ˇ˙ ˛#˝ ˛ˇ $ ˇ˙˙ - the pioneer€¦ · a surgery to resume her wed-ding rituals. pooja’s...

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A s West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee prepared to hold a massive show of strength on Saturday, which will be attended by a galaxy of major Opposition leaders, Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Friday wrote to her hailing the TMC chief ’s initiative to unite India against the BJP. The Congress president wrote, “I extend my support to Mamata Di on this show of unity and hope that we send a powerful message of a united India together.” Saying that there were “powerful forces afoot” angry with the Narendra Modi Government for ped- dling false promises, Rahul wrote these “forces are fanned by anger and disappointment of hundreds of millions Indians who have seen through the false promises and lies peddled by the Modi Government.” Rahul’s letter came at a time when political who’s who from all over the country including former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda, former UP Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav and NCP chief Sharad Yadav had started land- ing at Kolkata. On united Opposition against the BJP, the Congress president wrote, “The entire Opposition is united in our belief that true nationalism and development can only be defended on the tested pillars of democracy, social justice and secularism, ideas that the BJP and Modi are intent on destroying.” While neither Sonia Gandhi nor Rahul Gandhi would be joining the rally, the Congress will be represented by the party’s Leader in Lok Sabha, Mallikarjun Kharge. His pres- ence and Rahul’s letter tends to neutralise BJP’s argument that Mamata’s much-hyped Brigade rally lacked the backing of the second biggest party of India indicating at the schism with- in the much touted Opposition unity. Rahul’s support apart, Deve Gowda too praised Mamata for taking the “grand initiative to bring the entire Opposition together against the Narendra Modi Government. She is a hardworking leader and her endeavour will bring success,” Gowda said after landing at Kolkata. Congratulating the Chief Minister for bringing the whole India to Kolkata, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav said, “Mamata Didi has sent a message by bringing all leaders to Kolkata. Every segment of the soci- ety is unhappy with the Modi Government and time has come for a new Prime Minister for the country.” Former Arunachal Chief Minister Gegong Apang who left BJP a couple of days ago said, “Mamata is a great leader and we all have come here to support her initiative.” Meanwhile, stage is set for the expected record-breaking rally even as thousands of TMC cadres poured in from districts. Kolkata prepared for a historic Brigade rally that according to a rough ruling party estimate break the Left Front record by assembling no less than 30 lakh people sources said. By Thursday late-noon a galaxy of politicians had land- ed in Kolkata led by former HD Deve Gowda, NCP chief Sharada Pawar, Gegong Apang, Akhilesh Yadav. Mamata had on Thursday said that leaders of about 20 Opposition parties would be coming to join the “Mahagathbandhan rally against the BJP’s misrule.” Apart from those who had already landed at Kolkata, oth- ers who were expected to join the rally are Karnataka Chief Minister Kumaraswami, his Andhra Pradesh counterpart N Chandrababu Naidu, National Conference leaders Farooq Abdullah, Omar Abdullah, RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, DMK leader Stalin and BSP leader Amit Mishra, Mamata said. BJP leader Shatrughan Sinha and Yashwant Sinha were also likely to join the rally. T he NDA Government’s decision to buy 36 Rafale jets instead of 126 as was decided by the UPA regime led to escalation of the price of each aircraft by 41 per cent and came as a windfall for French aircraft-maker Dassault, said Congress leader P Chidambaram citing an exhaustive report published by The Hindu newspaper. The Defence Ministry has denied the charges in detailed statement. Claiming that the Government paid Euro 25 mil- lion more per aircraft com- pared to the price negotiated by the Congress-led UPA, Chidambaram said the Government did not buy 90 more aircraft needed by the Air Force and paid Rs 186 crore more to French firm Dassault, maker of Rafale, for 13 India- specific enhancements in the medium multi-role combat air- craft (MMRCA). The former Finance Minister reiterated his party’s demand for a joint parliamen- tary committee (JPC) probe into the Rafale jet deal, saying the decision is not amenable to court but to a parliamentary panel. The Congress has alleged earlier that the Prime Minister increased the ‘Benchmark Price’ of Rafale deal from 5.2 billion Euros to 8.2 billion Euros and that the NDA Government paid over Rs 1,600 crore per aircraft against the UPA’s negotiated price of Rs 527 crore per aircraft, demand- ing answers as to who is responsible for the loss to the State exchequer. Chidambaram’s Press con- ference came in the backdrop of a media report claiming that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s decision to buy 36 air- craft instead of the 126 asked for by the Indian Air Force pushed the price of each jet up by 41.42 per cent. “The Government has wronged the country in two ways - firstly, it has compro- mised national security by denying to the Air Force 90 fighter aircraft that they des- perately need. Secondly, it has purchased two squadrons that will cost about 25 million more per aircraft. At the 2016 exchange rate, Euro 25 million is equal to Rs 186 crore. India will pay Rs 186 crore more per aircraft,” Chidambaram said. “There is no doubt any longer that Rafale aircraft deal deserves to be examined thor- oughly by a Joint Parliamentary Committee. The Congress reit- erates its demand for constitu- tion of a JPC,” he said. The Rajya Sabha member said he feels that Dassault “is laughing all the way to the bank”, as the NDA Government gave a “gift” to the French firm over amortisation or recovery on the cost of 13 India-specific enhancements sought in the aircraft that cost 1,300 million Euros. A fter Bihar and Maharashtra, Congress has firmed up its alliance with regional parties in neighbour- ing Jharkhand for Lok Sabha elections and later the State Assembly polls. The alliance to take on BJP will have five par- ties — Congress, JMM, RJD, CPI and Jharkhand Vikas Morcha (JVM). The anti-BJP alliance in the State has also agreed to project JMM working president Hemant Soren as the CM can- didate for the State Assembly polls later this year. Of the 14 seats in Jharkhand, JMM will contest in four seats, according to sources. One seat - either Palamu or Chatra - will go to RJD. JVM will be contesting in two seats and CPI will contest from Hazaribagh, a seat held by Union Minister Jayant Sinha. Congress will field its candi- dates on the remaining seats. The BJP won 12 of the 14 seats in Jharkhand in the last Lok Sabha elections. The remaining two were won by the JMM. The Congress which contested in nine seats in alliance with the JMM lost in all nine. As a pre-condition for a tie- up in Lok Sabha elections, the JMM has been insisting on pro- jection of Soren as the chief ministerial candidate for the Assembly polls. The demand seems to have been met by the alliance partners. The ties between the JMM and the Congress had soured last month when the former supported an Independent can- didate in the Kolebera bypolls to the State Assembly. The Congress, however, managed to win the seat defeating the BJP by more than 10,000 votes. Congress president Rahul Gandhi had earlier said we will contest the State Assembly elections under Soren’s leader- ship and it was reiterated in the meeting,” Jharkhand Congress president Ajay Kumar said after a meeting of Opposition parties in Ranchi on Thursday. “You can see all of us here together. We will discuss con- tours of our alliance within our party and finalise the seat- sharing arrangement by this month-end,” JVM chief Babulal Marandi said after the meeting. Marandi who was in BJP became the first Chief Minister after Bihar was bifurcated and Jharkhand came into existence. Later he quit over differences and formed JVM and tied up with Congress in couple of elections. Jharkhand is the third State where Congress has stitched an alliance with regional parties after Bihar and Maharashtra. The party, however, failed to get berth in the alliance formed by once UP rivals Akhilesh Yadav’s Samajwadi Party and Mayawati’s BSP. T he Election Commission (EC) may announce the schedule of the parliamentary elections sometime in the mid- dle of March, while the polls are likely to take place in April and May. The polling is likely to be conducted in several phases across the country and the EC is keen to ensure that the poll- dates do not clash with the school examinations as well as festivals in the States. The term of the present Lok Sabha ends on June 3. An EC spokesperson, how- ever, said, “No decision has been taken as yet on the date when the elections would be announced.” According to sources, the Commission is in the process of deciding the number of phases and the months in which polling would be held. The charting of the phases would also depend on the availability of security forces and other requirements, the sources said, adding the announcement of the mega exercise is likely to be made in first week of March. The polling to elect the new Assemblies in Arunachal Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha and Sikkim are likely to take place along with the par- liamentary elections. The state assembly polls in J&K, which is now under President’s Rule may also be held with Lok Sabha polls in April-May. O n Thursday evening, in the midst of the wedding cer- emony in East Delhi’s Shakkarpur, when the bride, 19-year-old Pooja, and the groom, Bharat, were walking towards the stage to exchange garlands (varmala) at Shiv Mandir Dharamshala, Pooja was allegedly hit by a bullet. She was immediately rushed to a nearby hospital, but returned three hours later after a surgery to resume her wed- ding rituals. Pooja’s mother Joga Devi said, “Doctor advised her to take rest for a few hours but she was determined to go back to wedding procession. Now she is fine and taking rest.” Eyewitnesses said two bul- let shots were fired by the accused one was shot in the air, while the other shot hit the bride in the ankle of her right leg. It was revealed that the bul- let had brushed past her leg. Police said it is a case of cel- ebratory firing and hunt is on to arrest the accused identified as Rinku, a resident of Geeta Colony. Deputy Commissioner of Police (East) Pankaj Singh said they are looking into the matter and the accused was a guest from the groom’s side. However, the groom has denied this statement and claimed that he doesn’t know the accused. Pooja is a resident of Mandawali and Bharat is a flower merchant from Shastri Park. They were engaged a year ago. The wedding attendees alleged that the accused might have fled when the bride was being taken to the hospital. In a similar incident last November, a groom was shot at in the shoulder by two gunmen as he was riding a chariot to his wedding. A few hours later he returned to the wedding to carry-on with the marriage rituals.

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Page 1: ˇ˙ ˛#˝ ˛ˇ $ ˇ˙˙ - The Pioneer€¦ · a surgery to resume her wed-ding rituals. Pooja’s mother Joga Devi said, “Doctor advised her to ... as Rinku, a resident of Geeta

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As West Bengal ChiefMinister Mamata Banerjee

prepared to hold a massiveshow of strength on Saturday,which will be attended by agalaxy of major Oppositionleaders, Congress presidentRahul Gandhi on Friday wroteto her hailing the TMC chief ’sinitiative to unite India againstthe BJP.

The Congress presidentwrote, “I extend my support toMamata Di on this show ofunity and hope that we send apowerful message of a unitedIndia together.” Saying thatthere were “powerful forcesafoot” angry with the NarendraModi Government for ped-dling false promises, Rahulwrote these “forces are fannedby anger and disappointmentof hundreds of millions Indianswho have seen through thefalse promises and lies peddledby the Modi Government.”

Rahul’s letter came at atime when political who’s whofrom all over the countryincluding former PrimeMinister HD Deve Gowda,former UP Chief MinisterAkhilesh Yadav and NCP chiefSharad Yadav had started land-ing at Kolkata.

On united Oppositionagainst the BJP, the Congresspresident wrote, “The entireOpposition is united in ourbelief that true nationalismand development can only bedefended on the tested pillarsof democracy, social justiceand secularism, ideas that the

BJP and Modi are intent ondestroying.”

While neither SoniaGandhi nor Rahul Gandhiwould be joining the rally, theCongress will be represented bythe party’s Leader in Lok Sabha,Mallikarjun Kharge. His pres-ence and Rahul’s letter tends toneutralise BJP’s argument thatMamata’s much-hyped Brigaderally lacked the backing of thesecond biggest party of Indiaindicating at the schism with-in the much touted Oppositionunity.

Rahul’s support apart, DeveGowda too praised Mamata fortaking the “grand initiative tobring the entire Oppositiontogether against the Narendra

Modi Government. She is ahardworking leader and herendeavour will bring success,”Gowda said after landing atKolkata.

Congratulating the ChiefMinister for bringing the wholeIndia to Kolkata, SamajwadiParty chief Akhilesh Yadavsaid, “Mamata Didi has sent amessage by bringing all leadersto Kolkata.

Every segment of the soci-ety is unhappy with the ModiGovernment and time hascome for a new Prime Ministerfor the country.”

Former Arunachal ChiefMinister Gegong Apang wholeft BJP a couple of days agosaid, “Mamata is a great leader

and we all have come here tosupport her initiative.”

Meanwhile, stage is set forthe expected record-breakingrally even as thousands ofTMC cadres poured in fromdistricts. Kolkata prepared fora historic Brigade rally thataccording to a rough rulingparty estimate break the LeftFront record by assembling noless than 30 lakh people sourcessaid.

By Thursday late-noon agalaxy of politicians had land-ed in Kolkata led by former HDDeve Gowda, NCP chiefSharada Pawar, Gegong Apang,Akhilesh Yadav. Mamata hadon Thursday said that leadersof about 20 Opposition parties

would be coming to join the“Mahagathbandhan rallyagainst the BJP’s misrule.”

Apart from those who hadalready landed at Kolkata, oth-ers who were expected to jointhe rally are Karnataka ChiefMinister Kumaraswami, hisAndhra Pradesh counterpart NChandrababu Naidu, NationalConference leaders FarooqAbdullah, Omar Abdullah, RJDleader Tejashwi Yadav, DelhiChief Minister ArvindKejriwal, DMK leader Stalinand BSP leader Amit Mishra,Mamata said.

BJP leader ShatrughanSinha and Yashwant Sinha werealso likely to join the rally.

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The NDA Government’sdecision to buy 36 Rafale

jets instead of 126 as wasdecided by the UPA regime ledto escalation of the price ofeach aircraft by 41 per cent andcame as a windfall for Frenchaircraft-maker Dassault, saidCongress leader PChidambaram citing anexhaustive report published byThe Hindu newspaper.

The Defence Ministry hasdenied the charges in detailedstatement.

Claiming that theGovernment paid Euro 25 mil-lion more per aircraft com-pared to the price negotiated bythe Congress-led UPA,Chidambaram said theGovernment did not buy 90more aircraft needed by the AirForce and paid Rs 186 croremore to French firm Dassault,maker of Rafale, for 13 India-specific enhancements in themedium multi-role combat air-craft (MMRCA).

The former FinanceMinister reiterated his party’sdemand for a joint parliamen-tary committee (JPC) probeinto the Rafale jet deal, sayingthe decision is not amenable tocourt but to a parliamentary

panel. The Congress has allegedearlier that the Prime Ministerincreased the ‘BenchmarkPrice’ of Rafale deal from 5.2billion Euros to 8.2 billionEuros and that the NDAGovernment paid over Rs 1,600crore per aircraft against theUPA’s negotiated price of Rs527 crore per aircraft, demand-ing answers as to who isresponsible for the loss to theState exchequer.

Chidambaram’s Press con-ference came in the backdropof a media report claimingthat Prime Minister NarendraModi’s decision to buy 36 air-craft instead of the 126 askedfor by the Indian Air Forcepushed the price of each jet upby 41.42 per cent.

“The Government haswronged the country in twoways - firstly, it has compro-mised national security bydenying to the Air Force 90

fighter aircraft that they des-perately need. Secondly, it haspurchased two squadrons that will cost about�25 million more per aircraft.At the 2016 exchange rate,Euro 25 million is equal to Rs186 crore. India will pay Rs 186crore more per aircraft,”Chidambaram said.

“There is no doubt anylonger that Rafale aircraft dealdeserves to be examined thor-oughly by a Joint ParliamentaryCommittee. The Congress reit-erates its demand for constitu-tion of a JPC,” he said.

The Rajya Sabha membersaid he feels that Dassault “islaughing all the way to thebank”, as the NDA Governmentgave a “gift” to the Frenchfirm over amortisation orrecovery on the cost of 13India-specific enhancementssought in the aircraft that cost1,300 million Euros.

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After Bihar andMaharashtra, Congress has

firmed up its alliance withregional parties in neighbour-ing Jharkhand for Lok Sabhaelections and later the StateAssembly polls. The alliance totake on BJP will have five par-ties — Congress, JMM, RJD,CPI and Jharkhand VikasMorcha (JVM).

The anti-BJP alliance in theState has also agreed to projectJMM working presidentHemant Soren as the CM can-didate for the State Assemblypolls later this year.

Of the 14 seats inJharkhand, JMM will contest infour seats, according to sources.One seat - either Palamu orChatra - will go to RJD. JVMwill be contesting in two seatsand CPI will contest from

Hazaribagh, a seat held byUnion Minister Jayant Sinha.Congress will field its candi-dates on the remaining seats.

The BJP won 12 of the 14seats in Jharkhand in the lastLok Sabha elections. Theremaining two were won by theJMM. The Congress whichcontested in nine seats inalliance with the JMM lost inall nine.

As a pre-condition for a tie-up in Lok Sabha elections, theJMM has been insisting on pro-jection of Soren as the chiefministerial candidate for theAssembly polls. The demandseems to have been met by thealliance partners.

The ties between the JMMand the Congress had souredlast month when the formersupported an Independent can-didate in the Kolebera bypollsto the State Assembly. The

Congress, however, managed towin the seat defeating the BJPby more than 10,000 votes.

Congress president RahulGandhi had earlier said we willcontest the State Assemblyelections under Soren’s leader-ship and it was reiterated in themeeting,” Jharkhand Congresspresident Ajay Kumar saidafter a meeting of Oppositionparties in Ranchi on Thursday.

“You can see all of us heretogether. We will discuss con-tours of our alliance within ourparty and finalise the seat-sharing arrangement by thismonth-end,” JVM chief BabulalMarandi said after the meeting.Marandi who was in BJPbecame the first Chief Ministerafter Bihar was bifurcated andJharkhand came into existence.Later he quit over differencesand formed JVM and tied upwith Congress in couple ofelections.

Jharkhand is the third Statewhere Congress has stitched analliance with regional partiesafter Bihar and Maharashtra.The party, however, failed to getberth in the alliance formed byonce UP rivals Akhilesh Yadav’sSamajwadi Party andMayawati’s BSP.

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The Election Commission(EC) may announce the

schedule of the parliamentaryelections sometime in the mid-dle of March, while the polls arelikely to take place in April andMay. The polling is likely to beconducted in several phasesacross the country and the ECis keen to ensure that the poll-dates do not clash with theschool examinations as well asfestivals in the States. The termof the present Lok Sabha endson June 3.

An EC spokesperson, how-ever, said, “No decision hasbeen taken as yet on the datewhen the elections would beannounced.”

According to sources, the

Commission is in the processof deciding the number ofphases and the months inwhich polling would be held.The charting of the phaseswould also depend on theavailability of security forcesand other requirements, thesources said, adding theannouncement of the megaexercise is likely to be made infirst week of March.

The polling to elect thenew Assemblies in ArunachalPradesh, Andhra Pradesh,Odisha and Sikkim are likely totake place along with the par-liamentary elections.

The state assembly polls inJ&K, which is now underPresident’s Rule may also beheld with Lok Sabha polls inApril-May.

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On Thursday evening, in themidst of the wedding cer-

emony in East Delhi’sShakkarpur, when the bride,19-year-old Pooja, and thegroom, Bharat, were walkingtowards the stage to exchangegarlands (varmala) at ShivMandir Dharamshala, Poojawas allegedly hit by a bullet.

She was immediatelyrushed to a nearby hospital, butreturned three hours later aftera surgery to resume her wed-ding rituals.

Pooja’s mother Joga Devisaid, “Doctor advised her totake rest for a few hours but shewas determined to go back towedding procession. Now sheis fine and taking rest.”

Eyewitnesses said two bul-let shots were fired by theaccused one was shot in the air,while the other shot hit the

bride in the ankle of her rightleg. It was revealed that the bul-let had brushed past her leg.

Police said it is a case of cel-ebratory firing and hunt is onto arrest the accused identifiedas Rinku, a resident of GeetaColony. Deputy Commissionerof Police (East) Pankaj Singhsaid they are looking into thematter and the accused was aguest from the groom’s side.However, the groom has deniedthis statement and claimedthat he doesn’t know theaccused.

Pooja is a resident ofMandawali and Bharat is aflower merchant from ShastriPark. They were engaged a yearago.

The wedding attendeesalleged that the accused mighthave fled when the bride wasbeing taken to the hospital.

In a similar incident lastNovember, a groom was shot at

in the shoulder by two gunmenas he was riding a chariot to hiswedding. A few hours later hereturned to the wedding tocarry-on with the marriagerituals.

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Himachal Pradesh ChiefMinister Jai Ram Thakur

on Friday said the banks shouldfocus more to improve theinvestment credit by fundingthose schemes that helped inincreasing the income of thefarmers.

Presiding over the statecredit seminar 2019-20 organ-ised by the National

Agriculture and RuralDevelopment Bank(NABARD), he said sustainableagriculture practices need to befocused on soil fertility throughthe use of green manure, croprotation and mixed croppingfor effective use of naturalresources.

He said the total bankcredit for 2019-20 for prioritysectors has been estimated at Rs23,631 crore, an increase of 5.6

per cent over the previous yearplan of Rs 22,389 crore.

Thakur said the roleNABARD played in the devel-opment of the state, particularlyin the field of rural develop-ment, agriculture and irrigationand public health, was com-mendable.

NABARD was also playinga major role in strengtheningthe economy of the farmingcommunity. He said the self

help groups were doing laud-able work in various sectorsand the government was alsoensuring all possible help to theNGOs.

Wild and stray animalswere causing major damage tothe crops of the farmers due towhich at times farmers haveeven stopped cultivation.

He said for this severalsteps have been initiated by thestate. Eighty five per cent sub-sidy is being provided for solarfencing to protect the crops ofthe farmers from the stray ani-mals.

Thakur said since 90 percent of the population of thestate lives in rural areas and themain occupation of the peoplebeing agriculture, it was futileto even think of developmentwithout welfare of the ruralareas.

He said the state hasenhanced the subsidy forgreenhouse from 50 to 70 percent and 60 per cent subsidy isbeing provided on anti-hailguns to the fruit growers.

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Chief Minister Jai RamThakur said that all theannouncements and commit-ments made by him to the peo-ple of the State should be com-pleted by 20 February this yearso that fruits of developmentcould be percolated down tothe targeted groups and needypeople.

Presiding over the meetingwith the administrative secre-taries and heads of departmentheld here to review physicaland financial progress of vari-ous schemes launched by thestate government, he said thedepartments concerned mustensure that the new schemesannounced in the budgetregarding their departmentsmust be taken in hand andimplemented in the stipulatedtime period.

"The proactive approachwas vital for effective imple-mentation of the developmen-tal schemes. He said that itbecomes our duty to come upto the expectations of the com-mon man," he added.

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In the high-pitched bypoll toJind assembly constituency,

the electioneering by archrivals, the ruling BJP and theCongress, for their respectivecandidates has picked upmomentum.

The Chief MinisterManohar Lal on Friday joinedthe election campaigning forparty’s candidate KrishanMiddha. The Chief Ministerheld a series of meetingsincluding reaching out to thedisgruntled BJP leaders in Jindtill later evening to mustersupport for party’s candidate.

Union Minister BirenderSingh and Haryana CabinetMinisters have already beencampaigning to ensure party’svictory in Jind bypoll, sched-uled to be held on January 28.

On the other hand, formerChief Minister BhupinderSingh Hooda, Congress chiefAshok Tanwar, CLP leaderKiran Chaudhary, MLAKuldeep Bishnoi and othersenior leaders are campaigningfor party’s nominee and sittingMLA Randeep Surjewala.

The keenly watched Jindbypoll is witnessing a three-cornered electoral battle, withthe Congress’ sitting MLARandeep Singh Surjewala,Jannayak Janta Party’s Digvijay

Chautala and BJP’s KrishanMiddha, son of late INLDMLA Hari Chand Middha, inthe fray.

While the BJP, Congressand JJP have fielded heavy-weights for the Jind polls, theIndian National Lok Dal, whichis facing a tough challenge toretain its Jind assembly seat hasfielded a low profile candidate,Umed Singh Redhu.

The bye-election to Jindassembly seat was necessitatedfollowing the demise of HariChand Middha in August.INLD’s Hari Chand Middhahad represented the Jind seatfor two consecutive terms in2009 and 2014.

The Jind bypoll has turnedinto a prestige issue for allmajor political parties, ahead ofupcoming Lok Sabha electionsand assembly polls schedulelater this year in Haryana.

Aware of the fact that afavorable bypoll outcome for apolitical party will send out abigger message ahead of 2019general election, the BJP andCongress are leaving no stoneunturned to woo the voters ofJind.

Beginning the electioncampaigning on Friday, theChief Minster Manohar Lalalongwith Union MinisterBirender Singh met Tek RamKandela, head of Kandela Khap

in Jind and sought his supportfor party’s candidate.

Unhappy at being deniedparty’s ticket in bypoll, TekRam Kandela, a Jat leader anda BJP member had announcednot to campaign for the party.Kandela Khap is said to have aninfluence in more than 25 vil-lages in the Jind Assemblysegment.

