators as they felt side-lined.

Savadi had not been seen at partyforums and was said to be “out of reach”,after the BJP inducted disqualifiedMLA Kumatalli into the party andfielded him from Athani, from wherehe was planning to enter the fray.

Amid reports that Savadi was upsetand sulking, Chief Minister B SYediyurappa spoke to him and alsoHome Minister Basavaraj Bommaimade efforts to convince him, partysources said.

Responding to a question for notattending the party event where dis-qualified MLAs were inducted onThursday, Savadi said, “Yesterday I hadtold party president, as I had personalprogramme, I could not attend theparty event...I have met the ChiefMinister and have discussed regardingthe polls.”

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JD(S) patriarch HD DeveGowda on Friday said Chief

Minister BS Yediyurappa was“perturbed” about thewinnability of disqualifiedMLAs, whom the BJP has field-ed as party candidates for theDecember 5 bypolls and hencehe was issuing statements aboutmaking them Ministers, withan intention to lure voters.Yediyurappa has spoken aboutmaking all of them Ministers,what is the sanctity (for elec-tion), Gowda told reporters atHassan.

He claimed that soon afterthe apex court paved way forthe disqualified MLAs to con-test bypolls, Yediyurappa hadsaid they will be madeMinisters.

“It shows he was perturbedwhether they were going towin. If you say they will bemade Ministers, people of theconstituency will vote think-

ing that their MLA will becomeMinister.

It is in a way luring.... Justto keep the voters on their side,he said.

Welcoming disqualifiedCongress-JD(S) legislators whojoined the BJP, Yediyurappa onThursday had addressed themas “future MLAs andMinisters”.

The BJP has fielded 13disqualified legislators as itscandidates for the December5 Assembly byelections, hoursafter the rebels joined the rul-ing party in the State.

Stating that JD(S) is con-

testing in all the seats in thebypolls, Gowda said “Whetherwe will win or lose I dont know,its in the hands of the people.I cant say what they will decide.

He said he will be cam-paigning in all the 15 con-stituencies. JD(S) on Thursdayhad announced candidates for10 out of 15 Assembly con-stituencies that will go to thebypolls.

The party has decided tosupport BJP rebel SharathBachegowda, who is contest-ing as an independent candi-date in Hoskote constituency.

Bypolls are being held to 15of the 17 constituencies repre-sented by disqualified MLAs.

By-elections to the Maskiand R R Nagar constituencieshave been withheld as litigations related to them arepending before the KarnatakaHigh Court.

Of the 15 seats, 12 wererepresented by the sCongressand three by the JD(S).

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The Tripura and MizoramGovernments on Friday

differed on the number of Brurefugees repatriated and thereis a mismatch of 193 people inthe figures provided by the twoStates.

Mizoram Home SecretaryLalbiakzama said 892 people of221 internally-displaced Brufamilies have been repatriated,while North Tripura DistrictMagistrate Ravel H Kumar putthe figure at 699 refugeesbelonging to 144 families.

Altogether 4,447 Bru dis-placed families, lodged in reliefcamps at Kanchanpur andPanisagar sub-divisions ofNorth Tripura district, arescheduled to return to neigh-bouring Mizoram from wherethey had fled since 1997 fol-lowing ethnic clashes. Thisninth round of repatriationprocess, stated to be the “final”one, will come to an end onNovember 30.

The Mizoram home secre-

tary said 892 Bru people,including 351 children,belonging to 221 families havebeen repatriated till November14.

Of them, 134 families havebeen settled at Mamit district,68 in Lunglei and 19 in Kolasibdistrict of Mizoram,Lalbiakzama said.

Kumar on Friday sent anofficial report to the chief sec-retary’s office providing date-wise number of people repa-triated to Mizoram betweenOctober 3, when the processbegan, and November 15.

However, he said in thereport, no Bru person went toMizoram since October 31,though the process has beenon.

The displaced people had

launched a roadblock atKanchanpur from October31 demanding resumption ofcash-dole and free ration tothem. It was withdrawn onNovember 7 following anassurance from TripuraDeputy Chief Minister JishnuDeb Varma to resume supply offree ration.

The Ministry of HomeAffairs has stopped allallowances to the displacedBru persons from October andthe Mizoram Bru DisplacedPeople’s Forum (MBDPF), amajor body of the refugees,claimed that six people haddied of starvation after theration supply was stopped.

The Tripura Government,however, said four people diedand the cause of the deaths wasbeing ascertained.

Meanwhile, the MBDPFon Friday said a delegation ofthe Bru refugees had visitedNew Delhi to meet UnionHome Minister Amit Shah butcould not meet him due to hisbusy schedule.

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Against the backdrop of theSupreme court’s decision to

refer the Sabarimala case to alarger bench, the Lord Ayyappashrine is all set to open onSaturday, even as theGovernment said those womendesirous of visiting the hilltemple should get a “courtorder. “

The top court has decidedto set up a larger bench to re-examine religious issuesincluding those arising out ofits earlier verdict that lifted acenturies-old ban on women ofmenstruating age visiting theshrine.

With the two-month longannual pilgrimage season set tocommence from November17, Devaswom MinisterKadakampally Surendran saidSabarimala was not a place foractivism and the LDFGovernment would not sup-port those who makeannouncements about enteringthe hill shrine for the sake ofpublicity.

Dismissing reports thatpolice would provide securi-ty to women activists whoattempt to enter the shrine,he said there was “some con-fusion” over the latestSupreme Court order andwomen desirous of visiting

Sabarimala should get a“court order.”

Government would notencourage those women whowant to visit the shrine forpublicity, he added.

The CPI(M) State secre-tariat, which met here, dis-cussed the verdict andexpressed a similar opinion.

“The common emotion ofthe secretariat was not to allowwomen to enter the temple tillthe apex court finalises the ver-dict. Those who want to enterthe temple can approach thecourt and get a favourablejudgment,” a source close to theCPI(M) State leadership toldPTI.

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New Delhi: The CBI on Fridayconducted searches at theoffices of AmnestyInternational India Pvt. Ltd(AIIPL) and Indians forAmnesty International Trust(IAIT) in the national Capitaland Bengaluru for alleged vio-lation of Foreign Contribution(Regulation) Act (FCRA).

The CBI had registered acase on November 5 followinga complaint from Union HomeMinistry AIIPL, IAIT, AmnestyInternational India FoundationTrust (AIIFT) and AmnestyInternational South AsiaFoundation (AISAF) besidesunknown others.

“It was alleged that the pro-vision of the ForeignContribution (Regulation) Act,2010 and Indian Penal Codewere contravened by the afore-said entities by receiving for-eign contributions from M/sAmnesty International U.Kthrough AIIPL even thoughprior registration or permis-

sions were denied to M/sAmnesty International IndiaFoundation Trust (AIIFT) andother Trusts under FCRA,” aCBI official said.

Searches were conducted atthree places places inBengaluru and one place inDelhi.

“The Central Bureau ofInvestigation today conductedsearches at the offices ofAmnesty International IndiaPrivate Limited and Indians forAmnesty International Trust inBengaluru.

Over the past year, a pat-tern of harassment hasemerged every time AmnestyInternational India stands up

and speaks out against humanrights violations in India,”Amnesty India said in a state-ment.

Amnesty InternationalIndia stands in full compliancewith Indian and internationallaw, Amnesty claimed in itsstatement.

“Our work in India, aselsewhere, is to uphold andfight for universal humanrights. These are the same val-ues that are enshrined in theIndian Constitution and flowfrom a long and rich Indiantradition of pluralism, toler-ance, and dissent,” it said..

As part of the Nobel Prize-winning movement, AmnestyInternational India holds itselfto the highest evidentiary stan-dards. Over four millionIndians have supportedAmnesty International India’swork in the last six years andaround 100,000 Indians havemade financial contributions, itadded. PNS

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Chennai: DMK president MKStalin on Friday expressed con-cern over “bleak” economic out-look following an official survey which reported-ly pointed to a fall inconsumer spending and urgedthe Centre to take measures toboost rural economy.

A media report cited a latest consumption expenditure sur-vey by the National StatisticalOffice (NSO) to claim thatconsumer spending fell forthe first time in more than 40years in 2017-18, primarilydriven by slackening ruraldemand.

“NSO ConsumerSpending Data points to a direeconomic situation and ableak economic outlook. Datashows that people are spend-ing less for the first time in 40years,” Stalin, also the Leaderof the Opposition in theTamil Nadu Assembly, tweet-ed.

“Union Govt must payheed to the key indicators onspending and immediatelytake measures to boost ruraleconomy,” he said and taggedthe media report. PTI

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Maharashtra’s next govern-ment will be led by the

Shiv Sena and the commonminimum programme (CMP)being worked out along withthe Congress and the NCPahead of its formation will bein the “state’s interest”, saidparty spokesman Sanjay Rauton Friday. The UddhavThackeray-led saffron partywill lead the government inMaharashtra for the next “25years” and not just five years,claimed Raut while talking toreporters here.

The Rajya Sabha MP, whoturned 58 on Friday, wasresponding to questions onwhether his party will share thechief minister’s post with theNCP and the Congress, itsallies in the prospective three-party government.

“Talks are on with theCongress and the NCP to workout a common minimum pro-

gramme which will be in theinterest of the state and its peo-ple,” he said. “Whether it is asingle party government or analliance, an agenda for gover-nance is necessary. There areinfrastructure projects to betaken forward, (and issuesrelated to) drought,unseason-al rains (are to be tackled).

“Those coming with usare experienced administra-tors. We will benefit from theirexperience,” he said.

Regarding alliance withthe Congress, the Sena’s polit-ical rival till recently, Raut saidleaders of the country’s oldestparty have contributed to free-dom struggle as well as devel-opment of Maharashtra.

Asked whether the Senawill share the CM’s post on arotational basis in the nextdispensation, Raut said, “Wewant to have the chief minister’spost for the next 25 years. TheShiv Sena will provide leader-ship to the state no matter who

tries best to stop it.”The firebrand Sena leader

said his party’s relation withMaharashtra is permanent andnot temporary. “Our party isactive in the state’s politics for50 years,” he said.

The Shiv Sena was found-ed by Bal Thackeray in 1966.

Asked if the Sena, post tie-up with the Congress-NCP,will give up its demand for theBharat Ratna for Hindutva ide-ologue Veer Savarkarandaccept Muslim reservation,Raut evaded a direct reply andsaid, “We know the source ofsuch speculation.”

To a query whether apower-sharing formula envis-aging 14 portfolios each for theNCP and the Sena, and 12 forthe Congress has been decid-ed (as being speculated inmedia), he declined to disclosedetails of the proposed coali-tion arrangement between thethree parties.

“You don’t worry about

power-sharing. Uddhavji (Senachief Uddhav Thackeray) iscapable of taking decisions,”said the politician-journalist,who is also the executive edi-tor of Sena mouthpiece‘Saamana’. Asked how the Sena,a party identified withHindutva politics and “anti-Congressism”, will adjust witha non- ideological partner likethe Congress,he said, “What isideology? We are working on acommon minimum pro-gramme for the state’s welfare.

“Vajpayee (BJP stalwartand ex-PM Atal BihariVajpayee) headed an alliance ofparties who came together ona common minimum pro-gramme. In Maharashtra,Sharad Pawar had led aProgressive Democratic Front(PDF) government (1978-80)of which the Jan Sangh, theBJP’s earlier avatar, was a part.”

“There have been instancesearlier where parties of differ-ent ideologies have come

together,” he said, justifying theSena’s efforts to cobble up a rul-ing coalition with the Congressand the NCP, against whom theSena fought the last month’sassembly polls. The Senareached out to the Congress-NCP combine for governmentformation after its demand forsharing the chief minister’spost and equal distribution ofportfolios was rejected by theBJP, its pre-poll ally.

The BJP and the Sena,which fought the October 21polls in alliance, secured acomfortable majority by win-ning 105 and 56 seats, respec-tively, in the 288-memberassembly. The Congress andthe NCP won 44 and 54 seats,respectively. President’s rulewas imposed in the state onTuesday after Governor BhagatSingh Koshyari sent a report tothe Centre, stating that forma-tion of a stable government wasimpossible in the current situ-ation.

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Amid the current politicalstalemate in Maharashtra,

Union minister and BJP leaderNitin Gadkari has likened pol-itics with cricket, saying “any-thing” could happen in boththese fields as those who appearto be losing the match mightactually win the game.

Gadkari’s statement cameat a time when the BJP’sestranged ally Shiv Sena ismaking efforts to form thegovernment with the help ofthe Congress and the NCP, itspolitical rivals till recently.

The three parties havealready prepared a draft com-mon minimum programme(CMP) that will guide theirprospective government.

“Anything can happen incricket and politics. Somewhereyou feel you are losing thematch, but the result is exact-ly the opposite,” Gadkari saidwhen asked about the currentpolitical situation inMaharashtra.He was speakingat the ‘Outlook BusinessLeading Edge 2019’ event inMumbai on Thursday.

The Minister of RoadTransport, however, declined todiscuss in detail the politicalcrisis in Maharashtra, saying hespends more time in Delhi anddoesn’t know much about pol-itics in his home state.

Meanwhile, state Congresspresident Balasaheb Thorattold reporters on Friday, “Incricket, you can see the ball, butin politics you can’t.”

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The BJP will form a govern-ment in Maharashtra

soon, the party’s state unitchief Chandrakant Patil saidon Friday, claiming that it cancount on support of 119MLAs in the 288-memberAssembly.

Patil’s statement cameeven as its estranged ally ShivSena and rivals Congress andNCP appeared to be inchingcloser towards finalising analliance to form government.

Patil claimed that the BJP,which won 105 seats in theOctober 21 elections, has the

support of someIndependents, which takesits tally to 119.

Addressing a press con-ference, he said, “BJP is thesingle largest party, and withthe support of Independentsour tally reaches 119. Withthis tally, BJP will form thegovernment. “We are keepinga close watch on every polit-ical development in the state,”he added. The BJP-Senaalliance, which won 161 seats,fell apart over the Sena’sdemand of sharing of chiefminister’s post.

Speaking about the BJP’sperformance in the Assembly

elections, Patil said it secured1.42 crore votes, and was in“number one” position, withthe NCP second with 92 lakhvotes and the Shiv Sena fol-lowing with 90 lakh votes.

Except the BJP, no partyhad been able to win morethan 100 seats in Maharashtrasince 1990, and his party haddone it on a trot in 2014 and2019, Patil pointed out.

“Our performance on allfronts is number one, as wewon 105 seats after contesting164 seats. On 52 seats, wecame second,” he added.

The BJP also boasts ofhighest number of women

MLAs (12) along with sevenScheduled Caste and nineScheduled Tribe legislators, hesaid.

Speaking about the croploss in the state due to unsea-sonal rains, he said, “We havediscussed the issue in ourmeeting and instructed allour MLAs to help farmers intheir constituencies to get gov-ernment aid.” He claimedfarmers in the state had cumu-lative insurance cover of Rs23,000 crore and his partywould work towards ensuringfarmers get more benefit ofthis cover.

Patil also lashed out at

Congress leader Rahul Gandhiover the Supreme Court ver-dict in the Rafale fighter jetdeal case.

The Supreme Court onThursday rejected pleas whichhad sought re-examination ofthe December 14, 2018 verdictwhich said there was no occa-sion to doubt the decision-making process in the pro-curement of 36 Rafale fighterjets. The BJP would holdprotests across the state againstGandhi, Patil said, adding,“As Rahul Gandhi apologisedin the Supreme Court, heshould also apologise to thepeople of the country.”

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ABJP worker was on Fridayfound hanging from a tree

in West Midnapore’s Dantanarea, fuelling suspicions that hewas killed over political rival-ry.

The deceased has beenidentified as Barsha Hansda.

Hansda, 44, was foundhanging in the jungles ofSantoshpur in Dantan area ofWest Midnapore - where theruling TMC and the BJP havebeen at each other’s throatsover the past one year.

A case of “unnatural death”has been filed and the bodysent for autopsy, police said.

The BJP alleged thatHansda was murdered byTrinamool Congress (TMC)supporters, a charge denied bythe Mamata Banerjee-led party.

BJP national general secre-tary and Bengal minder KailashVijayvargiya said the TMC wastrying to establish a reign of ter-ror in the state.

“The TMC is trying toterrorize BJP workers byestablishing a reign of terrorin the state. An active andpopular BJP activist was bru-tally murdered by TMCgoons. He was the only earn-ing member of his family,”Vijayvargiya said.

Rejecting the allegations as“baseless”, TMC WestMidnapore district presidentAjit Maity said the death was aresult of internal rivalry with-in the saffron camp.

The Jangalmahal belt inBengal, comprising WestMidnapore, Purulia, Bankuraand Jhargram districts, hadbeen witnessing frequent clash-es between the TMC and BJPworkers since 2018 panchayatelections.

Three BJP workers —Jagannath Tudu, TrilochanMahato, Dulal Kumar — werefound hanging in separate inci-dents in Purulia last year, caus-ing a huge political furore inBengal.

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Music composer Shekhar Ravjiani of thefamous Vishal-Shekhar duo on Friday took

to Twitter, claiming that a luxury hotel in the citycharged him an “eggxorbitant” Rs 1,672 for threeboiled eggs. It reminded many Twitter users of asimilar protest by actor Rahul Bose who had to payRs 442 for two bananas at a hotel in Chandigarhsome months ago. The management of HyattRegency, Ahmedabad, where Ravjiani claimed tohave had his three eggs, however, did not comment.

“Rs 1672 for 3 egg whites??? That was anEggxorbitant meal,” tweeted Ravjiani. He also shareda photograph of the bill, issued on November 14.

As per the bill, the price of three Boiled Eggswas Rs 1,350, service charge was Rs 67.50 and stateGST and Central GST accounted for Rs 127.58 each.“Seems like chicken are fed banana from the hotelwhere Rahul Bose stayed,” said a witty Twitter user,replying to Ravjiani’s tweet. Some commentatorsdefended the hotel, saying customers pay forambiance and service rather than food, while oth-ers suggested Ravjiani patronise road-side hawk-ers if he wanted to save money.

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There was no respite to theongoing conflict between

Raj Bhavan and Nabanna (Statesecretariat) even as BengalGovernor Jagdeep Dhankharon Friday fired a fresh salvo atthe Trinamool CongressGovernment for denying hima chopper to visit Farakka andMalda in North Bengal.

The Friday’s developmentcame barely a day after ChiefMinister Mamata Banerjeecharged Dhankhar with transgressing his constitution-al limits before appealing to the

central Government to rein theGovernor in.

“I am not a tourist inBengal and have been deputedto my office with an oath to discharge certain dutiestowards the people of the State,”the Governor said censuringthe Government’s decision todeny him a helicopter for hisvisit to Malda and nearby areas.

“I have never crossed myduties,” the Governor saidapparently referring to theChief Minister’s allegations that“some people (read theGovernor) are acting like BJP’smouthpiece.” Complaining

against the Government’s deci-sion to deny him a chopper hereiterated “touring the State ofwhich I am the Governor doesnot amount crossing myduties,” and said, “had I crossedmy limits I would have receiveda letter from the Governmentwhich I have not,” adding “Iwill give a reply if an when suchletter comes to me.”

Hitting out at theTrinamool Congress func-tionaries for questioning hisrecent visit to Singur — once anepicenter of Mamata Banerjee’santi-Left land movement thatfinally saw the moving out of

the much publicised Tata Nanosmall car plant from the area —Dhankhar said “I went toSingur not without informingthe Government. I had pre-informed the administration,”wondering “what is there tohide in Singur.”

He said “some people aretrying to hide matters in Singurand Nandigram where I wantto visit too because it seemsthat they (Government) aretrying to keep something offpeople’s notice.” He asked “whatis there to hide so that theirleaders raised a hue and cry assoon as I threw a glance at

Singur. It seems something isfishy in Singur and Nandigramwhere I will definitely go.”

Earlier the Chief Ministeron Thursday said without refer-ring to the Governor, “I gener-ally do not say anything onconstitutional posts but thereare some people who arebehaving just like BJP’s mouth-pieces,” adding, “they (theGovernor) are running paral-lel administration in the State.”

Returning fire StateMinister ChandrimaBhattacharya questioned theneed of a helicopter to visit thedistricts.

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Agovernment bookletdescribing Mahatma

Gandhi’s death as an “accident”has triggered a row in Odisha,with political leaders andactivists demanding an apolo-gy from Chief Minister NaveenPatnaik and immediate mea-sures to correct the “blunder”.

The two-page booklet“Aama Bapuji: Eka Jhalaka”(Our Bapuji: A Glimpse) —published on the occasion of150th birth anniversary ofMahatma Gandhi — presentsa brief account of his teachings,works and links with Odisha,while also stating that he “dieddue to accidental reasons in asudden sequence of events onJanuary 30, 1948 at Delhi’s

Birla House”.The Patnaik-led govern-

ment, in the wake of the furoreover the pamphlet, has ordereda probe to ascertain the circum-stances that led to its publica-tion by the School and MassEducation department for dis-tribution in state-run and state-aided schools.

Calling the error an “inex-cusable act”, senior Congressleader and former ministerNarasingha Mishra said thechief minister, being the headof the government, must ten-der an apology for the misin-formation provided in thebooklet.

