· illegally at a farmhouse in noida, said officials. police action came after it was informed on...

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Amassive controversy haserupted over Prime

Minister Narendra Modi com-ment in a poll rally inPratapgarh in Uttar Pradeshthat former Prime MinisterRajiv Gandhi left the world as“bhrastachari number 1.”

Congress president RahulGandhi, his sister PriyankaGandhi, and the Congress allyNCP have rapped Modi forsuch undignified attack againsta dead person while UnionMinister Prakash Javadekardefended the PM’s remark.UPA partners NCP and otherstoo rapped Modi for hisremarks against the formerPM and termed it derogatoryand shameful.

Rahul tweeted, “Modiji,The battle is over. Your karmaawaits you. Projecting yourinner beliefs about yourselfonto my father won’t protectyou. All my love and a hugehug.” Priyanka too slammedModi and said, “The PrimeMinister who insults martyrsby seeking vote in the name oftheir sacrifices yesterdaycrossed his limits by insultingthe sacrifice of a noble manwho gave his life for the coun-try. The people of Amethi will

reply as Rajiv sacrificed his lifefor them. Yes Modiji, the coun-try never forgives cheating.”

On the other hand, UnionMinisters Arun Jaitley andPrakash Javadekar tried to cor-ner Rahul by asking why heshould be rattled by corruptioncharges against his father andalso raked up Rajiv’s commenton 1984 anti-Sikh pogrom. Ina series of tweets, Jaitley saidRahul thinks that “dynast” doesnot have to answer any ques-tion even though he can attackModi — ‘a man of utmostintegrity’.

Jaitley tweeted, “Why isRahul so disturbed if theintegrity issues of the RajivGovernment are raised? Whydid Ottavio Quattrocchi getkickbacks in Bofors? Who wasthe ‘Q’ connection? No replyhas come.”

Jaitley said even formerPrime Minister Indira Gandhiwas also assassinated and yetthe Congress is questionedabout the Emergency and theOperation Blue Star.

Javadekar justified the PM’sstatement by stating that thelate PM had supported thekilling of Sikhs in the 1984riots. “What Modi said is cor-rect, after the 1984 riots in wh-ich Sikhs were massacred, did

Rajiv not support it? He hadsaid, ‘when big trees fall theearth shakes’,” Javadekar said ata Press conference.

Also, he accused Rahuland Priyanka of abusing Modiafter he spoke the truth aboutthe former PM. “Yesterday assoon as the Prime Minister toldthe truth about Gandhi fami-ly and especially Rajivji, thebrother-sister duo started abus-ing him. For a full year, theycalled an honest PrimeMinister a thief, now they call

him Hitler, merchant of death.It is the truth being spokenwhich forces them to indulge inabusive politics,” he said.

Accusing the Congress andits president Rahul of attempt-ing to tarnish his image overthe Rafale issue, Modi in a rallyin Pratapgarh had said, “Yourfather was termed ‘Mr Clean’by his courtiers, but his lifeended as ‘Bhrastachari number1’ (corrupt number 1).” ThePrime Minister claimed thatthe Congress chief had admit-

ted in an interview that his onlyaim is to tarnish the image ofModi.

Javadekar asserted thatdynasts of the Congress wereafraid of the truth and that iswhy the Congress presidenthad tried to falsely accuse BJPof corruption in Rafale deal.

“The dynasts are afraid ofthe truth. Rahul tried to false-ly accuse us in the Rafale dealfor a full year but failed miser-ably. They are worried thatBJP’s record is cleaner than

theirs,” he said. Former Union Minister P

Chidambaram and other seniorleaders of the Congress hit outat Prime Minister for theremarks on Rajiv, saying itshowed his “desperation” and“fear of defeat”. In a series oftweets, the Former UnionFinance Minister wondered ifany religion sanctioned speak-ing ill of the dead.

Former Delhi ChiefMinister Sheila Dikshit whowas very close to Rajivexpressed “shock and anger”over Modi’s remarks aboutRajiv, saying if politics is notrepaired, future generationswill “not forgive us”. RajasthanChief Minister Ashok Gehlotaccused Modi of defamingCongress leaders by levelling“baseless” allegations againstthem.

He asked, “Does it behoveModi to “insult” former PrimeMinister Rajiv who sacrificedhis life for unity and integrity ofthe country?” Claiming thatModi was “jolted” by the cor-ruption allegations in the Rafaledeal, Gehlot said the Congresswill continue to rake up theissue till the Prime Minister isheld accountable.

Continued on Page 4

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Seven States will go to pollsfor 51 seats in the fifth

phase of the Lok Sabha poll onMonday, but Uttar Pradesh,Rajasthan and West Bengalwill draw most of the attentionbecause more than two third ofthe seats in this phase comefrom here.

The stakes are high for theruling Bharatiya Janata Party

(BJP) and its allies as it hadswept 40 of these seats in 2014,leaving just two for theCongress and the rest for otherOpposition parties such as theTrinamool Congress (seven).

With this phase, electionwill be over in 424 seats andpolling in the remaining 118seats will be held on May 12and 19, said sources.

Nearly nine crore voterswill decide the fate of 674 candidates, including politicalbigwigs Rajnath Singh, Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhiand Smriti Irani, in the fifthphase of polling on Monday in51 Lok Sabha constituencies inseven States.

Continued on Page 4

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Armed with new terminol-ogy, Prime Minister Nar-

endra Modi launched a blis-tering attack on the Oppositionon Sunday and also sought todrive a wedge among the part-ners of the “mahagathbandhan”(the SP-BSP-RLD alliance) inUttar Pradesh.

Addressing a poll rally herein eastern Uttar Pradesh, Modisaid, “After Independence,there have been four types ofgovernance, parties and polit-ical culture — ‘naampanthi’,‘vaampanthi’, ‘daam aurdamanpathi’ and the fourth onethat has been brought by us, the‘vikaspanthi’.”

He explained that “naam-panthi are those who onlyindulge in chanting the namesof the members of a family.Vaampanthi are those who tryto foist foreign policies onIndia. ‘Daam’ and ‘damanpathi’are those who rule usingmoney and muscle power and

for the ‘vikaspanthi’, the prior-ity is the welfare and develop-ment of the 130 crore people ofthe country”.

Referring to Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) chiefMasood Azhar, who has beendeclared as a global terrorist bythe United Nations (UN), Modisaid, “A couple of days ago, thebiggest organisation in theworld declared Masood Azhar,who has claimed hundreds oflives in India, a global terror-ist. Are you happy? Is Modiworking properly? Pakistan,which was hosting parties forhim, is now compelled to act

against Masood Azhar. This isthe impact of India’s growingprowess.” “But what shall I dowith the ‘mahamilawati’ par-

ties, who are not ready toaccept this achievement ofIndia?,” he asked.

Continued on Page 4

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Aday after PM NarendraModi charged the SP with

going soft on the Congress aspart of a “big game” againstthe BSP, the two “mahagath-bandhan” partners blamedthe PM on Sunday for tryingto create a rift in the alliance.

BSP supremo Mayawatisaid the alliance “will continue in the future as well”,while SP chief Akhilesh Yadavsaid the PM was “misleading”people.

Their rebuttal cameagainst the backdrop of Modisaying at a rally in UP’sPratapgarh on Saturday thatthe SP was “going soft” on theCongress, though Mayawatiwas attacking the grand oldparty.

He also claimed that theSP had benefitted due to thealliance and “Behenji”had nowunderstood that the AkhileshYadav-led party and theCongress were playing a “biggame” with her.

Detailed report on P7

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Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)national convener and

Delhi Chief Minister ArvindKejriwal on Sunday alleged thatthe Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)was responsible for the attack onhim during a roadshow andclaimed he was targeted becausehe had been questioning PrimeMinister Narendra Modi’s “rela-tionship” with Pakistan.

Addressing media persons,the AAP leader termed theattack on him as an assault onthe people of Delhi and themandate they had given to theparty. “The incident happenedto silence voices raised againstPrime Minister Narendra Modiand establish dictatorship,” hesaid, adding that this is theninth attack on me and fifthone since I took charge as theChief Minister of Delhi.

Detailed report on P3

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In a late night swoop, Noidapolice arrested 161 men and

31 women who were takingpart in a rave party being heldillegally at a farmhouse inNoida, said officials.

Police action came after itwas informed on Saturdaynight about a farmhouse inSector 135 where alcohol andother intoxicants were beingserved illegally to people.

“We had got an information about such a raveparty being held at the farmhouse. A raid was carriedout late Saturday night and the information was foundtrue after which 161 men and 31 women were held fromthe spot,” SeniorSuperintendent of Police (SSP),Gautam Buddh Nagar, VaibhavKrishna said.

“Most of those arrestedbelong to Delhi, while some arefrom Haryana and only a few are from Noida,” the SSPinformed the media.

Five of the key organisersof the event have also beenarrested and 31 hookah, 112beer bottles, 30 liquor bottleswhich were meant for sale inDelhi, among other items, havebeen seized from the farm-house, he said.

“The key organisers have been identified as AmitTyagi, Pankaj Sharma, AdnanAhmed, Balesh Kohli, all fourfrom Delhi, and Kapil SinghBhati, from Ghaziabad,”Krishna said.

A case has been registered under various sec-tions of the Indian Penal Code against those arrestedand a probe is underway, headded.

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As Odisha takes steps torecover from Fani devas-

tation, the National TigerReserve ConservationAuthority (NTCA) has decid-ed to take stock of damagescaused to the two tiger reservesin the State by the nature’s fury.Similipal in Mayurbhanj andSatkosia in Angul district aretwo notified tiger reserves inthe State.

Member Secretary ofNTCA Anup Kumar Nayak onSunday said it would seek a sta-tus report on damage to thetwo tiger reserves from the State Forest Departmentshortly.

There are four more new

areas in the State where royalBengal tigers have been sight-ed in the past.

The status of these newlocations and prey base willalso be assessed by the top tiger conservation bodyunder the Union EnvironmentMinistry.

“Currently, the State isgrappling in providing basic

amenities to the people. As isthe procedure we are seekingreport from the State Forestofficials to give their assessmenton the damages, if any, that theFani has caused to the wildlifein the two tiger habitats,” saidNayak.

At present, the StateGovernment is focusing onincreasing the tiger population

in Satkosia reserve. As part ofits strategy, six tigers (threepairs) were to be brought fromMadhya Pradesh. Two felineswere released in Satkosia, butresistance from local popula-tion in buffer villages hasdelayed the transportation andrelease of the other tigers.Moreover, one of the two tigersthat was released late last year

got killed by poachers. The offi-cial count as per the 2014 cen-sus is 40 tigers in Odisha as perthe State Government.

However, the cyclone isunderstood to have causeddamage to the habitats as wellas the felines. Now, because ofFani, the ongoing census by theNTCA, Wildlife Institute ofIndia (WII) and Odisha ForestDepartment has also been puton hold.

The NTCA will also seekreport on Sunabeda wildlifesanctuary in Nuapada districtand Debrigarh wildlife sanctu-ary in Bargarh district ofOdisha which are proposed tobe accorded tiger reserve sta-tus in view of sighting of bigcats in the region.

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The North Delhi MunicipalCorporation (NMC) has

started working on area park-ing plan to make areas under itsjurisdiction more pedestrian-friendly.

The decision was takenafter getting a positive responsefor initiating a pilot project ondecongestion in Karol Bagh, asenior corporation official said,adding that the civic body nowplanning to expand the schemeto other areas to promote use ofpublic transport and make mar-ket areas more pedestrian-friendly.

The official said that theexpansion of the project willhappen after polls and basicgroundwork is being done atpresent.

NMC CommissionerVarsha Joshi told The Pioneer"We are working on area park-ing plans and improving otherfacilities in Kirti Nagar andKamla Nagar market areas inconsultation with the marketassociations and other stake-holders". Joshi said that the ideais to decongest the area and tomake it more attractive for thevisitors.

Seeking to promote use ofpublic transport and makecommercial areas pedestrian-friendly, the north corpora-tion has hiked parking fees forusing Karol Bagh Street. Priorto that a stretch of Ajmal KhanRoad in the area was pedestri-anised on Wednesday.

"The approval for the pro-ject and on parking fee hike wastaken just before the electionsdates were announced. Ajmal

Khan Road for decades hasbeen clogged with traffic andhaphazard parking inconve-niencing visitors," the officialsaid.

"This project had been firstconceptualised in 2010 butcould not take off for some rea-sons. So, we picked up this zoneas soon I took charge atNDMC, and engaged with mar-ket associations and created off-street parking spaces by utilis-ing old, defunct municipalspaces," Joshi told PTI.

Joshi said, the project couldnot have been executed withoutarranging alternative parkingspaces, and so, off-street park-ing zones were built in a cou-ple of places nearby, adding, theidea is to enhance shoppingexperience and encouragewalking among people.

"About 600 metre of theAjmal Khan Road has beenpedestrianised, rest of it beingdone. People were taken by sur-prise, as we did most of thework at night time, frominstalling benches to paintingkerbs, etc," she said.

On Wednesday, visitorswere taken by surprise whenthey found a stretch of the near-ly one-km road decongested,

and pavements lined withbenches and the street deco-rated with flower pots.

The street has been markedwith yellow and white stripesdemarcating space for hawkers.Besides, bollards have been putat the entry points of AjmalKhan Road - on Pusa Road andArya Samaj Road - to restrictentry of vehicles to the road.

In pursuance of its pilotproject to decongest Karol Baghand disincentivise use of privatecars, the NMC has increasedsurface parking rates on portionof the Arya Samaj Road.

The civic agency hasincreased the parking charge forcars from �20 to �40 for the firsthour. For the second hour, thecharge will be �50; between twoand three hours, the rate will be�60; between three and fivehours, it will be �70; and forover five hours, the charge willbe �300.

Also, instead of perpendic-ular parking, parallel parking isbeing implemented to givemore access of the Arya Samajroad to pedestrians, the com-missioner said.

"We are testing waters, andperhaps would like to reallyscale up to include all majormarket areas in north Delhi infuture. Walking is a pleasantexperience and when people areat ease, they shop more. So,shopkeepers also should knowthat it is a win-win situation,"she told PTI.

The ShahjahanabadRedevelopment Corporationhas also launched a similarproject to remove vehicles fromChandni Chowk, and work onwhich is currently underway.

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Heavy-duty desert coolersand 'toofan' fans are out

and energy boosters such asglucose and ORS are stockedup in Delhi's zoo to help its1,200 animals beat the scorch-ing heat. It's 11.45 am and thesun is beating down on the176-acre National ZoologicalPark without mercy.

As the mercury rises to 43degrees Celsius, Vinod Kumar,28, picks up a hosepipe andwalks into the night house,where Tipu, Sita, Geeta andtheir 8-year-old motherKalpana are kept in separatesteel cages.

"It's time to give them abath to keep their body tem-peratures down," the contrac-tual employee, tasked withtaking care of the family ofwhite tigers, says.

Even as mercury soars to47-48 degrees Celsius in peaksummer, inside the nighthouse, where the big cats arekept in steel cages, two large,heavy-duty desert coolers andfour 'toofan' fans whirl non-stop to maintain the idealtemperature — between 25and 35 degrees Celsius — forthe animals, he says.

"It's comfortable 30-32degrees Celsius in here, whileit could be 40-41 degreesCelsius out in the open,"Kumar says, as Sita saunters

into a large wire mesh cage,ready for the bath.

The father, Vijay, a 11-year-old white tiger who shotto notoriety in 2014 after he

mauled a man to death, amblesin the shade near an artificial,V-shaped pond.

"I bathe them three-fourtimes a day. Besides, I take care

they are not overfed as a lightstomach helps deal with theheat," Kumar says.

"Their food is rationed,only 10 kg red meat per day in

summer. Normally, the felinesget 12 kg," the caretaker says.

The animals also get glu-cose mixed with water beforethe meal. It helps them cool off.

"The white tigers consumeone kg of glucose in three-fourdays," Kumar says.

Around 200 metres away,30-year-old Akanrhawa, withhis pants rolled up to the knee,is feeding bananas to HeeraGaj and Lakhsmi. "Bananas arecold in nature and allowabsorption of more water," hesays.

"The elephants have 8 kg ofbananas in breakfast. Aroundnoon, the tuskers get greenfodder. In the evening, after thezoo closes at 5 pm, they getkhichdi," Akanrhawa says.

After Heera has had hisbreakfast, the caretaker leadshim to a stretch, close to thepond inside their sprawlingenclosure, where he will bebathed.

Lakshmi, meanwhile, ishaving fun wallowing in themud in a shallow pit nearby."Elephants like spraying them-selves with muddy water. Athick coating of mud acts as anatural sunscreen and soothesinsect bites. And, they love itwhen they get a scrub,"

Akanrhawa says."Usually, I bathe them once

a day. They waddle into thepond whenever it gets hot," hesays.

The zoo has four leopards,kept in two cages, each with alarge desert cooler and twofans.

Their caretaker, Sridhar,makes sure they get waterafter ever half an hour. The bigcats get 6 kg of red meat, theironly meal for the day, aroundnoon.

"We reduce their meatintake by 2 kg in summer sothat they can hold more waterin their stomach and don't feeldehydrated," he explains.

"My leopards consume onekg of glucose a week. I also mixORS in their water to deal withelectrolyte imbalance due tothe excessive heat," he says.

The zoo's curator, RiyazKhan, says the workers stick toa diet chart prepared by expertsfor summers.

"We give beetroot, bael,onion, garlic, watermelon,muskmelon, etc to our bears.Glucose and ORS protect themfrom heat stroke," he says,adding that 70 desert coolers inthe zoo operate round-the-clock in summer months.

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Students and faculty mem-bers joined the Delhi

University administration incelebrating its 97th FoundationDay on Sunday. The celebra-tion witnessed enthralling cul-tural events presented by stu-dents from various colleges.

Jammu and Kashmir HighCourt Chief Justice Gita Mittal,Additional Solicitor GeneralPinky Anand, senior advo-cates Aman Sinha and RamjiSrinivasan were among otherswho were present on the occa-sion.

Speaking at the occasion,Justice Mittal recalled thelearnings from the varsity andasked the students to imbibe

three attributes in life —Integrity, Authenticity andDetermination.

Senior advocate AmanSinha praised the university forproviding students a holisticexposure and making themresilient. Sinha has appearedin several landmark casesbefore the Supreme Court,including Ayodhya land dis-pute, environment issues, riverinterlinking, and DU photo-copying matter.

DU Vice ChancellorProfessor Yogesh K Tyagiappreciated the outstandingcontributions of the alumni inpublic life, who were also felic-itated at the event. He men-tioned that the DU has anextraordinary legacy and apromise for a bright future.

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Delhi police crime branch havearrested a close associate of

Randeep Bhati-Anil Dujana gang,who was involved in more than half adozen cases of murder and attempt tomurder in Delhi and Uttar Pradesh(UP). Police had also declared areward of �50,000 on information lead-ing to his arrest.

The accused was identified asVikas Kasana (26) a native ofGhaziabad, UP. The police have recov-ered one semi automatic pistol, fourlive cartridges and one motorcycleused in commission of the crimefrom his possession.

"On July 30, 2018, at about 6.30pm, a 28-year-old resident of MayurVihar phase-III, namely SandeepNagar was going to his maternal unclehome at Gharoli, when two personshaving pistols in their hands, came ona motorcycle without Number Plates

from behind and started firing on him.Where he sustained gunshot injuriesin his abdomen. The shooters followedhim and fired several rounds but, hemanaged to escape. As the com-plainant is having a history of enmitywith the gangsters of Randeep Bhatiand Anil Dujana of Noida," said Dr GRam Gopal Naik, the DeputyCommissioner of police (DCP), CrimeBranch.

"On Saturday, following a tip-offaccused Vikas, who was the mainshooter was arrested from DDA Park,Kondli, when he has come there tomeet his associate," said the DCP.

"During Interrogations the accusedvikas have revealed that the com-plainant Sandeep Nagar is a witness ofa murder case in 2012. In whichgangster Randeep Bhati and his asso-ciates are accused persons. Bhati wastransferred to Basti Jail where he metvikas and conspired to eliminateSandeep," said DCP.

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With the arrest four people, the Delhi Policeclaimed to have busted a gang of pick pock-

ets active in south Delhi in the national Capital.The arrested accused has been identified as,

Chaman Lal (28), Om Prakash (39), Gyanesh(23) and Bopi Biswas (32), police said adding that21 mobile phones have been recovered fromthem, said Vijay Kumar, the DeputyCommissioner of Police (DCP), South district.

Further one Auto Rickshaw used by accusedpersons in committing crime has also been recov-ered. According to DCP, eleven of the phonesrecovered by them had been stolen by theaccused. The police are now trying to establishwhether the remaining ten cell phones have alsobeen stolen. With these arrests, the policeclaimed to have solved several cases and furtherinvestigations are on.

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Delhi Poll body has issued anotice to the West Delhi sit-

ting MP and BJP candidateParvesh Singh Verma forallegedly seeking votes in thename of soldiers, officials saidon Sunday.

According to the noticeissued by Returning Officer(RO) Azimul Haque, Vermaalso used some "objectionable"words for a particular commu-nity to seek votes, which is inviolation of the Model Code of

Conduct. The BJP candidatewas also accused of usingunparliamentary languageagainst his opponents whileaddressing the crowd on April30, the notice said.

Verma had allegedly told thegathering that Prime MinisterNarendra Modi exacted revengefor the Pulwama attack beforethe 'terahvi' (13th day of mourn-ing period) of the martyred sol-diers. In an advisory issued inMarch, the Election Commissionhad said, "Parties/candidates areadvised that their campaign-

ers/candidates should desist, aspart of their election campaign-ing, from indulging in any polit-ical propaganda involving activ-ities of defence forces." Verma'sspeech was found in violation ofthe commission's advisory andhe has to reply to the notice with-in 48 hours.

The MP is pitted againstCongress' Mahabal Mishra andAAP's debutant candidateBalbir Singh Jakhar for the seat,which will go to polls on May12 along with six other parlia-mentary constituencies in Delhi.

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No full Statehood status tothe national Capital but

water supply in every house-hold, this is the demand of theDelhiites from their represen-tatives in the ongoing LokSabha elections.

At a time when all politi-cal parties are raising the issuesof nationalism, unemploymentand full statehood status forDelhi, the residents of thehigh-profile constituencies —New Delhi and South Delhiinsist that they need someonewho takes care of their day-to-day problems first.

For Sunjay, who runs acoaching centre in SouthExtension in the vicinity ofPaying Guest (PG) accommo-dation, water supply to his insti-tute is more important ratherfull statehood status to Delhi.

"What aam aadmi will getfrom full statehood, in myarea water is contentious issue,but no political leadership is

working on it," said Sujay whois working in IT firm and givecoaching to students.

In South Delhi constituen-cy, for Kushalji, the leadershould be one who can take upthe issues of partially supply ofelectricity, water and decayingwater bodies in the parliament.

Surprisingly, after 70 yearsof independence, there arehouses in South Delhi withoutelectricity connection. "I don'thave an electricity connec-tion, so I need to pay Rs 300every month for a connection

and �300 for water. This makesa big dent in my pocket as mywork is seasonal," said a resi-dent.

Water supply issue is notreserve up to South Extensionor some other parts in NewDelhi only but areas underSouth Delhi - Mehrauli,Chattarpur , and Snagam Viharalso having severe water scarci-ty problem particularly duringsummers. Water supplyremains one of the biggestconcerns for the residents

A domestic helper inSouth Delhi , said she has tobuy water from tankers assometimes they do not getwater for a month. "The situ-ation gets really bad during thesummer in Sangam Vihar.While Delhi Chief MinisterKejriwal has done a lot ofwork for the people but thesebasic issues still need to besorted," she said.

Baby Prasad nods inagreement. "We want someoneto work for the daily issuesfirst. I live in Chattarpur which

has a water supply problem.Some work has been done, likepiped water has reached someplaces, but it is yet to reach theinner lanes. Sewer lines are alsourgently needed there," saidPrasad, who works as a cook.

Before the delimitationexercise carried out in 2008,the constituency comprised anumber of upscale areas, butnow it predominantly hasurban villages, unauthorisedand resettlement colonies andslums which present a numberof infrastructural challenges.

It has 10 Assembly seg-ments — Chattarpur, Palam,Bijwasan, Kalkaji, Mehrauli,Deoli, Ambedkar Nagar,Sangam Vihar, Tughlaqabadand Badarpur.

The seat is witnessing a tri-angular contest among AAP'sRaghav Chadha, sitting BJPMP Ramesh Bidhuri andCongress's Vijender Singh.The AAP, which is seeking towrest the seat from the BJP, hasbeen raising local issues beforethe people.

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An 18-year-old youth waskilled when a car hit him on

Subhash Chowk flyover onSohna road on Saturday. Theaccused driver stopped for a fewseconds after the accident andthen fled the spot. The deceasedwas identified as Sandeep, a res-ident of Islampur village. Theaccident occurred on the inter-vening night of Friday andSaturday.

A complaint in this regardwas filed by Sandeep's cousinDinesh, who is also from thesame village and was an eye wit-ness of the incident. He said theaccident happened when theduo was returning home afterhaving dinner at a restaurant in

Sector-48. "We were on footwhen a car came from the HeroHonda Chowk side in full speedand hit Sandeep from behind.He was badly injured and whenpeople started gathering at thespot, the car driver stopped fora few seconds and then fled. ButI had already noted down the carnumber and later, I informed thepolice," Dinesh stated in hiscomplaint.

Soon after the incidentrushed the victim's at a generalhospital and informed the policeabout the accident. Sandeepdied during the treatment at thehospital. "A case has been reg-istered under sections 279 (rashdriving) and 304A (causingdeath by negligence) of the IPCat Sadar police station.

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Flaying both ruling AamAadmi Party (AAP) and

the Congress during a road-show in north east constituen-cy, Delhi BJP president ManojTiwari said that the country willnot accept such parties who willbe responsible for making onemore Jinnah and Pakistan.

