ˇˆ ˙ rni regn. no. chheng/2012/42718, postal reg. no ... been living in maruti kunj ......

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Aseven-year-old boy study-ing in Class 2 at Ryan

International School inGurugram’s Bhondsi area wasfound murdered inside theschool’s washroom with histhroat slit on Friday morning.Acting swiftly, police arrestedschool bus conductor AshokKumar for the murder of the boy identified asPradyuman Thakur.

Police said Pradyuman,was murdered soon after hisfather Varun Thakur, droppedhim and his sister, a fifth stan-dard student at the sameschool, off at the gate of RyanInternational.

Police said some studentsfound Pradyuman lying in apool of blood in the bathroomlocated close to the main lobbyof the school at around 8:10 am.Pradyuman’s throat had beenslit and a kitchen knife with awooden handle was found nextto his blood-soaked body.Horrified students alerted theteachers and the school man-agement informed the police.

“The boy was rushed toArtemis Hospital, where hewas declared brought dead bydoctors,” Manish Sehgal, thespokesman of Gurugram Policesaid. Police immediatelydetained ten people, includinga gardener and bus drivers andconductors, for questioning.

Sumit Kuhar, DCP Crime,Gurugram said, “All ten wereput to sustained questioningand later school bus conductorAshok Kumar was arrested for

the murder of the child.”Relating the sequence of

events Deputy Commissionerof Police (Traffic), SimardeepSingh, said, “Bus conductorAshok Kumar, a resident ofGhamdoj Village was workingwith the school for the last fourmonths. On Friday morning hewent inside the washroom toclean the knife which he hadfound in the bus. In the wash-room he saw two schoolboysbut didn’t do anything. When

Pradyuman reached the wash-room he dragged him insidethe toilet and tried to sexuallyassault him. When the childraised an alarm he killed theboy. Later, when the policearrested Kumar, the two boysidentified the accused.”

“We are investigating howthe knife was allowed to bebrought into the school. We arealso investigating if any otherperson apart from the bus con-ductor was involved in thecrime. Also, three people havebeen detained for further ques-tioning,” the DCP said.

“Pradyuman’s throat wasslashed and there were injurymarks on his body as well.

There were blood spots evenoutside the bathroom wherethe crime was committed,” saida police officer.

“The deceased receivedtwo cut marks on the right sideof his neck. One was an initialcut but the second gash wasdeep. It almost severed theentire neck. Excessive bloodloss due to haemorrhagecaused the death”, said forensicexpert Deepak Mathur, whoconducted the post-mortemof the child.

As news of the murderbegan spreading, hundreds ofanxious parents barged into theschool building and broke fur-niture and glass cases. They

shouted slogans until the policereached the spot and restoredorder. Angry over the murder,parents protested outside thepolice station asking for strin-gent punishment for the guilty.

Recalling the tragedy,Varun Thakur said, “On Fridaymorning I dropped my son anddaughter off at the school gate.At around 8.10 am my wifereceived a call from school-teacher Anju Dudeja informingher about a serious injury toour son. We were asked tocome to Artemis Hospital.”

“When I reached the hos-pital my son was declaredbrought dead by the doctors.His throat had been slit and hehad suffered a deep gash on hisbody,” Thakur said.

“The school management isresponsible for this heinouscrime. If they cannot providesecurity to the students why dothey run the school? I lost myson because of the school’sirresponsibility. I urge the policeto take strict action against theculprits,” a visibly angry andinconsolable Thakur said.

Pradyuman’s last rites willbe done on Saturday after hisgrandparents arrive fromBihar’s Madhubani district.

“My parents had not metmy son since his birth. Theyjust want to see their grandsonbefore his last rites were con-ducted,” Thakur said.

Pradyuman’s parents havebeen living in Maruti KunjSociety in Gurugram for thelast seven years. Pradyuman’sfather is a senior executive at anexport house in Kherki Daula.

Continued on Page 4

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Alarge posse of securityforces under the supervi-

sion of retired judge AKS Pawarappointed by the Punjab andHaryana High Court enteredthe Dera Sacha Sauda sectheadquarters at Sirsa to unrav-el its dirty secrets on Friday asfive children, including twominors, were rescued whilehard disk drives, unlabelledmedicines, walkie-talkie unreg-istered luxury car, old and newcurrency notes were seized.

Children were handed overto the district authorities.

Some rooms were alsosealed during the first day ofsanitisation process of SirsaDera headquarters of jailed rapeconvict Gurmeet Ram Rahimwith searches to be videotaped.

Nearly ten days back, asmany as 18 minor girls werealso taken out from the Derasect headquarters near by theDistrict Administration, Sirsaand the girls were sent to childprotection institutes.

There have been severalreports of minor girls and boysgoing missing inside the Deraand parents of such missingchildren had registered com-plaints after the conviction ofDera chief Ram Rahim.

“The search operationbegan around 9 am and peace-fully concluded around 6.30pm on the Dera headquarterpremises. It will resume againon Saturday,” district DeputyCommissioner Prabhjot Singhtold the mediapersons.

Also, he said the forensic

team has begun its investiga-tion in Gurmeet Ram Rahim’sinfamous gufa (cave) inside theDera headquarters.

Haryana’s Information andPublic Relations DeputyDirector, Satish Mehra, told themediapersons that some roomshave been sealed, computerhard disk drives, unlabelledmedicines recovered, old andnew currency notes, unregis-tered luxury car, an OB vanhave been recovered during thesearch operation.

Though officials involvedin the search operationremained tight-lipped aboutthe shocking recoveries madeinside on Friday, there arereports that the plastic coins ortokens, which are a part of par-allel currency coin system runby Dera were also seized dur-ing the search operation.

The search operation began

14 days after the conviction ofDera Sacha Sauda chief in arape case on August 25.

Continued on Page 4

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Now air travellers can face aban from flying for a peri-

od ranging from three monthsto lifetime for unruly behaviouron plane as the Civil AviationMinistry on Friday directed air-lines to create a “No Fly” list, amove aimed at tackling increas-ing incidents of misbehaviourby passengers on flights.

The tough directive from

the Ministry comes at a timewhen representations arereceived by the Governmentfrom various quarters aboutthe absence of any mode forproper redressal of grievancesof passengers, especially incase he/she has been bannedfrom travelling by a particu-lar airline.

The quantum of punish-ment is based on the severity ofoffence, which has been divid-

ed into three categories. Thefirst category of disruptivebehaviour includes verbalassault and carries a ban of 3months, the second includesphysical attack with a ban of sixmonths and the third and mostserious category comprises life-threatening behaviour as wellas sexual harassment with aban ranging from two years ormore without upper limit.

Continued on Page 4

New Delhi: In a first in thearmed forces, the Army hasdecided to induct women assoldiers or jawans. To startwith, 800 of them will berecruited for the Corps ofMilitary Police. At present,women serve as officers in theArmy, Indian Air Force (IAF)and the Navy. The recruit-ment of women jawans willbegin in a phased manner withselection and training of 52candidates every year.

The plan to induct womenas jawans is seen as a major steptowards breaking gender barri-ers. The decision was announcedhere on Friday during the ArmyChiefs’ Conclave. Former chiefsattend this conclave where theincumbent chief briefs themabout the current developmentsin the Service, officials said here.The Indian Army has morethan ten lakh troops but does nothave women as jawans. It is thesame with the IAF (60,000) andNavy (50,000).

The three Services hadopened the doors for womenofficers in 1992. At present,there are nearly 550 womenofficers in the Navy, 1,400 in theIAF and nearly the same num-ber in the Army. PNS

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In a bid to bring a relief to taxpayers, especially for aam

aadmi, the newly-formed allpowerful Goods and ServicesTax (GST) Council is likely toannounce affordable tax ratesby lowering GST on a numberof commonly-used items.

Besides, it is also expectedthat the Council may hike thequantum of cess on luxury andmid-size cars in its 21st meet-ing which is scheduled to beheld at Hyderabad on Saturday.

According to officials, GSTon over two dozen products,

including commonly-usedfood items like idli, dosa bat-ter, dried tamarind, custardpowder and kitchen acces-sories like gas lighterand others will be low-ered after some taxanomalies were foundin their fixations.

“Besides car cesshike and tax on somecommonly-used items,various issues concernedwith traders and businesshouses by States are likely to betaken up in the Saturday’s meet-ing. The GST Council will alsotake up some IT-related issuesin the GST network which has

f a c e dg l i t c h e s ,”

they said. It is, however, learnt that

the GST Council, chaired by

Finance Minister Arun Jaitleyand comprising his State coun-terparts, will be seriously look-ing into issues on anti-profi-teering business in which theCouncil will formulate a mech-anism to deal with their busi-

ness that are deregistering theirbrands to avoid taxes after therollout GST from July 1.

Unbranded food items areexempted from GST, whereasbranded and packaged fooditems attract 5 per cent rate.Hence, many businesses arederegistering their brands toavoid the levy.

As far as car cess is con-cerned, it will take centrestagein the meeting and the quan-tum of hike in cess on a rangeof cars from mid-sized tohybrid variants would befinalised in the meeting. TheCouncil had in its last meetingon August 5 approved hike incess on mid, large size cars,SUVs, hybrid and luxury onesto up to 25 per cent, from 15 percent. An ordinance to hike thecess rate has been promulgated

and the Council will now lookat the quantum of hike.

Even as automakersprotested the hike and demand-ed to bring down the cess to acomfort level, but the Councilis likely to go ahead to rectify theanomaly where rates of certaincommon-use items had gone upbut luxury cars were costing lessunder the new regime.

Car prices had dropped byup to Rs 3 lakh following theimplementation of the GSTfrom July 1. This cess has beenhiked to up to 25 per centnow on certain categories.Also a new category hasbeen introduced in theAct wherein motor vehi-cles which have capacityto transport up to 13persons would attract25 per cent cess.

The highest pre-GST taxincidence on motor vehiclesworked out to about 52-54.72per cent, to which 2.5 per centwas added on account ofCentral Sales Tax and octroi.

Against this, post-GST thetotal tax incidence came to 43per cent. Under the GSTregime, which replaced over adozen Central and State leviesin the biggest tax reform sinceIndependence, cars attractthe top tax rate of

28 per cent or above. On top ofthis, a cess of 1 to 25 per centhas been levied for the creationof a corpus to compensateStates for any loss of revenuefrom implementation of GST.

It is also expected that var-ious States are likely to raise theissue of the technology back-bone prepared by GST

Networks (GSTN) andhow the maidenreturn filing fared.

Due to hugerush of July GSTR-

3B return filing on the penul-timate date, the GSTN softwarehad witnessed some glitchesand the last date of filing hadto be extended. Also, the dateof final return filing for GSTR-1 was extended to September10 in view of rush in invoiceuploading.

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To ascertain responsibilityon quality of education of

students under Dr APJ AbdulKalam Education QualityMovement, SeniorSuperintendent of Police,Mahasamund, NehaChampawat on Friday tookclasses in a Primary School ofKocharra village of Pithorablock of Mahasamund districtin Chhattisgarh.

According to information,this was the third year of thefour-year movement and theSenior SP, Neha Champawat,fulfilled her responsibility forquality education and gaugedthe outcome from the stu-dents according to their classsyllabus, officials informed.

Champawat also inspectedthe Primary School, Kocharraof Pithora Block and mea-sured the “Learning Outcome”from the students. A mentalevaluation as per the class syl-labus is done under the move-ment.

Sparing time from her busyschedule, the police officerwent to the classes of studentsand discussed about the basic

knowledge. She also asked questions to

the students from their syllabusand the students replied smart-ly. The students who gaveanswers were also rewardedwith prizes.

The mental level as per

“Student Development Index”of the students during theinspection was found satisfac-tory in this third year of eval-uation. The last and fourth levelof inspection would be done inJanuary 2018 for the same stu-dents, sources informed.

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Congress on Friday allegedthat “chaos” has gripped

the country after a hasty imple-mentation of the Goods andServices Tax (GST), which ledto a dip in States' revenues.Congress chief spokesmanRandeep Surjewala, along withPunjab Finance MinisterManpreet Badal and KarnatakaMinister Krishna Byre Gowda,said the party would raise con-cerns of the textile sector andthe revenue shortfall of Statesat the meeting of the GSTCouncil on Saturday.

“The Congress party standscommitted to taking up theseissues in the GST Councilthrough the Finance Ministers ofCongress-ruled States,” they saidin a joint statement. Badal said,“There is a lot of pressure onstates. There is pandemonium,there is chaos.” He said there is“chaos” in the domestic manu-facturing sectors such as textiles.

“Punjab was expecting � 1,650 crore in July this yearby way of taxes, but have gotonly �846 crore. There is a rev-enue shortfall of around �800crore and the State has to bor-row money on interest to payup salaries. The Centre, on theother hand, is sitting on ahuge pile of money and isearning interest on it,” he said.

Gowda said that Karnatakahas fallen short of revenues to

the tune of �600 crore in Julyitself, the first month after theGST implementation. The twosaid they would raise the issue“very forcefully” in the meet-ing of the GST Council as the“Congress has serious reserva-tions on a lot of issues”.

They said the GST wasimplemented in haste withoutpreparations, only keepingGujarat elections in mind, and“it has led to a lot of humanhardships”. The Congress lead-ers said while customs dutieson import of textiles was beingreduced from 18 per cent to 5per cent, the tax on domestictextile sector was increased.

They added that in thedomestic sector too, the bigmills and textile manufacturershave benefitted as they have topay less while the small man-ufacturers are discriminatedagainst and will be unable towithstand the competitionfrom imports.They demandedthat the Government considerproviding appropriate relief tosave the textile sector, which isthe most important employ-ment generator and contribu-tor to India's economy.

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The BJP on Friday lashed outat senior Congress leader

Digvijaya Singh for retweetinga meme attacking PrimeMinister Narendra Modi withcrude abuses, saying his com-ments reflect his party's “dis-eased mind”.

The Congressman pref-aced his post by saying it is nothis but he “couldn't help post-ing it.”

“Digvijaya Singh's com-ments on Twitter reflect theCongress party's diseasedmind. They have not onlyinsulted the elected PrimeMinister of this country, butalso the people of India,” saidBJP spokesperson GVLNarasimha Rao.

Singh, who was trolled onthe social media for his tweet,said he was only retweeting apost and “this is not mine”.

The tweet is a meme — ithas a picture of the PM withtwo jokey sentences both ofwhich have cuss words.

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AJanata Dal (United) dele-gation submitted affidavits

of an “overwhelming” numberof the party's elected membersand office-bearers in support ofNitish Kumar's leadership tothe Election Commission (EC)and urged it to reject the claimsof the Sharad Yadav factionover the party's poll symbol.

JD(U) leaders, led by itsParliamentary party leader inthe Rajya Sabha R C PSingh,Rajiv Ranjan Singh,Sanjay Jha and secretary gen-eral K C Tyagi, urged the EC totake an early decision in thematter.

Both factions-ChiefMinister Nitish Kumar and

Sharad Yadav are staking claimover the party symbol forwhich they have sought theEC's intervention.

“We have submitted theaffidavits of all the 71 partyMLAs, all the 30 MLCs, boththe Lok Sabha members andseven of the 10 Rajya Sabhamembers of the party, sup-porting the leadership of NitishKumar,” Tyagi said after meet-ing with EC officials.

Tyagi added that Yadavhad urged the Rajya Sabhachairman to defer the decisionon the JD(U)'s application toannul his membership becausethe EC was yet to take a deci-sion as to which of the rival fac-tions represented the “real”party.

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The BJP on Friday demand-ed to know from the

Congress-ruled KarnatakaGovernment as to why jour-nalist Gauri Lankesh, mur-dered outside her house inBengaluru on Tuesday, wasnot provided with security ashis brother has now claimedthat she was working for thesurrender of the Left-Wingextremists.

Speaking to newspersonshere, senior BJP leader andUnion Minister Ravi ShankarPrasad condemned the“malafide comments” on the“regrettable and unfortunatekilling” of the journalist-activist.

Displaying copies of newsreports of Lankesh's brother,Indrajit Lankesh, claiming thatshe had worked for the sur-render of Naxalites, Prasadasked why the SiddaramaiahGovernment in the State had not provided her security.

“Indrajit Lankesh is onrecord having said publiclythat his sister was workingactively to ensure the surrenderof Naxalites...So was she doingit with consent and approval of

the State Government...And ifso why was she not providedadequate security?” Prasadasked .

It had also been said thatNaxalites were unhappy withthis. “Why was there such asecurity failure by the CongressGovernment in Karnataka?” headded.

Taking on Congress VicePresident Rahul Gandhi,Prasad asked why he had notquestioned his party'sGovernment in the state?

Stating that the BJPrespects everyone's right toexpress their feelings and senseof repulsion, Prasad lashed outagainst “so called liberals ofdouble standards” who remainsilent on the killings of RSSworkers in Karnataka andKerala.

RSS and BJP workers arealso entitled human rights.This hypocrisy and doublestandards need to be exposed,he said.

“Why is that all my all lib-eral friends who speak so elo-quently and strongly against thekilling of a journalist... main-tain conspicuous silence whenso many RSS and BJP workerswere killed in Karnataka andKerala,” he asked.

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Union Housing and UrbanAffairs Minister Hardeep

Singh Puri on Friday advisedNational BuildingsConstruction Corporation(NBCC) to participate in com-mercial bidding for taking upprojects of Indian Missions invarious countries by talking topeople concerned in theExternal Affairs Ministries andMission heads. Complimentingthe Maharatna company for itsrapid growth over the last threeyears with a total work order ofabout �70,000 crore, theMinister asked NBCC CMDAK Mittal to seriously exploreoverseas opportunities. Puricommented on the NBCC dur-ing a review meeting on Friday.He asked NBCC to think evenbigger and increase its inter-national profile in the contextof construction sector havingbeen opened to FDI and con-sider getting listed on foreignbourses, being a three billiondollar company.

The Minister also enquiredabout the core competencies ofNBCC and measures beingtaken to further improve itsefficiency of performance. Heasked Mittal to furnish detailsof employment generation bothformal and informal further toits increasing volume of pro-jects. NBCC is one of the mostsought after companies on the

bourses with the share pricesurging over 80 per cent in thepast one year.

Mittal informed theMinister that NBCC's workorders have increased from�12,000 crore in 2013 to�70,000 crore now with marketcap of over �20,000 crore.NBCC also informed theMinister that it will redevelopSarojini Nagar, Netaji Nagar,Nauroji Nagar projects in the

national capital. The project,with an estimated cost of � 32,835 crore including main-tenance and operation costs for30 years, will be implementedon self-financing basis by saleof commercial built up area of8.07 lakh square metre con-structed in Nauroji Nagar andparts of Sarojini Nagar byNBCC as a part of the project.

NBCC is developing a sim-ilar Rs 5,298-crore GPRA projectin East Kidwai Nagar, with theproject scheduled to be com-

pleted by December 2018. It hasrecently completed a similarGPRA project in New Motibagh.

In June this year, NBCCauctioned a 2.83-lakh sq ftoffice tower with 10 floors in anupcoming commercial projectat Nauroji Nagar in Delhi for � 1,100 crore. The office spacehas been auctioned to fivecompanies - PFC, HDFC,HPCL, SIDBI and EnergyEfficiency Services.