“Patnaik must take respon-sibility for the blunder, seekapology and issue a directive toimmediately withdraw the

booklet,” the CongressLegislature Party leader said.

Accusing the Biju JanataDal (BJD) government offavouring Gandhi haters,Mishra said children have everyright to know who killedMahatma Gandhi and the cir-cumstances in which he wasassassinated.

“The death of the Father ofthe Nation has been put in away that it pleases his haters,”he added.

Echoing similar senti-ments, CPI state secretaryAsish Kanungo alleged thatthe move was part of a conspir-acy hatched by the state to twisthistory and hide the truth.

“Everyone knows thatNathuram Godse killedGandhiji, following which he

was apprehended, tried andsentenced to death. The chil-dren should be told the truthand the booklet immediatelywithdrawn,” Kanungo stated.

Contending that the gov-ernment has made a “deliber-ate attempt” to mislead chil-dren, senior CPI (M) leaderJanardan Pati said, “Untruthhas been presented in a cun-ning manner. The CM mustapologise for the blunder.”

Sources said the govern-ment has already started theprocess of withdrawing thebooklet from schools.

Eminent academician ProfManoranjan Mohantydemanded immediate actionagainst those responsible formisrepresenting facts in a gov-ernment publication.

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RJD president Lalu Prasad onFriday slammed Nitish

Kumar government for metingout “undignified” treatment tothe renowned mathematicianVashishtha Narayan Singhwhose family was denied anambulance after his death atPatna Medical College andHospital (PMCH) hereThursday.

The 74-year-old Singh, whoonce worked at NASA andCalifornia University, breathedhis last at PMCH after prolongedillness. The mathematician’smortal remains was consignedto flames at Mahuli ghat on riverGanga in Bhojpur district Fridaywith full state honour.

Mukesh Singh, maths wiz-ard’s nephew, lit the funeralpyre.

Science and Technology

minister Jai Kumar Singh repre-sented the state government onthe occasion.

Condemning the “insensi-tive” attitude of the state govern-ment towards the mathemati-cian, Prasad took a potshots atChief Minister Nitish Kumarsaying “does it behove to a chiefminister to pay tributes to themortal remains on the road. Didthe CM ever meet Singh whilehe was in the hospital?”

Prasad, who is in Ranchiserving sentences in fodderscam cases, condoled Singh’sdeath on his official Twitterhandle operated by his office inconsultation with the family.

Prasad further mentionedhow he during his chief minis-terial tenure had accordedrespect to the legendary math-ematician by getting him treat-ed at the best hospital and pro-vided job to his family members,

who looked after him.A video clip, which was

aired on various news channelsand in social media after thedeath, showed Singh’s youngerbrother Ayodhya Prasad Singhstanding with his body on astretcher outside the emergencyward of the premier Bihar hos-pital.

He alleged that the hospitalauthortities did not provide himwith an ambulance to take thebody to his house in Patna andthat’s why the body was kept inthe open in the hospital premis-es.

On why did not he contact-ed any official for help, AyodhyaSingh, while showing the deathcertificate provided by thePMCH, said “Whom should Itell my problem. There is no oneto listen to my problem. I willtake the body to my native vil-lage Basantpur in Bhojpur in

hired private ambulance.“The government never

paid attention towards Singh’streatment”, he alleged.

While condoling his demise,the CM had said it has causedan irreparable loss to the stateand the country.

Kumar had announced astate funeral for the noted math-ematician. He also visited hisyounger brother’s house nearKulharia complex in Patna andpaid floral tributes to him.

Prominent leaders from allpolitical parties including deputychief minister Sushil KumarModi, union ministers GirirajSingh, Nityanand Rai, formerCM Rabri Devi, RJD leaderTejashwi Prasad Yadav and stateBJP president Sanjay Jaiswalhad also expressed grief overdeath of “Vashishtha babu” asthe mathematician was fondlycalled by the people.

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Congress leader PriyankaGandhi Vadra took a swipe

at the government on Fridayover an official survey whichreportedly points to a fall inconsumer spending, saying theModi dispensation is makinghistory by “driving people intopoverty”.

A media report cited thelatest consumption expendituresurvey by the NationalStatistical Office (NSO) toclaim that consumer spendingfell for the first time in morethan four decades in 2017-18,primarily driven by slackeningrural demand.

It also claimed that theNSO report was approved to bereleased on June 19 this yearbut was withheld by the gov-ernment agency owing to its“adverse” findings.

“Consumer spending in

India has collapsed. Successivegovernments have striven tire-lessly to combat poverty andempower the people. This gov-ernment is making history bydriving people into poverty:while rural India faces the direconsequences of their policies,the BJP ensures that their cor-porate friends become richer bythe day,” she said in a tweet.

Usually governments worktowards eradicating poverty,not towards eliminating data,the Congress general secretaryclaimed.

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Apreliminary forensicreport has indicated

that the mysterious death ofmore than 4,800 migrato-ry birds at the country’slargest inland water saltwa-ter lake near Jaipur wascaused by botulism, a seri-ous and fatal illness thataffects the nerves, officialssaid on Friday. A 70-mem-ber disaster managementteam is at Sambhar Lake, a keywintering area for tens of thou-sands of migratory birds, to dis-pose the carcasses so that bot-ulism does not spread to otherbirds. Also, a dozen teamsfrom the Animal HusbandryDepartment are closely moni-toring the situation. Initially, itwas suspected that the birdsdied due to avian flu but thereport from a laboratory inBhopal has ruled this out.“Veterinary experts fromRajasthan University ofVeterinary & Animal Sciences,Bikaner, have indicated that thedeaths occurred due to botu-lism,” principal secretary (for-est) Sreya Guha told PTI.

Jaipur District CollectorJagroop Singh Yadav saidanother report on the heavymetal toxicity in the lake isawaited from a laboratory inCoimbatore. Yadav saidBikaner university experts have

said the birds died to botulism.“The birds died due to

infection spread after feedingon maggots-infested carcasses.This causes paralysis in birds.The symptoms indicate that thecause of death was botulism,”he said. On Wednesday,Rajasthan Chief MinisterAshok Gehlot said the death ofbirds near the lake was worry-ing and protecting the flora andfauna remains one of the pri-orities of his government.

On Sunday, thousands ofbirds, including NorthernShoveler, Ruddy Shelduck,Plovers, Avocets, were foundwere found dead in the 5-7 kmarea around Sambhar Lake.This was the second such inci-dent in the state within a week.

On November 7, 37demoiselle cranes were founddead in Jodhpur’s Khinchanarea. An investigation is on inthat case as well.

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Progress and development are thekey pursuits of an aspirational gen-eration in a globalised world.India, too, is on the move, strivingto accelerate transition from the

status of being a developing to a developednation. In this march ahead, there is littletime to seriously monitor regular onslaughtson the democratic principles and norms,imbued with moral and ethical values asenshrined in the Constitution. Is “politicswithout principles” no more a sin — asMahatma Gandhi had termed it in 1925 —but more of a routine practice?

On November 8, 2019, a couple of well-informed individuals — achievers —expressed disappointment on the machina-tions indulged in Maharashtra after theAssembly elections. This was not for the firsttime. Even before, there was a severe senseof disappointment in this group, where noneis bound by political or ideological con-straint. But they appeared seriously involved,concerned and worried. Yes, they all loveIndia; they value its democracy, ethical,moral and spiritual heritage for which thecountry is eulogised globally even today.They were just not able to comprehend howa political party with just 56 seats out of a288-member Assembly could stake claim tothe top post with unimaginable arrogance.One more blazing instance of the decline ofdemocratic values came with Haryana’s cul-ture of “Aaya Ram Gaya Ram”, whichbecame a practice and has resulted in sev-eral anomalous situations.

We have had Prime Ministers andChief Ministers, who should have never beenthere. In the current context, while lengthyreports on the herding of MLAs to hotels ashostages were highlighted in both electron-ic and print media, hardly was there anymention of the trampling of democratic val-ues, neglect of the wishes of the people, whoelect their leaders and expect some swiftaction from them on a plethora of pendingissues that impact daily life. Do the electedrepresentatives in Maharashtra, irrespectiveof their party affiliation, owe no debt of grat-itude to the freedom fighters of India, theirsacrifices, their indomitable spirit, whichalone is responsible for their newly-acquiredperks and privileges and the exalted posi-tions? Did the people elect them to indulgein such unsavoury public conduct forpower, position and creamy Ministries?

It is indeed shocking that not even oneMLA could protest against his/her herdinginto the hotels, which was apparently done“to save them from poachers of the otherside.” Are our leaders so weak and vulner-able? Maharashtra is only a repeat of whathas been happening in several States in thepast few decades. Why should herding notattract the attention of Parliament? Shouldsome provision like making it mandatory toinstall a new Government — in full strength— within seven days of the declarationresults not be put in the statutes? There wasno justification — moral, ethical orConstitutional — for the non-formation ofa full strength Government in Haryana even

after three weeks. All that hap-pens in the intervening periodis that the credibility of democ-racy and of the elected represen-tatives is lowered. It is shamefulto term certain Ministries as“creamy.” People interpret it intheir own way and they arerarely incorrect.

On October 2 this year,India celebrated the 150th birthanniversary of MahatmaGandhi. It was a time to recallhis life, values and that immor-tal one-line statement: “My lifeis my message.” If political lead-ers of today — baring exceptions— reflect on this one-liner, theywill realise what they have doneto Swaraj of Gandhi: “RealSwaraj will come not by acqui-sition of authority by a few butby acquisition of the capacity byall to resist authority when it isabused. In other words, Swarajis to be obtained by educatingthe masses to a sense of theircapacity to regulate and controlauthority.”

On March 19, 1931, Gandhiwrote in Young India: “Theword ‘Swaraj’ is sacred, it is aVedic word, meaning self-ruleand self-restraint and not free-dom from all restraint, whichindependence often means.”Gandhiji wanted Swaraj “tokeep intact the genius of ourcivilisation.” This hardly needsany elaboration: Think of the lastman in the line, his welfare andyour role and responsibility tobetter his life. The Mahatma’s

writings are universallyacclaimed for their simplicity,sensitivity, originating from theheart and are based on hardexperiences and realities of life.To comprehend and to putthem into practice, one requiresinner strength, perseveranceand empathy for others. Swaraj— Independence — is a dynam-ic living entity and it has to bemaintained and sustained withpersistent individual and nation-al effort. It can be sustained onlyif certain basic values and prin-ciples of democracy are adheredto by the people and more seri-ously by their democratically-elected representatives.

Gandhiji tells us how thiscould be achieved: “Swaraj canbe maintained only where thereis majority of loyal and patriot-ic people to whom the good ofthe nation is paramount aboveall other considerations, includ-ing their personal profit. Swarajmeans Government by themany. Where the many areimmoral or selfish, theirGovernment can spell anarchyand nothing else.”

Expectations of Gandhi —and all other stalwarts of thefreedom struggle — and thepeople were that, “If Swaraj wasnot meant to civilise us and topurify and stabilise our civilisa-tion, it would be nothing worth.The very essence of our civilisa-tion is that we give paramountplace to morality in all ouraffairs — public or private.” It

was a warning articulated withunimpeachable logic even beforeSwaraj was anywhere on thehorizon.

In fact, in 1922, Gandhijihad mentioned in a letter thatSwaraj would not bring happi-ness to our people as four thingswould weigh heavily on them.Defects of elections was promi-nent among these four. Theother three were injustice, bur-den of administration andtreachery of the rich. Was he notprophetic indeed?

Post-Assembly electiondevelopments in Haryana andMaharashtra must be viewed asa serious warning sign, whichcreate distress and erode people’strust and confidence in theelectoral process that is so crit-ical to sustain democracy in itstrue spirit. A brighter side couldopen even in a clumsy politicalarena if everyone in the positionof power realises how the worldvalues our contributions andachievements in creative andfields — right from the ancienttimes to the launch ofChandrayaan.

Let Our MPs and MLAsrealise their responsibility inthe light of India’s achievementsin space sciences, ICT andalso that of young Indians,who have brought us fameand global attention throughtheir presence in the SiliconValley, NASA, particularly intop slots in big corporate andglobal institutions. This thread

of India’s greatness becomesvisible in practically every seri-ous analysis of the current sit-uation. It is indeed necessaryfor inspiration and motivationto move ahead with renewedvigour on the path of progressand inclusive growth.

One evening, an interac-tion closed at a point whensomeone mentioned that theAyodhya judgment would bedelivered tomorrow, that allnecessary steps are being takento beef up security, maintainlaw and order and ensure thatno breach of law and ordertakes place. And what a great9/11 this was in India in theyear 2019. It must have causedacute anxiety and anguish tothe perpetual detractors of thecountry, who were expecting acountry-wide unrest, whatev-er the judgment be.

But on this day, the worldsaw a glimpse of a united India,one which was proud of itsancient culture of acceptance ofall, every conceivable diversityand that India has learnt to “livetogether” over a couple of mil-lennia, a skill that some of theWestern nations have no escapebut need to learn now. Our polit-ical representatives should notpresent a disheartening sce-nario before the people. Onceelected, they owe a debt to thecountry, its people andGandhiji. It was a proud achieve-ment for the country, its democ-racy and the Constitution.

People have very high hopesfrom the elected, young repre-sentatives, who must chalk outtheir own path. They can learnso much from the likes of ourgreat leaders like SwamiVivekananda, Sri Aurobindo,Rabindranath Tagore, MahatmaGandhi and other luminaries,who continued to grow in lifeand were at peace with them-selves. JRD Tata had once said,“Always aim at perfection foronly then will you achieve excel-lence.” Gandhiji did just that allalong the journey of his life. Thiscan be the aim of life for anyone.Look around but never be slackin looking within.

To comprehend it, one mustrecall the words of John Dewey:“Not perfection as a final goal,but the ever-enduring process ofperfecting, maturing, refining, isthe aim in living. The bad manis the man who, no matter howgood he has been, is beginningto deteriorate, to grow less good.The good man is the man who,no matter how morally unwor-thy he has been, is moving tobecome better. Such a concep-tion makes one severe in judg-ing himself and humane injudging others.” This canenlighten the path of those inpublic life.

(The writer works in educa-tion and social cohesion)

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Sir — The nation today is in a fluxover reviewing the role of thepantheon of leaders, who helpedshape a post-Independent India.Together, Mahatma Gandhi,Jawaharlal Nehru and SardarPatel represented our nationalethos, which stands incompletewithout any one of them. Nehruis under debate not because theCongress is not in power but ourhistory’s palimpsest is overwrit-ten by aspirations of the day.Because the Nehruvian era wasahead of its times, it helped ussustain both democracy and eco-nomic progress at fair levels.

The first of the famed IITs wasestablished ahead of our first gen-eral election of independent India.In foresight, the Right to Educationwent hand-in-hand with the rightto vote and technological andresearch institutes formed the bul-wark of macro economics. Thereare lessons for a progressive nationlike India. History is not for selec-tive reading. It matters less as towhere we started but more on howwe intend to progress quickly andinclusively.

R Narayanan Navi Mumbai

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Sir — This refers to the editorial,“Sabarimala takeaways” (November15). The Supreme Court hasreferred the Sabarimala issue to alarger bench of seven judges. Thecourt expressed its opinion that“courts should tread cautiously” on“issues pertaining to religion,including religious practices.”Ideally, this view should have been

taken by the top court when it wasdisposing of the case in 2018 itself.By allowing the entry of women inthe age group of 10-50 in 2018, reli-gious sentiments have been hurt. Soit would be better had the courtinterpreted its decision back then aspart of a process to restore demo-cratic rights of women. In this sense,rescinding the 2018 judgment isonly a damage-control exercise.

KV SeetharamaiahHassan

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Sir — It is indeed welcome thatthe Supreme Court’s verdict putthe office of the Chief Justice ofIndia (CJI) under the arc of theRight to Information (RTI) Act.The verdict will usher in an eraof transparency in the way thehigher judiciary functions. Whilethe judiciary is the mostrespectable institution, it has

often been subject to publicscrutiny, too. In a similar way, allpublic institutions must comeunder the RTI purview.

The top court’s order mayallow the citizens to seek informa-tion regarding theappointment/transfer of thejudges but constraints will remainas most of the collegium’s deci-sions are largely based onIntelligence Bureau reports, whichare not covered under RTI.

Kavya ShahUjjain

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Sir — This refers to the article,“Pay heed to warning signs”(November 15) by Ajoy Kumar.The clash between the police andthe lawyers was uncalled for andshows the country in poor light.This is a delicate issue and needsto be handled prudently. With thelawyers still continuing their strike,the Bar Council of India mustcounsel the lawyers and ensurethat tensions do not escalate.

AkanshaVia email

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Air pollution is all around us, killing usslowly but surely. Because it is an invis-ible killer, (till it doesn’t form a toxic smog

that hangs low in the air during the wintermonths) it often goes unnoticed. However, inignoring the problem, we are letting ourselvesbecome victims of it. Today, air pollution killsmore people than poor diet, smoking, lack ofphysical fitness and high blood pressure do, puttogether. It is an ongoing public health emer-gency in India, claiming one in every eight lives.Larger portions of India’s economy are being lostto health issues, reduced agricultural yields anddamage to biodiversity and ecosystems causedby air pollution. Delhi’s air pollution has beenmaking international headlines and while Indiaendeavours to become a global super power, thestate of air pollution in the national Capital isticking all the wrong boxes for global tourists,investors and the international perceptiontowards India.

When one looks at the various causes ofdeaths, a worrisome fact emerges. According toa health commission report (2017) published byLancet, diseases caused by air pollution wereresponsible for an estimated nine million pre-mature deaths in India in 2015. This was almost16 per cent of all mortalities worldwide; threetimes as many deaths as by AIDS, tuberculosisand malaria combined; and 15 times more fatal-ities than caused by wars and other forms of vio-lence. It is estimated that there could be a 30 percent increase in air pollution-related deaths inIndia by 2021 if particulate matter levels in theair do not come down from the present haz-ardous levels. Continued exposure to pollutedair is causing diminished lung function and acuteand chronic respiratory symptoms like cough,wheezing and asthma in children.

The occurrence of these symptoms is morein areas with higher levels of pollution.Furthermore, air pollution caused by seasonaloccurrences such as stubble burning by farm-ers soon after harvest of the rice crops inOctober-November and fireworks used duringDiwali, triggers diseases during those periods.

The national Capital, for instance, observesepisodic pollution events during the post-monsoon season (roughly from October 26 toNovember 15), due to open burning of paddyresidue in the three neighboring States ofPunjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh (UP).

The problem is exacerbated by the burningof firecrackers during the festivals of Dussehraand Diwali. This year the very next day ofDussehra, PM10 concentration went up to 191ug/m3, which was a 50 per cent increase fromthe previous day’s concentration. In fact, Delhihas earned the dubious distinction of becom-ing the most polluted major city in the worldwith an Air Quality Index (AQI) of 527 onNovember 15, as per data by Air Visual on theWorld AQI rankings. Delhi’s air quality brokeall records on November 5, when it was in thehazardous range for nine consecutive days, mak-ing this the longest spell of hazardous air qual-ity since public records began.

Six of the top 10 cities fall in the Indian sub-continent, Delhi, Lahore, Karachi, Kolkata,

Mumbai and Kathmandu. So within Asia, airpollution is concentrated in South Asia. ThreeIndian cities are on the list, Delhi, Kolkata andMumbai. So air pollution is not necessarily aproblem specific to northern India althoughDelhi’s pollution is double that of Kolkata.

According to a study conducted by TERI in2016, about 36 per cent of the PM2.5 pollutionin Delhi during winter was contributed by localsources, while the rest was owing to trans-boundary pollutants. Even though theGovernment is making efforts to reduce emis-sions within Delhi, it won’t change pollution lev-els by much, because the air quality deteriora-tion during this time has less to do with Delhi’slocal pollution and it is more about meteorolog-ical conditions. Stable wind conditions preventthe pollutants from dissipating, while the shal-low planetary boundary layer (PBL) traps theemissions, increasing its concentration. The lowPBL height is owing to the prevailing low tem-perature, which results in temperature inversionat a lower height. These meteorological condi-tions remain largely unchanged from Octoberto January.

A research report published by theInternational Journal of Epidemiology estimatesthat the economic and health cost of air dete-rioration caused by stubble burning in India isaround $30 billion per year. It further suggest-ed that people, who live in areas where residueburning is intense, are associated with threetimes higher risk of acute respiratory infection.Children are most susceptible to health effectsof crop burning. Many proposals have been for-mulated by environmentalists and Governmentofficials to curb the practice and to promote theusage of alternative sustainable managementmethods for paddy straw. These include the useof Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code(CrPC) to ban burning of paddy; The AirPrevention and Control of Pollution Act, 1981;The Environment Protection Act, 1986; TheNational Tribunal Act, 1995 and The NationalEnvironment Appellate Authority Act, 1997.Stringent directions have been given by theNational Green Tribunal (NGT) to limit crop-residue burning in the States of Rajasthan, UP,

Haryana and Punjab.Despite all researches pointing to stubble

burning as the major contributor to Delhi’s ris-ing pollution levels, not much has been doneabout it on-ground, because biomass burningis an issue of public concern. The NGT bannedresidue-burning in 2015 but it is still widely prac-tised due to weak enforcement of the order, polit-ical economy issues and lack of viable alterna-tives among poor farmers. The best alternativewould be to use the crop residue on-site, with-out any need of transportation, logistics and stor-age, such that there is sustainable use for the end-product in the agricultural field itself. Accordingto a research on stubble burning in India, pub-lished in 2018 in the International Journal ofEnvironmental Research and Public Health,there are two practices that farmers can adopt— composting and biochar production.