Referring to February 2016episode, where some students ofJawaharlal Nehru University(JNU) held a protest andallegedly sloganed, "Bharat teretukhde honge, Tiwari said thatin ongoing elections, on May12, The Delhi people will teachlesson to parties who joinedhands with the Tukde -Tukdegang.

Tiwari campaigned inSadatpur, Khajuri, Bhajanpuraand Brahmapuri Mandal area ofhis constituency.

Addressing thousands ofworkers present, Tiwari said,"There is a tradition of sacrificein our country and the traditionof sacrifice is the reason for ourcountry's unity and integrity,""The independence we got in1947 is the gift of the martyrs.Congress for the sake of power

divided the nation in twopieces. Even today, theCongress is once again in itsgreed of power is joining handswith the "Tukde-Tukde" gang.But today the country's 130crore chowkidars won't acceptanything making one moreJinnah or Pakistan," the actorturned politician Tiwari said.

Newly joined BJP leaderBhishm Sahrma said that Ihave resigned from Congresswith which I was related for 41years because it now standswith the anti national elementsand now my only goal is tomake Congress lose in Delhi.

On his joining BJP by AAPand Congress workers, Tiwarisaid that it is not a contest ofpower, it is a fight of indepen-

dence and those who love theirnation are standing with theBJP.

Sharma, who left theCongress, said that I have seenmany ups and downs in politics,but my heart cried when after41 years of serving this party Isaw Congress joining handswith the anti-national AamAadmi Party.

"My only goal is to makeCongress lose in Delhi andonce again make Tiwari as ourMP and Modi as our PrimeMinister," said Sharma.

Ahead polling day in Delhi, BJP workers visited door todoor in all 14 districts in 280Mandals to apprise the peopleabout the achievements ofPrime Minister Narendra Modi.

Adressing party workers,BJP Vice President Shyam Jaju,said that today people are notdiscussing about the party orcandidate to vote for every-where people are talking aboutonly PM Modi.

Targeting AAP nationalconvener, Union Minister andsenior BJP leader said thattoday we need nationalists likePM Modi and not anarchist likeKejriwal who tried to disruptthe Republic Day parade.

Addressing booth levelworkers in Shahdara district,Organization General SecretarySiddharthan, said that all of usneed to work at ground level."Till May 12, 2019 all the work-ers should work hard tostrengthen the booth manage-ment," "Our only objectiveshould be to get 60 percentvotes in favor of BJP in everyConstituency. I fully believe thatBJP will win all the seven seatsof BJP and Modi Governmentwill be formed at Centre,", headded.

BJP Lok Sabha candidatefrom East Delhi, GautamGambhir also campaigned inhis constituency.

Gambhir, famous Indiancricketer said, "I have neverdone anything in life half-heartedly, I always give my 100percent to my work with com-plete dedication and just like mycricketing career, my politicallife will be transparent anddedicated to public service."

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Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)national convener and Delhi

Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwalon Sunday alleged that the BJPwas responsible for the attack onhim during a roadshow andclaimed he was targeted becausehe had questioned PrimeMinister Narendra Modi's "rela-tionship" with Pakistan.

Addressing the media atthe party headquarters, Kejriwaltermed the attack on him as anassault on the people of Delhiand the mandate they had givento the party. "The incident hap-pened to silence voices raisedagainst Prime MinisterNarendra Modi and establishdictatorship," he said, addingthat this is the ninth attack onme and fifth one since I took

charge as the Chief Minister ofDelhi. Holding both the BJP andPM Modi responsible for this

attack, he said they (BJP) do notwant common man to enter pol-itics. So, we are being targeted.

"Our only fault is that we havetried to develop national Capitalby improving various sectors

such as education, health. Theyfear that people in other Stateswill start questioning them onreal issue," he said.

Hitting out at the BJP, hesaid that Delhi was the onlyplace in the country wheresecurity for the Chief Ministerwas in the hands of an opposi-tion party. "In all the statesacross India, the security of aChief Minister is the responsi-bility of the state police whichcomes under the respectiveCMs but my security is BJP'sresponsibility," he added.

The BJP will be held respon-sible for any attack on me infuture, he said, adding that theBJP is trying everything todestroy the AAP. "They madethe CBI raid my office. TheDelhi police raided my house. Atotal of 33 cases have been filed

against me," he said. Kejriwal said that the BJP

was not able to digest the factthat the AAP won 67 out of 70seats in the 2015 Assembly elec-tions in Delhi.

Kejriwal was slappedallegedly by a disgruntled AAPsupporter during a roadshow inMoti Nagar on Saturday.

The response from thepolice after the incident wasscripted. The police are notresponsible for this, they weremerely following the 'script'given by the ruling party," healleged. "The people of Delhi willtake revenge for this act,"Kejriwal said. He also dismissedthe charge that the attacker wasan AAP supporter as claimed bythe police.

AAP spokesperson andsenior leader Saurabh Bhardwaj

said "We have investigated fromour end, and he is not from ourparty, as claimed by the police."

"It was cognisable offence,and this is a person holding aconstitutional post of CM. Willpolice take action against theaccused when he files a com-plaint," said Deputy ChiefMinister Manish Sisodia.

Kejriwal hitting out at theCentre alleged that "signs of adictator" can be seen in such cir-cumstances, "but we will not becowed down by it, and outvoices shall not be silenced". "Ialso wondered what have I saidin the last few days that mayhave angered some people. AndI realised in various interviewsto media, I have questioned thelink between Prime MinisterNarendra Modi and Pakistan. Inlast 70 years or so, no premier

of the neighbouring country hassaid that a particular candidateshould win and become the PMagain. What is going on," he said.

Delhi Police said Saturdaythat preliminary interrogationhas revealed that 33-year-oldSuresh, a scrap dealer in the area,was a supporter of AAP and heused to work as organiser of itsrallies and meetings.

However, the BJP hasturned down the charges andtermed it as propaganda.Reacting to the allegation,Leader of Opposition in theDelhi Assembly, Vijender Gupta,said that Kejriwal was "doingdrama" to boost his electioncampaign. Gupta said that he istrying to give the incident apolitical angle to gain sympathyeven though the attacker was adisgruntled AAP worker.

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Rallies of Congress presidentRahul Gandhi and gener-

al secretary Priyanka Gandhiin North-east constituency ofDelhi may upset the applecartof Delhi BJP president and thesitting Member of Parliament(MP) Manoj Tiwari. Bhojpurimovie star-turned-politicianTiwari is not leaving any stoneunturned to seek the supportof the Purvanchalis .

However, former ChiefMinister and Delhi CongressSheila Dikshit's presence asCongress candidate has madethe job tough for Tiwari whois seeking re-election. The"higher-octane" fight hasdrawn the attention of all whoare keenly watching the devel-oping scenario in this parlia-mentary seat.

As the polling date nears,leaders of the national partiesare carpet bombing the nation-al Capital with rallies in the no-holds-barred, high voltage2019 General Elections.

At a time when PrimeMinister Narendra Modi is

expected to address BJP rallyin Ramlila ground in the cen-tral Delhi on Wednesday,Congress has also planned tofiled its national leaders in dif-ferent constituencies.

Congress president RahulGandhi will take part in tworallies on May 6 and 7, whileGeneral Secretary PriyankaGandhi will participate in roadshows on May 8 in north westDelhi and south Delhi con-stituencies.

According to BJP leaders,to counter Congress leaders,Prime Minister NarendraModi will also address a rallyin Ramlila Maidan."Campaigning has reached itspeak now and if Congress isfielding its national leaders, wehave PM Modiji, he is morethan enough for all of the lead-ers of the Opposition," said aBJP leader.

Interestingly, Delhi's Northeast parliamentary con-stituency is vital in terms ofpolitical battle. Inorder tocounter Tiwari, a Purvanchalileader and Delhi BJP presidentManoj Tiwari, who is re -

contesting for the seat, the con-gress has planned well andfielded Sheila Dikshit, whohad served as Delhi ChiefMinister for 15 long years.

In political battleground -2019, the saffron soldier Tiwarihas managed to attract crowdwhile campaigning with co-star and Haryanavisinger/dancer SapnaChaudhary, however, as per theBJP office bearers, with eachday passing and May 12 notthat far away, the campaigningis also becoming a challengefor the candidates amid thenews of participation ofnational leaders in Delhi's bat-tlefield.

"With candidature ofCongress's veteran leaderDikshit, Tiwari has alreadyadmitted that his constituencyis a tough seat but also exudesconfidence that BJP will retainits 2014 feat of securing all theparliamentary seats in thenational capital," said a BJPleader.

Till now, Delhi BJP stateunit President has done num-bers of rallies in his con-

stituency to address to hiscore Purvanchali vote bank.

Congress's campaign forongoing Lok Sabha polls inDelhi will also reach its climaxwith the rallies of top brass inDelhi.

Interestingly, Purvanchalicadre in Delhi has propellednational leaders to becomepart of rallies in different con-stituency. Over 40 per cent ofthe population in constituen-cies of West, North West,North East and South Delhi arefrom Purvanchal. However,the big proportion ofPurvanchalis lives in unau-thorized colonies.

While the national partiescannot ignore Purvancahlivoters, who are present in allthe seven parliamentary con-stituencies, both the BJP andCongress have fieldedPurvanchali candidates —Tiwari from North east andMahabal Mishra from WestDelhi respectively whereasAam Aadmi Party (AAP) hasfielded Dilip Pandey, a pur-vanchali from the North eastconstituency.

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Delhi Congress presidentSheila Dikshit condemned

the "derogatory" languageallegedly used by the PrimeMinister Narendra Modi in anelection meeting against formerPrime Minister Rajiv Gandhiand sought an unconditionalapology from him, saying thatthe remark has “deeply” hurt thepeople of the country.

Dikshit said that Modi'sobjectionable language doesnot suit the image of a PrimeMinister. She said that Modi'swords against Rajiviji are notacceptable to a civilised societyand he should take back hiswords and apologies.

"When the Prime Ministerof the country makes such astatement that lowers the imageof the post he holds, it hurts thepeople of the country," she said,adding that

Addressing media personsat party office, she said that theCongress leaders never use dis-paraging language against oppo-sition leaders in their politicaldiscourse. Such statement clear-

ly shows the sick mindset of thetop BJP leadership.

Alleging the BJP to indulgein cheap politics, she said thatthe Rajiv Gandhi, who sacrificedhis life for the country, insult-ed by Modi. "It was not just aninsult on the Congress party buton the people of the country,"she added. "Our culture and tra-dition encourage us to giverespect and honour to our lateleaders", she said.

Dikshit said that in the his-tory of Indian politics, even theleader of a rival political party,without any proof, has never

made baseless allegationsagainst a highly respected andrevered leader of any otherpolitical party as Modi hasdone."The people of India willgive a befitting reply to Modiand the BJP in the Lok Sabhaelections.

The former Delhi ChiefMinister wrote tweets in Englishand Hindi to express her senti-ments over the issue that haskicked up a controversy.

"Deeply shocked & angry atthe words used by PM Modi forShri #RajivGandhi. In 4 decadesof my active political life, I have

not witnessed this kind of polit-ical discourse. If we do notrepair our politics, future gen-erations will not forgive us forwhere we will have pushedIndia," she tweeted.

At a rally in Uttar Pradeshon Saturday, Modi had target-ed former prime minister RajivGandhi while attackingCongress president RahulGandhi.

"Your father was termed MrClean by his courtiers, but hislife ended as bhrashtachari no1," Modi had said.

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After the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)accused the Bharatiya Janata Party

(BJP) of indulging in horse-trading aheadof the Lok Sabha election, Anil Bajpai, itsGandhi Nagar lawmaker, who recentlyjoined the saffron party, denied that hewas offered money to switch party.

Adressing media persons, Bajpaialleged that Delhi Chief Minister ArvindKejriwal had used derogatory word forhim during a recent meeting, which trig-gered his dissension within the party.

"Chief Minister Kejriwal and DeputyChief Minister Manish Sisodia had saidthat big money was being offered in anattempt to buy AAP MLAs. I reject thecharge," said Bajpai in the presence ofsenior BJP leader Vijender Gupta.

Bajpai said that AAP belongs to only

two persons, one is Arvind Kejriwal andthe second is Manish Sisodia and thesetwo people take all the decisions sittingin a room and all the rest MLAs and lead-ers have to follow it.

The BJP has rubbished the claim,terming it a bizarre allegation and a "des-perate bid to gain attention". "BothKejriwal and Sisodia should apologise tome, and I will sue them for defamation,"Bajpai said.

Accusing the BJP of indulging inhorse-trading, Delhi Deputy ChiefMinister Manish Sisodia on Wednesdayaccused the Bharatiya Janata Party ofindulging in horse trading, saying sevenof his party's MLAs in the nationalCapital have been offered �10 croreeach to join the saffron party.

Kejriwal, addressing media persons at the party headquarters earlier in the day, had claimed that, "Our MLAs are being bought," addingthat "a few days ago, one of our MLAswas bought". However, he did not namethe lawmaker.

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Asenior army officer andtwo jawans received splin-

ter injuries during ‘unprovokedceasefire violation by Pakistanalong the line of control inKrishna Ghati sector of Poonchon Sunday.A civilian porter wasalso injured in cross LoC firingin Keri sector of Rajouri.

Since Thursday, Pakistanarmy is repeatedly violatingceasefire agreement, probablyto push group of infiltratorsinside the Indian territory.

On Sunday, Pakistan armyescalated the tension by resort-ing to use of artillery firing onthe civilian areas and forwardposts of the Indian army inKrishna Ghati sector.

In Rajouri, Pakistan armyalso trained their guns towardsIndian forward posts in Kerisector and targeted civilianareas in the region.Several livestock, grazing in the fieldsbore the brunt of cross-LoC fir-ing.

In response to these provo-cations, Indian army retaliated

strongly and effectively.Unconfirmed reports from

across the line of controlclaimed Pakistan army alsosuffered heavy damages inretaliatory fire.

Meanwhile, senior armyofficer, who received splinterinjuries on his leg, was rushedto army hospital in Rajourialong with two jawans. Thecondition of all three injuredsoldiers was stated to be stable.

Defence spokesman inJammu, Lt Col DevenderAnand said,” at about 11.00 a.mPakistan army initiated ‘unpro-voked ceasefire violation byshelling with artillery and fir-ing of small arms along LoC inKrishna Ghati sector in Poonchand in Keri sector in Rajouri”.

He said the Indian Army isretaliating befittingly.

The cross LoC firing start-ed after a brief lull on Thursday.Pak army had violated ceasefireagreement by targeting civil-ian areas of Shahpur and Kirnisectors of Poonch followed byfiring in Qasba sector onFriday.

From Page 1Gehlot said Modi has been

continuously levelling allega-tions against Gandhis thoughno one from the family hasbeen a Prime Minister in thepast 30 years.

Indian Overseas Congresschief Sam Pitroda said theparty is hurt by what the PrimeMinister said. “Why did he saythat? We are ashamed of thestatement, I am a Gujarati tooand come from Gandhiji’sstate,” Pitroda said. “People ofthis state can lie so much andspeak such lowly things, thissaddens us. Normally thePrime Minister of a countryspeaks for the people”.

NCP leader Jayant Patil saidRajiv ushered in a technologicalrevolution in the country. “I con-demn Modi’s remarks againsthim. This is an insult of not justRajiv but the information tech-nology sector which he helpedgrow. I hope the Prime Ministerhenceforth will speak what isbefitting his post,” Patil said.

Former NDA ally and nowin UPA, RLSP leader UpendraKushwaha too took on Modiand said the kind of statementbeing used by the PM suggestthe culture of Modi and theparty and cadre (RSS) to whichhe belongs.

In a scathing attack on theOpposition alliance in UttarPradesh, the Prime Ministersaid, “The ‘mahamilawati’ par-ties say since it is election time,Modi has got the ban imposedon Masood Azhar. They seeeverything through the electionlens and that is the reason theCongress and its allies are in thiscondition today.

Accusing “the ‘mahami-lawati’ people” of treating poweras a means to multiply theirwealth, he said, “For us (BJP),power is a medium to serve thepeople.” Seeking to create achasm in the Samajwadi Party-Bahujan Samaj Party alliance,Modi said, “When ‘bua’ (BSPsupremo Mayawati) and ‘babua’(SP chief Akhilesh Yadav) werearch rivals, then the ChiefMinister (Mayawati) had namedthe district as Sant RavidasNagar. But ‘babua’, due to his selfpride, removed the name whenhe came to power.”

“And today, the same ‘bua’is seeking votes for the same‘babua’,” he pointed out.

Hitting out at the previousCongress-led UPA regime, Modisaid, “During their 10-year rule,they eroded the country’s good-will.... There were scams worthcrores of rupees...the discussionwas only confined to corruption,intermediaries, dishonesty andnepotism. But this ‘chowkidar’(watchman) of yours has put anend to all this.” Alleging that theCongress, SP and BSP hadalways made people fight againsteach other in the name of casteand worked for their own ben-efits, the Prime Minister said,“For a long time, I had been aChief Minister of a prosperousState like Gujarat and for the lastfive years, you had given me thetask of ‘pradhan sevak’.”

“Eighteen years is a longtime. Has there been a singletaint on this person?,” he askedto a loud response of “no, no”.

“Is there any discussion onmy property, farmhouse, bun-galow in any foreign country,anything that I have done for myfamily, pushed ahead my broth-ers and nephews? What elsedoes the country need?.... If they(Opposition) get an opportuni-ty for two years or five years,their relatives become richovernight...when I fight againstcorruption, it is for safeguardingthe rights of the poor and hon-est people,” Modi said.

Seeking to strike an emo-tional chord with the crowd, hesaid, “Why is the entire countryloving Modi? The honesty anddedication that the country waslooking for, Modi has spent hislife in the pursuit of those feel-ings for the country.

“They (Opposition) have aproblem that nothing is hap-pening to Modi. How can any-thing happen to Modi as 130crore people are standing like awall.” Hitting out at Congresspresident Rahul Gandhi, thePrime Minister said, “The‘naamdar’ (dynast) of theCongress got defence deals donefor his business partners andclose friends. The ‘naamdar’never thought about giving hous-es, toilets, electricity connec-tions to the poor. He neverbothered about the needs of thepoor, but travelled all the wayfrom London to Delhi for hisbusiness partners. That is whythe people of his constituencyhave compelled him to leave theplace.” Rahul Gandhi, the LokSabha MP from Amethi in UttarPradesh, is contesting the ongo-ing Lok Sabha polls from twoconstituencies. Besides Amethi,which is a Gandhi family bastion,the Congress chief is also in thefray from Wayanad in Kerala.

From Page 1The voting will take place

in the lingering shadow ofhighly acrimonious poll campaign unsheathed by both the Opposition and BJPleaders with Prime MinisterNarendra Modi triggering amajor row by calling formerPM Rajiv Gandhi “BhrastachariNo.1.”

Voting will take place in 14seats in Uttar Pradesh, 12 inRajasthan, seven seats each inWest Bengal and MadhyaPradesh, five in Bihar and fourin Jharkhand. In Jammu andKashmir, polling will take placein Ladakh constituency andPulwama and Shopian districtsof Anantnag seat. The ElectionCommission has set up 94,000polling stations/booths andmade elaborate security arrange-ments. In the fifth and smallestphase, total 8.75 crore voters willdecide the fate of 674 candidates.

The fifth phase of pollingin 14 Lok Sabha seats in UttarPradesh will see a clash oftitans, including UnionMinisters Rajnath Singh andSmriti Irani, UPA chairpersonSonia Gandhi and Congresspresident Rahul Gandhi.

The BJP had bagged 12 ofthese seats in 2014 with theCongress winning Sonia’s RaeBareli and Rahul’s Amethi --the only two constituencieswhere the Congress succeededout of the 80 in the entire State.

The Bahujan Samaj Party(BSP) is contesting on fiveseats -- Dhaurahra, Sitapur,Mohanlalganj, Fatehpur andKaisarganj. Its ally SamajwadiParty (SP) is fighting for sevenseats -- Lucknow, Banda,Kaushambi, Barabanki,Faizabad, Bahraich and Gonda.

In Amethi and Rae Bareli,the SP-BSP alliance has not putup any candidate, leaving thetwo constituencies for theCongress.

Union Home MinisterRajnath Singh is seeking re-election from Lucknow, whilehis colleague at the CentreSmriti Irani is again taking onRahul in Amethi.

Two former Olympians,one former IAS and one formerIPS officer, and two seers areamong the 134 candidateswhose fate will be decided byvoters in Rajasthan’s 12 LokSabha seats on Monday. Afterthis phase, polling will come toan end in the desert State.

Former OlympiansRajyawardhan Rathore (BJP)and Krishna Poonia (Congress)have locked horns in the JaipurRural seat. Rathore is a UnionMinister. In Bikaner, UnionMinister and former IAS offi-cer Arjun Ram Meghwal (BJP)is facing a tough fight from hiscousin and Congress candidateMadangopal Meghwal, a for-mer IPS officer. Two seers --Sumedhanand Saraswati andBaba Balaknath -- are contest-ing the polls from Sikar andAlwar respectively.

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Four foreigners and oneIndian passenger were

arrested on arrival at IndiraGandhi International (IGI) air-port, in two separate incidentsby the Customs as they werecaught with smuggled goldjewellery weighing around 4.4kg while and 7.4 kg goldrespectively. Four passengerswere later identified as nation-als of Turkmenistan, a customsofficial said.

Four Turkmenistani pas-sengers, including threewomen, were intercepted aftertheir arrival at Delhi in differ-ent flights on Wednesday. Twoof them had come from Dubaiand the rest fromTurkmenistan, a statementissued by the customs on

Sunday said.A detailed personal and

baggage search of these fourpassengers resulted in recoveryof gold items like chains, rings,bracelets and pendants amongothers weighing about 4.4 kg,it said.

These Turkmenistaninationals were arrested andthe gold was seized.

In another case, an Indianwas intercepted after his arrivalfrom Hong Kong on Tuesday.His baggage and personalsearch resulted in recovery ofthree gold bars, collectivelyweighing three kilograms. Thegold bars were seized and thepassenger was arrested. Thecustoms officials have seized7.4 kg of gold worth Rs twocrore in these cases, a customsofficial said.

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Finance Minister Arun Jaitleyon Sunday wondered why

Congress President RahulGandhi gets disturbed whenintegrity issues of his late fatherRajiv Gandhi-led governmentare raised and the 'Q' connec-tion in the Bofors gun-deal isquestioned.

In a series of tweets, Jaitleysaid that Rahul Gandhi thinksthat "dynast" does not have toanswer any question eventhough he can attack PrimeMinister Narendra Modi -- aman of utmost integrity.

Responding to commentsof Modi that Rajiv Gandhi's lifeended as bhrashtachari No 1,"Rahul Gandhi had tweeted:"Modi Ji, The battle is over.

Your Karma awaits you.Projecting your inner beliefsabout yourself onto my fatherwon't protect you. All my loveand a huge hug…"

Jaitley in his tweet said:"Why is Rahul Gandhi so dis-turbed if the integrity issues ofthe Rajiv Gandhi governmentare raised? Why did OttavioQuattrocchi get kickbacks inBofors? Who was the 'Q' con-nection? No reply has come."

Modi, addressing a pollrally in Uttar Pradesh onSaturday, had targeted the for-mer prime minister whileattacking Rahul.

"Your father (Rajiv Gandhi)was termed Mr Clean by hiscourtiers, but his life ended asbhrashtachari No 1," Modi hadsaid.

New Delhi: When you are sick,you need 'khichdi', says seniorCongress leader Shashi Tharoorin response to Prime MinisterNarendra Modi and other BJPleaders repeated ''khichdi gov-ernment' barb at the opposition.

The country will "resound-ingly cure" the nation's "politicalsickness" by showing the door tothe BJP, the author-politiciansaid, referencing the 'khichdi', adal-rice-vegetable mix viewed asa recipe to counter all kinds ofailments that has become an oft-used metaphor in political dis-course.

In an interview to PTI, hesaid there will be a new coalitiongovernment at the Centre withthe Congress as its fulcrumcome May 23 when the Lok

Sabha poll results will be out.On Modi's 'mahamilawat'

(adulterated) jibe, Tharoor saidthe BJP has resorted to similarmessaging every time it is pushedto the back foot, whether it isspeaking of a "tukde-tukde gang",labelling people "anti-national" orasking those who don't agreewith their worldview to go toPakistan.

"Narendra Modi and hisparty are clearly experts in thepolitics of misrepresentation andpeddling a divisive and jingois-tic narrative, which is all theyhave to offer given their disas-trous record in office," the formerUnion minister said.

On the BJP's nationalismnarrative, he alleged that PrimeMinister Modi himself has not

shied away from politicising thearmed forces, or projecting him-self as the only capable protec-tor of the country's nationalsecurity. He said the BJP is mak-ing the "callous assumption"that the Indian voter will forgetthat the promised "achhe din"never came.

"When BJP supporters speakof 'mahamilawat' or say anoth-er coalition government wouldbe a 'khichdi', I respond thatwhen you are sick, you needkhichdi!" he said.

"I have no doubt that thecountry will resoundingly cureour nation's political sickness byshowing the door to the BJP bythe 23rd of May," the formerUnion minister added.

Addressing a poll rally in

Koderma, Jharkhand, Modi lastweek said the opposition's 'mis-sion mahamilawat' is keen toform a "khichdi" government atthe Centre, the strings of whichwill remain in the hands of theCongress.

Other senior BJP leadershave also warned against a'khichdi government' of opposi-tion parties, asserting the BJP canprovide a "mazboot sarkaar(strong government)" as opposedto the opposition's "majboorsarkaar (helpless government)".

Tharoor, who is seeking athird straight Lok Sabha termfrom Thiruvanathapuram, thatwent to polls on April 23, alsosaid the current mood of thenation is overwhelmingly infavour of the Congress and this

has been a source of great opti-mism and infectious energy forthe party's ranks.

The voters of the country aresimply fed up with the last fiveyears of inept governance, divi-sive and communal politics andcallous policymaking that hasbeen the hallmark of the presentruling dispensation and are mak-ing their frustration clear whileexercising their franchise, heclaimed.

