will raise farmer and chit fund issues, besides women securi-ty and other issues. similarly, the bjp...

16
A high drama played out in Kolkata on Sunday evening which saw a virtual showdown between the Central and State investigating agencies after a posse of CBI officers — prob- ing Sharada and Rose Valley chit fund cases — descended at the residence of Kolkata Commissioner of Police Rajiv Kumar on an claimed “secret operation. The police first whisked away the CBI officers to and then released them. Kolkata joint director of CBI P Srivastav said that the Central forces had been post- ed on an emergency basis at senior CBI officers’ residences and CGO complex and Nizam Palace housing CBI offices “for safety of the officers and their families.” Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee embarked on an indefinite Satyagraha alleging Central highhanded- ness and murder of federal democratic norms. Meanwhile in a late night statement on Sunday, the Congress said the CBI action in Kolkata is clearly "mala fide" and an "assault" on the federal polity, which has come within 48 hours of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah's public "threat". National Conference president Omar Abdullah and the Delhi Chief Minister and AAP leader, Arvind Kejriwal, have extend- ed support to Mamata. The CBI is planning to approach the Supreme Court against the Bengal Government on Monday. In a blistering attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi for subverting federal democ- ratic norms a furious Chief Minister said, “after failing to tackle the Trinamool Congress politically, the BJP and Modi has let loose CBI on us. There is a clear indication that Ajit Doval is giving instruction to CBI to play the mischief at the instance of Modi.” She would call upon all the anti-BJP Opposition parties to take up the issue nationally, she added. The incident started at around 6 pm when about 35 CBI officials descended at the Police chief residence appar- ently to interrogate Kumar for his role during the investigation of the chit fund cases. The CBIofficials claimed that they were stopped and forcibly whisked away by a large num- ber of policemen. The State police claimed that the CBI had been barred from action by the High Court till February 13. “When we showed them the documents they refused to cooperate and give us police help. Not only this, they also refused to receive a letter we wanted to hand them over from our end,” said a CBI Deputy SP said. The CBI had earlier told the Supreme Court that a lap- top, five mobile phones, and some other documents were seized by the State appointed SIT headed by Kumar from the Sharada chit fund office in 2013. However, the State police was yet to hand over the said evidences. The CBI took over the investigation a year later fol- lowing a apex court order. Joint Commissioner (Crime) of Kolkata Police Praveen Tripathi rejected the CBI claims saying, “Those who came had no proper papers supporting their claims. They only said that they had come on a secret operation.” Elsewhere at historic Metro Channel where Mamata as an Opposition leader had under- taken a 26-day fast during the Singur movement, she sat on a dharna after emerging from the residence of Rajiv Kumar’s Loudan Street residence where she rushed in earlier along with the State Police DG Virendra. Mamata said she would run the Cabinet from the Dharna site from Monday. Before starting the sit-in which she called a “Satyagraha” Banerjee told in a statement that could have future bearings, “I will ask all the police forces of all the States and the Central forces to stay united and con- demn this affair.” Narendra Modi and Amit Shah were jointly torturing Bengal she added. “The way these two persons are trying to provoke a coup after the mas- sive response we got in January 19 Brigade rally is con- demnable,” the West Bengal Chief Minister said, adding, “It is strange that Modi came yes- terday and threatened some- thing from a rally and today the CBI was unleashed. I feel ashamed to talk to this Prime Minister.” From dharna site the CM claimed political leaders, including Akhilesh Yadav, Ahmed Patel, and Arvind Kejriwal, have shown solidar- ity with her. She added, “I am ready to die but I will never submit to dictatorial ways.” Banerjee said that the BJP “knows that its expiry date has come and so they are taking this strong arm tactics to humiliate a police chief,” adding the CBI was “not only disturbing me but also victim- ising thesenior citizen who supplies tea in my residence. I am in this dharna to save the democracy, constitution and the state police.” Attacking the Modi Government for targeting the Trinamool Congress with a particular motive she won- dered “why the Indian cricket and football teams are not being investigated as they were also sponsored by the Sahara group. Why Babul Supriyo or the Assam Dy Chief Minister are not being interrogated. Why they are torturing and humiliating an honest and able officer like Rajiv Kumar!” Incidentally K Nageshwar Rao from Delhi alleged the CP was “instrumental” in destroy- ing evidence. Meanwhile polit- ical showing solidarity leaders from Ahmed Patel of the Congress, Akhilesh Yadav of the SP and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal called up Banerjee and enquired about the incident, TMC sources said even TMC work- ers had started rail-roko in var- ious parts of the State. A t least seven passengers died and 29 others were injured early on Sunday when a rail fracture caused 11 bogies of the Delhi-bound Seemanchal Express to jump the tracks in Bihar’s Vaishali district, railway and police offi- cials said. The 12487 Jogbani-Anand Vihar Seemanchal Express originated from Jogbani in Kishanganj district and the accident took place around 4 am. Prima facie, a rail fracture led to the derailment, the offi- cials said. Chief Public Relations Officer, East Central Zone, Rajesh Kumar, said the accident took place at Sahadai Buzurg, close to Mahanar Road in the Sonepur division. One general coach, one AC coach B3, three sleeper coaches S8, S9, S10 and six more coaches have derailed, said the Chief Public Relations Officer. Principal Secretary, Disaster Management Department, Pratyay Amrit said seven people have died in the accident. Six of the deceased have been identified as Ilcha Devi (66), Indira Devi (60), Shamsuddin Alam (26), Ansar Alam (19), Shaida Khatoon (40), Sudarshan Das (60), the Government Railway Police said. Of the 29 people wounded in the accident, two have suf- fered grievous injuries, while 27 have received “simple injuries”, the GRP said.The injured were rushed to a hospital here, where the doctors referred the seri- ously wounded to Muzaffarpur and Patna. T hree golden crowns, col- lectively weigh- ing about 1.3 kg, were report- ed missing from Sri Govindaraja Swamy temple at Tirupati, its officials said on Sunday. The crowns adorned the statues of deities Lord Venkateswara, Sri Lakshmi and Sri Padmavathi at an ancient shrine inside the temple com- plex. They were reported miss- ing on Saturday night, a secu- rity official of the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) told PTI. The theft in the temple, which dates back to 12th cen- tury, is suspected to have taken place at the time of evening prasad offerings, according to the police complaint filed by the temple superintendent Sri Gyana Prakash. Surveillance camera footage was being exam- ined to track the culprits, he said. The TTD has also filed a com- plaint with police who have started a probe, he said. Police said they have reg- istered a case but no arrest has been made so far. The temple was closed between 5 pm and 5.45 pm at the time of prasad offerings. When priest Harikrishna Deekshitulu took charge from priest Vijayasaradhi as the tem- ple opened, he noticed the crowns were missing. He then informed Tirupati Tirumala Devasthanam, the overseeing authority, and a police com- plaint was filed in the early hours on Sunday. T he Budget Session of the Odisha Legislative Assembly (OLA) is all set to begin on a stormy note from Monday as Opposition Congress and BJP and ruling BJD have decided to counter each other on various issues, mainly concerning farmers and women security. After chairing the BJD Legislature Party meeting, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik said the Government would reply to all questions of the Opposition. BJD leaders said issues of special category status (SCS), the Polavarm and Mahanadi isues and the cut in funds compared to 14th Finance Commission recommendation would be raised during the session. The Congress Legislature Party also met on Sunday, “We will raise farmer and chit fund issues, besides women securi- ty and other issues. Similarly, the BJP would raise chit fund, nonpayment of bonus on paddy and women insecurity issues, party sources said. Governor Ganeshi Lal would address the Assembly on the opening day. The Assembly would con- tinue till February 12. Finance Minister Shashi Bhusan Behera would present a Vote-on- Account for 2019-20 on February 7. The Appropriate Bill for three months would be passed on February 8. The session will have total of seven working days. B JP national president Amit Shah on Sunday came down heavily on the State’s BJD Government by comparing it with a “fused transformer” and urged the people to throw it out in the coming elections. Addressing a huge gather- ing during the party’s Adivasi Adhikar Samavesh here, Shah said, “If we look at tribals in the country, the condition of the ST community in Odisha is the worst which is evident from the incidence of Dana Majhi. If a Government cannot make sure that a tribal woman’s body is transported for her last rites then it has no right to stay in power.” Shah said, “Odisha is rich with natural resources, but tribal youths are migrating to other States because it is being ruled by a Chief Minister who has no idea about their plight since he does not know speak- ing Odia.” He once again urged the people of the State to elect a person as their Chief Minister who can speak Odia. Terming the BJD as the B- team of the Congress, the BJP president spoke on the invest- ments made by the Centre during the past four and a half years and questioned why the BJD Government has deprived the people of the State of the Central welfare schemes. He also criticised the State Government over the Ratna Bhandar key missing row, drinking water crisis and District Mineral Fund (DMF) expenditure. He alleged the BJD is not concerned about providing better healthcare to people. The Naveen Patnaik Government did not imple- ment the Centre’s Ayushman Bharat scheme fearing to lose votes in the elections, he added. BHUBANESWAR: In reac- tion to BJP national president Amit Shah’s attack on the State Government on Sunday and calling upon people to throw out the BJD regime, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik said, “Well, we should await the results of the 2019 elections. The people would decide which Government they would throw out and which Government they would retain, Patnaik remarked. Reacting to Shah’s terming the BJD a fused transformer, Patnaik said, “We will wait and see which party is the fused transformer and which party is the transformer of Odisha.” Asked about the BJD being termed as the Congress B team, he said, “They (the BJP) are free to say what they like. We are an A team on our own steam and maintain equidistance from the BJP and the Congress.”PNS A fter the popularity of the KALIA (Krushak Assistance for Livelihood and Income Augmentation) scheme, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Sunday announced commencement of ‘KALIA Chhatra Brutti’, under which scholarships for higher educa- tion would be provided to the meritorious children of the farmers who are included in the KALIA scheme. He made the announce- ment at a congregation of more than one lakh people while launching the KALIA scheme for Keonjhar district at Pandapada under Ghatgaon block. Addressing the gathering, the CM said, “I want your (farmers’) children to prosper and excel in future, for which I have started the ‘KALIA Chhatra Brutti’ programme.” Under the scheme, the State Government would bear the educational expenses of the children of the KALIA benefi- ciary farmers pursuing cours- es in Government colleges, official sources said. Minister Badri Narayan Patra, MP Shakuntala Laguri, District Planning Board Chairman Hrushikesh Naik, SDC Chairman Ramrai Munduyia, Bimbadhara Biswal and BJD district president Ashish Chakrabarty, among others, were present at the CM’s Keonjhar rally.

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Page 1: will raise farmer and chit fund issues, besides women securi-ty and other issues. Similarly, the BJP would raise chit fund, nonpayment of bonus on paddy and women insecurity issues,

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Ahigh drama played out inKolkata on Sunday evening

which saw a virtual showdownbetween the Central and Stateinvestigating agencies after aposse of CBI officers — prob-ing Sharada and Rose Valleychit fund cases — descended atthe residence of KolkataCommissioner of Police RajivKumar on an claimed “secretoperation. The police firstwhisked away the CBI officersto and then released them.

Kolkata joint director ofCBI P Srivastav said that theCentral forces had been post-ed on an emergency basis atsenior CBI officers’ residencesand CGO complex and NizamPalace housing CBI offices “forsafety of the officers and theirfamilies.” Bengal Chief MinisterMamata Banerjee embarkedon an indefinite Satyagrahaalleging Central highhanded-ness and murder of federaldemocratic norms.

Meanwhile in a late nightstatement on Sunday, theCongress said the CBI actionin Kolkata is clearly "mala fide"

and an "assault" on the federalpolity, which has come within48 hours of Prime MinisterNarendra Modi and BJP chiefAmit Shah's public "threat".National Conference presidentOmar Abdullah and the DelhiChief Minister and AAP leader,Arvind Kejriwal, have extend-ed support to Mamata.

The CBI is planning toapproach the Supreme Courtagainst the Bengal Governmenton Monday.

In a blistering attack onPrime Minister Narendra Modifor subverting federal democ-ratic norms a furious ChiefMinister said, “after failing totackle the Trinamool Congresspolitically, the BJP and Modihas let loose CBI on us. Thereis a clear indication that AjitDoval is giving instruction toCBI to play the mischief at theinstance of Modi.”

She would call upon all theanti-BJP Opposition parties totake up the issue nationally, sheadded. The incident started ataround 6 pm when about 35CBI officials descended at thePolice chief residence appar-ently to interrogate Kumar for

his role during the investigationof the chit fund cases. TheCBIofficials claimed that theywere stopped and forciblywhisked away by a large num-ber of policemen.

The State police claimedthat the CBI had been barredfrom action by the High Courttill February 13.

“When we showed themthe documents they refused tocooperate and give us policehelp. Not only this, they alsorefused to receive a letter wewanted to hand them overfrom our end,” said a CBIDeputy SP said.

The CBI had earlier toldthe Supreme Court that a lap-top, five mobile phones, andsome other documents wereseized by the State appointedSIT headed by Kumar from theSharada chit fund office in2013. However, the State policewas yet to hand over the saidevidences. The CBI took overthe investigation a year later fol-lowing a apex court order.

Joint Commissioner(Crime) of Kolkata PolicePraveen Tripathi rejected theCBI claims saying, “Those who

came had no proper paperssupporting their claims. Theyonly said that they had come ona secret operation.”

Elsewhere at historic MetroChannel where Mamata as anOpposition leader had under-taken a 26-day fast during theSingur movement, she sat on adharna after emerging from theresidence of Rajiv Kumar’sLoudan Street residence where

she rushed in earlier alongwith the State Police DGVirendra. Mamata said shewould run the Cabinet fromthe Dharna site from Monday.

Before starting the sit-inwhich she called a “Satyagraha”Banerjee told in a statementthat could have future bearings,“I will ask all the police forcesof all the States and the Centralforces to stay united and con-

demn this affair.” Narendra Modi and Amit

Shah were jointly torturingBengal she added. “The waythese two persons are trying toprovoke a coup after the mas-sive response we got in January19 Brigade rally is con-demnable,” the West BengalChief Minister said, adding, “Itis strange that Modi came yes-terday and threatened some-

thing from a rally and today theCBI was unleashed. I feelashamed to talk to this PrimeMinister.”

From dharna site the CMclaimed political leaders,including Akhilesh Yadav,Ahmed Patel, and ArvindKejriwal, have shown solidar-ity with her. She added, “I amready to die but I will neversubmit to dictatorial ways.”

Banerjee said that the BJP“knows that its expiry date hascome and so they are takingthis strong arm tactics tohumiliate a police chief,”adding the CBI was “not onlydisturbing me but also victim-ising thesenior citizen whosupplies tea in my residence. Iam in this dharna to save thedemocracy, constitution andthe state police.”

Attacking the ModiGovernment for targeting theTrinamool Congress with aparticular motive she won-dered “why the Indian cricketand football teams are notbeing investigated as they werealso sponsored by the Saharagroup. Why Babul Supriyo orthe Assam Dy Chief Ministerare not being interrogated.Why they are torturing andhumiliating an honest and ableofficer like Rajiv Kumar!”

Incidentally K NageshwarRao from Delhi alleged the CPwas “instrumental” in destroy-ing evidence. Meanwhile polit-ical showing solidarity leadersfrom Ahmed Patel of theCongress, Akhilesh Yadav ofthe SP and Delhi ChiefMinister Arvind Kejriwal calledup Banerjee and enquiredabout the incident, TMCsources said even TMC work-ers had started rail-roko in var-ious parts of the State.

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At least seven passengersdied and 29 others were

injured early on Sunday whena rail fracture caused 11 bogiesof the Delhi-boundSeemanchal Express to jumpthe tracks in Bihar’s Vaishalidistrict, railway and police offi-cials said.

The 12487 Jogbani-AnandVihar Seemanchal Expressoriginated from Jogbani inKishanganj district and theaccident took place around 4am. Prima facie, a rail fractureled to the derailment, the offi-cials said. Chief PublicRelations Officer, East CentralZone, Rajesh Kumar, said theaccident took place at SahadaiBuzurg, close to Mahanar Roadin the Sonepur division.

One general coach, oneAC coach B3, three sleepercoaches S8, S9, S10 and sixmore coaches have derailed,said the Chief Public RelationsOfficer.

Principal Secretary,

Disaster ManagementDepartment, Pratyay Amritsaid seven people have died inthe accident. Six of thedeceased have been identifiedas Ilcha Devi (66), Indira Devi(60), Shamsuddin Alam (26),Ansar Alam (19), ShaidaKhatoon (40), Sudarshan Das(60), the Government Railway

Police said.Of the 29 people wounded

in the accident, two have suf-fered grievous injuries, while 27have received “simple injuries”,the GRP said.The injured wererushed to a hospital here, wherethe doctors referred the seri-ously wounded to Muzaffarpurand Patna.

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Three goldencrowns, col-

lectively weigh-ing about 1.3kg, were report-ed missingfrom SriG ov i nd ar aj aSwamy templeat Tirupati, itsofficials said onSunday.

The crowns adorned thestatues of deities LordVenkateswara, Sri Lakshmi andSri Padmavathi at an ancientshrine inside the temple com-plex. They were reported miss-ing on Saturday night, a secu-rity official of the TirumalaTirupati Devasthanams (TTD)told PTI.

The theft in the temple,which dates back to 12th cen-tury, is suspected to have takenplace at the time of eveningprasad offerings, according tothe police complaint filed by

the templesuperintendentSri GyanaPrakash.

Surveillancecamera footagewas being exam-ined to track theculprits, he said.The TTD hasalso filed a com-plaint withpolice who have

started a probe, he said.Police said they have reg-

istered a case but no arrest hasbeen made so far.

The temple was closedbetween 5 pm and 5.45 pm atthe time of prasad offerings.When priest HarikrishnaDeekshitulu took charge frompriest Vijayasaradhi as the tem-ple opened, he noticed thecrowns were missing. He theninformed Tirupati TirumalaDevasthanam, the overseeingauthority, and a police com-plaint was filed in the earlyhours on Sunday.

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���� $ *$)56�&).

The Budget Session of theOdisha Legislative

Assembly (OLA) is all set tobegin on a stormy note fromMonday as OppositionCongress and BJP and rulingBJD have decided to countereach other on various issues,mainly concerning farmers andwomen security.

After chairing the BJD

Legislature Party meeting,Chief Minister Naveen Patnaiksaid the Government wouldreply to all questions of theOpposition.

BJD leaders said issues ofspecial category status (SCS), thePolavarm and Mahanadi isuesand the cut in funds comparedto 14th Finance Commissionrecommendation would beraised during the session.

The Congress LegislatureParty also met on Sunday, “Wewill raise farmer and chit fundissues, besides women securi-ty and other issues. Similarly,

the BJP would raise chit fund,nonpayment of bonus onpaddy and women insecurityissues, party sources said.

Governor Ganeshi Lalwould address the Assembly onthe opening day.

The Assembly would con-tinue till February 12. FinanceMinister Shashi Bhusan Beherawould present a Vote-on-Account for 2019-20 onFebruary 7. The AppropriateBill for three months would bepassed on February 8. Thesession will have total of sevenworking days.

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BJP national president AmitShah on Sunday came

down heavily on the State’s BJDGovernment by comparing itwith a “fused transformer” andurged the people to throw it outin the coming elections.

Addressing a huge gather-ing during the party’s AdivasiAdhikar Samavesh here, Shahsaid, “If we look at tribals in thecountry, the condition of the STcommunity in Odisha is theworst which is evident from theincidence of Dana Majhi. If aGovernment cannot make surethat a tribal woman’s body is

transported for her last ritesthen it has no right to stay inpower.”

Shah said, “Odisha is richwith natural resources, buttribal youths are migrating toother States because it is beingruled by a Chief Minister whohas no idea about their plightsince he does not know speak-ing Odia.”

He once again urged thepeople of the State to elect aperson as their Chief Ministerwho can speak Odia.

Terming the BJD as the B-team of the Congress, the BJPpresident spoke on the invest-ments made by the Centre

during the past four and a halfyears and questioned why theBJD Government has deprivedthe people of the State of theCentral welfare schemes.

He also criticised the StateGovernment over the RatnaBhandar key missing row,drinking water crisis andDistrict Mineral Fund (DMF)expenditure.

He alleged the BJD is notconcerned about providingbetter healthcare to people.The Naveen PatnaikGovernment did not imple-ment the Centre’s AyushmanBharat scheme fearing to losevotes in the elections, he added.

BHUBANESWAR: In reac-tion to BJP national presidentAmit Shah’s attack on the StateGovernment on Sunday andcalling upon people to throwout the BJD regime, ChiefMinister Naveen Patnaik said,“Well, we should await theresults of the 2019 elections.

The people would decidewhich Government they wouldthrow out and whichGovernment they would retain,Patnaik remarked.

Reacting to Shah’s termingthe BJD a fused transformer,Patnaik said, “We will waitand see which party is the fusedtransformer and which party isthe transformer of Odisha.”

Asked about the BJD beingtermed as the Congress B team,he said, “They (the BJP) are freeto say what they like. We are anA team on our own steam andmaintain equidistance fromthe BJP and the Congress.”PNS

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After the popularity of theKALIA (Krushak

Assistance for Livelihood andIncome Augmentation)scheme, Chief Minister NaveenPatnaik on Sunday announcedcommencement of ‘KALIAChhatra Brutti’, under whichscholarships for higher educa-tion would be provided to themeritorious children of thefarmers who are included in theKALIA scheme.

He made the announce-ment at a congregation of morethan one lakh people whilelaunching the KALIA schemefor Keonjhar district atPandapada under Ghatgaonblock.

Addressing the gathering,the CM said, “I want your(farmers’) children to prosperand excel in future, for whichI have started the ‘KALIAChhatra Brutti’ programme.”

Under the scheme, theState Government would bear

the educational expenses of thechildren of the KALIA benefi-ciary farmers pursuing cours-es in Government colleges,official sources said.

Minister Badri NarayanPatra, MP Shakuntala Laguri,District Planning BoardChairman Hrushikesh Naik,SDC Chairman RamraiMunduyia, Bimbadhara Biswaland BJD district presidentAshish Chakrabarty, amongothers, were present at theCM’s Keonjhar rally.

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Page 2: will raise farmer and chit fund issues, besides women securi-ty and other issues. Similarly, the BJP would raise chit fund, nonpayment of bonus on paddy and women insecurity issues,

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The State Government haslaunched the Krushak

Assistance for Livelihood andIncome Augmentation(KALIA) scheme to accelerateagricultural prosperity andreduce poverty in the State.

This scheme is progressiveand inclusive. It covers 92 percent of the cultivators, loaneeas well as non-loanee farmers,sharecroppers (actual cultiva-tors) and landless agriculturelabourers.

It also specifically takescare of vulnerable agriculturalfamilies identified throughGram Panchayats and makescrop loans available at 0 percent interest. It has been pro-grammed to cover about 30.16lakh small/ marginalfarmers/sharecroppers and 5lakh landless agriculturalhouseholds this year.

The KALIA scheme is

found to be more beneficial incomparison to Pradhan MantriKisan Samman Nidhi ofGovernment of India. Whileunder the scheme directincome support of Rs 10,000per year for small and margin-al farmers having land up to 5acres will be provided, individ-ual beneficiary will get Rs25,000 in five installmentsspread over a period of two anda half years.

However, under theCentral scheme, direct incomesupport of Rs 6,000 per year forsmall and marginal farmershaving land up to 2 hectareswill be provided. While theState scheme stands apart ininclusiveness and covers allfarmers, including landlessfarmers, sharecroppers andagricultural labourers (92% ofall farmers of Odisha), in theCentral scheme 12 crore farm-ers with landholding to beincluded across the country.

There is nothing about landlessfarmers, sharecroppers andagricultural labourers.

KALIA has been pro-grammed to cover 30.16 lakhsmall and marginal farmersincluding sharecroppers, 10lakh landless households forlivelihood support and 10 lakhvulnerable agricultural families.

Around Rs10,000 incomesupport to be disbursed in twoinstalments per year duringRabi and Kharif seasons forlandholding farmers. Besides,there is financial assistance ofRs10,000 per year for landless,agricultural labourers and vul-

nerable farmers households.Rs12,500 for landless agricul-tural household for allied activ-ities including livestock andfisheries, etc.

Under the Central scheme,cash will be transferred direct-ly to farmers’ accounts in threeequal installments of Rs 2,000each. Specifics of the cycle ofpayments will be defined.

Rs10,180 crore has beenearmarked for KALIA overthree years. Rs 20,000 crore willbe allocated for disbursal offirst instalment which hasalready been transferred toaccounts of over 13 lakh farm-

ers.While the KALIA scheme

is effective from December,2018, the first installment willbe paid before March. Robustscientific process for identify-ing actual and eligible benefi-ciaries along with smoothtransfer has already started.However, under the Centralscheme, the roadmap of bene-ficiary selection and transfer isyet to be defined. Massivebackend exercise needed, whiletime at hand is short.

Comprehensive socialsecurity through life insuranceand personal accident cover ofRs 2 lakh each for every farmeris there in KALIA scheme. Forall farmers affected by naturalcalamities, there is interestsubvention of 2 per cent andprompt repayment incentive of3 per cent on re-schedulingloans. The State Governmenthas already decided to transferthe funds on Akshya Trutiya

for Kharif assistance and onNuankhai for Rabi season wellbefore the unset of season.

On the contrary, there is nospecific time period mentionedfor transfer of funds to thefarmers under the Centralscheme.

Under KALIA, detail cal-endar of operation as well asdateline has been fixed startingfrom enrolment of farmers totransfer of funds for smoothimplementation of scheme. 12,45,490 small/marginal farmersand 57,614 sharecroppers havealready been selected and anassistance of Rs 5,000 eachhas been transferred to theiraccounts. Total Rs 651.554crore has been transferred totheir account till January 31through DBT mode.

But no specific dateline orcalendar of operation has beenprepared by CentralGovernment to run its scheme.

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Former Koraput CongressMLA Krishna Chandra

Sagaria joined the BahujanSamaj Party (BSP) at a functionorganised at Lower PMG herein the presence of senior partyleaders, including BSP Odishain-charge Dharamveer Singh.

Sagaria said he is ready to

contest against ChiefMinister and BJD supremoNaveen Patnaik in theupcoming Assembly elec-tions.

“If Behnji (BSP supre-mo Mayawati) allows, I amprepared to contest againstNaveen Patnaik from any

constituency he contests,”Sagaria said.

Dharamveer Singh said theparty would field candidates inevery constituency of Odisha.Mayawati would visit the Statefor poll campaigning, he added.

Sagaria had on November 6last year resigned from the leg-islator post stating that he had nomoral rights of holding the posi-tion after the Kunduli gangrapeand suicide incident as he failedto provide justice to the Dalit girl.Later, he was expelled from theCongress on January 19 forindulging in anti-party activities.

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Stating that delayed justiceis no just ice, Union

Minister DharmendraPradhan on Sunday said theextension of chit fund probecommission’s tenure by sixmonths has proved that ChiefMinister Naveen Patnaik’sassurance to return chit fundmoney to depositors beforethe 2014 general electionswas false.