Composting is not a new concept in India,but doing it with residue has its advantages.Composting with organic waste doesn’t have asecure market but compost made with cropresidue can be fed into one’s own field to increasesoil productivity and agricultural yield. InIndia, the practice of biochar production is notwidely prevalent but if crop residue is used tomake biochar, it can secure a market that willhelp farmers economically as well as the watertreatment and construction sectors and the foodand cosmetics industry.

The issue of residue burning is at present farfrom reaching a successful resolution. The inter-ventions undertaken so far, while significant,have been limited in their impact despite theefforts and time that have been invested in them.It is time to think out of the box and tackle theproblem head-on.

The stakeholders — implementing author-ities, citizen groups, industry representatives, sci-entists, researchers, non-government organisa-tions and others — must come together andchalk out a better plan to address the issue, inthe short-term and the long-term, and providethe citizens of India the pollution free air thatthey are entitled to.

(Suresh R is Fellow and Shivang Agarwal isProject Associate at TERI)

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Did Harper Lee know in 1960when she wrote her seminalnovel To Kill A Mockingbird

that her character’s model of persis-tent and peaceful resistance wouldstrike a strong chord with activists ofthe civil rights movement?

Could she have possibly imaginedthat America would continue to feelthe influence of her novel well into the21st century — in the national con-versation on criminal justice, the“Black Lives matter movement” andthe more recent prison reforms.

The powerful work of fiction is atestament to the ways in which sto-ries can reflect society’s mores andattitudes, penetrate public conscious-

ness and set the stage for socialchange. It is not just To Kill AMockingbird that has had considerableimpact on a cultural movement.Almost all of the world’s major reli-gions are built on the bedrock of pow-erful stories that have the power toshape human behaviour and history.In recent years, there have been anumber of initiatives that have recog-nised the power of purposeful storiesto educate and influence the behav-iour of people for the better.

A great example is Amar ChitraKatha, the comic series started by edu-cationist Anant Pai. It used storiesfrom mythology, epics, oral folk-tales, literature and history to impartvalues to a generation of Indian chil-dren.

Underneath the engrossinglywritten stories were subtle hints onpeople’s behaviour, motives and dri-ves. They were designed to preparechildren for the real world that theywould soon enter. A scientist byeducation and an entertainer byvocation, Pai later launched the fort-nightly magazine Tinkle featuringunforgettable characters and stories

that entertained, edu-cated and informedkids simultaneously.Their success rests ona very simple formu-la, one that packageseducation in enter-tainment by harness-ing the power of sto-rytelling. If you areable to weave lessonsinto a story, both chil-dren and adults aremore likely to learnfrom it.

Brands and the power of story-telling: In 2013, an advertisement byGoogle India proved to be so impact-ful that its vibrations were also feltacross the border in Pakistan. The“Reunion advertisement” that narrat-ed the story of two friends separatedby the Partition and reunited with thehelp of Google, became bigger thanits brand as it touched a chord withpeople on both sides of the RadcliffLine. This powerful example of sto-rytelling tells us how this art can behighly useful for brands.

Even in the world of business and

technology, compa-nies are beginning tounderstand thepower a story has toshape markets andw o r k p l a c e s .Maximising humaninterest helps peopleset and attain goalsthat are worth pursu-ing. People genuine-ly crave real values sothat they can becomea better version of

who they are. They look for trust andto be worthy of their trust, brandsmust have the power to change theway they think and act. If you wantto inspire people to change theirbehaviour, storytelling is the best toolat your disposal. There is a growingtrend of brands using strong narra-tives to make profound comments onour social and behavioural traits. Anumber of brands have propagatedideals through stories of equality,comments against patriarchy and onsocial harmony.

The power of narratives: Thereis a neurological basis to the power of

narratives. Researchers from Spainfound that when people are present-ed with vivid and captivating stories,a lot of different centres in the brainlight up. For example, if a battle sceneis described graphically in a novel, thebrain’s movement and sight centreslight up (even if you cannot fight).When a scent is described in evoca-tive detail, the smell centre lights up.In other words, you have a more emo-tional and immersive experiencecompared to a tiny blip in the brainwhen it is presented with a bare fact.Sociologically speaking, stories havethe power to establish and reinforcebehavioural norms that are in align-ment with what you are trying to pro-mote. If a relatable character in a storymakes a healthy diet choice or exer-cises regularly, it conveys the idea thatthis is what people do and the listen-er or viewer should do it too. It worksbecause you are not just promoting aproduct but a better quality of life, onethat resonates with the viewer. Forinstance, the South African series,Soul Buddyz, an award-winning mul-timedia edutainment experience,closely chronicles the lives, hardships

and joys of children. It captured thepublic imagination so fiercely thatthousands of young ones from acrossthe country wrote to the non-govern-mental organisation (NGO) behindthe show, Soul City Institute, askingto participate. Pretty soon, the NGOwas able to establish over 8,500Buddyz Clubs, with nearly 1.5 lakhchildren, dedicated to the education,physical and mental well-being of theyoungsters.

There is a wide body of evidenceto support the power of story-basedadvertising and media to create a sig-nificant shift in societal norms, beliefsand values much more effectively thantraditional advertising and messaging.

Digital technology and socialmedia have made it possible forbrands to maximise the reach of thesestories at negligible costs. Just as ToKill A Mockingbird catalysed thenationwide conversation on civilrights, strong narratives hold thepower to change our world and livesfor the better.

(The writer is director and creativestrategist at an advertising and consult-ing agency.)

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Market benchmark Sensexended 70.21 points high-

er on Friday, led by gains inBharti Airtel and SBI, amidpositive cues from global equi-ties.

The 30-share index, whichopened on a firm note, wit-nessed a sell-off at the fag endof the session as investorsturned cautious tracking con-cerns over slowing economicgrowth.

After rallying over 363points during the day, the 30-share Sensex ended 70.21points, or 0.17 per cent, high-er at 40,356.69.

Similarly, the broader NSENifty rose 23.35 points, or 0.20per cent, to end at 11,895.45.

Bharti Airtel was the topgainer in the Sensex pack, ral-lying 8.42 per cent.

The telecom operator hadon Thursday posted a massive��23,045 crore net loss for theSeptember quarter due to pro-visioning of ��28,450 crore inthe aftermath of the SupremeCourt ruling on statutory dues.

However, experts said con-sistently strong operationalperformance underscores thecompany’s ability to executeamidst a challenging environ-ment.

Other gainers includedSBI, Kotak Bank, Sun Pharma,Tata Motors, M&M and Tata

Steel, rising up to 5.19 per cent.On the other hand, Hero

MotoCorp, Bajaj Auto, Maruti,ITC, Vedanta, NTPC and TechMahindra fell up to 1.85 percent.

Investors remained on theedge after weak macroeco-nomic releases this week,experts said, adding that fore-casts of slower GDP growthover the past few days alsoweighed on market mood.

“Global markets showedmixed performance during theweek as markets saw profitbooking on conflicting signalsregarding progress on a tradedeal between the US andChina,” said Sanjeev Zarbade,VP PCG Research, KotakSecurities.

Meanwhile, the Indianrupee appreciated 14 paise to71.81 against the US dollarintra-day. Brent crude futures,the global oil benchmark,slipped 0.42 per cent to USD62.02 per barrel.

Meanwhile, gold prices onFriday fell Rs 149 to Rs 38,875per 10 gram in the nationalcapital on the back of weakglobal cues, according toHDFC Securities.

In the previous session,the precious metal closed at Rs39,024 per 10 gram.

Silver prices also shed �473 to � 45,375 per kg from �45,848 per kg in the previoussession.

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Global steel giantArcelorMittal on Friday

said it is looking forward toclose the acquisition of debt-ridden Essar Steel soon.

The remarks followed theapex court verdict that gavenod to ArcelorMittal’s resolu-tion plan, paving way forArcelorMittal’s takeover ofEssar Steel for �� 42,000 crore.

Essar Steel was auctioned

under the new Insolvency andBankruptcy Code (IBC) torecover �� 54,547 crore ofunpaid dues of financiallenders and operational credi-tors. “We look forward to theclosing of the acquisition soon,”ArcelorMittal said in a state-ment adding that it is “verypleased with the judgment thatour resolution plan has beenapproved”.

The Supreme Court onNovember 15, paved the way

for ArcelorMittal takeover ofdebt-ridden Essar Steel for �42,000 crore and set aside theJuly 4, NCLAT order givingequal status to financial cred-itors and operational credi-tors. The verdict came on a pleaof the committee of creditorschallenging NCLAT’s order ofJuly 4, in which it had approvedsteel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal-ledArcelorMittal’s ��42,000-crorebid for the acquisition of EssarSteel after it rejected a plea by

the lead shareholder of thedebt-laden firm challengingthe eligibility of the bidder.

A bench headed by JusticeRF Nariman clarified thatfinancial creditors enjoy pri-macy over operational creditorsand the adjudicating authoritycannot interfere with the deci-sion approved by the commit-tee of creditors.

The top court said that theadjudicating authority can sendback the resolution plan to the

committee of creditors (COC)for implementation in accor-dance with the guidelines butcannot change the commercialdecision taken by the COC.

The bench also relaxed thetimeline of 330 days to find aresolution plan as prescribedunder the Insolvency andBankruptcy Code.

The bench said it would beopen for the adjudicatingauthority to maintain the time-line in exceptional cases.

The bench said that theCOC resolution plan must bal-ance the interest of all stake-holders. The apex court had onJuly 22, ordered status quo inthe Essar insolvency case.

The National CompanyLaw Appellate Tribunal(NCLAT) had, however, givenoperational creditors equal sta-tus as lenders in the distribu-tion of the ArcelorMittal’s bidamount among the creditors ofEssar Steel.

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Finance CommissionChairman NK Singh on

Friday said the current economicslowdown is episodic andexpressed hope that sluggishnesswill not continue for long.

India’s economic growth hita six-year low of 5 per cent in thefirst quarter of the current fiscal.It is estimated that the growthmay further slip to below 5 percent in the second quarter andoverall the economy is likely toregister a less than 5 per centexpansion for the full fiscal.

“I do not regard that the cur-rent economic sluggishness issomething that the country isgoing to experience for too long.I remain optimistic that the cur-rent slowdown is as much as

anecdotal, episodic as much ascyclical and structural,” he said atan event here.

Singh, however, stressed thatIndia should continue with bothstructural and cyclical reforms.

On Regional ComprehensiveEconomic Partnership (RCEP),he said global economic structureis changing, but India is not at adisadvantage.

It is inherent that India wasbetter off in a multilateral worldthan in a bilateral world, he said,adding that the country shouldcontinue to strengthen multilat-eral activity, but should alsokeep its own interests in mind.

Earlier this month, Indiadecided not to join the megaRegional ComprehensiveEconomic Partnership (RCEP)deal as negotiations failed to

address New Delhi’s concerns.Pointing out that India

improved overall budgetaryresources to the health sector, hesaid there is scope for furtherimprovement especially on thefinancing side. The finance com-mission had constituted a groupto study the health sector to holis-tically examine best internation-al practices for the health sectorand seek to benchmark frame-work to these practices for opti-mising benefits keeping in mindlocal issues.

The panel is also evaluatingthe existing regulatory frame-work in the Health sector andexamine its strength and weak-nesses for enabling a balanced yetfaster expansion of the health sec-tor keeping in view India’sDemographic profile.

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To safeguard the interest ofworkers in formal sector,

particularly working class, theCentre is planning to introduce‘One Nation, One Pay Day’ sys-tem, Labour Minister SantoshGangwar said on Friday.

“There should be a pan-India single wage day everymonth across various sectors toensure that workers get timelypayment of salaries. PrimeMinister Narendra Modi is keenon this legislation to get passedsoon. Similarly, we are also look-ing at uniform minimum wagesacross sectors which will safe-guard better livelihood of work-ers,” said Gangwar addressing at‘Security Leadership Summit2019’ organised by the Central

Association of Private SecurityIndustry (CAPSI).

The central government is inthe process of implementingOccupational Safety, Health andWorking Conditions (OSH)Code, and Code on Wages.Parliament has already passed theCode on Wages and rules arebeing framed for its implemen-tation.

The OSH Code was intro-duced in the Lok Sabha on July23, 2019. The Code will stream-line the private sector by enhanc-ing the coverage of workersmanifold by merging 13 centrallabour laws relating to safety,health and working conditionsinto a single code.

The OSH Code has manynew initiatives like mandatoryissues of appointment letter by

employers, annual free medicalcheck up of workers and broad-ening coverage of all type ofworkers in the country under it.

Gangwar mentioned thatsince taking the office in 2014,Modi government has consis-tently worked on reforminglabour laws. “We have taken up44 complex labour laws to reformthem. We are talking to all stake-holders to make these laws moreeffective and useful.

“Similarly, we are preparinga ‘Single Page’ mechanism forvarious sectors to complete var-ious compliances to ensure easeof doing business. We are alsopreparing an online system of allgrievance redressal to ensurethat all problems are resolvedwith 48 hours without any phys-ical interface,” said Gangwar.

Script Open High Low LTPCIPLA 447.00 467.85 435.60 463.10SBIN 312.00 323.50 310.00 322.00BHARTIARTL 354.40 398.00 354.40 393.20ERIS 417.50 424.20 407.65 410.15RELIANCE 1465.25 1486.50 1463.25 1469.30YESBANK 69.10 70.20 68.30 68.70IBULHSGFIN 213.55 218.80 207.55 210.30ICICIBANK 499.00 509.60 496.75 499.30CANBK 203.80 214.10 203.00 206.00IDEA 2.66 3.89 2.61 3.68BANDHANBNK 564.45 569.20 556.25 559.80MARUTI 7290.00 7360.00 7120.05 7147.00ICICIPRULI 527.20 527.20 520.00 522.00FORTIS 158.05 161.00 129.00 143.70POWERGRID 190.00 190.00 186.80 187.40HDFCBANK 1283.00 1285.00 1271.00 1278.30HDFC 2226.00 2238.10 2208.05 2224.20TATASTEEL 392.50 403.00 390.65 394.40TATAMOTORS 169.00 173.35 167.45 168.60INFY 707.30 712.65 702.15 703.95HDFCAMC 3629.00 3639.65 3482.75 3497.35JINDALSTEL 141.60 145.80 139.95 143.65GLENMARK 298.00 305.40 290.20 301.20RBLBANK 322.00 329.35 316.20 317.80IIFL 149.90 159.00 143.90 154.90LICHSGFIN 422.45 423.50 414.50 415.30ZEEL 286.00 293.00 278.70 287.50BANKBARODA 93.90 96.55 93.70 94.30ASHOKLEY 82.95 83.45 78.95 79.50SIEMENS 1616.00 1622.70 1565.30 1576.60ADANIENT 202.20 205.00 200.95 203.45LT 1384.50 1393.15 1366.60 1377.50PNB 60.75 63.75 60.75 61.90AUROPHARMA 400.10 415.95 396.40 410.05GRASIM 739.00 767.30 722.00 756.00INDUSINDBK 1375.10 1388.15 1346.90 1359.50TCS 2199.00 2211.00 2168.55 2174.80INFRATEL 204.90 233.15 203.45 227.70KOTAKBANK 1614.90 1629.00 1602.95 1623.00AXISBANK 717.90 723.40 710.25 716.55DMART 1926.00 1934.00 1850.00 1869.05DLF 209.20 215.50 208.30 212.00BAJFINANCE 4215.00 4246.95 4178.05 4187.85VEDL 145.50 146.10 141.70 142.10INDIGO 1516.15 1517.00 1457.10 1464.85DIVISLAB 1661.95 1759.00 1627.15 1747.95UNIONBANK 51.95 54.70 50.80 53.45BANKINDIA 66.55 71.25 66.55 69.35JUSTDIAL 515.00 525.45 500.15 503.80ITC 254.60 255.80 250.15 250.65TATAGLOBAL 295.00 302.50 295.00 297.55HINDUNILVR 2067.00 2098.00 2050.00 2057.25BALKRISIND 819.00 879.25 813.90 862.85APOLLOHOSP 1443.95 1445.00 1380.25 1394.25SUVEN 323.80 334.90 308.00 310.40EICHERMOT 21701.00 21990.00 21236.55 21265.05BAJAJFINSV 9085.00 9140.00 9030.00 9052.00IOC 136.80 136.80 131.25 131.70BERGEPAINT 483.40 489.60 482.50 487.15RNAM 361.00 369.00 354.45 357.95SUNPHARMA 412.05 418.75 410.20 414.90LTI 1640.00 1697.70 1638.10 1695.00NAUKRI 2618.85 2675.00 2600.00 2644.55UPL 537.00 541.95 518.20 528.75SAIL 36.75 37.45 36.10 36.35HDFCLIFE 587.80 588.40 576.00 577.65MOTHERSUMI 137.90 138.50 133.80 134.40GDL 81.15 89.00 81.15 88.00COLPAL 1547.25 1589.30 1538.65 1578.85SUNTV 492.45 501.00 481.60 489.30ULTRACEMCO 4045.00 4094.00 4018.00 4078.55PETRONET 280.00 280.40 273.60 278.00CONCOR 578.00 581.20 568.20 570.15GRINDWELL 595.00 603.25 595.00 600.45NCC 54.80 56.85 54.65 56.00ESCORTS 656.40 668.80 653.80 658.50NESTLEIND 14201.05 14434.70 14166.15 14297.20HCLTECH 1148.00 1159.00 1140.00 1143.70BPCL 514.50 514.95 504.10 505.90BHEL 54.00 54.85 53.75 54.15GODREJCP 712.00 717.50 709.30 710.85MARICO 359.90 360.00 353.35 355.25JSWSTEEL 245.85 250.00 242.40 244.70APOLLOTYRE 165.00 169.50 164.35 167.95SRF 3168.00 3243.85 3161.25 3208.00HEROMOTOCO 2613.60 2615.85 2532.45 2542.85PEL 1770.00 1790.00 1761.60 1767.20BATAINDIA 1710.10 1743.05 1709.70 1736.50BRITANNIA 3249.00 3255.75 3184.95 3195.25MGL 1039.75 1040.00 996.55 1002.20M&M 583.50 590.75 579.55 582.55TATAMTRDVR 78.80 80.75 77.65 78.20CHOLAFIN 310.05 330.65 309.40 330.65RELINFRA 39.60 42.00 38.40 38.65AVANTI 534.80 546.00 527.20 539.70AUBANK 825.00 826.20 786.80 800.65TITAN 1172.00 1173.90 1155.45 1158.30GRAPHITE 304.45 307.40 296.80 298.05PAGEIND 24014.90 24680.45 23616.40 23652.00ACC 1490.00 1505.00 1483.40 1483.50ADANIPOWER 61.60 62.35 60.45 60.85DISHTV 13.28 14.05 13.10 13.52IDBI 32.30 34.50 32.15 32.90ONGC 137.50 138.80 135.10 135.55JUBLFOOD 1624.50 1632.00 1609.20 1622.05RAYMOND 750.00 766.80 736.15 741.55FEDERALBNK 85.00 85.40 82.90 84.30JAICORPLTD 98.50 101.85 96.10 99.25