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The Supreme Court on Fridaydirected Tamil Nadu Chief

Secretary to ensure no protestsor agitation takes place in theimplementation of court's orderdirecting all medical admis-sions in the State to be in accor-dance with the results of the AllIndia common entrance testcalled National EligibilityEntrance Test (NEET).

Last month, following theSC order, a medical aspirantcommitted suicide as she lost outthe chance to get admission inmedical college after SupremeCourt verdict. Earlier, the StateGovernment had announcedthat medical seats will be allo-cated giving due weightage to themarks secured by candidates intheir Class 12 exams.Followingher death, protests intensifiedwith political parties jumpinginto the fray and demandingState-wind bandh and agitationto stall admissions. Apprising theCourt of the prevailing scenarioin the State, a petition filed by anadvocate GS Mani demandedthat no agitation or protest

should be allowed. The petitioneven demanded a judicialenquiry into the girl's suicide.

The Bench of Chief JusticeDipak Misra, Justices AMKhanwilkar and DYChandrachud issued notice tothe Chief Secretary and direct-ed the top bureaucrat and thePrincipal Secretary (Home) toensure no individual or groupindulges in violence or disruptslaw and order in any manner inprotest of the SC decision onimplementing NEET. The Courtauthorized the Chief Secretaryto book such persons or groupsunder the appropriate law. TheBench posted the matter forhearing on September 18.

The Bench declined therequest for judicial probe intothe girl's suicide, but allowed thepetition to the extent that itbrooked no dissent to its order.Passing the interim direction,the bench said, “It shall be theobligation of the Chief Secretaryand Principal Secretary of TamilNadu to ensure that no agitationtakes place in relation to theNEET examination that hasbeen upheld by this court.”

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In a respite for homebuyerswho have invested in hous-

ing projects of Unitech, theSupreme Court on Friday toldthe firm's jailed promoterSanjay Chandra that alldemands for return of theinvested money must be com-plete by March next year.

To facilitate reimburse-ment, the Bench headed byChief Justice Dipak Misradirected the counsel forUnitech to sit with amicuscuriae Pawan Agarwal anddraw the list of affected con-sumers across all its housingprojects and their individualentitlements. While on onehand, the homebuyersdemanded return of their hard-earned money, Chandra'scounsel pleaded for his releaseon interim bail in order toarrange the remaining pay-ments to be disbursed. Already,Chandra has invested with theSupreme Court Registry a sumof �20 crore in two installmentsthat will be used to repay the

affected consumers.The Bench, also compris-

ing Justices AM Khanwilkarand DY Chandrachud, assuredChandra's counsel that whenthe list is prepared and pre-sented to the Court next Friday,it will favourably considergranting interim bail. However,it insisted at the same time thatthe demands of all buyers mustbe settled by March 2018.Chandra and his brother Ajayare both facing arrest on acomplaint by a group ofUnitech homebuyers whoalleged forgery and cheating forthe firm's failure to deliverpossession of its Gurugram-based housing project.

On August 11, the DelhiHigh Court refused them inter-im bail and directed them to filea status report. Five buyers of theUnitech's Anthea FloorsWildflower Country project ledby some Delhi residents had fileda complaint for registration ofFIR against the company in2015. Later, 90 more complaintswere received against the firm forthe same project.

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Faced with complaints ofwitnesses being harassed

and targeted in cases of rapeinvolving self-styled godmanAsaram Bapu, the SupremeCourt has asked States to detailwhat measures were availablein such cases under the witnessprotection programme.

The apex court asked thepetitioners, who are witnessesin cases related to Asaram, toarray all States as parties to thepetition in order to seek theirresponse on the protectionprogramme for witnesses inheinous and high-profilecrimes. The Court's directioncame in the wake of the peti-tioners seeking investigationinto instances of attacks anddisappearances of witnesses in

cases against Asaram.“Since in this petition, the

Court is primarily dealing withthe issue pertaining to witnessprotection programme, itwould be appropriate to issuenotice to all other States as well,said a Bench of Justices AKSikri and Ashok Bhushan in itsorder passed last week. TheCourt posted the matter forhearing after four weeks.

The states of Uttar Pradeshand Gujarat, who are alreadyparty in the case, were given alast opportunity to file theirreplies to a plea by four key wit-nesses being tried in Jodhpur.The four witnesses sought SITprobe into the chain of attacksand disappearances of wit-nesses in cases against the con-

troversial godmen and soughtframing of the NationalWitness Protection guidelines.

On March 24, the Courthad asked Uttar Pradesh andHaryana to provide security tothe witnesses residing in theirjurisdictions. While UP hasthree such witnesses, Haryanahas one. The four petitionerswho have approached theCourt include MahinderChawla, a witness in a rape caseallegedly involving AsaramBapu; Naresh Gupta, the fatherof a murdered witness;Karamvir Singh, the father of achild rape victim; andNarender Yadav, a journalistwho allegedly escaped a mur-der attempt.

“A very dangerous sce-nario has emerged whichattacks the heart of our consti-tutional rights and freedoms,where the rich and powerfulaccused openly subvert therule of law and pollute thestreams of justice by murder-ing, attacking and threateningwitnesses with impunity,” the Bench had then commented.

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The Centre is all set tolaunch an ambitious pilot

project in Rajasthan under itsf lagship National HealthMission (NHM) wherein the108 toll-free helpline for ambu-lances will be able to track thecaller's location, ensuring quickmedical assistance, mostly dur-ing golden hour (first 60 min-utes), in emergency situations.

“Currently, lot of time iswasted in looking for locationof the patients in need of crit-ical care. To save the time, weare in talks with Google andtelecom operators to make itpossible to trace the location ofthe caller soon after a call isreceived. GVK, which ispresently operating 108 ser-vices in Rajasthan, is also beingroped in under the project,”said Manoj Jhalani, AdditionalSecretary in the Union HealthMinistry. On a public-privatepartnership basis, the Statehealth department and GVKhave been operating around740 ambulances in Rajasthan.

Once successful, we willreplicate the project in other

States as well, he added. Thereare over 23,000 such ambu-lances operating in the country.

Presently, whenever a callermakes the call on helpline, it isreceived by the call centre.The operator at the call centretakes the address details fromthe caller who is then conect-ed to the ambulance driver. Tillthe ambulance reaches to thelocation, the driver has to callup the caller several timesabout the exact location.

But the scenario may soonchange, said Jhalani adding,“under the new system, assoon as a caller calls on 108helpline number, the call cen-tre operator will be able to trackhis/her location coordinatewith the help of signals fromthe telecom towers. The short-est route will be identified,helping the nearest driver toreach at the correct location in

the shortest time.”Also, the Android plat-

form provided by the googlewill also be utilized where lon-gitude and latitude of the callerscan be identified. The officialsaid that since the facility per-tains to the emergency service,issues like privacy should notbe a big issue.

“We have written to theTelecom Regulatory Authorityof India (TRAI) to look into theprivacy concerns,” Jhalani said.

Naveen Jain, MissionDirector, NHM, Rajasthan,said, “Presently, the responsetime varies from five minutesto 40 minutes depending onthe location, network and manyother issues. With the identifi-cation of the caller location, wecan save crucial time and savethe lives which can be pregnantwomen or road accident vic-tims.”

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Vice-President of India MVenkaiah Naidu on

Friday said that “Neo-liter-ates” will be the ambassadorsof the country's literacy pro-gramme and communitylearning centres that would bedeveloped into hubs of liter-acy learning and communityempowerment. Naidu wasaddressing an event on the51st International LiteracyDay in the Capital.

“It is indeed heartening tonote that every year more thanone crore adult learners appearin the bi-annual learnersassessment tests held across thecountry and that around 6.66crore learners have successful-ly passed the test conducted byNational Institute of OpenSchooling (NIOS) up to March2017, of which about 70 percent are women. I firmlybelieve that these neo-liter-ates, majority of who arewomen, will be the ambas-sadors of our programme lead-ing towards making 'SaaksharBharat' (literate India) a'Saksham Bharat' (capableIndia),” he said.

Asserting that literacy pro-vides the first essential steptowards building a participa-tive, vibrant and a more inclu-sive democracy, Naidu sug-gested ways to achieve univer-sal literacy including improv-ing the quality of pre-primaryand school education and pro-viding opportunities for learn-ing to those who have neverbeen to school or have droppedout of school.

“If we have to move at afaster pace and achieve a lit-

erate world by 2030 and Indiahas to ensure that all youthand a substantial proportionof adults acquire these skills,we may have to review ourpast strategies and after anassessment of what has

worked and what has not,learn from successful exam-ples from within our countryand outside. We may have tochalk out new ways to reachout to those learners whohave not been reached till

now,” Naidu said.The event was also attend-

ed by Union HRD MinisterPrakash Javadekar andMinisters of State for HRDUpendra Singh Kushwaha andSatyapal Singh.

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�� 71+.47

Vice-President VenkaiahNaidu on Friday felici-

tated districts of Dantewadaand Jashpur fromChhattisgarh with NationalLiteracy Awards in New Delhion the 'International LiteracyDay'.

The Vice President alsofelicitated two gram pan-chayats — Karmaha inSurguja district and Temri inRaipur district with AksharBharat Rashtriya Puraskar.

In all, Chhattisgarh Statebagged four prest igiousNational Literacy Awards onFriday. It may be mentionedhere that eleven NationalLiteracy Awards were givenaway on Friday.

The Vice-President saidthat Chhattisgarh was a newState which was making rapidstrides on all parameters ofdevelopment.

He said that cent per centliteracy should be achieved atany cost in the entire countryby the year 2022. Co-opera-tion of all the sections of thesociety is needed to meet thetarget set.

Union Human ResourcesDevelopment MinisterPrakash Javadekar was alsopresent.

Chief Minister RamanSingh congratulated the offi-cers-employees associated

with the Literacy Mission andAkshar Sainiks, panchs-sarpanchs and people of boththe districts-Dantewada andSukma.

Chief Executive OfficerDr Gourav Singh of NationalLiteracy Mission DistrictPanchayat Dantewada andChief Executive OfficerDeepak Soni Jashpur DistrictPanchayat received the awardsat the hands of the Vice-President.

Chief Executive OfficerAnurag Pande of GramPanchayat Karmaha (districtSurguja) and Chief ExecutiveOfficer Tijiya Banjare of GramPanchayat Temri (district-Raipur) received the awards inNew Delhi.

The officer said that

78,000 citizens had been cov-ered under the NationalLiteracy Mission out of a totalof 80 ,208 residents at insur-gency infested Dantewada dis-trict.

Dr Gaurav Singh revealedthat all the 732 jail inmates hadbeen made literates inDantewada district jail. Thedistrict has joined the cent percent Literate districts of thecountry. Stress is being laid onDigital Literacy also.

Jashpur district PanchayatChief Executive OfficerDeepak Tandon said NationalLiteracy Award had been givento the district as Neo-literateshad been aligned with ChiefMinister's Skill DevelopmentProject and Digital Literacyhad been encouraged.

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The Naya RaipurDevelopment Authority

(NRDA) will soon commenceconstruction of building forInstitute of Driving andTraining Research in the newcapital city, officials informed.

Notably, Rajiv GandhiNational Ground WaterTraining Research Institute willalso be established in the newcapital city, officials informed.

Previously United Nations(UN) had also decided to set upa Technology InnovationLaboratory in Naya Raipur inMay this year.

Notably, on June 23 lastyear, the then Union Ministerof State for Power and Coal(Independent charge) PiyushGoyal on his visit to NayaRaipur had also announced toset up an Innovation Lab on thenewly built IIIT campus with-in the next two years.

The move would help stu-dents get an opportunity totake up research and innova-tion projects of their interest, hehad stated.

Goyal was speaking afterinaugurating the IIIT campusbuilding at Naya Raipuradding, it (IIIT) will become acatalyst of growth in IT andTelecom sector.

"The institute will becomea catalyst of growth in

Information Technology andTelecom sector in the comingdays. Not only in Chhattisgarh,but students from this institutewill serve in the entire country,"he had stated.

Spread over 50 acres of land,the state-of-art campus is joint-ly built by Chhattisgarh govern-ment and NTPC Ltd at a cost of�200 crore in Naya Raipur.

"With the collaboration ofNTPC, the State governmentwould establish an InnovationLab in the IIIT premises whererenowned scientists from emi-nent institutes across the worldwill be called to guide the stu-dents to take up research andtechnology projects," he hadstated.

The lab will provide an

opportunity to students to show-case their talent in area ofresearch and innovation and willalso help greatly in discoveringand introducing new technolo-gy in coal, mining, power gen-eration though thermal, solarand wind energy, Goyal said.

Appreciating the IIITbuilding, Goyal had stated, "Itresembles the structure of Belur

Math founded by SwamiVivekanand.I hope the stu-dents will take it as an inspira-tion and excel in their future."

In his address ChiefMinister Raman Singh hadstated that the StateGovernment will take everypossible initiative to make thisinstitute- one of the best insti-tutes of the country, he said.

Higher Education andTechnical Education MinisterPrem Prakash Pandey hadannounced in his address thatin this IIIT, 50 per cent seatswill be reserved for youth ofChhattisgarh, 15 per cent forNTPC and 35 per for studentsfrom across the country andabroad.

Notably, the Naya Raipur

Development Authority(NRDA) is going for furtherdevelopment of Dr ShyamaPrasad MukherjeeInternational Institute ofInformation Technology (IIIT)campus with proposed con-struction of some more newbuildings, officials informed.

Notably, the ChhattisgarhGovernment last year had alsotaken up the task of convertingthe IIIT premises here into a‘Green Campus’.

The task involves plantinga huge number of trees in thecampus of the height of 6 to 7feet besides development of asprawling lawn in the campus.

A large number of avenueplants are being planted in thecampus.

Notably, the intake foradmissions to B.Tech (ECE)and B.Tech (CSE) had beenincreased in the last academicsession by 20 seats each at DrShyama Prasad MukherjeeInternational Institute ofInformation Technology (IIIT).

Previously the seat strengthwas 40 each for courses whichhad now been increased to 60each.

NRDA will also develop aTraining Center for Directorateof Horticulture & FarmForestry in the new capital city,officials informed.

Notably, the ChhattisgarhGovernment has prepared afive-year master plan to provide

a fillip to the cultivation of hor-ticulture based crops in theState.

The master plan is for theperiod 2017-18 to 2021-22,officials informed.

Horticulture is a sunrisesector in the State. TheHorticulture crops cover anacreage of 7.41 lakh hectares andproduction is about 85.95 lakhmetric tonnes, officials informed.

The acreage under horti-culture crops had increasedseveral times since 2004-05.

According to the masterplan, the target is to increaseacerage of horticulture crops byabout 4.52 lakh hectares. Theincrease in acerage will coverfruits, vegetables, masala(spices) crops and flowers.

Under the CentralGovernment's Micro-IrrigationMission Project about 75,000hectares land had been broughtunder micro-irrigation inChhattisgarh. The proposal isto bring in additional 2.34lakh additional land under themicro-irrigation during thenext five years.

An additional investment of�1,405 crore is likely to beincurred on the project.Farmers will be trained in theprocessing of horticulture crops.

Additional training centersin production of horticulturecrops will be established underthe Private Partnership Plan(PPP), officials informed.

�� 71+.47

Coordination Committeemeeting of Chhattisgarh

Pradesh Congress Committee(C GPC C)was heldhere atC o n g r e s sBhawan onFriday.

T h em e e t i n gwas chaired by party’s State In-charge PL Punia.

The meeting discussed indetail about party’s preparationfor Assembly polls next yearand also about the working ofthe ruling BJP Government inthe State.

Punia is on five-day visit ofthe state to strengthen theparty prior to the elections. Hestressed on the need of coordi-nation for the Mission 2018.

A total of 16 members ofthe committee including StatePresident Bhupesh Baghel andLeader of Opposition, TSSinghdeo participated in themeeting whereas NationalTreasurer of the party MotilalVora, MLAs Ramdayal Uike,Pushpa Singh and IngridMcLaud were unable to attendthe meeting.

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�� 71+.47

Chhattisgarh Governmenton Friday assigned new

duties to two IndianAdministrative Service (IAS)officers.

Hemant Kumar Pahare,IAS (2002 batch), Secretary,Chhattisgarh Public ServiceCommission, Raipur has beenposted as Special Secretary,

Culture and TourismDepartment.

Chandrakant Uike, IAS(2008 batch), Joint Secretary,Panchayat and RuralDevelopment Departmentand Joint Director,Chhattisgarh AdministrationAcademy has been posted asSecretar y, Chhatt isgarh Public Ser vice Commission.

�� 71+.47

Director of ChhattisgarhState Power Generation

Company Ltd (CSPGCL) OCKapila has been handed overadditional charge as ManagingDirector (MD) of the company.

He assumed charge onFriday, a CSPGCL press releaseinformed.

Till now SB Agrawal wasthe Managing Director ofCSPGCL who retired recently.

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Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD)on Friday alleged that the

Capt Amarinder Singh-ledPunjab Government had"failed" to keep its poll promis-es and that farmers in the Statewere still "waiting" for thedebt waiver.

To take on the Govern-ment for its "failure", theSAD has decided to launch apeople's movement — thedecision regarding which would be taken by its corecommittee meet ing onSeptember 16.

"SAD will take the StateGovernment to task and thathis party's core committeewould decide on an agitationprogramme on September16," declared SAD presidentSukhbir Badal.

He said that the CongressGovernment has failed towaive farm loans despite awritten commitment by theChief Minister, which washanded over to farmersthrough forms. The samecommitment was reiteratedby Capt Amarinder bothinside and outside the PunjabAssembly, but farmers arestill waiting for waiver ofloan worth �90,000 crore, headded.

"The Government hasalso raised the market feeand rural development cesswhich will affect lakhs of

farmers cultivating crops likebasmati, cotton and vegeta-bles, which are not coveredby the MSP," he said.

Sukhbir pointed that hehad earlier said that wewould give t ime to theGovernment to deliver. "Itwill be completing its sixmonths soon. Their sixmonths can b e b estdescribed as one in whichthey raised false hopes withfalse promises and indulgedin blatant lies, fraud andbetrayal," he said.

Highlighting the "injus-tices" being done to farmers,Sukhbir claimed that 'kurki'(attachment of land) wasstill being done in the Stateas the Government had notamended the relevant clausein the Revenue Act.

"More than 200 farmershave committed suicide, butno family has been given theRs 10 lakh compensation orGovernment jobs. TheGovernment is even resortingto petty politics by releasingbalance payments of sugar-cane procured from farmersin the Gurdaspur parliamen-tary constituency as it isgoing for bypolls," the SADleader said.

The Government hadpromised around 10 lakhjobs every year under the'Ghar Ghar Naukari' pro-gramme, but till now onlyone job of DeputySuperintendent of Police hasbeen given to an "over-age"person, who is former ChiefMinis ter B eant S ingh 'sgrandson, Sukhbir claimed.

He a l leged that theGovernment had appropri-ated the routine placement

drive by technical institu-tions as 'Rozgar Mela'.

He said that it was even

more disturbing that therewas no sanctity of decisionstaken by the Cabinet or those

announced in the Assembly. Announcements of free

mobile phones, unemploy-ment allowances and freez-ing electricity tariff at Rs fiveper unit for new and existingindustry are yet to be imple-mented, he claimed.