“The State Governmenthas been making promisessince 2013 to refund chit funddeposits to the affected chitfund depositors. TheGovernment had also formeda corpus fund of Rs 300 crorefor the purpose. While refund

of deposits has already beendelayed, extension of JusticeMM Das Commission’s tenureby six months has proved thatthe Government is knowing-ly delaying the process. Chitfund depositors have been fedup by the delay. Justice delayedis justice denied,” saidPradhan.

He alleged that hard earnedmoney of people has beenlooted by chit fund companiesran under the patronage ofMinisters, MPs, MLAs andleaders of the ruling party,BJD.

He demanded that theChief Minister give a clarifica-tion as to what relation theNaveen Niwas has with SarojSahoo.

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Members of the OdishaPrimary Education

Programme Authority(OPEPA) Employees’ ServiceAssociation (OPEPAESA) havedecided to go for indefinitemass leave and hold a State-wide agitation demanding reg-ularisation and other benefitsfrom Monday.

This was informed by asso-ciation president BichitranandaJena at a Press meet here onSunday.

Jena alleged that even if theassociation, which has been

struggling hard for the employ-ees’ cause since long, has sub-mitted memorandums to theState Government several timesfor fulfilment of its demands,the Government has turned adeaf ear to the plea.

Association general secre-tary Biswaranjan Pradhanmentioned that the associationhad submitted a memoran-dum to the OPEPA DeputyDirector on August 18, 2018over its demands, but there wasno result.

Again on January 24, 2019the association reiterated itsdemand, but the authority didnot consider the demands,

resulting in deep dissatisfactionamong the employees, headded.

Pradhan also said that theassociation has informed theGovernor and the StateGovernment about its move foragitation.

Mentioning that theemployees of OPEPA havebeen successfully implement-ing various schemes since 22years, Pradhan demanded thatthe Government take immedi-ate steps for job regularisation,providing other services andcovering them under theSeventh Pay Commission rec-ommendation.

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Alarge number of GaonSaathis under the banner

of the Gaon Saathi SanghaMilita Kriyanushan Committeeled by its president SoubhagyaMishra and secretaryLaxmidhar Biswal staged ademonstration in front of theState Assembly here on Sundaydemanding fulfilment of theirfour demands at the earliest.

They demanded provisionof incentive of over � 6,000 permonth for each Gaon Saathi anda five-year package of all GaonSaathis, creation of a corpusfund to provide financial sup-

port to Gaon Saathis gettingwork for less than 15 days in ayear and direct intervention ofChief Minister Naveen Patnaikfor fulfillment of their demands.

Mishra and Biswal saidGaon Saathis are leading verymiserable lives as Governmenthasn’t fulfilled their legitimatedemands yet. The Chief

Minister should hold talks withthe inter-Ministerial Committeemembers and fulfil theirdemands as soon as possible,they demanded. Among others,Sangh treasurer Pratap Mallick,Chanchala Behera, Sabita Sahu,Sushila Nayak, Kumudini Pati,Lalita Das, Gagandhar Sahoo,Bidyadhar Bhoi, Sanatan

Mallick, Shashadhar Sethi,Hemant Nayak, SudhansuSatpathy, Pabitra Sundray,Kulamani Menta and RameshRana were present.

Twenty-five of Gaon Sathisstared sitting on a hunger strikeon the day more would sit fromMonday till demands are met,said Biswal.

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ABhubaneswar RunwayWeek in the smart city was

organised by the AddictionFashion Management directedby John Ajay in a hotel hererecently. It was as if a La HauteCouture was held where sixdesigners showcased their col-lections.

Un Grand CouturierVaishali Sethi was at her cre-ative best by showcasing howIkat could be jagged up withsequins. The collection wasdominated by various shades ofcolour and beauty. The collec-tion of Vaishali Sethi was allabout the attention to fulfil thedesire of a woman and to dresswoman with love and femininepride.

These rare collections wereabout celebrating women and

empowering them with per-fectly-tailored Ball gownsaccompanied by splendidcraftsmanship of Odisha hand-loom fabric together with del-icate Indian handloom materi-als. A discernible commoncharacteristic on each garmentwas passion made flesh like.Miss India 2018 Anukreethy

Vas was a part of theBhubaneswar Runway Week.Besides, Ollywood actressBhoomika Das was also ashowstopper for differentdesigners. Miss Teen TourismAmbassador Universe 2018Lavanya Das was the showstop-per for the designer VaishaliSethi.

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The Commissionerate policeon Sunday arrested Babu

Nayak, the prime accused inthe bombing case at Patrapadain the city. Three ‘unidentified’miscreants had lobbed bombsat multiple locations in thePatrapada slum on December19 last.

Acting on a tipoff, theMancheswar police apprehend-ed Babu while his two aides,who were also allegedly

involvement in the bombing,managed to give the cops a slip.

A few days ago, Babu andhis associates had allegedlyhurled bombs at the house ofa person in Patrapada on theoutskirts of the city over somedispute.

The incident was capturedon CCTV; and police lateridentified the accused trio byscrutinising the CCTV footage.Now, a manhunt has beenlaunched to nab the twoabsconding persons.

Babu is being interrogatedwhile efforts are on to ascertainthe exact motive behind thebombings, police said.

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The Freethought Party ofIndia (FPI) demanded that

the minimum age for marriageshould be 18 years for bothsexes. The minimum age formarriage that has been fixed atthe age of 21 for male adultsshould be removed and thesame should be brought downto 18, urged the FPI.

The date of birth of eachcitizen of India must be avail-able in web for easy access. Thisis required because now caste-minded parents belonging tohigher caste groups and enjoy-ing better economic status areharassing their daughters hid-ing the basic documents suchas School Living Certificate orHigh School Certificate, Birth

Certificate, Aadhaar, etc,, ifthey are averse to their lovemarriage, said FPI general sec-retary B Ramchandra CSTVoltaire, adding that as soon asa child is born, his/her date ofbirth (DoB) be brought to thepublic notice by the staffs orofficers working as per theprovisions provided underRegistration of Births andDeaths Act, 1969. The name ofthe child has to be collectedfrom the concerned parentssoon after the birth of thechild.

If this is done, love mar-riage of any young girl of Indiawould never be affected by anycaste-creed-status minded par-ents. This is absolutely neces-sary to make India caste-freeand creed-free, he said.

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Most of the inhabitants ofthe educational town of

Burla and industrial town ofHirakud which came up duringpre and post construction peri-od of the Hirakud dam have noright over their land and stilltreated as “encroachers”.

After laying of foundationstone for construction of theHirakud dam and subsequentcommencement of work, someofficial workers settled down inthe downstream of the Mahandiriver at two opposite sides.

Gradually, many familiesmigrated in search of workfrom different parts of Odishaand other States and gotengaged in the Hirakud damproject and at last settled downin nearby areas of the twotowns. Families from the sub-

merged area of the dam thosedisplaced also settled downthere. Later, the then ChiefMinister Biju Patnaik focusedon growth of the two townshipswhich took their turn withgradual establishment of powerbased industries like HirakudIndustrial Works, Hira Cable,Re-rolling Mill, Indal, Alind,Hindalco Power and its sisterconcerns and Government ITIat Hirakud side. On the otherside, there are the VIMSAR, theNAC College, the SambalpurUniversity, VSSUT and officesof the Mahanadi CoalfieldsLimited (MCL). Many employ-ees and faculties came toHirkaud and Burla and becameextremely responsible and con-tributed towards growth of theState.

During the years, manyState-owned institutions wereestablished and have startedrendering public services butsurprisingly, no land was allot-ted in their favour for the lastseveral decades. At the sametime, due to population growth,

Government land owned bythe Irrigation and Powerdepartments was encroachedfor dwelling purpose.

Despite several petitions tothe Government to settle theland problem, the RevenueDepartment initiated a prelim-inary survey for land settlementbut it stopped without citingany reason. The land settlementmatter is a long pendingdemand here but lies unre-solved for more than last sixdecades. Without right title orpatta, the people here in partic-ular suffer a lot in variousfronts like procurement of var-ious certificates required for

education of their wards, open-ing of bank accounts, gettingdeprived of benefits under dif-ferent welfare schemes andmost importantly like BijuPucca Ghar scheme.

During the visit of ChiefMinister Naveen Patnaik onFebruary 1 to Sambalpur, localMLA Dr Raseswari Panigrahiciting various problems facedby the residents of Hirakud andBurla submitted a memoran-dum requesting him to inter-vene in the matter for allottingland and providing Record ofRights (RoR) to these people bypromulgating a SpecialOrdinance.

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Page 3: will raise farmer and chit fund issues, besides women securi-ty and other issues. Similarly, the BJP would raise chit fund, nonpayment of bonus on paddy and women insecurity issues,

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The State Government hasinitiated many citizen-

friendly services in the trans-port sector and several certifi-cates have been made paper-less, slowly making one’s visitto the Regional TransportOffices (RTOs) a thing of thepast

Now, the Government hasdecided to stop issue of threepaper-based certificates witheffect from February 4.

Transport CommissionerSanjeeb Panda has issued anorder in this regard saying,

“The issue of paper-basedLearners’ Licence, FitnessCertificate and ContractCarriage and Goods CarriagePermit shall be stopped in thelarger interest of the public witheffect from February 4, 2019.”

Panda in his order hassaid that Learners’ Licence,Fitness Certificate and ContractCarriage and Goods CarriagePermit can be downloaded byan applicant at his place of con-venience without coming to anRTO.

This would reduce thenumber of visits by a citizen tothe RTO and the officers wouldbe engaged in other qualitativeworks, said a senior officer inState Transport Authority(STA).

These documents containa Quick Response (QR) Code,which can be scanned and itsgenuineness can be verified

from https://parivahan.gov.in.While applying for a

Driving Licence, the require-ment of attaching OriginalLearner’s Licence is hereby dis-pensed with. The licenceauthority can verify the detailsof the Learners’ Licence fromthe web portal.

In order to download theabove documents, proper pro-cedures have been lined up forthe applicant and RTOs havebeen asked to make themacquainted with the proce-dures.

Once the RTOs are madeaware about the procedures,they can explain to the appli-cants whenever required, saidan RTA officer. This would notonly reduce footfalls in theRTOs but citizens would alsobe able to receive the facility attheir own convenience, saidhe.

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The Jagatsinghpur BJD youthand student wings on

Friday staged a protest in frontof the Collectorate here overthe Centre curtailing SC/STstudents’ stipends.

Earlier, the BJD’s youngwing had launched a signaturedrive from the Dalit studentsand after collection of signa-tures, a memorandum wouldbe sent to the President of Indiafor intervention, the protestorstold.

Attending the meeting,State Planning Board DeputyChairman and SCs/STs Cellconvener Bishnu Das said soonafter BJP-led NDAGovernment assumed power atthe Centre in the year 2014, ithas started curtailing SC/STstudents’ stipend affecting as

many as two lakh Dalit stu-dents in Odisha.

By reducing the stipendshare, the Centre has passed theburden on the StateGovernment. Besides, in last

two years, the CentralGovernment has not releasedits share on Dalit students’stipend after repeatedreminders by the State.

District youth BJD presi-dent Amarendra Das chairedthe meeting while among oth-ers district students’ wing pres-ident Bijaya Shankar Das, BJDleaders Manoj Bhoi, Dipti Das,Minati Das, Dola Govinda Dasand Bijayalaxmi Behera werepresent.

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Awoman of Sundargarh district,who had been ostracised along

with her family members 14 yearsago after she was branded a witch,is still leading painful life. Even if thedistrict administration had assuredher of necessary support during thattime, the hapless woman has beenstill left in the lurch.

According to sources,Nuni Ekka(50) was residingwith her husband DaharuEkka and her children atPatratoli village of Tainsurpanchayat under Lathikatablock. On May 4, 2004, theplight of Nuni started when thedaughter of a neighbourer fellill. The villagers accused Nuniof being a witch and castingher ugly spell as the reasonbehind her sickness.Suspecting her practicing sor-cery, irate villagers abused herand forced her to eat human

excreta. They disrobed herand paraded her naked, besidesfinally having driven her outfrom the village.

“My husband had an affairwith another woman and want-ed to marry her. We had fourchildren and when I objectedhim, he started spreadingrumour that I was a witch whopracticed black magic,” saidNuni. She said that her hus-band, Daharu, also left her andlived with another woman.

After knowing about the inci-dent, the police had arrested somevillagers. The district administrationhad promised Nuni of a job. But sofar the promise remained a promiseonly.

When contacted, membersof Legal Cell said they cannotprovide any job to anybodyuntil there is order from thecourt. “I still live in fear fromthe villagers and badly need tobe rehabilitated,” said Nuniwith a chocked voice.

According to sources, Nuniwas a devout woman and usedto perform pujas in her housebut she was branded a witch.

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Most revered Professor ofEnglish Dr MQ Khan

passed away on January 16 dueto cardiac arrest. He was bornon January 24, 1938.

Dr Khan has left a richlegacy behind him. He wasprofessor and HOD of PGDepartment of English,Revenshaw College, ViceChancellor, BerhampurUniversity and was finally ele-vated to the rank of Professor

Emeritus of English,Revenshaw College, in1998-2000. He also taught at AngulCollege, BJB College,Khalikote College and wasDirector, Orissa State Bureauof Text Book Preparation andProduction.

His academic activitiesand achievements were amaz-ing. He presided as the sec-tional president at the AnnualConference of All India

Association for AmericanStudies and All IndiaAssociation for English Studiesat Trivandrum (1983),Haridwar (1985), Pune(1984),Nagpur(1986), Rajgir andPatna (1988). He was theDirector of All India Seminaron Contemporary CriticalTheory, 1987 and had deliv-ered many extra mural lecturesin numerous colleges and var-sities and had organised innu-merable important nationalseminars in RevenshawCollege and in many varsitiesacross the country. He wasChairman, SyllabusCommittee, Board ofSecondary Education ,Cuttack, Chairman, Board ofConducting Examination,Utkal University, Bhubaneswar,Member, AdvisoryCommittee, Utkal University,Bhubaneswar, Member, OrissaWakf Board, founder-memberand convener, Orissa Urdu

Academy, Member, Board ofStudies in English, BerhampurUniversity.

Prof Khan had travelledextensively on academicexchange programmes andhad been to Amsterdam andother places in Holland,Heidelberg University, BikhamUniversity and other places inGermany, Belgium, Tokyo,Japan, Kualumpur, Malaysia,

Moratuea, Coloumbo,California, USA, Ottawa,Canada, Mecca, Madina,Jeddah in Saudi Arabia, KingKhalid University, Abha, SaudiArabia.

His monumental contri-bution ‘Eastern Contributionto European Renaissance’ isepoch making and has beenwidely acclaimed by scholars.He has also co-authored theseminal works like ‘Mysticism:A Literary Quest for UltimateReality’, ‘Studies in Post-Colonial Literature’, and‘Changing Faces of Women inIndian Writing in English’. Hewas the founder Editor of“The Critical Endeavour,” anannual literary critical journaldevoted to world literatures inEnglish.

His book in Urdu high-lights the influence of easterncivilization and Islamic cultureon the western civilization. Hehad also attended several

international conferences askey-note speaker and pre-sented pedantic researchpapers in English literature. Asthe President of

Researchers’ Association,Odisha, he had worked for thegrowth and development ofEnglish language and literaturein Odisha. As many as 45research scholars have beenawarded PhD under his directsupervision and guidance.Besides, a large number ofteachers were still workingunder his guidance includingtwo UGC research fellows andthey are likely to be awardedsoon.

His publications and com-pilations for the young stu-dents are many and varied. Heis survived by his wife andthree sons. Prof Khan was adeeply religious man too, whoused to offer Namaz threetimes a day without fail, but hewas not a bigot.

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The Economic Offence Wing(EOW) of the State Crime

Branch arrested a formerRemuna Bank of India (BOI)Branch Manager on the chargeof financial embezzlement.

The accused DugashankarPanda was taken into custodyby the EOW on Saturday andhe was forwarded to courtafter being booked underSections 419,420,467,471,406 ofIPC and 66 and 66 D of IT Act.

During Panda’s tenure asBranch Manager nearly Rs 1.32crore was siphoned from thebank in the name of severaldead persons whose pensionamount was drawn from theRemuna branch.

The investigating agencyascertained during investiga-

tion that two pensionersParsuram Giri of Mendra vil-lage and Sabitri Behera ofNaraharipur had died in 2014yet every month their pensionamounts were credited totheir account and further with-drawn from ATMs throughdebit cards .

After these fraudulentactivities were detected byincumbent Branch ManagerSwaraj Mohanty, he lodged anFIR with the Remuna policein November 2018 and subse-quently the matter was hand-ed over to EOW .

The EOW initially onDecember 14 arrested a bank-ing correspondent Pravat Das(35) of the bank after findinghis involvement . Das manip-ulating the system had gener-

ated three ATM debit cards inthe deceased pensioners.

In the case of deceased Giriand Behera, Das had generat-ed three debit cards. Thesedebit cards were issued duringthe period of Panda, when hewas branch head. Furtherinvestigation led to the arrest ofPanda.

Shockingly, these illegaltransactions were being carriedout even without life certificatesof the pensioners.

The investigating agencylearnt that the fraudulent trans-actions were made in con-nivance with former managerPanda.

EOW officials said theywere looking into the othercases of withdrawals in thename of dead persons.

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Kandhamal district is onceagain in the news for sim-

ilar wrong reasons as a 15-year-old girl has allegedly beenimpregnated by a relative in theBrahmanigaon area. As per apolice complaint lodged bythe father of the Class-X girl, astudent of a private Englishmedium school in Jharsuguda,she had come to her village inBrahmanigaon during the Pujavacation last year when she wasill and she was unable to goback to school. On Saturday, shecomplained of uneasiness, fol-lowing which her father took herto the Mohana hospital, wheredoctor revealed that she is six-month pregnant. The girl’s fam-ily has alleged that she wasimpregnated by a relative in thevillage. Police started investiga-tion into the matter after regis-tering a case on the basis of thecomplaint. It may be recalledthat another minor girl studenthad delivered a baby at a resi-dential school in Daringbadi ofthe district a few days ago.

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Former bureaucrat BhaskarMahapatra passed away at

his residence in Bhubaneswaron Friday. He was 80 and hisbody was cremated atSwargadwar at Puri.

After studying Post-Graduation in English from theRavenshaw College, he wasappointed as Lecturer inEnglish at the KhallikoteCollege here and later at theBJB College in Bhubaneswar.He cleared OAS examination in1962. He had discharged dutiessuccessfully as Registrar of theBerhampur University,Managing Director of the

Odisha Agro IndustriesCorporation, MD of theNayagarah Sugar Mill and asSpecial Secretary of the WorksDepartment. He superannuat-ed in 1997.

At his death bed, his twosons, Ashoak KumarMahapatra and Tripati PrasadMahapatra; two son-in-laws,Janakiballahav Mishra andSaroj Kumar Mishra, hisSamandhi State PlanningBoard Member Rama ChandraPanda and a galaxy of relativesand well wishers were present.

“Mahapatra was an ableadministrator, a prolific writerand above all a good humanbeing,” said Panda.

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Police arrested three per-sons on Sunday for alleged-

ly assaulting a doctor and staffsof the Chandbali CommunityHealth Centre (CHC) in thedistrict.

The accused were identifiedas Chandrakant Das, RanjanDas and Babaji Das of Pahadpurarea under Chandbali block.Sources said the three youthshad barged into the CHC late onSaturday night and attacked DrBishnupada Sahu. They alsoabused Sahu and assaulted anurse and an attendant, whotried to come to the doctor’s res-cue.

“Dr Sahu called me overphone and informed about theattack on him by three youths.Other staffs were also assault-ed. Later, an FIR was lodged atthe police station,” said CHCMedical Officer Ashwini Kar.

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Free cancer detection andhealth awareness camps

were organised by the localKranti healthcare institutionwith the support of theJagannath Cancer andFoundation, Mumbai at twodifferent places in Ganjam dis-trict for two days on Saturdayand Sunday.

On Saturday, as many as160 persons were providedtreatment at the GhumusarClub at Bhanjanagar. Of them,10 persons were detected ascancer patients. On Sunday,120 persons were providedtreatment at a camp held at theKC Public School here. Here, asmany as 40 cancer patientswere benefitted. Doctors from

Mumbai and Cuttack exam-ined the patients.

Dr Sisir Shetty, Dr RanjitKar, Dr Krishna ChandraPadhy, Dr Nilangini GokhlePadhy, Dr Ramesh ChandraChyaupatnaik, Dr SatiskumarPatnaik, Dr Prasanna KumarRath, Dr E Ranjit KumarPatrao and Ayurvedic doctorAtulya Kumar Patnaik treatedpatients having different dis-eases.

Kranti institute executivedirector Dr Debananda Dashcoordinated the camp.

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Chief Minister NaveenPatnaik on Sunday

launched 21 welfare projects inRairangpur in Mayurbhanj dis-trict. Attending a MissionShakti programme, he inaugu-rated the projects worth Rs 45crore for Rairangpur andKaranjia of the district. He alsolaid foundation-stones of 15developmental projects to becarried out at an investment ofRs 960.34 crore.

Among the projects, heinaugurated two bridges builton Jaumara Nullah ofBaripada-Bamanghati roadunder Bangiriposhi block andon Balijoda Nullah underSaraskana block, two 50-bedand 30-bed maternity and childcare units at the KaranjiaSubdivision Hospital andThakurmunda CommunityHealth Centre, respectively.

Patnaik laid foundation-stones of road widening anddevelopment of Bisoi-Rairangpur road on State

Highway-50 under Bisoi blockand Kalabadia-Bangiriposi roadunder Bangiriposi block, a high-level bridge on Similipal Nullah,development of Takurmunda-Dangadiha-Udala-Manitri-Baisinga-Rupsa road, a high-levelbridge on Kantakhairi River onMahadev Deuli-Khiching roadunder Sukruli block, two high-level bridges on Guria nullah andKatara River, three mega pipedwater supply projects inRairangpur, Kusumi andJashipur blocks, three high-levelbridges on Bhandan River underJashipur block, Gobarjoda nul-lah under Thakurmunda blockand Budhabalang river underBangiriposi block, minor irriga-tion project under Saraskanablock and a high-level bridge onKhairi Bhandan River underSukruli block.

The CM provided Rs15,000 each to 7,453 WomenSelf-Help Groups, Rs 25 lakheach to 12 block-level organi-sations and Rs 3,000 each to7,467 SHGs for digital empow-erment.

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The Maniabandha Collegeobserved its annual func-

tion and unveiled the SilverJubilee logo.

Under the chairmanship ofcollege Governing Body pres-ident and local MLA DebiPrasad Mishra, eminent Odialitterateur Prof Dr BaishnabCharan Samal, Odia playwrightand dramatist Prof Dr BijayaKumar Satpathy and Sanskritlitterateur Prof Dr JagabandhuMishra attended the functionas chief guest, chief speaker andguest of honour, respectively.

Mishra sought the cooper-ation of its alumni associationto make the silver jubilee pro-gramme a grand success.Winner students were givenaway awards for different lit-erary competitions held earli-er for the purpose. Cine artistElina Das was present andMelody Geet Sangeet fromCuttack performed its pro-gramme apart from the melody

and dramaperformed bythe studentsof the college.

PrincipalBijaya KumarParida (+2)introducedthe guestsw h i l eP r i n c i p a lAjaya KumarSatpathy (+3)p r o p o s e dvote ofthanks.

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Apregnant woman gavebirth to a child in a 108

ambulance due to the closureof Gurundia community healthcentre in Bonei sub-division ofSundargarh district onSaturday evening. The CDMOSundargarh has ordered aninquiry into the matter.

According to sources, onSaturday evening, a pregnantwoman of Sanbalia village,after severe labour pain, wastaken to Gurundia communi-ty health center by 108 ambu-lance. When the ambulancereached at the health center, thefamily members of the womanfound the gate of the CHClocked and health workers were

absent. As a result, the womanscreamed in pain because oflabor pain inside the ambu-lance and after sometime, gavebirth to a child inside the vehi-cle.

After sometime, healthworkers opened the CHC gateand took both the woman andher child to the hospital fortreatment. The woman andher child was admitted thereand the health condition ofboth is reportedly stable now.

“An ADMO-rank officerfrom Sundargarh will go toGurundia community healthcentre on Monday to conductan inquiry into the matter,” saidSundargarh CDMO DilipSarangi. He added, “If anylapses are found, we will takeaction and ensure that such fur-ther incident does not occur.”

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The State Government hasformed a three-member

committee to probe the rea-son behind Saturday’s firemishap at the Apol loHospitals here.

Khordha district CollectorNirmal Chandra Mishra toldreporters on Sunday, “Thethree-member committeeheaded by the AdditionalDistrict Medical Officer(ADMO) has been asked toprobe the causes of the fire out-

break and submit a report byFebruary 6.”

It may also be mentionedthat Director General of FireServices Bijay Kumar Sharma,had on Saturday ordered aninquiry into the fire mishapand directed the CentralRange Fire Officer for theprobe.

Notably, the fire broke outon the fifth floor of the hospi-tal at around 10 am. The firestarted at the battery room,which also houses the ICUs andthe administrative block.

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Primary teachers under thebanner of the Odisha

Primary Teachers’ Association(OPTA) (Under New PensionScheme) would gherao theState Assembly on February 7pressing for fulfilment of theirdemands, informed associa-tion president BrahamanandaMoharana at a Press meet heldhere on Sunday.

Maharana alleged that thenegligence of the Governmenttowards the primary teachers isdestroying the primary educa-tion system. He also said thatstrong resentment is brewingamong the primary teachers asthe declaration for restructur-ing of the primary teachercadre has not been executedyet.

Mentioning that theGovernment is also not mak-ing the Right to Education Actstringent, Maharana said thateven if in the Right to

Education Act it is mentionedthat the teachers should not beinvolved nonteaching activities,the Government is forcingthem to do such activitieswhich is hampering the edu-cation system.

The association alsodemanded filling up of the dif-ferent vacant posts, publishingthe restructure of the cadre at

the earliest, hike in the salaryof the junior teachers by 15 percent and 10 per cent each yearand abolition of the new pen-sion scheme.

Among others, OPTAgeneral secretar y BibhuPrasad Sahu, Praveen KumarDas, Sudhansu Sekhar Nayakand Subrat Badjena were pre-sent.

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The SanaghagaraD e v e l o p m e n t

Committee has addedmore amenities at theSanaghagara waterfall toattract more visitors.Recently, the lake forboating has beenexpanded and a newcheck dam was builtfrom the district miner-al fund. Similarly, a trib-al museum with sale counter oflocal products has been built bythe Integrated TribalDevelopment Agency. Also abathing complex was complet-ed with funds from the TourismDepartment along with a gamezone for children and adults forentertainment of tourists.

School and MassEducation Minister Badri

Narayan Patra inaugurated theprojects worth Rs 1.5 crore atSanaghagara in presence ofSadar MLA Abhiram Naik,Sub collector SomnathPradhan, PAITDA NarayanMurmu, among others.