The Congress' credible nar-rative that has been put forwardby the party has found wide-spread acceptance and popularsupport across the country,Tharoor added.

"At an ideological level, ouridea of an inclusive India, onewhere all voices matter equally

and are heard is in stark contrastto the idea of India that our pre-sent political masters have putforward, one where some voic-es come first and others arebeyond comprehension," the 63-year-old leader said.

Tharoor also said theCongress has spelt out a visionfor the country that has beenequally well received. The mostnotable example of this being theminimum income guaranteescheme "NYAY'.

The scheme's design, scaleand impact is nothing short ofrevolutionary and there is pal-pable excitement across thecountry on the new paradigmsof development, social justiceand mobility that this will intro-duce, he said. PTI

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India had issued over 25 lakhe-Visa last year, a five-fold

jump from 2015, and reducedthe main category visa from 26to 21, an official said Sunday.

The Home Ministry offi-cials also said sub-categories ofvisa has been reduced from 104to 65, thus rationalising andsimplifying the visa regimeand removing confusion.

The number of e-Visasissued by the Bureau ofImmigration, under the HomeMinistry, has risen from 5.29lakh in 2015 to 25.15 lakh lastyear, the official said.

On the other hand, thenumber of regular or papervisas issued by Indian missionsabroad has come down from 45lakh to around 35 lakh in thesame period.

The number of main cate-gories of visa has been reducedfrom 26 to 21 by clubbing somecategories.

The e-Visa facility nowcovers 166 countries and for-

eigners can obtain online visawithin 72 hours for travel relat-ed to tourism, business, health,medical attendant and confer-ence purposes.

The scope of film visa hasbeen increased to include webshows and series and recce oflocations. No registration isnow required if stay of a for-eigner with film visa is up to180 days in India, the officialsaid.

These measures willremove the present obstacles inimplementation of film visaregime and is expected to pro-mote India as a favourite des-tination for shooting of variouskinds of films and shows.

The scope of tourist visahas been expanded by includ-ing activities like short-term,unstructured courses (up to sixmonths duration) on local lan-guages, music, dance, arts andcrafts, cooking, medicine.Voluntary work up to onemonth has also now beenallowed under tourist visa.

Provisions of Internship

Visa have been liberalised.Earlier, it was given only aftergraduation or completion ofstudy.

Now, a foreigner can comefor internship in India at anytime during his studies. Visa forinternship in Indian companiescan now be given for a lowersalary minimum of Rs 3.6 lakhper annum instead of the ear-lier minimum limit of Rs.7.8lakh. This would facilitate grantof more Internship Visas to for-eigners.

India's Visa Regime hasbeen overhauled during the lasttwo years by making it simplerto understand and administer.

It has become more liber-al in terms of length of stay,number of visits allowed andflexibility in undertaking var-ious activities.

The simplified visa regimewill promote tourism, businessand people-to-people contact,another official said.

The duration of e-Touristand e-Business visas increasedfrom 60 days to one year.

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Anumber of film personali-ties attended a programme

on Sunday to extend their sup-port to Prime MinisterNarendra Modi's bid to comeback to power.

External Affairs MinisterSushma Swaraj was the chiefguest at the programme, titled"Celebrities with NaMo", heldat the BJP headquarters here,the party said in a statement.

Among those who attend-ed the event were BoneyKapoor, Jaya Prada, PrahladKakkar, Poonam Dhillon,Babul Supriyo, Sai Kumar, BabuMohan, Manoj Tiwari andKavitha, it added.

Some of them like JayaPrada and Supriyo are mem-bers of the ruling BharatiyaJanata Party (BJP).

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Prime Minister NarendraModi on Sunday said for

the first time since Emergency,people of the country are fight-ing elections to re-elect a gov-ernment, adding trends of thefirst four phases of Lok Sabhapolls show the Congress and itsallies are staring at defeat.

Speaking at a poll rallyhere, he alleged while theCongress displayed India'spoverty to the world, his gov-ernment has highlighted thenation's power.

He told the gathering thathe had come not to campaignfor himself, but to thank thepeople for supporting himsince 2014.

"The entire world is seeingfor the first time how the peo-ple of the country have takencharge of the campaign for this'sevak'. Wherever I go and askabout elections, workers say thepeople are fighting the election

for me," Modi said, adding peo-ple trusted him while the oppo-sition abused him.

"Probably, after 1977...After Emergency, this is thefirst election that the people ofthe country are fighting to re-elect a government. The youthsare running day and nightstating 'Phir Ek Baar ModiSarkar' (Modi governmentonce again), mothers and sis-ters are campaigning... Nothingelse can be more fortunate forme," he said.

"They (opposition) say'Modi hatao' (remove Modi).But people who have benefit-ed from my government'sschemes are saying 'phir ekbaar'," he told the crowd.

Targeting the youth, espe-cially the first-time voters, theprime minister said four kindsof political systems are pre-vailing in the country.

"The first is 'naam panthi',second is 'vam panthi', third is'daam, daman panthi' and the

fourth is 'vikas panthi', he said."Naam panthi is Congress

which always talks about a fam-ily. 'Vam panthi' is an ideologywhich failed in the world andruined states like West Bengal,Kerala and Tripura," he saidreferring to the Left ideology.

"Third is 'daam' (money)and 'daman' (oppression) pan-thi who want to remain inpower by money and musclepower. West Bengal is an exam-ple of it," he said.

"Fourth is 'vikas' (develop-ment) panthi which is the BJPand it considers politics as aservice. Your one vote to us willensure development of thecountry," Modi added.

Slamming the Congressfor its "dynastic politics", Modialleged the party and its lead-ers have concern only for theirsons and family.

"Their only aim is to filltheir coffers... They can evenplay with the nation's pride," hesaid.

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Congress leader Navjot SinghSidhu attacked Prime

Minister Narendra Modi onSunday, saying he had come topower in 2014 with a promiseto clean the Ganga but will godown in 2019 with the 'Rafale'taint. Canvassing votes for theparty's New Delhi candidateAjay Maken, Sidhu also held aroadshow here.

He claimed that the Modigovernment did not have a sin-gle achievement to its name andwas deflecting from real issues.

"In 2014, Modi said neitherwill he indulge in corruption,nor will he allow others to do so(na khaunga, na khane dunga)

but he has done just the oppo-site," the Punjab minister said.

He said Modi had madeover 300 promises in 2014,including of cleaning Gangariver, generating two crore jobsper year and depositing Rs 15lakh in every bank account, butnone of this happened, Sidhusaid. "He came to power in 2014seeking votes to clean theGanga, but he will go in 2019with the Rafale taint," Sidhusaid, referring to the allegationslevelled by his party againstModi on the multi-billion fight-er jet deal.

"Modi is running awayfrom real issues. Now neitherdoes he speak about the twocrore jobs he promised, nor

does he speak about blackmoney and about cleaning theGanga," Sidhu said.

In an apparent reference toeconomic offenders who dupedpublic sector banks, Sidhu saidearlier chowkidar used to sayjagtey raho (stay awake) butnow, after giving banks' moneyto the rich people, he is askingplease bhagtey raho (run away).

The Congress has been tak-ing on Modi with a slogan'chowkidar chor hain'.

Praising the then Congresschief minister Sheila Dikshit'stenure from 1998-2013, heclaimed that while she workedfor the development of Delhi,Gujarat witnessed riots underModi.

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Prime Minister NarendraModi should be shown exit

door as his five-year rule hasbeen “most traumatic and dev-astating” for India’s youths,farmers, traders and everydemocratic institution, his pre-decessor Manmohan Singhsaid Sunday.

Singh, in an exclusive inter-view to PTI, dismissed thenotion that there was a wave infavour of Modi and asserted thatthe people have made up theirminds to vote out the govern-ment that “does not believe ininclusive growth and is only wor-ried about its political existenceat the altar of disharmony”.

In one of his most fierceattacks on the Modi dispensa-tion, Singh alleged that the pastfive years only witnessed“stench” of corruption peakingto “unimaginable proportions”,adding demonetisation wasperhaps the “biggest scam” ofindependent India.

Incidentally, the BJP cam-paign in the run-up to the 2014elections had centred on vari-ous alleged scams, including inthe allocations of 2G spec-

trum and coal blocks, duringthe 10-year tenure of the Singh-led UPA government.

The former Prime Ministeralso called Modi’s Pakistanpolicy “slipshod”, which hesaid was marred by a series of“flip-flops” — from going toPakistan uninvited to inviting“rogue” ISI to the Pathankot airbase in connection with theprobe into a terrorist attack.

Singh, known as the archi-tect of India’s economic reformsin 1990s, felt the country isheaded for a slowdown andaccused the Modi regime ofleaving the country’s economyin “dire straits”.

He said people are “fed up”with the daily rhetoric andcosmetic change by the currentdispensation and there is anundercurrent against this “illu-sion and boastful self aggran-dizement”.

In a bid to counter the BJP’sfocus on the issues of nation-alism and terrorism in this elec-tion, the former prime minis-ter sought to question Modi’scommitment.

He said it was “distressing”to note that Modi was “filmingmovies” in the Jim Corbett

National Park instead of chair-ing any meeting of the CabinetCommittee on Security (CCS) inthe immediate aftermath of thePulwama terror attack in which40 CRPF personnel were killed.

He claimed the “gross intel-ligence failure” in Pulwamaspeaks volumes about this gov-ernment’s preparedness to tack-le terror.”Let’s not forget thatNarendra Modi’s slipshod pol-icy on Pakistan has been

marred by a series of flip-flops- from going to Pakistanuninvited to inviting the rogueISI to investigate the PathankotAir Base terror attack. Does itnot speak volumes about thestrategic failures of ModiGovernment on national secu-rity front,” he asked.

Singh said the Modi gov-ernment’s record on nationalsecurity is “dismal” as incidentsof terrorism have seen a quan-

tum jump.“A lie spoken a hundred

times does not become thetruth,” he said on Modi’s plankof nationalism, adding thatterror attacks in Jammu andKashmir alone have gone up by176 per cent and ceasefire vio-lations at the border withPakistan up 1,000 per cent inthe past five years.

He said that division andhate have become synonymous

with the BJP and it thrives onsocietal fissures.

“A government whichdoes not believe in inclusivegrowth and is only worriedabout its political existence atthe altar of disharmonyshould be immediately shownthe exit door,” he noted.

He alleged that in the pastfive years the stench of cor-ruption has peaked to“unimaginable proportions”

and “there is a definite collu-sion of people holding politicalpositions and scamsters whofled the country after defraud-ing banks”.

Singh said the BJP’s “polit-ical distress” emanates from its“failed track record” andclaimed the party is searchingfor new narratives everyday.“This reflects the bankruptcy ofa national security vision forthe country.”

“Five years of ModiGovernment is a sad story ofgovernance and accountabilityfailure. In the year 2014, Modijicame to power on the promiseof ‘acche din’. His five years rulehas ended up being the mosttraumatic and devastating forIndia’s youth, farmers, traders,businesses and every democ-ratic institution,” he said.

“Our socio-political ambi-ence has lost cohesiveness.People are fed up with the dailyloud rhetoric of cosmeticchange. There is a sense of deepdespair and disillusionmentamongst the masses. Peoplehave made up their minds toreject the Modi Governmentand the BJP so that the futureof India is safe and secure,”

Singh said.The former Prime Minister

said one man would not do anyjustice to the aspirations andhopes of the people by impos-ing the thought process andwill of ‘one person’ on a diversecountry like India.

“Representation in India isvery important. A single mancan neither represent all thedesires of 130 crore people ofIndia and can also not solve thevariety of problems faced bythem. The idea of ‘one man asthe monolith of knowledge’cannot be applied to India,” hesaid on whether a presidentialform of election is good fordemocracy. On foreign policy,he said India has always beenguided by national interests andnot for “image building of anyindividual”.

Foreign policy entails“gravitas”, a sense of diploma-cy and restraint, sensitivitytowards the concerns of thehost nation and ultimately fur-thering the interests of India,but “regrettably, this govern-ment’s foreign policy is found-ed upon anything but a maturecomprehension of diplomacy”,he said.

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With Delhi High Courtissuing notice to the

Centre on the demand fordeclassification of the Sambaspy case, the 45-year-old scan-dal in which more than 50army officials and jawans wereacquitted, may see fresh twistand turns. The Delhi HighCourt has issued notice toDefence Ministry and ArmyChief on the petition filed byretired officers, who were false-ly implicated, seeking declassi-fication of the entire files of theSamba spy case.

The Samba spy case cameinto light with the arrest of twojawans who were arrested forallegedly spying for Pakistan in1975 from the army unit inSamba in Jammu. The case washanded over to MilitaryIntelligence, and based on thedepositions of the two jawans,168 officers starting from theunit head Brigadier to jawansin the unit was terminatedand many were convicted upto14 years.

Later one of the jawancaught for spying confessedthat he falsely gave deposition,while the other jawan was shotdead while trying to cross theborder in mid 80s. TheIntelligence Bureau’s investi-gation panel later found thatthe case was totally false andofficers were tortured and false-ly implicated. The intelligencepanel was formed as per theorders of then Prime MinisterRajiv Gandhi.

Though the Army officerswere found innocent in mid90s, their demands for justiceand giving back the lost pres-tige were not delivered. Theofficers accused theGovernments for scuttling theirfight for justice in courts byproviding sealed covers and notdeclaring the IntelligenceBureau’s panel report whichfound the spy case was falseone.

Many Army officers now

in their age of 70s and 80s wentup to Supreme Court to get jus-tice and their prestige back,many times during the argu-ments, the Defence Ministryand Intelligence Bureau sub-mitted details in sealed coversand their cases were dismissed.Appearing for the petitionersformer Captains Ashok KumarRana and Ranbir SinghRathaur, Advocate PranavSachdeva argued that DefenceMinistry and Army should

declassify the documents onSamba spy scandal, which waslater found to be a false case.

Advocate Sachdeva saidthey tried every legal recourseavailable to prove their inno-cence but all to no avail as thematerials of the charges andsubsequent court martial pro-ceedings against them werenever properly and fully dis-closed either to them or to thecourt. Justice Vibhu Bakhrunoted the petitioner’s con-tention regarding how longthe documents can be keptclassified. The judge asked theCentre to respond to the ques-tion raised in the plea regard-ing declassification of the files.

Advocate Sachdeva arguedthat all major democracies,including the United State ofAmerica and several Europeancountries, declassify docu-ments after passage of a spec-ified time or a specified event.The High Court in its recentOrder asked Defence Ministryand Army to respond withinsix weeks and the next hearingof the case is posted forSpetember 3.

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In what could upset careerprospects of several senior

IPS officers in the fray for thetop job at the IntelligenceBureau, the government hasmoved a proposal for grantingyet another extension to IBchief Rajiv Jain, who got a sixmonths extension in Januaryjust before his superannuation.

During the extendedtenure of Jain, the Pulwamasuicide hit occurred leading tothe deaths of 40 CRPF jawansand forced the country tomount an aerial attack at Jaishfacility inside Pakistan andalso put the two countries tothe brink of war.

In the same period, theColombo suicide bombingsoccurred and the NationalThowheed Jamath (NTJ) chiefZaharan Hashim was freelyroaming in South India with-out any inkling to the IB.

Reports suggest that IBhad knowledge of the suspi-cious activities of Tamil NaduTauheed Jamat as also a slew of

so called mainstream Muslimorganizations since 2016 foralleged involvement in radi-calization activities, butHashim’s movement could notbe tracked. Sri LankaThowheed Jamat is believed tobe a branch of TNTJ and NTJwas an offshoot of the former.

NTJ along with anotherradical group of Sri LankaJamathei Milathu Ibrahim havebeen identified by Colomboauthorities for the serial suicidebombings last month thatkilled over 250 people includ-ing 11 Indians on SundayEaster.

Jain’s predecessorDineshwar Sharma had turneddown a government proposalfor one year extension in theinterest of professionalism andin keeping with the careerprospects of his subordinates.Bypassing the officials in linefor promotion can potentiallylead to resentment amongst theofficials which can have a bear-ing on the overall profession-alism of the covert agency,sources added.

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Hundreds of students fromKarnataka missed the

National Eligibility andEntrance Test (NEET) onSunday as their train reachedBengaluru an hour after thescheduled reporting time forthe exam. Over 13 lakh stu-dents had registered for theexam for admission to MBBSand BDS courses which wasconducted by the HRDMinistry’s National TestingAgency (NTA) for the firsttime. The exam was conduct-ed successfully in rest part ofthe country, officials said.

The 16591- Hampi Express en routeBengaluru reached the city at 2.30 pm due towhich hundreds of candidates could not appearin the exam, they said. Former Karnataka ChiefMinister Siddaramaiah took to twitter saying,“Mr. @narendramodi, You pat your own backfor others’ achievements but will you also takethe responsibility for your cabinet min’ incapa-bilities. Hundreds of students in Karnataka may

not be able to take up NEETbecause of delay in the trainservices”.

On Saturday, the HRDMinistry had announced thepostponement of the NEETexam in Odisha in view of theCyclone Fani. The NTA hadon Friday announced changesin some centres owing to theLok Sabha elections andadvised students to downloadfresh admit cards.

As per the official guide-lines, students appearing forNEET were supposed to bedressed in light clothes withshort sleeves worn with sal-war/trouser.

The NEET dress codebarred students from wearing any outfit hav-ing big buttons, brooch/badge and flower. TheNTA had notified candidates will be subjectedto extensive and compulsory frisking beforeentering the examination centre using metaldetectors. The answer keys for the entranceexamination will be available by the night giv-ing students an opportunity to evaluate theirperformance.

New Delhi: With around 2,500new hospitals proposed in next5 years and thereby creating 2.5million additional jobs in thehealth sector, India is expect-ed to meet the WHO norm of1:1000 doctor-patient ratio by2024, said Dr VK Paul,Member, NITI Aayog at anevent here. He however, addedthat attaining the requirednumber of specialist doctors isa five times more difficultagenda.

Around 80,000 PG seatswill be added by 2024, withparticipation of private sectorhealthcare providers, said DrPaul at the launch of certificatecourse on ‘Specialist TrainingTo Tackle The Burden ofNCDs’ organized by FICCIhere recently.

He added that with theimprovement in the ease ofdoing business in the privatehealthcare sector, new playerswill enter the sector whichwill not only create newemployment opportunities but

also provide better healthcareservices.

FICCI, jointly with NITIAayog, has been working onidentifying innovative alter-nate methods of strengtheningthe number of specialized doc-tors in India that can be scaled-up, especially for high burdendiseases and conditions. Incontinuation to this, FICCIhas partnered with ECHO(Extension for CommunityHealthcare Outcomes) tolaunch the first of its kindDiabetes Certification Coursefor General Practitioners (GP),considering the WHO statisticsof 69.2 million Indians suffer-ing with diabetes in 2015 andnot enough endocrinologists todeliver specialized care.

Commenting on the tie-up,Dr Paul said, “The ECHOmodel is unique in more thanone ways, but what makes thisprogram even more unique isthe partnership with the indus-try through FICCI”. He alsohighlighted that the govern-

ment has made provisions todouble the number of UGseats in medical education by2024, but attaining the requirednumber of specialist doctors isa five times more difficultagenda. He further added that80,000 PG seats will be addedby 2024, with participation ofprivate sector healthcareproviders.

Manoj Jhalani, AS & MD(NHM), Union HealthMinistry highlighted thequadruple challenge of quan-tity, quality, right skill-mix andphysical distribution of humanresources for healthcare. Hesaid, “It is important to empow-er primary health teams andGeneral Physicians (GPs). TheMinistry is working on sever-al aspects to increase numberof specialist doctors in thecountry and is also exploringparticipatory approaches forengaging private sector likecontribution for stipends paidto DNB students at both pub-lic and private hospitals.”PNS

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The Delhi High Court hasquashed the Centre’s cadre

allocations of IAS and IPS offi-cers of 2018 batch under thenew policy and ordered a freshcadre allocation.

A bench of Justices VipinSanghi and Rekha Palli accept-ed the submission of the offi-cers, who had approached thecourt challenging the process,that cadre allocation is a mat-ter which would affect theircareers for all times to come.

It noted that re-allocationof cadres by the authoritiesshould not take much time asit is done electronically, that isthrough computer program orsoftware, and the authoritiesalready possess the requisite

data in this regard.“For all the aforesaid rea-

sons, we are inclined to allowthese writ petitions and to quashthe cadre allocations made bythe respondents of the IAS offi-cers vide communication datedDecember 3, 2018, and the IPSofficers vide OM datedDecember 19, 2018. We, accord-ingly, direct so,” the bench said.

It said the court wasinclined to grant relief to thepetitioners considering thatthey have approached the courtat the very earliest and at a stagewhen neither the IAS officersnor the IPS officers of the2018 batch have commencedtheir on-site training which arecadre specific.

“We, therefore, direct therespondents to undertake fresh

cadre allocation of the success-ful candidates allocated to theIAS and IPS, according to theirmerit and by taking into con-sideration the preferences givenby the candidates irrespective ofwhether they have filled ‘99’ inany of the zones or cadres.

“If a candidate is not able toget any of the preferred cadresaccording to his rank, cadreallocation in respect of such acandidate may be resorted to inthe manner set out in.... ,that is,he may ‘be allotted along withother such candidates in theorder of rank to any of theremaining cadres, arranged inalphabetical order, in whichthere are vacancies in his cate-gory if allocation of all the can-didates who could be allotted tocadres in accordance with their

preference’,” the bench said anddisposed of four petitions.

For no preference in zonesand cadres, the candidates hadto enter “99”.

The court’s verdict came onfour petitions filed by variousofficers challenging the notifi-cation of Central governmentallocating the cadres to candi-dates of Indian Police Service(IPS) on the basis of the resultsof the Civil ServicesExamination (CSE), 2017.

They sought direction tothe Centre to issue a new listallocating the respective cadresto the selected IPS candidatesin the CSE, 2017, purely on thebasis of merit and preferencesindicated in the online form, bycorrectly interpreting the OfficeMemorandum (OM) of

September 5, 2017.The pleas claimed that the

interpretation of CadreAllocation Policy 2017 adopt-ed by the authorities was unrea-sonable and grossly unfair,unjust and arbitrary.

“The same is violative ofthe principle of equality in asmuch, as, the more meritoriouscandidates, who have rankedhigher in CSE, 2017, have beendenied allocation to cadres forwhich they had given theirpreferences, and less meritori-ous candidates have been allo-cated to the said cadres,” theofficers’ counsel had argued.

As per the 2017 officememorandum on cadre allo-cation policy, the states andjoint cadres were divided intofive zones.

According to that policy,the candidates were required tofirst give their choice in thedescending order of prefer-ence from amongst the variouszones. Thereafter, the candi-dates will indicate one prefer-ence of cadre from each pre-ferred zone.

The candidates will indicatetheir second cadre preference forevery preferred zone thereafter.Similar process will continue tilla preference for all the cadres isindicated by the candidate.

If a candidate does not giveany preference for any of thezones/cadres, it will be pre-sumed that he has no specificpreference for thosezones/cadres and accordingly,if he is not allocated to any oneof the cadres for which he has

indicated the preference, heshall be allotted along withother such candidates in theorder of rank to any of theremaining cadres, arranged inan alphabetical order, in whichthere are vacancies in his cat-egory after allocation of all thecandidates who can be allottedto cadres in accordance withtheir preference, it had stated.

The petitioners’ grievancewas that the authorities havenot allocated the cadres tothem as per their declared pol-icy of merit-cum-preferences.

The bench agreed with theofficers that the interpretationand implementation of theCadre Allocation Policy, 2017resorted to by the respondentsis unreasonable and arbitrary,since the more meritorious

candidates have been deniedthe cadres to which they wereotherwise entitled according totheir preference and the samehave been allocated to the lessmeritorious candidates.

“There can be no gain say-ing that the common threadrunning in the said CadreAllocation Policy, 2017 is toreward merit. The more meri-torious candidates are entitled toconsideration for allocation ofcadres before the less meritori-ous candidates are considered.

“This is clear from theoverall scheme/policy ... Thatprinciple has been clearlybreached by the respondentsdue to the manner in whichthey have interpreted andimplemented the OM datedSeptember 5, 2017,” it said.

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Accusing Prime MinisterNarendra Modi of “steal-

ing” a dead man’s plot of land,the Congress on Sunday allegedthat the PM had submittedwrong information to theElection Commission aboutthe plot allotted to him inGandhinagar.

Congress spokespersonPawan Khera claimed thatModi was asked which of theplots belonged to him, point-ing out that in the first affidavitin 2002, he said it was plotnumber 411, then said 401/A inthe next affidavit, which foundno mention of number 411.The Congress had earlier alsoalleged irregularities in thedisclosure which the BJP hadstrongly rejected.

Khera said that BJP in atweet had clarified that theplots were amalgamated. “Fourplots were amalgamated. Theseare allotted plots which have

been given by the Gujarat gov-ernment to its MLAs, MPsand its chosen people...Now,even Modiji has written in hisaffidavit that these plots wereamalgamated. We madeenquiries, we found that theseplots can’t be transferred orsold. So if they can’t be trans-ferred then how can they beamalgamated,” he asked.

Reacting to the allegationsmade earlier in April, the BJPhad said that four plots pur-chased by four different peoplewere amalgamated into one onApril 25, 2008, stating that thenumber of the amalgamatedplot was different from the sep-arate individual numbers.“What is shocking is that theperson whose plot has beenamalgamated with the PM’s isthe former BJP president JanaKrishnamurthy. He died inSeptember 2007. It was onlyseven months after it that hisplot was amalgamated withModi’s.

“Tell, me can a dead man

give his nod to this? Wedemand proof from you...Thechowkidar has stolen the plotof a dead man and did not givetrue information about this inhis affidavit. That is why werepeatedly say that ‘chowkidaarchor hai’,” he alleged.

Khera also said the landallotment was in 2002 whenModi was chief minister ofGujarat. He claimed that BJPleader and advocate MeenakshiLekhi has also told the SupremeCourt that no allotments forplots had been done post 2000.

