BENNETT, COLEMAN & CO. LTD. | ESTABLISHED 1838 | TIMESOFINDIA.COM | EPAPER.TIMESOFINDIA.COM MUMBAI | TUESDAY, AUGUST 18, 2015 | PAGES 32 *

NITISH TO SKIP MODIEVENT FOR HIGHWAYPROJECTS IN BIHAR 12

ROY’S SON TOLD US TO CONTACTLALIT MODI TO SEAL FOREIGNHOTEL DEAL, FIRM TELLS SC 17

PIL against award forhistorian PurandareA PIL has been filed in theBombay HC against the state’sdecision to confer theMaharashtra Bhushan award onBabasaheb Purandare. P 4

‘Rapist’ school vanattendant a majorA test of the private school vanattendant accused of sexuallyassaulting a 3-year-old Maladgirl has shown that he is 19. P 3

10 ex-Services chiefspush for OROPThe protest for one rank, onepension has gained momentumwith two former servicemenlaunching an indefinite fast and10 former Services chiefsurging PM Modi to settle theissue quickly, warning theforces’ morale could be hit. P 9

FTII students gheraodirector for 6 hoursIn high drama at FTII, protestingstudents gheraoed directorPrashant Pathrabe for six hourson Monday over his decision togo ahead with the assessmentof films of the 2008 batch. P 11

NEWS DIGEST

Times Classifieds | P 6 & 10

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SAVE TIGER PROJECT: NCP SAYSSACHIN SHOULD BE MADE BRANDAMBASSADOR, NOT BACHCHAN 5

�Fired for urinating, Punjabman kills 5 under truck, P 8�Haryana bag seller’s sontops pre-medical test, P 5 & 9�Polygraph, DNA test on Pak terrorist Naved, P 13�Bin Laden cited Gandhi asinspiration in ’93 speech, P 16�Terror financier who jumped furlough held, P 3�Coalgate: Koda wants ex-PM Singh summoned, P 10�Youth’s inappropriate conduct under lens, P 2

OTHER TOP STORIES

Sunday turned out to be amilestone day for Indiansport. After Saina Nehw-

al’s historic silver medal at theWorld Badminton meet, Anir-ban Lahiri made a resoundingstatement for Indian golf wh-en he recorded India’s best-ev-er finish in a Major. Lahiri fin-

ished tied fifth in thePGA Championship,the year’s final Major,with rounds of 70, 67, 70and 68 at Kohler, Wisco-nsin (US), eclipsing Je-ev Milkha Singh’s tiedninth result at the same eventin 2008. Lahiri was seven stro-kes behind winner Jason Dayof Australia. Golfers that he fi-

and jumped from 53rd to 38thin the world rankings.

Lahiri has almost single-handedly assured India’s first-ever presence in the prestigio-us US vs International (exclu-ding Europe) Presidents Cupevent slated for October. He isonly the third Asian to breachthe $1 million earnings barri-er in a single season. P 21

nished ahead of inclu-ded Rory McIlroy, PhilMickelson and severalMajor winners. TigerWoods failed to evenmake the cut.

Lahiri (28) pocketed$367,000 (Rs 2.4 crore), the 2ndhighest pay cheque in his care-er after his Malaysian Openwin ($500,000) earlier this year,

Golfer Anirban Lahiri putts best show by an Indian TIMES NEWS NETWORK

The Centre’s amnesty sc-heme launched on July 1

to mop up black money stas-hed abroad before the toughlaw kicks in next April hasreportedly resulted in justone declaration, estimatedat Rs 70-80 crore. The poor re-sponse could be blamed onthe doubts about the schemenot providing a blanket banfrom prosecution. There arealso issues with tax and pen-alty being imposed on decla-ration. However, experienceshows that such schemes pi-ck up towards the end as tho-se with illegal money treadcautiously. P8

