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T he All-India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIM- PLB) in a unanimous decision on Sunday decided to file a review petition against the Supreme Court’s November 9 verdict on the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid title suit. “We are not indulging in politics by deciding to file the review petition against the SC judgment. It’s our constitu- tional right under Article 25 of the Constitution,” AIMPLB secretary Zafaryab Jilani assert- ed while addressing a Press conference here on Sunday. “The Board has also cate- gorically refused to take five- acre land in Ayodhya in lieu of the mosque it is against Shariat law. The Board is of the view that there cannot be any alter- native to the mosque,” he said. Out of the total 51 mem- bers of the AIMPLB executive committee, 35-40 members attended the meeting and out of the five original plaintiffs in the case, three have given their written consent for filing the review petition, Jilani said. He said the review petition would be filed in the SC with- in the 30 days’ limit after the judgment. Jilani admitted that the Uttar Pradesh Sunni Central Waqf Board was also invited to the meeting but its representatives did not turn up. The Sunni Waqf Board on November 9 had announced that it would neither file a review nor curative petition against the apex court judg- ment. The Sunni Waqf Board is scheduled to meet here on November 26 to decide whether to accept the five acre given for the mosque. Jilani alleged that Iqbal Ansari, another original plain- tiff in the Ram Janmabhoomi- Babri Masjid title suit, was being pressurised by the Ayodhya district administra- tion not to give his consent for the review petition. “There were two issues before the AIMPLB executive, one, whether to file review peti- tion and, two, whether to accept the five acre for the mosque ordered by the SC. The execu- tive unanimously decided to file a review petition,” said Jilani, adding that the executive, after analysing the judgment, found that there were apparent errors in it. “We had not approached the SC for alternative land for the Babri Masjid but to fight for our ownership of the title of the disputed 2.77 acre at Ayodhya,” said Jilani. The executive felt that there are several contradictions in the court order and there are several points which are beyond comprehension and prima facie appear to be inap- propriate, he said. The AIMPLB has drawn ten major conclusions from the SC judgment and listed three points on which it concluded the verdict to be adverse. First, the SC accepted that the plac- ing of the idols of Lord Ram on December 22/23 1949 was unconstitutional hence how the idols were recognised as deity by the apex court when it is not acceptable as per the Hindu law. Second, the court accepted that the Babri mosque was under the possession of Muslims from 1857 to 1949 then how could the disputed land be given to the Hindu side representing the Ram Lala Virajmaan. Moreover, the AIMPLB said, “While exercising extra- ordinary powers under Article 142 of the Constitution and awarding the 2.77 acre to the temple side, the apex court did not consider Section 104 A of the Waqf Act, 1995 which restricts the exchange or trans- fer of the mosque land”. T he Winter Session of Parliament, beginning Monday, is expected to witness the ruling BJP going upfront on the Ram Temple and Rafale where it has earned an upper hand via Supreme Court rul- ings while the Congress, in a rear guard action, may try to put the Modi Government on the mat on the sliding econo- my, price rise, growing unem- ployment and the alleged act of “internationalising” Kashmir issue as also detention of lead- ers of Kashmir even after two and half months following abrogation of Article 370. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, meanwhile, on Sunday assured at the all-party meet- ing here before the com- mencement of the Winter Session that the Government is ready to discuss all issues, while the Opposition strongly raised Lok Sabha MP Farooq Abdullah’s detention and demanded that he be allowed to attend the House. However, there was no def- inite response from the Government, sources said. At the Government-con- vened meeting, the Opposition also demanded that the issues of economic slowdown, job loss and farm distress must be discussed during the Session, Congress leader in the Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said. In the meet- ing attended by 27 parties, Modi said most important job of the House is to discuss and debate, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi told reporters. The PM also said the forthcoming session should also be as productive as the last one, according to Joshi. The month-long Session, the second of the Modi- Government since it took guard for the second time, is taking place after the BJP retained power in Haryana by forming a coalition Government there and amid a stalemate in Maharashtra, where its oldest ally has part- ed ways and joined hands with the rival camp of the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) to put itself in the driver’s seat in the State. The development in Maharashtra is likely to provide equal opportunity to both the sides to strike at each other depending on how the Government formation exer- cise culminates. The Shiv Sena has already hit out at the BJP alleging it had got the President’s Rule imposed to indulge in horse-trading. It has also countered the ‘opportunism’ barb for aligning with its ideological opponents Congress and NCP by show- casing BJP’s own alliance with the PDP. While the BJP too hasn’t given up, it has, nevertheless, been taking the moral high ground of taking a principled stand by stepping aside for want of adequate numbers. W itnessing improvement in Delhi’s air quality level from the “severe” category to “poor” category, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said as soon as stubble burning stopped, the air in the national capital has cleared up. Air quality in North India saw a significant improve- ment on Sunday after stubble burning in the states of Punjab and Haryana came to an end. In a series of tweets by Kejriwal commented on the strong link between stubble burning in neighbouring states and the deterioration in air quality observed over the last few weeks. “A very strong correlation can be seen between stubble burning and the spike in air pol- lution in North India. As soon as stubble burning began in the first week of October, the Air Quality Index (AQI) started rising. Now that burning is coming to an end, air quality is also improving,” Kejriwal said in a tweet. He said, “Some people were saying that only five percent of Delhi’s air pollution is due to crop burning. If this were true, how did the air quality index reduced from 500 to less than 200 today? On the issue of air pollution, we cannot indulge in politics. We will have to take strong collective action.” The national capital wit- nessed a dip in pollution levels on Saturday morning even as the air quality in the city remained in the “severe” cate- gory.The air quality index (AQI) in Delhi at 9 am on Sunday stood at 254 against an AQI of 412 at the same time on Saturday. The AQI in Faridabad was 228, Ghaziabad 241, Greater Noida 192, Noida 224 and Gurgaon 193. An AQI between 201 and 300 is considered ‘poor’, 301-400 ‘very poor’ and 401-500 ‘severe’. The national capital recorded a minimum temperature of 16 degrees Celsius while humidi- ty was 71 per cent. In an affi- davit to the Supreme Court, the Central Government had said that stubble burning contributes only five percent to Delhi’s pol- lution. “Delhi doesn’t have the necessary tools to conduct a real time source pportionment of air pollution. But the satellite images releases by NASA con- firm that as soon as stubble burning began in the first week of October, the air quality of North India deteriorated. Over the past week, stubble burning has reduced as per the same satellite images released by NASA,” said the government official. Posting a photo of clear blue skies of Delhi on Sunday, he tweeted, “We live in such a beautiful city. Imagine, if the stubble burning were to stop, our skies will look like this all year round and our health will also improve. We also have to work on reducing Delhi’s own pollution.” “Until 9th October, with the air quality index between 90 and 130. Subsequently, suddenly the AQI crossed 200 from October 10 onwards. NASA’s fire map shows the red spots of stubble burning started appear- ing from October 10. It is clear that stubble burning is respon- sible for the current pollution. Despite the Supreme Court’s order, if the neighboring states do not stop stubble burning, why should the people of Delhi suffer and for how long?,” Kejriwal added. S ri Lanka’s controversial wartime defence secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa will lead the country after ruling party candidate Sajith Premadasa conceded the hotly contested presidential poll on Sunday, marking the return of the pow- erful Rajapaksa dynasty known for its pro-China tilt, amidst security challenges following the Easter Sunday terror attacks that killed 269 people. Rajapaksa, 70, defeated Premadasa, 52, by more than 13 lakh votes, according to the official results. Rajapaksa, who will succeed President Maithripala Sirisena for a five- year term, will be sworn in as the seventh executive president of Sri Lanka on Monday at the ancient north central town of Anuradhapura. He will be the second member from the Rajapaksa family to become the president. His older brother Mahinda Rajapaksa was president from 2005 to 2015. Rajapaksa secured 52.25 per cent votes (6,924,255), while Premadasa bagged 41.99 per cent (5,564,239) of the total votes polled, the election commission said. Other candidates got 5.76 per cent votes. The overall voter turnout at the election was around 83.73 per cent, Elections Commission Chairman Mahinda Deshapriya said. Following his win, Rajapaksa urged his supporters to “rejoice peacefully”. “As we usher in a new journey for Sri Lanka, we must remember that all Sri Lankans are part of this journey. Let us rejoice peacefully, with digni- ty and discipline in the same manner in which we cam- paigned,” the retired lieutenant colonel said in a tweet. C ooked food like uttapam and sprouted dal paratha can help tackle obesity in kids while those suffering with mal- nutrition or anemia should be given calorie-rich food like potato-stuffed paratha, paneer kathi roll and sago cutlets. These are some of the affordable freshly prepared foods, costing as low as 20, that the UNICEF has suggest- ed for Indian kids, reeling under the twin health issues, through its 28-page booklet. The book is based on the findings of the Comprehensive National Nutrition Survey 2016-18 which found that 35 per cent of children under five are stunted, 17 per cent are wasted and 33 per cent are underweight. Apart from calo- rie count, the book gives detailed break up of protein, carbohydrate, fat, total fibre, iron, vitamin C and calcium content of the recipe. UNICEF chief Henrietta H Fore said the booklet aims to tell people what is nutritious and in what amount. She said there are two stages in a per- son’s life when nutrition is extremely important. “The first is in the first 1,000 days of a child and for that we need to reach young mothers and sec- ond is when you are in adoles- cence and for that we need to go into schools,” Fore said. “The first one would require healthcare workers at hospitals. It is at that time you can teach a young mother about nutrition and the second one is at adolescence when it can be communicated through teachers, knowledge of nutri- tious food needs to be brought into schools and made part of the curriculum,” the UNICEF executive director said. She said these types of brochures aim to remind what one should have in a packed lunch for a child. “If every par- ent also has that knowledge then we will all be better in terms of what we know about nutrition and how we actually feed ourselves,” she said. Fore further said the book needs to be brought into schools and made part of the curriculum. “So that there is good nutrition and I think national nutrition plans will incorporate this but we at UNICEF will be by their side and working with them on a good communication plan,” she said. The book also talks about eating disorders like anorexia — voluntary self-starvation resulting in emaciation — and bulimia-recurrent episodes of binge eating followed by some kind of compensatory behav- iour to prevent weight gain. As per the Government survey, anaemia affects 40 per cent of adolescent girls and 18 per cent of adolescent boys. The report also found that overweight and obesity increas- ingly begins in childhood with a growing threat of non-com- municable diseases like dia- betes (10 per cent) in school- aged children and adolescents. To reduce malnutrition among children, the Modi Government has launched flag- ship Poshan Abhiyan or the National Nutrition Mission. It aims for a 25 per cent fall in the prevalence of child stunting and a three-percentage-point annual decline in the preva- lence of anaemia among women and children under the age of five years of age by 2022. I qbal Ansari, the main liti- gant in the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid title suit, on Sunday distanced himself from the decision of the All-India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) to file a review petition against the Supreme Court verdict on the Ayodhya issue. Soon after the verdict was pronounced on November 9, Ansari had said he would not seek review of the judgment. “There is no use of going for review as the outcome will remain the same... the move will also vitiate the harmonious atmosphere,” he said after the AIMPLB decided to file a review petition in the apex court. “My views are different from that of the AIMPLB. I want an end to the mandir- masjid dispute at this very point,” he said. A n Indian soldier lost his life while two others received injuries in a suspected IED blast along the Line of Control in Pallanwala area of Akhnoor sector in Jammu on Sunday. The incident took place when soldiers of the Indian Army were moving in a truck ahead of the barbed wire fenc- ing in the area. According to official sources, “Suspected IED blast was reported around 12 pm in the area in which three soldiers received injuries.” Earlier, Pakistan Army had initiated “unprovoked” cease- fire violation along the LoC in Shahpur area of Poonch around 10.15 am. In response, Indian Army gave them the befitting reply. In Jammu, Defence PRO Lt-Col Devender Anand said, “One soldier attained martyr- dom and two soldiers received injuries in a suspected IED blast in Pallanwala, Akhnoor sector on Sunday.” However, it was not clear under what circumstances the suspected IED blast happened. Defence PRO said, “The martyred jawan has been iden- tified as Havaldar Santosh Kumar of Agra district in Uttar Pradesh”. Even as the situation remained tense, alert jawans of the Indian Army are standing tall along the LoC to thwart nefarious designs of the Pakistan army to push armed infiltrators inside the Indian territory. With several infiltra- tion routes getting blocked in North Kashmir region, the infiltration routes along LoC in Rajouri and Poonch are exploited by the terrorist han- dlers to push their cadre. RNI Regn. No. CHHENG/2012/42718, Postal Reg. No. - RYP DN/34/2013-2015 2

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Page 1: English News Paper | Breaking News | Latest Today News in … · 2019-11-17 · But the satellite images releases by NASA con-firm that as soon as stubble burning began in the first

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The All-India MuslimPersonal Law Board (AIM-

PLB) in a unanimous decisionon Sunday decided to file areview petition against theSupreme Court’s November 9verdict on the RamJanmabhoomi-Babri Masjidtitle suit.

“We are not indulging inpolitics by deciding to file thereview petition against the SCjudgment. It’s our constitu-tional right under Article 25 ofthe Constitution,” AIMPLBsecretary Zafaryab Jilani assert-ed while addressing a Pressconference here on Sunday.

“The Board has also cate-gorically refused to take five-acre land in Ayodhya in lieu ofthe mosque it is against Shariatlaw. The Board is of the viewthat there cannot be any alter-native to the mosque,” he said.

Out of the total 51 mem-bers of the AIMPLB executivecommittee, 35-40 membersattended the meeting and outof the five original plaintiffs inthe case, three have given theirwritten consent for filing thereview petition, Jilani said.

He said the review petitionwould be filed in the SC with-in the 30 days’ limit after thejudgment. Jilani admitted thatthe Uttar Pradesh SunniCentral Waqf Board was alsoinvited to the meeting but itsrepresentatives did not turn up.

The Sunni Waqf Board onNovember 9 had announcedthat it would neither file a

review nor curative petitionagainst the apex court judg-ment. The Sunni Waqf Boardis scheduled to meet here onNovember 26 to decidewhether to accept the five acregiven for the mosque.

Jilani alleged that IqbalAnsari, another original plain-tiff in the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid title suit, wasbeing pressurised by theAyodhya district administra-tion not to give his consent forthe review petition.

“There were two issuesbefore the AIMPLB executive,one, whether to file review peti-tion and, two, whether to acceptthe five acre for the mosqueordered by the SC. The execu-tive unanimously decided to filea review petition,” said Jilani,adding that the executive, afteranalysing the judgment, foundthat there were apparent errorsin it. “We had not approachedthe SC for alternative land forthe Babri Masjid but to fight forour ownership of the title of thedisputed 2.77 acre at Ayodhya,”said Jilani. The executive felt thatthere are several contradictionsin the court order and there areseveral points which are beyond comprehension andprima facie appear to be inap-propriate, he said.

The AIMPLB has drawnten major conclusions from theSC judgment and listed threepoints on which it concludedthe verdict to be adverse. First,the SC accepted that the plac-ing of the idols of Lord Ram onDecember 22/23 1949 was

unconstitutional hence how theidols were recognised as deity bythe apex court when it is notacceptable as per the Hindu law.Second, the court accepted thatthe Babri mosque was under thepossession of Muslims from1857 to 1949 then how couldthe disputed land be given to theHindu side representing theRam Lala Virajmaan.

Moreover, the AIMPLBsaid, “While exercising extra-ordinary powers under Article142 of the Constitution andawarding the 2.77 acre to thetemple side, the apex court didnot consider Section 104 A ofthe Waqf Act, 1995 whichrestricts the exchange or trans-fer of the mosque land”.

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The Winter Session ofParliament, beginning

Monday, is expected to witnessthe ruling BJP going upfront onthe Ram Temple and Rafalewhere it has earned an upperhand via Supreme Court rul-ings while the Congress, in arear guard action, may try toput the Modi Government onthe mat on the sliding econo-my, price rise, growing unem-ployment and the alleged act of“internationalising” Kashmirissue as also detention of lead-ers of Kashmir even after twoand half months followingabrogation of Article 370.

Prime Minister NarendraModi, meanwhile, on Sundayassured at the all-party meet-ing here before the com-mencement of the WinterSession that the Government isready to discuss all issues,while the Opposition stronglyraised Lok Sabha MP FarooqAbdullah’s detention anddemanded that he be allowedto attend the House.

However, there was no def-inite response from theGovernment, sources said.

At the Government-con-vened meeting, the Oppositionalso demanded that the issuesof economic slowdown, job

loss and farm distress must bediscussed during the Session,Congress leader in the LokSabha Adhir RanjanChowdhury said. In the meet-ing attended by 27 parties,Modi said most important jobof the House is to discuss anddebate, Parliamentary AffairsMinister Pralhad Joshi toldreporters. The PM also said theforthcoming session shouldalso be as productive as the lastone, according to Joshi.

The month-long Session,the second of the Modi-Government since it tookguard for the second time, istaking place after the BJPretained power in Haryana byforming a coalitionGovernment there and amid astalemate in Maharashtra,where its oldest ally has part-ed ways and joined hands withthe rival camp of the Congress

and the Nationalist CongressParty (NCP) to put itself in thedriver’s seat in the State.

The development inMaharashtra is likely to provideequal opportunity to both thesides to strike at each otherdepending on how theGovernment formation exer-cise culminates. The Shiv Senahas already hit out at the BJPalleging it had got thePresident’s Rule imposed toindulge in horse-trading.

It has also countered the‘opportunism’ barb for aligningwith its ideological opponentsCongress and NCP by show-casing BJP’s own alliance withthe PDP.

While the BJP too hasn’tgiven up, it has, nevertheless,been taking the moral highground of taking a principledstand by stepping aside forwant of adequate numbers.

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Witnessing improvement inDelhi’s air quality level

from the “severe” category to“poor” category, Chief MinisterArvind Kejriwal said as soon asstubble burning stopped, the airin the national capital hascleared up. Air quality in NorthIndia saw a significant improve-ment on Sunday after stubbleburning in the states of Punjaband Haryana came to an end.

In a series of tweets byKejriwal commented on thestrong link between stubbleburning in neighbouring statesand the deterioration in airquality observed over the lastfew weeks.

“A very strong correlationcan be seen between stubbleburning and the spike in air pol-lution in North India. As soonas stubble burning began in thefirst week of October, the AirQuality Index (AQI) startedrising. Now that burning iscoming to an end, air quality isalso improving,” Kejriwal said ina tweet.

He said, “Some people weresaying that only five percent ofDelhi’s air pollution is due tocrop burning. If this were true,

how did the air quality indexreduced from 500 to less than200 today? On the issue of airpollution, we cannot indulge inpolitics. We will have to takestrong collective action.”

The national capital wit-nessed a dip in pollution levelson Saturday morning even asthe air quality in the cityremained in the “severe” cate-gory.The air quality index (AQI)in Delhi at 9 am on Sundaystood at 254 against an AQI of412 at the same time onSaturday. The AQI in Faridabadwas 228, Ghaziabad 241,

Greater Noida 192, Noida 224and Gurgaon 193.

An AQI between 201 and300 is considered ‘poor’, 301-400‘very poor’ and 401-500 ‘severe’.The national capital recorded aminimum temperature of 16degrees Celsius while humidi-ty was 71 per cent. In an affi-davit to the Supreme Court, theCentral Government had saidthat stubble burning contributesonly five percent to Delhi’s pol-lution. “Delhi doesn’t have thenecessary tools to conduct a realtime source pportionment of airpollution. But the satellite

images releases by NASA con-firm that as soon as stubbleburning began in the first weekof October, the air quality ofNorth India deteriorated. Overthe past week, stubble burninghas reduced as per the samesatellite images released byNASA,” said the governmentofficial.

Posting a photo of clear blueskies of Delhi on Sunday, hetweeted, “We live in such abeautiful city. Imagine, if thestubble burning were to stop,our skies will look like this allyear round and our health willalso improve. We also have towork on reducing Delhi’s ownpollution.”

“Until 9th October, with theair quality index between 90 and130. Subsequently, suddenlythe AQI crossed 200 fromOctober 10 onwards. NASA’sfire map shows the red spots ofstubble burning started appear-ing from October 10. It is clearthat stubble burning is respon-sible for the current pollution.Despite the Supreme Court’sorder, if the neighboring statesdo not stop stubble burning,why should the people of Delhisuffer and for how long?,”Kejriwal added.

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Sri Lanka’s controversialwartime defence secretary

Gotabaya Rajapaksa will leadthe country after ruling partycandidate Sajith Premadasaconceded the hotly contestedpresidential poll on Sunday,marking the return of the pow-erful Rajapaksa dynasty knownfor its pro-China tilt, amidstsecurity challenges followingthe Easter Sunday terror attacksthat killed 269 people.

Rajapaksa, 70, defeatedPremadasa, 52, by more than13 lakh votes, according to theofficial results. Rajapaksa, whowill succeed PresidentMaithripala Sirisena for a five-year term, will be sworn in asthe seventh executive presidentof Sri Lanka on Monday at theancient north central town ofAnuradhapura.

He will be the secondmember from the Rajapaksafamily to become the president.His older brother MahindaRajapaksa was president from2005 to 2015. Rajapaksasecured 52.25 per cent votes(6,924,255), while Premadasabagged 41.99 per cent(5,564,239) of the total votes

polled, the election commissionsaid. Other candidates got 5.76per cent votes. The overallvoter turnout at the electionwas around 83.73 per cent,Elections CommissionChairman MahindaDeshapriya said.

Following his win,Rajapaksa urged his supportersto “rejoice peacefully”.

“As we usher in a newjourney for Sri Lanka, we mustremember that all Sri Lankansare part of this journey. Let usrejoice peacefully, with digni-ty and discipline in the samemanner in which we cam-paigned,” the retired lieutenantcolonel said in a tweet.

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Cooked food like uttapamand sprouted dal paratha

can help tackle obesity in kidswhile those suffering with mal-nutrition or anemia should begiven calorie-rich food likepotato-stuffed paratha, paneerkathi roll and sago cutlets.

These are some of theaffordable freshly preparedfoods, costing as low as �20,that the UNICEF has suggest-ed for Indian kids, reelingunder the twin health issues,through its 28-page booklet.

The book is based on thefindings of the ComprehensiveNational Nutrition Survey2016-18 which found that 35per cent of children under fiveare stunted, 17 per cent arewasted and 33 per cent areunderweight. Apart from calo-rie count, the book givesdetailed break up of protein,

carbohydrate, fat, total fibre,iron, vitamin C and calciumcontent of the recipe.

UNICEF chief Henrietta HFore said the booklet aims totell people what is nutritiousand in what amount. She saidthere are two stages in a per-son’s life when nutrition isextremely important. “The firstis in the first 1,000 days of a

child and for that we need toreach young mothers and sec-ond is when you are in adoles-cence and for that we need togo into schools,” Fore said.

“The first one wouldrequire healthcare workers athospitals. It is at that time youcan teach a young motherabout nutrition and the secondone is at adolescence when it

can be communicated throughteachers, knowledge of nutri-tious food needs to be broughtinto schools and made part ofthe curriculum,” the UNICEFexecutive director said.

She said these types ofbrochures aim to remind whatone should have in a packed

lunch for a child. “If every par-ent also has that knowledgethen we will all be better interms of what we know aboutnutrition and how we actuallyfeed ourselves,” she said.

Fore further said the bookneeds to be brought intoschools and made part of thecurriculum. “So that there isgood nutrition and I think

national nutrition plans willincorporate this but we atUNICEF will be by their sideand working with them on agood communication plan,”she said.