HINDPETRO 288.90 293.00 286.45 290.05NBCC 37.25 38.40 36.40 37.40HEG 1044.00 1052.00 1011.00 1018.95EDELWEISS 130.40 134.25 125.00 129.10NIITTECH 1500.00 1519.75 1474.65 1489.20GAIL 123.20 124.60 122.05 124.30ASIANPAINT 1780.00 1783.75 1757.40 1761.65BHARATFORG 439.25 442.90 429.00 439.15L&TFH 96.00 98.30 96.00 97.70SBILIFE 1009.95 1025.55 996.50 1002.10NOCIL 105.60 107.75 103.55 105.95SPICEJET 107.00 108.30 106.10 106.45RAJESHEXPO 709.00 711.45 681.45 701.00PCJEWELLER 34.00 34.00 32.00 32.15MUTHOOTFIN 711.35 713.20 700.00 701.30BAJAJ-AUTO 3240.00 3251.40 3188.30 3188.30VENKYS 1710.10 1764.80 1685.15 1729.90PVR 1751.60 1768.00 1735.00 1739.15PIDILITIND 1348.00 1348.00 1315.00 1317.10BEML 953.70 974.35 948.00 952.55BIOCON 255.80 262.10 253.25 257.30MAXINDIA 72.00 77.40 70.65 75.25EQUITAS 84.75 87.30 84.35 86.20TATAELXSI 796.80 807.60 786.80 792.70JUBILANT 500.20 509.50 490.00 494.00PARAGMILK 129.10 130.10 125.50 126.15ICICIGI 1374.00 1394.40 1370.40 1379.15POLYCAB 909.95 938.00 895.05 897.35IGL 433.80 433.80 421.60 423.20HINDALCO 189.00 190.10 187.05 187.50IBREALEST 70.25 74.60 70.25 72.60OMAXE 186.90 186.90 182.05 183.70MFSL 479.50 486.15 474.05 474.65UJJIVAN 277.40 282.45 273.10 279.65GMRINFRA 20.80 22.05 20.80 21.60LUPIN 739.20 747.45 732.00 742.25WOCKPHARMA 275.10 280.90 267.55 271.00NTPC 119.00 119.00 116.90 117.20BEL 110.00 112.25 109.75 111.20COALINDIA 202.50 204.50 200.60 201.10STRTECH 125.00 128.40 123.50 124.55CEATLTD 965.05 977.15 955.65 957.30VOLTAS 716.00 719.00 711.50 713.00CHAMBLFERT 161.75 163.05 154.50 156.00GODREJPROP 922.00 928.75 903.00 906.05TVSMOTOR 451.00 459.95 449.70 451.50IDFCFIRSTB 41.90 42.50 41.70 42.20MOTILALOFS 715.00 741.35 702.05 730.75BOMDYEING 81.45 82.35 78.15 79.00ADANIGREEN 96.40 96.70 94.50 95.50DRREDDY 2747.75 2749.20 2712.65 2726.05PFC 112.00 112.40 109.90 111.20ADANIPORTS 369.50 370.80 365.70 366.40WIPRO 254.95 254.95 251.70 252.50ABBOTINDIA 12288.00 12441.00 12105.00 12410.00TATAPOWER 55.00 55.40 54.25 54.50BOSCHLTD 15250.00 15360.00 14992.05 15076.80EXIDEIND 191.95 193.45 189.80 190.75SUNTECK 407.20 407.20 393.00 398.65ABCAPITAL 80.60 82.50 79.75 81.45FRETAIL 362.00 362.00 323.55 330.65SPARC 149.30 154.45 148.25 152.15WHIRLPOOL 2289.95 2330.00 2250.00 2304.60MCX 1125.00 1169.80 1125.00 1161.60NMDC 98.70 100.40 97.80 99.50TECHM 760.00 763.00 749.70 750.45INDIANB 115.30 120.35 114.90 116.90GREAVESCOT 139.90 148.00 139.00 139.00HUDCO 43.60 44.25 42.90 43.20QUESS 582.95 592.70 546.40 551.80RVNL 24.15 24.65 24.10 24.55M&MFIN 330.35 330.60 322.50 324.20MANAPPURAM 161.80 164.55 161.40 162.30NIACL 163.00 165.00 156.30 158.25TATACHEM 633.00 641.80 632.25 639.10GICRE 270.00 274.00 256.70 258.00IBVENTURES 148.00 151.40 141.95 149.30AMBUJACEM 200.95 202.30 199.00 201.40ORIENTBANK 51.60 53.85 51.10 52.20RITES 293.50 298.25 286.60 295.10LALPATHLAB 1600.00 1638.90 1552.60 1592.35UBL 1253.30 1259.15 1240.85 1249.95NAVINFLUOR 895.15 950.00 895.10 909.10

AMARAJABAT 750.50 753.50 742.90 745.00EIDPARRY 187.75 202.20 183.60 191.00HAVELLS 676.25 683.20 671.15 672.80COFFEEDAY 45.85 45.85 45.55 45.85DBL 400.00 407.25 379.80 397.90AIAENG 1630.05 1650.00 1625.00 1637.00SOLARINDS 1021.70 1048.90 1005.00 1015.50RECLTD 135.00 136.20 133.20 133.90RALLIS 170.80 184.00 169.00 174.75GRANULES 124.30 126.10 122.50 123.35ABFRL 209.00 214.75 206.00 213.65SRTRANSFIN 1140.00 1146.60 1124.00 1128.25PNBHOUSING 545.00 547.50 525.10 529.95CENTURYPLY 177.95 181.60 174.20 175.65VBL 729.45 732.60 702.00 707.80CADILAHC 234.10 237.10 230.80 234.50FORCEMOT 1064.95 1079.25 1019.10 1026.95MRF 63660.00 64190.00 63420.55 64083.65ASTRAZEN 2651.00 2700.00 2603.75 2626.00DELTACORP 191.30 194.10 189.00 189.00STAR 388.40 390.20 374.80 376.45ENGINERSIN 104.65 105.30 101.90 102.05SUZLON 2.49 2.55 2.15 2.47PRSMJOHNSN 72.90 74.85 68.00 69.00JKLAKSHMI 300.85 301.45 295.80 298.80CREDITACC 759.95 786.00 730.00 773.00CORPBANK 16.90 18.80 16.80 18.40RADICO 314.65 319.40 303.55 307.00NATIONALUM 42.30 42.55 41.65 42.15LTTS 1417.35 1431.90 1405.00 1422.00FSL 41.00 42.00 40.70 41.25CASTROLIND 145.80 147.30 144.20 145.05INFIBEAM 45.05 45.60 44.50 44.90INTELLECT 147.00 147.05 138.90 145.35SWANENERGY 102.55 103.35 100.70 101.25CYIENT 400.50 401.00 395.60 397.60CANFINHOME 380.25 388.40 378.40 386.00CROMPTON 261.00 262.75 259.25 260.00SCI 58.40 58.85 57.25 58.00NH 307.00 307.70 290.30 294.40GODFRYPHLP 1253.00 1260.45 1201.10 1213.45HEXAWARE 334.90 337.90 334.00 335.75INDIACEM 82.25 83.45 80.60 82.90PHILIPCARB 123.25 126.25 120.20 125.00RCF 48.85 49.00 47.90 48.05DABUR 463.05 465.60 460.20 461.15RAIN 105.50 107.70 103.75 104.50TORNTPOWER 294.45 296.45 292.55 293.20DEEPAKNI 358.15 358.50 352.00 353.15WELCORP 138.00 138.95 135.20 136.20SHREECEM 19719.00 19729.20 19367.70 19507.00PGHH 10948.00 11338.25 10802.00 11155.75JAMNAAUTO 45.00 46.20 43.40 45.75JMFINANCIL 89.50 94.70 89.50 94.05CUMMINSIND 561.00 568.05 557.20 562.55ITI 85.90 88.45 85.75 87.00MOIL 142.90 143.45 139.30 139.60GNFC 193.85 196.00 191.00 192.70BBTC 1190.00 1209.95 1165.90 1167.00GLAXO 1598.00 1610.00 1595.00 1608.00BLUESTARCO 794.00 827.55 791.05 812.70OIL 160.85 161.60 157.05 160.45INDHOTEL 156.00 157.75 152.35 154.10VINATIORGA 1971.00 1971.00 1922.00 1945.70IPCALAB 1137.00 1152.25 1109.90 1112.70MINDTREE 680.05 702.10 680.05 689.30PFIZER 4014.60 4014.60 3975.05 3978.65FINEORG 1935.00 1970.00 1900.00 1933.50ATUL 4004.60 4071.65 3992.25 4038.65ABB 1485.95 1485.95 1455.00 1467.45ADANIGAS 147.45 148.90 146.20 146.45BLISSGVS 137.00 140.50 136.90 138.85BALRAMCHIN 147.00 149.70 146.45 147.65ADANITRANS 270.40 274.30 266.45 268.00IDFC 34.50 34.85 33.70 34.65KTKBANK 75.90 77.30 75.75 76.55THOMASCOOK 137.95 145.00 135.45 141.65SUDARSCHEM 391.30 395.75 388.40 389.85VIPIND 434.00 448.20 432.65 435.85IRCON 402.60 417.95 402.60 407.90ITDC 372.15 372.15 351.30 353.65MPHASIS 889.85 913.90 884.40 908.60SHANKARA 330.80 341.30 327.00 328.00HINDZINC 210.00 211.05 207.95 208.20KEI 549.75 549.75 523.00 530.70PNCINFRA 184.90 197.00 183.25 187.95CENTRALBK 19.30 21.50 19.15 21.00SOBHA 399.30 400.50 395.00 397.65SOUTHBANK 10.56 11.09 10.48 11.00RAMCOCEM 784.30 793.90 781.00 789.10TORNTPHARM 1771.00 1796.10 1765.00 1779.35SUPREMEIND 1133.55 1152.00 1131.75 1143.00GUJGAS 197.30 197.45 193.20 193.25KEC 280.90 283.95 278.65 278.65PERSISTENT 669.00 670.50 635.65 650.15JKTYRE 72.00 72.75 70.30 70.60RPOWER 3.99 3.99 3.99 3.99PGHL 4305.00 4350.00 4250.00 4291.65NILKAMAL 1337.45 1354.95 1317.00 1331.65MEGH 55.85 56.20 53.30 53.65AAVAS 1621.00 1645.60 1600.95 1608.60GALAXYSURF 1526.75 1554.85 1521.10 1554.85LAKSHVILAS 18.25 19.05 17.90 19.05KANSAINER 542.50 552.35 533.25 550.95AEGISLOG 180.00 180.00 171.00 174.85BAJAJELEC 322.25 329.75 322.00 326.35JYOTHYLAB 177.00 182.80 174.25 176.55ALKEM 2040.35 2075.00 2037.70 2065.00SJVN 24.65 24.85 24.45 24.50

3MINDIA 22300.00 22495.00 22033.35 22215.00HFCL 17.70 17.85 17.20 17.25METROPOLIS 1399.80 1420.00 1364.80 1369.55TRENT 500.25 504.90 494.00 499.40GILLETTE 7245.00 7245.00 7080.50 7116.65GODREJIND 439.85 452.95 437.95 440.65LAXMIMACH 3220.05 3425.00 3195.00 3390.00KNRCON 246.50 253.50 240.05 240.05BALMLAWRIE 190.00 192.50 188.10 190.05LUXIND 1345.00 1352.55 1308.20 1308.20JBCHEPHARM 396.80 399.00 392.40 396.05PIIND 1434.05 1440.00 1422.25 1435.00AKZOINDIA 1938.80 1941.00 1904.25 1941.00HINDCOPPER 38.30 38.30 37.10 37.40SYNGENE 322.75 325.00 317.00 317.60PTC 55.95 55.95 55.15 55.20CUB 208.00 212.00 208.00 211.60RCOM 0.58 0.60 0.58 0.59CAPPL 381.00 381.00 370.00 370.00SYNDIBANK 25.70 27.65 25.70 26.70ASHOKA 97.70 97.70 93.10 94.45ASTERDM 154.15 158.40 143.00 148.60COCHINSHIP 409.90 410.00 402.00 402.05FCONSUMER 24.15 24.15 22.65 23.10GSPL 218.45 221.35 218.45 219.80NHPC 23.55 23.65 23.30 23.40NESCO 620.00 623.45 595.55 608.00ZYDUSWELL 1452.10 1497.55 1436.50 1462.75HSCL 62.55 65.10 62.55 64.40IRB 71.90 72.55 70.70 71.35J&KBANK 30.90 31.90 30.60 31.15SANOFI 6575.80 6594.00 6472.00 6472.00KAJARIACER 522.75 523.45 514.95 519.00JINDALSAW 81.70 82.40 80.20 80.40BAJAJCON 242.65 246.50 240.55 241.30ADVENZYMES 168.00 169.45 166.05 167.50PHOENIXLTD 705.00 729.05 705.00 718.10REDINGTON 114.80 115.25 111.50 115.00LAURUSLABS 354.30 355.80 337.30 341.50WELSPUNIND 55.75 55.75 52.70 53.00STARCEMENT 99.95 102.00 97.05 99.70DCAL 123.70 124.35 120.00 121.20TATACOFFEE 81.50 82.85 80.15 80.20MAHSCOOTER 4840.00 4841.15 4810.00 4811.20FLFL 396.00 403.70 381.60 395.00HONAUT 27150.00 27777.00 27018.00 27150.00AJANTPHARM 978.00 978.00 968.00 973.00CENTRUM 21.80 22.50 20.00 21.70GODREJAGRO 472.60 474.75 468.45 468.60COROMANDEL 473.30 480.00 473.00 480.00PRESTIGE 301.00 301.55 285.60 286.75TEAMLEASE 2451.65 2491.05 2426.00 2453.60MINDACORP 96.30 97.55 93.55 96.60VGUARD 235.00 236.50 228.40 228.40ISEC 316.90 317.00 311.20 313.55DCBBANK 182.90 184.10 182.10 182.15BIRLACORPN 664.75 664.75 638.50 648.00KRBL 202.40 204.55 196.05 197.10MMTC 17.75 17.95 17.40 17.85MHRIL 216.75 223.00 213.10 214.55GICHSGFIN 152.20 153.15 147.30 149.40GSFC 72.60 72.65 71.40 71.75

TV18BRDCST 23.15 23.15 22.60 22.75CARERATING 508.30 508.30 500.00 504.80DALBHARAT 830.65 838.50 827.00 830.00SYMPHONY 1220.00 1223.30 1205.55 1214.80BASF 961.30 971.00 942.30 946.80RELAXO 546.00 550.00 515.75 546.85TTKPRESTIG 6000.00 6090.00 6000.00 6011.60IOB 10.70 10.70 9.80 9.92TAKE 107.05 107.10 102.50 103.00SCHNEIDER 68.90 68.90 65.70 65.70GPPL 89.80 89.80 81.65 83.45IFCI 7.64 7.64 7.12 7.20BAJAJHLDNG 3723.25 3735.45 3706.05 3716.20JSLHISAR 69.90 70.95 68.20 68.90BAYERCROP 3315.00 3431.00 3294.90 3335.05ALBK 25.60 26.15 25.30 25.55CGPOWER 16.20 16.30 15.40 15.50TEJASNET 68.40 69.00 64.70 67.75MAHSEAMLES 385.50 394.00 376.60 380.50TIMETECHNO 63.70 65.50 61.55 62.05OBEROIRLTY 515.00 518.00 508.50 510.30SUNDRMFAST 465.15 465.15 457.05 459.85ANDHRABANK 17.30 17.80 17.15 17.25TRIDENT 62.50 63.30 62.15 62.40THYROCARE 581.00 581.00 558.20 562.00BDL 340.00 344.00 332.25 333.25DEEPAKFERT 95.40 97.00 95.05 96.20GESHIP* 300.05 303.00 299.00 303.00JPASSOCIAT 2.03 2.11 2.03 2.09

OFSS 3063.80 3080.00 3050.00 3053.70JSWENERGY 70.25 72.30 69.20 70.85GSKCONS 8860.00 8960.00 8827.00 8844.00HEIDELBERG 191.95 191.95 187.50 188.50FDC 182.80 185.00 180.00 183.65THERMAX 1070.35 1070.35 1045.00 1053.00ITDCEM 54.00 54.00 51.60 53.00EMAMILTD 316.10 321.35 311.85 313.30VSTIND 4510.00 4616.95 4510.00 4560.00WABAG 170.30 172.50 167.95 168.50ZENSARTECH 186.50 191.25 186.00 188.00JAGRAN 54.50 54.50 51.60 51.95CRISIL 1434.10 1488.00 1430.00 1488.00GEPIL 679.35 699.00 674.85 686.65MINDAIND 337.35 342.90 332.30 337.85ALLCARGO 99.80 99.80 94.35 94.40JISLJALEQS 12.70 13.15 12.65 12.65KALPATPOWR 448.60 456.00 445.00 447.00ESSELPRO 139.15 139.85 133.00 133.90SCHAEFFLER 4300.00 4300.00 4260.00 4279.00WABCOINDIA 6199.00 6210.00 6190.00 6210.00JSL 36.85 36.90 35.55 35.75NLCINDIA 54.50 54.75 54.20 54.25FINOLEXIND 588.00 588.00 570.00 571.75CCL 226.00 226.00 197.10 204.20VARROC 458.90 458.90 445.00 445.25HAL 811.05 817.10 803.50 805.00LINDEINDIA 592.05 600.00 592.00 594.20LEMONTREE 60.95 61.00 59.10 59.40CHENNPETRO 141.00 142.65 139.35 139.35TIMKEN 889.90 894.90 864.45 871.65GHCL 207.50 207.50 206.00 207.00ECLERX 438.75 452.00 433.80 434.00EIHOTEL 149.80 149.80 147.15 147.80APLLTD 564.50 569.00 555.25 558.55KPRMILL 666.85 667.65 655.80 655.80GUJALKALI 408.25 423.50 408.25 413.65DHANUKA 315.00 331.40 315.00 327.40ASTRAL 1083.15 1096.45 1083.15 1088.00ORIENTELEC 189.85 190.30 186.50 188.25SUPRAJIT 170.00 177.85 168.80 177.25NATCOPHARM 562.80 567.05 562.00 564.45CHALET 333.00 341.30 329.90 338.00RELCAPITAL 21.05 21.05 21.05 21.05JKCEMENT 1158.45 1164.00 1155.00 1163.05INOXWIND 33.25 33.50 32.60 32.85ENDURANCE 1050.05 1085.55 1033.65 1075.05UCOBANK 12.75 13.70 12.75 13.28MRPL 48.10 48.50 47.65 47.85GMDCLTD 59.00 60.00 58.50 59.55DHFL 23.20 23.20 23.20 23.20TNPL 184.40 184.55 180.50 182.25INOXLEISUR 360.00 360.40 357.10 357.25EVEREADY 49.80 52.50 49.80 51.95INDOSTAR 183.00 183.30 179.00 180.00WESTLIFE 357.55 365.00 348.60 352.00TATAMETALI 561.00 579.30 561.00 574.25BLUEDART 2183.05 2183.05 2141.55 2145.55SONATSOFTW 306.00 306.90 302.35 304.50IFBIND 748.60 749.00 724.20 724.20SREINFRA 9.10 9.39 9.00 9.00APLAPOLLO 1501.50 1516.90 1486.95 1516.90TATAINVEST 827.00 829.00 818.00 818.00CERA 2469.40 2525.60 2441.05 2518.50MAGMA 44.00 44.00 39.00 41.50SFL 1274.25 1313.65 1262.00 1300.00IBULISL 77.50 77.50 77.50 77.50UFLEX 201.00 207.80 200.15 204.90NETWORK18 22.85 23.75 22.85 23.35HIMATSEIDE 132.05 134.50 130.55 131.00DCMSHRIRAM 315.00 318.00 314.05 316.10TIINDIA 446.75 451.00 445.40 450.00MAHABANK 11.79 11.79 11.22 11.42SIS 918.95 928.30 915.00 925.00JCHAC 1900.00 1928.35 1890.60 1904.95NBVENTURES 65.00 65.00 62.25 62.80ORIENTCEM 74.30 75.10 73.75 73.90IEX 142.80 143.50 141.60 141.60FINCABLES 366.00 366.00 354.00 356.00TRITURBINE 98.20 100.55 96.50 98.00UNITEDBNK 8.70 9.00 8.59 8.86GET&D 178.00 180.00 172.60 175.00SADBHAV 116.25 121.00 116.15 120.00CHOLAHLDNG 479.40 480.55 468.00 476.75TCNSBRANDS 689.05 694.45 680.00 686.20GULFOILLUB 887.00 887.00 852.90 870.00REPCOHOME 288.65 289.05 281.05 281.05SOMANYCERA 180.15 183.00 177.40 179.05VTL 896.10 909.80 893.05 906.40SHILPAMED 300.00 302.30 291.05 292.20MAHLOG 401.00 404.50 395.00 396.05LAOPALA 148.00 148.00 140.00 143.55MAHINDCIE 146.60 147.40 143.35 143.35HATHWAY 19.50 20.45 19.50 20.00MASFIN 720.00 725.00 715.55 719.00GAYAPROJ 93.75 100.00 92.95 96.05TVSSRICHAK 1736.30 1736.30 1706.00 1734.00APARINDS 490.10 500.85 486.85 486.85SKFINDIA 2131.50 2138.00 2118.85 2126.55TVTODAY 294.80 297.20 293.40 294.00MAHLIFE 400.65 400.65 390.55 392.55DBCORP 142.95 143.05 141.50 141.60HERITGFOOD 319.05 325.85 319.05 320.45CARBORUNIV 309.40 312.70 309.00 309.80VMART 1714.15 1726.65 1696.90 1697.00SHK 120.00 121.00 116.40 117.00SHOPERSTOP 362.40 372.00 362.40 364.40RATNAMANI 969.50 969.50 960.05 962.55JSWHL 2441.50 2520.80 2441.50 2520.80