Only one takerfor black moneyamnesty scheme

Three more people diedof H1N1 in the city over

the weekend, taking the tollto 36, the worst since 2009when the virus first brokeout. While a 74-year-old Po-wai cancer patient, hospita-lized with fever and cold onAugust 6, died of sepsis onAugust 14, a two-year-old fr-om Chembur succumbed tothe virus at Rajawadi Hosp-ital. On August 13, a 63-year-old man from Null Bazar di-ed at J J Hospital. P2

At 36, H1N1 tollcity’s worst ever

The apex consumer courton Monday issued a noti-

ce to Nestle India admittingthe government’s Rs 640-cro-re suit for alleged unfair tradepractices pertaining to Magginoodles, directing the firm torespond by September 30. Italso asked the government tosend samples of the noodlesto an accredited laboratoryfor tests. The panel took noteof the Bombay high court or-der quashing the ban on thepopular food item. P 10

Notice to Nestleon ̀̀ 640cr suit

Bangkok: At least 27 peoplewere killed and 117 others in-jured when a powerful bombwent off in the complex hous-ing a popular Lord Brahma te-mple in a crowded area of Ba-ngkok on Monday. It was thefirst such attack in the Thaicapital, and four foreignerswere among the dead.

The blast, which the gover-nment believes was aimed atdamaging the country’s econ-omy and tourism, occurred inthe Erawan shrine in downto-wn Chidlom district, creatingpanic as people fled the placewith cars and motorcycles ex-ploding on impact. The temp-le is located on a main road th-rough Bangkok’s commercial

hub and is surrounded by thr-ee big malls and hotels of inte-rnational chains. It is amongBangkok’s most popular attr-actions and is visited by EastAsian tourists and local Bud-

dhists. But there were no re-ports of any Indian casualtiesin the explosion that left bodyparts and glass panes sca-ttered all over.

The national police chief

put the death toll at 16, but Th-ai TV placed it at 27. The tollmay rise as a large number ofpeople are injured. AGENCIES

4 Foreigners Die,117 Hurt As Cars& Bikes Explode

27 killed as bomb hits Hindushrine in heart of Bangkok

The Bangkok Post said there were twin blasts—one from a motorcycle bomb and the other from a device fixed to an electricity pole

It quoted police as saying 5kg of TNT was used At least two more bombs were defused at the site

RUSH HOURTERRORThe bomb went off in the evening near the Hindu Erawan Shrine, which is also popular with many Buddhists. Foreigners are said to have been the target

No group has claimed responsiblity for the attack. Car bombs are rare in Bangkok, but have been used in south Thailand, where a Muslim separatist insurgency has been flaring; the military assumed power last year after months of unrest

Mumbai: Areour civic repre-sentatives doing enough? In2014-15, the proportion of que-stions asked by corporatorscompared with people’s com-plaints was as low as 29.1%. Atotal of 220 corporators askedjust 2,727 questions in a totalof 817 meetings—a dismal av-erage of 3.3 questions per me-eting; nine didn’t ask a singlequestion. Their average atte-ndance dropped to 68% in2014-15 from 75.4% in 2013-14.A fourth of the corporators

have FIRs registered againstthem.

On Monday, NGO Praja

Foundation released the ann-ual report card of Mumbai’smunicipal corporators. It ra-nked 220 of the 227 corporato-rs. Former and current may-ors Sunil Prabhu and SnehalAmbekar, respectively, werenot ranked as both held officeat some point during April2014 to March 2015, the periodfor which the report card isbrought out. The remainingfive corporators were eithersuspended or did not comple-te the 12 months.

City corporators lax in askingquestions, attending meetings

Richa.Pinto@timesgroup.comPRAJA REPORT

The corporators asked just 2,727 questions in 817 meetings

9 didn’t ask a single question

Average attendance dropped to 68% from 75.4% in 2013-14

57 corporators have FIRs registered against them

BJP’s Sunita Yadav from Poisar ranked best; MNS’s Avinash Sawant worst

In a setback for NCP, Ram-esh Kadam, its MLA from

Mohol, Solapur, was arrest-ed from Pune on Monday forhis alleged involvement in aRs 365-crore scam in the Lok-shahir Annabhau Sathe Dev-elopment Corporation, whi-ch he heads, reports Samr-at Phadnis.