The book also talks abouteating disorders like anorexia— voluntary self-starvationresulting in emaciation — andbulimia-recurrent episodes of

binge eating followed by somekind of compensatory behav-iour to prevent weight gain.

As per the Governmentsurvey, anaemia affects 40 percent of adolescent girls and 18per cent of adolescent boys.The report also found thatoverweight and obesity increas-ingly begins in childhood witha growing threat of non-com-municable diseases like dia-betes (10 per cent) in school-aged children and adolescents.

To reduce malnutritionamong children, the ModiGovernment has launched flag-ship Poshan Abhiyan or theNational Nutrition Mission. Itaims for a 25 per cent fall in theprevalence of child stuntingand a three-percentage-pointannual decline in the preva-lence of anaemia amongwomen and children underthe age of five years of age by2022.

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Iqbal Ansari, the main liti-gant in the Ram

Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjidtitle suit, on Sunday distancedhimself from the decision ofthe All-India Muslim PersonalLaw Board (AIMPLB) to file areview petition against theSupreme Court verdict on theAyodhya issue.

Soon after the verdict waspronounced on November 9,

Ansari had said he would notseek review of the judgment.

“There is no use of going forreview as the outcome willremain the same... the move willalso vitiate the harmoniousatmosphere,” he said after theAIMPLB decided to file a reviewpetition in the apex court.

“My views are differentfrom that of the AIMPLB. Iwant an end to the mandir-masjid dispute at this verypoint,” he said.

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An Indian soldier lost his lifewhile two others received

injuries in a suspected IEDblast along the Line of Controlin Pallanwala area of Akhnoorsector in Jammu on Sunday.

The incident took placewhen soldiers of the IndianArmy were moving in a truckahead of the barbed wire fenc-ing in the area.

According to officialsources, “Suspected IED blastwas reported around 12 pm inthe area in which three soldiersreceived injuries.”

Earlier, Pakistan Army hadinitiated “unprovoked” cease-fire violation along the LoC inShahpur area of Poonch around10.15 am. In response, IndianArmy gave them the befittingreply. In Jammu, Defence PROLt-Col Devender Anand said,“One soldier attained martyr-dom and two soldiers receivedinjuries in a suspected IEDblast in Pallanwala, Akhnoorsector on Sunday.”

However, it was not clearunder what circumstances thesuspected IED blast happened.

Defence PRO said, “Themartyred jawan has been iden-tified as Havaldar SantoshKumar of Agra district in UttarPradesh”.

Even as the situationremained tense, alert jawans ofthe Indian Army are standingtall along the LoC to thwartnefarious designs of thePakistan army to push armedinfiltrators inside the Indianterritory. With several infiltra-tion routes getting blocked inNorth Kashmir region, theinfiltration routes along LoC inRajouri and Poonch areexploited by the terrorist han-dlers to push their cadre.

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Prime Minister NarendraModi on Sunday assured

an all-party meeting ahead ofthe Winter Session ofParliament that theGovernment is ready to dis-cuss all issues. The Oppositionon their part raised concernsover economic slowdown andfarm distress and stronglydemanded that detained LokSabha MP Farooq Abdullahbe allowed to attend theHouse.

At the Government-con-vened meeting attended byalmost all major political par-ties, said the most importantjob of the House is to discussand debate and this sessionshould also be as productiveas the last one, according toParliamentar y AffairsMinister Pralhad Joshi.“Government is ready to dis-cuss all issues within theframework of rules and pro-cedures of the Houses,” thePrime Minister was quoted as

saying by Joshi.Constructive discussion

in Parliament also keeps thebureaucracy alert, the PrimeMinister said at the meeting.“The prime minister, whileresponding to specific issuesraised by the representatives ofvarious political parties, saidthat the Government wouldwork together with all partiesin a constructive manner toaddress pending legislationsand frame policy solutions forspecific issues related to envi-ronment and pollution, econ-omy, agricultural sector andfarmers,” Parliamentar yAffairs Ministry said in astatement.

Leader of Opposition inRajya Sabha Ghulam NabiAzad, however, was cynical onthe Prime Minister’s assurancethat the Government is readyto discuss all issues, sayingthat when it comes to takingup issues such as unemploy-ment, economic slowdown,condition of farmers in theHouse, the Government takesa different stand.

National Conference MPHasnain Masoodi said theyraised the issue of FarooqAbdullah’s detention at themeeting and stressed that theGovernment is under consti-tutional obligation to ensurehis participation in the

Parliament session. FormerJ&K Chief Minister FarooqAbdullah was detained underthe Public Safety Act inSeptember.

“How can a parliamentar-ian be detained illegally? Heshould be allowed to attend

Parliament,” Azad said. Healso demanded that FormerFinance Minister and seniorCongress leader PChidambaram be allowed toattend Parliament, sayingthere have been instances inpast when in similar circum-stances MPs have beenallowed in the House.

Chidambaram is in judi-cial custody in the INX mediamoney laundering case thatthe Enforcement Directorate

is investigating.The all-party meeting was

also attended by BJP Chiefand Home Minister AmitShah, Union MinisterThawarchand Gehlot andseveral senior opposition lead-ers l ike Adhir RanjanChowdhury, Azad and deputyleader of opposition in RajyaSabha Anand Sharma. TMCleader Derek O Brien, LJPleader Chirag Paswan andSamajwadi Party leader Ram

Gopal Yadav, Telugu DesamParty’s Jayadev Galla and VVijaysai Reddy of YSRCongress were among thosepresent at the meeting.Paswan raised the issue ofwomen’s reservation bill.

Lok Sabha Speaker OmBirla had on Saturdayappealed to all political partiesfor cooperation for ensuringsmooth functioning of theHouse.

After an all-party meeting,

which was also attended byModi, the Speaker had saidfloor leaders of different par-ties mentioned various issuesthat they wished to be dis-cussed during the winter ses-sion from November 18 tillDecember 13. The Budgetsession was the most produc-tive session in Lok Sabhasince 1952 as 35 bills werepassed. A total of 32 bills werecleared in Rajya Sabha.

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Following the breakup withBJP, former NDA partner

Shiva Sena will now sit withthe Opposition benches inboth the House of Parliamentbeginning Monday’s WinterSession. Parliamentary AffairsMinister Prahlad Joshi saidhere on Sunday. Shiv SenaMPs are being allotted seatson the Opposition side inboth Houses of Parliament asits Minister has resigned andthe party is “working out”alliance with the Congressand NCP to formGovernment in Maharashtra.

Further, the recent tusslebetween NDA partners, LokJan Shakti party chief ChiragPaswan said an NDA con-vener should be appointed forbetter coordination amongalliance partners.

Arvind Sawant, the loneSena minister in the Unioncouncil of ministers submit-ted his resignation lastMonday. The party said onSaturday that it would notattend a meeting of NDAconstituents on the eve of thewinter session of Parliament.“Shiv Sena’s minister hasresigned from the NDA gov-ernment… they are notattending today’s NDA meet-ing and working out alliancewith the Congress and theNCP. So it is natural that theywill be allotted seats on the

opposition side in both hous-es,” Joshi told reporters afterthe all-party meeting.

According to sources, allthe three Shiv Sena MPs in theRajya Sabha have been allo-cated seats on the oppositionside, while in the Lok Sabhait is yet to be done. Thedecades-old alliance betweenthe Shiv Sena and BJP turnedsour after the former pressedfor the demand of sharing thechief ministerial post inMahrashtra. It is now holdingparleys with the NationalistCongress Party (NCP) andthe Congress to form a non-BJP government in the state.

Paswan, speaking toreporters after an NDA meet-ing ahead of the winter ses-sion of Parliament, said ShivSena’s absence was felt at themeet as it was one of the old-est National DemocraticAlliance member. “Thereshould be better coordinationamong allies and an NDAconvener should be appoint-ed,” he said.

It’s a matter of concernthat the Telugu Desam Partyleft the alliance first and thenthe Rashtriya Lok SamataParty did.

“But all of us (allies) willwork together in the upcom-ing session and more suchmeetings should happen,” saidPaswan, who was appointedthe LJP chief earlier thismonth.

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Aday before the landmark250th session of Rajya

Sabha begins, ChairmanVenkaiah Naidu expressedconcern over absenteeism ofmembers in department-relat-ed parliamentary standingcommittees, saying, “We mustnot let their standards drop”. Ina meeting with floor leaders ofpolitical parties on Sunday, theVice President urged them toensure proper attendance ofMPs so that the committeescould effectively perform theirduties.

Naidu’s concern come daysafter only four MPs attended acrucial meeting of the 28-member standing committeeon urban development to dis-cuss air pollution in thenational capital. The only LokSabha

MP from Delhi in thecommittee, Gautam Gambhir,also didn’t attend the meetingand was seen doing commen-tary in Indore for a India-Bangladesh cricket match.

“Referring to the reports ofabsenteeism of members in themeetings of the department-related standing committees,Naidu urged the leaders toensure proper attendance ofMPs so that the committees

could effectively examine andreport on various subjectsselected and bills referred in abipartisan and detailed man-ner,” the Rajya Sabha secre-tariat said in a statement.

Emphasising that standingcommittees are effectiveinstruments of bipartisan anddetailed examination of issues,Naidu said, “We must not lettheir standards drop. Properattendance is crucial for theirfunctioning. I urge leaders toensure proper attendance ofMPs in the committee meet-ings.”

At the meeting, heinformed the leaders he has setup a committee to examineand recommend steps to makethe parliamentary channels,Lok Sabha TV and Rajya

Sabha TV, more effective. Theobjective is to increase view-ership for Parliament pro-ceedings, Naidu said. Naidutalked about the 250th sessionof Rajya Sabha and its journey,and said the upper house,since its inception in 1952, hascome a long way in contribut-ing to the socio-economictransformation of the countrybut still has “miles to go”.

He also released a publi-cation, ‘RajyaSabha :TheJourney Since 1952’ in thepresence of leaders of variousparties and groups.

“Rajya Sabha has been anintegral part of the socio-eco-nomic transformation of ourcountry since it came intobeing in 1952,” he said.From passing the Hindu

Marriage and Divorce Bill in1952 to the Muslim Women(Protection of Rights onMarriage) Bill in 2019 (TripleTalak Bill), from imposition ofadditional excise duty on dho-tis in 1953 to introduction ofGST in 2017, the Rajya Sabhahas come a long way inaddressing the challenges facedand meeting the requirementsof the nation from time totime, he underlined.“We still have miles to go inletting our country realise itsfull potential by making up forthe missed time and opportu-nities and in respect of thefunctioning of the house itself,”the statement quoted Naidu ashaving told the leaders.

To celebrate the landmark250th session of the upperhouse, beginning on Monday,he said a silver coin of �250and a postal stamp will bereleased. A discussion willalso be held in the house onthe ‘Role of Rajya Sabha inIndian Polity : Need forReform’ on the first workingday.

He informed the leadersthat a joint sitting of membersof both the houses will be heldin the Central Hall onNovember 26, marking 70thanniversary of the adoption ofthe Constitution.

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In a move that would ensuresmile on the faces of the kids

born with cleft lip and palate—a common congenital facialdeformity affecting one of 750newborn in India—the UnionHealth Ministry is preparingguidelines envisaging uniformtreatment protocol for suchpatients who need multidisci-plinary approach extendedfrom birth until adulthood.

The facial deformityadversely affects feeding,speech, facial aesthetics leadingto chest infections and earproblems. According toexperts, a child with such con-genital deformity needs a firstcorrective surgery at the age ofthree months with final onebeing done when the child is 18

years old. However, in theabsence of requisite orthodon-tist or speech therapist andtimely intervention, a childhas to suffer dental and speechproblems throughout his/herlife. Prevalent stigma just addsto the agony of the child.

“We hope the guidelinesbeing prepared by the UnionHealth Ministry will help instreamlining the treatment aswell as uniformity in procedurein the country,” said Dr OPKharbanda, Chief of Centre forDental Education and Research(CDER), AIIMS Delhi.

On the need of the uniformprotocol, he said, “The timingof carrying out certain proce-dures for repairing the cleft isvery important and almostalways requires doctors frommultiple specialities. For exam-

ple, a lip repair to close the gapis advisable at the age of threemonths; the hard and softpalate repair is advisable at nineto 12 months; speech therapyshould start by 12 months;early orthodontist treatment

may start at six years, whilefinal surgical correction of thelip and nose deformity can bedone at 18 years”, he said.

Hence, said Dr Kharbanda,“Expertise from specialitiessuch asGenetics, Psychology,

Nursing, Plastic Surgery,Paediatrics, Orthodontics andSpeech and LanguagePathology is needed to cater toeach child with a cleft and theirfamilies.”

In this direction, theAIIMS has recently opened a“first-of-its-kind” clinic atCDER premises to provideintegrated care under one roof.The ‘Interdisciplinary Cleft Lipand PalateClinic’ is equippedwith the latest state-of-the-artequipments and facilities wherea treatment plan can be tailoredas per the patient’s need.

Presently, there are just210 designated cleft lip andpalate centres in the countryand annually, at least 1.5 lakhsurgeries are being done.

“But we are still far behind.A large number of children

never get help due to ignoranceand fear of expenditure even asa majority of these proceduresare carried out free of cost,” saidDelhi-based orthodontistRakesh Malhotra, member ofthe Indian Society of Cleft Lip,Palate and CraniofacialAnomalies (ISCLPCA). TheSociety is pushing to getFebruary 8 recognised asNational Cleft Day to generateawareness about the cleft lipand palate condition.

Similarly, Smile TrainIndia, the world’s largest cleftorganization, has joined handswith The Federation ofObstetric and GynaecologicalSocieties of India (FOGSI),India’s largest association ofgynaecologists and obstetri-cians, to drive early diagnosisand intervention for children

with clefts, as early as thefoetal stage by educatinghealthcare professionals.

The gap in the lip and thepalate is formed when tissuefrom both sides of the face failsto grow and fuse together.

There are various kinds ofclefts: an isolated cleft lip (justthe lip), or a cleft lip with a cleftalveolus (the gummy portionwhere teeth erupt), a cleft lip,alveolus and palate all fusedtogether.

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India and US discussed theentire range of bilateral

defence ties during talksbetween Defence MinisterRajnath Singh and his UScounterpart Mark T Esper inBangkok on Sunday. The par-leys were held on the sidelinesof Association of SoutheastAsian Nations(ASEAN)Defence Ministers’ Meeting-Plus (ADMM-Plus) there.

Expressing happiness onthe growing relationshipbetween India and US, Singhsaid the bilateral cooperationbetween the two sides hasgrown across a wide range ofsectors including defence andsecurity, economy, energy,counter-terrorism and people-to-people ties, according todefence ministry officials here.

Singh added that there isgrowing convergence betweenIndia and US in the Indo-Pacific region and India’s visionfor Indo-Pacific is for a free &open, peaceful, prosperous andinclusive region supported bya rules-based order and respectfor sovereignty and territorialintegrity. His observationcomes in the backdrop ofChina fast expanding militaryand economic influence in theIndo-Pacific region, trigger-ing concern in various coun-tries of the region and beyond.

ASEAN is central to India’svision of Indo-Pacific. Bothcountries are working together

in the area of maritime securi-ty including elements such asjoint exercises, HumanitarianAssistance and Disaster Relief(HADR) operations andMaritime Domain Awareness.

The two Ministers alsodiscussed a number of otherissues concerning regionalsecurity and bilateral defencecooperation. The meetingended on a positive note andthe Indian Defence Ministerlooked forward to have sub-stantial discussions during theforthcoming 2+2 dialogue inWashington later next month.The inaugural Indo-US ‘two-plus-two’ talks took place herein September last year.

Later, in a tweet, Singhdescribed his meeting with USSecretary of Defence as excel-

lent. “We talked about ways toexpand defence cooperationbetween India and the UnitedStates,” he said. The DefenceMinister also held a separatemeeting with his Japanese coun-terpart Taro Kono with a focuson adding further momentumto bilateral defence cooperation.

The ADMM-Plus is alsolikely to review the evolvingsecurity scenario in the region,particularly in the maritimedomain. The inauguralADMM-Plus was convened inHanoi in 2010. The DefenceMinisters then had agreed onfive areas of practical cooper-ation to pursue under the newmechanism, including mar-itime security, counter-terror-ism, humanitarian assistanceand peacekeeping operations.

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Indian Oil Corporation (IOC)on Sunday launched special

winter-grade diesel for the highaltitude regions like Ladakhwhich faces sub-zero temper-atures during the wintermonths. The IOC’s PanipatRefinery produced special win-ter-grade diesel has a pourpoint of minus 33 degree cel-sius and does not lose its flu-idity even in the region’sextreme winter weather unlikenormal grade diesel whichbecomes exceedingly difficultto use in sub-zero tempera-tures. Inaugurating the supplyin Ladakh region through avideo-conference from here,Home Minister Amit Shah saidin coming four years the Centrewill launch may region specif-ic products for the welfare ofthe people.

The Home Minister saidnew hydro electric and solarpower projects planned forLadakh at a cost of �50,000crore will produce 7,500 MWpower and will be completed inthe next four years. Shah onsaid the Narendra ModiGovernment is committed tobring all round development tothe newly created UnionTerritory of Ladakh and abro-gation of Article 370 was theright step in this direction.

“The NDAGovernment led by PrimeMinister Narendra Modi is com-mitted to bring the Leh-Ladakh

region, which was neglected forthe last 70 years, at par with therest of the country,” he said. TheHome Minister said that whenthe abrogation of Article 370 wasannounced, the Prime Ministerhad said it was a right step toaccelerate development in J&Kand Ladakh.

He said bringing change inthe status of Ladakh andenhancing the budget alloca-tion, all-round development ofthe region has been ensured.He said the newly introducedprovisions of local taxation willaugment Ladakh’s financialresources. Referring to a seriesof developmental measurestaken by the Modi Governmentin the last five years includingthe Srinagar-Leh transmissionline for electricity, 14 solar pro-jects for Leh and Kargil, LadakhUniversity, five new tourist cir-cuits and tracks for tourists and

mountaineers, Shah said thepeople of Ladakh, Leh andKargil now enjoy the samerights and will be equal partnersin the country’s development.

The Home Minister saidthe winter-grade diesel willnot only smoothen travel andtransportation during peaktourist season in extreme cold,but will also help in giving aboost to tourism and supplyneeds of the region’s people,helping in overall economicgrowth. Union Minister forPetroleum and Natural GasDharmendra Pradhan,Member of Parliament fromLadakh Jamyang TseringNamgyal and other senior offi-cials of the Home Ministry andPetroleum Ministry were pre-sent on the occasion.

Tour and Taxi operatorsand some common people ofLadakh joined the event

through the video conferencefrom Leh. They thanked theHome Minister for introducingthe new version of diesel thatwill benefit the region.Motorists in high-altitude areaslike Ladakh, Kargil, Kaza andKeylong face the problem offreezing of diesel in their vehi-cles when winter temperaturesdrop to as low as minus 30degree Celsius, an official said.

After being apprised of thedifficulties in this regard, theIOCL has come up with aninnovative solution to thisproblem by introducing a spe-cial winter-grade diesel whichdoes not lose its fluidity evenin extreme winter conditions.This winter-grade diesel alsomeets BIS specification of BS-VI grade and was successfullyproduced and certified for thefirst time by the PanipatRefinery on November 8.

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Justice Ranjan Gogoi, the firstperson from northeast to

reach the top of judiciary andcredited for bringing the cur-tains down on the decades oldpolitically and religiously sen-sitive Ayodhya land dispute,retired as the Chief Justice ofIndia on Sunday. Justice Gogoi’stenure as judge and as CJI wasmarked by some controversiesand personal allegations butthat never came in his way ofhis judicial work that wasreflected in the last few dayswhen benches headed by himdelivered some path-breakingjudgements.

He etched his name in theannals of history when a five-judge bench headed by him onNovember 9 brought an end tothe Ayodhya land dispute,which dates back to even beforethe Supreme Court came intoexistence in 1950. However, histenure in the apex court will alsobe remembered for being partof a presser by the ‘gang of four’senior most judges in Januarylast year which questioned thethen CJI’s way of functioning.

Later at a public function,Justice Gogoi had remarkedthat “independent judges andnoisy journalists are democra-cy’s first line of defence”. A “rev-olution, not reform” was need-ed to keep the institution ofjudiciary serviceable for thecommon man, Justice Gogoihad said at the same function.

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Page 3: English News Paper | Breaking News | Latest Today News in … · 2019-11-17 · But the satellite images releases by NASA con-firm that as soon as stubble burning began in the first

RAIPUR | MONDAY | NOVEMBER 18, 2019chhattisgarh 03

Chhattisgarh Journalists Protection Committee headed by Justice (Retd) Aftab Alam held a detailed interaction with media persons on Sunday at Circuit House in Jagdalpur for drafting Journalists Security Act in the state.

STAFF REPORTER n RAIPUR

Chhattisgarh Chief MinisterBhupesh Baghel on Sunday

called on Union Petroleum, NaturalGas and Steel MinisterDharmendra Pradhan in NewDelhi and urged him to provideassistance in encouraging the stategovernments investment promo-tion policy in the field of bio-fuel.

He urged the union minister toconsider establishing a regionalheadquarters of public sector min-ing giant NMDC Ltd in mineral-rich Bastar and demanded thatlocal people of Bastar region shouldbe considered for vacant non-man-agerial posts.

``I believe that the Centre willrespect the feeling of people ofChhattisgarh and immediately pro-vide approval of the demand toensure speedy development ofBastar region,’’ Baghel was quoted

in an official press statement.The chief minister demanded

that permission for producing bioethanol from surplus food grainsshould be given to Chhattisgarh fora minimum of 10 years on the basisof the state governments estimate ofproducing more paddy thanexpected. He added that the initia-tive will attract more investment inthe field of bio ethanol.

Mentioning that Chhattisgarhis the rice bowl of India, he said riceis grown as the main crop in 43 percent of the agricultural land in thestate.

He added that agriculture andrelated areas have a contribution ofmore than 20 per cent in the statesGSDP. He further stated that pro-duction of paddy in Chhattisgarh inthe year 2018-19 was 80.40 lakhtonnes. Out of which, the statesrequirement was of 42.40 lakhtonnes, leaving behind surplus of

38 lakh tones for producing bio-fuel.

During the meeting, the chiefminister informed the union minis-ter that under the provisions of theCentres bio-fuel policy, 2018, thestate government has invited pri-vate investments for setting up bioethanol plants in Chhattisgarh toencourage use of surplus paddyproduction.

He urged the Centre to askNational Biofuel CoordinationCommittee to keep the selling priceof bio ethanol produced frompaddy straw equivalent to that ofethanol produced from biomasssuch as sugar containing materialsas the move will help in promotingproduction of bio ethanol.

The union minister assured thechief minister that a special meet-ing will be called to discuss thesame and necessary action will betaken.

C’garh CM pitches for NMDC’sregional headquarters in BastarChief Minister also sought a minimum 10 years permission for production of bio ethanol in Chhattisgarh

STAFF REPORTER nBILASPUR

Bilaspur district adminis-tration has seized 1,000

quintals of paddy which wasillegally transported to thedistrict for selling at the pro-curement centres, officialsinformed here on Sunday.

The teams of revenue,food and cooperative depart-ment are carrying out intensechecking drive to stop theinflux of illegal paddy in thedistrict from neighbouringstates, officials stated.