Even a decision taken inthe very first Cabinet meet-ing to regularise contractu-al and ad-hoc employees hadnot b een implemented,Sukhbir said.

"The Cabinet decision togive free education to girlsfrom primary to the PhDlevel has also not beenimplemented in this acade-mic session. No money hasbeen allocated for the Rs 100crore start-up fund for youthwhich was announced bythe Chief Minister in theAssembly," he said.

He maintained that thewelfare schemes and devel-opment work, started bySAD-BJP Government, wereeither stopped or madeworthless making the peopleto suffer from its benefits.

On the issue of Satluj-Yamuna Link canal, Sukhbirsaid that Punjab waters werenon-negotiable and askedCapt Amarinder not to agreeto any se tt lement withHaryana.

He also criticised hiscousin and State FinanceMinister Manpreet Badal forbefooling the people by making false promises in themanifesto prepared underhis chairmanship as he knewthe Government's financial position.

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Punjab Chief Minister CaptAmarinder Singh on Friday

flayed Shiromani Akali Dal(SAD) president Sukhbir Badaland his party for unleashing a'negative, anti-people' agendawith their misleading statementsand baseless charges against theCongress Government.

Categorically rejecting theAkali charges of the CongressGovernment backtracking fromits promises, the Chief Ministerblamed the Akalis squarely forthe fiscal mess in the State.

"The financial crisis pre-vailing in the State was a resultof ill-conceived and corruptpolicies of the erstwhile SAD-BJP Government," said the ChiefMinister, adding that this, cou-pled with the delay in GST con-tribution from the Centre, hadled to the delay in salary dis-bursement of Governmentemployees this month.

Hitting out at Sukhbir's alle-gations of non-performance onthe part of the Governmentover the past six months, he said:"The Badals and their associateswere engaged in brazen loot dur-ing the decade of their rule, leav-ing the Government exchequerreeling under an unprecedenteddebt and had the audacity nowto blame the CongressGovernment for the crisis pre-vailing in the State."

Capt Amarinder said that

only had his Government imp-lemented most of the promisesmade by the Congress in itsmanifesto but had done so in theface of severe financial problems."Notwithstanding the econom-ic crisis in the State, his Gov-ernment had fulfilled all its ma-jor promises, from social welfareschemes to drugs elimination toindustrial development andwaiver of farm loans," he added.

Once again lambastingSukhbir for continuously mis-guiding the farmers over theissues of debt waiver and kurkiabolition, he accused him ofplaying with their lives to furtherhis own political agenda.

By negating the hard factsand figures on employment,SAD president was also trying toundermine the confidence of theyouth, who were suffering theconsequences of the Badal Gove-rnment's total failure to protectthem from the menace of drugsand unemployment, he added.

"Bereft of any serious issueto criticise the CongressGovernment, the Akalis hadadopted a destructive approachand were resorting to unfound-ed allegations in a desperate bidto malign his Government andits excellent performance sincetaking over in March this year,"said the Chief Minister, addingthat the Badals were trying torake up non-issues to create aplatform to take their politicalambitions forward.

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The outspoken HaryanaMinister Anil Vij on Friday

justified seeking votes from thecontroversial Dera Sacha Saudaand its disgraced chief GurmeetRam Rahim, saying duringelections they go from house tohouse to seek votes and no oneis a pariah.

The minister, who hadbeen incommunicado after thedera violence incident, onFriday said that during elec-tions, we go house to houserequesting people to vote for us.If there is a Dera Sacha Saudahouse on the way, then we willgo there too, he said.

The statement came amidallegations against the rulingBJP for giving political patron-age to rape convict Dera secthead Ram Rahim, in return tohis support to the party in 2014elections.

Vij, who is usually active onsocial media websites andknown for his controversialstatements and tweets onalmost every issue, refrainedfrom speaking on Dera vio-lence incident and finally,

emerged with his controversialstatements, on the day of DeraSacha Sauda sanitation drive.

On giving donation of �50lakh to Dera Sacha Sauda lastyear, Health and SportsMinister, while talking to a sec-tion of media on Friday said, “Idonated money to Dera SachaSauda and not to the Baba.”

A year ago, I had gone toparticipate in a sports pro-gramme organised by the Derawhere I announced a grant forthe promotion of sports. Thisgrant was not given to GurmeetRam Rahim but it was given toencourage the sportspersons ofDera, he said.

Defending the huge dona-tion, Vij added that wheneverany grant is given to any soci-ety or institute, it has to submitthe utilization certificate which

is examined by the governmentfrom time to time.

Interestingly, the outspo-ken Minister had last yearboasted of giving a huge dona-tion to the Dera Sacha Saudaand said, “I cannot give morethan this. If I had more money,I would have given it. What iswrong with it? They runschools, sports are promotedthere.” At that time, theMinister was criticized by sev-eral Congress leaders for hishuge donation to Dera SachaSauda.

Notably, all the gamesplayed inside the dera were cre-ated by Ram Rahim himselfand are not played at nationalor international level.

Last month, HaryanaEducation Minister Ram BilasSharma had also given a hugedonation of Rs 51 lakh to DeraSacha Sauda.

The religious sect chiefGurmeet Ram Rahim was con-victed by a special CBI court ina rape case and was awarded a20-year sentence. The rapeconvict Ram Rahim hadenjoyed the patronage of theBJP as a large number of party

leaders were seen paying obei-sance to the Dera chief in thepast.

In 2014, Dera chief threwits weight behind the BJP, bothin the Lok Sabha and in theHaryana assembly elections.Support of Ram Rahimaugured well for the BJP inboth these elections inHaryana.

Inquiry marked into Derasending 14 bodies to Lucknowmedical college

Haryana Health MinisterAnil Vij has ordered an inquiryinto the Dera allegedly sending14 bodies to a medical collegein Lucknow. He has asked theDirector General, HealthServices, to conduct an inquiryat the earliest.

Vij said there had beenreports in the media that about14 bodies having been sentfrom Dera to a medical collegein Lucknow. If this was donethe formalities should havebeen completed. The reason forsending the bodies must beascertained. Orders have beenissued to examine the matterand find out facts in this case,said he.

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The son of a slain journalist,who had first exposed sex-

ual exploitation of female dis-ciples of Dera Sacha Sauda sectby its chief Gurmeet RamRahim Singh in 2002, onFriday accused political partiesof shielding jailed rape convictdera chief Ram Rahim fortheir political gains.

“Be it the INLD, theCongress, Akali Dal or theBJP, all were with the Derachief. All these political partieswanted votes of Dera followersand have shielding the wrong-doings of Ram Rahim, saidAnshul Chhatrapati while talk-ing to the mediapersons atChandigarh Press Club.

Anshul Chhatrapati, the sonof murdered Sirsa-based jour-nalist Ram Chandra Chhatrapatisaid that all political partieswhether in power or in opposi-tion have just given lip-service,but none really provided anydegree of service (in the case)."

“The real heroes are the

Sadhvis and the witnesses whowithstood enormous pressureand intimidation to stand by thetruth in the case against RamRahim,” he said.

Anshul said, “My faith in lawhas been reaffirmed after CBIcourt verdict in a rape caseagainst the Dera chief. The sac-rifice of my father was to upholdthe journalistic principles ofcomplete truth.”

Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singhwas jailed for 20 years by a CBIcourt in two rape cases lastmonth. On the case of his father'skilling, which is in the stage offinal arguments in the court,Anshul said that it is wellknown that the Dera tried toensure that no CBI probe tookplace into the case.

Naming several Congressleaders for putting pressure onthe CBI in favour of the SirsaDera head in 2005, he said thatmany politicians have shieldedRam Rahim and state Police alsocould not act against him.

Anshul also lashed out at theBJP and said that its ministers

had been visiting the Dera to getGurmeet’s blessings and alsodonated huge money from theirdiscretionary funds to the dera.

Drawing parallels between asoldier on the border with hisgun and a journalist with his penready to write the truth, he saidthat a journalist is akin to a sol-dier while urging the journaliststo use pen wisely. His father RamChandra Chhatrapati was shotdead, allegedly by sect support-ers at the behest of the sect chief,in October 2002 after he wrote

about shady activities inside thesect headquarters near Sirsa inhis vernacular newspaper.

Months after Ram ChandraChhatrapati had published ananonymous letter giving detailsabout how women were sexual-ly harassed by Gurmeet RamRahim at Sirsa dear headquar-ters, he was shot from point-blank range right outside hishouse on October 24, 2002.

The anonymous letter pub-lished by Chhatrapati in hisnewspaper was addressed tothen Prime Minister Atal BihariVajpayee and heads of severalother institutions including theChief Juctice of Punjab andHaryana High Court.

Notably, the investigationsinto the rape charges againstRam Rahim were triggered bythis anonymous letter writtenin 2002. Jailed Ram Rahim isfacing trial in two separatemurder cases — those of derafollower Ranjit Singh in July2002 and of journalist RamChander Chattrapati inOctober that same year.

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Congress party’s Tribal MLARamdayal Uike in a state-

ment has demanded of pro-jecting Tribal leadership in theState.

The State President of theScheduled Tribes Morcha of theparty Shishupal Sori has alsosupported his demand andsaid the tribal community inthe State was also of the viewthat there must be a TribalChief Minister in the State.

According to information,Tribal MLA, Ramdayal Uike,who became popular after con-

testing against the former ChiefMinister Ajit Jogi, in aStatement in Korba hasdemanded from the party toproject a Tribal leadership forthe State for Assembly electionsto be held next year.

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From Page 1The premises of the Dera

is spread over 800 acre andhouses educational institutions,markets, hospital, stadium,recreational areas and houses.

As authorities launchedthe search operation, theHaryana Government alsoordered suspension of allmobile and dongle internetservices, except voice calls, inSirsa district till September 10.A Home Departmentspokesman said the decisionwas taken to curb spread ofrumours in the district follow-ing the initiation of sanitisationof the Dera headquarters amid

tight security following a go-ahead by the Punjab andHaryana High Court onSeptember 5.

Curfew continued to beimposed in the areas near theDera premises on Friday andall roads leading to the head-quarters from Sirsa and near-by places were sealed.

JCB machines, locksmiths,forensic experts and dogsquads were called in to assistthe comprehensive searchoperation launched by securi-ty agencies and district admin-istration. Duty magistrates,executive magistrates, exciseand revenue officials are also

part of the exercise.Hisar Inspector general of

police Amitabh Dhillon, SirsaSP Ashwin Shenvi and DeputyCommissioner Prabhjot Singhare also part of the exercise.

A total of 41 companies ofparamilitary forces, fourcolumns of army have beendeployed in Sirsa district.Personnel from the anti-bombdisposal squad and 40 com-mandos of the Special Weaponsand Tactics (SWAT) team anddog squad are also deployednear the Dera premises.

Dera administration chair-person Vipassana, who is aclose aide of the sect head, had

issued an appeal to sect fol-lowers urging them to cooper-ate in the search operation.

Hours before the searchoperation began, the sect’smouthpiece “Sach Kahoon”had on Thursday admitted thathuman remains were buriedinside the premises.

The Dera newspaper, whiledefending the action of theDera management in buryingthe human remains, hadclaimed this was done as thesect chief encouraged followersto donate the remains to thesect for burial and preventthese from being immersed inrivers, causing pollution.

From Page 1Parents of other students

were livid with the school man-agement. They said an 11-year-old boy was found dead in theschool swimming pool andanother student’s leg wascrushed by a school bus.“Theschool management success-fully hushed up the matterwith the police but this time wewill protest against the schoolauthority and the guilty shouldget harsh punishment,” a parentsaid.

The parents also claimed

that the there were no separatetoilets for the bus drivers, con-ductors, gardeners and sweep-ers in the school. They all usedthe same washrooms whichare used by the students. “Wewant strict action against theguilty,” said Deepak Kumar, amember of Purvanchal JanKalyan Sangh.

Deputy Commissioner ofPolice (Traffic), SimardeepSingh, said, “We have retrievedfootage from a CCTV camera.However, the CCTV camerapositioned outside the toilet was

not functional. The schooladministration said there are 16cameras at various places on thecampus and the school is coop-erating with thepolice.”Meanwhile, the NationalCommission for Protection ofChild Rights (NCPCR) andtheir technical expert, visitedthe school and found negli-gence on part of the schoolauthorities. The NCPCR willissue a notice to the districtadministration regarding neg-ligence by the school manage-ment.

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A64-year-old retired scientistwith the Indian Agricultural

Research Institute (IARI) atPusa was found dead at his quar-ter in West Delhi’s Inderpuri areaon Thursday morning, policesaid on Friday. The body wasb a d l ydecomposed and had beeninfested with maggots suggest-ing he died seven days ago, theyadded.

The deceased, Dr YashvirSood, lived with two siblings —his elder sister Kamla and broth-er Harish — in the quarter butthey did not raise any alarm.Police suspected that both thesiblings are mentally ill. Theywere admitted to Institute ofHuman Behavior and AlliedSciences (IHBAS) for treatment.

The death came to light afterneighbours complained of afoul smell emanating from dingyquarter with police.

“On Thursday around 9.35am, we received complaint fromSonu Kumar, field officer at PusaInstitute about foul smell ema-nating from the quarters. Ateam of police reached the spotand found the body of Dr Sood,”

said Vijay Kumar, DeputyCommissioner of Police (DCP)Wes district.

Ishwar Singh, a neighbour,said, “Initially, I thought that thefoul smell was due to rain.However, on Wednesday morn-ing, I could not bear the smell.So I asked the scientist’s sisterabout the smell. However, sheneither responds nor lets meenter the quarter. That waswhen I called in the field officer.The elderly woman did noteven let him enter, blocking theentrance to the door. Since sheis mentally ill, we were left with no other choice but tocall the police.”

Police took the body of DrSood to a mortuary. “Sood’s skinhad started discolouring. Webelieve that Dr Sood died a nat-ural death,” said an officer, privy

to the investigation.Dr Yashvir Sood had retired

as Principal Scientist of Nuclearscience department of Pusa onsuperannuation on March 31,2015. His father late Ved PrakashSood too was a scientist with theinstitute.

Ved Prakash Sood died atthe age 54 in 1974. This left hisyounger son Harish mentallyunstable. His daughter Kamlawas married at the age of 23. But,three years later, her marriagebroke off and she too fell intosevere depression.

The turn of events in thefamily led Dr Sood to severedepression. He had turned intoan alcoholic.

After his retirement, theinstitute authorities had askedDr Sood to vacate the flat in E-block one-and-a-half years ago.

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From Page 1In case a passenger is a

repeat offender, the duration ofthe flying ban will be twice thatof his previous ban.

Aviation regulatorDirectorate General of CivilAviation (DGCA) will main-tain the record of all suchblacklisted passengers.

Civil Aviation MinisterAshok Gajapathi Raju said thenew rules which have been pro-mulgated on and applied fromFriday will allow for the for-mation of a national “No Fly” list which in turn willcheck unruly behaviour on-board aircraft. “Safety is my topconcern.

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Dhaka: Thousands of demon-strators took to the streets ofBangladesh on Friday to protestthe killing of RohingyaMuslims in neighbouringMyanmar, police said.

At least 15,000 supporters ofthe Islamist Islami AndolonBangladesh party chanted slo-gans against Myanmar’s de factoleader Aung San Suu Kyi as theydemonstrated in Dhaka and thetown of Tongi to the north ofthe capital after Friday prayers.

“Myanmar army is carry-ing out a genocide of theRohingya with the help of SuuKyi’s Government. She must beheld accountable and tried,”said party spokesman KMAtiqur Rahman.

Earlier, several thousandsupporters of Bangladesh’s mainopposition political partyformed a human chain toprotest the treatment ofMyanmar’s Rohingya minority.

The UN says 270,000Rohingya have arrived inMuslim- majority Bangladeshin the last fortnight after flee-ing Myanmar. AFP

Cap-Haitien (Haiti):Hurricane Irma ripped throughthe Caribbean on Friday, leav-ing a trail of devastation andkilling 17 as it barrelled towardsthe United States where up toa million people have been toldto flee.

So far, 1.2 million peoplehave been affected by Irma, theRed Cross said.

But that number looks setto rise — and could reach ashigh as 26 million, the agencysaid.

With the monster stormexpected to reach theAmerican south by the week-end, coastal areas of Floridaand Georgia were batteningdown the hatches and carryingout their biggest evacuationsince 2005.

“The entire southeasternUnited States better wake upand pay attention,” warned USfederal emergency chief BrockLong. “It will be truly devas-tating.”Roaring across theCaribbean, the rare CategoryFive hurricane laid waste to aseries of tiny islands like StMartin, where 60 percent ofhomes were wrecked, beforeslamming into the VirginIslands and Puerto Rico.

By this morning, the USNational Hurricane Center(NHC) had downgraded Irmato Category Four with maxi-mum wind speeds of up to 250kilometres per hour whilewarning it was still extremelydangerous.

On many islands, violentwinds have ripped roofs andfacades off buildings, hurlinglumps of concrete, cars andeven shipping containers aside.

At least two peoplewere killed in Puerto Rico,and more than half of its threemillion residents were withoutpower after rivers broke theirbanks in the center and northof the island.

Another four people werekilled on the US Virgin Islands,with the governor’s office say-ing a number of badly injuredpeople had been airlifted toPuerto Rico.

One person died in tinyBarbuda which also suffered“absolute devastation,” with300 people evacuated toAntigua and up to 30 per centof properties demolished.

St Martin, a pristine islandresort divided between Franceand the Netherlands, also suf-fered the full fury of the storm,

as did the French island of StBarthelemy.

France said at least ninepeople had been killed acrossits Caribbean territories andseven more were missing. Therewere 112 people injured, includ-ing two seriously, said InteriorMinister Gerard Collomb. Sixout of 10 homes were left unin-habitable, with insurers in Parisestimating their overall costswould likely be “much higher”than 200 million euros (USD240 million).

On the Dutch side of StMartin, one person died, offi-cials said. Dutch KingWillem-Alexander will headto the island of Curacao to thesouth on Sunday for a brief-ing on the aid operation, andmay travel on to St Martin,officials said. AFP

Beijing: Seeking to placate itsall-weather ally, China said onFriday that Pakistan has doneits “best” to combat terrorismand “some countries” mustgive it full credit for that, daysafter Beijing backed theBRICS’s declaration whichnamed Pakistan-based terrorgroups like LeT and JeM for thefirst time.

“Pakistan is a good broth-er and iron friend of China. Noone knows Pakistan and under-stands Pakistan better thanChina,” Foreign Minister WangYi said while addressing a jointPress conference with PakistanForeign Minister KhawajaMuhammad Asif here.

Asif is visiting China afterChina backed a tough resolu-

tion on terrorism at the justconcluded BRICS (Brazil,Russia, India, China, SouthAfrica) summit in Xiamen.

The resolution expressedconcern over violence causedby terrorist groups, includingthe Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), Jaish-e-Muhammad (JeM) andHaqqani network. PTI

Mexico City: One of the mostpowerful earthquakes ever tostrike Mexico has hit off itssouthern Pacific coast, killingat least 32 people, topplinghouses, Government officesand businesses while sendingpanicked people into the streetsmore than 1,000 kilometersaway.