Ex-NCP minister Laxm-an Dhoble, who quit the partyafter being denied a ticket fr-om Mohol, has been vocal ab-out malpractices in the corp-oration and had accused for-mer deputy CM Ajit Pawar ofshielding Kadam. P 3

NCP MLA heldin ̀̀ 365cr scamin bank loans

Kolkata/Mumbai: HarshLodha-led Birla Corporationhas agreed to acquire LafargeIndia’s two cement units inthe eastern region in a dealvalued at Rs 5,000 crore. It willmark the biggest M&A play inthe Kolkata-based company’snearly century-old history

and make it a stronger rival toKumar Mangalam Birla’s Ul-traTech Cement.

While Harsh Lodha mana-ges Birla Corporation, its own-ership is locked in a legal disp-ute between Lodha and the Bi-rla families, something indus-try observers say could createobstacles for the big-ticket de-al as it requires shareholderand court approvals. The own-

ership is under dispute afterPriyamvada Birla, the widowof M P Birla, named Harsh Lo-dha’s chartered accountant fa-ther R S Lodha as the heir toher entire estate.

Birla Corporation pippedseveral bulge-bracket privateequity funds and strategicplayers to acquire the units.

Birla legacy feud may trip Lodha’s`̀5,000cr Lafarge cement units buy

Udit Prasanna Mukherji &Reeba Zachariah TNN

PM Narendra Modi useda public event with50,000 cheering expat

Indians at the Dubai cricketstadium to attack terrorismoriginating from Pakistan.

Referring to the India-UAE joint statement, he said,in a thinly veiled reference toPakistan, “There are thosewho believe in terrorism andthose who believe in humani-ty. Those nations who supportthe latter must unite. There isno good or bad Taliban, goodor bad terrorism.”

It was a strong message toPakistan, delivered from thesoil of one of its closest allies.Modi made no bones of the factthat he saw the joint statementas aimed at Pakistan. TNN

PM sends toughmessage to Pak

from Dubai stageSays NationsMust Unite

Against Terror

‘NA-PAK’ ACTIVITIES

There are those who believe in terrorism

and those who believe in humanity. Those nations who support the latter must unite... those who need to understand will do so. There is no good or bad Taliban, good or bad terrorism

New Delhi: The apex courton Mondayupheld theconviction ofVishal andVikas Yad-av, who hadmurderedNitish Katara in 2002 for hav-ing a relationship with theirsister Bharti. It, however,agreed to weigh whether the30-year jail term imposed bythe Delhi high court was justpunishment for the cousins.

A bench of Justices J SKhehar and Adarsh Goelhad no doubt about the guiltof the two, who were concur-rently held guilty by the trialcourt and the Delhi HC. Whi-le they were sentenced to 30years in prison, their accom-plice Sukhdev Pehalwan wasawarded 25 years.

The SC agreed to exami-ne if the sentences were dis-proportionate to the crime asthe convicts pleaded for leni-ency. It sought Delhi police’sresponse in six weeks.

SC upholdsKatara killers’conviction, butto review term

AmitAnand.Choudhary@timesgroup.com

�Separatists suspect, P 16

�Sena lags behind BJP, P 2

�Takes dig at Cong, P 12� BRIDGING THE GULF, P 12

�In Indian Top 10, P 18

�‘Show strong point’, P 11

PM Modi and the Abu DhabiCrown Prince’s pact to

cooperate against terrorismand organized crime couldprevent terror groups fromusing the Emirates as a spr-ingboard against India. P 12

Pact with UAE maycurb Dawood & Co