“In different cases 15vehicles involved in paddy

movement were also seized.On the borders of neighbour-

ing district 13 check barriershave been created out of

which eight are in forestedregion,” a district administra-

tion officer informed. As per the officials, by

November 17, 26 case of ille-gal paddy storage and trans-port were registered wherein786 quintals of paddy wasseized while 14 vehicles werealso confiscated. In Pendrasub-division 5 cases were reg-istered wherein around 171quintals of paddy was seized,while in Ratanpur 150 sacksof illegal paddy were alsoseized.

Similar checking was car-ried out in rice mills at Bilhaand Sankari region which willcontinue in coming days,officials said.

1,000 quintals of illegal paddy seized in Bilaspur

STAFF REPORTER n RAIPUR

Chhattisgarh BJP KisanMorcha state president

Poonam Chandrakar while con-fronting Congress governmenton paddy procurement said thereports of large quantity ofpaddy being seized by adminis-tration from different parts ofstate proves that middlemenhave become active to purchasepaddy from farmers.

BJP leader said Congressgovernment had not come upwith a policy on procurement of

paddy from farmers due towhich uncertainty prevails, forc-ing farmers to sell their produce.

``Taking the benefit, themiddlemen from neighbouringstates are bringing in paddy,which is now being seized byadministration,’’ Chandrakaralleged.

He said with seizure of 63vehicles and more than 19,000quintal paddy proved that farm-ers are selling their produce tomiddlemen with no option leftto them.

Middlemen active in paddyprocurement, alleges BJP

STAFF REPORTER nRAIPUR

Chhattisgarh ParentsAssociation state presi-

dent Christopher Paul in astatement informed onSunday that it wouldapproach Chief Secretary andDirector General of Police forseeking stern action againstthose involved in a case of TheRadiant Way School,Amanaka in which a girl child

had been critically injured inan adventure event held atschool premises.

The statement said thaton November 11 without ade-quate security and safetymeasures, the adventure campwas organised in which aclass-4 girl student was criti-cally injured.

Saraswati Nagar policeStation House Officer andinvestigating officer filedoffence against school man-

agement officials instated ofprincipal, directors andadventure company managerand director. The police alsoreleased the school manage-ment officials on bail underbailable section 337 of IPC,without waiting for the med-ical report to arrive, havinggrievous injuries.

The Parents associationhas sought a stern actionagainst all persons involved inthe incident.

STAFF REPORTER nJAGDALPUR

The Karanpur-basedCRPF Cobra battalion

jawans voluntarily extendedsupport to cleaning DalpatSagar, one of the biggestpond in Jagdalpur, onSunday which has been cov-ered by water hyacinths.

Around 201 jawans sincemorning along with localresidents participated in thecleaning drive. Around 4tonne of garbage was takenout from the pond.

The interesting part wasthat regular morning walkersalso joined in with jawans formore than three hours forthe cleaning drive.

The jawans said thatalong with fighting on Naxalfront and providing securityto people, they have theirown social responsibility.

They were pained to seethe condition of this biggestwater body and came toknow about voluntary clean-ing of ponds by few socialworkers. They requestedtheir higher officials to be

part of cleaning drive, whichwas approved.

Drive member AnilLunkad said that drive ofcleaning Dalpat Sagar beganwith few members fromNovember 5. Now more andmore people are joining thedrive. He appreciated the ini-tiative of CRPF jawans forextending active support forthe drive. He said stilladministration support hasnot been provided in thedrive to conserve the pondbut the efforts will continue.

STAFF REPORTER n RAIPUR

Ruling Congress on Sunday while termingBJP anti-farmer dubbed its recent protest

over extension of paddy procurement dates aspolitical stunt which is aimed at saving itspolitical base in the state.

“BJP during its 15 years long rule inChhattisgarh was anti-farmer. Now, when theyare in opposition then also there has been noshift in their anti-farmer act,” Party spokesper-son Dhananjay Singh Thakur alleged.

According to Thakur, BJP is not in a posi-tion to tell farmers whether paddy should beprocured as per the rate fixed by central gov-ernment which is at ` 1815 for a quintal ofpaddy or the rate offered by Bhupesh govern-ment for ` 2,500 per quintal.

He alleged that during Raman-govern-

ment there was continuous increase in numberof farmers’ suicides.

“Bhupesh government is giving the mostreasonable price of paddy. But the central gov-ernment is not purchasing Chhattisgarh’s ricein the central pool. However, BJP leaders inChhattisgarh have maintained silence over theissue’’ the Congress said.

Parents’ body toapproach CS, DGP

40 sacks containing 16 quintal of paddy costing ` 26400 wasseized by Raipur food inspector led team at Saragaon fromTripathi Krishi Kendra on Sunday.

CRPF jawans clean upJagdalpur’s Dalpat Sagar

BJP is anti-farmer,alleges Congress

BJP is not in a position to tellfarmers whether paddy should be

procured as per rate fixed bycentral govt which is at ` 1815 fora quintal of paddy or rate offered

by Bhupesh govt for ` 2,500 per quintal

Page 4: English News Paper | Breaking News | Latest Today News in … · 2019-11-17 · But the satellite images releases by NASA con-firm that as soon as stubble burning began in the first

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Tension prevailed inChangaliwal village of

Sangrur district in Punjab onSunday after the news of deathof a young dailt labourer, whowas allegedly beaten and wasforced to drink urine by theupper-caste men in a horrificincident, broke out.

Protests erupted in Sangruras 37-year-old Dalit man, iden-tified as Jagmail, succumbed tohis injuries at the Post GraduateInstitute of Medical Educationand Research (PGIMER)Chandigarh.

Deceased’s family mem-bers, supported by variousorganizations, locals, and polit-ical outfits, are staging protestagainst the powers-that-beseeking justice.

While the family mem-bers are sitting on a protest atPGIMER, BSP leaders, variousoutfits, and villagers were stag-ing a dharna outside the Sub-Divisional Magistrate’s (SDM)office.

That is not all! A politicalslugfest also started with therival political parties blamingthe ruling Congress, anddemanding strict action andcentral probe into the incident.

Under attack from variousquarters and taking seriousnote of the death of the dalityouth, Punjab Government onSunday reached out to the

family members assuring“every possible assistance”under the SC/ST Act.

Cabinet Minister SadhuSingh Dharamsot, who met thefamily of the deceased atPGIMER to express deepestcondolences on behalf of thePunjab Government,announced that under the Act,the victim family would begiven compensation of � 8.15lakh and monthly pension of � 5,000 to a member of thefamily.

Dharamsot assured thatnecessary steps would be initi-ated soon to give job to a mem-ber of the family. He also reas-sured the victim family, onbehalf of the PunjabGovernment, regarding everypossible assistance.

The Minister added thatthe Chief Minister CaptAmarinder Singh has alsoexpressed grief over the tragicincident, and the senior officershave been ordered to initiatestrong action against the cul-prits.

Going into the back-ground, the dalit youth diedafter he was allegedly thrashedand forced to drink urine overan old dispute. As per policeinvestigation, the dalit manhad a dispute with one Rinkuand some other persons.

Despite the matter beingresolved, Rinku along with hiscompanions took Jagmail to his

house on November 7 where hewas tied to a pillar and beatenmercilessly by four men. Hewas even forced to drink urinewhen he asked for water.

The victim was admitted tothe PGIMER, where he suc-cumbed to injuries. As per thedoctors attending him, his legswere amputated.

A case has been registeredagainst the accused for abduc-tion and wrongful confine-ment under various sections ofthe Indian Penal Code (IPC)and the Scheduled Caste andScheduled Tribe (Prevention ofAtrocities) Act at Lehra policestation, Sangrur.

The police have arrested allfour suspects and added

Section 302 (murder) of theIndian Penal Code (IPC) to thefirst information report regis-tered on November 13.

The victim’s family hasbeen demanding �� 50 lakhcompensation and a job fromthe State Government.

PROTESTS BROKE OUTHundreds of protesters

belonging to dalit organiza-tions, supported by variouspolitical outfits, have been stag-ing demonstration outside theSub-Divisional Magistrate’soffice in Lehragaga demandingjustice for the victim.

“The protest will continueuntil justice is delivered to thevictim’s family. We are demand-

ing compensation as well as agovernment job to one of thefamily members,” a protestersaid. Joining the protest, singerand dalit activist Bant Singh, wholost his limbs for protestingagainst his daughter’s gang-rape,said that the atrocities against thedalits by upper-caste Jat men ison the rise in the state.

He demanded capital pun-ishment for the killers ofJagmail Singh, saying that itwould be a deterrent for theatrocities against the lowercastes.

In Chandigarh, the familyrefused to accept the body tillthe victim’s wife was given agovernment job and adequatecompensation.

The dalit man is survivedby his wife and three children,including two daughters.

His widow said, “Ourdemand is that exemplary pun-ishment should be given to theaccused. The Governmentshould give us written assur-ance that they will give me a joband a compensation of � 50lakh to the family.”

We will continue ourprotest until justice is deliveredto the deceased’s family. We aredemanding compensation aswell as a government job to oneof the family members. We willneither allow post-mortem ofthe body nor will conduct hisfuneral until our demands aremet,” said a demonstrator

Karnail Singh Nilowal.

POLITICAL SLUGFESTExpressing grief over the

death, Punjab Minister andSangrur MLA Vijay InderSingla said: “Whatever hashappened is unfortunate. Westand with the family. Theaccused should get exemplarypunishment.”

Senior Congress leader andformer Chief Minister RajinderKaur Bhattal, expressing hersympathy with the family, saidthat strict action will be takenagainst the culprits. “The policeare doing their work. It shouldnot have happened to anyone.We will provide all possiblehelp to the family,” she said.

Aam Aadmi Party’s Punjabunit president and SangrurMP Bhagwant Mann, in avideo message, said that hewould raise the issue of killingof the dalit in Lok Sabha onMonday. He said that he wouldalso call on Union HomeMinister Amit Shah in thisregard.

He said that such inci-dents were shameful in a civi-lized society, and demandedthose responsible for the crimebe given strict punishment.

AAP’s Sunam MLA AmanArora, who also visited theprotest site, said that the fam-ily should get justice and theirdemands should be met by theGovernment. He stated that theculprits should be nabbed, andtried in a fast track court.

Senior AAP MLA and theLeader of Opposition inVidhan Sabha, Harpal Singh

Cheema said that the familyshould be given adequate com-pensation and they should getpolice security.

Punjab Congress presidentSunil Jakhar said that strictpunishment would be given tothose involved in this incident.

After the incident, theopposition parties haveattacked the CongressGovernment over the “bar-baric treatment” being metedout to dalits in the state. TheShiromani Akali Dal (SAD)and the Bharatiya Janata Party(BJP) said that a “rule of jun-gle” was prevalent in the state.

Condemning the incident,SAD president Sukhbir Badalhad expressed shock over theincident.

Stating that the rule ofjungle was prevailing in thestate, the former Deputy ChiefMinister said that there wererepeated cases of atrocitiesagainst dalits and that the lat-est case of Jagmail Singh hadstricken the conscience of everyright thinking Punjabi.

“Jagmail suffered inhumanatrocities at the hands of histormentors after being tied toa pillar, acid was poured on hislegs and when he asked forwater, he was forced to drinkurine. Jagmail died a horribledeath after both his legs hadbeen amputated earlier,” hesaid on Saturday in a statement.

He had stated that it wascondemnable that the ChiefMinister had proceeded on a14-day holiday to Europe at atime when all sections of soci-ety are suffering.

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In a major breakthrough, theTandrust Punjab Mission has

successfully managed to curtailthe unwanted usage of agrochemicals in the State, resultingin a savings worth �355 crore onthe farming input costs.Informing this, Tandrust PunjabMission director KS Pannu saidthat the average consumption ofpesticides during Kharif 2018has been 3838 metric tonnes(MT) technical grade whichcosts over � 2,000 crore.

However, during Kharif2019, there has been on anaverage 35 percent reduction inusage of insecticides or pesti-cides which includes reductionin use of weedicide and fungi-cide. However, decrease in pes-ticide usage alone is about 18percent which amounts tonearly 675 MT technical grade.

“This sizable reduction inconsumption of insecticidesor pesticides has led to savingof � 355 crore at the level offarmers,” he said.

Crediting the achievement

to sustained awareness cam-paign under Tandrust MissionPunjab, Pannu informed thatnumerous awareness camps,seminars or workshops havebeen organised in every nookand corner of the State by theofficers of AgricultureDepartment to sensitize thefarmers to check the unwant-ed usage of pesticides.

Pertinently, cotton and bas-mati rice crops are the mainareas where attention wasfocused for reducing the usageof pesticides, he said addingthat a special campaign waslaunched to ensure the avail-ability of only the high qualitychemicals to the farmers.

Besides, vigorous checkingand sampling of agro chemicalswas done to weed out sub-standard and spurious prod-ucts, he added.

Pannu said that reductionin the use of urea by about twolakh tonnes in Kharif 2019 hasalso considerably helped toprevent the spread of insectswhich in turn lead to curtail-ing the usage of insecticides.

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Aband of field staff of thewildlife wing armed with

cameras and logbooks will setout for a unique race — tocount and identify maraudingmonkeys across HimachalPradesh next month, officialssaid. This dawn-to-dusk esti-mation of three days involves8,000 to 12,000 employees,comprising wildlife officials.

As per the last census con-ducted in 2015, the state has apopulation of 2.07 lakh mon-keys. Chief Wildlife WardenSavita told IANS the censuswould be carried out by thewildlife wing of the state ForestDepartment by involving theWildlife Institute of India (WII)for the first time.

"WII's scientist QamarQureshi will provide us equip-ment and researchers for con-ducting the census. Also theywill hold training of our forestguards ahead of the census,"she said.

The census will be carriedin state's 11 out of 12 districts.Barring Lahaul-Spiti districtand some pockets in Kinnaur

district, the State is in the gripof monkey menace as theyhave caused crop losses worthhundreds of crores of rupees inrecent years.

As the religious sentimentsprevent the people from killingthe monkeys, their populationis multiplying and their men-ace has increased in cities andvillages. Wildlife veterinarysurgeon Sandeep Rattan toldIANS controlling the monkeypopulation by way of masssterilization is one of the viableand successful options.

Himachal Pradesh is theonly state in world where sucha large exercise of sterilizationof simians has been undertak-en. Almost 4.6 lakh new birthshave been prevented after theinception of the mass steriliza-tion programme almost 13years ago.

Also, many other activitieshave been undertaken to mit-igate the monkey-menace likeawareness on not to feed themonkeys, getting the monkeysdeclared as vermin, deployingeco-task force at hotspots andenriching the forests by plant-ing fruit-bearing tree species to

prevent their exodus to humanhabitations.

According to Rattan, toidentify the sterilised mon-keys permanent tattooing isbeing done in middle of theforehead for past three years.

As per studies by thewildlife wing, 39 out of the 75tehsils in 10 of the 12 districtshave been identified as monkeyhotspots. A hotspot means aplace of maximum conflictwith humans. The maximumof seven monkey-affectedtehsils are in Kangra district,followed by Una, Bilaspur and

Sirmaur districts (five each)and Shimla (four).

The monkey census saysthere are about 2,452 monkeyswithin the Shimla municipallimits, which is higher thantheir number registered in2013. Marauding monkeys,prowling in gangs on Shimla'sstreets have created panicamong residents and tourists.They have been causing havocby biting passersby and snatch-ing food.

Officials say on an averageat least 50 monkey bite cases arebeing reported every month in

the Rippon Hospital in Shimlaalone. They say the monkeymenace has reached an alarm-ing proportion and needs to betackled scientifically.

In localities like Jakhu,Tutikandi, Nabha, Phagli,Kaithu, Summer Hill, Tutu,Boileauganj, Chotta Shimlaand Sanjauli, the residents haveliterally converted their hous-es into jails by erecting irongrills on the doors and win-dows to check the intrusion ofmonkeys.

Wildlife officials said overa decade ago monkeys weretrapped from streets of Shimlaand banished to the jungles —a technique to reduce theirpopulation. "Translocationshave not resolved the conflictrate, conversely such translo-cations shifted the problem tonew areas instead of resolvingthe issue," said Rattan.

Kuldeep Singh Tanwar ofKheti Bachao SangharshSamiti, an NGO working forthe cause of farmers, told IANSthe monkeys should either be eliminated professionally byhiring hunters or the forestdepartment should set up com-

mittees at the panchayat levelto kill them.

He said lifting the ban onthe export of monkeys for bio-medical research is the humanealternative to check their risingnumbers. The CentralGovernment had banned theexport of wild animals in 1978.

A large number ofmacaques were captured regu-larly for export to be used assubject for biological research.After the ban of its export, itspopulation rebounded andachieved a positive exponentialgrowth rate, says the wildlifewing. Along came the drasticshift in feeding and socialbehaviour of the macaque.

They started seeking foodfrom humans.

Many local people andtourists started provisioningthem more out of religiousbeliefs. The abundance ofhuman food and adaption ofmacaques to human habitatsaw shift of human-macaqueinterface, turning from positive to negative, and theshrinking habitat made themspread out to more human set-tlements, it says.

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Elephants continue to fre-quently visit villages near

the forests in Halduchaur areaof Haldwani range under theTerai west forest division. OnSaturday night, a herd of ele-phants entered the Gangapurand Bametha Bangar Kheemavillages and damaged sugar-cane on many bigha of farm-land. The local villagers haverequested the local MLA andadministration to ensure theirsafety from elephants.

According to the locals, onSaturday night, a herd of ele-phants broke through a walland entered the villages inHalduchaur area. The pachy-derms spent most of the nightin the sugarcane fields, tram-pling the standing crop onmany bigha of land. The vil-lagers complain that elephantsfrequent visit villages in the

area after sunset. Villagers arestaying awake at night in anattempt to protect their crops.The locals further complainthat they have complained onseveral occasions to seniorofficials of the local adminis-tration and forest department.However, the necessary mea-sures have not been taken.

They have also requested thelocal MLA Navin Dumka tofacilitate their protection fromthe pachyderms.

Meanwhile, a delegationheaded by district Panchayatmember Mohan Singh Bishtmet the Nainital district mag-istrate Savin Bansal at his campoffice in Haldwani. Submitting

a memorandum to the districtmagistrate, the delegationmembers informed him that inthe Halduchaur area of Teraiwest forest division, Gangapur,Krishna Navad, Indrapur-Tejpur, Haripur Bhandev,Motahaldu and other settle-ments adjoining forest areas arefrequently visited by elephants

who destroy wheat, paddy,sugar cane and other crops inthe fields. Farmers suffer con-siderable losses every year dueto the pachyderms. Apart fromthe loss to farming, the villagersalso face danger to their livesand property from the jumbos.The delegation members fur-ther said that the forest depart-ment has not taken any actionto protect the villagers from theelephants, adding that theaffected persons do not getproper compensation. Theydemanded that solar fencing beerected in vulnerable areas,increased patrolling by forestdepartment, provision of fire-wood for the fires to deter jum-bos at night and reviving theelephant corridor to enablemovement of the elephantsthere instead of in the villages.The district magistrate assuredthe delegation of appropriateaction.

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The Char Dham Yatra inUttarakhand has come to an end

with the closure of Badrinath temple tothe public for the winters on Sunday. Onthe day of the shrine’s closure, a total of9135 pilgrims were present. This year,a total of 1240929 people visited theBadrinath shrine.

The rituals for closure of the shrinehad begun a couple of days ago. OnSunday, the doors of the shrine wereclosed at 5:13 in the evening. Earlier, theAbhishek and worship began at theshrine at 3:30 AM. After the Bal Bhogat 7:30 AM, the Darshan and morning

Artis began. Later the Raj Bhog wasoffered and instead of being closed forsome time, the shrine was kept open forDarshan after that throughout the day.Special worships and Prasad were

offered by the temple committee to thelord Badrinath’s guard GhantakarnMaharaj and lord Hanuman. The finalrituals for closure of the shrine werestarted by the Rawal (chief priest)Ishwari Prasad Namboodri at 3:30 PM.Uddhav was brought out of the temple’ssanctum sanctorum. After that theRawal, dressed in a woman’s attire seat-ed goddess Lakshmi along with her lordin the sanctum sanctorum. After that,Kuber was brought out of the templeinto the compound. The Rawal thenwrapped lord Badrinath’s idol in awoollen blanket dipped in ghee. At pre-cisely 5:13 PM, the chief priest closedthe portals of the shrine in the presence

of officials of the administration anddevotees. The temple was decked in gar-lands of marigolds for the occasion asthousands of devotees converged tobecome part of the occasion.

Donors, the army, ITBP and templecommittee also organised public feasts onthe occasion. On Monday, the deities-Uddhav and Kuber will depart forPandukeshwar while the seat of AdiShankaracharya will leave along with theRawal for the Narsinh temple inJoshimath. After spending the night at theYog Dhyan Badri temple inPandukeshwar, the Rawal along with AdiShankaracharya’s seat arrive in theNarsinh temple at Joshimath on Tuesday.

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AHong Kong police officerwas hit in the leg by an arrow

and protesters set an overheadfootbridge on fire on Sunday asthey fought to keep police usingtear gas and water cannons fromadvancing on their universitycampus stronghold.

Police said the arrow strucka media liaison officer in the calfand he was taken to a hospital.Photos on the department’sFacebook page show the arrowsticking out of the back of theofficer’s leg through his pants.

As riot police moved infrom all sides, some protestersretreated inside Hong KongPolytechnic University whileothers set fires on bridges lead-ing to it.

A huge blaze burned alongmuch of a long footbridge thatconnects a train station to thecampus over the approach to theCross-Harbour Tunnel, a majorroad under Hong Kong’s harborthat has been blocked by the pro-testers for days.

The use of bows and arrows,along with a gasoline bombslaunched with catapults, threat-

ened to escalate the violence inthe more than five-month-longanti-government movement.Protesters are trying to keep thepressure on Hong Kong leaders,who have rejected most of theirdemands.

The protests were sparked byproposed legislation that wouldhave allowed the extradition ofcriminal suspects to the main-land. Activists saw it as an ero-sion of Hong Kong’s autonomyunder the “one country, two sys-tems” formula implemented in

1997, when Britain returned theterritory to China.

The bill has been with-drawn, but the protests haveexpanded into a wider resistancemovement against what is per-ceived as the growing control ofHong Kong by CommunistChina, along with calls for fulldemocracy for the territory.

Several hundred peopleformed a human chain Sundayin central Hong Kong in a peace-ful rally in support of the move-ment.

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The US and South Korea willpostpone joint air drills in an

“act of goodwill” towards thenuclear-armed North, USDefence Secretary Mark Espersaid Sunday, after months ofdeadlocked diplomacy withPyongyang.

North Korea has longprotested joint military drills,which it condemns as prepa-rations for invasion, and hasset Washington an end-of-year deadline to come up witha new offer in deadlockednegotiations on its weaponsprogrammes.

The US and South Korealast year cancelled several jointdrills in the wake of theSingapore summit betweenPresident Donald Trump and the

North’s leader Kim Jong Un, butare due to carry out a combinedair exercise later this month.

But the joint air drills set forlater this month will now bepostponed, Esper said.

“We have made this deci-sion as an act of goodwill to con-tribute to an environment con-ducive to diplomacy and theadvancement of peace,” he toldreporters on the sidelines of ameeting of defence ministers inthe Thai capital.

He urged Pyongyang toreturn to negotiations and“demonstrate the same goodwillas it considers decisions on con-ducting training, exercises andtesting”. Esper said the decisionto delay the drills was not a con-cession but an effort to create“some more space” for diplomatsto strike an agreement.