The US Geological Surveysaid the earthquake hit offChiapas State near theGuatemalan border with amagnitude of 8.1, slightlystronger than the magnitude 8quake of 1985 that killed thou-sands and devastated largeparts of Mexico City.

Oaxaca State GovernorAlejandro Murat told localnews media that at least 23 peo-ple had died in his coastal State.Civil defence officials said atleast seven died in Chiapas andtwo others in the Gulf coaststate of Tabasco.

Hundreds of buildings col-lapsed or were damage, powerwas cut at least briefly to morethan 1.8 million people andauthorities closed schoolsFriday in at least 11 states tocheck them for safety.

“The house moved likechewing gum and the light andinternet went out momentarily,”said Rodrigo Soberanes, wholives near the Chiapas state cityof San Cristobal de las Casas.

The US Geological Surveyrecorded at least 20 aftershocksof magnitude 4.0 or greaterwithin about five hours afterthe main shake, and the pres-ident warned that a majoraftershock as large as magni-tude 7.2 could occur. AP

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President Donald Trump haswarned the Kim Jong-un

regime that it would be a “sadday” for North Korea if it doesnot mend its ways and compelsWashington to resort to mili-tary action by persisting withits nuclear push.

“Hopefully we’re not goingto have to use it (militaryaction) on North Korea. If wedo use it on North Korea, it willbe a very sad day for NorthKorea,” Trump told a WhiteHouse news conference onThursday, noting: “I can tellyou that North Korea is behav-ing badly, and it’s got to stop.”

After an initial commentthat he would rather avoidmilitary action, Trump told aquestioner: “Military actionwould certainly be an option.

Is it inevitable? Nothing isinevitable. It would be great ifsomething else could beworked out. We would have tolook at all of the details, all ofthe facts.”

Taking potshots at his ownpredecessors, Trump said:“We’ve had Presidents for 25years now - they’ve been talking,talking, talking -- and the dayafter an agreement is reached,new work begins in NorthKorea, continuation on nuclear.”

“So I would prefer notgoing the route of the military,but it’s something certainlythat could happen,” he said,touting the US military’s grow-ing strength. “Our military hasnever been stronger…It’s beentens of billions of dollars morein investment. And each daynew equipment is delivered —new and beautiful equipment,the best in the world, the bestanywhere in the world, by far.”

Trump refused to go into aquestion on whether anuclearised North Korea butone that is contained anddeterred would be acceptable to

him, commenting brusquely: “Idon’t put my negotiations onthe table. Unlike past admin-istrations, I don’t talk to them.But I can tell you that NorthKorea is behaving badly, and it’sgot to stop.”

The Trump administra-tion has been putting outmixed messages on how itwould be dealing with the KimJong-un regime that hasbrushed aside all warnings andsanctions and has gone onwith its nuclear and long-rangemissile tests.

While Trump himselfthreatened North Korea amonth ago with “fire and fury

like the world has never seen” ifit continued holding out threatsto the United States, seniormembers of his administrationhave sought to keep the dooropen for a diplomatic solution.

Trump, who was address-

ing a joint news conferencewith visiting Kuwaiti EmirSheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Jaber al-Sabah, said he wouldbe willing to mediate in the dis-pute involving Qatar and itsother Arab neighbours.

“If I can help mediatebetween Qatar and, in partic-ular, the UAE and Saudi Arabia,I would be willing to do so, andI think you would have a dealworked out very quickly,”Trump said.

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President Donald Trumphas named Indian-

American Manisha Singh tothe key post of AssistantSecretary of State to look aftereconomic and business affairs.

If confirmed by the Senate,the 45-year-old Singh willassume the post that has beenlying vacant with the exit sinceJanuary of Charles Rikvin, anappointee of former PresidentBarack Obama.

She is a former DeputyAssistant Secretary of State inthe Bureau of Economic,Energy and Business Affairs

and has served as a senior aideto the US Senate ForeignRelations Committee, a WhiteHouse announcement said.

A resident of Florida,Singh is currently Chief

Counsel and Senior PolicyAdvisor to Republican SenatorDan Sullivan from Alaska.

Singh, who has practicedlaw at multinational law firmsand working in-house at aninvestment bank, holds anLLM in International LegalStudies from the AmericanUniversity Washington Collegeof Law and a JD from theUniversity of Florida College ofLaw.

A native of Uttar Pradesh,Singh moved to the UnitedStates with her parents as achild. She is licenced to prac-tice law in Florida,Pennsylvania, and the Districtof Columbia.

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Copenhagen: The organisa-tion that oversees the NobelPeace Prize said on Friday thatthe 1991 prize awarded toMyanmar’s Aung Sang SuuKyi cannot be revoked.

O l a vN j o l s t a d ,head of theNorwegianN o b e lInstitute said in an email toThe Associated Press that nei-ther the will of prize founderAlfred Nobel nor the NobelFoundation’s rules provide forthe possibility of withdrawingthe honour from laureates.

“It is not possible to strip aNobel Peace Prize laureate of hisor her award once bestowed,”Njolstad wrote. “None of theprize awarding committees inStockholm and Oslo has everconsidered revoking a prizeafter it has been awarded.” AP

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In a Press conference sometime thisweek, West Bengal Chief MinisterMamata Banerjee, finally admittedthe texture of her politics ofappeasement. She said that since 30

per cent of her electorate were Muslims,she had to cater to them; had to appeasethem; had to manage them and ensurethat they received preference over theremaining 70 per cent of her electorate.

She was speaking on the sidelines ofa protest meet held over the murder ofjournalist Gauri Lankesh. For those whosay that she never speaks out, or had keptsilent throughout the violence inKaliachak, Dhulagarh, Nadia andBasihart, where Hindu families and vil-lages were attacked, markets burnt,places of worship vandalised, it was amoment when they were proved wrong.

Banerjee does speak out, she doesexpress her concerns and often acts butit is only on selective occasions when shefeels like pampering only 30 per cent ofher electorate, that 30 per cent for which she is ready to change the facadeand fate of West Bengal and dump theBengali Hindus.

She does speak out if it is one moreopportunity to abuse Prime MinisterNarendra Modi, to ghettoise the Hindusof West Bengal, to pillory the RashtriyaSwayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and to thwartlegitimate political activity in the State.Her outrage, her castigation, her retalia-tory actions, her administrative response,her constitutional sense — if there is one— is selective and hypocritical. Sheapplies these only when the mullahs andlumpens, on which she bases her politics,are affected or exercised over someissue, the rest sees her either ignore orabet violence, communal pogroms, law-lessness and criminalisation.

Similarly, those who egg her own,those elements, those professional pro-testors, who have their banners attackingPrime Minister Modi, the BharatiyaJanata Party (BJP) and the RSS always ina ready state and are quick to jump toconclusions whenever incidents of vio-lence take place in any parts of the coun-try, also keep silent or ignore when thevictims of violence are those who do notsubscribe to their political philosophy.

Criminalisation or syndicatisationhas reached such a point in MamataBanerjee’s paradise, that one of her ownMembers of Parliament — Sugata Bose— the one who tries to balance and dividehis time between managing the lumpensof the Trinamool Congress and his ownacademic pursuits in Harvard, was at hiswits end when these very lumpensdemanded their pound when he tried tocarry out some restoration work inNetaji Subhash Chandra Bose’s ancestral

house in Kolkata. When the lumpens were reminded by

Bose that he belonged to Netaji’s family,they simply asked him to shut up and get going. Ironically, it is this same Bosewho, in his interventions in Parliament,keeps talking about how, ever sincePrime Minister Modi’s arrival, the demo-cratic spirit of the country is beingthreatened and is under duress!

The situation in West Bengal todayis extremely worrisome. It is, for thosewho study the evolution of the State andthe history of Bengal in modern times,reminiscent of the days when the MuslimLeague ruled the Province in the 1940s.Repeatedly, for the past three years,Mamata Banerjee has issued dictates andrestrictions on the immersions duringVijaya Dashami.

In a cavalier attitude, without eveninviting community leaders for a discus-sion, without taking into account the sen-timents of lakhs of Bengali Hindus of theState, Mamata simply issued a ‘fatwa’ thatimmersions will be restricted and willonly begin after Muharram is over.Except for some sections, one does nothear even a whimper on this, an actwhich directly interferes with the right ofthe Hindus of Bengal to worship and celebrate.

If one reads, for example, SyamaPrasad Mookerjee’s diary entry of January1944, one finds a stark similarity betweenSuhrawardy’s Bengal and MamataBanerjee’s West Bengal, or at least a West

Bengal that is surely and steadily beingpushed into that state.

“The ratio of communal representa-tion in respect of services”, writesMookerjee, “the defilement of Hinduidols, the suppression and supersessionof better qualifications in respect ofHindus and preferential treatment ofMoslems in educational and other tech-nical spheres, the passing of laws special-ly jeopardising Hindus, the encourage-ment of riots, attacks on Hindu women— were some of the glaring instances ofour suffering...”

Syama Prasad’s protest against and hissuccess in preventing the passing of theSecondary Education Bill, which pitchedfor Islamising the education system andsyllabus of the Province, was anotherinstance of how Hindus of Bengal thenwere being denied the right to expressthemselves culturally and educationally.

The ongoing episodes of Nabi Dibasand no Saraswati Puja, the enforced shiftfrom ramdhonu to rongdhonu, from jalto pani, the hurdles being created against the immersion of idols, thedefilement of Hindu temples in ruralWest Bengal, the patronage that the rul-ing Trinamool Congress extends to riot-ers, are symbolic of how West Bengal isgradually metamorphosing and backcycling to becoming the Bengal of the1940s, a Bengal in which the BengaliHindu lived as a third class citizen, forever in the grip of fear, instability and discrimination.

Legitimate intellectual and politicalactivity is being thwarted, as the cancel-lation of venue for a programme to com-memorate the 150th year of SisterNivedita that was to be address by RSSsarsanghchalak (chief) Mohan Bhagwator the conjured non-availability of venuefor a programme that was to be addressedby BJP president Amit Shah in the sec-ond week of September, go to show.

Hindu youth, who do not indulge inthe club politics of the TrinamoolCongress, are being victimised, withfalse cases being slapped against them,with threatening phone calls being madefrom ‘unknown’ numbers and with physical intimidation.

Make no mistake, in West Bengaltoday, after four decades of red fascismhas come the era of the secular fascist, theappeaser fascist which takes the Hindusof the State for granted, rides roughshodover them and snatches away their rightto live in dignity and security.

Every Durga and Kali Puja and thelong interval in between demonstrates theactual State of West Bengal and in it espe-cially of the Bengali Hindus, a peopleonce revolutionary and at the forefrontof intellectualism, once the standardbearers of nationalism, now being reduced to the margins, denudedand weakened, strangely by one of their own...

(The writer is Director, Dr SyamaPrasad Mookerjee Research Foundation,New Delhi)�

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Sir — This refers to the article, “Thetwo biggest threats to world peacetoday” (September 8) by RKPachauri. According to the writer,nuclear weapons and climatechange are the two threats drawingus at the brink of destruction.Several countries possess nuclearweapons for decades but we neverfelt such perilous situation as we donow. For instance, North Korea hasbeen justly termed as ‘rogue’ andthe US has gone so far as to threat-en it with a “fire and fury like theworld has never seen”.

The writer is one of the mostcompetent authorities globally toplace the blame for climate changethreat, especially after the US haswithdrawn from the Paris accordand facing protests from the rest ofhumanity. Will the US be preparedto be called a rogue nation as well?And who is willing to threaten itwith sanctions and censor, let alone‘fire and fury’ to bring it to its kneesand go along with the rest of thehumanity in right earnest?

Prakash C DixitLucknow

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Sir — This refers to the editorial,“Justice to Lankesh” (September 8).Other than Kannadigas, it is quitesure that most of the Indians havenever heard of Gauri Lankesh.Thus, after her murder it is surpris-ing to see the comments of variouscommunists linking the murder tothe BJP/Rashtriya SwayamsevakSangh. She was a typical angryactivist with little respect for the law,who usually would whip up unnec-

essary debate on Hindutva domi-nance or the atrocities on theScheduled Castes but never couldsolve a problem. That said, one candisagree, as we all enjoy the free-dom of speech.

It is that freedom that is perhapsbeing exercised to justify the killingof the journalist. Such incidentsreveals the workings of the mindswho swear by not to accept a viewcounter to their own. For the sakeof restoring faith in individualviews, solving this case is important.

P ArihanthSecunderabad

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Sir — Minster of Railways PiyushGoyal’s concern and attention onpoor maintenance of railway tracksis an observation from long back.Successive Governments hadneglected this department and neverspent money on the health of thetracks. A series of derailmentepisodes are a result of greedypoliticians who didn’t want to allotany funds for regular maintenance,and diverted whatever budget waskept for the purpose of pilfering.

Any one would ask, why do weneed bullet trains before replacingdefective tracks. It will be anunimaginable scenario if a bullettrain derails. The magnitude ofcasualty would increase manyfold.Moreover, bullet trains are a costlyaffair. Utilising that money in repairsis more logical way forward. TheMinister has shown his resolve fornow, let’s see what fruit it bears.

Ashok Kumar New Delhi

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The verbal construct, PRC stout-ly stands for People’s Republic of

China (PRC) and the short form rip-off, IRP, stands for Islamic Republicof Pakistan; and both are the peren-nial bugbears and bête noirs for theIndian Republic. It is a quintessen-tial generalisation which happens tobe the often administered truth of theregional realpolitik in South Asia.Since the times India decided to stayaway from the rotund rigmarole ofNon-Aligned doublespeak withIndonesia, Egypt and PRC, it had tofight its wars and engage antagonistsin a sequestered manner in the larg-er South Asian region. The Chinese expansive and hegemonicforeign policy is a hallmark of theHan nation.

As PRC emerged from the era offailed treaties along with the idiomof the western nations parching drythe Chinese seaside ways throughOpium Wars, China under Mao-Tse-Tung choose to follow the way of thewarlord and power aggrandisement.The line diplomacy thought of Chinatargetted the western nations, alongwith balancing out the smaller SouthAsian nations. China, as the main-land nation and as the focus of therealpolitik, rushed to individualnations. They attempted to champi-on the global striving to coin them-selves as the global champion ofCommunism along with attemptingto browbeat nations around theIndian Union.

The question of border troubleshas largely ruled the roost in the larg-er framework of the “bilateral” rela-tions between New Delhi and Beijing.It was initially the Sikhs who capturedTibet and some land in the Ladakh-Aksai Chin region and entered intoa border delineation with theChinese, then it was the British whotook over; and now China controlsthe “large length” of land boundarywith India and repeatedly cites thehistoricity of their claims over dis-puted territory in the twilight zonebetween India and China. The twi-light surrounding the dark shadowsof Indian and Chinese soldiers as theypelted stones at each other andengaged in fisticuffs was captured ina video posted by Lieutenant GeneralPrakash as shedding light to the dark

and cold confrontation grounds ofDoklam. Apart from the doughtyIndian Army moving close to theDoklam checkpoint, it was the stapletea and wine shop near Doklam inthe nearby village, which, too, fellwithin the range of the Chinesestopovers at Doklam. The shopowner was least troubled and large-ly unperturbed by the threat of aChinese military incursion nearDoklam as with Indian forces beingat an advantageous perch in Doklam,a Chinese onslaught was least expect-ed from the point of contention.

The Chinese often cite the SimlaConference of early 20th centurywhen the Chinese delegation waskept out of the confabulation in theconference room and the treaty ofborder delineation was largely decid-ed between the British and theTibetan delegate. Thus, on thispremise, China does away with theoutcome of the Simla Treaty andindulges repeatedly in a cartographicexpansion and usurpation of terri-tory causing consternation in India.And with the coming in of air war-fare, the Himalayas, standing tall asthe perennial saviours of the IndianUnion, too does not stand true as theworking maxim for New Delhi afterthe great Chinese betrayal of 1962.

There is a lot to be observedabout Chinese incursions on theIndian borders. On April 5, 2013, aplatoon-sized Chinese contingentset up a shop in Raki Nula near theAksai Chin-Ladakh Line of ActualControl (LAC). It is a commonoccurrence that both the Indianand Han troops patrol the region butthey both desist from establishingpickets and fortifications in theregion. The Indian side agreed toremove some structures in theChumar sector, which the Chinesecommand and control perceived asbeing threatening. Bloomberg report-ed, “The Chinese responded bypublicly denying that there was anyborder issue, stating that their forcesdid not cross what they perceived theLAC to be. India opted not to takemilitary action and pressed on witha long-planned visit to China by thenExternal Affairs Minister SalmanKhurshid.” The Telegraph termed itas the battle of tents and banners at

the border. In one of its reports, thenational daily contended, “TheIndian Army chief, General BikramSingh, who returned from Jammu &Kashmir, told a group of military vet-erans in a closed-door meetingtoday that the Army has pitchedeight tents in response to fourpitched by the Chinese between the“Lines of Perception” on a dry bedof a rivulet called Raki Nala.”

Another incident occurred in1986 in Sumdorong Chu, whichended as a loudspeaker war betweenthe twin forces. The Telegraph report-ed in 2013, “In 1986, after theChinese had moved into SumdorongChhu, a valley in Arunachal Pradesh,then Army chief General Sundarjiordered Operation Falcon with theGovernment’s nod. Two divisions ofthe Army were airlifted and theyoccupied high points aroundSumdorong Chhu, threatening theChinese. That led to a ‘loudspeakerwar’ — each side warning the otherover loudspeaker announcements —that ended in 1987. But it was not till1995 that the Chinese vacatedSumdorong Chhu.”

Thus, both the nations in amanner have stayed away from realwar despite indulging in war-timeantics. This time around, the bom-bast and the ruckus causing rhetoricnearly brought both the estrangednations to the brink of exchangingmilitary blows. But, it was the suc-cessful, street smart, astute andground-based diplomatic brinkman-ship of Prime Minister NarendraModi and his diplomatic corps,which prevailed as an effective andtimely reflection of crisis diploma-cy, akin to what Jaswant Singh car-ried on in the hey days of the KargilWar. India is generally known torelent when a novae Chinese incur-sion takes place, but this time aroundModi created a new border anddiplomatic homology by playinghard ball with the expansionistChina. The arcane Indian approachfor a few years during the UPAregime had been to make an attemptto keep the Chinese incursionslocalised thus turning away from anycircumstance of an imminent andgrandiloquent Himalayan face-off.Still, what Modi has achieved as a

“change we can dictum” is the stanceand the standpoint that India will nolonger falter and fear a territory-hun-gry foe, despite the convergenceordained figure of bilateral tradecrossing $70 billion. With theChinese intent clear on being a“force on” in South Asia, India canas well carry on with its own con-tainment strategy in a volatile South-East Asia dictated by rapturousdemocracy movements and thedebilitating aftershocks of Chinesehegemonic designs in the SouthChina Sea, which PRC avowedlytreats as its own backwaters contraryto the “Freedom of Navigation” aspracticed by the American fleets inthe regional seas. India too embarkedon its own “Belt and Road Initiative”by attempting an India-Thailand-Myanmar Trilateral Highway and ahighway from Imphal to the interi-or South-East-Asian confines. Still,the targets of completion akin toacquisition of armaments have notbeen met and the Chinese challengeremains there for all to be seen andwitnessed as an out-flowing trend-ing. Also, as an attendant fact, the

Chinese clarion call in May 2017 aspart of its “One Road and one Beltinitiative”, which was hosted byChina, brought together 29 heads ofstates and 1,600 representatives from80 odd international organisationsand 140 odd nations. The Chineseclaim that there is an idiom of con-structive and substantial economicengagement behind this globalChinese paradigm and it would bea misreading by nations such as Indiaif a geopolitical oeuvre is attached tothe larger concern of the One Beltand One Road initiative.