After the meeting, theChief Minister claimed that theBJP has support of all sectionsand will win the Jind bypoll.

When asked to commenton his meeting with disgrun-tled BJP leader Tek RamKandela, Manohar Lal saidthat such things happen dur-ing election season and we aremaking efforts to reach out tosuch leaders.

Tek Ram Kandela has,however, not confirmed hissupport to any party candidateyet. He had been earlierapproached by the Congressand the JJP also for electoralsupport.

The Chief Minister alsomet former MP SurenderBarwala, who was unhappywith the BJP after denial ofticket. Barwala had only a daybefore announced support forthe BJP candidate.

Apart from meeting party’sdisgruntled leaders and urgingthem to actively participate in

party programmes, ManoharLal also held various meetingsto gather support for theKrishan Middha.

The Chief Minister willleave on Saturday for his visitto Gujarat and later, UttarPradesh to attend a series ofevents and will return Haryanaon January 22 to join election-eering again.

Given the significance ofJind bypolls, the Congress lead-ers are also going all out to woothe Jind voters.

Two-time former ChiefMinister Bhupinder SinghHooda, who has been cam-paigning for Surjewala onFriday said that the party isconfident of its victory. The BJPGovernment in Haryana hasdone nothing for Jind assemblysegment and voters are ready toteach them a lesson, saidHooda while talking to themediapersons in Jind.

Meanwhile, independentMLA from Kalayat, Jai Prakashhas extended his support toCongress candidate Surjewala.After meeting Congress veter-an Ahmed Patel in New Delhion Friday, Jai Prakashannounced his support toSurjewala and said that he willcampaign for the Congress.

A popular Jat leader, JaiPrakash had been seeking theCongress ticket for his son

Vikas Saharan, a politicalnovice but the party had decid-ed to field sitting MLA fromKaithal, Randeep Surjewala.

Debutant DigvijayChautala, supported byJannayak Janta Party, a break-away faction of INLD, has alsobeen holding public meetingsto reach out to the voters. Hismother and Dabwali MLA,Naina Chautala and elderbrother Hisar MP DushyantChautala are also campaigningfor Digvijay.

Leader of opposition andINLD’s senior leader AbhayChautala also held campaign-ing for party candidate UmedSingh Redhu.

Notably, the Jind assemblysegment has more than 1.7 lakhvoters including over 1.07 lakhurban voters and nearly 62,500living in villages.

The results of bypoll will beannounced on January 31.

In 2014 assembly polls,INLD’s Harichand Middha hadwon with 31,631 votes anddefeated BJP candidateSurinder Barwala with a smallmargin 2,257 votes. Accordingto the political observers,Middha had managed two con-secutive victories due to votingby Jats, core supporters of theINLD and the Punjabi com-munity in the constituency.

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BJP's Rajesh Kalia was Fridayelected as the new mayor of

the Chandigarh MunicipalCorporation.

Kalia trounced rebel BJPcandidate Satish Kainth, whocontested as an Independent,by a margin of five votes, offi-cials said.Of the total 27 votes,Kalia polled 16 while Kainthgot 11, they added.

Congress nominee SheelaDevi withdrew her nomination

before the start of the election.The Bharatiya Janata Party(BJP) has the majority in theHouse with 20 votes whileCongress has four councillors.

There is one vote each of aShiromani Akali Dal (SAD)candidate and an Independent,while Chandigarh BJP MPKirron Kher has the votingright the as ex-officio memberof the House.

In order to be elected asMayor, a nominee needs 14votes of municipal corporation

councilors.SAD candidate Hardip

Singh was elected as the seniordeputy Mayor of theChandigarh MC defeatingCongress' Gurbax Rawat. Singhpolled 20 votes while Rawat got7, official said.

The post of deputy Mayortoo was bagged by the BJP asits candidate, Kanwarjit Ranadefeated Congress nomineeRavinder Kaur. Rana got 21votes while his opponent polledsix, officials said.

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Haryana Chief MinisterManohar Lal directed the

officers of the concerneddepartments to complete var-ious ongoing developmentworks announced by him forthe development of districtYamunanagar at the earliest.

The Chief Minister waspresiding over a meeting toreview the progress of CM’s

announcements inYamunanagar.

On the occasion, hereviewed 317 announcementsmade him for different assem-

bly segments of the district.Vidhan Sabha Speaker andMLA Jagadhari, Kanwar Palwas also present in the meeting.

Manohar Lal directed theofficers concerned to ensurethat tenders of remainingworks under the CM’sannouncements of district arealloted by February 15. Theyshould also ensure that work isstarted immediately after thetender process so that people

could get the benefit of theseworks at the earliest, he added.

He also issued directionsfor the widening of road fromBilaspur to Chhachrauli to 10meters under CM’s announce-ments.

The DeputyCommissioner, Yamunanagar,Girish Arora assured the ChiefMinister of speedy implemen-tation of CM’s announcementsin the district.

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Dissidence seems to bebrewing in Punjab

Congress. Days after an MLAleft the Congress embarrassedwith a public outburst leadingto his suspension, anotherPunjab legislator has pitchedRajya Sabha MP Partap SinghBajwa’s name for the Chief Minister’s post, accord-ing to a video clip on socialmedia.

“The days are not farwhen the command of Punjabwill be in the hands of PartapSingh Bajwa ji. We, at thispious place, pray before Godto accept our demand andprayer that in coming fewmonths, we accept PartapSingh Bajwa ji as the chiefminister of Punjab, Sr iHargobindpur MLABalwinder Singh said onThursday.

He was addressing a func-tion, where Bajwa was alsositt ing on the dais , at Ghuman town in Gurdaspurdistrict .

Punjab Congress onWednesday suspended MLAKulbir Singh Zira from theparty on the charge of indis-cipline, days after he publiclyvent his unhappiness overalleged inaction of authoritiesto check illicit liquor trade inFerozepur.

In the video, the Congresslegislator could be heard pur-portedly praising Bajwa, who

is former chief of PunjabCongress, for raising publicissues in a meeting with ChiefMinister Amarinder Singh inChandigarh.

“You have seen throughthe media that Partap SinghBajwa ji strongly raised theissues of Punjab– be itdemands of employees, pend-ing payment of sugarcanegrowers and electricity bill ofpoor people before the CM,said Balwinder Singh.

When asked about Singh’scomments, Bajwa said, “Theycan be his own sentiments. Iwill not like to make furthercomment on it.” Zira, onJanuary 12, had left theCongress red-faced with hispublic outburst at a districtlevel function to administeroath to the newly elected vil-lage heads in Ferozepur.

He had also accused a fewpolice officers including oneof the IG rank of being incahoots with some liquorcontractors in the illegaltrade. Meanwhile, Bajwa saidif Zira has any grievance thenhe should raise it with theparty high command.

“I suggest him to meetCongress president andexplain the whole situation tohim, said Bajwa.

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Punjab Congress’ elected rep-resentatives from the six

districts of Malwa region onFriday raised the issue of short-age of doctors and the affect-ed health services due to it dur-ing their meeting with theChief Minister Capt AmarinderSingh on Friday.

Intervening, the HealthMinister Brahm Mohindraapprised the meeting that 400doctors had been recentlyrecruited and posted in differ-ent hospitals against vacancies.

At the same time,Mohindra urged the ChiefMinister to merge the 750 doc-tors serving in the RuralDevelopment and PanchayatsDepartment in the HealthDepartment, which wouldultimately help tide over the sit-uation of shortage of doctors inthe state to a considerableextent.

Quick to respond, the

Chief Minister asked the ChiefSecretary to get the proposalthoroughly examined in con-sultation with the AdditionalChief Secretary (Health) andthe Principal Secretary (RuralDevelopment and Panchayats),and take an appropriate deci-sion in this regard.

Mohindra furtherinformed the Chief Ministerthat the Civil Hospital Mohalihad been planned to beupgraded as Medical Collegefrom session 2019-20. “Aninspection team from MedicalCouncil of India would revisitbefore February 28, and theproposal for 168 posts of fac-ulty and 826 posts of para-medics had been sent toFinance Department forapproval,” he said.

Capt Amarinder, holdinghis third phase of pre-budgetconsultations with MLAs fromsix districts of Barnala,Fatehgarh Sahib, Ludhiana,Patiala, SAS Nagar (Mohali)

and Rupnagar, assured themthat paucity of funds would notbe allowed to hamper the paceof development works andwherever funds were neededfor smooth completion of pro-jects, the same would be releaseproactively.

He also directed thePrincipal Secretary (LocalGovernment) to ensure thatthose development projectswhich were stuck up due tonon-release of requisite fundsshould be examined on prior-ity and necessary fundsreleased forthwith.

Capt Amarinder alsoannounced a developmentgrant of Rs 208.40 crore for exe-cution of various infrastructureworks in the rural and urbanareas of these districts underthe umbrella programme ofSmart Village campaign and

Urban EnvironmentImprovement Plan (UEIP).

He also asked the MLAs toprioritize development workswithin their assembly con-stituencies and submit list ofworks to be undertaken totheir concerned DeputyCommissioners by January 31.

Another Rs 300 crorewould be spent on the devel-opment works to be undertak-en in the urban areas underUEIP, he said.

The Chief Minister alsoconstituted a committee com-prising FinancialCommissioner (Revenue),Principal Secretary (RuralDevelopment and Panchayats),Secretary (Industries), besidesMLAs of Rajpura, Ghanaurand Fatehgarh Sahib, to suggestmodalities to identify suitableland for setting up of a Mega

Industrial Park at Rajpura overan area of 1000 acres.

Dispelling MLAs’ appre-hensions regarding hefty elec-tricity bills raised by thePowercom to the SC domesticconsumers to whom the statehad extended the facility of free200 units, the Chief Ministersaid that he had already askedthe Power Minister to examinethe matter and find a viablesolution.

The Chief Minister alsoannounced that the StateGovernment would soon comeup with a special scheme ofdebt waiver for the rural land-less labourers, who were pass-ing through acute financialdistress due to the currentagrarian crisis.

Taking part in the discus-sions, Ludhiana MP RavneetSingh Bittu requested for morefunds for repair of city roadsand upgradation of seweragesystem, and also sought Rs 50Crores for construction of anapproach road leading to theHi-tech Cycle Valley.

Responding to a demandof Amloh MLA RandeepSingh, Finance MinisterManpreet Singh Badal agreed

to set up a steel chamber atMandi Gobindgarh and SubTehsil at Amloh.

Ludhiana East MLASanjeev Talwar raised the issueof regularisation and transfer ofownership rights to illegaloccupants of municipal land,which could fetch substantialrevenue to the state.

Fatehgarh Sahib MLAKuljit Singh Nagra highlightedthe role of higher education inresource development and, cit-ing present financial plight ofPunjabi University, demandeda special package for it. He alsourged the Chief Minister tohold a special meeting in thisregard and extend a liberalfinancial package to GNDUAmritsar and PAU Ludhiana.

Gill MLA Kuldeep SinghVaid urged the Chief Ministerto bring in a legislation forallowing a bull cart race in KilaRaipur Rural Games, besidesrequesting him for one ITICentre for his constituency.

Samrala MLA AmrikSingh Dhillon asked for strictenforcement to check smug-gling of liquor in order to plugthe pilferage of excise andenhance its revenue.

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Giving a major boost to thehi-tech cycles, e-bikes, e-

vehicles and light engineeringindustry of Ludhiana, thePunjab Government onThursday signed an agreementfor allotting 100 acres of landto Hero Cycles Limited in theupcoming Hi-Tech CycleValley in Dhanansu village forthe development of a state-of-the-art Industrial Park withinthe Cycle Valley.

The MoU was signedbetween PSIEC managingdirector Rahul Bhandari andHero Cycles Limited chair-man Pankaj Munjal in thepresence of the Chief MinisterCapt Amarinder Singh, andIndustry Minister SunderSham Arora. Several MPs andMLAs were also present alongwith top government offi-cials.

The state’s Industry, CII,PHD Chamber of Commerce,and other representative bod-ies of investors for setting up anew industrial park aroundLudhiana, with modern infra-structure facilities.

Accordingly, the StateGovernment approved the pro-ject for setting up of the Hi-Tech Cycle Valley throughPSIEC over 380 acres of land atDhanansu village, located veryclose to the industrial city ofLudhiana.

Capt Amarinder said thatthe project shall attract aroundRs 400 crore investment byHero Cycles and its suppliers orancillaries, and generate closeto 1000 direct employmentopportunities. He said that the

industrial park will have a pro-duction capacity of four millionbicycles per annum and theproject shall be implementedwithin 36 months.

The state additional chiefsecretary (Industries andCommerce) Vini Mahajansaid that Hero Cycles hadbeen selected through anobjective, competitive andtechnical bidding process asthe ‘Project Company’ to setup an anchor unit for manu-facturing of mobility solu-tions like Bi-cycles, E-bikes,etc, and to develop theIndustrial Park along withancillary or vendor units atHi-Tech Cycle Valley.

Hero Cycles shall beresponsible for the develop-ment of the entire industrialpark in the allotted land.

Within the proposed pro-ject, Hero Cycles Ltd. shalldevelop its own anchor unit in50 acres, and in the remaining50 acres, it shall invite majornational and internationalmanufacturers as ancillary orvendor units.

Hero Cycles chairmanPankaj Munjal hoped that theHi-Tech Cycle Valley atLudhiana would act as a cata-lyst for the overall developmentof the area, giving furtherimpetus to the industrial devel-opment of Punjab.

“Hero Group is alone pro-ducing 10 million cycles annu-ally, which accounts for 7.5 per-cent of the world production.The upcoming Cycle ValleyProject would cater to 50 per-cent demand of cycle produc-tion in India and Europe,” saidMunjal.

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About 40,000 participantstook part in the Drive

Safe Marathon - Run for RoadSafety - 2019’ which wasflagged off by Chief MinisterManohar Lal in Jagadhri ofdistrict Yamunanagar onFriday.

“Despite dense fog andcold weather conditions, themarathon saw an over-whelming response from allwalks of life. Scores of sportsperson, students of schooland colleges, members of var-ious organizations and peopleof the district ran together toset a new record,” said an offi-cial spokesman.

He said, “Around 40,000participants took part in theMarathon which was orga-nized in the category of 5, 11,21 and 42 kilometers spread-ing message across not only topeople of Yamunanagar butalso to the country and worldto follow the traffic ruleswhile driving so as to ensuresafety of ourselves and also of

others.”Buoyed with the massive

turnout in the marathon

organized on the theme ofsafety of citizens and to makethe people aware about traf-

fic rules, Chief MinisterManohar Lal said thatHaryana and its people have

always played a vital role inresolving various issues in the society and thecountry.

Earlier also, marathonshave been organized in dif-ferent districts of the state onvarious important issues likedrugs, national unity etc andthe positive impact of this isclearly visible in the society,he said adding that with themassive presence of people inthe today’s event, he is quitesure that the theme withwhich marathon has beenorganized here would defi-nitely be achieved.

While hailing the contri-bution of Haryanvis in dif-ferent fields, he said that peo-ple of the state have always bein the forefront in sports,agriculture, education, engi-neering, trade etc but in thelast few years, they have gaineven more momentum.Besides, people of the state aregiving their vital contributionin the development of thesociety and country.

He also expressed con-cern on the increasing num-

ber of causalities in the roadaccidents and said keeping inthe view the sensitivity of thesituat ion, the StateGovernment decided to orga-nize Drive Safe Marathon -Run for Road Safety.

While in 21 kmsMarathon, Rinu Kumar,Rajinder Nath and AmarpreetSingh were declared winnersin the men’s category, Kairenof Kenya, Mamta of Ambalaand Pratibha of Yamunangardeclared winners in thewomen’s category.

Similarly, in the 42 kmsMarathon, Toy Babekar ofEthiopia, Jitender and AnkitKumar of Uttar Pradesh weredeclared winners in the men’scategory and Divyanka ofYamunangar, Lakshmi ofLukhnow and AmandeepKaur of Ambala declared win-ners in the women’s category.The winners were honouredby presenting them with acheque of Rs 50,000, Rs30,000 and Rs 20,000 respec-tively and Rs 25,000, Rs15,000 and Rs 10,000 respec-tively.

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Haryana Chief MinisterManohar Lal will lay the

foundation stone of HaryanaBhawan in Narmada (Gujarat)on January 19 and would takepart in Vibrant Gujarat GlobalSummit in Gandhinagar onJanuary 20.

The Chief Minister willalso visit Uttar Pradesh fromJanuary 20 to January 22 to par-ticipate in Maha Kumbh atPrayagraj and attend otherevents.

Giving details, an officialspokesman said that after lay-ing the foundation stone ofHaryana Bhawan on January19, the Chief Minister wouldalso visit the world’s talleststatue of Sardar VallabhbhaiPatel, the Statue of Unity andMuseum.

After this, he would attendthe programme at SabarmatiRiverfront to be hosted by

Director, INDEXB. On thesame day, a dinner would behosted by the Chief Ministerfor industrialists of Haryanaorigin in Gujarat, thespokesman said.

On January 20, the ChiefMinister would take part inHaryana State Seminar duringVibrant Gujarat Global Summitin Gandhinagar and thereafter,would visit the Haryana StatePavilion Exhibition there.Manohar Lal would also haveone-to-one meetings withindustrialists and would visitDandi Kutir – the GandhiMuseum in Gandhinagar.

In the evening, the ChiefMinister would have meetingwith Union External AffairsMinister Sushma Swaraj atVaranasi (Uttar Pradesh). Hewould also have one-to-onemeeting with High Net WorthIndividuals (HNIs) also, thespokesman said.

On January 21, the Chief

Minister would take part in theinauguration of Youth PravasiBhartiya Divas at DeendayalHastkala Sankul at Lalpur inVaranasi. Thereafter, he wouldvisit the Haryana State Pavilion.

The Chief Minister wouldalso have round table meetingwith Francophone (GOPIO)delegation.

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Under suspension for“gross indiscipline”,

Congress MLA Kulbir SinghZira on Friday reached out tothe party leadership to giveexplanation for his outburstagainst the party’s govern-ment in the state during apublic event.

Zira, along with the

Cabinet Minister SukhjinderSingh Randhawa, reachedPunjab Bhawan to have ameeting with the ChiefMinister Capt AmarinderSingh, Punjab Congress pres-ident Sunil Jakhar, and thestate party affairs’ in-chargeAsha Kumari.

After the meeting eventhough Randhawa and Zira‘indicated’ that the suspensionhas been revoked as the lead-

ership has asked his to con-tinue his work for the party,Jakhar categorically deniedany such move.

“No decision has beentaken on Kulbir Zira, and atthe same time his suspensioncontinues,” Jakhar told ThePioneer.

Punjab Congress had onWednesday suspended Zirafrom the party on the chargeof gross indiscipline days after

he raised a banner of revoltagainst his own governmentat a function to administer theoath to the newly-electedpanchayat members.

The decision was takenafter the party high com-mand took a “very seriousnote” of the development.

Jakhar pointed that evenif his allegations against thepolice regarding inactionagainst contractors sellingillicit liquor were true, “Zirashould have raise the issuewithin the party”.

Admitting the same, Ziraduring the meeting assuredthe leadership that he wouldnot repeat anything like thisin future.

Notably, the Congress

party is facing criticism fromwithin for putting under sus-pension its MLA for raisingvoice against own govern-ment contending that such amove may send wrong signalsto the voters.

The party, switching intoa damage control mode afterseveral senior leaders backedZira over his stand and criti-cised the party for taking thedecision of suspending him ina haste, gave a patient hearingto Zira, and accepted hisapology, though no decisionregarding his suspension wastaken as yet.

However, Zira will nowparticipate in the MLAs pre-budget proposals meetingwith the Chief Minister Capt

Amarinder Singh on Saturday.

“Zira met us and submit-ted his apology. And the deci-sion regarding his suspensionwill be taken according to theparty’s Constitution,” saidAsha Kumari.

After the meeting,Randhawa claimed that thematter has been resolved andnow everything is same asbefore, he has been asked towork for the party.

On asking whether Zira’ssuspension has been revoked,Randhawa replied, “What’sleft when he was asked towork or the party.”

Zira said: “I have metAsha Kumari ji and now theywill decide.”

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Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Friday appealed to all political par-ties to come forward to stop the “cheap politics” going on over

the historic Kartapur corridor. “The process of having darshan atthe gurudwara Kartarpur sahib dedicated to Guru Nanak Dev bekept simple and hassle-free for the teeming millions of devotees vis-iting the shrine from across the world,” said AAP spokesperson andMLA Kultar Singh Sandhwan. Sandhwan accused the erstwhile SAD-BJP and the ruling Congress of playing cheap politics over the issuessurrounding the panth, Punjab and Punjabiyat for cheap politicalends. He said that such cheap political gimmicks end up in a pal-pable disquiet among the believers, besides causing hurt to their reli-gious sentiments.

He accused Capt and his predecessor Parkash Singh Badal forplaying politics over the Kartarpur corridor to earn some politicalbrownie points. “Ever since the groundbreaking ceremony happened,there has been a fierce slugfest between both the parties to take cred-it for the historic corridor becoming a stark reality,” he said. Alsotaking on the BJP, Sandhwan said that the controversial statementissued by Union Minister and Punjab BJP leader Vijay Kumar Samplawas “disgusting that tantamount to the saffron party’s disdain forthe people of Punjab, Punjabiyat and the minority communities,”.

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Against the backdrop ofstrong protests over the

controversial CitizenshipAmendment Bill, the Centre isexpected to soon call a meet-ing of the Chief Ministers of allnortheastern States to addressconcerns.

Sources said a decision inthis regard was taken afterUnion Home Minister RajnathSingh discussed the matter indetail with Mizoram andMeghalaya Chief Ministers ina meeting here.

The controversial Bill waspassed in the Lok Sabha onJanuary 8.

However, large scaleprotests were witnessed in thenortheastern States includingAssam and Mizoram over theBharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National DemocraticAlliance (NDA) Government’sattempt to pass the Bill in theUpper House of Parliament.

“There was a serious dis-cussion on the Bill in the meet-ing. The Centre has assuredthat it will look into the con-cerns of northeastern Statesbefore moving ahead,” a high-ly placed Government sourcesaid.

“Most likely, a meeting ofchief ministers of all north-eastern States will be calledsoon to resolve their concerns,”the source added.

Speaking to reporters afterthe meeting, Meghalaya ChiefMinister Conrad Sangma said:

“Northeastern States will beforced to take a call if it doesnot get a positive response onthe scrapping of the Bill.”

In the meeting, MizoramChief Minister Zoramthangasaid the Centre was informedthat all northeastern Stateswere opposing the Bill and thelaw should not be diluted.

“It (amendments) shouldnot be there. Let it be as it is.Let it not be amended as it isproposed. That’s what we want,”he said.

The Citizenship(Amendment) Bill, 2016, pro-

vides for Indian citizenship toHindus, Jains, Christians, Sikhs,Buddhists and Parsis who fledreligious persecution inBangladesh, Pakistan and

Afghanistan after six years ofresidence in India instead of thecurrent requirement of 12years, even if they do not pos-sess any document.

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The EnforcementDirectorate (ED) has issued

summons to four accused per-sons, including IAS officer BChandrakala and a SamajwadiParty (SP) leader, in connectionwith an alleged illegal miningscam case in Uttar Pradesh.

The ED had registered acriminal case under thePrevention of MoneyLaundering Act (PMLA) aftertaking cognisance of a CBI FIRto probe illegal mining ofminor minerals (sand andgravel) in the Hamirpur areabetween 2012 and 2016.

The CBI has said it is prob-ing the role of former UttarPradesh Chief MinisterAkhilesh Yadav too in the caseas he had held the mining port-folio during this period.

Chandrakala and SP MLCRamesh Kumar Mishra hadbeen summoned by the ED toappear before the InvestigatingOfficer of the case in Lucknowon January 24 and 28 respec-tively. Besides Chandrakalaand Mishra, the ED has sum-moed two more officials toappear before it next week,sources said.

The ED is probing themoney trail and whether thealleged proceeds of crime gen-erated due to the kickbacksreceived in these cases werelaundered by the accused.

The agency will also lookfor assets, both immovableand movable, of the accusedthat can be attached under the

anti-money laundering lawafter establishing the proceedsof crime. The CBI had carriedout searches at 14 locations ear-lier this month in connectionwith its FIR against 11 personsincluding IAS officerChandrakala, Mishra andSanjay Dixit (who had unsuc-cessfully contested the 2017

Uttar Pradesh Assembly pollson a BSP ticket), to probe thealleged illegal mining of minorminerals in Hamirpur districtduring 2012-16.

The role of the then min-ing ministers of the State is alsounder the scanner of the ED.

Yadav, who was the CM ofthe State between 2012 and2017, held the mining portfo-lio during 2012-13, a reasonwhy his role is under the scan-ner for investigation, accordingto the CBI FIR.