London: UK Prime MinisterBoris Johnson has extended hislead over opposition LabourPart leader Jeremy Corbyn as hestrengthens the rulingConservatives’ grip on working-class voters ahead of theDecember 12 general election, anew poll has revealed.

This week’s Deltapoll surveyfor The Mail on Sunday gave theConservatives a 15-point lead,up from 12 points last week,with the ruling party on 45 percent and Labour on 30 percent.

Johnson now will need topick up a string of Labour-heldseats in northern working-classareas if he is to return toDowning Street with a healthymajority.

The poll suggested that hisclear pro-Brexit policy, unlikeCorbyn’s contortions on theissue, were winning him supportin the Leave-backing areas.

A lweek on the campaigntrain for the Prime Minister hashelped his net approval scoremove back into positive territo-ry, at plus 4 - a thumping 47points higher than Corbyn.

But if the Labour leader putsin an unexpectedly strong per-formance during the televised

Election debates, starting withhis head- to-head showdownwith Johnson on ITV onTuesday night, it could givehim a boost.

Meanwhile, the revolt byNigel Farage’s Brexit Party can-didates - many of whom pulledout of contests rather than risksplitting the Conservative vote inkey marginals - has left hisparty marooned on 6 per cent,according to the poll. IANS

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Venice was braced Sundayfor an unprecedented

third major flooding in lessthan a week, with sea waterdue to swamp the alreadydevastated historic city whereauthorities have declared astate of emergency.

The city forecast “acquaalta”, or high water, of 160centimetres (over five feet) for1200 GMT, lower thanTuesday’s 187 centimetres --

the highest level in half a cen-tury -- but still dangerous.

“Maximum attention fortoday’s tide,” tweeted mayorLuigi Brugnaro, who has esti-mated damage so far from theinvading salt water at over onebillion euros (dollars).

“The safety apparatus hasbeen activated. Thanks to allthose who are looking afterVenice and intervene whenneeded.” The renewed threatfrom exceptionally intensehigh tides came after a brief

respite on Saturday, with vis-itors on Sunday morning hav-ing to walk a long improvised gangways on StMark’s Square as the watersrose yet again.

The top tourist site hadbeen shut for several hours onFriday as strong storms andwinds battered the region,leaving it submerged by seasurges. Churches, shops andhomes have also been inun-dated in the city, a UNESCOWorld Heritage site.

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Air strikes by Syrian regimeally Russia on Sunday

killed nine civilians in thejihadist-run enclave of Idlib inthe northwest of the country, awar monitor said.

Five of the victims died inthe village of Al-Malaja insouthern Idlib province whilethe other four were killed inraids on the town of Saraqeb inthe east, according to the SyrianObservatory for HumanRights.

A number of people were

wounded, some seriously, themonitor’s head Rami AbdelRahman told AFP, though hewas unable to say how many.

The Idlib region, home toaround three million peopleincluding many displaced bySyria’s eight-year civil war, iscontrolled by the country’s for-mer Al-Qaeda affiliate.

The Hayat Tahrir al-Shamjihadist alliance also controlsparts of neighbouring Aleppoand Latakia provinces.

The region is one of the lastholdouts of opposition to forcesof Syrian President Bashar al-

Assad.A ceasefire announced by

Russia has largely held sincelate August.

But the Observatory says48 civilians -- including 16 chil-dren -- have been killed inRussian air strikes on theregion since the start ofNovember.

The Britain-based monitor,which relies on sources insideSyria, says it determines whocarries out an air strike accord-ing to flight patterns, as well asaircraft and the munitionsinvolved.

Bethesda (Maryland): PresidentDonald Trump was at WalterReed National Medical Centeron Saturday for what the WhiteHouse said were medical tests aspart of his annual physical.

The appointment wasn’t onhis weekend public schedule thatwas released Friday night, andhis last physical was in February.

Press secretary StephanieGrisham said the 73-year-oldTrump was “anticipating a verybusy 2020’’ and wanted to takeadvantage of “a free weekend’’ inWashington to begin “portionsof his routine’’ checkup.

She was not more specificabout the testing.

The February checkupshowed he had put on somepounds and was now officiallyconsidered obese. His BodyMass Index was 30.4. His weightwas 243 pounds and he was 6feet, 3 inches tall.

Trump spent more thanfour hours at Walter Reed onFeb. 8 for his most recent check-up, supervised by Dr. Sean PConley, his physician, andinvolving a panel of 11 special-ists. AP

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Atop US official restrictedaccess to the summary of

Donald Trump’s Ukraine callthat triggered an impeachmentprobe, fearing it would damagethe president, testimony releasedon Saturday showed.

WH Ukraine expertTimothy Morrison told Houseinvestigators he knew immedi-ately how sensitive the call waswhen he heard Trump pressUkraine’s President VolodymyrZelensky to investigate formerUS vice president Joe Biden.

“I recommended... That werestrict access to the package,”said Morrison, who left theNational Security Council theday before testifying.

The conversation, whichtook place on July 25 while theWhite House was withholdingmilitary aid to Ukraine, is cen-tral to the House impeachmentinquiry into Trump.

Democrats leading theprobe say the call summaryshows the president abused hisoffice by bullying a vulnerableally into interfering on his behalfin the 2020 US election.

“The testimony releasedtoday shows that PresidentTrump’s July 25 phone call withUkrainian President Zelenskyimmediately set off alarm bellsthroughout the White House,”Adam Schiff, the congressmanleading the inquiry, said in astatement released jointly withother senior Democrats.

Morrison said however thesummary had been placed on ahighly classified system due to a“mistake” by White House staff— casting doubt on allegationsthat it was squirreled away as partof a deliberate cover-up.

He also broke with otherwitnesses who have spoken outagainst the call, telling Houseinvestigators he heard nothingwrong. “In your view there wasnothing improper that occurredduring the call?” the Republican’slead counsel asked Morrison.“Correct,” he replied.

House investigators alsoreleased testimony from JenniferWilliams, Vice President MikePence’s special advisor for Europeand Russia, who told lawmakersTrump’s push for Ukraine toopen investigations was “unusu-al and inappropriate.”

Las Vegas: Former VicePresident Joe Biden brought analarmist warning to a diversecrowd of Democrats lateSaturday in early-caucus Nevadaduring a town hall at an ele-mentary school in a historical-ly minority Las Vegas neigh-borhood.

Biden opened the eventsaying that as long as Donald ispresident, the security and futureof the United States is at risk. “Aslong as he’s there, everything wecare about as a nation, and theissues we care about, are in thebalance,” Biden said.

Trump state campaign chiefAdam Laxalt responded thatvoters in 2020 will reject Bidenand the Democratic “extremistliberal vision for America” and“choose freedom and econom-ic growth instead.”

With fewer than 100 daysbefore Nevada Democratic partycaucuses, Biden is among thefront-runners in crowded fieldof Democratic candidates forpresident. His evening appear-ance drew more than 250 peo-ple one day before Biden andmost other Democratic presi-dential candidates are due toattend a campaign event at a Las

Vegas Strip resort. Biden skippedanother Democratic party eventin the Los Angeles-area city ofLong Beach to be in Nevada.

He also plans to fly Sundayto a campaign event in Elko, aranching hub in northeastNevada and home to the annu-al midwinter National CowboyPoetry Gathering.

Many in his Las Vegas audi-ence said they knew who andwhat they were going to see.

“We’ve got to take this coun-try back from Donald Trump,”said David Humdy, 71, a retiredDisney TV executive who livesin Las Vegas. Humdy said he hasbeen to several Biden ralliessince Biden announced his bidfor president.

“I honestly believe he’s theonly one who can beat DonaldTrump,” Humdy said. “It’sbecause of his experience. Ithink people know they can relyon Joe Biden.” Abel Figueroa, aretired Las Vegas construction

worker, said he and hisdaughters, Sylvia and IsabelFigueroa, were willing to spendtheir weekend evening at theBiden event “to help spread theword to others who are nothere.” AP

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Sri Lanka’s controversialwartime defence secretary

Gotabaya Rajapaksa will leadthe country after ruling partycandidate Sajith Premadasaconceded the hotly contestedpresidential poll on Sunday,marking the return of the pow-erful Rajapaksa dynasty knownfor its pro-China tilt, amidstsecurity challenges followingthe Easter Sunday terror attacksthat killed 269 people.

Rajapaksa, 70, defeatedPremadasa, 52, by more than 13lakh votes, according to the offi-cial results.

Rajapaksa, who will succeedPresident Maithripala Sirisenafor a five-year term, will besworn in as the seventh execu-tive president of Sri Lanka onMonday at the ancient northcentral town of Anuradhapura.

He will be the second mem-

ber from the Rajapaksa familyto become the president. Hisolder brother MahindaRajapaksa was president from2005 to 2015.

Rajapaksa secured 52.25per cent votes (6,924,255), whilePremadasa bagged 41.99 percent (5,564,239) of the totalvotes polled, the election com-

mission said.Other candidates got 5.76

per cent votes.

The overall voter turnout atthe election was around 83.73per cent, Elections CommissionChairman Mahinda Deshapriyasaid.

Following his win,Rajapaksa urged his supportersto “rejoice peacefully”.

“As we usher in a new jour-ney for Sri Lanka, we mustremember that all Sri Lankansare part of this journey. Let usrejoice peacefully, with dignityand discipline in the same man-ner in which we campaigned,”the retired lieutenant colonelsaid in a tweet.

Rajapaksa had vowed to“restore relations” with SriLanka’s top lender, China, if hewins the election, despite inter-national concerns over theisland nation’s financial debt tothe Asian superpower.

Premadasa, meanwhile, wasconsidered leaning moretowards India and the US.

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Colombo: GotabayaRajapaksa, who emerged vic-torious in Sri Lanka’s presi-dential election, thanked thepeople of India and Prime Minister NarendraModi for his warm wishes,saying he looks forward tostrengthening the friendshipand meeting him in the nearfuture.

Rajapaksa, 70, a contro-versial wartime defence sec-retary, is all set to lead SriLanka for five years after rul-

ing party candidate SajithPremadasa conceded the poll,marking the return of thepowerful Rajapaksa dynasty.

He will succeed PresidentMaithripala Sirisena who didnot seek a second term.

Prime Minister Modicongratulated Rajapaksa forwinning the Sri Lankan pres-idential polls and said helooks forward to further deep-en relations between the twonations.

PTI

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Gotabaya Rajapaksa, theman who ruthlessly ended

Sri Lanka’s nearly 30-yearcivil war with the LTTE, isboth a controversial and arespected figure in theisland nation where he isconsidered a “war hero” bythe Sinhalese Buddhistmajority, but mostly distrustedby the minority Tamils.

The 70-year-old politician,who as a former military man

attended the counter-insur-gency and jungle warfareschool in Assam in 1980,served as the defence secretary

during his elder brotherMahinda Rajapaksa’stenure as president from2005 to 2014.

In 1983, he also gaineda masters in DefenceStudies from the

University of Madras.Rajapaksa visited India in

2012 and 2013 in his capacityas the defence secretary.

While families of ethnicTamils killed or disappearedduring the civil war accuseRajapaksa of war crimes,Muslims fear his popularityamong Sinhalese Buddhistswill further deepen the dividebetween the two communitiespost the Easter Sunday attackscarried out by Islamist extrem-ists that claimed 269 lives.

The Hindus and Muslimstogether constitute approxi-mately 20 per cent of SriLanka’s population.

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London: A US businesswomanat the centre of controversy overwhether Boris Johnson showedher inappropriate favouritismamid an alleged affair said onSunday she had been left “heart-broken” and “humiliated” bythe British Prime Minister.

Jennifer Arcuri, who isaccused of getting privilegedaccess to foreign trade jaunts andgrants when Johnson was pre-viously London mayor, toldBritain’s ITV he was treating her

like “some fleeting one-nightstand”.

The technology entrepre-neur said the British premier,now campaigning for re-election,had rebuffed her requests “foradvice” after the scandal erupt-ed in September.

“I’m terribly heartbrokenby the way that you have cast measide like I am some gremlin,”Arcuri, addressing Johnsondirectly, told ITV’s Exposureprogramme. AFP

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Frankfurt am Main: An AirNamibia plane collided with aKorean Air jet after landing atFrankfurt airport on Saturdayevening, officials said, addingthat no one was injured.

Both aircraft were damagedin what Air Namibia on Sundaycalled “a minor accident”.

A spokeswoman forFrankfurt airport said the inci-dent happened at around 6:00pm (1700 GMT) on Saturday.She said no one was injured andthe reasons for the crash remain

unclear.“The left wing of an Air

Namibia plane collided with thehorizontal stabiliser of KoreanAir flight KE905 as it was wait-ing on the taxiway after land-ing,” Korean Air said in a state-ment.

The Korean Air plane wascarrying 241 passengers and 40crew at the time, it said.

“We confirm that no pas-sengers and crew were hurt,” AirNamibia added in its own state-ment. AFP

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Sir — The proverb, “charitybegins at home” expresses theoverriding demand to take care ofone’s family before helping others.However, the notion that a man’sfamily should be the foremostconcern is misplaced and one thatgoes against the concept of “char-ity” as a humanitarian act.

Charity in general meansone’s willingness to help others.But helping those who are reallyin need is a rare and noble qual-ity seen today. If one has to beselective about his/her generosi-ty, how will the society benefitowing to one’s unflinching act ofselflessness? Charity is not justrestricted to financial aid but callsfor love, compassion, care andother emotions, which combineto give the act an honourable con-notation.

In this respect, the selfless actby members of the Sikh commu-nity in Goa to feed the needystands out as a gesture that mer-its attention. Service before selfhas been the guiding principle ofthe Sikhs and they are known toattach a lot of importance to com-munity service. At a time whencommunal harmony in the coun-

try is threatened by differencesbrought about between variouscommunities to serve their selfinterests, it is refreshing to seegenuine acts by members of the

Sikh community in Goa. This willgo a long a long way in fosteringbetter relations between people.

Pachu MenonMargao

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Sir — The Kerala Governmentmust be lauded for its efforts to

provide free internet access to 20lakh poor households and othersat an affordable rate.

The State Governmentbelieves internet connection is abasic human right and also a win-dow to the world. The KeralaCabinet, therefore, gave a finalnod to the Kerala Fibre OpticNetwork (KFON) project, whichis expected to be completed byDecember 2020. Kerala’s gestureto help its citizens, especially thepoor, to make them part ofnational progress is somethingother States can follow.

M Pradyu Kannur

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Sir — The Supreme Court’s deci-sion to keep the decision on areview petition on the Sabarimalaissue in abeyance is safe thoughit has left the devotees in a stateof uncertainty. The Governmentshould postpone the implemen-tation of the earlier order until thecourt makes the final decision.

SupreetiVia email

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It’s certainly true — as everybodysays — that Brexit has divided thenation. This is generally regarded asa sad thing: A story of friendshipsrenounced and families locked in

unforgiving discord. In truth, this appar-ently bitter phase in our civic life may oneday come to be seen as a golden age ofpopular political engagement when apa-thy and cynicism gave way to real passionand conviction, when people in theshops and in the streets argued openlyabout the importance of their institutionsand the integrity of those who represent-ed them.

In other words, it has been an erawhen politics mattered to ordinary peo-ple and the value of a free democraticpolity had never been so clear. But thereis another sense in which the greatBrexit question has had a positive, andpossibly more long-lasting, effect onBritish political arrangements.

Two major opinion polls publishedrecently showed that the Conservativesnow had more support among the work-ing class people than middle class ones.This is thunderous in its implications.Nothing like it has occurred since the1980s when Thatcherism broke the mouldof traditional party loyalties. Clearly,this is directly related to the fact that theTories are now the party, which unam-biguously advocates leaving the EuropeanUnion (EU) as expeditiously as possible,which is what more working class votersthan middle class ones wish for.

But to dismiss this phenomenon as asimple, momentary preference for theparty that endorses leaving the EU, is tomiss its real significance. This is an earth-quake in the electoral landscape andalmost certainly a moment of liberationfor a whole swathe of the British popu-lation which once had an almost feudalloyalty to the conditions of its birth.

I struggle to find words excoriatingenough for the smug, patronising inter-pretation — that the rejection of Brexitamong the educated professional classessimply proves that “Remain” is theenlightened position, and working classTory supporters are ignorant bigots. Thisseems to me a species of malign classhatred, which I never expected to see soshamelessly disseminated in this countrywhere snobbery has been, for generations,a benign (often guilty) and largely affec-tionate social force.

Another tributary of the argumentthat working class “Leavers” are idiotswho were duped by populist lies is nowdoing the rounds: That it was a pro-gramme of systematic Russian interfer-ence that swung the referendum result.Can anyone seriously believe this? ThatRussian propaganda (which was sayingwhat exactly) persuaded voters who hadenough experience, in real life, of the cat-astrophic decline of their own commu-nities, to reject all the apocalyptic warn-ings of Project Fear and choose what theywere told was economic suicide? Ohplease.

What is going on here? If it isn’t justabout Brexit, and there is a true re-struc-turing of party affiliations, what does thismean — and how did it happen? Ofcourse, it has something to do with thepeculiarly unappetising present Labour

leadership but this has beenanatomised to exhaustionelsewhere, so let’s leave itaside for the moment.

What must be understoodby anyone who genuinelywants to learn from this phe-nomenon is that the workingclass “Leave” vote was not justabout dislike of EU diktats,and it was not just aboutimmigration. It was a quitejustifiable cry of outrage athaving been effectively writtenoff by a callous and selfish(unlikely word I know, for asocial coterie that thinks ofitself as, above all, compas-sionate) metropolitan bour-geoisie. So, in a way, this is stillabout class but it turns the oldway of thinking about whichparty is on your side, on itshead.

In this, it is very much likethe Thatcher era when a newConservative philosophy cre-ated a completely differentpolitical identity and mes-sage: Rather than being theparty of those who alreadyhad property and prosperity— and all the freedoms, choic-es and self-determination thatthose things provided — theybecame the party for all thosewho longed for them.

Where Labour’s messageto working class people hadbeen, “Stay where you areand we’ll look after you”, theTories were saying, “You don’thave to stay in the station towhich you were born. We’llhelp you move on.”Paternalism went out, aspira-tion came in.

So resoundingly success-ful was this theme that it wasappropriated, digested andre-marketed — in a less coher-ent but more endearing form— by Blairite New Labour.

But this isn’t, I hope, justa question of changing sides— of maintaining the classdivision, but picking a newteam to champion your sectar-ian interests. To leave behindthe long hereditary link witha political body that was onceseen as the voice of yourcommunity is quite some-thing. It opens up the possi-bility of more choices, morefreedom to do what youbelieve to be in your trueinterest rather than beinglocked into limitations whichcan never be escaped.

It gets you past the almostsuperstitious belief in theinherent goodness of socialistsolutions and the inevitable

wickedness of those whooppose them. Whole new vis-tas of understanding can beopened to you.

Words like “selfish”, as Iused it above, can be re-exam-ined in a clear light: Are thosemiddle class, highly qualifiedpeople, who are so enthusias-tic about the EU, really moregenerous and open to theworld? Or do they simplyhave a lot more to gain fromthe advantages offered to theirprofessional and businessinterests by membership —rather like the chief protago-nists, Tony Blair and NickClegg, whose global careerismknows no limits?

The immediate effects ofthis dramatic shift are prettyobvious: If so many workingclass people have got beyondtheir resistance to votingConservative, then NigelFarage is not going to havemuch impact on this election.But the long-term conse-quences could be stupendous:Millions of ordinary people,who can look at today’s argu-ments and the reality of theirlives, and make their ownjudgments about what theybelieve.

(Courtesy: The Telegraph)

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The degrading and devastatingimpact of mankind on the envi-ronment, that influences the

lives of many, be it through floods,droughts and earthquakes; has becomea harsh reality of our times. Regrettably,many lives are lost daily due to theeffects of climate change on the plan-et. This is primarily because of the cur-rent pattern of indiscriminate use oflimited resources to support infiniteconsumption. One of the crucial caus-es behind it is the diet composition, thatis aggravating environmental issueseven more. Undoubtedly, our lifestyles,diet intake, attitudes towards the envi-

ronment and many other habits needto be revisited in order to protect theEarth and slow the effects of climatechange. An alternate and sustainableprospective solution to the problemcould be reliance on vegan products.

What are vegan products andhow is vegetarianism different fromveganism, is a question that pops upvery often. The answer to this questionis that though vegetarians avoid meatand meat products but drink milk, eatcheese, curd and some even eat eggs,vegans don’t eat meat, eggs, cheese,mayonnaise, honey, whey, gelatin ordrink milk. In short, they avoid any-thing that comes from or involves ananimal in any way. More extreme veg-ans don’t use any clothing, accessory orobject made from an animal likeleather, wool, pearls, ivory-keyed pianosand so on. Veganism is an extremeform of vegetarianism and though theterm was coined in 1944, the conceptof flesh-avoidance can be traced backto ancient Indian and easternMediterranean societies.

Mahatma Gandhi was a vegan anddespite the fact that he was required to

eat meat products to bolster his failinghealth (during the satyagraha of 1918)he refused to do. According to him, theharm done to cattle even to increasemilk generation could not be over-looked. The elementary ideology ofMahatma Gandhi towards the true wel-fare of animals and protecting themfrom slaughtering and ill-treatment byhumans lays the foundation of the con-cept. Veganism also considers the wayvegetarian products are produced orprocured. For instance, cow and buf-falo milk is obtained by deprivingcalves of their mother’s milk. Similarly,hens are caged for egg productionthrough brutal artificial inseminationinstead of being allowed to produceeggs naturally, in a free environment.The same is true for cows and buffaloesin dairy farms.

The kind of cruelty animals aresubjected to in order to produce foodand products for humans is unfath-omable. As per a recent report, toensure a sustainable future, everyvegan could do his/her bit by savingapproximately 200 animals per year.

Apart from the ethical factors, the

benefits of veganism for the environ-ment are tremendous. Researchers atthe University of Oxford found thatcutting meat and dairy products fromdiet could reduce a person’s carbonfootprint from food by up to 73 percent. If everyone stopped eating meat,eggs and dairy products, global farm-land use could be reduced by 75 percent, an area equivalent to the size ofthe US, China, Australia and the EUcombined. Not only would this resultin a significant drop in greenhouse gasemissions, it would also free up wildland lost to agriculture, one of the pri-mary causes for mass wildlife extinc-tion. Plus the savings in terms of waterwould also be immense as there wouldnot be any need to grow more grain tofeed the cattle, they could just be grass-fed. A recent study conducted in theNetherlands has indicated that substi-tuting animal-protein with plant-basedprotein could help minimise the green-house effects. The conversion of veg-etable protein to animal protein has twoimportant environmental implications:The soil’s mineral exhaustion due topasture land and the intense pressure

on local natural resources due to theaccumulation of minerals in animalproduction fields.

According to the AmericanDietetic Association and Dieticians ofCanada, the usage of vegan productsplays a pertinent role in loweringcholesterol levels and reducing saturat-ed fats. Besides, it could exert a size-able impact on the body mass indexthat further lowers the risk of cancerand heart attack.

However, even vegan productsare not free from debate due to thevarying faulty architecture adopted inthe combination of food products. Ithas been witnessed that vegan productsmay not be a healthy option since theydon’t protect the human body fromvarious diseases like anaemia, rickets,cretinism and so on, primarily becausemost of the vegan products lack pro-tein, calcium, iodine, vitamin B12 & Dand omega-3 fatty acids.

Additionally, if we wholly switchto plant-based supplements, it mightlead to enhanced consumption of gro-cery products, displacing naturalresources in order to fulfil the grow-

ing demand that may alternativelychange the land use patterns to com-pletely eradicate the rainforests.