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SCRIP OPEN HIgh LOW LTP CHANGENIFTY 50 11904.20 11973.65 11879.25 11895.30 23.20INFRATEL 203.95 234.00 203.05 228.90 20.25BHARTIARTL 357.85 398.50 357.25 396.00 33.50SBIN 312.00 323.70 310.05 322.95 16.95ZEEL 284.55 293.30 278.30 293.00 11.00GRASIM 735.00 768.00 724.80 756.35 22.40CIPLA 448.00 468.05 435.40 462.20 10.80GAIL 122.95 124.50 122.00 124.30 2.50ULTRACEMCO 4043.85 4094.00 4015.00 4079.95 76.55KOTAKBANK 1606.00 1629.00 1602.50 1623.25 25.65SUNPHARMA 412.75 418.90 410.15 416.00 5.80TATAMOTORS 169.00 173.40 167.35 168.90 1.85M&M 583.75 590.85 579.75 581.80 3.35NESTLEIND 14261.85 14437.00 14153.05 14305.00 73.65HDFCBANK 1283.85 1285.00 1271.10 1279.75 5.85TATASTEEL 392.00 403.00 390.60 393.40 1.45YESBANK 69.20 70.20 68.30 68.95 0.20RELIANCE 1465.65 1486.80 1463.15 1466.80 4.05ICICIBANK 497.85 509.70 496.00 498.85 0.20AXISBANK 716.75 723.50 710.60 716.20 0.30BAJAJFINSV 9070.20 9140.00 9033.60 9057.90 -3.95HDFC 2220.10 2238.75 2208.00 2226.00 -0.80WIPRO 254.00 254.20 251.65 252.55 -0.20INFY 709.05 712.95 702.30 704.60 -0.70DRREDDY 2748.00 2748.00 2712.30 2728.00 -6.05LT 1383.60 1392.70 1366.20 1376.00 -4.45POWERGRID 188.00 188.90 186.75 187.35 -0.65HCLTECH 1150.95 1159.80 1140.00 1143.15 -4.65HINDALCO 188.50 190.15 187.10 187.70 -0.80JSWSTEEL 246.00 250.00 242.20 244.60 -1.15BAJFINANCE 4220.20 4247.25 4175.55 4190.65 -19.90HINDUNILVR 2062.25 2099.00 2050.55 2057.45 -11.60ONGC 137.30 138.80 135.15 135.35 -0.85ASIANPAINT 1780.85 1784.00 1756.30 1760.00 -11.85COALINDIA 202.95 204.50 200.50 200.95 -1.40TECHM 758.35 763.25 749.30 752.40 -5.95TITAN 1173.00 1174.80 1155.90 1160.00 -9.10BRITANNIA 3230.20 3260.00 3185.15 3203.00 -27.80ADANIPORTS 369.10 370.90 365.50 365.80 -3.30BAJAJ-AUTO 3240.00 3252.45 3200.00 3204.10 -29.20TCS 2196.00 2211.50 2168.75 2174.45 -22.35UPL 539.00 541.75 518.35 529.90 -5.65NTPC 118.55 118.85 116.95 117.25 -1.30INDUSINDBK 1377.10 1388.20 1345.70 1358.00 -17.10ITC 254.25 255.75 250.00 250.65 -3.25EICHERMOT 21850.00 21900.00 21241.30 21275.00 -283.15VEDL 145.80 146.15 141.70 142.10 -1.90MARUTI 7300.00 7359.00 7116.20 7140.00 -107.15BPCL 513.95 513.95 504.00 505.05 -9.60HEROMOTOCO2600.00 2614.95 2530.25 2541.25 -50.40IOC 136.85 136.90 131.20 131.55 -5.30

SE 500B

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SCRIP OPEN HIgh LOW LTP CHANGENIFTY NEXT 50 28266.65 28329.30 28103.65 28193.45 17.85IDEA 2.70 3.90 2.40 3.75 0.80DIVISLAB 1645.00 1758.95 1627.00 1741.05 84.55AUROPHARMA 402.00 415.95 396.25 410.20 14.40PNB 60.90 63.80 60.80 62.00 1.70L&TFH 96.05 98.25 96.00 97.65 1.80COLPAL 1550.00 1589.95 1538.05 1570.00 22.80DLF 210.00 215.60 208.35 211.80 2.90PGHH 10999.00 11350.00 10862.90 11132.25 143.85ASHOKLEY 82.90 83.40 78.90 80.00 1.00BANKBARODA 93.65 96.55 93.65 94.30 1.00BERGEPAINT 484.25 489.60 482.55 487.00 5.00BIOCON 255.00 262.00 253.10 257.30 2.60NMDC 99.00 100.50 97.60 99.45 0.90MCDOWELL-N 616.90 627.25 614.00 624.00 5.55NIACL 163.00 164.50 156.50 159.50 1.25AMBUJACEM 200.30 202.25 199.00 201.75 1.20PETRONET 277.45 280.55 273.55 277.95 1.65LUPIN 739.85 747.80 731.55 742.70 4.35BANDHANBNK 560.75 569.00 556.20 560.00 2.45HINDPETRO 287.75 292.95 286.35 289.50 0.95BAJAJHLDNG 3724.80 3738.80 3706.50 3728.00 11.75PEL 1770.05 1790.00 1760.00 1763.75 5.65SBILIFE 1008.20 1026.00 995.45 1002.80 2.90ICICIGI 1380.00 1394.00 1370.10 1376.95 3.40UBL 1246.00 1260.45 1240.95 1252.90 2.65PAGEIND 23999.95 24694.30 23625.50 23627.00 43.10CADILAHC 234.85 237.30 230.70 234.50 0.25OFSS 3026.65 3078.85 3026.65 3060.00 1.20HAVELLS 674.40 682.90 671.10 671.60 -0.60MARICO 357.45 357.50 353.10 356.00 -0.55ACC 1488.15 1505.85 1483.00 1484.15 -2.75SHREECEM 19793.40 19800.00 19368.05 19610.00 -60.50DABUR 464.50 466.60 460.05 461.00 -1.55IBULHSGFIN 212.40 218.85 207.50 210.55 -0.80ICICIPRULI 526.40 527.50 520.05 522.50 -2.90PFC 111.50 112.35 109.75 111.25 -0.65NHPC 23.60 23.70 23.30 23.40 -0.15SRTRANSFIN 1136.00 1147.70 1123.25 1130.00 -7.25GODREJCP 714.95 718.80 710.00 710.60 -4.85HINDZINC 209.20 211.25 208.00 208.35 -1.70CONCOR 576.10 581.70 568.25 570.35 -5.05MOTHERSUMI 137.65 138.60 133.85 134.85 -1.50BOSCHLTD 15290.00 15385.95 14925.05 15006.00 -189.95HDFCLIFE 588.35 588.35 576.10 578.45 -7.90PIDILITIND 1345.00 1345.00 1314.35 1316.45 -27.95SIEMENS 1613.30 1623.20 1564.60 1575.50 -37.00DMART 1923.95 1936.80 1852.55 1875.00 -45.00HDFCAMC 3625.00 3639.90 3483.10 3486.00 -118.00INDIGO 1510.00 1516.20 1456.15 1464.35 -52.55GICRE 269.00 273.45 256.50 257.65 -10.65

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Former US UkraineAmbassador MarieYovanovitch opened the

second day of Trump impeach-ment hearings Friday declaringthat her abrupt removal byPresident Donald Trump’sadministration played into thehands of “shady interests theworld over” with dangerousintentions toward the UnitedStates.

Yovanovitch told the HouseIntelligence Committee of aconcerted “smear” campaignagainst her by Trump’s personallawyer, Rudy Giuliani, and oth-ers. Her removal is one of sev-eral events at the center of theimpeachment effort.

“These events should con-cern everyone in this room,”the career diplomat testified inopening remarks. “Shady inter-ests the world over havelearned how little it takes toremove an American ambas-sador who does not give themwhat they want.”

The daughter of immi-grants who fled the formerSoviet Union and NaziGerman, she described a 33-year career, including threetours as an ambassador tosome of the world’s tougherpostings, before arriving inUkraine in 2016. She wasforced out in April 2019.

Rep. Adam Schiff, theDemocratic chairman of thepanel, opened day’s hearingpraising Yovanovitch, sayingshe was “too tough on corrup-tion for some, and her princi-pled stance made her ene-mies.”

It became clear, he said,“President Trump wanted hergone.”

The top Republican on thepanel, Rep. Devin Nunes ofCalifornia, bemoaned the hear-ings as a “daylong TV specta-cle.”

Nunes complained thatDemocrats are relying on

hearsay testimony from wit-nesses who only know ofTrump’s actions second-hand.He also pressed to hear fromthe still anonymous govern-ment whistleblower who firstalerted officials about PresidentDonald Trump’s phone callwith Ukraine that is in ques-tion. “These hearings shouldnot be occurring at all,” he said.

Just as the hearing wasopening, the White Housereleased its rough transcript ofan earlier call Trump had withUkraine President VolodymyrZelenskiy that was largely con-gratulatory.

Nunes read that tran-script aloud. In it, Trumpmentioned his experiencewith the Miss Universepageant in Ukraine andinvited Zelenskiy to theWhite House. He closedwith, “See you very soon.”

Yovanovitch, a careerdiplomat, who has servedboth Republican andDemocratic presidents,relayed her striking storyof being told to “watch myback” and then being sud-denly recalled by Trump ina swiftly developing seriesof events that soundedalarms about a WhiteHouse shadow foreign pol-icy.

In particular,Yovanovitch and others

have described Giuliani,Trump’s lawyer, as leading an“irregular channel” outside thediplomatic mainstream of US-Ukraine relations.

Asked during an earlier,closed-door deposition if any-one at the State Departmentwho was alerted to Giuliani’srole tried to stop him, she tes-tified, “I don’t think they feltthey could.” The White Househas instructed officials not tocomply with the probe, andmost have been issued sub-poenas to appear.

She and other officials nowtestifying publicly are provid-

ing accounts that Democratsare relying on to make the casethat the president’s behaviourwas impeachable.

With the start of a secondday of hearings to considerremoval of America’s 45th pres-ident, Democrats andRepublicans were both hard-ening their messages to voters.

Americans are deeplyentrenched in two camps overimpeachment, resulting in amounting political battle thatwill further test the nation inone of the most polarising erasof modern times.

House Speaker NancyPelosi says Trump’s actionstoward Ukraine amount to“bribery.” Trump repeatedlyassails the proceedings as a“hoax” and a “sham” and sayshe did nothing wrong.

The impeachment inquiryfocuses on Trump’s July phonecall with Zelenskiy that firstcame to attention when ananonymous governmentwhistleblower filed a com-plaint.

In the phone conversation,Trump asked for a “favour,”according to an account pro-vided by the White House. Hewanted an investigation ofDemocrats and 2020 rival JoeBiden. Later it was revealed thatthe administration was with-holding military aid fromUkraine at the time.

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President Donald Trumpsaid Thursday that the

impeachment probe has been“very hard” on his family, evenas he tried to flex his politicalmuscle to flip the governor’smansion in deep-red Louisiana.

Speaking in friendly terri-tory in a state he carried in2016 by 20 percentage points,Trump lashed out atDemocratic investigators andwhat he called a “derangedimpeachment witch hunt.”While arguing it was a politi-cal boon for his reelection, heacknowledged for the first timea personal toll from theimpeachment process thatstands to cloud his legacy.

“I have one problem,”Trump said. “Impeachment tome is a dirty word, it’s been veryunfair, very hard on my fami-ly.” The House began publicimpeachment hearingsWednesday.

Trump repeated his denialsof wrongdoing in his dealingswith Ukraine, asserting he hadno need to ask that nation to

investigate former VicePresident Joe Biden and hisfamily.

“We took down Bush,Clinton, Obama, with no expe-rience, but I had you and wewon,” Trump said of his 2016victory. “Think about that andthen think about me — ‘gee,let’s get some help fromUkraine in order to beat sleepyJoe Biden.’ I don’t think so.” Headded, “The people of thiscountry aren’t buying it,” claim-ing polls show a benefit to

Republicans as Democratsfocus on impeachment.

“We did nothing wrong,”Trump insisted, “and they’redoing nothing.”

Even in rel iablyRepublican Louisiana, thegubernatorial contest hasreached its final days ahead ofSaturday’s election as atossup. Democrat John BelEdwards is vying for a secondterm against little-knownRepublican political donorEddie Rispone.

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Worries about Islamicextremism will be para-

mount for many Sri Lankan vot-ers while others hope to blockformer leaders accused ofhuman rights violations fromreturning to power in Saturday’spresidential election, the coun-try’s first national polls since lastEaster’s deadly suicide attacks.

Simply put, fear is drivingthe election in Sri Lanka, aSouth Asian island nation of 22million people off India’s south-ern tip. A decade of peace fol-lowing three decades of civil warwas shattered earlier this yearwhen homegrown militantspledging loyalty to the IslamicState group detonated suicidebombs at three churches andthree hotels, killing 269 people.

The election also mirrorsthe global trend of populiststrongmen appealing to dis-gruntled majorities amid risingnationalism — seen as well inrecent elections in neighbouringIndia.

With a record 35 can-didates vying for the presiden-cy, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, a for-mer defense official under hisbrother, ex-President MahindaRajapaksa, was widely expectedto triumph over ruling partyHousing Minister SajithPremadasa. But as the electionapproached, the race becamevery close.

Premadasa entered the frayafter an open rebellion againsthis party leader, Prime MinisterRanil Wickremesinghe, rallyingsupport by pledging to boostwelfare programs and byembracing disgruntled partystalwarts.

Many in Sri Lanka’s ethnicSinhalese Buddhist majorityfavor Gotabaya because of hisrole in the Rajapaksa govern-

ment’s decisive victory a decadeago over ethnic Tamil rebels,ending the secessionist civil war.But some minority Tamils andMuslims fear his reputation.

Gotabaya is accused of per-secuting critics and overseeingwhat were called “white vansquads” that whisked away jour-nalists, activists and Tamil civil-ians suspected of links to theTamil Tigers rebel group. Somewere tortured and released,while others simply disappeared.

The Rajapaksa brothers arealso accused of condoning rapeand extrajudicial killings anddeliberately targeting civiliansand hospitals during the war.

Gotabaya, a retired armyofficer, migrated to the UnitedStates after leaving service. Hereturned when his brother waselected president in 2005 andwas appointed secretary to theMinistry of Defense. Though abureaucratic position, he wasgiven immense power and actedas a virtual second-in-com-mand.

Gotabaya says he hasrenounced his US citizenship toseek the presidency, focusing hiscampaign on national securityfollowing the Easter attacks,which exposed serious lapses inintelligence coordinationbetween spy and security agen-cies. “The first duty of our gov-ernment is to ensure total secu-rity within the country,”Gotabaya said in August whenhe was named the opposition’spresidential candidate.

“I state with confidence thatwe can make our country thesafest in the world again.”Gotabaya has said he will disre-gard a UN Human RightsCommission resolution that SriLanka signed promising toinvestigate alleged wartimeatrocities and share politicalpower with Tamils.

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India has pledged to con-tribute USD 13.5 million for

various operational activities ofdevelopment across the UNagencies for the year 2020.

Counsellor at India’sPermanent Mission to the UNAnjani Kumar announcedIndia’s pledges at the UNGeneral Assembly PledgingConference for DevelopmentActivities.

Kumar said India’s pledgesof contributions for opera-tional activities of develop-ment for the year 2020 is to thetune of USD 13.5 million, inline with the country’s long-standing tradition of support-ing development activitiesacross the UN system.

Outlining contributions to

the various UN agencies,Kumar said on Wednesdaythat India will contribute USD5 million to the UN Relief andWorks Agency for PalestineRefugees in the Near East,USD 4.5 million to the UNDevelopment Programme.

The World FoodProgramme will get USD 1.92million, USD 900,000 to theUN Children’s Fund, USD500,000 to the UN PopulationFund, USD 200,000 dollars tothe UN Voluntary Fund forTechnical Co-operation andUSD 150,000 dollars to the UNCommission on HumanSettlements Programme.

India will also be con-tributing USD 100,000 each tothe UN Voluntary contributionfor Financial and TechnicalAssistance for the implemen-

tation of Universal PeriodicReview, UN EnvironmentProgramme and UN Officeon Drugs and Crime.

Kumar noted that Indiawould be undertaking furthercommitments to other entitiesover the course of time.

“India has been a regularcontributor to the UN since itsinception. India believes thatthe UN should have the nec-essary resources to finance itsactivities, in an appropriateand balanced manner,” he said.

Kumar, however, pointedout that sustainable and pre-dictable funding remains thekey challenge in achieving the2030 Development Agenda.

He added that the OfficialDevelopment Assistance ?as apercentage of Gross NationalIncome remains low; commit-

ment to Least DevelopedCountries is far from being metby most of DevelopmentAssistance Committee mem-bers and financing for smallisland developing states andcountry programmable aidcontinues to decline.

Around USD 50 billionare channelised every yearthrough the UN System, butaround 65 per cent of theseresources are earmarked and asa result, less than 35 per cent ofthe resources are utilised fordevelopment and technicalcooperation, he said.

Highlighting India’s lead-ership towards developmentactivities and initiatives at theUN, Kumar said India, in asso-ciation with the UN Office forSouth-South Cooperation,established the India-UN

Development PartnershipFund in 2017 under whichUSD 150 million have beencommitted for developmentassistance over the next decadefor need-based developmentalprojects.

“In the spirit of sustainedand predictable funding for theSDGs and South-SouthCooperation, the funds underthe India-UN developmentPartnership are non-ear-marked,” he said, adding thatsince its establishment, morethan 35 member states fromAfrica, Latin America and theCaribbean and, Asia and thePacific regions have partneredwith the India-UNDevelopment PartnershipFund.

Kumar told the pledgingconference that India is also

engaging with the global Southmore than ever before and thecountry’s historic relations withCaribbean nations witnessed anew momentum with themeeting of Prime MinisterNarendra Modi and 14 leadersof the Caribbean Communityand Common Market (CARI-COM) group of countries onsidelines of the high-levelGeneral Assembly session inSeptember. Modi hadannounced a 14 million dollargrant for community develop-ment projects in the CARI-COM and another 150 milliondollar Line of Credit for solar,renewable energy and climate-change related projects.

Taking forward India’sclose partnership with thePacific Islands DevelopingStates (PSIDS), the India-

PSIDS Leaders’ Meeting wasalso held on the sidelines of theGeneral Assembly and Modihad announced allocation of 12million dollars grant (one mil-lion dollars to each PSIDS)towards implementation ofhigh impact developmentalprojects in an area of theirchoice.

In the last decade, India hasextended Lines of Credit ofabout USD 26 billion to morethan 60 developing countries.

About 16 countriespledged a total of USD 516 mil-lion at the 2019 United NationsPledging Conference forDevelopment Activities, repre-senting a considerable increaseover 2018 which saw USD425.69 million promised.

Highlighting total contri-butions to the United Nations

development system, ZinaMounla, the Chief of theOperational Activities PolicyBranch in the Department ofEconomic and Social Affairs,said they amounted USD 33.6billion in 2017, an increase of13 per cent over 2016. Theupturn continued a longer-term trend that has seen con-tributions increase by 77 percent over the past 10 years.

Core contributionsincreased for the second con-secutive year, she said, totallingUSD 6.9 billion in 2017, anincrease of 3 per cent over2016. At the same time, theshare of core resources droppedto an all-time low of only 20.6per cent of total funding due tothe rise in non-core funding,which has doubled over thepast decade.

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Israel said early Friday it hascompleted a series of

airstrikes on targets linked tothe Islamic Jihad militant groupin Gaza after rocket fire thatrattled a day-old truce.

The military statementindicated that Israel was will-ing to abide by the cease-fire ifthere are no additional rocketattacks. It said Israel struck amilitary compound, a rocket-manufacturing site and a mil-itant headquarters in the townof Khan Younis.

The airstrikes came after abarrage of rockets lateThursday. There were noimmediate reports of casualtieson either side.

The situation was calmFriday morning, but the trucecould be tested later in the daywhen Hamas, the Islamic mil-itant group that rules Gaza,holds its weekly demonstra-tions along the frontier. Hamasstayed out of the most recentfighting as both it and Israelappeared keen to limit itsscope.

The unofficial cease-firethat began early Thursdayended a two-day escalationtriggered by Israel’s targetedkilling of an Islamic Jihad com-mander. The fighting killed34 Palestinians, including 16civilians. Palestinian militantsfired more than 450 rocketstoward Israel, paralyzing muchof southern Israel without caus-ing any deaths or seriousinjuries.

Islamic Jihad announcedthe Egyptian-brokered cease-fire, claiming it had extractedseveral concessions from Israel.Israel does not generally com-ment on informal understand-ings with militant groups andsaid only that it would halt fireas long as the militants did thesame.

The truce angered manyIslamic Jihad supporters, whoheld protests across Gaza. Abarrage of rockets fired intoIsrael late Thursday, whichIsrael said were intercepted byits missile defenses, may havebeen an expression of discon-tent with the militant group’sleadership.

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The Venezuela migrationcrisis has now entered a

new stage in which many ofthose fleeing their country’sdevastating economic down-turn and political turmoil areincreasingly unlikely to return,a United Nations special envoysaid.

Eduardo Stein told TheAssociated Press onWednesday that the exodus ofover 4.6 million Venezuelanshas now permanently changedLatin America – and that evenif there were an immediate res-olution, many Venezuelanwould likely stay abroad.

“A good amount of thosewho left are not going to wantto return,” he said. “They willhave laid down roots in thecountries where they arrived.”

As a result, he said, “The

entire region won’t be thesame.”

The UN refugee agencyand the InternationalOrganization for Migrationmade an appeal to the inter-national community this weekurging foreign nations andinstitutions to donate $1.35billion to help 317 humanitar-ian and development organi-zations respond to the crisis inLatin America and theCaribbean in 2020.

According to its estimates,6.5 million Venezuelan couldbe living outside the SouthAmerican nation by the end ofnext year if current trendscontinue, surpassing even thenumber of Syrians fleeing thatcountry’s bloody civil conflict.