A mega drinking waterproject, installation of a 20ftstatue at the lake, ropeway zipline, cafeteria, water park,

waterfall view point and manyother beautification works areunder progress which areexpected to be completed soon,Sanaghagara DevelopmentCommittee chairman SomnathPradhan informed the media.

Sanaghagara has been atourism model in the Statewhich is developed and man-aged by a local committee.

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The Odisha Basti SangharshSamiti has threatened that

it would ghearo the NaveenNiwas again if its variousdemands are not fulfilled with-in seven days. Samiti presidentPratap Sahoo informed that aninter-Ministerial committeeheaded by the Finance MinisterShashi Bhushan Behera helddiscussions with a 12-memberdelegation of the Samiti regard-ing the the latter’s five demands,which include constitution of aSlum Welfare Board, inclusion

of slum dwellers of all fivemunicipal corporations in theland scheme, amendment of the

Odisha Land Rights SlumDwellers’ Act 2017, provision oflands to slum dwellers at their

workplaces and handover ofland to leprosy, kinnars and thehomeless in all vie municipalcorporations. The committeeassured to fulfill these demandswithin seven days, Sahoo said.

“If the demands are not metin seven days, the Mahasanghawill be forced to gherao theNaveen Niwas again,” said Sahoo.The slum dwellers’ delegationcomprised Pratap Sahoo, advisorPradeep Pradhan, SanjuktaPanigrahi, Bastibasinda EkataManch president Sk Abdulla,Brahmapur’s Bijaylaxmi Behera,Rourkela’s Ranadheer Lenka,Sambalpur’s Anil Mohanty,Madhusmita Behera, lawyerHemant Samal, Banita Nayak,Jayant Tarai, Sukant Mohantyand Bimal Prasad Mohanty par-ticipated in the discussion.

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Members of the SocialUnity Centre of India

(Communist) Cuttack districtcommittee held a demonstra-tion here on Saturday againstthe Interim Union Budget 2019terming it as anti-farmer, anti-worker and pro-corporatehouses.

“The Central Governmenthas only assured to provide Rs6,000 per annum to farmers butit has made no provisions forchecking distress sale of cropsand setting up cold storages,”alleged the members.

They also alleged that theGovernment has not taken any

step to provide employment toyouths.

The party’s district secre-tary Biswabasu Das arguedthat the income tax exemptionwould create problems throughthe price hike and GST.

Among others, SUCI (C)district member KhageswarSethi, Basant Nayak, SidharthaRath, Bhagyarabi Das, DeepakDas, Binod Sethi, PavelPridarshini and SubhasmitaSahu were present.

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The Indian Institute of MassCommunication (IIMC),

Dhenkanal, organised aroundtable conference on'Social Media as a PR Tool' inassociation with PublicRelations Society of India(PRSI)’s Bhubaneswar here onFriday.

Addressing the buddingjournalists, Shahanka Pattnaik,AVP of Aditya Birla Group,highlighted the important roleplayed by social media in thedemocratic society.

He said, “In our profes-sion three stakeholders usedto be quite important, politi-cians, bureaucracy and jour-nalists. But with the emer-gence of social media, com-mon people are having amuch more important role.Apart from that, social mediahas made it is easier to collectand circulate important infor-mation.”

PPL Chief Manager SudhiRanjan Mishra, in his deliber-

ation, said, “Recently, we havecome across incidents wherebig shots have faced hugebacklashes on social mediafor their careless actions andstatements. Managing themedia and getting away withsuch deplorable actions arenot possible now.”

Speaking on this occasion,senior media academicianProfessor Subir Ghosh said,"Until the arrival of socialmedia, common people were atthe receiving end of the masscommunication process. Socialmedia has led to the democra-

tisation of mass media. Morethan a medium of communi-cation, it has become a tool forempowerment. Today, everynews reader can publish hisown opinion and his version ofthe truth,” he said.

He also expressed his con-cerns regarding this trend. Hesaid, “However, this brings usto a tricky situation as the speedand diversity of this mediummakes it extraordinarily pow-erful. And the common people,who have acquired this power,don't always have a sense ofresponsibility. Hence, with

strategic use of social media,organisations, and individualscan not only protect their inter-ests but also establish their ver-sion truth.”

AGM of JSPL and PRSIBhubaneswar Chapter secre-tary Sanjay Sahoo said, “Socialmedia is inevitable in modernPR practice. PR professionalsshould take advantage ofFeatures like two way commu-nication for wider and fasterreach. ” Among others,Regional Director of the insti-tute Dr Mrinal Chhatterjeealso spoke.

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The State Bank of India (SBI)here on Sunday launched

its second edition of annualflagship programme SBI GreenMarathon of 5, 10, 21 kilome-ter marathon, pledging for agreener future and to promotesustainability.

SBI Bhubaneswar circle

CGM Praveena Kala, flaggedof the run in presence ofGMs Devi Shankar Mishra,Goutam Bhattacharya and SBIGeneral Insurance CompanyMD and CEO PushanMahapatra.

Indian hockey teamOlympian William Xalxo, for-mer captain Pabodh Tirkey,100m hurdles national record

holder Anuradha Biswal andIndian women's football teamformer captain SradhanjaliSamantaray graced the eventthat witnessed more than 3,000runners.

The runners were givenorganic t-shirts to promoteclean and green city and theirbibs consisted of seeds for treeplantation post marathon.

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Lions Club of BhubaneswarLotus district governor

Biswanath Mohanty accompa-nied by cabinet members paidan official visit to the MJF Clubon Sunday. First Lady LionRebati Shaw was present.

Club president MinakhiNayak and secretary Maya

Swain read out the annualreport and treasurer RashmitaSahu presented the budget.Nayak said that the club hasbeen holding different publicwelfare activities in the city.During the last six months, theclub undertook 50 such pro-grammes in the city. The clubwould hold more simkilar pro-grammes in coming days, sheadded.

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The Kuanrmunda policeoutpost Officer-in-Charge

was placed under suspensionon Saturday for his alleged linkwith coal mafias in Sundargarhdistrict. In November 2018, ateam led by SDPO BalabhadraDeep had conducted a raid onillegal transportation of coalmovement near Bhasma bridgeover Ib river and seized asmany five coal-laden trucksand detained the driver andhelpers.

S u b s e q u e n t l y ,Kuanarmunda OIC AnilParida was appointed IO of thecase. It might be mentionedhere that the raid was con-ducted with inputs that fewcoal mafias are engaged in ille-gal coal mining and tradingfrom Hemgiri area of the dis-trict.

Sources said IO Parida,instead of nabbing the coalmafias involved in this rackethad allegedly given them pro-tection and had forwardedonly the drivers and helpersnabbed during the raid.

The allegation of involve-ment of Parida had come to theknowledge of Sundargarh SPSoumya Mishra, followingwhich she ordered for a probe.

Under her instruction,police arrested five personinvolved in illegal coal tradingwere arrested and during theirgrilling they admitted aboutParida’s nexus with them.

“We have placed OIC AnilParida under suspension onthe charge of his involvementwith illegal coal traders andother irregularities,” said theSP.

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Himachal Chief MinisterJai Ram Thakur on

Sunday said that the StateGovernment envisages todevelop theme based touristcircuits on the principles ofhigh tourist value, compet-itiveness and sustainabilityin an integrated manner.

“Efforts would be madeto focus on needs and con-cerns of all stakeholders toenrich tourist experienceand enhance employmentopportunities in the state,”said Thakur while presidingover a presentat ion ontourism development ofHimachal Pradesh.

The Chief Minister saidthat tourism in HimachalPradesh is looking forwardto a sea change in the com-ing years with initiation oft he Swadesh D arshanscheme of the Governmentof India.

The state has immensetourism potential due to itsvaried climatic condition,diverse culture and naturalgrandeur, he said.

Thakur said that theState Government is con-templat ing to de ve lopBuddhist circuit keeping inv ie w s e vera l Budd his tmonasteries situated in thestate.

The Chief Minister alsosaid that the state is a cen-tre of different art and cul-ture and its impact canclearly be seen in the art andculture of Himachal Pradeshwhere people believe in fairsand festivals and different

other cultural programs toorganize throughout theyear.

It would be developed asa diverse cultural destina-tion where tourists can enjoythe rich cultural diversityand know more about art c u lture of Himacha lPradesh, he said.

The Chie f Minis teradded that with these ini-tiatives, tourism in the statewould take quantum jumpin generating greater rev-

enue and employment asalso making Himachal amore attractive place for thetourists.

Chie f S e cre t ar y BKAgarwal, Additional ChiefSecretar ies Dr ShrikantBaldi and Anil Khachi, RamSubhag Singh, AdditionalPrincipal Secretary to theChie f Minis ter SanjayKundu, Director Languageand Culture KK Sharmawere also present on theoccasion among others.

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The leader of the largestparty in Opposition in the

Lok Sabha Shri MallikarjunKharge dissented once again inthe appointment of the newCBI Director. Shri Kharge dis-sents regularly. He dissentedwhen Shri Alok Verma wasappointed, dissented when ShriAlok Verma was transferredand has now dissented whenShri RK Shukla has beenappointed. The only thing con-stant in the High PoweredCommittee comprising of thePrime Minister, the ChiefJustice of India and the Leaderof the Opposition which dealswith the CBI Director’sappointment and transfer, is the

Kharge dissent. Appointmentof the CBI Director was a soleprerogative of the Government.The Government, i.e., theCouncil of Ministers isaccountable to the House of thePeople. Appointments aremade by the Cabinet eitherdirectly or by the ACC. It wasfelt that since investigation is anindependent function, India’sprimary investigating agencythe CBI must maintain anarm’s-length distance from theGovernment. Hence the alter-native opinion was voiced thatthe appointment should not bemade by the Government alonebut by a Collegium. The firstinstitution to flag this concernwas the judiciary. At the timeof the drafting of the Lok PalLaw, the present Collegiumwas conceived. Since theCongress, in 2014, was not arecognized opposition fallingbelow 10% of the seats in thelast General Elections, theGovernment, maintaining thehighest standards of fairnessbrought in an amendmentwherein in the absence of aLeader of Opposition, theleader of the largest party in theOpposition was made a part ofthe appointment Collegium.

When the Leader ofOpposition sits as a Member ofthe Collegium, he sheds off thepolitical colour of his office asmuch as the Prime Ministerand the Chief Justice of Indiashall both leave the authority oftheir respective domains andwork exclusively towardsappointing or transferring theDirector on the criterion ofmerit or fairness. The positionof Shri Kharge as the Leader ofOpposition in the Lok Sabha,entitles him to sit in theCommittee but the politicalcolour of that office has to beleft outside. Shri Kharge thenis a part of a Collegium, whichdischarges a governance func-tion. Unfortunately, that doesnot seem to have happened.

Dissents are a powerfulinstrument in democracy. Theyare more commonly prevalentin judicial pronouncements.Dissents are also a part of theparliamentary system particu-larly in the LegislativeCommittees. The dissenterplaces an alternative view point.Where Monetary policyCommittees exists, dissents areoccasionally given byMembers. Dissent in appoint-ment Collegium are rare but

not unknown. I concede to ShriKharge the right to dissent. Thedissenter is an assertor. Hevalues his views. He representsan alternative view point. A dis-senter challenges the majority.He does it on the basis of a callof conscience dictated by hisfair mind. He puts his dissenton record so that it can be ofvalue to the wisdom of thefuture generations. A dissentshould never be a politicaltool. The right to dissent issacrosanct and has to be spar-ingly used. If a dissenter dis-sents on every conceivableoccasion he comes out as a per-son either motivated by collat-eral reasons or as a person lack-ing objectivity.

There is a differencebetween the dissents as a partof a judicial body and dissentsin ordinary matters of admin-istrative appointments. Thefirst may involve sacrosanctprinciples and the latterinvolves a preference or a dis-like for a particular individual.When Lord Atkins dissented in1942 in the Habeas Corpus inEngland case during theSecond World War or whenJustice H. R. Khanna in theHabeas Corpus case during the

Emergency in 1976 and morerecently when Justice InduMalhotra dissented in theSabarimala case, these werepowerful dissents of a strongopinion. The dissentersbelieved that the dissent mayhelp future generations in cor-recting what the dissentingJudges felt was an erroneousview of the majority. Howeverin an administrative matter ofappointment or transfer, if ShriKharge dissents on every con-ceivable opportunity, namelyon the appointment of AlokVerma, transfer of Alok Vermaand the appointment of R. K.Shukla in relation to the CBIDirectorship it clearly estab-lished a pattern of his frame ofmind. He uses the weapon ofdissent excessively and notobjectively. Using the instru-ment of dissent recklessly neu-tralizes its value. Dissents fre-quently used in administrativebodies like Collegiums compelsindependent observers not totake the dissent too seriously.The perpetual dissenter in aCollegium meant for appoint-ments sends a message that hewas included as a Memberbecause of his capacity ofLeader of the Opposition but

he hasn’t been able to shed hisrole as an Opposition Member,even though now he is a partof a Government Committee.His dissent has diminished itvalue and credibility.

Mr. Kharge’s dissent in thematter of the transfer of AlokVerma was coloured by hispolitical views. He was a peti-tioner in the Supreme Courthimself in support of AlokVerma. He should have recusedhimself from the Committeesince his views were known. Hesuffered from a bias and con-flict of interest. Yet he did notrecuse himself. The only taskbefore the Committee waswhether the CVC report con-tains the adequate material fortransfer of the Director or not.He wanted the Committee toeither ignore the CVC report orsit in appeal against the findingof the CVC – something whichwas beyond the jurisdiction ofthe Committee.

Shri Kharge has dissenteda bit too frequently. Many maywonder if Collegium’s areworkable. The appointment ofa CBI Director was never envis-aged to be a political battle. ShriKharge has made it look likeone.

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The Congress on Mondaywill hold a nationwide

protest over the re-enactmentof the Mahatma Gandhi’s assas-sination by members of AkhilBharat Hindu Mahasabha(ABHM) who shot at his effi-gy at an event in Aligarh tocommemorate the Martyr’sDay on January 30.

According to an AICCstatement, the protest will takeplace at party headquarters inall the states.

Congress general secretaryKC Venugopal said, “In ashocking incident on 30January, when the nation commemorated the 71stanniversary of Gandhi’s assas-sination, members of the AkhilBharat Hindu Mahasabha inUttar Pradesh used a pistol toshoot at an effigy of Gandhiji,

distributed sweets and garlanded the statue ofNathuram Godse, Gandhiji’sassassin who was a member ofAkhil Bharat HinduMahasabha. The group alsoburnt the effigy of MahatmaGandhi and shouted pro Godseslogans like “Mahatma GodseZindabad” etc.”

The Congress has labelled the right-wing group’sactions as “provocative andreprehensible” and said thatsuch incidents “take place withthe candid and clandestinesupport given by the rulingparty”.

It further said such actions “reveal the deep hatredstill carried by the right-winggroups against the father of thenation and his ideas of secu-larism, ahimsa and brother-hood”.

“To register our strong

protest against this highly con-demnable act, the CongressParty has decided to hold anationwide protest on Monday,4th February from 10.00 am inall the state headquarters.

The protest should preferably be held with placardsetc in the places associated withthe life of Mahatma Gandhi ornear statues of Mahatma withan aim to highlight his mes-sages,” Venugopal said in astatement.

ABHM secretary PujaShakun Pandey recreatedGandhi’s assassination byshooting an effigy and hailed the killer NathuramGodse. Police have arrestedtwo individuals in connectionwith the incident and are currently trying to locate Puja and her husband, thegroup’s spokesperson AshokPandey.

����� 46

Prime Minister NarendraModi Sunday took a swipe at

the Opposition for criticising hisgovernment's farmers' incomeplan, saying people sitting in air-conditioned rooms in Delhi donot know the importance of�6000 for a poor farmer livingin distant and difficult areas.

To woo distressed farmersahead of the general elections,the Centre has in the InterimBudget announced directincome support of �6,000 peryear to those holding cultivableland up to two hectare.

Speaking at the inaugura-tion and laying of foundationschemes of various schemes,Modi said, Leh and Ladakhwill also be benefited by this.

"Most of farmers here fillthis criteria and will get �6000annually. It will be disbursed inthree installments and firstinstallment will reach soon.

I will be sending guidelinesto state government Sunday," hesaid.

Modi said during his days as

a BJP worker in the region he used to get demands frompeople in Delhi to bring veg-etables from Leh because of theirquality.

"Pradhan Mantri KisanSamman Nidhi (PM-KISAN) isa phenomenal scheme for farm-ers. People sitting in air condi-tioned rooms in Delhi do notknow what �6,000 mean for apoor farmer living in distant anddifficult areas of the country," hesaid.

Modi was in Leh to launchthe first-ever university inLadakh region.

It will be a cluster universi-ty comprising degree colleges ofLeh, Kargil, Nubra, Zanskar,Drass and Khaltsi havingadministrative offices at Lehand Kargil.

The prime minister alsolaid foundation stone of the newterminal building of KushokBakula Rimpochee (KBR)Airport in Leh by unveiling theplaque. The new terminal will bea modular, energy efficient andself-sustaining building of 18,985sq. Metres.

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The newly appointed UttarPradesh (East) General

Secretary of Congress PriyankaGandhi is likely to take oath andfull time charge as the party’soffice-bearer in the next coupleof days in the national Capitalafter her return from abroad onSunday late night.

AICC sources said a meet-ing of Priyanka with seniorparty leaders including her sib-ling and Congress PresidentRahul Gandhi is scheduled onMonday after that her nextcourse of action will be decided.

Sources said that reportsythat Rahul and Priyanka willhold a Press meet in Lucknowafter taking a dip in Kumbh atPrayagraj on Mauni Amawasyaday on February 4 may berescheduled.

AICC sources had said that

the brother-sister duo willlaunch the Lok Sabha poll cam-paign through a road show in alUttar Pradesh in the first weekof February. “This was merelyspeculations since theannouncement of Priyanka’splunge into politics. Priyanla’sprogrammes will be decidedonly after her return to the coun-try during the first week ofFebruary,” AICC sources said.

Sources said that the deci-sion to have two PCC chiefs -East UP and West UP- similarto the bifurcation of charges ofGeneral Secretaries is also to betaken soon. Along withPriyanka, senior party leaderJyotiraditya Scindia has beenassigned to take over as GeneralSecretary Incharge of UP West.

Congress sources said thatin all probabilities the StateCongress would see two partychiefs and the incumbent PCC

chief Raj Babbar may be givena different role to look into theparty affairs in the politicallycrucial state of Uttar Pradeshcombined with other Hindi beltstate like Madhya Pradesh,Rajasthan and Chhatisgarh.

After Priyanka and Scindia’stakeover, Rahul will hold 13 ral-lies in 13 zones in Uttar Pradesh this month to sound thebugle for the election campaignto make it a three-corneredfight in the State. After theCongress was left out of the BSP-SP alliance in, Rahul decided tolaunch an aggressive campaignin the State.

AICC sources said in eachzone, six Lok Sabha seats will beidentified and the Gandhi scionwill hold one rally in each zone.There are 80 Lok Sabha seats inthe State and in the present LokSabha BJP has 72 MPs andCongress only two.

���� 56&�864 �

Major political parties andstudent groups of the

Northeast on Sunday intensi-fied their campaign againstthe Citizenship (Amendment)Bill in the national Capital, witha series of meetings with lead-ers of the BJP, Congress andother parties urging them notto pass it in the Rajya Sabha.

A delegation of 11 politicalparties of the Northeast,including the Asom GanaParishad (AGP) and theNational People’s Party, metHome Minister Rajnath Singhand requested him not to pressfor passing the Bill in the RajyaSabha, according to AGP leaderand former Union MinisterBirendra Prasad Baishya. Thedelegation was led byMeghalaya Chief MinisterConrad Sangma.

In a related developmentveteran Manipuri filmmakerAribam Syam Sharma said that

he would return the PadmaShri as a mark of protest againstthe Citizenship (Amendment)Bill 2016, terming it “anti-Northeast”.

Earlier in the day, formerAssam chief minister andfounder-president of the AGPPrafulla Kumar Mahanta alongwith other party leaders metLeader of Opposition in RajyaSabha Ghulam Nabi Azad,Union minister Ram VilasPaswan and Samajwadi Partyleaders urging them to take astand against the bill.

The leaders of the region-al parties of the Northeast,who are camping in Delhi,will meet representatives of allpolitical parties so that the billis not passed in the UpperHouse, Baishya said. A team oftop leaders of the North EastStudents’ Organisation(NESO), comprising major stu-dents’ groups of the region, metBiju Janata Dal leaderBhartruhari Mahtab and

requested him to ensure thathis party votes against the billif it is brought in the UpperHouse.

NESO advisor SamujjalKumar Bhattacharjya told PTIthat they have met the leader-ship of the JD-U, which alreadydeclared its opposition to theCitizenship (Amendment) Bill,and will meet leaders of theCongress, Shiv Sena, Akali Daland some others parties in thenext two days.

The bill provides foraccording Indian citizenship toHindus, Jains, Christians, Sikhs,Buddhists and Parsis fromBangladesh, Pakistan andAfghanistan after seven years ofresidence in India instead of 12years, which is the norm cur-rently, even if they do not pos-sess any document.

The legislation was passedby the Lok Sabha during theWinter Session on January 8

and has been awaiting RajyaSabha nod. There has beenstrong opposition in Assamand other Northeastern statesagainst the bill.

The political parties havebeen protesting on the groundsthat the bill seeks to grantnationality to non-Muslimswho have come up toDecember 31, 2014, thereby,increasing the deadline from1971 as per the Assam Accord.

Also, according to theAssam Accord, all illegal immi-grants who have come after1971, irrespective of their reli-gion, have to be deported andthis bill violates that.Addressing the joint sitting ofParliament, President RamNath Kovind Thursday said thebill will give justice to perse-cuted minorities of Pakistan,Bangladesh and Afghanistanthrough Indian nationality.

Prime Minister Narendra

Modi had also announced thatthe bill is an “atonement of thewrong that was done duringIndia’s Partition. India willsafeguard all who had been vic-tims of the Partition”.

The 83-year-old director,Aribam Syam Sharma, knownfor Manipuri films such as“Olangthagee Wangmadasu”,“Imagi Ningthem” and“Ishanou”, said the plea of theNortheast people to not let thebill pass was not being heard bythe Centre. He was bestowedwith the country’s fourth high-est civilian honour in 2006.

“The bill is against theinterest of the Northeast and itspeople, especially in Manipur.All the leaders of the states inthe Northeast have alreadyrequested the central govern-ment to reconsider (on the bill’spassage). But when I was fol-lowing the news, our hon-ourable prime ministerannounced that the bill wouldbe passed soon. He also

requested the chief minister ofWest Bengal to help him passthe bill. That means the gov-ernment, rather the BJP, isdetermined to pass this bill.They are not listening to us,”Sharma said.

Citing the example ofTripura, the filmmaker said his-tory would repeat itself inManipur if the bill is passed. “Wehave already seen this in Tripura.Tripuris are having no say inTripura... The population ofManipur is only 28-29 lakhs,which is less than the populationof a district in Uttar Pradesh.The smaller states like Nagaland,Mizoram and Meghalaya haveprotection. Even then they areprotesting because if the bill ispassed the indigenous peoplewill have no place. They will bewiped out. It may not happennow, but it will happen 50 yearsfrom today,” he said addingreturning the award was the onlyway in which he could raise hisvoice against the bill.

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The CBI which is probingthe ICICI Bank loan fraud

case against former MD andCEO Chanda Kochhar andothers is yet to issue a Look OutCircular (LOC) against theinfluential accused persons inthe high profile case.

The LOC is an instrumentthat is circulated to all the air-ports and an accused could bedetained and checked fromfleeing the country.

Mallya fled from the coun-try after the LOC was dilutedby the CBI. Other high valueaccused persons who have fledduring the last few yearsinclude Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi, both wanted the �13,000 crore PNB credit fraud case and JatinMehta of Winsome Diamond,also wanted in a bank creditfraud case.

While the CBI had regis-tered an FIR on January 22against former ICICI BankMD Chanda Kochar, her hus-band Deepak Kochar andVideocon Group MD VNDhoot in a �1,875 crore bankloan fraud case, the agency isyet to issue the LOC againstthem, agency sources said.

Normally, LOC is issued inhigh profile cases within 24hours but the CBI is yet to takea call in the sensitive caseespecially at a time.Incidentally, some powerfulministers have voiced theiropposition to “investigativeadventurism.

Two days after the regis-tration of the case, the CBI hadon January 24 conductedsearches at the premises ofVideocon Group in Mumbaiand offices of NupowerRenewables and SupremePowers in Mumbai andAurangabad.

Nupower Renewables and

Supreme Powers are controlledby Chanda Kochhar’s husbandDeepak Kochar.

The FIR alleged that dur-ing the tenure of ChandaKochhar as MD of ICICI, sixloans worth �1,875 crore werecleared for Videocon Groupand its associated companiesout of which she was herself onthe sanctioning committees intwo cases.

The CBI FIR has alsonamed several top bankersincluding the present CEO ofICICI Bank Sandeep Baxi alleging that they were alsomembers of the sanctioningcommittees whose role needs tobe probed.

The role of Chairman ofNew Development Bank KVKamath, Goldman Sachs Indiachairman Sonjoy Chatterjee,Standard Chartered Bank CEOZarin Daruwala, Tata Capitalhead Rajiv Sabharwal and TataCapital senior advisor Homi Khusrokhan need to beinvestigated, the FIR hasrecorded.

The names of thesebankers figure in the FIR thatwas registered after a year-longPreliminary Enquiry.

Following reports of theICICI case FIR naming topbanking honchos, a few min-isters in the Union Cabinethave advised the CBI against“investigative adventurism”.

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Tightening noose aroundformer Finance and Home

Minister P Chidambaram, the Centre has given sanctionto the CBI to prosecute him in the INX Media bribery case.

The agency is expected tofile chargesheet againstChidambaram, son Karti andsenior officials in the FinanceMinistry soon for blatant vio-lation in granting illegal postfacto clearance to INX Media’promoters Peter and IndraniMukerjeas in 2007.

Enforcement Directoratehas already attached Karti andhis firms �55 crore worth prop-erties in Delhi, Ooty, Londonand Spain. The market value ofthese properties are expected tobe more than �300 crore.

In November, the Centre

had given sanction to prosecuteChidambaram in the Aircel-Maxis case.

The INX Media bribe wasdetected by the ED duringtheir joint raid with IncomeTax at Chidambaram’s homeand Karti’s firms in December2015 in connection with Aircel-Maxis probe.

As per the CBI’s FIR, in2007, INX Media got FIPBclearance to accept Rs. fivecrore as FDI. The Income Taxfound that that INX illegally accepted �305 croreand issued notice to Peter andIndrani, promoters of the TVchannel.

After getting notice fromIncome Tax, the promotersapproached Chidambaram andKarti and paid around �5 crorebribes.