Various studies have confirmed theincreasing environmental burden dueto our consumption patterns that areexpected to surpass 90 per cent asagainst the current burden by 2050 ifwe continue to consume non-vegetar-ian products as usual.

Traditional ways like organic farm-ing could be a possible way forward toensure a sustainable lifestyle and ahealthier planet. It may be difficult toturn into a pure vegan but baby stepstowards veganism can help in creatinga sustainable lifestyle over a period oftime.

We should all remember that cli-mate change is a mere obvious conse-quence of human activities and way oflife. This might outdo the surmount-ing planetary boundaries which todaydefine a safe operating space forhumanity beyond which Earth’s vitalecosystems could become unstable.

(Kanojia is in DU and Jain isAssistant Professor and Senior ResearchScholar, DU)

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Muslims are the second-largest demo-graphic of India, with nearly 14 per centof the country’s population or roughly 172

million people, but they are so marginalised thattheir presence in important public spheres is almostinvisible. Muslims continue to suffer great econom-ic deprivation. Their situation is so dire that, forthem, economic reforms need precedence over allother amelioration policies. In fact, improvementin social and educational conditions as also themuch-talked-about gender reforms can automat-ically follow as a byproduct of economic redemp-tion. On almost every measure of success — thenumber of Muslims in the IAS, the police and theArmy; the number of Muslim-owned companiesin the top 500 Indian firms; the percentage ofMuslim CEOs or even, national newspaper edi-tors — they lag far behind their statistical entitle-ments. And then there are millions of Muslims wholive in abject poverty.

The backwardness of Muslims is depriving thecountry of one-fifth of its valuable talent. Economicproblems cannot be solved with civil rights reme-dies but they could be relieved with public and pri-vate action that encourages economic redevelop-ment. The Government has been aggressively pur-suing the agenda of reforms in the personal lawsof Muslims alleging genuine concern for Muslimwomen. Economic backwardness is a much hard-er and bitter reality for Muslims and the State can’tturn its eyes away, particularly when it is trainingso many telescopes on the community’s socialissues. It will amount to questioning the purity ofthe nationalism of Muslims, the same way theupper castes have questioned the purity of spiri-tualism of the so-called backward castes. Muslimshave a duality in being Indians and Muslims butthey have been maintaining this identity with fullfidelity. Neither nationalism is being compromisednor religion being abandoned.

The economic agenda is more urgent for thecommunity than most of the reforms which theGovernment is contemplating. The whole chorusof gender reforms gives an impression that the civilcode is the prime urgency and that it is a magicbullet for its multiple problems. Most Muslims seethese social reforms as a subterfuge for deflectingattention from the most pressing discriminationsthat the community is facing on the economicfront. The Government owes an obligation to act.It makes both good economics and politics, if afraction of its new economic gain can be used tocorrect the negative trajectory of Muslim realityin India. The relative economic condition ofMuslims has suffered significantly compared toeveryone else, in spite of spectacular growth in thecountry’s economy. Poor Muslims are muchpoorer than poor Hindus and can easily be brack-eted with the lowest Hindu castes and Dalits.Muslims are stuck at the bottom of almost everyeconomic or social heap.

In the mid-2000s, the Government commis-sioned two studies. The Sachar Committee Reportof 2006 and the Misra Commission Report of 2007highlighted a high prevalence of discriminationtowards Muslims and socio-economic deprivationamong them as compared to other religious groups.

Almost none of the recommendations hasbeen implemented by any of the Governments at

the Centre. The Sachar report stated thatMuslims have not “shared equally in thebenefits” of India’s economic growth andare “seriously lagging behind in terms ofmost of the human development indi-cators.” Muslims have traditionally beencraftsmen and the Hindus traders. Mostcraft skills have been overtaken bymechanisation which has rendered skillsof most craftsmen obsolete. These peo-ple have lost their traditional livelihood.On the contrary Hindu traders and busi-nessmen have prospered from the coun-try’s booming economic growth.

The Post Sachar EvaluationCommittee headed by Prof. AmitabhKundu, in its report of 2014, highlight-ed the fact that the state of Muslim edu-cation is a matter of great concern. TheGraduation Attainment Rates (GARs)and Mean Years of Schooling (MYS) arevery low and dropout rates are very highthe committee stated. These can havelong-term adverse effects on the commu-nity which in turn will have an overallimpact on the larger national economy.

However, there are several ways inwhich the backwardness of the commu-nity can be addressed. Since theConstitution and the courts have ruledout religion to be any sort of criteria forassessing backwardness, minority groupswere not identified as “backward” for thepurpose of special safeguards for the dis-advantaged. There are three main rea-sons advanced: First, it was not compat-ible with secularism. Second, sinceMuslims don’t have a caste system it wasdifficult to use the benchmark of socialbackwardness for providing them spe-cial relief. Third, it would be antitheti-cal to the principles of national unity.

In India, reservations have been for-mulated on the principles of social jus-tice enshrined in the Constitution. TheConstitution provides for reservation forhistorically marginalised communities,

now known as backward castes. But theConstitution does not define any of thecategories, identified for the benefit ofreservation. One of the most importantbases for reservation is the interpretationof the word “class.”

Experts argue that social backward-ness is a fluid and evolving category, withcaste as just one of the markers of dis-crimination. Gender, culture, econom-ic conditions, educational backwardness,official policies among other factors caninfluence social conditions and could bethe cause of deprivation and socialbackwardness. Moreover, the notion ofsocial backwardness itself could under-go change as the political economy trans-forms from a caste-mediated, closed sys-tem to a more open-ended, globally inte-grated and market-determined systemmarked by high mobility and urbanisa-tion. We are seeing this transformationat a much more exponential pace thanour Constitution-makers may have visu-alised. We must actively consider evolv-ing new benchmarks for assessing back-wardness, reducing reliance on its caste-based definition. This alone can enablenewer groups to get the benefits of affir-mative action through social reengineer-ing or else, the tool of affirmative actionwill breed new injustice. Muslims canbecome eligible for at least some formsof positive discrimination among new“backward” groups.

India has 3,743 “backward” castesand sub-castes making up about half thepopulation. So the potential for castewarfare is endless. The result, Britishjournalist Edward Luce wrote in his bookIn Spite of the Gods, is “the most exten-sive system of patronage in the democ-ratic world.” With such a rich gravy train,it’s no wonder the competition turnslethal. The pervasive discrimination ofMuslims in India must compel us to re-examine facile assumptions about social

backwardness stemming from historical-ly over-simplified categories. In a larg-er landscape of increasing communali-sation, the Government should econom-ically and socially empower the commu-nity so that it comes out with its ownappropriate solutions for overall socialreforms. All political parties at the helmof the Government have resorted to“strategic secularism” to secure a so-called Muslim vote bank — an approachthat has stoked resentment among thecountry’s Hindu majority while doing lit-tle to improve Muslims’ well-being.India’s Muslims will be hit particularlyhard, with further social and politicalmarginalisation undermining their eco-nomic prospects.

Given the size of India’s Muslim pop-ulation, this is bound to drag down over-all economic development. It’s silly to tryto consign the great multiplicity of ourlives to one single identity, even one asresplendent as the Indian tradition.Instead of a constant search for a uniformand standardised culture, which canhomogenise the entire population, wemust strive for a stable and modeldemocracy — where the colours in thepainter’s palette find full expression.Therein lies the vibrancy of a civilisation.Instead of using a binary of Muslims andnon-Muslims, the Government mustadjust its lens and address the econom-ic problems of the community. Muslimshave no propensity for violence or anti-national sentiments. Their faith encour-ages peaceful coexistence and mutualrespect — liberal Muslims have givenample proof of this. For India to retainits vitality as a plural society and vibrantcivilisation, this imbalance betweenMuslims and others must be recognisedand addressed.

(The writer is Member, NITI Aayog’sNational Committee on Financial Literacyand Inclusion for Women.)

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Mumbai: The Vishwa HinduParishad said on Sunday thatthe Muslim community shouldaccept the Supreme Court’sverdict in the Ayodhya dispute,and claimed that MahatmaGandhi had made a similarappeal in the case of SomnathTemple.

The statement by VHPgeneral secretary MilindParande came soon after the AllIndia Muslim Personal LawBoard (AIMPLB) favouredseeking a review of the Ayodhyajudgment.

Parande also said that sim-ilar disputes about religioussites in Kashi and Mathurawere not on the VHP's agenda.

"Mahatma Gandhi hadmade a similar appeal toMuslims, urging them to acceptthe decision of the then uniongovernment to reconstruct theSomnath temple (which hadbeen destroyed in the earliercenturies) in Gujarat," heclaimed here.

"Gandhi had said Muslimsshould accept the decision or itwould give the wrong message

that their attachment lies withthe destructors of the temple,"he said.

Gandhi had expressed thisview in his newspaper"Harijan", he further claimed.

"As the court's decision onthe Ramjanmabhoomi is unan-imous, I think there is no needfor review petition," the VHPleader said.

Parande also said that theVHP and other orrganisationswhich were agitating for thetemple were now waiting for theUnion Government to set up atrust — as directed by the SC —for the temple construction.

"Sixty per cent of carvedstones (to be used for templeconstruction) are ready," hesaid. Parande was speakingafter inauguration of a hostel setup by the VHP for poor cancerpatients coming to the city fortreatment.

AIMPLB secretaryZafaryab Jilani said on Sundaythat the land of the Babrimosque "belongs to Allah andunder the Sharia, it cannot begiven to anybody".

"The board has also cate-gorically stated that it wasagainst taking five-acre land inAyodhya in lieu of the mosque.The board is of the view thatthere cannot be any alternative

to the mosque," he said inDelhi.

Earlier in the day, theJamiat Ulama-i-Hind alsodecided to file a review petitionchallenging the SupremeCourt's Ayodhya verdict.

The SC, in its verdict in theBabri Masjid-RamJanmabhoomi title case onNovember 9, said the entire2.77 acres of disputed landshould be handed over to thedeity Ram Lalla, who was oneof the three litigants.

The five-judge Constitutionbench also directed the Centreto allot a five-acre plot to theSunni Waqf Board in Ayodhyato build a mosque.

Asked if the VHP will pushfor similar decisions on the dis-puted sites in Kashi (Varanasi)and Mathura, Parande said,"We are also doing a lot of socialreform-related work. Ourhands are full now, so we arenot getting involved in Kashiand Mathura issues."

The focus, at present, wason the construction of a grandtemple in Ayodhya, he said.

“A prototype of the templewas circulated several yearsago. We hope it will be accept-ed by the trust which the cen-tre will form. VHP will not bepart of the trust,” he said. PTI

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Mumbai: A day after RajneetSingh, son of former BJP MLASardar Tara Singh, was arrest-ed in connection with thePunjab and MaharashtraCooperative (PMC) Bankscam, the Economic OffencesWing (EOW) of the city policeon Sunday conducted a searchat his residence here, an offi-cial said.

Before the search, RajneetSingh, who is a director of thescam-hit bank, was producedbefore a court here, whichremanded him in police cus-tody till November 25.

"After producing Singh inthe court, a team of aroundfour officials took him to hisflat in Karmashetra Buildingin Sion Koliwada area andconducted a search there. Theywere there for over an hour.Singh's family members wereasked to wait outside thebuilding during the search," anEOW official said.

"But what has been recov-ered and seized from the flatis yet to be known," he added.

With the arrest of RajneetSingh, total nine persons havebeen arrested in connectionwith the alleged Rs 4355-crore scam, including threetop bank officials and two

promoters of HDIL --Rakeshand Sarang Wadhawan, andauditors.

Besides being a director,Rajneet Singh is a member ofthe loan recovery committeeof the bank.

The EOW suspects anexus between some of theaccused and the realty groupHDIL, whose mammoth loandefaults are said to have causeda liquidity crisis at the bank,leading to appointment of anadministrator by the RBI andrestrictions on withdrawal offunds. The EOW had earliertold a sessions court thatprima facie a nexus betweensome of the accused and HDILgroup companies has beenmade out by the investigatorswho suspected a "deep-rootedconspiracy". PTI

Kolkata: Nine Bangladeshiswere arrested by the BSF fromWest Bengal’s North 24Parganas and Murshidabaddistricts for illegally enteringIndia, a statement issued by theparamilitary force said onSunday.

All nine of them wereapprehended on Saturday andSunday from various points ofNorth 24 Parganas andMurshidabad districts, includ-ing Swarup Nagar,Ghojadanga, Tarai areas, itsaid.

BSF jawans also seized 28cattle heads and 499 bottles ofphensedyl (banned coughsyrup), which were beingsmuggled to Bangladesh fromfour bordering districts ofBengal during this period, thestatement added. PTI

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Sabarimala(Ker): Braving rain,thousands of devotees offeredprayers at the Lord Ayyappatemple here on Sunday, the sec-ond day of the annual two-month-long Mandala-Makaravilakku puja pilgrimageseason.

After chief priest AKSudheer Namboothiri openedthe sanctum sanctorum at 3 amand performed special poojasincluding 'Neyyabhishekam'among others, the hill shrine wasthronged by large number ofdevotees throughout the day.

The 'Nadapanthal' (areawhere people queue up for dar-shan) and 'Sannidhanam' wit-nessed huge crowd despite theheavy rain in the evening.

Police Control room offi-

cials said a total of 25,125 foot-falls were recorded till 5 pm onSunday.

"Arrangements were fine..But the rain was unexpected.Many including children gotdrenched," a devotee fromAndhra Pradesh told PTI.

The temple was opened forthe annual pilgrim season onSaturday, days after the SupremeCourt decided to refer to alarger bench re-examination ofreligious issues including thosearising out of its 2018 verdict lift-ing a centuries-old ban onwomen of menstruating agevisiting the hill top shrine.

Though the apex court didnot stay its earlier order allow-ing entry of women in the LordAyyappa temple, at least 10

women, part of a 30-membergroup from Andhra Pradeshwere sent back from nearbyPamba on Saturday as theywere found to be in the agegroup of 10-50 years.

The Kerala government,which had provided protectionto some women devotees whovisited the temple last year, hasthis time made it clear that itwould not encourage womenwho want to enter the shrine forpublicity.

Kerala Law Minister AKBalan on Sunday said there wasa "de facto" stay of the September28, 2018 apex court order allow-ing women of all ages to enterSabarimala temple and the StateGovernment could act only onthe basis of the court's verdict.

"In this case, a constitutionalGovernment can act onlyaccording to the orders of thecourt. Now we have a newproblem. The question waswhether the verdict ofNovember 14 stayed the earlierorder. De jure there is no stay....But de facto there is a stay.

"The 2018 order has beenstayed in effect even though itwas not officially mentioned,"Balan told reporters.

'De jure' means existing orholding a specified position bylegal right while 'de facto' meansexisting or holding a specifiedposition in fact but not neces-sarily by legal right.

The State and templeprecincts had witnessed protestsby right wing outfits and BJP

workers last year after the LDFgovernment had decided toimplement the Supreme Courtverdict of September 28, 2018allowing women of all agegroups to offer prayers at theshrine.

Meanwhile, DevaswomMinister KadakampallySurendran held a high-levelmeeting with the officials of alldepartments concerned withSabarimala and discussed various matters related to the temple. He also said small vehicles would be allowedto ply till Pamba and theKSRTC bus stand would adopta queue system and a conduc-tor would be appointed in thebus from Nilackal, base camp,to Pamba. PTI

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Aformer police officer AGPonn Manickavel,

described as the super cop ofTamil Nadu, is giving sleeplessnights to the ruling AIADMKand the Opposition DMK lead-ers. The entire State adminis-tration has been beefed up bythe Tamil Nadu Government tomake the apex court of thecountry not to grant any moreextension of service toManickavel and prevent himfrom pursuing with his probeinto the missing antique idolsnumbering more than 5,000from the temples of the State.

Ponn Manickavel was theInspector General of Police,heading the Idol Wing (CID)who was probing the thefts ofantique idols from temples in theState administered by the HinduReligious and CharitableEndowment Department. Idolsdating back to thousands ofyears were stolen from the tem-ples of Tamil Nadu ever since theDMK came to power in 1967.This practice continued despitethe change of Government inthe State in 1977. “The DMKand the AIADMK indiscrimi-nately plundered the templesand shared the bounty. Leadersof both the parties are rattled bythe investigation undertaken byManickavel,” said T R Ramesh,president, Temple WorshippersSociety, who heads the list of lit-igants fighting to liberate thetemples from the shackles of theState administration.

Though Manickavel, onreaching the age of 60, was

superannuated from service onNovember 30, 2018, the MadrasHigh Court by a special orderappointed him as SpecialOfficer for one year to probe theidol theft cases. The TamilNadu Government wanted himout of the investigation andapproached the Supreme Courtwith a plea challenging theHigh Court directive. Thoughthe Supreme Court upheld theHigh Court order, few monthstime was lost because of the lit-igation. “Despite the SupremeCourt’s verdict, the Tamil NaduGovernment created manyobstacles to prevent Manickavelfrom carrying out the investi-gation. During this period,Manickavel and his team tracedand brought back some of theidols which were stored in pri-vate museums and from art col-lectors,” said Ramesh.

The Tamil NaduGovernment, which did notprovide any office facilities or

other infrastructure toManickavel and his team forthe last one year has againapproached the apex court witha request for court directive tothe officer to hand over thecharges to Abhay Kumar Singh,Additional DGP in charge ofIdol Wing on November 30when the former’s tenure comesto an end. The State has prayedthe court to issue an order ask-ing Manickavel to hand over therecords, idol and artefacts toSingh. A bench consisting ofJustices Ashok Bhushan and MR Shah would hear the case onMonday.

Interestingly, the devoteesare unanimous in their supportfor Manickavel. “We wantManickavel to be appointed asofficer on special duty for aperiod of two years so that hecould go ahead with the inves-tigation and bring back thestolen idols,” said Parthasarathy,a devotee at Sreerangam. He

pointed out that the Dravidianpolitical parties have joinedhands together in swindlingmoney and property out of thetemples. “ The officials postedin the HR&CE Departmentsare all rationalists and atheistsbelonging to the DMK. Theyare destroying temple proper-ties,” said Parthasarathy.

Ramesh said the TamilNadu Government has devisedstrategies to derail the MadrasHigh Court verdict asking theHR&CE Department to furnishthe details of the 50,000 acres ofprime real estate property whichhas gone “missing” from thetemples. “Though the verdictwas pronounced in February2018, the Government is yet tocome out with the details of themissing temple land,” he said.Both Ramesh and Parthasarathyare confident that if the missingidols are traced by Manickavel,many politicians in the Statewould end up in jails.

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Srinagar: Rail services in theKashmir Valley resumed fullyon Sunday — over threemonths after being suspendeddue to security reasons — asthe train chugged fromSrinagar to Banihal through therestive south Kashmir, offi-cials said.

The train passes throughSrinagar station and the sta-tions in south Kashmir beforereaching Banihal.

A railway official told PTIthat "rail service in the valleyfully resumed this morning asthe train chugged fromBaramulla towards Banihal".

The official said there wasonly one run scheduled forSunday, while the train wouldmake two runs on daily basisfrom Monday.

The Railways conductedtwo trial runs of the service onthe Srinagar-Banihal stretchon Saturday and then anothertrial run on Sunday morningbefore the actual service start-ed, he added.

Rail service in the valleyhad partially resumed onTuesday as the train chugged

between Baramulla andSrinagar stretch of the railwayline.

The authorities have direct-ed the Railways to ply thetrains between 10 am and 3 pmonly due to security reasons,the official said.

The train service in theKashmir valley was suspendeddue to security reasons onAugust 3 ahead of the Centre'sannouncement of abrogation ofArticle 370 and the bifurcationof the erstwhile state into twoUnion territories.

The weekly flea markethere, meanwhile, witnessed ahuge rush of customers, officialsaid.

They said marketsremained open around noon,after which shopkeepersdowned their shutters to jointhe protest against abrogationof the special status of Jammuand Kashmir.

Few mini-buses have start-ed plying on some routes in thecity and elsewhere in the val-ley, the officials said, adding,cabs and auto-rickshaws werealso plying. PTI

Kolkata: Over 30 para-teach-ers have launched an indefinitefast near Bikash Bhavan, thebuilding housing the stateEducation department here,demanding hike in theirsalaries, a member of theteachers organisation said onSunday.

Co-Convenor of 'ParaTeacher Oikyo Manch'Bhagirath Ghosh told reporterson Sunday that over 1,000para teachers are on an indef-inite sit-in at Central Park, SaltLake since November 11.

However, finding "no pos-itive response" from the StateGovernment with regard totheir economic demands, "Weare now forced to sit for fastunto death if the Governmentremains unresponsive to our

demands," Ghosh said.Over 30 para-teachers are

currently on the indefinite fastsince November 16, he said.

A spokesman of theManch said the �10,000monthly salary of para teach-ers at primary schools and�13,000 in Higher Secondaryschools is meagre consideringthe present market conditionand in comparison with thesalary in other professions.

Para-teachers are thosewho assist in teaching inschools and are not full-timeteachers.

Last year EducationMinister Partha Chatterjee hadannounced a pay hike for22,085 para teachers at prima-ry level from �5,954 to�10,000. PTI

#�����>�������������������������������%�����Srinagar: As Srinagar reeledunder harsh winter conditions,the Jammu & Kashmir admin-istration on Sunday shifted all34 political prisoners, lodged atCentaur Hotel since August 5,to the MLA Hostel as the facil-ity lacked proper heatingarrangements, officials said.

The winter chill took a tollon the health of the detenues —National Conference, PDP andPeople's Conference leadersand prominent social activists— and the security personnelguarding them.

They were lodged at thehotel on the bank of the scenicDal Lake on August 5 when thecentral government announcedits decision to abrogate Jammu& Kashmir's special statusunder Article 370 of theConstitution and split the stateinto two Union territories.

Kashmir Valley, includingSrinagar City, was reeling underwinter chill and witnessed theseason's first snowfall earlier

this month. The seat of admin-istration in the newly createdUnion territory has movedfrom Srinagar to Jammu for thewinter months.

The administration car-ried out required modificationof rooms in the MLA Hostel onMaulana Azad Road in theheart of the city to accommo-date the political prisoners. Ithas been declared as a sub-sidiary jail by an order of the J-K home department.

Among the political pris-oners are Sajjad Lone ofPeople's Conference (PC), AliMohammad Sagar of NationalConference (NC), NaemAkhtar of the PDP and formerIAS officer Shah Faesal.

Former Jammu & KashmirChief Minister MehboobaMufti was on Friday shifted to a Government accommo-dation in the city from a tourist hut located at thefoothills of Zaberwan range,officials said here. PTI

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Kohima: The Naga Hoho, theapex body of tribal organisa-tions in the State, on Sundayurged all political groups tocome together leaving asidetheir past differences for asolution to the vexed Nagaissue.

It also urged the politicalgroups to be accommodativefor a peaceful settlement to theseven-decade-old Naga insur-gency problem.

A statement issued byNaga Hoho general secretary,K Elu Ndang on Sunday saidthat the executive council ofNaga Hoho held its meeting onNovember 13 here andresolved to appeal to all theNaga political groups to beaccommodative for a peacefulsettlement.

The search for a just peaceand honourable settlement ofthe Naga peace process hascome about giving a ray ofhope and belief that a new eraof peace and tranquility willprevail once again in the Nagasociety, the Hoho said.