China cannily and surrepti-tiously couches its militarist andexpansionist Chinese dream in theambit of the “SustainableDevelopment Goals” which have atarget to be attained by 2030.

Thus, the old Chinese adage of“perpetually preparing for a war andstriking when the enemy is lying lowand is unprepared” still poignantlypersists as the driving dictum of theHan strategic thought and the largerdiplomatic practice. Akin to the “KutYudh,” the Chinese and Indian jug-gernauts have been launched and theymake noise now and then in order toclank with the clutter of confrontation.The Doklam standoff was also part ofthe larger Chinese designs to harassNew Delhi but the strong arm mod-icum employed through the muscu-lar arm of diplomacy communicateda strong message and motif that the“New India” is well prepared and doestake lessons from the 1962 debacle. Itwas the Nehru denomination whichhad to seek American help in theform of radars and star-fighters in anepistle which Jawaharlal Nehru wroteas an urgent epistle to US PresidentJFK. The “New India” evades all thisself-defeating sojourn as US is alreadyan ally and a good friend. One mightas well venture out into a leisurelyconjecture that India is too intelligentto be used by the US as a bulwarkagainst Beijing but can India embarkon a “bold line strategy” vis-à-visChina with a clever Washington act-ing as a surfing board support forNew Delhi?

(The writer teaches InternationalRelations at Indian Institute of PublicAdministration, Delhi)

RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat’s recentassertion that India’s image in the

world is changing seems to havecome true with the Narendra Modi-led Government successfully break-ing the Doklam impasse in India’sfavour. During the 73 days of stand-off, India displayed rare courage bynot succumbing to pressure mount-ed by overbearing China and at thesame time restraining itself fromdoing anything that could have esca-lated the situation into a war.

In “Xiamen Declaration”, BRICSfor the first time named and shamedPakistan by listing terror groups likeLashkar-e-Tayyeba and Jaish-e-Mohammad — which have wagedwar against India —in the global ter-rorist groups. The victory is the resultof Modi’s touch to India’s foreign pol-icy. The change is more evident asChina had been shielding Pakistan-based terrorist organisations at allmultilateral forums, such as theUN, BRICS or SCO.

Moreover, the ninth BRICSsummit hit at India’s western neigh-bour, without naming Pakistan, forpromoting or turning a blind eye toterrorist organisations on its soil.Thus the Xiamen Declaration said,“We reaffirm that those responsiblefor committing, organising, or sup-porting terrorist acts must be heldaccountable.”

Though the statement did nei-ther refer to Pakistan nor “cross-bor-der terrorism, it is known to theworld that India’s primary concernis about anti-India terrorism origi-nating from Pakistan. The jointstatement at BRICS expressed con-cern over “the security situation inthe region and violence caused by theTaliban, ISIL/DAISH (ISIS), the Al-Qaeda and its affiliates”.

From Pakistan’s nuclear tests toChina Pakistan Economic Corridor(CPEC), India has been at the coreof Beijing-Islamabad nexus. In fact,debt-ridden Islamabad providesimmense opportunity for China tostrategically penetrate Pakistan.Having deployed thousands ofChinese troops in Pakistan-OccupiedKashmir (POK), particularly Gilgit-Baltistan, since 2010, Beijing is mak-ing concerted efforts to turn Pakistaninto its land corridor to the ArabianSea and the Indian Ocean throughthe so-called “one belt, one road”project.

India’s primary concern is relat-ed to CPEC, which passes through

POK. The script of China-Pakistan“iron friendship”, as they prefer to callit, was written keeping in mindBeijing’s imperial designs. Chinahas successfully eliminated two lay-ers of buffer zones with India andpushed deep into the Indian territoryof Jammu & Kashmir with the helpof Pakistan. While Pakistan’s is eyingKashmir, China’s major concern isTibet. To their mutual interests,India is a formidable hurdle.

However, now India under Modiis making endeavours to change therules of geo-politics. The XiamenDeclaration seems to be a turningpoint in that direction. The much-hyped Chinese supremacy has beenchallenged. India-America-Japan tri-angle has emerged as a strong causeof concern for China. The systematicchange in the foreign policy broughtby Modi indicates that India will nomore be submissive to China. If onelooks at the events in sequence, clar-ity of thought with action is visible.After becoming the Prime Minister,Modi started his journey, in theneighbourhood, with Bhutan thenNepal. This was a visible departurefrom unwritten rules followed by ear-lier Prime Ministers of India.

Till the Cold War, China was

more assertive in creating a multi-polar world. Once it found itselfpowerful and on solid ground, it haschanged its mood and started dis-carding all the multi-forum organi-sations and giving little importanceto international treaties. On thecontrary, India continues to strive formulti-polar world, and the ninthBRICS summit may prove to be thedefining moment in the endeavour.It will also provide larger space forIndia to manoeuvre in the world pol-itics.

Now, things look positive forIndia. Can PM Modi think of undo-ing a fundamental error committedby the first Prime Minister by declar-ing Tibet as an integral part ofChina? Since 1954, things haveturned in China’s favour. JawaharlalNehru and KN Pannikar shapedIndia’s Tibet policy shortly afterIndependence. The critical questionin 1950 was who should or couldoccupy the strategic buffer regionbetween the two? From 1946 to 1951,the Tibet policy of Nehru and hisassociates reflected that of the British:treating Tibet as an autonomousbuffer state between India and China,recognising Chinese suzerainty butnot sovereignty over Tibet, and pro-

tecting Tibet’s autonomy by recog-nising its treaty making powers,especially in relations to India. Thus,in March 1947 a Tibetan delegationwas invited to the Asian RelationsConference in Delhi. In September1947, the Indian Governmentassured Lasha that all previous treatycommitments, that is Anglo-Tibetantreaties and conventions would berespected. In 1950s PLA marchedinto Tibet. India became a victim ofChinese game. Nehru committedanother blunder by declaring Tibetas an integral part of China. Thismade all the differences and sincethen India has been battling the chal-lenges and woes. The currentDoklam standoff was product ofNehruvian blunder.

Nehru and Indira Gandhiscoffed at the idea of buffer zone andbalance of power. Such complex pol-icy was not only dictated by geopol-itics; it was the most economical wayof ensuring security along the 3,200km Himalayan boundary. Nehrutook U-turn.

Almost after 70 years, Indiaunder the leadership of Modi is capa-ble of positioning India in the worldpolitics. It looks possible and desir-able as well. We are near the goalpost

to reformulate the rules of dealingwith China. Most of the IndianPMs, before any Chinese leader’s visitto India, used to endorse One Chinapolicy and declare that Tibet is partof China. If China does not recipro-cate the same and endorse OneBharat Policy, we can also challengethe One China Policy. It has reasonsto do so. This will rein in the infest-ing China-Pakistan nexus and anti-India wave inflamed by China inIndian subcontinent.

The timing is perfect for action.First, Chinese economy is slowingdown. Chinese population is agingat an unprecedented pace. China’sworking age population peaked in2012, the medium age will riserather abruptly to 49 by 2050, andnational debt at 300 per cent of GDP.In contrast, India’s working age pop-ulation will rise till 2050, enablinghigher growth rates and eventuallyovertaking the United States interms of GDP.

Second, Chinese economy isexport driven. India is a big marketfor Chinese goods, especially in ITsector. Chinese electronics and ITproducts have made it to the hard-ware and telecom markets. Genuinesecurity concerns have arisen regard-

ing the protection of data and per-sonal information of millions ofIndian users traversing over thenetworking equipment. The secondaspect relates trade imbalancebetween India and China, which hasalready swelled to 51 billion US dol-lar. Electronics and IT products area key constituent of Chinese exportsto India, estimated around 22 millionUS dollar. With a slowing economy,which fundamentally is export dri-ven, China cannot afford any suchadverse impact on its electronicsmanufacturing industry. At the sametime, other countries may followIndia’s decision to initiate similarreviews of Chinese-made electron-ics products.

Post-1962, there have beennumerous border incidencesbetween India and Chinese mili-taries, Nathu La in 1967 andSumdurang Chu two decades later.In the recent past too, the DespangPlateau and the Chumar-Demchokarea witnessed face-offs in April 2013and September 2014, respectively.The post Doklam diplomacy is infavour of India to manoeuvre. Themajor challenge for India is Chineseoverwhelming support to Pakistan.The Pakistan policy is full of Indiabaiting. The nexus between two hasto be curbed. PM Modi and Chinesepresident Xi Jinping agreed thatmore must be done to improve mutual trust and avoidborder standoff.

The message of building trustbetween India and China could begauged on China-Pakistan nexus. Sofar the Chinese words could not betrusted. The new leadership of Chinais different from Deng Xia whofocused on national economy; thecurrent leadership is keen to out-stretch the political power. Chinabelieves in dismantling the oppo-nents. It has applied the same tacticswith others used quite often againstIndia. Pakistan’s adventure has to beclipped. It is only possible by cuttingthe cardinal link between China andPakistan. India under Modi would beready with possible actions if wordsof Dragon are not converted intoaction. Time will tell whether BRICSdeclaration was merely a showcase orChina really meant to mend the waysof Pakistan.

(The writer is Head of theDepartment of Political Science,Central University of Haryana)

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Well-wishers and partycadre have launched a

drive to save the AIADMKGovernment from the crisisarising out of the rebellion byTTV Dinakaran and the 19MLAs owing allegiance to him.

S Semmalai, senior leaderwho was a close associate ofparty founder late MGRamachandran and late JJayalalithaa is in discussionwith leaders of both the fac-tions, including Chief MinisterEdappadi Palaniswami.Semmalai met Palaniswami onThursday and had an hour longdiscussion on how to resolve alloutstanding issues in the partyto the satisfaction of all.

“We are not denying thefact that there are some issues.I told the CM that there are noissues in the party which couldnot be sorted out through dia-logues. After all, we are allmembers of the same partywho owe a lot to both MGRand Jayalalithaa,” Semmalaitold The Pioneer. He said thatduring his meeting, heimpressed upon the CM theneed to call all the party MLAsfor discussion and find outsolutions to resolve the prob-lems. “If the Government falls,the 1.5 crore strong cadre of theparty won’t excuse us,” he said.

The General Council meet-ing of the AIADMK onSeptember 12 may find anamicable solution to the crisis,said Semmalai. He said VK

Sasikala was elected as gener-al secretary of the party onDecember 29, 2016 after thedemise of Jayalalithaa. “Butsince then we saw a lot of thingshappening in the party. Rightnow it is known to one and allthat Sasikala is not in a positionto discharge her responsibilitiesas general secretary,” pointedout Semmalai, a formerMinister in JayalalithaaCabinet.

Sasikala, along with her sis-ter-in-law J Ilavarasi andnephew Sudhakaran, are serv-ing imprisonment of four yearsat Parappana Agrahara Jail inBengaluru in connection withthe disproportionate asset case.“There is a school of thought inthe party to abolish once andforever the post of general sec-retary. Instead of it, we will havea system of collective leader-ship,” said Semmalai. TheGeneral Council is expected toadopt a resolution in thisregard, he added.

Meanwhile, senior BJPleader Subramanian Swamyheld discussions with variousinterlocutors to sort out the pre-sent crisis in Tamil Nadu. “It isa fact that Palaniswami has lostthe right to be CM because ofthe revolt by the 23 MLAsowing allegiance to Dinakaran.The move by Palaniswami andcompany to ease out Sasikalafrom the party leadershipwould lead to the disintegrationof the AIADMK. This willstrengthen the DMK which isnot good either for Tamil Nadu

or for India,” said Dr Swamy atChennai.

He said that Governor CVidhyasagar Rao was right inhis decision not to convene theAssembly. “The 19 AAIADMKMLAs in their letter had toldthe Governor that they had losttrust in the Chef Minister. Hadthey told him that they had losttrust in the Government, theGovernor would have askedPalaniswami to seek a trustvote,” said the BJP leader.

Swamy said SpeakerDhnapal would be the idealreplacement for Palaniswami.“Let Palaniswami continue as aMinister in the Cabinet head-ed by Dhanapal. I feel it is nei-ther fair nor possible for theAIADMK to dump Sasikala atthis juncture. She wields con-siderable influence in theparty,” said Swamy.

Interestingly, there are sim-ilarities between the way ofthinking of Swamy, Semmalaiand VK Divakaran, brother ofSasikala which has broughtnew hope to diehard AIADMKfans. Semmalai said he too wasnot for ousting Sasikala fromthe party.

“Panneerselvam had toldthat his Dharma Yudh wasagainst a single family wieldinginfluence over the party and theGovernment. That situation isnot there right now. Sasikalawas with late Jayalalithaa formore than three decades as hershadow. It makes her a part ofthe AIADMK and we are notagainst her,” said Semmalai.

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Gujarat Chief Minister VijayRupani on Friday per-

formed ground breaking cere-mony of �700-crore SaurashtraNarmada Avataran Irrigation(SAUNI) Yojna Link-4 nearVisavadar in the Junagadh dis-trict to fill up nine dams with

the Narmada waters.Speaking on the occasion,

the Chief Minister said thatSAUNI project to fill up 115dams with Narmada waterswould serve as a boon to theSaurashtra region, enablingfarmers to take three crops ayear, thanks to the ‘politics ofdevelopment’.

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In a bid to sensitise touristsfrom venturing into the sea

during rough weather, espe-cially monsoons, the GoaTourism Ministry has roped intourism industry stakeholdersto start an awareness cam-paign among beach-goersabout the perils of reckless,drunken swimming.

"The Goa government hasappealed to the tourism stake-holders i.e. hotels, guest hous-es, restaurants, taxi and touroperators, shack operators,water sports operators to sen-sitize tourists whom they comein contact with from venturing

into the sea in unsafe condi-tions," Ajgaonkar told reportershere.

While an advisory banningswimming during the mon-soons still in force, the gov-ernment has asked tourismstakeholders to caution touristsnot to venture into the seaunder the cover of darkness asthe beaches are unguardedafter sunset. "Caution is also tobe given against venturing intothe sea after consumption ofalcohol or in an inebriatedstate," said Ajgaonkar, who hasalready said that the govern-ment was in the process ofcoming up with a law banningdrunk swimmers from ventur-

ing into the sea. Goa is one of the top beach

tourism destinations in thecountry and attracts upwards ofsix million tourists every year.The state also has engaged theservices of a private firm,Drishti Life Services, whichmarshals the state's coastlinewith life-guards.

However over the last fewdays, a string of drownings,including the death of twoyoung girls from anAhmedabad-based institute,who went out swimming in thewee hours of Thursday, has putthe question of the safety oftourists vis a vis swimming onbeaches back in the spotlight.

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The Gujarat High Court hasordered Vadodara

Municipal CommissionerVinod Rao to remain presentbefore the court on Monday ina case related to use of socialplatform.

The IAS officer had appar-ently communicated with aGujarat High Court judge via asocial media platform withregards to an ongoing court case.

The judge took objection tothis action of Rao. Any move tocontact a sitting judge couldtantamount to making effortsto influence the outcome of thecase and generally the judgewould state ‘Not before Me’ andsend the case to the chief jus-tice. However, Justice R HShukla of Gujarat High Courttook a stringent view and

issued a contempt noticeagainst the VadodaraMunicipal Corporation, askinghim to remain present beforethe court on Monday.

Though Vinod Rao hasapologized to the High Court,the High Court has kept morehearings on Monday andasked Rao to remain presentin the court. However, JusticeShukla expressed his disap-proval against Vinod Rao ask-ing why he was sending mes-sages to the High Court andwhether he was aware of hisresponsibility.

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Amid criticisms that it hadfailed to respond to the

induction of AlphonsKannanthanam into the UnionMinistry in an adequately posi-tive manner, the Kerala BJP hasdecided to turn his first visit tohis home State after becomingMinister into a grand event byorganising glittering programmesfor according warm welcome tohim at various centres.

The reception programmeswould start on Sunday at 9.30 amat the Kochi international airportat nearby Nedumbassery whenKannanthanam lands there onhis first trip to the State afterbecoming Minister of State forTourism and IT. State BJP pres-ident Kummanam Rajasekharanhimself will head a large groupof State party leaders to receivethe Minister at the airport.

This will be followed by areception being organised by theBJP’s Ernakulam district com-mittee at Muvattupuzha, some40 kilometers away from Kochi,and a road show to be inaugu-

rated by former State presidentPS Sreedharan Pillai. The roadshow will conclude nearKannanthanam’s house atManimala in Kottayam district.

Another reception pro-gramme, organized by the BJP’sKottayam district committeeon the same day, will be inau-gurated by Kummanam.Reception programmes arebeing arranged forKannanthanam, the only rep-resentative of Kerala in theNarendra Modi Government,almost on all the seven days ofhis first visit to the home State.

Among these programmesare the one being organized bythe district BJP committee inKannur on September 12.

Kummanam will inaugurate acivic reception to be accordedto the Minister in his nativeplace on September 15 atKanjirappally, Kottayam. TheBJP would hold a receptionmeet at Thiruvananthapuramon September 16, the day hereturns to Delhi.

The decision to organize somany reception programmesfor Kannanthanam has come inthe context of the allegationthat the Kerala BJP leadershiphad not shown adequate enthu-siasm over his induction intothe Ministry. Of course, theleadership had rejected theallegation as part of a campaignagainst the party by adversaries.

“It is a fact that the StateBJP headquarters (inThiruvananthapuram) hadremained literally deserted onthe day Kannanthanam wassworn in Minister. I had notseen any of them watching thelive telecast of the swearing-inceremony on the televisionthere. Also, the usual sharing ofsweets was also not seen,” saida senior journalist known for

his pro-BJP views.The general allegation is

that the State BJP leadershipwas not very enthusiastic aboutthe selection ofKannanthanam, a formerCPI(M)-backed IndependentMLA who was not at all activein the State’s politics and whohad joined the party just half-a-decade ago, as Minister whileKerala leaders with decades ofhistory in the party were notconsidered.

“When senior leader ORajagopal (presently the onlyBJP member in the KeralaAssembly), was inducted intothe former AB VajpayeeGovernment, it was celebratedby the party across Kerala. Butno such enthusiasm was seenon September 3 when Kannan-thanam became Minister. It isup to the leaders themselves tocite a reason for this,” said a BJPfunctionary in Thrissur.

The CPI(M) was quick tocash in on this alleged lack ofenthusiasm on the part of theState BJP leadership withMarxist Chief Minister Pinarayi

Vijayan perhaps becoming thefirst leader from Kerala to con-gratulate Kannanthanam with aFacebook post in which hetermed Kannanthanam a long-term friend and said, “I hope hewill be Kerala’s voice in theCentral Ministry.”