The kickback was routed toKarti’s firms AdvantageStrategic Consulting and ChessManagement Service. AfteKarti allegedly received thekickbacks, the FIPB headed byChidambaram issued a n “ille-gall” post factor clearance toINX Media to accept Rs.305crore as FDI

The CBI in February 2018arrested Karti in a surprisemove, when he landed fromLondon. Sensing danger,Chidambaram approachedDelhi High Court and obtainedinterim protection from arrest.The CBI and ED alsoapproached the High Courtdemanding custodial interro-gation of Chidambaram. Lasdt week, Delhi High Court reserved the matter fororders.

���� 56&�864 �

Worried that a huge popu-lation in over 25,000

habitations across India areconsuming contaminatedgroundwater with excessarsenic and fluoride levels, aParliamentary Standing com-mittee has asked the CentralGovernment to chalk out atime-bound action plan tosupply clean drinking water toareas affected with contami-nated water.

In India, 15,811 habita-tions are affected by arsenic and9,660 habitations are affectedby fluoride.

Of the 15,811 habitationsaffected by high arsenic levels,13,577 (about 85 per cent) arein West Bengal (9,250) andAssam (4,327) alone. As far asfluoride-affected habitationsare concerned, of the 9,660,Rajasthan has the most with5,176 habitations followed byWest Bengal with 1,263 habi-tations.

Arsenic is a carcinogenicelement and is associated withskin, lung, bladder, kidney andliver cancer. Excess consump-tion of fluorides through drink-ing water and food over a pro-longed period can cause healthrelated disorders like dental,skeletal and non-skeletal fluo-rosis, besides inducing ageing.

Unhappy at the pace ofproviding piped water supply toquality affected habitations inthe country by the Union RuralDevelopment Ministry, theCommittee headed by LokSabha MP Dr P Venugopal saidthat more needs to be done tofight the problem of contami-nation.

“Though, the efforts ofMinistry are laudable still theCommittee feel that much moreeffort and strategy is requiredto fight this problem. Mereexercises such as coloring theidentified hand pumps havingcontaminated water, tappingdeep aquifer, etc will not servethe long time purposes.

“Until and unless the habi-tations affected by contamina-tion are provided with adequatePiped Water Supply, the habi-tations will keep on reelingunder the adverse effects ofcontamination,” said the panelin its report submitted to theParliament recently.

Slamming the ministry ofits callous approach in itsefforts to supply Piped Water tothe contaminated habitations,the panel said, “thus, with seri-ous concern implores upon

the Ministry to hasten itsefforts in supplying piped qual-ity water to the contaminatedareas.”

The Ministry in its replysaid that since piped watersupply schemes takes nearly 3-4 years to commission, theStates have been advised toinstall community water purifi-cation plants in identifiedarsenic, fluoride, heavy metalsand pesticides /fertilizer affect-ed rural habitations.

The panel also recom-

mended conducting a preciseand holistic survey covering theentire country to determine theexact number of water qualityaffected habitations on priori-ty basis. A vigorous exercise hasto be undertaken by theGovernment by way of havingmore labs adequately staffed tobring quality water at thedoorsteps of the users.

According to the Bureau ofIndian Standards in its IS 10500-2012 standards, the acceptablelimit of arsenic in drinkingwater is 0.01 milligram per litre(permissible limit in absence of alternate source is 0.05 mg/l)and for fluoride is 1 milligramper litre (permissible limit in absence of alternate source is1.5 mg/l).

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Page 6: will raise farmer and chit fund issues, besides women securi-ty and other issues. Similarly, the BJP would raise chit fund, nonpayment of bonus on paddy and women insecurity issues,

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Thiruvananthapuram: Fivedays after they embarked on anindefinite hunger strike here,mothers of Endosulfan-affect-ed children on Sunday endedtheir agitation after theGovernment agreed to includemore victims in the list for com-pensation and rehabilitation.

Endosulfan PeedithaJanakeeya Munnani (EPJM),earlier in the day marched toCliff House, the official resi-dence of Chief MinisterPinarayi Vijayan as their talkswith the Government failedon Saturday.

An embarrassedGovernment was forced to holdfresh talks with the protestersfollowing which the announce-ment was made by MVJayarajan, private secretary tothe Chief Minister.

The two-hour long meetingchaired by Jayarajan and at theend of it, the Chief Ministerjoined and assured all help tothe victims.

"Those who were below 18years of age in the 2017Biological Plausible list of 1,095people will be included in therehabilitation package,"Jayarajan told the media. PTI

Lakhimpur Kheri (UP): A redalert has been sounded in UttarPradesh's Dudhwa TigerReserve after authoritiesreceived reports of illegalwildlife trafficking through theporous India-Nepal border, anofficial said on Sunday.

Principal chief conservatorof forest (wildlife) Sunil Pandeyissued similar alerts for all for-est divisions in Pilibhit,Bahraich, Gonda, Maharajganjand Balrampur districts whichare close to the border.

Field director of theDudhwa Tiger Reserve (DTR)Ramesh Kumar Pandey said allpatrolling teams and field staffin the DTR, including SpecialTiger Protection Force (STPF),have been put on high alert andpatrolling has been intensified.

"In the DTR, smartpatrolling equipped withMSTrIPES was in place whichhas helped in nabbing 143wildlife criminals and poachersduring the last eight months.Last year the number was 60 inthe same period," he said. "Aclose watch over the knowncriminals is being kept and keyfocus is on all the sensitiveareas," Pandey added. PTI

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It was helicopter controver-sy once again with the

Bengal administration alleged-ly refusing landing permissionto Uttar Pradesh ChiefMinister Yogi Adityanath’schopper at Raiganj where hewas scheduled to address a BJPrally on Sunday.

Adityanath, who was sup-posed to attend twin rallies atRaiganj in North Dinajpurand Balurghat in adjacentSouth Dinajpur district, final-ly addressed the public overtelephone saying there wasno democracy in Bengal wherethe Opposition voices weregagged and their workers werekilled at will by the rulingTrinamool Congress cadres.

“Bengal has no democra-cy where the Opposition par-ties like the BJP are deniedspace for political activities,”Adityanath said adding howthe BJP workers were attackedand victimised by theTrinamool Governmentthroughout Bengal. “I will notstop here and come back toaddress rallies in Bengal,”despite such hindrances being

posed by the StateGovernment he said.

Hours later a senior offi-cer in Yogi’s office referring tothe incident said “it was theUP Chief Minister’s popular-ity that forced Bengal ChiefMinister Mamata Banerjee to

deny landing permission to hishelicopter.”

According to State BJPleadership Yogi’s chopper wasscheduled to land at Raiganjfrom where he would travel toBalurghat by road. However

“in the final hours the per-mission was cancelled by theState Government,” BengalBJP leaders said.

Similar incidents tookplace earlier with the pro-posed landing of BJP presidentAmit Shah’s helicopter atKanthi in East Midnapore dis-trict, party sources com-plained.

An angry band of BJPsupporters subsequentlygheraoed the office of theDistrict Magistrate of SouthDinajpur for denying landingpermission to the UP ChiefMinister’s helicopter.

Adityanath’s rally Puruliawas also called off for want ofpermission of landing of hishelicopter party men com-plained.

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Chinsurah (WB): Home MinisterRajnath Singh on Sunday attacked theTMC Government over the law and ordersituation in West Bengal and claimed thatChief Minister Mamata Banerjee was nowgiving less time to the State as her eyes arefixed on forming a ‘Mahagathbandhan’.

On the upcoming Global BusinessSummit in West Bengal, he said in orderto invite investors to the State, theTrinamool Congress Government needsto improve the law and order situation.

He claimed there were increasingattacks on police stations, besides activistsand Opposition parties.

Singh alleged BJP candidates wereprevented from filing nomination papersin the last Panchayat polls in the State andalleged that 'loktantra' (democracy) wasgetting replaced by 'lathitantra' (high-handedness of the State machinery).

Describing the 'Mahagathbandhan', aproposed alliance of non-BJP Oppositionparties, as directionless, Singh said theseparties had only one agenda in commonand that was opposing the BJP at theCentre.

Addressing a "Ganatantra BachaoRally" here in Hooghly district, Singh said,"Mamataji is giving less time to her stateas her priorities are elsewhere, on theMahagathbandhan." He also mockedBanerjee for trying to forge the alliance,wondering "who will run the vehicle andwho will put the brake. PTI

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Thiruvananthapuram: An RSSworker, prime accused in abomb attack on a police stationhere, was arrested here onSunday, the police said.

Praveen, a district func-tionary of the RSS, and hisaccomplice Sreejit, a Sanghworker, hurled bombs at theNedumangad Police Stationduring the January 3 shutdowncalled by Hindutva outfitsprotesting against the entry oftwo women into the SabarimalaTemple, they said.

The duo was arrested fromthe Thamapanoor railway sta-tion here, they added.

Police had issued a look outnotice against Praveen afterCCTV visuals showed him

hurling at least four bombs atthe police station during aclash with the CommunistParty of India (Marxist) work-ers.

A Special Investigationteam was also constituted tonab the Rashtriya SwayamsevakSangh (RSS) functionary, theysaid.

Guarded by four policemenin civil dress, the two women,Kanakadurga (44) and Bindu(42), created history by steppinginto the hallowed precincts ofthe hill-shrine on January 2.

A 12-hour shutdown wascalled by the Bharatiya JanataParty (BJP) and other right-wing outfits to protest againsttheir entry. PTI

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Bareilly: Comparing WestBengal Chief Minister MamataBanerjee to Hitler, UttarPradesh's Deputy Chief MinisterDinesh Sharma Sunday saidsoon there will be a regimechange in the State.

Sharma said countdown hasstarted and soon the Trinamool

Congress Government will beousted from power.

"It creates a lot of anger tosee that a Chief Minister(Mamata Banerjee) can be'Hitler-esque' in a democraticset-up," he said.

"Definitely her countdownhas started, and it seems that

soon there will be a change ofpower in West Bengal," headded. Sharma's commentscome after West BengalGovernment denied landingpermission to UP Chief MinisterYogi Adityanath's chopper. Hewas suppose to address to BJPrallies in the State. PTI

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Renowned social worker Anna Hazare’shealth deteriorated as his fast pressing for

the immediate appointment of Lokpal at theCentre, Lokayuktas in various States andother demands, entered the fifth day onSunday.

On a day when he declared that he wouldnot break his fast till the Centre appoints LokPal, doctors attending on Hazare said that hehad lost 3.5 kg of weight ever since he beganhis fast on Wednesday last. He began to suf-fer from uneasiness because of the increasein blood pressure, while the laboratoryreports showed substantial increase ofketone levels in his blood and urine.

“If he continues his fast for a few moredays, it will affect his kidney and brain, “asenior doctor who examined Hazare a fewtimes during the day said.

There is a lot of anxiety among the peo-ple of Ralegan-Siddhi village in Ahmedangardistrict of western Maharashtra, whereHazare is fasting. A Government team ofdoctors has landed at Ralegan-Siddhi to keepa watch on Hazare’s deteriorating health.

Talking to media persons at Ralegan-

Siddhi, Hazare said he would not call off hisfast till the Centre appointed Lok Pal. “ChiefMinister Devendra Fadnavis is ready toappoint Lokayukta. But till the Centreappoints Lok Pal, I will not break my fast. Ifthe Centre does not accept my demand, I willreturn my Padma Bhusan,” Hazare said.

Eight one-year-old Hazare began hisindefinite fast on January 30 to demandamong other things the immediate appoint-ment of Lok Pal at the Centre and Loksyutkasin various States. His other demands are theimplementation of of the SwaminathanCommission’s report on farmers”, one-and-half times of Minimum Support Price(MSP) for agriculture produce, total loanwaiver for farmers and monthly pension ofat least �5,000 to every farmer in the coun-try.

In a related development, Shiv Sena pres-ident Uddhav Thackeray charged that theState Government was ignoring the fastundertaken by Hazare and asked ChiefMinister Devendra Fadnavis to take cogni-sance of the ongoing agitation by the socialactivist. “The life of Anna is crucial. Pleasedon’t play with his life,” Uddhav told the BJP-led Governments in the state and at theCentre.

“Anna Hazare’s fast is against corruption.Corruption is a national problem. Instead ofundertaking fast, Anna should have taken tostreets and woken up the conscience of peo-ple across the country,” Uddhav said.

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Malappuram: The two womenof menstruating age, who hadentered the Sabarimala templea month ago, have receiveddeath threats, police said onSunday.

Bindu and Kanakadurga,in their 40s, had defied direthreats from saffron organisa-tions and offered prayers at thetemple that was out of boundsfor girls and women between10 and 50 years of age, break-ing the centuries-old traditionand infuriating the Hinduright.

The two women received aletter saying they would beharmed for entering the shrine,the police said.

F o r t y - f o u r - y e a r - o l dKanakadurga, who faced stiffOpposition from her husband

and other relatives for offeringprayers at the Lord AyyappaTemple on January 2, wasforced to take shelter atPerinthalmanna here after herhouse was locked and her fam-ily members shifted to anoth-er building.

Police sources said she stillcontinues to be at the shelterafter being discharged from

hospital following an allegedattack by her mother-in-law forentering the holy shrine.

An employee of the CivilSupplies Department, she hasfiled a petition in a court hereunder the Domestic ViolenceAct, stating she had the right tostay at her husband's home.

Bindu, a 42-year-old col-lege lecturer and CPI(M) MLactivist, had accompaniedKanakadurga to the shrine.

The Supreme Court had ina historic verdict last year lift-ed the centuries old ban andallowed women of all agegroups to offer prayers at thetemple.

Both the women are beingprovided round-the-clocksecurity by police besidesCCTV survillance. PTI

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Sixty seven-year-old KSAlagiri, a staunch supporter

of former Finance Minister PChidambaram has beenappointed as president of theTamil Nadu CongressCommittee. The announce-ment was made by KCVenugopal, the AICC GeneralSecretary, who over the last fouryears has emerged as the closeadvisor of party chief RahulGandhi.

While Alagiri, a formermember of the Lok Sabha anda two-term member of TamilNadu Legislative Assembly suc-ceeds S Thirunavakarassar, theAICC has appointed four work-ing presidents for the TNCC.They are H Vasanth Kumar, abusiness baron who is also oneof the eight party legislators, KJayakumar, the Dalit face of theparty, Mayura Jayakumar whohails from South west TamilNadu and MK Vishnu Prasad,son of former TNCC chief MKrishnasamy and son-in-lawof Dr S Ramadoss, the PMKfounder.

“Alagiri is more of a loyal-

ist to Karti Chidambaram thanto P Chidambaram. This meansthat the Chidambaram familywould have the upper hand indeciding the party candidatesfor the upcoming Lok Sabhaelection,” said a senior Congressleader from the State. TheCongress is hopeful of he DMKallocating at least ten seats outof the forty at stakes (39 fromTamil Nadu and one fromPuducherry).

Vasanth Kumar was thelone Congress candidate in the2014 Lok Sabha election whohad got back his security depositwhile the remaining 38 contes-tants (including Mani ShankarAiyer, Karti Chidambaram) hadto forfeit theirs. There was wideexpectation in party circles thatVasanth Kumar would be nom-inated as TNCC president.

While Thiruvanakarassarhas not been given any alternateposition, what surprised manywas the High Command over-looking Peter Alphonse in theappointment of TNCC presi-dent. Alphonse is the most vis-ible face of the Congress [partyin the State and enjoys a goodrapport with the DMK’s firstfamily.

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Agartala: Seven RohingyaMuslims were on Sundayarrested from an Assam-boundtrain here, police said.

They were detained atDharmanagar Railway Stationin North Tripura district andlater handed over to TripuraPolice.

Assistant Sub Inspector ofRailway Police Force (RPF),Laxman Debbarma, who is in

charge of a RPF contingent atDharmanagar railway station,said the seven RohingyaMuslims were detained aftersecurity personnel found thembehaving in a suspicious man-ner in the station premises.

The arrested include sixgirls and a boy, all in theirteens.

"All the detainees werehaving valid general category

tickets from Agartala RailwayStation till Badarpur Junctionin Assam. On suspicion, wemade a preliminary interroga-tion and found all of them tobe Rohingya Muslims fromMyanmar. Later, they werehanded over to local police atDharmanagar," Debbarmasaid.

North Tripura districtsuperintendent of police

Bhanupada Chakraborty saidthe detainees were being inter-rogated.

Last month, 67 Rohingyaswere arrested in Tripura. Ofthem, 31 were holed up at theIndo-Bangla international bor-der behind the barbed wirefencing for four days before theBorder Security Force arrestedthem and handed them over toTripura Police. PTI

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Fan Clubs for film stars arenot strange in Tamil Nadu.

Starting from the days of MGR(the film actor-turned-politicalleader-turned Chief Minister)to new generation actors,there are fan clubs named afterthe actors. There were reportsthat even forest brigandVeerappan boasted of suchbodies. But what has caught theattention over the last fewweeks is Chinna Thambi FanClub operating fromThadagam valley inCoimbatore.

Chinna Thambi is neither

a film star nor an aspiringpolitician. His name is not at allassociated with any socialorganisations or sporting activ-ities. Chinna Thambi is a 25-year-old wild elephant who isloved and adored by the peo-ple of Thadagam, a regionclose to the reserve forests ofthe Western Ghats.

The tusker was part of agang of 20-25 elephants whichfrequently raided the villages inthe periphery of Thadagamforests. Farmers in the villageshad to bear the brunt as theraiders devoured the bananaand coconut plantations to thehilt, according to GRamakrishnan, Forest Range

Officer, Coimbatore. When the‘stealing of the crops’ exceededthe limits, the villagers com-plained to the forest officialswho lost no time in scaringaway the gang.

“But times have changed.The pachyderms are not both-ered about the drum beatingsand bursting of fire crackerswhich used to scare them awayonce,” said a forest official. Sothe decision to translocate thetrouble makers to a ‘far away’spot was taken. A team of vet-erinary surgeons was sum-moned and they tamed ChinnaThambi with tranquilisers.Chinna Thambi had estab-lished a good rapport with the

villagers and was the least trou-blesome of the gang.

The forest officials trans-located Chinna Thambi toAnamalai Tiger Reserve , 80 km

away in the early hour ofJanuary 26. But the cure turnedout to be worse than the disease,according to Ramakrishnan.The elephant found it difficult

to acclimatise with the new sur-roundings and stared a “pady-atra” in search of his roots. “Butit has to be accepted that he didnot attack anybody whom hecame across in the walkathon.When he felt hunger, he madeuse of the agricultural fields andresumed his journey,” saidRamakrishnan.

By this time, the villagers inThadagam had split into twocamps, one group demandingChinna to be brought back tothe village while the otheropposing the move. The factthat the counsel of threeMinisters of the Tamil NaduGovernment were soughtpoint to the importance of

Chinna Thambi. ForestMinister Dindigul Srinivasanwhile addressing a public meet-ing on Saturday said thatChinna Thambi would becaught and trained as a kumki(an elephant trained by pro-fessional trainer to tame wildelephants). This evoked wideprotest in Thadagam villagewith the residents demandingthat Chinnan ( as he is callednow) should be brought backto the forests and set free in his“ancestral home”. The last twodays saw a dozen forest offi-cials equipped with all gadgetsincluding public address sys-tem, a sound synthesiser walk-ing along with Chinna Thambi

who has lost his way whileretracing the road toThadagam. Members of theChinna Thambi Fans Clubwho have joined the caravanwere heard playing the JohnDenver song “Country RoadsTake Me Home…”

Ramakrishnan and otherforest officials are hopeful ofChinnan reaching his home inanother two days. Last year ThePioneer had reported aboutGaneshan, nicknamed Nadodi(Gypsy) Ganeshan, a wild ele-phant in O’Valley Range inneighbouring Ootty districtwho had a deep friendshipwith the villagers till hebreathed his last.

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Page 7: will raise farmer and chit fund issues, besides women securi-ty and other issues. Similarly, the BJP would raise chit fund, nonpayment of bonus on paddy and women insecurity issues,

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Sending out a ‘stern’ warningto the terror outfits operat-

ing in Kashmir valley, PrimeMinister Narendra Modi onSunday said India will crushthe backbone of terrorists bygiving a ‘befitting’ reply tothose who are targeting,‘unarmed’, ‘innocent’ and peaceloving ‘kashmiris’.

The Prime Minister saidthe whole country is agitatedover the ‘brutal’ killings ofpeace loving boys and girls inKashmir.

Addressing a large gather-ing of people inside SKICC inSrinagar, soon after launchingslew of developmental pro-jects in the presence ofGovernor Satya Pal Malik, thePrime Minister said, “theseyoungsters were targeted by theterrorists because they wantedto live in peace and harmony”.

He said, “It is the hard real-ity of terrorism in Kashmir val-ley. I assure all of you we willfight with full force to defeatterrorism. We will crush theirback bone. Every terrorist willbe given a befitting reply.”

The Prime Minister said,“by carrying out ‘surgicalstrikes’ India has alreadydemonstrated to the entireworld what is country’s poli-cy to deal with the menace ofterrorism”.

Paying glowing tributes to

the martyred soldiers, hailingfrom the State of Jammu andKashmir, the Prime Ministersaid,” the real ‘heroes’ ofKashmir are Lance Naik NazirAhmad Wani, Rif lemanAurangzeb and sports starTajamul Islam. They remainedcommitted to peace and betterfuture of the country.

He said, “Heroes live torealise their dreams and cow-ards kill dreams of others”.

During his day long visit tothe State Prime

Ministerunveiled a series ofdevelopment projects to thetune of 44,000 crores to give aboost to infrastructure in thestate.

Earlier, addressing a‘Maharally’ in Vijaypur area ofSamba district, after layingfoundation stone of AIIMS,Jammu, Prime Minister said,“the battle of 2019 was also a“fight” for taking the countryahead on the path of progressand development”.

PM began his speech in

chaste Dogri language to strikea chord with the mammothcrowd present in the pandal.“Aap logo ki support se, ekNaya Bharat baneyga, jo sak-sham bhi hoga aur sashaktbhi,” he added.

In the first leg of his visit toLeh, Prime Minister had alsomade a pitch for his return tothe post, saying he will returnto inaugurate schemes forwhich he is laying foundationsstones today.

“I have inaugurated

schemes which I had inaugu-rated earlier and I will comeback to inaugurate schemes forwhich I am laying foundationstones today,” he said.

Attacking the Congressover its promise of farm loanwaiver during Vijaypur rally,Prime Minister said theCongress party uses the mea-sure only to win elections.

“People know the trackrecord of the country’s ‘naam-dar’. They get ‘fever’ of loanwaivers just before elections...They try to act as ‘messiah’ offarmers by announcing farmloan waivers once in 10 years,”he said referring to the UPArule.

He said the Congress hadpromised to waive farmers’loans worth �6 lakh crore in2008-09, but it gave a loan reliefof �52,000 crore only aftercoming to power, he claimed.

“CAG report found thatabout 25-30 lakh people whogot loan waiver were not eveneligible for it,” Modi revealed.

Ridiculing the loan waiversgiven by the Congress inMadhya Pradesh, the PrimeMinister said some beneficia-ries have been given cheques of�13 only.

He said under his directbenefit transfer PM-KISANscheme, �75,000 crore will beallocated annually. It means�7.50 lakh crore will bedeposited in farmers’ accountsin the next 10 years.

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Mumbai: A sessions court herehas issued non-bailable war-rants against two PakistanArmy officials — Major AbdulRehman Pasha and Major Iqbal— in connection with the26/11 Mumbai terror attackscase.

While Major Pasha hasretired, the prosecution believesMajor Iqbal is still serving as anISI official in Pakistan, as dis-closed by US born Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terrorist DavidColeman Headley, an approverin the case here.

Both Major Iqbal andMajor Pasha are shown aswanted accused in the chargesheet filed by the city police’scrime branch in the case.

Additional Sessions JudgeSV Yarlagadda on January 21allowed an application filed byspecial public prosecutorUjjwal Nikam.

The application was filedbefore the court which ispresently conducting trialagainst alleged LeT operativeSayyed Zabiuddin Ansari aliasAbu Jundal in the 26/11Mumbai terror attacks case.

Nikam said in the applica-tion that the role of the twoPakistani Army officials wasrevealed further during thetestimony of Headley on theconspiracy hatched in the case.

Headley, who is presentlylodged in a US jail, turned

approver in the case and his tes-timony was recorded via videoconference in 2016.

“David Headley’s testimo-ny has vindicated the stand ofIndia that the terror attacks ofNovember 26, 2008 were notonly sponsored by militantgroups of Pakistan but were, infact, actively supported byPakistan Army officials,”Nikam told PTI.

Judge Yarlagadda, afterperusing the application, sup-plementary charge sheet filedby the crime branch and hear-ing brief arguments fromNikam, said he was allowingthe application.

“The application filed bythe prosecution for issuance ofnon-bailable warrant againstthe two persons (Pasha andIqbal) is allowed. These twopersons are shown as wantedsuspects. The approver, David

Headley, has named them inhis evidence,” the court said.

“Hence, issue non-bailablewarrants against both the accusedpersons,” the court ordered andposted the matter for furtherhearing on February 6.

Headley in his testimonybefore the court here hadclaimed that during the con-spiracy to commit the terrorattacks in Mumbai, Major Iqbaland Major Pasha were presentin the meetings during whichtargets were selected.

LeT operatives Sajeed Mir,Abu Kaahfa and Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi were also pre-sent in the meetings, Headleyhad said. Nikam said Headley’soral testimony is not the onlyevidence against these two per-sons (Pasha and Iqbal) and thatthe prosecution also has in itspossession corroborative doc-umentary evidence. PTI

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New Delhi: Veteran Manipurifilmmaker Aribam SyamSharma on Sunday said that hewould return the Padma Shri asa mark of protest against theCitizenship (Amendment) Bill2016, terming it “anti-Northeast”.

The 83-year-old director,known for Manipuri films suchas “Olangthagee Wangmadasu”,“Imagi Ningthem” and“Ishanou”, was bestowed withthe country’s fourth highestcivilian honour in 2006.

He said the plea of theNortheast people to not let thebill pass was not being heard bythe Centre. “The bill is againstthe interest of the Northeast andits people, especially in Manipur.All the leaders of the States in the

Northeast have already request-ed the central government toreconsider (on the bill’s passage).

“But yesterday when I wasfollowing the news, our hon-ourable Prime Ministerannounced that the bill would bepassed soon. He also requestedthe Chief Minister of WestBengal to help him pass the bill.That means the government,rather the BJP, is determined topass this bill. They are not lis-

tening to us,” Sharma told PTI.Citing the example of

Tripura, the filmmaker said his-tory would repeat itself inManipur if the bill is passed.

“We have already seen thisin Tripura. Tripuris are havingno say in Tripura... The popu-lation of Manipur is only 28-29lakhs, which is less than the pop-ulation of a district in UttarPradesh. “The smaller stateslike Nagaland, Mizoram andMeghalaya have protection.Even then they are protestingbecause if the bill is passed theindigenous people will have noplace. They will be wiped out. Itmay not happen now, but it willhappen 50 years from today,” hesaid. PTI

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Lucknow: Special clinics toprovide counselling to young-sters addicted to social mediaplatforms will soon be set up bythe King George MedicalUniversity here.