However, the Naga Hohois of the firm belief that unlessall Naga political groups cometogether leaving aside theirpast differences, there cannever be true peace in the land,it said. PTI

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UP Shia Waqf Board chiefWaseem Rizvi slammed

All-India Majlis-e-IttehadulMuslimeen (AIMIM) leaderAsaduddin Owaisi, saying hewas like ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

“There is no differencebetween Abu Bakr al-Baghdadiand Asaduddin Owaisi today. al-Baghdadi had an army andarms and ammunition which heused to spread terror whileOwaisi is creating terror by his‘zabaan’ (speeches). He is push-ing Muslims towards acts of ter-ror and bloodshed. It is hightime that a ban should beslapped on him and the MuslimPersonal Law Board,” Rizvi saidhere on Sunday, referring to thespeeches made by the AIMIMleader after the Supreme Courtverdict on the RamJanmabhoomi-Babri Masjid titledispute.

Earlier on November 11, acomplaint was filed againstOwaisi for making inciting state-

ments after the Supreme Courtverdict on Ayodhya case.Following the apex court verdict,Owaisi had said that the“Supreme Court is indeedsupreme but not infallible”.

“I am not satisfied with theverdict. We have full faith in theConstitution. We were fightingfor our legal rights. We do notneed 5-acre land as ‘khairat’(charity)” Owaisi had said.

The Shia Waqf Board chiefalso slammed the All-IndiaMuslim Personal Law Board forits stance on the Ayodhya ver-dict. “This is a great decision bythe Supreme Court, the likes ofwhich I have not seen in my life.It satisfied all the parties butthere are some parties like theMuslim Personal Law Board andAsaduddin Owaisi who arefuelling the orthodox mindset.There should be a ban on themtoo,” Rizvi said.

Earlier on November 15,Rizvi had donated �51,000 toRam Janmabhoomi Nyas for theconstruction of Ram temple atthe disputed site in Ayodhya.

Rizvi said the MuslimPersonal Law Board was anorganisation of self-appointed‘thekedar’ (custodians) of theMuslim community.

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The changing political equa-tion in Maharashtra had its

echo at the seventh deathanniversary event of BalThackeray on Sunday, as theCongress and NCP leadersmade their presence felt at the“Shiv Thirth” to pay homage tothe late Sena chief, Shiv Sainiksheckled former deputy ChiefMinister Devendra Fadnavisand the BJP and Sena leadersexchanged barbs.

“Shiv Thirth” — a historicground better known as theShivaji Park where the ShivSena was founded way back in1966, where late Thackerayaddressed massive Dussehrarallies year after year till a yearprior to his death, where theSena chief was cremated onNovember 18, 2012 and wherethe swearing-in ceremony ofthe new Shiv Sena-ledGovernment is likely to takeplace — came alive, as thou-sands of Sainks turned out topay their respects to lateThackeray.

Shiv Sena presidentUddhav Thackeray, his wifeRashmi, sons Aditya and Tejaswere among the first to arriveat the Shivjai Park to payhomage to the late Sena patri-arch at the landscaped garden,developed by the Sena-con-trolled BrihanmumbaiMunicipal Corporation (BMC).

In a reflection of thechanged political mood in thestate, state State presidentJayant Patil, former DeputyChief Minister ChhaganBhujbal and Jitendra Awhadmade it specially to “ShivThirth” and paid their respectsto late Bal Thackeray. “We willmake all-out efforts to fulfil late

Balasaheb’s dream (of installinga Sena-led Government and itsChief Minister),” senior NCPleader Chhagan Bhujbal, whowas himself a Shiv Sena leadertill he left the party and joinedthe Congress in 1991.

Congress leader BhaiJagtap came to “Shiv Thirth”and paid respects to the lateShiv Sena chief.

NCP chief Sharad Pawar,who is playing a key role in theformation of Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress Government inMaharashtra, tweeted: “LateBalasaheb Thackeray espousedthe cause of self-respect andhelped Marathi Manoos con-ducted himself with pride.With his social work and gov-ernance-based politics, greatoratory skills, straight-forwardoutlook, Balasaheb gave selflessand endless love to his follow-ers. My sincere homage to himon his death anniversary”.

Former chief minister andBJP leader Devendra Fadnavisarrived at “Shiv Thirth” in theearly afternoon and paid hishomage to late Thackeray.“Paid humble tributes toH i n d u H r u d a y S a m r a t ,ShivSenaPramukh BalasahebThackeray ji on his SmrutiDinat Mumbai,” Fadnavis tweeted.

Ahead of his arrival, min-isters in his governmentPankaja Munde and VinodTawade were already there at“Shiv Thirth”. Together, theypaid respects to the late Senachief. Later in the evening,BJP president ChandrakantPatil reached “Shiv Thirth”and paid homage to lateThackeray.

Fadnavis, who had in themorning put out a video on lateThackeray on his twitter han-dle, said in his accompanyingmessage saying. “Late HonThackeray gave us a basic

mantra of how to protect of ourself-respect”. The video andaccompanying messagesparked unrest in the ShivSena workerrs present there.

Seeing Fadnavis — whoserelations with Shiv Sena pres-ident Uddhav Thackeray haveturned sour after the formerdenied that the BJP had givenany assurance to the latter thatthe rotational chief minister-ship would be given to the Sena– leave from “Shiv Thirth”after paying respects to lateThackeray, the Sainiks becamesomewhat restive and shouted“Me Punha Yain, Me PunhaYain... (I will return as the chiefminister)” slogan, a statementthat Fadnavis had made atelection rally after electionrally in the recent Assemblypolls predicting his return asthe Chief Minister of the state.

Talking to media personsafter paying homage to late

Thackeray, Shiv Sena MP andspokesperson Sanjay Raut said:“We will do anything for lateBalsaheb Thackeray. Our gov-ernment will be formed. Wewill fulfil the promise thatUddhavji had given to his latefather Balasaheb. Shiv Senaman will become the chiefminister of the state as early aspossible.

When his attention wasdrawn to Fadnavis’ tweetaccompanying a video on lateThackeray, Raut said: “You willsoon get a response to this.There is no need for anyone toteach us wisdom. We areBalasaheb Thackeray’s ShivSainks. No one can teach us onissues like self-respect,Hindutva and nationalism. He(Fadnavis) will get answer forhis comment”.

Meanwhile, former BJPminister Pankaka Munde, whois the daughter of late seniorparty leader Gopinath Munde,said: “Shiv Thirth is a place ofinspiration for the Sena andBJP workers. I came here torevive my memories of lateBalasaheb. His ideology is alive.Apart from political relations,I had family relations lateBalasaheb”.

Thackeray, it may berecalled, died of a cardio-res-piratory arrest on November17, 2012. A day later, the Senachief ‘s mortal remains werecosigned to flames in the first-ever funeral held at the ShivajiPark, in full public view.Earlier, lakhs of people – most-ly Shiv Sainiks – had joined amammoth funeral processionof late Thackeray taken outfrom Thackerays' residence“Matoshri” to Shivaji Park atDadar in north-centralMumbai.

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Maharashtra NCP presi-dent Jayant Patil on

Sunday sent waves of anxiety inthe BJP camp by claiming thatat least “15 to 20” Independentsand other MLAs associatedwith the Amit Shah-led partywere in touch with his partyand these would be admittedinto the party on the basis of“merit”.

Speaking to media per-sons before the start of theNCP’s core group meeting inPune, Patil said: “At least 15 to20 MLAs (Independents andother MLAs associated with theBJP) are in touch with us. Iwould not like to disclose theirnames at this juncture, sincesuch a disclosure would landthe MLAs concerned in a dif-ficulty”.

In elaboration, Patil saidthat several of the MLAs, whohad switched to the BJP aheadof the State Assembly and havebeen re-elected, were “in touch”with the NCP. “ We are also intouch with some Independent

MLAs who had earlier pledgedtheir support to the BJP,” he said.

“We will not admit theminto the NCP en masse. But, wewill induct them in our partyon merit,” the NCP State chiefsaid.

Indicating that the NCPand Congress would form theGovernment in alliance with

the Shiv Sena in Maharashtra,Patio said: “We are in theprocess of giving a people-friendly and stableGovernment to the State. Thereis no problem even if theGovernment formation getsdelayed. But, we would like togive the people a Governmentthat will last for full five years”.

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NCP chief Sharad Pawarwill meet AICC president

Sonia Gandhi in New Delhi onMonday to discuss and for-malise issues relating to thetwo parties’ move to extendtheir support to the Shiv Senain forming a three-party frontgovernment in Maharashtra.

Talking to media personsafter his party’s core commit-tee meeting in Pune, NCP’snational spokesperson NawabMalik said: “Sharad Pawarjiwill meet AICC presidentSonia Gandhi in New Delhitomorrow. After this meeting,State NCP and Congress lead-ers will meet on Tuesday andformalise our future course ofaction relating to the govern-ment formation in the state”

At the core committeemeeting chaired by Pawar, theNCP leaders discussed threadbare issues relating to the for-mation of alternate govern-ment in themeeting.

“At the meeting, we dis-cussed the current political sit-uation in the state. Since wecontested the elections inalliance with the Congress,we discussed as to how we

should move forward in con-sultation with the Congress,”Malik said.

Former deputy chief min-ister Ajit Pawar, ex-AssemblyAssembly Speaker Dilip WalsePatil, party leaders ChhaganBhujbal, Anil Deshmukh,Nawab Mallik, DhananjayMunde, Supriya Sule, JitendraAwhad and Sunil Tatkare werepresent at Sunday’s NCP corecommittee meeting.

Though Malik was cau-tious in not spelling out aswhat exactly transpired at themeeting, informed sourcessaid that the NCP andCongress were in the advancedstage in fornalising a post-pollalliance with the Shiv Sena.

“At tomorrow’s meeting,the NCP president will briefSonia Gandhi about theCommon MinimumProgramme (CMP) draftfinalised by the leaders of theShiv Sena, NCP and Congress,seek her inputs and finalise thedraft. Similarly, Pawar discusswith her and finalise the powersharing formula that the twoparties will propose to ShivSena president UddhavThackeray for formalising theGovernment formation deal,”

a senior NCP leader said. Informed sources said that

the NCP and Congress hadagreed to give the chief min-ister’s post to the Shiv Senawhich, according to them,deserved the post as it walkedout of the BJP-led NDA toalign with them to form a gov-ernment.

According to the formula,there will be two deputy chiefministers – being given oneeach to the NCP and Congress.There appears to be unanim-ity on the distribution of min-istries. While the Shiv Senaand NCP will get 14 ministrieseach, the Congress will get 12ministerial berths. As thingsstand, the Congress may getthe crucial State AssemblySpeaker’s post.

When the three partiescome together, the combinedstrength of the Shiv Sena (56),NCP (54) and Congress (44)will be 154, nine seats more thesimple majority of 145 in the288-member Assembly. Inaddition to 154 MLAs, thethree parties enjoy the addi-tional support of at least 15MLAs – most of them inde-pendents and those belongingto the smaller parties.

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Bengaluru: With the outcomeof the coming bypolls to 15Karnataka assembly con-stituencies crucial for survivalof its government, the rulingBJP is going all out to ensurevictory of its candidates, mostof them rebel disqualifiedMLAs, pitching them as futureministers.

Congress and JDS, whosecoalition government waspulled down by the rebels inJuly leading to their disqualifi-cation and paving the way forBJP rule, have resolved toensure their defeat and takenobjection to Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa projecting themas ministerial candidates.

Petitioning the ElectionCommission on Saturday, theCongress has said theYediyurappa made the state-ment with a view to inducingand influencing voters of thesesegments for furtherance of theelectoral prospects of the BJPcandidates.

Leaders of both Congressand JD(S) have said ensuringthe defeat of the disqualifiedlegislators was their main agen-da.

Monday is the last date forfiling of nominations for theDecember 5 bypolls, necessi-tated by resignation andabsence of 17 Congress-JD(S)legislators, subsequently dis-qualified under the anti-defec-tion law by the then assemblySpeaker.

Sixteen of the 17 havejoined BJP on November 14, aday after the Supreme Courtpaved the way for them to con-test the bypolls. BJP has giventickets to 13 of the Congress-JDS rebels for the bypolls intheir respective seats.

Expressing confidenceabout partys victory in all the15 seats, though it requires towin only six to remain inpower, Yediyurappa on Sundaysaid he would campaign in allthe constituencies in support ofthe newcomers to the party.

Speaking to reporters here,he said, leaders of some polit-ical parties have said their aimwas to defeat BJP candidates,but people would give them theright answer.

To make Yediyurappa theChief Minister and for goodgovernance, they (rebels)resigned and came out (ofcoalition government). If peo-ple expect Yediyurappa to con-tinue as Chief Minister andwant development, if theydesire majority government, Im

confident they will supportBJP, he added.

Referring to Congress'objection, he said there wasnothing wrong in promisingduring campaign that the can-didates would be made minis-ters if they won.

What is the crime in say-ing during campaign that wewill make our candidatesMinisters if they win?...Election Commission cannotdo anything on it. It is my pre-rogative as Chief Minister onwho should be made Ministeror left out, he said in responseto a question.

Attacking the disqualifiedMLAs, Congress LegislatureParty leader and former chiefminister Siddaramaiah onSunday said they should beashamed to seek votes.

Our stand is very clear wewant to defeat the BJP and dis-qualified MLAs, it is crystalclear," he said.

Supreme Court had upheldtheir disqualification and nowpeople would teach them a les-son in the bypolls, he added.

JD(S) leader H DKumaraswamy, whose party iscontesting the bypolls alone,too had recently said defeatingdisqualified MLAs was his par-tys main strategy.

JD(S) patriarch H D DeveGowda has claimed the ChiefMinister was "perturbed" aboutthe winnability of disqualifiedMLAs and hence he was issu-ing statements about makingthem ministers, with an inten-tion to lure voters.

On Congress strategy forthe bypolls, Siddaramaiah saidOur effort is to win all 15 seats.But we will win at least 12, hesaid, adding the party wouldcontest the polls under collec-tive leadership and there wontbe any rebellion.

A day after announcingsecond list of six candidates, theCongress on Sunday named PNagaraj as its candidate inYeshwantpur. With thisJD(S) isyet to name its candidates forfour seats.With the announce-ment of candidates, all thethree parties are facing dissi-dence within and have mount-ed efforts to pacify the dis-gruntled.

The problem was morepronounced in BJP as its deci-sion to give tickets to the dis-qualified Congress-JD(S)MLAs has not gone down wellwith aspirants in some con-stituencies such as Hoskoteand Kagwad. PTI

Guwahati: A wild rogue ele-phant which was tranquilisedrecently by the forest departmenthas died in captivity, officialssaid.

"The animal was doing finebut the keepers here have report-ed that it died around 5.30 a.m.today (Sunday)," said a seniorofficial of the Orang nationalpark. The 35-year old bull (male)elephant was captured, after

tranquilizing, from Rongjuliforest division in WesternAssam's Goalpara district onNovember 11. Forest depart-ment shifted the rogue to Orangnational park on November 12.

While the locals had nick-named the rogue as Laden afterthe late Al Qaeda chief OsamaBin Laden, it was named as"Krishna" after he was captured.

The Assam government had

already sent a team of expert vet-erinarians, including K.K. Sarmato carry out a postmortem onthe dead elephant to ascertainthe cause of its death.

A team led by BJP legislatorfrom Sootea constituency,Padma Hazarika, tranquilisedthe rogue elephant. There wereforest officials and veterinariansin the team who assisted in tran-quilising the elephant. IANS

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After repeated face-offs withRaj Bhavan, the Trinamool

Congress has lodged a com-plaint with Union HomeMinister Amit Shah drawinghis attention towards “misuseand mishandling” of his officeby Bengal Governor JagdeepDhankhar who is “running aparallel Government in theState flouting federal norms”and taking no note of objec-tions raised by the MamataBanerjee administration.

Senior TMC leader andMP Sudip Bandopadhyay hastold Shah how Dhankhar hadbeen running a parallel admin-istration in the State disre-garding norms of parliamen-tary democracy. “I have toldHome Minister Amit Shahabout how the honourableGovernor had been running aGovernment breaking all thenorms of parliamentarydemocracy,” Bandopadhyaysaid on Sunday.

“I have told him that thereis no harm if he wants to tourthe State but he should do soby informing and taking theState Government into confi-

dence,” the TMC MP addedinforming how the Governorhad been taking arbitraryadministrative tours to districtheadquarters keeping theGovernment in the dark.

Bandopadhyay requestedShah to summon the Governorand give him necessary direc-tions. “I have requested theHome Minister to call theGovernor and give him direc-tions in this regard so as toavoid future misunderstand-ing” between the Raj Bhavanand Nabanna (State secretari-at).

Chief Minister MamataBanerjee has directed the TMCMPs to raise the issue in LokSabha during the WinterSession of Parliament.

The issue was also dis-cussed in the all-party meetinghe said adding the conduct ofthe Governor and normsregarding that should be dis-cussed in the floor of theHouse. “It is perhaps for thefirst time in the history ofBengal that a Governor wasconducting himself in thisfashion subverting the normsof parliamentary democracy,”Bandopadhyay said.

Earlier the Chief Ministertoo attacked the Governor onThursday without referring tohim directly though and said,“I generally do not say any-thing on constitutional postsbut there are some people whoare behaving just like BJP’smouthpieces,” adding, “they(the Governor) are runningparallel administration in theState.”

Giving his reactions theGovernor said he as theguardian of the Governmentknew his limitations and wouldnever cross his limits. “I shouldremind from here that neitherthe Governor nor the ChiefMinister should cross theirrespective Laxman Rekha (lim-its),’ he said wondering aboutthe reasons why the rulingparty was charging him withrunning parallel administra-tion.

“Here they say that I havebeen running a parallel admin-istration but in the last fiftydays of my joining the office Ihave never seen the face of theChief Secretary. If that be sothen how am I learning a par-allel administration,” theGovernor said.

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Guwahati: The North EastStudents' Organisation (NESO)on Sunday announced that itwill hold protest marchesagainst the proposedCitizenship (Amendment) Bill(CAB) across all the States inthe region on Monday.

All Assam Students' Union(AASU), which is a major con-stituent of the NESO, and otherseven member organisationswill hold their demonstrationsin front of the respective RajBhavans in all the states.

"Through each governor,the protesters will submitmemorandums to the primeminister and home ministeragainst the bill, which is strict-ly against the indigenous peo-ple of the region," a NESOrelease said.

"North East is not a dust-bin of illegal Bangladeshi peo-ple. Under no circumstances,the CAB will be accepted. Ourprotest against the anti-indige-nous CAB will continue," thestatement said.

The BJP is bringing in theCAB only to garner votes of theillegal Bangladeshis and theruling party is going ahead withthe decision on the CAB on theback of their numbers inParliament, it alleged.

The member organisationsof the NESO are AASU, KSU,GSU, AMSU, NSF, TSF,AAPSU and MZP.

The Citizenship(Amendment) Bill had beenpassed in Lok Sabha on January8 but lapsed later as it could notbe placed in Rajya Sabha.

The CAB seeks to grant cit-izenship to Hindus, Sikhs,Buddhists, Jains, Parsis andChristians from Afghanistan,

Bangladesh and Pakistan aftersix years of stay in the countryeven if they do not possessproper documents. PTI

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Guwahati: RTI activist andKMSS leader Akhil Gogoi onSunday announced that theKrishak Mukti Sangram Samitiwill launch a series of agitationsagainst the proposed Citizenship(Amendment) Bill across Assamin the coming days.

Addressing a press confer-ence here, Gogoi said KMSS andits three other sister organisationswill launch its agitation fromMonday by visiting houses ofpeople across the state to dis-tribute leaflets and other "aware-ness documents" against theBill. "Our stand is very clear thatprotesting against the CAB is afight for our identity. We willoppose it at any cost, even byshedding our blood," Gogoi said.On November 22, the organisa-tion will hold a protest demon-stration and submit a memo-randum to the President and thePM "for the last time" throughthe Governor that "we will notaccept the CAB at any cost", headded. "We will also worktowards uniting all the politicalparties and organisations. TheKMSS-led 70 groups and AASU-led 30 groups should uniteagainst the CAB so that there areno conflicting programmes," thepeasant leader stressed. PTI

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Agartala: The OppositionCongress in Tripura hasaccused activists of theBharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha(BJYM), the student wing of theruling BJP, of burning an effi-gy of former AICC presidentRahul Gandhi here.

Senior Congress leader andformer Tripura PradeshCongress Committee (TPCC)president Gopal Roy said theBJYM activists had taken out arally on Saturday and burnt theeffigy of Rahul Gandhi in frontof the Congress Bhawan.

The party has lodged anFIR against State BJYM leadersover the incident, he said.

"We condemn the act,which was planned by the rul-ing BJP to vitiate the politicalenvironment of the state. Wehave lodged an FIR againstthree BJYM leaders and wouldintensify our agitation till theyare arrested," Roy told reportershere on Sunday.

Police said the FIR waslodged against BJYM state pres-ident Tinku Roy, secretaryVicky Prasad and vice-presidentJoynal Das and the case isbeing investigated.

Convenor of TPCC ad-hoc committee, Subal Bhowmiksaid, "Since Independence, wehave never faced such a situa-tion in Tripura. The rulingparty has stooped so low thatthey burnt the effigy of ourleader in front of our partyoffice. This was a planned moveby the BJP to provoke theopposition."

Responding to the FIR,state BJP spokespersonNabendu Bhattacharya said theCongress is making an issue outof the incident as they lack anypolitical issue in the State. PTI

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New Delhi: Traders body CAITon Sunday suggested the gov-ernment to impose a “mini-mum operating price” for prod-ucts, alleging that traders are atthe receiving end of a pricingonslaught posed by e-com-merce firms and brands in col-lusion with banks.

The Confederation of AllIndia Traders has written letterto Union Commerce andIndustry Minister Piyush Goyal.“Under the circumstances andvisualising it as a price war, wesuggest it is the high time whenthe government must step in andenforce the fundamental ofMinimum Operating Pricewhich is the price consisting oflanding price, operational costand reasonable profit margin andbelow the MOP no productshould be sold in the market,”CAIT said in the letter. PTI

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India has the potential for“very rapid” economic

growth over the next decadewhich will lift people out ofpoverty and allow the govern-ment to invest in health andeducation priorities in an“exciting way”, billionaire phil-anthropist and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates has said.

In an exclusive interview toPTI, Gates, the world’s richestperson, specifically compli-mented India’s Aadhaar iden-tity system and the country’sperformance in the financialservices and pharma sectors.

The positive outlook byGates for the Indian economy,Asia’s third largest, comes at atime when it is reeling under

major slowdown amid appre-hensions that the cycle may lastfor a longer period.

“I don’t have any knowl-edge about the near term, butI’d say over the next decade,there’s potential for very rapidgrowth, which will lift peopleout of poverty and allow thegovernment to invest in healthand education priorities in areally exciting way,” he said.

On Friday, 64-year-oldGates, with a net worth of USD110 billion, regained the posi-tion of the world’s richest per-son surpassing the AmazonInc’s Jeff Bezos. The Microsoftco-founder has so far donatedover USD 35 billion to the Billand Melinda Gates Foundationfor poverty reduction andsocial development pro-

grammes in various countries.“... Everybody hopes that

there’s really good growthbecause the potential is cer-tainly there for India to havehigh growth,” he said. Gates iscurrently on a three-day visit toIndia to review the work of hisfoundation in the country.

India’s economic growthslumped to an over six-year lowof 5 per cent in the first quar-ter ending June this fiscal dueto slower consumer demandand private investment.

The slump in growth hasprompted many global agenciesto cut India’s GDP growth projection by various degreesfor 2019-20.