“The humanitarian needsare very similar,” Stein said inreference to the comparisonsnow being made with Syria.

“But the cause of each exodusis very different.”

Venezuelans are fleeingsix-digit hyperinflation thathas rendered many salariesworthless and made it difficultor impossible to afford basicslike food and medicine coupledwith widespread human rightsviolations and a political stand-off.

Neighboring Colombia hasbeen the biggest receptor ofVenezuelan migrants andrefugees, with over 1.5 millionnow living in its territory.Colombia’s numbers areexpected to continue swellingas other nations begin enforc-ing entry requirements.

The crisis has garnered farless attention and internation-al aid than other internationalmass migrations, withEuropean Union foreign poli-cy chief Federica Mogherini

recently calling it the “mostunderfunded refugee crisis inthe world.”

The UN has previouslycalled on donors to contribute$315 million to Colombia as itresponds to the health, educa-tion and other needs of thou-sands of Venezuela who con-tinue to arrive daily – thoughas of August, it had receivedjust $96 million.

According to Colombianofficials, that equates to about$68 per Venezuelan migrant,far below the more than $500provided for each Syrianrefugee.

“The receiving nationshave exhausted their budgets,”Stein said. “Their institutionalcapacity has been totally sur-passed.”

The Guatemalan diplomatsaid there is a perceptionamong some international

leaders that the Venezuela exo-dus is an issue Latin Americashould resolve on its own andthat only has geopolitical impli-cations for the United Statesand Canada. In response, Steinsaid he reminds Europeancountries of their involvementin pushing for a peaceful res-olution to the wave of unrestthat shook Central America inthe 1970s and 80s.

The new aid request isaimed not just at responding toimmediate humanitarian needsbut also in helping Venezuelansintegrate into their adoptednations over the longer-termand assisting local populationsstressed by their arrival.

Stein praised receptornations for their generositybut also warned that manyVenezuelan migrants are nowencountering hostility.

UN refugee agency inter-

views with Venezuelanmigrants across Latin Americashow 46.9 percent have felt dis-crimination, up from 36.9 per-cent earlier this year. InColombia, 51.7 reported dis-crimination while in Peruabout 65 percent said they hadfelt largely nationality-basedrejection.

“They’ve arrived in suchlarge numbers that now rejec-tion is springing up,” he said.

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Protesters who had barri-caded themselves in a Hong

Kong university this weekbegan to leave Friday afterpartially clearing a road theyhad blocked and demandingthat the government commit togoing ahead with local electionson Nov. 24.

It wasn’t immediately clearwhy the protesters at theChinese University of HongKong were leaving, or wherethey might go next.

The university’s president,Rocky Tuan, urged everyone toleave, saying the situation wasout of control and that the uni-versity may need to seek gov-ernment help.

Earlier, the protesterscleared one lane in each direc-tion on Tolo Highway. Workerssent in to clean up remainingdebris and set up traffic coneswere heckled by protesters,who pointed bows and arrowsat them, government officialssaid, but the two lanes were re-opened around midday.

The protesters said at a 3am news conference that theroad would be blocked againand warned of other unspeci-fied consequences if the gov-ernment didn’t meet theirdemand within 24 hours.

“In the face of the incon-venience we have caused to theelderly and other young people,we have decided to take the ini-tiative to show our goodwill,”one masked protester said.“We would like to re-iterate thatour target is the government.”

The district council elec-tions are seen as a barometer ofpublic sentiment in the semi-autonomous Chinese territory,which has been riven by anti-government protests for morethan five months. Pro-democ-racy activists say the govern-ment may use the escalatingviolence as a reason to cancelthe elections. The police, mean-while, said they would investi-

gate the death of a 70-year-oldman who was hit in the headby a brick as a murder case.

The man, who was usinghis phone to film a skirmishbetween protesters and otherstrying to clear a street earlierthis week, died Thursday night.The Hong Kong government

expressed outrage over what itcalled “the malicious acts of therioters.”

In London, the ChineseEmbassy said that Hong KongJustice Secretary Teresa Chengwas pushed to the ground byactivists who were followingher and shouting at her, injur-

ing her hand. It wasn’t clear ifshe was pushed or fell in theconfrontation.

“We express strong indig-nation and unequivocally con-demn the activists,” theembassy said in a statement.“Now, they are taking such vio-lence abroad and into the UK.”

Hong Kong leader CarrieLam called the attack “barbar-ic” and said it violated the prin-ciples of a civilized society.

Students and other pro-testers have taken over majorcampuses in Hong Kong thisweek, building barricades andstockpiling gasoline bombs andother weapons.

In Taiwan, civic and reli-gious groups protested outsideHong Kong’s representativeoffice, calling for an end towhat they said were abusesagainst anti-government pro-testers in the territory.

Cheng Ying-er, a pastor inthe Presbyterian church thathas long been active on pro-democracy issues, said the sit-uation in Hong Kong was amatter of “religious values andhuman rights.”

“Taiwan stands with youall,” he told those gatheredoutside the Hong KongEconomic, Trade and CulturalOffice in Taipei.

Taiwanese lawyers haveformed a pro-bono committeeto help any Hong Kong resi-dents who want to seek refugein Taiwan, said Lin Chun-hung, a member of the group.

“Our lawyers will providethem with assistance so thatthey can stay here,” he said.

Many in Taiwan have comeout strongly against the crack-down on the Hong Kongprotest movement.

Taiwan underwent a large-ly peaceful transition to fulldemocracy in recent decadesand has rejected China’s pro-posal of unification with themainland under the same “onecountry, two systems” formu-la implemented in Hong Kong.

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The China-friendly opposi-tion candidate in Taiwan’s

upcoming presidential electionis urging Hong Kong to adoptuniversal suffrage as the best wayof stemming months of anti-government protests.

Han Kuo-yu of theNationalist Party told reportersThursday that Taiwan stood asan example of how it was pos-sible to transition to full democ-racy without major changes tonational identity.

The “political crux” of thesituation in Hong Kong is that“the people question the legiti-macy of their leaders. Theythink that they’re not suffi-

ciently representative,” Han said.That could be easily fixed by

allowing direct elections forchief executive and members ofthe local legislature, he said,despite Beijing’s firm objections.

Han’s remarks are not great-ly different from those of hisopponent in the Jan. 11 election,incumbent President Tsai Ing-wen, whom Beijing has soughtto isolate politically over herrefusal to agree that Taiwan ispart of China. Beijing regularlylashes out at her government’scalls for reform in Hong Kongand dialogue with politicalopponents.

Han, in contrast, hasendorsed a 1992 agreementwith Beijing that says Taiwan is

part of China, while maintain-ing its own interpretation ofwhat that means. That, he said,is the “best foundation” forinteraction between the sides.He urged Tsai to also adopt theagreement out of purely practi-cal considerations.

Speaking at a gathering withforeign reporters in Taiwan’scapital, Taipei, Han, 62, did notdirectly answer when askedwhether his concept of “oneChina” was the same as that ofChinese President and leader ofthe ruling Communist Party XiJinping, who says Taiwan mustinevitably come under Beijing’scontrol, by force if necessary.

A former legislator, Hanwas elected mayor of Kaohsiung

in December 2018. Shortly afterthat, he traveled to China to signdeals to sell 5.2 billion NewTaiwan dollars ($165 million)worth of Taiwanese agricultur-al products.

He also met with leadingofficials for relations withTaiwan, including the head ofthe Cabinet’s Taiwan AffairsOffice, Liu Jieyi, and rankingCommunist Party officials inHong Kong.

That reinforced the view inthe minds of some voters thatBeijing was strongly backingHan’s candidacy, largely seen asa negative in Taiwan, whereantipathy toward theCommunist government runsstrong.

�� "��Hong Kong (AFP): Hong Kong’s leader Carrie Lam on Thursdaycondemned a “barbaric attack” on her justice minister, who fellwhile being surrounded by a crowd of jeering pro-democracyprotesters in London. It was the most physical confrontationinvolving a member of Lam’s cabinet since the protests, nowin their sixth month, erupted in the international finance hub.

Teresa Cheng, Hong Kong’s deeply unpopular Secretary forJustice, was ambushed by around a dozen masked demonstra-tors as she prepared to attend a speaking event on Thursdaynight in London.

They shone torch lights on her while calling her a “mur-derer” and shouting slogans of the Hong Kong pro-democra-cy protest movement. Video of the incident showed Chengfalling to the floor during the melee — although it was not imme-diately clear if she was pushed by protesters.

She regained her feet moments later and was escorted awaywith no visible signs of injury.

Cheng suffered “serious bodily harm” during the alterca-tion, Chief Executive Lam said in a statement.

Cheng, whose department is in charge of prosecuting pro-testers who have filled city streets for months, is the first seniorHong Kong official to be injured in scuffles since the unrestbegan in June.

Lam called on police in Britain — Hong Kong’s former colo-nial ruler — to investigate, describing the incident as an “attack”which “was barbaric and violated the principles of a civilisedsociety”. Cheng is in London on a visit to promote Hong Kong’srole as a dispute resolution and deal-making hub.

She is one of the most unpopular government officials inHong Kong, seen as playing a key role in pushing forward thenow-shelved extradition bill to China, which sparked the ongo-ing unrest.

The protests have tipped into worsening violence with twodead in a week and further protests planned for Friday.

For a fifth straight day on Friday, protesters caused wide-spread disruption with barricades and rallies.

Overstretched police have drafted in reinforcements,while Hong Kong’s government has denied rumours of an immi-nent curfew. The five-month crisis has entered a new phase inrecent days with hardcore protesters embarking on a campaignto “blossom everywhere” across the city in a bid to stretch policeresources.

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North Korea has launched avisceral diatribe against

US Democratic presidentialcandidate Joe Biden, calling theformer vice-president a “rabiddog” — while also borrowingthe terminology of DonaldTrump.

Pyongyang is renownedfor its vitriol, but the verbal del-uge was unusually ferociouseven by its own standards.

Biden “had the temerity todare slander the dignity of thesupreme leadership of theDPRK”, the North’s officialKCNA news agency said lateThursday, referring to thecountry by its official name.

“Rabid dogs like Biden canhurt lots of people if they areallowed to run about,” it wenton. “They must be beaten todeath with a stick.

“Doing so will be beneficialfor the US also,” it added.

It was not immediatelyclear what had provokedPyongyang’s ire, but Biden’scampaign released an ad thisweek condemning Trump’s for-eign policy, saying that “dicta-tors and tyrants are praised, ourallies pushed aside”.

The voiceover says theword “tyrants” at the exactmoment a picture appears ofUS President Donald Trumpand North Korean leader KimJong Un shaking hands at theirSingapore summit last year.

KCNA appeared to citeone of Trump’s favoured insultsfor the candidate — “SleepyJoe” — when it said Americanscalled him “Biden not awak-ened from a sleep”.

Biden had shown “a sign ofthe final stage of dementia”,KCNA added. “It seems time

has come for him to depart hislife.” KCNA misspelled thecandidate’s name as “Baiden”throughout, seemingly reflect-ing the spelling used in theKorean alphabet.

It is not the first time theNorth has condemned Biden.In May it called him an “imbe-cile” and a “fool of low IQ” daysafter he called Kim a “dictator”and “tyrant”.

The rhetoric underscoresits “impatience” with any crit-icism of Kim, said CheongSeong-Chang, a senior

researcher at the private SejongInstitute. “Pyongyang hasalways loathed hearing its lead-ership labelled as tyrant ordictator by the outside world,”he said. The invective againstBiden was “pretty high on thescale”, North Korean propa-ganda specialist Mason Richeyof Hankuk University ofForeign Studies told AFP, high-lighting the multiple repetitionsof the “beating the dog” trope.

Trump himself has alsobeen the target of Pyongyang’sanger at times.

In 2017 the two leaderstraded personal insults andthreats of war before the diplo-matic rapprochement that hasseen them meet three timesand Trump repeatedly pro-claim their personal friendship,although nuclear negotiationsremain deadlocked. As tensionsmounted, Kim called Trump a“mentally deranged US dotard”whom he would “tame withfire”, while KCNA also brand-ed him a “rabid dog”.

KCNA used the sameKorean word previously trans-lated as “dotard” in its articleThursday, although the epithetdid not appear in the officialEnglish version.

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North Korea on Friday saidit issued an ultimatum to

South Korea that it will teardown South Korean-madehotels and other facilities at theNorth’s Diamond Mountainresort if the South continues toignore its demands to comeand clear them out.

The North Korean state-ment came weeks after leaderKim Jong Un visited the siteand ordered the demolishmentof South Korean properties hedescribed as “shabby” and“unpleasant-looking” whilevowing that the North wouldredevelop the site on its own.

For months, North Koreahas expressed frustration overthe South’s unwillingness todefy US-led international sanc-tions against the North andresume South Korean tours atthe site.

The North later formallydemanded the South Koreanscome to Diamond Mountain atan agreed-upon date to clearout their facilities and proposedan exchange of documents towork out details.

South Korean tours toDiamond Mountain were amajor symbol of cooperationbetween the Koreas and a valu-able cash source for the North’sbroken economy before theSouth suspended them in 2008after a North Korean guardfatally shot a South Koreantourist.

South Korea has said it willprioritize protecting its prop-erty rights over the facilitiesand seek “creative solutions” tothe problem based on politicalconsiderations and inter-Korean dialogue. But the Northhas so far rejected SouthKorean calls for face-to-facediscussions or sending a dele-

gation of government officialsand businesspeople to inspectthe site.

In the new statement,North Korea ridiculed theSouth over “begging us to letthem stay even at a corner ofthe mountain” and participatein future tourism programsafter halting the joint tours formore than a decade “in fear ofthe US.”

“On November 11 we sentan ultimatum, warning that ifthe (South Korean) authoritiespersist in their useless asser-tion, we will take it as an aban-donment of the withdrawal,and take resolute measure forunilaterally pulling down thefacilities. However, they haveremained answerless untiltoday,” the statement said.

“We will develop Mt.Kumgang to be the world-renowned tourist resort withresponsibility and in our own

way as its owner for the sake ofthe nation and posterity. Thereis no room for (South Korea)to find its place there.” TheSouth Korean government did-n’t immediately comment onthe statement.

In a summit last Septemberin Pyongyang, Kim and SouthKorean President Moon Jae-invowed to restart South Koreantours to Diamond Mountainand normalize operations at aninter-Korean factory park inthe North Korean border townof Kaesong, voicing optimismthat sanctions could end andallow such projects.

Kim raised the subjectagain during his New Year’sspeech this year, saying thatPyongyang was ready to restartthe projects “without any pre-condition” while making anationalistic call for strongercooperation between theKoreas.

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AUS CongressionalCommission’s hearing on

human rights situation inJammu and Kashmir nearlyfizzled out as only four of the84 members of the panelturned up for the hearing, thesecond such meeting by anAmerican panel after Indiaabrogated Article 370 torevoke the special status ofthat state.

Republicans refused toattend the hearing held by theTom Lantos Human RightsCommission on Thursday,saying that this commission“is biased, one sided and haslost credibility”.

Except for RepublicanCo-Chair Christopher HSmith, no other memberfrom the party turned up forthe hearing.

Smith in his brief remarkssaid that Kashmir is a bilat-eral issue between India andPakistan, which needs to actagainst terrorist groups basedinside its territory.

Testifying before theCommission, SunandaVashist, an Indian-Americancolumnist, told lawmakersthat Kashmir has been an

integral part of India.“India is not just a 70-

year-old nation that you see.India is a 5,000-year-old civil-isation. There is no Kashmirwithout India. There is noIndia without Kashmir. It’sboth ways. And I will say thisat the top of my voice,”K a s h m i r i - A m e r i c a n Vashist said in response tothe separatists supportedpanel of experts at the hear-ing.

“India’s democratic cre-dentials are unmatched. Theyhave successfully in a demo-cratic setup, defeated insur-gencies in Punjab andNortheast . It’s t ime tostrengthen India against thisinsurgency in Kashmir andthe human rights problem (inKashmir) will be solved for-ever,” she said.

Sheila Jackson Lee, aRepresentative from Texas,asked for a pathway to ensurehuman rights in the region.

“We should try to find apathway to at least do thebasics to ensure human rightsin the region. Why not allowthe members of the USCongress to visit both parts ofJammu and Kashmir — inIndia as well as Pakistan,” Lee

said.Anurnima Bhargava,

commissioner from the USCommission on InternationalReligious Freedom, alleged,“Religious minorities in Indiaare under a state of fear andactive persecution and vio-lence.”

Bhargava, who is ofIndian descent, said therestr ic t ions in Kashmirimpacted the ability of peo-ple to “pract ice their faith”, visit their places ofworship and exercise theirrights.

She alleged that there wasa growing persecution of reli-gious minorities speciallyMuslims in India manifestedin the form of anti-conver-sion legislation, and claimedthat the Ayodhya verdict,National Register of Citizens(NRC) in Assam, mob vio-lence and revocation ofArticle 370 led to the grow-ing sense of fear among theIndian minorities.

Last month, theSubcommittee on Asia, thePacific, and NonProliferationof the US House ForeignAffairs Committee also helda hearing on the situation inKashmir.

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Lebanese protesters who havebeen demanding radical

reform reacted with anger Fridayto the reported designation of anew prime minister they regardas emblematic of a failed politi-cal system. According to seniorofficials speaking on condition ofanonymity and Lebanese pressreports, key political playersagreed that Mohammed Safadishould be tasked with formingthe next government.

Outgoing Prime MinisterSaad Hariri resigned on October29, nearly two weeks into theunprecedented nationwideprotests demanding the whole-sale removal of a ruling elite seenas corrupt and incompetent.

President Michel Aoun hassaid he will support the forma-tion of a government includingtechnocrats but he has not yetannounced consultations over anew line-up and there was noofficial confirmation that Safadihad been designated.

Demonstrators in his home-town of Tripoli wasted no timein rejecting Safadi, however, andgathered in front of one of hisproperties to protest against areported nomination they regardas a provocation.

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Chile announced Friday itwill stage a referendum to

replace the country’s dictator-ship-era constitution — a keydemand of protesters afternearly a month of sometimesviolent civil unrest.

The current charter, inforce since 1980 and enacted bythe former military junta ofAugusto Pinochet, has beenchanged numerous times in theyears since.

But it does not establish thestate’s responsibility to pro-vide education and healthcare— two demands made by mil-lions of Chileans who havetaken to the streets.

Lawmakers in Chile’sNational Congress agreed earlyFriday to hold the plebiscite inApril 2020 after hours ofintense negotiations betweenthe governing coalition and

opposition parties.“This agreement is a first

step, but it is a historic and fun-damental first step to startbuilding our new social pact,and in this the citizenry willhave a leading role,” saidInterior Minister GonzaloBlumel.

The referendum will askvoters whether the constitutionshould be replaced and if so,how a new charter should bedrafted, Senate president JaimeQuintana said.

It will propose three dif-ferent models for a body todevise a new constitution,made up of either fully electedrepresentatives, politicalappointees or an equal mix ofboth.

If elections to the bodyare needed, they will be heldin October 2020 to coincidewith regional and municipalballots.

“We are happy to havebeen able to participate in anagreement that defeats vio-lence,” said Jacqueline vanRysselberghe, leader of theright-wing IndependentDemocratic Union, the largestparty in President SebastianPinera’s governing coalition.

The unrest that began onOctober 18 with protestsagainst a rise in rush-hourmetro fares has mushroomedinto a broader outcry againstthe status quo, with burning,looting and daily confronta-tions between demonstratorsand police.

The crisis is Chile’s biggestsince its return to democracy in1990, leaving 20 dead — five atthe hands of state forces — andmore than 1,000 injured.

Protesters cite low wages,high costs for education andhealthcare and a yawning gapbetween rich and poor in a

country dominated politicallyand economically by a fewelite families.

Demonstrators havedemanded greater socialreform from the governmentled by Pinera, who hasannounced several measures ina bid to assuage public anger.

After weeks of sometimesviolent demonstrations, mostpolls show the protest move-ment is supported by 75 percent of Chileans.

Even more — 87 per cent,according to a survey by poll-ster Cadem published thismonth — say they favour theprotesters’ demand for consti-tutional reforms.

Approved in 1980, Chile’sjunta-era constitution pre-served some powers of themilitary and established anelectoral system that longfavored the political right-wing.

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Actor Riteish Deshmukh, who has rede-fined popular comedy genre like nobodyelse, seemed quite different in real life

— quiet and serious. As he sat in a hall’s cor-ner, entertaining people and giving interviewsappeared to be a task for him. When asked ifhe was tired or sleepy, the actor smiled and said,“No, it’s just been a never-ending month forme!” Indeed, he is set to play a villain after acouple of above �100-crore mark films — TotalDhamal (154 crore), and Housefull 4 (200 crore)— in Marjaavaan.

Even though his roles in films like GrandMasti, Masti, Dhamaal, Housefull 4 might haveset a new benchmark as far as the genre is con-cerned, the actor doesn’t want to confine him-self to a single genre and wants to keep explor-ing. So is this an attempt to rebrand himself?“After being in this industry for 16 years I don’tthink I am trying to rebrand myself now. I justwant to do better comedy, different roles andfilms. I also want to explore regional cinema.I want to be in a space where I am happy work-ing with people and enjoy that.”