The psychiatry depart-ment of the University will runthe clinics targeted at adoles-cents.

Professor PK Dalal, thehead of KGMU’s psychiatrydepartment, told PTI that“Owing to massive usage of var-ious social media tools/plat-forms such as Facebook,Twitter, mobile games andInstagram, a number of peopleare suffering from mental dis-orders.

“The Bengaluru-basedNIMHANS (National Institute

of Mental Health andNeurosciences) had four yearsago started SHUT clinic —Service for Healthy Use ofTechnology. Following the suc-cess of the first SHUT clinic,the psychiatry department ofKGMU also decided to opensimilar clinics,” he said.

“Through the special clin-ics, counselling will be done ofyoungsters so as to motivatethem to use less of social mediatools. Most of the childrenfrom middle-income familiesget addicted to social media. Asa result, there is an adverseimpact on academics, the chil-dren become irritated, impactis also on their eyes and theytend to lose their concentra-tion.,” Dalal said. PTI

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New Delhi: BJP president AmitShah on Sunday described as“historic” the ModiGovernment’s move to returnthe excess land around thedisputed site in Ayodhya totheir owners, including theRam Janmabhoomi Nyas, andasked Opposition parties not toput obstacles in the Ram tem-ple issue’s resolution.

Asked about the Ram tem-ple issue at an event here, hetold reporters that his partywants a grand temple of LordRam to be built at the very site,where he is believed to haveborn, in Ayodhya at the earli-est and dared opposition par-ties to make their stand clear onthe issue.

He said the CentralGovernment’s plea in theSupreme Court to return theland is “historic”.

It is believed that the

return of the land — if allowedby the court — is likely to resultin the Ram JanmabhoomiNyas, which is dedicated to theconstruction of the temple,starting work on building it,giving a political boost to theBJP ahead of the parliamentaryelection as it has long champi-oned the cause.

Opposition parties shouldnot put obstacles, Shah added,

an apparent reference to thematter pending before the apexcourt.

The BJP has often accusedthe Congress of using variousploys to delay the judicial res-olution.

Asked if he believed thatthe input subsidy for farmersannounced by the Governmentis better than farm loan waiv-er, he answered in the affirma-tive.

The Government hasannounced an annual cashtransfer of Rs 6,000 to farmers,a move which will benefit 13-15 crore peasants.

Shah said this scheme willhelp all farmers every yearwhile a loan waiver programmehelps those who took moneyfrom banks and does it onlyonce. Almost 60 per cent offarmers do not take loan, headded. PTI

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Lucknow: BSP supremoMayawati held a meeting onSunday to review the pre-paredness of her party in var-ious States for the upcomingparliamentary election.

In an official statement, theBahujan Samaj Party (BSP)said, “Mayawati held a meetingto review the poll preparednessof the party for the upcomingLok Sabha elections. In thisregard, intense review wasdone vis-a-vis MadhyaPradesh.”

Instructions were alsoissued to party workers to rec-tify shortcomings and focus onpreparations for the election.

Hitting out at the Congress,Mayawati said, “There is sig-nificant relief among the peo-ple after the BJP could not formGovernment in MadhyaPradesh”. PTI

Guwahati: Highlighting thegeographical advantages ofAssam in South East Asia, thestate’s Act East Policy AffairsMinister Chandra MohanPatowary on Sunday said directflight from Guwahati to Dhakaand Bangkok will begin fromnext month.

During a panel discussionin the ongoing 2nd ASEAN-India Youth Summit here,Patowary said that there areseveral geographical and his-torical advantages of Assam asfar as connectivity with SouthEast Asia is concerned.

“Under the UDAN scheme,flights are expected to startbetween Guwahati and Dhakaand Bangkok within the monthof March this year. The LGBIAirport in Guwahati is beingupgraded with the construction

of a new terminal,” he added.In terms of roadways, the

Asian Trilateral Highway, theDhola-Sadia bridge and theBogibeel bridge will give a bigfillip to the connectivity sce-nario of the region, the minis-ter said.

“The physical proximityof ASEAN countries toGuwahati is less than the majormetropolitan cities of India.There has been historical tradeand connectivity links, whichgot snapped afterIndependence. But with the ActEast Policy, Assam and theNorth East has re-positioneditself as the centre of theASEAN region,” he added.

Underlining the initiativesof the government of Assam tobolster physical connectivitywith South East Asia, Patowary

also talked about the waterlinkage of NE region withASEAN.

Speaking during the ses-sion, Manipur Chief MinisterN Biren Singh underscoredthe potential sectors of hisstate and called upon the youthto build an enduring partner-ship of North East with ASEANregion, resulting in progressand prosperity.

Vietnam Ambassador toIndia Pham Sanh Chau alsoparticipated in the discussionand gave insights on tappingthe huge potentiality of physi-cal connectivity between theNorth Eastern region andASEAN countries.

The five-day 2nd ASEAN-India Youth Summit that begantoday will conclude onFebruary 7. PTI

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Gorakhpur: In a tragic inci-dent, four members of a localtrader’s family, facing demandsfor repayment of loans frommoney lenders, were founddead Sunday morning, while afifth one died in the hospitalduring treatment.

Police said trader RameshGupta’s body was found nearrailway tracks at Surajkundoverbridge, while those of hiswife Sarita (45), daughter Payal(15) and son Ayush (10) werefound at his home Sahebganjarea under Rajghat police sta-tion area of the district.

The trader’s elder daughterRachna (20) too was foundunconscious in the house andwas rushed to BRD MedicalCollege here, where she diedduring the treatment a fewhours later, police said.

Senior Superintendent ofPolice Sunil Kumar Gupta said,“Before dying, Rachna Guptasaid all of the family membershad consumed poison. Therewas a lot of pressure on thefamily members, due to hugeloans taken.”

“The food which the fam-ily consumed last night con-tained poison. Ramesh Guptawent towards railway track tokill himself,” Gupta quotedRachna as saying before herdeath.

The bodies have been sentfor post-mortem examination,said police, adding the matteris being probed.

Local residents said Guptahad taken huge loans and hadbeen facing persistent demandsfrom money lenders to clear hisdues. PTI

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Coimbatore: At a jallikkattuevent in nearby Tirupur onSunday, 45 persons wereinjured, police said.

A total of 500 bulls, includ-ing the traditional kangeyambulls and 550 tamers, partici-pated in the sport which wasinaugurated by state AnimalHusbandry Minister UdumalaiRadhakrishnan.

Officials said 45 personsinvolved in the game wereinjured, of which 38 were treat-

ed for minor injuries. Two wereadmitted at the Governmenthospital here and four at theGovernment hospital inTirupur. Those injured include29 tamers. Ten persons watch-ing the game and two bullowners were also injured.

The bulls were sent to thearena only after medical check-up by veterinarians, with 13medical teams and 13 ambu-lances kept ready for any emer-gency, police said. PTI

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SHORT NOTICE INVITING TENDERSealed Tenders in plain paper are hereby invitedfrom the bonafide registered manufactures /dis-tributors/ authorized dealers/ agents/ suppliers forsupplying of 33 (thirty three) items in connectionwith ensuing General Elections to Lok Sabha-2019subject to fulfilment of terms and conditions. Theterms and conditions and item wise quantitiesalong with specifications etc. may be downloadedfrom www.tripura.gov.in and www.ceotripu-ra.nic.in. The sealed tender will be received dur-ing office hours in all working days up to 3:00 p.m.of 15th February, 2019 and will be opened on thesame date at 4:30 pm, if possible.

Sd/-Addl. Chief Electoral Officer,

ICA/C-2422/19 Tripura.

Page 8: will raise farmer and chit fund issues, besides women securi-ty and other issues. Similarly, the BJP would raise chit fund, nonpayment of bonus on paddy and women insecurity issues,

Malnutrition has been a pub-lic health issue in our coun-try for which Prime MinisterNarendra Modi has set theagenda through the

POSHAN (Prime Minister’s OverarchingScheme for Holistic Nourishment)Abhiyaan. He has announced clear targetsand visible results to be seen by 2022, the75th anniversary of the country’sIndependence. The aim is to improve nutri-tional outcomes for children, pregnantwomen and lactating mothers. The targetsunder the POSHAN Abhiyaan are to reducestunting, under-nutrition, anaemia (amongyoung children, women and adolescent girls)and bring down low birth weight by two percent, two per cent, three per cent and twoper cent per annum respectively. Additionalefforts will be made to bring down stuntingfrom 38.4 per cent (NHFS-4) to 25 per centby 2022. With this commitment from thehighest level of leadership, nutrition is a clearpriority for this Government.

India’s National Health Policy (2017) aswell as the National Nutrition Strategy (2017)recognise that anaemia, which is a result ofiron deficiency, has harmful consequencesfor maternal and child survival and overallproductivity of the nation. Anaemia affectsroughly one-third of the world’s population.Those with anaemia have low immunity andwork productivity. It adversely impactscognitive development of children. Anaemiain pregnant women is more likely toincrease the risk of post-partum haemor-rhage, low-birth weight babies, pre-maturebirth, still birth and maternal death.

According to the National FamilyHealth Survey-4 (2015-16), anaemia preva-lence across all ages is extremely high inIndia. The percentage of children, agedbetween six and 59 months, having anaemiais a whopping 58 per cent while the percent-age of women of reproductive age havinganaemia is 53 per cent. As much as 50 percent of pregnant women at any given pointof time have anaemia.

There are many causes of anaemia butiron deficiency accounts for close to 50 percent of cases among school children andwomen of reproductive age group and 80 percent in children between two and five yearsof age (UNICEF and WHO Joint Statement2001). Infectious diseases such as malaria,helminth infections, TB and hemoglo-binopathies are other causes that con-tribute to the high prevalence of anaemia.

Unlike earlier attempts made to tacklethe issue, there is a convergence of variousdepartments and Ministries to achieve thedesired results under the anaemia-muktBharat strategy. It is pertinent to note thatthe programme is being implemented pan-India, involving the community. Reachingout to everyone, particularly the vulnerablesections, is an integral strategy underPOSHAN Abhiyaan. For this, theGovernment has improved and strengthened

service delivery to ensure an effi-cient supply chain, encourageduse of technology to reach thetargetted beneficiaries and bringabout behavioural changethrough professional coun-selling.

Anaemia-mukt Bharat is acritical component of thePOSHAN Abhiyaan and isexpected to benefit 450 millionpeople by 2022. It is based on sixinterventions, including pro-phylactic iron and folic supple-mentation; deworming andbehaviour change campaignfocussing on key behaviourssuch as appropriate infant andyoung child-feeding practices;increased intake of iron-rich dietor fortified food; ensuringdelayed cord clamping afterdelivery; anaemia testing byusing digital methods with spe-cial focus on pregnant womenand adolescents and finally,screening and treatment of non-nutritional causes of anaemia inendemic pockets, malariaincluded. The strategy focusseson testing and treating anaemiain school-going adolescents andpregnant women using newertechnologies, establishing insti-tutional mechanisms foradvanced research in the condi-tion and a comprehensive com-munication strategy.

Considering that there areseveral other determinants ofnutrition, linkages with other ini-tiatives of the Government havebeen established. The SwachhBharat Abhiyan focuses on cre-

ating open defecation-free com-munities that impact the rates ofdiarrhoea and gut infectionsamong children. The PradhanMantri Matritva Vandana Yojanaprovides monetary support topregnant women and lactatingmothers for adequate diet, whichin turn, promotes health-seekingbehaviour.

Mission Indradhanush isincreasing the rate of completeimmunisation of women andchildren while the MotherAbsolute Affection (MAA) pro-gramme is a nation-wide initia-tive to improve infant and youngchild-feeding practices. ThePradhan Mantri SurakshitMatritva Abhiyan (PMSMA)ensures quality ante-natal carefor pregnant women, while theschool children are beingscreened annually for diseasesand nutritional deficienciesunder the Rashtriya BalSwasthya Karyakram (RBSK).

The Ministry of Health andFamily Welfare is collaboratingwith the Ministry of Womenand Child Development(MoWCD) on activities to becarried out during the POSHANMaah that is observed inSeptember every year. As part ofthe POSHAN Maah, 2018,AIIMS, New Delhi, along withsix regional centres (Rajasthan,Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Bihar,Chhattishgarh andUttarakhand) undertook inten-sive BCC along with test andtreat campaigns focussed onWRA (15-49 years) and under

five children. Also, our initiative, Village

Health Sanitation and NutritionDay (VHNDS), has beenstrengthened to be observed as‘POSHAN Melas’ and are beingleveraged as an opportunity toreach out to the community forcounselling on health-seekingbehaviours. Besides VHNDS,collaborating activities withMoWCD include traditionalpractices such as ‘Godbharai’and ‘Annaprashan’ as part ofPOSHAN Abhiyaan forincreased acceptance andinvolvement of the community.

Providing iron and folicacid supplementation and treat-ment to high risk groups, pre-vention and treatment of com-municable diseases, promotingconsumption of all micro-nutri-ents, and more importantly,encouraging birth spacingthrough the use of contraceptionare some other initiatives beingtaken by the Government for aholistic and life-cycle approachto the issue.

Implementing a pro-gramme of this magnitude is byno means an easy task but theGovernment is committed toend the scourge of anaemiaand under-nutrition by rollingit out as a jan andolan (publicmovement). The decline in theprevalence of anaemia will con-tribute in improved maternaland child survival and improvedhealth outcomes.

(The writer is Union Ministerof Health and Family Welfare)

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Sir — This refers to the editorial,“Keeping all happy” (February 2).The Modi Government’s interimBudget for 2019-2020, rainingsops, relaxations and freebies forthe middle class as well as the farm-ers, is an all-pleasing one. But onthe face of it, this was an electionbudget, prepared with politicalconsiderations in mind. As a result,both the Government as well as theOpposition have been engaged ina heated debate to win over theelectorate ahead of the Lok Sabhapoll. Interestingly, the beneficiaries,the electorate, will take the final callon whether they should let the pre-sent regime have another five-yearlease of power or change hands atthe Centre. The biggest question is,where will the money to service allthese schemes come from?

Azhar A KhanRampur

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Sir — This refers to the editorial,“Keeping all happy” (February 2).The interim Budget presented bystand-in Finance Minister PiyushGoyal has many welcoming fea-

tures for every section of society,including the farmers, labourers,middle class and the salariedpeople. It would, however, havebeen better if the Governmentcould incorporate some impor-tant features to simplify long-pending reforms, keeping in linewith its vision statement.

SC Agrawal Delhi

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Sir — This refers to the editori-al, “Keeping all happy” (February2). It is an undeniable fact thatthe BJP Government has gone allout to present a populist Budgetto woo voters. But it would beanybody’s guess if the flood ofschemes and promises made bythe Government will ever berealised or not. Four-and-a-halfyears of its rule have made itamply clear that the Governmentfailed to pay attention to mattersof public interest. Such sugar-coated dolls at the fag end of theterm are nothing but a ploy to winthe crucial Lok Sabha election.

Shahid Hasan Lucknow

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Page 9: will raise farmer and chit fund issues, besides women securi-ty and other issues. Similarly, the BJP would raise chit fund, nonpayment of bonus on paddy and women insecurity issues,

The Taliban has committed, toour satisfaction, to do what isnecessar y and prevent

Afghanistan from ever becoming aplatform for international terroristgroups or individuals,” said ZalmayKhalilzad, the US official in chargeof Afghanistan peace talks lastweek. So why didn’t the UnitedStates (US) have this discussionwith the Taliban 17 years ago, inOctober 2001?

The American representativehas just spent six days negotiatingwith the Taliban in Qatar and hehas their promise that they willnever let terrorist groups like AlQaeda or the Islamic State (IS) useAfghanistan as a base. The Talibanare Islamists and nationalists

(despite the incompatibility of thesetwo principles), but they were neverinternational terrorists.

The next steps are setting datesfor the final American withdrawalfrom Afghanistan (in around 18months) and opening direct talks between the US-backedAfghan Government and theTaliban. There is still much to dobut this could work.

So congratulations to USPresident Donald Trump — andshame on the Washington analystsand experts who could never bringthemselves to recommend just end-ing America’s longest-ever war.Some of them are the same peoplewho didn’t realise 17 years ago that these talks should have hap-pened then.

The US invasion of Afghanistanin October, 2001, was always about9/11 and nothing else. The countrywas targeted because the Taliban,which came to power five yearsbefore, had allowed Osama binLaden and his band of Islamistextremists to set up a base in

Afghanistan and they were assumedto be implicated in the horrendousattacks on New York andWashington.

That assumption was almostcertainly wrong. The Taliban hadcome to power in 1996 after a 10-year war against the Soviet invadersand the seven-year civil war thatfollowed. They had been a long timeout in the hills and they were real-ly enjoying power.

What the Taliban did in powerwas both ridiculous and atrocious.They drove women from public lifeand closed girls’ schools. Theymade men grow beard and womenwear burqas. They banned music,movies and television.

They mutilated people for smalloffences and executed them forslightly bigger ones (most of whichwere not offences at all in otherMuslim countries). And they tookabsolutely no interest in the rest ofthe world. Under the Taliban,Afghanistan really didn’t have a for-eign policy at all.

But the leader of the regime,

Mullah Omar, was a personal friendof Osama bin Laden, whom he hadmet in Pakistan in the 1980s. (Bothmen were then involved in the waragainst the Soviet occupation.)

So when Bin Laden was forcedout of his refuge in Sudan by theClinton Administration in 1996,Omar let him set up camp in south-ern Afghanistan and told him notto carry out political activities onAfghan soil. Bin Laden abused thathospitality and approved the 9/11attacks from there (the actual plan-ning was mostly done in Germany.)

Did Mullah Omar have any-thing to do with the attacks? Did heeven know about them in advance?Try to imagine the telephone con-versation. (Bin Laden didn’t speakPashto, but Omar did speak Arabic.)

“Omar, habibi, it’s Osama. Howare the wives and children?”

“Not bad, thanks. Yours?”“Listen, Omar, I’m giving you a

heads-up. Next week my guys aregoing to attack the United States andkill a few thousand Americans, andI’m afraid they’re going to blame you

too. So you’ll get invaded and over-thrown, and your Taliban guys willhave to spend another 10 years inthe hills being hunted by gunships.But it’s in a good cause. I hope you’reOK with that.”

“Sure, Osama. Good luck withit.”

I’m pretty sure that conversationnever happened. Why would Osamabin Laden tell Mullah Omar aboutthe attack in advance and run therisk that he wasn’t okay with it?Most of the Taliban would certain-ly have been outraged by the mor-tal danger Bin Laden was exposingthem to.

Could the US have persuadedthe Taliban to hand Bin Ladenover in order not to be invaded anddriven from power? May be youcouldn’t have persuaded MullahOmar, but many of the youngerleaders were really not looking for-ward to being bombed out of thecities and chased back into the hills.

And if they don’t listen rightaway, spread some money around.You can’t buy religious fanatics but

you can sometimes rent them if youfind the right words to go with themoney. Why wasn’t it at least tried?

Probably because there was astrong need to ‘kick-ass’ in the US.Such a horrible crime couldn’t beanswered with mere diplomacy andlegal proceedings. What was need-ed was bloody vengeance andcatharsis. So Afghanistan got invad-ed and several hundred thousandpeople died in the next 17 years.

And since it has always beenvery easy to invade Afghanistan(though almost impossible to staythere), one invasion didn’t provideenough catharsis. Thirty monthslater the then US President GeorgeW Bush also invaded Iraq; althoughthere were no terrorists there (andno ‘weapons of mass destruction’),and hundreds of thousands moredied. And now they are finallynegotiating the very same deal withthe Taliban that could probably havebeen made in 2001. It would havesaved a lot of time.

(The writer is an independentjournalist)

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The concern expressed by Oppositionleaders during West Bengal ChiefMinister Mamata Banerjee’s UnitedIndia Rally in Kolkata on the use ofElectronic Voting Machines (EVMs)

is not only perplexing but confusing as well.The Opposition is so serious about the misuseof these poll devices that it has appointed afour-member panel comprising AbhishekManu Singhvi of the Congress, AkhileshYadav of the Samajwadi Party, Satish Misra ofthe Bahujan Samaj Party and Delhi ChiefMinister Arvind Kejriwal to make a case forthe Election Commission of India for wider useof voter-verified paper audit trails (VVPATs)and campaign against the malfunctioning ofEVMs. While many Opposition leaders haveraised the issue of the trustworthiness of thesemachines, the loudest of them came from noneother than National Conference (NC) chiefFarooq Abdullah, who has earned the reputa-tion of being one who “changes colour witheach season” and is hardly even taken serious-ly by the voters. “The EVM is a chor (thief)machine. Honestly speaking, it is so. Its usemust be ended,” he thundered at the above-mentioned rally.

However, the Chief Election CommissionerSunil Arora was very critical of the claims bythe Opposition parties and blamed them fortreating EVMs like a “football” by using themas an alibi for their poor electoral perfor-mances. He further emphasised that the EVMswere foolproof as far as fears of manipulationwere concerned. According to his predecessor,OP Rawat, political parties only question theEVMs when they lose the elections. “Generallythis has been the trend. When they win, theydon’t give credit to EVMs but when they lose,they blame the EVMs,” Rawat had said.

Though Opposition parties have formed anelection cartel in the form of a mahagathband-han, they are not sure of victory in theimpending 2019 general election. Hence, theyare trying to create a public perception aboutthe EVMs by stating that they can be easilyhacked and, hence, misused by the ruling party.In doing so, they are not only casting asper-sions on the independent functioning of theElection Commission but also creating anadverse international opinion about Indiandemocracy. They are also casting doubts on thenation’s judicial system since numerous courts,including the Supreme Court, have ruled infavour of the fairness of elections conductedwith EVMs. The reality is that Oppositionunity is not guided by any ideological glue butthe urge to survive. It is somewhat similar tothe Panchtantra story about animals of all hues,who formed the cartel against the king of thejungle, the lion.

There are inherent contradictions amongthe mahagathbandhan, which the people of thiscountry understand because similar endeav-ours in the past have proved disastrous andweakened our nation and its well-defined insti-tutions. Our country can ill-afford to hand overits reins to ambitious regional satraps, whosevision is limited to vote-banks in their respec-tive States, and for whom, national interests or

a nation’s economy is only secondary to theirregional interests. Ironically, the Congress iswilling to play a second fiddle because it seesno future in the coming elections. Like thepoorly trained handyman always blames histools, the election cartel formed by regionalparties, sensing imminent defeat, has begun toraise the bogey of EVMs.

It would be interesting to note that EVMswere introduced in India by the CongressGovernment in 1982 for a by-election in Keralaand were used for the first time in the Stateof Goa during the 1999 election, which waswon by the Congress handsomely. The 2004Lok Sabha election was held using only theEVMs and with their introduction, chances ofrigging through booth capturing, that had beenmastered by the Congress to remain in power,were minimised. Though the Congress wonthe 2004 and 2009 general elections, it failedto gain absolute majority of its own and hadto opt for alliances to form the Government.But the grand old party made no noise sinceit was able to form the Government on bothoccasions. The popularity of the Congressplummeted to an all-time low in 2014 and itstarted to blame the EVMs for its electoral lossthereafter. The Modi wave, which swamped thenation like a tsunami, swept away the region-al parties as well, who like the Congress, beganto blame EVMs.

Isn’t it perplexing that the party, whichintroduced the EVMs and hailed them as thebiggest electoral reform, found nothing wrongwith them till 2014, when all of a sudden itbecame their biggest critic? The reason is obvi-ous. As long as the going was good, everythingwas hunky dory but unable to swallow the dis-graceful defeat of 2014 and the subsequent Stateelections, it started blaming the EVMs ratherthan respecting the peoples’ verdict graceful-ly. The Congress saw a glimmer of hope whenit managed to win the election in the three BJP-

ruled States towards the end of 2018. However,a detailed analysis of the polls revealed that theBJP’s loss was not due to a popular vote shifttowards the Congress but due to the provisionof NOTA (None of the Above). Unsure of theNOTA coming to its rescue once again in the2019 general election, the Congress continuedwith its tirade against EVMs.

Closer home, it is not surprising thatAbdullah is now making loud noises againstEVMs. He knows that his party has beenexposed so badly that it stands no chance ofreturning to power if free and fair election isheld. He doesn’t want to be held responsiblefor the decline and subsequent demise of theAbdullah dynasty in Kashmir. He wants theState to return to those days when his father,Sheikh Mohammed Abdullah, had pioneeredthe art of rigging elections since he wantedJammu & Kashmir to be a “single party State”and abhorred the Opposition. Beginning in1951, the NC and later its converted avtaar, theCongress, depended on rigged elections toremain in power.

The introduction of EVMs reversed thetrend and sounded the bugle for NC’s decline.Unprecedented rigging by Abdullah and hisalliance partner, the Congress, is considered asthe raison d’etre for eruption of militancy in theState. Incidentally, Mufti Mohammad Syed, for-mer Chief Minister and father of MehboobaMufti, was the Congress’ boss in the State. WishEVMs had been introduced in 1987. The Statewould have been saved from the vagaries ofongoing militancy and a Pakistan-sponsoredproxy war since Abdullah and Co would nothave been able to rig the elections.

To ensure free and fair elections in Jammuand Kashmir, the NDA Government, underAtal Bihari Vajpayee, introduced EVMs in the2002 Assembly elections. The NC got a rudeshock when its seat share declined to just 28from 57. Its vote share nosedived in every sub-

sequent election. In 2008, its seat shareremained unchanged but it managed to formthe Government with the Congress’ support.Surprisingly, neither NC nor Congress foundanything wrong with the EVMs though heyfailed to read the growing unpopularity amongthe voters. In 2014, both NC and Congress weredecimated but still they did not blame theEVMs.

Abdullah won a parliamentary election in2017, polling seven per cent votes. Till theneverything was fine. However, the conduct ofthe local bodies and panchayat elections in theState threw up an unpleasant surprise andAbdullah woke from a deep slumber. Herealised that his party had lost its mass base andwas no longer acceptable to the people ofJammu and Kashmir, particularly Kashmiris,its core constituency. It is this awakening thatprompted Abdullah to term the EVMs as “chormachines.” Incidentally, Abdullah is under awrong impression that voting with postal bal-lots will win back the mandate for his party.Kashmiris will not allow him to re-enact 1987.

Sensing the nation’s mood, Opposition par-ties are disheartened but are pretending to putup a bold effort with slogans like jo garajte hainwho baraste nahi. People know that loud nois-es carry no meaning. They will just help themsave their skins as most leaders are faced withjudicial proceedings for corruption and mis-use of authority. The electorate has maturedover the years to not be misled by fake cam-paigns launched by them. Their defeat in theforthcoming elections is a foregone conclusionand, hence, they are preparing ground to jus-tify their defeat by blaming the EVMs. Whetherthe machine is chor or their niyat (intent), onlytime will tell. In a democracy, people are theultimate deciders.

(The author is a Jammu-based political com-mentator and strategic analyst. The viewsexpressed are entirely personal)

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Union Minister Arun Jaitleyon Sunday rejected criti-

cism of giving a ‘jobless eco-nomic growth’, saying theabsence of any major social orpolitical agitation in the last fiveyears indicates Governmentschemes have created employ-ment.