He was succeeded byGayatri Prajapati, who tookcharge as the mining ministerin 2013 and was arrested in2017 following a complaint ofrape by a woman residing inChitrakoot.

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In a move to identify eligiblepeople who are left out under

the Prime Minister’s flagshipschemes, a survey, ‘safety netsurvey’, is being conducted bythe Ministry of Housing andUrban Affairs (HUA). All nec-essary formalities are expectedto be completed by January 31,2019. The survey is being doneamong the self help group(SHG) members, whose num-ber stands at 34 lakh across thecountry.

Besides, the Ministry willextend outreach of its flagshipproject Deendayal AntyodayaYojana among the poorest ofpoor in the country through aseries of events in the comingmonth.

Announcing this, theUnion HUA Minister HardeepSingh Puri on Friday said thesurvey is being conducted toidentify eligible self help groupmembers not covered byGovernment programs includ-ing Swachchh Bharat Mission(urban), Prime Minister AwasYojna (Urban), Pradhan MantriUjjwala Yojana, PradhanMantri Jan Dhan Yojana,Pradhan Mantri Surakhsa BimaYojana, Pradhan Mantri JeevanJyoti Yojana and NationalNutrition Mission.

According to HUA offi-cials, there are reports thatnumbers of eligible peoplehave not been able to get ben-efit from the flagship schemes.“We will try to include thoseeligible who have not been cov-ered,” officials added.

Puri also announced thatthe ‘Shehri Samridhi Utsav’,

focusing on urban livelihoods,will be held from February 1 to15, showcasing initiatives of theDeen Dayal DeendayalAntyodaya Yojana-NationalUrban Livelihood Mission(DAY-National UrbanLivelihood Mission).

The Mission has made“significant progress” in the lastfive years, organising 34 lakhurban poor women into self-help groups, besides providingsubsidised loans to over 8.5lakh individuals and groups.

“Over 8.9 lakh candidateshave been skill trained and cer-tified. Over 4.6 lakh have beenplaced,” Puri said.

Among other achieve-ments under the mission, 16lakh street vendors have beenidentified through a surveyand half of them have beengiven identity cards. More than1,000 permanent shelters havebeen set up, creating space for

more than 60,000 urban home-less, he said.

Housing and Urban AffairsSecretary Durga ShankerMishra said various activitieswill be organised in the city,state and at the national level aspart of the ‘Shehri SamridhiUtsav’. A national exhibitionwill be held in New Delhifrom February 8 to 17 alongwith a national street food fes-tival which will start onFebruary 14, he said.

A national conference onstreet vending will also be heldto discuss issues and seek a wayforward to support livelihoodsof hawkers. National-levelworkshop on sanitation and aconference on street vendingwill also be part of the plannedprogrammes. Further, rally byself help groups , job melas,loan camps, identity cards forstreet vendors and other activ-ities will be organised.

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It is not only India but evenseveral countries across the

globe are witnessing the anti-vaccine movement particular-ly myths circulated on socialmedia, prompting the WorldHealth Organisation (WHO) todeclare the disturbing trend asone of the ten biggest healththreats that the humanity facesin 2019.

Other key threats for 2019in the list, that the WHO com-piles every year and wasreleased recently, include cli-mate change, air pollution, aglobal influenza pandemic,dengue, poor primary health-care facilities, HIV and ebola.

Reluctance or refusal toimmunise “threatens to reverseprogress” made in tacklingpreventable diseases, the UN

health body has noted.“Vaccination is one of the mostcost-effective ways of avoidingdisease — it currently pre-vents 2-3 million deaths a year,and a further 1.5 million couldbe avoided if global coverage ofvaccinations improved. An esti-mated 1,10,000 people, main-ly children, died from the vac-cine-preventable disease acrossthe world in 2017,” said theWHO.

Though, India, is a biggestexporter of vaccine, it hasfailed to reach out to everyneedy kid because of severalreasons including vaccine hes-itancy.

The WHO warning comesafter a 30 per cent spike inmeasles cases worldwide,including in several countrieswhere the virus had been vir-tually eliminated. In India too,

measles cases are on increase.“The reasons for this rise

are complex, and not all ofthese cases are due to vaccinehesitancy,” the WHO said.“However, some countries thatwere close to eliminating thedisease have seen a resurgence,”the WHO said terming it as ‘ofserious concern.’

With nine out of ten peo-ple breathing polluted air everyday, air pollution has beentouted as the greatest environ-mental threat in 2019.Microscopic pollutants in theair can penetrate respiratoryand circulatory systems, dam-

aging the lungs, heart andbrain, killing 7 million peopleprematurely every year fromdiseases such as cancer, stroke,heart and lung disease.“Around 90 per cent of thesedeaths are in low- and middle-income countries, with highvolumes of emissions fromindustry, transport and agri-culture, as well as dirty cook-stoves and fuels in homes,” asper the global health agency.

The primary cause of airpollution (burning fossil fuels)is also a major contributor toclimate change, which impactspeople’s health in different

ways. Between 2030 and 2050,climate change is expected tocause 2,50,000 additionaldeaths per year, from malnu-trition, malaria, diarrhoea andheat stress.

Antimicrobial resistance(AMR)- the ability of bacteria,parasites, viruses and fungi toresist these medicines - threat-ens to send us back to a timewhen we were unable to easi-ly treat infections such as pneu-monia, tuberculosis, gonor-rhoea, and salmonellosis. Indiais already battling with AMRcases in TB.

While India has launchedAyushman Bharat scheme aim-ing to help the poor people toavail medical facilities free ofcost at the tertiary hospital, pri-mary health care which is usu-ally the first point of contactpeople have with their health

care system, remain wanting. Dengue is yet another

threat that the countries includ-ing India will have to tackle in2019. A high number of casesoccur in the rainy seasons ofcountries such as Bangladeshand India.

Also, though muchprogress has been made againstHIV, the epidemic continues torage with nearly a million peo-ple every year dying ofHIV/AIDS. Today, around 37million worldwide live withHIV. Reaching people like sexworkers, people in prison, menwho have sex with men, ortransgender people is hugelychallenging. Often these groupsare excluded from health ser-vices, noted the WHO. InIndia, new pockets are wit-nessing emergence of HIVcases.

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New Delhi: Mizoram Chief Minister Zoramthanga on Friday saidthere should not be any dilution of the 64-year old CitizenshipAct. “It (amendments) should not be there. Let it be as it is. Letis not be amended as it is proposed. That’s what we want,”Zoramthanga told reporters here. PNS

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The Indian Space ResearchOrganisation will select

over 100 students from acrossIndia and give them a practi-cal experience of how satellitesare build under the new ‘YoungScientist Programme’, its chair-man K Sivan announced onFriday.

The initiative, chalked toattract young minds and arouseinterest in this niche arena, isconceptualised on the lines ofa similar programme run byAmerican space agency NASA.

Sivan said mostly Class 8students — three each from 29states and seven Union terri-tories — will be given lecturesby ISRO scientists and they willalso get access to the spaceagency’s laboratories.

The programme will befunded entirely by ISRO, hesaid.

“We want them to get apractical experience of buildinga small satellite. If the satellitesare good, we want them to fly,”

Sivan said. Vivek Singh, direc-tor of media and public rela-tions, said the students will beencouraged to develop “scien-tific payloads” that can belaunched by ISRO.

Sivan said six incubationcentres will be established invarious parts of the country —North, South, East, West,Centre and North-East, and thefirst such centre has been estab-lished in Agartala in Tripura.The students will be able to usethese centres for R&D pur-poses. ISRO, he said, will askthe students to address prob-lems and buy solutions fromthem.

The PS4, the last stage ofPSLV, can be used for variousexperimental purposes, Sivansaid, urging students to sendtheir satellites which can belaunched by ISRO.

PSLV is a four-stage launchvehicle with alternating solidand liquid stages. Singh saidsince PS4 can be used bylaunching satellites by studentswith no extra cost to ISRO.

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New Delhi: India on Fridaysummoned the Deputy HighCommissioner of Pakistan andlodged a strong protest on arecent order by PakistanSupreme Court extending itsjurisdiction over Gilgit-Baltistan. The Pakistani officialwas conveyed that the entirestate of Jammu and Kashmir,which also includes the so-called ‘Gilgit-Baltistan’, “hasbeen, is and shall remain anintegral part of India”, theMinistry of External Affairssaid. In an order, the PakistanSupreme Court has said that itsjurisdiction and power extendto Gilgit-Baltistan.

“The Deputy HighCommissioner of Pakistan wassummoned today and a strongprotest was lodged on recentorder by Supreme Court ofPakistan on the so-called‘Gilgit-Baltistan’ which is aninterference in India’s internalaffairs,” the MEA said.

It also said Pakistan wasasked to immediately vacate allareas under its illegal occupa-tion. “Pakistan Governmentor judiciary have no locusstandi on territories illegallyand forcibly occupied by it. Anyaction to alter the status ofthese occupied territories byPakistan has no legal basiswhatsoever,” the MEA said ina statement.

It said India rejected suchcontinued attempts by Pakistanto bring material change inthese “occupied territories andto camouflage grave humanrights violations, exploitationand sufferings of the people liv-ing there”.

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Fifty-one female devotees inthe age group of 10-50 years

have entered the Sabarimalatemple through an onlineprocess since the SupremeCourt removed the bar ontheir entry in September lastyear, the Kerala Governmenton Friday told the apex court.

The submission was madeduring the hearing of a pleafiled by Bindu andKanakadurga, the two womenwho had entered the temple onJanuary 2, seeking security.

The apex court ordered thestate to provide two of themround-the-clock foolproofsecurity.

A bench of Chief JusticeRanjan Gogoi and Justices L NRao and Dinesh Maheshwarisaid it was only going into the

aspect of security of the twowomen, and would not like toentertain any other prayermade in the petition.

“We deem it appropriate toclose this writ petition at thisstage by directing the State ofKerala to provide adequate/fullsecurity to the petitioner Nos.1 (Bindu) and 2 (Kanakadurga)herein which would be pro-vided to the petitioners roundthe clock,” the Bench said.

It was hearing the petitionof 42-year-old Bindu, a collegelecturer and CPI(ML) activistfrom Kozhikode district’sKoyilandy, and Kanakadurga,44, a civil supplies departmentemployee from Angadipuramin Malappuram, who hadentered the Sabarimala shrineon January 2.

The state has witnessedviolent protests over the issue.

At the outset, senior advo-cate Vijay Hansaria, appearingfor the Kerala Government,told the bench that till now 51female devotees have enteredSabarimala temple and all ofthem are being provided ade-quate security.

“In this regard it is sub-mitted that a total of 7,564women between the age groupof 10-50 years had registeredfor darshan and as per the dig-itally scanned records around51 women in this group havealready visited the shrine andhad darshan without any issue,”the note of Kerala governmentgiven to the court stated.

He said that the two peti-tioners were given adequateand effective protection fromthe temple to a safe place andthey continue to remain underprotection.

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New Delhi: The SupremeCourt collegium has consid-ered four advocates for eleva-tion to the Delhi High Courtand has deferred decision ontwo of the recommendednames while the other twohave been sent back, accordingto a resolution posted on theapex court website on Friday.

The four — KrishnenduDatta, Saurabh Kirpal, PriyaKumar and Sanjoy Ghose —were among nine advocateswhose names were recom-mended for elevation by thecollegium of the Delhi HighCourt on October 13, 2017.PTI

New Delhi: Justices DineshMaheshwari and SanjivKhanna were on Friday swornin as Supreme Court judgesamid a raging controversy overthe functioning of theCollegium which recom-mended their elevation byignoring some senior judges ofvarious high courts.

Both the judges wereadministered the oath of officeby Chief Justice of India (CJI)Ranjan Gogoi during a cere-mony held in court number 1of the apex court. PTI

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Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Friday said the modeof access for Indian devotees headed for Kartarpur Sahib

Gurudwara in Pakistan, is yet to be decided by the two coun-tries. “Whether access will be given to them by using passportas a travel document or VISA will be applied, are issues that areto be discussed bilaterally between the two countries. It is yet tobe finalised,” Puri told reporters. He said that a decision has beentaken that access from the Indian side — the main road whichgoes up to Kartarpur Sahib will be completed in a time-boundmanner.

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Militants lobbed threegrenades on police and

security forces in Srinagar andsouth Kashmir on Friday a dayafter three policemen werewounded in a similar attack inRajbagh area of summer capi-tal Srinagar. Jaish-e-Muhammad outfit claimedresponsibility for the grenadeblasts.

There was no damage to lifeor property in the three blasts.

Security sources said thatunidentified terrorists hurledhand grenade towards securitypersonnel near Ghanta Ghar(Clock Tower), one of the mainmarket places in Srinagar. Theysaid the grenade exploded withdamage to some vehicles andno one was hurt in the attack.Security forces launched searchoperation to nab the attackers.

Another hand grenade waslobbed towards a camp ofSpecial Operations Group ofPolice in south Kashmir'sShopian area. The grenade

exploded outside the camp anddid not cause any damage.

Around the evening,another grenade was hurled ata police station in Kakapora insouth Kashmir’s Pulwama dis-trict. The explosive went offinside the police station com-pound but there was no dam-age.

A spokesperson of bannedJeM outfit claimed responsibil-ity for the attacks and said thatseveral personnel of police andCRPF were injured.

The three grenades werehurled a day after three police-men including a junior officerwere injured in a blast at ZeroBridge in Rajbagh area of cap-

ital Srinagar.Security experts said that

militants usually up the anteahead of Republic Day inKashmir.

Meanwhile, Police onFriday presented charge-sheetagainst seven accused personsallegedly involved in a caserelated to killing of a policemanguarding a senior separatistleader Fazlul Haq Qureshi’shouse and snatching his servicerifle last year in Soura pocket ofSrinagar outskirts. Four of theaccused persons Omar NoorBhat, Waseem Ahmad Sofi,Adil Majeed Bhat and ObaidAltaf Zoji are currently lodgedin Central Jail Srinagar.

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Srinagar: Five persons werekilled and five others weremissing after their truck cameunder an avalanche in theKhardung La area of the Ladakhregion of Jammu & Kashmir onFriday, officials said.

The avalanche hit the truckcarrying 10 persons atKhardungla pass in Ladakhregion at 7.00 am on Friday, anofficial of the Border RoadsOrganisation said.

The BRO pressed into ser-

vice its men and machinery torescue the passengers of thetruck believed to be trappedunder debris.

The police, Army and StateDisaster Response Force(SDRF) personnel have reachedthe spot for rescue operations,the BRO official said.

"So far, the bodies of fivepersons have been recoveredfrom the avalanche site, while asearch is on for the other miss-ing persons," he said. PTI

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Jammu: Jammu & KashmirGovernor Satya Pal Malikexpressed grief over the loss oflives due to an avalanche inLadakh region on Friday.

The Governor has prayedfor peace to the departedsouls and strength to thebereaved families in theirhour of grief.

Malik has announced anex-gratia of �5 lakh for thenext of the kin of those killedin the avalanche.

Ten persons on board twotrucks are feared dead afterthe avalanche buried two vehi-cles under 20 feet of snow atKhardung La pass in Leh dis-trict, officials said. PTI

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Patna: Former BJP MP Uday Singh,who has represented the Purnea LokSabha constituency in Bihar twice,announced his resignation from theparty here on Friday alleging that it hassurrendered before the discreditedJD(U) headed by Bihar Chief MinisterNitish Kumar.

Singh did not reveal his cards say-ing until resigning from the BJP, he hadno right to negotiate with any otherparty but gave ample hints saying hemay join a Grand Alliance constituent.

He stated he saw Congress presi-dent Rahul Gandhis popularity grow-ing even as Prime Minister NarendraModi of whom he had been an ardentsupporter, seemed to have withdrawnhimself from reality even if he has goodintentions.

He also said that even while in theBJP, he never approved of the slogan ofCongress-mukt Bharat. A democracycannot survive if the opposition iswiped out. It will degenerate into a total-itarian regime.

Singh, whose elder brother N KSingh is the Chairman of the 15thFinance Commission, had lost his seatin 2014 to JD(U)s Santosh Kushwahaby a margin of more than one lakh votesnotwithstanding the strong Modi wave.

With the BJP and the JD(U) hav-ing agreed to fight 17 seats each, leav-ing six for Ram Vilas Paswans LJP, andPurnea being a sitting seat of NitishKumars party, there is little likelihoodfor Singh being considered for the seat,which he had won in 2004 and 2009and his mother Madhuri Singh had rep-resented as a Congress nominee in the1980s.

Singh, however, maintained that his

decision had nothing to do with thepossibility of getting a ticket from hisseat as NDA constituents are yet tofinalize which constituency will befought by which party.

Replying to a query, he said so farhe had no talks with Rahul Gandhi or(RJD supremo) Lalu Prasad. But he waslooking forward to speaking to themafter taking his supporters into confi-dence.

He claimed that there was wide-spread resentment among the partyscadre over the undemocratic style ofcurrent leadership and remarked it isso difficult to meet BJP president AmitShah. RLSP chief Upendra Kushwahakept requesting for an appointment,which was never given, and he ulti-mately had to resign from the Unioncouncil of ministers and quit the NDAin sheer disappointment.

Committed BJP workers areappalled over the manner the partyagreed to share power with NitishKumar, forgetting our bitter experienceswith him in the past, and also over thefact that his government is rapidly los-ing goodwill. Now the BJP will end upsharing the blame for his misdeeds. Andas if that was not enough he was givensuch a massive share of seats, heremarked. PTI

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Bengaluru: Senior Congressleader Mallikarjun Kharge onFriday accused Prime MinisterNarendra Modi of attempting to"take control" of his party MLAsin Karnataka by using CBI, EDand Income Tax to "terrorise"them in the BJP's alleged bid totopple the State Government.

"They are trying multiplethings such as threatening ourMLAs by carrying out CBI,Enforcement Directorate (ED)and Income Tax raids.

Modi is attempting to takecontrol over our MLAs," Khargealleged while addressingCongress workers at a ceremo-ny where H K Patil took over as

KPCC campaign committeechief.

Kharge, the Congress leaderin the Lok Sabha, reminded BJPleaders that Congress workerswere "strong and stubborn" andthey would not yield to anypressure.

He spoke about an incidentto underline 'Operation Lotus',an alleged BJP attempt to top-ple the coalition government,Kharge said he, Modi, ChiefJustice of India Ranjan Gogoi,Lok Sabha Speaker SumitraMahajan, and senior BJP leaderL K Advani had assembled onJanuary 16 evening to decide onthe Gandhi Peace Prize. PTI

Madurai: A 24-year-old woman,who contracted HIV at aGovernment hospital allegedly afterbeing transfused contaminatedblood, has given birth to a baby girlhere.

The woman had a normal deliv-ery on Thursday, Government RajajiHospital dean Dr SShanmughasundaram told PTI,adding that the baby weighed 1.75kg.

"C-section would have facilitat-ed lesser contact with the mother'sblood. But the mother developedlabour pain and the delivery hap-

pened quickly," he said.The low birth weight baby is

being treated in the hospital's neo-natal intensive care unit and has beenadministered medicines for preven-tion of HIV transmission, the deansaid.

A healthy baby weighs between2.5 kg and 3.5 kg at birth.

HIV screening would be con-ducted on the 45th day to ascertainwhether the child has been infectedby the virus, he added.

Last month, the pregnantwoman contracted HIV at aGovernment hospital in Sattur in

Virudhunagar district allegedly afterbeing transfused contaminated bloodsupplied by a blood bank.

Following this, the state gov-ernment ordered examination ofstocks in the State's blood banks.

It was later found that a 19-yearold blood donor's infected blood wastransfused to the woman. On learn-ing that she had contracted thevirus, he consumed rat poison anddied on December 30.

Services of three lab techni-cians of the blood bank attached tothe Government hospital was ter-minated. PTI

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Under severe criticism from theOpposition and other quarters

over the Supreme Court relaxingsome of its stringent legal provisionsrestricting licencing and functioningof dance bars in the State, theMaharashtra Government on Fridayannounced that if necessary, it wouldpromulgate an Ordinance to enforcerules and stop reopening of dancebars in the State.

A day after the apex court per-mitted dance bars to operate from 6pm to 11.30 pm and allowed the saleof liquor in these joints, Maharashtra

F i n a n c eMinister SudhirMungantiwarsaid that theS t a t eGovernmentwas contem-plating bringing an ordinance to pre-vent reopening dancing joints inMumbai and other parts of theState.

"While we respect the decisionof the Supreme Court, we are of thefirm view that the dance bars can-not be allowed to function. In thelarger interests of the people and toprotect the cultural fabric of the state,

the Maharashtra Government isconsidering bringing an ordinance tostop dance bars from operating inMumbai and other parts of theState," Mungantiwar said.

“After going through theSupreme Court’s order and seekinglegal opinion, we intend to bring anordinance in the next two weeks tomake necessary changes andstrengthen the existing law to enforcerestrictions on the dance bars inMumbai and other parts of theState,” Mungantiwar said.

The Maharashtra Cabinet islikely to discuss the issue at its week-ly meeting to be held next week.

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Page 7: ˇ˙ ˛#˝ ˛ˇ $ ˇ˙˙ - The Pioneer€¦ · a surgery to resume her wed-ding rituals. Pooja’s mother Joga Devi said, “Doctor advised her to ... as Rinku, a resident of Geeta

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The DMK, which demandedearlier this month that the

Tamil Nadu LegislativeAssembly pass a unanimousresolution against the 10 percent reservation announcedby the Centre for the econom-ically weaker sections in theforward communities,approached the Madras HighCourt on Friday with a writpetition, challenging theConstitutional validity of therecent amendment incorpo-rated in the Constitution in thisregard.

According to R S Bharati,MP, the petitioner, the amend-ment made in the Constitutionsetting apart ten per cent quotain Government jobs and seatsin educational institutions tothe underprivileged sections inforward communities wasunconstitutional and violatedthe basic feature of theConstitution.

A division bench consist-ing of Justices S Manikumarand Subramanioum Prasadagreed to hear the case as and

when the High Court Registrylists the matter before them foradmission.

Bharati stated in his affi-davit that reservation in edu-cation and public employmentwere provided under theConstitution for uplifting theoppressed and backward class-es and to end caste-based dis-crimination in existence in thecountry for about three mil-lenniums.

In such circumstances, theConstitution (One Hundredand Twenty-FourthAmendment) Bill of 2019,intended at providing reserva-tions on the basis of econom-ic status, was introduced in theLok Sabha on January 8 andrushed through its introductionwas not part of the agenda of

the Lower House of Parliamenton that day, he claimed

Though the rulingAIADMK too had expressedtheir Opposition to theConstitution amendment toensure 10 per cent quota for thepoorest of the poor in the for-ward communities, it has notshown any interest in adoptinga resolution in the legislativeAssembly. Thambi Durai,deputy speaker of the LokSabha and the propaganda sec-retary of the AIADMK hadstated in the House itself thathis party would vehementlyoppose any move to dilute thereservation system.

The reservation in TamilNadu is already at 69 per centdue to the operation of theTamil Nadu Backward Classes,Scheduled Castes andScheduled Tribes (Reservationof Seats in EducationalInstitutions and ofAppointments or Posts in theServices under the State) Act,1993 (Tamil Nadu Act 45 of1993) which has the protectionof Article 31-B and has beenplaced in the IXth Schedule ofthe Constitution.

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Lucknow: The SamajwadiParty's (SP) alliance with theBSP and the RLD was "final"and there would be no issues asregards seat-sharing in thecoming Lok Sabha polls, partychief Akhilesh Yadav said onFriday, while ruling out anyunderstanding with theCongress.

"Our alliance with theBSP, the RLD and smallerparties like the Nishad Partyis final and seat-sharing willnot be a problem. It will beworked out soon. We haveemerged as a strong force inthe State, which has changedthe tone and tenor of the BJP,whose leaders have startedusing foul language againstus," the SP national presidenttold PTI.

"Uttar Pradesh has alwaysacted as a catalyst for change.This time, the people of thestate will change the primeminister. Our fight is with theBJP and the people are sup-porting us," Yadav said in aninterview at the SP headquar-ters here.

He, however, ducked thequestion as to who would behis choice as the next Prime

Minister.Maintaining that the SP

will only "concentrate" in UttarPradesh, Yadav ruled out anyunderstanding with theCongress in the State in the LokSabha polls.

"How can we have anunderstanding with it(Congress)? It is a nationalparty. We have given themtwo seats (Amethi andRaebareli), which the SP hadbeen leaving for them.Presently, my focus is on Uttar Pradesh. In MadhyaPradesh and Uttarakhand also,the SP will field one or two candidates who are strong andwe will explore (the possibili-ty of an) alliance with others,"he said. PTI

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Sabarimala ActionCommittee, an umbrella

organisation fighting theSupreme Court verdict thatquashed the ban on the entryof women in the child bearingage group in the holy shrine ofLord Ayyappa is organising amammoth rally on Sunday atThiruvananthapuram, theCapital city of Kerala.