He feels that he is among the few luckypeople of this industry who have got the oppor-tunity to work with legendary actors likeAmitabh Bachchan, Mithun Chakraborty,Rishi Kapoor, Anil Kapoor, Madhuri Dixit andmany more. He said, “Just to be there and workwith them is great. Everyone comes in thisspace looking for something. I am happy andsatisfied that I got what I was looking for inthis industry.”

Marjaavaan, directed by Milap MilanZaveri, is a love story of Raghu and Zoya. Thevillain, who is a vertically challenged (dwarf),Vishnu (played by Riteish Deshmukh) is a manwith evil intentions, and makes their life hellbecause of his hatred towards them.

There’s an obvious comparison of the filmwith Ek Villain as Sidharth and Riteish aretogether and the latter is playing a villain again.But denying the claims, the actor said that itis a new story and in a completely differentzone. He added, “You can see the difference inthe trailer itself. Marjaavaan is more massy anddialogue-oriented. At the same time the char-acter is completely different. Also Mohit Suri’s(director) sensibility of film making is com-pletely different from Milap Zaveri’s (directorof Ek Villain).” However, Milap is the writer hereand was the director of the 2014 hit. So oneassumes that the direction of one might be sim-ilar to the writing of another. But the actor said,“Writing style is like a colour. Though you mayhave a single colour but you can make a lot ofpaintings from that which have differentinterpretations.”

What excited the actor to go for this rolewas playing the role of a villain again as he feelsit is an unparalled experience. “One becomesa good hero only if the villain is good. Usually,the sequences in a film are such that a threatis created by the villain and the hero has towork on that, there is a hurdle and then he hasto work on that. Whenever you cross a hur-dle, it excites as it becomes a heroic moment.If you see a big boy beating a small boy thereis no heroism. That’s understood. Hence, the

importance of a villain is always there,” said he.Vishnu, who is a vertically challenged has

a dark and mean sense of humour. And theentire story has a reason behind his evilness.It is because his father is a huge mafia ofMumbai. And Vishnu feels that his fatherfavours Sidharth more because he is anorphan and is capable of doing the stuff whichhe can’t. So his insecurity and hatred towardsSidharth grows. “It was exciting. I have alwaysbeen cracking jokes or laughing in a good man-ner but this was different. Vishnu’s sense ofhumour is mean and ruthless. Though he’s adwarf but all his jokes are about heights like,Khushi ki height kya hai, competition ki heightkya hai? (What is the height of happiness andcompetition?),” said he.

But playing a three-feet dwarf is certain-ly not easy. There were scenes where the actorhad to walk on his knees. Not only that he wasalso expected to be visually strong. There weresequences where the actor had to look into theblank spaces and say the dialogues with suit-able expression. That was more challenging forRiteish. There were times where he even feltlike he was handicapped.

When asked if this role enriches his jour-ney or is just a continuity, the actor said thatit is a continuity and it is great to be back intothe space you wanted to.

After investing 16 years of his career inBollywood, the actor doesn’t feel the need tobe ahead or different than anyone. “Everyonein this industry fortunately gets films and spacethey want. Few actors are more lucky than theothers to be offered a certain kind of role. ButI feel there is space for every kind of a film. Andan actor is more capable than the roles that he’sstereotyped for. Today’s audience is slightlymore receptive towards change. People areexcited about me playing this role, so it addsto that acceptability of me doing this. There arevarious kinds of films and as actors we are opento everything. I would be more than happy indoing content driven films too.”

#��9#��)��,��"

�How would you describeJake and Amara’s relation-ship?

They are constantly forcedto work together without anyclarity of whether they like eachother or not. But I think whenthey are shipped over to theShatterdome in China, they seethe similarities and help eachother navigate through an envi-ronment that they don’t under-stand. Well, she doesn’tunderstand the environ-ment fully and Jake kind oflost touch with what itmeans to be a part of thesame. So they finda great siblingkind of rela-tionship, whereJake’s like anolder brother.

�How was itworking withC a i l e eSpaeny?

Ia b s o l u t e l ylove workingwith her, because shereminds me of myself,just like Amara remindsJake of himself. It’s coolbecause you’re able tolook into someone’seyes and see your pastinnocence. We have agood bond and share agood chemistry. So ithas been lovely work-ing with that little girl.

�What drew you to comeback to the franchise?

I was drawn to the fran-chise because of the opportu-

nity to work as a producer, andto have my first co-producinggig in a studio that I reallyadmire. Secondly, the role! Itwas fantastic. And thirdly,Steven DeKnight who is anamazing director and withwhom I always wanted to workwith. He has worked forSpartacus and Daredevils andis directing his first feature film.I felt like it would be great col-

laborating with him. It feltlike a fantastic opportuni-ty.

�Do you think peo-ple enjoy monster

versus robotfilms?

I thinkit’s just thescale of it and

the adventure.Everybody toa certain

extent has feltthe action figuresin films or whenyou watch filmslike Godzilla andKing Kong, thescale of the beast orthe creature goingto the city createsan instant excite-ment. What Pacific

Rim does is that itgives an answer backto those monstersthat we have grownup watching. So we

love King Kong andGodzilla but if theywere going to attackus what would wehave? We have theJaegers. Seeing that

face off is having a ticket to thebest books in my shelf.

�What would you say on theinternational appeal of PacificRim?

What stands out for me inthis film is that it definitely hasan international appeal. Notonly through the characters butthrough the message too. It saysthat people from all around theworld must work together forthe survival of the planet

because it has got to a pointwhere there is no fight amongthe countries anymore. It’s likewe’ve got a bigger enemy justrunning around through thecities and around the world.They are in unison, so we toohave to be. So that gives astrong message of unity. Andwhen you go to Shatterdome inChina, there are people from allaround the world who haveflown in and come across.That makes a story diverse and

energetic.

�Tell us more about the film?This film is larger than life,

its epic, scaled and hard toimagine. It’s nice knowing thatPacific Rim handled the giantof the giant realm in which theheroes are kind of demigods.For me it was something thatI loved being involved in andits scale was absolutely crazy tome. We had a lot of fun withthat.

�Audience loves your charac-ter as you are the hero andanti-hero too. They love theway you play the father figure.It’s phenomenal as it shows alot of empowerment.

Well it’s a film with a bunchof young people, but withinthat group you find that Jaketakes a mentor figure forCailee’s character — Amara.But at the same time theylearn from each other andform a tiny group.

�Since you have also pro-duced the film, tell us aboutyour changing roles?

Acting in the film was notnew for me, I knew about it asI am used to it. But coming asa producer was new for me. Butit was not easy. I had to jumpon a horse while it was moving,and learn and discover differ-ent things simultaneously. I wasable to exercise the educationand training I have collected onthe way. It was fun, I reallyenjoyed it.

(The film premieres at 9 pmon Sony PIX.)

Nupur Sanon has followedher more illustrious elder

sister Kriti Sanon into theworld of glamour with herdebut appearance in B Praak’snew music video Filhall, whereshe features along withBollywood superstar AkshayKumar. Nupur says Kriti is veryprotective about her, and actslike a mother to her, and addedthat apart from complimenting

her for her efforts, Kriti is alsoquite honest about pointing outher flaws.

“Whenever Kriti compli-ments me about something, shealso gives me some kind of neg-ative feedback, because she isvery protective and she is alsolike my chhoti mummy so,” saidNupur about her elder sister,adding that she was scaredabout how Kriti would react to

her debut work.“I didn’t contact her after

the release of my video. Ithought she would contact meafter watching it because shehas been away shooting inMandawa. So, she sent me along text message and there wasnothing negative in it. She waslike ‘I loved the song and I amso proud of you’. I am reallyhappy after reading her mes-sage,” said Nupur, while inter-acting with the media at successpress meet of song along withsinger B Praak and lyricistJaani.

Filhall garnered more than97 million views within fivedays of release.

Asked when she woulddebut as a Bollywood actor,Nupur said, “Hopefully soon. Iam glad that I took my time todo my first music videobecause I never ever dreamtthat I would work with super-star Akshay Kumar in my veryfirst project. I am going to waitfor right opportunities. I am intalks with a few people but Ihaven’t signed anything as ofnow. A lot people haveapproached me after seeingthe music video but I want totake things easy. This career forme is about longevity. I am inno hurry but I just want to bethere for the longest time.”

Talking about the audi-ence response to the song,Nupur said, “I am over-whelmed with the response toour song. We expected thiskind of response because thesong is good. B Praak hasbeautifully sung it and Jaani hasbeautifully written it, so weexpected love from the audi-ence. The kind of love we aregetting is really special.”

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Be it the role of a terrorist, a gang-ster, a photographer, a writer, apoliceman, a politician, a teacher or

just a person from the crowd, actorNawazuddin Siddiqui has left no stoneunturned in making his presence counton the big screen. However, in his list ofversatile characters and film genres,only a romantic one was missing.

And with his latest venture,Motichoor Chaknachoor, that space hasbeen filled. He tells us what promptedhim to pick up this character since he hasnever essayed such a role before. He says,“I had been thinking on it for a long time.I have played roles like that of Manto,Thackeray, Gaitonde, which could be cat-egorised as serious and intense ones. Sonow, I wanted to do some light-hearted,easy films. I wanted to try the romancegenre too. And then I came across thisscript. It had all those halka-phulka(light) elements as well comedy that I waslooking for.” Another reason for him tochoose this genre was his eight-year-olddaughter. “I also wanted to make a filmwhich my eight-year-old could watch.She is usually not able to watch my filmsbecause they are mostly A-Certified. Iwant her to watch my films as she isgrowing up now,” he says and recalls howshe couldn’t even watch Manto, since ithad some “intense” scenes.

Set the Bhopal, the film revolvesaround Pushpender Singh, a 36 year oldman, who is desperately looking for awife, and Annie (played by AthiyaShetty), who is looking to marry an NRIguy and has her dreams and eyes set inDubai.

Even though with women becomingmore independent now, the idea of themlooking for NRI men to settle is an oldone. They can very much go by them-selves. However, Nawaz clarifies that thefilm is about mid-city aspirations, notmetros. He adds, “If you go in smalltowns, you’ll find girls who are still look-ing for such men, with whom they cansettle abroad. And even though theymight not find someone themselves,they’re free to tell their preferences totheir parents. Even parents ask them

now.”For Nawaz, it is not important that

every film gives a message if the contentis good. “Message automatically comesacross. Deliberately thinking that a filmshould have a message looks preachy.Here, without digging deeper, you auto-matically get to know that the film fol-lows a guy and a girl, who have theirrespective conditions to get married. Thegirl wants her husband to be working inDubai so that she can update herFacebook status as that. The guy has ageda bit and hence, is desperate for marriage.They both live in their own differentworlds and when the two meet, the girlgets to know that the guy doesn’t workabroad. She is disappointed,” he says,highlighting that it’s very much the rea-son why the film is titled as MotichoorChaknachoor. He adds, “Kyunki, uskemotichoor ke sapno ka chaknachoorhojaata hai.”

The film is added to the list of thosewhich have talked about or showcased astory from the small towns in India. Andthere have been numerous recent exam-ples of them, where the hero could beflawed and poor and the heroine couldbe non-glamourous and one among thecrowd yet a powerful one. Nawaz, whosePhotograph was a recent example, pointsout that it’s the trend that Bollywood fol-lows — changing its pattern every fiveyears. He says, “You didn’t watch such‘realistic’ films five years ago. Things keepevolving with time. If you watch a filmthat was made five years ago, it would bedifferent than what is made today. Fiveyears from now, we would again see somedifferent kind of content. And storiesfrom small towns being shown on the bigscreen is a good thing. This way morepeople are able to connect to films andin a way that they remember their ownlives when they watch them. Vaise isse bhibore hojayenge kuch dino me. Then,there will come another trend (laughs).”

He pauses for a while, smiles andcontinues with an example of how filmson bandits and gangsters had become thetalk of the town some years ago. “Sabhipicture bas daakuon ke upar hi thi (All the

films mostly revolved around bandits.There was various types of daakus likeChambal Ka Daaku. And then there wasAakhiri Daaku, the last one!” he chuck-les.

For Pushpender’s role, Nawaz didn’thave to do any special research or hardwork since it came from everyday life.In fact, if there was any reference, it camefrom his own experience. “People willfeel connected with this film becausethey can find its characters around theirneighbourhood. Even I have beenthrough it when my mother waslooking for potential girls for meto get married,” he says andlaughs.

Nawaz’s roles have beena testament of how theidea of the Indian hero hasevolved. The idea herocould be found even in asupporting actor. So how isit that he selects his. He says,“If the role takes me out ofmy comfort zone and chal-lenges me, I’d like it.”

So how have such versatileroles in films like Gangs ofWasseypur, Haraamkhor, SacredGames, Manto, Thackerey, Talaashshaped or transformed him as a per-son? The answer lies in emptiness.“Just like they say that if you take some-thing from a character, even that takesa lot from you,” he says and adds, “At theend of the day, I realise that I am emptyin a way that mera apna kuch nahi bacha(there’s nothing that belongs to me). Tofill that up, I go back among my peopleand the world. I try to feel what it’s liketo be around them and hear their stories.And then when I get a role, I fill up thatspace with it.”

For Nawaz, every role is like takingwater from a well and pouring it some-where else to fill it up. “That’s what I do.For me, the world is a well, which is filledwith water. And I keep drowning myselfinto it and dig out the stories and expe-riences of people, which are like water forme.”

#��9#��)��,��"

Do you think you really know theclosest person of your life

inside-out? What if one day you findout that he’s not actually who he pre-tends to be? Well, writer, director andactor, Rakesh Bedi’s latest play, PatteKhul Gaye, exposes the hypocrisyand double standards that exist inour society. “Patte Khul Gaye isa metaphor which means youare exposed. Whenever westare into adversity, we dropour guard and our true selfemerges. My play depicts thatthere are various layers behindevery person and when some sit-uations arise, one can be shockedto find out the s/he is not thesame person anymore whothey think they knew,” hesays.

It’s a story of DrManoj Rai (played byAnant Mahadevan)and his wife ManjuRai (played by RoopaliGanguli), who haveinvited their closegroup of friends fordinner. Manju hasplanned a lavish menuand has been doing thepreparations since thepast three days. With theirchildhood friend Bob, comesShireen (played by KishwarMerchant), who is extremely richand does not belong to the mid-dle class strata, like the rest ofthem.

The message that Rakesh is try-ing to convey is that the rich have allthe privileges and Shireen argueswith Manju that she has worked hardto get them. However, Manju doesnot agree with her. Her belief is thatthe rich have reached where they are

because of the middle class as theyare the ones who pay huge

taxes. She asserts, ‘Don’tforget that you are

because ofus’.

“Ek tarazu ki sui agar beech meinhogi tabhi toh society chalegi,” feelsthe actor, who has director plays likeMera Woh Matlab Nahi Tha, ShimlaCoffee House and Jab We Separated.

Proceeding further, all the char-acters get together and within notime their masks start falling off andsecrets of one and all start tumblingout to the fore. The ultra richShireen exposes the middle class val-ues and hypocrisy of the others andcondescendingly exposes theirpitiable condition. It’s like a warbetween both strata of society — richand the middle class. She tells themhow the middle class is alwaysshowing off what it has and hidingunder the carpet what it does not.The lady of the house Manju refus-es to buy this argument and takesShireen head on and stronglydefends the great Indian middleclass.

Ask Rakesh where have he takenthe references from to make sucharguments? He states an instancefrom his life saying, “You go to anypart of India, you will find such peo-ple who spend huge amount on wed-dings just for the motive of showingoff. It’s shocking to see. I can recallthat I went to visit a friend once andhe took me to somebody’s wedding.The family where we went took meto show all the arrangements thatwere done for their daughter’s big day.Lastly, he took me to the stall of thedeserts and very proudly said, Bedisahab, ‘please choose any desert of

your choice as we have 54 differentvarieties’. It was very evident from hisactions that he was trying to impressme but I had a feeling of anger. I ama person who would be interested inall this stuff. I really feel sad. I meanis there even a point of keeping 54varieties of something just becauseyou want some kind of approval fromthe society? Aap 2, chalo zada se zada3 ya fir 4 desserts rakhlo lekin voh bhitoh akhir mein muh hi meetha karengena. It’s like participating in a rat race,which you already know that nobodyis going to win and which is nevergoing to end.”

The story takes unexpected turnsand hostess Manju, who has toiled forthree days for the dinner, is unable toeven serve the starters as the dinnerand the party goes for a toss. To topit all, one of the guests Akela (playedby Rakesh Bedi), a poet comes outwith a funny couplet at the drop of ahat, to ease tense moments.

Rakesh believes that the play isan unbelievable comic journey full ofunpredictable twists and turns that issure to leave the audience in splits. Forhim, entertainment is the bottom linefor everything that he does. “Themain principle of life is to convey any-thing with a hint of humour. No mat-ter how serious the might be, Iwould try and move it with the ele-ment of comedy,” says he.

(The play will be staged today at4 pm and 7 pm and tomorrow at 3.30 pm at Shri Ram Centre, MandiHouse.)

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Roger Federer produced a near-flawless performance as heavenged his Wimbledon defeat

by Novak Djokovic and qualified forthe last four of the ATP Finals witha 6-4, 6-3 victory on Thursday.

The Swiss started the tourna-ment with a chastening straight-setsdefeat to Dominic Thiem but foundhis best form when it mattered.

Defeat for the second seed spellsthe end of his bid to overtake RafaelNadal and finish as year-end num-ber one. Roared on by a raucouspacked house at London’s O2 Arena,six-time champion Federer lookedin the groove from the start, crank-ing up the pressure on Djokovic’sserve and dropping just three pointson his own serve in the first set.

The Serbian upped his game atthe start of the second set butFederer, 38, saved the one breakpoint he faced and broke twice tocanter to victory.

The third seed, making his 17thappearance at the ATP Finals, is intohis 16th semi-final at the year-endevent.

Djokovic needed to win thetitle to have a chance at knockingNadal off the top spot, but now theSpaniard is guaranteed to finish theyear as the top-ranked player for thefifth time, tying him with Federer,Djokovic and American JimmyConnors.

“Great atmosphere, great oppo-nent,” said Federer, who hit 23 win-ners and made just five unforcederrors. “It was definitely incrediblyspecial. I enjoyed it from the begin-ning.

“I played incredible and I knewI had to because that’s what Novakdoes. It was definitely magical.”

Speaking about what was differ-ent from the Wimbledon final,where he squandered two champi-onship points on his own serve, hesaid: “I won match point I guess.

“It was so close atWimbledon. It was a privi-lege to play that match, somany ups and downs. Icouldn’t be more happyright now.”

Federer finishes sec-ond in Group BjornBorg, behind Thiem,who also beat Djokovicearlier this week. The Swisswill face the Group AndreAgassi winner today.

�� Djokovic looked nervy at the

start of the winner-takes-all contest,double-faulting twice in the thirdgame, in which he was broken tolove.

As cries of “Let’s go Roger, let’s go”rang around the cavernous stadium,Federer was dead-eyed on his serve,hitting eight aces, including a sec-ond-serve ace, in the first set.

Federer’s service level dipped inthe second set and 32-year-oldDjokovic earned his first breakpoint of the match in the fourthgame, which the Swiss saved.

In the next game Djokovicslipped to 15-40 and sailed a fore-hand long to give Federer his secondbreak of the match. The Swiss brokeonce more to close out victory.

Djokovic had won his past fivemeetings with Federer, includingtheir epic five-set battle in the finalat Wimbledon in July.

“He was the better player in allaspects and absolutely deserved to

win,” said Djokovic.“He served great,moved well,returned myserve verywell.... He dide v e r y t h i n gright.”

�� 04�A�+4�A�

Indian ace Kidambi Srikanth progressed to the semi-finals of the $400,000 Hong Kong Open after

Olympic champion Chen Long of China decided toquit the contest owing to an injury, here on Friday.

Unseeded Srikanth, ranked 13th in the world, wasleading by a game when Chen decided to concede thematch, thus handing the Indian a place in the last-fourof a BWF World Tour event for the first time sinceMarch.

The last time Srikanth crossed the quarterfinalstage was at the India Open Super 500. He had fin-ished runners-up at the event.

The former world No 1 will next face localfavourite Lee Cheuk Yiu today.

Lee defeated former world champion ViktorAxelsen of Denmark 21-14, 21-19 in another quarter-final. Srikanth had beaten the 23-year-old Lee instraight games at the India Open last year in their onlycareer meeting.

�� /�( �0'

Minutes after the Blue Tigers secured a point againstAfghanistan, thanks to the late equaliser from

Seiminlen Doungel in added time, coach Igor Stimac shift-ed his focus to Muscat where his wards are slated to face-off with Oman at the Sultan Qaboos Sports Complexin Muscat, Oman on Tuesday (November 19, 2019).

“Oman are much better now than the team weplayed against in Guwahati. We know for a factthat match is going to be very difficult forus. We need to see how quickly we recov-er after the difficult game that we hadjust played,” Stimac mentioned afterIndia played a 1-1 draw withAfghanistan at the CentralRepublican Stadium in Dushanbe.