In an interview to PTI,Jaitley, who is here for medicaltreatment, justified the absenceof any major mention of jobcreation in the Interim Budgetpresented on February 1, say-ing such budgets are differentfrom the normal budgetspeeches as they are more like“a report card and a road map.”

“Why is it that India, in thelast five years, hasn’t seen amajor social or political agita-tion? If there is no job creation,there will be discontent. Whereis that visible?” he said.

Rout of incumbent gov-ernments is a foregone con-clusion when such discontentis there but during currenttimes the opposition parties areteaming up because they knowthey do not stand a chance oth-erwise, he said.

“Normally, outgoing gov-

ernments in such environ-ments, their rout is predicted.But today political rivals wantto come together because theyknow for anyone of them it isnot possible to take on PrimeMinister (Narendra) Modi andhis party,” he said.

Jaitley said it is not as if“suddenly in five years theproductivity levels in Indiahave gone up that all organi-sations are now running withhalf their staff. The empiricalevidence is to the contrary.”

There is controversy over aleaked official report puttingunemployment rate at a 45-year high in 2017-18.

Jaitley also said questionsare being raised as to how GDPincreased after demonetisa-tion, as reflected in the revisionin economic growth numbersfor 2017-18 fiscal.

“I have been asserting fromday one that it (GDP) has toincrease after demonetisation.There was no settled globalmodel on what happens post-demonetisation, there were nostudies and therefore a formerPrime Minister (ManmohanSingh) made a statement thatthere will be a 2 per cent drop.And everybody else acceptedthis as a prediction of a prophetof doom,” he said.

Demonetisation, he said,compelled people to depositalmost their entire cash, or 86per cent of India’s currency, intobanks. This meant that manycash transactions that previ-ously went unrecorded for thepurposes of GDP came onrecord.

“In the earlier eras, whenwe used to speak of paralleleconomy, one of the concernswas that the parallel economydoesn’t reflect in the GDP.Therefore, when all were com-pelled to deposit 86 per cent ofIndia’s currency into the banks,and now had to use chequesand credit cards for the futurepayments, the number of dig-ital and banking transactionsincreased.”

He noted that moneydeposited in banks went tomutual funds, from there theywere channelled to NBFCs,real estate sector, automobilepurchase and more capitalexpenditure.

“Transactions now ema-nating from that depositedmoney became recordabletransactions. The anonymityattached to the owner of cashwas gone. Now the owner of thecash was identified,” he said.

Jaitley, who was the financeminister when old 500 and1000 rupee notes werescrapped overnight inNovember 2016, said except fora quarter or a little more, thelong term impact of the moveon GDP was visible due to thedeposits being made in banksand more formalisation of theeconomy.

“But since there was noglobal model, off the cuff state-ments were being taken ascomfortable predictions. It wasa bandwagon effect whereeverybody started speakingwithout thinking. And now theproof of the pudding is in theeating,” he said.

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China is fast-tracking a for-eign investment law at an

unprecedented pace to meetWashington’s demands ontrade, but businesses fear thattime to review and raise objec-tions on a crucial piece of leg-islation has been cut short.

The law will eliminate therequirement for foreign enter-prises to transfer proprietarytechnology to Chinese joint-venture partners.

It also includes other stepsto level the business playingfield that Western trading part-ners have long demanded.

China’s parliament is expect-ed to vote on the legislation inMarch — barely two monthsafter debating a first draft.

“It is indeed unprecedent-ed that the bill is being movedby the NPC (National People’sCongress) at such a fast pace,”Wang Jiangyu, an expert onChinese law at the NationalUniversity of Singapore, toldAFP.

“Normally it would takeone to three years for a bill tobe passed and signed into law.”

Foreign businesses worrythe draft glosses over detailsand that vague language leavesroom for broad interpretation.

For example, it gives Chinathe right to expropriate foreigninvestment “for the publicinterest”, which foreign busi-ness groups fear could beabused.

A draft law was first pub-lished for comment in 2015 butwas quickly shelved until itresurfaced late last year, Wang

said.It was only submitted to

China’s rubber-stamp legisla-ture for a first reading onDecember 23, and made avail-able for public comment untilFebruary 24.

The top decision-makingbody of the legislature con-vened a special two-day sessionthis past Tuesday to debateanother “updated version”, statenews agency Xinhua reported.

The law will probably beapproved during the parlia-ment’s roughly 10-day annualsession which opens March 5,Wang said.

The clock is ticking on aMarch 1 US-set deadline forChina to address trade con-cerns and avert an escalation intheir tariff war.

“What we feel with thispiece of legislation is that it’s beensqueezed between the normallegal process and the negotiationtable (to defuse) the trade con-flict,” the president of the EUChamber of Commerce inChina, Mats Harborn, told AFP.

“In our view this is a littleunfortunate because this is animportant piece of legislationthat will have an effect... On allforeign companies.” Both theEU and American chambers ofcommerce in China said theyrushed to submit feedbackfrom members this week.

Although the legislationcovers several pain points high-lighted by US President DonaldTrump including safeguard-ing foreign capital fromGovernment “interference”, itfalls short in other key areas,the business lobbies said.

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The EnforcementDirectorate (ED) imposed

a �1,585 crore penalty on satel-lite services provider DevasMultimedia Ltd, its directorsand foreign investors for illegalforeign investment of �579crore against the ForeignExchange Management Act(FEMA) 1999, the agency saidon Sunday.

“The authority held Devas,its directors and foreign investorsguilty of illegal foreign investmentof �579 crore in contravention ofsection 6(3) of FEMA andimposed �1,585.08 crore penal-ty,” an ED statement here said.

The city-based Devas wasset up in 2004 by a few formeremployees of the state-runIndian Space ResearchOrganisation (ISRO) andentered into an agreement withits commercial arm, Antrix

Corp, to provide bandwidth insatellites for services on com-mercial basis in digital mediaand broadcasting space.

“Based on tip-off, an inves-tigation was initiated on invest-ments Devas received fromoverseas persons as they werein contravention of the FEMAprovisions,” said the statement.

The investigation revealedthat �579 crore was broughtinto the company by many for-eign firms in violation of theForeign Investment PromotionBoard approval and provisionsof section 6(3)(b) and 6 (3)(d)of FEMA and ForeignExchange ManagementRegulations.

In another case under thePrevention of MoneyLaundering Act (PMLA), adesignated city special courttook cognisance of the prose-cution complaint on February1 against Devas for entering

into an agreement with Antrixby fraudulently claiming that ithad the ownership and intel-lectual property rights (IPRs) touse the technology for deliver-ing multimedia services.

“Employees of ISRO andAntrix also conspired withDevas to enter into the agree-ment. On its strength, the lat-ter fraudulently raised �579crore overseas and illegallytransferred 85 per cent of it outof India to its subsidiary in theUS in the guise of services andfee,” said the statement.

The ED on February 28,2017 attached the company’sproperties valued at about �80crore for their alleged involve-ment in money launderingand prosecution complaintfiled in the designated PMLAspecial court in the city, with aprayer for punishment to theaccused and confiscation oftheir attached properties.

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Japanese car manufacturerNissan announced Sunday it

was cancelling plans to build itsX-Trail SUV at its plant in north-east England despite Brexit assur-ances from the Government.

“While we have taken thisdecision for business reasons,the continued uncertaintyaround the UK’s future rela-tionship with the EU is nothelping companies like ours toplan for the future,” NissanEurope Chairman Gianluca deFicchy said in a statement.

The car giant announced in2016 that it planned to build themodel at its plant in Sunderland,but will now assemble it insteadat Nissan’s global productionhub in Kyushu, Japan.

“Other future modelsplanned for Nissan SunderlandPlant — the next-generationJuke and Qashqai — are unaf-fected,” added the statement.

“A model like X-Trail ismanufactured in multiple loca-tions globally, and can thereforebe re-evaluated based on changesto the business environment,”said Hideyuki Sakamoto,Nissan’s executive vice presi-dent for manufacturing andsupply chain management.

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Housing FinanceLtd’s (DHFL) par-ent companyWadhawan GlobalCapital (WGC) hasagreed to sell its 70per cent stake in AadharHousing Finance (AHFL),while DHFL will also sell itsover 9 per cent stock in AHFLas a corporate debt cuttingmeasure.

According to a WGCrelease here, the company hassigned a definitive agreementwith US private equity majorBlackstone to sell nearly 80 percent shares of affordable homesfirm Aadhar Housing Financefor an undisclosed amount.

“As a part of the deal,WGC will be selling the entire70 per cent of its stake in thecompany. DHFL, which holdsa 9.15 per cent stake in AHFL,will also be exiting the compa-ny as a part of the transaction,”the statement said.

“The deal will significant-ly reduce WGC’s outstandingcorporate debt.”

Commenting on the devel-opment, WGC Chairman KapilWadhawan said in a state-ment: “The transaction withBlackstone is a part of our

multi-pronged strategy toreduce the corporate debt lev-els and strengthen our balancesheet.

“The sale unlocks the latentvalue within the WGC Groupwhile reinstating our immedi-ate and long-term focus onDHFL, the flagship company ofGroup.”

The DHFL stock cameunder heavy pressure duringthe week plunging as much as20 per cent on Thursday fol-lowing a Cobrapost report thatthe DHFL promoters routedaround �31,000 crore throughdubious companies and parkedit outside India to acquireassets.

Rejecting the allegations,DHFL said it had met all itsobligations to its lenders bypaying them back over �17,000crore in the last three months.

Later in the week, DHFLsaid it had appointed an “inde-pendent” chartered accoun-tant firm to verify the scamallegations.

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The RBI’s policy meet out-come, ongoing quarterly

results season and global cueswill set the tone for the stockmarkets this week, analysts said.

The markets may also see anoverhang of the interim budgetannouncements, they added.

“For the week ahead, thekey drivers would be the out-come of the Reserve Bank ofIndia’s (RBI) monetary policymeeting, corporate results andthe sustainability of FII flows,”said Viral Berawala, CIO, EsselMutual Fund.

“While the reflationarystance of the budget couldprovide a boost to corporateearnings, especially in con-sumption, agri-rural sector,retail lending and housing,there can be implications forinflation and interest rates aswell,” said Dhananjay Sinha,Head, Institutional Research,Economist and Strategist,Emkay Global FinancialServices.

Bekxy Kuriakose, Head -Fixed Income, PrincipalMutual Fund, said, “Focus willshift to the RBI monetary pol-icy review on February 7th.”

Services sector data to beannounced early this week willalso influence trading senti-ment, they said.

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The Government plans toauction three mineral

blocks having reserves of280.295 million tonne in thecurrent and next month.

Of the mines to be auc-tioned, two are limestoneblocks while one is graphitemine, according to latest dataof Mines Ministry.

The limestone blocks inChhattisgarh will go under thehammer on February 8 andFebruary 11, while the graphiteblock in Jharkhand will beauctioned on March 2.

The notice inviting tender(NIT) of both the limestoneblocks was out on October 6last year, while in the case ofgraphite block the tender was

out on December 25.All the three blocks have

no end-use reservation, theministry said.

The Centre had earlier saidit was considering granting allapprovals, including environ-mental clearance, to mineralblocks before putting them upfor sale, a move that may givea push to the auctions.

The idea is to fast-track auc-tioning and that issues related togreen clearances and land rightsare addressed upfront.

It has given in-principleapproval to provide singleclearance for environment andforest to the new lease holdersof the 288 mining leases expir-ing in two years.

Last month, theGovernment said 53 mineralblocks have been successfullyallocated through auction.

To ensure transparency inthe mineral sector, Mines andMinerals Development andRegulation) Amendment Billwas passed by Parliament in2015.

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The RBI’s Monetary PolicyCommittee is likely to

change its policy stance toneutral in its meeting thisweek on low inflation footprintbut would refrain from cuttinginterest rates due to fiscal chal-lenges and rising crude oilprices, experts said.

The bimonthly meeting ofthe MPC is scheduled fromFebruary 5 to 7. It would be thefirst MPC meeting under RBIGovernor Shaktikanta Das,who took charge in December2018 following sudden exit ofUrjit Patel.

Bank of Baroda ChiefEconomist Sameer Narangobserved that the MPC maychange its monetary stance toneutral on February 7 from cal-ibrated tightening’.

Retail inflation during theOctober-December quarterstood at 2.6 per cent againstRBI’s projected trajectory of 3.8per cent.

“Given the significantundershoot and now the nar-rative of a global slowdown,CPI inflation is expected toremain below the RBI’s targetof 4 per cent in 2018-19.

“This gives RBI a room tochange its monetary policystance. However, the elevatedlevel of core components suchas health, education, householdand personal goods suggests

that room to cut rates is limit-ed for now,” Narang said.

A research report of DBSEconomics said it would be a“tricky monetary policy pathfor RBI” as the governmentprojected fiscal slippage in theBudget.

“The combination of fiscalchallenges and rising oil pricesmakes the RBI’s policy path atricky one this year.

“Growth has largely bot-tomed out, but India has yet tobenefit from the synchronisedpick-up in global demand. Inthis light, we expect the mon-etary policy committee to turnhawkish, but not enough forthe balance to tip towards a ratehike this week,” it said.

Sanjay Chamria, the ViceChairman and ManagingDirector of Magma Fincorp,believes that Finance MinisterPiyush Goyal in his Budgetspeech has “set the stage for a

rate cut by the RBI”.In its December monetary

policy review, the RBI hadkept interest rates unchangedbut held out a promise to cutthem if the upside risks to theinflation do not materialise.

Having raised rates twicethis fiscal, the central bankretained its ‘calibrated tighten-ing’ policy stance.

The Government hasmandated the RBI to containretail (CPI) inflation at 4 percent (+,- 2 per cent).

Continued decline in foodprices pulled down retail infla-tion to an 18-month low of 2.19per cent in December 2018.

Meanwhile, FinanceMinister Piyush Goyal isscheduled to address custom-ary post Budget meeting of thecentral board of Reserve Bankof India on February 9 andhighlight the key points ofinterim Budget.

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Finance Minister PiyushGoyal is scheduled to

address the customary postbudget meeting of the centralboard of Reserve Bank of Indiaon February 9 and highlight thekey points of the interimBudget.

The meeting will take placetwo days after the sixth mon-etary policy review which isexpected to take a call on pol-icy rates.

According to sources, theboard meeting on February 9would also take up request ofthe Government for interimdividend for the current fiscal.

The Government expects�28,000 crore from the RBI asinterim dividend for the cur-rent fiscal based on the finan-cial position of the first half ofthe central bank.

The customary post-bud-get meeting will take placeagainst the backdrop slightdeviation from fiscal deficit tar-get for the current fiscal, taxrebate for Income up to �5 lakhand income support scheme for12 crore farmers.

The Governmentannounced ‘Pradhan MantriKisan Samman Nidhi’ (PM-KISAN) scheme under which�6,000 per year would be pro-vided to farmers holding cul-tivable land of up to 2 hectare.

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The Government would startdisbursing substantial

amount under the income sup-port scheme for small farmers inthis month itself as beneficiarydata is already in place, a topFinance Ministry official said.

In his budget speech onFriday, Finance Minister PiyushGoyal announced ‘PradhanMantri Kisan Samman Nidhi’(PM-KISAN) scheme underwhich �6,000 per year would beprovided to farmers holdingcultivable land of up to 2 hectare.

Goyal has already ear-marked �20,000 crore for dis-bursal among 12 crore farmersunder the scheme in the cur-rent financial year.

“It has been decided toimplement with effect fromDecember 1, 2018. Allocation of�20,000 crore required for thecurrent fiscal has been made inthe budget. Land record data iscompletely available. We have allthe information about small andmarginal farmers,” Economic

Affairs Secretary SubhashChandra Garg told PTI in a postBudget interview.

The Government last yearreleased Agriculture Census2015-16 and most states havemoved to electronic record-keeping, Garg said, adding,the work which the agriculturedepartment now would bedoing is to relate these holdingsto the families which willreceive the assistance.

“That they (agriculturedepartment) will be doing. Theyare very confident that they willdo with the state governmentsvery soon and they expect tomake disbursements of sub-stantial amount in the month ofFebruary itself. That is theexpectation and confidence ofthe (agri) department,” he said.

He further said, supple-mentaries would be presentedin the current session to seekParliament’s nod for spendingadditional �20,000 crore for thescheme.

The ongoing budget ses-sion is scheduled to conclude

on February 13.The PM-KISAN scheme has

been approved by the Cabinet andtherefore the necessary approvalfor the administrative departmentto implement the scheme is alsoavailable, he added.

Emphasising that agricul-ture department has alreadydone the spadework, Garg saidthe 12 crore beneficiary num-ber has been arrived at with thehelp of Agriculture CensusData 2015-16.

“The Census has detaileddata which is divided intogroups — people owning landup to 0.5 hectare, 0.5-1 hectare,1-2 hectare, 2-4 hectare andbeyond and every ‘Khesra’ of theplot of the land in the countryhas been counted. This is data ofoperational holdings,” he said.

Apart from direct incomesupport to farmers, Goyal, in theinterim budget for 2019-20, alsoannounced extended interestsubsidy on loans availed for ani-mal husbandry and fishery aswell as to those farmers affect-ed by severe natural calamities.

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The Government has reducedthe allocation for Startup

India programme in the Budget2019-20 but added more moniesto the Make in India kitty.

According to the budgetdocuments, the allocation forStartup India programme hasbeen slashed to �25 crore for2019-20 from the revised esti-mate of �28 crore in 2018-19.

Startup India initiativeaims at fostering entrepre-neurship and promoting inno-vation by creating an ecosystemthat is conducive to growth ofbudding entrepreneurs.

There are 19 componentsunder the Startup India actionplan spanning across areas suchas simplification and hand hold-ing, funding support and incen-tives, and industry-academiapartnership and incubation,according to the documents.

On the other hand, Make inIndia programme that receivedincreased budgetary allocationinclude scheme for investmentpromotion (�232.02 crore),scheme for implementation ofnational manufacturing policy(�8.47 crore), and fund of funds(�100 crore).

Overall, the total allocationfor Make in India initiative wasincreased to �473.3 crore for2019-20 as against the revisedestimate of �149 crore in 2018-19.

Make in India campaign,which aims to transform thecountry into a global manu-facturing hub, was launched onSeptember 25, 2014. However,the cumulative allocation forthe department of industrialpolicy and promotion (DIPP)has been reduced to �5,674.51crore for 2019-20 as against therevised estimate of �6,140.23crore in 2018-19.

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The Government will find itdifficult to meet the fiscal

deficit target of 3.4 per cent in2019-20 on account on higherspending and low revenuegrowth, Moody’s InvestorsService said.

Observing that IndianGovernment’s debt is “stub-bornly high” as a percentage ofGDP, Moody’s InvestorsService Managing Director,Sovereign Risk Group, GeneFang said it could be broughtdown only if the Centre sticksto the fiscal consolidation path.

Deviating from the pathlaid down in the FiscalResponsibility and BudgetManagement (FRBM) Act, theGovernment has pegged thefiscal deficit for the next finan-cial year at 3.4 per cent of GDP,as against the original target of3.1 per cent.

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Page 11: will raise farmer and chit fund issues, besides women securi-ty and other issues. Similarly, the BJP would raise chit fund, nonpayment of bonus on paddy and women insecurity issues,

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Venezuela’s Oppositionleader called on more

members of the military toabandon the country’s social-ist government following thedefection of a high-rankinggeneral, while PresidentNicolas Maduro proposedholding early NationalAssembly elections that couldpotentially oust his challenger.

Maduro’s call for early leg-islative voting is likely to inten-sify his standoff with rival JuanGuaido, who heads the oppo-sition-controlled NationalAssembly and is demanding anew presidential election.Guaido declared himselfVenezuela’s legitimate ruler onJanuary 23, and has the supportof Washington and most SouthAmerican nations.

Speaking from behind apodium decorated withVenezuela’s presidential seal,Guaido told supporters hewould keep his oppositionmovement in the streets untilMaduro stopped “usurping”the presidency and agreed to apresidential election overseenby international observers. OnSaturday, tens of thousands ofVenezuelans joined oppositionprotests against Maduro inCaracas and other cities.

Guaido called on “blocks”of the military to defect fromMaduro’s administration and“get on the side of theVenezuelan people.” “We don’tjust want you to stop shooting

at protesters,” Guaido said in ahoarse voice.

“We want you to be part ofthe reconstruction ofVenezuela.” He said in thecoming days, the oppositionwould try to move humanitar-ian aid into the country by landand sea along three borderpoints, including theColombian city of Cucuta.

He described the move asa “test” for Venezuela’s armedforces, which will have tochoose if they allow the muchneeded aid to pass, or if theyinstead obey the orders ofMaduro’s government.

Maduro also dug in hisheels, insisting he was the onlypresident of Venezuela anddescribing Saturday’s anti-gov-ernment protests as part of aUS-led coup attempt.

“I agree that the legislativepower of the country be re-legitimized and that we holdfree elections with guarantees,and the people choose a newNational Assembly,” Madurosaid at a pro-governmentdemonstration in Caracas.

The opposition controlsthe National Assembly whilegovernment supporters controlthe more-powerful ConstituentAssembly, so calls for a vote toreplace the former and not thelatter was seen as a moveagainst Guaido. The socialistleader also had words for theadministration of PresidentDonald Trump, which recent-ly imposed sanctions onVenezuelan oil exports in aneffort to undermine Maduro’smain source of income andweaken his grip on power.

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Pope Francis heads to theUAE Sunday for the first

ever papal visit to the ArabianPeninsula, birthplace of Islam,where he will hold an open-airmass for tens of thousands ofCatholics.

The pontiff will take part inan interreligious conferenceon Monday, meeting SheikhAhmed al-Tayeb, the imam ofCairo’s Al-Azhar, Sunni Islam’sprestigious seat of learning.

Hours before he flies backto Rome on Tuesday, he willlead an open-air mass -- set tobe the largest gathering ever inthe UAE, according to localmedia.

The pope boarded a flightSunday afternoon from Rome’sFiumicino airport and is set toarrive in Abu Dhabi at 10 PM(1800 GMT).

His visit comes with theUAE engaged in a long-run-ning military campaign inYemen and embroiled in adiplomatic spat with nearbyQatar.

Before heading to the Gulf,the pontiff urged warring par-ties in Yemen, where the UAEbacks the government againstHuthi rebels, to respect a truceagreement.

“I appeal to all parties con-cerned and to the internation-al community to allow theurgent respect of establishedaccords to ensure the distribu-tion of food,” he said.

“The population isexhausted by the lengthy con-flict and a great many children

are suffering from hunger, butcannot access food depots, headded.

“The cry of these childrenand their parents rises up toGod.”

Nearly one millionCatholic migrants reside inthe UAE, mostly hailing fromthe Philippines and India.Around 135,000 have securedprecious tickets to Tuesday’smass at Zayed Sports CityStadium.

On Sunday morning, hun-dreds of Catholics queued indrizzling rain outside St.Joseph’s Cathedral in AbuDhabi to get their passes.

“I think the pope comingreally opens doors for conver-

sations about tolerance that thewhole world needs to hear,”said Collins Cochet Ryan, a 39-year-old expectant motherfrom the US.

For Indian Doris D’Souza,who lives in Goa, Pope Francis’strip to the UAE was not to bemissed.

“Since I came to knowabout the pope’s visit to AbuDhabi, we jumped (at) theopportunity to be witness.”The UAE capital’s main streetsand those leading to St. Joseph’sCathedral -- which the pope isset to visit on Tuesday -- werelined with Vatican City flagsand banners of the interreli-gious meeting.

UAE minister of state for

foreign affairs Anwar Gargashextended an official welcome toPope Francis on Sunday.

“It is a visit that carriesgreat humanitarian value, andthe UAE adds a new (chapter)in the history of fraternity andtolerance,” he tweeted.

He took an apparent jab atQatar, which hosts Islamistcleric Youssef al-Qardawi andis engaged in a bitter standoffwith its Gulf rivals.

Gargash pointed out thedifference “between those host-ing a cleric of violence and ter-rorism... And those who hostthe pope and the Al-Azharsheikh for a dialogue of loveand communication”.

The UAE, along with Saudi

Arabia, Bahrain and Egypt,cut all ties with Doha in June2017 over allegations it sup-ports extremists.

The UAE prides itself on itsreligious tolerance and cultur-al diversity. It has eight Catholicchurches. Oman, Kuwait andYemen each have four. Qatarand Bahrain have one each,while ultra-conservative Sunnipowerhouse Saudi Arabia bansall non-Muslim places of wor-ship.

The UAE has howeverbeen criticised by rights groupsfor its involvement in a bloodySaudi-led military interven-tion in Yemen, where an esti-mated 10,000 people have beenkilled in four years of war.

Millions of Yemenis faceimminent starvation, accordingto the UN. Rights groups havealso slammed the Gulf state forupholding a 10-year prisonterm against activist AhmedMansoor on December 31 --two weeks after the UAEdeclared 2019 the “Year ofTolerance”.

“Despite its assertionsabout tolerance, the UAE gov-ernment has demonstrated noreal interest in improving itshuman rights record,” SarahLeah Whitson, Middle Eastand North Africa director atHuman Rights Watch, saidSunday.

“But the UAE has shownhow sensitive it is to its imageon the global stage, and PopeFrancis should use his visit topress UAE leaders to meettheir human rights obligationsat home and abroad.”

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British Prime MinisterTheresa May said on

Sunday she will be “armedwith a fresh mandate and newideas” when she meetsEuropean Union negotiatorsover her Brexit deal.

EU officials have insistedthat the deal — rejected byBritish lawmakers — is notopen for renegotiation.

But May wrote in theSunday Telegraph that shewould be “battling for Britainand Northern Ireland” in herefforts to get rid of the agree-ment’s unpopular backstopprovision.

“If we stand together andspeak with one voice, I believewe can find the right way for-ward,” she said.

The backstop is intended toensure there is no return to ahard border with Ireland, butBrexit supporters fear it willkeep Britain tied to the EU’scustoms rules.

MPs voted last week tosend May back to Brussels torenegotiate the clause, sug-gesting her deal would then beable to pass after it was round-ly rejected in parliament lastmonth.

“I am now confident thereis a route that can secure a

majority in the House ofCommons for leaving the EUwith a deal,” she wrote.

“When I return to BrusselsI will be battling for Britain andNorthern Ireland, I will bearmed with a fresh mandate,new ideas and a renewed deter-mination to agree a pragmaticsolution”.

The EU insists that the deal“remains the best and only wayto ensure an orderly with-drawal,” but with the clockrunning down until the March29 exit date the risks of a no-deal Brexit for both Britain andthe bloc are coming into sharpfocus.

Car giant Nissanannounced Sunday it was can-celling plans to build its X-TrailSUV at its plant in northeast

England, saying that “the UK’sfuture relationship with theEU is not helping.”

May said opposition leaderJeremy Corbyn “also believesthe potential indefinite natureof the backstop is an issue”, andthat the EU has “already accept-ed the principle of ‘alternativearrangements’ superseding thebackstop should it ever berequired.”