The Minister responded tothe Chief Minister the other dayequally warmly and praised himby saying, “It is Pinarayi Sir whobrought me into politics... Keralalays a lot of stress on tourism andIT. We can work together on sev-eral issues. We shared the mealand this marks the beginning ofthat partnership.”

Observers feel that theState BJP may not want theestablishment of a rapportbetween the Marxist ChiefMinister and the UnionMinister through such inter-actions but leaders rejectedthe suggestion.

They said the State BJPleadership would not like theidea of the Left givingKannanthanam the image of anindependent Minister ratherthan a Minister of the party.

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Congress vice-presidentRahul Gandhi on Friday

charged that through thedemonetisat ion, PrimeMinister Narendra Modi hadpersonally converted blackmoney of each and everyhoarder in the country intowhite money.

Addressing a “Sangarsh”ral ly organised by theCongress on the occasion ofbirth centenary year of lateIndira Gandhi and late chiefminister Vasantdada Patil atParbhani, Rahul came downheavily on the Narendra Modigovernment for its failures onvarious fronts, includingdemonetisation.

“I will explain the success ofthe demonetisation. Hindustanka har ek chor ka kala dhan

Narendra Modiji ne swayamsafed paise me badal diya(Narendra Modi had personal-ly converted the black money ofeach and every hoarder in thecountry into white money).This is is the truth of demon-etisation,” Rahul said.

Maintaining that thedemonetisation failed toachieve its stated objectedobjectives, the Congress vicepresident said: “NarendraModi said that he had resort-ed to demonetisation to fightblack money. But it is strange90 per cent of black moneyhas been invested in land,gold, real estate and Swissbank accounts – a factNarendra Modi had himselfsaid. We do not know the rea-son why the Prime Ministerchose not to go after 90 percent black money but pre-

ferred to go after 10 per centblack money”.

Rahul ridiculed Modi’sclaim that many black moneyhoarders would not return themoney and that theGovernment would invest theunreturned money on thepoor and down trodden.

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Uttar Pradesh ChiefMinister Yogi Adityanath

and his two deputies— KeshavPrasad Maurya and DineshSharma — along with Ministerof State Swantra Deo Singhwere declared elected unop-posed to the LegislativeCouncil in the by-polls.

Returning Officer for theby-poll and Principal Secretary(Assembly) Pradeep KumarDube declared the results at 3pm when the time for with-drawal ended on Friday.

“Four candidates wereelected unopposed. The nom-ination papers of the fifth can-didate Mohsin Raza werefound valid in the scrutiny onFriday,” said Principal Secretary(Assembly) and ReturningOfficer for the by-poll PradeepKumar Dube on Friday.

No other candidate was inthe fray for the by-polls for thefive vacant seats in the UpperHouse of the state Legislature.The Chief Minister was elect-ed on the seat vacated bySamajwadi Party MLCYashwant Singh while DeputyCM Keshav Prasad Maurya

was elected on the seat vacat-ed by SP member BukkalNawab. Terms of both seats willend on July 8, 2022.

Deputy CM DineshSharma contested for the seatvacated by another SamawjadiParty MLC Ashok Bajpai andSwantradeo Singh was electedfrom the seat left by SP MLCSarojni Agarwal. Term of bothseats end on January 30, 2021.

Mohsin Raza, the onlyMuslim minister in the Yogiministry, filed his nominationsfrom the seat vacated byBahujan Samaj Party MLCThakur Jaiveer Singh. Theremaining term of this seat iseight months and will end onMay 5, 2018.

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The five BSP candidates fromdifferent Assembly seg-

ments of Lucknow, who wereexpelled from the party onWednesday, accused party cheifMayawati of demandingmoney. They also claimed tohave resigned from the BSPand said that the party mis-guided the public about theirexpulsion.

“Mayawati always demandsmoney and soon after the lastAssembly poll, she called usand said that a powerful leaderleft after taking �50 crore romher. So to fulfill that loss, all theleaders had to contribute �15lakh each,” alleged Ajay KumarSrivastava, Saroj Kumar Shukla,Rajeev Srivastava, Yogesh Dixit,and Shivshankar `Shankari’during a joint press conferenceheld in Lucknow on Friday.

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Mumbai: Congress vice-pres-ident Rahul Gandhi on Fridayridiculed the BJP-ledMaharashtra Governmentmuch-discussed farmer loanwaiver package, by saying thatwhile the Devendra Fadnavisdispensation was “marketing”it as a �35,000 crore relief to thefarmers, the fact remained itwas more of �5,000 crore farmloan waiver package.Addressing a public rally atParbhani, Rahul said: “Thestate government has market-ed the farm waiver package isworth �35,000 crore. But, inactuality, the package is worth�5,000 crore. Before cominghere, I met 4000 people in anearby village. They told methat by seeking forms fromfarmers the Government hascreated hurdles in seekingloans. PNS

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As the Special InvestigationTeam(SIT) constituted to

probe the murder of activistand Journalist Gauri Lankeshhas made no inroads, theKarnataka Governmentannounced �10 lakh reward toanyone who provides cluesabout her murder.

After a high-level meetingof police officials and SIT offi-cers on Friday, Home MinisterRamalinga Reddy announcedthe reward.

Speaking to reporters aftermeeting Chief MinisterSiddaramaiah, Reddy said, “Wewill give �10 lakh reward toanybody who gives clues aboutthe culprits.”

“The Chief Minister(Siddaramaiah) has giveninstructions to intensify theinvestigation and nab the cul-prits as soon as possible. Wehave given enough officials tothe SIT, if they need addition-al officers we are ready togive,” Reddy said.

Earlier the SIT had made apublic announcement askingthe public to share any infor-mation that they may have inconnection with the casethrough a specific phone num-ber and e-mail id.

Siddaramaiah held a meet-ing with the SIT to personallymonitor the progress in theprobe. Reddy, along with SITchief BK Singh, DirectorGeneral of Police RK Dutta andIntelligence DG AM Prasad

were present at the meeting. After nationwide protests

over the brutal murder of GauriLankesh, the KarnatakaGovernment had formed a 21-member SIT headed by IGP(Intelligence) BK Singh toprobe the murder.

Gauri Lankesh, known tobe an anti-establishment voicewith strident anti-right wingviews, was shot dead at closerange by unknown assailants ather home in Bengaluru onSeptember 5 night.

The Home Minister saidthe SIT was formed for a speedyprobe and the intention tobring the culprit at the earliest.He was reacting to the concernexpressed by Gauri’s familyabout the possibility of a delayin nabbing the culprits, citingthe delay in solving rationalistMM Kalburgi murder case.

“The Government’s inten-tion is to solve the case asquickly as possible... that’s thereason we have given so manyofficials to this case particularly.If more officials are required,

we are ready to give,” he added.On another question about

the statement made by BJPMLA Jeevraj from Sringeri, hesaid he had asked the SIT tofind out about it also.

“Jeevaraj had made a state-ment yesterday. I have askedthe SIT to call him and find outwith what intention he madethe statement or did he say itcasually. SIT will find out aboutit,” Reddy said.

“I don’t know whether thereis any background to the state-ment. But when Gauri Lankeshdied no BJP leaders came to herhouse or Ravindra Kalakshetraor the burial ground to pay lastrespects. I don’t know what is thereason,” he added.

Jeevaraj, while flagging offa bike rally organised by theparty in Koppa on Thursdayagainst killings of “Hinduactivists” in the State, hadreportedly said that “had Gauricondemned the killing of BJPactivists and criticised Siddara-maiah, do you think she wouldhave been murdered today?”

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Aday after Art of LivingFounder and Spiritual

leader Ravi Shankar appealed tothe rebel outfits of the North-East India to shun violenceand come for talks, anti-talk fac-tion of Ulfa chief Paresh Baruahmade it clear that the outfit donot want to participate in anyforms of peace talks unless theGovernment of India is willingto take the independence ofAssam into consideration.

In a statement issued to themedia on Friday, Baruah saidthe outfit would like to declineto his request to join the ‘main-stream’ peace talks becausethey follow the revolutionarystream that will lead to anIndependent Asom.

“You have repeatedly askedus to join in the false, biased andridiculous peace talks held by theIndian government. We wouldlike to decline your requestagain to join the ‘mainstream’peace talks because we only fol-low the revolutionary stream thatwill lead to an IndependentAsom. You have raised concernsover our armed struggle, we havepicked up arms in order to pro-tect ourselves not to threaten anyindividual or sovereign nation,”the elusive rebel leader said.

“Our struggles would nothave gained recognition from thecolonial Government of India orthe world if we did not pick uparms for the independence ofmother Asom. Our struggles willcontinue until our ultimate goalis achieved ,” Baruah said.

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With Andhra PradeshChief Minister K

Chandrasekhar Rao formallyinviting Prime MinisterNarendra Modi to inauguratethe first phase of HyderabadMetro project on November 28,the officials have expeditedthe work at different points,including Oliphanta RoadOverbridge, and another bridgeat Secunderabad Clock Tower.

The Rail Over Bridge atBegumpet which was one ofthe most critical portion of Theproject was already completed.Nine-km viaduct at Ameerpetwas also completed.

While the entire project isspread over 72 kms on threecorridors, the Prime Ministerwill inaugurate 30-km sectionfrom Miyapur to Ameerpetand Ameerpet to Nagole.

In his invitation to the PrimeMinister, the Chief Ministermentioned that the �15,000crore Hyderabad Metro was thebiggest private-public partner-ship project in the country.

The inauguration of thefirst phase will coincide withthe Global Entrepreneurs’ sum-mit. The entire Metro projectwas likely to be completed bythe end of the next year.

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More than a year after HomeMinister Rajnath Singh-

led a parliamentary delegationto douse flames of dissent inKashmir, he is again arriving inSrinagar on Saturday to pick upthreads by reaching out tostakeholders in the embattledregion. Following PrimeMinister Narendra Modi’s pos-itive vibes about Kashmir in hisIndependence Day speech, theHome Minister’s 4-day visit, thelongest of any Home Minister sofar, has generated interestamong the people.

Even as the ground situa-tion remained volatile amid anexhaustive crackdown on sep-aratists and their associates bythe NIA, the people are expect-

ing a breakthrough to endmonths of uncertainty and tur-moil in the region.

The NIA is probing terrorfunding from across the borderto fuel secessionist activities inKashmir. The probe hasentered fourth month.

Rajnath is arriving in thebackdrop of Modi’sIndependence Day speech inwhich he said that solution toKashmir problem would emergefrom hugging people rather thanthrowing bullets and abuses onthem. Sources said soon afterarriving in Srinagar, Rajnathwould hold separate meetingswith Governor NN Vohra andChief Minister MehboobaMufti for a detailed discourseon ground situation on the bor-ders and hinterland of

Kashmir, economic issues andpace of development.

On Sunday, the HomeMinister would take a detailedmeeting of security agencies.

Observers say that themost striking aspect of theHome Minister’s visit would bethe possibility of his reach outto separatists. Singh has indi-cated that he would be open fortalks with all stakeholders.

Rajnath is also expected totravel to south Kashmir to inter-act with people, including the kinof the victims of recent violence.The South Kashmir visit is sig-nificant because it has remainedthe Center of secessionist activ-ities, militancy and fresh recruit-ments to the militant ranks,since the killing of Burhan Wanion July 8, 2016.

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Three prominent separatistleaders of Kashmir Syed Ali

Shah Geelani, Mirwaiz UmarFarooq and Yasin Malik havedecided to proceed to NewDelhi on Saturday to hold a sit-in and court arrest at the head-quarters of NationalInvestigation Agency (NIA) toexhibit resentment against itsexhaustive crackdown againstseparatist leaders and workers,their relatives, select business-men and alleged stone-throwers.The State authorities are unlike-ly to hold the trio back like theywere stopped on Thursday whenthey attempted to fly to NewDelhi. While Geelani andMirwaiz were held at theirrespective residences, Malik wasdetained and lodged at centraljail. However, the curbs were lift-ed on them on Friday afternoon.

In a statement, the triosaid Joint Resistance Leadership(JRL) will leave for New DelhiSaturday to court arrest beforeNIA headquarters and to stageprotest sit-in against NIA raids.

“Mirwaiz and Malik willreach Hurriyat chairman SyedAli Geelani’s residence atHyderpora before proceedingtowards New Delhi at 1 pm.Their fight is scheduled at 3 pmSaturday from Srinagar Airport,”the trio said in a statement said.Top police sources said that theseparatist leaders would beallowed to travel to New Delhi.Interestingly, the separatist lead-ers would leave Srinagar whenHome Minister Rajnath Singhwould have landed in the town.

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In a major development thesecurity forces on Friday

unearthed a workshop whereimprovised explosive deviceswere manufactured nearPatlebas in Darjeeling.

“Huge amount of cruderequired for manufacturingIED and bombs were recov-ered from inside a workshopat Langpo village not far fromPatlebas,” a senior police offi-cer said. Patlebas is the offi-cial residence of GorkhaJanmukti Morcha presidentBimal Gurung who is cur-rently at large following casesslapped against him underUnlawful Activit iesPrevention Act.

The workshop was runinside a wooden structurewith a sign plate reading“Government of WestBengal,” sources said addingtwo persons were detained forquestioning.

“It seems that IED blaststhat rocked Kalimpong, Mirikand Darjeeling in recent pastwere supplied from this work-shop,” officials guessed.

Meanwhile in a newdevelopment the GorkhaJanmukti Morcha supporterson Friday clashed with thepolice a day before rebel

Morcha leader Benay Tamangwas to hold a ral ly atDarjeeling.

The police resorted tolathi-charge after GJM sup-porters resorted to brickbat-ting from a procession.

Several policemen andMorcha supporters wereinjured in the clash sources said.

The Friday’s developmentcame a day after a relativelynew outf it GorkhalandLiberation Army claimedthrough posters all over theHills the responsibility forthe IED blasts.

It also warned all andsundry against deviating fromthe struggle for separateGorkhaland State.

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Bengal Chief MinisterMamata Banerjee’s wrath

tended to balloon in direct pro-portion to the elongating queueof senior Trinamool Congressleaders, including MPs andMinisters, at the Central Bureauof Investigation office atKolkata’s Nizam Palace, even asshe launched a fiery attack onthe BJP Government for “vic-timising the Opposition parties.”

Coming down heavily onthe Centre for “harassing thosewho dare to speak out againstthem”, Mamata on Friday saidsaffron outfit’s days were num-bered. The immediate reason forher outburst was the marathongrilling for the second successiveday of Kolkata Mayor and herMan Friday Sovan Chatterjee inthe Narada pay off case.

Considered a skilled “manand fund manager” in theTrinamool ranks Chatterjee isalso Fire Brigade Minister“They are intimidating us byunleashing CBI on us. Theyhave been questioning our lead-ers on Narada and Sharadaissues. They have grilled ourleaders from SubrotoMukherjee to Sovan Chatterjee.

They threw SudipBandopadhyay in jail. But letme make it clear that they willget nothing out of these intim-idating tactics because I am notthe one who succumbs to brow-beating,” Banerjee told a partycore committee meeting dis-cernibly devoid of the Mayor’spresence on his account ofbeing grilled at the CBI office.

A visibly perturbed ChiefMinister hit hard at the BJP say-ing those who were trying tovictimize our dissent wouldone day run for cover.

The CBI had in quick suc-cession questioned a number ofTMC leaders including SaugatoRoy, Prasun Banerjee, AparupaPoddar, all MPs and SubrotoMukherjee and SovanChatterjee, Ministers besidesissued summons to anotherpowerful minister SuvenduAdhikary. “The BJP’s days arenumbered and all their brow-beating will end in 2019. Theywill face a hands down defeat atthe hustling because of theirdeeds. No one is happy withthem. They have alienated oneand all, from farmers to workersto middle class to opposition.They will meet their nemesis in2019 elections,” Banerjee said.

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UP State Electr icityRegulatory Commission

asked UP Power CorporationLimited (UPPCL) to explainas to how it has levied regu-latory surcharge on powertariff to be charged frompower consumers.

The UP PowerCorporation Limited had filedAnnual Revenue Requirement(ARR) statement seeking revi-sion of power tariff for thecurrent fiscal 2017-18.

The Corporation howevermade no mention of regula-tory surcharge in its statementfiled before the regulator.

As per legal requirement,the UPPCL published theARR in local newspapers butthere it added regulatory surcharge.

Secretary of the regulato-ry commission has askedDirector (Commercial) ofUPPCL to explain as to howthe regulatory surcharge was inserted in the advertise-ment of ARR published inlocal newspapers even asthere no mention of this inthe ARR f i led by theCorporat ion before the regulator.

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The Uttar Government hasdecided to set up ‘Drug

Corporation’ for ensuringavailability of drugs and med-icines to the masses at afford-able price. The Governmenthas, however, not specifiedwhether the Corporation willbe a public sector unit set upunder Companies Act or anagency under State Healthdepartment. The new agencywill be set up under “ActionPlan for Uttar Pradesh” pre-pared by NITI Ayog.

The prime objective is tocontain the spread and occur-rence of disease l ikeTuberculosis, AcuteEncephalitis Syndrome andKala Azar.

The programme will bespecifically implemented in 25districts with poor health pro-file and reporting high inci-dence Encephalitis and AcuteEncephalities Syndrome. Itwill benefit pregnant womenand infants, adolescent girlsand boys.

A presentation of the`Action Plan for UP’ preparedby NITI Ayog was given beforeChief Secretary Rajiv Kumar inLucknow on Friday.

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The Telecom Commission onFriday put off a decision on

measures to provide relief to thestressed industry as it soughtmore details on some of the sug-gestions, including deferredspectrum payment liability, fromthe inter-ministerial group,according to a senior official.

The IMG is expected torevert with details on the clarifi-cations sought ‘at the earliest’, andthe Telecom Commission willmeet again in two weeks on theinter- ministerial group’s propos-als aimed at tackling the financialstress in the sector. The commis-sion, the highest policy-makingbody in the telecom sector, methere today to consider all the pro-posals put forth by the IMG. Theofficial, who did not wish to be

named, said the TelecomCommission (TC) has soughtadditional clarifications from theinter-ministerial group (IMG) ontwo of the major recommenda-tions. These pertain to giving tel-cos more time to pay for the spec-trum they had bought and switch-ing from PLR based to MCLRbased rate for penalty payments.

The TC was in-principlebroadly agreeable to other sug-gestions of the IMG, includingreferring to Trai the issue ofremoval of 50 per cent spectrumcap within a particular radiowaveband -- for mergers and acquisi-tions. “On the issue of spectrumcap, it was decided that it will bereferred to Trai. But it is not yetapproved per se, as the proposalswill get activated when the nextTelecom Commission meetingtakes place,” the source said,

adding that ‘holistic view’ on theentire report will be taken in thenext meeting once the clarifica-tions sought, come in. After theTC takes a call, the proposals willbe placed before the Cabinet forapproval as these entail changesin the spectrum auction docu-ment. When contacted, mobileindustry body COAI's Director-General Rajan Mathews said he

was hopeful that the TC will con-sider some other ‘permanentfixes’ such as cut in licence fee andspectrum usage charges.