The rally and public meet-ing titled Ayyappa BhaktaSangamam to be held atPutharikandom Maidan of theheritage city would beaddressed by leading Hindumonks, sanyasins and spiritu-al leaders, according to a releaseissued by the organising com-mittee on Friday. For the firsttime in modern times, theState of Kerala will see SwamyChidanandapuri, the spiritualleader of the Hindus, MataAmrithanandamayi, popularlyknown as the hugging saintalong with a galaxy of monksand sanyasins sharing the stageto address the gathering.

“Using the Supreme Courtverdict as an excuse feministactivists with connections toMaoists are being escorted to

the shrine by the StateGovernment machinery to des-ecrate the holy abode of LordAyyappa. The devotees whohave mounted a constant vigiltop protect the temple and itssanctity have been subjected tobrutal State repression,” theSAC alleged in the release.

It said the Sangamam isbeing organised in response tothe attempts to desecrate theshrine and show the determi-nation of the devotees to resistthe efforts to browbeat theminto submission. “More than150 leaders of social organisa-tions will be present on thedaisalong with prominentactivists, intellectuals, andartists from the entertainmentindustry ,” said M S Giri, theconvenor of the event.

Devotees from Tamil Nadu

, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh,and Telangana are also on theirway to Thiruvaanthapuram totake part in the Nama JapaYatra as well as the publicmeeting, said Durai Shankar,leader of Dharma RakshaSamiti, Tamil Nadu.

Meanwhile, a war of wordserupted between theGovernment of Kerala and theSAC on Friday following areport submitted by the formerto the Supreme Court that 51women in the 10-50 age grouphave visited the shrine this sea-son. The government also sub-mitted a list of the womendevotees. But SreedharanPillai, president Kerala BJPcharged that the list was a fakeone made out from the virtu-al queue system operated by theKerala Police.

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Guwahati: Union HomeMinister Rajnath Singh hasrang up the All Assam StudentsUnion (AASU) spearheadingthe agitation over theCitizenship Amendment Billexpressing the Centre's desire toresolve the issue through dis-cussions, a statement by the stu-dents' body said here on Friday.

Talking to Singh, AASUand North East StudentsOrganisation (NESO) ChiefAdvisor Samujjal Bhattacharyyainsisted that the bill "which willmake the indigenous peopleextinct and only protect theBangladeshis has to be scrappedas desired by the people ofAssam and the northeast region."

NESO is the umbrellaorganisation of major studentsunions of the seven northeast-ern states.

"Only through implemen-tation of the historic AssamAssam Accord 1985, signed atthe end of the AssamMovement, the burning issue ofcitizenship problem has to besolved," the statement quotedBhattacharyya as telling theMinister.

A six-year long movement

by the AASU demanding iden-tification and deportation ofillegal immigrants culminatedwith the signing of the AssamAccord by the Rajiv Gandhigovernment and the AASU onAugust 15, 1985.

AASU president DipankaNath and General SecretaryLuringjyoti Gogoi said theorganisation will apprise theleadership of its allied 30 ethniccommunity and the NESO aboutRajnath Singh's phone call.

Asserting that the contro-versial bill has to be scrapped,the two AASU leaders said theorganisation is firm about itsdemand and will continue itsagitation for the existence ofindigenous people.

Rajnath Singh also dis-cussed the matter withMizoram and Meghalaya chiefministers in a meeting in NewDelhi during the day.

Meanwhile, the Asom GanaParishad (AGP) that severed itsalliance with the rulingBharatiya Janata Party (BJP) inthe state recently over the bill,took out a torch rally inGuwahati on Friday evening aspart of its statewide protest. PTI

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Lucknow: The Uttar PradeshGovernment on Fridayapproved 10 per cent reserva-tion in jobs and educationalinstitutions for the economi-cally backward in the generalcategory.

The nod was given at ameeting here of the State cab-inet presided over by ChiefMinister Yogi Adityanath,senior Cabinet Minister andUP Government spokesper-son Shrikant Sharma toldmediapersons.

Uttar Pradesh became thethird State after Gujarat andJharkhand to approve the leg-islation which has to be ratifiedby at least half the StateAssemblies in the country.

The Constitution (124thAmendment) Bill, 2019, pro-

viding for 10 per cent reserva-tion in Government jobs andeducational institutions to theeconomically weaker sectionsin the general category waspassed by Parliament in itsrecently concluded winter ses-sion.

President Ram NathKovind has since given hisassent to the bill.

"The Cabinet meetingpresided over by Chief MinisterYogi Adityanath approved thenotification granting 10 percent reservation to the poor inthe general category which hascome into effect on January 14,"Sharma said. PTI

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Facing the heat over straycattle menace, the Uttar

Pradesh Government hasimposed a special fee onIndian Made Foreign Liquor(IMFL) and beer for funding‘gaushalas’ (cow shelters) forthe stray cattle in the State.

This decision was taken inthe State Cabinet meetingchaired by Chief Minister YogiAdityanath here on Friday.

Briefing media personshere, State Government

spokesperson and EnergyMinister Shrikant Sharma saidthe Government would collectan additional revenue of �165crore annually by imposingspecial fee on excise.

“While an additional fee of�0.50 to �2 will be imposedper bottle on purchase of beerand IMFL, the special fee willbe �10 per bottle for liquorconsumed in bars. The moneygenerated will be used to fundconstruction of shelters forstray cows in the State,” hesaid.

Banda (UP): A train ran over 25cows near Ragaol railway stationin neighbouring Hamirpur dis-trict on Friday, officials said.

"The cows were found deadon the track. They were buriedin a nearby field,"Superintendent of Police (SP),rural, Hamirpur Hemraj Meenasaid. Police personnel have beendeployed in the area after somepersons alleged the cows weredeliberately kept on the track.

Police are investigating thematter. PTI

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One has heard the questionbefore: “What is going to hap-pen in Afghanistan?” Thereare two reasons for revisiting it.The first is the delegation-level

talks between Zalmay Khalilzad, the US spe-cial representative for Afghanistan, withPakistani authorities in Islamabad onThursday. Both sides agreed there thatdirect talks between the Afghan governmentand Afghan Taliban were essential to end-ing the 17-year-old war in the country. Thesecond is the statement by the spokesmanof Pakistan’s foreign office, MohammadFaisal, on the same day that India had no rolein Afghanistan and that Islamabad hadplayed a key role in arranging talks betweenthe Taliban and the US.

It is clear that Washington andIslamabad are now working closely togeth-er on Afghanistan. Also, Pakistan sticks toits old position that it does not want Indiato have anything to do with Afghanistan.The shift in the US posture from the mina-tory — withholding aid to compel Pakistanto act against the Afghan Taliban — to thecooperative, clearly stems from the Trumpadministration’s keenness, bordering ondesperation, to end the war in Afghanistanand bring its troops home. That this is sois corroborated by the Trump administra-tion’s decision, announced on December 20,to withdraw 7,000 troops from Afghanistanby this summer.

The shift in the US position was dis-cernible as early as July last year, when theTrump administration began seeking directtalks with the Taliban, a significant shift inAmerican policy given Taliban’s long-heldposition that they would first discuss peaceonly with the Americans, while the US hadbeen insisting on the Afghan govern-ment’s participation. Since then, Khalilzadhas met Taliban representatives in Doha,Qatar and has been conducting what canbe called talks that could lead to formal talksto end the conflict.

The question is: Where do things gofrom here? So far, the Taliban can be seento have been insisting on two fundamentaldemands. It would not entertain any dele-gation from the present Afghan government.The country’s constitution will have to bechanged. It is difficult to see them relentingon either; the US government’s keenness toend the conflict is liable to convince themthat they have only to sit tight and a desper-ate Washington would leave under circum-stances in which they can march to Kabuland grab power. This would be in keepingwith the strategy of attrition they have fol-lowed so far vis-à-vis the Americans andtheir Western allies. Their logical strategy willbe to go on talking about holding formaltalks while further building up their strengthon the ground while carrying out high pro-file terrorist strikes and attacks on cities todemoralise the Afghan government andsecurity forces.

It is not just a question ofstrategy. There are fundamen-tal differences on the issue ofthe Constitution. The Talibando not recognise the presentAfghan constitution approvedin 2004 by a Loya Jirga (a grandtribal council with legislativefunctions). On their part, theyissued in 2005 their Order ofthe Islamic Emirate ofAfghanistan, the nearest doc-ument to a constitution theyhave produced. There is inad-equate space here for a discus-sion of the fundamental differ-ences between the two indetail. Suffice it so say that theyrelate to the political systemsthey stand for.

The Afghan constitutionhas established a democraticsystem of government inwhich a popularly elected pres-ident is the head of state andgovernment. The Talibanorder, by contrast, proclaimsAfghanistan as an IslamicEmirate under the leadershipof Mullah Mohammad. Thelegislative and judicial branch-es of the two systems differ sig-nificantly. The Afghan consti-tution has established a bicam-eral National Assembly inwhich the lower house isdirectly elected and the upperhouse consists of a mix of indi-rectly elected and presidential-ly appointed senators. TheTaliban order, by contrast,establishes a single chamberIslamic Council as the highestlegislative organ, whose mem-bers are appointed by the Amirul-Momineen (Commander

of the Faithful) based on theirfamiliarity with the principlesof jihad and sharia. The orderdoes not mention how theAmir ul-Momineen is to beselected nor how long an indi-vidual may serve in this role.It does, however, specify thathe must be a male Muslim fol-lower of the Hanafi school ofIslamic jurisprudence.

It is difficult to imaginehow the basic contradictionsbetween the Afghan constitu-tion and the Order of theIslamic Emirate of Afghanistancan be resolved. One can, there-fore, visualise the talk for for-mal talks, and even perhaps thelatter, continuing until theTaliban have entrenched them-selves in the Afghan country-side to the extent that they canlaunch a massive offensivewhich sends the Afghan gov-ernment forces reeling and theAmericans see no alternative topeace on the Taliban’s terms.And, of course, a major bene-ficiary of all this will beIslamabad which will continueto milk Washington as “thehonest broker.”

Of course, there will bemany twists and turns on theway. One would need to seewhat the Russians, who havebeen holding a parallel peaceprocess in Moscow with theparticipation of the Taliban, do.Whatever happens, India hasto get actively involved. Its his-toric ties with Afghanistanhave been deepened and rein-forced by the ones developedin recent years. It has already

invested nearly $3 billion inbuilding up Afghanistan’s insti-tutional, welfare and educa-tional infrastructure and pro-vided educational and techni-cal assistance to re-buildindigenous Afghan capacity indifferent areas. It has beenencouraging investment inAfghanistan’s natural resourcesand providing duty-free accessto the Indian market forAfghanistan’s exports. It hassigned a strategic partnershipagreement with Afghanistan in2011 and has been supportingan Afghan-led, broad-basedand inclusive process of peaceand reconciliation, and advo-cating the need for a sus-tained and long-term commit-ment to Afghanistan by theinternational community.

Given Pakistan’s attitudeand the unpredictability ofTrump’s policies and actions,India has to make all concerned— including Russia and China— that it needs be a party to anypeace process. For this, it mustshow its willingness to supportthe Kabul regime not only withinvestments and financial andtechnological aid but militaryhardware. It has so far provid-ed it with attack helicopters —more are on the way — andtraining its military personnel.It must now consider giving itheavy artillery, tanks and com-bat aircraft phased here butgood enough for fighting theTaliban.

(The writer is ConsultantEditor, The Pioneer, and anauthor)

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Sir — The judgement of the spe-cial CBI court sentencing the self-styled godman Gurmeet RamRahim to lifetime imprisonment iscommendable. By taking this deci-sion, the judiciary has restored thefaith of the common people indemocratic institutions.

We also need to acknowledgethe indomitable spirit of rape vic-tims and their family memberswho meticulously fought to exposethe unscrupulous godman. Therearises a fundamental question,who makes such imposters God?The answer is a mass of blind fol-lowers backed by media and polit-ical parties. And large numbers ofthese followers are uneducatedand unemployed. Secularism trulymeans keeping religion out ofpolitics. Likewise, democracy trulymeans keeping politics out of reli-gion. Distort either one and youmuck up the other. The judiciarycannot solve every problem. It ishigh time, as part of preventivemeasures, that we reject suchpseudo-spiritual leaders and useour conscience before followingany such spiritual scamsters.

Sameer BhoiBargarh

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Sir — It has been reported thatSrinagar would get its first mul-tiplex soon. Jammu & Kashmirhas seen a lot of violence and dis-order since the onset of militan-cy in the State and the news thatits Capital would get its first mul-tiplex soon is likely to be wel-comed by many who would want

to have some respite from thehorrors of militancy that haveshaken the State so far.

However, multiplex alonecannot resolve the larger problemand that is how peace can returnto the Valley. The State of Jammu& Kashmir needs more progressand development. It needs toinvolve young people in develop-mental activities to wean themaway from the desire to choose

the path of self-destruction.Devendra Khurana

Bhopal

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Sir — This refers to the editori-al, “Quota push and a drag”(January 17). Ten per cent quotafor the economically-weaker sec-tions (EWS) will fuel discrimina-

tion within society. Althoughthe system of quota to EWS wasnot practically possible till thistime, its acceptability and appli-cation will surely take time.However, the government canmake the EWS quota simpler bysetting up a proper committeethat can look into all the mattersfor rapid redressal. It is quite chal-lenging but not impossible.

Kirti WadhawanKanpur

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Sir — I welcome the SupremeCourt’s decision on dance bars.Every major city in the world hasa night life — it is a mode ofentertainment. There is a need togovern but not to control. Thecourt has drawn a right balancebetween the rights of citizens andduty of the state to govern. But theauthorities must ensure that thethin line between morality andimmorality is maintained.Otherwise it will only lead tochaos.

Jubel D’CruzMumbai

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Page 9: ˇ˙ ˛#˝ ˛ˇ $ ˇ˙˙ - The Pioneer€¦ · a surgery to resume her wed-ding rituals. Pooja’s mother Joga Devi said, “Doctor advised her to ... as Rinku, a resident of Geeta

The Muttahida Qaumi Movement(MQM), once the most domi-nant political party in Karachi, is

in complete disarray. At the momentthere are three factions of the partyvying for the Mohajir vote and at leasttwo sub-factions within one of thesplinter groups. The immediate mem-ory associated with the MQM in theminds of the party’s supporters is thatof an organisation that was able to stallthe political and economic alienationof Sindh’s Mohajirs. The other imme-diate memory of the party — mostlyheld by its detractors — is of an outfitwhich plunged Sindh’s capital, Karachi,into ethnic turmoil and of heinouscrimes allegedly committed by theparty’s armed wings.

There are also those who havemaintained that the party was the out-come of ‘political engineering’ under-taken by the ‘agencies’ at the behest of

Gen Zia’s dictatorship. This has oftenbeen repeated by various politicalanalysts. Although this claim was con-vincingly substantiated, it’s possible thatthis indeed was the case before MQMbroke away from the agencies’ orbitsometime in the late 1980s.

This perception is largely rooted incomments by some Jamaat-i-Islami (JI)leaders and then those belonging to thePakistan Peoples Party (PPP). In 1986,when one of the worst ethnic riots inKarachi propelled the MQM into theforefront, the JI claimed that the partyhad been created by the Zia dictator-ship to neutralise the support the JIonce enjoyed in Karachi. The PPP, onthe other hand, claimed that the partyhad been engineered to “balance outthe PPP’s influence in Sindh.” There arevarious theories about MQM’s forma-tion. But there is enough agreementamong historians and analysts aboutthe train of events which led to the for-mation of a Mohajir nationalist outfit.Dr Tanvir A Tahir’s book PoliticalDynamics of Sindh traces the roots ofthis evolution all the way back to the1950s when, according to Tahir, theMohajir community began to feel it wasbeing pushed out of the country’s rul-ing and economic elite. Tahir writes that

the Mohajirs had become part of thiselite immediately after Pakistan’s cre-ation in 1947 when the Punjabis dom-inated the military and the Mohajirswere prominent in the bureaucracy.

After the assassination of Pakistan’sfirst Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan(a Mohajir), the Mohajirs began to feelthat they were being nudged out.According to Tahir, the Mohajirs —who had come in droves from variousparts of India and had mainly settledin Sindh — did not find the need tobecome familiar with the Sindhi cul-ture because they became a majority inKarachi. Tahir also writes that thisdelayed the formation of a Sindhi mid-dle class because the Mohajirs imme-diately managed to bag importantpositions in the province’s economy andgovernment from Karachi that hadbecome the country’s first capital.

In 1954, a Mohajir politician,Mahmud-ul-Haq Usmani demandedthat Karachi be made a separateMohajir-majority province. But theimposition of the One Unit system, thatclubbed West Pakistan as a singleprovince, somewhat placated theMohajir community which was suspi-cious of provinces being based on eth-nic considerations. According to Tanvir,

the Mohajirs found themselves almostcompletely ousted from the ruling cir-cles during the Ayub Khan regime inthe 1960s. They vehemently took partin the 1968 anti-Ayub movement. Butwhen, after Ayub’s departure in 1969,Gen Yahya Khan agreed to do awaywith the One Unit, the Mohajir groupsprotested against Karachi becomingpart of Sindh.

The February 23, 1969 edition ofDawn reported the formation of a JeayKarachi Committee. It was mainly ledby a faction of the Left-wing NationalStudents Federation. The Committeedemanded the creation of a “Karachisooba (province).” Another organisa-tion, the Mohajir Mahaz (MM) cameinto being in late 1969. But it could winjust one Sindh provincial Assembly seatduring the 1970 election. Mohajirvote largely went to JI and Jamiat-i-Ulema-i-Pakistan (JUP). In 1972,when the PPP-led Sindh governmentdeclared Sindhi as the province’s offi-cial language, groups of Mohajir stu-dents formed the Muttahida TalabaMahaz Karachi (MTMK). They askedcar owners to change their numberplates to Urdu and attacked Englishsignboards. Riots broke out between thepolice and the MTMK in Karachi and

between Mohajir and Sindhi youthelsewhere in Sindh.

Usmani, who had demandedKarachi to be made a separate provincein 1954, had joined the Left-wingNational Awami Party (NAP). But helost the election in 1970. During the1972 riots, he formed the Urdu QaumiCouncil. The July 15, 1972 edition ofdaily Jang quotes the Council membersas saying that the organisation waslaunched to “inculcate in the minds ofMohajirs, scientific consciousness oftheir history and culture.” The Councilalso demanded that the state treatMohajirs as a separate ethnic commu-nity as it does the Punjabis, Sindhis,Baloch and Pakhtuns. Two years later,in 1974, a Karachi Province Movementwas launched but it fizzled out.

The Mohajirs of Karachi played aleading role in the 1977 movementagainst the Bhutto regime. In 1978, twoKarachi University (KU) students,Altaf Hussain and Azeem Ahmad Tariqformed the All Pakistan MohajirStudents Organisation (APMSO). Inhis 2011 biography, My Life’s Journey,Hussain writes that Mohajir youth wereexploited by JI and JUP against theBhutto regime. In 1981, APMSObecame a member of the progressive

student alliance, the United Students’Movement (USM) at KarachiUniversity (KU). Hussain writes that JI’syouth wing “expelled” APMSO fromKU and the party began to establishoffices in Mohajir mohallas (localities).

According to their 2011 essay forBerkeley Journal of Social Sciences, AliChandio, M Ahmad and F Naseemquote famous Sindhi scholar IbrahimJoyo as saying that “Punjabi econom-ic hegemony” increased immensely inSindh during the dictatorship of GenZia. This situation had a negativeimpact on the interests of Karachi’sprominent (non-Punjabi) businesscommunities. This concern saw somemembers of these communities forman organisation called the Maha Sindh(MS) in 1983. It was an organisation setup to protect the economic interests ofKarachi’s Memon, Sindhi and Mohajirbusinessmen and traders. Chandio,Ahmad and Naseem write that MahaSindh encouraged the formation of aKarachi-based party. Many APMSOmembers were involved in the party’sactivities. MS eventually became aMohajir-dominated organisation,which then evolved into becoming theMQM in 1984.

(Courtesy: Dawn)

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For a good century and a quarter, Assam haslived under a dual threat of its culture andethos being marginalised. On occasions,the threat came from immigrants whoselanguage would overshadow the indige-

nous tongue, pushing it into the background. Andthere were times when there were deliberatedesigns to reduce the sons of the soil to a religiousminority. It has been a tale of continual tensioncaused by neighbours to the south and frequent anx-iety emanating from friends in the west. TheAssamese could not always be sanguine that theirown sons were playing the sly role, enabling theneighbours who were short of fertile lands to till andlive off them. A threat engineered and egged on bypersons within is worse than a danger posed byantagonists without.

The anxiety among the Assamese people at thepassing of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act iswholly understandable. Merely assuring the peoplethat protecting their culture is as much the Centre’sconcern as securing the culture of the entire coun-try is hardly satisfying. For several good reasons,Assam is a very special and distinct case. For one,Assam and Bangladesh share a border. It is, there-fore, most convenient for immigrants to cross over.Since the turn of the 19th and the 20th centuries,there was infiltration, especially from Mymensinghdistrict into the Brahmaputra Valley. From Sylhetinto Cachar district, a cross over is even easier asthey were twin districts pre-Partition. The twoformed the legendary Surmah Valley.

Unless one has lived or frequently travelledin Assam, it is difficult to appreciate what night-mares the Assamese see when they think of infil-tration. They are a gentle people with a soft,peace-loving nature. They have their own festi-vals. They were gifted by nature with plenty ofland or even more rivers and water. They do nothave to work too hard for survival. The climateis mostly warm and humid and does not lenditself to hard work. They are not competitive bynature and understandably shudder at the fearof this ethos being disturbed by outsiders.

Believe it not, until two decades ago it was a pop-ular impression that the Congress strategy for win-ning elections in Assam was “Ali, Coolie andBengali.” Coolie implied the tea garden workers andtheir families. Ali and Bengali are self-explanato-ry; they are mostly people who had over the yearsimmigrated into Assam. Even the tea garden work-ers were Adivasis brought from Jharkhand andneighbouring areas to plant and pluck the bushes.To this day, it is difficult to find an original Assamesewho is a plucker in a tea garden. In sum and sub-stance, the Congress depended on settlers from out-side to win a majority vote.

Earlier a near fatal game was played with Assam.As mentioned, they are a gentle people. When WorldWar II broke out in Europe, the British also declaredthat India was a participant. Congress leadersexpressed their grave disapproval for the govern-ment doing so without consulting Indian leaders.In a loud protest, all Congress provincial ministriesresigned forthwith, as did the one in Assam. It wasreplaced by a Muslim League ministry led byMuhammed Saadullah. The idea of Pakistan wasalready floating in the political air by then.Saadullah concocted a new theory that the Adivasisin Assam were animists and not Hindus. The result-

ing arithmetic made the Muslims comewithin striking distance of a majority.

In 1947, MA Jinnah nearly convincedthe British rulers in New Delhi thatAssam was a Muslim-majority provinceand should, therefore, go to Pakistan.Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, in his book oneastern Pakistan, stated that tribals werenot only non-Hindus but also unfit forcivilised life. The generally vague conclu-sion of the sympathisers for Pakistan wasthat Eastern Bengal and Assam should becombined into one province. As was thecase under the first Partition of Bengal byViceroy Lord Curzon in 1905.Fortunately, it was undone by 1911. LordPethick-Lawrence, Secretary of State forIndia, and also one of the three membersof the Cabinet Mission, 1946, sent by theBritish government to find out whatstructure would be acceptable to Indianleaders, also swallowed this theory aboutan amalgamation of the two.

It was touch and go when GopinathBordolai, the Assam Congress leader,rushed to New Delhi and persuaded thosein power and influence that the Jinnahcontention was untrue. As a result, Assamwas saved for India, except for Sylhet dis-trict, which is now in Bangladesh. Thatis the kind of price Assam nearly paid forallowing illegal migrants to settle.Incidentally, until 1874, Assam was a partof the Bengal Presidency. It was then sep-arated and placed under the rule of a ChiefCommissioner. To make Assam a viableseparate province, three Bengali-speakingdistricts of the Presidency, namely,Goalpara, Sylhet and Cachar were mergedinto the new province. That is howAssam became not only separate but alsobegan its joint existence in company withBengalis as well as Muslims. The alloca-tion of Sylhet to East Pakistan in 1947relieved this pressure to an extent.