The backstop would kickin if Britain and the EU havenot agreed a trade deal on theirfuture relationship after a time-limited transition period of upto two years.

The prime minister reject-ed accusations that plans toreopen the backstop talksrisked upsetting the Irish peaceprocess.

“Nor do I have time forthose who believe the verdictpassed by the British people in2016 should be overturnedbefore it is even implemented,”she added, referring to therump of MPs calling for a sec-ond referendum.

“I’m determined to deliverBrexit, and determined todeliver on time — on March 29,2019,” she wrote.

May has promised MPsthat she will bring any reviseddeal back to be voted on byMPs on February 13.

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A21-year-old Nepali womanhas died reportedly due to

suffocation during her stay ina windowless hut as part of abanned practice that considerswomen untouchable duringmenstruation, according to amedia report.

The incident happened inNepal’s remote Doti district onJanuary 31 when ParwatiBogati was sleeping alone in asecluded hut due to menstru-ation and had lit a fire to keepthe hut warm. When Bogati didnot wake up till late next morn-ing, her mother-in-law LaxmiBogati went to the hut to checkher but found that she hadpassed away, the KathmanduPost reported.

“She (Parwati) was excitedabout the next day as her men-struation would end. Poor childclosed her eyes forever,” saidLaxmi. She said that Parwatiwent to the secluded hut in anearby abandoned house as theregular menstrual hut she usedto go was crowded that day asthree more women from thevillage having their menstrualperiod were already there tospend the night.

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The deputy chief of Iran’sRevolutionary Guards has

warned Europe against forcingthe Islamic Republic intoboosting the range of its mis-siles by trying to halt theirdevelopment.

“If the Europeans, or any-one else, want to conspire todisarm Iran of missiles, we willbe forced to make a strategicleap,” the guards’ deputy com-mander Brigadier-GeneralHossein Salami said on stateTV on Saturday.

“All that hear me today,come to terms with the newreality of Iran’s missile might:there are no obstacles or technical limita-tions to us increasing (their)range,” he added. The IslamicRepublic develops its missiletechnology according to a“defensive strategy” whichchanges according to need, hesaid.

Earlier Saturday, Iranannounced the “successful test”of a new cruise missile with arange of over 1,350 kilometres,coinciding with the anniversaryof the country’s 1979 IslamicRevolution.

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Sri Lankan authorities havearrested four Maldivian

nationals, including a woman,for shooting video footage usinga drone camera in the highsecurity zone of the country’smain international airport here,a media report said on Sunday.The Maldivian nationals werearrested on Saturday when theywere flying the drone cameraacross the BandaranaikeInternational airport, theColombo Page reported.

Operating any kind ofdrone near airports is bannedwhile drone photography andaerial mapping are also highlyregulated by civil aviationauthorities. The incident camehours before MaldivianPresident Ibrahim MohamedSolih was due to arrive in SriLanka to attend the country’s71st national day ceremony inColombo.

Air traffic controllers at theBIA said there were no dis-ruptions to international flightson Saturday. The suspects willbe produced before theNegombo Magistrate’s Courtand the further investigationsare being done, the report said.

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Britain’s Queen Elizabeth IIand other senior members

of the royal family may have tobe evacuated if the UK experi-ences riots as a result of a no-deal Brexit next month, amedia report said on Sunday.

The UK is set to exit the28-member European Union(EU) on March 29.

As the risk of Britain leav-ing the EU without an amica-ble withdrawal agreement con-tinues to hang over ongoingnegotiations, emergency pro-posals to rescue the royal fam-ily during the Cold War erahave been “repurposed” inrecent weeks to ensure theirprotection. The plans wereoriginally intended to be putinto action in the event of anuclear attack from the erst-while Soviet Union, ‘TheSunday Times’ reported.

In the event of the UK andEU failing to agree a settlementbefore the Brexit deadline ofMarch 29, the Queen and herhusband, Prince Philip, will bemoved out of London to asecret location, which thenewspaper said it has agreednot to disclose.

“These emergency evacu-ation plans have been in exis-

tence since the Cold War, buthave now been repurposed inthe event of civil disorder fol-lowing a no-deal Brexit,” a UKCabinet Office source wasquoted as saying in the report.

With just 54 days to gountil the UK is due to leave theEU, Britain’s civil servants areramping up no-deal planning,including the contingencyplans for the royal family. Thisis understood to have includ-ed discussions betweenScotland Yard and regionalpolice forces.

“If there were problems inLondon, clearly you wouldremove the royal family awayfrom those key sites,” said DaiDavies, the former head ofroyal protection at theMetropolitan Police.

“Where and how they willevacuate them is top secret andI can’t discuss it. This is a mea-sure that is extremely unlikelyto come to pass. (But) thepowers-that-be need to havecontingency plans for any even-tuality,” he said.

Originally codenamed‘Operation Candid’, plans weredrawn up for the Queen to beevacuated to sea on the royalyacht Britannia if the SovietUnion launched a nuclearattack.

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The Taliban said on Sundayit will send a delegation to

Russia for a rare meeting withAfghan Opposition leaders,just days after peace talks withthe United States that exclud-ed the Kabul Government.

The two-day sit-down inMoscow, starting Tuesday, willbe attended by some ofPresident Ashraf Ghani’s chiefpolitical rivals, but none of thegovernment envoys tasked withTaliban negotiations.

Ghani has appealed to theinsurgents to talk after beingfrozen out of six days of dis-cussions between the Talibanand the United States in Dohalast month that sealed the out-lines of a peace deal.

Instead the Taliban, whichrefuses to recognise Ghani’sgovernment, will sit down inMoscow with some of the pres-ident’s main opponents to dis-cuss the country’s future -- stir-ring frustrations in Kabul.

“It shows the peak ofdepression, and begging to ter-rorists,” said Amrullah Saleh,who is running as vice-presi-dent on Ghani’s ticket in elec-tions slated for July.

“A smile to the enemy is ablow to the national spirit,” heposted on his Facebook page

on Sunday.Among those who have

confirmed their attendance inMoscow is Haneef Atmar, whois running against Ghani in theelections. Former warlord AttaMuhammad Noor and formerAfghan president HamidKarzai -- both Ghani rivals --are also attending.

Noor on Sunday said themeeting was “a pathwaytowards strengthening thepeace efforts led by the US”while Atmar described it as “animportant step towards intra-Afghan peace talks”.

A government-appointedcouncil tasked with Talibanengagement said Sunday it wasnot invited to Moscow.

A senior Taliban officialtold AFP they would send adelegation, but described the meeting as non-political and “arranged by someorganizations based inMoscow”.

The Russian Embassy inKabul issued a statement lateSaturday on behalf of the“Afghan Society of Russia”. Thegroup said it had invited “influ-ential figures” to the dialoguein the President Hotel inMoscow. “We are ready to playour role in bringing peace toAfghanistan,” the statementread.

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The head of the UN missionin Yemen launched talks

between the Government andHuthi rebels aboard a boat inthe Red Sea on Sunday aimedat shoring up a ceasefire, a gov-ernment official said.

Retired Dutch GeneralPatrick Cammaert chaired themeeting aboard a UN vesseldocked off the coast of theflashpoint city of Hodeida afterthe rebels refused to hold talksin government-held areas, theofficial told AFP on conditionof anonymity.

The official said the meet-ing would address the imple-mentation of an agreementreached in Sweden inDecember that calls for a ceasefire in rebel-heldHodeida, a pullback of forcesfrom the port city and theopening of humanitarian cor-ridors.

The Red Sea port is theentry point for the bulk ofYemen’s imported goods andhumanitarian aid, providing alifeline to millions in the Arabworld’s poorest country.

The UN said in a statementthat the parties would resumediscussions on the Swedenagreement on Sunday.

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Tulsi Gabbard, the firstHindu US

Congresswoman, has official-ly launched her 2020 presi-dential campaign in Hawaii.

“It is this principle of ser-vice above self that is at theheart of every soldier, at theheart of every service member,and it is in this spirit that todayI announce my candidacy forPresident of the United Statesof America,” CNN quotedGabbard as saying said onSaturday at an event here.

“I will bring this soldier’sprinciples to the White House,restoring the values of dignity,honour and respect to thepresidency and above all else,love for our people and love forour country.

“I ask you to join me, joinme in putting this spirit, thisspirit of service above self at theforefront and to stand upagainst the forces of greed andcorruption.

“The road ahead will notbe easy. The battles will betough. The obstacles great, butI know when we stand unitedby our love for our people andfor our country, there is noobstacle we cannot overcome.There is no battle we cannot

win,” said Gabbard, who is notof Indian descent but comesfrom a Hindu family in Hawaii.

The official launch of the37-year-old four-termDemocratic congresswoman’scampaign gives her presidentialbid a chance at a reset afterweeks of discord heading intothe announcement.

Gabbard, an Iraq War vet-eran who gained nationalprominence in 2016 as an out-spoken supporter of VermontSenator Bernie Sanders’ 2016campaign, will run forPresident as an anti-interven-tionalist Democrat who sup-ports a populist economicagenda.

While the Congresswomanhas highlighted health careaccess, criminal justice reformand climate change as key plat-form issues for her presidentialrun, her tenure in Congress hasbeen defined by her anti-inter-ventionist foreign policy posi-tions.

Gabbard, who sits on theHouse Armed ServicesCommittee, is the only militaryveteran to declare her candi-dacy and could be relying onher two tours in the MiddleEast to differentiate her frommany Democratic presidentialcandidates.

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At the heart of Apple’s shocking FaceTime bug,which allowed just about anyone to turn an

iPhone into a live microphone, stands a 14-year-old boy who stumbled upon the eavesdroppingflaw more than a week before Apple took action.

“The thing that surprised me the most wasthat this glitch happened in the first place,” saidGrant Thompson, a high school freshman inTucson, Arizona. “I’m only 14 and I found it byaccident, instead of the people at Apple that getpaid to find glitches.”

Not only that, but Grant and his mom saidthey spent a week unsuccessfully trying to getApple to do something about the bug in itsFaceTime group-chatting feature. The bugallowed callers to activate another person’smicrophone remotely even before the person hasaccepted or rejected the call.

“It took nine days for us to get a response,”he said. “My mom contacted them almost everysingle day through email, calling, faxing.” Of thefax, he jokes, “I’m not even sure what that is. It’sprobably older than I am.”

This eavesdropping scare is over now thatApple has disabled group chats, but the problemcould dog the company for much longer. NewYork state officials have opened a consumer rightsinvestigation. Others are raising questions abouthow long it took Apple to address the bug.

Apple thanked the Thompsons as itannounced that it has identified a fix and willrelease it next week. FaceTime group chatting willresume then.

Grant, a straight-A student who plays bas-ketball, does community volunteering andenjoys the video game “Fortnite,” was callingfriends to play the game when he discovered theflaw.

“If a 14-year-old kid discovered it, I wonderhow many other people discovered it,” said ChrisWysopal, chief technology officer with thesecurity firm Veracode.

Apple hasn’t said whether it has records thatcould answer the question.

Friday’s statement said Apple’s engineersworked quickly once it got the details needed toreproduce the bug. Although Apple didn’tacknowledge a delay, the company said it was“committed to improving the process by whichwe receive and escalate these reports, in orderto get them to the right people as fast as possi-ble.”

The company — at first widely praised forits swift response — could come under increasedscrutiny as regulators seek to learn more aboutthe vulnerability.

New York Attorney General Letitia Jamesand Gov. Andrew Cuomo said that they’re inves-tigating “Apple’s failure to warn consumers aboutthe FaceTime bug and slow response to address-ing the issue.”

They said the bug jeopardised the privacyof consumers. James said her office’s review will

include a “thorough investigation into Apple’sresponse.”

Last October, Apple introduced the 32-per-son video conferencing feature for iPhones, iPadsand Macs. With the bug, a FaceTime group-chatuser calling another Apple device could hearaudio — even if the receiver didn’t accept the call.The bug was triggered when callers turned a reg-ular FaceTime call into a group chat, makingFaceTime think the receiver had accepted thechat.

In Grant’s case, he had just gotten his Xboxready and called to invite a friend, Nathan, to play“Fortnite” with him online.

“You can swipe up and add another person,so I added another friend of mine, Diego, to seeif he also wanted to play,” he said. “But as soonas I added Diego, it forced Nathan to respond.”

They were shocked at first, then tried torepeat the bug and it happened every time, hesaid.

His mother, Michele Thompson, said shestarted trying to reach Apple the next day.

“They could have tested it within two min-utes, realised it was true and brought it up thechain at Apple,” said Thompson, who works asan attorney. “There needs to be a better processfor the average citizen to report things like this.And a timelier response.”

She eventually reached someone whoadvised that she could register as a softwaredeveloper to submit the bug.

Such reports can sometimes lead to “bugbounties” so that those who discover a flaw canget a financial reward. The family hoped Grantcould receive such an award, or at least somecredit, for his discovery.

“Every day he would ask me, ‘Did we hearfrom Apple yet?’ she said.

The family tried reaching Apple throughmultiple channels. They left comments onTwitter, one of them directed to CEO Tim Cook,and uploaded a video to walk Apple engineersthrough the problem. But it wasn’t until a techblog reported the flaw earlier this week — lead-ing many people to experiment with the spy-ing bug themselves — that Apple took theunusual measure of temporarily shutting downthe group-chat feature.

Apple has declined to say when it learnedabout the problem. The company also would-n’t say if it has logs that could show if anyonetook advantage of the bug before it became pub-licly known this week. The company reached outto the Thompson family offering to give somepublic credit for their efforts.

“It would be cool to just have Apple saythanks to me,” Grant Thompson said beforeFriday’s announcement from Apple. “And ofcourse, the bug bounty, that would be pretty awe-some to get, but as long as we got rid of this pret-ty groundbreaking bug, and Apple said thankyou, that would be pretty cool.”

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Time becomes an illusionwhen one enters the IndiaArt Fair. You don’t want to

leave especially, when you are sur-rounded by a plethora of creativ-ity and colours from across theworld. It’s appeasing to see howthe contemporary art scene hasevolved in the country and todayhas an immense global presence.The fair is the right place to dis-cover the reach of the contempo-rary Indian art market across theglobe.

There are more than 75exhibitors from across Indian andinternational cities, many of themfirst-timers.

Taking a walk through thefair, the first first-timer we cameacross was Gallery Palais de Seoulfrom Korea that featured twoKorean contemporary artists, KimDeok Han and Han Kyu Nam.Using traditional techniques fromtheir country and an Oriental lineof thought, artist Kim has con-structed his own world that notonly digs into the past but alsoreveals the present world. Theconcept of repeated brush strokesin his work implied the record oftime and space, representing AnOriental Line. While he derives hisinspirations from eastern ideolo-gies, artist Han’s An Alien of NewYork combines both Oriental andWestern painting techniques.

Next came Gallery Grosvenor

from London, which has beenshowcasing in India for the pastnine years now. Its directorCharles Moore believed thatIndian art market is rising to beone of the “biggest” in the world.He said that they had been show-casing in India since they repre-sent many Indian artists likeSyed Haider Raza, BhupenKhakhar, Krishen Khanna,

among others including someSouth Asian and especially,Pakistani artists too.

Gallery Arario from Koreawas also a first-time exhibitor atthe fair. A spokesperson elaborat-ed upon the reason why theyzeroed down on India to repre-sent their gallery, “India is mas-sive, especially when it comes toart. We represent many Indian

and Southeast Asian artists andhad never discovered the coun-try’s market so closely. Peoplevalue art that is rare.”

Moving ahead, artistAlexander Gorlizki’s works onpaper combined together diverseelements like hand-painted fig-ures, ornamental and textile pat-terns, as well as photographs andmagazine pages. His composi-

tions ranged from geometricabstraction to loosely-narrativescenes offering a view into the lay-ered worlds where Eastern andWestern iconographies and his-torical references are re-contextu-alised. His works are inspired bythe Indian Mughlai miniaturestyle and also from the megacityof New York.

Artist Ghulam Mohammadfrom Kacchi in Balochistan,Pakistan, brought together theconception of reality and fiction,which for him appears hand-in-hand. He creates artwork throughpasting entangled letters of Urduand Persian languages. The lettersform a channel or bridge like thetraditional Hashiya or window.He believes that every letter hasits own border that initiates com-munication. “There is a commu-nication that can only be achievedfrom a defined border or dis-tance.”

James Green from DavidZwirner said, “We had come forthe fair last year as well becauseIndian buyers had been showinga lot of interest in the artists thatwe deal in. Our belief was well-founded. Not only did we do a fairamount of business but we havealso been able to build long-termrelationships which have endured.This prompted us to come backthis time too.”

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Eisner-winning comic, TheUmbrella Academy features EllenPage, Mary J Blige and a stellarensemble cast.

Reunited by their father’sdeath, estranged siblings withextraordinary powers uncovershocking family secrets — anda looming threat to humanity.

The series focusses on a family’s emotional baggage thatcomes from issues like growing up with the cold, unlovingHargreeves as their so-called father, a robot maid who fakes beingtheir mother, and the realities of adulthood slamming into kidswith stunted emotional development. As a result, the kids’ firstreunion in years, brought on by the death of Daddy Hargreeves,is a tense affair.

The series premieres on February 15 on Netflix.

��#������������An architect who’s skeptical of all things romantic sudden-

ly wakes up in a rom-com world where everything is eerily per-fect. Starring Priyanka Chopra, Rebel Wilson and Liam

Hemsworth, Isn’t it Romanticwill be Priyanka’s thirdHollywood venture. It is amodern-day, sarcastic takeon rom-coms. It is the storyof a 25-year-old architectNatalie (Rebel Wilson), whohates rom-coms but lives inone after a freaking accident.Her only way out is to find

her true love which wouldn’t be easy. Priyanka Chopra plays therole of Isabella, a yoga ambassador.

The film, that opens in American theatres on February 13,will release in India on February 28 on Netflix.

�?��4�������������00With the series tracked to be a huge hit (estimated over 40

million households watching the show within the first fourweeks), Netflix has officially announced a second season for theshow, Sex Education. The serieshas been renewed for eightepisodes.

Season two is slated to beginproduction this spring in theUK. Actors Gillian Anderson,Asa Butterfield, Emma Mackey,Ncuti Gatwa, Aimee-Lou Wood,Connor Swindells, KedarWilliams-Stirling, Tanya Reynolds and Patricia Allison are setto reprise their roles. Creator Laurie Nunn will return as cre-ator and executive producer with Jamie Campbell set to exec-utive produce alongside Nunn.

About the recommission, series creator Laurie Nunn said,“The reception to series one has been so exciting. Seeing howpeople across the world have connected to characters that beganas ideas in my head is incredible. I’m hugely grateful to everyperson that has taken the time to watch the series, and I can’twait to continue this amazing journey.”

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We all dream of a better world where there ispeace, happiness and harmony, don’t we ? Noone wants degradation of environment, loss

of human lives due to wars and murders, corrosion ofhuman spirit by crime and corruption, dehumanisa-tion through poverty and troublesome social, econom-ic and political conditions, embroiled with high ten-sion and turmoil that drain human energy and makelife miserable.

On the contrary, all of us would prefer life to becharacterised by harmony and health, well being andwealth as well as happiness and purity. But the ques-tion is, what are those values and how can such a socio-politico-economic system be established which hasthem so as to enhance human experience and enablemen and women to have such a lifestyle that can makesuch a society viable?

Looking around, it can be said that much of theconflict in the society today, is due to lack or absenceof tolerance.Yes, it is tolerance of difference in views,diversity of religious beliefs and cultures, plurality ofraces and nations that brings about unity and co-oper-ation and that, in turn, leads to making concertedefforts for the amelioration of the miserable conditionof the world. But open-mindedness or unity cannotexist or survive alone. In fact, no value or virtue canstand alone and by itself. In case of liberalism, thereis either some common purpose that holds people inunity or there is an urgent common need, waiting tobe fulfilled, that impels or compels people to tolerateeach other. But even if there is a common purpose andneed, tolerance becomes shaky, weak, emaciated andeven dead if there is suspicion about a person’s motivesor a doubt about his intentions or even an awarenessof a lack of human values like honesty, sincerity andsympathy and, above all, lack of the spirit of co-exis-tence and fellow-feeling in the person.

In our lifetime, we come across many variables andvariants and one requires spiritual strength to toler-ate those who have violence, obsession and inhumantendencies as their constant and inseparable compan-ions. Tolerance is easy where one is confronted withcivilised and wise people even if the latter are one’s bit-ter critics or opponents but one has to have a higherdegree of open-mindedness if one is confronted withpeople who are compulsive liars, vile and wicked andfor this, one is required to develop the supportive val-ues of good-will, patience, calmness and love. Our pre-sent sorry state is the result of neglect or violation ofthose values. We have gradually lost the human aspectof our life and have become more or less likemachines, as a result of which there is no spirit offriendship, fellow-feeling and love in our life.

Our knowledge of science, technology, communi-cation or managerial skills and more has not been ableto bring inner happiness because our level of honesty,sincerity, cordiality, fellow-feeling, fair dealing, duty,discipline and mutual trust are falling rapidly. In otherwords there has been an erosion of social, moral andfamily values. It is not that science and technology ormanagement skills that have caused our present suf-ferings. On the other hand, it is the fall in the stan-dards of morality that has prevented even science andtechnology and management or administrative abil-ity from giving us their full benefits.

Moreover, it is not that people do not know thatmoral values are necessary to build a happy and peace-ful society. People wish to have moral qualities in theirlife but they don’t have that spiritual knowledge thatwould enable them to follow these values successful-ly nor do they know that kind of meditation whichwould make the values stay in them and give them adeep experience of peace and happiness. Thus, the needof the hour is that we create a mass awareness amongpeople about values like tolerance, humility, mutualrespect in order to realise our dream of a world wherethere is peace, happiness and harmony.

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New studies havefound that air pol-lution and itsadverse effect onan individual can

also result in a lack of sleep.High level of Air Quality Index(AQI) can indirectly result in anuneven sleep cycle. ChronicSleep Deprivation can, in turn,create many other health-relat-ed problems. Not getting sleepenough doesn’t just reduce aperson’s performance but alsoincreases the incidents of unex-pected mood swings during theday.

Sleep apnea is a phenome-non in which breathing stops asyou sleep. Air pollution hasbecome a major cause of the risein particulate matter which issmaller than 2.5 microns. Theseparticles go directly into the res-piratory tract and increase therisk of major respiratory infec-tions that can cause heart-attacks during sleep. Chronicobstructive disease and otherstrokes also get amped onaccount of sleep disorders.

While people have nowbecome familiar with the dis-eases that are caused by the riseof air pollution, there is still a lotthat needs to be understood toput it into persepective as amajor cause of sleep-disorder.Antonella Zanobetti, a seniorresearch scientist at the HarvardSchool of Public Health, who isalso the first one to study thelink between air pollution andsleeping disorder has said, “Withthis study, we found air pollu-tion also increases the risk ofpoor sleep.”

The studies have found that

an increase in air pollution hasalso disturbed the way a personbreathes while they sleep. Sleep,which is basically a state whereonly the subconscious mind isactive, is affected when breath-ing is uneven. It can also lead tolow blood oxygen levels whichcan reduce quality sleep whereyou wake up frequently duringthe night.

It has also been found thatanother major cause of insomnia

is constant exposure to artificiallight during night. Also termedas light pollution, this exposurecan lead to teary-eyes and lack ofproper retinal function. Air pol-lution, on the other hand, canalso lead to the same results if notchecked. They can indirectlychange the body clock when peo-ple delay the time that theychoose to sleep from their usualone.

In major cities in India, peo-

ple, especially the younger lot,who go out for studies or forwork even during the day havebeen found to suffer from sleep-ing problems. Most of themcomplain that more than 80 percent of their time in bed isreduced to being wide awakerather than getting a good night’speaceful sleep. Others have alsonoted that their sleep quality hasreduced considerably when theyhave gone out of their houses for

prolonged periods during theday.

Air pollution is a seriousthreat to everyone. Quality sleepcould suffer major setbacks evenin people who have been healthyall their life. Controlling sleepinghours is important for a person’ssanity and air pollution shouldnever be the cause for losing it.

(The author is Rohit Bansal,founder of an environmentalhealth service.)

Dropping air quality and increas-ing pollution in the metropoli-tan cities of the country is

becoming a major concern among theenvironmentalists and the govern-ment. Despite several policies beingdevised and tested, it has not accruedto much change. The helplessness ofgovernment policies to curb the pollu-tion probably implies that the changehas to start from home. Educating peo-ple is the only way to take the first steptowards curbing the pollution. We allhave to contribute to it, to substantiateand complement the actions beingtaken by the government.

In this scenario of taking action athome, children in school or collegehave to take a central position. Thesestudents are the future of the countryand change has to emanate from them.They may not be able to step out andbecome environmental activists, how-ever they could start with small actions.Here are some ways that these studentscan contribute in clearing up the air

Talk to your parents about it Since students are in the learning

phase, the criticality of the environmen-tal hazards is fresher for you than yourparents who are busy with their hecticwork schedules. Talk to your friends,parents, neighbours, teachers and everypossible person. Talking is the first steptowards spreading awareness.

Spread awareness about smallchanges

Your neighbourhood and yourvicinity are your first ground to bringabout a change. Tell people aboutsmall changes like sharing the car, stop-ping the engine when waiting at a redlight, not firing crackers, or using andburning plastic are small changes thatcan be easily incorporated in daily life.As it is said, a big change comes withsmall steps. If you also want to go some-where, try and walk or use a bicycle

since cars are a major source of pollu-tion. Do not let your parents take outcars for you, if it is a small distancewhich can be covered over foot or bicy-cle.

Go eco-friendlyIf children inculcate the habit of

using eco-friendly products early, it canhelp a long way. The first thing is to

avoid using plastic as much as you can.Did you know one million sea birdsand 100,000 marine mammals dieeach year because of plastic pollutionin our oceans? Also, plastic containadditives that can easily contaminatethe air in our environment. Moreover,it is extremely hazardous when it isburned. When plastic is produced, it’smade from toxic materials such as ben-zene and vinyl hydrochloride. This,when burnt, can cause life-threateningdiseases like cancer and asthma.

In your school or college, usestainless steel drinking bottles insteadof plastic ones. Use reusable coffee cups,recycled toilet tissue and biodegradablewaste bags and take a step towards keep-

ing your environment pollution free.

Focus on organic foodIf your parents are not aware of the

importance of organic food, teachthem and ask them to get it at home,as much as possible. Organic fooddoesn’t contain any kind of pesticide oruse chemicals that harm the land, airor water. A research from theUniversity of Virginia in collaborationwith The Organic Center shows thatorganic farming can help in the reduc-tion of nitrogen pollution on a globalscale. Also, when the stubble is burntafter harvesting, the chemicals used ininorganic farming cause even more airpollution as dangerous gases.

Promote tree plantationStudents are taught since the begin-

ning of their schools that more thetrees, more the fresh oxygen and lessthe pollution. It is time to implementthat. Get children of your building orsociety together and start plantingone tree at every house and also in thecorners of nearby roads or areas. Thissmall step will go a long way in bring-ing down the pollution.