“They are full of lies. Thefirst lie was that I (PM) haveownership of 1/4th of the land,second lie was amalgamation...Amalgamation is illegal.Present the proof of amalga-mation,” the Congress leadersaid. “Did Jana Krishnamurthygive his consent for this sevenmonths after his death...Thecountry wants to know whichproperty papers are in your bagand which address will you begoing to,” he asked.

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Aday before Singur, the cra-dle of ‘Nano Revolution’ of

2006 — which proved to be theTrafalgar of the mighty LeftFront in Bengal catapultingMamata Banerjee to power —goes to vote the a large sectionof the voters still wonderwhether the Tata Motor’s ousterfrom the disputed territorywas a prudent decision.

The entire Singur blockseems to be vertically dividedover whether anti-land acqui-sition movement that swervedthe entire rural folk, the mainsupport base of the Marxists,towards Mamata Banerjee’sTrinamool Congress overdiditself in driving away the Tatasfrom the region.

Bifal Bangal a local says“Tata Nano plant should havebeen allowed to functionbecause it would have given notonly Singur or Hooghly districtbut whole of Bengal a huge eco-nomic boost. Today we thoughDidi (Chief Minister) is takingcare of us we are fed up of beingdependent upon theGovernment like beggars.”

Binapani Biswas fromBajemelia village says, “Didi hasdone enough for us. She stoodby us when the CPI(M) forciblytook away our land and gave itto the Tatas,” asserting boast-fully “we have taught theCPI(M) a lesson. Now Didi istaking care of us. She is givingus Rs 2-a-kg rice and bicyclesto students and Rs 25,000 formarriageable students.”

But Brajo Bera of

Khasherbheri another villagesays, “we have been reduced tobeggars. Our lands were takenaway by the CPI(M). We wereconvinced by the TMC that ourland would be returned. Yesthey were returned but comeand see whether we can cultivateit. It is a wasteland now. It seemsnow that we should haveallowed the Tatas to stay here sothat our next generation couldhave lived with pride and not onthe doles of the Government.”

For Bireshwar Manna alocal from Beraberi village whohad been trained by the Tatasto work in the Nano car facto-ry “all hopes have been lost.Now I work as a courier boy inHowrah earning Rs 7,000 andtravelling more than 35 km perday. Had the Tatas been theremy salary would have been Rs40,000 or so,” he rues. Mannahad joined the long walk alongto Kolkata organized by theLeft Front a few months ago.

He says one car factory thattoo by the industry captain likethe Tatas would have revived

the fortunes of Bengal andHooghly would have becomeanother Jamshedpur in thevicinity of Kolkata. “Only Dididid not allow that to happen,”he says helplessly.

“We know that the CPI(M)is the best party and they havethe best candidate but can theysurvive the massive advertorialonslaught of the BJP and theTMC. Crores of rupees are beingsplurged in the elections but noone looks up at us,” says BasantiManna a woman from SingherBheri who had given away herland “looking at the future of myson. But nothing happened.”

As of now about 70-80 per-cent of the Singur acres lie fal-low. “The Government won thecase from the Supreme Court.We rejoiced. But now we under-stand that the court order wentagainst our interests. It onlystoked the ego of one side. Thecourt should have understoodthat a land with 5-10 feet of con-crete cannot be cultivated,” saysHaridas Malakar of Singur town.

Part of Singur block is in

Hooghly and part of it falls inArambagh parliamentary con-stituency — both of whichpresently retained by the TMC.

On who will win the elec-tions, locals seem divided say-ing the BJP is practically tryingto feed on the Marxist votebank. “The BJP may win if thepeople can vote,” says a localrefusing to give his name. Thereason: “more than anythingelse the people are very angrybecause the voters were notallowed to vote in the pan-chayat elections. Even the TMCsupporters were driven away.”

Another villager says “it isthe TMC supporters who arelikely to vote for the BJP morethan the Left this time round.”

However, Becharam Mannaa local TMC leader and MLAsays “the people still are with Didiand will vote for her in hordes.”His voice is echoed by AnjanPatra a shopkeeper. “TMC willwin because the BJP is presentamong the people through thewhatsapp but the TMC has itsorgansiation intact.”

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The Election Commissionmade elaborate security

arrangements for the fifthphase of elections as sevenparliamentary constituenciesgo to polls on Monday.

ECI Special PoliceObserver said all the booths ofthe seven parliamentary con-stituencies would be mannedby the central forces. The con-stituencies where electionswould be held are Hooghly,Arambagh and Serampore inHooghly district, Bangaon (SC)and Barrackpore in North 24Parganas and Uluberia andHowrah in Howrah district.

On the whole 578 compa-nies of CAPF will man 13,290booths on the Monday’s pollswhen about 1 crore 16 lakh 91thousand and 900 voters willdecide the fate of 83 candidates

in a four-cornered contest fea-turing TMC, BJP, Left Front,Congress. Other parties likeSUCI, BSP and PDS have alsofielded their candidates in theelections.

All the seven seats, whichare spread across North 24Parganas, Howrah and Hooghlydistricts and parts of Nadia dis-trict, will see a four-corneredcontest between TrinamoolCongress, BJP, Congress and theLeft Front major CPI(M).

Among the notable candi-dates whose fates would bedecided on Monday are TMC’sDinesh Trivedi who is pittedagainst the BJP’s Arjun Singhwho left TMC last month tojoin the saffron outfit, BJP’sLocket Chatterjee contestingfrom Hooghly and TMC’sKalyan Banerjee. CPI(M)’sAlokesh Das is contesting fromBongaon.

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An eerie silence descends onthe streets of militancy-

infested Pulwama district.People mill around but areguarded in their response. Theywant to talk about anything butelections.

Pulwama, known as the“Anand (delight) of Kashmir”for its congenial climate, innu-merable springs and water falls,hogged the headlines when asuicide bomber rammed his carinto a CRPF convoy onFebruary 14, killing 40 para-military forces.

Since then the campaignfor 2019 Lok Sabha polls hasrevolved around Pulwama andterrorism with parties makingnationalism a key poll issue.

On Monday, Pulwama — apart of the Anantnag LokSabha seat — will go to polls

and all eyes will be on how theground zero responds.Gulzar Wani, a grocery storeowner, who virtually turnedagitated when asked about theprospects of Monday’s voting,says “I don’t think that therewill be any voting in this area.The machines may returnuntouched,” he said.

Senior police officialsbelieve that the voting may notcross the double-digit mark.

The district has hardlyseen any election campaigningby political parties.

The National Conferenceand the Congress confinedtheir political activities to partyoffices.

The PDP, which has astrong base in south Kashmir,is almost missing. Party can-didate Mehbooba Mufti haspreferred to stay away fromcanvassing.

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The fifth phase of Lok Sabhaelections on Monday will

witness intense battle betweenthe Congress and the BharatiyaJanata Party (BJP) in the 12remaining parliamentary con-stituencies in Rajasthan.

Thirteen of the 25 LokSabha constituencies inRajasthan had voted in thefourth phase of elections onApril 29. The 12 seats going tothe polls on Monday includeJaipur Rural, Jaipur,Ganganagar, Bikaner, Churu,Jhunjhunu, Sikar, Alwar,Bharatpur, Karauli-Dholpur,

Dausa and Nagaur.Two Olympians — Union

Minister Rajyavardhan SinghRathore of the BJP andCongress MLA from SadulpurKrishna Poonia — are upagainst each other in the JaipurRural Lok Sabha constituency.

While Poonia is confidentof garnering the Jat votes in thearea in addition to enjoying thesupport of the traditionalCongress vote banks such asthe Muslims and the SC/STcommunity, sitting MP Rathoreis likely to corner the Rajputvotes along those from theBrahmins and Baniyas.

As the Union SportsMinister, Rathore has revivedkabaddi in the constituencybesides pushing other sports inthe region. Another interestingbattle will be fought in theJaipur Lok Sabha constituencywhere the Congress has field-ed Jyoti Khandelwal, a Vaishyaface, against sitting BJP MPRamcharan Bohra, a Brahmincontestant.

Interestingly, the Congresshas fielded a woman candidatein Jaipur after 48 years, chang-ing the dynamics of the seatwhich has traditionally been aBrahmin stronghold.

While Prime MinisterNarendra Modi’s rally hasinstilled confidence among theBJP supporters in this seat,Congress too is trying its bestto put a dent on the saffronparty bastion.

In Bikaner, sitting BJP MPand Union Minister of StateArjun Meghwal is up againsthis cousin and Congress can-didate Madan Gopal Meghwal.

While the Congress is con-fident of winning fromBharatpur and Karauli-Dholpur Lok Sabha con-stituencies, which are reservedseats, the late entry of theBahujan Samaj Party (BSP)may hurt Congress’ prospects.Also, Modi’s recent rally inHindaun, the first by an IndianPrime Minister in 40 years, canchange the equations.

Alwar will witness a battlebetween Congress’ BhanwarJitendra Singh, who belongs tothe erstwhile royal family ofAlwar, and Mahant BabaBalaknath of the BJP. However,cow smuggling and mob lynch-ings in the name of cow pro-tection have definitely affectedthe saffron party’s image in thisconstituency. Sikar will see a tri-angular contest between BJP’sSwami Sumedhanand Saraswati,a confidante of Uttar PradeshChief Minister Yogi Adityanath,Congress’ Subhash Maharia andCPM’s Amra Ram.

In Dausa, an interestingclash is on the cards betweentwo women from the Meenacommunity — Savita Meena ofthe Congress and BJP’s JaskaurMeena. In Churu, the Congresshas fielded Rafiq Mandelia, itsonly Muslim candidate in thestate, who faces a tough fightfrom sitting BJP MP RahulKaswan.

BJP has not fielded anyMuslim candidate in any of the25 seats in Rajasthan.

Another interesting battlewill be seen in Nagaur, wherethe BJP has formed an alliancewith the Rashtriya LoktantrikParty (RLP) fileding HanumanBeniwal on behalf of the NDAagainst Congress’ Jyoti Mirdha,who belongs to the influentialMirdha family here.

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Describing Narendra Modias a “180-degree Prime

Minister”, Samajwadi Partychief Akhilesh Yadav on Sundaysaid the country is set to havea new PM who could be fromthe grand alliance his party hasforged in UP with Mayawati’sBSP and Ajit Singh’s RLD.

He also dismissed as a“wrong statement” the report-ed comments made byCongress leader PriyankaGandhi that her party hasfielded candidates to cut BJP’s

votes to provide benefit to theSP-BSP alliance.

He said the Congress lead-ers are saying so because “theyknow the alliance is winningand people are with them.”

Some other Congress lead-ers have also said that theparty has fielded its own can-didates in some seats where thegrand alliance is strong in sucha way that the BJP’s vote sharegets split. In an interview to PTIduring his election campaign,Yadav said, “SP-BSP-RLDalliance is working on theground and it is the people who

are fighting the election for suc-cess of the alliance. It will winmaximum seats.”

Yadav said the alliance is allabout ushering a new era ofdevelopment in Uttar Pradeshby ensuring social justice andit would continue for 2022Assembly elections as well.

He said the country isgoing to have a new PM thisyear and it is this alliancewhich will decide who will bethat person. Attacking PrimeMinister Modi, Yadav saiddemonetisation was a “disaster”for the Indian economy.

“Modiji is 180 degree PrimeMinister he does totally oppo-site to what he says,” he said.The former Chief Minister of

Uttar Pradesh said it was he whohad approached Mayawati forthe grand alliance.

He said the grand alliancewas required due to the pre-vailing situation and circum-stances. “People wanted some-thing to glue with and thisalliance has given them that.”

Bitter political rivals SPand BSP have come togetherfor the 2019 Lok Sabha elec-tions after facing drubbingfrom BJP in 2014 general elec-tion and in the 2017 assemblyelections of Uttar Pradesh.The BJP had won 71 out of 80seats in Uttar Pradesh in 2014while SP could manage onlyfive and BSP was unable toopen its account.

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Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP)chief Mayawati on Sunday

appealed voters in Amethi andRae Bareli parliamentary con-stituencies to vote for theCongress, and accused PrimeMinister Narendra Modi ofpracticing “divide and rule”policy to bring down the SP-BSP alliance.

She clarified her decision tosupport the Congress in Amethiand Rae Bareli was not becauseof any soft feeling towards it butwas an attempt to “remove” theBJP from the power.

The former UP ChiefMinister maintained that boththe Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)and the Congress were thetwo sides of the same coin anddidn’t deserve to return topower.

“I have asked my support-ers to vote for the Congress inAmethi and Rae Bareli. TheBJP and the Congress are thesame. We have not no coalitionwith the Congress, but our sup-porters will vote for theCongress in Amethi and Rae Bareli to defeat theBJP,” Mayawati said in a BSPpress note.

Her announcement hascome just a day ahead of thepolling in Amethi and RaeBareli on Monday. Congress

President Rahul Gandhi isfighting from Amethi, while hismother and United ProgressiveAlliance (UPA) ChairpersonSonia Gandhi is the candidatefrom Rae Bareli.

She also accused the PrimeMinister of trying to use “divideand rule” policy to bring downthe SP-BSP alliance. “Ever sincewe announced our alliance,the Prime Minister has goneinto a panic mode. His latestcomments are nothing but anattempt to break the alliance,”Mayawati told the media at herhome.

“In the four phases of elec-tions, the people has support-ed the SP-BSP coalition. It isdisturbing the BJP. This alliancewill not only produce a newPrime Minister at the Centrebut also a new government inUP.” Modi on Saturday hadattacked the SP-BSP-RLDalliance, saying Mayawati knewthat she had been betrayed bythe Samajwadi Party, which hasbeen working hand-in-handwith the Congress.

Addressing a poll rally inPratapgarh Lok Sabha con-stituency, the Prime Ministerhad said the Akhilesh-led partykept promising Mayawati ofsupport as prime ministerialcandidate, but behind her backthey worked with the Congressto betray her.

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The death toll due to CycloneFani mounted to 34 in

Odisha on Sunday, two daysafter it caused widespread dam-age in the coastal region andleft hundreds grappling withwater shortage and power cuts,an official said.

Although the official figureis 34, many more are feareddead in the calamity as infor-mation from several areas,including the severely-dam-aged Khurda district, is stillawaited.

The number of peopleaffected by the cyclone has alsojumped to around 1.08 crore in14,835 villages spread across atleast 11 districts, the officialsaid, adding that over 13.41lakh people had been evacuat-ed in a span of 24 hours aheadof the disaster.

Chief Minister NaveenPatnaik has already unveiled arelief package for those affect-ed by the calamity.

In Puri and in those partsof Khurda that had been“extremely severely affected”,the families will get 50 kg ofrice, Rs 2,000 in cash and poly-thene sheets if they are coveredunder the National FoodSecurity Act (NFSA), Patnaiksaid. For the rest of Khurda dis-trict, categorised as “severelyaffected”, the NFSA familieswill get a month’s quota of rice,Rs 1,000 and polythene sheets,Patnaik said.

Those living in the “mod-erately-affected” districts ofCuttack, Kendrapara andJagatsinghpur will be eligiblefor a month’s quota of rice andRs 500 in cash.

The Chief Minister alsoannounced an assistance of Rs95,100 for fully-damaged hous-es, Rs 52,000 for partially-damaged houses and Rs 3,200for houses that had sufferedminor damage.

Patnaik, who visited thecyclone-ravaged Puri and dis-tributed relief to the affectedpeople, claimed that water sup-ply had been restored in 70 percent areas of the seaside pilgrimtown and 40 per cent of theplaces in Bhubaneswar.

“I hope water supply willbe fully restored inBhubaneswar shortly and atleast in 90 per cent areas of Puritown by Monday,” he said.“The government has madearrangements to providecooked food for free over thenext 15 days. We will also takeup tree plantation on a missionmode.” Patnaik, however, couldnot give the details on the sta-tus of the ongoing work forpower restoration in the affect-ed areas. “We have to be very

careful to avoid accidental elec-trocution,” he said, when askedif power supply will be restoredin Bhubaneswar, which con-tinued without electricity forthe third day on Sunday.

According to ChiefSecretary AP Padhi, 21 of the34 deaths were registered inPuri district, where the stormmade a landfall on Friday, flat-tening fragile houses, uproot-ing scores of trees, electricpoles and mobile towers.

Giving the break up,Special Relief Commissioner(SRC) BP Sethi said four deathseach were reported from Jajpurand Mayurbhanj districts, andtwo from Cuttack, whileKendrapara district accountedfor three casualties.

The massive evacuation,touted as the largest ever aheadof a natural calamity in thecountry, played a major role inkeeping human casualties to aminimum, he said, addingnearly 25,000 tourists had alsobeen evacuated from Puri,Ganjam and Balasore districtsas a precautionary measure.

The State Government hadmounted a massive restorationwork across 14,835 villagesand 46 urban areas ravaged bythe storm, affecting 1.08 crorepeople, Sethi said. The“extremely-severe” cyclone, oneof the “rarest of rare”, unleashedcopious rain and windstormthat gusted up to 240 kmph onFriday, blowing away thatchedhouses and swamping townsand villages, before weakeningand entering West Bengal.

As the cyclone barrelledthrough entire coastal Odisha,11 districts of Balasore,Bhadrak, Cuttack, Dhenkanal,Ganjam, Jagatsinghpur, Jajpur,Kendrapara, Khurda,Mayurbhanj and Puri wereseverely affected.

Assuring that efforts wereon to restore electricity supplyin the affected areas, EnergySecretary Hemant Sharma saidthe power infrastructure wasseverely damaged in Puri,Khurda, Ganjam, Jagatsinghpur,Kendrapara and Balasore dis-tricts during the cyclone.

The SRC said clearing ofroads and power restorationwork was in full swing, while321 mobile medical teams hadbeen deployed with adequatenumber of doctors.

Prime Minister NarendraModi is likely to visit Odisha toreview the situation. Modi hadspoken to Patnaik on Saturdayand assured continuous sup-port from the Centre for therehabilitation work.

Meanwhile, the East CoastRailway (ECoR) resumed oper-ations on the Howrah-Chennairoute on Sunday.

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Pre-emptive measuresundertaken by the Indian

Coast Guard like alerting thefisherfolk and merchant marinecommunity resulted in zeroloss of life at sea during CycloneFani, the maritime securityagency said on Sunday.

In a statement, the CoastGuard said on April 24, whenFani was in its formative stages,it started working on riskassessment of the vulnerabili-ties on eastern coast. All theseven Indian Coast Guard(ICG) stations and six of its dis-trict headquarters on the eastcoast were put on alert.

“No loss of life has beenreported at sea. ICG DisasterResponse Teams are assistingthe state administration in therelief operations,” the CoastGuard said.

Around 14 ICG ships andfour aircraft were tasked dailyat sea to warn fishing andmerchant marine communitysince April 24, it said.

“ICG ships, aircraft andshore based remote operatingstations relayed warning tofishing and merchant marinerson very high frequency (VHF)along the entire east coast,” theCoast Guard said.

Warnings were also broad-cast in regional languages forthe benefit of local fishingcommunity. Contingencymeetings were held withauthorities at Mandapam,Puducherry, Chennai,Vishakapatnam, Paradip,Bubhaneshwar, Haldia andKolkata to chalk out mobilisa-tion plans, it added.

Special community inter-action programmes were con-ducted at 13 fishing hamletswith participation of localcommunity leaders to ensureno fishing boat ventured at sea,the agency said. MaritimeRescue Coordination Centres(MRCC) at Chennai andMumbai were tasked to updatethe merchant mariners overNavigational Telex andInternational Safety Net.

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Thirteen days before cyclone‘Fani’ hit the Odisha coast,

the IMD had an indication thatthe low pressure in the Bay ofBengal and the EquatorialIndian Ocean could ballooninto a massive storm and start-ed preparing for the onslaught,the weatherman said.

On April 21, based on datafrom various sources, the IndiaMeteorological Department(IMD) forecast that conditionswere conducive for formationof a low-pressure area in theEquatorial Indian Ocean andsouth Bay of Bengal.

A low-pressure area is theinitial stage of the formation ofa cyclone. Armed with datafrom different institutes of theMinistry of Earth Sciences(MoES), the meteorologistsdeliberated on how low pres-sure could pan out to be.

The IMD and other insti-tutes of the Ministry of EarthSciences ran data through 10specialised weather models.

“We realised all the modelssuggested that it was going toturn into a cyclone. So, fromApril 25 we started issuing spe-cial bulletins,” IMD’s Additional

Director General (services)Mritunjay Mohapatra told PTI.

Mohapatra, a veteran intracking cyclones, played acritical role in tracking Fani’sprogress and accurately pre-dicting its path. Elaborating onthe formation stage of cyclone‘Fani’, he said help from otherinstitutes of the MoES played acrucial role in predicting thedevelopment of the cyclone.

The National Institute ofOcean Technology (NIOT),Chennai has over 20 buoys inthe Bay of Bengal and theArabian Sea that collected dataon rainfall, temperatures belowthe sea and above, wind speed,Mohaptara said.

Different satellites provid-ed data and images on cloudsin oceanic area for monitoringlow pressure systems, saidIMD’s Director General KJ Ramesh. Satellite data wasalso used in running the mod-

els. “There are island observa-tories that fed us with data,”Mohapatra said.

Ramesh said data wasprocessed under differentweather models by the IndianInstitute of TropicalMeteorology (IITM), Pune andNational Centre for MediumRange Weather Forecasting(NCMRWF), Noida. These twoinstitutes have two supercom-puters that process data.

The data was furtherprocessed by the IndianNational Centre for OceanInformation Services (INCOIS),Hyderabad that gave predictionson the extent, depth and dura-tion of the inundations in thelow-lying areas due to thecyclone, Ramesh said.

A similar model is run byIndian Institute of TechnologyDelhi to help the IMD withinformation on inundation.

IMD also used its radars atChennai, Karikal, Machili-pat-nam, Visakhapatnam, Gopalpur,Paradip, Kolkata, Agartala to thefullest. “Twelve hours beforelandfall, we kept sending updateson locations to concerned statesevery half hour using our radars,besides releasing hourly bul-letins,” Ramesh said.

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It seems to be the end of the road forveteran politician Lal KrishnaAdvani as his party denied him tick-et for the Lok Sabha elections. It isspeculative whether the party will

oblige him through the Rajya Sabha route.Opinion is divided on whether he shouldhave been offered a party ticket or not. Onthe one hand, there is little dispute abouthis towering stature in Indian politics, onthe other, his advancing age and scantyparticipation in the proceedings of the 16thLok Sabha clouded his prospects.

This polarised debate, however, con-ceals an impersonal tragedy. Will LKAdvani, therefore, turn out to be the lastleader from Sindh in Indian politics? Oncethere was Acharya JB Kripalani (1888-1982), the former Congress president.Then there was also KR Malkani (1921-2003), the journalist and historian-turnedBJP politician. At present, there are justtwo nonagenarians left in Parliament viz,LK Advani and Ram Jethmalani. With theformer’s retirement, only one will be left.Jethmalani, a legal luminary, is not a careerpolitician. His main interest in being aRajya Sabha member, the joke goes, isretaining his official bungalow at 2, AkbarRoad, New Delhi. His son, MaheshJethmalani, a senior advocate, also enteredpolitics but without success.

At any rate, Sindhi politicians do notrepresent their community. That, howev-er, has little to do with their intention. Thefranchise structure of the two Houses ofParliament, under Articles 80 and 81, isterritorial rather than ethno-lingual. ALok Sabha MP, who is chosen directly,represents a constituency (geographical-ly located in a State); whereas a RajyaSabha MP, elected by the LegislativeAssembly, represents the State itself. ButSindhis, having lost their ancient provincecompletely during Partition, do not fitinto either category. They are a scatteredlot across Delhi, Maharashtra, Gujarat,Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh.

The community mostly has two insti-tutions viz, a temple of Jhulay Lal, alsocalled Lal Sai temple, and Sindhi Akademis.Sindhis are an enterprising community andoverall, commercially successful. But overthe last 75 years since the Partition, theyhave tried to protect their culture, religionand language. Even in the sphere of lan-guage, they had to adopt the local languageof the State they had chosen to reside in andplay down their identity. Thus, a politicalrepresentation remained a pipe dream. Soin a highly caste/community-consciousIndian politics, they might just lose out forall time to come.

The demographic profile of the Sindhprovince on the eve of Partition made itsincorporation into Pakistan inevitable.But had the Indian leadership been littlemore sincere and tactful, the district ofTharparkar could have been salvaged for

India. This Hindu-majoritydistrict could have thenbecome the “little Sindh” inIndia. Had it been convertedinto a State, it could have sentat least one member each tothe Lok Sabha and the RajyaSabha, besides having its ownLegislative Assembly. It couldhave Sindhi as the official lan-guage of the State in a scriptof their choice.

On Tharparkar, theCongress leadership founditself outwitted and outma-neuvered by the MuslimLeague. As KR Malkanidescribes in his book, TheSindh Story (1984): “TheTharparkar district had aHindu majority and theCongress should have claimedit. Indeed, it had traditional-ly been more a part of Marwarthan of Sindh. On the eve ofPartit ion, the SindhGovernment promptlymerged Sanghar district withTharparkar district — to can-cel out its Hindu majority. Buteven then, the case ofTharparkar district was on parwith that of Sylhet in Assam(now in Bangladesh), wherethe Muslim League haddemanded — and subsequent-ly got — part of the district,through a plebiscite (Pg 98).”

India could also have

claimed, Malkani argues, theKhairpur state, as big as theTharparkar district itself. Theruler of Khairpur, viz Mir FaizMuhammed Khan-II, wasready to accede to India butJawaharlal Nehru declined theoffer. Sindh, Malkani informs,had 71 per cent Muslim pop-ulation but the Muslim Leaguesecured only 46 per cent votesin the 1946 interim elections.Nationalist Muslims like GMSyed and Maula Bux won threevotes per four votes scored bythe Muslim League.

The upshot is thatPakistan got the entire Sindthough Hindus were morethan a quarter of the popula-tion. Sindh (or Sindhu)remained only in India’snational anthem. A majority ofthe Hindus became refugees,fleeing to Bombay via the searoute. Some Sindhis mightalready have been living inMaharashtra and Gujarat asthe colonial Sind provincewas part of Bombay Statebetween 1850 and 1937.