Gates also hailed India’sAadhaar identification system as well as adoption of

the UPI system. “Well, in all of our areas,

India’s been a key place wherewe find innovators and finan-cial services. It’s fantastic theway that the Aadhaar identity

system and the overall UPI sys-tem is gaining adoption, andthere’s some great lessons outof that work,” he said.

“We partner with peoplelike Nandan Nilekani to think,

okay, how do the lessons fromIndia apply to other countriesfor things like digital identity orfinancial services,” he said.

Gates also complimentedIndia’s pioneering work in vac-cine manufacturing, saying thecountry has made impactfulcontribution in improving peo-ples’ lives. “When people thinkof India, they think of the ITservices and the great workdone there. Less visible but cer-tainly very impactful for

improving the human condi-tion is the great work done bythe vaccine manufacturers,whether it’s Serum, who’s thelargest, but a dozen others —Bharat Biotech, Bio-E, a num-ber of companies,” he said.

“It’s incredible that abouthalf of the (vaccine) units — notin the dollar volume, but theunit volume — comes out ofIndia, and that’s really helpingus get the vaccines out to moreand more children, because

the manufacturing is done in avery efficient way,” Gates said.

“And so, in some ways,India can look at that, as it hasgoals to do broader manufac-turing, like, okay, what wasdone in this vaccine area that isallowed it to be the worldleader,” he added. In the last onedecade, the Bill and MelindaGates Foundation has beenworking in areas of health-care, sanitation, agriculture andfinancial services for the under-privileged people in India.

The foundation’s partner-ships with Indian manufactur-ers have led to development ofaffordable efficacious vaccineswhich has enabled differentcountries to introduce thesevaccines, said an official of thefoundation.

��� � "8728'9�

Telecom operator BhartiAirtel has withdrawn its bid

to purchase assets of RelianceCommunications (RCom) afterterming the move of commit-tee of creditors to extend thebid submission deadline on therequest of Reliance Jio as“extremely unfair” and “biased”.

Without naming RelianceJio, Bharti Airtel Director(Finance) Harjeet Kohli in a let-ter to resolution professionalAnish Niranjan Nanavaty saidhis company’s request to extendthe deadline was turned downby the committee of creditors ofRCom but surprisingly, the dateshave been extended to accom-modate submission by a bidder.

“Given the complexitiesinvolved in the proposed trans-action, vide our letter datedOctober 31, 2019, we request-ed for an extension of time tosubmit the resolution planfrom November 11, 2019, tillDecember 1, 2019...Disappointingly, our requestfor extension was rejected by

CoC,” Kohli said.Bharti Airtel, Bharti

Infratel and private equity firmVarde Partners have alreadysubmitted their bids for assetsof Reliance Communications,while Reliance Jio has soughtextension of the asset sale dealdeadline by another 10 days.Airtel has placed conditionalbid to buy spectrum of RCom,while Bharti Infratel has sub-mitted bids for mobile towers.

The CoC extended thedeadline by 10 days and hasdecided to open bid now onNovember 25. “To our uttershock, we have learnt that theCoC has now decided to extendthe submission timeline toNovember 25, 2019, until 1200hours, solely based on the requestof another potential bidder,”Kohli said. He said since BhartiAirtel’s request was formallydeclined by the CoC, the com-pany was constrained to submitthe bids under due haste with-out the benefit of sufficient timeto complete the resolution planwithin the set deadline.

“We find this conduct,

inequitable, questionable andagainst the spirit of what shouldbe a highly transparent process.To say the least, it is extremelyunfair and rather biased...Wehereby formally withdraw ourresolution plans while reservingall rights, including the right tosubmit our resolution planafresh within the new deadlinecommunicated now,” Kohli said.RCom tried to sell assets to var-ious companies, includingReliance Jio, to clear debt but thedeals did not crystallise.Reliance Jio cancelled agree-ment to buy RCom assets,including spectrum, as it did notwant to bear the past liabilitiesof the debt-ridden firm.

Later, the insolvency pro-ceedings against RCom startedon a plea filed by Swedish tele-com gear maker Ericsson afterthe company failed to clear itsdues. Anil Ambani has ten-dered his resignation after com-pany posted a consolidated lossof �30,142 crore for July-September 2019 due to provi-sioning for liabilities after the SCruling on statutory dues.

Mumbai: Former BJP leaderYashwant Sinha on Sundayaccused Finance MinisterNirmala Sitharaman of “fudg-ing” budget numbers to concealthe real fiscal deficit.

Speaking at the MumbaiLit Fest, Sinha, a former financeminister himself, alleged thatSitharaman relied on estimatesused in the interim budget ofFebruary 1, though the CAGhad later provided revised esti-mates till July 5, when theannual budget was presented.

The Finance Minister, inresponse to similar objectionsearlier, had claimed that everyfigure in the Budget was authen-tic. “She used revised esti-mates....Because the revenuereceipts had declined so con-siderably that she wouldn’t haveclaimed that fiscal deficit wouldbe only 3.3 per cent or whatev-er that claim was,” Sinha said.

“She fudged the figuresand it was so blatantly obviousthat the figures were fudged,”he alleged. He had called up afew MPs highlighting the dis-crepancy, but none of themtook it up in the House, he said.

The bureaucrat-turned-

politician said the country wasin a “mess”, which was farmore serious than what wasimagined six months ago, andextended beyond the economy.

He also hit out at theNarendra Modi governmentfor revoking the OverseasCitizen of India status of writerAtish Taseer, comparing thesituation to Emergency, andadded that an era of “personalvendetta” had begun.

Taseer’s OCI status waswithdrawn for allegedly notdisclosing that his father was aPakistani national. TheGovernment had denied that ithad anything to do with hisunflattering article about Modiin the Time magazine.

Referring to jailed formerfinance minister PChidambaram, Sinha allegedthat the Modi government hadalso scrutinised all the deci-sions taken by him (Sinha) inthe last four decades.

He had, still, chosen tospeak his mind, he added. Thecurrent “undeclared emer-gency” is far more perniciousthan a declared emergency,the former BJP leader said.

New Delhi: Supporting con-solidation in the telecom sec-tor, public policy think-tankCuts International on Sundaylauded Finance MinisterNirmala Sitharaman for sayingthat she would not like any tele-com operator in the country toshut operations.

In a statement here, CutsSecretary General Pradeep S.Mehta said the functioning ofall four incumbent telecomfirms is vital to promote com-petition and protect consumerinterest in the country

“We welcome the FinanceMinister Nirmala Sitharaman’sstatement that she would notlike any telephone company toshut operations and want all ofthem to serve their customers”,Mehta said. He said the gov-ernment’s decision to bail outthe debt laden firms is morethan welcome bu that “thisshould not become a precedentfor other sectors.”

“While the Telecom

Regulatory Authority of Indiahas practiced forbearance due toa competitive market, it is hightime it establishes floor pricesfor tariffs rather than allowunbridled competition whichhas lead to an adverse situationfor some operators, includingthe public sector firms”, he said.

“In China, where there areonly three telecom firms,though all in the public sector,the price regulator has set a floorprice by virtue of which thefirms cannot enter into dirtycompetition”, Mehta added.

Sitharaman attempted tocomfort the telecom sectorsaying the government doesn’twant any company to shutoperations. IANS

���� "8728'9�

Essar Steel, Adani Groupand State-owned GAIL

have bought majority of naturalgas from Reliance Industries’newer fields in the KG-D6block at USD 5.1-5.16 per unitbut fertiliser companiesskipped the auction that couldhave helped save at least �800crore subsidy annually.

Essar Steel picked up 2.25million standard cubic metresper day or about half of theavailable volumes in the coun-try’s first transparent anddynamic forward auction thatlasted for about five-and-half-hours on November 15, indus-try sources said.

Gujarat State PetroleumCorp (GSPC) picked up 1.2mmscmd while Adani Groupand Mahanagar Gas Ltd bought0.3 mmscmd, sources said,adding GAIL, acting on behalfof fertiliser companies, bought0.3 mmscmd of gas.

Fertiliser companies direct-ly did not participate in the auc-tion that could have helped them replace expensiveimported liquefied natural gas(LNG). These companies buysome 3 mmscmd of gas onshort-term LNG import con-tract at a price of over USD 9 permillion British thermal unitand another 23 mmscmd onlong-term contracts at deliveredprice of USD 11.5 per mmBtu.

Reliance’s gas that they willget through GAIL will come fora delivered price of betweenUSD 6.5 and USD 7 permmBtu, they said, adding hadthey bid directly and boughtmore volumes they could havereplaced expensive LNG, help-

ing save at least �800 crore infertiliser subsidy annually.

Hindustan Petroleum CorpLtd (HPCL) bought 0.35mmscmd and 0.10 mmscmdwent to Gujarat State Fertilizers& Chemicals Ltd(GSFC)/Gujarat NarmadaValley Fertilizers & ChemicalsLtd (GNFC), sources said. Inall, 15 customers across sectorssuch as steel, petrochemicals,city gas, glass and ceramic gotgas in the tender, they added.

Reliance and its partner BPPlc of the UK had sought bidsfrom potential users for the 5mmsmcd of natural gas theyplan to produce from the R-Cluster Field in KG-D6 blockfrom mid-2020.

Bidders were asked toquote a price (expressed as apercentage of the dated Brentcrude oil rate), supply periodand the volume of gas required.Dated Brent means the averageof published Brent prices forthree calendar months imme-diately preceding the relevantcontract month in which gassupplies are made.

Sources said Reliance hadset a floor or minimum quoteof 8.4 per cent of dated Brentprice — which meant that bid-ders had to quote 8.4 per centor a higher percentage forseeking gas supplies.

In the November 15 auc-tion, bidders quoted between8.5 and 8.6 per cent slope tocorner all of the 5 mmscmdsupplies available.

This translates into a priceof between USD 5.1 permmBtu and USD 5.16 permmBtu rate at Brent oil priceof USD 60 per barrel.

���� "8728'9�

The monitoring mechanismfor air pollution should be

strengthened and entities mustbe penalised for not complyingwith Ambient Air QualityStandards, recommends theCII-Niti Aayog report on cleanindustry for reducing air pol-lution from major industrialsources in Delhi-NCR.

Individuals, organisationsand utilities who own or servicethe building and any other infra-structure in the national capitalregion (NCR) cities and townsmay be penalised 5-10 per centof the project cost for not beingable to comply with the ambientair quality standard, says thereport. It recommends a two-tiermonitoring and enforcementmechanism which includesmonitoring and enforcement atlocal level by conducting randomchecks through local bodies athotspots of air pollution.

The tier-II includes real-time monitoring and enforce-ment which needs to bestrengthened by the concernedstate pollution control boards,suggests the report.

“It is recommended that

competent authority (CentralPollution Control Board) notifiesunder the Air (Prevention andControl of Pollution) Act, 1981that the civic agencies (local bod-ies, authorities, landowningagencies, etc) may be penalisedfor non-compliance in theirarea,” recommends the report.

Such sources include con-struction and demolition ofurban infrastructure or build-ings; maintenance of urbaninfrastructure; and operationsof public or private utilities.

In addition to penalties forindividuals and organisations,civic or landowning agenciesmay be penalised based on the

direct correlation of estimatedhealth impact from air pollutionand cost to society.

The proposed notificationunder the Air (Prevention andControl of Pollution) Act, 1981,may suggest an appropriatemechanism for attributingsocial and environmental costto these activities, the reportsaid. Key anthropogenic activ-ities addressed in this reportinclude fugitive emissions fromconstruction, demolition andallied activities (manufacturingand transportation of con-struction materials) and ener-gy-related emissions fromdiesel generators, thermal

power plants and brick kilns.The Task Force on Clean

Industry, as constituted by theNiti Aayog on 5 June, 2017,under the ‘Cleaner Air-BetterLife’ initiative, was convened bythe Confederation of IndianIndustry (CII).

Recommendations of thetask force are grounded in sci-entific understanding of sourcesand their associated load ofpollutants (PM2.5, SO2 andNOX emissions) which haveimplications for public health.Consultations with importantstakeholders in the airshed, suchas local bodies and authorities inNCR towns, construction indus-try, DG manufacturers and ther-mal power generators, were car-ried out to arrive at these action-able recommendations.

Two key strategies foraddressing these fugitive emis-sions and energy-related emis-sions have been outlined in thisreport. Fugitive emissions,which contribute to air pollu-tion, are emissions of gases orvapours from pressurisedequipment due to leaks andother unintended or irregularreleases of gases, mostly fromindustrial activities.

���� "8728'9�

With strong fundamentals,India’s civil aviation sec-

tor is in its “golden age” andthere is also healthy competi-tion among domestic carriers, IndiGo CEO RonojoyDutta has said.

Interestingly, the country’scivil aviation sector has beenexperiencing lower growth intraffic compared to previous years and there hasalso been softness in fares inOctober, according to industry experts.

The traffic grew just 1.18per cent in September, as perthe latest available official data.

IndiGo, owned byInterGlobe Aviation, is thecountry’s largest airline with amarket share of 48.2 per cent in

September. While acknowl-edging that there are problems,including high taxes on jetfuel, Dutta said there are hugeopportunities going forward.

“We are in the golden ageof Indian aviation and there arehuge opportunities going for-ward... There are always prob-lems, there are always issuesand economic cycles. (But)The fundamentals are strong,”he told PTI in an interview.

According to him, tax onaviation turbine fuel (ATF) is30 per cent higher than rest ofthe world. Bringing ATF underthe Goods and Services Tax(GST) has been a long pendingdemand of the airline industry.“Then there are throughputcharges for which we should begetting credit for taxes paid,”he added.

Dhaka: Bangladesh is urgentlyimporting onions by air as theprice of the essential ingredientin local dishes soared to recordhighs, an official said on Sunday,with even the Prime Ministerchopping the bulb from hermenu. The price of onions — asensitive subject in South Asiawhere shortages can trigger wide-spread discontent with politicalramifications — has climbed toeye-watering levels in Bangladeshsince neighbouring India bannedexports in late September afterheavy monsoon rains reducedthe crop. One kilogramme of thestaple vegetable usually costs 30taka but has soared to up to 260taka after the ban was imposed.

Hasina’s deputy PressSecretary Hasan Jahid Tushersaid onions were being import-ed by air freight, and that“Prime Minister (SheikhHasina) said she has stoppedusing onion in dishes”. PTI

� �� � "8728'9�

The Government is set tocrack the whip on GST

non-filers with plans afoot tocancel registration of repeatoffenders. Amid lower-than-expected GST collection in thepast few months of the currentfiscal, the Central Board ofIndirect Taxes and Customs(CBIC) has directed zonaloffices to go tough on non-fil-ers.

Accordingly, the Mumbaioffice of the Principal ChiefCommissioner of GST andCentral Excise has issued direc-tives to field officers for ensur-ing strict compliance.

The development has comeclose on the heels of CBICChief P.K. Das expressing seri-ous concern over non-compli-ance by GST registrants.

In a video conference withPrincipal Chief Commissioners

and Chief Commissioner ofGST and Customs onNovember 13, the CBIC chiefhad expressed his displeasurein the progress of cancellationof registration of entities thathave not filed GSTR-3B returnsfor six or more than six returnperiods and are liable for actionunder section 29 of CGST Act.

“Hence, I have been direct-ed to once again request youthat the task of cancellation ofregistration of such non-filersof GST returns should be takenon priority basis and should befinished by November 25,2019,” Sukhjit Kumar, anAdditional Commissioner inMumbai Zone, wrote to fieldofficers.

Rajat Mohan, SeniorPartner, AMRG & Associatessaid that the GST law provides for cancellation ofregistration in case of repeatnon-compliance.

New Delhi: It seems that somepeople prioritise mental peaceover other things in life.

Under unrelenting work-load and high tax collectiontargets, nearly two dozengazetted income tax officershave called it quits in thisfinancial year alone.

“The situation in ourdepartment is really bad. Thereis a lot of work pressure.During this financial year,about 22-23 officers have left,”Income Tax Gazetted OfficersAssociation (ITGOA) VicePresident BhaskarBhattacharya told IANS.

Bhattacharya added thatpressure has been mounting inthe last few years.

The ITGOA is an associa-tion of over more than 9,500promotee gazetted officersfrom across the country.

The lower tax collectionhas rung alarm bells amongpolicy makers resulting in pres-sure on field officers to collectmore revenues. The income taxdepartment has so far managedto collect �5 lakh crore indirect taxes, less than half of thetotal budget target of �13.35lakh crore for FY20. IANS

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Page 11: English News Paper | Breaking News | Latest Today News in … · 2019-11-17 · But the satellite images releases by NASA con-firm that as soon as stubble burning began in the first

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South Asian Games Gold medallistRuthvika Gadde roared back to

form by claiming the women's singlestitle while Siddharth Pratap Singh tri-umphed in men’s event at the AllIndia Senior Ranking BadmintonTournament here on Sunday.

The unseeded Ruthvika, whostarted her campaign as a qualifier,defeated 13th seed Shruti Mundada21-10, 21-17 in the final that lastedjust 35 minutes.

In the men’s singles, a day afterknocking out the top seed AnsalYadav, the 10th seed Siddharthpipped K Jagadeesh 23-21, 21-15 ina hard fought final.

Shikha Gautam and AshwiniBhat lived up to their top billing andtook the title in women's doubles.

The top seeds were at theirimmaculate best en route to notch-ing up a 21-12, 21-17 win overSahithi Bandi and Nila V.

Bhat then also emerged champi-on in mixed doubles, partneringKrishna Prasad.

The sixth seeds blew away thepair of Vighnesh Devlekar andPrajakta Sawant 21-15, 21-16 to winthe title.

In men’s doubles, fourth seedsDevlekar and Deep Rambhiya got awalkover from second seeds KrishnaPrasad Garaga and ShlokRamchandran to be crowned cham-pion.

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Indian paddler Harmeet Desai staved off a strongchallenge from compatriot Amalraj Anthony to

win the ITTF Challenge Indonesia Open in Batam,Indonesia on Sunday.

In an all-Indian men’s singles final, it wasHarmeet who started on a positive note winningthe opening game 11-9 but he lost the next game9-11, allowing Amalraj to draw level.

World no 104 Harmeet, however, took controlof the proceedings and won the next two games by

an identical margin of 11-9 to go 3-1 up in thematch.

Amalraj reduced the lead by winning the nextgame 12-10, but the reigning Commonwealth TTChampion did not make any further mistake andwon the 6th game 11-9 to seal the match 4-2 andwin his second international title of the year.

Both the players looked in ominous form in theprevious rounds getting past their respectiveopponents with consummate ease.

Harmeet trounced Yuto Kizikuri of Japan andSiu Hang Lam of Hong Kong by the same score-

line of 4-2 in the quarters and semifinals respec-tively, while Amalraj recorded identical 4-0 victo-ries over Joao Monteiro of Portugal and IbrahimaDiaw of Senegal in the round of eight and four.

Harmeet and Amalraj also teamed up in themen's doubles event and made it to the semifinalsof the championship.

Playing against the talented pair of Man HoKwan and Siu Hang Lam of Hong Kong, the duocame up with a spirited challenge but unfortunate-ly capitulated 3-0 (7-11, 9-11, 9-11) to bow out ofthe tournament.

��� ��0$�5'0

Max Verstappen made a “bigstatement” by beating both

Ferrari and Mercedes to qualifyon pole position for Sunday’sBrazilian Grand Prix, accordingto his former Red Bull team-mateDaniel Ricciardo.

Ricciardo, now with Renault,was knocked out in Saturday's Q2session and was left to watch thefinal shootout from the paddockwhere he told reporters howimpressed he was with theDutchman’s scintillating lap.

“Not too bad, huh?” he said.“That’s fun! I’m still a fan of

the sport so watching here it’sexciting. I want to be out there,but if I can’t be out there, I'mgoing to be a fan for 10 minutes.

“It’s never perfect, but itlooked clean. They showed a bitof his on-board in the second sec-tor and it looked clean.

“It’s a big statement for themto do it here in Brazil. I know hemore or less won the race lastyear, but on one lap that’s a big

performance.”Verstappen, who had suggest-

ed Ferrari’s recent decline in qual-ifying pace may have been due to‘cheating’ to gain extra power,topped all three qualifying ses-sions.

After Saturday’s session,Ferrari’s four-time championSebastian Vettel, who starts sec-ond, hit back by pointedly notingRed Bull had shown exceptionalstraight-line speed.

Ferrari had reeled off six con-secutive pole positions before theUnited States Grand Prix, thoughthe final one of those, in Mexico,was courtesy of Verstappen beingpenalised.

� ����� ����On Friday, at Interlagos,

Ferrari were again very fast on thestraights, but this was diminished

on Saturday, a curiosity that re-focussed attention on the Italianteam and led to Mercedes tech-nical director James Allisonobserving it as "interesting”.

“I think they were still pret-ty useful on the straights,” saidAllison.

“But not quite as marked asit was. That could be due to allsorts of things. We all run dif-ferent power modes on a Friday.

“Probably the only thingthat you could stand back froma distance and say is that it’s tworaces on the trot where it has-n't been pole position for aFerrari.

“And they, sort of, had a rea-sonably comfortable margin.So, it’s an interesting thing, butnot anything you could drawany solid conclusions from.”

Allison added that

Verstappen and Red Bull had“done a better job” to take poleposition on a day when newly-crowned six-time championLewis Hamilton qualified third.

The Briton was later askedabout his prospects of beinggiven a knighthood in Britain toacknowledge his success, join-ing other motor racing knightsincluding former drivers StirlingMoss and Jackie Stewart andteam owner Frank Williams.

“I don’t really like to thinktoo much about it ,” saidHamilton.

“Just the fact that peoplehave mentioned it, it’s already anhonour, but it’s not been some-thing that I’ve been chasing inmy life.”

Hamilton was given anMBE after claiming his first titlein 2008.

��� ��0$�5'0

Max Verstappen made a"big statement" by beating bothFerrari and Mercedes to qual-ify on pole position forSunday's Brazilian Grand Prix,according to his former RedBull team-mate DanielRicciardo.

Ricciardo, now withRenault, was knocked out inSaturday's Q2 session and wasleft to watch the final shootoutfrom the paddock where hetold reporters how impressedhe was with the Dutchman'sscintillating lap.

"Not too bad, huh?" hesaid.

"That's fun! I'm still a fanof the sport so watching hereit's exciting. I want to be outthere, but if I can't be out there,I'm going to be a fan for 10minutes.

"It's never perfect, but itlooked clean. They showed a bitof his on-board in the secondsector and it looked clean.

"It's a big statement forthem to do it here in Brazil. Iknow he more or less won therace last year, but on one lapthat's a big performance."

Verstappen, who had sug-

gested Ferrari's recent declinein qualifying pace may havebeen due to 'cheating' to gainextra power, topped all threequalifying sessions.

After Saturday's session,Ferrari's four-time championSebastian Vettel, who startssecond, hit back by pointedlynoting Red Bull had shownexceptional straight-line speed.

Ferrari had reeled off sixconsecutive pole positionsbefore the United States GrandPrix, though the final one ofthose, in Mexico, was courtesyof Verstappen being penalised.

� ����� ����On Friday, at Interlagos,

Ferrari were again very fast onthe straights, but this wasdiminished on Saturday, acuriosity that re-focussed atten-tion on the Italian team and ledto Mercedes technical directorJames Allison observing it as"interesting".

"I think they were stillpretty useful on the straights,"said Allison.

"But not quite as marked asit was. That could be due to allsorts of things. We all run dif-ferent power modes on aFriday.