Spread awareness about quittingsmoking

Smoking is critical factor when itcomes to air pollution. A cigarette’ssmoke causes 10 times more air pollu-tion than a diesel car exhaust. If you seesomeone smoking, whether it is in yourfamily or in your surroundings, do nothesitate from asking them to quit. Tellthem about the health and environ-mental hazards that the habit comeswith.

Air pollution should be a concernfor all and curbing it should thus be theresponsibility of all. We all shouldpledge to give every small bit to bringabout a huge change.

(The author is Vineet P Yadav, asocial activist and anthropologist.)

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Cristiano Ronaldo scored twice butchampions Juventus had to set-

tle for a point as a late Gervinho dou-ble snatched a 3-3 draw after pro-moted Parma staged an impressivecomeback in Serie A on Saturday.

Juventus' dropped points allowedNapoli to cut the gap on the leadersto nine points after a confident 3-0win over Sampdoria.

Massimiliano Allegri's side hadalready had their confidence shakenafter a 3-0 defeat to Atalanta shatteredtheir hopes of winning a fifth straightCoppa Italia.

Saturday's draw was not the

response Allegri had called for aheadof their Champions League last 16first leg tie against Atletico Madrid onFebruary 20.

"I'm happy for the goals but notthe result," said Ronaldo.

"Parma didn't do anything spe-cial, they waited for us to make a mis-take.

"But we're not worried; we knowit will be a great season for Juventus."

Juve, hit by injuries to defend-ers Leonardo Bonucci, GiorgioChiellini and Andrea Barzagli, have

now conceded six goals in their lasttwo matches.

But they still have a comfortablenine-point lead over Napoli withInter Milan 20 points behindin third.

"It doesn't change any-thing, but we must not takeanything for granted," saidAllegri.

Sami Khedira rattled thepost twice, before Ronaldo openedthe scoring after 36 minutes withDaniele Rugani again scoring for the

hosts on 62 minutes.An Antonino Barilla header

clawed one back for Parma two min-utes later before Ronaldo completedhis brace to return to the top of theSerie A goalscorers' chart with 17.

But Ivorian Gervinho threw hisside a lifeline on 74 minutes and

grabbed a point at the death forParma who remains 12th in thetable, 31 points behind Juventus.

"At least we satisfied those whocomplained we weren't entertain-ing," said Allegri.

"But the beautiful footballdoesn't pay off, at the end of the dayyou have got to just kick it away fromyour goal."

����� �)5# 6�"6.

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer remainsunbeaten 10 games into hiscaretaker reign of Manchester

United as the rejuvenated MarcusRashford and Paul Pogba combinedto earn a 1-0 win at Leicester onSunday to close in on the PremierLeague top four.

Rashford blasted home his sixthgoal since Solskjaer took chargeafter taking an exquisite touch tocontrol Pogba's lofted pass andUnited held out to move aboveArsenal into fifth and within twopoints of fourth-placed Chelsea.

A 2-2 draw at home to Burnleyin midweek is the only matchSolskjaer has failed to win and muchof that form is owed to the turn-around in both Rashford and Pogba'sroles since Mourinho was sacked in

December with United11 points adrift of thetop four.

Solskjaer againchose to leave RomeluLukaku on the substi-tutes ' bench, withRashford preferred ashis central forward.

The England striker took justnine minutes to respond with thecrucial goal, having already misseda good chance when he headed overwhen unmarked from a handy crossby Nemanja Matic.

Rashford's confidence was clear-ly unaffected, as he took just fourminutes to respond in style. RicardoPereira was the guilty party forLeicester with a dangerous ball thatwas intercepted by Pogba.

The Frenchman proceeded todisplay his deftness of his touch with

a beautiful pass that was lofted overthe Leicester backline for Rashfordto run onto and he did the rest, tak-ing a touch before drilling a low shot

past a helpless Kasper Schmeichel.However, as is often the case on

the road, United relied on goalkeeperDavid de Gea for all three points asa Leicester side that have often trou-bled the top six this season improvedafter half-time.

Twice the Spaniard stood tall todeny Jamie Vardy, but De Gea's bestsave came from Rachid Ghezzal'sfree-kick that arrowed towards thetop corner.

A Ghezzal goal would have beenrich vindication for Leicester boss

Claude Puel who was met withchants of "you don't know whatyou're doing" from his own fans forreplacing James Maddison with theAlgerian just after the hour mark.

Jonny Evans and Harry Maguirealso failed to hit the target as theFoxes laid seige towards the Unitedgoal in search of an equaliser thatnever came to pile more pressure onthe under-fire Puel.

His stock at Leicester remains onthe slide but Solskjaer's at OldTrafford continues to soar.

����� $).#6435)

Lionel Messi scored in aninth consecutive match

but his latest double onSaturday was only enough toearn Barcelona a 2-2 drawagainst Valencia.

Messi instigated anotherBarca comeback at the CampNou before placing an injurydoubt over his availability forWednesday's Copa del ReyClasico against Real Madrid.

Ernesto Valverde con-firmed after the game his cap-tain had felt a "small problem"but insisted it is nothing seri-ous.

Valverde is stillunlikely to take anyrisks given Barcelona'stesting month ahead,even if Messi's absence,however brief, wouldbe a blow, particularly while heis in such irresistible form.

Kevin Gameiro and DaniParejo's penalty gave Valenciaa surprise two-goal lead butMessi pulled one back with hisown spot-kick before curlingin a brilliant equaliser with 26minutes left.

After their stunning turn-around against Sevilla in mid-week, Barca looked destinedagain to finish the job, but atthe end of a breathless contest,Valencia had held on for apoint.

"When you don't win, youalways feel you have missedsomething," Valverde said. "Butthe league is long and there arematches where you come upagainst a good team. This wasone of those."

Messi's 20th and 21stleague goals of the seasonleave his team six points clearof Atletico Madrid and 11with Real Madrid.

After eight consecu-tive Barcelona wins in LaLiga, this result perhapsoffered the chasing pack alittle encouragement at

least.Real could inflict further

disruption themselves. Thefirst leg of the Copa del Reysemi-finals on Wednesday willbe the first of three Clasicos ina month. The latter two will beback-to-back, within four days.

But Messi fit and in thissort of form means any confi-dence Real feel comes with anasterisk.

His 12 goals in his last ninegames is the same number thewhole Valencia squad man-aged in their first 15 leaguematches. Valencia were 15th inDecember, with only threewins, and their coachMarcelino was under pres-sure, just six months after pro-pelling them back into theChampions League.

The club kept faith andresults have improved. Theyhave now lost only one oftheir last seven matches andare within sight of the top four.

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Skipper Jaydev Unadkat removed run-machine Wasim Jaffer with a gem of

a delivery as Saurashtra dominated theopening day of the Ranji Trophy final byreducing defending champions Vidarbhato 200 for seven on Sunday.

It proved to be a good toss to lose forSaurashtra, who succeeded in removingthe most impactful Vidarbha batsmen —Jaffer (23) and captain Faiz Fazal (16) —cheaply.

Saurashtra bowlers, especiallyUnadkat (2/20) and his pace colleagueChetan Sakariya (1/13), kept the rivalbatsmen on a tight leash.

Unadkat was consistently accuratewith his nagging line and length whileSakariya swung the ball and troubled thebatsmen with movement.

The defending champions struggledto create partnerships and had it not beenfor the 57-run seventh-wicket standbetween Akshay Wadkar (45) and AkshayKarnewar (31 batting), they would havebeen in more mess.

The batsmen were too circumspect,save Ganesh Satish (32) and Wadkar, whowent for their shots in their small yet cru-cial innings. Mohit Kale (35 of 126 balls)too got a start but did not build on that.

Batting at number eight, Karnewar

produced some lusty hits in a sensibleknock in the final session.

Saurashtra would fancy their chancesfrom here on, having finishedrunners-up twice in the last sevenseasons.

Sakariya got only one wicket(he was unlucky not to get Jafferlbw) and that too towards the fag

end but was easily the best bowler of theday. In 14 testing overs he bowled, thediminutive pacer conceded just 13 runs.

Prerak Mankad (1/27),Dharmendraisnh Jadeja (1/72),and Kamlesh Makwana (1/46)took one wicket apiece.

However, all the action unfold-ed before empty stands despite it

being a Sunday, with a handful of schoolstudents cheering for the home side, oftenteasing the fielders in the deep.

Left-arm pacer Sakariya got the ballto swing early on, troubling R Sanjay (2)while Unadkat asked a few questions tohis counterpart Fazal with some swingand bounce.

Sakariya was rewarded when Sanjaywent for a lazy drive and just managed anedge, which was taken by Arpit Vasavadain first slip.

Fazal too went back soon, though, ina bizarre dismissal. He rather gifted hiswicket by slowing down a few steps awayfrom the crease, thinking the throw fromthe deep is going towards the other end.

Sakariya also troubled Jaffer withmoving ball and seemed to have caughtthe king of domestic cricket plumb butthe vociferous appeal did not move theumpire.

Medium pacer Mankad and left-armspinner Jadeja replaced the two openingbowlers but it was skipper Unadkat whodealt another blow to the hosts.

Just before the lunch, Unadkatbrought himself into the attack andstruck big. He got one move away fromJaffer, who, without moving his feet, fishedand edged it to wicket-keeper. Unadkatjumped with joy and his fist-pumping cel-ebration showed what the wicket meant

to his side.The innings moved at a snail's pace

with hosts taking lunch at 67 for three in33 overs.

Kale and Ganesh Satish resumed andsurprisingly Unadkat did not bowl in thebeginning of the second session. Jadejacreated an opportunity when Kale flashedone hard to edge it behind but first slipHarvik Desai reacted late to see the ballpass him.

However, after some time Kale liter-ally steered one from off-spinnerMakwana to first slip and Desai did notmiss the chance this time.

For Vidarbha, Satish batted with a lotof positive intent. He drove the ball whenit was pitched up and did not mind goingfor cuts behind the square on back-foot.He also used his feet against spinners,playing a crucial role in keeping theVidarbha innings together.

Wicketkeeper Wadkar, who hadscored 98 against Uttarakhand in thequarterfinal at this venue, too offeredgood resistance as the hosts took tea at130 for four.

Mankad got rid of Satish whileJadeja did not let Aditya Sarwate open hisaccount in the final session.

Sakariya ended the resistance fromWadkar and Karnewar by removing theformer, three overs before stumps.

������35)#3

Cesc Fabregas scored his first goalsince joining Monaco from

Chelsea on Saturday and it proved acrucial one as it earned his troublednew employers a precious 2-1 winover Toulouse.

The Spain international wassigned by Thierry Henry in mid-January only for his former Arsenalteammate to be axed as Monaco bossdays later.

Back came Leonard Jardim, threemonths after his own sacking, and thePortuguese manager was rewardedwith Monaco's first home win of the season.

The ailing 2017 champions went into an early lead whenGelson Martins, on loan from Atletico Madrid, provided Russiainternational Aleksandr Golovin with the assist to score on acounter attack.

Christopher Jullien headed Toulouse back level just fourminutes later but Martins once again proved his worth by set-ting up Fabregas for the 62nd minute winner.

This fourth win of a harrowing campaign lifted Monaco up a place tothird from bottom on 18 points.

"Everyone knows about the past, it's tough not to have won at home upto now," said Jardim.

"That's why the players are happy, it's they who have displayed their skill."Later Saturday, Mario Balotelli started for Marseille for the first time since

joining from Nice but the Italy striker's presence could not prevent RudiGarcia's side suffering a 2-1 loss at promoted Reims, the ninth defeat thisseason for the south coast side.

Goals from Tristan Dingome and South Korean Suk Hyun-Jun — whoscored seconds after coming on as a substitute — had the hosts firmly incommand. A desperate Marseille threw everything at the Reims goal andCameroon striker Clinton Njie cut the deficit four minutes from time beforehis side were unable to get an equaliser.

����� �*.#�)��

Indian women's hockey team dished outa spirited performance to notch up a

stunning 3-0 victory against World cupSilver medallists Ireland in their secondand final friendly to end their tour of Spainon a high here on Sunday.

India had drawn the first match 1-1against Ireland on Saturday.

India's attacking prowess stretched theIrish defenders right from the start as theforwardline made potential forays into thestriking circle.

Navjot Kaur found the first break-through for India when she converted asplendid field goal in the 13th minute tohelp India take a 1-0 lead.

An Indian infringement in the secondquarter saw Ireland being awarded a PCbut it was well-saved by India's defence.

In the 26th minute, a timely assist bythe experienced Deep Grace Ekka helped

Reena Khokar double India's lead to 2-0ahead of the 10-minute half-time break.

India continued to keep up a disciplinestructure but in the melee gave away a PCto Ireland only minutes into the third quar-ter. But India's strong defence kept an Irishgoal at bay.

The final quarter saw India set up a

powerful attack that fetched them a PCwhich was well-converted by Gurjit Kaurwho was the highest goal scorer for Indiain this Tour.

"I am proud of the team because play-ing six matches in nine days can be verydifficult and the last two matches we haveplayed without our skipper Rani who hasa shoulder strain," said an elated SjoerdMarijne, Chief coach of the Indianwomen's hockey team.

"Today we were particularly good aswe controlled the whole match and hadthem in our circle only six times. We haveplayed good structure, with good disci-plined hockey.

"One of the things we have improvedin this tour is personal leadership and tak-ing responsibility. I am not only seeing thescore, it's good to win 3-0 but I am happywith individual performances."

Earlier, India had levelled the four-match series against hosts Spain.

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Eden Hazard believes GonzaloHiguain's first two goals for

Chelsea in Saturday's 5-0 rout ofHuddersfield are just the beginningfor the Argentine ace, with whom heforesees a potentially lethal part-nership in the Premier League runin.

The Belgian also scored a dou-ble against the Terriers as MaurizioSarri's men bounced back from a 4-0 thrashing at the hands ofBournemouth in midweek thatplunged the Italian's future intoquestion.

Sarri worked with Higuain whenthe Argentine scored a record 36Serie A goals in a single season atNapoli.

And Higuain showed why hehas a stellar scoring record over thepast decade in Spanish and Italianfootball with two excellent finishesto open his Premier League account.

"He's a great striker. He's a bitless of a target man than (Olivier)Giroud, but he can hold the ball, hecan play one touches. He's intelli-

gent," said Hazard."In the box he's unbelievable. He

will score more goals." Victory lift-ed Chelsea back into the top fourabove Arsenal.

However, Chelsea face theirown daunting run of fixtures inFebruary with two clashes againstCity in the Premier League nextweekend and the League Cup finalas well as FA Cup tie againstManchester United and Tottenhamvisiting Stamford Bridge at the endof the month.

"This month is going to behard," admitted Hazard. "But we areChelsea. We can beat everyone if wewant."

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Kemar Roach and cap-tain Jason Holder led

another rout of the Englandbatting line-up as the WestIndies completed a crush-ing series-clinching 10-wicket victory after tea onthe third day of the secondTest at the Sir VivianRichards Stadium inAntigua on Saturday.

Trailing by 119 runs atthe start of the secondinnings after Darren Bravo'sultra-patient half-centuryextended the West Indiesfirst innings total to 306 inthe morning, England were

demolished for 132 withRoach and Holder claimingfour wickets each.

Openers KraiggBrathwaite and JohnCampbell then enjoyed theformality of knocking offthe 14 runs required for vic-tory in 2.1 overs, Campbellsealing the result in style byhoisting James Andersonfor six over midwicket.

Following on a 381-runhammering of the visitorsin the first Test in Barbadosa week earlier, the resultgave the West Indies theseries 2-0 with the finalmatch of the rubber start-ing next from Saturday in

St Lucia.West Indies have also

reclaimed the WisdenTrophy, symbol of suprema-cy in Test series between thetwo teams, after almost 10years in England hands.

These two comprehen-sive victories also mark thefirst occasion since the 1994tour of the Caribbean thatthe West Indies have beat-en England in successiveTests.

"We're hungry for suc-cess," said a delightedHolder. "This group hasbeen together for a whileand we have been doingsome exceptional things.The way we ended last yearwas disappointing andeveryone wanted to turnthings around."

A dejected Englandcaptain Joe Root said: "It's

been frustrating. I thinkwe've been outperformedonce again and that's quitehard to take.

"As a bowling group Ithought we worked excep-tionally hard. Scoring under200 isn't going to win youmany games of cricket."

While "Man of theMatch"Roach (four for 52,match analysis of eight for82) and Holder (four for 43)claimed the main bowlinghonours, fellow pacerAlzarri Joseph's contribu-tion was especially signifi-cant given that he decidedto continue playing thematch despite the passing ofhis ailing mother, Sharon,early in the morning.

He claimed the wicketsof Root and Joe Denly justbefore the end of the after-noon session.

����� #)5$6..)

Usman Khawaja finally found formagain to stroke a fine century on

Sunday and steer Australia into a mas-sive lead over Sri Lanka as the touristsbattle to stay in the second Test atCanberra.

At stumps, the visitors were 17 with-out loss, chasing a huge 516 to win withtwo days remaining after Tim Painedeclared Australia's second innings at196 for three.

Dimuth Karunaratne and LahiruThirimanne were both unbeaten oneight, weathering some 30 minutesbefore bad light stopped play slightlyearly.

Sri Lanka had resumed the third dayat 123 for three and in a hostile morn-ing session lost four wickets and KusalPerera, who retired after being hit on thehead by a bouncer.

Their resistence folded in the secondover after lunch, with Mitchell Starc tak-ing five wickets to leave them trailing by319 after Australia's first innings 534 forfive declared.

Paine opted against the follow-on inAustralia's last Test batting opportuni-ty before the Ashes tour to England laterthis year.

Khawaja padded up knowing hisplace in that squad was in doubt aftermanaging a high-score of just 72 acrosssix Tests in a lacklustre summer.

He responded in emphatic fashion,smashing his eighth Test ton off 134balls. It was Australia's fourth century ofthe match after Joe Burns, Travis Head

and Kurtis Patterson reached the mile-stone in the first innings.

Paine declared with Khawaja on 101and Head not out 59, following his firstinnings 161.

In an incident-packed morning atManuka Oval, the ball was handed firstup to Jhye Richardson and Pat Cumminsand they responded with a slew ofbouncers.

Perera was hit flush on the helmetducking into a Richardson ball on 27.

The neck protector flew off and a SriLankan physio rushed to his aid. He con-tinued and added two more runs onlyto call the physio again four balls later.

Once again he opted to bat on butwas clearly feeling the effects and washelped off the field soon after. Hestayed at the ground monitored bymedics, but did not play again.

������� �� ����Ironically, the courageous

Karunaratne replaced him after beingdeclared fit again after being felled by abrutal bouncer on Saturday.

The opener returned on 46 andsmacked a four to bring up his 22nd Test50 before being caught at gully byPatterson off Starc after adding ninemore.

He was out just three balls after deSilva bizarrely hit his own wicket whileattempting a pull shot off Starc.

After lunch, Dilruwan Perera andFerndano lasted just eight more ballswith Starc doing the damage, endingwith 5-54 to silence his critics after a leanspell.

����� &644�5'"35�

India claimed their biggest serieswin on New Zealand soil, over-coming a disastrous start to earn a

hard fought 35-run win in the fifthODI on Sunday.

The 4-1 scoreline is the best thatindia have achieved in New Zealandacross formats since they stated tour-ing the country in 1967.

At 18 for four, India were headingtowards another sub-100 total beforethe middle-order batsmen foughtback to post a fighting total of 252. The98-run stand for the fifth wicketbetween Ambati Rayudu (90 off 113)and Vijay Shankar (45 off 64) was thehighlight of the middle-order fightback.

Hardik Pandya's 45 off 22 ballsalso went a long way in India postinga challenging target and his two wick-ets later on showed why he is such animportant member of the team.

New Zealand batsmen, includingskipper Kane Williamson (39), squan-dered their starts in the chase but thehome team remained in the contestuntil Jimmy Neesham (44 off 32) wasdismissed in the 37th over.

His freak run out, which waseffected by the ever so sharp MahendraSingh Dhoni from behind the stumps,came after lbw appeal was turneddown. New Zealand eventually endedwith 217 in 44.1 overs despite MattHenry's unbeaten 17 off 9 in the finalovers.

Leggie Yuvzendra Chahal tookthree timely wickets for India, con-ceding just 41 runs in 10 overs.

Irrespective of the game's out-come, Rayudu played one of the mostsignificant knocks of his career andmade a compelling claim for a WorldCup spot.

With top-four falling cheaplyagain, it looked Rohit's brave call ofbatting first backfired but Rayudu andShankar produced an innings-revivingstand under immense pressure.

Pacer Henry was the standoutbowler for the hosts, taking fourwickets for 35 runs while Trent Boultpicked up three for 39.

After being bowled out for a pal-try 92 in the fourth ODI, India had apoint to prove.

The ball swung at the WestpacStadium, like it did at Hamilton, andtroubled the Indian batsmen, includ-ing the experienced opening pair ofRohit and Shikhar Dhawan.

Boult, who took five wickets onThursday, and Henry swung the ballat express pace and shared two wick-ets each to leave India reeling at 18 forfour in seven overs.

It was a combination of top-classfast bowling and questionable shotselection that led to the top-order fail-ure. Rohit (2) was outdone by a beau-ty from Henry, the one that movedaway from the middle stump line todislodge the off-stump.

Dhoni (1) was bowled by Boult, offa peach of a delivery that swung backsharp and late to take the Indian wick-etkeeper's off-stump.

On the other hand, Dhawan (6)slashed one hard to be caught at thirdman while Shubman Gill (7), gettinghis second game of the series, scoopeda simple catch to the cover fielder.

Just when India looked down inthe dumps, Rayudu and and Shankarshowed admirable fight to weather thestorm and lead India's recovery.

The Tamil Nadu all-rounder wassent ahead of Kedar Jadhav at numbersix, indicating the team management'sfaith in his abilities. It was unfortunatefor Shankar to miss out on a well-deserved fifty as he got run out aftera mix-up with Rayudu.

Rayudu at the other end began toplay his strokes and hammered Colinde Grandhomme for two consecutive

boundaries to bring up his 10th ODIfifty. A little later, he smashed

Colin Munro for successivesixes before he perished while

trying to hit another oneout of the park. Pandyathen took the cen-trestage after Rayudu'sfall and once againshowed what he brings

to the table late theinnings.

Pandya's brutepower was on full dis-play when he

whacked leggie ToddAstle for three sixes inas many balls. The all-rounder did not even

spare the in-form Boult,pulling him over mid-wicket for another max-

imum. His cameo includ-ed two fours and five sixes.

����� &644�5'"35�

Stand-in skipper Rohit Sharma on Sunday said his side want-ed to bat in tough conditions as part of their preparation for

the upcoming World Cup and hence chose to take first strike inthe fifth ODI.

Rohit said despite knowing that the Westpac Stadium pitchwould be fast-bowling friendly with moisture on it, he decidedto bat first after winning the toss. His bold decision paid divi-dends as India won the match by 35 runs to clinch the series 4-1.

"I had a look (of the pitch) before the toss and knew that therewas moisture, which would be helpful for the fast bowlers ini-tially. As a team we wanted to see how we face the challengesbecause come the World Cup we will be put into those situations,so what then," Rohit said at the post-match conference.

"Yes, we lost four wickets upfront, there is a learning therefor us as how we should bat when the ball is swinging and con-ditions are not easy. The guys now know come the situation howto do it. The run rate was not great in first 30 overs but we stillmanaged to get to 250, which is a big positive," he added.

The 4-1 scoreline is India's biggest series win on New Zealandsoil across formats since they stated touring the country in 1967,and Rohit said it was a "massive" achievement.

"Coming here and beating New Zealand 4-1 is a massiveachievement. They play very good cricket, so it is a great takeaway for us. Last time we were thrashed 4-0. We didn't have apoint to prove but we just wanted to play good cricket, whichwe have been doing for the past 8-10 months now," Rohit said.

"New Zealand have got great balance. They bat deep and havea quality bowling line-up, we saw a bit of glimpse of that in lastgame where they challenged us, so for us 4-1 is a great achieve-ment."

On Sunday also, India were staring at another sub-100 totalafter being reduced to 18 for 4 before a middle-order fight backsaw them post 252.

Rayudu produced one of his best innings to help India posta competitive total and Rohit said it will boost his confidenceahead of the World Cup.

"It would be a massive confidence boost for him (Rayudu)to bat in that situation. At 18 for 4, you need to bail the teamout. He has been around for many years and he used his expe-rience well. He is looking very good and I just want him to con-tinue. We have five more games against Australia back home,so if he bats the way he batted, it would be good for us," he said.

"I won't be able to comment who would bat at No 4 in theWorld Cup but talking about the series, he can take a lot of con-fidence from the series, he finished off games for us."

Also praising Shankar, Rohit said, "Vijay batted brilliantlyand I'm disappointed that he got out unfortunately, he shouldhave got a 50 or even a 100 may be."

He also lauded the efforts of the bowlers for producing cru-cial breakthroughs.

"The wicket got flat at the end, but at one point it looked aneasy chase, but the bowling unit came together. Lot of peopleput their hands up and got us through," he said.

"It wasn't easy after losing four wickets at the start. Thought250 was a very good score on that pitch. Bowlers got crucial break-throughs at critical times. I couldn't ask for more," he added.

Rohit said the ODI series here helped them to have a lookat how the bowling combination work out without Jasprit Bumrah,who was rested for the series following the Australia tour.

"When you want to win games, you need a right balance, espe-cially when Bumrah is not here. Coming here and beating NZat home is never easy and they are a good travelling team as well.4-1 is a great achievement."

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Sachin Tendulkar has no hesitationin terming India as favourites

going into the World Cup but whatmakes him happier is the team's abil-ity to be competitive "in any part ofthe world and on any surface".

The Indian ODI team underVirat Kohli has won three bilateralaway series against South Africa (5-1), Australia (2-1) and New Zealand(4-1) with only defeat coming againstEngland.

"I have gone on record saying thatwe have a perfect balance in the teamwhere we will be competitive in anypart of the world or on any surface,"Tendulkar said.

"As far as our chances are con-cerned, I will not hesitate in sayingthat we are the favourites," saidTendulkar.

England, the World Cup hosts,had a torrid time against West Indiesin Tests but the ODI outfit will be adifferent proposition on their hometurf.

"It's all about getting the earlymomentum. My judgement on thetoughest contenders would beEngland, while New Zealand wouldbe the dark horse," he opined.

New Zealand may have been out-

played in the just concluded ODIseries but can prove to be a handfulin the mega event.

"I know New Zealand have strug-gled in this series but it's a good unit,one needs to be on their toes," he said.

The suspended duo of SteveSmith and David Warner will be backin international fold on March 29 andAustralia will be as dangerous as anyother team.

"I think Australia at full strength

will be a formidable side. With Smithand David Warner back in the teamand their other bowlers coming backinto the ODI squad, it will be a com-petitive side," said Tendulkar.

But a few bad overs could spelldoom for them as it happened dur-ing the recent series.

"But in one-day matches it's suchthat when you have a couple of badhours, 50 per cent of the match getsslipped away."

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