Nevertheless, the Partition added

Bengalis to the population as Sylhet hadbeen a sister district of Cachar and its peo-ple were at least 46 per cent Hindu.Moreover, Mymensingh district was alsonearby, enabling refugees to cross over.Due to the poverty of the landless peas-ants, Muslim infiltration also continued.West Pakistan monopolised the country’spower and the eastern wing was treatedas a colony. Emigration was perhaps theonly way many a easterner could survive.The poorest came to Assam as well asWest Bengal. The more resourceful wentto England and other richer countries.Called Bangladeshis since 1971, they havethe reputation of being the world’s num-ber one migrants in recent decades. Nostate in India has been spared by their vis-itation. The writer’s temporary gardenerat Cochin (now Kochi) turned out to befrom Bangladesh. Delhi has any numberof domestic servants, many albeit withHindu pen-names.

Assam, however, can ill afford tohost these infiltrators; the Assamesepopulation is very small. The recentCitizenship (Amendment) Bill is amajor irritant for them especially sincewhat was discovered in 1979. Someyoung men discovered in the electoralrolls of the Mangaldai Assembly con-stituency that many a voter was an obvi-ous infiltrator. In order to spread theprotest and try and stop such distortionof the electoral rolls of the State, the AllAssam Students’ Union (AASU) wasformed. Some members also went onto establish the Assam GanatantraParishad (AGP), a major political party.A few members took to terrorismunder the name of the UnitedLiberation Front of Assam (ULFA).

The Citizenship (Amendment) Billhas understandably upset the people ofAssam in the light of the events just nar-rated. The fear is that many a Hindu

from Bangladesh may take advantage ofthis legislation and come over to Assam.Such a legal migration would reduce thepercentage of the ethnic Assamese anddilute their indigenous culture. From theviewpoint of illegal infiltrators, the Billis welcome because many of them whocame 1971 onwards can be sent away.But in their place many a legal migrantmay come. The dilution of the local cul-ture and the threat to the political voiceof the Assamese would be about thesame. Hence the disturbed mood notonly in Assam but also in the othernortheastern States.

The solution to this potentially seri-ous national problem would lie in mak-ing the Cachar district a separateUnion Territory having no specialpolitical connection with Assam.Cachar has a population of some 40lakh people of whom a little over halfare Hindu. Under two per cent areChristian and the rest Muslim. More orless, all speak and write Bengali. Itseconomy is viable, especially with thehelp of over a hundred tea gardenswhich produce five crore kilograms oftea worth some �800 crore annually.That would separate some 16 per centof the total Assam population, virtual-ly all of whom are either Bengali orMuslim; a great relief to the Assamese.Remotely perhaps, the Bodos also mayuse the chance as an example anddemand a Union Territory of much lessthan two million people living betweenKokrajhar town and Sankosh river tothe west. This is the one sure way tobring happiness to the Assamese peo-ple after at least a century. In any case,the Cacharis would be pleased at beingsemi-independent with Silchar becom-ing a mini rajdhani.

(The writer is a well-known colum-nist and an author)

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Markets closed marginallyhigher on Friday after a

volatile session as investorslargely stuck to index heavy-weights despite positive glob-al cues.

The BSE Sensex settled12.53 points, or 0.03 per cent,higher at 36,386.61. The broad-er NSE Nifty inched up 1.75points, or 0.02 per cent, to10,906.95.

During the week, the 30-share Sensex gained 378.77points, or 1 per cent and theNifty rose 112 points, or 1.02per cent.

Reliance Industries wasthe biggest gainer on Sensex inFriday’s session, spurting 4.43per cent, after the companybecame the first Indian privatesector company to report aquarterly profit of more thanRs 10,000 crore followingrecord earnings from petro-chemical, retail and telecombusinesses.

Other gainers includedKotak Bank, HCL Tech,ONGC, Asian Paints, Vedanta,HDFC Bank, Bajaj Finance,Maruti and TCS, gaining up to1.41 per cent.

Sun Pharma was the toploser, cracking 8.58 per cent,on reports of fresh allegationsby a whistleblower against the

company.Bharti Airtel, L&T, Axis

Bank, Yes Bank, ITC, TataMotors and PowerGrid also fellup to 6.42 per cent.

“Domestic indices failed toabsorb the rebound in globalmarket as plunge in pharmastocks and weak rupee draggedthe sentiment,” said VinodNair, Head of Research, GeojitFinancial Services.

“Global headwinds con-tinue to dictate a range-boundmovement in the market whileany green shoots in quarterearnings provide opportunityto accumulate,” he added.

On a net basis, foreignportfolio investors (FPIs) pur-chased shares worth �842.13crore Thursday, while domes-tic institutional investors (DIIs)were net sellers to the tune of�727.46 crore, provisional dataavailable with BSE showed.

According to analysts,

global trade tensions and riskof recession will cast a cloudover the sentiment, while lackof major triggers in the domes-tic market could see range-bound movement in the nearterm.

The rupee, meanwhile,depreciated 10 paise against theUS dollar to 71.13 intra-day.

The benchmark Brentcrude futures rose 0.98 per centto $61.78 per barrel.

Elsewhere in Asia,Shanghai Composite Indexjumped 1.42 per cent, HongKong’s Hang Seng rose 1.25 percent, Japan’s Nikkei gained1.29 per cent, and Korea’sKospi climbed 0.82 per centhigher.

In Europe, London’s FTSErallied 1.03 per cent,Frankfurt’s DAX was up 0.97per cent and Paris CAC 40surged 1.29 per cent in earlydeals.

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Ordnance Factory Nalandahas got ISO certificate

for producing Bi Modularcharge System (BMCS) andNitrocellulose.

The foundation ofOrdnance Factory Nalandawas laid down on 14 April1999 by the then DefenceMinister George Fernandes.

In due course, the factory wasgiven its first indent for theproduction of 50,000 BMCS in2016-17 by the Indian Army.

BMCS facilitates pro-pelling the munitions firedfrom 155 mm artillery guns.At present, the factory is pro-ducing two variants of BMCS;M 91 and M 92. The M-91 hasa range of 7 to 12 kms where-as the M-92 has a range of 13

to 48 kms. Kargil war hasenhanced the importance ofBMCS as it was extensivelyused in the artillery guns of theIndian Army.

Production of BMCS is asignificant example of the stateof the art technology in indi-genization. Nalanda Factory isworking towards achieving itstarget of 2 Lakhs module for2018-19.

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Former Nissan boss CarlosGhosn received nearly eight

million euros in “improperpayments” from a Netherlands-based joint venture, theJapanese car giant allegedFriday, threatening to sue torecover the funds.

Nissan said Ghosn enteredinto a personal employmentcontract with Nissan-Mitsubishi BV (NMBV), acompany formed “with themission of exploring and pro-moting synergies within theNissan-Mitsubishi Motorspartnership.”

“Under that contract, hereceived a total of 7,822,206.12euros (including tax) in com-pensation and other paymentsof NMBV funds,” Nissan said,citing an ongoing investigationinto alleged wrongdoing byGhosn.

The firm said the con-tract was signed without con-sultation with current NissanCEO Hiroto Saikawa orMitsubishi Motors CEOOsamu Masuko.

“Nissan views the pay-ments Ghosn received fromNMBV to be the result of mis-conduct and will consider mea-sures to recover from Ghosnthe full sum,” the firm said ina statement.

Since his out-of-the-bluearrest on November 19, Ghosnhas been kept in a Tokyodetention centre and has madeonly one public appearance incourt when he passionatelyrejected the accusationsagainst him.

Ghosn faces three formalcharges.

First, he is accused ofunder-declaring his income byfive billion yen ( $46 million)between 2010 and 2015 in offi-cial documents to shareholders,apparently to fend off criticismhe was overpaid.

Second, he stands accusedof continuing this practice forthree more years, understatinghis pay by a further four billionyen.

A third, more complex,charge relates to allegations hesought to transfer personalinvestment losses to the firmand paid a Saudi intermediaryfrom company funds to stumpup collateral for him.

The 64-year-old autotycoon rejects all the charges,arguing in court that he hasbeen “wrongly accused andunfairly detained based onmeritless and unsubstantiatedaccusations.”

He has appealed severaltimes to be released on bail andfiled another appeal earlierFriday.

So far, the appeals have allbeen rejected, with the courtreasoning that he is a flight riskand could tamper with evi-dence.

His lawyers have vowed tolodge an appeal with theSupreme Court against hiscontinued detention, but evenhis lead attorney has toldreporters it is unlikely he willtaste freedom before a trial —and that could take six monthsat least.

Meanwhile, the allegationscontinue to stack up againstGhosn — once revered as acorporate genius who savedNissan from the verge of bank-ruptcy.

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French carmaker Renaultunveiled record sales on

Friday of nearly 3.9 millionvehicles last year, even as itprepares to turn the page onthe era of chief executiveCarlos Ghosn who remainsbehind bars in Tokyo on fraudcharges.

The company said sales in2018 were up 3.2 percent fromthe previous year putting itahead of its French rival PSA,whose brands include Peugeot,Citroen and Opel.

Sales were driven higher bydemand for Renault’s low-costmodels, including two lightutility vehicles manufactured ina joint venture with China’sBrilliance, which offset theeffect of its pullout from Iranbecause of renewed US sanc-tions and a slump in theTurkish market.

Renault’s Dacia and Ladabrands also continued to bookbrisk sales, rising seven per-cent and 19 percent respec-tively.

Renault said it was aimingfor “slight” growth in sales“with an acceleration in thesecond half of the year” thanksto the launch of new models,including an updated version ofits flagship Clio compact.

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Toyota Kirloskar Motor, theIndian arm of the Japanese

carmaker on Friday launchedthe latest generation of theirCamry sedan as their latestoffering in India. The car willfeature Toyota’s ‘HybridSynergy Drive’ with a totalpower out of 178 horsepower.“We are calling this a self-charging hybrid vehicle”,TKM’snewly appointed ManagingDirector Masakazu Yoshimurasaid. “In a hybrid system, thevehicle should be able to run oneither the battery or enginealone, that is the definition ofa hybrid car”, he added hintingat ‘Mild Hybrids’ sold by otherIndian carmakers. The newCamry which has several newfeatures and additional safetywith nine airbags has an intro-

ductory price of �36.95 lakhs.Yoshimura who arrived in

India recently highlighted that2018 was a good year for TKMwith sales of their Innova andFortuner reaching new heights.He also said that TKM willlooking at launching many newproducts going forward. “Newrules permit manufacturers suchas ourselves to sell 2,500 units ofa vehicle without requiring

homologation in India andJapanese or European certifica-tion will be accepted. This willgive us the opportunity to bringin some models to test market inIndia”, he said. No further detailsof which models were given byYoshimura who also admittedthat TKM will need to work ontheir entry-level models.

Yoshimura added thatToyota is betting big on hybrids

and particularly such ‘self-charging’ hybrids as theyrequire no infrastructure. “Noneed to build charging stationsand develop industrial infra-structure, but such hybridscan give major benefits ofincreased economy and muchlower emissions”, he said,adding that the long-term goalof electrification remained ontrack.

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RBI Governor ShaktikantaDas on Friday said efforts

are being made to strengthencorporate governance in thepublic sector banks to effec-tively check incidence of finan-cial frauds.

In his first public speechafter assuming the charge asRBI Governor in December,Das also flagged challengesthat Indian companies mayface on account of develop-ments around the Brexit.

Speaking at the 9th VibrantGujarat Global Summit 2019,the RBI chief said the centralbank is committed to play itsrole as the monetary authori-ty for maintaining mandatedprice stability objective whilekeeping in mind the objectiveof growth.

As the regulator and super-visor of the banking sector asalso payment systems, theReserve Bank “will take neces-sary steps to maintain financialstability and facilitate enablingconditions for sustainable androbust growth”, said Das, whowould be chairing the MonetaryPolicy Committee meeting forthe first time next month.

The RBI governor furthersaid that the growing size andcomplexity of the Indian finan-cial system warrants strength-ening of corporate governance

systems in banks.Citing incidence of finan-

cial frauds in recent times, hesaid such cases further under-score the significance of soundcorporate governance stan-dards in banks.

“The government, theBanks Board Bureau and theReserve Bank are currentlyengaged in developing an objec-tive framework for performanceevaluation and this should rede-fine the contours of corporategovernance in the public sectorbanks (PSBs) with a focus ontransparency, accountability andskills,” Das said.

The PSBs have been hit bya series of frauds in the recentpast, including the much-talked about �14,000 crorefraud at Punjab National Bank.

Referring to the problemsbeing faced by the non-bank-ing financial sector, the RBIchief said the debt default of asystemically important NBFChighlighted the vulnerabilityand need for strengtheningregulatory vigil on the sector ingeneral and on asset liabilitymanagement (ALM) frame-work in particular.

“The Reserve Bank intendsto strengthen the ALM frame-work for NBFCs and har-monise it across different cat-egories of NBFCs with theobjective of enabling theNBFCs to play a vital role in

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our economy,” he said.In order to allow addi-

tional access to funding for theNBFC sector in the wake of therecent crisis, the Reserve Bankhas relaxed the norms forNBFCs to securitise their loanbooks, he added.

On challenges before theeconomy, Das said the foremostpriority is to preserve domes-tic macroeconomic and finan-cial stability, especially in aglobal environment that isclouded by high uncertainty.

Not only downward risksto global growth, trade andinvestment have risen, but alsothe spillover effects on emerg-ing markets due to increase inglobal interest rates could beprofound, he said.

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Wipro board on Fridayapproved an issue of

bonus shares wherein share-holders will get one bonusshare for every three sharesheld by them.

“Issue of bonus equity sharesin the proportion of 1:3, that isone bonus equity share of Rs 2each for every three fully paid-up

equity shares held and a bonusissue...Of one ADS for every threeADS held, as on the record date,subject to approval of theMembers of the company,”Wipro said in a regulatory filing.

The record date for reck-oning eligible shareholders(including ADS holders) enti-tled to receive bonus shares willbe communicated later, itadded.

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Infrastructure consultancy firm REPL on Fridaysaid it had got a contract from Uttar Pradesh

government to plan, design and prepare a projectreport for piped drinking water in Bundelkhand.

The company has bagged the contract fromthe State Water and Sanitation Mission under theDepartment of Rural Development of the UP gov-ernment, it said.

“The larger scheme of water supply project ofthe state government will focus on addressing theacute problem of drinking water supply inBundelkhand region, and at a later stage,arsenic/fluoride and acute encephalitis syndrome(AES) and Japanese encephalitis affected areas inUP including the Bundelkhand and Vindhyaregions,” REPL said.

Currently, the rural household needs to trav-el a great distance to fetch water and people stillface the challenge of accessing pure drinking water,the company added.

REPL will prepare a detailed project report(DPR) which includes the overall planning, engi-neering survey, designing of the supply model ofpiped drinking water in Banda, Chitrakoot andHamirpur districts.

“It is a project of overwhelming responsibil-ity as it directly impacts health and daily life ofpeople residing in the area,” said REPL chairmanand managing director Pradeep Misra.

REPL is working on several important gov-ernment projects including Pradhan MantriAwas Yojana, Directorate General of MarriedAccommodation Project (DGMAP) and SmartCity projects.

Rudrabhishek Enterprises Ltd (REPL) is anintegrated urban development and infrastructureconsultant listed on NSE.

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The rupee on Friday weakened by16 paise to close at 71.19 against

the US dollar amid rise in demandfor the greenback from exportersand unabated increase in globalcrude oil prices.

This is the second successiveweek of loss for the Indian curren-cy. During the week the domesticunit registered a loss of 27 paise. Inthe previous week, the local unit hadslumped by 81 paise.

Forex traders said foreign fundoutflows, gain in domestic equitymarket and stronger dollar againstits key rival currencies impacted therupee trading pattern.

At the Interbank ForeignExchange (forex) market, the rupeeopened lower at 71.12 and fell fur-ther to touch the day's low of 71.24.

The domestic currency, how-ever, pared some losses and finallyended at 71.19 per dollar, down by16 paise against its previous close.

On Thursday, the rupee had set-tled 21 paise higher at 71.03 againstthe US dollar.

"Along with rupee, the bench-mark government bonds alsodropped, as fiscal worries have con-tinued to weigh on markets withFinance Minister Arun Jaitley hint-ing of a possible 'people friendly'budget ahead of general election,"said V K Sharma, Head PCG &Capital Markets Strategy, HDFC

Securities.Domestic equity market closed

marginally higher Friday. The BSESensex settled 12.53 points, or 0.03per cent, higher at 36,386.61. Thebroader NSE Nifty inched up 1.75points, or 0.02 per cent, to 10,906.95.

Meanwhile, the dollar index,which gauges the greenback'sstrength against a basket of six cur-rencies, was trading lower by 0.04per cent at 96.02.

"ICE dollar index steadied dur-ing the day but was set for its firstweekly rise in five weeks as doubtsgrew on the ability of other majorglobal central banks such as theEuropean Central Bank to start rais-ing interest rates this year," Sharma

said.Brent crude, the global bench-

mark, was trading at USD 61.90 perbarrel, higher by 1.18 per cent.

On a net basis, foreign portfo-lio investors (FPIs) purchased sharesworth Rs 842.13 crore Thursday,while domestic institutionalinvestors (DIIs) were net sellers tothe tune of Rs 727.46 crore, provi-sional data available with BSEshowed.

The Financial Benchmark IndiaPrivate Ltd (FBIL) set the referencerate for the rupee/dollar at 71.1418and for rupee/euro at 81.0656. Thereference rate for rupee/Britishpound was fixed at 92.2946 and forrupee/100 Japanese yen at 65.04.

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New Delhi (PTI): NIIT Technologies onFriday posted a 32.6 per cent year-on-year risein consolidated net profit to �100.2 crore for theDecember 2018 quarter and said the demandcontinued to be robust in large markets like theUS and Europe. The net profit stood at �75.6crore in the corresponding period of previousyear. Sequentially, the net profit declined by 10per cent on account of lower ‘other income’ andincreased effective tax rate, the company said.The consolidated revenue for the third quarterwas up 28.5 per cent year-on-year to �971.7 crorehelped by “all round growth across verticals andgeographies,” NIIT Technologies vice-chairmanand managing director Arvind Thakur told PTI.Asked about the tightening of visa norms in keymarkets like the US, Thakur said mobility ofpeople was definitely a “challenge” but the com-pany had, in response, stepped up localisationand set up two nearshore centres. He declinedto comment on media reports about BaringPrivate Equity Asia acquiring a stake in NIITTechnologies in a deal valuing the IT firm at�8,000-10,000 crore. The operating profit at�180.5 crore marked a growth of 39.4 per centover the same period last year and 10.4 per centsequentially.

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New Delhi (PTI): IT services major Wiproon Friday posted a 31.8 per cent increase in con-solidated net profit at �2,544.5 crore forOctober-December 2018 compared to the year-ago period. Wipro’s board has also approved anissue of bonus shares, offering one bonus sharefor every three held by shareholders, a BSE fil-ing said. The net profit in the October-December 2017 quarter was at �1,930.1 crore.Wipro’s revenue from operations expanded 10.17per cent to �15,059.5 crore during the periodunder review from �13,669 crore in the thirdquarter of FY2017-18. The company’s IT servicessegment revenue, which accounts for a bulk of

its topline, was at USD 2,046.5 million (around�14,555 crore), up 1.8 per cent sequentially.

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New Delhi (PTI): Larsen & Toubro Infotech(LTI) on Friday said consolidated net profit hadincreased 32.8 per cent to �375.5 crore for thequarter ended December 2018 compared to theyear-ago period. The company had registered anet profit of �282.8 crore in the October-December 2017 quarter, LTI said in a statement.Its revenue grew 31.3 per cent to �2,472.9 crorein the quarter, against �1,883.8 crore in the thirdquarter of FY18, it added. On a sequential basis,the net profit declined 6.2 per cent (from �400.3crore), while revenue was higher by 6.1 per cent(from �2,331.2 crore in September 2018 quarter).In dollar terms, LTI’s revenue was at USD 346.9million, growing 18.2 per cent year-on-year.

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New Delhi (PTI): Tata group firm RallisIndia, which is into crop protection business, hasreported a 45 per cent decline in consolidated netprofit to �13.76 crore for the quarter endedDecember 2018 on higher tax outgo and otherexpenses. Its net profit had stood at �24.94 crorein the year-ago period, according to a regulato-ry filing. Total income, however, rose by 7 per centto �423.25 crore in the third quarter of this finan-cial year, from �393.86 crore in the correspond-ing period of the previous year. “Margins remainconstrained owing to higher raw material prices.Expect profitability to pick up going forward fol-lowing growth-specific initiatives undertakentowards driving growth,” Rallis said in a statement.Higher input cost, imports from China resultedin profitability and margin compression, the com-pany said. It is working towards improvingproduct mix - share of value-added/specialty prod-ucts to offset impact of rising raw material. The company said the revenue grew on the back of steady performances in domestic and global markets.

Script Open High Low LTPRCOM 13.80 13.80 13.26 13.37SUNPHARMA 425.50 425.50 375.40 390.75RELIANCE 1149.70 1189.25 1135.50 1182.95JETAIRWAYS 284.00 295.00 276.00 281.35YESBANK 202.05 203.00 196.45 198.25SPARC 173.30 173.30 141.10 148.40JPASSOCIAT 7.23 7.29 7.12 7.16SUZLON 5.31 5.33 5.20 5.24PHILIPCARB 206.00 208.25 182.35 184.45LINDEINDIA 770.00 770.85 613.60 613.60GRAPHITE 734.00 737.00 698.00 700.00BHARTIARTL 331.45 332.35 305.10 310.95SUNTV 567.30 568.40 513.75 524.90LT 1351.00 1352.00 1313.00 1318.25ICICIBANK 374.20 376.50 370.05 371.90DHFL 220.75 222.70 214.00 215.35WIPRO 336.40 348.45 333.95 346.20KRBL 342.05 386.70 341.40 381.25HINDUNILVR 1757.00 1768.65 1728.65 1743.70MINDTREE 867.95 893.00 855.00 886.80ITI 109.85 110.25 104.00 104.40CYIENT 600.00 618.00 577.30 614.85HEG 3601.00 3649.90 3531.00 3546.85IBULHSGFIN 823.70 823.70 805.55 816.90TATASTEEL 474.00 477.45 468.10 470.50VEDL 198.50 199.90 195.90 198.15IOC 137.85 138.60 137.00 137.40LTTS 1711.00 1746.95 1625.40 1637.35ASHOKLEY 93.75 93.75 91.90 92.25RECLTD 128.00 129.00 125.10 126.10RELCAPITAL 218.50 219.50 208.60 210.15SBIN 298.05 299.70 294.20 295.20AXISBANK 675.70 675.80 661.65 664.30RELINFRA 298.05 303.85 292.25 297.25INFY 731.95 736.00 726.50 731.00SPICEJET 84.30 84.35 81.10 81.35

TCS 1887.00 1904.45 1877.30 1900.40DMART 1374.95 1388.50 1362.10 1380.70BIOCON 660.00 671.90 649.70 651.10FEDERALBNK 88.90 90.90 88.25 89.80STRTECH 292.00 298.00 289.20 291.15GAIL 332.60 332.75 321.50 323.15TATAMOTORS 185.50 185.60 181.40 183.10WOCKPHARMA 503.10 503.45 486.45 489.50IDEA 37.40 37.40 34.40 35.20BEML 898.90 908.40 884.00 891.95PEL 2374.00 2377.25 2277.40 2295.00ZEEL 443.50 445.00 437.00 440.15JINDALSTEL 144.75 147.55 144.60 145.70RALLIS 168.10 168.60 162.35 163.95ISEC 245.20 245.40 225.05 227.75PCJEWELLER 79.80 80.25 77.50 78.10PNB 84.45 84.90 82.55 82.85INDUSINDBK 1524.00 1531.55 1512.10 1516.15KOTAKBANK 1222.20 1241.10 1217.00 1237.35NIITTECH 1223.00 1239.20 1204.15 1227.00LTI 1800.00 1812.00 1760.00 1801.45IDFCFIRSTB 47.55 47.80 46.80 47.05GSPL 178.35 187.20 178.00 181.65MARUTI 7365.00 7375.00 7324.70 7353.35ADANIPORTS 395.60 399.55 392.55 398.60DEEPAKFERT 138.30 138.45 126.40 131.60KAJARIACER 539.90 539.90 524.55 535.15STAR 527.80 528.80 504.60 516.55ITC 294.00 294.95 290.50 291.10HCLTECH 953.00 968.00 946.35 964.50ADANIPOWER 51.55 52.00 50.10 50.75M&M 735.05 737.85 728.90 734.65AUBANK 630.00 640.00 608.00 621.15LUPIN 861.50 866.60 852.00 859.60BHEL 70.35 71.10 69.80 70.70BANKINDIA 104.10 104.80 102.05 102.55BANDHANBNK 454.50 454.50 438.00 440.50JSWENERGY 68.90 69.45 66.55 68.35BAJFINANCE 2549.00 2554.35 2526.65 2540.85L&TFH 142.35 142.35 138.50 140.60JUSTDIAL 480.05 483.20 470.00 471.50ONGC 145.10 147.35 145.10 146.25BANKBARODA 119.50 119.80 117.55 117.95INDIGO 1101.00 1117.60 1068.55 1076.50ABFRL 203.50 207.45 200.60 203.30UNIONBANK 94.85 95.35 91.60 92.30DLF 184.90 184.90 178.00 180.30AUROPHARMA 782.00 783.50 763.40 770.55EICHERMOT 20301.00 20620.00 19968.90 20140.15JSWSTEEL 289.65 291.90 283.65 285.70BPCL 354.90 357.70 351.30 353.50