��� $���

The Netherlands, Germany and WorldCup finalists Croatia expanded a listof big hitters to qualify for Euro 2020

on Saturday as the trio booked theirplaces at next summer’s finals.

Austria also made it through to themulti-host tournament, which kicks off inRome on June 12, with 16 sides nowensured of a spot at the 24-team event andonly four places remaining from the mainqualifying route.

They join other big names such likeworld champions France, Spain, Italy andEngland, with European championsPortugal one win away from qualification.

Ronald Koeman’s resurgent Dutchneeded a point to qualify for their firstmajor tournament since coming third at the2014 World Cup and got what they need-ed in a scrappy goalless draw with NorthernIreland in Belfast.

“It means a lot for us as players.Hopefully it means so much to the Dutchpeople,” Liverpool defender Van Dijk said.

However they were far from the flam-boyant outfit that has so often thrilled inGroup C, and survived a huge scare whenSteven Davis smashed a first-half penaltyhigh over the bar.

The Dutch dominated possession andstopped the hosts from having a single shoton target but failed to create much them-selves.

Davis’ spot-kick blunder left MichaelO’Neill’s side third and hoping for a wayinto the tournament via the playoffs.

��� ��������������The draw allowed fierce rivals

Germany to move top in the group as ToniKroos hit a brace in a simple 4-0 win overBelarus in Moenchengladbach which sawthem qualify for the Euros for the 13th timein a row.

A deft back-heeled goal from defend-

er Matthias Ginter just before the break andimpressive finishing by Leon Goretzka andKroos gave the Germans a comfortablethree-goal lead early in the second half.

Captain Manuel Neuer produced asuperb save to keep out Belarus striker IgorStasevich's penalty before Kroos dribbledthrough the defence to claim his second

goal seven minutes from time and makesure of a routine win.

“Overall we did well, but at themoment I don’t include us among thefavourites for the European title,” saidKroos, echoing coach Joachim Loew’scomments from earlier in the week.

A win over Northern Ireland in

Frankfurt on Tuesday will guarantee Loew’snew-look side first place.

Croatia survived a scare to secure theirplace in the Euros after coming frombehind beat Slovakia 3-1 in Rijeka.

The World Cup runners up needed justa point to ensure qualification from GroupE but Robert Bozenik stunned the home

crowd when he tapped the away side aheadin the 32nd minute.

However it was one-way traffic in thesecond half and Croatia’s qualification wasnever in doubt once Nikola Vlasic drilledhome the leveller.

Bruno Petkovic headed the hosts infront and Ivan Perisic sealed the three

points with a thumping finish with 16 min-utes left.

“We were trying to stay calm in thedressing room at half-time, we were surethat our quality would prevail. We keptattacking, creating chances, and the goalscame,” said Petkovic.

� ��������������� ���

That win gives Wales a fightingchance of qualifying after their 2-0 vic-tory over Azerbaijan earlier on Saturday.

Ryan Giggs’ side stay third thanks tofirst-half headed goals from KiefferMoore and Harry Wilson and Slovakialosing against the Croats.

They are just one point behind sec-ond-placed Hungary, who travel toCardiff on the final day for a winner-takes-all clash.

“It’s massive for us to get the threepoints and now we go again Tuesday,” saidMoore.

“We came here for the three pointsand we got them — now it’s all guns blaz-ing towards Tuesday.”

Austria booked their place with a 2-1 win over North Macedonia that keptthird-placed Slovenia at bay despite their1-0 triumph over Latvia.

They are second in Group G behindPoland, who had already qualified goinginto this round of games but maintaineda three-point lead at the top of the groupthanks to a 2-1 win at Israel.

In Saint Petersburg, the Hazard broth-ers made short work of Russia as already-qualified Belgium maintained their 100percent record with a 4-1 win thatsecured them top spot in Group I.

Eden and Thorgan Hazard putRoberto Martinez’s side three goals aheadat the break before in-form Inter Milanstriker Romelu Lukaku crashed home thefourth in the 72nd minute to makeabsolutely sure of the result.

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Ruthvika,Siddharth winAll India SeniorRanking titles

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Dominic Thiem beat defendingchampion Alexander Zverev to

join Roger Federer’s conquerorStefanos Tsitsipas in the final of theATP Finals in London.

The Austrian fifth seed saw off thebig-serving German 7-5, 6-3 onSaturday after Greece’s Tsitsipas, mak-ing his debut at the tournament, hadearlier beaten Federer 6-3, 6-4.

Thiem is playing in his fourth ATPFinals but during his first three tripsto the season finale, he won only threematches and never advanced out of thegroup stage at the O2 Arena.

Zverev landed 75 percent of hisfirst serves but Thiem was tougher inthe big moments, breaking in the 12thgame of the opening set and in thesixth game of the second set.

The Austrian also saved all fourbreak points on his racquet.

Germany’s Zverev, who beatNovak Djokovic in last year's final,went toe to toe with Thiem in a rela-tively uneventful first set but served adouble fault to lose the opener 7-5.

The seventh seed, 22, regroupedand settled back into his servingrhythm at the beginning of the secondset but was broken again to trail 4-2.

Thiem, looking unflustered, fend-ed off a couple of break points in thefollowing game and served out to takethe match, winning with a forehand

down the line.“This is a big, big dream coming

true for me, it is one of the biggest andmost prestigious tournaments of thewhole year and I'm getting the chanceto play the final,” said Thiem.

The 26-year-old, who reached thefinal of this year’s French Open, hasbeen considered a clay-court special-ist but joked after winning indoors inVienna last month and now reachingthe final in London he was becominga “big, big fan of faster hard surfaces”.

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Earlier, Tsitsipas, 17 years younger

than Federer, ended the 38-year-old’shopes of securing a seventh year-endtitle.

Federer was unrecognisable fromthe player who dominated Djokovic inhis final round-robin match, strugglingon serve and hitting a total of 26unforced errors compared with just fiveagainst the Serbian.

But Tsitsipas belied his years witha performance full of confidence andgrit, saving 11 out of 12 break pointsduring the match.

“I’m so proud of myself today, agreat performance and once again thepeople were great,” he said.

“I really enjoyed myself on the

court and sometimes in matches likethese you wonder how you recoverfrom difficulties and break pointdown.”

Tsitsipas, ignoring loud support forFederer, broke the Swiss at the first timeof asking, taking advantage of twomissed overheads.

The Greek was forced to dig deepin a dramatic 13-minute final game ofthe first set in which he saved two breakpoints and needed seven set points toclose it out 6-3.

Federer was in deep trouble whenTsitsipas broke him to love in the thirdgame of the second set but he finallymade a break point count to level at 2-2.

Undaunted, Tsitsipas, dominatingrallies from the back of the court, brokeagain straight away with a forehandcross-court winner for a 3-2 lead.

At 5-4 down Federer knew he hadto break Tsitsipas for only the secondtime in the match.

The Greek slipped to 15-40 downbut Federer again could not takeadvantage, spraying a forehand out togive his opponent a match point andhe won with a thundering ace.

“I’m frustrated I couldn’t playbetter, and when I did and fought myway back, I threw it away again,” saidthe Swiss.

“It was also parts of him. He didcome up with the goods when he hadto and he was better than me today.”

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Speedster Mohammed Shamiand opener Mayank Agarwal

on Sunday achieved their career-best positions in the latest ICCTest Rankings after contributingin India’s innings and 130-runvictory over Bangladesh in thefirst Test in Indore.

Shami’s bowling figures of 3for 27 and 4 for 31 lifted himeight places to seventh position.His 790 rating points are thethird best for an India pacebowler with only Kapil Dev(877) and Jasprit Bumrah (832)having recorded more points.

Double centurion Agarwal,meanwhile, climbed to the 11thspot after his player-of-the-match effort of 243 in India’sonly innings. The 28-year-oldhas reached 691 rating pointsafter scoring 858 runs in his firsteight Tests.

Only seven batsmen havescored more runs than Agarwalin their first eight Tests — DonBradman (1210), EvertonWeekes (968), Sunil Gavaskar(938), Mark Taylor (906),George Headley (904), FrankWorrell (890) and HerbertSutcliffe (872).

In other significant move-ments for India, all-rounderRavindra Jadeja jumped fourslots to reach joint-35th positionamong batsmen while pacersIshant Sharma (20th) andUmesh Yadav (22nd) havemoved up one place each.

Off-spinner Ravichandran

Ashwin is in the top 10 bowlerslist, while moving back to fourthposition among all-rounders.

For Bangladesh, MushfiqurRahim’s knocks of 43 and 64have helped him gain five placesand reach 30th position whileLiton Das has moved up from92nd to 86th position.

Among bowlers, fast bowlerAbu Jayed, who took four wick-ets in Indore, has advanced 18slots to take 62nd position afteronly six Tests.

Meanwhile, India strength-ened their position in the ICCWorld Test Championship(WTC) standings by reaching300 points. They are yet toconcede a point, having gaineda full 120 points each in theirthree-Test home series againstSouth Africa and two-Test seriesin the West Indies.

Each Test of the ongoingtwo-match series againstBangladesh is worth 60 pointssince the 120 points up forgrab in a series are evenly dis-tributed over the number ofmatches in a series. The pointsrange from 60 points for eachmatch of a two-Test series to 24for each match of a five-Testseries.

Sri Lanka and New Zealandare on 60 points each afterdrawing their two-match series1-1 while England and Australiaare on 56 each after their five-match Ashes series ended 2-2.The West Indies and SouthAfrica failed to get any points intheir opening series.

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Mayank Agarwal’s attackinggame in Tests could open thedoor for his selection in

India’s limited overs squads for theassignments against West Indies nextmonth.

There is a school of thought thatAgarwal could be an option, prefer-ably for the three-match ODI seriesagainst the West Indies in December,in case Vice-captain Rohit Sharmatakes a break to rejuvenate himselfahead of the big away tour of NewZealand early next year.

Rohit has been continuously play-ing for a while now and the only breakhe got was the two Test matches in theWest Indies.

The Indian vice-captain will beintegral to the team’s plans across for-mats during the New Zealand tourwhen it will play five T20Internationals, three ODIs and twoTests.

For the limited overs matchesagainst West Indies, it will only be fairif the selectors think of giving ViratKohli and Ravi Shastri with anotheroption in Agarwal, who has a fantas-tic List A record of 13 hundreds at a50-plus average and 100-plus strike-rate.

One more factor that could go inAgarwal’s favour is Shikhar Dhawan’sprolonged bad patch and the need tohave another back-up option, apartfrom K L Rahul, ready.

Agarwal was sent as a late replace-ment for Vijay Shankar during theWorld Cup and though he didn’t geta game in the United Kingdom, themove was an indicator that theKarnataka batsman, for his attackinggame, is also in the selectors' white ballscheme of things.

Many feel that Agarwal could beseen as a long-term option keeping inmind the 2023 ODI World Cup inIndia, as Dhawan, given his deterio-rating form, might not be aroundthen.

Former India player and cricketanalyst Deep Dasgupta sees no harmin trying out Agarwal in the shorterformats, and the bilateral series againstthe West Indies could be the right plat-

form.“It would be a great thing if the

Indian team management has Mayankin mind as an opening option. In fact,he is a natural white ball player, whohas wonderfully transformed andadapted to the needs of red ballcricket,” Dasgupta said.

“If you look at Mayank, his talentwas never questioned. He always hadthe range of strokes from drives to thehorizontal bat shots. It was just that

in the earlier part he was getting outplaying cameos, but not anymore,” headded.

Agarwal had had a dream start tohis Test career with two double hun-dreds in his kitty even before complet-ing 10 Test matches.

However, what has caught every-one’s attention is the eight huge sixesthat he hit during his 243 againstBangladesh in the opening Test inIndore.

So can Agarwal be tried in theT20s too, keeping the World T20 inmind, those in the know of things feelthat it could be KL Rahul and RohitSharma, who look the best fit for thetournament Down Under next year.Many also believe that things couldchange for Agarwal if he is able to havea good IPL.

But for now, it’s the 50-over gamethat awaits.

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Leg-spinner Karan Dagar starredwith the ball before opener Hiten

Dalal scored a blistering half-centuryas Delhi registered an emphatic nine-wicket win over Sikkim in a SyedMushtaq Ali encounter here on Sunday.

Dagar (4/12) and medium pacerSimarjeet Singh (2/17) restrictedSikkim to a paltry 88 for seven in thestipulated 20 overs before Dalal playedan unbeaten innings of 54 off 24 ballsto take Delhi home with 11 overs tospare.

The win helped Delhi move to thesecond spot in Group E with 18 pointsfrom seven games, while Jharkhandwere atop the standings with 22 pointsfrom as seven matches.

Opting to bat, Sikkim were off toa disastrous start with Simarjeet dis-missing openers Bibek Diyali andYashpal Singh in the first over itself.

Wicketkeeper Ashish Thapa (17)and skipper Iqbal Abdulla (37), whotop-scored, tried to resurrect theinnings by stitching a 45-run partner-ship but Dagar bowled out the captainin the beginning of the 11th over.

Dagar then tore through the mid-dle order, dismissing Plazor Tamang(0), Benoy Upreti (1) and Thapa in thenext four overs.

In reply, Delhi reached the targetin nine overs. India opener ShikharDhawan, who is struggling for form, fellin the sixth over for 19.

However, fellow opener Dalal andwicketkeeper Anuj Rawat (14 not out)helped their team reach the target with-out much trouble.

Dalal cracked six boundaries andfour maximums in his innings while

Rawat hit a four and a six each.In another group E encounter,

Utkarsh Singh (42) and Virat Singh (56)guided Jharkhand to a nine-wicket winover Gujarat.

Brief Scores:Sikkim 88 for 7 in 20 overs (Iqbal

Abdulla 37; Karan Dagar 4/12) lost toDelhi (Hiten Dalal 54 not out; YashpalSingh 1/16 ) by 9 wickets.

Gujarat 128 for 7 in 20 overs(Urvil Patel 47; Varun Aaron 2/26) lostto Jharkhand 131 for 1 in 18 overs(Virat Singh 56 not out; ArazanNagwaswalla 1/25) by 9 wickets.

Odisha 149 for 9 in 20 overs (Subhranshu Senapati 42; ImliwatiLemtur 2/20) beat Nagaland 104 all outin 17 overs ( Yogesh Takawale 31; PappuRoy 3/21) by 45 runs.

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Former Bangladesh cap-tain Aminul Islam is in

awe of India’s current paceattack and feels the hosts willhave advantage with the pinkball in the day/night Testbeginning here on Friday.

Islam, the firstBangladeshi Test centurion,even compared the Indianpace attack to the lethal WestIndian fast bowlers of the1970s and 1980s.

“The way we saw thevariation of pace bowling by(Mohammed) Shami, Ishant(Sharma) and (Umesh) Yadav,they will get a lot of advantagewith this pink ball. Whereveryou play, you get that extrabreeze in the evening. Indiawill take a lot of advantage ofthat,” Islam told PTI in a tele-phonic interview.

“Earlier, we had seenspinners like Anil Kumbleleading Indian bowling butnow it's about the pacers. Thisis the big transformation inIndian cricket. They havetheir best bowling attack ever,it’s like the way the WestIndians dominated the paceattack (in the world) at onepoint of time."

The 51-year-old formerbatsman, who scored 145 inBangladesh's maiden Test in2000 in Dhaka against India,said India is emerging as a rolemodel in world cricket.

“The world normally fol-lows Australia in cricket,there’s nothing wrong in that.But if you see, India have beenconsistent. India can be a rolemodel. They have been prov-ing at the highest level.”

Islam said the day/nightmatch at Eden Gardens,which is the second and finalTest of the India-Bangladeshseries, will take the game to anew height.

India was instrumental inbringing Bangladesh to theTest arena 19 years ago andnow the neigbouring countrywas convinced by newly-elected BCCI presidentSourav Ganguly to play itsfirst ever pink ball Test herefrom November 22-26.

“It’s going to be an unbe-lievable spectacle with about70,000 crowd watching thefirst ever day/night Test inIndia. This match will takeTest cricket to a new height.All the best wishes to both theteams," Islam said.

“We remember the 2001epic Test between India and

Australia at the Eden and nowthis upcoming day/night Testwill be another milestone inthe evolving format. Hope thisis successful.”

To celebrate the historicoccasion, the Ganguly-ledBCCI will felicitate the mem-bers of both the teams of the2000 Test on the opening dayon November 22.

“Dada has sent a niceinvitation. I’m looking for-ward. It all depends on myschedule here,” he said.

Bangladesh began theirWorld Test Championshipcampaign on a disappointingnote as they lost to India byan innings and 130 runsinside three days in the firstTest in Indore.

Asked whetherBangladesh are missingShakib Al Hasan and Tamim

Iqbal badly, Islam said: "Noone is indispensable. They(Bangladesh) need to addmore pacers. I don’t thinkspinners will get much advan-tage with the pink ball.

“I hope Bangaldeshbounce back in this Test.They showed in the secondinnings (of the first Test) thatthey have it in them to stagea fightback. I will hope for thebest."

On Bangladesh’s future,he said, We have alreadyplayed 19 years of Test crick-et. It’s high time thatBangladesh find out whichplayer is suited for whichformat.

“Nowadays, you needspecialised player for a partic-ular format. Bangladesh needto focus more on the domes-tic cricket,” he concluded.

Mayank fav for Limited overs series

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Returning to competitive cricket with abang after serving a doping suspension,

young Prithivi Shaw says he is now com-pletely focussed on letting his bat do the talk-ing to force his way back into the Indianteam.

“Now I will focus on scoring as manyruns as possible and win games for theteam,” said Shaw, who played his firstgame after serving a back-dated eight-month suspension by the BCCI for failinga dope test.

In his comeback match, Shaw made astroke-filled 39-ball 63 to help Mumbaithrash Assam by 83 runs in a Syed MushtaqAli Trophy game.

“I will just keep scoring runs. It is allabout the selectors and what they think. Myjob is to score runs and win games for theteam,” the 20-year-old opening batsman saidwhen asked about his return to the nation-al team.

Shaw, who made a dream Test debutwith a century and a fifty in the two match-es he has played so far, has no other optionbut to pile up tons of runs to reclaim his Testspot as Rohit Sharma and Mayank Agarwalhave grabbed their chances in his absence.

Shaw was banned from all formsof cricket by the BCCI for a (retrospective)period of eight months in July after failinga dope test during the Mushtaq Ali Trophyin March and his ban ended on Friday.

Talking about the ban period, Shaw saidthe episode was definitely “hard and upset-ting” but it is a thing of the past now.

“I had never thought that something likethis would happen. I was obviously upset.For the first 20-25 days after I was banned,I was not able to understand how did it hap-

pen,” he said.“Time passed by. I went to London and

chilled out there as I was not allowed topractice till September 15. After that I sta-bilised myself and kept myself mentallystronger by telling myself these threemonths would pass. But each day was hard,it was getting longer. It's all past now.”

Shaw said that former skipper RahulDavid, who is the head of cricket inBangalore’s National Cricket Academy,helped him in his comeback.

“There was nothing in my mind. Icouldn't have done anything about the ban.After returning from London, Rahul(Dravid) sir called me to the NCA for train-ing. There I went through a series of fitnesstests like yo-yo,” he said.

“Under Rahul sir a lot of focus was onfitness. I had to clear all my fitness tests.

What also helped was that during the netsgood bowlers were available like KuldeepYadav, Bhuvi (Bhuvaneshwar Kumar) andVarun Aaron. Besides, Rahul sir was alwaysthere for guidance and mental issues.”

He said apart from his father Pankaj, alot of cricketers and coaches supported himduring his hard days.

“A lot of people were asking me aboutmy well-being. I got a lot of love and sup-port from a lot of people. A lot of players,coaches, my agency people, Indian Oil peo-ple, BCCI and MCA guys were asking howwas I feeling,” the diminutive batsmansaid.

“There obviously was a period when Iwas not feeling too well. But then as the dayof return came closer, I started to get my actstogether.

“If I had gone into a shell at that pointof time (ban) I would have felt pressure. Butwhatever happens it’s for good.”

Shaw said the episode was a big learn-ing experience for him in his nascentcareer.

“I think this period has been a big learn-ing experience for me. Obviously I commit-ted a mistake. I had no idea what I was con-suming,” he said.

“In that period I was alone and was try-ing to stay away from people and theiradvices. I was telling myself that I can getout of this mess and be mentally strong.”

Shaw said his father was always behindhim during the turbulent time.

“In life ups and downs will be there. Myfather has stood behind me and nobody elseis there. In these three months he was withme like he has been during the U-14 and U-16 days. He felt that he needed to be withme,” he said.

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Prithvi Shaw made a splendidreturn to competitive crick-

et after serving a doping ban,hitting a 39-ball 63 to guideMumbai to a 83-run win overAssam in the Syed Mushtaq AliTrophy here on Sunday.

All eyes were on Shaw, whoplayed his first game after serv-ing a back-dated eight-monthsuspension by the BCCI for fail-ing a dope test and the pint-sizedopener did not disappoint thesmall crowd at the WankhedeStadium.

Shaw, who came in for in-form Jay Bista, struck a blazinghalf-century and then celebrat-ed in a ‘bat does the talk’ man-ner.

Shaw and Aditya Tare (82off 48 balls) toyed with a pedes-trian Assam attack to helpMumbai post a massive 206 for

5 in the Group ‘D’ match.The Mumbai bowlers led by

medium pacer Shivam Dube(2/3) then restricted the visitorsto 123 for 8 to complete the win.

The focus was firmly onShaw, who was named inMumbai’s last two games of theleague stage of the Mushtaq Alitrophy and the subsequent superleague stage on Thursday.

The 20-year-old made hisintent clear as he hit sevenboundaries and two sixes in his39-ball knock and made opti-mum use of a ‘life’ which he goton 32 after being dropped atlong-off.

Shaw underlined his class,hitting some lovely shots andalso struck two towering sixes.

Tare was also in an attack-ing mood, smashing some well-timed boundaries.

The two conjured up a 138-run stand for the first-wicket to

lay the foundation of big total.Tare hammered 12 fours and alone six.

Assam leg-spinner RiyanParag removed Tare and skipperSuryakumar Yadav (0), whohad a rare failure, in successivedeliveries of the 14th over.

Shaw’s innings too endedafter he became Parag’s (3-30)third victim as Mumbaislumped to 149 for 3.

However, a quick-fire 32 off14 balls by their crisis manSiddhesh Lad ensured that thehosts crossed the 200-run mark.

The chase was always goingto be difficult for Assam andMumbai bowlers dished out aclinical show.

Assam kept losing wicketsand no other batsman apartfrom Riyan Parag (38 off 33balls) showed spine as Mumbaidefended the target with ease.

Dhawal Kulkarni (2/28),

Dube (2/3), Shams Mulani(2/15), Shardul Thakur (1-23)and Shreyas Iyer (1-28) sharedthe spoils.

Meanwhile, in the first gameat Bandra-Kurla Complex,Pondicherry defeated Bengalby four wickets to grab their fourpoints.

Brief scores:Mumbai 206 for 5 (Aditya

Tare 82, Prithvi Shaw 63, RiyanParag 3/30) beat Assam 123 for8 (Riyan Parag 38, SibsankarRoy 22, Shivam Dube 2/3) by 83runs. Mumbai 4 points, Assam0 points.

Bengal 132 for 7 (VivekSingh 43, Abhimanyu Easwaran28, Suresh Kumar 4/17) lost toPondicherry 135 for 6 (RohitDamodaran 55, Suresh Kumar16; Shahbaz Ahamad 2-16) byfour wickets. Pondicherry 4points, Bengal: 0.

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