“We have many new young play-ers coming through and it’ll be difficultto expect great results from them imme-diately. I have enough players in my dispos-al and I’m not afraid to put an all-new teamagainst Oman,” Stimac further added.

“Earlier, it was not very common when Indiaused to come back after conceding. In the last twogames we came back and snatched points in thedying minutes. It clearly shows that we are not ready

�7�� 4�(4�2)�3'�

The Euro 2020 line-up began to takeshape on Thursday after big-hittersFrance and England qualified for

next year’s finals alongside Turkey and theCzech Republic.

World champions France reached thetournament without having to kick a ballthanks to Turkey sealing their own qual-ification after a goalless draw with Icelandin the day’s early match.

Chelsea outcast Olivier Giroud thenmoved to within two international goalsof France great Michel Platini with a latepenalty that ensured a comeback win overa Moldova side ranked 175th in theworld.

The scrappy victory at a chilly Stadede France put Didier Deschamps’ side twopoints ahead of Turkey at the top of GroupH ahead of their final match at Albania onSunday.

The celebratory mood was initially

dampened when Vadim Rata punishedabject defending to give Moldova a shockninth-minute lead.

However Raphael Varane levelled forthe hosts 10 minutes before break despitefurious protests from the Moldovan play-ers and their coach, who were convincedGiroud had fouled goalkeeper AlexeiKoselev in the build-up.

Giroud then slotted home his 39thFrance goal from the spot in a confidentmanner that defied the fact he has onlyplayed 20 minutes for Chelsea since lastmonth’s international break.

“I could and should have scoredbefore the penalty. We quite simply did-n’t get off to the start we should have done,”Giroud told French television.

�� Harry Kane fired England into the

Euros in style with a hat-trick that helpedthe 2018 World Cup semi-finalists disman-tle poor Montenegro 7-0 at Wembley.

Kane struck his treble in the first halfas Gareth Southgate’s side racked up fivebefore the break in England’s 1000thmatch, making light of the absence ofRaheem Sterling, who was dropped bySouthgate earlier in the week after an alter-cation with teammate Joe Gomez.

“We wanted to put on a show in our1,000th game and with five goals in the firsthalf I think we did that,” said Kane.

England displayed the firepower thatwill make them one of the favourites fornext year’s European Championship asthey sealed top spot in Group A.

Thursday’s demolition took them to 33goals in seven qualifying matches follow-ing Tammy Abraham’s first internationalgoal, further strikes from Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Marcus Rashford and anown goal from Aleksandar Sofranac.

Kane meanwhile moved sixth in theall-time list of England goalscorers by tak-ing his tally for the qualifying campaignto 11.

The Czech Republic followedEngland into the tournamentafter coming from behind tobeat third-placed Kosovo 2-1.

They join former WorldCup winners Spain and Italy,who kick off the multi-hosttournament at Rome’s StadioOlimpico on June 12, darkhorses Belgium, Poland,Russia and Ukraine.

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Reigning European championsPortugal were made to wait for theirplace despite Cristiano Ronaldo hittinghis ninth international hat-trick in a6-0 thrashing of Lithuania in Faro.

Pizzi, Goncalo Paciencia andBernardo Silva rounded off an easywin that keeps Portugal second inGroup B behind already-qualifiedUkraine and one point clear ofthird-placed Serbia, who beatLuxembourg 3-2.

They will secure their spot atnext year’s finals with a victory inLuxembourg tomorrow.

Ronaldo has now scored 98international goals after a seventh-minute penalty, a superb curlingeffort midway through the first halfand a simple finish in the 65thminute, and the Juventus attacker willbe hoping to become the second-everplayer to reach 100 this weekend.

The Netherlands and four-timeworld champions Germany will makeadd to an already mouth-wateringlineup today should they make it out ofGroup C.

Ronald Koeman’s resurgent Dutchneed just a draw atNorthern Irelandtoday to guar-antee a spotat their firstinternation-al tourna-ment sincecoming thirdat the 2014World Cup.

J o a c h i mLoew’s Germany meanwhile haveto better the Northern Irish’sresult if they are to make thefinals.

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Ben Stokes admitted on Friday he isnot interested in captaining England

in the future.Stokes has emerged as one of the

most charismatic and exciting Englandstars for decades, but the all-rounder isn’tkeen to shoulder the extra responsibil-ity of the captaincy.

After playing a key role in England’shistoric first 50-over World Cup victo-ry earlier this year, Stokes also shone inthe Ashes series against Australia.

He currently serves as deputy to Testskipper Joe Root, but doesn’t believe hewould thrive as the team’s leader.

“That’s not an aspiration of mine. It’sjust not one of those things I’m desper-ate to do,” Stokes told the BBC’s Todayprogramme.

“I’m very happy at the momentbeing vice-captain, we’ve got a greatleader in Joe.

“You never know how you handlethe pressure of being England captainunless you do it. Being the Test captainof England — so much pressure comeswith it.

“It’s a huge burden to carry becauseeverything falls back on you, especiallyif it goes bad, and you never know howyou’ll handle that pressure until you walkout onto the field as England captain.

“So I’ve got no idea how I’d handleit if I did it but, as I say, it’s not an aspi-ration of mine.”

Stokes, 28, is on tour with Englandin New Zealand at present as he looksto finish a memorable year on a highnote.

While he doesn’t like the idea ofbeing a captain, when he eventuallyretires, Stokes would welcome a coach-ing role.

“I guess there always comes a timewhen you have to start seriously think-ing about it and I always say I’d love tobe a coach in the future,” he added.

“But I’m still only 28, I have got plen-ty of years in the tank hopefully. But I’dlove to stay in the game somehow andif that was as a coach I’d love to do that.”

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to give up until the final whistle,” Stimac comment-ed.

“This is a primary trait of a football team wholoves to challenge themselves. We are a team whoprefers to push their limits when they’re behind — thatmakes me proud.”

“Whoever watched the match, must have enjoyed.It was an action-packed exciting match. In the end,

neither of us could have been happy with a draw butthat’s how it is. I feel we deserved more. We cre-ated a few more chances than Afghanistan and so,we deserved at least a point if not three,” theCroatian coach analysed.

Seminlen Doungel, who was introduced inthe 77th minute at the expense of Pritam Kotalblasted the back of the net to provide much-need-ed relief to the Indian dugout. The agile midfield-er expressed his “joy and satisfaction” after scor-ing the equaliser which earned India their con-secutive third draw in the campaign.

“A footballer always nurtures a dream of rep-resenting his country. I’m no different and then scor-ing for your country when it was needed, gives meimmense joy and satisfaction. But, it’s just the start-ing of the journey for me, I need to keep my headdown and continue the good work as long as pos-sible,” a humble Len spoke.

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Chris Lynn, David Miller, Jaydev Unadkatand Chris Morris were among the 71

players released by their respective fran-chisees on Friday ahead of next month’s IPLauction.

Friday was the deadline for releasing,trading and retaining players. A total of 127players have been retained including 35 for-eigners.

Lynn, the big-hitting Australian open-er, was released by Kolkata Knight Ridersafter five fruitful seasons when he got theteam off to a flying start on umpteen occa-sions.

The other 10 released KKR playersinclude West Indian Carlos Brathwaite,South African Anrich Nortje, former Indiaplayers Piyush Chawla and Robin Uthappa,who struggled to get going last season.

Kings XI Punjab go into the auction onDecember 19 with a purse of �42.70 crore,the biggest among the eight teams after theyreleased eight players including SouthAfrica’s Miller, Englishman Sam Curran andmystery Tamil Nadu spinner VarunChakravarthy, who was bought for a whop-ping �8.4 crore last year.

Miller went on to become one of the bat-ting mainstays for Kings XI Punjab over the

past eight seasons, scoring 1850 runs in 79games at a strike rate of 138.78.

“Kings XI Punjab now have the high-est salary cap available going into the auc-tion while Royal Challengers Bangalore havethe most number of player slots (12) avail-able (including 6 overseas slots). After today’sdeadline, Chennai Super Kings have thelargest squad size (20),” read a BCCI state-ment.

“Of the eight franchises, RoyalChallengers Bangalore (12) have released themost players while Sunrisers Hyderabad (5)have released the least players from theirsquad,” it added.

Defending champions Mumbai Indians

have retained 18 players including veteranSri Lankan pacer Lasith Malinga despite hisfitness issues while releasing 12.

Among the released players are

Australian fast bowler Jason Behrendorffand Alzarri Joseph of West Indies, NewZealand’s Adam Milne, Beuran Hendricksand Ben Cutting.

Former India all-rounder Yuvraj Singh,who quit all forms of cricket including IPLearlier this year, has also been released.

Kiwi seamer Trent Boult, WestIndian Sherfane Rutherford andMumbai pacer Dhawal Kulkarniare the three trade-ins for thefranchise.

Three-time IPL championsChennai Super Kings havereleased England cricketers SamBillings and David Willey besidesthree Indian players including2015 World CupperMohit Sharma. With 20players already in theirsquad, CSK go into theauction with a meagrepurse of �14.60 crore.

Virat Kohli-ledRoyal ChallengersBangalore have let go oftheir 12 players includ-ing seven foreigners.The big namesreleased are SouthAfrican pacer DaleSteyn, New Zealandall-rounder Colin deG r a n d h o m m e ,Australian Marcus

Stoinis and West Indies batsman ShimronHetmyer. They roughly have �28 crore towork with at the auction.

Delhi Capitals, who had traded inRavichandran Ashwin and Ajinkya Rahanefrom KXIP and Rajasthan Royals respective-ly, have retained young Prithvi Shaw whosedoping ban ends on Friday. There was spec-ulation over Shaw being traded to the Royals.

The Delhi franchise has released nineplayers including two South Africans, all-rounder Morris and power-hitter ColinIngram. New Zealand top-order batsman

Colin Munro has also been released andso has been India’s Test specialistHanuma Vihari.

Rajasthan Royals have released 11players including pacer JaydevUnadkat, whom they had boughtback for �8.4 crore last year after pay-ing �11.5 crore for him in the previous

season.The franchise also

announced that starAustralian batsman

Steve Smith will con-tinue to lead the team.

S u n r i s e r sHyderabad havereleased the least

number of play-ers — five —and theyinclude ShakibAl Hasan, who

has been bannedby the ICC, New

Zealand opener MartinGuptill, Deepak Hooda

and Yusuf Pathan.

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The fast-rising JemimahRodrigues starred with

the bat after India’s spinnerswreaked havoc to set up aseries-clinching seven-wick-et win over the West Indies ina low-scoring third women’sT20 International in Guyana.

The spinners restrictedWest Indies to a paltry 59 for9 in the stipulated 20 oversbefore Rodrigues played anunbeaten innings of 40 (51balls) to take India home with20 balls to spare and for theloss of just three wickets.

The triumph sealedIndia’s second consecutive

T20 series win. They hadbeaten South Africa at homelast month.

Spinners Radha Yadav(2/6), Deepti Sharma (2/12),Poonam Yadav (1/8) and

Anuja Patil (1/13) were thearchitect of the win that reaf-firmed India’s supremacyover West Indies, who havenow lost six T20Internationals on the trot.

�� /�( �0'�

Mahendra Singh Dhoni has hitthe nets in his hometown

Ranchi but it is unlikely that thetalismanic former captain willmake himself available for theupcoming limited-overs homeseries against the West Indiesnext month.

Dhoni, who has not played acompetitive game since the WorldCup semifinal against NewZealand in July, had a net sessionat the JSCA Stadium in Ranchi onThursday, raising hopes of a come-back.

However, he remains unavail-able for the three T20s and asmany ODIs against the WestIndies starting December 6 in

Mumbai.“He is not available for the

West Indies series,” a BCCI officialsaid on Friday.

Ever since that World Cupsemifinal loss to New Zealand,Dhoni's future has been a subjectof intense speculation but theplayer himself has not spoken aword on it.

Host broadcaster Star Sportswanted Dhoni to commentate inIndia’s first-ever day-night Test,against Bangladesh, fromNovember 22-26, but he will notbe doing that as he remains a con-tracted player of the BCCI

As per the existing constitu-tion, Dhoni commentating wouldhave also amounted to conflict ofinterest.

�� '�(43 �

Opener Mayank Agarwal grind-ed a below-par Bangladeshbowling unit with a career-best

second double hundred as Indiaburied the visitors under a deluge ofruns on the second day of the open-ing Test here on Friday.

Agarwal’s third Test hundred,

243 off 330 balls, formed the corner-stone of India’s 493 for 6, which gavethe home side a sizeable lead of 343runs.

Friday solely belonged to Agarwal,who in this particular innings, man-aged to overshadow a batting line-upthat has Rohit Sharma (6), CheteshwarPujara (54 off 72 balls), skipper ViratKohli (0) and Ajinkya Rahane (86 off

172 balls) in its ranks.Agarwal’s partnership of 91 for the

second wicket with Pujara and 190 forthe fourth wicket with Rahane werehowever important in the context ofthe Indian innings.

A whirlwind partnership of 123 in23.5 overs with Ravindra Jadeja (60batting) for the fifth wicket onlyadded insult to injury for Bangladesh.

The match might be over insidethree days if India declare overnight.

Bangladesh’s brittle batting line-up may not have the mental capacityto withstand India’s pace barrage iffirst innings was any indicator.

For Agarwal, his voraciousappetite for runs, carefully cultivatedthrough solid performances at thedomestic and India ‘A’ level, is payingdividends.

Exactly one year ago, Agarwalwas in the fringe, scoring those“Daddy Hundreds” but lost out to theprodigious talent of Prithvi Shaw, whowas given preference and a headstartat the international arena.

Destiny, however, had other plansas Shaw got injured and also lost a bitof focus. That was the openingAgarwal was looking for and he isshowing with each innings that he isnot going anywhere too soon.

The Shubman Gills and theShaws may have to wait a wee bitlonger.

Having scored those tough runsDown Under, Agarwal has nowearned the right to consolidate hisplace with some heavy duty scoring.And he is doing that exactly.

It did help that Bangladesh gottheir bowling combination awfullywrong.

On a pitch, where someone withexpress pace and variation was need-ed, the visitors fielded two specialistspinners in left-arm orthodox TaijulIslam (0/120 in 28 overs) and off-spinner Mehidy Hasan Miraj (1/115in 27 overs).

The spin duo was like lambs forslaughter as Agarwal went after them

with all his might.All the eight sixes that he hit came

off the two spinners. This apart, healso hit 28 boundaries during hiscareer-best international score.

The coveted double hundredcame by lofting Miraj over long-onwhile the stand-out six was an insideout over extra cover off Taijul. Thenthere was one down the ground anda couple over long-off.

The spinners were either bowlingtoo short or too full outside the off-stump. At one stage, Miraj, a formerBangladesh U-19 captain, complete-ly lost confidence as he started com-ing round the wicket.

The negative field placement foran off-spinner — a deep point for sav-ing a cut shot and deep square leg forsaving a pull-shot — was a reflectionof Bangladesh’s approach.

Abu Jayed (4/108 in 25 overs) wasthe only bowler, who showed someheart getting the wickets of Pujara,Kohli and Rahane but his new ballEbadot Hossain (1/115 in 31 overs)neither had pace nor the variation totrouble the Indian batsmen.

They attacked him at will anddefended when they found it neces-sary.

The lack of pace also became afactor and the pitch on which Indianpacers looked menacing, Bangladesh’smedium pacers merely went throughthe motions.

Each boundary left their shoul-ders dropping further and by the timeAgarwal was out trying to hit hisninth six, the visitors had resigned tothe fate that the remainder of this Testmatch will now be a mere formality.

��'�(43 �

The slump in form that heendured early in his career

has taught Mayank Agarwalto make hay while the sunshines and he did exactly thatagainst Bangladesh, smashinga career-best 243 on the sec-ond day.

For someone whose con-sistency was an issue someyears ago, Agarwal has nowscored two double hundredsin his last four Test appear-ances. And he wants to makeevery opportunity count tillthis kind of dream form lasts.

“I think it goes down tounderstanding that there hadbeen times when I have notgot runs. So I must respect thegame that I am batting well.When I am doing that I haveto make sure that I make it bigand put the team in driver’sseat or put it in such a posi-tion that they cannot losefrom there,” Agarwal saidafter the second day’s play.

There are players onwhom selectors would puntpurely on talent and there aresome like Agarwal, who hadto break the door open witha mountain of runs.

Asked if it makes himmore aware that he mightalways have to score morethan say a Prithvi Shaw to bein the mix, Agarwal spokeabout how “his journey is dif-ferent from others.”

“I don’t look at it that way.My journey is not going to besame as someone else’s and Idon’t like comparing two peo-ple’s journey because some-body might get chance quick-ly and somebody might getchance late,” he said.

“But that (chance) is notunder our control and it is

important to understand thethings that are in my controland think I’m glad to play forthe country and from therebuild on.”

The opener gave a peekinto his mindset as he wentonto build a marathon knockwith 28 fours and eight sixes.

“I think it goes down togameplan. Who you are feel-ing comfortable against andwho you want to attack andthen pick the right balls. Youcan’t just say that okay I amgoing to hit each and everyball. You can’t do that. It’s notgoing to happen that way,” hesaid.

“It’s a case of understand-ing, okay, this is the bowler Iam playing well today and thisis the ball that I can go after.Pick those balls and thenhave mental discipline tobuild your innings on that.”

He, however, agreed thatsecond day was better forbatting compared to the firstday.

“The wicket has settleddown compared to what itwas yesterday. It got better tobat on as there is good bounceand good value for yourshots.”

He said that his skipperwanted him to continue andget a triple hundred but he gotout going for a ninth maxi-mum.

“I could have playedlonger. But the ball was in theslot. The captain was backingyou and he wanted the bestfor me more than what hewants from himself. That is abig thing,” said Agarwal.

So how does Mayankunwind after a hard day?“Mayank Plays Pub G,” hereplied and broke into laugh-ter.

�� '�(43

Senior India cricketers RohitSharma, Cheteshwar Pujara

and Ravichandran Ashwin gota first feel of playing with thepink ball under lights during aday-end net session at theHolkar Stadium on Friday.

With only two training ses-sions are possible under lightsbefore the day/night Test at theEden Gardens startingNovember 22, the Indian teamis trying to make most of thetime at their disposal.

Couple of days before thefirst Test, skipper Virat Kohli andother top-order batsmen had athrowdown session in the after-noon but Friday was the firsttime when they had a nearly 35-minute session under lights.

It was opener Rohit and pre-mier spinner Ashwin, whospend considerable time in oneof the nets with head coach RaviShastri keeping a close watch onthe proceedings.

Skipper Virat Kohli spokeabout adjusting to the newcolour under lights and that pre-cisely was the exercise as the two

senior players faced each other.Ashwin bowled with the

semi-new ball as Rohit andlater Pujara also had a go. In theother nets, reserve batsmenHanuma Vihari and ShubmanGill faced throwdown expertsRaghavendra and NuwanSeneviratne.

But it was the first net onwhich all eyes were trained onas Rohit was seen trying to giveAshwin the charge. Rohit andPujara took turns to face Ashwinand Kuldeep Yadav.

Kuldeep incidentally wasvery effective during the firstDuleep Trophy that was playedwith pink Kookaburra balls asthe batsmen were unable to pickthe seam when the left-armwrist spinner would flight thedeliveries.

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�� ChaitanyaBishnoi, David Willey, Dhruv Shorey,Mohit Sharma, Sam Billings, ScottKuggeleijn. (Purse remaining: �14.60crores)�� Ankush Bains, BandaruAyyappa, Chris Morris, Colin Ingram,Colin Munro, Hanuma Vihari, JalajSaxena, Manjot Kalra, Nathu Singh.(Purse remaining: � 27.85 crores)�� Agnivesh Ayachi,Andrew Tye, David Miller, MoisesHenriques, Prabhsimran Singh, SamCurran, Varun Chakaravarthy. (Purseremaining: � 42.70 crores)�� AnrichNortje, Carlos Brathwaite, Chris Lynn, JoeDenly, KC Cariappa, Matt Kelly, NikhilNaik, Piyush Chawla, Prithvi Raj Yarra,Robin Uthappa, Shrikant Mundhe. (Purseremaining: � 35.65 crores)�� Adam Milne, AlzarriJoseph, Barinder Sran, Ben Cutting,

Beuran Hendricks, Evin Lewis, JasonBehrendorff, Pankaj Jaswal, Rasikh Dar,Yuvraj Singh. (Purse remaining: � 13.05crores)�� Aryaman Birla,Ashton Turner, Ish Sodhi, JaydevUnadkat, Liam Livingstone, OshaneThomas, Prashant Chopra, RahulTripathi, Shubham Ranjane, Stuart Binny,Sudhesan Midhun. (Purse remaining: �28.90 crores)�� Akshdeep Nath, Colin de Grandhomme,Dale Steyn, Heinrich Klassen, HimmatSingh, Kulwant Khejroliya, MarcusStoinis, Milind Kumar, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Prayas Ray Barman, ShimronHetmyer, Tim Southee. (Purse remain-ing: � 27.90 crores)�� DeepakHooda, Martin Guptill, Ricky Bhui,Shakib Al Hasan, Yusuf Pathan. (Purseremaining: � 17 crores)

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