According to the 2011census, there were 27,72,264native speakers of Sindhi inIndia. The number was under-standably meagre as they con-stituted only 0.23 per cent ofIndia’s population. But consid-er those territorially-ground-

ed communities, who enjoypolitical representation despitehaving lesser population. TheKonkani speakers were only22,56,502 in 2011 but haveGoa. The Manipuri speakerswere 17,61,079 in 2011 buthave Manipur. The Bodoswere fewer still at 14,82,929but have the BodolandTerritorial Council in Assam.While these people are a“political community,” theSindhis are not.

Can a non-territorialethno-linguistic communityhave no representation inParliament? Not really. Thereis the example of the Anglo-Indian community, who canhave such a representation inthe Lok Sabha. The Presidentof India, under Article 331 ofthe Constitution, can nomi-nate not more than two mem-bers of the Anglo-Indian com-munity if it is found that theyare not adequately represent-ed. In the outgoing Lok Sabha,the Anglo-Indian seats wereoccupied by George Bakerand Prof Richard Hay. Theseare seats in the Lok Sabha notcorresponding to any actualterritorial constituency.

Curiously, the head countof Anglo-Indians is notknown. They are not enumer-ated as a separate category but

counted as part of theChristian population, sincethe census of 1941.

The Sindhis, therefore,deserve a non-territorial seat inthe Lok Sabha, if not anotherin the Rajya Sabha. This can bedone through a suitableConstitutional amendment.Questions might immediatelybe raised whether Zoroastriansand Jews also deserve a seateach in Parliament. Whetherthey do or not, in one’s opin-ion, they should not impedethe prospects of the Sindhis.

Jew, Zoroastrians andSyrian Christians took shelterin India. Though Zoroastrians(Parsis) had thrown up stal-warts like Dadabhai Naoroji,Pherozeshah M Mehta andMadam Bhikaji Cama, theynever had a representation asParsis. But Sindhis had a placein the scheme of political rep-resentation in India prior to thePartition. This article merelyasks for their restoration, orsemblance of it. The Indianleadership failed to wrest theTharparkar district. A seat inParliament for the Sindhis willbe a token compensation if notalso an atonement.

(The writer is an indepen-dent researcher based in NewDelhi. The views expressedherein are his personal)

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Sir — People have now becomeused to the Prime Minister’sempty rhetoric. But his recentdeclaration that 40 MLAs of theTrinamool Congress (TMC) arein touch with him and that theywill desert their party once theelection results are declared istoo much even by his standards.

Can anyone in the history ofIndia’s independence recall aPrime Minister openly admittingto what, in effect, amounts tohorse-trading? And this, from aperson, who claims to be the pro-tector of the honesty and integri-ty of the country. It is by nowclear that Prime Minister Modiand his party are willing to go toany extent to hold on to power.

It is unfortunate that even asthe elections are on, the PrimeMinister is talking of horse-trad-ing. This amounts to making amockery of the democraticprocess itself. What is evenmore worrying is the seeminginaction of the ElectionCommission of India (EC),which is tasked with upholdingConstitutional values that formthe very foundation of a democ-racy. Is the EC unwilling to save

the democratic process?Bidyut Kumar Chatterjee

Faridabad

��

Sir — This refers to the editor-ial, “Azhar nailed, finally” (May3). China’s lifting of the techni-cal hold on the listing of Jaish-e-Mohammad chief Masood

Azhar as a global terrorist at theUnited Nations Security Councilfinally paved the way for declar-ing the militant mastermind asa global terrorist. Surely, this isa diplomatic win for the world,particularly for India, whichhad been at the receiving end,bearing the brunt of terrorattacks originating fromPakistani soil.

But remember the UN’s

move to proscribe Lashkar-e-Tayyeba chief Hafiz Saeed, whois already in the sanctions list,has meant little. Similar isAzhar’s case. His terror outfitwas banned long ago but it con-tinued with its heinous acts.

To be sure, Azhar’s listing asa global terrorist will not endterrorism at the borders. Manyterrorists groomed and trainedby him are roaming freely. The

Pakistani Government has onlyissued orders to freeze his assetsand put a travel ban on him. TheGovernment will not in anyway take drastic steps to end thismenace. Thus, New Delhi mustnot lose time and put in place aconcrete plan and strategy todeal with terrorism so that itdoes not raise its ugly headagain.

KR Srinivasan Secundèrabad

��

Sir — The Election Commissionof India was once a tall entity.But by not taking action againstleaders, who spew hate speech-es during election campaigns, ithas let down the citizens.Instead, it remained a mutespectator to this shoddy elec-tioneering. Had it demonstrat-ed the will to attend to the vio-lations of the Model Code ofConduct by parties and candi-dates, it wouldn’t have beenlooked upon with suspicion.

Amit Via email

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The National Stock Exchange (NSE) was setup as a fully automated body by theGovernment during the early 1990s to

checkmate the broker mafia-controlled BombayStock Exchange (BSE). It went on to become oneof the largest stock exchanges in the world and inthe process, decimated the BSE and all otherRegional Stock Exchanges (RSEs). After 25 yearsof market leadership, NSE’s no-nonsense image hasnow taken a severe beating due to allegations bysome brokers as also entities. Three years of inves-tigations into the allegations that some brokers havegained unfair access to the systems of the coun-try’s premier stock exchange reveal that thecharge is indeed true. The Securities and ExchangeBoard of India (SEBI) has now passed an orderagainst NSE. The penalties imposed are as follows:

� Disgorge an amount of �624 crore (profitfrom its co-location operations) along with aninterest of 12 per cent per annum to the SEBI’sInvestor Protection and Education Fund (IPEF).

� NSE has been barred from accessing thesecurities market for six months. (Hence, the InitialPublic Offerings (IPO) of NSE can’t go throughfor next six months).

��Barred it from floating any new derivativeproducts for six months.

�The regulator has ordered Ravi Narain andChitra Ramkrishna — both former ManagingDirector and CEOs of NSE — to disgorge 25 percent of their salary drawn when they were at thehelm of the affairs at the exchange.

�Barred OPG securities, allegedly the primebeneficiary of the co-location matter and its direc-tors from accessing the securities market for fiveyears, while also directing the entities to disgorge�25 crore.

��Ajay Shah of the Indira Gandhi Instituteof Development Research has also been restrainedfrom holding any position with a stock exchangeor a listed company for two years.

“NSE has committed a fraudulent and unfairtrade practice as contemplated under the SEBI(PFUTP) Regulations. It is established beyonddoubt that NSE has not exercised the requisite duediligence while putting in place the Tick-by-Tick(TBT) architecture,” G Mahalingam, whole-timemember of SEBI said in the order.

It is noteworthy that it was only last year thatthe Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had reg-istered a case of undue access to NSE systems,against brokerage firm OPG Securities Pvt Ltd andits promoter, Sanjay Gupta, as well as Ajay Shah ofthe Indira Gandhi Institute of DevelopmentResearch, who facilitated Gupta’s exploitation ofNSE systems by developing a software calledChanakya. A case was also registered againstunknown officials of SEBI and NSE for corruption.

The SEBI order and the CBI probe laid bareNSE’s claim of being a provider of a “transparent”and “unbiased trading platform” and brought tothe fore the murky dealings of a coterie in theexchange. The CBI’s probe revealed that Ajay Shahcollected NSE trade data in 2005-06 under the garbof doing research while he was employed with theCentre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE).Ajay Shah, along with his wife, Susan Thomas,developed NIFTY 50 index, which is the most suc-cessful product of NSE. In an unprecedented ges-ture, the NSE had been giving Ajay Shah andThomas a hefty annual royalty as a certain percent-

age of the income generated from Niftytrading. Suprabhat Lala, who was admin-istration head at NSE, was married toSunitha Thomas, who is sister of SusanThomas. Sunitha Thomas and RaviVaranasi, who was head of trading atNSE, had promoted the company thatdesigned the algo (Chanakya) for OPGSecurities. CBI also found that SanjayGupta, the promoter of OPG Security PvtLtd, had gained undue access to the serv-er architecture of NSE with help of algodeveloped by Ajay Shah and may haveshared part of the proceeds.

NSE got its algo systems audited byDeloitte two years back as was orderedby SEBI. Audit of NSE’s algorithmic trad-ing practices found that the systems ofthe country’s premier stock exchangewere prone to manipulation by brokersand, in fact, indicated that some brokersmay have had unfair access to NSE’sservers. NSE had then forwarded thisDeloitte report to SEBI, requesting theregulator to advise further directions inthe matter.

The matter of unfair access startedwhen a whistle-blower from Singaporewrote to SEBI and NSE during 2015,alleging that some brokers have gainedunfair access to price and order bookinformation, while trading on NSE’s algo-rithmic trading platform. It was then thatthe regulator decided to conduct a spe-cial inspection of NSE, after which itfound preliminary evidence that asmany as 12 brokers might have got unfairaccess to NSE servers. The allegationsagainst NSE pertain to members who co-located their servers on the BKC premis-es of the NSE. This reduces the time ittakes for an order to travel to theexchange, giving them a speed advantageover those who are at farther places.

Unfair access being referred to

occurred by enabling certain brokers,who had their co-location servers in NSEpremises, to get price information aheadof the rest of the market participants. Tounderstand how this has happened, onehas to first understand how the priceinformation is disseminated by NSE. TheNSE disseminates price informationthrough two types of price feed streams— one is the broadcast stream or UDPstream (User Data-gram Protocol),which is used by NSE for its VSAT andleased line networks. This multi-broad-cast (which everyone can view on TV)is limited to two mbps bandwidth dueto NSE leased line network capacity. Thesecond price feed stream is TBT, whichactually reflects each and every new orderprice information coming into theexchange system. Due to the large sizeof the price information, TBT pricestream was available only to co-locationbrokers of NSE. TBT price informationwas disseminated through TCP/IP(Transmission Control Protocol/InternetProtocol) mode. It’s like information isdelivered to one by one instead of abroadcast. In a broadcast mode, every-one gets the price information at thesame time. When NSE started TBT in2010, one TBT server of NSE had to serveseveral connections of brokers. SinceTBT price information was disseminat-ed sequentially, it simply meant that thebroker, who connected first to the NSE-TBT server, would get the price informa-tion ahead of others throughout the day.

Complications in TBT price streamonly raised further as demand for co-location servers by members sky-rock-eted and NSE put up multiple TBTservers. This meant that the traffic or loadwas not necessarily uniform across allTBT servers of the exchange. So, connect-ing first to the least-traffic TBT server of

exchange has become crucial in thegame. Smart brokers had figured out thatthe way to ace the system lay in being thefastest one to connect to the lowest loadserver. There were allegations that suchsmart brokers had colluded with co-loca-tion data centre staff of NSE and also tooksome officials on their payroll, developedin-house software and took algos assis-tance of Omnesys, a technology partnerof NSE, to beat the system.

By front running through unfairaccess to price information, these fewprivileged co-location brokers earnedhundreds of crores of rupees at the costof other investors. While NSE startedTBT price stream in 2010, its technicalteam somehow felt that they could notgenerate this stream as a broadcast ormulticast. NSE eventually upgraded itstechnology and converted this TBTprice stream to what is called multicastTBT stream sometime during 2014, toblunt the front-running. But in theintervening years, a few privileged frontrunning brokers minted hundreds ofcrores of unfair profits and in theprocess, severely damaged NSE’s repu-tation. Allegations were also made thatthe NSE management tried to hush upthe matter instead of attacking the issuehead-on when it first came to theirnotice. The TBT system was discontin-ued by NSE with effect from Decemberof 2016, as per reports.

Due to unfair access to the exchangesystems and unfair trade practices fol-lowed by some brokers, most smallinvestors would have lost their hardearned money in margin trading andFutures&Options (F&O) trading. SEBI’saction will go a long way in protectingthe integrity of capital markets in India.

(The writer is former ManagingDirector, Ahmedabad Stock Exchange Ltd)

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The Ministry of Finance andNITI Aayog are workingtowards preparing a roadmap

to directly transfer fertiliser subsidyto the farmers. The data being usedto give �6,000 per year to 120 mil-lion small and marginal farmersunder the Pradhan Mantri KisanSamman Nidhi will be used for thispurpose. The subsidies on fertilisersalong with PM Kisan deposits willserve to give a quasi-universal basicincome transfer to the farmers.

The proposal will be put beforethe new Government for approval.To begin with, this scheme will berun on a trial basis in select districtsto cover small and marginal farmersonly. However, full-scale implemen-

tation will be possible only after twoto three years.

This is not a new idea and hasbeen on the Modi Government’sradar for quite some time now. Infact, it was also considered by theerstwhile UPA dispensation. It wasduring the 2012-13 Budget that thethen UPA Government hadannounced its intention to link sub-sidy payments to manufacturers tothe sale of fertilisers to farmers byretailers.

Pilot projects in 10 districtsspread over nine States were to berun. After successful implementa-tion, Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT)to farmers was to be launched inthese districts from April 1, 2013.Pan-India launch was contemplatedfrom April 2014. But the plan did notmove beyond the drawing board.

It was in 2016-17 that the ModiGovernment launched pilot pro-jects to link subsidy payment to man-ufacturers to sale of fertilisers tofarmers by retailers in 18 districtsspread over 12 States. From April,2018, it was launched all across thecountry and covered 31 States and

Union Territories.Under the said scheme, manu-

facturers receive 100 per cent subsidyafter fertiliser is delivered to thefarmers and his identity viz, theAadhaar, is captured on electronicPoint of Sale (PoS) machine at thedealer’s shop. Termed as DBT, thenomenclature is misleading as sub-sidy continues to be routed throughthe manufacturers.

The producers sell urea atMaximum Retail Price (MRP) con-trolled by the Centre at a low leveland get subsidy reimbursement onunit-specific basis under the NewPricing Scheme (NPS).Manufacturers of non-urea fertilis-ers are given “uniform” subsidy (onper nutrient basis) under theNutrient Based Scheme (NBS).However, since payments are adjust-ed to actual cost data, effectively, evensubsidy to them is not uniform. Thesystem protects inefficient and highcost units even as efficient and lowcost units get no incentive to improveefficiency and reduce cost.

Besides, since every farmer —rich or poor, small or large — has

access to fertilisers at low price, allof them are beneficiaries of the sub-sidy. Furthermore, the subsidy onurea being higher than on non-ureafertilisers, this leads to excessiveurea use, thereby creating an imbal-ance in the use of fertiliser.

The subsisting architecture hasbeen in place for several decades noweven as the change from April 2018is only with regard to the manner ofdisbursing subsidy to manufacturersie, after sale to farmers from earlierreceipt of fertilisers in the district. Allthis will undergo a metaphoricalchange when real DBT, involvingtransfer of subsidy to farmers, isintroduced.

Under real DBT, manufacturerswill sell fertilisers to farmers at fullcost/market-based price. The effi-cient/low cost units will get toincrease their profits even as ineffi-cient/high cost units will be forcedto down their shutters (this will alsoattract fresh investment giving a fil-lip to growth of the industry).

Further, subsidy can be restrict-ed only to poor farmers. Most impor-tantly, farmers will use subsidy for

buying fertilisers that their soil/cropneeds the most, thereby reducing theimbalance in fertiliser use. But for thetransition to be smooth and toensure that the arrangements are sus-tainable, a few points need to be keptin mind.

First, unlike the existing dispen-sation wherein subsidy is open-ended, the amount needs to becapped. The cap may be fixed at sub-sidy per unit of nutrient (using theformula under NBS) multiplied bynutrient use for a maximum of up totwo hectares. To take care of spatialvariations, the threshold for nutrientuse may vary, depending on the soiltype, crop and agro-climatic zone.

Second, considering heavy depen-dence on import (over two-third innitrogen, 90 per cent phosphate and100 per cent in potash), the subsidy perunit nutrient may be revised to reflectthe impact of fluctuations in cost ofsupplying fertilisers.

Third, at present, inadequatebudget allocation year-after-yearresults in unpaid dues to manufacturers, whose margins comeunder stress.

If short funding continues evenunder ‘real DBT’, this will literallyhaemorrhage the farmers. So, theGovernment will have to make adequate provisions and ensure thatthey receive subsidy in full and well in advance before the sea-son starts.

Fourth, the Government shouldlaunch the scheme all across thecountry at one go as partial introduc-tion in some parts could triggerdiversion of subsidised fertilisersfrom areas as covered by the subsist-ing dispensation to those broughtunder real DBT.

Finally, the most importantrequirement for the scheme to takeoff and run successfully thereafter isthe political will. For now, this iscompletely missing as may be seenfrom the fact that since 2012-13,when a comprehensive action planwas initially mooted by the then UPAregime till date, there has been nomovement. Will the newGovernment crack the whip?

(The writer is a New Delhi-basedpolicy analyst)

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In a first in recent history of taxfilings, income tax e-filings in

FY2019 have dropped by morethan 6.6 lakh, a trend that ana-lysts said was surprising as taxbase was expected to increasepost demonetisation.

According to statistics putout on Income TaxDepartment’s e-filing website,income tax e-filings in FY 2018-19 was 6.68 crore, down from6.74 crore in the previous fiscal.

E-filers in FY 2016-17 were5.28 crore. Kotak EconomicResearch in an April 30 reportsaid: “We are surprised with thedecline in income tax e-filing inFY2019.”

“If the filings are indeedplateauing, it will be a worry forthe fiscal which has seeminglyshifted its focus to compen-satory expenditure,” it said. “Taxfilings have surprisinglyplateaued in FY2019. This issurprising given that postdemonetisation it was expectedthat the tax base would contin-ue to increase.”

However, registered filershave been on the rise - theygrew by 15 per cent to 8.45 croreas on March 31, 2019, the e-fil-ing website showed.

Registered filers were just2.7 crore at the end of March2013 which almost doubled to5.2 crore in March 2016 and to6.2 crore in March 2017.

In signs of lower compli-ance, the ratio of actual filingsto registered filers was 79 percent in FY2018-19, down from91.6 per cent in the previous fis-cal. The compliance ratio was 85per cent and 83 per cent in thepreceding two years. It was79.3 per cent in FY2014-15,which was a decline from 82 percent of FY2013-14.

The data showed a steadyrise in filers in the �5 lakh to �10lakh range with 1.05 crore filingsin FY2018-19 including 1.02crore of individual taxpayers.

Kotak said the declining e-filings “does beg the questionwhether compliance was weak-er in the latter part of FY2019given that the number of regis-

tered filers has continued to seesteady growth.”

“If compliance has beenweak, the new Governmentwill aim at increasing the filingsand collections in FY2020,” itsaid. “A focused utilisation of thedata on deposits during demon-

etisation could yield better com-pliance, especially in the high-er income brackets.”

This combined with thegranular GST filing data will beessential in increasing the fil-ings as well as revenues over thenext few years, it said. “The task

is cut out for the nextGovernment looking atimproving the tax buoyancy —essential to fund the increasingtransfers in expenditure.”

The Government needs tolook at further expanding thetax base (optimally using thedata repository from demone-tization and GST).

Without a significantimprovement in the tax base,the medium-term growth pathwill be at risk, Kotak said.

It said that while it is hopedthat the filings for the assess-ment year increase (aroundAugust when filings are com-pleted), a relatively muted taxfiling growth will create further

headwinds in an alreadystressed fiscal space.

“With the recent inceptionof direct transfers in the budget,the fiscal could easily be on aslippery slope unless there is arationalization of expenditure,”it said adding around 55 percent of central Governmentexpenditure is fixed in natureand the eventual impact couldbe on further lowering capex.Given the stressed fiscal space,debt markets are burdened withheavy government and PSEborrowings, which are likely tokeep the yield curve steep inFY2020, it added.

Kotak said while a numberof activity indicators have beensignalling a slowdown in parts

of the economy, the tax collec-tions corroborate it too.

“Aggregate indirect tax rev-enues’ buoyancy has been weakalong with targets being missedon direct taxes too. Further, per-sistently high borrowing costfor financial institutions andcompanies (given crowding outby the government sector) willweigh on the near-term aggre-gate demand in the economy,”it said.

From a medium-term per-spective, if the Governmentdoes not expand its capitalexpenditure (higher transfersand muted tax growth), thegrowth prospects will be underdoubt given estimated fiscalmultipliers, it added.

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�� 23�*2%4(

Rebutting Rahul Gandhi’scharge that Anil Ambani is

a crony capitalist, RelianceGroup on Sunday said thegroup got over �1 lakh crore ofcontracts during the UPA ruleand the Congress president iscontinuing his campaign of“calumny, disinformation, dis-tortion and malicious lies”.

The Reliance Group, react-ing to Gandhi’s recent mediastatements, issued a statementto say that the Congress pres-ident “has attributed no basisto these claims whatsoever,and neither has he providedany credible evidence at all tojustify his derogatory anddefamatory campaign”.

Gandhi, in his recentmedia statements, has termed

Anil Ambani as a crony capi-talist and dishonest.

Reliance Group saidGandhi, in a “cavalier fashion,has continued his campaign ofcalumny, disinformation, dis-tortion and malicious lies”.

“He has singled out ourgroup chairman Anil DAmbani as allegedly a crony

capitalist and dishonest busi-nessman - all obviously patent-ly untrue statements,” thestatement said.

The Reliance Group alsosaid that during the 10-yearCongress-led UPA regimebetween 2004 and 2014, AnilAmbani-led Reliance Groupwas awarded projects of over Rs1 lakh crore across diverseinfrastructure sectors such aspower, telecom, roads, metro,by a government-led by theCongress party.

“The Reliance Group takesthis opportunity to requestRahul Gandhi to clarifywhether his government, for 10long years, was supporting analleged crony capitalist anddishonest businessman, to useGandhi’s own words,” thestatement added.

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Billionaire Warren Buffetton Saturday gave a clue on

who might succeed him torun his Berkshire Hathawayempire, but did not complete-ly reveal his hand.

The world’s third-richestman also said at his company’sannual shareholder meetingthat its recent investment inAmazon was not a shift instrategy to focus on SiliconValley firms, which have large-ly remained missing fromBerkshire’s voluminous port-

folio.Buffett, 88, was pressed by

questions — each greeted witha torrent of applause — aboutwho would succeed him.

Without answering direct-ly, Buffett said Gregory Able,57, and Ajit Jain, 67 — bothpromoted last year to the boardof directors — would in thenear future join him and long-time business partner CharlieMunger, 95, on the stage toanswer shareholder questions.

“You could not have twobetter operating managers thanGreg and Ajit. It’s just fantas-

tic what they’ve accomplished,”said Buffett, who is known asthe “Oracle of Omaha.” Fordecades, Buffett and Munger

have been the two stars ofBerkshire Hathaway, but onSaturday, Jain answered ashareholder question, thoughhe did so from the floor.

Abel joined the companyin 1992 in the energy division,and for more than a year hasoverseen all non-insuranceactivities, while Jain came onboard in 1986 in the insurancedivision, which he currentlyleads.

But who will prevail, orcould they jointly take thehelm? “One of the reasons wehave trouble with these ques-

tions is because Berkshire is sovery peculiar. We have a dif-ferent, kind of unbureaucraticway of making decisions,” saidMunger.

“But I don’t want to be likeeverybody else because this hasworked better. So I thinkyou’re going to have to endureus,” he said.

Buffett’s departure is like-ly to open a new era at the com-pany, especially with shares ofBerkshire considered to be 10to 15 percent above their realvalue thanks to the billionaire’spresence at the helm.

�� 23�*2%4(

With an aim to enable thefurther recapitalisation

of public sector banks (PSBs),the Finance Ministry may seeka relaxation for PSBs in themarket regulator Sebi’s normsfor entities requiring promot-ers to have 75 per cent holdingsin them, according to a seniorofficial source

The Securities andExchange Board of India (Sebi)listing norms mandate thatevery listed entity will maintaina minimum public sharehold-ing of 25 per cent.

The Government share-holding in many state-runbanks is currently above 75 percent. In case of their furtherrecapitalisation, this will goup over 90 per cent in some

cases and also touch 99 percent. In prevoius years, theGovernment had taken Sebiapproval for recapitalising PSBswhich had pushed up theGovernment’s stakes in thesebanks.

“We have taken permissionfrom Sebi on having over 75per cent Government share-holding in PSBs in the past andif banks are further capitalised, we will do so again. Alreadythe government stakes areabove 75 per cent in many ofthe state run banks,” the sourcesaid.

Asked if individual bankswill take permission for exemp-tion from Sebi’s 25 per centpublic shareholding norm, thesource said the Ministry seeksthe approval from the marketregulator.

�� )(

After a long hiatus, gold islikely to glitter this

Akashaya Tritiya and theindustry is expecting high dou-ble-digits volume growth giventhe positive consumer senti-ment and stable prices.

Retail price of gold hascome down to around �31,500per 10 grams from around�33,700 in mid-February. “Weexpect robust demand forgold/gold jewellery thisAkshaya Trithiya due to pricestability since the past fewmonths and the improved con-sumer sentiment since GudiPadwa. Looking at the currentmomentum we expect at least10 percent demand growththis auspicious occasion,”

All-India Gems &Jewellery Domestic Councilchairman AnanthaPadmanabhan told PTI.

Expectations are conserv-ative as the general election isstill on in some parts of thecountry, which will impact theoverall demand.

It can be noted that theNorthern and Eastern states areyet to complete the polls.

�� 23�*2%4(

Promoters of Vodafone Ideacontributed �17,920 crore

to its �25,000 crore rights issuecompared to their commit-ment of �18,250 crore follow-ing over-subscription of thescheme, the company saidSunday.

With this contribution, thepromoters’ stake in the coun-try’s largest telecom operatorincreased marginally to 71.57per cent from 71.33 per cent.

“The Company witnessedparticipation from bothdomestic and foreign publicshareholders. The issue wasoversubscribed approximately1.08x and the public partici-pation was approximately 1.2x.

“The promoter / promot-er group applied for higherthan their aggregate rightsentitlement in line with theirearlier commitment, however,due to strong demand frompublic shareholders, the finalallotment to the promoter /promoter group was �179.2 bil-

lion,” Vodafone Idea said in astatement.