“It is better not to hurry thisup and to get it right,” he told PTI.The IMG -- tasked with findinga remedy to the financial diffi-culties of the telecom sector --had recently recmmended thatthe payments for spectrum be

made in 16 instalments (16years) as against the currentpractice of 10 years. The IMGhad also favoured a cut in inter-est rates on penalties by switch-ing from PLR based to MCLRbased rate, which could providerelief of about two percentagepoints in the current situation.

IMG, on August 31, hadwrapped up over three monthsof deliberations that involvedextensive dialogue with banksand telecom companies. TheIndian telecom industry, whichis in the midst of an intense tar-iff war, owes a staggering �4.6lakh crore to various financialinstitutions and banks. Overthe past few months as IMGheld its deliberations, new andold telecom operators contin-ued to blame each other for thesector's financial difficulties.

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India has slapped countervailingduty for a period of five years

on certain Chinese flat steel prod-ucts to guard domestic playersfrom imports that are subsidisedby the exporting nation, a deci-sion hailed both by the industryand steel ministry. According toSteel Secretary Aruna Sharma,this is the first case of impositionof countervailing duty (CVD) onany steel product in India.

The commerce ministry'sinvestigation arm - DirectorateGeneral of Anti-Dumping andAllied Duties (DGAD) - in itsprobe had concluded that despitesufficient demand in India andcapacities, the domestic industryhas lost sales opportunities, whichis a direct consequence of sub-sidised imports from China. Thedecision to impose CVD wastaken by the finance ministry afterthe DGAD's recommendation. Itis a country specific duty whichis imposed to safeguard domes-tic industry against unfair tradesubsidies provided by the localgovernments of the exportingnations.

While DGAD recommendsthe duty, finance ministry impos-es it. The actual duty imposed willbe the difference between thequantum of countervailing dutyproposed (which is 18.95 percent) and anti-dumping dutypayable, if any.

The central government,after considering the final findingsof the DGAD, "hereby imposes"the duty on these items, the rev-enue department has said in itsnotification. Welcoming the deci-sion, Steel Minister ChaudharyBirender Singh on Friday said itwill help the domestic players to

grow to full potential. Besides, itwill strengthen the ongoing effortsof Indian industry to movetowards 100 per cent qualityregime for better safety andhealth of users, the steel ministrysaid in a statement. “This will pro-vide a level-playing field to theindustry to grow to its full poten-tial after attaining second rank instainless steel production in worldin 2016,” Singh said. Further, thesecretary said the decision wouldprovide the much needed relief tothe stainless steel industry fromthe subsidised imports fromChina.

Commenting on the move,Jindal Stainless Vice ChairmanAbhyuday Jindal said, “The muchawaited decision, taken by thegovernment after a year-longmeticulous investigation con-ducted by Directorate of Anti-Dumping & Allied Duties(DGAD), will provide some reliefto the domestic industry and pro-vide a level-playing field”.

Jindal Stainless Ltd andJindal Stainless (Hisar) Ltd onbehalf of the domestic indus-try had filed the petition forinitiation of antisubsidy/coun-tervailing duty investigationconcerning imports of 'flatrolled products of stainlesssteel' from China.

MUMBAI: State Bank chair-man Arundhati Bhattacharyaon Friday urged small andmedium enterprises (SMEs) tofocus on raising funds throughequity instead of debt to drivetheir businesses in a healthiermanner. She said SMEs’ relyingmore on debt for their growthcapital in the initial stage oftheir business put pressure ontheir balance sheets.

“One of the major problemsfacing SMEs in our country islack of equity. Equity capital is amuch-neglected area in the SMEsector,” Bhattacharya told anSME summit and asked them tolearn from technology playerswhich have sourced largeamount of equity to ramp up

their business and market share. Quoting the examples of e-

commerce companions like theFlipkart and Amazon, she saidthese firms have done wonderswith the help of equity. UrgingSMEs to present their case in abetter way to investors to attractinvestments, she said, “There arepeople who can give you equitybut you should know how toconvince them that you are theright person who can give themgood returns if they invested inhis/her company.”

She rued the fact a largenumber of entrepreneurs start offwith borrowed money (fromfamily or friends) and thendepend on banks and not equi-ty. “With more debt, the require-

ment of margin goes up whichstrain your financial statements,”she said. Addressing the sameevent, chairman of Insolvencyand Bankruptcy Board of India,M S Sahoo said the board will

soon come out with an insol-vency framework for SMEs.“Currently our entire regulatoryframework and the ecosystemare designed only to deal withcorporate insolvency.

Over 95 per cent of SMEs,particularly MSMEs, are indi-viduals and are not covered bycorporate form of business. Theywould be covered when wecome up with an individualinsolvency regime,” Sahoo said.

The board will come outwith an insolvency regime forSMEs in two phases, he said. "An individual insolvencyregime is much difficult to bringin (as) compared to a corporateregime that is why we are plan-ning to do it in phases. PTI

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UIDAI CEO A B Pandeywas on Friday appointed

interim chairman of Goodsand Services Tax Network(GSTN) -- the firm providingIT backbone and portal for reg-istration and tax returns underthe GST regime. Pandey wasgiven additional charge daysafter GSTN’s first chairmanNavin Kumar completed histerm on August 29.

An order issued by theDepartment of Revenue underthe Ministry of Finance said, “AB Pandey, CEO, UniqueIdentification Authority ofIndia (UIDAI) is assigned theadditional charge of the post ofChairman, GSTN with imme-diate effect and until furtherorders.” Revenue SecretaryHasmukh Adhia also tweetedto announce Pandey's appoint-ment.

“He brings with him hisvast experience of implement-ing complex IT projects. I wel-come him to the Team GST ofRevenue deptt," he said inanother twiter post. Pandey hasbeen steering UID project sincethe beginning of 2010.

The UIDAI issues UniqueIdentification numbers (UID),named as Aadhaar, to all resi-dents of India. The GSTN is theinformation technology (IT)backbone and portal for real-time taxpayer registration,migration and tax return filingunder the GST.

Kumar, former IAS offerfrom Bihar cadre, was the firstchairman of GSTN. He was

appointed as Chairman, GSTNin May 17, 2013 for threeyears, on completion of whichhis term was extended, with thecondition that he would remainin office till he turns 65.

The Government has con-stituted a search committeefor a new GST chairman com-prising senior officials from theDepartment of Revenue.

The GSTN is a Section 8(under new companies Act, notfor profit companies are gov-erned under section 8), non-government, private limitedcompany. It was incorporatedon March 28, 2013 with theGovernment of India holding24.5 per cent equity.

All states of the IndianUnion, including NCT of Delhiand Puducherry together hold-ing an equivalent equity. Thebalance 51 per cent equity iswith non-government financialinstitutions.

The company was set upprimarily to provide IT infra-structure and services to theCentral and StateGovernments, taxpayers andother stakeholders for imple-mentation of the Goods andServices Tax (GST).

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NEW DELHI: Sebi on Fridayproposed 10 per cent cross-shareholding cap in credit ratingagencies along with a slew ofmeasures for tightening thefinancial and operational eligi-bility of their promoters. Besides,the regulator has suggestedgreater disclosure requirementsby credit rating agencies (CRAs)as well as by companies gettingtheir services, according to aconsultation paper.

The proposed norms arelikely to have an impact on glob-al rating agencies like S&P,Moody's and Fitch which havesignificant holdings in domesticagencies besides their directpresence. In a significant move,the regulator has proposed thatno CRA should ‘directly or indi-rectly, hold more than 10 percent of shareholding and/ or vot-ing rights in another CRA andshall not have representation onthe board of the other CRA’.

Further, Sebi's priorapproval would be needed foracquisition of shares or votingrights in a CRA that results inchange in control. “A share-holder holding 10 per cent ormore shares and/ or votingrights in a registered CRA shallnot hold 10 per cent or moreshares and/ or voting rights,directly or indirectly, in anyother CRA,” it noted. The requirement would not beapplicable for holdings by broad-based domestic financial insti-tutions. “Having some thresh-

olds on cross-holding in CRAsmay mitigate concerns regard-ing conflict of interest, inde-pendence of operations, etc,” theconsultation paper said. As perSebi, any activity, other than therating of financial instrumentsand economic or financialresearch, should be hived off bythe CRA into a separate entity.

The watchdog has suggest-ed that certain class of promot-ers of credit rating agenciesshould have a ‘sound trackrecord’ of business in financialservices for at least five years.This would be applicable forentities other than public finan-cial institution, scheduled com-

mercial bank, foreign bank orforeign credit rating agency.The minimum net worththreshold for the rating agencieshas been proposed to be raisedto �50 crore from the currentlevel of � crore.

“The present obligations ofcredit rating agencies warrant anincreased net worth requirementto ensure that CRAs have ade-quate financial capabilities...,”Sebi said. This would help themto invest in building intellectu-al capital, developing efficientsystems and infrastructure andadopting better technology toensure the highest standards ofanalytical rigour, it added. PTI

NEW DELHI: The Governmentis looking at the feasibility ofmandating all unlisted compa-nies to have their shares indematerialised form, sourcessaid as authorities step upefforts to weed out shell firms.

Preliminary discussionshave been initiated on theproposal to dematerialiseshares of all unlisted firms ina phased manner, whichwould still be a gargantuantask considering there aremore than 16 lakh registeredcompanies in the country.

While listed firms arerequired to maintain shares indematerialised form, there is nosuch specific requirement inthe case of unlisted entities --both public and private. Source

said deliberations are pro-gressing between the Ministryof Corporate Affairs and mar-kets regulator Sebi on the nitty-gritty of keeping shares of allunlisted companies in thedematerialised form.

The idea of dematerialisa-tion of listed companies' shareswas introduced in mid 1990sand took a long time before thescrips were converted into thedematerialised form.

The ministry is implement-ing the Companies Act, 2013and all registered companiescome under this law.Dematerialisation is the processby which physical certificates ofan investor are converted to anequivalent number of securitiesin electronic form. PTI

NEW DELHI: Telecom regu-lator Trai on Friday recom-mended the Government toissue a new licence in the vir-tual network operator (VNO)category for landline service atthe district level. The TelecomRegulatory Authority of India(Trai) has suggested the presentlicence of VNOs may beamended to enable to allowthem use fixed line network ofvarious telecom operators forproviding the ElectronicPrivate Automatic BranchExchange (EPABX) services.

The VNOs are entitiesauthorised to provide telecomservices like mobile, landlineand internet, but only as aretailer for full-fledged telecomoperators such as BSNL,MTNL, Airtel and the like. The Department of Telecom(DoT) has already started issu-ing licence for VNOs. PTI

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NEW DELHI: Sebi has ordered aforensic audit of Hit Kit GlobalSolutions Ltd (HKGSL), which fig-ures among 331 suspected shellcompanies under regulatory scan-ner, even as trading curbs imposedon the firm have been removed.Earlier this week, the Sebi hadordered forensic of two other suchcompanies -- Kavit Industries andGV Films, while revoking tradingcurbs on their shares.

In an interim order datedSeptember 7, Sebi said there areinconsistencies between HKGSL’sbooks of accounts and its submis-sions before the regulator. “Also,there is lack of documents to sub-

stantiate the transactions enteredinto by the company. Thus, eventhough there is no prima facie evi-dence of misrepresentation or mis-use of books of accounts/funds bythe company, it is imperative that inthe interest of investors, the finan-cials of the company be indepen-dently audited to establish their gen-uineness,” Sebi said.

The regulator also noted that itwould be appropriate that therestrictions imposed on promotersand directors of the company beremoved and trading in securitiesof HKGSL be reverted to the statusas it stood prior to issuance of let-ter dated August 7 by Sebi. PTI

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MUMBAI:Stocks consolidated fur-ther on Friday as absence of any bigtrigger forced investors’ hand to staycautious, with both Sensex andNifty closing on a flat note with a pos-itive leaning. Unabated FII selling dueto premium valuation, lacklustreearnings season and geopoliticalheadwinds remained the stickingpoints for the market. Worries on theNorth Korea front persisted, too.However, the good part was inflowsby domestic institutional investors(DIIs) and strength in the rupee,which offset the downside. The weekregistered the first fall in four for boththe benchmarks.The session wasmarked by strong fluctuations. The30- share index, after opening on afirm footing, faltered and closed witha meagre gain of 24.78 points -- 0.08per cent -- at 31,687.52. PTI

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Women's national hockey coachSjoerd Marijne was on Fridaynamed chief coach of the Indian

men's team -- a stunning decision giventhat the Dutchman has no prior experi-ence of handling a senior men's side.

Marijne replaced Roelant Oltmans,who was sacked after a few ordinary per-formances in the past few months.

Besides, World Cup-winning juniorteam coach Harendra Singh was appoint-ed high performance specialist coach ofthe senior women's team.

While Marijne will take charge onSeptember 20 after returning from anongoing tour of Europe with the women'steam, Harendra will be on the job onSaturday itself.

The decisions were announced bynewly-appointed sports ministerRajyavardhan Singh Rathore on his offi-cial twitter page.

"Current Chief Coach of Indian SeniorWomen Hockey Team, Mr WaltherusMarijne, will take over as Chief Coach ofIndian Senior Men Hockey Team,"Rathore tweeted.

"Pleased to announce appt of ShHarendra Singh, Dronacharya Awardwinner, as high performance specialistcoach fr Indian Snr Women HockeyTeam (sic)," the Minister added.

According to a top Hockey India offi-cial, both Marijne and Harendra have beengiven a tenure till the 2020 TokyoOlympics.

The sports ministry issued a releasestating that the decisions were taken onThursday after a joint meeting betweenthe Sports Authority of India and HockeyIndia.

"The Joint Committee Meeting of SAIand HI held at SAI, here on 7th September2017 appointed Shri Harendra Singh,Dronacharya Awardee, hockey coach ashigh performance specialist coach forIndian Senior Women Hockey Team.

"This decision has been taken jointlyby SAI and Hockey India on the basis ofrecent and past performance of ShriHarendra Singh, wherein under his coach-ing the junior men team won the JuniorMen World Cup in 2016 at Lucknow.

"He was also the chief coach of the

senior men hockey team from 2008 to2009 and national coach from 2009 to2010. He is a Level III certified Coach,"the release read.

The ministry stated that Marijne has

accepted the new role."It has also been decided in the meet-

ing that, the present Chief Coach of Indiasenior women hockey team, Mr WaltherusNorbertus Maria Marijne will take over as

chief coach of Indian senior men Hockeyteam on his return from the on-goingEurope tour. Mr Marijne has accepted theoffer of chief coach of the senior IndianMen Hockey Team," it added.

The decision came as a bolt from theblue as HI had advertised seekingOltmans' successor on its website justthree days ago. HI had set September 15as the deadline to apply for the post.

However, a top official said HI with-drew the advertisement on Thursday.

"The advertisement has been with-drawn as both HI and the Sports Authorityof India felt Marijne is the best candidatefor the job having spent more than sixmonths in the country," the official toldPTI.

It has been learnt that Marijne was ini-tially reluctant to take up the role. The 43-year-old Dutchman, who was appointedas the Indian women's coach in Februaryearlier this year, has never worked with anational men's team before.

But he agreed after HI and SAI con-vinced him.

The position for men's coach had fall-en vacant after Oltmans was sacked lastSaturday following a string of poor per-formances in the recent past.

Oltmans came to India four years agoas a high performance director beforeassuming the role of coach in 2015 fol-lowing Paul van Ass' removal.

Today's decision stunned the hockeyfraternity, which felt it is a step in the back-ward direction.

Marijne has no experience of workingwith a senior men's side and with threeimportant tournaments -- theCommonwealth Games and the AsianGames and the men's World Cup -- athome lined up in 16 months time, thisdecision has every chance of backfiring.

Marijne, who has played for TheNetherlands, guided the Dutch Under-21women's side to a World Cup title and theDutch senior women's side to a gold at theHockey World League Semi-Finals in2015.

Between 2011-2014, Marijne was thenational head coach for the Hollandunder-21 men, apart from a short stintwith Liaoning Men China.

The decision to appoint Marijne willalso upset both the men's and women's

� �� 81�7+�

It's time to start taking Spain serious-ly again.

After struggling with its agingsquad in the last two major soccer tour-naments, Spain is on its way back to thetop thanks to a group of talentedyoung players and a promising coach.

"La Roja" is playing well again ledby coach Julen Lopetegui and young-sters such as Marco Asensio, Francisco"Isco" Alarcon and Alvaro Morata.

Its revamped team is safely in posi-tion to secure a World Cup spot for nextyear's tournament in Russia, and it willcertainly be among the title favorites ifit continues to succeed.

Spain is unbeaten under Lopetegui,having won eight of its 12 games sincehe took over following the team's elim-ination early in the 2016 EuropeanChampionship. It has outscored itsopponents 40-7 with Lopetegui incharge, with high-profile victories overItaly, France and Belgium, and draws atEngland and against Colombia.

Spain was the team to beat in soc-cer for almost a decade, having wonthree major titles in a row - back-to-back European Championships in 2008and 2012, and the World Cup in 2010.

No nation could challenge Spain'scaptivating ball-possession style, playedto perfection by the likes of AndresIniesta, Xavi Hernandez and XabiAlonso. But its dominance eventuallystarted to fade as some of its key play-ers began to age.

The team's first disappointmentcame at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil,when it was eliminated in the groupstage after embarrassing performances.

Then came Euros 2016 in France,with Spain still under veteran coachVicente Del Bosque but already with-out the status of an indisputable favorite.It made it past the group stage but waseliminated by Italy in the last 16 in agame in which it never had a realchance. It was clear the national teamneeded to be refreshed, and the processstarted when the 51-year-old Lopeteguiwas brought in to replace Del Bosqueafter Euros 2016.

Lopetegui's only experience incharge of a top European club was withPortugal's FC Porto from 2014-16,when he wasn't able to win much. Butthe former goalkeeper had done wellwith Spain's youth teams, winning theunder-19 European title in 2012 and theunder-21 European title a year later.

Many of the players thriving now

were coached by Lopetegui in theyouth teams, including ManchesterUnited goalkeeper David de Gea,Chelsea striker Morata and Real Madridforward Isco.

The 25-year-old Isco has been keyfor Spain's revival, successfully takingover the team's playmaking role andbecoming an indisputable starter forLopetegui.

He scored twice in Spain's resound-ing 3-0 win over Italy in a qualifier inMadrid last week, and once in the 8-0rout at Liechtenstein, helping the nationsolidify its group lead in European qual-ifying and taking his scoring tally to fivegoals in the last five games with thenational team.

"This is not surprising," Lopeteguisaid. "Isco has talent and he is a greatplayer. He has been developing just theright way in his career. We know thathe will be able to help us."

The 24-year-old Morata, whoplayed for Juventus and Real Madridbefore moving to Chelsea, scored thethird goal in the qualifier against Italy,and added two more againstLiechtenstein. The other key youngsterfor Spain's future is Asensio, the 21-year-old forward who is Madrid's lead-ing scorer through the first weeks of theseason with four goals in five matches.

He started against Italy and playedwell alongside Isco, switching back andforth as a "false 9" in an attackingscheme that has proven successful forLopetegui. Other youngsters ready tohelp Spain get back in contention formajor titles include Barcelona's GerardDeulofeu and Atletico Madrid's SaulNiguez, although Lopetegui hasn'tquite given up on his veterans.