COALINDIA 232.05 232.90 229.60 230.00HDFCBANK 2126.00 2139.75 2115.00 2131.20TV18BRDCST 36.00 36.45 33.85 34.05MPHASIS 903.50 909.00 862.20 872.25NCC 89.70 89.80 87.50 87.85IBVENTURES 375.35 378.85 368.15 370.65MOTHERSUMI 162.00 162.00 155.70 157.45SAIL 50.15 50.40 49.50 49.75BOMDYEING 124.50 125.15 119.40 120.25INFIBEAM 45.10 45.25 43.70 44.40HINDPETRO 244.60 245.90 238.40 239.80ASIANPAINT 1399.75 1404.25 1384.05 1401.30HDFC 1991.00 2015.00 1990.00 2008.05KTKBANK 121.00 123.30 119.70 121.55IGL 277.00 283.80 276.65 279.95UJJIVAN 287.00 289.00 275.50 286.55NBCC 59.45 59.45 57.85 57.95SOBHA 523.00 523.00 485.00 499.15JUBLFOOD 1219.90 1227.15 1211.20 1219.40GODREJPROP 767.00 782.40 736.10 748.35DELTACORP 250.00 250.75 245.40 246.90GLENMARK 659.50 659.50 635.25 640.85INDIANB 259.15 259.15 242.50 246.05JISLJALEQS 66.10 66.10 64.40 64.70TORNTPOWER 262.95 267.80 259.35 264.45CADILAHC 354.45 354.45 343.20 347.00KPIT 213.00 217.00 211.20 216.05SREINFRA 33.90 35.20 33.35 33.55PFC 107.25 108.00 105.00 107.25MANAPPURAM 99.90 100.35 96.75 97.05DABUR 420.90 426.50 419.10 424.05IBULISL 366.05 366.05 357.00 366.05FLFL 397.75 419.35 397.75 404.40JAICORPLTD 113.15 113.95 110.90 111.35CIPLA 512.50 512.90 507.50 509.70HINDALCO 207.00 209.00 206.00 208.75LICHSGFIN 490.80 491.20 474.30 476.35CASTROLIND 166.70 166.90 164.50 165.35SWANENERGY 98.60 100.30 97.40 97.95NAUKRI 1648.70 1651.90 1561.10 1576.75APOLLOTYRE 218.70 220.70 217.20 218.25FORCEMOT 1580.15 1592.95 1560.00 1566.50GICHSGFIN 266.95 273.00 263.25 264.55EDELWEISS 168.75 169.80 165.00 165.50PETRONET 222.60 224.55 216.45 218.50HAVELLS 679.95 685.75 671.45 676.90IDBI 61.00 61.00 58.10 58.35GNFC 364.00 368.65 360.00 366.00SRTRANSFIN 1175.00 1185.00 1132.20 1135.80ESCORTS 736.90 740.75 725.40 729.15ABCAPITAL 95.95 96.00 93.65 93.75TECHM 705.05 713.95 703.60 707.70TATACOMM 531.00 542.35 517.00 519.00GRUH 237.75 237.75 231.00 233.20BEL 87.50 88.25 86.20 86.40BHARATFORG 489.45 489.45 473.75 479.35NMDC 92.30 92.30 90.55 90.70DISHTV 35.40 35.40 33.35 33.65FCONSUMER 43.00 43.00 41.80 42.15TIINDIA 330.05 343.00 328.55 339.90TATAPOWER 76.40 76.40 75.10 76.00TATAELXSI 975.65 976.70 959.30 962.55ORIENTBANK 98.00 98.00 94.85 95.20HEROMOTOCO 2907.00 2927.90 2864.05 2893.00BAJAJ-AUTO 2740.00 2741.05 2698.00 2716.55MEGH 61.45 61.45 58.80 59.20SUNTECK 346.05 346.70 335.00 338.85CANBK 276.90 277.80 271.35 272.35INDIACEM 86.50 86.70 84.65 84.95ACC 1455.25 1459.85 1435.55 1439.95PAGEIND 23355.20 23355.20 22905.00 23050.25RAIN 120.10 122.05 117.90 119.85MGL 895.45 919.65 895.45 903.70BAJAJFINSV 6398.00 6398.00 6228.00 6245.50ALKEM 1900.75 1960.00 1885.70 1902.30CONCOR 695.70 695.70 681.35 685.50ENGINERSIN 118.45 118.90 115.95 116.75SYNDIBANK 39.45 39.55 37.60 37.80PIDILITIND 1160.00 1161.10 1140.10 1151.55GSFC 111.80 111.80 107.50 107.95ATUL 3520.00 3580.00 3510.00 3541.90RPOWER 29.95 29.95 28.40 28.50HFCL 23.55 23.80 22.75 22.80ICICIGI 874.60 878.65 856.95 861.30CAPPL 424.60 434.70 389.00 402.20EVEREADY 226.95 227.00 222.50 225.10FSL 50.95 51.20 49.20 49.40RAYMOND 809.00 812.60 798.35 807.40HDFCLIFE 392.00 392.00 384.00 384.75ADANITRANS 220.70 220.70 211.95 215.30ULTRACEMCO 3816.15 3852.00 3774.00 3820.55RAJESHEXPO 592.00 593.90 580.00 582.95DBL 384.25 385.75 376.00 378.35MCX 748.00 750.45 734.60 740.70IRB 154.80 155.20 147.40 149.65ITDCEM 119.00 127.40 119.00 123.50WABAG 308.05 309.50 296.55 299.40OBEROIRLTY 461.05 465.00 448.00 449.60DCBBANK 186.50 187.00 184.50 185.15RCF 65.10 65.40 64.40 64.70APOLLOHOSP 1360.00 1365.00 1336.00 1359.85JUBILANT 705.00 713.85 698.00 708.10VOLTAS 535.00 537.40 531.05 533.25ICICIPRULI 350.00 353.00 342.85 351.65KSCL 567.50 573.10 555.95 561.20FORTIS 137.90 137.90 135.20 135.40TATAMTRDVR 98.05 98.60 96.05 96.85RADICO 412.00 413.85 401.90 406.85SOUTHBANK 15.80 15.85 15.50 15.55

SBILIFE 625.05 628.70 609.00 619.80NATIONALUM 61.55 62.00 61.40 61.60OMAXE 214.00 215.55 213.15 213.75TATAGLOBAL 218.45 218.80 213.50 215.95BRITANNIA 3212.00 3225.00 3139.35 3163.20GRASIM 828.30 833.90 818.65 824.00CANFINHOME 276.00 278.40 267.55 268.75VIPIND 519.10 522.25 509.30 512.40DEEPAKNI 227.20 233.00 225.00 230.55TVSMOTOR 546.00 548.45 532.10 535.85GODREJCP 791.95 795.95 781.20 787.10DIVISLAB 1512.00 1518.45 1487.35 1508.85INFRATEL 280.40 283.10 276.70 278.10IBREALEST 86.50 86.50 84.60 84.95WELCORP 124.90 126.00 119.45 119.95COLPAL 1326.00 1329.00 1305.30 1309.70NTPC 145.60 146.30 144.00 144.35TRIDENT 71.45 71.45 69.75 70.05CGPOWER 43.75 43.90 42.80 43.10IDFC 44.00 44.00 42.85 43.15J&KBANK 39.00 39.00 38.20 38.45M&MFIN 455.00 455.00 437.50 441.35EXIDEIND 252.00 252.20 246.25 246.90NAVKARCORP 51.40 51.80 47.00 48.15GMRINFRA 16.30 16.50 16.15 16.25GUJGAS 140.10 141.00 135.00 135.95POWERGRID 194.00 196.60 192.50 193.25ALBK 44.55 44.60 43.55 43.80BLISSGVS 166.85 167.50 160.00 162.80NESTLEIND 11200.00 11312.10 11167.25 11241.05TITAN 961.35 965.10 955.00 960.50INDHOTEL 137.00 138.35 135.50 136.75REDINGTON 81.50 82.00 79.40 79.75BATAINDIA 1152.10 1162.20 1148.65 1155.60BERGEPAINT 326.00 327.00 322.50 326.10DRREDDY 2616.80 2631.10 2593.10 2598.95CEATLTD 1247.00 1247.00 1225.65 1232.20NOCIL 162.90 164.40 161.25 162.05BALKRISIND 875.60 877.30 865.10 868.80GHCL 258.00 263.00 257.05 258.15MARICO 389.40 389.40 375.55 379.40THERMAX 1084.00 1110.00 1062.15 1091.50CROMPTON 234.90 234.90 227.20 228.15ASTRAL 1114.00 1116.80 1095.00 1100.00MOTILALOFS 685.30 685.30 659.05 673.15RBLBANK 570.00 573.00 561.00 570.25BBTC 1262.00 1270.00 1244.70 1253.00SONATSOFTW 314.90 314.90 304.30 306.65TORNTPHARM 1889.05 1924.60 1887.60 1896.05SRF 2048.05 2080.00 2044.45 2070.50SUVEN 218.55 220.00 216.80 217.60EQUITAS 119.90 119.90 117.75 118.80INTELLECT 219.55 221.55 215.65 217.55AMBUJACEM 215.90 216.15 212.40 212.90CENTURYTEX 896.00 896.00 878.05 882.90HEXAWARE 324.00 328.10 322.00 325.05JKTYRE 101.15 101.45 99.55 99.75OFSS 3660.00 3660.00 3596.85 3623.75INOXLEISUR 244.00 244.65 234.00 235.30AVANTI 384.00 384.00 371.65 375.15LALPATHLAB 1070.00 1078.80 1034.00 1043.30VGUARD 206.75 208.20 205.00 207.35AJANTPHARM 1145.00 1149.60 1131.00 1139.25UPL 770.30 771.00 764.00 765.65JAMNAAUTO 61.00 61.15 60.35 60.60MRPL 70.05 70.65 69.35 69.50MANPASAND 83.60 86.40 81.85 82.40MFSL 456.85 461.10 452.50 456.40MERCK 3157.70 3256.10 3150.00 3188.80MUTHOOTFIN 534.00 536.85 526.05 527.45GRANULES 90.05 90.05 86.20 87.85JSL 32.15 32.40 31.15 31.45MINDACORP 154.85 156.10 149.05 150.65TATAMETALI 612.25 620.00 597.75 604.70CHOLAFIN 1201.15 1201.15 1172.00 1174.40UBL 1410.25 1419.00 1401.30 1413.25REPCOHOME 442.95 447.95 426.35 430.45QUESS 679.55 688.70 671.25 676.15GREAVESCOT 124.00 124.00 121.60 122.00SYNGENE 564.00 570.95 556.50 564.55IPCALAB 781.20 783.70 765.00 770.40SHANKARA 517.80 520.40 504.40 507.20HUDCO 43.30 43.50 42.80 42.95CENTRUM 35.15 35.15 34.05 34.55AMARAJABAT 785.25 786.60 775.00 779.00GODFRYPHLP 969.75 972.00 947.00 951.85PNCINFRA 151.00 153.15 147.60 152.05GSKCONS 7350.00 7355.05 7227.95 7254.60PARAGMILK 240.00 243.05 236.20 237.65JINDALSAW 80.00 80.25 78.70 78.90UCOBANK 20.85 20.95 20.50 20.75CUMMINSIND 844.25 849.35 837.30 844.65OIL 172.35 173.80 172.30 172.60WELSPUNIND 61.00 61.35 60.05 60.30SIEMENS 1066.00 1066.00 1050.15 1053.45PTC 89.40 90.05 87.05 87.45HINDCOPPER 50.00 50.05 48.80 49.05MAHINDCIE 233.20 233.20 230.80 231.75AKZOINDIA 1726.95 1736.55 1720.00 1728.40JMFINANCIL 88.50 88.50 86.10 86.45LAXMIMACH 5715.00 5715.00 5451.00 5496.80BAJAJELEC 470.20 472.00 464.50 467.15APLLTD 595.00 612.75 583.50 585.95FORBESCO 2223.80 2248.00 2116.05 2131.60PNBHOUSING 897.05 897.05 882.95 888.25EIDPARRY 220.80 224.10 212.65 213.55GODREJAGRO 506.45 507.90 498.00 501.50TATACHEM 691.60 695.20 687.00 692.75JKCEMENT 730.00 738.00 717.10 733.25

INOXWIND 74.60 75.50 72.00 75.20MINDAIND 310.80 311.75 302.00 302.95SUNDRMFAST 539.35 539.35 519.80 521.05JYOTHYLAB 196.20 198.35 194.20 196.70HSIL 243.00 243.00 231.80 236.95NHPC 25.65 25.70 25.10 25.25VENKYS 2336.00 2352.10 2305.00 2318.90BALMLAWRIE 200.00 200.00 195.00 195.85SUPREMEIND 1080.00 1080.00 1051.50 1069.55APLAPOLLO 1155.55 1196.80 1142.00 1186.75NAVINFLUOR 668.25 671.50 660.00 662.60EMAMILTD 445.00 445.00 431.90 433.95CHENNPETRO 267.00 267.10 261.40 263.30TRENT 352.00 360.70 351.25 357.75ABB 1294.45 1295.40 1271.10 1275.60MHRIL 217.95 217.95 211.00 214.70AARTIIND 1527.00 1550.95 1499.00 1549.45GREENPLY 141.00 141.00 137.60 139.50KANSAINER 445.50 460.00 445.10 454.60JBCHEPHARM 319.45 320.55 308.25 313.20COFFEEDAY 291.60 295.00 286.50 293.95IFCI 14.99 14.99 14.49 14.61NILKAMAL 1385.90 1393.70 1347.00 1355.65ITDC 307.55 314.55 299.60 300.30MMTC 28.70 29.00 28.10 28.45AIAENG 1645.00 1685.95 1645.00 1672.90FRETAIL 450.65 455.00 445.05 447.30AEGISLOG 205.15 206.00 196.50 197.30SHK 182.40 189.40 179.30 181.45PIIND 853.45 858.00 845.40 853.45HSCL 132.00 132.00 130.00 130.60KEC 275.05 276.30 273.35 274.55CHAMBLFERT 168.80 168.80 163.30 164.15HAL 780.00 787.90 778.85 780.85FINOLEXIND 564.45 567.95 538.00 541.50SHREECEM 15730.85 15899.90 15505.80 15564.35VMART 2268.45 2340.85 2230.80 2303.80TATACOFFEE 99.00 99.25 97.10 97.30NATCOPHARM* 688.00 690.60 682.00 685.05LUXIND 1316.00 1333.40 1290.00 1315.65SADBHAV 214.55 214.75 205.50 207.50GODREJIND 529.80 529.80 519.55 525.25COCHINSHIP 365.50 365.90 362.25 363.55MAHABANK 15.00 15.00 14.63 14.71HINDZINC 273.10 274.90 271.20 272.40DCMSHRIRAM 349.75 351.40 340.50 345.05ADANIGREEN 40.00 40.00 38.35 38.70PERSISTENT 558.00 558.00 548.00 551.45ZENSARTECH 237.00 237.00 232.20 233.95LAKSHVILAS 75.70 75.70 72.65 73.80CENTRALBK 35.35 35.80 34.85 35.00BHARATFIN 959.00 967.00 955.40 958.85BAJAJCON 372.80 372.80 368.35 369.20GUJALKALI 517.30 526.50 504.95 523.60ADVENZYMES 174.90 174.90 168.10 170.45TAKE 151.75 154.80 151.60 154.55NETWORK18 40.75 40.75 38.25 38.45ZYDUSWELL 1368.65 1375.20 1275.55 1299.90LEMONTREE 69.30 69.30 68.35 68.90DENABANK 13.70 13.70 13.45 13.50JSLHISAR 86.50 87.00 85.35 85.90IEX 164.00 164.00 161.00 161.55VBL 820.20 830.40 805.85 815.40MOIL 164.30 164.80 161.90 163.10GESHIP 307.35 311.25 302.00 306.75PVR 1630.00 1633.40 1612.95 1622.45VIJAYABANK 47.35 47.55 46.60 46.75VINATIORGA 1602.00 1610.00 1579.30 1594.50ESSELPRO 111.00 115.00 111.00 114.25ABBOTINDIA 8131.50 8149.75 8050.00 8072.60SCI 45.25 45.40 44.55 44.60TEJASNET 219.60 221.35 215.00 216.45GICRE 257.00 259.40 253.65 255.05CARERATING 996.30 1017.25 996.30 1014.50KEI 354.60 358.00 354.00 354.85PFIZER 2690.60 2690.60 2650.00 2658.75CUB 190.20 192.00 188.50 191.15HERITGFOOD 531.00 545.00 530.50 534.60JAGRAN 110.00 110.90 108.00 110.05RAMCOCEM 627.50 627.50 617.35 620.55BAYERCROP 4323.45 4325.05 4271.00 4303.50ERIS 689.50 707.60 683.15 700.65WHIRLPOOL 1470.40 1485.00 1458.45 1461.00GLAXO 1426.10 1430.00 1415.00 1417.50MAGMA 104.70 108.00 104.00 106.50BAJAJHLDNG 2970.00 2984.00 2951.10 2955.35WESTLIFE 392.00 394.75 388.50 392.55

GUJFLUORO 940.00 950.00 922.05 929.40IFBIND 904.00 905.05 885.00 891.65CRISIL 1655.20 1673.50 1641.00 1656.50FINCABLES 449.00 450.90 433.25 439.00HIMATSEIDE 209.30 213.45 209.30 211.65CERA 2618.25 2685.00 2571.15 2675.20BDL 289.05 291.10 282.10 284.85GPPL 94.05 94.30 92.00 92.35ASHOKA 135.25 135.25 132.00 133.15DBCORP 176.80 179.00 171.00 175.95ANDHRABANK 28.95 28.95 28.50 28.55SJVN 25.75 25.80 25.35 25.55KNRCON 213.00 214.85 212.00 213.65GULFOILLUB 894.10 904.80 884.10 888.75MRF 66099.95 66099.95 65616.05 65734.80NLCINDIA 67.45 68.20 67.45 67.70HATSUN 681.00 699.95 681.00 696.10GDL 117.80 122.80 112.00 112.45PRESTIGE 212.80 215.20 210.00 211.25SUDARSCHEM 332.00 333.00 330.00 331.15PRSMJOHNSN 84.50 84.65 83.50 83.90KALPATPOWR 374.80 381.00 372.60 378.55TIMKEN 576.00 597.40 576.00 578.20SHILPAMED 397.75 409.90 397.10 399.85CENTURYPLY 182.00 182.00 178.00 179.80RELAXO 743.65 752.60 737.15 748.35SYMPHONY 1198.00 1198.00 1134.00 1141.75MAHLIFE 388.00 396.00 387.05 393.15RNAM 156.00 156.00 150.00 152.45NBVENTURES 112.95 112.95 110.60 111.05TVSSRICHAK 2377.85 2424.00 2377.85 2405.45COROMANDEL 453.20 455.80 444.75 449.05LAOPALA 219.50 223.85 216.95 219.90BOSCHLTD 19102.65 19240.00 19030.00 19198.60KPRMILL 530.00 535.00 527.95 532.15TATAINVEST 836.00 838.00 833.75 836.25GEPIL 823.80 832.85 812.45 820.20DCAL 228.00 230.45 226.00 227.00EIHOTEL 181.00 181.50 178.75 180.20BASF 1550.95 1550.95 1512.75 1517.10ELGIEQUIP 268.00 269.85 256.75 261.80MAXINDIA 87.10 87.30 85.25 86.45UFLEX 267.00 268.20 265.40 267.40CCL 267.30 275.50 267.30 274.55TEAMLEASE 2728.30 2790.00 2676.25 2717.25ASTERDM 163.40 166.00 161.00 163.15SOMANYCERA 362.50 364.50 358.50 359.10SOLARINDS 1034.95 1036.00 1027.00 1034.85HONAUT 21972.15 22143.75 21865.60 21940.30CORPBANK 28.60 28.60 27.80 27.95ISGEC 5025.00 5040.00 4950.00 5002.65GET&D 320.60 321.25 315.70 317.65ALLCARGO 110.00 111.40 109.95 110.85TIFHL 460.00 475.40 460.00 466.80TNPL 237.15 239.75 234.10 236.70NIACL 183.00 183.00 179.95 180.25JKLAKSHMI 297.35 303.55 295.40 301.00IOB 14.65 14.65 14.23 14.38SKFINDIA 1940.00 1943.00 1927.00 1928.75GMDCLTD 86.00 86.85 85.00 85.05KIOCL 147.00 151.15 144.70 145.10SUPPETRO 189.15 192.80 188.05 190.60ASTRAZEN 1620.55 1639.85 1593.05 1599.40PGHH 9999.95 10005.40 9947.10 9952.05BIRLACORPN 555.35 563.80 554.45 556.70VTL 1087.70 1088.00 1069.65 1074.05GRINDWELL 553.10 564.20 546.80 563.15MONSANTO 2572.30 2585.00 2570.00 2570.70MAHLOG 504.00 509.20 494.35 501.00SHOPERSTOP 506.40 514.65 496.30 506.20SCHNEIDER 97.70 97.70 96.15 96.45LAURUSLABS 375.55 377.00 374.30 375.30SUPRAJIT 222.85 225.00 219.45 220.45SHRIRAMCIT 1769.40 1775.80 1720.15 1763.65GALAXYSURF 1180.50 1180.55 1164.30 1174.70TIMETECHNO 101.60 102.30 99.90 100.70NESCO 453.40 459.00 451.00 453.20HEIDELBERG 151.95 152.00 150.05 151.20TVTODAY 372.45 372.45 365.00 371.45TTKPRESTIG 7569.05 7751.00 7538.10 7685.15NAVNETEDUL 109.70 109.70 108.50 108.90TRITURBINE 113.00 114.10 112.55 113.05ENDURANCE 1175.00 1176.05 1166.00 1170.75SANOFI 6330.75 6421.65 6330.75 6369.80WABCOINDIA 6500.00 6500.00 6356.00 6391.40SHARDACROP 308.00 311.05 305.05 310.703MINDIA 20823.90 21000.00 20811.00 20954.75PHOENIXLTD 565.85 584.75 565.85 581.70CARBORUNIV 361.80 361.80 359.00 359.15BLUESTARCO 610.00 615.00 610.00 610.50THOMASCOOK 231.70 231.80 228.80 230.00DHANUKA 421.75 421.75 414.50 418.75THYROCARE 546.90 547.15 540.15 545.40NH 199.00 199.45 195.05 195.70ECLERX 1094.00 1094.00 1069.65 1075.95ORIENTCEM 77.00 79.70 76.50 79.05GILLETTE 6499.80 6521.05 6455.50 6492.95APARINDS 620.95 620.95 618.15 618.55SUNCLAYLTD 3350.00 3350.00 3225.05 3246.95INDOSTAR 347.05 348.60 347.00 347.00ASAHIINDIA 257.00 257.00 255.00 255.00RATNAMANI 916.00 929.90 911.00 925.60FDC 171.95 172.50 171.25 172.15SIS 773.00 776.35 769.05 772.60SCHAEFFLER 5603.00 5675.00 5599.95 5649.80STARCEMENT 95.65 97.75 95.60 96.50JCHAC 1805.00 1805.00 1789.95 1805.00SFL 1299.95 1310.00 1280.05 1309.20BLUEDART 3320.20 3320.20 3316.00 3316.90