The promoter sharehold-ers—Vodafone Group andAditya Birla Group— had ear-lier reiterated to the boardthat they intend to contributeup to �11,000 crore and up to�7,250 crore respectively,amounting to total of �18,250crore, as part of the rightsissue.

“Post allotment, the totalpromoter / promoter groupaggregate shareholding is 71.57per cent versus 71.33 per centas on the record date (April 2,2019),” the statement said.

“We are progressing wellon integration and are well ontrack to deliver our synergy

targets. Our ongoing invest-ments are improving broad-band coverage and capacity,enabling us to offer a superiornetwork experience to our cus-tomers as well as enhancing ourability to win new broadbandcustomers,” said BaleshSharma, CEO, Vodafone Idea.

The Capital RaisingCommittee of the board ofdirectors of Vodafone IdeaLimited at its meeting Saturdayapproved the basis of allotmentof equity shares to the eligibleshareholders includingrenouncees, to conclude India’slargest rights issue offering.

“We are pleased toannounce the successful clo-sure of India’s largest rightsissue offering, which witnessedparticipation from promotersalong with the strong demandfrom other marquee existingshareholders and newinvestors.

“This funding along withthe monetisation of our stakein Indus will allow us to makethe required investments in the

business to achieve our strate-gic goals,” said AkshayaMoondra, CFO, Vodafone Idea.

The board of directors onMarch 20 cleared the � 25,000-crore rights issue at a price of�12.50 per equity share, a steep61 per cent discount to the pre-vailing market rate.

In a regulatory filing, thecompany had said the rightsentitlement ratio has beenfixed at 87 equity shares forevery 38 shares held by eligi-ble shareholders of the com-pany on the record date (April2, 2019).

The rights issue opened onApril 10 and closed on April 24.According to Citi Research, thesuccessful completion of thecapital raise is positive for thecompany as it could strength-en the balance sheet, removegoing concern risks, and helpenhance network capacity andcoverage.

The new shares are expect-ed to be listed on the BSE andNSE on or around May 10,2019.

�� 23�*2%4(

E-commerce companyInfibeam Avenues said on

Sunday it has terminated ser-vices of chartered accountancyfirm S.R.B.C & Co. LLP as oneof the joint statutory auditors ongrounds of alleged sharing ofunpublished price-sensitiveinformation.

SRBC & Co LLP, an affil-iate of global auditing firm EY,in a statement issued later inthe day refuted charges and saidit is open to a regulatoryinspection and will respond tothe regulators, as required.

In a regulatory filing,Infibeam Avenues said that theboard Sunday recommended,subject to approval of regulatoryauthorities and shareholders,“to terminate company’s jointstatutory auditor S.R.B.C &CO. LLP (Auditor), on thegrounds of sharing company’sunpublished price-sensitiveinformation with personal e-mail accounts of their team andthird-party on multiple occa-sions leading to breach of trustand loss of faith”.

The company, on receipt ofanonymous third-party infor-mation shared its preliminaryfindings to the Auditor, whichhas been verified and con-firmed by the Auditor pursuantto internal investigation,Infibeam said.

“The Board was also notconvinced on the Auditorexplanations, processes andconduct leading to unautho-rised sharing of company’sUPSI (unpublished price-sen-sitive information),” it added.

S.R.B.C & Co LLP in astatement said, “We stronglydeny the allegations against us.We have conducted a compre-hensive investigation and standby our findings. We are confi-dent of our position and areopen to a third party/regulato-ry inspection and will respondto the regulators, as required.”

�� 23�*2%4(

Auto major Tata Motorsmay phase out small diesel

cars from its portfolio asdemand is expected to slowdown due to upcoming BS-VIemission norms that wouldmake such vehicles expensive,according to a senior companyofficial.

Already, market leaderMaruti Suzuki India (MSI) hasstated that it would discon-tinue diesel models from April1, 2020, when the BS-VInorms kick in, as it expects theincreased cost would put mostof the diesel cars, especially thesmaller ones, out of reach ofsmall car buyers.

Tata Motors currently sellsits entry-level hatchback Tiagowith 1-litre diesel engine,compact sedan Tigor with 1.05-litre powertrain and oldermodels like the Bolt and the

Zest with a 1.3-litre dieselengine.

“We feel that low demandfor entry- and mid-size dieselmodels will not justify the highcosts involved in developing anew small capacity engine,”Tata Motors PresidentPassenger Vehicles BusinessUnit Mayank Pareek told PTI.

Moreover, around 80 percent of the demand in the saidsegment is for petrol variants,and thus, the additionalrequired investment does notseem viable, he added.

The company’s other prod-

ucts like compact SUV Nexonand recently launched SUVHarrier come with bigger 1.5-litre and 2-litre powertrainsrespectively and are expected tobe upgraded to the next levelgoing ahead.

The company sources the2-litre diesel engine for Harrierfrom Fiat. Pareek said theintroduction of BS-VI engineswill make the complianceexpensive, particularly for smalldiesel cars.

“Given that these highcosts will ultimately have to bepassed on to the end customer,the sale of diesel vehicles willlogically see a decline in theindustry,” he added. With dieselcars set to become costlierfrom the next year with theimplementation of stricter BS-VI emission norms, majorautomakers are contemplatingabout the future of such vehi-cles in their portfolios.

�� 23�*2%4(

Prime Minister NarendraModi may have set a target

to cut India’s oil import depen-dence by 10 per cent but thecountry’s reliance on foreign oilfor meeting its energy needshas jumped to a multi-yearhigh of nearly 84 per cent, lat-est Government data showed.

Speaking at the ‘UrjaSangam’ conference in March2015, the Prime Minister hadsaid that India needs to bringdown its oil import depen-dence from 77 per cent in2013-14 to 67 per cent by 2022when India will celebrate its75th year of independence.

Further, the dependencecan be cut to half by 2030, hehad said.

But with consumptiongrowing at a brisk pace anddomestic output remainingstagnant, India’s oil importdependence has risen from

82.9 per cent in 2017-18 to 83.7per cent in 2018-19, accordingto the oil ministry’s PetroleumPlanning and Analysis Cell(PPAC).

Import dependence in2015-16 was 80.6 per cent,which rose to 81.7 per cent inthe following year, PPAC said.

The country’s oil con-sumption grew from 184.7million tonnes in 2015-16 to194.6 million tonnes in the fol-lowing year and 206.2 milliontonnes in the year thereafter. In2018-19, demand grew by 2.6per cent to 211.6 milliontonnes.

In contrast, domestic out-put continues to fall. India’s

crude oil output fell from 36.9million tonnes in 2015-16 to 36million tonnes in 2016-17. Thetrend of negative growth con-tinues in the following years aswell as output fell to 35.7 mil-lion tonnes in 2017-18 and to34.2 million tonnes in the fis-cal year that ended on March31, 2019, PPAC data showed.

The Government is focus-ing on measures like increasingdomestic production, pro-moting the use of biofuel andenergy conservation to reducedependence on imported crudeoil.

It changed explorationrules multiple times duringthe last five years to get the elu-sive private and foreign invest-ment. The previous NewExploration Licensing Policy(NELP) was changed toHydrocarbon Exploration andLicensing Policy (HELP)promising pricing and mar-keting freedom.

�� 23�*2%4(

Foreign investors pulled outa net �1,255 crore from the

domestic capital markets injust two trading sessions inMay after remaining net buyersfor the previous three months.

As per the latest deposito-ries data, foreign portfolioinvestors (FPIs) pulled out a netsum of �367.30 crore fromequities and �888.19 crorefrom the debt market duringMay 2-3, taking the total netoutflow to �1,255.49 crore.

Markets were closed onMay 1 on account ofMaharashtra Day. Prior to this,FPIs infused a net amount of�16,093 crore in April, �45,981crore in March and �11,182crore in February in the capi-tal markets (both equity anddebt).

“It is too early to take a call

on the trend in May. It is pos-sible that FPIs might pause abit in view of the election out-come,” said V K Vijayakumar,chief investment strategist at Geojit FinancialServices.

Indian capital marketshave been receiving their shareof the capital flows into theemerging markets after leadingcentral banks of the world tooka dovish monetary stance,experts said.

Vidya Bala, Head - MutualFunds Research at FundsIndia,said, “In April FPI inflows intoIndia were less robust thanMarch, coming on the back ofcontinuing rise in crude. FPIscontinued buying selectively inbanking and financial servicesand specifically in insurancesector besides oil and gas andutilities, according to data fromNSDL.”

�� 23�*2%4(

All invoices for business-to-business sales by entities

beyond a specified turnoverthreshold will be generatedon a centralised Governmentportal by September, a moveaimed at curbing the menaceof fake invoices and evasion ofGST, officials said.

The revenue secretary ismonitoring the progress ofimplementation of electronicor e-invoice project for whichan officers’ committee hasalready been set up, they added.

“E-invoice for B2B trans-actions will be rolled out innext three-four months in aphased manner. The entireinvoice would have to be gen-

erated on a Government por-tal,” an official told PTI.

The move will help incurbing Goods and ServicesTax (GST) evasion throughissue of fake invoices. Besides,it would make the returns fil-ing process simpler for busi-nesses as invoice data wouldalready be captured by a cen-tralised portal.

“Once rolled out, the e-invoice project will allow busi-nesses to simultaneously gen-erate e-way bill, if needed,” theofficial added.

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Britain’s Conservative gov-ernment and opposition

Labour Party have a duty tostrike a compromise Brexitagreement to end months ofpolitical deadlock over Britain’sexit from the European Union,Prime Minister Theresa Maysaid on Sunday.

Writing in the Mail onSunday newspaper, May toldLabour leader Jeremy Corbyn:“Let’s do a deal.”

The prospect of a cross-party compromise has alarmedmany Conservatives, however,and even May said it was “notwhat I wanted, either.”

“But we have to find a wayto break the deadlock — and Ibelieve the results of the localelections give fresh urgency tothis,” she wrote.

The Conservatives are des-perate to move forward afterlosing hundreds of positions inlast week’s local authority elec-tions. Labour also sufferedlosses as voters punished bothmain parties for the Brexitimpasse.

Almost three years afterBritain voted to leave the EU,the date and terms of Brexit

remain uncertain. The U.K.’sdeparture date has been post-poned from March 29 untilOctober 31 because May hasbeen unable to get British law-makers to approve her divorcedeal with the EU.

But suggestions that May’sgovernment might make a dealthat accepts Labour’s demandfor close economic ties with theEU have infuriated pro-BrexitConservatives, who aredemanding May’s resignation.

“We have to make achange,” former Conservativeleader Iain Duncan Smith toldLBC radio. “The message wasloud and clear that, sinceMarch 29, people have decid-ed they are absolutely furiouswith the political class.”

Labour Party politiciansare wary about making a deal

that could be seen as helpingthe archrival Conservativesdeliver Brexit. Many partymembers and lawmakers wantLabour to support a new, sec-ond referendum on Britain’sEU membership that couldreverse voters’ 2016 decision toleave.

They point to big gains inthe local elections for the anti-Brexit Liberal Democrats andGreens parties as evidence thepublic would welcome a secondreferendum. Labour economyspokesman John McDonnellsaid Sunday that the partywould try to “come to an agree-ment if we can” with theConservatives.

But he said Labour wouldonly agree to a Brexit deal thatincluded a permanent customsunion with the EU to avoidbarriers to trade. The govern-ment wants a looser relation-ship with the bloc that wouldlet Britain strike new tradedeals around the world.McDonnell also said theConservative Party’s leader-ship machinations have madenegotiations difficult.

“We’re dealing with a veryunstable government,”McDonnell told the BBC.

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Schools in Sri Lanka will re-open on Monday amidst

heavy security, officials saidSunday, two weeks after thecountry’s worst terror attackforced authorities to close theeducational institutions.

Nine suicide bombers,including a woman, carried outa series of devastating blaststhat tore through three church-es and three luxury hotels onApril 21, killing 253 people andinjuring over 500 others.

Following the attack, theauthorities closed the schoolsuntil further notice.

The second term of schoolwill commence on Monday(May 06) for Grades 6 to 13 inall government schools. For

Grades 1 to 5 the second termwill commence on May 13,Colombo Page reported.

However, classes of onlygrade VIth and above will beheld, according to the DirectorGeneral of the GovernmentInformation Nalaka Kaluwewa.

Minister Akila VirajKariyawasam said that a specialsecurity programme will beimplemented in school premis-es with the commencement ofthe new school term.

Special circulars have beenissued by the EducationMinistry regarding the securi-ty of the schools, the reportsaid.

An extensive security pro-gramme has been implement-ed by the tri forces, police andspecial task force.

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ATaliban suicide bomberand several gunmen

attacked a police headquartersin northern Afghanistan onSunday, killing at least fourpeople and wounding 40 more,according to the insurgentsand Afghan officials.

The attack occurred twodays after President AshrafGhani offered the Taliban aceasefire during the holymonth of Ramadan, whichbegins Monday.

The insurgents rebuffedthe offer that came at the end of peace talks in Kabul, and as the Taliban meet withthe US at separate talks inQatar.

Sunday’s attack started witha massive blast at the policefacility in Pul-i-Khumri, about250 kilometres north of Kabul,sending a huge plume of smokeinto the sky.

The explosion was fol-lowed up by gunmen stormingthe police compound, accord-ing to Taliban spokesmanZabihullah Mujahid.

In a tweet, he said a suicidebomber had detonated a bombinside an armoured personnelcarrier, “flattening most of thebuilding”.

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Israeli Prime MinisterBenjamin Netanyahu vowed

Sunday to continue “massivestrikes” in response to rocketfire from the Gaza Strip as adeadly escalation entered asecond day, sparking fears ofwider violence.

Gazan authorities reportedsix Palestinians killed, includ-ing at least two militants, byIsraeli strikes in the latestround of fighting that began Saturday as militantsfired hundreds of rockets intoIsrael.

But Israel disputed theiraccount of the deaths of apregnant mother and her baby,blaming errant Hamas fire.

One 58-year-old Israeliman was killed overnight by arocket strike on the city ofAshkelon near the Gaza border,Israeli police and medics said.

“I instructed the (military)this morning to continue itsmassive strikes on terror ele-ments in the Gaza Strip,”Netanyahu said at the start ofa cabinet meeting.

He said he had alsoordered “tanks, artillery andinfantry forces” to reinforcetroops already deployed nearGaza.

The flare-up came asHamas, the Islamist movementthat rules the blockadedenclave, sought further con-cessions from Israel under afragile months-old ceasefire.

Israel said its strikes werein response to Hamas andIslamic Jihad firing 450 rock-ets or mortars across the bor-der since Saturday, with Israeliair defences intercepting morethan 150.

In addition to the Israeliman killed, an 80-year-oldwoman was seriously injured ina rocket strike on the Israeli city

of Kiryat Gat, police andmedics said.

A man was also hospi-talised in Ashkelon, said police,citing other injuries withoutproviding details.

A house near Ashkelonwas damaged and other rock-ets hit open areas.

The Israeli army said itstanks and planes hit some 220militant targets in Gaza inresponse.

They included an IslamicJihad attack tunnel thatstretched from southern Gazainto Israeli territory, it said.

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Thailand’s newly-crownedKing Maha Vajiralongkorn

was carried by soldiers on a gild-ed palanquin through the streetsof Bangkok on Sunday, in frontof crowds who craned to witnessthe historic event.

The king, Rama X of theChakri dynasty, wore a bejew-elled robe and broad-brimmedhat with a feather on the secondof three days of pageantry androyal splendour. The 7-kilome-tre procession brings the publicinto close proximity with the 66-year-old monarch for the firsttime, two years after he ascend-ed the throne in an increasing-ly assertive reign.

It started around 5pm (1000GMT) at the grand palace inBangkok’s old quarter as trumpetsblared, soldiers shouted com-

mands and cannons fired a 21-gunsalute. Thais wearing yellow shirts— the royal colour — and carry-ing hats and umbrellas to protectagainst temperatures reaching 36degrees Celsius filled the streetsoutside with many clutching por-traits of Vajiralongkorn and shout-ing “Long live the King! “It may bemy first and last chance to see this,”57-year-old street NattriyaSiripattana told AFP ahead of thefirst ceremony of its kind in 69years.

The three-day coronation,which started Saturday, is thefirst since Vajiralongkorn’sadored and revered father wascrowned in 1950.

The highlight of Saturday’ssombre ceremonies was theKing’s anointment with holywater, before he placed the 7.3kilogram (16 lbs) golden tieredcrown on his head. Early

Sunday, the king bestowed royaltitles on family members whocrawled to his throne in a strik-ing show of deference to themonarch, who was joined by hisnew Queen Suthida. The queen,40, was deputy commander ofthe king’s royal guard before hermarriage to Vajiralongkorn,which was announced daysbefore the coronation. Duringthe procession, she marched inred and black uniform next tothe palanquin. Thailand’smonarchy is swaddled in ritual,protocol and hierarchy all orbit-ing around the king, who isviewed as a demigod.

During the hours-long pro-cession Thais will have theopportunity to “pay homage” tothe king who will also stop atseveral major temples to praybefore large gilded Buddhaimages.

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North Korean state mediaon Sunday showed leader

Kim Jong Un observing live-fire drills of long-range multi-ple rocket launchers and whatappeared to be a new short-range ballistic missile, a day after South Koreaexpressed concern that thelaunches were a violation of aninter-Korean agreement tocease all hostile acts.

Pyongyang’s officialKorean Central News Agencysaid Kim expressed “great sat-isfaction” over Saturday’s drillsand stressed that his front-linetroops should keep a “high alertposture” and enhance combatability to “defend the politicalsovereignty and economic self-sustenance of the country.”

The weapons launches were alikely sign of Pyongyang’sgrowing frustration at stalleddiplomatic talks withWashington meant to providecoveted sanctions relief inreturn for nuclear disarma-ment.

They also highlighted thefragility of the detente betweenthe Koreas, which in a militaryagreement reached lastSeptember vowed to com-pletely cease “all hostile acts”against each other in land, airand sea.

South Korea said it’s “veryconcerned” about NorthKorea’s weapons launches, call-ing them a violation of theagreements to reduce ani-mosities between the countries.The statement, issued after anemergency meeting Saturday of

top officials at the presidentialBlue House in Seoul, also urgedNorth Korea to stop commit-ting acts that would raise mil-itary tensions and join effortsto resume nuclear diplomacy.

South Korea’s Joint Chiefsof Staff initially said onSaturday that the Northlaunched a single missile fromthe site near the coastal townof Wonsan but later said in astatement that “several projec-tiles” had been fired.

In its updated assessmenton Sunday, the JCS did not con-firm whether the North fired aballistic missile, but said a“new tactical guided weapon”was among the weapons testedby the North, which alsoincluded 240 millimeter- and300 millimeter-caliber multiplerocket launchers.

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Turkey on Sunday dismissedUS threats of sanctions if it

went ahead with a Russianmissile purchase, saying itwould not renege on a pledgeto Moscow.

Washington has warnedits NATO ally for months thatAnkara’s adoption of Russian S-400 missile technology along-side US F-35 fighters wouldpose a threat to the jets andendanger Western defence.

The US has said it will halta joint F-35 programme withTurkey if it acquires the Russianmissile defence system. A USlaw furthermore provides forsanctions on any country con-

cluding arms deals withRussian companies.

“The US threats of sanc-tions shows that they don’tknow Turkey,” Vice PresidentFuat Oktay told Kanal 7 tele-vision.

“The decision on the S-400has been taken. Once a pact hasbeen signed, one’s word given,Turkey respects it,” he said.

The S-400 purchase is onedispute fuelling tensionsbetween two nations also atodds over US support forSyrian Kurdish militias whichAnkara brands as terroristsand Turkish backing for US foeVenezuela. Ankara said thefirst deliveries of the S-400 arescheduled for June or July.

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North Korea’s state mediasaid on Sunday that leader

Kim Jong Un had overseen arocket and tactical guidedweapons test, after the drillraised concerns Pyongyang wasescalating provocations withUS nuclear negotiations dead-locked.

The North last carried outa missile test in November2017, before a rapid diplomat-ic rapprochement saw tensionsease on the peninsula and aseries of summits.

A return to missile launch-es would be likely to infuriateUS President Donald Trump,but the North’s official KCNAnews agency shied away fromthe term in its report, sayingKim had ordered a “strike drill”involving “long-range multiplerocket launchers” - which arenot targeted by UN sanctionsresolutions - and unspecified“tactical guided weapons”.

Seoul’s defence ministrysaid Sunday an analysis of thelaunch indicated Pyongyanghad tested “240-mm and 300-mm multiple rocket launchers

and a new type of tactical guid-ed weapons with a range ofaround 70 to 240 kilometres”(45 to 150 miles).

The United States andNorth Korea have been at log-gerheads since the collapse of aTrump-Kim summit inFebruary, when the two sidesclashed over sanctions and theextent of Pyongyang’s conces-sions on its atomic arsenal.

But despite the latest sabre-rattling from Pyongyang,Trump insisted that a break-through was possible.

“Kim Jong Un fully realizesthe great economic potential ofNorth Korea, & will do nothingto interfere or end it,” Trumptweeted.

“He also knows that I amwith him & does not want tobreak his promise to me. Dealwill happen!” The US leader didnot elaborate on Kim’s promise.

During Saturday’s drill Kimurged his troops to remember“the iron truth that genuinepeace and security are ensuredand guaranteed only by pow-erful strength”, KCNA said.

The state-run RodongSinmun newspaper on Sunday

carried 16 photos of theweapons test on its front page,including a picture of a grim-looking Kim clutching hisbinoculars in an observationpost as well as several images ofprojectiles shooting skywards.

Trump proclaimed that theNorth Korean nuclear threatwas over after the two sides’ his-toric first summit in Singaporein June, when Kim pledged towork towards “complete denu-clearisation of the Korean

peninsula”.The two have since dis-

agreed over what that means,but Trump has insisted theleaders remain close even aftertheir follow-up meeting inVietnam broke up without adeal or even a joint statement,and that Kim would maintainhis moratorium on long-rangemissile and nuclear tests.

But with negotiations lag-ging, the North appears to betesting the US while staying

below that threshold.The Saturday drill followed

last month’s test-firing of veryshort-range tactical weapons,and came days after a seniorNorth Korean diplomat chas-tised US Secretary of StateMike Pompeo for making “fool-ish and dangerous” commentsduring nuclear talks.

Analysts said Pyongyangappears intent on raising pres-sure on Washington.

“Kim wants to ensure theworld knows it is upset with theUS hardline stance on denu-clearisation and will not bow toexternal pressure,” said ScottSeaman of the Eurasia Group.

But Ankit Panda of theFederation of AmericanScientists stressed that the pro-jectile launch “does not violateKim Jong Un’s self-imposedmissile-testing moratorium”,which “only applied to inter-continental-range ballistic mis-siles”.

Even so, a statement fromSeoul’s presidential Blue Housesaid it was “greatly concerned”,calling it a violation of a mili-tary agreement signed by bothKoreas last year.

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Seven Venezuelan militaryofficers were killed on

Saturday when their helicoptercrashed while heading to a statewhere President Nicolás Maduroappeared alongside troops, daysafter the opposition called invain for a military uprising.

The Cougar helicopter hur-tled into a mountain outsideCaracas in the early hours of anovercast day in the capital. Aninvestigation was underway.

The armed forces in astatement said the chopper washeading to San Carlos inCojedes state. That’s near a mil-

itary academy where Maduroappeared early Saturday to over-see training exercises followinga week of intrigue that saw asmall group of security forcesturn against him in the failedattempt by opposition leaderJuan Guaidó to overthrow thegovernment. On board the heli-copter were two lieutenantcolonels as well as five lower-ranking officers. The statementdidn’t say if the chopper was partof the presidential delegation.

Also in Caracas on Saturday,a protester handed over a writ-ten appeal for the military’ssupport, but a Venezuelanpoliceman burned the docu-

ment and let the ashes fall to the ground. The armed forces“won’t be blackmailed orbought,” said a second officerstanding nearby.

Benito Rodriguez fumed ashe watched the events unfold.

“It’s a humiliation,” saidRodriguez, a demonstrator whohad joined a crowd of about 150protesters gathered near LaCasona, a residence historical-ly used by Venezuelan presi-dents. The scene highlights theuphill battle now facing oppo-nents of Maduro who havefailed to persuade the country’ssecurity forces to join efforts tooust the leader.

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Anti-Government protest-ers marched in France for

a 25th straight week onSaturday but in significantlysmaller numbers than duringthe yellow vest movement’sfirst months or for a May Dayrally that attracted tens ofthousands of participants.

Several dozen peopledemonstrated at Paris’ Charlesde Gaulle Airport to denounceprivatisation plans.

Protests were also held inParis and other cities aroundFrance, including Nice,Marseille and Lyon, whereenvironmentalists and yellowvest protesters joined forces.

The Interior Ministrycounted a total of 2,600 par-ticipants at three events inParis and 18,900 in all ofFrance, a low for Saturdayprotest marches, according toFrench media reports.

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Charlie Munger, businesspartner of billionaire Warren

Buffett, said on Saturday the twoare “ashamed” of not havinginvested in Google, which hasbecome one of the world’s mostvaluable companies.

Buffett’s BerkshireHathaway empire, of whichMunger is vice president,recently took a stake inAmazon and has a $40 billionstake in Apple, but has gener-ally steered clear of the tech-nology sector.

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Witches were still beingburned at the stake when

Sir Matthew Hale came upwith his legal theory that rape could not happen withinmarriage.

The 17th century Englishjurist declared it legally impos-sible because wedding vowsimplied a wife’s ongoing con-sent to sex.

Three and a half centurieslater, vestiges of the so-called“marital rape exemption” or“spousal defense” still exist inmost states — remnants of theEnglish common law thathelped inform American legaltraditions.

Legislative attempts to endor modify those exemptionshave a mixed record but havereceived renewed attention inthe #MeToo era.

The most recent efforts to

roll back protections for spous-es focus on rapes that happenwhen a partner is drugged,unconscious or otherwise inca-pacitated.