Iniesta, Sergio Busquets and DavidSilva remain with an important role inthe midfield, and Sergio Ramos andGerard Pique are still crucial in thedefense. Nine of the players called upby Lopetegui for the latest qualifiers alsoparticipated in the winning campaignat Euros 2012: Iniesta, Busquets, Silva,Ramos, Pique, Jordi Alba, David Villa,Pedro Rodriguez and reserve goal-keeper Pepe Reina. Seven of them are30 or older already, with the exceptionof Busquets and Alba.

Fans had been growing increasinglyconcerned as the team kept gettingolder and the victories were becomingelusive. But thanks to Lopetegui and thethriving youngsters such as Isco,Asensio and Morata, there is plenty ofhope for La Roja to get back to its glory days.

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The Committee of Administrators(COA) on Friday assured that all

six north eastern states will be play-ing Ranji Trophy as individual unitsnext season with BCCI GM (GameDevelopment), Ratnakar Shetty, givencharge of their smooth integration.

The six states Meghalaya,Manipur, Mizoram, Sikkim, Nagalandand Arunachal Pradesh met VinodRai for one and a half hour with pleaof taking part as a combined unit thisseason. However, they were assuredthat by next season they would be partof Ranji Trophy while they will playas separate states in the age group cat-egories (U-16, U-19 And U-23) fromthis season onwards. "The COA chiefMr Vinod Rai told us that sinceRanji Trophy is starting from October6, it will be difficult to play this sea-son. However we will be playing asindividual states from next season.

After all these years, this is the firsttime we have got complete assurance.Prof Shetty will look into implemen-tation part," north east convenorNaba Bhattacharjee said on Fridayafter the meeting.

Rai on his part said that NEstates will be eligible to play onceSupreme Court pronounces the ver-dict on their membership status.

"They will be eligible to play

Ranji Trophy once Supreme Courtdecides on their full membershipstatus," Rai told reporters after theCOA meeting.

The good news is that COA hasdecided that U-16 NationalChampionship (Vinoo Mankad) andU-23 (CK Nayudu Trophy) will havea specific North East Zone.

"The U-16 and U-23 BCCI tour-naments are held zone wise. WhileAssam and Tripura continue to playin East Zone, a dedicated North EastZone will be created. The top twofrom the zone will qualify for theknock outs," Bhattacharjee added.

On junior cricket, Rai said:"Ithink junior (age-group) cricket hasalready been factored in."

The only problem is Cooch BeharTrophy (U19), whose scheduled hasbeen already chalked out. "The COAsaid that technical committee chair-man Sourav Ganguly will take a callin this regard," he further added.

It was learnt that when the unitsrequested for disbursement of annu-al grants, Rai instructed them to filean affidavit signed by their presidentsthat atleast 80 percent recommenda-tions of Lodha Panel is adhered to.

"We told COA that you don't needto disburse huge amounts to new unitslike us but enough funds to run theshow," he added.

It was also learnt that AssamCricket Association (ACA) has takena bank loan of Rs 6 crore for organi-sation of the T20 international matchbetween Australia and India at itsnewly constructed stadium inBarsapara. The ACA currently does-n't get BCCI grants as there has beenadverse reports of financial discrep-ancies found in its audited accounts.

"We are taking a bank loan of Rs6 crore and CM of Assam SarbanandaSonowal also has assured help onbehalf of the government," said ACASecretary Pradip Buragohain.

�� 9��()+

Indian captain Virat Kohli believeshe might have 8-10 years of crick-

et left in him if he can maintain thislevel of training. Hence, he tries tomake the most of everyday to be ableto keep up with that level.

On being asked to advice theyoungsters on his secret for main-taining the motivation to keep play-ing at this level, the Indian batting sen-sation said it is an individual one andeveryone should not restrict them andkeep pushing themselves to the limit.

"There is no secret to raising thebar every day. Lot of us doesn't knowhow far we can push, how much wecan do. We limit ourselves evenbefore we try. Most of the people stopat 70 per cent. Therefore we need topush until we are done," he said on thesidelines of the launch of RP-SGIndian sports honours. "That's whatI try to do. I may have 8-10 years inmy cricket life if I train hard. You haveto make the most of every day thatyou have. That's the attitude withwhich I carry on every day's work.Small things matter to me. What I eat,how I train etc," he elaborated.

Through his Virat KohliFoundation (VKF) in associationwith the RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group,scholarships will be awarded to indi-viduals who have undertaken excep-tional initiatives to promote sports atthe grassroot level.

The VKF has pledged a minimumof �2 crores to be utilised every yearon the beneficiaries of the scholar-ships. The shortlisted athletes/ ini-tiatives will be tracked through theyear and their progress monitored.

"India has made rapid strides asa sporting nation. The days of beinga one-sport country are behind us.The time is just right to introduce aninstitution that will recognise andreward our top sporting achievers andput the spotlight on those who areexpected to do the country proud inthe years to come," said Kohli, whohas scored 4658 runs in 60 Tests and8587 runs in 194 ODIs.

Indian badminton team's chiefcoach Pullela Gopichand and SanjivGoenka, Chairman, RP-SG Groupwere also present.

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teams' set-up as the Dutchman tookover the women's side only inFebruary this year.

Some feel Harendra, who wasinterested in the men's team role,could have been the best choice as hehas a good relationship with all theplayers.

Having guided India to the juniorWorld Cup title last year in Lucknow,Harendra has worked extensively withthe juniors who are sure to be the coreof the 2020 Tokyo Olympics plans.

Marijne's first assignment with thesenior men's team will be next month'sAsia Cup in Dhaka.

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Newly-appointed men's national chiefhockey coach Sjoerd Marijne says

he is "willing to take the advise" ofRoelant Oltmans, the man the formerIndia women's coach replaced at thehelm.

"I spoke to Oltmans personally andinformed him that I have been appoint-ed. I respect him very much. I am will-ing to take his advise if he is open to theidea. But right now I want to give himspace as he has just lost a job," he said.

Marijne wants a cultural change in

the way the sport is run in the countryand said under him the approach wouldbe "players driven and coach assisted".

"It has to be players driven andcoach assisted," Marijne said in aninterview from Holland when askedabout his plans in the new role.

"The players have to set their goalsand I will only help them to achieve theirgoals. The best motivation for a personcomes from his inner self.

"Having been there for so manyyears, the players will very well knowwhat style of play suits them. They knowwhat is best for them."

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Hockey fraternity includingthree former captains today

expressed shock over the deci-sion to appoint women's teamcoach Sjoerd Marijne as headcoach of the Indian men's side,saying the abrupt move "defieslogic".

Marijne was on Fridaynamed chief coach of the Indianmen's team -- a stunning deci-sion given that the Dutchmanhas no prior experience of han-dling a senior men's side.

Marijne replaced legendaryRoelant Oltmans, who wassacked after a few ordinary per-formances in the past fewmonths.

Besides, World Cup-win-ning junior team coachHarendra Singh was appointedHigh Performance Specialistcoach of the senior women'steam.

But for India's only WorldCup-winning captain Ajit PalSingh, Marijne's elevation was asenseless decision.

"In my opinion the appoint-ment defies logic. This man(Marijne) has never coached asenior men's team. He hardlyknows the players," Ajit Pal toldPTI.

"Harendra has been giventhe women's team charge but hetoo has never been involved withthe women's team. The Olympic

cycle has already started and theywill now take time to settledown."

Ajit Pal feels Oltmans sack-ing was "ill-timed".

"Oltmans removal was ill-timed and not graceful. He hasgiven a lot to Indian hockey.Under him t he team hasshown considerable improve-ment, even though results werenot showing to some extent,"said the two-time Olympicbronze medallist.

"I feel what went againstOltmans was the defeats againstMalaysia and Canada (both inHockey World League Semi-Finals in London."

The decision was shockingfor all and sundry as Marijne hasno experience of working witha senior men's side.

With three important tour-naments -- the CommonwealthGames and the Asian Gamesand the men's World Cup -- athome lined up in 16 monthstime, this decision has everychance of backfiring.

Marijne, who has playedfor The Netherlands, guidedthe Dutch Under-21 women'sside to a World Cup title and theDutch senior women's side to agold at the Hockey WorldLeague Semi-Finals in 2015.

Between 2011-2014,Marijne was the national headcoach for The NetherlandsUnder-21 men, apart from a

short stint with Liaoning MenChina.

Terming the move as a stepin the backward direction, leg-endary forward Dhanraj Pillaysaid Harendra was a betterchoice for the men's team.

"It is a step in the backwarddirection. I can't make any senseof the decisions taken. Harendrawas a strong contender for thejob," Pillay said.

"It is a negative decision. Itseems Hockey India only wantsto appoint foreign coaches."

Another hockey stalwartZafar Iqbal, a member of India'slast of the eight Olympic goldmedal winning squad, too wassurprised by the decision.

"It may be a good decisionor may not be. There may besome reason behind the deci-sions. Oltmans was fromNetherlands and Marijne too isa Dutchman and that might havewent in his favour. I

"I feel Hockey India did notwant to disturb the Oltmans styleof play and that might be the rea-son behind appointing Marijne,"Iqbal said.

Iqbal, however, said HockeyIndia could have avoided thedrama surrounding the coach'sappointment. "I am upset withthe tamasha (drama) which HIhas created by advertising for thepost and later withdrawing it.Many interested candidatesmight feel offended," he said.

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Sloane Stephens was two pointsfrom defeat against VenusWilliams in one US Open

semifinal before pulling out the vic-tory.

Madison Keys faced no suchtest, overwhelming CoCoVandeweghe in the other semifinal.

Now Stephens and Keys, apair of pals in their early 20s, willmeet in the first Grand Slam titlematch for each — and the first all-American women's final atFlushing Meadows since 2002.

Stephens summoned some ofher best strokes when she neededthem the most, steeling herselfwhen so close to defeat and takingthe last three games of a back-and-forth thriller, edging seven-timemajor champion Williams 6-1, 0-6, 7-5 on Thursday night.

"I have a lot of grit," saidStephens, who is ranked 83rd afterhaving surgery on her left foot inJanuary and is the fourth unseed-ed finalist at the tournament in theOpen era, which dates to 1968. "Idon't give up. Like, I'm not justgoing to give it to someone. I'm notjust going to let them take it fromme."

The 15th-seeded Keys, whodominated no 20 Vandeweghe 6-1, 6-2, had her own recent healthissue to deal with: She missed thefirst two months of this year afteran offseason operation on her leftwrist, then needed another proce-dure in June because of pain in thatarm.

"It was kind of one of thosedays where I came out and I waskind of in a zone," Keys said of herplay Thursday, "and I just kind offorced myself to stay there."

She had 25 winners to onlynine unforced errors, never faceda break point and needed barelymore than an hour to win.

"Madison played an unbeliev-able match," said Vandeweghe,who wiped away tears during hernews conference. "I didn't reallyhave much to do with anything outthere."

It would have been even short-er, except play was delayed for morethan five minutes when Keys leftthe court to have her upper rightleg taped at 4-1 in the second set.

She said she first felt something inthat leg in her previous match butmade it sound as if the treatmentwas simply a precaution.

"I just didn't want it to becomesomething that would be bad,"Keys said. "So as soon as I kind offelt it get the tiniest bit worse, I justhad it wrapped to try and preventanything from happening."

This was the first time in 36years that all four women's semi-finalists at the US Open repre-sented the host country, so it wasunderstandable if spectators in

Arthur Ashe Stadium were con-flicted about which players to pullfor.

At 37, Williams was attempt-ing to become the oldest woman towin a Grand Slam title in the Openera. She was trying to reach herthird major final of this season,something she last did 15 years ago.Here's how long and successful hercareer has been: Williams' first finalin New York came in her US

Open debut in 1997.Stephens, now 24,was 4 at the time.

"Venus knows it's an opportu-nity lost," said her coach, DavidWitt, "because she had it. She hadit on her racket."

Williams was ahead 5-4 withStephens serving at 30-all. Twopoints away. That's when theyengaged in a 25-stroke point, untilStephens conjured up a backhandpassing winner down the line,then wheeled and pumped her fists.

"That was good, huh?"Stephens said later.

At 5-all, Stephens broke withthe help of a rainbow of a winner

— "That lob-thingy," she'd call it —that drew a standing ovation fromthe crowd, and a full-sprint get ofa short ball that she turned into a"How did she do that?!" point-ender at an impossible angle.

"There was nothing I could doabout those shots," Williams said.

Soon enough, Stephens wasserving out the biggest win of hercareer — and of this comeback. Shereturned to the tour at Wimbledonin July, losing in the first round, andlost her next match, too. Her rank-ing, which reached a high of no 11in 2013, dropped out of the top 900.

But since then, Stephens haswon 14 of 16 matches.

"Sloane is a new person rightnow," the 22-year-old Keys said. "Ithink she's really loving beingback on the court again and she'sjust excited to be out here and play-ing really well."

Williams vs Stephens was aback-and-forth affair, with a pair oflopsided sets leading up to a clas-sic third. Just when it seemed onewoman or the other was in fullcommand, the match wouldswerve in a new direction.

They both hit the ball hard.They both covered so muchground, Williams getting to seem-ingly unreachable balls thanks toher long wingspan, Stephens doingthe same thanks to her speed.

But it was Williams who fal-tered. She finished with six double-faults and a total of 51 unforcederrors, 24 more than Stephens.

"I just wasn't playing well.Those are moments where youhave to dig deep and figure out howto get the ball on the court and havea big game. I can't be tentative andtry to figure out how to put that ballin," Williams said. "Clearly she'sseen me play many, many times. Ihaven't seen her play as much."

Stephens and Keys have onlyplayed once before, on a hardcourt at Miami in 2015. Stephenswon in straight sets.

Away from the court, though,they know each other well. OnSaturday, one will raise a GrandSlam trophy for the first time, at theother's expense.

"She's one of my closest friendson tour. It's obviously going to betough," Stephens said. "It's noteasy playing a friend."

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Kevin Anderson clinching aUS Open men's singles

semi-finals showdown withSpaniard Pablo CarrenoBusta in New York hasgiven South Africantennis a mas-sive boost.

Football,rugby andcricket domi-nate the sportscene in therepublic, takingmost of thes p o n s o r s h i pmoney and themedia space.

After defeatingAmerican Sam Querrey in

the quarter-finals at Flushing Meadows,Anderson made the main sport page of many

dailies."It was a pleasant if unusual sight," said

Tennis South Africa (TSA) chief executiveRichard Glover here. "South Africans are

used to seeing the back pages domi-nated by the 'big three' of football,

rugby and cricket so it was nice tohave positive tennis publicity."

Glover hailed 31-year-oldFlorida-based Anderson for reach-

ing the last four of a Grand Slam cham-pionship for the first time, saying that when

it comes to publicity "nothing beats on-courtsuccess".

Johannesburg-born Anderson is the firstSouth African to make the last four of a

Grand Slam event since Wayne Ferreira at the 2003Australian Open in Melbourne.

"My phone almost exploded after Kevin wonhis quarter-final," chuckled Glover, who joined thenational tennis body last year. "It rang non-stopand, interestingly, it was non-tennis sport follow-ers who were phoning to say how wonderful it wasthat Kevin had reached the semi-finals."

Grand Slam semi-finals are uncharted territoryfor Anderson, who reached the last eight in NewYork two years ago but has never advancedbeyond the fourth round at Melbourne, RolandGarros or Wimbledon.

Like all South African sport bosses outside the"big three", Glover has the challenging task of woo-ing financial backers.

He seems to possess a midas touch, however,having signed five sponsors, including local prop-

erty and telecommunications giants and a SouthKorean car manufacturer.

South Africa have adopted a bottom-upapproach to tennis, concentrating on developmentto try and unearth more Kevin Andersons, who hasthree ATP titles to his credit.

Once perceived as an elitist white sport,Glover would also love to find a South AfricanSerena Williams, the black American who has dom-inated women's tennis for many years.

"That white elitist perception might havebeen true to some extent in the past," concededGlover, "but we are building development centreswith the first due to open in Cape Town soon."

TSA public relations consultant BruceDavidson told AFP that Anderson could not havereached his first Grand Slam semi-final at a moreopportune time.

� �� 81��)��7�

Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain wasgreeted with a high five and a

warm hug from Liverpool manag-er Juergen Klopp ahead of the mid-fielder's first training session at hisnew club.

For some of the other high-profile players returning to theirEnglish Premier League teams fol-lowing the international break,the reception might be a littlefrostier.

Unlike Oxlade-Chamberlain,who managed to secure a transferfrom Arsenal, three stars of theleague — Alexis Sanchez, PhilippeCoutinho and Riyad Mahrez —failed to get the moves they want-ed on the final day of Europe'stransfer window last week.

Coutinho hasn't played forLiverpool this season while beingthe subject of three huge offersfrom Barcelona, and even lodgeda transfer request in early Augustin an attempt to force through amove to the Spanish side.

"He showed up in a very, verygood mood," Klopp said on

Thursday. "He's back and we hada really good conversation. Sogood."

��)� ��)��&��#On Saturday in the standout

match of the fourth round ofleague games, and it remains to beseen if Coutinho is in the right stateof mind to be in contention.Chamberlain could make his debutfor Liverpool, but would likely haveto displace one of Emre Can and

Georginio Wijnaldum — two ofthe Reds' best players in their 4-0win over Arsenal in the last gamebefore the international break.

&�� Manchester United is the only

team to have won all of its games,and goes for a fourth straight vic-tory in its trip to Stoke. United hasalready beaten West Ham, Swanseaand Leicester, scoring 10 goals intotal without conceding.

� �� 81�7+�

Ousmane Dembele is about to step into thespotlight. The 20-year-old France striker

signed by Barcelona to replace Neymar is expect-ed to make his debut in the Catalan derby againstEspanyol this weekend, getting the first chanceto prove his worth after being involved in the sec-ond biggest transfer in soccer history behind theBrazilian's move to Paris Saint-Germain.

"Will he be able to score on Saturday?"Barcelona posted on his website, noting thatDembele could join a list of players who debutedwith goals in their Spanish league debut at theCamp Nou, including Johan Cruyff, DiegoMaradona, Ronaldinho, Romario and Rivaldo.

Barcelona had already mentioned Dembelewhen listing details about the debut of its "great-est foreign signings", including Ronaldo, SamuelEto'o, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Neymar.

Dembele tried to avoid comparisons toNeymar the moment he arrived, saying that whilethe Brazilian was already "one of the best in theworld," he is only a "young player trying to learnevery day".

He didn't hide he was anxious to be playingalongside Lionel Messi, whom he called "the bestin history".

Barcelona initially wanted to replace Neymarwith Philippe Coutinho, but Liverpool repeatedlyrejected offers for the Brazil midfielder. The

English club said it would only release Coutinhofor 200 million euros ($238 million), an amountBarcelona said it was not willing to pay.

Barcelona will be under pressure for Dembeleto succeed because it was not able to sign anyother top player to help fill the hole left byNeymar. The team reportedly also went after PSGmidfielder Angel Di Maria and Juventus forwardPaulo Dybala, but could not reach any dealsbefore the end of the transfer window.

The only other additions made by Barcelonain the offseason were forward Gerard Deulofeu,who re-signed from Everton, and Brazil mid-fielder Paulinho, who was playing in China.

"We expect a lot of Dembele," Barcelonasports director Roberto Fernandez said.

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