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SCRIP OPEN HIgh LOW LTP CHANGENIFTY 50 10914.85 10928.20 10852.20 10906.95 1.75RELIANCE 1148.80 1189.90 1135.25 1185.80 51.35WIPRO 336.00 347.50 333.40 346.55 11.15KOTAKBANK 1220.10 1243.00 1216.50 1240.20 20.25HINDALCO 206.65 209.40 205.95 208.95 2.95HCLTECH 948.60 968.75 946.35 968.00 13.30ONGC 145.10 147.70 145.10 146.75 1.75ADANIPORTS 396.50 399.95 392.25 398.70 4.20VEDL 199.00 200.00 196.25 198.75 1.30BAJFINANCE 2545.00 2555.00 2525.10 2547.95 12.05MARUTI 7345.00 7379.95 7318.00 7370.00 33.75TECHM 705.00 714.20 702.35 708.40 2.85ASIANPAINT 1391.00 1404.75 1383.00 1394.80 5.20TCS 1881.00 1904.20 1876.00 1899.50 5.20IBULHSGFIN 822.90 823.95 805.65 818.80 2.05INFY 730.00 736.20 726.30 734.00 0.65M&M 734.50 737.90 728.00 735.00 0.35TITAN 961.55 965.00 954.05 961.10 -0.45IOC 137.50 138.70 137.15 137.55 -0.10CIPLA 510.20 513.00 507.30 509.20 -0.40ZEEL 441.80 445.00 436.20 440.50 -0.40HDFCBANK 2135.00 2139.00 2114.55 2130.00 -2.30HDFC 2004.00 2012.60 1989.25 2000.05 -4.50POWERGRID 194.00 196.70 192.50 193.45 -0.45HINDUNILVR 1750.00 1768.85 1727.30 1746.40 -5.10HEROMOTOCO 2916.40 2929.95 2863.00 2894.95 -8.65GRASIM 828.90 834.55 818.20 825.50 -2.60BPCL 353.90 357.70 351.30 353.90 -1.30BAJAJ-AUTO 2741.00 2746.50 2696.65 2718.85 -10.80NTPC 145.30 146.40 144.00 144.30 -0.60UPL 768.00 771.00 764.00 765.80 -3.25TATASTEEL 473.55 477.70 468.00 471.05 -2.10INDUSINDBK 1523.10 1532.40 1513.00 1515.10 -7.90TATAMOTORS 185.65 185.65 181.30 183.90 -1.00ICICIBANK 374.60 376.40 370.35 372.00 -2.60SBIN 298.75 299.85 294.25 295.30 -2.10DRREDDY 2605.00 2629.35 2594.50 2600.00 -19.15ULTRACEMCO 3859.00 3859.00 3771.60 3815.05 -31.40ITC 293.25 295.10 290.65 291.10 -2.85COALINDIA 232.15 232.55 229.60 229.80 -2.25INFRATEL 280.65 283.40 277.00 277.60 -2.85EICHERMOT 20400.00 20425.00 19950.00 20131.05 -238.90YESBANK 202.00 203.05 196.20 198.95 -2.55JSWSTEEL 288.35 291.85 283.25 285.15 -3.85AXISBANK 674.90 676.05 661.45 664.25 -12.40BAJAJFINSV 6366.10 6379.95 6230.00 6236.00 -123.00LT 1350.85 1352.00 1313.00 1319.50 -26.55HINDPETRO 243.85 245.35 238.25 239.30 -4.90GAIL 332.40 332.85 320.50 321.50 -10.90BHARTIARTL 330.50 332.45 304.30 310.55 -21.50SUNPHARMA 424.05 424.10 370.20 390.25 -36.30

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SCRIP OPEN HIgh LOW LTP CHANGENIFTY NEXT 50 27763.45 27768.60 27335.20 27410.55 -300.10BHEL 70.40 71.15 69.70 71.00 0.85DABUR 422.95 427.00 418.55 424.30 4.00ICICIPRULI 350.15 353.20 342.50 353.00 3.25DMART 1371.00 1388.80 1361.00 1380.00 12.00BOSCHLTD 19234.00 19290.00 19019.60 19255.00 104.45HAVELLS 677.55 686.00 671.45 679.20 3.05HINDZINC 273.60 275.10 271.30 271.80 0.05PIDILITIND 1152.00 1162.60 1140.35 1150.55 -1.00PGHH 9995.45 10050.00 9931.95 9988.00 -8.95AUROPHARMA 780.10 781.00 763.00 774.00 -1.00MRF 66005.00 66098.20 65650.00 65703.10 -99.70OIL 172.95 173.60 172.05 172.40 -0.35L&TFH 142.20 142.20 138.35 141.00 -0.30MARICO 382.10 382.60 375.25 379.15 -1.05SAIL 50.00 50.45 49.50 49.65 -0.25GODREJCP 793.30 797.50 781.00 789.25 -4.05ABB 1290.00 1294.30 1274.00 1276.65 -10.05MOTHERSUMI 160.10 160.85 155.55 158.20 -1.40ASHOKLEY 93.35 93.55 92.00 92.40 -0.85BANKBARODA 119.20 119.90 117.55 118.05 -1.15NMDC 92.00 92.10 90.55 90.95 -0.90BIOCON 660.00 672.50 650.00 651.15 -6.50NIACL 182.00 183.50 179.65 180.60 -1.90BEL 87.90 88.25 86.05 86.25 -0.95COLPAL 1330.00 1331.75 1306.15 1311.95 -14.65ACC 1468.00 1468.00 1435.00 1439.00 -16.15LUPIN 861.10 867.35 851.85 859.00 -9.75NHPC 25.50 25.70 25.10 25.25 -0.30BRITANNIA 3214.85 3217.35 3134.25 3169.35 -37.75SRTRANSFIN 1159.00 1167.40 1131.35 1135.00 -14.50SBILIFE 627.00 629.50 615.00 615.00 -8.35GICRE 258.00 259.90 254.00 254.50 -3.50AMBUJACEM 215.70 216.00 212.20 212.25 -3.00SIEMENS 1067.95 1067.95 1050.00 1050.00 -14.80PETRONET 222.50 224.55 216.35 218.40 -3.55HDFCLIFE 391.00 392.45 383.00 384.30 -6.55CONCOR 696.00 697.80 680.10 682.50 -11.90ABCAPITAL 95.50 95.75 93.50 93.75 -1.70ICICIGI 875.00 879.90 859.30 860.00 -15.90MCDOWELL-N 595.00 596.65 583.05 584.00 -10.95OFSS 3685.40 3685.95 3590.65 3626.00 -68.40DLF 184.50 184.60 179.30 180.55 -3.65BANDHANBNK 452.00 452.60 439.00 439.25 -10.50SHREECEM 15900.00 15979.00 15475.00 15540.00 -374.70CADILAHC 353.30 354.45 343.05 347.00 -8.85LICHSGFIN 492.80 492.80 474.60 476.00 -14.70INDIGO 1104.90 1118.50 1068.10 1078.00 -34.90PEL 2381.10 2384.00 2275.05 2297.00 -90.90IDEA 37.00 37.00 34.35 35.10 -1.85SUNTV 568.00 568.00 513.15 524.20 -40.75

Page 12: ˇ˙ ˛#˝ ˛ˇ $ ˇ˙˙ - The Pioneer€¦ · a surgery to resume her wed-ding rituals. Pooja’s mother Joga Devi said, “Doctor advised her to ... as Rinku, a resident of Geeta

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The US has announced anew missile defense policy

aimed at addressing the chal-lenges posed by Russia andChina, which seeks to displaceAmerica in the Indo-Pacificregion and has adopted anassertive posture in disputesover territorial boundaries withits neighbours.

In its ‘Missile DefenseReview’ report releasedThursday, the Pentagon saidRussia and China were devel-oping advanced cruise missilesand hypersonic missile capa-bilities that can travel at excep-tional speeds with unpre-dictable flight paths whichchallenge the existing defensivesystems.

These are challenging real-ities of the emerging missilethreat environment that USmissile defense policy, strategy,and capabilities must address,it said.

“While Russia and Chinapose separate challenges andare distinct in many ways, bothare enhancing their existing

offensive missile systems anddeveloping advanced sea andair-launched cruise missiles aswell as hypersonic capabilities,”Acting Defense SecretaryPatrick Shanahan said.

The report presents a comprehensive and layered approach to preventand defeat adversary missile attacks through a com-bination of deterrence, activeand passive missile defences,and attack operations todestroy offensive missiles priorto launch.

This comprehensiveapproach to missile defensestrengthens America’s ability toprotect the homeland, alliesand partners and deters adver-sary threats and attacks,Shanahan said.

It assures allies and part-ners, engages in diplomacyfrom a position of strength, hedges against futurerisk and preserves America’sfreedom of action to conductregional military operationsin defense of its interests,Shanahan said.

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Britain’s Prince Philip, hus-band of Queen Elizabeth II,

miraculously escaped unhurt ina terrifying accident when aLand Rover the 97-year-oldduke was driving flipped ontoits side after a collision withanother car carrying twowomen and a baby.

The Duke of Edinburghwas unharmed but the twowomen in the Kia hatchbackwere injured in the accidentnear the Queen’s Sandringhamestate on Thursday. The nine-month-old baby who was in theback seat of car was uninjured.

Pictures from the sceneshowed Tata Motors’ LandRover laying on its side withdebris scattered around it. Ithas been suggested that theroyal was dazzled by sunlightat a T-junction and his vehiclehit the Kia. Witnesses said theduke was “conscious but very,very shocked and shaken” ashe was pulled out from thewreckage of his overturnedLand Rover, the Sun reported.

The driver of the Kia suf-fered cuts, while the passengersustained an arm injury, policesaid. Both were treated at theQueen Elizabeth Hospital inKing’s Lynn.

The Press Associationreported that there was a pas-senger in the duke’s vehiclewho was likely his close pro-tection officer.

A witness said Philipseemed “distraught” and itwas a “miracle” he escapeduninjured.

“I saw the car flip,” RoyWarne, 75, told daily, addingthat he rushed to help free thedriver before he “suddenlyrealised it was Prince Philip”.

The duke saw a doctor asa precaution who confirmedhe was not hurt. Policebreathalysed both the drivers.Police said it was standardpolicy to breath test driversinvolved in collisions and bothhad provided negative readings.

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Colombia’ s Governmentdeclared three days of

mourning on Thursday after atleast 21 people died in a carbomb at a Bogota police cadettraining academy, and 68 werewounded — the worst suchincident in the city in 16 years.

The defense ministry saidthe “terrorist act” was carriedout using a vehicle packed with80 kilograms (around 175pounds) of explosives.

“Unfortunately, the prelim-inary toll is 21 people dead,including the person responsi-ble for the incident, and 68wounded,” Colombian policesaid in a statement, adding 58

of those injured had been dis-charged from hospital. Thedefense ministry had previous-ly reported 11 dead and 65injured.

“All Colombians reject ter-rorism and we’re united infighting it,” President IvanDuque tweeted in the after-math. Later in a statement to thenation, he said he had orderedreinforcements to Colombia’sborders and routes in and outof cities.

“I have also requested thatpriority be given to all theinvestigations ... To identify themasterminds of this terroristattack and their accomplices,” hesaid. The bomber -- whoauthorities confirmed was killed

in the attack -- struck at theGeneral Francisco de PaulaSantander Officer’s School inthe south of Bogota during apromotion ceremony for cadets.

No group has claimedresponsibility, but public pros-ecutor Nestor HumbertoMartinez named suspect JoseAldemar Rojas Rodriguez as the“material author of this abom-inable crime.” Martinez saidRojas Rodriguez entered theschool compound at 9:30 am(1430 GMT) driving a grey1993 NissanPatrol truck,but gave nod e t a i l s about theexplosion.

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Britons who have changedtheir minds since voting to

leave the European Union in2016 are among those unitingto call for another chance toreverse the decision.

These "Remainer now" vot-ers, former Brexit supporters,are adding their voices to thechorus of calls for a second ref-erendum amid political paral-ysis in Britain over the issue.

Gary Maylin, 38, fromNorwich in eastern England,said he originally backed leav-ing the bloc after more thanfour decades of membershipbecause he "wanted sovereign-ty for the UK".

He recalled facing a bar-rage of pro-Brexit sentiment atthe time which influenced hischoice.

"My MP was (pro-)Leave,all the arguments I heard were

for Leave," he told AFP."So I decided the EU was

to blame for a lot of the thingsthat were going wrong - theinability of our government tocontrol our destiny."

The world's fifth-largesteconomy is in political turmoiland grasping for solutions thatcould smooth its planneddeparture from the bloc just 10weeks from now.

British Prime MinisterTheresa May is scrambling toput together a new Brexit strat-egy after MPs rejected her EUdivorce deal, but admittedThursday that she can not ruleout a potentially damaging"no-deal" split.

Maylin was among 51.9 per cent of voters to supportleaving the bloc in the nation-wide referendum two and-a-half years ago, trumping the48.1 per cent who went forRemain.

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US President Donald Trumphas announced his

intent to appoint prominentIndian-American financialexpert Prem Parameswaran toa key presidential advisorycommittee, the White Househas said.

Parameswaran, 50, is theonly Indian-American amongthe 12 members the presidentintends to appoint to thePresident’s AdvisoryCommission on AsianAmericans and Pacific Islanders.

Based in New York,Parameswaran is the GroupChief Financial Officer andpresident of ErosInternational’s North Americaoperations.

Trump also announced hisintent to designate Elaine LChao to be Co-Chair of theWhite House Initiative onAsian Americans and PacificIslanders, the White Housesaid in a statement onThursday.

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Democratic presidential aspirantTulsi Gabbard apologised on

Thursday for her past remarks that werecritical of the LGBTQ community,saying now she has a strong commit-ment to fight for their rights.

Gabbard, 37, the first Hinduelected to US Congress and a four-timeDemocratic lawmaker, last weekannounced she will run for Presidentin 2020.

In the past, she "forcefully defend-ed" her father who was fighting againstgay rights and marriage equality inHawaii.

In a video message, Gabbard said:"In my past I said and believed things

that were wrong, and worse, hurtful tothe LGBTQ community and their lovedones. Many years ago, I apologised formy words and, more importantly, forthe negative impact that they had".

"I sincerely repeat my apologytoday. I'm deeply sorry for having saidthem. My views have changed signifi-cantly since then, and my record inCongress over the last six years reflectswhat is in my heart: A strong and ongo-ing commitment to fighting for LGBTQrights. When we deny LGBTQ peoplethe basic rights that exist for everyAmerican, we are denying their human-ity, denying that they are equal. We arealso creating a dangerous environ-ment that breeds discrimination andviolence.

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The exhilarating journey of theWinchester brothers continues asSupernatural enters its 14th sea-

son. Sam (Jared Padalecki) and Dean(Jensen Ackles) have spent their liveson the road, battling every kind ofsupernatural threat. Over the years, aftercountless adventures, they have facedvampires, ghosts, demons,shapeshifters, angels and fallen gods —but what will the brothers encounternext?

What is the underlying theme of sea-son 14? In the previous season, the theme wasessentially about bringing the familyback together. It was about findingMary (Samantha Smith) and bringingJack (Alexander Calvert) into the fold.Now the family is back together, butDean is missing. He is the rock uponwhich people have relied since the dawnof the show. What happens when he’sgone? How does that affect everyone?If and when he does come back, howdoes that affect everyone? Season 14,in that sense, is the prodigal son’s story.

In the season 13 finale, Dean agreedto become Michael’s vessel. Will Deanbe Michael in season 14? No. He will not be Michael the wholeseason but it’s not something thatwe’re going to tie off by the end ofepisode two. It will take a while.

What challenges did you face whilewriting Michael’s character?As much as our guys evolve every sea-son, Michael has also changed a littleby the end of the previous season. Wepeeled back the onion. This warlord ofapocalypse in the first episode of sea-son 13 was very different from the char-acter at the end of the season. You soonrealised that he’s actually quite disap-pointed with how things worked out.He comes to our world with a secondchance. In that sense, it’s the same char-acter — but presented in a different way.

How much did you enjoy writing forJensen Ackles?

When you’re writing for someone likeJensen, you know that whatever you’rewriting, he’s going to make it better.That’s across the board, no matter whatit is. When you’re writing for Dean, there’s a temptation to put jokesin there — but that’s much harder to dowith Michael. He’s not very pop culture-savvy. He’s not a laugh riot. He has amean sense of humour, so there’s beena little bit of an adjustment — but any-thing we give Jensen, he knocks out ofthe park.

Besides Michael, are there going to beany other ‘big bad’ characters in sea-son 14? I think Michael is going to be the bigproblem. When you’ve got someonelike him on the loose, suddenly thewerewolf alpha doesn’t seem like too

much of a concern. That will be thefocus for everyone.

How does the fact that Michael is onthe loose impact the happenings inheaven and hell? The Michael we saw in ApocalypseWorld had a very crystallised viewtowards all the different factions.Angels were on his side. There were norogue angels fighting Michael. Thosehave been weeded out. Demons werethe enemy and they have largely beeneliminated. Humans are really the onlythorn in his side but they were in theprocess of being eliminated. WhenMichael comes to our world, he’s got aproblem. There are only five angels leftin our world, so making an angel armyis impossible. The demons are a bit indisarray because Crowley (Mark

Sheppard) is gone and there’s really noclear leadership. Humanity is as italways is, which is chaotic and weird.So you’ve got a Michael who wants asimilar thing. He wants a power base.I think there’s a question of where thatpower base is going to come from,because his go-to place, heaven, is real-ly not in position to help him in the wayhe’d like to be helped.

There are fewer episodes in season 14.Does it point towards the show’s end?There are a lot of shows that have farfewer episodes than we do. There areshows with six, eight and 10 episodes.Most shows now are closer to 13, whichinclude almost every streaming show,so we still have significantly more thaneveryone else. I think Jared and Jensenwant to spend more time with theirfamilies, which I think is admirable, butwe will change up the storytelling a lit-tle to accommodate the shorter run. Forus in the writer’s room, we have to crankback a little bit on the mythologybecause we can’t do quite as much – butthat’s not always a bad thing. And thenwe are going to have to crank back acouple of the standalone mysteries,which again is not always a bad thing.Our hope is to create 20 episodes thatare better than the 23 that came before,but there’s going to be a differentrhythm to the season, which is some-thing we’re still trying to figure out.

Do you have any message to the fansto assure them that season 14 isn’t thefinal season of Supernatural? At this point, I would certainly hopethat we would get a really strong headsup if this was our final season. We havenot received that, so we’re not going into

it thinking this is the last year. You neverknow. The ratings gods are fickle. Butshould it happen to be the final season,we have ideas to wrap it up. However,I would be very surprised if this was ourlast season.

There were some amazingly crazy sto-rylines in season 13, including theScooby-Doo episode. Will there beanything similar in season 14? I don’t know if we could ever go as crazyas Scooby-Doo again. That episode was18 months in the making. I think wehave some interesting meta things inmind for season 14; some are more onthe comedic side and some are more onthe heartfelt side, but there’s nothingquite as crazy as Scooby-Doo. We thinkthe stuff coming up is pretty cool.

Supernatural will celebrate its 300thepisode in season 14. Have youplanned anything special for theoccasion? The 100th episode of Supernatural wasa very conventional episode. There werevery few nods that it was anything spe-cial at all. For the 200th episode, wewent in the exact opposite direction. Itwas very meta and very fan-based. Forthe 300th episode, we want to split thedifference.

What can you tease about the story ofthe 300th episode? A writer named Meredith Glynn cameup with the seed of the idea. Sam andDean live in this bunker. They’ve livedthere for a number of years. Thisbunker is in a place called Lebanon,Kansas. We’ve never seen what the peo-ple of Lebanon think of Sam and Dean;these two guys that come to the bar,who drive the car through the town andgo to the laundromat with their shirtscovered in blood. We’re going toexplore that world. It becomes a storyabout Sam and Dean but it allows usto make it a bit of a love letter to theshow and a love letter to them. It’s goingto be fun.(The show airs from January 31 at 10pm on AXN.)

Dressed in black, actor ArshadWarsi is pacing the expansewhere the entire wall is made ofglass. He wants to know if thereis a place where he can step out

or if there is a window pane which can beopened. When the person replies in the neg-ative, he immediately says, “It is such pleas-ant weather. I would have loved to enjoy thecold,” which sounds a little strange comingfrom a person who is essentially fromMumbai, a place which is not necessarilyknown for the mercury plummeting.Outside, it is blustery grey, even though it isway past noon. Still he would rather have abreath of fresh air. Rather he would find itdespite all the greyness.

But then Arshad is known to take hisown road. His latest comedy Fraud Saiyaanreleased yesterday, a genre that has a way offinding the actor. Even though he has beena part of many many comedies, notablyMunnabhai and the Golmaal franchise,each of his characters has quirks that set themapart. He says, “I have been asked that eachof my roles looks different compared to thoseessayed by other actors in comedies. First, Iam lucky to get characters which are colour-ful and have layers even in their behaviourand eccentricities. I simply follow my direc-tor. I ask the writer what the character is likeand with that information, I add a little bitof me to develop it further. Five different writ-ers write five different characters and if I fol-low their vision, then I would be playing eachone distinctly. Otherwise where is the fun?”In the same breath, the 50-year-old, whonever tires of a good laugh, goes on to addthat he would never play a role similar toCircuit, the much-loved sidekick ofMunnabhai, again. “I was inundated withsimilar roles after the film but I did not takeany of them up,” he specifies.

When one prods him further about whatwent into his iconic character, he confessesthat he had no idea that Circuit would havesuch a mass appeal. “I didn’t expect anythingof it. I went to Raju and told him ‘why areyou making me do this? It straightaway takesme away from hero, second hero or even sup-

porting cast and categorises me straightawayinto a character role’. He replied, ‘it is goodfor me but it might not be good for you’. Idid it because I like Raju. I knew it was a goodfilm and would do well. But if I give you thescript, you will know why I am saying thatI had no hopes for the character,” he adds.

In hindsight, he feels fortunate as an actorthat a character that he has played despite hisbetter judgment will be remembered for eter-nity. “It does not happen very often and suchroles can actually be counted on your fingers,”he says.

Coming to his latest role, he says that heplays an out-and-out bad guy as people liketo see such characters on the big screen. “Itis inspired by the real life of a person whomarried several women and was living offthem. The writers picked that idea and wrotethe script,” he says. There were several rea-sons why Arshad, who says that he isextremely picky about his choices, did thisfilm which could teeter on the edge of misog-yny, according to critics. “A comedy film fromPrakash Jha was interesting as he does cred-ible stuff. There can be no buffoonerybecause he does not work like that. I heardthe script and liked it. For instance, there isone shot which is also featured in the promowhere he is trying to woo a woman in astrange language and manner. If you mutethat scene, it seems to be serious but whenyou put on the volume, it is an utterly ridicu-lous conversation. It is the language, men-tality and sensibility of the person which isfunny,” he says.

Arshad points out that though heappears to be doing a lot more comedies thanserious films, he defies categorisation. “Thecomedies that I am doing are the ones thatare sequels and I am obliged to do these.Truth is that most scripts which are comingto me are terrible. On my way from Mumbaito Delhi, I read five scripts, one more terri-ble than the other and I got off the plane andrejected all of them,” he says.

But with the change and improvementin content, isn’t better work coming to himnow considering the fact that he has beencalled one of the most underrated actors by

the likes of Naseeruddin Shah? “The truthis great scripts come from good writers whoincidentally have access to big stars, the likesof Shahrukhs, Salmans and Aamirs, so whywill they cast me? That is the reality,” he saysnonchalantly with a shrug. He goes on to addthat the last interesting film that he acted inwas Jolly LLB, which released in 2013.

He believes that the audience is not stu-pid and can tell a good film apart from a badone. “They can say this is a good film andthat one made a lot of money but was notgreat,” he says but further explains, “All of uswant to see a film with stars and stardomwon’t die. But looking at the trend last yearwhere the big films without content flopped,the stars will have to pick up scripts that areworthy of them being in it.”

The audience is a lot more discerningand can pick out the good films from the badas they are exposed to all kinds of cinemafrom all over the world. “Even children knowwhat is good and what is bad,” he says. Hebelieves that this is the reason that many ofthe so-called stars are also doing interestingcontent-driven films. “In a Dangal forinstance, an Aamir will get into a dhoti, goto a village and shoot which is the way it issupposed to be done. Earlier, this would havebeen called an art film but now the gap isbeing bridged. There were two kinds of filmsearlier — commercial and art and that is nowmerging into content-driven films. But fiveor 10 years ago, we would have called it anart film. Now everything is on the same level,waiting to be taken by everybody.”

The actor is, therefore, working on a webseries for giving full play to his creative ener-gies, Asura, on Voot, which is a psycholog-ical thriller murder mystery and will be outby May. And there is Total Dhamaal releas-ing next month. “I start working onPagalpanti which is Anees Bazmi’s film withJohn, Illeana, Saurabh and Pulkit. It is a sillycomedy which people love and which willmake a lot of money,” he says. Arshad hasdabbled in serious films as comfortably buthasn’t had a recall though. “I don’t have a fearof acting. There are a lot of actors who sayHumse comedy hoti nahin. I do both happi-

ly without getting stressed. I just listen to thescript and I go ahead if I like it. My seriousstuff happens on the web and my funny stuffon the big screen. So all is good,” he says.