Minnesota is the latest totake action. The stateLegislature this week voted toeliminate the exemption, whichhad prevented prosecutions inthose cases.

“No longer will this anti-quated and shameful law be onour books,” Gov. Tim Walz saidas he signed the bill into law onThursday. “The concept of apre-existing relationshipdefense should have never beenpart of our criminal statutes.” InOhio, determined opponentsplan to re-introduce a maritalrape bill this month, after twoearlier attempts failed.

Former lawmaker andprosecutor Greta Johnson wasthe first to introduce the Ohiolegislation in 2015.

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At least nine people werekilled on Saturday in an

attack claimed by the IslamicState group targeting forcesloyal to strongman KhalifaHaftar in southern Libya, offi-cials said.

IS fighters, “backed bycriminal groups and merce-naries”, launched a dawn assaulton a military training camp inthe southern city of Sebha,which is controlled by Haftar’sforces, the city’s mayor Hamedal-Khayali told AFP “The attackleft nine dead ... Some of whomhad their throats slit and otherswho were shot dead,” he said.

A spokesman for the Sebha

Medical Centre confirmed ithad received nine dead bodies.

IS claimed responsibilityfor the attack in a statement dis-tributed through social media,saying it had targeted “Haftar’sheretical militia” and freed pris-oners held on the base.

Sebha is controlled byHaftar’s self-proclaimed LibyanNational Army, which opposesthe UN-recognised Gover-nment of National Accord basedin Tripoli. A power strugglebetween the unity governmentand Haftar — who has over thelast month launched an offen-sive against Tripoli and forcesloyal to the GNA — has left thecountry’s vast desert south alawless no-man’s land.

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Imagine a world with no adults, sounds great right?But then remember that as teens, you would have

to govern yourself, feed yourself, deal with crimeaccordingly. Sounds a little less fun now, doesn’t it?When everyone else mysteriously vanishes fromtheir wealthy town, the teen residents of West Hammust forge their own society to survive. The sea-son 1 is slated to release on May 10 on Netflix.

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When longtime friends meet up for a wine-soaked birthday getaway in Napa Valley, their

perfectly planned weekend turns messier by theminute. Starring Amy Poehler, Maya Rudolph andAna Gasteyer, the film will release on May 10 onNetflix.

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As two teen prodigies try to master the art oftime travel, a tragic police shooting sends

them on a series of dangerous trips to the past.Starring Eden Duncan-Smith, Dante Crichlow andAstro, the film is slated to release on May 17 onNetflix.

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European and American investiga-tors have broken up one of the

world’s largest online criminal mar-ketplaces for drugs, hacking toolsand financial-theft wares in raids inthe United States, Germany andBrazil.

Three German men, ages 31, 22and 29, were arrested after the raidsin three southern states on allega-tions they operated the so-called“Wall Street Market” darknet plat-form, which hosted about 5,400sellers and more than 1 millioncustomer accounts, Frankfurt pros-ecutor Georg Ungefuk said.

A Brazilian man, the site’s allegedmoderator, was also charged. Thethree Germans, identified in US courtdocuments as Tibo Lousee, JonathanKalla and Klaus-Martin Frost, facedrug charges in Germany on allega-tions they administrated the platformwhere cocaine, heroin and otherdrugs, as well as forged documentsand other illegal materials, were sold.

They have also been charged in theUnited States with conspiring to laun-der money and distribute illegal drugs,according to a criminal complaint filedin Los Angeles federal court.

“The charges filed in Germany andthe United States will significantlydisrupt the illegal sale of drugs on thedarknet,” Assistant US Attorney RyanWhite told reporters in Germany. “Webelieve that Wall Street Market recent-ly became the world’s largest darknetmarketplace for contraband includingnarcotics, hacking tools, illegal servicesand stolen financial data.”

Ungefuk said Wall Street Marketwas at least the second biggest,refusing to name others for fear ofjeopardising other investigations.

In the nearly two-year operationinvolving European police agencyEuropol and authorities in theNetherlands as well as the US andGermany, investigators pinpointedthe three men as administrators ofthe platform on the darknet. It is partof the internet often used by crimi-nals that is hosted within an encrypt-ed network and accessible onlythrough anonymity-providing tools,such as the Tor browser.

Transactions were conductedusing cryptocurrencies and the sus-pects took commissions rangingfrom 2 per cent to 6 per cent,Ungefuk said.

The site trafficked documentssuch as identity papers and drivers’licenses. But an estimated 60 per centor more of the business was drug-related, he said.

Authorities swept in quicklyafter the platform was switched intoa “maintenance mode” on April 23,and the suspects allegedly begantransferring funds used on the plat-form to themselves in a so-called“exit scam,” Ungefuk said.

The U S Department of Justicesaid the administrators took approx-imately $11 million in the exit scamfrom escrow and user accounts.

The US identified a fourth defen-dant as Marcos Paulo De Oliveira-Annibale, 29, of Sao Paulo, Brazil. Itwas not clear if he had been arrest-ed, and federal police in Brazilwouldn’t comment.

Annibale, who went by themoniker “MED3LIN” online, facesfederal drug distribution and moneylaundering charges in the UnitedStates for allegedly acting as a mod-erator on the site in disputes betweenvendors and their customers. He alsoallegedly promoted Wall Street Marketon prominent websites such as Reddit,

the Justice Department said.Brazilian authorities searched

his home after investigators linkedhis online persona to pictures heposted of himself years ago, USofficials said.

A University of Manchestercriminology researcher who followsactivity on dark web markets, PatrickShortis, said the takedown was wide-ly anticipated after Annibale leakedhis credentials and the market’s trueinternet address online.

Knocking out Wall Street Marketis unlikely to have a lasting impacton online criminal markets, thoughlaw enforcement officials make itclear they are going after sellers andcustomers, Shortis said.

In Los Angeles, two drug suppli-ers were arrested and authoritiesconfiscated about $1 million cash,weapons and drugs in raids. Theywere only identified by their onlinemonikers, “Platinum45” and“Ladyskywalker,” and characterisedas “major drug traffickers” dealingmethamphetamine and fentanyl.

After the first big takedown ofsuch a marketplace, of Silk Road in2013, it took overall trade about fourto five months to recuperate, Shortissaid. And after law enforcementtook out Hansa and AlphaBay in2017, it took about a month, he said.

Shortis said one threat he doessee to the market, in the short termat least, are so-called denial of ser-vice cyberattacks that effectivelyknock web servers offline by flood-ing them with traffic.

“An extortionist is currently target-ing Empire and Nightmare, who areboth in the running to replace WallStreet as the top market,” he said.

The raids in Germany culminat-ed with the seizure of servers, whilefederal police confiscated 5,50,000euros ($615,000) in cash, Bitcoin andMonero cryptocurrencies, hard dri-ves and other evidence in multipleraids.

Because of the clandestine natureof the operation and the difficulty oftracing cryptocurrencies, Ungefuksaid it was difficult to assess the over-all volume of business conducted bythe darknet group. But he said that“we’re talking about profits in themillions at least.”

E3

Democracy’s biggest fes-tival is halfwaythrough and being cel-ebrated in its fullsplendour. With Delhi

headed to polls on May 12, therestaurants too have decided to chipin and do their bit to encouragepeople to vote. Or chill out aftermandating a nation’s destiny. Andit is a win-win situation for every-one around. While restaurants getfootfalls, the clients get great dealsand the voting percentage alsosees a spike. Let’s trawl throughsome of the deals that cafes andrestaurants offer in their specialmenu, during the election seasonwith the aim of uniting politicallydiverse perspectives over a greatmeal.

�� Monkey Bar (all outlets) pro-

poses the election-special offer forthose who enter the queues to voteat the ongoing elections. By show-ing their inked finger, customerscan get 19 per cent off on their foodorders. They suggest to not washthat ink off too fast as the offer isvalid for two days after the day ofvoting.

Dheeraj Varma, head chef ofthe gastropub, says, “It’s electiontime across the country and webelieve in being relevant and con-nected with what is happeningaround us. Giving discounts is ourway of encouraging customers tocome forward and exercise theirvote. It’s a reward for those who beatthe heat and vote for a great futurefor the country. So show us yourinked finger and be rewarded forbeing a good citizen.”

From juicy burgers to signaturecocktails like the Copper Monkeyand Mangaa, they aim to presenttheir specialities not just to attractfoodies but to create an awarenessabout the importance of voting. Nomatter how the polls swing, every-one is the winner here. The offer isvalid on May 13 and 14.

The Great Kabab Factory atRadisson Blu, Faridabad is also

offering 20 per cent discount onthe total bill value. Just by show-ing your voter-ID card and ink onthe finger, you can avail the offer.“People should exercise their fran-chise for the development of thecountry and as a token of respectfor those who have voted, our out-let is offering them a 20 per centdiscount. We are appreciatingevery individual who has voted.This discount is our humble con-tribution to encourage citizens,”says GM Harpreet Vohra.

!�� ! "�� #� $!"��%�� #Cafe Bokan has come up with

his election-special menu compris-ing dishes like The Aam AadmiPasta, which is based on the aamadmi’s (common man’s) tastes andpreferences. The Modi Magic Paneerroll has masala cottage cheese rolledin whole wheat bread. The Rahul’sspecial Gath Bandhan French fries,with a mix of regional sauce toppedwith Italian cheese, is going totickle every inch of your tastebuds.The plot twist is to make a visit tothe cafe and cast the vote to yourfavourite dish.

�#� �&��!�� #!&�Ardor 2.1 recently unveiled the

look of its new election-special thaliand has become a sensation amongall. It brings 28 different cuisinesfrom the 28 states of India on a sin-gle plate, serving ChowkidaarParanthas as the 29th item in thethali. It has been designed in theshape of the Indian map and hasboth vegetarian as well as non-veg-etarian variants, weighing around 5.5kg of net weight and around 10.5 kgof total weight. It has items likePaneer butter masala, Lithi choka,Dhokla and Khandvi, Gongura pach-di, Shaphaley, Aloo posto, Himachalicholey, Bisi bele bath, Dal pachrangiin the veg variants, whereas Chickenbutter masala, Biryani, Kosha mang-sho, Galouti kebabs, Mutton pepperfry, Chicken chettinad, Goan fishcurry and Chicken shaphaley featurein the non-veg segment. Both thethalis have desserts like Raj bhog,Sago kheer and also accompanimentslike Pudina chutney, Bhaang ki chut-ney and Rasam.

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In Hollywood’s box officewar, Avengers: Endgame has

turned out to be a game-changer as it gallops its way tothe $2 billion mark, raising themillion dollar questionwhether it will surpass the$2.78 billion benchmark set byAvatar a decade ago.

According to Forbes,Avengers: Endgame has alreadyminted $1.82 billion in world-wide receipts as it heads intothe second week since itsrelease, making it inevitablethat it will zoom past the life-time collection of its predeces-sor Avengers: Infinity War($2.05 billion) and Star Wars:The Force Awakens ($2.07 bil-lion).

Even Titanic made $2.19billion, but James Cameron’sAvatar, a tale set in the magi-cal land of Pandora and aboutblue-skinned Na’vi people, isthe big daddy. Not only isAvengers: Endgame a directsequel to Avengers: InfinityWar, it’s the culmination of theprevious 20-plus titles in theMarvel Cinematic Universe(MCU), a blockbuster series offilms that commenced withIron Man in 2008.

The talk of the film cross-ing its threshold is intriguing,and complicated, as per thereports. “The most obviousreason is inflation. Movie tick-ets cost a lot more now thanthey did in 2009 — a full 20 percent more in the US alone.That means Avatar would havegrossed some $150 millionmore here than its $760 milliondomestic total in today’s dol-lars, a number that actuallyputs the global total of Avatarnear the $3 billion mark,” itsreport pointed out.

Also, Avatar was playingon fewer screens than Avengers:Endgame, China being a key

case in point. It has minted$460 million of the ...Endgamebox office, more than doublethe $204 million Avatar regis-tered there, but that is also todo with the spurt in the num-ber of theatres in the countryin the last 10 years.

In India, Avengers:Endgame has not just outper-formed every Hollywoodmovie -- including The JungleBook which had made $38.8million in its entire theatricalrun in the country, but alsobreaking box office myths fordesi filmmakers.

According to trade analystTaran Adarsh, the MarvelCinematic Universe movie hasshattered two myths, “Screencount and release period”.“Most Hindi biggies release in3,500 screens, even 4,000 or4,500+ at times, yet thosemovies don’t achieve the num-bers that Avengers: Endgamehas amassed in just seven dayson 2,845 screens,” he tweeted.

India is the fifth biggestinternational market for thefilm, with China leading withover $500 million, followed bythe UK, Korea and Mexico. Ithas left the Indian film indus-try to deliberate upon its ownstrategies.

Adarsh wrote, “...Endgameis decimating previous recordsand setting new benchmarks.The audience is thirsting forwell-made entertainers, butwe rely more on packaging andmarketing to do the trick... Nowonder, our films misfire toooften.”

Directed by Joe Russo andAnthony Russo, the film hasHollywood biggies like RobertDowney Jr, Chris Evans, MarkRuffalo and Chris Hemsworthsuiting up as the world’sfavourite superheroes.

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The great history of mankind givesto us a panoramic view of the past

events and also presents before us aparade of similar and dissimilar butsignificant events that occurred in suc-cession, giving a running commentaryon the persons. These accounts ofevents were handed down to poster-ity in the form of oral tradition, pic-tography, edicts, coins and writtenwords. But from a study of the formin which these narratives were hand-ed to the successive generations, thedrawn conclusion is that the historyis a record of change that occurred incivilisations, nations, cities, states andhuman settlements or even nomadictribes. It is a continuous story of riseand fall of certain men and womenand also of communities, nations andgroups who were led by them duringa particular period.

These chronicles of change showthat certain men and women had agreat transformation in their lives byreflecting deeply on the futility of theiracts. It was always the trio of deepreflections, realisation and resolvethat enabled them to rise to great moraland spiritual heights. This transforma-tion that began with them, later trans-formed large sections of mankind. Afew of those people are Saint Valmiki,Gautam Buddha, King Ashoka,Tulsidas and Mahatma Gandhi.

Saint Valmiki used to rob passen-gers that passed his way towards thedeep forest. One day, he made anattempt to rob some Sadhus or men-dicants. They told him that he wasearning his livelihood in a sinful wayand none of his family members, forwhom he would rob, would save himfrom the punishment for his sins.Valmiki realised this and he made afirm resolve to not rob anyone infuture. This led him to his innertransformation and in turn, awakenedmany of his good qualities. He wasnow a deeply compassionate man andhis mind became highly moved towrite about the victory of virtue overvice in the form of the great epic,Ramayana. Similarly, when Buddhasaw people ailing and dying, he realisedthat there was a lot of suffering in theworld and that he should try to iden-tify their cause so as to liberate him-self and others from them. Thisbrought in him a great transformation,which later led to the transformationof many others. Similarly, Ashokareflected over the great sufferingscaused to people as a result of theKalinga war. Realising the futility ofwars, he resolved to give up on war for-ever.

The great poet Tulsidas reflectedon the remarks of his wife when onemidnight he visited her at his in-lawshouse without their invitation. Herealised that sexual lust was an abjectform of dependence on women and itwould be better to love God. WhenMohanlal Karamchand Gandhi’s bag-gage was thrown out of a moving train,he too was pushed out. Reflecting onthis sad and humiliating event, herealised how degrading it was to be thecitizen of a country that was under theyoke of a foreign rule. His self-respect

awakened and he vowed that he wouldspend the rest of his life for the polit-ical freedom of his country. This is howhis own transformation made thedream of free India a reality.

Such examples clearly indicatehow inner transformation in menoccurred after deep reflection, realisa-tion and setting a resolve. These threesteps changed sinners into saints,ordinary men into great leaders andmen of clay into higher-souled per-sons. These awakened their potentialto do good. Those who were involvedin destructive acts initially, nowbecame constructive and creative. Thechange in individuals thus resulted insocietal transformation.

However, is it that easy a task totransform oneself? Experiences haveshown that the greatest difficulty inthis process of change is man’s ownresistance, non-co-operation or a lackof will or intention to change. But, inpresent day situation, when man does-n't have constant happiness, isunhealthy, has sorrows and sufferingsor when the clouds of destruction arelooming large in the form of nuclearweapons, there should not be any agi-tation in thoughtful people to trans-form their lifestyles into a kind thatdoes not bring suffering to otherhumans. Once the process of transfor-mation begins, then it will automati-cally catch other people’s attention. Wemust ask — is there anybody who doesnot like a smiling rose? None. Well,who wouldn’t like a cool morningbreeze in sunny summer days? Whowould resist its refreshing and energis-ing effect? Similarly, if there is a per-son who always wears a smile onhis/her face and speaks words whichare refreshing, energising and sweet asthe nightingale’s melody, then no onewill be able to resist the temptation ofbeing like fellow. Does the innocenceof a child not attract and impress all?Is there anyone who has never beennourished by milk?

Archemedes had said, ‘Give me alever long enough and a fulcrum onwhich to place it and I shall move theworld.’ Similarly, the AlmightySupreme says, if you change individ-ually, you will be able to change a larg-er part of the world. On your shoul-der, rests the responsibility of transfor-mation of the whole world.

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It was a book called The Ocean in a Drop—Insideout Youth Leadership that inspiredme to be myself. It was at this point when

my faith in the other four spaces legitimisedto youth today, (family, education/ career,friends and leisure) was at its lowest and mysocial hope was tattered that I came acrossthe ‘Fifth Space.’ The idea swept me off myfeet with its possibility. For the first time inmy life, I felt that I could live up to my name.Possibilities were all around me... I just hadto seize them.

The book, written by founders of Dharaand Changemakers Youth Collective, argued,rather persuasively, based on the writers’experience of twenty plus years in the fieldof youth-centric development, that social andeconomic renewal, needed creation ofempowering spaces for young people wherethey could re-imagine the connectionbetween themselves and the society, wherethey could take a journey from self to soci-ety in such a way that they could re-exam-ine themselves.

Youth and the societyWhat expectations do young people have

from the society? What does society wantfrom young people? What are their dreams,passion and capacities? There lies one pow-erful answer to three questions that policy-makers can ignore at their own peril. We needyoung leaders who are wholesome, congru-ent, and can create a lasting impact. Thereis an ocean in every young person’s dropwhich policy-makers should explore beforepushing one into the duty of nation-build-ing. Don’t you resonate with this idea? Ouridentity quest should be treated like a fun-damental right. And to build our capacitiesto their full potential, we have to undertakethe fundamental duties written in theConstitution. Small social actions that sup-port other people to live a better life. This way,I am changing the world even as it is trans-forming me. To make us mere foot soldiersfor someone else’s cause, is to minimise thepotential of young people and the society theylive in.

Thus, the authors imagined the FifthSpace as more psychological than geo-graphical. It was an experience that lived anddied in the moment. While each was unique(and hence, there was no particular name orideology behind it), some principles guidedthe creation of such an experience. One thatappealed to me was that it had to be co-ledby the facilitators and young people. This wasthe most liberating thought in the book. Wehad got so used to the rules made by others

and the expectations to conform that wecould never experience what it meant tomake and live by our own laws. And as wegrew up, we did what came naturally to us— conform. We stayed within our ownspheres of interest and concern leaving oth-ers (mostly ‘adults’) to deal with the commonspaces. This was the reason for the degrada-tion of our forests, oceans, deserts, cities andvillages. The authors argued that the com-munity connect of youth had to be revivedand our contracts with society, clarifying therole each one was expected to play, neededrenewal. To reverse the neglect of commonspaces, they said these spaces would have tobe reimagined with the youth. Many success-ful examples were shared, one of which I evenvisited later—the Ideabox Foundation inBengal — but let me not get ahead of myself.

Get real — diving into the ocean ofnotion

I remember my first Fifth Space experi-ence well. It was a workshop on deep self-awareness called Get Real. I expected thequestion we were going to focus on to be‘Who am I?’ but it turned out we were goingto spend most of the time on the question‘Who are we?’ Through many experientialgames, thought experiments and rich discus-sions, we figured out that as humans, our evo-lutionary niche (like the camel feet arepadded for walking on sand) is language orour ability to put commonly-agreed symbols

for objects, concepts, feelings, processesand structures. Fahad, the lead facilitator,showed us how we used language to trans-port us outside the moment (both in spaceand time) or bring something from anoth-er time and space into the ‘now,’ thereby giv-ing us the ability to take better decisions thanother species.

To understand what I am saying better,do you want to try a thought experiment thatwe did in the workshop? Alright, sit back withyour eyes closed. Wait. How will you readwith eyes closed? Take the help of someoneelse and make them read out this section toyou. Youth facilitators or someone workingwith young people can use this exercise toget them (young people) to see this symbol-ic ability of language to transport us outsidethe moment.

So you see, we invented language to learnfrom the past, to imagine ourselves into thefuture and plan ahead of time. Language hasbeen a great boon and we have overtakenevery other species by becoming masters ofthe planet. We control everything except ourminds. Fahad demonstrated how we hadlearnt to thrive and survive by travelling out-side the moment using our symbolic abilitybut we couldn’t switch it off ever, not evenwhen we slept. Thought has no present, onlya past and a future. We were trapped outsidethe moment just as the rest of the species werecaged inside it. So, while it had helped us riseto the top of the pecking order, symbolic abil-

ity or language had also given humanity ourbiggest banes — uncontrollable desires,anxiety, fears, and regrets to name a few.

How to manage these banes? For this,symbolic literacy was the need of the hour.We transact our lives in stories; at the coreof our being, we are word merchants and yetwe don’t know enough about our symboliclearning ability. After an outdoor adventureexercise, we recognised how our fears are onlyphantoms produced by our imagination. Itwas a liberating thought. When Fahad, thelead facilitator, helped us understand that wecould change our inner self merely by re-scripting some of the stories we’d told our-selves, it freed me up like nothing else everhad before. Can you imagine being the sta-tion master rather than the driver (or manytimes even a passenger) of your train ofthoughts? Doesn’t it make you feel more incontrol already? Further, imagine sitting inyour station master’s office, pulling out thecharts and observing the stops and timings?

And then ordering a change in itsschedule and route to assert your charge?Fahad put it beautifully, ‘Freedom is justanother word for regaining control over yourlife.’ Of course, it was easier said than done.‘We all have a fear of fears,’ Fahad said. Thismade it very difficult for me to examine myfears, let alone rewrite them. But for the firsttime, after the exercise, at least I was able toarticulate my major fear. I was mortally afraidof failure or rejection, which made me avoidtrying things beyond my comfort zone. Incase things didn’t go right, I blamed others;even if it meant lying to myself. I glossed overmy errors and brushed them under the car-pet.

Are you also running away from yourfears like me?

Fahad told us to do the opposite. Hesaid the first step was to befriend thesefears, not shoo them away. Because onlywhen you stop rejecting the fear, wouldyou get a chance to watch it and only whenyou quit struggling against it would youbegin to see the patterns. How was I evergoing to sit with my fear rather than bolt-ing from its shadow? The first shift hap-pened when I listened to others’ fears andfound mine was not unique. Several oth-ers had the same fear. Suddenly, I foundthe extreme turbulence in my mind thatarose from uncovering my fear start to set-tle down.

(The extract is taken from the bookComMutiny, Sparking an Inside-out YouthLeadership Revolution.)

Whether it’s on an enormousestate or outside a little

house, the modern garden aims forwild-looking landscapes, nativespecies and seamless transitions tonatural surroundings, according toa new book featuring the work ofprominent contemporary gardendesigners.

In Garden Wild: WildflowerMeadows, Prairie-Style Plantings,Rockeries, Ferneries, and OtherSustainable Designs Inspired byNature (Rizzoli), photographerAndre Baranowski explores adozen very different gardens — allof them mostly devoid of mani-cured lawns and fussy pruning.

The focus, instead, is on sus-tainability and plant diversity.Featured garden designers includeOehme van Sweden, FernandoCaruncho, Jorge Sanchez and PietOudolf.

Each chapter explores a singlegarden, explaining the designer’sapproach, the challenges posed andgarden highlights, with an eye toinspiring home gardeners to trytheir hand at this more natural-looking approach.

“Tons of money still goes intofertilisers and weed killers for tra-ditional-style manicured lawns,but I’m trying to show people thatweeds can be quite beautiful. Theycan be stunning. Gardens can begorgeous and sustain wildlife, andat the same time be easier tomaintain,” says Baranowski, whovisited the 12 gardens hundreds oftimes, looking for the most evoca-

tive images. “This wilder look isabsolutely catching on,” he says.

The book begins with a gardenin Water Mill, New York, designedin the 1980s by pioneering land-scaper James van Sweden, co-founder with Wolfgang Oehme ofthe Oehme van Sweden firm. In adeparture from the staid hedges,boxwoods and perennial bordersthat dominated the East End ofLong Island at the time, vonSweden planted low-maintenancegrasses and other native plants, andplants appropriate for the seascapelike lavender, sedums, willows andmagnolias.

Bringing native grasses rightup to the pool’s edge was consid-ered revolutionary at the time,Baranowski says.

In a garden in East Hampton,New York, Eric Groft, of the firmOehme van Sweden, screened outtraffic using ornamental grasses,which have the added benefit ofdeterring deer, the book says.

Plantings focused on green,gold and purple shrubs, perenni-als, and grasses that thrive in thelocal microclimate, with annualsappearing only in pots. Mature old

elms, flowering dogwoods andblack locusts were left in place togive the garden a more establishedlook.

In New York’s Lower HudsonValley area, meanwhile, landscapedesigner Kathy Moreau designedand refreshed several gardens onan expansive property, in one areacreating a garden meant to bewalked on — ideally with bare feet.While stepping stones suggestedthe walking path, ground cover like

sedum, mosses and periwinkle(to add color) were chosen specif-ically to delight the feet.

Throughout the property,Moreau replaced invasive plantswith native or sustainable planti-ngs — “sustainable in the sense thatthey attract pollinators and do notrequire a lot of extra water or nutri-ents,” she says in the book.

“With every garden, you havethe chance to do more than pro-vide a practical solution — for

example, something pretty to lookat, or screening from a neighbour,”she says. “The best landscapedesign does that and more: itshould be environmentally respon-sive and also artistic to fully engageboth the people lucky enough toenjoy the garden and the breadthof other living things that dependon it.”

Most of the gardens featuredare in New York or New Jersey,with the addition of one in AshleyFalls, Massachusetts, and one inWilton, Connecticut.

The most public of the gardensfeatured is the High Line in NewYork City, inspired by the self-seed-ed landscape that grew up betweenthe rail tracks after trains stoppedrunning there in the 1980s.

Baranowski notes that despitethe trend toward more natural-looking gardens, many of thecountry’s suburban spaces contin-ue to run to manicured lawns andhedges.

“If that could change, just a lit-tle bit, it could be so much morebeautiful and wild,” he says wist-fully.

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Naomi Osaka eased con-cerns about her form and

fitness by coming through atricky first round againstDominika Cibulkova on Sundayat the Madrid Open.

Osaka has struggled sincesplitting with her coach SaschaBajin in February while anabdominal injury forced her towithdraw in Stuttgart eight daysago, creating doubts about herchallenge at the French Openlater this month.

But there was little sign ofphysical problems during a test-ing 6-2, 7-6 (8/6) victory overCibulkova and afterwards,Osaka said: "I feel good. I don'thave much pain in my abs sothat's always a good sign."

The Japanese world num-ber one will now face Spain'sSara Sorribes Tormo in roundtwo.

Meanwhile, French Openchampion and two-time Madridwinner Simona Halep brushedpast Russian qualifier MargaritaGasparyan 6-0, 6-4.

"It was a good match, evenif the first set was fast. The sec-

ond one was tougher, and I feelhappy that I could win thismatch," said third-seeded Halep.

Former world number oneand four seed Karolina Pliskovasaved five match points to seeoff highly-rated Ukrainianteenager Dayana Yastremska5-7, 7-6 (7/5), 6-3.

Unseeded PaulineParmentier of France defeatedUkrainian sixth seed ElinaSvitolina, who had been strug-gling with a knee injury, 6-4, 7-6 (8/6).

US 13th seed Madison Keys

was also a surprise first roundloser, going down 3-6, 6-4, 6-1to Sorana Cirstea of Romania.

However, there were nosuch problems for former USOpen champion — and recent-ly engaged — Sloane Stephensas the eighth seed defeatedPolona Hercog of Slovenia 6-2,7-6 (7/4).

In one of the few ATPmatches played on Sunday,Australia's Nick Kyrgios was a7-6 (7/4), 6-4 loser to Germany'sJan-Lennard Struff, a quarter-finalist in Barcelona last month.

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Bayern Munich veteran FranckRibery has said he wants to

leave the Bavarians celebrating aleague and cup double after con-firming that he will end his 12-year spell at the Bundesligaclub after this season.

In a statement on theirwebsite on Sunday, Bayernannounced theFrenchman would notextend his contract beyondJune 2019.

"When I came to Bayern itwas a dream come true, it is amaz-ing that I have been here for 12years," said Ribery, 36, who joinedin 2007 and has won eightBundesliga titles and five GermanCups since then.

"It won't be easy to leave, butwe must never forget what we haveachieved together."

"I hope that we can win theBundesliga and the German Cupbefore I go."

Ribery said he did not yethave any plans for next season.

"I don't want to think toomuch about what is coming next,I just want to enjoy every day here

with the team," he said."I will play football next sea-

son of course, but I am not 100percent sure where."

Bayern also announced theywould organise a "big farewellgame" for both Ribery and fellowstalwart Arjen Robben, to be heldin 2020.

Robben, 35, confirmed hisimpending departure at the end oflast year, and it was widely expect-ed that Ribery would follow suit,as Bayern prepare for a squadoverhaul ahead of next season.

The two wingers have beendefining stars in a dominantdecade for Bayern, winning theChampions League in 2013 as wellas a host of domestic titles.

"Franck and Arjen are greatplayers, and Bayern Munich havea lot to thank them for," said clubCEO Karl-Heinz Rummenigge.

"They helped shape the mostsuccessful decade in the history ofthe club." Robben made an emo-tional return from injury andRibery scored in a 3-1 win overHanover on Saturday.

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Liverpool struck late through DivockOrigi to move back top of the PremierLeague with a thrilling 3-2 win at

Newcastle on Saturday and keep theirhopes of a first title for 29 years alive but suf-fered a major scare after injury to MohamedSalah.

Newcastle had twice come from behindthrough Christian Atsu and SalomonRondon to cancel out goals from Virgil vanDijk and Salah.

However, Jurgen Klopp's men piled thepressure back on Manchester City by mov-ing two points clear of the champions thanksto Origi's header four minutes from time.

The title remains in City's hands as theyhave two games remaining to Liverpool'sone.

However, in a recurring theme of athrilling title race, Liverpool dug deep lateon to continue asking questions of the cham-pions.

The visitors' showed no signs of tired-ness early on as Salah twice fired off target

at the back post, but Newcastle wereorchestrators of their downfall when theopening goal arrived on 13 minutes.

Alexander-Arnold's corner found VanDijk completely unmarked as Rondonslipped and the PFA's Player of the Yearpowered home his fifth goal of the season.

Newcastle had barely ventured over thehalfway line in the first 20 minutes, but lev-elled with their first serious attack.

Matt Ritchie's driven cross was turnedgoalwards by Rondon, whose shot wassaved on the line by the arm of Alexander-Arnold.

A penalty and a red card would likelyhave followed for the Liverpool defenderhad Atsu not put home the rebound.

All of a sudden Newcastle looked themore dangerous side as Ayoze Perez turnedVan Dijk before smashing off the crossbar.

However, an enthralling first 28 min-utes took another twist when Alexander-Arnold made the most of his reprieve to stillbe on the field with his second assist of thenight.

His cross found Salah inside the area,

but the Egyptian still had plenty to do ashe cushioned a finish into the far corner onhis weaker right foot to move two in frontof teammate Sadio Mane and SergioAguero in the race for the Golden Boot.

In the second half Liverpool did notclear their lines from a corner and the ballbroke for Rondon to fire sweetly past thehelpless Alisson Becker.

Worse was to come for Liverpool asSalah was caught on the head by Dubravkaas the Slovakian goalkeeper raced from hisgoal to punch the ball to safety.

He was stretchered off, his hands overhis face to applause from both sets of sup-porters.

Without two thirds of their prolificfrontline, Liverpool would have been for-given for thinking their chase of City wasup.

But, not for the first time this season,Origi, who scored a 96th minute winneragainst Everton in the Merseyside derby inDecember, came off the bench to score avital late goal as he got his head to XherdanShaqiri's free-kick.

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Barcelona rested all 11 players that start-ed against Liverpool in the Champions

League but paid the price on Saturday asthey were beaten 2-0 by struggling CeltaVigo in La Liga.

Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez and PhilippeCoutinho were all among those left outahead of the return at Anfield on Tuesdaybut Barca were not unscathed, afterOusmane Dembele hobbled off early in thefirst half.

The club later confirmed Dembele sus-tained a hamstring injury and will under-go tests on Sunday but it seems unlikelythe Frenchman will be fit to face Liverpoolin the semi-final second leg.

Defeat will hardly trouble Barcelona,who wrapped up their 26th La Liga titlelast weekend, but victory comes as a majorboost for Celta, who move five points clearof the bottom three with two games left toplay.

Maxi Gomez's smart finish gave themthe lead before Iago Aspas made it two witha late penalty.

Real Valladolid and Girona, both just

beneath them, may feel disappointed byErnesto Valverde's team selection, partic-ularly given his side took six and fourpoints off them respectively this season.

The result also means Rayo Vallecanoare virtually relegated after they werethrashed 4-1 by Levante earlier onSaturday.

Rayo needed Celta, the only team theycould catch, to lose all three of theirremaining matches, although a highlyunlikely four-way tie involving Huesca andReal Valladolid could, theoretically, stillsave them.

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Arsenal's chances of qualifying forthe Champions League via a top-

four finish in the Premier League wereall but snuffed out on Sunday as theywere held 1-1 by lowly Brighton.

The draw leaves Unai Emery'smen in fifth spot, three points behindnorth London rivals Tottenham, whohave a far superior goal difference, andmeans they can no longer catchChelsea, who have 71 points.

Leaders Liverpool and ManchesterCity have already sealed the top twospots ahead of the final round ofPremier League fixtures next weekend.

Arsenal can also reach theChampions League by winning theEuropa League and they are in a strongposition to reach the final, 3-1 up afterthe home leg of their semi-finalagainst Valencia.

Emery made five changes fortheir final home game, juggling the

club's league ambitions withThursday's second leg inValencia, including recalls forNacho Monreal, LucasTorreira and Mkhitaryan.

Arsenal were impressivein the early stages at theEmirates and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyangstruck from the penalty spot

in the ninth minute afterMonreal was brought down in the areaby Alireza Jahanbakhsh.

The visitors, whose PremierLeague survival was assured whenCardiff lost at home to Crystal Palaceon Saturday, came back strongly,putting pressure on a nervy home sidebut Aubameyang went close shortly

before half-time.Brighton levelled from a disputed

penalty in the 61st minute.Solly March went down under

minimal contact from Granit Xhakaand Glenn Murray found the net fromthe resulting spot-kick.

Aubameyang missed a goldenchance to restore Arsenal's lead as thehome side poured forward and Ryanblocked an effort from AlexandreLacazette.

Emery then made a triple substi-tution, throwing on MatteoGuendouzi, Alex Iwobi and SeadKolasinac for Mkhitaryan, Xhaka andLichtsteiner but despite frantic lateArsenal pressure, they could not finda winner.

They have a goal difference of +20,compared to Tottenham's +28, mean-ing Spurs, who host Everton next week,are almost assured of finishing the sea-son in fourth spot.

Arsenal travel to face Burnley intheir final league game.

Earlier, Manchester United's hopesof Champions League football nextseason were ended after an embarrass-ing 1-1 draw at already relegatedHuddersfield.

United have now won just two oftheir past 11 games in all competitionsas Huddersfield ended a run of eightstraight defeats despite goalkeeperJonas Lossl's error handing the visitorsan early lead through ScottMcTominay.

Terrible defending from OleGunnar Solskjaer's men gave theTerriers something to celebrate in theirfinal home game before heading downto the Championship as Isaac Mbenzalevelled on the hour mark.

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Maurizio Sarri admitted tired Chelsea got "lucky" asthey secured Champions League berth with a 3-

0 win over Watford on Sunday.Sarri's side were booed off after a sloppy first half,

but two goals in three minutes from Ruben Loftus-Cheekand David Luiz lifted the mood at Stamford Bridge.

Gonzalo Higuain sealed the victory and third placedChelsea are now one point clear of fourth placedTottenham after their first win in four games in all com-petitions.

Sarri conceded he was relieved to survive such apoor opening.

"In the first half we were in trouble because we weretired physically and mentally. But Watford lowered theirlevel after that. We were lucky of course," Sarri said.

"After the first goal probably we improved mental-ly and were able to play very well for 35 minutes. It'snot easy to play again after a Europa League away match.

"We were not able to think in a simple way. Whenyou are tired you have to move the ball quickly, the ballis not tired, the man is!"

Before heading to Leicester, Chelsea host EintrachtFrankfurt in the Europa League semi-finals onThursday, with the tie poised at 1-1 after the first leg.

Finishing in the top four and winning the EuropaLeague would make Sarri's troubled first season a rel-ative success.

"We want to be in the top four at the end of the sea-son. We want to be in the Champions League," he said.

"The Europa League is also a very important com-petition and we want to win it because we think wedeserve to a trophy this season. So we have two tar-gets."

Eden Hazard, without whom Chelsea would becompletely toothless, helped Sarri's men silence thedoubters in the 48th minute.

When Hazard took a short corner, he collectedPedro's return pass and flicked a cross towards the farpost, where Loftus-Cheek rose above NathanielChalobah to head home from close-range.

Chelsea struck again from another corner threeminutes later as Hazard's delivery was met by Luiz witha thumping header past Foster.

Higuain put the result beyond doubt when hescored just the fifth goal of his loan spell from Juventusin the 75th minute.

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Real Madrid delivered a winningresponse to Zinedine Zidane's

stinging criticism as Mariano Diazscored twice in a 3-2 victory overVillarreal on Sunday.

An angry Zidane questioned theattitude of his players after last week's1-0 loss to Rayo Vallecano and react-ed by making more changes, with LukaModric and Gareth Bale not evenincluded in the squad.

"I am the coach," Zidane said. "Ipick the squad and that's it."

Instead, youngsters like JesusVallejo, Brahim Diaz and FedericoValverde were given chances toimpress, along with Mariano, who hasbarely been used since joining fromLyon last summer.

His two goals, either side ofVallejo scoring his first for the club,were enough, despite Jaume Costapulling a late goal back for Villarrealto set up an unexpectedly nervy fin-ish.

"We played better than againstRayo," Zidane said. "We needed thatand the players needed it. We played

well, no more, we're not throwing flow-ers into the air. We did the job and wewon."

The result leaves third-placedMadrid six points behind AtleticoMadrid in La Liga with two games left.Villarreal stay five points above 18th-placed Real Valladolid, who play at

home to Athletic Bilbao later onSunday.

Madrid would need to win bothof their remaining matches andAtletico lose both of theirs to preventDiego Simeone's side finishing as thetop team in the capital for the secondyear running.

But more of a concern for Zidanewill be the 15-point gap behindBarcelona, which would likely beeven bigger had the already-crownedchampions not rested players for theChampions League in recent weeks.

Zidane warned Madrid's expec-tant fans on Saturday that much of hiscurrent squad will still be at the clubnext season but this felt like anotherexercise in experimentation, inside aSantiago Bernabeu that looked only alittle over half full.

Mariano's display begs the ques-tion whether he could have been moreuseful during a campaign where histeam have struggled for goals.

In that regard, the sight of ViniciusJunior coming off the bench here andmaking his first appearance in twomonths after recovering from injurywill also have been a welcome boost.

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KL Rahul's scintillating 36-ball-71 paved the way fora consolation six-wicket

victory for Kings XI Punjab atPCA stadium on Sunday but notbefore CSK ensured a top-twofinish with chance to play thefirst IPL Qualifier at their happyhunting home ground Chepauk.

With nothing to lose in thefinal game of the season, Rahul,Chris Gayle (28 off 28 balls) andNicholas Pooran (36 off 22balls) were the key contributorsin KXIP's successful chase of 171in in 18 overs.

However CSK will be happythat with a net run-rate of+0.131 which is far better thanDelhi Capitals' (+0.044), thedefending champions willremain in the top two with twoclear shots at summit clashqualification.

Such was Rahul's domina-tion that ‘Universe Boss’ Gayle'srun-a-ball knock paled in incomparison as the duo added108 runs in only 10.3 overs toseal the match.

While senior off-spinnerHarbhajan got three wickets, hewas hit for 57 runs in four overs.

In fact, Dhoni's ploy to useHarbhajan in the Powerplayswhich had worked wonderful-ly at the Chepauk, backfired onMohali track as he went for 41runs in his first two overs —17in the first and 24 in the second.

In that second Harbhajanover which was fourth of theinnings, Rahul hit the veteran forthree boundaries and two sixes,completing his half-century off19 balls.

He scored at fast clip albeitcoming only after skipperRavichandran Ashwin's publicadmission that KXIP'sPowerplay batting left a lot to bedesired.

Harbhajan was far better inhis final two overs as he tookthree wickets for 16 runs includ-ing Rahul, Gayle and MayankAgarwal. However Pooranplayed a cameo to ensure happyending for the home team.

Earlier, Faf du Plessis missed

out on a well-deserved hundredby four runs as Kings XI Punjabbowled well at the death torestrict Chennai Super Kings to170 for 5.

Courtesy Du Plessis' 96 off55 balls and his 120-run standwith Suresh Raina (53 off 38balls) set a platform for thedefending champions.

However Sam Curran(3/35) and Mohammed Shami(2/17 in 3 overs) bowled well inthe final few overs as CSKseemed at least 10 runs short ofpar score.

Du Plessis' knock had 10fours and four sixes and was dis-missed by brilliant Curran york-er in the 19th over.

Du Plessis destroyed the

Kings XI bowling attack, partic-ularly punishing medium pacerAndrew Tye (0/37 in 3 overs)and spinner Murugan Ashwin(0/33 in 3 overs), hitting twoboundaries and a six in one oftheir over.

Raina gave him good sup-port at the other end, hitting fiveboundaries and two sixes.

Raina, who along with duPlessis tried to accelerate thepace of scoring, fell when thescore was 150 in the 17th overoff Curran's bowling. TheEngland all-rounder at the onsethad dismissed Shane Watson.

Ambati Rayudu (10) andKedar Jadhav's (0) wickets wereclaimed by pacer Mohd Shamiin the final over of the innings.

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Rohit Sharma struck anunbeaten 55 to leadMumbai Indians to an

easy 9-wicket win overKolkata Knight Riders, whichgave them the pole position inthe IPL table and also ensureda lucky fourth place finish forSunrisers Hyderabad, hereon Sunday.

Rohit stitched two crucialpartnerships, first a 46-runstand with Quinton de Kock(30) for the opening wicketand then another 88 runs forthe unconquered secondwicket with SuryakumarYadav (46 not) as MI chaseddown the target of 134 with3.5 overs to spare.

The MI captain carriedhis bat through the innings,hitting eight fours off 48 ballswhile Yadav consumed 27balls for his unbeaten 46.

MI ended the leaguephase with 18 points from 14matches — the same asChennai Super Kings andDelhi Capitals — but theysecured the top spot by virtueof better run rate. MI endedat a net run rate of 0.421 asagainst 0.131 and 0.044of CSK and DC respectively.

MI's win meant that the

KKR are knocked out of thetournament with Sunrisersmaking it to the play-offs attheir expense on better netrun rate.

KKR and SRH ended theleague phase on 12 pointseach but the Hyderabad-based side sneaked to theplay-offs with 0.577 net runrate against 0.028 of theKolkata side.

MI and Chennai SuperKings play against each otherin Chennai in the Qualifier 1on Tuesday while DelhiCapitals— who finished third— take on SRH in theEliminator at Visakhapatnamon Wednesday.

The Qualif ier 2 —between the losing teams ofQualifier 1 and Eliminator —will also be played atVisakhapatnam on Friday.

Chasing 134 for a win, MImade a good start with 46runs coming form powerplaywithout losing any wicket.South African Quinton deKock hitting two consecutivesixes and a four off AndreRussell in the fourth overwas the highlight.

De Kock (30) was out thefirst ball after powerplay withwicketkeeper Dinesh Karthiktaking a brilliant running

catch off the bowling ofPrasidh Krishna.

That was the only successKKR had as Rohit and Yadavtook MI home in 16.1 overs.Yadav hit a towering six toend the match.

Earlier, Andre Russellfailed to deliver when it mat-tered the most as KolkataKnight Riders scored a sub-par 133 for 7 in their 'do-ordie' game.

KKR's top run-scorer ofthis IPL, Russell (510 from 13innings) was dismissed for afirst ball duck as the visitingside frittered away a goodstart to post a modest totalafter being sent into bat.

Openers Chris Lynn (41off 29 balls) and ShubmanGill (9 off 16 balls) put up 49runs together in 6.1 overs butKKR suffered a middle-ordercollapse as Mumbai bowlersmade a splendid comeback.

It was left to RobinUthappa (40 off 47 balls) andNitish Rana (26 off 13 balls)to stitch a 47-run stand for thefifth wicket to take KKR pastthe 120-run mark.

Lasith Malinga (3/35),Hardik Pandya (2/20) andJasprit Bumrah (2/31) werethe main wicket-takers for thehome side.

Lynn and Gill startedslowly before they startedplaying their big shots. Lynnhammered veteran Malingafor a four and a six in thefourth over as KKR fetched 13runs of it.

There was no stoppingLynn as he struck two tower-ing sixes off leg-spinner RahulChahar in the sixth over asKKR finished the Powerplayat 49/0.

However, Hardik broughtthe home side back into thematch by removing both theopeners in quick succession.While he trapped Gill in frontof the wicket in the seventhover, he sent back a danger-ous Lynn in the ninth over,caught by Quinton De Kock,as Kolkata slumped to 56/2.

KKR could fetch only 12runs in five overs and werestruggling at 61/2 after 11overs. McClenaghan bowled amaiden over as RobinUthappa struggled to score.

And in the 13th over,Malinga gave KKR a doubleblow by removing skipperDinesh Karthik (3 off 9 balls)and in-form Russell (0 off 1ball), who gloved to keeper deKock.

KKR were 73/4 then andthey never recovered fromthere.

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Steve Smith and David Warner are setto don the Australian colours this week

for the first time since their ball-tamper-ing bans despite struggling with illness.

The pair were welcomed back intothe national fold last week for a pre-WorldCup camp in Brisbane after serving year-long suspensions for their part in the"sandpapergate" scandal in Cape Town.

Both have been hampered by virus-es since returning from the IndianPremier League but took part in net ses-sions on Sunday ahead of the first of threepractice games against New Zealandbeginning on Monday.

Allrounder Glenn Maxwell said hewas confident they will be fit to play.

"I assume so. They have been sick thelast couple of days so, hopefully, they areup and running," he told reporters.

"But I am pretty sure most of the guyswill be ready to go." The duo have enjoyeda solid comeback in the Twenty20 IPL,with Warner in blistering form, toppingthe competition batting rankings with692 runs from 12 innings.

Coach Justin Langer on Fridayinsisted there was "no tension" betweenthe pair and the rest of the squad, adding:"They're back in the team now. They've

been selected, which is brilliant."Maxwell also denied any awkwardmoments, saying it had been "businessas usual".

"The way they came in (to thedressing room), we wanted to hear howthey had enjoyed the IPL; wanted to hearhow Davey enjoyed his time opening thebatting with (England's Jonny) Bairstow(for Sunrisers Hyderabad)," he said.

"And they are both superstars. Iwatched both of them go about it (in IPL)and they were both absolutely brilliantover there.

"There will be no worries about themcoming back into the team." WithAustralia's defence of their World Cupcrown less than a month away, Langerwill use the three warm-up games tofine-tune his plans.

The team has been in red-hot form,winning eight one-day internationals onthe trot, against India and Pakistan, builton a flourishing opening partnershipbetween Aaron Finch and UsmanKhawaja.

A key decision for Langer is whetherto retain that combination or move oneof them down to make way for Warner,who traditionally opens the batting, withthe line-up for Monday's game potential-ly answering that question.

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Jofra Archer insisted he had received a warm wel-come into the England set-up but stressed he would

have no complaints if he failed in a late bid to makeit into the tournament hosts' World Cup squad.

The Barbados-born fast bowler made his muchtalked about England debut in a tense four-wicketwin away to Ireland in a lone ODI in Dublin onFriday.

Archer, 24, has made an impact on the Twenty20franchise circuit but doubts have been expressed asto whether England, top of the ODI rankings, should'parachute' him into their World Cup squad at thislate stage.

Archer showed his quality when he bowled MarkAdair with a 90mph yorker to claim his first inter-national wicket.

Before this match, several England bowlers —David Willey, Chris Woakes and Mark Wood —whose places in the World Cup squad could bethreatened by Archer's inclusion were somewhat ret-icent when asked about his imminent promotion tothe international scene.

But the new recruit insisted he had felt no hos-tility when joining up with Eoin Morgan's men.

"It's been very welcoming. Since I've been hereI didn't feel any malice at all. It's a really welcom-ing bunch of lads.

"I knew most of the guys before coming here andit's nice to come into a new team with some peopleyou know. I'm here with a great team at a great time.I'm happy."

"Anyone would think about it (the World Cup)but I'll just try to play well and hope, I guess," saidArcher. "I'll try not to set my heart on it.

"If I do well here it will probably put my case for-ward but I'm not focusing on the World Cup spot."

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Terming it a 'step ahead', Mithali Rajfeels the Women's T20 Challenge

will provide a platform to young crick-eters to rub shoulders with the best inthe business.

Indian woman cricket team starsMithali Raj, Harmanpreet Kaur andSmriti Mandhana will captain thethree sides — Velocity, Supernovas andTrailblazers, respectively — in theT20 Challenge that begins here onMonday.

Four matches will be played amongthe three teams at the Sawai MansinghStadium with Supernovas taking onTrailblazers in the tournament open-er. Compared with last year's lone exhi-bition match, the 2019 edition is amarked improvement. "It is a stepahead," Mithali Raj said at the pre-tour-nament press conference.

"It offers an opportunity for ouryoung players in domestic cricket tointeract with some of the best in theworld. When you get at least twogames, you can field several youngsters.Competing with overseas players couldbenefit them," said Mithali Raj, thehighest run-getter in women's interna-tional cricket.

The India captain hoped by thenext year there would be a full-fledgedleague. "We must understand that tostart something different, we need tostart small. Last year, we had just onegame and this year they have added onemore team and it's a one-leg tourna-ment. Maybe by the next year we mighthave a league."

The 36-year-old batswoman saidthe onus was on players to do well andthey must ensure that.

"Currently, it's like testing waters aswe need to see how people reciprocateand how teams perform. It's importantfor us to perform well to grab eyeballsand attract more people to watch ourmatches. That will, probably, encour-

age the BCCI or the franchises to comeforward to start a proper league,"Mithali Raj said.

Opener Mandhana, captain ofTrailblazers and the No 1 batswomanin the ICC Women's ODI rankings,said it would give seniors chance to play

with juniors and see what they had gotto offer ahead of the T20 World Cupin February 2020.

"It's an ideal opportunity forseniors, like us, to play with youngerplayers. With the T20 World Cup just10 months away, we could assesswhich players would perform wellunder pressure," Mandhana said.

Dashing batswoman Harmanpreetlauded the selection of venue. "It hasimproved a lot since we last played herefour-five years ago," she said. "Thewicket looks good for T20 cricket. Wehave seen teams making good scoresin the IPL," she said.

The tournament will also see bignames from around the world withplayers from England, New Zealand,Sri Lanka, West Indies and Bangladeshtaking part in it.

The final is on May 11.

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