He goes on to add that it takes a lot toget him out of the house and “so it shouldbetter be worth it. I do not want to keep goingon and on to realise that my whole life hasgone without doing anything besides work.My son is 14 and my daughter is 11. In someyears they won’t need me. But work will keepon happening,” says the actor who made hisdebut with the film Tere Mere Sapney in 1996.

Incidentally, it was the tapori number,Ankh Marey, from this film that was recent-ly featured in Simmba starring Ranveer Singhand Sara Ali Khan. He unabashedly admitsthat he is happy that people like the originalbetter and recalls that his friend TiscaChopra called him during the screening totell him that people were clapping, singingand whistling when he came on screen.“They clapped not because I appeared onscreen; I think they clapped because Iwould be gone in 10 seconds,” he says, under-playing the moment of glory.

And since no interview can be complet-ed without references to the #MeToo move-ment, particularly when it concerns one ofhis favourite directors, Raj Kumar Hirani, hesays, “Of course, no predatory behaviourshould be tolerated. But it works both ways.Women use their sexuality to get ahead andthere are women whose sexuality is abused.Having said that, let me say that such inci-dents are difficult to assess. I have workedwith him (Hirani) in two films. Never wasthere a hint of anything going wrong. He issuch a positive guy. It just hit me really hard,”he says.

Of course, he negotiates the question ofnepotism rather well. “Let us be honest, if youare a doctor or a builder and help your sonbecome one, then it is acceptable. So why arethe same standards not applied to the indus-try?” he counter questions. But as an outsider,who has a hard time side-stepping cliches tokeep himself relevant, he knows what enti-tlement can do to a fine actor like him.

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Page 14: ˇ˙ ˛#˝ ˛ˇ $ ˇ˙˙ - The Pioneer€¦ · a surgery to resume her wed-ding rituals. Pooja’s mother Joga Devi said, “Doctor advised her to ... as Rinku, a resident of Geeta

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The trend of using a particular jeweller’s ornamentsin Bollywood films isn’t new. Any film that show-

cases the rich Indian legacy and heritage, has to beginwith antique ornaments. It’s something that theancient rulers had cherished the most. Films like JodhaAkbar, Baahubali, Padmaavat, Bajirao Mastani are afew examples.

Well, with film — Manikarnika, The Queen ofJhansi — a yet another jeweller has come to fore.Amrapali Jaipur is the official designer for all the jew-ellery that the characters in the Kangana Ranaut-star-rer wear.

Tarang Arora, creative director, says that the piecesderive inspiration from the Maratha grandeur and the19th century. He said, “According to the briefs givenby the costume designer Neeta Lulla and productionhouse about the look, we have developed motifs whichare a combination of the flora and fauna found inMaratha region as well as Jhansi.”

He said that the entire collection has been special-ly made to create the fierce, dual persona of the fear-less warrior and queen, Rani Laxmi Bai. “Each piece

has beenhandcrafted toachieve the preciseness and qual-ity that the film had demanded,”said he.

As per the designers, the film’sscript was decoded to create jew-ellery that “elevates the visual jour-ney for the viewer and lends cred-ibility to the characters.”

It took around 1.5 years and 30karigars (craftsmen) to create anexpansive collection of 955 pieces inapproximately 700 different styles.From royal sarpechs, delicate hair and nose pins toextravagant head ornaments, the jewellery was hand-crafted in gold-plated silver and studded with semi-precious and precious stones.

“Our designers and artisans have worked tireless-ly for over a year to achieve the desired aesthetics thatthe script demanded,” said Rajiv Arora and RajeshAjmera, co-founders.

The price of the ornaments range from �2,000 to�40,000.

Along with Kangana, the rest of the film’s cast willalso be seen wearing the jewellery.

Hindi movies of yore would haveyou believe that it was only menwho knew how to have long-

term friendships that saw you throughthe highs and lows of life. So it took agood 18 years after Dil Chahta Hai andseven after Zindagi Na Milegi Dobarathat we finally had Veere Di Wedding andan online series The Trip, a definitive filmon female-bonding where four womendidn’t shy away from revealing their lov-able imperfections while navigating theperils of modern life. And close on itsheels follows a series, Four More ShotsPlease, starring, Kirti Kulhari, SayaniGupta, Bani J, Maanvi Gagroo and LisaRay which will be streamed on AmazonPrime from January 25.

The storyline features four friends.Anjana (Kirti) is a single mother whohasn’t had sex since the birth of her four-year-old daughter. Damini (Sayani) is ajournalist who prefers pleasuring herselfto a relationship. Umang (Bani) is bisex-ual and looking for adventure, whileSiddhi (Maanvi) is a virgin whose lovelife is closely scrutinised by her moth-er. All these women are also jugglingtheir careers alongside their personallives.

From the storyline, the series appearsto be quite similar in content to Veere DiWedding and The Trip. However, Kirtiand Maanvi interestingly shared that “wehad already finished shooting for theseries and the film was released muchlater. When the first look of the filmcame we were like oh my god, it’s so sim-ilar to our show, what do we do now. Buttrust us, besides the fact that there arefour sassy, funny and glamorous girls,our show is completely different. It alsopacks an emotional punch which tugs atyour heart when you least expect it.”

Kirti insisted, “I don’t understandsame kya hota hai? There are just fourgirls and the similarity ends then andthere itself.”

Maanvi further added to Kirti’spoint, “Haven’t you seen Dil Chahta Haiand Zindagi Na Milegi Dubara? Bothhad three men but were poles apart,right?”

They explained that a story is not asituation but rather it is a view of what

the director brings out from the char-acters. Though the structure might besimilar to Veere Di Wedding, or The Tripbut how the characters are treated, por-trayed and executed is different.

In this series the characters arewere very distinct from each otherwithout being perfect. Rather theycelebrated their flaws and were evenaspirational.

Sayani agreed that comparisons are

bound to happen because a lot of timepeople watch a film and say, “this moviereminds me of that film. It’s a naturalprocess, to get associations.”

Having said that she explained whythey ended up saying yes to this one wasbecause they had not seen or heard any-thing of this sort before.

Sayani’s somebody who does not liketo overtly publicise her political views butprefers to let her work represent the ide-

ology she believes in. Her characterDamini is extremely advanced, detailedand complex. She says, “I have done a lotof female-centric work but it’s the kindof role that any actor would like to sinkher teeth into,” she said.

Recently, there were reports that thecentre is planning censorship on the dig-ital medium as well. Bani and Sayanistand completely against any kind of cen-sorship.

Sayani believes that in art there can-not be any kind of censorship becauseit’s an expression of the artist. If you wantto tell your story in the way you wantto, go ahead and do it. But if somebodyelse is making a film who are you toobject to it? She said, “Online platformsalso have +13 and +18 certification,which is great. By that, one gets to knowwhich show comes under what catego-ry. But watching a show depends on per-sonal conscience and interests. I thinknobody can tell you how to make yourart. I love the criteria of self-censoring,it’s brilliant.”

On the other hand, Bani feels thesame, she said, “With great freedomcomes great responsibility. I mightunderstand why there’s a need to putcensorship on digital medium, but it’sthe responsibility of the makers, thewriters and the audience as well. Just bea little more in charge of the projects youchoose and how you execute them. Besensitive to the fact that we are still liv-ing in a third world country where thereare some very conservative people. Atthe same time, we also have a large pop-ulation of youth and we need to cater tothem in a responsible fashion.”

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Music is an indirect medium of communicat-ing ideas that need attention. As feminism

increasingly crawls into lyrics of songs, one suchis UK-based British-Indian singer-songwriterShahin Badar’s newest single, Jaag.

For her, the song signifies the strength ofwomanhood. She says, “With disrespect on therise, every woman needs a brother in society whoacknowledges her strength and beauty.” It astute-ly studies power equations and admonishes amisogynistic society. The term, that means to‘wake up’ or ‘rise,’ in Hindi, celebrates womenempowerment and encompasses the themes of“liberation and self-love.” Shahin explains that itbrings to the fore the idea of waking up and recog-nising self-beauty, love and freedom from the neg-ative remarks of the society against women.

Through her experiences and conversations,she realised, that because of all the socio-econom-ic changes there has been a lot of manipulation.“Lines were crossed and many things shouldn'thave been tolerated. There is also a need for spir-ituality and humility among both men andwomen so that each of us can rise above the afflic-tions caused by negative forces,” she says.

The singer says that she has mostly workedon songs which were sent to her by music pro-duction companies. However, she penned Jaagkeeping in mind the idea of womanhood andrespect.

The versatile award-winning singer has col-laborated with a number of Indian and interna-tionally-acclaimed music composers, exploringglobal music genres like EDM, Pop, Trance,House, Sufi, as well as the Indian music scene.

She says that she was enriched by Arabicmusic as she grew up in Kuwait. “However,” shesays, “In UK, I got connected to an environmentwhere there was different kinds of dance andmusic. I met people who opened the doors ofmusic and production for me. Since then, I start-ed exploring various genres and collaboratingwith many UK-based artists.” And combiningthem led to the creation of sounds that could betermed “eclectic.”

The singer says that she didn’t wish to be “gen-eralised” or even “confined” to one thing. Hence,“I decided to put all my ideas to paper and thenrecord it.”

For someone, who has never had directencounters with the culture of India, developingan interest in the country’s music is intriguing.Shahin attributes it to her teacher and ghazalwriter mother, who she is a huge source of inspi-ration. She was officially known to be the ‘sec-ond Lata Mangeshkar’ in her town in Gujarat.“And she used to sing the Indian NationalAnthem in the state on All India Radio (AIR).However, her conservative family never let herpursue her dream of becoming a musician.” Withsuch a background it is not surprising that shewas drawn towards Hindustani classical musicwhich expanded her vision further.

In fact Shahin’s teenage years prominently fea-tured Indian music that was “usually played allday long in the house and I would always singalong with my mother. She helped me to sing bet-ter. There were social gatherings especially to cel-ebrate music where I would meet producers andcomposers.”

It was in 2004 when Dol Dol from AayuthaEzhuthu had released and everyone noticed thesinger’s collaboration with composer AR Rahman.Shahin says that it was “a dream come true. I wasvery honoured to have worked with him.”

The multiple awards-winning artist says thatthe most important thing is the person behindthat award who shows respect and humilitytowards one’s work and voice. She says, “I find itvery intriguing. Winning awards has been themost uplifting part of my career. It makes a per-son reach out to the soul so that ideas and enthu-siasm just come naturally.”

Among all the other music genres, she hasloved the Indian music scene the most. She says,“I feel it gives you the freedom of expression.”

However, she opposes certain trends that theIndian music industry and even the audience areadopting these days. “Many music composers inIndia say that people today wanted to hear tracksthat are similar to the other hit songs. And thatis why you see the rise of the remakes. It was verydisheartening. Hence, I would say that theindustry is yet to evolve. This is just ignorance.Old songs are anyway a hit, they don’t needremakes to be retold,” she says, as she signs off.

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Maria Sharapovastunned defendingchampion Caroline

Wozniacki to sweep into theAustralian Open last 16 onFriday and join ice men RafaelNadal and Roger Federer, whoclinically disposed of theiropponents.

The Russian five-timeGrand Slam winner, who hasstruggled since returning froma drugs ban in 2017, was at fullthrottle in ending the Dane'sdream of a second major title.

Sharapova won 6-4, 4-6, 6-3 with the roof closed on RodLaver Arena and will next playin-form local hope AshleighBarty, who bounced Greece'sMaria Sakkari, for a berth inthe quarter-finals.

"I thought the level wasquite high. I knew it would bea tough match," said the 2008champion, who has been in siz-zling form at the tournament asshe chases her first Slam titlesince Roland Garros in 2014.

"These types of matches arewhat I train for and it was real-ly rewarding to win that lastpoint," added the 30th seed.

Second seed Nadal calledyoung Australian Alex deMinaur "one of the best in theworld" ahead of their eveningclash, then proceeded to handhim a tennis lesson, disman-tling the teenager 6-1, 6-2, 6-4.

"I hit a good serve andplayed a solid game," said the2009 champion who is search-ing for an 18th Grand Slamtitle.

He paid tribute to DeMinaur, who saved six matchpoints.

"He's a big fighter andsuper quick. Alex has an amaz-ing future."

Nadal's reward is a meeting

with Tomas Berdych, who ral-lied to beat Argentine 18th seedDiego Schwartzman 5-7, 6-3, 7-5, 6-4.

The Czech veteran reachedthe semi-finals in 2014 and2015 but is unseeded this yearas he returns from a backinjury that almost forced hisretirement last year.

Swiss great Federer wasalso on fire in taming big-serv-ing American Taylor Fritz 6-2,7-5, 6-2 to stay on track for athird successive title atMelbourne Park and a 21stGrand Slam crown.

On a rain-affected day thatdelayed play on outside courts,the 37-year-old showed nomercy to the 21-year-old in his100th match on the centrecourt in Melbourne.

"I had a really good feelingout here today against someonewho can be dangerous," saidFederer after reaching theMelbourne fourth round forthe 17th time — more thananyone else ever.

"Taylor played really well.He is going to have many moreyears on tour playing at thislevel."

The double defendingchampion is gunning for arecord seventh Australian title.If he goes on to win the tour-nament, he will become thefirst man ever to claim seven ormore crowns at two Slams, hav-ing already won eightWimbledons.

Next up for him is fieryGreek 14th seed StefanosTsitsipas, who beat Georgia's19th seed Nikoloz Basilashvili6-3, 3-6, 7-6 (9/7), 6-4.

The man who lost toFederer in the final last year,Marin Cilic, battled back fromtwo sets down, surviving twomatch points to beat Spain'sFernando Verdasco in a 4hr

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Saina Nehwal scripted ahard-fought straight-game

win over former world cham-pion Nozomi Okuhara ofJapan to enter the women'ssingles semifinals but a fight-ing Kidambi Srikanth crashedout of the $ 350,000 MalaysiaMasters on Friday.

Seventh seeded Saina,who had a 8-4 head-to-headrecord against Okuhara beforeFriday, fought back from 9-15and 14-18 down in the twogames to extend her domi-nance over the second-seededJapanese with a 21-18, 23-21win in a 48-minute quarterfi-nals at the Axiata Arena.

The 28-year-old fromHyderabad, who had won thetitle in 2017 and was a run-ners-up in the 2011 edition,will face a tough test nextwhen she faces three-timeworld champion CarolinaMarin of Spain on Saturday.

Saina has defeated Marinfive times and has lost to theSpaniard as many times in thelast 10 meetings.

However, Srikanth squan-dered a one-game advantageto go down 23-21, 16-21, 17-21 to fourth seed Korean SonWan Ho in the men's singlesquarterfinals that lasted anhour and 12 minutes.

The women's singlesmatch started on an even keelas both Saina and Okuhara

fought hard, moving togethertill 9-9. Okuhara registered sixstraight points to create ahuge gap but Saina showedher mettle as she slowly erasedthe deficit and grabbed a 17-16 lead at one stage.

Okuhara made it 17-17before Saina closed out theopening game by grabbingthe remaining points.

The Indian was 4-2 upearly on in the second gamebut Okuhara jumped to a 8-5lead before Saina wrested a11-9 advantage at the break.

After the interval, Sainaled till 14-12 but Okuharareeled off six points to take acomfortable 18-14 lead. ButSaina again slowly starteddominating the rallies andclawed her way back to 19-19.

Okuhara then squanderedtwo game points before Sainaconverted the first matchpoint that came her way tosecure the semifinal berth.

Srikanth, who was on anunbeaten run at the recently-concluded PremierBadminton League, hadrecovered from a 4-11 deficitto pocket the first game but hecouldn't breach a 4-9 gap inthe second game to allow Sonto take the game into thedecider.

The seventh seededIndian then wasted a 5-1advantage in the third game toallow Son march ahead afterleading 11-10 at the break.

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18min epic.

; "�����!�*��������Barty beat Greece's Sakkari

7-5, 6-1, with the 15th seed yetto drop a set in her best per-formance at Melbourne Park.

She has won seven of eightmatches this month to back up

a title victory in Zhuhai late lastyear to shape up as a danger-ous opponent for Sharapova.

"It's getting to the pointnow where I'm feeling moreand more comfortable on thecourt and can play my brandof tennis, which when I executeI know it works against the best

in the world," said a confidentBarty.

Germany's second seedAngelique Kerber, the 2016title winner, steamrolledAustralian youngsterKimberley Birrell 6-1, 6-0 asthe Wimbledon championscontinued her under-the-radar

progress.Meanwhile, unseeded

American Amanda Anisimovacontinued her dream run,ousting 11th seed Aryna

Sabalenka in straight sets. The17-year-old will play eighthseed Petra Kvitova for a placein the quarter-finals.

Russia's Anastasia

Pavlyuchenkova also advanced,crushing AliaksandraSasnovich for a showdownwith fifth seed SloaneStephens.

Page 16: ˇ˙ ˛#˝ ˛ˇ $ ˇ˙˙ - The Pioneer€¦ · a surgery to resume her wed-ding rituals. Pooja’s mother Joga Devi said, “Doctor advised her to ... as Rinku, a resident of Geeta

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Legspinner Yuzvendra Chahal tooka record 6-42 to propel India to aseven-wicket win over Australia in

the third one-day international and a 2-1 series win on Friday.

Chahal's return was not only acareer-best, beating his 5-22 againstSouth Africa, but matched the best fig-ures in an ODI in Australia, a recordheld since 2004 by his compatriot,India fast bowler Ajit Aragkar.

Chahal, who missed the first twoODIs, helped India to bowl out Australiafor only 230 after captain Virat Kohliwon the toss on a rainy afternoon inMelbourne.

After fast bowler BhuvneshwarKumar removed both Australia openers,Chahal ran through the middle andlower order to end the innings with eightballs left in their 50 overs.

Peter Handscomb's 58 from 63balls was the only substantial contribu-tion from an Australia batting orderstruggling to find consistency.

Mahendra Singh Dhoni once againclosed out India's match and series vic-tory with an unbeaten innings of 87from 114 balls in a perfectly paced runchase, completing the win with four ballsto spare for the second consecutivematch.

After putting on 54 for the thirdwicket with Kohli (46), a century-maker in the second ODI, Dhoni com-pleted India's win in an unbroken part-nership of 121 with Kedar Jadhav, whofinished 61 not out.

Dhoni scored half-centuries in allthree matches and was named man ofthe series. His unbeaten half-century inthe second match at Sydney also sawIndia to victory, chasing Australia's298, with four balls to spare.

Australia bowled exceptionally wellin defense of a mediocre total. JhyeRichardson bowled his 10 overs for 27runs, dismissing Kohli, and spinnerAdam Zampa's 10 overs cost only 34runs.

;������������"��������Former skipper Mahendra Singh

Dhoni on Friday said he has no prefer-ence in the Indian batting order and isready to bat at any position as per theneed of the team.

Dhoni was adjudged the Man of theSeries after he guided India to a com-fortable seven-wicket win in Melbourne.

Batting at number four, Dhoni,who generally bats at number six,anchored India's chase with a 114-ball87 not out which was studded with sixboundaries.

"I am happy to bat at any number.The important thing is where the team

needs me," said Dhoni, when askedwhere he wants to bat.

"Whether I play at 4 or 6, we needto see if the team balance can beretained. I'm happy to bat lower downat 6. I can't say I can't bat at No 6 afterplaying 14 years," he said after the match.

Dhoni and Kedar Jadhav shared a121-run partnership for the uncon-quered fourth wicket while chasing atricky target of 231.

Asked what the game plan was,Dhoni said: "It was a slow wicket, so itwas difficult to hit whenever you want-ed to. No point going after the bowlerswho were bowling well, so we wantedto take it deep and that was the plan.

"Of course supported brilliantly byKedar, who plays unorthodox shots. Hedid a great job in executing."

India captain Virat Kohli praised theteam for the win.

"It wasn't a great wicket to bat on,

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Australian coach Justin Langer paid tribute to Mahendra SinghDhoni as a superstar and an all-time great of the game after

the veteran wicketkeeper-batsman produced a master class run-chase in India's ODI series clinching win.

Langer was amazed by Dhoni's fitness at the age of 37 andsaid that playing against him has been a rich learning experiencefor his young side.

"He (Dhoni) is 37years old. His runningbetween the wickets iselite, and his fitness iselite. For him to runbetween the wicketsfor three days in arow, it was 40 degreesthe other day, and playlike that, he is a super-star of the game andthat's what Australiansshould be aspiring tobe — superstars of thegame," Langer said atthe post-match pressconference.

"MS Dhoni, likeVirat Kohli, l ikeCheteshwar Pujara inthe Test series, theygive us really greatrole models. MSDhoni, his record,everything speaks foritself as a captain, batsman, wicketkeeper. He is literally an all-time great of the game and it has been, as hard as it is to lose, aprivilege to play against those guys."

Dhoni was dropped twice — when on 0 and 74 — and Langersaid that cost his side the match. He also said that Dhoni gavehis young side a batting tutorial on how to go about in such arun chase.

"You drop MS Dhoni a couple of times and you don't win.You don't give great players chances. We did that tonight. We getdown the 49th over and MS is there again. It was a great lessonfor our squad. We talk about match winners, getting the job done— he showed us again. It is a great tutorial for our batters," headded.

"If M S Dhoni can come out and run between wickets likethat after keeping wickets for 50 overs, that is the level the wholeworld should be aspiring to. I would be amazed if they(Australian players) don't learn from playing against those guys.For a young squad, there is no better lesson and learning to rubshoulders with great players. I'm glad we have had the experi-ence," he said.

Dhoni copped a lot of criticism from all quarters for his slowstrike-rate at the start of the series, but has sounded back withthree half-centuries in three matches to be adjudged Man of theSeries.

;���������������������!�Ravi Shastri has seen Sachin Tendulkar get "angry at times"

but not Mahendra Singh Dhoni, "a once in 40 years player" whowill be very difficult to replace once he bids adieu to the game,according to India's head coach.

The 37-year-old Dhoni showed glimpses of his golden daysby anchoring India to a series win with unbeaten knocks of 55and 87.

"He is a legend. He will go down as one of our great crick-eters. I have never seen an individual so sound. I have seen Sachinat times get angry. Not this man," Shastri told the 'Daily Telegraph'.

Shastri made it clear that a player of Dhoni's calibre can't bereplaced.

"You can't. Such players only come once in 30 or 40 years.That is what I tell Indians. Enjoy while it lasts. When he goes youwill see a void that will be very hard to fill," he said.

The coach is hopeful that Rishabh Pant would live up to thehype surrounding him but insisted that Dhoni is something else.

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so we had to take it deep, but they were profes-sional in getting the job done," he said.

"Kedar with bat and ball is always handy.Kuldeep had played a few games, so you don'twant to make things too predictable. So webrought on Yuzvendra Chahal, and he playedbeautifully."

It is the first time India remained unbeatenon Australian soil in all three formats and Kohlisaid it augurs well for the upcoming World Cup.

"It's been an amazing tour for us. We drewthe T20 series, won the Test and the ODI series.We are feeling confident and balanced as a side

with the World Cup in mind," he said.Playing his first match in the series, Chahal

sizzled with a maiden six-wicket haul to beadjudged the Man of the Match.

Meanwhile, Australian captain Aaron Finchsaid: "We took it down to the wire. Our battingin the first couple of games was very good. Maybewe should have set our targets lower on those sortof pitches.

"When you give great players a couple ofchances, it's always tough...We did put downchances, but the boys gave it their all. Their bat-ting in the first couple of games was very good."

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India captain Virat Kohli onFriday said the number four

slot in the batting line-up is stillto be "solidified", months afterhe backed Ambati Rayudu forthe position till this year'sWorld Cup.

The skipper said that therehas been a lot of experimenta-tion at number four, and whilethe batting line-up at Adelaide,where Rayudu batted at four,was an ideal one, they wouldlike to keep things mixed upuntil someone assumedresponsibility at number four.

"If you look at that lastgame, Ambati Rayudu battedat four, Dhoni at five andDinesh Karthik at six. Becausewe brought in Vijay Shankarand Kedar Jadhav, we didn't

want Karthik to change his spotbecause he is doing a good job,"he said after the third and finalODI of a historic tour ofAustralia.

Rayudu was backed for theposition by Kohli during thehome series against West Indies

last year."...The middle order we

saw in Adelaide is pretty muchthe most balanced if you lookat it. The number four position,again, has been a sort of an areawhich we want solidified," hesaid.

"But because of the com-binations we want to play,sometimes you have to makethose changes. Anyone whobats at four will have to take theresponsibility for the WorldCup, whoever it might be.That person will have to takeresponsibility at number four,"he added.

The skipper credited thevictory to Yuzvendra Chahal,who picked up the best figuresfor an Indian spinner onAustralia soil and restricted thehosts to a low total.